"Eh? Where is everyone? And what's with all this… oh, did I cause all this? I'm- I'm sorry!"
Schugel belted out platitudes to the girl outside their bunker in miniature. Other students and scientists rushed around the partially collapsed room, pouring over sheet after sheet of data that had been gathered or trying to reorganize the papers that had been sent to the floor or shouting to each other, trying to have their voice heard by their compatriots over the din of excitement. The marine mages scattered around the room, broad shouldered and clad in black, went about tidying up the place and speaking with a few scientists about their experience with their presumably new orbs.
Over the ever-crackling speaker, the sounds of the outside world filtered in. There were the usual sounds of seagulls echoing in the distance, quite a lot of shouting in panic, and the collapsing of… something. Presumably the warehouse.
It was all background noise.
Tanya's brain writhed.
What the fuck.
Her mind had gotten stuck on that phrase several times. Once more, she laboriously rebuilt her train of thought, forging the engine and mining the coal and constructing the train cars and hammering down the rails and collecting the scattered luggage before shakily restarting for the fourth time.
It was just a name. That didn't mean anything! It couldn't. It wasn't likely to, and what were the chances that Being X had bent the fucking rules-
What the fuck.
Tanya took in a deep breath as two of the marine mages began to twist open the door of their would-be bunker, struggling with the mechanism that seemed to have been stuck shut. The discussion and impatience and talking swirled into a tempest.
Tanya continued to think, realizing while staring off into space that she had backed away from the wall. She was saying something about dropping Computation Jewels, but Tanya tuned it out, along with the rest of the conversation burning around her.
Names were not everything, for sheships. She knew as much from her interview with Basel. Names were simply a shorthand for the cumulative feats and histories of a ship.
Tanya hadn't been convinced of that in the slightest, because after making that statement confidently, Basel had guiltily described a daydream of hers which sounded an awful lot like a picturesque snapshot of an alpine village much like the actual Basel, which Basel had obviously never had the chance to visit. Tanya's questions about how she'd dreamed it up were only met with a helpless shrug.
Besides, what few papers she'd read from abroad about the sheships were split over exactly how important names were. Certainly, none of them argued against the fact that a ship's name could have an impact on how they were treated before being awakened, thus affecting their history. Beyond that, there were islands of half-guessed consensus that could only be partially proven.
The door creaked open. Schugel and a dozen other scientists and students poured out while Tanya lingered in the room like the scent of mildew.
Regardless, every ship that had been asked adamantly claimed not to have memories of the people they were named after, which meant Tanya had nothing to fear from the sheship!
Except the first word out of her mouth had been 'good morning' in Japanese, a language which no one, besides Being X, knew she could speak.
Tanya licked her lips as the daylight beckoned. That was the real problem. Had Being X bent and broken the supposedly immutable laws of this world to manifest this sheship? The limited documentation she'd read had also adamantly agreed that no sheship named after a currently living person had ever been successfully manifested until they were renamed, so he'd certainly had some role in this.
And, if she did have Tanya's memories… was that a bad thing?
Maybe. Maybe not.
The scientists outside were all marveling at the sheship outside, and Tanya moved forward, step by agonizing step, stride by agonizing stride, her mind furiously working, trying to puzzle out the truth. Would it be bad if she knew?
Tanya supposed that it all depended on exactly how deeply her connection to the beliefs and ideas of the Empire or perhaps, to Being X, went. There was little incentive for her to reveal such knowledge under ordinary circumstances, though blind patriotism or fanatical religiosity certainly would be two. Such incentives were even more diminished by how unlikely it was that anyone would believe her…
Although, considering the Empire's current miraculous situation, Tanya supposed it was not nearly as unlikely as it might have been.
While it was unlikely for her to even have the knowledge and it was unlikely for her to also choose to reveal it, the fact that she even existed when such a thing was apparently supposed to be impossible told Tanya that the possibility, regardless of its remoteness, could not be dismissed out of hand.
More pressingly, however, was the question of who had a part in the usage of her name for this project, and the idea to involve her directly.
Schugel and Being X were obviously the chief culprits, though the degree to which one was more at fault than the other would likely forever remain unknown to her. The real question was whether he had the support of their superiors? It made sense that if they thought they could get a second Tanya von Degurechaff they would want one considering just how effective she'd been, though considering just how conclusive most in this world seemed to think what had just happened could not happen that someone would have thought of it as a huge waste of resources.
Tanya frowned, unconsciously wringing her hands. Perhaps, if nothing went wrong, if her secrets remained secret and unused as blackmail, and they worked together, the Empire's military would be all the stronger with two of her working to improve it. If things didn't, then Tanya might find herself replaced or passed over for her new counterpart.
She shivered. Tanya was just a gear in the machine of the Empire's military, to be moved and used wherever it was determined she would be best served according to the whims of her superiors, her attempts to steer her own fate, and the insidious influence of Being X. The thought that she'd be replaced, not because someone worked hard to become better than her, but because some parasitic entity created a facsimile with her name to be better left her feeling slightly… empty.
Alternatively, if she was a puppet of Being X, chances were she would wind up dead and would not need to be worried about being passed over for promotions.
As she stepped out of the room, she took another steadying breath and smoothed the scowl that had been ingrained in her face. In the end, she actually needed to talk to this sheship if she was going to figure out anything.
She cast a look around her, eyes roving over the destroyed infrastructure. The warehouse they'd been in was gone, consumed by her and leaving only the bits and pieces that were already damaged to a degree. The ground, too, had been churned into a mixture of broken concrete and the earth beneath it.
Farther afield, the ocean liner that had been sitting in the drydock was completely gone, as was that which had sat between it and the warehouse – forklifts, crates, cranes and all else having been consumed. It seemed much of the drydock outside of what had once been the entrance of the warehouse had also been stripped at least partially, though the great walls holding out the water didn't seem to have been damaged enough to fail.
