Chapter 4: To Make Her Understand

"You are...not with the Fleet, are you? I noticed your odd behaviour earlier but decided to ignore it, but I can't any longer. Tell me. What side are you on?" Yuriko asked

After a few seconds of silence, Haruna looked Yuriko right in the eyes. She had been confused, she didn't know why she had done the things she had done. She didn't know why she had followed Yuriko this far. After all that thinking, she had finally come up with her answer. Her look was one of determination, of someone who had a goal.

"Yuriko, I am not with the Fleet! I won't let you go back to them either...you don't know what they're doing! Look at yourself, Yuriko, you're not a weapon, you're a person! You're my friend!" She said, leaving Yuriko stunned.

In Yuriko's head, she was divided. There was half of her that simply wanted to obey the Code, and destroy the traitor. However, there was another half, a half of her that she wanted to keep sealed away. One that heard the word 'friend', and made sense of it in a way the other half of her could not. She liked Haruna...didn't she? It was becoming clearer and clearer the more she thought about it, until the other part of her mind gained control.

"Stop it...stop saying those things. I will dispatch of you immediately and follow my orders!" She said, before leaping from her submarine to Haruna's newly formed ship.

Yuriko drew her blades, their sharp metal edges deadly to the touch. She aimed one slice to the left and to the right, crossing in an 'X' shape. To combat this, Haruna prepared herself with a shield of yellow hexagons which blocked the strike altogether. Determined to win this fight without harming Yuriko, Haruna kept her shield up to protect herself from the flurry of attacks that ensued.

"Please, Yuriko! I know somewhere in you there's a part that wants something more...I can help you understand, we all can! Think about it, all the times you've done something strange! There's more to you than just a Code!" Haruna shouted desperately.

"Shut up! I am a weapon, nothing more!" Yuriko replied, with a look in her eye that showed something was happening in her mind.

Haruna took this chance to surprise her, jumping out from her shield whilst Yuriko's mind was fighting itself and tackling her to the deck of the ship, pinning her down. Yuriko struggled against her grip, but Haruna kept her held down for dear life. Their heads were close, and Haruna kept eye contact the whole time.

"I was just like you a while back. I mindlessly obeyed the Admirality Code, thinking of myself as just a weapon. One day, I was defeated. I flew all the way to the land, and when I woke up, a human child had discovered me and taken me in to their home. She cared for me even though it wasn't needed, and treated me like a friend. Her name is Makie, and I later discovered she wasn't human at all. She wasn't human, yet even when she discovered what I am, she still cared for me. I found something, Yuriko. It helped me discover that I'm more than a weapon! You just need to find that thing too!"

Unable to stop herself from listening, Yuriko thought about the story whilst she was held there. Why did this child treat her like a friend? Why does she think she's not a weapon? None of this made sense to her, until the part of her mind that Haruna was trying to set free began to think of the answers. This was all too much for her, her head felt sore from the battle of control. She looked up at Haruna in pain, and in a desperate flash, shot Haruna away from her with a single one of her turquoise hexagons.

Haruna landed back on Yuriko's deck with a crash, and lay there for a few seconds before trying to sit up. When she tried, her eyes met with Yuriko's, who was standing in front of her. The look in her eyes was not normal. She looked maddened, confused, pained. When she spoke, her voice sounded off.

"I...am not...like you. I'm going to kill them all for what they did! Every one of them! I don't need friends! I only need the code!" She shouted, shaking slightly.

Before Haruna had a chance to speak up, all she could do was squeal in pain as both of Yuriko's blades were impaled into her arms. It was far from fatal for a mental model such as Haruna, but it still hurt like it would for anyone else. As Yuriko looked down at her, breathing heavily, her maddened gaze turned to a look of sadness, like she was sorry. However it was short-lived, as soon Haruna began to lose consciousness, her eyes slowly closing as her vision faded to black.

-3 hours later-

Haruna awoke to the sound of two voices. One of them she had heard before, it was Yuriko's. The other, she wasn't sure. When she raised her head to look, she saw Yuriko, as expected, and another person. She was tall and menacing, with long white hair that extended down to her shoulders. She looked slightly older than most mental models, but Haruna knew for sure that she was one. She wore long, elegant clothes, almost like what could be expected of a rich woman of the 19th century. As Haruna was just waking up she could only make out some of the words being spoken, and then saw Yuriko leave.

