It started out like 50% of our cases started, with lots of paperwork. There was a heavy, warm, dry feeling across the base that evening, combined with the continuous dark clouds that stretched across the horizon without a single break between them, meant that we were probably due for a thunderstorm.

Hornet had a stretch and a short break from the paperwork. "I can't believe it's Halloween already."

Oh yeah, and it was Halloween.

Hornet took out her phone. "Is that the time already? Oh blimey. We'd better call it a day, rookies."

Myoukou continued writing on the piece of paper in front of her before she finished and got ready to leave the office.

"I've got to get ready for the party tonight, sis and the rest of the first fleet will be back about halfway through." Hornet continued to say to herself.

"Come on Indianapolis senpai, what are you waiting for? It's time to go."

"It's alright, you can go on ahead, I'll lock up."

Now the reason for staying behind, wasn't as altruistic as it may seem. You see if I was to go home and have an early night, Portland would inevitably drag me to the party, dressed as me, usually by stealing some of my clothes from my wardrobe, (and on a bad year, she might even try to force me to wear her clothes, which she'd keep afterwards without washing). This year, I had planned to go to the Ironblood bar, not that I was a heavy drinker, or a drinker full stop, but knowing the regulars that frequent it, once Portland inevitably bursts in looking for me, I'll have the longest window of opportunity to escape, (about a minute), while she dealt with the patrons inside. Now that was a plot of a horror movie.

"Okay, well don't work too hard oka-"

And then, the lights went out.

"AHhh!"

"It's just the lights, rookie."

"Sorry Hornet senpai, it just caught me off guard, is all~" Myoukou quivered.

"Where's the torch?" Hornet sighed.

"Got it!" I cried, turning it on, illuminating a small section of the office with bright light. "Where are the candles?"

"In the stock cupboard down the hall." Hornet replied.

"We've only got the one torch?" Myoukou cried

"You can blame Edinburgh for buying a shit ton of Halloween candy for the party at our expense." Hornet explained.

"I thought we paid the bill tough~?" Myoukou asked.

Hornet gave another sigh, "Myoukou, look out of the window, you see the canteen?"

I shone the light over by the window as Myoukou walked over and peeked through. "Umm…no…"

"Exactly, it's affected the whole base. It's just a run-of-the-mill blackout."

"Right, I'm off to get some candles."

"WAIT! Let me come with you…"

"You're not scared of the dark are you rookie?"

"N-no…"

"Alright then" I said, "you can come with me." I opened the door, and almost immediately bumped into a ghost.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Myoukou screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" the ghost screamed in return.

"You're not afraid of no ghost are you rookie?"

"N-n-no, it just caught me unawares, that's all."

I lifted up the cloth covering the small figure revealing a girl with short blonde hair.

"Oh, hello Charles, what are you doing here?" I asked.

Charles Ausburn recovered from her slight scare, stood tall with her head held high, puffed out her chest and proudly announced. "The little beavers need your help!"

"Okay…" I replied, "And what exactly do you need help with…?" I was more than a little apprehensive, Charles was the lead ship of her class, and she often had this heroic attitude about her, any injustice, however slight, would be stopped by her and her sisters, known as the little beavers, at least in Charles's head anyway, practically every one of sister weren't that dedicated to their roles as 'heroes of justice'.

"We need you to banish a ghost!" she proudly replied.

Yep, and how exactly are we supposed to go about it? I turned towards Hornet, who seemed to be busy on her phone. Noticing the light shining her way, she looked up, and gave a smile.

"I'll ask Yorkie to fix us up with something for our trouble. Speaking of fixing things, I've just had a message from her, she wants me to help Kashino and Ting An gather some supplies for when Ambrose*, Gull Stream*, Kalkgrund II* and the others arrive from the mainland." I gave her a funny look, was she seriously asking us to solve something like this? "You're not going to the party, right? This'll be a perfect opportunity for you to keep your distance from Portland." Ah…I guess she realised; she does have a point though.

"Okay, fine, could you take me to where this 'ghost' is."

"No, I'll miss all the trick and treating~!"

I turned back to face Hornet. "Boss…I'm going to need some help here…"

"Don't worry, Myoukou will be with you."

"Huh? Wait, I thought I'd help you fix the lights…Why doesn't Edinburgh go?"

"Alright then…" Hornet replied. Myoukou gave a sigh of relief, until Hornet added, "Just explain to Belfast and Queen Elizabeth why she needs to stop her official duties tonight."

Ooh, tough one, an angry ghost, or a pissed Belfast and Lizzie, there wasn't much in it.

"Whelp! I'm off to fetch those supplies, meet you outside?"

"Sure." I responded.

"Hey, wait for me~!"

And that was that point where I would come to regret my decisions that night…

'The ghost of warehouse 13' my foot, it was nowhere near warehouse 13, in fact this so called 'ghost' was spotted in warehouse J, an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the base that was left over from the time this base was a radar station**

"Why are you behind me?" I asked.

"O-o-oh…Just…making sure that…no-one sneaks up behind you senpai." Myoukou stuttered. I gave her a blank look, before silently walking off towards the entrance of the warehouse at a fast pace. "WAIT! Don't leave me~!" Myoukou cried running after me.

"Come on then" I sighed, "Let's get this over with."

I opened the door, and my light caught the glimpsed of a dark face peeking around the door.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

"Would you stop screaming down my ear?" I politely asked.

"Aloha!" The figure greeted, stepping forward and allowing us to see the individual more clearly. She was a tall, dark-skinned girl, with long brown hair, wearing a red criss-cross bikini top and a long red cotton skirt.

I stared blankly at the figure "Who are you?"

The figure smiled, "I am the third ship of the Alaska-class large cruisers, USS Hawaii. I can't wait to have some fun!"

I stared blankly at the individual, "I didn't know you were on the base." I responded.

"I haven't long arrived." She explained, "I still sometimes find myself wandering around here and getting lost."

"Right, well the rest of the base is over in that direction." I said, pointing behind me "Trust me, it is there, it's just in the middle of a blackout at the moment, so you might have a job seeing it."

"You're not going yourselves?"

"We've been asked to search for a supposed 'ghost' in here. So, if you feel a bit uneasy, or if you think this is rather silly, then you can head off in that direction." I said, explaining the situation.

Hawaii gave a smile, "No spirit can be as bad as Tūtū Pele. Besides, I'll be able to make some friends, spirit or otherwise~!" She cheerily responded. "And what are your names?" she asked.

"Indianapolis."

"Myoukou San!" Myoukou bowed, feeling a little more confident after that initial scare.

"Alright then, I'll lead up front, Myoukou, you take the back, and Hawaii you can cover the middle." Then Myoukou suddenly grabbed hold of my sleeve tightly. "Okay Myoukou, you can take the middle~" I sighed as we made our way into the building.

* Get it? They're all Lightships~!

** As mentioned in the Case of the Captive Commander Part 4