I've been… thinking, a lot, of late.

It's enough to keep me awake for a little while, each night, while I lie in bed in the dark. Just… considering everything that's happened, I guess.

Yeah.

You may recall that I had a dream – no. A nightmare. A nightmare. Something that I can barely recall at all, other than that it was the recurring nightmare that randomly forces me to relive my final hours during Operation Ten-Go… and this time, as an Abyssal Princess.

I was quick to dismiss it. Shipgirls couldn't become Abyssal, right? It didn't matter that we'd already seen two examples of regular Humans being transformed into Abyssals; this was a nightmare. Nothing more than my unconscious mind's imagination working on overdrive, or something like that. History would always remember us as being part of the Axis during the Second World War, the bad guys – and it didn't take that much of a leap in logic to justify the shifts of nightmare-me from my original steel hull, to shipgirl, and finally, to Abyssal Princess.

Then, we'd stumbled upon Yahagi, who had returned as an Abyssal, even though she hadn't the slightest idea how, and I knew I couldn't continue to dodge the issue.

Humans could be turned Abyssal. Shipgirls could be turned Abyssal. The idea that I might at some point in the future be viewing the world with sheer hatred through Abyssal eyes was now more than simply a product of my imagination.

Are we fighting ourselves? It's beyond easy to wonder if the next Princess we're deployed to sink may actually be someone somebody knows. A friend? A relative?

A sister?

But… we don't have a choice. The normal Abyssal mindset is madness. Varying degrees of capability for naval tactics and strategies, but an underlying drive to destroy and sink everything all the same. Even were we to know or somehow discover an Abyssal's actual identity, there was no guarantee we'd be able to reach and awaken her true self.

Nagato believes that I had been lucky to reach Yahagi, and I'm inclined to agree. If we hadn't remembered each other… if it had been anyone else encountering Yahagi or trying to reason with her…

Would anyone be able to reach me if I were… turned? Corrupted?

The thought of my massive hull, firepower and strength boosted to unspeakable highs by Abyssal darkness, hatred and rage, firmly under the control of the enemy, troubled me. As well it should. An Abyssal version of me would place my family, friends, allies… everyone at tremendous risk. The more so, the more memory I retained.

Someone would have to lead a fleet to overwhelm me, as the Americans had during the war. But this time, I would be a far more powerful and deadly Princess – with an equally formidable Abyssal fleet backing me, no doubt – and I probably wouldn't fall victim to the same tactics, again.

Obviously, I'm gonna do everything in my power to ensure that never happens. After that nightmare, I'd vowed I would sooner scuttle myself than become Abyssal, and I still stand by that vow.

But… that's only if I have a choice. No one ever asked Oki-chan or Yahagi if they wanted to be Abyssals. Why bother with obtaining my consent when the Abyssals can readily convert the battleship Yamato into one of their own?

I closed my eyes and sighed. All I can do, is remain on guard and continue to fight. The world is counting on us to put an end to the Abyssal threat once and for all… and that is exactly what we shall do.


Gouya hesitated, her slight hand raised halfway along its arc to knock on Yuu's door.

She tried not to think about the hastily-torn sheet of notepad paper clutched in her opposite hand. A mission. The Admiral's office had called her not ten minutes ago, Nagato directing her to assemble three of her fellow submarines for a run to check the waters and underwater caverns outside the mouth of the bay for any signs of an Abyssal presence.

Yuu was the member of that trio that concerned her the least.

She didn't dislike Yuu… but Yuu wasn't a Japanese sub-girl. Yuu was U-511, a U-boat who had been given over for service in the Imperial Japanese Navy – and evidently, that was enough to give Yuu a reason for answering Yokosuka's calls for ships.

Every German ship Gouya had ever encountered was the same – uptight and rigid blondes, the whole lot of them – including the U-boats. Scores of submarines, who at first glance all looked alike. The same pale blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. The same slender build, wearing the same dark uniform that nearly concealed their entire bodies. It was… creepy.

Yeah, there were differences, if one bothered with a closer examination. No two U-boats had the same hairstyle or voice, for example. Each U-boat had her own personality and quirks, lurking behind that brusque demeanor.

Yuu was making something of an effort to fit in. Really, she was. But in the midst of a group of far more relaxed Japanese submarine shipgirls, each dressed casually and sporting some degree of tan… a pale U-boat dressed head-to-toe in full Covert-OPs uniform stood out.

How U-boats could stand moving about underwater while wearing all that gear… Gouya shook her head.

Another reason she wasn't exactly eager to work with Yuu was that the German sub had somehow come to the conclusion that annoying her every time they crossed paths was a good idea.

By calling her "Decchi," Yuu's accent lingering on the first half of the nickname. Seriously? What in the world had triggered that?

