super ktkm without Ooi 13

Hnn. I stirred in my bunk, illuminated faintly by light seeping under the curtain and doorframe.  I sl-o-o-o-wly stretch out as I rise out of bed. A completely new feeling, waking up on my own terms.  Feels like a good time to have breakfast.
…  Oh …
The electric clock on my desk says 11:00. The defac is already serving lunch.  Lunch is fine too I guess.
-   -  -
I step up the concrete stairs leading to the cafeteria, and put myself at the end of the short-order line.  It seems there's a new employee behind the counter.  She's.... massive. Vertically, at least. Something just seems off. I wait in line until it's my turn to place an order.
“Hello!” She greets me. “What can I make for you”
“I'll have a turkey club. Are you new around here? I feel like I've seen you before.” She jumps up in surprise.
“I-I just started! I'm just a new s-s-s-s... sh shhh … shheerrrver. I'm a new server here.” She closes her eyes and nods, as if confirming this to herself. Whatever. After receiving my sandwich I find and empty table and start eating.
It's not the same.
As I see one of the short destroyers walk towards my table, I begin to realize an unexpected weakness of sitting alone; someone will want to sit next to you. I'm thinking of a particularly scathing remark as I remember that she's one of the light carriers. I'm sure they're an okay bunch. It's a good thing these aren't tall tables.
“Heya there Kitakami.”
I picture her climbing a bar stool like a mountain.  The icy winds blowing her twintails furiously.
“Hehehehey.”
“I've juss been so frustrated! I'd thought for sure I was gonna get to go with the other carriers.”
“... Eh?”
“Ya, know! On the expedition today. I was bein' considered, but they ended up going with some submarines to replace me. What with all these full-sized carriers we have lyin' aound, I feel like I'm not even needed anymore. Even worse there's a yankee carrier now.”
“I guess I know how you feel, I haven't really been doing anything lately either.”
“Tsh, Even if all the carriers that went out got blew to bits they'd still have the two crane sisters ...   just can't catch a break, probably thought I'd be too slow and keep 'em all held back.”
I swirl my straw in my soda around, thinking.
“Isn't Kaga the slowest though?”
I hear a gurgling sound it looks like Ryuujou chokes a bit on a piece of food.
“That... that... I CAN'T BELEIVE THIS!” She says as she slams down her now empty milk carton.  “I don't wanna be stuck escortin' cargo ships all the time, ya know?”
“That's what destroyers are for anyway, right?”
“Hmm Hmm!” She nods in agreement.
“I'm really with you on this, I'm tired of just.... living.... I want to go fight.”
“Erh, I wouldn't put it like that...”
Ryuujou still looks a bit downcast. It seems like she's folding a paper napkin in vague airplane shape.
“That's not going to go anywhere.”
She does a few weird motions with her hand and whispers at the paper plane before picking it up and tossing it at me.
I'm pretty unamused, seeing as it's probably going to land right on my plate.  Instead it instantly loops upward and over Ryuujou's head, smoothly sailing through the cafeteria before gently unfolding and draping itself over a petty officer's head.
“That's a pretty good trick.”
 “Ehe, thanks thanks.....” Ryujou replies, blushing a bit.
-
We finish off our lunch before parting ways, Ryuujou telling me “Ya not as bad as they say.”
Great.
As I'm walking back to my room I notice a figure behind a tree; trying, and failing at being inconspicuous.  The light green hair in a high ponytail sticks out as I come past.
“Psst, hey Kitakami.”
“Yuubari, what are you doing?”
“Kitakami you've got to see this! It's great. Follow me.”  Yuubari bolts off, across a pristine lawn before stopping at the next grove of trees to look back.  She waves her hand in a beckoning manner.

I guess I don't have anything else to do.

