Mighty Eagle, Calm Nest

by xT-Zealot

With Enterprise suffering from a crisis of identity brought on by her battles with the Crimson Axis and visions of a dark reality, Belfast has chosen to take some liberties to bring Eagle Union's ace to London to try and restore her humanity that had been smothered by duty. Meanwhile, the overseers of this timeline consider its continued worth and what they can extract from it.

3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: A quick little note to one of the bigger liberties I took with this story, that being a not-so-slight twist to actual, historical events. In this chapter, I reference Operation Torch, a campaign that - as most probably know - was featured in the Azur Lane event Iris of Light and Dark and involved Jean Bart being sunk at Casablanca. It also happened after the Battle of Denmark Strait which was the battle that led to Hood's sinking along with Bismarck's. However, while Operation Torch has occurred in this story, the events of the Denmark Strait have not, meaning Hood and Bismarck have not been sunk. I considered this to be the most significant liberty I took, and one that I had debated on pursuing, but given how this takes place in the same world as the anime and the anime had opened up with, essentially, the Japanese surprise attacking both the US and Great Britain in their joint island base in the Pacific with very few actual casualties on either side both then and later on occurring, I felt a little less guilty about going with it.

---

The Sakura Empire was burning to the ground.

Hours earlier, with the sun at its peak, the home port was a proud, faithful realization of the name Sakura. Decades before, it had been a mountainous island of gray stone, barren of life.

Legends and religious lore had been spun in regards to who planted the Sacred Sakura Tree, for what reasons, how it brought life to the lifeless, and what it stood as to the people who have come to put their faith in it. The only thing that can be known for a fact is that, at some point during humanity's discovery and experimentation on the newly-discovered technology of Wisdom Cubes and the construction of shipgirls, the Sacred Sakura had managed to find – or possibly create – the fertile ground needed for it to grow. It broke through the stone, grinding and eroding away at the rock that, when mixed together with the underground springs it tapped into and brought to the surface, became the perfect bedding for the colossal tree that would mark the rebirth of an island nation beset by the same threat of annihilation as the rest of humanity.

When it bloomed, so too did the island. Within the crevices, beneath the shadows, or upon the peaks themselves – everywhere that should not be able to provide for life, life found a way to spring up regardless. Though not as magnificent as their mother, the smaller sakura trees possessed the same vitality and life-giving qualities. While the pink and white of cherry blossoms bloomed on their branches, their roots further shaped the land to spread the life-giving waters of the springs and create the soil necessary for the greens of grass and bamboo to sprout.

Such creation thriving on the sterile stone of a nondescript slab at sea became a center of reverence, as did the shipgirls who were, as the beliefs go, similarly touched by the Sacred Sakura for how else could life be brought to the inert steel of warships? Souls being granted to the soulless? The human forms that were further blessed with the ears, tails, and horns of what should be myth? The girls who, when they fell, would return to the flowery embrace of this magnificent life giver rather than the abyss of the sea?

For a nation that had come to worship life so, how did it come to be that they would be the ones to be misled onto the path of destruction?

How did it come to be that they would become the architects of their own death?

Even after the island became the home port of the Sakura Empire, great care was taken. Following the example of the Sacred Sakura, the shrines and monuments built did not infringe upon the environment that had been established upon the island. The wood and bamboo of the land was used in the construction of structures that did not seek to eclipse the sakura trees but stand alongside them. The paths and ascending stairways that were used to navigate through nature were carefully shaped from the already existing stone and dirt. The result was a harmonious blending of the smooth peaks of once desolate mountains, the floral beauty of the cherry blossoms, and the humble temples. The warships that were berthed here, too, were like natural denizens of this miracle with a select number possessing wooden decks.

That was until the first shells exploded upon the island. Then came the incendiaries.

And the Sakura Empire burned.

The resultant firestorm was devouring everything in its path until the entire island had become a funeral pyre. The flames swept through the wooden construction of the buildings – the initial targets – and effortlessly leapt to the surrounding sakura trees. Bamboo snapped and popped, the wood weakened and collapsed, and the cherry blossoms were loosed from their branches, their petals charred and burning until they came apart as ash and polluted the springs.

It would be days before the flames settled, even longer before the ash and smoke dissolved. But when it did end, the only survivors expected to be standing would be the gray stones that had originally attested to the inhospitableness of the island and would now become the soot-stained grave markers of the life that was being snuffed out.

Them and the charred remains of the Sacred Sakura. As the source of life, it was the one that was burning the hottest and brightest in such dire fashion, the landscape beneath a simmer compared to the conflagration that produced smoke in such excess that it was turning the light of the day into the sorrowful night with how it rose into the sky and blanketed the sun as its umbrella of branches and blossoms had once done for those who prospered beneath it.

Rather than an end of an empire, it was more like the end of the world.

No, Enterprise thought. The end of the war.

A flight of Dauntless dive bombers flew overhead, dropping their payloads, but the echoes of the detonating bombs and the fireballs that were made upon the island were so pitiful compared to the ongoing blaze.

But Enterprise did not register the full scope of the tragedy she was witnessing. After all, why should she? It was a sight that she had gotten used to during this entire campaign: the fires, the acrid smoke, the death.

Yes, death was something she had become quite familiar with. All around her were the latest casualties of this tremendous battle, floating half-submerged amongst the wreckage and debris. Most were Sakura Empire, the remains of their final defensive line making their last stand on this spot even as the island had already been burning behind them. Even when the last of their shells had been spent, the bombs and ammunition of their planes running empty, they had fought to the point of being reduced to melee and kamikaze attacks whether by ramming their planes into the opposition or using the dreaded bomb ships.

They were methods that were effective. There were bodies marked with the insignia of Eagle Union mixed in here, including those of the Royal Navy's Pacific Fleet that had been contributed for the sake of removing the Sakura Empire out of the war and turning the tide heavily in the favor of Azur Lane. As time elapsed, another body would disappear, flooded riggings eventually pulling them down.

Meters away was another scene that Enterprise knew very well: a sister ship departing from another.

They both wore white kimonos with large flowing sleeves, the tips painted black to represent the wings of some kind of bird. What majesty they would've possessed had been soiled by the ashy rain that fell on them. Appropriate, given how one girl knelt mournfully over the still body of her sister, taking her limp hands and folding the fingers over the broken pieces of a flute so that they were resting upon her chest. She stroked a pale cheek, the tarnished locks of silver, and that was all the time she had left before the body of her sibling sunk beneath the surface of the waters and vanished.

Enterprise watched but could not feel anything no matter how much it mirrored her own experience. Especially not for the ones who had sunk Hornet.

Zuikaku stared at what had to be the fading silhouette of Shoukaku before turning her gaze up towards the torch that was the Sacred Sakura. "How did it come to this?"

Enterprise felt something this time. Anger, hot and vivid, took over and she took a step towards Zuikaku's back, bow gripped tightly. "How? How?" She gestured towards the devastation. "Does this not remind you of anything? Was this not what you had wrought upon Eagle Union? Do you not remember the ones you and your carriers sank when you attacked us? When you had chosen to harness the technology of the Sirens and use it to declare war on us?"

Zuikaku didn't answer and Enterprise grit her teeth at the possibility that the carrier was ignoring her.

"My seniors in the First Carrier Division…" There was a weak, broken chuckle. "I don't even know what they were after. They got us into this and died right after, taking the Second with them. Shoukaku-" There was a sudden hitch and Zuikaku wiped at her face with the back of her soot-encrusted sleeve. "Shoukaku always complained and hated them for that." Bitterness strengthened her next sentence. "And you know what? I hope the Sacred Sakura had rejected them and cast their souls into the abyss."

"Don't center the blame on them!" Enterprise snapped. "The Sakura Empire as a whole chose to go to war! Nagato was the one who agreed and you personally took part in the attack! All the ships you sunk were done by your hand and your hand alone! My sisters are dead because of the likes of you! My sisters who I fought alongside against the Sirens, only for you to be the ones to kill them!"

"And you've killed mine." Zuikaku shook her head. "I never even cared about what we sought to gain by taking the Sirens' strength. I only wanted to be strong through my own merits, with Shoukaku at my side. When the First and Second were sunk, we were the only elites left. How could we abandon everyone who was looking up to us?"

"You should've."

"Would that have done anything? Would your Eagle Union have been settled with a surrender even if we had taken it? I hated my seniors, but there were still many within the Sakura Empire who believed as they did. They believed they were in the right."

"And now they're dead, too," Enterprise said, letting the flames and the smoky fog emphasize the finality of it before she declared, "It's over."

The bodies had been sinking one-by-one until there wasn't a single corpse left. When Zuikaku rose to her feet, the surrounding waters were empty save for bits of flotsam.

"No." Her sword had found its way into her hand, the long blade held out to her side before she faced Enterprise and pointed the tip towards her. "Not between us."

Enterprise narrowed her eyes at the bereaved Zuikaku. Her features were blackened with ash, particularly the one large swathe across her face from where she had wiped with her sleeve. It made the glistening of her eyes stand out, the trails that her tears had cut through the grime obvious, but she stared at Eagle Union's ace with defiance.

"I have nothing left," she said. "All I have is this sword and the life I lived by it. With this and your bow, let us put an end to this conflict between us. This is how it should be." She flipped her katana around and slowly sheathed it, bending her knees into a stance. When the guard met the sheath, she removed her hand from the hilt and held it out, her other keeping the sheath positioned for the draw that would mark the beginning of the end. "Allow me this honor, Grey Ghost."

Enterprise's expression became unreadable, but her bow did come up. The string was pulled back, golden energy flowing out from her fingers that lengthened and thinned into the arrow that poked through the rest, a definitive tip being aimed at Zuikaku. Eyeing down the length of her conjured projectile, Enterprise witnessed the thin smile creep upon the other carrier's face as she tensed.

Honor?

Enterprise lowered her bow, the arrow dissolving while she relaxed her grip on the string.

Zuikaku's smile disappeared, replaced with confusion. Confusion then became wide-eyed realization when she heard the buzzing overhead. By the time she looked up, the Dauntless was already dropping its bombs down on her.

Enterprise's expression didn't so much as twitch when they splashed into the water and detonated a second later, Zuikaku vanishing amongst the explosions that blasted columns of water and fire into the air. Her bow remained partially raised as she waited for the spectacle to pass and only let her weapon come to a loose rest at her side when she saw the aftermath.

Zuikaku was lying face down on top of the water like a mangled bird, her kimono shredded and rigging in pieces. Where her sword went Enterprise didn't know but could no longer see it in her possession. Likewise, with Zuikaku's long hair having come loose and draped limply over her form, she couldn't see if the carrier still had that stricken look of betrayal on her face that she bore in the moment of her death.

That was the only honor that Enterprise knew of when it came to the Sakura Empire.

