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Haguro Haguro looks anxious as she skims the water, 'pacing' back and forth while she waits. It had taken weeks of investigation and research, but it's finally time. Tonight, she comes face to face with her wreck. What would it even look like? She's heard the warnings. She's heard of what happened to others that have tried doing what she did. Would that happen to her? It's not a non zero chance, but... She's been through a lot lately. She's grown a great deal. She's ready, right?

Of course she's ready. If nothing else, she'll have her friends and her friends(????) with her, even from unlikely places.

Finding the wreck was the easy part. Relatively, anyway, between knowing where she had gone down that first time, having modern technology to work with, and numerous allies to help locate it with the general instructions to search off the coast of Malaysia in the Malacca Strait.

Bringing the wreck to the surface, however, would be the hard part. Haguro isn't a diver by any means, and her hopes of getting some closure on that chapter of her life rest on the shoulders of several others she can't even see at this moment.

All she can do now is wait with those thoughts and the hopes that whatever she sees won't send her into another downward spiral.
Shigure     Shigure is in the local area, scanning the subsurface zone with her sonar, tracking the movements of the wreck retrieval team as best she can. She's keeping a relatively stationary post, as Haguro paces. "I believe in you, Haguro." she offers in her calm, soft tone along with a smile to the cruiser. The rest of the Fifth is nowhere to be seen, likely sent off so as not to give the wrong impression. She's here for her friend and fleetmate, not as a jailor or executioner, or assassin.

    "Whatever happens. I'm here to support you."
Nagato     Nagato's there, stoic and steady. She's there in case something goes wrong and knowing the situation involved, something probably /will/. For now, the Battleship stays behind Shigure, guns at rest. "Mmm." she mutters, looking towards Haguro and the area, "Let's hope the gods are kind to her." she whispers to herself, just keeping herself there.
Sumiko Mikoto had taken to the air to follow Haguro.  She can't ride on the water or dive herself, not without seeing the right person to take their powers, but right now all she can really do is support her friend no matter what happens.  She's got her own subscriptions of problems, but right now she can put those on hold.  Or at least, she hopes she can.

'Come on Mikoto,' she thinks to herself, 'keep your eye on the prize.  Friends are like your possessions, so you gotta do for them.  It's like cleaning something.  Wow did I just compare this to...ugh, I'm kind of really awful.'

Taking in a breath, "Not sure, maybe if we had someone in a suit that could go down there and then we could try using the cable on dragging it out?  How deep is the water here?  I could summon animals, but without the right powers at my disposal..." she shrugs.  
Midway     Some distance away from the trio of Kanmusu, the sea's surface bursts upward. When the water settles, what stands upon the waves is the hauntingly malevolent presence of the Princess of Progress; Midway. Scarlet eyes, lit from within by scarlet, instantly fixate on Nagato. A moment later, they wander across Shigure and Mikoto to settle on Haguro.

    "You have presented me with a unique engineering challenge, Ne-Class. However," Her posture shifts, a hand lifting. Her fingers curl, such that the metal bracing on the backs of her knuckles glimmers in the sun, "A solution has been reached."

    Black shapes emerge on the surface at various points, forming a rough circle. The slick, cetacean-like hulls of Abyssal destroyers. Water churns behind them as they scatter, drawing taut on heavy, corroded chains.

    "This would have been more difficult if the conditions were not as they are." The Princess turns, arms folding as she observes the center of the destroyer formation. Re-Class surfaces, there, raising an arm to wave.
Haguro "Maybe if I... No, I'd just sink faster if I did that. Or..." Haguro murmurs to herself as she keeps weighing other options to assist in the retrieval, looking up briefly when Shigure offers those words of support. "Ah... Thank you, Shigure. It means a lot to have you here. Especially after... Um."

She glances at Nagato, saluting her once before trying to nonchalantly look away without finishing that thought. It's kind of obvious from the awkward shifting of Haguro's eyes that she's thinking of what the worst case scenario is. "I... I hope so too, Admiral. B-but I'm sure it'll be fine. I just hope it's not too embarassing seeing me in that condition."

