Sparviero was starting to lose hope. He gritted his teeth and held tight to his cane, pushing back the tears and the lump that was forming in his throat.

He hated being alone, not only because he couldn't do anything productive in his condition but also because it reminded him of the time he spent in his old body. His memories of that time weren't exactly clear, but it was in these kinds of moments that he felt like the loneliness and melancholy never left him.

He remembered being forcibly separated from his sister ship for the conversion to an aircraft carrier. He remembered the excitement around him when the process was complete, immediately followed by alarm and dismay when he was sunk. And finally, he remembered spending an insane amount of time alone in his own home, with his mangled and half-submerged body left to the elements, until, years later, he was fished out of his position just to be disposed of.

Then, the Cubes did their magic, and he was brought back to life as a shipboy. The first things he felt with his human body were gratitude for the second chance that was given to him and the desire to make up for the time he missed, but his enthusiasm was short-lived when he realized that the world around him was entirely dark.

He was born blind. From a defective Cube, they said. He knew the world around him only thanks to the knowledge imparted to him by the Cubes but he had never seen it with his own eyes. The researchers tried everything they could to help him before deeming him a lost cause. They had no time to lose for someone like him; the Sirens were unrelenting in their onslaught, and time was of the essence to ensure humanity's survival, so they sent him into the fray without any kind of preparation.

The only thing he could do in battle was to use his radar to direct his aircraft toward the enemy, hoping to not hit any of his allies accidentally. Luckily, his new brothers were there to help; him being the latest of the Sardegna Empire to be revived meant that he was the least experienced of them all and that a lot of his comrades had died before he could even meet them.

One day, he gathered the courage to ask about his real brother; the last time they had "seen" each other was at the Ansaldo shipyard, in Genoa. They told him that his brother was one of the first Italian shipboys to be revived, and he had been happy to hear that... But then reality hit him like a torpedo when he realized that if they hadn't met yet, he must have already been killed in action.

He wept like a baby that night.

That was the time when the nations had finally come together to fight the Sirens, after the "turmoil" caused by the Kansen and the foundation of Azur Lane.

He shook his head, trying to banish those thoughts from his mind. It wasn't time to delve into the past; he had to focus on the present.

He was alone, probably in the middle of the ocean, separated from his brothers. His radar wasn't working, and his radio received only static, but he still had his aircraft. Jumping on top of one of them was out of the question; with his condition, he couldn't see where he was going, and it would end in disaster. The only thing he could do was send his aircraft ahead of him in multiple directions, hoping that someone could see them and come to his rescue, hopefully, his brothers.

He had already done so many hours ago, but there was still no trace of help coming, and he was starting to despair.

His brothers shouldn't be too far away from him; they got transported into this world at the same time, which meant that they all should have arrived at the same spot, or at least not too far away from each other. There was no way they had been scattered around the globe in different places, right? That made no sense.

If that were the case, then he truly didn't know what else to do; he could only hope that the humans would find him before the Sirens did.

Lost in his thoughts, he wasn't able to react in time when his foot collided with a solid object. He fell forward and slammed his head on the rock in front of him.

Grimacing in pain, he brought his hand to his forehead and felt some blood dripping on his blindfold, while he tried to use his cane with his other hand to feel around. When he realized he had wandered into a shoal that was littered with small rocks and that he was surrounded by them, he let out a frustrated sigh.

Standing up, he tried to sail through the obstacles, using his cane to guide himself around them. After stumbling for a while and realizing that he had been drawing circles around the same rock, he decided to climb over it. He carefully put his foot on what seemed to be a stable surface, then put some weight on his leg and tried to take a step... before slipping on the moss covering the rock and faceplanting on it again.

"Argh, MERDA!" He let out a frustrated cry and slammed his fist into the rock beneath him, regretting it immediately and cradling his now bleeding hand to his chest.

The pain slowly faded away, and when it disappeared completely, he let out a long, bitter, self-deprecating laugh. He was laughing at himself, at the situation he found himself in, and at his helplessness. Once the laughter subsided, it was replaced by sobbing, and tears started forming in his eyes, incapable of streaming down his face because of the blindfold he was wearing.

He sat down on the rock and hugged his legs. "Brothers… I can't take this anymore... please, help…"

He spent the next few minutes sobbing and cursing his bad luck.

