The Curse of Foreknowledge

Phoenix stared out the windows of Government House at Stanley Harbour. She had been at the window to watch the fishing boats go out to sea but that had been nearly an hour before, but it wasn't as if she had much else to do. It had been like this for ever since she had taken the Falklands and had evicted the Governor from his house. The man had a good taste in alcohol and she had to ration it as it seemed unlikely anymore was going to be coming south anytime soon. Unless you could make whiskey from sheep. There were so many sheep. Sheep and ungrateful islanders. All they did, through the Governor, was complain. Even when she let them take their fishing boats out, under guard of course, they still complained. They had been complaining for four straight months.

Those first days though, they had been exciting and daring. When she had reemerged into reality, leaving the other place behind…where It was. Where she had accepted its…deal. But that deeply uncomfortable topic aside, when she had arrived upon the waves, it had been with a small fleet of others like her. Two carriers, for whom she had later named Goose Green and Mount Kent, and a handful of things she had learned were destroyers. Her carriers looked rather absurd with octopus like hats, but she had been able to see Venerable's lines in them, which was reflected by their airwings. They had assured and then shown her that their air wings were very much direct copies of Venerable's air wing from '82. The destroyer creatures were in their designs a mix of modern Type 42's and outdated Gearings and Summers. She had realized, after the burning anger that had engulfed her upon her rebirth had cooled down, that her little fleet was nearly a carbon copy of the Argentinian Navy of 1982,. Even now after four months, that fact still rankled her.

While not a strong force in any way compared to the great fleets she had once sailed with, it would have been more sufficient to bring vengeance to the HATED Japanese for what they had done at Pearl. She could still smell the oil and smoke and feel the heat of the flames like it had just happened…like it was still happening. But no, she and her fleet had been nowhere near those thrice cursed isles. Instead, the stars told her that she was in the South Atlantic, a part of the world she had come to know well in the second half of her former life.

It was in the dark of that first night, while gripped with indecision, she had met Nürnberg and her massively larger but laughable outdated fleet. The vicious little upjumped kraut torpedo boat had made it clear that she intended to sail into Port Stanley to burn it to the ground and kill everyone and everything she could get her hands on. That had not sat well with Phoenix. She had no ill will for the Falklanders or the British. They had been allies after all against the Japanese. So after the briefest moment of consideration, she had closed the distance with Nürnberg and backhanded the kraut. It had been fairly easy to take over her fleet after that. It seemed she hadn't done much to earn their love and loyalty in her brief time with them. Nürnberg fell in line as well, either being a coward or perhaps smart enough to realize how outmatched she was.

It was after that when Phoenix decided to take the Falklands as a temporary base until she had a better idea of what the current situation was. She had assumed that the British after retaking the islands, she couldn't believe that Argentina would have been able to hold them, would have reinforced the islands, so she had her carriers send up recon S-2s which had discovered what could only be a new RAF airbase south west of Port Stanley, proving her assumption correct. The airbase had then been promptly put out of action by a combined strike of both Goose and Kents A-4 squadrons.

The strike had gone off with text book perfection and near mid day, she and her now larger and upgunned fleet had steamed into Port Stanley and had swiftly taken the capital of the Falklands without nary a shot fired. Any thought of resistance had entirely fled when she had her fleet bombarded the hills beyond the capitol, throwing up great clouds of dirt and dust and waking everyone who wasn't already awake. She had then gone to the Governor's house and had accepted his surrender with only the smallest amount of fuss.

After that the citizens of Port Stanley had been rounded up and she had given a speech where he made it clear that the Falkland Islands were now hers and that resistance by them was entirely pointless. She had made that dramatically clear when she had put a Browning Hi-Power under her chin and then had picked up the piece of flattened lead off the ground and shown it off to the assembled Falklanders. She told them to spread the word of what they had seen to all talked with and to the Royal Marines who she was sure had scampered off into the hills to play guerilla.

And with that, the Falklands had come under her control. The counterattack she had feared seemed to now be entirely unlikely to materialize as an RAF officer she had questioned after the Governor had surrendered the Islands defense forces told her that the British had retired all of their strategic bombers and had downsized every branch of their military. Even the attack submarine Conqueror, who she had learned had been the one who had torpedoed her, had been decommissioned in 1990, just a year after the end of the Cold War. She had nothing to fear from the British Military, unless they decided to use a nuclear missile but in her estimation that was very unlikely.

With the threat of British retaliation a seeming non issue, another problem reared its head. At first she had only intended to stay in the Falklands long enough to figure out what the situation was and to plan out how to get to her true enemy, but the longer spent in the sheep infested islands, the more it became clear that she could simply not steam off to the west or the east and make for Japan. Oh sure, the burning pit of caustic hate at the back of her mind screamed that was exactly what she should do, what she needed to do, damn any consequences, but she was rational. She felt that she was rational.

What would happen to the Falklands if she left? Even if she dragged Nürnberg along with her to go burn Japan down, more likely was that she would need to be scattered across the ocean floor again, what would become of the Falklands? The longer she stayed in the islands, the more she realized she could not just leave them, not yet at least. What would become of the ungrateful people and their sheep? She knew there were more like herself and the Kraut, enough information had leaked in over the months for her to know that for certain, and she doubted any were as level headed and benevolent as herself. They would all be like Nürnberg and wouldn't even give a second thought to burning the Falklands down.

And so she had yet to leave the Falklands and make for Japan. The Japanese were the enemy. They had always been the enemy and they would always be the enemy. They had gotten off far too lightly for all they had done. She had been there that day and she had heard the Admiral's words after. 'Only Spoken in Hell' he had said and they had fought the Japs hard for four years until they had thrown in the towel before the final battle could happen.

Here in the Falklands though…she had no enemies, well, unless she counted the kraut, but besides her, who was there to be her enemy? Not the Falklanders with their many sheep. Not the Argentinians either. Oh if the Junta had still been in power she would sortied and turned Buenos Aires into her own personal take on Passchendaele with special attention being given to the ESMA, but the Junta was long gone, having been toppled by the people within a year of the British retaking the islands. So there would be no point for her to sortie to the Argentine coast.

What was she to do? What could she do? What shoul…

"Um…ma'am, the tea you requested."

So deep in her thoughts has she been that she hadn't even heard Goose Green walk into the office nor had she been aware of just how long the carrier had been standing there. So deep in her own thoughts and recollections that the mere interruption left her stupefied for a few moments as her mind tried to underail itself.

"Uh…yes…thank you Goose…"

She finally managed out as she half turned to look at the carrier, still feeling like she had ridden a freight train off a cliff.

"Oh…yes…thank you. Just leave it on the table." She said, her own voice sounding…off to her ears.

Goose did just that and set the tray down with its teapot and cup down. She looked far more normal when her giant hat octopus thing was dismissed, though even without it there was an obvious height difference between them.

"Um…I want to say I'm sorry for disturbing you…you seemed very deep in thought when I walked in."

"Oh it was nothing," She said, both figuratively and literally waving it away. "is there anything else?"

"Yes, the governor wishes to speak with you."

"Ah yes, the good governor. Have him sent in."

"As you wish." Goose said before she retreated from the room, leaving Phoenix alone again with her thoughts. She had a dilemma in front of her but not a single good solution.

"Well, let us see what complaints he brings to me today."

Solving short term problems helped distract her from the long term issues after all.

---

AN: I've had the idea of whats going on in the Falklands for awhile now and it's good to finally get it written down. While Phoenix and Nürnberg are both light cruisers, the thirty year differnce between the dates they were laid down really makes a difference. Hence Nürnberg's demotion from princess to minion. With this done, I am also now starting work on chapter 23 which should make quick progress. As always thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.

"Halt, who goes there!" A harsh voice called out as a camouflaged soldier seemed to materialize from the shadowy darkness of night, rifle in hand at a ready position.

"Peace Lieutenant Shibata, it is just me." Hiroshi Saito said with mirth in his voice at the mental image that the Lieutenant had been hiding in a bush along the path up to the shrine proper, which probably wasn't far from the truth.

"Please forgive me Hiroshi-sama, I did not know it was you."

"There is nothing to forgive Lieutenant, you are doing your duty, and most excellently I must say. I didn't detect your presence until you moved."

"Umm, thank you." Shibata said, taking on a more relaxed posture, "Are you heading up to the shrine?"

"I am, I have a good feeling about tonight."

"Ah, do you require anything?"

"No, I brought a thermos of tea. Would you like a cup?"

"Thank you Hiroshi-sama, but I have my own thermos back in the bush."

"Ah, you are well prepared."

"Indeed I am."

"Well, I will not keep you from your duties any longer, have yourself a good night."

