Kongō's hands played lazily across the tiles of her piano, mimicking a melody she had heard somewhere.

There was admittedly not much to do here below the sea, it might even become boring given enough time, but right now it was nice.

She looked down at her shoulder when the head placed there jolted and tired eyes blinked open: "Good morning."

Zeitwächter made a sound that might as well could have come from a surprised cat – on the other hand, maybe it was Churchgrim, laying on her and looking exactly as half-dead.

The battleship gazed around blearily: "...Did I leave my drawing things here?"

When she had fallen asleep, sketchbook and all in hand, it had begun sliding at some point. Seeing this, Kongō had taken it from her hands and placed it on her other side before it could clatter to the ground – now she handed it over.

Accepting her things again, Zeitwächter opened the book to the last page she was working on and… did nothing.

Kongō looked on with a raised eyebrow, Churchgrim with a cocked head.

Zeitwächter, simultaneously, was having a little crisis: the thing she was working on was supposed to be fanart, if you could call it that, of Kongō – she was not going to draw Kongō with the original right there.

"Uhm… Kon-chama, how about a culinary expedition?"

Kongō's other eyebrow raised, Zeitwächter sweated bullets.


Thanks to powers Zeitwächter would maybe pray to starting today, Kongō actually agreed and so they had headed to Italy because

Italian food is nice

Perfect reason for bothering the Second European Fleet.

Their second-in-command, battleship Betelgeuse, looked ready to tear Zeitwächter apart in a this-shit-again manner: "If you want a "culinary expedition" then I can recommend you perfectly fine restaurants."

"Hahaha, but Ojī-san-"

"Who are you calling an old man!?", she was ignored.

"Surely it would be more welcome by the locals if someone they knew went and visited them to do business?"

Betelgeuse actually lunged forwards and aimed a kick at her legs, which Zeitwächter avoided with an undignified squeak and hiding spot behind Kongō: "You just don't want to talk to people!"

"People are scary!"

"I will show you-"

"Sister."

Zeitwächter had to actively suppress a "no actual sisters call each other "sister" like that", because she got almost thrown into the ocean for that sentence once before.

None the wiser, Betelgeuse's sister Orion held her back with a hand on the elbow and tugged her backwards a few steps: "Don't force the child, let's get them food."

"Are you dumb?", she followed along nonetheless, complaining all the way.

Kongō watched their interaction with a smirk, completely ignoring how Zeitwächter and Churchgrim were cowering behind her.

Said Mental Model sighed: "That was close, lol", then she stood up as if nothing had ever happened and made a hand-heart towards Orion, "I love dad."

"Why is she your dad?"

"Because I'm a bitch."

Sure, whatever.

The actual explanation was most likely that Vanisher called everyone "kid" and "child" – which, looking at her age, was fair – and Orion's unfortunate habit of adopting strays.

She most likely just lost in the roulette of who gets which title.

"Kon-chama, do you have a favourite food~?"

"No."

"Then we'll find yours, everyone has a favourite food after all."

"What's yours?"

Zeitwächter had suddenly never eaten anything in her life ever.

That's what I thought.

About half an hour later, Orion and Betelgeuse returned with enough food for a whole fleet.

Kongō and Zeitwächter looked equally doubtful of what they were planning on.

"Don't stare", Betelgeuse dumped a good amount into Zeitwächter's arms and a considerably smaller amount into Kongō's, "Orion wants to feed the Science Department."

"They deserve it", and just when you could think that Zeitwächter jumped to their defence without any motives of her own, she continued, "besides, everything they don't eat can be eaten by us."

Orion truly looked at her like a dad while her sister rolled her eyes and began leading the way: "Move it, star child."

"I am", Orion said, falling in step with their two guests to finally, adequately, greet them, "Flagship Kongō, it's an honour to welcome you here."

"Thank you", Kongō smirked at the stroke of her ego.

"Hey, Dad, why don't I get a greeting?", Zeitwächter pouted.

"I would hug you if you liked that."

"It's not like you like hugging either…"

The other smiled at her: "Are you two travelling together?"

She beamed: "We are! Look at my dream come true!"

"Your dream come true?", Kongō repeated doubtfully.

