Harry Potter & the Shipgirls

[darthcourt10]

Admiral Pendulum

An uber-late cross-post from SV on a snippet series that I'm doing set in the American heartland/homefront of the Abyssal war... With Trens. Please enjoy and send feedback on what can be improved upon!
QUEEN OF SPEED

The long-bordered neighbors that were the United States and Canada found that the coastlines at potential risk extended to a uniquely large and central area of industrial production that was the Great Lakes region. With the abyssals combined assaults on the Nile, Mississippi, Amazon, Yangtze, and many other major rivers there was utmost concern of an abyssal force somehow trudging the length of the Saint Lawrence river and vanishing into Lake Ontario. With only short straits of land separating each of the lakes it would be a cataclysmic for any sort of abyssal to gain access to America and Canada's industrial sectors that lined the coasts of these massive lakes.

Fortunately for both territorial neighbors the veritable inland, fresh water seas remained unadulterated by the abyssal scourge, save for the month of November when storms cropped up above Lake Superior with eerie regularity.and nigh record setting ferocity. Even greater for the two countries was the discovery of new iron rich ore in the upper peninsula of Michigan and Minnesota, ore that was long thought to have been exhausted since the late 1950s.

The lakes were a godsend that had been given to both nations after the process of summoning and awakening ship girls had been investigated, the lakes were quickly made into training grounds where natural borns could test their weaponry and practice escort duties with the Iron ore freighters that sailed between the countries and summons could adapt to the new world and new bodies they found themselves in. One such base was at the southernmost corner of the lakes…


May 10th, 2013, 06:22 Central US Time

A thin, bespectacled adolescent tore his eyes from his book, The Road he was reading at the tap-that-was-more-a-shove from his red-headed friend. Both had been on the train for over 2 hours and his assumption that the book would occupy his time as he rode was correct.

"Hey! Ian! I know you're tryin' to catch up on your reading to get your foot in the door at the Museum, but keep those ears open, our stop's next!"

Ian Weston, of 13 years, and his friend Craig Jones, of 15 years, had made the journey from South Bend, Indiana aboard the South Shore line to their intended stop: 55th, 56th, & 57th street. Ian's mahogany eyes turned to the window. As he pressed his long, boney nose into the glass the former 'Palace of Fine Arts building' emerged from behind the low-rise buildings. His internal review of the trio's itinerary was halted by a sharp smack as Craig slapped their mutual 'Guardian' and hardcore metal-head Josh Piasecki, of 18 years.

"The fuck was that for shithead!?"

Ian doubled over struggling to contain the heaving of his lungs as the profane outburst earned the dark-clothed young man would have received many a glare of mothers who were sharing the coach with their children in tow had they not been on the early commuter rush. Instead he was given glares by commuters who were still upset about the outburst in the coach as they tried to ready themselves for the last day of the work week.

"Right wise-asses, your stop is coming up, try not to burn shit to the ground or steal fuckall. I'm going to ride to the end of the line since that's closer to reckless records, I have orders to pick up there. I'll catch the CTA and bus back in three hours. You assholes better be ready to get on the train when I get back or your parents are going to ground you for months."

Josh's hollow threat was nothing new to the pair… however the fact that Craig was foresighted enough to capture the Audio meant that they wouldn't be the only ones taking a dive under the figurative bus.

"Yeah, yeah, try not to start a mosh in that small place, the guys there are decent people after all."

The stockier boy quickly dodged a swing that was disguised as a stretch from Josh as he rose from his seat for both to exit the train as it began to slow down.

"Fuck you too asshole." replied Josh.

Today was a rather special day, Ian and Craig had won a pair of tickets in a Chicagoland radio raffel to have a VIP afternoon with a ship girl whose hull rested within the building both young teenagers looked out on. The museum that had a banner with a German flag next to the guest of honor's hull. Both were going to make for the steps off the platform until Ian saw a rare bird in the form of an replica 800 class electric headed towards them on the tracks nearby. He promptly bolted towards the end of the platform to catch it in action. A resigned sigh came from Craig as he had long since been used to this from his railfan friend.

"So, I take it you two are the lucky winners of the afternoon with me, Ja?"

Craig nearly jumped clear through the roof of the station at the sudden voice that spoke behind his ear. U-505, known by Yuusa by her younger sister, bit her lip and held in hysterical laughter that would otherwise have caused her to fall flat on her stern. Had she been with said younger sister, she wouldn't have lasted more than a second before succumbing. As a submarine she wanted to avoid too much attention. Her baggy sweatpants, pink abercrombie hoodie, and cheap sunglasses were surprisingly effective in hiding her identity for those without the benefit of Sparkly Magical Shipgirl Bullshit.

"Y-Yeah." Stammered Craig as he rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed that the shipgirl had actually gotten the drop on him in somewhere that she should have stuck out like a sore thumb. "Name's Craig, or Jorgie if your name's Ian."

Said shorter boy was making his way back as the pumpkin-orange locomotive passed through the station with freight in tow.

"You have some Norwegian ancestry if I remember correctly Craig, so it makes sense." explained the thin youth as he slipped his phone into his pocket.

The submarine smiled a bit at the byplay. "Ja, but he looks nothing like the rifle you're referring to though, at least from what I remember when Frau New Jersey was in the area looking for books on other firearms of this country."

Craig tilted his head to the side a bit before he nodded in agreement. "From what the PR has said, I wouldn't be surprised if she'd be the type to pull out twin MaDuces and go wild on the fourth of July."

Having met the ruckus american, Yuusa knew that it wouldn't be too far from reality had the strawberry blonde not been tethered by a certain literature professor. As the trio made their way down the stairs of the elevated platform to the street below and began their walk towards the building the small talk commenced. How are you doing? How is everything where you're at? Are you getting your rations as needed? All sorts of questions that the boys deflected with the standard 'yeah we're okay/fine/yes' They didn't want to be in a pitty party as they knew from the news reports that there were many that had it worse than they did, thousands of miles of land lay between the trio's location and the ocean proper.

However, the weather outside was beautiful, being close to the lake gave a stiff breeze that took the edge off the high humidity that was typical in this region of the country. It wasn't anything like Hamburg or Wilhelmshaven for Yuusa, but there were plenty of places she knew of in the city to go to when part of her was feeling a bit homesick. It was yet another reason the city was rather popular with shipgirls from outside of the country. Ones looking for something familiar to eat or drink after a long day training on the freshwater sea.

As they approached their destination, the turquoise domes of the building cast long, early morning shadows over them as they passed through the revolving doors of the museum well before opening hours. The silver, corrugated side of the streamliner that met them at the underground portion of the museum once more saw Ian whip his phone out and taking photos of various details.

"Will he be alright? I doubt the Museum staff will want him climbing under the Pioneer Zephyr exhibit…"

Asked Yuusa in a mildly concerned voice.

Craig chuckled a bit at that.

"Nah, He may be a foamer, but he at least knows limits to what he's doing."

The submarine knitted her brows a bit and tilted her head to the side.

"Foamer?"

"It's a term for railroad fans, they 'foam' at the mouth when they see a train."

Craig sighed a bit as he had to put up with his friends nigh obsession with the railed vehicles since they were in kindergarten.

"At least I don't need rabies shots~!"

Replied the railfan as he continued his photographing spree of the minute details of the exhibit before him.

"Alright, I was 6 when that happened and I seriously though the racoon got into some toothpaste, At least they knew what it was and got me treated…"

The stocky boy instinctively rubbed his stomach in a painful manner as he recalled the very painful experience in the emergency room that evening.

"That aside, you mentioned that Graf Zeppelin was looking into putting some of her fairies to work to try and get the Stuka here in operational order?"

Both Yuusa and Ian followed to where the redhead was pointing, the hairs on the back of the submarine's neck stood on end. However it was not due to the aircraft being suspended in a manner that mimicked an attacking run, but the swastika still painted on the tail of the aircraft. Something she knew Graf would have issues with if she was repairing it. The carrier would certainly ask that it be removed or at least replaced with modern Bundeswehr Luftwaffe cross, or the more period correct Balkenkreuz in the place of that vile Hakenkreuz that tarnished the tail of the aircraft.

Craig winced a bit at her expression.

"S-Sorry, sort of forgot the museum…"

Craig's train of thought was brought to a screeching halt by a sudden scuff of a shoe coming from the transportation gallery. Yuusa knew that they were the only ones in the museum currently… or at least the only ones that were to be there at all. Her friendly demeanor evaporated as her inner hunter came to light, a hallmark of of the U-boats as she motioned for both to follow behind her. The U-boat had heard about the attempted break-up of Gale and Wash almost two years prior, and didn't want something to happen to the two who were under her watch right now.

The blonde silently approached the corner to the transportation gallery as one of her fairies produced an empty blush compact from her internal hold and passed it to her left hand. Once the empty cosmetic container was opened, she slipped the mirror around the corner to see what was going on. Two men wearing robes quietly chanted with a pair of wooden sticks in their hands around one of the exhibits… New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Engine 999.

"Damn it Jeb, the ward isn't getting fixed quickly enough, when will the no-Majes be getting here?"
Hissed the younger of the two men as he held the stick at the tender of the locomotive.

"Two hours Zeak. We have time, but Merlin have mercy this ward has decayed so heavily it might as well have already failed. Good thing MACUSA was on top of things so we could prevent her from coming out."

Both youths were shocked at what they were hearing, No-Majes? Wards? MACUSA?

"Scheisse… I wondered if they were going to show up here. You two, stay put and I'll…"

However the submarine's words were in vain as Ian rushed forward and tripped a warning charm the two wizards had set, setting a sound off what amounted to someone firing a pistol inside the room. Their reaction was swift as they turned their wands to the enraged 13 year old.

"What are you doing to her!?"

Shouted the boy, completely unaware of the danger he had just put himself in.

"Obliv…"

The elder of the two majes began to speak, however a stone from the tracks beneath the locomotive shot forth and smacked into his hand with a sickening crack of a bone breaking, their wand consequently was sent flying across the floor.

"FUCK! MY HAND!"

Jeb clutched his broken wrist with his right hand allowing Yuusa to act. She quickly pulled a luger from her hoodie, flipping the safety, and racking the toggle in a smooth motion before the firearm was pointed squarely at the still armed wizard.

"You dare try to do that to someone who is here to see me even after what you all tried to do with Gale and Washington out at Bremerton?"

The german's finger was dangerously close to the trigger.

"Drop it. Now."

Without much else he could do, the younger Auror did as he was instructed and carefully set the wand down on the ground while the blonde approached them carefully. However the injured Auror tried to salvage the situation, reaching for a dagger concealed in his shoe. Once again, a stone rocketed forth from the tracks and clipped his nose, breaking it and causing it to bleed both inside his nasal passages and from a large gash that his nose now had. His ice blue eyes glared at the locomotive as if it were the one responsible for his injuries.

"Leave now and never return to this city again. Tell any friends of MACUSA that think they can make this go away any time soon that they can think twice before trying to come here again."

Yuusa unceremoniously kicked the wand back across the floor to the injured wizard, her pistol still firmly grasped in her hands. The mages knew they wouldn't be able to utter a spell before the german's finger squeezed the trigger on her sidearm. The pair was silent in their begrudging admission of defeat before they apparated out of the museum.

With the threat dealt with, the submarine dropped her magazine and racked the slide to clear the firearm's chamber. One of her fairies on her shoulder caught the round and handed it back to her ship girl. The round was quickly replaced into the magazine, the firearm dry-fired, and its safety engaged before the weapon was reassembled and placed back from whence it was retrieved from in her internal storage.

"W-What the hell was that!?"

Stammered the stocky youth as he stared incredulously dumbfounded at where the two were earlier.

It was almost an hour of explanation to the two youths of what had been happening in the past few months as well as explaining the concept of Tsukumogami to the pair.

Craig ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily.

"So… You mean to tell us, that those two weren't one offs and there's a whole secret organization involved with keeping things like this under wraps, and they were trying to repair some sort of spell that kept this train…"

"Locomotive," Ian chimed in. "Trains have…"

"GOD DAMN IT IAN! SEMANTICS!"

The redhead glared at his friend who was sitting next to the engine in question.

"So… we need to find a way to get her to break through whatever they put on it…"

"Her." Corrected Ian.

"WHATEVER!" groaned the fifteen year old as he face palmed. "We need to do that before they try to come back and fix it and fix us so we never saw anything happen…"

"Precisely." Nodded Yuusa as she walked over to the engine. "There's a Tsukumogami of a tea set in Japan now that rapidly gained an humanoid avatar due to her proximity to many of the ship girls. In the shinto religion, we're sort of minor goddesses due to various factors."

Both youth's looked at her to explain further.

The submarine cast her gaze skywards and covered her eyes with her hands, slowly dragging her digits downwards.

"I'm not a frigging specialist on Japanese culture, that's my sister's schtick ja? Bottom line is, what happened here was something that you two weren't supposed to see as far as they were concerned. Also, if I'm correct in some of the things I've heard from my younger sister are correct... they were just about to wipe your memory of it and would follow suit with the rest of us if they could."

Yuusa's sky-blue gaze affixed to the pair once more.

"Those were wizards, and now you're both going to be priority targets for them to try and finish the job."

The German gave a half smirk at her new charges.

"Therefore, you are to remain within my eyesight and each others whenever possible."


AN: To elaborate on what engine Ian was so enthusiastic to take an image of when they got off their train in Chicago. The 800 class in the United states were more commonly known as 'Little Joe' as they were intended for the Soviet Union when under construction in 1946 until cold war politics had all 20 of them kept domestically with several being exported to Brazil. They're a rare example of a North American Electric Freight Locomotive. One (#803) is still preserved in operational order and was used by the same railway Ian, Craig, and Josh took into Chicago. She is rarely juiced up to run so she is in remarkable condition considering that Electric locomotives had nearly proprietary requirements for what their motors ran on in terms of Voltage and frequency if they were AC engines. At the time, Most railroads owned the power stations that electrified their trains, today they mostly just buy from the electric companies.

I shall be getting snippet number two up here a few days after I post it on SV, since SB gets plenty of love as it is, No offense.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Small snickers escaped from Harry as he walked over to where Regalia was crouched by some strawberries. The reason, of course, was due to the redness around her mouth and on her hands. Even as he watched, the Re-Class cleaned off one strawberry and was happily taking a bite out of it. At hearing him approach, Regalia looked at him before blushing. "Um..."

All Harry did though was wave her off. "Don't worry about it, Regalia. Just enjoy yourself..." Jerking his thumb, he gestured around them. "You're not the only one after all."

With a look around, Regalia giggled some at the sights that met her. Sure enough, a number of her aunts also had strawberry smeared around their lips. Though some had some haskap joining the red berry as well. "I guess so." Looking down at the partially eaten strawberry, she hummed some. "I wonder if I can grow some of these back home...?"

Thoughtful himself, the black haired boy scratched his chin before shrugging. "Maybe? I wouldn't be too surprised as strawberries do grow in the Aleutians." Considering the thought, he frowned a little bit. "You stated that there are trees on your island?"

Confused as to where this was going, Regalia gave a nod. "That's right, Uncle Harry. We have trees on the island, big ones. Why?"

For several moments, Harry did not say anything before shaking his head. "Well, if there are trees there then the climate is good enough for a number of different berries. Not just strawberries, but you might be able to grow blackberries, raspberries, and the like. Heh, I could ask Rose to see if you can get some blackcurrants or red currants as well. They would be an easy way for you to get some fruit into your diets after all."

Eyes wide, Regalia tilted her head to the side before furrowing her eyebrows. "I've never grown berries or any other type of fruit."

Harry shook his head at that. "Berries aren't that hard really to grow, especially as they grow in the wild like you can see here." Waiting until she nodded, he continued. "So you could plant a bunch outside your normal fields and have them grow there for people to pick once they ripen."

Only nodding to herself, Regalia made a note in her logbooks to look up berries and such. "That sounds pretty good."

With his hands in his pocket, the wizard snapped his fingers. "Actually, I might be able to help there as well. Back in England, my family owns an orchard and such with berries and actual fruit trees. Rose and Haruna-Oba went there last year and are planning to do so this year as well. But there's so much there that they can never get enough. Maybe I should look into seeing if you or some others are allowed to go there to pick fruit. Not like there's not enough there."

Needless to say, Harry missed how a number of the other Abyssals were now staring at him in complete and utter surprise. Clearing her throat to try and hide her own, Regalia shook her head. "Um, maybe talk with Mom and the others? They might have some ideas there."

Slowly, he gave a nod to that. "I'll do that." Turning back to her, Harry gained a small smile. "Still, you seem to be enjoying yourself greatly to be honest."

A bright smile on her face, Regalia gave a nod. "Of course, Uncle Harry! This is actually pretty fun and these strawberries are good." Looking down at the one in her hand, she took another bite with a smile. "They're sweet, but also sometimes have a tangy taste."

Lightly laughing, Harry gave her a grin. "That's true enough, I suppose. Best way to describe them that I've found is that they taste like summer."

Head tilted to the side, Regalia considered that before popping the rest of the strawberry into her mouth and giving a nod. "A taste of summer?" When Harry nodded, she smiled some. "I like that. A taste of summer is exactly how they taste."

Moments later, Harry noticed that Regalia was giving him an odd look and raised an eyebrow. "Is something wrong, Regalia?"

Shaking her head, the Re-Class frowned. "Not wrong, Uncle Harry. But..." Briefly, she chewed her lip before continuing. "I'm just wondering about why you're doing this? Why you brought a bunch of us out here?"

Quiet for a few seconds, Harry smiled softly and looked up at the sky. "To make some good memories to be honest. Ones that you can all share."

Blinking, Regalia frowned some. "What do you mean, Uncle Harry?"

With a small chuckle, the wizard crouched down beside her. "Here, I'll help you while I talk, okay?" At her nod, he began to pick alongside her. "I know that Hoppou told you all a lot about my life. About how my aunt and uncle treated me."

Regalia scowled at that and nodded. "Grandma did, Uncle Harry. And all of us are angry at them because that is not how you treat family! But Grandma told us not to bother with them."

To her confusion, Harry smiled a bit more at that and laughed. "And Hoppou's right. If people went after them because of me, it would feel too much like something that they would do. Besides which, I want to leave that in the past where it belongs. Besides... there's an old saying among us humans, one that applies really well to you and the others as well. Want to hear it?" When she nodded, his smile grew a touch. "The saying is that the best revenge is to live well. Leaving them in the past is the sort of thing that would annoy the Dursleys to no end."

Considering that, Regalia remembered how Hoppou explained that Harry's aunt and uncle were obsessed with appearances. She was not sure that what her Uncle was saying was right, but he would know more about it, right? Shaking that off, the Abyssal turned back to him. "But how does that apply to us?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry noted that the other Abyssals were also listening in. "Well, think about it for a moment. Those lily livered codfish who attacked the bunch of you wanted to destroy all of you, right? And yet, what happened? You all survived! More then that though, you're now all thriving and living happily while they aren't. To them, what we're doing now would be worse then anything else as we're not letting what they did bring us down, to defeat us. Instead, we're continuing to enjoy life."

Even though she had to smile at what Harry called the ones responsible for the Great Scattering, the rest struck a cord. In a way, Regalia mused, he was right. To those who harmed her family, who sunk so many of her aunts? The idea of the Fleet of Laughter continuing to survive and doing things like happily pick strawberries with their human uncle would be a slap to their faces. Part of Regalia couldn't help but think that it would likely tickle something deep inside her mother and the others. "That makes sense."

With a hum, Harry paused for a moment. "As to the rest? When I was with the Dursleys it was... dark. But it did do one thing and that was make me appreciate the brighter moments in life. Every instance when I was happy, I grabbed hold of those memories like a glass of cool water in the desert. I then kept them, and used them when I was lost in the darkness." Turning, the wizard regarded Regalia. "That is why I do what I do, Regalia. Maybe it is because of that time that I know just how precious times like this are. When the sun is shining down on good times that I then hold onto and enjoy to their fullest, knowing that there will be dark times. Times that I need the light of my memories to keep me going."

Frowning in thought, Regalia considered what she had just been told. 'I... suppose that makes sense.' A thought then occurred to her. "Aunt Ruadri is always telling stories of the old days. Back before the Great Scattering." head tilted, she continued. "But some of the others, before now didn't like to think back to those happy days. Because it hurt too much."

As he chuckled, Harry reached over and ruffled her hair some. "I suppose that such a thing would hurt, Regalia. Believe it or not, that makes you human. But even good memories that bring us pain for times that are long gone and will never return are still good and should he cherished and treasured. In a way, that is why I want to make so many good memories with you and the others. So that one day, when I'm gone..." Looking up, the black haired boy watched the clouds go by high above. "So that when I'm gone, those memories will still be there. Happy, sun filled days together."

Eyes wide, Regalia shook her head. "Uncle Harry, I-"

Before she could get much further, Harry placed his finger over her mouth. "I'm not going to die yet, Regalia. I'm a wizard and I can look forward to possibly centuries of life, more then a normal human. Who knows, I may well be around for a very long time to come. But... one day I will grow old and pass on, hopefully peacefully and surrounded by my family. There will come a time when all that remains of me is bones, dust, and memories. However, those memories that we build now will be the best legacy that I can have." Waving a hand, he smiled. "Maybe, one day far into the future after I'm gone, something will happen. You or one of the others will be sitting somewhere and perhaps eating a strawberry, which will bring you back in your memories to this day. When we picked your first strawberries under the warm, summer Sun. And I will live again, inside of your memories, your mind, and your heart." Lightly laughing, the wizard spread his arms. "And what better form of immortality is there then to be remembered fondly?"

Small tears in her eyes as she thought about what he had said, Regalia could almost imagine it. "Uncle Harry?" When he nodded, she reached over and hugged him. "I hope that day won't come for a very long time."

Patting her on the back, the nearly thirteen year old nodded. "Same here, Regalia." Moments later, he felt the others also hugging him which made him playfully groan. "Ack!"

Wonderous frowned at him. "Regalia is right, Uncle Harry."

Only shaking his head, Harry shrugged before patting her headgear. "I never said that she wasn't. But at the same time? That is why we should build as many memories like this as we can, right?" When he got nods, he chuckled. "Now, how about we just go back to making them then? Instead of talking about all this heavy stuff?"

Getting nods, the group soon returned to what they had been doing with smiles on their faces.
________________________________________________________________

Engine of the ATV rumbling, Harry pulled it into the parking lot which the others stopped jogging alongside, Ruadri helping Regalia out of the trailer. Hopping off the vehicle, he pulled off his helmet as he watched the others walking up in interest at what they had been doing. "Hey guys!"

Coming to a stop, Tanith blinked some. "Uncle Harry... what were you all... doing?"

With a hum, Harry smiled at her. "What else? Picking strawberries and haskap berries. That way we can have some for dessert and make most of it into preserves that you can take back with you." Pretending not to notice Sunny crossing her arms and giving them amused looks while Ritou facepalmed and shook her head. "Why?"

Meanwhile, Hoppou walked up and took one look at her daughters and granddaughter. Each of them shuffled a bit under her stare before the little Abyssal turned to Harry and narrowed her eyes. "Big Brother was supposed to just take them picking berries!"

Head tilted to the side as if confused, Harry blinked. "Yeah, that was what we were supposed to do, Hoppou. And that is exactly what we did."

In reply, Hoppou wagged one hand at him. "Yes, and Hoppou can see what else you did! You let them eat strawberries when it could ruin their appetite!"

Reeling back as if struck, the young wizard shook his head. "No, no, they didn't eat any strawberries, Hoppou. I know better then to have them ruin their appetite!" Turning, he looked back at them and winked. "Right guys?"

Only looking at each other, they shuffled a bit. "Um..."

Now grinning widely, Harry turned back to an unimpressed Hoppou who had her arms crossed. "See? No strawberries were eaten."

Eyebrow raising, the Northern Ocean Princess gave her adoptive older brother a look. "Why are their hands red and blue then?"

Harry only shook his head and chuckled. "Because they were picking berries, Hoppou. You know how messy that can get."

The Abyssal's eyes narrowed a bit before she pointed. "Hoppou can also see that they have berry smeared on clothes! All of them are messy!"

Still smiling, Harry shook his head at that. "Hoppou, that was from them accidentally smearing the berry juice that they had on their hands from picking the berries. Not eating them after all."

In her eyes, Harry could see the glimmer of amusement. "Really?" When the black haired boy nodded, she once more made a gesture with her hands, a victorious expression on her face. "But why are they having berry all over their faces! Hoppou can see it around their mouths!"

Cringing, Sokie was about to say something when Harry snorted and laughed. "Really, Hoppou? You think that is because they ate berries when they were not supposed to?"

Expression blank, Hoppou gave him a look as her tone became flat. The same type of tone of motherly disapproval known the world over. One especially used when someone was trying to get out of trouble. "Yes."

Just waving her off, Harry snorted again. "No, no. That's not why they have berry juice there. See, there were all these branches, vines, and stuff. They sometimes tripped and fell into the berries. That's all, nothing more and nothing less."

Unable to help herself, Regalia gave a giggle before freezing as Hoppou glanced at her. But there was something about her expression that made the Re-Class blink. What it was though, she didn't quite know... Shaking that off though, she turned back to the conversation as Harry made excuse after lame excuse about how they didn't eat any berries to spoil their appetites. Internally, Regalia continued giggling at her Uncle for being what her grandmother would call "Silly", but it was hilarious.

Somehow, she knew that it would become one of those good memories that her Uncle had told her about. One that she could look back on in the future and smile at. And, with a look at the others around them? Regalia knew that they knew it as well.

And then it became even funnier as Hoppou pulled out her spray bottle and started to call Harry a very silly Uncle as Sunny began to laugh.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Inside the Command Trailer, Harry was leaning in close to the screen with a big grin on his face. Behind him, Akebono was sipping a cola before snorting. "I don't see what the big deal is, Harry-Chan. It's just a plane."

Looking over his shoulder, the wizard gave her a frown. "It is not just a plane, Akebono-Nee..." Suddenly, his grin made a return. "The RE-5 Yuurei is a fast plane."

His lips twitching as he looked over from where he was doing some paperwork, Tanaka gave Akebono a serious expression. "Exactly, Akebono. It is not just a plane, but a very fast one."

All Akebono did was roll her eyes as the reporters on the screen was talking about the plane rolling out onto the tarmac. "Yeah, yeah, you shitty Admiral. It's fast, so what? Shimakaze is fast, but you don't see a big deal with her."

Glancing at the screen himself, Tanaka gave her a chuckle. "Yes, but in this case it's useful for various reasons. It's speed is enough to keep it from being shot down by Abyssal aircraft or their AA fire unless the pilot is an idiot. We're going to need them in the future once we're ready to retake islands."

Harry gave a small nod at that. "Not to mention that they'll be useful even after the war." At the looks, he shrugged. "Not an idiot, Tanaka-San. I know everyone is planning for after the Abyssals.Most of us are working together now, but..." With another shrug, the wizard shook his head. "That may or may not last."

There was a frown on Tanaka's lips as he grimaced. "Hopefully once the war is over, peace will last for some time." Internally though, he gave a wince. 'Especially if the rumor that Taiwan has restarted their nuclear program is false, hopefully.'

Placing down her own drink, Kasumi gave a stretch before tilting her head some. "I don't see what the big deal here is. That looks like one of the F-4s to be honest though a bit different."

Once more with a grin, Harry leaned forward. "That's because it's based on a proposal for an F-4 variant, the F-4X. But it's been modernized with all sorts of stuff. From what I read though, it's supposed to be able to hit Mach 3 at least at high attitudes."

Briefly, Akebono considered that before shrugging. "Sounds impressive, I guess."

From beside her, Settsu gave a nod. "Ja, it is very impressive." Everyone turned to look at said Battleship who was dressed as Graf right down to her hair being in the same hair style. "Should be a good addition to the JASDF and others."

Simply facepalming, the purple haired Destroyer took a deep breath. 'Do not hit the shitty Battleship. Do not hit her, she would enjoy it too much.'

While Akebono fought with herself, Kasumi turned to Harry with an raised eyebrow. "You seem pretty interested in it, Harry-Chan. Any reason why?"

Just grinning, Harry raised one hand and proceeded to tick off points on his fingers. "One, it flies really fast. Two, it flies really high. And three, it flies fast and high."

Unable to help herself, Kasumi giggled at that before shaking her head and turning back to the television in time to see the plane begin to lift off on the runway as reporters provided commentary. 'I suppose that this would be good in a way.' Leaning her fist against her cheek, she glanced over at Tanaka who was also watching. "By the way, this isn't an only Japan project, right?"

Turning towards her, Tanaka shook his head. "No, its not. Ironically considering what is floating off shore, Canada is one of those who helped fund the development in exchange for a dozen. Same with some of the European nations as well since it lets them buy some as well."

Still watching as the plane soared high into the sky followed by two JASDF planes, Harry hummed. "I wonder if they'll ever release the top speeds for it? I mean, the news and such stated it was at last Mach 3.2 for the test flights. And there were all those UFO sightings both here and in Canada where they were testing it fully."

A small smile on his face, Tanaka watched as the JASDF planes following were slowly left behind by the RE-5. "Maybe one day, or you could become an Admiral and find out yourself. Who knows?"

The black haired boy only smiled as they continued to watch the plane soar high and fast on the screen.

Several thousand miles to the south, Akagi was also watching on a tablet of hers while cruising along. Looking over her shoulder, her sisters all blinked as they watched. Amagi herself shaking her head in utter disbelief. "To think, that technology has gone so far with aircraft."

Humming, Akagi smiled a bit. "Hai, that is true, but..." A pout then crossed her face. "I am still disappointed that I was not able to be on leave to see it for myself in real life."

Beside her, Kaga chuckled slightly as she glanced at her own tablet, both hers and Akagi's CAP being above them and keeping an eye out. Even though the waters were well within those controlled by the JMSDF, neither her nor Akagi wanted to take any risks. "That is a bit of a disappointment, yes, Akagi-San. But at the same time performing this patrol on the way back to Yokosuka does serve a purpose as well."

Akagi gave a small smirk at that. "Yes, that it will build up enough time for us to take Leave for when we get back to Yokosuka for a few days." Clenching her fist, she pumped it. "Beach party, here we come! Especially with the new bikinis we got!"

Chuckling, Tosa gave her sister a look as Kaga nodded. "New bikinis, hmm? Hoping to catch the attention of your boyfriend there?"

Eyebrow raised, Kaga looked at her with a slight smirk. "No, we wish to blow his very mind."

Once more pumping her fist, Akagi grinned. "And that is something that CarDiv1 will succeed at! We'll strike fast and leave him flailing... and perhaps get a chance while he is dazed to touch fluffy tail!"

Slowly, Kaga nodded with a hum. "Yes, touching fluffy tail is always good."

Looking between them, Amagi blinked and raised a finger. "Um, are you stating that he is your boyfriend? Because you have not mentioned such before..."

Her grin becoming a small smile, Akagi shook her head. "Ah. Well..." Scratching her chin, she frowned. "Hmm... Kaga?"

With a small nod, Kaga took over. "He is not our boyfriend yet. We are still in the stage of getting to know him on a more personal level before we decide one way or the other. But he does have potential for such and we do find him enjoyable to be around." Then her smirk widened a bit. "And it is also enjoyable to be able to tease him."

Giggling, her younger sister Atago shook her head. "Nee-San! Really?"

Just winking at her, Akagi nodded. "Really. Taichi-Kun is pretty nice to tease and so easy as well! Even Kaga enjoys it."

Kaga only smirked and nodded when they turned to her to see if it was true. "As Akagi-San has stated, it is enjoyable to do so. One that I find quite fun as a matter of fact." Then she shrugged. "But even when we are not, it is still enjoyable to be around him."

Tilting her head as she regarded her sister, Tosa narrowed her eyes slightly. "Oh? And Taichi-Kun is it now?" Moments later, she smiled a bit. "I did note that you stated that you are considering him as a possible boyfriend."

Amused, Kaga nodded some. "And that is because we are. But neither Akagi-San nor myself will make that decision for some time though. We will wait and see how well things are getting to know one another before we do decide if we wish to take that step with him or not."

Now it was Tosa's turn to be amused as the group continued with their patrol. Of course, the Capital ships did pretend not to notice their escorts also whispering among themselves. After all, such things was quite normal. Meanwhile, both Akagi and Kaga were imagining the reactions that their swimsuits would get from Taichi. And said Kitsune got a shiver down his back and looked around nervously.

For some odd reason it felt like someone was about to have fun at his expense...

 

[darthcourt10]

Year Three - Prisoner of Shipping Prelude

START
​

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

The Sun slowly slid down towards the horizon as a man watched from his position on an rocky shore. A few feet away and below, the surf pounded at the exposed rocks, never stopping. Leaning forward in thought, the man's mind was in turmoil. One that was more at home in a tempest then what he found himself in now.

