I jolt awake, but am I awake? I look at my hands, my arms. They are smooth, no cuts, no scars, no markings. There are no wounds on my chest. Strange. I look around. I am in what I think is my living room. Everything is a sterile white. There are no shadows, an ethereal light is coming from everywhere, and yet nowhere. So I must be in a dream. But then again why do I feel awake? Something is up. I just noticed I am in a bathrobe - snow white, of course. I wander over to the dining table. On it is a basket of fruit, white fruit. I reach for one, a decolourised apple. The moment I touch it, it fills with colour. I hold it in my hand; I toss it. It goes up and comes down. So all is normal? Back to the table it goes. It fades to white.
That's fucky...
"Hansi, HANSI!" I am overcome with a brief sharp stabbing pain in my head. It disappears as quickly as it arrived.
I hear a door behind me open. Out of it walks a woman an inch or two shorter than me, her jet-back hair reaching the small of her back. She too is dressed in only a white bathrobe, barely concealing her heavily pregnant belly. She notices me in my confused state.
"Good morning Kraussi!" She greets me cheerfully, adjusting the glasses that are framing her baby-blue eyes.
"HANSI!" Another bout of pain. I move my hand to my temple, seeking to ease it.
She notices. She comes over to me and pulls out a chair. I sit on it cautiously, while she kneels down in front of me.
"Are your injuries acting up again? It seems pretty bad this time. The doctors said I have to help you remember, so please, let's go through this together, as we have always done."
"Who...who are you?" I ask apprehensively.
"You are Johannes Siegfried Krauss. You fought in the war for 6 years. You got hurt in the war. I am Beatrice Emilia Vandenberg. I've known you since we were 9. I joined the academy with you. I was your closest friend. I was there with you when you got news of your parent's death. I was always by your side on the frontlines. I was there on the day you got injured. You were protecting me, and now I am here protecting you. The war ended on that day, thanks to you. We were hailed as heroes, and we are now living the lives we always wanted. Here is the proof of it," she pulls my face to hers with one hand, caressing her belly with her other.
"WAKE UP HANSI!" The pain, it grows, this time lingering.
"I know you got hurt bad. I know it still hurts. So please, for me, for us, remember why you are here, remember who you love."
Through the agony I search my subconscious. An image appears through the haze. White miko robes with red trim, long grey hair, hazel eyes.
"Think Kraussi, think," she repeats with the patience of a saint.
That smile, that damn smile...
"I...love..." I stammer.
"Yes?" Hopeful optimism fills her voice.
"I love Haruna," I force out. The pain disappears.
It all fades to black.
~0~
I am overwhelmed by a blinding light. I try to move my arms to cover my face, but they are restrained. I try to tilt my head, but it too is restrained.
I guess I am awake this time. I am probably naked.
Through the daze I become acutely aware that there is yelling going on around me. One voice is strangely familiar; it is the one barking commands.
"The fuck you mean he's waking up? Give him more. He's not going to overdose dammit, not after how much that whore gives him every fucking day. He needs to stay under for the control serum to work for fucks sake."
"Ooyodo..." I weakly moan.
"Fuck, there he goes. We had one chance, one chance, now we're out of fucking juice," the rage growing in her voice. "Time for plan fucking B."
I hear a pistol cock. Two terrified screams. Two quick gunshots. Two thuds. Her footsteps approach me.
"Admiral Krauss! Thank goodness you are safe," she leans over me, her silhouette blocking the blinding light.
"The fuck is happening? Where's Haruna?" I ask, still dazed.
I cannot not see her face, but I can tell her expression shifted.
"She's...not here right now, and wouldn't be here for some time," she coos, undoing just my head restraints. "So how about you give me a reward for saving you in the meantime?".
A finger runs from my lip down my torso, across my bandages, stopping just above my waistline. She steps back, and I hear the sounds of her undressing.
"The machines told me everything. Your secrets; your...desires..." she lingers on that word, "I know Haruna can't give you kids, so why do you keep her around?"
I lift my head to see her standing at my waist, looking at my dick. She reaches for it with anticipation. I guess her breakup really did drive her insane.
At that moment a knife appears out of a dark miasma and flies through the air, skewering Ooyodo's hand. I recognise it instantly; I mean, there is no reason not to.
"Didn't you learn not to take things that have other people's names on it?" said a disembodied saccharine voice.
"The fuck?! I thought I finished you myself?! Is an entire magazine to the chest not enough for you demon?!" Ooyodo snaps.
"You should have gone for the head."
A dark miasma appears, and out of it steps a bloodied Haruna. She carries herself with grace and elegance, despite the bullet holes in her robes and the traces of blood coughed up. Ooyodo reaches for the pistol with her non-knifed hand. She draws it and fires.
Plink. The sound of metal on metal. Haruna parries the bullet with her knife.
How the fuck did she get another one?
Another report. Another plink. Haruna keeps her steady stride, closing the distance. Bang. Plink. Bang. Plink. Bang. Plink.
Click.
Ooyodo's eyes widen. Her grip on her gun loosens and the gun falls to the ground.
"Haruna's turn."
Haruna just stands there, one arm hanging limply, knife in hand, the other one on her waist. A large dark miasma manifests behind her, the tips of at least 50 knives poking out.
