Kaga launched a barrage of her paper planes at the group of humanoid Sirens below her. The fiery darts traveled haphazardly amidst their ranks until they found a target to attach themselves to and explode in a cluster of blue fireballs.
Tails burning with azure flames and eyes glowing brightly, the white fox hadn't felt this good in a long time. Her power was overflowing, and her flames had never been hotter. Her heightened senses allowed for much better control of her rigging and her paper planes; in that state, she could manipulate a higher number of them at once with even greater accuracy, and their firepower had increased tremendously.
She had a perfect view of the battlefield from her elevated position atop her rigging: the humanoid Sirens below her, who were attempting to shoot her down with their weaponry, the mass-produced vessels, which were still coming at them while being kept at bay by Freedom and the other carriers' planes, and, of course, the two battleships whose lives she had just saved.
Massachusetts and Jean Bart, after the hairbreadth escape, had closed the distance between themselves and the two Kitsunes.
"Fall back; we'll join you as soon as we finish with these nuisances," Kurama addressed them when they came to a stop next to him.
The two battleships tried to object, not wanting to leave them behind with the Executor-class still coming at them, but a look at the state Kaga was in told them that they didn't need their assistance with them, so they turned on their heels and followed the plan.
Kurama remained behind, but to be honest, his presence wasn't required either. Kaga was completely lost in the throes of battle, raining down fiery death upon the Sirens from above as they were too focused on trying to survive her onslaught to care about his presence.
He'd seen how Kaga fought before. Her rigging was a combination of the standard carrier type and fox fire, which was the distinguishing trait of her being borne a Kitsune. Her paper planes were basically her modified airplanes, which she produced directly from her burning flight deck. She could choose whether to keep them in that shape and fling them at the enemy or turn them into their regular form according to her needs, a characteristic fighting style she shared with her sister, Akagi.
But he had never seen her bring out so much firepower.
She was basically using her tails as catalysts to channel the energy from her Cube to the rest of her body, which is how she was able to draw out so much power. Not as much as he did when he activated his Wisdom Crafting; she wasn't at that level yet. She had only recently discovered how to manipulate her Cube's energy to her advantage, but it was pretty damn close.
And that's exactly what was bugging him.
It had only been a few days since he had started training Kaga and Kawakaze, and the fact that the carrier had achieved such a level of control over her Cube in such a short amount of time was astounding, especially considering that it took him months before he could reach that level. It wasn't thanks to his skill as a teacher, though; this was a testament to Kaga's skill, her incredibly sharp instinct, and her inclination toward battle.
Of course, her technique was all but flawless. It was more like a kid finding out that he could put his thumb over the mouth of a hose to make it shoot faster, ending up making a huge mess in the process by spraying water all over the place. She was wasting an incredible amount of energy, and soon she'd run out of gas.
Luckily, when she did, all the low-tier humanoid Sirens had already been dealt with, their corpses floating in the water, reduced to smoking chunks of charcoal. Kurama let out a smile as he sheathed his blades. It seemed like she was the winner of their little contest this time.
The fire on Kaga's tails died down, as did the intense glow in her eyes. Her miniaturized flight deck flickered like an exhausted candle as the shipgirl panted in exertion before disappearing from under her feet. Taken by surprise by the sudden lack of solid support, she let out a gasp as she fell toward the water and right into Kurama's waiting arms.
Without uttering a word, the shipboy turned on his heels and dashed toward the others. Kaga was too stunned to react and too out of breath to protest, so she just let him carry her away, a blush coming to her cheeks.
Tester was hovering with her rigging in the back of the fleet, above one of the three carriers she had summoned, hidden behind her own camouflage, watching as the Kansen tackled her pawn's assault.
The Elite Siren couldn't believe her luck. Not one, not two, but three male Kansen were in the same place; she only needed to choose which one of them to apprehend and bring him back to Zero...
Easier said than done.
