Kantai Collection: A New Force For Good

The Brightest Smiles

Anya stood silent as she felt the water run down her back, leaning against the wall of the shower as she stared at her feet.

She could feel her neck. She hadn't even taken a look in the mirror to confirm it. She knew. She knew that there was bound to be a bruise in the shape of a hand print. Damming evidence at it's finest. She knew that if Maryland caught even the slightest of glimpses of the print, it would be Kentucky all over again.

But then again, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing.

It wasn't that she wanted Hipper to get hurt. After all, the woman wasn't even a day old in this form.

But she wanted to help Mary more.

She hadn't noticed it at first. She'd not noticed it when the woman had gone ballistic on Kentucky. When she'd immediately brought her fists out instead of words. It was anger that the woman never exhibited, but if it came out that readily, there was bound to be far more than what the surface showed.

Anya had a very very humbling suspicion that the battleship had been hurting.

Hurting long before Kentucky had injured her.

She'd been hurting since she'd crossed over. And Anya had never even realized it.

She'd gone blind to it. Just like everyone else. They'd glanced at the woman and taken her smile for granted. That she was one of the few and far between who'd accepted her situation with gusto.

Anya had the darkest feeling that they'd been wrong. That they'd been oh so very wrong.

She'd let slip the day after that they'd gotten together about what had transpired the day they'd brought through the first seven. What had happened to her that morning when she'd met Tenryuu for the first time. And she'd seen it once more.

She'd seen the anger that welled within the battleship. As those periwinkle eyes took in what she was being told. But as quickly as it had come, the look had vanished, once again covered by that smile.

That damned smile.

With every passing second, Anya realized that more and more, that smile was plastic.

Anya slammed a fist against the wall of the shower, a loud bang filling the room's space. She could've seen it earlier. She should've seen it earlier. But she didn't. She'd played right by it just like everyone else.

She didn't know how deep the hurting went. How serious it had become. But she swore she'd find out. She swore to herself that she would try and ease the woman's pain.

As the water ran down the woman's back, the American admiral made a choice.

Turning off the water, she finished her shower. Originally, it had been to cleanse herself of the flour that she'd been decorated with because of the destroyers earlier in the day. But as she had, her mind had gotten away from her, her thoughts forging new trails.

She'd been in the shower for nearly forty minutes she finally realized when she glanced at the clock near the door. Sighing, she looked from the clock to the mirror. And she found herself stopped.

There before her stood her naked reflection among the steam and glass of the mirror. There, she found what Hipper had left upon her skin as she tilted her head side to side, the muscles in her neck screaming at her for it.

Her normal skin tone darkened and purple, clear to see that what had been done to her had been so out of anger. Out of something far more malicious that Kentucky had ever thought of doing so. Than she'd ever dreamed of doing so.

Kentucky had merely injured her arm.

Tenryuu had harmed her side on accident.

Hipper had gone for the woman's ability to live.