"Is this enough?"
"Yes! Thank you very much!"
Before the meeting could proceed, I was asked to provide a sample of my DNA to a bunch of scientists for them to test. It's definitely a new feeling and experience for me. Providing your DNa makes it feel like I'm a freak or a special person.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Admiral Igo." The woman with the sharp eyes thanked me. Her name is Cyntha Yoshida. Her name sounds foreign to me but she is a sakuran which makes me sound like a racist for thinking like that. "Let us continue our meeting, shall we?" Cyntha taps her tablet and a hole opens up on the roof behind her. Several screens then get lowered onto the room and then they turn on simultaneously and show people on the screen. I remember some of them from Stella's online meeting some time ago. "Let us start with the Arsenal Bird."
"From all the information that we have gathered, we know that it is somewhere in the Pacific Ocean but its precise position is unknown." A holographic map of the Pacific Ocean appears in the middle of the room. "The gray spot is the last known place of the Arsenal Bird." The woman who talks is the one that sits on the left of Cyntha.
"We have sent you every information that the Eagle Union has on the Arsenal Bird." The Eagle Union representation speaks up. "Sorry that we can't help much as we too are on high alert." The Pacific Ocean does touch The Eagle Union afterall.
"It's not only the Arsenal Bird that is the problem but its escort too." A massive fleet to support a lumbering mass of flying weapons. Its escort is scary but it also tells us that the Arsenal Bird's biggest weakness is being gang on. It's without a doubt that there's nothing in this world that can penetrate through a concentrated force field of an Arsenal Bird in a single strike other than… a nuclear bomb perhaps? "From the report, it's not something that could be scoffed at."
"So has there any development with the sakuran military?"
"Their forces have been spread out like a net around the Sakura Empire to detect if the Arsenal Bird is approaching but so far nothing noteworthy." The woman that answers Stella is Flandre Inoue. A woman with darkish purple hair that she tied into a ponytail. She is wearing a white blouse with several buttons open and a black coat. I assume that's supposed to be a formal suit but her demeanor is anything but formal. "You would've been notified if there was a change in the plan."
"Hey! I'm just asking what my dear Admiral is questioning." How the fuck do I know what change happened to the plan when I don't even know the plan yet, Stella?! I'm not a mind reader like the shipgirls.
"Thank you for the question, Admiral of The Navy Stella. I would like to encourage everyone to ask every question they have. It has come to my attention that perhaps not all of us have the same information as the others." I will feel less offended if you just say me by name, you know? Everyone here knows that I'm the only one in the dark. "Miss Tsuyo, if we may ask that you explain the plan once again?"
"Sure. The plan was to strap a nuclear bomb onto a long range drone while also having a force with comparable firepower somewhere else and see which one of those the Arsenal Bird would go first." You know shit got so fucking real when the sakuran had to rely to a nuclear bomb to deal with the Arsenal Bird. A country traumatized by a weapon of mass destruction had to rely on said WMD is just sad. It's not even poetry because I know that if this plan was more well-known, most sakuran would protest. "I suppose I should say that was the plan before we lost the location of the Arsenal Bird once again."
"Well, I aPoLoGiZe for not knowing that there's a mirror sea between The Sakura Empire and Azur Lane's HQ." Calm down Stella. Nobody is blaming you. "The mirror sea is nowhere near any vital sea lanes so of course we don't know that it was there."
"Indeed. It's still a shame that we can't perform an ocean-wide search even though we are an organization that focuses on protecting the ocean." Eh… I wouldn't be so ashamed. An ocean is fucking massive. Yes we have the shipgirls that will probably make things a lot easier but we still need to think about the logistics and such.
"While we're talking about the mirror sea, Stella, what do you think about the new type of siren mass-produced ship that you met in the mirror sea?" Another member of the meeting asked my girlfriend.
"Dunno. They feel weaker though." They are? "That could be because we take them by surprise or they're tricking us to think that it's weaker so that we would lower our guard." Fair point. I guess this is why she is chosen to be Azur Lane's Admiral of The Navy. "There's another possibility that this type isn't the improvement of the already existing mass-produced ships but in fact, the prototype." Huh… Didn't think about that… "Either way, studying one is without a doubt a priority."
