Before any of them could realize what was happening, the sight of the sea invaded their eyes once again. The sensation of falling took over their bodies, and they landed on the water, gasping for air and looking around in disbelief.
"Watch it!"
One of the Drone-types attempted to attack the bemused shipgirls, but it was swiftly disposed of by Leviathan, who threw his chain blade and stabbed it midair before it could cause any harm.
The shipboy recalled his weapon and threw the body away before skimming over the recovering group of Kansen. He approached Hermione and helped her up.
"Lord Leviathan, what happened? We were…" the maid trailed off, trying to get her bearings.
They were back with the vanguard. Around them, the Drone-types were still flying about, although their numbers had been thinned out significantly by Richelieu and the rest of their comrades, who were still fighting them openly.
Above them, the remaining Hive-types and the Pilots were still hovering menacingly, raining down gunfire on their comrades or pouring out drones. This time, though, they could see a faint purple glow skipping around amidst their ranks.
"Lord Freedom? When did he get here?" Hermion wondered aloud when she recognized the glow, still a bit shaken. The shipboy was flying around the place, taking down enemy forces with his wings and rigging. What's more, he was moving in coordination with a huge number of Sardinian fighters, which was weird, as the only carriers who had remained behind to support the vanguard were August, Illustrious, and Unicorn. In fact, there were no Sardinian carriers with the fleet at all.
"Just now. I'm glad we were able to make it in time," another male voice answered her. She turned to the side and was surprised to see that Sparviero was with them as well. The shipboy was beaming at her, glad to see them all safe. "Just a bit further, and you would have been too far out of my range to do anything."
Only then did realization hit her. So that's what that weird feeling had been—the sensation of falling that had taken over for a moment, right before Tower shot them. It was Sparviero's doing. Sparviero and Freedom must have gotten here before anyone else thanks to the latter's speed, and the former had used his power to get them all out of trouble, summoning his pocket dimension right beneath them to take them to safety before the worst could happen.
A shiver ran down her spine. If it weren't for him, they'd be dead.
"Where's Emperor?" Leviathan asked her.
She felt as if a bucket of ice-cold water was thrown into her face. The confusion and relief she felt after cheating death had made her forget the most important thing.
"Oh no, Master!" She turned in a flash, skimming through the other shipgirls. Leviathan and Sparviero followed behind her with concern written on their faces until they found Chaser and Emperor.
The blonde carrier had managed to put the shipboy inside her stasis chamber, which was now floating on the surface of the water like a funerary casket, with the man laying still and bloodied inside of it.
Chaser was kneeling beside it. She seemed unresponsive to her surroundings, staring down at the shipboy with a downcast expression on her face.
"Miss Chaser!"
She perked up at Hermione's voice, and her expression lit up at the sight of her and the other shipboys. As the maid knelt beside her, she clung to her, hiding her face in her chest. The tears she had been holding back were finally able to stream down her face.
"I'm sorry, Hermione," she said between sobs. "I did my best, but without a repair ship…"
Hermione hugged her back, patting her head as Leviathan and Sparviero approached the case to check on Emperor. They breathed a sigh of relief as they determined that their brother was going to be fine for the time being. His wounds had stopped bleeding, but the stasis chamber wasn't healing them; it was just keeping them from worsening. They needed to bring him to a repair ship immediately before Chaser exhausted her energy and her power vanished.
"I'll take care of this," Sparviero declared before making the casket disappear into his pocket dimension. "Chaser, let's go; I promise he'll be fine, but you need to stay close."
"A-alright," Chaser sniffled as Hermione helped her up on her feet.
At that moment, a familiar call filled the environment, sending shivers down everyone's spines. They all turned in a flash, directing their gazes into the distance.
Tower's rigging could be seen from afar, roaring its disappointment to the heavens. If it weren't so terrifying, it would almost look like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum, flailing its fins and tails in the air.
When it calmed down, it began inspecting its surroundings, turning its massive snout up and down like a predator sniffing around for prey. Its eyes began flashing and rotating, scanning the environment for the Kansen who had managed to hurt it.
When they finally settled on the fleet of Kansen in the distance, it locked in on them, and with another furious bellow, it bolted.
