BAM! BAM! BAM!

The sea around my target rolled in bursts of paint, with a few shells finding their target, covering it in splotches in blue. Already my crew was loading another salvo, as South Carolina fired hers. Several far-off targets erupted in paint, as she gave me a smug look.

Yes. I know. You have fire control systems. You can stop flexing on me, please, and thank you.

Still, I'd improved over the past few days. Probably wasn't going to get much better without the fire control systems, but at least I could hit the side of a barn now.

Yes, whether or not I could hit the side of a barn was the metric by which I considered an improvement.

Still, Admiral Kenneth made it sound like he had some surprise in store for me on one of the last few days.

Yeah, not how I expected spring break to go by any considerable amount. Of course, I doubted anyone could have expected this. If they could, I'd have serious questions for them.

South Carolina waved, singling to break off practice and return to base. I followed behind her, quickly noticing Admiral Kenneth on the docks. Beside him was a shipgirl, one I wasn't entirely familiar with. She certainly wasn't one of the base regulars, that was for sure.

A carrier of some sort, if her rigging was any indication, her flight deck taking the appearance of an oversized crossbow. Odd amongst US carriers, which should have helped identify her, but I was drawing a complete blank here. Almost embarrassing.

"South Carolina, Kansas," Admiral Kenneth spoke, as I nodded. "This is Ranger. She's volunteered to help Kansas with her anti-air defense practice. Consider this as your final stress test before you go to San Diego." Ranger curtsied, grinning slightly.

I nodded, as my crew began to move up the fake ammunition for the Bofors and five-inch guns. My anti-air upgrades had been pretty much neglected so far, despite being the most important upgrade I received. Which was understandable. Carriers were important, and being able to spare one for practice was probably a luxury outside of larger bases.

I wouldn't exactly call this fun, but unlike before I had the means to defend myself. So let's do this!

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"You need a bath," South Dakota's snicker was as it usually was, teasing, but soft. Akin to friendly ribbing.

"No, what I need is a shower," I groaned. That could have gone better. Much better. Though, South Carolina wasn't unscathed from Ranger's ariel onslaught, either. Practice was going to be a must though going forward. And more anti-air. Much more anti-air.

I was thankful that the compounds in the paint broke down quickly because even if my first instinct was to find a shower, tracking paint through the base wouldn't be good.

"Sorry I wasn't able to distract enough of them," the only thing stopping South Carolina from clinging to me was the paint. I could just tell she was itching to give me a bear hug. I could already tell one was in my future.

"It's fine," I shrugged. I'd take any amount of paint over what happened last time bombs started dropping. That wasn't great. Though the torpedos were worse. Even the paint ones stung a bit. To be fair, my torpedo protection belt was probably nonexistent.

"Come on. There's one last surprise for you," South Dakota was checky. Whatever the surprise was, she was quite excited about it. Might as well see what it was.

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"I trust the report got to you in good order?" Kenneth looked at the screen, as Vestal flipped through the file in her hand.

"It has," she placed the folder down, "though it only confirms my initial suspicions. I understand that it was a bit of a rush job, but it's sadly inadequate."

Kenneth frowned. He expected it wouldn't be enough, at the end of the day. But she had managed to knock down a few planes. Less than half of what South Carolina managed. Still, there was the simple issue of avoiding. Kathrine was slow, making such maneuvering difficult. Of course, anti-air would be much improved once the proper directors were added.

"Honestly, outside of showing just how desperately she needs a proper torpedo belt, that's going to depend on design. And sadly, speed is always going to be an issue, outside of the designs that strip down the armor belt, which is, quite frankly, counterproductive," Vestal took a swig of coffee, before pausing for a moment. "No offense to you and your teams, of course."

Kenneth shook his head. Sure, he knew Vestal didn't mean anything by her previous remarks, but he certainly wouldn't be sharing them, either.

His ear's pricked for a moment. Well, it seems like the surprise was revealed. He smiled. A going-away party wasn't entirely out of the question. He did hope they had fun. Hopefully, things didn't get too out of hand.