Once more, she was the only one left standing while the last remnants of yet another horrible battle were either being swept beneath the ocean or purged by fire. The names of the shipgirls she could remember having perished went through her mind, but she knew that the full casualty report would only add too many more to the already lengthy list that had grown throughout this entire rebellion.

Arizona, Yorktown, Hammann, Lexington, Laffey, Helena, Juneau, Hornet – the list went on and on. Shipgirls who hadn't been sunk by their true enemy, the Sirens, but to the cannons and torpedoes of the ones who betrayed them.

But it's over. Enterprise did not feel any joy or satisfaction as she viewed the devastated home port. Never had she felt such a thing since this rebellion began and Eagle Union struck back, pushing the Sakura Empire further and further off their island garrisons until only the home port remained. A demand for unconditional surrender was made, it was ignored, and the events afterwards spoke for themselves.

This was war. Not like the conflict against the Sirens that involved an otherworldly enemy separate from them, seeking their annihilation, but a war amongst different ideologies belonging to ones of the same existence. A war that was as ingrained into human beings and shipgirls as all their valiant hopes and dreams.

Maybe that was why it was so easy for them to fall back into it despite the presence of the Sirens. Maybe that was why Enterprise was able to carry it out so easily and got better at it the more she lost. Maybe that was why it had gotten to the point where she had shut out all those excuses and naïve talk about honor and faith and duty until all that was left were the obvious actions and consequences of war: to be attacked, betrayed, and to lose so much with the only answer to respond in the same manner until the enemy had paid the price that they had thought that they were going to be immune to with their mistaken ideas.

And only then would the madness stop.

The Sakura Empire was finished, and Iron Blood was next. Maybe they would surrender, maybe they won't. But the Royal Navy was pressing forward last she heard and, surely, there was a visible end now. Just a little more. Just a little more and everything could start making sense again.

"Enterprise!"

Enterprise looked over her shoulder to see South Dakota gliding her way forward. The battleship had seen better days, her right shield whole if dented, but the same couldn't be said to her left side with the shield there having fallen apart while the triple barrels of one of her sixteen-inch gun turrets had become warped to the point of being unusable. Her arm was in a hastily made sling and an untreated gash on her forehead painted one side of her face with still-wet blood that kept her eye closed.

"Message from the Royal Navy!"

Her breathless tone alone could only mean one thing and Enterprise stared at her with a face that had gone numb, unable to do anything except stare while her entire being rebelled at all that South Dakota was about to say with the knowledge that it could only be bad news.

"They're asking for immediate assistance," the battleship gasped, gulping what air she could while rushing to finish. "Their main fleet had been ambushed by vessels that traveled along the Arctic to surprise them while assaulting Iron Blood. They've fallen back towards the home port and are anticipating an all-out assault. Eagle Union, Iris Libre, Dragon Empery – they're asking anyone from Azur Lane to send any ships to spare as soon as possible."

"Who?" Enterprise found it in her to ask. "Who attacked?" She worked frantically, trying to figure out who could possibly have chosen to assist Iron Blood, but the culprit was already coming to mind before South Dakota answered.

"Northern Parliament."

The goal that had been visible a minute ago rushed out of sight and, with it, all the promises of sanity along with it. It struck Enterprise dumb, the carrier no longer looking at South Dakota but at the dark waters beneath her feet.

"We're already being diverted, but SG radar is detecting Siren signals nearby. They're cutting us off, like they know…"

Enterprise tuned out South Dakota, her words turning into incoherent noise that was unable to compete with the ringing she was hearing. It blocked out the battleship, and yet Enterprise experienced an odd, selective hyperawareness that had the sloshing waters of the sea become nearly as deafening as the ringing. At the corners of her vision, the light of the flaming island grew more intense, Enterprise swearing that she could feel the heat at her back and every movement from each individual lick of the thousands of fiery tendrils as if they were right behind her.

And for the first time in her life, she could see the bottom of the ocean. She was drawn into the depths, her vision magnifying, and she could see everything.

She saw Yorktown. She saw Hornet. She saw them and every single other girl of the Eagle Union who had fallen. She saw Royal Navy – from the white and black clothing of members of the Maid Corps to the decorative brass, capes, and signets of the higher nobility. She even saw members of the Sakura Empire, the mere glimpses of those she hadn't personally taken out now in great detail, including Shoukaku and Zuikaku. Sirens, too; the humanoid variants that she had encountered and sunk mixed in with those of the shipgirls.

They were not resting in sand. Ruptured hulls and turrets of battleships, demolished flight decks of carriers, crumpled torpedoes and launchers of destroyers, dismantled anti-air of cruisers, and the bent cranes of repair ships. An underlayment of broken iron at the bottom of the sea. A massive graveyard of flesh and metal.

There was already so much, and now there was going to be more. More Sirens, more traitors, more comrades, more battles. More, more, more with no visible end.

Enterprise felt her eyes begin to water but she did not cry. Her lips were twitching with hysteria, but she did not break down into laughter. Rage had her hands curling into fists, but she did not scream. Her knees weakened with despair, but she did not collapse. She was lost, mind and body being battered by the tides of emotions and sensations she was experiencing, feeling like she was being viciously pulled this way and that, and yet stuck with indecision of what she should give in to.

And then something within her was cut loose. Whatever it was, she would never know, but it was like a sacrificial block that had been released, taking with it all that had been assailing her so that she could remain functional. Functional, but not necessarily intact.

It was quieter now. She could hear again, and she registered South Dakota asking her something, but now she was unusually distant. She moved to face her, and while she felt unusually light, she also felt that she had looser control over her own body. She could think again, but now there was a sharp, rigid focus for her thoughts.

"Where am I going next?" Her voice was a murmur to her, but South Dakota apparently heard it fine. Much like her sense of hearing, her sight was off as the other shipgirl seemed farther than she should be. But she still saw how South Dakota jerked back, apparently seeing something that the carrier couldn't when she asked, "Who do I have to sink next?"

Only South Dakota was able to see how the lavender of her eyes had become glowing orbs of menacing gold.

---

"Now listen here," Shigure growled with fangs bared, her tail raised and bristled with hostility. "You may've tricked Ayanami, but you won't do the same to us! Not only am I strong, but I'm blessed with good fortune! That's what makes me the great Shigure!"

"Yeah!" Yuudachi piped up in agreement. "We're only here to take back our Demon!"

"Guys…" It was amazing how Ayanami could maintain her blank expression given her current predicament: Shigure glaring out from around her back, gripping her shirt possessively as she growled at their 'adversaries' while Yuudachi had her legs wrapped around her waist and a hold on her horns to stay latched onto Ayanami, forcing the destroyer's head to bend this way and that as she tried to balance herself against these two opposing forces. The only hint to her distress was the barest of decibel changes in her voice. "These are my friends."

Shigure whipped her head towards her, eyes wide. "Are you saying they replaced us!?"

Ayanami was waving her hands in an objectively slow manner with little change to her facial features. "No, I want us to- "

"It's just like we thought!" Yuudachi cried, pointing a finger forward in accusation. "We can't trust them!"

There was a very similar picture going on right across from them save for there only being one girl – the tiny Unicorn – taking cover behind Javelin, clutching her Yuni protectively against her chest while she watched the Sakura destroyers fearfully. And, like Ayanami, Javelin had her own hands up in a futile sign of peace.

"It's not like that at all," Javelin was trying to explain with an awkward smile. "We all just want to be friends with everyone here."

Shigure immediately resumed her fang-bearing posture. "Your tricks are worthless! I can see right through-gah!" She suddenly stumbled, an immense weight being placed upon her back.

"Hello," yawned a certain sleepy destroyer, resting upon Shigure with arms slung over her shoulders, eyes closed. "I'm Laffey."

"Sneak attack!" Shigure sputtered, arms waving around frantically as she tried to shake off her 'attacker'. "Sneak attack! Yuudachi!"

"What are you doing to my sister!?" Yuudachi leapt off Ayanami who nearly fell over as a result. Landing next to the struggle, she glared at Laffey, fingers poised with the intent of putting the sharp nails there to use. "Unhand her!"

Laffey lazily turned to look at Yuudachi, managing to open her eyes from closed to mostly closed. She presented a sleepy smile before reaching over and patting Yuudachi on the head, right between her dog-like ears. "There, there," she mumbled tiredly.

The effect was immediate, Yuudachi's threatening stance crumbling as her lids drooped with contentment and her claws lowered. "Mmmm…"

"Yuudachi!"

Yuudachi jumped. "Ack!" She slapped Laffey's hand away. "Don't touch me! I'm not some dog that can be tamed so easily!"

Laffey was fishing for something in the pocket of her hoodie, eventually taking out a wooden skewer that had finely seasoned chunks of some kind of meat. Much like before, she easily reached over and stuck it between Yuudachi's lips.

The destroyer's eyes bulged, her nose rapidly taking in the scent of the seasonings while her canines seized the juicy skewer. "Mmph!?" She immediately began nibbling, issuing noises of pure bliss.

Shigure reached out beseechingly towards her sister. "Yuudachi?" Her body started to buckle beneath the weight of Laffey as she was ignored. "Yuudaccchhhiiii!" She collapsed.

"Oi, Laffey!" Javelin exclaimed as she and Ayanami immediately rushed over to assist.

It was only a small scene taking place in the middle of the large crowd that had gathered on the shores of the command island of the Azur Lane joint base. Word had gotten out about the supply run but attention would've been attracted all the same to the large number of ships that were now occupying the docks in preparation for their departure: three aircraft carriers and a light carrier, two battlecruisers, four battleships, and over a dozen destroyers and cruisers. As had been intended, the factions they belonged to were a mixture of Eagle Union, Royal Navy, and Sakura Empire.

Half of the gathered fleet was not coming back, many of the Royal Navy ships to be redeployed to the Atlantic theater along with a portion of Eagle Union as dictated by their alliance. Other than the shipgirls who were taking this opportunity to make profits with the shops they had set up the night before, there were many more who arrived to say their goodbyes.

Enterprise had been wandering along the edge of the shore nearer to the docks, keeping a distance from the crowd but having stopped to watch the scene with Laffey and the rest. Javelin and Ayanami had hoisted both Laffey and Shigure to their feet, the latter retaking her position of hiding behind Ayanami and inching further away from the former who was attempting to reapproach her somehow with her sleepwalk-like swaying. Javelin had a grip on Laffey's hoodie, making sure she couldn't get too close while apologizing profusely to Shigure.

Yuudachi had taken a seat on the ground, engrossed in the meat skewer with tail wagging behind her to express her happiness. Miraculously, Unicorn had been observing the destroyer with less and less fear until she was brave enough to approach and hesitantly reach out to begin patting her head. Enterprise didn't hear the noise of approval but saw Yuudachi tilt a degree in Unicorn's direction, upping the speed of her fluffy white tail, which encouraged the small carrier to smile and continue with her headpats.

"I must say, that is awfully adorable. Wouldn't you agree?"

Enterprise sighed out her reluctance. "Yeah, I…I guess it is."

