DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.
Tomobiki Senior High School, Monday 22 May, two hours before lunch...
"...do such a thing? He'll have detention for the rest of his LIFE...!"
Hearing that moaning lament from the balding elderly principal of her school, Marubeya Momoe found herself scowling as she tried not to snap at the old fool for complaining about something that should have been dealt with months ago. Sensing the tomboyish raven-haired girl with the brown eyes about to lose it with the Principal, Momoe's best friend Gekasawa Kumiko smirked as she reached down to gently grasp the other woman's hand. "Relax, Momoe-chan," the woman once voted the prettiest girl in the infamous "class of failure" whispered as her own dark eyes sparkled with mirth. "As soon as the PTA finally wakes up to the fact that this idiot isn't in any sort of real charge over this place, he's gone. With his tenure, Onsen-sensei will be put in as principal soon enough. Once he's in place, all the idiots will be made to behave themselves finally."
Hearing that made Momoe blink before she sighed as they moved to climb up the stairs to the second floor. "We dreamed for so long to see Lum and Ataru-kun tossed out of this place once and for all...and the place just went to the dogs! What the hell's the matter with people these days? Don't they care about that Oni's 'most faithful' and what they tried to pull here?"
Kumiko snorted as she gently tossed her long, flowing black hair around to stretch her neck. "The boys don't. Even now, they can't see how much of a threat Lum was to people here on Earth. Megane whipped them up so badly when he started the bitch's 'stormtroopers' a year ago that they can't think of something else to focus on now. Not even the kanmusu." She then giggled. "And given how strong some of those girls are said to be, it's no wonder they're having panic attacks."
"Oh?"
"You want to face the likes of Yonaga-sama and try to convince her to let Ataru-kun go so he could go back to Lum?"
Momoe winced. "No thanks. I like my head to stay on my neck, please!"
"Must you talk about those things?"
Both girls stopped, then they gazed on Moroboshi Ataru's former girlfriend, who had stepped out of Class 2-4 to get some fresh air. The muffled shouts of several boys echoed from beyond the closed doors of the classroom. No doubt, Aisuru Satoshi — even after nearly being crippled by Taihō the previous afternoon — was trying to "rally the troops" to find some way to make the government force their former classmate back to Tomobiki as the first step to restoring Redet Lum back to Earth again and return things to "normal". Given what Ataru and his adopted sister Moroboshi Negako had done to literally cut Earth off from any contact from the Urusians or their allies — the girls of Class 2-4 had been briefed on that thanks to private letters from Ataru which had also contained apologies for his behaviour around them in the past — the chances of Lum or any of her friends coming back to restart the "circus" that had haunted people's lives in Tomobiki for a year were well to the left of "nil".
"Shinobu-chan, let it go!" Kumiko breathed out, shaking her head in pity at the other girl, who still seemed incapable of finally putting her relationship with Ataru in its place within her heart. "You walked away from Ataru-kun once and for all when Mendō-san joined us. You've no right to judge him for anything anymore." As Miyake Shinobu stiffened on hearing that criticism from what she once viewed as friend and ally when it came to dealing with the craziness that haunted Tomobiki for so long, Kumiko added, "Given what we've seen of Ataru-kun's idiot mother these days, I can't blame him for wanting to get away from this place. You've no right to demand he just come back here to put up to that slut's abuse!" Ignoring Shinobu's squawk of outrage at that insult being applied to Moroboshi Kinshō, Kumiko shook her head. "You're just upset at the fact that Ataru-kun hid so much from you all these years, especially given what he did for the kanmusu as a whole."
"And that he's dating Roma-san these days," Momoe added, which made Shinobu's face flush red as that comment struck home. "Given how much of a bad cook Lum was reported to be, I can't blame him for wanting to date someone like her."
"Considering how much the kanmusu of Yokosuka loved it when she stayed with them for a while, helping out with Hōshō-sensei's restaurant like she did, he was wise to pursue her," Kumiko added. "At least THAT didn't change about Ataru-kun."
She giggled as she walked into the classroom, ignoring Shinobu's sputtered protest. Momoe followed her inside, quickly noting a small group of boys led by Megane crowded around Mendō Shūtarō's desk. Seeing the calm serenity the scion of Japan's richest student now projected to his peers, both Momoe and Kumiko could only smile in delight. With Lum gone, the chances were better than good that one of the girls of Class 2-4 would be able to properly win Shūtarō's heart; given how much of an androphobic menace his "fiancée" Mizunokōji Asuka was, the chances of that marriage going through were simply next to nil. And given Shinobu's recent ranting against the kanmusu — whom she saw as no different than the Abyssals, which was about the most stupid thing one could say these days about the beautiful sea kami who came back in Japan's darkest hour to save the nation and humanity — the chances of her getting back together with Shūtarō were also pretty much next to nil.
"They'll lose steam soon enough," a familiar voice noted from nearby, making both girls look over. "The news of Taihō-sama's attack on them yesterday after they were ordered out of the Nekohanten is making the rounds."
Momoe and Kumiko glanced at their class' only publicly-admitted homosexual member, Tsuruya Rumiko. The granddaughter of the local dietman and one of the most intelligent students in Metro Tōkyō, she was a rather plain-looking girl with bobcut black hair and dark brown eyes behind reading glasses. She had been part of Shūtarō's "secret peer guidance committee" during the "food fight" the previous summer shortly after the scion of Japan's richest family joined them, but dropped out when she decided she didn't want to put up to the would-be perversions of some of the people who had joined the group as a way of lording it over their peers. She was also the primary source of information when it came to the kanmusu in the class; even during the time that weird news blackout had been cloaked over Tomobiki, she could relay choice information when asked.
Right now, Rumiko was scanning something on her iPad. "So what else is new?" Kumiko asked as she and Momoe sat nearby. Ever since Lum and Ataru left, the seating arrangement had changed, with the boys gravitating to one side and the girls to the other; Shūtarō pretty much stayed where he had been all along. Both Lum's and Ataru's old desks were empty at this time. A bouquet of flowers sitting on the desk once used by the Oni warlord's daughter; that had been a mark of mourning from all the boys who still lamented her expulsion from Earth two days ago. Of course, nothing marked Ataru's desk even if Rumiko's next door neighbour in her row, Inu Chigaiko, often wished she had gone with him down to Sasebo. Of course, given what happened to the former basketball team star forward — she had quit the team the day after all of Class 2-4 had been brought back to Earth by the ancient Noukiite sky dragon Nengmek'i — after a certain Hallowe'en party some months before...
"Oh, Roberta-san just announced that she's back together with Ataru-kun. They're in Scotland, looking in on Reiko-san's son," Rumiko stated as her eyes twinkled. Those in Class 2-4 who were interested in the kanmusu now knew of Ataru's move to humanize them by giving them human names. "Nothing lewd, but the stories of what he was doing in Italy while he was waiting for his younger self to be taken to Okusei are getting out over Facebook and Shipgirl Central." That latter service was a free chat started by Facebook's founders to serve as the unclassified central information nexus for all shipgirls and their friends worldwide. As he was a "special boatswain's mate" to both Yonaga and Roma, Moroboshi Ataru was a member. Given he was currently moving to get Rumiko and Chigaiko also involved with the shipgirls — a fact that none of the boys, not even Shūtarō, knew of — the class' most intelligent student was also a member of SGC, as was her classmate. "Quite an interesting set of tales, especially given what Ataru-kun did when he returned the medals he was given for defeating Lum a year ago."
The other girls snorted. "'He stole my money'," Kumiko whined in a good imitation of Moroboshi Kinshō's voice. That had been a frequent complaint from Ataru's mother ever since the news of his returning the medals and decorations — including all the monetary awards he got for his actions a year ago — had got out to the general public a week ago. Whatever sympathy people in Tomobiki had once felt for the likes of Kinshō had vanished when that went public. "Gods! Why didn't we pick up on that shit?! We've known Ataru-kun for HOW long?! To believe he had to put up to all that from the idiot...!"
"We didn't want to think it was as bad as what Harry-chan went through with his relatives," Rumiko noted. "Understandable. Given how much people have suffered over the years, the idea of parents doing that to their children..."