Suddenly, he perked up at the sound of aircraft above him. He recognized the engine as being the same as his own aircraft which made him rule out the possibility that they belonged to Emperor.

Italian forces then? Was he close to the equivalent of the Sardegna Empire in this world? At least he was among friends, he figured, depending on how Kansen were treated here or if they existed in the first place.

Before he could stand up and start flailing around with his arms to get their attention, the aircraft did a U-turn and went back where it came from. Did they see him? Were they coming to rescue him?

Luckily, he had to wait only a few more minutes for his answers.

"Another one of those planes…" Giulio Cesare muttered out loud from the bow of the Littorio.

They had been sailing for almost an entire day, heading for the Azur Lane joint base to take their place as the Sardinian delegation in the fleet.

Along the way, they had spotted a couple of planes, clearly of Italian manufacture, soaring in the sky, but hadn't given them much thought.

The sightings started becoming more frequent by the minute; judging by their course, they all came from the same direction. They tried to reach them by radio contact, but none of them replied. At that point, they decided to have Aquila send up a couple of her own aircraft and try to make contact with one of those stragglers. Imagine their surprise when they realized that every single one of those aircraft was unmanned, recognizing them as constructs of Kansen rigging.

But that didn't make sense. Aquila was with them, and Impero had been left at the Sardinian main base as the only other operative carrier. Littorio tried to contact her sister and flagship, Vittorio Veneto, for confirmation, and she stated that Impero had indeed been slacking off as usual in their home port.

The situation warranted a detour.

"I don't like this. We chose the safest course to reach Azur Lane; if we diverge too much from our path, we could end up in a Siren ambush," Carabiniere said, clutching her rifle tightly in her hands.

"Please don't say things like that, Carabiniere," said the Glory of Naples, approaching them from behind. "We are still in safe waters, and if a new sister has been born far from the safety of our home, it's our duty to bring her our assistance."

Littorio wrapped her arm around the shoulder of the shorter shipgirl. "Besides, even if the Sirens decide to show their ugly mugs, we just need to send them off with our best regards, as we always do."

The destroyer rolled her eyes at the display of confidence. She didn't want to admit it, but Littorio was right. They couldn't leave someone alone with the Sirens prowling around these waters, even if the chance of an unregistered Kansen being born in the middle of nowhere was pretty slim.

"To be honest, I would appreciate it if they showed up at some point. A journey like this gets boring pretty fast, and Aquila needs the experience if she doesn't want to make a bad impression with the other carriers at Azur Lane," Giulio Cesare interjected, turning her gaze toward the hull of the carrier that was sailing next to them. "I heard Enterprise herself has been stationed there, along with the Fifth Carrier Division of the Sakura Empire, and that Peter Strasser herself has taken on the role of representative for the Iron Blood."

"Those are all resounding names, sure, but none of them can compare to the splendor that is the Glory of Naples," Littorio scoffed, flipping her cape with a swift move. "Aquila will be fine, as long as she believes in herself, because I most certainly do," she declared, watching right as one of Aquila's aircraft failed to take a good run-up and almost fell over the ramp of her flight deck.

"Practice makes…" Carabiniere deadpanned.

Then, Aquila's voice came in from their comms. "Ragazze, I found something; someone is sitting on a rock a few miles away from us, they are in the middle of a shoal, and I can't quite make out their features."

"Well done, dear Aquila. Recall your aircraft now," Littorio said, then she addressed the Kansen who were waiting below deck. "Zara, Pola, wake the little ones and prepare to welcome our new sister."

"Sissignora."

When they reached their destination, Littorio and Aquila recalled their vessels, and the members of the fleet summoned their rigging.

"Hurry up, Maestrale! I want to meet the new Kansen," Libeccio said, darting ahead of the group.

"W-wait Libeccio, you are going too fast," Maestrale whimpered, trying to keep up with her sister.

"Girls, you are going too far ahead; slow down and wait for us!" Carabiniere shouted, running after them to try to rein them in.

Zara sighed and brought a hand to her face. "Look at them, like children on a school trip," she said as the three destroyers went further and further away from them, their speed and agility allowing them to maneuver around the rocks surrounding them with ease.

