Chapter Eight: Traveling Abroad

Traveling on his hull wasn't such a bad experience, his ship was very large and spacious. So, everyone could set themselves up comfortably which was a good thing for the voyage from Azur Lane to Drøbak Sound. Was a tad lengthy, even for the speed at which kansen vessels can travel. After all, there going from the pacific to the waters of the North Sea. Granted, the waters would be friendly for the most part until they got near their destination. Then they would be getting into siren-controlled territory.

When sirens first showed up and wrought devastation. Entire swaths of territory were lost to them. As the people at the time were unable to properly fight against them and had no choice but to flee or be slaughtered. Resulting in entire nations essentially being made non-existent because of the sirens. Even after kansen had been created. Pushing back and trying to reclaim these zones proved fruitless. These places, in the nearly twenty years since the siren's first arrival. Had been declared 'Unclaimed Free Zones' as a result. Which left certain places understandably concerned with the enemy so uncomfortably close to their doorstep.

It was important to note that for kansen and by extension the sirens. While they were primarily meant for sea battles. A kansen could take their rigging and use it highly efficiently on land. With only certain weapon systems like torpedoes being unusable in such a scenario. However, the main guns, secondary guns, and AA guns were still very useful on land. This might not seem like much regarding destroyers or light cruisers. That quickly changed when one got too heavy cruisers and battleships. Even the most well-armored vehicle and fortifications are going to have a bad time. When hit by a 2,700lb AP shell or dropping HE shells into infantry positions. Being right on the ground a kansen could hit far more accurately and effectively. Then simple offshore bombardments ever could. Not to mention CV kansen being just as effective mobile airfields on the ground as they were at sea.

Poland lost most of its territory to the sirens everything from Opole and up was taken and what remained was eventually abandoned. Essentially making the nation nonexistent now. Ukraine lost everything from Ternopil to Kyiv and up to the sirens. What remained of the country and its citizens re-established the capital in Poltava. Meanwhile, the entirety of Belarus, Lithuania, and Estonia had been total losses. The little scrap of Russia that held Kaliningrad that lay in between was also taken.

Things weren't much better for the Scandinavian states. Iceland, Norway, and Denmark had been lost completely. Lands in Sweden just south of Stockholm had been lost, and Finland had amazingly held on to not losing anything. Though that had more to do with the sirens not focusing many of their forces that way during the time. Though the waters of the area were considered dangerous to sail into.

Other nearby nations during the time had barely held onto their respective territories. Due to the sirens not focusing many forces in the area or kansen having been created in time to stop enemy encroachment. Since then, things had fallen into something of a stalemate over the territories. Granted no one knew exactly what the sirens were doing within these held territories. Reconnaissance had been done but nothing had been found. At least nothing they were able to find behind any kind of siren camouflage. It was as if after slaughtering and driving out the people in the territories. They had just left it all alone for whatever reason. They only showed any real interest whenever any kind of attempt was made to reclaim them. Then they would appear to push these back. Just another of the odd mysteries surrounding the way the sirens acted. Plus, this was just the situation in Europe. Similar scenarios existed across other areas of the globe too.

König was currently within the captain's cabin of his hull. It was decent-sized with a work desk, chairs, and couch. Not to mention one of the walls had a beer tab and cooler that held chilled glasses built into it. He was at the moment standing over his desk working on some blueprints to kill time. Everyone had been passing time on their own during the voyage. Though they had also all gotten together to pass time as a team as well. For better and for worse. If he had to listen to U-96 do her own renditions. Of the songs from the soundtrack to 'Das Boot' one more time. He was going to shove her into one of his main guns and shoot her toward the Mediterranean. He was suddenly drawn by a knock at his door.

"Enter," He simply called out looking to see who it was. The door opened to reveal Mikasa walking in. He noticed she had some sort of box tucked under her arm.

"Hello König," The former Sakura flag ship spoke kindly, closing the door behind her. She paused for a moment noticing what the hybrid was doing. "What's that you're working on if you don't mind me asking?"

"Just some blueprints of my own design for some potential upgrades." He simply retorted. "Just about finished up in truth, I'll be sending a copy to the Kommandantin. Hopefully, it will get her approval for construction. Care to take a look?"

