The sounds of Tsubaki snoring were the only noises throughout the room. Currently, the half-KANSEN was resting her head on the lap of Shoukaku META. The young girl had cried herself to sleep when she had reunited with whom she thought was her mother. The META crane was simply enjoying the fact that her daughter was with her once again. The humans that had taken her once before would never get another opportunity to do so again, Tsubaki would stay here. Here, the half-KANSEN would be safe from those who wanted to harm her. The META had so much that she wanted to speak about with Tsubaki, but that could wait for now. The young girl needed her rest, by the looks of it, Tsubaki hadn't had a peaceful sleep in a very long time.
As the young girl was sleeping, Shoukaku META began to remember when her daughter had been cruelly ripped away from her by the humans, the humans that she had sworn to protect from their enemies known as the Sirens. "I can never forgive, I can never forget. They will pay...they will all pay!" Is what the META was thinking to herself as the memories of that horrific day came flooding back to the crane. Shoukaku META could never forgive the humans for their betrayal. To her, humans were nothing more than a cancer on existence. They knew nothing more than destruction. The META remembered what had happened in the great war and how the different groups viciously teared each other apart. Humans didn't care who they hurt so long as they came out victorious, and they were more than willing to use violence and betrayal to achieve victory. Losing Tsubaki was the ultimate proof of that...
Standing at the edge of the dock were John and Shoukaku. They were waiting for the admiralty to arrive to inform them of their victory. The Azur Lane had defeated the Sirens, the last stronghold of those monsters had fallen a few days ago. Humanity was now free of the Sirens and the death and destruction they brought with them. Shoukaku couldn't wait to inform the admiralty alongside John. While this meant herself and her fellow KANSEN were no longer needed to fight, it meant they could all look forward to living normal lives. The white-crane herself was definitely looking forward to a life of peace alongside her husband and daughter. This thought put a huge smile on the cranes face. John turned to look at his wife and could see her smiling, "What's gotten you so happy, Shoukaku?" the man asked the smiling KANSEN. "Oh, I'm just looking forward to the peace we will have. No more fighting, no more destruction. Just you, me, and Tsubaki, living normal lives. I couldn't ask for more John." The crane told her husband she was looking forward to the peaceful future they would get to share together with their daughter.
John was also looking forward to that future, not just for him and his family but for every KANSEN who had fought alongside him. He could never thank them enough for all they had done. The very least the shipgirls had earned was peaceful and prosperous futures for themselves. Even though the Azur Lane was more than likely going to be disbanded now the Sirens were gone. The KANSEN he had served with would always be family to him. If they ever needed help in the future, the man promised he would do everything in his power to help them.
The pair were brought out of their thought when they could begin to see many ships in the distance, "Wow! That's a lot of ships the admiralty has brought along for this. Did they really need to bring this many here? Something about this seems strange." John was confused about why so many warships were approaching the Azur Lane. In his mind, he only expected a couple to come with only the most highest ranked officers on board, not an entire fleet. This was only a briefing on what happened to the last Siren stronghold. Something didn't feel right to John. Shoukaku as well was confused, like John she didn't expect an entire fleet of warships to be heading towards the Azur Lane. However, why so many warships were here soon became apparent. Before either the man or the KANSEN could realise what was happening, the guns on many of the warships began firing in the Azur Lanes direction. John and Shoukaku could see the incoming fire and ducked down to avoid being hit. Several explosions were heard as shells from the warships began pounding the Azur Lane.
"What the?! What's going on?! Why are they attacking us?!" Neither John nor Shoukaku could understand why the Azur Lane was under attack. Some of the KANSEN realised they were being attacked and began to return fire from their positions. The Azur Lane had become a war zone in a matter of moments, Shoukaku and John knew they had to find Tsubaki and Zuikaku, and fast. The pair began running as fast as they could to look for the others, more shells were bombarding the Azur Lane and John and Shoukaku nearly got hit on several occasions as they tried looking for Tsubaki and Zuikaku. The pair frantically searched for Tsubaki and Zuikaku, but it was difficult to locate them through all of the carnage. More shells were being fired, and the sounds of aircraft were heard above the base. Jet fighters were now also firing from above. The admiralty was showing the KANSEN of the Azur Lane no mercy.
