六月二十二日（日）
We have arrived in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, safely. There have been lots of things that have happened today, and I am quite tired, but I still must record these events.
Early this morning, when we awoke to prepare for our flight to Germany, we discovered the reason behind why Kawakaze was unable to join us with Suzukaze yesterday. She had received her second remodel.
While we were all very happy to see her alive again, she has become...very different, in terms of appearance. I do not know what my final opinions of it are. Where should I even start? Her uniform has changed so much. When we first received her, she had her midriff closed, when prior to her remodel, she had it open. She quickly rectified this by opening it back up - she stated herself that it didn't fit her to have her midriff covered. And now, her uniform has been lengthened about the skirt to look almost like a trench coat, or at least it gives the feeling of a trench coat to me. She also has come with the same scarf as Yuudachi-onee-san had received with her own second remodel, but perhaps it is a little different in a few details that I haven't been able to see quite yet. The blue neckerchief that Kawakaze once wore is gone, replaced by a red one. I think I will miss that blue neckerchief; not only did it match my own hair, but I think the red and blue contrast was a wonderful color scheme for Kawakaze, so to see it missing was a bit of a disappointment.
Perhaps her most visible changes were to her physical body. Her hair that was once held in flowing twintails and sidelocks have been instead tied to twirling pigtail braids, thereby shortening her sidelocks, and curiously enough, I have noticed that her braids are pinned along the middle with the same emerald green bobbles that Suzukaze wears on her hip. Its color has gone from a candy apple red to a vivid, luscious apple red, and the gradient peach hue that colored the ends of her hair have made way to a darker gradient red, almost grape-purple, like wine. And like Shigure-onee-san and Yuudachi-onee-san before her, her hair now sport ear flaps in the same places as the two before her, but for some reason, the flaps themselves possess a grayish-white gradient. Now, the only source of blue left on her body must be found in her eyes; her blue pupils are all the remain, the sole survivors of the second remodel process.
Kawakaze, with her second remodel, now boasts a protocol just like me, Shigure-onee-san, and Yuudachi-onee-san. Her protocol is called "Firewater", which is extremely fitting to her image, and just like the name suggests, she wields a significant degree of pyrokinesis and can spawn flames with any part of her body and even spawn flames simply by looking at her target. She demonstrated this for us for the sake of informing her sisters of her new power, and when she activated her protocol, I noticed that her blue eyes turn golden. I suppose even her beautiful blue eyes do not stay permanent, now that she is remodeled.
But the most significant change for me came in the form of her personality. Before, I knew Kawakaze as a rather boisterous, cheerful, and loud sister, a fun-loving little sister who gave the image of a mischievous tomboy, but now, after having talked to her and spent this whole day with her, she seems to have lost the mischievous and boisterous side to her. She is still cheerful and still can and has gotten quite loud, and she still retains her teasing streak and tendency to talk big, but I do think that Kawakaze's personality codex has received a similar treatment that Shigure-onee-san's and Yuudachi-onee-san's personality codexes also received: a modification that sacrificed parts of their original personalities to add in a more serious, perhaps battle-oriented side. Yuudachi-onee-san had once been quite playful and happy-go-lucky before her remodeling; with her second remodel, she lost some of that playfulness; Shigure-onee-san had once been quite shy, much like myself, and always seemed like something was bothering her; with her second remodel, she lost her shyness and gained a significant amount of self-confidence; Kawakaze appears to have undergone a similar change.
That's right...before her remodel, Kawakaze had best been known for her trademark look of smugness. Not once today have I seen her make that old face. Perhaps that is what is missing...
But to everyone's surprise, Shigure-onee-san became furious with the developers. She got so angry with them that it scared everyone, even Kawakaze. When she realized that Kawakaze had underwent a second remodel, she yelled at Big-sensei why they had not decided to remodel me.