Her gaze continued to rove over the destruction until they finally landed on the gaggle of scientists. She supposed that behind them was-
"Thank you, thank you all! I have to say, it is quite wonderful to meet you, and I'm glad you all seem to be happy to see me!"
Tanya's scowl returned in force. The girl's voice sounded similar to her's, but now that she was saying more than a few words and that Tanya wasn't freaking out, she could tell it was slightly… different. She put more energy into her voice, making an effort to sound louder and more cheery. Additionally, she sounded different.
It wasn't exactly pep in her voice, but something incredibly close to it.
"Ah, yes, they're real. Thank you, your, uh, lab coat is nice too. Very clean! I- Hey, is that-?"
She cut herself off and then began to push through the group of scientists, apologizing and sounding genuinely guilty that she was barely poking them to the side. Tanya's fear that she might know faded further.
It did not dissipate. She would not let it dissipate. It could be an elaborate ruse, after all, and until she had a good reason as to why she'd spoken Japanese, and further proof besides, Tanya would keep her guard raised.
Her gaze flicked towards the gloves embedded in the wall of the office, but she didn't have a good enough angle to see around the corner. She'd have to roll around the corner to grab them if the girl-
Then she pushed out of the crowd.
At first glance, it was almost like looking into the past.
Her face was a mirror of her own, were it a year or two ago. Her skin was a shade paler and contrasted even more with the reflective, golden hair spilling below her shoulders. She was wearing that damn red dress.
After that first assessment, though, the multitude of differences became readily apparent.
While the girl's eyes were only a shade off from Tanya's own, the pupil was not a circle. Or even black. Instead, a white cross in each eye stared into Tanya's own eyes as they tore up and down the girl's form.
Her dress was much more intricate than Tanya's had been. Instead of a blank, plain red dress, the sheship's was richly decorated, the shining black bullets leaving a rippling wake that twisted and morphed into golden leaves and vines all along the hem of the dress and its sleeves.
The white collar she wore also seemed embroidered, though Tanya couldn't make out the finer details of the white-on-white embroidery at a distance. A similar bow to the one she'd worn was placed at her neck, though on top of its center was what she assumed was a Type 95.
Unlike her own serviceable, rugged design, this one was incredibly ostentatious, with three wings surrounding the red sphere she was more familiar with. If she wasn't mistaken, the wings and body seemed to be made of actual gold rather than polished brass.
That was not her only computation orb. Along the two shiny black leather belts crisscrossing her chest, eight Type 98 computation orbs were inlaid into the leather, while a copy of Tanya's own medals and awards were pinned to the tops of both belts just below her collarbone.
Two knives, looking more like pieces of art and unlike any that Tanya had ever even touched, hung from the third belt tied around her waist, while another knife was strapped to the side of her helmet, held loosely between her hip and right hand, by an elastic band that was otherwise empty. On the front of the astonishingly modern helmet that looked more like it had come from the 21st century rather than the 20th sat the emblem of the empire, shining in the afternoon light.
Both legs were clad in white stocking and a pair of open toed black shoes that looked like they were made out of metal instead of cloth and leather.
Astonishingly, poking out of the sides of the top of her head, were a second pair of ears, covered in short golden fur that matched her hair color. Nervousness bloomed on the girl's face, and Tanya caught a flash of something darting behind her back.
Tanya felt an eye twitch. She supposed that was a tail.
Somehow, the animal features weren't the most outrageous thing about the girl.
The hem of her skirt was at least a foot shorter than Tanya's had been. Her shoes had a few inches of heel. Below the girl's bow and Type 95 and above the top of the 'X' made by the belts crossing her chest, was a fucking boob window.
It was not nearly as bad as some of the other sheships. Emden, Monarch, Doppelköpfiger Drache, and Nassau all came to mind as wearing infinitely more risque clothing than this girl.
It still irked her that even those sheships that appeared to be children, young children, wore clothing that any adult would find embarrassing or even scandalous to wear outside of very specific, private circumstances far away from the prying eyes of the public. She knew that it was even partially illogical, to think the way she was thinking, since how a sheship looked often had little to do with how long they had been in service.
Seeing such clothing on someone that looked so young, right in front of her, evoked a deep sense of wrongness.
In the infinitesimally small chance that Schugel's drug-induced ramblings about the collective human unconsciousness were in any way indicative of the truth, she highly doubted that such a thing conceptualized children like that. Being X was a possible suspect, but she had the uncomfortable feeling that if he was to blame for dressing children up like this, her life would have gone in a much, much worse direction than it had.
For the moment, she would lay the blame at the feet of the theoretical whoever or whatever had created wisdom cubes and, if given the opportunity, she would ask them several pointed questions, preferably at gunpoint.
"Um… Do you like my dress? I'm sure, if we asked nicely, we could have yours changed to match."
Tanya was brought violently out of her musings of beating Being X or some other indistinct reprobate to death with the butt of her rifle by that question and was unable to suppress her sneer. As if she-
Her opposite wilted, and Tanya schooled her expression.
No need to get off on the wrong foot, whether this girl held secrets that could be used to compromise her position or not. Logically, it stood to reason that she needed to get off on the right foot all the more because of it.
Tanya held out a hand. "Tanya von Degurechaff."
"Y- Yes?"
She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at her meek tone. "I am introducing myself. It is only polite, after all."
The girl blinked rapidly, and then almost lunged forward to shake Tanya's hand, a bright, wide, genuine smile on her face. "Right! I am… Tanya von Degurechaff. Huh." She stopped trying to shake Tanya's arm off of her body and put a finger to her chin. "This is going to get confusing quickly, isn't it."
Tanya sighed in response. "I imagine it will, though that is a problem for the future."
