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Tomobiki, the next morning...
"WHERE...?!"
Having bolted out of bed, Miyake Shinobu blinked for a moment before she looked around...then the tension she had felt for over three months since she had been taken from this house by Redet Lum's friend Shigaten Benten finally flowed out of her like a Fundy tide. "Home...!"
"Shinobu-chan?"
She perked before smiling. "Okā-san!"
The door opened to reveal her mother, Kimiki. In a flash, Ataru's former girlfriend was in her mother's comforting arms. "Oh, my baby!" the former fashion model moaned in relief as tears flowed down her cheeks. "Are you alright?! You weren't hurt, were you?! When that UFO came by and literally yanked you and your classmates into space, I feared the worst!"
"I'm okay, Okā-san..." Shinobu assured her mother as she relaxed in her mother's embrace. "It was bad when Nengmek'i-sama came to Uru to take Ataru-kun to Okusei..." She caught herself. "Oh, gomen nasai! You don't know about Nengmek'i-sama and Kyech-san..."
A laugh escaped Kimiki. "Relax, Shinobu-chan! Kyech-san was more than happy to explain her side of what happened to Ataru-kun when she brought you and the others back to Earth last night; the shock of the teleportation knocked you all out. Negako-sama explained everything about the Promise of Bunka-gonen and how it affected Ataru-kun to all of us who had children kidnapped by that Benten woman..." — she ignored the slight wince from Shinobu on hearing the scorn in that word; regardless of how many teens in Tomobiki felt about the aliens who had come there over the last year, most of the elder generation almost to the last would gladly wish them forever gone given their reckless behaviour towards others — "...when she, Ataru-kun and Tariko-chan came here a month ago before they headed to Eta-jima at the request of the Heavenly Sovereign to look in on the kanmusu and help put a stop to the Abyssals! Thank God for that," she then breathed out. "Oh, I got some tea for you!" With that, she headed out.
Shinobu watched her go, then she sighed. While Japan had suffered enormously because of those dark sea spirits that had prowled the world's oceans for several years, Tomobiki escaped any direct confrontation thanks to it being many kilometres inland from open ocean and the gallant efforts of special magical warriors answerable directly to the Chrysanthemum Throne who had protected shore-side cities, towns and villages from their attacks before the Miracle of Tōkyō Bay happened nearly three years ago and Kongō and her sisters appeared as kanmusu to chase out the Abyssals moving to wreck the capital, seeing the Fleet Shipgirl Project launched. Yes, it had been hard at times given the need to ration things, but the overwhelming threat the Abyssals presented to humanity as a whole had forced a lot of changes that seemed to heal worldwide society from the bitter divisions of decades past, especially the Cold War. Korea was on the path to final reunification as people in Sŏul and P'yŏng'yang worked together to protect their peninsula from the dark sea kami. China and Táiwān had joined forces to maintain and strengthen ties as the latter's reborn navy helped protect sea trade. Russia had mended fences with America and Europe as well as the other former Soviet states...!
God is testing us, Shinobu thought as she gazed on the portable chapel at one end of her room. God is testing us indeed like nothing ever before...!
Kimiki soon returned with a tea service. "Some kuru-cha?" she teased.
Shinobu laughed. "Hai!" she said as she took the cup of fermented black tea. "We saw that on NHK before Kyech-san brought us to Earth! You should have seen Mendō-san and Megane blow a gasket when they found out Ataru-kun was dating Kirishima-san!" She then paused before sighing. "Tariko-chan...she's...?"
Kimiki tried not to scream. Lord only knew, her daughter's mixed feelings for Moroboshi Ataru were a pain to deal with at times. To have TWO versions of him even if one was a very beautiful woman would really confuse her, especially now in the wake of the announcement of Mendō Shūtarō's engagement to Mizunokōji Asuka several weeks before the issue with Elle slammed down on people. "Hai. She's the version of Ataru-kun that wanted you before his mother and Venerable Sakurambō forced them back together as one. I don't know what you know of Negako-sama, but when her living essence was forced into Ataru-kun's mind on his sixth birthday, it fractured his soul." As Shinobu croaked in horror on hearing such a thing, Kimiki added, "In effect, what Lum's candy and Venerable Sakurambō's cursed cake did was to give Tariko-chan a chance to get out and be 'himself' for a change." She sighed. "We weren't able to speak to either of them when Ataru-kun moved all his stuff out of his house...but from what I can tell and what Kyech-san warned your father and I about last night, they went through something awful on that Okusei planet before they were allowed to finally live in individual bodies." She then perked. "Oh, don't remove those ofuda from the windows, alright?" she then advised as she pointed to the window of Shinobu's bedroom, where a pair of blood-stained ofuda were now posted. "The explanation will come in four days as Negako-sama said last night."
"'T'ech'ach Nechma Nukt'ech-kai Ket'echi'?" Shinobu asked with a knowing look.
Kimiki winked...then both jolted on hearing a scream echo from the direction of the Moroboshi home. "I see that Kinshō-san got Ataru-kun's last message."
"Eh?"
"'Grow old and die alone'," the former fashion model stated. "After all, how many times have you heard Ataru-kun's mother say 'I wish I never had him'?"
Shinobu winced. Yes, the behaviour of Moroboshi Kinshō when it came to her own son at times was reprehensible. Still, given Ataru's zest for living for the moment, it was too easy for people to believe he really didn't care at all for what had been said about him when it came to his behaviour. To learn that Ataru had basically turned his back on his parents was something that made Shinobu cringe; such anger seemed a totally alien thing when it came to her former boyfriend. But if Ataru felt that about his own flesh-and-blood...?
...how did he feel about her, much less his friends here in Tomobiki?
Or did he see them as friends now in the wake of Lum ruining things so much?
Lum came...and sanity went...! Shinobu mentally repeated a lament that had been said many times in this part of Metro Tōkyō when it applied to all the kooky weirdness that had rocked Tomobiki over the last year and more. Shaking her head, she then sighed as she moved to drink her tea.
She'd have to speak to her classmates about this...
Eta-jima, that moment...
A moan escaped Moroboshi Ataru as his eyes opened, allowing him to gaze on the ceiling of his private quarters on the base grounds, isolated from the shipgirl dorms even if there was really no difference at all between the accommodation blocks. Glad to have a proper bed under his back in lieu of a futon, he then sighed before looking right to see the incredible vision now curled up against him, a content smile on her face as she dreamily whispered statements that had echoed on her bridge in ages past. Thanking the Kami that it wasn't the normal nightmares the reincarnated fast battleship had of her final day of life as a warship in Ironbottom Sound back in the fall of 1942, Ataru gently slid himself out from under the covers. Squeezing Kirishima's hand in reassurance as the battleship bemoaned the absence of her "special boatswain" close to her flank, he got up, stretching as he gazed out the window at the parade grounds.
Sure enough, Fubuki was out on the field running her laps. Seeing the little destroyer go at it like she did, Ataru smirked before he headed over to the portable stove on the desk to warm up some water and finish off the fermented tea that he had offered his girlfriend the previous night in celebration of the return of ten capital warships back to service as kanmusu. One of which was the living spirit of his paternal great-great-uncle Moroboshi Kyōsuke's ship, the converted Yamato-class heavy armoured attack aircraft carrier Yonaga, the Seventh Carrier of Operation Z...whose presence that day in 1941 would have wrecked Pearl Harbour for months and extended the idiocy of the Greater East Asia War for a couple of years as America would be forced to effectively stage things from ports like San Francisco and San Diego until they got the bases in Hawai'i back up to snuff again. Shaking his head at the bitter truths of what war unleashed on those caught up in it, he sighed as he drew out two cups, then waited for the water to boil over. No matter if the living kami-in-human form called "kanmusu" in Japan had been in their original warship bodies or their present mystical bioroid bodies, it still was the bitter truth of war.
As Henry Blake once told Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H, there were two rules of war:
Rule One: In war, people die.
Rule Two: Doctors couldn't change Rule One.
Ataru amended that second one long ago: No one could change Rule One.
But doing everything to prevent people from being victims of Rule One was okay.
That was why he, his twin sister and adopted older sister were in Eta-jima now.
That was why he had to cut himself off totally from everyone back in Tomobiki.
That was why he had gladly helped wreck the Galactic Federation of Planet-states — the informal League of Nations-like alliance of interplanetary powers the Union of Uru was an unofficial leader of — a month ago when he and his siblings helped warriors from the Imperial Dominion of Noukiios and the Free Planetary State of Yiziba destroy a planet named Phentax Twelve.
Not to mention the large fleet of warships based over nearby Phentax Twenty.
Which would effectively deprive Lum's people of their most powerful ally.
And would force the Urusians away from Earth until the idiots controlling that lot finally got a damned clue and started treating aliens equally.
Given Lum's own obsessive-compulsive behaviour concerning her "husband"...
And pigs can fly! he darkly mused.
The refurbishment docks, that moment...
Yonaga's dark grey eyes slowly opened.
A moan escaped the tall and curvy battleship-turned-aircraft carrier as she sat up in the well-prepared salt water bath that she had been ordered to soak in as soon as she had finished disciplining Kongō before Moroboshi Tariko dragged the fast battleship off for some evening tea and a chance to "pillow" the very passionate kanmusu before sleeping. To believe a simple good night's sleep is such a wonderful thing, the seventh carrier of Operation Z mused to herself as she stretched her arms to work the kinks out of them; she was stiff after many hours in the refurbishment docks as a crew of faeries — as the kami who were effective reflections of her lost crew were called — swarmed her hull to ensure everything was in tip top shape, plus update her on the incredible changes that had happened in the world since she had disappeared from it in the fall of 1941. It was wonderful even if it was quite dizzying to her...
