It was now 7.27 p.m. in the evening, and Sendai was now getting into her element as the sun went down, flinging another torpedo into the chest of another Ri-Class heavy cruiser as she backtracked and retreated from the advance of the third Abyssal fleet which they had engaged today.
Her technique of throwing torpedoes was something which was invented in the past by ship girls who were frustrated with the slow speed at which the torpedoes traveled underwater and allowed Abyssals some time to evade, and thinking out of the box allowed them to use their body strength to fling their torpedoes at a higher speed with their arm strength.
This technique allowed her to take out the Abyssal Ri-Class as the torpedo detonated despite the Ri-Class evading and avoiding the brunt of the explosion, but was still caught in the resulting explosion as the torpedo hit her shoulder and engulfed the Abyssal in a devastating fireball, the flames licking several strands of her hair and set her black mop of hair on fire.
Sendai had to shield her eyes as the epicenter of the explosion radiated from the Ri-Class's left shoulder and seared off half her face, and she could hear the Abyssal scream in an unholy, banshee-like voice upon being afflicted with second and third-degree burns on the side of her burning steel body.
"AAHHHH!"
Sendai shot at an approaching Ta-Class and forced the fast battleship to shield herself as the flames in the Ri-Class were extinguished after the hurt Abyssal dunked herself into the ocean in order to save herself, Sendai hearing Saratoga remark with a fair bit of concern in her voice as two Abyssal fleets approached them in order to intercept and stop their advance.
"Shit! These Abyssals are rather persistent in stopping us!"
And Sendai could hear Kagerou reply dryly in response to the number of Abyssals sent to stop their advance.
"Three Ri-Class and two Ne-Class heavies, two Ru-Class and Ta-Class battleships each , and five He-Class light cruisers. If I weren't scared out of my mind, I'd feel rather proud that we're taken so seriously to the point where they sent so many Abyssals to stop us!"
Jintsuu grunted in response as she carried Arare on her back, the Asashio-Class destroyer having been hurt by a stray medium-caliber shell as it clipped her in the left shoulder and sent her flying.
She was riding piggyback on the Sendai-Class light cruiser's back, lashed together with steel wires to Jintsuu's back and hips in order to allow her to face where Jintsuu was facing while being strapped to her back.
A steel patch was already placed the treated wound courtesy of Haruna in order to help her recover, and she was trying to contribute in some way as Arare used her working arm in order to hold a 12 Cm Single Gun Cannon beneath Jintsuu's armpit, erratically firing her cannons at a He-Class light cruiser in order to help out even after being injured.
Chitose had been temporarily knocked out in her attempt to defend Haruna by body blocking a shell, and even though she had regained consciousness, she had to be guarded by Saratoga and Ayanami while she recovered enough to the point where she was combat-ready again.
Sendai spoke over the radio as the sounds of cannon fire and explosions would drown out her voice even if she yelled until her lungs gave out.
"Well, I'd say that we're pretty fucked, so anyone got a way to unfuck us?"
And Haruna stepped up to the plate as she responded coolly.
"Do not worry. More than one, Haruna has eight."
And fired all four of her 35.6 Cm Twin Gun Cannons in every direction before her and shook the seas in the process, scoring a direct hit on two He-Class cruisers and a Ta-Class battleship, a shell glancing off of a Ru-Class's cannon stack and struck a Ne-Class's tail.
Haruna managed to instantly sink a He-Class light cruiser and a Ta-Class battleship, and critically wounded the remaining Ne, Ru and He-Class Abyssals as she decapitated one of the two bestial tails of the Ne-Class, caused the Ru-Class battleship's cannon stack to stop working as smoke wafted from it ominously after the impact, and the remaining He-Class's arm cannon went up in flames as the Abyssal attempted to use the hard shell around its cannon to shield itself, underestimating the penetration capabilities of Haruna's large-caliber shell and paying the price for it.