Curious as to what the Iron Blood battleship was coming up with. Mikasa walked up and began her own inspection of the blueprints. She carefully looked at them as she did her face going from a look of curiosity. To that of sheer shock and mild terror, her face even paling slightly. Mikasa muttered something to herself in her native tongue before looking at König. "This can't be for real, what ship in Azur Lane could possibly run a weapons system of this magnitude properly? I mean this's jus-" Mikasa paused as she then narrowed her eyes at the hybrid. "This's for you, isn't it?"

"Guilty as charged," König answered shamelessly. "I decided to come up with something in case I ever felt the need to up the ante, so to speak. Hopefully, Maruyama will agree and green-light the construction. Once done it will be kept in storage until I feel the need. Anyways, what brings you up here to me?"

Mikasa shook her head a little as she focused back on what she originally came for. "We still have time before we reach our destination. Anyways, if you recall that talk, we had back at the model museum." She held out the box to him. "The model came in a few days before we left. I figured we could build it here together to pass time."

König chuckled a little to himself. "That sounds like a wonderful idea Mikasa. I'm pretty much done with this. Let me just do a few little things and clean it up. Then we can get started." The Iron Blood kansen finished the last few little things on blueprints. Before making a scan of them to email Maruyama and then cleaning it all up. The two sat next to each other in a pair of chairs and began.

Neither one was sure how much time passed as they worked together on the model, but they were enjoying themselves.

"It will be neat passing right by where I was originally built all those years ago." Mikasa mused as put a piece in place. "Perhaps we can make a stop on the way back? I'm sure Hood would enjoy that as well."

"That's right your original self was constructed in a British shipyard before traveling to Japan." König mused as he placed a piece himself.

"Yeah, that's right. Though it has been forever since I've laid eyes on Britain. The Sakura will always be my true home. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't eager to see England again." Mikasa spoke nostalgically as she put another piece in place.

"True, it is the place of your birth essentially. It certainly gives you a rather unique connection to the isles." The hybrid mused as he put another piece on.

"What about you König?"

The Iron Blood froze up for a moment. Even with his mask on the sadness on his face was evident in his eyes. "For me, It's not really a place I'd want to have to go back to if I can avoid it. It's why I brought everything I could want with me to Azur Lane."

Mikasa realized she had hit a sore spot of sorts and quickly of a new direction to steer the conversation. "Anyway, thanks for building this with me. Now that I think about it, you're the first. Everyone else has just asked me what they want and just leaves me to do it all. It's nice to have someone willing to help for a change." The grand veteran mused with a small smile.

The gloominess left his eyes and was replaced with a bit of a twinkle at her words. "Well, I rather enjoy a little model building. Plus, doing it with someone does make for a nice change."

Mikasa just grinned a little and held out the final piece. "All that's left is the main Anton turret. Want to do it together?"

"Love to."

Mikasa holding one end and König holding the other. The two guided the final piece snugly into place. "Finished!" Mikasa declared with a clap of her hands and a smile on her face.

"What are you two doing in here?" U-556 announced as she suddenly swung the door open.

In a surprise, Mikasa whipped her head around at the unexpected arrival. Unfortunately, her and König's closeness to each meant. When she swung her head. One of her horns slammed right into the hybrid's forehead.

"Son of a bitch!" He swore as he was knocked out of his chair and to the ground with his head hurting like hell. Turns out Mikasa's horns were hurt like hell when hit with them. Go figure.

"Ack, König are you ok?" The Sakura battleship asked with concern.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good." He groaned as pulled himself back onto his feet. "Parzival mind explaining why you suddenly burst into my quarters uninvited?" He questioned the sub.

"Oh well, you two were up here together for so long together. I thought that maybe you were canoodling with each other." Parzival replied with total innocence.

"Eeeee!" Came the reply of Mikasa as her face went as red as a tomato.

"We were doing no such thing!" Came the hybrid's reply as an eyebrow twitched a little in annoyance. "Also, who taught you that phrasing?"

"Eugen" Was the sub's reply, König's eyebrow began twitching with intensity. "Guess I'll be going now," Parzival spoke as she left. Though she left the door open and voices from down the way could be heard.

"Did you find out what they were up to U-556?" Came Roon's voice.

"I think König and Mikasa were canoodling."

"Beg pardon?" Hood could be heard saying.

"What's this about König and Mikasa banging each other?" Sounded off San Francisco.

"So, help me once we get back to port. I am going to murder Eugen." The hybrid growled.

Thankfully that mess had been eventually sorted out. Poor Mikasa looked like she was going to faint from embarrassment for a while.