"Let them do as they please, their charm and cheerfulness will surely bring light into the day of our new comrade." Littorio shrugged off Zara's concern.

Meanwhile, the three destroyers had reached the spot indicated by Aquila, and Carabiniere spotted a figure sitting on a rock not too far ahead of them.

It took her a moment to realize that the individual in front of them was not a Kansen. Even from behind, she could clearly see that the person giving them his back was a man. But that begged the question: how did a human find himself in the middle of the ocean, sitting on a rock without a care in the world? Something wasn't right, and she switched from playtime mode to business mode.

She darted in front of the other two destroyers, blocking their path and intimating them to stay behind her.

Meanwhile, Sparviero, still sitting on the same rock, perked up at what seemed to be the voices of children being carried by the wind.

"You, over there!" A childish but firm voice called out to him from behind. "I've got you at gunpoint. Stand up with your hands in the air and turn around!"

He was so taken by surprise by the voice that he jumped in his seat, losing the grip on his cane, which fell into the water and started drifting away.

"Who's there?" Asked the shipboym trying to make out the direction of the voices.

Carabiniere watched as he tried to stand up, stumbling a bit. Something was wrong with him, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

When he turned around to face them, she understood right away. He had a tricolor blindfold on his eyes. He was blind. Her guess was proven right when he tried to take a step forward and slipped on the surface of the rock.

Then, something that she wasn't expecting happened. He tried to stand up again, but this time he did so on the surface of the water.

"State your name and intentions, and don't make any sudden moves!"

"My name is Sparviero, aircraft carrier of the Sardegna Empire. I swear I mean no harm; please don't shoot."

So, she was wrong; he was actually a Kansen, but that didn't explain how he got there in the first place.

"Answer this question: where do you come from and how did you get here with your... condition?"

"W-well, it's a long story; I got separated from my brothers, then I got lost and sent my aircraft around to try and get someone's attention," Sparviero answered trying not to give out too many details. I didn't mean to stir up any trouble, I swear."

Suddenly, more voices joined the conversation. It took him a while to understand that they all belonged to Kansen, specifically women.

"A carrier? That explains the aircraft."

"A male Kansen? A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one."

"Indeed, what an unexpected development."

"Carabiniere, stop being so suspicious. He's harmless, and even if he tried something, we outnumber him."

Carabiniere grumbled at Pola's reproach and put away her rifle.

Meanwhile, the two destroyers approached the shipboy, who was still standing with his hands up.

"Hey, why are you wearing that thing on your eyes? No wonder you can't see where you are going," Libeccio asked with the innocence of a child and the tact of a monkey.

The other women remained silent for a few seconds, flabbergasted by the destroyer's tactlessness; even Littorio wasn't sure how to react.

Sparviero, sensing the change in the mood around him, lowered his arms and looked at the kid who had just addressed him—or at least where he thought she was. The melancholy that had hit him slowly started dissipating, and he felt like humoring the child.

He bent down on one knee, trying to match the height from which the voice had come. "The truth is, my eyes hide an incredibly dangerous power, and this blindfold is the only thing that can keep it under control," he joked. "I always have to keep it on, because if I were to remove it, the consequences would be catastrophic."

"Really? Wow, that's so cool." Libeccio's eyes were sparkling.

"Uhm… I'm sorry, sir, I think you dropped this." Another childlike voice came from his side. It was Maestrale, who had recovered his cane and was now handing it to him; the destroyer realized that he couldn't grab it on his own and started delicately poking his arm with it.

Still trying to keep track of how many new voices were appearing around him, he tentatively reached out with his hand and grabbed the cane offered to him. "Thank you, little one, I appreciate that."

Littorio stepped forward and approached the shipboy. "I apologize for the rude behavior of my subordinate, friend." Her boisterous voice was getting closer, and he decided to stand up to greet her. "I am Littorio, Vittorio Veneto-class battleship number two, the Glory of Naples and the Mediterranean's mightiest battleship."

She decided to forego the handshake; putting her hands on his shoulder to keep him steady, she went for a double kiss on the cheek. "It's a pleasure," she said with a sultry voice.

"Ah, yes. It's nice to meet you, ma'am," the shipboy replied, unable to hide the blush on his face at the unexpected display.

"Littorio, we've just met him and you are already all over him, give him some room to breathe," Giulio Cesare intervened to chastise her fellow battleship.