Behind him, the island continued to rise out of the sea, hidden as it was by powerful magic. Part of the man, when he was not thinking of either his choice or what had happened to him, mused about the old, crumbling ruins. And they were old. Far, far older then any other place he had been except for the likes of the truly ancient places such as Stonehenge. At least two of his friends, if they had found themselves there would have been happy.

Well, either that or needing to be reminded that they did need to eat every couple of hours as they explored the island.

Such thoughts always brought a smile to the man's face. A smile that had been missing from his face for so long. But also a smile which had been present more often in the previous few weeks then they had been for years. Well, among other things that had been present more often recently then in the past few years.

In the light of the late afternoon though, the man's clothes could be seen to hang from his gaunt frame. Yes, he was still thin to an extreme extent. However he no longer looked like he was about to keel over at a moment's notice either. Something that he was thankful for. But as minutes turned into hours, the man continued to sit there silently looking out on the waves.

"Sirius?"

With a blink, Sirius Black was broken from his thoughts and turned his head to the approaching form. One of a handful, literally, that were also here on the island. "Isley?"

The Abyssal nodded as she walked fully into view, slowing as she came close. Sirius took a moment to appreciate the view he had. Like many of her kin, there was an inhuman beauty around her. While not massively tall, Isley, or Forsaken Island Princess, was still nearly six and a half feet tall. If human Intelligence groups was to see her, they would note similarities to the Midway Princess type crossed with a Harbor Princess. Granted, part of the Midway similarities was how she also had a sheer gown that clung to her curves, putting them all on display. "Yes, Sirius." Tilting her head some, she frowned. "You have been down here for most of the day."

Blinking, Sirius smiled weakly at the rebuke in the Abyssal's tone. "Sorry about that, Love. It's just..."

Eyes closing, Isley sighed some and shook her head before reopening them and gazing at Sirius. "You are still going to leave, aren't you. To go to this Hogwarts for your godson."

Sirius walked over and hugged her tightly. "I am, Isley. As much as I would want to stay here with you, I promised Lily and James to take care of Harry. Both of them were the brother and sister that I never had, James being far better then my own brother. And Lils... I don't think that I can quite ever do her full justice."

Gazing out onto the North Sea on one of the nicer days, Isley sighed some as she remembered the stories that the man in front of her often told. Ones of his past that they had shared on many a night and during the day. "There are times that I will admit that I wish that I could have met them. Though..."

Only giving a bark like laugh as he slipped one hand around her waist, Sirius grinned. "Trust me, James and Lily? They would have loved to meet you. Heck, Remus would have gotten along with you and still might if he is still alive..."

Already knowing why he trailed off, the Abyssal narrowed her eyes. "Peter though, if we met I would take my time to show my... displeasure regarding what he has done." Her eyes then softened some. "But still, must you really leave, Sirius? You are still not fully recovered yet. And..."

Sadly smiling, the Black scion shook his head before running a hand through his hair. "I would love to stay here with you, Love. But... I need to go. Harry doesn't know that Peter is in his school with him and that rat would kill him if given half a chance." Clenching his fist, Sirius snarled. "Or use him as a bargaining chip. I can't leave him there with Peter in the same area and I am going to kill that bastard before he harms Harry." Then sighing, he slumped a bit. "Family obligations."

There was a grimace on Isley's face as they walked along further inland on the small island. "I would not know, Sirius. Your family in the form of Lily, James, and Remus as well as Harry... are better then my own."

Just snorting, Sirius shook his head. "Yeah, I'm still having trouble believing everything that you told me about your mother. Both yours and mine would likely compare notes in regards to being horrible parents for their children." Scratching his chin, he continued. "Still, you got that Aunt of yours..."

Frowning, Isley shook her head. "I only met Ancient Atlantic Gateway a few times in the company of my mother, Central Atlantic, Sirius. While she is somewhat different from my other aunts and mother, I am unsure that she would not kill me if given half the chance as Mother would. Certainly, I doubt that she would not hand me over to Mother if asked, and Mother would demand it for my failure at taking Azkaban with the fleet she had me command. At which point..."

A shudder went through her at that with Sirius trying to lighten the mood some. "Don't know why you'd even want the place personally. Far too dank and dark for a beautiful creature like yourself."

Seeing the slight blush form on her face, he considered that a victory. But then Isley sighed. "As true as that may be, I lost the Abyssals under me to both spellfire and those Dementors. And the spirit of the island is strong as well and cruel as any Abyssal. Mother would still slay me for such and make sure that it was... quite painful as a warning for others who may fail her."

Just frowning Sirius shook his head in thought. "Isn't there a chance that your mother is dead though? She certainly has not shown up in the area for several years from what you told me. Your other sisters who took islands here in the North Sea are also dead."

Also frowning, Isley furrowed her eyebrows. "I do not want to take the chance of leaving my island to see. The shipgirls would kill me in such a case upon sighting me. And if Mother is still around..." Sighing, she looked up at the sky. "And even if Mother is dead, I very much doubt that Ancient Gateway would welcome myself into her fleet. She tolerates failure as little as my own mother did. And as she is of the old way of humanity, when Kings and Queens ruled..."

With a grumble, the Black Scion shook his head. "She might kill you as a possible threat to her power no matter how little you want it. Yeah, I know the sort even if you're not quite sure yourself."

Slumping a bit, Isley sighed. "But that still does not matter as you are going to leave me soon. On this forsaken island..."

Rapidly, Sirius moved until he was in front of her before reaching up and cupping her cheek. "Hey, look at me, Love." When she did so, he continued. "Once I am sure that Harry is safe and that I'm a free man due to grabbing Peter and proving my innocence? I'll be back here in no time at all. And then I'll get you as well as the few others off the island." Shrugging, he gave her a grin. "There's plenty of Black properties after all laying around empty. And we'll be able to settle in with you all nice and hidden where no one will stumble across you."

Hopeful, Isley looked down into his eyes. "Truly, Sirius? You would open such a place for us?"

Giving a barking laugh, Sirius nodded. "Of course! Least that I can do for a beautiful woman who let an old dog like me stay with her. Especially after fishing my scrawny arse out of the drink during a storm."

Moments later, he gave a yelp as Isley moved her hand and hummed while pinching. "Hmm... but it is a nice arse even if a bit too boney still."

A scowl on his face, though it was ruined by the twinkle in his eye. Sirius pouted at her smirk. "Ouch, you wound me, dear Isley. Still, with everything? You letting me stay here when you could have, and maybe should have, killed me? After finding out that I was not a stray dog that you allowed to lay in your bedroom? I owe you everything. And..." Sighing, he looked out at the waves. "Part of me cannot help but wonder if you did not save more then just my life that night, or the one when I finally revealed who I am and you accepted that."

Softly smiling, Isley gave a nod. "At the time, I did want to kill you for what seemed like a betrayal. But... I am glad that I didn't. For you may have saved me as well, Sirius Black." Now reaching the top of the hill above the water, she looked at the cave inside a sheltered cove where she lived with a very few members of a fleet she had constructed. They had not been sure about the human who had shared a bed with their Princess at the time, but most had accepted it, if not the noise that often came from the cave. A tear then dripped from her eye. "I will miss you, Sirius Black."

Reaching up, Sirius pulled her down into a kiss. "And I'll miss you, my dearest Isley. Until the day I return to you." When he pulled back, he chuckled a bit. "But I think that I can wait a few days yet to leave."

Not even ten seconds later, Sirius yelped as Isley easily lifted him into her arms. "Then in such a case, we shall make the best of our remaining time, Sirius. I do hope that you plan for plenty of fluids to drink in the coming days..."

Three days later, as the Midnight Moon shone down upon the waves of the North Sea, Isley watched as Sirius got onto the raft she had constructed pulled by one of her Submarines. With a small nod and a final kiss, the two watched as the other faded into the distance pretending not to feel the tears going down their cheeks.

Meanwhile, on another, far darker island in the North Sea, a little girl in a white, bloodstained dress danced among battlements as rain and wave lashed the island she was on. Pausing, her head whipped around and she grinned cracked lips. "Olly, olly Oxen free! I see you now, Sirius Black! You left me without paying the toll... and soon..." Her eyes narrowed and glowed in both anger and unholy glee. "You will lose your very soul..."

 

[darthcourt10]

: Admiral Pendulum

QUEEN OF SPEED

May 10th, 2013, 08:08 Central US time

The museum manager across from the visiting trio and sighed heavily at the lack of video surveillance footage. It was nothing but visual and auditory static until Ian, Craig, and Yuusa appeared on the replaying CCTV tape, after the wizards had made their escape.

"If it weren't for you two having U-505 with you and another witness to backup your claim, I may have had to take Legal action against your legal guardian…"

Josh sneezed as he exited Millennium Station. Promptly, he kicked at a pigeon who he, for no rational reason other than being a nuisance, blamed for the explosive clearing of his nasal passages and rather large glob of mucus that splattered on the concrete.

"However, Mr. Andrews was here early to greet you when these two… Wizards were here messing around with the 999 exhibit."

The Manager turned to the fifth individual sitting next to the door to the office. He was a well dressed man, whom appeared to be at least 90 if not over 100 years. The various wrinkles, veins, and liver spots on his hands that gripped an old oak cane and face alone were enough to give the impression, it was sealed with an old-fashioned bright white Mustache that was large enough to completely cover his thin lips but most strange of all were his grey eyes. Eyes that betrayed the experience of his physical age yet shined with youth and vigor of a young man naught a fraction of his age.

"William," said the man in an equally old timey speech pattern, "These youngins have seen enough that we can drop this pretentious foolishness. Besides, I think my fellow Chicagoan should know as well since this is also her home too."

The trio went wide eyed with the two boys turning their gaze to Yuusa. Who was torn between feeling surprised, frightened, and angry at her status of being a natural born being known by someone they just met.

"How did you…"

The elderly gentleman gave a warm chuckle as he replied.

"Perhaps I'ma needin' to introduce m'self, Theodore Cornelius Andrews is what you'll find on my documentation, You can call me TJ, POTFA, or MOSAI. However, I'm one of them sue-con… stuko… daggnabit! The Japanese have a word for it…"

As the man scratched his surprisingly full head of snowy hair in frustration, the trio spoke in unison.

"A Tsukumogami?"

Theodore's face lit up with a smile that showed the barest sliver of his bottom lip through his mustache as he snapped his boney fingers and pointed at them excitedly.

"YES! That's the confounded word! I am the sue-ko-mo-ga-me of the Palace of the fine arts, or since the 1930's, the museum of science'n Industry."
William sighed as both teens tilted their heads in confusion while Yuusa's jaw dropped.

"You heard right Ma'am. I could help direct attention of those who watched over the exhibits to where little sources a trouble were, beginning in the 1990's. However, only with the influx a ship girls like yerself have I been able to show m'self like this…"

Theodore motioned down his well kept suit, there were a few spots of dust, a few wrinkles on the cuffs, but still nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little work.

"It also gave me the opportunity to see what all the fuss is about around on Addison street during the summer... certainly was more excitin' than a farm of chewing gum."

The submarine's gaze looked at the ground before refocusing at the museum as she spoke.

"Then you were behind the rocks…"

A small nod was given to the U-Boat. He remained quiet about his knowledge of her Identity well before the beginning of the current seaborne conflict. Now was not the time to venture down that road with what happened less than an hour ago on his grounds.

"Of course, How could I be standin' by and let a young man be washed of his memories from a point in his life he will no doubt one day look back fondly on. I couldn't have otherwise be puttin' the breaks on their tomfoolery without revealing my nature. If they were to be sealin' me away like they did 999, we'd be crawling with them aurors like an anthill. I only wish I knew Smithi's status she's a tough old gal, but there are limits to what even she can handle. It doesn't do a lick of good that any communication between us museums would probably being monitored by MACUSA."

The museum gave a brief glance at the manager who shifted his feet slightly under his desk.

Craig put his hands perpendicularly to one another as he spoke.

"Woah, woah, woah! Time out on that Grampa. You're telling us that you're the spirit of the museum and you're not the only one?"

The museum furrowed his brow slightly and cocked his mustache in irritation, but nodded in the affirmative.

"Precisely, and I know I look old but watch who ya spout off around, 999 and USS Illinois look far younger than me and we're not too different in age, time has treated them right more kindly I reckon."

"How do we fix her?"

The four turned their attention to Ian who had his eyes locked on MOSAI with intent that Craig was familiar with.

"Ian…"

Ian cut his friend off with a sharp-as-knives-glare that made the stocky redhead recoil a bit.

The railfan returned his stern gaze to the Museum and continued his question.

"How do we break that spell on her and get her out and showing… that's the best chance to get her restored to operational order."

The manager however sighed at the railfan's misguided and childish idealism.

"We'd need years of time and hundreds of thousands of dollars, of which we don't have available for such an undertaking."

Theodore sighed and hung his head slightly before his warm-grey eyes focused back on the group.

"I'm afraid that's all too true. Not only that, but we simply don't have the space for her to be well cared for and kept runnin' once restored, we have the lowest priority when it comes to fuel rationin' than most other institutions."

Ian's demeanor would have faltered had it not been for the fact that there was enough evidence in his mind for her to be able to walk around like the elderly man he was questioning.

"What if her appearance would put a spotlight on the homefront? Showing those ship girls like Yuusa that they aren't the only one's helping humanity and that back home we're giving it everything we've got to help, and like the war they originally fought, that our railroads are still crucial to the war effort."

TJ's warm, grey eyes searched the thirteen year old as he would a work of art, seaking to prove its authenticity. He gave a slight nod of approval at what he found.

"I reckon that would be a nice idea, if we could rope Illy into helping us with her concerts, we might have a source of green to help getting equipment and the like for 999… but we then risk her getting nabbed by MACUSA for breaking the statute of secrecy around magical happenings."

Craig was about to speak up before the elderly man cut him off.

"Yes, Sonney, the hole they've dug themselves is right deep enough to reach to darn near the bottom of the pacific, most likely spurred by the Salem Witch Trials I reckon. However, the shenanigans they are up to isn't at all justified at this point if what I've been hearin' on this scuttlebutt Ship girls have is anythin' to go by."

Craig held his mouth agape thousands of questions filling his head as to how far these individuals would go. The same questions were pushed aside in Ian's head as he focused on the one he was earlier. The manager then spoke up.

"As one who was at one point in on this conspiracy even as a passive role, I will say that the more recent events and their responses have left me disenchanted, no pun intended, with the statute."

William took his glasses off of his face and sighed at the looks he was given by the trio.

"No, if that's what you're thinking. I myself have no magic, and rather than wipe my mind as many of the staunch conservatives would have done, they kept me on as a proxy to the no-maj world. This incident was the last straw though. If they drew a knife on you three, let alone refusing to go through proper channels to contact me and coordinate camera maintenance with their work. I'll be supporting you in blocking their attempts to get access here. I can buy maybe a week or so but not much else. Which still isn't enough time sadly..."

There was a twinkle in the museum's eyes. The manager stared at him blankly before he spoke again.

"Care to share with the class?"

Theodore nodded and explained.

"While it's true that she has not turned a wheel in well over half a century of bein' under my roof, I know several fella's in the area who might be able to get her fit to run under her own power ready to go before Tuesday night if they put their backs into it. The only catch is…"

A boney finger pointed at the squib manager as he continued.

"You need to turn a blind eye to where we're going and what we're doing as far as MACUSA is concerned. We also need to get Illy in to help out and break that spell with some ship girls aside from Little Yuusa here."

The submarine in question blushed and growled a bit at being called little. The manager, however, nodded with an eyebrow raised.

"So the Auror theory that creatures being moved by an network independent of the flu system are true?"

The museum erupted in an almost wheezing laugh before a harsh cough came through.

"Not say'n you're right or wrong, but they might be a shipgirls who worked near some of the locomotive shops on the coasts, who knows? I will need to ask you to schedule maintenance to check my ventilation system. I think another coon got into the HVAC ducts again, don't blame 'em with how darn humid and hot it gets in the summer."


The two boys, Submarine, and Museum entered the man cage at the oldest exhibit in the museum, The Old Ben No. 17 Coal mine. It had been in place since before Yuusa had been built and remained one of the most popular attractions in the building… much to the U-boat's chagrin. However it was who was in the mine they were after to aid them.

Theodore did a bit of pattern with the man cage when they reached the bottom of the exhibit. Up, up, down, up, down, down, up, down. The final maneuver was held for three seconds before the lights in the mine started to blink out from the end of the gallery in a wave like until the man cage light went out placing the trio into complete darkness. Followed by the feeling that the cart was once more descending. Instead of the 5 minutes it took the normal tour decent, another 10 was required before the shuttle stopped.

A large steel door slid aside to show a well lit corridor not entirely unlike some of the CTA subway stations. However, instead of people, short individuals with long fingers, pale grey skin, and pointed ears that stuck out of old mining caps moved about on the platform.

"Welcome to perhaps the safest spot from MACUSA boys, MGATS, the Midwest Gremlin-American Transit system. You got a way to at least Pittsburgh with them, provided the iron runs from Duluth aren't as heavy today as usual." The Museum announced proudly as they also entered the platform

"Sad to say that's the case TJ."

One of the creatures with a lit cigar clenched in the left corner of its mouth approached, causing both Craig and Ian to take a step back.

"No maj's I take it?" At Theodore's nod the Gremlin sighed and hung his head a bit. "Might as well get used to that if the statute is set to fall in the near future. The Name's Grys Cogbob, I'm the foreman for the South Chicago line here."

He extended a leather gloved hand to the pair. Craig took the risk first and shook his hand, a tad dazed that something out of myth was grasping his hand at the moment. Ian himself wasn't much better off. Their bewilderment was broken by the elderly museum clearing his throat.

"I take it you want to know why there are two outsiders here in the system?"

"You bet your limestone ass, I do! We're already silently thumbing our nose at AssCUSA with even having this system up and running. We've been working on this thing since the 1970's and like hell we're wanting to run from those motherf…"

The rest of Grys's speech was cut off by a loud horn from one of the four tunnels at the platform. The train moved quickly, easily running nearly fifty miles an hour through the second tunnel from them. Despite his best efforts though, Ian was unable to get his phone to function correctly to snap a picture of the electric locomotive. The Gremlin waited for the screching and groaning of steel and iron to pass into the distance after the fifty car train passed through the station.

"Looks like the mainline's still right busy, I take it no time for an extra train to be squeezed in for these two gentlemen heh?" Asked Theodore as Yussa, Ian, and Craigs' ears desperately tried to listen over the ringing in them.

The gremlin sighed and shrugged his shoulders sympathetically.

"Sadly no can do today pal, I have some more local trains that will be stopping through here later in the afternoon, but nothin' going further east than the Nomaj city of South Bend. We've got to keep Iron and coal moving for our part of the war effort after all."

The Tsukomogami's mustache tilted to the side in annoyance. "Any chance that your great-grandpapies are in the area too?"

The gremlin rubbed the long stubble under his chin as he thought.

"Ptchyr is the only one in a 100 mile radius. Nywalt is around Wyoming working with some of the Sasquatch tribes to re-open old Nomaj gilsonite mines, Gyertorvich is in the UP trying to work out a deal with the Mishipeshu for copper despite those 'water kitties with an attitude' playing hardball and Kose is down in Texas trying to get a handle on a Chupacabra infestation that's potentially going to spill into the No Maj sectors, and that's not going to be pretty, Aurors or not."

The museum quirked one of his snowy eyebrows up at the explanation.

"Mish-a-pee-shus Huh? I thought MACUSA would be all over that considerin' the trouble they gave them was up near what Sassy's we're up to if I recall correctly."

"HA! Word on the line is the last team of Aurors they sent up there to deal with'em was so mauled they wouldn't have made it if they didn't have an emergency portkey with'em. They were lucky they only lost some limbs and were able to get treated for it. Pissy kitties ain't havin' shit from AssCUSA, We're only able to talk with'em because we've kept the Nomaj's away from their territory."


The Ship girl and two youths were bewildered at the whole conversation. Craig finally stepped forward trying to break the two from getting into a long-winded 'catch up' conversation

"Hold on… You're saying that Bigfoot, and Goat-suckers are real!?"

Grys raised a thin eyebrow at the taller nomaj as he answered.

"They're called Sasquatches bud, Bigfoot is an insult, if not an outright racial slur to them, and you don't want a SasQ angry with ya."

Without missing a beat, the Gremlin turned his gaze back to the Tsukumogami.

"I'll ask for one of the locals to slow down for you guys to hop on. Next train is a work one that'll get ya to around Navy Pier. He'll be around there in one of the gambling lots. The train will be here in about 10 minutes. So get ready to hop on."

Theodore nodded before motioning the trio over towards the platform.

Yuusa finally had her sonar operator's ears to stop bleeding from the earlier passing train, only to pale at what the Gremlin said they were to catch a train on the fly. Only worsened by the fact that she had a railfan and another teenager who would follow through.

"You're joking right? You're not going have them stop to let us board!"

The creature took his Cigar out to ash it on a nearby gremlin-height wastebin.

"Lady, we got schedules to keep, I'm going to need to work around the train being slow to keep all the other through lines running to the next dispatch bloc. We're doing our damnedest to help you ship girls on the frontline. If ya don't want to risk it you can walk the platform all the way there and I can't vouch for the condition or cleanliness off the tracks. I'm dispatch, not maintenance. It's going to be cruising through at around 5 miles an hour, you can hop it. Just watch the next westbound. The workers are going to be hopping on too."

The platinum blonde furrowed her brow at the gremlin before another loud horn sounded off. Her sonar operator quickly doffed his headphones before the electric train entered the station moving at a brisk pace.

As it did so, the empty gondolas had one side flip down to create a short bridge. It also showed a key distinction between the goblin and gremlin, the latter were able to jump farther and move quicker than their monetary obsessed cousins. All 25 gremlins on the platform were able to land on the rolling stock with practiced ease. Once onboard they carefully clambered over the bulkhead ends of the cars to fully fill the foremost, thus allowing anyone else to jump into an empty car without worrying about knocking into someone or worse.

"Since you're humans and I don't want damage to rolling stock or a derailment on my watch, you're going to be doing that on a quarter of that speed. The train will be stopping at where you need to go. We only board on the fly, unless you're ballsy even for a gremlin."

Grys turned to the young men before he continued.

"Make damn sure your shoelaces are tight and then tucked into your shoes, any loose clothing tucked in as best it can, and aim for landing in the first quarter of the car length. That'll give you time to slide to a stop. One person to a car."

The gremlin then headed off back to the station office, while Craig turned to his railfan friend.

"Anything else you want to add?"

Ian looked up in thought before answering.

"Aside from avoiding the gap? Try not to grab anything unless you know it's a wall. I'm not as familiar with mine railroads as the Subways, but last thing you want to do is accidentally yank a handbrake on and force an uncoupling."

The redhead nodded and continued.

"... Nice to know, I take it that would lead to a derailment?"

Ian nodded in the affirmative.

"If not we'll have some really angry railroading gremlins breathing down our necks…"

If the submarine were any paler, she would have been a candidate for impersonating an abyssal. Gremlins could be outright vindictive to an offender's mechanical constructs.

"Right! No angering engineering creatures Ja?"

It was then there was an announcement on the PA system announcing the delays, with a few of groans of irritation from others on the platform. As predicted by the dispatching Gremlin, the the quartet's train rumbled through after ten minutes and three eastbound trains.


"Get goin'!"

MOSAI took a leap and landed in the first empty gondola, followed by a reluctant Yuusa in the second. Much to the natural born's surprise the landing was soft and her inertia was compensated for, most likely a bit of enchantment on the cars.

"Just get on! No worries about falling down unless you really try to!"

Ian looked to his friend after the submarine had shouted at them.

"I seriously hope you're not going to hold this against me after the many times I've berated others about climbing on trains moving or otherwise."

Craig chuckled a bit as he ran towards his car and shouted his response.

"This isn't the first time I know that you've ignored your own advice!"

Although tempted to run after him, the time he had done that was during a crew change in the Indiana city of Elkhart when he was eight. Josh would have had an aneurysm if he had been stuck on that westbound. How Craig knew about that was a question for another day as he ran for his car and hopped aboard. Almost immediately the train began to pick up speed. His ears were ringing with the sound of steel grinding on steel, but this was something he would certainly remember for years to come. Hopping on a train with his friend as well as a Tsukomogami and ship girl to boot, all on a railroad run by gremlins.
--------------------

AN: For those wondering exactly where the inspiration for Theodore came from... Well, Just fast forward to 6:47... If you've played the game you know exactly the kind of voice he has.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Glancing at the yawning Harry, Tanith blinked a bit. "Uncle Harry? Shouldn't you be... going to bed.. soon?"

Just stretching, the black haired boy shook his head. "Yeah, I should be. But I need to stay up for a little bit longer." He then gave Tanith a smile. "And yes, I know that tomorrow is the big day."

Tanith smiled slightly at that and nodded. "Yes, tomorrow is a very... big day as we... sign the same treaty... as mother did." Pausing, she tapped a finger to her chin. "It will be nice... to be able to... visit Mother as well... as yourself... Uncle Harry."

With a hum, Harry felt his lips twitch. "Looking forward to it. Though I might get you all an Owl Box so that you can at least send letters to Hoppou and back without worry. And also so that you can inform people ahead of time that you will be coming."

All Tanith did at that was nod before Yoko spoke up. "But why do you need to stay up, Uncle Harry? I can't think of any reason..."

Once more yawning, Harry frowned some. "Oh, that's easy. Today is when the Hogwarts letters go out. We'll be getting a list of school supplies that I need as well as school books for the various classes and such that I'm taking."

Not even seconds later, Chiana looked up from her book with a blink. "School books?" The Chi class had an odd look in her eye as she continued. "You're going to be getting new books?"

More then a little amused at the book loving Abyssal, Harry gave a small nod. "I am as a matter fact. Probably a couple being as I'm taking a number of classes as well."

Intrigued, Tanith gave him her attention. "A number of... classes? And why would... you need to wait... for so long?"

Sighing, Harry ran a hand through his hair with a small grimace. "Hogwarts doesn't send out the letters until about noon. Problem being that we're about eight hours ahead of Hogwarts. And it takes the owls about two hours minimum to reach the Weasleys and some time to get up here to where we are."

A frown on her face, Tanith glanced at the clock which read close to midnight. Internally, she remembered that her uncle had been awake for since early that morning due to preparations to head down to Kushiro to sign the treaty and for the fleet to stay there for some time. Not to mention how they were going to prepare for Regalia's rebuild. "You should still... try and get some... sleep, Uncle Harry."

Harry was about to say something when Shinano appeared and sat down beside him. There was a small blush on her face as she patted her lap. "Um, she's right. And if you want, you can lay here in my lap."

Blinking, the wizard searched her face and, after she nodded, he laid down with his head in her lap. "Thanks, Shinano-Chan." Moments later, his eyes drifted shut as he felt her run fingers through his hair. It only seemed like he had just gone to sleep when suddenly she was lightly shaking him. "Hmm, what?"

Softly giggling at the sight of the groggy nearly thirteen year old, Shinano's eyes sparkled behind her glasses. Then she pointed at the table. "Owl-San has just arrived, Harry-Chan. And I think that he wants to get going."

When Harry turned, he raised an eyebrow at the sight of an owl there drinking from a metal bowl filled with water. Once it noticed him awake, it put out one leg and Harry took the envelope from it. "Thank you for that." The owl only blinked and gave a hoot before continuing to drink. "Now... let's see what I need to get."

Looking over his shoulder, Shinano adjusted her glasses some. "Some of these sound interesting, but... what about this one? An Introduction to Basic Alchemy by Mary? Mary who?"

Eyebrows furrowing, Harry had to think it over until he blinked as he remembered the name from his first year. In particular his research into Nicholas Flamel. "I think that's Mary the Jewess." At the confused look from the Support Carrier, he shook his head. "She was, or maybe is, a female alchemist. From what I remember, she was around in the First Century AD and is credited with having created a Philosopher's Stone along with some others. Last time she was seen though was the 1900s, hence why Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker now. Mary is pretty much one of the big names in alchemy."

Jaw dropped, Shinano looked from the name on the book to Harry and back. "W-wouldn't that mean that she was alive for over a thousand years, Harry-Chan? I mean... that is a long time."

Finger tapping the table, Harry gave a nod. "Hai, she would have been around for over a thousand, almost two thousand years. But most think that she's finally dead, though one of the books stated that she might still be alive." Considering what was in front of him, the black haired wizard tilted his head. "Though I'm pretty sure that this book would be informative."

Only nodding as she continued to read the list, Shinano frowned some. "Maybe?" Seeing the other books though, she felt her eyebrows raise. "That's a number of classes, Harry-Chan. And along with your non-magical schoolwork..."

Shrugging, the nearly thirteen year old shook his head. "Not really? The magical art class is only big for one year. After that, it's once a week in the late afternoons after the other classes have stopped depending on what part the student wants to focus on." At her interest, Harry continued. "One day would be for learning how to paint magical portraits, one day for carving, and so forth. Basic enchanting is one day with classes specifically for that once we reach NEWT level with Professor Flitwick. Its mainly all basic stuff until you reach NEWT level though unlike some classes you can move up at your own pace, so you can reach that faster."

Thoughtful, Shinano tilted her head some. "That's why you're taking that class? Because then you can move up faster?"

With a hum, Harry smiled at her. "That's right. From some of what Percy told me, a few students use the enchanting portion to skip ahead on some charms since they need to learn them. One of those little tricks that no one really knows." He then tilted his head. "Ghoulish Studies is another one that after Third Year is only once a week, or self study. Ancient Runes and Arithmancy are ones that I'm interested in, especially the second as I'm pretty good at math."

Looking over the sheet, Shinano blinked as a thought occurred to her. "You're not taking Muggle Studies, Harry-Chan?" When he shook his head, she frowned. "Why?"

In reply, Harry only shrugged. "Because it doesn't interest me. Besides which, in that case it can easily be taken as self-study as well if I wanted. Divination, I'm not sure about but should be interesting. I mean, that sort of thing is sort of important for an Onmyouji since Ukehi and futomani are both used among other things."

Head tilted to the side, the Yamato considered what had just been told to her before her eyes widened. "You want to compare Onmyouji methods with western ones, right?"

That got her a nod from Harry and a bright smile. "Exactly! It'll be informative anyways..." Scanning the rest of the letter though, he furrowed his eyebrows. "Huh, Professor McGonagall wants to see me when I arrive at Hogwarts. Wonder why?"

All Shinano did was shrug at that as they chatted a bit. Soon enough, the Hogwarts owl was gone and Harry tucked his envelope into his pocket while walking towards the cuddle pile not far away. Hearing snickers though, he turned to Shinano who gave a sheepish smile. "Um, sorry about that, Harry-Chan."

Lips twitching, Harry gave a small snort at that. "You don't have anything to be sorry about, Shinano-Chan. But what was so funny?"

Chewing her lip, the Carrier looked around before leaning forward. "Um, well, you know Kaa-San? And how Gambier Bay is my Oba-San, right?"

Snickers escaped from Harry as he nodded. The black haired boy could remember the nervous Escort Carrier and her reaction when White Plains introduced her to her "Daughterboats". Gambier Bay having frozen in place for several seconds trying to figure it out and her expression afterwards. "Yes? What about it?"

With another look around, Shinano held out her phone and showed Harry a picture on it. One that made him blink some as it showed a happy Gambier Bay eating a burger next to some guy who she was leaning against. "Eh? Who's that?"

Brightly smiling, Shinano shook her head. "WickedCard on SGO, he's her boyfriend apparently and she's only now just revealed it." Sighing, she shook her head. "Gambier Bay-Oba-Chan looks really happy."

Eyebrow raising, Harry checked the responses before snorting. "Um, White Plains doesn't seem happy that she wasn't told before now."

It was not surprising to the wizard when Shinano gave a sharp nod. "Well, Oba-Chan should have told Kaa-San before now! But still... Kaa-San is pretty happy that she has a boyfriend now."

Continuing to read the responses, Harry had to snicker at what the rest of Taffy 3 said to it before shaking his head. Handing back the phone, he smiled up at Shinano. "Well, good for her." After Shinano nodded and put away her phone, the black haired boy got up onto his tip toes and kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks for letting me nap by the way. I appreciate it."

A little bit flustered, Shinano leaned down and kissed him on the cheek as well before smiling. "You're welcome, Harry-Chan." Stretching some, she noted that they had nearly reached the cuddlepile. "Anyways, hard to believe that it is the twenty sixth of July. Just five more days and you'll be thirteen."

Simply smiling, Harry nodded with a chuckle. "Can't wait." Then the two made their way into the cuddlepile before soon falling asleep.

 

[darthcourt10]

Snippet 31: S0ngD0g13

I live... by certain definitions of living... Have a snippet!
.................................................

