The destroyers that were warding off the destroyers and light cruisers had been firing off rounds and torpedoes at the Abyssals for about ten minutes, and although things could have been better, all of them were still in one piece as they had sunk a total of five Abyssals so far, two by Shigure, two by Kasumi, and one by the combined efforts of Wakaba and Umikaze.
But their attention shifted as an urgent radio transmission was made by the light carriers that were in charge of communications, Junyou's voice materializing inside Shigure's head.
But this time, it was urgent as Junyou's voice sounded legitimately worried about the strange development that she was about to share with them.
"Yo, we got word from the sailors on the islands! They thought that it was a mistake, but they've apparently detected an extremely large Unidentified Underwater Object on their sonar. It just popped up on the bottom of the ocean, and our boys can't for the life of them figure out what it is. So keep a lookout, yeah?"
Kasumi looking enraged by the seemingly-incompetent sailors that were tasked with monitoring the oceans and the enemies that lurked beneath the surface, a vein popping up on her temple as she barely restrained herself while screaming into the radio.
"And what the fuck is that 'Unidentified' part, huh?! 'The fuck we paying them and risking our necks out here for if they can't identify something that big?!"
Umikaze tried calming the Asashio-Class destroyer down while wiping the rainwater off of her face, all while Shigure and Wakaba watched over the duo as Shigure heard her sister ship plead with Kasumi.
"W-Well, owing to the bad weather and Abyssal presence, it isn't out of the question if they can't identify it. But Junyou-san, is it enemy reinforcements that are inbound? If so, then we may have to consider a tactical retreat…"
But Junyou responded, likely carrying over the assurance of the inland sailors that were protected from the weather and the firefight, stating.
"Nah, man. A fleet is made up of a cluster of dots. Whatever this thing is, it's a solid mass."
Wakaba shot at another destroyer that flew out of the relative safety of the ocean to shoot at the ship girls, moving across the air like a flying fish until interrupted by Wakaba's cannon fire.
The Ha-Class, looking like a cross between a deformed human skull and a horizontal cone jutting out behind it with its exoskeleton painted jet black, had a lone green-colored eye looking forward and had a deformed smile on its hideous face as the "skull" was compressed horizontally to allow the jaw to be stretched out vertically in an uncannily creepy manner.
Wakaba's cannon impacted the Ha-Class's right flank as it attempted to leap from wave to wave while trying to spot a good opportunity to fire at them, to which Wakaba thankfully responded quickly, the destroyer making sure that the round hit and injured the screeching Abyssal before turning back to ask.
"Do you think it might be a whale that's passing by? I mean, it's not out of the question, right?"
Kasumi raised her left hand's index finger to try and shout at her, before Umikaze put a reassuring arm on her shoulder and caused her to hold her tongue as Umikaze shook her head, Junyou replying despondently.
"No, though things would be so much simpler for us if it was indeed a whale. It had some sort of stealth coating or field to hide its presence until it reached Hachijo Island, which means that it's the Abyssals trying something funny. Whatever's coming our way… It's got a strong signature and is far larger than any Princess."
Everyone's breath stopped upon hearing that, the destroyers looking at each other in mild panic.
Even Kasumi was silenced by the news, and her face softened to reveal temporary panic and genuine fear as she asked.
"Well then, what the fuck are we still doing here? Shouldn't we call for reinforcements?"
Junyou replied, now sounding a little more sure about herself.
"Well, when it was confirmed that this battle wasn't all that it seemed and when this new Abyssal signature popped up out of nowhere, we immediately radioed in for the Shimoda Naval Base to provide reinforcements. They're sailing towards Mikura Jima Island as we speak, but we need to hold the fort for about thirty minutes before their fastest fleets get here. But the Unidentified signature's been hugging the ocean floor to evade our sonar, we're sure that it left Hachijo Island a while ago and may be trying to skirt around our battlefield. So be careful."
Shigure nodded to no one in particular, disengaging the radio as she heard Kasumi grumble under her breath, Umikaze attempting to pacify her with reassuring words, Shigure thinking about what the Abyssals were up to.
But Wakaba let out a tch and shouted to the destroyers huddled next to each other in the rain, announcing.
"Oi, the Abyssals are grouping up and trying to bum-rush our position! If you two are done over there, ready up! They're coming!"
Kasumi, Shigure and Umikaze professionally assumed battle stances as the Abyssals grouped up in an all-or-nothing attack to increase their odds of success.
They didn't take any chances as they swam underwater this time, not allowing them the chance to take pot shots at them.
But Shigure and company were ready to welcome them, Shigure resting their finger on the trigger as she felt herself twitching in anticipation, having already blocked out the waves and the rain in her mind.
