Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The sun was well past its zenith in the sky, marking the middle of the day as a foregone time, the sky a clear blue that could only be compared to the deep blue of the ocean that could be seen extending onto every direction.

It was a special sight that could only be appreciated while being far deep into the seas, a stark contrast with any beautiful sight that could be seen inland, yet still as remarkable. The seas always held this kind of simple yet entrancing beauty that was an exercise on its own to try and explain to someone else, even in the midst of an operation, with righteous retribution at the core of it, with a battle to the death being a likely scenario that they would be soon facing, the endless blue still seemed to demand their awe and respect.

Not for the first time, while being part of an operation, Akagi felt like she ought to take note of the views and her feelings during such times, to be prepared to share her those experiences, as well as the she that had experienced them, her thoughts, and inner musings during such times, with her dear sister and the Commander.

Had she been in control of the operation, she would have called for a brief respite, in which she could gather her thoughts and ideas properly and give them form and shape onto paper.

But alas, right now she was part of a combined fleet under the banner of Azur Lane, which at times felt like it was an exercise in restraint in more than one sense. Nonetheless, there was a silver lining to such a scenario, she was surrounded with competent people, each one a seasoned enough warrior that could truly stand by her side. Even if they were more on the boorish side.

Which, in all honesty, suited her just fine as well. After all, the endless azur in front of her was the perfect canvas, with capable warriors ready to bring their aid she could bring all those pesky nuisances down, and have all who dared oppose her sister, the commander, and herself, be ground down and become the crimson dye which she would use to bring forth a truly majestic painting for everyone to witness the depths of her love .

For her part, Enterprise focused intently on their surroundings, her bow already at the ready, with them being already close to the estimated coordinates at which the commander predicted the other half of an ambush force would be at, the chances of them engaging in battle grew higher.

They could guess that the siren group that would have attacked the Commander during his way back with the Doctors and the Conceptual-girl Song would be around such parts of the sea, a few small islands that offered good enough cover to hide a small fleet from their radars as well as their sight, placed just on the path that the commander would have taken on the way back from the research facility.

The more she thought about it, the more that she felt like there was something amiss within the information, rather, she felt like there was something they were overlooking.

“Enterprise?” came a somewhat distorted voice over their coms.

“Enterprise here.” She answered curtly, slightly concerned over the noise she was receiving over the communication.

“Woa! the distortion is real”

The seemingly amused voice answered back, somehow putting Enterprise more at ease, having already figured that the communication came from someone from their vanguard, Z16 a lively Iron Blood destroyer that despite her quirkiness had much more fighting experience as well as an incredible amount of mirror sea knowledge than her cheerful disposition let on.

“The open channels are getting feedback on various frequencies. We can detect interference on the higher frequencies, quite possibly first or second echoed-remnants from frequencies way outside of what our gear can detect, we can expect to find a mirror sea on the surroundings.” Z16 communicated with such an eagerness for action that Enterprise could almost hear her smile, while at the same time showing her knowledge on mirror seas.

“Understood. Thanks, Z16.” Enterprise replied briefly, mulling on that bit of information as she ended the communication.

The Commander’s group had faced a troublesome opponent on their trip back, and up to this point they had managed to dismantle more and more bits and parts of the whole trap, but each new component of it that they encountered made it seem like the trap had been devised as something more lethal than the Siren’s usual malicious games.

“Minneapolis, what do you think?”

“The winds convey that our quarry hides between those islands, their numbers aplenty and some hiding outside the normal senses. We can expect a good hunt.” The heavy cruiser informed Enterprise.

“That the kami of the Eagle Union would answer to you, so far from your homeland, is truly remarkable. To be able to communicate with them is difficult enough even for our priests” Akagi, the fierce Sakura Empire aircarrier responded without malice, but rather, a hint of actual astonishment could be perceived in her voice.

“The wind spirits are everywhere.” Minneapolis replied matter-of-factly “we need not be in our homeland to ask for their wisdom”

“Mmmm… perhaps we should have you try to communicate with them while at the Sakura Empire, it would make for an interesting experience.” Akagi answered almost as if musing to herself.

“Ladies. We mustn’t lose our composure, our specialists agreed that the time to face our enemy draws nigh” A voice with a posh accent informed them, somehow sounding quite clear, regardless of how the majority of their channels seemed to be affected by their closeness to a siren ambush site.

Enterprise smiled briefly at that, she knew she could always count on Belfast to hold her back and keep her grounded, even when she herself was somewhat unaware of her own slip ups. She had been getting more anxious than she cared to admit, she felt as if her wife’s voice had just simply blown away a dark cloud that had been lingering over her head by just asking everyone to be attentive.

“Oh! I can see a single plane! It has sighted us” Z16 said over one of the more secure channels with little interference in it.

“Understood. keep an eye on it, see if we can track back where it goes now”

“Hey! it's coming this way now!”

Everyone waited for more explanations from Z16’s, with more than a few questions forming in their heads. Almost half a minute of apparent silence had passed when Z16 finally reported back.

“OW! That smarts! The plane made a beeline towards me. I had to take it down, it seemed like it was on a pattern to crash against me. I’m sorry, I couldn’t figure out where it came from”.

“Thanks, Z16.” It was now Warspite that took charge of the communications “Everyone, pull back together. We will steady our approach and advance according to the directions Miss Minneapolis can foresee.”

“That was a rather odd behavior from the sirens. To have a single plane just dive at us in a suicide attack?” Azuma said as she drew closer to Warspite, Enterprise and Akagi.

The Sakuran Large Cruiser had unilaterally decided to become part of the strike force that the commander had prepared for this encounter. Given that she had been part of the first encounter against the presumed siren ambush group, she was taken in with very little opposition to the idea, any insights from her were well a welcome change over just the written reports they had regarding the event, as such, during their way to the location she had shared her experiences on the event.

“Miss Azuma, you mentioned that the Sirens you encountered had no aerial support. I guess this means this was supposed to be their complementary force.” Warspite said, almost as if musing to herself.

“I guess they found us with our pants down. We stalled too long to send a scouting force” Enterprise commented, while she readied some of her planes.

“An oversight on our part, but we can amend that. If they have aerial support, we can easily deal with them too.” Akagi said with a cheerful voice that sounded somewhat melodic, regardless of the promise of violence that was carried with her words.

“I saw the plane too” Minneapolis said once she regrouped with them “It was just like one of those from the Sakura Empire, but black. It almost evaded all the flak from Z16 and Belfast”.

“And it dived against Z16? Not with torpedoes nor bombs…” Azuma joined in, commenting on the same idea that had bothered Akagi about the subject “So it was a fighter then? A Zero?”

“Mph. Even if the Sirens are knowledgeable, they never fail to add a touch of their ill-suited taste to things, it seems” Akagi said, in a derisive way.

“I don’t think it changed its course just to sacrifice itself” Belfast, who had come back along with Minneapolis and Z16, shared her opinion.

“I think it was ‘cut loose’ in order to avoid giving up the location of its origin.” Belfast added.

That statement made everyone ponder on her words as they continued moving in formation, albeit on a much slower speed, keeping such pace until the last of their members arrived, at which point they had a mind to get as much of her insights as possible.

