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Nagato     It's the epitome of a perfect day today. Clear cloudless skies, calm waters and a certain battleship all decked out in her equipment on the horizon. She's made today a good time to do training for carriers... and to help distract a certain other person from losing their mind over things. "Mmm, let's see if they can do this. I can't use them as they are..." she shakes her head and stands there in the open ocean stoicly... staring out into the waters towards Hikari that's well away from where she is. For a reason.

    The carrier group would have gotten a location to head to. A simple atoli with a few Mutsuki-class Destroyers surrounding it with a 'Carriers Here' sign on it. Looks like they were supposed to be the waypoint. "We're over here! Admiral says to stay here for your training. She's far ahead for a reason!" "Pyon..."
Evangeline      The little Neuroi known as Evangeline has come along to help Nagato train the ship girls. She is currently floating just above and to the side of Nagato, the metallic black of her body easily visible in the otherwise bright sky. She waits as silently and stoicly as Nagato herself, her lack of facial features making it even harder to discern what the Neuroi might be thinking as she floats there, arms and legs hanging in neutral positions and even her cat tail still behind her as she awaits further instructions.

     Unlike her usual outfit, or lack thereof, Evangeline is wearing a white blouse and red skirt reminiscent of a Japanese shrine maiden, though it has been altered somewhat to accomidate the tail and the small wing panels on her legs. She even has some red ribbons tied around the bases of her cat-like ears.
Kongou     At some point in the distance, neither with the destroyers nor with Nagato, is an ordinary black stone sticking up out of the sea, waves lapping lazily at the base.

    Oh wait that's just Kiso's cape.

    The torpedo cruiser comes to a stop, raising a set of binoculars. She barely glances through them before she holds them out with a lowered eyebrow. After a moment, she simply shrugs and holds it up using one side as a handle since she only needs half of them anyway. She zeroes in on Nagato, then up to Evangeline. After a moment, she sweeps her view over the gathered Mutsuki girls to the direction of Hikari.
Yuna Kagurazaka The weather may be perfect, but for Yuna Kagurazaka, that's ... about all she can give credit for. If it weren't for Elner explicitly instructing her to take an evening away from Ravnica, away from the search for Yunomi, Yuna would still be there - somewhere under the city, looking for passages that haven't been explored, rocks not yet turned over, and so forth. Honestly, her thoughts would still *be* in Ravnica if not for a couple of things.

One of those things is best summed up as 'the equipment she's been issued for tonight'. She's not even in her normal black-and-white fuku, but was issued a different set of clothes, better suited to the loadout she's been equipped with. Not that she minds the white top and vermilion 'skirt' ... and she feels a little more stable on the water than back when she was getting used to destroyer or light-cruiser equipment.

The other thing that's keeping Kagurazaka's attention firmly on the here-and-now is, in a nutshell, conscious discipline. She's had mishaps before, even during training exercises, and while they've tended to be more embarassing than injurious, she doesn't want this to be the exception to that track record. She's still holding her 'launch deck' scroll in its rolled-up state, tucked carefully under her arm as she maneuvers to the destroyers' marked starting point. "Hey Evangeline," she waves to the Neuroi with her free hand, and a slightly tentative smile. She waves to the destroyers as well (of course), and looks about to see who else is forming up with them ...
Shigure     Chitose is in formation with the other carriers. She's a very distinct sillouette, due to the large selfpropelled Theatre Stage that's following along behind her like a dutiful pet. She smiles at Kagurazaka, sidling up a bit closer. "You look tense. Try to push other things out of your mind, or using that scroll will be more difficult than it should be." she offers gently, smiling at the blonde before she eases back into formation.

    The Mutsuki-class girls earn a wave. "Hello! Nice to see you all. Uzuki, how was that last Express run?" she asks, coming to a stop with the others.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone had needed more training she'd known so and spoken to the Admiral about such. This was the result, she was here for more training and has been about the base more in general. She seems to be have been ready for a while and have been waited up. Doing some general practice on the waters near the base but when the formal call fore training came she was able to group up and follow the others. She seemed to be in pretty good spirits all things considered. Other than the Admiral being likely involved she didn't know who else might be there.t

Kotone herself looked like some kind of shine maiden with a quiver of arrows and a bow on her back while she had the proper gear for keeping afloat and was skating across the surface of the water. She kept the mission in mind and was getting ready to deploy a scout plane or two once everyone had formed up.
Nagato     It's taking a lot of Nagato's willpower to not hug and dote over Evangeline's current outfit and form, it's so adorable. But no, there's training. A lot of training to be done, must be stoic admiral. "Mm." that's better. Nagato brings up a finger to her ear and speaks over the radio.. "Good afternoon, Carriers. This will be simple today, for both of you. Hiyou shall accompany Kagurazaka, Zuihou shall accompany Yamakawa. All Mutsuki-class destroyers, you're free to return to base."

