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Yokosuka, the cruiser barracks, Tuesday 23 May, an hour before midnight...
"So, did you turn a profit?"
Hearing that amused question from the older light cruiser who served as one-half of the Eighteenth Cruiser Division with her sister, Fujinami Ryūnosuke perked, then she smirked as she held up a small wad of ¥10,000 and ¥1000 bills. "What does it look like, Tamiyo-san?" the new owner and mistress of Hamachaya said with a wink before she moved to stuff the money into her wallet; she would deposit same into a bank account arranged for her in the morning. "Damn! I'm not the world's greatest cook or anything, but the girls were going crazy for the seafood stir-fry I made along with the tea. If Oyaji was here..."
She then stopped as a lost look crossed her face. A partially-gloved hand reached over to squeeze her shoulder, causing Ryūnosuke to blink before she gazed on Tenryū. "I..." the former breathed out before she shook her head. "Damn..."
"You're still in mourning," the light cruiser stated as she pulled her hand away. "Nothing wrong with what you're feeling right now. For good and for ill, your old man was quite the influence on your whole life. Even if it's good that you're away from him and his screwed-up ideas about what you really were, he taught you how to fight and survive in a pretty unforgiving world. And even if you made friends when you were at Tomobiki High, he was still the primary influence in your life."
A snort escaped the "son" of the late Fujinami Fujimi. "Some friends..."
"That was our fault, actually."
Ryūnosuke looked over. "What do you mean?!"
"Kodachi-chan was under direct orders from Yoiko-san to keep the girls off the school grounds after they were allowed to come down from that Dobu Salada place to see what had happened," Tenryū explained before she sipped her own bottle of ramune. "Yeah, none of those girls asked about you, but if they weren't allowed onto the grounds until Yoiko-san declared it secured after the bodies were taken away, they might have remembered you. They knew you were living in the school."
"They didn't ask about me?"
Tenryū shook her head after thinking about it. "Not really."
Another snort escaped the other woman. "Like I said, some friends," she said with a bitter voice and a shrug of her shoulders. "Strange as it sounds, I feel more of a friendship with Moroboshi now than I do with people like Shinobu-san. He was worried about me; he said so in his letter apologizing for all the shit he did when Negako-san was in his head and he couldn't really think straight." A chuckle then burst from her lips. "Even told me that I should poison Oyaji and get it over with..."
"Yeah, the Avalonians can be pretty harsh to child abusers, can't they?"
Both women laughed, then they gazed out of the window of the tomboy's guest room, which was several doors down from the room Tenryū shared with her sister Tatsuta. Night had long since fallen and some of the floodlights that kept the grounds bright and exposed during the early evening were being shut down to conserve power. For Ryūnosuke, the lack of things like air conditioning didn't really bother her; she was used to living in a small shack close to the ocean. Staying inside Tomobiki High School had been quite different for her with almost all the comforts a normal family could ask for, but given how much people in government had gone out of their way to make the town seen "normal" to all the aliens who lived there...!
"Loads of people around the base who could loan their shoulders to cry on if you need it," Tenryū then noted as she gave her host a knowing look. "Don't bottle it all back, Ryū-chan. You're going to hurt yourself if you do that."
Hearing that made Ryūnosuke smirk. "Moroboshi doesn't bottle it back, does he?"
"Oh, no. Ataru's got a pretty ugly way of letting it out." Here, Tenryū smirked. "He's got SIX Abyssal princesses and a whole shit-tonne of cruisers and destroyers to his credit. Most of that was when he was in the Med with Roberta Ansaldo."
That made the other woman gape. "How the fuck could he do that? I know him havin' Negako-san in his head imprinted all her knowledge and skills in his body, but fuck...!" She shook her head. "SIX princesses?!"
"Something about Morningstar Plain you haven't been told about."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"He turns into that guyver-thing, right?"
Tenryū's head snapped over. "How the HELL did you know about THAT?!" she hissed.
A shudder rushed through Ryūnosuke's body as she tried not to look nauseous. "I was getting my stuff moved in. Chiyo-san was helping out since she just got off duty helping teach the little ones in class. After that, she invited me into her room to get something to drink before I went to open up Hamachaya for the night shift. I saw this model on her nightstand. Looked like Moroboshi, but half his body was gone. Kinda like a Terminator with half his organic shell ripped away..."
"The Cyborg," the light cruiser explained. "Damn it, Chiyo...!"
"Hey, don't razz her!" the tomboy snapped. "She didn't say anything about it, but it was pretty easy for me to guess. Moroboshi took out that one princess up by Alaska when he and Negako-san went up to meet Yoiko-san. So..."
"You can't tell anyone living back in Tomobiki, Ryū-chan," Tenryū warned, which made her host gape in confusion at her. "It'll be okay for Rumiko-chan and Chigaiko-chan to find out about that part of Ataru, but not anyone who has any links to that rich fool Mendō or anyone else. People outside that town don't trust any of them because of how much they loved to fawn over that Oni bitch." As her host scowled, the light cruiser sighed. "Redet found out about Ataru's bond to the Master of Entropy. That's the Avalonians' god of death; it's in his image that the Cyborg's modelled after. That's what ultimately scared her off the planet and sent her back to Uru. Knowing how quick people are in blaming the poor guy for shit that happens there, do you want people to start thinking he willingly made his bond with the Master just to scare Redet off? Especially after what happened last night?" As Ryūnosuke blanched on being reminded of that attack on Lum's Stormtroopers that also made her an orphan, the cruiser shook her head as she finished her ramune, then tossed the bottle right into the recycling bin nearby. "He's kinda okay when he turns into that thing, but don't push it, okay?" she advised as she gave her host a knowing look while she pulled out another bottle of ramune from her track pants pocket, then opened it with her thumb.
"I ain't fuckin' suicidal, man!" Ryūnosuke said with a barking laugh before she sipped her tea. "Damn! FIVE of those princesses when he was shacked up with Roberta-san?! What the hell was he doing when he was in Italy anyway?!"
"Being a normal teenage boy that didn't have to put up to verbally abusive mothers, pushy would-be wives, so-called friends that would stab him in the back if they thought it would give them a chance with said would-be wife, a rich fool and his family of loons who had more money than brains, two greedy spiritual clerics who NEVER were of any help to him, not to mention being in a town full of yōkai and other such things that just loved to heap bad luck all over him just to get their own jollies." Here, Tenryū snorted as she crossed her arms, leaning on the table. "He kinda got straightened around after Negako got out of his head by that Dragonspeaker girl and her friends on Okusei. After he helped free the Avalonians, he pretty much got turned off from skirt-chasing pretty girls. Just seeing all that misery really hit the guy hard. Once he got to Taranto, he just spent a month unwinding and doing nothing, experiencing what it was like to live something of a 'normal' life. When that princess who took over the Straits of Messina decided to be a bitch and tried to hit Taranto, he went 'Borg on her and tore her apart. Ended up saving Roberta-san and her sister Irene-san; she's Imperio. It's on YouTube if you know where to look."
"Never saw something like that."
Tenryū hummed as she considered that. "No doubt because of whoever was fuckin' editing news to make sure people in Tomobiki never found out about the outside world. Especially when you're dealing with fuckin' temporal paradoxes."
That made Ryūnosuke moan. "Right. Forgot about all that! Shit, it's no wonder that Moroboshi turned out to be the cold bastard he was to some people after we got back from Uru! He had a whole fuckin' YEAR to put Lum behind him!"
Both girls then laughed as they considered that, then they relaxed and enjoyed their drinks. "Yeah, he did kinda care for her," Tenryū noted. "She's got her good points. She's a clasic military brat who got told by her 'superiors' not to say shit to people like you, much less her 'hubby'..." She shook her head. "Well, she found out the hard way that keeping secrets like the Niphentaxians was the wrong thing to do in the end. Without real, true trust, any sort of marriage would fall apart in the end."
"Yeah..."
A knock echoed at the door, making both women turn as a smiling heavy cruiser peeked inside. "Late night party?" the fourth of the Takao-class heavy cruisers wondered with an amused smile and a twinkle in her crimson-brown eyes.
Tenryū moaned. "Damn it, Chiyo...!"
"What?!" Chōkai demanded.
"The Cyborg?!"
The raven-haired cruiser blinked before she sighed. Like the first of her class of light cruisers, the fourth of her class of heavy cruisers was in normal civilian clothes, not the sleeveless vest-like blouse and white skirt she used as her duty uniform at sea. "Well, it's best that Ryū-chan and her friends learn it right away, Tamiyo," the flagship of the Eighth Fleet admitted as she came into the room and sat beside the table opposite her host, then she nodded thanks as Ryūnosuke made her some tea. "Who knows if some idiot Abyssal might come charging into Sasebo and Ataru-kun needs that ability to save lives. It'll go viral, that's for certain! People in that town of useless fools will be definitely seeing it this time!" She winked at Ryūnosuke.