"Sleep well, meine Freunde?"
Hearing that, she looked over to see the silver-haired battleship with the dark brown eyes in the next dock over. A near-equal to Bismarck in looks and general body shape, it was all too easy to remember who she was. "Ohayō gozaimasu, Tirpitz-san. Hai, I slept well. It's a good thing that whatever kami are allowing us to return to duty helped us better understand what being human is about. After all, all our crews were men...and we're women."
"At least our Russian brothers won't have problems," the "Lonely Queen of the North" mused. "Quite a change from what we were used to back in the 1940s, ja?"
Yonaga nodded. "Hai. At least Iowa-san's sisters will be able to adjust better to this since they were in commission during the 1980s and early 1990s as missile-carrying warships. The culture shock will not so bad. It must be nice now to be able to do missions and you'll be supported all the way."
"Ja, it will be," Tirpitz affirmed. "Hopefully, the nightmares stemming from Operation: Catechism and Operation: Source won't bother me too much..."
Yonaga considered that, then she nodded, grateful the faeries who represented her admiral's intelligence staff had been able to properly update her on the last seventy years and more of maritime warfare history, especially the fates of the shipgirls and shipboys in Eta-jima and elsewhere so that friendly fire incidents in the future were reduced to nil. Operation: Source was the brilliant attack on Tirpitz while she was at anchorage in Altafjord in northern Norway in the fall of 1943 by the Royal Navy. Carried out by brave crews in midget submarines who dropped pressure bombs under her, it put the battleship out of action for months; in many ways, that attack copied the midget submarine element of Operation Z that was meant to assist the aerial attack from the Kidō Butai on Pearl Harbour almost two years earlier. Operation: Catechism was the devastating attack by Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster heavy bombers carrying the deadly "Tallboy" ten tonne earthquake bombs that wrecked Tirpitz in Tromsø in late 1944; no warship armour, no matter how thick, could withstand a bomb twirling down like a rifle bullet from high altitude and bearing such weight and explosive power. "It will be expunged, Tirpitz-san," she warned.
"I wonder what nightmares you'll have," the battleship sympathetically noted.
"No matter what, I will endure..."
"'Morning."
Hearing that rough voice, both looked up as a smirking shipgirl in old-style United States Navy dungarees with a work smock over her chest came up, her olive-skinned face streaked with grease and oil and her wavy dark hair matted with dirt and metal shavings. "Ohayō gozaimasu, Vestal-sensei," Yonaga greeted the former collier converted into a mobile repair ship and was present at Pearl Harbour in 1941, anchored outboard of the battleship that eventually became the living symbol of the martyrs of that day. "Am I free to have breakfast?"
Vestal smirked as she tapped her iPad to scan what was there. "Good! All your equipment upgrades were installed while you were asleep. Defence-wise, you'll be the match of Midway and her sisters when they come back." She perked. "Oh, if you want to know, they did the first summoning at Great Lakes a few hours ago. All the girls of Battleship Row are back, not to mention all the other battlewagons from South Carolina onward, including Iowa's incomplete sisters, the Montanas, Lex's and Sara's sisters that were scrapped because of the Washington Treaty, plus the old South Dakotas. We even got the Alaska sisters as well on the first big summoning." She chuckled. "That will be confusing."
"What do you mean, Frau Professor?" Tirpitz asked.
Vestal blushed at that German rough approximation of the Japanese "sensei" honorific that was always applied to her given that she helped Akashi run the repair facilities at Eta-jima. "We now have two South Dakotas, two Indianas, two Montanas, two North Carolinas, two Iowas and two ships named 'Massachusetts'. Plus two Rangers as the carrier that followed Saratoga was also named 'Ranger'. Atop that, one of the Alaska sisters was named after the Philippines, which is now an independent country!" Vestal reported. "We'll have to make sure the fleet's distributed in such a way that we don't end up confusing people when you call out a name. I can't understand how the Brits, the Canucks, the Aussies and the Kiwis kept it just to one ship per name..."
"Easily explained," Yonaga stated. "In the Commonwealth tradition, the name and battle honours are passed on to the next ship christened with that name no matter what type of ship it is, as if it was one ship all along. You Americans don't do that; honours and awards are always per ship, not per name."
The repair vessel hummed before nodding in understanding. "Oh, got a message from Arizona and Oklahoma to you and the other girls in the Kidō Butai."
"Being?"
"'Don't commit hara-kiri, please'! The war's long over and Ari sensed it when the veterans on your side came to her memorial at Pearl to apologize to Admiral Kidd and Ari's crew for their actions. Besides, they stowed ammunition outside the main magazines on her and that modified naval cannon shell that hit her was coming from straight up. As Her Majesty here can explain..." — here, Vestal leered at Tirpitz, who was sputtering in embarrassment at being addressed as that — "...bombs hitting from straight up can't be deflected well by deck armour, especially since Ari wasn't as protected that way as you are, Yonaga."
"Inform Arizona-san and her friends that I would consider it an honour to fight at their side if circumstances dictate such," Yonaga stated. "Meanwhile..."
"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?! BACK OFF AND LEAVE KISARAGI-CHAN ALONE!"
Hearing Tariko's voice, Vestal moaned. "Oh, shit! Here we go again...!"
"What's going on?" Yonaga demanded.
"The Canadians salvaged a girl sunk near Wake Island when the girls here started to crank up their offensive against the Abyssals: Destroyer Kisaragi," the repair vessel said. "Since the whole project started, there's been a group of ship-breakers assigned to the grounds in anticipation of taking apart any shipgirl who's crippled too much to be of further use to the Combined Fleet." As Tirpitz gasped in horror, Vestal added, "Ever since Kisaragi was brought back, the yardmaster of that group has harassed Akashi, myself and the others to get their hands on her and recycle her parts. Of course, Admiral Saitō..."
She then gasped on sensing a volcano of pure FURY escape the aircraft carrier in the dock in front of her. As Tirpitz stared in horror at the sight of Yonaga rising like Gojira from her dock, the seventh carrier of Operation Z glared at Vestal. "Where are my swords?" she icily asked...
Moments later...
To many staring at this, it looked like some strange Mexican standoff between Moroboshi Tariko and a middle-aged man in a scientist's smock over a business suit, accompanied by a half-dozen dockyard workers in overalls and T-shirts, a familiar octopus clan mon on their chests. Behind the matriarch of the Moroboshi Clan was a dazed destroyer in a hospital gown seated in a wheelchair, currently accompanied by a shuddering Mutsuki. As other shipgirls, security personnel and shore staff began to gather around the scene, the doors to the refurbishment docks were flung open and a hastily-dressed Yonaga charged out, her daishō dangling from her hakama belt. Given the noise, the scientist and his companions turned to look...before they gargled in terror on seeing the seventh carrier approach them at flank speed, a murderous look on her face.
"Y-y-y-Yonaga-s-s-san...!" the scientist sputtered...
...before the loud SSHING! of a drawn katana made everyone save the dazed Kisaragi gasp before the leader of the Eta-jima detachment of Mendō Heavy Industries found himself about to become a head shorter. Before he could croak out a protest, Yonaga turned to stare in amusement at Tariko. "Moroboshi-dono, would you care to explain to me why this yakuza here is disturbing the peace and tranquility of our humble naval district?" the carrier sweetly asked.
"He's no yakuza, Yonaga-san," Tariko said as a cool look crossed her face, then she gestured with her hand. Burning ki then cloaked the extremity, which then formed into a blazing energy katana the size of the carrier's large sword; that was accompanied by a hissing, crackling noise that made the scientist croak on recognizing the similarity between Tariko's ki weapon and a lightsabre from Star Wars. As the people viewing this felt an Arctic-level chill suddenly wash over them, the workers accompanying the scientist gulped as they fearfully backed off. "So, should I call in the Men In Black?" she then teased.
The scientist jolted...as Yonaga's eyes went wide on recognizing that particular code phrase. Before the man could react, the carrier spun around, drawing her wakizashi out of its scabbard before plunging it into his liver, making him shriek in agony as she ripped it across his mid-abdomen, tearing his stomach and spleen as well as severing his aorta and inferior vena cava. As a torrent of blood and severed internal organs exploded from the cut to shower the ground at his feet, Yonaga twisted the short sword up to cut through the diaphragm and vent open the heart before she yanked it out of his body. That allowed him to collapse onto his knees, though he still had strength in his lower body to stay somewhat erect as he glared hatefully at the woman in black standing in front of him. "L-l-l-Lum-sama...will d-d-destroy y-y-you...!"
Tariko smirked. "T'ech'ach Nechma Nukt'ech-kai Ket'echi," she said. "Let me translate for you before you go off to the hell your whole stinking race deserves now..." The smile turned lethal. "'Mother Of All Fight Scenes'!"
The scientist cried out in terror...before his strength finally fled him and he collapsed on his face as the life seeped from his body. As all the onlookers gaped in shock and horror at how easily Yonaga dispatched the despised leader of the ship-breaking firm that had set up shop here on Eta-jima right after the Kanmusu-keikaku was launched, Tariko looked over. "Master Chief!"