Sendai saw Shigure fire torpedoes at the afflicted Ne-Class Abyssal who was downed and was clutching the bloody stump where her dismembered tail was supposed to be, clumsily evading the torpedoes with all the finesse of a limping drunkard as the Abyssal attempted to reach down into the ocean and fish out her missing tail.
Only to be shot in the face by Naka with her 14 Cm Single Gun Cannon, being sent flying as Naka blew the smoke which was wafting from her cannon barrel while she commented on Haruna's tide-turning play.
"Wow, Haruna-chan! That's certainly worthy of an MVP move when we go back home!"
Shiranui then sailed past her, arming her torpedo launchers as she agreed with her before reminding them of their true objective.
"Focus.bThat was an excellent move, but we need to protect Haruna since she needs to reload her cannons, and mustn't be hurt because of the rations which she carries."
Kagerou pouted a little as she revved her engines and sailed behind Shiranui, firing her torpedoes in specific directions in order to disperse the crowd of Abyssals and allow for easier targeting, since the torpedoes would bottleneck them.
"Aww, Nui-Nui, you're no fun! Let's dispose of these Abyssals together, shall we?"
Sendai pulled out another two torpedoes from her launchers as she flipped them and held them in a reverse grip, sailing forward and backing the Kagerou-Class duo up while noting Shigure following closely behind her, and she felt the setting sun empower her as she felt more and more excited about the night battles which she would get to fight in before stepping onto Aogashima Island.
Flinging a torpedo at a Ta-Class battleship, the fast battleship put her fast speed to good use as she pushed off her left feet and achieved a strafing speed which a slow Abyssal battleship would be hard-pressed to replicate due to their heavy equipment, safely evading the hurled Type 93 torpedo as it plopped into the ocean behind her.
She fired her cannons as she sent another Abyssal Reconnaissance Fighter out to join the one currently dog-fighting Saratoga's F4F Wildcat Fighter Planes, which were attempting to deny the Abyssals the ability to get a bird's-eye-view of the battlefield and control the flow of the battle by making informed decisions regarding their movements to push the ship girls back.
Shigure, Shiranui and Kagerou's Anti-Air 10cm Twin High-angle Gun Cannons barked in order to take out the Abyssal Reconnaissance Fighters as they evaded torpedoes and cannon fire, and one of the Abyssal Reconnaissance Fighters was hit in the underside several times as it caught on fire and began a downward descent towards the Combined Fleet.
Saratoga strafed in order to evade the kamikaze attack, smacking the flames which were passed on from the Abyssal Fighter's trailing fuel fire onto her dress before she snuffed out the flames with her palm, grimacing in pain after being scalded.
Sendai noted that there were now one light and medium-damaged Ne-Class heavy cruisers, two Ru-Class battleships in which one had a non-functional cannon stack, a Ta-Class fast battleship, four He-Class light cruisers and two Ri-Class heavy cruisers remaining.
Need to stall for time until the sun disappeared over the horizon…
Saratoga sent out two TBF Avenger Torpedo Bombers in order to join the two F4F Wildcats, who had already taken out the Abyssal Reconnaissance Fighter with their teamwork and were now focusing their machine-gun fire on the Abyssals, allowing Sendai to fire her 14 Cm Single Gun Cannon and hit a He-Class light cruiser in the left collarbone.
She noted that Chitose was wobbling while she took up the rear so as not to make herself an easy target as she shakily sent out two Suisei Dive Bombers and Ryuusei Torpedo Bombers, looking rather fatigued with her forehead creasing with sweat as she struggled to stay up.
Sendai braved enemy fire as she ran up to the Ru-Class battleships, whose billowing smoke emanated from their cannons as their ejected shells tickled Sendai's ponytails, feeling them flaring up and sending chills down her spine as she evaded by blitz-hopping from side-to-side and dumped the torpedoes in her launcher into the water as soon as the Ru-Classes missed all their shots, although Sendai had to give them some credit when one of her large-caliber shells hit the water and almost tripped her up.
