Chapter Nine

Advance, and don't stop for anything.

It was a directive that was almost brutal in its simplicity, and one that invoked the spirit of the days of old when a battle devolved to the point where one army simply charged into a bloody melee with the other. A line of Siren mass-produced battleships supported by a dozen smaller Siren kansens—difficult odds even if we weren't in such a hurry. A wall of steel stood before us, and a part of me wasn't even sure that ramming it at full speed would be enough to break through.

Gods willing, though, when the smoke settled, fortune would favour us.

Simplicity, however, was not to be confused with 'easy', which became readily apparent as Choshu and I began our push. At first, the enemy did not respond: something that I attributed with faint hope to sheer surprise in the face of our reckless charge at their line. Whatever pause we gave them, however, was short lived, and soon the air became filled with the symphony of war. Streaks of tracer shells impacted the water around me, often followed seconds later by the reverberating roar of an oncoming main battery round that would slam into the ocean, sending out a shockwave of force and ocean spray in all directions. Even though I was a battleship-type kansen, I was no slowpoke when I got up to full steam, but the nature of my rigging and the laws of physics themselves dictated that I could either be quick or I could be nimble, but I could not be both at once.

All I could do was put faith in my armour and weather the storm of steel that fell upon it. The smaller secondary batteries were of minor concern, but it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened, and a shot from the Siren battleships' main guns found their mark. There was a loud, disorientating thunderclap as my vision became nothing but blurred smoke, and it felt as though a giant hand had suddenly descended from the heavens and swatted me aside. The round had impacted my upper belt armour, and the blast almost threw me off my feet, but thankfully honed instincts and training kept myself upright.

"Nagato, are you okay?" Choshu called out to me.

"The damage is… slight," I replied as I shook off the worst of the concussive force. I was jostled, but my advance was not deterred. I couldn't allow it to be: too many lives were counting on me. However, I hadn't been entirely honest, as the damage had torn a large gash through my starboard-side secondary batteries.

Seeing no reason that the hostilities had to be one-sided, I readied my main cannons and made my feelings known with a volley of return fire. I was still sailing at full speed, though, and with the added rattling from being peppered by smaller shots, my aim left something to be desired, even against a target as large as a Siren warship. The first salvo straddled its target for the most part, with only a single shot actually managing to hit the obsidian monstrosity in the bow, which did little to hamper it.

A pair of salvos from Choshu had better luck and struck the leading Siren vessel amidship, with devastating results. The ship was rocked by the force of the blast, which left the ship sitting in the water with a severe list as smoke poured out of the fresh wound. How my colleague managed such a well-placed shot was puzzling at first, but as we continued our advance it appeared that the enemy were not focusing their attention on her to the same extent. In fact, the lack of large explosions around her suggested that none of the battleship-caliber guns were even directed at her, and would've given me a lot to think about were I not distracted by all the aforementioned guns giving me their undivided attention.

None of that mattered to me, though; no weight of broadside would slow me down.

"Excellent shot, Choshu!" I shouted. Noticing that the vessel hit by my comrade had fallen silent, I saw what we needed. "You have opened a hole in their formation. We can use that to break through."

Not that the enemy was going to make that easy for us either, and no sooner had we manoeuvred towards the opening did I see another incoming shot ready to introduce itself to me. This time around, I got the thickest parts of my port-side turret and belt armour up to receive it, and the fist of the heavens slammed into the Empire's finest face-hardened steel in a blossom of red-hot shards. Their growing transgressions against me had passed from 'annoyance' to 'frustration', and the one good thing about anger was how it could give you new focus. Swinging up the main batteries of the opposite side, I took quick aim.

"Impudent fools!" I bellowed before I unleashed my fury.

The unfortunate recipient of my ire soon found its bow being violently penetrated by multiple forty-one centimeter shells, resulting in an explosion so catastrophic that the bow was severed from the rest of the ship, and its forward turret launched into the air like a New Year's firework. If they didn't have a reason to focus their firepower on me, such a display surely gave them one now.

As the newly scrapped warship had been adjacent to the one that Choshu had crippled, we had now created a channel through their line wherein the armoured hulks of their own ships would protect our flanks when we passed through. The Sirens must have realized this as well as the remaining ships began to reposition to try and close the gap, but such large ships of the line could not move as swiftly as a kansen, so the only serious threat to us were the handful of Siren kansens that moved to intercept.