A burly American master chief master-at-arms came up, saluting. "Ma'am?!"
"Have the corpsmen take that alien refuse to the incinerator to destroy the body. The people who worked under him are confined to base for five days!"
Another salute responded. "Aye-aye, ma'am!"
As he shouted to co-workers to get hospital corpsmen to the scene, Yonaga nodded after a smiling Vestal handed her a cloth to clean her wakizashi before she sheathed both her swords. She then walked over to shift the dead scientist's head with her foot to part the hair over his ear.
His very elegantly tapered ear.
"Gods! He's an ALIEN?!"
That was the ship-breaking shop foreman, who looked as if he had been pitched into the Twilight Zone without any sort of helpful warning from Rod Serling. "An enemy alien who would gladly destroy us all in the name of the Oni your young master would gladly slavish over even as the lives of innocents elsewhere are made to suffer," the carrier coldly declared. "That is why Ataru-san needs to remove that Oni from this planet! Her very presence is as much a plague to all of us on Earth as the Abyssals are! Do you wish to explain to the Heavenly Sovereign why is it that you stood back and allowed this alien yakuza to kidnap a brave, wounded warrior just to turn her into a sex slave on his home planet because Moroboshi-dono saw them for the monsters they are and summoned a race of metahumans to wreck them to keep Earth safe from their kind?!"
As the people who answered to the Mendō Clan of Musashino gaped in horror at that statement, Yonaga stared at the dazed Kisaragi before she moved to head back to the refurbishment docks to fully clean up, then go have breakfast. She didn't notice the chorus of awed and adoring looks from the destroyers and submarines who had gathered there, not to mention the thankful looks from the cruisers and the understanding nods from battleships and carriers. As she disappeared into the refurbishment docks, Fubuki found herself gushing.
"Yonaga-sempai is so COOL...!"
Agreeing nods echoed from the others as Yonaga's sisters exchanged looks...
The main mess hall, an hour later...
"Vódka?"
Yonaga perked before she looked at the shot glass of clear liquid that had been placed in front of her breakfast tray by Hibiki. Gazing at the silver-haired destroyer who had been turned over to the Soviet Union at the end of the war in reparations, the carrier blinked, then smiled as she took it and swallowed the liquid in one shot. She winced as a certain hospital corpsman faerie began to berate her for drinking hard liquor when she had spiritually gone totally cold turkey for decades before a gentle buzz echoed deep in her heart and soul as the vódka went to work. "That was the first time I ever did that..."
"Did a lot of your crew commit seppuku, nanodesu?" Inazuma meekly asked.
"Hai, Inazuma-san," the carrier affirmed with a sad nod. "The frustrations and the boredom just got to far too many over the years. After the failed attempt at escape in 1983, it became chronic...and when Fujita-chūshō died in 1990, whatever hope the crew had when it came to getting out of Sano Bay..."
The destroyers sitting around her all had sympathetic tears in their eyes as they imagined what it must have been like for the seventh carrier to sense her crew endure such madness in a place where they had no hope of getting home save for breaking out of the barrier of glacial ice that had trapped them there since 1941; the idea of surrendering themselves to local Russian authority would have never been contemplated in that case. "So what was that monster, anyway?" Akatsuki hissed as she hugged herself. Even if she understood the concept of ritual suicide as much as any other shipgirl who served Japan did, to see it happen before her had unnerved her...even if she now viewed the great carrier with the same gushing awe Fubuki had showed earlier for having stood up for poor Kisaragi like that, plus defended Tariko-sensei like she did.
"A Niphentaxian," Yonaga explained. "Their home planet is commonly called 'Phentax Two'. A race of technological savants who have lost the ability to create their own culture and society, thus are chronically addicted to seeking out other societies to template theirs after. Such an addiction these days has a powerful religious slant to it; they would create 'churches' of sorts that would make people venerate a specific person they feel was touched directly by the Kami. Earth has interested them for centuries; they've had cultural observers here for decades." As the destroyers gasped at the idea of alien spies being embedded among humanity for that length of time, the carrier added, "A decade ago, their current leader Ōgi was saved by Ataru-san's would-be wife Lum when he was trapped in a foreboding swamp near the Urusian capital city. In gratitude for such an act, he created what he called the 'Church of Lum', viewing her as an arahitogami similar to how we view the Heavenly Sovereign. Said 'church' is now the one single 'faith' driving all of his kind; to defy such is to invite death on accusations of heresy or apostasy." As the destroyers nodded in stunned understanding, Yonaga added, "It was harmless at first...but that changed six years ago when this yakuza launched a biological warfare attack on the capital city of a planet named Vos, slaughtering five million innocent civilians even if the leader of that world tried to have Lum and her family killed due to their public support of a dissident couple from that planet. Given that, there's no way in Heaven that we here on Earth can trust such beings as long as such a genocidal monster as this Ōgi is in charge of that world; the Union of Phentax Two is considered the most powerful member of the Galactic Federation of Planet-states, the alliance of worlds that Lum's people helped found around the time of the Meiji Restoration here."
"So why was he after Kisaragi-chan?" a shuddering Mutsuki asked as she gently comforted a dazed Kisaragi, who had to be hand-fed her meals due to her total inability to summon the will to do even mundane things like eating. "You said that creep would try to turn Kisaragi-chan into a...a...!"
"Sex slave. No different than the comfort women once employed by our troops," Yonaga finished, which made the destroyers (who were at the development of young teenagers in the human scale) cringe. "Hai, Mutsuki-san. Ōgi's people were able to enslave a race of artificial beings like Tariko-san and Negako-san to serve as such for his people, doing it in such a way that none could escape to advise the Niphentaxians' allies like the Oni such was happening. I don't know the details, but Negako-san and her siblings were able to free those people from enslavement a month ago, delivering a vicious blow to Ōgi's forces along the way; clearly, they embraced all the lessons of the Pearl Harbour attack and used them. You'll have to ask our friends for information about that operation...but I suspect that 'mother of all fight scenes' phrase Negako-san will reveal to the people in four days' time has much to do with it."
The others nodded before footfalls announced the presence of the two training cruisers assigned as teachers at the kanmusu school that took up a significant part of Eta-jima's grounds. "Yonaga-san," Katori called out as she and Kashima bowed politely to the carrier. "When we start classes for the little ones, would you like to observe them to make sure the standards are up to snuff? Hearing about your admiral and how he was the real genius behind Operation Z, your insights on many things would help them understand their lessons more."
"Of course, Sensei," Yonaga declared as the destroyers all cheered...
Admiral Saitō's office, a half-hour later...
"A Niphentaxian spy?! HERE?!"
A shuddering admiral glared intently at Tariko, who didn't seem the least bit bothered by what happened. "Hai, Saitō-kaishō," the matriarch of the Moroboshi Clan affirmed. "I didn't get close to the religious goose-stepper until about a week ago...but since I'm not as experienced as Onē-san when it comes to reading people's ki, I wanted to make sure of it. Onē-san was busy doing her in-depth ki analysis of all the kanmusu, remember?" As Saitō Ten'ichi nodded in understanding and the other naval officers present shook their heads in frustration over this delightful new wrinkle in their lives, Tariko added, "I finally marked him for what he really was yesterday afternoon when he tried to push Akashi-sensei into turning Kisaragi-chan over to his group." She didn't stare at the ship-breaker staff seated nearby, all of whom looked confused at the unbelievable revelation that had just been dumped on their heads. "But I couldn't deal with him until he showed up this morning to come get her."
"And Yonaga-san decided to deal with it," Mutsu noted with an amused smile.
"And Yonaga-san decided to deal with it," Tariko jovially parroted, which made the shipgirls giggle even if many still were chilled on seeing a relatively normal human being (if one ignored the ears and the fanatic religious devotion to Tariko's would-be sister-in-law) killed like that in a mock act of seppuku.
Saitō nodded. "Are you getting your people to sweep out the rest of them?"
"It is being done, Ten'ichi."
Eyes locked on Moroboshi Negako, who had placed herself off to one corner of the room in a position which would allow her to see everyone else. It had unnerved the normal humans working at Eta-jima when she showed such behaviour in the beginning, but they had got used to it by now. The Mendō personnel, who had not had to deal with the ninjutsu grandmaster until now, looked as if they were facing Yonaga's wakizashi themselves; if this woman was indeed the legendary Imperial Special Agent #49 herself, there was no power their employer's family possessed that could possibly hurt her or those she chose to protect. Given that Negako did bear a resemblance to the most despised enemy of their employer's son and heir, it was understandable that they were feeling as if the whole world had gone mad; should Young Master Shūtarō push it...!
"We didn't know he was an alien, Teitoku!" the foreman stated. "How in the name of the Kami was he able to infiltrate himself into our group like that?!"
"That's how good these people can be in mimicking behaviour from other races," Tariko coolly advised, resisting the urge to quip about the normal level of incompetence people working for the Mendō family showed at times. "And if you think that was bad, you better know that these folks look on Shūtarō as Lum's 'fifth holy apostle'." As the ship-breakers all gaped at her, she smirked. "You think that's crazy? Tomobiki's chock-full of the slimebags! And we don't need them to encourage Shūtarō or Megane's gang of idiots into doing something that could hurt people elsewhere! Lum's just ONE person in the end! There are over seven billion people on Earth! Who gives a shit about what Lum wants in the end?! Given that she's as psychotic as that bastard's leader back on Phentax Two..." Shaking her head, she nodded politely to Saitō, then marched out of the office, a litany of curses in many languages flowing from her lips.
