Shimakaze led Shigure up the mountain where they had previously raced, having left her Rensouhou-chan all behind with Houshou who had wordlessly understood Shimakaze's intentions and accepted her request without any fuss.
It was nighttime, and the trees that surrounded Shigure and Shimakaze stood silently at a distance and kept silent in the presence of the two destroyers as they walked up the path that led up the hill of the Yokosuka Naval Base, which led to the graveyard that was located in the small forest located on the outskirts of the base.
It was still located within the base and was available to those who wanted to pay their respects, but was located in a location where their tombstones would be shielded from the elements by the tall and immovable trees that formed a defensive perimeter and kept vigil over them, even in death.
The trees provided ample cover from the weather at the expense of the forest air being rather humid and thick along with the musky smell of the forest, and the fact that it was nighttime didn't help matters much as the forest looked menacing with its tall trees overshadowing them and blotting out the moon and stars.
There were crickets chirping and leaves rustling, but the darkness that overshadowed them for the majority of the journey only served to unnerve Shigure, the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer trying to regulate her breathing and control her heartbeat as she scanned her surroundings nervously.
In light of recent traumatizing events, Shigure told herself that there was nothing to fear despite understanding the cause of this irrational terror, Shimakaze picking up on her fear and anxiety as well as the beads of sweat rolling down her face as she stopped beneath a steel lamppost and turned to ask.
"Are you alright, Shigure? You don't look too good..."
Shigure nodded a little too quickly, swallowing as she took the time to catch her breath and stabilize her heartbeat, having finished her dinner and really didn't wish to throw up while in the company of another ship girl, replying weakly.
"I'm alright. It's just that, you know… The Flying Dutchman and everything..."
Shimakaze's eyes widened and she lowered her head apologetically, but kept her voice steady as she tried to comfort the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer.
"Don't worry. You do know that we're safe on land, right?"
Shimakaze sighed and scratched her head, trying to make things easier for the dark-haired destroyer that had been through quite a lot in the past week, suggesting.
"How about we get this over with and head back? I want to tell you everything, but if you're still experiencing the fallout of Mikura Jima Island, I can—"
"No."
Shigure gulped, and she raised her hand to clench at the uniform that covered her chest as she steeled her gaze and looked up, the street light that shone down on her casting a shadow over her face and further drove home the point that she was serious about this.
"Let's go."
Shimakaze raised an eyebrow at Shigure's stubbornness, but turned without looking back and continued their little trek.
They walked off the main path and onto an unremarkable dirt path after 10 minutes of brisk walking, the compressed earth flanked by rows of overgrown grass after ship girls walked on this very path and cleared it of vegetation long ago.
Her regular exercises and training paid off as she kept her breathing and pulse steady, focusing on the destroyer before her as she tuned out the ever-present darkness, appreciating Shimakaze's silent company and wondering just what had to happen to Amatsukaze to make her turn out this way.
Following the dirt path for another two minutes led the both of them into a clearing that was devoid of trees and was only populated by a field of grass, where she now overlooked the eight tombstones that sat above recently mowed grass, Shigure immediately noting upon arrival that the trees had been trimmed so as to keep the environment neat and presentable.
This was quite the location, Shigure failing to detect significant environmental disturbances here which meant that the tombstones would be well-protected during storms or periods of strong winds, Shigure fanning herself with her school uniform to keep herself cool due to the lack of wind so far into the woods while in the midst of the summer season.
The musky and humid air made her uniform cling onto her skin as she ignored all that in order to observe the arranged tombstones that were illuminated by the moon, which was thankfully peeking over the tip of the barrier of trees to their right to provide some light.
The tombstones weren't anything special, being made of some of tough rock material, likely granite if the grey color of the tombstone was anything to go by, and were shaped in a machine-cut anchor that was placed upright, the stone support at the base diligently propping it up.
Their names were cut into the material of a metal nameplate that was then stuck to the base, with their name in Kanji and Hiragana for clarification purposes, a small glass bottle filled with water and white lilies in front of each tombstone.
And boy, there were quite a few tombstones that were lined up here.
Even if Yokosuka did lose comparatively fewer ship girls when compared to other bases, something that was already considered impressive due to the sheer number of ship girls stationed here, Shigure was despondent to find out that there were still quite a number of casualties in Yokosuka.
The tombstones read,
Lebe (Z1),
Yuubari,
Sakawa,
Amatsukaze,
Taihou,
Katori,
Nenohi.
She recalled a few of the harrowing stories of sunken comrades after inquiring about the relevant information from her sisters and comrades, when they started talking about a ship girl in the past tense and she simply had to ask what happened lest she be left out of the loop.
Sakawa.
An Agano-Class light cruiser that was crafted via Large Ship Construction, and she was one of two Japanese warships that were sent over to America to participate in Operations Crossroads, the second being Nagato.
Understandable then, that the Nagato-Class battleship would be protective of her in this life, being a surrogate big sister to her as Yahagi hadn't been crafted then, and the battleship wanted nothing more than for Sakawa to be safe.
