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Sano-wan, Saturday 20 May, an hour after dawn...
"Dóbroe útro, továrischi!"
Hearing that jovial voice, Enterprise moaned as she gently shifted the blanket she had spread over her and Yamato away, then she stretched as her internal systems powered on to propel her to full wakefulness. As the super-battleship beside her grunted while her own eyes fluttered, the blonde, blue-eyed carrier looked to the closed entrance of the tent they had put up for themselves near the shore of the cove where Yamato's sister had been trapped for decades. "Is that you, Galína?!"
"Da!" that cheerful voice called back, accompanied by the sweet-sour smell of pipe tobacco. The flap of the tent was then thrown open to reveal a silver-haired battleship of the first dreadnought generation, one of the first to use triple-gun turrets in her main design, inspired by the first Italian dreadnoughts built some years before she was commissioned into the Rossíjskij Imperátorskij Flot for service in the Gulf of Finland. "Ah! Ivónna Víl'jámovna! Jásuko Séiitovna! Pleasant night...?"
Yamato squawked in embarrassment. "Galína-san!"
A rough laugh escaped Gángut before she ducked out of the tent to give her friends a chance to get dressed. By then, the people in the other tents — they had been stowed in the cargo compartments of those amazing hovercycles Moroboshi Negako had sent to help the shipgirls wrap up the action at Little Diomede yesterday — were getting up and preparing breakfast before they would head back to Japan now that the mission to free the Bering Strait was done...with the extra bonus of finally contacting the fifth Yamato-class warship, who had been marooned in this mesonium-masked cove for over seven decades, her crew of well-trained warriors staying alive and preparing themselves for their mission to attack Pearl Harbour as had been ordered in 1941. A mission that had significantly changed when the accursed Abyssals attacked Sano-wan in hopes of slaughtering Yonaga's crew and forcing the seventh carrier of Operation Z to become a dark warrior of the deep.
"Dobró pozhálovat' v zalív Sanó, Galína Vladímirovna Jurkévich."
Hearing that cold voice echo from nearby, Gángut chuckled. "Ty govorísh' po-Rússki, Jóiko Khirósiovna Itó?" she asked as she calmly took in the pipe smoke while her internal radar went bonkers on sensing the large mass approaching her.
"Ja byl v Sibíri sém'desjat-pjat' let."
Another laugh escaped the first of her class of dreadnoughts before she turned to take in the incredible measure of Yonaga. "That makes you a Great Russian by adoption, then!" the silver-haired battleship then declared in her charmingly accented Japanese. "A good thing those fools in the NKVD and its successor organization never bothered Comrade Marshal Múrometsa and her friends in the NKMD to learn if people like your crew had infiltrated the Ródina to hide from our American comrades, to say anything of Stálin and his lunatics!" She spat that particular dictator's name like it was a curse. "Tell me something, Jóiko: Two years ago at Arkhángel'sk. That was you, wasn't it? Your flyers ripped apart the monsters that were moving to destroy the city with their airplane propellers, not losing any of their number. And they were proper-sized, not faerie-sized."
"Children were being slaughtered to feed those things and create new installation princesses like Hoppō-chan," Yonaga coldly declared as the images of her personally beheading the New Lands Princess three months ago with her own admiral's katana flashed through her mind; that creature had established herself at Ground Zero for the Tsar-bómba on Nóvaja Zemljá. "My pilots were more than happy to do that, especially after Brent-san was able to secure modern communications to let us tap into all the civil emergency frequencies to learn what was happening." She shook her head. "If the mesonium that's in this place didn't help keep my crew young in body as well as spirit, I shudder to think of how many would have viewed even the slaughter of children." A tired sigh escaped the carrier. "There is one small thing about the Russian language that I lament."
That made Gángut perk. "Oh? What's that?"
"That there aren't any decent profanities," the carrier explained, which made the battleship gape at her. "'Nekul'túrnye mónstry' doesn't really do it that well for me at times when I think of these yōma I've fought!"
Another roaring laugh escaped Gángut before she perked on sensing another aircraft carrier approach from astern. "You trying to corrupt this girl, Galína?" Enterprise then asked as she finished putting together her uniform tie.
"She's been corrupted enough, Ivónna!" the battleship said. "I'm trying to un-corrupt this one!" She then winked at Yonaga. "Oh, better be prepared to receive a visit from our ambassador when you finally return to Japan, my friend. Since Negáko Khirósukova Morobósi was so kind to reveal all the details of you and what you've done since you got out of this place, the Gosdúma wishes to make you a Heroine of the Russian Federation for your actions at Arkhángel'sk on behalf of your whole crew. Not only that, Comrade Marshal Múrometsa wishes to make you a Warrior Sorceress of the Órden Koschéja for what you did at Gamájun three months ago." As a pained look crossed Yonaga's face, Gángut shrugged. "And you're being a samurai in spirit who would normally refuse such honours while you're alive won't save you from the embarrassment of those ceremonies, my friend. Rumour has it that your Heavenly Sovereign may induct you into the Order of the Chrysanthemum for your actions, both before and after you became a dévochka-korábl'. Certainly, your late admiral will get that posthumously."
Yonaga nearly turned grey at the idea of being forced to receive a medal meant for her late commander Fujita Hiroshi, who had gladly led his crew six months ago into committing seppuku to ultimately power the magical blood wards layered all over the ship to transform the largest of Japan's carriers into a fighting kanmusu that could take the battle to the Abyssals in a way she never could have before. While she sometimes found herself privately cursing her crew for doing that after hearing what the veterans of the First Canadian Battleship Squadron did to transform those eight monster-hunting machines into kanmusu five years before while the first generation of shipgirls were being summoned to duty at Eta-jima, the shackles of loyalty binding her to the memories of those brave souls were as solid for her as a mountain. Her karma had been enhanced tremendously when her crew decided to postpone their long-delayed participation in Operation Z to deal with the immediate problem of the Abyssals. Still, she sometimes wondered if the cursed title "Angry One" used on her by the enemy wasn't actually a warning to her from the Kami that she was allowing her own rigid adherence to the traditions of the samurai to lead her astray.
That couldn't happen when humanity needed her the most...!
"You won't veer off course, Miss Yoiko."
Hearing that voice tinged still with pain and grief, Yonaga looked over as a scarred Pennsylvania-class super-dreadnought came over to join them. "You are willing to try to better understand my culture even if your own heart screams for something that was never truly your fault, Sonia-san," the carrier noted as Arizona exchanged nods with Enterprise and Gángut. "I must confess, your asking me to attend a kabuki play with you once we make port was rather unexpected."
Arizona's eyes flashed with mischievousness. "I have a reason for it."
An eyebrow arched in response. "Oh?"
"Your current armament," the standard battleship noted. "I saw you openly wince when you saw my rigging yesterday. Try as people might, I can't seem to progress myself to the level I was at when your friends attacked Pearl, much less how Margaret was enhanced after that fight. No 'Kai' upgrade for me so far. The only conclusion..." Here, Arizona sighed as she felt the familiar anger rip through her again, fighting it down with superb control. "You've dealt with the Leviathan Hunters; it's the only explanation as to how you acquired such modern armament without going into a drydock. I know two of them were off O'ahu that day. They pulled out a third of my crew. I've wanted to know their names...and find a way so I can stop being...!"
Here, she shuddered...before a hand landed on her shoulder. "Your karma is more wounded that I first suspected," Yonaga gently whispered. "Fret not about this, Sonia-san. My honour has locked me into not revealing the names of the Ryūseizen to those who are not authorized to know that. But I do know them. I'll convey your thanks. As for your need to upgrade yourself, we'll need to be like ninja to prove to your admirals that you are as viable on the oceans as your sister is."
Hearing that made Arizona gape in shock before a light smile crossed her scarred face. "You are far too kind, Miss Yoiko. Quite surprising given how angry your people must have been to have launched such an attack on us."
"Your government pushed us into a corner, mostly because of the racism that had been in place since your republic's founding in 1776," Yonaga noted. "That's not to say we were different, but look at the example of that brave cook who served on West Virginia. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions in the attack, standing at his captain's side, wasn't he?" As the older battleship nodded, the carrier sighed as she pulled her hand away; she had sensed that Pennsylvania had got up and was moving to locate her sister. Much that she wasn't really scared of the vengeance-crazed super-dreadnought, Yonaga didn't want to provoke something while she had more pressing matters before her now. "We were tired of being the victims of the 'white man's burden'. Look how Michiko-san reacted when she was first summoned to duty at that concert."
