"Fuh…" It's calm… Too calm. For someone who has spent a lot of their time on the battlefield, this calmness is unnerving. This calmness usually came after or before an attack. The fact that there are no siren wreckages around us indicates that the current situation is the latter one. "Where are they?"

*Smack* "Calm down." AAAA! My ass! "You'll wear yourself down if you keep that up." Thank you, Monty. Don't worry. I got a good sleep last night. I can keep this up for a lot more hours.

"Do you know how to fill my battery up, Cutie? Give me a kiss on my lips."

"You charge a battery when they're empty, dummy." You'll do it, that's a promise!

As both of us have this lovely couple aura around us, there was another aura right beside us. "Hmm…" It is an intimidating aura coming from a single disappointed girl. "Uhh…" I guess Richelieu not noticing that Jean Bart was being molested right in front of her face must have been a shock. You expect your own sibling to notice if something isn't right and yet, Richelieu has failed. "Mmmmhh!" Not only that, she also lost a bet to me. A very dangerous one at that.

"Look, can you stop being such a grumpy pants, miss pirate?"

"I'm a privateer." Whatever! My points still stand!

"Who cares about the small thing, what I care about is you, dumb pirate." I grab her hand and pull her closer. "Look, you lose the bet, that's water under the bridge now." It's her own fault for being too confident anyway. "It may sound scary but trust me, I'll try everything in my power to make you feel great."

"There has to be a limit to your brazenness." There isn't actually. "And your confidence in your ability to…" OOOHHHH! Is that blush I see building up on her face~~? Fufufu~~ Let's play a dumb boyfriend, shall we?

"Hmm? Jean? Your face is becoming red, are you okay?" I pulled her body even closer so that her face was only an inch away from mine. "Oh, are you perhaps sick? A cold?" I place my head forward until my and Jean's foreheads touch. Her face is sooooooo close! I WANT TO KISS HER LIPS!

"You asshole… Hmph!"

"BUGH!" I guess I can't say that was unexpected. At first, Jean only placed her fist on my stomach but the next moment, she violently thrust it forward, pushing me by the stomach. It's less of a punch but more of a violent push concentrated on a small surface.

"Don't even try to bitch about it. You deserve that." Shut up, Monty.

"Focus on your job, stupid." I AM! I'm waiting for the girls to give me any kind of—

"Report, one of my scout planes has just been shot down." Welp, I was hoping we found the wall first before the siren started moving but whatever, it is what it is. "Commander, what should we do?"

"Keep your distance and send some more scout planes. Identify their types and numbers." Now, what shall we do? My main goal is still to escape the mirror sea without fighting but I guess a little bit of ruffle is inevitable. The one whose planes got shot down is Lexington and I positioned her on our 07:30. "The carriers that I tasked earlier, keep doing your job. Baltimore, bring the fourth Tank-focus vanguard team and third support-focus team and go help Lexington. KGV, I want the second barrage battleship group and the fifth carpet-focus group to support Lexington's team." Waves of affirmation erupt from the earphone as several shipgirls move toward their position.

"Commander, there's something different about these siren mass-produce ships."

"How come?"

"Their lights are bright blue." Bright blue? Not flaming red? "I can't determine whether this is just some cosmetic changes or is there a deeper meaning to the color." It usually is. Color usually represents something like how the color red means stop while the color green means go so maybe these colors also represent something. The simplest thing is that the color is meant to differentiate but what's the difference between a flaming red ship and a bright blue one? Different units? Different configuration? Or could this be… My mind wanders around toward the time where I build a siren destroyer. The blueprint says that the destroyer was a 'mark one' so could this bright blue ship of a different mark? An improvement? If so, which mark is this?

"Gridley, go take a picture and I want more ships on the water." This time Stella chirped in through the comms. I guess that's to be expected when you're dealing with a possibility of a new type. You can't let the rookie deal with them. "All ships slightly alter the course to one o'clock. Maintain current speed." Understandable. Only idiot or overpower people would charge toward an unknown enemy head on.

"Hey, come closer. I won't be able to defend you if you're too far from me." We're not that far from each other, Jean. Stop being hyperbolic.