The other girl nodded, and then, after a moment, she reached into the folds of her dress and presented two computation jewels. "Uhm, you dropped these! Here you go."
Tanya smiled thinly and picked them up, only then noticing just how… shiny the Type 95 was. "Schugel," she demanded.
He melted out of the gaggle of scientists that had gone back to discussing the new Tanya von Degurechaff. "Yes, model one?"
Tanya's eye twitched repeatedly. Was that meant to refer to her? The slightly shorter girl giggled cutely.
"Don't call me that," she replied flatly. "Why does my Type 95 look new?"
"Because it is," he replied, his tone implying that that fact was self-evident and all but stating that Schugel felt unbelievably smug.
Tanya glanced towards the one above her opposite's chest again. The red orb in the center of the three overdesigned wings did have a few scuff marks on it that were worryingly familiar.
"Don't worry," Schugel said in a failing attempt to assuage her mounting frustration, "this one works the same as the last." Unstated was that she wasn't getting the old one back now that it was the girl's.
Tanya failed to completely ignore the smugness of the ever-frustrating doctor and turned her attention back to the girl. She still couldn't tell if the girl had Tanya's knowledge. She seemed… dainty, was the best way she knew to put it. Dainty and nervous, neither of which described Tanya in the least and might describe a ship with no concrete history named after a figment of the propaganda department's imagination.
On the other hand, what if it was a ploy to trick her? Tanya was Tanya von Degurechaff, after all, but she'd been a Japanese salaryman before that. Did they have the same memories up until the moment this girl had spawned into existence? Did she have memories from either of her lives? Did she have some other unfortunate atheist's memories?
With a mental shrug, Tanya asked, "By the way, your introduction might need some work. What was the first thing you said? I recognized the English you spoke, but not that."
The girl blinked owlishly at her and tilted her head. "Uh… you mean 'ohayo?' It means hello in Japanese."
Tanya raised an eyebrow. That… had been easy. She pushed further. "Why do you know that language?"
She shrugged. "I dunno. Perhaps it has something to do with the materials and designs used in my own design and awakening?" she said, suddenly verbose and tone ringing with confidence. She glanced curiously towards Schugel. He nodded in response. "Most likely. What other languages do you know?"
She rattled them off. It was undeniable that she and Tanya spoke the same languages, though the girl seemed much less familiar with them. It was suspicious. It was also undeniable that Tanya's suspicion was less justifiable with the excuse that she'd absorbed parts, materials, designs, and instructions written in the myriad languages of the Empire and the world.
This line of questioning would not allay her worry about her secrets, then.
Schugel grinned widely as she demonstrated her command of American-tinted English. "Excellent. Come now, the both of you! We've got a few tests to run, after which you'll both be headed back to Nemonia."
Tanya sighed and then followed along dutifully towards another warehouse. Well, if this other her did have all of her memories, then she would know Tanya couldn't know, and would communicate it to her as soon as possible so that they could begin working together for their collective benefit…
If she had decided that that was the path that would lead to the best outcome for-
"Hey, mom-"
The girl said some other things that might or might not be important, but Tanya didn't hear any of that, her hearing almost cutting off after she'd heard the second word.
The whole of her mental train of thought, baggage and coal and engine and rail and even the beautiful, rolling plains that that train was built on, were all thrown into the air in a spectacular heaving gout by the singular, monolithic, unbearable word that had just been used to refer to her.
"What," Tanya bit out dangerously, "did you just call me?"
"Um… I…"
Tanya did not let her respond. Could not let her respond. Would not let herself be referred to as that. "Do not," she said slowly and lowly, "call me that, or any variant of that, ever."
She whirled around to pierce the girl with a glare, only to find her staring meekly down at her shoes and nodding, a wobbling frown on her face. Without another word, Tanya spun back around and continued after Schugel. She would have to coach this newest addition to Nemonia on proper forms of address for her superiors.
She wouldn't be the only one, of course. It seemed some sheship were simply incapable of learning their lesson, and the only petty thing she dreaded more than the cute nicknames she was sure would spring up among her subordinates and those she was teaching were the ones used by people she could not order be fired upon by naval ships until they stopped.
-OxOxO-
Having finally reached the end of the hallway of the barracks, Basel did an about face and began striding the other direction, smiling to herself all the while. It was a bit of an arduous task, working as a neutral party in Nemonia and surveying everyone as Tanya had requested, especially considering there wasn't really any one time that everyone was together. Even at night, when almost everyone was asleep, some were up working on their night fighting or on patrolling.
Despite how surprisingly difficult it had been, it had also been surprisingly fun, and she was almost finished! She just had the third floor to go through and then she'd be done. Her mind turned to those answers she'd received. A lot of it she had expected, but some of it seemed a bit much.
Before she could complete her thoughts, an unexpected sound began to waft down the hall. Basel tilted her head. Almost everyone was down training with the 203rd, with those that were still in the barracks being those who would have night duty and were wisely sleeping or relaxing before they had to report to the Emerald Bay. Who would be out at this time?
Spurred by her curiosity, she followed the voice towards the atrium. As she drew closer, she realized that it was the anthem of the Empire. Finally, after almost breaking out into a sprint, Basel burst into the well lit, wealth-coated interior of the atrium of Nemonia's barracks. After only a moment, Basel found the perpetrator.
A little girl, who'd stopped singing the song, was standing on the landing of the second floor. Her face and clothes did not bear anything more than a passing resemblance to the many sheships of Nemonia.
Despite that, she did recognize her. "Tanya?" she asked, confused.
The girl twirled in place and then rushed towards Basel, fast as the crack of a whip. She said, her face lit up and figurative stars in her eyes, "Hello! I'm Tanya von Degurechaff, the Empire's first aircraft carrier! Who are you?"
Basel took a step back, gaping like a fish. What? She… how? Wasn't that supposed to be impossible?
