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In orbit over Onishuto on Uru, aboard FPSYS Normandy, noon hour (Tōkyō time: A half-hour before dawn)...
"Isaac?"
Isaac Thomas perked on hearing that voice, then he moaned as he rubbed his eyes clear; he had taken a nap after last night's fun. "Come in, Mimir," the Wise Lone Sage then bade. "What's going on?"
"Well, it's good that you got some sleep," the gynoid with the well-groomed red hair and the glittering green eyes stated as she tenderly kissed her creator's cheek. "Princess Oyuki wishes to see you."
"Oh?! Send her in, please!"
Mimir winked playfully before she stepped out of the cabin. A moment later, a silver-haired regal teenager stepped inside, dressed properly in her work kimono-like uniform. "Are you aware of how much she loves you, Doctor?" Oyuki playfully asked as her host waved her over to the guest chair beside his work desk as he moved to prepare some tea for the crown princess.
"She was my prototype replicant, Your Highness," he explained. "I created her just after I had this ship built and I've spent the most amount of time with her helping her mature." He shrugged. "It's almost to the point now where I'd consider giving her the option of experiencing the Doll House to ultimately make her organic or ask the Avalonians to provide a replacement body for her, but she'll refuse me." He winked conspiratorially at her. "She's more like an older sister and mom figure for me instead of a potential wife. I've needed it a lot since I lost my parents back in 2004."
An amused look crossed the Neptunian's face. "I'd make sure of that if I was you, Doctor."
"Okay, okay!" he vowed. "So what does bring you here?"
Surprise crossed her face. "You can't predict that?"
A wry smile crossed his face. "I just woke up, ma'am. And I don't know you well enough to be able to do that, not like I can Nirrti or people like her."
That made Oyuki titter before her face melted into a mask of worry. "Doctor, would the Academician be willing to allow us to teleport the excess snow that develops on Triton back to Earth as we did before?"
That made Isaac blink. "Have you ever considered teleporting that snow to Mars instead?"
"The Martians never cared for that," she advised.
He nodded as he handed her the tea he prepared; he had long suspected that there were sentient beings living in underground locations on Mars away from those places where space probes from Earth had explored, but hadn't had the time to examine such things in detail. As she smiled in thanks, he took his seat. "I hope you now realize what WE feel about that, Your Highness. Even if you later moved to dump the snow only in the Arctic and the Antarctic thanks to what Hatsue's sister Miyuki began to do with Ayumu's help, it still affected local weather patterns. While I'm sure Napaaqtuqarunnanngittuq didn't mind all the snow and ice you dumped in the Arctic, the additional water..."
He paused on seeing Oyuki shudder. "He...EXISTS...?!" she then squeaked.
Isaac stared at her, then he sighed, shrugging in amusement. "He exists. Or she. Or it. Something like Napaaqtuqarunnanngittuq doesn't really fit the humanoid definitions of gender assignment as you or I could," he lamented before sipping his own tea. "Ayumu knows him, of course, as does Miyuki. Miyuki sees him as the 'Great Kami of the Arctic' and is always respectful of him whenever she's gone there with Shirayuki — that's the second of the Fukushima sisters, not Hiromi's sister — to help clear the pollution that's gathered in the Arctic over the years. Ayumu thinks of him as a 'big teddy bear', which really confuses the poor thing at times." He shrugged. "What do you expect of someone like her?"
She slowly nodded. "Still..."
"Did your ancestors ever have any problems with weather like that on Neptune?"
Oyuki blinked before shaking her head. "No, never."
"Then we should concentrate our efforts in getting you people back to living on Neptune," Isaac proposed, which made the crown princess gape. "It's a pity that too many past-selves of people like myself never went out of their way to help you people reclaim your home planet again." He shook his head. "All because of that damned 'everyone stands up for themselves' attitude that came into vogue after the Show got started in earnest. If that hadn't happened, people like the various incarnations of the Young Guns wouldn't have suffered like they did." He sighed. "Let me work on that; I haven't had much time to concentrate on affairs in our solar system since I've been so busy on Remnant..."
The ship shook as the clanging noise of weapons fire echoed through the hull. "We're under attack!" Oyuki called out as the on-board klaxon began to blare while Isaac turned to his own terminal.
"Yes. By Kurama, in fact," the Wise Lone Sage stated.
The crown princess of Neptune turned to see the image of a cone-shaped silver starship with crow-like wings now hovering close to the Normandy's port side, its own assault battery of heavy turbo-lasers glowing with energy as another salvo was prepared to be fired. Before she could suggest what to do with the very arrogant crown princess regent of the Karasutengu, a brilliant flash of warp energy well beyond the cruiser's starboard aft burst before a streak of light slammed into the vessel's engine compartment, making the poor ship begin to tumble at speeds that the Wise Lone Sage realized was just too much for internal gravity systems to properly compensate for.
"I wonder who's visiting..." Isaac then mused...
Aboard the Kingdom of Karasutengu Starship Eternal Nest, that moment...
"MAKE THE SPINNING STOP!"
"W-w-w-we c-c-can't, Pr-pr-princess K!" the elderly avian known more commonly as "Old One" stammered out as everyone on the darkened bridge of the flagship of the kingdom's small navy was pitched around like gumballs inside a bowl being tossed around by two playful children. "Th-the inertia stabilizers are off-line..." he stated as he moved to hover in the centre of the large space, thus avoiding being smacked on the head by some overhang, "...and we can't get control over the thrusters! Whatever or whoever just attacked us now has as much power as any incarnation of the Untameable One...!"
He squawked as Kurama's head slammed into the lectern she used as her command post, sending her stumbling onto the deck before the yawl of the ship saw her fly into a bulkhead. "PRINCESS K!"
The whole of the ship then squealed as the pitching motion halted!
As some of the crew groaned from the injuries they had taken, Old One blinked before he fluttered over to the main sensory station; the younger Tengu who had control of that post had wisely fluttered clear when the ship started flipping around like a runaway top. Before he could take in what just happened, the whole of the Eternal Nest shuddered violently as something smashed into the main hull via one of the cargo bays, which was well clear of any habitation level. "Oh, dear..." the elderly Tengu moaned as internal sensors locked in on the person that just boarded their ship. "A first-generation battle doll...?"
That made the other bridge crew gape. "Sir, weren't they the ones used by the second Healer of Destruction to force the Goa'uld away from Yiziba?!" the operations officer then demanded.
Noting some of the bridge crew moving to help Kurama recover, Old One nodded. "The same! Yet this one is fully Gifted and organic..." He blinked. "Not to mention making her way to the bridge now..."
A crashing noise then echoed from the rear of the bridge...!
"Annyŏng!"
Heads snapped around...
"Now, what are you silly kkama'gui doing firing on Sŏnsaeng-nim's ship?!" a visibly annoyed teenage girl with the long green-streaked blonde hair and the turquoise eyes — dressed in a VERY racy battlesuit akin to what the Wild Warrior of Passion would wear, that dark green overall with grey belt, thigh-high boots and bicep-high gloves, the boots and gloves streaked with silver — demanded as she crossed her arms. On her chest was a grey hurricane symbol, that embossed with what looked like formal Noukiite characters: 소풍. "If you wanted to start a fleet action with us, all you had to do was ASK!"
A flash of energy then made the living kami of the prototype to what could now be seen as the "Pongp'ung-class" destroyers appear beside the fourteenth of that class. "Ah! Sŏg'yŏng-a! Where have you been?! You're so slow!" Toyama Sumie then scolded.
A playful tongue got stuck out in return. "Am not, Ŏnni!" the woman who would now be known on Yiziba as the Cosmic Marsh Storm, R'buobo'o ("Sop'ung") — the human name assigned to her by Su Muwol when the kami of the ship known only as "Warship No. 746" in Imperial Japanese Navy records was given true life was "Sŭng Sŏg'yŏng" — replied as she gave Sumie a look. "When I heard your call to come here, I had to stop in one system to prevent a big asteroid from crashing onto a planet! So there!"
That made Japan's fastest destroyer blink. "Oh! That's okay...!"
Nodding in delight, Sŏg'yŏng then turned to glare at the crow-like beings now moving to flutter closer to her and her sister...while still maintaining a safe distance from a being that literally WARPED into space over Uru, then smashed her way to the pilotage like she was taking a constitutional in the woods. "Now, what are you silly kkama'gui doing firing on Sŏnsaeng-nim's ship?!" she repeated her question.
"HOW DARE YOU...!"
KK-KRUNCH!