She forces an excessively awkward laugh at that attempt at humor, then clears her throat while looking up at Mikoto. "I thought about asking some of the diving specialists in the Luthan Fleet to come with me, but I was worried it would be too deep. N-not that I actually measured it, but... " She admits, then taps her chin lightly at theq uestions. "That's not a bad idea, Miss Mikoto. Depending on the structural damage, a cable might-"

The sound of water churning behind her gets Haguro to turn around slowly, and she offers the same firm salute to Midway while only looking mildly startled by her sudden appearance. "Ah. Welcome back, Midway. Did you...?" She peers at the circle of Abyssals, looking pleasantly surprised rather than pants-shittingly surprised as someone of her general... Herness would be expected to at their presence.

"You found it, then? Er. Me? Okay." She starts taking several deep breaths, psyching herself up to ready her mind and body for what's to come. She still has enough of her wherewithal to raise a hand in a short wave to Re-Class in return, but the anticipation is already getting to the Cruiser.
Shigure     Shigure tenses as she picks up the ascending motion of Midway, and her recovery team of Abyssal Destroyers. "They're coming." she states, moments before Midway appears. She suppresses her reflex to arm herself, keeping her weapons in safe positions while returning the gaze of the Princess with her own defiant blue eyes.

    Eyes turn toward the circle of destroyers and Re-class, the kanmusuclenching her fists and bracing for whatever happens next.
Nagato     Nagato places a hand on Shigure's shoulder. An equal eye gets shot back to Midway then back at the mutual fleet member. There's an idle wave back towards Re-Class, at least that one had manners... "It has been found, yes." she whispers, Hachi popping her head up behind the Battleship. "The Submarine squad helped quite a bit." she states, "However, disturbing this wreck is.."

    There's the destroyers and the water churning and she sighs, "Can't leave the dead alone... but this is what Haguro wishes." there's a pinch on the bridge of her nose and she looks down towards Hachi. "Take the girls back to base, we'll be fine here."

    There's a salute from Hachi and she's out of sight, heading off with the rest of the submarine girls. "I hope you're ready to see this, Haguro. I really do."
Sumiko "Relax," Mikoto says towards Haguro.  "Tensing yourself up and thinking about what might go wrong will only make sure it does." Of course, she has no idea what this really means to her.  Mikoto almost imagines it as looking at your witch form somehow, or your grave.  It's kinda...weird.

She cuts a look towards Shigure, "You relax too, I don't think she'll do anything here and now."

Mikoto turns to look at Midway.  That's creepy, but also kind of pretty?  Looking towards Re, Mikoto waves.  Re's crazy as hell, but Mikoto relates to that.  

Looking towards Nagato, "Of COURSE she is.  It's why she's a member of the Concord and you're not."
Midway     "Alliances are a necessity, but one must understand their existence primarily acts as a restraint," Midway states evenly, her back to the collected ships and magical girl. Arms folded, she oversees instead the operation of the Black Fleet destroyers and hybrid aviation battleship. "Each of you is merely a tool for war to be exercised by those in power. Only through strength and ingenuity shall the wielded find themselves in the position of the wielder."

    In the distance, Re floats up, then simply stands. Something breaks the surface beside her, and she skates aside from it as it emerges. A mass of corroded metal, coated in decades of sea life, forming the unmistakable aft swoop and ruined rudder of a Japanese cruiser. As it rises, at an angle, water sluices from holes both intended and not, pours from the mangled structure of a torpedo launcher, spills from portholes long-since absent of glass.

    But it's not an entire ship. Nowhere close. Some twenty meters of maimed hull breaks apart into exposed ribs, like some massive creature's remains, before even the keel breaks off.