The girl's uncautious advance slowed to a crawl as her expression fell. "Oh- Oh. I guess, if you don't want to-"
Basel shook her head vehemently. "No! It's fine, I'm just… shocked. I know your…" she trailed off, not exactly sure about what the relationship between the actual Tanya and this little sheship could be categorized as.
The girl's expression began to wobble again, and Basel quickly picked a word. "Your namesake. She's my, or, our superior," she explained hastily. Did Tanya know that there was a slightly smaller version of her wandering around the barracks?
The sheship lit up brilliantly, and, as with well over two dozen of the sheships that had been awakened, Basel couldn't help but think that she was absolutely adorable. Additionally, her joy was infectious, and Basel found herself smiling in response to the little girl.
Basel sat down on the stairs of the large, open stairway that led up to the three floors and two wings of their barracks, and Tanya sat down next to her. "Was that the anthem of the Empire you were singing?"
The girl nodded emphatically. "Yep! Tanya taught it to me on the way here from Hamborg!"
The girl continued to gush about her namesake. How cool and collected she was, how funny she could be, and how good she was at filling out paperwork too. On and on she went about Tanya, who had been ordered by Schugel to supply the nuclear push needed to begin her awakening.
She went on about others, too. About the scientists who'd been so interested in her, about the dock workers who'd been shocked to see her in the back seat with Tanya, about the men and women who'd had a hand in designing her theoretical hull, and about Schugel.
"And what about you?" Basel asked suddenly, cutting off the girl having come back around to talking about her namesake. "You're doing well, yes?"
Her emphatic nod was aborted in the middle as a concerned look crossed her face. "Um, yes! I am!"
Basel might have only been awakened for a month, but that didn't mean she couldn't see through a facade that flimsy."Are you sure?"
The girl nodded once, and then, she sat back down with a sigh. "I… um, I'm worried that I made Tanya really mad…"
Basel blinked. "What happened?"
Haltingly, she explained that she'd accidentally called her mom. Basel scowled at the crestfallen look on the girl's face. "I'm sure she wasn't that upset by it," Basel said consolingly. The girl sniffled, the water around her eyes receding. "You're sure?"
Basel nodded. "Of course. Tanya might expect a lot from those around her, but that's just because she cares," she said. Indeed, her exacting standards in training everyone and desire for everyone to work as hard as they could was obviously a facet of her care and desire for everyone to survive.
"Indeed," she continued, "I'm conducting a survey of everyone to see what kind of extracurricular activities everyone would like to do, at her request." She blinked. "Actually, would you like to answer them?"
The girl's gloomy mood evaporated, and the sunny smile was back as she nodded. "Sure!"
So Basel went through the questions, asking what kind of extracurricular activities and skills little Tanya already knew about and wanted to learn.
Basel was unsurprised by the girl's love of battle, the Empire, and God. The first was a near-universal trait among sheships, while the second was present in every ship to some degree. The third wasn't uncommon, but plenty of the ships she'd met with indicated very little desire to express their piety any more than they had to.
The form of the girl's love was a… bit odd, in Basel's estimation. The way she recited them sounded more like she was reading off of a script rather than expressing actual admiration. Maybe it was because her hull didn't have any history?
Regardless, her claims of good marksmanship were also unsurprising.
She was surprised that the girl wanted to learn about baking and cooking and biology, of all things.
"Oh, and dresses and fashion! Tanya said I'm going to a class about forms of address tomorrow!" she exclaimed, her excitement palpable. Basel wasn't sure she would have the heart to correct her assumption tomorrow, but she definitely didn't have the heart to do it now.
Nor did she have the heart to tell the young girl that while the real Tanya von Degurechaff could fly because she was an aerial mage, the sheship obviously couldn't do that… although, considering that trick that the leader of the Eagle Union had pulled off, perhaps she actually could if she put her mind to it?
Their conversation reached a lull, and the small girl thought something over. Basel looked out one of the great windows towards the Emerald Bay while trying not to stare at the intensely cute look of concentration on her face. "Uhm, Miss Basel," she began. Basel turned her attention to the girl.
"Thank you for telling me that Tanya probably isn't that mad. It made me feel better!"
Basel smiled back in what she hoped was a charming way. "No problem!"
The silence once again became companionable, for a moment. "Um, could you help me come up with something else to call her?"
Basel shrugged. "I don't think she'll have a problem with namesake."
"But then what does she call me?"
Basel opened her mouth to reply, and then she found she wasn't actually sure what the opposite of namesake was… or was it the inverse? "I think it's the same both ways?" she replied uncertainly.
The girl scowled, and Basel felt, in that moment, that the girl truly did seem to be the mirror image of Tanya von Degurechaff, despite the differences between them. "That's stupid."
Basel stroked her chin for a moment. "How about…" she snapped her fingers. "Nametake?"
Little Tanya's eyes lit up and she nodded emphatically once more. "That sounds great!"
While Basel slipped back into companionable silence as the girl went on and on about mending her 'broken' relationship with Tanya, she marveled at just how impressionable she was.
"Hmm," she said as the girl finished fantasizing about being able to fly through the air with her namesake, "After I'm done with my survey, I'll be heading down to join the exercises. Did you want to come with me?"
At that, the girl shot up from her seated position and shook her head vigorously. "Nope! Tanya said she'd spar with me tomorrow during the mini-tournament!"
Basel blinked as the girl once more began to ramble about Tanya's plans, apparently devised at her superior's behest, for determining who should represent the Empire in the joint exercises in two days.
"How about," Basel said as she stood, "you tell me about what's going on tomorrow while I walk around and interview the last people I need."
Tanya nodded once and smiled again as she continued to speak a mile a minute. The pair ascended the stairs to the third floor and the last of the interviewees.
