The commander knocked twice. Waiting for the custom. almost-expected response before he opened the door and stepped into where Norfolk and Vestal were once, He found the repair ship and caretaker of Enterprise (As she sometimes called herself) slouching over her table. Scribbling down notes. Likely for the new shipgirl. he guessed.

"Vestal." He greeted with the grace of a commissioned officer. "So what did you find out about our new girl?"

"Didn't you get my report? You should have done so by now." Vestal replied, still recording new notes.

"I did." He confirmed. "But I want to hear it from you."

Vestal chuckled. finally putting down her pencil and slowly shaking her head. "Commander, When will you ever get over the resistance you have against actually reading?" She said. spinning on her swivel chair to face him with her arms crossed. though the man didn't flinch nor react.

"The same time you stop pulling all-nighters in here." He retorted. earning a grumble from the repair ship. The man himself, despite the subtle training to see casualties as statistics did show some concern for the shipgirls under his command. Partly genuine. Partly out of logic. "So. Do we have anything interesting?"

"That depends." Vestal replied with a curious and at the same time indecisive tone. leaning back in her chair. her uniform leaving nothing to the imagination if one focused surely on her chest area. However, the commander had long since gotten used to it. After all. he had interacted with the more... eccentric shipgirls who would have been discharged long ago if they had been simply humans. But alas, not. "Are you familiar with the Alsace-class?"

"Hmm." He mumbled. "Cancelled because of the Battle for France. right?" Vestal nodded. her eyes strained by hours of work, but focused due to her superhuman -some would say supernatural- traits.

"Yes. the one." Vestal replied. her look professional with a subtle smile that betrayed no stray thoughts. "Fast battleship. Three variants. One was a enlarged Richelieu-class with forward and aft turrets. Number two had triple 406mm turrets. Number three was slightly faster and mounted three quadruple 380mm turrets along with heavier secondaries." She paused. taking a breath before continuing. "But HMS Norfolk is not supposed to be the Alsace-class. correct?"

"A-hm." The Commander muttered. "So she is supposed to be a Royal navy ship, but she is somehow a unbuilt ship of foreign origin." He said to himself mostly.

"I think we don't even know how she was brought into form. or why she is not the Norfolk-Subclass." Vestal chuckled. "Seriously though, I'd read up on the Alsace-class. She's the only fast battleship the Royal navy would have right now if they commanded her. But i doubt the Iris libre commanding branch of France would approve." In her mind. it was likely that this would provoke arguments and internal conflicts about who Norfolk was supposed to serve. She was still british, but owning to her being the Alsace-class down to the last inch of steel. it was logical to assume she should be treated as french. No doubt, it would cause endless headaches for them.

"How about her specifically?" He asked. to which the repair ship shrugged before returning to her normal pose.

"Well, I've checked her out and so far. her words are backed in regards to her weapons. though I don't know if that's what you're asking..." Vestal replied, pointing a thumb towards her notepad that was on the table. "Truth be told. Her Armaments are all fictional, she shouldn't even exist in the first place. yet here she is."

The Commander raised an eyebrow. intrigued and curious. "Already? So the messages were true?"

Vestal returned the look. "Weren't you there for her debriefing?" She asked. the man motioning for her to go on. "I gave her a once over, she's armed with them. we may not even know how to support her logistically."

"And that's what you're trying to figure out..." He stated. Vestal confirmed it with a nod. "May i take a look?"

Vestal slid herself aside. getting up and pushing her chair aside to make space before sitting down again. "You don't need to ask!" She said. motioning to the manual she had been scribbling down on.

The Commander walked up, picking it up and reading it out as he flipped the pages. looking at the technical designs and specifications for the Alsace-class variants and Vestal's notes about Norfolk's anomalies and equipment that was not supposed to exist on the actual battleships. He had to admit, the ships were impressive for the day. Even the anti-aircraft suite on her was not too bad by modern standards, although the strange battleship was heavily lacking in medium and long-range missiles. For she carried the GWS-24 Seacat systems and oddly enough the Rapier missile system. but there was nothing like Standard or anything like it. although the amount of gun-based AAA systems on her was high for her size. "Overly heavy on guns and short-range missile systems. but no long range BVR capabilities..." He commented.