"You WANT them to see it?!" the tomboy asked.
"Hai, I do. A lot of us do," Chōkai said with a nod.
"Chiyo...!" Tenryū hissed.
"Think about it, Tamiyo," the heavy cruiser warned. "Even now, after losing some of their nominal social leaders thanks to the Iranians, there are too many in Tomobiki who want things to get back to what they see as 'normal'. Especially now that the Schwarze Mädchen have sealed the restaurants from Sakurambō and her uncle? Far too many people in that town — especially someone with as much power and influence as Mendō Shūtarō — see what's happening there as an assault at what they've seen as 'right' and 'proper'. The instant the images of the Cyborg killing the Messina Princess when he saved Roberta-san and Irene-san are seen by someone in that town, it'll be another riot." Here, the cruiser known to close friends as Hōjō Chiyo then scowled. "And another terrorist attack," she hissed out. "How many more will be slaughtered THIS time, I wonder."
That made Ryūnosuke blanch. "Shit..."
"What's going on in Sasebo?" Tenryū asked. "Did Kuniko send you something?"
Chōkai nodded. Seeing that, Ryūnosuke smirked. Like all other cruisers, Tenryū was always tied into a worldwide gossip network that relayed choice bits of information at speeds faster than normal intelligence support staff could match. "Saotome Genma tried to break into the base to kidnap Kanami-san." As the light cruiser gasped and the tomboy gaped, the heavy cruiser shook her head. "Kanami-san killed him with a Lawgiver shot to the liver. Level Sixteen."
"What's a Lawgiver?" Ryūnosuke asked.
"Particle-photon pistol built by the Noukiites' primary allies on Zephyrus," Tenryū explained as she shook her head. "It's like the same-named weapon in the British Judge Dredd comics. Computer controls to determine what type of shot you want to make, five hundred-round magazine, in-flight controls to shoot around corners, plus DNA targeting scan." She shook her head. "After she finally moved here to Yokosuka to be with Taeko once Negako helped her become an Avalonian, Kanami sneaked into Nerima and used that thing's computer to get scans on the idiots she had to deal with after she got separated from her 'brother'. All it needed was someone to NOT listen to the warnings and she got to use it to erase one of the monsters that treated her like total shit. Did Nahoko get all the security recordings for her next podcast, Chiyo? Knowing Kuniko..."
"She has it," Chōkai affirmed. "Podcast goes out at nine tomorrow morning."
Ryūnosuke moaned, "Oh, man...!"
Yokosuka Naval District Headquarters, that moment...
"You mean that novel is REAL, Mister President?!"
Gotō Kiichi was gaping in shock at the very honoured guest now seated before his desk. "Indeed it was, Admiral," Abraham Lincoln stated before nodding thanks as a wide-eyed Niiyodo handed him a cup of apricot tea. "The 'no-maj' edition edits out the involvement of the Department of Magic in helping put down Adam Sewell and his rebels to the Colligatio Nosferatu. The magical edition that young Commander Yamamoto's adopted son could find in the Hogwarts library has the whole story."
Awed gasps escaped the crowd of shipgirls that had instantly followed the nigh-immortal sixteenth president of the Union to this meeting with their own fleet commander. "That should make some interesting reading," Nagato mused as she crossed her arms, reminding herself to contact her son about this so he could get Hermione Granger to check the school library out. "So what does bring you here, sir? Much that we're honoured to have you here, if you're the 'Rail-Splitter' that terrorized all the vampires in North America during this 'score and four' period after the Civil War, what does that mean? Sunnydale and all other known or suspected Hellmouth locations are all quite quiet. The Slayers are keeping strong vigil over those places. Anything happens, Buffy-san will contact all fleet commanders immediately to put out the warning alert."
"Which is a good thing, Commander," Lincoln stated before sipping his tea. "Much that I don't wish to sound alarmist, but I was asked by Jed to look in on this situation before Commander Swanson and her group were called back to duty at the Recruit Training Command four years ago. The ebony meson stench I picked up when I helped destroy the Roads Princess two years ago was quite apparent." As jaws dropped on hearing that it was this deadly vampire hunter who had destroyed the Abyssal leader who wanted to keep the American shipgirl forces bottled up in Norfolk, the former frontier lawyer sighed. "It wasn't anything that my own 'patron', so to speak, caused directly. However, from what I've seen after I fought these poor creatures several times, this whole damned war may be just a byproduct of all the metahuman battles that rocked the planet during the last world war." As people gaped at him, Lincoln shook his head. "Don't be shocked at that revelation, my friends. You know how good mesonium is when it comes to masking the true nature of one's very being from outside probing."
Grim nods echoed around the room. "The mesonium that rendered you practically immortal and tipped you over the edge before the Score and Four got started in earnest came from the Undying Lord himself," Jun'yō mused as she sipped her sake, keeping herself under control as best as she could. Seeing how much the second of the Hiyō-class liners-turned-aircraft carriers was holding back from getting herself totally sloshed, the other shipgirls were tense. This was serious. "That's a source that's over twenty-five millennia old if all the stories of that man are real. Save for whatever deposits were dropped on Canada because of the Power Jewel, you would be able to see what was going on a lot better than most people."
"You're saying that all the battles between the Übermenschen, the War Hawks, the Liberty Legion, the Black Dragon Society, the Soldiers of Freedom and all the other groups that were fighting their own war while normal people and magicals were fighting their wars somehow caused the Abyssals to be born, Sensei?!" Akashi asked after she exchanged a shocked look with Vestal; both repair ships had been leading the allied navies' research into Abyssal origins.
"It was part of the cause, Commander Miyazato. Mesonium has been a part of the whole biosphere of our beautiful planet since the day three billion years ago that the Seekers phased out of this existence and left the Power Jewels behind, to say anything of their forge that later became the planet Yiziba," Lincoln explained. "Because Dean's Jewel is the so-called 'Keystone' Power Jewel, it acted like a lodestone, pulling larger fragments of mesonium from different locations to eventually crash-land on Earth over the billions of years that followed that event. Including the meteor that gave Josef his power and immortality." As people nodded, the former president sighed. "I know it's quite acceptable these days to seek out one single source point to act as the focus of blame for all the common woes that haunt humanity, but it's not that simple, my friends."
Hearing that, Gotō nodded. "Many of us in the Admiralty Council have long come to think something similar, sir," he noted. "Given the existence of neutral if not friendly Abyssals such as Commander Yamamoto's daughter and her friends..."
Running footsteps made people spin around just as the door flew open, revealing a wide-eyed Kirishima. "Teitoku! Wanko-san is here! She just teleported in with Revina-san and her squadron! She just found out what happened to Hoppō-chan...!"
More footsteps made all the shipgirls tense as Lincoln leapt to his feet.
What happened next even left all the shipgirls totally breathless.
"Are you wishing to start a battle, young lady?"
A wide-eyed and quite still installation princess from Down Under was now staring at a glistening woodsman's axe blade, the mixture of silver and ruby mesonium powered by a being who was well into his second century of existence and had been granted his quasi-immortality by someone over a HUNDRED-AND-TWENTY times that age making her already pale skin turn as white as a sheet as she realized how close to being decapitated she now was. As the shipgirls and others gaped at this — the Rail-Splitter had moved at a speed probably only the Flash could comprehend — Wanko's primary escort instantly made rapid warding motions with her hands to wave off the fury of this deadly hunter of dark creatures. Gazing into the hazel eyes of the frontier lawyer-turned-vampire hunter who was now in the middle of this room, the woman who once tried to rule the section of the Timor Sea known to the locals as Beagle Gulf took a breath. "To encounter the famous Rail-Splitter...!" Wanko then said as she waved Revina down. "I have no need for battle, Mister President. What I want and deserve is...!"
"No, Rail-Splitter! Don't hurt Hoppō's big sister!"
Heads snapped over...
...then Wanko cried out in relief as she pulled clear from Lincoln's axe to kneel before the wide-eyed child-shaped princess born from the spirits of Unalaska who had become the first true window to the world of the Abyssals when she had been rescued from death by Enterprise and Yamato. "Hoppō!" the taller and older-looking woman said as she gave the younger princess a close look. "I felt your pain earlier! Who attacked you?! Was it some fool magical?! Who was it?!"