She'd resolved not to give the German the satisfaction of knowing it bothered her. A smug Yuu was annoying enough, already. If Yuu realized her tactic was working… who knew what that would lead to?

The rose-haired submarine raised her hand to Yuu's door once more, knocking twice.

It took Yuu nearly a full minute to cross her quarters and open her door – Gouya's crew had timed it down to the millisecond – but Gouya refrained from commenting on the delay. The mission wasn't time-critical, thankfully.

"Decchi," Yuu greeted, nodding in her direction.

Gouya clenched her teeth, but, having anticipated the greeting, forced herself to count to five before pressing onward.

"We've got a mission, dechi," she informed her fellow submarine, missing the amusement that danced through Yuu's eyes at her vocal quirk. "They want us to make a grand sweep of the region outside the mouth of the bay for any signs of enemy formations or bases."

Yuu frowned. "Just the two of us? That is a large area to cover." It had been commonplace for the base to assign its submarines to patrol that particular region in an effort to prevent the Abyssals from getting anywhere near the bay and therefore, Yokosuka Naval Base, or establishing any sort of perimeter to cut the base off from the ocean.

Abyssal incursions were less of a concern, now, thanks to the addition of a semi-permanent line of defense at the mouth of the bay, the base's own Installation at the fore.

Gouya wouldn't wish poor Oki-chan's fate on anyone, certainly. An ordinary girl, just settling in to watch TV in her home, suddenly transformed for no reason into an Abyssal Princess, of all things… disowned by her parents, and forced to make a desperate run through Yokosuka that ended with her dangerously close to the wrong end of Yamato, Nagato and Mutsu's cannons. Voluntarily spending a week in the brig for her own protection – as if any jail could hope to restrain an Abyssal Installation! – And ultimately, asking to be stationed near the front lines where she could use her strength and firepower as an Installation against the enemy.

As far as she'd heard and seen, it was working quite well. But… nobody should ever have to see their lives torpedoed like that.

"It's not just us. They also assigned…" She didn't bother trying to hide her wince at what she was about to say. "…Iku and Ikuni."

Yuu's eyes went wide. "What? You must be joking."

A little over a week ago, Ikuni had publicly declared she'd had it with Iku's insistence upon meddling in her life, and more or less declared war with her past self.

Iku… well, being Iku, was now taking every chance she had to try Ikuni's patience, see how far she could push before her reincarnate exploded.

So far, it had led to a very visible black eye, an extended overnight stay in the docks, and – though Iku refused to talk about it – an evening out from which Iku had returned, absolutely livid. She'd grumbled something in a low, flat voice that sounded suspiciously like the words, "room full of priests," but that was it.

The Admiral and his staff were aware the two were fighting – they'd sent Nagato and Yamato on two separate occasions to put a stop to the pair's loudest fights.

Gouya had to admit, two large battleships swooping in to snatch both submarines up by the backs of their collars and hauling them away in opposite directions was an impressive, not to mention intimidating, way of doing just that.

They couldn't have Nagato or Yamato accompany them on the mission, though.

An extended reconnaissance mission, with Iku and Ikuni guaranteed to be at each others' throats the entire time. At least Past and Future I-19 were professional enough not to betray their positions to the enemy with their bickering…

…she hoped. Oh, why couldn't someone else take command for this mission? Like, say, Nimu. Somehow, Ikuni and Iku weren't as willing to argue in the face of Nimu's eternal good cheer. Or Hachi, who'd managed to silence the pair when she threatened to show them what else she could pull out of her books, if they didn't stick a sock in it.

Her words, not Hachi's. Hachi had used a… more colorful, German epithet, at which Yuu had snorted a laugh.

"Couldn't we ask to have one or both of them swapped for someone else?" ventured Yuu, apprehensively.

Gouya shook her head. "Nope, already tried that. They said we were all chosen for this based on our records and abilities, dechi." Here, she snorted. "I'm sure Nagato just thinks Iku and Ikuni'll make up, if they're forced to work together for a long time."

The blonde submarine merely groaned in response. Yeah, that did sound like something the dreadnought would believe, didn't it?

Resigning herself to her fate, Gouya made a deliberately exaggerated show of letting her shoulders slump. "Guess we should go get them, yeah? Can't put the mission off forever."

Then again… She paused as a new thought occurred to her. "Tell ya what – you go get Ikuni. Take one of the longer routes to the docks. I've got more experience dealin' with Iku, so I'll get her, and we'll all meet at the docks within ten to fifteen minutes. Maybe, if we wait until the last minute to bring them together, it won't be so bad."


A burst of speed, and Iku darted ahead of the loose diamond formation the submarines had maintained since they'd leapt from the dock at Yokosuka – what felt like several hours prior to Iku, no matter what her chronometer or crew claimed the time to be, thank you very much.