“Yeah, it was pretty much like one of the Sakuran Zeros, but it came in black rather than the usual green you guys have.” Z16 stated when the subject was brought once she came back. “It came straight at me once it spotted me. It seemed to have been in the middle of recon, rather than moving on a straight line, so I cannot say for certain from which direction it came from”

“That’s troublesome. We know we are about to spring a trap, but we don’t know much of it” Warspite said, contemplating their current information.

“Then that makes our path clear, we will just have to spring their trap. We see it for what it is. As such it won't really caught us unaware of its nature, when they try to strike at us, it will be because we have decided for it to be so” Akagi had a pleasant smile as she shared her thoughts, as if the result of their fight was a foregone conclusion and she only had to complete it to continue with the rest of a pleasant day.

“I think she has the right to it, ” Enterprise added “The enemy already knows we are here and most likely our location as well. I don’t believe the enemy will show itself just because we have arrived, I doubt it will abandon an advantageous position just to face us”

“mmmm… It pains me to readily go into a trap, but I truly do not see another alternative to it. We came looking for the remnants of the force that the commander encountered, and this might very well be the fight we were looking for.” Warspite inspected her sword, her turrets moved to the sides and then up and down, as if she was flexing them, getting ready for the fight.

“Alright ladies! You know which roles we have to play. Let us show the sirens what we can do!”

--

The rest of their approach went without a hitch, nothing out of the ordinary until they were close enough to the cluster of small islands, at that point rather than the few scout planes that both Enterprise and Akagi had up, it was Warspite that brought them news of their enemy.

“I see a single humanoid siren, I think it is a ‘Strategist’, she is traversing in between the two closest islands.” Warspite pointed forward, out of habit as she mentally shared the coordinates with the rest of the group.

Two airplanes, one from Akagi and another from Enterprise, airplanes that were closest to the coordinates given by Warspite, changed course from their current scouting trajectories, now moving towards that direction in order to give them a better view of the enemy.

“That seems correct, ” Enterprise started sharing her view of the situation “It's one single strategist, although it seems to be covered in a black mist? Looks as if insects were flying around her”

“Fufu~” Akagi let a derisive laugh be heard “Well, it took the sirens long enough to figure out that trick”

“What do you mean Akagi?” Warspite asked, her sight glued to the siren, trying to make sense of the phenomenon she was seeing.

“Oh?~ isn’t it obvious? That humanoid siren is simply holding her planes ‘close to her chest’ much like we do'' Akagi's smile widened as she lifted her right hand, palm open a single red burning shikigami floated in place on top of her hand, a well known metaphysical representation of her planes.

Without saying much else, the red shikigami left her palm and started moving in circles around Akagi, before anyone else could pose a question regarding the subject, another one appeared on top of Akagi’s palm, leaving it just to join the first one, now the two burning red papers circling her much in the same way that could be seen from the enemy siren.

“I see, so she must have a whole squadron already on the figurative “air”.” Enterprise commented, focusing again on the sight of the Siren ahead of them.

“I have never seen this before, how come you Sakuran haven’t shown this before?” Warspite asked, indignation and concern obvious in her voice.

“Oh my~ We are allies but we still perform wargames between us, don’t we? Surely you aren’t suggesting we let go of all our triumph cards just because we get along better?” Akagi said, her voice held both the qualities of the refinement of a noble lady as well as the disdain that was often associated with it.

“Were the Commander to ask me to reveal all of my secrets to him, to bare all of me to him, I wouldn’t hesitate to tell him of such a thing and even more.”

Warspite winced internally at that. She fully understood where Akagi was coming from, she was also fully aware of the kitsune’s lovesickness, as much as everyone else that had been unfortunate enough just like herself, to share more than a handful of sorties with the Sakuran woman. But she considered such a show of affection, towards a married man, an exercise in bad taste, especially when both wives of said man were currently present.

“She is right, it’s a doable thing and it looks quite similar” Enterprise said.

Everyone turned their eyes away from the lovesick kitsune towards Enterprise. She now had two eagle-shaped objects made of light, circling around her. She seemed unperturbed about the eyes set on her or even of Akagi who had clicked her tongue as Enterprise had easily figured out the technique that Akagi had held as a secret.

“It requires more focus than just sending the planes on a regular flight. I am guessing here, but I think that you can only hold them for a certain amount of time, mobility and other combat options would be limited as well, is that correct, Akagi?”

Akagi for her part, clicked her tongue, not even bothering to hide her annoyance, before agreeing with Enterprise.

“Then that siren must have started building up her squadron the moment her plane detected Z16. It is technically still hiding her “cards”, we can only estimate how big of a force she is holding at the ready” Warspite said.

“What would happen if we just take her down as it is?” Belfast raised her question, making everyone’s eyes turn from her to Enterprise and Akagi.

“Losing your focus during such a maneuver would immediately launch the airplanes, albeit with little control over them at such a moment. We can only guess those siren airplanes would follow whatever orders were given during takeoff, there is a certain limit as to what can be safely tested after all, so we don’t know what happens if the carrier ceases to be at such a point.” Akagi complied as an answer, with no concern regarding how ruthless the information actually was.

“Well, only one way to figure that out, then” Warspite said, with her full commandeering voice on “Ladies, take positions. We are about to shake a figurative wasp nest”

Regardless of how she had seemed to give a command, she looked at Enterprise and then Akagi, both of whom nodded in agreement before Warspite fully committed them into action.

“Ladies, allow me the honor to start our engagement, then.” Warspite focused herself to the utmost, with her target idly moving between the islands in its previous pattern almost as if it wasn’t concerned about their presence, reading her aim, her cannons aiming to the position the siren would meet the shells Warspite would purposefully provide.

Warspite, Enterprise and Akagi got a good view of the humanoid siren simply fold and drop like a ragdoll as Warspite’s volley landed true, a rather anticlimactic end to the siren, but they all knew that there was always more to what met the eye’s when it came to their encounters with the sirens.

The black dots that had surrounded the siren spread in all directions and almost seemed to disappear, as they were small enough to be rather hard to focus from the distance that the Azur Lane strike force had taken. Less than a second had gone by when they heard an electronic crackle and noise come from Z16’s direction right before they witnessed the blue sky seemingly crack as if it had been a mere window stricken by a rock.

“Inverted mirror sea has been triggered.” A disimpassioned voice was somewhat heard from Z16’s radio along with a fair share of background noise.

At that moment, reality seemed to simply shatter, the sky fell as pieces of a broken glass window had exploded, leaving only an ominous red sky as well as an uncomfortable number of airplanes, planes that were now circling the nearby islands all around them.

“Overtaking all open frequencies.” The same cold and controlled voice said now over everyone’s communication channels “Commencing engagement. Welcome, Azur Lane.”

“The airplanes are all moving in our direction. Everyone, be ready to engage!” Azuma said as she put herself at the front of their group, with Minneapolis, Belfast, and Z19 quickly joining her.

“There are several ships where the humanoid siren was,” Warspite replied. “They are heading our direction, they won’t give me an easy target like the previous siren.”

