"Atago, do you read me? Atago, this is Takao, please reply. Sister, can you hear me?" The silence filled the room, and Takao made a disgusted noise as she dropped the receiver onto the table.

"Still nothing?" I asked, examining all the dials and displays as if I could actually make sense of them. Although the silence was a pretty good answer in and of itself, I didn't want to let it linger in the small space.

"Not even static," she confirmed. "Everything looks correct and it's powered on, but if I'm transmitting, it's giving me no sign, let alone if anyone's receiving." She sighed and glowered at the radio unit as if she could browbeat it into submission. And I have to say, between me and the radio, I'm glad the radio was on the receiving end of that scowl.

"Alright, so, no radio," I began, running through a mental checklist. "And this fog is too thick to try anything like rockets or signal flares. When you went to the tactical room, were you able to find out anything about where we are?"

"No," she shook her head, "But I didn't have much time before I heard you and went to investigate. Perhaps we should take another look?"

"Agreed," I nodded with a tight smile as she stepped out of the space and I followed behind. "So…don't take this the wrong way, but when you woke up, was it on the bed or on the floor?"

Takao glanced over her shoulder at me, the beginnings of a scowl tugging at the corners of her mouth. "What do you mean by that?"

"I woke up on the floor," I quickly explained, hoping to defuse the situation, "but there was a perfectly good couch right next to me. Just wondering if you wound up on the bed or the floor."

Her expression softened as she nodded. "Ah, I see. The bed."

"Guess the Sirens like you more than me," I joked as we headed up the ladder to the next deck. "Twice they've dumped me on the floor, and I can't say my back appreciates it."

As we reached the top of the stairs, Takao stopped and turned to face me. "Of course. Would you like me to give you a massage, Commander?" she asked, her expression stone-faced and serious.

For a second, I was trying to figure out if she was coming on to me, poking fun at me, or if she was being completely serious. When it became clear that she was being sincere, I stammered out a response, feeling my cheeks blush. "Ah, n-no, no, thank you, Takao. Just need to stretch a bit, soak in a hot bath when I get back and things should be fine."

She nodded curtly and gestured for me to follow her. "A hot bath," she began slowly, "do you not have hot springs at your base?"

"No," I answered succinctly. At first, I thought it was a silly question, but then something occurred to me. "Do you?"

"Of course," she said, matter-of-factly, "Onsen are excellent at relieving both stress and pain. You should look into building one for your kansen. And yourself."

"I'll keep that in mind for when we get out of here," I replied as I followed her through the door to the tactical room. "In the meantime, let's figure out how to get out of here."

Takao nodded as she stepped up to the holomap and switched it on. "Agreed."
She tapped a few commands on the console, and I could see the system beginning to cycle through the various sensors as she ran a full sweep.

While we waited for it to finish, I decided to make some light conversation. "If you don't mind me asking, what's that symbol mean?" I pointed to the two characters next to the model of the Takao.

"It's my name," she stated curtly.

I nodded slowly as I committed the symbols to memory. I'd know if something was in her name, at least. "I see. Thank you. I've tried to learn Japanese for a while, but my duties keep me busy and whenever I go back to pick up where I left off, I find I have to start all over again. I know a word here and there, but that's all."

She fixed me with a stern look and shook her head. "You should always take time out of your day for something like that, even if it is but a few minutes. Small strokes fell great oaks, constant drops pierce through rock. Those who train through the most humdrum of days shall seize victory in the most critical of moments. That is my belief."

I took a second to appreciate her dedication, the staunch faith she had in such an approach. "A worthwhile belief. I'll keep that in mind when I get back."

She nodded, and the holomap trilled, several screens flickering to life in midair. While I still couldn't read the text, the blank screens and growing look of despair on Takao's face told me what I needed to know.

"This…this is impossible!" she cried out softly as she leaned forward, rapidly cycling through screens. "Blank, all of them blank. Air, sea, visual systems, all of them showing nothing!"

"So…we're in an open ocean?"

"I don't know!" she exclaimed, still vainly searching for any clues. "It's not that we aren't getting returns, it's that the systems aren't active! It's like everything has power, but it's frozen in time." She let out a disgusted snort and turned her back on the treacherous device, her hand clutching her katana tightly. "We seem to have power, but that appears to be all that we have."