A pain-filled shriek nearly burst the eardrums of all the tengu on the bridge as both Sumie and Sŏg'yŏng looked over to see Kurama now on her knees; the crown princess regent of the Karasutengu had surged up to smash down the impudent creature that attacked her starship with her large leaf fan...and nearly shattered her wrist on hitting something that seemed to possess the density of carbonized NEUTRONIUM! Before anyone could say anything more, another flash of light allowed someone else to teleport onto the bridge. One that the crew was quick to recognize. "Mister Groom?!" Old One exclaimed as Moroboshi Ataru came over to stand close to the moaning Kurama.
As the crown princess gasped on hearing the name of her would-be "husband" — who would only serve as a mere mate to allow her to birth children to ensure the ruling line of humanoids on her planet could continue — Ataru calmly moved to help her back to her feet. Then, before Kurama could react, a deadly smile crossed his face...before his arm cocked back before his fist flew right at her cheek!
KK-KRACK!
As the whole bridge crew gasped in shock on seeing a man known across the local cluster for NEVER physically harming a woman actually HIT their princess, Sumie and Sŏg'yŏng nodded in appreciation.
"Is he our admiral?" the latter asked...
...before she gasped in wide-eyed shock on seeing said man literally MORPH into a beautiful girl who clearly looked as if she was Ataru's fraternal twin sister, she dressed in a hooded jumpsuit. "No, Sŏg'yŏng-a, she's our admiral's kid sister," Sumie supplied.
Hiromi Katabarbe smiled at the newcomer before she turned to glare at Kurama, who was now gaping in terror at the fact that her "husband" clearly now had links to the ONE planet whose residents could crush her people with little thought and without any consequences. "THAT, Your Highness...!"— the voice of the current incarnation of the Mistress of Morphing now DRIPPED with disgust — "...was for all the times you hurt Onē-san and Onii-san trying to 'civilize' them!" Here, she made air-quotes with her fingers. "Surprising that you and your crew never ONCE sensed that Onē-san was pre-Gifted to become Tuyuki...not to mention the fact that whenever you ran into Onii-san, he was a BATTLE DOLL!"
Kurama blinked before she fainted! As Hiromi grinned and the tengu goggled at the idea of how close their princess had come to her own destruction, Sumie and Sŏg'yŏng exchanged shrugs...
The Invader house outside Onishuto, an hour later...
"So this woman claims to be the daughter of Minamoto no Yoshitsune?!"
"We did find that out, Hiiojii-san."
As the people now seated or standing inside the living room of the Invader home gazed upon the image of a scowling Fujita Hiroshi now in the dining hall of Welcome House's rotunda, the would-be commander of Operation Z looked to his left. "Explain, Ataru-san."
"After we kissed her awake and became her would-be mate, Kurama-sama began a campaign to try to 'civilize' us, not realizing that we were already 'civilized' in the Yizibajohei style even if we had been brainwashed into forgetting our life on Yiziba," Moroboshi Ataru reported from somewhere away from the range of the PAA camera. "It turns out she is Minamoto-sama's daughter through her mother, then-Crown Princess Kifune, who was on her own husband-quest to continue the line."
"There were two unknown daughters of Minamoto-sama, Teitoku," an unknown woman's voice that seemed even chillier than Oyuki's at her most enraged then declared, also from off-screen. "One of them could be Kurama-sama," she then warned.
"I see," Fujita breathed out before he focused his dark eyes on Kurama's own grey orbs, making the not-a-teenage woman cringe at such a disapproving look. "Your Highness, what in the name of all the Kami of the Universe persuaded you to attempt to attack Thomas-sensei's ship? Did a past incarnation of Doctor Renaissance cause your people harm in previous years?"
"Um, n-n-no, Fujita-taishō!" she stammered. "It was n-n-nothing personal against the D-d-doctor...!"
"Then why try to initiate a WAR between your kingdom and the Free State?"
Old One took a deep breath. "Lord Admiral Fujita, the Princess wished to visit Earth in hopes of locating a suitable mate to be the father of her future child, thus allow the House of Sōjōbō to continue to reign over our people as they had done since the day we were effectively saved from the Seifukusu monsters by what was happening on Yiziba two sagas ago." As Fujita and his current command staff all blinked in confusion on hearing the official name of the royal house that governed the Kingdom of Karasutengu — which matched the name of the tengu king legends stated had trained the famous Genpei War general when he was a child — the elderly aide added, "Such has been our tradition for all those seasons. And while the crown princes and princesses would have gladly mated with one native to the Forge of the First Race given their many strengths, the spells the Guardian of the Borderlands of the Pure Chaos unleashed to prevent Gift thievery are strong, forcing those of the Princess' line to seek out mates on the planet bearing the second-largest source of mesonium in the known Universe: Earth itself." As Fujita's eyes went wide with surprise, the elderly tengu bowed his head. "As for the attack on the Wise Lord Sage, I can only apologize as we never suspected the Trickster of the Show was moving to see natives of Earth Gifted. It has long been believed that the ONLY way one can get the attention of the Yizibajohei is to initiate a fight scene." He helplessly shrugged. "No matter the risk."
That made Fujita — who was now framed by his flagship's captain Ogawa Gorō to his right and his chief personnel officer Katsube Hakuseki to his left — roar with laughter. "Like eager young samurai you are, Elder!" he declared as his subordinates chuckled at such a statement. "Well, if Thomas-sensei doesn't take offence at your attack, the issue is closed." He fixed his attention on Kurama. "Young lady, from what Ataru-san's and Tariko-san's sisters have explained to me about your past interactions with them and their peers while seeking your mate, you need to learn something called 'self-discipline'. If you desire respect from us, you need to act in a way that will EARN that respect. Much that I understand and acknowledge your desire to honour your culture's traditions, your actions — and yes, the actions of others such as Ataru-san's 'wife' and her peers — speak loudly against you. Remember that!"
Kurama winced while Oyuki, not to mention her friends, gave her sympathetic looks. "H-hai...!"
"Speaking of seeking out a suitable mate, I do believe you can go visit New Avalon to try your luck there, Your Highness," Isaac stated; he was seated to one side of the living room with the leaders of the Camelot Wondercolts and the Hunters of Remnant, Tara Silva and Ruby Rose respectively. "I know there are many single male Avalonians — in truth, Niphentaxian/Avalonian hybrids who take FAR more after their mothers — who could serve as both marei'cha and surei'cha to you."
That made Kurama gape in shock at the man she had tried to make submit to her in outrage over being blocked by his sister hyper-genius polymath Elizabeth Wakefield from visiting what she viewed as her second home planet. "Really...?" she asked, hope in her voice.
"Hai, there are many possibilities there, Kurama-sama," Hiromi affirmed from beside her wife Redet Lum, making the crown princess gaze upon her. "I met a whole slew of handsome fellows who flirted with me after the Liberation because I was a male soul stuck in a woman's body, never mind my NOT being bonded and yet to have taken a Gift to be like Onē-san. I still keep in contact with them. As an apology for my hitting you — even if I was well within my rights to do so for all the embarrassment you caused Onē-san and Onii-san during the times you visited Tomobiki...especially with that sex-change gun of yours..." — hearing that made Kurama wince — "...I can serve as a nakōdo in this instance. I know of a few possibilities that would melt your heart once you lay your eyes on them."
"Oi, Darling...!"
Shigaten Benten stopped herself as her cheeks went as red as cherries while everyone gaped at the biker-babe from Fukunokami. Before anyone could say anything more, she gargled before racing out of the house. Seeing her go, Hiromi then lowered her eyes. "Oh, dear...!"
Lum squeezed her shoulder as others looked to where Benten had run off...
Outside...
Oh, shit! Shit! SHIT! How the fuck could I have screwed up like THAT?!
Sitting now on her airbike, which was slowly rising from the ground some distance from the Invader home, a shuddering Benten could only hug herself as she tried not to scream in angry frustration at the fact that she just let something like THAT slip from her tongue. Bensaiten's Grave, seeing Dar-...! — here, she caught herself before shaking her head — Yeah! Seeing Hiromi offer that to Kurama like she did just made me want her all the more! But she's not Darling! She's some replica of hers, created because of some camera Lum loaned over for some school project Darling was working on! Who...?!
She gasped as a hand landed on her shoulder, making her spin around as her fist cocked to strike...
...before she gaped on seeing who was now sitting on her bike. "Darling...?" the Fukunokami hissed.
