Chapter - 3
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
U-47 pivoted her head, the seawater parting to make way for the motion. Her communicator's display flickered with activity as static filled her ears. Wincing under her bandanna which was held firmly around her mouth, she grabbed the knob on it and turned, the volume decreasing to a steady hum.
Click
"...U-4….Shi.. interference….. There. U-47, Do you copy?"
A tap on a button, and Fraulein Hipper's high-pitched voice followed through the vibrating communicator. After adjusting the knob once more, she turned her vision forwards. Her rigging lights trailed into the darkness of the sea.
" Positiv. "
The robotic shark's maw snapped at the sudden disturbance, but she patted it to calm it down.
" Ja, how is the mission going? Are you there yet? We gave you the coordinates, but it's still tough to reach… Not that I'm worried, of course! You're one of our finest submarines!"
'Never change, Hipper.'
"I'm fine, but I can't see anything underwater." Popping her head above the waves, she checked for any signs of her destination– No ruined buildings in sight yet. Only mist all around her and the thundering of waves-
'Oh, that's a big one.'
Breathing in a cold gasp of air that chilled her throat, she dived back underwater, ducking just in time for the huge wave to come crashing above her. Hipper's voice was absorbed by the turbulent sea roaring above, and she dived even deeper till she could hear it again.
"...If you need, U-556 is on standby-"
"The destroyer fleet was unharmed, right? There should be no problems unless I run into the… anomaly."
The line went silent for a few seconds.
"...I suppose you're right. Still, maintain caution. We can't sustain any losses. I would send more submarines with yo-"
"I'm fine, Danke ." She cut in.
'I admire Lord Bismarck just as much as the others, but U-556's endless chatter is the last thing I need right now.'
She could hear Hipper muttering something inaudible before the line went silent, leaving her with only herself and her rigging in the darkness.
Deep in the ocean, far from any sort of land. A KANSEN's specialty, but no one would be comfortable to go into a mirror sea of all places. Only the ping of her occasional sonar echoed through the waters, returning nothing. Not a shred of marine life anywhere to be seen.
–A waste of resources, the Sirens had called it, to add anything other than water and a few ruins here and there.
'Not like those things are capable of appreciating what makes a sea well, a sea.'
Looking at her communicator's display, she read the text displayed for the hundredth time to alleviate some of her boredom.
-Patrol the ruins for any sign of the anomaly and report back.
When she initially accepted the mission, she was warned that conditions would be bad, but she definitely didn't expect… this.
She could hardly see, and sometimes stray currents would brush against her, strong enough to stray her from her path and make her redirect so that she would stay on course.
'...My idea of peace and quiet is reading a book or watching the waves, not getting pushed around by currents every minute…'
Checking her map, she found that she was nearing the site of the anomaly and sighed internally in relief – she couldn't wait to be back home.
"...Sense anything yet?"
Her rigging swiveled its head from right to left in response, looking for any sign of their destination. The lights highlighted nothing but a few bubbles from its mouth that floated upwards slowly.
All she received in return was a growl and a shake of its head.
Reserving herself at the negative response, she prepared for a few more minutes of wading through the water.
.
…
….
They had been following the directions they received for a few more minutes now but had yet to arrive. By this time, she had gotten used to the silence and started enjoying it, humming a tune to herself along the way.
" Grrrr…"
She looked down at her map at the interruption.
Their marker- a red dot on the map- was quickly approaching the area of the anomaly. Her rigging's eyes flashed repeatedly - as its sonar scanned the surrounding water, the pings fading away into the darkness.
–and it bounced back this time, ringing in her ears. Data loaded on the map, green pixels stretching to form a network of lines and shapes.
She focused on the nearest one to them, just to their right.
"Let's go to that one."
Her rigging obeyed, changing direction with a swish of its tail. They slowed as the map showed them getting closer and closer. It didn't take long before the shape appeared before them, highlighted by the bright lights.
A patch of bricks appeared in front of them. Swimming up to it, the patch expanded into an entire wall, eventually extending downward into the abyss, beyond where her lights reached.
The wall was in a horrible state. Cracked and broken off in some places, what was supposed to be vivid red faded into a dull gray—matching the darkness that surrounded it. What had probably been windows had eroded into holes, big and small, that lined the wall.
In her opinion, it should've already collapsed, but this was a mirror sea, so anything went.
She scanned the wall until she found a hole big enough for both of them to swim through without problems. Twisting the handles, her rigging steered towards it and slipped through.
The water around her became a murky gray as the lights illuminated streams of particles around her. The thrashing of the waves subsided as walls enclosed them. Her rigging turned upwards, gaining speed. The water gradually gained a lighter and lighter shade, and a blurry view of what was at the top formed.
And then they broke the surface.
Blinking repeatedly to get rid of some stray particles that ebbed at her eyeballs, her pupils focused into view.