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"Surprise!" the mess hall was full of streamers, balloons, alongside numerous other party stuff. Some were blatantly reused from the previous one, but the gesture was appreciated.

A going-away party? I blinked, doing a little wave toward the rest of my family was also nearby.

"This is for me?" I looked around, considerably surprised. I recognized just about everyone. Nicholas was asleep in the corner, snoring away, though I had no doubts that she would eventually wake. Strong and Kid were hanging around one another, both having put down whatever game system they had managed to wrangle into the room.

Heck, even Dallas was here. Though, that was interesting. I made a quick mental note to file that away for possible ribbing purposes. Later, of course. Because what type of big sister would I otherwise be?

"Yep. A bit of a proper sendoff before you head out to San Deigo," South Dakota grinned. "Well, I mean, you are spending some type back home, if I understand things correctly, but that's where you're ultimately going."

She wasn't wrong about being at home bit. This was a major move that required major packing. Even if I had family in the area, there was still a lot I needed to bring with me. Plus, even with the advantages being a shipgirl had when it came to school transfers, that would still take time.

What? Shipgirls still needed education, and in someone's wisdom, they realized having idle shipgirl hands was a bad thing. Especially natural-borns, who were already used to the whole school thing. Mostly for us still underage. Plus, I'd need something to dominate my time besides practice. Because, you know. Idle hands and all that.

Okay, it was long past time to digress and have some fun!

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"Hey! That's cheating!" I smirked at Denver's protest as I zipped past her. She was the one that laughed at my choice of cart. Now I think I was going to laugh at her when I ended up taking the gold medal for this race.

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"Well, this game is," I bit my tongue. My friends were right. I could see how this game could kill friendships quite trivially. Thankfully, I'd managed to get most of my competitiveness out of my system with the previous game. Though I think everyone was trying to get payback on me for that fiasco.

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"So close," South Dakota hissed, as I knocked her off the edge. "How did you get so good at this?"

"It's a popular game among my friend group," I shrugged. Normally I wasn't good at fighting games, but these always tended to be more party game than a fighter.

By this point, the night had already set in, and unlike before, the cruisers had already escorted the destroyers away for the night. A few had made their return, but not all of them, though I was considering joining them. Jet lag was a pain in the rear, and I'd rather start the process of correcting now, rather than later. Even an hour could be disrupting.

Plus, I didn't trust that cheeky look on Ranger's face. There was just something smug about it. Like she was taking a headcount. For what, I had no idea of knowing. Though if I stuck around for long enough, I was probably going to find out.

"Who wants alcohol!" or I was going to find out right now.

Well, that was probably a sign I should beat a hasty retreat back to my lodgings.

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"What time did you turn in?" my mother asked me as I stirred. "I didn't hear you come in for the night."

"Around midnight," I stretched, stifling a yawn. "Ranger thought it was a good idea to break out the alcohol, so I left." Yeah, there was no sense in hiding that one from her. Mom was going to find out the moment she hit the mess hall.

"Did you?" I groaned, already knowing where this was going.

"No mom. I just left. Seriously, with all the horror stories dad told me about how much he drank before the two of you started dating, why would I? I have better things I can do with my time than shoveling rotting plant matter into my body," I felt my crew practically recoil in horror at that remark. Overreaction much?

"Okay, okay. I trust you. I'm just worried is all," I had to chomp down on the urge to roll my eyes at that remark. I was more than capable of taking care of myself. "Did anything else happen that you noticed?"

"Well, South Dakota was chasting Ranger about it, though I'm pretty sure a few people were scrambling to keep South Carolina from getting any of it," I paused, thinking back. "Something about her being a kiss drunk?"

On that front, I wasn't entirely sure. Though as we entered the mess, it might be accurate, as the battleship was tied to a chair with a sign attached.

"That's, interesting," my mom commented, before looking up. "Is that?"

