Unbeknownst to everyone, everything Nagato had speculated about the Sirens' plan was accurate.
Normally, though, only high-ranking Sirens could generate Mirror Seas.
For the Antiochus, it used to translate to the Elites, as each one of them possessed a personal kind of reality-altering cage they could pull out of their own Cubes whose traits aligned with their needs and set of skills. That, of course, didn't mean they couldn't use other Cubes as catalysts to deploy various kinds of Mirror Seas different from their signature ones.
For the Original Sirens, only the Humanoid-types possessed the higher intelligence and decisional capabilities required to effectively deploy one. That's why they were the ones that usually took on the role of leadership amongst their ranks; though, whereas the Antiochus used to use the Mirror Seas as "test fields," the Sirens tended to employ them as simple hunting grounds.
That kind of resourcefulness they sported, along with the mingling with the Antiochus program—which the Sirens had found tarnishing the seed upon capturing it—was what led to the arrangement of this trap. The idea was to update the Scavenger-types' Cubes with the new data acquired from the Antiochus' various Mirror Seas, setting them to trigger like ticking bombs whenever other Wisdom Cubes came into their proximity.
All that was coupled with a bunch of mass-produced units conveniently placed to lie in wait inside those Mirror Seas, ready to take advantage of the confusion of whomever was trapped inside with them.
Of course, the Kansen who fell into the trap knew nothing about all that. All they cared about was surviving long enough to find a way out of the reality-altering cages or for their comrades on the outside to come to their aid.
Some of them managed to defeat the horde of mass-produced vessels awaiting them, what with the Scavengers dragging inside their traps more and more of the Kansen who approached their bodies, inadvertently helping the shipgirls out by sending them reinforcements. Those shipgirls then simply wandered aimlessly inside the Mirror Seas, not knowing what to do until Kawakaze arrived to free them, tearing the space apart with her power.
Others, though, weren't that lucky.
"Is that all you got, you filthy pieces of Siren crap?!" Kurama bellowed, his voice lost the roar of thunder. "Keep coming! I'll burn every single one of you to a crisp!"
His tails, burning like giant flaming pillars, slammed into the Siren vessel closest to him, provoking a huge explosion that tore it apart. Another explosion arose from the vessel right beside it, caused by a large bundle of blue fire as Kaga's giant fox slammed into it full force.
The foxfire familiar howled to the sky, which was covered in pitch-dark stormy clouds, before bolting. Kaga herself was riding atop it, sending shots of blue fire with her paper planes at every vessel they came across. She prompted her familiar to jump and land atop another ship, whose structure caved in under the weight of the giant fox, and then proceeded to the next one.
Meanwhile, swirling tongues of fire and white flashes of steel trailed around the two Kitsunes as Zuikaku and Alabama danced across the battlefield. They took advantage of the enemy fleet crowding around them to weave through their ranks, cutting away at the smaller vessels with their flaming sword and giant scythe, and using their remains as cover to shield themselves from the enemy's retaliation.
It was dark inside this Mirror Sea. The only sources of light were the foxfire and the glowing marks on the Siren vessels; everything else was plunged into a pitch-black pit of darkness.
To top it all off, there was the storm. This kind of stormy sea was the likes of which the four Kansen had never experienced before. The thick rain and the howling wind blowing in their faces disoriented them and blurred their surroundings. The crashing waves churned up by the storm made every step a struggle. The relentless boom of artillery trying to take them out mixed with the thunder's deafening roar, rattling their ears.
Yet, the flash of lightning that followed each rumble occasionally illuminated the chaos, fully revealing the dark silhouettes of their foes.
In those fleeting moments of light, their hearts stopped as their minds were reminded of the situation they were in—alone, separated from the outside world, with no way of escaping, and a large fleet of Sirens pushing them against the wall.
"Zuikaku, I told you to stay put!" Kaga shouted at her junior after spotting the Red Crane signature flaming trail getting too close for comfort to a bunch of Siren vessels. Her nostrils flared when she noticed Alabama tailing the other carrier. "Alabama, you as well! Step back!"
"Not a chance, Kaga-senpai!" Zuikaku retorted through the radio. "We can't leave everything to you and Kurama!"
When the four of them got sucked into this trap, Zuikaku and Alabama had just come out of their fight with the Scavenger-Alpha, which had seen their energy almost completely depleted. Not to mention their injuries; if they pushed themselves too hard in such a situation, they'd drop dead the second fatigue took them over.
Kaga and Kurama had taken it upon themselves to engage the enemy in the flashiest way possible, all to draw the Sirens' attention from the other two shipgirls.
But Zuikaku and Alabama were too stubborn to just stand on the side doing nothing while their comrades risked their lives. They had ignored the other two's warnings and had thrown themselves into battle.
They weaved through the explosions caused by the rounds hitting the water around them and reached their next target—a twisted, alien-looking cruiser that seemed to have come out of their worst nightmares. They rode a wave up to its crest and lunged at the Siren, weapons drawn and ready to strike. Together, they cut through its armor with ease, splitting it wide open before landing on the water once more and sprinting away from the crumbling vessel.
