After Captain Varennes had reassured his crew that the kansen were there to help them, they all set to work salvaging what they could from their immobilised vessel. Nagato offered her hull's crew quarters to allow the men to rest and rejuvenate after being trapped for so long. Many were grateful for the change as her living spaces were much more spacious compared to their tiny destroyer. Some were still wary and a little jumpy around the ship girls, but stayed out of trouble.
Nagato and Varennes were both sitting near the bow of her hull, over looking the salvage operation, another kansen had prepared a small table for the two of them, along with some tea and even snacks. She had long dark hair that ran past her shoulders, short white bull horns on either side of her head and golden eyes. She was wearing a white miko kimono that most of the Sakura empire women also wear, along with red and white, knee high boots. Varennes had just sipped his tea and gave an appreciative 'Mmmm' afterwards.
"This is great tea miss...Hiei wasn't it?" The human captain guessed nervously. The ship girl chuckled quietly and nodded.
"Yes, thats my name and thank you." Hiei replied with a soft voice and a smile. She turned to Nagato and bowed before turning away. The Captain looked over at the smaller girl, who was also sipping her tea. "You know, I almost didn't believe it when you said you were the flagship, forgive me but...you look like a kid." He admitted. Nagato placed her mug down and chuckled a little at that statement.
"I'm more than aware of that fact Captain, but in reality; I'm likely to be at least twice, maybe even three times your age." She explained with a smirk. Varennes looked at her in disbelief as she kept speaking. "We're born with the experience and memories of our original selves, starting from when we were first built and even what caused our sinking in some cases."
Nagato then lowered her eyes for a moment and more quietly added: "In my case...all I remember was a massive flash of white, then I felt very sleepy and could feel water slowly creep up my hull...then I woke up like this." She gestured to her current body. Varennes looked on sadly, feeling sorry for the fox child.
"Do...do all the kansen have stories of waking up like that?" He gently asked. Nagato looked back at him before diverting her gaze to the destroyer beneath them. "Not always, some of them weren't sunk before becoming kansen and some of them weren't even built in rare cases." She answered honestly.
"Can...ANY ship become a kansen?" Varennes asked, looking with Nagato at the Lennon. "Theoretically yes, though I've never seen nor heard of a kansen that wasn't a world war 1 or 2 era ship." Nagato replied, looking as though she was deep in thought about the topic. "Perhaps the mental cubes we're made of just don't have enough data on ships after that time period?" She wondered out loud. Captain Varennes, wanting lighten the mood, tried to move on from the deep subject.
"Well, thank you for the rescue, my crew was starting to go stir crazy after getting stranded here." He stated with a laugh. Nagato looked back with a small smile.
"Of course, may I inquire as to how this happened?" She asked nicely. The Captain then narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
"We were hit by a storm following our fleet, we were blown off course and...well you know what happened then." He told her pointing at the Lennon, with more venom in his voice he added: "Our Commanding officer; Commodore Nico, insisted we could simply be towed off this reef, the attempt almost ripped my ship in two, I requested my crew simply be transferred to other ships, but he refused, said there wasn't time for that." Varennes's grip on his mug started to shake as he told the story.
"He promised to send a dedicated rescue fleet as soon as he could...but..." He then trailed off, he suddenly slammed his mug down and shouted. "That was almost a week ago and we never heard a damn thing!" He then noticed Nagato wasn't in her seat anymore, he looked to his side to see her holding his wrist with a mildly irritated expression on her face, she had caught him mid swing, and she gently made him put the mug down.
"Calm down, you and your crew are safe now; there's no need to take it out on my crockery." Nagato gently but firmly told him. Varennes instantly felt guilty about what he almost did and let go of the mug.
"Sorry, I guess I was more upset than I thought." he apologised. Nagato gave a small nod and went back to her seat.
"We're almost done salvaging what we can, what do you want us to do about the ship itself?" The small kansen asked, changing the subject. The captain looked confused, wondering what could be done with how stuck the ship appeared.
"What exactly do you mean?" He asked with some puzzlement. Nagato looked down at the Lennon with a thoughtful look.
"We should be able to salvage the entire ship, first we need to get it off the reef." Nagato then started walking off as Varennes watched her, wondering what she will do. She then found Hiei again, who was talking to Mutsu about something. She saw Nagato walking up and smiled, she then bowed as a greeting.
"How may I assist you Nagato?" Hiei asked formally. The shorter girl smiled for a moment, while she was used to formality from Hiei and ship girls like her, it seemed the lack of her rigging was making her subjects more comfortable in her presence.
"Hiei, please signal Yamashiro over here, i'm gonna need you two to get that destroyer unstuck." She commanded as she looked over at the trapped ship. Hiei nodded and jumped into the water, manifesting her own rigging. She looked over at a nearby Fuso class battleship and waved at someone on top of its crow's nest.
She watched the figure look at her and wave back. However Hiei then heard a far off scream as the figure fell off the crow's nest and into the water. She sighed as she went over to help the fallen girl. She found her kneeling in the water with her own rigging on. She was wearing a black and red kimono with a floral pattern along his sleeves and lining. Her black hair was styled in a bob cut with cat ears poking out of it and her eyes were dark red.