    The destroyers struggle, the attachment points of their chains clear and straining to hold the weight, and yet Midway approaches the debris. One hand unfolds, lifts, and in a single gesture she sweeps her palm from one end of the transom curve to the other. Barnacles and seabed grime break loose. Sweeping the other way, the last of it is broken free, falling into the sea, exposing the embossed Kanji characters BLACK and PLUME. And through the quirk of Japanese writing, when combined this way...

    Haguro

    "Your submarines may confirm," Midway turns, glowering over her shoulder. Those eyes, burning idly before, seem somehow more intense with restrained anger, "This is all that remained."
Haguro Noticing Shigure's reaction to the Abyssals, Haguro offers her a brief attempt at a reassuring smile. "It's fine. I mean, yes, they're you and the Fleet's enemies, but..."

Haguro actually doesn't have a good way to end that sentence. Time for more akward silence as she leaves that statement hanging as well! Instead, Nagato gets a slow nod as the Cruiser puts on a brave face once again. "I can't put it off forever. And-er." That awkwardness returns quickly when Mikoto puts out a few barbs, and her expression shifts again with mixed sternness and... Appreciation?

"Miss Mikoto, please. It's fine. Everyone just has different ways of showing their support." Inwardly cheering herself slightly for that attempt at diplomacy, she turns back to Midway once more.

"I'm ready."

Re rises, and so does something twisted and broken. It's not recognizable at first, but Haguro already knows what she's looking at. Her eyes widen as she approaches the wreck, barely even flinching when Midway clears the debris and junk off.

"W... What." Haguro murmurs quietly, placing one hand on one of the few places that the hull is actually straight before clamping her hand on a jagged edge. Her voice cracks as she struggles to get another word out, taking several long seconds just to reach the letters that spell her name.

Indeed, it is like looking at her own corpse because it is. "Where's... The rest?" There's an odd stillness in Haguro's tone as she asks that, less like the voice of someone on the verge of a tears and just...

Utterly, completely still. "Where's the rest of me?"
Sumiko "Alright, alright," Mikoto says to try and wave off Haguro's worry.  Still, with the Abyssals here, this seems like a powder keg waiting for a stray ember to set it off.  Scratching the back of her head, she tries to take a relaxed position while the wreck comes up to the surface.  

As the wreck is revealed, Mikoto moves to see the name.  That sure is the kanji for Haguro.  Taking a moment, she looks around, not trying to touch the ship because that'd be kinda creepy.  Instead of trying to find signs of what might have happened.  

Ok, maybe that power she got from Tetra will come in handy.  Can the past reveal what happened to Haguro?
Shigure     Shigure takes a breath, releasing it, and the tension running through her body in the same moment. As Haguro moves towards her wreck, the destroyer follows, keeping a respectful distance back. She doesn't say anything just yet, she waits, instead, for others to offer their viewpoints or nuggets of wisdom, before providing her own. She can't fathom what's going through Haguro's mind right now. Shigure hasn't seen her own wreck, only Nagato's had that experience.

    'Anything I say would only ring hollow, right now.' she thinks to herself, clasping her hands over her chest and looking at Haguro with an expression of sympathy and helplessness. Her friend is hurting it's obvious to see; but she can't do anything about it.
Nagato     Nagato looks towards Mikoto and she shakes her head, "Idealologies differ." she states simply, following behind Shigure. As the wreck is lifted, she twitches a bit... this was used against her before... to show her wreck and now that Haguro's own is showing...

    "This is what's left of you after the war. A battered, broken wreck. Sunk by our former war targets." she states, "This... is us. After we've been used to protect our nation we served when we were built."

    There's a soft little sound coming from the battleship as she looks to the wreck, an unintelligble whisper, "It looks like the humans deigned to not experiment with weaponry on you after you sunk."
Midway     There's a noise from Midway in response to Nagato's comment. She turns away from the hulk, arms folding once more. One of the Abyssal destroyers makes a distressed sound, but she ignores it; "This vessel was sunk in combat, under fire from the Royal Navy. However, the damage caused to the hull before it succumbed does not explain its current condition."