Kaga gritted her teeth in anger and frustration and then let out a resigned sigh as the two of them moved on to the next target. She didn't want to admit it, but their involvement was helping a lot, simply because there were just too many Sirens for her and Kurama to deal with on their own.
She couldn't help but wonder why there was a need for such a huge fleet for just the four of them. Sure, their strength was definitely a matter of concern for the Sirens, but was it enough to warrant such a conspicuous deployment of forces?
Maybe the Sirens were hoping for a lot more Kansen to take on the Scavenger-Alpha and to consequently get trapped inside its Cube. Maybe they had expected its sheer size to prompt a much larger response and had provided it with an aptly larger fleet for that reason.
Kaga wagered the Sirens would have never imagined that the Alpha would be defeated by two mere Kansen and that it would have trapped only four total. The thought made her laugh. If anything, throwing a wrench into the Sirens' plans was a source of immense satisfaction. Now all she needed to do was to ensure they all survived to see the result of that.
But that was a tall order all right.
Kurama's flames were losing intensity with each passing minute, Zuikaku and Alabama were literally running on fumes, and her own energy was rapidly being depleted to keep her familiar out. Even if she and Zuikaku wanted to change tactics and call out their planes, the storm would make it impossible to make them take off at all.
As more time passed, their fighting became steadily sloppier; they all began fumbling their steps, fatigue making it harder and harder to sail through the difficult weather.
Eventually, Zuikaku and Alabama reached their limit. The Sirens began scoring more and more hits on them, forcing Kurama to step between them and take some hits himself to get them to safety.
The shipboy's flames had been reduced to a tenth of their power, and all he could do was run around the place, holding the two shipgirls in his arms and over his shoulder like bags of flour as he dodged the Sirens' attacks.
Eventually he found himself back-to-back with Kaga, who had to dismount her familiar. The giant fox's size had been reduced to that of a small car, as its owner's energy was no longer enough to keep it at full power.
"This doesn't… look good…" he said between pants, barely able to keep himself upright.
"No… it doesn't…" Kaga said, equally tired, as she took Zuikaku from his arms to relieve him of some burden.
"I'm sorry, senpai…" Zuikaku breathed out, barely conscious.
"We messed up big this time…" Alabama drawled out as Kurama held one of her arms around his neck.
"Save your apologies, you two," Kaga said. "You did good."
Despite the situation, at hearing her words, Zuikaku couldn't help the smile of contentment that crossed her lips.
As enemy fire kept raining down around them, Kurama and Kaga laid the exhausted shipgirls down on the water to lean over the fox's back, then turned to the enemy.
By now, the Sirens had completely surrounded them, cutting off any escape route, but Kurama and Kaga stood defiantly.
However things went, they weren't going down without a fight.
"Until the end?" He asked.
"Until the end…" was her answer.
Squaring up and snarling in fury, they prepared to lunge at the enemy in one last act of defiance, but before they could even take a step forward, a loud crack resounded in the air, drawing out everything else—the roar of thunder, the booming of artillery fire, the howling of the wind—everything seemed to come to a stop, as if time itself had stopped flowing inside the Mirror Sea, much to their bemusement.
And then everything crumbled. Reality seemed to come apart around them like a broken mirror, and before they realized it, they were no longer surrounded by enemies.
When they opened their eyes, clear blue skies greeted them, along with the warmth of the midday sun and calm waters at their feet.
Confusion took over as they glanced around in disbelief, which only increased when they caught sight of the Scavenger-Alpha's large body split in twain, with the two sides floating around them, and Kawakaze holding her sword in her hands by the hilt.
The destroyer panted in exertion and regarded them with an expression of concern as she sheathed her sword. "Looks like we made it right on time. Are you all right?"
Kaga managed to find her words. "Kawakaze… was this your doing?"
Whatever Kawakaze was going to say was cut off as Kurama stepped between the two. As if in a trance, he moved forward, staring in wide-eyed shock at the man standing before him.
He ignored Leviathan, who was still there for some reason he didn't care to compute.
He ignored Nagato—the shipgirl—as she asked him if he was all right.
He went straight for the man he thought he'd never see again and stopped short of three feet from him.
"N-Nagato-niisama…?" He tentatively asked.
"It's been a while, Kurama-kun," Nagato—his benefactor, his mentor, his brother—said with a smile.
Whatever force was holding Kurama upright failed him the second his name left Nagato's lips.
His legs gave out, and he fell forward, prompting the other shipboy to catch him in a hug. He held onto his clothes with all his strength, as if testing to see if he was real or if it was just his tired mind playing tricks on him.
"T-this is not a dream, right? I-It's really you…" he breathed out, his voice cracking.
"It's me, Kurama-kun," Nagato whispered as he hugged him closer, patting his head between his ears. "I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere, I promise."
Overwhelmed with emotion, Kurama plunged his face into his shoulder, and for the first time in who knows how long, he cried.
The battle was over the moment the shipboys took to the sea.
The shipgirls of the vanguard had just finished rounding up their forces to prepare a counterattack, but they barely had the time to get out of cover when it happened.
First, a bunch of unfamiliar voices began filling their comms, warnings of what was coming mixed with rallying cries as the confused shipgirls scanned their surroundings, trying to spot the owners of the voices.
