Chapter 11: Imitation through the Bone

Among all the commotion and activity that the Royal Navy maid and Eagle Union carrier had gone through, the maid felt relieved that the other five girls that had temporarily joined their group had left. Their parting wasn't forced at all as they decided on parting ways with the other two.

All five of them had spent a good hour catching up with Enterprise after the mirror sea incident that had rendered the white-haired woman to appear distant. The unfortunate repercussions of the event had left everyone on the base curious about the status of the Eagle Union. While the five girls that gifted the get-well card to Enterprise finally had their worries and curiosity satiated, there was still the rest of the girls on the base that would soon flood toward Enterprise, once the restrictions imposed by Vestal and the medical wing could say that she was back to full strength and was allowed more social freedom and interaction.

Belfast quietly stood behind Enterprise. They were on a street corner that overlooked the sandy beach and sea of Azur Lane. She observed the white-haired woman wave at the five girls that were soon a great distance away and quickly fading.

Belfast felt compelled to give off a fake cough to break the silence. "Well, their small band brought a lot of energy to the table," she said with both figurative and literal tones behind her voice. "Do you feel tired in the slightest?"

Enterprise chuckled, which was still related to the destroyer class shipgirls that elevated her day immensely. Her eyes then looked toward the maid. "Huh? You have nothing to worry about. Their warm and lively energy was what I needed after being held in that bed for so long. I mean, there's only so much you alone can do to bring color into my world… but oh, do you try."

The abrupt pleasant and alarming complement washed the maid's face with a red tint to it. She forced herself to remain a strong bolder during a harsh ocean storm. Her only falter was a quick side cough to help her grip the situation. "Oh! M-miss Enterprise. You flatter me with such a strong devotion of praise."

"Was my directness too much?" The injured woman asked with a sweat drop at the chance that she accidentally embarrassed herself.

"No, not at all. It does make me overjoyed at how much my presence actually affects you. You are someone very important to me, after all," she said with a light head-tilt.

No other words were needed for what they felt at that moment. While it was different levels of affection, with one already coming to terms with them, and the other still caught in a sea of confusion about those foreign feelings. One thing was definitively understood, for the Eagle Union, her foreign feelings were rising with a focus on her important friend.

Them being together led them to the small dock where it all started. Belfast reached the seaside that felt inviting, with fresh air and warm sun rays. The memory of that day when they were mere inches away from connecting their lips flashed in her mind. She found herself wondering where they would be now if their lips had indeed met. Could they be closer or perhaps it wasn't meant to be? One thing would have been sure, and that was the realization that Enterprise needed to face whatever was beyond that point. Her face lowered to a frown at the idea of forcing her friend to choose where her feelings truly resided. Belfast noticed a soft look from Enterprise while she gazed at the ocean. "Now that's a look that I hardly see you making when you eye the sea."

"Fair observation. No secret about my fears of the ocean and what it could bring one day. Pfft, my doppelganger is proof that any day could spell trouble," she said grimly while she impulsively rubbed the bandages on her injured arm.

Belfast zeroed in on that missable action with downcast eyes. "We're all in this together. Always remember that." Sternly spoke Belfast with her eyes fixed back to the Eagle Union. If she had to remind the Eagle Union carrier about the bond she shared with everyone, then she would gladly become a broken record that will forever remind her of that.

As if someone had thrown cold water at her, the Eagle Union jolted with newfound alertness. "Ah, I didn't mean to sound down in any way. I've firmly beaten that into my head," she said with a light smile.

"You care very deeply about everyone. Do you feel like there's never enough of you to go around? I sometimes feel that I'm selfish for keeping you to myself. Regardless of that, you still shatter those limitations and have become all of our strength."

If her deep spiraling thinking from earlier was like a chasm, then this new level of thought was akin to an oblivion-like abyss. And it was all orchestrated by that question that hit her like an explosive shell. "I guess… I don't want anyone to suffer what I went through all those years ago. When I lost my older sister. War has always been cruel, no matter how you slice it or even blast it. War never changes after all. That singular way of thinking was something of a means to an end for me to get an assignment done." She paused for a bit and understood the implications of her words. To what end would she allow herself to cross? The image of her counterpart flashed in her head with a mixture of rejection and sadness, making her feel ill to her very core. "No more. While war never changes, people can still change."

Her words told Belfast that this was Enterprise's new outlook on the life she once indifferently existed with. "You're living proof of that, my dear Enterprise."