Kaylee flowed through the kata, her strikes sudden and powerful, her blocks armor-hard, and once she finished, she bowed.

"You are improving," commented Aso in a dry voice.

"Thank you," the Ironclad said. "You're a good teacher, Cousin." Aso suppressed a flinch and Kaylee chose not to comment on it; the Carrier was trying to be more civil, and Kaylee respected that. Kaylee sat and wiped her brow. "How's Gekkou doing? I saw y'all out running yesterday."

That brought a genuine smile to Aso's lips; she adored her Akita/Shepherd-mix puppy. "He's growing like a weed, Kaylee, and into everything; I've lost two pairs of slippers to chewing and spent most of this morning cleaning flour up after he somehow got onto the counter and tipped the container over."

Kaylee nodded and grinned. "He's a good dog."

Aso nodded back. "He's a good dog." There was something in Aso's voice that Kaylee recognized, and this, like the flinch, Kaylee kept her peace about. Lord and Lady knew that animals helped on a bad night; her dad had more than his own share of demons and many was the night she'd gotten up to use the head and found Eric McAmis sitting curled up in a corner with his German Shepherd, Antietam, laying next to him.

Many more was the morning that Uncle James or one of the other handlers at the Kennels found Kaylee, her back in a corner, divested of all weapons but a single unloaded revolver, asleep with a minesweeper curled around her protectively.

"How is Gosling doing?" Aso's question broke Kaylee free of her reverie.

"Crabby as a wet hen; she's moulting. Plus Charlotte's been busy dealing with hers and the Twins' own moults, so Gosling's probably a bit lonely."

"How are Boromir and Faramir? I haven't seen them since the Parachute Incident."

Kaylee laughed aloud. "Charlotte decided that if they wanted to try being soldiers that they'd have to train like soldiers; she gave them into the tender mercies of Gunny Singh and told him to give them the Full Parris Island."

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Coming to a stop, Mary felt the need to pinch her nose before frowning at the man in front of her. "Howard."

A small smile on his face as he adjusted his sunglasses the wizard smiled slightly with a hint of amusement in his face. "Mary! What a surprise to find you here."

Just giving a look at Kisei who seemed somewhat lost, and getting an unsure smile, Mary turned back to Howard. "Not as much of a surprise as seeing you here. May I ask what someone who works in Tokyo is doing in Yokosuka?"

Humming as he juggled an orange, he tilted his head slightly. "Checking out some of the local produce among other things." Seeing the eyebrow raise on Mary's face, his smile widened a touch. "Also checking on a few other things."

Part of Mary wanted to sigh at that, but long experience meant that she was able to control that. Granted, she still had an overwhelming urge to give an eye roll. "I see. Perhaps the various sights?"

All three of them knew that she meant the shipgirls in the local base, as well as any Abyssals. Especially as Supply Depot Princess was often sighted in the city and there was rumors that Wanko would be in the area. Along with the one stating that the other Demons and Princesses would be arriving in a few days, Mary had no doubt that was the real reason. That many Princess and Demon class Abyssals being close enough to observe was an intelligence goldmine that would be rarely equalled.

Of course, that was when they heard a throat clearing and a small girl that Mary recognized from the base was there with a cart. "Um, excuse me? May I get by, please?"

The three magicals blinked at that and moved out of her way. Though Kisei gave a small smile as she noted the small girl pushing a cart with a large amount of food. "Sorry about that. Helping out your parents?"

Blinking, the young girl looked up at her in confusion before her expression changed to one of realization. Then she shook her head rapidly. "Oh no, I'm doing some shopping for my daughters. They're big eaters you know."

Somewhat bemused, Howard let out a small chuckle. "Daughters, hmm?"

With a nod, the girl looked around with a small frown. "Yes, I have four of them though one is away at the moment and..." Huffing, she shook her head with a pout. "Where did those three go...?"

Unable to help herself, Mary felt her lips twitch. "Problematic daughters?" When the girl nodded, the witch chuckled and shook her head. "I know the feeling."

Out of the corner of her eye, the American magical could see Jin pause and glance at Howard and Kisei. Before either of the two could spot the Mizuchi though, a voice rang out. "Found her!" All three adults turned and blinked at the giant, six and a half foot tall young woman who jogged over. With a nod to Mary and the others, she turned to the young girl and bowed. "Um, Kaa-San?"

Said little girl crossed her arms and just gave the young woman a look that Mary knew instinctively was that of a mother. "Hoki! You and your sisters know better then to run off like that." Wagging a finger, she frowned even deeper. "And here I was looking all over the store for you."

Flinching a bit, the now identified Hoki chewed her lip. "Sorry, Kaa-San. We were, um..." Then she moved behind the cart and took it. "I'll push the cart to make it up to you."

As she did so, the girl nodded and moved back. Then she shot a look behind Mary. "Musashi, Yamato. Why did you run off like that?"

The three magicals turned and blinked at the sight of the blushing Yamato and Musashi. The lead of her class pointed at Musashi. "I, Yamato, noticed that Musashi-Chan had wandered off and went to get her. And Hoki-Chan followed." Bowing a bit, she gave the smaller girl an embarrassed look. "Sorry, Okaa-San."

When the girl turned to Musashi, the tanned Battleship held up a package as she rumbled. "This Musashi noticed that they had some hamburgers on special. But when I turned, I noticed that you were gone, Okaa-San."

Sighing, the little girl shook her head. "Oh, Musashi." Then she gave a small smile and held out a hand. Looking at the burgers, a hum escaped her before she nodded. "Very well, these are some good prices. But..."

Both of the two oldest Yamatos blinked some and spoke as one. "But?"

Quick as a snake, the young girl who Mary recognized as White Plains grabbed both of their hands and gave them a look. "It seems that I will be needing to hold your hands to prevent you from running off until we leave the store."

Hanging their heads as they blushed, the two nodded. "Hai, Okaa-San..."

While they walked off with White Plains still reprimanding her two "Daughters", Mary could see a utterly befuddled Jin muttering to herself. Then, she glanced to the side and had to bite back a laugh. Not because Kisei looked completely lost, but because Howard's composure had slipped. Even as she watched, his glasses slipped down his nose as he just boggled at what happened. 'Ah, shipgirls. Despite the headaches, they can be entertaining at times.'
_____________________________________________________________________

Grunting a bit as he pulled out two duffle bags, Jones sighed some before noticing that Sara was giving him a look. "Is something wrong, Sara?"

The Carrier frowned before sighing some. "Its nothing, Sky. But still, don't strain yourself too much. We don't want you to be hurt after all."

Suddenly appearing from the other side of the car, Toga gave a nod with the Battlecruiser giving her "Twin" a nod. "Exactly, this is a small break while we're on leave. Nothing but us, our sisters, Lexteen, and you. Not to mention a small cove to fish in not too far off."

Chuckling, Sky gave her a small smile that made her blush. "Don't worry about me too much, I can handle some luggage. Besides..." Taking a deep breath, he let it out. "Maybe I'll get some writing done."

Giggles made them look at Lexteen who was grinning. Moments later, she waggled her eyebrows some. "That is if Mom and Ma even let you rest enough for that. Between the two of them wanting to... enjoy... they're time with you, I'd be worried about you coming back more tired then you arrived here!"

Deeply blushing, Sara turned to her "Daughter" and tried to glare at her. Unfortunately, it was ruined by the red face she had. "LEX!"

Only shaking his head, Sky began walking towards the small cabin. "I'll head on ahead while you wait for the others, Sara, Toga." It did not take the author long to reach his destination and he set down the two bags before reaching for the door knob after pulling out the key. Just as he was about to grab it though, Jones paused as he felt the hairs on his neck prickle. He then noticed something odd. 'Wait...' Reaching forward, he gently turned it and his eyebrows raised as it opened easily. "It was unlocked?"

Walking inside, he had to stare some. On the table were some of their plates out as if someone had just been using them and he could see other signs as well. Such as cans emptied of their contents in the recycling bin not far off. Not only that, but Sky could hear the shower going just before it cut off. Tensing, he turned to the bathroom in time for it to open and reveal what was obviously an Abyssal with a towel wrapped around her, though one that looked familiar.

And then the Abyssal noticed him and her eyes widened before rushing at him.

Softly sighing, Sara glanced at her Battlecruiser twin with an internal frown. While she had gotten used to sharing her boyfriend with her, Sara still didn't quite like it. After all, Sky was hers! But...

But...

But her Battlecruiser counterpart did love him as much as she did. And it would be slightly unfair to just toss her. Thus, the two had worked something out between the two of them. Something that managed, somehow, to work out for the threesome. At that thought, her lips twitched as she remembered one night. As it turned out, her boyfriend really did not have too many complaints about things.

Especially not after that night, though he needed some painkillers in the morning.

Humming, she continued walking along as she considered what they were going to do at the cabin. Thankfully, with a second one where her sisters and Lexteen would be staying, that meant that her and Toga had him all to themselves. And this time, her sister could not complain about noise levels! Yes, the three of them and the cabin. Sara's mind then drifted a bit to some news she had gotten. 'I wonder if I'll be able to summon my hull soon enough...'

Just as she was about to go into fantasies regarding Sky and her upon her hull, Saratoga was snapped out of her thoughts by Lexteen. "Uh, Mom? Why did Sky leave his bags outside?"

With a blink, Sara looked at the bags and so did Toga, with the Battlecruiser frowning. "That... is a good question. Maybe some sort of animal got inside and Sky is trying to chase it out?"

Now hearing any real sounds except for something moving, the two twin shipgirls shared a look and walked forward. Upon entering though, their eyes widened at the sight of Sky's face smooshed into the chest of a towel garbed Abyssal Princess. Then Sara took a step forward. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!?"

Looking up, the Abyssal blinked before frowning. "And here I was unsure if she was lying or not. Yet, here you are... both of you."

Before either Sara or Toga could say anything else, Lexteen raised a hand even though she was moments from summoning her own rigging. "Um, who are you? You look like Mom, but..."

Upon glancing at her, the Abyssal's expression softened. "I... suppose that the best way to put it is that I am an Abyssal clone, I think. A hybrid between the Carrier in front of me and the one known as Jellyfish Princess. Or that was what I was told before I helped kill the Abyssal who created me."

Snarling, Toga joined Sara in glaring at their uninvited guest. "And what, exactly, are you doing here? Also, what are you doing with Sky!?"

A frown on her face, the Abyssal Saratoga frowned. "This was the only place that I could think of to go to considering my... state. As for what I am doing?" She then pulled Sky closer to her and gave the other two Saratogas a glare. "I am currently embracing my boyfriend after a long, long journey and time separated!"

Then, to prove it, she pulled his face out of her chest before kissing him heatedly. Sky meanwhile was flailing a bit until she let go. Greedily sucking in air, he heard the gasps and then the rapid footsteps. Twisting the best that he could, the author could see the determined expressions on the Saratoga Twins' (or would that be triplets now, part of his mind supplied unhelpfully) faces. "Sara! Toga! Wait-"

However, he was unable to finish before the two reached them and he found his head pressed back into the Abyssal Saratoga's chest by the chests of the other two. Then all four of them tumbled to the floor as the two Shipgirls argued with the Abyssals, the poor boyfriend stuck under two of them with the third beneath him as they all squirmed. Lex, the older Carrier took this in before taking a picture with a small smirk. At the look from Lexteen though, she snorted. "Get your own blackmail."

The younger Carrier just huffed and pouted some.

 

[darthcourt10]

Barricade Omake: Never let a shark god watch Jaws

Jaegerkin said:
I seem to remember some snippets around the time the Hawaii gods were discussed, that Indianapolis had unknowingly gotten into a maybe relationship with the shark god. Despite her sharkfobia. And everyone else was waiting for her to realize and wondering what to do​

*-*-*-*-*

Never let a shark god watch Jaws.
"Go for the legs Bruce, go for the legs! Rawr!"

"WTF man, why'd he let her go? Just get in there and rip'n'tear. Bad sport man. Don't leave em hanging."

"Now that's rude. Poking at someone's leftovers like that."

"Eh, too small. Eh, too scrawny. Eh, will only get hungry 30 min later. Oh, hey, here's one. Lunch!"

"Boo. Hi. Bye."

"Nice Dock. Shame if something were to...happen to it."

"Oh you did NOT go shooting that barrel shit at my boy. I'm gonna come through that screen and beat you."

"Oh hey there. Hi! Nice Boat. Might if I have a nibble? Heheheh."

"Oh yeaaaaah. Keep throwing that good stuff over board. Soooo good. Yeeeah."

"Surprise Muthafucker! First you had snakes on a plane, now you get Sharks on a BOAT."

"DYNAMIC ENTRY! Ow. Hey, stop hitting Bruce. He bruises."

"Ah man. *sniffs* I haven't cried like this *sniffs* since Bambi's mother got shot. I...I...I need a hug."

-=-
And then someone let Revina in, and she started commenting about the sequels, and how the sharks just keep getting shafted all the time.

Somewhere along the line, they started reminiscing about the past, and to the surprise of everyone, they find out all three are weepy drunks. Very very weepy, drunks.

Wanko never deletes the evidence. Ever.

 

[darthcourt10]

Barricade Omake: Sky gonna Sky.

Harry Leferts said:
However, he was unable to finish before the two reached them and he found his head pressed back into the Abyssal Saratoga's chest by the chests of the other two. Then all four of them tumbled to the floor as the two Shipgirls argued with the Abyssals, the poor boyfriend stuck under two of them with the third beneath him as they all squirmed. Lex, the older Carrier took this in before taking a picture with a small smirk. At the look from Lexteen though, she snorted. "Get your own blackmail."

The younger Carrier just huffed and pouted some.​

*-**-*-*-*-*

They see me CVing
They hatin
CAPing they tryin to catch me flyin' dirty
Tryin to catch me flyin' dirty
Tryin to catch me flyin' dirty
Tryin to catch me flyin' dirty
Tryin to catch me flyin' dirty
My prop is so loud
I'm roarin
They hopin that they gonna catch me boltin' early
Tryin to catch me boltin' early
Tryin to catch me boltin' early
Tryin to catch me boltin' early
Tryin to catch me boltin' early

"Whoever put this video up of Jones with 8-bit sunglasses, Toga & Sara on either side of him, with SaTo in his lap, in the backseat of a convertible, bobbing his head like a gangster, is..."

"A genius, sir?"

"...Well, okay, yes. But what I was going to say, is that they're going to need to be in front of the Admiral's office at 0900 tomorrow morning or there will be worse hell to pay then if they don't come forward immediately, and we have to figure it out through the file's metadata."

"Ouch, umm, sir."

"Ouch indeed. Make sure everyone in your division knows about that fact."

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

The Sun had not been risen for very long when the beach was cleaned of any debris left from the past few days encampment. With that done, the fleet headed out along the shore while the orb that gave life to the planet was still low on the horizon. Easily plowing through the waves as various Abyssal Destroyers on the edge of their formation leapt and breached the waves like Orcas, Sunny brushed some hair out of her eyes as she gazed around. At the head of the Abyssals, Hoppou skipped along the waves with Nagato beside her. The rest of the Abyssal fleet was surrounded by shipgirls to form a guard of sorts. Out of the corner of her eye, Sunny could see Shinano and Regina softly talking with one another.

Everyone though was calm and happy compared to the last time they headed out. Granted, it was mainly because now Mother was there with them and, more then that, peace had been made. Chuckling, Sunny had to shake her head at that. 'And isn't that a wonderful thing? Mother managed to make it so that none of us will have to fight the humans.'

"Penny for your thoughts, Sunny?"

Humming, Sunny looked over her shoulder at her Beast. Or, rather, Harry who was seated between the massive being's two heads. Sunny was unable to help herself but smile at the slight ridiculous look of her nearly thirteen year old Uncle sitting there with an orange lifevest. More then that, Harry had both hands on different spikes. "It's nothing, Uncle Harry. Just thinking about how lucky we are."

One eyebrow raised, Harry chuckled. "About meeting Hoppou? How everything has turned out? Or because now there's peace?"

Lips curling a bit, Sunny gave a chuckle. "As a matter of fact? Yes to all of that." Glancing around again, she could spot where the Canadian warship was being towed. "I'll admit, sometimes I can't help but wonder if all this is a dream."

Shrugging, Harry shook his head. "Sometimes I'm the same, I wonder if I'll wake up in my cupboard back at the Dursleys, all alone." With his gaze on the clouds, the black haired boy missed Sunny clench her hand or her Beast do much the same. He did give it an odd look when the massive Abyssal creature gave a growl that caused his very bones to vibrate some. But then shaking it off, Harry continued. "But I know that its not a dream."

With a deep breath, Sunny let go of the anger from the reminder of what her Uncle had suffered as a child and gave him a smile. "Same here. Especially as orange juice never tastes as good in a dream as it does in real life."

That got a bright laugh from Harry though he shook his head as well. "True enough, I suppose." Looking at his mount though, the young wizard hummed a bit. "Thanks for letting me come along like this, I really enjoy it."

A snicker escaped from the Battleship Water Demon as she shook her head. "You're welcome, Uncle Harry. Besides, it was better then your other idea which Grandma said no to."

Huffing a bit, Harry rolled his eyes. "I still don't see the issue with it."

Just looking over her shoulder, Sunny gave him a raised eyebrow though she was grinning. "Uncle Harry, your plan was to put on a wetsuit and to ride on the back of one of the Destroyers to Kushiro. All the way there."

Simply waving her off, Harry shook his head. "Yes, and? I would have been warm enough in my wetsuit. And it would have been so awesome to do so." Shaking his head, he gave a small sigh of disappointment. "Not like I wouldn't have been safe."

Considering that, Sunny had to give a nod. After all, anyone trying to harm their uncle around them would have met a very short, extremely violent end. And all of them would have been very careful not to hurt him themselves. Her smile widening a bit, she glanced at her Uncle her grinned back at her. "And people wonder why the two of us get along so well."

An innocent look on his face, Harry gave a small shrug. "Who knows?"

In reply, Sunny snickered some. "Yeah, who knows?" Stretching some, she sighed a bit at the brush of the cool, sea breeze against her skin. "Just remember to pick up some of those prank items that you talked about. I cannot wait to try them."

Harry just gave her a thumbs up while at the head of the formation, Hoppou looked around with narrowed eyes. 'Why does Hoppou feel like Big Brother and Sunny are planning to be very silly? And that Hoppou should use spray bottle on them?'

Back with Harry and Sunny though, the two glanced at Chiana who was changing her position in the formation to be closer to where they were. Looking up at her adoptive uncle, the Chi class took a deep breath. "Uncle Harry? Can I ask you something?"

Eyebrow raised, Harry gave her a small nod. "Sure, what do you need to ask about?"

Relaxing a bit, Chiana chewed her lip a bit. "This city, Kushiro? Does it have any bookstores? And... could you get Mom to let me visit one?"

Part of Harry was amused by how, somehow, he was the one that his various nieces had decided that could be relied upon to convince Hoppou of things. But he kept that to himself. "Well, Kushiro is pretty good size for a city. After all, it's the major port on this side of Hokkaido which is why there are shipgirls stationed there. As for book stores though... I don't know of any off hand. But I would be surprised if there weren't any. But there is a small problem..."

Now frowning, Chiana blinked up at him. "Problem? What sort of problem?"

Leaning forward on his perch as much as he felt it was safe, Harry raised an eyebrow. "Well, the problem is pretty simple. Can you read Japanese as those would be the most likely language that the books are written in?"

Chiana opened her mouth only to pause and flush a bit. "Oh, um... no. I can't..."

At seeing her become depressed, the wizard shook his head. "Hey, look at me for a moment." Once she did so, he continued. "Tell you what though, when things get settled, I'll see about getting you a catalogue or see if you can't go to a bookstore that sells in English. Or a library."

Expression brightening, Chaina smiled a bit before reaching into her hold. "Sounds good, Uncle Harry. Though do you think that they would accept this for trade?"

Moments later, Harry froze as she pulled out a jeweled candlestick and held it up. For some odd reason, he felt his fingertips itch a bit, but fought it down. Mainly because there was a more important issue. "Where... did you get that?"

Blinking in confusion, Chaina shrugged. "From the island we sometimes stay on. There's all sorts of stuff like this all over the place in the castle or hidden. Tsunami stated that the fishermen she traded with took a goblet and gave her an entire net and stuff."

A frown on her face, Sunny tilted her head at the look on her Uncle's face as well as his muttering. "Uh, Uncle Harry? What's the big deal? I mean, it's just metal and some other Abyssals would just eat it. Heck, some of the girls found the same metal all over the place in sand and stuff. Ruki over there-" She pointed at a Ru class not far off. "She sticks with Patty and sometimes like to play that yellow metal like some human kids played with that soft playdo stuff. Likes to make shapes and stuff."

When the two saw Harry facepalm, they shared a look and a shrug. But then their uncle sighed and shook his head. "Chiana? That's made of gold, I think. And so is that yellow metal that you're talking about. Humans will actually give a lot of money for that sort of thing."

Eyes widening, Chiana and Sunny both looked in surprise at the candlestick before the Chi class turned back to her Uncle. "A... lot of money, Uncle Harry?" After he nodded, she gulped with her eye filled with hope. "Enough to maybe make a library?"

That got her an confused look from Harry before Sunny spoke up. "Chiana really likes reading and used to spend a lot of time back in Unalaska just visiting the small library there. She's mentioned wanting to make one on Tanith's island."

Glancing at Chiana, Harry held out one hand and she gently gave him the candlestick. Now able to look at it more closely, the black haired boy frowned in thought before shaking his head and handing it back. "Honestly? Yeah, that might be enough for a library. But if you really want one, I can give a bit of a hand." At her look of interest, he continued. "I know where to get a bunch of bookshelves for practically nothing. And I know that in the storage shed back in England that my family used there's lots of tables and the like. Pretty much the only thing that you might need to buy is the actual books."

For several moments, Chiana stared at him before giving a small squee and hopping a bit. "Eeee! My own library! My very own library!" Looking around, she frowned. "Where's Tanith? I got to talk with her about finding a place in the palace!"

As she rushed off, the Battleship Water Demon could only shake her head in amusement. "Whooo boy, there she goes." Tilting her head, she glanced at Harry. "Don't libraries need more then just books, tables, and bookcases though? I thought that they had paintings and stuff."

Just shrugging, Harry shook his head. "That's easy enough to solve really. You can put framed pictures and such up on the walls. Or by comfortable chairs and that sort of thing."

Considering that, Sunny gave a small nod as the two continued to chat. Eventually, two hours later they came into sight of Kushiro and Sunny's eyes widened. Hers was not the only ones among the Abyssals either. 'Oh... wow...'

More then a little confused at the silence, Harry pulled out some binoculars and looked around. He could see Regalia on the bow of the HMCS Regina with her jaw dropping as she boggled at the Kushiro waterfront. Scanning the various faces, Harry could only blink as all of them were showing various degrees of shock or surprise. Even the other Princesses and Demons stared at Kushiro. Pulling the binoculars away from his eyes, he looked down at Sunny. "Something wrong?"

Finally shaking herself free of her shock, Sunny looked up at him before spreading her arms. "Look at it! This place is huge!"

With a blink, Harry looked from her to the approaching waterfront and back. "Uh, it is? I mean..."

Looking at him Sunny could only give him a lost look. "Yes? This is the biggest human place that we've ever been to! Unalaska had nothing on this place!"

The wizard rolled that around in his head before chuckling some. "I suppose so..." Internally though, he was snickering. 'If they think that Kushiro is huge, I wonder what their reaction might be if they see Yokosuka?'

 

[darthcourt10]

NotHimAgain

As Hermione took a sip of her soup, she felt Harry jostle her shoulder. Lowering her spoon halfway, she turned to look at him. "Yes, Harry, is something the matter?" she asked.

"There are submarine girls under the table," Harry replied. "I felt something brush past and I looked, and there are submarine girls under the table." Hermione nodded. Ah, they were getting ready for that, weren't they? Ron glanced at Harry, then ducked his head under the tablecloth. He came up startled.

"Blimey, he's right. What's going on here?" he asked. "They're all dressed up in renaissance fair costumes."

"Ren-a-what?" Neville asked.

"Renaissance fair, it's a kind of a festival where muggles go around dressed up in knight and princess costumes and eat carnival food," Ron summarized. "Duke took me to one after we got back from Japan, it was…" he flushed. "Getting off track. Submarine girls?" Hermione nodded. If anyone would figure out what was going on, it would have been this group here.

"One of the pirate girls made a bet with them about whether or not they would do a musical number in the middle of dinner in front of everyone." Hermione smirked, taking another sip. "I don't think she realized that Ham-And-Cheese subs have no shame."

"And you know this because…" Daphne Greengrass prompted. The Slytherin girl had been using the opportunity of meal time to hammer out some finer details of her family's work with Harry.

"They asked me to help them choose a song," Hermione grinned. "I gave them the perfect one."

"Which one is that?" Ron asked. Hermione's grin widened. It seemed that his education had not yet been completed.

"The perfect one." She repeated. Harry mouthed her words to himself, trying to find the hidden meaning. Then his eyes lit up and she knew he had it.

"Wait—you don't mean—"

Whatever he had been about to say was cut off when the doors were thrown open. Five girls strode in, pantomiming horse riding. The armor they wore, though unrecognizable to most of the occupants of the room, would instantly give the game away to any familiar with the work. Even more recognizable were the two following them, dressed in dirty work clothes and banging coconut shells together. Harry fell out of his seat laughing before they had a chance to start the introduction.
As the music ended, and the submarine girls left the dining hall, Hermione stood slightly to look through over the tables full of confused students. Letting herself sit again, she offered Harry her hand as he tried to pull himself back into his own seat. Ron's head was pressed to the table as he giggled helplessly, and Neville had the confused look of someone who had just been amused, but wasn't quite certain how or why.

Suddenly, the four felt a piercing gaze wash over them. Looking around, Ron grabbed Hermione's hand and nodded towards the teachers' table. From on high, Snape was glaring down at him, as if measuring them with the hopes of finding them wanting. Slowly, the potions teacher raised his wand.

"Twenty points to Gryffindor," he announced.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

As the fleet approached the waterfront, Tanith glanced around in interest even as her surprise died down some. While, yes, she was still surprised about the size of the city that they had been heading towards, she was able to focus on matters at hand. Mainly arriving at their designated destination along the waterfront. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted some movement and turned towards it only to blink at the sight of a group of very young looking shipgirls. Each one could not have been older then thirteen. However, that was not what caught her attention the most about them.

Rather, that was due to the fact that each one of them looked like a very young version of one of those body builders in a magazine she saw up in Unalaska before the Great Scattering.

Even as she watched, they headed towards the Canadian warship. Turning towards Nagato, the Abyssal frowned some. "Grandmother, who are... they?"

Leaning forward, Nagato looked in the direction that Tanith had and gave a small nod. "Those would be tugboats, Tanith. They're here to take the Regina towards the docks here in Kushiro to be looked over by various repair crews before taking her down to Yokosuka to be made as seaworthy as possible. That way, she can make the trip back to Canada."

Slowly nodding, Tanith frowned some in thought. "I see. That makes some... sense, I suppose." It was then that she spotted their destination was close and could see a man standing there beside Captain Tanaka. From what the Abyssal could see, the two were talking with each other quietly as various personnel made their way quickly in various directions. "And who is that... Grandmother?"

A slight smile on her face, Nagato shook her head. "That would actually be Admiral Goto. I suppose that he has come here personally to meet all of you."

It was not just Tanith's eyes that widened at that and focused in on him. Various other Abyssals did as well. Once they reached him, and stepped onto the ramp, Goto gave them all nods as various news crews looked on. "A good day, I am Admiral Isoroku Goto and I bring you greetings from Japan."

Tanith blinked and nodded some. "I am Tanith... Northern Water Princess of the Fleet of Laughter and I greet you." Before Goto could do anything else though, he found himself pulled into a hug by Tanith. Which, due to her height, caused him to flush slightly. "Thank you for... taking care of Mother... and not harming her... even though you had... every right to."

When she pulled back, Goto had to cough into one hand even as he internally winced. 'Oh Kami... that is going live across Japan...' Externally though, he did not show any of it. "You are very welcome, Tanith-San. I would like to think that we have moved on from old mentalities that would have caused us to do such if not needed."

However, Ritou shook her head as she joined her sister. "Maybe so, but still the fact remains that you could have done so much to her. You had an Abyssal Princess in your hands and instead of things like executing her or dissecting her, what did you do? That was our fear of what might have been done when we first heard that she was here. Instead, to our joy, you protected her, helped her, and healed her."

Stepping up on Tanith's other side and dismissing her beast, Harry having been offloaded onto a harbor craft some minutes before, Sunny gave a smile and then bowed. "For that, we of the Fleet of Laughter consider Japan friends and will come to your aid."

Eyes wide, the news crews boggled at that before they panned their cameras across the Abyssal fleet Internally, Goto was sighing some as he shook Tanith's hand. 'Well, I suppose that will get an interesting reaction.' A small smile on his face, he gave them a nod. "Thank you for such, I hope that our groups will have a very good relationship going forward."

Tanaka then took his cue and stepped forward. "Now, while negotiations are going on, one of the hotels here in Kushiro is open to you staying there. Their rooms are quite nice and you will find all the amenities there available to you."

With a blink, Yoko raised a finger. "When you say... amenities... you do not mean things such as showers? Or baths?"

Despite a tickling in the back of his mind, Tanaka gave a small nod. "As a matter of fact, there are baths and showers available to you all. Both public and private at the hotel."

Awestruck, Ritou mouth worked some. "With hot water available as well?"

Confused, the Captain gave a nod. "Of course."

Reaching forward, Patty grasped him by the shoulder with an odd look in her eye. "And... and soaps? And shampoos as well?"

Now lost, Tanaka glanced from one to the other and noted that a number of the Abyssals were now looking on with pure happiness and glee. "Um, yes? You'll be provided with soap as well as shampoo. Wash clothes and the like if that is what you need-"

He was then cut off as Patty pulled him into a hug which meant that his face was smashed into her chest. "Eeee! Hot showers and baths! Soap and shampoo as well! Oh my gosh!"

Unnoticed by her, Akebono as well as Kasumi had angry expressions on their faces. Even Settsu was looking rather put out by what was happening. Kamoi though had an highly amused look on her face and made sure to take a picture. Meanwhile, I-351, I-352, and I-371 all huffed a bit with I-351 muttering the same thought that the other two had. "Lucky bastard."

Letting go of Tanaka, Patty noticed Hoppou crossing her arms. "Mother? Is something wrong?"

One foot tapping, Hoppou gave each of them looks though she noted that Regalia and Nero seemed somewhat confused. "Hoppou is wondering why you are all excited."

Slightly blushing, Tanith chewed her lip some. "We... have not had a hot... bath or shower since... the Great Scattering... Mother. We have mostly... bathed in pools, the sea... and some lakes and streams."

Hoppou had a shocked look at that before giving a sharp nod. "Then Hoppou thinks that this is a very good thing! And Hoppou will be making sure that all are squeaky clean and wash behind ears too!"

Meanwhile, out on the harbour vessel, Harry was blinking some in shock. Even more shock met him as Regalia turned to Nero and tilted her head. "Do you know why Mother and the others seemed so excited about this, Nero?"

Said Ne-Class shook her head with confusion apparent on her face. "Not a clue, Regalia. Heck, we've all taken baths, Mom even found this freshwater spring on the island that we bathe in. Not seeing what the big deal is."

Just slowly blinking, Harry shook his head. "Trust me, you'll know the difference. And I have really got to buy some of those bathroom tents..."

Even though they were confused at the response, Regalia and Nero shared a look and then shrugged.

After a short while, Tanith and the other Princesses and Demons followed Goto out of the view of the reporters. Once they were out of earshot, Tanith looked down at the human Admiral in thought. "May I ask... why we need... these negotiations? We could just... sign the treaty... as is. Like Mother has."

There was a small smile on Goto's face as he looked up at her. "For a few reasons actually. The main one is so that no one can accuse us of taking advantage of you, hence covering everything. Another is that certain aspects that we need to go over in particular which might be different due to your control over your islands. Those are different from Abyssal to Abyssal. The final reason is due to the... Wardens, I believe that you call yourselves?"

Said question was directed at Tandy who gave a small nod. "Yes, that is what we call ourselves. Why?"

Eyebrow raised, Goto chuckled. "From what I have been told, you wish to go to Canada, correct? In order to stay with your husband? Well, Canada needs some input there though I have been told that it is only for appearances sake."

Despite the frown on her face, Tandy gave a small nod. It was not unexpected after all, though she did hope that everything went without trouble. Sunny meanwhile only shrugged some. "Eh, I don't think that there will be much trouble on our end to be honest. As long as we get to visit Mother, that's the big thing there."

Rather amused, Nagato gave her a smile. "Somehow, I doubt that will be much of a problem.. Though we will be supplying IFFs to you all so that we can recognize you out at sea."