"We haven't fully studied the normal ones but now we have more. Sigh… Give me a break." The one who talks this time is the representation of the Sardegna Empire. "I deserve a vacation." Me too.
"You already have one a month ago." This time it's the Iris Orthodoxy representation.
"I need more!" Same.
"Back to the topic, do you think the new type of ships would be a factor that we need to take into account in our quest to drive the Arsenal Bird away, Admiral of The Navy Stella?"
"Honestly, I was wondering whether the sirens are rendezvousing their forces to attack the Sakura Empire. The new type will be the new nails while the Arsenal Bird is the hammer." That's a weird way of saying it. "We really are in a pinch, huh?"
"The Dragon Empery is currently pulling our forces from the south." It's time for the Dragon Empery to talk. "We might need a couple of days to refuel, rearm, and prepare our forces before we can send them to the Sakura Empire." The Dragon Empery has been focused on expanding southward to the equator so that's where most of their forces are.
"The Northern Parliament will also need some time to reroute our force from the west and north." It'll probably take weeks or so considering how massive the Northern Parliament is. They can use their trains to move their forces but it will still take some time.
"Did they send the Arsenal Bird here to disturb our progress?" Most likely. Considering the effect it has on all of the nation and their forces, I would say the siren has done quite well for themselves.
"Admiral of The Navy Stella, may I know what your plan is?"
"Dunno. Still racking up my brain to think what's our best course of action. For now, we're making a home out of our new base." A good base would go a long way to increase the effectiveness of a force. Don't scoff at it. "You can visit it if you want to but I'm going to warn you that there's several projects that are under construction."
"Thank you for the invitation. I'll see what I can do." Cyntha seems to be a very busy person so I wouldn't put a lot of hope that she'll visit the base. "It seems that our only course of action for now is to wait and see. Regrettably that is the only thing we can do." It does make me wonder though… How fast can we react when we find where the Arsenal Bird is? We're kinda in the south part of the Sakura Empire so you could imagine how hard it is for us to respond if the Arsenal Bird is spotted way up north.
"Sigh… What an annoying piece of crap." Stella, words. We're in a meeting.
"For our next agenda, we're going to discuss several reported sightings of KANSENs." Huh? Most of the time, the girls work in the open ocean so it's weird for someone to see them but if Elizabeth the Granny did so I suppose it's not impossible. Cyntha taps her tablet once again and the hologram in the middle of the room changes to show a new image. A burning ocean littered by the wreck of siren ships, black smokes in the sky makes it impossible to determine whether this picture is taken at night or day, the flame raging makes the ocean turn bright red, and the thing that takes the attention, the person that standing in the middle of it all, a shipgirl. "Admiral of The Navy Stella, I hope you have not forgotten that we're a secret organization."
"Of course I didn't! If I did then I would've updated my bio!" At least she is better at keeping herself hidden than James Bond, a secret agent that everybody knew for some god forsaken reason. "And who is she anyway, I've never met her before."
"What a terrible Admiral of The Navy you are~~? Not recognizing your own underling~~"
"As if you could remember more than five people, Flandre."
If Stella couldn't recognize the shipgirl then what chance do I have to do that? But she does remind me of Dork E for some reason. Mostly because of the white hair but Dork E's hair is straight and neat while this one is messy and jagged as if she had not taken a bath for a year or so. The shipgirl in the picture also wears similar clothing to Dork E but instead of a button-up white shirt, the picture shipgirl is wearing a zipper shirt. Both are wearing the same black short skirt but while Dork E likes to wear a pair of thigh high socks, the picture shipgirl has an uneven pair of socks. Overall, there's some similarity but without a doubt that the shipgirl in the picture isn't Dork E.
"Ugh… To be frank, I still can not figure out who that is." Come on Stella. You've been with the shipgirls longer than me so of course people are expecting you to answer. "Alright, all of the shipgirls here. You better tell me who that is or I'll punish all of you." You want them to snitch on their own friend?