'...Ugh, can't see properly.'
After waiting a few more seconds for her eyes to adjust, the room finally became clear.
The same weared-out grey bricks surrounded her on all sides. The room's floor had collapsed, its jagged wooden remains outlying the perimeter, attached to the, frankly, safety hazard of a wall.
Drip
Drip
Drip
The beam of light illuminated a doorway in the middle of one side of the room, through which it disappeared on the far end. On the other side, a staircase that she could have used to get upstairs had it not been broken in the middle.
She stared at the doorway briefly, listening for any noises. A shiver crawled down her spine, and she looked away, grimacing.
'Should I just turn back and report? It's way too risky to explore places filled with water. But we haven't had any results even after a week. The top brass are getting impatient…'
The destroyers had been scouting the seas for some time and found nothing except sounds of someone's footsteps or sounds of swimming.
The rumors Z2 had started of it being a ghost of a sailor who drowned at sea quickly blew out of proportion, to the point Lord Bismarck had to expressly state she wouldn't be sending any of the extremely eager bigger ships on scouting. As Lord Bismarck put it, the anomaly also prevented them from running any experiments on the Mirror Sea by disrupting the calculations. She ordered results within the next week.
'... Verdammt, I should have brought U-556 after all…'
Creeping slowly to the doorway, she looked into it.. It led into a dark hallway, seemingly continuing onward without end. She stared right down it with a hoarse and steady breath, half expecting something to jump out of the shadows. Something in her gut churned at the sight.
She would gladly choose exploring a shipwreck or something over this…
'Then again, KANSEN weren't built for land, were they?'
Interrupted with an impatient shuffling of her rigging, she looked between the broken staircase and the hallway.
'Well, at least the hallway is waterlogged. I can just sink if my radar beeps.'
'For now.'
Gripping the handles of her partner, they drove through the doorway. Dirty water flows around her legs.
She suppressed a shudder at the feeling. 'I'm not diving under this muddy water. Gonna need a shower back home, too.'
The sub trained her ears to listen for any noises beyond the sloshing sounds from her rigging's swimming.
The grey walls passed by in a blur, until a doorway broke the continuity. Guided by the walls on either side of her and her mechanical companion's light, she slipped past the entrance into the room.
Once again, she was greeted by nothing but a floorless room. A musty stench wafted throughout it, causing her to grimace. She lifted her bandanna higher over her nose to avoid the horrid stench.
To the side of the room lay a wall-mounted shelf, half-submerged by the water. It was rotting, with mold covering almost the entirety. Some parts were chipped off. Most of its surface was white, mixed in with tidbits of brown.
The humidity irritated her nose, and she sneezed, raising her bandanna further.
'...Why do humans like exploring abandoned buildings? I'd rather do anything else than this.'
Her rigging was uncomfortable with the tight space and putrid smell, and she shifted around uneasily.
After checking her radar to make sure nothing was following them— definitely not a ghost—they went underwater again, this time opting to skip most of the other doorways and check out the end of the hallway.
Soon enough, the beam of their light came into full view, highlighting it in a yellow-white hue.
A sight of decay spread out in front of them—the wooden floor beneath her was beyond rotten, overtaken by white splotches and a dark brown hue. Missing planks allowed one to peer through the floor into the depths of the sea. A thin veil of water covered the surface. A huge hole was in the middle of the flooring. It looked like the wood had collapsed upon itself, splinters sticking upward against the direction of the collapse.
The path led up to a wooden stair, which led somewhere upward, its integrity questionable.
She hopped off her rigging onto the floor, water dripping off them, and immediately regretted her decision.
Being barefoot, her feet sunk into the rotten floor, a wet squelch and a crack coming from it.
' ...Ewwww. Nope, nope, NOPE!'
She immediately jumped back on her companion, revealing her footprints embedded onto it. A putrid stench hit her, and her feet felt slimy.
Gott , she felt like gagging for a second.
'Okay, no barefoot walking at any cost. Got it.'
She looked at the staircase, which reflected the light. A faded brown color terminated just above the water line, showing how high the water peaked.
Below it, the wood was coated in a black fungus that appeared in bands through it. Chunks of it were also removed.
'...Yeah, no way I'm walking through that barefoot.
Sensing her discomfort, her rigging rose out of the water, floating above the floor. She thanked their engineering inwardly, feeling glad she didn't have to walk on any of… that.
She gripped the handles of her rigging and lowered her head, the ceiling above brushing her head. Reaching the bottom of the staircase just after the hole, her rigging tilted upwards, its bottom scraping against the treads of the stairs. She placed a hand on the railing to steady herself.
CRUNCH
'….?!'
With a crack from her neck, her head swung to the bottom of the staircase, hand immediately flying to the deck gun mounted on her rigging. It twitched and looked back.
Their lights illuminated the bottom of the staircase, to the side of which the noise had come.