"That's what I know about her at the moment. " Vestal said. "I believe her exact words were to put as many anti aircraft guns on her as feasible."

The Commander gave her an amused. funny look before noting that the note described how there were heavy 533mm+ and 480mm torpedo launchers. Two triples and four triples respectively and that they all were located on the rear. "Torpedoes?"

"The Alsace-class battleship didn't have torpedo tubes historically, but at this point I am not surprised anymore. She has her torpedoes on deck and if i am correct. She has Mark 16s and Mark 34 anti-submarine torpedoes. I can only presume the Mark 16s were for hunting other battleships and the Mark 34s were for sinking submarines. We can try and ask the Japanese to lease the Long lances if we can't understand how to make the Mark 16s. but the Mark 34s will be much harder." At the commander's questioning look. she continued. "...She was the one who wanted the torpedoes to be kept."

The man shrugged and gave the note another inspection. going over it again to make sure he hadn't missed anything. "You're also tuning her boilers and making slight improvements to her anti-ship missile launchers. is that not redundant?"

"She was the one who asked for it." Vestal said dismissingly. "Besides, Right now we have a golden chance to see how her armaments work. see if they can be applied to our designs. experiment with a blank state."

"What do you mean?" He asked, still going over the details and eyeing the Soviet Termit missiles. again another anomaly seeing as Norfolk supposedly should have NATO systems. not a anachronistic mix of historical Warsaw Pact and NATO. as well as the Ikaras and Weapon Alpha. He had to admit, in battle she would be unstoppable to anything short of being outnumbered massively.

"Well. Most of our modifications are based off historical refits to our ships so far." Vestal explained. hands down. "It makes it simple to work out what we're doing, the only hard part is making sure they don't hinder effectiveness nor they be impractical. If you wanted to put together something different than that modification then we've basically speculating. In theory we could fit light cruiser guns to destroyers. but the weight growth would be unacceptable and we have to make the best of what we have currently."

The commander nodded. already aware of that problem from experimental programs in seeing if the 'Z23' pocket-cruiser ideas could be applied to other destroyers to give them a edge in range based on the principle that the one who strikes first. wins the engagement. Vestal didn't pause.

"Because of that, The only modifications we've done so far that break this norm are the Fusou sisters and the completely hypothetical idea of conversion to battlecarriers as happened with the Ise-class." Vestal began to rest her arm on the table. already slowly tapping it with her fingers. "But here, we have a completely blank state when it comes to her modification. since the Alsace-class was never built in the first place and she... somehow managed to end up as the Alsaces and of all things, she ended up with a completely fictional modernization. I don't know why. But here she is now."

"So. we could theoretically added whatever we want to her so long as it doesn't cause any knock-on effects?" He wondered aloud. seeing what Vestal was trying to do with this.

"Well, That's a good question..." Vestal began. "You know the 40mm Bofors that we have and the Oerlikons?"

The commander nodded. understanding where she was trying to go with this. Norfolk was already an anti-aircraft umbrella in her own right due to her missile systems and RADAR-directed 20mms. though he never knew as to whether they were the RPC Oerlikon or the 25mm Oerlikon KBA RWS since Vestal never specified fully. but there was no reason why she was unable to fire modern ammunition in the old 40mm guns. If done, The cruiser-battleship would be one of the most powerful AA units other than possibly a carrier. "It seems like we're focusing too much on her anti-aircraft suite."

Vestal sighed. "We can't really make the radars and the autoloading mechanisms she uses for her dual-purpose batteries. As she stands though, She can still use some upgrades especially since she can fire modern Bofors proximity-fused ammunition already." She gave a questioning look. "And the Americans did the same thing for their battleships when the Japanese began relying on their land and carrier air power. It's not that much of a stretch to do the same thing to her."

"Alright. I understand." The commander said. waving his hands to show he did so. "Do what you can with her, but hold off until she completes her basic training."