Hoppō smiled as she playfully patted the older-looking Abyssal's cheek. "No, it wasn't some stupid sparkle who tried to take Big Brother away from Hoppō, Big Sister!" She then sighed. "The mean kids are here now."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
Wanko winced as Revina began to look around, the fright on the carrier's face at being told THEY were close by quite apparent. "From Ganges Island, you mean?" she wondered. "So they came here after that idiot tried to starve them out...!"
"What idiot are you talking about?" Enterprise asked, crossing her arms.
"The Volcano Islands Princess," Wanko explained. "She came into existence close to the Sulphur Islands decades ago, powered by the residual magic of that school that was on the southern island." As people nodded, Wanko boosted Hoppō into her arms, then moved to sit on a couch while Revina assumed a protective position behind the woman who had effectively brought her into being. "She found the residual magic of Mahōtokoro quite intoxicating even if that school had been closed down for decades. She soon discovered the existence of the experimental lab on Ganges and sent forces to investigate. Of course, once those children fought her off, she took it as a personal affront, then laid siege."
"Is she still trying to find those children, Wanko-san?" Nagato asked.
"No doubt, she'll be interested in finding out where they are, Nagato," the installation princess stated as she gave the battleship who had adopted Hoppō a warning look. "She wasn't in on the attack that hurt my sister before Enterprise and Yamato got there, but she doesn't particularly care for 'weaklings'. She would not have cared for Hoppō 'fraternizing with the enemy' as she did. She's almost as vicious as that cannibal oni who took over the Bonin Islands near here."
People sneered on hearing about that one Abyssal leader, who had become quite notorious for eating the flesh of slain humans after she had effectively blocked off Tōkyō Bay from seaborne access eight years ago. "Well, caring for one's kin is certainly an acceptable reason for storming the ramparts like you did, young lady," Lincoln then said with a touch of joviality in his voice as he stowed his axe, then moved to take his seat while the others in the room relaxed. "Though I do hope you did speak to Captain Patey about this before you came storming up here. Much that our friends in Canberra appreciate your moving to keep the peace around Australia, especially from those lunatics dominating the Indian Ocean, she is charged by a very powerful entity to help protect that land, much as her sister is charged to protect her namesake country as well."
Wanko chuckled. "I wish not to anger either the Rainbow Serpent OR the Earth Mother in that regard, Mister President. Be assured, Australia and Aotearoa are both aware that I'm here now. They also understand my reasons for coming."
People blinked. "Australia?! Wait a sec'! She was summoned like the rest of them were to Crib Point!" Iowa protested.
"You speak of the cruiser, Iowa. I speak of the fast battleship."
Kongō blinked. "The battlecruiser from the Great War?"
"The same, Kongō. You know her sister as New Zealand; she is called 'Aotearoa' these days. Even if the sparkles of the Land of Sahul and the Land of Tasmantis were quite late in comparison to the sparkles of the Land of the Tear of the Stars, they were willing to construct — or rather, REBUILD — monster slayers to keep their own sailors safe from the Hungry Ones...!"
"Ah!" Revina wailed as Hoppō fearfully hissed out. "Don't speak of them, Boss!"
People stared wide-eyed at the fretting Abyssals. "Man! This gets freakier by the fucking minute," New Jersey protested...
The main repair bay, that moment...
"She's TOTALLY cleansed?!"
A teary-eyed Mutsuki could only gape in both shock and hope as she looked up to the converted cargo ship that served as the repair auxiliary for the Canadian Pacific Fleet. "Hai, Mutsuko, your sister is totally cleansed of what the Abyssals did to her off Wake Island," Cape Breton stated as she winked playfully at the first of her class of destroyers, giving her a reassuring look. "You actually almost succeeded when you people went to Ironbottom Sound to clear out that infestation there. You just didn't realize she had a lot of ebony mesonium in her body that kept her soul locked with our enemies, forcing her to rejoin their ranks when Fujiko here confronted her other-self." The middle aged-looking former cargo ship with the short-cropped black-tinged silver hair and the sea blue eyes then gazed upon Fubuki, who blushed at that attention. "Not only that, once your people cleared out of there, both Australia and Sundown went in there and depth-charged the whole of Ironbottom Sound with Mark XLVI mesonium warheads to fully cleanse it and allow new life to return to that area, as agreed to between the Earth Mother, the Rainbow Serpent and the Lord of the Deep. Hopefully soon, refugees now in Brisbane will be able to go home."
The shipgirls there all blinked. "Figures that YOU would know the truth of the Ryūseizen. Darlene-sensei's home port is just up the coast from Discovery," Zuikaku said as she crossed her arms. "What's this about Heather-san?"
"I'm not talking about the cruiser who was second of that name, Suzue-san," Cape Breton stated as her eyes twinkled. "I'm talking about the FIRST of the name that served in Her Majesty's Navy of the Commonwealth. After she was 'scuttled' in 1924 to appease the idiots who couldn't see that the Commonwealth was as much an independent nation as the Dominion, she was reborn as a fast battleship on the same scale as Darlene and her sister. With some help from our friends at Gravé and Whidbey." As the Japanese shipgirls took that in, the repair auxiliary known to friends as Elena Clarke gazed down on the peacefully sleeping Kisaragi, who was now in a special diagnostic bed created by Yūbari. "She wasn't as active as our girls were during Big Mistake Number Two, but Australia was busy during the time you were all in the Solomons blocking off the Americans' advances. Not to mention Aotearoa." As the girls perked, Cape Breton winked again. "New Zealand."
"What did we do wrong?"
That was a fretful-looking Kaga. "You did nothing wrong, Kei-san," the Canadian repair auxiliary stated as she gazed upon the converted battleship. "When I heard that Kyōko came back, I went up to Whidbey and begged Darlene and her friends to get down there to make sure she stayed back with you people. She didn't have your level of strength to fight off the enemy's influence on your soul, so she needed help." A sigh escaped her. "Sadly, the admiral in charge of CANBATRON ONE at the time wasn't as sympathetic to the issue as Admiral Thompkins would have been." Her eyes lowered in sympathy. "Then again, he lost his children to the Abyssals. All were 'W' Division Forcemen." As the other shipgirls winced, Cape Breton shook her head. "I wonder why he didn't take his life to turn Darlene and the others into kanmusu. Ah, well, he's retired and put out to pasture. General Raeburn made it clear that she won't tolerate interference in CANSOFCOM operations."
"Even from your Wizengamot, Elena-san?" Yūbari wondered.
The repair ship from Vancouver chuckled. "Our magicals may be a lot more sensible than most 'sparkles' are, Yūka-san, but they have their own political issues as well. Even if they're trained to understand that 'muggles' are just as good as normals when it comes to many things, they like the Statute's protections as much as anyone from Europe, America or elsewhere. Some aren't as scared as some of our southern neighbours are as witness what's happened to Sarah-san, but there is fear."
"There will be hope, too."
Eyes locked on Kaga. "What do you mean, Kei?" Zuikaku asked.
"HOW many sailors in both world wars have the Ryūseizen all saved, Suzue-san?"
Nods all around...
...then people perked as a surprised cough escaped the sleeping purple-haired destroyer on the diagnostic bed. "Kyōko!" Mutsuki gasped as she moved past Cape Breton to cup her sister's cheeks with both hands. "Wake up, Kyōko...!"
A pair of deep purple-brown eyes fluttered. "Who...is...Kyōko...?"
Everyone perked before Mutsuki flustered in embarrassment. It had been Kisaragi's sinking during the Wake Island operation that prompted the Letter and the creation of human names for the kanmusu. "It's me, Kisaragi-chan!" she hissed out as the other destroyer's eyes began to focus. "Mutsuki! You've back at the Naval District! You came back home! You're home...!"
Her voice dissolved into a series of wailing coughs and moans of thanks as she nearly swamped the now understandably-confused Kisaragi with a hug. While other destroyers all turned away to hide their own sympathetic tears, Cape Breton sighed before she perked, her ears perking as the faint buzzing noise of a very traditional musical instrument that was common across the world but had found particularly good use among the indigenous people of the smallest of the world's continents...
"Wa ashhadu 'an lā 'ilāha 'illā llāh muḥammadun rasūlu llāh...!"
A croaked gasp escaped Kisaragi on hearing that voice repeat the sacred words of the ash-Shahādah which had been whispered by a scowling olive-skinned destroyer in Bedouin-like robes, then welding a beautiful scimitar that burned with the Atom of True Life the then-Abyssal warrior confronted in the Arabian Sea several weeks before...just before said sword was plunged into the human heart of the second of the Mutsuki-class destroyers by the thirteenth of the Battle-class destroyers, shattering the dark bonds of the Abyss on her soul and brutally cleansing such a horrid stain from her very being. As she looked around in fear — as if she was expecting Ārtemis to charge out from the fog and permanently kill her this time — a tired voice echoed from the shadows nearby, "That ought to do it. Poor little sheila was being bombarded by all the memories of what she was made to do by those bottom-sucking bitzers." Footsteps then made everyone look over. "G'day, mates."