"Just don't question it," I'm not sure how Pheonix got attached to the ceiling, but I certainly didn't want to find out about that, either.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

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Given how our flight was still out of Orlando, that meant we ultimately had to get moving pretty quickly. It was under escort, something I found personally excessive if little else. South Carolina had also joined us, but that was explicitly temporary.

The latter I didn't mind. Even if it was a bit more just enjoying her company than active conversation. South Dakota couldn't join us, given she had other responsibilities. But we'd both promised to keep in touch, even if we would ultimately be stuck on opposite ends of the continent.

Of course, I thought the whole escort thing was overkill until we started getting close to the airport. Sure, we hadn't come this way in quite some time, but unless I was missing something, there normally weren't this many vans. They looked like, news vans.

Wait? News? I did a double-take at one, noticing the logo. Well, that was great.

"Is something wrong?" South Carolina had to have noticed my double-take. I mean, she was right next to me, so how could she not?

"News vans," I frowned, peeking my head around, noticing a few others on either side. "A lot of news vans." I bent my head backward, hoping to avoid any possible camera's outside.

"Them? They never hurt anyone. They can be a bit a pain, okay, a very large pain," South Carolina started as I looked down at my feet. Quite frankly, that wasn't what I cared about. I just didn't want hundreds of strangers shouting questions at me. That was not the type of attention I wanted.

"Wait, are you?" I could hear the gears in South Carlonia's mind turning. Wait, no. Please no. I could already tell where this is going. I've seen enough anime to know where this was going. The only thing saving me from a seventeen thousand-ton hug was the seatbelts.

"Are you shy?" I turned my head, blushing slightly. Shy was not the word I'd used to describe myself. Shy implied not wanting to meet new people. Not wanted to deal with a writhing throng of flashing lights and noise was something completely different.

Clearly, this was not a sentiment South Carolina shared as she cackled.

"No. I just don't want to deal with all of it," I waved my hands around, trying to avoid striking anyone on accident. "This." The airport we were going to was already enough of a crowded mess under normal circumstances, as I recalled. Things may have changed since the last time we were here, but I doubted it.

"Well, you won't have much to worry about. They won't be able to follow where we're going," South Carolina looked smug, winking at me.

Wait? I thought we were going to the airport for our regular flight? What was something them from just following us?

Unless we weren't going by a commercial airline. Which was a fair share of money down the drain, given we already purchased tickets for the return flight.

"So, where are we going then?" I asked, turning my head slightly.

"It's a surprise, silly," South Carolina put a finger to her lips.

Well, that was great and all, but I'd really like some useful information.

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"I think this is the place," eventually, my father came to a stop, putting our rental car in park.

Yeah, this wasn't our usual destination. Of course, that had become apparent once we started going through checkpoints. It took a few moments for us to begin disembarking and grabbing our luggage.

Well, the rest of my family was. In terms of luggage capacity, well, it was safe to say I had plenty of room to spare. The mundane utility is insane. I didn't have to carry things anymore! Well, outside of a few circumstances. But otherwise, I'd just be able to store it all in my hull.

This would make the move out to California much easier. Seriously. I could just take my entire bed with me without the need to take the whole thing apart. Given how the thing doubled as my dresser, that would be especially nice. Could bring my desk along pretty easily as well. Not to mention the books. Even if I wasn't as much of an avid reader, I'd probably find a use for them.

But that was a future problem. Not a particularly hard one at that.

As for the plane? It looked like a standard plane. Just a bigger commercial airliner. Though if I recalled what military transport birds looked like from the inside, it wasn't going to be a comfy ride.

Of course, that I could live with. Though that raised a few questions about how they planned to get me to California. Was it going to be like this? Or was a civilian flight going to be used?

Again, more future problems. Not a particularly big deal, one way or another. The latter would be more comfortable, but there was something to be said about not being stared at like a fish in an aquarium.

Several things, in truth.

"Everything ready to go?" one of the soldiers approached us. Pretty much. There was just one last person I needed to say goodbye to.

She's currently got my lungs in a death grip, though, which put a considerable damper on that ability.