I let out a long sigh as I leaned forwards and studied the blank images while I tried to plot our next course of action. Eventually, I spoke up. "Then I suggest we look for ways off the ship, or at least, try and get a better idea of our surroundings."

Takao slowly turned back around, eyebrow arched. "How? And why?"

"How is easy, we just head down to the main deck and walk the rails, keeping an eye or ear out for something. Why is…well…what else have we got to lose? If we can find some clue as to where we are or what's holding us here, then we've got something to go on. No offense to Shinano, but I'm not the type of person who waits for someone else to save them. Not if I've got the tools to save myself."

She eyed me up and down before giving an approving nod. "An excellent point. Come then, let's get started."


We headed back down through the superstructure and down to the main deck. When we got to the hatch that led to the outside, I held my breath as Takao undogged the clamps holding it shut. Not for what we'd find outside; more fog, I'm sure, but that we would be trapped, sealed in the superstructure instead of simply imprisoned on the bridge. With a quiet groan, the door swung open and I let out a quiet sigh of relief as I followed her out onto the main deck.

The first thing I noticed, much to my surprise, was that the deck was neither wood nor metal, but what appeared to be a dark brown linoleum. I wondered if all Sakura ships had this sort of unique decking, or if it was something specific to the Takaos or Sakura cruisers in general. The next thing I noticed was the sound of lapping water. Takao had also heard it and was already at the railing, peering over the side. I quickly joined her and looked over as well.

"At least we're in water," I mused. When Takao turned to look at me, I simply shrugged and added, "Right now, with everything that's been happening, I wouldn't put it past us to be suspended in some sort of weird fog void."

She seemed to consider the argument before nodding and looking back down at the clear blue sea. "On the upside, the sea seems to be quite clear…and shallow, by the looks of things. I think I can see the seafloor…"

I followed her gaze again and saw that she was correct. "Yeah…" I quietly confirmed, "I think I see it, too. No signs of marine life down there, but I definitely see a few rocks. Maybe…twenty or thirty feet deep. …how shallow is your draft?"

She paused as she gave it some thought. "About…six…six and a half meters, depending on the load."

I ran the math in my head and nodded to myself. "So she may not be on the bottom, that doesn't leave us with a whole lot of room to maneuver if we can get going again. Still, it might mean we're close to land. Let's keep looking and keep our ears open for something."

Takao nodded and took point once more, leaving me to follow along as I both kept an eye out as well as taking the time to examine the ship. With the fog obscuring our vision to just a few yards ahead of us, I wasn't able to get a great look at the entirety of the ship, but what I saw of Takao was still impressive, nonetheless. Her turrets, while not as modern in appearance as Baltimore's or San Francisco's, still looked as powerful and foreboding as the reports I'd read on them suggested.

After a few moments, I realized I'd been gawking and nearly lost Takao in the mists, and quickly hurried after her. Just as I came up behind her, she must have heard something, because her ears perked up. Literally. I managed to just barely stifle a sudden cry of surprise and alarm as her dog ears lifted up from where they had been hiding in her hair.

While I'd seen the animal ears possessed by most of the Sakura Empire kansen, Takao's had blended into her hair so well that I'd just forgotten she likely had them until they raised up. It was disconcerting to see it up close and in person, but as with so much of my life these days, I imagined I would get used to it in short order.

"Do you hear that?" she asked, her voice barely above a hushed whisper.

I strained as I tried to hear anything over the sound of the water lapping against the hull. "Just the ocean," I finally answered with a shrug of my shoulders. "What do you hear?"

"Waves," she answered and slowly turned to face me. "Waves crashing on the shoreline."

We began to put all the pieces together. "Shallow water…you can hear waves…have we dropped anchor?"

"Only one way to find out."

We quickly trotted up the sloping bow to where the massive anchor chain slipped beneath her decks and leaned over the railing. Sure enough, the anchor had been dropped, the chain dipped into the relatively shallow seas with the anchor resting firmly on the bottom. In addition to the anchor, now I could barely make out the sound of waves crashing on a beach.

