"Isn't it the other way around…?"
Atago pulled Iger aside after dinner.
"You want to come hunting with me tomorrow?" The huntsman rubbed his chin in thought. "Are you sure? Normally that's the job of the man."
"I can do it."
Iger scratched his head while looking to Winter for help. Said commander looked the other way to escape.
"I'm not saying that you can't but are you sure you want to do it?"
"She's actually strong. It's not obvious, but she is." Winter commented. He had seen firsthand what shipgirls were capable of back in the naval base. Just a few days ago, he was the target of one such attack.
"I'll prove it to you." Atago looked around for something heavy to lift. When there was nothing, she decided to take matter into her own hands. "I'll be back."
"Lassie, I can't let you just go out at night. It's dangerous." Iger frowned, preparing to follow the younger girl.
Winter understood why the grizzled hunter would be hesitant. The same general idea was repeated to him throughout his childhood. Leaving the house at night wasn't safe- there was no one to protect you. It was much more evident in this place considering that everything outside the village was more threatening than anything back in the naval base. At least there, most of the wild animals learned to avoid people. Here? They were prey.
But Atago was not human- not entirely.
"Atago, you're not helping your point if Iger tires himself out following you outside. He needs rest for tomorrow. You could follow him and prove it then." Winter suggested. It was a compromise. Atago was more than capable of proving her strength to Iger, but the time wasn't right.
"I was just looking for something heavy to lift." Atago rolled her eyes. Winter noticed her glancing at him before he caught on.
"Atago no."
"It'll just be quick."
Winter stepped back but Atago was one step ahead. She grabbed his arm and grinned menacingly.
"Please don't." Winter really couldn't do anything against her. At this point, he was begging to protect his dignity. He'd never live it down if anyone saw Atago lift him like a toy.
"It's safe and quick. It'll be fine~" The shipgirl's grip on him tightened.
"What are you…" Iger trailed off when Atago lifted Winter over her head with ease. She even released her grip on his arm to show that she could carry him with only one limb.
Winter wanted to disappear.
"I can carry more, but this should be enough right?"
Iger blinked several times while looking up at Winter then staring at Atago. She didn't look physically strong at all. Her physique was the exact opposite. Atago was beautiful in the sense that she looked like one of those ladies from the merchant class. Some were raised for the sake of attracting the eyes of aristocrats in hopes of elevating the status of the family through connections.
"Not enough? Fine I'll carry him back like this."
"Iger, please tell her to drop me." Winter pleaded.
Too late, Atago was already walking back to Iger's home with her commander raised above her head.
.
.
.
Atago's disappearance the following day was noticed right away.
Iger and the cruiser split off early that morning while Winter headed for the pub. The morning passed by easily with a good chunk of customers eating breakfast at home. Lunch traffic was significantly more, but Atago's admirers were quick to ask her whereabouts.
"Where's your friend? Did she leave?" One customer brought the topic up. A few others around him perked up and listened in.
"She's trying out another job. She'll be back tomorrow." Winter served the hot soup and coarse bread to him. Keeping track of the customers was now easier with less of them, but it still took a lot of effort. He was learning though, and that was his priority.
Without Atago around, Winter would have an easier time starting his real plan.
"Can I ask you guys a favor?" Winter leaned in. "It's about my friend. If you help me out, then maybe I can convince her to work here."
That caught the attention of the men around him.
"I'm a guy too…and we can all agree that she's hot."
A few chairs scraped the floor. Sure enough, a few men had adjusted their seats a little to better face him.
"The more customers we get, then the owner would pay us. You don't have to buy more food- just make it look like more people come." Winter was banking on word of mouth to spread the news for him. Atago would naturally draw men to this place, but a little nudge would help. More people coming meant more paying customers, even if only one or two bought food. The village was small enough that only one pub could exist.
"She'll spend more time here if it means we earn money. Everyone wins."
A couple of them exchanged looks. Someone nudged one of the closer ones and he brought up a question.
"Can you tell us what your names are?"
"I'm Winter. As for her…well her name will cost you." Winter gave them a wink. "I'll have to charge you for every question about her. Keep this a secret between us though, she'll kill me if she finds out."