At the lead of a V-formation was another of the type that carried the large, twin-barreled cannon, flanked on both sides by a series of the smaller, nimbler opponents. Again, were I not in such a hurry, a force of that size was manageable even on my own, but their objective was likely just to tie me down, which was something they could accomplish without even needing to score a hit. Breaking through their line was going to hurt, one way or another.

"Nagato!" my counterpart suddenly shouted before she swept in just ahead of me. "Just stay close, I will handle this!"

I wasn't certain if she was being selfless in taking the brunt of the enemy counterattack, or selfish because she just wanted to be the first to the fight, but either way I appreciated her willingness to take the lead. I noticed that the volume of fire from the larger ships subsided once Choshu assumed the vanguard position, which followed the earlier pattern of me being the primary target, but at the same time it could have just been because we were getting too close to their own forces. Whatever the reason, the reprieve gave me a moment to collect myself. I had already taken more hits than I would normally allow, and while my armour had held for the most part, the phrase 'death by a thousand cuts' existed for a reason.

Eventually, not even a Siren could hold their fire when an angry Nagato-class battleship was barreling down upon them, and the cannonfire rang out once more. Through it all, Choshu held her position at the lead, despite the scores of rounds ricocheting and shattering against her armour. I was struck by her resilience and unwavering conviction: even when faced with such odds, she did not hesitate or waver. Why was it so difficult for me to emulate her decisiveness? Was it just the lack of battle experience, or was it some deeper, fundamental flaw in my character?

I couldn't let myself get distracted by self-reflection, as there were still a lot of Sirens trying to sink Choshu and I. Granted, my counterpart was screaming at the top of her lungs as she charged the enemy with her sword drawn, so any possibility of quiet contemplation had long since been drowned. With the Sirens showing no sign of backing down from their charge, I began to wonder who was going to blink first in this showdown. Surely the Sirens wouldn't be so crazy as to rush headlong at a battleship carrying a sword almost as large as any one of them.

The sound of cleaving steel answered that question with a resounding, 'yes, they are that crazy'. The leading three Sirens lunged at Choshu, but my counterpart didn't even slow down for an instant as her sword lashed out in a sweeping, energized arc. It was at that moment that I became immensely grateful that our opponents only looked like humans, as our three foes were now rearranged into about a dozen pieces that would've showered us in blood and viscera had they actually been living beings. Instead, the individual components exploded shortly after their dismemberment, peppering me with metal fragments and leaving me in a coughing fit as we pulled away from the ones who had the sense to give Choshu a wide berth.

With the most immediate threat now scrambling to reform in order to give pursuit, we rushed into the opening between the two Siren warships we had disabled. While they had originally assumed a loose formation, the combination of ocean currents and the wake from the neighboring vessels as they relocated to plug the gap had started to push the drifting wrecks towards each other. On the one hand, it meant we had very close protection on both sides, but the opening was growing ever narrower with each passing moment. I pulled in as close behind Choshu as I could, eyeing the smoldering hulks with growing wariness. As we passed between the two, the ship to our port began to groan and chatter loudly as the structural integrity began to give way and its own mass began to tear the hull apart. The stern end of the ship rose into the air as it began to sink bow-first, leaving it looming high overhead like some alien monolith. Just as it seemed to reach its apex, an internal explosion suddenly tore open the rear half of the ship and dropped the entire stern back into the ocean. In such a narrow channel, a thousand tonnes of obsidian steel slamming into the ocean made it so violent that one could have mistook it for the Divine Winds turning against us.

"Watch out!" Choshu shouted, although she was still barely audible over all the crashing steel and exploding munitions around us. The enraged wakes forced us both up against the hull of the warship to our starboard side, but we couldn't afford to slow down, even as our turrets and armour screamed in protest while leaving a trail of sparks as we scraped along.

