April the 9th, naval time 11:00PM, Sakuya's perspective.

      Despite Sakuya's best intentions, the rescue mission was a failure. They had all searched through the corpses laying on the ground. Checked every woman's pulse. Went so far as to scout and shout around nearby the village. No survivors had been found. The village was in shambles, and if the tree village didn't burn down completely, there was no hope of it being used by her people anymore. It had come to a point where the smoke had become so bad they had been forced to leave the scene to prevent being burned from the falling branches.

      So, after an hour's time, any chance of hope was seemingly lost. Sakuya still had a mission, it was all she could do to concentrate on it to avoid thinking about the disturbing scene behind her. The tree burning men, they were not important at the moment.  This village was lost and was not her priority. Her priority was the black monsters heading to the north. The monsters which emitted deafening sounds. Monsters that killed tree burning men with ease, she was terrified of them. So sloshing through the water after them was her main and only course of action now. Though her companions could seemingly detect her tremble from the rear.

      April the 9th, naval time 11:00PM, somewhere far north of the main Japanese fleet.

      "What the hell are those things commander!" A young sailor called from the periscope. He was dressed in a black coat with six buttons in its center. Some sort of insignia was on his shirt above his breast. He was holding a white hat in his hand as he retreated from the periscope.

      "To hell if I know. Nothing has made sense since a day ago." Commander John Foote shook his head. He was similarly dressed, although his insignia on his coat were much more elaborate. His hat was also different, it was a peaked cap and had letters on it's front.

      "I think we should advise Commander Janney to dive sir. Those things, are getting awfully close." The sailor looked back into the periscope. He was getting a bit nervous, as were the few others busy on the bridge.

      "It was his own damn fault using up his batteries." Commander John replied to the sailor.

      "Commander what about the radio?" He pointed toward the communications center.

      "We're on radio silence with the Jap's still nearby. We've been getting their chatter for quite a while. And besides, I'm not about to go and surface to give Janney a message, not within a mile of those things." He pointed towards the radar screen. It had a multitude of dots all bearing down on their location.

      A day prior the USS Threadfin had been in the primary outlet for the Seto Inland Sea when they had followed the Japanese flotilla towards Okinawa. These new dots on their radar were far more numerous then the Japanese fleet. Potentially they also knew they were more dangerous.

***

      Commander Janney of the USS Hackleback stood outside on the deck of his surfaced vessel. The binoculars were held up close to his face. He was similarly dressed compared to John of the threadfin.

      "Dear God, what kind of monsters are those!" Janney's hands were shaking, behind him his vessel was smoking dark vents of diesel smoke. The creatures in the far off horizon were larger then sky scrapers, horned, armed with clubs. There were at least a dozen of them if not more.

      "Commander, we still can't dive. Batteries are still nearly dead."

      "How about a short dive?" Asked one of the frightened sailors.

      "No chance, we would go down, but we wouldn't be able to come back up, not without afixating ourselves." He looked towards the black smoke coming from their vessel.

      "Any chance we can outrun them?" Asked one of the helmsmen on deck.

      "Not a chance. Maybe buy us a little more time." He looked towards the horizon. "They're so fast. Pheww..."

      "I think we should fight commander, we might be able to scare them off if we can kill a few." He looked less convinced of his own words then his fellow shipmates.

      "We don't have much other choice." Said the commander. "What a waste of ink."

      "Commander?" The sailor asked puzzled by his words.

      "Ah, some of the boys down in the torpedo room decided to go and label some of the twenty four torpedoes with some of the Japs ship names."

      "Ah, a waste of ink surely commander." He looked down, then came up with a diluted smile. "Perhaps we can get the giants names?" Everybody on deck laughed.

      "Rather than that, I'd rather want to know how we ended up in Conan Doyle's Lost World fighting King Kongs, instead of Japs."

      April the 9th, naval time 11:05PM, The Ryujin Palace.

      "Battleship, is that some kind of spear young man?" The man inside a cage asked. Otohime's husband was a bit curious.

      "Yamato, don't sully yourself talking to this young man." Otohime scolded her husband.

      Maki was also fairly interested. This man seemingly had already convinced her he was from another world. But his ability to surprise had surely not lost its effect. Now using another word that had no meaning to her, had again, set her wheels spinning in got her head. Sure battle was a known holy word, but ship was a mysterious word. She would have to ask.

      "What is a ship?" She asked looking down at the small Shouta.

      Shouta had been given the floor to speak, finally. Otohime, and Maki both looked unto the small figure with continued interest.

      "You're telling me you live in the sea, but don't know what a ship is?" Shouta looked puzzled. Perhaps it was just an unused word in their holy words, but to Shouta, this was not in his mind. He could forget that the holy words were not their primary language at times, they spoke so fluently.

      The two girls continued to look puzzled. They were waiting for a better response.

      Shouta was very bewildered by these giants of the sea. "Well I guess you could call it an object which floats on water, carrying many people."

      Maki giggled. "What purpose would something like that serve when Ryujin's can just swim anywhere." Too her, the concept of a ship was silly. In fact a lot of words from Shouta's vocabulary would be like that if she took more time to talk to him. Assuming of course Shouta would bother to respond, which he hadn't lately.

      Shouta balled his fists and bent over before yelling up towards the towering sitting women. "I keep telling you I'm not a Ryujin, I'm a Japanese man!"

      "Enough of this, this boy is clearly deranged." Otohime stood up as if bored with this conversation. Her foot slamming next to the ground Shouta currently occupied. She was getting done with this silliness.

      "A battleship like Yamato could destroy you giants, don't think your victory today here is a final end. The Japanese Empire is greater then you Giant!"