Belfast peered at her from her usual place at her side. "I'm quite certain that I'm right but I want you to make it clear to me: you don't hate the Sakura Empire, do you?"

Enterprise grimaced, the memory of her outburst still a bit raw although Belfast hadn't brought it up since her last meeting with Wales. The carrier had assumed that she would be thankful for it, but over the past two days while trying to immerse herself in the normalcy of the Azur Lane base, it had hung over her shoulder like a specter. Although Belfast would wake her up in the mornings with a smile, serve her meals, and engage in pleasant conversation while accompanying her like usual, Enterprise always felt like the question was always hiding there somewhere but was being held back out of consideration for her.

She was a little glad to have it out in the open to give her a chance to explain with her thoughts sorted out. "What happened with Wales…I didn't mean it the way that it sounded."

"No, I didn't think so. I'm not Illustrious, but I do credit myself with being a somewhat accurate judge of character."

"And yet here you are with me." When Belfast didn't respond, Enterprise looked over to see her regarding her with raised brows. "…That was a joke," she added lamely.

The head maid brightened. "I thought so." She patted her arm. "I'm proud to hear you making one after so long."

Enterprise found it hard to look at Belfast, her gaze drifting away while noticing a minor rise in temperature at her cheeks. "I'm trying."

She was trying. Her current distance from the rest of the populace aside, she had been making an effort to not avoid her comrades, as uncomfortable as it was at the start. There was no ignoring the state she had been in ahead of her leave and, before that, when she had lost control during the battle at what had been dubbed as the Mirror Sea. There had been a wariness amongst her fellow shipgirls when they came near her. Not fear, per se, but definitely an impression of them skirting around something that they perceived as delicate; not wishing to overstep invisible boundaries that now existed or make an errant syllable that could somehow break her. Disheartening, considering that she was supposed to be the unbeatable champion of Eagle Union.

She did have some help there with girls like Cleveland and her sisters, Vestal, Langley, and some of the more innocent destroyers of Eagle Union who were still dazzled by her reputation to approach her and hold a conversation. A select number of Royal Navy girls had done the same; Edinburgh who had again thanked her for saving her while Sheffield had donated a short smile and bow to convey the same. Unicorn and Illustrious had passed on their happiness to see her back and well wishes.

Then there was that bizarre duet that Saratago and San Diego had attempted to perform outside the Eagle Union dormitory when Enterprise had been returning one evening but…she had a feeling that the rest of the residents didn't appreciate it as much as she did.

Though, of course, her most constant and steadiest of support had to be Belfast who smiled and said, "I know. I can tell."

Enterprise wanted to believe that she was getting better and maybe she was, little by little. Did she consider herself functional? Her relief of being exempt from patrols, the stroke of anxiety she would experience when she thought of her nickname, and her strong preference of not seeing Sakura Empire's Crane Sisters again said it all. This supply run, too, produced its own misgivings about being out at sea again, especially with others around who she would have to keep herself together for.

All she could do was keep putting work into it. It was the reason why she steered herself to the original topic. "I don't hate the Sakura Empire," she repeated. "But that doesn't mean I forgive them."

"Forgiveness is a bit premature at this current juncture," Belfast replied. "We are attempting to mend ties. Whether there can be forgiveness and trust during the process, that's quite a ways off."

Enterprise nodded. "I know. Wales said the same thing." The follow-up briefing she had with Wales had gone without incident. The base commander first apologized if she made it seem like they weren't taking the negotiations with the Sakura Empire with any caution or their very recent deeds in mind before laying out the situation, benefits, and opportunities of the process they were undertaking. "I still think things are going a bit fast with their attendance in this supply run."

"It's only a small presence; two destroyers, with Ayanami watching over them. She's proven to be trustworthy, and Iron Blood would undoubtedly be considering what implications there may or may not be if they take note of this meager force."

Wales had addressed that as well. Not only, she theorized, would Iron Blood be taking greater care about making any moves in the near future against Azur Lane, the same could be said for any ideas of striking at the weakened Sakura Empire. Would Azur Lane defend them? If so, and it turns out that Sakura Empire had no plans to sail against them, they could potentially be making a very grave mistake by multiplying the forces arrayed against them with a strike that could have them losing more than whatever they would gain.

Will they? Won't they? Attack? Wait? There were many instances in humanity's history where such guessing games with the unknown and the decisions made after lengthy deliberations or spur of the moment calls had transformed warfronts and allegiances overnight. Iron Blood happened to be the one being put in the more precarious position in this instance – or so they all wanted to believe.

This was also assuming that they didn't have their own Siren-based secret weapons that they think would let them come out on top, no matter the number of opponents.

"We're giving them too much," Enterprise nonetheless argued with a frown.

"What do you think should be done?"

Belfast's tone implied that she already knew what the answer would be, but Enterprise gave it anyway. "Occupying the home port, disarming a portion if not most of their forces, outlawing Siren technology with regularly thorough checks to make sure they comply, and replacing Nagato with a new leader. Just a few ideas."

The cruiser chuckled. "Yes, that is the Eagle Union way, and some of those measures had been insisted on."

Enterprise didn't find the sensibility of the measures to be amusing. "Why aren't they being considered?"

"Because the Sakura Empire would refuse." Belfast stated it like a fact. "They are weakened but have plenty of strength left to employ if their way of life is infringed upon, which is essentially what Eagle Union would want. Furthermore, you speak of disarmament as if weapons can be so casually thrown away. They cannot. Save for the more practical reasons of being disarmed while a war and a rebellion are being waged around them, there is also another important element to be considered. We may be more than our weapons, but that doesn't mean they are any less the extension of ourselves as we are the extension of humanity's wishes. Would you give up yours so easily?"

The question had Enterprise scanning the docks, over the array of warships until she found her carrier body. It was, she realized immediately, exactly that: her body. The one she had been given and linked to along with her human one. The armored hull was her skin and beneath that was all the piping, boilers, turbines, and control systems that acted in the same way as her blood vessels, organs, and brain. When she would fire one of her arrows or launch a plane, her will did not end there but remained to properly guide them.

That was how she had used it since she was born. It was more than a weapon but her purpose – her being. Even with her weariness of fighting – crippling internal strife included -, a flight deck stripped of her fighters, bombers, and anti-air weaponry was a thought in line with cutting off her own arm. Maybe even worse than that.

Still, she couldn't let the issue go. "They should be forced to some kind of concessions," she insisted. Offence like what she had experienced in Wales' office but nowhere near at such magnitude stirred within her. "They betrayed us, Belfast, in more ways than one. They attacked us, used technology of our sworn enemy, including making that…" She found it hard to continue, the past couple days at the base not having made that issue any easier to address.

"That thing was an abomination that should've never seen the light of day." It had to be the most condemning statement that Enterprise had ever heard from the likes of Belfast, but when she looked at the maid it was not to see a visual display of such an emotion, but rather a face of empathy – for her, she knew, but also for the Sakura Empire as she would learn soon. "Please forgive me for saying so, but do not allow its existence to distort your view of the Sakura Empire."

Enterprise nearly snapped at her with an urge to protest how, yes, it should be more than enough to judge the Sakura Empire. Not only for what that thing had stood for but what it had almost done to her, them, and the entire world. But the bite that she wanted behind her words was stifled by Belfast's imploring features. "What do you want me to view them as, then?" she asked instead.

"As any other nation whose people had made a mistake and wish to make amends. They were there as well, Enterprise. They saw what it was that they nearly unleashed but it was due to the trust they had in their own and a desire to see the Siren War end. Though we are making grounds against the Sirens, you of all people must know that we are still far from truly defeating them and, worse yet, we are equally far from understanding just what the Sirens are capable of. Our recent experiences imply that there is far more going on than we realize and our current state of affairs may merely be due to the Sirens allowing it. I'd rather not fragment our strength any further whether it be because it would weaken us or it may in fact be what they want."

Enterprise made a noise of grudging compromise. "But I still think they should be appropriately punished."

"And I think compassion is far more important given how easily it can be overshadowed by a want for reprisal. I would rather have an ally who has learned from their mistakes rather than one who will remember being forced into submission by us. Besides, wouldn't you agree that the two most responsible had received their just punishment?"

Enterprise thought of two specific fox sisters and, this time, chose not to say anything at all.

Not that that stopped Belfast from knowing. "We cannot view our world and our conflicts as plainly as they were in the past, where weapons did not think and feel as we do now. To insist on it will only end in tragedy." Her voice grew distant, eyes misting over with an old pain. "Much like the one that occurred within the Vichya Dominion."

Enterprise was put off by the sorrow she witnessed, the closest she'd ever come to seeing the cruiser look vulnerable. "I know of it."

She couldn't think of a soul not knowing about the subjugation of the Vichya Dominion. Similar to what the Sakura Empire had done, Iron Blood had pinned their declaration of war on a swift, brutal attack that became focused on the Vichya Dominion. And like the Sakura Empire, no one had seen it coming. No one knew how deep the divisions in Azur Lane were running, or what measures those who would become the Crimson Axis were willing to take. Not until Iron Blood made the first move.

Other than showing how serious Iron Blood was with their views, it gave everyone a picture of what kind of terrible strength they had tapped into with the Siren-enhanced riggings that armed their shipgirls. They attacked the unprepared Vichya Dominion, and its government, the Iris Orthodoxy, declared defeat in a startling fast manner, the leaders who hadn't successfully escaped having been forced into a so-called armistice that put its European holdings under Iron Blood control.

The event would also later be marked with one of the first Royal Navy-Eagle Union joint operations against former allies. Enterprise hadn't been involved, engrossed in her skirmishes with the Sirens, but knew Massachusetts had been the head of the allied fleet that had been assembled with other girls such as Cleveland and Ranger providing support. Between the joint task force and the rise of Iris Libre that drew many of the Vichya forces and their African colonies under its banner, the Vichya Dominion had effectively been broken in two.

It had been hoped that such retribution would unravel the rest of Vichya and Iron Blood would follow…but the attacks against them seemed to drive the conquered and conqueror closer together. Then came the whole mess with the Sakura Empire who were undoubtedly inspired to pursue their own agendas with Siren technology.

Belfast blinked, the window of weakness gone, but her usual smile remained tinged with sadness. "I'm sure you do, but I doubt you're aware of a certain operation that the Royal Navy performed shortly after the Vichya Dominion's surrender to Iron Blood."

The look that Enterprise gave stated she didn't.

"It was originally unprecedented," Belfast described. "The Royal Navy didn't know how to respond to these events and there were suspicions of how the Orthodoxy's swift surrender may have been evidence of prior collusion between them and Iron Blood. Regrettably, the Admiralty chose to fall back on old traditions and an example made in Trafalgar a hundred years ago before our existence: to send a task force to the Vichya Dominion and preemptively remove the threat of a combined Vichya-Iron Blood force so close to our borders. The Vichya shipgirls stationed at Mers-el-Kébir would have to choose to be disarmed, to enlist in the Royal Navy and fight against their nation, or – if they refuse – to be sunk."

