Vestal's Dawn of Hope could instantly restore 40% durability to a single allied shipgirl.
Undeniably a god-tier skill. Vestal was only level 76, and her survivability on a high-intensity battlefield was questionable, but even if she stayed in the rear to receive damaged shipgirls falling back for emergency repairs, she could be invaluable.
The sudden jackpot had Vestal a little dazed, and Moskva tugged her aside to get some food into her.
Vestal's summon time was forty minutes. Hikaru rested briefly to clear his head, then started another summon.
This one was even shorter.
Twenty-two minutes.
And the memory of steel that came with it was just as brief.
She was the G-Faction's 1936-type destroyer, hull No. 1, whose minelaying operations after commissioning chalked up over 20,000 tons of results.
On April 4, 1940, she took part in Operation Weserübung—the invasion of Norway, the very campaign where Blücher, in fatal overconfidence, challenged coastal guns and was mercilessly sunk.
A few days later, on the 10th, the UK-forces struck into Narvik by surprise; she was damaged, and three days after that, in the Second Naval Battle of Narvik, she fought back bravely before going down.
She was Z17.
A girl with black rabbit-ear headgear stepped from the blue glow. Pink hair to her waist, a short white dress, and black tights.
Blue glow meant three-star rarity—not bad, considering she'd been just two-star before modernization.
Low rarity didn't mean low power.
In fact, Z17's potent single-target debuffs and lock-on made her the usual flagship of Abyssal-raid kill teams—she'd lead a pack of battleships to execute an Abyssal Leader.
With the ring in her finger and, surprinsingly, at level 110.
Her affection hadn't been maxed, though. The ring raised the cap from 100 to 200, but Hikaru vanished before she could fill it.
Right now Hikaru's gaze was glued to Z17's rabbit-ear headband.
Z17's cheeks colored. "What are you looking at?"
"Why are you wearing that?" Hikaru asked, puzzled.
"It's a sonar, actually—meant for underwater listening," Z17 murmured, lowering her head. "As for why it looks like this… I'm a girl too, you know…"
Her voice had a sweet, teasing lilt that melted Hikaru on the spot.
A few lines of small talk later, he realized she wasn't shy at all—just lively. She'd simply been struck by that nervous-at-the-doorstep feeling after so long without seeing the living, breathing Hikaru.
Z17's arrival drew a warm welcome. Even Tirpitz—who'd been dozing at the table—sat up straight and pulled her aside to ask about how the G-Faction fared back in the old district.
Moskva, meanwhile, was sent to the harbor to report Z17's arrival to Bismarck—not just because she was from the same Faction, but because of Z17's capability.
Against a single powerful foe, Z17 could matter more than a capital ship. Her kit was outright strategic.
Hikaru paused to catch his breath—then, spotting Leipzig bouncing into the storeroom, he slipped into the construction room at speed.
No doubt Leipzig was coming to petition for custody of that "strange horn," and Hikaru had no intention of wrangling with her about it.
While Hikaru was summoning at a furious pace, out over the East Sea the seven-phase interception was halfway through.
The most critical segment had already succeeded.
Takeyama Takeshi's shipgirl London completed the "bait" mission, drawing the raging Abyssal Ryuujou away from the Okinawa base and westward.
To keep up the chase, Abyssal Ryuujou naturally had to gun her mantis-shrimp rigging and accelerate. Ordinary Abyssals couldn't match her pace, and she drifted out ahead of the main host.
Nearly the entire core base's Abyssal army had surged out, scattering westward across the sea, leaving only a few cats behind on the island.
That was when two white-haired, red-eyed Abyssal shipgirls stepped onto the base from the open Pacific.
The Nation plainly meant to stage something major in these waters—they would not allow the first island chain to be lost, and the Abyssals knew it.
These two were the only reinforcements dispatched by the Abyssal side.
Two more had been, technically—but they'd already received orders to turn south halfway and go after the "Number One Shipgirl Under Heaven."
Metal halos hovered over both their heads. The lead Abyssal stretched lazily and yawned.
"Ryuujou's already pushed out, huh. Troublesome. Want to go help her?"
Her companion shook her head at once. "I don't feel like moving either."
"Then let's see how she does. We just have to hold this island. Ugh—land. I really hate land."
[End of Chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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