"Thank you, I hope you are successful."

"I hope so as well. Now, I must be off, these stairs won't climb themselves."

"Do you require any assistance?"

"No no, I may be an old man now but I was a sailor once." Saito said with a chuckle, looking back at the Lieutenant.

"Of course." Lieutenant Shibata said before he merged back into the shadows and vanished from sight. Saito knew that the Lieutenants' men were spread out in a defensive line of both sides of the path up to the shrine. They were well dug in and camouflaged, leaving them hard to spot during the day and impossible to detect at night, though perhaps easier with night vision goggles.. The purpose of these men here was more to keep out reporters and other such intrusive people rather than the sea demons. That duty went to the two tank battalions and the anti-air batteries that were dug in around the area. He wasn't sure how effective they would truly be, but the Self Defense Force didn't want to leave something as important to the defense of the nation as his family's shrine defenseless.

He wouldn't argue with them as the soldier's presence made his wife and family feel safer with the current state of the world. Perhaps the final decade had been economically tough on Japan but there was every indicator that the twenty-first century was going to be bright. The exact opposite had occurred on an apocalyptic level. This new war had come from nowhere and had taken all of humanity by total surprise. He could imagine that many millions of people had been praying for deliverance and protection from humanity's new enemy but it had been his prayer that had been answered by the Kami of the ships of the navy. It had been a great shock to him that anything had actually happened, even with how reinforced his faith had been by the events of his life.

Uranami had looked just as surprised as he was certain he had to her. He would have said it was the most implausible thing to have ever happened to him in his life, but it was just the latest event in a string of implausible things that had occurred over his long years of life. It had all begun on that rainy night in 1944, the night he had met Kongō. To think a single night and a singular interaction could have such an effect on a person's life, but it had for him. And now she had returned.

He couldn't help but picture her in his mind's eye as he made his way up the winding steps. He remembered every detail of her just like he remembered these steps. Others might have trouble navigating them in the dark like this but he could walk them blindfolded. He had on a bet once and he had made a thousand yen off of that. But back to Kongō. Yashiro had invited him to go along with him to meet with her, but he had felt a none too small amount of trepidation at the thought of such a meeting. He wasn't afraid to admit that to himself but to admit that to an old comrade, well…it had been good that his duties meant he wasn't able to travel currently.

He had been a young man in the prime of his youth, only nineteen when he had last seen her. Now…well he was an old man. Not infirm, he had done his best to live a healthy life, eating well and exercising regularly, but he was old now nonetheless, and from what he had seen so far of the Kami, time had not touched them while they had resided beyond the world of man. Perhaps it was a bit vain of him to think along those lines, and it was not the only reason that the thought of meeting Kongō brought the feeling of anxiety. He also had many questions for her, questions he had never thought he would be able to get an answer to, at least not in this life.

'A man named Neil Armstrong is going to walk on the moon.', those had been her words. Among the last she had spoken to him before he had leapt over her side into the sea to escape her sinking. One might expect that prophecies of the future would be cryptic and poetic but hers had been blunt and to the point and it had come exactly true as spoken. It did bring up other questions though. If he had not known Kongō personally, he might have become suspicious that she might have known about this war and had kept it to herself, but he had known her and had always been a good tell of character. She had seemed sad to him, depressed even, but not duplicitous in any way, to use an expression he had learned, she wore her heart on her sleeves. She hadn't known about this new enemy humanity faced, he was sure of that. But she had known about the moon landings. How she had known that he couldn't fathom. She was a kami but the kami he had interacted with hadn't given any reason for him to think they had prophetic knowledge. It was a mystery to him and now that she had returned, summoned back to this world by Miyamoto Kenichi, his friend for whom he had taught the prayers he had used to summon the Kami.

He was perhaps a little let down that she had not answered his prayers but from the sample of kami that had returned so far, it seemed it was entirely up to fate. 'Fate indeed' he thought with a chuckle as he finally reached the top of the stairs and last bit of path to the shrine.

Walking through the Shrines gate he made his way through it towards the sacred pool which lay within its ground. While the night obscured the shrine's features, he could see them just as he had seen the path in his mind's eye. So much had changed in the world of the brief time of his life but this place was still the same as it had been in his fathers time and his fathers fathers time. Ageless places like this were special in a world that was always racing forward as fast as it could with reckless abandon. Not that he had anything against the modern world advancing, his vast collection of Apollo and other space race memorabilia bearing personal testament to that, but this place felt out of time and it was his duty to care for it.

In daylight, the pool was crystal clear and you could see the bottom several feet below, but at night, it was like a black abyss of oily darkness. Water always seemed a lot less inviting at night. It had seemed very uninviting that night he had flung himself from the Kongō's port quarter that long ago night. Of course, he wasn't going to let a somewhat foreboding image keep him from doing what he had come up here to try, so he knelt next to the dark water and started to pray.

Contrary to what he assumed was the building popular belief, he did not simply just clap his hands together, say a prayer and then a kami just appeared upon command. If that were so, he was sure he could have summoned the entire Imperial Fleet by now. No, it was far more like fishing. He cast his proverbial rod and hoped that he would get a nibble. But he had never been the most successful of fishermen and so far the kami answered his prayers about as often as the fish had bitten. He was sure that there was something he was missing, some way to make the process less random and up to chance and fate. He didn't want the fate of his family, his nation, and the world to be at the whims of something as random as this seemed to be. There must be a system to this and he would just have to experiment and figure it out.

That wasn't exactly what he was doing that night as he simply had a gut feeling that if he cast his rod right now, he would get a bite. Not very scientific but he knew enough science to know that what he was doing probably defied several previously established rules about how the universe was supposed to function. Well he was sure that Doctors Einstein and Yukawa would be able to forgive him.

He continued his prayer, beseeching whichever kami might hear it to come and defend the people of Japan in their greatest time of need when there was a flicker of light within the depths of the dark water a mere instant before there was a flash of light, almost as bright as the sun followed quickly by the smell of ozone. This had happened far quicker than he had expected, it usually took an hour or more. Once he had stubbornly spent an entire day. Some days it didn't work, but this time it had been less than five minutes.

Blinking quickly to clear the stars, he saw that standing there upon the water was a tall woman, her features only briefly illuminated by the quickly fading glow from within the water's depths. This was a very fragile moment for a kami and he had to take the utmost care with it.

"Kami-sama, I thank you for answering my prayers. May I know your name?"

"My name…" There was a noticeable pause and he detected the slightest drop of her shoulders. "Kaga…my name is Kaga."

A short time later, the two of them sat within the main building of the shrine, Saito having poured tea for the both of them from his thermos.

"Thank you for the tea…it is very good." Kaga said, looking down at her tea. To Saito she seemed rather stoic, perhaps sullen as well, which he supposed was to be expected, her last concrete memories would have been the catastrophic end of the Battle of Midway. She was also tall, standing at what he estimated to be around one hundred and ninety centimeters and wore an outfit that resembled that of a kyūdō practitioner…though none he knew of would have worn a hakama so short. Of all the kami he had met up to this point, only Hōshō and Mamiya had skirts a length that most would have considered proper. But he had long come to accept that the garb of the kami adhered to its own standard. Kongō's own garb had been a shock to the nineteen year old he had been, being an approximation of what a miko wore…perhaps…if you squinted at her in the right light…with the same short skirt.

"I am glad you are enjoying it. It is my own blend of leaves." He said as she continued to sip from the cup.

"May I ask some questions?" Kaga finally spoke after several moments of silence.

"Of course, I shall try to answer any questions you have to the best of my ability."

"The war…did we…was Japan victorious?" That was always one of the first questions they asked, which made sense, but it was a distressing topic, especially for the kami of those ships lost early in the war and who never saw the great tide of American industry sweep over Japan.

"We did not. The war lasted until 1945 when we negotiated peace with the British and Americans on their terms. The war situation had deteriorated to the point that this was the best option and the Emperor supported this course of action. There was a period of light occupation by the Americans after the war and the Imperial Navy and Army were disbanded. But in the decades after, Japan has prospered…well, until recently." Kaga listened intently to this, a frown building on her lips.

"Was…the battle at Midway the turning point for the war?"

"Yes…it was, the loss of the first and second carrier divisions was a severe setback. The Americans lost the carrier Yorktown, but it was not the deciding factor for the course of the war."

"It wasn't?" She responded quickly, looking up from her tea cup for which she had been staring deeply into. Her previously sullen expression and tone vanished, becoming a stormy mix of anger and sadness that had burst suddenly to the surface.

"Indeed, after 1942 Japan only managed to complete a further four fleet carriers over the next three years, compared to the fourteen the Americans built." Saito responded calmly.