The one with rocket-powered wings was so fast that she was having trouble following him with her eyes. The one with dirty blonde locks on his head seemed the safest choice, but he was too far in the back of their formation and, most importantly, too close to the orange-furred Kitsune. She had already encountered that one, so she knew what he was capable of, and she shuddered at the simple thought of having to face him directly.
So instead of charging headfirst into battle, Tester decided to tire them out and swoop in at the last second by letting her fleet deal with the shipgirls while she remained hidden in the back of the formation.
What she didn't expect, though, was for the low-tier humanoid Sirens to be crushed so quickly. Without the Executor-class to keep them occupied, the Kansen were now regrouping further away, forcing her mass-produced battleships to detach themselves from the rest of the formation to go after them, while her escort vessels were being kept at bay by the squadrons of aircraft swarming around them.
Tester let out a frustrated sigh. If the only choice was to charge at them head-on with every single one of her vessels, she'd do it. She was about to issue the order, but then she noticed a purple glow flying around; the winged shipboy was lagging behind, probably to cover his comrades as they retreated. Not only that, but the purple glow of his wings and the exhaust of his afterburners were getting dimmer by the minute, and he was starting to lose speed.
This was her chance; she had to make her move now that he was tired, and his comrades were too far away to intervene.
The Elite took off and began stealthily making her way toward the shipboy, who had stopped midair to catch his breath. She approached him from behind, carefully navigating through the squadrons of aircraft around the place, and once she got into position, she aimed her barrels at him.
Right as she was about to open fire, the shipboy turned around to look at her.
She came to a halt in midair, frozen in bewilderment. Did he realize she was there? No way. His eyes were glowing with a dim purple light behind the lens of his goggles, but he wasn't staring at her but rather through her. He wasn't aware of her presence; he had just turned his head towards her by chance.
Banishing those thoughts from her mind, Tester took aim once again, but all of a sudden, one of his wings swatted at her in a flash like a backhanded slap, connecting with her sides and sending her flying away from him with a gasp of pain.
She arrested her momentum with her rigging and turned to face him in anger, but her camouflage flickered at the impact. It was just an instant, but it was enough for him to lock eyes with her.
A grin appeared on his face as he reached for his internal radio. "You were right, Helena. It's an Elite."
Tester's blood ran cold through her veins. He had been waiting for her.
Making sure her camouflage was still working, she sprinted away from him as fast as she could. When she looked over her shoulder, she noticed that the shipboy hadn't moved an inch; maybe he had lost her?
But Freedom only spaced out for a second before snapping his head back toward her. Without wasting time, he bolted toward her position, readying another blow with the back of his wing, but the Siren managed to slip through his attack by the skin of her teeth, still invisible.
Freedom came to a halt once more, hovering midair, spacing out as the Siren took advantage of his hesitation to move behind him and take him by surprise, but once again, before she could make her move, his eyes locked onto her, and he covered the distance that separated them in the blink of an eye with a blast from the exhausts of his wings.
They would keep at it for a while. He'd miss her, then she'd try to run away, and he would be upon her immediately after; rinse and repeat, but every time, the shipboy would be faster and more accurate with his attacks.
She tried everything to escape him. She even attempted to retaliate with her lasers, but she realized that the time she needed to charge a shot was enough for the shipboy to get to her. She had to take a breather and reorganize her thoughts as she looked around for an escape route.
There was no way he was actually able to see her; if he were, he wouldn't have missed her so many times. There was only one explanation: someone was helping him from afar, and the time in which he spaced out between attacks was the moment they relayed her position to him.
She tried to look around for clues as to where the interloper could be hiding… There! The blue-haired girl between the two light carriers. She was the only one whose gaze was continuously following her every movement, as if she could clearly see her. What kind of radar was she using that could follow her movement even with her camouflage active?
It didn't matter. She needed to neutralize the meddler as soon as possible. Her Intruders had already been eliminated, so her only chance was to force every single vessel at her disposal to go full speed ahead toward them and to send all the drones deployed to take them out.