Moroboshi Ataru — the REAL one, Benten realized on seeing his normal clothes; both his sisters would be wearing battlesuits while on Uru — tried not to sigh as he gave her that lanky smile of his, one that always turned the biker babe's heart to mush every time she saw it even if she did everything she could to fight down the urge to jump the guy and screw his brains out regardless of how doing such would have cost her whatever friendship she had with Redet Lum. Before she could say anything, he reached over to gently touch her head, pushing her forehead against his as they gazed into each other's eyes. "I have to confess that I never would have suspected you had THOSE sorts of feelings for me."
She gulped as she felt her heart accelerate being so close to him...and KNOWING that this time, she didn't have to worry about Lum's overzealous reaction to someone trying to poach her "husband". After a moment, she then chuckled. "Do you blame me?" she then asked before she blinked, then she sighed. "Oh, to Hell with it!" she then breathed as she leaned in.
The kiss was deep, passionate and full of tongues on both sides. After a minute, Ataru gently shoved himself closer to her so he could warmly embrace her, earning him a delighted purr from the biker-babe from Bensaikyō. Then as both felt the need to breathe properly overcome them, they slowly pulled apart, a tiny string of drool connecting their lips. Seeing that made them blush before laughter escaped them both, then Benten stared into his eyes. "I love you, Darling." She then shook her head. "I don't know when this all started, but I fell head over heels for you — you and Tariko together, you alone, even Hiromi that one time I visited before you all popped the big surprise on us all — and I want you! I..."
He blushed. "I'm flattered beyond belief, Benten-san. Believe me, during times when we could control what was going on with our libido..." — here, she knew he was speaking of the period between the Tag Race and the encounter with Elle — "...and afterwards when I was with everyone at school whenever Onē-san wasn't in the mood to 'slum with the norms', I always was envious of the fact that Lum had such a wonderful friend. We never suspected your real feelings. After our memories were restored by Yomi, we recalled your long-time crush on Nassur." As she jolted on hearing the name of the man she saw as one of the greatest warriors bar none in the local cluster, he reached up to tap the end of her nose. "How could an ordinary guy like me compare to that?" he then teased, his eyes sparkling.
She shook her head, reaching over to rub his hair. "You were you, Darling. You did whatever you wanted whenever you wanted. A real windrider as the Zephyrites would call you." She shrugged. "And you accepted Lum even if it was easy for me to figure out that she forced herself on you at the start with the way you were always denying you were married to her. I liked that. I really admired that. And I fell in love with that. But I couldn't risk losing Lum's friendship if I tried anything..."
"And she was always paranoid when it came to people she believed would 'poach' me from her," he stated as he shrugged. "Onē-san and Hiromi sensed it from her all the time. I guess Lum's desire to be loved for what she is and not because she's Uru's 'marble lady' is what triggered Hiromi's marei'cha desires for her." His eyes twinkled. "Want to go somewhere private?"
"Back to Earth?"
"It can be allowed," he noted as he pulled out his PAA from his pocket. "Besides, being close to Lum..."
"ATARU! DIE!"
Both of them gasped as a green-and-grey blur whipped past them to intercept the roaring ushitora that was moving to lunge at them, a jet pack wrapped around his massive body to help him fly since he was crippled in that regard. Before Ataru could say anything, said blur became Itō Yoiko, who stopped to hover herself between Seq Rei and his target, contemptuously whipping her hand around to back-slap the transformed frontier pilot, sending him tumbling off to the north towards the ruins of old Onishuto that had been totally devastated during the Mother of All Fight Scenes. As Ataru breathed out in relief and Benten laughed on seeing Lum's old fiancé given such nasty treatment by the kami of her would-be lover's granduncle's ship, a scream of outrage escaped the woman now on her own airbike heading their way as she yanked out her personal anti-fortification weapon. "YOU BITCH!" Aruka Ran shrieked as her fangs splayed. "HOW DARE YOU HURT REI-SAMA LIKE THAT?! DIE!"
Yoiko's grey eyes focused on her new attacker as a titanic wave of empathic energy burst from her like an exploding bomb, overwhelming the partially-orphaned naval infantry officer's daughter with an aura of bone-chilling TERROR. Benten howled with delight as Ran lost control of her machine, it careening right at Yoiko. As the attacking native of Shingetsu got close enough to grasp, the transformed aircraft carrier's arms again became a blur, one of her limbs smashing the airbike away to send it flying into the Terrible Swamps many kilometres away while the other hand snared Ran by the neck, nearly snapping her head off from the whiplash effect of such a grab. As the gasping pink-haired woman dropped her weapon on begin made to face the seventh carrier of Operation Z at such close range, her dark purple panties instantly were soaked with urine and fecal matter, the smell of which made Yoiko scowl in clear disapproval while Benten nearly fell off her airbike as she laughed her guts out on seeing that there was SOMEONE willing to put the psychotic idiot down once and for all; fortunately, Ataru was willing to hold her in place as a crowd of people came out of the Invader home to see what was going on.
Yoiko's face didn't change as she allowed herself to descend to the ground as gently as she could. Once touching the orange wildgrass that surrounded the Invader home, the transformed aircraft carrier contemptuously shoved Ran away from her, sending her back-first into the lawn. As a disgusted snort escaped Kurama and snickers echoed from Hiromi Katabarbe and some of the other Yizibajohei who had been visiting the Invader family at the time, Yoiko's lips turned into a slight smile.
One that promised an ETERNITY of pain in Ran's eyes.
"Aruka-dono..." the carrier then declared, making the people at the doorway perk on recognizing the voice who had confirmed certain aspects of Kurama's ancestry. "If that thing you so desperately desire as a husband DARES contemplate attacking my junior navigation officer's relatives in the future — either Ataru-san, Tariko-san or Hiromi-san — I will FLAY HIM ALIVE!" As Ran croaked on feeling the aura of pure space-cold malice escape Yoiko at that declaration, the adopted native of Maizuru and Hiroshima added, "You loath the fact that you were expelled from Earth because while you were living in Tomobiki, you were seen as someone important...where as here, you are NOTHING!" As outrage flashed in Ran's chestnut eyes at that very accurate description of her current circumstances, the carrier seemed to blur again, putting herself right into the young woman's face. "Killing you would be too much a mercy to someone who has NOT earned an honourable death!"
As Ran turned as white as a sheet, Yoiko stepped back. With a wave of her hand in their direction, Benten, Ataru and the former's airbike vanished, making Ran gape at such a "display" of power.
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"Run."
Hearing that simple word from the fifth of the Yamato-class, Ran screamed out as she turned and raced off towards Onishuto, the stench of her bowels and bladder having long ago vacated her body marking her trail. Seeing that, Yoiko turned to teleport herself away, though she paused to stare at the wide-eyed young women who had haunted Tariko Katabarbe's life for a year.
"Learn from this."
And with a flash, Yoiko teleported off Uru.
"Wow...!" Redet Ten hissed out from beside Isaac.
"Yeah," the Wise Lone Sage breathed out...
Dear Diary,
Wow! Yoiko-san really can scare anyone!
Oh, that's right! You didn't know the story about Yoiko-san and Yonaga.
Ever since the start of spring vacation on Earth, Hinako-onētama has been on a quest to locate the living spirit of warships that were sunk in the Second World War and have them revived. This started by accident when the spirit of Earth's first modern destroyer, the Imperial Japanese Navy ship Fubuki, came back with the help of a first generation battle doll — the same type used by the second incarnation of the Healer of Destruction against the Goa'uld five thousand years ago — to serve as a new body for the ship spirit to inhabit.
So the spirit of Fubuki became Fukushima Fujiko, just as the spirit of Fubuki's sistership Hatsuyuki became Fukushima Hatsue.
When I was sent back to Uru by Tariko-onēchan, there were a total of nineteen 'shipgirls' — that's what Tariko-onēchan's sister call the resurrected warship spirits — living on Ōmure-jima: Seven of the Fubuki-class destroyers, eight of the Ayanami-class destroyers and all four of the Akatsuki-class destroyers.
And they all got 'human names' since it was kinda ridiculous to refer to someone like Hatsue-chan as 'Hatsuyuki' when she didn't at all LOOK or FEEL like any sort of warship, to say anything of being even a gynoid!
Thanks to their also being Gifted through the Great Crystal of Power, the shipgirls all became true metahumans. Fujiko-chan and Hatsue-chan, for example, both became cryokinetics. Kisaragi Utako-chan — or 'U-chan' as she likes to be called — became a meteorkinetic.
Oh, that's right! I forgot to tell you about the other shipgirls!