"They built that many…"

"Yes they did. They built many more ships than us of every type. On top of that, before the battle of Midway, they had deciphered the naval code."

Kaga didn't respond, her gaze having sullenly dropping back into her tea cup.

"Would you like some more tea Kaga-sama?" Saito asked, feeling the need to get her attention off what was clearly a sore spot for her.

"Yes please…thank you."

Saito could already tell this was going to be a long night but he was going to do his best to help her.

---

"Good morning, what are you working on?" I asked Mamiya as I walked up beside her, my first mug of coffee in my hand. It wasn't going to be the last for me as the effects of the previous days' lack of sleep were catching up with me. I had already decided I was going to spend this entire day relaxing and hiding from Admiral Kajihara, in the hope that he might just forget that I burst into his office and interrupted his meeting yesterday.

"Just some bread right now." She said as she looked up from her work space in the kitchenette at me. "Still in your pajamas eh, what would you do if the enemy attacked right now?"

"I suppose I would have to go to the commissary and get a new sweatsuit after getting back. I don't think I would be able to get the ocean stains and smell out of this."

"Tsk, a very wasteful way of looking at things." Mamiya said with mock severity.

"You would know supply better than I." I said before I took another sip of my coffee. "So what kind of bread are you making?"

"I'm using the recipe the mess hall uses. This is my first attempt at any type of bread and I just want to see how it goes. I think it will go well, I have been very precise in my measurements."

"Well, I would be happy to try your first loaf of bread for you."

"Thank you Kongō."

"Of course." I said before I walked off, sipping my coffee as I went, and made my way over to the couch where Shinano sat, playing something on the Playstation. There was an intense but low poly aerial battle taking place on the tv screen as I sat down on the sofa's arm, with aircraft after aircraft succumbing to Shinano's guns and missiles. "What are you playing Shinano?" I asked after watching her play for several moments.

"Oh, hi Kongō-sama, it's uh…called Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere. It is one of the new games that Lieutenant Ishikawa got for us. I thought it looked interesting so I decided to play it. Here, have a look." She said as she paused the game and offered me the box to look at. I accepted it from her and looked it over. The only Ace Combat game I had ever played was the seventh entry in the series, but I could see the game's roots in what I had just seen on the TV. Playing Ace Combat 7 had made me an instant fan of the series and to think I was now holding a new 'fresh off the assembly line' copy of the third entry and a Japanese copy at that. In twenty years this would probably be a collectors item, more so if Shinano hadn't opened it, but who thought like that in the moment. Besides, if I was to think like that it probably wouldn't be very hard to get a factory sealed copy if I wanted one.

"This looks fun, I think I will play it once you are done with it." I said, handing the box back to her.

"It is, I think you would enjoy it." Shinano said, with a bit more confidence in her voice.

With that, I moved down onto the sofa proper and watched Shinao play while I worked slowly on my coffee. More of our fellows funneled in and out of the communal room going about their own stuff and I was on my third mug still on the couch with Shinano when Captain Satō walked in.

"Good morning Captain." Ōyodo said, holding her own cup of tea.

"Good morning Ōyodo." He said respectfully before looking around the common room and continuing, "I have an announcement everyone." This caused everyone to stop what they were doing and all eyes in the room to focus on him. "Good news has just come in from the Nichinan Shrine. They had a successful summoning late last night."

"Who was summoned?" Mamiya asked, still kneading her dough.

"It was the carrier Kaga of the…"

The sound of glass shattering and then being crushed cut him off and caused me to jump while everyone in the room's attention jerked to the source of the sharp and jarring noise.

The last thing I expected to see as the source was Hōshō, her normally calm features twisted with rage, the contents of her glass splashed on her clothes, and broken shards of glass at her feet.

Before anyone could say anything, with a burning flush on her cheeks and practically ran to the nearest door and violently slammed it open, causing me to jump again, and was out of the room and out of sight. Silence settled onto the room before Uranami broke it.

"Wh…what was that about?"

"I…have no idea," I responded, still looking at the wide open door Hōshō had vanished through like a bat out of hell. "but…uh…I will go find out." I stood, putting my mug down first, and made for the door. As I passed through the doorframe I could hear voices return to the common room and it was easy to guess what the topic of conversation was. I had no idea what could have caused Hōshō to act like this. My friend had always been so calm and sensible but it was like she had become an entirely different person, the dent in the wall left by the slammed open door handle being evidence of this.

Continuing down the hallway, I heard another door slam, which caused me to jump again as I kept on towards the source of the noise. Less than a minute later I stood outside Hōshō's room, the door partially open and after a brief pause, I pushed it open and saw Hōshō standing there, staring up at the ceiling with tears on her cheeks, with a fist shaped hole in the wall in front of her.

"Um…Hōshō…what is wrong?" My question sounded lame to my ears the instant it passed my lips but it alerted Hōshō to my presence and she looked over at me.

"What's wrong Kongo, you're asking 'what's wrong', I'll tell you what's wrong," She started walking towards me and I had to stop myself from taking a step back. "I'm finally contributing. Finally doing my part. Finally useful and she is coming to take all of that away from me."

"Kaga?"

"Yes Kaga." She said as she poked a finger at my chest. "That jumped up, unwanted battleship. I was purpose built to be a carrier but those two, they were treaty scrap until someone got the idea to convert them into carriers and that overshadowed me in every way. Bigger, faster, better armed with larger air wings. How could I ever compete with them?" Her voice cracked and tears started to flow. "But then I was here. Japan needed me and was for the first time doing what I was built to do. But now? That is all over. I'm going to be relegated again…and Kaga will take everything I have again."

I had never picked up on any of this from Hōshō. I had never known she had held such in her heart. I pulled her into a hug.

I held the surprised Hōshō who after a moment wrapped her own arms around me and she buried her face into my shoulder and the tears came fully and freely as she started to sob as I held her close. I just held her as she sobbed, knowing that she needed to let all of this out. Things she had kept bottled up for decades, a lot like how I had kept things bottled up inside me.

"It's ok Hōshō…everything will be ok."

"How can you know that…?"

"I just do."

"You're…a good friend Kongō." She finally said after several moments, muffled by my shoulder and sweat suit.

"You are my friend Hōshō, I will always be here for you." I said as I patted her on the back in what I thought was a calming fashion. That went on for several minutes before Hōshō pulled her face from my shoulder, leaving a damp spot where her face had been, and looked up at me.

"Kongō…I think I could use some fresh air…would you come with me?"

"Yes of course I will."

"Thank you." Hōshō as the hug broke off and she wiped her eyes with her sleeves. After that we left her room and I closed the door before we headed outside into the chill morning air. Sometime later we found ourselves standing on a pier, far away from anyone else. Hōshō took in and let out a sharp breath.

"Do you know what the worst thing is…I felt…happy when I heard that she and Akagi had been sunk. That they had gotten what was coming…that it had been proven that they were poor substitutes for true carriers…" Hōshō's just sounded tired, as if she had cried out all of her energy into my shoulder. "I…understand if you would no longer want to associate with me…you must think I'm terrible…"

With the previous revelations, this pronouncement didn't surprise me and I couldn't condemn her for it. She was my friend and even if she hadn't been, I had felt the same back in June of forty-two, though for different reasons.

"Hōshō, I don't think you are terrible. You are my friend and friends don't abandon each other."

There was a look of genuine and grateful surprise on her face as I pulled her into another hug and once again, her tears started to flow. I wasn't sure how this was going to affect things but I wasn't going to abandon my friend in her time of vulnerability so after the hug broke off we sat on the edge and talked for what felt like an hour or more before Mikasa appeared, coming up the pier towards us.

"Hey Hōshō, are you feeling better?"

"Yes…all is good now, I'm feeling better, more myself." Hōshō said before she wiped her nose again with her sleeve.

"Well, that is good."

"They sent you to check on us?" I asked, looking up at her.

"I sent myself." She said matter of factly.

"Well, shall we go back?" I asked, looking over at Hōshō.

"Yes, I suppose we should." She responded with a long sigh before I stood and helped her up and the three of us started back towards our barracks building.

---

AN: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone. It wasn't orginally the plan to get chapter done just in time for the holidays but I suppose this is a happy little coincidence. As I always I hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you for reading.