Suffice to say, I felt nothing but relief when we finally emerged from the opposite end and returned to the relatively calmer open ocean. Getting intimate with that Siren vessel hull had ground off a lot of the paint of my starboard hull, as well as tore off some of the bells and streamers that adorned the turrets, but winning beauty contests had become the least of our concerns. I chanced a look back and was surprised to see that the Siren kansens had decided against following in our wake. They might've just crashed in their attempt, but I was not willing to consider ourselves so fortunate. It didn't matter, though; with the bulk of their firepower behind us and only getting further away, we could outrun the larger vessels and their kansens would become little more than a nuisance once they were outside the effective supporting range of their cohorts.

"I think we should be in the clear," I said as I swung back around to continue.

"Then all that's left is the flagshi—" Before Choshu could finish, a Siren suddenly charged in from the flank and crash-tackled her with such force that the two of them were sent tumbling several meters to the side.

Where did that one even come from? There was no way the ones behind us could've caught up so quickly, so the only explanation was that they must have kept a portion of their force in reserve behind their main line for this exact reason. Before my friend could even right herself, several more Siren kansens, including the stragglers behind us, vectored in to swarm her position. The one that had assailed her remained the most worrying, as its rigging was far more massive than any of the previous ones we had encountered, with an array of cannons mounted on multiple arms arranged around her figure like legs on a crab.

"Hold on, Choshu!" I shouted.

Just as I was about to turn about, there came a surprising, but in hindsight should have been expected, response, as my colleague replied with, "Just keep going! I'll keep these bastards off your back!"

Had I the time, I would've objected against such reckless bravado, or maybe even just flat-out ignored her, but the mission had to take priority. For whatever reason, the enemy seemed to have switched all of their attention on her, and I would be a fool not to take advantage of this. All I could do was put my faith in her strength, and pray that stopping the flagship quickly would also put an end to her Siren puppets.

Dealing with our mystery assailant, though, was going to be a whole other mountain of a challenge. By the time the blockading Sirens were little more than a cacophony of gunfire and explosions behind me, I had taken more than my fair share of hits: half of my secondary batteries were inoperable, and my main guns had taken a number of hits that, while still operational, were beginning to show signs of structural fatigue. I had only received some emergency repairs since my bout with Choshu, so even light damage was beginning to aggravate the parts of my rigging that had been patched up. Add to that the fatigue and strain of going 'all ahead full' for so long, and, to say the least, my condition was so far removed from 'battle ready' that they weren't even in the same time zone anymore.

To make matters worse, I soon noticed that the silhouette of the flagship ahead of me had become rather hazy, and it was rapidly growing worse. For a moment, I thought it might've been another encounter with the Siren's mirror fog, but it wasn't nearly as thick as it had been in the past, and a quick check of my radio system revealed that they were still functioning.

"Nagato to Akagi, the enemy flagship appears to have laid out a smoke screen," I said, both to test the radio and report my situation. "Do you have any planes left in the area? Can you confirm the enemy's position?"

"Negative," my colleague's voice replied. "All of my available planes I've had to recall in order to defend myself, and my flight deck is still inoperable, so I have precious few still airborne. I'm afraid I have no intel on the enemy flagship or the incoming unknown contact I spotted earlier."

Although expected, it was still disheartening to hear that there was little aerial reconnaissance remaining. Akagi only had a handful of air patrols up when the attack started, and it's understandable that they're more needed to defend herself with than providing intel to me. I was going into a smokescreen blind, but if the unknown contact was more enemy reinforcements then it was all the more important that I ended this fight as soon as possible. I made one last check on all of my rigging's systems, half of which were in rough shape at best, before I pushed ahead into the smoke. To no surprise, visibility dropped to almost 'non-existent' as I began a cautious approach to the enemy's last known position. As I scanned for any sign of a kansen, my mind wandered through the possible outcomes: if I were in the enemy position, what would my tactics be?

There was nothing but thick smoke in all directions, which would hinder her vision just as much as mine. In that case, she would have to rely on something else to find me, but what? I could fire my cannons to blast away the smoke, but that would give my position away long before I cleared enough. If only I had Yuudachi here—she had the nose of a bloodhound and could've sniffed out the opposition with ease. The only animal trait I had were a pair of conspicuously large ears…

That's when the realization dawned upon me: sound!

