Chapter 12

"Bist du sicher, dass wir sie nicht da rausholen sollten, (are you sure we shouldn't get her out of there)," Z-4 asked desperately to Bismarck. "Sie könnte ertrinken (she could drown)," she further stressed. It had been around a minute since Fubuki went under and she was getting antsy since there wasn't any sign of movement at all in the pool.

"mach dir keine Sorgen, es wird ihr gut gehen (don't worry, she'll be fine)," Bismarck said calmly.

"Woher weißt du, dass Bismarck (how do you know that Bismarck)," Z-4 pressed, she wasn't sure why Bismarck was acting as if nothing was wrong.

"Ich weiß es einfach (I just know)," Bismarck answered, placing her hand over her heart.

Z-4 was about to press further when both of them suddenly heard splashing in the after and a sharp gasp. They both turned to the pool to face Fubuki panting, hacking, and trying to keep her head up. Z-4, relieved that Fubuki had re-emerged, called out to her, "Fubuki are you OK."

Still focusing on keeping her head up, Fubuki responded somewhat quietly, "ja mir geht es gut (yeah, I'm OK)."

Z-4, surprised by what Fubuki had just said, asked, "umm what did you say?"

Fubuki again answered, "Ich sagte ja, mir geht es gut (I said yeah, I'm ok)." As Fubuki looked up and noticed the confused look Z-4 was giving her, she asked, "Was, warum siehst du mich so an (what, why are you looking at me like that)?" It was then that the realization of what she was doing finally set in, causing Fubuki to immediately cover her mouth with her hand before saying, "wait what did I just say? I mean I know what I said, but oh I'm so confused." While relieved that she could speak her old language, she soon noticed that her voice sounded different, it still sounded like her, but it had a accent to it almost like how those in the Iron Fleet spoke, the accent wasn't overpowering but if one of her friends back home heard her speak they might not recognize her voice at first.

Hoping to hopefully clear up her confusion Bismarck asked, "kannst du uns jetzt verstehen, kannst du uns erzählen, was passiert ist, als du unter Wasser gegangen bist (can you understand us now, can you tell us what happened when you went under the water)?"

"Yes I can understand your language now, but I still don't understand how I can now," Fubuki answered still lost over what just happened. "Do you really think this had something to do with my sudden submerge under the water," she asked?

"Well," Bismarck started, "would you be willing to tell us what happened?"

Sighing to herself, Fubuki complied, "OK but brace yourself this is a wild story, I still don't understand half of it." Fubuki then proceeded to tell how she somehow transported to some black world of nothingness, about the red figure that suddenly appeared out of nowhere and how she rescued it from a kind of shadow hand and how it then seemed to break apart and go into her body.

After she finished telling them, Z-4 just stood there, mouth slightly agape and eyes wide, rubbing her head she mumbled, "wow that's a lot for anyone to take in."

Bismarck just smiled, "well I think I could offer a possible explanation for this."

Fubuki slightly perked up, "you do?"

Bismarck nodded, "yep, you remember the legend of The Scarlet King right?" Fubuki nodded so Bismarck continued on, "well just as how he left to retrieve his lost queen because of his love for her, so it's fair to believe that his queen loves him just as much too; and since your glow was a resemblance of the king's armor then that red figure would've represented the queen or at least your version of her," she explained first, "did the figure look familiar to you in any way?" she then asked?

Fubuki nodded again slightly blushing, "yeah it looked almost like a girl back at the naval district I fell in love with," she answered. "Even now I occasionally think of her," she added, looking away from embarrassment.

Bismarck slightly chuckled, "well that's one part solved then," she concluded. "I can only guess and say since you succeeded in rescuing her, you were able to succeed where the king couldn't, and maybe that was a test of sorts, and since you passed it, you might have gotten your upgrades, both on the inside and outside," she finished explaining. "Why don't you come out of the water and let us see the new you," she suggested.

Fubuki hesitated at first, but she trusted the other two girls in the room so she slowly stepped out of the pool.

As more and more of her body became visible, the other two girls seemed almost in awe. Z-4's eyes went wide and she even faintly blushed, "wow Fubuki, you…you look great," she said.

"Indeed," Bismarck added, "and you look more grown up too."

At first Fubuki didn't have the slightest idea as to what they were talking about. But when she was fully out of the water, she thought that Bismarck and Z-4 had shrunk slightly, but then she realized something, they didn't shrink, she had grown taller, a little bit but still noticeable. When she further looked at herself as best she could in the reflection of the pool she noticed something else, her breasts had grown too, they were almost the same size as Yuudachi's now. Fubuki was both glad and a bit self-conscious, while she had hoped during her remodel, the fact they had grown that much caught her completely off guard. But her body wasn't the only thing that changed, her equipment seemed to be different too. While she'd need a closer examination, she did notice something that really excited her, mainly that she had an additional gun on her left hand meaning that she was essentially duel wielding now. While it would take some getting used to, she was glad to have gotten some more noticeable changes, it was as if she truly had been remodeled, or even reborn bigger, better, and stronger than before.

Turning back to face Bismarck and Z-4, they both noticed her change in demeanor, she was now more confident and sure of herself. They both stood at attention with Z-4 asking, "Was sind Ihre Befehle (what are your orders)," she asked before looking Fubuki in the eyes, "kommandant?"

Fubuki also standing at attention responded, "Lassen Sie uns mit Dr. Eva sprechen, ich bin sicher, sie hat einige sehr interessante Neuigkeiten für uns (let's talk to Dr. Eva, I'm sure she has some very interesting news to share with us)."

With what was just said the three girls stepped out of the harbor, to talk to Dr. Eva and take the next step to completing their shared goal.

_A/N: Hi again everyone, first of all; i want to thank you for reading this latest episode in my series. As I mentioned earlier I'm putting this series on a short hiatus (T-T again I'm sorry). But I am going to publish another series as a filler (but don't be discouraged, this new series is just as good or at least I hope so). Hopefully, in a month or two, I'll continue this series with episode 4, again thank you for understanding. :)