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The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
Omake: The Joy of First Flight
by Regina Magia


Over Mexico City, the fourth Friday in November 2012, an hour before supper (Tōkyō time: Saturday, breakfast)...

"¡Esto es increíble!"

Miles above the streets of the Western Hemisphere's most populous city — and well-clear of aircraft flying in and out of Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez, which was quite close to downtown as the crow flew — four people were busy exploring the wonderful feeling of flying through the air under their own power.

Escorting the shipgirls reborn from the living spirits of three of the most famous sailing vessels ever to ply the high seas was a local high school senior enjoying a pleasant evening hosting such esteemed guests at his home in the alcaldía of Miguel Hidalgo near the Castillo de Chapultepec. Listening to the three reborn trading ships from the end of the Fifteenth Century chat in classical Spanish, Juanita Gomez tried not to laugh out loud at how excited they became when it came to all the wonderful things they had discovered in the fortnight since the flagship of their world-changing expedition to track a route west from Spain to the riches of Asia had been reborn at the place where she had been wrecked on a shoal off the coast of Hispaniola in the late fall of 1492.

"This is an amazing view!" Esmerelda Verónica Pinzón y Vicente said as she came to a hover over the heart of Lomas de Chapultepec. "Never imagined anything like this, never mind seeing it from the air!"

The other three came to a stop close to where the reborn caravel La Niña now floated. "Si," María Josefa de la Cosa affirmed with a nod as she and Esmerelda's effective sister Magdalena Mayola Pinzón y Vicente also paused to look around the vast metropolis whose very existence was one incredible result of their late admiral's determination to cross the Atlantic to where he believed lay Asia, not realizing there were whole CONTINENTS and another huge OCEAN standing in the way of a direct westward path from Palos de la Frontera northwest of Cádiz. "Still, what's just as amazing is how much the world's changed since we sailed across the Atlantic."

Hearing that from the reborn La Santa María, the Pinzón sisters nodded. As the current incarnation of the Watchful Guardian in the Night, Daketu'o ("Luz Luna") — the dusky-skinned, raven-haired P'urhépecha-descent Capitalino's first-self had been a night watchman at a government facility in Dimsetuto on the western equatorial continent — remained silent to allow the ships who carried Cristóbal Colón's first crew of explorers across the Atlantic to contemplate things, the Spanish shipgirls privately thanked God that Juanita had been there helping Haitian fishermen with torn nets when the remnants of La Santa María rose from the waters of the Atlantic to be reborn as María, thus prompting La Niña and La Pinta to return as Esmerelda and Magdalena.

So much had changed...

Even if there were many things about humanity that remained the same even now, over five centuries since they had sailed as a group seeking out the islands of East Indies, it was simply mind boggling...

Especially given what had happened to them personally...

Watching the three shipgirls reminisce, Juanita mentally patted her shoulder for bucking her long-standing tradition and agreeing to give her esteemed guests a tour of her homeland during the day; given the uniqueness of her mid-level FISS abilities, she didn't need to sleep even if she meditated at various times to ensure she could rest her mind. Like the two former American destroyers of the Quetzalcóatl-class who salvaged themselves in the wake of Luisa von Bismarck-Schönhausen's quite public "return to duty" in late August, the change from inanimate ship to living metahuman women was disorientating; fortunately for the three that had sailed under Colón in 1492, the Watchful Guardian was accompanied that evening by the reborn ARM Quetzalcóatl — now Capitán de Fragata Chipahua Vogelgesang y Quetzalcóatl — so the three had someone actually present at the beginning to help them adjust to such changed circumstances.

"Between our new hulls and the current time period, we have so much to get used to," Esmeralda added as she brushed aside her dark hair, such touched with a pale pink streak. Her companions also had similar hair styles, with Magdalena's locks touched by a light yellow streak and María's a shade of baby blue. "God only knows, if the Almirante was still alive, he'd be screaming for la Inquisición to burn it all away."