-OxOxO-
"It's not as good as the ones we made," Prinz Eugen commented. Such a thing might have been seen as insulting, if she'd said the words in a language the servers could understand, but she made her observation in Japanese to avoid any such scrutiny.
Taihou rolled her eyes in response. "First of all, we," she said, referring not to herself and Prinz Eugen but to Azur Lane and the Crimson Axis, "had access to all of the world's resources and funding when those cafes went up," Taihou said. She didn't dispute Prinz Eugen's assertion that this place served worse coffee and worse sweets, because it was true.
Those cafes, even though they'd been constructed at the old Azur Lane Joint Naval Base on Samoa, where everything conducive to a cafe was hundreds if not thousands of miles away, had been modern and up to date at the time, compared to the building that they were currently snacking in that looked like it had seen better days a decade ago. The food back then had been much better and hadn't even been much more expensive. It seemed this version of Germany might yet repeat the mistakes of the one in this world with inflationary policies following the end of the war.
"Second of all," she continued, "You know just as well as I do that there is probably at least one spy or informant at every place we go to. I doubt they'd assign someone who couldn't speak Japanese to watch a carrier from the Sakura Empire."
Eugen scowled, and Taihou resisted the urge to glower at her by biting into the bland sweets they'd ordered. The cause for Eugen's bad mood was the interview from three days before. Taihou understood that.
She gulped down her bite. Taihou definitely understood being preoccupied with that interview. She herself had, undeniably, been doing a lot of thinking about what she'd been told, and about what Enterprise had told her.
She looked up from her plate to see that Eugen was still scowling, quite unlike her usual unflappable self. As much as she understood, they had a job to do.
"Well," Taihou continued as Eugen continued to stew in her own mind, "since you are so intently focused on thinking about work, why don't we talk about it instead?" That was why she'd asked they meet, after all.
Suddenly snapped out of her gloomy reverie, the only sign that she found Taihou's idea unpleasant was the slightest flash of a frown before she was all smiles once more. "But of course," she replied.
"My superiors," Taihou said, the venom dripping from every syllable clearly communicating just how much she respected the authority of those nominally in control of her, "have concluded that the Empire is lying." They were trying to hide as much as they could, desperately trying to keep the truth hidden, but they couldn't.
There were innumerable inconsistencies in every story. The politicians told a different story compared to the Kaiser, compared to the bureaucrats, compared to the soldiers, compared to the service workers, compared to the men and women on the telephones, compared to the stories told days or even hours earlier. Such might be expected, if the government knew more than the citizenry about something secret or it was some inane opinion being asked about, but it was true about virtually everything.
"They are trying to keep something hidden is the conclusion that they have reached," Taihou said. Prinz Eugen scoffed derisively. "Their attempt at counterespionage is clunky and amateurish."
Taihou raised an eyebrow at yet another insult heaped upon their hosts. "Perhaps. But that they persist in the charade means that we haven't discovered whatever they wish to hide," Taihou began, "and if they were actually so bad, she wouldn't know about some of the closest held secrets of our nations, would she?"
Prinz Eugen visibly flinched at Taihou's pronouncement and said nothing more.
They continued to peck at the meager pastries while moldering in their thoughts. Taihou was sure that Prinz Eugen was still stuck on what Tanya von Degurechaff had told her, and though she'd tried to keep the fact that she'd actually cried quite among the Iron Blood, Mainz had apparently mentioned it offhandedly, which had forced her to recount said meeting, which led to a very loud debate among the sheships… and their fellow countrymen.
Taihou faced no such moral conniptions, as Japan had no such internal quarrels… besides the incredibly caustic intraservice and interservice rivalry. And the political incidents in the lead up to the war. And the smoldering rebellions in Korea. And Manchuria. And Taiwan.
Taihou ignored the brief twinge of pain in her chest. "Regardless of whatever they are hiding," Taihou said, continuing as if they hadn't just sat there in angry silence for over a full minute, "Japan will not be calling their bluff."
Eugen raised an eyebrow. "Really? My own superiors are split at the moment, though I find such a state dubious considering how… obvious it is."
Taihou shrugged her shoulders. "Even with that." She scowled cupping her chin in her hand. "With the kind of questions they've apparently asked our scientists, it almost seems like they don't know anything about how kansen work, besides the very same educated guesses made when kansen technology was first being developed."
Prinz Eugen raised an eyebrow. "With how much propaganda of Tanya von Degurechaff they've got everywhere?"
Taihou sighed testily. "Exactly! The sheer amount surrounding her and those she apparently trained rules something that ludicrous out." Of course the more blatant stuff – the posters, the speeches, the quotes, and the reporting on battles – was all well and good, but she'd even seen some of the more kitschy stuff like statuettes and figurines.
They remained quiet for another minute and then, finally, Taihou sighed and folded her arms. "I don't think we'll be able to convince them to join the Crimson Axis." It was a harsh pill to swallow, but there was no use in deluding herself over this.
She had been doing a surprising amount of introspection since her conversation with that kansen.
Prinz Eugen's face looked pained. "I take it you've managed to get a look at the terms everyone is offering?"
Taihou rolled her eyes. "Of course." There was no misunderstanding that Prinz Eugen wasn't talking about the public promises of aid against and protection from the Sirens, and instead about aid offered behind closed doors.
It was, simply, a matter of who had resources to spare. While every nation had suffered majorly after the Siren betrayal, none had suffered more than their former allies, and a lot of the gains they'd won through hundreds of thousands of deaths had been undone with the wave of a few pens thousands of miles from the battlefield.
The only nations that might have been able to offer any alternatives to the damnable American juggernaut were their equally damnable allies who were unable to due to looming financial problems in the United Kingdom and an excruciatingly painful rebuilding process in the Soviet Union.