"I'm sorry, Giulio. First come, first served. You should have called dibs on him the moment you saw him," Littorio said, winking at her friend and making sure the shipboy clearly heard her statement.

Sparviero took advantage of their banter to collect his thoughts. Carabiniere, Littorio, Vittorio Veneto, Giulio Cesare... these were all names of Sardinian warships, some of which he had met, while others had died before he was born. It confirmed his suspicion: an alternate reality similar to his own but with some differences. If Kansen in this world were women, then maybe the Sirens were also different in some ways. For every answer in his mind, there was a new question.

"I'm sorry, you said your name was Sparviero, right?" A gentle voice he hadn't yet heard interrupted his musings.

It was Aquila. The carrier had been racking her brain the entire time, trying to process what she heard from him. He did say he was called Sparviero, but he also said that he had brothers, which didn't match with the speculation in her mind; maybe it was just a coincidence, or maybe not...

"Do you happen to have a sister ship named Aquila?" The carrier asked with a hopeful voice.

"Yeah, I do; we were separated before our conversion to aircraft carriers, and we've never seen each other since then," the shipboy replied with a note of sadness in his tone.

Aquila widened her eyes; a lump formed in her throat as she brought her hands to her mouth. Both his story and his name matched; it wasn't a coincidence.

"It can't be. Falco? Is that you?" The carrier asked him as tears started forming in the corner of her eyes.

He froze at that. No one ever called him Falco; it was the name he had before his conversion was completed and he was renamed "Sparviero."How did she know that? Was there another version of himself in this world whose name was left unchanged?

"How do you know my former name? Wait, are you… Aquila?" He tentatively asked, his voice shaking as realization started dawning on him.

Everyone around them paused and stared at the two carriers, not uttering a word and holding their breaths.

"Yes, it's me. I can't believe this; I have… a brother." She couldn't hold back her emotions anymore; she went up to him and hugged him tightly.

Taken aback by the sudden development, Sparviero stood dumbfounded while she hugged him. Only her light sobbing was able to shake him out of his stupor. Unable to utter a word, he slowly lifted his arms and wrapped them around her; the frustration he had felt earlier was now completely gone, along with the loneliness and melancholy, and was being replaced by a feeling of nostalgia and warmth that he had never felt before, not even with his adoptive brothers.

His sister ship was holding him in her arms. He buried his face in her long, flowing hair and started crying on her shoulder.

"Finally, I get to meet you," he whispered between sobs.

The other shipgirls were not left unaffected by the display. Giulio Cesare and Carabiniere were doing their best to hold back their emotions. Zara was patting Pola's head while the latter was blowing her nose with a handkerchief. Maestrale had timidly reached for the hand of her little sister, and Littorio, smiling proudly, wiped a lonesome tear from her eye with a swift motion of her hand.

When the two carriers broke their hug, both displaying radiant smiles on their faces, the battleship drew everyone's attention with a clap of her hands.

"What a joyous day this is! Aquila has found a brother, and we have found a new comrade! Come now, let us depart to our original destination, so that you may carry on with your familiar reunion in a better-suited place, that is, the bridge of my glorious vessel."

"What a story," Giulio Cesare commented after Sparviero finished explaining his circumstances.

"A Mirror Sea that transported you and your comrades here from another world? No one would believe it if they didn't see it with their own eyes," Zara added, standing next to the couch the male carrier was sitting on.

"Yeah, it wasn't supposed to happen, but we knew the risk and we were ready to take it," Sparviero mused.

"But what exactly were you doing in there?" Pola asked him. She couldn't get over the fact that someone would willingly throw themselves into a Mirror Sea so dangerous. What kind of mission could be so important to have them disregard their own safety like that?

"I'm sorry, that's classified information," Sparviero responded with a dejected tone. "I don't want to keep any secret from you, I promise, but I think it's best if we discuss this with my leader before revealing anything else."

"When and if we find him," Carabiniere added, glaring at him. "You said you have no idea where to start. It could literally take weeks or months to do it, and any kind of information about the Sirens could be a game changer for us; we can't wait that much time just because of your insecurity."

He lowered his head in shame at her words. She was right; they helped him out in his time of need, and he was repaying them by hiding vital information from them.

