Upon learning that Ayanami was not lying, Illustrious's face couldn't help but darken. This meant the Naval Base would be attacked tomorrow. Who was it? Was the attacking enemy an Abyssal or a Ship Girl? Regardless of who it was, this person was Illustrious's mortal enemy; to dare attack her Naval Base, they were simply tired of living.
Illustrious increased the speed of her Aircraft Carrier, heading for the Naval Base. She had to save Azuma and the others before the Naval Base was destroyed... July 17th, 7:00 AM. On a small island, a group of Ship Girls were chatting and laughing in the living room of the Admirals Villa.
But just then, an alarm blared. It was the Naval Base's Level 1 Emergency Alert, signifying that the Naval Base was under Abyssal attack.
As Illustrious's Secretary Ship, Azuma had been entrusted with the great responsibility of defending the Naval Base in Illustrious's absence. Now the flagship of the island's Ship Girls, she immediately moved to organize the personnel to head to the harbor. "Everyone! Prepare to sortie! We can't let the Admiral return to find even the slightest damage to the Naval Base."
"What's going on? We're clearly in the rear; why are there Abyssals here?" Unicorn said, a bit frightened as she hugged her companion U-chan tightly.
"Don't worry, Unicorn! With the great Yukikaze here, I will definitely protect you," Yukikaze said confidently, hands on her hips.
"Thank you, Yukikaze. It's good to have you here, but I'll work hard to help everyone too." Unicorn was touched by Yukikaze's promise to protect her.
"Great! Finally, something to do. The Naval Base has been so quiet lately; I was almost bored to death," Zuikaku said excitedly, drawing her ship-slaying great sword.
"Zuikaku! Don't be too reckless, or you'll get hurt," Shokaku reminded her from the side.
"Don't worry! I'm very strong. Besides, isn't Sister Shokaku right here with me? It'll be fine," Zuikaku said casually.
Azuma and the other Ship Girls quickly arrived at the harbor, where five ships were docked—these were their main body ships.
"main body ship—Activate!" Azuma took the lead and jumped from the pier. She activated her rigging mid-air. The main body ship transformed into countless glowing, transparent cubes that flew toward her, forming into rigging on various parts of her body.
Boom!
Landing on the sea surface, waves splashed around her. Her rigging activated, allowing Azuma to glide rapidly across the water.
As Azuma sped across the sea in her rigging, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Unicorn, and Yukikaze finished equipping their own behind her and moved up to sail alongside her.
After sailing some distance, Azuma saw black clouds in the sky approaching them. "I see them—it's the Abyssals. Everyone, be careful. Make sure you don't get sunk."
"Heehee! Abyssals? Perfect. Just watch me sink every last one of you!" Zuikaku excitedly surged ahead of the group toward the enemy waters.
"Wait! Zuikaku, don't break formation on your own!" Azuma immediately ordered upon seeing Zuikaku's reckless advance.
"Stop nagging! I'm strong; nothing will happen. Besides, look at the Abyssals ahead—there isn't even an Abyssal Princess. Why be so cautious?" Zuikaku was quite defiant toward Azuma. Who did this woman think she was, bossing them around? Just because she had been given a little bit of authority by the Admiral, she was acting like she held a royal decree. "I can take out these Abyssals even without your help."
Watching Zuikaku charge into the enemy zone, Azuma couldn't help but worry. Rushing in like that made it easy to fall into a trap. "If she accidentally hits a snare, she could be sunk! Who will go with her as the vanguard to scout the enemy?"
"I'll do it! My younger sister is causing you trouble. I'll keep an eye on Zuikaku, don't worry. I guarantee no one will hurt her." Seeing Zuikaku charge in, Shokaku was also worried and immediately requested to join her.
"Mm, alright. You and Shokaku are sisters, and your strength is similar. Having you two as the vanguard is indeed a good choice." Azuma approved Shokaku's request.
Boom!
Shokaku followed closely behind Zuikaku, catching up in no time, and together they broke into the enemy sea.
"Sister Azuma, are you not worried about them being sunk, letting them charge into Abyssal territory like that?" Unicorn asked with a frown.
"No need to worry. Those two are powerful and can easily handle ordinary Abyssals. Besides, I really don't see an Abyssal Princess. It seems this is just an attack by regular Abyssals. Relax; just treat this like a drill." Azuma felt reassured about the two being the vanguard since no Abyssal Princess was present.
"Yukikaze is so sleepy right now... I really want to sleep!" Yukikaze was listless, her eyes half-closed, looking as if she might fall asleep at any second.
