The aftermath of slaughter.

The sudden removal of the mist brought about both confusion and even more trepidation to the ship girls of the **** Fleet that charged in.

"N-No...how...?"

"But...I swear I saw..."

"Impossible...this is a trick! O-Otherwise...!"

"This....This is too cruel! Why?! S-Say something! I...I didn't mean to shoot you..."

"I just... we were...why...?"

"Schwesterherz! Dear Sister... Please...please wake up...! ...don't leave me..."

All around you the terrified and shocked voices of your fellow ship girls echoed throughout the blood stained waters. The reality all too clear; There were no Sirens in the mist. There were no enemies. The only ones that occupied the mist were the ship girls of the **** Fleet. Unfortunately, that means that the only casualties the fleet had sustained were the result of friendly fire. Dozens of fresh dead bodies joined the already old and deceased ones. After slowly snapping out of your own shock, now feeling numb and cold, you turned your attention to waiting for Enterprise and the other leaders of the fleet to issue orders, wanting to find out what your next moves would be. Thankfully, they weren't far away as you saw them heatedly discussing something.

***

"What the hell was this?!" Bismarck shouted in frustration, her eyes fiercely brimming with the emotion of anger as she looked out to the devastation at hand. "How couldn't we tell that we were all shooting at each other?!"

"To that I concur..." Queen Elizabeth quietly nodded, her expression was a bit harder to read as she seemed to be able to contain her emotions a bit better than Bismarck in this regard. "What exactly happened? We all agreed to enter from different areas of this mist...we even plotted the directions/paths we were going to take so as to not run into each other..."

"Let's take stock of the situation and discuss what we know and what we can, for the most part, speculate with certainty." Enterprise spoke solemnly. "The most important part of this discussion. The mist's effects. We know that it rendered any ability to ascertain information via satellite, radio, anything really, nonviable. "

"We also know that it severely limited communications, sight, and sound. Additionally, we couldn't tell who we were looking at until we were only maybe a meter or two away." Bismarck added, tapping a finger on her hip as she continued scanning the horizon.

"This means we could safely assume the mist had the ability to manipulate our eyesight, making us visualize objects, or in this case, fellow ship girls, as something completely different...like the Sirens. There's also our hearing...I believe we can all agree that despite hearing the blasts of our guns, we couldn't hear a single word spoken or shouted...the mist or whoever was behind it most likely had it modified to block any attempts at physical communications between our groups...somehow..." Queen Elizabeth gritted her teeth. "How dreadful..."

"A luring trap designed to have us maim and kill each other once we took the bait, huh...?" Bismarck remarked, clicking her tongue in disgust.

"At least now we know what to look out for. Regardless, I got in contact with the Commander and the base and informed them all of what's happened thus far." Enterprise told them. "They have a question, however...they need to know the number of dead..."

"...Dead. Z2, Z25, Z26, Z35...Leipzig, Karlsruhe...
Critically injured...Scharnhorst...Admiral Graf Spee...Deutschland...Z46...The rest have suffered little to moderate injuries." Bismarck listed off her casualties, a pained expression on her face. "Cause of injury/****...friendly fire..."

"I suppose I'll go next then..." Queen Elizabeth put out, taking a deep breath and doing her best to relax herself. "For my deceased...Penelope...Achilles...Jamaica...Beagle...Bulldog...Glowworm..." Her breath hitched as she spoke off the next name. "....M...My sister ship...Valiant..." She then took a few moments to compose herself. "As for heavily injured...My other sister ship...Warspite...then Ark Royal...Exeter...Fletcher...Gridley...Essex...and Ticonderoga...The rest are much like Bismarck's...minor to moderate injuries..."

"Thank you...I suppose mine are next..." Enterprise's steeled herself as she began to list the names. "For the dead...Simms and Hammann...Musketeer...Denver...Columbia...
For my heavily injured...Javelin, Laffey, Amazon, Cooper...and Portland...and you know the rest..."

"That brings us to...18 dead...16 completely unable to fight...resulting in 34 total combat casualties...I'm assuming we were all given the same number of ship girls, composition up to our preferences, to use...?" The other two nodded to Bismarck. "Okay...that means...we'll have 62 ship girls left that are combat capable...We're only going to be able to field around 2/3's of our total strength...! Even less when we have to take into account using more ship girls to care for the wounded and carry the dead!"

"Then this operation has already failed...!" Queen Elizabeth declared. "In that case...we have to hurry and get everyone back to the home port for medical treatment! Miss Enterprise, alert the Commander and the Defense Fleet! Have them meet us halfway to bolster our combat capabilities and to assist in escorting the wounded once we arrive!"

"Alright!" Enterprise nodded as she radioed everything that was spoken about and what the new fallback plan is, to which everyone on the other side agreed almost immediately. "They're going to begin securing the route as far as they can for us! Let's get everyone on the move!" Afterwards, orders began being issued for plans to return home.

***

It took hours to reorganize everyone into one fleet again. By the time the dead had been properly stored, and the wounded treated enough to be moved, the sun had set. Thankfully, nothing of note happened and the transfer process was successful.

To ease the burden and to free up ship girls for escort duty, it was agreed that one of the capital ships would use their ship form to place the wounded within. To that end, you volunteered, the shame and guilt plaguing you from earlier as you brought out your ship form to allow both the living and the dead to be housed in your hull. After that had finished, the remainder of the **** Fleet began their return journey back to base.

"...Damnit...how could this have gone so wrong...the Sirens didn't even have to lift so much as a finger...!" You muttered to yourself as you stayed on the bridge of your ship, watching a few of the ship girls assigned to protect and assist the patients inside mill about on high alert. "...Haa...I'll have to put all of my other plans on hold..." You sighed to yourself as you sat down on your seat. You then heard knocking on the door. "Come in." You answered out, swiveling around on your chair.

