Part 20: Dahlia

IJN Zuikaku

Still wavering under a hangover, and wrapping her tired brain around the events of the previous night, Hachimiya Dahlia was not looking forward to the afternoon Foreman meeting. Having just exited the shower, sipping through her third cup of coffee, the Carpenter allowed her laptop to boot up. She would have to appear virtually, thanks to leaving KMS Graf Zeppelin a day early. Though, Freya and Kojima would be able to shoulder some of the meeting's effort. So she hoped.

By the time she was able to connect, the meeting was already underway. It was clearly being held inside Nishizumi Maho's Commander's office, with representatives of the other trades present. Mistress Shiho's face was a surprise, but her presence was understandable, as in every way other than physical writing, Kuromorimine was her school.

As if someone had heard her prayers, Freya was sitting behind her own laptop. If needed, Dahlia could use her for backup.

"Hachimiya-san." Headmaster Nagumo greeted the Carpenter. "Good afternoon. Can you hear us?"

"Yes, I can." Dahlia snugged her headset on. "Thank you for waiting. I'm glad you were able to get started without me." She smiled weakly, taking another swig of coffee.

"Your timing is impeccable, Dahl." Freya spoke up. "We're just about to start talking about the next phase of the school building."

"Oh… perfect."

"I understand you've received digital prints of the refurbishments and rebuilds, Fraulein Hachimiya." Irene Kasamichi, head of the Black Forest Workers Guild, began.

Dahlia nodded after a moment. "Yes, I have. Bear with me as I bring up my screensharing… Can you see my screen?"

For the people in the office, the image of Dahlia shifted to the side and the homescreen of her laptop appeared next to it. Many virtual meetings might be interrupted by someone inadvertently screensharing an embarrassing homescreen wallpaper, but she was prepared for this, as behind the Zoom Meeting program, Hachimiya's wallpaper depicted an overhead photo of Ooarai's new dormitory building during the spring. Dahlia and her friends were on the roof of the building, looking up at a drone. Freya smiled when she saw herself standing alongside Rosie, each of them holding up 'peace' signs. Next to them was Dahlia herself, giving Chloe a piggyback ride. The apprentice had a massive smile on her face, waving both hands at the camera. Emma was further down the line, hardhat tucked under her arm where it usually was, holding a thumbs up with her other hand.

Rosie and Emma's names, as well as dozens of others, were now engraved on the brick path leading to the entrance of the dorm.

"Yes we can, Dahlia-san." Someone confirmed.

Everyone watched for the next few minutes as Dahlia clicked around in her saved files, looking for the correct folder. Unbeknownst to them, however, Hachimiya was only partially paying attention. Her mind was completely occupied with the happenings of the previous night. She was feeling an unholy combination of confusion, worry, leftover adrenaline, and most of all, guilt. She felt guilty for leaving so quickly that morning, hardly paying her companion's feelings any mind. Nakajima had seemed, while equally nervous, rather bewildered initially. After Dahlia explained what the two had done, however, she appeared positive, only regretting that she couldn't remember much of the night. Hachimiya, on the other hand, had never felt so confused. Before now, she had never considered being romantically involved with a girl. While she was happy for the friends who had found love in the arms of a fellow classmate, she hadn't thought of it happening to herself.

"I think you passed it, Dahl."

"Huh?!" Freya's voice snapped Dahlia out of her thoughts and mindless scrolling. "Oh. Sorry… Long night."

The Foreman quickly scrolled back up and found the file, opening it. "Okay. What's today's topic?"

"My girls wish to get started in the locker rooms of the gymnasium." Irene began. "The way we see it, it would be a good place to figure out a working pattern, and be able to identify problems in other areas. Specifications for bathrooms across the Campus are identical… right?"

"Yes, they are. Just a second now…" Dahlia quickly typed out some key words, and the print reading program brought her to a page of bathroom specs. Everything from stall dimensions to mirror locations was listed, all standardized for modern buildings. "Here we go." Hachimiya bookmarked the page, then scrolled back to an overhead of the new gymnasium. The old one needed a refurbishment after its use as an infirmary during the battle, before its subsequent attack and bombing. "So… locker rooms. Here we are. What do you want me to highlight, Irene?"

Kasamichi clicked her pen. "Mounting specs for the bathroom stalls. Tissue dispensers, hand dryers… things like that."

"Okay then." Dahlia took another sip of coffee, briefly glancing at her vibrating phone, before elaborating. "I've already taken the liberty of walking through some of these areas… fairly recently. So if needed, we-"

"I went through yesterday morning." Irene interrupted.

"...oh. Alrighty."