    Midway lifts a hand, deftly avoiding the spines surrounding her throat to place two fingers just behind her eye in a gesture of thought, "Therefore, one must determine what events transpired between the sinking and now." Her head tilts forward, casting her eyes in shadow which only makes that furious glow more prominent.

    "Battleship Princess;" Directed to Nagato, but true to form Midway does not use her name, "Your experience is only /one/ of the many disgraces and indignities committed by the humans who once claimed to love you."
Haguro Mikoto would see the sea. Lots of sea. Explosions, pain, and another ship. An ally, but smaller. A fighting retreat for the ally. Covering fire, but to no avail.

Sinking. A whole lot of sinking. Hundreds dead inside of her and no way to get them out.

She sees more of the ocean, but her view is blocked. Pieces go missing. Her view widens slightly, more when she feels lighter again. Small pieces, large pieces. It's not clear where the pieces are going.

Haguro inhales slowly as she remembers to breathe, that small exercise not particularly necessary so much as it helps do... Something. Why does she even bother doing that? She can't help but breathe rapidly, starting to hyperventilate despite the innate non-need to breathe at all. "Shouldn't there be more, then?" She looks to Shigure and Nagato, her calm expression clashing drastically with the rapid breathing. "Weapon tests would leave larger holes than this. This kind of damage isn't..."

Her fingers clench tighter as she digs her hand into the surface of her name plate. There's very real chance something might snap off under that pressure, if the red stain building on her glove is any indication. It's only when Midway confirms the theory that the damage wasn't caused by combat that Haguro finally starts to circle around her wreck again.

"This... /was/ where they used to gather for..." Haguro's voice starts cracking again as she struggles to get anything out, waving her hand at a large empty space where more of the hull would be. "And here... That was... Where did I go?"
Shigure     Shigure doesn't know what to do; she wants to say something, do something. She can't think of anything that would make this right, make this clear. Her thoughts a turmoil of conflict. She watches helplessly as Haguro starts going down a route that could lead to many horrific places.

    After what seems like years pass, she opens her mouth to speak. "We always say. 'The humans.' as if they were one contiguous entity, a whole instead of an amalgam of many individual beings. Some of them are good, others less so, some outright evil... we judge them all as a whole for the actions of small groups."

    She's trying to present her case... she knows from the context clues from the others what's happened here. Graverobbing. Salvage operations. To Haguro she continues. "You want to create a place where everyone can live away from war and conflict... you told me that once. We'll help you find the people that did this to your wreck. We'll make sure they are punished for it. Come back from this train of thought you're having right now. I know where that leads... it's a dark place that is difficult to come back from... I don't want to lose my friend to that place."
Sumiko "She sank covering an ally..." Mikoto says as if looking at something else.  She talks as if she were there herself, running a hand over the hull of Haguro's former self.  "Many died inside, sunk by, what I assume to be Brittish.  Maybe Americans."

"Afterwards she sat there, but pieces of her were taken, not shot off.  No explosions, no debris.  If she had been, no doubt you'd find all sorts of shrapnel on the ocean bed.  You'd also find plenty of her...but it just looks like she started feeling lighter over time.  Pieces go missing, not explode from her."

"People might have salvaged parts of her.  Maybe trying to use those parts to recover into a new ship...or into the local area.  After the war, those parts would have been very important, Japan was not doing well after it lost."

She runs a hand over her arm and looks right towards Midway.  "Her name is Haguro, and as far as I am concerned, even after her death, she continued to defend people.  Maybe you're right about humans, I'm certainly no saint...her appearance as an abyssal did catch me off guard.  Not because I was afraid, but rather what it reminded me about what was in myself."

"You can hate humans all you want, I can't stop you, but at least try and find a real reason to, instead of inventing things up because of their convenience."
Nagato     "It's what the girl says." Nagato agrees before turning to Midway, "A small subset of people isn't enough to turn me away from my duty to protect the humans. Not every human is like those of old." there's a turn towards Mikoto, "We may not be on the same side, but thank you."

