I am in a field of white flowers, all looking towards the Sun in the sky. There is a stone pathway to the left of the field, going up to a small cottage at the top of a hill. When I look into the distance I see nothing but an endless sky, no clear border of up or down. There are tall lumenflowers along the edge of the landmass, with a fence behind them, and a natural stone wall behind those.

There is a great tree at the end of the field, with branches hanging a quarter of the way through the field, with white petals falling from it. Under the tree is Remission, who has been patiently waiting for my eyes to settle on her.

My rigging appears behind me, and hers appears with her. Well, I want to say it's her rigging, but it looks more like a long serpent. Its teeth are sharp and numerous, curving inwards, with a small tendril dangling beneath its chin, with the end of it looking almost like a flickering flame. It has beady white eyes, looking similar to our own, with a body covered in black metal scales along the underbelly that glow between them, and a smooth metal body otherwise. It moves with seemingly no friction in the air, as if it were swimming.

"Oh, you haven't unlocked your true form yet? How disappointing. I was sure you would've done so when Laffey was taken away from you. Hi hi!"

She speaks in a jovial tone, but I'm not in the mood for it. "Where is Laffey?"

"Oh? You are a lot calmer than I thought. Impressive. I would've been foaming at the mouth by now."

"Answer the question!"

She gestures towards the cabin with her head, "Right over there. But you're not taking my Cinna-bun away from me that easily."

I draw my Rakuyo, staring her down, but she keeps her blade sheathed.

She tsks her tongue at me, "This just won't do! I can't fight you without your rigging, that's just not right for a climax! Here, I know what would help!"

She snaps her fingers and a window's blinds open in the house. From here I can see Laffey sitting in a chair, her eyes are puffy, and her torso is wrapped in bandages. She is looking at me with horror in her eyes.

My eyes open wide at the sight, and I feel my blind eye flare up from beneath the eyepatch once more.

"Yes yes! That's it!"

I take a deep breath, calming myself. 'No Reprisal, it's exactly what she wants. Don't give her it, no matter how tempting.'

She looks surprised. "Wooooh, I'm impressed. You managed to control it! I couldn't even do that! But regardless, there's one more thing you're missing here!"

Her face turns serious. "Turn around."

PlayMoon Presence's Theme

Despite my better judgment, I turn around, seeing something I'll never forget.

Laffey's rigging is behind me, with a few pieces of her vertebrae still stuck to it, skin and everything else in between.

My eye flares back up, a pitch black that almost seems to radiate out from it. My eyepatch blows off my face, the energy too much for the leather strap to handle. I can feel my heart thump in my ears, and my vision is red.

"Y'know, if a shipgirl goes long enough without her rigging, then their wisdom cube will accept that as fact. There's no coming back from that."

I can feel my rigging reacting to the power flowing through me uninhibited. I am siphoning power from everything around. Laffey's rigging is pulled towards me, disappearing as it gets close. My rigging turns into a pile of cubes, sucking into my body.

It pauses for a moment, the Moon eclipsing the Sun in the sky, creating a terrifying bloody red on the surface of the moon.

My legs first, implode on themselves, turning into a black wispy tendril originating from my spine. I can feel nothing but agony from there. I am still somehow in the air on the thin tentacle.

My torso begins to twist into itself, my bones twisting into the front of my chest, underneath my rib cage, forming teeth-like protrusions. They settle into place as my ribs twist to support the new weight and strength.

My spine grows out extra bones to support a bloody membrane, first growing down, then growing out to form a triangle-like shape. Then they grow up towards the ribs, forming the underside of a jaw.

I am going between bouts of unconsciousness, only staying awake through sheer fury and rage.

My flesh is next, muscles spreading out from my spine and around the bone structures, making a blanket of bloody flesh across the bottom and the back half of it. I feel my flesh that was just created start sizzling and burning, being charred black, before more muscle is created to make a large tongue inside the jaw stitched to my lower body.

I feel two more appendages sprout from my shoulder blades, before they shoot up into chain-like devices, which then grow hooks on the end in all their bloody glory. They suddenly begin burning, charring black like the rest of my new flesh.

Finally, my outfit flits in and out of existence, before changing to be a pure black dress that blends into my second jaw, hiding the top half. Sections of cloth float around me, acting as if they were swaying in the ocean current, with me as their anchor. My hands are restitched into large claws, which are then charred the same glossy black as my second jaw. My skin is a pale color now, due to the blood loss, and my eyes are both pitch black, yet they almost shine in comparison to the light surrounding me.

(Replace the arm with a black wispy tendril..)

I slowly come to my senses, able to think a little bit through the pain. All I can think of, however, is Revenge.

I open and close my second jaw, feeling the raw power in the teeth. Just their force alone makes the tree rattle from the vibrations. I lift my right arm to my face, clenching it a few times to test its strength.

"Impressive."

My eyes lock with Remission's, and her face looks shaken. "What's wrong? Didn't expect this? Trust me, it's excruciating."

She shakes her head, slapping her cheeks to refocus. I slowly start to float towards her, only barely picking up speed.

"Too slow."

My hooks grab onto the fences on either side of the field, and I launch myself at her. She barely has time to react, and I slash through her torso with my left claw, while her chikage slams into my right arm.

"Tsk."

I pull myself back using my tendril, the blood splashing out from her wounds healing me, before her wound heals on its own.

"Regeneration, huh? I know how to solve that."