John was then hit, a round from a jet fighter pierced right through him and nearly tore the man in half. Shoukaku could see the huge blood spatter, and some of her husband's blood landed right on the face of the white-crane. Shoukaku was in shock and horror seeing her husband killed right in front of her eyes. The white-crane was paralysed. She couldn't register the fact that John had just been slain. All Shoukaku could hear was white noise. The sounds of fighting all around her had been silenced. All Shoukaku could do was look at her dead husband. Blood began to pool around his body. The white-crane didn't know how long she stood in the same spot for. The shock had caused her to nearly break down. Eventually, Zuikaku came into her view. Her sister looked hurt and was trying to say something to her, but Shoukaku couldn't register what Zuikaku was trying to say. Zuikaku began shaking her sister, which caused Shoukaku to break out of her shock, "Shoukaku! Take Tsubaki and go! Get out of here! Now!" Zuikaku shouted at her older sister. At the mention of her daughters name, the white-crane tried looking around for the half-KANSEN, Tsubaki was hiding behind her sister legs. Tsubaki thankfully didn't look hurt, Shoukaku theorised that her sister must have gotten hurt protecting her daughter.
The white-crane, however, realised she didn't have time to ask questions. She grabbed Tsubaki's hand and began to run. She had to get away from here before her daughter was killed. The pair ran as fast as the little girls legs could go. They didn't know where to run too. Only that they had to escape this massacre. The pair carried on running until an object landed in front of Shoukaku as they reached the corner of a building, "That's a grenade! It's going to blow!" The white-crane could see the pin in the grenade had been pulled and was about to explode. Tsubaki was right behind her, and the resulting explosion would certainly kill the half-KANSEN. Without thinking Shoukaku used her body to shield Tsubaki from the blast, the KANSEN only managed to half turn before the grenade went off.
The explosion sent Shoukaku and Tsubaki flying several feet, the left arm of the white-crane had been severely mangled, and the left side of her face had suffered burns from the explosion. Shoukaku was barely conscious, but she couldn't stand. Thankfully, Tsubaki had only suffered scrapes from her landing. The little girl was still able to get to her feet.When Tsubaki was on her feet, she ran on over to the injured Shoukaku and tried to help her to feet. Shoukaku, however, noticed several men in black armour had just appeared in the area. Several other KANSEN were lying injured in the area, and the men were going around executing the shipgirls. Shoukaku then pushed her daughter away, "Tsubaki! you have to run! You have to get away from here!" She shouted at her daughter.The little girl however wasn't going to leave the injured crane, "No Mama! I'm not leaving you!" The half-KANSEN defiantly shouted back. Seeing the men getting closer, Shoukaku was much more firm the second time, "Tsubaki! I'm telling you to run! Don't worry about me! Just run! Run and don't look back!" Shoukaku told her daughter to run again. The little girl however wasn't listening, "No Mama! I'm not leaving without you!" Tsubaki kept trying to get the injured white-crane vertical, but it was no use. No matter how much she pushed and pulled, she couldn't help Shoukaku to her feet. The difference in size between them was too much, and Shoukaku's injuries were too grave.
After the last KANSEN was executed, the men in black armour noticed a little girl pulling and pushing an injured woman in a white kimono. They knew the injured woman was a KANSEN. Knowing their mission, the men began walking over to the pair to destroy the shipgirl and find out who the little girl was and why she was here. Shoukaku saw all the men coming and pushed Tsubaki away in a final attempt to get her to flee, but like before, the half-KANSEN wasn't going to leave her. Tsubaki then noticed the men coming in her and her mother's direction and boldly stood in front of Shoukaku to protect her from them. The men could see the little girl trying to protect the KANSEN, "Who are you, girl? Why are you protecting this woman?" One of the men asked Tsubaki who she was and why she was trying to protect Shoukaku.
"Go away! I won't let you hurt Mama!" the little girl shouted at the men in front of her. The men seemed surprised that this girl in front of them called the injured KANSEN behind her Mama. This only meant one thing to them, this girl was a half-KANSEN. She needed to be destroyed. Despite feeling guilty about what they were about to do, the men remembered their mission. All KANSEN needed to be destroyed, including this little girl. If they didn't destroy all shipgirls today, their loved ones would be destroyed by them in the future. The KANSEN had become too powerful, and they would turn on humanity.