    Meanwhile, back at the atoil, Uzuki smiles and raises a peace sign. "Express went great, pyon! We're going to go out to do it again here so the base is all good. Please, good luck in your training. the Admiral's strict today, isn't she?" With Uzuki hearing the words, she, abruptly, starts leading the rest of the gathering towards the base, leaving two destroyers behind... Kisaragi and Mutsuki. They're interested in watching.

    Back at the two... "Evangeline and I shall serve as your targets today. You all have been equipped with Type 99 Fighters, Torpedo Bombers and Dive Bombers, in addition, you have been equipped with Type 0 recon planes. Your objective today is to destroy my anti air unit and me. All your equipment have been modified to fire paint shell rounds, so do not worry about sinking me or Evangeline. Your two trainers will be strict, I will not have failure and I will have you all flying aircraft like true light carriers!" a pause, "Chitose, as a light carrier with your own unique way, I'm glad you have decided to join this training. As a natural, I expect good things from you."
Evangeline      Evangeline turns her head lightly as Nagato starts speaking, and those long ribbons rustle lightly in the ocean breeze. As Nagato says that they will be the targets, Evangeline looks back toward the others, then reaches behind her back and pulls what looks like a 50-cal machine gun from its latch on her back. It looks entirely real, with only the orange paintjob to identify it as a paintball gun like those the others are using, and is taller than Evangeline herself. She grips it in her slender fingers, then there is a slight red flash before the orange paint starts to give way to the same black metallic sheen as Evangeline herself.

     Once the training gun is entirely black, Evangeline reaches to pull the rather large cocking lever, and makes sure that the heavy metallic 'clack' can be heard over the radio. "...I shall not go easy on you..." her soft, demure voice says over the radio before the end of the gun starts to glow softly with the telltale sinister red of the Neuroi. On a more local broadcast she says to Nagato, "...do not worry, Admiral...it is still non-lethal..." She then takes aim at the 'enemy' fleet, preparing to engage on Nagato's command.
Yuna Kagurazaka Kagurazaka nods to Chitose, "I'll try. I'm really worried about a friend of mine, but Elner told me to take a break from the search ..." She trails off, bowing her head briefly to Chitose, then takes a slow, deep breath in, letting it out just as slowly, and paying attention to the mission instructions.

This is going to be quite a reversal from Kagurazaka's normal duties; typically, in her light-carrier loadout, *she* is on anti-air defense duty. Which may be kind of an advantage; she knows how she normally goes about shooting down enemy planes, so if she tries to send her own planes in a manner which would defy her normal anti-air tactics, that could work out more effectively than standard air-attack methods. Maybe. Then again, Hiyou will be right there to critique her performance, so breaking from the book might get her penalized.

Well, if she's doomed to fall short of a perfect score either way, she might as well do the best she can, right? Like Elner said, take the chance to vent a little. "So should we close the distance further first, or is this standard carrier attack range where we are now?" she inquires, untying the laces that keep her scroll closed, and starting to unroll the 'runway deck'.

.... which just kinda hangs down like a windowshade.
Kongou     "Sorry I'm a little behind!" Skating up amidst the carrier formation is the familiar silver-haired, green-clad carrier girl. Zuihou turns slightly to slide to a stop, "The refit for training took longer than I thought, but the Flagship already briefed me on what our mission is!" She glances at Hiyou with a nod, then towards Kotone, "You're the fast light carrier, right?" Another nod and a smile, and she lifts her bow while giving it a wiggle, "Hiyou will help Kagurazaka, so you've got me! I use a bow-type catapult, too."

    Her eyes glance towards Nagato and Evangeline in the distance, "The important thing to keep in mind--Kagurazaka, this is for you, too--is against enemies who have visual confirmation of you, you can't stop moving. A ship like Nagato has very long range, she can shoot over the horizon!" Her gestures are wild, but understandable as she uses her whole arm to draw an arc across the distant skyline, "And we're lightly armored! A ship like her can do pretty big damage to someone like us! This is actually dangerously close for us, we're long-range strikers! Close combat is for the cruisers!"

    Smoke puffs out of her rigging as she starts moving again, turning away in a lazy arc, "Let's move, girls!" She makes a circular gesture with her bow while drawing an arrow from her hip quiver, "Turn into the wind and launch your cute little airplanes!"
Shigure     Chitose grins a bit. "I won't let you down, Admiral!" She looks over at Zuihou skates up, and nods. "I was just about to say that, thank you Zuihou! So diligent!" she compliments. She then looks over at her theatre. "Mode shift. Launch configuration." she says, then turns away from the atoll and into the wind. "Launch first air wing. Second attack wing, begin equipment load!"

