[AL Bismarck]

I entered my ship's kitchen in the early hours of the morning to prepare breakfast for my new comrades. While I'm not nearly as good as King George V in the kitchen, I had to at least put some effort in to care for these battle-weary girls. Lord knows how tough it's been for them against these 'Abyssals'.

Was that the name for the Sirens in this world, or were they something else? Were they easier to deal with, or a whole new nightmare?

Many of these questions ran though my mind as I prepared everything. I shook my head to focus in making hearty meals for them. After all, you should eat breakfast like a King.

When everything was ready, the girls walked into the canteen rubbing their eyes and yawning. They looked like they had had the best night's sleep in a long time.

"Guten Morgen. How are you all?"

They looked at me, surprised to see me in casual clothes and an apron. I suppose what my Azur Lane comrades say about me changing my demeanour depending on what I'm wearing is true, as they seemed to feel more comfortable with me from that moment onwards. Prinz sees the large buffet-like breakfast on the table. The different breads, boiled eggs, cheeses, cold meats, fish, etc.

"Bismarck?" Prinz asked, "Was ist das alles?"

"Frühstück!" I answered, gesturing to the table. "I wasn't sure what you all preferred, so I'll just let you all pick. I'm not the best cook by any means, but I hope it's fine." To my own surprise, their eyes all lit up in excitement and, again, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of my pride returning. I smiled and gestured, "Help yourselves, my friends. I'll make some Kaffee."

I'm fairly confident in that at least, thanks to Mainz' many lectures.

The Destroyers and U-Boats were sat down and digging in in a flash. Graf Zeppelin and Shinyou took their time selecting their food and Prinz walked up to me. She asked me, "You've only known us for a few hours, Bismarck… why do this for us?"

"I learned a lot of lessons from my comrades back home, Prinz. One of them is that you help whoever you can, however you can, no matter who they are. I could hear your bellies growling last night." I heard the coffee machine finish and turned to pour it into the mugs and added accidentally, "I'll help anyone I can, unless they're Sirens, of course."

"Sirens?" Prinz asked.

…I let that slip, didn't I?

"…I'll tell you later. How do you all take your Kaffee?" I asked as I grabbed some sugar and milk.

[KC Bismarck]

I decided to stretch my legs on the water after being cooped up for a while. I heard the sound of a Submarine surfacing.

Looking over, I saw another member of this crew of shipgirls. A blue-haired little one staring at me with hesitation and distrust, as if I was some stranger wearing the face of someone she cared deeply for.

Oh, wait. I guess I was.

"Hello." I tried, smiling and waving to her.

The Submarine, who I learned later on was named U-556, just looked away and took off ahead, scouting the seas in front of us.

"I hope I don't scare her…"

"Don't worry about her. She'll warm up to you. She just failed in her oath, so it'll take her some time." Eugen said from behind me. She had came out with me to carry on our conversation. And to keep an eye on me, I suppose.

"Her oath?"

"Let's sail out a bit. I don't want the Royals eavesdropping." She requested, sailing ahead.

I followed her so that we were far ahead of Hood's ship. It felt quite odd seeing a vessel of human design just sailing along on the oceans, unmolested by Abyssals, but as I would soon learn, a much worse enemy exists here.

"U-556…" Eugen sighed, "She swore to protect Lord Bismarck with her life whenever she can. She took an oath like a Knight, and it takes a heavy toll on her whenever Bismarck gets hurt. No matter how insignificant, she feels an immense amount of guilt for not protecting her."

"Is my other self that reliant on her? Does 556 think I'll yell at her?" I asked, worried about the adorable girl.

Eugen chuckles, "Oh, nein. It's nothing like that. Bismarck and U-556 get on like a mother and daughter. Funny how everyone sees that except themselves. It's because U-556 has… trauma from the War. She pledged herself to protect her, but ended up watching as the ship who doomed her sent aircraft. She was unable to help as she had no ammo."

"Oh… I see… I'll… give her some space, then. I don't want her to feel like I've replaced her friend." I nodded.

"That would be best…" Eugen agreed. After a few seconds of silence, she asked, "I have another question. One that it's best to ask now we're alone."

"Was ist das?" I responded, looking at her.

Eugen blushed a little, "Are you and your version of me… close?"

Some red appeared on my face as well, "Um… we… are very close friends… I'm not very sure how she feels beyond that… we haven't really talked about it. It's… kind of awkward."

"She doesn't make it obvious, hmm? Is she a teaser like me~?"