Unlike some of my comrades in the Sakura Empire, I had never been the type to rely upon my animal traits, but now they might be my best chance at getting through this. I came to a full halt, closed my eyes, and tried to focus everything on only the noise around me. The ocean was far from quiet, but with motion came sound. Little by little, my perception opened up, and what normally felt like a discordance slowly fell into order: I could hear the swells of the ocean, their subtle moans as the waves and currents passed beneath me; off in the distance, the gunfire of my comrades were faint snaps and cracks, interspersed with the occasional dull, heavy thud of a battleship's main battery. Underneath it all, subtle and hiding from my senses, was the grind and groan of heavy metal, of a rigging shifting its weight as a kansen adjusted her bearings. My ears twitched at the telltale hiss of steel cutting through the currents, getting louder as it closed in on me. It was coming from behind me, and I swung around just as a blade came down for my head, but instead only found the bulk of my turret armour. The blade itself was mounted upon a long shaft, a naginata to be precise, and at the other end of the weapon was a tall, beautifully deadly kansen. Her red and white kimono were much like those of Mutsu and Choshu's, signifying her as not only of Sakuran origins, but also a fellow miko. The whole situation felt very much like deja vu, as this mystery kansen's rigging also had multiple turrets housing twin forty-one centimeter cannons.

There was, however, little time to take in the sight, as the first blocked strike was followed-up by a quick strike with the opposite end of the haft, attempting to knock me off-balance before bringing the blade around again for another powerful, downward slice. It took all of my focus just to keep my armour between me and her weapon, resulting in repeated clashes of steel on steel, each blow strong enough to kick up a shower of sparks and carve deep crevices in my plating. Several more strikes followed suit, never allowing me a moment to recover as I scrambled between dodging and blocking with barely a second to think it over. Every attack was delivered with unerring precision and with complete, unsettling silence from my assailant.

Eventually, I managed to catch her blade with a turret face, using the twin barrels to pin the blade long enough to shove her back. That gave me a second of breathing space, but more importantly enough time to swing up my other turrets and snap off a quick volley of high explosive rounds. While they weren't as deadly as armour-piercing, a part of me still wanted to at least give diplomacy a chance, even if it meant first battering her into submission. I believe the westerners referred to it as 'gunboat diplomacy.'

The force of my cannons parted the smokescreen, cutting open a wide swath of clear sky and sea before the shells found their marks with the expected fiery conclusion. Fate, however, had decided that things would not go my way so easily. Along with four sets of twin-barreled turrets, my opponent's rigging had two large slabs of belt armour mounted on jointed arms. Thus, as the smoke cleared away, I was greeted to the sight of my opponent hidden safely behind a curtain of cemented steel.

"Stop this madness! Whatever the Sirens may have told you, there is no reason to turn your weapons against your own kind!" I called out to her, taking advantage of the momentary lull in the gunfire.

As her hinged shields retracted, the mysterious kansen's gaze met my own. It was cold and dispassionate—no sign of any warmth or emotion of any sort could be seen behind the red-framed glasses she wore. In the heat of a battle I would've expected something, even if just anger or annoyance, but it seemed as though the woman before me had been drained of any trace of humanity.

"Do not think for a moment that we have anything in common," she replied before readying her naginata once more for an attack.

"But we have no quarrel with you," I implored her.

"I don't care."

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little unnerved by the woman. Standing tall with fiery red hair, a slender, but powerful build, and a composure that bordered on grace, she seemed like the polar opposite of my short, disheveled, and winded presentation. There was an aura about her that just set off every alarm and instinct within me, and the kind of absolute indifference she had on display would be difficult, if not impossible, to defeat with words.

"Opposite…" I murmured under my breath as a possibility crossed my mind. It was a longshot, but given recent events, even the outlandish felt feasible. "Are you, by any chance… Mutsu?"

Her response, though, came only from the mouth of her cannons. A volley of rounds exploded around me, drenching me in a spray of seawater and splinters. Sadly, that did little to provide an answer, but it made it clear that I was going to have to keep fighting if I wanted one. I had to keep out of reach of her naginata, so I pulled away under the cover of a suppressing barrage. Poorly aimed, but a scattering of explosions kept my opponent from trying to close the gap.