Enterprise was able to connect the dots but didn't like what they made. "They refused."

Belfast looked back at the assembled shipgirls and gestured in a specific direction. "Hood was the flagship of the task force, and she was the one who fired the opening shots that would lead to the sinking of the Vichya fleet. Our former allies."

Enterprise followed the gesture and did manage to locate Hood with her blue coat and capelet, holding what would be her last conversation with Wales and Elizabeth – Warspite was at the latter's side, the ever-watchful sentinel – for a while as she was one of the battlecruisers who would be redeploying elsewhere. It appeared pleasant, all three of them smiling with Hood giggling in that polite way that Royal Navy girls did at something one of the others had to have said.

"It's her most painful memory and deepest regret," Belfast revealed, watching her. "For the Royal Navy, it's our greatest shame. No sooner had the last shell been fired did Richelieu make her broadcast to establish Iris Libre and call for any and all Vichya forces to rally under its banner. But the damage was done. Hood confided to me how not a day goes by without her thinking of the Vichya girls who would still be alive today; not only the ones she killed directly, but those who later chose to sink themselves or solidify their ties to Iron Blood rather than join Iris and serve in an alliance that had betrayed them in such a manner. Events, she believes, which could've been avoided had she not chosen to be used and directed as the weapon the shipgirls were seen as that day."

The chord that was struck reverberated deep within Enterprise, each vibration drawing out the many times she had referred to herself as such and, with it, the mistakes she almost made because of it. She thought of when she ruthlessly struck down Akagi and Kaga in the Mirror Sea, Ayanami taking out her dive bomber seconds before it would've sunk Zuikaku and Shoukaku-

-except that memory became distorted, bombs dropping right on the unknowing Zuikaku who had been expecting a final duel only to be betrayed at the end while her home port burned behind her, her sister already dead-

A powerful throb of pain at her head broke her off, Enterprise flinching as if taking a physical blow.

"There is friction that remains between members of Iris Libre and Royal Navy because of it," Belfast said, too slow to look back at Enterprise and see what happened, only worrying about the lesson she was trying to teach. "And there's no telling how the message that our allies may've interpreted from our conduct had contributed to our current political troubles. It did assist in pushing reforms that were already in progress in the Royal Navy, shipgirls being granted greater autonomy over direct command decisions, but the price wasn't worth it. All we can do is learn from our lessons and strive to be worthy of more than just the weapons that were entrusted to us."

Her heartfelt proclamation succeeded in alleviating the pain, replacing it with admiration that Enterprise knew that Belfast always deserved but was now understanding in this moment as to why she was the head of the Maid Corps. "You remind me of Yorktown," she couldn't help but say.

Belfast stared, not expecting that and apparently not knowing how to take it.

Enterprise rubbed the back of her neck, caught in another instance of finding it hard to look at her. Had it been the wrong thing to say? "She always managed to see the beauty in things like you. Or, I guess, elegance in this case."

The maid stared at her a bit longer…and then came that coy grin of hers. "Oh?" She drifted closer, head leaning forward. "Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of making her acquaintance."

"I…think you two would've gotten along." When Belfast tilted her head in a way that oddly unsettled Enterprise with her so close, the carrier leaned back to get some space. "She always insisted that we look for the beauty of...everything, I guess. In our existences, our battles, how we should see the world and our place in it. She always loved the ocean, even if it was where she was crippled, saying that its beauty is something that is engraved into all of us, and she'll never forget it. She told me how, one day, that I'll remember what wishes were placed on my name."

Her hand stilled, forgetting her embarrassment as Enterprise looked out past the docks, past the warships, and out through the inlet where the sea lay beyond that. "I admire her, and I miss her every day when she isn't out here with us, and I've felt increasingly lost without her guidance. With the mistakes I've nearly made…I've wondered if I'll be able to understand what she wants me to remember."

"Well," Belfast said, her tone less teasing but light, "I hope she won't mind my assistance."

"I'm sure she would be happy for it." The next set of words came to her so naturally that she grew suspicious of them, wondering if she should say them. She decided to do so. "I'm happy that you're here with me. I admire you, too."

Silence. It was a peculiar kind, Enterprise wondering if she had made an error and yet not wanting to see if she had in fact done so. All she was aware of was how, after what she thought to be too much time, the uncomfortably close presence of Belfast pulled away and settled at a more appropriate distance.

Finally, a polite giggle. "What do you know; appreciation for all my hard work at last. And a bonus: you've learned how to compliment a lady."

The embarrassment hadn't gone away entirely and even spiked when she did confront Belfast's amused expression, but Enterprise was able to return to a state of ease. Eventually, she was drawn back to where she last saw the multi-faction gathering of destroyers from before.

At some point Yuudachi had been gifted a couple more skewers that she had in each hand. The culprit more likely than not had to be Unicorn who had dropped to a spot next to her and pulled a sketchbook out, drawing something which Yuudachi was viewing curiously. Things were still going rough on the other side, Laffey trying to present her own peace offering with a bottle of oxy-cola which Shigure was rejecting with a stuck-out tongue, still hiding behind Ayanami who was attempting to covertly move out from between them despite her continued lack of expression. Javelin's exasperation was far more noticeable but did turn more joyful when she checked on Unicorn and Yuudachi.

Enterprise tried to supplement what she was seeing with what she knew of with Ayanami in particular: a Sakura destroyer who had infiltrated this very joint base and participated in the attack, then the ambush of Hornet's fleet, and a few more engagements with Azur Lane afterwards. One such engagement nearly had her perishing indirectly by Enterprise's hand. It would've been impossible for the carrier to think she'd be here as a friend with members of Eagle Union and Royal Navy along with trying to convince her own Sakura Empire comrades to be the same. But it was happening and, along with Akashi's contributions, bit by bit Azur Lane was benefiting from it.

"I've been fighting Sirens this whole time," Enterprise spoke. "I admit that doing so has affected my judgment when it comes to the Crimson Axis. The Sirens were easier, and I tried to rationalize fighting the Crimson Axis as if I were fighting them to keep everything clear to me. That was a mistake that nearly led me to worse ones. If nothing else, I guess speaking with more of Sakura Empire's members could better help me understand them."

"Worth a try," Belfast agreed. "Those three appear a tad occupied though. Why not try Zuikaku and Shoukaku?"

Enterprise scoffed. "Now you're joking."

"Whether you believe I am or not, here they come."

The carrier spun on Belfast, saw her looking towards one end of the crowd, and went the rest of the way to see the attention-grabbing white of Sakura's representatives. As Belfast surmised, the two were on an obvious path towards them. Shoukaku was smiling, waving kindly, in sharp contrast to Zuikaku who was stiffly marching towards them with a sour look.

The younger sister had her sword in this instance. A hand was at the hilt, but the katana remained sheathed, the appendage there to make sure it wouldn't swing around hazardously behind her rather than to draw it.

It didn't make the tension that locked up Enterprise ease any. The solace that she could take was how the stiffening that overtook her limbs may at least give off the illusion that she was ready for whatever Zuikaku may be looking for, with shoulders risen and legs tense. In reality, it was the opposite, and Enterprise was dismayed when she saw the lifting of Zuikaku's shoulders as if the opposing carrier was seeking to match her.

"Good day, Miss Shoukaku, Miss Zuikaku," Belfast spoke, the greeting temporarily placing her at the front. "Here to see off your comrades?"

"Yes, and having some trouble of it," Shoukaku replied good-naturedly. She stopped and scanned the nearby mass of shipgirls. "I did not expect it to be quite so crowded."

"It is a special occasion. Many of the girls here won't be returning and are exchanging farewells." Belfast partially bowed and directed Shoukaku to Ayanami and the rest. "Fortunately, I believe the ones you're looking for are right over there."

Shoukaku peered over, using her hand as a visor to keep the sun's glare out of her vision that narrowed searchingly. "Mmmm…ah! Yes, there they are."

It was a repeat of before. As Belfast and Shoukaku conversed, Zuikaku and Enterprise focused on each other. With an excessively straight-back posture and clenched jaw, Zuikaku leveled herself against Enterprise, the Eagle Union ace swearing she could see a dangerous glint in her eye. Her hand remained resting atop her katana, not folding over the hilt, although Enterprise wondered how long that would last.

To her own credit, Enterprise believed she was maintaining a deceptive front of being impassive to her aggression, the Sakura carrier having no way of knowing that the Ayanami-style mask she had was, much like her form, the happenstance of being stuck that way.

"They seem to be enjoying themselves," Shoukaku commented, her smile having grown larger at what she was seeing. So large that, when she turned to them, Enterprise wondered if there was something hidden behind it when she aimed it at her. "I would absolutely hate to interrupt them, but that's okay. There's something we would like to say to you, Enterprise."

Being the center of attention of both girls had Enterprise wanting to make sure that Belfast was beside her but couldn't even muster up the effort to glance over. All she could do was face them while scenarios sped through her mind of what she should do if a fight broke out.

Shoukaku reached over and patted her sister's back. "Go on, Zuikaku."

Zuikaku clenched jaw had become accompanied with grinding teeth. "Gre-"

Enterprise's breath stilled.

"…Enterprise," she ground out instead. She shook with something she was barely containing and as her palm slid down to establish a proper grip on her hilt, Enterprise reminded herself how her carrier body was close enough that all she needed to do was issue the command that could have it form her rigging. The thought came with the snag that Zuikaku could draw her blade before it happened, Enterprise going to need to defend against at least one strike-

Zuikaku suddenly lurched, Enterprise taking a step back as the command came to her mind-

"I'm entrusting them to you!"

The loud shout stopped her and the dumbfounded look that she knew she was directing down at Zuikaku was legitimate because the swordswoman's upper body had been thrown forward into a very strict and very low bow that had her head leveled with Enterprise's waist.

"…Huh?" Enterprise got out, having no clue as to what she should be thinking or what Zuikaku was even doing.

"I'm entrusting my charges to you!" Zuikaku repeated, unnecessarily loud. "They are precious members of the Sakura Empire, and I am leaving them in your care!" She thrust her hand forward without breaking from her bow. "Please treat them well!"

"See, Zuikaku?" Quietly laughing, Shoukaku leaned over to playfully swat at Zuikaku's ponytail. "That wasn't so bad."

"Nee-san, stop!" was the hissing response.

Enterprise could only remain where she was, flabbergasted, until there came a nudge at her side.

"You're being impolite, Enterprise," Belfast scolded with greater than normal amusement.

"As my dear sister says, those destroyers of ours were assigned directly to our care before this arrangement was made," Shoukaku explained brightly. The bow she made was more modest; a dip of her chin that tapped her forehead against the hands she brought up in a supplicating manner, palms together. "It would be quite awful if something were to happen to them. I dread to think of how we would look to our seniors in the Second after they were passed on the honor of being our faction's representatives!" Somehow, there seemed to be something unflattering mixed in with the good cheer that that particular sentence was delivered with. "So we would greatly appreciate it if you made sure they return, safe and sound."