That only got her nods as they entered the conference room set up for initial discussions before they could break for the day. All of the Abyssals looking forward to the first hot baths and showers that they have had for a long time...

 

[darthcourt10]

mikelima777

For a little extra with Harry's Snippet Nieces hit the town

/*/*/*

Along the railing of HMCS Regina, the crew of the Canadian frigate felt relief as the skyline of Kushiro appeared. Soon, they would be able to step foot in a port, and be one step closer to finally returning home. Many of the children, human and hybrids, were held up to watch as the cityscape come closer. For the parents, the looks of wonder and awe on their children's faces almost made up for the years spent in the Aluetians. There was some uncertainty over the Wardens, though the Embassy staff had reassured them that barring any complications, they would be welcome to live in Canada, though perhaps with some interviews with military intelligence.

From Regina's masts, signal flags flew in a briliant dispaly alongside a brand new Canadian flag, hand-delivered by Canadian Embassy staff yesterday, and the Royal Canadian Navy Ensign. The crew was now aware that with the ship assumed lost, a new Hamilton-class had been built and named in honour of her. It was also announced that given her worn condition, she would soon sail one last time for home, to be preserved as a museum ship. But even so, the crew were proud of their ship, and the fact that despite everything, she was able to get them to safety.

On the bow, Sergeant Brian Campbell, who had been part of the crew of the ship's Sea King helicopter, was out in his service dress tunic and the RCAF tartan kilt with his bagpipe. Thanks to careful maintenance, Sgt. Campbell was able to keep the instrument working after all these years. And soon it was time to play as the ship entered the harbour.

Many in the city had gathered to watch the massive fleet enter the harbour. A few Canadian tourists plus a couple that resided in the city had brought out Canadian flags, knowing what ship was arriving today. Despite the sounds endemic to cities worldwide, the crowds were able to hear a crisp drone as a battered warship was guided in. Even as they snapped pictures of the ship, they could hear the bagpiper from the bow of the ship.


Police, firefighters, and local members of the JSDF snapped to attention and saluted as the crowd cheered. Overhead, four F-15J Eagles flew past, honouring the vessel and welcoming HMCS Regina to the city of Kushiro.

 

[darthcourt10]

Lord K

Maes said:
Bit of a shame if she can't go to sea. A few hundred meters (or a few kilometers) of freefall to the seafloor will ruin anything's day. Brings the image of an Abyssal standing over a sudden hole in the water, Wile-e-Coyote style, before realizing there's a hole and flailing all the way down.

Haiku said:
You know that the Abyssals are going to have stories rivaling JAWS about her now, right? And when the information about just who was doing that, she'll become a way of frightening all the little Abyssals into compliance.

"Practice your gunnery or Jin will eat you.

"Make sure you do proper maintenance or Jin will drag you to her lair."

That sort of thing.
Harry Leferts said:
Yes, and? Jin wouldn't mind much I don't think.​

*-*-*-*-*

Looking out over the burning coastline that had already been abandoned long before they arrived, Tsubasa looked to her superior nervously. Still young as she was, the Tsu-Class Light Cruiser had been sent out for this mission as a subordinate to the much more veteran flagship level He-Class Light cruiser. But though Helah was more experienced, she was also bloodthirsty. Worryingly so in Tsubasa's unfortunately "green-horn" opinion.

"We should turn around... there's nothing her to attack, and I heard there's supposedly a heavy sub presence in this area."

The older cruiser scoffed, not even bothering too look at the FNG she had been saddled with for this mission, and instead continuing to scan the rain lashed shoreline for targets. "You worry too much. Look around, there's nothing here."

"Then why not move on?" Tsubasa worries at the edge of her skirt with her oversize hands. "Something's not right. For an area that's produced so many casualties, we've yet to even see any opposition. We shouldn't be this close to shore. What if there are subs?"

"Then they'd have to be pretty ballsy ones," retorts Soma, one of their resident So-Class submarines as she bobs boredly in the rolling surf nearby. Absently, the sub fiddles with a satellite phone in a waterproof case that she 'acquired' after one of their more recent run ins with a ferry-turned-refugee transport. "It's so bloody shallow here you'd be swimming in the mud more than the water if you actually tried to dive." Randomly pressing buttons, the phone then begins spouting off ringtones.

Helah laughs, a sound barely drowned by the peals of thunder overhead, and the crashing of waves around them. "You see newbie! Even the subs say you can't do sub things around here. So stop your worrying and shoot. Unless you're that afraid of attracting attention."

Tsubasa wilts slightly under the chorus of laughter and ridicule from her current flagship and many of the more veteran members of the unit who despite their less powerful armaments and abilities, actually outrank her thanks to their experience and forces of personality. As the group prepares to move close to shore, and into the estuary itself to expedite feeding Helah and the other veteran's relentless pursuit of blood and chaos, the Tsu-Class then feels a hand on her wrist pulling her along. Looking up, the young Light Cruiser then finds the spooked and pained gaze of Kassandra, one of the groups' older Ka-Class submarines.

"Do not dally near the back of the pack. The great white hunter treads into the realm of a greater white hunter. The last in line shall be the first to finish."

Looking at the sub, Tsubasa sighs and humors her by allowing herself to be dragged alone. The poor Ka-Class had never been right since that one attack on that old island filled with dead wizard people, and smelt of rust, death and forbidden things beyond the irrational ken of even some of the rabid Abyssals. Now, it seemed like everything she said was unbelievable nonsense and irrelevant rambling. At least though, Tsubasa could count still Kassandra among one of her few friends in the fleet.

Up ahead, Helah frowns and glanced around in confusion. "Hey, where the hell is Io and her pack of imps?!"

Glancing between themselves, Namo, Nimu, Rava, and Haze, their other resident destroyers shrug (or at least do the best their inhuman forms can approximate).

Yolanda, the Yo-Class that fills the spot of their third submarine then looks at the He-Class flagship in confusion. "I thought you sent her up the estuary to scout? I was hearing gunfire from that direction a while ago, so I figured you were the one who sent her that way."

Helah glowers in response to that news. "That little troglodyte! She's starting without us!"

Tsubasa mentally has to question what there is to start on, considering the town has already been evacuated and mostly destroyed, even as Helah radiates her eagerness to catch up with her wayward subordinate and her underlings. "Namo, Nimu, you're with me. Rava, you bring up the rear in the highly unlikely event something does try to sneak up the channel after our asses. Haze. Take the transports and supply ships to that oil tanker wreck out in the middle of the harbor, maybe there's something still in the tanks we can siphon off for later. Soma, Yolanda, Kassandra, you may as well come with us. Not like there's any opposition out here, so let's put those deck guns to work."

For a moment, Tsubasa wonders if she's being ingloriously left with the transports, before Helah then at last seems to remember her. "Oh right. You. Do try to keep up and actually pull your weight. We wouldn't want you to fall behind now and get caught by and spoopy-scary ghost subs now wouldn't we?"

As the others cackle and begin to split the their fleet between the actual raiding force and it's auxiliaries, Kassandra gives her hand a squeeze, that for some reason seems more urgent and sad than an attempt at comfort. "Let us make haste over treacherous water, for ill fate too, awaits she in line before the last most absence to be unnoticed."

Tsubasa sighs after a moment of contemplating the Ka-Class' confusing words. "Okay, okay, I get it. I'll stick close to Helah if that's what you want. You don't have to keep hanging around me if you worry it's going to hurt your standing in her eyes you know."

"After today, there will be no eyes, nor future with standing for me."

Tsubasa gives the closest thing she has to a friend in the fleet a curious look. "I know I drag you down sometimes, but I highly doubt associating with me would outright be the end of your reputation and stint as one of the best subs in this fleet."

Kassandra says nothing, starring ahead with a strangely haunted determination, and also making sure that between them and Rava are at least three other destroyers that decide to tag along.
------------------------

The first sign that something is wrong should have been that by the time they have arrived at the mouth of the estuary, their is no sign of Yolanda. Everyone just writes it off as the sub probably diving, to get away from the increasingly noxious smoke and chemical fumes roiling over the harbor.

This close to shore, the smog coming off the untold volumes of industrial substances in the burning dock facilities is almost blinding. The voltility of the fuel behind the inferno and its intensity is evident in how it continues to not only rage, but even propagate in the face of the driving rain. Tsubasa very nearly gets lost without Kassandra's help and the subs naturally ingrained better sense of direction.

Helah reams her out for somehow managing to almost lose her way this close to shore in the shallows, which Tsubasa finds painfully unfair considering Rava still has yet to appear out of the smoke cloud too. There's no sign of Io and her fleet though, and ever eager to exact her own pound of flesh and toll of destruction from the humans, the He-Class is eager to pursue. Rava, the flagship decides, will just have to catch up, and make do with whatever paltry leftovers everyone else leaves her to have fun with.

Beside her, Kassandra bows her head once their flagship has turned away, and says what almost sounds like a confusing pair of eulogies for their unseen comrades.

Tsubasa doesn't really pay attention. She's too busy attempting not to look like she's failing at trying not to cry in front of everyone.
------------------------

They're only about a kilometer out from shore, and already partway up the estuary when they spot her.

It's one of Io's artillery imps.

And for some reason she is halfway up the mast of a mostly sunk schooner that's settled to the bottom of the river. Of Io and the rest of her assorted PT and artillery imps, there's no sign.

"What the hell is she doing up there?" Helah growls. "And where's the rest of them?"

"Not a fucking clue," grumbles Soma with a grimace as she squints at the curious sight before her through her optics. "I think she's trying to message us something via signal lamp of all things, but this fucking smoke and rain keeps getting in the way."

Tilting her head, Tsubasa tries to follow along with what ever the imp is trying to signal. "G... E... T... I think that was a O...something... something.... O... F... W.... A..."

The momentary rocking incited by a large wave that wildly lurches the wrecked sail boat, and threatens to roll it over on the sea bed, interrupts the imp and causes Soma to grunt in annoyance. "It doesn't help that that keeps on happening." For some reason, rather than simply getting down onto the water and transmitting her message like any sane Abyssal who can walk on water, the Imp keeps desperately hanging on to her wildly yawing perch with one hand.

Helah grunts. "Whatever, let's just catch up with her." Then the He-Class begins presighting her guns at the smoke cloaked shoreline preemptively. "Be ready for trouble though, something tells me that she's up that mast for a reason. The others must have run into trouble. Maybe mines, or small craft, or something on shore. Somebody radio Rava and Haze and tell them to be on guard just in case."

Up the mast, the imp seems to motion and gesture at them oddly, as if for some reason unable to let go of the mast or use both hands.

A few minutes later, the storm seems to momentarily intensify, with the rains growing unusually violent and unrelentingly heavy, even for those that often accompany the appearance of abyssals. Combined with the smog of ruin rolling off the surrounding shoreline and seaside township for well over a kilometer in either direction and up the river, the schooner and the imp across it's mast are lost from view. When the schooner reappears a minute or two later, it is now partly capsized and the imp is gone.
------------------------

Helah rages over the radio, demanding that Io answer her and report where she and the rest of her imps might be.

Upon arriving at the schooner, the now half rolled over ship offers no more answers than the dead men at it's helm.

Everyone is uncertain, baffled and confused. Tsubasa is worried. Kassandra is as cryptically baffling as ever.

"The bait taken, it's purpose served, and so the hunter silences the wounded lamb. But the prize are we, or simply more bait?"

No one ever seems to be able to understand the unfortunate sub's odd language and drivel, even when she supposedly tries to speak plainly. But this time, even Tsubasa fears that what Kassandra speaks of is forewarning of some kind of trap.

"Helah, I really think we should go...."

"GO?!" The He-Class looks at her with something almost akin to disgust. "I knew you were lacking in confidence and in need of an old hand to show you the ropes, but I didn't think you a COWARD absent of spine!"

"Please, something's not right here!" Even the others are starting to look at her with looks that betray their thoughts.

"You're damn right something's not right here! Do you think I'm just chasing after Io because I want to kill humans or something? A comrade is likely in trouble, and you just want to leave her to her fate?"

From the side, Kassandra watches on. "Clotho hath now spun the thread of Io. Lachesis hath measured against her rod. Atropos' shears were great and many, born in the jaws of water we do not sail. Soon she, Yolanda and Rava, shall be joined by Nimu in turn."

Everyone studiously ignores the crazy Ka-Class, before Nimu herself then interrupts with a frown. "Wait a minute, where the hell is Yolanda and Rava? They're certainly taking their sweet fucking time."

Helah pinches the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "Rava's probably still catching up."

Namo meanwhile, frowns. "Um... are you sure? Because even if she was really lost, I still haven't heard back from her over the radio. Also, I'm pretty sure Yolanda's caught up with us, since I had a weird sonar reading a while back. It's kind of hard to tell where she is with how shallow it is and all the wrecks around here though."

The He-Class flagship is looking increasingly torn between uncertain caution and anger at the baffling circumstances arising. Finally though, she glances at Soma. "Yolanda's not answering my comms for some reason. Go down there and tell her to get the fuck up here, and the rest of you stay close. This had better not be some sort of fucked up modern kind of jamming or something that's stopping them from talking with us."

The So-Class rolls her eyes with bored annoyance, barely bothering to glance up from her phone. "Do I have to?"

"That wasn't a request pigboat!"

Grumbling to herself, Soma then hands her stolen satellite phone off to Nimu. "Hold this for me will you. It's waterproof, but not that waterproof."

Before Nimu can say otherwise, the So-Class then dives beneath the rolling waves, leaving the Ni-Class mumbling uncertainly due to the phone being shoved in her mouth. A situation most problematic when one of the Destroyer's teeth sets off the ringtone list again.

Nervously, Namo then adds her two cents. "Um... we're all still talking to one another right?"

Soma's phone continues to chime, while Helah glances at the Na-Class.

"Yeah?"

The ringing continues.

"Then how come we aren't effected by the jamming?"

Nimu pauses in her efforts to stop the chiming by mouthing the device in her jaws as the implications hit not just her, but everyone else in the group.

A gnawing, poisonous worry begins to pass through Tsubasa's veins. "We haven't heard back from Haze or anybody on the tanker either."

Helah swears loudly. "Soma, get the fuck up here! Forget this, we're going back to find the others!"

"Are you sure, I still haven't found Yolanda down here?" comes her reply over the radio, while their physical ears are treated to yet another round of digital beeping.

"Just get the hell up here, AND ALSO HELP NIMU END THIS FUCKING RINGING!"

The destroyer in question mumbles something apologetic that is lost around the phone in her mouth. Namo however, in looking increasingly unnerved.

"M-Maybe the coward is right. Something is off here. Wh-What if this is more magic stuff and not mines or something normal?"

The Na-Class' fears go unassuaged, as everyone then turns to face the So-Class as she finally surfaces.

"Alright, alright, I'm here. Where's Nimu?"

Helah opens her mouth and turns around to point at the destroyer.

And then everyone freezes.

Because where Nimu and the ringing satellite phone were only few seconds ago, now there is only the rolling waves whipped up by the storm around them.

Tsubasa feels her mouth go dry as Kassandra quietly bows her head. "Alongside the ferry man's nameless vessel, she now does ply."

Her expression stricken by desperate disbelief, Namo turns on the Ka-Class furiously "What the fuck are you on about! This isn't helpfully or funny you mad bint!"

Tsubasa feels her blood heat with incensed anger on her friend's behalf. "Hey, do not call her mad!"

"Prophecy, logic and the senses five, are the tongues of madmen, visionaries, and the layman, all."

"See! Even she herself admits it!" points out Soma!

"We have to find Nimu!" cries the Namo, the Ni-Class' sister in all but blood.

"That is not what she said Soma!"

"The lone wolf dies alone, the hunter prepares to put the pack to flight."

"Do you even realize how batshit half the nonsense she says is?!"

"Nimu-"

"WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP!!!" Climbing atop the deck of a nearby wreck, Helah glares down at her present subordinates.

"We are not going to abandon Io, Nimu, or the others! But we are not going to do them any favors standing around like a bunch of horror movie rejects waiting to be picked off! Here is what we are going to do! We are going to link back up with Haze and the others to make sure they are okay, and put out a request to pick up more firepower! Then we are going to go looking for the others! We are not going to pointlessly bible about or wander off on our lonesomes! Everyone is to pick at least two buddies and stick with them at all times! You are not to let yourself out of sight of the group, and you are to keep your heads on a swivel and tell everyone else the instant you see anything even remotely fishy! We're gonna get out of this, and we're going to do it by working together! Working smart and not losing our hea-"

Without warning, the water on the other side of the wreck erupts as something bursts forth. Tsubasa has only a few moments to process that this is something Big with a capital B, and an off white that gleams like the scales of a snake under all the water. And then with a crunch, like bones and meat being broken by flood waters against rock, and the shriek of reef coral rending open hull plating and bulkheads, the maw of the thing snaps down on Helah as it impacts her like an orca beaching onto ice to grab a seal. Everyone has only seconds to dive out of the way as the momentum of the white leviathan carries it and the screaming Helah over the wreck and straight through where everyone was standing only moments before.

Soma swears, Tsubasa pulls Kassandra down and out of the way, while Namo shrieks and fires blindly, but in the chaos and speed of it all, no one can tell if she hits anything. From below the waves, Helah has only enough time for a single desperate and agony filled plea over the radio. Whether it is for them to help, or for mercy from the monster, it goes unfinished when the sound of an implosion rumbles from beneath the waves.

Immediately the remaining destroyer in their group howls in anguish at the loss of her sisters and flagship. With blind, vengeful abandon, Namo begins hurling depth charges in every direction, with one very nearly taking out Tsubasa.

Her airs of boredom and irreverent nonchalance broken, Soma moves to flee without waiting to see if the others will follow. "Fuck this, let's go! We have to get out of here and warn the others!"

Namo screeches with a wounded berserker fury, still tossing out depth charges as she moves to join the sub.

For a frantic second, the still disoriented Tsubasa is almost terrified she is being left behind. Then she feels a familiar hand grab her's. Relief flows through the young Light Cruiser as Kassandra pulls her to her feet, and begins to lead her back towards the wrecked tanker in the depths of the smoke and rain.

"Come rakshasa yet made. Your appointed hour of mortal wounding is not yet here."
------------------------

When they get back to the tanker, it is only them.

Somewhere in the midst of their terrified flight through the choking chemical haze and driving rain, the sound of Namo's furious, desperate depth charging, abruptly became a single awful cry. After that was only silence, that no amount of raging winds or crashing waves could fill.

Of Soma, there was also no sign.

Nor was there any evidence of all those who should have been on the tanker, siphoning it's dregs. In fact, for how much oil is had leaked out of it, the tanker is worrying barren. Up close, the damage is surprisingly superficial even, and the readings on the gauges where their Wa-Class transports should have been taking their fill from its remaining reserves, instead suggest a vessel that was already bone dry when it went down.

And yet there was oil on the water?

Or at least.... some sort of black oleaginous substance.

At a glance back at the writhing seas, Tsubasa feels sick as she realizes how little of the slick is actually now present.

Kassandra urges her on, even as she nods at some morbid observation of her own. "The line with two-fold bait, can also mean it is two-fold in hooks."

The only sign on the main deck that anyone from their fleet even made it aboard at all, is a single ominous puddle of blood and oil. Beside it, someone has attempted to write a message using their fading life essence. Unfortunately, they only seem to have gotten as far as the Japanese kanji for water, "Mizu". The second kanji is only partly complete and rendered illegible by sweeping splatters of bloody hand and claw marks. All the signs of somebody desperately trying to find a handhold as they were dragged to the edge of the ship and then overboard.

Tsubasa stares at the sight for a long quite moment, something in her chest freezing as she wonders if this will be her fate as well. A foreboding splatter, and a warning too late for the next group of Abyssals to come along.

They make their way up to the tanker's bridge, figuring it's as good a place as any for trying to come up with an idea for what to do next, and maybe even some answers if anyone survived long enough to make it up there or get a radio message out through the storm.

What they find are dead Abyssals. Unfortunately, this only raises more questions. These aren't anybody from their fleet.

One of them looks to have willingly knelt down to receive an execution style shot to the back of the head. The second one bears a fatal wound that looks self-inflicted. Before they died however, the two have scrawled a series of messages onto the wall of the bridge.

"IT'S NOT IN THE OIL. THE OIL IS IT"

"YOU CAN'T HARM IT. IT'S NEVER ALL THERE"

"IT DOES SOMETHING TO THOSE THE OIL TOUCHES"

"WE CANNOT GET OUT"

"IT CAN SEE YOU ON DECK"

"WE MADE A SIGN TO WARN THOSE WHO NEAR. IT DESTROYED IT"

"IT KNOWS WHEN YOU RADIO FOR HELP OR TO WARN"

"WE CANNOT GET OUT"

"IT KILLED A GROUP WHO CAME NEAR"

"IT KNOWS WE ARE STILL HERE"

"WE WON'T LET IT TAKE US"

"WE CANNOT GET OUT"

"THE OIL IS NOW UP TO THE WALL ON THE PORT SIDE"

"THE END COMES SOON."

"WE FEEL CORRUPTION. CORRUPTION OF THE DEEP."

"IT IS COMING"

Looking from the list back to the corpses, Tsubasa feels her stomach bottoming out somewhere around her feet.

Great.... now what?

Once more she glances back at the list, and then the corpses. Unfortunately, no answers magically appear of prove themselves to be the solution.

The Tsu-Class gulps, and for a second almost considers contemplating her cannons this time instead. She discards that idea vehemently. Regardless of how cowardly or soft-hearted the others have always called her, she refuses to entertain the idea of self-scuttling.

Her train of thought is then interrupted from a noise from within the bowls of the ship. A momentary groaning and screech of steel that makes her freeze. Fearfully, Tsubasa then glances at Kassandra seeking a balm for her fears.

"M-Maybe it was just the tanker shifting on the bottom?"

The Ka-Class looks at her sadly. "Of souls unmet and yet to come, only one currently aboard shall know them."

Doing her best to hide her trembling, Tsubasa grimaces. That didn't sound helpful or calming in the least.
------------------------

Nervously, Tsubasa creeps though the halls, cannons at the ready. Part of her is slightly rational enough to consider with some worry that setting off her main guns inside the bowels of a mostly empty super-tanker sounds like a great way to die in an impromptu Fuel-Air Explosion. The majority of her however, is too terrified to consider being taken by this monster from the deep.

Another round of scrapping echos through the belly of the ghost ship, hinting at just how close they are to the unknown thing that is now lurking within the steel giant alongside them. It hasn't been hard to find it. It also helps that it's been getting inexorably nearer to their end of the ship as time has gone on. At first Tsubasa could barely hear it from the bridge. Now it practically sounds like it's in the corridor that's about to intersect her's just up ahead. Gesturing to Kassandra to remain back while she peaks out, Tsubasa nervously shuffles to the corner, doing her best to edge around a mop and bucket left propped up against the wall.

To her horror however, Tsubasa feels herself nudge the bucket. An eternity of silent cringing passes as she turns and time slows for the final few eons it almost seems to take the broom handle to hit the floor. Adding to the cacophonous racket in the previously deafening silence of the ships belly, the brooms fall then tips the bucket over as well.

For a long moment, there is agonizing silence, the last round of dragging scraps having abruptly died off mid broom-clatter.

Frozen in terror, Tsubasa steels herself and then finally finds her voice, giving a petrified croak. "H-Hello? Wh-Who's there?"

A painful pause ensues, with Tsubasa almost considering grabbing Kassandra and fleeing.

Then she finally hears the unloading of a destroyer-caliber main gun, and a familiar mechanical bark filled with some truly abhorrent cursing.

"DAMNIT TSUBASA!" Screams Haze a pair of Wa-Class Transports drag their legless forms and the outright limbless Ha-Class destroyer around the corner. "I ALMOST FUCKING SHOT YOU!"
------------------------

One of the two Wa-Class taps at what looks like an emergency-plan map stolen from a wall, while the Ha-Class explains their plan.

"Wayan saw that shit upon on the bridge and passed it on to Wati, Wai and me just before everything went to shit. We thought we were smart by moving through all the flooded spaces right inside the lower decks to avoid all the crap up top, but apparently that bullshit those two wrote wasn't entirely right. Wayan was moving though this pack of murky water, and then suddenly the whole fucking room just started turning into liquid tentacles and shit. We got out, but she didn't. While it's slow as fuck being up here without water to move on, it did let us find something that gave us an idea."

Looking closer at the map, Tsubasa then realizes what the transport is pointing at.

"There's still one of the lifeboats on board," elaborates the destroyer. "If we can make it look like if fell off or deployed because of a malfunction, then maybe we can escape. We just have to hide on board and do nothing until we can drift out to sea on the water currents from the estuary."

It's as good a plan as any. Tsubasa certainly hasn't got anything better. Kassandra even seems to agree with it.

"A reunion approaches."

Tsubasa thinks Kassandra agrees with it.
------------------------

Things go sideways the moment the boat touches the water, accompanied by a whole host of other wind debris landing.

Tsubasa thought they did everything right. They managed to get inside the life boat in total secrecy. There wasn't even a puddle of oil insight when they finally made their escape. They even manage to set up the emergency launch mechanism to instead lower them down gently, avoiding a big, noticeable splash.

But the moment Tsubasa finally exhales in relief, a spear of water spikes up through the bottom of the lifeboat. Tsubasa isn't ashamed to admit she screamed loudest of all.

"Get the fuck out!" screams Haze, directing Wati to tear the door off the back of the craft and revealing a hole in the hull of the ship thankfully only a scant few meters away. "Let's go, before it fucking grabs us!"

With almost supernatural anticipation, Kassandra seems to predict the tendrils of water that lance off the main body of the watery pillar impaling their rapidly sinking escape craft. The windows busting and the roof collapsing as other watery limbs and claws wrap themselves around the vessel, in fact suggests they are less sinking, and more being simultaneously crushed and dragged under.

With the grace of a submarine in her natural element, the Ka-Class easily weaves through the tendrils of oil now filling the surrounding water, surfacing in grasping masses from below in a way that is unlike any natural behavior for oil. Haze uses her natural destroyer born agility and speed to race towards the safety of the hull's interior, and the bulkhead to unflooded compartments the sub has now opened. Wati, following closely behind the DD, only just avoiding the writhing masses of oil and much harder to distinguish water.

Tsubasa and Wai are not so lucky. Something grabs Tsubasa by the leg and pulls her under. One unfortunate mistep on treacherous water, and suddenly she is beneath the surface, with daylight rapidly racing away from her in the silty, storm stirred and oil laden waters. Desperate, Tsubasa gives a cry for help over the radio she knows will never be answered. Glancing through the murk, she then feels her stomach turn as she sees Wai, now trapped in the binding coils of oil. Except, oil does not leave rust and decaying rot wherever it touches.

Wai has only a moment to soundlessly scream as a passing tendril of black corruption rusts her mask into nothing, and a second then abruptly afixes itself to her face, causing the water to rapidly fill with scraps of flaking decay and congealing globules of rot. The one mercy is that it doesn't last much longer, as having apparently gained sufficient grip, on what undefiled portions of her head, arms, torso, and spherical lower body remains, the five tendrils then all abruptly jerk in different directions.

Tsubasa looks away in horror. Even through the muting nature of water though, it is impossible not to hear what happens. It is also undeniable what is likely about to happen to her too. The nightmarish ink is now coming for her.

She still can't figure out how to break the impossibly dense mass of water around her ankle. With desperate mad strength, Tsubasa struggles to no avail.

She prays that someone, anyone will save her.

Instead, what she gets when she opens her eyes, is the sight of a high-speed abyssal torpedo headed straight towards her.

The Tsu-Class actually almost stops in her struggling at the depressed realization.

That's so much the story of her life isn't it? She prays for mercy, and instead gets a mercy kill.

Still, at least it will be quick and mostly painless compared to the oil.

Then Tsubasa realizes it's an underwater launched torpedo. And Kassandra is already onboard the ship.

The torps detonates prematurely, only just short of her.

It hurts like a motherfucker. But more importantly, the cavitation seemingly breaks the hold of the water on her leg for the briefest of moments.

A hand grasps her, pulling her up, back towards the surface and weaving through tendrils seen and unseen. Hauling her out of the water and through the door somebody then slams shut behind them, a familiar voice curses her out loudly.

"God damnit Tsubasa, can't you do anything fucking right?!?"

The Tsu-Class blinks in astonished confusion.

"Soma?"
------------------------
Having swapped stories while navigating the bowels of the ships, Soma nods with a grimace as Tsubasa and Haze tell their different tales.

"I only managed to escape it by being ridiculous," admits the So-Class with a mix of embarrassment and guilty relief. "I was so terrified, I went right to the bottom and discovered the mud was soft. So I didn't just play dead, I really did swim right down into it, and buried myself under all the silt and wreckage that's down there."

"How the fuck didn't it find you?" asks Haze in disbelief. "It's like it's everywhere there's water, not just the oil!"

Soma grimaces. "That's because I think those two up on the bridge were wrong. That black stuff looks like oil, but I think the "oil" is actually just a different and more visible manifestation of the thing that's hunting us. I don't believe that's oil at all really. It seems more like heavily polluted or caustically toxic water of some kind. I think this thing is the water itself."

Haze curses loudly as the implications hit them, while Tsubasa stares. "You have an idea what this thing is then?'

The So-Class looks pained. "I have a hunch that whoever was trying to write that message on the top deck before they got finished off had an idea too. They weren't trying to warn us about something in the water. They were warning us about the thing capable of controlling and becoming it. They weren't writing "Mizu" and then a separate word, but two kanji for the same thing. "Mizuchi"."

Tsubasa feels her heart stop. "But that thing! It- It-"

"That shit don't look or fight like any kind of water dragon I ever fucking heard of!" Haze succinctly summarizes for them both.

"Considering the damage done to the surrounding environment?" Soma counters. "I'm actually not all that surprised, at least if it really is some sort of water kami from around here to begin with."

Kassandra chooses that moment to then intone her own opinion. "That which sleeps may never die. But sometimes that which dies may sleep in waiting, til it awakes now stranger and anew."

No one has any words for the Ka-Class' ramblings this time.
------------------------
Soma holds up a hand, motioning for them to halt.

"Do you hear that?"

Tsubasa and the others tilt their heads in confusion

"No?"

Haze however, frowns.

"No, Soma's right, I hear something."

Wati and the CL strain their less sensitive ears, but still fail to hear anything.

Kassandra looks haunted and resigned. "She who calls, speaks without a tongue or mind to use it."

"Shut up already!" hisses Haze.

The group collectively strain their ears once more.

"Help!"

Tsubasa's eyes widen. "I heard it this time too!"

"Somebody please help me!"

Soma's face abruptly goes pale. "That sounds like Yolanda"

"Is anybody there!"

"Holy shit, you're right!" breaths Haze in disbelief. "The mizuchi must have missed her when she broke off from you guys!"

"Please, let me in! I don't know when it's going to come back!"

Wati's eyes widen in horror and fear for their fleet mate. "We have to save her!"

"Wait! Wait!" argues Soma attempting to reign the Wa-Class in. "How do we know this isn't a trap?"

"Fuck that! That sounds like Yolanda to me!" counters Haze in agreement.

Tsubasa's eyes widen in horror as she sees the Wa-Class going for a nearby shell door in the exterior hull of the ship. "No! Stop! What if Soma's-"

The Light cruiser cringes in anticipation and fear as the door is thrown open with abandon, Soma's efforts to stop Wati going unfulfilled thanks to interference by Haze.

"Yolanda?!"

"Oh thank god!" comes the cry of relief, causing Tsubasa to glance around the Wa-Class with uncertain curiosity. To her surprise, Yolanda isn't actually that far away. Soaked, slightly bedraggled, and apparently favoring one of her arms, the Yo-Class stands on the water only a few dozen meters from the door they have just opened. "I thought I was going to die out here!"

Haze and Wati move to try and help her inside, but Soma is still suspicious, narrowing her gaze at the wounded submarine. "How didn't you?"

"I don't know!" cries the sub, now just below their door and in need of a hand up to their portal inside the ship just a few feet above her and out of reach.

"I got stuck in some wreckage on the bottom! I- I- Oh god, there are so many of us down there!" The Yo-class wails. "I thought I was going to die stuck in those corpses! I was so scared I froze up, and then it ate one of the Yo-Class wrecks instead!"

Soma looks uneasy as Yolanda buries her face in her hands and weeps, but isn't entirely swayed just yet. "Where's the mizuchi then!?"

"Th-the what?" asks the wounded sub in tearful confusion.

"The mizuchi! The thing that's been killing everyone!"

Yolanda hiccups. "I-I don't know?!? I heard gunfire and depth charges from somewhere further out to sea, and thought you'd all abandoned me! I didn't even know if anyone was still in here!" The Yo-Class' eyes widen in terror. "Y-You think this is some kind of a trap?"