"Yamashiro...please be more careful..." Hiei told her with concern as she helped the cat-girl up. Yamashiro groaned a little and rubbed her head as she gave a small mew.
"My apologises miss Hiei, I saw you waving and just...lost my balance waving back... hehe..." the cat woman giggled awkwardly. Once making sure Yamashiro was OK, Hiei made a gesture to follow her to the Lennon.
"Nagato wants to save this ship, so we need to lift it off the reef." Hiei explained as the two of them circled round to the other side of the stricken destroyer. "On three, the two of use will flip this thing." Yamashiro nodded and kneeled down to lift as did Hiei. "One...two...three HEAVE!" Hiei and Yamashiro both strained with some effort as they lifted the ship.
On Nagato's hull, Captain Varennes, along with his crew were watching with slack jaws and popped out eyes as two young women both tipped several thousand tonnes worth of ship off the reef. The metal groaned and some equipment that wasn't bolted on, slid off the hull as it rolled over. The crew of the Lennon couldn't believe what they were watching, some had even frozen in shock and awe as their ship was just shoved barehanded onto its back. Others started shouting and applauding as it happened.
"Jesus they're strong."
"How...HOW?!"
"Holy shit..."
Nagato glanced over at Varennes's look of sheer amazement as his ship finally rolled over. Now floating keel up. She smirked as she tried to hold in a small giggle. His look of awe then shifted into one of shock as he saw something on the Lennon's keel. Following his gaze, Nagato's smirk faded away.
"Good thing we DID get stuck..." Varennes stated, pointing at a massive crack along the ship's keel. "If we'd been pulled off normally we wouldn't be here." he added, he then looked back at Nagato with a small smile. "Thank you, you've saved our lives." Nagato softly gasped and looked away, blushing slightly from embarrassment but also smiling a little.
"I-its nothing...honestly." She replied bashfully she then cleared her throat and turned back to him. "L-lets get your ship to base." She added changing the subject again. Hiei and Yamashiro then tied the Lennon to Yamashiro's hull and waved to Nagato that they were done.
Nagato nodded and went to the bow of her own hull and thrust her arm out. The mighty engines beneath her deck roared into life and all the humans on board yelled in surprise as they all were swept off their feet when she lurched forward, much faster than a normal ship would have.
"Oops...sorry!" Nagato called out called out bashfully, watching everyone behind her all sprawled out on the deck, with only Mutsu standing up in the middle of it all, shrugging back at Nagato.
Meanwhile, on Azur Lane HQ.
The Commander was walking back to his office after checking up on Akagi, he thought about what might happen if word of the duel got back to Admiral Samson; this could be just the excuse Commodore Nico needs to amp up the pressure against the kansen, if he didn't think of something fast then all hell could break loose. As he got closer to his office he noticed the door was ajar, confused he slowed down to see if he could catch whoever was inside.
"No...no...not this...no..." A soft but curt and high pitched female voice kept saying inside. She sounded too old to be a destroyer, but the Commander noted a certain immaturity to the voice. He sighed recognising it.
"For fucks sake Taihou..." He thought as he then walked in annoyed. Right there in front of his desk, going through his documents, was Taihou. Long dark hair in twin tails right down to her feet, a red, very revealing Asian dress that did nothing to cover her cleavage or shoulders and black thigh high stockings were all that covered her. She seemed to be rummaging through his documents for something with her back to the door.
"Come on...don't you have ANYTHING more personal than just field reports in here?" Taihou muttered as she kept looking over document after document. The Commander sighed and tapped Taihou on the shoulder. She looked over at him briefly with a smile. "Hi Commander." She greeted in a distracted tone.
Suddenly she tensed up, gasped and fell against the desk when she fully registered who was behind her. "C-Commander! I uh...w-when did you get here? Eh heh heh..." She blurted out nervously, sweating a little as she stared up at the Commander's annoyed face.
"Taihou, Akagi already warned you about breaking in here, don't think just because she's in Medical that you can just snoop around." The Commander scolded at her. Taihou had a brief look of offence before quickly changing it into the most innocent look she could fake.
"W-what are you talking about Commander? With that bitc- I-I mean Akagi, in Medical, you need a new secretory right?" She asked, before holding up the document pile she was looking through. "See? I already sorted these out for you!" The Commander just looked at her with a 'you're kidding me right?' look on his face as he shook his head at the overeager carrier.
"Taihou, its because of stunts like this I never choose you for this job." The Commander explained as he took the documents from a dejected Taihou. "I've already picked a new secretary anyway, she'll be here in a moment." He added as he sat down.
"What?! So soon? Who?" Taihou asked frantically. Before the Commander could answer, a tall figure walked in the office. She had long red metal horns extending proudly from long flowing dark hair, a long fringe covering half her face and one of her golden eyes. She was wearing a black dress uniform that hugged her body's contours closely, her cleavage covered in a semi-transparent material, her legs covered in thigh high black stockings along with knee high boots.