All other thoughts, previously welcomed in peacetime, were now shut out as Shigure prepared to pull the trigger.
All that was left in her mind was killing the Abyssals and protecting her comrades.
As two Abyssal I-Class destroyers leapt out of the water, Shigure and Kasumi instinctively shot them down.
But one of the I-Class destroyers managed to weather the round that was emptied into its dark exoskeleton instead of its belly or bionic eye, Shigure turning as she feared that the Abyssal was going to fire at Umikaze, who was standing behind the two destroyers that were positioned at the vanguard and had her guard slightly down.
But she saw the Hatsuharu-Class destroyer moving in, the bottom of her blazer flaring up behind her as Wakaba shoulder-slammed the damaged Abyssal and inadvertently threw off its aim at the last second, the round breezing past Umikaze's hair and causing Shigure's sister to freeze up from her brush with death.
Shigure exhaled upon seeing Wakaba intervening and saving her sister, having felt her heart stop metaphorically for a second as she was distracted by the possibility of losing her sister ship.
But she felt something occur behind her, someone tackling her to the ground as two cannon rounds were fired off at close range above them, the frigid seawater drenching Shigure's uniform and body as she hit the ocean.
She sputtered as she attempted to spit out the salty seawater that went in her mouth, blinking the rainwater out of her eyes as a blurry Kasumi stood above her, smoking barrel in hand as she held Shigure down.
And upon surveying her rainy surroundings, she saw the corpse of a He-Class destroyer quickly sink back into the ocean.
It wasn't moving anymore as she surmised that Kasumi, right before the He-Class destroyer surfaced and tried to shoot at her, tackled Shigure onto the ocean and emptied a shell into the He-Class's soft underside, thereby killing it while protecting Shigure.
Kasumi had her brows creased, and she was now pretty much engulfed in Abyssal blood, cringing as she tried to blink the blood and rainwater out of her eyes as she chided, pushing herself off of the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer.
"Come on! Don't get distracted now!"
Shigure nodded, pushing herself back up as she turned to see Wakaba shoot at a Ho-Class light cruiser that had been observing the battle, choosing to reveal itself at the last second as it engaged in a fierce firefight with Wakaba while Umikaze provided cover fire.
And that left them both open from the bottom as they were likely too distracted to notice something swimming up beneath them.
Shigure attempted to burst into an all-out sprint, but was easily outpaced by a worried Kasumi who decided to use her boost gauge to reach Wakaba, barreling down the ocean and leaving a wide wake behind her as Shigure struggled to keep up in the rain.
The Asashio-Class destroyer slapped her left palm on Wakaba's rigging, instantly pulling her back while putting her weight on her left boat slipper and causing the both of them to tip over.
Just before an I-Class destroyer burst out of the ocean, throwing up a significant amount of seawater as the Abyssal had its steel barrel protruding out of its jaw and aimed it upwards, exactly where Wakaba's face previously was.
If Kasumi had acted a second later, the I-Class Abyssal likely would have blasted off Wakaba's face and likely killed her for good.
Shigure, seeing that Umikaze was torn between shooting at the Abyssal light cruiser who was more of a credible threat, or the airborne I-Class that had its sneak attack attempt foiled at the last second and was now vulnerable, shouted to her sister ship as she sprinted towards her.
"UMIKAZE! DISTRACT THE LIGHT CRUISER!"
Just as Shigure put her weight onto her boat slippers and launched herself into the air while flipping her body a little so that her legs, in a squatting position, would meet the I-Class destroyer.
The world slowed down in Shigure's mind due to the adrenaline coursing through her body and temporarily accelerating her perception of time, thereby allowing her to perceive everything faster.
She could see beyond the millions of individual raindrops to spot the Ho-Class light cruiser off in the distance, and the I-Class destroyer that was starting to drop back into the ocean, its steel barrel now retracted as it started orientating itself downwards.
Kasumi and Wakaba were lying on the ocean floor, Wakaba slipping on the mixture of blood and rainwater that soaked the Asashio-Class destroyer, Umikaze readying her dual Quadruple Torpedo launchers as she held up her handheld 12.7 Twin-Gun Cannon and looked down its sights.
She propelled her boat slippers into the exoskeleton of the still-airborne I-Class that was descending into the ocean, earning a metallic screech from the Abyssal destroyer as its armor cracked underneath the force of the dropkick behind the relatively sharp undersides of her boat slipper, being displaced by Shigure's kick as it flew towards the confused Ho-Class.
The Ho-Class caught the I-Class with its pale and muscular arms, but in doing so, had left itself vulnerable as Umikaze unleashed her torpedoes and two cannon rounds in the general direction of the two Abyssals.