Richelieu was on the verge of collapsing. Her clothes were torn in multiple places, and cuts and gashes covered her body where the sickles of the Drone-types had reached her skin. Weariness was starting to set in, if her ragged breath and the feeling of her heart pounding in her ears were any indication; she could barely keep her spear upright, and even the barrels on her rigging were straining to align to take aim.
But she had to keep going. She was the flagship, the Cardinal of the Iris Orthodoxy, and she had to set the example, not just for her subordinates but also for the allies of other factions fighting with them.
Turning her gaze toward them, she saw Deutschland and La Gallissonnière panting heavily after repelling another assault. Deutschland's barrels and handgun were fuming like chimneys from overuse, while La Gallissonnière was barely able to lift her battle axe.
Jeanne d'Arc had joined Algérie and the Le Fantasque-class sisters in protecting Lenin, Unicorn, and the ever-increasing number of wounded Kansen that kept joining their ranks.
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were standing back-to-back, rigging pointed in the air to fire at the drones coming at them, while U-556 occasionally came up from under the surface to cover their blind spots.
August Von Parseval and Illustrious were slowly running out of aircraft, so the former had resigned herself to simply let her rigging loose in the air, while the latter was forced to join the back line.
Richelieu grimaced. By now, the orderly formation they had started the fight in had been broken, and everyone was fighting on their own, split into individual groups.
Those who could still hold their own kept fearlessly, but those with more severe injuries had to retreat behind the cover of their comrades.
Everyone was doing their best to keep fighting that single minute longer, but the battle of attrition they were all subjecting themselves to in the open ocean against the swarm was taking its toll on them all. Lenin and Unicorn's intervention had lifted some pressure off their shoulders, but they had been going at it for far too long, and fatigue was starting to get to them.
It wasn't just physical exhaustion; it was also the mental effort it took them to repel the Drone-types constantly coming at them while also having to keep an eye on the Pilots threatening to carpet-bomb the place from above.
Good news was that their defiance had finally started bearing fruit with the arrival of Freedom and Sparviero. The two shipboys had arrived early only because of Freedom's speed. Their presence alone was enough to fill in the spot left by the carriers whom Richelieu had sent to deal with Tower, but even more than that, their presence meant that reinforcements were close. The Azur Lane fleet was on their way, and that knowledge alone was enough to spur them on.
So, Richelieu gritted her teeth, lowered her spear, and thrust, stabbing the drone that was daring enough to attempt a frontal attack after mistaking her for an easy target. The following two that made the same attempt were taken down by a flurry of her own guns, and the additional two that tried to get to her from behind were dealt with by Saint Louis with a couple of swift slashes of her cross spear.
Richelieu waited for the creature impaled on her weapon to stop wiggling before kicking it off the pole. "Merci, Lou," she said to the other woman.
"De rien, Cardinal," Saint Louis replied, lowering her own weapon. The Iris cruiser had been fighting by her side the entire time, using her agility to cover for her shortcomings, but she was much in the same state as her, just like the rest of their comrades around them.
"I know you are tired," Richelieu said. "Hold on just a little longer."
"I follow where you lead, Cardinal. I won't stop until you say the word," Saint Louis responded resolutely.
Richelieu let out a tired but sincere smile, but right as she was about to reply, a flash of light in the corner of her eye, signaling the appearance of Sparviero's pocket dimension, drew her attention.
From the gate, which was a few feet in the air and parallel to the surface of the water, the Kansen she had sent after Tower came out, tumbling down one after the other, rigging and all.
A bunch of questions came to her mind. Why did the shipboy bring them back here? They all seemed to be fine, if a bit dazed. Did he see something with his planes that had required his intervention? And what about Tower?
As if on cue, a loud bellow reached her ears, spreading over the battlefield and making everyone pause in their tracks.
The Drone-types suddenly stopped coming at them and began pulling back, while the Pilots and the remaining Hive-types regained altitude.
Richelieu's blood ran cold in her veins as an ominous feeling of dread fell over her. She turned to where she expected to find Tower's figure in the distance, and her face fell.