The other girls nodded. Due to the alien presence in Tomobiki, the whole town had been granted a blanket exception to the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy since there had been considerable magical incidents — including a visit to the school by beings reported to be the Great Kami of Shintō Themselves at the fall school festival! — that started there shortly after Lum moved into town. Such had yet to be rescinded. Given the rumours running over the Internet concerning all the obvious magical incidents that had come to light since the Abyssals began to openly act against all of humanity, the chances were awfully good that the leaders of the Eight Imperial Magical Commanderies — that was the name given to the directors of the eight regional Magical Associations which served as leadership council for those blessed with that gift in lieu of a single Mahō-Shōgun — wouldn't bother to do anything to the people who suffered so long for a year because of aliens who had no sense of self-control. "What about Harry-chan?" Momoe asked. "He's in his freshman year at...! What was that place called?"
"Hogwarts," Rumiko answered. "Our own Dejima School in Nagasaki was modelled after it. One of the oldest wand-magical schools in the world and one of those that won international recognition by the ICW in Geneva." She then snorted. "Then again, they still list Mahōtokoro as an 'active' school. Yomigawa-gensui ordered it closed down in 1930 and the Abyssals wrecked the place six years ago when they stepped up attacks on all known magical villages." She winked at her friends.
"Take it with a massive grain of salt, you mean," Kumiko noted.
"Hai..."
A shocked scream then echoed from the hallway. "Shinobu-san!" Fujinami Ryūnosuke screamed out as people surged for the closed doors to the classroom to look out into the hallway and see what had just happened.
One glance was good enough.
"Holy shit...!" Mifune Hideyuki, one of the boys who was slowly gravitating to kanmusu fandom even if he was still seen as an affiliate member of Lum's Stormtroopers, croaked out in disbelief on seeing who was standing there.
"So who exactly is this girl, Ikuko?"
"No doubt Ataru-kun's would-be paramour, Hoshiko. Pay her no mind."
Jaws dropped. "Ise-sama...Hyūga-sama...!" Shūtarō gasped in awe.
Hearing their ship names called out, the two aviation battleships known to Moroboshi Ataru and other close friends as Kawasaki Ikuko (Ise) and Kawasaki Hoshiko (Hyūga) both perked before they gazed over. Like they always did unless they wanted to spend time incognito, the two shipgirls born of Japan's third generation of dreadnoughts wore their normal modified miko clothing, with pleated brown skirts in lieu of hakama trousers, their beautiful daishō lashed to their left hips. Of course, they had left their sea boots at the main entrance, wearing uwabaki instead. Escorting them was a smiling Onsen Mark, the current vice-principal and homeroom teacher for Class 2-4. "I assume she'll be here, Onsen-sensei?" Ise asked.
"Hai, Ise-sama, she's here," Onsen stated, then he gazed at the gathered students before he cleared his throat, bracing himself to attention. "Tsuruya-kun, come forth. You've been requested to meet our honoured guests."
"Hai, Sensei!"
People parted as Rumiko walked over to join them, then she gaped on seeing the two modified super-dreadnoughts there. Noting the shared looks of delight on both their faces, she then looked at Onsen. "Um...what's going on, Sensei?"
Ise cleared her throat. "Sumimasen, Rumiko-san. Your request to serve as special boatswain's mate for members of the Combined Shipgirl Fleet of the State of Japan and our honoured allies was just approved by Admiral Gotō," she stated, making many of the boys all gasp in shocked disbelief at that announcement. "You've been officially transferred to private study as of today. We're here to help transport you down to the Naval District at Yokosuka so you can assume your duties."
People gaped at this, then the boys gave Shūtarō hopeful looks, they clearly believing that his supposed influence on affairs of government could be brought to play to put a stop to this. Noting that, the girls tried not to roll their eyes at such a pathetic ploy. Given the boys' blinding obsession towards getting Lum back to town so they could fawn over her, they now all strongly believed NOTHING should be allowed to change in Tomobiki so as to not scare the warlord's daughter off. In that, they actually reflected the beliefs of the alien maniac who could truly outdo Megane and his friends as being Lum's number one "fan"; according to what had been revealed about that bomb placed by the Niphentaxians in the Tomobiki Ginza, the leader of that race had been convinced that if something happened that changed the lives of his "goddess'" friends on the planet, it would lead to a disaster for his own race. That comparison had gone far into souring the girls' opinions about their peers in the last month; such had led to some nasty fights between the two groups, those instances barely stopped by the teachers.
Before anyone could say anything, Shūtarō stood to attention, then deeply bowed to his friend. "My deepest congratulations, Rumiko-san." As the other boys all awked in disbelief on hearing that, he then gazed on the two battleships there. "I would assume, Ise-sama, that Rumiko-san might be assigned to assist Kii-sama and the others of her class just summoned at Yokosuka a month ago to better adjust to actually being living women instead of mere architectural drawings?"
"Sadly so," Ise noted as Hyūga giggled. "Even now that it's late spring, we're having the devil's time trying to wean them away from the kotatsu that had been left behind when Hornet's task force staged out of Yokosuka during the winter."
Many of the girls laughed on hearing that. Given the seductive powers the space heaters were said to have on foreign shipgirls, it had fallen to the Ise sisters to help Ōyodo retrieve them once the time came to put them away for the season came at the end of March. "Makes me wonder how Yonaga-sama is going to react once winter comes again and she'll have a kotatsu available to keep her warm," another girl, Obinata Hiromi, then muttered as she crossed her arms.
"Ataru-kun's going to have fun, especially with him together with Roma-sama," Hiromi's best friend Yamagata Masako noted.
The other girls laughed...
"SILENCE!"
People all spun around to see a flaring battle aura form around Megane, who was now glaring wrathfully at the girls. "YOU STUPID BITCHES DON'T HAVE A RIGHT TO SAY SUCH THINGS!" the leader of Lum's Stormtroopers howled...
...before he gargled as the honed edge of a sharp katana blade gently touched his throat. "Oi! You be quiet, you four-eyed traitor to humanity!" Hyūga gently declared, making Megane croak as he realized how close he was to becoming "a head shorter". "Yeah, that was a little much yesterday, what Taihō did to you at her admiral's command. But you idiots were evicted from that restaurant thanks to your obsession with that alien monster that tried to wreck Ataru-kun's life like she did!" As Megane squawked on hearing that insult laid out on Lum, the brown-haired aviation battleship leaned in to whisper, "You're lucky that Yonaga-san WASN'T here to hear that from you, Megane! If she did, she would have beheaded you for even THINKING of trying to bring that alien back here! WE haven't forgot what YOU ultimately provoked a year ago!"
As Megane nearly soiled his trousers on hearing the shipgirls blamed HIM for that whole thing with the space-taxi — which was Ataru's fault as everything else had been since Lum came into people's lives! — Ise chuckled. "You want to get your bags and books, Rumiko-san?" she asked. "We've got the car by the front gate and the girls are waiting to meet you."
Rumiko blinked, then she sighed. "Give me a moment..."
"Rumiko...!"
She ignored Shinobu's pleading look as she headed to get her bookbag...
Fifteen minutes later...
"You will be missed here, Tsuruya-kun."
Hearing that, Rumiko sighed before she shrugged. "Well, I'd like to say that it's been a slice of heaven, Sensei...but it hasn't," she admitted after exchanging bows with Onsen. Given what had been done to the cat-ghost Kotatsuneko two weeks ago when Ataru had come to retrieve his belongings from his old family home, the Principal was still in a nearly-vegetative state in his office. "And no, I don't follow the trend of a lot of people and blame Ataru-kun for the whole mess."
Hearing that made Onsen sigh before he gave her an understanding nod. "Some of us have taken time to think over what happened since the aliens came," he admitted. "A lot of people really did overdo it when it came to putting blame on him for things. A pity that dragon didn't bring us back until after that bomb was removed and the presence of those Niphentaxians was exposed. It would have derailed a lot of things from your former peers, especially from Megane and his crew..."
A disgusted snort answered him. "Personally, when it comes to Megane, I have to wonder at that, Sensei," Rumiko stated before she straightened herself. She had got changed to the unofficial uniform of all such people like her: A white gakuran-like suit that was of the same cut as a junior officer's summer uniform in the Imperial Japanese Navy, the honorary rank of lieutenant on her dark blue collar stands. She even had a proper peaked cap over her head, the chrysanthemum-and-anchor insignia over her forehead. "With your kind permission, Sensei, I'll be departing now for the Yokosuka Naval District to carry our my duties for the nation," she then said as she gave him a proper salute that would earn her points at Eta-jima.