I begged Shigure-onee-san to calm down. I asked her why she was getting angry over all of this. Not only did we receive our sunken sister back from the dead (although the stinging fact that she can technically be considered a mere clone still rests heavy in the back of my mind, as it does with Suzukaze), but our developers had been kind enough to even grant her a second remodel, just as they had done with Shigure-onee-san herself and Yuudachi-onee-san. And it wasn't as though getting angry about it for any reason would somehow magically transfer the remodel to me, so why try to dispute what has already happened?
But Shigure-onee-san refused to calm down or listen to me. She yelled at me, too, asking,
"I'm not trying to say that I'm unhappy with Kawakaze's second remodel, but if there was anyone among us who deserved it, it was you, Samidare! You are the most important one among us! You are our commanding officer! You need as much strength and power as possible! You deserved it the most! How could they have not ever thought about that?! Aren't our developers supposed to be smart? And you're telling me they simply forgot about you?!"
She turned to our developers and yelled at them, too, questioning them this same furious inquiry. She demanded to know why I, their in-squad leader, did not receive a remodel and instead let it be wasted on Kawakaze.
The answer she received was:
"We, uh, misplaced Samidare's files. We definitely had it in mind, but, um...we couldn't find them anywhere. Plus, not only did we have Kawakaze's files on hand with us, but we all had a lot of ideas for Kawakaze's second remodel. So we just went with Kawakaze," Big-sensei said rather casually.
I definitely saw a look of pure hatred in Shigure-onee-san's eyes. I could tell that she wanted to rip them apart. I had never seen her so angry, and as though the look in her eyes was not enough, I felt a deep killing intent emanate from her heart. I don't know how a ship girl like me can sense something so primordial like that...maybe it is a special mix of bodily frequencies that Shigure-onee-san's heart seemed to beat that translated into a killing intent that my sisters and I received, but everyone else felt it too, and it scared all of us. I didn't know what Shigure-onee-san would do or how badly she would react, so not wanting to take any chances, I hugged her and begged her profusely to calm down. I pleaded with her that there was no reason to have to take out her anger on anyone about this; this wasn't worth it. Finally, Shigure-onee-san did eventually stand down, but I could tell without a doubt that she was very reluctant to listen to me, and that she only obeyed me because she did not want to hurt my feelings, not because it was wrong to lay a hand on our creators. I think it is safe to say that at that particular moment, she wouldn't have cared about the consequences of her actions, had she herself acted on her feelings.
Just as I managed to convince Shigure-onee-san to calm down, Deimos-sensei, Sanford-sensei, and Hank-sensei entered the room at that moment. Whether or not they had overheard Shigure-onee-san's rant still remains a mystery to us, but they came in carrying a uniform that, much like my own uniform that I had received from our navy admirals back in Japan, was Shigure-onee-san's own uniform that was clearly modified to be an officer's uniform, a black, red, and white set of officer's clothing, complete with rank insignia, medal, and officer's peaked hat. They also brought me an exact copy of the same uniform I had received and worn back home, and when I asked them how they managed to get their hands on it, Deimos-sensei simply smirked and said that they were the ones who designed it. In fact, all of the uniforms that were given to me, Murakumo-chan, Sazanami-chan, Fubuki-chan, and Inazuma-chan were their final parting gifts to the Kaijyou Jietai, for them to give to us in celebration of our ascended positions in the navy.
But I had no time to feel thankful; Shigure-onee-san became wrathful again and initially refused to accept her own ascendance to the rank of Lieutenant, just the same as me. She initially thought that this was the developers' way of placating her, but Big-sensei claimed that even if I had been remodeled instead of Kawakaze, they still planned to promote her for the sake of this mission, so they could not be accused of trying to bribe Shigure-onee-san into accepting Kawakaze's remodel. Shigure-onee-san then said that she would not accept her promotion if I did not at least receive an additional promotion myself, but our developers said that such a feat would be impossible at the moment because even though they were at hostilities with the Japanese navy and government, they still would respect Japanese naval sovereignty in the form of their promotion. Because I was promoted on Japanese soil by Japanese officers, the developers refused to sully my rank by replacing my current rank with an American one. Not to mention, Shigure-onee-san's promotion would only be a temporary one designed to give her on-scene command and authority when we deploy to Germany; she would lose her rank and uniform once our operations in Germany are finished and we return to Japan.
