Chapter 19

Contrary to popular belief, 'Kansen' was not a Sakuran loan word, though that was how the Sakura Empire called its 'shipgirls' simply due to coincidence. The official name by scientists around Ruby's old world called them "Kinetics Artifactual Navy-Self-regulative En-lore Nodes", otherwise abbreviated as KAN-SEN. Of course, even the scientists themselves realised that calling them by their full names was a fool's errand, so the abbreviation was quickly adopted by all parties, except for the Sakura Empire for the reasons mentioned above.

True to description, though Kansen looked, sounded and even ate like regular human females, they were anything but. They did not age, change appearance or get 'hurt' in the same way as humans did, they, who were born from warships, were in many ways, closer to them than their appearance ever suggested. Some in the old Ironblood science ministries simply said that they were nothing but extremely advanced AI, only made possible due to advances in Wisdom Cube manipulation, while others, primarily in the Navy who were much more conservative, went with a more supernatural approach.

Wisdom cubes were the miracles of their world, neither science nor faith in their gods could explain their properties with any accurate degree the last she remembered. Óðinn the all-father certainly never mentioned their existence, nor was it ever in the texts about the Æsir or Vanir. Perhaps it was a question only left for those already in Valhalla, who could speak to the all-father directly and ask for his wisdom on the matter.

However that still left two big questions which didn't add up. If the more scientifically accepted version of events were true, then how could Kansen such as Valéan and others exist? Mass-produced ships in her world did not have such 'spirits', instead relying on computing power to control their functions, yet she could feel that the old battleship in Vale was just like her. Any materialisation of a ship had to be done through Wisdom Cubes, there was no other way possible. It was an inherent contradiction in what she knew about Kansen, which was far more than what the public of her world should have known.

Then, there was herself. She had grown, changed, and even had gotten sick once from human diseases, a cold, which should not have been possible for her. And yet, as the fight with Winter Schnee had shown, she was not entirely human either, something in between? A hybrid between Kansen and humans?

"Um, excuse m-me?"

Ruby peeled her eyes away from the waves calmly swishing themselves on the beach in front of her. Though it was night, the clear sky meant that the moonlight was enough for her to see everything around her clearly. A frazzled and distraught-looking Anikanov was the one who had approached her, she had ditched the gaudy-looking officer's cap by then.

"H-hey, I don't know how you're so calm about this, but shouldn't you be stopping them?"

Ruby looked past her, and at Torchwick arguing with the Malachite twins next to their partially submerged stolen dropship on the beach.

"You're the asshole who said I know the route! Look where we are now, crashed on an island in the middle of Oum-knows where-"

"I WAS EVADING ATLESIAN CRUISERS! YOU CAN'T REALLY EXPECT ME TO HAVE KEPT AN EYE ON OUR FUEL RESERVES RIGHT?! HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THEY DIDN'T FILL IT UP COMPLETELY?! I BARELY KNEW HOW TO FLY THE DAMN THING!"

"Yeah sure, whatever. We're eating you first by the way, they don't have much food on the dropship. Do you want us to make it quick or slow and steady?"

"Oh no, don't you even dare think about it-"

Right, their escape. Which resulted in them crash-landing on an island somewhere approximately south of Forever Fall, and by the look of it, quite the distance away from Vale. Ruby knew where they probably were, she had seen similar stars above her when she took Vale-bound smuggling routes from Vacuo before, meaning that they had landed in one of the many island chains which dotted those lanes. Similar to the Mediterranean Sea in her old world, a popular tourist destination as well for wealthy Valeans as well. She remembered meeting a cruise liner during a family vacation also around the area, very different from meeting a cargo ship or retired military vessel.

"I'll let them continue for a while longer. Apologies for threatening you back there."

Torchwick wanted to elicit a response from Anikanov to make his threat credible, Ruby followed along reluctantly in the best way she knew, summoning Schwartz. Though they didn't escape because of that, no, using the Ensign was just to buy more time for a desperate situation, their real saviour was due to…

"It's…fine…so uh, I'm guessing you're just going to summon planes to pick us up, right? Right?"

Ruby sighed at her. Despite explaining to everyone for what felt like the 100th time that she was not the one who 'summoned' those dive bombers, her words were still treated with a giant scoop of salt. Sure, just because she had a 'summoning' semblance, that meant she also summoned an entire squadron of Eagle Union dive bombers. Yes, she knew they were Eagle Union dive bombers because of their roundels, no other aircraft on Remnant had anything vaguely star-shaped for theirs.