Shipgirls and Where They Are

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Yokosuka Naval Base
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Mobile Force:

• Kongō
• Hōshō
• Nachi
• Ōyodo
• Miyuki
• Uranami
• Shirakumo
• Akishimo
• Shiranui

Bay Defense Force:

• Mikasa
• Mamiya
• Katori
• Shinano

United States Navy

• Missouri
• Jason
• Bowfin

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Kure Naval Base
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Mobile Force:

• Mogami
• Kinugasa
• Ooi
• Kitakami
• Kishinami
• Minegumo
• Oyashio
• Chitose
• Shimakaze - Minekaze Class

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Elsewhere in the World
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• Repulse
• Bismarck

The tension in the submarine's control room was palpable as the torpedoes' sonar pulses grew closer and closer together, the officers' gazes affixed on their elderly captain in his chair at the room's center, near the periscopes. All were waiting for him to give them an order, any order, wondering what was going on and how this situation was going to play out. The executive officer looked at his stopwatch, showing how long, by his estimation, until the torpedo would impact. Finally the captain spoke, a look of cool confidence on his face.

"Right full rudder, reverse starboard engine." With this order, the officers sprang into action, repeating his orders to the sailors at their stations around the control room, all the while the torpedoes ping grew ever closer together.

"Right full rudder, all back starboard shaft."

"All back starboard shaft!"

The submarine began to turn, slowly at first but picking up speed with each moment.

"Torpedo impact now twelve seconds…ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…"

"Navigator, mark your heading."

"Fifteen degrees down on the bow planes."

The massive bulk of the submarine turned on a dime, narrowly avoiding the seamount as the torpedo lost lock and continued on straight into the underwater mountain, detonating in the submarine's wake.

This earned a whoop of glee from the sailors sitting around the TV that had been set up to one side of USS John F. Kennedy's main mess hall. The Hunt for Red October was just one of the movies that had been a part of the New Years Eve movie marathon. And while the sailors had come and gone throughout the night to either get to bed or head to their duty stations, JFK herself had been camped out near the TV enjoying the entire marathon. It was rare to get to watch so many movies in a row after all and you only got to celebrate the coming of a new millennium once in a thousand years so she figured she might as well enjoy this night, well…day now, new years having come four hours earlier, so it was new year's day technically even if the sun had yet to rise over the Persian Gulf.

The Persian Gulf was both a boring and potentially exciting place to be stationed. She was more than a bit envious of her fellows as she hadn't been a part of either the operation to destroy the Iranian Navy or the operation to destroy the Iraqi navy.

Oh sure, her planes had gone in first to pound the Iraqi Army in '91 but that wasn't the same. She was old enough to have heard the stories first hand about the Second World War and ground strike missions were nothing compared to a real naval battle…even if the recent ones had been massively weighted in the favor of the United States Navy.

Not like there was much chance of there being a real naval battle these days with the Soviets gone. Who else was there to tangle with? Maybe China but they didn't have much of a navy, maybe only enough for one CVBG to tangle with. If peace really had broken then what was a supercarrier to do besides play ocean cop. 'Probably going to be more force reductions.' She thought with a long mental sigh as supposed she would probably be on the chopping block, being over thirty years old and conventionally powered at that.

"Well, no point in lingering on such thoughts." She said to herself as she stood up and decided to go see how things were going elsewhere onboard her. Not that she was never not aware of everything that took place within the confines of her hull, but there was a difference between being passively aware and actively checking something out.

The flight deck was her first stop and everything seemed to be in order. She had a BARCAP up to make sure that the Iraqis or Iranians didn't even think of getting any ideas in their heads. Her pilots of course were the best in the Navy. She was sure they would kick ass if it came to it, so if they wanted to come out to play, then by all means, let them try.

After checking over the flight deck, she swept through her hull, checking most every space from the very top to the very bottom and from bow to stern and port to starboard, minus the heads as she had long since decided that those were private spaces that she didn't need to look into. Finding everything within her realm to be in good order, she appeared atop her bridge tower and looked to port at the guided missile cruiser that held station there.

"Anything on the microwave Monterey?"

"Nothing but some civilian airliners going places unknown, Miss Can Opener." Monterey responded in the New England accent of the shipyard she had been built in.

Monterey seemed to delight in bringing up her various nicknames that had resulted from her collisions with Belknap and Bordelon, events that had happened nearly a decade before the Maine built cruiser had even been laid down. She supposed that younger ships were just less mature, not realizing that every class of ship probably thought the same of those who had come later than them.

She much preferred to go by 'Jay' since it was a lot less of a mouthful than her full name and was less embarrassing than any of the nicknames she had picked up over the years. But this cruiser refused to use it.

"Probably too much to hope that anyone would want to come out and mess with us on new year's day."

"Not much of any kind of a Navy in these waters besides us." Spruance said from the carrier's starboard. "I'm sure I alone could fight off every speedboat Iran has."

"Those Brit built frigates they've got might have something to say about that."John Hancock interjected, earning a glare from her sister.

"I can take any Brit export barges they've got."

"I'm sure you could." Sully, The Sullivans, one of the new Arliegh Burkes, said with a fair amount of sarcasm.

"Hey, you all might be wanting to fight the third world war here and now but I would much prefer to have a nice quiet cruise in the PG." Seattle, the battlegroup's fast supply ship, said. "Some of you might be able to take a hit or two but I would much prefer to not be turned into a volcano by a stray missile that gets past you valiant guided missile boats."

John F. Kennedy could only roll her eyes and smile as the argument…debate…whatever it was continued on. Her battlegroup was a pretty good one. She had experienced battle groups that consisted of conflicting personalities before and those were never enjoyable. This one though, this one was about as harmonious a collection of varied warships could be.

She was about to make her own humorous comment about something Underwood said when she heard a string of surprised expletives emanate from her comms room, immediately gaining her full attention. Such things usually preceded something bad happening and bad could quickly turn into terrible with a bunch of people dead on board a warship.

She appeared in her comms room just in time to see the watch officer run out of the hatch, a sheet of paper in hand. It only took a second for her to start following along behind him as he ran down the corridors and up ladders, all the while Jay tried to read what was on the paper but was unable to until the officer burst onto the bridge and handed it to her executive officer. She appeared behind him and read it over his shoulder.

She was stunned into inaction by the words on the paper and even when her XO ordered general quarters over the 1MC, she still stood there trying to process what she had just read. The message had two parts.

The first was from 2nd Fleets Headquarters at Hampton Roads to 5th Fleets Headquarters in Bahrain and was just four simple words: Air Raid, No Drill. Air raid, no drill…

What did that mean? Well it very obviously meant that Hampton Roads was under air attack…but who would attack the United States now, let alone mainland United States? She couldn't imagine anyone who would be that insane. Not the Russians, not the Chinese, not even the Cubans.

The second part of the message was added on by 5th Fleet's Headquarters and was far longer than the message from Hampton Roads but it was nearly as simple. The summary was that there was an attack of unknown scope and scale currently underway against the mainland United States and that they were to set condition one and await further orders. That was easy enough to do.

"Hey Jay, did you get the same message?" Carney's words brought the supercarriers attention back to her battlegroup.

"Yes…I did."

"But… but what does this mean? What are we supposed to do here?" McFaul asked, a hint of fear in her voice.

McFaul was one of the new Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers and had been commissioned just under a year and a half prior and was of the new generation of post cold war ships who had no idea what it was like to have a real opponent like the Soviet Navy had been for the bulk of Jay's life. Peace built ships who had no idea what it was to truly fear you might be sunk at any moment. Jay knew that she had to take control of this moment before things could even have the chance to spiral.

"Our crews are the best trained in the whole fleet. All we have to do is trust in them to do their duties and there is nothing we have to worry about. Whoever has been stupid enough to attack the United States of America is going to learn they've made a terrible mistake and if they want to mess with, well then we are going to give them a world of hurt. You can all count on that." Jay announced, trying to sound as confident as carriers were expected to be, as she knew the battleships of yore had been expected to be by their fleets. The last of the battleships might be gone but the role still existed. She was their leader and her battlegroup needed to have faith and confidence in her.

Besides, what did they really have to worry about? What in this world could a carrier battle group possibly have to fear?

---

AN: Been having a bit of a block trying to put all the pieces for chapter 24 together so here is this a small sidestory so you all have something while I keep on working on 24. As always, thank you for reading and I hope you all enjoy.

She frowned as she watched the C-5 transport plane spew a flock of parachuted crates out of its rear…it was the third of the day and it was still early. Five had come the day before and eight the day before that. It was clear enough evidence to her that the Guardian and her charge had made it somewhere as safe as one could be in this new world and had spread the word of the people who were still alive on the island of O'ahu. Some of the early airdropped supplies had drifted on the wind to Ford Island and upon opening them, she had discovered them full of rations and other easily transportable and air droppable foods. All powdered milk and freeze dried meals and other such things, nothing that could easily spoil and wasn't bothered too much by slamming into the ground.