That Soma looks away guiltily, is more than enough answer for her fellow submarine. Beginning to hyperventilate, the Yo-Class glances around at the choppy, but otherwise oil-less and unpolluted water around her in terror.

"N-No! Please! Don't leave me out here to die!!!"

Looking around at the waters herself, Haze has apparently seen enough to be satisfied herself. "We aren't!"

The destroyer then rounds on Soma. "We're wasting time here! If that thing were still out there, it would have noticed her carrying on like this by now! There must be somebody else entering the area it's gone off to stalk right now!"

Tsubasa feels almost as torn as the So-Class looks. "You managed to hide from it in the mud. What if Yolanda really did manage to confuse it with corpses? We can't just leave her to die."

The submarine grits her teeth, torn between calculated cold-heartedness and empathic mercy. Finally she growls as she comes to a decision. "Fine! Let's help her! If the mizuchi is still out there, we'd have given ourselves away as soon as Wati opened the door anyway."

Ignoring the So-Class' jab at her impulsiveness, Wati leans down as best she can, offering her hands to the wounded Yo-Class below, while Haze awkwardly does her best to secure the Wa-Class transport in turn. "Come on! Let's go before it comes back!"

"Oh thank god!" Tears of relief stream down the sub's face as Wati awkwardly hauls her up and then into the ship. When Soma finally slams the door shut behind the three, as soon are inside and collapse back onto the floors of the hallway, Tsubasa then lets out a ragged sigh of relief she didn't realise she was holding. They have saved Yolanda, snatching her up from right under the mizuchi's nose.

The Yo-class in question rolls over onto her back and stares up at the ceiling, giving a few wavering laughs of disbelieving relief, mixed in with fear and terror. "S-So? What's the plan now?"

Soma sighs guilty, even as the rest of the group, including Tsubasa looks to her automatically. "Honestly? We don't really have one. I have a few ideas, but nothing that gets everyone out alive."

The Yo-Class chuckles weakly and wipes at her tears as Wati gets to her feet and offers Yolanda a hand getting off the floor. "W-Well, at least it's a st-start to brainstorm off for now, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose that's true." Soma then looks away awkwardly for a moment. "Sorry for almost leaving you back there."

Yolanda just gives a shaky laugh and gives a friendly squeeze of Wati's hands. "A-At least I still have some friends I know won't leave me for dead as soon as they can." Somehow, the morbid joke actually managed to elicit a chuckle from everyone present.

Or at least everyone barring Kassandra.

And then Tsubasa hears it.

The group collectively freeze as the strangely muted chime of Soma's stolen satellite phone sounds out from Yolanda.

Haze stares at the ringing submarine in confusion. "Why do you have Soma's phone?"

Jaw working soundlessly for a moment, Soma stares at the Yo-Class in desperate disbelief as the chime continues to sound. "Y-Yolanda.... Never had my phone. I gave it to Nimu..."

Nervously, Wati attempts to pulls away from the Yo-Class, only to find the sub's hands are still holding onto her own.

Her mouth going dry, Tsubasa looks over the submarine, slowly picking out details that were previously unnoticed in the lurching motion of the waves Yolanda was riding on and the rain darkness outside. ".... And Nimu had it when she was taken...."

Oil leaks from the wound on the Yo-Class' shoulder. Only oil, without any blood to speak of. There is a bruise like mark around the submarine's neck, just under her chin, that no one noticed starring down at her from above. And in her tracks of tears she has been weeping this entire time, Tsubasa at last notices the slight rainbow sheen they have all left. Like steel splashed by oily water.

Having slowly picked up on a number for these things herself, Wati stares at the Yo-Class fearfully, still unable to remove her hands from the submarine's suddenly unshakeable grip. "Y-Yolanda- let go of me!"

The submarine stares at the Wa-Class with a terrifyingly blank lack of emotion, that suddenly makes Tsubasa feel terrifyingly small. It almost makes her feel like watching someone boredly about to crush an ant. Or.... like she is suddenly looking at a puppet where there was once a person.

Kassandra stares at the Yo-Class with haunted, knowing eyes. "Grandmother's cry from the wolf's belly, betray's the beast to Little Red."

Haze and Soma slowly raise their guns in the now terrifyingly small hallway.

"You," growls out the destroyer, "are not Yolanda."

For a few seconds, a silent standoff ensues. One where Tsubasa hopes and prays the thing in Yolanda's skin will let the Wa-Class go. In such a confined space, she and Kassandra have no room to fire, lest they catch Haze and Soma in front of them in the muzzel blasts as well.

And then like a striking snake, the thing moves. It hurls Wati at the exterior wall of the ship with such force that the screaming Wa-Class is outright thrown through the steel plate and into the air outside. Through the hole left behind, Tsubasa has only a brief glimpse of the transport hurtling towards the water, before a tendril of black hurtles upfront below to messily impale her, and drag the rotund abyssal into the depths below.

Inside the tanker meanwhile, the 'Yolanda' is still with them.

"Shoot it! Fucking shoot it!" Soma and Haze open fire while the thing while it's back is turned to them. At this close range, shells don't even have time to arm, and instead crave ragged holes through the body of the sub and chunks out of her limbs. 'Yolanda' stumbles forwards towards the hole she has just created with Wati's flight, and for a second it almost looks like she is about to be thrown out, but then Tsubasa almost loses her gorge at what happens next.

Through the hole in the wall, a tendril of oil spears 'Yolanda' through what's left of her belly, digging underneath her skin like a root-turned-umbilical cord, while a tied of black liquid defies physics by flowing up the side of the tanker and into the hallway like a sentient ooze. Worst of all, is what happens to 'Yolanda' herself.

Fed by the umbilical cord and the inky puddle around her feet, the countless holes in her body begin to fill in with oil and water, in place of destroyed steel and flesh. Rather than turning around to face them however, Yolanda's arms and legs all break with meaty snaps as they abruptly reverse at the joints, while her neck and spine break horrifically in order to let the thing inside her head dangle over backwards and fixate them with her gaze. Streams of oil and caustic black sludge now flow freely from her inverted eyes and mouth, along with from the compound fractures in her elbows and knees.

"A flight posthaste, by fate we now must make!" cries Kassandra, grabbing the horrified and frozen in fear Tsubasa's had.

Soma is quick to follow suit. "For once I agree with the crazy, FUCKING RUN!!!"

The sludge wearing 'Yolanda' like a meatsuit gives an unnatural rasping scream through her now contorted vocal cords and wildly skitters after them in pursuit, followed by a tide of black that rusts and decays the hull of the ship and anything else it comes into contact with.

In their terrified flight however, the three more mobile abyssals forget one thing. They all have legs, but Haze is a Ha-Class destroyer with all the limitations that come with vestigial limbs at best. Tsubasa hears a horrified scream, and turns around just in time to see Haze being tripped up by a tendril of ink that has speared through the exterior hull from outside and tripped the destroyer up.

Haze only has just enough time to roll over and see the 'Yolanda' bearing down on her, before it leaps atop her trailing streamers of sludge and oil.

"NO!!! GUYS HELP ME!!! GET IT OFF!!! IT BURNS!!! IT BURNS!!!!!!"

Thrashing and screaming as the thing's caustic carmine falls from it's body onto her, and flows across the floor to tie her down, Haze howls in pain and panic. Out of desperation, she even begins firing her weapons, however, this just grows the number of injuries and sludge-regenerated holes now leaking onto her.

Some of Haze's shots also go wild. By sheer luck, Kassandra almost seems to predict one of the paths of destruction, pulling Tsubasa and Soma down at the same time, and saving them from a salvo that could have potentially taken their heads. Other shells however, go into the depths of the ship, rather than outward in the direction of the exterior. Something in the tanker's bowels rocks and shudders, the steel around them shaking as explosions and shock waves begin to emanate from the stern. Some of Haze's shells have hit something important.

"We need to get out of here!" cries Soma, pointing at a ladder to the top deck. "If that was the fuel tanks that just went up, this whole place could start going off like a FAE Bomb!"

"What about Haze!?"

"Haze is good as dead, let's go!"

Tsubasa takes one last look back in the destroyers direction as she goes up the ladder.

Trapped in the coils of oil surrounding the thing wearing what's left of Yolanda's skin and rigging, the monster uses the scraps remaining from the Yo-Class' now claw-tipped hands to force Haze's jaws open. Holding it's head over over the destroyer's, black horn like protrusions then shred through the remaining flesh and hair on the submarine's skull, looking more like nightmarish deer antlers than any kind of horn Abyssals normally develop. Skin, tissue and steel all snap and rend as Yolanda's respirator falls away, reveal her own mouth has opened to her neckline and unhinged like a snake's.

For a moment, the Tsu-Class almost thinks it's about to eat Haze or breath fire on her. Instead from it's maw, comes a gushing torrent of corrosive oil and slime, straight into Haze's unarmored throat.

Tsubasa flees up the ladder, accompanied by the final gurgling death knells of the destroyer that only last seconds before caustic substance does it's work.

In retrospect, Tsubasa wishes she hadn't looked back.
------------------------

By the time they reach the top deck, much of the tanker is already in flames.

"NOW WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO?!?" cries Tsubasa, barely restraining her panic as Kassandra pulls her up the last ladder and slams the hatch behind her, dogging it extra tightly for good measure.

"We improvise!" retorts Soma as the trio now break out at a run for the slightly less in flames bow.

"With what?!?"

"With a crazy idea that potentially gets us all killed!"

"What?!?!"

"I said all I had was crazy ideas that potentially get someone killed, but it's better than definitely being killed!"

The So-Class then gestures out past the bows of the ship, towards a hazard buoy bobbing in the water some distance away. "One of the things I discovered while in the mud was an old World War II Naval Mine!"

"How does that help us?!" cries Tsubasa. "Even if the detonator wasn't dead after all this time, we'd get ourselves caught up in the explosion being this close."

"That's the plan!"

"You want us to kill ourselves rather than get caught!?"

"What! No!" The So-Class then gestures back in the direction of their failed attempt to escape in the lifeboat. "Do you remember how I saved you?"

"You almost blew me up with a torpedo!" points out Tsubasa with no small amount of outrage.

"With good reason, which that actually proved!" shout the submarine. "I think this thing can sense shapes in the water, as well as movement! The cavitation from explosions fucks up it's false bodies and senses in the vicinity of them! That's why it went after Namo and her depth charges first, even though I was the one already in the water. If we can get to the buoy and set off the naval mine, it might potentially become disoriented enough to lose track of us!"

"A sound plan to flee an uncorrupted god of water," intones Kassandra. "But this is no normal spirit of this place, and all the stranger for it."

Her ramblings go unheeded by the Submarine, nor the Light Cruiser who now frowns as something about Soma's wording now hits her.

"Wait a fucking moment- Are you saying you didn't know if the cavitation from your torpedo would actually work until you fired it at me-"

Suddenly Soma's eyes widen and she tackles Tsubasa to the side. "LOOK OUT!"

Steel screams and bends, as like an ice burg punching through the welds and seams of a vessel, something surges up through the deck beneath their feet. Soma and Tsubasa each scramble back to their feet from hands and knees, attempting to get away, when suddenly Tsubasa feels something grab her ankle. With a shriek, she slips over and falls, smashing her chin on the deck painfully. Only Kassandra's lightning quick reactions save her, the Ka-Class grabbing one of the stunned light cruiser's oversized hands, and stopping her from being pulled back towards whatever has erupted out of the ship behind them. Turning around and kicking wildly as she tries to look past the stars swimming in her vision, the Tsu-Class' terror increases tenfold at what she sees.

Holding a whip of water that is now wrapped around her boot, is what's left of Yolonda's warped and twisted corpse. From the waist down however, the Yo-Class' body is now a seething mass of black liquid, flowing and undulating as more sludge and oil seep out of the hole in the deck she has been punctured through. Together the filth rises and writhes, flowing above and around Yolanda to take on greater shape and form, while the Yo-Class continues to try and reel her into the nascent tooth-filed maw. With horrified disgust and terror, Tsubasa watches as 'Yolanda' becomes little more than a puppeted humanoid tongue in a rotting, fetid, draconian head.

Tsubasa screams, only to choke on the smell rolling off the thing dragging her into it's jaws. It's breath is the stench of not oil or rust, but rot and pollution. Corpses unburried, leeching chemicals, sewage and refuse backed up and overflowing into a waterway, stilled, filth-choked and laden with parasites and disease, until all that's left is the collective decomposition of an entire ecosystem poisoned by it all. Absolute decay, like a skeleton left until the flesh has sloughed off like black liquid, until only bones and a toxic, sour, soup of death remains.

"HELP!!!!"

"Get down Kass!"

Immediately the Ka-Class obeys, and relief floods through the Tsu-Class as Soma reappears. With one hand, she lends her aid to Kassandra's tug of war with the 'Yolanda' shaped tongue. Wither her free hand, she levels her deck gun at the hand holding the whip around Tsubasa's hand.

"Get your hands off her you BITCH!"

Soma empties a volley of shots into not just the twisted tongue, but also the maw itself.

Tsubasa feels the whip falter as the shock wave from the shell that blows the thing's hand off, also weakens it's control over the whip. Immediately, she scrambles for safety, aided by Kassandra and Soma pulling her back as well.

As the maw ripples and distorts from sub's shells however, the 'Yolanda'-shaped mass gives one last parting gift as the nightmarish head of draconic rot and sludge disappears back into the ship. Flinging out it's now handless forearm, a spray of caustic, corruptive rot jets out.

The So-Class screams in agony as it paints her across the eyes, collapsing to the ground and curling into a ball.

"Soma!" Rushing over to grab her, the Tsu-Class cradles the sub in her oversized hands. "Oh god! Soma! your eyes! They- They-"

Hissing in agony and restraining herself from grabbing her face lest she cause more damage or transfer the liquid to her hands was well, the So-Class grits her teeth and fails to restrain a whimpering sob. "Th-The buoy. You have to g-get to the buoy. If You can get to the b-bow, it's not that far to swim. The chain- it'll take you to the m-mine-"

"I'm not leaving you behind!"

"Tsubasa-" The Light Cruiser cuts off the sub by pulling her into a bridal carry.

"We don't have time for instructions anyway!" The fact that something on the tanker chooses that moment to explode, highlights her point. "You can tell me what to do when we get there!"

Rushing toward the very bow of the ship, the three Abyssals now face their next problem. How to cross the expanse of water between the hazard buoy and the grounded tanker, without alerting the mizuchi.

Surprisingly, it is Kassandra who provides the answer, saying nothing, but simply pointing at the anchor chain stretch out to the deeper waters and the original mooring point the mizuchi very likely dragged the tanker from. Tusbasa's eyes widen.

"Kassandra, you're a genius!"

Soma glances around blindly, trying to figure out where the Ka-Class is. "The fact that were doing something the crazy has suggested, does not fill me with confidence."

The Ka-Class simply looks at her fellow submarine with a weary roll of her eyes. "Your dues owed, have already been exacted. The reaper has yet to claim his harvest still." Then she looks at Tsubasa sadly, her expression far more pained and regretful than any moment yet seen by the Light Cruiser. "Our however, have yet to be settled. A pound of flesh is owed, and then my own debt to settle."

Tsubasa frowns in confusion at her friend, but eventually settles for a comforting hand on the Ka-Class' shoulder. "We're all going to get through this, alright. You climb down the chain first, until you're almost at the water. Soma, you'll go next, and Kass will stop you before you touch the water as well. When I come down, then you guys make a break for the buoy and I'll go for the mine."

Soma blindly looks around worriedly, and Kassandra begins her careful shimmy down the chain. "Tsubasa. This could be a one way trip. Whoever sets off the mine, could just as likely die in the blast."

"All the more reason for me to be the one to do it," mutters the Light Cruiser. "Out of the three of us, I'm the only one with any armor. I have a better chance the either of you."

The sub has no response to that, and the two tail off into silence for a moment, Tsubasa watching Kassandra's progress, and Soma unable to do anything but keep her ears open and contemplate her thoughts.

"Tsubasa?"

"Yeah?"

The So-Class pauses for a moment uncertainly. "If we don't get out of this.... I'm sorry I was never a better friend to you."

The light cruiser is silent for a long moment. "I wish I was a better leader. None of this would have happened if I actually took charge."

The submarine is silent for a lengthy pause of her own in turn. "Well... I guess if either of us get out of this, we can fix those things."

"Yeah. We'll do it together."

Soma raises a ruined eyebrow "Together?"

Before Tsubasa can give a flippant answer about survival that will sound more confidant than she feels, Kassandra shouts out from the chain below. "Split your lungs with blood and thunder when you see the white whale! Break your backs and crack your oars men, if you wish to prevail!"

Looking out at the choppy seas in horror, Tsubasa then realizes what she has missed during her talk with Soma.

"What?! What is it, I can't fucking see!!"

Through the water, just beneath the waves, a mass of black moves like a bullet. Almost the length of a train, a pair of jagged, oily antlers slice through the water at the head of the disturbance, giving the illusion of a monstrous twin-finned shark. And it's coming right for the two of them on the bow.

"Sorry Soma-"

Ignoring the subs shocked cry of pain and surprise when the Light Cruiser drops her to the deck, immediately she then opens up with all her guns. Shells rain down in the water, detonating in great columns of white spray and black splatters. After noticing how the mass keeps on shifting and regeneration it's horns every time they are clipped however, Tsubasa, realizes the futility of her attacks.

Urgently she looks around, trying to figure out a way to escape. Out running it is impossible at the speed it's moving. Even dodging might be impossible. Maybe if it was just her, but....

Tsubasa looks down at Soma fumbling blindly on the ground at her feet.

"I'm about to do something really fucking stupid. Hold on."

"What? Tsubasa?! What are you doing?!"

Picking up Soma with her left hand, Tsubasa then checks the torp-launchers on her right. Glancing out onto the chain, she then spies the Ka-Class silently looking between the two on board, and the rapidly approaching mass.

"Kass! I'm going to need you to catch Soma on the count of three!"

"Verily, I shall succeed."

"What!?"

Slowly, the mass begins to rise out of the water.

"One!"

"Tsubasa! What's going on?!"

Withing the black, two pin pricks of poisonous green gleam.

"Two!"

"What are you doing!? Don't do anything stup-"

Thirty meters from the side of the ship, the water erupts like a submarine doing an emergency blow.

Except rather than falling back down, the black mass now screams through the air, resolving itself into a white scaled form, cross-crossed by great and terrible wounds that ooze with toxic rot and caustic foulness.

"THREE!"

At the last moment, Tsubasa hurls Soma over the side of the ship towards Kassandra, dodging to the side in the same moment. Then she screams, as the mizuchi's jaws catch her right arm. Like a high-pressure water cutter, it outright cleaves her limb off at the shoulder as it carrier her over the side of the ship. The last thing Tsubasa hears before she hits the water, is the spinning of torpedo motors that have been induced into a hot run.

Ignoring the pain lancing from the stump of her missing limb, the Tsu-Class dives down putting distance between herself and the cresting waves.

Seconds later, the surface is lit up by and explosion, and a rain of toxic corruptive splatter rains down on the surface of the water above her. Furiously kicking and swimming, barely cognizant through the pain, Tsubasa at least resurfaces in a clear patch of water near the hazard buoy. Kassandra and Soma are already climbing atop it.

"H-Help!"

"KASS! What happened! What the fuck did she do?! I can't see!"

"That which given, may not always be freely returned."

Puddling over as best she can, Tsubasa feels the familiar touch of the Ka-Class' hand on her remaining wrist as the submarine helps her out of the water. At last having a chance to look over the damage, the Tsu-Class groans in agony.

"M-My arm...." she whimpers, holding the stump her shoulder terminates in.

Good thing she isn't human, or she'd probably bleed out in only a few minutes.

Soma meanwhile, stares with disbelief in a direction that is actually about two feet to her left.

"You imbecile! Did you just lose your arm blowing up your torps in it's mouth!? How are you not dead?!"

Tsubasa cringes. "I l-let it eat my arm. I made them h-hot run, so I could escape when it's head blew up. Considering how much splatter there was, hopefully that did it in."

"No! You idiot! That wouldn't have!"

The Tsu-Class' jaw drops. "What?! But I blew it's head off!?!"

"You think a Mizuchi is a thing of flesh and blood?!" Exclaims Soma. "The dragon bits and slime aren't the mizuchi unless it entirely manifests itself in those limited forms, and this one has shown itself to be anything but dumb! I doubt we've even seen more than half the thing this entire time! It's a minor kami! A river god! The water itself can be it's body and brain, while the rest of it cavorts about! Never consider anything that can think for itself dead, if you can't destroy where it keeps its brain! All you did was blow your arm off and disrupt it's current form!"

"B-But... but..."

Kassandra then interrupts, placing a hand on Tsubasa's remaining trembling shoulder. Looking into the Ka-Class' sad gaze, the light cruiser then freezes in confusion and surprise as the submarine pulls her into a weary, but gentle and comforting hug.

"The hour of farewell is at hand."

"What?"

Behind her, Tsubasa hear's Soma groan. "Does anybody else hear that?"

Glancing around the light cruiser's heart freezes in her chest. "Th-the black stuff on the water. It's..... it's slowly gathering up again." Even as she watches, the puddle begins to grow, sinking slightly below the surface and causing the already choppy water to froth and writhe.

Soma curses loudly. "It's already reforming!" Scrambling further up the structure of the buoy, the submarine then procures an entire load of torpedoes, wrapped together like a stick of dynamite. "I'm going down to the mine, while it's busy!"

"What!" Tsubasa stares at her in disbelief. "You're blind right now! You'll never find it!"

"And you're now missing an arm!" retorts the sub. "You'll never get down there in time!"

"Neither may wear the crown of sacrifice," intones Kassandra gravely. "The wounded sealion, for all its fury, is prey to the angered wolf of the sea."

Soma looks at the Ka-Class in confusion. "What are you on about now-"

A sudden, jarring impact against the base of the buoy then almost threatens to tip the structure over or throw them into the water. Holding on for deal life as the cruel and deadly sea yaws back and forth below her, Tsubasa watches the slowly growing mass of black circling around like a shark. Abruptly picking up speed, it then darts in and rams their makeshift raft from a new angle, sending the hazard marker rocking wildly once more.

"I thought you said it would be busy!"

"Well apparently it can multitask!"

Another bone-jarring impact this time leaves a dent in the side of the buoy, throwing it far enough back that Tsubasa almost losses her grip with her remaining hand. Starring at the water fearfully, the darting movement beneath the surface set off alarm bells, and the Light Cruiser scrambles high on the buoy, just in time to avoid the rotting and flayed head that rises out of the water. Tsubasa shrieks as it's jaws physically take a car-sized bite out of the spot on the buoy where she was sitting moments before, while her remaining guns swivel around to take aim.

"WILL! YOU! FUCK! OFF!"

The decaying maw gurgles hungrily, even as the Tsu-Class's shells tear chunks off of it's face and send the buoy flying as the detonate in the water beneath them.

Madly they are tossed about once more, as Soma yells from the top of the structure to be heard over the screech of snapping and decaying metal.

"The anchor chain! If you break the buoy's anchor chain we'll drift away from the- OH SHIT!"

Blindly flinching away from the explosions she feels, on the other side of the buoy, Kassandra fires her deck guns into the water, trying to disrupt the black sludge slowly gathering around the base of the hazard marker's floats. The Ka-Class' own desperate efforts against the mizuchi are a losing battle however, as the smell of rust begins to permeate the air. Even if they can fight it off, eventually it will simply corrode their adhoc raft into nothing.

Yet another violent impact sends them reeling, placing the top of the buoy almost perpendicular to the water. A pre-planned maneuver judging by the black mass gathering beneath the surface of the water below.

"Soma! Look out!"

Letting go and blindly scuttling backward on her suddenly horizontal perch, Soma is just in time to avoid the black toothy jaws, now more skinless than fleshless, that rise up from the water like a Sea World attraction leaping for fish over it's head. With a violent crunch, the mizuchi's jaws then close upon the top of the hazard buoy and it's lights. Metal groans, snaps, and screeches as the crocodilian death grip almost capsizes the buoy, before most of the structure upper half simply sheers way in the monster's jaws.

Immediately the structure tries to right itself, violently flipping back to an upright position that almost throws Soma from the buoy entirely. On instinct, Tsubasa, reaches out, hooking her legs into the bars that make up the buoy's midsection, and grabbing the So-Class with her remaining oversized hand. The light cruiser shrieks, as the sub's weight then almost causes both of them to to fall off the structure, leaving Tsubasa almost upside down and helpless as she desperately holds onto Soma who flails blindly just meters above the water, and the gnashing jaws that leap out to try and grab her.

Then the sub gives a cry of anguish. "I dropped the torp-bomb!"

"What!?"

"I lost my grip on it when I fell!" wails the the blind sub in panicked self-recrimination.

Desperately, Tsubasa scans what's left of the sinking deck of the buoy below. Instead, she spots something else.

"Oh.... fuck...."

A pair of great black claws, covered in intermittent patches of pale scale that crisscross the flayed flesh and rotting musculature, begin to rise up from the water. And then they grab ahold of the buoy's edge.

Metal groans, and Tsubasa curses as she feels the hazard marker's remaining superstructure beginning to tip back towards the water once more.

"Am I guessing now's the time for last words?" asks Soma, tilting her head and trying to make sense of what's going on from the cacophony of screeching metal, groaning steel, splashing, and physical jarring.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckfuckfuckfuck-"

"Those are shitty last words!"

With both of them now barely above the surface, the water suddenly parts.

It's like something out of the bible, how the sea simply opens up in a localized pit beneath them. Except, instead of the bottom of the Red Sea, what Tsubasa and Soma get is John Carpenter's version of a Sarlacc crossed with the Blob's black cousin.

Tsubasa is just about ready to scream, when a torpedo sails past her and Soma, straight into the gullet of the beast. Heat blossoms, and immediately the void collapses, but the mizuchi's claws retain their hold on the sides of the buoy.

"Harken ye' onryo in the shape ryuu and ningen both!"

In shock, Tsubasa glance up at their savior.

"Kass!"

Below her, Soma swivels her unseeing gaze about in confusion.

"Where is she?! What's she doing?!"

In one hand the Ka-Class holds the anchor chain that ties the buoy to the sea bed near the site of the mine below.

And in the other, Kassandra's trembling white-knuckle grip grasps the bound bundle of torpedoes that make up Soma's adhoc bomb.

"Doxy churl who's belly never leveth the ground! I see not wyrm, but worm in thine manner!"

There is a slow pause, and Tsubasa can almost feel the mizuchi's attention drifting to the Ka-Class top the partly capsized hazard marker. "Kass- KASS WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"You think I flyt like the mad jester in the face of death?! Nay! I bite my thumb at you! I call thee vargdropi!"

Tsubasa doesn't recognize the latter word, but despite it's nordic sounding pronunciation, the mizuchi certainly does. The water around them froths and broils, as if abruptly heated by a slowly building agitation in the sludge and oil, that slowly begin to gravitate into a single column in the waters below.

"I feel only fremdschaemen when I peer in your general direction! Your mother was a slyna hora, and your father a craven arka"

Now the water begins to writhe, as something white and lit by glowing green begins to coalesce within the depths of the black. And in the air is a rumble, a trembling rage, so great that the very wind carries a taste like battery acid and decay sour enough to burn the eyes.

"KASS! YOU'RE PISSING IT OFF!"

"I think..." whispers Soma with foreboding realization, "that's her plan..."

"I proclaim my statement! To heart from the breath in my breast which ye lack! An utvecklingsstörd unfit to lead! And you, his missfoster-"

It's like somebody detonates a bomb. An explosion of water errupts like a tower only meters away from the buoy, revealing the massive coils of the great white serpent. Up and up, it's body climbs, it's skin a tapestry of old wounds, leaving it almost more scar-tissue than scale. And from it's drooling jaws, dripping with caustic spittle filled anger, the mizuchi roars.

It is no victorious proclamation of power, or threat of a worsened fate if she does not apologies her her transgression.

It is the declaration of a god. A statement of fact by a being beyond most Abyssal's ken, that Kassandra before the others will die first.

And all Tsubasa can do is watch in horror

"KASS!"

For a moment, the Ka-Class breaks her gaze with the towering beasts' baleful green to look at Tsubasa one last time.

"How lucky am I to have known someone, who was so hard to say goodbye to."

Tears begin to flow down the Tsu-Class' face, blurring her vision as she refuses to look away. Words fail her, but the Ka-Class nods.

The submarine then looks back at the beast looming above them. Her words are whispered, and yet somehow carry on the stormy winds with more power than any of her shouted insults.

"What would thine slayer's consort say if he would see you now? Is this the mercy of the victor the progenitor you would end, taught you to show?"

The beast reels for a moment in shock. And then the evil green gleam in it's gaze tightens to a slited fury, matched only by the ear shattering roar it gives as it bodily launches itself at Kassandra. Without hesitation, the Ka-Class rips off the anchor chain and dives into the water, narrowly escaping the jaws of the mizuchi that cleave through the hull of the buoy were she was standing scant moments ago.

Tsubasa and Soma both scream as the now thoroughly ravaged and lopsided hazard marker flips mostly upright once more. Even worse, it now spins and weaves crazily, cast adrift thanks to having it's anchor line broken. Now it is born aloft on the mercy of the storming seas, the waning tide, and the flow of water leaving the bay thanks to the estuary.

Finally hauling Soma onto what's left of the superstructure, Tsubasa glances back at the original mooring point they are now rapidly leaving behind. Of the mizuchi and Kassandra, there is no sign.

Her heart filled with despair, Tsubasa weeps as she stares out across the cruel sea. In the distance, the flames of the burning tanker leave it silhouetted against the smog rolling of the still smoldering coast.

"KASSANDRA!!!!"

Even as her heart breaks, Soma shoves a length of torn off steel into her hands.

"Come on Tsubasa! We got to row!

"What!"

"If Kass sets off that naval mine with my bomb, while she's down there as bait, then her own torpedoes will go off as well! We have to get out of here!"
------------------------

Holding onto the anchor chain, Kassandra falls.

Something streams in from the side, and she feels the bone jarring shudder transmitted through the water, of jaws snapping shut where her legs were just moments before.

This is like no dive she has ever done before. Not even crash dives press down on her ears and compact her breath with such suicidal haste and mad abandon. Never has she done one with the intention of it being a one way trip either.

The water stream past her, but even more terrible, is the mass of water bearing down after her from above. She doesn't need to look back to know it bears with it the gaping jaws of the god she has spited and blinded into a fury with eyes only for her.

Down and down she goes, into the silty darkness below.

Down and down, until she is relying almost on sonar and instinct more than her normal sight and vision.

And down in the darkness, where she senses what she has already known since the sunrise that day. There she sees the naval mine. Trapped in the wreckage of a downed World War II bomber. It's skeletal remains planted nose first into the muddy seabed like a concertina'd cage, making safe removal of the decades old device impossible.

The most optimal thing to do would be to dive right down into it. To set torp-bomb in her hands off, by ramming it straight into hull of the mine.

But Kassandra needs by buy time. Time for Tsubasa and Soma to escape. Time she will not gain trying to draw out a pursuit. The water is her home, but this world is literally the mizuchi's element.

Behind her the beast roars into the water, a noise powerful enough to register on her sonar, in spite of the muting effects of the world around them.

It's jaws open, her feet now almost within it's maw as it inexorably catches up.

The chain is almost at it's end.

The opening of the aircraft approaches like a crown of thorns.

And then at the last moment, Kassandra throws her bow planes into motion, lurching herself to the side while shifting and weaving through the water.

The Ka-Class narrowly avoids impaling herself on the metal spars of the bomber's wreckage ,as the last lengths of chain pull her the final few dozen meters to the seafloor.

The mizuchi however, collides like a speeding train with the wreckage, violently and fatally impaling itself through it's mouth, throat and crown upon the circle of coral encrusted metal with a fleshy crunch.

Releasing her grip from the anchor chain, Kassandra swims away for a moment and waits.

If she were uncursed and without burned, as she was before the island, she would have felt relief.

No doubt, this would have seemed like the end to her. Victory. It was over. She could surface and return to Tsubasa and Soma.

But this is not the end. It was her fate to know better.

To know and never be believed, like the ancient seer-princess of old.

She would have liked to see Soma become a princess. With her own eyes, rather than in prophetic knowledge seen through her inner gaze.

At least she could take solace in the fact that Soma, and Tsubasa too, would live on. They would grow and develop. The would live to be powerful and strong, and wiser and more confidant beyond their current years.

But not she. For in order for her friends to live, the scales of fate had a price to be paid.

Only a truly cataclysmic explosion would ever disorientate this monster enough for it to lose track of them, and disperse it enough that it would not reconstitute in time to catch them before they drifted into the realm of Ryujin, where this beast would not trespass without permission.

