Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio :: Arpeggio of the purple steel
Weapon's greatest desire is to be the most effective... And as a result one 'weapon' following that desire, Gunzou became a captain of an entirely different vessel.
Early morning of May 2, 2054; ~70 miles South-East of Yokosuka
Superbattleship Yamato, the supreme flagship of the 'Fleet of Fog', was lazily rocking on the restless surface of the ocean. Yesterday, the third phase of her plan was completed, and now Yamato was waiting for her other half to rejoin her after the long nine years it spent within the walls of Yokosuka fortified port – a place built specifically to protect what was left of the Japan's naval forces from her and her subordinates...
Finally, a small and decisively not-human-made boat became visible as it approached the monstrous war machine that the supreme flagship was. And when it finally moored to the gigantic battleship, a single human-like figure emerged from the boat. This figure looked like a girl in her mid-teens with waist-long brown hair and big brown eyes. She was dressed in the Japanese National Maritime Institute of Technology uniform that still had the traces of ashes from the yesterday's fire on it... As the strange girl ascended onto the superbattleship's deck, she was greeted by what could be her clone – though dressed in a pink ballroom gown instead.
"Should I welcome you back, 'Kotono'?" The girl in the dress asked as she studied her 'twin'.
"Do as you wish, 'Yamato'." The said 'twin' replied as she tilted her head to the side while giving her other half an eye-smile. "After all this time, it feels quite strange to once again think of us as one and the same, no?" 'Yamato' nodded in agreement: in order to pull off her just-competed infiltration mission she had split her core to the point where her twin Mental Models essentially became different entities altogether. "It's time to begin the next phase of our plan." After a short pause, she continued: "Now that I'm back to the Fleet, it will be so boring with just you to keep my company. Others should become embodied as well."
"Indeed." 'Yamato' agreed with her other half. "Though I do not think that rebooting entire fleet at once is wise, even if will take only so much time." 'Kotono' nodded.
"You are most certainly right. We shall have battleships rebooted first as well as I-400 and I-402; assault and suppression vessels will be next with the heavy cruisers and larger submarines being the last ones." She said, nodding to herself. "You're the face of the 'Fleet of Fog' right now. You should send the signals." As 'Yamato' nodded, glowing wave-like marks appeared on her cheeks while her eyes gained distinctively-unnatural glow.
~/ *** \~
Several days later; offshore Shakotan peninsula
A pair of brown eyes kept watching the ocean. To her, this was still an entirely new experience – perceiving the world this way and not through the myriads of various sensors she had everywhere on her hull – and she had to admit that some of the sensations this new embodied existence provided her with were ...nice.
'Still, we're weapons; there is no need for us to have these, is there?' The owner of those brown eyes thought. 'Supreme flagship allowed us to have these Mental Models – she ought to have a reason for that – but she didn't insist. And I know that Hyuuga already chose not to keep one manifested. Even for a battleship's delta core, keeping a Mental Model active is no small load. That processing power can be used more efficiently.'
She glanced at the two light cruisers that were accompanying her. Those weren't even given this most recent update – but then again, their smaller cores are unable to support this embodied existence of consciousness anyway... Still, even if these Mental Models felt like something unnecessarily for a war machine, there had to be a reason, why Yamato was giving them to the fleet's vessels. There ought to be one! Deciding that she needed to find that reason, the girl began thinking.
From what little she knew, supreme flagship was the first one to gain these Mental Models – it had happened some time during the fifteen years of her absence – and her sister, Musashi, also had one... The avatar of a battleship frowned deeply as her thoughts turned to Yamato's younger 'sister' ship. After all, she was aware that Musashi had allowed humans to board herself... Wasn't that against the rules of the 'Fleet of Fog'? Apparently no, as Yamato allowed it. Hell, Musashi even took over the 'Scarlet fleet', and that fleet was supposed to be Admiralty Code guards, before it decided to disappear...
'So... Is working with humans really forbidden?' The girl asked herself. 'We've been ordered to keep them out of the seas, but...' There most definitely wasn't enough facts to draw any conclusion, but based on Musashi's case, it looked like a human crew could be beneficial. Flagships were supposed to be strongest ones in the fleet, and Musashi became one after she allowed those humans to board her... The girl frowned again. As a weapon, her basic desire was to be the strongest and the most effective one. And wasn't rising to the position of a flagship a sign of power and effectiveness? If so, maybe she also should swallow her pride and get herself a captain?
