The 1st Response Fleet was standing right outside the harbor, assembling as soon as they got the message that they needed to reinforce the Izu Islands as soon as possible.
It was 12.35 p.m. and the operation was projected to last the entire day, the 1st Fleet likely returning to base sometime at night.
The official statement from the Admiral was that the Abyssals had sent out a fleet in an attempt to occupy the hotly-contested Izu Islands while taking advantage of the rain to mask their approach.
Fortunately, the Admiral predicted that they'd take advantage of the bad weather to encroach on their territory and had warned the 1st Fleet about a possible sortie on the 12th.
The Abyssal fleet was estimated to have about 40 Abyssals in its roster, requiring more than one fleet to handle.
Hence, it required the combined efforts of three naval bases to try and repel their invasion, lest the Abyssals pick off their fleets as they send them in one by one.
Shigure observed her teammates as they surrounded her, noting the changes that her friends had went through.
Tatsuta was smiling more naturally now, Shigure noticing that the light cruiser had been helping out in the kitchen, keeping herself busy while lightening the workload of others.
This allowed her to apply herself and keep herself busy, so much so that it never allowed her to brood in a corner and be alone with her dark thoughts as she learnt some cooking skills from Mamiya, a senior who had been around since the inception of the base.
Hiei had arrived shortly after confirming her schedule with the other battleships to finalize a date for another training session, Shigure feeling glad to hear that Hiei was determined to train herself up tirelessly in order to earn her Kai Ni.
She knew that the fast battleship would go far if she tried.
Hiei looked driven to do her best to become stronger not just to impress her sisters, but to also protect the 1st Fleet which she was more closely affiliated with nowadays.
Tenryuu was now carrying herself with an air of confidence that wasn't just a product of her self-proclaimed grandiosity before being enlisted in the 1st Fleet, but also looked more like a young warrior waiting to test her limits in battle.
The guidance of her seniors and a bit of maturity on her part had changed her for the better, the light cruiser now trying to use her wits more often to compensate for her less-than-stellar stats and keep herself relevant in battle.
Ayanami hadn't changed too much, but like an anchor for the rest of the fleet, she was probably the one member of the fleet that didn't need to change too much.
Her default personality was amiable and kind to others as she was an elder sister figure to anyone who needed her support due to being a name-ship, a trait that helped her connect with her comrades.
Shigure thought back about the breakfast that she had with Yuudachi before this as the the 1st Fleet approached the harbor to suit up and sortie.
Yuudachi had been trying to make small talk with a quiet Shigure over breakfast, and she had tried to talk about the weather, of all things.
But Shigure, despite her best attempts to try and humor her sister ship's attempts, couldn't help but point out a simple observation that she had made upon waking up early in the morning to get some exercise.
"I'm sorry, Yuudachi, but I saw that the morning sky was red, which means that there's a storm on the horizon."
Yuudachi's smile drooped upon hearing that, but she did her best to recover as she stretched her smile a little more, gesturing to the breakfast trays on the table before them.
"W-Well, Shigure, let's eat now. Doesn't today's meal seem rather delicious, Poi?"
Today's meal was indeed rather extravagant, a generous helping of unagi meat with soy sauce added on it along with a salad bowl filled with lettuce, mayonnaise and corn kernels that were visible as they were identified by their healthy yellow gleam, slices of hard-boiled eggs thrown in to add some variety to the dish.
Shigure nodded, humoring her beloved sister as she used her knife to cut into the unagi meat, disturbing the thin layer of soy sauce layered on it as Shigure pierced it with her fork.
She used her knife to scrape some of the soy sauce off the slice of meat as Shigure didn't like her food to be lathered in sauces, making it almost inedible to her.
She ate the eel meat and felt the fishy taste on her tongue, somewhat salty and soft as it fell apart in her mouth, savoring the taste of the soy sauce on the unagi before turning her attention back to her sister.
Yuudachi was now talking about how summer was a time to relax, Shigure smiling at her sister's infectious enthusiasm that was starting to get to her despite the high chance of sortieing today in the rain.
"One of these days, we can go to the beach near here with our sisters and some of the destroyers, light cruisers and seniors in our swimsuits! After all, it wouldn't be summer if we didn't go to the beach at least once, Poi?! Ah, but we already go to the sea when sortieing..."
Shigure let her prattle on as she tuned her words out, instead choosing to appreciate her sister's presence and merry attitude.
She had always regarded her sister as one of the major sources of joy in her life, never seeming to lose her enthusiasm and happiness along with her inquisitiveness and curiosity that seemed to be a shared trait between them.