People turned to all gape in awe on seeing the second of the Indefatigable-class battlecruisers from the Great War now standing there, her arms crossed and an amused smile on her face. To the surprise of many who had visited the Commonwealth over the last half-decade, the woman known to close friends as Gayle Patey seemed to be a young, female version of a certain crocodile hunter who appeared in a series of movies decades before, complete with a crocodile-skin leather vest, a necklace of crocodile teeth around her neck and a black felt hat also decorated with teeth from that particular species of reptile. She did wear the standard sleeveless diver's skinsuit that was common fashion among the shipgirls of the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand navies; befitting her later career as a ship rebuilt to hunt sea monsters, Australia's suit was the dark gunmetal grey that Sundown, Lady Jane and Chennalton wore. Her pendant 09 was in white on the upper hips; like other capital ships, there was no flag superior letter before the numbers. Her vest had the rank insignia of a captain in the Royal Australian Navy on shoulder straps, with her heraldic crest on her hat above her forehead. She had the lean and weathered look of a shipgirl who had spent many years as a ship, with nicely-cropped grey-tinged blonde hair and dark brown eyes similar to the sandy plains of the Outback that filled most of her namesake country's physical landmass.
"You...!"
Heads then snapped over. "Yayoi-san...?!" Cape Breton began.
A wailing scream escaped Mutsuki's and Kisaragi's sister Yayoi as she raced over at flank to nearly knock the just-arrived battlecruiser off her feet with a hug that could shatter a boulder. While other destroyers exchanged knowing looks as the cyan-haired third of the Mutsuki-class screamed a torrent of thanks to the shipgirl who symbolized the crew that rescued hers after she had been sunk off Normanby Island near New Guinea in the autumn of 1942, Kisaragi blinked before she stared at her older sister. "Mutsuki-chan...who is she?" she asked in a voice that cracked with considerable disuse over the months.
Mutsuki smirked. "One of the Ryūseizen, Kyōko!"
A confused blink answered her. "'Kyōko'?"
"That is a bit of a story, Kisaragi-san," Kaga warned as others smiled...
Hogwarts, that moment (local time: Three hours after lunch)...
"Ah! It's good to be back..."
"What happened, Albus?"
Hearing that question from his deputy, Albus Dumbledore looked over before he smiled while Fawkes flamed himself out of the main reception hall. "Quite a few interesting things, Minerva," the headmaster stated as he waved Minerva McGonagall with him up the stairs into the administrative tower. "It seems that President Bartlet decided some years ago that he wanted special help he could implicitly trust to give him a decent analysis of the Abyssal situation without the Magical Congress trying to haze the intelligence he required to keep people safe." He gave her a knowing look as they walked up the stairs. "You had an encounter with that man after you took my place as transfiguration professor during a Hogsmeade weekend, I believe."
That made the native of Caithness gape in shock before her eyes went wide. "President Lincoln?!" she gasped with a touch of giddiness in her voice as she recalled watching the famous Rail-Splitter in action dealing with a daywalker vampire who had tried to turn several of her first generation of students during a spring weekend in nearby Hogsmeade. "President Bartlet was able to persuade him to help out?! I thought he only concerned himself with daywalker vampires!"
"The President told me the Colligatio Nosferatu is staying out of this situation altogether, Minerva," Dumbledore stated as he made a gesture with his hand to allow the gargoyle guarding his office to step aside so he could get inside. "No doubt, I'm sure Mister Sturges persuaded Mister Plantagenet of the wisdom of not trying to force issues with the Abyssals making such a mess of things worldwide. The president also told me that both the Powers that Be and the Old Ones are also remaining neutral in all this." As he sensed McGonagall shudder on hearing of those ancient demons who had once held total sway over Earth many millennia before the Common Era, he closed his eyes as he sensed a familiar presence. "Hello, Vicky."
"Bumblebee," came the voice of the single-armed, one-eyed reborn man-of-war in the formal uniform of a rear admiral from the days she had sailed headlong into the enemy line at Trafalgar, now standing by the window overlooking the Black Lake. "Hello, McGonagall," Victory then greeted as she gave the transfiguration professor a polite nod of her head before she moved to take her seat. "Some interesting things I've heard from various nimmibs who help us keep a watch on your people."
Dumbledore's eyebrow arched as he took his seat, offering his bowl of sherbet lemons for the visiting man-of-war. "What rumours are that?" the headmaster then asked as his deputy took her own seat beside the flagship of the First Sea Lord.
"That certain warriors from your little fight against your old best friend didn't die at the Battle of Nurmengard," the first rate ship-of-the-line known only to her closest friends as Catharine Nelson noted as she gave him a look and an arched eyebrow showing considerable amusement. "Some of them have decided to take some ancestry tests with those fine fellows at Gringotts over in Diagon. Got some very surprising results, especially when it comes to the House of Lords Wizengamot."
The man who was also Chief Wizard of the Wizengamot — in effect, the equivalent of the Lord Speaker in the upper chamber of Parliament — nodded. "Yes, I would suspect Elizabeth would move quickly to secure her people's position in society once she sensed that there were potential seats to claim in the Wizengamot. Given that a lot of her girls from Germany potentially have Hanoverian blood in them, the chances are good they're descent of squibs from various houses here."
"Full quorum," Victory stated as McGonagall's eyes widened in stunned horror. "Colonel Diana von Meißen, Major Linn Heinrich and Sergeants Major Christine Schultz and Suzanne Stuart. Four of your magical earldoms, I believe."
"The Schwarze Mädchen...?!" McGonagall croaked out in horrified disbelief.
"Yes, Minerva," Dumbledore confirmed. "I just had the pleasure of seeing Anna Wittmann in action over in Sasebo an hour ago." He tried not to shake his head on remembering what he had also seen there. "It turns out that Rittmeister von Taserich didn't care to see them killed off during that dratted war. His sympathies to muggleborns is well-known to you, I believe." As McGonagall nodded on recalling all the tales she had read about the Undying Lord and how much he had supported normal-born magicals — much to the unending frustration of purebloods that dominated wizarding Germany and its predecessor states over the centuries — the headmaster sighed. "Given what our Niphentaxian 'friends' had available to them at the time of the war, it was easy for the Rittmeister to obtain replacement bioroid bodies for Elizabeth's whole coven to allow that tre'cha power of theirs to save them when they moved to stop the invasion by the Mage of the Beginning. They were just found in a cave close to Nurmengard Prison a year ago, still in cryogenetic suspension after their souls were transferred over."
Horror crossed the younger professor's face. "Frozen all those years...?!"
"Colonel Gibbon didn't seem to care too much about that."
Both magicals gazed at the shipgirl in their midst. "You've met Jessica, Vicky?" Dumbledore asked as his eyes twinkled with delight on hearing that the younger sister of the Black Maidens' last commander had weathered that experience well.
"Since the Black Maidens are now seen as part of the European Corps' specialized warfare wing under that one Canadian general that was sent over to help, the Fourth Battalion keeps watch over the British Isles as well as the western end of the Continent," the man-of-war stated. "They were there six months ago at Gibraltar when that general went after the Strait Princess and destroyed it." Noting McGonagall's confused look, Victory sighed. "Her name is Jessica Dover, McGonagall."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"The Soul-Eater...!" the deputy headmistress moaned out, remembering all the dark tales that had been spoken of concerning the half-Ukrainian pilot's daughter from Winnipeg who had bonded with a millennia-old, meson-poisoned zhar-ptýtsja thanks to a necklace owned by her mother's family for generations. "Yes, she would find hunting Abyssals quite satisfying, I believe," she then said as she tried not to shiver on imagining what actually happened between the Strait Princess and the Soul-Eater of the Dnipró off Gibraltar. "I wasn't here when Professor Raeburn and her friends were based here helping win that damned war, but I heard all the radio reports of what the War Hawks did when they were helping put a full stop to what was left of the Übermenschen on the Continent. I didn't learn of their work against Master Gellert's people until I actually studied that here."
"General Raeburn was a professor?" Victory asked.