Not much else needed to be said. They all readied themselves, taking the positions they were best at. With them being suddenly swarmed by Siren bombers, they wasted no focus on banter nor worries, but rather on taking down as many enemies before they could be overwhelmed by the enemy force.

The quiet sea was suddenly filled with the cacophony of battle, cannons and gunfire overwhelming the senses, explosions from enemies as well as the occasional grunt from the Kansen toughening up the pain from a lucky hit against them as they evaded the worst which could come from torpedoes and bombs coming their way.

“There's something else here” Akagi was the first to voice her concerns, with an annoyed voice “The airplane fighters are quite skilled, it takes too much concentration to take them down.”

“Yes.” Enterprise complied in her usual curt manner as she had her focus mostly on the fight “They are fierce, some of the fiercest I have encountered…”

“The black Zeros?” Belfast asked as she moved out of the way of a torpedo that had come somewhat close to her but with not enough support to be a concern.

Akagi almost growled more than answered at that “yes… they seem to be copying the skill of our fallen warriors. There are black zeros mingled along with the usual siren airships. The nerve!”

“Gather back!” Warspite commanded “There are more fighters than bombers in the enemy wave. Provide air support, be ready to swap tactics when told!”

They had barely grouped together when they heard of a cannon in the distance, soon followed by the column of water all too close for comfort. They had been too focused on the airplanes to realize that two groups of ships, each one with at least one battleship, had come out from behind the islands in front of them.

“Change to defensive positions!” Warspite yelled with swiftness and the certainty that only experience could bring “Minneapolis! Akagi! Find us a path!!”

The spirit-guided Kansen kept to themselves rather than immediately answer back. Warspite said no more for she knew she could trust them with such a request. The two of them seemingly continued their fight against the continuous oncoming waves of planes coming their way before they responded back to Warspite.

“The Winds convey to me that our quarry is behind the northernmost island” Minneapolis stated before ending her communication to focus again on the assault of airplanes and evading the incoming fire from the two forces coming their way.

“The Kami will bless us with cover as well as a tailwind for us…” Akagi said with a tone of voice that was unlike her “The Kami seem all too willing to help us, I can feel that as well as anger from them …”

“Be as it may! We have our directions, ladies! Minneapolis! Belfast! Lead the way!” Warspite commanded as she positioned herself at the rear. “Enterprise, Akagi, can you scout ahead?”

“un!” The two of them answered almost in unison, with Enterprise apparently picking up a bad habit of responding with a monosyllable, like her Sakuran counterparts.

They found the change of pace quite favorable, with a sudden bout of fog popping apparently out of nowhere, a gift given by the Kami to Akagi, as well as a wind that truly bordered on the magical, enhancing their movement as if they had been using sails, for the Kami truly didn’t see, or maybe they didn’t care, for the difference between the two kinds of naval vessels. They quickly moved to a position in which they could focus on defending themselves against disoriented enemies coming out of the divine fueled fog only to find themselves against the brunt of the Kansen’s guns.

“Kansen have strayed from the original scenario… unforeseen weather patterns in action. Finding possible patterns to follow…” the same voice of the siren controlling the mirror sea stated, yet it now sounded obviously confused.

Their movement continued in such a favorable way, as they moved towards the island that Minneapolis had pointed them towards, the dark red sky looming over them as Warspite kept giving orders, consulting with them towards their plan of action, or checking on their state of wellbeing, as they drew closer to the position of the one responsible for the mirror sea in which they were currently trapped.

“I have a visual!” Enterprise said, breaking the pattern of interwoven gunfire and maneuvers they had taken.

“Good, what do you-” Warspite started, being shortly cutoff

“THEY DARE!!” Akagi practically hissed over their communications, everyone could almost hear the snarl on her face. “I will destroy you, sirens!!! I will make a present of your charred remains to the Kami after I-”

Warspite as well as everyone else swiftly changed channels in order to focus on their plan of action, they knew that Akagi would either calm down and follow suit to the different channel, or she wouldn’t.

“Enterprise, what did you see?” Warspite asked, concern evident in her voice.

“I saw a small fleet around two Sakuran-like airship carriers on one side of the island, we wouldn't have seen them from our previous position. They look a lot like Akagi’s vessel, though” Enterprise replied. “That might be the reason…”

“Well, that is our answer regarding these ‘black Zeros’, but it is all rather uncharacteristic of the siren.” Warspite said almost musing to herself.

“Similar copies of vessels can be created within mirror seas, having more than one Akagi-like ship within one single siren sea is not impossible, just not really recorded before in the same encounter.” Z16 commented between shots as she continued taking down airplanes that still trickled down their way.

“THEY!!- To use my likeness is one thing but!-”

Akagi had suddenly jumped onto the same frequency and then she went quiet after her own outburst. To which everyone listened intently to decide if they needed to move towards the next standard communication channel, which was a true, tested and somewhat painful protocol they had long since established for when sortieing with the more impassioned Kansen within Azur Lane.

“Wait! I am calm, I am in control now…”

It sounded like Akagi had fought her own anger and frustrations alike and came up triumphant. As such they waited for her to continue.

“One is a copy of my own vessel, but not truly my ‘normal vessel’…” Akagi stated, once again sounding like she was burning with barely contained rage “and the other is a copy of my sister’s… the siren have dared to show us two Amagi class aircraft carriers”

Chapter Text

“Azur Lane, you have found me… that was very unlikely…” The siren spoke overriding their open unencrypted channels, she sounded confused, and the proved by the fact that they managed to draw close enough to be able to see her humanoid figure on top of one of the black vessels, copies of the Amagi class carriers, meaning that the siren had remained baffled for more time that would have been advisable. Advisable for a friendly that is, when it concerned to Sirens, there were written protocols on how to make of them sitting ducks, some of such protocols included ways to get them monologuing.

Their respite lasted less than they would have liked, and soon enough, the siren fleet ahead of them started moving, the red lights on the vessels becoming brighter making them seem like they had awakened and become ready to be part of the conflict. With black siren battleships moving at the front and black cruisers taking position as well, surely enough the carriers would reposition out of their range, and with their location being fairly evident by now, it wouldn’t be long for the rest of the ships to move towards them.

Warspite had managed to get a shot at the fleeting carriers, despite having very little time to focus on the shot, and the carriers having started moving with evasion in mind. The shot did land but unfortunately the shot had over penetrated, a fact that made Warspite growl in response, it had been such a rushed shot that she had hyper focused on landing it on the spot, rather than checking she had set the proper ammo for it.

“A lesser marksman would have failed the shot, Warspite” Enterprise said, while mentally readying her planes to take flight from her rigging.

“A better one would have taken down one of those ships” Warspite replied in a sour tone.

“Then you must introduce us to this ‘better marksman’, Lady Warspite. Queen Elizabeth would surely enjoy making an event just to prove you wrong on that statement.” Belfast added.

“hah” was the short response by the seasoned dreadnought.

Their banter was soon interrupted by the battleships in front of them, their shots missing them by an ample enough margin, yet they were not of the habit of making pointless gambles so they began their own serpentine approach towards their enemy.

By now Warspite had a much better sense of where the enemy stood, so her next shot landed true, starting a fire on one of the battleships and crippling one of the turrets of the other one.