Right after Lum-cha and I got back to Uru and Lum-cha met Hiromi-onēchan, we learned that another group of twenty-one first generation battle dolls came back as shipgirls. Through them, the spirits of eleven of the Mutsuki-class destroyers and all ten of the Shiratsuyu-class destroyers came back; U-chan was originally the Mutsuki-class destroyer Uzuki. Of course, Hinako-onētama didn't go out to find them on purpose; after she went and brought back the Akatsuki-class destroyers as the Akamatsu sisters Tsukiko (Akatsuki), Himeko (Hibiki), Ikue (Ikazuchi) and Inoue (Inazuma) in the summer, she promised the Heavenly Sovereign of Japan she wouldn't do that sort of thing again without permission.
However, when girls like U-chan came back on their own, Rinrin-aneki was persuaded by Himeko-san to do a special experiment concerning the old German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen — which had been given to the Americans at the end of World War Two as reparations, then sunk in a nuclear bomb test — which saw her come back as Catarina von Savoyen, a pretty girl who looks to be Oyuki-cha's age!
And she fell in love with Ataru at first sight!
Atop that, doing THAT with Miss Catarina made the spirit of the famous German battleship Bismarck come back as Luisa von Bismarck...which seemed to herald the return of a German aircraft carrier, one of their 'pocket battleship' large cruisers and two destroyers as shipgirls, never mind all the other ships sunk at the same atomic test that sank Prinz Eugen coming back to join forces with Colonel Jack O'Neill and the Americans' Stargate Command!
Along the way, the spirit of the ship Tariko-onēchan's granduncle Lieutenant Moroboshi Kyōsuke served on came back as a shipgirl.
That was the large aircraft carrier Yonaga, now Itō Yoiko.
Even better, all of Yonaga's crew are still ALIVE thanks to their being trapped in a mesonium-lined cove in far eastern Siberia — which couldn't be detected by the Soviets or the Russians — for over SEVENTY YEARS! And they stayed alive and healthy — not to mention had their aging processes retarded by living there with very little contact with the outside world save for the native people who lived in that part of the world — ready to carry out their original mission, which was to help start the Pacific side of World War Two at Pearl Harbour!
Wow!
Even the most passionate Yehisrite warrior would be in awe of that!
And after meeting Admiral Fujita Hiroshi — who would have actually led the attack on Pearl Harbour from Yonaga — I'm really hopeful that Tariko-onēchan, Ataru and their sisters will have help with all the shipgirls coming back.
I just hope that those ship spirits whose crews were slaughtered in battle don't come back all angry over what happened to them.
Er…!
Maybe I shouldn't have written that!
Sorry, everyone...!
The Invader home, an hour later...
"Do you believe that the number of kantai musume now on Uru will be enough if this yakuza Apophis moves towards that planet to seek vengeance after he witnesses Asakura-sensei's filming of Captain Doolittle actually EATING his wife Amaunet, Thomas-sensei?"
"Given their overall power, Admiral, I think we'll do good," Isaac Thomas answered as he relaxed in his chair gazing at the image of Fujita Hiroshi, who was relaxing in the dining hall at Welcome House having some morning tea. Background noise indicated that Osamu Shirayuki and eager helpers like Fukushima Shirayuki and Ashikaga Namiko were busy with serving a big and nutritious feast to the large crew of Yonaga before they would await the decision of the Heavenly Sovereign concerning their final fate. "Each first generation battle doll has the power by herself to deal with a Goa'uld ha'tak-class mothership with pulse energy attacks. Given what Rinrin told me about how their powers were enhanced once they were Gifted and became fully organic, their strength will give them the ability to lift the CUBE of their original mass as a warship. How much did Yonaga displace?"
"At full load, 86,750 tonnes," Captain Ogawa Gorō answered from Fujita's right.
The Wise Lone Sage hummed. "Then she could potentially dead-lift the equivalent mass of 652,842,546,875,000 tonnes, Captain. Over half a QUADRILLION tonnes," he stated after a few seconds' calculation. As Fujita, his flag captain and his senior scribe Lieutenant Commander Hironaka Kenji gaped in disbelief at that, the New Yorker added, "By the way, a quadrillion tonnes is the theorized mass of all the diamonds that exist on Earth itself, buried deep under the crust."
Hironaka screamed as he leapt up to his feet, "YONAGA BANZAI!"
"Kenji-san!"
The scribe jolted as the tall, muscular shipgirl who was the living personification of the ship he lived on for seven decades came into the dining room, a disapproving scowl on her face. "Y-y-Yoiko-chan...!"
Itō Yoiko moved to loom over him, she giving him a look that would impress the hell out of the drill petty officers at the Imperial Naval Academy near Hiroshima. "Kenji-san, a true samurai does NOT brag uselessly about his skills and abilities unless his daimyō, the Shōgun or Tennō Himself demands to know such attributes. It is not the least bit proper to disturb the peace our gracious hosts now desire so they can enjoy their breakfast, not to mention absorb the revelations concerning Shigaten-dono's desire to seek Ataru-san's hand! They wish to concentrate on that issue! Do not distract them!"
"H-h-h-HAI!" the scribe sputtered out, bowing low to the transformed carrier.
"Tadaima...Hina's back...!"
Isaac instantly winced on sensing the pained moan in Saeru Hinako's voice...
Welcome House, that moment (local time: Breakfast)...
"What's wrong?!" Moroboshi Ataru asked as heads turned to gaze towards the dining room's doors.
Saeru Hinako sighed before she looked over at her brother, then she blinked. "A-ri-ri? Benten-san?! What are you doing here in Welcome House?!" she demanded.
That made a certain biker-babe from Fukunokami blush before she gave Ataru a hopeful look, which made the Spirit of Innocence gape. "Eh?! Benten-san wants to be Onii-tama's girlfriend?!"
Giggles filled the dining hall from the other sisters as they enjoyed their breakfast. "For the longest time, Shigaten-dono was stymied because of Redet-dono's passionate desire to seek your brother's hand in matrimony, Little One," Yoiko said as she gave the visiting teenager from another world an admiring look. "Her restraint driven by her desire to maintain her long friendship with Redet-dono proves that under that bōsōzoku exterior of hers, she is as civilized and cultured as her near-namesake among the Shichi-fukujin." Here, the aircraft carrier then shook her head. "How curious that names are so common on planets separated by sixty-seven light years of space. The Goa'uld, perhaps?"
Shigaten Benten shrugged. "I honestly wish I could answer that, Captain Yoiko. I mean, when I first came to Earth after I met Darling, it shocked me that I had a GODDESS of all things as a near-namesake!" As the others in the room laughed on hearing that admission, she shrugged. "I even had loads of fun doing the Terran version of Setsubun — on my planet, that celebrates the peace my ancestors made with the more progressive elements of the Urusian Empire after they got their butts kicked by the Yizibajohei in the Mother of All Fight Scenes — when it came around a couple months before we ran into Darling's other 'fiancée'." As Ataru moaned on being reminded of Elle de Rosenbach, the native of Bensaikyō shrugged again. "Don't matter to me right now. With Lum getting a version of Darling in Hiromi and Tariko now finally free to live her life, I'm making my move and claiming my man." She then gazed on Sukeyama Sakuya, visibly wincing. "With your permission, of course."
"Nice save, Benten," the Healer of Men's Hearts stated even if her lips twitched in an approving smile; her empathy had been quick to sense how honest the visitor from Fukunokami was.
"Of course, Benten, you best understand that if you do ANYTHING that breaks Ani-kun's heart, we ALL will punish you most severely," Hirosaki Chikage then warned, making the room instantly chill as the Dark Heart of Pure Chaos stared intently at her would-be sister-in-law. "It will be to the point where you will BEG Yoiko there to act as your kaishakunin," she coolly added.
"Chikage-chan, PLEASE stop talking about that nasty stuff!"
Eyes locked on the youngest of the sisters, then people winced on seeing the weariness on her face. "What is it, Hinako-chan?" Eigo Kaho asked as Sakuya walked over to hug Hinako.
A moan answered the Maiden of the Parade's question. "Oh, it's even MORE shipgirls, Kaho-chan!"
"Who has returned, Little One?" Yoiko asked.
"That would be us, Captain Itō."
Heads turned over...
"I assume Mycroft sent you girls over?" Yotsuba Dunn asked, a knowing look crossing her face.
"Indeed he did, Lady Dunn," Charlene Boleyn stated as she walked in on a cane conjured for her by Albus Dumbledore, accompanied by a smiling Amy Power and a visibly depressed Mary Hood. As Yoiko and her crew quickly read the names on the ship's crests on the chests of the British shipgirls, the reborn second of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships turned and bowed to Sakuya. "Lady Sukeyama, on behalf of my fleet mates, I sincerely apologize for intruding on you in this manner."