As they were leaving Forever Fall airspace, she had also received a ping back on her radar which wasn't of the Edelweiss. No, it was definitely from another Kansen, presumably on the Atlesian craft itself. But who could it have been? Unlike her Sakura Empire allies, she was not all that familiar with the Eagle Union Kansen, her primary opponents aside from the Sirens were the Royal Navy and Iris Libre, leading her to draw a blank on whoever that mystery Kansen was. Eagle Union for sure, but they had so many damn Aircraft Carriers that there were literally dozens of options to choose from.

From light carriers to fleet carriers, it could have even been the legendary Grey Ghost herself. And depending on what the other Kansen remembered, could also potentially be hostile towards her. Azur Lane and Crimson Axis were not on the best of terms exactly the last she remembered, with wounds in particular still going strong despite their tenuous alliance. Did she perhaps mistake her as a friendly Battleship? If so, it would have at least explained why she chose to help a Kansen from the Crimson Axis, even if it was not intentional.

Still, weirder coincidences had happened before, and now she knew that her existence was not unique, there were others, not necessarily friendly maybe, but others in a similar situation. Regardless, however, she could speculate and seek them out later, right now, they had to get off this deserted island.

Making sure that every option was exhausted, Ruby turned to Anikanov with a question. "Is the radio truly not in operation? Are there no other options available?"

Her response was expected, Anikanov shook her head. "If it worked, I would have tried it already. I want to get off this island too, no offence, but I would prefer my youth being spent within civilization, not stranded on some tropical island surrounded by terr-criminals."

Ruby did not take offence at almost being called a terrorist again. To be completely fair, being seen at a White Fang operation was going to create all sorts of assumptions, one that she made sure Anikanov knew were false. With Schwarz behind her when doing it obviously.

However, the Malachite Twins looked as if they were about to skewer Roman and roast him over a fire. As much as she would have liked to see it happen, it wasn't strictly his fault, some of it did lie in herself as well. Though not much, since Torchwick was the one who got her under Beacon's radar in the first place, so in the end, it was still mostly his fault. Getting up, Ruby stretched her legs, the impact from their somewhat hard landing gone by now.

"What are you doing?"

"Like you said, getting us back to civilization." Ruby calmly walked to the edges of the beach, stopping just before the waves touched her boots. By then, the arguing criminals had stopped their bickering and began looking at her.

"Uh, Red, you okay there…?"

Neo had gotten off from sitting on the dropship's wings, moving closer to Ruby with some concern in her eyes. This really was the worst case scenario, wasn't it? She had heard stories of early planes being less reliable, thus causing them to fall from the sky mid-journey, with the surviving passengers washed up on an abandoned desert island. To a Kansen, the solution was simple, simply sail away. However, now she had others with her, and she was not so cold-hearted as to simply leave them there, no matter how much of a threat to her identity it may be. Kansen were created first and foremost for humanity's protection, it was now time to make good on that oath.

With one leg out above the water, Schwarz had been summoned, her rigging out in full display for everyone to see. Unlike her previous partial summons, this time it was the full package, scythe and metal spider-like appendages sticking out from under her coat as well. Anikanov was taken aback by the sudden additions, and she could hear the gasps from the Malachite twins as well. She looked as demonic as Ulrich Von Hutten was, Ironblood ships were not as endearing to the public as Sakura Empire or Eagle Union ships were after all.

"...commencing deployment."

She jumped, having to get far enough from the beach to have some amount of depth beneath her feet. Like regular ships, Kansen in rigging form could also get 'beached' due to a lack of depth when coming ashore, thus the act of jumping for distance was a necessary and standard procedure for any beach deployments. Ruby ignored the cries behind her as she made for the open waters, she first had to get far enough, and more importantly, find an area with a deep enough depth to handle her hull.

"Did she just ditch us?" Anikanov asked none in particular, seeing the form of who she thought was just a regular girl three days ago take off like she was ice-skating on water. No, after a couple of blinks, she confirmed that Ruby Rose, or at least someone who was introduced to her as Ruby Rose, was literally skating on top of the water. Upon further examination, she wasn't hovering above it like a hovercraft, no, it was more like she was actually sailing on it, bobbing up and down according to the waves as well.

"Okay, her being a smuggler makes a lot more sense now…" One of the colorful twins who she was unfortunately the hostage of commented from the side, and Anikanov could begin to see a lot of the things said about Hutten in the report make sense.