"This is sooo boring! Nothing's happened for hours, and nothing's gonna happen!" she whined over their radio channel, turning to face them while maintaining her heading. Her right hand subconsciously drifted to her oxygen torpedoes, caressing the first torpedo that it found. "Iku's sniper soul positively aches for contact…"

"Iku's sniper soul needs to shut the fuck up before it reveals our presence to every enemy that might be in the area," an aggravated Ikuni hissed in reply, scowling.

"What did you say?"

"QUIET!" Gouya intervened, shooting a particularly withering glare in Iku's direction.

Iku rolled her eyes, but lowered her voice regardless. "Fine. But Iku is right, and you know it. There's nothing out here."

"Really," her reincarnate deadpanned. "Iku needs to have her optics checked." Urgently, she directed everyone's attention past Iku to the surface of the water several nautical miles away… where three hulls and the familiar darkness that accompanied them sliced through the water. Abyssal ships. "We've got three enemy ships headed our way, fast!"

Gouya mentally swore. Minimizing their use of sonar helped them avoid detection, sure, but it limited their own ability to detect the enemy to what they could physically see underwater.

"Do you think they noticed us?" asked Yuu.

The ships – an Abyssal cruiser and her destroyer escorts, Gouya guessed, from what she could see of their size and profiles – were indeed closing the gap, and would shortly be within range to employ any ASW measures they had.

"Does it matter?" she retorted. "MOVE!"

At once, the four submarines kicked away from the site, each following the points of their formation outward, even as the Abyssal ships drew to a halt overhead.

There's no way they missed all of that movement. Continuing on their path knowing there might well be submarines lurking below was foolish… really, it was practically begging every enemy sub in the area to see how many torpedoes they could fit in your aft.

Remaining still wasn't that better an alternative, especially if one lacked any anti-sub measures. But there was a chance, perhaps, that a sub would blunder into sniping range. Or that you'd see torpedoes headed your way with enough time to either dodge or detonate them a safe distance away.

Now, a coordinated, simultaneous torpedo assault from four different directions? Gouya allowed herself a tight, predatory smile. That would be even more difficult to avoid.

Yuu, Iku and Ikuni had moved into position, as had she. The assault was one of their commonly-used tactics – so common, in fact, that the submarines rarely had to be ordered to execute it.

And simple, too. Just swim safely out of depth-charge range, turn one hundred-eighty degrees, and launch a few torpedoes at the target. More, if the situation called for it… or, hell, if you merely felt like it. Ripping apart Abyssals with your torpedoes was an awesome way to relieve stress.

Oh, yeah. Was she ever stressed. When this mission was done and they returned to Yokosuka, she was going to march into the Admiral's office and demand to be excused from any and all further missions involving either version of Iku.

So, if she launched one or two more torpedoes than were strictly necessary, no one saw fit to comment.

It took the Abyssals a good moment to notice the threats rising to meet them on all sides. In desperation, the three demons turned their cannons to the water, firing non-stop all around them in a vain attempt to detonate the fish before impact.

Like shipgirl arms, Abyssal cannons were, in fact, susceptible to overheating and jamming – though as far as anyone could tell, the demons' threshold for mechanical failure was markedly higher.

Had no one thought to ask the base's resident Abyssals about it?

Somewhere around half of the torpedoes met the cannonfire and exploded, by her estimate, the Abyssal cruiser and escorts choosing splash damage from oxygen torpedoes as the lesser of two evils.

But the three Abyssals were firing wildly – randomly – and couldn't hope to cover every last meter of the ocean about them all at once; those torpedoes that weren't lost to the assault or chain-reaction explosions slipped past the shells to strike their targets. The demons' hulls, already battered and weakened, offered precious little resistance to the true threat. Steel was shredded and torn violently away, exposing vulnerable bulkheads and internal machinery to the same fate.

The water, cold, dark and turbulent in the presence of the Abyssals, churned even more as the three enemy ships thrashed, trying to stay afloat by any means possible.

Then one of the destroyers was consumed by a blossoming fireball, fed by her tortured internals and munitions. Her fellow destroyer met a similar fate on short order.

Gouya's grin widened as the fragmented remains of the Abyssal pair rained down upon the water and sank wherever they landed, an underwater shower of dark steel that still held something of a caustic reaction to the water.

She didn't want to think about what that reaction was. Bad enough Abyssals radiated enough… 'negative energy' to quickly affect anyone crazy enough to remain in close proximity to them.

It was suspected that the Abyssal miasma even had the power to inflict curses, dooming victims to misfortune or worse long after their fateful encounter with an Abyssal, though the theory would remain just that for the time being, as neither Oki nor Yahagi were eager to try their hand at directly ruining an innocent's life.