“Oh! Just let me at the small ones! I bet I can chew a hole through them!” Z16 said, sounding quite excited over something everyone else was almost certain she wouldn’t try.

On the other hand, her rigging would twist one way or another, shifting her weight in such a way that would make her able to perform remarkable evasive maneuvers, maneuvers that made the poor accuracy of the enemy drop by a couple more ranks. Every now and then her rigging would drop a few torpedoes that forced the enemy to move onto unfavorable positions, least they commit to the depths, this ended up making one of the enemy cruisers find itself on a position much more favorable to Minneapolis who didn’t waste such an opportunity landing a lucky hit at the ammo cache of the ship, turning it onto a makeshift firework.

Another one of Z19’s torpedoes was barely evaded by another cruiser, which suddenly exploded, having encountered a torpedo that Belfast had sent taking into account the spread that Z19 had delivered.

“Quite grateful for your presence here, Miss Friedrich” Belfast said, somehow sounding almost as if she had made a curtsy at that.

“Huh? Oh! You are welcome! I’m glad to be here at a good brawl too!!” Z16 said with an ample toothy grin on her face.

By now both Enterprise and Akagi had managed to put a solid enough air force to provide enough support to easily deal with the siren ships in front of them and had already sent some of them on a brief mission. A mission involving the siren battleship that thanks to Warspite was now missing a working turret, as well as a chunk of the ship’s vessel where said turret was previously hosted.

“The sirens have made a makeshift pincer maneuver” Belfast warned “The dark airplanes have caught up with us, coming over the island, and I can see humanoid sirens coming on the other side, behind the battleships”

“It is peacebreakers, they make for decent prey” was all the warning Minneapolis gave before making her way ahead to tackle the incoming forces.

“Hell yeah!! That sounds like a good fight! Let me at them!” Z16 said, soon following after Minneapolis,

Belfast and Azuma for their part positioned themselves back, closer to Enterprise, Akagi and Warspite. The latter didn’t seem too concerned about their vanguard leaving to tackle the incoming humanoid sirens, but rather, she focused on the remaining siren ships, giving Minneapolis and Z16 solid cover, shooting at the siren vessels as they focused on the approaching Kansen. She made quick work of the remaining cruiser, and with the assistance of an expertly placed full volley of armor piercing shells, she retrofitted the remaining battleship onto a submarine.

“aaaand that’s that.” Warspite said, focusing back on their current situation “How do things look for us on this front?”

“More planes than we saw before. I think the enemy carriers have started launching even more” Belfast said.

“These feel wrong… yet… familiar somehow” Akagi said, discomfort evident in her voice.

Enterprise grunted at that. She wasn’t sure how should these enemy copied aircraft should feel, she felt like she should had enough experience on siren warfare to bring a useful iota of experience to the conversation, but fighting against the sirens always felt like one was chasing an elusive thought in the quagmire of self-doubt. Was it a poetic analysis of their current standing? Yes. Was it useful given the current circumstances? No.

Her reasoning took less than a couple seconds in fact, for better or for worse, this was not her first rodeo when it came to trying to figure out siren machinations. As such she was somewhat confident that she could relay on her true and tried method for dealing with them, she would soldier it on, focus as best as possible on the fight at hand, and leave it to her friends and family to figure out what was the best course of action while she gave them a brief of respite.

As such, she managed to reach a razor sharp focus, concentrating on her airplanes, one dogfight at a time against the enemies that were making their way to them. More than once she felt Belfast’s reassuring hand on her back and her arm, gently guiding her to reposition herself, most likely to try and gain a better positioning on their formation, she wasn’t too concerned about this, if things really did go south, she was sure that Belfast would truly bring her out of her battle-driven focus so they would adjust adequately to whatever could be happening.

As such, she took their enemies one by one, each battle was a fierce one in which she had to focus to the best of her skill, more times than she was used to she had to fully dive her focus into her planes, in order to fight against these black zeroes, some of these aerial dog fights were the fiercest she had ever encountered. She didn’t win all of these fights, for that was simply impossible in war, but by pure willpower alone she could continue sending fighter after fighter to tackle against their enemies. Several times she had an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu as she fought on the oncoming enemies, feeling more and more tired as the battles continued, even with the additional fighters from Akagi as well as the anti-air support coming from Belfast and Warspite she felt like the fight were dragging longer the more she fought.

“These things are getting better the more we fight them!” Warspite practically growled as she took another painful hit by the black Zero’s guns, apparently their specs had gone up high enough to be able to penetrate a battleship’s plates.

“What’s the current status?!”

“Enterprise and Akagi are still holding up, but they look like they are being slowly overwhelmed by the intensity!” Belfast answered back while she did her best to provide anti-air support to the two of them.

“Akagi-san?! Akagi-san!!” Azuma yelled at Akagi as she drew closer to shake the prideful kitsune she had been providing air support for until now.

“What is happening, Azuma?” Warspite asked, barely able to bring her attention off the multiple planes surrounding them.

“I-I don’t know, Akagi-san suddenly stopped moving, she seems to be staring into nothingness and is not responding.”

The Kitsune, without warning, had suddenly gone quiet and immobile, all her planes were quickly taken down, which in turn had put more stress on everyone else.

--

“Where am I? I… I was in the middle of a fight against the sirens” Akagi said to no one as she found herself in a blank space devoid of any discernible shape, or even sense of direction

She tried her best to rationalize what might have happened or where she could currently find herself. Thinking this could be some sort of siren trap.

All her thoughts came to a halt when she finally heard a voice calling her name. a voice she had only heard once in her life, back when she was but a trainee under her sister’s guidance, back at her time at the innermost sacred grounds of the Sakura Empire.

“Akagi.” The voice was felt more than heard. Like a cool calm breeze on a spring’s morning.

Akagi felt compelled to kneel, but in this space, she soon found that there was no sense of proper direction of where the ground was for her to prostrate.

“Oh, sacred tree. Your servant Akagi, listens to thee.”

Rather than being able to once again hear the voice of the Holy Sakura tree, she was shown glimpses of many visions. Akagi saw human souls, plucked away from the eternal cycle of death and rebirth, some even taken from the true depths, from their personal asuran hells where they were undergoing their tribulations, now deprived from the opportunity to further ascend as spirits in the Sakura empire.

She then saw these same souls now flying all around her, fighting against her and the other members of Azur Lane.

It was then that she understood that she had been given a duty to accomplish by the sacred tree, to bring forth retribution to those that had laid hands on those restless souls, to release them from whatever was currently holding them, and bring them back to the land that they had given their everything for.

Akagi then doubted herself. She was fully intent on accomplishing this sacred duty that had been given to her, but she was certain that the Siren’s machinations had gone beyond her current capabilities. It pained her to admit it, but if the gray ghost that was currently overwhelmed were to fall here, she would soon follow.

At that moment she felt the power of the Sakura tree enveloping her like the warmth of the sun on her skin, becoming part of her. Instead of fighting it, she accepted the presence of the sacred Sakura tree into her, embraced it and welcomed it as if it was a dear friend.