"Mmhh… Can't say that I know, commander Stella." KGV doesn't know.
"Oh my~~ I have never seen someone like that before." Lexington is off the list.
"I don't recognize her." My sweet little Nagato doesn't know either.
"Well shit! Seems like we have a rouge shipgirl on the loose." Huh… Well shit! In the middle of things going haywire with the Arsenal Bird, we have another thing to worry about.
"Perhaps a nation has created a new KANSEN but hasn't reported to us." The representation of the Royal Navy speaks out. "Or a new nation that isn't a part of Azur Lane yet." 2 of the most likely possibilities.
"If that's the case then it's your field of expertise." Fair. We field people strategize and fight while the office people talk it out. "I shall wait with anticipation."
"Now, I do hope that this instance is because a new nation finally makes a breakthrough in their wisdom cube research and not because a nation is hiding their KANSEN." Ah come on… the atmosphere is getting heavy. None of them are talking and they just keep staring at each other trying to analyze everyone. If this keeps going, I would start yawning and actually go to sleep. Better do something about my drowsiness.
"Can I get a cold chocolate milk?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
What? Does this place not have a catering service or something? For a place so expensive and grandiose, it doesn't come with the basic necessity, huh? A stall on the side of the road has better service than this place if that is true.
"I shall order one for you." Cyntha was the first one to recover. She tapped the tablet in front of her before continuing the meeting. "Let us cast the previous issue aside for now and continue." You girls do you, I'll be here waiting for my cold chocolate milk. "I believe it's time we discuss about Helena and Lena." AH! So that's why those 2 come with us. I was wondering as to why someone as young as my daughter needed to come with us.
"Eh?" My cute adorable daughter let out an audible surprise. She was still asleep when we boarded the train but it seemed she had woken up. "Me?" She adorably pointed at herself while looking flabbergasted.
"Come here, Lena." I wave at my cute daughter to come to me. There's absolutely no way that my cute Lena is going to stand in the middle of the room and not start crying. "Wait a sec. HUP!" When my cute daughter is next to me, I lift her up and put her in my laps. "I think it's better if you come too, Helena."
"Ah! Yes!" My wife comes up to her husband and daughter. "Sorry!"
"It's okay." I rub Helena's back while she was standing beside me. "So, what do you want to ask?"
"Are they really your daughter and wife, Admiral Igo?" I just casually nod my head. "Then, we have received the report from Akashi so we would like to ask your permission to test Lena. Please do understand that we're doing this purely out of curiosity and not hostility as this is the first time something like this has happened." Yeah, Stella told me that too.
"And how are you going to test my daughter?" I wrap my arms around my cute daughter and pull her in closer to me.
"We understand your concern but this is just a normal DNA test. We would like to confirm Akashi's test that suggests Lena is a clone of Helena." It still hurts me knowing that my daughter doesn't have a single percent of my DNA but KANSEN's biology is weird so it is what it is. "We just need a sample of Lena's saliva."
"Alright, sure." Cyntha once again tapped on her tablet several times before the doors of the meeting room opened up and several scientists came in. They come up to us and give me a tube for Lena to spit in. "Lena, can you spit into the tube for me?"
"Okay." My daughter is a very obedient kid. I hope she doesn't reach her rebellious phase soon. I want to enjoy my cute daughter for some time. "Puh!" My adorable Lena spit into the tube and I quickly close it and give it to the scientist.
"Thank you for the cooperation, Miss Lena." My Lena is the most adorable, isn't she? "It may take some time for the result of the testing to come but rest assured, we will share it with you once we receive them." I assume they weren't taking Helena's DNA because they already have hers and not because she forgot. "Now, from the report it said that both of you experienced a dream where you both were married and had Lena, correct?"
"Mhm~~" It was a beautiful dream. Sad that it had to be shattered by reality.
"Then how do you make Lena?"
"Basic biology." Like hell am I going to say 'sex' when my innocent daughter is here!
"In the dream?" I nod once again. "And when you wake up, Lena is with you?" I nod while also shrugging. What she is saying is correct but I also don't know how to make sense of it. "Uuhh…" For once, Cyntha shows confusion in her face.