And, yeah, they couldn't curse other Abyssals. Of course.

A third explosion, larger and louder than the previous two, rocked the water, pushing them each backward a bit. The cruiser, then. And that's three.

More debris landed, showering down all around them, prompting a whoop from Iku – a cheer that was abruptly strangled as the Abyssal cruiser's entire upper torso dropped into the water with a loud splash.

A Ri-class Elite, noted Gouya. Cool. The Abyssal had the appearance of a teenage girl, hair done in what was now known as a 'pixie cut.' Her only clothes, a rotting, mottled black bikini top.

She felt chills run up her spine as the Abyssal girl's head turned and found her, those crimson-lit eyes narrowing as if the Ri knew Gouya was the one in charge and was holding her personally responsible…

Until the glow guttered, and the Abyssal's eyes went dark. Gouya launched another pair of torpedoes at the demon, just to be safe.

"I detect no other ships within range," Yuu reported.

Gouya collected herself. "Good," she said, trying to pretend that the encounter hadn't shaken her. "Mark this position, dechi. After lunch, we're gonna start exploring everywhere within that cruiser's range, see if we can find any bases."

The other three groaned at that, but refrained from complaining; long, boring sweeps of the sea and coastlines were a necessity. Until someone could develop a better way to detect Abyssal bases than stumbling upon them, wasting time and fuel was the order of the day.

Worse, many Abyssals didn't even have a base to call home. Yahagi had confirmed that most – if not all – Abyssals simply popped into existence somewhere in the oceans, subsequently left to find whatever allies and supplies they could while carrying out their assault on everything that wasn't Of The Abyss.

That meant a number of Abyssal ships were appearing in the middle of nowhere, doomed to wander until their fuel ran out. If the Abyssals did have commanding officers… anyone higher-ranked than the Princesses… those commanders didn't seem to have any problems with tossing the lower-ranks out into the field to meet their fate. What kind of leader waged a war like that?

It just didn't make sense!

Some part of her mind recognized the futility of trying to draw her own conclusions about the monsters, as a simple submarine, when even the world's best scientists and military geniuses weren't making much more headway in that regard.

That, and she was supposed to be leading a mission, not wasting time puzzling over the enemy.

Her subordinates were staring at her, watching her in silence. Waiting for her to command. She sighed, and surveyed what she could see of their condition in turn. "So… anyone wanna suggest a place up top where we can eat?"


An hour later, Gouya cut swiftly through the water, pausing at least twice each nautical mile to scan her surroundings and emit a sonar pulse, wait for its return.

Lunch had been… rushed, out of necessity. She'd chosen a spot on land where a wall of trees and bushes would allow them to keep an eye on any ships wandering into the area while hiding them from the casual observers among those 'travelers.'

They'd treated it like a mission behind enemy lines – slip in, set up a temporary perimeter while withdrawing a quarter of the massive stockpile of food they each had crammed into storage before setting out from the base for this annoying mission. Wolf down the food, then slip back into the water to resume scouting while their crews processed the new influx of raw materials.

If only she could have had these abilities in her original hull…

The majority of her crew were currently preoccupied with replenishing her torpedoes. That was good; one could never have too many torpedoes. Except maybe Iku…

Following that cue, an image popped up in her mind – and she just as quickly booted it back out. Dammit, she did not want to be reminded of that one summer night earlier in the year when they'd tried to grab Iku for a mission, only to walk in on the raciest self-portrait photo shoot involving torpedoes she had ever seen.

Well, okay, it was the only such photo shoot she'd ever seen, but it still counted! And damn well scarred her for life, too! She was sorely tempted to try scrubbing her eyes or brain with bleach, as the humans said, see if that helped at all.

It probably wouldn't.

Gouya frowned. All that effort she'd put into forcing Iku to scout in the exact opposite direction from the region she intended to check, and she wasn't able to stop thinking about the stupid lewdmarine.

Ha. 'Lewdmarine.' The less-than-flattering nickname given to Iku by that visiting American battleship, what's-her-name – Gouya's own fault; as a submarine, she'd been encouraged to believe that 'other' ships' names only really mattered after you sank them – on their introduction to each other. Iku had, predictably, started sizing up the massive battleship with undisguised lust.

"…Whoa." Iku's wolf-whistle was uncomfortably loud and clear… as was the submarine's general intent, to anyone who knew her. "I'd love to see what you look like, wrapped around my torpedoes."

The American shipgirl quickly grew defensive. "She isn't–"

Gouya decided it was best not to let the meeting turn into an incident. "No," she declared, directing the blonde's attention to a nearby bulletin board, where yet another copy of a picture from Iku's now-infamous photo shoot conspicuously lay pinned atop some of the notices.