--

“AKAGI! Are you alright!? You just- ” Azuma had been startled when Akagi suddenly seemed to come back to herself, as she began moving, only to be further surprised as in the next instant Akagi was suddenly enveloped in a bright light that forced Azuma to close her eyes.

“Azuma-san, thank you for your concern,” Akagi said with a calmness that was very uncharacteristic of her, which in turn made Azuma slightly more concerned.

Not as concerned as the fact that Azuma could feel the aura of the Sacred Sakura tree within Akagi. Rather than a vague feeling of similitude, she felt this as a true and undeniable fact, to the point that she felt compelled to prostrate herself in presence of the protecting deity of her homeland.

“Tarry not, Azuma-san. We now have a sacred mission to accomplish.” Akagi said, her voice resounded in a way that seemed almost mystical.

Azuma tried her best to comprehend what was happening. In front of her stood Akagi, wearing a different clothing than she had been using just seconds prior, an ornate traditional Sakuran kimono, white, pink and red were the colors used for the embroidery and the elegant patterns on it. On her neck a necklace of magatama, over her shoulders Akagi now wore a hagoromo that seemed to be woven by white flames.

Akagi lifted her right arm, and with a resounding voice that seemed more akin to the rumble of a towering tree echoing around them, she commanded her airplanes to join the fight once more.

“Nogitsune no Senbon Sakura” dozens of airplanes made of white and pink fire manifested around Akagi shooting all around her in order to join the overwhelming battle just for more and more to continue appearing and joining the rest.

The fiery Sakuran airplanes made their way to retaliate against the dark enemy planes, with hers now being being probably stronger, shooting down many of them, giving a much needed respite to the Kansen, which they took gladly and could finally mend to some of their injuries coming from the enhanced dark zeros.

Belfast made a point to take this opportunity, in which she was quickly beside Z16, who had arrived back right after dealing with the humanoid battleship sirens, and joined straight away to fight the seemingly endless wing of black zeroes. The energetic Ironblood destroyer had a limping left arm, a hole where the main turret on her rigging used to be, twisted torpedo tubes, and several gashes on her body as well as a wide toothy grin to her face.

“T-that will teach them to pick a fight with us!” she said between pants as Belfast gave her a quick check up and patched the worst of her injuries with a medical kit she brought from somewhere within her rigging.

“You sure did show them, miss Friedrich.” Belfast said, giving the destroyer a pat on her back before heading to check on Minneapolis.

“T-Thanks! But please cut it with that ‘miss Friedrich’ that’s only for -The- Miss Friedrich”

“Will take that into account once we make it out of this battle” Belfast teased, before making her way towards the other Kansen that had gone on a hunting spree for siren battleships.

Belfast checked on Minneapolis who in turn gladly accepted her assistance, being worse for wear, her own fight against the humanoid siren had apparently gone without much of an issue, but in turn she hadn’t done half as well against the deluge of black zeros, having very little options to deal with them, preferring to offer cover to Enterprise blind spots during the engagement.

The Kansen in question soon approached them, still focused on commanding her own fighters, yet not as intensely as she had done before, once she realized that there was a change in the flow of battle she quickly changed her attention to find the source of the sudden change. Her injuries were much less severe than those that Minneapolis had suffered, a testament of the heavy cruiser’s willingness to remain as a reliable member of the strike force despite only being able to offer her own body as a shield for her friends during.

“That’s something truly different” Enterprise said as she looked at Akagi’s direction “I can truly say I am glad for it though.”

Belfast approached Enterprise, gently caressing her cheek before looking at Akagi as well.

“It is a remarkable change, indeed. I hope it is enough, though. While the fight is much easier to handle now, I cannot say it is in our favor just yet.” Belfast added.

Their conversation had continued in a haphazard way, as their battle continued but in a much more leisurely way, being able to assist the large force of fiery pink airplanes from Akagi.

Their fight seemed to have reached a new stalemate when suddenly the red sky flickered and glitched with a loud screech as if a computer screen had failed and its power leaked off, the red sky slowly fading away, leaving behind the blue sky, taking with it more than half of the black Zeroes with it. The other half was dealt with much faster than they would have been able to do it, becoming obvious now that the mirror sea was designed to bolster the black Zeroes specifically.

“Booooom!! Another successful mission for the wolf pack!!” A cheerful voice came from their encrypted radio communications.

“That’s the wolf pack for you baby!! We are so throwin' a party when we get back!” a second voice said.

“Hey, I am a Dragon! not a wolf at all! And I totally helped too! So this isn't simply a victory for a wolf pack!” a third voice joined in the mirth over the radio.

“What's that? You don’t want to join for the after-mission party? I bet the commander will make it super special for us!”

“Wha-?! I never said such a thing!” the third voice answered back.

“Wolf pack! Wolf pack!” The other 2 voices merrily chanted in unison

“Whoops! I see some siren destroyers coming this way, best of luck girls!”

“Hey Z16, you can stop pretending to be all sea-mirror savvy, now that we destroyed its control box, or they might start asking more serious questions and we won’t be able to help you answer those, laterrrrrs!~”

“Mphm! I don’t need to pretend to know a lot of siren stuff now that they know how good I am at beating the crap out of the sirens!” Z16 said out loud, apparently having forgotten to open the communications with the now fleeing submarines.

“Well I am glad those girls were able to accomplish their mission.” Warspite said.

Once the fight seemed to turn much into their favor, she hadn’t actually slowed down at all, she focused on dealing with the missing black enemy places while moving on the direction the copied aircraft carriers had gone towards, soon seeing part of one of them peeking from behind the nearest island south.

“Well, I hope you have some energy left on you ladies. There are at least two more carriers we have to deal with.”

Chapter Text

While she continued to deal with the scarce remnants which now took her no real effort to do so, as once the effects of the mirror sea were gone the rest of the enemy Zeros were not only weaker, but they also moved sluggishly. They didn’t quite drop as puppets with their strings cut as she had hoped, but there was a marked change in the gravitas of their current circumstances.

Once Akagi had finished with most of the black Zeros that had surrounded them, once she saw the right opportunity, she sent a small squadron of airplanes, with a few torpedo bombers among those, in the direction that Warspite had pointed towards.

“Azuma-san, are you alright?” Akagi asked her Sakuran compatriot, as she intended to move onto their next task.

Now that the submarine force that they had brought hiding under their bigger ships on the trip to this location had completed their mission, of scouting or dealing with the mirror sea, it was apparent that most of the enemy trap had been dismantled. They had a moment to check on their state before heading forward on their newly acquired mission.

“M-me? I am well enough,” Azuma answered with concern evident in her “Rather, I should ask you instead. Akagi, what has happened? Has the sacred Sakura tree perhaps blessed you?”

“Un” a simple monosyllable confirmation and a minute nod was given by Akagi while looking straight at Azuma

Azuma could not only feel the truth coming from the simple yet undeniable statement she could feel it even from  her aura. But she was able to witness that a bright burning pink light was coming from Akagi’s pupils, the same sort of light that could be seen on the kitsune’s older sister, Amagi, from Shinano, and many others with a true devotion to their country. Azuma thought that perhaps what she was witnessing was the most obvious and marked trait that they were true champions of the Sacred Sakura tree.