Unfortunately, sentiment alone wasn't able to shield her from a round fired from the cannon of the dreaded Armored Carrier Princess, which punched clean through her chest and left a gaping hole where her human heart was supposed to be.
She dropped dead on the spot, having the section of the spine behind her heart shot out and losing control of her boat slippers and sinking before anyone could get to her in time.
Nagato had grieved over that loss, and Admiral Haru had tried her best to console the sullen battleship, kept her company and gave her some time off.
Shigure looked at the next tombstone, not having gotten the entire situation of some of their deaths and skipping some of them after saying a quick prayer in her mind.
Katori.
A training cruiser that was not created to fight, but rather to teach the ship girls about combat tactics and the world at large, managing to also serve as the intermediary between the past and the present to any ship girls who took a longer time to adjust to the 21st century.
She held off a fleet of chasing Abyssal light carriers, light cruisers and destroyers in order to ensure the safe retreat of the accompanying 6th Fleet who was out on a training session that had quickly gone south as an Abyssal Fleet ambushed them prior to the resulting chase.
Some say that the 6th Fleet, having retained most of its members after the fleet shuffling, still try their best to sortie in a five-ship fleet and keep the sixth member slot free out of respect for the training cruiser's training and sacrifice that had paid off in producing some of the strongest carriers in the Yokosuka Naval Base.
Taihou had sunk off of the coast of Sri Lanka in a manner that was quite gruesome due to how she suffered before she sank.
A stray cannon round had struck her in the knee and disabled her movement to a large extent, and a damaged Abyssal Ha-Class destroyer got the twisted idea to attempt to take Taihou down in a kamikaze-style attack as it swam up while underwater, propelled itself out of the sea and rammed itself into the armored carrier's stomach as it detonated its torpedo at point-blank range, effectively sacrificing itself in an attempt to take down a superior opponent.
The Abyssal's gamble succeeded as the armored carrier was immolated after having a large chunk of her stomach blown out and her body was unable to shut off the burning fuel valves in time, leaving her to effectively burn to death from the inside out as the armored carrier was reportedly screaming the entire while.
And it was a small mercy that she had eventually exploded from the various smaller fuel reserves in her body causing an extreme buildup in internal pressure that led to the considerably large fireball that blinded nearby allies and enemies as it annihilated her body and cut her suffering short.
And as Shigure shifted her eyes to look at the tombstone of Amatsukaze, she was reminded of her own mortality despite being a lucky ship.
Her past captain was Captain Hara Tameichi, the only IJN destroyer captain to survive the war, and he had captained Amatsukaze for the majority of his naval career before becoming her captain, Shigure remembering her experience with the seasoned captain as he led her through some of the harshest battles of her career.
Perhaps it was because of this fact that they shared the same captain for the majority of the war that somehow meant to her that she had some sort of unspoken bond with Amatsukaze and by extension, Shimakaze, and was also a reason why Akashi had strongly suggested that she be the one to help Shimakaze through her loss.
The stars had really aligned in her favor for this to work out in her favor, Shigure still being a little skeptical of just how powerful her luck was to ensure that she, a ship girl who shared a captain with Amatsukaze, was introduced into this world and was sent to Yokosuka, of all places, to be able to connect with Shimakaze, who just so happened to lose Amatsukaze and was currently grieving.
Still, if she was sure of something, it was that the Kagerou-Class destroyer had left this world too soon, and that left Shimakaze all alone.
She took a deep breath as she closed her eyes, taking in the environment and allowing herself to enjoy the silence of the forest, tuning out the background noise as she steadied her pulse and contemplated the mortality of the ship girl.
Shigure reveled in the silence as she took the time to appreciate what the deeds of the dead, and how some had accepted the ultimate sacrifice in order to ensure the survival of others, while others had unfortunately fallen in the line of duty.
It was strange, seeing that her life was plagued with death and comrades who fell like flies around her and how she had cried for them numerous times in the past.
And now that she was here in a place that remembered the dead, she expected to feel some sort of emotional outburst or overwhelming sadness after having arrived here.
Nope.
She felt absolutely calm here, almost soaking in the air that almost seemed plagued by a miasma of tranquil death as she had her eyes closed and contemplated on the world and the comrades that she will never get to know.
It was perhaps because they all died or sank at sea and their bodies were either unrecoverable even with the help of submarines, or their bodies were too damaged where it really mattered to even consider repairing them, that their physical bodies were likely not here and these tombstones only served as a reminder of who had perished.
Perhaps it was a sign that some of them had died at sea and returned to the dark embrace of the sea that strangely put her mind at ease, Shigure hoping against hope that no one else would have to join this queue of tombstones in death, acknowledging the futility and silliness of such an impossible wish and hoping for it anyway, vowing to get stronger to hopefully prevent a fellow ship girl from sinking.
Shimakaze, who had been silent the entire time as she stared at Amatsukaze's tombstone, spoke up in an unnaturally meek voice, the words causing Shigure to freeze up in surprise.
"I caused her death."