    She turns towards Haguro, "Shigure is correct, we're here to help... and so is this girl." a sigh is given, "What would you like to do, Haguro? Would you like to forgive those who did this wrong, or would you wish to find them and punish them? Mind, it's been... years. They may have already perished due to humans life span."
Midway     "Where, indeed," Midway states in an enigmatic tone. Turning, she steps away from the floating wreckage, raising her hands, "Repurposed. In cars, or bridges, or whatever else had need of steel." Her hands lower to her sides, fingers curled against her palms. After a moment, Midway shifts, turning just enough to fix a single wide, glowing eye on Mikoto.

    "Have you witnessed war, child? Not conflict, but War." She turns more, until she faces the magical girl directly, "Seen the violence. Felt the pain. Tasted the death and bloodshed on the wind. Have you marinated in the hatred of War. Witnessed with your own eyes the atrocities, the sorrow, and the fury of it." Head tilting slightly, the Princess closes one eye, "Or have you only read about it in a book, or seen photographs from long ago, or perhaps played a video game-- and now fancy yourself an expert?"

    "Do not lecture me on such things. Recall that I am War itself. You cannot conceal the barbarism of Humanity from the monster it has created."

    The Princess leans back, spreading her hands once more, "All Kanmusu were once Abyssal ships, girl. Some have simply vented the raw, visceral memories which spurred them into action in the first place." Lowering her arms, her gaze shifts to Nagato, "Even the Battleship Princess in your company was once just like me. A visage of the horror and fury and hatred naturally borne of Human conflict."
Sumiko Mikoto stares down Midway, or rather, outwardly does.  Internally it was frightening, something that hates mankind so much, something created from their wars that experiences all of the negativity coalesced into a single entity.  She is given a question, to which she responds.  Taking a moment to steady her breath.

"You mean having to fight for survival every night?  Having to fight something powerful?  Something that is endless.  Not being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, or telling yourself to sit in isolation so when these things do overcome you, you don't hurt them when they have to cut you down?"

"No, I have fortunately never been in a real war.  The great wars from years ago.  I would like to think people saw those horrors and sought to never have it repeat.  Maybe you can't call the ongoing fight for survival I deal with war."

"However, I am here now, supporting a friend.  I have found what I am, and accept both the beauty and ugliness of it.  Do you know what that truth I found is?  That what is mine will always be mine, and I will take whatever I want whenever I want.  Friends, jewels, anything, and everything."

"Her. Name. Is. Haguro," Mikoto says firmly, "If she chooses to be Battleship Princess, let her make the choice on her own, but do not try and blind her to the truth just because it's inconvenient for your cause."

She pauses, shaking, "Because if you do, it will be the same as stealing from me."
Nagato     Nagato interjects at the end. "She was referring to me." she comments, "I used to be Battleship Princess but I've excised that from myself long ago." pause, "But this is not about myself, this is about a mutual friend and fleet member." a pause, a look to Midway, "She may be a child, but her convinction is that of someone knowledgable in survival and their own fights, not the ones that created us long ago... Midway." she huffs slightly and shakes her head.
Sumiko "Oh whoops," Mikoto says, "Uh...sorry about that." She says towards Midway, "But everything else I said is right."
Haguro "I've seen good humans. They... Exist. Sometimes." Haguro chokes out between unsteady breaths, gripping what's left of the hull again to keep herself steady against the stern of what used to be a mostly whole Haguro. That small admission actually seems to help even as Haguro's gloves keep turning darker from digging her fingers into her palsm too tightly, although she doesn't appear to notice.

"But that's only sometimes. The greedy ones... The warmongers. They never stop. We keep stopping some of them, but..." Her tone cracks again as she listens to Mikoto, and she starts to hunch over while staring at a bloodied hand. "... The ones we don't stop. They never learn. And the ones we help keep asking..." She grips the cracked hull. "... /Taking/ more from us. It never stops. If we hadn't look now, would th... Would there even be anything left of me?!"