“The sacred tree reached me and then showed me visions. There are souls of fallen Sakuran warriors trapped within the Siren machines.”

Akagi stated this as she looked above them at a clear sky where only their combined Airforce remained, Enterprise had refused to simply rest and let everything to Akagi, so among the pink-fire airplanes many of Enterprise’s blue airplanes remained making rounds around them.

“I thought the planes held them captive, but no matter how many I brought down, I couldn’t feel a single soul being released during the entire fight.”

“I-I see… that would explain why these Zeros were so fierce. Oh! The black Amagi carriers!” Azuma said, in the sudden moment of her epiphany that she immediately shared, she had failed to stop herself from mentioning the vessels that had stressed Akagi so much before their combat against the black Zeros.

“Yes. My thoughts as well” Akagi replied as she looked at the direction her torpedo planes had gone to “Worry not about my temper. The Sacred Tree offers me its wisdom as well as a soothing calmness”

“Besides. The sacred Tree wouldn’t have given me this mission if it didn’t intend for our enemies to turn into cinders.” Akagi let out a low chuckle that sounded much more characteristic to her older sister, yet contained her usual promise of violence and retribution “Now come, Azuma-san. We must gather the others.”

“Warspite, I want to follow the two aircraft carriers that we encountered before.” Akagi gave a minute bow as she made her request to Warspite.

Warspite, along with everyone else, looked at Akagi as if she had grown a second head to make her request. For while it sounded like a simple statement, there was no denying this was the closest to an actual humble and courteous request from the pride-driven Kitsune.

“Y-yes, that should be our priority, they pose the highest threat we have encountered as of late. As such we should all go. And make no mistake, I want a full explanation on what just happened, but you are correct, the sirens were all too focused on escaping with these Copied vessels, which means we should take those out of commission.” Warspite said, relying on her experience to quickly shift her mindset and focus on the mission at hand as she mentally chewed at everything that had happened.

“We need more intel though; I barely saw one at the closest island.” Now focusing on this as another task, she was mentally reviewing what should be checked, rather than going at this new task blindly.

“Belfast, Enterprise, what’s the status of everyone?”

“Many scratches and bruises, but we will be fine, Lady Warspite” Belfast answered, at which Warspite nodded, simply deciding to ignore being called a lady.

“Akagi. How about you two?”

“We are fine, hurt pride at worst” Akagi stated.

“Hah. Z16, what of our friendly submarines?”

“Eh? Ah! Yes! their orders were to wander around the engagement place, until we give full clearance status, or until something newsworthy happens, they will keep radio silence on their end”

“Ok. Akagi, can you and Enterprise run some scouting force around and ahead while we make our way to the last known location of the carriers?”

“I already sent a small force ahead” Akagi said “nothing seems to be ahead of us, in fact, the carriers seem to be on their own. Perhaps they didn’t expect to have to escape so soon and they have any other closer back.

“I believe I can take their propellers off”

“Can you not take them down entirely?” Warspite asked as she pondered the distances and precision needed to pull such a feat for other carriers within the Royal Navy.

“I could, but I need them as complete as possible. We are to retrieve something from inside them.”

Warspite raised her eyebrow at that. It was not her first time dealing with flairs for the dramatic when it came to the various members from Azur Lane, as such the request didn’t come as a weird one.

“If you are confident that you can take down the propellers, go ahead with it” Warspite agreed as she signaled to everyone else to be ready to go on with their task.

Akagi closed her eyes and stood still, focusing entirely on the planes that were well into a pursuit with the fleeing copied-carriers. She maneuvered them to deftly evade the anti air support, splitting her planes in two different groups, able to create a pincer attack that would surely hit the propulsion systems of the copied black vessels. The irony of it all was not lost to her, giving place to a dark chuckle as she knew all too well the blind spots of the vessel’s as well as the angles, speed, and the minutiae of things that could assist in taking the vessels down.

And just as expected, Akagi was able to cripple the siren’s copy of her own vessel, it was a tad tricker for the Amagi aircraft carrier, mostly because she had to control her own rage. Even if it was a cheap imitation, she was basically taking shots at the glorious shape of what her dear sister’s vessel could have been. Akagi was not only promising herself that she would burn down the insolent heretical vermin that had dared to come up with such an idea, but at some point she was starting to be convinced that the twist of fate that had impeded her sister to foregone her retrofit was something in which the sirens must have surely had a hand in such an event, which would have allowed her otherwise to sail the seas along with her, as the first carrier division held by the Amagi class sisters.

Gritting her teeth through the ordeal, Akagi managed to cripple the second copied Amagi class carrier. Having left the two of them like fish in a pond, just waiting for them to arrive and snatch them. Akagi at least had a brief moment of joy when she managed to see the irate siren on top of the carrier’s deck as she seemed to struggle and wail at having to deal with both of the carriers being left without their propulsion systems.

“It is done, I have destroyed their propellers, we only have to go and seize the ships” Akagi opened her eyes once she had set the planes back towards her, encountering the baffled faces of her comrades.

“I could see the explosions, but I was barely able to get close enough on time to see the battle” Enterprise added.

“Remarkable, such precision is a feat in itself, not even taking into account how far away that fight took place.” Warspite stated, looking at the dot on the horizon, that was the island where they would find the copied carriers.

“Let us make haste.” Akagi suddenly said “We would still have to deal with their anti-air turrets. Besides, not seeing anything so far, does not mean we are completely clear from danger”

“I couldn’t have said it better,” Warspite stated, nodding at the words. “Z16, Minneapolis, are you ready to take the front again?”

“Yes. I have yet to find the prey we came for, I’m not willing to let it escape” Minneapolis replied firmly as she checked her gear.

“This is but barely a scratch! Like hell I would stop without giving them a good pounding as payback!” the cheerful Iron Blood destroyer all but yelled in response.

“Alright, then. Akagi, Enterprise, ” she looked at both of them intently, making it obvious the next part of their task was entrusted to them. “set a perimeter to make sure we are not caught unawares, and lead the way.”

“I think she just left?” Enterprise said, seemingly confused with her own statement.

“I concur” Akagi responded “A single -standard- siren aircraft took off from the carrier while I focused on weakening the anti-air turrets, since then the response from the vessels is close to nil”

“I would think that makes sense from a purely strategic view, if the vessels are truly sitting ducks, it would make more sense to abandon them rather than risk confrontation with us” Belfast shared her opinion.

“But, what about a good brawl then?” Z16 questioned

“This is true, most of the time the sirens end their engagements in grand final encounters, there’s usually more zeal to them” Minneapolis said, sharing the iron blood’s destroyer opinion, to a degree.

“Minneapolis-san, can you tell if there is any source of enemy left behind?” Akagi asked, the honorifics raised more than one eyebrow in response, but she refused to address the question in the air.

Minneapolis for her part didn’t pay much mind to honorifics, she had grown used to many quirks within Azur Lane, instead she focused on the area in front of them.

The two black Amagi class carriers floated aimlessly on the sea, more than one trail of smoke indicating fires going on, mostly involving the turrets at the sides surely, but aside from that, the vessels seemed completely devoid of life to them.