As the ship-breakers winced on hearing that storm of profanity, Saitō sighed. "Gentlemen, you'll be confined to base until the issue with these aliens is dealt with in four days' time. Once that happens, I will be speaking to your employer about your presence on Eta-jima. Your being here is wrecking morale among the kanmusu and that can't be allowed at this time, not with the threats from the Abyssals. Master Chief, escort them to guest quarters."
"Aye, sir," the master-at-arms who responded to Tariko's call after Yonaga killed the scientist said with a nod before he motioned to his subordinates...
Meanwhile, out in space close to Jupiter...
"GONE?!"
"Yes, Boss! All gone!"
Hearing that from his executive officer, the giant warlord who had led the Urusians' "invasion" on Earth over a year ago gaped in shock before he sat back in his command chair on the bridge of the Kashin. "How in the name of the Maidens did they leave?!" Redet Invader demanded.
"Most likely, Lady K'ekhech teleported them back to Earth, Boss," the younger man with the eye patch stated; on seeing him for the first time, Lum's Earth friends had immediately been reminded of the classic anime character of Captain Harlock. "There was trace energy residue in the gig."
Invader grunted, shaking his head. "Signals! Call over to Chancellor Nakkyek!" he ordered his pretty young communications officer. "I'm getting tired of this! Lum wants to be with Mr. Groom! Let's get it done!"
"Yes, Boss!" the woman there said before she made the call.
The view screen on Kashin's keel-mounted pilotage platform flicked on to reveal a beautiful woman about the same age as Lum, though she had the forehead ridges and caste tattoos on her cheeks that marked her true planet of origin. She had shoulder-length silver hair that was pulled away from her forehead and formed a bob cut around her face; deep purple-blue eyes filled with both intelligence and friendliness peeked out of a well-formed face. She was dressed in the vestments of an Imperial Chancellor, a regional governor general who controlled twenty "outmarch" systems that formed the Dominion's flank frontier with Uru and several other solar systems, including Sol's. It had been hair-raising at the start when it came to launching the tag race given that Seu-Ch'ek Yech'a-Mung Hechnich'-Nakkyek was known across the local cluster for her compassion towards helpless beings and her determination to reign in the mass banditry that had plagued the Imperial Outmarches for years; if something had gone wrong concerning Earth, Uru would have been in a war with Noukiios in an instant!
Given the chancellor had once been the adopted mother of the Dragonspeaker...!
"Yes, Captain," she said, gazing neutrally at him. "How can I help you today?"
"Now see here, Madame Chancellor!" Invader snarled as he straightened himself. "What's this about Lady K'ekhech teleporting all of my daughter's friends to Earth?! My daughter's been cleared to live on Earth by the Special Committee! This is an act of war if you keep her away from her husband...!"
She moaned. "Kyech!"
A sudden puff of air behind Invader later...
KLONK!
The large captain was now driven face-first into the deck thanks to the tall, curvy, crimson-haired Noukiite woman appearing to be in her late teens currently standing behind Invader's chair, a raised fist bandaged in protective tape hovering over where the Oni's head had been seconds before. "Ataru and Lum are not married, Invader," Seu-P'ye Yesu-Re Hechnich'-K'ekhech calmly declared as her chestnut eyes glowed with the nigh-immortal power that flooded her veins and made her perhaps one of the most powerful sentient beings in the local cluster. "Why do you continue to believe that lie?"
Invader moaned...just as a screech of outrage thundered from the turbolift tube that connected the bridge to the battlewagon's main hull. "STOP SAYING THAT, YOU MONSTER!" Redet Lum howled before she let go with a massive blast of her bio-electricity upon the nosy animal-lover who had butted in so thoroughly after her spirit-dragon friend had wrecked her wedding.
The energy hit...which made Kyech (as she was known to close friends) howl with laughter at that ticklish feeling danced over her. While the bridge crew gaped in disbelief as they got a close demonstration of the Dragonspeaker's Superman-like power, the turbolift came down, carrying Lum's three childhood friends and her maternal cousin with it. As they stopped to morbidly watch the warlord's daughter unleash herself on Kyech, they just shook their heads; even if they all had their own reasons to see Lum married to Moroboshi Ataru, they knew that butting heads with the likes of the Dragonspeaker wouldn't get her anywhere.
After a couple minutes, Lum dropped to the deck, exhausted...then Kyech snared her by the neck and threw her into the deckhead, causing the Oni to yelp as the impact knocked her out, her body dropping face-first to the deck. Noting the bridge crew wasn't willing to do anything to get on the Dragonspeaker's bad side by trying to stop her, the crown princess of Neptune took a deep breath. "Lady Chancellor Nakkyek, please!" she called out to the woman on the view screen. "Could you make Lady K'ekhech leave my friend alone?!" Oyuki demanded.
Hearing that plea, Kaep' (as she was known to close friends) closed her eyes. "That you are willing to defend your friend speaks highly of you, Your Highness," she stated as she gazed upon Oyuki. "Still, how can you continue to condone your friend's behaviour not just towards a man whom she is NOT married to by Urusian law or tradition (much less Terran law, I might add!)...but to many others on Earth, in Tomobiki and beyond? Can you answer that?!"
"She loves him!" Oyuki snapped.
"Ataru does not love Lum. Not after he learned how much she lied to him."
Eyes locked on Kyech. "How the fuck do you know that?!" Shigaten Benten then snarled, resisting the urge to yank out her sash chain to try to rope the Noukiite metahuman free warrior with it to make her back off.
"I found him after Nengmek'i brought him to Okusei," the Dragonspeaker stated. "I sensed right away that Ataru's soul had been permanently fractured, creating two separate beings inside him. He also was host to Earth's first artificial intelligence; her spirit was placed within his mind when he was six, which helped in fracturing his own soul." As many on the bridge gasped in shock on hearing that, Kyech added, "I took him to the university where your own sister Kamen currently studies, Benten. There, we had two bioroid clone bodies..."
"WAIT A SEC'!" Benten shrilled, her whole body shaking. "I DON'T HAVE A SISTER! WHAT IN BENSAITEN'S NAME ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!"
"Ask your father," Kyech calmly stated before she focused on Oyuki. "You also have a sister named Mienai." As the Neptunian crown princess jolted on hearing that, the crimson-haired free warrior stared at Lum's other childhood "friend" and once-rival for the hand of her former fiancé Seq Rei, Aruka Ran. "As do you, Ran. Her name is Damasu. And Lum has one as well; her name is Hensō." She gazed on the groaning warlord's daughter nearby. "All are bioroids, not gynoids as Ōgi promised Nassur when they were created five years ago to serve as living targets to ensure his enemies didn't hurt you. When Nassur and Cinba discovered the truth after I sensed what happened, they allowed your sisters to travel to Okusei to live their lives." She lightly smiled. "They are fully aware of what has happened to you. All of you were fitted with meson crystals in your minds so they could act exactly as you at whatever time they were needed. Hensō 'saw' what Lum did that day she declared Ataru her husband, then explained everything to Ataru after I brought him to the university."
Silence fell as the three exchanged looks. Oyuki then took a deep breath, shaking her head in annoyance. Parents! she hissed out to herself as she imagined how her father King Fuyu would have reacted to such a suggestion even from the likes of Nassur. "If you will please excuse us, Lady K'ekhech, Lady Chancellor Nakkyek, we need to speak to Lum's father about this. Benten?"
"Right," the biker-babe from the planet Fukunokami snarled as she yanked off her sash chain, then lashed out to lasso Lum's father with it around the neck. As he gargled on sensing that hardened metal crush his throat, Benten grabbed him and slammed him into his chair. "Hey! Old Man! You got some serious explaining to do right now!" she snarled at him. "About my sister...!"
As Invader sputtered in shock, Kyech smiled as she teleported off the Kashin...
Tomobiki, lunchtime...
"Oi, guys!"
People perked on hearing that from the front gate of Tomobiki High School, then turned as Mifune Hideyuki came up, laptop computer in hand. "Oi, Mifune! What's up?!" Fujinami Ryūnosuke called out; given that members of Class 2-4 had just got back to Earth the previous evening, the school's elderly principal had allowed them to take a day off to rest and recover before heading back to classes. Despite that, almost all of their number had come by the rustic old schoolhouse to spend time together, plus take the chance to meet up with peers to relay news of what happened in space. "What's with the computer?!"
"Naka-chan's latest podcast! Just came out today!" the kanmusu otaku replied.
That made people gasp as many of the other kanmusu fans perked. "Naka-chan's latest podcast?!" Marubeya Momoe asked. She was one of Mendō Shūtarō's more ardent fans in the class; even now that he was "engaged" to the young heiress of his clan's greatest rivals, many of the girls in Class 2-4 and elsewhere in Tomobiki still dreamt of the chance of scoring with him. "She normally puts those out on Fridays!" It was a Monday. "Why's she putting out one now?!"
"Is it because of Yonaga-san?" Kakugari asked, ignoring the shuddering Megane. Ever since the class had come to school, the leader of the Stormtroopers had been surly with his peers, looking as if he wanted to race down to Eta-jima and rip apart Moroboshi Ataru with his bare hands. Seeing even his closest friends gush about the kanmusu was making the bespectacled student see red.