Tower was coming at them head-on. The giant rigging had lowered its altitude and was now hovering only a few feet above the surface of the water, speeding up toward their location in a straight line, unleashing rage-filled cries all the while.
"Everyone, scatter!" She shouted aloud and in the comms.
Immediately, all Kansen bolted, panic taking over the fleet.
They all scampered around, trying to put as much distance as they could between each other, but they couldn't deceive themselves. Escaping was impossible; they knew it.
Inevitably, someone was going to be run over by the rampaging rigging. So, aside from hoping to not be the target of its rage, spreading their positions to widen the gaps in the formation as much as possible was the only thing they could do to minimize the damage of the impending collision.
Instead of running, Richelieu stood her ground, finding herself unexpectedly calm despite the situation. Observing her comrades, she noticed that most of them were escaping individually, as they should, but the group led by Algérie was lingering behind, as some of the wounded needed to be held up by the shoulders to move.
And, if Tower was aiming to do as much damage as possible, she would aim for the highest concentration of Kansen, which, judging by her trajectory, was exactly what was happening.
It took Richelieu only a second to make the call.
"Cardinal, what are you doing?!" Saint Louis shouted in dismay upon seeing her flagship charge forward instead of running away.
"Father, forgive me, for I have sinned…" Richelieu began praying as she skimmed over the water at high speed.
"Cardinal…?" Algérie's confused gaze met Richelieu's as she passed by. Le Malin and her sisters were also there, and the Cardinal's heart clenched. With their speed, they could get to safety faster than anyone else, but instead, they had decided to remain behind and help the wounded escape.
"God bless your hearts, little ones," she thought. She kept going until she could barely hear the voices of her comrades calling out to her, and then she came to a stop when she was sure she was far enough from Algérie and the others.
She brandished her spear, holding it up in front of her with both hands, the ripped and tattered banner fluttering in the wind, and closed her eyes.
"…I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell…" she continued with a shaky voice.
Both her body and rigging were enveloped in a mystic, golden light that became brighter by the second. Raising her spear, the light concentrated in her hands, passing through the pole and then to the tip, where it became as blinding as a beacon.
"…but, most of all, because they have offended Thee, my God, Who art all good and deserving of all my love…" she continued, her voice becoming steadier with each word.
She knew what she was doing, even though she didn't comprehend the concept behind it. She was just going with the flow, with the desire to protect her comrades guiding her hand.
"…I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy Grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen," she declared with a firm tone.
She slammed the butt end of the spear to her feet, which resounded as if she'd just hit solid concrete and not the waves of the ocean, and a shining wave of light spread around her before dissolving into the air, as if it had never appeared.
Then she lowered her weapon and pointed its tip at the incoming threat, the fear of what's to come abandoning her.
All that wasn't an illusion or any kind of hidden ability; it was just her pushing all her willpower out of her Cube, projecting her emotions onto the outside. She had already done that multiple times in the past, when rallying her comrades in battle or drawing the enemy's attention to herself, but this time, she was tapping into the deepest parts of her core to do so, hoping it would work on Tower as well.
"Come at me, foul beast!" She shouted. "You shan't lay a finger on my comrades before getting over my dead body!"
Her stance screamed, "I'm the more charismatic here. I'm the leader. I'm your target," and the gigantic rigging seemed to fall for it.
As if it had suddenly changed its mind, the whale's trajectory shifted sensibly, enough to avoid and pass over the group of wounded Kansen, who managed to get to a safe distance in time.
Richelieu cheered internally, although her joy was short-lived, as Tower was now coming straight to her.
The giant rigging opened its maw, lowering her lower jaw below the water level, presenting its glowing gullet to her as it approached inexorably.
But Richelieu's heart was at peace. She knew that this time Sparviero couldn't bring her to safety because he had already abused his power plenty, so it was just her and her choice.
She closed her eyes and lowered her weapon, waiting for the inevitable.
The last thing she saw were aircraft and flashes of light and smoke as the other Kansen attempted to shoot at the whale, but it was all in vain.
She wished she could tell them to stop, to get further away, so as to buy more time for reinforcements to arrive without exposing themselves to danger, but alas, the enormous jaws snapped shut around her before she could.