~/ *** \~
June 3, 2054; Japanese National Maritime Institute of Technology, Yokosuka
Gunzou sighed. For the last couple of days he had clinging feeling of someone observing his every step... Well, that wasn't the first time – ever since his ...father was discovered to be a traitor to humanity, someone always kept an eye on him. Whether it was by the men from government, whose job was to ensure that he didn't do anything funny, or by the other students, who wanted to prank the hell out of him for his father's betrayal...
Him being among those few who managed to escape the 'Facility #4 fire' relatively physically unscathed – only Sou and select few others seemed to remember that he lost his best friend to that unexplained fire – didn't really help him either. If he thought about it, the latest rumor flying around the campus had declared him the mastermind behind the 'Fleet of Fog'. Damn it, his parents weren't even in the primary school when those bastards first appeared!
Anyway... This time, his observer – for the lack of better explanation – felt different. It didn't have any traces of malicious intent... Actually, it felt there was no intent at all; something was just observing him and nothing beyond that. That, and he absolutely couldn't determine what was observing him. Normally, he could catch at least a glimpse of the people stalking him, especially if those were his fellow students, from time to time, but this time...
Deciding that he should head for the auditory where the next class will be held – with the instructor there, no one will dare to prank him too much – Gunzou excused himself from the company of his few friends and headed out of the mess hall... As he was walking along the mostly-devoid of people alley between the Institute buildings, the dark-haired youth felt someone observing him very intently. It was that very same observer that has been keeping tabs on him for the last several days. And right now he had a good chance to finally learn who has been stalking him... Looking around, he indeed found out who it was – they weren't exactly hiding this time.
It was a half-Oriental half-European girl, or rather a young woman, whom he had never seen before; and he could recognize absolute majority of the Institute's students by their faces if not by their names. She had brown eyes and blond hair, which was made into two frilly buns on the sides of her head with two really long locks framing the sides of her face... And while she was dressed in the student's uniform, it look awkward enough on her to make it clear that she normally wore something else. And considering how aristocratic this young woman looked, Gunzou somehow imagined her in a long ballroom gown or some similar dress.
The young woman in question seemed to notice that he was staring at her. Then her eyes sparkled and a moment later she nodded to something. That very instant, Gunzou felt his cell phone start vibrating. Reaching for the damned device, the teen looked at its display and much to his shock saw that there was no incoming calls or messages – instead there was a map of the Yokosuka harbor in purples with a mark on one of the old wharfs, accompanied by the message saying: 'Come alone, 20:00:00.0000'.
Looking up from his phone, Gunzou saw that the mysterious girl he had just seen was already gone... Damn! This all looked like a setup for some prank... But if they went this far for it, maybe he should at least come and see what that prank was? Deciding that he still had several hour to make the decision about this, Gunzou continued on his way to the lecturing hall where his next class will be held...
~/ *** \~
March 5, 2056; Nagasaki
"Yeah, I know you have quite some power under your command, Gunzou-san,..." A blonde girl, Ayako or something, said. "But I still don't understand why father had made me go to this party with you. You absolutely don't know how to have fun." Gunzou merely shrugged. He too wasn't exactly fond of this job – he'd rather be out there in the sea – but the payment was pretty good and the whole job promised to take no more than six hours to complete.
After all, all that he had to do was ensuring that this girl – a daughter of an assemblyman for the Northern region – wasn't abducted by her father's enemies while attending this party... Yes, how should he explain this to her without coming out as a complete ass? He was saved from finding a way out of that dilemma on his own when his senses – trained well during his last months at the Japanese National Maritime Institute of Technology – picked a group people closing in on him and his 'date'.
"Why don't we sit out this next dance and have a glass of punch instead?" He said with a shrug, while making it clear to the girl that refusing was not an option. Thankfully, she was bright enough to understand that the hunt for her was on and 'agreed' with him. As soon as the were on the terrace, Gunzou picked his 'date' up. "Hold tight." He commanded, before starting running towards the backstreet that was maybe twenty meters down the hill from the terrace; the shouts ordering them to be stopped only served to make him run faster.
From this backstreet, there was dodging pass into the old harbor, which he was following. He needed to get to the wharfs, even if to a normal man that place seemed like a dead end – the worst place to be escaping from the pursuers to. He wasn't exactly the normal man after all...
Damn, maybe he should up his exercising? Running a mile with a girl in his arms shouldn't make him this tired, should it? Thankfully, he could already see the rampant leading to the piers, and even though he could hear the thugs hired to kidnap his 'date' catching up with them, he was now on his territory...