    Doors on her rig open, and out fly little light balls, which resolve out into the standard model plane-size Zeros which quickly gain altitude. "Keep your spacing too! You can't be too close to another carrier, or you'll interfere with each other's launch pattern!" The doors clack shut, and a different door opens up on the theatre, expelling green light balls, which then resolve into Type 99 Dive Bombers which climb to join their fighter escort. "I have a plan, Nagato has an extensive AA battery, and Evangeline in the air will make things difficult, but if we stagger our attack waves, we can overwhelm with force of numbers!"
Nagato     Back at the area, Hiyou's sailing along behind Zuihou, that self-same flowing robe that Kagurazaka's wearing is upon this woman as well with scroll on back. "Hiyou, reporting." she comments, watching the theatre launching planes. "I'm impressed, Chitose. Your skill at that is amazing." a brief smile is given as she skates up towards Kagurazaka, nodding, "Zuihou's right. Since we're all lightly armored carriers, we have to be mobile, but we can still launch planes as we move."

    Hiyou looks carefully at Yuna and frowns, "Straighten up some and concentrate, don't let the flight scroll touch the water. If you don't know spiritual magic, the fairies can help you, just concentrate okay?" she sighs, "I'm late because Jun'you hit the bottle a bit too hard, started saying something about a cruiser from the land of pasta... that new destroyer is getting to her I think..." a shrug and her own scroll stiffens forward, looking like a proper flight deck.

    "With you and I, we have our shikigami papers. Pull them out and place them on the scroll and they'll form up into the proper plane and fairy and get sent off. If you concentrate, you can 'see' through one of the attack wings."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa has grouped up and is taking stock of everyone else who has joined either as someone here for training or someone here to help. She listens and to the orders of the day and understand just what she's going to be needing to do. She nods to Zuihou and nods.

"Yes I'm geared for speed, and good! I'm glad to have someone more experienced along with me. I'll be sure to follow your lead on this."

She seems to relax a bit at not wholly being on her own.

"Whelp it's to use a bad pun time to sink or swim, right? I always have liked swimming better. Never thought gym class would come in useful with knowing the basics of using a Bow, would become useful."

She gives Yuna a look for a moment grinning a little bit.

"You heard them let's go Yuna."

She then looks back to Zuihou and makes to follow her lead they were heading out!
Nagato     Back at the Battle Area, Nagato looks towards Evangeline, "Your orders are to protect me from incoming dive bombers and torpedo bombers. They'll have specific bombs under their carriage. I'll try to keep the fighters off of you as well with my own AA barrage" She turns to look towards the area. Nagato's already got the radar contact of the five carrier squad... and Kiso. "Hmm." a slight grin crosses her lips. "Attention Carrier Force Ten..."

    Nagato allows the sound of reloading to come through the radio. "Type three shells loaded and standard shells loaded. I shall be attacking you from long range with my own rounds. Your enemies will fight back, I will offer the same feeling. Senhou...." a pause, "FIRE!" the crack of four shells streaking through the air towards the carrier group. Standard high explosive shells... loaded with paint. "Evangeline, Air Defense mode please."
Yuna Kagurazaka Kagurazaka nods to Hiyou, "Roger that." She half-closes her eyes, murmuring something under her breath and holding the scroll out further to her side, a little above shoulder-height - basically the way Hiyou's doing it.

Spiritual magic, huh ...

She knows how to 'talk' to the equipment fairies, anyway, and it stands to reason that the launch deck would have its own crew. A mental 'whisper' seems to help - but Kagurazaka tries to do a little more than that, too. While she may not use 'magic' in the proper sense, she *does* have to consciously channel energy into her weapons when she's using her Light Suit, and it sounds like the battlesuit helps her do what some people - like Yang - are trained to do without technological (or external magical) assistance. So Yuna tries to direct some of her energy into the flight-deck scroll, and as she places one of the recon-plane talismans, into that as well. A pair of the torpedo bombers are placed behind that, and two dive bombers as well.