One of the men raised his weapon and pointed it at Tsubaki, Shoukaku saw this and screamed louder than she had ever done before and was telling Tsubaki to run. The white-crane knew what was about to happen. The half-KANSEN however wasn't going to run. She stood firm to protect her mother. A gunshot went off, and in that moment, Tsubaki fell to the floor. "Ma...ma." the little girl said when she hit the ground, the half-KANSEN was looking at her mother, and Shoukaku could see her daughters life slipping away from her. The white-crane used what little strength she had left and crawled towards her dying daughter. "It's okay, Tsubaki, you will be fine. Just keep looking at me sweetheart...you will be fine." Shoukaku was delirious as she said this to Tsubaki. Her emotions were everywhere.
The white-crane kept saying this to Tsubaki as if it were a religious mantra. She kept saying this over and over again to comfort the dying girl. In the end, the light in Tsubaki's eyes faded out, she stopped breathing. The half-KANSEN was dead, her daughter was no more. Shoukaku went into shock again. She tried to wake up her daughter, but no matter what she did, Tsubaki was never going to wake up again. The white-cranes shock then turned to anger. In her rage, the heavily injured Shoukaku tried summoning her planes. She wanted to kill these men for what they had done. Before the KANSEN could summon her planes, the men in black armour shot the white-crane several times. The white-crane felt the pain of the bullets piercing her skin and bone. The pain and loss of blood was causing Shoukaku to lose consciousness.
Shoukaku looked towards the men in black armour who were walking away from their heinous crime with incredible hatred. She wanted to avenge her daughter, but she was losing her consciousness and could feel her own life slipping away. Her vision was fading to black, she tried to stay awake. In the end, the white-crane couldn't stay awake. Before she lost consciousness, Shoukaku cursed the men who killed her daughter...
When Shoukaku woke up the white-crane found herself on a table, looking around she could see she was in a Siren facility. The KANSEN recognised the architecture, "What am I doing here? How did I get here?" Shoukaku tried to remember what happened that caused her to end up here. The memories of what happened quickly flooded Shoukaku, she remembered seeing both John and Tsubaki die at the hands of humans. Humans that she had sworn to protect from the Sirens. They had betrayed her and the Azur Lane, everyone who she loved was dead. Shoukaku felt immeasurable anger at the humans betrayal, she wanted revenge and was willing to do anything to get it.
"I see you are awake." A voice broke the white-crane out of her dark thoughts. Looking at the direction of the voice, the KANSEN could see a blue skinned Siren standing there. "Who are you? And what do you want with me?" The white-crane asked in a hostile tone. "You can call me Predator, KANSEN. I think you know what I am. No need to be hostile, I am not your enemy." Predator told Shoukaku. The KANSEN wasn't convinced, the Sirens had been her enemy for years, she wasn't going to simply trust one now. A brief silence occurred between the two before Predator started speaking again, "I know what happened to you, KANSEN. I know the humans betrayed you. They took everything from you. I brought you here to propose an alliance. What the humans did to you, you deserve revenge. Join me, KANSEN. Join me, and you can get the revenge you deserve. I can even bring back the child you have lost." Predator explained what she wanted. She wanted Shoukaku to join her and promised to bring her dead daughter back.
Shoukaku didn't want to ally herself with her enemy. The humans, however, had taken her loved ones from her and destroyed her life. She wanted revenge, but more importantly, Shoukaku wanted her little girl back. If Predator was willing to do that, then she had no problem joining her. Humans had become her enemy now. The white-crane was going to make them suffer many times over for what they had done. "As long as you keep your promise, and bring Tsubaki back. I agree." Shoukaku told the Siren that as long she could bring Tsubaki back, she would join her. Predator smiled at this. The Siren now had a powerful ally to join her in destroying humanity. Predator knew of a timeline that another Tsubaki was in and would send the weaker Sirens to get her in the future. For now, her first goal was repairing the injured KANSEN and finding other shipgirls to join her cause.
From there on, Shoukaku and Predator travelled to other timelines and found other KANSEN who had also been betrayed to join their cause. Shoukaku had become a META during this time. Her strength and abilities improved to terrifying levels. The other shipgirls who joined them also became META's. They brought untold death and destruction to every timeline they travelled to. Shoukaku was incredibly merciless. She killed every human she could find. Man, Woman, or child, it didn't matter to the now META crane. She was intent on wiping out humanity from existence. Her heart had turned very black.
Now that Shoukaku META had her daughter back she now had another mission. It was to protect Tsubaki at all costs. The humans weren't going to take her away from her again. Shoukaku META was going to make sure that could happen, if humans were gone they could never hurt again. Nobody was going to stop her, friend or foe. Whoever tried to stop her would see how black her heart had become...