Boy, that would have opened up a whole other can of worms.
She watched the fireball devastate the Ru-Class battleship and erase her from the equation, deliberately standing with her back to the sun in order to throw the Abyssals' aim off while she noticed another barrage of large-caliber cannons being fired from behind her shortly after Haruna's trademark, "Fire!"
She saw that the large-caliber shell finished the job by taking out the damaged He-Class light cruiser who was sailing a little slower than usual after Haruna's previous shell damaged its arm cannon and rendered it almost unusable, punching through its chest and guaranteeing its death as it collapsed on the ocean like a cavalry rider falling off of his collapsing horse, the Abyssal and motorcycle-esque half both unable to function as the former had a hole where its humanoid heart was supposed to be.
A second shell punched through the knee of a Ri-Class heavy cruiser, Sendai watching as the large-caliber shell smashed in and eviscerated the kneecap of the Abyssal, culminating in a morbidly beautiful explosion of steel bone fragments flying everywhere like a frag grenade explosion before the strip of flesh which connected her lower leg to her thigh was burnt off by the growing fire which erupted from the gaping hole which was located where her knee was supposed to be.
Collapsing in pain, the crying and seething Ri-Class was put out of her misery as Kagerou's torpedo hit her prone body and made her disappear behind a spray of water, blood, fuel and flames while Sendai exhaled in relief upon seeing Haruna come in clutch in their time of crisis.
The last shell glanced off the Ta-Class's shoulder armor, throwing up a vibrant shower of sparks behind her as both Haruna and the Ta-Class looked surprised at the near-miss, the Abyssal discarding her cracked shoulder guard which held up her cape and was left with her sailor uniform top and dark thong, with her alien rigging located around her hips.
Saratoga's two TBF Avenger Torpedo Bombers dived down in order to drop its payload into the water, and was greeted with a hail of Anti-Air fire courtesy of every single Abyssal on the battlefield, and one of them spiraled out of control after a Ri-Class fired into the ocean and produced a water column which one Avenger flew through and made it spin out before hitting the water.
Sendai noted that on her radar were two signatures of downed Fairy pilots, surmising that the absence of a Suisei bomber and Wildcat were the reason why two floating signatures were present even before the Fairy pilot ejected from its cockpit as his plane hit the ocean.
Shells whizzed across the battlefield in both directions, and she heard another ship girl cry out in pain behind her as she turned back to see Shiranui flying back, barely turning back forward in time to hop over an enemy torpedo before boosting across the battlefield as she flung another two torpedo at two He-Class light cruisers, one for each Abyssal.
One managed to inexplicably shoot down the incoming torpedo, producing a loud explosion whose blast wave displaced the ocean underneath it in a small bowl as the Abyssal achieved the million-to-one odds of hitting a thrown torpedo on the warhead with a shell, detonating it prematurely and saving its skin.
The other Ne-Class light cruiser wasn't so lucky as the torpedo hit it on its flank, carving a flaming, spherical void into its body as the Abyssal howled in pain, using its arms to push it under water and douse the flames before they lit a fuel reserve on fire, disappearing in a billowing plume of boiling steam as Sendai heard someone scream.
"AAAHHHH!"
While an explosion sounded out behind her.
Oh shit.
No one screamed like that unless someone was either dead or dying.
And especially since ship girls were mostly hardened soldiers, it had to be serious.
Whipping her head around, she could see that an aghast Chitose had taken off her blazer and was using it to smother the flames which danced on the back of a ship girl, and Sendai's heart sank as she kept low and looked around to deduce who it was.
Kagerou and Kuroshio were protecting Shiranui, who was clutching her limp left arm with some sort of broken bone or dislocation at her shoulder joint as the Kagerou-Class trio inched towards the downed Fairy pilots in order to retrieve them, cannons blazing all the while.