Arizona winced on hearing that...
Nearby...
"So it was that Jap boy that gave us our human names?"
New Jersey tried not to moan as the image of her kicking Pennsylvania's stern with her sea boots flashed through her combat information centre. "Yeah, Maggie, it was him!" the second of the Iowa-class battleships tried not to hiss out as she glared at the shuddering standard. As the destroyers of Taffy Three moved to take down the tent while Yūdachi got a portable stove going to get breakfast cooked, the namesake of the Garden State added, "He saw us as human spiritually right from the start, so he felt it was only right for us to get names that make us sound normal. After all, there's going to be an 'after-war'..."
"Yeah! Even in America, people might look at you weird first if you introduced yourself by ship name," Iowa commented as she sipped the coffee that Fubuki made for her. "He sure did put a lot of thought into those names, didn't he?"
Jersey nodded before she perked as Nagato came over. Mutsuki and Saratoga were now moving to disassemble the tent the operations director to Admiral Gotō Kiichi and her girlfriend had used the previous night when the planet's first true artificial intelligence insisted everyone stay undercover the previous evening in lieu of sleeping out in the open as Yonaga had often done. "News from home?" the American battleship added as Fubuki moved to make some tea for the other battleship.
"Teitoku just confirmed that the aliens have agreed to leave Tomobiki, Katharine-san," Nagato stated as she sat at the camp chair beside Iowa. "The revelations of that bomb Negako-san discovered a month ago while all the 'usual suspects' were then unable to muddle the subject up made it far easier for the Diet to close down that 'exclusion zone' they made out of Nishitōkyō and send all the aliens back to their home planets. For their 'safety', of course." As the other shipgirls laughed, the battleship added with a disgusted shake of her head, "I can't believe how much the Urusians felt they had to bend over for this Ōgi lunatic that Ataru-kun railed about all the time when he briefed all of us of what was really going on in that town."
"This kid was the Niphentaxians' president?!" Iowa spat out, shaking her head in bewilderment. "And he was Ataru's age?! Who the hell decided to make a kid the leader of twenty billion people?!"
Nagato shook her head. "Do you know the Star Trek episode 'A Piece of the Action', Abigail-san?" At the American's nod, the Japanese battleship added, "These Niphentaxians are technological savants. Brilliant in duplicating the technology, social structures and cultural mores of other races...but totally lacking when it came to being self-creative. They were able to infiltrate our societies with ease even if they did nothing overt to hurt any of us; their need to replicate Terran culture and society was so profound, they'd never think of doing anything that would hurt us in the long term." She then sighed. "When Ōgi fixated on Lum-san ten years ago after she rescued him from those Terrible Swamps near her home, he created something far too many on Phentax Two wanted: A way to unify the factions and make them the most powerful people in this Galactic Federation alliance that Uru and other planets whose people have come here since the Tag Race are a part of." She shrugged. "The power clearly went to his head and he set himself up to fail, especially when he decided to declare Ataru-kun the 'great evil' of his 'church' that turned Lum-san into an effective arahitogami in the eyes of his fellow citizens. I doubt she liked the idea of his attacking the home planet of her old combat teacher with a biological warfare bomb six years ago to try to kill this Mikado fellow." As the others all scowled, Nagato sighed before nodding as Fubuki came over with the tea.
"It's no wonder that this Nengmek'i fellow intervened when he did," Kaga mused from nearby as the others of the Kidō Butai enjoyed their meal; in respect to Yonaga and what her crew had gone through over a period of seventy years, everyone had enjoyed a simple supper of rice with maguro-sashimi, azarashi and nori no tempura the previous evening after they got to Sano Bay. "These ch'uokyek — is that how you address them as...?" At the other shipgirl's nod, the converted battleship sighed. "They sensed the Abyssals about to unleash themselves on humanity, then moved to seal the planet off from those who would enslave humans for their own desires. While the Urusians did their 'invasion' to block any overt attempts at subjugation — trusting that the Niphentaxians would be at their side — it actually did what it did. What Captain Invader didn't expect..."
"Was his daughter causing Ataru a tonne of hell just because she wanted to get away from her then-fiancé," Iowa finished. "Yeah, the guy was cute...but God! He could probably eat Anna under the table!" She thumbed Akagi in emphasis.
The others all chuckled on hearing that...
At the entrance of the bay...
"Ataru-san?"
Moroboshi Ataru perked on hearing that voice, then he looked over before he smiled. "Isabel-san," he called out as Kirishima came over to join him. "Everyone get some breakfast into them before we head home?"
"Hai," the third of the Kongō-class battleships said as she sat down on the rock beside him, gazing at the hazy morning over the Chukótskoe Sea and the northern stretch of the Bering Strait with the coast of Alaska just two hundred kilometres to the northeast. "Those hovercycles were quite nice to ride, but many of us would prefer to sail under our own power to Japan."
"Onē-san warned me that Tennō would desire Yoiko-san to come back right away," he advised as he tried not to stare too much at such an incredibly graceful and beautiful woman, appearing to be the age of the Shintō shrine miko and auxiliary school nurse that had been one of the minor banes of his life when he was living in Tomobiki over a year before in his personal time-line, Sakurambō Sakura. "She's gone down to Kyōto to get him to put out an Imperial Rescript to override Yamamato-gensui's orders concerning Yonaga to have her abort attacking Pearl and return back to duty. Especially to be properly commissioned into the Self-Defence Forces since she never was properly commissioned into the Imperial Navy."
She nodded. "Yoiko-san won't like the concept of 'self-defence' being applied to our military," she warned. "If she's been raised in the classic samurai virtues, the idea of fighting in defence would be loathsome to her. Samurai were trained to always attack. The whole thing with Article Nine of the Constitution — one forced on Japan by America — will be a red flag in front of her. She'll not care for acknowledging anything declared by the Diet or by anyone else outside Tennō."
"Well, that's where Onē-san comes in," he assured her. "She IS Teitokukan Yonjū-kū, remember?" At her laugh, he sighed. "I don't know where she'll be based. Hopefully Sasebo or Eta-jima. I wouldn't want her anywhere close to Tomobiki."
"Oh? Why?"
"She's vowed to behead my parents if she ever gets the chance."
That made her gape. "Why?!"
"Because Baka Tō-san 'defied' my late grandmother by marrying — or being FORCED to marry! — Baka Kā-san after she got pregnant with me and my twin brother Kaeru. Ō'oji-chan would have taught Yoiko-san all about the rules and traditions of my family," he said as a churlish smile crossed his face. "The stupid yūjo — I'm using Yoiko-san's term for her — was the school slut at Tomobiki High back when she was my age. She didn't have protection when she bedded Baka Tō-san and got caught just before they graduated. They never got into good universities since Baka Tō-san refused to get charity from Obā-chan — this was because he wanted to have nothing to do with our clan's traditional duties serving Tennō — and he had to go to night school to get his degree while he was working for Marubishi and Company." He shook his head. "Much that I had fallen out of love with Lum over the last year because of my finding out things she would have probably preferred I not learn without her input, I wanted most of all to get her away from those two fools. The way they were sopping to her and Jariten all the time..."
"Not to mention joining the Greek chorus that was the rest of Tomobiki in blaming you for the things that happened there that were beyond your control or things you had nothing to do with," she noted as a wry smirk crossed her face. "Hai, it might be smart to keep Yoiko-san away. If all the reports the Canadian Rangers and the Russian Spetsnáz have made about the 'Angry One' actually BEHEADING installation princesses she's subdued ever since she first appeared a half-year ago are true..." She then hummed. "We'll be covering all the streets of Tomobiki in bodies. All of them heads shorter."
"While some might deserve it, others won't," he noted. "Pity that Nengmek'i-ojiichan didn't teleport everyone back to town until after that bomb was sent back to the Niphentaxians to blow up Lum's so-called 'army'." He shook his head. "You can lay a strong bet that Mendō and Megane's crew are going to try to fuddle it up some way to make it seem as if I deliberately attacked Lum's people to drive her off Earth to keep her away from all her 'fans' in Tomobiki." Another shake of the head before he perked as she reached over to squeeze his shoulder in reassurance. "Yoiko-san would look at that as a personal insult and move to 'avenge my honour' with all the katana she got from her crew. Much that I've seen more than my fair share of blood over the last year at Morningstar Plain and when I helped free the Avalonians, I don't want to be swamped in it."