It was driving Nagato crazy, naturally, trying to keep the base's many bulletin boards Iku-free… especially after she had barely managed to block the Admiral's niece from seeing one of the pictures.

Why the Admiral continued to put up with Iku's quirks, and hadn't had her scrapped and sold for parts, Gouya didn't know.

…wait. Could shipgirls still be scrapped? Wouldn't that be… messy?

No. No, better she avoid thinking about that. The last thing she needed was more nightmares…

Iku's ability to constantly replace the damned photos without being noticed or caught was bordering on Abyssal-level stealth. Even security cameras and guards stationed near the boards were somehow unable to catch her in the act.

And if no one ever spotted Iku defacing the boards… they couldn't pin this particular crime on her.

The blonde groaned, sliding a palm down over her eyes. "Great. Just my luck, a lewdmarine on the prowl."

Gouya was unable to resist a loud snicker, both at the uncomplimentary nickname and the image the American's description provided. Well, it was true, wasn't it?

Iku placed her hands on her hips, thrusting her chest outward. "Heh. If you've got the hull and equipment for it, why wouldn't you put it to good use?" She smirked. "They never know what hit 'em."

"And YOU!" exclaimed Iku, pointing an accusing finger at the American. "Don't think you can play little miss 'pure-and-driven' prude with Iku! Not while you're wearing that!"

The battleship frowned. Gouya's breath caught, as she desperately tried to will both shipgirls into not starting any sort of fight. "…There's nothing lewd about my uniform," the blonde said at last.

"Right, right. Whatever you say."

Nearly every battleship shipgirl she'd met shared a similar trait – they were innocently ignorant of the effects their powerful builds tended to have on men, to the point of denial. And, it seemed the trait wasn't unique to Imperial Navy battleships.

Gouya always wondered if that had anything to do with why their Admiral had been so quick to make Yamato, Nagato and Mutsu his aides. Dirty old men…

Although, if that was the case, why didn't he react in kind whenever Iku or some of the other brazen shipgirls threw themselves at him?

"Hey, boss? Iku might've found something."

Speak of the lewdmarine, and her shadow appears, she mused, sourly, intentionally mangling the proverb. And would it kill her to have some respect for the chain of command?

She wasn't the first to ask that question, and odds were many others would do so after her.

"What have you found?"

"An underwater cavern. Iku's not sure how far it goes, but it looks like there may be tunnels and other caverns attached to it."

"Anything that looks like an enemy ship?"

"Can't be sure. Nothing big and moving, but..."

"But we need to check the place out, anyway, just to be sure," she completed the thought. Underwater caves could shelter Abyssal submarines – the idea would appeal to her, if she had no dock to call home – or if the caves featured an opening close to the surface plus a large, dry chamber out of the water… did Abyssals who weren't submarines tend to be squeamish about diving underwater, like their shipgirl counterparts?

If there were Abyssals hiding in those caverns… her command could be swimming right into the waiting guns and torpedoes of a force of enemy subs. Or worse, capital ships.

Still… it had to be done. It was their mission, to verify whether or not the Abyssals were there, after all. And really, who else was gonna do it? One of the battlecruisers? Ha!

Finding 'normal' Humans who'd be eager to make the dive and fight any Abyssals in their path was easy, but Gouya wasn't willing to allow them to take that risk. A normal Human just could not hope to sink an Abyssal in one-on-one combat.

"Give me your coordinates, dechi. I'll contact the others and tell 'em to head there."


Gouya bobbed closer to the entrance to what her scans now seemed to be indicating was a somewhat larger network of caverns than Iku had guessed, and extended a hand to feel the rocks that bordered the opening. Smooth, natural wear. No gouges or other damage that might suggest someone else had passed through the area prior to their arrival.

Her sonar scans, though woefully inadequate for the purpose of mapping an entire network of caves from the entrance alone, were nonetheless painting a discomforting picture of what awaited them inside.

She directed her lights to point into the cavern and switched them on.

Nope. Nothing but more rocks, and water. Not even an enemy submarine or two popping up to attack them.

But even if the formation wasn't quite giving her the 'here there be Abyssals' vibe, it was radiating darkness. Evil. Malice, and foreboding. Enough that the underwater wildlife was refusing to go anywhere near it.

Her own body and mind, on their more base levels, wanted to back away from the site at speed. Say, two to three nautical miles away. The more rational, military part of her, however, wasn't about to let the darkness have that level of influence over her. She was a ship-spirit, damn it! She did not run from a mission, and would see everything through to its end – no matter if that end was hers. Such was the life of a warship.