For at the end of the day, that was all she could do. Sell herself for her friends, for lack of power to even inconvenience the entity that had already cheated death once before.

Turning on her lights, Kassandra watches as the mizuchi's corpse slowly begins to dissolve. Scales wither and fall away, flaking off to revealing rotting black flesh, oozing with fetid slime and corrupted blood.

A less observant individual might miss how the growing mist of substance was not actually drifting away into the darkness, but slow beginning to encircle her.

Kassandra was not an unobservant individual.

With trembling hands, she begins to arm not just Soma's torp-bomb, but also her own torpedoes as well.

"O, farewell, dear Hector! Look, how thou diest! look, how thy eye turns pale! Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents! "

After so long cursed to know what always comes next, Kassandra find herself rather terrified of the unknown fate she now chooses.

"Hark, how Troy roars! how Hecuba cries out! How poor Andromache shrills her dolours forth!"

Above her, the droplets and streamers of caustic rot, slowly begin to coalesce into spears.

"Behold, distraction, frenzy and amazement, Like witless antics, one another meet,"

Steeling herself, the sub gazes at the naval mine, barely visible in the wreckage below the mizuchi's now rapidly skeletonizing 'corpse'.

"And all cry, Hector! Hector's dead! O Hector!"

Mustering her will lest she falter at the last moment, Kassandra charges.
------------------------

The underwater explosion is dramatic.

In reality, it probably isn't all that big.

But wth their makeshift escape craft as banged up as it is, it feels like they are riding a tsunami.

Together, Soma and Tsubasa both hang on for dear life, as first the shock wave bucks them upwards and jars them to their keels, and then successive waves of water crash down and wash outwards towards them. Each one pushes them further towards the open sea and safety, but with so many parts missing from the buoy at this point, each one very nearly threatens to swamp them. It is a struggle for Tsubasa, who with only her left arm, is repeatedly thrown to and fro by the motion of the waves. Soma almost has it even worse. Her blindness leaves her helpless as the waves rock, throw and spin them in every direction, unable to predict when and where the next assault will come from.

At last however, the nightmare begins to subside.

The waves peter out into little more than the previous stormy chop, and even that is beginning to die down. As if recognizing the even greater darkness than the Abyssal raiders ravaging the shore has at last been quelled, the weather begins to subside.

Long silence passes, with neither Tsubasa, nor Soma wanting to break it. Each of them is taut and terrified, uncertain if the day of horror really is over. All they can do is let the buoy drift, and wait in gnawing, anxious uncertainty, to see if the mizuchi will return to finish them off.

Finally, after twenty minutes with only the crash of waves, the moans of the wind, and the occasional clatter of some broken part of the buoy bumping into another, a noise sounds out that almost makes Tsubasa leap out of her skin and fall off the remaining scraps of superstructure she has been holding onto. A harsh, screeching caw that sounds out across the waves.

Nervously, Soma taps at her shoulder in terror. "Tsubasa? Wh-What was that?"

Looking around, the Tsu-Class at last spots the source.

"It's... an Albatross?"

Quietly, the Abyssal watches as the seabird slowly wheels over head, before lazily continuing on out to sea. Soma hums quietly at the mention of it's direction.

"I guess the storms's over if it's passing through here and heading where ever this current is taking us....."

Tsubasa nods, quietly and looks back at the horizon.

After a few moments however, her stare drifts back to Soma. Though blind, the sub has also glanced vaguely in the direction she last heard Tsubasa's voice. A quiet silence passes, this one different from the previous morbid tension.

And then the two grin. Grins turn into stifled chuckles, as if trying not to laugh at a terrible joke. And then they laugh anyway. Helpless, tear-filled laughter that verges on sobbing as the two do their best to hold each other on the sad remains of the buoy serving as their makeshift raft.

"W-We did it!" hiccups Tsubasa, as Soma places a comforting hand on her remaining shoulder.

"We survived." agrees the submarine, drying what her remaining tear ducts produce by burying her face in the Tsu-Class' shirt.

As the two slowly float off towards the horizon, together the tears of relief flow.

































"What the fuck happened here?" asks the Ho-Class light cruiser to her companion as she eyes the scene before them. The town is mostly in flames, and the estuary is choked with an oil spill from a ruined, burning tanker, but otherwise, there is not a soul in sight.

Abysssal or human.

"Somebody fucking blue-balled us man!" the second Ho-Class looks at the scene with bored disgust. "We've been ding-dong dashed."

The first of the two growls. "If somebody sent out an SOS that wasn't needed, and then fucked off without calling it off, the boss is going to be uber fucking pissed!"

"We want to call this in as a falsie then?"

The first one groans. "Screw it, better to be safe than sorry. Let's go poke around, just in case there really is someone in trouble or damaged enough they can't answer our hails."

As the two take in the surrounding devastation with no small amount of awe, neither of them notice the oily humanoid shape, made of the same fetid liquid they have been sailing through for the past few minutes, and slowly rising out of the slick behind them.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

When the bucket full of warm water was dumped over her, Regalia let out a squeal of surprise. Moments later though, she brushed her wet, silver hair out of her eyes in time to see her mother squeeze some sort of greenish gel or slime into a rough piece of cloth. "What is that?"

Glancing at her, Tanith had to hold back a small smile. "It is something that... the humans created called... body wash. They use it to... get clean." With hum, the much larger Abyssal began to make a good lather in the cloth before nodding. "Now, hold still a bit."

Seconds later, Regalia could only blink as Tanith began to scrub at her body with the cloth. As her mother did so, a pleasant smell reached her nose and she took a deep breath before looking around. Over at one of the benches, she could see her Great-grandmother working her Uncle's hair with something called shampoo while he did the same with her grandmother. Whatever it was, it was foaming as they did so while her Uncle and Grandmother giggled and laughed.

But from the smile on Nagato's face, it was obviously something that she was enjoying as well for some odd reason.

A squeak then escaped her as Tanith lifted one of her arms to scrub at the armpit there. Lifting her other arm for her mother to access, Regalia also glanced at the showers that lined the walls of the area. Apparently, the hotel/inn had been built to serve the sailors for the various convoys that entered Kushiro to supply Hokkaido. Among other things was a public bathing area as well as a public shower. But what caught her attention was her various Aunts standing under the showerheads and acting as if it was the greatest thing ever much to her confusion. Granted, with the amount of steam being given off, it was a bit hard to see at times.

Frowning, Regalia furrowed her eyebrows some. "Um, Mom? Can I ask you something?"

Tanith blinked at that before nodding. "Of course you can... Regalia. What is your... question?"

Still frowning, Regalia gestured at the showers where she could see Ritou beside Nero, the Princess showing her daughter how to clean her turrets under the water with a brush of some sort. "Everyone seems to be really enjoying the showers. Why though? I mean, I know that you worked out something like that back home with a tarp, but that's good enough, right?"

Blinking at her, Tanith finally sighed some and shook her head. "It is the small things... that one finds themselves... missing." A far off look on her face, she continued. "We used to have... hot showers and baths... all the time back... in Unalaska. When we were... scattered it was odd but... we found that as... one of the bigger... things that we missed."

Head tilted to the side as she considered that, Regalia rolled it around inside of her head. 'Huh...'

Meanwhile, Tanith continued with her eyes filled with a far off gaze. "The gentle feel of hot... water cleansing one's body... of dirt and the... like. It was and is... quite enjoyable. Cleaning was also... a time when we... used to gather together. A time of... closeness."

Considering how it was feeling for her mother to be gently soaping her down, Regalia slowly nodded. "That makes sense I guess. I mean, this feels pretty nice to be with everyone as it is." Finger tapping her chin, she looked up at Tanith. "Is this that 'Skinship' thing that Uncle Harry mentioned?"

For a few moments, Tanith considered that before giving a small nod. "Yes, I suppose... in a way that... is what it is." Glancing over at her Uncle, Tanith had to smile at the sight that met her. Mainly her Mother playfully scolding her Uncle for making funny shapes with her sudsy hair while her grandmother held back a grin of her own. "I think that Uncle Harry... is very wise in this... matter."

Arms crossed, Regalia gave a small nod at that. "I guess? Still a bit confusing to me. Or how Patty was asking, um, Admiral Goto? How she was asking him if they could set up a place like this over on our island when stuff is settled."

Unable to help herself, Tanith gave a small chuckle at that. At the look she got from her daughter though, she shook her head. "Just thinking of... his reaction when Patty... came running out with a grin... and not much else."

Regalia had a confused look on her face before shrugging with a small smile as what happened was sort of funny. Her aunt had gone in before the others had and come rushing back out a few minutes later asking, or more demanding, for such to happen. For some reason the various men there went rather red at it and Hoppou had scolded her daughter before dragging her back in. 'Wonder what that was all about?'

It did not take too long before Tanith was done scrubbing her daughter down and then rinsing her clean of suds. With that done, the Northern Water Princess turned to using shampoo on the mane of hair that belonged to the Re-Class. A small smile broke out on her face as Regalia relaxed into the gentle working in of the shampoo. Part of her was reminded of much older days when she did much the same with younger sisters. Before, she would have felt nothing but pain and loss. However now she was able to look back on such days with fondness.

Especially as she could now make new memories with her daughter.

With a quick glance around as she finished working it up to a good lather, Tanith looked around before giving into temptation. With practiced ease, she made Regalia's hair into various funny shapes which made her grin. That is, until she spotted the amused, lifted eyebrow that her mother was giving her. Quickly, Tanith dumped warm water onto Regalia's head to rinse it which only made Hoppou more amused.

After Regalia switched places with her mother to clean her, using her tail to hold the cloth to cheat with the much larger Abyssal, the Re-Class joined the others under the shower heads. It did not take her long to agree with her Aunts and cousins once she was under the hot spray.

Hot showers were just amazing.

Soon after though, the group left to join the rest of the Fleet of Laughter in the main bath. As she sunk herself into the heated water, and feeling her body relax, Regalia let out a small sigh. With one eye open, she could see her younger cousins, humans and hybrids both, leaning into their mothers as they did so. Doing much the same, Regalia hummed as she felt Tanith wrap one arm around her even as her mother chatted with Sunny. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Regina talking with Harry regarding something though she did wonder why the other Re-Class was blushing.

Of course, that was when Sunny's chuckle turned the young Abyssal's attention onto the Battleship Water Demon. Her aunt then grinned down at her. "Well, someone seems to be enjoying themselves."

Completely relaxed, Regalia only nodded. "Well, this is nice. I never knew that baths could be like this."

Just stretching her arms above her head, Sunny let out a sigh. "Tell me about it. It has been so damn long since the last time I had a hot shower and bath. Or felt this clean."

Not far away, Nero who had been listening in gave a nod. "Well, I don't think that I knew what clean even felt like before now! This is so much better then the spring on our island that we bathe in. Way better... um, no offense, Mom."

Ritou was not insulted in the least though and shook her head. "None taken." Looking around the full bath, which had Abyssals entering and leaving. Some of whom were heading back to the showers for more rinsing and perhaps scrubbing. "So, Tanith? You actually thinking of doing what Patty was going on about?"

Leaning back, Tanith didn't answer right away bit soon nodded. "I have considered... it. And it would be... nice to have." Briefly, she frowned before shrugging. "Though we would need... a bigger bath for... the Destroyers to use... as well."

Thoughtful, Ritou considered it before shaking her head. "There's a volcano on your island, right? Maybe look for one of those hot springs that Uncle Harry was going on about? That might do it."
Even as Tanith gave a thoughtful nod, Regalia blinked at a realization and looked around. "Um, Mom? Where are the Destroyers?"

Blinking, the Northern Water Princess was about to answer when Sunny did. "They couldn't fit in here so they're doing their own thing right now."

Confused, Regalia only scratched her head while wondering what that meant.

Outside the bathing area, near the back of the hotel was a mass of hoses that lead to a tanker trunk with a heating unit. Pushing a large bucket on a trolley, Sub-Lieutenant Hokubu could only stare as one of the Canadians was hosing down one of the Abyssal Destroyers. There was a part of her that remembered that this Destroyer had been hanging around closely with him and, more then that, also had that sort of freaky "Humanoid Avatar". It sort of reminded her of some tales the elders told of the more odd Yokai back home. "Um, here's the soap and water you requested."

Looking over at her, the Canadian smiled. "Thanks, I appreciate this." Grabbing a large, bristled broom-like brush, he dipped it into the soapy water. "Okay, just stay still while I scrub, okay?"

The Destroyer gave a small nod. "Will do, make me all squeaky clean!"

With a chuckle, the Canadian nodded. "Of course."

Simply watching, Sub-Lieutenant Hokubu blinked. 'Right.' Glancing around and seeing similar scenes, though helped by some of the Destroyers having avatars out while waiting their turn, she blinked. 'Why does this feel like a car wash...?'

 

[darthcourt10]

Lord K

kinglugia said:
Though I think Mary would actually approve of Jin's bodypuppeting bullshit (as the soldier?), as much as she doesn't like it (as an ex-victim?).
Harry Leferts said:
*Waggles hand*​

On the one hand, as a Psy-Op style infiltration tactic, it was pretty damn effective. If the phone from the Destroyer she CHOMP'd hadn't give her away, Jin would have basically stuck with the group and gone full slasher-movie villain, with a dash of The Thing style-paranoia. If the remaining members started disappearing, how would they know Soma wasn't also a trap/body puppet as well?

But on the other hand, as a method of simply killing them all, it wasn't exactly the fastest or most efficient.

And then on the third [insert appendage], it was rather cruel and unusual.

Harry Leferts said:
Well, it worked perfectly in any case.​

That it did

Harry Leferts said:
Yeah, I can see how that would both distract and piss off Jin. Though afterwards when thinking back, I can also imagine her being confused and somewhat befuddled at the whole thing and wondering more then once what the heck happened...​

Yeah, that would have been one of those days that in retrospect, left her with more questions than answers rather than her victims/the survivors for once.

Harry Leferts said:
Maybe yes, maybe no. After all, beings like Jin also get power from being known and they would be sort of spreading her legend around...
Harry Leferts said:
Jin's reaction to Voldemort coming back would be interesting... though now I am wondering if any of them would recognize the ritual or how he gained that "Infant" body first...​

At the very least, Jin would be intrigued.

For obvious reasons, she has a passing curiosity for other people and the methods they have used to escape true death.

Harry Leferts said:
That would be hilarious to be honest along with maybe Psi Factor. The Classics in other words.

But it does sound like Jin to be honest.​

Fun story: My mum was a big fan and watched it a lot when it was first coming out. She once accidentally made one of my older cousins absolutely terrified of contortionists for years back when he was a little kid.

He had a bad habit of sneaking into the lounge to watch tv late at night if other people were watching, but one time my mum went to visit them, and ended up watching a late night marathon of episodes at one point. He must have snuck in at some point, and ended up seeing one of the episodes with Tooms, the cannibal mutant contortionist.

It was apparently a while before he lost his fear of air vents as well, lol.

Maes said:
OTOH... one traumatized survivor? Any less-believable recollection can be attributed to trauma and shock.

Two survivors with consistent stories? Means they're each a corroborating witness to the other and there's a slightly better chance they'll convince the next bunch to stay the hell away so you can finally get some peace and quiet and not get your netflix bingeing interrupted again.

Two survivors with actual footage? Even better. Have the next bunch of Abyssals stumble on a working waterproofed GoPro that 'drifted from wreckage' just when they start going up the estuary.

Harry Leferts said:
An Abyssal found footage movie? Dammit, even they are getting into that!​

Pfft, what would you call it?

The Onryo Mizuchi Project
Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Bay
Ryuuhunter
Operation Apollo Eight-Ten
The Abyssal Base Haunting
Black Water Mizuchi
Devil's Estuary

Ternasta said:
Hmm, something just occurred to me. Given the nature of Abyssals and what we've seen of their psychology, Jin might have a few Abyssals who have crushes on her because of what she'd done. Regina was attracted to Harry's ruthlessness in a Quidditch match, after all. This was on a whole different level from that. I have to say, the only thing funnier than Abyssals running away from Jin is (to my sleep-deprived mind) the Abyssals revealing there are fanclubs based around her deeds.
Harry Leferts said:
… Jin's reaction to Abyssals crushing on her for what she did when it gets out would be hilarious.​

The older ones who personally survived are all terrified of her. The less older ones and odder sorts who heard things second hand might want to worship her. The younger/newer/post-stalemate Abyssals likely mostly think she's a Boogey(wo)man of some kind. A few of the older new generation Abyssal who have never seen her or the reports of her from her worst, might even wonder if the more extreme stories about her more sadistic early days of the war were just made up/exaggerated, of if there even is a "corrupted mizuchi" at all.

Although, that now brings to mind the young destroyers all around at Harry's in Yokosuka, daring one another to do things like say "mizuchi" five time in front of a mirror and trying to contact her via a Ouija board.

And then Jin turns up at the front door to pick up Shiromizu for the day. Cue utterly confused dragon as screaming destroyer avatars flee in every direction.

Alternately, some of the Abyssals most likely to actually try and worship her, would probably be the more out there ones like the Re-Classes.
--------

*-*-*-*
Entering the lobby of her apartment building, Jin pauses in the middle of retrieving her mail from her post box. Then her jaw drops at the sight she sees, practically just outside her front door.

"What the fuck is this?"

In the park across the street, where the heart of her spring once lay and now lies bound in concrete underground, a very odd group of Abyssals now stands.

"Behold the Dark One!" cries one of the Re-Class reverently, her normal hoodie and bikini top replaced with a very non-standard miko uniform and chest wraps. The Abyssal then gestures with a sprig of sakaki wood and a makeshift gohei, signifying the rest of the group of Abyssals to begin placing Shinto offerings onto the merry go round at the center as if it were an altar.

"She who is crueler than the seas!" declares a passionate Ne-Class as she places down a bottle of Sake.

"Behold the Dark One!" answers the rest fervently.

"The darkness deeper and more terrible than any abyss!" proclaims a fanatical Ta-Class, who looks only a few steps away from fainting with emotional passion as she places down some dried fish

"Behold the Dark One!" Oh Jesus, it's a cult.

"Rage that transcends even death! Vengeance unquelled!" As a Ru-Class next lays down her offering of rice balls, the fanatical fervor reaches enough of a fever pitch that one of the light cruisers at the back actually does faint this time.

"Behold the Dark One!"

"Poisonous fear and sadistic ruin beyond compare! Breaker of courage and slayer of hopes!" Jin is particularly disturbed about how much the second Re-Class in the group almost looks ready to start.... well.... yeah.... there are kids in this neighborhood. She'd really rather not have to break up this particular group for public indecency.

"Behold the Dark One!"

"Power beyond the twilight and crimson blood that flows!" Well, at least they have good taste?

"Behold the Dark One!"

"Lifeblood of black decay! Ravager of steel and flesh! Harbinger of rust and rot!" What? Well, sure, that's technically.... sort of true- but that's not all she does! Even, well, if err... for the past few years- Yeah, everyone else knows- but the for Abyssals- Oh....

Finally, with all the offerings laid out, the priestess Re begins leading the rest in an almost evangelically zealous series of bows and shouts.

"Behold the Dark One! Her grave does not contain her! The fallen mizuchi of the nightmare upon the waves! Her barbarous ingenuity unmatched! A living anathema to life in an ouroboros of life and death! She who breaks her enemies, until they are driven before her! We salute you! May we share in but a glimpse of your ancient and terrible vision!"

Jin really has no face or words that can accurately describe how baffled, disturbed, offended, and yet strangely prideful she feels at this moment.

"Behold the Dark One! Behold the Dark One! Behold the Dark One! Behold the Dark One! Behold the Dark One!"

Did.... Did she terrify an entire generation of Abyssal so badly, their descendants venerate her as some kind of dark god?




Half an hour later, once the circus of cultists finally leave and she's certain no one is watching, Jin wanders over to the park and quietly examines the offerings left behind. The amount of stuff on the merry go round is honestly kind of ridiculous really. She's never actually asked for offerings before, even in her old life. Everyone knows that.

But apparently for how cultish this lot were, none of them seem to have picked up on that fact.

They really forked out for some of the good stuff too....

For a moment, the mizuchi glances about to make sure she is unnoticed.

Then she grabs a bottle.

"Huh.... that's some legit sake right there."

The dragon pauses and looks around once more. It would be a damn shame if it all just went to waste after all.....

Hurriedly, she begins shoveling the food and drinks into one of her magically expanded pockets.



"FELLOW ACOLYTES IN CRUELTY!" Shouts the Preistess as she stands upon a park bench to rise above her congregation with rapturous ecclesiastical delight. "I BEAR FORTUITOUS NEWS! THE DARK ONE HAS NOT ONLY INDISPUTABLY HEARD US, BUT EVEN ACCEPTED OUR OFFERINGS!!!"

Watching from behind the safe anonymity of her riding leathers and tinted helmet, Jin looks at the group who have returned as part of what was apparently a two day trip.

Fucking hell, she didn't mean to encourage them.

Now they're going absolutely wild and ecstatic with religious euphoria, and - oh god, is that Re-Class really stealing the trash out of the bins in her park?

The mizuchi does her best to facepalm while wearing her helmet.
*-*-*-*

Ternasta said:
On another note, would the Abyssals fearing (or drooling over) Jin give her any extra power? I'm not sure how that works for her, if belief of one manner or another matters to her now.​

Jin doesn't particularly care for worship, especially as the returns are somewhat diminished by her kind of schizophrenic spiritual nature/typing, but she does have that classic dragon love of being praised and respected or feared in equal measure (even if she's more about the respect part than the fear these days).

 

[darthcourt10]

Lord K

NotHimAgain said:
And then they start evangelizing.​

*-*-*-*-*
"Tell me, have you found God in these trying times?"

Interrupted from their incognito stroll in disguise down the boardwalk of the latest town they have stopped in for supplies, what at first glance look like two sisters in their late teens and early twenties carrying all too common wounds of the Abyssal War, then glance at each other. Or at least, the one with the prosthetic arm does. The taller girl with dyed hair instead tilts her head curiously, more listening for the reactions of her darker haired sister, what with her impairment obviously signified by the blindfold covering her eyes.

Something passes between the two, and the disguised Submarine Princess gives a morbid chuckle that is shared with the equally unassuming Light Cruiser Demon, who's remaining arm she holds and trusts to guide her more than her actual cane.

Turning back to the sidewalk preacher, Soma then gives a knowing smile which tugs at the scars that peek out from the lower edge of her blindfold, causing Tsubasa to shake her head in disbelief at what she just knows the sub is going to say.

"If anything..... I would say god found us."

*-*-*-*-*-*

Maes said:
Actually, if Jin can do a 'lamia' form like Shiromizu can, she could, with a dark poncho, some prop legs and a few glued-on doodads on her tail and padding, pull a pretty good battle-scarred Re-class cosplay. Maybe enough to 'sail' right in the middle of an Abyssal battlegroup before 'bursting out' ("I... I don't feel so goo-" *tears out*) and scaring their bilges clean (and inflicting some mental scarring at the same time).​

Pffft lol.

You know that could actually work though, considering that unlike Shiromizu who's "half-form" is Lamia-like because she's currently more snake-like, Jin is older and "classical Japanese dragon" enough in appearance that her "half-form" includes her legs when she brings out her tail.

Cyberbeta said:
Also, you were giving me flashbacks to the 1999 Horror movie Virus (I saw it on a rental from Blockbuster.) Flop it may have been but that movie spooked me when I was younger. Like the Board game Omega Virus going really nasty.​

Wait, Virus was a flop?

I thought it was awesome.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

"MY WORD!"

Leaning against a fence, Amy Kirkpatrick could only grin as she stood beside Haruna and Tiger as they watched Rose. They had arrived where they were roughly two hours ago and it had been plenty of fun for both Amy and Tiger as well as the newly wedded couple. "Huh, looks like she is having fun."

Haruna had a small blush on her face as she nodded. "Yes, well... Haruna did not expect that Rose-Chan would be allowed to do this!"

"THIS IS MOST FUN!"

As she chuckled, Amy gave a small nod. "Neither did I, but apparently they are willing to allow for it as long as she goes through all safety procedures." Then a sly grin crossed her face. "Not that you seem to mind much."

Tiger facepalmed at that and sighed. "AMY!"

Rather then be ashamed, the girl in her late teens only shrugged some. "What? It's true!" Motioning her head at Haruna, she snorted. "Look at her, Miss Haruna here looks ready to pop a steam valve."

If anything, that made Haruna go slightly redder though how that was possible no one was sure. Meanwhile, Tiger sighed some. "Please have some more decorum, Amy. Especially in front of friends."

"THAT IS MOST RUDE!"

Eyebrow raising, the teenager gestured at Rose. "Like her, I suppose."

With a glance at the tsukumogami, Tiger blinked before coughing into her hand. "Yes, well..." Then she grimaced slightly. "As odd as it may seem, she still is in such a situation." With another sigh, the Battlecruiser looked at Amy. "But really, you should know better. After all, you are joining the Royal Australian Navy after all."

Amy then gave a shrug. "Fair dinkum." Brightening, she leaned against her fist and gave Tiger a grin. "Just you wait, you'll become my secretary ship after I take over for Mum and then we two sisters will make all the Abyssals fear us."

Only shaking her head, Tiger felt her lips twitch. "I would suppose so, Amy. And I look forward to that day when it happens."

"YOU STOP THAT RIGHT THIS MOMENT!"

Blinking, Tiger looked over at Rose with a slight frown. "I must admit, Haruna, I am rather surprised at Miss Rose. Never would I thought that she of all people would want to do something... quite like this. It is always the ones that you least expect."

Just sighing, Haruna had a small smile on her face. "Hai, Haruna thought the same. But Rose-Chan saw it on television and when she heard we were coming here, she wanted to try it. Haruna is just happy that they are letting Rose-Chan enjoy herself."

Light laughter made her look over at the tanned man who was nearby watching. "Well, we don't mind. That Sheila of yours certainly is doing a fair job here no doubt about it. From how she is handling herself, I'd have her on my crew helping if she wanted."

Pausing for a moment, Rose looked up from her current action. "Really?"

All the man did though was wink and grin. "Really. Your the right sort, Miss Rose, especially after how you handled that one big Sheila." Humming, he seemed to come to a decision. "You know, Miss Haruna, I've had shipgirls help out when I'm doing some filming. Australia being one of those and as I'm taking a trip in a day..."

Brightening, Rose looked at the young woman behind her. "Does he truly mean that?"

Said woman just chuckled. "My Da? He doesn't say things like that unless he means it. And besides, like he said we've had shipgirls on our show before helping."

There was a smile on Rose's face as she looked at Haruna. "Oh, Haruna! That would be a wonderful way to end our vacation here in Australia! May we?"

Haruna blinked slowly as she watched Rose on the back of the saltwater crocodile that she had pinned in place after wrestling it. Then she imagined her wife dressed in one of the zoo uniforms, all wet and muddy as she wrestled another one. A blush on her face, the Japanese Shipgirl swallowed and nodded. "Yes, Haruna does not mind, Irwin-San.."

A smile on his face, Steve Irwin just clapped his hands. "Great! Can't wait to wrestle some crocs with ya, Miss Rose!"

Softly snickering, Amy nudged Haruna with her elbow with Tiger facepalming some. "Of course, that ends in the hotel room~"

"AMY!"
________________________________________________________________

With a sigh, Naka fell back onto the leather couch as she watched one of her employees work in front of her. Feeling the cushion depress next to her, she raised an eyebrow at Harder. "So? What do you think of my recording studio?"

Glancing around, the Submarine could see a young woman playing a piano. Of course, she knew that said woman was actually a tsukumogami and the piano her body. "Hmm..." Placing an arm around Naka's shoulders, Harder grinned some as she kept her voice down. "Honestly? This place is fucking awesome, Naka."

Not shrugging off the arm, Naka grinned right back. "Tell me about it." Sighing, She leaned a bit into the other shipgirl. "Finally! I got my own recording studio for my artists and myself to use without worrying about those fuckers."

Scratching her nose with her free hand, Harder frowned some. "Yeah, I don't blame you. And the JMSDF facilities only went so far as they had, what? One studio?" With a look around, she could only shake her head. "But you did not half-ass it here. A fucking music studio with an onsen? Seriously?"

Much to her surprise, Naka shrugged with a slight smirk. "Actually, it wasn't that hard to be honest." Her lips then turned downward into a frown as she continued. "It was actually pretty cheap."

Disbelief on her face, the American boggled a bit. "Say what now? Cheap? How?"

Only shaking her head as she sighed, Naka grimaced. "It was started up in 2008 and closed the doors in 2010. Two years, Harder-Chan. Not even their fault as from what I heard they were running on business funds from... a certain section of the government."

Harder's eyes narrowed at that and she frowned at Naka before dropping her voice. "Magic?"

A grimace still on her face, Naka nodded. "Magic." Pinching her nose, she continued. "The people who owned it were part of some sort of government handout from the magical government. Which is why I needed to get the place hooked up. But when the government took away the funds... well, the group responsible just closed the doors before up and leaving with the staff not knowing what to do."

Finger tapping her chin, she narrowed her eyes as she glanced to where there was a undisguised Oni refilling a coffee machine in another room. "And most of the staff were Yokai with nowhere to go, huh?"

Her own eyes following Harder's, Naka nodded. "Hai." Then she smiled a bit. "So I found out about this place in 2011 from Haru-San. Bought everything on the magical side and had the JMSDF legal department do everything needed on the non-magical side. For the past year and a half they've been working on setting everything up. We got power from a Micro-Hydro setup outside as well as wind power and solar panels hidden. Rooms for musicians who are sticking around for recording sessions as well as comforts including an actual hot spring to relax in. Other rooms are for writing and the like." Her smile widening a bit, the Light Cruiser shook her head. "Kept the old staff here with some new guys helping who know to keep their mouths shut. Not that anyone would believe them."

Snorting, Harder rolled her eyes. "Of course no one would believe them. Or at least not for a few years yet."

Naka only snickered at that. "True enough, Harder-Chan." Eyes closing some, the Japanese shipgirl relaxed. "But the Yokai staff here mostly keep their disguises up when someone not in the know is about. Meanwhile, I am helping them get their education since most were escapees from the reserves."

That caused Harder to scowl. "I have never been so damn ashamed of my nation the day that I found out about that shit. What the fuck happened on the magical side of American to make them think that was what should be done? It is not the fucking 1800s with fucking Andrew Jackson, dammit."

Opening her eyes, Naka turned her head some. "Hey, it is not like my nation has been much better at that time, Harder-Chan. Still, I like to think that I am helping to give them a better life now. Good pay, education opportunities for those who want and need them. Its the best that I can do now, but... it makes things a bit better."

With a shake of her head, the Submarine squeezed her friend's shoulder. Part of her noted how they got some glances from the technicians in the room as Naka leaned into her. 'Wonder what that is all about.' Briefly, Harder had the thought of how nice it felt to just sit there with her friend pressed into her while Naka wrapped an arm around her waist. Then it was gone. "And it's not just them that you're helping from what I heard." At the raised eyebrow, she continued. "You managed to pick up two more of those idols, right?"

Lips thinning, Naka gave a nod. "Hai, I did. They were too 'Old' for the industry and so were given the boot. But they heard that I was willing to take on people like them and came to me... they're currently staying in one of the rooms here while I have everything set up." Shrugging, the Light Cruiser hummed. "They might stay here or one of the apartments that I bought up so that those working for me have a place to live. Some of the techs that they worked with came with them."

Giving her a squeeze, Harder leaned in. "See? That right there shows that you're going to change the industry, Naka. Because you fucking care for those working under you. Sure, right now it may not look like much, but I know that you're going to manage it. Hell, the JMSDF is behind you, right?"

Just humming, the orange dressed shipgirl smiled. "That's my dream, Harder-Chan. And every year I get closer and closer. So thank you." Tilting her head, Naka gave the Submarine a kiss on the cheek. Pulling away, she grinned at the slight blush on Harder's face. "But yes, the JMSDF owns a share in the studio here because it gives them a place where they can work on the PR side of things without some of the... nastier aspects that some studios try and get them to contract. We got a thirty year contract with them to provide them access to the facilities here. That will give me more then enough time to become established. And whether or not they decide to continue with me?" The Cruiser gained an expression that reminded Harder of a video she had seen of a leopard seal about to kill a penguin. "I'm going to make those fucking bastards in the industry choke since I'll have my foot shoved right up their asses."

Harder then gained a similar expression. "Heh, you know it, Naka." Glancing around, she became thoughtful. "You know... when the day comes..."

Expression softening, Naka squeezed the Submarine's waist. "You'll have a place here, Harder-Chan. Trust me on that, and there are few who I would rather be at my side."

Both shipgirls shared a smile at that before going back to listening as the piano tsukumogami played. Unseen by them, various staff members rolled their eyes while quietly making changes to a certain betting pool they all had going...