After squatting down while on top of the sea’s surface, touching the water, lifting her hand and then standing up and peering at the skies seemingly focusing on something in the air between her and the vessels.

“The spirits don’t sense anything alive inside of the vessels, nor do they see or hear sirens around. But it doesn’t end there. They seem… bothered, annoyed. Something inside of the vessels carries the Siren’s taint and the spirits find it disquieting” Their head hunter explained, the most straightforward she could, which was still too cryptic for some of them. Warspite just tilted her head to the side.

“Well, that’s much more spiritual than I can comprehend, at least we know there are no more ambushes coming our way within here.” Warspite said.

“Lady Warspite, please don’t unnecessarily jinx us, we don’t have a shining record for this mission so far” Belfast replied.

“pfft, please, I am too old to believe in things like jinxes.” She rolled her eyes at that.

“Oh? Is that the sort of thing you tell Mr. Hunt? That you are too old for his attentions?” Belfast quipped with mischief evident to her words.

Warspite sputtered at that, coughed a couple times and blushed fiercely as she looked in a whole completely different direction from everyone’s eyes which had set on her at that moment.

“Goodness gracious, Belfast! Marriage has given you a sharp tongue!” The Royal Navy dreadnought finally said once she had found some sense of composure she was comfortable with.

“You know the saying, hang with Eagles and you will learn to peck. And I must admit I do love my two Eagles” Belfast merrily responded, her fingers touching Enterprise’s arm briefly, which earned her a small smile from Enterprise as well as a slight blush, with no one else noticing the intimate gesture.

“Anyhow, we should tackle this as seriously as possible. Enterprise-san, if you would, I need your assistance for this, yours too, Minneapolis-san” Akagi stated without taking her eyes from the vessel in front of her.

“Wouldn’t it be better if all of us go? Or you meant you want the rest of us to tackle the other ship?” Warspite asked, cocking her head to the side, intrigued by Akagi’s intentions at the moment.

“No. The three of us will enter both ships in such a manner. Right now, these ships are closer to floating tombs than ships. I mean this in more of a literal way.”

Minneapolis’s eyebrows shot up at that, she then squatted facing the vessels, moving her hands along the moving water with her fingertips touching the surface every now and then, from time to time her hands would move towards her mouth as if she was trying to whisper at the winds.

“I will explain things fully once we accomplish our task, otherwise I risk wasting the power I was granted for this task. As for why Enterprise and Minneapolis, it is because these souls need to be reminded that their war has already ended. Seeing me might not help in this endeavor, but seeing their former foes that survived them might.”

“Just…” Warspite sighed and shook her head seemingly deflating a bit “Just promise me you will write a full report on this. I am willing to admit this is going over my head, so I would first need to find someone to make sense of this for me”

“Worry not. I am sure this experience will be enlightening to say the least” Akagi bowed minutely at Warspite and then looked at both Enterprise and Minneapolis who in turn simply nodded their heads in acknowledgement.

Regardless of what was said before, they circled the vessels cautiously, analyzing them. Akagi guided them to board one of the two ships, which they entered only after seeing no response from the ships, going as far as to take down a couple of the remaining anti air turrets, in order to see if there was any sort of reaction.

They decided that the best way would be to jump straight to the deck, and from there they were to make their way to the bridge. This plan was simple and yet all too effective, as they found no opposition, other than too small passages which meant they had to recall their riggings. The passages were still uncomfortably small for them even without their riggings, these passages were also completely filled thanks to Akagi’s tails. The only other obstacle they found was one bulkhead door on their way being tightly closed, before they decided to breach it with naval artillery, they agreed to try open it normally, and anticlimactically enough they found it was not welded shut or anything like that. Apparently, the copied aircraft went as far as to copy minor manufacturing defects, like doors that shut too tightly.

“That door always annoyed Yamamoto-san, he hit his head once when opening with too much strength and he-“ Akagi chuckled briefly as she started sharing that tidbit of info with a bit of nostalgia, until she suddenly went quiet.

She was not the only one, in fact everyone had gone quiet. Kansen would rarely share their memories as naval vessels. Some were open to share their knowledge gained and could give a recount of certain events, such was the case of Warspite, who would retell whole campaigns in order to spread the renown of the Royal navy’s campaigns. But for most of those willing to share their past “lives”, it was a thing they did behind closed doors only with people they trusted.

Meanwhile, others couldn’t quite recall such memories as well, or at all in fact. Some even would completely ascertain they held no such memories. But how much of that was true, was something all the Kansen agreed to not delve deeper without an actual reason.

“Akagi, this vessel?-” Enterprise tried reaching to Akagi

“This vessel must be a trick created by the sirens! That's what this is… Anyway, we must hurry.” Akagi cut her and continued moving forward, swiftly moving into one door, and getting out of Enterprise’s view.

“Wait, Akagi! I didn’t-” Enterprise really wanted at the very least to make it clear that her concern laid on the siren copied vessel being so similar, to the point where even smaller existing defects were present. The sirens weren’t keen on small nostalgic details that “gave character” to something, or verisimilitude for that matter. They seemingly cared only for mathematical precision, upgrades, data, and cold numbers.

But before Enterprise could pose her question properly, she reached the room at which Akagi had entered and immediately came to a halt right beside Akagi.

They had finally reached the bridge. But instead of the helm, they found a device that held some sort of black bubble about 2 feet in diameter, or rather, it seemed to contain some sort of black smoke inside of it. Upon further inspection, Akagi and Enterprise both saw that the wisps and swirls of smoke inside of it were the result of some objects moving in circles inside of the bubble, they realized this mostly due to the light emanating from two of the objects inside. They drew closer to get a better sense of what they were looking at.

“Are those wisdom cubes inside of that thing?” Minneapolis was the first to break the silence.

“There sure seem like wisdom cubes, but all this smoke show is not letting me see it properly”

Enterprise got closer to the black bubble, but Akagi stopped her, putting her arm in front of her.

“Wait. We haven’t seen anything else, this could be the siren taint that Minneapolis warned us about”

“I believe this to be true, it feels… unnatural” Minneapolis said.

“What are we to do then?” Enterprise asked, an eyebrow raised at that.

“I believe this is the reason the Sacred tree has lent me its powers, as such this is where I would need your assistance” Akagi nodded twice at her own words.

Enterprise and Minneapolis looked at each other and then at Akagi, before they could formulate their question, without peeling her eyes off the bubble the Sakuran signaled for them to come closer.

“Here, I think it should suffice for you two to make physical contact with me, just put your hands on my-” Akagi didn’t have the time to finish her sentence, at that point Minneapolis had simply jumped into the fluff, head first embracing some of Akagi’s tails.

Enterprise’s lips flatlined at that, it wasn’t that she had never thought about stroking the tails of one of the Sakuran kitsune’s tails, it was in fact something that had gone through everyone’s mind within Azur Lane. But rather, she was confident that Akagi intended to have them put their hands on her shoulders which Enterprise was more than happy to comply with, although, in reality it was much more easy to get a hold of one of the tails, which were everywhere truth be told, than Akagi’s shoulder which basically involved getting right beside the kitsune.

