Rule by Grathryn

10463. Everyone be aware there's onepermanent gate to an Azur Lane universe now fully established in Devonport, England, though temporary gates could appear anywhere.

10464. Devonport girls, the Azur!Royal Navy is grateful for the food supplies sent through when the three C-class that escorted the Sakura!DesDivSix returned, as are at least

some of the Sakura Empire shipgirls
10464a. Sakura!Inazuma has established her own garden from the seeds you sent

10465. Sakura!Kaga, just because they sunk you once, that doesn't mean you can bury Comet, Crescent and Cygnet in… manure.
10465a. Also sending Inazuma to feed them, bad idea considering the girls spent a month together while the portal was sorted out
10465b. And you managed to annoy her enough to stop supplying you, congratulations Kaga. The incipient riot at the Sakura!Yokosuka is on your head, literally.
10465c. Sakura!Nagato, your actions didn't help, particularly as you weren't the aggrieved party for what your version of DesDivSix did in Devonport, dumping more on them is just going to annoy them

Standing in front of the portal that led back to their home, Inazuma almost felt sad to leave this world behind. For all that they were supposed to be enemies; the girls here had treated her and her sisters well.

Looking around, she blinked as the various Z-class girls loaded her sisters and the C-class girls down with food to the point that they're actually staggering under the weight.

"Zephyr?" asked Inazuma, looking up at one of the girls that weren't carrying anything.

"Yes, Inazuma?" replied Sally.

Inazuma opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before getting her thoughts in order. "Are you girls sure you can give us all this?" she asked. "I mean, you're at war as well, surely you have problems with food and such."

"Not as much as you'd think," Sally said. "Between having our own farm, with fruits and vegetables that grow pretty quickly and the set up Wizard made elsewhere, and the fact we're one of the go to points for space grown stuff, which is building up even more and more, we're actually in pretty good shape." She shrugged and smirked. "Better, honestly, than Scapa Flow or Portsmouth, which considering they screwed us a few times is a bit of karma." She looked over the seven girls, smiling slightly. "Besides, maybe we can give your people a boot up the arse so they don't go through the same crap after this war. Humanity works best together."

Nodding slightly, Inazuma leaned up and pressed her lips against Sally's in a chaste kiss. "Thank you," she whispered, "for everything." She turned to leave, only to be caught in a quick hug by Sally.

"Good luck, Inazuma, see you on the flip side," Sally said as she released the light blue haired shipgirl.

Nodding again, Inazuma hurried through the portal, a slight blush tinging her cheeks.

"Why'd you kiss Zephyr, Inazuma?" Comet asked as the rest of the group slipped through the portal, making Inazuma jump slightly.

"I… it felt right, and there wasn't anything to it," Inazuma replied. "Besides, if you were stuck in their version of the Sakura Empire for two moons and one particular girl helped you more than the rest, wouldn't you feel they deserved something more personal?"

Comet arched an eyebrow, moving to hand off her load to London, who grunted under the weight before returning to Inazuma. "If I wasn't a prisoner and was treated properly? Maybe I would do the same, if someone deserved it." She shrugged before looking up at see a white haired woman with several fox tails glaring at them. "Uh oh, looks like Kaga's getting pissy again. I swear, ever since we kicked her tails she's had a spiky stick up her arse."

Inazuma gave an involuntary snort at that, shaking her head. "I think she's always been that way. She doesn't like losing, and to do so to destroyers?" she snorted again, shaking her head. "I'd better go, before she gets too irritable but… I actually preferred fighting with you than against you." She offered a hand to Comet, who shook it, before she hurried off.

Planting the last of the oca ocas in the garden patch they had been gifted, Inazuma pulled off her gloves and stood, stretching with a groan. At least her having started setting up their own 'farm' meant that Kaga had finally stopped complaining at her about things that weren't her fault, besides, from what Sally and the other girls in that otherworld Devonport had said, she could have been in a much worse place than their world.

Walking back to the dorm, she tossed her gloves aside, found a chair in the lounge and flopped into it with a soft groan.

"Ehh?" black catlike ears popped up over the side of another chair followed quickly by golden brown eyes. "Inazuma, are you all right?"

Inazuma looked through her light blue bangs at the neko-like destroyer girl. "Just tired, Yuugure," she replied. "It's a long trip from England, and having to listen to Kaga all through it only made it longer." She sighed, brushing a hand through her hair, mindful of her horns.