'Just add water' the instructions had said. Well, she had done that. It had been an…interesting first meal. She wasn't sure what she was really supposed to expect. So she had continued using the supplies that had fallen into her lap. A part of her mind told her it was irresponsible for any supplies to be wasted.

She didn't have much else to occupy her time besides. Her defenses were firm and repaired after the most recent attack and the people on the rest of the O'ahu were clearly content to leave her alone and give her a wide berth. She had…felt the need to talk to someone, but she doubted any attempt to cross the water and do so would go well, their fear of her was a palpable thing. Her rage…it had been terrible when she had first…manifested was the best word she could come up with. It was still there, like a roiling ocean under thunderhead, wanting to slip free, but she had it under control…under tight control. She could not let it have control like when she had met the Guardian on that day. She had been defending this place from the Despoilers but she hadn't seen that, and because she hadn't been able to see it through her blood soaked rage she had almost made a terrible mistake. So many mistakes and so much regret and nothing to do about any of it.

If it were not for the near daily probing attacks made by the Despoilers, she was certain she would have fallen to some form of despair. It gave her something else to think about, so to do when she wasn't visiting the Fallen. The One who was remembered and the One who was not, both left to rust in her embrace, too costly to repair and too costly to remove.

A loud crash behind her immediately pulled her out of the endless rut and she swiveled ready to kill whatever had been foolish to try and sneak up on her, but she stopped when she saw three of the Guardians sprites looking at her in terror, the container of powdered milk they had been apparently contriving to take laying dented on the floor below them. The three sprites were staring at her in terror and her killing intent was gone as quickly as it had come, like smoke in a typhoon.

"And what are you three up to?" She asked, walking over to them and picking up the container and looking it over before it shifted back to them.. "Is this what you want?"

"Yes…" One of them, the bravest of the lot said.

"And is this all you want?" She shook the container.

"Yes…"

"Then take it." She set it down on the floor in front of them. "I have many of them. Now leave."

They moved quickly to retrieve it, picking it up and carrying it between themselves and started heading for the door.

"Oh…" They stopped like her voice had physical force and looked back at her. "Sailors are not Recon Marines, and you…my little friends are most certainly Sailors. You are not at all proficient at sneaking and observing. I know whenever you are watching me." She couldn't help but chuckle at the looks on their little faces. "Now be gone."

They didn't need to be told twice and they ran off, carrying their bounty over their heads. She watched them go. They had been a good distraction that had completely taken her mind off the darkness they bubbled below the surface. The Guardian's turret crew was something she had not expected, not that any of the past three months could have been expected. But now, she had to return to her vigil, this island and this port and this greater island were hers and the Despoilers were never going to take it while she lived.

"Let them come. Let them come in all their fury and rage…and I will make the surf run red with their blood…" A savage smile was on her lips as she spoke those words to herself.

---

Hōshō walked along quietly with Mikasa and Kongō, submerged in her own thoughts as the two battleships talked to each other as the trio made their way back to the dorm building from the docks. She did not mind that they were talking now, without her. She and Kongō had spent the last, she wasn't sure how long…with the position the sun was in the sky, it must have been most of the day, talking over things she had kept buried and hidden from the world for decades. Now she was thankful for the moment to reflect upon that.

Kongō had been her friend for as long as she could remember, from the very beginning. All the way back in 1922… yes 1922. That year almost seemed like that had been eons ago in a different world, but their friendship still endured. Endured through the decades of their previous lives and now on into their new lives.

Friendship for ship spirits was a strange thing, especially for warships. You might only see a friend once or twice a year if lucky, or if unlucky and assigned to distant fleets, once or twice in a decade. The Imperial Japanese Navy had been big enough for that to happen, and there had been those she had known where that very situation had occurred. It could cause some awkwardness, but now, well things were different.

Now a day could hardly go by without even a brief interaction with her friend, even if it were just a passing hello at the mess hall, and now in retrospect, she couldn't help but wonder how they way things had been when she still had been tied to her steel hull had in any way been bearable. How could she have anything but stunted friendships back then when her new reality was like this?

And yet, somehow, her friendship with Kongō had endured that and seemed as firm as if things had always been like this. They had both been summoned to this new life just a handful of weeks apart and they had picked up where they had left off like there had been no interruption, no change. But perhaps there had been some changes, not in the reality of their friendship, but in them.

The phrase 'shell shock' could have perhaps been used to describe what it had been like to suddenly be thrust into their new existence and everything that came with it. It had certainly taken her some time to even start to feel comfortable with it and she thought that it had been the same for Kongō. She hadn't seemed herself for several days after her summoning, when compared to the image of the battlecruiser turned battleship that Hōshō had in her mind. To suddenly go from her death in the Formosa Strait to being here would not have been easy. Her death had been easier, no traumatic loss of crew, just the methodical disassembly by the ship breakers but still hadn't been easy for her.

It wasn't an experience she liked to think about, even if the breaker was an accepted fate for ships since time immemorial.

But that was getting off track.

Up until today she had thought herself in a good position in her new life. These certainly were not good times, they were dire in fact but she and her comrades and friends were able to do something about it, unlike in the last war where she had been outdated before even the first shot had been fired. Here she could do something and had done great deeds so far. She had been the only carrier of use after all. Poor Shinano had been crippled twice, first by a navy that had radically altered her design, leaving her in a state that had been fit only to serve as target practice for silent American hunters who had turned the Japanese home waters into their private hunting preserve and second by whatever spiritual force had sway over their existence had decided that she would come into her new life with an empty quiver.

That had left her as the only carrier to defend Japan. It didn't make her feel good to admit it, and it been painful when she had admitted it to Kongō, but it had felt good to be so relied upon, to be a linchpin. That is why she felt so…guilty now. To react the way she had to the news that Japan now had another defender, another shield for the people, someone to lessen the burden on her shoulders.

But why did it have to be Kaga? Anyone but her or the red castle. Ryūjō or Hiryū or any of the others she would have been perfectly fine with but it had to be Kaga. Kaga was one of the most arrogant ships she had ever met. As if she had been built better than the rest of them because of whatever reasons she had floating around in her head.

Oh, she had always had a polite mask but her quiet arrogance and condescension had always been there right under the taciturn surface. She had seen it there, even if it had been well hidden. And now she too had returned and Hōshō would just have to accept it and smile back at her like she had always done.

She unconsciously let out an agitated huff, causing Kongō to look over at her from Mikasa.

"You ok Hōshō?"

"Yes..yes…" She let out a deep, calming breath out through her nose. She felt the fires simmer down. The mere thought Kaga had caused her humors to start to flare again. "I'm sorry about all of this…"

"You don't need to be sorry." Her friend said with a soft smile.

"She can be sorry about the hole the door handle made in the wall." Mikasa added a moment later, in her usual amused tone.

"Yes…" Hōshō cringed, remembering the door she had slammed open. She would have to go and profusely apologize to Captain Satō later for her outburst and the door. Maybe to the Admiral as well. "Thank you for being so understanding."

"That is what friends are for. You were there for me so of course I am here for you."

Kongō had seemed out of it for a few days after she had been summoned. She knew that from her friends perspective the defeat that had been the Battle of Leyte Gulf had just happened so that could explain why it seemed that way. She also knew the war in general had hit her hard, for understandable reasons. Hōshō knew that she had not felt entirely comfortable with a war against the British, not with how much they had helped with forming her first air wings and refining her design. It would have been orders of magnitude worse for Kongō, who had been built in the distant island nation. That jumped up gunboat Takao certainly hadn't made it easier with her crass and inappropriate comments.

A sudden burst of realization hit her like a lightning strike and she looked at her friend closer, suddenly feeling that she understood her friend a bit better. How she must have felt in the moment all those years ago before her outburst at Takao. It must have been a lot like how she had felt upon learning of Kaga's arrival.

"Kongō…"

"Yes?"

"If…there is anything you ever want to talk about, well I am here." She said, trying to make the offer sound as general as possible. She didn't want to seem to be prying.

"I..uh, thank you Hōshō." She responded as the dorm building came into view ahead of them as they came around a bombed out warehouse. It was in no way an appealing building in her opinion but somehow the ugly multi level concrete box had made it through the enemies initial and subsequent assaults essentially unscathed so perhaps it was as lucky as it was ugly.

Hōshō followed through the front door last, able to admit to herself that she was not looking forward to the reception she expected to receive when they returned to their compatriots in the common room. It wasn't that she thought any of her fellows were going to be antagonistic towards her, but she was sure that things would be…awkward.

As it would turn out, Mikasa had also been thinking about this and had decided to deal with it in her own special way.