Arare was still strapped to Jintsuu's back, both Asashio-Class destroyer and Sendai-Class light cruiser firing as the former's arm was healed up enough to dual wield a 12 Cm Single Gun Cannon and a 12.7 Twin Gun Cannon and provide Sendai's sister with a second pair of arms and weapons.
Naka was with Saratoga as the latter rushed over to the injured ship girl whom Chitose had in her embrace with a horrified expression, and it finally clicked in Sendai's mind regarding the identity of the injured ship girl.
Shigure.
Sendai closed her eyes as she swallowed the lump in her throat, centering her heart and mind as she allowed the twilight sky to envelop her and calm her down.
Most people knew her to be a night battle idiot, but there was something about the night which, to her, made her prefer it over daylight battles.
If the day was to give way to the darkness which was the night, part of the reason why she liked night battles so much was because of the phrase "darkest just before dawn".
Since night battles took their toll on everyone even though she liked night battles, it inspired her to do better so that the sun would rise upon their victorious battle, and not the corpses of her teammates.
Shigure was injured, and Sendai, even though she knew that they had to play things safe in this sortie, knew that when night came, she was in her element as a nocturnal ship girl and could go all-out in order to protect everyone, consequences be damned.
Her spirit now quadrupled in intensity due to her love for night battles and desire to get revenge for Shigure's injury, pulling out two torpedoes and held them like kunai knives in a reverse grip as she bolted forward, understanding that in the nighttime, accuracy of ships on both sides were worsened due to lack of sunlight which illuminated their targets, and the moonless night did nothing to help them improve their odds of hitting them.
Just the way she liked it.
She called out over the radio as she informed the Combined Fleet of her plan to devastate the enemy in close quarters.
"Everyone. I'm going to get in close and flank them in order to destroy them from the inside, so provide cover fire, please.
I'd also like to thank everyone for being so patient with me, the Night Battle Idiot has awakened!"
But Chitose was still concerned about her safety, especially since she would be danger close as the ship girls would be firing in her general direction.
"Are you sure about this, Sendai-san?
You'll be fighting while danger close, since we'll be firing shells and torpedoes in your direction, and you might be caught in the crossfire…"
But Sendai grinned, in part due to her gratefulness for Chitose's saint-like personality and caring nature which allowed her to watch over her comrades with a motherly concern, and because she knew that despite Chitose's concerns, she was the night battle idiot.
They couldn't hit her even if they all turned on her.
Sendai was in her element during the night, and like the incorporeal yet ever-present darkness, she was nigh- untouchable .
"Don't worry.
I'm the Night Battle Idiot, I know my way around in the darkness. I need you all to keep firing your cannons, and stop them from using their night-vision to find me."
She could see the flash of cannons on both sides as she ran in a semi-circle in order to avoid running into the cannon-fire of the Abyssals.
She knew that during night battles, the use of night vision was discouraged as one's light-sensitive night-vision-enhanced eyes would be affected and overwhelmed by the bright muzzle flashes more than a normal eye would, and staring into the chorus of bright spots which were the result of muzzle flashes and spectacularly bright explosions with one's built-in night vision activated for too long might eventually lead to blindness, which required a prolonged dip in the docks to repair.
As Junyou-san demonstrated in the Battle of Mikura Jima Island, when staring into spotlights with her night-vision activated blinded her.
She remarked after keeping track of the enemy composition and those who had perished in battle,
"To my knowledge, there's one Ne-Class and Ri-Class heavy cruiser, one Ru-Class battleship, a Ta-Class fast battleship and two He-Class light cruisers remaining. Don't worry. With me here, we'll be able to take 'em all down in five."
A moonless night blanketed her and concealed her approach as she ran up to the flank of the remaining Abyssal fleet, holding her torpedoes as she ran into the fray and expected the Abyssals to be confused as to who's shooting them up from within their ranks, and she flung her two torpedoes at the heads of the Ru-Class battleship and the He-Class light cruiser respectively before slipping away.