But sometimes, Yuudachi was fully capable of taking up an empathetic persona, full of profound wisdom and caring words to console Shigure whenever she needed someone to brighten up her day.
Fortunately, she didn't need that side of Yuudachi to console her today, things seemingly going her way for now.
And it was at that moment when life decided to prove her wrong as she heard a siren blaring in the distance, along with a message popping up on her HUD as the Coordinators ordered the 1st Fleet to report at the harbor for an emergency sortie like Admiral Haru predicted.
Shigure dropped her utensils as she looked away, sighing at how her breakfast with Yuudachi was ruined by the Abyssals trying to attack their territory, forcing the ship girls to sortie in order to repel their invasion and protect their area of influence.
Shigure didn't mind sortieing to fight the Abyssals, but she sometimes wondered if the Abyssals ever needed to sleep or eat, often choosing to attack at extremely inopportune times like at night, when the ship girls were forced to forgo sleep and arrive at the battlefield while being sleep-deprived, thus throwing off their aim, dulling their evasive abilities and causing fatigue.
Shigure got up from her seat, the chair scraping on the hard canteen floor and skidding back as she straightened up with a look on her face that made it clear that Shigure had resigned to her fate as she prepared to leave.
She prepared to dump her mostly untouched breakfast into the bin and place her tray in the tray return shelf, but Yuudachi was quick to stop Shigure by reaching down to pick up a piece of unagi meat from her plate.
The soy sauce was dripping off of the skin and hit the plate as Yuudachi playfully teased Shigure with the treat of being fed by her, all while holding the unagi meat over Shigure's plate and slowly making dabbing motions with the chopsticks to shake some of the soy sauce off of the unagi as she knew of Shigure's preference.
Shigure could only sigh upon seeing Yuudachi smiling innocently up at her, closing her eyes as she leaned in and opened her mouth to allow Yuudachi to feed her and allow herself to feel pampered in that instant.
Shigure thought about the storm that was to come, and how it was going to keep most of the ship girls indoors for the rest of the day.
Shigure liked the rain, preferring to observe the multitude of raindrops fall from the sky like tears and hit the windows, feeling as though the rain served to cleanse her of her worldly concerns and pain.
Most of the ship girls she knew didn't share the same sentiment, feeling that its occurrence in battle was something that hindered them in various ways.
This included throwing off their aim, drenching them from head to toe, reducing their field of vision and making it harder to acquire visual confirmation of the Abyssals, even with the help of their radar and made worse by the Abyssals' ability to submerge and surface at will.
All while the ambient temperature dropped several degrees, making things even harder for them as they had to burn more fuel to keep themselves warm, something that the Abyssals weren't subject to as they were created to be capable of existing and fighting in extremely cold environments and climates.
This ability allowed them to sail into and easily occupy territories that were located in extreme environments, which included the ocean floor, most of the ocean surrounding Northern Russia and Greenland and the North and South Poles, the temperature alone making it almost impossible for ship girls to enter.
But back to the present.
The 1st Fleet entered the harbor, standing on the platform that slowly lowered them into the ocean as the steel platform broke up to reveal intricate machinery underneath, securing the ship girl's feet and assembling the boat slippers of the respective ship classes around their feet.
After which the boat slippers tightened themselves snugly around the ship girl's feet like some sort of self-tying shoelace before the harbor walls that were now standing up behind them opened up to reveal their riggings and battle backpacks, weapons already secured on them.
The hanging mechanical claws that had folded up to be stored on the ceiling of the harbor had powered up, drills and claws creaking and whirring as they reached down and assembled their riggings for them.
The additional setup that had to be installed on their riggings and backpacks for them to sail safely into the storm was some sort of lightning rod, calculated to fit certain ship girls as its length was different for their respective ship classes.
A heavily insulated wire was connected to the lightning rod, led down their rigging and was held in place by an extra-insulated ring wrapped around their thigh to prevent the wire from flailing about, before being connected to their boat slippers to allow the deadly current to flow into the ocean safely without hurting the ship girl.
They checked their riggings to make sure they were in working order before the weapons rack was produced, displaying some smaller handheld cannons that the destroyers and cruisers preferred to manually wield, to which Shigure and Ayanami graciously helped themselves to two 12 Cm Single Gun Cannons that were to be wielded like pistols.
The 1st Fleet didn't take long to hit the ocean as Shigure heard the calm yet serious voice of Ooyodo filling her mind over the radio, the Coordinator relaying the situation, its development and the Admiral's instructions.