"Sinks and toilets are in. The walls of the stalls are up, but not the doors. Everything else is yet to be installed."

"Perfect. Now, all of this is standardized, first and foremost…" Dahlia leaned away from the screen and rubbed her eyes, her throbbing headache threatening to burst out of her skull. Possibly helped along by her unease, and talking about bathrooms, she could feel a nausea rising out of the pit of her stomach. "There are at least three grab bars inside handicapped stalls, all of which at varying heights. From what I see here… three are listed. Two horizontal, one vertical. Perfect. Grab bars have to be installed on solid walls, like block or drywall with wood blocking."

"Toilets have been placed to facilitate that." Sigrid, head of the Plumbers, stated after a few beats.

"Wonderful." Dahlia replied, taking a mental note of Mistress Shiho's facial expression. While mostly flat and neutral, she appeared content, as if pleased with how well the job's planning has been going so far. "The top of horizontal grab bars must be forty inches off of the floor," She circled and pointed out various measurements with a stylus pen. "with the one behind the toilet requiring a minimum of twelve passing over the center, but six inches away from the corner. Perpendicular wall also has the vertical bar… which should be…" Dahlia eyed her phone again, which displayed Darjeeling of all people calling again. "Ahem. Which should be two inches above the horizontal."

The Carpenter could hear several people scribbling notes as she read along.

"The grab bars all have different lengths." Irene observed. "Which ones go where?"

"Ah… the… shortest is the vertical. I believe it is… eighteen inches? And the longest one goes alongside the toilet."

The Workers Guild girls nodded along.

"Paper dispensers and sanitary napkin bins go side by side, on the same wall. TP goes nineteen inches, minimum, above the floor. The dispenser goes… actually… what kind of dispensers are they?"

"They're double roll." Freya chimed in.

"Okay, that works… The center of the dispenser should be eight inches from the front of the toilet. Annnnd… Napkin bin goes on the side closest to the door. Depending on the size of the stalls, you may have to split the difference. The bins might also have to go a bit lower, so they can actually be opened. Sidenote… these other setups go on whatever side of the stall the door hinges are on."

"Okay…" Irene jotted down Dahlia's words, while the Carpenter drowned the rising bile with more coffee. "Next, we need the mirrors, soap dispensers and all that."

"Gocha… one sec…" A few clicks and mouse drags later, Hachimiya had the proper page on screen, as well as dimmed the backlight. "Mirrors go directly over the sink, as one would expect. They're mounted by measuring up to the reflective surface, which on my specs is… forty inches off the floor. Mirrors have a bit of math to them, for the bracket they hang on, and the outside ones being in line with the edges of the sink, so you'll definitely need a laser for this. Soap dispensers go directly between them. Forty eight inches to the bottom."

More scribbling. Dahlia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, in an attempt to stop the room from spinning.

"It may please you to know that there are no electric hand dryers." She announced. "Instead, there are paper dispensers and trash combo bins. The recesses of which are… present, yes. And, last but certainly not least, napkin dispensers. They go alongside the paper towels, forty eight inches above the floor." Dahlia's phone buzzed again, and accompanying it was a sudden urge to run to the bathroom. "And, Freya, if I may. I'm gonna let you take over for a minute. I need to take this. My computer's unlocked." Without waiting for a reply, Hachimiya ripped off her headset and collected her phone, speedwalking to the restroom.

"Darjeeling! Hey! Uh… one second." The Carpenter put her phone on speaker, set it to the side of the sink, and vomited into the toilet.

"Dahlia-san. Are… are you alright?"

Aboard HMS Ark Royal, Darjeeling held her phone away from her ear. After a few moments of horrible retching sounds, she heard a response.

"Yeah. Just… fabulous." Her friend coughed out. "Ugh… I had a late night last night."

"It sounds like it." The St. Gloriana Commander paced away from a 'No Smoking' sign near the back door of the garage, taking a drag from a cigarette.

Dahlia sat down on the tile floor and peeled off her shirt, using it to wipe her mouth and blow her nose. "Oh… God, that's so much better." She said with a loud sniffle. "Wait… when the hell did we have calamari?"

"Dahlia…?"

"Oh. Right. Hang on."

Flushing, the hungover Ooarai girl rinsed her mouth out with water from the sink, before sitting back down and leaning against the wall. "What's up?"

"As I'm sure you know, Kay has pulled together the necessary intel and resources for her… special day."

"Yeah… She called and asked if I wanted to help. I don't. And even if I did, I'm planning on being with my mom for most of the holiday."

"You'll never guess what date she picked."

"What?...Christmas?"

"Yes. As a 'special gift' to us all. She just a few hours ago."