For a second, Richelieu saw the light, and she thought it was the Lord.
Then she felt an incredible heat spreading over her weightless body, and when she opened her eyes, she saw a feminine figure in front of her.
She was much bigger than her, abnormally so. She had long, black, flowing hair and glowing blue eyes. The white and black short dress she was wearing showed plenty of her light blue skin, which was patched with white mechanical inserts made to look like garments on her body. She also had a weird black crown on top of her head, but the weirdest part about her was that she was being held up with her arms spread wide on her sides and her legs dangling in the void. It was as if there were a bunch of invisible bindings attached to her body, holding her still within the light-invaded space.
"Could that be... Tower?" Was Richelieu's thought upon laying eyes on her.
But before she could further process what was happening, a sudden rumble shook the space she was in. Her weightless body was jerked upward, and in the blink of an eye, the light and the heat surrounding her disappeared, and she found herself up in the air, out of the rigging's mouth.
"Let go of my sister, you filthy piece of Siren crap!"
That's what she heard over the comms, immediately followed by the whale's piercing cry of pain. But she was too busy trying not to throw up as the world kept spinning wildly around her.
It came to a stop when a pair of strong arms grabbed her midair, and the low hum of a jet engine filled her ears. Her head was still spinning, but she managed to open her eyes to the sight of Freedom looking down at her with a concerned expression.
The shipboy's face lit up when he noticed she was still conscious. "Don't worry, Cardinal; I'll take you to safety," he said to her before turning around and bolting with the shipgirl in his arm, his thrusters pushing them away.
Still a bit dizzy, Richelieu tried to get her bearings, squinting her eyes as the sense of nausea slowly abated.
Behind them, she saw the giant rigging writhing in pain, and she immediately understood why. The beast had a long, foreign object embedded in its side; it looked like a thick, metallic pole—like the butt head of a harpoon—and from that distance, it looked the size of a construction crane.
The whale twisted itself, opened its mouth, and clamped its jaws on the pole sticking out of its body, wrenching it out of its side with a strong jerk before snapping it in half between its maws. Then it proceeded to let out an angry roar, aimed straight at her and the shipboy.
Initially, she wondered why, but then she realized that its anger was directed at something else beyond them, and she turned her head, her eyes immediately widening in disbelief.
A flying pirate vessel. That's how she'd describe it. A very familiar hull, but with a twist of advanced technology and historical callbacks put together in a clashing but at the same time harmonious mix.
It was a carrier, that's for sure, if the flattop was any indication. The island was further in the back of the flight deck, which was surprisingly large—almost like three carriers put side by side and welded together to form a massive, hovering vessel.
The hull itself was unequivocally the Jean Bart; of that, Richelieu was certain. But it was located between two additional lateral hulls, which were identical to the armor plating on her sister's rigging in both shape and engraving, making the entire structure look like a threefold hull supporting the entirety of the flight deck above.
Hoisting the colors of both the Iris Orthodoxy and the banner of the Templar Knights, respectively, on its sides, it was decorated to resemble the hulls of old sailing vessels, with theme-shaped decorations like cannons, fake masts, ratlines, and cordages.
The vessel was hovering thanks to a series of big stabilizers situated on the lower sides of the supplementary hulls, perfectly adjusted to keep it steady in the air. Contrary to the central one, those two were open in the front, and one of them was hosting the head of a massive harpoon. The weapon was shaped like a drill, covered in sharp, jagged edges that tapered into a razor-sharp point, and it was ready to be hurled at the incoming threat at any moment.
The other one, though, was missing its load, as it had already been fired. Richelieu figured it was the one who had been impaling Tower's rigging right before she came out of its gullet and the reason why she had been spat out of its mouth so promptly.
As she took in the awe-inspiring sight, the remaining projectile took off like a missile, startling her and Freedom as it traveled below them, the series of thrusters it was equipped with propelling it toward its target.
But this time, the giant whale saw that coming, and it wouldn't be caught unprepared like before. It simply needed to gain a bit of altitude, and the harpoon passed harmlessly beneath it, landing in the water unceremoniously.