Now she just has to hope she doesn't use more energy than she HAS and pass out or something embarassing like that. With the fairies doing most of the work for Kagurazaka, though, she ought to be okay ... and as the scroll straightens out, the talismans take form as miniature planes, taking to the air and heading towards Nagato and Evangeline. The recon plane takes the lead, the bombers pairing up and beginning their approach *slightly* off-course, while Kagurazaka forms back up with Hiyou for evasive purposes.
Evangeline      Evangeline nods lightly at Nagato. "...understood..." she says, then flies forward quickly, her ribbons and skirt fluttering in the wind. As her target is not the ships but the bombers, she wants to have as much time as possible to intercept them as she can. There is metallic sound like cables being tensioned as Evangeline flies, and a slight click as she shifts her ammo type from ship rounds to a proper air defense round.

     The recon planes would be the first she encounters, so Evangeline tries to take them out as she passes. Her gun fires with a heavy staccato, and small red orbs that explode like flak are fired in a steady stream. They release a glowing red dye that makes it very easy to see who or what has been hit. But, the recon planes are not her primary objective. Evangeline heads for the nearest bombers, showering them with machine gun paint flak.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is going to be using a bow rather than spiritual magic as sadly Kotone has no magical talent so she's ready. Sure she's nervous but she's ready to go she's reaching back to get an arrow relay and then she takes a deep breath as she launches the first of several recon planes, one after another they go out hoping to keep them better informed on just what's waiting for them out there. Hopefully she won't botch this. Then again she's not stuck solo on this she's got a far more experienced partner helping her and that has done a lot to keep things to a mostly manageable level.

"So any ideas what might be thrown at us.?"
Kongou     "Seems like you guys have recon under wraps!" Zuihou beams between Yuna and Kotone, "That's a big help! Keep them away from the enemy though, just maintain contact while the bombers do their thing!" She glances back over her shoulder, eyes widening at the telltale plumes of smoke surrounding Nagato. Reaching out with her arrow-holding hand, the girl grabs Kotone's arm just above the elbow and yanks, pulling both carrier girls into a brief spin as artillery splashes down around them.

    Releasing Kotone so the girl can move away again, Zuihou recovers from the evasion in a lower stance, drawing her arrow back and releasing it. As it sails, the arrow glows, then splits apart into a group of six Zero fighters, her Model 52c squadron. These ascend, then dive in around Evangeline, peppering the airborne Neuroi girl with miniaturized cannon fire, "What'll be thrown at us is 41 centimeter artillery! Stay focused, keep moving! Kotone, fighters on the enemy air wing, come on!"
Shigure     Chitose grunts a bit, as a shell lands near her. It knocks her around, and she struggles to right herself, having to lean on her flight deck theatre. "Diverting air wing to engage enemy air wing. Second attack wave, launch immediately!" She turns again, a third door opening on the stage, this time disgorging a flight of Type 97 Torpedo bombers. Their black 'paint blast' warheads showing they're the training versions. These stay low, trying to avoid the hedgehog of AA fight that is Evangeline, as the Zeroes strafe and tangle with the Neuroi.
Nagato     Nagato's first volley missed, totally expected with how speedy the girls are. "Evangeline, air radar detects more incoming aircraft. Please engage." she states, this time aiming her second set of turrets to the sky. "I'll assist." while most of Nagato's rounds are training rounds, there are her Type 3 shells, designed to KILL enemy aircraft. As such, those turrets face to the sky and the crack of gunfire and plume of black smoke send those shells into the air which explode and rain down a hailstorm of magnesium and flak upon the incoming aircraft. She doesn't expect to actually destroy a lot of planes, just enough to allow them to feel it.

    Meanwhile, Hiyou grabs a hold of Yuna's arm and yanks her away as the shells splash around the group, letting her go. "YOu have to watch for enemy fire. As a carrier you're vulnerable. Much less armored than a light cruiser, Zuihou and Kotone seem to have the anti air capability going, launch your bombers with Chitose's. YOur type 99 dive bombers will be a good compliment with her Type 97 torpedo."

    Hiyou pauses for a moment, "I do know she's the Admiral, but treat her as your most hated enemy for this run, I want you to really try and sink her. I know it's kinda hard to do that, especially to the Admiral but we have to be prepared, so clearing your mind that it's the Admiral, your friend, and pretending she's the enemy, it's going to be easier to launch."
Evangeline      As the many rounds come in for Evangeline, she reveals what might be an unfair advantage. A shimmering blue shield of hexagonal translucent panels forming a sphere around her. She might be able to turn it off, but she didn't think about it when the training mission started. Now, she is in the heat of battle, swarmed by enemy fighters and trying to avoid them while still going after bombers.