However, even keeping my distance I was going to be at a disadvantage. At such close ranges, it was hard for either of us to miss when we made an effort to aim, which resulted in our skirmish descending into a blow-for-blow slugging match between our main batteries. There just wasn't enough time for evasive manoeuvring, so when she returned fire, the best I could do was brace my armour and pray to the heavens that nothing important got hit. The first few exchanges I weathered reasonably well, with the brunt of the force impacting into my belt and turret armour. And after which, I would respond in kind with a volley of forty-one centimeter shells that would batter against her prepared defenses. I was never going to win a test of endurance against her; she was fresh and had better armour protection with the extra steel slabs on her rigging.

I couldn't give up, though; everyone was counting on me. They had put all of their trust into me finishing this fight, so I couldn't give up, even if things looked impossible. I had to endure, even with volley after volley of heavy cannonfire flung in both directions. Even as every blow eroded my strength, I had to keep up the fire. If I could just bypass her armour and land one solid blow on her, I could turn the tide of this battle. As I watched another of my salvos shatter nigh-harmlessly against her armoured curtain, I knew a conventional approach would only end in my inevitable loss once wounds and weariness took their toll upon me. Her defenses were impressive; she was able to maintain a withering barrage with her main batteries even when her shields were raised. Each turret was mounted to its own arm, which simply extended out further in order to fire around the edges of her shield. Offense and defense in perfect harmony. I would've been in more awe were I not on the receiving end of it.

What I needed to do was try something that she would least expect. Such lateral thinking felt more like the realm of Akagi's type of guile, but a change in tactics was needed. Since this entire skirmish had been an exchange of gunnery, I reasoned perhaps the biggest surprise I could throw at her would be to attack up close. If I could get within her reach, perhaps I could land a hit past her armour, if even just a minor one. Though I wouldn't admit it openly, Choshu was the more capable warrior, so I asked myself what would she do in my position?

Probably something brash and reckless like a headlong charge.

It was a crazy idea, but I was running out of options. I came to an abrupt halt in order to steady my aim—I needed to distract her for a moment, and a well-aimed volley of high explosive rounds would do just the trick. She reacted just as anticipated, bracing with her shields to intercept the rounds, creating a thick cloud of gunsmoke as each round detonated harmlessly against her armour. The few seconds she'd need to wait for it to dissipate would be enough for me to enact the second part of my gambit. I swung all of my turrets around and fired the entire battery, launching myself towards my adversary like an angry, fox-eared cannonball. I screamed as loud as I could as I rocketed across the water, partly as a battlecry, and partly out of terror. Hopefully, there was a brief flicker of surprise or maybe even panic when my adversary caught sight of me.

What she was not, however, was caught flat-footed. Just as I was about to slam into her, she dropped her stance and angled her shield upwards, creating something of a ramp out of it. Instead of crashing into her with all of my might, I flattened against her shield just as she pushed me up and over her head, using all of my momentum to send me tumbling into the air like a fish on the end of a line.

"Oh… fishsticks," was the best I could utter before gravity took over and brought me crashing back to the ocean's cold embrace. It made for one spectacular splash, at least, but I doubt my opponent would be off-put by mere saltwater spray.

As I laid in the water, staring up at my opponent, my thoughts did not drift towards that of home or family or friends. Yes, I was disappointed that my strategy had quite literally fallen flat, but the more pressing thought on my mind was where that bubbling, hissing noise was coming from. I could only hear it because laying on my back left part of my head, and thus my ears, under the water, where sound traveled better. It sounded almost like… torpedoes…

My curiosity lingered only for a few seconds before I caught sight of the bubbling wake of incoming torpedoes. While that left me with even more questions, one of them wasn't 'would my opponent notice them' because she must've been tipped off by my wandering gaze. She pulled away just in time as the volley of torpedoes cut through the waves just a few feet from me. All things considered, I was probably more thankful that those torpedoes didn't explode next to my head.

Unsurprisingly, the mystery kansen kept her attention fixated in the direction that the attack had come from, as was I. A hazy silhouette suddenly appeared through the smoke, followed an instant later by another kansen leaping into view, and I was without a doubt the most surprised out of everyone present by who it was.

"Kawakaze?" I exclaimed as I watched my former bodyguard cross swords with the battleship. The two exchanged a series of speculative strikes, each one probing the other with quick but easily parried blows, before pulling back to collect themselves.