"What the hell was that, Jean Bart?! Did you forget we are still here?!" The shipboy yelled into the comms.
"Hey, watch your mouth! I'm still getting used to this!"
"How do you even miss something so big?!"
"Shut up! This one was bad luck!"
As soon as she heard the name and the voice, Richelieu's heart made a flip in her chest. The vague feelings that had been churning inside her were slowly turned into concrete hope, and she directed her eyes toward the hovering vessel, expectantly scanning the surface for a familiar face.
Then she saw her. The figure standing proudly at the front of the flight deck was none other than Jean Bart.
Freedom reached the deck of the flying vessel and gently put her down. When her feet touched the solid flight deck, she paused for a second, gawking at the sight in front of her. She wasn't mistaken; the cape and the hat were new, but the face, the attitude, and everything else were her sister's.
"Oi, Richelieu! What the hell was that?!" Jean Bart bellowed, striding up to her sister with an angry look on her face. "What do you think you were doing-"
Richelieu met her halfway and threw her arms around her neck before she could finish her sentence. Throwing away any semblance of decorum, the Cardinal of the Iris Orthodoxy began weeping and sobbing like a child.
She put everything aside: the near-death experience, the life-or-death situation... Everything else was moved to the back of her mind as she was overcome with emotion.
"Jeanie, you are awake! I thought you'd never... *sob* Dr. Anzeel said... Oh, thank goodness!"
Jean Bart remained speechless for a second, unable to reciprocate the hug, so she just stood there awkwardly. Then she grabbed her sister's shoulders and broke it off.
"Okay, I get it; you are glad to see me," she said with an urgent tone. "But need I remind you that we don't have time for sentimentality?"
Richelieu perked up, her eyes widening in realization. She let go of her sister and turned to the rest of the people around them, promptly rubbing her eyes to hide the embarrassment and shame at not even acknowledging their presence.
The Commander was there, along with a few of the senior Kansen of his fleet and even Anzeel, all of whom were looking at the two sisters with nothing but fondness and understanding in their eyes.
"Forgive me for my rudeness, everyone," she said after clearing her throat. Then she blinked as another woman she would have never expected to see here stepped forward. "Madame Bismarck, it's good to see you," she said, a note of relief in her voice.
"You as well, Cardinal," Bismarck told her with a smile and a nod. Then her expression turned serious. "Forgive me, but pleasantries will have to wait."
"Damn right," Jean Bart said. "I've done my part; now it's your turn, Iron Blood. I don't think I can take a direct hit from that thing. See if you can do anything."
"I'll try my best, but no guarantees," Bismarck declared, stepping forward.
She turned to face Tower's rigging, now dangerously close to their position. Its hulking form was on the verge of crashing into the new and reborn Jean Bart; if she needed to act, she had to do it now.
Taking a deep breath, the Iron Blood faction leader walked up to the edge of the flight deck and took a step into the void.
A towering figure appeared in a flash in front of the vessel, and Bismarck landed on its back. Its three heads let out a powerful roar, and with a beat of its wings, it rose further in the air, ready to take on the Arbiter.
But Tower's rigging kept advancing undeterred. With its tail included, the three-headed dragon-like rigging was as tall as the massive whale's snout, but it still couldn't hold a candle to it in terms of sheer size and bulk. Tower would just run it over along with the hovering vessel it was protecting.
In response, the dragon reared all its head back. The depths of its throats flared up like furnaces, and then it unleashed a stream of molten steel moments before the enemy made contact.
The torrent of condensed energy hit the whale square in the face. The sheer pressure of the stream and the heat were so high that it sent its alert system into overdrive, making it unleash another cry, but of anguish this time. In an attempt to escape the smelting temperature, it reeled its head back and changed course, swerving to the side of the hovering carrier and dangerously exposing its flank.
Jean Bart was quick to capitalize on it.
"Wrong move!" She shouted. Hatches opened in the side of her hull, barrels extended, and volleys were fired at the rigging right as it passed beside her new and improved vessel. The spread of rounds had the desired effect, forcing Tower's rigging to swerve further back as it tried to put more distance between them.