"Nein… she's very sweet…" I couldn't help but smile, "She's quite cute, too. Innocent, playful. But she can sure deal some damage when she needs to. Whenever Nagato needs some firepower, she calls on the two of us among her most powerful ships."

"You have a Nagato, too?" Eugen asked.

"Ja. Secretary Ship Nagato. I doubt the base could even run without her. She relays orders from the Admiral and acts as our Kommandantin in battles. She's quite serious, tall and intimidating. She even kicked an Abyssal in the face-"

I was interrupted by Eugen's uproar of laughter.

"Is something funny?" I asked.

"Es tut mir Leid…" Eugen apologised before explaining herself, "Its just that… you describing Nagato as someone who's tall, intimidating and serious as well as kicking someone in the head threw me off and I couldn't help it."

Nagato was always a pillar of hope for us, a role model for the entire fleet. Was their version not like that? I found out later on, of course, but at the time I could only speculate. "What is your Nagato like?"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. Our base just appeared on the horizon, look." Eugen pointed ahead.

"Ah, ja. I see it. Doesn't seem much bigger than the Naval District." I observed. "Wait, what's happening?" I asked as the air in front of us started shimmering and cracking as if it were glass.

U-556 exclaimed into the radio, "Sirens!"

I heard the Battlecruiser behind us vanish and the two British women joined us with their riggings.

Wales drew her sword, which I somehow didn't even notice she had up until then, and added, "Bloody hell! Now, of all times!"

"Sirens?" I muttered as I aimed my guns along with my new friends.

"Ah, It's about time they tried something, I was getting bored." Eugen stated with a cocky tone. Prinz would've gotten nervous by now.

"Very bold of them, attacking so close to our HQ." Hood muttered.

A few black warships with glowing coloured tribal markings sail through the portals, followed by what looked like a humanoid Abyssal, but she was… smiling?

To my great surprise, she even spoke.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? An anomaly? How exciting!"

"Purifier! What are you doing here!?" Wales demanded, pointing her sword up at her floating pale girl.

The Siren rolls her eyes and answers, "Uh… it's my job to get rid of anomalies, remember? To purify the timeline? Hence my name? Now hand over the fake Bismarck and I'll be on my way. I'm sure Empress would love to get her hands on this one, hehe…" Her massive guns aim at us, along with all the warships now surrounding us.

Thankfully, nobody told her about the much bigger anomaly that made me switch places with my much stronger counterpart.

When I was debating about wether to just step forward to save my new friends the trouble of fighting, Hood put her hand on my shoulder and pulled me back before responding, "You want her, you're going to have to go through us, Siren!"

"I was hoping you'd say that! HAHAHAHA!" The psycho cackled as she fired a massive beam of pure energy. An attack more powerful than any I've seen from an Abyssal. My new friends and I barely evaded as the water instantly boiled beneath the plasma and they started to fight back, quickly crippling the big warships. Hood and Eugen's riggings started glowing and they yelled out certain phrases, enhancing their strikes.

Hood's glowed red and she shouted, "Royal Navy's Glory!" As she fired a barrage that shredded the enemy ships with lighter armour, instantly dealing with them, boosting her own shields and allowing us to reload faster. Surprisingly, it worked on me, too.

Eugen yelled out, "Unbreakable shield! All Out Assault!" And her rigging glowed purple. The red one enhanced her attacks overall and her blue skill generated blue spherical shields for all of us, bolstering our defences, which I needed when an enemy shell impacted my shield, bouncing off.

Wales didn't use a special ability as hers wouldn't help us. She explained why later on.

The light show and the seemingly magic powers stunned me so much I actually struggled to see what I could do to help them. All I could do is launch a special torpedo salvo despite the real Bismarck never having them, meaning I can only do it once every battle.

Rushing about and finding my rigging far outclassed by everyone, I eventually found myself staring down the one Hood called 'Purifier' while my friends fought off the ambush.

"Now that your friends are distracted, how about you let me get rid of you? I'll make it quick. Promise."

I stepped back and yelled, "Dummkopf! You dare threaten the leader of the Kriegsmarine? Die, abomination!" I fired my guns at her and used my special torpedo attack, but to my horror, my attacks just exploded upon impacting her own energy shield.

"Was…?"

"…You're really not from this world, are you?" The crazy woman shrugged before taking aim at me again. "After you're dead, I'm sure your world would be VERY easy to conquer! HAHAHAHA!"