Didn't ANY of these idiots remember their sacred oaths concerning Lum...?
"Hai!" Hideyuki said as he sat on one of the blankets that had been brought to the school by Momoe's best friend Gekasawa Kumiko, then he moved to open the laptop and boot it up. "Got it recorded; it was broadcast live an hour ago. It's got Ataru and Tariko-chan in it, plus Negako-san...!"
"GOOD!"
People moaned, then Shinobu calmly raised a nearby rock that was at least a half-tonne in weight while she smiled in mock sweetness at her once-rival's chief fanboy. "Megane-san, would you like me to compound all the wounds Nengmek'i-sama gave you three months ago?" she coolly asked.
Megane gargled before he made himself as small as possible even if his heart raged anew at that show of "defiance" from Ataru's former girlfriend. Ever since Lum had first been beaten by the Dragonspeaker of Noukiios a week before when they tried to sail back to Earth from Uru, the tarts lapping up Mendō's ass had become quite bold in putting his allies among the boys down and making sure they didn't try to show their support for the warlord's daughter; it had even caused a lot of his peers who were also fans of the kanmusu to reject being part of the Stormtroopers! THAT was simply unforgivable in his eyes!
Flashing Shinobu a thankful smile, Hideyuki finished turning on the laptop, then pulled out a pair of speakers from his carryall bag to plug into it. As he moved to get the file brought up, footfalls heralded the arrival of the school's chief administrator, accompanied by the town's most unique resident bar none. "Ah, Mifune-kun! I thought I said that you and your class were to take the day off," the Principal calmly joked as Kotatsuneko move to set up his space heater table nearby, then prepared a tea service for his friend.
Hideyuki chuckled as he moved to shift the laptop onto the table. After the large, three-furred cat-ghost nodded his permission, the kanmusu otaku set up his machine, then he called up the file in question while his peers shifted themselves around to get a better look. "It's a special podcast that Naka-chan put out because of Yonaga-san, Kōchō-sensei," he explained. "Just got posted in the 'Net an hour ago and I wanted make sure people saw it! Ah...!"
He tapped controls. "Ohayō gozaimasu, minna-san!" a cheery voice called out over the speakers as the image of a bubbly brown-haired light cruiser in her normal orange-and-black "traffic cone" work uniform appeared; the background put Naka inside one of the buildings at Eta-jima, no doubt near the classrooms where newly-summoned kanmusu learned their trade. "This is Naka-chan, idol of the Kanmusu-keikaku, with a special podcast put out in the wake of yesterday's incredible summoning of ten kanmusu thanks to the last true hero of the Greater East Asia War, Moroboshi Negako-san herself!" she declared as she winked at her virtual audience while her theme music played in the background. "We're here today at the Kure Naval District to watch as Yamato-san's long-missing sister Yonaga-san — along with nine other new, wonderful friends — begin their great quest to learn what life in the Twenty-first Century is like! So I came here to the classrooms for the destroyers to see how Yonaga-san is doing!" She then perked as she looked off to port. "Ah! There she is now! Yonaga-san!"
The camera panned over as an incredible visage then appeared, having stepped out of a classroom accompanied by a smiling Kashima. "Hai, Naka-san..." Yonaga began before she stared a question at the camera being aimed at her. "What is this?!" she demanded. "I know we don't need to be as security conscious as we were back during the war, but why are you having this film made?!"
As the silver-haired, pony-tailed training cruiser tried not to giggle at the carrier's flustered expression, Naka waved Yonaga down. "Now, now, Yonaga-san! Relax!" she scolded the taller shipgirl. "After all, there are loads of people who want to know all about you! There was nothing at all about you save that construction on your hull was cancelled before your keel was laid down and that was it! That's how good the Kempeitai and Tokkeitai were in hiding your existence! People in Japan and elsewhere want to know about you, their newest defender against the Abyssals! That's why we're letting people see you now!"
"Oi, Naka-chan! Slow it down, huh?" Ryūnosuke critiqued on seeing the lost look on Yonaga's face. "She's going through enough culture shock! Jeez...!"
Others watching this nodded, then they perked on hearing footfalls echo from behind Yonaga. "Yonaga-san, this is part of our duties now as so willed by Tennō," Yamato stated as she came up to give her sistership a friendly squeeze on the shoulder, a smile crossing her face as the carrier instantly stiffened on hearing of the Heavenly Sovereign's wishes. "Be at peace with yourself, sister, please! I, Yamato, would be hurt if you are lost in this day and age!"
Yonaga winced. "Onē-san, Ataru-san warned me about that tick in yours and Musashi-onēsan's speech patterns," she then chided before shaking her head. "It's just as bad as the way some of the others speak!"
"Most of those afflicted are destroyers, Yonaga-san!" Kashima advised. "Even if we are the kami of warships, they are children deep down! Leave them be!"
The carrier gazed on the training cruiser, then she sighed. "If my admiral's old training petty officer from the Naval Academy was alive today, he would commit seppuku to avoid dying of an apoplectic fit out of shame at the lack of serious discipline here, Kashima-san! We're in a war situation! People are starving worldwide! Why aren't we sweeping the seas clean of those yōma so that food could be delivered to isolated islands?! We are failing our duty!"
Hearing that made most of Class 2-4 scream in joy on hearing such a rallying cry from the seventh carrier of Operation Z. "It's the same thing that keeps Musashi-san, Kii-san and I stuck in port often," Yamato lamented. "Supplies! Fuel, spare parts, the materials to make spare parts and everything we need to keep people alive and healthy while we fight the Abyssals! The Canadians, the Koreans, the Australians and the New Zealanders are working wonders with us as they try to keep the sea lanes clear, but since the Americans are still lagging in summoning kanmusu, we can't really go on offensive operations just yet!"
"Yonaga, please contain yourself," a cold, neutral voice then declared as Naka looked to starboard. "I know you are driven by the kami of your crew to prove yourself before Tennō, but your supply needs will be even greater than that of your sisters." As Moroboshi Negako walked into the range of the camera, the ninjutsu grandmaster added, "Remember what Kyōsuke believed in. If one must die, one must make one's death mean something. Do not put yourself in the same situation Yamato found herself in when she was forced on Operation: Ten-gō."
Yonaga blinked as Yamato gave her a worried look. "I would rather be sunk in battle than be sacrificed to an atomic bomb as Nagato-san was, Negako-san!"
Negako seemed not the least bit phased. "Hai, that is true. The Americans' fear of the Soviets at the time truly blinded them to many truths, especially given their shocking lack of respect at what the people of the Soviet Union had suffered because of Adolf Hitler's desire for living space for his 'master race'." As Yonaga nodded, the ninjutsu grandmaster added, "Remember all the lessons of that war and remember the Go-sei taught here. Do not blind yourself as Hiroshi and most of his crew blinded themselves in the long term."
"Shisei ni motoru nakarishika?
Genkō ni hazuru nakarishika?
Kiryoku ni kakeru nakarishika?
Doryoku ni urami nakarishika?
Bushō ni wataru nakarishika?"
Yonaga gasped before she turned, stunned to hear the five simple reflective questions once written by a good friend and Eta-jima classmate of her late commander Fujita Hiroshi, Matsushita Hajime, who commanded the Imperial Naval Academy in the 1930s. "How do you know the Go-sei, Missouri-san?" she asked, surprised the American fast battleship could say that so easily even if her words were flecked by her Midland accent. "I can tell you memorized them..."
"It's taught at Annapolis as well, Miss Yonaga," Missouri stated with a wink.
That made the carrier gape. "What?" she eeped out in shock.
"It's taught at Annapolis," the battleship repeated herself. "Our governments may have had a ton of disagreements back in those days that set us at each others' throats like that after Pearl, but we know a good thing when we see it! We adopted the Go-sei after the war and the midshipmen were always taught to ask those questions of themselves before lights out."
Silence fell as Yonaga took that in, then a smile crossed her face. "I see..."
Everyone then perked on hearing a snappy jazz tune faintly echo from a nearby classroom. As Yonaga gaped in shock on hearing such music being played in this place, Kashima giggled. "Ah, it appears our wonderful guests from Canada are getting a little restless at this time," she said. "Come along, Yonaga-san. It is time you met some samurai from the land of Green Gables!"
She took the carrier's hand and pulled her down the hallway, the others in the crowd following. As they went, Naka faced the camera. "It looks like Yonaga-san's going to have a tough time of it...but I'm really hopeful for her," she stage-whispered to her audience. "Now, let's see if the girls from Group C-4 are going to prank Yamato-san because of what happened two days ago."
As the audience in Tomobiki all snickered on hearing that observation — save for the still-sulking Megane — the crowd at Eta-jima reached the closed door of one classroom. Kashima politely knocked, which made the music instantly die. "Who's out there?!" a voice projecting the same physical age as many of the destroyers at Eta-jima called out from behind the closed door.
"It's Kashima, Chilliwack-san!" the training cruiser called out as several of Class 2-4 whooped; many Japanese were as much fans of Canadian shipgirls as they were their own kanmusu. "It's the class before lunch! Akashi-sensei and Vestal-sensei want to ensure you're fed before your diesels are looked at!"
A moan replied. "Chief! Don't you people believe in piping to lunch here?!"