     With all the bombers coming in, Evangeline prioritizes the torpedo bombers. They can strike from a longer range than a dive bomber, and it is her job to prevent as much damage as possible to Nagato. Her flak gun again rains down on the bombers while Nagato's AA fire handles some of the fighters. Evangeline darts and spirals about, avoiding as much fire as possible as she circles the bombers, trying to 'eliminate' all of them.
Yuna Kagurazaka "Uwaah!" yelps Kagurazaka as Hiyou yanks her further away from the incoming bombardment; training rounds or not, one solid hit probably would still have knocked her out - literally, as well as eliminating her from the exercise, if it had happened to nail her on the head - and judging by one of the spreading swells when Kagurazaka resumes sailing on her own ...

Yeah.

A shade or so paler now, Kagurazaka nods to Hiyou, getting more of the dive bombers ready; her recon plane seems to have been taken out already, which means either she launches a replacement (if she has one) or she lets a different plane focus on target-spotting. The rest of what Hiyou is telling her, though -

'Treat her as your most hated enemy for this run, I want you to really try and sink her.'

- is definitely easier said than done; Yuna is the sort who *wouldn't* try to kill her most hated enemy, unless said enemy had killed someone dear to her heart. Ironically, pretending that they AREN'T fighting against actual friends is easier for her than going for what would be a deadly attack with standard munitions.

Maybe she needs to depend more on that for the sake of the assignment.

Kagurazaka swallows, getting her head back in the game. "Chitose, lead off for the next attack wave, if you could?" she asks, lining up the Type 99s on her scroll, and 'feeding' the fairies what energy she can muster; the talismans morph into planes once again, and as Chitose's second attack wave takes to the air, Kagurazaka's bombers join them, forming up - not in a *perfect* formation; Kagurazaka actually wants them a little disorganized, so they hopefully won't be as easy to shoot down.

( You'll be all right, ) Kagurazaka thinks/transmits to the pilot fairies, banking into another evasive turn even before she knows another barrage might be incoming. ( Just do your best to carry my 'love' to Nagato and Evangeline, okay? )

'Love' in the form of training-level explosives, that is. But hey, if she has to think of it in terms of blowing kisses to aim her bombers to nail the targets ... whatever works, right?
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa says "Thanks!"

With her Recon units in the air it should be a help for her keeping things going. She pauses for a moment, she'll have to trust the Bombers to do what they have to do, without a constant feed of information from recon units she's going to basically be fighting blind. She also however is pulled to safety as the artillery comes splashing down. She's let go and replies.

"Thanks!"

She's now moving to deploy the fighters. She's moving she's got to sake across the water and fire, she can not sit still she knows that much. Her own fighter craft come into existence each time she fires off one of the arrows. The fighters are nor in the air and moving to enraged and join her allies own units.

"Move while launching, don't sit still or I'm going to need to be hauled home!"

She's going to keep laucnhign fighters but she also does in time stop launching them not wanting to have all her fighter engage she also keeps tabs on her scouts while the fighters do their thing an engage.

"I'm seriously glad I'm not out here doing this alone!"
Shigure     Chitose tchs. Her first wave is in tatters... only a few planes not hit. The air wing is equally broken, many of them blasted through with the Type 3 shell, spiralling down to crash into the water, trailing smoke. "Third wave preparing equipment. Second Air Wing, launch!"

    The first door opens up again, more Zeros launching and climbing to maintain pressure on Evangeline.

    The second wave, the torpedo bombers, jink and weave through the incoming fire, though many do take hits and peel off, popping their smoke generators to indicate they're 'disabled/dead'... but some manage to break through, and now Nagato has to deal with torpedoes in the water, a tight spread, aimed to hit as many times as possible with the limited number that broke through.
Kongou     "Right!" Zuihou nods once. She turns, gaining distance on Nagato's position and getting more distance between herself and Kotone. She draws another arrow from her quiver, readying it but not drawing yet. Rather, she closes her eyes to focus her attention on her Zero flight.

    Diving and weaving around Evangeline, the squadron of Zero fighters take turns diving and banking away from a larger target, which is admittedly very well defended and more than capable of shooting back. It's certainly impressive to look at, at least, even with Kotone's wing of Mod.21s joining in with Zuihou's Mod.52c aircraft simply adding to the chaos. That's not to say the fighters aren't taking damage. Splattered with glowing red paint, two bank away in spirals, mocking being shot down. A hit grazes the chevron-marked tail of the squadron leader just as she banks, and within the cockpit the fairy shakes her tiny fist at the Neuroi Girl.