And then, like a wave of flesh and steel, a whole new fleet appeared in the distance, coming from the direction of the Sanctuary—a veritable horde of male Kansen gallantly sailing to support their female counterparts.
The shipgirls watched in bewilderment as ships, both familiar and not, began shooting their guns at the Sirens, the volleys flying over their heads toward the enemy. The shipboys advanced toward the women's position, skating across the water. Their groups mingled with the shipgirls' ranks, offering help whenever they could, cover with their rigging, or support with their aircraft.
Some fought with their guns, others from their vessels, and others displayed abilities never seen before. Soon, the now numerically inferior Sirens were overwhelmed by the sheer number of Kansen coming at them.
Initially stunned, the shipgirls could only go with the flow.
At that moment, Ryan's voice resounded over the radio. The interference had finally been lifted.
"Everyone, can you hear me now?"
"Commander, finally!" King George V responded. "What in the bloody hell is happening?"
"Yeeaaah… things didn't go exactly as planned," Ryan said sheepishly.
"We can see that, Shikikan," Musashi said as she and the other representatives watched the shipboys chase down the remaining stragglers of the Siren fleet.
That finally gave the shipgirls the chance to properly catch their breath.
"I still don't know exactly why it has come to this, but I intend to find out," he said. "For now, though, leave the cleanup to the boys and return to the Sanctuary. You were great out there, you deserve some rest."
"Sì, Comandante," Littorio replied then turned to the shipgirls around her. "You heard him, let's get back on land!"
"She's alright, just exhausted," Vestal said after finishing examining South Dakota's sleeping form. "Let her rest for now, she deserves it."
Ryan nodded at her. He gave one last glance at the unconscious battleship, mentally thanking her, before Vestal took her away on a stretcher. Then he turned to address Imperator and Liam.
"Sorry for the wait," he said. "Let's get back to business."
"Of course, Commander Travis," Liam said. Freedom had gone out to gather the others, while Emperor and Aoba were busy speaking on the comms a few feet away from them, so they had a moment to talk before going to meet with everyone else.
"First of all, allow me to express my thanks to you for being here," Ryan began with a welcoming tone. "I can't help but wonder, though... So many people coming out of the portal all at once… It's like you knew where it was going to open on the other side."
"That's exactly it, Kommandant Travis," Imperator said, regarding him with a confused frown. "We gathered as many volunteers as we could and waited for the portal to appear on our side. You'll excuse us for rushing in so quickly, but we had to hurry, lest the portal closed and someone was left behind."
"Mmh… You mentioned Kurama's brother having some kind of foresight ability?" Ryan inquired, still trying to put order in his thoughts.
"Excuse me, Commander Travis, you are talking like you didn't know we were coming," Liam noted.
That left Ryan puzzled. "Because… I didn't?"
Liam and Imperator exchanged glances.
"We were sure Miss Shinano told you everything," Liam said, but upon noticing the frown on the other officer's face, he continued, "Lord Nagato has been in contact with her this whole time. He told her to ensure the portal would be as close as possible to the Sacred Sakura so as to facilitate the connection between our worlds."
That caught Ryan completely off guard.
"But that's impossible. Shinano said all her attempts at establishing a connection had resulted in failure," he mused. "She did make us move the portal here, but that was just a hunch of hers."
The three of them paused in confusion.
"The situation doesn't add up," Imperator said, voicing everyone's thoughts. "I suggest we postpone this discussion for later, when we have the both of them at hand for answers."
"I agree," Ryan said. "Come, let's head down to the harbor. We'll meet up with the others there."
Before showing them the way, he turned to TB.
"TB, you coming?"
TB raised her head from the remains of the ARC, which she had been staring at for the past few minutes in contemplation.
"Yes, Commander…"
"Holy. Shit."
Freedom almost couldn't believe his eyes.
He was hovering in midair. His wings were out, and his afterburners were pointing downward, keeping him up. He was looking down at the sea, trying to process what he was seeing.
There was a pile of bodies floating on the water, all belonging to Harbinger-types. The dead Sirens were amassed one atop the other like a pile of dirty clothes. There were eight of them, if he counted right, all of them sporting a series of cracks and gaps in their armor; some of them had entire portions of their bodies blown off or reduced to charcoal.
And sitting atop the pile were four carriers.
Aquila and Sparviero were leaning onto each other's backs; the shipgirl's clothes were singed in various places where the Sirens' attacks had reached her, and her eyes were half-closed as she tried to catch her breath, while the shipboy stood still to let her rest.
On the belly of another Harbinger sat Yorktown, sitting with her legs sideways, in slightly better conditions than the Sardinian woman but much more exhausted than her.
And then there was Akagi, standing proudly right next to the dorsal fin of the higher body on the pile, as equally battered as the others.
Freedom could swear she had stood up as soon as she sensed him approaching, but he was sure she'd deny it if he pointed it out.
"Hey, ladies," he said as he lowered himself to their level. "Wassup, brother?"
They stared at him with puzzled looks.
"You gotta be kidding me," Sparviero heaved out. "What are you still doing here?"
Freedom dismissed his wings and landed beside him. "Well, a bunch of stuff happened. Basically, we don't need to go anymore."