The Crimson Axis could not match what Azur Lane could , they were mostly on par. Perhaps, if they were willing to starve their conquered territories even more than they already were, they might be able to match the American's pledged food aid, but the rebellions that were already going on would certainly worsen if there was even a hint of any such plan.
But the money. Hundreds of millions in various forms of aid flowed out of America to their close allies and to the nations that had remained truly neutral during the war under the Allied Recovery Program. They had even offered the aid to their 'ostensible' enemies, though few had thought either would accept the aid. That the Soviets had also rejected the aid was a very thin silver lining to the looming, dark cloud of American financial capital.
It almost made her want to bitch about the unfairness of it all.
She didn't, though. She'd already proposed a plan to her superiors and had it accepted.
"If we could just convince their Kaiser-"
Taihou cut that line of reasoning off in an instant. "That isn't how things work here, Prinz Eugen." If they did somehow manage to convince him after how horribly his meetings with the Germans had gone thus far, that would probably just embolden opposition to him rather than majorly help their cause. "Besides, if our goal is impossible to achieve, then we must set a new goal to focus on."
She raised a delicate eyebrow. "Oh, really?" she asked, skeptical.
Taihou smiled back. "But of course. Getting the Empire into the Crimson Axis would be undeniably helpful, but if that is impossible, then we must make sure they don't join Azur Lane. I believe we still have a chance at that."
Eugen tapped a perpetually manicured nail on the wooden table. After a moment more, she said, "Go on."
Taihou did. "From what I and the members of the diplomatic corps have been able to deduce," she said, "they are intent on playing both sides at the moment to try and extract the best deal they can. If we offer them the benefits of being an ally, or even a member of the Crimson Axis, with no restrictions or drawbacks, could Azur Lane offer a better deal without either alienating them or doing the same?"
"We attempt to steer them into neutrality," Eugen summed up. Taihou nodded. "They are already getting quite a lot. While the total aid that Azur Lane will provide eclipses that of the Crimson Axis, the contributions they've pledged to provide the Empire, regardless of their decision, is significant enough that trying to out bid that and us will be a much tougher bargain."
Prinz Eugen tapped a finger to her lips thoughtfully. "And if they take what we have to offer and then join Azur Lane anyway?"
"We don't allow that to happen by setting up continuous agreements for the provision of aid over a long period and threaten to cut them off if they do." None of that even mentioned the more adventurous moves they could make to attempt to coerce the Empire to see things their way.
"And at the very least," she continued, "if Azur Lane does muster the support to outbid us that badly, then those resources will be working to build up a relative backwater rather than be used directly against us."
Prinz Eugen hummed a discordant tone. "The Crimson Axis doesn't get a lot out of it."
"Compared to if they were an ally? Of course not. If they do stay out of Azur Lane, then we have someone to trade with rather than fight against if the war heats back up. Besides, think of the deal as buying the opportunity to continue trying to convince them to join us instead of them."
Prinz Eugen let out a hum of contemplation and then a long sigh. "I'll bring up your idea at the next meeting, but I'm making it clear it's not my idea," she conceded. Taihou grinned. Good.
She knew that a few were already thinking they should reassess their options. Prinz Eugen bringing it up would give them the courage to voice their own ideas.
Taihou wanted to bring back as much good news as possible. Keeping them out of Azur Lane, when faced with the brunt of their enemy's soft power, would be seen as a diplomatic coup. Having contributed to that, Taihou will have proven herself for the last time.
Then her leadership of the Sakura Empire would be assured, and the country where the heships had come from would remain open to her and the rest of the Sakura Empire.
"What's going on with everyone else in the Sakura Empire's delegation, anyway," Prinz Eugen asked. Taihou raised an eyebrow. Eugen wasn't one who displayed outward displays of emotion often. Or, at least, not outside the supposed privacy of her and her sister's quarters, anyway.
This line of questioning had a purpose, then.
Taihou kept her answer relatively short, her mind already elsewhere now that she'd accomplished what she'd wanted this meeting for. She told her Akashi was slowly making inroads, Suruga and Takao were doing administrative work well, and the others were being well behaved enough when they were training.
Prinz Eugen's response was much longer. U-37 had been mapping out the coastline of the new continent, especially close to the gargantuan cliffs that hadn't formerly been beachside property. Supposedly, they were hoping to find some evidence of how or why the Sirens had moved their country here, but Taihou wouldn't be surprised if the Empire complained about an Iron Blood base appearing in one of those cliffs in the next few months or years.
Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Brünhilde were all getting restless and had begun to badger her to train with them, which would have amounted to Prinz Eugen having to dodge the fire from the three battlecruisers.
Deutschland, Admiral Graf Spee, Roon were all complaining about head-splitting migraines. What was odd was that none of the usual medicine was working. What was more odd was that there were reports of the same reaching them from back home. Prinz Eugen had a theory about them, but she was waiting until there were fewer secrets before she put anything to paper.
Something was also wrong with Mainz. "Since you didn't mention her earlier, I assume she's bemoaning the state of the coffee here?" Taihou said with a gesture to Prinz Eugen's own cup. Taihou was partaking in some tea, but she'd already heard complaints that, like most of the food not being served to the politicians or the Kaiser, it was substandard if not outright bad.
"No, actually," she said, as if she couldn't believe her own words, "it's the opposite. Somehow, she's found a new 'best brew' here." Her voice was tinged with skepticism.
Taihou couldn't resist allowing her eyebrows to rise. "She hasn't gotten cocaine mixed into her coffee again, has she?"
Prinz Eugen shuddered. "No, probably not. No one wants a repeat of that."
Taihou outwardly nodded and inwardly agreed vehemently. She couldn't agree more with the kansen.
Prinz Eugen concluded, "And, thankfully, Elbe has stopped trying to make thinly-veiled passes at any half-decent man she lays her eyes on. I might just be able to take the battlecruisers up on their offer if she keeps quiet."
