Rule courtesy of TheBudgieAdmiral
Rule 10304: It is now getting close to Valentine's Day. Please note that many shipgirls are looking for love
The Pacific Ocean, outside the port of Yokosuka:
With the moon nothing but a slim sickle in the sky, the night was dark and cold on the water. The absence of wind and the calm sea, flat as a mirror, in which the stars were reflecting, earned the scenery a daunting mysterious air. If Providence looked at her feet, it was almost as if the infinity of the night sky above her also stretched on below her. As if she was sailing through an endless expanse of stars and blackness.
Heh. She had definitely watched too many science fiction films with Zuikaku.
Besides, she had no time to think about such trivial things. She was out here for a reason, after all. Squinting, Providence focused on her radar returns. There she was, the Lake Erie, cruising through the ocean at the very edge of her range. Details were blurry at best, the distance was too far for a good return, but at least Providence could see where her boyfriend was, and she could see that he was safe. If any foolhardy Abyssal tried anything, she could rush in to save the day! And Marcus could see how important his well-being was to her! There was no way he could refuse her, and then they would-
Providence's thoughts came to a halt as she spotted another radar return on the water. It was sitting close to the shore, immobile on the calm black sea. "Huh, a fishing vessel." Providence guessed. That was the most logical answer. And yet, Providence couldn't shake a feeling of curiosity as she studied the return further. Something told her that she had seen the return before.
Confident that it was just some weird form of déja vu, Providence moved to intercept. Surely it was just her mind playing tricks on her. But taking a quick look couldn't hurt, right? These sailors would surely appreciate the knowledge that they were being protected, if nothing else.
However, as the closed the range, the return refined further, and Providence gasped in surprise. There was no doubt about it, there was an unidentified shipgirl on the water! But that was impossible, no one knew she herself was out here and no patrol was scheduled so close to the coast.
That reduced the pool of possible suspects further.
"Abyssals." Providence muttered under her breath. And damn bold ones too, hugging the coast like that. Probably a destroyer or light cruiser that somehow slipped by the patrols and was now gathering intel for a surprise attack. Obviously, there was no way Providence could let it escape.
Readying her weapons and gathering her confidence, she moved to engage. The target stood still on the water, indicating that Providence's approach remained undetected. That Abyssal clearly wasn't the brightest lightbulb in the chandelier, so recklessly close to the shore without running its radar warning receivers.
Either way, time to end this.
Steeling herself, her fairies dialed in the range and bearing for her guns. She would have preferred to get a Talos off instead, but without any radar activity from the target the missile had nothing to home in on. So guns only it was. At this close range, she was at least confident that the target would have no time to react.
She was in range. Still undetected by some miracle. She could kill the Abyssal, but what if she instead captured it for interrogation? That surely would be far better. And it would impress Marcus for sure. So capture it was.
"Freeze!" She shouted, training every spotlight and gun she had on the interloper. "This is USS Providence, make a move and your life is forfeited!"
"Don't shoot!" came the reply in an awfully familiar voice. Providence paled as she realized who she was actually dealing with: Drenched in the blinding light of her spotlights stood Kaga in full rigging, covering her eyes with her left arm while her right held her bow. "I am friendly!" the legendary Japanese carrier said. "Could you put those lights out please, I need to focus!"
Providence complied hastily and dimmed the lights. "Damnit woman! What are you doing out here? I almost shot you!"
"I could ask you the same thing." The carrier responded, unfazed.
"Okay, fair point. Sorry for the jumpscare. Name's Providence." Providence said and extended a hand to the other girl. Kaga looked at the hand like a foreign object for a moment, before grasping it.
"I heard that." She countered. Providence had yelled it loud enough after all.
"You were not paying attention." The cruiser said shyly.
Kaga huffed. "Hmpf. I was managing my aircraft. Besides, we are well within the Lake Erie's radar range, there is no way anything could sneak up here and not be detected."
Yeah, the Erie. They had surely seen her spotlights. If they didn't have her on radar before, they knew she was here now. Fuck.
"Why are you blushing?"
"N-nothing!" Providence responded angrily. "Why are you here!"
"It's none of your business." Kaga responded and looked at her feet.
"We're not getting far here, are we?" Providence asked with a sidelong look at the carrier. In the darkness of the night, her hair was almost as black as the night around them.
The two shipgirls stood in silence for a while, growing increasingly awkward with every passing second. After what seemed like an eternity, Kaga opened her mouth.
"You are a friend of Zuikaku, aren't you?" she asked.
"Huh? Well, I guess so." Providence answered. "Why do you ask?"
"What do you talk about?"
"Oh, you know…" Providence said, shifting from foot to foot. "This and that."
"You're evasive." Kaga stated. Well, she wasn't wrong, really. "Were you talking about that man Zuikaku made an adult calendar of?"
Providence did a spittake. This wasn't happening. She was not standing on the ocean in the middle of the night being exposed by the pride of Japan's carrier force!
"H-h-how do you know?!" she finally managed to stammer.
"I lent some of my origami paper to the printing shop. They were out of paper and so they could not fulfill the order."
Kaga's face was unchanged but Providence could tell that the carrier was quite proud of herself. Somehow, that made her mad.
"Well, if you know so much about my personal life, then why do you need to ask?" she responded furiously.
Kaga looked away. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I just wanted to know what Zuikaku thought of me-" she stopped dead in her tracks, and even with her back turned Providence could see her blushing in embarrassment.
"Wait… So you care about her?" Providence asked, smiling. She had apparently hit a weak spot, since Kaga didn't respond or turn around.
"And I bet a thousand dollars that your planes were shadowing her." A defeated sigh from Kaga confirmed her theory.
"If you tell anyone of this conversation I will expose your love for Marcus Harrington." Kaga said with a threatening tone.
"If you do that I'll blow the lid on Zuikaku and you!"
"So be it."
For a few seconds, both lovestruck shipgirls stood and glared at each other.
"Hey, suggestion. If you don't tell anyone about tonight I won't tell anyone either." Providence said, stretching out her hand the second time this night. "How does that sound?"
Kaga hesitated for a while, then took the offered hand. "Deal."
"So… We separate now?"
"We never talk of this ever again."
"Good."
"Fine."
