(AN: before the chapter starts, I'd like to thank everyone who favorited and followed this FF. Thank you to the community for appreciating this story.)
From the perfect poise exhibited in the way she sat, to her flawless complexion, she was the sort of person you'd call yourself lucky just to be friends with.
If there was a word to describe the woman seated in the centre of her room, reading through a book without a care in the world, it would be beautiful.
At least, that's what the little girls felt watching the perfect figure of a person going through her daily routine.
Then, as if sensing her presence like always, the woman's fox ears perked up and she turned in the direction of the pair.
"You two," she said, with a smile that'd make a heart stop "why are you hiding over there girls? Come play with your sister."
"Amagi," they both cried out, running into the arms of her elder sister and falling into her lap. This was a regular day for the pair. Amagi started her day off going over what needed to be done, who to send out for commissions. As she did that, Kaga and Akagi would watch in silence, admiring their sister.
Then, like always the little foxes ran up to their sister and play with her. This was how the three of them started their days and it remained that way for a long, long time.
"Mmmm, soft," said Akagi, rubbing her face up against one of the many tails of her sister "I wonder when I'll get a tail as soft as yours."
"That'll be a while my dear," said Amagi, giggling at Kaga rolling across the long and bushy tails of her elder sister.
"Amagi, Amagi," said Akagi, her small tails swaying in unison, her eyes glittering brightly at her elder sister.
"I know dear," said Amagi, standing up and walking towards the bookcase. From the way she wore her kimono, it almost looked like she was gliding across the floor. At least, that was how the pair of them saw it.
As Amagi found the right book, she turned and headed back to her sister, only to stumble a little, holding her hand up to cover her cough.
"Amagi," shouted the little girl, racing up to her "are you okay?"
"Sorry my dear," she said, stroking the little girl's head "it was just a little cough. Nothing to worry about."
"If you say so," said Akagi, still unsure of whether or not to believe her sister.
"Today, we're reading 'The Fox and the Cherry Blossom," said Amagi, taking her place, with Akagi sitting on her lap and Kaga sitting on the other lap.
Amagi playfully cleared her throat as a way to say she was starting her story.
"Once there was a fox," said Amagi, looking at the illustration of a nine-tailed purple colored fox
"Hey, that fox looks just like us," said Kaga, pointing to the animal in question.
"The fox lived in a huge forest and played around with many animals. It loved to play games with the other animals and often played tricks on them."
She smiled as the two sisters giggled, no doubt imagining what tricks the fox came up with.
"In that forest, there was a big and beautiful cherry blossom tree. It was taller than all the other trees and everyone in the forest loved how beautiful it was. Because that tree was the oldest, everyone in the forest respected it and never troubled it."
"But one day though, the fox decided to play a trick on the tree. Everyone told it not to but the fox didn't listen. After it played the trick, the tree got really mad at the fox."
"Everyone else in the forest left me alone yet you disturbed me," shouted the old tree "for that, you should be punished."
From that day, the old tree would shake its big body and cause many petals to fall down. The tree told the fox that if it caught just one petal, the tree would forgive him. The fox tried as hard as it could, but everytime it got close to one petal, it saw a shinier one and went after that."
"Aww, poor fox," said Kaga, then turned to Amagi "sister, is that how the story ends?"
"No my dear, all stories have a happy ending," she said, in a reassuring tone.
"I wanna know, I wanna know," pleaded the two fox girls.
Just as she was to continue with the story, they heard the shutters to her room open and through it came five familiar faces.
One was the Lion of the North, Bismarck; leader of the Iron Blood and quite possibly the strongest of her generation. Then there was Atago, the stalwart shield of the Sakura Empire. She might move slowly on the battlefield but if she were to catch an enemy in her sights, not even divine intervention could save them.
Then there was Jean Bart, the noble knight of the group. She always spoke about truth, justice and behaved like a valiant knight. She was the sort of person that'd have your back through thick and thin. After that was Avrora, the high-speed fighter of the group. Sure, she looked as light as a feather, but in the time it takes someone to clench their fist, she'd have hit them at least five times.
The newest member of the group was Hood. Unlike the others who were all distinguished soldiers with their achievements large enough to write books about, Hood was a very different from them. She was most famous for the 'Rescue at the Crimson Waterfall.' When the Siren forces had pinned down a large group of fighters from the Royal Navy, at a time where it seemed impossible to save them, Hood went in on her own and saved the group, while keeping the Siren forces from advancing.
"Amagi," said Jean Bart.
"So that time has finally arrived," said Amagi, closing the book and gently taking her little sisters off her lap.
"Yes," said Bismarck "we have their location. Now is the time for us to finish the Sirens once and for all."
"Sister," said Akagi, tugging on the sleeve of Amagi "can we come help you?"
"No my dear," said Amagi "you just stay here and before you know it, I'll be back."
"You promise?" asked Kaga, looking as worried as Akagi was.
Seeing this, Amagi bent down, putting her hands on their heads and with a warm smile she said "of course girls. I'll always be there for you."
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It was years since she had a dream like that, the last time she saw her beloved elder sister. That was before the heroic forces of Azur Lane defeated the sirens and brought peace to the world.
Akagi awoke to a dark room with only thin rays of light penetrating through. She rubbed her head, rose up from the bed and made her way to the windows. Here, she moved away the thick curtains, allowing her room to be illuminated by the light of day.
"Good morning sister," came a voice from behind.
She turned around and said "Kaga, I didn't hear you come in."