The smile of the maid was too perfect for the Eagle Union. Every time she saw her close companion invoked that perfect angle of her lips and cheeks, she felt that nothing could go wrong after she allowed the world to lay witness to it. "I had a very insistent companion to help me along the way. And she is in no way, being selfish and taking up my time from all the others," she said with humble words. Without any control over herself, she began to madly blush, and for a second, her eyes were truly looking at Belfast with another view to them. However, before her heart could understand this foreign feeling. She heard a slosh of water originate from the seaside.

Both the attention of the ship girls turned toward the origin of the sound.

That very moment, Belfast's smile went away in a passing second for when she fixed her gaze, she spotted her Sakura Empire love rival.

"Zuikaku!" Enterprise greeted the former enemy of Azur Lane like any other. However, Belfast felt like a metaphorical spotlight had detached itself from her form and followed Zuikaku. And she hid no bitter frown that painted her face for a prolonged three seconds.

Zuikaku didn't notice, or maybe she chose to not notice. "Enty! I apologize for sneaking up on you two. Did I… disrupt anything?" She said innocently.

"You're alright. I'm happy that you stopped by. What's the report on her? Has she done anything violent yet?" Asked the Eagle Union with a stern face, ready to accept any news.

Zuikaku folded her arms with an uninterested look at the topic. "Well, not for a lack of trying. Atago said that she caused a small commotion when she was in one of the ship's rooms. Aside from that, she usually retained her sour attitude toward everyone."

"Has there been anything new on the analyzing of her makeup?"

"Enty, we haven't started yet, since it took some time to set up the place where we're going to be doing the research. Akagi will begin researching into her tomorrow."

"Akagi? She's the one leading the research?"

"Of course, Enty. Her knowledge of Sirens is too valuable not to use her. W-was that not something you wanted?"

"No, that's not the case. I just figured that with the situation of her sister, her focus should be on aiding her to wake up," said Enterprise with downcast eyes.

"Enty, it's amazing how selfless you are about all this, but this was her decision. It's not my place to say this, but I think she's hit a wall with her sister. Everything she has done has failed with no unique or different response in her brain waves. If I didn't know any better, I think that she's holding on to some hope from our unfriendly death-glarer."

Zuikaku wished that the conversation had deviated to another due to the now depressed expression on the woman that she loved. She wasn't the only one to share in on this feeling.

Belfast took her chance and placed a loving hand on the Eagle Union's shoulder without any words to add. At this point, she worried that any attempt to coach her to get over it would end badly.

Zuikaku bit the inside of her cheek at the maid.

(E-2)

They checked her from toes to the forehead. A sea of faceless medical personnel that E-2 had deemed unimportant to even remember them by face. All she cared to remember were their ludicrous questions about her dizziness, or if she knew what had caused the blackout. Of course, she had her guesses on to the core reason for her blackout, yet she wasn't going to get chummy with anyone there.

All of them had soon left with no answers, but they did reinforce that her health was in order. She was now back to her old ways in her cell, uncaringly existing without anything to keep her busy, and without any spoken words.

Atago had guard duty from her sister while she went off to inform about the turn of events to Nagato before she heard it from someone else that lacked the details of what transpired.

The long-haired cruiser had taken her guard role very seriously with her sword close to her. Her focused eyes scanned over to the prisoner, with a curious look that followed. "Any more headaches or blackouts, dear?"

E-2 did not attempt to humor her and continued to sit on her bed with her knees close to her chest. She hardly cared that the Sakura was trying to come on to her with a friendly side that resembled Takao's demeanor. In her mind, she was more ensnared in her dream than she had before it all went dark.

Even though she was in her head, her thoughts felt sluggish to process after her intense blackout had done a number on her body. The endless replays that she forced her brain to endure gave her no new insight, no matter how many times she recollected. In truth, she felt confused. She was aware that she was data, that was a definitive fact that she carried with her. However, there was also this realization that she could have existed in some way before. As confusing as that was, she knew in her heart that those nightmares felt too real to simply be that. The sea and those battles did happen, those experiences had shaped her into who she was right now. Tied to that, a deep-seated hatred for all that she was always went back to Enterprise.

That anger came from some origin point that she had trouble pinning down. It was like her body remembered the source of the hatred and the mind blindly trusted what her body felt. She would admit that during the mirror sea incident, she was driven by pure instincts that her body told her.

What was she? What were the reasons for her headaches? Were the questions she asked herself.

Atago entered the cell with little presence to her steps or maybe the injured woman was too absorbed in her thoughts to register it.

That all changed when Atago's shadow loomed over E-2 which made her flinch upward.

The Sakura woman smiled upon initial glance from the white-haired carrier. "Here you go, darling." She handed her a wrapped piece of chocolate.

E-2's eyes, which looked sunken and tired, continued to stare at it like an object from another world.

"I want you to have it. You look so drained of color and energy that to make a joke about it would be morbid."