"The Abyssals have sent out a large fleet to assault the Izu Islands which, if they succeed in conquering, would be a little too close for comfort. They came from the South, which is why the bases in Eastern Kanto left this invasion to us to handle as it's not within their jurisdiction, although the Shimoda Naval Base has its fleets ready to be sent in at a moment's notice, as per usual with battles surrounding the Izu Islands. The Admiral predicted this attack, the Japanese Air Force being unable to deploy their planes to provide aerial support within the Safety Zone in the rain and our satellites being thrown off by the incoming storm. Their last reported location was somewhere near Aogashima Island, and you're to meet up with the 3rd Fleet of the Miura Naval Base along with the 2nd and 4th Fleet of the Tateyama Naval Base. Our 3rd Fleet will be with you shortly after you've engaged the Abyssals near Mikura Jima Island in the evening, and it'll be pouring by then. The viewing of the following video is mandatory for ship girls who equip the 'lightning rod' setup to enter a battle in less-than-ideal weather conditions. Please accept the torrent request."
The 1st Fleet stood outside the harbor and had their attention drawn by their HUD displaying the request to accept a torrent transmission request, Shigure complying as the video filled a portion of her vision in the format of a translucent computer window, allowing her to see where she was going in case she was moving while viewing the video.
An embarrassing collision occurring between ship girls due to the video blocking their vision was something that unfortunately happened in the past, in which the HUD display was quickly modified to allow some vision of where one was heading towards, as well as a choice to either reduce the window's size, minimize or simply close it.
Shigure revved her engines and began to move out as she saw Hiei taking the lead, the designated flagship of this mission as Admiral Haru, true to her word, had chosen Hiei to be the flagship this time.
In this battle where inter-fleet cooperation was important and this being their first major sortie, it was best to defer the leadership role to someone with experience, the video playing right before Shigure's eyes.
In the video, Akashi was standing in front of a projector that projected a blank screen with the words,
Lightning Rod Tutorial, and What to Do in a Thunderstorm
In black font as Akashi finished her drink, tipping the tequila shot over as she gulped down whatever was left of the drink, before hunching over quickly and gasping in ecstasy before flinging the glass cup somewhere off-screen, wiping her mouth on her sleeve as the tequila cup shattered somewhere where Shigure couldn't see.
Shigure sweat-dropped as her friend looked as if she wanted to be anywhere but here as Akashi straightened up and pointed back at the projector screen, giving a quick lesson about the anatomy of the ship girl.
"So, an introductory lesson before getting to the relevant part. The heart is in our rib-cage and pumps not only blood, but also fuel throughout the body which flows through the 'fuel vessel' to deliver it to the body along with the usual artery, vein and capillary blood vessel. This…"
The projector now changed to show a simplified cross-section of the ship girl body, showcasing the two hearts that they possessed, one to pump blood and fuel throughout their bodies and the other to burn fuel in order to power their ship girl modes.
They were obviously more complicated than the simple circles used to represent them here, but like Akashi said before, this wasn't a medical lecture, and they only needed to know the basics.
The diagram showcased three types of vessels running throughout the body, red for arteries and blue for veins much like human anatomical charts, but also had green lines branching out throughout their bodies to represent fuel vessels.
Akashi pointed and explained.
"As you can see here, you ship girls have four vessels that are the arteries, veins, capillaries and fuel vessels. Our second hearts are activated upon activating our ship girl modes, and we require various methods of heat regulation to maintain our body temperature."
Shigure nodded, noting the amount of coolant and heat regulation methods required to cool the heart and body down, remembering the advice of others that chilled fuel cans were important in maintaining their body temperature.
Some of the coolants were air intake via breathing, water intake that was mandatory to their survival, heat diffusion accomplished mostly by blood flow while sweat glands allowed them to regulate heat levels via sweat secretion.
Sleep was also essential to them, as it was likely when their bodies could run at minimum capacity to allow for the individual ship girl components to cool down to prevent overheating and inevitable damage.
"One thing to note is that the ship girl is not entirely powered by fuel, because a significant amount of energy that drives us comes from the soul, an intangible yet powerful power source within us all. The cells in your body, upon being fed oxygen via breathing, are also capable of breaking down fuel to power your ship girl modes in order to share the burden with your second heart. As to where the fuel is actually stored…"
The next slide showed the anatomy of a ship girl's chest, several cross-section shots revealing a few interesting details about their interiors, but what stood out to Shigure was the thick skin armor that blanketed and protected the highlighted green area that was within some sort of storage container within their chest.