"I understand your confusion and I have no idea either but at least you can appreciate how cute my daughter is." I lift my daughter to let the other see how cute she is.
"Ah… Thank you…" You're welcome! The world needs to know how cute my daughter is. "Is there anything special that happened beforehand?"
"Uhmm…" My beautiful wife tries to rack her brain for any kind of answer. "Well, there was the weird thing with the wisdom cube with Akashi in the lab."
"Weird thing?" Of course it piques their interest. You can't just say some cliffhanger stuff like that, wifey. "Can you explain what this 'weird thing' is?"
"Well, the little green cat showed me a wisdom cube and then when I touched it, it blinded all of us and when we looked back, it had already disappeared." Cyntha doesn't show me the face of a person whose questions have been answered. "I would explain it better if I can but that's literally what happened."
"The wisdom cube is a mysterious object and there are still a lot of things that we don't know." The Iron Blood representative speaks up. "This incident should be a wake up call for us to increase our funding for research into the nature of the wisdom cube and development of wisdom cube technology."
"Do remind me in our future meeting with the UN." Cyntha taps on her tablet, probably to set a reminder for herself. "Then Admiral Igo, may I ask you to take a hold of this?" From underneath her table, Cyntha brings out a wisdom cube. I guess they want to verify that I wasn't lying.
"Sure. Give it to me." The wisdom cube was then passed on from person to person until it reached me. I casually hold it in my hand and like usual, glowing roots grow down my arm.
Good morning.
Morning. Shut up for a while, I'm in a meeting with the higher ups. "What's next?" The wisdom cube brightness does kinda highlight how dim this meeting room is, huh. Well, it's for the hologram. If it's too bright then it would be hard to see the hologram.
"Does that hurt?"
"No. It's bright but it doesn't hurt me in the slightest." Might hurt in the eye if it decides to glow like a motherfucker but no physical harm whatsoever.
I can turn the brightness if you want to.
Fuck no!
"I see…" Don't worry. You'll get used to it. "Thank you, Admiral Igo. You may now place the wisdom cube down." I place down the wisdom cube in front of me and the roots disappear as quickly as they appear. "Peculiar…" Tell me about it. "Stella, what do you make of this?"
"Huh? I got none. I was hoping you to have something to say, Cyntha."
"No, this is out of my area of expertise." I assume so does Stella. Is there a degree in wisdom cube? "Let us leave this matter to the expert and revisit it in a future meeting." Good choice. "Onto the next agenda," Cyntha taps her tablet once again and the holographic picture disappears. "is there anything that you want to say, Admiral of The Navy Stella, Admiral Igo or all the KANSENs here?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"In this session, we will be hearing complaints or suggestions from you. Anything that might help you or make you more comfortable in your operation in Azur Lane." Ah, I see. Anything to increase the efficiency of the operation, huh.
"Uhm, if I may ask, why don't the Azur Lane have, like, a mobile fortress or something?" Azur Lane is definitely not your run of the mill navy. For once, our main forces mostly consist of shipgirls. A human-warships hybrid kinda thingy. "You know, like, a boat that the girls can use to rest, rearm, relax, and all that stuff?"
"If I may ask, why do you want one?" The Iron Blood's representative asked curiously.
"Well of course to increase the range of Azur Lane's reach." Have these girls ever played RTS before? Most factions in an RTS usually deploy like a mobile construction vehicle as a mobile base and not just send their forces. In that case, if their forces get killed or need to be rearmed, they don't need to come back home and just go to the mobile base. I know a mobile construction vehicle is impossible in reality but the concept is still there. "As of right now, the girls could reach almost every corner of the Pacific Ocean in a single day but they can't stay there, they need to go back to the base at the end of the day." Which technically half their range. "I just imagine the girls sail toward somewhere until dusk and then instead of going back to the base, they can just rest on the mobile base for the night and then continue on the next morning which would increase their range." The mass-produced ships can be used like a hotel but the girls can't rearm themselves in those. We need a dedicated floating base.