Taihou gasped seeing this imposing woman walk inside and immediately stood to one side. The newcomer was wearing a confident smile as she glanced at Taihou and then at the Commander.
"Friedrich der Grosse reporting as acting secretory Commander, I hope everything is...alright here~" She asked in a smooth, motherly voice. Taihou's initial shock at the woman morphed into annoyance at her tone.
"Why are you talking like that? Are you trying to seduce him?!" Taihou accused, glaring daggers at the battleship. Der Grosse just glanced at her and cocked her head to one side as she replied with a smirk.
"Why do you ask my child? Are you looking for some pointers~?" She teased, making Taihou turn deep red with anger. She then tried to tackle Der Grosse, but the taller women just placed her hand on Taihou's forehead as she lunged, making the carrier flail her arms uselessly as she kept yelling accusations and insults at her rapid fire. Der Grosse just looked over at the Commander as she held her.
The Commander looked up and nodded towards the door, Der Grosse chuckled a little, then suddenly grabbed Taihou's arms and held them behind her, making the Asian girl yelp from hold.
"H-hey! Let me go! You can't do this!" She yelled trying to get free. Der Grosse just kept escorting Taihou out as she kept shouting.
"The Commander must have told you not to do this again honey, please listen to him if you want to win him over~" Der Grosse simply told her as she released Taihou outside the office. She then went back inside before putting the hatch on, locking Taihou out. The carrier fumed at her defeat and walked away sulking.
"Thanks Der Grosse, I am glad Akagi wasn't here for that, they'd have torn the room and each other to shreds." The Commander stated, with a smile that showed he was only half-joking. Der Grosse chuckled again as she walked back over to his desk. She sat on the chair facing him and leaned on one of her arms.
"And how is your favourite fox woman feeling right now Commander~?" Der Grosse asked as she lay her hand on top of the Commander's. The young officer blushed a little at how familiar she was acting with him as he replied.
"W-well...Vestal says she should be walking again by tomorrow, but... that I should either restrict her to light duty or g-give time off." He stuttered a little. Der Grosse was giving him a warm and kind smile. The kind of smile even the Commander could admit was very disarming, but in a non-threatening way, unlike the sultry smirks of other Ironblood kansen like Prinz Eugen or Roon. Der Grosse shook her head at his comment, still smiling like she knew, that he knew, what she really meant.
"Oh my child, you're cute when you act like I don't know~" She replied with a giggle. The Commander widened his eyes at her as she kept speaking. "I've been watching you and Akagi for a while now Commander, you finally told her that you hold feelings for her too right? Why else would she be trying so hard to change for you?" Der Grosse pointed out.
"Well...I..." Before he could finish Der Grosse put a finger on his lips while gently shushing him. "Don't worry, i'm not jealous; in fact I think its admirable that she's trying to be a better person for you." Her smile then faded somewhat, she narrowed her eyes and grabbed the Commander's hand with both of her own. "Someone that devoted to you is someone special, don't you dare take that kind of love lightly my child, or it could destroy you both." Der Grosse finished ominously.
The Commander gasped softly at that last statement as Der Grosse kept talking, she stiffened somewhat and looked offside in thought. "You've been wondering what kept Akagi alive after Wales stabbed her haven't you? Well I know what it was the moment I saw it."
"You do?! How?" The Commander asked in agitation, he'd been trying to wrap his head around that puzzle piece ever since the duel, and now Der Grosse was about to hand it to him? She looked back at him dead seriously and pointed at herself.
"As you know Commander: kansen power and durability stems mainly from our willpower, not just our physical strength. In some very rare cases, we can channel that willpower to literally cheat death." She explained. "Only exceptionally powerful kansen are capable of this, and even then its not certain."
"What do you mean?" The Commander asked, wondering how Der Grosse would even know this stuff. "You talk like you've seen it before."
Der Grosse shook her head. "No my child, I've simply heard stories and legends of this occurring, but Akagi is the only one I've actually seen." She clarified. "We all know Akagi is a powerful ship, but that alone is not enough to do what she did." Der Grosse then held a hand over her chest.
"She held something deep within her soul, something she knew she needed to keep alive at all costs, that every fibre of her very being would fight to protect, even as her body failed her." Der Grosse looked into the Commander's eyes as she kept speaking. "My child, if I'm correct, Akagi used all of her love to promise you something, a promise she takes so seriously, with a love so strong, that her willpower has become strong enough to overrule death itself."
The Commander's face drained of all colour from Der Grosse's words, no wonder Akagi was ripping rigging apart with her bare tails in the duel. Her body's limiter was gone now, what else was she capable of if she was pushed to the edge again? He looked down and tightly closed his eyes, thinking about what that fox woman had put herself through just to not let him down, the image of her looking at him from the bay with Wales's sword through her body burned in his mind, of her right on the edge of death as she stared back, with those sad, teary eyes of hers.
A single tear rolled down the Commander's cheek.
"Akagi...i'm so sorry..."