"Huh? You mean all that was for nothing? Emperor's speech and everything?" Sparviero asked in disbelief.
"What can I say? Life is just like that sometimes," Freedom replied with a smile and a shrug.
"Oh, come on…" Sparviero lamented. "I even take down an entire flock of Harbingers for you, and it turns out it's pointless?"
"You mean we, Sparviero," Aquila piped up from beside him.
"You are right, dear sister," he said with a smile, patting her head. "And you did great, right, ladies?"
"It was only natural, having me as a mentor," Akagi stated haughtily, making Yorktown chuckle under her breath and Aquila look down bashfully.
"Hey, I wouldn't say pointless. It's still an impressive mark on your record," Freedom said, making the other shipboy deadpan at him. "Anyway, Liam is here. Wanna come say hi?"
"What?!" Lenin shouted into his radio in disbelief. "What do you mean Liam is here?!"
"You heard that right, Teddy Bear," Emperor said in response. "We are coming down to the harbor. Let's meet at the docks with everyone!"
"Wait-" Lenin tried to speak up, but Emperor had already cut off the comms, leaving him hanging with more questions than before.
He rubbed his face in frustration at his brother's antics. Too much stuff happening all at the same time and not enough time to process it.
He turned to address Le Malin and her sisters, who were just as lost as he was.
"I'm sorry, everyone. Emperor's being a dick as usual."
"It's okay," Le Malin said. "We'll get our answers in a bit."
For a few minutes, earlier, the Kansen patrolling the harbor had panicked.
The missiles had taken them off guard, but more than that, it had been the ruckus and the blinding flashes of light coming from the back of the Sanctuary. Additionally, the comms had gone down for a brief while, and they couldn't receive updates from the Commander or their comrades out to sea. They had been considering sending someone to the clearing to check on the situation, but then something unexpected happened.
A veritable horde of people had poured out of the temple grounds, shouting war cries and chants, startling them all to death.
Those people—all men, as they had noticed—instead of passing through the residential area to get to the docks, had jumped off the platforms and stairs leading up to the temple grounds, landed on the outside of the port, and then had cut off through the open field to get to the shore faster. From there, they had taken off in a hurry, summoning their ships or rigging, leaving Lenin and the shipgirls observing from the harbor flabbergasted as they finally recognized the new arrivals as male Kansen.
As soon as the comms went back online, the icebreaker contacted his brothers for an explanation. Much to his own confusion, Emperor had responded, and much to his own annoyance, his brother had decided to play coy with him, withholding the information and dropping that bomb about Liam out of nowhere.
"I seriously hope he's not fucking with me, or else I'll make sure he regrets not crossing that portal."
Overcome with emotion and exhaustion, Kurama fell asleep as soon as he calmed down, so Leviathan and the others had to drag him, Zuikaku, and Alabama all the way to the Sanctuary.
Kaga was still awake, if barely, so she helped Zuikaku up as they sailed, while Leviathan held Alabama, and Lord Nagato brought Kurama on his back. Nagato—the shipgirl—was trailing behind them, having sent Kawakaze to complete her unfinished task.
"Um… Nagato-sama," Kaga piped up after a few minutes of awkward silence.
"Yes?" Both Nagato perked up.
They looked at each other, stammering their own words, before the man settled for a polite laugh to make things less awkward.
"Forgive me, everyone," he said. "Kaga, right? You don't need to be so formal. Just address me as 'Nagato,' or '-dono,' if you prefer."
"A-as you wish, Nagato-dono," Kaga replied. "I don't want to sound indelicate, but we all thought you were... in deep sleep and far from recovery. Kurama said so himself. How are you here with us?"
Another chuckle, this time of glee, escaped the shipboy's lips. "Why, it was all thanks to Shinano. I woke up right after our first meeting. She… didn't tell you anything?" He tentatively asked them.
Kaga and Nagato shared a puzzled look.
"She did tell us everything you discussed," Leviathan intervened. "It was thanks to that that we managed to find out about the Sirens' arrival in this world ahead of time. But how was she supposed to know you were awake? You never talked after that."
Leviathan's words gave Lord Nagato pause, and his face slightly fell. Good thing he was ahead of everyone, and no one could see the gloomy look on his face.
"Anyway, her presence was enough to pull me out of that dreamlike state I was in," he continued, openly dodging the question. "In the end, it's only thanks to her that I'm here. I'm really looking forward to seeing her in person."
The mood went back to being awkward after that exchange, at least until the group reached the Sanctuary.
"Commandant, I lost sight of the Worm-type," Jean Bart reported to Ryan.
"It's okay, Jean Bart. You did enough damage to that thing that it should be out of commission for a while at least," he responded through his earpiece. "Do me a favor and make another round of patrol. We are going to be quite busy here."
"Got it."
"Oh, and if you see a bunch of male Kansen around the place, please don't shoot them. They are friends."
"Yeah, yeah… wait, wha-"
But Ryan had already turned off the comms. He scanned his surroundings from where he had stepped away for a second.
The shipgirls patrolling the harbor had gathered at the docks, and the ones who were out to sea were slowly returning in groups. Most of them were unscathed, while others required medical attention. Luckily, most of them had only suffered minor injuries, with the most serious ones promptly being taken away by Vestal and her crew of nurse manjuus.