And one called their breasts "fuel tanks" in ship girl porn, well, they weren't exactly wrong to call them that…
Akashi didn't even look fazed as she looked back and explained, with the look that non-verbally communicated the promise that it'll all make sense later.
"The fuel is stored within the breasts of the ship girl, protected by a very thick layer of organic armor which we colloquially call the 'breastplate'. Fuel is also stored in your boat slippers and riggings to power your boat slippers, making torpedoes all the more dangerous. The breastplate helps protect the fuel containers, most of which is located within the breasts of the larger ship classes, while the fuel of the destroyers are stored within their pectoral muscles at the cost of a smaller body frame and chest size as destroyers require the least amount of fuel to power. And to dispel a common misconception, even though breast size increases with ship class, an unnaturally large or small chest size has no proven correlation with increased or decreased fuel carrying capacity."
Shigure blushed upon hearing Akashi mention something like that unabashedly, but wrote it off as her being a doctor as she shook her head and continued the video.
The projector flickered as it changed slides again, and a more detailed diagram of the ship girl anatomy was shown as their vessels now possessed shut-off valves at varying intervals.
Light blue lines highlighted the brain, spinal cord and nervous system, Shigure surmising that the blue lines were used to highlight the nervous system and the various electric signals that were sent through them to move their bodies.
Akashi pointed behind her, explaining the diagram.
"There are small valves that regulate and sometimes restrict and redirect flow whenever needed, so when you lose an arm…"
The faceless ship girl was now missing an arm, blood and fuel leaking out of the bleeding stump before the fuel and blood flowing to the limb was restricted, and was instead redirected into some of the smaller side vessels to maintain the closed loop.
Shigure noticed that this was accomplished by said valves on the vessels that were marked out by small circles, the valves redirecting fuel and blood marked out with a "X" in the middle of the circular symbols to represent activation upon being used for restriction and redirection of fluid flow.
Akashi look self-assured, knowing the anatomy of a ship girl like the back of her hand since she didn't even need to look back as she explained.
"... the ship girl body uses small valves located throughout the body to regulate and restrict much of the flow to the specific limb, and redirects the flow into smaller vessels throughout our body to maintain the 'closed-loop' that our veins, arteries and fuel lines form throughout our body to prevent excessive buildup of pressure."
Shigure paused the video and nodded at Akashi's reasoning, one example being the vessels that flowed throughout their body in a closed loop.
If there was a leak, it had to be sealed to minimize fluid loss.
But doing so incorrectly would mean that pressure would start to build up and would end disastrously for them, while the rest of the body would suffer from the "open loop" that was the seal due to the lack of oxygenated blood and fuel flowing in.
Indeed, Shigure thought, the ship girl was a technological marvel, since not only did it use steel to recreate the feel of organic skin while retaining its protective capabilities, but was also partially powered by a seemingly intangible soul while being able to comprehend its own existence and make decisions for itself.
The ship girl was able to consume a moderate amount of fuel and steel to perform superhuman feats while adapting to setbacks and circumstances, created by an enigmatic race of engineers at the cost of a manageable amount of resources.
For a moment, Shigure wondered just what exactly were the Fairies, to be capable of accomplishing such insane engineering feats while possessing such small bodies.
Granted, the generally accepted theory was that they were originally humans in some world beyond our current one, and had been "transmogrified" somewhere along the way to become smaller in order to work with smaller parts and perform maintenance easily as their advanced, World War 2-inspired technology became miniaturized.
Their bodies had likely taken on the properties of ants, where they could lift objects up to thousands of times their weight due to their small size, although this was accomplished with cranes and forklifts to ensure safety.
The transmogrification also altered their vocal chords such that it was hard for them to communicate with humans in anything other than chirps and squeaks that only they could understand, the Fairies likely having programmed the ship girls to understand their seemingly-alien language that likely resembled something human at one point in time.
But as to where they actually came from, no one had an answer to that question.
Not even the Fairies themselves.
Shigure shook her head to clear her thoughts and continued the video, Akashi continuing on in her signature "bored lecturer" tone as she pointed behind her and explained.
"There's a lot of delicate machinery and fuel lines that transport highly flammable material, and since lightning can produce temperatures hotter than the sun for a fraction of a second, it stands to reason that it hurts. A lot. If a lightning bolt were to hit you on the head, the fuel in our bodies is mostly protected against spontaneous ship girl combustion."
