In a ruined city, a woman in red and white, carrying a sword, was travelling through, looking for any sort of shelter. She was being careful as to not be detected by the enemy in the area; looking around, she could see no enemies in the immediate vicinity. "Good," she thought to herself. "No Sirens are about, but we need to get off the street as soon as possible. Who knows when they'll show up." The woman looked behind her to make sure her charge was safe; seeing that she was, the woman crept back into cover and spoke to who she was protecting. "The bad people aren't here, Tsubaki. I need you to be quiet and stay close to me, okay?" The person who the woman was speaking to was a young girl with short white hair and blue eyes. The young girl hesitated at first. Clearly, she was frightened about being in the open, but she then steeled herself and spoke to the woman. "Okay, Auntie Zuikaku, I promise to be quiet." The woman then nodded in satisfaction and grabbed Tsubaki's hand, and together, they both carefully and quietly began moving through the ruined city.
Zuikaku was a former member of the Sakura Empire, a faction of the Azur Lane. She was known as a shipgirl or KANSEN, and her job was to protect humanity from monsters called Sirens. The girl travelling with her was her niece, Tsubaki; she was the daughter of her former commander, John Grey, and her sister Shoukaku. Ever since the Azur Lane fell to the Sirens a few short years ago, it has been Zuikaku's responsibility to protect her niece from the Sirens - this was the wish of her sister and commander, and it is the last thing they said to her when she saw them alive.
As the pair moved through the ruins, Zuikaku spotted a building that looked relatively intact. She whispered to her niece as they were moving, "We will head to that building, Tsubaki. We will grab what we can find and stay there for the night. We will leave tomorrow morning, okay?" Tsubaki nodded to her aunt that she understood. It was starting to get dark, so Zuikaku was glad they had found shelter; once they entered, she breathed a sigh of relief and let go of her niece's hand. Looking around, Zuikaku and Tsubaki could see that this building used to be someone's home. They could see a living area with a couch and seats. Careful when looking around, they found a kitchen and bathroom. Looking upstairs, they found two bedrooms. Zuikaku thought, "A whole family must have lived here. Now, they either fled, or they are all dead." The Sirens were ruthless; they didn't care who you were—they attacked and killed indiscriminately and without mercy.
Tsubaki then brought Zuikaku out of her thoughts. "Auntie Zuikaku, I'm hungry." Looking down, Zuikaku saw her niece and could hear her stomach growling for food; clearly, she needed something to eat. She bent down and looked at her niece. "Okay, Tsubaki, let's go look in the kitchen; I'll see what I can whip up for us." Zuikaku said, and the pair then went into the kitchen to see what was available to eat. Looking around in the cupboards, Zuikaku couldn't find much; most of it clearly wasn't safe for them to eat—it had long since spoiled. All Zuikaku could find that was edible were canned foods; it wasn't much, but she would make sure her niece got to eat. Zuikaku split what she could find among the pair of them, and they began eating.
After they finished, Tsubaki felt tired and fell asleep on the couch very quickly. Zuikaku sat next to her while she was sleeping to keep guard over her. As her niece was now fast asleep, the KANSEN was left alone with her thoughts. She remembered the great war, where she had taken part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the battles of the Coral Sea and for Guadalcanal. She then remembered losing her sister in the Philippine Sea, and finally herself being sunk at Cape Engano. This was unpleasant for her, having to relive all these memories; she wished she could forget them. She then began to remember more pleasant things - being reunited with her sister, meeting John for the first time, seeing the relationship blossom between Shoukaku and John, their wedding, and finally her niece being born.
"I miss those days, much simpler times, not like right now, barely managing to survive." Zuikaku told herself. She then looked down at her sleeping niece. "I wish you didn't have to go through this, Tsubaki. You should be living a normal child's life, not worrying if you will survive until the next day. But you don't need to worry, Tsubaki, I promise I will do everything I can to make sure you survive, I swear my life on it." Zuikaku promised her. Zuikaku wanted nothing more than Tsubaki to have a normal life, but the girl was anything but normal; she was a human-KANSEN hybrid, the first of her kind. If the world wasn't in the state it was in, Tsubaki more than likely would have been used for war, no matter what John, Shoukaku, or herself had to say about it. "At least the wrong people won't be using her for their own selfish goals," Zuikaku thought bitterly.
The KANSEN then thought where the pair of them would go tomorrow. They couldn't continue like this forever. Sooner or later, it would take its toll on Tsubaki, hybrid or not. She was still a child. Zuikaku knew that somewhere there had to be groups of humans that had escaped the attacks of the Sirens. She had to find them for her niece's sake. Though Zuikaku had made sure the two of them didn't stay anywhere long that had to change, the girl needed safety in a group and stability, something she couldn't always provide. Her next course of action decided Zuikaku then followed her niece's lead and began to fall asleep. "I promise to find you somewhere safe, Tsubaki." Was Zuikaku's last thought before she fell asleep.
BOOM!