"We must be close to an island," I deduced, "Question is, what kind of island and how close is it?" As I pondered the question, I leaned back over the railing and tried to estimate how close we were to shore.

As if she were reading my thoughts, she immediately ordered, "Don't even think about it. There could be natural defenses or even Siren emplacements on that beach and by the time you realized it, it would be far too late."

"Yeah," I slowly conceded before gesturing out into the mist, "But…aren't you just the least bit curious as to what's out there?"

"Of course I am," Takao agreed. "But I'm not about to just…" her voice trailed off and her face scrunched up adorably as she tried to find the right words, "...leap blindly like some sort of startled pheasant!"

Her visible frustration was quite cute, and I couldn't help but smile at her consternation, despite everything. "Alright," I conceded, "what would you suggest?"

She continued to glower at me for another moment until I was able to bring my grin under control. "For starters," she began sternly. "We should prepare proper provisions before going ashore. If we intend to explore for any appreciable length of time, we'll need food, water, light sources, a way of starting a fire. Second, we'll need to see if we can use one of the launches to row ashore, that way we aren't trying to swim to and from the shore, should we have to return to the ship in a rapid fashion. And finally, we make sure you are adequately armed for a trip ashore."

I couldn't help but feel slightly offended by that. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Her stern expression faded slightly and she graced me with a small smile. "My sword does not run out of ammunition, but you only have twenty-one rounds, if I am not mistaken. Should we run into combat, that will likely exhaust itself very quickly. You will need additional weapons if we have any onboard."

An eager grin spread across my face as I wondered what sort of assault rifles and machine guns lay hidden in Takao's lockers, just waiting for me to get my hands on them. "What do you have?"


"A bolt-action rifle?!" I practically wailed, looking at the firearm Takao had thrust into my arms. "That's it?"

"That is a Type 99 Arisaka rifle, Commander," she stated proudly as she continued to stack clips on the table next to us. "It may be bolt-action, but it is reliable and hits hard. And…" She reached over and flipped up a long sight on the rifle. "It has a sight for anti-aircraft use."

I stared down at the sight and decided to simply trust Takao's judgment on this one. "Alright," I sighed as I flipped the sight back down, "but I don't think the AA sight's going to be much help with all this fog. Granted, that'll help conceal us from enemy aircraft as well."

"True," Takao nodded as she placed the last clip on the table, along with a belt equipped with a pair of boxy leather pouches. "There we go. Sixty rounds, thirty for each pouch plus another five to put in the rifle immediately."

Without further instruction, I grabbed the ammo belt off the table and quickly buckled it around my waist, tugging at it to make sure it was snug and wouldn't fall off or slip at a critical moment. Once that was done, I quickly scooped up the ammunition clips and began placing them in the pouches. With all but one clip safely stowed, I grabbed said clip and opened the bolt on the rifle. And that's when I realized I'd never loaded this type of weapon before. "Uh.." I quietly said, "gonna need some help here…"

Takao nodded and stood next to me, her hand taking mine as she walked me through the setup process. "Just take the clip, insert it here…there you go. Now push down. Good. Well done for a beginner!" She looked over at me for a moment, then asked, "Have you had any firearm training?"

I shrugged as I double-checked the safety before slinging the rifle over my shoulder. "Official training? Just what we learned in OCS, but I've had a lot of practice with firearms over the years. I'm a decent shot, and I try to get out to the range at least once a week. Prefer pistols over rifles, but I try not to let either atrophy."

"Excellent," she stated with an approving look, "While I would recommend you train every day, I imagine your duties tend to interfere with that sort of thing."

"They do," I agreed, then paused. "Wait, how come you admonished me for not taking time out to learn Japanese, but the shooting range once a week is okay?"

"You can learn Japanese anywhere, anytime. Firearms training is a much more painstaking, careful process that takes time and a specialized location which you cannot always get to."

I nodded at her assessment. "Fair enough. Where to next?"

"Let's see what we've got by way of food stores."

"Lead on, then."


While her stores were lacking in fresh foods, we did manage to procure a few ration packs which should get us through at least a day ashore. With all our provisions and weapons prepared, we managed to get the launch in the water, and then ourselves in the launch. We each grabbed an oar and looked at each other before we pushed off.