Enterprise took the explanation in but remained stumped. The whole time, Zuikaku remained stuck in her bow with her hand out, refusing to move an inch. The fingers of Enterprise's one hand twitched, flexed, and, finally, crossed the space needed to clasp Zuikaku's.

"I'll…take care of them," she said. She jerked back when she found her hand being taken into both of Zuikaku's who shot up from her bow and held it tight between them.

"I-I also want a match!" Zuikaku stumbled. There was a tinge of redness on her cheeks, the girl, to Enterprise's amazement, struggling with embarrassment to make her request. "A proper match! You and me! Not now, obviously, but when you get back and if I'm still here and-"

"Yes, yes, yes." Shoukaku seized the back of her sister's collar and started pulling her away. "Come on, Zuikaku."

"I want to settle things once and for all!" Zuikaku was still shouting when she was pulled far enough away to have to release Enterprise, the older sibling showing a surprising amount of strength that wasn't budging against the younger's wild movements. "Don't think you can run from me!"

Enterprise watched them go but she was having a very hard time catching up to what had just happened.

"Wales was right about them," Belfast commented. "Young and spirited. I can see why she has such expectations for them."

Enterprise didn't reply. Her gaze went down to her outstretched hand, turning it up and closing it before opening it again. "I…" She became fixed on a point in the center of her palm, remembering how it had been held so intensely. "I thought she hated me."

Belfast exhaled audibly. "Of course you would."

Enterprise passed her a look of bewilderment.

"Think of her position," Belfast said. "She and Shoukaku were recent additions to the Sakura Empire as the Fifth Carrier Division. Some combat experience gained with the Sirens, surely, but they were practically children shortly before our hostilities began." She shrugged with a burgeoning grin. "Although I suppose they still are. Shoukaku is much more reserved, but they both wish to establish their own credibility and remove themselves from the shadows of their senior carriers. Zuikaku happens to be the more impatient and headstrong one – a warrior to her core. How can she resist the prospect of defeating the most powerful carrier of Azur Lane?"

"Defeat me?" Enterprise echoed.

"I see that fighting the Sirens nonstop really has left you lacking in knowledge of manners, even when it comes to combat. Yes, defeat you. Not destroy or sink. Zuikaku wishes to engage you in one-on-one combat to prove her strength. In her own view when it comes to honor, she admires you as a worthy opponent to be bested in a match whether it be in war or peace. She respects you and your strength."

It was all proving to be something else that Enterprise couldn't fathom. She set aside the concept of honor for another time and settled on one she believed she had a possibility of grasping: that Zuikaku admired and respected her.

"But…before…" Enterprise started again, thinking back to their meeting at the Academy.

"Yes, poor girl." That earned her another look and Belfast continued, "I suspect that she had been resentful at not being able to declare a match with you right there. She had her duties as a representative that she had to fulfill, and she had been under the impression that you weren't around to begin with. It must've frustrated her to no end to see you but being unable to pursue her agenda these past few days."

Have I been misreading her the entire time? Enterprise wondered. But Zuikaku had despised her, didn't she? Even before bumping into her again at the Academy and going back to when they were still enemies, wasn't she, naturally, someone who hated her and desired to sink her? She was always eager to battle her…

Like now. Except, as she really thought hard about it, was there a true difference between how Zuikaku expressed it then and now? The only other shipgirl that Enterprise could compare Zuikaku's want to fight her was...Kaga.

And there was no doubt in Enterprise's mind that Kaga had hated her.

But Zuikaku was…different?

What was becoming far too common, Belfast was able to plainly see what she was thinking about, examine it, and come to her own puzzling conclusions. "You know, I believe those two can really help you and your views of the Sakura Empire in the future."

The two members of the Fifth Carrier Division had managed to integrate themselves quite well into the multi-faction dialogue going on. Shoukaku had crouched low to observe a sketch that Yuudachi was excitedly showing off to her while pointing to an embarrassed Unicorn. Shoukaku took the sketchbook to better look at it, flipping through a couple more drawings, and said something to Unicorn that had the much smaller carrier hiding a face that had gone beet red into the soft sanctuary of her sentient plushie. Shoukaku laughed agreeably.

Zuikaku had resumed performing enthusiastic gesticulations to an audience made up of Javelin, Laffey, Ayanami, and Shigure. Such motions swept over Laffey and Javelin and Enterprise believed she had an idea of what story Zuikaku was retelling when she added in Ayanami and clasped her hands together. Shigure, still distrustful, looked between the two destroyers and her Demon before finally stepping out into the open. She muttered something which made Javelin ecstatic and encouraged Laffey to adopt a sleepy smile before making another attempt with her peace offering. This time, Shigure reluctantly took the bottle and unscrewed the cap.

The sight gave credit to another thought that was becoming all too common: Enterprise believing that Belfast may not be wrong with her assumptions.

"Gah!" Shigure cried, coughing and sputtering while dropping the bottle of cola. "Poison! Poison!"

---

As the departure time drew closer, some of the shipgirls were excusing themselves to attend to their vessels before shipping out. This included Belfast who gave her charge a curtsy. "Please excuse me, Enterprise. There are those who I wish to speak with before we depart such as my subordinates in the Maid Corps."

There remained things in this relationship of theirs that Enterprise would rather do without, such as Belfast seeking permission from her whenever she wanted to do something on her own. With all that the cruiser had done and was doing for her, the sense of ownership in this maid/mistress union that inevitably sprung up in these instances never sat well with Enterprise.

Then again, Belfast had turned that same union on its head a few times in the past, one specific memory having Enterprise be more mindful of tucking in her tie.

Nonetheless, Enterprise would be influenced to protest it in her words or actions such as now. "You don't need my permission. Go ahead."

She got a grin in return that broadcasted how Belfast registered it, appreciated it, but would keep doing it regardless. Not just because she was a maid, but how Enterprise was suspiciously sure that she took her own enjoyment of putting her even slightly off. "I thank you for your understanding."

Enterprise frowned but Belfast had already spun on her heel and retreated, leaving her alone on the beach to stare after that veil of white hair.

An unexpected knot formed in her chest and Enterprise's lips parted with the cruiser's name about to slip through. It didn't, and she was left to wonder why she had almost called out to her. Belfast was only going to speak with her fellow maids. It wouldn't take long, not with the departure time nearing, so Belfast, true to her maidly duties, would more than likely return to her soon.

Then why had she suddenly wished to call out to her right then? It was only moments ago that she said Belfast didn't need her permission to do what she needed, and she had been thinking how she didn't like the idea that she had any kind of ownership over her.

Did it have something to do with the void that Enterprise keenly felt at her side with Belfast's absence?

The ace carrier did her best to shake it off but was soon beset by the awkwardness she felt at standing here, alone, with the mass of socializing shipgirls that was gradually beginning to disperse right in front of her. She decided to take an example from a few and start the journey to her carrier body for pre-voyage checks. Belfast would be able to find her easily after she was done.

Enterprise suddenly felt annoyed with herself, feeling like this dependence – for surely that's what this had to be - was an affront to her and the head maid. She appreciated everything that Belfast had done for her, would admit that she had enjoyed her company, and would go as far as to say that her presence had been an essential pillar in maintaining and restoring her humanity after what happened with the Sakura Empire. That didn't mean she had any claim to monopolize her. After all, this partnership wasn't going to last-

It would be annoying at this point if they weren't so poignant, these sudden attacks that originated from her human body. For this one, it drove the breath from her lungs when Enterprise thought of the inevitability of a parting between two shipgirls of differing factions with differing concerns of their differing borders. That same inevitability and sense behind it was proving ineffective as the opposition – images and memories of Belfast with her formidable array of smiles and coy grins, her light laughter, and the ease that Enterprise felt with each one – was outrageously powerful.

Enterprise chose a different tactic: appeasement. There was this supply run, a process that would take many days if not more and Belfast had already said that she would not be staying in London when they made the return trip to the base. They would not be leaving one another so soon. They had time.

Time, Enterprise hoped, that would restore her fighting strength and fortitude for when she had to go to another battlefield and when they did have to say goodbye.

The shift in strategy did prove to be more effective, this latest affliction lessening but not dispersing. It was just being packaged and deposited in another space within her internal storage that was already struggling with what it had piling up.

Among the girls who were traversing the shores to get to their ships, Hood was one who happened to cross her path. The Royal Navy battlecruiser was in no rush, her content features suggesting that she was savoring the healthy sunlight and sea air alongside the company of her comrades. Her blue eyes – currently soft, but with the capability to harden into steel during an engagement – flicked over to Enterprise when the Eagle girl stopped to let her pass and she tipped her off-centered hat in thanks. "Amiable weather we're having, Enterprise. I pray that it keeps up for the length of our voyage."

If there was in fact turmoil exuding from a sin that had tarnished her soul, Enterprise couldn't make it out. She touched the brim of her cap and returned, "I pray for the same."

Hood inclined her head, the corners of her lips rising higher, and that was that with her facing forward again, unknowing of the gaze that lingered on her until Enterprise chose to proceed to her ship.

As it turned out, there was going to be one last impediment between her and her destination. After passing a heavy cruiser and the shipgirl who was intending to board it, Enterprise reached where her carrier body was berthed and saw two individuals standing in the path of her boarding ramp. She recognized them immediately. Uh oh.

She knew she was in trouble. The girl at the front was making her intentions far clearer than Zuikaku with balled fists, the agitated swishing of a white tail, and Enterprise could imagine the matching set of cat ears that had to be curled in a similar display of anger.

Enterprise didn't feel threatened. Not in the way that she might've been if it was a member of the Sakura Empire waiting for her like that. The cat girl did not hail from it, and though she wore the black and white ensemble that resembled those worn by the Maid Corps, she was not Royal Navy either. Hanging from her neck like a flag was a tie that displayed the red and white stripes, blue background, and stars of the country that had been succeeded by Eagle Union.

Her ears, as expected, were bent forward and twitching furiously when Enterprise got close enough to make them out. She opened her mouth to head off the tirade she knew was coming but was too slow.

"You're leaving already!?" the shipgirl exploded with a high-pitched squeak that had to have traveled across the entirety of the island right then. "We've been worried sick about you the entire time you've been away, had to investigate Siren sightings which turned into one big nothing on the day you were coming back, and when we finally got the chance to actually see you, here you are about to leave us!?"

"Ah…" Enterprise could only say initially and then awkwardly added, "Hello, Hammann."

"And goodbye, apparently!" she huffed in return.

Enterprise glanced behind Hammann where Hornet was but any assistance she was hoping to find there was denied when her sister smirked and lowered the wide brim of her black cattleman's hat to communicate how she was on her own. Resigning herself to this solo mission, Enterprise tried to be diplomatic. "This wasn't something I had planned on doing. Wales had offered the assignment as soon as I arrived."