"Carabiniere, my lovely subordinate, you are in an awfully sour mood today," Littorio intervened to diffuse the situation. "We got more intel from him in a few minutes than we were able to gather in the last few months; I think it's time we cut him some slack and switch the topic to something more pleasant," she said as she moved to sit between the shipboy and the armrest of the couch, putting an arm around his shoulder.

"Tell us, dear Sparviero, do you have someone special waiting for you back in your home world? Whether it's a man or a woman, you can be open about it, we don't discriminate here," she asked him with a sultry undertone in her voice.

His head snapped to her, his eyes widened behind his blindfold, and a blush started creeping on his face.

"Uhm, well… You know how it is, we didn't have much time back then for that kind of stuff, with the war and everything else, so..." he trailed off, unable to handle the embarrassment.

"Oh? So, you've never had the chance to fool around a bit. Don't worry, you are already surrounded by so many beautiful ladies, you'll have plenty of time to make up for it." She was now leaning into his side, basically whispering in his ear.

Aquila, who had been sitting on his right the entire time, snatched him away from the battleship's grip.

"Littorio, you are teasing him too much. Don't forget that he is my brother, not one of your casual pickups," the carrier said, glaring at her friend.

Littorio let out a mocking laugh that made the carrier pout. "Aquila dear, you are adorable when you try to act so tough." When her laughter subsided, she returned serious. "Forgive me; I will respect his boundaries and treat him like an official member of the fleet. You have my word. But remember, you can't keep him to yourself all the time; you'll have to let him have some fun eventually."

"I know! I just want some time to catch up with him." She didn't want to sound like an overprotective parent, but they had just found each other, and she couldn't help but get carried away a little.

"You are all talking like I'm not here. I'm blind, not deaf, you know?" Deadpanned the shipboy.

A round of laughter spread through the group. The initial tension had dissipated, and now he was feeling completely at ease around them.

"This is nice," he thought to himself. It felt like he was hanging out with his brothers again.

Of course, with the Sirens prowling around the place, these kinds of moments never lasted too long. A radio message came in from Libeccio and Maestrale; the two destroyers were on their hulls, sailing next to the Littorio, and had spotted a small group of Siren aircraft closing in.

"You heard the little ones; we have company." Littorio stood up from her seat on the couch. "Aquila and Sparviero, get out there and send a few of your planes in the sky. Carabiniere, Zara, and Pola, go with the kids and help them shoot them down if they get too close. Everyone else, form up around the carriers.

"Sissignora." Everyone darted out of the bridge to follow the orders of the flagship.

Aquila took his brother's hand to help him, but he wouldn't budge from his position. "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

"There's another thing I haven't told you. My radar isn't working, and without it, I can't direct my aircraft to the enemy. Also, I didn't know how to bring this up, but... I can't summon my old hull like you."

"That... is a problem." Littorio didn't know what to make of it, but it wasn't time to get lost in technicalities. "It doesn't matter; you'll stay with your sister in the middle of the formation."

When Aquila brought him to her vessel, everyone else fell into formation around her, but before they could prepare their AA defense, the Siren aircraft made a U-turn and went back from where they came.

"They are retreating; could it be that they've decided that the risk isn't worth the effort?" Carabiniere asked over the comms.

"Or maybe they are just a scouting group, which means we'll have a much bigger problem on our hands if we stay here any longer," Giulio Cesare said, voicing everyone's concern.

"I agree; let's get out of here before they bring their friends to us," Littorio said.

They turned their hulls in the opposite direction and hastened their pace.

After sailing for a while, Carabiniere launched a cry of alarm. "Multiple Siren contacts ahead of us!"

Maestrale and Libeccio also sent their warnings. "They're also coming from our sides, we are surrounded!"

"Merda!" Giulio Cesare swore through her teeth. "Those planes were just a distraction to make us walk right into their trap!"

"Littorio, what do we do? Should we just turn around again and try to escape?" Aquila asked their flagship.

"No, Aquila, by the time we'll have done that, they'll already be upon us." Looking outside her bridge, Littorio noticed two Siren carriers launching their aircraft in the distance. "If turning around is not an option, we'll have to carve an escape route by ourselves, and we have to do it now before their formation gets too tight around us."