"Will do. Sir." Vestal said with a slight grin. getting back to work as the Commander read over the battleship's carrier abilities as reported by the fleet. "Can i ask for a favor?" Vestal added suddenly. "Could you keep the girl where she belongs. in the Royal navy? I think she deserves to be with her sister rather than people she doesn't understand and i believe she would appreciate not being caught in a political dispute... No doubt the French are going to want her, but the British will not let go of their metaphorical golden goose."

The man nodded. a empathetic look at the corners of his mouth. "I will see what strings i can pull."

It's been a week of so since I started training with Shropshire and undergoing basic combat training with an added familiarization course thrown on top for good course in case I forgotten what Azur lane was. It was tough due to my inability to concentrate in my past. but overall things were going alright for now.

Forced out of my online environment and into a in-person world. Learning social skills and their meanings was quite a chore in itself, Especially since I had never spoken with anyone before for a long time. My knowledge of France and Britain was not world-class. so it had not made me any better with Amazon, who got saddled with teaching me. If she wasn't such the Tsundere (Ironic. given I did show tsun-tsun tendencies myself) I would feel bad for her because of just how bad my social skills was. But after these days she did say that I was starting to improve so I count that not wasted,

Basic training was simple, Though how Amazon managed to not go insane i don't really know. She was a huge stickler just like her ingame self. and I had done my best to avoid resorting to japanese honorfics if possible. Although, If you followed along in class. took notes and memorized them carefully you did have a decent chance of succeeding. So far. it's not been too bad and on the upside I even got to know history behind the creation of the Azur lane organization.

Gunnery operations... Now that was much more my specialty, But I was very reliant on my Laser and RADAR rangefinding systems. which combined with my zero prior military training should not have been surprising in itself. Shropshire told me that my aim was not actually half-bad, but that when forced into Fire director mode... Let's just say I was wildly off-target by a order of magnitude. I could still hit something at close range. I just needed to drill that skill and slowly upping the ranges to improve my skills to operational capability. Also got training from the cruisers about torpedoes whenever they ended up with Shropshire in one of my drills. Anti-aircraft training was difficult. but not impossible without my missiles, More than likely. Akashi was completing her details about what could be done to improve me.

Speaking of technology. I had reluctantly went along with Akashi's and Vestal's plan to examine my components for anything that might help them. The results were obvious:They didn't understand what they were working with, nor did they know how to even make a knock-off. They did glean some clues that might be applied to their own RADAR and homing torpedo developments but... In contrast they were only moderate at best, and whatever technology advantage was gained sooner of later would be cancelled out by rival technology advances.

My reactors were also a problem in their own right. and i didn't feel like delving into the issue for now.

Not a bad outcome for keeping the balance of power. Apparently they even had called in the North Union to examine my aircraft and the more soviet-esque systems on me. I had no illusions as to what Russia had to gain from this, given they only joined Azur lane out of a major threat and because it would also accelerate their technology gains for shipgirls from bringing in their technical expertise on my enigmatic systems. Sooner or later, once this war was over. They were going to leave Azur lane given how they were feeling threatened by the growth of NATO and their need for breadbaskets and with no doubt stolen Jet engine technology and anything from me.

As for the Iris libre. and the Royal navy, To call it a bitching session would have been a understatement. Given Azur lane now had its first modern shipgirl that turned out to be Norfolk wearing Iris libre skin, I suppose it should have been obvious when a huge political hellstorm had ensured in high command about whoever got to command me since I was a lethal killing machine in my own right and there were so many anomalous things about me, Like my ability to be a battlecarrier somehow. The Iris libre presented their own arguments and even made a passionate case for it with that they would know how to maintain French-built systems and care for me. But in the end, The Royal navy had prevailed and stated that I was to be under Royal navy command (Much to the chagrin of the French). But in the event that without a RN superior, I was to be placed under French command which kept them sated... for now.