She really wasn't ready for this. Nagato asks what she wants to do, and Haguro doesn't respond right away. She looks conflicted, equal parts rage and grief evident in her expression even as she turns to Midway when she reminds her where four of the five women here came from.

"... I can't forgive them. Someone... I can't... N-not anymore. They have to be..." She gestures vaguely towards Shigure, steadying hereslf on thewreck again and running her hand over the nameplate again.

"It's like... Shigure said. They have to be punished. They have to..." She looks like she's about to hyperventilate again, but she starts to breathe deeply again.

"... They have to be punished. They need to understand that there's consequences for their actions." Haguro sounds calm again. She isn't hyperventilating, and she almost sounds like her old confident self again!

"If they want tools of war, then they've accepted the risks of holding them. They've accepted responsibility for their actions." So calm.
Shigure     Shigure shakes her head, skating closer to Haguro. "Haguro..." she ventures, reaching out for the cruiser. "Remember... humans don't live very long, compared to us... the ones that did this, like Flagship said, could all be dead already. Do their crimes fall to their descendents? Would prosecuting them for things they had no hand in go against your whole ideal? A peaceful sea, free of conflict and fear?"

    She attempts to place a hand on Haguro's shoulder. "We were weapons of war. But now, we have the choice to be weapons for peace."

    The destroyer girl looks like she's about to start crying. Tears welling up in her eyes.
Midway     Midway regards Mikoto for a long, hostile moment. There's no indication that she is going to back down from this sassy teenager. One can almost hear the screams and gunfire in the pulsating glow of those hate-filled scarlet eyes. Her attention is only drawn away when Haguro speaks again, eyes travelling towards the cruiser, before her face follows suit.

    "None who holds a weapon is or ever was innocent, Ne-Class." Her head tilts, shadowing her gaze amidst the spines surrounding her throat. But whatever she's about to say is interrupted when Shigure approaches. By intent or mistake, she places herself between Midway and Haguro. Midway's fingers snap open, then flex impotently.

    She would very much wish to smite this destroyer. But doing so would derail the plan. Instead, she tolerates it; she would rather see how this plays out with as little direct interference as possible.

    Who knows where Re-Class went. The battleship disappeared some time after the hull piece surfaced.
Sumiko Mikoto frowns, while she knows it's not exactly the same...it's similar enough to become a witch that it shakes her to the core.  Even if Midway wasn't here, she'd be afraid.  She swallows, fighting the tightness in her own chest.  Is this what she really wanted?  

Or was it Midway?  

The missing Re isn't even on her mind as she faces Haguro.  Mikoto flies over to the boat and lands.  She tries to position herself to be in Hagoro's eyesight.  She stares at the spirit of the boat.

"I am one of those descendants, Haguro.  I am Japanese.  Are the crimes of my fathers and my father's father mine to bear?"  She draws the jade sword, "Am I guilty because I wield a weapon?  If you blanket humanity with the same judgment, then you should be able to pass it on me as well, right?"

"As I said before, I take what I want.  I am your friend, that means it is the same as being something that is precious to me.  I will take it, and I refuse to let anyone take it from me.  That's just the selfish girl I am."
Haguro Shigure can hear a faint chattering from inside Haguro. Is it her teeth? She does't look like she's clenching her jaw, though, and the noise stops whenever she speaks.

It's probably her teeth. "They... Don't live that long, no. Punishing their offspring would be kind of harsh, wouldn't it? But..." She adjusts her cap, and she looks towards the coast in the far off distance. "... What kind of lesson does letting them go teach the descendants of those who didn't commit any crimes? The actual innocent ones that had to endure harsh conditions, work long hours, and had nothing to show for it besides their ideals and their descendants?"

The Cruiser starts to withdraw into herself again, trembling lightly while letting Shigure put a hand on her shoulder. She leans into that hand while noticing Midway's restraint, then wipes her face off despite not shedding a single tear.