Onsen bowed. "Do your best, Tsuruya-taii," he bade her before he gazed in amusement at Ise and Hyūga. "Take care of her."
"Always," the elder of the pair of aviation battleships vowed before they saluted him. "Teitoku," she then playfully bade the newest member of the Yokosuka family while she and her sister waved her to the waiting staff car nearby.
Rumiko nodded as she followed the shipgirls to the car, trying not to blush as dozens of voices cheering her on echoed from all three floors of the school building, mostly from girls who were glad to see that one of their number was moving on to help win the war against the Abyss that threatened so many even during the time that the aliens were here and things seemed almost "normal" as so arranged by elements of government to prevent Lum's friends from understanding the dire truth of what was unleashing itself all over Earth. Watching her go, Onsen nodded with delight before he moved to head back inside the school itself, where Sakurambō Sakura was now standing, a pensive look on her face. Like the vice-principal, the part-time Shintō shrine maiden and school nurse had been more than relieved on noting that Moroboshi Ataru was no longer around to haunt their lives...though she was now learning the man's departure for Sasebo inadvertently raised more problems than it solved.
"They'll be coming for Inu-kun soon," she warned.
Onsen grunted. "I don't blame her for wanting to leave," he noted. "Given how much that damned curse made us all forget everything about her..." He shook his head. "She could have died and we wouldn't have noticed. All save Moroboshi..."
Sakura nodded before they headed back to work, once more ignoring the Principal as he lamented his precious "Kota-chan"...
United States Fleet Activities Sasebo, that moment...
"My Lord above...it's really that bad?"
John Richardson grimly nodded. "Even with all the success the Canadians and we have had when it comes to punching convoys through from North America to Japan, the Abyssals are simply not giving it up and they're doing everything they can to choke the country off from the outside world, even from Korea and Russia," he stated. "After Professor Crowing managed to get New Jersey back three years ago, we finally discovered the correlation between destroying the enemy and getting more of our warships back on duty as shipgirls. When Miss Negako got involved last year, she suggested that we start implementing what the Canadians do at Cornwallis concerning summonings: Using a form of blood magic to help people like yourself be upgraded with modern weapons and electronics, all based on wreckage salvaged from Second Iō-tō — Iō-jima to you — and Sable Island that the Canadians were able to retrieve just before Negi Springfield made his discovery."
Tennessee nodded in grim understanding. "Well, I'm at the state where I was when I was decommissioned and put into mothballs. Full anti-air suite for the time period and my ship type along with the 5 inch 38 calibre dual purpose guns below my main armament. Radar and other electronic gear are the same. Does this interfere in case Canadian escort groups come into range and we have to coordinate things to get the convoys into safe harbour to unload their cargoes?"
"Not really," the one-star in charge of American shipgirls in Japan answered. "Unlike most other magical departments, the Canadian Ministry of Magical Affairs and the magical leaders of their First Nations, the Métis and the Inuit — the Eskimos to you — were in on the project to launch shipgirl summoning at Cornwallis within a week of the return of Kongō and her sisters thanks to Negi. Given General Raeburn was Master Hosan's adopted daughter, she had scrolls containing the knowledge concerning the base theories surrounding shipgirl summoning at her home in British Columbia, which could be accessed by their specialized warfare forces if necessary. The result when Sackville came shocked everyone, especially the Abyssals." He handed her a sheet of paper that showed a diagram of what the reborn version of the last Flower-class corvette could do.
Seeing that, the modernized standard whistled in approval. "Oh, my! Rapid fire dual purpose gun even faster than my quad Bofors, anti-aircraft missiles that could also double as light anti-ship missiles, torpedoes that don't fail and have much longer range and in-flight manoeuvring capability, faster speed even if still on a single shaft and modern electronics, including radar and sonar! That must have been quite the ugly surprise when her escort group got the first convoy to Britain."
"Fortunately, a successor team to the War Hawks has a hyper-polymath in the group," Captain (Navy) Wendy Armstrong, senior liaison of the Royal Canadian Navy to Japan, added. "He was able to breach the wall between shipgirl magic and the level of mesonium-based hyper-technology that he was normally used to working with thanks to General Raeburn's discovery of that alien observation post on Ellesmere Island at the start of the last century, where Quttinirpaaq Magical Penitentiary is located now. Thanks to that, shipgirls of all nations were retrofitted with modern communication suites which allow them to speak with others without the need of carrying iPhones around." She held up her own mobile phone in emphasis. "We hope that once things calm down, we can start retrofitting shipgirls of other nations with modern missiles and electronics."
"For us, that's stuck in committee in Washington," Richardson muttered, shaking his head. As Mutsu and Jintsū smirked on hearing that, he added, "There's a fear among many in government that if we escalate to missile warfare that the Abyssals will respond in kind. There have already been battles where ebony mesonium warheads have been used in attacks on shipgirls and shore locations in hopes of causing large casualties or unleashing a mass breakout of metahuman incidents. Fortunately, the ships of CANBATRON ONE and elements of the Specialized Warfare Regiment of Canada step in to put a stop to it before it goes crazy. Given the fears our former alien guests have concerning the metahumans of Yiziba, it's understandable."
"Will the aliens invade?" the namesake of the Volunteer State asked.
"No," Richardson said with a shake of his head as he crossed his arms, glad to deliver the good news here. "A native of a suburb of Los Angeles named Elizabeth Wakefield was accidentally teleported to Yiziba when she was still in sixth grade; she's in grade ten now. She made contact with the Seeker's Forge and became the current Academician, the top-flight polymath on that planet. Right away, she moved to protect her hometown of Sweet Valley from the Abyssals — it's not too far from Santa Monica on Route 101 near Vandenburg Air Force Base; you'd know it as Camp Cooke — then got friends, including her twin sister Jessica, Gifted as well." The just-returned battleship was quick to sense the emphasis on that word. "As soon as the Urusians came to launch their 'invasion' last year, Miss Wakefield began a project to seal off the part of the solar system from the asteroid belt inwards from outside intrusion. Given the scale of the area she wanted to cover, it took her up to two weeks ago to get it done and close Earth off from interference. With that shield in place, the aliens won't be a problem."
"Are they monitoring communications?" Tennessee asked. "I'm sure radio and that new system people use these days..."
"Television," Jintsū provided.
The American battleship nodded. "Well, won't signals be picked up?"
"They can be," Armstrong noted. "That hyper-polymath in our regiment was quick to team up with Madame Academician to help block the signals to prevent even the Tritonians from picking up on things. Given the close friendship between their crown princess and Miss Redet, it was deemed to be wise. Despite how Miss Redet did accept what happened to Mister Moroboshi, there has to be some resentment in Onishuto and other intergalactic capitals that we came down so harshly on their presence on Earth. It's guaranteed that the Niphentaxians would be spoiling for revenge. After the Moroboshi siblings helped the Noukiites and the Yizibajohei liberate the Avalonians, they were turned from one of the local cluster's top powers to mere paupers in an instant. That won't sit well with whoever took that Ōgi brat's place in New Hollywood."
"Or whatever they're calling that city now," Richardson lamented.
Both naval officers chuckled at that private joke while Tennessee blinked in confusion, wondering what was so funny. "What would they expect, Wendy?" Mutsu asked. "Don't they know what happened with that thing concerning the space-taxi?"
"I strongly believe they simply wouldn't care about that, Chiyoko," Armstrong noted. "Hopefully, Ataru's friends from Noukiios — especially Lady K'ekhech — will make them see reason soon enough. If not his adopted sister on Yiziba."
"How many sisters does he have?" Tennessee asked.
"Three," Richardson answered. "Miss Negako, you know about. She's Imperial Special Agent #49, the woman who ensured that when the Heavenly Sovereign of Shōwa called it a day in 1945, peace was achieved with the elimination of the fighters of the Black Dragon Society to save the War Hawks all the extra work. The other two adopted sisters are Avalonian bioroid clones of Ataru. One is Hiromi. She currently lives in Tomobiki at the Toranoseishin Finances Tower complex there. She was forged from a magical camera replica of Ataru thanks to some in-class film project concerning school violence; her kami was preserved by all the underlying magic of Tomobiki and was allowed to be effectively reborn thanks to Miss Negako. Right now, Miss Hiromi is the matriarch of the Moroboshi Clan, which gives her power and influence with the Heavenly Sovereign. The other one is Tariko. She was created on Okusei from life energy that had been stuffed in Ataru thanks to some weird incident concerning a lollipop given to him by Miss Redet that actually turned him into twins. While his own soul didn't get fractured because of it, the extra life energy was still inside his body and was siphoned off to allow a new incarnation of Coyote of Yiziba to be reborn. Currently, she's on that planet, but ready to go over to Uru in case some idiot there gets stupid."