    On the waves, Zuihou flinches at the bursts of Type 3 shells overhead, but that was the cue she was waiting for. Her arrow is drawn back, "Suisei, it's up to you! Back 'em up~!" The arrow is loosed at a high angle, splitting apart into white-painted newer designed dive bombers, circling around and keeping their distance from Evangeline's defensive range. If she can circle around and hit Nagato from the other side...
Nagato     Under current circumstanes, Nagato would have a dedicated anti air platform like Kagurazaka or Hatsuzuki. Currently? She's just got her 'floatplane' fighter up in the air. "Keep up the good work, Evangeline. Shoot them down." Nagato's earring chimes slightly, causing the Admiral to shake her head, "Not now..." she whispers, aiming some guns up in the air... target sighted. Chitose. and with the expected crack of guns firing and black smoke, more paint shells streak across the horizon towards the Theater Carrier.

    Meanwhile, hey, torpedoes in the water. It's only now that Nagato starts to move. And without the launch bay putting her to full speed, she putters along.

    And black paint from the torpedo warheads explode upon her, coating her legs and skirt in the washable colorant. "Nngh, Three hits." she calls over the radio. And by this time, Nagato's Anti Air utility starts going in full force... only for another set of dive bombers from Zuihou to have their warheads dropped upon the battleship, coating her back and rigging. Abruptly, four of her anti air mechanisms just stop firing. 'Destroyed'. "Confirmed hits from Zuihou."

    Another set of Type Three's are launched in an effort to actively destroy Kotone's fighters, but this distracts her from another thing, a certain carrier's love. In the form of paint bombers. The rest of Nagato's AA starts to fire off rapidly but some of those get through and land right on the battleship's front... "Confirmed... from Kagurazaka." Nagato reduces her speed and hmms, Maybe a few more hits...

    Locally, she looks up at Evangeline, "How are you fairing?"
Shigure     Chitose sees the smoke plumes. She can even see the shells in flight, but she can't turn fast enough. WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM. Four hits, striking along her legs, midsection, and two against the large theatre beside her. 'Confirmed, Kill. Nagato.'

    The Theatre Carrier arrests her speed, and comes to a stop... popping her smoke dispencer to signal she's been destroyed.
Evangeline      Evangeline's form is still paint free, but she has realized her shield is an unfair advantage in such a training battle. "...I am losing power..." she says, then her shield drops. She sees Nagato being hit, and suddenly breaks back toward the battleship. She is quite fast, but she knows that these fighters don't usually fight Neuroi, so she only uses half speed to go and try to cover Nagato more closely. She stays within about 100 meters from Nagato after that, trying to keep any aircraft from getting close.

     With her superior maneuverability, Evangeline starts tailing bomber squadrons and shooting them down one after another, focusing on those closing in on Nagato, filling the air around the admiral with steady bursts of explosive red dye.
Yuna Kagurazaka "Chitose!!"

That bit about how Yuna wouldn't even try to kill her most hated enemy just got relevant again ... namely the tidbit about how all bets are off when one of her friends is killed. Sure, Chitose isn't *actually* dead, just eliminated from the exercise - the kanmusu's still floating right there on the water, sending up a sizable column of smoke and covered in training-munition dye, and otherwise more or less perfectly fine - but that's still plenty to fire Kagurazaka up anew.

And as usual for when Yuna goes berserk like that, Kagurazaka arguably starts overdoing it. Her next wave of planes is a full spread of torpedo bombers - but instead of sending them up high like she would normally, she deploys these to skim the water's surface, zigging and zagging and jinking and juking; some of them deploy their torpedoes early, at the extreme limit of the torpedoes' own range, and break off to return to their mother ship; of those early-launchers, a scant handful go high, the others staying close to the surface.

More of the torpedoes are dropped a dozen seconds later, beginning substantially closer, and the bombers execute a similarly diverse set of return routes.

And then there are a couple of daredevil pilot fairies, who risk getting as close as they can before putting their fish in the water and breaking off, hugging the surface all the way back.

As for the torpedoes' targets? Both Nagato and Evangeline are getting Kagurazaka's love this time; Nagato may be the primary target, but Kagurazaka's not ignoring the Neuroi girl on anti-air duty.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone finds that several of her fighters are down they are taken out by the Type Three's. Kotone redirect her fighters that t remain to spread out to make themselves harder targets and she fires off a few of her reserves but now she's also getting a few dive bombers up in the air to help with the overall battle and be more than just fighter support if she ends up being a diversion for her teammates that's fine to her as well.

Eve would find Kotone's fighters coming after her trying to get her off the bombers but she may have exposed her self a bit, still hopefully they might get Evangline's attention. On the water she sees Chitose go down she grimaces had this been a live battle Chitose could be suffering a fate worse than death. Thankfully that's not the case but she picks up speed dong as hard as turn as she's able to to keep ahead from the enemy bombers but she's now moving so hard she won't get any more planes up for a little bit.

