Hyuga noted a signal in the air, announcing,
"The Kongou and Bismarck-Class battleships have been defeated by Ise.
I suppose I should finish up my end of the business here as well."
Looking back at the bleeding Nagato before her, the Nagato-Class battleship commenting.
"That goes for the two of us, Hyuga. I won't be settling for anything less than a win when going against you."
Nagato grimaced as she took the time to take stock of her situation and the wounds she had sustained, courtesy of the Ise-Class battleship.
Small cuts and slashes permeated her fair skin as she held her left forearm, the blood from all the small cuts on the covered skin flowing down to create a steady stream of blood dripping off of her fingers onto the ocean.
Nagato could feel the nano-machines in her own body trying to repair her injuries, the nano-machines installed in a ship girl's body to help a ship girl heal her injuries at a significantly slower pace than the specialized nano-machines in the docks, acting as a natural form of regeneration.
It wasn't something everyone knew about as it did its job quietly behind the scenes, but any ship girl could learn about them via textbooks or lessons.
One of the barrels of Nagato's cannon was cleanly cut off, the cannon barrels now misaligned and unusable, and she had a deep gash running down her thigh along with many smaller cuts on her body.
Various parts of her rigging had been pierced by Hyuga's katana, small slits in the armor where the katana punched right through the steel of her rigging.
But Hyuga wasn't doing too well either.
Fighting one of the strongest battleships in Japan had taken its toll, with one cannon being crushed by Nagato's overpowered punches which served to keep Hyuga on the defensive, being forced to use the cannon to block the Nagato-Class battleship's punch out of desperation.
Hyuga was panting heavily with several bruises on her skin, a few red splotches on her miko uniform, and two of her cannons were already taken out of action by the esteemed battleship.
The Fairies that were manning the now-defunct cannons had evacuated the rigging, standing on its various balconies to get some fresh air.
Some of them were covered in soot and coughed, while others carried little tools to try and patch up the cannon interior.
Hyuga cracked her neck, a trail of blood running down her forehead as she swung both her katana and her cannon-sword around, preparing herself for the final round as she maintained her focus, ready to intercept anything.
Hyuga placed her cannon-sword back on her rigging, only relying on her katana for the final burst.
She placed her left palm behind the handle of her raised katana that was pointed at the battleship, announcing,
"2nd Symphony: Chorus of a Thousand Birds."
Before she used her left boost gauge and her leg to accelerate forward, her last working cannon firing at Nagato as Hyuga approached Nagato at breakneck speed that didn't allow her cannons to get a good aim at her, Nagato raising her armored gloves to protect herself as she shrugged off the shells.
Hyuga used her katana to stab at Nagato's forearms in rapid succession, the Nagato-Class battleship feeling the katana scratch the armor in her gloves with a screech before Hyuga pulled back the blade to stab again, several of the strikes cutting into her glove and flesh in small cuts that wouldn't have bothered her individually.
But when a battleship was cutting you up in rapid succession with a series of consecutive strikes, it was hard to simply shrug off the injuries on her shredded and bleeding arms.
Hyuga then felt another presence sneak up behind her, and she used all of the strength in her legs to push herself to the side as a Japanese straight sword was brought down with extreme force, barely registering as a blur in Hyuga's eyes.
The resulting strike that Hyuga barely evaded took off the damaged barrels of one of her damaged cannons and the corner of the cannon itself, cutting through the armor like a hot knife through butter.
The cut made by the name-ship of the Yamato-Class battleship managed to compress the air along the way, causing the ocean beneath the sword to be split from the sheer power of the wielder, throwing up huge volumes of water and causing waves to form on the disturbed surface of the ocean.
Hyuga pivoted around and retreated to regard Yamato, who was hunched over as she limped feebly, breathing irregularly as she held her sword and her skin glistened with sweat.
Hyuga noticed that the umbrella stored on the back of Yamato's rigging was transformed, hypothesizing that the umbrella unfolded to allow Yamato to draw a sword by the handle and had an Anti-Abyssal rifle ad umbrella installed on its sheath, commenting.
"An umbrella which serves as a rifle for a long range assault, and unfolds to reveal a sword for close-range combat. Truly nothing but the best for the Yamato-Class."
But Yamato wasn't listening to any of that, focusing on destroying the opponent before her as a crude white-red aura flowed out of the battleship's skin, Yamato pulling back her arm for another strike, her arm swinging forward at a surprisingly swift speed for someone her size.
The next strike was a horizontal slash, Yamato putting her weight on her uninjured leg before swinging out without a word, the aviation battleship ducking to avoid getting cut and noticing that another section of the ocean was split by the sheer strength behind the swing of the sword.
But Yamato was visibly weakening as she was starting to sweat more and more, wincing as she placed her weight on her broken leg as she hobbled shakily towards the aviation battleship.