Standing beside her, Unicorn said with a helpless expression, "Yukikaze, didn't you just wake up? Why are you sleeping again?"
Unicorn had seen Yukikaze sleeping constantly; she had woken up, eaten breakfast, and then immediately fallen asleep on the sofa.
"Maybe it's the new environment? She might not be used to sleeping here," Azuma replied after a moment's thought.
Under their Gaze, Yukikaze became nervous and quickly said, "Yes! That's it. The places I used to sleep weren't very good. Sometimes I'd sleep on the grass of a small island, sometimes on a reef."
"If there wasn't even grass or a reef, I'd summon my main body ship. But summoning it increases resource consumption—double what it takes in human form. I couldn't really afford it since I didn't have many resources, so I rarely used my main body ship to sail."
"Yukikaze, I didn't realize you had it so hard. How about this? From now on, why don't you come to my room every night? I can stay with you so you can fall asleep peacefully." Unicorn said caringly.
"Really? That would be great! I won't be polite then." Yukikaze was very happy at the thought of sleeping with her good friend.
"The Abyssals are here. Begin the interception." Azuma's expression turned serious. Over a dozen Abyssal Warships were charging toward them. Without a hint of fear, Azuma charged forward to meet them.
"Sister Azuma, I'll help too." Unicorn's U-chan suddenly transformed into a large pegasus. The pegasus carried Unicorn through the sky, following Azuma to sink the Abyssals.
Watching Azuma and Unicorn charge at the Abyssal Warships, Yukikaze let out a small yawn. She had finally managed to fool them. In truth, her sleepiness wasn't due to the new environment, but a side effect of wearing the ship device, the Fortune-Stabilizing Ring.
There was a reason she wore the Fortune-Stabilizing Ring. Yukikaze had repeatedly signed contracts to become a new Admiral's Ship Girl, only for that Admiral's Naval Base to be destroyed by an Abyssal attack shortly after.
Once is a coincidence, twice is suspicious, but more than three times means there's a problem with yourself. Using resources and materials she had gathered over years of wandering, Yukikaze asked a Legendary Ship Girl for the reason. That Legendary Ship Girl was incredibly knowledgeable and experienced, and she identified Yukikaze's issue immediately.
The Legendary Ship Girl said she possessed a unique ability to steal an Admiral's luck and bestow misfortune. Generally, unique abilities are only found in Five-Star Epic Ship Girls.
However, there are special cases. Some Ship Girls are one-in-a-million geniuses who awaken a unique ability while still being a Gold-Plated Ship Girl. Yukikaze was such a genius.
Because Yukikaze awakened her unique ability as a Gold-Plated Ship Girl, it caused her Admiral's luck to be stolen and replaced with misfortune, ultimately leading to their tragic death in Abyssal attacks.
Because she awakened it as a Gold-Plated Ship Girl, the ability was somewhat incomplete. Once she finally evolved into a Five-Star Epic Ship Girl, her ability would evolve as well, allowing her to actively control it and steal luck or bestow misfortune on other Admirals from a distance.
There was a solution: obtain a Fortune-Stabilizing Ring from an Azure Island. This would prevent her unique ability from automatically stealing luck and bestowing misfortune.
Overjoyed to find a solution, Yukikaze sought information from the Black Moon Intelligence Organization. She heard that a Blue-Tier Azure Island had appeared in the West Pacific. Without hesitation, she rushed there to fight Abyssals and open treasure chests. Luckily, she found a Fortune-Stabilizing Ring in a purple treasure chest.
This ship device was of the Centivision-Tier. Although wearing this Fortune-Stabilizing Ring could stop her ability from activating, it had a side effect: drowsiness. Just like now, even though she had slept enough at night, she still felt sleepy, as if she could never get enough rest.
Although she was sleepy, Yukikaze felt it was worth it. After all, this way, her new Admiral wouldn't die a tragic, senseless death.
Yukikaze quickly followed Azuma and Unicorn to sink the Abyssals.
On Zuikaku's side, once she entered the swarm of Abyssal Warships, it was like a wolf among sheep, catching the opposing Abyssal Warships completely off guard.
The Abyssal Warships were cursing internally. Where did this maniac come from? She charged in without any strategy, swinging her ship-slaying great sword everywhere. This was just too unsportsmanlike!
They originally thought the Ship Girl could only hold out for a few moves. After all, there were over thirty Abyssal Warships here. If each one just spat once, they could drown her!