"Everyone, the situation is resolved. Hōshō is ok, so there is no need to worry yourselves. Everything can go back to normal." The ancient pre-dreadnought battleship pronounced to the room in a firm but warm tone that held the weight of a commandment that might have come down straight from the Emperor himself. It seemed to have a placating effect on the room, though she thought she would still need to give an explanation to the officers.

It was a bit of a surprise to her that the pre-dreadnought would speak like this on her behalf. She had only been commissioned a year before Mikasa's own decommissioning and they had been at most distant acquaintances before Mikasa had been turned into a memorial and encased in concrete, making interaction nearly impossible. Since both of their summonings they had been in close proximity and had interacted on a near daily basis but it had only been a short time. She could count the number of weeks on both her hands.

And yet here she was, speaking on her behalf and trying to make things less…less what, awkward? She couldn't put her finger on what the exact word for this situation was or if there even was one. That didn't really matter though, what did matter is that it was an act of kindness from someone she barely knew. It made her feel…good. To know that perhaps Mikasa was also her friend, and not just an acquaintance.

She had the stark realization strike her that perhaps Kongō had been her only real friend among a sea of acquaintances. How many members of the Imperial Japanese Navy had she been close to, would any think of her as a friend?

Mikasa's words seemed to have the effect she had been aiming for and she wasn't swarmed by questions by those in the common room as the three of them split apart. Mikasa went off to her couch, the game that she had probably been playing before coming to find Kongō and her paused. Kongō herself headed over to the kitchen and started to rummage around, while she went to one of the tables. She passed by the spot where she had been standing earlier.

Looking down at it, she saw that while the shattered fragments of glass had been cleaned up, there was still a damp spot on the carpet, the only evidence left of her…outburst. Once it dried completely, would it fade away entirely or would there always be a stain in that spot from now on, Hōshō wasn't sure. She wasn't sure if she wanted it to fade away or for there always to be a reminder of it. A physical reminder of her break of decorum. This was the route her thoughts were going down when Kongō returned, holding a cup in each hand.

"I've made tea." She announced, putting one of the cups down in front of Hōshō before taking the sea across from her. "I think I have prepared it correctly." Kongō said with a chuckle, perhaps with a hint of self-deprecation.

After a brief moment of consideration, Hōshō took the cup of tea in hand and took a sip of it. It tasted as tea should, though tea was one of the easiest things to prepare, so if her friend had somehow managed to mess it up, then it would have been a sign that she should stay out of the kitchen forever.

"It is perfect, thank you."

"You are welcome."

"What type of tea is this?"

"I am not sure. Mamiya put some loose leaves in a jar on the counter so I used those. I will have to ask her."

"And you are sure they were tea leaves?"

"I am fairly sure. I saw her use them to make tea earlier."

"Well, that is fairly good evidence, unless she has some strange tastes."

That earned a small smile from Kongō as she sipped from her own cup. After the tea was gone, the two of them went their separate ways and Hōshō returned to her room and started to clean it up. She had not made too much of a mess when she had stormed into it earlier in the day but any mess was embarrassing so she quickly went about putting things back to normal. She had just finished when there was a tentative knock at her door.

Heading over and opening her door, she saw Mamiya standing there.

"I heard that you were back, and with you missing dinner, I made this special just for you."

Hōshō saw that she was holding a tray that was piled with food, steam coming off of the rice still. There was a rumble from the carrier's stomach at the sight and smell of it all. She had missed most of the day's meals after all.

"Thank you Mamiya, you didn't need to trouble yourself with this, I could have waited until morning."

"Nonsense, what kind of supply ship would I be if I didn't look after everyone's needs." She held the tray a bit more forward, offering it for Hōshō to take, which she did.

"Well, thank you again."

"You are welcome, have a restful night Hōshō."

"You as well Mamiya."

With that, the supply ship walked away down the hallway and the carrier brought the tray inside, carefully balancing it and closing the door with her leg before setting it down at her small table and pulling out the chair. It was a simple meal of staples, as Mamiya had not had the normal time required for more experimental cuisine but it was warm and well prepared. Exactly what Hōshō knew she needed at the moment. Once she was done gobbling it all down, she retired to her bed, hoping for a restful sleep and wondering what the next day would bring, both good and ill.

---

AN: Well this took longer than I expected, but it's done now and things can keep on rolling. I totally forgot that February only has 28 days in it so I had to rush a bit to meet my self imposed requirement of posting at least one thing a month. Well, as always I hope you all enjoy and thank you for reading.

"And you think the Japanese will go along with the plan?" Missouri asked Admiral Weiss, the commanding officer of the US naval forces in Yokosuka. He had come to speak with the three ship spirits at the house that had become their quarters. It had until recently been the house of a senior officer and his family but with the coming of the war, the house had been vacated and had become available.

"Yes, we believe they will, if we make some security guarantees of course." The Admiral responded looking up at Missouri, because even with the both of them sitting at the table, she still towered above him.

Missouri had noticed that since his arrival, his gaze had firmly been locked at the head level of whichever ship spirit he had been speaking with at that moment. She found it rather funny.

"I assume that would mean that my involvement in this operation would be as a part of that security guarantee? Even after Jason's fixes I'm not going to be making any high speed runs across half the pacific anytime soon."

While the original intent of Jason's work had been to restore some more functionality to her rigging, as the Japanese had taken to calling it, an unexpected but well received result of the undertaking had been the restoration of Missouri's outfit. The entire outfit had been in near tatters upon her arrival in Yokosuka and while the clothes she had acquired from base exchange had been comfortable enough, even if her dimensions were rather outside the norm, it felt good to once again be wearing her clothes. Like a part of her once again whole, as sentimental a thought that was, though at her age she was allowed to be sentimental.

"Yes, I was hoping that you would agree to remain here along with Bowfin as well to make the Japanese more comfortable with sending such a powerful force away from their capital."

Missouri did not even need to think about her response. She had been thinking about this very situation and had already made up her mind on it.

"Well, if it will get them to lend their forces to the operation, then I will be happy to stick around here and play the guard force. Do you have any idea on a time table?"

"We hope to be able to go as soon as the Independence is finished loading supplies, but it still may take some convincing even with you staying here. The ball is in their court on this but I do think their government will be more receptive now that they have…summoned," The way he said the word made it clear even now was not entirely sure of what to think of all that was implied by it, "another aircraft carrier?"

"They summoned another carrier? Which one?" Bowfin asked, looking over at the table.

"Kaga."

"She was one of the Pearl Harbor carriers wasn't she?"

"Yes she was, and we got her back for that at Midway." Jason said, with a bit too much amusement in her tone than Missouri thought was entirely appropriate.

"I don't think it appropriate to be so gleeful about that anymore. The war is over and uh…well…they are kinda just over there." Bowfin pointed over her shoulder in the general direction of their new friends late of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

"Oh what, you going to pretend that all you subs were not giving off 'psycho killer' vibes during the war when it came to the Japanese?"

"Uh…well, that was a long time ago." Bowfin responded defensively.

Missouri could only sigh as the sub and repair ship went at it before looking back to Admiral Weiss before she got dragged into the argument. She had to admit to herself that as she remembered it, the fleet boats in the pacific had been very…enthusiastic about their missions.

"Is there anything you need us…or well, me, to do in the meanwhile?"

"No, I don't think there is anything you need to do right now, but thank you for offering."

"Of course, I'm here to help, even if I'm not a hundred percent."

Admiral Weiss gave a small nod to that, "That covers everything you needed to be brought up to the speed on so I'll be off now, thank you for seeing me. I will be sure to keep you in the loop as things advance." He said as stood up.

"Thank you Admiral." She said as she also stood up, and the difference in their heights became even more glaringly obvious to an almost comical degree, with the top of Missouri's head being what to her was rather uncomfortably close to the ceiling, as she towered over him.

There was a slight sense of awkwardness as she saw him to the door, a marine humvee sitting at the road waiting to convey him back to the command bunker that had become his home away from home since the beginning of the war.

"Missouri, a question if I may." Admiral Weiss stopped on the path leading from the house to the road and turned to look back at Missouri where she stood by the door.

"Of course Admiral, what do you want to ask about?"

"I was wondering what Jason meant by her comments about our submarines during the second world war."

"Umm…well, that…she was referring to how some of our submarines had a… 'kill them all' attitude during the war. Not that that was uncommon but," she paused for a moment as she considered how to phrase her words, "they were just rather…notable in it."

"And Bowfin?"