To be fair, though, in her 'original life,' nobody had really had to concern themselves with stupidly-overpowered demonic psycho warships claiming to be from the Abyss.

Gouya's crew passed her the latest comprehensive results of her scans, leading her to frown. She wasn't detecting any indication of an Abyssal presence apart from the sinister and spooky evil darkness. At all. So, if the Abyssals were using the caves as a base, either the darkness was somehow masking the demons, or… the Abyssals were all out wreaking havoc, or whatever else it was the monsters actually did when they weren't trying to destroy everything.

And, yeah, there was the chance that the Ri-class and her two escorts were the only Abyssals using this potential base, no matter that it – or at least the entrance, anyway – was underwater.

That still didn't explain the presence. The darkness, that should have dissipated when the Abyssal trio were sunk. That was far stronger, more oppressive, more terrifying… more dark than a cruiser and two destroyers could hope to produce and maintain.

"Boss?"

She frowned, ignoring the chills that had returned and were now waging war over territory all along her spine, and relayed her findings to the group.

The other three submarines mulled over the implications. Ikuni was the first to break the silence, her voice subdued. "So… we going in now, or–"

"Don't tell Iku you're afraid," her former self scoffed. "No copy of Iku would ever be so weak."

Ikuni rounded on her with an utterly nuclear glare. "Could you let me finish my question before you say something stupid, asshole?"

"Iku…" Gouya warned. Why me? She wasn't command material! Her first instinct was to interpose herself between the two Iku's, or… or massage her temples and the bridge of her nose. Anything to stave off the severe headache she just knew the dueling Ikus were going to give her.

Except either choice essentially conceded victory in this would-be skirmish to Iku.

Ikuni caught the unspoken cue to continue. "As I was saying… are we gonna head in now, or call for reinforcements and hang back until they arrive? Like you said, we can't 'see' that far into there from here, and we don't know what else might be lurking farther in there."

Iku snorted. "We get it. You're scared," she concluded, quite dismissively. "What kind of reinforcements do you think we can get? The only remaining submarines we have are Nimu and Hachi. If you think you're gonna get any of the other ships to dive down here, you've got more than a few screws loose." She had to give credit to Yamato for trying to overcome the natural wariness most shipgirls who weren't submarines held for dropping below the surface of the water – the mere thought tended to trigger bad memories, as the only time most warships descended underwater was when they sank – though as far as she knew, the giant over-gunned battleship hadn't made much progress at all.

A growl. "Nobody asked you, so please just go jump on a coral reef or something, okay?"

…And there it was, Gouya told herself. Complete and undeniable proof she wasn't fit to command a group of submarines.

She was about to agree with Iku.

"She's got a point, though, dechi."

"Iku has more than one point, actually," the lewdmarine added after a beat.

Suddenly, everyone was glaring at her. "What?" She blinked. "It's about her being scared," Iku clarified, waving a hand in her reincarnate's direction. In response, Ikuni bristled. "Geez, it's not like Iku only says lewd things."

"Close enough," muttered Yuu.

"I said, I'm not scared!" Ikuni insisted. She sniffed. "Yeah, I suppose if you're too stupid to realize you're the one who's scared, you–"

Iku's voice developed an edge. "We're submarines. If there are enemy ships in there, we'll sneak up on them and sink them. That's what we do. If you can't handle that…"

"This isn't her first mission OR battle, y'know," Gouya tried to interject, but was ignored.

Then, suddenly, she understood, feeling a twinge of embarrassment for not realizing it earlier, much the same as she would for blundering into a rock formation underwater while attempting to avoid detection by an enemy.

Iku wasn't interested in facts, or even that she was theoretically trashing herself. No. Iku wanted to be spiteful and childish, and claim she was better than Ikuni at every turn.

Why had she expected anything different from Iku?

Wasn't she, as the commander, supposed to recognize potential problems and prevent them from escalating into… well, far larger problems?

She'd known from the start placing Iku and Ikuni in the same force was a supremely bad idea – but anyone could have guessed that. Even the Admiral and his staff, who'd insisted the pair should be assigned to the mission despite her better judgment.

A growl shook her from her musings. "You know what? Fine! I'll show you who's afraid!" And with that declaration, Ikuni kicked off a rock overhang, darting away from the group and into the cavern, the submarine's iridescent violet hair snapping back around her head as if it were a bizarrely-colored squid.

What!? What did I miss?

Dread welled within her chest, a sensation that oddly felt a lot like the filling of her ballast tanks. Gouya wasted no time in spinning, haphazardly snagging Iku by the shoulders and turning the deviant-minded sub to face her.

"You're goin' in there after her, dechi. Get moving," she declared.

Iku scowled. "Hey, if she's dumb enough to charge in there and get herself sunk, that's all on her."