"All they learn is that it's fine to take up weapons themselves. Become thieves. Murderers."

Another harsher laugh comes out when Mikoto speaks up. "That's just it, though... Humans just keep doing this because they're... Convinced it's okay to do terrible things for the 'right' reasons... Protecting their friends and families. Protecting their homelands. The greater good. Murdering someone now for peace later. Everything for themselves at the cost of someone else's peace. Someone else's life."

That laugh fades, and Haguro looks calm again, as though she's suddenly come to a realization, looking towards Nagato and Shigure in particular. "And we're... We were made as the tools for that. So if we want peace, it can't just come from nowhere. A price has to be paid for it."

Her turrets adjust, and she starts drifting towards land. Her tone is still calm and her expression still steady, but that stillness from earlier returns. "But it's... It's okay if we're not the ones paying it, right?"
Shigure     "No victory without sacrifice." states Shigure in a solemn tone. She can't hope to stop Haguro from moving away from her. The weight difference would just end in a sunk destroyer. However she does skate around and place herself between Haguro and land, spreading her arms out to the sides and taking on a determined, if simultaneously sad expression. "Both sides pay a price, Haguro... the dead pay their life. The killer pays with their soul... every life taken is another piece of you that dies with them."

    She grits her teeth, takes a breath, then says. "If that is the path you choose for yourself, to become another murderer. I have no choice but to defy you... I will not let you kill yourself for vengeance." Her turrets unfold on thier gimbal mounts, and she grabs the handles.
Midway     "Now you finally understand," Midway states as Haguro turns towards the shoreline, "The disgusting, reprehensible truth about War." Her eyes drift closed, "Perhaps it is true, as the child says; perhaps humans do change. Perhaps later generations do not repeat the mistakes of the previous. But war..." Her eyes open just a touch, narrow scarlet slits, "War does not change. Its nature, its foundation, is always the same thing. To buy peace with the currency of lives. Lives ended, or lives ruined. Often both."

    Her eyes open further, until they become nearly perfect circles of intense, glowing crimson, "As tools built for this endeavor, your purpose should be clear." Her motion is simple, swift. A single step forward; a sudden and hostile posture; the thrust of her talon-tipped hand straight for the center of the back of Shigure's rigging. Right below the base of its prominent smokestack.
Sumiko "Funny, I am pretty sure I told you what my goal was with this.  It isn't about something good, it's about my greed...my envy.  It is not because I am a good person, it is because I acknowledge what I am deep down.  An awful and selfish one."

She looks towards Shigure, "Maybe don't put words in her mouth.  She didn't say what she was intending yet.  There are a few ways she could go about something like this, and murdering is only...maybe two?  Two and a half?"

"So what is it you plan on doing, Haguro?" a pause, "Whatever decision you make I'll stand by you."  Right now, she does not move to get in Midway's way.  She's only been the ally of one person here.
Nagato     "If one thing I can say, you are right. War does not change, the currency of people's lives is a most expensive one indeed... but are we wanting to support borrowing from the future to pay for the mistakes we've made in the past?" Nagato states, moving towards Shigure. "The people of the current can take lessons from the mistakes of the people of the past. We are here to protect those people." she makes a grumble, this rhetoric long but expired for sense.

    The sudden movement catches Nagato's eye. "No, you're not doing this today, Midway." Nagato, however, does move to get into Midway's way. She pours on the speed, moving to interject herself between her ally and enemy, the guns moving to point themselves forward in an effort to ready herself for a fight. "Stay... away... from my fleet. /HAGURO/ is willing to make her choices, she's got her own decisions and choices to make." she doesn't care if claws dig in, all she cares about is protecting her own. "She's a capable cruiser. Leading her own fleet. Don't.. mess.. with.. it."
Haguro Haguro slows down when Shigure gets in her way, her gaze remaining steady at the smaller Destroyer. Unlike the Destroyer's expression, though, Haguro's is less sad and more disbelieving. "Shigure... We're weapons of war."