U-47's heart hammered in her chest and her gaze lingered at the floor below, deck gun pointed towards it.
…
Seconds passed by without any movement, and she finally allowed herself to draw a breath she had been holding.
'What was that?'
She reversed her rigging slowly so as not to hit her head. Reaching the bottom, she turned her lights on in the hallway.
The dim light threw deep shadows down the hallway, the intense center of the beam leaving a bright streak along one side.
Each doorway on the side was clearly visible up to a point where the sheer length of the dilapidated hallway overpowered the beam and cast the far end into darkness.
Turning the light from side to side, she found nothing of note. At first glance, everything looked the same as it did when she passed through- the smell of rotting wood, paint flaking off the walls and the somewhat eerie sound of dripping water.
A distorted reflection of the ceiling was cast in the waters of the waterlogged hallway.
Her eyes darted about for a second longer. She was sure she heard something, and the twitching from her rigging confirmed it. It let out a growl, almost startling her, which echoed down the hallways, receiving no response.
'Calm down… Calm down… You're an Ironblood KANSEN; you can deal with this.' She thought, trying to slow down the clambering in her chest.
"...We should probably go check it out." She didn't want to, remembering a few horror novels she had read, but... not like she had a choice.
U-47 was an Ironblood KANSEN and had her pride, for what it was worth. Receiving a grunt in affirmation, they landed back on the water and approached where the sound came from, not before dimming her lights.
Wading past a few doorways as quietly as possible, they glanced around. Her heart hammered in her chest.
Nothing came up, even after they moved around a bit.
Eventually, something caught her eye- it was a doorframe, one she passed by before. In far worse of a state than the others too. But what caught her attention was the crack that ran through it. She was almost sure she hadn't seen it before.
Placing her hand over it, she traced over its rough edges.
The crack could have been caused by expansion– or contraction; it was undoubtedly almost cold enough to allow it, but…
It was too much of a coincidence to occur right behind her.
Her rigging sniffed at the air, and its eyes flashed orange. It swiveled from side to side, until its head rested right in front of the door frame.
It growled.
'….Not a good sign…'
Eyes moved to the room- it was too dark to see- and she was not about to put her lights on full blast and announce their position- but something was glinting, just out of reach.
She unconsciously sucked in a breath, and they motioned into the doorway.
Popping their heads above the water, another dilapidated room greeted them. Like most other rooms on the level, it still had no floor. A metal washbasin was fixed at the end of the room, its drainage pipe leading nowhere except into the seawater.
All in all, there was nowhere to hide. Except…
She looked downward at the abyss below.
The abyss stared back.
"Try using the sonar scanning underwater."
Descending a few meters, yellow mechanical eyes flashed again with a ping that echoed into the depths.
Still nothing.
'….Verdammt.' She swore internally.
And then they rose, water parting to air.
The duo swam out of the room, stopping at the cracked doorway. While she was relieved they had found nothing, a tinge of frustration betrayed it. The sooner they found something, the sooner she would be at port, enjoying her peace and quiet.
She placed a finger on the fractured door frame and dragged it down, feeling the jagged edges rub against her skin- or hull.
"...Let's continue upstairs." The Submarine finally let out after tracing it another couple of times. There was no point in dwelling on it—they needed to return before nightfall.
They quickly waded through the water faster than before and flew up the stairs. In her haste, her forehead bumped against the ceiling.
This time, they found themselves in another room—much more hospitable than the ones below. The smell was less imposing and putrid, and the damage to the surroundings was comparatively decreased.
A faded coat of white paint covered a brick wall, which was chipped off in many places. The room had four windows through which she could see the gray sea outside. She turned off her lights, and what little sunlight came cast a somewhat monochrome view.
The U-boat hopped off her rigging, her bare feet landing on the dusty wooden floor. It held her weight this time, unlike the rotten one from before.
She felt something rise from the back of her throat again just by thinking about it.
'….I'm definitely skipping dinner tonight..'
Shaking her head, she focused back on what was in front of her. At the end of the room stood a lone door, sealed shut. It was nothing special, an ordinary door made out of what looked like oak—it was too dusty and aged to be sure.
Crunch
Crunch
She strode over to it, the various pieces of debris scattered on the floor cracking under her feet. Her rigging trailed quietly.
Bending down, she looked down the keyhole. On the other side, she could make out a few things, mainly another rather dark hallway, this time a pretty short one- the end was visible.
The sides of the hallway were lined with a few doors, some closed and some open.
At the end of the corridor, however, a door lay face-down on the floor, a faint, dim light shining out from the room it was supposed to cover.
She squinted her eyes and tried to make out more, yet it became a blur-
The KANSEN turned to her rigging, eyes narrowed.
"There's a busted door on the other side. We might have found something." It grunted in response before shuffling to take a look and then moving back to allow her entry.