Sakuya blinked, then she shrugged. "Oh, well...!"
"Frau Kapitän Hood."
That made the reborn Admiral-class battlecruiser perk before she spun around...
...then on seeing the tall, blonde Aryan beauty standing behind her, the adopted native of Clydebank and Butleigh blinked several times before a pained smile crossed her face. "Ruddy good shooting," Mary said as she squeezed Luisa von Bismarck's shoulder in reassurance.
As the adopted native of Schönhausen — now accompanied by her fleet mates — gaped at such words, Mary walked out of the rotunda, the depression weighing on her heart following her like a shroud.
Fujita had been quick to notice. "She wants to die..." he whispered.
Hearing that, Yoiko nodded. "I'll see to her, Teitoku," she quietly declared.
The admiral nodded as others in the room exchanged worried looks...
Sand Island in the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge (1800 kilometres west-northwest of Honolulu), that moment (local time: Noon hour on Saturday)...
"How long are you going to BE there, Joe?! We have the weekend off...!"
A chuckle escaped the Samoan-descent native of Pensacola as he took a look around the abandoned Navy air station set up on the largest of the atoll islands located near the middle point of the direct route between San Francisco and Tōkyō. The whole area was quiet save for the squawking of a massive flock of albatrosses that used Midway Atoll as a place to breed and rest, not to mention the yelping noises of seals that were on the beaches of Sand Island raising their pups. "Since this Yonaga got back — especially knowing she was meant to be part of the original attack on Pearl back in '41 — the chances of the other carriers that were in on that attack coming back as shipgirls are...!"
He paused as his dark hazel eyes picked out three figures now approach the atoll from the north. "Well, I'll be fucking damned," the man born Joseph Anoa'i breathed out as he raised a pair of goggles — the same model that hyper-genius polymaths like Isaac Thomas and Elizabeth Wakefield used — to slip over his eyes, focusing on the three women. Two were teenagers, one with long silver hair and blue eyes, the other had long strawberry blonde hair in a ponytail and green eyes peeking out of a face that had a native American tan on it. The third woman was much more mature in looks, also possessing long silver hair and blue eyes. The badges on the chests of the uniforms the two silver-haired women were wearing were the stadium-shaped blue rings with gold ship's rope on the outside used by American warships; the third woman had the circular crest with naval crown topping it of a British or Commonwealth warship. As they got closer, the man known to fans in World Wrestling Entertainment now by the ring name "Roman Reigns" peered closer to read the words written on those badges:
USS YORKTOWN
CV 5
USS HAMMANN
DD 412
Okay, those two, he had suspected would appear. Now the third...?
ATHABASKAN
Blinking in confusion, Roman shifted his PAA around. "Gotta cut the link, Danny," he then warned his tag team partner. "Something weird is going on here."
"What is it?" his partner in the Shield called back from the hotel in Lafayette in Louisiana; it was in the stadium there that the newly-formed "bodyguards" to the infamous C.M. Punk would make their Monday Night RAW debut two nights from today.
"I got Yorktown and Hammann coming in. They were the two ships on our side that sank back in '42. But there's a third one with a Commonwealth badge. Name is Athabaskan. Gotta check the database."
"Chill, man! We got it!" the man born Danny Lopez and known to fans more as "Seth Rollins" assured his partner. "Jon's checking his PAA out right now. If this one's a World War Two gal...!"
"Found her!" the third of the Shield, Jonathan Good — "Dean Ambrose" — called out. "She's Canadian, Joe. HMCS Athabaskan. Three of them over the years. First one was sunk two months before D-Day off the north coast of Brittany in a gun fight. Got a hull number, Joe? This girl might be the second one; she didn't get decommissioned until '66 and was scrapped in '70."
"Hold on a sec'..."
Roman concentrated on the native-looking shipgirl, who was drifting a half-metre off the calm waves of the lagoon. Much to the amusement of the man who was now known on Yiziba as the Spectral Hound of the Dark Gaol, Rimna (the "Grimm"), a small flock of young seals were trying to leap out of the waters to pull the Canadian destroyer in so they could play with her, many barking in excitement. As the reborn first of her class of aircraft carriers and the reborn fourth of the Sims-class destroyers laughed at their companion's willingness to place nice with the seals, Roman's eyes focused on the letter-number combination in white painted on the thighs of the reborn Athabaskan's scarlet battlesuit.
"Got G07 here, Jon," Roman then called out.
"That's the first one," Dean called back.
"Got human names?"
"Yorktown is 'Anna Eleanor Livingston'. Hammann is 'Charlene Hazel Hammann'. And Athabaskan is 'Randi Georgette Stubbs'."
"Thanks, man. Call over to the SGC and warn them."
"On it," Seth called back. "Watch your ass, Joe!"
"I'll be cool, man."
Closing off the link, the man with the stringy black hair, moustache and goatee slipped off the goggles and put them into the back pouch of his battledress. Black overall like his in-ring attire with gunmetal grey belt and boots, it was styled to display the beautiful tattoos marking his Samoan ancestry on his right arm and chest beyond the edge of the top, with a sea turtle on his inner right wrist. On his chest was the front-view image of the head of a yuoti-suo, a mythological soul-devouring spirit renowned in stories common to the central equatorial continent of Yiziba before the Dawn of Power as one who readily devoured all evil. While not a soul-vampire of any sorts like Aruka Ran, Roman's metahuman abilities made him as deadly to all non-corporeal beings and parasitic creatures as Margo Black was to all living beings. Atop that, he was one of many Named from Yiziba who loved to hunt down "roenor'beke" from the Crab Nebula — they called themselves "Mor-Tax" as a race, but Roman didn't give a shit about that — whenever they stuck their tentacles into the affairs of other peoples in the local cluster. Since the Mor-Tax were "rivals" to the Goa'uld and would gladly provoke a multi-planetary intergalactic war to press the advantage over the "gods" that dominated Earth in millennia past, representatives of that species had come to eye the Great Crystal of Power as a source-point of energy and strength to overwhelm what the Systems Lords could unleash in retaliation.
As Takino Tomo once lamented to him when they discussed dealing with such beings, "They're all Gift thieves, Roman-kun! If you find them, put 'em through their death scenes! It's all the slime deserve!"
While the Spectral Hound had scented some Mor-Tax possessing humans in his travels...
"Tea...!"
The native of Pensacola jolted, then spun around...
"Tea...?!" the pale twenty-something woman with the quasi-Occidental looks on her face framed by long brown hair — with an ahoge sticking out of the top of her head fluttering with the strong ocean breeze, part of the bangs held back by a gold headband and a lot of that mass tied in two braided buns behind her ears — pleaded as she stared hopefully at him, her body swaying as if she hadn't drunk or eaten anything for a WEEK! Noting the white uniform with the red belt and black boots, he quickly focused on the redwood-shaded torii on her chest, that topped with the kanji 金剛 in vertical format bracketing the kasagi and nuki where a shrine's nameplate would be posted. "Tea, please...?" she tearfully pleaded again in British English with a quasi-Scots pitch to her words.
Roman was there to catch the staggering reborn fast battleship — he recognized the kanji on her top, marking her as the first of her class of warships that had been in the thick of the action throughout most of the Pacific side of the Second World War — then he moved to sit her down on the ground before yanking out his PAA. "Oi! Shirayuki! Pick up!" he called out after tapping the crystal on the device to send off a signal many thousands of kilometres to the west.
A second later, a young girl's image appeared over the crystal. "Ah! Roman-san! What is it?!" Osamu Shirayuki called out from the kitchen at Welcome House.
"You got some tea — preferably whatever folks in England drink — with you now?"
"Did that man say 'tea', Lady Osamu?" a strange woman's voice then called out.
"Hai, Charlene-san!"
"W-w-Warspite...?!"
That was the dazed lead of her class of fast battleships, now leaning against the native of Pensacola. "Indeed it is, Kongō," the second of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships called back from Ōmure-jima.
"What's her human name, Ataru?" a man with an American accent called out; no doubt, Roman realized, that was the retired Navy intelligence officer who had run across Yonaga's crew in the Arctic.
"'Chihaya Anne', Brent-san," Yotsuba Dunn answered. "By the way, if her sisters show up, Roman-kun, Hiei is 'Chihaya Sarah', Kirishima is 'Chihaya Isabel' and Haruna is 'Chihaya Heather'."