Even her tone is of someone that's exasperated about something. "We've already murdered and killed so many in the past. That was our job when humans guided us, and even now... What else are we good for? Whenever I've tried to do anything outside of fighting or preparing for war..."

She looks towards Nagato in particular. "... It's never gotten me anywhere." Her turrets keep adjusting as she tries gauging her distance from land, but it's rather difficult to do in her fragile mental state. She keeps jumping from anger to despair to that quiet serenity, and Midway moving to ram her hand straight throug Shigure while Nagato moves to intercept her probably isn't going to improve that.

If nothing else, though, it does't seem to be making things any worse. Haguro isn't screaming or trying to stop any of them, instead just staring with that same vacant expression thatk eeps coming back every now and then as if she's just accepting it. That, or maybe she's giving up a little inside. "I... I want to.. I need to find more. More of myself. Where they've taken my-"

There's a pause, and then Haguro looks towards Nagato again. Her mouth opens and closes a few times as though she's close to another breakdown. Instead of staying where she is and waiting for that to happen, though, she starts to back away instead.

"D... Don't die. Any of you. I..." Her composure is cracking again, and there's little left for the Cruiser to say.
Shigure     Shigure picks up the movement, a moment too late. She begins twisting to bring her turrets to bare, but Nagato intercepts the strike.

    Shaken and visibly disturbed by the ferocity of the Princess of Progress, Shigure backs away from the two capital ships as they clash. She keeps pace with Haguro, and turns to her once she's sure Nagato can hold the line long enough for her to say her last piece. "We /were/ weapons of war, Haguro. That was what we were made to be, yes. But now we can be so much more." She lets go of her guns, letting the gimbal arms retract them onto her back, then she simply dismisses them. Disarming herself for the moment. "I'll help you find the pieces taken... maybe we can find they were put to use helping people... right? That's what you want to do isn't it? Help people, make them happy? If part of you became someone's shelter, wouldn't that be helping them? Would that mean you became more than just a weapon? A sword to take life, becoming a shield to protect it?"
Midway     Sparks fly when talons strike sturdy belt armor instead of fragile destroyer plating. The foiled Princess of Progress holds that posture for a moment, arm extended where it wound up when deflected, staring now at Nagato with those wide, intense eyes filled with the burning hatred only found in an Abyssal princess. Her hair and dress settle around her, at last, cast into chaos from her sudden action.

    After a moment, Midway retracts herself, rising to her full height. There's a series of snapping sounds as the Abyssal destroyers abandon their tow chains, allowing the hulk of Haguro's true body to start sinking again, and it is over this clamour that the Princess speaks again.

    "She is free to make her own decisions," Those wide, intense eyes narrow once more to the vaguely disdainful, measured expression Midway usually keeps, "Or is she?"

    The water around the Princess' feet bubbles. Without any further word, she sinks beneath the waves and rapidly out of sight. SONAR confirms; Midway is leaving.
Sumiko Mikoto sighs, she kind of wants to hit Midway, but right now that might be bad for her.  Considering her goal is Haguro not punching a witch in the face.  She watches the ship go, "When you want to talk about this again, I'll be around."

She's said all she has to say and feels the same as Midway probably does.  Pushing it now probably won't make things better.  Also not responding to Midway's verbal parting shot.

She was...far too strained from trying to control her shaking.  "I'm out of here.  Try NOT and smother my friend?" She says to the other two boats and flies back.
Shigure     "Yeah... we should all go cool down." agrees Shigure after confirming the Black Fleet are dispersing as well. "Take care on your way home, Miss Shimizu... and thank you for looking out for Haguro." The destroyer, after composing herself a bit, offers a polite bow to the Puella Magi, before looking back to Haguro. She has nothing more to say on the matter, and just reaches out to give Haguro's shoulder a light squeeze. "I meant what I said." is all she parts with, and moves to take a round-a-bout path, likely heading for William's little mobile port, instead of Hikari seabase so she can have some alone time.