All I could see was a blinding light as her main plasma cannon charged up and Hood yelling, "BISMARCK!" Before I was blasted at point-blank range by the most devastating attack I've ever had the misfortune of taking.

At first, I didn't feel much as I was engulfed by the plasma and thrown off my feet. After the attack, however, when I hit the water and the salt assaulted my new burns and open wounds, then the pain really set in.

Purifier's laughs and the panicked voices of my new friends were drowned out by my own shrieks of agony. I still feel the pain to this day. No Abyssal could be this powerful. The shield Eugen generated for me took the brunt of theblast before failing, otherwise I'm sure that attack would've disintegrated me. At that moment, I half-wished it did.

"BISMARCK!" Hood yelled out again as she and Eugen kneeled either side of me. The former held me as Eugen made new shields for us and I started to pass out from the sheer agony I felt.

Looking ahead, I saw Purifer charging up another attack and she shouted, "You Kansen and your damn shields! I told Observer only we should have them! Oh, well, time to kill all three of you! HAHAHAHA!"

Before she could fire again, though, Wales charged at her and used her sword to cut off her gun barrels, causing her rigging to overcharge and blow itself up as it could no longer channel the plasma energy away. "OH, COME ON!" The Siren shrieked while half her face melted off from the plasma before U-556 surfaced in front of her and torpedoed her, sending her flying back through her own portal, making it close up.

As the enemy fleet sank below the waves, the cracks in the air repaired themselves until reality returned to normal. As I blacked out, I could faintly hear my allies speaking.

"Oh God… this is bad…." Wales stated.

"I've never seen someone take so much damage like this…" Eugen muttered in a serious tone.

I felt Hood taking my pulse, "She's still alive. We need to get her back to base now!" She picked me up.

"Jervis! Perseus! We have a severely wounded human! Plasma burns! Prep an operating room immediately!" Wales ordered on her radio.

Before I could catch anything else, I slipped into unconsciousness.

Just what is this world? Where monsters like that are so easily fought by superwomen who are literally warships and not just ordinary people with their souls?

If just one of those Sirens with weapons like that existed in my world, we'd be on our knees within a week at most. Even the Abyssals would easily fall to them.

What good could I possibly do here?

[AL Bismarck]

With full bellies, a reinvigorated and very satisfied fleet of girls stayed with me on my ship. The smaller girls were running around on my main deck playing games around my main guns, but being careful not to touch anything. Graf Zeppelin and Prinz stood either side of me.

I looked at Prinz and asked, "So… you wanted to know about the Sirens?"

"Oh… ja. If it's okay?"

"Ja. I suppose there's no harm in telling you. They're not exactly a secret to my world anymore, and I doubt there are any here, but just in case I think you should know about them. The Sirens... There are theories that they come from the depths like your Abyssals, they could be alien invaders or even the product of human engineering gone awry in the process of creating us Kansen. But I know the truth."

"Then… what are they?" Graf Zeppelin asked.

"The last one, minus our creation. The Sirens were created by humanity to aid them in battles against extra-terrestrial threats and to protect the oceans. At the time, they were called the 'Antiochus'. They originally worked as intended. They kept everyone safe."

"So… what happened to them?" Prinz asked, intrigued.

"I still don't fully understand it, but according to all the intel we've gathered, the Antiochus leader, Observer Zero, had detected an enemy so powerful even they couldn't even begin to fathom it. With no other logical way forward, she created Wisdom Cubes and gave them to humanity, and they eventually learned they can use them to give life to certain intimate objects."

"Certain objects?"

"Objects like weapons, vehicles, anything with some practical use. They even worked with simple hand and power tools and created what we call the Bulins. After they granted humanity this boon, the Antiochus disappeared, seemingly abandoning the humans to the new threat. After the humans dabbled in Wisdom Cube research, they managed to fuse them with tanks, planes, firearms, and eventually warships, leading to us, women awakening from the metal of our hulls. Our official designation is Kinetics Artificial Navy-Self-regulation En-lore Node, or Kansen for short."

I looked down at my hand. Whenever I think more about this, the existentialism always kicks in. Unlike these girls, I'm no real human. "We… still hold the memories of our past, and our histories shaped our looks, outfits and personalities. The girls with tank riggings, the Panzermädchen, aid infantry and ground units. The firearms created girls known as T-Dolls that know best how to use them to teach the humans, and the Plane Girls handle aerial threats and have worked directly with our Carriers multiple times in the past.