"Don't worry, dear. I'm keeping my eyes on the radar." As long as I'm on top of the situation, I should be able to keep myself safe. "You girls should bring your riggings up and prepare yourself just in case we need more hand on the water." I doubt that the siren mass-produced ships would have the ability to get through our first line of defense but it's better to be wary than sorry.

"…so your progress of character is by becoming more cocky, huh… pervert." AH! MY LOVE! SHEFFY! Long time no see! "…as your maid, I advise you to come closer to miss Jean Bart, perverted master." I miss the way my cock choked her throat and the sound of her begging for air. Or the way she was screaming her brains out as she cum and cum and cum and cum and cum.

"I miss you too, Sheffy." The petite maid walks closer and closer to me and then she stops right in front of me. We both then stare at each other's faces for some minutes. To the outlooker, Sheffy's face is still that of an expressionless one but to me, I can see that she misses me. Her fingers are restless, her eyes glossing from the tears, and her breath was much faster than usual. "If you don't turn your face away, I'm going to kiss your dry lips."

"…Asshole… Hmph…" Sheffy crashes her forehead onto my chest. There was no malicious intent at all from her action, it was a simple act of resting your head on your lover's chest. "…Sigh… Miss Jean Bart and Miss Montpelier, I'm sorry but this selfish bastard would never move from his spot. If you want to protect him, you're the one who has to move." Ouch Sheffy! Sheffy then retracts her face from my chest and then brings out her rigging. "…I'm here at the command of Queen Elizabeth, my job is to protect my master."

"I envy you who have the patience to handle him." Don't worry, Monty. Soon you'll just be like her. Monty walks forward and stops next to me, on the opposite side of Sheffy. "Don't move too much, dummy." She then brings out her own rigging and takes her position.

"How can someone like you can become a man with such high standing is beyond me…" Jean Bart summons her massive rigging. I thought that Monty and Sheffy only lose to Jean in terms of breast size and height but good god do they also lose in terms of rigging size. Jean's rigging is so big that she can sit on top of it and there is still some room left. "Come up here or I'll kill you myself." She threatens me while patting the space between her legs. I would've laughed at her words if it wasn't for her massive guns pointing at me.

"Alright alright alright! Calm down with the guns!" With fear in my movement, I climb the deck(?) part of Jean's rigging and place my ass between Jean's thighs. You know what?! I think it's time for some revenge. "Ah! It's a bit wobbly, isn't it?" To compensate for the wobbly seat, I grabbed one of Jean's naked thighs and made sure my fingers were firmly grabbing this high-quality meat. "Sorry Jean, I'm afraid I'll fall if I don't grab onto you."

"You! Whatever…" My strategy always works. Annoy the girl so much that sooner or later they can only answer me with 'Whatever'. "Just focus on your tablet." Fufufu~~ Did she really think that I will be too focused on my tablet that I won't be able to mess with her? Fufufu~~ How pure, my cutie~ Don't you think I can't do both! I'm quite the multitasker.

"Commander Igo, I would like to report that one of my scout planes has vanished." A much welcome news from Taihou!

"Thank you, Taihou." Now that's one of our gateways to the outside world.

"Commander Igo, there is a massive swarm of siren mass-produced ships that is coming to block us." They must've sensed that something has exited the mirror sea.

"Commander Igo, the ships on our backs have also started moving toward us." Not too much of a surprise. The siren probably didn't expect us to be here so that's why they didn't attack us right from the get go. Whatever they are planning, they need us to be inside the mirror sea so our escape would ruin everything.

"Everyone who's with Lexington will now be called the Lexington team. Lexington team, go grab thirty of our remaining mass-produce ships and use them to block the siren path." Sinking the siren mass-produced ships would need for the team to engage them at close range and it might be proven fatal if they got left behind.

"Commander Stella, I've taken the photos of the siren ships!" Took you some time, Gridley.

"Thank you, Gridley."

"We'll use the same tactic on the front. First and second tank-focus team, use your mass-produce ships to create a wall. First, third, and fourth barrage battleship groups, empty your shells! Make sure none of them pass our wall of ships!" I see the green dots move to their respective position. The girls move fast but sadly, the enemy swarm is bigger than I thought. "First, second, and third carpet-focus groups, get your planes in the air! I want no siren ships passing our wall!"