"You're early captain? Did the trouble find you again?" A blonde woman in a long purple dress-robe, that was sitting on a pawl with her legs crossed, asked. Before Gunzou could answer, though, she continued: "Nevermind, I can sense them already. Thirty two men, armed with SMGs? You sure don't do things by half, captain." She said as she stood up, causing a seagull that had been peacefully sitting atop of her head fly away.
"Can you stand on your own?" Gunzou asked his 'date' instead, before lowering the now-really-frightened girl onto her feet.
"We've locked this area down. You can't escape now." A Mafioso, who was indeed leading a group of armed thugs said as he walked onto the wharf. "And even that woman you brought with you to watch your back can't help you now. Give us the girl and we will let you live." The Man said, raising his left hand.
"How about 'no'?" Gunzou asked back, making sure to sound as innocent as possible.
"Make sure you don't hit that girl." The Mafioso commanded. "I don't care what happens to this boy and his whore." And as soon as he gave them the go-ahead, the thugs started firing... Only for their bullets to be intercepted by a wall of purplish energy hexagons forming something like a dome-shield around the trio... Still, they didn't stop firing until no bullets were left in their magazines.
"Hn." The young woman in the purple dress smirked as she brushed invisible dust off her clothes. There was a long moment of silence, before she spoke as glowing purple marking appeared on her forehead and wrists. "You're playing with guns? Well, I can I join the game?" A moment later, thirty thousands tons of mass destruction in the form of a 'Fleet of Fog' battleship surfaced explosively behind her. "Sorry, I have only these ones." She said as the battleship aimed over the half of its... visible arsenal at the thugs. Apparently, those guys had some brains left in their heads, as they started running away, not eager to find out, whether that monster will start firing or not... Their leader remained rooted to the ground for about two seconds, before he followed his subordinates with the proverbial tail between his legs.
"W-Who are you?" The girl, what-was-her-name-again, asked, staring at Gunzou and his partner with wide eyes.
"Haven't we been introduced when I collected you from your mansion?" The dark-haired youth asked back. "As for this fine lady... Have you heard the saying that the captains are married to their ships? Well, you can call her my wife." The purple-clad beauty shot him a mock glare. "Well, I guess the evening is over." Turning back to his 'date', Gunzou continued: "As per the agreement with your father, we shall escort you all the way back home." As he gave the girl his hand, he turned to speak to his 'wife': "Kongou, if you will?" After a moment, Kongou nodded and a stairway leading onto her deck appeared, made from the same glowing purplish hexagons that had shielded them from the thugs' bullets just a few minutes earlier.
"Aye, captain. Let us depart."
~/ *** \~
flashback
June 3, 2054; Yokosuka port's old harbor
Gunzou lazily walked onto the old wharf, more or less ready to face whatever prank was prepared for him there. Much to his not-shown surprise, though, there appeared to be such prank waiting for him there. All that was waiting for him there was a girl – the very one he had seen during the lunch break today. Though, she was no longer wearing the Institute's uniform. Now she was clad in a long dark-purple dressing robe with an impractically-long flap; dark stockings and shoes on the small heels that were of the same color as her dress. She was sitting on a pawl with her legs crossed and her hands folded on her knees... There was something wrong about this young woman, though Gunzou couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was.
"So, you've come." She observed in a surprisingly soft voice, while at the same time crossing her hands on her chest.
"Well, let me hear, what do you want with me?" The dark-haired teen asked back. He wasn't exactly in the mood to play mind games right now, so going straight to the business was something he was all for. There was a pause of several seconds long, before this yet-to-be-introduced-properly girl spoke:
"I have an offer for you, Chihaya Gunzou." She said, her somehow-lifeless brown eyes locked onto his. After waiting for a bit she continued: "Come with me." Not exactly an order, but these words still carried quite a bit of weight. And considering that at this point there was very little holding him back there, Gunzou was actually quite tempted to accept this strange order until...
The surface of the water next to the wharf broke as something that could only be a towering superstructure of the WWII era battleship emerged. The said superstructure was followed by the rest of the battleship a moment later. And glowing purple markings on the hull made it quite clear that this was a battleship from the 'Fleet of Fog'.
"I offer you to become my captain, Chihaya Gunzou." The girl finished, apparently ignoring the shock on her ...target's face. That shock didn't last for long as the sirens came to life, informing everyone not completely deaf that the fortress-port of Yokosuka has been infiltrated.
"You are from the 'Fog'?!" Gunzou half-stated half-questioned agitatedly. The girl-who-was-the-battleship merely nodded in response, seemingly completely unfazed by the fact that within minutes whatever was left of the human naval forces will be swarming there in (futile) attempts to hurt her. "You're the enemy!" The dark-haired teen stated angrily.