Zuihou?! Got any ideas?!
Kongou     "Yup!" Zuihou already draws a new arrow marked with blue fletching, setting it to her bow. The intensifying air battle above Nagato appears to have drawn her attention away from the carriers directly, as it seems that after taking Chitose out of the fight, no further artillery is aimed their way. "Even in a real fight, we're tough enough to get out of the fight, let Chitose retreat! We can gather her up and escort her back to base afterward!" Unless someone advances to the next node with a taiha'd light carrier, anyway.

    "Kotone, Kagurazaka, Hiyou, use your fighters to draw Evangeline to Nagato's port side-- then throw everything you've got at her starboard! Her air cover is mobile but if we keep her busy, we can make an opening!" She draws her arms up, pulling her arrow back, then looses it. The projectile glows as it departs, splitting into a flight of six Tenzan torpedo planes, which bank around their mother carrier and go on approach.

    In the air, Zuihou's Mod.52c Zeros that remain start attacking in a specific fashion, grouping up on one side rather than fully surrounding Evangeline. As they dive in pairs to attack with their green paint rounds, they break off and bank back towards the main cluster. As gunfire continues to fill the sky, more fairy planes dive out of the formation, feigning damage and cruising off at extreme low altitude, trailing smoke from their wingtips to signify they're 'down'.
Nagato     Hiyou's been silent, studying Kagurazaka's way of using her planes... a light frown is given as Chitose's taken out but when Kagurazaka goes berserk mode, it causes the light carrier to rest a hand upon her shoulder. "Clear all thoughts. You cannot have this battlefield blindness get in the way of your duty. She sunk, but the moment you give into that rage, that fury... is the moment you become Abyssal yourself." she whispers, moving to comfort Yuna. "Now... relax your thoughts, clear your mind. Focus on the target. Type 99 fighters to Nagato's port. Type 99 Torpedo Bombers to her starboard. Follow my lead."

    And Hiyou breaks off and starts concentrating to do just that, sending her waves out one at a time towards the battlefield and "Floatplane" group. Meanwhile, Nagato's clearing out some. She could take another few waves, but with all that paint covering her? We'll see. "Okay, Evangeline, good job. Keep focusing, you're doing great. We've downed one carrier, time to focus on the second." Yuna's wave comes in and ... it's very erratic.. Chitose was 'sunk' and she's going into that battle rage again. Nagato shakes her head and powers through, using the erratic nature of how those torps were dropped to dodge, even pulling out a familiar rifle to at least Zuihou and Yuna's eyes out to shoot a couple of them. And fail... as they explode against her.
Yuna Kagurazaka Erratic was kind of the point - but with Hiyou coaching her, Kagurazaka grimaces a bit and gets herself back under control, deferring to the senior light carrier once again. The returning bombers will have to wait for just a bit; Kagurazaka goes evasive again - maybe unnecessarily, but better safe than sorry - and as soon as she can shift her attention and energy for the task, Kagurazaka sends a wing of fighters heading towards Nagato's port flank. A wing of torpedo bombers is launched next - to come in from Nagato's starboard side: again, just as instructed.

It probably helps considerably that the 'rage' was half-feigned to begin with; if it hadn't been a training exercise, Yuna would *NOT* have relented that easily.
Evangeline      Evangeline is doing well avoiding the fighter fire, but even she can't dodge forever. Paint blots start to appear more and more across her clothing as she weaves and spirals and darts about, trying her best to defend her ship girl. The Neuroi-integrated paintball gun fires continuously, never ceasing, keeping the air full of anti-air flak.

     "...I do not think we can hold out much longer, Admiral..." Evangeline says over her communicator to Nagato. Evangeline has no systems to send offline in simulated damage, so she can only start moving more and more slowly. Soon, she has to focus more and more on the fighters to keep herself from being 'shot down'. She doesn't really know how to gauge when she would be down from these tiny plane fairies, but to anyone who can see her it would probably look like she couldn't take much more.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone has a lot of experience working as a team when Zuihou comes up with a plan it's a good one she's a bit wobbly from her evasions but she does order her fighters in the skies all to focus in on Evangeline to try and get her full on attention. The Tiny Zeros swoop in and Kotone seems to be trying to play their famed agility for all it's worth. She does have those dive bombers she already got up and she directs them as Zuihou had planned.

"On it! Let's do this!"

Her dive bombers will join the others as they make there strike for the starboard target. She herself keeps moving and Evangeline is no slouch if the plan doesn't work? Eva will be able to rip Kotone's dive bombers apart.