The slide changed to show a GIF of a lightning bolt hitting the ship girl's head, and the fuel lines near the affected area instantly caught on fire and traveled down the fuel lines leading down the ship girl's head before the various micro-valves on the crown and neck of the ship girl shut off fuel flow to the head and stopped the spread of the fire, crosses appearing on them to indicate activation.
The lightning strike also caused the skull to be lit up as the ship girl was electrocuted, causing the nervous system to be affected as the connection between the spinal cord and brain stem was severed before the lightning bolt lit the spinal cord up like a Christmas tree, Shigure theorizing that this acted like a circuit breaker to prevent raw electricity from flowing directly into the ship girl's brain and causing irreparable damage.
Akashi was now getting serious as she described what could potentially happen to a ship girl should lightning strike them.
"The cerebrospinal fluid, or the liquid that fills the skull and keeps the brain suspended in your little head is designed to be an electrical insulator, so your steel skull getting fried does not equal instant death. The spinal cord disconnects itself from the brain stem the instant it determines that a lightning strike on the body is imminent to minimize or outright prevent damage to the brain. And when a lightning strike is imminent, the body shuts off all fuel vessels leading to our second heart and our fuel tanks, because if those goes up in flames and start an internal fire, it's going to get ugly. The major fuel vessels that lead to the rest of our bodies are instantly shut off via major shut-off valves when there is even a hint that a lightning strike is inevitable to prevent the possibility of a full-on internal explosion that sounds a little like…"
Akashi took both hands out of her pockets, both palms forming spheres as she held them up to her respectably-sized chest.
Her fingers ballooned while she brought her arms apart to mimic an explosion, puckering her lips to make a,
"BBWWWWOOOSSSHHHHHH"
Noise to drive the point home, before her expression flat-lined as she resumed her signature bored look while sliding her hands back into her skirt pocket before elaborating.
"Well, if the Lightning Protection System protects you like it should, you'd only be paralyzed as your nervous system's been overloaded, your hair'd be on fire, you can't move or speak, but you'll still be aware of your situation. You can't feel anything, and you won't be able to move your body because your spinal cord's been forcibly disconnected from your brain stem. You'll also suffer from lots of harsh burns, so tough luck. And there'll be a lot of screaming, though all of it'll be from your comrades as they watch you fall and 'die'. Symptoms include unconsciousness, ruptured vessels and ear drums, electric burns on the skin and maybe a heart attack, and that's just the not-so-bad news."
She hand-waved these issues aside whilst commenting with absolute confidence.
"Well, after your friends bring you back to the docks, you'll be grounded with a week of hospitalization, and that's not counting the next few weeks of physical rehabilitation to treat symptoms that may include tremors, sleep disturbances, jerky movements and potential electrical surges that cause dizziness. These are amongst a myriad of symptoms that might persist after a lightning strike. This problem arose back in the day, and to alleviate this problem, we had a simple mechanism installed on your riggings. The lightning rod provides a safe and insulated path to divert the lightning harmlessly into the ground. The wires are insulated, and the plastic-ring that you wear around your thigh is also insulated with rubber to protect you, allowing the electricity to run down the wire into the ocean without ever coming into contact with the ship girl."
Shigure could see the projected ship girl's anatomy being reset as the ship girl was now protected by a lightning rod that provided an umbrella-shaped protective area around the ship girl as the lightning was now flowing into the lightning rod, down an insulated wire that was protected from the ship girl's body, and flowed into a rod installed in the ship girl's boat slipper to allow the current to flow into the ocean harmlessly.
"Your bodies…"
Akashi pointed at the camera, and seemingly to Shigure as she continued describing the ship girl's body and the near-miraculous feats it could achieve.
" … are designed to be protected against moderately powerful EMP strikes in case a lightning that strikes somewhere next to you potentially throws up electrostatic interference at a crucial moment, since it's going to hit the lightning rod above your head. But don't count on the EMP shielding to offer you protection from the lightning bolt itself. The lightning rod sticks out like a sore thumb for the Abyssals to shoot, so if it gets shot off, retreat or risk becoming a barbecued ship girl. Finally, if someone does get struck unconscious by lightning, no matter how bad it looks, just dunk her body into the ocean or whatever to extinguish the flames on her body and bring her back to us. It's almost impossible for a ship girl to sink from a lightning strike, and any symptoms after being struck can be healed."
Akashi looked pretty certain of the claim that she made, and Shigure stopped the video upon hearing that to agree with her.
If the ship girl's body was as powerful as was advertised, then Shigure could understand that something as deadly as lightning likely wasn't going to kill a ship girl permanently, as their bodies were designed with numerous fail safes to prevent that from occurring, some examples being the lightning rod, the shut-off valves, and even the ability to allow the spinal cord to uncouple itself from the brain stem to act as a circuit breaker.