"To all non-KANSEN ships, increase the speed output. Lexington, make sure that the rearmost unit is the mass-produce ships. No KANSEN should be farther than the ships." Thank you for the help, Stella. I'm starting to run out of breath.

"""Affirmative!"""

"Jean, if you want to join the fight then go. I can take care of myself." I was about to jump down from Jean's rigging but she prevented me by circling her arms around my stomach.

"I promise to guard you and I intend on keeping my promise." She pulls me closer to her until my back touches her breast. "I can't defend you if I'm not near you." Aaawww~~ Is that your way of saying that you don't want to be separated from me?

"Well, suit yourself." I refocus myself on my tablet. Gridley had taken a picture of the enemy earlier and I would like to know what is different about these ships other than the light color. "Hmm…" The 3 girls caught me watching my tablet intensely and were curious as to why. I guess they never see me this serious.

"…looks the same as the normal one." Comment on the panty-less maid. She is right though. Other than the light, these ships are the same. It must be the inside.

"Well, this one hell of a party." This voice… Eugen. I can't exactly see behind me since my view was hindered by Jean Bart's massive rigging but by the sound of the footsteps, there's supposed to be more than one. "Guess kommandant Igo is one hell of a bait for us shipgirl, eh?"

"Eugen, stop talking." Stella? What are you doing here? "Igo, I want to see the new type's ability and power on my own. In the meantime, the entire Azur Lane is under your command." That one hell of a power you just gave me, Stella. Are you sure that's a good idea?

"Master Igo," Belfast? "Please be prepared to be Admiral of The Navy of Azur Lane. I'm afraid that master Stella may come back with a stab wound on her back." Ah yeah, they did say that they're going to stab Stella on her back, huh…

"It won't be that easy, bitches." Don't antagonize people much further, Stella. It's a bad idea.

"Commander Stella, everything is ready." Dork E's voice sounds farther than the rest. It sounded like she was below me. I guess she is on the water surface.

"Thank you, Enty. Igo, don't wait for me. Since we're a smaller group, we can leave easier than a large group like this one." I guess so. They can just waltz out of the mirror sea without waiting for the much larger and slower non KANSEN ship. "Let's go, bitches."

"Someone got to teach you how to talk sometime, kommandant Stella."

"Please wait for my return, master Igo."

All three of them then proceed to jump over the railing of the command ship onto the water below. On the radar HUD, I notice several green dots separating themselves from the group and onto the battlefield. I admit, that group has some considerable firepower under their belts. I guess that means I don't need to worry about Stella and focus on my job.

"Alright then, I guess you girls have just been abandoned by your old commander. All of you are now under my direct command."

"…We're all going to get rape." SHEFFY! STOP SPREADING MY SECRET PLAN! As a punishment for the maid that likes to run her mouth, I karate chop her head. "…ow…" The cute maid rubs her head where my hand was as if it was actually painful for her.

"You'll be the first one. Go undress yourself, slave."

"Hmph!" Without any provocation, Monty grabs one of my thighs and grips it down, HARD.

"AAAAA! FUCK! FUCK! THAT HURT!" Stop using your shipgirl's strength on something useless! "Stop that! It hurt!" I try to pry Monty's hand off of my thigh but like usual, I can't even make her hand twitch. "What did I do?!"

"You're being stupid." I AM STUPID! Are you asking me not to be myself, Monty?!

"Just because you're my commander doesn't make it so that I'll obey your every order." Jean Bart pinches both of my cheeks and stretches them apart. "I'll make sure you'll regret it if you order me to do stupid things." My cheeks and thigh are under attack! HELP! You girls are supposed to protect me!

"…If you want to punish him then attack him in his sensitive spots." SHEFFY! WHY ARE YOU BLURTING OUT NATION'S SECRETS AS IF IT WAS NOTHING?! "…His neck, ears and inner thighs are where you're supposed to attack." I'LL SWEAR TO EVERY LIVING BEING THAT I'LL NEVER REST UNTIL SHEFFY IS NOTHING MORE THAN A COCK WORSHIPING SLUT!

"Not right here!" I could sense my impending doom and was desperate to dodge it. "I still need to work, right?!" I wave the tablet in my hand to divert their attention from me.