Not a bad outcome for me as well. given the Eagle Union and Ironblood branch would sooner of later catch up with whatever the Royal navy might learn from me anyway. But about my Magical abilities... I had been keeping them a secret despite what happened in the mess hall with Repulse and Kent and back in that battle where I had met up with the search fleet. They had looked into it, but other than my carrier abilities they didn't find out about the true extent of my abilities since such claims required lots of proof in their own right.

With my secret safe, I had also practiced with my powers whenever noone was watching. It wasn't time yet to blow my cover as a Magical Shipgirl for it was not the right time yet, but sooner of later it would happen. and hopefully it would be in a way that didn't escalate the political disputes over a even bigger golden goose than i already was.

From what I had learned so far, My Magic Color was Light-purple. When I first tried them out, I seemed to be focused as a sort of generalist Magical girl. with a basic healing spell that I unintentionally used in my previous battle, A basic ranged skill and of course. a Inherent dynamic psionic sixth sense based on the Newtype and the Satori ability from that GensoD20 site. The weapon I also had summoned in my hands looked like a sort of gold-white spear but to which left me no clue... That was. Until just a few days ago.

When I managed to work up the courage and willpower to finally activate my transformation... It wasn't what I was expecting, You see. I was expecting to end up as Sayaka miki due to her knightly nature, Which would fit with the whole French theme-after all. Fandom Alsace had Richelieu's style so why wouldn't i? Failing that. It could have been Sakura or Sailor moon.

But for whatever reason, I ended up as Takamachi Nanoha. That's right. The freaking White devil. and with a couple of add-ons that i didn't expect to see. The design of my outfit was almost identical to Nanoha's but was clearly very faithful to her A's design while also adding in design pieces from her Reflection 'Exelion Mode Modified' barrier jacket and Material-S's Stern combined with... what i guessed was two metal bands on my face that extended into headphones which became my feathered white twintails. It only made sense that my personal device also was Raising heart Exelion which confirmed my suspicions that I was supposed to be the long-range bombardment type. Something which was completely in my line with my nature as a fast battleship.

I blame Amancai for that mindset of mine when it came to being a full-blown Mahou Shoujo fan.

It got odd from there however, When I looked closer. Homura's soul gem was on my left arm. but for whatever reason it was mirrored on my right hand. Where Nanoha's undershirt should have been. It also was replaced by her signature long-sleeved white coat and I even had Homura's time shield mounted on my left arm. Much to my disappointment, when I tried turning it. It did nothing other than emitting a beam shield of some sort from the exposed sphere-like gems. It was not quite what I was expecting but it was understandable. given time control would have been too powerful and well... to my relief, My soul gems weren't actually soul gems. just auxiliary power capacitiors for my Magic and that I wasn't a tickling time bomb anytime soon.

The clothes combined was very bulky. but it did match the whole theme of Norfolk's winter clothes (And presumably Homura's unending dedication in the same way that Alsace might have). Besides. a Beam shield that can also be weaponized? That was just a fuck-off to the 'bigger is better' crowds like H44 or A-150 and some of the Maximum Battleships!

Ohohohoho... I like this!... AHAHAHAHAHA!

You should have heard me laughing psychotically and jumping around like a child full of enthusiasm on that day, It was fortunate that noone was around to hear me laughing and cackling like a mad girl at the time... To say the power rushing through me on my transformation was addicting is mild. It felt like I could take on the world all at once and still win!

Excitement.. Euphoria... happiness. They made me shudder. I quickly sobered down at the time when I realized I was still only a newborn by Magical girl standards and nowhere as strong as the actual Nanoha or Homura. But hey. Long-range bombardment spells in my current situation as a Battleship was something I preferred since Fate's or Vita's close-range combat specialty would likely not help me. but more than likely it could even do me more harm since they obviously required me to get too close for sword/hammer combat which was not what a battleship was supposed to be doing. And well. Right now, I didn't want to get into the damn fetish gear that was Vivio's bodysuit (Not to mention the fact she doesn't even have a 'weapon' to say the least!) thank you very much!