"Sending some tea over, Roman-san!" Shirayuki called out.
A flash of teleportation energy saw a beautiful tea service with all the fixings appear nearby, it sitting on a nice low table. Sensing that, Chihaya Anne blinked in confusion before she looked over...then her whole body quaked in delight as Roman shifted her closer to the table before sitting beside her, then he moved to prepare some for the shuddering fast battleship. "Since you served in Japan for so long, it surprises me that you didn't ask for sencha, Miss Chihaya," he commented.
That made Anne's eyes sharpen before she chuckled. "Oh, relax, Admiral! Relax! I'm an English-born returnee! Tea is in my pipes...!" She paused to look down at her cleavage. "Er...my blood, I guess..."
That made the wrestler and alumnus of the Georgia Institute of Technology chuckle. "All shipgirls go through that once they realize what's happened to them, Miss Chihaya," he said. "Lucky thing I learned how to prepare this stuff when I met other folks like myself." At the curious look of the adopted native of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria (her place of construction) and Chihayaakasaka south of Ōsaka (where her namesake volcano was located), Roman added, "I'm a metahuman. You'd know me as a 'mystery man', Miss Chihaya...though I normally don't go out like the Liberty Legion did before the war and do stuff like that. I'm a behind-the-scenes guy. Roman Reigns," he then introduced himself.
She shook his hand with an eager smile. "Do you know the angel or kami that turned me into this, Mister Reigns?" Anne then asked, waving to herself. "I was a broken wreck in the Formosa Strait until a week ago when something pulled my hull out of the water, merged it with some sort of mannequin-like thing, then I felt fully human...even if I turned out to be a girl who could FLY!"
"Did you hear a voice call out 'Tene lomher'buo, Chihaya Anne'?"
An eager nod answered him. "Yes, I did!"
"And after you got your uniform and felt full human, that same voice called out, 'Nesu'...then paused before calling out the translation of your ship name. I think it'd go 'Tumtuo'..."
Another eager nod answered him. "The exact words that angel said."
"Well, no one knows if it's an angel or a metahuman like me. We call that person the 'Conservator'. He always announces it whenever someone winds up Gifted to become a metahuman through the Great Crystal of Power. The place where the Power Jewels like General Raeburn's were made billions of years ago." As Anne's eyes went wide, he added, "A planet formed around it sometime after the First Race disappeared, then people were settled on it about twenty-five thousand years ago. From Earth, in fact." Trying not to smirk on seeing her dropped jaw and wide eyes, he winked, which made her fluster. "It's a really crazy story. You've missed out on seven decades of stuff, Miss Chihaya."
She considered that, then confusion crossed her face. "There are others like me?"
"Yep. Loads others..."
"Excuse me, sir!" a voice with a strong Virginia Tidewater accent challenged, which made Roman wince. "This is a Navy reservation! What are you doing here?! And what the hell is this JAP doing here?!"
"Um...Roman-san, did you forget something?" Shirayuki helpfully asked from Ōmure-jima as Roman hesitantly looked over his shoulder to see the reborn first of the Yorktown-class carriers standing nearby, an ugly look on her face. The reborn fourth of the Sims-class destroyers and the reborn second of the Canadian Tribal-class destroyers were at the carrier's side, a somewhat fearful look on the former's face while the other seemed to be gaping in confusion at him.
A moan escaped him. "Another day in the damned office...!"
That made all the shipgirls now on Sand Island blink in confusion...
An hour later...
"So we lost the war? Why am I SO not surprised?"
"Your people fought valiantly right to the end, Captain Chihaya."
Chihaya Anne perked on hearing that admiring statement from the man with the stench of the lar'beke all over him — though Roman Reigns had been quick to defend Teal'c as a former slave of the monsters who tried to invade the planet where the fast battleship's current body was built five millennia before, he having betrayed his "god" — then she blushed. "The idiots leading the fight in the name of His Majesty were deliberately sending us to our deaths, ignorant of how powerful America really was."
"As so many predicted even before that war began."
"Including Admiral Fujita?" Anne asked as she stared at the strange carrier she NEVER knew existed; after all, as far as she knew, all moves to have Warship No. 797 built were ended before a keel was laid.
"Indeed so, Anne-san," Itō Yoiko stated before sipping the cloudberry tea that had been made by Osamu Shirayuki. Both the seventh carrier of Operation Z and the Great Chef of the West had teleported to Midway to serve as spokespersons for the reborn first of the Kongō-class fast battleships when a delegation from Stargate Command came to the atoll to meet up with the two reborn American warships and the lone Canadian warship that met up with them north of Midway a day ago. "Still, we all had orders given to us in Tennō's name." Here, the fifth of the Yamato-class made use of the proper Japanese honorifics for the Heavenly Sovereign while her fleet mate used English translations. "Even if the orders could be seen by other military leaders as insane or suicidal, Bushidō ruled all our lives."
Anne snorted. "Especially the warped version of it that got into vogue after his father died."
"Taishō Tennō, you mean."
That was Daniel Jackson, who had been more than eager to come to Midway to meet such a remarkable group of personalities like the aircraft carrier that had been trapped in a Siberian cove for seventy-one years while her crew had remained locked on their mission to attack Pearl Harbour, never mind the British-built battlecruiser-turned-fast battleship who clearly wanted to honour both sides of her effective ancestry. "The same one, Doctor," Anne said as she flashed the New Yorker a smile, which made the archaeologist blush at such wholesome beauty. "It all seemed to go well until he passed on..."
"Hai, true," Yoiko affirmed before she gazed intently at the reborn fast battleship. "And stop flirting with Jackson-hakase, Anne-san! He's a married man, having just recovered his wife from the grasp of the Goa'uld! Set your sights elsewhere! Perhaps Reigns-sensei here...!"
As Roman gargled while his cheeks flushed, Shirayuki giggled before she prepared a new cup of Darjeeling tea for the reborn fast battleship. "You're lucky that Sakuya-chan isn't here, Roman-kun!"
"HEY!" the native of Pensacola croaked.
"Something we're missing, kid?"
People turned as Dean Raeburn walked over, she accompanied by a madly-blushing Randi Stubbs, the reborn HMCS Athabaskan. When everyone had gathered on Midway, the adopted native of Newcastle upon Tyne in northern England (where she had been built) and the united nations of the Athabaskan peoples (which were spread across a large swath of western and northwest Canada) told everyone that after she had been reborn shortly after the spirit of the destroyer KMS Leberecht Maass became Lieselotte Maaß, she had flown all over Canada trying to trace down either Raeburn or the Ontarian's old fighting companion Heather Thompkins to report back to duty with the Royal Canadian Navy despite her being a metahuman woman. When she was in the British Columbia provincial capital Victoria a day ago, Randi overheard sailors based out of the navy base at nearby Esquimalt speak about the former leader of the War Hawks having gone to Japan for some reason. Such convinced the reborn Tribal-class destroyer to cross the Pacific. However, being a destroyer, she elected to stop at Midway to replenish herself...which is when she ran across Eleanor Livingston and Charlene Hammann.
And given that both American shipgirls had been sunk at Midway...!
"Those two settled down?" Roman asked as he gazed over his shoulder to where Eleanor and Charlene were standing close to Major General George Hammond, who had come to Midway to bring the moral weight of a flag officer down on the returned warships so they didn't go charging off half-cocked towards Tōkyō to reignite the Greater East Asia War. Accompanying the elderly pilot from Texas along with Jackson and Teal'c had been Margaret Penn, who had her own moral weight as the former flagship of the United States Navy Battle Force at the time of the Pearl Harbour attack; as USS Pennsylvania, Margaret had been part of a backup force that would have deployed towards Hawai'i hadn't Eleanor (as Yorktown) and her sisters stopped the Japanese attack on Midway.
"Yeah, somewhat," Dean said after sitting down at the table while Shirayuki moved to make some coffee for her while Anne sipped her tea. Looking over her shoulder, she then winced on seeing Margaret pull out her PAA, using that to project an image of a wrecked Hiroshima to Eleanor and Charlene, which made the two Midway veterans turn especially pale on hearing what the effects of a nuclear bomb were like. She shook her head as the reborn destroyer covered her mouth, then sprinted off to a nearby bush at flank speed to throw up whatever breakfast she had fished for herself. "Idiot..."
"Truth, no matter how hard, is the one thing warriors must accept, Shihan-sama," Yoiko sagely advised.