The destroyer pouted. "You could've refused!" She looked around at the assembled ships and grumbled, "Not like they don't have enough ships as it is."

"Wales had insisted that my participation would have valuable merit. After she explained it to me, I agreed."

"Grrr…Wales…" Hammann stomped her foot. "She could've at least given you some more time! What's the big idea, springing up this whole thing on you like that?"

This conversation was more like something that Enterprise should be having with Vestal. "It's only a supply run. She considered it to be a proper assignment to better reintegrate me into Azur Lane affairs."

Hammann was a shipgirl who could never mask her emotions and her temper was a terrible cloak, so overused and always lacking true animosity that anyone who spent any amount of time with her would realize that there was something else hiding behind it every time she used it. They would never have to wait long, and it was no different here, when her tail halted its swishing and dipped low. She chewed on her lower lip.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, the angry veil pushed aside to expose worry that was flattening her ears against the top of her head.

Fortunately, Enterprise was more experienced and saw this coming. She was also better at making her half-lie sincere. "Better. The time away helped." The muscles at the corner of her mouth contracted enough to form something with the appearance of assurance. "Yorktown mentioned how she would like to see you again someday."

The jolting up of her feline appendages transmitted plenty about Hammann's attachment to Yorktown – the same attachment that had driven her to tow her out from the middle of the battle that had taken the carrier's legs. It had been a huge risk on Hammann's part, placing herself in a very vulnerable position that could've easily led to both their sinkings, but she had managed to bring Yorktown to the Eagle Union lines and save her life.

Yes, they both survived, Enterprise mentally added, fulfilling an impulse to confirm reality that wasn't satisfied with Hammann standing in front of her.

That event had led to a quiet acceptance of the destroyer into the Yorktown family and Hammann had no qualms of referring to them as her sisters when she became aware of that.

"I've been meaning to send her a letter," Hammann said, her many features continuing to betray her enthusiasm which she then tried to fruitlessly conceal with a scowl that lacked a shred of enmity. "With you taking off so soon again, I guess I have time for it."

Enterprise retained her short smile. "I'm sure she'll be delighted."

There was a badly suppressed skip in Hammann's step when she started on her way to complete that task. She paused when she was about to pass by Enterprise. "Hey, take care of yourself, okay? Next time, I really would like it if I we could talk for more than five minutes."

Enterprise nodded. "Next time. I promise."

She wondered when the last time was that she promised something like that to someone else. It must've been a while, given how Hammann was momentarily put off by it. But then she produced a joyful grin. "A promise, then!" There was no attempt to suppress the happiness in her follow-up bounce that had her leaving.

It must've been even longer since the last time Enterprise felt anything remotely appropriate to her status as an elder sister to the point where she wondered if that was really what she was feeling at seeing Hammann so happy over something she said.

"So…London, huh?"

The explanation for that, sadly, became evident with the awkward air that descended between her and her actual younger sister when she addressed Hornet. "That's the destination," Enterprise replied. "Supply acquisition for the base, refits for cruisers, and redeployment of our forces."

Had it always been so instinctive for her to fall back on this mission speech of hers when she didn't know any other way to respond?

Across from her, Hornet was balancing on the balls of her feet with hands folded behind her head, nodding in a manner that could be taken as a disregard for Enterprise's more professional demeanor. There was no insult meant and Enterprise knew that. It was all part of Hornet's personality; the untamed opposite of Enterprise's. It had never affected their cooperation in battle, the loss of Yorktown having hardly dented their ability to fight efficiently during the increasingly rare instances of when they'd sortie together.

It was, however, a factor in the rift that had grown between them after the loss of their eldest sister.

By the same token, it was that personality that would have Hornet stubbornly reach across it. "Never been," she said. "Did pick up some tourist tips from the Royal girls here. They say the Docklands are something that any shipgirl should see at least once in their life."

"It's…" Enterprise struggled to frame her response so it would not sound like the callous rebuke that it would've been. "It's not going to be that kind of trip." She didn't deem it as much of a success. "We'll probably be stationed at one of the naval bases the whole time."

Hornet casually threw up her hands with a smirk. "Well, it's not like you're going to be trapped there. Just saying if you get an opportunity to travel around off base, there's some nice things to see. Take advantage of it. Who knows when you'll get an opportunity like this. Savor it."

"I'll keep it in mind."

"Guess that's the best I'm going to get."

It was, but Enterprise wanted to give her better. Anything to try to regain what they had before their shared loss had them drifting in separate directions. Enterprise knew she was the most at fault, devoting herself to her duty and being unable to come to terms with Yorktown's condition that had her neglecting Hornet who had been just as hurt by it. It was why Hornet had chosen to cope in her own way whether it be the increased reliance on her easygoing personality to feign being unbothered by Enterprise's reputation or taking Hammann under her wing to make her efforts of living up to the names of both her and Yorktown more bearable with someone for her to watch over. In case anything happened, Enterprise at least wanted her to know…

"I'm sorry, Enterprise," Northhampton whispered, tears in her eyes as she held out the ruined black hat. "I tried, I tried, but Hornet…"

"Where's Grim at?" Hornet was examining Enterprise's carrier body. "I don't see him in his usual spots."

"I left him with Yorktown," Enterprise replied. "I thought it was better that way for now."

Hornet eyed her, a frown twisting into existence. "You know, feeling better and being okay are two different things. That whole thing with…you know. That was some nasty stuff, even by Siren standards. How much better can you get after something like that?"

Enterprise couldn't allay her concerns as easily as she did with Hammann. The destroyer hadn't seen a lot of what Hornet had when it came to Enterprise's state in the aftermath. "I am better," she insisted. "But I'll admit that I'm not as okay as I would like to be. It's partly why I agreed to this supply run. I need a bit more time."

Hornet arched a brow, not anticipating the honesty from her nigh-invincible sister. Getting it, and understanding what it meant, had her visibly softening. "Hey…" She scratched the back of her head, at a loss at what to say. "Look…" She sighed, walked over, and thumped a palm against Enterprise's shoulder. "I'm not Yorktown but we're still sisters, ya know?"

Enterprise shook her head, feeling worse. "Hornet, you never had to be like Yorktown and I'm sorry if I ever gave you the impression that alluded to it." She decided to use this chance to unpack one of those issues she had stored up and get it out in the open. "There's a lot that I want to think about and sort out. Not just with what happened with the Sirens and the Sakura Empire but us too."

Hornet waggled an index finger back and forth between the two of them. "Well, that issue is a two-way street that we can tackle later, so use this chance to have fun for once in your life." She grinned and gave Enterprise another thump. "Or pretend to and actually have some by mistake. Whatever works. I think they still want a couple carriers here just in case the Sakura Empire gets uppity again so when you get back, I'll hopefully be here so we can talk."

"I would like that. It's been too long. And I guess I did promise Hammann."

"That you did." Hornet presented a parting thumbs-up and stepped around her. "See you when you get back, sis."

Not a bad start, Enterprise decided, feeling like a couple of the locks that had been affixed to her had been loosened. Not totally undone, but she was feeling better than when she had woken up this morning, another terrible vision dispersing.

But the shudder that shook her upon remembering it and a need to rub at eyes that had grown tired told her that she still had a long, long way to go.

---

It was quite the flotilla that set sail from the base when the time came, the warships tucked in together in a line as they progressed through the inlet before setting themselves in proper circular formation: the carriers forming the center with battleships alongside them followed by the protective ring of destroyers and cruisers. With so many keels cutting through the sea, lengthy tails of displacing waves were left in their wake to disrupt a sizable patch of the ocean.

With her place in the middle of the formation, Enterprise could see what Wales was getting at with this presentation. To her right and left were the other fleet carriers – Ark Royal and Illustrious with Unicorn settled in between them – and ahead of them was Hood taking point with Massachusetts and Nevada. Oklahoma, Repulse, and Pennsylvania covered the rear and beyond the collection of the big guns were the smaller ships with their screen of radar, AA, torpedoes, and smokescreens. Though outnumbered by their counterparts, the three Sakura Empire destroyers were strategically placed so that an observer would be able to see one of them in the Eagle Union-Royal Navy mixture no matter which direction they looked.

It was a formidable show of force, but this must've been what had been a more common sight not that long ago, when Azur Lane was whole, and the display was meant to remind the world of what it could be again. The absence of an Iron Blood presence, rather than a testament to the sad division it once was with the Sakura Empire as the Crimson Axis, could instead be interpreted as a lapse in judgment that had a chance to be rectified with they, too, eventually returning to the fold. Enterprise was tempted to entertain how such a prospect wasn't as naïve as she initially thought it was when Wales brought it up despite how Iron Blood had its lengthier list of deeds to answer for such as their invasion of Vichya.

That was what she was trying to see the sights around her as, anyway. Doing that helped in suppressing the apprehension that came with being in the middle of a fleet action again. It was far from being anything overwhelming, but it had been getting worse and worse when the joint base had vanished over the horizon. The sense of security that any sensible shipgirl should've acquired at being surrounded by so many comrades had, for Enterprise, been eroding with thoughts of what she would do if something happened and she was forced to act.

It didn't help when she remembered what happened the last couple times she had been part of such an armada.

She tried to shift her concentration elsewhere, taking a look at the decks of the others. It was common for shipgirls traveling together to visit the decks of others to socialize when it wasn't their shift to stand watch. It helped break the monotony of long voyages such as this. While their ship bodies remained connected to their wills and would keep moving ahead in formation, they were free to do as they wished to pass the time. They could even sleep if they desired, some portion of their consciousness setting to a sort of autopilot for their ship bodies that maintained current course and speed.

To Enterprise's lack of surprise, she found Unicorn on Illustrious's flight deck. What did catch her a little off guard was the presence of Yuudachi. The two must've forged a fast friendship to the point where the Sakura Empire shipgirl was enjoying Royal Navy hospitality of tea and pastries supplied by the benevolent Illustrious who had to be proud of Unicorn's growing list of friends.

Ark Royal, on the other hand, was alone. She was at the starboard side of her deck, looking out with a set of opera-style binoculars. Enterprise assumed she was perhaps on watch but found it quite odd that she seemed to be focusing on the defensive ring of cruisers and destroyers. She would occasionally lean forward, standing on her toes as if having discovered something very interesting, but would settle back down and resume looking elsewhere where the process repeated.

Enterprise didn't know why but there was something about the other carrier that did not sit well with her. It influenced her to keep a watchful eye on her but when a few minutes passed with nothing happening, she moved on.

The view was essentially the same wherever else she looked – shipgirls either finding company or choosing the solace of their own privacy. Movement occasionally drew Enterprise's gaze to the water where a shipgirl with her rigging deployed was gliding between the massive bodies of ships for the apparent fun of it. One just happened to be Cleveland racing with Montpelier, the two self-proclaimed knights struggling to catch up to Neptune who was throwing smug satisfaction over her shoulder at them.