"What are your orders, ma'am?" Asked Giulio Cesare.

"Giulio, it's you and me, my friend," she told her fellow battleship. "We'll push through them and create a hole in their ranks. Aquila, send your aircraft to intercept their drones; Zara and Pola, stay behind and protect her. Libeccio and Maestrale, I want you to cover our advance with your torpedoes but keep a safe distance. Carabiniere, cover the little ones; make sure they stay safe." She added, making sure that only the destroyer received the last part.

"Sissignora!"

"Aquila, are you ok?" Sparviero could feel his sister fidgeting next to him. They were standing on the side of her flight deck, watching the Siren vessels in the distance, or at least, Aquila was.

"I'm sorry; I'm trying not to think of what could happen if I mess up here. I'm not exactly a veteran when it comes to aerial battles." There were two Siren carriers ahead of them, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to take on both of their squadrons at the same time. She had already sent her own aircraft into the air, and she almost messed up a few of their take-offs. She wasn't used to having so much pressure on her shoulders.

"I know how you are feeling." He tried to reach for her hand to comfort her, but he could only find the hem of her dress. "I know what it means to be the odd one out and the novice of the group; I know the struggle of being barely able to keep up with more experienced teammates and the pressure of the expectations to meet. But I also know that they will always have my back no matter what. I want to repay their trust by doing my best to help them; that's how it's been and how it will always be for me, no matter the situation."

Initially, Aquila didn't know how to reply, but then, a large smile made its way to her lips, and she slapped her face with both her hands. "Thank you, brother. I was so focused on not messing up that I almost lost sight of my true goal… That is, to help our comrades." With her newfound resolve, she pushed all her aircraft forward toward the enemy flock. The sound of aerial battle started spreading all over the battlefield, while the fleet advanced toward their way out, with Littorio and Giulio Cesare ahead of everyone else.

"Zara, Pola, don't worry about me, go help the others!" Aquila spoke through the comms. Her new goal was to keep the dogfights as far away from her hull as possible so that the two heavy cruisers wouldn't be forced to stay behind for her.

"Are you insane, Aquila?! If we leave you without escort, the other Sirens will charge at you right away." Pola's astonished voice came in from her radio.

"We'll die anyway if we don't break their formation, so what's the problem with taking a little risk?" Sparviero interjected.

"You are not helping Sparviero!"

"Pola, we should do as they say, Littorio and Giulio are already taking hits; they might not make it." Zara could see the shells and beams of the Siren vessels hitting their comrades' shields or bouncing off their armor; it was only a matter of time before one of them would take a serious hit.

"Alright, I get it!" Pola relented. "Let's hurry then!"

Meanwhile, Littorio and Giulio Cesare were doing their best to endure the pain while sailing toward their enemies, guns blazing. In front of them, four Siren battleships were aiming their guns at them; at least, their escort's attempts at striking them were rendered useless by Maestrale and Libeccio, who intercepted their attacks with their own torpedoes.

Their goal was to destroy the two battleships in front of them and to use their rigging to take care of the other two from up close, thus creating enough of an opening for the others to pass through.

It was easier said than done. Aquila was doing a great job at keeping the aircraft above them occupied, but even with her help, facing four battleships at once just the two of them was brave at best and foolish at worst.

Suddenly, the sound of additional guns was heard from their side. It came from Zara and Pola's vessels, now flanking the two battleships, sailing alongside them.

"Zara, Pola, didn't I tell you to stay behind?" Said an outraged Littorio.

"Someone decided that your idea was stupid, and we agreed with them." Pola's voice reached Littorio's ears through the radio.

"You focus on sinking those battleships; we'll do our best to relieve some of your burden," Zara added.

With that said, having the support of the two bulky sisters, the battleships and the cruisers focused their fire on the enemy in front of them, making short work of the alien vessels and reducing them to a fiery pile of metal scraps, slowly sinking in the ocean.

Then, the two cruisers positioned themselves so that their hulls would cover the passage of their allies, protecting them from the fire of the other two Siren warships. Further behind them, the rest of the Sirens were closing in, blocking any other escape route, and getting ready to fire upon the fleet, but Aquila and the destroyers were able to pass through the opening right on time, marking their escape as a resounding success.

"We did it, big sis! We are out!" Libeccio celebrated, along with Maestrale.