Shigure, despite being dunked in seawater that soaked her already-drenched body, didn't allow herself a moment to relax as she swung her legs about in a windmill motion while firing off a few torpedoes and snapped her body to the side such that her body would point in the direction of the Abyssal duo, ending up in a prone position on the ocean surface.
She readied her two backpack cannons, which could be aimed and adjusted to allow Shigure to fire from both shoulders, but were now pointed parallel to her body and was aimed at the Abyssal duo that was starting to move away from each other and away from the incoming salvo, hearing the edge in her voice as she gave an order to the Fairies that manned her backpack cannons.
"FIRE!"
The two cannons roared beside her ears as her view was obstructed by twin fireballs, one erupting from each barrel at close proximity to her face as she saw the salvo of torpedoes and shells hit both its intended targets.
Umikaze's torpedo salvo, primarily aimed at the Abyssal light cruiser, caused an explosion as the torpedoes detonated right underneath the Ho-Class's main body and instantly crippled it, allowing the two cannon shells from Shigure's backpack cannon to impact it on the steel helmet.
This caused its arms to flail about uselessly as the enlarged jaw on its hull started gurgling while making ungodly screeching sounds due to the pain, before it failed to receive any more signals from the brain and its limbs fell lifelessly, fingers still twitching in a vain attempt to defend itself as it was in its death throes.
And as for Shigure's torpedo salvo, she aimed it at the fleeing I-Class, blowing the destroyer up instantly as two of her three torpedoes impacted the injured flank of the I-Class's exoskeleton and instantly killed it in a majestic, explosive fireball.
Shigure laid prone on the ocean surface as she let the adrenaline wear off, feeling the crests of the ocean hit her body and hearing the whisper of the wind that thankfully died down a little compared to the shrieking howls that the winds produced when the storm first started.
She felt the harsh raindrops hit her skin, hair and school uniform as she pushed herself up, feeling a little thankful that the rain was here to wash the blood away, observing as the flaming corpses of the two Abyssals were swallowed by the waves and the rain as they both sank.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, instantly stiffening as her head whirled around to address the perceived threat, but was met with the relieved face of Umikaze, her gloved arm on her shoulder as she addressed Shigure in a spent voice.
"Well done, Shigure. That last move was probably worthy of an MVP play, since you killed two Abyssals with it."
Shigure shook her head, Kasumi and Wakaba sailing towards them as she corrected her sister in a patient yet equally tired tone.
"No, we won as a result of our combined efforts. Kasumi and I saved each other's lives, and Wakaba saved yours.
We're still here because of each other, Umikaze."
Kasumi piped up, now fully respecting Shigure's skill as she noted something.
"Maa, Shigure, I know that you were proud of that drop kick, but I gotta say, blue and white stripes suit you pretty well."
Shigure looked confused as Wakaba and Umikaze started coughing into their fists while their cheeks took on a slight red tinge.
It took a good ten seconds for Shigure, standing out in the cold drizzling rain while wondering what the Asashio-Class destroyer meant before she connected the dots in her mind, instinctively pressing down on her skirt and bringing her thighs together, feeling the blood rush to her face and heat her face up despite the chilly ambient temperature, Shigure sputtering.
"Y-Y-You saw?!"
Kasumi blanched at the insinuation, retorting indignantly as a vein popped up on her temple.
"Yeah?! Hey, I'm not the one who goes around in a skirt and drop-kicks Abyssals left and right, so it's not my fault if I caught a glimpse of what you were wearing underneath, alright?!"
Wakaba tried to defuse the situation by introducing a good solution to Shigure, seeing that ship girls often wore skirts or dresses into battle.
"S-Shigure-san, if you're the kind to go kicking and flipping about, I believe it's best if you wear exercise shorts or spats in the future to prevent such incidents, alright?"
And Umikaze placed a comforting hand on Shigure's shoulder, trying her best to comfort her sister by encouraging.
"Shigure, it's alright. If it makes you feel any better, I can show you mine as compensation…"
Umikaze, her blushing face contrasting with her snow-white hair, lifted her skirt suggestively as she offered an extremely shady solution, causing Shigure to blush even harder, her face now slightly luminescent as she sputtered incoherently at the risque suggestion, now at a loss for words.
But an incoming transmission came in from Junyou, an anxious tone in her voice as she called out into the wireless radio.
"Hey, girls?! The thing's here, and whatever it is, it's headed your way!
We don't know what it is since it doesn't match any known Abyssal signatures, and it's travelling underwater, so we can't stop its movements! Watch out!"
Shigure and the other destroyers snapped to attention, each one of them looking in a different direction while paying extra attention to their sonars, trying to pick up anything that might reveal an unknown presence beneath them.