"I wonder if the Urusians ever understood the price they were going to pay when they chose you as Earth's 'champion'..."
Tomobiki, four hours later (local time: An hour before breakfast)...
"THE SEVENTH ONE HAS RETURNED! BANZAI! BANZAI! THE ICE DIDN'T SINK HER! SHE'S COME TO SAVE US ALL! BANZAI! BANZAI! NOW WE'LL FINALLY WIN! BANZAI! BANZAI! TENNŌ HEIKA BANZAI!"
As Mendō Gennosuke's son Hajime moved to calm the retired Kempeitai officer down as the patriarch of his family continued to celebrate the return of the seventh carrier of Operation Z, Mendō Ryōko blushed as she gazed in amusement at the middle-aged man who had come to visit the home of Japan's richest family. "I do apologize for that, Denka-sama," the younger heiress to the Mendō Conglomerate stated. "We didn't know of Ojii-sama's connection to Yonaga-sama until now."
Crown Prince Naruhito nodded in understanding. While his father was busy meeting with the woman who had served as the Imperial Throne's personal assassin for many centuries at the Imperial Palace in Kyōto to prepare the necessary Rescript that would relieve the fifth of the Yamato-class warships from her original duty of attacking Pearl Harbour and formally commission her into the Self-Defence Forces as a fighting kanmusu, the heir to the throne had been sent to the most infamous district in the land to calm down the many people there who would have instantly balked at the idea of Moroboshi Ataru of all people befriending such a powerful being, especially in the wake of his "finally fulfilling the mission" concerning the aliens and driving them off Earth. "Do not apologize, Ryōko-chan. I'm sure that if she could spare the time, Yonaga-dono would be pleased to come visit some old friends to reform ties. Though I doubt that given that none of your family ever served on her, she'll care too much for your brother's attitudes towards the grandnephew of her junior navigation officer. Even now."
Hearing that, Mendō Shūtarō openly winced at that veiled warning from the soon-to-be crowned Heavenly Sovereign of the land...once the current incumbent abdicated from the throne to then be addressed as "Heisei Daijō-tennō". Much that he had been tempted to have his people tear the country apart to learn where his despised rival had gone to in hopes of finding some way of seeing Redet Lum returned back to Earth and allowed to resume her life here close to all her friends, there was no way in Hell that he would risk IMPERIAL disfavour by "abasing himself before the alien monsters"! Shūtarō had long known that many in the world suspected that the Urusians had something to do with unleashing the Abyssals on humanity. To the outrage of Lum's many fans at Tomobiki Senior High School, current conspiracy theories claimed that the "invasion" of a year before was actually a false-flag job that was meant to have assured humans that help was coming to save them from the sea monsters...all to eventually make Earth a tributary planet to Uru, with humanity forever denied to seek its destiny in the stars.
And while he found it hard to believe...
...the evidence of The Book of Lum was nearly impossible to deny.
"It was much of a shock to Ataru-kun as it clearly was to you, Shūtarō-kun."
That made his head snap up as he gazed into the Crown Prince's knowing look. After taking a moment to consider that, Shūtarō then sighed. "Hai," he breathed out in a voice full of ashes. "Much that I have always despised Moroboshi, I never claimed he was the source of all evil in my diaries." He then gave the older man a concerned look. "Did Negako-sama manage to remove all the Niphentaxian spies from the planet, Denka-sama? We can't afford to allow alien technology..."
"They are gone," the Crown Prince assured him. "During her sojourn on Noukiios, Negako-san made the acquaintance of several residents of the planet Yiziba, which is not that far away from planet Elle. She was able to help several of their more powerful residents be reborn as Terran-born Yizibajohei to help forge links between our people and the one race in all the local cluster that the Urusians and their allies FEAR above all else. One of them — the current incarnation of the Lady Infinity — was responsible for both removing the Niphentaxian spies plaguing our planet and that bomb from the town Ginza here." At his saying that, Ryōko, her parents and her grandfather winced on remembering seeing the bomb — said to be more powerful than any Terran device, even the famous Tsar-bómba of 1961 — literally YANKED out of the ground in the Tomobiki Ginza, then propelled through a space warp to wipe out a fleet of THREE THOUSAND starships at anchorage somewhere in space! All those starships had been coloured the orange-with-tiger striping of the Defence Forces of the Union of Uru even if they had been built and managed by the Defence Forces of the Union of Phentax Two, the so-called "Army of Lum". "You stayed in Onishuto for a week after Ataru-kun was forced back in time and moved to Okusei to meet Lady K'ekhech and proceed to have Negako-san removed from his mind. Surely, you saw the ruins of the old capital city north of the present town."
A shudder ran through the younger man, his heart instantly sinking into his bowels at the sheer thought of Lum being forced to face any of the horrifyingly powerful and insane metahumans of the World of the Forge of the First Race, the planet where the Power Jewels like the one held by one Major Dean Raeburn of the Canadian Army were first created. "H-hai! B-but...!"
A gentle shake of the head silenced him. "No, Shūtarō-kun. While your sympathies to Lum-san are understandable given that she wasn't the ogre some imagined her to be when she made her declaration of marriage to Ataru-kun, there are far too many who DO see her as an ogre. And thus, see all of you in Tomobiki as effective traitors to humanity for your 'support' of her wishes over the needs of all of Earth." As Shūtarō gasped on hearing that, the Crown Prince added, "In fact, there are radical sects from the Middle East and America who would gladly come after you with loaded automatic weapons and vests made of plastic explosives to see you all 'pay' for your 'treason'. Do you really wish to face such beings? Do any of your friends?"
A sinking feeling fell over the scion of Japan's richest family. "No..."
"Good." With that, the older man stood, causing his hosts to all stand...save Shūtarō's grandfather given his infirmity; he was currently in a wheelchair, having been brought up from his underground residence to greet the Crown Prince. "Do see to it that all in Tomobiki understand that in the future, my friends," the Crown Prince declared. "We'll take our leave of you right now."
He walked out, leaving behind a sick-looking Shūtarō, who didn't get any sympathetic looks from the others of his family...
Kyōto, approaching the Imperial Palace, two hours later...
"Are we THERE yet?!"
"Relax, Rose-chan!" Ataru teased as he gazed in amusement at a chorus of very sick-looking shipgirls while the tilt-jet near-replica of a Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tactical transport hovered over a clear patch of ground near the Kenrei-mon, the southern gate to the inner palace grounds located in the downtown section of Japan's old imperial capital city. "We're landing."
"Thank CHRIST!" Johnston moaned out as she tried not to throw up her breakfast into the small air sickness bag she had been handed by the sympathetic Air Self-Defence Force flight engineer who had kept an eye on his distinguished guests.
"This flyin' stuff's for the damned BIRDS!" Hoel added as she tried to keep her breakfast down. "We're SHIPS! We don't fly!"
"Yeah! Zeppelins like Akron and Macon do that, but not us!" Heermann grunted as Fubuki — who also looked ill in the mainmast — squeezed her shoulder in comfort. "Damn! I ain't ever gonna complain about arrogant zoomies ever again!"
Pain-filled agreeing chimes escaped the others destroyers in the tilt-jet as it came down onto the grass lawn. Once the engines finally shut down, the flight engineer headed aft to open the back boarding gate, revealing a near-perfect female replica of Ataru in a black gi with hakama trousers. "You did treat them properly before they boarded the Dynajet, did you?" Moroboshi Negako wondered as Ataru moved to walk the shuddering Johnston and Hoel out of the aircraft.
"I did. But how do you deal with their gyroscopes, Onē-san?" he asked as the two Fletcher-class destroyers collapsed to their knees and kissed the grass under their feet, moaning gratitude on feeling solid earth under their keels again.
"I will examine them later. Rose, Madelyn, cease that."
"Pay it no mind, Negako-kun," a strange voice bade from the direction of the gate, that accompanied by an amused chuckle. As those shipgirls who seemed better composed than the destroyers who had fallen at the Battle off Samar during Leyte Gulf instantly braced to attention on seeing the Heavenly Sovereign and his wife standing close to Negako, the current holder of the Chrysanthemum Throne gave the two destroyers a sympathetic look. "I can understand why Rose-chan and Madelyn-chan are having issues concerning travelling in a way they were never designed to experience. As is Inoue-chan over by the ramp."