"Interesting… I will be lying if I say I didn't see the potential of the idea." Thank you. It's an intrusive thought so I'm glad that nobody is laughing at it. "Mind telling us how the ship that you imagine would look like?"
"Uuuhh… Well…" They way everyone in this room, which all of them are women by the way, stares at me sorta make me nervous. Can you girls not do that? "I imagine we used the already existing hull that we don't use and retrofitted it into Azur Lane's floating base."
"And why is that?"
"I assume designing, testing, and building a new ship would take, like, a long time? Unless I'm mistaken?" Even in this age of automation, that kind of thing really does take a lot of time from what I've heard. Of course there's like computer simulation and artificial intelligence's aid but still, that takes time and resources.
"No, you are correct. It takes a lot of resources to design a new ship especially if it's a new type."
"I don't think it's a new type though." And my comment caused everyone to intensify their stares at me. Can you girls fucking not?! I already have a girlfriend! "I mean, isn't it like a… cruise ship or sort? Hotel on top and work on the bottom."
"That's one way of saying it, I suppose." Thank you, Flandre. "So you want to retrofit an unused cruise ship to be a floating base? That sounds more doable now." Is it? I don't know because I never retrofitted a ship before.
"We can borrow some aspects from an amphibious assault ship like their well docks." Thank you for the input, Eagle Union's representative. "We can use that like a workshop for the KANSENs to maintain their rigging."
"I love that idea!" The sardegna empire's representative's excitement was clear from her voice. "We can also have facilities to help the KANSENs relax on the upper side like tenis field, hot springs bath, massage parlor, and etc." Is she projecting what she wants onto the project?
"I believe it's better to have a powerful radio to receive and send messages when the ship is way out to sea." That's a good idea, Iris Orthodoxy's representative! But it also means we're going to require a powerful power plant and satellite dish.
"This does sound like a good suggestion and worth bringing it up with the UN." My little intrusive thoughts become an actual idea that will be brought up to some of the world's most powerful people. I'm fucking dead! "Perhaps you have more good ideas, Admiral Igo?"
"HEY! What about me?!"
"Apologize, do you have any more ideas, Admiral Igo or Admiral of The Navy Stella?"
"Yes! I want a sand dredging ship." A fucking what?
"Interesting and may I know for what reason?"
"To make an archipelago around the base." Eh? "It's common sense that land mass could be used in a naval battle and it might even determine who will win in an engagement." Hmm… I see where she is going with it. "Azur Lane is an organization focused mainly on shipgirls and I've been thinking of a way of fighting that can only be done by shipgirls."
"And how is that?"
"Well for example, ambushing enemy fleets by letting them into an archipelago and then jumping on them. Since the girls can unequip their riggings, they can just wait in the islands, hiding in some bushes before quickly equipping their rigging and go in for the kill." Huh… That's kinda similar to infantry tactics. I've done that before during my army days. It does make me wonder though… How good is the mass-produced siren ships' radar? That could make or break the plan.
"Hey! Look at that! You actually use your brain for once, Stella!"
"The fuck does that mean, Flandre!?"
"It makes me proud to see how far you've improved yourself, Stella."
"Fuck you, Tsuyo!"
"Hmm… An offensive and defensive suggestion, yes? You both do make a good pair." We're lovers, you know? Did you not tell the Dragon Empery's representative, Stella?
"I know, right?!" Wipe that smug off your face, Stella. You know nothing good has ever happened every time you put that face on.
"Admiral of The Navy Stella's idea is a lot easier to do so it's not worth bringing it up with in the next UN meeting. Instead, we'll talk it out with them through letters and emails." Well sorry for having an idea that people keep piling on until it becomes a grand dream. I'll try not to do it next time. "Perhaps there's more other suggestions or even complaints that someone wants to tell us?"
"Where's my cold chocolate milk?"
"So you become a shrine maiden huh, Yamada?"
"Sigh… Lena, don't become someone like aunty Stella, okay?"
"FINALLY! TECHNOLOGY!"
It's like she speaks directly into my brain!
Does that mean you approve of our marriage, Mother in Law?