"Yes," Dumbledore affirmed. "Dean was the first special guest lecturer at the Institute of Sorcery and Magic for their Studies of Normal Peoples courses. She started the tradition at that school when it came to getting actual muggles there to teach all the students everything about normal society. She was later replaced by a commander from HMS Invincible who got saved after she was sunk at Jutland thanks to the crew of HMCS Sundown." At Victory's understanding nod — she had heard all the tales of the sea leviathans the Canadian magical battleships had been specifically built to deal with, though she had yet to get the chance to meet any of those battleships — the headmaster took a sherbet lemon and slipped it into his mouth before he gazed at his deputy. "You attended that course when you were at the Institute getting your transfiguration mastery, I believe."
"A summer adult indoctrination, complete with time-turners that allowed me to do a full year's course in a month," McGonagall said. "The man in charge of it at the time was a charming German officer. Don't recall his name. He'd been aboard Bismarck when she was sunk. He was there when Professor Chennalton died after he rescued the gun crew from Argo's aft turret."
"One good thing, I think."
"What's that?" Dumbledore asked Victory.
The man-of-war gave the two magicals a knowing look. "You both realize that statute of yours is pretty much finished, don't you?" she asked, keeping her voice tender as she knew that the whole idea of keeping magicals separated from normals was something that was seen as quite paramount among the former group even if the advances in technology and social thought among the latter group would pretty much prevent any massive outbursts of rhabdophobia anytime in the future.
"I've realized it for years," Dumbledore lamented as McGonagall shook her head. "Especially after the mass attacks began sometime before Negi Springfield made his discovery at Watari-shima. Much that I am quite frightened deep down of what some people's reactions would be once the Queen decides the time has finally come to revoke the Magical Royal Proclamation of 1692, it is coming. Far too many people know the secret now. I'm happy to see that most muggles in Britain and elsewhere are quite accepting of magicals as a whole." His eyes twinkled. "Heather's influence most of all, I would believe." As Victory laughed and McGonagall tittered, he shrugged. "The Queen will decide what is best for us all in the end, Vicky. She has that power over us. I'm grateful that she and her ancestors all the way to King William and Queen Mary understood our fears and did their best to accommodate things even though there have been forces on both sides that have pushed matters..."
"At least the latest sassenach who could have pushed things from our side of the line was dealt with," McGonagall muttered...
...before everyone perked on hearing a shocked chorus of screams and shouts from the direction of the main courtyard. "What the devil is that?!" Victory demanded as they got up and moved to step out of the office to see what was going on.
The three quickly descended to the main reception hall, where a considerable crowd of students and a couple professors now seemed to cower from a smirking blonde woman with blue-green eyes in the modified grey-and-black dress uniform of a German mountain infantry soldier. Seeing one of his prize transfiguration students alive and well even with the much different magical aura marking her as one of that race of biological androids who had been enslaved by the Niphentaxians over the last century and had been liberated nine months ago by Moroboshi Ataru and his sister Moroboshi Negako, he could only nod at this gift of the Fates. Of course, given her position as head of the Fourth Battalion of the Schwarze Mädchen, the native of Knottingley in West Yorkshire hadn't come alone; two of her company commanders came with her, including the only part-Chinese member of the group, Major Jade Xìyù Speer of Mannheim in Baden-Württemberg. "Jessica!" Dumbledore called.
Everyone gazed hopefully as the man who had bested these women's old leader in battle at the Gates of Nurmengard came over to them, accompanied by his deputy and the most well-known and most respected of Britain's shipgirl corps. They then staggered on seeing the aged headmaster come over to accept Jessica Gibbon's warm embrace. "Hey, Professor!" the Yorkshire native called out as many people gaped in shock on seeing such behaviour. "I told you we couldn't die!"
"There's the Gryffindor I remember!" he said before accepting the embrace of Major Cara Walthari of Mariano Comense in northern Lombardy close to the border with Switzerland. "How are you, Cara?! Oh! I see you got the Pope's present!"
"Not to mention the one from Presidente Roosevelt, Professore Dumbledore!" the brown-haired Italian beauty with the dark brown eyes said, a blush crossing her cheeks as she waved to two of her considerable number of ribbons over her pocket. One of which was a gold-trimmed red ribbon and the one beside it being a white-trimmed crimson ribbon. "I only did what was right and proper when it came to those treasures I helped Professore Jones get out of Monte Casino!"
"His Holiness and His Excellency had different opinions, Cara! As did Indiana himself!" Dumbledore declared with a twinkle in his eyes and a jovial voice before he turned and bowed his head politely to Jade, who returned that greeting with her own bowed head and clicking her heels together as she braced herself to attention. "Mistress Jade, it is a delight to see that you also survived as well. I'm sure your former employers in Gringotts are also quite overjoyed at what happened."
"You are too kind, Freiherr Dumbledore," the classically Oriental beauty with the Western blue eyes said as she clasped her hands behind her back, a knowing smile crossing her face. As Jessica and Cara exchanged a knowing look, the daughter of a German advisor to the then just-created Republic of China added, "Indeed, Großmeister des Goldes Ragnok was quite surprised when I visited the branch at Diagon to get a blood test done. It produced a surprising result."
"What surprising result, Major?" McGonagall asked.
Jessica smiled. "I present to you the new Burggräfin von Mull," she said before her cheeks reddened as she realized that she was in the United Kingdom and not Germany. "Sorry! I mean the Viscountess of Mull."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"You're related to the McKinnons?!"
That was a white-faced McGonagall. As students nearby gasped before they started to hiss and whisper to each other — given that all magical members of the Most Noble House of McKinnon of Mull had been killed for their harsh opposition to Voldemort, the chances of someone actually claiming that seat was far to the left of "nil" — the commander of the Fourth Battalion's company of magical pioneers and engineers shrugged. "It shocked me as well, Frau Professor," she said as people like Draco Malfoy and his friends exchanged stunned looks while they considered how their parents would react to having someone like Jade Speer take up that seat in the Wizengamot. "As far as I knew, Papa's family were all Badener!"
"Well, at least something of that family survived," Neville Longbottom noted.
Jessica looked over before her eyes narrowed. "You're Augusta Wilde's and Sneugle Longbottom's grandson, right?" she asked as she approached the scion of the Longbottoms of Holdenhurst, which made him tense as his more-than-understandable fear of confronting one of the infamous Schwarze Mädchen who had terrorized all of Europe during Grindelwald's War made him want to flee from the scene as quick as he could move...before Harry Potter's and Hermione Granger's hands landed on his shoulder to help steady their friend. Seeing that, the commander of the Fourth Battalion nodded in approval.
"Er...ah, y-yes, Mistress Jessica..." Neville sputtered.
Noting that, Jessica smiled. "How'd you like a present?"
That made him blink. "A present?"
His grandmother's old classmate turned away, emitting a shrill whistle with her fingers. That heralded a chill as ghostly vapours rose up from the floor, making many students tense as they recalled what had happened not two days before when their most famous schoolmate learned the truth of what had befallen his godfather. A shroud-like dome of energy then formed close to Jessica's feet, which then melted to reveal a still woman on a stretcher. «As you requested, Lady Jessica,» a ghostly voice declared as Neville's eyes locked on who was there before his jaw dropped in shock on recognizing who this was. «She will never harm neither you nor your family again, Young Lord Neville. Punishment has been delivered.»
Dumbledore gaped. "Bellatrix Lestrange...?!"
As cries of shock and hissed comments escaped the others in the room, Jessica gave the headmaster a wry smirk. "You might as well call her 'Bellatrix Black' now, Professor. Or would that be 'Dowager Bellatrix Lestrange'? I never understood how that worked!" Shrugging as Dumbledore shook his head in amusement at that show of distraction — even if she was quite the competent magical warrior, Jessica Gibbon was also a non-repentant boy-chaser even for a Depression-era woman — she then gazed on the dozing woman by her feet. "She survived with her magic intact even when her Dark Mark was mulched when Negako-sensei got rid of that idiot Riddle. Her husband and brother-in-law didn't. Since she's partially responsible for putting Neville's parents in the healer's cockpit ten years ago which forced Gussie to raise him where that idiot Algeron could get his hands on the poor lad all the time, he deserves to have a say as to what happens to her now, doesn't he?"
Neville gaped, then he gazed on the woman he had been raised to hate above all others. Seeing how peaceful yet nearly lifeless she looked, he then blinked before gazing at Hermione. "You read the Laws of Gonebren, didn't you?"
"I did," the dentist's daughter declared, which made people look at her.
"What did you learn, Miss Granger?" Severus Snape asked.