Her sister, still bowing said "I apologize for interrupting you. If you like I'd…"
"No, its all right," she said "what do we have to do today?"
"You have a meeting with the resource department and then you'll be overseeing Yukikaze unveiling her latest work of art. There'll also be a number of reports for you to fill and after that we'll have our answer from the Coalition."
'That's right,' she thought 'that otherworlder has already caused me enough trouble.'
'I can't have him ruining my plans, not when I'm this close.'
"Alright Kaga, wait outside for me and I'll get ready," said Akagi and Kaga nodded.
In the wake of Amagi's death at the final battle, the Sakura Empire went for months without a leader. During that time, smaller factions started rising up and asserting their claim. This led to the SE nearly splitting up into smaller groups were it not for the timely intervention of Akagi.
Although she did not have as much battle experience as her two siblings did, her deft manner of handling the day-to-day operations of the Sakura Empire and her ability to pacify the factions before they did anything too dangerous, helped her become the unquestionable leader of the Sakura Empire.
As time went on, she distinguished herself on the battlefield, earning numerous victories and achievements through her career, but never once let her administrative skills weaken.
This was why, the Sakura Empire had grown into the largest faction in the world. In fact, many believe that if it weren't for the war going on right now, the Sakura Empire would have absorbed all the other factions with little resistance.
Her day wasn't all that different from most other days. She bathed, cleaned, dressed up and went to her office, where she had breakfast and went over the reports submitted yesterday. After that, she went through the island, greeting some of the many soldiers that made up the Sakura Empire.
When it came to lunch, Akagi retreated to her room, preferring to eat alone. Originally, she used to eat in the cafeteria with everyone else, but lately, she changed her location. Kaga worried about this and tried to ask her what caused this change, but her sister would simply brush it off, saying it was nothing.
In the silence of her room, where no one would bother her, Akagi reached into her drawer and removed the false bottom to reveal a small black wisdom cube.
She took the object out of the drawer, placed it on the ground and stepped back as it projected an image of a black-clothed woman with yellow colored eyes.
"Greetings Akagi," said Overseer Alpha of the Sirens "you took your time to call. I was wondering if you forgot about our daily meetings."
"No," she said, quickly getting on one knee and lowering her head "I just… had more work to do than I first thought."
"Hmmm alright, I'll let it slide," said the Siren "so tell me, how have things been progressing?"
"Our forces are getting stronger with each day. And we've already taken steps against the otherworlder."
"That otherworlder's a dangerous element," said Overseer, stroking her chin "he's an unknown quantity in the war. If we leave him alone now, he's sure to make us regret it."
"I want him and his rebellion dealt with swiftly and decisively Akagi," she added, her hologram floating towards her.
"You wouldn't want me to change my mind, not after coming so far."
"You have nothing to fear Overseer," said Akagi "the Otherworlder is no threat and by today, he'll never cause trouble for us again."
Overseer let out a light chuckle at those words as her hologram moved back.
"See that you do, Akagi."
In the human world, there's a famous saying "Don't make deals with the devil."
This saying stems from a man making a deal with a devil for a life filled with riches, in exchange for selling his soul. Throughout the years, the creature the man made a deal with changed from the Devil, to the crossroads demon, to Mephisto and even Crowley. The identity of the demon itself did not matter.
The long and short of the story was that the man enjoyed a long and happy life. Nearing the end of his life he tried to trick the devil, but failed and suffered for an eternity. That's the problem with making deals with the devil, coz the devil always comes to collect.
Such was the case for Akagi.
It was during the time when the second war with the Sirens started. The threat of the aliens was further exacerbated by the smaller factions in the SE, threatening to quit and making the faction on the whole, easy to conquer.
Fearing that would happen, Akagi contacted Overseer Alpha, one of the three leaders of the Siren forces. Here, she made the deal, promising she would eliminate the other factions if the Sirens were to leave the SE alone.
Seeing as it meant little effort on their part, Overseer Alpha agreed and the Sakura Empire enjoyed a period of prosperity, while the rest of the world was at war. Although members of the Sakura Empire did face Siren forces from time to time, it was relatively small scale compared to everyone else. It was an added bonus that the other, smaller factions were able to put their differences aside and rejoin the SE.
Then came the problem, the otherworlder.
Based on what information Akagi gleaned from Alpha's off-hand comments, in the time it took the Sirens to eliminate Hood till now, the otherworlder was able to unite the Eagle Union. If that weren't enough, the forces of the EU that scattered all came back after hearing what happened.
Although she did her best to hide it, the sight of Enterprise and other aces surrounding the otherworlder, ready to fight her was a dangerous sign. He could not be allowed to continue. The Sakura Empire was the last piece of her sister's legacy and she would protect it, no matter the cost.
Akagi now heard alarms blaring in her room and outside.
'An attack?' he thought, scrambling to her feet 'no, don't tell me.'
Akagi raced out her room, darting straight to her headquarters. There, she saw Kaga and the others looking at a large monitor.
"We picked this up from our long-range scanners," said Kaga.
Looking at the number of forces on screen, it seemed like the otherworlder had given her his answer.
"I offered him peace and he spat in my face," said Akagi, clenching her fist. "No matter."
"Say the word my lady," said Kinu "our forces are awaiting your orders."
"Crush them," she said, still looking at the monitor. With that, the aces of her fleet all left the room, ready to carry out their leader's orders.
"it's time you learned otherworlder," said Akagi, marching to the door "how dangerous we are."
