It seems now that we have ended up on the other side of the world. Far away from what any of us would call home, Harusame and her sisters must now adjust to a new life for a period of time so long as their mission here in Europe remains active.
Perhaps, during their time here, clues may abound that may tell me what my intended purpose here in Europe really was. After all, I shan't forget that my own mission, too, was to be summoned here to Europe...perhaps I will find out through third-party means what my purpose really was.
But first, there are things to discuss pertaining to events that have unfolded today.
Most important of such events relates to the second remodel received by the destroyers' newly reconstructed sister named Kawakaze. When Shigure heard of this, she became extremely irate at the situation. She demanded to know from the developers why they had not had even the decency to instead give this second remodel procedure to Samidare. I paid very close attention to this talk of the second remodel; this topic was a much-frequently discussed point of concern even among my Abyssal peers, before I decided to defect. I overheard many of them complain and wonder about it, about how they or other Abyssals spotted some ship girls they battled in the months prior, about how their appearances had been altered slightly, and about how their powers had drastically increased. Such was the massive spike in the increase of their abilities and powers that even Re-Class expressed concern over this, since according to her, "even those annoying [expletive] destroyers are gonna catch up to me at the rate they're goin'". But they did not discuss the details of the second remodel itself, to my slight disappointment. Instead, the argument stayed centered around the question of why Samidare did not receive the second remodel that had been given to Kawakaze.
And the developers replied that they had accidentally misplaced the original code and program files and codexes for Samidare; had they had them in their immediate possession, they would have remodeled Samidare instead. But because it would take them too long to search for Samidare's missing files, they instead decided to remodel Kawakaze instead, because not only was she in the midst of reconstruction, making it very easy for the developers to simply remodel her before her reconstruction completed, but the developers apparently had many ideas to put into the design of Kawakaze's second remodel.
I think I will have to agree with Shigure. Perhaps if there was a more logical explanation to support their decision, perhaps by stating that Kawakaze was a stronger destroyer and thus would benefit more from a second remodel, or something along these lines, then it would have been more acceptable. But the developers' explanation seems to me to be more of an...excuse, rather than an explanation. In addition, looking at my own Abyssal self as a reference and my other fellow capital Abyssal ship girls, typically it is a good idea to maximize the strength, abilities, and capabilities of those who lead the fleet or the squadron. Failing to remodel Samidare, I fear, will have long-term impacts on the destroyers. I hope it will not come to pass, but I sense that there may come a time, a battle, perhaps, when Samidare, by not receiving a second remodel here and now, will suffer greatly. Perhaps she may receive one of her own and this problem will never come to fruition. But until then, I question this decision.
But the incident was resolved through Samidare's pleading and begging with Shigure, along with the pressure put on her to calm down and forget about this incident by the rest of the destroyer sisters. As compensation, the developers awarded Shigure with a rank and uniform of her own, just like Shigure, something that they claimed was planned with or without the context of this second remodel scandal. Shigure tried to refuse it in protest of this questionable second remodel incident, but again, she was pressured by her sisters, again mostly by Samidare, to accept it. Harusame's thoughts were entirely on the side of Samidare - I am starting to think that Harusame and Samidare have extremely similar mentalities, which may not be so surprising, seeing that their personalities, too, are quite similar.
And once this incident was resolved, the destroyers (and myself, I suppose, since I am anchored to the body of Harusame in this odd, transcended state of existence) departed from the local airport and spent the majority of the day flying to Berlin, Germany. I actually quite enjoyed the journey, because the developers, expressing their intent to keep the destroyers' presence in Germany a secret from public knowledge, sent them through civilian flights so as not to gain attention from military groups of any kind that may alert government authorities and leak information back to Japan that the destroyers are being sent on an unauthorized mission to Europe. I particularly enjoyed this journey. Unlike the rest of my Abyssal peers, I was not born sharing the same hatred and animosity of humanity; rather, at the time of my birth and before my defection, I simply did not hold an opinion of humans. But while we were driven to the airport nearest to the developers' base, called the Los Angeles International Airport, I could not stop myself from looking around, trying to get a glimpse of everything possible. A life on land quickly grew extremely intriguing to me. Having lived the majority of my short life in the ocean, where land was a rather rare sight, the concept of terrestrial habitation, while common knowledge even to us Abyssals, is rather difficult for me to comprehend.