"Woah…" Prinz whispered, amazed at this almost magical technology.

Graf Zeppelin hummed, "Hmm, and I assume these Cubes allow you to possess riggings and turn them into your warship forms?"

"Correct. We're not sure exactly how it works for the other weapons, but for many of us Kansen, our ships are mere replicas, others still have their original hulls, now modified and modernised. This ship is just one of those replicas, which means it's actually more powerful than my original hull. It has energy shields, technology taken from the Sirens, and mine personally has a special ability to deal critical damage on its first barrage in a battle. Of course, it has to hit whatever it's fired at or it's wasted."

"That's so cool!" Prinz bounces up and down. I couldn't help but smile at her adorableness. Part of me still can't believe she's an alternate Eugen.

"Then, of course, the inevitable happened. Humanity started competing with each other. When another war was about to break out, the Antiochus returned, this time as the Sirens, and turned on all of us. Attacking anything and everything that isn't one of their ships. We were forced to work together to fight them…" As I stared ahead, I decided to try and switch topics as it started going places I am still ashamed of myself for, "Is she like me?"

"Hmm?" Prinz looked up at me, confused by the sudden question.

"Your Bismarck. She's probably a far better leader than I."

"Why would you say that?" Their Zeppelin asked.

"Ja, you've been really kind to us, cared for us. Why would you think you're a bad leader?" Prinz added.

I looked down, remembering my mistakes again, feeling my sliver of pride vanish once more, "Because I am."

"But why? What happened?" Prinz stood in front of me, "We won't judge."

I looked at Zeppelin, who nodded in agreement.

I sighed and turned around. I started to walk back inside. "I'll explain on my bridge."

When we got back up there, I began, "A while after we were pushed out of the oceans, I lead my entire faction down a dark path. I believed the word of one of the Sirens. I shouldn't have. I thought I was leading us to glory by allying with them and combining our technology, but soon after, I realised we were becoming slaves to the Sirens. It took some time before I could devise a way out of it. Took a long time to reintegrate back into Azur Lane. Even now a lot of Kansen on both sides resent each other for it. It was all my fault. I caused a schism between us when we should've been fighting together the whole time."

A lot of people may say that Akagi of the Sakura Empire was equally to blame, but she has a reputation of being an unhinged sociopath, even now.

If I'm as bad as her, what does that make me?

"Bismarck…" Prinz gently held my hand.

"Have you been working to make up for it?" Zeppelin asked.

"Natürlich. I've been trying so hard to correct my mistakes… but a lot of my fellow Kansen, especially the Royals, can't seem to bury the hatchet as easily as others. Ironic that the one I sank myself was the first to forgive me… or so she says."

"You're far too hard on yourself." Zeppelin stated.

"Huh?" I could only respond as I looked at her.

She went on, "You did what you thought was correct. For the good of your comrades. Your family. Now that you've seen that was the wrong path, you're working on doing better. A bad person wouldn't put so much effort in. We never asked for any of the things you've done for us in the past few hours, but you provided it anyway. You're a good person at heart, Bismarck. To go ahead and do so much just to make sure we are looked after. I imagine your faction is lucky to have a leader like you. You're just like our version of you. I'm positive that if she was capable of doing the good things you've done, she would've done so, too."

"You're also a pretty good cook, Bismarck!" Prinz added with a genuine smile.

While I did appreciate the reassurance and the compliment, deep down, it didn't do much for me. It's similar to what I've heard from so many Kansen who forgave me in the past. Despite that, I put on a smile and nodded, "Danke schön."

I knew for a fact that they were not lying to me, but the constant voice in my head just kept telling me otherwise until I believed it.

Plus, I doubt their version of me has made any mistakes as big as the ones that haunt me daily.

Thankfully, before I started to spiral again, a warning came up on my central console. Immediately my mind switched to my flagship attitude and I went over and pulled up a holographic map showing me what was going on. To the amazement of my peers, who I assume don't have this level of technology, yellow blips appeared in front of us, marked "Unknown."

"Abyssals." Graf Zeppelin growled, "I'd recognise that disorganised formation anywhere."

"Do you have bombers?" I asked her, changing their blips to red.

"Ja. I have a squadron of Stukas ready."

"Get out there and launch them. Prinz, you're with me. We're going in with the little ones."

"Jawohl!" The Cruiser replied as she ran out with us.

Once we were all on the water, I briefed the Destroyers and U-Boats and quickly gave them roles. With the former two staying with Zeppelin as escorts and the latter two submerging to flank the enemy, Prinz quickly explained what these 'Abyssals' are.