With the giant rigging temporarily repelled, Jean Bart pumped her fist in the air and turned expectantly toward the others. "How was that? Looks like I still got it!"
Bismarck, who was standing between her rigging's middle head and the twin-barrel main battery attached to the back of its neck, crouched and set a hand on its plates. "That was a fine show of power… um, Geryon. From now on, I'll call you that. How does that sound?" She asked her new comrade.
The dragon let out a low hum of what she perceived as approval, his three heads glancing up at her, but then they all snapped to attention, swiveling back to Tower's rigging.
The giant whale had taken some distance. Its face, now half-burnt by Geryon's attack, was still burning up in some places, but it didn't seem to care, as it wasn't acting like a rage-driven wild beast any longer. In fact, it was just hovering midair, staring intently at them.
All of a sudden, the light coursing through its body began glowing more intensely, and the armor plating covering its sides began hissing. The steel plates began shifting, sliding against each other to reveal a series of hidden compartments of different sizes built like hangars in the whale's body.
Pilots began taking off from the bigger ones in copious amounts, all of them moving to flank the giant rigging in a defensive formation. From the smaller ones, rows and rows of low-tier humanoid Sirens of various types began pouring out. Most of them were Executor-class, but there were also smaller groups of Enforcers among them, all of them categorically belonging to the Arbiters humanity had already met and fought.
Once they landed on the water below, they all fell into formation and began moving toward the Kansen down below, along with Tower and the Pilots.
"Goddammit," Ryan's thoughts mirrored those of his subordinates. There were so many that they far outnumbered the Kansen. Maybe it was a bit of a stretch, but if he had to guess, these could very well be all the remaining forces formerly belonging to the Antiochus that had been reprogrammed by the Original Sirens.
But he didn't have time to speculate.
"And here I was starting to think it wouldn't be necessary," he grumbled under his breath. "Jean Bart, open the hatches," he told the woman, then he reached out through the comms. "All Kansen, move out and engage the enemy forces!"
Upon his command, Jean Bart willed her vessel to open every single one of the hatches in the lateral hulls. Ropes were thrown out, and one after the other, the Kansen of Azur Lane began descending from the hovering ship, sliding down the ropes, and landing gracefully on the water below.
They joined up with their comrades already on the battlefield, fell into formation, and were ready to meet the enemy.
"You were right, doctor. This is mind-blowing," Ryan said to Anzeel.
"Hehe, what did I tell you, Commander?" She replied smugly, adjusting the glasses on her nose.
"I know, but this?" He said, gesturing around to everything: the flying warship they were standing on, the three-headed dragon fighting the giant whale… By now, he believed to have seen it all, but every time he dared to think that, life was always ready to throw him a curve ball. "When I sent you to Brest to see if you could help, I was expecting something similar to what you did with Yorktown's rigging. You know, some kind of modernization process. Where did you even pull this out from?"
"Well, for starters, Bismarck's new rigging is the apex of biomechanical research I was able to achieve in my timeline, while Jean Bart's new vessel is the peak of aeronautical engineering. The former was never able to see the light of day—the war was over way before that—while the latter is experimental technology, made possible only thanks to the help of the Wisdom Cubes. I figured coming here would give me the chance to see them in action, so I decided to bring the Cubes containing that data with me," Anzeel explained.
"Still, how am I supposed to explain this to my supe- Oh, right. Scratch that… to the entire world?!"
"Oh, come on, it's not like I can grant super upgrades to everyone. Hull data can't be replicated just like that, and the Cubes storing it are depleted during the operation," Anzeel said, waving him off. "Everyone will just take it as another miracle of the Cubes. There is nothing you need to concern yourself with."
"Not that I mind, doctor; I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you," Jean Bart intervened from the side. "But say, what am I supposed to be now? What is this?"
"A flying fighting carrier, perhaps?" Ryan suggested. "Seems the best way to describe you."
"A nuclear-powered hover-fighting aircraft carrier," Anzeel confirmed proudly. "How does it feel? A thousand times better than being a simple aviation battleship, I bet."