"How much?"
"Her name is a big thing…I'd ask for 10 bronze-"
"What?! That's three meals-"
Winter raised up one finger to catch the man's attention. "Since this is the first question, I'll half it to 5 bronze. You're allowed to split the cost between everyone with you."
Before they knew it, several people from the small crowd near them already tossed the bronze for the question.
Winter looked down on the small pile. There were more than just 5 coins in there.
"What's her name?"
"How old is she?"
"Have you seen her tits? How do they look?"
He coughed. This was going to be easier than he expected.
"Her name is Atago and she's 26. As for her boobs…"
=== ATAGO ===
Iger decided to hunt closer to the village because of his company. The forest was dangerous and hunting wasn't a responsibility anyone could easily pick up. It required experience, endurance, and knowledge. All factors that were honed with time. They couldn't be picked up easily, each taking years to learn.
So it was natural for him to be speechless when Atago easily kept up with him.
"Do you need a break? We've been walking for 3 hours now." The something-40-year-old hunter stopped by a small creek. Atago never actually asked for his age, but one could determine from visual cues of a person's face and body.
"Not really. We travelled a longer distance two days ago when you led us to the village." Atago looked around. The creek was a good stopping point. It was a moving water source which made it a safer option than standing water like puddles and lakes. "Can I ask what you're planning to hunt today?"
Atago had never really hunted before. She never had to. When deployed on patrol missions that could take days, or longer like a week, shipgirls like her were supplied with high nutrient bars that doubled as their combat rations. Their physiology was built to more extreme limits compared to the normal human and it showed. Shipgirl rations on missions could keep their bodies supplied with enough energy for an entire day. Normally that amount of nutrition would overload and kill any normal human with how much was packed into one small ration bar.
In fact, mealtimes and normal food in the base weren't required for them. They were just like quality of life improvements given to them. Small comforts that were cheap to produce when compared to shipgirl ration bars.
"Actually I was just settling for something small. Maybe a few rabbits or birds. Anything small really." Iger wasn't going to hunt something large with another person around. Too many chances for mistakes to occur. "I brought some bait and rope. I'm planning to leave traps around for a few days and come back later." It was the safer option.
Atago looked around them. She was learning how difficult the terrain was for someone like her. Shipgirls operated on open waters. They were designed after naval vessels in mind. Radar, sonar, and other tech they had was near useless in the current environment.
"I'll help you set it up then. How far do we still have to go?"
"This place is fine. Many animals return here because its water."
That was a good point. Atago thought. Another lesson to add to the list she was learning the past few days.
"I'll start preparing some traps here. Watch and listen as I make them." Iger had taught a couple of the villagers how to catch with traps before. Mostly boys and men but the process was the same. Iger went through each step of the trap, showing Atago how he utilized the environment and the few tools he had.
"Now that we've set a trap here, why dont you try?" Iger handed some rope to her.
Atago accepted the rope and quickly cycled through her memory. The sequence was unfamiliar to her but replaying the instructions from a few minutes ago was simple. Bodies weren't the only improvements shipgirls had. Scientists also pushed the limits with their minds. It reached to the point that their brains were more akin to processing units like those of computers. That was how shipgirls received implants for network signals and every other advancement created for the project.
She followed the steps from the memory recording a few moments prior and presented Iger the result.
"Wow. You picked it up that fast?" He grabbed the simple trap from her and studied it with disbelief. Mistakes had been expected and he was prepared to help her through the process but the girl just reproduced the same steps without running into any problems.
"Well, it was simple." Atago admitted. "It's for something small after all."
Iger looked at her with a dumbfound look. Seriously, what was this girl?
"Right, it seems you can make some on your own. Why don't we spread out and put a few down? Walk for a hundred or so paces between each one."
The two split half the rope and began setting up in different directions. Atago took north while Iger took the other direction.
"Surely there has to be something else here." Atago kept checking her radar while making another trap. While catching rabbits was indeed hunting, it wasn't the kind of hunting she had in mind. Atago was after bigger targets. Anything really, as long as it would sell for more money. The previous day made her realize a lot of things. Watching her commander run around serving food was entertaining, but there was nothing to do for several hours. Her mind wandered to their situation and slowly went over everything.