Taihou nodded and soon, after a few pleasantries, they stood to leave after paying with some of the money provided by their superiors. As they turned away from each other at the door, Taihou got the faintest suspicion that there was something more Prinz Eugen wanted to say.
Then, she just smiled enigmatically and turned away, and Taihou put the moment after all. She had more pressing matters to occupy her thoughts.
She almost smiled, but managed to keep a look of passive interest on her face as she scrolled through her phone. She knew, after all, why Elbe had stopped annoying Prinz Eugen. The two of them were going to a meeting with others. Only one of the minor factions was represented, but each major faction had at least two kansen who were attending.
Taihou couldn't help it and smiled as she continued to think. Yes, they would meet later that day to discuss… things. They would obviously wait to enact whatever plans they had for those things until after the joint exercise, as Degurechaff had asked. She seemed to be a shoe-in for leadership, if her sheer presence in the propaganda and the relative lack of any other major kansen figure was anything to go by, and if she did wind up becoming the leader of Nemonia, then there was absolutely no way Taihou was going to upset someone so potentially important without good cause.
Mentally lamenting the fact that the lack of contact with Nemonia meant no one with their proclivities would be represented in the meeting, Taihou continued to plan and scheme, for the meeting and beyond.
-OxOxO-
The training for that day, their last opportunity to do so, was progressing with full vigor. At the start, not a single one had been able to stand at attention properly, and though their abilities were impressive, they hadn't had any experience in using them.
Now, they were doing all that and even more. Their ability to best the marine mages and even the 203rd was increasing greatly, and all of them were excited to put their abilities to the test tomorrow.
Of course, there was still much work to do, Viktoriya observed. Sure, the most improvement could be seen at the beginning, but for them to become good, they would need months more training. Building all the physical and bureaucratic infrastructure to train over a hundred people in so many different disciplines at once had been arduous, and advisors from whichever faction the Empire joined was one of the many requests Viktoriya had submitted, at Tanya's behest.
Another one was for more specialized sheships. Apparently, sheships could suffer from problems that only a repair ship would be capable of fixing in a timely manner. Vestal and Akashi were the two most famous internationally, but there were over half a dozen in each of the major factions. Munitions ships were also apparently helpful in larger fleets.
As Viktoriya continued to survey the good work, she sudden;y spotted someone sitting on one of the docks jutting out of the Emerald Bay. She clicked her tongue in exasperation. She understood that it was grueling work, especially for the ships that appeared to be younger like this one, but that didn't mean someone could just sneak off and take a break whenever they liked.
She radioed it in. "I've spotted a delinquent sitting on the docks. Whoever lost her, you're staying out late for not calling it in."
She waited, and then, one by one, the other members of the 203rd, either training the sheships directly or simply observing when the training wasn't something they knew how to teach, like dueling, called in that they weren't missing anyone. By the end, Viktoriya was fully annoyed and started drifting down.
She switched channels. "Weiss," she asked, the man being her partner for the day on overwatch and management, "did we get a new sheship and no one told us?"
"Er," he haltingly started, "I think I overheard a rumor about something like that, but we haven't gotten anything officially. Schugel's not making anymore until after the joint exercises."
Viktoriya's scowl deepened. "Alright, let's go check it out," she said with a shrug. Had Schugel done this off the books, or had Tanya just forgotten to tell them? That wasn't like her-
Then, as Viktoriya flew closer, she felt her scowl fade into a blank mask of numb, ice-cold confusion. It felt like she'd just tripped and gotten stuck in a snowbank, or like the feeling of pins and needles that afflicted her limbs when they fell asleep had encompassed her whole body.
What? She… this couldn't possibly be-
"No fucking way," she heard Weiss mutter over the radio. Viktoriya almost parroted the same thing he had uttered, but all she could do was nod dumbly as she finally flew within talking distance of he figure.
Undeniably, it was Tanya.
Wearing that dress.
Surrounded by… creatures.
Cute, fluffy creatures.
Viktoriya continued to drift closer, not sure what she could say.
Weiss had, at some point, arrived at her side, and they drifted down together, just watching as Tanya, dressed in red, played with… the things.
They seemed to be divided into three groups, physiologically. The first looked similar to chicks, except they were overgrown to a monstrous degree. Overall, they were more uniform in their pastel yellowness and their tubby-cuteness than the others.
The second group was less uniform in color, seemingly made up of many whites, blues, blacks, and mottled blacks, browns, and oranges. Viktoriya had first thought they were just particularly stout cats that someone had put hats on, but the few that weren't lounging around Tanya or being pet by her were running around on two legs, chasing the chicks or the members of the third group.
The last group appeared to be tiny humans wearing tiny naval uniforms with oversized heads, multicolored hair, and animal ears poking out of the top of their heads.
"Am… I dreaming?" Viktoriya asked. It seemed a very pertinent question to ask.
"Careful," Weiss cautioned, "if you had a dream about the Lieutenant acting this cute, she'd probably find out and turn your life into a nightmare." It might have been phrased as a joke, but neither was sure she wouldn't do that if it did happen.
Tanya looked up at them and blinked owlishly. Before either could respond, make themselves scarce, or beg for mercy for having witnessed an act so cute being perpetrated by their once-and-former superior, the girl glared.
Oh, so they were DEAD dead.
They didn't know why she was wearing that dress when there wasn't a camera around. They didn't know why she was playing with some very odd chickens and cats and what had to be children – because, surely, they couldn't be anything else. They didn't know why she had a second pair of ears on the top of her head…
Viktoriya blinked twice. "Tanya?" she asked, sounding much less terrified than she probably should.
Her scowl held for another three seconds, during which Viktoriya contemplated her life extensively, after which it broke into a pout that was just as adorable as her rocking one of the yellow chicks in a helmet while rubbing the cat-things. "Aw, I thought I could trick you."
