I wake up to the sun in my eyes, and Laffey squirming around in my chest thanks to said light. I open my eyes, seeing Enterprise opening the shades. "Sorry to interrupt you two, but we've got some important work today, all hands on deck.

I rub my eyes, "mhh… huh?"

She walks to the door, "Apparently the Red Axis have a strange dial related to the sirens, which some of the Royal Navy's maids have taken. Those maids are outside of Sakura Empire, but they are surrounded. I'll explain more on the way, but get ready and meet up at the docks by 8."

I sit up, "mhm."

Enty walks out the room, leaving Laffey and I alone to get ready for work.

"Laffey, wake up." I shake her awake, and leave her to wipe the sleep out her eyes as I go to get dressed. 'Sorta funny how she has reacted to sleeping with me. She tends to remember bits and pieces of my memories, even if I don't. Like my having apparently comforted Enty for something. She didn't remember why, since we never spoke about it in the dream. '

"Laffey, I'm leaving now! You need to get dressed too!"

"Okay." She sticks a thumbs up from the bed.

Enty, Belfast and I are on a ship approaching the island. I'm reading Purifier's book, "A Thousand Eyes", while listening to Belfast and Enty talk.

'This is interesting; "Every great one loses its child, and thus yearns for a surrogate." Does that mean that a great one will try to give birth, but fail? So even gods are capable of failure. Does this mean that, since I was created, that a great one used Mom as a surrogate? OH. That would explain a lot, actually. And given how I seem to have a natural affinity to illusions and the unseen, it would make sense.'

I hear Enty say, "You're calm, Belfast."

I look up, seeing Belfast facing Enty. "What do you mean?"

Enty leans against the bow of the ship, looking ahead. "Aren't you worried? I thought the ones on the island are your close companions."

Belfast stands alongside her, "Yes, they are maids as well, serving under the queen."

Enty puts her hand to her chin in thought, looking at Belfast. "It's quite strange. We're ships, but all this talk about maids and queens… as if we're imitating…"

Belfast finishes her sentence, "As if we're imitating humans. It makes no difference. People, Ships… There is no difference. We are all alive. We all have hearts."

Enty shakes her head, "No, we were born to fight. We're not like humans."

I walk next to Enty, tucking the Other Me's book away for later. "Enty, while physically we are not like humans, what makes us so different? Ignoring the riggings, and the durability, what's the difference?"

She turns to look at me, "We were made for fighting, for protecting them."

I nod, "That's true, but that's not a difference. Plenty of humans were raised to be war machines. They were trained to kill men, women and children alike without mercy. You can't just say we are so different because we were made for fighting, because they seem just as drawn to it as we are."

She shakes her head, attempting to dismiss the idea. "Yes, but they are the exception, not the rule."

I turn to only face her, "Alright, then let's be more general. Do you think someone needs to follow the path set out for them? If they find a purpose in life, do they have the right to divert from the path given to them to live as they want?"

She nods, "Yes, of course. If someone was a soldier and found they wanted to settle down and raise a family, then good luck to them."

I nod, "Then why shouldn't we act the same?"

"What, do you want to have a kid with Laffey?" The shit eating grin on Enty's face says how much she's enjoying this.

"Stop dodging the question! If you put a ship girl into a human's body, they would still function just fine as a human. But, that's all a matter of perspective anyhow."

I go to turn away and continue my reading, but Enty grabs my shoulder. "Reprisal, wait."

I turn to face her. "Yeah Enty?"

She lets go of my shoulder, bending down a little to reach eye level with me. "Why did you say ship girls, instead of us?"

I look away, not responding to her question.

"Do… Do you view yourself differently from us?"

I look straight at her now, nodding, "Yes. of course I do. But I still matter, regardless of how different I am from you all."

A voice sounds over the radio to prepare to set out on the rescue mission immediately.

'Would I want to raise a family with Laffey? Whatever, that's probably impossible. But maybe…no, snap out of it and focus on the plan. Right, the plan. We're going to use the cover fire of our main armaments to get into the area, and evacuate them. Let's hope this works.'

As Cleveland, Belfast and I enter through a flooded roadway, we notice some quick movement from behind. Atago and Takao are jumping off the surrounding buildings, which they use as platforms to lunge at us from. Cleveland and Belfast manage to block their attacks in time, and they land across from us, blocking our path.

I walk forward, not pointing my weapon at them. "Atago, Takao, why do we have to fight?!"

Takao looks down, saying "We are enemies Reprisal, even if we don't want to be. Just know, we won't cause any permanent harm to you."

I shake my head, "No, don't promise me that. I know we're enemies, so I can't expect that. But, don't harm Laffey. I'd never forgive myself if I let her get hurt."

Atago gets excited at that comment, while Takao seems to be hiding a smile on her face with an impassive look. "Aww, my little sis has a little girlfriend? That's so cute! I can't wait to be an aunt!"

Belfast gives her an incredulous look, "You do realize you aren't even related, right?"

"Shush! Let me have this!"

Cleveland and Belfast look back at me before nodding to each other. "Reprisal, go ahead. We can handle them."

"Are you sure? They aren't exactly pushovers."

"Neither are we. Besides, you shouldn't have to fight your family. Now go!"

'Please let me pass without injury!'

I sprint past Takao and Atago, and they let me pass, unwilling to lay harm on their "little sister".

As I make some distance, I see Prinz Eugen about to fire on Edinburgh. Fuck!

I fire a shot at one of her turrets, blasting it out of commission, while diverting her remaining turret to me.

"Ah, Reprisal. Looks like someone came to help the maids. But it's too late, we've already won."

