Kongō hurt everywhere.

The places that had been pierced by her own blades she could mute herself to – she was a warship, after all – but her Union Core? It hurt, it hurt so terribly and she couldn't silence it.

Yet, she had followed the Blue Fleet to Hawaii, where they now rested in order to repair themselves with the help of this bay's nanomaterial potent water, the natural formation protecting them from curious eyes and potential enemies.

Iona and Kongō used the time to gaze across the sea in silence, a bit away from the others, enjoying the view of the glittering waves and the occasional glimpse of a fish.

It was rare that both had the chance to do so consciously and enjoy it – however, as with all good things, their respite should end soon enough.

"Gunzō Chihaya, an unknown contact entered the detection range", Haruna called to the captain. She, Makie and Kirishima were closest to the shore and had thus realized the newcomer first.

"An unknown contact?", he walked a few steps in their direction, "a Fog ship?"

Haruna stared forwards, focused: "...Affirmative. Battleship without known class, identifies as Akuma."

That did stun the man a bit.

"An unknown class… is that even possible?", asked Kyōhei.

He thought they had just gotten over the worst possible event with that whole berserk Kongō thing and now there was someone new!?

Hyūga entered the conversation as well: "Normally not, but if it's one of the ships I'm assuming, then it wouldn't surprise me."

"You don't think it's her!?", Kirishima called, a trace of panic in her voice as she and her sister backed up, Makie behind them, looking confusedly at them both.

"I think that's quite possible~", she was clearly amused, but there was also underlying tension in her that she tried to overplay.

Iori was standing with her human friends. Even given their current status, she doubted that they all couldn't escape.

After all, they had six mental models with them, four of which were fast battleships; she was sure that they could manage something similar to what they had done at Iwo Jima.

She wasn't the only one looking at the Mental Models in consideration, though, because Gunzō did so as well.

However, he viewed the situation as a bit more dire:

All the Mental Models had either backed up, straightened noticeably or stared out at the sea as if awaiting a storm – he feared that one was indeed brewing and that they wouldn't be able to get through it unscathed.

With the current status of the only two available vessels and the fact that everyone was more than exhausted, then, if the Akuma turned out to be an enemy, it really didn't look good.

We can't survive all this just to fail here!

"Iona!", he called, the submarine immediately making way towards him, "can you contact her?"

"I'll try", she didn't even think about it, "but I don't know if I can."

"That's alright", he smiled at her.

Iona nodded and reached out to the battleship, slightly surprised when her request was answered with "I was wondering when you would contact me" before she found herself in the white pavilion, seated on one of the chairs, on the other a dark-skinned Mental Model.

The contrast to how the pavilion had looked the last time she had been here to now was so big, it almost gave her whiplash.

She stopped looking at her surroundings, focusing on what must be the Akuma's Mental Model, who had been looking around too, eyebrows slightly raised at the flowers and green grass.

"...I like what you did to the place", she said critically, "I hope you don't mind the new decoration", she pointed up above them, where a striped green plant sat in a dangling pot.

Akuma had a large black dog lying underneath her chair but didn't pay it any mind and instead took a sip of tea: "They call you Iona, right? That's a nice name, do you know where it comes from?"

"I don't", the submarine shook her head, "Akuma, why are you here?"

"I'm on a mission, so to say."

"A mission from the Fog?", Takao had joined the conversation, "then you're wrong here."

"Not from the Fog, what in that fleet should interest me now?", Akuma traced her fingers idly around the cup's rim, "a mission from our flagship – don't tell me the news of our defection didn't reach you yet?"

Of course it had reached them, how could it not? The fleet had been in distress an entire month afterwards until the High Flagships had agreed on new territorial borders with the "Fleet of Masks" High Flagship Vanisher.

"They've reached us", Takao crossed her arms.

"Good. Vanisher send me to check up on you guys."

"Check up on us?", asked Iona.

"You're carrying the Vibration Warhead with you, are you not? Vanisher decided that it would be better to be friends rather than fight needlessly, so I'm here."

The two other Mental Models shared a look.

"I will ask Gunzō."

"That your captain? Thanks."