Betelgeuse let out a "oh my God" under her breath.

Zeitwächter was about to launch into a full fawning tsunami when the grey haired battleship leading them loudly proclaimed: "We've arrived! Get your food!"

While Zeitwächter shot a dark glare, the members of the Science Department came trotting in, all of them Mental Models.

"Where's SW1?"

Vanitas, a destroyer with long, blue hair, bound out of the way in three braids, looked around once: "Still working on her project."

Betelgeuse rolled her eyes, snatched a container and vanished down the floor.

The blue-haired girl motioned for Kongō and Zeitwächter to sit down with them, pouring both a glass of soda.

They accepted and said their thanks, beginning to dig into their food while listening to the Science Department's chatter.

Eventually, Vanitas began addressing Kongō, pointing a fork at her food: "Is it good?"

Kongō needed a moment to swallow: "It is."

"Good", she nodded with a smile, then pointed at Zeitwächter, "Zeitwächter, sit with a straight back."

Said battleship, who was bowed over the table and just about to put the next portion of food into her mouth, made a confused face which then shifted into a glare: "Are you shitting me? Do you know how low this table is?"

She was two whole metres tall, ok? That was a lot compared to all of those tiny gnomes!

Vanitas kept looking, Zeitwächter kept staring back.

This went on for a while, before Churchgrim finally stole a tortelloni from the destroyer's plate, thus making her break the staring contest to turn after her food: "CHURCH! NO-! Ah, there it goes…"

Churchgrim looked really really happy with himself and licked his snout before returning to his place under the table, earning some extra pets.

Now in high spirits again, Zeitwächter ate a noodle, stuck her tongue out at Vanitas and asked Kongō: "So, Kon-chama, how is your first food experience?"

"It's not my first."

She had also already said that it was good.

"Oh?", the other blinked, "what was your first?"

Kongō thought back on a certain beach and a certain green bell pepper: "...Doesn't matter, it wasn't good."

"Why not?"

"Bitter", she grimaced; it was as if she had the taste on her tongue again.

"Many plants use bitter substances to deter predators", Vanitas informed, "I can imagine that those do not taste well."

"Well, I won't be one of them."

"But I will", Zeitwächter made an expression as if ready to face an entire army on her own.

"...Are you protecting me from a plant?"

"Ee", she agreed without a trace of hesitation.

Kongō rolled her eyes: "Eat your food."

The battleship did for a while, then remembered something: "Ah, Vanitas, what was SW2 doing here?"

"She was visiting her sister and Betelgeuse."

More like visiting Betelgeuse and coincidentally also meeting SW1.

It wasn't like they had a bad relationship, it was more like they didn't have a personal one at all: they knew each other, respected each other and worked together, but that was it.

(Hell, Zeitwächter had had more of a relationship with the spider in her room before the dog had eaten it.)

"She returned back to Queenie, then?"

Vanitas nodded.

"I wonder what she was doing…", Zeitwächter said, thoughts apparently drifting off.

Even though her words could be seen as a repetition of her earlier ones, this time they seemed to hold deeper meaning.

Kongō noticed that, Orion noticed it as well, looked on for a while and then decided to open a different topic: "Do you miss the fleet?"

"No."

She wasn't sure if she should believe that – Zeitwächter liked to be alone, Zeitwächter also liked to lie about her feelings because she couldn't be bothered.

"Are you lonely?", Belladonna, a light cruiser with an ever-frozen smile said.

(Saying "asked" felt wrong, as Belladonna's voice never got higher or deeper, soft tune never changing its personal kind of monotone.)

"I don't get lonely. I'm the Demon of the Fog, after all."

Since the ship now known as Zeitwächter was unknown to the Fleet of Fog and also didn't register as Fatum anymore, they had adopted the way the Fleet of Masks had been referring to her and only changed it to Akuma after units had actually encountered her and managed to get a read on her – as with many things that stuck around for a while, the title stuck.

Vanitas, who was researching why some ships apparently weren't capable of feeling certain emotions even though their emulator proved to be in working order, activated her Energy Life Rings and used them to jot something down.

The lunch – I mean, the culinary expedition – ended up lasting about three hours and sapped all of Zeitwächter's social energy.