"Plans, you say? Sounds like you were planning to have a great time~!" A female voice rang out in a playful tone.

Your eyes widened as you recognized that voice and stood up to face her. "...Purifier!?"

"Heya~! You're uh....that Royal Navy Carrier...Formidable, right? I don't think we've actually met before though~ Haha~!" Purifier laughed quite innocently as she stepped inside, a wide smile on her face as she closed the door. "Whew~ You know, sneaking around isn't my forte~ I like to make BIIIIIIIG entrances, loud and full of pow~! BUT! I think I can make an exception this time around."

"B-But wait, what abou-" You stopped before you could finish your sentence, your eyes widening as you saw a puddle of blood beginning to spread from the hallway. 'Oh god...'

"Ahaha~ Sorry about the mess in the hallway~ Again, being all sneaky sneak isn't my strong skill~" Purifier scratched her cheek as she stuck out her tongue.

"...I heard about you from reports of other encounters..." You immediately lied to her, knowing quite a bit due to various events and forums. "...From what I can tell...this behavior is currently unlike you..." 'I need to radio in for backup...' You thought, but then, you realized that you couldn't, your radio completely not working. "...?!"

"Hm?" Purifier tilted her head, as if she didn't already know what you were doing. "Trying to call someone? That's kind of rude, you know!" She rapidly approached you. "Especially when we're having a conversation~!"

"S-Stay back!" You immediately went into a panic as you backed up as much as you could, finding yourself being backed into a wall.

"Oh come on~ Nothing wrong with a little close contact~!" Purifier never once broke her gaze away from you as she continued to approach you more slowly now, seemingly reveling in your panic and fear. "I actually wanted to try something new today~ I've always been doing the whole BOOM and destroy everything like a maniac~"

"...W...What do you mean by that you lunatic!?" You barked out at her, trying to control your breathing.

"Hmmm~? Oh! Well, I've gotten a hold of some of the human films~ And I wanted to try being like an assassin or something for once~!" Purifier giggled in delight as she was now extremely close to you, her glowing yellow eyes staring into your own eyes. "Heyyy~ Guess what~? Hand's got your neck~!"

"E-Eh? Wh- GHK-?!?" You couldn't even finish before her hand shot forward and wrapped itself around your neck. "G-GAH!?" You tried to pry her hand off of you in vain, knowing that High-Level Sirens like Purifier are way above and beyond normal in all levels of physical strength, durability, and combat skill.

"Ahaha~! Look at you~! Your face is totally getting super pale now~!" Purifier grinned like a pure sadist as her hand was slowly crushing your throat. "Ehehe~ After this, I'm gonna wreck the rest of this dumb fleet~ Then I'm gonna go and annihilate that silly "Defensive Fleet" before clearing the area in a big ole blast~! And then~" She kept rattling on and on, taunting and mocking you and your allies, all while maintaining her high and mighty attitude as she choked the life out of you.

'C..Can't breathe...t..this bitch....gah...n..no...wait...' You had forgotten the most important detail about your entry into this world, your shock temporarily overriding your ability to think correctly, but now your head's cleared up.

"Hehe~ Alright alright~ Enough talking, any last words, big gal~?" Purifier giggled as she loosened her grip and let you drop to the floor, waiting to let you speak.

"Gah...haa! Ahh...ghh...!" You immediately gasped and panted for breath for a few moments, before you looked at her and said, "....S...ah..."

"Mm~? Sorry, what was that~?" Purifier leaned down, looking both happy and amused. "Repeat that~? Couldn't quite catch it~!"

"S....S...ay....A...Ahh...~" You repeated, a smile forming on your face as confusion formed on hers.

"Huh~? Say...ah-?!" Her eyes immediately went wide as you detached yourself from Formidable's body and went straight into Purifier's mouth. "N-NGHH?!?!?!" She could feel you rushing inside of her as she tried to desperately grasp at her mouth though being unable to touch you due to your incorporeal ghost form.

'YOU SHOULD'VE KILLED ME!!!' You thought gleefully to yourself as you could feel her body starting to resist less and less.

"H-HGGKKK!!! KHH!!!!" Purifier continued to grasp at you, though failing to do so as her entire body began shaking. She dropped to her knees, being unable to stand properly anymore as she lost control of her legs. She then started to see her own hands slowly shaking before starting to move out of her control and watched in both confusion and horror as her hands started moving towards her own throat. "N-nOo! S-STOP RIgHt thERe!!" She could already hear her own voice slipping as her hands wrapped around her own throat successfully, feeling her fingers start to squeeze down. "N-Nghh!!!" As she desperately resisted the takeover, she suddenly lost vision on one of her eyes as well as her voice.

"D...Doesn't f-feel great, h-huh~?!" She heard her own voice mocking her.

"S-SHut U-uP!" Purifier replied back, furious. "I-I'm going to r-RiPpp Y-Youu...Ghh!"

"M-Mnhh~! T-T-TRy a-AlllL Y-OuU want!" The other her squeezed even tighter on her throat, effectively cutting off any breath from her as this lasted for a few minutes.

"N-NMMHH H-HNGHH!!!" Purifier, being unable to withstand this any longer, ended up blacking out, her eyes rolling up as she faceplanted onto the floor.

"..." She remained like that for some time, then her body seized up for a few minutes before she then shakily got back up. She took a few moments to regain her breath as she slowly walked around to a nearby mirror.

"...haa...haa..." Her breathing very slowly stabilized as she inspected herself.

"....That was ridiculously difficult and painful...Screw you Sirens...ehehe...~" You giggled as you found yourself in control of her body.