She checks her recon planes for a moment to make sure there's no other surprises from Nagato and everyone else. She knows the Admiral is experienced and wouldn't put it past her to have something else up her sleeve.
Kongou     Zuihou curves again, head turning to keep her attention on Nagato in the distance. She readies another arrow but doesn't pull it back just yet, waiting on the results of her current aircraft.

    The Mod.52c Zeroes keep up their harassment of Evangeline. Even if she's not taking much damage (in the training sense), in much the way a full-sized Neuroi would be harassed by regular planes, they're doing their best to keep her attention on them. When she starts going after bombers, the fighters redouble their efforts, swarming with greater ... uh, annoyance, mostly.

    The Tenzans hug the waves, staying low beneath radar, Type 3 artillery, and standard flak that's already focused up at the higher aircraft and dive bombers. The leader, her tail marked with yellow chevron markings, raises a hand and then pumps it downward. Torpedoes are dropped, striking the water from a very low altitude, far lower and closer than most torpedo bombers would dare to go-- but Nagato's anti-air batteries are degraded and her CAP is distracted, so it was a risk they decided to take. But will it pay off, or will the battleship turn in time?
Nagato     With Evangeline being distracted by fighters, Nagato starts barreling on ahead to get in closer range with the carrier fleet. With her own air defense limited and her type 3 loaded guns up in the air still, Nagato's anti air guns start firing upwards, not noticing the incoming waves of Tenzans and torpedo bombers. There's a lot of fish in this water and they're all heading towards the Battleship! "Well, with this..." she gives a chuckle and lights up a flare.

    The torpedoes explode when they hit her, covering the admiral in all that paint from head to toe... "Confirmed kill of Ru-class Abyssal Battleship. Combined effort. All units, stand down." she orders, picking up speed as she starts to rush towards the carrier group. "You all did well. Mamiya's will be open for after excerise relaxation." a pause, "Kagurazaka, how did you feel? Yamakawa, how did you feel?" another pause, her eyes looking direcctly at Kiso, even if she's far away, and over the radio... "Kiso, your thoughts?"
Evangeline      Evangeline comes to a stop as Nagato fires that flare, the barrel of her gun glowing red with the sheer number of rounds she fired. She floats after Nagato, her white and red outfit pretty much completely black now. Which might look even more appropriate on the already metallic black Neuroi. "...good work, everyone...Yuna...Kotone...I am sorry I was unable to greet you at the start of the training battle..." she says over the radio, her voice the same soft, demure voice as always despite the heavy dogfighting.

     Eva stays close to Nagato even though the battle is over, perhaps feeling her job isn't complete until Nagato dismisses them or Nagato is back in port. You never know when an actual enemy might show up. But, now that the battle is over Evangeline relaxes, gently bobbing this way and that as she flies and doing slow spirals every now and then. "...I hope my performance was satisfactory, Admiral..."
Yuna Kagurazaka Kagurazaka lets out a *deep* sigh as the exercise is concluded, and starts recovering aircraft. Hers, Hiyou's, she doesn't really care who launched them - if they need to land and she's most convenient for them to do so, she'll take them. "I think I'm okay," she replies to Nagato's inquiry. "It was a little awkward, and I'm .... I'm not sure if I was at my best overall. A little light-headed now, too."

Maybe more than just a little light-headed; now that the exercise is over, she's noticeably wobbly on her feet - staying upright by dint of focus and determinatiion, but she looks like she needs a parfait or two (or a solid meal and a parfait) followed by a good night's sleep. She may have been cutting her own sleep short with looking for Yunomi in Ravnica, too ...
Kongou     Staring over her shoulder, Zuihou lets out a little sigh of relief when the exercise is called. Lifting her arm, she aligns her flight deck. Almost immediately, painted-up Zeroes start landing and converting back into arrows, "Good work, everyone!" An exclamation aimed at her teammates just as much as her pilot fairies. The Tenzans, being closest to Nagato, simply circle overhead while the lower-fuel Zeroes land ahead of them. Her Zeroes harassing Evangeline also break off and enter a holding pattern, forming up into three Vic formations.

    She has no problem fighting an actual Ru class, but knowing what Nagato is capable of makes the Big Seven battleship that much more frightening, even in training rounds. For now, she busies herself with recovering her planes one by one.

    In the distance, Kiso lowers her binoculars, eye closing, "Kotone's fighters were a mess, and Kagurazaka didn't commit enough aircraft at once to her strikes and risked her planes. I feel like there's definite room for improvement in tactics and command for both of them." Eye still closed, she lets her specs fall to the limit of their strap, smoke puffing up as she starts to move again, "Definite potential, but aircraft carrier control is more complex than destroyers or cruisers. They're going to need more focus on the basics before we ever consider combat operations for these two."