But then an explosion came from the back of her fleet, followed by another one, and another one… Dread took over her as she turned in a flash, right on time to see a flurry of torpedoes impacting her three carriers, nailing two of them in the hull with multiple hits and crippling the third.
Far ahead in the distance, the hulls of one destroyer and two heavy cruisers were approaching the formation at high speed, accompanied by what looked like a big metallic shark swimming next to them. The four of them had already opened fire to finish off her carriers. The rest of her pawns tried to regroup in a defensive formation, only to find themselves in a pincer attack as the other Kansen took advantage of their predicament to put even more pressure on them.
Tester could only gawk in disbelief as it all happened before her. The battle was already lost. She had to get out of there if she didn't want a repeat of what happened with-
Before she could finish her thought, Freedom slammed into her full force with a dropkick to her side, sending her flying away from him and toward the surface of the ocean. This time, instead of stopping midair, she used her momentum to launch herself away from him.
She had to get out of that radar's range and call for a portal to retreat. She couldn't do so as long as the shipboy was hot on her tail, so she recalled every single one of her drones that were still capable of flying and sent them at him.
But Freedom had stopped his pursuit. He was hovering in the air with a nonchalant expression on his face; he wasn't even trying to go after her.
And then Tester felt something wrap around her ankle. She looked down to see a fourth shipboy holding the other end of the chain that was binding her leg, perched atop the superstructure of a light cruiser, which had literally appeared out of thin air below her.
Tester tried to aim her barrels at him in a desperate attempt of defiance, but the male Kansen yanked with all his strength, dragging the Elite down and slamming her onto the deck of the warship with enough force to make her lose consciousness.
"Here you go, Master," Hermione said to Emperor, handing him his polyhedron back after retrieving it from atop the superstructure of her vessel.
"Thank you, Hermione," Emperor said as he took the contraption in his hands and turned it back into its tricorn hat form before putting it on.
Right after Helena had detected the arrival of the Siren fleet, the Kansen started implementing their strategy. Of course, the plan wasn't perfect by any means, especially since they weren't even sure there was an Elite commanding the fleet, but they had to take the chance.
Emperor had used his Morphing Polyhedron to cover Hermione's ship with a mimetic curtain and hide it from sight. The objective was to draw the Elite out of her hiding spot and then push her toward the concealed vessel, where Leviathan would be waiting with his chains at the ready.
Everything else was just a way to keep the attention of the Sirens on themselves. Some things didn't exactly go as planned, like the fact that the Elite had a camouflage of her own and was able to extend it to a few of her pawns, almost spelling demise for Massachusetts and Jean Bart.
In any case, without the Elite giving out orders, it took them minimal effort to deal with the rest of the mass-produced vessels, and after that, they all regrouped aboard the maid's ship, where Leviathan was ensuring Tester was tied up nice and neat with his chains wrapped around her wrists and ankles.
Now they only needed to wait for her to wake up.
"Would you look at that? It's Tester," Jean Bart stated after recognizing the Elite. "Hey, Goldilocks, this is the one who showed up with your brother that time."
Emperor and the shipboys perked up at her words, shifting their attention to the Siren and glaring daggers at her unconscious form. Le Malin did the same, recalling her fight with the Elite and the moment she had dealt her the final blow.
"Oh, really? Then why don't we just beat her until she wakes up?" Kurama cracked his knuckles, a dangerous glint passing through his eyes.
"You won't hear any objection from us," Deutschland declared with an evil grin.
"As much as I'd like to get back at her for what she did to Lenin, we need her alive and healthy for this," Leviathan responded with a calming tone, still making sure that his chains were tighter than needed around her limbs.
Kurama grumbled under his breath. In the end, instead of just waiting for her to come back to her senses, they opted to splash some water on her face.