That made the other shipgirls wince; many of their crews had vivid memories of la Inquisición and what they did to practitioners of the other Abrahamic faiths in the wake of the end of the Reconquista the winter before their voyage. "Given what happened to our host's ancestors when that maniac Cortés ran rampant across this land, it's good that common sense has finally fallen over people these days," María noted.

"Not everywhere, María," Magdalena warned.

"Si..."

A buzzing noise then echoed from Juanita's belt, making the shipgirls turn as the Watchful Guardian pulled out her PAA. "Ella habla," the Capitalino called out before blinking as a familiar figure appeared in the holographic screen over the transmitter crystal of that remarkable device. "Ah! Chipahua!"

"Are you still in need of a good bout in the Battlezone, Juanita?" the adopted native of North Branch in California (birthplace of her first namesake, Rear Admiral Carl Theodore Vogelgesang), Staten Island in New York (where she was built) and Puebla de Zaragoza southeast of Mexico City (where the primary place of worship for her latter namesake god was located) helpfully inquired. "I've got all the viejas amigas with me now wanting to get out and get some exercise before we have to go to the Astillero Principal to look over our starship-selves."

"I can definitely use the change of scene, Chipa," the reborn night watchman noted as the reborn sailing ships looked VERY interested. "And I'm sure the señoras mayores here would love the chance to see those starships themselves," she added as she winked at her guests who had helped change the history of the world. "Do you want us to come to Túxpam before we're off back to Yiziba?"

"Please!" the reborn Gearing-class fleet destroyer declared. "I've got a whole bunch of very nervous doncellas de la flota who have autograph books at the ready for the señoras mayores to sign."

María, Magdalena and Esmerelda immediately blushed...

El Fin...Por Ahora!


WRITER'S NOTES

Translation list (all terms are Spanish): Esto es increíble — This is incredible; Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez — Benito Juárez International Airport; Alcaldía — City government; La Niña — The little one; La Santa María — The Saint Mary; Luz Luna — Moonlight; Capitalino — Native of Mexico City; La Pinta — The painted one; Capitán de Fragata — Frigate captain, local equivalent title of a Navy commander; La Inquisición — The Inquisition, specifically the Spanish version that ran from 1478 to 1834; Reconquista — The Reconquest, the campaign to purge all Muslim control over the Iberian peninsula from 711 to 1492; Ella habla — Literally "she speaks", a greeting used when answering a telephone; Astillero Principal — Main Dockyard; Señoras mayores — Elder ladies; Doncellas de la flota — Maidens of the fleet/shipgirls.

Dimsetuto is the Yizibajohei analogue of Spain; it is located in the western equatorial continent as noted above. The word means "land of the dimse"; a dimse is a type of shrewmouse.

Finally, a list of the shipgirls introduced here. First, the three vessels who sailed under Christopher Columbus (known in Spain as Cristóbal Colón):

Capitán Maestra María Josefa de la Cosa (Barco de Vela La Santa María)
Capitán Maestra Magdalena Mayola Pinzón y Vicente (Barco de Vela La Pinta)
Capitán Maestra Esmerelda Verónica Pinzón y Vicente (Barco de Vela La Niña)

As these three are considered "civilian" shipgirls, they're accorded the civil rank of Capitán Maestra, which is the feminine form of Capitán Maestro ("Master Captain"). As they were sailing ships, they're accorded the ship prefix title Barco de Vela ("Sailing Vessel"), short-formed in Spanish as BV.

As for the one reborn destroyer who appears here:

Capitán de Fragata Chipahua Teoxihuitl Vogelgesang y Quetzalcóatl AM (formerly Commander USN) (Armada de la República Mexicana Quetzalcóatl [pennant D101], formerly United States Ship Vogelgesang [DD-862])

Mexican shipgirls reborn from warships are officers in the Armada de México ("Mexican Navy", short-form AM); their ship prefix is Armada de la República Mexicana ("Navy of the Mexican Republic", short-form ARM). Mexico follows the pennant system to identify warships; pennant superior D means Destructor ("destroyer").