Heads snapped over to see a retching Inazuma being comforted now by Tenryū and the childish destroyer's sisters. Seeing that, Yonaga looked totally embarrassed at the thought of a fleet mate acting so dishonourably before the Son of Heaven; she had meditated on the flight down from Sano Bay, drawing on her crews' decades of experience to keep herself calm and cool in such an alien environment as flying within the huge metal albatross that had saved the shipgirls days getting back to Japanese territory. As soon as the final coughs escaped Inazuma, the cute destroyer then stood, turned and bowed low to her overall commander-in-chief. "Sumimasen, nanodesu!" she croaked out. "I thought I could be strong..."
"Inoue-chan, was it your first time?" the Sovereign Consort asked with a smile.
The girl known to Ataru as Akamatsu Inoue nodded. "I wanted to be strong, Obā-chan...!"
Yonaga gaped on hearing the destroyer address the wife of the Son of Heaven with such a familiar title, though she was quick to sense Ataru squeeze her hand in reassurance. The Heavenly Sovereign himself was quick to sense that. "Much has changed in this land since your brave crew were last here, Yonaga-dono," he said with proper dignity, which made the carrier instantly stiffen. "We trust you will face those uncertainties ahead of you with proper stoicism and respect for Our people after their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents had been forced to endure so much to submit to the dark dreams of those who twisted the beliefs and knowledge of Our Late Sire, forcing our land down a path that led to ruin for so many." He raised a cautionary finger as he gave her a knowing look. "As your own admiral once realized years ago, We believe."
Hearing that, Yonaga bowed her head, clasping her hands together in a ritual military salute. "This unworthy one will not fail thee, Heika!" she declared in the courtly ritual language that had been used in the Imperial Palace for centuries. "Command this unworthy one to death and this one will obey with joy, as your noble ancestors have always demanded!"
"Then I demand you obey and LIVE, Yoiko-san," he replied in more modern language, which made her gape in shock at him. "As I said, much has changed. But some things have not. Attend me and my guests in the reception room, please."
The carrier nodded as she moved into a protective position behind him while the crowd made their way through the Kenrei-mon into the palace; the Imperial Family had relocated to the ancient capital shortly after the "Miracle of Tōkyō Bay" five years ago saw Kongō and her sisters recalled to duty as shipgirls to fight of a massed attack on the capital city, delivering the first defeat to the Abyssals since the war began. This was thanks to a brave battle-mage from Wales now teaching at Mahora near Tōkyō named Negi Springfield, who discovered very ancient spells once known to the Immortal Master himself that could animate the living spirits of inanimate objects and give them human form. That had ultimately been prompted by the decade and more of unrelenting bloodletting unleashed on magical security forces across Earth as they desperately tried to keep the threat from the abyss back and away from normal people. Such had been something that had effectively guaranteed the final destruction of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy even if certain magical governments worldwide still clung onto the hope of seeing matters restored to "normal" once the Abyssals were gone and they could reassert their traditional rights.
Rights, the Heavenly Sovereign knew, they wouldn't get back.
The bungling by many magicals at the beginning of the Abyssal War wasn't going to be forgotten.
Magicals — especially in more traditional enclaves in Europe and America — would be made to conform to modern realities.
Whether those people liked it or not.
The group of humans and shipgirls made their way through the Jomei-mon into the Shishin-den, the hall where ceremonies had been held in old days and which served as the Heavenly Sovereign's main reception room these days. Seated at the table there was a smiling middle-aged man in relaxed clothing, the jacket with the emblem of the chief executive of the United States of America draped over him. "Mister President!" Enterprise called out as all the American shipgirls snapped to attention and saluted Josiah Bartlet while the Japanese shipgirls bowed formally to the former governor of New Hampshire.
"At ease, Commander Swanson," the President stated as he slowly rose to his feet, leaning on his cane as he moved to walk over to stand before Yonaga. "Captain Itō, on behalf of all Americans, I thank you dearly for your crew's incredible actions three years ago at Prudhoe Bay," he declared, which made the carrier blush. "A lot of lives were saved by those brave flyers of yours. I realize this isn't your way, but I would consider it the greatest of honours to shake your hand."
"She's a little too tall for head pats, sir," New Jersey joked.
"Commander Hyde, that's enough or I'll have you busted back to ensign by Presidential Order," Bartlet snapped, which made the Imperial couple laugh as the namesake to the Garden State ducked that angry look.
"Yessir!"
Yonaga blinked, then she offered her gloved hand for the president to take. "Even if your predecessors sought to suppress my people back in the days before I was built at Maizuru, Mister President, my crew and I've heard much about your actions since you were voted into the White House. That you serve even after the Kami nearly struck you down with such a horrible disease as the one that was reported three years ago when those baying idiots in the Congress moved to censure you..."
"The price of democracy, Captain," Bartlet said as he shook her hand.
"She'll be a captain, sir?" Iowa asked.
"Given her time on duty, she deserves it, Commander," the president stated before he gazed on his host. "Which means I do believe I must turn things over to you, Your Majesty. Forgive me for slightly spoiling the surprise."
The Heavenly Sovereign chuckled. "Please don't apologize, Bartlet-hakase!" he said as he waved his primary guest to his chair while his wife took her own seat nearby. "My friends, please be seated and make yourselves comfortable."
The shipgirls all sat down in the chairs nearby, with Yonaga taking the guest of honour position right before the Son of Heaven, her two oldest sisters moving to sit at her sides and her younger sisters flanking them. Taking his own place at the head of the table, the leader of Japan bowed his head formally to the carrier, earning him a deep bow from the waist in return. He then reached down to open the folded sheet of traditional parchment on the table to read aloud:
By the Grace of Heaven, the Heavenly Sovereign Heisei, seated on the Throne occupied by the same Dynasty from Time Immemorial, enjoins upon ye all, Our beloved brother and sister citizens of the State of Japan:
We rejoice in the wonderful news that the living spirit of one of the gallant warships who once served Our Late and Illustrious Sire, having survived entrapment within the Bay of Sano for over seventy years due to cruel and uncaring Nature, has gladly answered the call to duty against the dark forces who have risen against all of humanity in the last decade and more.
This noble warrior of the high seas, Mistress Itō Yoiko, the Lady Yonaga of Maizuru in the Metropolis of Kyōto, has to date delivered blow after blow against those who would seek to slay defenceless people living within range of the enemy, even those native of the lands of our honourable allies in this terrible war: The Dominion of Canada, the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Denmark, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Republic of Iceland. Even before she was reborn as kantai musume six months ago thanks to the help of Mistress Patricia Beatrice, the Lady Chennalton of Tadoussac, loyal warrior of Our Beloved Friend Elizabeth the Second, Queen of the Dominion of Canada, her gallant crew fought on with the determination once demanded of them in years past during the Reign of Our Late and Illustrious Sire, bringing honour to them and their families here in Japan.
Because of the quite unique circumstances that brought the Lady Yonaga of Maizuru to this place in time, with the Grace of Heaven and with all the hopes of Us and the people of the State of Japan, We proclaim the following:
We declare that any bonds or demands of service that may force the Lady Yonaga of Maizuru to fulfill the orders given to her by the loyal commanders of the Navy of Our Late and Illustrious Sire in the Sixteenth Year of Shōwa that eventually launched the Greater East Asia War with the attack on the United States of America on the eighth day of the twelfth month of the Sixteenth Year of Shōwa are hereby and forever removed from her person and her living immortal spirit.
In doing that, We declare any accusations of cowardice before the enemy against the late crew of the Lady Yonaga of Maizuru will not be accepted by Us or by the people of the State of Japan. The honour of her brave crew is whole and intact.
We declare any accusation which may be forced upon the Lady Yonaga of Maizuru due to her former affiliation to the commanders of the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kantō Army, whose actions against the innocent peoples of the world brought shame and dishonour to Our Late and Illustrious Sire during the time of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Greater East Asia War, will not be accepted by Us or by the citizens of the State of Japan.
In noting that, We declare that since the first day of the ninth month of the Sixteenth Year of Shōwa that the Lady Yonaga of Maizuru was a commissioned warship of the Navy of Our Late and Illustrious Sire, with seniority of service from that date to this day. We therefore entreaty upon the Self-Defence Forces of the State of Japan to bestow upon the Lady Yonaga of Maizuru the appropriate rank given her many years of loyal, unswerving service to Our Throne and to the State of Japan.