      Otohime laughed. "Clearly deranged, perhaps your village fed you to the Tengu. You will be placed with a new family until your mother can be located." She wasn't even properly listening to him by this point, insults aside, a few yelping from a young man was stupid.

      "Wait! You..." Before he could insult the Ryujin lord further, Maki covered the small man in her palms. She was in a cold sweat.

      "I'm so sorry Lord Otohime." Maki attempted to Apologize as she bowed.

      "Pathetic, you can go home. Leave that young man with the guards as you go." Otohime pointed towards the exit.

      "Wait Otohime.." Maki pleaded in a quiet voice.

      Otohime interrupted her. "Don't even try to defend that little rude man, too insult even the mother of all Ryujin... You're lucky I don't exile you." She looked at the small man again. "You're a terrible influence on him, I shall make sure you never see him again!"

      Maki went from the stone chamber crying. Shouta showed no response to the one girl who had maybe tried to help him, as she left.

      "That was rather harsh Otohime. She's just a young girl." Her husband Yamato said.

      "Yamato, that boy was rude, but surely confused and frightened to come up with such lies. Whose fault do you think that was?"

      "Dear I believe that young girl did her best. After all she got him here. She was just trying to comfort him. Believing in his delusions was probably for the best."

      "That might be so Yamato, but surely she must not have tried very hard judging from that experience. I suppose it's my turn now." Otohime looked longingly at her husband. "We'll start by forbidding the holy words in his presence. Then well give him a proper bath, replace those silly clothes he's wearing, and surrounded him with my virgin daughters. If we're lucky, he will reform his rude ways, and be so grateful that he will ask to start a village with some of my daughters."

      "I hope it goes that way Otohime." Yamato shook his head.

      April the 9th, naval time 11:50PM, Ito's  perspective.

      The giant known as Hina was continuing to flail in the water a few hundred feet from one of the fleets destroyers. Her head in arms kept popping out of the water like a large serpent. Meanwhile Vice Admiral Ito was using the radio aboard the Yamato's bridge.

      "So you're telling me that giant female is a human!" Ito shouted into the earpiece. It wasn't that he was denying her appearance, which was very human, but rather the sheer immensity of her.

      "According to the native sir, girls here are all that large."

      "That's nonsense." Ito responded. But he still had questions. Too many in fact, for the moment he did his best to focus them.

      "This native how much have we learned from him?" "Why is he small if the other humans are giants?" "For that matter, what about the giant horned men you saw?" "The ones you reported as having blue dyed skin?"

      "That's quite a bit to answer all at once Vice Admiral Ito." He took a breath. "It seems men are small on this world, born that way. Also they seem to be very few in number." The rear admiral paused to take a breath. "It also seems were in a much larger body of water then we expected, much larger than the pacific, except, it's a lake. As for the giant men, they are not human, and apparently slaughter the humans of this world, but none have been seen for generations. I have no new Intel on them, sorry."

      "Rear Admiral, that's quite a mouthful. Can you be sure this man isn't lying?" Ito inquired.

      "I can't be sure of anything Vice Admiral, but if what he says is true, we are safe among these women. In his culture, premeditated man slaughter can result in the execution of an entire village, even accidental deaths of men can result in an execution or banishment."

      "Can you tell me it's worth the risk to trust them Rear Admiral?"

      The rear admiral paused for a moment. "I think we can believe the native sir, but it's a moot point anyways."

      "Why is that Rear Admiral? Do you find their help to be insufficient?" Ito asked.

      "It's not the Vice Admiral, while I'd love to let you take that glory in securing peace with the natives, I'm afraid I'll have to take the risk first."

      "On whose damn authority do you challenge me Komura!" As the Vice Admiral yelled into the headset, the others on the bridge couldn't help but to look at him. With a glare they were all sent back to what they were doing.

      "I'm not challenging you Vice Admiral, the Asashimo has suffered engine trouble and has stalled. The other two destroyers in our group are continuing onward. We've already sighted eleven giants on the horizon. We've no other choice."

      "Did you evacuate the crew?"

      "I tried to Vice Admiral, but all three hundred and twenty six hands on board refused." The rear admiral seemed proud of that statement.

      "I wish you good luck then Rear Admiral."

      "You as well Vice Admiral."

      Ito set down the headphones as he grinned. Looking out over the water he continued to watch the helpless giant flail in the water. "Perhaps we should not idle either."

      April the 9th, naval time 11:50PM, Sakuya's perspective.

      It was a bit hard to make out, but in the far distance, Sakuya sighted one of the gray beasts. It seemed to be moving very slow if not completely stopped. She was too far way to tell. "It could be a trap." she thought.

      "Even alone that thing is dangerous sisters." They nodded their heads. "We'll try to surround it before we get too close."

      Brandishing their spears, the girls started to fan out around a circle perimeter of the beast in the far distance. Sakuya was glad the girls had not seen her trembling.

      It was too late to call this move an ambush, but that would have never worked anyways. No, this was clearly an encirclement, or a pincer attack. The spears they wielded were over two hundred feet tall. The armor they wore, was made from tree bark and scales, each strand of bark was folded and then tied with vines binding them together into mats. Fish scales were embedded into the armor. The girls wore no helmets, nor trousers, besides some primitive foot gear which would remain unseen in a water battle. At most the armor skirt fell down to their waist, allowing the most amount of movement.

      Despite this level of protection, all eleven of the girls couldn't help but feel afraid. The beasts had literally taken the lives of multiple tree burning men. Even one of them was paralyzing them with fear. Still, the fact only one was around, couldn't help but make the girls think it had been wounded in its confrontation. But a wounded animal is often far more dangerous.

To be continued.