We managed to convince Shigure-onee-san to accept the promotion, and she gave in, though she received it very reluctantly. Our developers offered to throw a quick celebratory ceremony for Shigure-onee-san's sake, but she harshly turned it down. She hasn't worn her uniform yet, though she says she will once the time comes.
Once both Suzukaze and Kawakaze became familiarized with our mission details, we were deployed immediately in civilian clothing. Lauren-sensei and Losira-sensei drove us to the Los Angeles International Airport, where they had booked for us first-class seats on a plane bound for Boston, Massachusetts to board our connecting flight to Berlin, Germany, our final destination point. They gave us all messenger bags armed with sturdy laptops to use as communication tools and whatever else we fancied, fabricated passports and university ID cards to help us through security, extra sets of our uniforms and more civilian clothing and socks, and $500 apiece in American dollars (twenty dollar bills). They also gave us extremely detailed instructions on how to navigate the airports because they knew this was our first time being out in public, outside of our usual naval bases and military installations and thus had little to no exposure to civilian life. So detailed were their instructions that despite this being our first time using a public airport and mingling with a civilian population, we had absolutely no trouble reaching our terminal and boarding our flight. They explained just before they send us off on our own through the initial security checkpoints that we were going through civilian transportation means to keep us out of the eye of American or German military; if we had been taken to Germany via military transport, our cover may be blown, so going by a commercial passenger airliner would help mitigate that.
It may have protected our cover, but very quickly all five of us became uncomfortably aware that we turned into instant centers of attention wherever we went. People stared at us, especially most of the boys and young men. Suzukaze and Kawakaze were the first ones to grasp why: we are, by the standards of ordinary human beings, extremely beautiful. I don't say this to flatter ourselves, it is...the simple truth. I feel so...so bad for saying that, but it is the truth. Plus, to make matters worse, Shigure-onee-san is the only one among us who has normal-colored hair. The rest of us all have very distinctly colored hair: I have bright blue, Kawakaze has flaming apple red, Harusame has very bright pink, and Suzukaze also has dark blue, though it could pass for black if only looked at with mere glances...but nobody only took a glance at us and walked along, at least most people didn't. The vast majority of those who saw us opted to stare or ogle at us for at least a few minutes. We even sensed one or two people who apparently were infatuated with us and trailed us from our initial security checkpoint all the way to our terminal. Kawakaze offered to scare them off, but I told her not to, since we did not want to make a scene out in the middle of a public location such as this.
Once we were able to board our plane for the first leg of our flight, we settled into our very comfortable first-class seats. Kawakaze, Harusame, and Suzukaze were all very excited and stoked to be able to enjoy first-class for the first time, and they marveled at all the luxurious conveniences that come with flying first-class. But once they calmed down and we buckled in for our flight and began to fly, Kawakaze asked Shigure-onee-san if we could all talk together. Once we were all paying attention, she began to apologize to Shigure-onee-san, saying that after having heard about the whole situation and everything that had happened thus far, she, too, would have liked to have me receive my own second remodel over herself.
"We all know Samidare-aneki's worked a lot harder than the rest of us. If I had a choice, I would'a given it to her too, trust me," she said somberly. "I feel bad too. I feel like I've stolen it from her. She's worked and fought so hard over the past six months, she's been around for a lot longer, and she didn't end up dyin' at the naval yards like a buster like I did."
I quickly waved it off and asked Kawakaze to not dwell so much on it. I do admit that receiving a second remodel would be quite nice, seeing how strongly it powers up ship girls like us, but just like our first-class seats, I feel that a second remodel is only a great luxury at best. But more than that, I told Kawakaze that I didn't want her to keep having thoughts like that weigh her down in the back of her mind.