"I don't know; I still haven't tried sending out any planes, but it feels weird. Am I even part of the Richelieu class anymore?" Jean Bart asked aloud, looking at her hands. "Are she and I... still sisters?" She inquired dejectedly.
"Akagi has always been and will always be my sister," Amagi said from beside them. "Her conversion to an aircraft carrier changed nothing. Just because yours has happened now instead of in the past, it hasn't altered the love you harbor for her, or did it?"
"I… I guess it didn't…" Jean Bart trailed off awkwardly.
"Indeed, the love that unifies us is as strong as the one I harbor for my beloved Shikikan!" Akagi chimed in through the comms, having kept the channel open with the Commander and her sister.
"Too bad it's totally one-sided, right, Akagi-senpai?" Shoukaku commented smugly.
Akagi suppressed a growl. "Look out for friendly fire, Shoukaku"
"You two, leave it till after the battle," Amagi interjected sternly. "And concentrate. We are almost done here."
Ryan gave the Kitsune an awkward smile in thanks.
The Jean Bart had momentarily retired from the engagement and had lowered itself to the level of the water's surface to offer shelter to the group of wounded Kansen. As they spoke, they were being treated below deck by Vestal and her META counterpart. Richelieu had also been led down for treatment.
The two Sakura carriers were further ahead of them, standing on the water with their rigging out, using their aircraft to screen the vessel from any incoming threat.
But as soon as the repair ships had everyone else settled, Jean Bart would rejoin the fray. Sure, having both Ryan and Anzeel aboard meant that she'd have to play it safe, but the flying fortress would be crucial for the battle and couldn't be kept to the sidelines just because of that. Besides, both humans were used to danger; as long as they kept low and out of sight, nothing bad would befall them.
"Commander, something's coming toward your position!" Kindle's voice reached Ryan's ears.
Ryan frowned at that. There were a lot of things coming at them, but they were all being repelled by Shoukaku and Akagi's efforts. Why would Kindle bother with warning him?
A switch went off in his head, but he could barely acknowledge her words before a blink in the ether caught his eye. He felt someone grab his shoulder and pull him backward and watched as South Dakota moved to stand in front of him, rigging out and shield raised to deflect a barrage of laser beams aimed at him.
They all turned to look at the now visible ripple in the ether, from where the attack had come. The aggressor seemed to adjust their aim for another attempt, but it was soon forced to fall back by the two Sakura carriers' fighters, who had been alerted by the META shipgirl's warning.
"Woah, thanks, Dakota," Ryan said, breathing out a sigh of relief. "Was that who I think it was?"
"Tester…" Jean Bart spat as the ripple fled the premises, hastily pulling back until it became indistinguishable. "Even under the Original Sirens' control, she remains a coward."
"Seems like it," South Dakota commented, recalling her rigging before turning to the man. "That's it; you are going downstairs, Commander," she declared, grabbing his arm to help him up but without letting go. "You too, doctor!" She called out.
"Yes, mommy!" Anzeel grinned, snapping a salute.
Letting out a sigh, the battleship began dragging the Commander along the flight deck, ignoring his complaints.
"Wait a second, Dakota!" The man tried to struggle against her iron grip. "If that's actually Tester, we need to find a way to deal with her!"
"Don't worry, Commander," Kindle's voice came in again. "I'll take care of that."
AN: Bismarck Zwei and Jean Bart Deux reveal!
Man, it feels like yesterday that I told you that I'd make an original Type II. I intended to go all out with it from the beginning, but I was still afraid that a flying ship would be a bit too much... And then, after seeing all the crazy designs the game's been getting lately, I stopped worrying.
Seriously, though, talk about aesthetic power creep. I never thought it would be a thing, but I stand corrected.
Not that I'm complaining; I don't feel like I have the right to say this since I haven't played in a long while, but I miss the old times when rigging was a more accurate, if modified, representation of the ship's hulls. Again, not a complaint; it's a visual feast and all, but still…
Anyway, the idea for Jean Bart Deux's upgraded vessel is inspired by (you guessed it) another Yu-Gi-Oh card "Phantom Fortress Enterblathnir." Just the overall shape, though. Everything else is as described in the chapter.
Next Chapter: The Bigger They Are