"Oh. Good for her. We'll, wish her luck for me, then." She started to sit up.

"Dahlia, wait." The seriousness of Darjeeling's voice made Hachimiya freeze in place.

"...what?"

Darjeeling quickly looked around. "I'm really worried about her. Kay is becoming completely absorbed by this revenge quest." The Commander lowered her voice. "She's even clearly stated that she doesn't care if it costs her her own life."

"Oh. Well… Kay likes to exaggerate. You know that better than anyone."

"I believe she's serious this time. She's shaking off concerns left and right. Nobody seems to be able to talk sense into her."

"So… is that why you called?"

"Yes." Darjeeling flicked ashes from her cigarette, before taking another long drag. "I don't mean to impose, but could you talk to her? She's driving me mad with worry. This is my third cigarette in less than an hour." She finished with a cough.

Dahlia rubbed her eyes. "You really think I will be able to get through to her? After what happened last time?"

"I thought… she apologized?"

"She did." The sluggish Carpenter confirmed, forcing herself to stand. "But… the stuff she said… was really hurtful. And besides that, we haven't spoken in over a month, not including her call earlier. And even then, it was mostly a tired and hungover me growling at her to go away." She stumbled out of the bathroom and towards the refrigerator, rummaging around for a can of ginger ale.

"I think she would listen to you, Dahlia. She said that your words are what spurred her to apologize to Itsumi. The two of them, as well as Nishizumi, are friends again because of it."

"Darj, look. I appreciate the thought of me being able to calm the beast, but it won't be that simple." Dahlia made a point of avoiding flashing the ongoing meeting as she cracked open the soda, taking a tiny sip. "You know she doesn't like being told what to do, especially when she's dead set on doing the opposite. If I call her out of the blue and tell her to dial back her inner Dirty Harry, she's going to blow up on me again, and it'll make things worse, just because of her stubbornness."

"I'm aware of that. I just wanted to ask for your help, because Kay has decided on an approach." As Darjeeling spoke, Hachimiya's phone vibrated, and she looked to see a text from Freya, claiming to need help with opening the next page of digital prints. She stepped towards the computer and clicked on the next page, avoiding the camera, before retreating again. "She wants to get one-on-one with Katyusha. Actually… how much did she tell you?"

"Not a whole lot." Dahlia continued pacing around the kitchen, pausing to grab the stove during a brief spell of dizziness. "Just something about everyone having codenames, the name of the operation, and that some of our friends were on board."

"...well, I suppose there's no harm in sharing details."

Over the next few minutes, Darjeeling shared extra details of Kay's plan that the Ooarai girl hadn't known before. Her Saunders friend's plan was to visit Katyusha under a fake name, and kill her using some kind of poison. The most concerning part was Kay's willingness to sacrifice herself during the mission, something that brought Darjeeling to tears.

"...and nothing I say will change her mind!" The St. Gloriana Commander cried out. "I don't want to lose her, but I don't know what to do!"

In truth, Dahlia didn't either. What does one say to a friend who's acting as if she has nothing to lose?

"Alright, Darj… listen." Hachimiya eyed her computer, where Freya was continuing to use her friend's laptop to conduct the meeting. "I don't think it'll do much, other than make her angry, but… I'll give Kay a call."

She could hear Darjeeling breathe a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Dahlia. I'm sorry about this, but I'm at a loss. Just… don't tell her I called."

"Oh, no. I plan on doing just that." The Carpenter said, massaging her temple. "You shouldn't have had to reach out to me of all people. Where is she right now?"

Darjeeling glanced around again. "Probably in her office. Or at her dorm. I'm at St. Gloriana. I just couldn't stay at Saunders any longer. I think I'm going to stay here until the operation kicks off."

"Good idea. I'll call her."

"Thank you again, Dahlia."

"Thank me if it works."

The Commander pocketed her phone and crushed her cigarette under her boot, hoping that over a decade of friendship could succeed where she had seemingly failed.

Growling under her breath, Dahlia scrolled through her contacts and tapped on Kay's name. Privately, she was in disbelief about the conversation she had just had. Why did Darjeeling feel the need to come to her with a problem about her girlfriend? The supposed 'love of her life', who was about to go on a near suicidal revenge mission.

"Hey. You got a second?" Dahlia trampled over Kay's greeting. "Whatever you're doing, it can wait."

"Sure. I'm heading to my apartment. What's up?"

"I just wanted to ask you about this crusade you're about to go on."

Kay flopped down on her bed ad tucked her free hand under her pillow. "Ah. Yes. My master plan. What about it?" She smiled. "You looking to change your mind?"

"If it means watching you get yourself killed."