At an earlier point in time, Enterprise would've found the scene inappropriate when they were in the middle of an operation. Instead, she found it peculiarly entertaining.

Her shirt collar buzzed. "Permission to come aboard, Enterprise?"

Enterprise tugged at it and spoke into the tiny radio that was fastened there. "Permission granted, Belfast."

Barely a second later and Belfast was leaping onto her deck, donned in her rigging. Upon boarding her equipped cannons and torpedo launchers flashed brilliantly before dismantling into the glowing cubes that flew off and reformed into the full-sized Edinburgh-subclass cruiser, filling the previously empty space that was her assigned position. What remained for Belfast to carry was the folded table and chair tucked under one arm and a bag in the other.

That time already? Enterprise questioned though soon remembered that tea was currently being served over at Illustrious's deck. The fleet had left the base a little before noon and the sun had since dipped over the course of several hours, the horizon illuminating with its closer proximity while the blue skies began darkening. It was drifting into evening and night would arrive soon after.

Enterprise made sure to angle away from Belfast to hide how she rubbed at her eyes. The fatigue, naturally, had built up but she didn't want to entertain the idea of sleeping. Yes, she had to sleep eventually but…not now.

When it came to Belfast, a task like setting a table was performed with an exceeding amount of gracefulness that Enterprise would never have thought was possible with something so menial. The chair and table were unfolded without putting up any kind of mechanical fuss, their placement devoid of any unintentional sliding and shaking when the head maid set them down, and the tablecloth she pulled out from the bag and tossed over the table spilled out on the surface exactly as it was meant to in that single motion. Belfast gave one corner the most miniscule of tugs but was otherwise confident to start extracting the dishes.

During the process, she radiated utter gratification at being able to serve at such capacity. From the visible smile of contentment that adorned her features to the spark in her eyes as she set each plate at a position that she had gotten down to the exact millimeter of spacing.

It really did remind Enterprise of Yorktown and how she regarded the seas with a very similar look.

The carrier discovered that Belfast was humming to herself when she came over. A soothing melody that added extra weight to her lids and made her thoughts muddled. Enterprise rapidly blinked her eyes, trying to overcome the enchantment through that and willpower alone so she didn't draw unwanted attention to her exhaustion. It was difficult and Enterprise seriously wondered how she would last until the maid ceased humming so she could pull out the chair for her.

"Please enjoy, Enterprise," Belfast said, waiting until the carrier was seated before she proceeded to the next part of her choreography: setting the cup of warm tea and plate of food in front of her.

The meal was lighter than usual – thin slices of ham with sides of carrots and broccoli - which Enterprise appreciated, not feeling particularly hungry. She chose to start off with the tea and the sip she took was not what she expected. She stared down at the teacup and the dark golden liquid within.

"Chamomile tea," Belfast answered her unspoken question. "Herbal. You must be careful with steeping – wait too long and it can become bitter, but I have become quite adept at it if I do say so myself. I picked them from the gardens around the Royal Navy dormitory."

"It doesn't taste bitter at all." It was very light and sweet, rich in taste and aroma. When Enterprise took a longer sip, she appreciated how it warmed her as it went down.

Belfast was pleased. "I also added lavender. That combination is very efficient in helping you relax. It'll assist you in getting a good night's sleep."

Enterprise halted as she was about to take her third sip. As nonchalantly as she could, she set the cup aside and traded it for the silverware to eat.

It was, she had decided, very difficult to go back to her rations after being exposed to Belfast's cooking. Before then, she had seen food strictly as a source of fuel that she, a shipgirl, required. If she got hungry, she ate to satisfy her hunger. Her rations were the easiest way to accomplish that and became necessary with her frequent and lengthy deployments. Add in coffee and she had all that she needed to keep her going. The time and preparation that went into proper meals she considered a waste when the end result could be achieved by one rip of a wrapper.

With enough time to eat proper cooking though, the bland texture and taste of her ration bars had become more pronounced. The last time she had tried to eat one of her canned meals, they were not as agreeable as she remembered them being. During her leave, more than once the memories of dishes like the one she was currently enjoying would sneak up on her.

Although she had just thought that she wasn't that hungry, she was mildly shocked when her fork tapped against an empty plate in a relatively short amount of time. She pushed it away to show that she was done. "Thank you, Belfast."

The maid leaned over to secure it and pointedly glanced at her teacup. "You still have some tea left. Was it actually unpleasant?"

"No, not at all." Between the warm dinner and tea, the drowsiness had returned with a vengeance. Enterprise squeezed her eyes shut, hard, but that strategy nearly backfired with how difficult it was to open them up again. "I think I'm more in the mood for coffee if you have any."

"My apologies, but I do not."

Enterprise stuck her with narrowed suspicion, but Belfast happened to be depositing the tableware into her bag at that moment. She thought it hard to believe that the ever-prepared maid wouldn't have a thermos on hand for such an occasion considering she had possessed such foresight in the past. "Then if you could please prepare some…"

Belfast demonstrated that she remained unafraid to take Eagle Union's champion head-on. Reestablishing her posture of the dutiful servant, she smiled innocently at Enterprise before replying, "I think not. I suggest that you consider sleeping."

Enterprise had yet to figure out how to get around this seemingly impenetrable obstacle whenever it came slamming down in her path. Breaking through she knew wasn't - and likely never going to be - an option, so all she had was to try navigating around it. "I was intending to stay awake tonight."

"Do you intend to remain awake until we arrive at our destination? If so, I will have to protest. We are not expected to arrive for another two days."

That was what Enterprise had planned. She had been able to stay awake for multiple days when she took part in the most intense of actions against the Sirens. If she had been traveling alone, she could've shaved off a percentage of time by going at her own speed rather than what the fleet was keeping pace with. Obviously, that wasn't a method she could employ here, and she was doubting her ability to get through one night without rest.

All the same, she didn't want to sleep. Not out at sea, at night, surrounded by her comrades. It was that stubbornness in mind that had her preparing to get up and make her own coffee.

That was until Belfast stepped to her side to continue with her act as an impassable barrier. "You haven't been sleeping well lately, have you, Enterprise?"

The maid had abandoned any semblance of subtlety and Enterprise, in turn, knew when to give up. She rubbed at her eyes, signaling her defeat. "How did you know?"

"I'm rather amazed that you believe you possess any kind of capability for deceit," Belfast admonished her. "On the off chance you ever do accept my offer to become a maid, that is one skill that I would have to discipline you severely on."

"Good to know," Enterprise returned sarcastically.

Ignoring it, Belfast pointed out, "Other than the bags you've been carrying under your eyes, I know that you've been awake whenever I came to retrieve you in the morning. Sleeping posture, breathing – they're different from what I've established as your norm. Like someone pretending to be asleep." Her mouth twitched with a smothered grin. "I've been particularly disappointed in not catching you talking in your sleep."

Enterprise turned very slowly to glare at her.

"Don't give me that. I can't possibly consider myself as head of the Maid Corps if I can't familiarize myself with those details." Belfast met her glare with disapproval. "Such as how you've been eating those atrocious ration bars again."

"What, you go through my trash?"

"Don't change the subject. You've been compensating for lack of sleep with calories. With all that in mind, what other conclusion could I make?" Belfast's tone lowered with concern. "What's wrong, Enterprise?"

If Enterprise had been finding it more difficult to lie to Belfast as of late, the cruiser bombarding her with those careful – and intrusive, in the carrier's opinion – observations went to show her how futile it was. Casting her gaze aside so that she was looking at the rest of the fleet, Enterprise came clean. "I've been having nightmares."

Belfast tensed beside her. "Is it…?"

"No!" Enterprise knew what she was thinking and harshly denied it. She didn't want to contemplate the chance of that thing retaining any kind of continued existence. It was destroyed. She had taken its core and shattered it herself. It was gone. Quieter, she said, "Nothing like that. It hasn't spoken to me since then."

She tapped a finger against her temple. "But I've still been getting…visions, I guess, from where it came from. They had grown weak after we destroyed it, but they've become more intense recently." Weary, she resisted the urge to drop her head on the table and instead planted her elbows on it so that she could put her face in her hands. She breathed deeply. "I'm assuming that they'll pass in time; just a leftover byproduct from when it tried to…"She shuddered. "…you know. I just don't want to fall asleep out here in case something happens."

The waves slunk in during the quiet. She could hear them and could feel the barest sensation of them lapping at her carrier body. There was very little noise from the other shipgirls with the darkness coming in and even less lighting being turned on to combat it so as to avoid broadcasting the fleet's presence to whatever possible threat that could be out there. Fear picked at her resistance along with fatigue.

Someone touched her back. "Please sleep, Enterprise," she heard Belfast say. "I will remain here to assist you in whatever capacity I can, just as I always have."

There was a prickling of indignation against this treatment but it, along with the tension at her back, was broken when the hand there commenced a gentle rub.

And then Belfast started humming again.

All thought of protest, too, died before it could gather steam. The soothing notes of the melody and the fingertips that applied delicate pressure upon selected points of her shoulder blades lulled Enterprise. Her arms weakened, her head slipped out of her hands, and while her eyes snapped open once and then twice when her lids fell over them, they couldn't repeat it for a third time.

She then fell asleep.

---

Belfast's hand stilled but she did not remove it when Enterprise sank onto the table. She kept it there, confirming that the deep inhales and exhales that she felt beneath her palm were for sleep. Then she pulled away.

She had to internally criticize the carrier's posture, her head having fallen so that a cheek was lying atop one folded arm, the other splayed out. For this night, Belfast would let it be in favor of Enterprise getting the sleep that she sorely needed. Instead, she extracted a blanket from her bag. Enterprise had her coat as always but the skin of her shoulders that were left bare more than usual when it slipped had Belfast making sure to tuck the added cloth around them so that they were covered.

But she wasn't settled with that. She stepped back with the intention of fulfilling the role she promised but was soon distracted by another blemish that she needed to correct.

That cap of hers had tipped half-off her head. It would've fallen off entirely had a section of it not become pinned beneath her head and the arm it rested on. Belfast quietly debated, came to a conclusion, and angled herself over Enterprise's sleeping form.

A very careful tug proved that it was not going to come free so easily and Belfast didn't want to simply pull and risk waking Enterprise if her head was dropped from its perch along with it. Somehow exerting even greater care, she enlisted the assistance of her other hand to oh so gently creep beneath one side of Enterprise's head, lift it by the smallest of margins, and give her enough room to free the cap.

With her face exposed, Belfast saw how Enterprise hadn't even stirred. Retreating with her prize, she spent several moments staring at the unguarded features, calmed with sleep, and free of the burden that had been weighing heavier than any head covering had the right to be.