'I'm surrounded. Where is everyone else? Hornet is back with the fleet pretending to be Enty, so she should be here any moment now.'

I look up at Eugen, giving her a shit-eating grin.

I hold up three fingers,

"Three.

Two.

One."

"Looks like you're soft-hearted too, Belfast."

'Nailed it!'

Eugen quickly turns to look at Enty, and I take that chance to blow her other turret out of commission with my Moon Piercer.

"Retreat. That's an order."

The Red Axis on the scene retreated, allowing us to leave with the dial.

We are all sitting in a meeting room with the dial on the table between us. It is a worn gold color, making a complete circle, with a chain that looks like it would hang around someone's neck, but hang too low to be effective.

There are gears in the center allowing the pieces to turn akin to a clock, but there are no hands. On the bottom layer is a silver steel base, and the layer above has many off-gold lines coming out in many strange shapes. On the next level up, there is a ring around the outer circumference of the dial, with many smaller circles cut out of it.

"So what is this?" I ask out loud.

"A celestial dial, it seems."

Vestal asks "I wonder what the connection between the Dial and the Orochi is?"

"We don't know. We just know that it was from a Siren, and that Akagi is working with them."

'Hmm… why would they be working with Akagi? If they need data, then they could just fight us outright. Perhaps we became too reliant on one strategy, so the data they got was lacking?'

Belfast adds that, "If that's the case, then the whole of the Sakura Empire is being deceived."

Akashi looks worried, "Akagi… what were you thinking?"

'I feel bad, knowing I have a key to go straight to our "sworn" enemies, and here I am not using it. But… they've been nothing but kind to me. I hope they all forgive me when it's all said and done.'

I watch as Enty reaches forward and touches the dial, being put into a trance of sorts. 'What's wrong with her?'

I grab her shoulder gently rocking her to get her attention. "Huh?"

"You alright? You fell into a trance for a moment there."

She shakes her head, "I'm fine, it's nothing."

Unicorn, Laffey, Javelin and I are in a park together, eating some chips (or pocky sticks in my case). Laffey is sitting in my lap, while the rest are sitting around the picnic table.

Unicorn asks Javelin "Ayanami? You mean that girl we met?"

I follow up with "The one who tried to take me out with torps at the start of the war?"

Javelin nods, a conflicted look on her face. "We're supposed to be enemies, so this could be very wrong, but… I don't want to give up on her. I want to be friends with Ayanami."

The conflicted look quickly turns into confidence. "I don't want to fight her like this."

Laffey goes along with the idea, "We haven't started anything yet."

The other two girls in the room nod, leaving me as the odd one out.

*sigh*, "fine, I guess I'll help. At least as much as I can, I don't tend to get within destroyer range for my own good."

I take a bite of my pocky stick, before speaking again. "Besides, I still have family in the Sakura Empire I need to see again, so I get it."

Everyone else nods, as Laffey steals the pocky stick I had only just taken out of my mouth.

"Hey, rude! You could've just taken a new one."

Javelin acts grossed out, "Gross, that's got her spit all over it!"

I laugh, before noticing Laffey look up at the moon.

"Um, Laffey? You alright?"

She stands up, walking towards where the beach meets the sea, her eyes never leaving the moon.

Unicorn looks concerned, meekly asking "Laffey, what's wrong?"

The moon is framed behind my head, and I have a sudden sense of Deja-vu. 'But why now?'

I rush Laffey, wrapping her into a hug. She reciprocates the hug. "Are… are you back?"

I feel her nod, before I feel my shirt get wet from her tears.

All the girls in Azur Lane were called into a meeting by the main leaders of each factions' ships; Enterprise 'Who took up after Yorktown died.', Queen Elizabeth, Bismarck, and Nagato.

Queen Elizabeth speaks first, "Attention! I am sure you have all heard the news regarding the beasts, and we regretfully inform you that it is true. There are humans who have turned into beasts, and are tearing others apart.

At first, we thought it to be a one-off thing, an experiment gone wrong. We were wrong. It was too common, with almost half of the human race transformed already."

Queen Elizabeth steps down, Nagato standing next. "We have our best scientists working on a potential cure, although we have yet to make any progress on one. It seems so far that the changes are irreversible. Ashamedly, we lack any solution to this issue at the present time. However, we do believe that we are immune."

Nagato steps back, letting Enterprise stand in the front. "I know this is not what you want to hear, but we aren't sure if we're immune, as we have not purposely exposed any of us to the infection. We do know that it only spreads through the blood, and if we wear masks and avoid intaking their blood, then we are effectively immune."

Enterprise steps back, handing Bismarck the mic. "Listen. We have a plan to stop this scourge of beasts. We will quarantine anybody who shows symptoms of the scourge. If these people are impossible to contain, or are a serious risk to others in quarantine, then we will kill them."

The crown gasps, as many whispers start to filter through it.

Bismarck clears her throat, "I know you do not like it, and we don't either. However, until we can figure out the cause of this scourge, and the solution, this is the best plan of action."

She steps down, and everybody from their respective factions are told what the plan is for each individual unit.

'I know the cause alright. Why did we ever give out my blood to so many people?'

It seems that exposure to the truth causes headaches when unused to it. Although this can still happen to me, I noticed it the most with Laffey. The reason I could say this was the case, however, is not just the coinciding timing, but the fact that when she drank, the headaches would become less pronounced. At first I thought she was just becoming numb to the pain, as any normal person would. But I realize that, after the pocky stick incident, when she drank she would regain some of her prior personality, becoming less devoted when drunk. Of course, nothing a quick little kiss wouldn't fix. - Excerpt from Remission's Journal