You don't really believe that, do you? Ah, but now wasn't the time to argue with Iku or try to guide the lewdmarine to a realization. "You're goin' in there after her, and that's final."

As Iku opened her mouth to complain, she rushed to interrupt. "What d'you think the Admiral's gonna do, when he finds out you're the reason she charged in there and got herself sunk?"

Iku paled. Good, Gouya thought, without actually taking pleasure at the sight. With any luck, she wouldn't have to toss the other submarine into the breach.

But, oh, did she ever want to do it…

"Fine!" Iku growled, wrenching free from Gouya's grasp. "I… Iku will go."

"We're all going," Gouya informed her. "We're not gonna let any of us be sunk, if we can help it. Not on my watch, as they say."

"Oh? Who says that, Decchi?"

She gave Yuu a sidelong stare. "Don't remember, really. It was on TV."


Almost immediately, something that bore a considerable resemblance to fog swarmed forth to envelop them as the three submarines crept into the cavern, cutting visibility by a good quarter, at Gouya's estimate.

"Lights and sonar on full, everyone. If anyone's out there, they probably already know we're here, and I wanna see them approach."

The oddly soupy 'fog' shied away from their lights. Instinctively, the trio assumed a V-shaped formation with Gouya at the fore, Yuu and Iku sweeping their lights about the cavern behind her while they made their way to the small opening in the rear wall that led to the next chamber.

Where was Ikuni? The more agreeable version of Iku had a few minutes' head start. Gouya's sonar scans weren't extending far enough into the caverns to detect anything aside from unmoving rock, and that worried her.

They crossed the threshold. Nope, no Ikuni. Or Abyssals, or… or whatever. Just more empty caves.

Gouya ground her teeth. At least there weren't any signs of a fight, or battle… yet. There wasn't a warship alive unaware how quickly circumstances could change.

More so now, than before. Abyssal forces – fleets – seemed to be somewhat able to appear from nowhere, as full-sized metal ships never could. Even a massive battleship like the Yamato was capable of participating in an ambush – but Yamato would still have to steam to the site and maneuver herself into position, and the odds of some observer spotting her and spoiling the operation were extremely high.

"Anyone detect anything, dechi?" she asked, not bothering to spare a glance over her shoulder at Yuu and Iku. No doubt they were giving her odd looks; she was the leader, the submarine at the head of the formation, and her equipment was just as capable as theirs of detecting whatever was in the area.

"Nope."

"No."

She sighed. "Let's move on, then."

The oppressive feel to the darkness slowly intensified the further they wandered into the network of caves. One chamber, then two… frustratingly, they had yet to detect any notable sign of movement.

Not a submarine in sight.

What, had Ikuni sped through the caverns? She knew better than to charge into an area with little thought given to what might be lurking nearby!

Any ship carrying depth charges, warship or not, could pose a threat to a submarine, for starters. And then there were the mines. More aggressive detection and attack strategies. Hedgehogs. Squids. FIDOs. Some officer from Sasebo, with Kashima in tow, had paid the base a visit earlier in the year to make sure Yokosuka's submarines were up-to-date through World War Two in anti-sub measures, and the best ways to avoid them. The Abyssals weren't beyond using any of those tactics or hardware… certainly not with corrupted shipgirls among their ranks.

Gouya's sonar tech demanded her attention. "Got a hit," she announced. "Something her size just moved from the cavern ahead to the one beyond it."

Iku groaned, presumably at the thought of having to continue to chase her reincarnate, though Gouya ignored it. They were going to have to make a full sweep of the caverns anyway, so if they performed that sweep while making sure the hot-headed Ikuni didn't end up getting herself sunk, so much the better.

…now, if she could keep them all from being sunk, that would be great.

She shot forward in a burst of speed, trusting Iku and Yuu to maintain the formation behind her.

The three submarines rushed through the next chamber, Gouya sparing it a cursory once-over. She still hadn't noticed any signs that the caverns had seen previous visitors, whether Abyssal, Human, or… something else, like whatever the hell was behind the blasted darkness. That sense was many times stronger, now. Stifling.

It was somewhere nearby, and Gouya held no doubts they would encounter the source of the darkness soon. Right now, the priority was to retrieve Ikuni before that happened.

Ikuni, who was currently one cavern away, and… who, according to the scans, had stopped moving.

In the middle of a somewhat large, otherwise-empty cavern.

She finally decided to stop and wait for us? Ikuni's tentative sonar pulses had been bouncing off them for a while, now; she had to know they were quickly closing the gap between them.

Or… was there a different reason why Ikuni had gone still?