The Abyssals were distracted by the explosions which radiated from the torsos of their teammates, allowing her to avoid attracting their attention as the Ru-Class's flaming, shattered skull hit the ocean after her torpedo detonated at point-blank range and caused her skull to cave in from the resulting blast wave.
The He-Class light cruiser managed to squeeze off a shot in her direction before expiring, clearly an action performed in its death throes as the remaining Ri-Class heavy cruiser noticed her presence due to the stray shell flying in her direction, shouting urgently as she pointed her arm cannon at Sendai.
"There she is! A ship girl!"
But two Dauntless Dive Bombers saved her ass by diving in their direction despite the hail of Anti-Air cannons which lit up the night sky, dropping their payloads as they detonated on the ocean before the Ri-Class's feet and on the Ri-Class's stomach.
Disappearing within the fireball and the resulting blast wave, the Abyssal heavy cruiser was devastated as the explosion took off both her legs and a large portion of her hips, the smoke dissipating to reveal half of a Ri-Class remaining on the battlefield, blood and guts flowing out from the cross-section of her lower torso and was splayed out on the ocean as the Ri-Class's mouth was agape, attempting to gulp down oxygen like a fish while she sank.
The two He-Class cruisers turned on her, forcing her to keep moving as she used the darkness and chaos to mask her movements to some extent, blind-firing as she saw another ship girl approach them.
Naka smoothly evaded a medium-caliber shell which was headed straight for her head, almost causing Sendai's heart to skip a beat as Naka held a torpedo in her hand, jumping up and performing a running vault in order to jump above the He-Class and the torpedoes which it fired.
She braced herself against the Abyssal light cruiser's Anti-Air turret fire to throw the torpedo in its hand towards the other He-Class which followed closely behind, detonating on the surface of what passed as the motorcycle fairing and windscreen and disabling the He-Class's mode of transportation.
Using the momentum from her jumping front flip to land behind the Abyssal which she vaulted over, Naka spun around while pushing off of her boat slippers and used her boost gauge to put some distance between them as she fired into the back of the Ne-Class and sailed away.
The Ne-Class was set on fire from behind as its motorcycle-esque transportation vehicle careened out of control, the flames trailing behind it and taking its toll on the Abyssal as Ayanami narrowly avoided a head-on collision, only being grazed on the arm after strafing out of the way and was flung on the ocean while clutching her left arm as the Ne-Class crashed and burnt a fair distance behind her.
Shiranui had fired a torpedo after Naka's thrown torpedo had disabled the Ne-Class's transportation-vehicle-lower-half, Sendai shielding her face and pulling back a little as the resulting explosion lit up the battlefield due to the explosion of Shiranui's torpedo, cursing due to the unexpectedly bright and hot mini-nova which would have no doubt overwhelmed those who had their night-vision on.
"Shit!"
Sendai prepared her cannons in order to fight the remaining Ta-Class battleship, who had somehow remained untouched throughout the entirety of this battle, but she only saw the back of her sailor uniform as she evaded Haruna's cannon shell and performed a flawless swimming dive into the ocean in order to escape the battle after the Combined Fleet had whittled down their numbers despite taking several casualties, deciding to cut her losses by retreating as Sendai heard Saratoga call in order for them to regroup, do a headcount and assess everyone's injuries.
"Everyone, on me. We need to assess everyone's condition and decide our next course of action."
Exhaling in relief, Sendai sailed back towards the Combined Fleet as she observed the members of the Combined Fleet and their respective injuries.
Ayanami was hurt from the immolated He-Class's hit-and-run as it must've struck her on the arm with a glancing blow, but she was otherwise in pretty good condition.
Kagerou and Kuroshio were alright, but Shiranui must've dislocated her left shoulder, since her left arm was almost non-functional as Kagerou tenderly moved Shiranui's fingers and arm to help regain the feeling in her hand, while Kuroshio was working out a way to shove the joint back into the arm socket.