Tester began stirring, her eyes fluttering open as she let out a groan of discomfort at the splitting headache assaulting her. She immediately noticed that her hands were tied behind her back and struggled to sit up on her knees. When she looked up, her gaze met the hateful glares of four very upset male Kansen and nine equally upset shipgirls.
The first thing she did was try to summon her rigging again, but something was interfering with the link between her current vessel and her Cube, preventing her from calling it forth.
"Don't even think about it," Leviathan broke the silence. "You won't be able to use your rigging while you are tied up with my chains."
Deutschland winced at his words. "So that's why I couldn't deploy mine that time," she thought to herself.
Tester couldn't help the nervous laugh that slipped through her lips. "What's this? Some kind of sick kink of yours? Do you try this on the shipgirls too?"
"Don't push your luck, heathen," Kaga hissed through her teeth. "You are only alive because we need you alive, but a messenger's value only lies in their tongue, not their limbs."
"Whoa, scary," Tester mocked the white fox before processing her words. "Wait a second… messenger?"
Emperor glanced at Hermione, and the maid produced a small envelope from her uniform, graciously handing it to him. He unveiled the cloth around it to reveal a Wisdom Cube glowing with an eerie purple light.
"Do you recognize this, Siren?" Emperor asked Tester, bringing the alien contraption to her eye level.
"That's… Observer's Cube," Tester mused out loud after a few seconds of pondering. That confirmed what happened to her superior, not that there were any doubts in her mind. "What about it?"
"You all have been coming after us for a while now, and I think we have a pretty good grasp on the reason why," Emperor said, crouching down to lock eyes with her, a serious and dispassionate expression on his face. "We want to make a deal with you. All the information we have at our disposal about the Sirens from our world in exchange for our brother."
Tester was too stunned to react.
Information? About the Original Sirens? And on top of that, they'd get to dump that pain in the ass that was the shipboy they had captured? She was expecting a beating, an interrogation, or both; she certainly wasn't expecting such a juicy deal to be offered to her on a silver platter.
And that's exactly why she wasn't buying any of their crap.
She let out a long mocking laugh right in Emperor's face, whose expression remained unflinching.
"Are you implying that you were able to communicate with Observer while she was in that state?" Tester sneered at him. "Don't make me laugh. Mere Kansen with such control over their Cube is inconceivable!"
Freedom scoffed at her words. "Purifier said the exact same thing."
Tester narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. "So you are the one who defeated her. It's your fault I've had to run around the ocean looking for her Cube like a truffle dog!"
Jean Bart sent a told you look at Freedom, and the shipboy smirked, turning back to the Siren. "Not only that, but I also had a nice, long chat with her. We talked about a lot of stuff, like your time-traveling shenanigans… and the Original Sirens, as y'all like to call them."
Tester froze. His words just confirmed it; they weren't lying. The male Kansen were able to resonate with a Cube and communicate with the Siren within it. It certainly explained how that other shipboy was able to resist their mind reading and managed to break free from their control. She already knew that, but for the first time, she realized how dangerous these shipboys actually were. She had to tread carefully if she didn't want to reveal too much- Oh wait, Purifier had already blabbered everything!
"That damn fool and her big mouth," Tester thought to herself. "Let's say you are right, and what we are after is indeed the information you lot carry with you," she started. "Where's Purifier's Cube? Who's to say that Observer is actually aware of the information? For all I know, this could just be a ruse to get your comrade back."
"You don't seem to understand the situation you are in, Siren," Kurama, who had been silent until that moment, stepped up to Tester and glared at her. "Here's what's going to happen. You are taking this Cube, you are going to bring it back to the burrow you filthy rats use as a hideout, and you are going to listen to what your comrade has to say. You don't get to have a choice, is that clear?"
The other Kansen tried to hold back a laugh at the terrorized look in the Siren's eyes. They didn't know why, but Kurama seemed to have an effect on her.