"England?" Yuugure asked. "What would you be doing there?"

Leaning back, Inazuma sighed softly, closing her eyes. "I didn't go there because I wanted to or was ordered to," She admitted, "I don't know how I ended up in France, but England gave me a place to call home, at least for a while." She opened one eye to look at Yuugure. "Do you remember two months or so ago when we had the emergency sortie?" she asked. "Something happened while I was on it and I woke up in a field in France… Iris Libre here, and ran into two civilians who called me a monster." She raised her hand to her horns. "Seeing what they were fighting… I guess I can see why an oni such as myself could be called that, but to hear it." She shook her head and sighed.

Yuugure shifted slightly. "So how'd you end up in England? Did you have to fight the Royal Navy? Is that why you're not wearing your kimono today?"

"I sailed across the channel, not really looking where I was going until I found myself in a… special teahouse," Inazuma said, "One that serves grape wine among other drinks similar. While I was there, three women came in and joined me. They didn't know me, but their reaction to my name was telling. They didn't hate me because I was part of the Sakura Empire or for my horns; instead, they comforted me and offered a place to stay."

"Who were they?" Yuugure asked. "And why wouldn't someone from England hate us? Ever since we were ordered to attack the Eagle Union they've attacked us whenever we cross paths, if we aren't ordered to attack them first."

Inazuma shook her head again, swallowing against the dryness creeping up her throat. Getting to her feet, she quickly got herself a drink of water and downed it before refilling her cup and sitting down again. "They were in the future to where we are. For them, it is like all nations found something horrible about the sirens and are fighting them with little to no care for borders," she said. "No, the girls, they called themselves 'shipgirls', mentioned someone else, who is their version of me." She smiled slightly, leaning back again. "Helen Kerr, HMS Kempenfelt; Robyn Stevens, HMS Zenith and Sally Jones, HMS Zephyr is what they introduced themselves as, they also mentioned Aoki Gina as my alternate and a 'Jen', who was HMS Zodiac, Helen's girlfriend."

She took another sip from her water as she pondered what else she could reveal. "They comforted me and kept me company until my sisters could get there, though that could have ended badly, if they weren't restrained. They had animals there that can cripple the best of the Ironbloods battleships. Akatsuki tried pulling her turret on Sally and got shocked by one of them while Ikazuchi got annoyed at Sally's sister… she's lucky that Megan only cut her turret in two. That's part of why they're not here now, Nagato learned of their actions and she isn't happy with them."

"And your clothes, Inazuma?" Yuugure asked.

Inazuma smiled slightly. "Gardening which is actually pretty relaxing, even if it is hard work. Hopefully soon we'll get some more food out of it. The 'Zulus' gave both my sisters and the C-class girls that escorted them enough food to last a couple of weeks for the carriers, and enough seeds to start our own farms." She shrugged, looking down at her jeans and t-shirt. "These are pretty hard wearing, more so than stockings, and they don't show dirt as much as a white dress. It's not like we need to wear a particular outfit all the time, or even all the time we're awake." She looked over at her companion, frowning slightly as she took in Yuugure's ears and tail. "Well, you might have it harder because of your tail, but clothes could probably be adapted for it."

The pair looked up as the door opened to let in the rest of Destroyer Division Six, all three of whom looked down in the dumps. Ikazuchi almost immediately peeled off from the other two to crawl into her twin's embrace while Akatsuki and Hibiki grabbed drinks and slumped near their sisters.

"So what happened?" Inazuma asked after rearranging herself so she could hold Ikazuchi. Why did she feel like the eldest all of a sudden?

"Supply runs," Ikazuchi admitted, "for the next two months. Otherwise we're to stay at base." She sighed, snuggling into her sister's side. "We're not allowed to have any of the food we brought back either."

Inazuma snorted softly. "Well, that doesn't stop you from having any of the food that's grownhere," she commented, giving her sisters a small smile. "If things grow as quickly here as they did for the Wilders, then we'll probably have something available tomorrow, maybe next week, and unless they've stuck you on limited rations, it's not as if the mess will know what is in what." She gave her sisters a look, only for them to look away from her. "Nagato has you on rations, doesn't she?" she asked, getting a hesitant nod from Akatsuki. "Does she even know that you're being punished twice over with that?" asked Inazuma, frowning. "Because I remember Ikazuchi and Akatsuki both having to sleep alone while Hibiki and I were allowed to share a room or join the other girls, and they had to clear out that base of Wizard's, care for the slimes and other mucky drudge work for the first week of their stay, and that was with the girls they'd attempted to threaten." Both named girls grimaced, Ikazuchi curling tighter into Inazuma's side.