"She's coming back for us though, right? Neo? You two? C'mon, you know her a lot better than I do, please tell me she isn't just leaving us here…" Roman said the thought she was keeping to herself, was she leaving them to go get help? It made sense, though she may have been able to sail on literal water because of what she assumed was her very versatile semblance, carrying the five of them was probably not going to pan out-

"Wait, weren't those battleship guns on her scythe…?" She did notice those things pretty easily. Despite the metal-grimm-looking face that was on it, she noticed the very out-of-place miniature main batteries on top of her weapon pretty easily. Mecha-shift weapons included all manner of firearms in their designs sure, but an actual turret? An oversized one as well? Before she could get another word in, however, she was suddenly blinded by a bright, blue searing light.

"What in the?!"

Despite covering her eyes however, she could not see much else, with the darkness around them amplifying the blinding lights much more than in daytime. It came from the direction where Ruby had sailed off to, roughly half a kilometre out from where their island was. As it died down however, Anikanov immediately noticed her shoes getting wet, looking down, she was no longer standing on dry sand, but rather, her Atlesian standard-issue dress shoes were submerged under seawater. The entire beach was suddenly rushed by a large wave, though no higher than their ankles, it made her look up from covering her eyes.

She choked immediately, a result of reflex upon seeing something familiar, yet impossible in reality. Anikanov stared at a Battleship, the same one from the briefing she received on 'Hutten', same superstructure, same general shape, same number of main batteries…

Like a ghost ship that had come out of nowhere, its steel grey hull reflected in the moonlight, illuminating it like a phantom under the moon. It was surreal and terrifying to see, and yet, she could not deny a certain phantasmal influence at what she saw. Beauty in terrifying might, as she would have described Atlas's old robotic projects, such as the one protecting Argus.

For a while, everyone on the beach was too stunned to speak, their gazes remained locked at the Battleship appearing out of nowhere. An odd thought came to her then, about Atlas hearing about an entire battleship appearing out of thin air, and how they would stop at nothing to acquire such a technology. It soon passed, as the battleship flipped on a searchlight, illuminating the beach entirely in another searing brightness.

A few minutes later, in the long moments between wondering if it would open fire or not, she heard the sounds of a small motorboat approaching them. It was a sound she heard quite often, as Naval yards no matter for Airships or for Seafaring vessels still used them for many purposes. Squinting her eyes, she saw that it was a small tender boat, used primarily for ferrying things and people from shore to ship if needed. In Great War era ships, all ships to a certain size carried them, virtually non-existent in Airships now however.

In hindsight later, Anikanov should not have been surprised at the person who was on the tender. It was Ruby, missing her scythe and familiar, but standing in front of the tender without anyone piloting the motor at its back. Gently beaching itself on the sand in front of them, she hopped off the tender, and gave everyone there a stern, cold look.

"I have terms if you want to sail on my hull. Accept, and I will take you back to Vale, do not, and I will leave you here."

Her tone left no room for disagreements, not that there was ever going to be any with her words backed up by naval artillery.

"Good."

Ruby took a few bags out of the tender, and threw them onto the beach.

"These are inflatable balloons, I'm taking the dropship with me."

Just then, Anikanov realised that if she ever got out of this alive, she was going to have to explain to Specialist Schnee where the prototype dropship went…

AN:

I'm looking for a beta reader! For either this fic or my other fics in general, if you are interested please shoot a DM over to me on FF net with a short 150 word paragraph explaining what genres you like to read and any relevant writing/reading experience you may have.

One of the things that no one told me about being a Fanfic writer was that you will get weird-ass DMs. So much so that it almost made me delete my FF net profile this past weekend just to not have the possibility of that anymore. However, my rational mind won out, and I kept myself from doing anything drastic like that. Though if AO3 ever implements a DM system you bet those thoughts are going to resurface. FFnet users are…very interesting people, though I'm not sure if that's because of the anonymity DMing has over AO3's public comments.

Anyways, shorter chapter this time, I don't have a lot of juice in my for this story right now, replaying Cyberpunk 2077 after 2.11 came out. On another note, playing that new raising TB mode for Azur Lane has told me that I'd be a terrible parent, so any plans of having children of my own are currently dashed. The next chapter will be a road trip one, or in this case, a sailing trip as they make their way back to Vale.

The next update should be A Man Like Him…Is a Teacher?!, if I can find the energy to write the damn thing. I've calculated that I probably average around 20k words per month across all my stories, with some outliers obviously. Do I want to get those numbers up? Not really, it's just a hobby for me, not my living, so here's another reminder that telling me to hurry up will do the opposite effect of whatever the intention was. Been getting a few of those lately again, so here's a gentle reminder not to do that. Many a fanfic author have left writing that way, some forever.

Be civil in the comments below.