 I jog after her as she leads me across the base.  I follow her as she goes through a small path between a row of bushes and a chain-link fence before I stop her.
“Hey, hey, are we about to steal something?”
Yuubari pauses, before turning around, her backpack swishing.  “Eh, no, not exactly. I mean stealing is taking the original copy and we're just..” I raise up my hands to interrupt her.
“Fine, technicalities, whatever. Where are we?”
“This is the back of the CIC. The fence isn't secured down here, and there's a tree we can climb  to the roof. Come on.”
“What.  What?”  Yuubari ignores my protest as she slips around the fencing, while I follow reluctantly.
 We use the nearby tree to climb up to the first floor roof, where we're able to take a maintenance ladder to the upper roof.  Yuubari goes to sit in the shadow of an airvent, taking out her laptop.
“Can you tell me what this is all about already?”
“Some idiot left a wireless usb clicker plugged into one of the main computers. What a fool.”
“Uh yeah. Yep.”  I'd leave right now, but I'm not sure how to get back to the dorms from here anwyay. I take a seat right next to Yuubari, intent on getting something out of this trip.
“Alright... here we go.” Yuubari types and clicks a bit on her keyboard, before a video of some sort appears. “This is live.”
It's the sea.... An aerial view. I can see the wakes of multiple ships below, before they open up with their cannons.  “Can't you zoom in?” I asked.
“Ah, well I can but they might notice that the camera controls are moving on th-”
“Come on Yuubari just do it.”
A few more clicks the camera zooms in and the unmistakable forms of our heavy cruisers can be seen: Maya, Tone, Chikuma, Takao. Their rate of fire increases, as splashes from enemy shells shoot up the sea.
“Looks like we tuned in right at the action.”
The frequency of incoming shots increases, hits landing on Takao and Maya, each of them buckling with every impact, but still sailing strong.  Yuubari is silent, eyes fixated on the screen.
“Hey, Yuubari go look at what they're shooting.”
She moves the camera onto the abyssal cruisers, it looked like at least one was completely disabled, but the others were mostly shrugging off shells like you would rain. Yuubari zooms the camera out again.
“I-I don't think they're winning.” Yuubari says quietly.  A shell hits Takao, silencing one of her primary turrets.  The beating continues as the allied fleet changes direction away from the abyssals. “Kitakami... they're not gonna win like this.”
“There have to be other units, zoom out further.”
Yuubari searches the area and finds a double flotilla of destroyers, zooming in to confront the abyssals. They're already exchanging fire. Here come the expendable assets. A tight grouping of shells hits one of our destroyers, a fireball springs up and her speed drops.
“No!” Yuubari shouts out before covering her mouth. “That was H-hayashimo... we.. we just had... those drinks together.”
I just felt frustration. Can't dodge, can't take a hit. Useless.
“Are you crying Yuubari? That's what they're for. Going into the thick of it and protecting the important assets.”
There's no response.
The carnage continues on both sides, each bloodying each other.  The abyssal destroyers have mostly been destroyed, but most of the allied destroyers have taken hits or been disabled, while the enemy cruisers still sail onward.
It's not looking good. Maybe some torpedo hits can change the tide but none of those worthless destroyers even carry enough to do any good. I'd have cleared the enemy out by now.  The camera focus is back on the abyssal cruisers, firing at anything nearby as it chases after our heavy cruisers. Fresh impacts suddenly appear on the abyssal cruiser from an odd angle.  I nudge Yuubari. “Hey, HEY! Where are those shots coming from?”
It's not until I flick the side of her head does she move the camera about before focusing on a a gleaming ship, a huge cruiser, completely foreign to me. It fires its guns at a frightening rate, silencing the opposition quickly.  The sounds of battle end as  all cannons fall silent.  I rack my brain for an explanation.  A submerged ship? Some sort of advanced American technology?  That can't be right.  It's lacking the hard angles and smooth surfaces of a modern warship.
Hmm.  A returned ship, that's probably it.  How absurd. As if every battle could be solved by just pulling a fresh warship out of literally nowhere.
I stand up, “Looks like we won.”  There's no point staying around watching fires be put out and a sail back to port.
“Y-yeah..” Yuubari answers, without enthusiasm.
I climb down off the roof, without hearing anyone behind me. I'll find my way back eventually.
- - -
As fate would have it, I end up running into Ise and Hyuuga within minutes of leaving Yuubari. Maybe the gym is over here? Dunno. As much as it pains me they probably know the way back.
“Oy, hey Kitakami.” Ise cheefully waves at me.
“We just finished our workout, wanna get some dinner with us?” Hyuuga chimes in. They're both built like a goddamn bunker, there's no way they had this much.... mass on them when they I first met them.  Does that make them stronger ships too?
“Uh. Yeah. Let's do that.” What do they even eat to get that big? As soon as my affirmative is heard, Ise instantly wraps her arm around my shoulders, pulling me close as we start walking.
“You seem a bit upset, Kitakami. What's bothering you?” Hyuuga asks.
“There's nothing wrong with me.” We only a few more steps before I almost lose my footing because Ise has stopped walking with me still in her grip.
“Oh my god.” Ise spins me around to look directly at her. “You lost Ooi. Listen, there's no need to worry we'll help you out.”  My mouth opens but no sounds are able to come out.
“She couldn't have gone far, right Ise?  We should split up.”
“Tut tut, Hyuuga. Don't you know that's how we get lost even more? Besides, this way with three sets of eyes we won't miss anything.”
These idiots. How do they even function.
“I haven't lost Ooi.” I say calmly, before these two can work themselves up even more.
“Eh? Then where is she right now.” Ise asks
“I don't know.” It was a mistake to reply this quickly.
Before Ise can say anything Hyuuga speaks up. “Ah, I understand. Listen Kitakami, we won't tell anyone that you got lost. We'll hook you up with Ooi and we'll cover for you, no problem.”
I scream internally. This is an abstract kind of hell.
“I don't know where Ooi is because I don't care. She can go do whatever she wants. I was just taking a walk until I made a mistake of running into both of you. Good BYE.” I mange to slip out of the industrial clamp's grip and start walking off in a different direction. Any direction.

“Eh.... ehhhh? But Kitakami it's wing night! Come on let's go!”
“I bet she already ate, Ise.”