Naka's dress was partially torn due to the amount of Anti-Air fire which she attracted while airborne, and in her hands were the three retrieved Fairy pilots, cuddling up in her cupped hands as she waited for Chitose and Saratoga to retrieve them.
Jintsuu was panting rather heavily after carrying Arare on her back for a majority of the battle, although the silent Asashio-Class destroyer had done her best to chip in by providing extra firepower despite suffering from a wound similar to Shiranui's, and Jintsuu had soldiered on by carrying her downed teammate without a word of complaint.
Chitose, Haruna and Saratoga were treating a critically wounded Shigure, having had one of her legs blown clean off and was lying in a prone position on the ocean as Haruna tended to the burn wounds on her back.
And those burn marks didn't look like the kind you'd get when you grazed a boiling kettle, it looked like the kind which someone had to stand in a furnace or be hit by a flamethrower for several seconds to sustain, popped blisters likely a resulting of thrashing around on the ocean as parts of her skin were simply scorched off and exposed raw, tender and swollen red flesh which decorated a large area on her back.
Her tear-stained cheeks were a testament to how she did her best to endure Haruna's first-aid treatment, and the burnt remnants of her uniform were likely discarded, as was her training bra, since they were considered restrictive wear which would complicate the severity of the burn and the resulting swelling.
Saratoga was holding the remnants of Shigure's smoking battle backpack, with Saratoga's Fairies using fire hoses to hose down the destroyed battle backpack while treating the Fairies which maintained Shigure's battle backpack.
When Sendai asked Ayanami about what happened to the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer, Ayanami looked rather crestfallen as she replied gravely.
"Well, when a medium-caliber shell and torpedo looked as if it was going to hit Chitose-san, Shigure blocked both attacks as the torpedo blew her right leg off, as evidenced. And I suppose the enemy shell must've hit something vital in her battle backpack, because it spontaneously combusted and set Shigure's back on fire.
Even though Chitose threw her into the water and used her blazer to smother the flames on Shigure's back while Haruna ripped the battle backpack from her back, she was still burnt pretty badly and is likely taken out of the fight for good."
Sendai turned back to Haruna as the Kongou-Class battleship attempted to gently lift a limp Shigure after treating Shigure's wounds with whatever little medical supplies she had on hand, using strips of her large miko sleeves to bandage the wound while Chitose used her blazer to cover Shigure's burnt back.
Shigure winced pathetically, a dying whine escaping her lips as the injured muscles on her back were strained by the motion, and Haruna was speaking to Chitose while doing her best not to complicate a weeping Shigure's wounds.
" … used the water-skin in our rigging to wash her wounds, and I've applied several layers of steel to facilitate faster recovery. But the fuel which I burnt in my rigging in order to boil and sanitize seawater to apply over the burn needs to be cooled down before it can be used. We're not too far from Aogashima Island, so I suggest shuffling the fleet composition around to prioritize the wounded being carried on the island to prevent them from getting shot at."
Chitose nodded, looking around as she discussed who should be sent onto Aogashima Island either to carry out their reconnaissance mission or avoid participating in any more battles, and who should be sent out to engage the Abyssal fleet.
"Well, Shigure-san is unable to fight on, so I suppose she'll have to be brought on land to avoid being injured any more than she already is. I can take her place by adding some firepower to the patrolling fleet as well as utilize my Kouhyouteki midget submarines in battle. Arare-san will be going on the island since she's hurt, and even though she may have healed up a little after applying steel patches to the affected area, we can't take any chances since her performance might be affected by her wound. And since Saratoga-san is capable of performing night battles even though she's a carrier, she'll be invaluable in the upcoming night battles."
Hmm, so Saratoga, despite being a carrier, was capable of night battles?
Sendai's breathing became heavy with excitement upon hearing the prospects of being buddies with a new night battle lover alongside Yuudachi, but she channeled her enthusiasm towards more productive thoughts as she raised her hand and spoke to her seniors.
