(Remaster) The Ship of the Tempest

Lightning Under the Moon

"Though your stay here was rather short, it was good to meet you Z73." Nagato bowed lightly to said woman, who gave back the gesture somewhat crudely.

"I have to thank you for making it a comfortable time. As well as Akagi...speaking of which, where is she?"

Nagato sighed, looking much more tired than she let herself be seen as. "She's off working on this project of hers. She updates me regularly about it's progress, but won't tell anyone where it is."

"And...that's not suspicious?"

"Oh it is, but she's clever, and hides it well enough that it can fly over our heads. I sometimes wonder just what's going through her head with this..."

Z73 nodded, already figuring some more information to work with. "Well, let's hope it's not dangerous yeah? Thank you for the hospitality Nagato."

"Of course. Feel free to visit our shores again some day."

The little battleship and Destroyer, who comically stand about the same height, shared a final handshake before splitting ways, Z73 heading out the shrine atop the great hill, and down towards the town. This was the goodbye she needed, and now that the head of the place believes her to be leaving, she can get down to business.

In town, she greeted several of the girls she passed, and had to say her farewells to the Mutsukis, most of which were near crying when she had to go. After that, she was finally near the water, but at the last bend of buildings, where there was less eyes than most other places, she turned and went into the space between the buildings, hiding from sight.

On the other end of the "alley", Takao walked out with her blade sheathed and still wonderfully well kept as she made her way back up from the waterfront. 'Good, now I have all the time in the world to figure out what's going on here.'

On her way back up, Takao met with several friends who gave their greetings, all of which she returned and did her best to appear as normal as possible. Surprisingly, it wasn't hard to act like a tough faced girl, cause...well, she's use to that already.

'Now Nagato gave me those little bits, I at least know that not many are in on this. Akagi is without a doubt doing something shifty, but the issue remains on how I'm suppose to go about this...' Right now, she was outside of a small shop, eating a sweet bun as she thought about what to do next.

Of course, a new face could help immensely, but the people she would need to chose from would be hard to actually get to, let alone figure out how to confront Akagi. Kaga was seeming to be the best choice, but again, she didn't know if she was actually in on this.

...

'It wouldn't hurt to try. Kaga is even more stone cold than Takao even attempts to be, so this shouldn't be hard.' She swallowed the last bite of the bun, cleaning her face before tossing the trash into the proper bin as she got things rolling.

The first step would be to—

"Excuse me? Takao?"

"Hm?" She looked to the voice, seeing Noshiro, someone she passed by near the shrine before. "Did you need me?"

The girl nodded, but didn't give a word about why she was needed, so she followed along without question. Noshiro led her back towards the Shrine, her original destination anyways, but instead of actually entering the building itself, they took a right, heading closer to the Giant Tree.

'Hmm...I have a feeling that I know where she's taking me.'

The line of Sakura trees grew denser as they got closer, and with the narrow path almost entirely covered by their fallen petals, it was surpassingly hard to have a solid grip on the ground to not slip. Soon though, Noshiro led her out into a clearing, where she finally saw a small building, with seemingly one or two rooms only.