"Lay off the chief!" another voice barbed. As the camera panned on Yonaga given she was the "guest star", the audience was quick to see her concentrate as she tried to place accents. "You DID turn off the damned 1MC, remember!"
Kashima giggled. "We're coming in," she said as she opened the door.
The crowd walked inside to see a group of shipgirls appearing to be about twelve or so at a circle of desks with various musical instruments in hand and on the desks, all hooked to a very intricate sound system. Viewing this from across the world, the audience would immediately note that they were uniformly dressed in a diver's sleeveless skinsuit-like bodysuit, coloured a uniform bluish pearl grey which was bloused into zip-up, calf-length medium blue boots trimmed in black. They also wore an almost-black zip-up jacket bearing their names over the right breast, the stylized service patch of the Royal Canadian Navy over the left breast, ship's crests on the right upper arm and the Canadian White Ensign on their left arms. One could tell by a glance that all of them were of the same class of warship thanks to similar facial shapes and shared body builds; save for the different eye, hair and skin colours and the odd change of eye shape, the only thing telling them apart were the three-digit pendant numbers in black on their upper legs, barely visible under their naval combat jackets. All were now quite pale and looked as if they hadn't eaten anything decent in a week; such was the physical sign of a kanmusu who had recently exerted herself far beyond their design specifications. Yet there was an aura of quiet dignity projecting from all of them which made even Yonaga feel instant respect for these warrior spirits of the Great White North.
"You are all Flower-class?" the carrier then asked with a polite nod.
The shipgirl at the synthesizer smiled as she stood. She was a redhead with traces of silver in her short-cropped hair. To Yonaga's surprise, she looked completely Japanese, with the right coloured skin despite its current sickly pallor, though she had green eyes peeking out of her somewhat-childish face. "We are," she said as she slowly walked over to stand in front of the carrier, staring her right in the eyes. "You're the one that stood the watch all alone up in the Arctic all those years, eh?" she then asked, her eyebrow arched knowingly to show she knew the answer. "Don't you worry about your crew, Miss Yonaga. Saint Roch is on the case right now. We'll make sure they all come back to be buried at the Yasukini Temple soon enough. There won't be any MIAs on the commissioner's watch, not even after all this time."
Hearing that almost drove the carrier to tears at such a show of understanding by this corvette, one of many whaler-type coastal patrol ships pressed into ocean escort duties and whose crews had braved the Atlantic in all seasons to escort convoys to Britain in the face of a relentless submarine campaign waged by the Germans to starve the island nation to submission. "You have my thanks for such words. You are Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Chilliwack," she said as she gazed on the corvette's crest, which showed a red stylized maple leaf on a white field embossed by a green four-leaf clover within the standard circular frame of a commissioned ship in Her Majesty's Navy of the Dominion of Canada.
"Same." Chilliwack then smirked before she shook her head. "That's got to be the damnedest sea story I've ever heard, both as a ship and as a shipgirl." She then offered her hand. "May I shake your hand?"
Stunned, Yonaga held out her hand, allowing the corvette to grasp it. As some of the others whooped at the sight, the other corvettes got up and slowly walked over to also shake the seventh carrier's hand. Introductions were then made before the Canadians all went back to their desks to pick up their instruments. "You do know, Chilliwack-san, it is an hour before lunch," Kashima reminded the corvettes as Naka faced the audience, shrugging.
"We know, Chief," Chilliwack said as she gave the training cruiser a knowing look. "But since the Hotel Yamato is here..." — she ignored said super-battleship's indignant squawk at being called that when it was well known how much she HATED being addressed that way — "...we're going to get Dauphin's revenge for this big klutz hurting her feelings like that two days ago!"
Yonaga tensed before she spun on her sistership. "Onē-san, explain! NOW!"
Yamato shuddered. "Chilliwack-san, please!" she moaned, eyes flooding with tears as she bowed. "It's not that I didn't appreciate Dauphin-san cooking poutine for all of us, but greasy food like that doesn't sit well with me!"
"Then you should have told us that you hate French fries done that way and Dauphie would have baked them right, then put in the healthy stuff! Poutine can be served that way!" Agassiz snarled as she strummed her guitar while she gave the super-battleship an evil eye. Another Japanese-Canadian in physical looks, she had dark golden hair cropped close and dark green eyes, matching her ship's crest of a dark gold diamond embossed by a red maple leaf on a sea of wavy horizontal green and white bands. "She cried her eyes out when you only ate a bite before setting that plate aside! So stay still for a moment..."
"One, two, three..." Chilliwack called out.
"UCHŪ SENKAN YAAAAAAAAAA-MAAAAAAAAAA-TOOOOOOOOOO!"
As Yamato yelped in embarrassed horror on hearing all the corvettes bellow that fanfare, her cheeks turned as red as cherries while Naka laughed as she shifted herself beside Chilliwack, then as they launched into the fanfare of the famous anime series theme music, all the corvettes sang out...
Saraba chikyū yo!
Tabidatsu fune wa
Uchū Senkan Yamato.
Uchū no kanata
Iskandar e
Unmei seoi
Ima tobidatsu!
Kanarazu koko e
Kaette kuruto
Te wo furu hito ni
Egao de kotae!
Ginga o hanare
Iskandar e
Harubaru nozomu
Uchū Senkan Yamato!
By then, someone else had come into the classroom as Yamato shivered in the wind from being bombarded by a rendition of THAT DAMNED SONG. The viewers in Tomobiki all were quick to recognize who it was even if many had also quickly swung into singing the famous theme music. "Ataru-kun...!" Shinobu whispered.
On the screen, Ataru stood between Chilliwack and Naka, exchanging looks with the cruiser and the corvette...before he joined in for the second verse!
"ATARU, YOU BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU EMBARRASS YAMATO-SAMA...?!"
KK-KRUNCH!
"...l-l-like th-that...?" Megane moaned after getting a rock smashed into him.
"Dōmo, Shinobu-san!" Ryūnosuke whispered.
As others nodded in gratitude, Shinobu smiled at her friend while on Hideyuki's laptop screen, the poor super-battleship was subjected to the Canadians' well-sung version to the theme music to the series based about her ship-self...
Eta-jima, that moment...
"Um, Onē-san...?"
"H-h-hai...!" a still-flustered Yamato sputtered.
"'Space Battleship Yamato'?"
Yamato squawked again in helpless, embarrassed outrage as she and Yonaga, followed by a snickering Musashi and a smirking Kii, walked into the main mess hall. "Tell me, Yonaga-san, are you aware of anime?" the second of their class then asked as they moved to pick up serving trays, then got into line.
"Motion picture version of manga," Yonaga answered. "What of it, Onē-san?"
"In 1974, an anime series was produced to show a story where Onē-sama was effectively rebuilt into a faster-than-light starship to save Earth from evil aliens threatening to destroy it," Kii helpfully explained, making Yamato groan as they moved to select salads and other opening courses. "That song our Canadian friends sang in the classroom to avenge Dauphin-san's humiliation is the opening theme music to that series. It's quite popular here, Onē-sama."
Yonaga took that in. "Do people not care for the traditional forms of entertainment, Kii-san? To waste away in front of such an infernal machine...!"
"Oh, don't worry! They still have kabuki, nō, sumo and all the other traditional arts," Kii assured her. "But given how much the Americans showed mercy to all of us after they forced Shōwa Tennō to finally submit to their demands when Truman-daitōryō faced the ugly choice of using what Oppenheimer-hakase and his friends had created or launch an invasion of the Home Islands with the Soviets crashing down on us at the same time, it's not so surprising that so many here in Japan have come to like Western forms of entertainment. Even if it was to help keep the communists out of the country, America did help us rebuild." She then winked as her sister. "Besides, anime has millions of converts over in America and in Europe, Onē-sama. It's not like the Chūshingura, but there is vengeance over what happened back then!"
Musashi laughed at that. By then, they had been served battleship-sized meals and were now making their way to a table to sit among themselves; Yonaga had vowed to spend at least one meal a day with her sisters and one with her mission-mates from Operation Z to help her reconnect with those who had been reborn in this modern age and had been given the opportunity to better adapt to such a different age. And while she still found herself totally at sea when it came to so many things, Yonaga did appreciate how much effort the Americans had poured into healing Japan from the damage inflicted on it during that dark time. Yes, her crew had vented time and time again about "victor's justice" when they heard of the Tōkyō war crimes trials. However, Yonaga had to admit that if such an enemy could be so gracious in victory and had gone out of its way to help a wrecked foe stand tall and proud once more, respect for that enemy's culture was right and proper. Even more so, the Americans' great heart and sense of fair play ultimately saved the people of Japan from still being brainwashed by that bastardized version of bushidō the militarists who launched that war gladly force-fed on them all...and in the name of a clearly deceived Heavenly Sovereign at THAT! At least some of those foolish idiots took the honourable path to redeem themselves before Shōwa Tennō when they realized what they had done, Yonaga darkly mused as she nibbled on her tōfu salad.
"Oi! Can we join you guys?"
The sisters looked over as Negako and Tariko approached. "Please," Yamato bade.
The two "ordinary" humans sat. "What do you think, Onē-san?" Tariko teased as she gazed over at her adopted sister. "Were you able to sense what the moron squad back in Tomobiki thought of Naka-chan's podcast?"
"They witnessed it through Mifune Hideyuki's laptop computer straight through the Canadians' delightful rendition of Yamato's theme music," Negako stated.