Dean gave her a curious look, then she shook her head...before she perked on sensing something approach their position from the south. "Oh, great," she breathed out as she focused her attention — augmented by her Power Jewel's impossibly deep reservoir of energy which made her the equal power-wise of both the Last Son of Krypton and the World's Mightiest Mortal in another universe — towards the beach south of the main landing strip of Sand Island. "Newcomers..."
"Oh, Hime better make some tea," Shirayuki then mused.
Roman was focusing his own abilities in that direction. "They feel just like you, Miss Chihaya."
Anne perked. "My sisters...?"
"Listen," Dean bade.
Voices then drifted over the scene...
"...sensed it! Onē-sama is here!"
"We have to be watchful, Hiei! This IS an American navy base!"
"Haruna keeps telling her sisters! The war is over! Haruna's sure Onē-sama is safe!"
"Hey, wait a minute! If this is a Navy base, where are all the sailors?!"
Hums escaped the other two girls. "The whole place looks like it's been abandoned for years now," the second voice, possessing a very studious tone to it as well as a noticeable Kyūshū accent, then contemplated. "I wonder what happened here. Why would the Americans abandon Midway?"
"Well, with the war over, Haruna thinks the Americans decided to leave Midway to the kawaii seals and albatrosses," the third voice, childish and reminding Shirayuki of her younger sisters by her speaking of herself with her ship-name — not to mention possessing a Kantō accent thanks to her namesake volcano being in Gunma prefecture north of Tōkyō — then said. That comment, everyone who was eavesdropping on that conversation, had been accompanied by the yelping noises of young seals.
Sighing, Yoiko rose and marched towards the airfield, with Anne getting up to follow her long-secret would-be fleet mate. Seeing that move by the two Japanese shipgirls, Hammond sighed before he gazed at Dean. "Don't tell me more have come, General Raeburn," the Texan breathed out.
"It sounds like Miss Chihaya's sisters are here, General," Roman explained.
"AH! ONĒ-SAMA!"
Screams of joy echoed through the air from the direction of the airfield before they turned into yelps and cries accompanied by the sounds of people's bodies hitting the broken pavement of the taxiway where Anne just encountered her sisters, then they dog-piling her with hugs. As the seals who had accompanied the younger Kongō-class fast battleships yelped as they tried to get in on the "action", Shirayuki sighed as she reached over for a tray of her freshly-baked scones, then walked over to see the cuddle-pile of fast battleships as poor Anne tried to calm her sisters down while a VERY displeased Yoiko stood nearby, shaking her head at such an undisciplined show of childishness with two senior general officers — one of whom being a personal friend and traditional feudal servant of Tennō Himself! — not several yards away. Before she could scream out at the four to stop acting like idiots...
"ANNE! SARAH! ISABEL! HEATHER! CEASE THAT, NOW!"
Yoiko yelped before she looked over her shoulder as the four fast battleships froze themselves...
"Onē-tama! You didn't need to yell at them like that! You scared them!"
The seventh carrier of Operation Z sighed. "Many thanks for coming, Negako-sama," she then declared before bowing her head. "My apologies, Little One. You did not deserve to come here and be forced to see such an undisciplined display by my fleet mates..." — here, she turned to glare intently at Anne — "...which I personally know would NEVER be tolerated even in the ROYAL NAVY, Captain!"
As Anne yelped, her sisters blinked. "Haruna doesn't know you!" the third of her class (in order of the laying of her keel) said as she pulled away from her sisters. She had long, straight silvery-black hair and chestnut brown eyes. Her uniform was the same general style as her older sister, though she had red boots in lieu of Anne's black pair. Like Anne, the woman now known as "Chihaya Heather" had a redwood torii insignia on her chest framed by the kanji of her ship name in red kanji, 榛名. "Who are you?!" she demanded as she walked over to glare up into Yoiko's stormy grey eyes.
As Moroboshi Negako shook her head at such useless bravado — never mind the height difference as Heather was only a little over 173 centimetres high while Yoiko stood at a towering 220 centimetres — the ninjutsu grandmaster's companion moaned as she waved her hands. "Heather-san!" Saeru Hinako called out, her own empathy reaching out to calm down all the shipgirls there. "Stop that!"
That made the four fast battleships wince before embarrassed blushes crossed their faces, then Anne and her sisters quickly separated themselves before getting back to their feet. As the seals started to yelp again to get the newcomers to play with them, Shirayuki sighed as she came up, holding out her tray of scones, the piping hot smell making Anne and her sisters all gasp as their stomachs instantly rumbled their desire for nourishment. "Well done, Shirayuki," Negako bade.
That made the chef from Nagoya smile. "Desu no!"
Tomobiki, the Moroboshi home, that moment (local time: An hour after breakfast on Sunday)...
"Thank the Kami it's Sunday..."
Yawning as he stretched himself, Moroboshi Muchi moaned as he took his seat by the living room table. The Sunday morning news was on NHK Tōkyō, with the announcer making a report with the image of a smiling brown-haired, brown-eyed girl reported to be the kami of the world's first modern destroyer, she displayed as appearing in the press briefing room at the White House ten hours before. Staring at the image of Fukushima Fujiko, the father of the most infamous teenager alive in the world — in the eyes of many within Tomobiki; much to the shock of many within the town, people from elsewhere gladly removed the "in-" prefix when it came to describing Moroboshi Ataru...especially when one factored in the actions of Lum's Stormtroopers in the wake of the Tag Race the previous fall — could only shake his head as he reached for the Sunday edition of the Morning Yomiuri so he could scan the news.
"You should be proud of your children for what they've done for all of those poor kami, lad," an aged man's voice echoed from nearby.
Muchi tried not to wince as he gazed upon Sakurambō Hayao. Much to his wife's annoyance, the monk who had trained for years under the Jōdo-shū school of Buddhism appeared once breakfast had been served. Muchi himself didn't really mind the elderly monk normally called "Cherry" by everyone who knew of the man. Despite Kinshō's flat out hatred of his own late mother, Cherry had been very close to Moroboshi Nagaiwakai; interacting with him in private sessions had long helped the poor salaryman overcome his own feelings when it came to his mother. "How many is it now?" he breathed out.
"More and more come return from the sea by the day, my young friend," Cherry solemnly stated as he gazed on the television screen, which now showed a listing of shipgirl numbers, broken down by nationality, type and class as of two hours before. "I see one of young Tariko's friends from Korea has moved to welcome the would-be sisters of the swift Shimakaze-sama into the fold..."
"I HAVE NO DAUGHTER, YOU OLD...!"
KK-KRUNCH!
Muchi moaned; his wife had just got clocked by his transformed child's usual "cinder block in the head" trick before she could threaten Cherry. "Honey, stop yelling like that! The neighbours will complain!" He then slumped down on himself as he muttered, "Not that they're already complaining enough about what Ojii-san's ship said this morning when those boys were arrested...!"
As Kinshō moaned, Cherry shook his head. "It is Fate..."
"Your message, old friend, hasn't changed in decades."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
Cherry was now gaping in shock at the man in the green jumpsuit-like fatigues now standing in the foyer, the rank insignia of a lieutenant in the Imperial Navy on his collars. He was accompanied by a half-dozen men in shore patrol dress, Arisaka Type 99 rifles at port arms. Blinking in shock on seeing someone who looked like Moroboshi Ataru save for being in his late twenties with a trimmed moustache and goatee covering his face, the elderly monk gaped. "Sacred Buddha!" he hissed out as he reached out with his own mage-senses to probe this living ghost. "Kyōsuke...dear Buddha, is that you...?"
A lanky grin crossed the officer's face, not so different than what Ataru looked like when he smiled. "Hai, old friend, it is I!" Moroboshi Kyōsuke declared as the shore patrolmen accompanying him all bowed in respect to the good friend of their ship's junior navigation officer even if they kept their rifles at the ready. "Saved by a sea cove full of mesonium and the blessings of a massive flock of gamájun who sought shelter there even if my crew and I were trapped there thanks to an earthquake..."
"Since Shōwa-jūrokunen?!"
Kyōsuke came over to sit beside his old theological studies classmate from Hanadera Boy's Academy in nearby Musashino, then he shrugged. "As you were so fond of saying it back then, Hayao-san..."
Cherry sagely nodded. "It's Fate indeed!"
They looked at each other, then laughter filled the living room as Muchi gaped in shock while his uncle — whom he assumed DIED years ago! — embraced the old monk that had been one of the banes of his child's life during his/her time living with his parents over the last year. As the seaman guards nearby screamed banzai cheers at such a reunion, Kinshō moaned as she tried to get back up...then she froze on seeing the khaki tabi shoes covering the feet of strange men now invading her domain. With a snarl, she leapt up and drew her handy chef's knife to chase away these idiots...then she squawked as the points of a half-dozen Type 30 steel bayonets were levelled at her throat, making her drop her knife!