It was getting more and more likely that they weren't making it back to their naval base.
She wondered about her friends. How the navy would react to the sudden disappearance of a shipgirl and a commander. Probably label them as traitors for fleeing the base, but there was no proof for that. As far as she could remember, there was absolutely nothing that could implicate her. Atago just slept on curfew one night and woke up the following morning in a forest. The same had happened to Winter. Whether she liked it or not, they were stuck in this situation. They were simply making the best of what they could.
Atago was used to roughing it out in the oceans. Rough waters, dangerous weather, abyssal, she had fought them all.
What she couldn't fight- were the lost comforts of the base. A soft bed. A warm bath. Clean clothes.
Atago rubbed her arm angrily to drive the itch away. She was half tempted to just dive into the creek for a bath. Unfortunately for her, Iger was nearby. She didn't want another peeping tom incident to occur. Somehow, the idea of Winter standing nearby to guard her didn't seem so bad after all. It was definitely more preferable when there strangers about. Atago wouldn't call Iger a stranger after his help, but she was more comfortable around a familiar face than a new one.
"Stupid world- Stupid forest- Stupid-!" She growled angrily while making another trap, exerting a little too much force and tearing the rope apart. Breaking the rope didn't help her mood.
"Arrgghhh-!" Atago kicked the ground angrily. The past two days of discomfort bubbled to the surface in an explosive reaction.
That was it. She needed money.
The bushes some distance away rustled abnormally. The cruiser's attention was quickly drawn to it. So far, her radar had been operating under optimal conditions. Every single object in her nearby surroundings reflected the signal back at her. Rocks, trunks, leaves. Everything. She couldn't use her radar well and what few animals it detected were out of her ability to catch.
What kind of animal are you? Atago thought. Most animals kept some distance from her and Iger. Whatever this animal was- it had courage. It was the middle of the day- making it easier for Atago to keep track. Not that it was any harder for them to see at night. Shipgirls were given night vision as part of development. Anything a ship could do, they could do better. It was naturally a given since technology had advanced a lot since WW2.
After a couple seconds of rustling, a black snout poked out. It twitched a little while sniffing the air before the rest of the animal's form emerged into view.
A bear. A big black bear.
Atago blinked. The bear turned her way and released a strong huff. She stared it down, slowly realizing the opportunity that had dropped itself into the plate in front of her. Apparently, she wasn't the only one thinking along the same lines. The bear started trudging forwards, eyeing the prey in front of it. Atago didn't look large, by all means she looked to be smaller than the stray deer and other medium-sized animals in the forest.
Perfectly within prey standards.
When it didn't start running away, the bear paused. Weirdly enough, most prey immediately bolted the moment they saw it. This one didn't. The bear sniffed the air a few more times, attempting to identify what kind of prey it smelled like.
Too late.
Atago had already leapt forward to grab the bear.
…
The fight was over quickly.
Atago wasn't much of a melee fighter. Most of her combat experience was ranged distance with a specially designed battery of cannons. She was used to calculating arcs and positions rather than facing enemies head on.
She didn't know how to punch properly. Not that she needed to. The bear immediately folded after she tackled him at full strength. Key word: full strength. Shipgirls were abnormally strong. They were able to lug around dozens of tons on the oceans against abyssal while retaining mobility.
The poor thing stood no chance.
"Is it dead…?"
Atago poked the limp corpse. It had been breathing for a few moments prior but then succumbed to its injuries. She didn't know it yet, but her tackle at full strength not only destroyed the animal's ribcage, but also liquified its insides. The bear fortunately didn't suffer for long and quickly passed from this world.
"Surely I can still sell this thing right…?" She mumbled lowly while looking it over. The movies Atago had seen showed some fur coats. They were rather popular in those medieval and fantasy ones. Yeah, I should still be able to sell it. Atago grinned excitedly after recalling those movies and grabbed the bear. On second thought, I should bring Iger here and ask how to carry it. I don't want to break any more stuff we could sell.
With a triumphant hum, said cruiser went off to search for the hunter.