"It's similar to the way you were created, Alex," Armstrong added.
Hearing that made Tennessee relax. "Well, if the Good Lord allowed this to happen, then there's no sense arguing against it." She then sighed. "What about our forces here, sir? I know Pennsylvania and Arizona are here..."
Richardson tried not to groan. "You'll be probably dealing with them both quite frequently from now on, Lieutenant," he warned. "Sonia — Arizona — still feels as if she failed her crew at Pearl Harbour by not being ready when the bombers came in. Atop that, she's in her commissioning rigging from 1916. Try as we might, we can't get her upgraded to 'Kai' format that could put her in a position like she was at Pearl, much less a 'Kai Ni' that would make her the equal of her sister."
"She has gravitated to Yoiko given what Patricia-san did for her," Mutsu noted. "Given that Yoiko has missiles now..."
Tennessee nodded; her own small staff of intelligence faeries had got the full brief on the seventh carrier of Operation Z thanks to Mutsu's and Jintsū's own intelligence faeries. "Given that it was her admiral that actually planned the attack on Pearl, I can't blame Miss Yoiko for wanting to get those Sea Sparrows and the rapid-fire guns on her. She's been quite the busy person in the Arctic if all the tales about the 'Angry One' that Chiyoko and Junko have told me about are true."
"That she has," Jintsū noted.
Richardson held up his hand to get the conversation back on track. "Because of that, Sonia is still wracked with a lot of guilt and uncertainty. There's also the 'idol factor' as well. You know how it was like when people spoke of her after the attack, Alex." He shook his head. "SECNAV and the CNO both are VERY wary of allowing Sonia to head out on deployments because of her lack of any decent modern equipment in her rigging, to say nothing about how people would react if they learned Arizona was sunk again even if she was fighting the enemy. We all know that shipgirls need the chances to do missions to self-improve, but Sonia's obsolescence makes it hard even for me to send her out on a mission. We can't send her to America. She'll be like you in that regard even if a lot of people in Congress and even the White House would desire it."
"Don't insult her like that, sir!" Tennessee protested. "Sonia is just as capable as the rest of us when it comes to fighting!"
"Agreed, she is. And she has performed splendidly on her missions. But I want you to keep an eye on her, Lieutenant." He then took a deep breath. "And keep a very close eye on Lieutenant Penn as well. She's suffering from PTSD issues."
"Shell-shock and survivor's guilt," Armstrong added.
Hearing that, Tennessee winced. "Oh, Margaret...!"
Naval Base Kitsap Bremerton Annex, that moment (local time: Sunday 21 May, a half-hour after supper)...
"I PROTEST THIS!"
"You can protest it all you want, Congressman. But you're NOT getting your way this time!" the smiling Marine major general in a proper combat utility uniform said as he gazed upon the physically older man. An older man who was dressed in fashions more befitting for the Roaring Twenties than the modern era, Vice Admiral Samuel Williams wryly mused to himself with a smirk as he watched this confrontation between the commanding general of the 7th Marine Division (Magical) and the senior representative of Washington's magical population to the Magical Congress in downtown Manhattan. "We just had another incident concerning Abyssals willing to fire weapons containing ebony mesonium warheads at either Seattle or Vancouver. Captain Gervais was within her proper remit to make use of her primary weapons to defeat the attack before it came to harm anyone on either side of the border. Those orders were issued on the authority of Her Majesty the Queen by His Excellency the Governor General to the commander of the First Canadian Battleship Squadron, Rear Admiral Heather Thompkins. As he is senior officer for the eastern Pacific, Admiral Williams is within his rights to learn what happened and why it happened."
"He's a no-maj, Paul!" John Gibson of Tacoma snarled. "He's got no right...!"
"The President disagrees, Congressman," Paul O'Brien immediately countered. Williams knew he had served for a decade as Chief Marshal (Magical) of the United States until he had been mobilized at the order of President Josiah Bartlet at the request of Secretary of Magic Samuel Quahog four years ago to help the Auror Bureau help keep the shores of the Union safe from the Abyssals until the shipgirls came. His face softened as he added, "Don't tell me President Bartlet has no authority in this case. You've read the Magical Constitution, John. You majored in constitutional law at Seven Hills after you graduated from Ilvermorny. Stop trying to bluster for your friends! It's far too late! You've seen it as much as I have!"
Hearing that, the silver-haired conjuration master — he retired from a teaching position at the Seven Hills Wizarding Academy in Virginia five years ago to protect the magicals of his home state — took a deep breath before a wry smile crossed his face. "My friends won't give up, Paul," he then said as he sat down in the chair provided for him by CWO2 Sarah Gale. Also present at this meeting were two American battleships and one Canadian battleship, the latter of whom was currently enjoying some tea while a division of gushing Fletcher-class destroyers all stayed close to her. "They refuse to see what's on the Internet concerning how many no-majs know the secret now. All they see is the coming of a new round of the Salem Witch Trials."
"Congressman, may I ask you a question?" Washington then spoke up.
He looked over. "Yes, Commander Stevens?"
"I had nimmib crewmen when I was in commission as a warship, as did Dakota," the namesake of the congressman's home state stated as she waved to South Dakota. "They knew from their relatives that studying the story of the Salem Witch Trials and the founding of the original post-Statute North American Wizengamot was considered mandatory at the Salem Academy. I would assume Ilvermorny and Seven Hills as well." As the others nodded, the second of the North Carolina-class battleships said, "I know some teachers used a form of hypnosis to make the students understand the fear that ran through people's minds in that time period when the Scourers such as Gunnery Sergeant Stone's ancestor were running amok." Here, she nodded to John Stone, now standing guard with a friend at the main door to the admiral's office. "Does that still happen?"
"It does, Commander," O'Brien answered. "At least at Seven Hills it does." Despite his relative youth, he had served as a private in the 72nd Marine Regiment during the War of Liberation. "I'm not sure about Ilvermorny or Salem..."
"It does. That's something Mollie Bean's complained about often," Gibson noted with a wry smile. "Admiral, ladies, please try to understand our worldview. We were raised in a culture of fear when it came to the no-majs discovering our existence. Despite all the efforts many made from the time of President Lincoln's tenure in the White House to today, mugalophobia is still a fact of life among many American magicals who went to Ilvermorny and the other schools, even among many no-maj-borns. Of course, we do our best to try to keep up with developments among no-majs, but that fear is a living thing to us." He shook his head. "I'm aware that Sam Quahog is technically a cabinet secretary in the unified executive government of the nation. Many others consider it a 'no-maj lie', just like those aurors who attacked Chief Warrant Officer Gale because of her relationship with Commander Stevens believed." He closed his eyes. "The Abyssals just make it worse..."
"We're fighting to protect everyone in the country, Congressman," Dakota noted. "Metahumans and normals alike, sir." She ignored the slight shudder in Gibson's body on hearing her address magicals and non-magical metahumans by just one term for both, which was something no "right thinking" magical could ever accept. "The Abyssals — except those like little Hoppō and her friends who defected with her — don't give a shit what one is. If you're human, you deserve to die."
"And given that a lot of magicals don't live close to the coastline anyway save for the major cities like New York or Los Angeles, they've not had real experience in dealing with the enemy," O'Brien finished for the namesake of the Mount Rushmore State. "Sure, a lot of civilian volunteers have gladly gone out to help the aurors and later us to help keep the coastlines protected, but the majority have stayed quietly in their homes, thinking this is just a temporary thing."
"And not the second coming of the Übermenschen," Stone noted.
"Speak your mind, Gunny," Williams bade.