"Ready?" I asked as I felt my nervousness rising exponentially. Takao merely nodded and I pushed us away from the ship with the oar before dipping it into the sea. We rowed for several seconds in silence until it became too much to bear for me.

"What do you think we'll find out there?" I asked as I matched her movements, watching as the fog began to swallow more and more of the ship.

"Hopefully the core to this Mirror Sea so we can escape," she answered bluntly. "Or failing that, a way to shut off this fog and contact our comrades."

I felt a sudden surge of anxiety at the thought of our other forces running into each other, or worse, being placed in a position where things can rapidly get out of hand. "Yeah, it'd be nice to get the word out, get everyone regrouped. Still worried about Washington and Dace doing something…rash."

"Understandable," she nodded. "Have either of them had discipline issues?"

I shook my head as I continued to row. "Not really. Washington's pretty diligent, although I've yet to see her smile, and Dace's a little trigger happy, but she knows when to hold fire. But if they're put into a situation where it looks like the Sakura Empire is holding them against their will, or worse, that they're holding me against my will, they may opt for shoot first, ask questions later. I'd hate to see this fragile truce shattered as a result of Siren manipulation and miscommunication."

"Indeed," Takao concurred. "While I have dedicated my life to train as a warrior, I would much rather prefer to fight against our true enemy."

That prompted another question, but I let it go as the fog began to part ahead of us. "Coming up on the shore," I announced as I pulled the oar into the boat. Takao did the same, and we let the tide carry us the rest of the way to the shore. What we saw was nothing short of breathtaking.

A beautiful beach, covered in white sand quickly gave way to a beautiful jungle island, covered in verdant rolling hills and lush tropical trees. At the center of the island was a huge stone mountain, wreathed in fog and vegetation, dominating our view.

We sat there for a moment, awestruck by the serene beauty of this place until the spell was broken by the juddering of the boat as it ran aground on the beach. Both of us grabbed onto one another to make sure the other one was alright. It was an unconscious reflex, and when we realized what we were doing, we looked down at our arms, then up at each other. Our cheeks burned red-hot and we quickly parted, sharing a nervous chuckle as we looked away. Still, I couldn't deny I was beginning to feel something stirring in my heart…

It made absolutely zero sense. Here I was, trapped in a Mirror Sea, no idea where any of my kansen are, no idea when or if help will arrive, and here I am, starting to feel a fluttering in my heart for someone I just met. And not only someone I just met but a woman who, just hours ago, nearly killed me with a single stroke of her sword! To say nothing of the fact that she's from a faction I'm technically at war with. I sighed as I wondered just how much of this would make it into the official after-action report…

I was roused from my emotional dilemma when Takao gently nudged me, her gaze still avoiding mine. "We should get the boat up on the shore so it doesn't wash out with the tide."

I nodded and leaped over the gunwales, landing in the knee-deep surf. "Assuming this place even has a tide…"

We managed to get the boat to what we felt was a safe distance from the water's edge and grabbed our packs before we turned back to face the mysterious island. "Well," I began as I surveyed the terrain once more, "at least we have some visibility now."

"Mmm," Takao responded from behind the pair of binoculars she was using to take a better look at the topography. "And there may be a reason for that." She lowered the binoculars and held them out to me. "Take a look at the mountain."

Wordlessly, I accepted the binoculars and peered through them. As I examined the sheer rock face, wrapped with the occasional green vine or lone bush or tree, I wondered what exactly she wanted me to see. I was about to give up and ask her when I saw it: the fog. The fog that looked like it had been simply wrapping around the mountain was, in fact, coming from it. There was a man-made opening the fog was coming out of, wrapping around the tower before blossoming out and over us. "Looks like that's our end goal," I muttered. "Get in there, and deactivate or disable the fog generators."

"Agreed," Takao nodded as I handed the binoculars back to her. "We have our goal, we've got supplies, and we've got weapons. Let's see how far that gets us."

"Hopefully all the way to victory," I grinned as I set off in the direction of the mountain. When I glanced back, I could have sworn I saw the corners of her mouth tug upwards ever so slightly in a faint grin before she started after me…

A/N-The fog parts, but the mystery deepens! Until next time, fair winds and following seas!