"What a coward." Shut up, Monty. "I guess one of the requirements to be a commander is being a coward." Actually, that's kinda true. Brave people strike without thinking while scaredy cats think first before acting. A commander needs to choose their fight and always fight when the chance of winning is higher. "Sigh… Make sure to do your job properly or I'll punish you even harder." Reluctantly, Monty releases her death grip on my thigh. I thought I was going to lose a leg there.

"Fine! Fine! Geez, you girls are violent." For the sake of my future conquest of these girls, I need to contain myself for a moment. I return my gaze toward the tablet once again and thank god the other shipgirls are doing fine. At least there are some shipgirls that I can depend on, unlike the group that surrounds me. "Seems like the one behind us is growing in mass." To combat the ever-growing mass of enemy ships, I send 3 teams to back up Lexington's team. "Remember girls, don't get too invested into a fight. Our current goal is to evacuate, not eliminate." As the fleet moves forward, an entire siren blockade comes to view on the radar. "Well… fuck…"

"Don't worry." Jean Bart, using her mind reading ability, read my thoughts and calmed me down. "You can use ships with heavy-armor to push through the debris and make way for the ships with much lighter armor." Is that safe? I know we reinforce the propeller of these ships but that doesn't make them 100% invulnerable. "Just destroy the enemy ships hard enough until their wreckages are on a microscopic level so it wouldn't hurt the ships."

"Can… you… do that?" Jean Bart confidently nods her head to my question. "Alright." I turn on my mic and issue my command. "Girls, there's a blockade in front of us. The rest of the shipgirls teams that are currently not positioned anywhere, I want you to destroy the blockade. Hipper and Blucher, use your mass-produced ships to make way through the wreckage so the rest of the fleet can push through."

"""GOT IT!"""

"Just so you know, if this doesn't work, I'll blame you." She needs to take responsibility for what she has done.

"Just focus on your radar." Jean grabs my head and forcibly turns it around and down. I can feel my neck straining from her action. "Always be ready for a surprise attack." What I need to focus on is why are these ships' lights blue? Why the difference in color? Is it to cool themselves from the summer heat? I know machines get hot but changing the color doesn't make it cooler.

"I know, I know. Don't turn my head so hard, woman. You're going to snap my neck." Hmm… Is it just me or the fog kinda dissipating? Does that mean we're going farther and farther away from the source of the mirror sea? I can only hope so… "Hey Jean, what do the siren usually use the mirror sea for?" I understand if it's some sort of forward base where you have advantage in it but by the look of it, we're kinda crushing them. I do see some casualty in our side, we lost some mass-produce ships, but that's all. Where is their base? Can it not provide some sort of fire support or does it use all of its energy to generate the mirror sea? I assume distorting time and space takes a lot of energy. I admit that this might be deadly to a normal navy but to Azur Lane, this is like a walk in the park. With each passing second, the girls are erasing more and more red dots from the radar HUD.

"Storing the mass-produce ship, staging an invasion force, experiments, traps, or whatever." I guess so. It's kinda understandable and enviable that they can store something in a dilated space.

"So what do you think this particular place is used for?" It's in the middle of the sea so it's hard to think that this is a trap. Who places a trap where nothing passes through? It's also impossible to stage an invasion force since… once again, it's in the middle of the fucking ocean. The logical one would be experiments or storage but when you think about it, they would have replied to our arrival with a much bigger force than this if it was an experiment. These forces aren't exactly the protector of an important experiment if you ask me.

"It looks like storage to me." Said Monty in which I agree with. "But why the small number of ships? This doesn't make any sense." Hm! She is right! If this place is a storage unit, then I would expect a lot more mass-produced ships than this or this could be an empty storage unit. Who knows?

"…It could also be a testing field." So they're testing these new versions of the mass-produce ships, huh… Well, their performance is a bit lackluster in my opinion. I guess they must've turned off some of the new type functions to accurately judge its prowess, like how you close one of your eyes to see how good the other is.

"If that's the case then we're fighting a handicap enemy." Fine by me. I don't care if my enemy locks their hands behind their back, that's their own fault for giving me the leeway. "Then it's their fault for giving us the advantage." Thank you, Jean. We're thinking the same thing. "We should take this chance and go even faster."