Hyuga looked over to see an ashen Musashi and dead-serious Mutsu at attention with heavy-duty cable hooks in hand, allowing Yamato to fight on despite her condition as Nagato tried to hold the limping battleship back out of genuine concern.
Hyuga saw Yamato shaking off the Nagato-Class's arm as she dodged another swing from Yamato's sword, the battleship now no longer thinking straight as she simply wanted to cut Hyuga down, and was not using her cannons to shoot at Hyuga when she clearly had the chance.
Hyuga shifted her weight in order to prepare to evade another potential strike, asking.
"Stand down. I don't know how you convinced your sister ship allow you back into the battle, but you are no longer in any condition to fight."
But Yamato shook her head feebly, bringing up her sword again to strike Hyuga down as the Ise-Class battleship parried this strike, feeling that she could now match the weakening battleship's strength.
Yamato gasped tiredly as she was sweating buckets, the pain of her knee barely held at bay by the makeshift repair job achieved by the combined effort of Mutsu and Yamato's Fairies, and Yamato visibly suppressing her pain as she replied.
"No… I fight on… because I choose to!
No one will hold me back. Not the Japanese government or the Japanese Navy, who used me as a hotel when they felt like it, and discarded me like a used tissue paper when I proved to be a burden."
Hyuga could see the battleship was starting to talk herself into a fervor, her dormant fighting spirit awakening at the most inopportune of times since fighting on in such a injured state would only serve to exacerbate her injuries.
"No, I wish to fight to protect them, not as authority figures of Japan, but as part of the people of Japan. I swore when I came back, that I would never stop improving, and never stop learning in order to achieve what others would deem to be a lofty goal.
And the Admiral was my idol and the backbone of my strength, always encouraging me to do my best, no matter what I did! I'll do right by Admiral Haru by reciprocating her kindness with my strength, and to be the best battleship that the world has ever known!"
Hyuga considered Yamato's words for a moment, watching the "greatest battleship" persist tirelessly to achieve victory regardless of her physical condition, Yamato raising her trembling arm for one last strike.
But it was this last point that drove Hyuga to retort by holding up and putting her weight behind her flight deck, which was already a wreck and barely able to block another hit, Yamato's katana skidding and throwing up showers of sparks upon impact.
Yamato's sword smashing into the flight deck caused the makeshift shield to crack ominously, but Hyuga's makeshift shield served its final purpose as Yamato's sword was deflected to the side, Yamato's strength working against her as she failed to stop the momentum of her own sword as she spotted Hyuga raising her right leg and boat slipper.
Hyuga's intimidating aura was flowing menacingly out of her before it focused onto the sharp edge of her boat slipper, the intense concentration frightening Yamato and freezing her in place as she helplessly watched Hyuga's boat slipper slam into Yamato's gut to end this match, thankfully not using her boost gauge to increase the lethality of her move.
Blood immediately flew out of Yamato's mouth, Yamato struggling to use her sword to shield herself and using her free hand to apply pressure to the bruise as she stumbled away from the menacing aviation battleship.
Hyuga spoke as she slowly walked towards the stumbling battleship, the aviation battleship noting that the spectating Nagato was standing within striking distance to discourage her from attacking a downed Yamato as they both watched Musashi move in quickly tend to an injured Yamato, who was clutching at the reddening streak on her uniform that was staining her skirt with blood.
"You strive to improve yourself for the sake of others, and that is a very noble goal that suits someone like you. But you don't seem to understand just how valuable your own life is. Being the incarnation of Japan itself and carrying the weight and pride of the country on your shoulders, you are without a doubt the most valuable ship girl that Japan possesses. If you fall, the ship girls of Yokosuka will slowly fall into despair, as the 'ultimate ship girl' and by extension, the incarnation of Japan itself has fallen in the line of duty."
Yamato's eyes widened as she slowly started to realize the weight of her own existence upon stepping onto the battlefield for the first time and realizing just what was at stake should she ever fall in battle.
She looked away ashamedly as Hyuga continued upon seeing the understanding look in Yamato's eyes.
"You aren't just any rank-and-file ship girl that wouldn't hurt the base too much if you sank. You are the Yamato, a ship girl whom the Admiral has dedicated time and tons of resources to construct. If you sank, not only would you single-handedly break the spirit of the Japanese Navy, but you would also waste Admiral Haru's unrelenting efforts to obtain you and break her maiden heart, being one of her ship girl lovers. And besides, what is the point of throwing your life away so pointlessly by fighting and dying?"
It was here that Hyuga tried to talk some sense into Yamato to get her to drop her pride-ridden ways of approaching combat.