"Aye, sir," the descendant of the first generation of Scourers said before he gazed on the senior magical congressman from Washington. "Congressman Gibson, even if I myself don't give a damn about what a good number of modern Scourers want to see happen to folks like yourself, we all sure as hell realize that the Abyssals are just as bad as what the Undying Lord helped create to ultimately avenge the death of General Raeburn's adopted father before the Second World War. Magicals like yourself are lucky that most of you are sufficiently inland enough to escape them, but those things aren't going to stop. What's to stop them coming up the Mississippi or go up the Saint Lawrence to hit cities like Saint Louis or Chicago?" As the congressman gaped on hearing that, the native of Massachusetts shook his head. "Shipgirls from the Gulf Fleet and the Canadian Atlantic Fleet have warned about this dozens of times. Sooner or later, someone's gonna break through..."
"Never sailed up the Mississippi," Dakota muttered.
Gibson shuddered. "Damn...!"
"You have to lean on the others in the Magical Congress to stop trying to muck things up behind the scenes, John," O'Brien noted. "We can't keep trying to keep everyone safe if we have some damned staleblood fifth column trying to stab us in the back." As some of the people in the room winced at such a harsh comparison, the native of Connecticut shook his head. "We need to be united now, just as we were back during the war against the Übermenschen, John. We..."
A crashing noise caused people to spin around as the door flew inward, a girl's yelp echoing through the room. As people looked, a moaning destroyer moved to stagger back to her feet. "'M okay...!" William D. Porter muttered.
Williams sighed. "Report, Lieutenant Porter."
Hearing that, the bespectacled destroyer quickly got herself to attention, saluting her commander. "Sir, begging to report that we just got a message from Recruit Training Command Great Lakes," Porter declared. "Battleships Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio just reported to the quarterdeck there, sir. And there was another one, but this one's a civilian ship, sir."
Eyebrows shot up. "Who exactly?" Carolina asked.
Porter sighed. "Edmund Fitzgerald."
Jaws dropped. "Okay...!" Williams moaned...
Nerima, near Fūrinkan High School, noon...
"'I just be da XO, which means Ah gits all the shit details'."
Darkly chuckling as that quote from Tom Clancy's penultimate Jack Ryan story slid from her lips, Akebono could only smirk as she smartly walked down the street towards the area where the restaurants of the Ōizumi neighbourhood were located. That was about four blocks from both Fūrinkan High and the Tendō dōjō, the usual nexuses for the weirdness that had haunted this ward of Tōkyō proper when Saotome Ranma was still alive. Shaking her head again as she recalled what she had been briefed on concerning that selfish, conceited jerk and the others of the so-called "Nerima Wrecking Crew" when they terrorized the whole of this part of Tōkyō, the eighth of the Ayanami-class sub-variant of the Fubuki-class destroyers then quietly thanked the Kami for getting Moroboshi Negako in there to save Ranma's female-self from this place and giving her the chance to live her own life as Hayashi Kanami. From the few times the destroyer who also possessed the human name Ashikaga Akemi had met the new student of Saiko Jinseijutsu-ryū, Akebono had found a kindred spirit. If Kanami hadn't locked in on becoming Taihō's "special boatswain's mate", the lavender-haired destroyer with the royal blue eyes would have claimed her.
"Ah! You shipgirl!"
Hearing that voice, Akebono groaned before she looked over. "Yeah! And you're a fucking sore loser who couldn't get that someone who's far more sexy than you could whip your ass so easily back in your village, cat girl!"
Hearing that sneered comment from the destroyer, Nǚ Shānpú jolted before her own anger and frustrations that had billowed over the last few months roared to the surface. "What you call me, dirt mouth?! You want to fight?!"
"So you can land that 'kiss of death' shit on me, bitch?!" Akebono said with a knowing smirk. "Kanami's filled me in on you, that stupid stalker who wants to crawl into your panties and the rest of the shitheads in this town, Shampoo!" She sneered the local pronunciation of the warrior-maiden's name in emphasis. "You're even more arrogant than all the shitty admirals I've had to deal with, both as ship and shipgirl! 'Three thousand years of Nǚjiézú history'?! That's a laugh!" As the slowly-growing crowd of bystanders began to snicker at the destroyer's sharp tongue and the fact that she was applying it so deftly at one of the late Saotome Ranma's would-be wives — who was often seen by normal Nerima natives as a very unwelcome guest due to her arrogance and single-minded determination to drag her "husband" back home to honour so-called "laws" that had no power in Japan — Akebono turned to head up the street, the level of contempt she felt for Shānpú rolling off her like a morning tide. "I'm on official business! Go crawl back to your village! If you can get across the East China Sea, by the way!"
With a snort, she headed off...
"HOW DARE YOU INSULT SHĀNPÚ LIKE THAT, YOU EVIL CREATURE?!"
Akebono sighed...
...before she jolted on hearing a shriek of agony echo over the street!
Spinning around, the destroyer looked...
...then she winced on seeing Shānpú's would-be husband Liào Mùsī crash onto the ground nearby, his right arm below the elbow now gushing blood thanks to the bold stroke of a katana welded by the fifth of the Yamato-class, who calmly stood by. As the crowd gasped in awe on seeing Yonaga, Akebono blinked. "Um...what are you doing here, Yonaga-san?" she asked as the tall and muscular battleship-turned-fleet aircraft carrier calmly drew out a cloth to wipe the blood from her blade.
"Ataru-san got the notice of your coming here, Akebono-san, then saw that I was transported right away to make sure you weren't accosted by Kanami-san's so-called 'friends' while doing your mission," Yonaga calmly declared as Shānpú lunged over to staunch the bleeding from her would-be husband's arm. "Why are you helping him, Guìmèi Shānpú?" she asked.
Shānpú gave the carrier an annoyed smirk even if she tried not to blush madly on hearing the seventh carrier of Operation Z address her with that honorific...and to do it with a perfect court Mandarin accent to boot! "We have no other help at the restaurant, Jiànnǚ Yonaga," she then declared in very literate Tōkyō-standard Japanese, not the pidgin version she often used for other people. "My apologies for not recognizing you right away, Jiànnǚ Akebono," she then said as she moved to put a tourniquet on Mùsī's arm while the wounded weapons-master moaned out a torrent of curses in his native tongue. "You always have been said to have the sharpest tongue of all the zhànjiàn shàonǚ serving the Son of Heaven in this land."
Akebono nodded. "Just mind your own business and stay away from Kanami," she stated. "And keep the stalker in chains. We see his ugly puss anywhere close to any of the Naval Districts, we're using it for target practice."
"Death will not be his final fate, Guìmèi Shānpú," Yonaga coldly added.
"You monsters have no right to interfere...!"
Both shipgirls turned...
...then Akebono scowled. "Oh, shit! The half-gaijin LIAR shows her ugly puss!"
Hearing who this newcomer was, Yonaga sneered as she turned and marched towards Saotome Nodoka, who paled as she raised her wrapped family sword up as if to shield herself from this oncoming monster's wrath. Seeing that, the carrier's scowl turned into something truly ugly before her features melted into something near serene. Noting that, the onlookers all blinked as they wondered what might happen now while Nodoka seemed to relax, gearing herself to dress this thing down...
KK-KKRACK!
Everyone gasped on seeing the wrapped Saotome honour blade fly out of Nodoka's hands in two pieces, deftly cut in half by Yonaga's katana. As the matriarch of the local part of the Saotome Clan screamed in horror on seeing such an act, the carrier's blade was deftly returned to its scabbard. "I will have to apologize to your most honoured grandfather for destroying such a lovely gift to your family, Nodoka-dono," Yonaga then stated, her own sarcasm flooding every word she spoke. "Then again, I think Jones-hakase would truly understand given that your family has no shred of true honour within it. A liar and a thief! It's a wonder to me Kanami-san turned out so well given what horrible influences her parents were!"
"RANKO!" Nodoka then shrieked out. "HER NAME IS...!"
Her face nearly imploded after Yonaga flicked her nose with her finger...which, coming from the living personification of the largest warship ever built in Japan, nearly crushed Nodoka's skull. As she was flung back to slam against a nearby telephone pole, the carrier moved to stand closer to Akebono. "You defy Tennō's wishes with your honourless prattle, Nodoka-dono," Yonaga coldly declared. "Do so in the future and you will suffer the same fate all child abusers should suffer for their crimes, as that yūjo Yamaguchi Kinshō will endure when her time finally comes! Come along, Akebono-dono. Let's leave these poor, suffering people to their own business and be done with the mission that brought you here today!"
"YONAGA BANZAI!" one elderly man nearby screamed out.