The Tanker's smile faded. "What?"

"I just got a phone call from… a close friend of ours. She informed me of some details about your mission. Something about… not caring if you live or die. Not letting anyone come with you." Kay's expression soured. "Not letting a certain someone who cares very much about you talk you out of it, nor caring what she has to say about the whole thing."

"Who called you?" She demanded.

"Darjeeling. Who else?"

"Oh, boy. What does she have to be upset about?"

"Plenty!" Dahlia exclaimed. "And now, so do I! The shit she just told me… dude… what the fuck is wrong with you?"

"What? So I have a plan. What's the problem? What's your problem?"

"My problem is that your girlfriend just called me in tears because she's afraid of you getting yourself killed! She thinks you're brushing her concerns aside, and that you don't care about how your death will impact everyone. Including her."

"You're really going to use Darjeeling against me? You're really going there?"

"I'm not using anybody against you. She called me. The only reason I'm speaking the way I am is because she shouldn't have had to." Dahlia held the cold back of her hand against her boiling forehead. "Plus, I'm very tired, and very hungover."

Kay abruptly stood up and stepped towards the window, closing the blinds as her friend continued. "She feels like you're ignoring her, which better not be fuckin' true."

"Dahl. Whatever you heard is… I don't even know what to call it. Darjeeling is just wound up because of how distant and busy I've been, which I admit to. We haven't had very much 'sack time' lately, if you catch my drift."

"Pfff. Seriously? Lack of sex is making her feel like this? Who are you talking to?"

"Whatever." Kay waved her off. "For the record, you could bag pretty much any guy in this country whenever you wanted. What else did she say?"

"Like I said. She's... scared that you're going to die, and she thinks you don't care. Just by listening to you, I'm starting to agree."

"Hey, fuck you, man." The Commander hissed. "Put yourself in my shoes for a minute. Katyusha took everything from me. My team, my school, my friends. She tried to take Darjeeling. And you! That's what I'm seeking justice for."

"Would you listen to yourself?" Dahlia was in disbelief. "Your team? Fuck your team. You know where I'm working right now? Kuromorimine. You know what happened there? The whole place is a godforsaken wasteland! There's more craters than there are recognizable buildings! Their Volunteer Korps has less than a hundred members left, out of thousands. Maho's team doesn't even fuckin' exist anymore. Did she take you up on your petty revenge mission? How about Erika?"

"Petty?" Kay was fuming. "You call me PETTY?! How about being her guest of honor for three fucking days?! Having to watch from half a country away as my school fell to ashes! I'm not doing this just for me! It's for everybody!"

"And the only one who wants it is you!"

The Saunders girl stopped herself from throwing her phone through the window, listening to the tiny voice that was urging her to hear her friend out. The two stood in silence for a time, before Dahlia broke it with a sigh.

"Kay… listen… I knew this call would just make you angry. When Darj asked me to do this, at first, I said 'no'. Because of how you reacted on our way home from Abashiri. But I'm telling you. Nobody is asking you to do this. Just about everybody who knows about this thinks it's a bad idea. I don't expect to talk you out of it, but just please… listen to the input you're getting. You're letting your hatred of Katyusha consume you, and that's just going to get people hurt. Or killed."

Kay let her breath out through her nose, peeking through the blinds as construction work continued around the building. Defensive trench networks were still being returned to their pre-war statuses as parks, walking paths, and roads.

"Dahl, I… I hear you. How's that? I hear what you're saying. And for all I know, you may be right. But from my perspective, this is the only way to fix things. My anger. My hatred… will keep burning away for as long as that bitch continues to draw breath. If you were hoping to talk me out of going, then I'm sorry, but it didn't work."

She heard a sigh on the other end.

"Then I'm coming with you."

"Wait… what?"

"I said I'm coming with you. I'm coming on the mission. Somebody needs to keep you from doing anything stupid." Dahlia grinned, an expression that quickly faded. "Besides, I have some shit that I need to get away from here at home anyway."

"A-alright, then. I'll put your name on the list. Do you have an alias in mind?"

"I do." Hachimiya glanced at her computer again, watching her friends talk up the Blue Collar Club to the Guild.

"Rosie McGuire."

A/N: G'day, all

T.L;D.R: Dahlia is still recovering from the party, and a phone call with Darjeeling inadvertently ropes her into Operation: Undertaker

The confrontation with Katyusha looms ever nearer. It will have to be covert and quick, if everyone hopes to get back to their holiday plans

I'd like to take a moment to welcome new followers Goh Of The Azuka, CruiserIBarelyKnowHer (nice) and CE Productions. You guys are awesome

As always, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more!