"Your mistrust isn't uncalled for, but your worries are misplaced. This one here is just insurance, a way to show our goodwill," Emperor proclaimed, referring to the cubic object in his hand. "We only told Observer the bare minimum to convince you to accept the exchange. Purifier's the one with the full knowledge. Of course, as my dear brother said, you are not allowed to refuse."
The plan they had discussed during the meeting was as follows: give away Observer's Cube with only a snippet of the knowledge they had at their disposal as a guarantee to the first Elite they came across; that would arouse enough interest in the Sirens to seriously consider their proposal, and then use Purifier's Cube to seal the deal for an actual exchange of hostages.
It was a pretty roundabout way, but it was the safest.
Of course, before departing, the shipboys had to make sure Observer was aware of their intentions by resonating with her Cube for a brief talk. After that, Freedom proposed to take advantage of the Elite by making Massachusetts and the others attempt to do it themselves as part of their training, and everyone agreed to it. The poor Siren had been on the verge of a breakdown at having so many people come in and out of her mind as they pleased. It was very funny.
About Empress' Cube, it was decided to send it to headquarters for research—a little present for them from Ryan and the shipgirls to assuage the higher-ups' concerns. The Cube of an Arbiter should be enough to distract them from the shipboys for the time being.
Weighing her options, Tester decided to accept, not that she had any other choice. If she refused, they'd probably kill her, steal her Cube, and then be on their way. At the very least, by returning with Observer's Cube, she'd be able to show Zero some progress.
"Fine, I accept," Tester gave her reply. "Can you untie me now?"
Emperor let out a satisfied smirk. He rose to his feet and gave Leviathan a nod. The Iron Blood snapped his fingers and the chains around Tester's wrists and ankles came undone, going to wrap themselves around his forearms before disappearing in a flash.
Finally free of her constraints, the Siren also got up to her feet, stretching her limbs and massaging her wrists as the shipgirls glared at her, clearly on edge at having one of their lifelong enemies unrestrained and free to move so close to them.
"Don't even think about trying anything funny," Jean Bart warned her. "This is the second time we beat the shit out of you; we'll gladly do it a third time if necessary."
"Don't fret, I won't; I quite like this turn of events," Tester smirked at her.
Emperor chucked her the Cube and Tester caught it midair, examining it for a brief second. Now that it was in her hands, she could confirm it; Observer was in there and was clearly eager to come out.
"I'll bring this back with me, then. We'll hear what Observer has to say, but I can't guarantee that my boss will accept your terms," Tester told them. "If that is all, I'll take my leave," she added, sending a glare at the Vichya destroyer, who held her gaze impassively.
"Oh, don't worry, she will," Emperor smirked.
Tester shrugged and snapped her fingers. A small portal appeared a few feet in the air above their heads, and the Siren summoned her rigging, waving at the Kansen with a grin as she took to the air.
"Bye-bye, it's been a pleasure~"
Before she could get too high, she felt something tug at her leg. It was Kurama; the shipboy was holding onto her ankle with his hand, locking her in place midair and preventing her from getting away.
Tester felt a chill run down her spine as her yellow eyes met his fiery red ones.
"If we find a single scratch on him, I swear to whatever god you pray to, I'll chase you down to the deepest pits of hell, and I'll make you regret coming back to life," he declared with a low, menacing tone. With that said, he let go of her leg, allowing her to leave with a glare.
Tester gulped and traversed the portal without uttering another word, eager to get away from his presence as soon as possible.
Once the Siren was gone and the portal closed on itself, the Kansen let out a breath all together, visibly relaxing.
"What do we do now, Master?" Hermione asked Emperor.
"First things first, we go report back to Ryan, then we wait," Emperor announced. "Everyone, let's get into formation, at least until we are back in safer waters."
The other Kansen acknowledged his words. The shipgirls went to jump off the Hermione to summon their hulls, and the shipboys moved to the bow of the cruiser, where they'd have a better view of their surroundings.