"Don't get too cocky, Jean." Now it's Jean time to receive the karate chop to the head. "That's just our hypothesis. It may not reflect what is actually going on." Everything up to this point was purely from one side of the coin, we didn't know what the others were actually thinking. For all we know, they might expect us to think like this. "They might want us to think that this place is a storage unit and then they'll reveal that this is actually a trap." The chance of a trap in this place is extremely small but never zero.

"You're awfully smart." What the fuck does that mean, Monty?! I'm your commander, you know?! I have to be at least smarter than a first-grader or you all will be dead. "Perhaps this mirror sea has a smartening effect on idiots. Maybe it's a good idea that we don't destroy this mirror sea." Why you little piece of shit! You're lucky that Jean is here to protect you!

"…why can't you be like this more often?" Stop ganging on me! If you girls are truly better than me then fight me one on one IN BED. "…a lot more girls would fall for you if you're like this most of the time." Where's the fun in that? Making a girl succumb to pleasure is one of the greatest enjoyment I could ever have and the enjoyment only further enhances if the girls at first act like she doesn't like it. I can't do all of that if the girls like it from the very beginning.

"Jean, bring me closer to them. I need to give their cheeks some kisses!" With both my lips and hands.

"Stop playing around. We're passing through the wreckage, dumbass." I know and it's your job to guard me, Jean. I shouldn't be thinking too much about my safety. If I did, I would've entered the command ship a long time ago. "Don't move too much. My rigging isn't that light that I can move them quickly." You don't say. Your rigging is massive compared to the others.

"If you don't let me kiss them then I will kiss you instead."

"I dare you." She either wants it or assumes that I'm a coward. Has she not seen what kind of an asshole I am?! I'm only a coward in some cases but perverted things are not those cases. "Ah…"

"*Smooch* Take that, dummy~~" I give Jean's cheek what it asked for, a light kiss. "Are you going to be angry at me for doing what you asked me, Jean?" She is not that stupid to take that question at face value. She knew that the question was a tease in which if she responds by getting angry at me, I'll just dig deeper the hole that she had put herself into. She was the one who asked me to kiss her cheek anyway. Getting angry at people for doing what you asked them to do is childish and nonsensical.

"You're brave, commander. I admit that." Thank you. "I admit that it was my fault but I still hate how you take advantage of that." I'm a leader, Jean. I have to take advantage of what's in front of me. I wouldn't be here if I let them go.

"Fufufu~~ I know~~" I refocus my eyes back to my tablet and thankfully, I didn't see anything wrong.

"Commander Igo, an elite siren is here." Aaaaaannnd here we go… "It's a new type." Oh, fuck me.

"Can you identify what kind it is?"

"Yes, it's an explorer." An explorer, huh… I have heard that somewhere before but where… UGH! No! Right now isn't the time to daydream. The girls need my guidance.

"…That type is quick and agile."

"But it needs to pay for it with its light armor." Thank you for the information, Monty.

"Don't think that you can just throw a barrage battleship at it." Huh? Is it because they're as agile as you girls are? "It can easily dodge any shells coming at it if you didn't immobilize it first." As expected, the elite siren is similar to the KANSEN.

"Let's test the water first." Considering that this is a new type, I need to know what I'm dealing with. "Fourth and sixth carpet-focus groups, rain her with your bombs and torpedoes. Fifth barrage group, try to hit her with your shells. Third and fifth tank-focus teams, make sure she never gets close to the backline and the fleet. First and second support-focus teams, keep your eyes on her and report her stats to me."

"""YES!"""

"So what do Stella normally do to deal with an explorer?" They have to be more specific than sending shipgirl to destroy her.

"She sent us." Fuck you, Jean. Genuinely, fuck you.

"…she firstly told us to focus on trying to decrease the enemy's speed." Which means we need to attack her feet… Considering that the girls could move their heads to dodge an incoming shell… yeah, this might be hard. "…why are you so concerned about her?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, as if you're the one who is going to fight it." Well… I mean, kind of… right? I mean I'm not getting physical with her but I'm technically still fighting her, strategically of course. "All you need to do is send the girls to the battlefield and give them a command. How they carry out your order is their problem." Hmm… Huh… Monty is right. I was thinking as if I was the one who is going to fight her which is very wrong. My chance of winning will be 0%.