Viktoriya felt the intense need to request, to demand some answers, but she didn't voice that need for fear of blubbering incoherently. Luckily, Weiss managed to do enough blubbering for the both of them.
She stood up, to the sadness of the assembled chicks and cat-things and hopefully-children around her who began walking off. "Good morning to you both! Though my conversion was never completed, I am happy to stand before you as the Empire's first aircraft carrier, ready to serve the fatherland! If you haven't already guessed," she said, a sly smile growing on her face, "then my namesake probably didn't train you that well, did she?"
She cleared her throat. "Ahem. Now, as Lieutenant, I order you to tell me sto- I mean," she said, correcting herself, "to recount our most crushing victories to me. In detail."
Weiss turned his head away from her and began muttering rapidly, probably telling the rest of the 203rd to come see before Tanya ordered them not to associate with her other self, while the both of them drifted closer to the dock.
"Uh," Viktoriya said eloquently. "…Sure."
The girl, Tanya, below them blinked, apparently stupefied. "Wait, re- I mean, of course!" she declared in a voice that hadn't sounded so sure they'd indulge her.
Just about the only thought that was running through Viktoriya's mind was:
God, she was cute.
They both landed, and Viktoriya couldn't help but point at the top of the girl's head. "If you don't mind me asking while we wait for the others to arrive, sir," Viktoriya said, "Are those ears…"
She blinked and then looked up at the top of her head with a saccharine grin. "Oh, there? Yeah, uh, I got this too," she said, spinning around to show them her tail, covered in fleece as gold as her hair. She spun back towards them and struck a pose, and Viktoriya was certain that if Tanya ever found out Viktoriya had the video she was recording, she'd intimidate anyone who even knew of its existence into silence via threats of imminent and continuous bodily harm over the span of the rest of their vastly shortened lives.
"I talked to some of the others last night, and they think I'm part sheep!" she declared excitedly before flopping back onto the ground. They joined her and watched as numerous spots in the distance began to fly closer.
"Also," Weiss said, "are you here to participate in training?"
She shook her head emphatically, her grin widening. "Well, my namesake said that I don't officially exist yet," she said, "and that the good Doctor Schugel said we're keeping it a secret until after the Empire reveals you guys aren't actual shippeople!"
She sat up just a tad straighter and held a balled fist to her chest. "Can't have two Tanya von Degurechaffs running around, now can we?" she intoned, her voice a spot-on recreation of their superior's actual voice.
She cleared her throat. "Any- Anyway, to answer your question, not really? Oh, but Tanya promised me she'd spar with me around noon! I'm super excited!" she shouted, her eyes sparkling.
In that moment, Viktoriya was certain that this was the happiest anyone had ever been in the history of the entire Great War to fight against the White Silver.
"Hey," she whispered conspiratorially and unheeding of the collective internal meltdown Weiss and Viktoriya were having, "have you guys got any tips?"
They both tensed at that, the very thought of betraying Tanya, even in this small, inconsequential way, sending their minds back to months of training in the alps.
The girl giggled like a babbling brook. "Oh, nevermind! It'll be more fun if I don't know anything," she continued.
Viktoriya and Weiss's eyes met above the head of the girl kicking her feet into the air above the water. "Fun?" Viktoriya asked.
The girl nodded, still grinning as she looked at the oncoming aerial mages. "Yeah. Fun. I mean, it's a foregone conclusion that I'm going to win," she said.
Both Viktoriya and Weiss were stupefied into silence yet again. "It is?" Weiss asked after a moment of recovery. She nodded. "Yep."
She sniffed once. "God is on the side of the Empire, and on our side as well," she said. Her phrasing seemed odd, in Viktoriya's mind. Why distinguish between the Empire and 'them?' Did that include the 203rd, or just-
Viktoriya's thought was cut off. "It's just a simple fact that I am… better."
Viktoriya involuntarily gulped.
For all that she had sounded unsure and anxious about pretending to be Tanya, for all the cuteness she had earlier displayed, there was not a drop of unsurety or a hint of indecision in that declaration. She thought, in this, that she could beat Tanya without a doubt.
Still, Viktoriya felt obligated to go to bat for Tanya. "Your namesake has performed miracles before," Viktoriya replied. The girl's head snapped up to Viktoriya, her eyes depthless and hungry. "Can you tell me?"
Viktoriya could only answer with a nod, and, as the rest of the 203rd came to surround the girl, and she showed off her dress and talked about how excited she was to serve the Empire, Viktoriya was convinced that few would ever mistake this girl for Tanya after more than a cursory glance.
Mostly convinced.
She blinked as they began to tell her of their exploits in crushing the Francois Republic, a steely resolve rising up within her.
Their normal Tanya might be able to handle herself around some of the more… promiscuous sheships like Monarch, but this Tanya seemed completely innocent.
Viktoriya's gaze hardened to mirror the steel in her soul. She'd not let that innocence, no matter how minimal it might be in something whose existence was informed by someone like Tanya von Degurechaff, be unduly harmed.
-OxOxO-
A/N 1: For the longest time, I was split on whether to make her a more adult Tanya or a carbon copy of her. In the end, I figured it would make more sense for people to think of her as a little girl than for her to inexplicably be an adult. Add in the fact that, generally, a ship's displacement is correlated with their physical size/maturity and that any ship made from an ocean liner would necessarily have a more limited displacement, and I was leaning towards making her younger.
Anyways, the next chapter will be their spar. Hope you're all looking forward to it! I think I've come up with some interesting abilities for her to have.
A/N 2: If you'd like to donate to support me monetarily, search for Sugarcane Soldier on the website of the Patrons.
Thank you to WarmasterOku, Afforess, UNSC_Kawakaze, Theewizzz, and Vee for supporting this story and everything else I write. Make sure to vote if you haven't yet!