Both aunt and niece were awakened by a huge explosion outside of the building they were in. "What is going on? Are we under attack?" Zuikaku wondered as she was coming too. When she looked outside the window, Zuikaku's blood turned to ice with what she saw. "Oh no! Sirens! They found us!" Outside of the building were several robotic-looking beings; these were mankind's enemy—the Sirens. Zuikaku made eye contact with one of them, and from that moment, she knew herself and Tsubaki had to get out of there. Scared and not knowing what was going on, Tsubaki asked her aunt. "Auntie! What was that noise? What's going on? Tell me!" Zuikaku replied. "No time to explain, Tsubaki! We have to go now!" Zuikaku grabbed her niece's hand and she led them to the nearest exit, with the Sirens in hot pursuit of the pair.
As they were running, the sirens were firing at them, several shots nearly hitting them, which only frightened Tsubaki even more. "Guess I have no choice," Zuikaku said. Still having the ability to call her planes, with this she launched several of them at the pursuing sirens in hopes of giving them both time to escape. One of the pursuing sirens was hit and was taken down, creating a small distraction that caused the others to pause briefly and allow Zuikaku and Tsubaki to put some distance between themselves and the ones chasing them. Once the sirens recovered from their distraction, they resumed the chase. "They aren't going to give up! And more are going to arrive soon! We need to get out of here now!" Zuikaku was getting desperate; they had to escape before reinforcements arrived, but Tsubaki looked like she was ready to collapse any second.
"Looks like I have to stay and fight! Don't worry, Tsubaki! They won't hurt you! Not while I'm still breathing!" Zuikaku said to her as they stopped running. She then told her, "Hide Tsubaki! I'm going to stop them! Don't come out until I say it's safe! Understand?" Tsubaki nodded in reply; it was all she could do as she was getting air back into her lungs. The girl then left to look for a good hiding spot before her aunt confronted the Sirens. The Sirens that had been pursuing them had caught up, and they had been joined by several others. Zuikaku knew this would be tougher than before. Once the enemies were in her range, she launched her planes at them again, and the battle between them began.
Her planes took down two more, and the others returned fire; Zuikaku got out of the way and fired more planes in the Siren's direction. Her planes were shot down, and a couple of the Sirens got into Zuikaku's melee range. Using her katana, she sliced them down and fired more planes at the Sirens. This battle carried on for several minutes until more Sirens arrived at the battlefield. "Dammit! More of them! I'm completely surrounded!" Zuikaku thought to herself as she saw the number of Sirens surrounding her; she knew she was trapped, and one wrong move would be the end of her.
"Auntie! Auntie help!" a voice then shouted to Zuikaku. Looking in the direction of the voice, Zuikaku could see Tsubaki struggling in the arms of a Siren, causing her to turn pale. "Oh no! They have Tsubaki." Zuikaku then tried to run towards them, but she was stopped by being shot in the stomach. "No! I can't let you have her; you won't have her, you monsters!" were the words Zuikaku said as she passed out from the wound. When Zuikaku came too, she saw a bright light, with Sirens standing in front of it, and Tsubaki in the arms of a Siren completely unconscious.
She tried to reach out to them, but her wound was bad; she had lost a lot of blood and could not stand. "Let her go, you monsters!" she shouted at them. Zuikaku tried to will her body to stand, but she couldn't do it, no matter how hard she tried. The sirens then walked towards the light, ignoring Zuikaku's shouts and pleas. Zuikaku still couldn't stand, so she resorted to crawling to try to stop them from taking her niece, but it was too late; they had all disappeared, leaving Zuikaku alone with her wound.
Once they had gone, Zuikaku began to cry. She had failed to protect her niece; she wept uncontrollably and began shouting "Dammit… Dammit… I'm so sorry… John… Shoukaku… I'm so sorry!" Zuikaku believed that she had failed her former commander and sister and that she had failed to protect their daughter. If there was an afterlife, she believed the pair of them would be cursing her for failing to protect their little girl. Zuikaku kept weeping for an unknown amount of time. All she hoped now was that any Siren would come along and put her out of her misery.
A light then appeared in front of Zuikaku, and this caused her to stop weeping. "That's the same light from earlier! The one that those Sirens walked into!" Realizing this, Zuikaku still knew she had a chance to rescue her niece; all hope wasn't lost. "I have to save her! I will save her! I promised them I would do whatever it took! I will not let them down! I won't let Tsubaki down!" With every ounce of willpower she had, Zuikaku crawled towards the light, even though the pain was agonizing; she powered through. "I'm coming, Tsubaki! I promise you!" Zuikaku finally reached the light, and as soon as she entered, her vision began to distort.
Old memories began flashing before her eyes, causing the world to spin around her; she felt herself beginning to change. It was all too much for Zuikaku, and she began to feel like she was about to pass out - either from her wound or what was happening now. The last thing on her mind as she blacked out was finding and saving her niece. She would do whatever it took, even if it meant her losing her life...