Amidst the crowd, he spotted Shoukaku and rushed over to her.
"Shoukaku!" He called out to her, voice filled with concern.
She turned in a flash upon hearing his voice, and he breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing her unharmed, if slightly roughed up.
"Shikikan! Thank the gods!" They embraced each other, relief washing over them both. "When the missiles appeared and the comms went down, I almost had a heart attack."
"Don't worry, I'm fine. All thanks to South Dakota, by the way," he said. "Sorry for worrying you. It's just that things have gotten a bit out of hand toward the end there."
"Yeah, we noticed that," she said, turning her gaze to the only new shipboy nearby.
Imperator was standing a few feet away from them, talking to the representatives of the factions in the Azur Lane fleet.
As soon as King George V, Musashi, Peter Strasser, and Littorio arrived, they demanded an explanation from the Commander, and the shipboy had intervened to save him the trouble and introduce himself. Now, they were conversing quietly, exchanging pleasantries as the docks around them teemed with shipgirls returning from battle.
"Have you seen Zuikaku? I couldn't contact her either," Shoukaku asked Ryan.
"I'm afraid she was among those who fell into the Sirens' trap," he grimaced. "Nagato should know about them. Let's go look for her."
"Yes, let's."
"Lenin! It's so good to see you!" Liam all but threw himself at Lenin, arms wide and a radiant smile on his face.
Lenin didn't even have the time to process his presence as the taller man pulled him in a hug. He glared at Emperor through the embrace, who was standing by the side looking at the two of them with a snarky grin on his face. He mouthed an "asshole" at him as he returned the hug and patted Liam on the back.
"Okay, that's enough!" Lenin broke the hug as he started feeling the embarrassment. "It's only been like three months, Liam. No need to get all mushy for so little," he said, trying to act tough and hide the emotion on his face.
"So little?!" The man exclaimed in dismay. "Lenin, I thought y'all were dead. I mourned you! There's a memorial with your names back home! Don't you get what it means? I thought I'd never see you again!"
Lenin visibly flinched at that, but he maintained his stoic expression.
"Liam, don't mind him. He's just trying to act all tough in front of his girlfriend," Emperor intervened, patting the man on the shoulder.
Liam stopped his tirade and stared at him with a puzzled look on his face, his brain straining to process Emperor's words. Only then did he notice the four shorter shipgirls standing awkwardly right behind Lenin.
The icebreaker wanted to object to his brother's claim, but Le Malin spoke up from behind.
"Lenin, who is this man?"
Lenin cleared his throat in embarrassment. "He is the guy I told you about. The officer assigned to us during the search for the seed."
"Oh, aren't you supposed to address him as 'commander' then?" Le Malin asked.
"Officially, he was our commander," Emperor explained. "But in practice, his job was to act as a middleman between us and the higher-ups."
Liam confidently nodded in agreement. "Yep, I was their proxy."
"Which means you were more of a mascot than anything," Lenin added.
"Hey, I used to provide you with logistical support and handle diplomacy and negotiations with the local authorities during our travels," Liam said. "Without me, you wouldn't even have been able to step foot on land whenever we docked somewhere."
"Okay, Mom."
Liam felt heat rising to his face at Lenin's infuriating attitude, but it soon turned into contentment as a feeling of nostalgia washed over him.
"I missed you, Teddy Bear," he finally said as he rubbed the shipboy's scalp, his voice taking on a softer tone. "Now, who is this lovely young lady?" He turned to acknowledge Le Malin before Lenin could stop him. "Is what I heard true? You two are dating?"
"Ah, yes, sir," Le Malin said, shaking the hand the man was offering. "I'm Le Malin, of the Le Fantasque-class, and these are my sisters. It's nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too, and thank you for being so kind to him," Liam said. Then he leaned down to her level and began whispering in a conspiring tone. "And if you ever want to learn some 'funny' anecdotes about your boyfriend, just let me know. I'll gladly share them with you."
Le Malin's eyebrows shot up, then she turned to Lenin, and her face twisted in a mischievous grin, making the shipboy's heart drop in his stomach.
"Liam, don't you dare," Lenin warned.
But the man's attention was already on something else, namely the bunch of figures approaching the docks from the water.
"Shit, Kurama," Liam breathed out as he noticed the shipboy's unconscious form being carried on Lord Nagato's back.
Lord Nagato stepped foot on the docks and set down Kurama's unconscious body as the others crowded around them. Kaga and Leviathan did the same with Zuikaku and Alabama.
"What happened to him?" Lenin asked in concern.
"Don't worry, he's just unconscious," Lord Nagato said.
"He used up all his energy," Leviathan explained. "He crashed out as soon as he saw Herr Nagato."
"Heh, figures, let me see what I can do about it," Emperor snorted as he took off his hat, relief evident on his face.
Kaga was in much better shape than the other three. As opposed to Zuikaku and Alabama, whose bodies were bruised and battered, she had taken close to no hits. Kurama, on the other hand, was in much worse shape, having used his body to shield the other two toward the end of the battle.
Still, his injuries fell within Emperor's realm of competence, so all he needed to do was enclose Kurama inside his stasis chamber and keep him there for a bit until Vestal arrived.