"So, they're deep sea creatures and they just sort of appeared?" I asked.

"Basically, ja. They drove humanity from the oceans and we've been trying to defeat them, but we've had too many setbacks to really make a difference." Prinz confirmed with a rather crestfallen tone.

"Right. Let's deal with them, then." I tuned my radio to speak to the others, "Graf, soften them up. We'll cover you with AA fire."

"Jawohl!" The Carrier acknowledged as her Stukas dived down with their sirens blaring. They pulled up as the freakish-looking creatures below took damage. Upon observing the humanoids among them, I could see they look somewhat like Sirens if they were even more like Eldritch horrors. Completely silent and emotionless, even more so than the more deadpan Siren Arbiters I've encountered. They had haunting, glowing eyes and cracked faces.

They looked undead, if anything.

After Graf's Stukas turned back, flying orbs with massive teeth launched from their Aviation Battleship unit, who looked like a little pale girl and the only one showing any kind of emotion. Her tiny stature reminded me of Observer Zero.

"Target the small one. She's the biggest threat." I ordered.

"You got it!" Prinz replied, focusing on the small girl.

I heard the little one yell out, "Go back… !"

Massive towers of water erupt from the back of the fleet, meaning the U-Boats have slipped around and hit them from behind. That caused the Abyssals to scatter and become disorganised, the little one's escorts abandoning her.

"Bismarck! The Northern Princess has been too damaged to continue!" Prinz reports.

"That's the little one, ja?"

"Ja!"

"Alright, focus on mopping up the rest! I'll take her alive!" I couldn't bring myself to order the sinking of one so little, even if she was some monster.

"Jawohl!"

"Don't come closer… I'm… telling you…" She whimpered as she put her hands in front to protect herself from me.

I swiftly sailed forth and grabbed her. "I won't hurt you, little one." I assured her. Surprisingly, that seemed to work as she didn't struggle or resist and seemed to actually enjoy being lifted up and carried once she realised I didn't intend to harm her.

A princess, indeed.

She looked up at me and tilted her head with an innocent look. She said, "You're… different?" While rubbing her red eyes with her mittened hands, as if comfortable with me. "You're… not human either…"

Even an alien enemy from another world instantly sees through the facade of humanity I possess in this false human form, but how could this adorable little thing be one of those disturbing monsters? "…do you surrender?" I asked.

"Can I live… to see mama?" The Princess responded again.

"Who is your mother, little one?" I asked.

"Seaport…"

"You will live. Just don't attack anyone, okay?"

Northern Princess nodded and smiled.

"Good girl. For now, you're coming with us. I promise we'll look after you."

Assuming she isn't attacking anymore because she has a child's attention span and is easily trusting, I proclaimed, "Victory is ours, girls."

At the time I was unaware of a pair of eyes matching the little one's watching me from the wrecks of the Abyssal ships.

I carried the girl back to them as they cheered, but quickly went silent when they saw me carrying the Princess.

"Bismarck!? How did you-!?" Prinz exclaimed.

"She's actually quite harmless when she's not fighting. See?" I tickled under her chin and she laughed like any small child would.

"I assumed they were some sort of hive mind." Zeppelin states as she approaches to see her closely.

The Princess seemed scared of her and hugged my tight, burying her face into me. Zeppelin then had an idea. "Hey, do you want a toy?"

The mention of that made the small girl slowly look at her. Zeppelin showed her one of her tiny Bf-109 1Ts, a Carrier-based version of the fighter craft. For some reason, the Carriers in this world launched small, model-sized aircraft. She then got out another plane, a Carrier version of am Fw-190.

"The Messerschmitt… is a good machine. The Focke-Wulf is an extremely strong fighter, too… Yup. Choose one." Zeppelin may not be the best with kids, but she tried.

Luckily for me, I've had s9me experience with Parzival. Luckily for her, Northern Princess understood and chose the 109 1T without any further hesitation, securing a friendship with her. The fighter turned all black in her hands. She held it up and started pretending it was flying.

"Seems she likes you now, Graf." I joked.

"Close enough, I guess." Zeppelin sighed before turning towards my ship again. She put away her 190.

"Let's go then, little one." I carried her all the way and she took the opportunity to 'fly' her little plane while sat on my shoulders, making little engine sounds.

"She's actually really cute…" Prinz admits.

I agreed, "Ja. How she's one of those things is a mystery…"