And after three minutes of focused and tense silence, where the destroyers said nothing to each other for fear of distracting themselves from the underwater threat, Shigure noticed something rising up from the depths.
Shigure's order to her Fairies to try and enhance the blip on her sonar failed as the unknown Abyssal signature was still too deep underwater, and Umikaze was the first one to state the obvious as she asked hesitantly.
"Um… Are you all getting what I'm getting?
Because it seems that there's something in the depths, and it's large…"
Kasumi uttered under her breath,
"No shit, Sherlock…"
Shigure cringed at the language Kasumi used to address her sister ship, but it didn't take a linguistics expert to hear the worried tone in Kasumi's voice, Shigure chalking it up to frayed nerves and let the whole thing go in favor of focusing on the matter at hand.
Mainly, whatever was on their sonar.
Shigure hadn't met an Abyssal Princess, but unless they were the size of battleships, she had no idea what the hell that was on her sonar.
Wait a second…
The unknown signature wasn't travelling directly beneath them as it was about thirty meters to their left, although that was still a little too close for comfort as Wakaba disbelievingly sputtered, utterly confused as to what was approaching them.
"It's the size of a battleship! I don't think any Abyssals are that big, right? Right?!"
Shigure looked to Kasumi, politely asking the Asashio-Class destroyer in a tone that demanded a simple answer.
"Do we hold our position?"
Kasumi looked confused and even a little afraid, but she finally shook her head to clear her thoughts as she turned to her teammates and addressed them seriously.
"We move a little closer to the main formation to tighten our defense, but we defend the left flank, no matter what. We're not going to get spooked and run away with our tail between our legs, no matter what the Abyssals throw at us."
Shigure nodded along with Wakaba and Umikaze, before they noticed the slightly accelerated pace at which the unidentified signature was rising, clearly harboring an Abyssal signature as it was a red blot on her sonar.
But as Shigure and company started retreating to where the battleships and light carriers were, Shigure piped up and asked something that had been on her mind for a while.
"Umm guys… If it's the size of a battleship, do you think it might actually be a battleship?"
The other destroyers looked at her with confused expressions, trying their best to wrap their minds around the thought of an actual warship being used against ship girls, but their attention was distracted by the unknown signature moving a little closer to them and was about to surface, Kasumi shouting out,
"Watch out!"
A large volume of seawater was displaced before whatever it was emerged, drenching them all as Shigure and company used both arms to shield themselves from the titanic vessel surfacing like a submarine as well as the extremely rough waves that were caused by its appearance, the choppy waves shifting their balance about like a roller coaster ride.
Shigure couldn't hear Wakaba's scream or Umikaze's surprised shriek, because all she could hear was the extremely loud splash of seawater hitting her like a large tidal wave, and could only focus on keeping her balance as the disturbed waves threw them about and threatened to knock her over, something that could prove to be fatal in battle.
Out of desperation, genuine fear and confusion at what the hell was going on anymore, Shigure tried to shake the seawater out of her eyes and look at what stood before them, barely noting Umikaze falling forward while Kasumi fell on her bum.
Shigure looked at the enemy vessel before them, the colossal structure blocking some of the rain due to its sheer size.
She was greeted by a familiar Abyssal-black steel wall, which confused Shigure as it looked impenetrable and towered over them all as Shigure could spot numerous square-shaped plates spaced out evenly on the steel wall.
But the destroyers all winced as they heard a high-pitched mechanical whirring as though several powerful motors were being fired up from within, and a booming horn was blasted throughout the entire battlefield, causing Shigure and company to cover their ears from being in such close proximity to the ominous moan of death.
Shigure tried to keep her eyes on the threat as she looked up, observing the superstructure as it lit up like a Christmas tree in neon blue stripes across its walls.
This allowed Shigure to spot the many machine guns being illuminated, as in actual machine guns being readied by droves of Abyssals that were scrambling out of the superstructure, pointing their secondary guns and Anti-Air machine guns towards them.
Shigure's eyes had adjusted to the sudden plunge into relative darkness, barely making out big white letters on the hull and identifying the mysterious Abyssal's name before choking on her spit and freezing up from recognizing the name.
Abyssal Aviation Battleship The Flying Dutchman
And with a flash of lightning that streaked across the dark clouds as the wind started picking up again, Shigure, shielding her eyes from the rain, paled and felt her heart stop upon seeing what the square plates were.
They were gun-ports.
They were being winded up like garage doors to reveal life-sized 35.6 Cm and 14 Cm Cannons extruding out of the ship's hull, forming a menacing sight just from their size alone.
And they were all pointed in their direction.