Meanwhile, Ryan and Shoukaku had reached that area of the docks as well. The white-haired carrier immediately noticed her sister's state and rushed to the group to check on her.
"Zuikaku!"
The Red Crane was barely able to hold herself upright but was wide awake and couldn't help the sheepish smile escaping her lips upon seeing her sister.
"Shoukaku-nee, thank goodness you are all right," she drawled out as Shoukaku kneeled beside her.
"You idiot. You are the one lying on the ground, not me," she said, bringing her sister's head to rest on her lap. "Heavens, you are always making me worry so much…"
"Hehe, sorry about that…" Zuikaku said, chuckling guiltily.
"She fought well," Kaga interjected and began recounting the events that had played out inside that Mirror Sea, focusing particularly on how well her kohai had fought—much to Zuikaku's embarrassment. All that, of course, didn't help assuaging Shoukaku's worries.
Ryan breathed a sigh of relief at that, then he turned to address the Priestess of the Sakura.
"Lady Nagato, what about the others who fell into the Scavengers' traps?"
"Someone is still missing. Kawakaze and Mikasa are taking care of looking for the last bodies. They'll let us know when they find them," she informed him, making him breathe another sigh of relief. "We should send someone to help them."
As all those conversations took place, Lord Nagato scanned the docks with his eyes, hoping to find the person he was looking for.
Eventually, his eyes settled on Shinano. The shipgirl was leaning over one of the dock's installations, seemingly on the verge of dozing off, but she felt his gaze on her almost immediately. She turned to look at him, and they locked eyes for a second, during which the world seemed to come to a stop.
Then he began walking toward her, his heart beating faster in his chest, and she stood up straight to meet him.
He stopped at arm's length from her and greeted her with a soft smile.
"Hello, Shinano."
"Greetings to you, Nagato-dono," Shinano said with a small bow. She was slightly taken aback by the shipboy's informal tone, but she paid it no mind. "It's good to see you in good health."
He grimaced internally at that, then he steeled himself. "I thought we were past that..."
She tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"
He let out a small chuckle. "After all that's happened between us, you don't have to be so formal. Oh, but if you wish, we can maintain the formalities when in front of our peers."
His words only added to her confusion. "Forgive me, Nagato-dono, but I don't understand what you mean."
He let out a resigned sigh, his ears drooping atop his head, and his tails hanging low. "This is harder than I thought it would be."
"Is something the matter?" She asked in concern. Something buried deep in her mind was screaming at her. She knew that she was missing something, but for the life of her, she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
He shook his head lightly. "No, everything is fine," he said weakly, his mind torn between the various thoughts churning inside him. Then he decided. "Please, hold still for me."
Before she could inquire about his intentions, he reached out his hand to cup her face, then he leaned in and kissed her on the lips.
Shinano's eyes widened as a spark of electricity traveled through her synapses. Flashes of memories flooded her mind, like many missing puzzle pieces coming together to fill a void. As if the curtain of mist in her mind was lifted, she was finally able to see the whole picture.
He pulled away but kept his hand on her cheek, looking at her in the eyes. "Do you remember now?"
Her heart soared. "Yes… Yes, I do…"
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for another, more passionate kiss. He gladly welcomed it, hugging her close as she relished in the feeling of their bodies and lips pressed together.
They were so lost in their world that they completely tuned out their surroundings until…
*Snap*
The sudden flash of light and the sound of a camera shutter going off prompted them to pull apart with a start. They glanced to the side to see Aoba staring up at them, camera in hand and jaw on the floor.
The cyan-haired cruiser squealed in embarrassment at being caught and stormed off. They chuckled in amusement, but then they immediately froze as they realized that the chatter surrounding them had died down.
The world around them seemed to have come to a stop as a wave of silence spread over the docks. Those close enough to notice their interaction froze in their steps, drawing everyone else's attention, until everyone was gawking at the pair of foxes.
"S-Shinano, w-what are you doing?" Musashi asked her sister, her normally poised expression replaced by a look of utter shock.
"Forgive me, dear sister," Shinano said. "I shall do the honors. This is Nagato, my koibito…"
The silence hung heavy for a moment before the docks erupted into chaos.
"WHAAAT?!"
The implications of Shinano's words weren't lost on anyone present, especially her Sakura comrades and those who had a basic grasp of Japanese.
The Sakura shipgirls all began crowding around Shinano and Lord Nagato to bombard them with questions. They just couldn't fathom that their lethargic oracle would be interested in such mundane things as love.
And then there were others, like Ryan, who couldn't fathom how all that could be physically possible. After the first and only success two months prior, Shinano had tried multiple times to reach out to Lord Nagato through her dreams, but all her attempts had failed. When would the carrier have had the time to get to know him enough to see him as her soul mate?
Luckily, they didn't need to wait any longer to get their answers.
Nagato stepped up to take control of the situation, ushering everyone away so that the shipgirls could finally take their well-deserved rest. The flagship had literally sent her subordinates to bed, and Ryan had done the same with his own.