And in the end, We ask upon the people of the State of Japan to welcome the Lady Yonaga of Maizuru as an honoured veteran of a very dark time in our nation's long history. Born as she was from the attitudes that grew out of our nation's drive to modernize in the face of many outside pressures, she is now lost in a land that is alien to her. We therefore ask upon the people of the State of Japan to show forbearance as the Lady Yonaga adjusts to living in such a different age...
Placing the paper down, the Heavenly Sovereign bowed deeply to Yonaga, which made her nearly croak at such an act of respect by this person her own beliefs declared was the direct blood-descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu-ōmikami.
"Welcome home, Yoiko-san," he finally said as he gazed upon her.
"Hear! Hear!" the American chief of state added...
...before a roaring scream of happiness echoed from outside the palace walls, that making Yonaga gape in shock as that wave of noise thundered in her ears. "It was proclaimed to the public automatically," Negako noted from nearby.
As screams of "YONAGA BANZAI!" and "TENNŌ HEIKA BANZAI!" echoed from outside, the carrier felt tears touch her eyes.
Maybe things hadn't really changed at all...
Nerima (east of Tomobiki), that moment...
"REJOICE, MY FRIENDS! THIS IS THE MOST WONDERFUL DAY OF ALL!"
Hearing that megaphone-enhanced voice from the arrogant kendō-ka standing before the main doors leading into Fūrinkan Senior High School, the youngest daughter of the patriarch of the Tendō Clan of Ōizumi could only groan before she stared with tear-filled eyes at her sister. "So he gets to gloat," Tendō Akane hissed out as she turned her back on Kunō Tatewaki.
"Do you blame him?" Tendō Nabiki asked.
Hearing that cold and indifferent tone from the older girl, Akane snorted. "You must be happy now," she muttered.
"I never cared for Ranma-kun either which way," Nabiki advised her, ignoring the jolt of outrage from her still stupidly naïve little sister. "While his presence in the house was entertaining at times, I had other things on my mind than to worry about Otō-chan's fool dreams about uniting the 'schools'. Which legally don't exist anywhere in this country. I DID show you Ojii-chan's mastery papers. Remember what Master Hosan declared when it came to Ojii-chan seeking out students of his own? They had to go to Watari-shima and be certified by the Tensei-ryū before they could be declared masters in Musabetsu Kakutō-ryū. Neither Otō-san or Oji-san did that, so their whole stupid 'unite the schools' garbage is that: Garbage."
Akane tensed before she nodded...
...then she shuddered as many boys near the main doors screamed out their approval as the announcement was made by the principal's son and the current captain of the school's kendō team. An announcement that cut Akane to the core of her soul.
Her iinazuke was dead.
Dead...
The man who seemed capable of surviving it all...
Dead...
Dead...!
Why...?
"...that sorcerer Saotome Ranma has finally been defeated and KILLED for his heinous crimes against the beauteous Tendō Akane and the many other poor women who were enspelled by his dark magic!" Tatewaki thundered from his platform, his voice echoing over the school grounds. "I witnessed it myself! Some benevolent kami came along and struck the demon down, forcing him to die in a bed at the hospital, weak and helpless against the righteous fury of the Fates...!"
Akane hissed out as she fought down the urge to rip out a section of fence around the property and use it to bash Tatewaki down and shut him up. Nabiki shook her head before she moved to walk into the school. Seeing that, Akane called out, "What are you going to do now?" As her sister stopped, the "heir" of the "Tendō-ryū" added, "Tō-chan wants you to go find Ranko and get her back here! She's probably the only hope now of letting everyone's dreams be fulfilled...!"
"That person no longer exists."
Both girls jolted on hearing that voice, then they turned...
...before they gaped on seeing the tall and slender woman with the bob-cut dark brown hair in a style almost similar to Nabiki's, a hidden hair band allowing two metal wing-like protrusions to stick out from above her ears. As she was away from her duties at Eta-jima, she didn't wear her normal seagoing uniform. As Nabiki croaked on recognizing the woman for what she was, Akane blinked. "What do you mean? How do you know Ranko? Who are you anyway...?!" she demanded.
"Akane...!" Nabiki hissed out.
"TAIHŌ-SAMA!"
The armoured carrier jolted on hearing that scream of delight, then she turned...
...before her fist lashed out to smash into Tatewaki's face!
Now, unlike other times this had happened in Nerima, the result was much different than what one might expect of the "Blue Thunder" of Fūrinkan High and one of the weaker members of what was normally nicknamed the "Nerima Wrecking Crew".
Even if his abilities were nearly superhuman, the late Saotome Ranma normally pulled his punches when it came to his first "rival" for Tendō Akane's hand in marriage, thus not permanently hurting the arrogant kendō-ka.
Taihō wasn't a normal human by any stretch of the imagination.
She was the living representation of a fighting aircraft carrier that displaced a war load of thirty-seven thousand tonnes!
Result...?
A half-hour later...
"It wasn't your fault, Taihō-sama. Kunō-kun should have known better to try to pull his tricks around a shipgirl of all people!"
Akane winced in mute horror as she tried not to throw up what was left of her breakfast while the images of Tatewaki's face being nearly crushed by Taihō's fist replayed once again before her mind's eye. As the school nurse calmly cleaned up the blood that had covered the carrier's hand, the deputy principal of Fūrinkan High, Nanba Shigeru, could only shake his head as he imagined how Tatewaki's father Godai would react to the news of his son being nearly KILLED by a SHIPGIRL who had been coming to visit the school. Remembering what the paramedics had muttered about it being a miracle that the kendō-ka was alive and that he might have suffered permanent brain damage from the force of the blow — never mind the fact that the man's eyes had been crushed beyond repair from that punch — the youngest daughter of Tendō Sōun could only quake.
Much that she had witnessed Ranma's death the previous night, it had been clean...
...especially with his body just disintegrating like it did!
But seeing her would-be suitor permanently CRIPPLED like that...!
"I was informed by my admiral that fool was just incapable of listening to anything told to him by anyone," Taihō calmly noted as she nodded her thanks for the chance to clean her hand up. "I think she understated it."
That made people blink as they gazed at her. "Who's your admiral?" Akane's best friend Asano Sayuri then asked.
"Hayashi Kanami," Taihō stated. "Known here by the false name 'Tendō Ranko'."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"RANKO?!" Akane shrieked out.
Taihō gave her a look that made the young martial artist's knees weaken in terror at the idea of getting into some sort of "accident" with the carrier's fist. "Again, that is not Teitoku's name," she coolly declared.
"Her parents might disagree," Nabiki warned.
"Teitoku doesn't have parents. Not if you're referring to Saotome Genma and his wife Nodoka," the carrier calmly replied, which made Akane gape in shock at that cold assertion. "They signed away all rights to their children the instant they defied their promise to the Hayashi Clan of Inari-chō — Genma-san's late parents, if you wish to know — and refused to raise their children 'properly' as was promised in a legal premarital agreement that was signed before Genma-san married his wife and adopted the Saotome family name. That was defined by Teitoku's late grandmother as NOT following the thieving ways of Happōsai, much less supporting the LIES about the true ancestry of Nodoka-san. And no, she's not burakumin."
"So what does that mean for Ranko-chan?!"
Taihō's eyes focused then on Kuonji Ukyō, which made the chef from the outskirts of Kyōto suddenly tense as she realized her mistake. "I said there is no such person, Ukyō-san," the carrier icily warned. "Do pay attention, please. Or are you still intent on proving Teitoku's theories about the people of the 'wrecking crew' and all those who love to fawn all over them?"
People gulped. "Wh-what does th-that mean, Taihō-sama?" one of the kendō-ka who followed Tatewaki sputtered.
"That you all take stupid pills in the morning."
Mass face-fault! As the nurse and the deputy principal both tried not to laugh on seeing the arrogant kids react THAT way at being called onto the carpet like that, Taihō reached into her skirt to draw out a folded letter. "This is a message from the chief judge of the Tōkyō Family Court," she said, that phrase making Ukyō and Nabiki instantly wince on realizing that the one element of society that could easily have overridden all their private hopes and dreams was now officially involved in the affairs surrounding Saotome Ranma. "Given the circumstances by which Teitoku came into being, neither Saotome Genma nor Saotome Nodoka will ever gain rights to become Teitoku's legal parents. Furthermore, honour claims by all parties concerning the late Saotome Ranma are seen as having been settled by his death. None will transfer to Teitoku. Any of you seen to be approaching Teitoku will be considered hostile and treated appropriately." As the people in the room cringed on hearing that threat, Taihō smirked. "Including the deliberate use of the Jusenkyō curses against people such as Nǚ Shānpú-san, Liào Mùsī-san, Hibiki Ryōga-san and Saotome Genma-san. After all, they could be seen as Abyssals. Not to mention being wild animals. We have no desire to deal with any sort of wild animals at any of the Naval Districts. The people who work there have the right to have a safe and secure environment from all potential threats. Including selfish lunatics who don't seem to care whatsoever about the amount of pain they unleash because they follow their false concepts of honour."