"Haruna, wait, why don't we share. Kings have consorts, emperors have concubines," pleads Ooyodo.
"But Teitoku is but a man - Haruna's man," is her unsympathetic response.
The knives start to fly out of the portal. Some graze Ooyodo's skin, some outright stab her, each impact causing her to scream in agony. Haruna just stands there stoically as knives whizz past her and into Ooyodo's flesh. The deluge only stops when Ooyodo crumples to the ground, knife handles sticking out of her like a porcupine's spines.
I still hear laboured breathing; she is still alive. Haruna calmly walks over to her, kneeling over her body, and deftly slitting her throat. And then there is peace.
Haruna loosens the rest of my restraints, but as I sit up on the operating table, she collapses. I am barely able to catch her. I cradle her as she weakly reaches up to caress my cheek. I hold her hand in mine as I savour her touch.
"Sorry Haruna took so long Teitouku," she says in between shallow breaths.
"Sorry I had to trouble you like this. Are you hurt?" I ask tenderly.
"Haruna is alright," she responds, coughing up a bit of blood this time.
A new red drop starts rolling down from the corner of her mouth. This is when I become aware of the faint sound of gunfire and explosions muffled by the labyrinth of corridors that is the bunker.
~0~
I stumble out of the depths of the bunker, holding a barely breathing Haruna in a princess carry. What we are greeted with on the surface is a hellscape. Buildings are on fire, explosions are going off. Shipgirls are battling each other. Right as I peer out of the bunker, a girl with white hair and multiple fox tails is thrown against the entrance frame, and moments later Kaga was on her, viciously sinking her fist into her face. Repeatedly. The beatdown carried on as I see the unidentified Shipgirls starting to disengage.
The white-haired girl calls out, "Indianapolis, do it now."
The last thing I see is a blinding light...
~0~
"Why? Why did we give them their peace? The moment it comes into effect they turn on their own. They attack the one human who was able to make the peace stick."
"Good, let them start fighting again. We can take them more easily the next time."
"At what cost to us? We have a pretty good deal right now. They can keep the inland regions and we won't get harassed. Surely you aren't saying we should let him die now, after so many of us died just to save him from that irradiated hellhole, him and his wife."
"Fine. But I still don't see why we saved her too."
"They are two halves of the same whole. Now you two take these pieces of bread and make idiot sandwiches out of yourselves."
I hear two, no, three muffled voices. I feel as if I am suspended in some kind of liquid. I try to move my arms, but something about them feels different. I try to cry out, but something is physically clamping my mouth shut.
"He's waking up. Do we let him?"
"No. It's too early and his wife isn't ready yet. Up the dosage and make those idiot sandwiches when you are done."
I feel something electric in my nerves as I slip back under.
~0~
Haruna and I were awake for 5, maybe 6 months, living among the Abyssals in the ceded territory of what used to be San Francisco. I wouldn't say we are captives, since we could leave at any time, the issue being that most of the human-controlled world is now a nuclear hellscape after the civil war. Some of the Shipgirls on both sides have also joined us, seeking to escape what they personally thought was a pointless war, so I guess I am definitely not being lied to.
So far I have been making myself useful governing the refugees who are being housed in the Tenderloin district. There is a slow trickle coming in every day, but the Abyssals have been welcoming them with open arms. Some former residents have remarked that living standards have actually improved slightly from before the war, but I don't let that get to my head because that could be just a decade of bouncing between various refugee camps setting the bar really low.
Sometimes we get visitors. A few active Shipgirls come and go, just to see if they can win me over to their respective factions and lend them legitimacy. Out of principle I say no, for my presence would only cause the skirmishes to intensify. Haruna has also been having a few guests. I think her pen pal may be living here, but I have never seen Yuno's name on any official census.
But enough about the war; as far as I am concerned, that shit is over, and what lies ahead is the rebuilding.
~0~
My limbs essentially had to be regrown from scratch, although the Abyssal medical team remarked the process they used to save me was more akin to healing one of their own compared to their previous attempts at rebuilding humans. Haruna's healing was more straightforward, albeit taking longer because of the extensive internal injuries. All of this was on top of some modifications they implemented to both of us as a token of thanks. Haruna and I were wary at first, but after a few months we learnt in the most amazing way what those modifications were.
~0~
It is night time now. I fumble as I try to brush my teeth, my body still not fully responsive to my inputs. I head over to the bed. Haruna is sitting upright, reading a book on maternity in the animal kingdom. Her belly grows with every day, and the baby should be due by Spring next year. Haruna looks at me with those soft hazel eyes as I pull her in for a kiss. We feel every part of each other; she runs her hands along my jawline and down my back, as I cop a feel of her breasts while caressing her neck. We break off to gaze longingly at each other before joining once again in loving embrace. It does not go futher than that though, for the sake of the baby.
As we lie on the bed with her in my arms, I think of everything that has led to this moment in time. The transport flight; the Christmas Party; Leyte. I think of Haruna's knife, now framed nicely on the living room wall. I think of my old scars and tattoos, all healed over during my treatment and are somehow unable to be remade, much to our disappointment, but I guess we have a better way of manifesting our love.
Haruna purrs lightly. I guess she is aware of what I am thinking of. I always forget - Haruna time, Haruna thoughts.
Just Haruna thoughts.
Just Haruna.