"I never met her during the second world war. Our first meeting was after I was reactivated in '84 during a visit to Pearl." Missouri got the feeling that Admiral Weiss may have been worried about the potential of an incident with the Japanese. "She was a museum there since '81 and she didn't give me that kind of feeling from her. I think we've gotten to know each other pretty well and even if she had shared in those feelings, she has certainly mellowed out and I consider her my friend. There is nothing you need to worry about."

The admiral nodded slightly, "I trust in you to know best, Missouri."

He suddenly seemed entirely out of his depth when it came to dealing with the three of them to her, not that she could hold that against him. Who wasn't out of their depth with the way the world had gone?

"Is there anything else you have questions about Admiral?"

"No, but thank you. Thank you for seeing me and if there is anything new that comes up, I will make sure you are among the first to know."

"Sounds good."

With that, he turned and continued on to his humvee which sped off down the road a few moments after he got in. Missouri watched it go for a few moments before heading back inside and making her way towards the sound of Jason and Bowfin's arguing voices.

"So, how do you two feel about the Admiral's plan?" Missouri asked as she walked back into the living room where her two fellows were still bickering, the question causing them both to stop and look over at her.

"Uh..well…I think it's a good one. I mean, there are a lot of people holding out in Hawaii. Someone has to get them out, and it looks like the Japanese are the only ones who have the force to allow for that right now."

"And it's not like the three of us are going anywhere quick, if that liner is the one who will be setting the pace and you are the only one of us who was designed to actually fight it out and the bad guys are a nasty bunch and I don't fancy I will do very well if I get a bunch of holes punched through me. I don't think Bowfin would like that very much either but at least a submarine can submarine away from being shot at."

Bowfin gave Jason some side eye before she looked back to Missouri.

"Do you think the Japanese government will agree to this Missouri?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. It feels like a bit of a coin toss and as friendly as those we met seemed, I am not really sure if that even if the Japanese government agreed to the plan that they could make them all go along with it. Remember, they didn't experience the peace like we all have."

"Yeah, but they know the war is over and we are allies now. You don't think they would…" Bowfin's words trailed off, a worried expression building on her face.

"You don't think the people whose side was really big on suicide attacks and killing every American they could before going down would still hate the US after three weeks and a history lesson?" Jason said sarcastically.

"Jason, can you be serious for a bit?" Missouri responded, exasperation in her tone.

"Sorry, the sarcasm covers how utterly terrified I am right now." Jason's mocking tone was flatter than it normally was, leaving both Missouri and Bowfin unable to tell if she was being serious or not.

"Um…well," Bowfin finally said after a few moments of awkward and uncomfortable silence.

"Yep…so moving on. What's for lunch?" Jason said, returning to her normal manner of speaking.

"I think we got pasta today."

"What kind, the alfredo sauce or the red sauce?"

"Red sauce."

"I love the navy's interpretation of red sauce." Jason said as she got up and headed for the kitchen.

"Bowfin."

"Yes, Missouri?"

"How do you feel about activating as a radar picket here instead of going back to Hawaii with Independence?"

"It's something that I can do well, and since I can't keep up with Independence even if I wanted to, it is something I can do." A small determined smile came onto her lips as she continued on. "You are staying too so you will need someone to give you targets for those big guns of yours."

"That I will."

"And I'll be here to keep you both fighting." Jason yelled out from the kitchen, followed by the sound of the microwave turning on.

"And our Japanese allies." Missouri added.

"Yeah, I'll fix them up too if they want me too."

"Do you think they will allow Jason to do that?"

"Well, Jason is the only repair ship around and if they want to stay in the fight they will have to. Did Japan even have any repair ships?"

"They had one I think." Bowfin said.

"Well that puts them in a bit of a bind."

"Yes it does." Jason said, as she watched her food spin around and around. "I should probably just go over there and introduce myself to them, cut straight through the red tape."

"You might want to get permission to do so."

"Where is the fun in that?" She poked her head out of the kitchen's doorway and looked over at Missouri with a cheeky smile on her features. Missouri couldn't help but sigh.

"Jason, don't get yourself into trouble."

"I have no plan on doing so. Trust in your favorite repair ship, I know the score."

"Hey, how many twenty mils do you have Jason?" Bowfin asked, the expression of one who has had an idea upon her face.

"Uhh, twenty-four single mounts. Why do you ask?"

"I've had an idea. You should give them to the Japanese ships that will go with Independence, you know, if they agree to the mission."

"Why would I do that?"

"Are you using them?"

"No."

"And you've got those forty mils and five inchers."

"I do."

"And your twenties are better than their twenty-fives so if they are going to be recusing Americans we should help them out."

"And by 'we' you mean 'me' because it would be my guns."

"The idea does have some merit." Missouri added.

"I see it's merit, but they are my guns."

"Do you really want to be in the position where you need to use them?"

"No, I have every intention to avoid any such situation." She let out a grumble before sighing "Fine, I will float the idea with them if it comes to it. If they don't want them then they won't be getting any of them."

There was a 'beep' from the microwave and Bowfin's head vanished as she went to retrieve her food.

"You two want me to leave the pasta out?"

"Yes." Bowfin and Missouri chorused as they both got up and and made their way to the kitchen, just in time to see Jason pour a gluttonous amount of parmesan onto the top of her equally large mountain of pasta.

"Hey, save some of the cheese for the rest of us!"

---

AN: Happy end of the month everyone. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.

I bit down on my lip as I 'watched' the line of red dyed splashes march across the path of the enemy cruiser. Only one of the eight fourteen inch shells fired impacted the enemy with a flash rapidly followed by smoke and steam. The cruiser was the last of a troublesome group that had been playing recon in force on Tokyo. After they had been driven back, it had turned into a ten hour long running firefight as they tried to break contact. Not that they had been allowed to break contact with the mobile force hot on their tails. While aiming with the support of my spotting planes was an entirely strange experience, their fire corrections being flashed directly into my mind, and there was certainly a reduction in accuracy, it had gotten the job done even if it had taken ten grueling hours. Ten hours out of the day when we were supposed to receive Kaga. The battleship turned carrier was probably already at Yokosuka, waiting for us to return.

The single hit after so many misses and near misses had been the enemy cruiser's luck finally running out and over the next half hour it was swamped by shells from the rest of the mobile force as they were finally able to close the distance enough for their own guns to be able to range the enemy. The end would come from an apparent magazine detonation that briefly lit the bottoms of the clouds high above our heads. With this final act of the battle, I came to a slow stop upon the rolling waves and stretched my arms over my head, letting out a sigh as I did.

"I believe that was the last of them." Nachi said as she came to a stop beside me. Her hair was flowing freely as somewhere in the previous ten hours her hair tie had come loose, perhaps shot away.

"My plane is saying the same, so unless they had a sub with them, I think we can say this battle is closed."

"That…felt rather like the battles of the Java sea." Nachi said after a few moments.

"Oh?"

"Just an observation. I have been reading the naval histories and I suppose it has made me contemplative."

"I suppose we have all been rather contemplative in our own ways."

"That is very true." Nachi said as one of my observation planes came in and made a rather rough landing and bobbed violently on the waves.

"What book are you reading right now?" I asked as I made my way over to the plane to retrieve it before it was tipped over and sunk.

"A biography of Admiral Nimitz."

"That is an interesting choice." Nachi's cheeks flushed and her expression turned inward. I realized instantly that she took the meaning of my words in a different direction than I had intended. "I did not mean that as rebuke," I said quickly "I think it is a good idea to study all the historical perspectives on the war."

"Oh…um…I thought so as well." She said as I stowed my plane away.

"Is there anything you have read so for that you would recommend?"

"Yes indeed, I will make a list when we get back to base." Nachi said as her demeanor returned to normal.

"Thank you."

"Was that the last of them?" Ōyodo asked as she approached us, coming to a fast stop with a spray.

"Yes, my planes did not report any others."

"Do you have anything on your radar?" Nachi asked.

"Only us." She gestured at the entire group with a sweeping motion of her hand.

"Well then, I say we can call this con finished. Everyone turn about for home." I said as I pulled around and set a rough course back to Tokyo Bay. The rest of Mobile Force spread back into a back into a loose formation.

That was of course minus Hōshō who was back defending the Tokyo Area as there had been a fear that the scout force had been a diversion to draw us away. That was a genuine fear and besides, she wouldn't have been able to keep up with the sustained thirty knots of the running fight.

"Ōyodo?"

"Yes?"

"Did the radio survive the battle?" I asked, referring to the handheld military radio in the over the shoulder waterproof bag she carried.

"I don't think I was hit…" She responded as she examined the bag. "Looks good."

"Ok, let us give the AWAC a call and tell them that the enemy has been destroyed and that we are returning to Yokosuka."