"Teleporting… stick men… things… were a nightmare," Ikazuchi muttered, shivering.

Akatsuki echoed her sister's shivers, causing Hibiki to hug her. "I still don't feel clean," Akatsuki muttered. "I think my mask or hair still has goop in it."

Inazuma glared at Kaga as the two Sakura Empire shipgirls stood facing one another in the mess hall, behind her, looking bedraggled but still defiant, stood the Royal Navy's three premier C-class destroyers, Comet, Cygnet and Crescent, all of whom had friction and battle torn clothes stained with what was probably several days of filth and being dragged through the muck. Around them, most of the Sakura Empire ships stood watching.

"What the hell do you think you were doing, Kaga?" yelled Inazuma, glaring at the larger shipgirl. "What sort of spike-backed bloodsucking cat fish crawled into your cunt that you ever thought kidnapping foreign destroyers and subjecting them to what looks like being hauled through the sewers was a good idea?" she asked, getting gasps from several of those watching at her language.

Kaga's white ears lay flat against her head as she snarled. "Like you would know anything? They stained my honour and yet they walk around like it was nothing! Worse, they corrupted at least one of our destroyers, the one that is standing in front of me!"

Comet snorted in disgust. "So you resorted to the same tactics you used to assault our allies, the Eagle Union, at Pearl?" she asked. "Some honour, Kaga. Akatsuki and Hiei dress the part of spies and assassins, but you have less honour than they do. Yes, we sunk you, your point is? All of us here have been sunk at least once because of this damned war, which you and your allies started!"

"That's Kirishima, Comet," Inazuma corrected, still watching Kaga. "She's right though, all of us have been sunk at least once and you don't see Shigure, Tone, Aoba or any of the others backstabbing a group of girls under a flag of truce for 'revenge', Kaga."

She looked around at the group. "Do you know what I found?" asked Inazuma. "When my sisters and I reached our usual meeting spot last week, we found it devoid of our contacts," she waved at the C-class girls. "So we figure, we're at war, things happen and it's possible that they got called for something or another. It makes sense, right?

"Of course today, Kaga tells me to take some crap that's not even fit for worm food to a basement I didn't even know about and guess who was in there, chained to the fucking wall, half buried in literal shit!" Inazuma glared at the white-haired carrier as her sisters moved towards her. "These are girls that, for all that they've sunk a number of us, haven't boasted about their kills around anyone that I've heard. Hell, I've heard others comment on their abilities more than the three of them. They were also the ones to go with my sisters to find me when I ended up in the other world." She looked around the mess again, spotting more than a few dishes with cubefruit, phase lemons, oca ocas, carrots, odd onions or other foods she had grown. "Most of you are eating things we got from that other world we went to, things that I and my sisters have grown." She turned her glare back to Kaga. "Several of those things we didn't have when we first came back here, and I could easily be selling this bounty to the civilians and keeping the money for myself beyond what I gave my sisters or Yuugure for their help." She spotted a pair of black ears, which had been folding suddenly stand to attention.

She turned her attention back to the carrier once more. "I still might, between Kaga's honourless actions and Nagato's punishment for my sisters, even after the people that they offended dealt with them." This time the glare was directed at the smaller, dark haired shipgirl. "I'm half tempted to see what would happen if someone released a tarr in here," she snapped, making her sisters and the C-class girls shiver, "or hell, any of the fucking mutated cretins and chaos borne cryptids that Devonport in the other world finds normal business!"

"I don't have to defend myself to a little destroyer," Kaga snarled. "I, who was once to be a battleship and converted into an aircraft carrier, am far above you, little girl. What I do is none of your concern."

Inazuma's eyes narrowed as she looked over at Nagato, who said nothing. "Then I'm done here," she said flatly. "I'm going to get these girls some decent clothes and a bath, then I'm selling any supplies that have been grown and closing the gardens down." She turned her head slightly. "Yuugure, I'll catch you later to discuss how much I owe for your working with me, but I won't work with someone like Kaga. Maybe another base will be willing to let me help out."

Having dropped that bomb, Inazuma turned and stalked out of the canteen, ignoring the shouts and screeches behind her as her sisters and the C-class destroyers followed her back to their dorm.