But as Shigure thought about the rain that brought forth the thunderstorm, she couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable about the upcoming battle.
Oh, it wasn't her teammates that she was worried about.
But recently, she had felt as if a lot of things had been going on in the base without her knowledge, the Abyssals responding in kind by sending this large fleet of Abyssals to attack them.
Shigure didn't like it when she felt as if she was trapped in a large machination of schemes and sorties, feeling like a life raft in a thunderstorm and being at the mercy of the rain, wind and waves.
This sortie also seemed to be part of a larger plan, as the incoming storm that swept in quickly and threatened to soak them all also seemed to conceal the plans of the Admiral just as well as it did the Abyssals as they moved their pieces on the chessboard that was the Pacific war theater.
She wasn't comfortable with the fact that Admiral Haru sortied the 1st Fleet in lieu of the 2nd Fleet potentially because they were less-experienced and might be seen as expandable compared to the battle-hardened 2nd Fleet.
Shigure didn't like feeling as if she was sent to the slaughter simply because they were a less-experienced fleet, had less valuable members compared to other fleets and might be deemed expandable in the larger scope of things.
And it wasn't Admiral Haru's fault that she had to keep her plans confidential, Shigure surmising that Aoba's recent disappearance that had Shigure riled up for a few days before finding her note saying that she'd be out for a month was obviously related to Akashi's increasingly busy schedule and Admiral Haru planning for something big that loomed on the horizon.
Shigure disliked it when she didn't know about things that were going on around her, and being reincarnated into a humanoid body meant that she was capable of finding things out for herself and couldn't accept ignorance as an excuse.
Her sisters were happy to live in blissful ignorance, Yuudachi and Murasame being very fond of this.
Even though Yuudachi was part of the 2nd Fleet, Shigure learnt from her that she was actually a recent addition to the 2nd Fleet.
Right now, she was rather naive and innocent compared to the more seasoned members of her fleet.
And to Shigure, Yuudachi was something of a bright spot of hope and happiness for her, Shigure hearing good things about her sister like the fact that she got along well with all the members of her fleet.
She got along with Hatsushimo as they were both destroyers with Kai Ni remodels, Ryuujou sharing her exuberant and outgoing personality and often chatted with her.
She liked being around Sendai due to their mutual love for night battles, and she often accepted Shimakaze's challenges wholeheartedly while Furutaka looked after them all as a kind and motherly ship girl.
She liked ship girls like Yuudachi, especially so if they were her sisters.
But it wasn't like her to live in the darkness that was ignorance, especially when said ignorance could put herself and her friends at great risk in battle.
She had read up on mankind's gruesome history of warfare, and had seen how far people would go in order to win a war, in which sending an entire Company to their deaths to serve as nothing but a distraction was nowhere near the top of that list.
She never wanted any of her friends to have to suffer through that and sink, this admittedly irrational fear stemming from her turbulent past and fueling her unquenchable desire to know about everything there was to know about this war.
She thought about Admiral Haru, and how despite being kind and smart enough to lead her ship girls on a crusade against the Abyssals for ten years, she had to become a leader who had to do everything cloak-and-dagger while never revealing her plans to everyone to protect her ship girls and to prevent knowledge from leaking out to the Abyssals.
But it was obvious that her Admiral genuinely cared about them and always had their best interests in mind, and didn't mind pushing people around to get her way so long as it didn't compromise the safety of any ship girls.
She tried her best to accompany and help them whenever she could, and Shigure could see that she hung out with anyone and everyone to try and help them whenever they encountered problems.
She always wanted to try and get to know everyone better, chatting with some of the other ship girls whenever she was on her breaks.
Shigure respected the Admiral and admired how she often went above and beyond the call of duty when it came to anything that involved her girls, and if that meant not telling her ship girls what her full plan was to keep them safe, that was something she could overlook for the sake of the base.
She understood that part of being a soldier was to trust her superiors, and for all the distrust and dislike of the cloak-and-dagger habit that mankind easily slipped back into in wartime, Admiral Haru presented herself as an Admiral who'd rather kill herself than give her ship girls suicidal orders and regard them all as pawns to be sacrificed needlessly.
And even though she couldn't bring herself to fully trust her Admiral, she could at least bring herself to try and act on good faith and sortie without constantly questioning Admiral Haru's orders.