"Well, I don't mind patrolling the surrounding oceans for Abyssals to sink since I'm the Night Battle Idiot, and no one can deny my enhanced performance when the sun goes down. So, Sara-chan, you're capable of night battles, hmm?"
Sendai walked up to the Lexington-Class carrier, looking rather impressed that American carriers, unlike Japanese carriers, were capable of fighting in night battles, and she would be integral in keeping night-battling Wo-Class Abyssals off their backs.
"Those planes of yours are capable of flying at night, and it was thanks to you that the Ri-Class was taken out before she got a bead on me."
Before taking on a smug tone and remarking coolly.
"I could've totally taken them all on by myself, though."
Followed by a collective eye roll from everyone who knew her well enough, including her sisters who have had to deal with her love of night battles for a good majority of their lives.
But no one had anything to say in order to shoot down her suggestion, and Jintsuu commented on how the search on Aogashima Island might not need as many ship girls as they thought, and could thus spare more ship girls for the defense of Aogashima Island.
"Well, we need more ship girls to defend Aogashima Island and buy more time for the ship girls who are searching the island, so splitting up the fleet into a composition of 5:7 in favor of patrolling the waters isn't out of the question. So for those who'll go on land, it'll be Shiranui, Kagerou, Kuroshio, Shigure and Arare. Sendai and Chitose-san will be temporarily transferred over to our fleet in order to patrol and fend off any Abyssal fleets around Aogashima Island."
Everyone nodded as they understood what they had to do, but Shigure's attempt to get their attention succeeded in the form of a gurgle which caught in her throat, and she was held up by Haruna as though she were a cat, supported at the armpits and held up for all to see as the destroyer flimsily shielded parts of her chest where the makeshift bandages didn't cover as she stuttered.
"Um… I don't think that these bandages… cover enough of my chest… Do you think…"
Sendai noted that Shigure's condition had improved marginally as her internal repair systems had stopped the bleeding where Shigure's leg stump was, and her tear streaks had partially dried up to allow her cheeks to stretch out into what could pass as an awkward smile.
And Shiranui was the one to respond dryly, noting the lack of anything for a destroyer to cover up as she leaned on her good arm on Kuroshio's shoulder.
"What, you want a bloody sarashi to cover up your non-existent destroyer chest? Oh, please get off your high horse, Shigure. We're all girls here, and as destroyers, we both know that we have nothing to expose in the first place as prepubescent children."
Everyone stepped back as they covered their mouths and stretched out their,
"Ooooohhhhhh!"
After Shiranui delivered a witty retort which went both ways, and she knew it as Shigure managed something resembling a laugh amidst her tearing sobs, and Shiranui's cheeks were taut as she suppressed a smile.
Kagerou's smile widened as she remarked about something which she felt was inappropriate to say, and probably even felt a little guilty about it, judging by her tone.
"Well, Nui-Nui, when you said that, I felt like calling out 'BURNED!' or 'ROASTED'.
But considering Shigure-chan's injuries…"
Kagerou inhaled sharply through the clenched teeth which made up her smile while everyone scrunched up their faces and gave the name-ship of the Kagerou-Class a "What the hell?" look, Kagerou shrugging in a "'What you gonna do?" manner.
Sendai raised an eyebrow at the relationship between the Shigure and Shiranui, as well as the morbid humor which was thrown around despite the rather intense injuries which Shigure had sustained, and as Kuroshio sailed forward in order to gently clasp Shigure on an unaffected spot of skin to carry her to Aogashima Island, Sendai's senses sharpened as she looked around and kept her body tensed up to respond to any Abyssal threats at the drop of a hat.
Sure, she couldn't get to go on the island to search for evidence of Abyssal activity, but if she knew that she could be of more use to everyone while sailing on the oceans and sinking Abyssals at night, she would gladly fling torpedoes at enemies all day and night to send the Abyssals back to Bikini Bottom, where they belonged.