Hermione took a deep breath. "If someone is placed in gaol at Her Majesty's Prison Gonebren, the Hollows have sole discretion in determining their fate unless the Queen grants Her Mercy to the prisoner. Given what just happened to a lot of Voldemort's people..." — she ignored the automatic flinches and wary looks from many of the people around her on saying that man's battle-name — "...if Dowager Lady Lestrange is alive and with her magic intact and was allowed to be released from gaol, she is seen as having answered for her crimes. As to how that could have happened, Professor, I can't say. From what I've read, she was one of the most passionate supporters of Voldemort's cause." Again, she ignored all the flinches and jerks from people around her, which earned them curious looks from Jessica and Cara while Jade's eyes narrowed in confusion.
Dumbledore noted those reactions from the three visiting witches. "Tom Riddle's battle-name was placed under a Taboo by one of his supporters who infiltrated the Ministry of Magic, ladies," he explained, which made Jessica and her subordinates nod in understanding. "Doing such ultimately allowed his fighters to quickly focus on those who didn't 'respect' him so they could be killed off. People call him 'You Know Who' and other such terms even to this day because of that."
"We heard that he cursed one of the classes that forced you to get a new defence teacher every year for the past couple of decades, Freiherr," Jade added. "If you want, I can look at the classroom to see if this ranzigblut schweinehunde left some sort of 'parting present' to hurt future students. People need to know how to defend themselves, especially these days."
"Good point," Jessica noted.
"That would be appreciated, Jade," Dumbledore mused...
Yokosuka, the carrier dorms, Wednesday 24 May, after dawn (Scotland time: Tuesday 23 May, an hour before midnight)...
"Osu, Kanako-nē..."
"Ohayō, Suzue. Yoiko-san, are you awake...?"
A grunt escaped the seventh carrier of Operation Z as she slowly picked herself off the futon that had been spread between the two Shōkaku-class armoured carriers' beds. "Very much so, Kanako-san," Yonaga stated as she felt her internal radar click on and scan over the area. "My thanks for allowing me to stay here last night. I was in no mood to travel back by train to Sasebo and I didn't wish to bother Jane-san or any of her friends for a portkey to get me there."
Both smaller carriers chuckled. "Well, at least you benefited a lot from working with those girls, Yoiko," Zuikaku stated as she gazed upon the stylish grey sports bra and dark panties covering the larger carrier's quite-muscled body. "It's not Victoria's Secret, but you're a hell of a lot better dressed under your clothes than any of us based here, even the Americans."
"Actually, these sets were from that particular shop, Suzue-san," Yonaga reported, which made the other carriers gape at her. "The location at the Eaton Centre in Toronto have nimmibs on their staff. When Erin-san brought me there to get rid of the sarashi and the fundoshi, they contacted a clothier in the magical quarter of Québec City to make special orders, not just for myself but for my sisters. I'll give them their sets as soon as I can get them from my kit back in Sasebo."
Zuikaku mock-wailed. "Ah! Why'd you forget us?!"
"Suzue!" Shōkaku moaned.
"I didn't forget you," Yonaga stated as she secured her kimono before slipping on her hakama. "Family comes first, though."
"True..." A knock echoed from the door. "Enter!" Zuikaku called out.
The door slid open to reveal the second of the Pennsylvania-class battleships. "Good morning, ladies," Arizona called out as she tried not to stretch herself or yawn. She and her sister had stayed with Iowa last night. "Lovely day."
"So says the girl who just got turned into a missile battleship," Zuikaku quipped.
That earned her a chuckle from the copper-haired namesake of the Canyon State. "Oh, it's not fun and games, Commander. My whole crew has to leap forward several generations of technical knowledge to properly work in my new equipment and use it wisely. It's a miracle in and of itself that I can still basically function. With the chief's return last night, at least my engineers are starting to understand things about diesels and gas turbines. But as to the weapons, sensors and aircraft..."
"It comes with time and a lot of practice, Sonia-san," Yonaga advised as she moved to slip on her basic armour plating on her shins and forearms under her clothes. "My crew had quite the learning curve to experience themselves. I didn't get all the modern gear into me until a month after I met Patricia-san near Wrangel Island, when she escorted me to the Nanisivik facility for the upgrades. Fortunately, there were the benefit of time turners to allow the crew to train themselves."
"When they were still human, you mean," Zuikaku noted. "You are pretty lucky, Yoiko."
"I don't revel in such, Suzue-san."
"Wise," Arizona noted...
...then she perked as her new AN/SPS-49A air search radar and AN/SPS-67 surface search radar picked up several carriers heading into Tōkyō Bay proper to launch aircraft and do some scout patrols of the Sagami Sea beyond. As she felt both her faerie crew's awe and trepidation on using such equipment, the second of the Pennsylvania-class ships shook her head. "Some of the girls are out there getting some practice right now, it seems," she noted, making the others perk.
"Hai," Yonaga stated. "Yvonne-san is getting Eleanor-san out there to restore her proper sea legs back. Sei-san and Hiyoko-san are out there as well." She gave the battleship an approving nod. "Not bad for your first try, Sonia-san."
"Well, I was going to get a radar set on my foremast when the supplies came in and I could be fitted out. Sadly, your friends had other ideas about that." As both Shōkaku and Zuikaku winced on hearing that rather straightforward statement, Arizona waved them down. "If last night proved something to me, ladies, it's time to finally let the past go and get on living with this strange type of 'life' we've all been blessed with. I still hurt and I still feel guilt, but with most of my crew in peace..."
"Your karma still needs time to heal, Sonia-san," Yonaga warned as she finished slipping on the sponsons that carried her anti-aircraft missile launchers. "Come, my friend. Do your engineers feel ready for a speed trial?"
Arizona hummed. "I wonder if I'll impress young Sumie."
Both Shōkaku and Zuikaku chuckled on hearing that...
The Mendip Hills of Somerset near Upper Milton, that moment...
"THIS IS TREASON! LET ME GO! ARREST HIM! HE'S GUILTY! LET ME GO...!"
"Oh, do shut up, Barty! Take it like a man!"
Hearing that cackling voice from the dark-haired ghost that was now relaxing in the living room of the hidden magical manor overlooking the town of Wells to the south, the elderly man in the dated tweed suit could only snarl with helplessness as he glared wrathfully at the current lord of the Blacks of Grimmauld...and the gate keeper of the most dreaded piece of magical real estate in the British Isles in the name of the Crown. As the aurors who had come here with Amelia Bones to deal with the elderly Barty Crouch helped restrain the man, the current leader of magical Britain's main law enforcement group gazed over at the shivering, dazed young man seated beside a nearby table, being tended to by a faithful girl house elf named Winky.
"You IDIOT...!" Bones snarled as she glared at the elder Bartholemew Crouch. "What the HELL were you thinking of?! Actually breaking INTO Azkaban to take your son out of there, then keeping him under the IMPERIUS for all these years while your wife rotted in a grave on that blasted rock?! Did you actually think you could get away with it FOREVER?!"
"Of course he could, Amelia," Sirius Black said as he gave the younger Barty Crouch a concerned look before shrugging as he allowed the sword-sized Key of Gonebren to sway to and fro on its pointed blade tip between the palms of his hands. Right now, a baker's dozen worth of Hollows were moving to scour through the Crouch mansion to find where the younger Barty's paternal grandmother Timaea was currently hiding. Thinking of that self-righteous bitch who had been a close friend to his own late mother Walburga, the young lord of the Blacks of Grimmauld could only smirk as he imagined what that selfish, inbred fool's soul-replica in the painting hanging in the foyer at No. 12 Grimmauld Place in London's Islington neighbourhood would think of what was about to happen to her dear friend. "After all, he was the de facto patriarch of the Noble and Ancient House of Crouch of Wells. Aunt Timaea gave him voting proxy in the Wizengamot when she decided to retire from public life, confidant he would do everything possible to keep the family on top as one of the Sacred Twenty-eight..." He sneered out that term, which made the elder Crouch snarl at that show of disrespect to the proper order of things in magical Britain. "Rather a pity Timaea herself is targeted under oath of vengeance curse by the Schwarze Mädchen themselves..."
Here, he paused as his eyes twinkled.
"...who are all quite ALIVE."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"How's that possible?!" Kingsley Shacklebolt demanded as the elder Crouch began to sputter in mortal terror on hearing that the death angels that had been Gellert Grindelwald's shock troops in World War Two had survived the Battle of the Gates. "Professor Dumbledore saw it happen, Sirius! All of them sacrificed themselves to stop the Nerioites from invading Earth!"
«Well, that charming Prussian cavalry captain had something to say about it, young man.»
Hearing that ghostly voice, everyone turned...