Helena moved to follow behind the others, but a sudden feeling of uneasiness crept over her, making her feel as if someone was observing her from afar. It reminded her of what she had felt inside her dreams, or visions, but this time, it was a lot more tangible. It was like a ping constantly going on and off in her head, as if trying to subtly catch her attention, but not in a malicious way; rather, it was familiar, in a way that she couldn't describe even if she tried.
Seeing her comrade staring into space, Massachusetts called out to her with concern in her voice. "Helena, is everything all right? Are you tired?"
Her voice managed to bring her back to reality.
"Uh? Ah… No, Massachusetts, I'm fine. Just spacing out," Helena reassured her with a smile as she averted her gaze from the horizon.
"It must have been my imagination."
The hatch of the glass tank opened with a loud hiss after the draining system emptied it of its green preservative liquid, and Observer stepped out of it, her new vessel freshly out of the oven and installed with the memories of the Cube Tester had retrieved.
The aforementioned Elite was there, leaning with her back against the wall of the dimly lit room to greet her comrade with a snarky grin.
"If you have something to say, then say it, but be ready to face the consequences," Observer gave her a warning.
"I'm just glad to see my comrade alive and with all her memories intact," Tester said, her tone full of sarcasm. "Your latest backup dates back to a long time ago; losing all the memories of the most recent events would have been a shame, don't you think so too?"
"I'm starting to regret retrieving your Cube; I should have just left it to drift away in the ocean," Observer lamented, remembering the time Tester tried to test the male Kansen they had captured against the shipgirls of the Orthodoxy only to be soundly defeated and almost lose their precious hostage to them.
With her body still soaking and dripping with fluid, she summoned her tentacular rigging and leaned with her back over it as the contraption began hovering a few feet above the floor. Once she was comfortable in her spot, she asked, "What of the male Kansen?"
"Don't worry, he's in perfect condition; Zero put him to sleep after your departure," Tester said, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "I was hoping to get some more alone time with him, but after seeing how things are turning out, I guess it was for the best."
"And what of Empress' Cube?"
"Don't know. Didn't ask. Don't care," Tester shrugged.
"Good. Now bring me to Zero; I have things to report."
It didn't take long for the pair to traverse the enclosed, barely lit metal hallways of the base and reach what they called "the throne room."
It's not that there was an actual throne there; it wasn't even a room at all.
It was just a large, circular metal platform suspended at the center of a gigantic, artificial hole that plunged so deep within the earth that it was impossible to see the bottom. The walls and ceiling of the pit were made of pure white metallic hardware and were sparsely covered by thick bundles of cables and tubes, occasionally traversed by streaks of artificial azure light. In contrast to the rest of the base, which was as dark as a haunted house, the place was so well lit that it almost hurt the eyes.
The rig was connected to the walls through a pair of open passageways, both accessible via automatic doors, one of which Purifier and Tester had just crossed. The walkway was devoid of any safety measures, and one false step was enough for them to fall straight to the depths of hell.
Or it would be if both Elite weren't able to fly in some form or capacity.
At the center of the platform, surrounded by miniaturized data banks, weirdly shaped monitors, and overly complicated control panels, was Zero's rigging.
It was hovering a few feet above the floor, giving its back to them, and once Observer and Tester announced themselves, the giant jellyfish-like contraption turned on itself to reveal the white figure of the Original Program leaning onto it.
"You are finally awake, Observer," Zero stated with a disinterested tone. "Tester already told me about the latest developments, but I'd like to hear them directly from you."
Observer proceeded to relay everything, or at least all she knew. When the Kansen came to visit her inside her mind, they had made sure to keep the juiciest pieces of information at their disposal to themselves, revealing enough to only tease her thirst for knowledge without completely sating it. After all, she was just a messenger to them, and they couldn't afford to show their full hand to her; it would defeat the whole purpose of the exchange.