"...sorry, Aneki," Kawakaze still mumbled. It was clear that she was going to have trouble shaking off that feeling, so I stayed with her to prove to her that she had nothing to worry about.
Suzukaze suggested that we start talking about more fun things instead of depressing things like this, and she was successful in distracting us for the remainder of the flight. We spent the whole flight to Boston just being normal sisters like a normal family, talking and laughing all along the way. I get the sense that the developers must have told Kawakaze and Suzukaze what I had gone through with Harusame-onee-san and Shigure-onee-san over the past few weeks, for they both sat with me and talked with me most out of the others, and Harusame-onee-san and Shigure-onee-san seemed perfectly fine with it. I also ended up sharing my English language skill program that I had developed by myself while teaching myself how to speak the language in order to read Teitoku's journal so that Shigure-onee-san and Harusame-onee-san could also begin speaking English too; Suzukaze and Kawakaze had already come equipped with dual-language functionality as a result of their reconstructions.
We spent our flight to Germany from Boston mostly sleeping, for we knew that once we landed in Germany, our operations would begin, so being well-rested would be of critical mission importance. Once we landed, following Lauren-sensei's and Losira-sensei's directions, we found a private black taxi van waiting for us in the circular arrival pickup terminal, and the driver, a casually dressed man with big muscles, introduced himself as Sergeant Jollenbeck and drove us to our final destination, a large, well-to-do home in the outskirts of the capital city. On our way, Sergeant Jollenbeck informed us that our ship weapons would be provided tomorrow by a secret development team in Berlin who has been in charge of providing the German ship girl fleet with their own weapons and auxiliary programs.
We were then received by the residents of this home, a Mr. and Mrs. Wedekind, who had graciously opened up their home to house us for the sake of our operations here in Germany. They introduced themselves as the Chancellor of Germany and his wife - basically, they are the most powerful couple in the nation in terms of individual political power. Harusame and Suzukaze seemed quite nervous that we were being treated so well by such important people, as was I, too, admittedly. But they seem to be very nice people, and they have a baby daughter who is one year old named Retia, and she is very cute, and we all became immediate friends with her. Retia seemed very happy to be our friends - I think it is because she loves the sight of our hair, for she has been running her small itty-bitty hands through all of our hair and staring with marvel at them. It made us all laugh, including her parents. Sergeant Jollenbeck retired for the night, driving the black van away, and Mr. Wedekind said that the Sergeant was part of the nation's renowned counter-terrorism unit, GSG-9, and was a squad leader for the German counter-terrorism forces. I think I will keep his name in mind; I get the feeling we may work closely with him in the near future.
We have only arrived very recently, some four hours ago, so we have been spending this time getting ourselves comfortable in our new home. They even provided us with a large guest room that we would need to share, but of course we do not mind sharing a bedroom together. The blankets they provided us are so comfortable that Kawakaze and Harusame immediately fell asleep for a few moments on them as soon as they laid down on them. Mr. and Mrs. Wedekind even provided for us a quick but hot and delicious late-night dinner of homemade spaghetti with bacon and sliced pieces of bratwurst with sparkling apple cider, and because none of us had eaten anything save for a few fast-food meals at the Logan International Airport, we were extremely grateful for the Wedekinds' generous hospitality.
It is now very late at night, and Kawakaze has been waiting for me to finish typing this for some time now. She said she wants me to come sleep with her...I think she still feels a little bad about the whole remodel incident. Hopefully tonight will convince her that I really do not mind in the grand scheme of things, for we will have much more important tasks ahead of us.
I love you, Teitoku, just as much as I love my sisters. I hope you can someday meet all of them, because they are all wonderful ship girls. I hope that one day, all five of us can join everyone else to serve under you once again.
五月雨