"Negako-san! It's not MY theme music!" Yamato shrieked out.
"Yamato, remember what Tennō desires of you."
That made the brunette battleship awk before she sighed. "Negako-san, much that I understand that helping maintain morale among the people of Japan is part of our duties, I...!" She shook her head before she waved to herself. "In that story, even if it demonstrates the virtues of true bushidō to the audience, my 'anime self' was made to bear a weapon of mass destruction within her own bow! How am I supposed to condone THAT after Hiroshima and Nagasaki?!"
"'Weapon of mass destruction'?" Yonaga asked.
"A giant energy cannon called the Wave Motion Gun. Or as a lot of the cruisers started calling it when they saw the series, the 'Fuck You Gun'," Tariko provided. "It takes power from the main stardrive system and punches it out in a super-sized bolt of explosive energy that could wipe out whole fleets or turn a continent the size of North America into a funeral pyre! Seeing that thing gave Nagato-san, Saratoga-san, Prinz Eugen-chan and Sakawa-chan flashbacks of what they went through at Bikini back in 1946 during the whole Crossroads bullshit!" As Yonaga gaped on hearing that some idiot in Japan had actually dreamt up of such a thing, Tariko shrugged. "It's like Gojira films! Yeah, it protested the hell out of tests like that because the crew of that fishing boat got radiation poisoning after they blew up the first big H-bomb, but showing a film where this super-sized radioactive dinosaur is stomping Tōkyō into kindling even worse than what happened during Operation: Meetinghouse...!"
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! GOJIRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...!"
Before Yonaga could demand to know what was going on, a soothing shush echoed from nearby. The carrier looked over to see a shipgirl almost as tall as she kneeling before a moaning Naganami, who was trying to curl herself into as small of a ball as possible. Noting that the screaming destroyer was being comforted, Yonaga turned back to her meal...then she blinked as she gazed once more on the taller shipgirl whispering tender words to the shuddering destroyer. She was Western in looks, supermodel-slim with dirty blonde hair in a short ponytail; she wore a decorative black bandana to force some of those locks away from her face, which was pierced with deep ocean blue eyes. Her clothing was a white nurse's uniform with ankle-length skirt underlined with a petticoat; it was similar in style to what was common in World War One, with green trim and the Red Cross stitched on her upper arms and the outer flanks of her thighs. Her boots were Edwardian-pattern high-heeled ladies' footwear in rust red. Noting her curiosity, Negako stated, "That is Britannic, Yonaga."
The carrier's head snapped over. "Britannic?! You mean...?!"
"Titanic's and Olympic's sistership," the ninjutsu grandmaster explained.
Yonaga blinked, then scanned around...before she focused on what were clearly twins of the ill-fated passenger liner-turned-hospital ship approaching the scene, though they were dressed in matching white peasant blouses and black ankle-length skirts trimmed in gold by their feet; their boots were the same. As Britannic helped Naganami to her feet, one of her sisters gently ruffled the destroyer's hair. "There, there, Naganami...there's no need to be scared," she cooed, her voice flecked with a faint Irish burr. "That mean, nasty lizard isn't anywhere close to the base! Now, let's sit down and have some tea...!"
Nodding, Naganami was guided to a table, then she was permitted to sit in the hospital ship's lap while the sister who hadn't spoken went to get tea. "How did they come here?" Yonaga then asked Negako, surprised to see British liners as kanmusu in Japan. "If they came back as kantai musume, they..."
"Should be in Britain right now," the latter finished.
"Hai! Atop that, only warships are to be summoned...!"
Tariko snickered. "Blame Kon-chan and her sisters for that one, Yonaga-san."
An eyebrow arched in response. "Kongō-san?"
"Hai! You know she was built in England, right?"
"The Vickers yard at Barrow-in-Furness. Hai. What of it?"
"Since this was before the Commonwealth nations managed to pry open shipping routes and we could get British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealander kanmusu visiting us here at Eta-jima two years ago, Kon-chan got a little lonely since she didn't have people to enjoy afternoon tea with," Tariko explained. "So one day about a half-year after she and her sisters saved Tōkyō and the whole Kanmusu-keikaku got started, she gets this idea about going to the summoning chamber and calling British shipgirls...even if all of them were being summoned there at the time. However, she wasn't trained in using the chamber...but after she shanghaied her sisters to help out, they figured it out."
"It was the same approach I took in summoning yourself and the others," Negako added. "Titanic responded to a love song written for a movie based on her maiden voyage released in 1997; it is seen as the second most lucrative film produced, with total earnings to date of over two billion dollars American." As Yonaga gaped — she knew what the value of the American dollar was like these days — Negako added, "Naturally, when she answered the summons, so did Olympic and Britannic. They wanted to sail as a team for the White Star Line, but the arrogance that saw Titanic sunk and the intervention of World War One that took Britannic left Olympic alone until White Star was absorbed by Cunard in 1934."
"Oh! Tell her the rest, Negako-sama!" Kii urged.
"There were more?" Yonaga asked.
"Look where the Canadians are sitting, Yonaga-san," Musashi bade.
Yonaga looked...then gaped on seeing three girls dressed similarly to Olympic and Titanic at a table, having been joined by Chilliwack and her sisters; also seated with them were Akatsuki and her sisters. One of the reborn passenger liners was a girl the same height as Yamato, Musashi and Kii. The others were twins about the same height as Kongō and her sisters. All three were redheads with black bandanas in their hair; again, they wore their hair in simple pony-tails. One of the twins had a blue neck choker. Seeing that and noting the period clothing, Yonaga smirked. "Mauritania, Lusitania and Aquitania."
"Indeed," Negako confirmed before sipping her tea. "Of course, after that incident, Ten'ichi forbade any of the kantai musume from repeating such."
"Why have they not been allowed to return to Britain?" the carrier then asked. "I know kanmusu can be transported by aircraft anywhere in the world since the Abyssals lack decent anti-aircraft suites and their own carrier aircraft can't hope to reach the high altitude a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III can fly."
"They agreed to remain here since there was a war on and they did understand how lonely Kongō was," the ninjutsu grandmaster stated. "They have their duties here. Britannic assists Akashi and Vestal when it comes to the refurbishment docks. All of them can serve as mobile replenishment ships when needed; they accompany destroyer divisions on long-range patrols since they can outrace enemy submarines with considerable ease. Aquitania and her fleet mates, plus Titanic and Olympic, were also modified to armed merchant cruiser standards; Cunard possessed an understanding with the Royal Navy concerning that to win funding for Aquitania's, Mauritania's and Lusitania's initial construction. Because of their presence, we have expanded our tactical reach to where the Imperial forces achieved at the height of World War Two before the action at Midway. Here on the base, they assist in etiquette classes."
That made Yonaga gape. "'Etiquette classes'?!"
"Of course. Remember, you are all akitsumikami, living as human beings in lieu of existing as warships," Negako stated. "Once the Abyssals are dealt with finally, what happens to you then? You will not be dismantled since you are effectively human; that is the primary reason Ten'ichi and the staff here wish to see that ship-breaking firm removed from the grounds. It would be murder in the eyes of Tennō and many of the people of Japan, not to mention elsewhere. In a month's time, you will undergo menarche." Ignoring Yonaga's squawk on hearing that, the ninjutsu grandmaster added, "Destroyers frequently undergo same as they mature; it will be very interesting when all the Commonwealth corvettes and frigates endure menarche since they were all summoned to Cornwallis, Torpoint, Crib Point and Devonport at nearly the same time."
"We'll be having dancing classes this afternoon," Tariko added.
"'Dancing classes'?!" Yonaga gasped. "Why do we need to learn how to DANCE?!"
"Flexibility," Negako stated. "I handle martial arts training and when you are all truly comfortable with yourselves as human beings, I will also teach you some of the more esoteric forms my family school have long mastered."
That made the carrier gape before she gazed on Tariko. "That energy sword your sister created today when I gutted that yakuza who sought to enslave Kisaragi-san!" she stated, her mind spiralling at possibilities. "We can do that?!"
"Easily," the ninjutsu grandmaster purred out.
"YA-CHAN...!"
Yamato gasped on hearing that incensed shriek, then she looked over...
...as a shuddering blonde American about the same size as Kongō stormed into the mess at flank speed, her blue eyes flooding with outraged tears as she zeroed in on the wide-eyed super-battleship. Before Yamato could demand what was going on, the other shipgirl came up and slapped her on the cheek, making everyone gasp in stunned shock on seeing the star international couple among the shipgirls get into a public fight like that...before they all gaped as the new arrival screamed before swamping Yamato with a hug members of a tribe in China would loudly approve of. As Yonaga stared in confusion at such a scene, she perked as two others came in. Near-twins to the sobbing shipgirl in her sister's arms, they had light-coloured hair and blue eyes with the same general body build. They were also dressed in the curious grey/black/white camouflage uniforms American naval personnel at the base wore; the carrier knew it was called the "Navy Working Uniform". She then noted their names over their left breasts, which made her gape on realizing who the woman in Yamato's arms was.
"Enterprise...!" she seemed to hiss out as she slowly rose.
The whole room seemed to freeze as people gaped in horror, their minds instantly churning up dark images of what the Seventh Carrier might do to the legendary Grey Ghost, the most decorated warship of the United States Navy and the one who had been always there when Yonaga's mission-mates for Operation Z had been sunk during the Greater East Asia War. They then relaxed as Yamato moved to comfort the weeping carrier in her arms. "There, there, E-chan...stop crying like that...it's very embarrassing and you're making my sister upset...!"