"Lady Nagato, please stay behind and let me handle this," Kawakaze said as she positioned herself between me and the enemy.

"What are you even doing here?" I asked.

"Protecting you, isn't that obvious?" she quipped back.

While I hadn't meant it so literally, there were better times to argue over semantics. I realized then that she must've been the unknown vessel that Akagi had mentioned earlier. It would've been nice if she had alerted us to her presence earlier, but she must have had to maintain radio silence in order to avoid drawing the Siren's attention to her too soon.

Kawakaze slowly approached her opponent, but neither made any deliberate movements yet, nor any indication that they planned to use their main batteries. No doubt, they were mentally sizing each other up, debating their options and tactics. In a duel between two masters, even the slightest mistake could be fatal. The silvered fox made the first move, surging forward in a burst of unmatched speed, and striking just as quick. Her opponent met the first two attacks with a precise defense, but when she attempted a counter-attack, Kawakaze deftly slipped under the blow and raked her blade across the battleship's side. Unfortunately, all she managed to catch was armour, but it still left a deep crevice across the steel plate that had already been dented and battered by cannonfire. It wasn't first blood, but the ease with which my friend inflicted the blow filled me with renewed confidence.

"Not bad," the mystery kansen remarked, sounding just on the cusp of being impressed, "but not enough." She spun her polearm a few times before striking a new, aggressive posture. She may have not had Kawakaze's agility, but a polearm gave her significantly more reach, and could allow her to dictate the flow of battle.

The battleship lashed out, forcing my bodyguard to lean back so as to not have her head taken off in the opening strike. Now on the defensive, Kawakaze dodged, parried, and blocked an ever-quickening series of swipes and thrusts. Their blades moved almost too fast for me to keep track of, becoming a blur of sparks and shimmers as they clashed and skimmed through the water in their deadly waltz. They flowed like water, moving seamlessly between strikes, counter-attacks, parries, and back again, over and over in endless loops. Even when Kawakaze was able to leverage her speed, it always seemed like the battleship was one step ahead of her and would have a plate of armour or the shaft of her weapon already in position to intercept the oncoming blow.

While I was far from an expert in close-quarters combat, as I watched the pair, I could not help but notice that the battleship fought a deliberately defensive style. She favoured short, controlled strikes that allowed her to pull her guard back in, which she made use of multiple times to block Kawakaze's counterattacks.

Eventually, their blades locked together, upon which my bodyguard pushed in hard to get in close to her opponent. "Lady Nagato, take the shot!" my friend shouted.

With the two warriors tied up in a showdown of brute force, I had the perfect opportunity to shoot the battleship without her being able to muster a defense. But how could I fire with my friend right there? Even assuming I didn't hit Kawakaze by mistake, the blast of my shells would be just as deadly to her as they would be to the other kansen. Sometimes her selflessness could be frustrating, as if the idea of killing my friend could do anything other than throw an entire toolbox's worth of wrenches into my thought process!

The decision, though, was soon taken out of my hands as our adversary broke out of the deadlock, knocking Kawakaze's blade to the side, followed by a quick yet brutal strike that smashed the blunt end of the polearm into my friend's jaw. There was a flash of crimson soon thereafter, as the blade pulled back sharply and carved a bloody trail across her thigh. Despite being dazed and off-balanced, she still managed to get her sword back up just as the battleship thrusted the naginata with lethal intent and precision.

Somehow, Kawakaze just narrowly managed to catch the edge of her opponent's hilt, stopping the attack in its tracks, but not before at least a couple of inches of cold steel managed to find their way into my friend's shoulder. Only through sheer brute force and strength of will was she able to keep the blade from going any further, but with the weight of an entire battleship behind it, it was only a matter of time before her defenses broke down. Little by little, she was forced lower, her whole body trembling under the strain. I could only imagine how much her muscles screamed in agony.

There had to be something that I could do to help, but I was still paralyzed with indecision. Same as before, she was just too close for me to use my main guns. Either I'd hit her, or she'd be caught in the explosions from me hitting the battleship, both of which would be lethal for her. All I could do was aim my guns impotently at them…

"N-Nagato!" Kawakaze called out. "Shoot… her!"

"She'll kill you, too," the battleship replied. "And I don't think she has it in her."