 

[darthcourt10]

Kittle

As Jin watched her Abyssal fangirls chanting from on side of the park, a police car could just be seen on the far side of the park. Inside the car, the officer was on the radio to the station.

"Sarge, you know how you sent me to investigate reports of a group of people worshipping Abyssals in the park?"

"Yeah."

"Was that the precise words used in the reports?"

"Let me check.... well, the exact words were 'Abyssal cultists in the park'."

"Right, I see where the misunderstanding was now. This... isn't people worshipping Abyssals here."

"What else would they mean by 'Abyssal cult' then?"

"Well, you're not going to believe this but...."

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

The door's lock clicked and a few moments later it opened to reveal a Naka clothed in a plain Yukata who walked in followed by Harder. Also clad in a yukata, and hair still damp from the hot spring, the Submarine looked around before giving a low whistle. "Okay, color me impressed, Traffic Cone. This is your room here?"

Grinning over her shoulder, Naka chuckle. "That's right!" With a slight spin, she looked at Harder directly and gestured at the room around them. "If I ever need to stay the night, this is my room. I've already stayed in it when recording. And chances are it will happen often enough in the future after a recording session or meeting that I figured it would be a good idea to have it."

Still looking it over, Harder could only shake her head. Despite what some people, like Jersey, might think the room was actually rather tasteful. There was none of the expected cutsy idol stuff on the walls. No posters of anime or game characters. After a moment, Harder nodded as a word came to mind. 'Comfortable and understated, that's it.' On one wall was a portrait of Naka's hull plowing through the waves with what looked like birds above it which caught her eye. "Huh, that's a nice one."

Glancing at the portrait, the Light Cruiser had a soft smile on her face. "That one was done by the grandchild of one of my crew. It was after one of the meets and greets that the JMSDF set up for shipgirls and their former crew or families of crew. You know, where they could meet them and they could meet the ship their family served on." Becoming thoughtful, Naka tilted her head. "Granted, it was all for PR purposes for the most part, but it has always been enjoyable. Though in this case, I have the original tucked away somewhere safe."

Simply coming to stand beside her, Harder shook her head. "We got the same sort of thing in the USN. What they call it escapes me but it was something stupid. But... they flew old crew and relatives of crew to meet with groups of us." After a few moments of silence, the American looked around before laughing. At the confused look from Naka, she walked over to the bed before holding up a picture from the bedside table. "You actually got a picture of me by your bed, Naka?"

Eyebrow cocked, Naka walked over and snorted at the picture of a cocky Harder with one arm slung over the Naka in the picture's shoulder. "Yes, and? I like to wake up with pictures of those I care about right there." She then pointed at another picture, which was of a younger Harry sitting in Naka's lap. "I got one of the Chibi right there."

Harder faked a pout on her face before going into a pose with her arms curled. "And here I thought it was because of you wanting to wake up to my sexy self."

Moments later, Naka laughed as her eyes sparkled. At the now real pout, she waved Harder off. "Don't worry, Harder-Chan, I'm not laughing at you. I for one don't complain about eye candy after all. And let's face it..." Expression becoming a leer, she looked the Submarine up and down. "Your swimsuit doesn't hide much."

Blushing, the American gave her a look. "You fucking lewd Traffic Cone." When Harder paused, Naka was about to ask when the Subgirl reached into her clothes and pulled something out. "Not that I think I have much room to complain."

With a blink, Naka leaned over and smiled a bit at the sight which met her. "You keep a photo of me in your hull?"

Just shrugging, Harder put it back. "Well, yeah. I bring it out when I'm at one of those Submarine rest points on my really long patrols. That way I got something nice to wake up to other then a shitty bed frame with the bedroll I'm crashed on along with a concrete ceiling."

Amused, Naka raised an eyebrow at her friend. "But me in my business wear? Really?"

In reply, Harder gave her a snort and crossed her arms. "Yeah, really." Scratching her cheek, she continued. "You look good in it."

There was a smile on Naka's face before she pulled Harder into a hug. "Thanks, Harder-Chan." Leaning against her friend, she sighed before giving her a kiss on the cheek. "At least it's one of those pictures and not some others that I could name."

Waving her off, Harder shook her head. "Don't sweat it." Her attention returned to the table, she raised an eyebrow. "Hey, aren't those your parents on that photo?"

Naka glanced at it and gave a small nod. "Hai, that's them." Picking it up, she sighed. "For all our issues, them thinking that my dream is a waste of time and money, and how I haven't seen them in some time... They're still my parents, Harder-Chan. I love them for that and my childhood if nothing else."

Hands behind her head, Harder frowned some and shrugged. "If you say so, I mean I wouldn't know myself." When Naka looked at her, she jerked a thumb at herself. "Summoned Shipgirl here, I got no parents."

Frowning, Naka tapped her chin in thought. "Sometimes I forget stuff like that..."

Simply slinging an arm over Naka's shoulder, Harder shook her head. "Enough of that sort of thing." With a look around, she walked over to the washroom and peeked in. "Whoa! You actually got a bath and a walk in shower? The hell?!"

Back in a better mood, Naka looked in herself. "Yeah, back when this was just a Onsen, the owners made this as a special suite for those with money. It was unfinished when they closed shop so when I bought it, I had them finish this as my personal room here. As far as I am concerned, it was worth every cent that I put into it." Leaning against the door, she buffed her nails on her yukata. "So?"

Only shaking her head, the Submarine snorted. "You did good, Traffic Cone. This place is just plain awesome, especially the hot springs here." Glancing over her shoulder, she walked to the double doors and opened them. "Huh, you even got a porch here with a table? Sweet!"

Still leaning against the doorframe, Naka laughed lightly. "Yeah, I've found it nice to be able to sit out there in the early morning to enjoy breakfast. Sometimes I do paperwork on my visits as well out here."

Harder looked over her shoulder and then at the small kitchen. "Hmm... well, since you've treated me here, I'll make breakfast tomorrow and we can both enjoy it. Pastries sound any good?"

Licking her lips, Naka rapidly nodded with a smile. "I'm all for that, Harder-Chan. The Kami know that might put me into your debt." All Harder did at that was snort before quietening and staring at something. Having caught that, Naka frowned herself. "Something the matter, Harder-Chan?"

In reply, the Submarine gestured for her to come closer. Once she was next to her, Harder's voice dropped to a whisper. "Naka, look five degrees left to that hill. Is that a van there with the lights turned off?"

It said something for Naka's night vision that even in the somewhat cloudy night's darkness, it did not take her very long. "Hmm... yeah. Pretty good vantage point for here as well if they got a telescope, lets them look over the entire property. Most likely the local Yakuza keeping an eye on things here."

Whipping her head around, Harder boggled at her. "The fuck, Naka? The goddamn Yakuza are watching here? Are you shitting me?!"

All Naka did though was shake her head and sigh. "No, no I'm not. The Yakuza do have connections with the Idol business after all which I am sort of disliked by. But on the plus side, all they're doing is watching. It would take a very, very dumb one to actually try something as the military is involved here. And the very last thing that the Yakuza wants is to give the military an excuse to come down on them hard." Placing her hands on Harder's tense shoulders, the Cruiser gently guided her back in. "So just relax and I'll take care of it."

There was something in Naka's gaze that almost made Harder pity the guys in the van.

Keyword being almost.

Just watching as Naka walked over to a phone, Harder sat down in one of the leather chairs and continued to look around. If there was one thing that she could say about her friend, it was that she had a good sense of style no matter what. Once Naka was off the phone though, Harder smiled at her. "Thanks for inviting me, Naka. After all the work, it's nice to have a place to just relax."

Smiling, Naka walked over and shook her head. "You don't need to thank me, Harder-Chan. It's been... nice, to spend some time with you." Moving behind her, she reached down and gripped Harder's shoulders before beginning a shoulder and neck rub. "Here we go."

Even as she blushed, Harder tried her best to glance at her. "What the heck, Naka?"

With a small smirk on her face, the Light Cruiser chuckled. "What? Don't want a neck rub?" Expression softening, Naka shook her head. "Noticed earlier that you seemed a bit stressed."

Relaxing a bit, the American let out a sigh as she felt her friend work out various knots in her muscles. "Yeah, though that's not your fault. Managed to kill a fucking Battleship out there and had to dodge a bunch of pissed Abyssal Destroyers for about twenty eight hours before I managed to get out of there. Depth charging me the whole damn time too."

Only humming, Naka sighed a bit and shook her head. "And what has been happening up north can't be helping."

There was a grimace on Harder's face as she shook her head. "No, it's not. From what I got word of from some of my sister's, Settle has gone right calm. And Hate has not stopped smiling."

Naka paused at that as the words entered her head before blinking. "Oh, fuck. Someone is about to get a spiked torpedo right up their ass without lube."

Choking a bit, Harder gave her a look. "Jesus fucking Christ, Naka."

However, the Cruiser only shrugged. "It's the best way to put it, he's beyond being pissed off what you just said is true. And Hate is enjoying every moment of it because he knows what that means for him." Pausing, Naka sighed some. "Not that Jintsuu is much better as from what she told me, John is downright livid."

A frown on her face, Harder shook her head. "Not surprising because someone really screwed the pooch." Then looking over her shoulder, she smirked. "But enough of that and more shoulder rubs."

Laughs escaped from Naka as she shook her head. "Not a problem, Harder-Chan. You're a good friend and I don't mind this." Going back to what she had been doing, she held back a grin as Harder groaned. "Maybe after a nice night cap."

One eye open, Harder hummed some. "Night cap, huh? What sort of night cap?"

With her smirk widening, the Japanese shipgirl hummed. "I got some of that firewhiskey that the magicals make over in Britain. The good stuff."

Sighing, the Submarine shook her head. "That sounds good, Naka. Better then having Gigglewater before bed like Dolphin brought once. Don't get me wrong, it was good... but we were all laughing our asses off after a bottle, each. Damn magical drinks."

Just snickering, Naka shook her head. "Almost wish that I could have seen that."

Harder just gave her a slight smirk. "Well I got a bottle on me." At the raised eyebrow, she hummed. "Found a good deal for it."

Rolling her eyes, Naka shook her head. "I'm sure." Then looking down at her friend, she gave a small nod. "Anyways, if you want I can give you access to my room here whenever you need a break and somewhere to relax. I do own the place after all and as long as you don't cause too many problems, no one will care."

Eyes snapping open, Harder looked over at her. "Wait, seriously? You mean that?" When Naka nodded, the American smiled. "Huh, thanks. But there would be one thing missing from it."

Her eyebrow raised, Naka looked down at her. "Oh? And what would that be?"

Already knowing the reaction she was about to get, Harder continued. "You, so I would rather come here when both of us have time off." When Naka blinked and then blushed, the American grinned and pointed at her. "That time I made you blush, Traffic Cone."

Only huffing, though the amused twinkle in her eye betrayed her, Naka shook her head. "Hai, hai, you did." Stretching some, she began to walk over to the counter and pulled out two glasses. "Now about that drink..."

Later that night, Harder and Naka were both laying in the same bed with the Light Cruiser acting as the big spoon. Unknown to the sleeping Light Cruiser, Harder was still awake and somewhat in thought. Turning her head, the American took in the form of her friend. The fact that Naka had offered her room for Harder to stay in whenever she needed it was, to the shipgirl, just another sign of how good a friend she was.

Granted, there was a small, tiny part of her which told her that it also felt nice to feel the warm body pressed up against her. Especially with what she could feel through Naka's thin top and her own sleeveless t-shirt. Both of the shipgirls having worn light clothes to bed.

That part Harder promptly beat with a pipe, tied up, and threw into the goat locker.

Laying her head back down, Harder took a deep breath and smiled at how nice it did feel. Soon enough, she drifted off to the sound of the turbines inside of Naka running. As she did so, a thought occurred to her before sleep fully claimed her. 'I wonder if this is what that crazy British Sub meant when she said it was not a good night unless you woke up next to a Traffic Cone...'

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Sitting in Seiza before the group of Yokai who lived in the tunnels under the island, Tenryuu brought out a wrapped item and placed it in front of them. "Thank for seeing us, this is a gift from both the Ono Clan as well as the JMSDF. We hope that it helps you and yours out here on this island."

Curious, the seven tailed Kitsune held a paw over the box and a magic circle appeared briefly before disappearing. "Hmm..." Opening it he blinked at the odd, wooden box. One that had part of it able to be pushed up almost like a breadbox. "Well, it is obviously magical. But besides that, I am unsure what it may be..."

Head tilted to the side, the Kuwasu frowned somewhat. "If you would not mind explaining...?"

Only nodding, Tatsuta opened one eye and gave a small smile. "The item you see before you is a form of magical transport called an owl box. Mainly because it can only teleport an owl and it's package a distance. We have the other part of the pair in Yokosuka at the moment. We are hoping you accept because it would give us both a way of communication in the form of letters, and so that we can send you supplies."

Inazuma rapidly nodded with a small smile. "Hwawawa! Like medicine, or food!"

Eyes wide, the three elders looked at the owl box with some amount of awe. Shaking his head, the Mujina looked at it from various angles. "So with this item, you can transport food to us as well as medicine, cloth, and other such materials and supplies? And we do not need to pay for it?"

Rubbing the back of her neck, Tenryuu shrugged some. "Nah, not really. At most we would like for you to pass on any Abyssal movements that you might catch, but that's about it." A frown on her face, then she snapped her fingers. "Though there is one thing that we've been wondering about..."

With a glance to the others, the Kitsune only nodded. "I do not see an issue with reporting about Abyssal movements. After all, they are a threat to everyone one and it is doubtful that they would be able to find out if we are here through this. As to what it is that you have been wondering? Simply ask and we will answer if we are able."

Just frowning, Tenryuu furrowed her eyebrows and crossed her arms. "Well, recently we have been noticing activity on Hachijō-jima. However, we have not managed to find any real evidence of who has been staying there... so we were wondering if you have any knowledge of it."

All three Yokai glanced at each other which confirmed to the shipgirl that they knew something. But then they nodded and the Mujina turned to them. "What we know of Hachijō-jima is mostly hearsay, you must understand. Rumors and such that we hear from sea dwelling Yokai that have passed by on various journeys. Sometimes they stop by and we trade food with them or let them stay close by for a time before they move on. In exchange, they give us information."

The Kuwasu then took over. "The rumors are scarce regarding Hachijō-jima. But from what we have been told? A large number of Yokai from the neighbouring islands were brought there after Blood Week. Saved by a sea dragon who has taken up residence in the hotel and claiming it as her own palace..." Briefly, she looked unsure of what she was going to say next before shaking her head. "The most unbelievable part of the rumor is that the dragon is said to be one of the more younger daughters of Ryuujin-Sama himself, just a few centuries old."

Eyes wide, Akatsuki stared at her. "R-Ryuujin-Sama!? B-but why would she leave his palace for an old hotel?!"

However, the Kuwasu shook her head. "Of that, we're unsure. That is what we have been told though, and she has been powerful enough that the Abyssals have left them alone for the most part. But that is just rumors so we do not know how much of that is true, if any."

Meanwhile, Tenryuu only thought that over before shaking her head. "Hmm... still, that is a lot more then we thought that we would get." Bowing, she smiled some. "So thank you for informing of us of what you know."

Smiles on their faces, the three elders also bowed. "We're only sorry that we don't know more to repay your gift..."

Later after leaving the island, Tenryuu was frowning as she stared up at the clouds in thought. 'Ryuujin-Sama, huh? Pretty unbelievable, but after everything else that I've seen...' It was then that she spotted Ikazuchi with a frown on her face which soon became an expression of surprise and some shock. "Hey! Aki-Chan, something wrong?"

Quickly, the Destroyer shook her head. "I-it's nothing, Kaa-San. Just something that came over the Wizarding Wireless."

That made Verniy blink as she turned and looked at her sister. "The Wizarding Wireless? You've been listening to it then?" When Ikazuchi nodded, the white haired Destroyer frowned. "How?"

Shaking her head, Ikazuchi shrugged some. "Picked up a set and placed it into my crew's quarters. Some of my crew's been listening in on reports and stuff that comes over it." Jerking her thumb at herself, she continued. "That way you can all rely on me more for information."

Amused, Inazuma shook her head at her twin before a thought struck her. "Wait, so what came over the wireless that had you so worried, Nanodesu?"

Her expression falling, Ikazuchi shook her head. "There's this big protest going on in the magical area of Tokyo in front of the Diet. And they're saying that there's been clashes between anti- and pro-government demonstrators." Wincing, she shook her head. "Apparently the Aurors there are just watching fights break out."

Eye widening, Tenryuu had memories of her own youth come bubbling up and winced. "Oh, shit. Aki-Chan? Pass along all the information to Teitoku right now! I'm pretty sure that they got their own wireless set up as well. Either with Niiyodo or someone else."

Nodding, Ikazuchi gave orders to her radio man who got to work contacting Ooyodo. Meanwhile, she continued to update her family on what she was getting over the wireless. The whole time, all of them hoping that it could be resolved without much violence...

An hour later, Goto entered one of the conference rooms set aside to find Niiyodo transcribing things from what was the oddest radio that he had ever seen. And it was not the only one as he could also see several other such radios nearby, each one with a shipgirl in front of it writing what was being heard. "Okay, what is happening exactly?"

Ooyodo looked up from where she was working some notes with a grimace. "Nothing good so far at the moment. The protest seems to be growing bigger and bigger all the time, but a good number arriving seem to be counter-protestors." Glancing at one of the wireless sets, she shook her head. "One of the stations have already stated that the Aurors have tried to break up fights, but have been unable to."
Running a hand through his hair, he looked at the table. "Shit, that does not sound good and I've seen how that sort of thing could turn out badly for all involved. Do we know why the protest even happened?"

From where she was working on a computer, Ryuujou shook her head. "Ah got an idea or two, but that's about it. Give me a moment and... here we go!"

Moments later, one of the flat screens turned on to reveal Haru's face. One which to Goto's dismay had a nervous expression on it. "{Teitoku.}"

Just nodding, Goto leaned onto the table with a frown. "Haru-San. I would ask if you have been having a good day, but I am sure that you have not been. Now, do you know why this is going on?"

Sighing, Haru shook her head some and glanced to the side. There was the sound of someone talking and the Kitsune gave a nod. "{Correction, now I know why this is happening. Apparently a number of groups such the JNHRO, the Kyoto Administration Movement, the War Migrant and Displaced Persons Advocacy Group, Society for Wartime Rights, and the Concerned Veterans Association had been planning a demonstration today. Mainly because of how the Magical Diet handled what has been going on up in Hokkaido. But I've just been told that demonstration was put on hold until later in the year when all the groups involved could fully mobilize.}"

A frown on his face, Goto glanced at one of the wireless stations. "Obviously, someone has not gotten the memo."

That made Haru grimace. "{No, someone has not and-}" Her head whipped around and she stared at something. "{Oh... Kami. They're arresting the leaders.}"

Everyone just froze and Goto stared at one of the wireless stations that were reporting exactly that. "You complete and utter fucking bakas... To do that in front of the rest of the protest..."

Groaning, Haru placed her face in her hands. "{Kami, that is not going to help matters. Those are the only people who might control the crowd there and none of them are going to be happy. Do any of those Bakas have a single braincell?!}"

Roughly forty five minutes later, besides anger and disbelief, horror was the other emotion that everyone was feeling. Fubuki was staring at the wireless she was in front of with a pale face as she wrote. Mainly because on it there was a reporter still continuing to report even as she was attacked by Japanese Aurors along with her assistant. As the reports over the wireless continued to flood in, Goto's expression steeled. 'Dammit... people are going to die.' With a glance at Haru who seemed just as pale, he came to a decision. "Haru-San."

Just nodding slightly, she glanced at him. "{Yes, Teitoku? H-how may I help you?"

With a slow shake of the head, the Admiral took a deep breath. "It is more of how I can help you. I am assuming that your big worry right now is that there might well be a backlash? And that being Yokai, you and your family might be targeted?"

Slowly, Haru gave a small nod. "{Hai, that is our worry. And it is not just Natsumi-Chan in this case either as we have a number of other Yokai children sheltering here with Hoshi-San right outside patrolling just in case. Why?}"

Only frowning, Goto looked her in the eyes the best that he could. "Because I am giving you permission, if you wish, to bring those children here onto the base. They can stay in one of the shipgirl dorms until the crisis has been resolved one way or the other."

Almost immediately, Haru's tension left her and a thankful smile replaced the worried expression that she had. "{Thank you, Teitoku. That takes a load off our shoulders and worries. We may take you up on that depending on how things go.}"

Goto only nodded at that while motioning Kongou to head out and give those orders to the guards at the various gates. What was unsaid about the offer was what would happen to any Aurors who might try and assault the shipgirl dorms. Which was where the real relief for Haru came from.
__________________________________________________________________
Blinking as she looked towards where Harry and Hoppou were huddled around an odd device, Regalia frowned. "Why is Uncle Harry and Grandma not getting ready for bedtime? Or sitting on that and on their phones?"

She was not the only one who was confused as the other Princesses and Demons turned to Nagato who had a worried expression on her face. With a sigh, the Battleship shook her head. "There is a riot taking place right now in one of the magical areas of Tokyo and a number of people have gotten hurt."

Before Nagato could continue though, Nero raised her hand. "A riot? What's a riot?"

However, it was Sunny who answered while turning to the Ne-Class. "Its when a bunch of people get really angry and start attacking things, throwing stuff, and setting fires to buildings." At the look from Nagato, she shrugged. "A small one happened up in Unalaska after we took it over. It was those who really hated us and were attacking us and those they felt were traitors or something. Mother asked for us to put an end to it, so we did."

Nagato blanched a bit at that before speaking the obvious question and hoping not to get the type of answer expected. "I see... and how did you put an end to it?"

Simply shrugging, Sunny shook her head. "How else? Some of the Destroyers hit them with water cannons to put out the fires and myself and some others just walked into the crowd and grabbed them before tying them up. Not like they could actually hurt us or anything, though the flaming bottles were annoying... Then Mother had them brought before her and put them all in time out in the local jail for two months with them only being let out to fix the damages or writing apologies to those they hurt. Some of them tried again... and Mother had us place them back in time out for six months this time."

Relaxing, Nagato shook her head and chuckled. "I see, that sounds like Hoppou." After a few moments, she shook her head. "As to why they're so worried? The... magical government has issues with non-humans. So Harry is worried about his best friend, Natsumi, who is a Kitsune. Her younger sisters, Asuka and Rei are also Hoppou's best friends. So there is some worry that the government might go after them or supporters would."

Moments later, the shipgirl felt the atmosphere change and all the Abyssals there focused their attention on her with Tanith speaking. "Mother's best friends... might be in danger... from these people? They might... attack them because of what... is happening?"

It was then that Nagato realized what they might be thinking and shook her head. Expression becoming stern, she gave them all looks. "You will stay right here unless I say otherwise. Their friends are as safe as they could possibly be at the moment. And none of you could reach them before this is over, so it is best to just wait it out." Her face softened some and she pointed to Hoppou who was talking on her phone with a worried look on her face. "Besides which, I think that it is more important that Hoppou and Harry get some support from us."

Almost immediately, a number of Abyssals headed over there and the shipgirl shook her head. All the while, she hoped that nothing would happen to the Onos. Mainly because while Hoppou would likely go on the warpath against the Magical Diet, she had no doubt that Harry would as well. Not to mention a number of shipgirls who would back him up while the Fleet of Laughter would follow their mother into the fight. And that was something that Nagato hoped would never be needed...

 

[darthcourt10]

NotHimAgain

Renata sits on the edge of the roof of the Sakurada house, idly kicking her feet back and forth. Her tail snakes around and rests its head in her lap. She stares out at the cityscape, not quite trusting the night and its secrets.

"Renata," Ruri's voice comes over her radio. "When are you planning on coming back home?"

"Give it some time," Renata says. "I've been picking up some pretty strange chatter. Thought it would be a good idea to make sure Nemo's sleepover doesn't go wrong somehow."

"Nemo's a big girl," Ruri groans. Renata can just see her frustrated face.

"She's my sister," she says, and leaves it at that.

There is a brief silence. Finally, Ruri responds. "Understood," she says. "I'll see you in the morning."

"That you will," Renata says. Hooking her feet back up over the eaves, she stands. Watching the night, its secrets, and its dangers.

 

[darthcourt10]

Lord K

Oh boy, it's finally happening

Time for fallout and aftershocks

Mega1987 said:
looks like a group of people is wanting to get that prized Award...

The Darwin's Award.....

of course... those kind of things happens in real life....
but unlike here where money and manpower can do alot of damage control... *cough*China*cough*

the Magical DIET might be opening a pandora's box instead of sealing it...

thus making the so called cover up alot more harder if not impossible....​

Unfortunately for the Diet, this is going to be all but impossible to cover up. The way magical news coverage is done and people communicate with one another has changed over the course of the Abyssal War. This is like a culmination/train crash of multiple different ways the bureaucracy and administration is out of touch with not just the people, but even the culture of the times, as well as the ranks of it's own government agencies as well.

Muggle-style "Breaking News Coverage" of crises has become a thing on the Wizarding Wireless Networks as the war has gone on, evolving out of a need to simply give people warning's of what's going on, and stations/reporters naturally stepping up to fill the role by dint of being a wide reaching form of media most communities will have at least a few people listening to during the day. Half a dozen different stations broadcast the clusterfuck from Okinawa to Hokkaido for the entire night (at least from the confusing perspectives of wherever reporters managed to set up, so in the crowd, some behind Auror lines, some in the evac areas, so at the triage station at the embassy). There were also more than a few intentional radio and news reporters who ended up observing the mess, so that's going to be even more disgrace and shame from the international stage come morning.

Another part of why the gathering ballooned so spectacularly out of control and rapidly beyond anyone's predictions was also the influence of muggle communication technology and social media. The SDF has an Abyssal Warning text messaging system linked up to the cellphone grids, and even before the dumpsterfire magical public confidence would have become in the wake of how of how the DMLE handled Hoppou's Fleet arriving, that's probably something more than a few people would want to keep access to. That and other aspects of the last few years have been rife with reasons for muggle-borns and halfbloods to keep in touch with the non-magical world and technology. When things at the protest really started to boil over, social media provided an avenue for people who were pissed off, disappointed, and angry to ask others and their friends turn up if they felt the same. The thing is, nobody anticipated how rapidly this would spread, resulting in a flood of far more people than anybody on any side actually predicted.

NotHimAgain said:
The bad thing is happening. This year is just kind of horrible for government competence, isn't it (in-story).​

The blows exposing the cracks in the system have really been coming in hard and fast this year. Just off the top of my head they've had;

The Gashadokuro Incident
The JNHRO's unofficial allies among those smuggling people and supplies in and out of Reserves, have massively grown in capability since they've gained secret SDF and Yokai Clan support.
The Ryuusei Family Incident
The Hoppou's Fleet's Arrival
A lot of the Hokkaido communities are really starting to look at jumping ship to Kyoto together

And now there's this mess

As an aside; depending on how the Abyssal war effected the timing of things, there's probably an election due either later this year, or around the beginning of 2014. There's probably an increasing number of unironic signs in lawns saying "Kyoto 2014" at this point, rather any actual candidate from Tokyo.

mikelima777 said:
I wonder if Mary got involved with the aftermath of the Riot. Especially depending on how the Magical Diet reacts to the Adachi Neighbourhood Watch. Because not only would they be pissing off Mizuchi and her neighborhood watch, they would also be dealing with the Mizuchi's mother, who already has the Tokyo government on her shitlist.​

*-*-*-*-*-*

Holding the cheap burner phone to her head, Jin's tail flicks in restless agitation in time with the anxious tapping of her foot upon the ground. Scales, horns, and minor other draconic hints already show across her scarred form, hinting at the mizuchi's readiness for potential trouble.

'Come on mom..... you could at least text back.....'

The phone immediately goes to voice mail. Jin curses and doesn't bother leaving one.

If the phone is off, that means she's on the clock. The sim card probably isn't even in at the moment, knowing the cautious respect and paranoia the veteran auror has for technology the majority of her counterparts would never actually care for or understand the weaknesses of anyway.

With a surly anger to hide the worried disquiet and unease she actually feels, the mizuchi roughly shoves her phone back into her pocket.

Her attempts to disguise her thoughts with annoyed frustration and draconic delinquent mannerisms, don't quite work on everyone present however.

Watching as the hubbub of the Zuchi house rapidly becomes the constrained anxiousness of a barely organised not-quite-evacuation, the dragon watches as Kogamaru splits away from the crowd and jogs towards her.

"You okay Jin?"

She knows her isn't just talking about her specifically.

"I can't get through."

The young okami makes a face, but nevertheless looks at her reassuringly. "If half the stories you've told are true, she'll be fine. This isn't open warfare or a minor god."

"Yeah, but it is a lot of pissed off people and some really amateur mistakes from the sounds of things." The mizuchi glances at the nearby radio, thoughts circulating behind her eyes like the slow but immeasurably powerful whirl of currents shifting and changing to adapt to the movement of the tides.

Things sound bad. Nobody seems to have an adequate picture of what's going on. Nobody knows who's actually on the ground, and how many people other than 'a fucking lot'. A couple of Wireless stations have temporarily cut their live feed of the confusing chaos out of horror, or shifted to new positions and stand points to try and figure out what's happening beyond 'panic!' and 'gas!', and a few other vague reports the the crowd are now attacking aurors. Other reporters still in the crowd however, are now painting a very different and much more horrific picture, that rather sounds like the reverse instead.

Nobody knows what's happening.

And Lower Adachi Ward is only nine kilometers from everything taking place.

There's a lot of reports that kids are involved.

Jin knows the kinds of kids and teens that live in her apartment building, and throughout the rest of the Adchi Neighborhood Watch's territory in the Ward. Too young or not quite down with the Watch's air of semi-legitimacy and organisation under it's surface level biker gang disguise, but just as driven, if not emboldened by the fact that they live in a veritable fiefdom run by one of the oldest thorns in the Magical Diet's side. A fact also known by a lot of people who might be trying to flee Magical Chiyoda Ward right now.

And if the stupid decisions continue and somebody orders Aurors to pursue....

"I'm going to Adachi." The dragon glances at the car they into which Ai's five co-pilots that make up the Abyss Divers in the know about magic, and a number of other JNHRO members, are bundling a multitude of laptops and reams of paper. Notes and plans regarding operations delivering air-dropped supplies into Reserves, and the coming second wave of owl-box insertions they had only recently begun to plot out. "I have to make sure these guys and all their info gets to Yokosuka first though. Kiba wants to play it safe and get everything related to non-magical and SDF Ops off the property just in case. Everyone and their mother knows this is our unofficial headquarters, and he'd rather there wasn't anything incriminating or illegal here for the next few days, just in case we get caught up in the bullshit from the fallout from this."

Kogamaru nods, accepting her statement for the non-negotiable fact it is. He has obligations and responsibilities as well after all.

"I shall go to the Shrine." The wolf grimaces. "As much as I would like to immediately return to Yamainutaira, and assuage everyone's worries by going home before the net of unwise arrests is possibly widened out to us, this is something that demands discussion and conference with the other yokai clan heads. Tokotomi said he'll meet me at the Shrine, and then drop me off home, before trying to see if he can get to the Diet."

The mizuchi grimaces. "Wireless says they shut down all the exists to Chiyoda Ward. From the sounds of things, people are only able to leave."

The wolf tilts his head in confusion. "Tsukino just texted me five minutes ago and told me she saw people going in and out via the West Jyumon Gate?"

"What?" Jin now blinks in disbelief and baffled uncertainty. "When did that happen? The Wireless keeps on saying there's an auror line blocking the intersection at Mahou and Jyumon?"

"Maybe they're.... wrong or something?" The okami grimaces uncertainly.

"God damnit!" Angrily Jin kicks out at a nearby bush. "This is so fucked! I wouldn't be surprised if people are dead right now, and nobody can even tell what the fuck is happening! What an absolute shitshow, and right in front of the Diet and the MACUSA Embassy. Shit, the ICW Building is just up the road from there too."

Kogamaru makes a face, knowing what has the dragon troubled. "It doesn't sound like it's actually spilled over into the Embassy itself."

"I heard something about triage and injured in the courtyard," counters the mizuchi quietly.

"Maybe they're just helping?"

"Maybe... maybe..." trails off Jin with a sigh that sounds almost as much like an effort to calm her worries, as it is to calm her temper. "First aid. Mom's always been a sponge for medical skills. That's probably why she's on the clock. She's probably just busy helping with the triage, especially if there are as many injured as it sounds like."

The later part almost comes out more like an attempt to convince herself, rather than a hypothetical guess.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Blinking, Taichi looked at the mug full of steaming coffee that was placed in front of him before turning to the person who brought it to him. "Thank you, Kaga-San. I really need this at the moment."