Shigure looked to her teammates and, after thinking about the situation at hand, asked Ayanami about the Abyssals' movement patterns and why they were so conspicuous in their movements despite their ability to submerge to hide their movements.
"Umm, Ayanami, why is it that the Abyssals don't simply submerge and go everywhere while staying underwater, instead of sailing on the ocean surface and allowing us to spot them?"
Ayanami perked up upon finding something to pass the time while sailing towards their AO to meet up with ship girls from other bases, remembering what she had learnt while attending her classes and repeating them as they sailed towards the horizon which now had dark and sinister clouds blotting out the sky, Shigure remembering that the rain was estimated to occur after 4 p.m., by which time they'd be near Mikura Jima Island to engage the Abyssals.
"Well, it's got more to do with their armor getting in the way. Think of the Ru-Class battleship, and her column of cannons stacked atop each other."
Shigure, having engaged the Abyssal battleship before, listened to the Ayanami-Class destroyer as she imagined the monochrome Abyssal.
"Their form allows them to fight like us on the surface, and we theorize that their armaments can transform into something resembling underwater jet skis to traverse the ocean, but there's no getting around the fact that that's two very clunky steel columns she's carrying. Most of them are registered as 'Fast', but that only counts when they're on the ocean surface, because the arcane design of their weapons cause a lot of fluid resistance when underwater. Well, not that it matters, since we can't shoot at them after they've submerged, so their slow speed while underwater is a tolerated weakness.
But if they need to get around quickly, they usually surface and sail normally.
They often dive to either be stealthy and evade most forms of detection, or as a quick means of escape to go where not even submarines can touch them."
Shigure nodded, understanding a little bit more about the enemies that they faced off against.
The Abyssal body was capable of many things, but their armored skin weighed them down a fair bit, and add that to the weapons that they had to carry around to fight the ship girls, it was no wonder that they were so slow underwater.
But they were essentially untouchable after submerging, so it wasn't as if they needed to make a quick getaway even after diving deep enough to escape, which meant that the strange designs of their weapons were tolerated.
Funnily enough, Shigure thought, perhaps underwater, the only ones who were still able to retain their original speed were the destroyers, whose tubular and somewhat streamlined appearance allowed them to navigate through the water like torpedoes, given that their means of propulsion was located near the rear.
Shigure thought about the next question before asking Ayanami again.
"What are the Abyssal Princesses? I mean, they're stronger than battleships, so I was wondering what they were like, to be capable of engaging entire fleets alone?"
Ayanami deflated as soon as she heard about the Princesses, sadly shrugging as she was too embarrassed to meet Shigure's eyes due to her lack of answers.
"I'm not really sure, sorry. Some say that they're born of an accumulation of hatred and regret within fallen ship girls. Others say that they're the next phase of Abyssal 'evolution', where they use their limitless resources to create a class of Abyssals that far outclass anything we can ever hope to create, even with the help of the Fairies."
Ayanami shrugged as she shot an apologetic look towards the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer, Shigure nodding in understanding as she knew that nothing was certain about the Abyssals, the Princesses even more so, who defied the meta by being in a class all of their own.
But Ayanami's look softened, seeing a chance to get to know the destroyer better, not just as a comrade but also as a friend, looking warm and affable as she inquired about how her day went.
"So, how's your day so far, Shigure-san?"
Shigure's face darkened at that, bleakly replying,
"I had a good day so far, but all I know is that it's only going to get worse."
Ayanami had a lone sweat drop roll down the side of her cheek, understanding that she had stepped on a conversational landmine as she tried her best to recover and change the topic of conversation.
"U-Umm, well then, may I ask, what were you thinking about to lead you to ask me those questions?"
Shigure sighed, choosing to indulge in her teammate by answering truthfully.
"I was thinking about the Admiral and how she hides her plans, despite her best attempts to try and be open and transparent with us."
Shigure looked away and inhaled as she prepared to share her thoughts to allow the Ayanami-Class destroyer to give her opinion on things.
"I know that people higher up the chain of command can't always reveal their hand, even to their allies. And I like Admiral Haru, I really do. But unless I know everything, I can never truly bring myself to put my life, and the lives of my friends in her hands without second-guessing her. Right now, I can trust her enough to follow her orders without constantly questioning her true motives."
Shigure pointed to the dark clouds that were almost overhead now, threatening to unleash their wrath later in the afternoon as sunlight failed to penetrate the dark and heavy cloud masses, Shigure explaining herself.