"WHY?!" Enterprise shrieked out as she stared at the taller shipgirl. "Why did you do it, Ya-chan?!" She then slapped Yamato on the shoulders. "I can appreciate private pictures of you, but why did you pose for a calendar?!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"WHAT?!" Yamato shrieked out in horror.
Hornet pulled out a calendar from under her jacket. "Better see this, Yamato," the carrier that had launched the incredible Doolittle Raid in 1942 said as she opened it to show the battleship the picture for April. "Aoba created it."
Yamato looked...as did Yonaga.
"ONĒ-SAN!"
As the super-battleship instantly found herself wishing she could sink again into the waters of the East China Sea, her sister literally exploded with outraged fury. "ONĒ-SAN! AND I THOUGHT KONGŌ-SAN'S BEHAVIOUR LAST NIGHT WAS REPREHENSIBLE?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING DRESSED IN SUCH DISGUSTING CLOTHES, ALLOWING A PICTURE TO BE TAKEN OF YOU?! DON'T YOU KNOW THAT BIKINIS WERE NAMED AFTER THE LAGOON WHERE NAGATO-SAN, SAKAWA-SAN, SARATOGA-SAN, PRINZ EUGEN-SAN AND SO MANY OTHERS WERE SACRIFICED TO THOSE THRICE-DAMNED ATOMIC BOMBS?! HOW COULD YOU WEAR SOMETHING SO SCANDALOUS?! DOING THAT IN PRIVATE FOR ENTERPRISE-SAN IS ONE THING, BUT TO DISPLAY YOURSELF LIKE THAT FOR THE PUBLIC?!"
Mass bow-faults resulted! "She...approves?!" Tirpitz gasped from nearby.
Bismarck smiled as she got back into her chair, then helped her sister up. "Wait until I show you Hood's love letters to me, jüngere Schwester...!"
As Tirpitz gaped in disbelief at her sister, Yamato broke down in tears as Musashi and Kii immediately moved to comfort both her and Enterprise. Tariko then held out her hand. "Can I see this, Ho-chan?"
Hornet handed the calendar over. "Wait until you see the picture for November."
Tariko blinked, then she looked at Yamato's picture. She was depicted in a seductive pose at one of the rocks that lined the shores of Eta-jima, the sun setting on her just perfect to make a beautifully romantic scene for her lover...especially given the VERY skimpy bikini she was shown in, chosen to match her hair perfectly. Gulping, she then flipped through the other pages, quickly noting who else had posed for this calendar. "Oh, fuck me...!"
She then got to November...before she passed out, blood exploding from her nose!
"Ah! Tariko!"
Instantly, Kongō and her sisters were at the passed-out teen's side; they had been seated nearby. As the calendar fell to the deck, Kirishima picked it up, then flipped the pages to November. She then gargled on seeing what was there before she held it out for Kongō to see. "Um, Onē-sama..!"
Kongō looked...
...then she turned as grey as ash before twin jets of tears exploded from her eyes. "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I CAN'T GET MARRIED ANYMORE...!"
As the crowd gaped in shock, Negako shook her head as she sipped her tea...
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
1) As I stated in the previous chapter, I make use of the McCune-Reischauer school of Romanization when it comes to Korean. To avoid misunderstandings, the word Sŏul is meant to represent the capital city of the Republic of Korea, spelled more commonly as "Seoul" in Latin script. The Revised Romanization that was introduced in the South in 2002 is one I've never been comfortable with, so I make use of the older system as I believe it to be a much better way of representing the sounds in Korean through Latin script.
As an aside, I base Noukiite sounds on Korean, though vowel sounds are the same as in Japanese. If you see an apostrophe after a consonant, it means the sound prior to it is forced through the mouth as if you were spitting out something.
Also, Noukiite adult name order goes this way: (Caste rank)-(Family name) (Gender/Birth order rank)-(Given name) Hechnich'-(Style name). The term Hechnich' literally translates as "sacred true bone rank", which eventually evolved into the honorific used with someone's courtesy name, which is what the Chinese and other East Asian cultures in classical times used as a mark of adulthood. In modern times, Hechnich' is normally translated "Lady"/"Lord".
2) Translation list for this chapter: Kuru-cha — One of the two Japanese readings of 黒茶 (in Mandarin, hēichá); Seu — Endogamic rank prefix for members of Noukiios' "flowering youth" special "free warrior" caste; Yech'a — Gender/Birth order rank prefix for the second daughter; Yesu — Gender/Birth order rank prefix for the first daughter; Kempeitai — Literally "military polite corps", this was the Imperial Japanese Army's law enforcement branch (and later secret police akin to the Gestapo of Nazi Germany); Tokkeitai — Literally "special police corps", this was the Imperial Japanese Navy's smaller equivalent to the Kempeitai; Ten-gō — Literally "Day of Heaven", this was the code-name given to Yamato's last mission on 7 April 1945 (known sometimes as the Battle of the East China Sea); 1MC — Literally "One Main Circuit", this is the term applied to the main public address system on American and Canadian warships; Nō — More frequently written as "Noh" and short for Nōgaku (literally "skilled music"), this is the oldest form of traditional Japanese musical opera, dating from the Fourteenth Century; Daitōryō — President (of a nation-state); Hakase — University professor; Jüngere Schwester — Younger sister.
3) For those who haven't seen the first episode of the Kantai Collection anime, here are the translations of the Go-sei ("Five Reflections") as composed by Matsushita Hajime (1884-1953, Imperial Navy Academy 31st Class [1903] alumnus):
Shisei ni motoru nakarishika?
("Hast thou not gone against sincerity?")
Genkō ni hazuru nakarishika?
("Hast thou not felt ashamed of thy words and deeds?")
Kiryoku ni kakeru nakarishika?
("Hast thou not lacked vigor?")
Doryoku ni urami nakarishika?
("Hast thou exerted all possible efforts?")
Bushō ni wataru nakarishika?
("Hast thou not become slothful?")
And yes, the Go-sei is still used with the modern Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force...as well as the United States Navy as Missouri noted above.
4) Ship's badges in Canada were not made official until after World War Two. For corvettes and frigates that never got a badge due to being decommissioned after the war's end, I'm making use of designs made for namesake corps of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets (the Navy's national youth program for people aged 12-18) or basing them off their namesake municipality's corporate crests.
5) For those who don't know the theme song for Uchū Senkan Yamato:
Saraba chikyū yo! Tabidatsu fune wa Uchū Senkan Yamato.
(Farewell, Earth! The ship we're travelling in is Space Battleship Yamato)
Uchū no kanata Iskandar e unmei seoi ima tobidatsu!
(Through space and toward far-off Iscandar, with Fate on our shoulders, we begin the journey!)
Kanarazu koko e kaette kuruto te wo furu hito ni egao de kotae!
("Surely we will return", we cheerfully answer the people waving their hands!)
Ginga o hanare Iskandar e harubaru nozomu, Uchū Senkan Yamato!
(We depart from the galaxy, going to Iscandar to a great distance, Space Battleship Yamato!)
Mega-thanks to the people at the Star Blazers website for the translation.
6) The Chūshingura ("Treasury of Loyal Retainers") is the fictionalized account of the story of the Forty-seven Rōnin who sought to avenge the forced suicide of their lord in 1701 by striking down the man who effectively had the poor fellow killed two years later; in punishment for such an act, they were all made to commit seppuku at the order of Shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709). The theme of the Forty-seven is a recurring one in The Seventh Carrier and its sequels, so Yonaga would definitely know the story and understand its meaning.
7) The places where Commonwealth shipgirls came back to life as noted by Negako:
Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis (CFB Cornwallis) was the Royal Canadian Navy's primary training facility, in operation from 1942 until Unification of the Canadian Forces in 1968. The base then served as the English-language basic training facility for the whole of the Forces until it was closed in 1995; all training was then moved to a unified school at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu south-southeast of Montréal. Today, it serves as an industrial business park. Cornwallis is located on the south shore of the Annapolis Basin just off Nova Scotia Trunk Highway 1, about eight kilometres east-northeast of Digby.
Torpoint is a civil parish on the English Channel coast of Cornwall close to the border with Devonshire, just across the River Tamar from Plymouth. It is the location of Her Majesty's Ship Raleigh (HMS Raleigh), the "stone frigate" (naval shore facility) which houses the basic training facility of the Royal Navy. HMS Raleigh has been in commission since 1940.
Crib Point is a town on Western Port, a bay on the south shore of the state of Victoria; the town is part of the shire (local government municipality) of Mornington Peninsula and is located fifty kilometres south of southeast from downtown Melbourne. This is the location of Her Majesty's Australian Ship Cerberus (HMAS Cerberus), the stone frigate which houses the Royal Australian Navy's basic training campus. HMAS Cerberus has been in commission since 1921.
Devonport is a harbour-side suburb of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city; it is on the northern shore of Waitemata Harbour three kilometres northeast of downtown. The Devonport Naval Base is the major port for the Royal New Zealand Navy. The basic training unit, Her Majesty's New Zealand Ship Philomel (HMNZS Philomel), was commissioned in 1941 on the founding of the RNZN and serves not just as the basic training school and the officer candidate's school for the service, but also the centralized trades school for Navy-specific occupations.