A roar of banzai cheers escaped many of the others, that mixed with a waterfall of insults against Saotome Ranma's parents and other members of the Wrecking Crew for the disruptions they brought to Nerima. Hearing that, Yonaga smiled, nodding before she placed a hand on Akebono's shoulder to guide the destroyer away from the scene. Watching them, Shānpú smirked before she drew out one of her chuí to knock Mùsī out so she could carry the dazed idiot back to the Nekohanten...
Nearby...
"Holy shit...!"
"Wow...!"
"Akane-chan, if you think you can take THAT on...!"
Hearing that from one of her best friends, Tendō Akane could only sigh before she shook her head. She and her small group of friends from Class 1-4 had walked out of the school to spend their lunch break at Okonomiyaki U-chan in lieu of putting up to members of the "Horde of Hentai" who were still determined to press their own desires for her despite the recent downfall of their leader. "No, Yuka-chan, I'm not that crazy," she noted as she turned away from the scene of her would-be mother-in-law now in a similar state her would-be boyfriend Kunō Tatewaki had been left in by Taihō over a day before, a disgusted snort escaping her. "If she can't see Reality standing before her, I'm not helping her. Or that fool panda she married. They should be just happy that Kanami-san is out there making a name for herself and moving to get on with her life. What happened to Ranma was his idiot father's fault; that was confirmed by both Shān's great-grandmother and Ojii-chan yesterday when we told everyone what Taihō-san warned us about after she took Kunō down." She then lowered her eyes. "Ranma..."
Comforting hands landed on her shoulder from both Asano Sayuri and Akane's other best friend Tokoro Yuka, they giving her supportive squeezes as she tried not to break down and cry at the lost chances she now had with her would-be iinazuke. Nodding her thanks for their support, she waved the others with her. "C'mon," she bade. "Ukyō should have her shop open now, so we can get something to eat. Lucky thing we've got the first period in the afternoon off for study hall."
"Yeah!" another of the girls present, Ayuhara Natsumi, called out.
Cheers escaped the other girls as they headed down the same street that Yonaga and Akebono had taken, passing the barely-conscious Nodoka without comment. "Wonder what they're doing here anyway," Yuka then mused.
"How did Yonaga-sama get back to Japan so quickly?!" Sayuri then noted. "Last I saw from Shipgirl Watch was that she was in Scotland with a whole bunch of folks from Sasebo and Kitsap to look in on Nagato-san's adopted son."
"The one that goes to that wand-magic school there?" Natsumi asked.
"Same kid. Negako-sama discovered some way to use some old magic to bring back the German H-class battleships and the British Lion-class battleships. They even got the Project G15 aircraft carriers the Imperial Navy wanted to build as a follow-on series to Taihō-sama." Interest in that particular aircraft carrier had picked up considerably at Fūrinkan thanks to what Taihō had done the previous day. "According to Shipgirl Watch, they even got back the Project A-150 class, too."
"The follow-on series to the Yamato-class?" Yuka asked.
"Hai, same pair," the other girl affirmed with a nod. "Ōmi and Mino are their names now; they were chosen by that on-line poll they ran about proposed names for the unnamed warships of the Greater East Asia War two years ago." As the other girls nodded, she added, "They're at Sasebo right now waiting to start training. People in Yokosuka are waiting for Ōyodo-san to have her meltdown getting FIVE fleet carriers — SIX with Yonaga-sama now! — and TWO super-battleships...!"
A ding! sounded from someone's skirt. "Mine!" Wakaba Hinami, Natsumi's oldest friend, called out as she pulled out her mobile phone. Flicking the screen on, she gazed on what was there. "Great! They got pictures of the new shipgirls that got summoned!" As some of the other girls leaned closer to look at the images, Hinami nodded. "Damn! Kanami-chan's going to have her hands full with this bun-...!" Her voice then stopped with the speed of a falling guillotine blade while those girls around her were now gaping in shocked disbelief at one particular image. "Oh, ye gods! I can't believe it...!"
Akane looked over. "What, Hinami-chan?!"
Hinami held out the phone to show the picture.
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"Akane-chan...she could be your twin sister...!" Yuka hissed out.
Akane blinked in disbelief at the image of the shipgirl version of what had once been proposed as Warship No. 5021. Given the name "Tennō Heika Gunkan Sekihō" — which was now seen as the official class name of the Project G15 carriers — the shipgirl born of the kami of that warship indeed looked as if she was Tendō Akane's twin sister. Bearing the same general slender build of most fleet carriers, she was dressed in the same uniform her older half-sister wore at sea: A long-sleeved white bolero tunic over a red pleated skirt and black thigh-high stockings with armoured plates. An armoured abdominal plate was placed under her perky breasts to reflect on the actual armour she would have worn as a warship, a dark grey armoured collar bearing the gold Imperial chrysanthemum around her neck. Her face was literally Akane's in detail, right to the sparkling dark brown eyes and the stylishly-cut hair, though Sekihō wore a headband with winged projections like Taihō wore.
"Ye gods...!" Sayuri hissed.
"That's gonna drive Kanami-chan crazy!" Natsumi noted.
"No..."
Eyes locked on Akane. "Akane-chan...?" Yuka probed.
A tired sigh answered her. "Taihō-san was right, Yuka-chan. I treated Kanami-san like she was nothing at all." Akane shook her head. "She's got every right to hate me. I just hope she doesn't heap that all over that girl."
Sayuri blinked. "Akane...!"
"Let's go eat."
She then headed off towards Okonomiyaki U-chan. The others remained in place for a bit, then raced off after her...
Nearby...
"She's still a shitty bitch!"
Hearing that from the shuddering destroyer, Yonaga sighed in clear disapproval. "Akemi-san, you should curb that language of yours. Warriors of Tennō need to act more reserved in the presence of others. Not like drunken and honourless rōnin."
Akebono snorted before she sighed, shaking her head. "You don't know how much of a mess Kanami was in when she came to the Naval District after the New Year's, Yoiko-san," she said, trying not to bite off a dozen profanities in the direction of Tendō Akane and her friends. "Taeko saved her as much as she saved Taeko...and it was all from the bastards that live in this town, treating her and her brother like they were prizes in some popularity contests and not people with their own hearts and dreams. Kanami's a real admiral, just like Ataru! Yeah, Gotō and Richardson are pretty okay for officer pukes — way better than the fools that ran the Fleet Shipgirl Project at the start — but I'd trust Kanami leading me into a fight than anyone else!"
Hearing that, the carrier chuckled. "Well, let's see what this mysterious message received by our Avalonian friends in Yokosuka will lead us," she bade. "Onward at cruising speed. Be ready for action at an instant, Akebono-san."
The destroyer curtly nodded. "Hai!"
With that, both shipgirls walked down the street towards a closed yakitori restaurant that was located a block away from both the Nekohanten and Okonomiyaki U-chan. As they walked, Yonaga and Akebono returned polite bows from passers-by with nods in return; no doubt, the Nerima rumour mill was working at warp speed to pass on the news of the effective final downfall of Saotome Ranma's mother and one of his would-be rivals to those who had been forced to watch such madness close up for over a year. Reaching the door of the restaurant, Yonaga politely knocked in a three-pause-three code. A moment later, the door opened to reveal a girl with raven hair in pigtails and dark brown eyes, she dressed in flattering clothes that clearly displayed a figure that marked her as a second year in high school. Both shipgirl's sharp eyes were quick to note the elegantly tapered ears barely yet still masterfully hidden under her hair. "Oh, thank Lyna! You're here!" she hissed. "Come in!"
"You are Avalonian?" Yonaga asked as the two shipgirls slipped inside, their host moving to close and lock the door behind her.
"Half," the girl reported. "My father was Niphentaxian. He sent me here as an independent observer to prevent me from being turned into an icicle if they found out I had a 'robot's' blood in me. I'm Arisugawa Yui, by the way."
Yonaga and Akebono nodded. "How can we help you out today, Yui-chan?" the latter then asked, quickly sensing that their host was both determined and desperate to get this business over with and get out of Nerima.
"You can help by asking the Liberator to give me access to the bioroid factory, Akemi-san," Yui stated as she waved them to a stairwell leading to the upper floor, giving the destroyer a knowing look. "To disguise myself when I carried out duties for the Cultural Observation Ministry, I became a student at Saint Maria Christos Girl's High School. It was on an island in the Ariake Sea off the coast of Kumamoto in Kyūshū. By the time the Abyssals came to destroy the island, I was a freshman, that was last winter." As they reached the top of the stairs, Yui tapped a code into the security keypad beside the door to unlock it. "I was able to get help from a friend based here in Nerima — another hybrid like me — to get my friends and teachers off the island to safety even if they're seen as 'missing' in government documents. But there were very big complications."