She had me there, not that we could admit it openly, but while Kawakaze was selfless, she wasn't stupid: she wouldn't count on the same plan twice, and I think she knew me well enough to know I wouldn't accept that kind of a trade.

"Whatever you do, Nagato," my friend continued on, ignoring her opponent's barbs, "just don't miss!"

Knowing she couldn't match her adversary's strength with her own, Kawakaze decided to give up her resistance, and turned passivity into strength. She suddenly unsummoned her rigging, which among other things deprived her of her ability to skim across the ocean's surface. Without that artificial buoyancy and all the weight of a battleship kansen pressed against her, she plunged straight into the water, and pulled the naginata along with her.

So not only was my target left doubled-over and off-balance because her weapon had suddenly turned into a fishing spear, the only thing that had held me back was now safe beneath the surface. There was a surge of adrenaline and excitement as I recognized that before me laid a target opportunity so perfect it could've been handed down to me from the heavens. Perhaps this rush was what Warspite felt back at the Battle of Cape Matapan—of an absolute and overwhelming victory, and the satisfaction of watching an entire broadside smashing into an unprepared enemy in a fiery, shrapnel-filled explosion.

When the smoke cleared, I saw the fruits of our labour: the battleship's rigging had been reduced to a near-smoldering wreck, just barely hanging together. I doubt she could even fire her own weapons back without them shattering under their own recoil. Her ice cold demeanour had melted under my firepower, leaving behind only an angry, hate-filled glare. Yet despite being covered in cuts and bruises, hunched over with labored breath, and her rigging being almost inoperable, the mystery kansen managed to stay upright and defiant. It was almost commendable, if foolhardy.

"You have fought bravely, but the battle is clearly over," I called out to her. "Surrender peacefully, and you'll be treated humanely."

"Humanely?" she scoffed through gritted teeth. "No such thing… from an Azur Lane lapdog."

Before I could defend myself against such an outrageous charge, a flicker of movement caught my attention. It was Kawakaze resurfacing, except rather than calm treading, she was frantically flailing just to keep her head above water.

"Kawakaze!" Remembering that she was injured and probably couldn't keep herself afloat for much longer, I raced over to her. "Quick, grab my hand!"

In a move that would surprise absolutely nobody, the wounded battleship took advantage of my distraction to make her escape. She steamed away as fast as she could for the lingering remnants of the smoke screen, and disappeared into the haze. That didn't matter to me, though, as I was more concerned with pulling my friend out of the water.

"I guess… it would be pointless to mention… that she's getting away," Kawakaze said, still gasping for breath.

"If I am forced to choose between the two of you, I would pick you a hundred times over," I reminded her. While I would have liked to have captured our assailant, the well-being of my friends took precedence. It wasn't as though a heavily damaged battleship would be of any threat to us, at least for the remainder of our voyage. "Are you still okay to sail?"

"Forgive me, I don't think I have the strength left in me…"

"Then I shall simply have to carry you back." With a bit of guidance, I was able to scoop part of my rigging beneath her, providing my friend with a perch for her use while she clung to my superstructure. Once she was on board, supporting her weight was a trivial matter for me, and we were soon able to get underway back to Akagi and the others. "This is Nagato to Akagi, we've succeeded in driving off the enemy. We were unable to sink or capture them, but we have inflicted heavy damage, and they have withdrawn from combat. What is your status? And how is Mutsu?"

"Let's just say, try not to cut it so close next time," Akagi replied over the radio. Cryptic and worrying, but at least she didn't sound quite so panicked anymore.

"I have Kawakaze with me," I continued on. "She's injured so please notify the doctor to meet us on the flight deck if he's able to."

"I'll notify him at once. By the way, did you and Choshu get separated?"

"We did," I said, curious as to how Akagi knew of this. "Is everything okay with her?"

"I don't know. I haven't been able to raise her on the radio for some time. Could you go find her?"

Akagi didn't need to ask, as I had already decided the moment she informed me that our cohort was out of radio contact. I was worried, but not panicked: Choshu was a capable warrior, so the more likely explanation was that she had simply taken damage to her communication systems and could no longer send or receive any kind of radio transmissions. With any luck, as long as I just doubled back on my original course, I would find my wayward colleague.