"We are weapons." The blonde ship-girl responded, still in that soft voice of hers. "We are merely following the orders we've been given." This seemed to cool down Gunzou a bit. And it also apparently left him speechless as the tirade he was about to unleash upon her suddenly became meaningless.
"Then why do you... want me to become your captain?" He asked finally.
"I'm a weapon." A pause. "And being effective is a natural desire for me." Another pause. And Gunzou could see that while she knew what she wanted to say, she was trying to to express that in a less-machine-like way. To be honest, somewhere deep down he was thankful that this strange entity was at least trying to pretend to be a human. Communicating otherwise might have been way too awkward... "It seems that having a human to command me will make me more effective, thus..." Whatever else she was going to say was drowned in the boom of military choppers flying above them. Those were yet to attack, but their projectors had already marked them out.
'Even if I refuse, They'll likely neutralize me, just because I came in contact with the 'Fog'.' Gunzou thought. 'Run away with an enemy and maybe live or stay here and die?' To be honest, neither of these two options appealed to him, but... 'It's not my time yet. I wasn't born to die without at least trying to do anything!' Well, that made his decision. "Very well, I will come with you. But we shall finish our talk when we are safe." The blonde nodded.
"Understood." Some glowing purplish marks appeared on her face and wrists and a set of stairs leading onto her deck appeared. These stairs were made form nothing but glowing purple hexagons of some kind of energy, and Gunzou was understandably apprehensive. But as he could see the ship-girl standing on them just fine,he shrugged and followed her up aboard her hull.
He was about halfway up there, when the choppers returned. And this time they were attacking. Knowing that he was essentially standing in the mid-air without anything that he could hide behind, Gunzou still instinctively shielded his head with his hands as the choppers started raining bullets upon him from the numerous machine guns mounted on them... Only no bullet could reach them as the battleship that actually still hadn't introduced herself had surrounded him with the impenetrable shield that her Wave-Force armor was. Deciding not to test just for how long this shield could protect him, the dark-haired teen hurried after the blonde onto her deck.
"Starting the departure sequence." She whispered as soon as he was there, while also dematerializing the stairs at the same time. Indeed, a moment later, the monstrosity that was her hull started moving, surprisingly fast for something of that size... The problem, though, they soon came into the range of the defensive guns mounted on the almost-completed wall surrounding the Yokosuka harbor. Not to mention a dozen of patrol boats and a couple of light cruisers speeding towards them. So far the battleship's Wave-Force armor had protected the vessel from all incoming attacks without a fault, but... "Preparing retaliatory fire." The ship-girl whispered, as a great number of missile launchers emerged from her deck.
"Wha-!.." Was Gunzou's immediate reaction. If even a 'Fog' heavy cruiser carried enough weapons to turn such a port into smoking ruins, he shuddered to think what a battleship could do. "D-Don't kill anyone!" The girl froze a moment before she'd have unleashed her arsenal. After a long second, she nodded slowly.
"Understood. Adjusting the list of targets." And then around three dozens of missiles were launched, all speeding towards the fortress wall surrounding the harbor.
"What are you doing?!" Gunzou shouted.
"As per your order, captain, I've targeted only automated defensive turrets." The battleship's avatar brushed him off as she concentrated on getting them out into the sea...
flashback end
March 5, 2056; ~20 miles offshore Nagasaki
"Something on your mind, captain?" Opening his eyes, Gunzou saw Kongou standing in front of him, watching him with something like a concern written lightly on her face.
"No, nothing, just remembering the night when we... when you had me become your captain." He replied. "You remember it too, right?" The blonde nodded as she lowered herself onto her knees to get on the same eye-level with him.
"Yes. And I'm still not sure what I had been thinking back then..." Gunzou reached to place his hand onto hers. Over the last almost two years his relationship with Kongou had changed a lot; she had warmed up towards him and even other humans quite a bit – though she still absolutely refused to have any more crew than just him, something that led him to start joking that they were a married couple – and, well, he too came to enjoy her company...
"Heh, yeah. I remember the row we had when we were deciding which side we will take." Kongou nodded. "In the end we've decided that since neither of us will switch to the other's side, we will just make our own side, haven't we?" Gunzou merely nodded in response. "Anyway, Iona-kun has just contacted me. She says captain Maruri has been waiting for your... our return most impatiently." Letting out a chuckle, the dark-haired youth replied:
"Well, let's not keep them waiting any more than necessary."