As people winced again and Akane blinked in confusion on hearing that Hibiki Ryōga somehow had a Jusenkyō curse, Taihō handed the letter to Deputy Principal Nanba. "We'll honour the judgement of the Family Court, Taihō-sama," he declared with a churlish smile as he gazed in amusement at the many stunned students hearing this. "It'll actually be a relief to no longer have to deal with the insanity that some of the people here loved to bathe themselves in." Noting even more winces from many of the people that had often been at the heart of such things, he added, "I hope all goes well with Kanami-kun."
"Thank you, Sensei. Excuse me, please."
With that, she moved to leave. People scrambled out of the carrier's path, many of them bowing apologetically to her as they mumbled words of regret when it came to the magically-created female version of Saotome Ranma that they had effectively shunned in the couple of months that she had been forced to live as "Tendō Ranko" before Christmas. Hearing that, Taihō stopped, making all the students freeze in terror. "You can stop with the lies," the carrier coldly noted.
As people cringed on hearing that, she then gazed on Ranma's would-be fiancées. "Don't expect mercy from Teitoku," she advised, making both Akane and Ukyō wince. "As far as she's concerned, you were the worst liars of all. Not just to her, but to Ranma-san as well. I wonder what he really thought of you in the end after you all condemned him to die by using that incense burner." She shook her head. "As Moroboshi Negako-san herself said, 'Jusenkyō will never be denied THAT way'."
As the chef from outside Kyōto dropped to her knees in stunned disbelief at that revelation, the carrier calmly walked away...
...before a scream of agony escaped Akane as she collapsed to the floor, making Sayuri lunge over to comfort her as Nabiki shook her head. "Nicely done, Kanami," she muttered admiringly to herself before she walked out of the nurse's station...
Kyōto, lunchtime...
"From the people of Adak Island?"
Major Mack Solette of the United States Army Nurse Corps chuckled as he handed the large tray of tuna casserole to the fifth of the Yamato-class warships. "There was an incident a year ago, about a year after Kathy and her gang came to the island dealing with that hard-headed version of Hoppō, when Kistiñe got hurt," the experienced nursing officer who had often had to help with wounded shipgirls said as he gave Yonaga a knowing look. He glanced over to where the destroyers of Taffy Three were seated alongside their friends from Japan, all chatting avidly away as they enjoyed their drinks and snacks. As Heermann looked over before waving at the man who had helped set her aright after that battle, he shrugged. "A small enemy force came by to attack and wipe out the village on the island; no doubt, they were stragglers from the Northern Princess' combat group. A squadron of Zero-sens with Imperial chrysanthemums came by to chase them off and dive-bombed the destroyers. No other Japanese carrier has chrysanthemums on their aircraft hulls, so it has to have been you in the end, Captain."
Yonaga blinked, then she nodded. "Hai, Solette-sensei. One of the doho who served as part of my air group, Lieutenant Commander Matsuhara Yoshi, was happy to lead his squadron in the defence of Adak. We heard what the people of that island did when Kistiñe-chan was hurt. You gave comfort to many of my fleet mates, including my sister." She indicated Musashi beside her; Yamato and Enterprise sat on the other side as people relaxed at the beautiful outdoor café some blocks from the Imperial Palace. As gabbing people standing nearby all raised their smartphones to get pictures of the seventh carrier of Operation Z to put out to their friends, she added, "Please convey my deepest thanks to the good people of the island for their courtesy. Still, I might not get to it right away. I hope the people of Adak don't take offence. Negako-sama is worried that because my crew was on lean food for all the years they were in Sano-wan, I might be affected the same way."
"You'll be at Sasebo," Solette stated. "Admiral Richardson and Admiral Gotō decided it would be the best place for you since you need time to get up to speed on operations as a shipgirl since you sailed too long as a ship before you were transformed by the Dragon Killer that His Majesty mentioned in his Rescript on you." As the carrier's grey eyes widened in surprise on hearing how fast the American army officer make a conclusion like that, the nurse then winked, "I'll be your chief nurse. If you have issues, come see me. It'll break the old ladies' hearts if they found out all the food they cooked couldn't be eaten."
"I'll fall on my own tantō if that happened!"
"Onē-sama!" Yamato gasped. "Don't say such horrible things!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"Yasuko...!" Yonaga said as she stared wide-eyed at her sister.
"Relax."
That was Enterprise. "Love, remember, your sister needs time," the carrier soothed as she gently squeezed her girlfriend's shoulder. "She hasn't had any chance to understand what's really expected of a modern Japanese woman, not like you or any of the other girls who were called back to duty at the quarterdeck at Eta-jima or Sasebo. She's been too busy living on the edge even before she was turned into a shipgirl by..." She stopped herself, then she sighed. "'Chennalton'? That's her ship name? The Dragon Killer that helped you become a shipgirl?" she then guessed as she gave Yonaga a knowing look.
"Hai," the larger carrier answered. "She was there for Yasuko in 1945."
Yamato blinked before her cheeks reddened. "Her...?"
"She told me that those of your crew that hers saved were resettled in places where they were allowed to live their lives in peace in Canada once the war was ended. Few had reasons to return back to Japan and they were welcomed among the enclaves Patricia-san's creators had created for themselves. Just as all the crews of the Ryūseizen have done for all those they've rescued from the kaijū. A certain international statute still governs my revealing all that I know..."
"The International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, you mean?"
That was a grinning Mack Solette. "I assume you're a nimmib," Yonaga mused.
He chuckled. "Not an ounce of magic anywhere inside me, Captain. But when you hang around shipgirls, you have to accept that magic exists. And I have met Commander Yamamoto's adopted son; he goes to a magical school in Scotland right now." At Yonaga's wide eyes — she knew Nagato had adopted a child four years ago, but hadn't know he had been born with that gift — he added, "Look at Commander Thompkins of the War Hawks. She's magical even if most normal people tend to think of her as an odd type of metahuman. What happened in the war between the War Hawks, the Übermenschen, the Liberty Legion and the other groups guaranteed that." At Yonaga's nod, Solette whistled. "Damn! The Canadians built battleships?! And were able to build them back before World War One happened?! Then again, given they created the War Hawks...!"
"With help from Master Hosan," Enterprise advised. "Remember that part."
"I don't think the captain wants to be reminded of that, Commander Swanson."
[Thank you for doing that, Major Solette.]
People gasped, then they gazed on Yonaga...
"Teitoku! Is that you?!"
That was a wide-eyed Kaga; the members of the Kidō Butai had been seated at the next table had heard that voice. As people looked, a small form dressed in an old-style Imperial Navy uniform now stood on Yonaga's left shoulder, gazing in amusement at the American army health care officer. Seeing that, Solette straightened himself as the people nearby squealed in delight on seeing one of the seventh carrier's own large crew of faeries...which they all knew had been living people up to six months ago, when they sacrificed themselves to give Yonaga the ability to transform into a kanmusu. "Admiral Fujita Hiroshi, I presume," he said with a perfect West Point salute; as Americans didn't mind saluting without headgear, it was proper.
A delighted laugh escaped the last living element of the man who would have properly led Operation Z hadn't a certain earthquake trapped his command ship in a cove on the Arctic coast of Siberia for seven decades. [Amazing that you Americans say it that way all the time!] the spirit of the former University of Southern California student from the early 1920s stated as he gave the major a knowing look. [Even if your own Admiral Richardson will be the obvious operational commander of my ship when she bases herself at the Sasebo Naval District, I will always be concerned for the status of my command. You will do your proper duties should Yonaga ever return back to port damaged after facing the enemy, will you?]
"That's my oath, Admiral."
[Good. I appreciate Negako-sama's concern for my ship's welfare. Not only will my chief engineer be available in case you need help, so will my chief hospital orderly. He taught himself everything he needed to understand about human medicine — which kantai musume benefit from given the nature of their beings — during our long confinement in Sano-wan. Even if we still had a medical staff right through to the breakout during our first battle with the yōma, it was better to be safe than sorry.]