"I don't want it," she declared without any ferocity to back her words.

Atago grimaced from the response. "Okay, okay. I can see your stubbornness showing, at least that hasn't diminished much like the rest of you. I'll leave it here on your bed for you to come to your own conclusions, but… it will bring back your stamina and add color back into your cheeks. How do you think I'm always so aggressively perky with my energy, as you would colorfully put it? Just don't tell my sister or I might have to up the ante on our one-on-one fights." She removed herself from the cell area and went back to her chair. "Ugh, I'm going to have to bring a desk in this dusty old place to at least rest my head on," groaned Atago.

Her complaints about the current guard perks, which was only one, being the chair, had been drowned out by E-2 who gazed at the chocolate bar.

The white-haired woman knew what a chocolate bar was but seeing one now felt the most real compared to her knowledge and memories. Looking back, an image of a ration bar assaulted her mind. It wasn't pleasant and it only further annoyed her as that was something tied to Enterprise. Her body went cold the more she thought about it. A mild throb began to stab away at her mind like small needles. "Ration… bars? She… used to eat those. I used to eat those?" The throbbing continued to slowly increase the more she scratched at her uncooperative memories. None of it made sense. She lacked the whole picture of her memories, yet this item, like her nightmares, had triggered a coherent memory. "I never had one before," she said weakly, accepting what her body was telling her. Yet, she was compelled to think that was a lie. She had memories of the taste that never stood out and was only for sustenance. She unwrapped the bar, one-handedly, and turned away from Atago to deny her the satisfaction. The taste overwhelmed her upon her tongue encountering the heavenly chocolate. This was real, this was something that she had no doubts about. She silently munched until the bar was gone, coming to terms that this quality was worlds apart from the standard Eagle Union ration bars. She let out a sigh of contentment and that wasn't the only thing. When she opened her eyes again, she felt better and energized.

"See, I told you that the chocolate would help—oh, and you're welcome," said Atago who faced the other way from the cell with a book she produced from somewhere else in her hands.

E-2 grumbled under her breath, unwilling to speak anything on that matter.

Atago only had about two minutes to enjoy her book when the doors opened to reveal a girl in red in white Sakura-styled robes.

Atago's book nearly shot out of her hands when she got the face of the last person she wanted to be caught slacking off. "Lady Nagato! I… um… my dear sister went to deliver you the news of our guest's sudden blackout."

"She did? Very well. Then it won't be a problem if I was already planning on seeing our guest with my own eyes. It was already rude of me to not be at the docks when she arrived," stated the girl from the revealing light that pierced through the room.

Nagato, the leader of the Sakura Empire. She stepped forward with a gentle grace that filled the room with more worth than it originally felt, with once being merely an empty and dusty warehouse. Coupled with her grace, she donned her armaments from her rig that made her look bigger than she was. Her head tilted left to right, with her yellow eyes scanning the structure of the glass cell that contained the woman that intrigued her.

The counterpart of the strongest Eagle Union stood stunned at the girl that approached her. She would admit that all her armaments made her look like an unapproachable force and that one needed to choose their words carefully. "Aren't you a little short to be a leader?" Ultimately proclaimed the white-haired woman with uninterested eyes once she had gotten over her stun.

Nagato's momentum was cut like a thin cloth by those words. Her strong and silent face broke into a pout that could not be contained. "R-rude! My height plays no variable in my leadership!"

"Really? While I would agree, it's just so hard to look up to someone that's the leader when I have to physically look down. That's not to say that I plainly have trouble taking you seriously with all that firepower you lug around."

Atago looked pale all over from the blatant disregard for their leader. She now feared more for the white-haired carrier than ever. "Please watch what you say to our leader—no, our flagship. She's no mere girl and has proven her power from her past battle experiences."

"Enough! I don't need someone else to fight my battles," powerfully declared Nagato to Atago.

"Ah! Why am I getting attacked all of a sudden? Forgive me, Nagato," she finished with her mouth closed shut.

The flagship of the Sakura Empire focused her precision gaze back on the caged carrier. "You. Why do you have to provoke me?"

"As I said, I can't take you seriously with all that firepower. Here's an idea. Take that rig off and stop compensating for your height… my lady." She said the last part with enough sarcastic tones to sink a ship.

"I will do no such thing. I… I must defend myself from a prisoner with the skills and strength on par with that of the Grey Ghost."

E-2 raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Is that the excuse you're going with? I'm trapped in a glass cell with a burnt arm and a null rig. There isn't much in the way of destructive potential at the moment with me. Not even she has her rig while she's guarding me," she pointed to the other Sakura Empire in the room.

