Rule by Gynthaen

10414. Sakura!Ikazuchi, Akatsuki and Hibiki, if you're worried about your sister, we found her. She's staying with the Z-class for a while, until we can get access to a portal going to your world
10414a. You may also want to try getting her to talk to someone when she gets back, she wasn't looking too happy when they found her and spent at least some time getting hugs
10414b. You should probably talk to her yourselves; she apparently landed here after you three ran off and left her to sortie with a different group. She needs reassurance that you still love her.

Getting a trio of drinks from the bar, Sally looked around the Edgcumbe Arms inn for a minute before spotting Robyn and Helen sitting on the leather chairs near the fire. Making her way over, she placed the glasses down, noting absently that there was someone else with them. "Alright, so Helen had the Ruby Jack, Robyn, yours was the Orchard's Blush, right?" she got a nod from her division mate, "leaving the Rattler Berry for me." She moved each of the glasses on the table to near where each of the girls were sitting before taking the last available place and turning slighting to the other girl, a girl with light blue hair and obvious, straight, horns growing from her head. "Hi, Sally Jones, my friends, if they haven't already introduced themselves, are Robyn Stevens and Helen Kerr, what's your name?" she asked, offering a hand to the girl.

"Fourth ship of the Special type III Akatsuki class destroyers, Inazuma," the girl introduced herself, not looking entirely sure of what was going on.

"Another breach?" asked Helen. "She certainly isn't Aoki Gina, and last I'd heard they'd gotten her stuck with Yoko's finances."

Robyn nodded, taking a sip of her drink. "She also knows us enough to drop the ship name, at least when we're off duty."

Seeing Inazuma looking between them with her brow wrinkled in confusion, Sally smiled at her. "It's a bit of a story, but the three of us are shipgirls, I'm HMS Zephyr, Robyn is my sister ship HMS Zenith and Helen is HMS Kempenfelt the leader of the W-class. All three of us are based out of HMNB Devonport over on the mainland."

Inazuma seemed to sink in on herself a little at that statement before looking up at Sally. "H-how? Ships are made, not born."

"Our universe is weird," Sally replied with a shrug. She took a drink from her glass before continuing. "Long story short anything that has a soul can have that soul reborn after it dies, for tsukumogami that means after the item or vehicle they were is retired, sunk, scrapped or otherwise destroyed, just because the body is gone doesn't mean the soul is, and… around thirty to forty years back the souls started filtering into human bodies and being born human." She shrugged again. "It probably wouldn't have mattered except that the Abyssals showed up causing us to start awakening to what we once were. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes an instant of terror and pain or protectiveness or just brushing against death for one reason or another."

"Oh…" Inazuma said softly, fiddling with the handle of her blue umbrella.

The three local shipgirls shared a look before Sally reached over and took Inazuma's hand gently. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Inazuma stayed quiet for a moment, looking down at the warm, calloused hand holding hers before looking up at Sally. "Why isn't everyone reacting to my horns?" she asked after another moment of internal debate. "When… when I arrived over the channel, a couple of humans called me a monster, but here… nothing."

"We're probably a bit too used to weird here," Helen replied, shifting back in her seat. "Between Abyssals having attacked a few times, Megan being the local Karas and responsible for most of the Shattenjägers around, meaning she deals with a lot of the supernatural…"

Robyn nodded as she drank, placing the glass down in front of her. "There's also the fact that Unicorn looks like Acorna and most of the Lions and Minotaurs here aren't completely human." She snorted softly, giving a head shake that sent her blonde hair whipping around her face. "Then there's Raven and her crew, and she's usually poking supernatural or portal stuff so we get to clean up those messes."

"The farm as well," Sally pointed out. "Helen's essentially in charge of a rather large animal farm," she explained on seeing Inazuma looking confused. "Thing is… most of the creatures are 'weird'. Heck, a good chunk of our radioactives stockpile is crapped out by slimes and we can milk some strange antelope type things for nitro-glycerine." She shrugged again.

Helen snorted. "Chained explosions are annoying, fortunately that was the rat pen that got hit by an abyssal bouncing a boom slime around." She smirked at the surprised shipgirl, "The look on its face though… particularly after it got dumped with cleaning up the mess."

Inazuma gave a slightly watery smile before looking back at Sally's hand, causing the trio to share a look. A couple of moments later, Helen and Robyn got up, the former heading for the bar while the latter squeezed in on Inazuma's opposite side, one arm going around the girl while the other took her free hand, Sally rearranging herself to do the same.

A few minutes later, Helen returned with a couple of bottles of red wine and glasses for it. Setting it down, she poured a glass for Inazuma. "Here," she offered, "I don't know if it'll match up to sake, but you look like you could 'do with a freaking drink' about now, and we're here if you want to talk about why."

The horned girl stared at Helen for a moment before letting go of the two Z-class' hands and clasping the glass, slurping down a few swallows. "I…" she started, "I miss my sisters, even that half mask Akatsuki wears. We were supposed to sortie together today, but… they went off and left me behind." She finished the glass and started to reach for the bottle only to be stopped by Sally's hand on her arm.

"Give it a bit before you have any more, Inazuma," Sally said gently.

The girl nodded before sinking back into the pair's arms, not noticing that Helen had taken her free hand. "The next thing I know, there's a scramble… I sortied out, then I'm waking up in France. I just… I wish I knew what to do." She looked between the trio. "Do you… do you think that… Ikazuchi, Akatsuki and Hibiki don't want to be around me anymore? Because I prefer escorts to fighting?" she asked softly.

Sally closed her eyes for a moment, remembering her own feelings while separated from her family. "I don't know your versions of them… but if they're anything at all like our versions, I doubt even death would keep them from caring about you." She shifted, rubbing her hand over Inazuma's back. "They probably had a time limit or got excited about something and ran off without thinking about you."

Robyn snorted softly, shaking her head as she gave Inazuma a gentle squeeze. "It wouldn't be the first time we've seen that. Our sisters pulled it off pretty well while we were visiting the Queen's home in Windsor, Helen included."

Helen gave the other girls a flat look. "At least Jen and I stuck to hanging out in the gardens and not causing a ruckus. Heck, Vanguardmade more of a mess than most of us."

Sally sipped her drink, shifting slightly as Inazuma moved to rest her head on her shoulder. "You two still ran off when you shouldn't have," she pointed out to Helen before turning to Inazuma. "Tell you what, Inazuma, we'll put you up in our place tonight, though you might end up sharing since the whole flotilla is home and while we do have our own beds and guest ones… well, we are destroyers," she said with a slight smile. "Tomorrow we'll talk to my aunt and Commodore Shipperly, see if there's any way to get in touch with your sisters and let them know what's going on, and get Alex working on getting a gate set up to your home."

Inazuma blushed. "I… hadn't thought about that," she admitted. "I don't even know if Sakura Empire yen would work here."

"Not directly," Robyn responded. "Depending how close things are, it could maybe be bluffed as Japanese and exchanged for pounds." Finishing her drink, she looked at the rest of the group. "I'll go give Meg and Anna a call, see if they can get a room set up since they decided to spend the night in, and see when the carvery opens. Be back in a bit, girls." She got nods from Sally and Helen before heading off, leaving the pair to comfort the displaced destroyer girl for a while.