Although a few Abyssal Warships might be sacrificed, as long as Zuikaku ran out of strength from swinging, the remaining Abyssal Warships could swarm her and sink her completely.
But just at this moment, the Abyssal Warships from behind were attacked. The attacker was Shokaku. Shokaku and Zuikaku had fought together for a long time, and being sisters, their cooperation was perfectly synchronized. With just a single look, they could understand what the other wanted to express and what plan they intended to execute.
Just before charging into the group of Abyssal Warships, Zuikaku gave Shokaku a look. That look signaled to use Plan D to eliminate the Abyssals. Shokaku immediately understood and began to slip behind the enemy.
First, they would perform a pincer attack with Shokaku. Then, Zuikaku would draw the fire, making the Abyssal Warships believe Zuikaku was alone, which would lead them to launch a group attack on her.
Meanwhile, Shokaku would release all her carrier-based aircraft from behind, and the planes in the sky would bomb and sink the concentrated Abyssal Warships all at once.
"Vrooom...!"
There were about thirty carrier-based aircraft in the sky. Standing on one of them was Shokaku. She took out a flute and began to play. Beautiful and moving music flowed directly from the flute, music so enchanting that it left people intoxicated.
Although the music was beautiful, it was not a good thing for the Abyssal Warships below. As Shokaku played the flute, the thirty-plus carrier-based aircraft in the sky began to drop bombs.
Whish, whish, whish...
Countless bombs were dropped from the carrier-based aircraft as if they cost nothing. Looking up, the sky was densely packed, a sight that inspired pure terror.
Zuikaku, who had been fighting the Abyssal Warships, saw Shokaku dropping the bombs. To avoid being accidentally hit by her sister's bombs, she immediately launched a carrier-based aircraft, which carried her up into the air.
The Abyssal Warships, who had intended to use swarm tactics to quickly kill Zuikaku, saw her fly away on a plane and were left with nothing. Some of the humanoid Abyssal Warships immediately became furious, shouting wildly, "You brat, if you have the guts, don't fly! Come down and fight us!"
The carrier-based aircraft flew quite high, staying out of reach of the Abyssal Warships' anti-aircraft guns. As she flew into the mid-air, Zuikaku saw that the bombs Shokaku had dropped were already starting to take effect.
"Bang, bang, bang...!"
The thirty-plus Abyssal Warships below were being continuously bombarded. The explosions sent flesh and metal flying, and one after another, the Abyssal Warships exploded and slowly sank into the sea.
It wasn't that these Abyssal Warships didn't want to scatter, but because they had been too concentrated on attacking Zuikaku, they ended up pushing and shoving each other. Unable to scatter quickly, they could only meet their fate of sinking.
More than half of the thirty-plus Abyssal Warships died. Only a small portion remained because they were Battleships; with their thick armor and high durability, they had managed to survive Shokaku's frantic bombing.
Zuikaku drew her Tachi, and five carrier-based aircraft appeared on the deck. These aircraft started their propellers and began to continuously strike the Tachi. The Tachi emitted scorching flames, radiating an immeasurable amount of energy that made one feel faint-hearted.
Walking to the edge of the aircraft's wing, holding the flaming Tachi, Zuikaku jumped down from the plane.
Using the law of universal gravitation combined with her own weight as an Aircraft Carrier, Zuikaku swung her blade downward from above, slashing toward the Abyssal Battleship that looked the strongest.
Slash!
The strongest of the Abyssal Warships, an Abyssal Battleship, was sliced in two by Zuikaku. After falling onto the sea's surface, a massive explosion occurred.
Taking down one Abyssal Battleship was naturally not enough to satisfy Zuikaku. She wanted to eliminate all the remaining Abyssal Battleships here, letting them sleep forever at the bottom of the sea.
With a 'ding' sound, the flaming Tachi tilted downward, and a crisp sword hum resonated from the blade. Seeing that only seven Abyssal Battleships remained, Zuikaku raised her flaming Tachi and charged forward.
Zuikaku was not afraid of those seven Abyssal Battleships. After all, because they had been bombarded by Shokaku's bombs, they were all heavily wounded to varying degrees. This meant the Abyssal Battleships had very little combat power left when facing Zuikaku, but even so, they did not give up hope and flee in all directions.
There were two reasons. First, if they scattered and ran, Zuikaku would pick them off one by one, and they would die even faster.
Second, the Abyssal Battleships had their Abyssal pride; even if they were to die, they wanted to die spectacularly.
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