I also was unable to select Raising heart's mode as it was stuck in its Exelion spear mode for some reason that I still don't know yet, and there was no intelligent AI inside which recognized me as its user. Still, I did come out well-off on the SI lottery as I was given the ability to use magic. and if my fandom knowledge was even good enough, It might be possible that I could also learn the abilities of the Touhou characters or possibly the other top-tier Nanoha characters... And being somehow related to the Book of darkness or the Sagebrecht Heiliger Kaisers. maybe even Yukari or Hayate and even Madoka as a way to explain my sheer potential would be just boring and dumb. I was already well off enough as it was and being somehow related genetically to interdimensional legacies was something you see in Azur lane Wattpad. That quality...

搜索你的心。 因為你知道這是真的。

And Dorsetshire... While she had gotten attached to me just like she did in the game, Her actions and the fact I never was the elder sibling back in my past life had proven very jarring along with the fact that her constant presence prevented me from transforming without her blowing my Masquerade. Being her role model also didn't help and... She reacted with confusion toward closing myself off to her, I knew the poor woman viewed me as her world's treasure but... For now, I had to keep up the Masquerade since there were too many things to do... When I reveal my true abilities. I would open up to her as the shy dere-dere sister but until then. I am distancing myself from her.

I also learned that the Commander of this port was named 'Blake Lewis'. Not a bad name for what I thought was probably a english one. I still had the options to go rogue but for now... I am staying with them.

彼らはあなたを信用していません。

And so as I was finishing up Gunnery operations with Shropshire. I had been called to Blake's office. The two of us trotted as I let out a sigh, internally groaning in dissatisfaction from keeping myself on a leash since my powers wanted to be let out... To bath everything with light. But doing that in the middle of so many witnesses was obviously suicide for my facade. Still. I kept my powers bottled up without so much as a flinch in my walk.

"What is i-it?" I asked as i noticed Shropshire figured what was up. given that subtle grin and her constant glancing toward my direction which my sixth sense had picked up to.

"Nothing. Norfolk-chan~." She said with a dismissive shake of her head, I just turned my head away and let it slide for now.

We reached Blake's office. from the outside the decorations were not cheap for what could have been a Vice admiral from my guess. Shropshire knocked on the door and with it the words of "Come in." followed shortly by my mentor and substitute-oneechan doing the honors of opening the door and stepping in.

One of the other things that I had quickly caught on to was proper military gesturing. Which is a way to say that I was capable of saluting without subtle errors in my pose when doing it... But I was still very rebellious.

"Shropshire. Norfolk 'Alsace'. Thank you for coming." Lewis said from his desk, returning the salute. Washington at the left also saluted. There was something that made my sixth sense stand on a hair trigger. but I couldn't find any reason as to why.

"Did something happen. Commander~?" Shropshire asked. clearly trying to act cute as i did my best to listen to any other sounds outside, Gathering intelligence was something i wasn't averse to and in the event I wanted to dig into Azur lane's deeper secrets... He motioned to the two chairs in front of the big-looking table. Without hesitation (I knew not to make this too difficult) I sat down in one of the chairs with swift motion. "Shropshire. If you wouldn't mind going and fetching something for our guest?"

Shropshire only nodded cheerfully. snapping another cute look before she slipped out of the office.

"Alright. then." Blake said, handing me the sheet of paper. "On the paper you will find the options we have offered you so far in regards to your requests. I figured you would want to have a say even if the Marine nationale were to disagree with me."

Looking through the list. there was so many options.

Royal Navy (British Command)

Eagle Union (United States Navy)

Ironblood (Deutsche Marine)

Iris Libre (Marine Nationale)

Sakura Empire (Japanese Self Defense Forces)

And quite the brochure menu i had. I looked up the proposed name for me in the Iris libre. I can only guess that the French never really gave names to the Alsace-class before things went down when Paris fell and that even now, they still couldn't think up of much. I did have a sibling and cousins. but it felt strange being the only one of my 'class'.

"S-so its the choice to select which country I want to b-be in?" I asked to try and draw this out because I was trying to pick one that suited my long-term strategic interests and to be honest, I didn't feel comfortable being with a bunch of religious fanatics.

"Among other things, yes." Blake confirmed. "So, Anything come to mind?"