Though all playfulness left the group after their travels from Azur Lane they were nearing siren waters. Right by what was once Norway and Denmark in the darkness of the night. Everyone was now on the water with their rigging. The wolfpack led by Parzival was already beneath the surface of the water.

"Here on out maintain radio silence unless absolutely necessary," König announced calmly. "We keep a steady but cautious course, moving too quickly would be a good way to tip off the sirens. I want radar systems up and alert all around. We don't need to be caught by surprise while skimming through enemy waters."

With nothing else to say they moved forward into siren-held waters. The hybrid found something about being in what was siren territory somewhat unnerving. There was just something about everything that just seemed off-putting. It wasn't necessarily the total lack of other people. That didn't help mind you, but it was more than that. The waters seemed to calm for their own good. What few little islands they passed along the way. Despite having plenty of plant life, it somehow in a way still felt empty. Like everything was alive but lifeless all at once, it just didn't feel right.

They traveled until they reached Oslofjord. Stopping in the waters off the shore of the ruins that had once been Oscarsborg Fortress. König quietly gave the order to the wolfpack over the radio. "Search the surrounding area wolfpack, these coordinates are where our objective should be. We'll keep watch up top."

Not needing to answer back the subs began their search of the area. They didn't know how long the search lasted but it was U-556 who found it first. It was a large ship hull, the size of a heavy cruiser. Judging from the condition it had been resting in its place for a long time. Getting a closer look at it she recognized it as German in design. In fact, the design of it seemed very familiar to her the more she thought about it. Then it suddenly hit her. "Just what in the world are you planning to make us come hunting for this König?" Parzival thought to herself as she gave signals to U-96 and U-101. The subs took positions around the wrecked hull and activated the scanning equipment.

It took a few minutes, but the scanning was able to get a complete layout of the sunken hull. The data of that was automatically sent to a storage device on König's person. With their prize in hand, it was time for them all to get out and back to Azur Lane.

Then everything went to shit.

There seemed to be shimmer and displacement in the air above the water a distance away from them. Next thing they knew a rift opened and sirens appeared. Basic ships of different varieties and kansen-like ones including explore, chaser, scavenger, and breaker types all appeared.

"Oh, fuck all kinds of duck," Hood stated in a surprise break from her usual proper-spoken self. Then the sirens started shooting.

"Return fire and fall back to friendly waters! We can't get stuck duking it out here!" The Iron Blood battleship hollered. "Parzival, any enemy sub presence!?"

"Negative! We'll hit them with all we got on the retreat."

Next thing anyone else saw the wolfpack launched a barrage of torpedoes that decimated the first few lines of sirens. While the rest of the surface team sent volleys of their own fire as they sped with all haste toward friendly waters. Not that it did a lot of good as more temporal shimmers appeared spitting out more sirens.

"If they don't block us off, they'll try to overwhelm us with sheer numbers!" Roon stated before blowing a hole clean through the torso of an explorer siren.

"We just have to keep moving and keep our path clear as possible," San Francisco replied as she dodged a torpedo shot. Responding with a shot to the head of the offending siren.

This kept as they dodged and returned fire against enemy sirens continuing to move while receiving support from the subs. They were making their way, but the fighting wasn't easy. The surface team all minor hits upon themselves and riggings. Nothing life-threatening but the bug bites would start to stack up in due time.

Hours passed as the relentless cat-and-mouse chase never slowed down, the sun was beginning to rise now. As the first light of the morning sun broke the horizon the Azur Lane team was almost too friendly waters, but they were feeling it by this point. Everyone including the battle-happy Roon was starting to feel the exhaustion of the never-ending dodging and fighting. Despite the damage to the siren numbers, they never seemed to let up. Or rather they were moving too quickly to properly notice just how many they had destroyed. Then as they reached the hybrid laid eyes on what awaited them.

"Shit," He cursed at himself when he saw the sight. The sirens had amassed in huge numbers blocking the final stretch of their escape. The hybrid stopped in place knowing what he could do. "Everyone, keep behind me I'm going to clear our path to escape."

"What are you planning exactly?" Mikasa questioned.

"Just do as he says and he'll handle the rest." Roon retorted with a savage grin. She knew exactly what her friend was up to. Not needing to be told, she activated her shield ability to protect herself and the others. While The hybrid did his thing. "Show them how it's done!"