"Stay right where you are, you selfish yūjo!" the chief of the seamen guards who had accompanied Kyōsuke to his nephew's home, Yeoman Third Class Hachirobe Kiyonaga, snarled as he threateningly moved towards her. "Our officer has business with his nephew. Be quiet!"
As Kinshō nearly soiled herself from the almost-fanatic looks that Hachirobe's men were now sending her — as if they WANTED her to defy such an order! — Muchi took a deep breath. Given all the insanity that had haunted his life since his transformed child's return — not to mention Cherry's reaction — he had no choice but to realize that his uncle was alive and here now in his house. "Oji-san..."
"Quiet, boy!" Kyōsuke snapped, making the salaryman wince. "Your mother must be ASHAMED of you! I can understand hesitance when it comes to our sacred duties for Tennō, but to ABANDON her like your daughters and Negako-chan told me you did — never mind you ignoring her warnings and marrying this selfish woman here..." He contemptuously waved at Kinshō in emphasis.
"HEY!" Kinshō shrieked.
"SILENCE, WOMAN!" Hachirobe bellowed.
As Muchi winced again, Kyōsuke shuddered...
...before he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Gazing then at the television nearby, he then gaped in wide-eyed awe on seeing a tranquil scene in some harbour somewhere, where a white covered bridge-like structure with a sag in the middle was now covered in a brilliant ruby dome of energy. The same type of energy that had covered his own beloved ship months before back in Sano-wan when the power of Earth's oldest living being had helped transform Yonaga into Itō Yoiko.
"Hayao, where is that?" he demanded, pointing.
Cherry's head snapped over, then his eyes went wide. "Oh, Buddha...!"
"Another kantai musume is rising, Kyōsuke-san?!" Hachirobe demanded.
"Not just any kantai musume, young man," the aged Buddhist monk warned. "That is Pearl Harbour!" As the members of Yonaga's crew hissed on hearing the name of the strategic harbour on O'ahu that had been their original target back in 1941, Cherry's eyes closed. "That memorial now stands over the wreckage of the one ship sunk in that attack that came to symbolize the RAGE the Americans felt when they had been struck in such a fashion, WITHOUT ANY WARNING FROM US!"
"LIES!" Hachirobe's second-in-command, Seaman First Class Shinozaki Nobuyori, snapped, his whole body shuddering with outrage. "Yamamoto-taishō's orders FORBADE that!"
"It is how it turned out," Cherry coldly declared.
"Which ship is that?" Kyōsuke wondered.
"The Arizona."
Eyes locked on Muchi, who seemed to be deflating on himself. "Where over a THOUSAND of her crew were killed by ONE BOMB STRIKE on her powder magazine, Oji-san!" the salaryman added as he gave his uncle a weary yet warning look. "If she returns like your own ship did..."
Hearing that, Kyōsuke grimaced before he drew out a PAA loaned to him by one of his grandnieces. "Yoiko-chan!" he called out after tapping the crystal, knowing his transformed ship would be listening in. "You best warn Hammond-shōshō! There's an incident at Pearl happening now...!"
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
Translation list: Napaaqtuqarunnanngittuq — Inuktitut translation of "tundra"; Kkama'gui — Crow; Marei'cha — Literally "the one who helps raise a child", the lover of the parent of a child in a Sagussan family (as previously explained in Part Nine); Surei'cha — Literally "the one who helps birth a child", the genetic co-parent of a child on Sagussa; Daimyō — Literally "great landlord", these were the regional warlords that controlled provinces in old Japan under the Shōgun ("supreme general") that ruled in the name of the Heavenly Sovereign; Bōsōzoku — Literally "violent running (out of control) tribe", this is the Japanese euphemism for a motorcycle gang; Shichi-fukujin — Seven Lucky Gods of Fortune; Kaishakunin — Literally "one who corrects a mistake", the person who beheads one committing seppuku to stop the pain; Yuoti-suo — Soul wolf; Roenor'beke — Jellyfish leech; Kasagi — The lintel at the top of a Shintō shrine's torii gate; Nuki — The tie beam keeping the pillars (hashira) of a torii gate together, always inserted below the kasagi.
Kurama and the Karasutengu first appeared in the Yatsura manga story "Just Like a Woman" (manga chapter #16). Her relationship with the Genpei War (1180-85) general Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-89) was revealed in the manga story "Father, You Were Strong!" (manga chapter #18). Of course, the name of Kurama's royal house and her mother's name are my creation.
The members of the Shield — Roman Reigns (born Joseph Anoa'i), Seth Rollins (born Daniel Lopez) and Dean Ambrose (born Jonathan Good) — made their first appearance as a group in the 2012 edition of the Survivor Series, which was shown on pay-per-view on 18 November that year (the Sunday prior to the start of this story). At the time of this story, they were scripted to serve as "bodyguards" to C.M. Punk (born Phillip Brooks) during Punk's 434-day long second reign as WWE Champion.
As noted above, the three members of the Shield would make their first appearance on Monday Night RAW on 26 November 2012 in Lafayette in Louisiana.
List of shipgirls appearing in this part:
Captain Eleanor Livingston USN (United States Ship Yorktown [CV-5])
Chihaya Anne-taisa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Kongō [CC-1])
Chihaya Sarah-taisa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Hiei [CC-2])
Chihaya Isabel-taisa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Kirishima [CC-3])
Chihaya Heather-taisa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Haruna [CC-4])
Commander Charlene Hammann USN (United States Ship Hammann [DD-412])
Commander Randi Stubbs RCN (Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Athabaskan [pendant G07])
Note that the looks of USS Yorktown (Eleanor Livingston) and USS Hammann (Charlene Hammann) are based on their Azur Lane interpretations. The version of HMCS Athabaskan (Randi Stubbs) appearing here takes after a fan's interpretation of Athabaskan as she might appear in Kantai Collection, drawn by the artist Myuto; such can be seen at Danbooru at post #2738712. Of course, the "Quacky Quartet" composing the Kongō-class battlecruisers/fast battleships (TH Gunkan-tachi Kongō [Chihaya Anne], Hiei [Chihaya Sarah], Kirishima [Chihaya Isabel] and Haruna [Chihaya Heather]) take after their KanColle interpretations, both in looks and personalities.
Note also the hull classification symbol CC was set aside for battlecruisers by the United States Navy in the 1910s in preparation for the commissioning of the never-completed (or converted) Lexington-class ships from which USS Saratoga (Dionne Doolittle) was deprived; before she was rebuilt as an aircraft carrier and designated CV-3, she had been designated CC-3. The "CC" code was changed to mean a command cruiser in 1961. These days, there are no command cruisers active in the United States Navy.
The Mor-Tax spoken of in the narrative are the aliens who appeared in the two-season television series based on H.G. Wells' famous novel The War of the Worlds. Said television series appeared from 1988-90. Note that in the television series, the Mor-Tax (or Mor-Taxans) were reported to have come from a world forty light years away identified as being part of the constellation of Taurus as viewed from Earth. I changed that to make them natives of a world that can be located in the Crab Nebula, which is also in Taurus, but is approximately 6,500 light years from Earth. Since the Nebula is the remnant of a supernova that exploded in 1054, that being the origin point of the Mor-Tax made more sense to me.
Taishō Tennō (1879-1926) is the posthumous name of the 124th Heavenly Sovereign of Japan; his personal name was Yoshihito.
The heights of shipgirls I use of here is based on a chart made by Jaws7 noted on in the chat for the Harry Potter/Kantai Collection crossover series Harry Potter and the Shipgirls. It can be linked through at SpaceBattles post #42394924 (number #30138 in the HP&SG snippet collection thread).
Gamájun are prophetic bird-like creatures symbolizing wisdom and knowledge in traditional Slavic folklore. The name serves as the inspiration for the "lower-class" magical school for Russian wizards and witches in my stories, the Akadémija Volshebsvá "Gamájun" (Gamájun Academy of Magic); the "Bloody Siberian She-bear" Svetlána Múrometsa (mentioned in Part Twelve) is an alumnus of this school. In the universe of my stories, gamájun can transform from pure avians to pure humans, though they can also assume a therianthropic form with a human head and avian body.
Moroboshi Kyōsuke, Hachirobe Kiyonaga and Shinozaki Nobuyori first appeared in The Angels of the Era of Eternity.