The wisps of clothing around me flick themselves at her, splashing her with a black substance, before she attempts to slash at me with her blade.

I send my hooks out and they wrap around her arms, pinning them to her sides and dragging her to me. She puts up relatively little resistance against my new strength.

Her rigging attempts to bite at me as I get in range, before I grab it by the head, holding it by the neck. I shove it into my gaping maw, and she screams "NO! PLEASE!"

I pause, and she looks at me in fear. "Please… you wouldn't do this to Laffey, right? Why do it to yourse-AHHHHHHH!"

I chomped down, and the rigging's head was ripped off and swallowed. I let her fall to the floor in pain, watching her with an amused grin on my face.

"Do you think this is funny?"

I smile a little more, and she seems to be even more pissed off.

"DO YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?!"

I start to chuckle, a small, morbid chuckle, and she slowly tries to stand up. She clasps her hands together, holding them up high.

"Well so do I!"

A bright light shines from between her hands, and a cascade of many little stars shoot out from her hands, launching at me. I launch myself backwards with my hooks, but they track me perfectly.

I hit the wall behind me and the projectiles are right in my face. I use quickening to go through them, appearing across the entire arena in one bound. "Ah, so that's how that works now. A teleport."

I feel a blade hit me in the neck, but it barely draws blood. "Oh, you thought you were sneaky?"

I grab her blade in my hand, crushing the latter half of it. I turn to look at her, and she looks distraught.

She looks at me, with a look of fear on her face. 'Fake.'

In a panic she stabs herself with the blade, and the blood from around her pools into her body. I back away, and suddenly flames join the mix. She rips the blade out from her body, blood allowing her blade to be even longer than it was before being destroyed.

She rushes towards me, swinging at me with reckless abandon. "You'll die for this! You'll die for destroying my rigging! My only friend!"

Each swing is echoed with a flaming after effect, but this flame only reaches the outside of her swings. I teleport past each swing, placing myself out of harm's way each time.

"And you'll regret ever getting between me and my Laffey!"

Her eye glows orange, and the Sun behind the Moon glows extremely bright, making the heat in the arena grow intensely.

She places the blade in the sheath, pooling her flames into the strike, before slashing out at me. I attempt to teleport through to the other side.

*Squelch!*

The blade is firmly embedded in my stomach, leaving me impaled on it. I cough up some blood, and she looks at me with a smile.

"Finally, me and Laffey can live in peace. Live forever, without anyone getting in the way. Not you, or the Sirens, or even the Azur Lane. You're all dead soon."

She attempts to remove the blade from my chest, but I hold it in place.

I have a wicked grin on my face, staring into her orange and purple eyes with my black ones. "Wanna bet?"

My bad eye flashes blue for a moment, and she suddenly erupts in a fountain of blood, healing me and dropping her to her knees.

"W… what was… that?"

I smile, looking down at her in front of my jaws. "The Gaze of the Moon."

The sun above us has all but flickered out now, and she is looking at me with true fear this time.

"Finally. True fear. Tasty."

She starts to cry, and she asks me in a shaky voice, "w-what will you do with me?"

I smile a mischievous grin, like a kid about to steal a cookie out of the jar. "Oh, with you? It's not that hard to figure out, is it?"

My hooks hook into her shoulders, lifting her above me. She is looking down with pure terror written on her face. She calls out for Laffey, but I smile and shake my head.

"Ah, horror! That's a truly delectable seasoning!"

I drop her into my awaiting maw, feeling her bones crunch beneath my teeth. I make sure to save her wisdom cube for last, and when her body is all swallowed, I finally bite into the wisdom cube.

"Just like a fruity gusher."

Stop playing the music.

I pull myself to the house, opening the door to see Laffey sitting in a wooden chair with tears falling down her face.

I slowly move towards her, and she begins to hyperventilate. I back away, and she calms back down.

I hear her voice, hoarse from screaming, say "sorry."

I grab her flask out of storage, tossing it to her. She catches it, before looking at me with a tearful smile. She takes a drink out of it, and I can see her body visibly relax.

I approach her, and she is no longer scared of my form. I wrap her up in a hug, and she cries into my shoulder. We stay like that for quite some time, letting out our grief into one another.

After some time she stops crying, and so do I. We break the embrace, and I smile at her with a bittersweet smile. "Now let's get you home and healed up"

She looks at me confused, "but she said it's forever?"

"Well, we gotta try."

I place my claws together in front of me, and a black portal opens in front of me, before I grab Laffey bridal style and walk through with her.

… …

…

… …

We're on the Orochi, Akagi, and everybody else, looking at me with fear in their eyes. The only one not doing so is the shoggoth from before, who is kneeling in front of me.

I can sense the way the shoggoth views me, seeing me as her new master, someone to devotedly follow, just as she did Remission.

I nod to her and she moves to the side, accepting my silent command.

I approach Akagi, who flinches upon my approach. She is scared, but still manages to make a sentence. "T-the shoggoth stopped suddenly, saying she has a new m-master. Is- are you two… okay?"

Everyone waits with bated breath, waiting for my response. I hand her Laffey, and she takes her from me. "Take her to Vestal."

She nods, and my vision turns black.

Coming home by Daisuke Ishiwatari

Turn around, stay away

Laughing so hard, here it goes again

Time will wait for us, so I thought

Upon grass, out of luck…

… I don't know, what should I do now?

Not sure who I am any more

Was it only me who thought we were family? - Excerpt from Remission's dying echoes.