Sighing internally, deciding it would be as awkward to try and shimmy around the tails within the somewhat limited space of the bridge, just to reach Akagi’s shoulder, Enterprise gave up, reaching forward and getting a hold of one of the tails in front of her.

“I suppose that works too… uh, I can actually feel the connection. Yes, this ought to do”

Akagi put her hands in front of her, as if trying to hold a ball, within moments, a small pink flame appeared right between her hands. She seemed to focus intently, closing her eyes, within mere moments the flame grew bigger and brighter. Enterprise thought that she could feel the flame as well, it didn’t seem to emit any sort of heat, but there was a certain warmth to it, the more she looked at it, the more she felt from it. Rather, it was a mixture of various feelings, a certain amount of pride, a fair amount of sadness, a dose of concern, a hint of anger, all of it wrapped around a weird sense of nostalgia and longing.

Without fully realizing when, Enterprise saw that Akagi had pushed the ball of fire, which now was big enough to envelope the dark bubble. The black smoke started to bubble in a weird way, making small crackling sounds here and there, creating little explosions, but little by little becoming much clearer.

There was a point in which the fire subsided, Akagi gave a sigh of relief, now looking back at the space where the bubble had been before. Four items remained in place of the bubble, still floating in a circular motion as they had been doing so before, the two wisdom cubes which had a bright clear white pearlescent color to them, and two more things that made everyone’s eyebrows raise in evident confusion. Everyone but Minneapolis who was still taking advantage of being given “permission” to dive onto the Kitsune’s fluffy and luxurious tails.

“Are those army dog tags?” Enterprise asked, before her thoughts could really hold a grasp of the meaning of such articles being in the “heart” of a siren ship.

“Yes… The id tags of many of the pilots that ate, laughed, cried, fighted, and died, as part of the crew serving inside ‘The Akagi’ ” She said with deep solemnity in her voice.

She took the metallic tags first, letting the other articles still floating in place, she carefully put them on a piece of silk that she procured from somewhere within her clothes and after a quiet and simple prayer she stored them within her clothes as well.

“These souls deserve a proper burial. I will see to it.”

Within seconds of removing the dog tags the whole ship rumbled, the metal creaked and a general sense of discomfort was felt all around them.

“The ship feels more like a husk now” Minneapolis said, still somewhere within Akagi’s tails “Could sink once we remove everything”

“Un. I agree, let’s make this quick then.” Akagi said.

She swiftly grabbed the two white wisdom cubes and handed them to Enterprise without a comment or any evidence of concern about handing her such valuable articles. In return the ship rumbled once again yet much stronger now. Once it subsided, the vessel felt less like a ship and almost as if they were standing on top of a -vague idea- of a ship, like being on top of something that shouldn’t be there at all, both disconcerting as well as disorienting at the same time, like a sense of unease being born out of a sense of sudden strangeness.

Akagi then grabbed the last article that was still floating and seemingly floating, a metal shard the width of a fist and less than a foot in length, looking jagged and twisted, as if it had been ripped from a bigger metal piece. The moment Akagi held it she felt how it seemed to resist her pull, which made her wary of what could happen.

“We run out the moment I grab this. I believe this ship will collapse once I do.” Akagi said, her two companions simply nodded in response.

Akagi almost ripped the metal shard out of its place floating mid air, and just as they all thought the ship began rumbling much more violently this time. They didn’t need any other signal, making their way out of the vessel using all of their enhanced strength and senses, in turn getting out of the ship and back onto the water at neck breaking speed within a time that would actually impress a naval “Health and safety” officer.

When looking back at the ship, they saw it tremble without affecting the waters, it seemed to glitch and crackle as if it was badly loading image on a tv screen, before it started twisting one way and another, pieces of it simply falling of onto the water, as if whatever glue was holding it all together had ceased to work. Which was an apt allegory once the idea occurred to them.

“Well, that’s that” Warspite said as she drew closer to them.

“Look at it go down, that’s kind of a disquieting sight, you know? Being part ships and everything” Z16 said, she seemed to squirm for a bit, an obvious case of goosebumps.

No one was certain if it was because it was indeed some sort of memory from being a ship, or if it was due to the unnatural feeling the ship started basically oozing out the moment the articles at its “heart” were removed.

“Quick. We can have explanations once we are done, I don’t intend to leave the last ship, nor I want to be delayed for any reason” Akagi didn’t even wait for the rest of the girls to answer her, she simply made her way to the next ship.

Enterprise and Minneapolis looked at each other and then at Warspite, the latter nodded at them and they made their way to follow the Sakuran Kitsune.

The ship was similar enough that their trip inside of it was much faster than on the last vessel. They made their way to the bridge, once again finding the dark bubble and the siren technology holding the ship together.

“Wait! Akagi, Maybe we rushed things last time, I think we should at least take some pictures of this contraption,” Enterprise said.

Akagi stood in place quite for a while without saying anything, she then turned her head slightly to the side and looked at Enterprise, one narrowed eye looking at her with burning intensity as well as pink flames coming from within.

“Why?” was all she said, her tone was cold and full of anger.

Enterprise didn't flinch at the sight, for starters she felt like she wasn't asking something that would be detrimental nor would it be against anyone’s interest within Azur Lane.

“Akagi, if we understand how they made this, we could have ways to develop countermeasures. who knows, maybe Yuubari can create some weapon that will cancel whatever energy is used here, rather than fight ships such as yours at their peak”

Akagi turned her head back towards the dark bubble, she visually trembled for a moment before she clicked her tongue in obvious annoyance and defeat.

“Do as you will, but hurry. This is not something I wish to delay at all.” Akagi moved to the side, allowing for Enterprise to take a camera that she had somewhere within herself.

She took several pictures of the whole thing, the machine that was in place of the helm, the bubble and what looked like conductors, which they had not noticed before, that touched the bubble and went onto the floor, probably going somewhere into the ship.

“Ok, I hope that’s enough, I wouldn’t know if it’s not, really” Enterprise shrugged her shoulders, moving back to allow for the Kitsune to move in front of the device.

They performed the same sort of rites as they did before, with Minneapolis being much less overenthusiastic about it, although she did still grab a whole tail and held it like a hugging pillow. Akagi made yet another ball imbued with Sakuran holy energy and dispelled whatever siren energies were within the device.

Despite being their second time at this, the articles inside made them halt once again. They saw two pearlescent white wisdom cubes again, another long jagged metal piece, and this time instead of dog tags, they saw one single Sakuran Empire navy officer cap.

Akagi didn’t waste a single second and she snatched the cap, bringing it closer to her eyes, inspecting it fully, turning it around, doing it with such intensity that she paid no mind to the ship’s rumbling noises nor the shaking coming from it, she did so until she found the answer she was looking for.

“Oh. Aoki-san, you old fool… You intended to die along with me, and now you would repeat such a fate for my sister?” Akagi then embraced the cap in silence.

Neither Enterprise nor Minneapolis said anything, when they heard the prideful kitsune’s voice crack, rather they felt like they were interrupting a very private moment somehow, like hearing bits of conversations that weren’t meant to be disclosed, as such they decided to do the polite thing and pretend they weren't there. When they heard a quiet sob escape from Akagi’s lips they were certain this was something they shouldn’t even share by mistake.