On land, there are so many interesting sights to see. Just the simple thought of people walking about on land, driving vehicles on these streets...the landscape changes and shifts with every passing minute, unlike the stale, static expanse of seawater, clouds, and skies that we Abyssals and ship girls are so accustomed to seeing. And when we arrived at the airport, if I still had a body to call my own, my mouth would have been hanging agape the entire time. I could have never imagined so many people in one location, in the same vicinity, all at once. Like a school of fish, but instead filled with human beings. And the airport itself...so many interesting things to look at, such as the people, the signs, the carts, the luggage and bags, and the booths. I truly felt like a little child as the two developers who drove us to the airport, Miss Lauren and Miss Losira, helped us through the initial lines of security and secured our airplane tickets. For the first time since I entered this odd state of existence, I found myself actually grateful that I could not be seen, because I feared I would have looked utterly ridiculous, staring at everything and anything my eyes could set themselves upon.
However, not everything I saw with my eyes intrigued me, though Harusame noticed these less-than-ideal things before me, for I was heavily distracted by the things I wanted to look at. She was among the first of the destroyers to notice that the five of them were receiving a plethora of uncomfortable gazes by many male human beings. I looked for myself, and indeed this was true. Everywhere we went, the human beings we passed, both male and female alike, stopped what they were doing to steal a look at us. Understandably, the males kept wanting to look for much longer than the females, but I could sharply sense Harusame's growing discomfort with their situation. Clearly, the destroyers had not had any experience dwelling among civilian human populations themselves, as they reacted poorly to the treatment they received from other humans. At one point, while we were waiting for our flight in the Los Angeles terminal, one rather brave male individual walked up to Kawakaze and sat in the empty seat next to her and began asking where we were headed. Kawakaze and Suzukaze both replied at the same time to the man to remove himself from them with aggressive tones, and when the man protested and insisted that he stay, Kawakaze grabbed his collar and warned him that he was not welcome, convincing him adequately to leave.
It was by this point I truly began to feel rather thankful that I am not seen to the public eye. If my friends can attract so much attention simply due to their appearances and physical features alone, perhaps it is for the best that I am in the state that I am in now. Because, at the very least, I have noticed that the looks and gazes that my friends have been attracting from the local male human populations have been gazes of admiration, intrigue, interest...perhaps even lust, should I dare go so far. Should my unnaturally pale skin in comparison to normal human skin tones and my hair be exposed to the public eye, I can only imagine the looks of disgust and hatred I would draw...
The flights, however, were thankfully a pleasant experience. The developers had purchased what were called "first-class" tickets for us, and for our first flight, we found ourselves in a luxurious, posh section of the airplane that we had all to ourselves. Harusame was extremely happy with this and fell asleep in her seat almost immediately, and Samidare, who was sitting next to her, stroked her hair while she slept. Kawakaze discussed her thoughts about her second remodel during the flight, agreeing with Shigure that perhaps it would have been best for Samidare to have received it instead, but Samidare firmly put an end to the second remodel debate by saying that what was done was done, and that she did not need a second remodel to be the best leader of her sisters as she could be.
Harusame's mental peacefulness that was produced from her tranquil enjoyment of the comfortable first-class seats compelled me to drift off as well; even though I myself cannot sleep, I can attain a substate very similar to it, in which my thoughts and emotions slowly halt themselves and let me exist through the senses of Harusame alone. Having been sensing Harusame's negative emotions for a few days straight since her revival, I felt quite spoiled by Harusame's influx of peace and happiness, so much so that I still do not know if I should allow myself to become used to such states of happiness. I fear that I will make the mistake of letting myself become too accustomed to this feeling and suffer terribly when Harusame's sense of joy is stripped away from her violently.
And finally, when we arrived in Germany and were taken to our temporary residence in the house of the German Chancellor and his wife and daughter, Harusame felt overwhelmed by the relative opulence of the home itself and the room that was reserved for us to sleep in. She took a keen interest in the daughter of the household, a human baby named Retia, who in turn became fascinated with Harusame's pink hair and kept touching it, which tickled Harusame, much to her amusement. The destroyers accepted a late-night meal from the heads of the household, and what they prepared for them was beyond what any of us could have imagined. Having lived on a diet of seafood and simple military rations during our time in the developers' secret base, the food they presented us was nothing short of stunning; I felt as though my friends were being treated like royalty. It made my own mouth water simply setting my eyes on the food, even though it is impossible for me to feel hunger or thirst in this state, and it was very difficult for me to watch my friends eat and drink such sumptuous food without being able to partake in it myself.
Harusame was the happiest she has ever been since her revival, so as long as she is this happy, I can endure any hardship, including the hardship of being unable to eat great food and having to watch others eat it instead.