Nagato tensely tried to focus her eyes but they showed hints of wavering. "I would learn to keep my eyes open and pay my respects when due if I were you. Sigh, it's not like you get it anyway, do you? My words have left me tired."

"Here, have a pillow," cheerfully stated Atago with a hint of nervousness when she procured a random red pillow from thin air.

Nagato accepted the pillow without another word and without taking her eyes off the white-haired woman.

E-2 watched as the small girl rested her knees on the pillow, with all her rig armaments following. "A pillow? It makes sense since I can't imagine you being able to sit on a chair without breaking it."

Nagato tightened her hands into fists with cloth from her clothes getting caught. "You're so vulgar! Does the Grey Ghost act the same way that you do?!"

"No, she would merely think it briefly, yet smile with not so much of a word. Would you like that I smile back at least?" She produced a smile that was a carbon copy of Enterprise, yet every ounce of that smile was fake without the warmness that Enterprise had acquired.

Even Atago felt uneasy with that smile. The injured woman had always been an open book when it came to her facial expressions, but now, she looked more detached from her original self with also an added element of deception.

Nagato also felt the same. "Keep your unwelcoming smile, at least you are honest without that. Let's get down to business about my reasons for being here." She pulled out a piece of paper from one of her pockets that made E-2 roll her eyes. "The report says that you caused quite a lot of trouble with the Eagle Union, especially to their ace aircraft carrier."

"She did it to herself, little leader. She fired a direct hit, and we both got burned for it," she said with a small smirk.

"Yes, that's on the report too, but it doesn't matter who did the final blow. It fascinates me that you held your own with the Grey Ghost, while also repelling her sister, a Royal Navy light cruiser, and two of my promising aircraft carriers… very fascinating."

E-2 remained quiet with a watchful gaze to see where this was going.

"I'll be blunt. A ship of your prowess would be a waste to scrap, even after we can successfully unlink you from the Eagle Union's Grey Ghost, and I firmly believe that the Eagle Union would want to wash their hands clean of you when all is said and done. That is why I would like to extend an offer to you."

"Offer?"

"Yes, to join the ranks of the Sakura Empire when our favor to the Eagle Union has been carried out."

The pseudo-Eagle Union convulsed to a burst of full-blown laughter. The disrespect that flowed out of her joyful voice filled the small girl with anger.

"Please, stop laughing. This is a serious discussion that I bring to you!"

Her laugh soon died down, and she looked at Nagato with a stern glare. "Do you really believe that the Eagle Union would allow you to have a ship with the same specs as that of their strongest?"

"There will be some backlash that I am aware of, but I hope that they will come to see the fruitfulness of this in time. The Sirens have been assaulting us with fiercer tactics more recently, and to keep insisting on backup from the others constantly would only spread their forces thin. We must learn to regain our foothold in power after the recent loss of our mass-produced ships. A vessel of your caliber would be a power play against the Sirens."

E-2 turned away from the glass with a face full of disgust. "What is wrong with you all? You either want to be a friend, help them awake their sister, or be their new pawn in their pathetic battles."

"I can't speak for these other reasons that you have heard. I simply want to offer you a new purpose," stated Nagato.

The doppelganger of Enterprise turned her head back at the girl with cold murderous eyes. "Purpose… purpose… what a joke. I'm a prisoner, at least treat me like one. Beat me, starve me, throw me below ground—whatever it takes! Don't think for a second that I would show mercy to you all if the situation were reversed!"

The flagship could see the violent nature behind those wild eyes. She didn't have to think hard about what the carrier would do if there wasn't a glass between them. "I see. You are like a mad dog without care for your own self. A pity. Tomorrow will begin the experiments. If you wish to be treated roughly, then we will poke and prod you for the answers to unlink you from Enterprise."

"Careful now. You bruise me too hard and she might have a change of heart for me being here. Whatever pain I receive, she'll get the same. I suggest to you and this goes for you over there along with your sister; stop treating me like an ally. Because we are not."

The perky heavy cruiser stood silent to the declaration without any way to make light of it.

Nagato shook her head in pity. She stood up from the pillow as the door opened for her to let in the light. "I've heard enough. Oh, and for the record. There's been talk that you might or might not be a Siren. I would have still welcomed you with open arms to the Sakura Empire… even if you were a Siren." She then walked out of the room with Atago behind her.

E-2 gnashed her teeth with anger and her eyes stood sharp. "I'm… not… I'm not…" She muttered to herself as she was left in silence.

I think I finally have a solid outline for the rest of the story. Lately, my chapters have been short because I didn't want to add too much in a chapter and then realize that I could have saved that part for later, and added something else that would have fit into that instance. For those of you that are curious, I plan to end this story around 10 chapters from now or earlier, with the story being over before this year ends.