"Always a wise choice, Admiral. A lot of American shipgirls back home learning about your command just want the chance to shake her hand for standing the watch up in the Arctic practically all alone for all those years."
The faerie blinked before he smiled. [We did our duty, Major.]
"So must we, sir."
An approving nod answered him. [Indeed.]
In a certain castle in northern Scotland, five hours later (local time: An hour after breakfast)...
"You can't be serious...!"
"There is no choice, Albus!" Cornelius Fudge stated. "We just got the news from the ambassador of the Eight Commanderies. That foolish muggle emperor of theirs just made mention of Lady Chennalton in a public communiqué!"
Hearing that, Albus Dumbledore tried not to groan as he forced down the surging magic inside his body, preventing it from lashing out at the stupid and cowardly man before him in his private office overlooking the grounds of Hogwarts. "I fail to comprehend how this has anything at all to do with Harry and where he resides when he's not in classes, Cornelius," the aged arch-mage then stated. "You are aware of how he came to be in Lady Nagato's care, aren't you? What makes you think she'll just stand back and allow you to take her own child away from her, all for such a flimsy excuse as THIS?!"
"We have no choice, Albus! You know it's forbidden to speak of any of those monster-killing ships to the muggles! ANY muggles! Even the shipgirls are subject to those laws! We have to get control over this situation...!"
"What situation, pray tell, are you talking about?" the elderly transfiguration and alchemy master who was jointly the Chief Warlock of the British House of Lords Wizengamot, the sitting Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and the current headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry demanded as his blue eyes flared, making the small group of people before him quake. "The Abyssals?! We LOST control of that whole situation over a half-decade ago! Thank Merlin for Nagi's boy and what he discovered from the archives of Master Hosan on Watari-shima that allowed the shipgirls to be called back to duty; if they had not been summoned back, I shudder to think of what might have happened to us all!" Ignoring the indignant looks from Fudge and his current senior undersecretary Dolores Umbridge, Dumbledore tried not to smirk. Given the fractured relations between the Ministry of Magic and the "rogue" magicals who considered the Meridiana Academy of Magecraft in Wales their alma mater, noting that it was the son of the Thousand Master who had made the discovery that allowed shipgirls to exist was certainly causing a lot of furor in London. "Harry was legally AND magically adopted by Lady Nagato. Lady Tsukuyomi herself was more than pleased to oversee the adoption..."
"She has no authority, Headmaster!" Umbridge broke in. "While she should have been put into Nurmengard alongside Grindelwald, she was made to step down from her post as Mahō-Shōgun back when the 'war of liberation' finally ended in 1945! The Eight Commanderies..." — here, she sneered that despised term — "...are to remain separate and never unified under one leader! Besides, why should we allow the Boy-Who-Lived to be adopted by one of those strange muggle golems?! It'd be as bad as one of the metahumans of Canada adopting the child! He deserves to remain here! The Wizengamot voted that into place! So here he'll remain! He'll be adopted by a good and proper family and raised in our ways...!"
The headmaster instantly tuned the obnoxious woman out as she continued her mindless rant over what was "right" and "proper" in British magical society...which was, as typical for the half-blood daughter of a former night janitor at the Ministry, what Dolores Umbridge saw as right and proper. Noting that, Amelia Bones tried not to grin too much at the stupid woman's ranting, though she was quick to give Dumbledore a sympathetic look. Given her position as head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, it would fall on Bones to enforce this latest act of insanity by the lords of the Wizengamot. Thanks to the constant bloodletting of Voldemort's rebellion well over a decade before joined with the losses the various magical security forces of the United Kingdom had taken fighting the Abyssals, she wouldn't be able to muster anything that could stop a fast task force from Yokosuka from storming the ramparts of Hogwarts and reuniting Harry with his adopted mother.
And if that coincided with a side trip to Buckingham Palace...!
Dear Merlin, Tsukiko! I should have listened to you all those years ago...!
A half-hour later...
"I see."
Dumbledore was quick to see the mask of stoic calm falling over the young first-year student's face. Quietly thanking the influence of such a wide diversity of shipgirls in the long healing which had been needed to help Harry Potter overcome the years of emotional abuse that the headmaster himself unintentionally plunged the boy into when he was left with the Dursleys after the tragic murder of Harry's parents, the aged arch-mage nodded as he gave the younger man an apologetic look. "I will fight this, Harry. The adoption Tsukiko helped your mother do to welcome you into her family was seen as right and proper in the eyes of Magic Itself. You will go back to your mother and your friends in Yokosuka when the school year is over next month. I don't want to risk the reaction of Admiral Gotō's subordinates leading to the Crown coming down on everyone's heads in the Ministry and unleashing something too many are still not prepared for." He shook his head. "Foolish people...!"
"And all this happened because Lady Chennalton was publicly revealed?!"
That was Hermione Granger, who was seated beside her friend. A good selection of first-year students from all the houses had come to Dumbledore's office when they learned Harry had been called in to see the old wizard. Such had instantly earned them points from their heads-of-houses for such a show of loyalty; they were also at the meeting. "That's stupid!" Blaise Zabini snapped. "According to the Rescript just issued by His Imperial Majesty, all that was mentioned of Lady Chennalton was her human name and place of birth. No mention of magic was made whatsoever. As far as most normal people would read this as — and please correct me if I'm wrong, Hermione..." he then said to his study-mate, who smiled in return, "...this was some metahuman from Canada who found out what the Thousand Master's son did and replicated it for Lady Yonaga."
"Oba-chan...you all must be so happy..."
Dumbledore was quick to see the delighted tears in Harry's eyes. As he had been want to do for years, the Boy Who Lived always used Japanese honorifics whenever he spoke of his adopted relatives in that nation. "Yes, it is good that Captain Itō has come back to rejoin her sisters and fleet mates after so many years alone and away," the headmaster said with a comforting smile before it then slipped. "Ronald, your interactions with Commander Boelyn and her fleet mates over the last couple of years would give you a good estimate of how powerful Captain Itō is. Would she be a danger?"
Ronald Weasley blinked before he shrugged. "Aircraft carrier?"
"Midway-class size," Kevin Entwhistle, one of the other muggleborn students in Harry's cohort, then declared with a warning look. "And her crew got a tonne of experience dealing with Abyssals before she became a shipgirl."
"She personally took off the heads of a tonne of installation princesses after she did get turned into one; that's what Miss Naka's podcast about Yonaga's return earlier today told me," Justin Finch-Fletchley added. Like other muggleborns, the banker's son from Lincolnshire had been befriended by British shipgirls over the previous couple of years. With that came chances to obtain technology such as wireless Internet-capable laptops that were hardened by shipgirl magic, which made them sturdy enough to withstand the environment of a place like Hogwarts. This had been part of a secret campaign ordered by the leadership of the Royal Navy to help prepare the country's magical population for when the Statute of Secrecy was going to finally come down whenever either the Abyssal War ended or something stupid happened that made the revelation of that secret inevitable. In the wake of an attempted alien invasion a year ago in Japan, the idea of keeping such an archaic treaty going just didn't make sense anymore in the halls of power worldwide, especially given the instances of what could traditionally be seen as "magic" that rocked Tomobiki over the last year. Given the ultimate power over magicals worldwide was actually vested in normal heads-of-state like the Queen — a fact of life that had been conveniently forgotten by too many — the continued existence of local ministries and departments of magic now hanged by very slender threads.
And given how much people had bungled things before the shipgirls came...!
"Um, Headmaster, if the Lady Chennalton's existence sort of caused this mess — even if it was clearly masked as Blaise said — couldn't we ask Lady Erinsville or any of her sisters to intervene directly before Lady Yonaga gets involved?" Draco Malfoy then asked. As the others from Slytherin here today nodded in agreement and Severus Snape smiled in approval of his godson's willingness to use his wit in this manner, the young heir of the Malfoy Clan of Avebury then added, "I mean, I don't fully understand shipgirls like Ron or any of the muggleborn do, but I know aircraft carriers can hit from very long distances."
"And if Lady Yonaga has personally killed Abyssal princesses...!" Pansy Parkinson added with an involuntary shudder, which was calmed down when Daphne Greengrass squeezed her hand in support. She remembered what happened when young Hoppō had come by Hogwarts after that silly incident with the troll at Hallowe'en. Given that particular sea spirit had just been a child, the younger heiress of the Parkinson Clan of Keerford shuddered to wonder as to what full-grown Abyssal princesses were like. And that made her wonder how powerful this Yonaga was. "I don't want her anywhere close to Dad!"