"You're sitting on my riggings. Don't act like you're going to fight it yourself." Jean circles her arm around my chest. You don't need to, Jean. I won't be going anywhere. "If you want to die so badly then line up with one of my barrels, I'll end you myself." NOPE!

"Chill! Chill! Chill! I get it! I'm wrong!" I'm a commander and not a fighter. I give command and how the girls do it is their problem. That sounds selfish but I'll never get anything done if I waste my time thinking about how every one of my orders get done. I need to trust these girls more. "Why are you so bloodthirsty, Jean? If you want to fight then just say it!"

"I'm not bloodthirsty." Say the person that threatened to shoot me earlier.

"Commander, permission to sink the elite siren." Kaga's voice came out of the comms in my ear.

"Hmm? Sure but work together with the others and make sure that the battle doesn't get too close to the fleet."

"Your worries are adorable commander but it's unnecessary." Kaga's confidence is very thick on that one but knowing how strong she was, I can understand that.

"Sigh… girls that are dealing with the elite siren, back Kaga up. Also, first, second, and third submarine fleets help them deal with the elite siren." Now I can take my mind off that front and focus on my tablet and watch over the girls. I need to make sure that no one is going too far from the fleet. "Alright everyone, make sure that you're not too far from the fleet." We're approaching the wall and our front most ship will reach the wall in approximately 20 minutes.

"Heads up, I detected a swarm of enemy aircraft coming right at us." Monty's riggings jerk up toward the sky as a response to her radar reading.

"AA-focus teams, prepare yourselves. Planes are coming. Spread out around the fleet and make a plane dead zone." They just keep on coming. If there's planes here then there's someplace that they can take off from. Either from an aircraft carrier or a base. I look down on my radar HUD and try to pinpoint where the planes were coming from. "Damn…" From eight to eleven o'clock, it was filled with planes.

The current situation seems to be not so bad for us. The red dots are annoying as hell though. The girls are diligent at sinking them but their numbers never fall. The only reason their numbers aren't increasing is because their ships have to follow the law of physics as that 2 or more beings cannot be in the same place or overlap each other at one time. They're not letting us easily. Stella is somewhere behind us. She seems to be okay as the shipgirls with her aren't sending any distress signal. Plus, I can still see them on the radar anyway. I wonder what Stella is doing. The frontmost ship of the fleet is coming closer and closer to the wall and is about to exit the mirror sea.

"Girls, you only have 5 minutes to deal with that elite siren." I told them as I watched the front most ship disappear from the radar. The moment I finished my word, a loud explosion erupts on the right side of the fleet.

"Done." Yeah, I assume so.

"Cool. Now everyone, make sure that you won't get behind." The second row of ships have disappeared off the radar then the third row then the fourth and then it's time for the command ship. How do I know? Other than not being able to see the ship in front of me, I also feel some sort of energy. It was similar to a wisdom cube's energy. I guess I know what powered this place. "Ugh…" The feeling of passing through the wall is weird. It's also weird knowing that I don't feel anything when we first cross this same wall. Does being inside a room negate the feeling? "Uh… Did we make it?"

"Seems like it." Jean's main guns are looking around as if they're another pair of heads for Jean. "But more importantly, it's night." Oh yeah! I look up and notice the dark sky with glistering stars. Far cry from the bright blue sky when we entered the mirror sea. How long were we inside there? Is this the so-called time dilation that Stella told me? Damn!

"…a light." I know Sheffy, stars do produce light. "…on the horizon, dummy." Sheffy jumps onto Jean's riggings and forces my face down. My neck…. I think Sheffy had just broken my neck. "…look."

"Huh… a light." It wasn't starlight nor moonlight, that's for sure. A lighthouse? In the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Why? "Could it be a sakuran ship?" I didn't know that there would be a welcome party. It doesn't make any sense for a welcome party to begin with but hey, I wouldn't refuse though. But why in the middle of the ocean? That doesn't make sense. The last possibility is that the light is coming from a stray ship. "Let's move toward it. Maybe they need our help."

"It's not a ship." Eh? Are you sure Monty? "That's the Sakura Empire."

"What?"


"We're assisting her in her revenge."

"Guh… you're the worst commander ever."

"Mhm! My pride and joy!"

"Sorry but this is the best we could offer in such a short amount of time."

"I guess so. It's sad that you girls have to be led by such a weird woman."