König focused and felt energy swell throughout his body and build up into his guns. His main canons glowed brightly with a crimson aura and black electrical jolts crackled around them. "FEUER!" With the roar of a hellish beast, his guns fired. Unleashing beams of crimson red tinged with a black, rocket down the open ocean. They contacted the ocean surface and exploded in a massive display of red and black. Stretching high into the sky and wide across the ocean surface. The sirens never knew what hit them.

"Bloody hell!" Hood cried out.

"Hella cool!" Frisco went.

Avrora and Mikasa just stared with jaw-dropped shock at the display. Roon meanwhile was loving every moment of it.

König was breathing heavily after that as he waited for all the mist from the blast to clear. While using that salvo didn't drain him completely after a single use like in the past. It was still very taxing and his max usage of it in a single day was only two currently. As the mist finally cleared the siren forces that had been the barricade to their escape were now non-existent.

"Now's our chance I'll cover our backs!" The hybrid ordered as the surface team moved with the subs keeping pace safely below the surface. As they moved and were about to finally cross into friendly waters. A fog suddenly descended upon the area, an unnatural fog.

A mirror sea.

The fog engulfed the group but then it did something unexpected, fog seemingly created a wall between König and the others. Just like that, he was cut off from the rest of them.

"Bozhe Moi!" Avrora cried out. "We've lost König!"

"What do you mean!?" U-556 cried out with some panic. As she and the rest of the subs surfaced.

"It would seem this unexpected mirror sea purposely cut us off from him," Hood replied.

"But why?" Wondered the grand veteran.

König meanwhile was catching his bearings. He was stuck in the middle of a mirror, separated from the others. Comms weren't working at all, and he had no clue how he could even begin to escape the mirror sea. From the briefings he had received about them, each one was a little different from the other. He scanned with his radar to see if he could pick up anything. He picked up one and it was making its way to him. He turned in the direction it was coming in and what he saw surprised him.

At first, he thought it was Takao and he quickly noticed something very off about her. Her rigging seemed more advanced than he remembered, her outfit and hair were all done differently. Once she got close to him to properly see her eyes, that was the true difference maker. Those eyes seemed with all sorts of hate, anger, and resentment. He knew what he was facing now and kept himself on guard as she stopped at some distance in front of him.

"Meta ship Takao, known to go by the alias 'Ember'," König stated as fact.

Ember regarded him with cold eyes before snarling a little. "You shouldn't exist." Ember curtly replied.

"What makes you say that?" The Iron Blood replied keeping an even tone.

"I can feel it about you, the siren side within you. Such a thing shouldn't be right." Ember growled.

"I can't help the way I was constructed." The hybrid snapped back. "I wasn't always this way. Certain things happened and made me this way."

"You don't get it, the siren side of you that I feel is far too seamlessly a part of your being. To be something that was added to you later. Not to mention it feels far too much like her." Ember spat the last word with an impressive amount of venom in her tone.

"All right, do you mind speaking a little more fucking clearly about things? Just what are you on about?" König growled dangerously at her. "Why did you drag me into this mirror sea?

Ember just shook her head as she put a hand to her blade. "It doesn't matter now. I just wanted to see if the rumors were true. Now that I have confirmed it and I have a better grasp. I see now you're an abomination that poses too much danger if left alive."

König readied his guns and activated his blades. "Don't think I'll be easy to kill!" He was bluffing at the moment. After the night he had and using his charged blast he was far from peak condition. He had seen reports on how strong the Meta ships could be. That said, he wasn't just going to let himself be killed.

Then something happened neither one expected, a shimmer and distortion happened right between them. Out walked another kansen he was able to recognize.

"Yorktown!?" The hybrid said in surprise.

"How the hell did you get in here!?" Ember demanded.

The meta-Yorktown ignored Ember and looked to the hybrid. "Don't fret König, I am not your enemy. For now, at least." She said cryptically as she raised a hand. "Return home, your friends are waiting for you."

Before he had a moment to question anything else. He felt a distortion open behind him. The next thing he knew he was seemingly sucked into it, and it closed on him. As quickly as he was sucked in, he was spat back out. Doing a quick look around he realized he was back in the pacific right by Azur Lane. He heard some yelling off in the distance and saw it was the others. They too had been sent back as well somehow.

König shook his head thinking how the mission had become so much more complicated than anticipated. He had a lot to report to Maruyama Bismarck, and probably the rest of the leadership in the port as well most likely.