"No, not yet." Before anyone could ask Carabiniere what she meant, the destroyer suddenly changed course, heading towards the Siren carriers.

"Carabiniere what are you doing? You'll get yourself killed!" Giulio Cesare shouted over the comms.

"Even if we manage to outrun the mass-produced ships, their aircraft will keep coming after us, and Aquila can't handle all of them on her own. Our best shot is to take out at least one of the carriers, and I'm the only one who can do it quickly."

"You can't do that! Even if you strike down one of them, the other Sirens will be upon you in an instant!" Aquila tried to reach her with a pleading voice. "I'll take care of them all, I promise, but please don't go!"

"Carabiniere, I order you to reverse course at once!" Littorio shouted to the destroyer, but she had already cut off the comms. "Dammit! Everyone, get ready to follow her!"

"Wait, Littorio, don't do it!" Sparviero interjected.

"Are you insane, Sparviero? Do you expect me to leave behind one of my precious comrades?" The Glory of Naples shouted, outraged.

"No, Littorio. I will take care of it. Trust me… It's time I return the favor."

Carabiniere had just passed one of the battleships that had caused so many problems for Littorio and the others, and was heading straight for the closest carrier.

Above her, Aquila's aircraft were still fighting the Siren drones, but they clearly couldn't hold out any longer against the squadrons of two carriers; at least she could use their cover to pass through them undisturbed.

She could hear the sound of shells impacting on the water behind her; the other Sirens were slowly closing in on her. She only had time to shoot a single volley if she wanted to come out of there alive, so she had to make it count.

The carrier was there in front of her, its escort had already been taken care of, so there was no way she could miss the shot. She steadied her trembling hand, took position, and fired one of her torpedo tubes.

A clean hit. Just like the one she took to her flank. She fell over in pain, clutching her side. The pain was too intense to properly assess the extent of the damage, but she knew she was still seaworthy.

Gritting her teeth, she pulled herself up on her feet and forced her engines to change course again. If she had to go down, she figured she'd do it while attempting to bring the other carrier with her, rather than doing it in a pathetic attempt at running away.

But fate would not allow it. She noticed in the corner of her eye that one of the Siren cruisers had gotten too close to her and was ready to unleash another volley to finish her for good.

"Looks like this is the end. I'm sorry, sisters." She closed her eyes. She wasn't even able to tell the shipboy she was sorry for how she treated him earlier.

The Siren fired its guns at her.

But the impact never came. Instead, a noise that resembled that of an aircraft engine came into its place. Looking again outside of her bridge, she saw that something had appeared in the air between her hull and the alien cruiser.

It was a portal, just like the ones used by the Sirens to spawn their vessels all over the place, and the volley had collided with it, getting lost inside of it in the process.

But that portal was different from the others. It was standing vertically in the air, and it had the shape of a five-pointed star. She could see the inside of it, swirling in a perpetual vortex of purple matter.

Suddenly, an aircraft came out of it, followed by dozens more of them—the same kind of aircraft that Aquila used. They came out one after the other at incredible speed with a deafening buzz, like a swarm of locusts, and all of them slammed into the hull of the Siren cruiser, causing a series of chain explosions so intense that her own hull rocked about for a few instants. The onslaught ended when the Siren warship was left only with its eviscerated keel, and the portal disappeared, just as it had appeared out of nowhere.

Then she felt something land on her deck, and the voices of Maestrale and Libeccio reached her ears. They forced her to recall her vessel, and when she did, they put her arms around their shoulders and dragged her away.

"I can't believe you'd do something like that! Were you trying to get yourself killed?!" They chastised her; Maestrale had tears in her eyes and Libeccio was basically bawling.

"I'm sorry, ragazze," Carabiniere whimpered, doing her best to hide the pain coming from her side. As they sailed toward the rest of the fleet, she watched as another strange portal appeared next to the remaining carrier and proceeded to unleash another rain of metal upon it, making short work of it in a few seconds.

Before long, the absurdity of the situation, the relief at being still alive, and the pain of her wound made her fall into the arms of Morpheus.