"I'm going to miss you!" holy crap, I could feel the wind being forced from my lungs. This was insane!

"South. Carolina. I still need air," I rasped, finally dislodging the crushing squeeze.

"Sorry!" she apologized as I sucked in air like a vacuum.

I promised to keep in touch though.

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I'm not surprised by this. Merely disappointed.

Of course, it wasn't like I wasn't going to have to shop for new clothes anyway, given the growing I'd done.

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"Why is everyone staring at me?" the question was purely rhetorical, of course. It didn't take a genius to figure out exactly why I'd been feeling just about everyone's gazes burning a hole in my skull. Even if they hadn't been paying attention to the news, an unlikely event as is, the fact I was nearly six foot was enough of a change to draw attention by itself.

"I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact you're now a six-foot amazon that could bench our entire football team," Keith's eyes were rolling so hard they could have been mistaken for orbits. "Or the fact your lunchbox nearly tripled in size."

Okay, those were two valid and fair points. Didn't mean I had to like it.

"So which ship, Ow!" Jacob was interrupted by a solid elbow in the arm by Jacquline.

"Rude!" she snapped, shooting him a harsh glare of her own. One he returned while rubbing his arm, but remained quiet. "Kathrine might not be able to talk about it."

Ah, I see. She was worried about me.

"Kansas," I said faintly, making sure nobody beyond the table could hear me. Sure, the cat was out of the bag, but no sense in leading everyone to its location.

"Dang. You always acted like you had an old soul, but I didn't think it was that old," Keith muttered under his breath, shaking his head.

"That would explain why you got your butt kicked so hard," I shot Nathen a glare, as did just about everyone else.

"So, if that's the case, how long are you going to be staying here?" I raised an eyebrow. Jacob was not typically the person to ask questions like that.

"Probably a week or two. I have to transfer schools and all that fun stuff," sure the schools around here were great, but not particularly built for shipgirls who could be away for weeks to months at a time. Plus, they were lacking major online amenities.

There were a few years before that would become an issue. If ever, in this timeline.

I prayed for the latter of the two options.

"So we have some time to have a bit of fun before you head out," Keith nodded, already jotting down notes.

"Sadly, part of that time is going to be getting new clothes," Jacquline's eyes began to sparkle. "Don't get your hopes up. It's mostly to replace everything."

"Understandable. You've done a bit of growing," Nathen nodded.

"Growing's only part of the issue," I rolled my eyes. "It has more to do with the fact most of my clothes converted into dresses." Keith mouthed something about magical shipgirl bs, as Jacob let out a howl of laughter.

"Oh, that's something I've got to see!" he cackled.

"Please. You've seen me in a dress before," I crossed my arms, resisting the urge to smack him upside the head.

"What!" Jacquiline nearly smacked the table. "When was this?"

Oh, right, Jacquiline had been inducted into our friend group after we decided school dances and the like were a waste of time. That's a bit silly of me to forget.

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Despite everything, we remained close to home. Nothing too major. I was effectively off the cross country team anyway. Being a shipgirl was by all means classified as an unfair advantage. Well, not in the writing of the rules, but I didn't care much for violating the spirit, either.

Because if my participation wasn't breaking that much in half, then I didn't know what was.

We certainly tried to make the most of it. Group hangouts, full of plenty of games. Even a LAN party towards the end. Though I was a bit surprised seeing my older sister already being added to World of Warship's tech-tree.

But it wasn't going to last, and we all knew it. Naturally, we would all try to keep in touch, but our means of mass communication were considerably archaic. The war knocked back discords development, if I recalled correctly, leaving us with Skype and freaking Vent!

Many hugs were had, tears were shed, with family and friends alike. I did my best to avoid recreating what South Carolina did to me, but the results were mixed.

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Slowly, I made my way from the terminal. Okay, they should be here by now, so why couldn't I see them?

The pattering of feet reached my ears, turning around in the nick of time to catch two pre-teens as they flung themselves at me.

"Kathrine!"