Then, after the chaos died down, she led everyone back to the temple grounds, and now, here they were, sitting on the pillows inside the main shrine's meeting room, with the two Nagato sitting opposite each other. On the shipgirl's left were the Azur Lane representatives—Musashi, Littorio, King George V, and Peter Strasser. On her right was Ryan, and next to him, Emperor, Liam, and Imperator.
Lenin and Leviathan had gone to put an already unconscious Kurama to bed since Kaga barely had the strength to keep herself upright. They said they'd reconvene later with the others.
Lastly, Shinano was lying on the tatami floor right beside Lord Nagato, dozing off with her head in his lap and a content look on her face.
"Shinano, please, we need you awake for this," Musashi pleaded, staring at her sister, still not knowing what to make of the situation.
"I suggest we let her rest," Lord Nagato said, gently brushing Shinano's hair. "Awakening too many dormant memories all at once must have taken a toll on her."
"Dormant memories… So, it's as I thought…" Ryan mused, drawing everyone's questioning looks. "Shinano's attempts at reaching out to you didn't fail. She just forgot about it," he proclaimed.
"That's exactly right, Shikikan," Lord Nagato said with a smile. "I'm impressed you were able to figure it out."
"I only just pieced it all together, but I already had my doubts," Ryan said. "Shinano was unusually insistent when she 'suggested' we relocate the ARC and very vague with her explanation, even more so than usual. Am I also right to assume that you were the one who told her?"
"Also correct, Shikikan," Lord Nagato nodded as everyone pondered Ryan's words. "Shinano and I have actually been keeping in contact with each other for a while."
"Can you explain?" Ryan cordially asked him.
"But of course," Lord Nagato began. "When I woke up right after our first meeting, I couldn't remember anything at all. Everything came to me later, like a bolt from the blue. Then I tried reaching out to her the same way she did to me, and I succeeded."
"You can do that?" Nagato asked in disbelief.
He solemnly nodded. "Of all the Kansen in our world, I'm the one who's more attuned to the Sacred Sakura than anybody else, even more so than Shinano. We would meet up inside our oneiric dimension almost every day. We've spent a lot of time together, talking, playing shogi… In the end, one thing led to another, and here we are," he said, lovingly gazing down at the shipgirl resting her head in his lap. "But every time I entered her dream, she had this confused look on her face. She told me that she only remembered our interactions when I would reach out to her, and that when she would wake up, she would forget everything."
"Just like you when you first woke up," Ryan said. He, like everyone else, was hanging on to the shipboy's every word in rapt attention.
"Indeed. I also made that correlation, but when it comes to explaining it, I'm afraid I don't have much. The only thing we were able to piece together was that, when it happened to me, it was because I woke up from a dream in which she intruded with her power. While when it happened to her, it was always because I was the one doing it."
Reaching out to dreams across the space-time continuum wasn't exactly an easy feat. The first time, Shinano needed three shipboys fueling her power to do so. It was an incredible accomplishment, but one she couldn't replicate alone; that was the extent of her power.
For Lord Nagato, though, it was different, but only because the time he had spent so close to the Sacred Sakura—both physically and mentally—while meditating in his comatose state had brought him a greater understanding of the thing the Sirens called the "Ineffable Entity."
So, there was no other way for them to interact with each other outside of him reaching out to her.
"But now that you've met in person, you've made her remember," Musashi concluded.
Lord Nagato nodded. "Just like the Sacred Sakura awakened my memories when I woke up, I did the same for her."
"This is so incredibly romantic," Littorio chimed in dramatically. "Your love transcends the boundaries of the universe itself. I can only imagine the pain you must have felt when Shinano didn't recognize you outright as her beloved. If that were to happen to me, my heart wouldn't be able to take it."
"I concur," King George V said. "I'm curious, though, was the kiss really necessary?"
Lord Nagato chuckled at that. "I don't know, was it?" He shrugged and let out a mischievous grin, to which Imperator rolled his eyes and shook his head lightly while Liam scratched his head sheepishly.
"Still, that doesn't explain how she was able to remember that particular piece of information in the midst of her amnesia," Peter Strasser mused aloud, bringing the conversation back on track.
"There's another tricky question…" Lord Nagato said as he began explaining what he had deduced from his experience.
He didn't know how accurate his assumptions were, but he presumed that dreams were only capable of sustaining one Kansen with the power of dreamwalking at a time, prioritizing the one actively using their power to reach the other. The recipient, unfortunately, was forced to experience the same thing as everyone else does when dreaming, that is, forgetting about it, being left with only the vestiges of the feeling in the back of their minds.
"We were struggling to find a solution to relay the message, so we basically decided to bet on that feeling," he surmised. "You know how some dreams are far clearer and easier to remember than others? We tried to make it so that that piece of information was as clear as possible in her mind by having it recur as many times as necessary during our conversations."
"I get it. Some kind of exposure effect," Ryan mused. It was like hammering something into someone's mind so many times to the point of nausea. He could only imagine how hard it must have been for Shinano.
Speaking of the carrier, before Lord Nagato could respond, a stir drew his attention, and he glanced down to see Shinano slowly arising from her position. She brought a hand up to stifle a yawn, then began speaking, her speech slightly slurred from sleep.