"Brother, what did you just do?" Aquila didn't know how to react to what she just saw. Sparivero had asked her to give him the exact coordinates of the vessel that was targeting the Carabiniere; of course, she had complied, even if she didn't understand the reason behind such a strange request. After that, he had just extended his hand towards the destroyer, and then a weird-looking portal had appeared out of thin air, unleashing a bunch of aircraft that reduced the enemy vessel to a trash heap. Then he did the same with the last enemy carrier.

"You see, I usually keep my rigging inside of a pocket dimension that I've created myself, and I can open it at any time and as many times as I want. I can also open the portal far away from me, but only in a limited range and only if I know the exact position of the target; even if only a couple of times per day," Sparviero explained. "We were lucky that Carabiniere was still in range; otherwise, I wouldn't have made it in time to help her," he added, breathing a sigh of relief.

After Maestrale and Libeccio had returned with the unconscious and wounded Carabiniere, they didn't waste any time, and all of them jumped on the deck of the Littorio to put as much distance as they could between the Sirens and themselves.

Sparviero and Aquila were the last to reach the Littorio. The battleship herself, who had been listening to the conversation through Aquila's radio, was waiting for them.

"Is that why you didn't do it before? Because your radar wasn't working and you needed it to determine the position of your target?" Littorio asked with a tone that was borderline accusatory.

"That, and because the risk of hitting my allies because of a poorly calculated strike is too high, especially in a situation like that," he replied with an apologetic tone of voice. "It happened too many times in the past, and I couldn't forgive myself if something were to happen to you all because of me, not after the help you offered me."

Littorio sighed and massaged her temple with her hand. "In any case, thanks to your intervention, we were able to come out of that ambush without a single loss, and for that, you have my gratitude," she told him, then she smiled. "My sister would never forgive me if something happened to her little assistant; she assigned Carabiniere to me because she wanted her to make some friends at Azur Lane, not so that she could sacrifice her life to protect me."

Aquila walked up to her fiend and took her hands into her own. "Littorio, you don't have to blame yourself for what happened. No one would have been able to predict that those aircraft were just bait," she said, trying to console the battleship.

"I know, dear Aquila, but as the flagship of this fleet, the responsibility is still mine." She smiled softly at the carrier before giving her a peck on the cheek as thanks. "Anyway, you were great out there; you were able to keep up with those carriers all on your own; I knew you had it in yourself. You'll have nothing to be ashamed of with the other carriers when we get to the joint base. I'm proud of you."

"Aw, Littorio, thank you so much." Aquila couldn't resist and embraced her friend, the battleship hugging her back.

Then, Littorio reached for the other carrier and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, doing the same with Aquila. Sparviero stumbled as she kept him glued to her side.

"Now come, my friends, let us go inside and take some respite before resuming our journey." She pushed the siblings towards her bridge, where the rest of the fleet was waiting as her hull sailed through the waves towards Azur Lane.

AN: The Roma and the Augustus were Italian ocean liner sister ships, built in 1927. During WWII they were acquired by the Italian navy to be converted into aircraft carriers. Since there was already a battleship with that name under construction, the Roma was renamed and became the Aquila, and the Augustus was also renamed and became the Falco; later, the Falco was renamed again and became the Sparviero.

In 1943, their conversion was halted because of the armistice and never completed; they then fell into the hands of the Germans. The Aquila was scuttled and scrapped, while the Sparviero was sunk to block access to the port of Genoa and remained there until 1951 when it was recovered and finally scrapped.

In my OC's world, the Sparviero and the Aquila were separated and sunk after being completed, but never saw any combat... just because I like to add insult to injury.

Sparviero's outfit is similar to Aquila's (but for men, of course), with the same color scheme and a predominance of white. His hair color is the same as Aquila's, and he's got his hair similarly to how Satoru Gojo has it in the anime Jujutsu Kaisen. His blindfold is the Italian tricolor. His rigging is the exact same as Aquila's, but it will probably never appear outside of his pocket dimension.

And yes, Sparviero's Wisdom Crafting is basically the Gate of Babylon of Gilgamesh from the Fate series, but with aircraft instead of weapons.

Aquila means eagle, falco means hawk and sparviero means sparrowhawk in Italian.

By the way, what Sparviero told the girls when they met him is essentially the same as what Emperor said to the Royals in chapter six, except for the part about the Ashes and the wisdom crafting.

Next Chapter: A Moment of Respite