"You are sure it will be successful?" Yuriko had asked.

"Of course. After your mission is complete, return here for her." Came the reply.

"Understood." Yuriko said as she walked off, clearly finding it hard to speak clearly, or speak at all.

The unknown woman then turned her gaze to Haruna, then smiled a little, walking over to her. Haruna managed to stand up weakly in time to face the taller woman, who spoke first.

"It is good to see you awake, Haruna. Your 'friend' just had to go, but I granted her a reward for bringing you here...say, do you recognise me?"

"Who...are you?" Haruna asked, thinking hard. "You're not from around Japan, are you?"

"Correct. I come from further north. You may call me Makoa, and I am this area's new Flagship!" She said with a grin.

Haruna stared at her in shock and surprise, realising slowly what all this had meant. Before she could enter her combat mode, the woman who had identified herself as Makao got her first. Red tinted chains flew out from her hands, binding Haruna tightly and forcing her against the wall. She struggled and winced in pain, trying to escape, with no success.

"Now...I think I'll get to work..." Said Makoa, tracing a finger down Haruna's cheek, "I promised I-450 that I wouldn't harm you, and would instead perform a memory wipe...to return you to us. How does that sound, hm?"

Haruna gasped and shook her head in response, as that would be a worst-case scenario for her. She could just imagine. All those memories gone in an instant. No more friends, and no more Makie. She couldn't bear the thought of that.

"Good, good! I was thinking the same thing! After all, I've always wanted to have someone I could...what do humans call it again? Ah, yes...torture!" She said with a maniac giggle, revealing her true colours.

The chains suddenly tightened around Haruna's body, squeezing the life out of her painfully. She screamed out in pain, calling for help to anyone who could hear. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. She was going to help Yuriko and return to the Rebellion with her as a new friend! It couldn't end like this, could it?

Yuriko's mind was a mess. The worst it had ever been. She was at the tipping point, and the side that Haruna had triggered thought in was winning. She felt a new emotion, one that she had sealed away long ago with all the others. She was worried. Worried about Haruna, and what would happen to her. It was this worry that caused her to return to the Flagship around five minutes later, and hear a loud scream. Haruna's scream.

Yuriko rushed aboard, clutching her head from all the mental pain she was going through. At this point she was feeling physical pain from the mental pain. After walking down a long corridor, she peered into the room and saw something she would never be able to forget.

The scene of torture. Of the woman she had trusted, the woman that represented the Fleet, mercilessly crushing Haruna with her chains. This was her tipping point. She couldn't take it any longer.

"Can't go to the Rebellion...can't do it...but I can't...I can't..." She whispered to herself.

"I CAN'T BELONG TO THIS FLEET EITHER!"

Yuriko screamed her last sentence, causing Makao to release Haruna and turn to her in surprise.

"I-450, what are you-"

Yuriko's insane stare met with Makoa's eyes, before she ran towards her without any weapons out. She punched the flagship in the face over and over and over again, screaming with each punch as Makoa's face grew redder, than angry. With an insane burst of force, Yuriko flew off her and smashed against the wall of the ship, coughing up what seemed to be...blood.

She took her chance, not giving in to the pain as she scooped up Haruna in her arms and sprinted out of the room. Chains followed right behind her, smashing through the halls of the interior. None of this even fazed the maddened Yuriko slightly, as she tore right through a wall and jumped back onto her own deck with Haruna in her arms, grasped tightly. She had fallen unconscious just at the start of the incident, which was probably for her own good.

I-450 sailed off into empty sea soon after, with a crew of two. Yuriko, who was crouched in a corner and shaking, and Haruna, who was just waking up. Yuriko understood now. She understood, yet didn't. There was so much swimming around in her mind that even she knew somebody else was needed to fix it. One thing she knew for sure. Yuriko would never return to the Fleet again. She was on her own, and only had one person she could trust, and that was the only person that could help her fragile state now. The only person that could help her understand what it meant to be free of the Admirality Code, Haruna.