Making a deal with them hadn't sat well with her, but in the end, curiosity and the prospect of coming back to life with her current memories had gotten the better of her. While a Siren dying didn't spell the end for their program, it was still game over for their current consciousness if their Cube wasn't retrieved and installed in their newest vessel, and since she didn't like the idea of her current self taking dust on a shelf until the energy sustaining her Cube died out, she was forced to accept.
She didn't envy Empress in the slightest, wherever her Cube had ended up.
"And that's about it," Observer finished her report. "They want the exchange to take place two days from now; they also gave us the coordinates of the location."
Zero hummed in thought, an unimpressed look on her face.
"There's a good chance that these otherworldly Sirens are the cause for the Creator's directive," Zero voiced what was on everyone's mind. "Also, based on the words of these male Kansen, there's reason to believe that we might be related to them in some form or way."
They all knew what their job was: to assist humanity's evolution and prepare them for the future, but they didn't know exactly what that future entailed. Of course, they never questioned their programming and carried out their task with utmost zeal and devotion. They knew of other worlds and were aware of the possibility that other Sirens, like or unlike them, could be out there running amok in the multiverse, but they were forbidden from interacting with them, and even if they weren't, they had no idea how to break the fabric of reality to travel across dimensions.
"So the Original Sirens are like… our progenitors?" Tester inquired after hearing what Zero had to say.
"More like the basis for the Creator's programming," Zero corrected her. "But yes, you could say that."
"I'd be more worried about the fact that one of them came all the way here and we didn't know," Observer intervened with a hint of irritation in her voice. "If what the male Kansen said is true and there's a chance they might arrive in force, we must take precautions."
"If push comes to shove, we can always reset this timeline and start another simulation from scratch," Tester suggested. "I know it's premature, but desperate times call for desperate measures."
"There's always the risk of them following us straight to the new timeline. If that happens, neither we nor humanity will stand a chance against them," Observer retorted.
"We'll do no such thing," Zero's uncharacteristically raised voice cut them off, but her tone remained steady and neutral. "Observer, Tester, from what you were able to gather during your encounters with Azur Lane, humanity has already made an incredible amount of progress in this timeline, and thanks to the male Kansen, the shipgirls are also maturing, albeit in a different way than their META counterparts. After failing so many simulations, we are directed toward our first true success. We won't renounce this timeline just because of some antagonistic external variable."
If Tester and Observer had any reservations, they didn't voice them. It wasn't common for their superior to get so worked up, so it was wiser of them not to push their luck.
"So… what are we going to do? Do we accept their offer or not?" Tester questioned the others.
"The answer is obvious; we are going to humor them," Zero declared.
"As much as I don't like the idea of losing such a promising test subject, this matter takes priority," Observer huffed in agreement, then a smile crept over her face. "I think I'll go tell the good news to our little guest; it's been a while since I last saw him."
Tester's panicked look made her pause.
"Don't worry, I won't lay a hand on him. I'm just going to scare him a bit," Observer reassured her subordinate.
"No, I'll go," Zero interjected, lifting herself from her position next to her rigging. "You two go put on hold the awakening of Purifier's new vessel, then go back to your business."
Each Siren program could support only one vessel at a time. So, even after retrieving Purifier's Cube from Azur Lane, they wouldn't be able to use it if there was another Purifier already scurrying around the place, and overwriting the data of a Cube with another one usually didn't end well for the brain of the subject.
Observer and Tester acknowledged Zero's order, with a bit of remorse from the former, and turned back where they came from as their superior went the opposite way, but before they could get out of the room, Zero's voice echoed through the walls.
"By the way, Observer, I'll overlook your failure this time since you managed to return with good news, but next time, know that you won't be exempted from punishment."
With that said, the diaphanous Siren traversed the automatic door at the end of the passageway and headed for the room where they kept their guest.
Observer swallowed the lump in her throat at her words and let out a breath of relief as the feeling of dread that had been assaulting her the entire time washed away.
AN: Not much to say here. Next chapter will have some more worldbuilding on Zero's part, and a certain couple will finally have their time to shine.
Next Chapter: Love and Lies