...then the elder Crouch screamed out in helpless outrage on seeing his beloved mother now in the metaphysical "grasp" of a half-dozen Hollows, all of whom were dressed in what would have been common folk flashing during the time of the Second World War. One of them was quite a beautiful woman with honey-blonde hair and blue-green eyes, possessing quite the attractive figure for someone half her age. As the moaning Timaea Crouch vainly tried to pull herself clear of the deadly grasp of the transformed spirits who had the power to nullify her magic and make her experience things no Dementor could ever equal, Black shook his head. "You'd be amazed at all the incredible tales you can learn at Gonebren, old Bart!" he then said with a barking laugh. "Including what a certain senior undersecretary who worked under Minister Spencer-Moon decided to do to helpless normal people whose only 'crime' was that they parented children who decided they didn't want to have anything to do with our decrepit and dying society and volunteered to fight for a better one under the only man who seemed to understand their plight." His grey eyes then fixed on the tear-filled eyes of his late mother's friend. "An act that YOU perpetrated at the start, Timaea! Did you really think that with your own distant cousin over in Germany 'dead', you'd get away with it?!"
A helpless whimper escaped the very elderly woman. As Bones and her aurors tried not to do anything to show sympathy for what had just been revealed — with the forced ouster of Cornelius Fudge from the post of Minister for Magic, the high lords of the Wizengamot were now in a big row over who would replace him in the face of an unstoppable muggle encroachment on their society — Black then gazed over at his year-mate and the close friend of his own late brother Regulus. "Hey, Barty! You okay over there?!" he called out as he grasped the Key and reached over to gently squeeze the dazed man's shoulder, earning him a confused look in return. "Just sit back and wait, chum! The healers will be here to look you over very soon, okay...!"
"Wh-what c-cousin...?"
That was the older Crouch. Gazing at the man who had condemned him for life in Azkaban without even giving him the grace of a trial — which was something any heir of the Sacred Twenty-eight Families deserved to get even in the dark times after Voldemort's rebellion — Black smirked. "Well, to borrow the proper title for her in her own language..." he dramatically began before the smile slipped from his face. "Ihr hochgeborene Standartenführerin der Schwarze Mädchen und Oberste der Magische Reichsarmee Livia Frieda Freigräfin von Dietrich zu Schöneberg..." His voice then turned hollow as he added, "...und von Crouch zu Wells." As the older man croaked on hearing that long title — as the now-former head of the Ministry of Magic's working department responsible for international relations, he was fully aware of the old German titles once used by magical lords in that land before that country became a republic in 1918 — Black smiled. "Colonel Livia Dietrich, in other words. The first commander and later deputy commander of the Black Maidens." His eyes then focused on the moaning Timaea. "Who gladly vowed under the Sacred Coven Laws to avenge the deaths of her coven-sisters' relatives here in Britain." That comment earned him a stunned gasp from Bones; as a woman, she understood THOSE ancient magical laws quite well. "Which her own wonderful coven-sister Freiedame Sturmscharführerin der Schwarze Mädchen und Stabswachthexe der Magische Reichsarmee Margareta Trudl von Hecht zu Gardelegen partially did when she murdered that staleblood bastard Benedict Fenwick — your mother's lover, by the way, Barty! — and all those who actually did that horrid deed. Which forced Minister Spencer-Moon to LIE to Prime Minister Churchill when he asked about it after Freiedame Hecht left him a rather damning letter about what happened at No. 10 Downing Street back in 1942." Here, Black shook his head. "Since they're alive, the Schwarze Mädchen have worked with Gringotts to learn their ancestries. Especially those girls with Hanoverian blood in them! Which Livia happens to have, even if her family had lived in Brandenburg for well over a century!"
Bones blinked. "What in Merlin's name does THAT mean, Sirius?!"
Black smirked. "They have a QUORUM in the Wizengamot, Amelia..."
"NO!"
With a surge of frantic strength, the elder Crouch pushed away the aurors holding him down as he moved to lunge at the man who was helping move to not only destroy his own life and the standing of his family, but to also effectively wreck the whole of the Wizengamot, which would gut out the whole Ministry of Magic and leave all of wizarding Britain totally LEADERLESS! As Bones spun with her wand to stun him, a pair of bony fingers snapped, sending a burst of magic to make the older man fly backwards into a nearby wall, denting it hard! "You stays put, former master!" Winky snarled after her target collapsed to the floor, assuming a protective position close to the younger Crouch, which she helped keep alive and healthy for years until the destruction of his Dark Mark thanks to the Earth Angel snapped the Imperius forced on him when he had been rescued from Azkaban nearly a decade ago. Though, thanks to circumstances not understood by either Black or Bones, the younger man had not lost his magic as many peers had days before...even if being freed of his father's control helped him start to recover his sanity. "Mistress wishes you to watches as evil mother is punished for what she dids to Mistress' nice friends!"
As the older Crouch croaked in scalding pain on feeling several broken ribs from that burst of power, Bones paled as she gazed wide-eyed at the younger man who was now the overseer of Her Majesty's Prison Gonebren. "She's here, isn't she...?"
Black smirked. "Livia!" he called out.
The aurors tensed, then they turned as footsteps echoed in the hall nearby...
...before a woman appearing to be in her early twenties stepped into view, dressed in the grey-and-black of German mountain infantry, an impressive spray of medals and military qualifications around her neck and her left breast pocket. "Guten Abend, Freifrau Direktor Bones," Livia Dietrich greeted with a polite nod of her head, her English almost letter-perfect even if the clipped tones of her native Brandenburg echoed in every sound she made and she was using German honorifics and professional titles. Turning to stare at the moaning Timaea, the raven-haired, dark-eyed native of the Berlin suburb of Schöneberg reached to her belt to draw out an ebony blade similar to the Ehrendolch that was issued to members of the organization that the Schwarze Mädchen had modelled themselves after in their formative years before the Second World War. The other magicals in the room — even Winky — seemed to cringe slightly as they felt the dark aura of power that cloaked that black blade, those on their feet taking an involuntary step back from such a weapon. Once they were at a distance from her that would guarantee she would be able to react quickly if either of them were hidden supporters of the stalebloods in this land, the alumnus of the Greifinswald Academy of Sorcery near Rügen then nodded. "Once I am done gaining my coven-sisters' final vengeance on this leicheblut schweinhündin, I will allow Markgraf Black's friends from Gefängnis Gonebren to take that refuse Frau Winky just dealt with to make him see what his actions have done to far too many, Freifrau Direktor." As the older Crouch moaned while he tried to force the pain away so he could get to his feet and move to save what was left of his family from this monster, she smirked. "You and your friends will be free to return to your duties. I am sure you have much better things to do than dealing with issues raised by fools who have no common sense, especially in this day and age..."
"You...traitor mudblood...backstabbing bitch...you won't...!"
Hearing that from the gasping man, Livia held up her free hand, displaying a glowing ring with the badge of House Crouch!
Seeing that, the older Crouch screamed out, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...!"
"SIE SIND NIE MEHR AUF UNSERES BLUT!"
That outraged scream instantly turned into a shriek of near-mortal agony as the ancient and pooled family magics of the Noble and Ancient House of Crouch — which the elder Barty Crouch had ultimately controlled as de facto patriarch of his clan — was instantly ripped away from the man's body to become a ghostly humanoid shape hovering in the air for a moment before it flowed into Livia's body. Seeing that, the aurors sighed as they lowered their wands while their boss' predecessor collapsed into a boneless heap on the floor. As they all knew, only a magically-recognized head of family could make a declaration like that, especially if she had a properly consecrated Family Ring on her person. "You've already taken your sisters' vengeance on that woman, haven't you, Colonel...?" Here, Bones caught herself before she shook her head. "Excuse me! Lady Dietrich?"
"But of course," Livia said as she sheathed her blade...
...then she perked as footfalls echoed from outside. "Excuse me, Mistress, but Mistress Linn is here for her prisoner," Winky announced with a proper courtesy, which made Bones gape before the front door opened, allowing a gangling taller woman with major's rank on her shoulder straps to come in, an amused look on her face. "Shall I make some tea for Mistress Linn?"
"That is more than appreciated, Frau Winky, but I have already had something to eat," Major Linn Heinrich, the commander of the Black Maidens Brigade's headquarters intelligence company, said with a polite smile and a bow of her head to the now-blushing elf, who was NOT used to being addressed so politely by human masters. "Livia, Rosa and Suzanne will be here to help your young cousin start his road to recovery. I assume, Freifrau Bones, young Herr Crouch there would be seen as exonerated for what he was accused of a decade ago given that he is legally DEAD to the world?" Here, she gave the leader of the DMLE a sympathetic look as her almond-shaped brown eyes twinkled under her specially-modified reading glasses.