Just sitting down on one side of him, Kaga gave a small hum. "I see." Looking around, she could see the various other adults in the house talking in groups. Sakuya and the other Clan Heirs were gathered around one folding table discussing something. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Natsumi making herself another batch of black tea while rubbing her eyes. 'Hmm...'

Meanwhile, Akagi gave Taichi a small smile from where she was seated on his other side from Kaga. "You don't really need to thank us, Taichi-Kun. Neither Kaga-San or myself mind much helping."

Setting down her mug, Kaga gave him a smile. "As Akagi-San said."

Just chuckling, Taichi ran a hand down his face as he fought off a yawn. "I still appreciate it. Neither of you needed to come here after all, and yet here you are."

Akagi shook her head with a hum. "Haru-San is a friend of ours, Taichi-Kun, and so are you. Besides which, with this going on?" Gesturing around her, she continued. "Neither Kaga-San or myself felt like just sitting around as there is not much that we can do at the moment. This way, if the worst does come to pass, we're right here and ready to help."

Giving her an odd look, Taichi frowned before lowering his mug. "Seriously? I would have thought that the two of you would have plenty to do."

However, Kaga shook her head. "No, we do not. None of our pilots are yet night flight ready. At the moment though, they have Akitsu Maru nearby using her gyrocopters to record what is going on for use later on."

That bit of information made the Kitsune blink before he gave her an odd look. "Wait a moment, Akitsu Maru? How could she be recording with her Gyrocopters? Unless she's using old World War Two cameras on them?"

Shaking her head, Akagi chuckled some. "Not quite, Taichi-Kun. After all, our fairies are able to use modern equipment and it does not take much to strap on a go-pro to one of our aircraft or some other type of camera." Tapping the side of her head, she continued. "We all have cameras inside of our bridges to record what we see while out on a mission or patrol in case combat occurs."

Beside him, Kaga nodded slightly. "It was something that was worked out after the go-pro cameras were given to strap onto the sides of our heads were often destroyed in combat. Though I have heard that there has been some talk of creating some method to continuously download what the cameras are recording." With a sip of her coffee, she shook her head. "But in regards to our aircraft, all of them have been manufactured with gun cameras even if most are of a quality from World War Two. One of each squadron, our best pilots, is modern though as it requires Akashi-San to make modifications of the plane itself."

Head tilted to the side, Taichi frowned. "Huh..." Yawning briefly, he shook his head. "Sorry about that."

The two Aircraft Carriers waved him off though with Kaga shaking her head. "You have been up for several hours as it is, Taichi-Kun. I would be more surprised if you were not tired."

Akagi then wagged a finger at him. "Though you should try and catch a nap here or there. It would not help anyone if you were too tired after all." Still smiling, she patted her lap. "You could use mine or Kaga-San's laps are pillows if you want. Neither of us would mind too much and they're comfortable."

Choking a bit on his coffee, Taichi looked between them. "Uh... I, um... that is..."

Just leaning towards him, the blue clad of the two Carriers had a twinkle in her eye. "Between the two of us though, I personally believe that Akagi-San's lap is more comfortable."

With giggles escaping her, Akagi grinned at her long time partner. "Nonsense, Kaga-San! Your lap is just as comfortable if not more so." Turning at the flustered Taichi with more giggles, she shook her head. "But just the same, you should get some rest, Taichi-Kun. Both Kaga-San and myself will help out if anything happens. That is why we're here."

Simply nodding as she sipped her coffee, Kaga nodded. 'Among other reasons, of course.' Glancing at Sakuya, Kaga got a small nod from the five tailed Kitsune. 'Which some have seemed to have guessed...' Moments later, but Kaga and Sakuya became highly amused when Akagi took Taichi's mug from him and forced him to put his head in Kaga's lap. All the while, Kaga smirked before she reached down and stroked his hair some. 'Hmm...'

Meanwhile, Natsumi gave the three a look before leaving the dining room for the sitting room. Walking in, she sighed as she set down the tray in the table which caused Asuka to jerk awake from where she had been about to fall over from dozing. "Jin! That's my slice of cake!" At the looks she got, she blushed and sunk down a bit. "Er..."

In reply, Natsumi gave a snort. "You got people who take your treats all the time too, huh?" At the confused look, the thirteen year old shook her head. "Oba-Chan often swipes things from the fridge with the excuse that she owns the house and thus what is in the fridge."

Poking her head in, said older Kitsune winked some. "What? Its true."

Then before Natsumi could say anything, Haru pulled out of sight. Rolling her eyes, the two tail shook her head. "See what I mean?"

Slowly blinking in utter befuddlement, Asuka looked from where Haru had been to Natsumi. "Um, I guess? But its more that Jin often eats stuff she doesn't realize is for someone else." When she looked at the plate, the tengu tilted her head some. "Um, what are those? Chocolate Danishes?"

Placing one of the pastries onto a napkin and putting it in front of Kenta, Natsumi shook her head. "Actually? They're Nutella butter Danishes. Harry-Chan taught both Oba-Chan and myself how to make them to give us a little something with rationing. They're pretty good, if a little messy."

Usagi looked at the one that she held in her hands before taking a bite of the warm pastry. Licking her lips free of the chocolatey goodness, she grabbed a napkin and wiped her mouth. "Messy but good is right! Still, I needed this."

While watching the others bite into their own ones, Asuka looked down at hers before picking it up. Moments after biting it, she chewed before swallowing. After wiping her mouth a bit, she glanced at the time which was just after one thirty in the morning. "Um, should we even be eating this stuff at this time?"

Finishing off one of the ones she had brought, Natsumi shook her head. "We need to keep our blood sugar levels up so we won't fall asleep. At least not until this is all over and done with however it turns out." Taking a sip of her black tea and sighing, the Kitsune shook her head. "Especially if we need to make a break for it."

Glancing at her rival's side, Ayaka raised an eyebrow. "Is that why you have that blade of yours at your side?"

Now also looking at it, Asuka frowned slightly. "I've been wondering that. How useful would it be? I mean, I know that Jin and Kogamaru-San both did a double take at seeing it, but not why..."

Simply taking another sip of her tea, Natsumi shrugged. "It's a pretty old blade actually. According to Oba-Chan it is way older then any Muramasa or Masamune. But I have it because Harry-Chan gave it to me so that I have something to protect myself since it was among the blades his family have collected over the years." Gently, she stroked the blade's hilt. "It has special abilities and it helped me as well as Shiromizu-Chan and Harry-Chan to kill Kuroshi."

Now intrigued, Rika tried to lean over to see the dagger at her friend's side. "Huh, that was the one that you used? And special abilities?"

Brightening a bit, the Kitsune smiled some. "Yeah, it is actually pretty neat. I found out that when I have it drawn, it becomes hard to see me if I'm in shadow. Even during the day you might miss me, so that's actually pretty cool."

Only tilting her head to the side, Asuka gave a small nod. "Actually, that might be a bit awesome."

Several hours later as the Sun rose, an exhausted Kiba arrived and looked into the room where all the young Yokai were sleeping under blankets. Running a hand through his hair, he glanced at a similarly exhausted Haru. "Everything go well? No trouble?"

Haru gave a tired chuckle and shook her head. "No, no trouble at all. All of them finally fell asleep around five this morning." With a sip of her coffee, she hummed some. "Natsumi-Chan was the last one though that was to be expected seeing as she is used to it due to Harry-Chan."

That got her an odd look from Kiba. "Due to Harry-San? How so?"

Blinking slowly, Haru looked at him. "Hmm? Oh, at least once a year something happens that gets her worried about him. Last year, it was when a teacher possessed by Voldemort attacked Harry-Chan and caused him to go into a coma. This year it was a diary of all things with a version of Voldemort that possessed a student that set a basilisk on the school. Harry-Chan nearly died when it bit him, but survived it and destroyed the diary in the process. And with Voldemort still out there..."

Part of Kiba knew, somehow, he was not getting the full story. But he also realized that what he got was only due to how exhausted Haru was from divining all night to keep an eye on if they might be attacked or not. So, instead, the Okuri Inu just dropped it and simply turned back towards the kitchen. "Anyways, you don't have any coffee, do you? I would ask Ai, but she won't give me any of hers."

Lightly laughing, Haru shook her head and followed. "Oh, we still got some Navy coffee if you want some..."

 

[darthcourt10]

U.N.Spacy000

Juuchi's been left at home withoutadultPotter supervision and there's a riot relatively nearby. I wonder what she's getting up to today.
*-*-*-*-*-*

Riotous Recruitment Refuted

"Senpai, no," Tsukiakari said as she blocked the door to the Potter-Nagato residence.

"Senpai, yes!" Juuchi said with an enthusiastic pump of her fist while the Wizarding Wireless droned on about riots more or less in front of the Diet building that had grown from a peaceful protest after the Aurors bungled their jobs.

"You'll get us in trouble!" Tsukiakari said as she blocked Juuchi's lunge for the handle.

"Young Master Harry hasn't minded our independence – I'm just going out for a walk,"Juuchi said with a small smile.

"I saw that show with you, and I'm more concerned with trouble from law enforcement than Master Harry," Tsukiakari said before fending off another attempt to get to the door.

"But our proletariat Youkai brothers and sisters languish under the heel of the bourgeoisie oligarchs who do nothing but oppress them and send good wizards and witches on impossible, pointless missions," Juuchi said with a fervent zeal as she placed her hands on her kohai's shoulders and looked deep in the other woman's eyes. "We must rise up and seize the means of production."

"First, you aren't actually a Marxist or Communist, and secondly, Master Harry would probably qualify as being part of the bourgeoisie, so no, you're not going to do that," Tsukiakari said in a put upon manner.

"It is our duty tou the British Empire tou coulounize these barbarians and shouw them houw tou prouperly gouvern the poupulous ouf Nippoun," Juuchi said as she adopted an upright, confident posture with her head held high and an aura of nobility and snobbishness. "We should have doune it centuries agou, really, and we would be douing them a favour."

"Why are you talking like that? No, don't answer, I'm just stalling for time as I try to wrap my head around the concept of Nippon being barbaric and ruled by non-barbaric foreigners with how barbarian and foreigner are pretty much the same word," Tsukiakari said as she tilted her head before straightening herself. "And given how much Master Harry has complained about the British Ministry of Magic, I don't think we should do that."

"We would be placing it under the jurisdiction of the Queen," Juuchi said with an offended sniff.

"Then why not just give everything to the mundane government of Japan?" Tsukiakari asked.

"What a wonderful suggestion," Juuchi said as she smiled widely. "Let's go do that."

"No! It wasn't a suggestion!" Tsukiakari said as she latched onto Juuchi to keep the older sword from getting to the door.

"Come on, we're part of the Potter family – we're contractually obligated to go into places of civil unrest, kill people who attack us, and liberate their unappreciated stuff so we can love and cherish them in ways their poor neglected selves could never imagine!" Juuchi said while she attempted to dislodge the younger sword.

"At least you're being honest about it now," Tsukiakari grumbled.

"You just don't want me to adopt a police girl with big titties – stonking huge anime tiddies," Juuchi said as she wrapped an arm around her kohai's shoulder.

Tsukiakari was not as imperturbable as some – still, the nation of Japan could have ended and she would not have turned a hair so long as the Potter family was safe – but now her mouth opened, and her brow furrowed, and she said only, "What."

"I want you to know that no one would ever replace you in my heart even if I did rescue another adorable blade to join the family," Juuchi said soothingly as she rubbed Tsukiakari's head. "But you know, she'd be your kohai, too."

Juuchi could almost see Tsukiakari's brain reengaging before she launched into a long winded, highly detailed, and not at all rehearsed speech that had been drilled into her memory by centuries of Potter Matriarchs telling their children how having a younger sibling was a large responsibility. Juuchi changed some of the terms in her speech – any new blade would be a kohai and it was not as though Juuchi herself was going to give birth.

The Muramasa paused in her lecture and contemplated how Harry had done such a good job being Hoppou's older brother without getting the older sibling speech. Maybe it was so permeated into the Potter psyche that it had become part of their nature, bonded with their magic, or something silly like that. Or maybe Master James and Mistress Lily had been planning on expanding the family quickly and had given it to Harry before he could talk.

In any event, Juuchi's break had been enough for Tsukiakari to get a word in. She had been exposed to the same speeches and her mind took it to the end without Juuchi's prompting which caused her to quietly and hopefully say, "Senpai, I'm going to be a senpai."

"Yes! That's the spirit! And if she's been a police sword that means she'll know these 'right from wrong' things I hear exist and you'll have a second person helping you with these arguments," Juuchi said with a nod.

"Teaming up with my kohai to convince senpai to not do crazy things," Tsukiakari said dreamily.

"Then let's go be Potters! We'll go out into this civil unrest, loot everything we can, and dispose of undesirables who get in our way!" Juuchi said before she threw the door open.

Outside stood – for a given value of stood – Honjo Masamune. She was bent over slightly so she could rest her hands on her knees and prop herself up as she huffed and wheezed while she looked at the ground and tried to catch her breath.

"Oh, it's you," Juuchi said in an exasperated tone that she usually reserved for when she sang Rupert Holmes'Escapeat the karaoke.

"You *huff* *huff* are not *huff* *huff* going *huff* *huff* any- *huff* -where," Honjo said as she looked up to glare at Juuchi.

"You are such a killjoy, I really should introduce you to my despair causing sister now that we're back in the country," Juuchi said as she glared at the Masamune. "The two of you would probably get along with your shared ability to suck all the happiness out of a room."

Honjo opted to suck in more air rather than retort.

"Did you run all the way here just to stop me?" Juuchi asked with wide eyes when she finally noticed how red Honjo's face was. "I'm touched."

"Touched *huff* in the *huff* head," Honjo grumbled.

"And you're making jokes at me expense! You do care and can learn!" Juuchi said as she wiped a fake tear away from her cheek before she turned to Tsukiakari and acted as though she was going to lose her composure. "I'm so proud."

"Hate you," Honjo groaned out.

"I have just the thing to cheer you up," Juuchi said in an overly pleased voice with her smug smile before she walked over to the kitchen and returned with a glass jug filled with golden liquid. "It turns out that there are people who ferment apple juice. I present to you, cider, made from Fuuji apples."

Honjo stared at the proffered jug before she accepted it and began to read the manufacturer's labels. After she checked the seal, she looked at Juuchi and asked, "What are you up to?"

"Oh, well, I had been planning on going out for a walk, maybe protesting the miscarriage of justice against our fellow non-human sapients and generally being a shining beacon of hope like the rising sun, but since you're opposed to that, I guess we can sit around watching the television while getting drunk," Juuchi said with a shrug.

It was at that moment the terrible choice Honjo Masamune had to make truly hit home. She could stay and contain Juuchi Yosamu in the Potter-Nagato house or actively help her countrymen in almost any other way and unleash the Muramasa – probably – upon agents of the magical government.

"We could catch up with Carnwennan since he's on the base?" Honjo offered.

"And I could tease him about how he'll most likely be rejoining the Potter collection when his mistress inevitably marries young Master Harry within the next thirty years," Juuchi said with a smile. "Let's go do that."

 

[darthcourt10]

NotHimAgain

imhotep99301 said:
You are thinking much too small...​

*-*-*-*-*
Day 1:

Natsumi comes home to find a wooden sculpture of a Native American man standing on her seat. She thinks it might be some sort of American thing, but she isn't sure.

Turning to Haru, she asks why it is there. Haru gives her a confused look.

"An Indian?" she says, staring at the sculpture. "I don't see anything there. Are you feeling alright, Natsumi?"

Natsumi is puzzled, but in the end moves the statue and eats her dinner.

Day 2:

The Indian is there again. Once again, she turns to her aunt. Once again, her aunt denies its presence.

Day 3:

The Indian is back again. This is starting to become annoying.

Day 7:

IT'S STILL THERE. SHE STILL ACTS LIKE SHE DOESN'T SEE IT.

Day 14:

Natsumi has resorted to dragging Harry over to corroborate her story. To her shock and confusion, the dime-store Indian is nowhere to be found.

Harry merely cocks an eyebrow. "Really?" he asks Haru.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," she says demurely. "Ah--Don't sit there, Natsumi, there's an Indian there."

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"

Day 20:

Six blessed days without the accursed statue. Already, it seems to be becoming a thing of the past. Natsumi jogs up the steps, happy to finally be home. Harry has been invited over again, and Louisiana is coming along as well. She needs to get ready, and quickly.

She runs in the door, and balks. Standing at the stove is Haru, dressed in the same costume as the Indian statue. Natsumi's mouth opens, closes, opens again, then rethinks its stance and slowly closes, hoping that no one noticed it was open in the first place.

"Are you trying to convince me that I'm crazy?" she asks finally.

"Of course not," Haru replies. "We're already crazy here."

"No, I mean un-ironically."

"Why my dear niece, why would I ever do that?"

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Lounging in the warm sunlight on the back porch of Haru's home in her full human form, Shiromizu was frowning in thought. A few moments later though, she was interrupted as a chuckle reached her ears and she turned to find Usagi's mother, Miyu there. Said Inaba looked extremely tired but still had a smile on her face as she held out a ramune bottle. "Here, I thought that you might need something to drink. Especially with how much you've been thinking."

The Mizuchi had a small blush on her face as she took the ramune bottle and sighed. "Is it really that obvious?"

With a hum escaping her as she also leaned back on her hands, which caused Shiromizu to note that said disguises Yokai had shapely legs as well as well muscled ones. Martial artist legs. "To a mother such as myself? Yes."

Opening her bottle, Shiromizu sighed before taking a sip. "Its not that important, not considering everything else. And besides... Everyone is tired and exhausted right now."

Eyebrow raised, Miyu gave her a look. "And you're not, Shiromizu-San?" Then her eyes narrowed for a second or two before they widened. "Ah, I see. You're not tired at all, you're still awake and brimming with energy."

As she grimaced, the young Mizuchi took a slug of her drink before shaking her head. "I guess, I mean, I know that I shouldfeeltired. But I don't, not really. And I don't know why..."

Closing her eyes briefly, Miyu then opened and fixed the two reddish orbs on Shiromizu's own. "That is an aspect of being a Mizuchi, I suppose. And a Kami, though still young." When Shiromizu turned to her, the Inaba pointed at herself. "Descendant directly from the White Hare of Inaba. While several generations removed, we still carry a drop of the blood of the divine. Granted, that might be due to every so often our ancestor having new children with rabbit Yokai and having us come across them with them marrying into our family. But still."

Head cocked to the side, Shiromizu frowned. "What does that mean?"

Lips twitching, Miyu leaned in. "Kami, and those with Kami blood, often times can push their bodies far further then normal beings can. Even Yokai. I myself have been up nearly forty hours and yet comparatively, it would seem that I have been awake nearly half that when compared to Haru-San and others. I believe that you have noticed that shipgirls can also stay awake for long stretches with little problem as well?" When Shiromizu nodded, the hare returned it. "Exactly. One of the benefits of divinity in this way is being able to ignore mortal needs when needed. And you? While still young, you also have a devout group of worshippers back on the mountain that your spring is on. That gives you energy when needed."

Placing her face in her hands, the transformed snake groaned. "But that is just it! I'm flesh and bone! Not... not some kind of spirit!"

Foot tapping the ground, Miyu gave a small nod. "That is true enough. And yet not true as one can be both flesh and bone as well as spirit. Your elder, the one that you're learning from, Jin no Hisakawa? She is a perfect example of such."

Voice nearly low enough, Shiromizu gave a sigh. "You wouldn't think such."

Glancing at her, the Inaba hummed. "Ah, I've figured as much. I take it then that you have not talked to her in regards to this?"

Slowly, Shiromizu shook her head. "No, how the heck am I even supposed to breach the subject to Sempai? From the way she acts, being flesh and blood as well as spirit is something bad. To be avoided. But... what does that mean for me?"

Expression thoughtful, Miyu looked up at the skies above. "What does that mean for you? Are not your situations different?"

Running her hand through her hair, Shiromizu shook her head. "Is it? Sempai was a spirit of a stream and was reborn as a human, who became a Mizuchi again! Sure, the whole thing happened because otherwise she would have died, but still, she treats that as abadthing. What does that mean for myself?"

Miyu's nose twitched a bit and she hummed. "Ah! But Jin-San did so out of revenge for her death at the hands of she who would become her mother. After her stream had been polluted and violated by humans."

Just snorting, the Mizuchi shook her head. "Yeah, so? Did Sempai take her revenge, hunt down and kill her Okaa-San? No, she didn't. While her original aims were not good, she discarded them out of love and still sees what she is as bad. When she's done so much good!" Her eyes closing, a sigh escaped from Shiromizu. "What does that mean when it comes to me? Is my existence bad as well?"

Reaching over, Miyu ran a hand through the younger of the two's hair. "How so?"

Not saying anything right away, Shiromizu stared out at the yard as the breeze brushed past. Eventually, she spoke up. "Sempai has mentioned to me about smaller streams and springs. How they are not big enough to have a fully intelligent spirit. My spring when I was born though... it was tiny. It was smaller then the one by the Blood Week Memorial here in Yokosuka. Yet, here I am." Taking a deep breath, she continued. "I don't remember much before being born. There was... something there. A need to grow, to become more. My first real memory is hatching from my egg. The egg of an ordinary rat snake who had laid it close to where my spring was. I actually met the snake that I thought was my Okaa-San once. When I was five, her scent being like my own. But she was old and... that was the only time I saw her. There wasn't really any intelligence in her, she just wanted to eat and live her life. Sort of like any other snake really."

Very slowly, Miyu nodded. "Go on."

Finger tapping her knee, Shiromizu looked down at the ground. "For years, I've thought that I was just a Yokai. Nothing odd about that, Yokai come into being from normal animals all the time. But... now I know that I'm a Mizuchi, a dragon who is the spirit of a body of water. Howdid I come into being as I am? Being flesh and blood as well as spirit? Did... did I steal the life of an unborn snake? Because I wanted to live, to grow? Was it a slug, an unfertilized egg that would never have had life in it? If what Sempai did was wrong, what about me?"

Almost a minute passed before the older of the two spoke up. "While the original reasons that Jin no Hisakawa did what she had was wrong, in the end it has tipped the scales in the other direction." Waiting until Shiromizu turned to her, she continued. "She gave two people who otherwise would not have had one, a child. One that they loved, and continue to love. Said daughter has also loved, and continues to love them. Her original self, even at its most powerful, would not have overly cared for 'Lesser beings'. Yet the current self, was right there at the riot helping to end things before more death could happen. She was there that very night that Kuroshi attempted to kill you, even fighting a Gashadokuro knowing she had no chance. All to save beings that her previous self would have sneered at. Over the years, she has fought in various ways to save and to protect. A guardian." Head cocked to the side, Miyu smiled. "Even a being born from a grudge, an Onryo, can become a powerful protector, a Goryo."

Just frowning, Shiromizu gave her a look. "That doesn't really answer my question though."

Lightly chuckling, Miyu shook her head. "No, I suppose that it doesn't. But for that, I would suggest talking to Jin no Hisakawa about your worries. I get the feeling that she might have the answers that you need to hear."

One eyebrow raised, the young Mizuchi blinked. "And is that from the Kami?"

Suddenly, Miyu grinned. "No, that is advice from one who has raised many children." Then the Inaba continued. "Granted, my husband has stated that I am a Kami in the bedroom~"

Needless to say, that got her a look from Shiromizu. "Lewd."

Waggling her eyebrows, the rabbit snickered. "Perhaps, but also true. Otherwise, I would not have the amount of children that I do." Softening her expression, she shook her head. "But still, talk to your sempai. She'll understand if I know enough of her reputation. Granted, one must ask what brought this on..."

Shiromizu let out a small sigh. "I guess its all this waiting. My otouto is up north and safe at the moment, not that I would worry too much about him anyways due to how the government would avoid pulling him in. Sempai is... wherever she is, though she helped stop the looting. Meanwhile all we are doing is sitting here worrying and wondering what happens next. And, well... I've had a lot of time to think over the past few days."

In reply to that, Miyu gave a small nod. "That would certainly do it. Though I must ask... do you really consider Potter-San to be your otouto?"

Blinking, Shiromizu gave her a look. "Of course I do, because he is as far as I am concerned." With a shrug, she continued and looked away, thus missing the slight widening of Miyu's eyes. "I already stated that if I get a shrine, that once Harry passes then I want him to be enshrined there right next to me. And if needed, I will do it personally myself."

Unknown to Shiromizu, the Inaba gave her a searching look before nodding. "I see, that answers some questions I had." Simply ignoring the confused look Shiromizu gave her, she turned and looked back into the house. "Speaking of..."

Also looking, Shiromizu's eyes widened before she set aside her now empty bottle of ramune and made her way inside. " Um, sorry about this but I got to go."

Humming, Miyu just looked up at the sky. 'How much do you know about things, I wonder...?'

For a moment, the Sun peeked out from behind a cloud and seemed to wink at her which made her snort.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Meanwhile, at the front of the house, Natsumi opened the door at the knock. After all, Hoshi hadn't made any noise. More then that, her mother seemed amused for some odd reason. Once the door was open though, the Kitsune's eyes widened at the sight of who was there. "Harry-Chan?"

Said boy stood there and looked her over before taking a step forward. Then he pulled her into a tight hug and buried his face in her neck. "Natsumi-Chan, you're alright. I was so worried after hearing what happened."

For several moments, Natsumi was frozen before closing her eyes and bringing her own arms up to hug her best friend. "Yeah, you weren't the only one, Harry-Chan." Sighing, she nuzzled his hair some before also bringing up her tails to hug him. "But everything seems alright now."

Briefly tightening the hug, Harry gave a small nod. "I'm glad, Natsumi-Chan." Kissing her on the cheek, he sighed. "I'm glad."

Lightly blushing, the Kitsune shook her head internally. 'So am I, Harry-Chan.' With one last squeeze, she pulled back enough to look him in the eye. "Did you really come all the way back from Hokkaido just to make sure of that though, Harry-Chan? Really?"

Expression serious, he gave her a slight nod. "Of course. After all, you're one of my best friends, Natsumi-Chan. Why wouldn't I come back to make sure that you're okay?"

Blush deepening a touch, Natsumi giggled before placing her head under his chin best that she could. "That's just like you, Harry-Chan." Quickly, she kissed him on the cheek before going back to her previous position. "Then again, you wouldn't be Harry-Chan otherwise."

From where they were watching, Usagi gave a soft sight before clasping her hands in front of herself. "Oh, that is beautiful."

With a blink, Asuka looked from Harry and Natsumi, to her other friends there and back. "Um, question? Are those two together?"

Softly chuckling, Kenta shook his head. "No, they're not. But if they keep this up, then they're going to be at some point in the next few years. For as little difference as it might make, I think."

Rika gave a small nod at that. "Yeah, those two are real close to one another."

Glancing at her, Usagi gave a small nod. "I know, right? One day I hope to meet someone like what Harry-San is for Natsumi, except for myself in her place. Can you imagine what they will be like as adults?"

Unknown to them, Natsumi's ear twitched a bit as she could hear them perfectly. Oddly enough, she didn't mind it too much. Yes, she knew that she would need to deal with being teased. Especially from her mother and aunt, though Hoshi might get involved as well. But right now? In the present? Natsumi found that she didn't care in the least.

Because right not she could feel all the stress and fear of the past few days just drain away like water down a drain with the same happening with Harry.

From where she was leaning against a doorframe, Sakuya softly smiled. Not just at the sight of the two hugging, but also because of what else she could see. Even as she watched, all the tension in Natsumi's body seemed to be dissipating, as if it had never even been there. Andthat, more then anything else told her about the friendship between her daughter and the messy haired boy. Yes, he had a Destiny ahead of him. There would be challenges, tears, and blood. And her daughter would be right there beside him, supporting and fighting alongside him.

Yet, at the same time? Sakuya understood right then that the two of them would rise above all that. Both of them lifting each other higher then they could have done alone. Sharing a look with her younger sister, Sakuya internally chuckled. 'I wonder, Natsumi-Chan. How high will the two of you soar in the future?'

Outside the door, Hoshi hummed some and looked up as she remembered long ago, during the Edo era. Of a swaddled kit that had brought happy tears to her eyes and a warm embrace. Eyes closing, she had a sad smile. 'I think that you would be proud of her, what your granddaughter is becoming.' Upon opening her eyes, the Kyuubi felt a breeze brush past her carrying the smell of freshly cut wood and summer forests, one that gently caressed her face which caused a single tear to drip down her face. 'Or maybe... you already are.'

Inside, Natsumi had a brief flash of something. An image of sorts, or perhaps a vision. In front of her eyes was not her and Harry, two young teens. Instead, it was of an older version of the two with Harry in a JMSDF uniform. The two were also embracing each other in much the same way, with smiles on their faces. And then it was gone like smoke upon the wind with the Kitsune smiling. Pulling away, she wiped at her eyes some. "Sorry about that, Harry-Chan. It's been a rough few days. And I'm sorry to have worried you."

All Harry did though was to tighten the hug slightly. "Hey, its okay, Natsumi-Chan. You got nothing to be sorry about." He then gave her a lopsided grin. "Besides, I suppose that it would be payback considering all the worry that I've put you through for the past two years."

Gently whacking him on the shoulder, Natsumi gave a laugh which carried with it relief. "And don't you forget it, Harry-Chan. Still..." Her honey colored eyes met emerald green. "I'm glad that you're here, Harry-Chan."

Shrugging, Harry gave her another one of his lopsided grins. "I'll always be here for you, Natsumi-Chan. Always."

Natsumi simply nodded in acknowledgment before quickly giving him another peck to the cheek. "Anyways, you must be thirsty. Just give me a second and I'll go grab us something, okay?"

With a chuckle, Harry followed her after taking off his shoes and slipping on some slippers. "Sure, I can help if you want. Anything that you want me to do?"

As the two went into the kitchen, Taichi rolled his eyes some. "And here I was going to tell them to get a room if it went on for much longer."

Humming, and without blinking an eye, his mother whapped him upside the head followed by Haru using their tails. Then his aunt made him go red with her next words. "Oddly enough, that is what I thought of asking you to do last night when Kaga and Akagi were still around. And to be safe."

That made Sakuya giggle behind one hand as Taichi grumbled and looked away with his face as red as Akagi's uniform skirt.

Inside the kitchen, Natsumi opened the fridge and pulled out some bottles that she set onto the counter as Harry watched. "Okay... here we got some ice cold lemonade. Now what to have with it?"

About to say something, Harry stumbled as Shiromizu glomped him from behind. Moments later, she wrapped her now serpentine lower body around him as well. "GAH! Shiromizu!"

Grinning, said Mizuchi shook her head. "What? Don't want a hug from me after being gone for some time?" Fake pouting, she sighed and looked at Natsumi. "Harry is so mean, isn't he?"

While Harry sputtered, Natsumi only sighed. "Not that mean." Smirking, she continued. "Besides, do you throw yourself onto any guy?"

Shiromizu only hissed some and waved a hand. "Ouch! You got some bite to you this afternoon." Ignoring the Kitsune rolling her eyes at her, she turned to Harry. "So you came all the way from Hokkaido?"

Nodding, Harry squirmed a bit before giving it up. "Yes? I mean, I was worried about you guys after all."

Moments later, Shiromizu rubbed her cheek along his. "Aw! Hear that, Natsumi-Chan? He was worried about us and came all the way here."

Rather amused, Natsumi only shook her head and chuckled. 'Those two really do act like siblings at times, with Shiromizu as the older of the two.'

At the same time, Shiromizu's tongue flicked out and she blinked before giving Harry an odd look. "Wait, Nagato's scent is a few hours old on you. Same with Hoppou's and the others. Did you get a drive all the way down here?"

Lightly blushing, Harry nodded some. "Um, yeah? Enterprise actually brought me all the way." At the looks, he shrugged. "She has a motorcycle that she used to get us the whole way here as fast as she could. Not the most comfortable, but..."

Scowling, Natsumi walked over and shared a look with Shiromizu. The serpent then nodded and the two turned to the confused Harry before lightly bopping him on the head. "Baka."

Just rubbing his head, Harry chuckled weakly. "What? I was worried and couldn't wait to see you to make sure that you were okay."

Both females' expressions softened at that and Natsumi gave him a hug alongside Shiromizu. "Thanks, Harry-Chan."

A smile on her face, Shiromizu chuckled. "Yeah, Otouto."

Grabbing the lemonade, the kitsune grabbed the plate of treats and handed it to Shiromizu. "Anyways, we should get back to the others. Maybe they got some ideas of what to talk about."

Only taking the treats, the Mizuchi frowned before bobbing her head some. "Sounds good to me. What about you, Harry?"

Still wrapped up in her coils, Harry gave a small nod. "Same here actually. So, um... can I be let go please?" Tapping her chin, Shiromizu glanced at Natsumi who had a smirk. Then she gained one herself before slithering towards where the others were with Harry still trapped in her coils while a giggling Natsumi followed. "Oh come on..."