Belfast did switch to that, bringing it up so she could examine it. It wasn't the first time she had the chance to hold it, and her impression of it hadn't changed. It always looked larger than it should be on Enterprise, and seeing and feeling it for herself had her wondering just how she was able to always have it on. The white material partly explained it, thick and dense to fill in some of the space so that it could be fitted securely. She ran her finger along the band, clicking her tongue at how tight it felt, before running along the edge of the brim and, finally, tracing the eagle badge.

An unhappy memory arrived involving a discussion she had with Hood. The designated Pride of the Royal Navy, with all the burden that that title came with. To always serve with honor, etiquette, and free of distraction in order to represent the glory of the Royal Navy.

Days after Hood had performed the act that disgraced those virtues, a moment of weakness had her referring to it as her crown of thorns.

She was sailing ahead of them in her rightful position of to be viewed and admired, but all Belfast saw when she tried to find her was the lonely rear of her ship, the girl stuck to the front, unseen, and no one able to know what was locked away behind her grandeur.

Belfast felt a vibration beneath her feet. Out at sea, such a sensation had become attributed to danger such as radar pinging off an unknown contact or something mechanically wrong with the ship body if they weren't in battle. On guard, she whipped her head around, but couldn't see any sign of a threat being picked up by the fleet. No warning was being broadcasted. It was after a second vibration that Belfast went to Enterprise.

Trouble had broken her tranquil features. Her brow was furrowed with discontent, the hand of her outstretched arm clenching in a feeble fist. She twitched, stirred, but didn't awaken.

"Enterprise?" Alarmed, Belfast knelt next to her, setting the cap down on the deck.

She didn't respond, lost in whatever nightmare was assailing her.

Belfast reached but stopped short of grasping her shoulder. Refraining from shaking her awake, she drifted towards her face, cupping her cheek. A thumb touched her brow, the material of her glove collecting moisture from the beads of sweat she discovered there.

The longer it went on, the more pain Enterprise seemed to be in. Her breathing had become anguished gasps, the previous twitching escalating into small shakes of her head as if she was refusing something that Belfast couldn't possibly see.

"Enterprise," she whispered again, the sight disturbing her. Hair had slipped over Enterprise's features and Belfast gingerly swept them back, the motion transitioning into a caress that she willed to placate her.

Little was changing and she was on the verge of administering a violent shake to pull her out of it when, at the last moment, the shakes began subsiding. Belfast waited to be sure and was rewarded when they stopped, Enterprise's features smoothing over shortly after. Digits uncurled out from the weak fist.

The deep rhythm of her breathing was restored moments later but Belfast didn't break from her side. Her gaze remained fastened on her features where her hands laid against her cheek and hair. Seconds evolved into minutes but still she didn't separate.

The cruiser gradually perceived there being a different motive for her maintaining this position. It was the same one that had her wondering at what she was seeing beneath lowered defenses and inspiring her to trace the defined line of Enterprise's cheekbone.

This isn't proper. The mental rebuke brought her back and Belfast pulled away, guiltily letting her fingers perform one more skim along smooth skin and through lengthy strands.

She remembered to retrieve the discarded cap when she rose and held it against her front. She looked down at it and decided that a crown of thorns was a fitting description for it. Her grip tightening over it expressed how, for now and after they reached London, she would be sure to hold onto it for Enterprise.

---

Far out of range of the traveling fleet, a pair of eyes, immune to the debilitating darkness, watched them. They were shaped as if belonging to a human or shipgirl, with golden yellow irises and pure white pupils, but one look at those infinite whites – on par with the boundless amusement they expressed – would warn anyone that they were peering into something that was quite unnatural but nonetheless ancient.

The nuances and distinctness of her existence were more apparent with her human-like form. Arms and legs, feet and hands, and all the digits they were supposed to come with. Yet her skin was gray, with a faint layer of a slippery shine that was more appropriate for that of a marine animal. There were muscles beneath, the scraps of cloth she wore leaving abdominals naked, but stretches and strains made against them could put on a disturbing show of their capabilities to swell or compress abnormally, uncaring of the solid definitions that rational views dictated they should have. In contrast, the structure of her bones was definably sturdy but any motion that could prove it to be more befitting to some creature rather than a human being were proven minimal with how she rested on her throne.

A throne of black tentacles winding around alien cannons, illuminated with the same sinister glow that was shared with her eyes. It hovered meters above the ocean's surface with unknown propulsion, supplying her with the view that she enjoyed with a palm against her rubbery cheek.

"How amusing," she spoke, syllables echoing with high notes before dipping into a low bass during that short sentence. A conversion that would befuddle any ears that heard it.

How many times has she witnessed something like this during her observations? Billions of times? Trillions? The exact figures were lost, even to her, but she knew those opening guesses likely didn't come close.

With all the countless simulations and altered timelines that were conducted on the worlds that they had constructed, she had dissected, recorded, categorized, and assimilated every bit of information that there was to gain. In detail that could be only fathomed by her and the very few like her, she could explain exactly what it was that humans derived by such esteemed vistas.

And rather than boredom, she acquired what she stated this one example to be: amusement. It was because of how her knowledge was refined with such immeasurable clarity that she was practically destined to be forever amused by how hopeless humanity was.

After all, their work and experimentation were meant to obtain progress out of that hopelessness.

Such was the purpose of this world. The construction of a new world was the only time where she'd come the closest to being excited. A new world meant a new environment to explore the latest theories and possibilities borne out of the ones that had come before it. Based on the extensive research and established profiles, their shaping of the billions of subjects that would be responding to the carefully calibrated factors of identical situations of previous experimentations meant to stimulate them into unexplored outcomes with differing variables introduced was a joy.

This world in particular had been designed to be a bit more…exhilarating in terms of ambition. She might even go as far as to call it daring when it came to the resources that had been assigned to it.

For this one, they had chosen to limit the presence of humanity lower than average. Contain them in their shattered territories and place greater emphasis on their shipgirls. These ones would be based on profiles of previous subjects that were deemed the most evolved when it came to their human characteristics. Increase their roles and responsibilities through altered events, mature them through more extended combat with their major enemy, but maintain sufficient intervals to let them collect the needed 'inspiration' from humanity.

For most of them, anyway. The Key would be one of the exceptions.

There was no absolute guarantee that the subject known as Enterprise would turn out to be The Key in this world, but the margin of error was deemed negligible so they proceeded accordingly. To create the behaviorism most compliant for the merging, they introduced a sufficient number of stress factors to shape, but not break, their Key based on the extensive information of her previous iterations.

One factor that was decided to be a requirement was the early removal of subject Yorktown through the means of a Siren. Their Purifier unit was assigned explicitly for that purpose and achieved her objective before being subsequently destroyed. The effects that the event had on Enterprise were as predicted, with the superior results obtained by setting Purifier's mission parameters to disable Yorktown rather than destroy if possible.

It would've been quite unfortunate if Enterprise wasn't The Key. Fortunately, confirmation came right as Project Orochi was ready to be implemented. Orochi, of course, being a name selected to appeal to the faith of this world's Sakura Empire. Nevertheless, it was appropriate, given what it had been intended for.

That was where their ambition – and resources – lay. The wills that shaped the core of Orochi were, in actuality, gathered from a previous world. The profiles and evolutionary path that they had chosen for their subjects was the complete opposite and led to only one outcome: total war, death, and despair with that iteration of The Key purposely shattered. They harvested the final products and sought to transfer them over. The Sakura Empire was the perfect staging ground with the influence of the Sacred Sakura to anchor the souls to this plane and was also where two subjects who had proven over and over again to be the most useful of tools were located: Akagi and Kaga.

The Black Cubes would be the catalyst, gathering the combat data of the shipgirls of this world and the few that did perish before inserting them into Orochi to complete the integration of the compiled quantum data of another world into this one. When fully operational, the Orochi had been meant to seek out The Key, merge with her, and then devour the rest of the subjects.

The result was theorized to be a perfect fusion of humanity's dual nature: life and death, hope and despair. The intact souls of these shipgirls that expressed the best of humanity would be combined with their counterparts who had been destroyed by the worst of it. The Keys would've acted as the medium.

What would've been created was a true ark, able to traverse planes previously unreachable.

A true enterprise.

…That was what had been theorized, anyway, if things had gone as planned.

"So what do we do now, I wonder?" she mused, languidly tossing something in the air and catching it.

There was no such thing as failure or success for her. True success was the evolutionary goal that they had strived for many, many years to achieve but have yet to do so. How far they were from it remained inconclusive and the results of their experiments were merely learning experiences to come even a fraction of a percentile closer to their primary objective. This instance was no different. Even if things had gone as planned, there was no telling what the final results of Orochi would've led to despite their best predictions.

There were still things to learn here in the midst of this aftermath, but she just didn't think there was much that could be gained, and the resources lost were a rather large amount. This world, though designed perfectly for the Orochi, had the extreme risk of stagnating any other research that could be acquired here as the shipgirls had been spared from the great conflict that had terminated their counterparts. With fewer in number having expired, and their profiles having been manipulated to accentuate the moral quality of humanity, the most reliable method of data collecting - war and conflict - were predicted to become very restricted. Resetting this world won't restore the resources expended as the quantum data that had constructed the Orochi had been transferred from elsewhere and had been unable to be saved in the wake of its destruction. Preserving it would waste resources and, more importantly, her time that could be more valuable elsewhere.

Erase it, then?

She was still tossing the small item up and down, catching it each time despite how her focus remained steady on the fleet. After another toss and another catch, she regarded the item. It was a triangular-shaped piece of glass or crystal, with three smooth sides. However, the jagged base below implied how this little piece was a fragment of a larger item.

Like the broken corner of a cube.

She stared at it, then the fleet, then back to the fragment. Finally, she shrugged. Whatever she decided in the end, there were still opportunities for more data. Every little bit counted and would improve the chances of their later experiments, no matter how miniscule it may be. "All the time in all the worlds."

The fragment began floating an inch above her palm which she held out in the direction of the fleet. Sinister colors of black and violet filled the insides and began seeping out, creating a malevolent aura.

The Key, she suspected, had been damaged by the failed merging. Damaged, but not broken. Such a shame as her shaping, she decided, was truly like a work of art as humans love to describe any perfectly crafted piece. She could see how the fractures that had formed on such a specimen could be considered as 'sad' even if she didn't genuinely feel such an emotion.

But she might as well keep on turning her. See just how much stress The Key could continue to endure. Valuable data could still be had by testing to see what amount of integrity this iteration possessed.

And if she did end up breaking...well...there was probably something to be gained from that, too.

As soon as she finished the thought, the fragment fell back into her palm.

For once her amusement faltered when she looked to it in time to catch the last bit of the abyssal color fading from it. Confused, she pinched it between her thumb and index finger, lifting it up high so that she could examine it.

It failed? But she had tested it beforehand. Knew it had worked previously. Why not now?

When she couldn't find an answer within the cleared fragment, she once more regarded the fleet. She uttered a thoughtful hum, her amusement resurfacing. "Seems there's room for further observation."