There. Gouya acknowledged the concern. Was this what it was like for normal Humans, when they had to deal with Abyssals? Knowing that something dark and powerful was lurking in the water nearby, most likely waiting for any opportunity to tear your hull apart and leave you helplessly sinking on a one-way trip to the ocean floor – but the hardware you'd always relied upon to warn of threats in the area was either malfunctioning or unable to detect anything?

Then again, every shipgirl knew better than to take whatever fluke it was that allowed their instruments to track Abyssal ships for granted. The world was at war, and what commander worth his – or her – salt didn't work hard to eliminate what advantages the enemy held? It was what she would do.

For all she knew, the only thing the Abyssals needed to do to go completely 'invisible' was the spiritual equivalent of changing radio frequencies…

Her eyes widened. What if the 'darkness' was actually an uber-powerful yet-to-be-seen high-ranking Stealth Hime, or some other Super-Hime who had figured out the secret to hiding herself from shipgirls?

Why were they leaving Ikuni alone with such a powerful potential threat on the loose?

Worry lurched and swirled somewhere deep within her bulkheads and swelled until Gouya could no longer stand it. Red-lining her engines, she shot forward once more – this time with extreme urgency, leaving Iku to splutter in her wake.

"Wh–hey!"

She didn't care. Reclaiming Ikuni was now her top priority. It had to be. Because if the darkness found Ikuni first… no. She refused to allow that thought to take root. All they had to do was grab Ikuni, scold the reincarnate sub for charging in on her own, and they'd investigate the darkness together, as a team. Ikuni would be fine! Ikuni would be…

Gouya shouldered her way out of the smaller tunnel that linked the two caverns into the chamber proper and froze at what she saw.

…standing face-to… to what?, with a roiling, malevolent blob of darkness that was easily three or four times the other submarine's size.

Were those eyes? Gouya blinked, and the spots twisted and turned to a new area on the blob's surface.

Whatever the thing was – she didn't even know there were that many different shades of purple and black, the ever-shifting colors making it hard to maintain a focus on any specific spot – it wasn't a ship. Abyssal, shipgirl, whatever. Just… a more pure darkness, maybe?

Not that that made her feel the tiniest bit better about confronting it here and now. Abyssals were powerful and deadly opponents, but underneath all that overwhelming demonic power they were still ships, using naval warfare tactics. She could cope with that. Welcomed it, as a warship herself.

This 'blob' of darkness and evil, on the other hand? What did she know about it? Speed? Weapons? Attacks?

Iku and Yuu slid into formation behind her. She dimly noted their gasps of shock as they boggled at the scene that greeted them and chose to disregard almost everything, to give Ikuni and the serenely bobbing dark blob her full attention.

A moment passed as Gouya tried to find her voice. "Ikuni," she called, tonelessly. "Please… remain calm. Do not panic, dechi. I want you to reverse course and slowly make your way back toward us, okay?"

But nothing changed. Ikuni's engines continued to idle. The violet-haired submarine reincarnate and the darkness bobbed innocently in place.

"Ikuni…?"

Only then did the submarine react, turning to face them – and a far stronger chill seized Gouya's spine. Nearly her entire complement descended into nervous gibbering.

Ikuni's eyes had gone alarmingly glassy, and as she stared through her three fellow submarines, her lips turned upward in an unnerving ear-to-ear grin.

Gouya barely had time to wonder if she'd noticed a glow beginning to form in the reincarnate's eyes, when the darkness suddenly swarmed Ikuni, engulfing and flowing into her from every possible direction.

The color visibly drained from her body and hair, as though it were cheap paint washing away at the first spray of water.

Skin bubbled and roiled. Armor plating and tubing of the darkest ebony burst forth from random spots and angles to weave together and secure itself in place. Her hull – her hull violently split into three uneven sections with the sounds of tearing metal, and… rearranged.

Gouya promptly lost the battle to keep her lunch from escaping.

A giant mouth – with equally giant teeth – had emerged from Ikuni's bow, mirroring the smaller mouths her torpedoes now sported. All of the mouths snarled and gnashed their teeth at the very clear roars of hunger pangs from within.

Abyssal! Whatever that blasted darkness was, Gouya realized, it was corrupting Ikuni, turning the poor submarine girl Abyssal!

Golden eldritch flames flared to life behind Ikuni's eyes, as the new elite Submarine Hime's gaze locked tightly onto her former force-mates.

"Well, well, well," the Princess sang with particular glee, appraising the submarine trio. "It's not every day one's enemies deliver themselves to her to be sunk."


Special thanks: J. St. C. Patrick, Kevin Hammel

Well, it's been an… uh, memorable handful of months. Let's just say that it was difficult to find time to sit at my desk and work on this chapter, and have the drive to do it at the same time.

In fact, I wasn't able to post the chapter right away, either (though I would be lying if I said I didn't consider waiting until Christmas to post it…)