The door opened, revealing an older girl with her dark hair in twin French braids, her chestnut eyes under reading glasses. She was also dressed in stylish clothes. "Hey, it's about time you got here, Akebono-san," she said before her eyes fixed on the taller shipgirl there. "Holy shit! You even brought Yonaga-san here?! Cool! I'm Hirato Yūko! Welcome to the Nerima Bordello, whose very willing yūjo were once formerly part of the bordello that was 'M.C. High'!" She waved them inside.
Hearing that flippant statement, Yonaga shook her head. "Please make...!"
Her voice then screeched to a halt on seeing the nearly double infantry companies' worth of young women spanning all three years of high school — along with a dozen or so twenty-something teachers — lounging in the large recreation room that seemed to fill the second floor of this particular building. All of whom were exceptionally beautiful and well-exercised...as neither shipgirl could ignore for the simple fact that all of them were dressed in form-fitting school gym clothes.
And they were all gazing upon the four women at the stair landing there with blank looks on their faces and eyes that clearly showed they had been either drugged, hypnotized or placed under the infamous Imperius curse...!
"Oh, shit...!" Akebono hissed out.
"Hai," Yui breathed out, her face twisting with both shame and frustration at the current state of people she loved with every fibre of her being. "Since about a year before I arrived at the school, a scientist named Murata Eiichi led a small team of Self-Defence Forces scientists into doing a controlled case study on how people who lost all their inhibitions would react." As Yonaga tensed, the hybrid high school sophomore shook her head before she gave the carrier a knowing look. "Hai, Itō-taisa. He's the grandson of the leader of one of the research cells of Unit 731, the specific group which was concerned with the after-effects of ebony mesonium poisoning on the human body. He even had the original research notes...!"
Yonaga grimly nodded as Akebono began to mutter a tidal wave of curses. "How were these poor women affected by this yakuza's work, Arisugawa-dono?" she demanded, making the alien-born girl gape, her cheeks reddening at such a show of respect by this living shipgirl samurai. "Can they be freed of whatever damned curse is now on them? I know Murata Yoshiharu had connections to the Black Dragon Society who wanted to overturn everything Yomigawa-gensui wanted to see done in the War of Liberation. How exactly did that particular creature's dark thoughts and dreams come to plague these poor women? Why wasn't the school closed when the Abyssals moved to attack coastal cities?! If the school was on an island...!"
"Makoto-san!" Yui barked.
"Hai."
One high school sophomore girl rose from a chair to walk over to join them. Seeing her, Yonaga was quick to sense she was born of considerable wealth and privilege; the healthy skin and lack of any malnutrition she had seen on many people since she returned to Japan spoke volumes about how much this particular girl had been cared for by her family. Even with the dazed look projecting from deep within her caramel eyes, she had a friendly face, framed with long brown hair done in a high ponytail. She was incredibly well-exercised, looking as if she could run forever; seeing those toned legs, the seventh carrier of Operation Z was instantly reminded of Iowa and New Jersey. Standing to perfect attention before Yonaga, the girl remained as still as a statute, the only movement being the gentle rise and fall of her chest in metered breathing. Before the carrier could ask what was going on, Yui reached under her shirt to pull out a small bell chime, then she rang it once.
For Hyūji Makoto, it was like she had just been stabbed with a live electrical wire. She jolted before her body began to shift more naturally as she relaxed herself. Yet her eyes were still gazed as if she was in some type of trance. Still, she was quick to give the taller woman before her a very appraising look before she gazed upon her friend and rescuer. "Yui-chan, is this the person I am to serve today? The bell is rung and I am ready to do whatever is ordered of me today."
"I know, Makoto-san," Yui stated. "This is Itō Yoiko-taisa, the living kami of Tennō Heika Gunkan Yonaga, fifth of the Yamato-class. She just returned to Japan after over seventy years being trapped in the Arctic Ocean. She's of an older school of behaviour, so she doesn't understand your full capabilities. Treat her with the respect and courtesy she deserves. I'll ask Ayako-san to look after her friend here." She waved to Akebono, who jolted on being singled out like that.
"They are jūgun-ianfu, aren't they?"
That was Yonaga, who was giving her host a knowing look while a look of pure, raw desire crossed the face of the former track star for Saint Maria Christos Girl's High School. "Effectively yes, Itō-taisa," Yui breathed out in a voice of ashes.
"How'd you guess?" Yūko wondered, a curious look on her face.
"You called this place the 'Nerima Bordello', Yūko-san," the carrier noted before she gazed to the northeast. "Jane-san!" she barked out in a voice that seemed to rattle every window in the building and nearby made Yui and Yūko yelp.
«What is it, Yoiko-san?!» a cultured voice with a faint French accent called from somewhere, making Yūko and Yui glance around to detect the source of that voice and Akebono gape in awe on realizing Yonaga was speaking to one of the Ryūseizen.
"Are you still in Mahora at this time?!"
«I am. Why?» Lady Jane replied.
"Have every magical and normal healer in both the Tōmagun and 'W' Commando come to my location at once! I'm in Nerima, in the Ōizumi neighbourhood, five blocks north of Fūrinkan High School! Akebono and I now have to deal with a massive case of brainwashing unleashed by the grandson of one of the workers from my old 'place of employment', one who loved to compare notes with the monsters that slew Master Hosan and forced the leadership of the Tensei-ryū on your senior formation commander back in 1937!" Yonaga ignored the visible winces from Akebono and her still-sane hosts as they sensed the disgust in her voice; Makoto simply smiled as she awaited her "pillowing partner's" instructions. "An entire girl's high school was rendered into a troupe of jūgun-ianfu over two years ago! One of our new Avalonian friends rescued them from the Abyssals, but has no means to reverse the brainwashing and allow these girls to have their lives back! If they can't be broken of this madness, they'll have to ensure body-swaps to become bioroids!"
«WHAT?!» the second of the Lady Elgin-class battleships shrieked...
Okonomiyaki U-chan, an hour later...
"Oh, man! I'm stuffed!"
"Ditto! You can roll me back to classes now!"
"You really do it the best, Ukyō-chan!"
Hearing that from her classmates, Kuonji Ukyō smirked as she moved to secure all her cooking instruments to ensure they didn't start a fire while she was attending afternoon classes. She had intentions of finally transferring out of Fūrinkan High School at the end of the spring term two months from now, but didn't want to see her normal education messed up because she really had no reason to remain in Metro Tōkyō anymore. "Dōmo, Sayuri-chan!" the native of Kyōto called back as she leaned down to turn off the gas feed to her stoves. "Well, like it or not, we better get out of this place and get back to that zoo. Even if old man Kunō isn't around to cause us shit because of his son, there's the ki-vamp to worry about."
The others from Class 1-4 groaned. Much that they often weren't targeted by the likes of Ninomiya Hinako when she went on a tear to put a stop to the "chronic delinquency" that haunted Fūrinkan High School, the threat their current homeroom teacher could present even to a bunch of effectively normal girls was something NO ONE at the school ignored. In the wake of yesterday's incident concerning Kunō Tatewaki and Taihō, the once-sickly "apprentice" of Happōsai had gone on a tear to try to locate the long-departed Hayashi Kanami — of course, referring to her as "Tendō Ranko" — and punish her for bringing such a monster to the school in the first place. Since Kanami had long since departed Nerima to eventually relocate to Sasebo, Hinako hadn't succeeded in "punishing" her; much to Tendō Akane's personal amusement, a whole tonne of the "Horde of Hentai" felt the teacher's wrath when she couldn't drain the ki of Ranma's sister and make her attend classes.
"We gotta do something about her one of these days, Akane-chan," Ukyō stated. "If she ever pulls those tricks on any normal person, she could kill someone. She's been lucky so far that everyone at Fūrinkan has some sort of martial arts training."
Hearing that, Akane nodded. "Yeah..."
Once the last of the dishes were put away, everyone stepped out of Okonomiyaki U-chan, though the others waited for the chef from Kansai to close and lock up her shop to prevent people from getting into it. Once that was done, everyone then moved to head down the street to get back to classes; it was still another twenty minutes to the start of the first afternoon break, but it was best to be inside the school building before that happened in case Hinako was on the warpath.