I gave the list a few more passes... Damn it... Hmm... When in doubt, Go along with the country that you were originally supposed to be and would have the highest chance of being familiar with. complete with a sister to boot.

"R-Royal navy?" I squeaked out.

"And that is your choice?" He pressed.

I gave no movements. putting the list back onto the desk. "Might as w-well be. Nothing really comes to mind."

Lewis gave me a nod, "Well then. We will go with that." He turned his look on the door. "Shropshire, Would you bring it in here. please?" The door opened and Shropshire burst in holding a tray with glasses and... well. What I thought to be birthday cake.

"Got what you asked for. Sir!" Shropshire cheered. Walking over and placing the tray on the desk, I might not be used yet to social traditions right now. But I was no stranger to what cake looked like. Exposure through memories alone had made sure of that combined with regrets.

Blake stood. took the lighter and expertly ignited the candles. Then he motioned for me to stand, come around his desk and held out his hand. I took his hand (while trying to suppress the butterflies in my heart) and shook it and he gave me a smile. "Welcome to Azur lane. Battleship Norfolk." He said, Turning around and motioning for me to blow out the candles. "Since you were 'born' spontaneously with no explainable cause. I figured that cake celebrations would be more fitting."

I took the glass. eyeing the milk sloshing around. "H-huh." I muttered. considering the idea of just drinking the stuff before I decided to screw it. Washington and Shropshire had since took their own drinks and quickly joined Blake in my birthday party (I think?).

Then I blew out the candles just as they all took a drink.

It made me just realize as to how many birthdays i had missed out... Now that I had a second life here, I wasn't going to let them go to waste again.

"Now. we can officially call the matter of command resolved." Blake started. "Vestal told me this morning that she's gotten everything ready for you. Norfolk." In the midst of me greedily digging into my cake (Holy hot damn. It must have cost a fortune!) I almost swore he told me to simply refer to myself as Norfolk and not Alsace. Not that I blamed him, The Royal navy would not like if their heavy cruiser was to start behaving french again. "You are to report at Noon. but for now. enjoy the rest of your day."

"Not yet. sir." Washington spoke up. placing her own cup back onto the tray. "There is still one thing that she needs to do first." What was it again? "Shropshire. Go ahead and tell everyone else to get ready." She ordered and here I was now, left with Washington's eyes staring into my soul and my sixth sense screaming like it was on fire.

Looks like this wasn't even the beginning yet.

You thought I was again being slow? HA! I just needed the time!

So it seems I am keeping my secret powers under a Masquerade for now. And the Iris libre and Royal Navy are still slap-fighting each other over who gets to command me around as I try to become less reliant on my digital systems. What will happen next? What will be the outcome when I finally drop the Masquerade?

Some stats:

MG Rank (MGLN):A-rank currently. Has Sixth sense Psychic abilities as common to all Magical girls (?) which grant Prescient/Precog-like abilities during combat and also allow me to sense what others feel. Long-Range Magical Girl focused on taking out other heavy-hitters like battleships and structures but also has secondary close-range offensive abilities. Beam Shield cannot be 'penetrated' by almost all known weapons when activated. palm-mounted gems can be damaged-worse. they play a important role in my abilities.

Mindset:Highly aggressive. Balanced out by fear of torpedoes and skittishness around fighting at point-blank distances.

Possible current AAA Gun-based suite:

16x Twin 40mm Bofors L/70s (Laser-directed/Modern PF Ammunition along with some for L/60s)

24x Twin M39s on Oerlikon RPC/25mm Oerlikon RWS (Laser-Directed)

Main guns can fire at BVR distances against aircraft when loaded with Copperhead or Excalibur-type rounds. possibly the same ones developed for the Iowas at some point.

Possibly 6 missing unfinished mounts for Standard-like launchers. 'Several' Mistral SIGMA mounts on where autocannons would have been.

127mm guns can fire HVP Ammunition and possibly 'ERGM' ammunition scaled to the shorter 127mms respectively.

Beyond that. reliance on carrier-borne fighters becomes a necessity.