"We, as capital ships who are the pillars of strength to everyone else, must strive to fight and live so that we may fight another day, And if that means retreating wisely instead of advancing foolishly, I'd take the former over the latter any day. Your attempt to try and defeat me is commendable, but serves no purpose except to throw you back into the frying pan. So as much as you would love to fight to your dying breath in service of our country and people, you simply must not sink in battle."
Hyuga shook her head, her breath shaky as she was feeling rather fatigued from the prolonged battle, acknowledging Yamato's efforts to do right by everyone in the base and the country as a whole.
"Well, I suppose different people have different ways of doing things, and your indefatigable efforts to strive for victory is commendable."
Hyuga's intimidating brown aura dissipated as she relaxed her stance, her expression softening as she exhaled tiredly, a tremble in her arms and legs as she moved.
She sheathed her sword as she slowly sailed towards Yamato, who was now on one knee and trembling from the shock as sweat ran down her pale skin and dripped from her chin, having sheathed her straight sword.
Musashi was trying to find a way to sling her sister's arm over her shoulder despite their clunky riggings prohibiting this course of action as Yamato clutched her blood-stained uniform, Hyuga commenting.
"I suppose that in a war as bleak as this, it's refreshing to see someone as compassionate and as driven as you strive for a goal that would seem impossible to anyone else. You need all the help you can get to achieve that goal, and I suppose it's only fair that I lend you my strength and expertise as your senior. Your growth will exceed everyone's expectations as your strength is arguably unmatched by anyone else in the world except your sister."
Hyuga was now feeling her arms and legs giving out, having exerted her legs too much whenever her boost gauge wasn't available to accelerate and her arms in trying to swing her weapons around.
Despite being relatively muscular for a ship girl, the amount of force she had to produce to move her battleship rigging and steel body took a heavy toll on her leg muscles.
And she didn't pay too much attention to it in the heat of battle, but she underestimated the amount of energy she had to use to either cut into the skin of a battleship or to defend herself from the blows of the physically gifted battleships.
The armor of a battleship was created to be exceptionally tough, causing her to steadily deplete her stamina and strength throughout the entirety of the match as she did her best to pierce their armor to hurt them without the intent to kill, further weakening her throughout the match.
"No matter how experienced I am, the fact remains that you are a talented ship girl. And no matter how hard I try to compensate with skill and experience, the cold hard fact remains that you possess superior armor, firepower and strength in spades to withstand my attacks. My hands are trembling, my katana is chipped, and my rigging is destroyed. I suppose we can consider this a draw now, hmm?"
Before collapsing in front of everyone, Yamato trying to reach out to help the aviation battleship up only to fall forward as she slipped, her rigging making movement for the injured battleship nigh-impossible without Musashi's help.
Nagato leaped in to lend Hyuga a hand, Nagato helping Hyuga up as Musashi gently lifted her sister, Musashi trying her best not to disturb Yamato's knee wound by shifting her sister's weight onto her.
And upon seeing Ise heading towards them while towing three unconscious battleships, the group of battleships began sailing home while supporting each other, the overhead sun reaching the height of its journey as it began its downwards descent back into obscurity after witnessing a clash of titans.
Back at the docks, Ise was overlooking the rest of the battleships that were getting out of the docks.
Admiral Haru had already prepared several quick-repair buckets filled with nano-machines that were designed to be more powerful than the specialized nano-machines in the docks, repairing their injuries and bruises in a matter of hours as well as resources that consisted of fuel and shaved steel that was required to repair a ship girl's damaged body.
And if the natural nano-machines in a ship girl could heal their injuries in a month, the nano-machines in the docks could repair their wounds in a week at most, the quick repair buckets healing them in hours no matter what their injuries.
Ise met Hyuga outside the docks, the rest of the battleships requiring a few minutes more to ensure that they made a complete recovery as Ise cheerily greeted her sister ship.
"So, Ise-nee! How're the others doing?"
Hyuga shrugged her shoulders, still feeling a little sore after battling with a physically stronger opponent, although she did feel better since this was a good sparring session to keep her skills sharp and teach Yamato a lesson about modern warfare.
Ise, being her sister, understood this little gesture to be akin to a nod as she idly commented, ship girls that were entering the docks for recreational purposes giving the eccentric battleship a wide berth.
"Yes, y'see. The fact that you can fight Nagato-san and Yamato-san to a draw and I can defeat three battleships on my own means that the age of aviation battleships is upon us!"
Hyuga gave her sister a small but genuine smile as she agreed wholeheartedly, proud of them both for being able to go up against the best battleships in Japan and actually stood a chance of beating them.
"Yes, it truly is."
"Not if we can help it."
Kirishima and Haruna popped up behind the two of them, Kirishima's glasses reflecting light at an angle and hid her eyes entirely while Haruna's fringe cast a shadow over her closed eyes as she wore a saccharine smile on her face.