"See this storm? If it were a less scrupulous Admiral, I'd have been worried if we were just the fleet that was sent into this storm to soften up the enemy, or be used as a mere diversion for her true objectives. Now I know that Admiral Haru isn't that kind of person…"
Shigure raised a hand to try and placate her fellow destroyer as Ayanami seemed eager to try and speak up in their Admiral's defense, Shigure continuing on without missing a beat.
" … but you never know when Admiral Haru might be forced to resort to such tactics."
Shigure lowered her head as she replied, the dark clouds above them stretching out beyond the horizon, blanketing the sky before them and threatening to engulf the ship girls in a powerful downpour.
"I know that the Admiral means well, and has our best interests in mind. But I often think that one day, the Admiral is going to have to use some morally ambiguous tactic that's going to have to use some of us as bait. And despite her love for us, she has to do it in order to ensure a victory for everyone involved. I know I can't blame her…"
Shigure looked to Ayanami, a gut-wrenching feeling welling up in her chest and threatening to tear her tender heart apart as she tried her best not to choke upon uttering the next line, feeling immensely guilty for even thinking like this.
" … but is it wrong of me to question every choice she makes, if only for the sake of ensuring the safety of my teammates?"
Ayanami looked crestfallen upon hearing that, looking down at her boat slippers as she tried her best to counter Shigure's words, watching the ocean zip by beneath her feet as her boat slippers pushed her on, finally attempting a counter-argument as she calmly expressed herself.
"I know that the Admiral may eventually have to do that. In fact, she may have been forced to use that tactic a few times in the past. But I know that it'll be worth it."
Ayanami looked right into Shigure's eyes, commanding her full attention as she frankly expressed her opinion regarding Shigure's dilemma.
"Being an Admiral is hard. Being one who strives to win naval engagements while aiming not to lose a single ship, even more so. Admiral Haru hates the fact that she can't join us out on the field, and to her, it just hurts her even more when she has to leave things up to us despite having done everything in her power to ensure that we have the highest chance of coming home safely."
"But like this sortie, it seems as if we're simply pieces on a board to be used and moved at a whim. I'm afraid that we may not be deemed as valuable as the 3rd or 2nd Fleet, which may be why we were sent to the front lines first."
"But if we weren't up to the task, would she have even bothered wasting her resources to sortie us?"
Shigure's blinked as she tried to comprehend Ayanami's words while Ayanami slowly looked away and explained herself.
"If she had no faith in our abilities, we wouldn't have been sent out at all. Besides, if the opponent was too tough for us, she could have easily chosen to sortie the 2nd Fleet or any of the other six fleets in Yokosuka. You may not have noticed since you were so engrossed in watching the video, but Ooyodo's update on the situation was that the enemy fleets consisted of destroyers, cruisers and only one battleship. They intend to make up for their lack of firepower with numbers, and Admiral Haru must've decided that we can win this battle with the help of allied fleets from neighboring bases. The Admiral must've deemed us strong enough to hold our own in battle due to our successful first sortie, but require more field experience. It doesn't hurt that we're backed up by not just the 3rd Fleet, but also three allied fleets from two neighboring bases. While it's true that the Admiral may have some ulterior motive or master plan in mind, I don't think it's our business to think too much and tell the Admiral how to do her job, not when we can't see the bigger picture like she can. And in this war, it's folly, even bordering on insanity, to even consider throwing away an entire fleet as easily as you described, even if it's justified."
Ayanami, now fully invested in the conversation, tried her best to convince Shigure of the Admiral's way of doing things.
"I will do my best to understand the choices that Admiral Haru makes, because the Admiral will have considered all options beforehand before making her decisions. She will sortie the fleet that not only has the greatest odds of surviving, but can stand to learn something in battle. That's the Admiral Haru I know, and that's the Admiral that I chose to believe in."
Ayanami seemed satisfied with her own answer, and Shigure, having considered the Admiral's behavior and love for them, nodded as she conceded the point, although she still wanted to know what went on behind the scenes.
She wanted to know about Admiral Haru's situation and learn to see the bigger picture, but that was a privilege that she wasn't entitled to simply because she wasn't strong enough.
Even if she learnt of them now, it'd make her an easy intelligence target to capture and interrogate, and all the luck in the world wouldn't save her from being the weakest leak in the intelligence network to be exploited and possibly tortured for information.
She had to become stronger in order to progress.
It didn't matter if she had to expand all her energy to achieve this goal.
She had the potential to become a great and powerful ship girl, and she had a responsibility to fulfill said potential and use it to defend everyone and herself.
And that was why she had to put in all of her effort into improving herself by participating in as many sorties as possible.