"Nor do we want them near any of our parents, Pansy," Blaise warned.
"That may be inevitable."
Eyes locked on Harry. "What do you mean, Harry?" Hannah Abbott asked.
A tired sigh escaped him. "I still sometimes find it hard to understand what being Japanese is really about," the Boy Who Lived and the unofficial leader of his cohort at Hogwarts stated before he gave his friends who had relatives in the Wizengamot sympathetic looks. "But if you're all able to persuade your dads to pull your families' support from Fudge, do it quickly!"
Everyone stared at him, quickly noting the warning tone in his voice. "Why, Harry?" Theodore Nott demanded.
"Because Yoiko-obasan will kill the man — and this Umbridge, too! — for their insult to the Heavenly Sovereign, Theo!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"Kokutai..."
Eyes locked on Hermione. "What's 'Kokutai'?" Neville Longbottom asked.
"'National structure' is what it directly translates to, Neville," the dentists' daughter from Crawley near London explained, glad to finally explain this unique part of her friend's adopted country. "It's a belief structure that came into vogue in Japan during the Meiji Restoration in the Nineteenth Century as a way of holding the country together as it modernized to keep European powers from messing things up like they did in China. This made people see themselves as part of a vast social order, with the Heavenly Sovereign at the very apex. Like our loyalty to the Crown...but magnified to degrees we could NEVER imagine!"
Hermione took a deep breath. "Lady Yonaga's crew — and thus, Lady Yonaga the shipgirl — were raised to believe this social structure was right and proper since it guaranteed national unity and it would totally destroy any attempts by the European powers to impose their influence on Japanese citizens. All loyalty to the Heavenly Sovereign above all else. Because of that, all who saw themselves truly bound to the concept of Kokutai would NEVER stand for such an insult to be made against the Heavenly Sovereign! And all because they have magic and the Heavenly Sovereign doesn't?!" She shook her head. "I've read all the stories people here have written about Lady Tsukuyomi!" As several of the purebloods in the room shuddered on hearing the common-known style name given to Yomigawa Tsukiko by the Heavenly Sovereign's own late father in 1930 when she was made Japan's last Supreme General of Magic, the dentists' daughter said, "And yes, I've talked to Harry about what she's really like! You people KNOW how hard it was to defeat the Greater East Asia Liberation Army during that war!
"Imagine Lady Tsukuyomi...as a shipgirl. That will be Lady Yonaga."
People's jaw dropped. "Bloody hell...!" Ronald breathed out.
"Someone better send an owl to Tadoussac," Susan Bones warned.
Grim nods from the others in the room...
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
Romanization of Russian Cyrillic is done in a modified Scholarly form to avoid the breves:
А = a, Б = b, В = v, Г = g, Д = d, Е = e, Ё = jo, Ж = zh, З = z, И = i, Й = j, К = k, Л = l, М = m, Н = n, О = o, П = p, Р = r, С = s, Т = t, У = u, Ф = f, Х = kh, Ц = ts, Ч = ch, Ш = sh, Щ = sch, Ы = y, Э = è, Ю = ju, Я = ja
In Russian, the "j" sound is similar to the "y" in in "yesterday". The Russian Ы is pronounced like the "oo" in the Southern American English pronunciation of "good". This is why I use "j" in lieu of "y" with "Ё", "Й", "Ю" and "Я".
In Russian, Ь represents the "soft sign", where the previous consonant is spoken with the tongue close to the hard palate at the roof of the mouth; this is called palatalization. In Romanized Russian, it's always represented by a single quote mark "'". The very rare Ъ represents the "hard sign", a separation orthographic device that shows a syllable break, usually before letters such as Я, Ю, Е or Ё. This second letter is a rare one, having fallen out of favour after 1918 and a massive reform of the language done in the wake of the Russian Revolution, though it is still used. It's Romanized as a double quote mark """.
Finally, an acute accent over a vowel marks the stress point in a multi-syllable word.
When writing Western or Japanese words as they're pronounced in Russian, I use the proper Cyrillization of the word in question. For example, the Japanese "h" has no equivalent in Russian, thus it's always rendered "kh".
Translation list: Dóbroe útro — Good morning; Továrischi — Plural of továrisch ("comrade"/"adventuring companion"); Rossíjskij Imperátorskij Flot — Imperial Russian Navy; Dobró pozhálovat' v zalív Sanó — Welcome to Sano Bay; Ty govorísh' po-Rússki — You speak Russian?; Ja byl v Sibíri sém'desjat-pjat' let — I've been in Siberia for seventy-five years; Ródina — Motherland; Nekul'túrnye mónstry — Uncultured monsters; Dévochka-korábl' — Fleet girl; Maguro-sashimi — Raw bluefin tuna meat; Azarashi — Seal meat; Nori no tempura — Fried seaweed in batter; Ch'uokyek — Heavenly dragons; Teitokukan Yonjū-kū — Imperial Special Agent #49; Yūjo — Harlot/Prostitute; Kempeitai — Military Police Corps; Denka — Your Highness; Daijō-tennō — Retired Heavenly Sovereign; Heika — Your Majesty; Hakase — University professor; Nimmib — Verbalization of the initials NMMB ("non-magical magic-born"), the Canadian term applied to a squib; Tensei-ryū — School of the Star of Heaven.
Russian short terms:
Gosdúma — Gosudárstvennaja Dúma ("Federal Parliament"), the lower house of the Russian Federation's national legislature
LK — Linéjnyj Korábl' ("ship of the line"), Russian ship type name prefix for a dreadnought battleship; unlike other nations, Russia does not use a unified service ship prefix
NKVD — Naródnyj Komissariát Vnútrennikh Del ("People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs"), the internal security and external spy agency of the Soviet Union during Iósef Vissariónovich Stálin's reign (1924-52)
NKMD — Naródnyj Komissariát Mágicheskie Del ("People's Commissariat of Magical Affairs"), the name of the Soviet Union's magical government from the October Revolution to after Iósef Stálin's death (1917-52)
Gamájun — Short for Akadémija Volshebsvá "Gamájun" ("Gamájun Magical Academy"), one of the two main magical schools in the Russian Federation, located close to the Kárskoe Sea north of the Ural Mountains
Names and patronymics:
Ivónna Víl'jámovna — Yvonne, daughter of William
Jásuko Séiitovna — Yasuko, daughter of Seiichi
Galína Vladímirovna — Galína, daughter of Vladímir
Jóiko Khirósiovna — Yoiko, daughter of Hiroshi
Negáko Khirósukova — Negako, daughter of Hirosuke
The Órden Koschéja ("Order of Koschéj") is my interpretation of Russia's version of the Order of Merlin. While awarded for the same reasons British and Commonwealth magicals get the Order of Merlin (for both achievement in society and bravery), the inspiration of the Order of Koschéj (established to honour Slavic magicals who fought back Genghis Khan during the Mongol invasions of Russia in the Thirteenth Century CE) influenced the titles of its three levels as noted below:
MO1 — Velíkij Vóin Volshébnik/Volshébnitsa Órdena Koschéja v Pérvoj Stépeni ("Grand Warrior Sorcerer/Sorceress of the Order of Koschéj in the First Degree")
MO2 — Vóin Volshébnik/Volshébnitsa Órdena Koschéja vo Vtorój Stépeni ("Warrior Sorcerer/Sorceress of the Order of Koschéj in the Second Degree")
MO3 — Volshébnik/Volshébnitsa Órdena Koschéja v Trét'jej Stépeni ("Sorcerer/Sorceress of the Order of Koschéj in the Third Degree")
And the shipgirls introduced in this part:
CANADA
HMCS Erinsville — Erin Jane Fingal
JAPAN
THG Yūdachi — Hamamoto Kodachi
THG Taihō — Ozawa Taeko
THG Naka — Hashimoto Nahoko
RUSSIA
LK Gángut — Galína Vladímirovna Jurkévich
UNITED KINGDOM
HMS Warspite — Charlene Victoria Boleyn
UNITED STATES
USS West Virginia — Julia Augusta Pierpont
USS San Francisco — Michiko Francine Norton
USS Hoel — Madelyn Elizabeth Hoel
USS Akron — Jean Charysse Rosendahl
USS Macon — Allison Hope Dresel
USS Heermann — Louisa Kistiñe Heermann