"Even through my amnesia… I had figured that something was amiss… It felt like my mind was clouded by a thick layer of mist that was only lifted when he… touched me," she said as a soft blush colored her cheeks.
Almost every day, after waking up in the morning of another presumed failure, although she couldn't precisely recall the details, she felt that she had indeed dreamed. The sensation was unmistakable, even without the memory to support it. It was the typical feeling of waking up with a vague, slippery sense that she had experienced something vivid and meaningful, but whose details eluded her. Her attempts at grasping at the fragments of memory only caused them to dissolve the moment she tried to focus on them, like trying to catch smoke with her hands.
That very same feeling had returned when she had come face to face with Lord Nagato earlier. The dormant memories had kept banging at the backdoor of her mind, pushing to come out, but unable to do so.
At least until he touched her.
"Shikikan, Nagato-sama, I apologize for causing you so much trouble," she said, bowing her head to the two of them. "You trusted in my guidance despite it being rooted in uncertainty. For that, I'll forever be grateful…" Then she turned to the male Kitsune, a pleading look in her eyes. "And to you, my unmei no hito, will you be able to forgive me for forgetting about you… about us?"
"I already did, Shinano," Lord Nagato said, grasping her hands in his. "I'm just glad I finally get to hold you for real…"
"I once lamented my inability to shift the hand of fate..." she trailed off as they lost themselves in each other's eyes. "But now, and forever... as long as you are here..."
"Always, my beloved…"
Someone loudly cleared their throat, making the sparkles and twinkling around them abruptly disappear as the two were brought back to reality.
They glanced in embarrassment around the room as everyone else deadpanned at them, then Peter Strasser spoke up.
"I'm sure you two lovebirds have a lot to say to each other, but first, it's best if we get to more urgent matters, shall we?"
"Yeah, like that whole 'see the future' matter," Emperor chimed in. "Kurama never told us you had such an ability. What's up with that?"
Lord Nagato's lips twisted into a rueful smile.
"My visions are similar to Shinano's in nature. Since they are dreams, they are random and inconsistent. Additionally, I found that I can only see the future of the people from my world," he explained, not even trying to hide the fact that he was trying to dodge the question. "I'm sorry if you were expecting some kind of help from me on that front."
"If that's the case, how did you know the ARC was going to blow up?" Ryan inquired.
"I saw the effects it would have had on the other side, with Freedom, Leviathan, and Emperor getting stuck in our home world. When I found out, I rushed to tell everyone else," he said, turning to Imperator and Liam.
"Indeed," Imperator confirmed. "Knowing all that, we arranged to have all our men gather in a single place, and we made a point to cross the portal as quickly as we could before destroying it."
"And to facilitate the connection between our worlds, we chose the place closest to the Sacred Sakura Tree—our world's Sakura Empire," Lord Nagato continued. "Then I made sure to pass it along to Shinano to ensure you opened the portal right there."
"Nagato-dono, you made it sound almost as if…" Nagato trailed off.
"As if our worlds were mirror images of each other," he concluded for her. "Because they are. When a portal is opened in one world, its entrance appears in the other's corresponding position."
"That must be why TB wasn't able to calibrate the portal for a specific destination," Ryan mused, his mind racing a hundred miles a minute at the revelations. "Our universes are parallel—alternate realities overlaid on different planes of existence. Aoste and Anzeel would probably die to know."
"And even in an alternate world, an Azur Lane is still present," Liam piped up merrily. "An alternate Azur Lane."
"Speaking of, doesn't that mean you all are stuck here now?" Emperor interjected. "The brass mustn't have been happy to send you over. How did you convince them?"
The other three otherworlders didn't reply. They simply averted their gazes.
"Liam?" Emperor tentatively asked.
"Erm…" Laim trailed off, scratching the back of his head.
"Liam…" Emperor warned.
"We… came here against their will…" Liam sheepishly stated.
"You are joking, right?"
"Unfortunately not," said Imperator. "Our superiors did not approve of our initiative to come to your help, even when we told them that there were some of our own stranded in this world."
"So we gathered as many hands as we could and did it all behind their backs," Liam concluded as silence fell into the room. Turning to look at Emperor, he noticed the wide-eyed expression on the shipboy's face and let out a sheepish chuckle. "Come on, you didn't think we were going to abandon you in your time of need, did you?"
Emperor clasped his face with his hands, hiding the emotion in his eyes behind his fingers. "That's not the issue, you idiot…"
All of a sudden, Nagato perked up as someone reached out to her with their internal radio.
"Uhh… Nagato-sama, we found the Grey Ghost and the other missing Kansen, but we have a problem…"
"Kawakaze? What do you mean? What problem?" She inquired in confusion.
"Well, how do I explain this…?"
Then a sudden high-pitched, cheery voice interjected.
"'Grey Ghost?' That's supposed to be me...? That sounds pretty awesome!"
AN: Hihihi, title drop, hihihi…
Anyway, another chapter in the bag, another turning point in the story. Now, we head toward the end, but before that, I have a list titled "Interactions," and another one called "Conversations," in which I note down everything that needs to happen, whether as a plot point, character progression, or as a simple "I thought it would be cool" kind of thing.
They are both quite long, and you know what that means.
Let's get it on.
Next Chapter: Catharsis