"...stupid thing! Who the heck was in charge of Kyūshū defences back then?!"
"Don't ask me, Michiko! This was before Richardson's time!"
"At least that nice alien girl was there to protect those poor kids!"
"Can't believe a freaking SCHOOL of nice girls got turned into COMFORT WOMEN!"
Hearing that dark phrase, Akane gasped before she spun left...
...then she gaped on seeing the infamous destroyers of the so-called "Tsundere Division" from Yokosuka — save for their most profane member — marching up the street in the same general direction that Akebono and Yonaga had gone over an hour before, their sea rigging out and murderous looks on all their faces. "What on Earth are THEY doing here?!" Akane demanded as Michishio, Kasumi, Murakumo and Hatsukaze marched with deadly determination towards a nearby side street.
"DELINQUENTS!"
All the girls tensed on hearing that outraged shriek, then they looked south...
"Oh, shit!" Ukyō muttered. "This is NOT going to end well!"
"Good riddance, at least!" Asano Sayuri noted; she had hated it whenever her current homeroom teacher had used that damned power of hers on her frequent dating partner and one of Saotome Ranma's male friends, Chanpatsu Hiroshi.
Some of the other girls nodded as they watched a puffing Ninomiya Hinako charge up the street in the destroyers' wake, her handy ¥5 piece at the ready. Of course, said destroyers hadn't heard the screaming child-form teacher, intent as they were to meet with their friend and her current formation commander to help out with the mission in hand. Before Akane could shout a warning to the near-namesake of her own elder sister, Hinako stopped, focusing her powers on the last of the Asashio-class destroyers. "YOU STUPID DELINQUENTS! I TOLD YOU TO STOP! HAPPŌ GO-EN SATSU!" she barked.
Ki billowed towards that ¥5 piece from the general direction of Kasumi...
...and nothing happened.
"Huh?!" Akane gasped for all her friends, all of whom had their jaws around their ankles now.
Hinako was just as surprised from the total lack of result from her usual means of putting delinquents down. She had felt the fighting energy of those young girls carrying those clearly dangerous weapons down the street in front of innocent people, including a considerable number of girls from her homeroom class at Fūrinkan who had gone to Okonomiyaki U-chan to have a nice lunch cooked by another of her students. Yet when she used her power on them to disable them before she could call in the authorities to have them arrested and disarmed before they could hurt someone with those obvious guns and other weapons...! Noting that, she snarled out as she yanked out a ¥50 piece from her skirt, focusing once more on target.
"I TOLD YOU TO HALT, DELINQUENTS! HAPPŌ GOJŪ-EN SATSU!" she screamed.
Again, the ki billowed towards her from the general direction of Kasumi...
And again...
...nothing happened.
"Whoa! They're totally invulnerable to the ki-vamp's power!" Ukyō exclaimed.
"Of course they're invulnerable, Ukyō-chan! They're SHIPGIRLS!" Wakaba Hinami exclaimed. "Personifications of WARSHIPS built by HUNDREDS of workers and manned by HUNDREDS of sailors! No thing meant for NORMAL people can affect them!"
"Just like a lot of magic can't affect them," Tokoro Yuka noted.
The other girl nodded. "Hai!"
Silence fell as they considered that, then Akane sighed. "So what do we do?"
"Let her go," Ukyō darkly noted, her lips twisting into a sneer. "Yonaga-sama's going to notice her. It's clearly obvious that Kanami-chan's briefed all the shipgirls about the ki-vamp. They might decide she's a 'yōma' and kill her, especially since she can't seem to tell that they're NOT students at our school and any one of them could easily kill her just like Taihō-san nearly killed Kunō yesterday, not to mention what Yonaga-sama herself did to Ran-chan's useless mom before lunch!"
The others considered that, then Akane nodded. Anything that removed any sort of threat against her or her friends that was unleashed by her current principal was definitely a welcome development at Fūrinkan High School. "Okay. Let's go."
"Hai!" the other girls chimed out.
With that, they headed south to carry on with afternoon classes. Before they even got a dozen paces down the street, they were nearly shocked out of their school uniforms by a pained shriek of agony bellowing from behind them. Spinning around, they gaped on seeing Hinako get flung out from the side street the four "tsundere" destroyers had moved to walk down, she smashing back-first into a handy telephone pole! As the sickening wet crunching noises indicating that DOZENS of bones had just been shattered in the child-form teacher's body echoed over the scene, Akane shook her head. "They knew she was there all along," she mused as she gave her friends a dark smile. "You called it, Ukyō. Kanami-san must have warned them."
"Well, Taihō-sama was based in Yokosuka until she got shifted to Sasebo just yesterday to form a task force with Yonaga-sama," Hinami noted. "Since Kanami-chan left town around Christmas, that gave her at least FIVE months to make sure all the shipgirls there knew what problems could come out of this place, especially when it came to people who wanted to get on Ranma-kun's case for whatever reason. How could Akebono-san have known about Shampoo and Mousse like she did?"
"True!" Sayuri noted. "So what should we do?"
"She was interfering in the business of the Combined Shipgirl Fleet," Akane declared, shrugging. "That's a crime since we're in a war situation. It wouldn't surprise me that Yonaga-sama might decide to BEHEAD her on charge of treason."
"Well, that's just too bad," Yuka noted. "We better tell Nanba-sensei."
"Yeah! Since Kōchō-sensei is off trying to get his 'Tacchi' healed up, Nanba-sensei could get the thing fired!" Sayuri noted.
"We could probably get rid of them both finally," Ukyō noted.
"Good point," Akane stated. "Let's go."
With that, they ran off to school, leaving the bleeding and bruised mess that was their homeroom teacher lying on the street...
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
Translation list: Taii — Navy lieutenant, Army captain, Air Force flight lieutenant (NATO rank code OF-2); Guìmèi — Literally "your younger sister", this is an honorific that would be applicable when addressing a female stranger of younger age; Chuí — Spheroid-headed battle mace; Jūgun-ianfu — Wartime comfort woman; Happō Go-en Satsu — Happōsai's ¥5 Death; Happō Gojū-en Satsu — Happōsai's ¥50 Death.
The Eight Magical Imperial Commanderies (Yattsu no Teimajutsu-gun) is my name for the eight regional Magical Associations whose existence was effectively noted on in Mahō Sensei Negima. The directors of all eight commanderies, including Konoe Konoemon for Kantō and his son Konoe Eishun for Kansai, form a ruling magical council in lieu of a single Mahō-Shōgun which sends one of their members to Geneva as Japan's representative to the ICW.
The Kii-class battleships were a class of four fast super-dreadnoughts that were proposed as follow-on ships to the Tosa-class battleships from which THG Kaga was originally meant to be before the Washington Naval Treaty saw her converted to an aircraft carrier. Effective replicas of the Tosa-class concept (which were ten-gun versions of the preceding Nagato-class battleships), the Kii-class were ordered in 1921 and scheduled to be laid down at the start of the next year, but were cancelled thanks to the Washington Naval Treaty. Only THG Kii and her sistership THG Owari were given names. The names given to Warship No. 11 (THG Harima) and Warship No. 12 (THG Buzen) are my creation. Note that in World of Warships, Kii was originally proposed to serve as the Tier 8 battleship in the game, but was later replaced by the Amagi-class battlecruisers.
List of shipgirls mentioned here:
CANADA
HMCS Sackville — Wendy Rose Kirkland
JAPAN
THG Hōshō — Asano Hoshie
THG Ise — Kawasaki Ikuko
THG Hyūga — Kawasaki Hoshiko
THG Kii — Hiraga Kiko
THG Owari — Hiraga Otome
THG Harima — Hiraga Haruka
THG Buzen — Hiraga Hisae
THG Akebono — Ashikaga Akemi
THG Michishio — Akatsuka Michiko
THG Kasumi — Akatsuka Kasumi
THG Murakumo — Fukushima Mayako
THG Hatsukaze — Yuhara Hikaru
UNITED STATES
USS William D. Porter — Michelle Jane Porter
USS Illinois — Anne Mary Atkins
USS Kentucky — Josephine Claudia Sanders
USS Indiana — Joanna Ann Jennings
USS Ohio — Eliza Arabella Garfield
SS Edmund Fitzgerald — Elizabeth Michelle Fitzgerald