As I set course, I glanced over to Kawakaze to see how she was managing. It was strange to see my normally strong and stalwart bodyguard looking so weak as she held onto my rigging, soaked in salt water and stained with her own blood. She looked a bit paler than usual, which only served to hasten my pace to get her back to the carrier.

"It seems I have shamed myself again," Kawakaze groaned, not even lifting her head from where it rested against a turret. "I came here to help you, and instead I'm the one most in need of it."

"I couldn't have won without you," I reassured her. Even when she was no longer my bodyguard, it seemed that she couldn't help but continue to hold herself to a certain standard. "By the way, you never properly answered my question from before: why are you out here? I thought you had been reassigned to Lady Yamato."

"There are other candidates, she doesn't need me specifically," Kawakaze answered. "I figured that you could still use my help, though."

"I'm not the flagship anymore; I'm no longer entitled to a bodyguard."

"Then how about a friend?"

Surprised, I glanced back at her, and saw Kawakaze managing a tired smile in return. For a brief moment, I thought I had just imagined it all, or that she was playing an elaborate ruse, but my senses were intact and she was not the prankster type. "I thought you didn't see me that way," I said, reminded of our conversations from a while back.

"It would seem that since we parted ways, I have found myself… disquieted by your absence. I believe I've grown too accustomed to being around you and your sister."

I couldn't help but smile to myself. "I've missed you, too, Kawakaze."

While I had no reason to doubt those who we're already accompanying, having more people that I trusted around did much to alleviate any lingering concerns. Even if she wasn't officially my bodyguard any more, I was confident that she'd protect me as she always had.

My search for Choshu was thankfully brief; I had only been sailing back to her last known position for a few minutes when I caught sight of my counterpart sailing towards me. She looked about as roughed up as I had anticipated given her opposition, yet despite being covered head to toe in scrapes and oil smears, and her rigging had so many craters in it that it looked like the surface of the moon, she looked as elated as I had ever seen her.

"Already done, huh? Guess that explains why those Siren weaklings scampered off in such a hurry," Choshu said, boisterous as always. "Oh, when did Kawakaze get here?"

"Just a short while ago," I explained. "She assisted me in driving off the enemy flagship."

"Damn," Choshu remarked, sounding oddly disappointed. "If I had known you had things under control, I would've taken my time and enjoyed myself." In hindsight, that kind of response shouldn't have come as a surprise. For the life of me, I doubt I would ever understand how she could relish in such bloodshed. "So who was our mystery kansen, anyways? You mentioned they looked like they were from the Sakura Empire."

Any sense of calm and relief I had from the battle being over evaporated in an instant. I had a hunch—a very strong one, in fact—that the woman we dealt with was none other than her younger sister, Mutsu. Granted, just because we had come across a Nagato from one alternate timeline, didn't mean that the battleship we met had the same origins, but I was willing to bet good money that she was. The more I thought about it, the more the kansen I fought fit the 'exact opposite' profile that Choshu had mentioned to me before. That left me with a problem, though: should I tell her that we had just fought with her sister? If the situation was reversed, I would've dropped everything in that instant and given chase, or worse, started to seriously reconsider who my allies were. Choshu had only been with us for about a week, so what if learning that I just shot her sister made her want to return the favour? Being overprotective of our sister was one of the few things the two of us had in common. Telling her that there was even a chance that we had just encountered hers carried a very real threat that she could leave us at a moment in our voyage when we were at our most vulnerable.

To tell her the truth could put all of us in jeopardy. It was unlikely that any of us were in a condition to repel another assault from Sirens if they were to make another attempt. As much as it pained me, I had to protect everyone in the convoy, even if it meant concealing the possible truth. At the very least, I could obfuscate my suspicions until we reached our destination.

"I didn't recognize her," I answered. While it was technically the truth, it was still a lie of omission. "When we reach the Azur Lane port, I will relay a report to my superiors. They might be able to find out more."

"A pity. Well, you said you saw them off, so at least there will be a chance for me to get a shot at her later."

I felt absolutely disgusted with myself for lying to her. There probably weren't enough prayers in the entire empire to wash away the shame I felt, but it wasn't the first time I've had to make unpleasant decisions for what I convinced myself was the greater good.

Gods forgive me…