Bones shook her head as Shacklebolt tried not to chuckle at the irony of this situation. "After what's happened all over the country in the last few days, I'm really not too sure of the legalities now, Major Heinrich." She then blinked. "Or is it Lady Heinrich now...?" After the native of Northeim in modern Lower Saxony held up her own free hand to show her own Family Ring, Bones moaned out before she fired a grinning Sirius Black an annoyed look. "And you are...?"
"Freigräfin von Swinford," Linn answered.
"Vanessa Zabini's late third husband was Linn's several-times removed second cousin," Black added as his grey eyes twinkled.
"Indeed, I look forward to meeting the young Freiherr Zabini and see to it he is properly taught in magical ways," Linn stated.
"As does Suzanne and Diana," Livia added. "And Christine as well."
Black winked at the leader of the DMLE while he tried not to laugh at the stunned look on the older woman's face. "Colonel von Meißen is seen now as Freigräfin von Droitwitch," he then explained, which made the aurors' eyes go wide. "Chief Mediwitch Stuart is Freigräfin von Clydeford. Sergeant Major Schultz is Freigräfin von Romney."
Bones moaned. That meant that five of the Noble and Ancient Houses of the Wizengamot were now under the control of the Black Maidens. As the leaders of any four of the magical earldoms or magical marquessates could form a voting quorum in the ruling body of wizarding Britain that could enact and repeal laws without interference unless an opposing quorum could be mustered to stop them, who knew what Grindelwald's reborn valkyries could end up doing.
Or had they already started to do that...?
She'd have to get back to the Ministry to do a detailed look of the Law Rolls.
"Oh, Merlin...!"
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
Translation list: Wa ashhadu 'an lā 'ilāha 'illā llāh muḥammadun rasūlu llāh — Literally "I testify that there is no god but Allāh and Muḥammad is the messenger of Allāh", this is the ash-Shahādah ("the testimony") that is the first of the Five Pillars of Islam, the five acts all the Faithful must perform; Zhar-ptýtsja — Literally "ember bird", this is the Slavic version of a phoenix; Sassenach — Literally "Saxon", this is a Scottish insult for people from England; Großmeister des Goldes — Grandmaster of gold; Burggräfin — Literally "countess of the castle", this is the rough German equivalent title for a British viscountess; Badener — Natives of Baden; Ranzigblut schweinehunde — Literally "rancid blood pig-dog"; Hochgeborene — Literally "highborn", this is the German honorific for non-royal nobility; Freigräfin — Literally "free countess", this would be the German equivalent of a British countess; Freiedame — Free lady; Freifrau — Also meaning "free lady", but seen as the equivalent title of a British baroness, thus higher in rank than "Freiedame"; Ehrendolch — Honour blade; Schweinhündin — Female version of "schweinhund"; Markgraf — Literally "count of the march", this is the German equivalent of a British marquess; Gefängnis — Prison; Sie sind nie mehr auf unseres Blut! — You are no longer of my blood!
Wanko and Revina are both characters from Harry Potter and the Shipgirls; they both first appeared in Harry Leferts' snippet #123 at SpaceBattles.
Sahul and Tasmantis are the names of the continental crusts that surround the modern landmass of Australia and New Zealand respectively. During the Ice Age when sea levels were much lower, areas of both Sahul and Tasmantis (also known as Zealandia) close to the modern shorelines would have been above water.
In my eyes, the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy couldn't be passed and enforced without the acceptance and deliberate activation of the underlying magic of countries who wished to have such enacted as could only be commanded by a head-of-state (in that period, a reigning monarch) through some sort of proclamation which would be seen as magically binding on all the monarch's subjects, magical and non-magical alike. The British version of this is the Magical Royal Proclamation of 1692, which was the declaration by King William III and Queen Mary II that allowed the Separation Act, 1692 to be passed by the Council of Wizards and be enforced on all the natives of the land. The removal of such a proclamation can only be done at the command of the Crown through another magical royal proclamation. Such an executive act's equivalent elsewhere would be a Magical Executive Order in the United States or Magical Imperial Rescript in Japan.
As an aside, it is noted in the third WOMBAT examination at JKR's official website that Their Majesties failed to openly respond to the Council of Wizards' petition for greater legal protection under parliamentary law which ultimately forced them to advocate for passage of the Statute of Secrecy. Given that the Glorious Revolution of 1689 was happening around the same time frame and that Their Majesties had to also deal with a very contentious Parliament which had forced King James II off the throne in the final act of the English Reformation, I see Their Majesties' accepting and enforcing the Statute being privately done using the reserve powers the Crown still possessed at the time without consulting Parliament. In response to this, the Preface of the Separation Act contains a loyalty clause vowing that the magicals of Britain would always acknowledge the Crown as the supreme power in the land, with the Chief of the Council of Wizards (and after 1707, the Minister for Magic) administering the magical government in the name of the Crown. Thus, the situation concerning Cornelius Fudge in Part 8.
My ranking of the noble houses of the British Wizengamot (with equivalent British noble territorial titles):
Noble House (Barony)
Most Noble House (Viscountcy)
Noble and Ancient House (Earldom)
Noble and Most Ancient House (Marquessate)
Very Noble and Most Ancient House (Duchy)
Note that the last group would only be used to describe the leaders of the descendants of the Founders of Hogwarts.
The Schwarze Mädchen were officially seen as a magical-only adjunct to the Schutzstaffel, the secret police of the Nazi Party in Germany. Thus, ranks for all the members were devised for them as follows (with NATO rank codes):
OFFICERS
OF-6 — Reichsführerin (Imperial Leader)
OF-5 — Standartenführerin (Standard [Regimental] Leader)
OF-4 — Obersturmbannführerin (Senior Assault Unit Leader)
OF-3 — Sturmbannführerin (Assault Unit Leader)
OF-2 — Hauptstrumführerin (Head Storm Leader)
OF-1 — Obersturmführerin (Senior Storm Leader) (senior rank)
OF-1 — Untersturmführerin (Junior Storm Leader) (junior rank)
NON-COMMISSIONED MEMBERS
OR-9 — Sturmscharführerin (Storm Squad Leader)
OR-8 — Hauptscharführerin (Head Squad Leader)
OR-7 — Oberscharführerin (Senior Squad Leader)
OR-6 — Scharführerin (Squad Leader)
OF-5 — Unterscharführerin (Junior Squad Leader)
OF-4 — Rottenführerin (Section Leader)
OF-3 — Sturmfrau (Storm Woman)
OF-2 — Oberfrau (Senior Woman)
OF-1 — Frau (Woman)
Once mobilized as part of the Magische Reichsarmee, the officers of the Black Maidens were given female format wartime rank titles, just like members of the Waffen-SS ("Armed SS") received:
OFFICERS
OF-6 — Generalmajorin (Major General)
OF-5 — Oberste (Colonel)
OF-4 — Oberstleutnante (Lieutenant Colonel)
OF-3 — Majorin (Major)
OF-2 — Hauptfrau (Head Woman [Captain])
OF-1 — Oberleutnante (Senior Lieutenant)
OF-1 — Leutnante (Lieutenant)
As for non-commissioned members, they were given roughly equivalent titles non-commissioned members of the Wehrmacht used at the time, but had the word hexe (witch) or zauberer (wizard) inserted in the rank titles as follows:
NON-COMMISSIONED MEMBERS
OR-9 — Stabswachthexe (Staff Watch Witch)
OR-8 — Hauptwachthexe (Head Watch Witch)
OR-7 — Oberwachthexe (Senior Watch Witch)
OR-6 — Wachthexe (Watch Witch)
OR-5 — Oberjagdhexe (Senior Hunting Witch)
OR-4 — Jagdhexe (Hunting Witch)
OR-3 — Sturmkampfhexe (Storm Fighting Witch)
OR-2 — Oberkampfhexe (Senior Fighting Witch)
OR-1 — Kampfhexe (Fighting Witch)
Shipgirls introduced here:
AUSTRALIA
HMAS Australia (1911) — Gayle Edwina Patey
HMAS Australia (1924) — Francine Heather Goolden
CANADA
HMCS Cape Breton (1953) — Elena Niobe Clarke
JAPAN
THG Tatsuta — Shimosuwa Tadako
THG Chōkai — Hōjō Chiyo
THG Yayoi — Kisaragi Yayoi
NEW ZEALAND
HMNZS Aotearoa (ex-HMS New Zealand) — Janet Te Aroha Green
UNITED KINGDOM
HMS Victory — Catharine Ann "Vicky" Nelson