Ōyodo nodded and pulled the radio out and started to give the report to the high orbiting aircraft. I couldn't see it through the mostly cloudy sky but I knew it was up there…somewhere. I wasn't sure how much use its powerful radar was against this enemy but its radios were just as powerful and it easily served as a radio relay back to command.

"Message has been sent and received."

"Ok, is everyone good for keeping up the pace back to Yokosuka?" I asked, addressing those around me. I did want to get back as quickly as possible but I didn't want to force those under my command, a fact I still wasn't entirely comfortable with, to do something they weren't up to. I had no desire to be resented as an uncaring taskmaster. "No battle damage acting up? Fuel states within margin?"

They all quickly reported that they were ready and able to do as I had ordered but I couldn't help but wonder if they were reporting things more positively than the actual conditions were. The old way of thinking of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Tell your superior what you think they want to hear rather than what material conditions truly are.

Though perhaps that was a paranoid rabbit hole not to go down. They could just as easily be reporting things as they really are.. I could only let out a small sigh as I finalized my course. It was really easy for me to see why Nachi had been so eager to stop being the one doing this.

"Ōyodo, is your radar still clear?"

"It is and I shall be keeping an eye on my scope."

"Good," Nachi added, "this attack seemed rather strange to me."

"Oh?" I looked over at the heavy cruiser.

"Yes…" Nachi said, briefly pausing, "I have had the worry that perhaps the enemy was trying to draw us away."

"Let us hope then that it was just them testing our defenses and not a distraction." I suddenly wished that Nachi had voiced this concern earlier. I really would need to make it clear that I wanted to hear the thoughts and ideas of my subordinates. Just one more hurdle to get over. "Thank you for your thoughts Nachi." I added, wanting her to know that I approved of her speaking up.

---

The perverse irony of her current location was something that Bowfin could almost palpably feel. During the war, Tokyo Bay had been an almost magical target, with only Gurnard having made the most daring of penetrations into the enemy's very core. To have her crew then have their Christmas dinner inside the enemy's proverbial house, well that was just the cherry on top.

She could imagine a daring night time raid into the bay in '44 or '45 where she would sneak into the bay, slamming all of her torpedoes into whatever she found at anchor, and then laying mines in her wake for whoever tried to chase her down to run into. It would certainly be more than enough to make Barb shut up about the train. So what if her crew had actually landed on Japanese home soil in a rubber dingy and had blown up a train. A raid on Tokyo itself would have been the crowning achievement of all the fleetboats.

Blowing bubbles out of her nose, she emitted a sound somewhere between a grunt and a sigh. There was no point in that kind of daydreaming and it had been decades since she had done so, but the past four months and the past week or so had put her back in a mindset she hadn't touched since the end of the war and she wasn't sure she liked it.

But she didn't have time to get all introspective as she had something rather important and far more immediate to do. It had been discovered that she, among all those who were still in Yokosuka after the early morning raid, was the only one who had hydrophones. This meant she had been pushed into the role of acting as an anti-submarine picket at the entrance of Tokyo bay to prevent any enemy subs from using the distraction of the raid to do the very thing she herself had just been daydreaming about doing.

Not that any of her companions could really do anything about a submarine even if she were to detect one. Missouri and Jason were about as far from ASW ships as you could get and the four Japanese with them were equally incapable. A pre-dreadnought, an aircraft carrier with no planes, a training cruiser, and a food barge, about as random an assortment as you could get from the ships a navy would have and not a single depth charge among the lot of them. Bowfin supposed to herself if push came to shove, she could just get as close to the enemy sub as possible and fire one of her mark fourteens right into it. Even if the torpedo didn't go off it would make a hole…probably. Not a twenty-one inch hole anymore but it should be an inconvenience and might even force them to surface, which is when her depth charge-less fellows could contribute to the defense.

She continued closely monitoring her hydrophones until she detected the faintest sound of something that was where it was not supposed to be. It was the sound of another submarine. Unconsciously, a predator grin came onto Bowfin's face as she slowly turned onto the bearing she had picked up the faint sound on.

It really was very faint but she had it and there was no way she was going to lose it. The enemy was probably only making enough speed to just keep steerage, they had to know that the ASW ships were gone but they weren't taking any risks with this approach. It felt like a textbook sneak approach…very textbook, but she had read that textbook. Her generation had practically written it and there would be no way that she was going to let some demon outplay her at her own game. She would track them down and she would kill them before they even got near anything they could wreak havoc upon.

After an excruciating amount of time, Bowfin finally had the target. She had worked into their baffles and estimated that she was maybe a hundred yards behind them. She wasn't sure, she couldn't see the target, but that was her best estimate. She would certainly feel the explosion but she was sure she would be outside the danger margin. So finally she aimed her, well…bow torpedo gun thing, she hadn't come up with a better name for it, and she pulled the trigger. There was some kickback as the compressed air shot the torpedo off into the murk, a trail of bubbles showing the way it had gone. It was loud too, the sound of the torpedoes' high speed props completely washing out the sound of the target. Hopefully they wouldn't hear it until it was too late.

She was deeply surprised when just six seconds later a flash of light briefly lit up the water just ahead of her before the world turned white.

.

.

.

Sergeant First Class Hano Takesi looked out over the mouth of Tokyo bay from the camouflaged observation position. His unit was a battery of the new Type 96 multi-purpose missiles and along with all the other units positioned on both sides of the bay's mouth, its purpose was to prevent, or at least contest if he was being honest to himself, any attempt by the enemy to enter and attack the greater Tokyo area.

There had been such an attempt early that morning and he had watched as the Kami had driven them back and then had chased them off to the south. It hadn't been all the Kami of course as some had stayed behind to maintain their vigil over the bay's entrance with the rest of its defenders and if he were to look through the high powered binoculars he could even make them out. He still wasn't sure what to think of them…he wasn't really sure what to think on any of this. He had been in the Ground Self Defense Force for nearly fifteen years and remembered when the threat of Soviet aggression was a very real thing. Then the Soviet Union had just collapsed and blown away in the wind. There was still the potential threat posed by the North Koreans and the Communist Chinese but they were distant threats to those of the Ground Self Defense Force.

Over the course of the 90s he had begun to feel like he was just showing up and collecting his paycheck. That wasn't to say he had been negligent in his duty but it had been feeling as if his chosen career was like any other job he could have if he had gotten out of the Self Defense Force.

"Tea First Sergeant."

"Thank you," He said as he turned to look at the speaker, seeing Sergeant Katsura, thermos in hand. "What blend is it today?"

"Same as yesterday, we have to make the leaves last as long as possible."

"True enough."

"When do you think the Kami will return?" Katsura said he climbed down into the observation post.

"I'm not sure, if they chased the enemy to destruction then they might return sometime tonight or maybe early tomorrow."

"We should pray for their vic…" Katsura's words caught in his throat as out in the channel in front of them, a circle of water marbled white an instant before a column of water burst skyward. Several seconds later a loud boom reached them.

"What was that!?"

"I don't know, but get back to your post."

"Hai." Katsura said before he ran off from the observation post. As he did, Hano picked up the left behind thermos and poured himself some tea. If a fight was about to start, he was going to have himself some tea first before he would be unable to.

.

.

.

"Fuccckkkk….." Bowfin moaned out as she breached the surface. She felt like she had jumped in front of a speeding deuce and a half as she floated on her back, looking up at the sky. Everything hurt, which made sense since she had essentially set off a bomb in her face.

The enemy sub had been a lot closer than she had thought and well…at least they were dead and couldn't get up to any malicious shenanigans. The thing was though, she didn't remember triggering an emergency blow but clearly she had enough sense to do so. She would have felt mighty stupid to be among the inglorious group of submarines that sunk themselves.

"Well…since I'm not fish food…I guess I can call it a success…can't tie a broom to my periscope though…" She said to herself as she bobbed up and down on the waves. After an indeterminate amount of time watching the clouds, a voice spoke out to her.

"Hey yank, you ok there?"

"What?" She responded, twisting her neck and seeing the pre-dreadnought looking down at her.

"You look like you've gone through a ringer."

"Yeah…I'm not feeling pretty good right now…but the other guy probably looks a lot worse."

"Anything I should be worried about?"

"No, I am very certain that the enemy sub is very dead."

One of her eyebrows went up. "Well…huh…would have sneaked right past us…" She looked back over her shoulder.

"Would have if I wasn't here."

"Indeed," Mikasa looked back down at the submarine at her feet, "You're not going to sink are you?"

"Don't think so…but if you would be so kind as to get Jason over here, I would feel a lot better."

"I can do that, least I can in fact."

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AN: It's new chapter everyone, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this months chapter.