Grabbing the knob, she twisted- it screeched violently. Pulling, she found that it wouldn't budge.
After a couple more minutes of twisting and pulling, she gave up trying to open it normally. She gripped the doorknob tightly, the brass straining under her grip, and pulled with more strength.
The door practically screamed, screeching and wailing the whole way she pulled. Its hinges struggled to remain fixed, its screws almost coming off. The deadbolt burst through the door frame with a snap- rusted beyond recognition.
She flung it to the side, a dust cloud following it, settling in the air.
A clear view of the hallway revealed itself before her. Three weathered doors lined the walls- paint peeling and doorknobs tarnished. The air carried a tolerable scent, for at least a hallway with a rotting basement underneath.
She would rather be breathing the fresh air back at port, though.
Dim light spilled from a few uncovered windows, casting long shadows onto the faded wooden floor. The windows themselves, coated in grime and dust, were barely transparent.
The room in question rested at the end of the hallway, on the left side.
The only thing left of the door was half of its hinges, the other half lying on the ground along with the very clearly broken-in-half door. Splinters surrounded it, probably from the door frame. Whatever that broke-through had no idea what subtlety was.
A soft ray of light emitted from the room, illuminating the broken remains of the door and frame.
She stared at it for a few moments. The ray of light definitely wasn't from sunlight; it was different, an orange luminescence resembling a campfire. But they were on a wooden floor... Who would light a fire on it?
Tearing away her eyes from the sight, she saw that her rigging was in front of the doorframe in question now, looking into it, and growled.
She blinked.
Quickly, the KANSEN moved, passing by the other doors. Wood cracked under her soles, but she felt nothing.
The room quickly came into view, and she found all her doubts that the search had failed dispelled. At the same time, a sort of unease settled in her gut. Despite the room initially resembling the others with the same aged features, the signs of habitation glared through the assumptions, the first one being the literal flickering campfire in the middle of the room.
Crackle
Her eyes widened at the fire, incredulous. The safety hazard flickered back. A pot of… something was set up over the fire.
She was starting to doubt the Anomalies' sanity. While the fire seemed to be propped up using some stones, they were still quite literally playing with fire with that setup. Not only that, they even left it alone, burning brightly.
Shooing away a dust cloud that formed with her movement, she ignored the campfire and moved on to the rest of the room. With a passing glance, she found her eyes widening.
Whoever lived here had either a knack for living in abandoned places or was a hardcore survivalist because they managed to turn what was possibly a wreckage of a room into a liveable space…even if it was a nasty one. She doubted she could even spend a night in the place; just thinking of the rotten basement that lay below made her gut churn.
'….Some kind of anomaly this is.'
Makeshift furniture lay scattered throughout the room. Near the campfire, a crude but functional table was fitted, accompanied by a rickety chair whose one leg was replaced by a wooden block.
In one corner of the room, she saw pieces of clothes bundled into a makeshift pillow, under what looked like a duster, which she assumed was the bedsheet. In another, she saw… a fridge?
Her stare became more questioning as she looked at the tall white box in the corner, which was apparently somehow even powered on, a humming reverberating from it.
Shaking her head, she moved on to the pile of what looked like scrap metal in the room. She had no idea what use the anomaly had for it. The submarine walked over to the pile and crouched. Picking up a rather jagged piece of metal, she turned it around in her hand.
Nothing much about it- just a rusty old fragment.
Dropping it, she took another look at the pile, sorting through the pieces. A glint caught her eye after she removed a rather large chunk. Curious, she focused on that part. What looked like the top of a metal pipe was unearthed in front of her. She took hold of it and pulled her finger under it to get a grip.
It dislodged immediately, courtesy of a KANSEN's strength, and she found herself looking at a shotgun of all things. It was a pump action and had a drum magazine. Well maintained, too. Her distorted reflection was visible on the barrel. She had no idea about anything beyond it, unfamiliar with small arms. Perhaps those back at the port could take a look at it?
The submarine rolled it around in her hands, looking it over. Despite having no use for guns, she did admit that it looked cool.
She traced its barrel with her finger before propping it against her shoulder and aiming at a dark marking on the wall.
'….I guess this is how you use it?'
Aiming down the sight, she pulled back the forend and released it. A satisfying schtick ! Resounded through the room.
She squeezed the trigger but stopped herself before the bullet could fly, reminding herself what she was here for. Placing it to the side, her hands went back to sorting through the rest of the heap, trying to find anything worthwhile.
The KANSEN uncovered more scrap, a broken radio, a weird-looking battery pack, and a few Ironblood books.
All in all, nothing useful.
A sigh formed in her mind. Her legs moved to stand up, floorboards creaking underneath her feet.
She turned to the rest of the room.
Perhaps she should look at the table next? There seemed to be some stuff on there.
CRUNCH
'...Shit!'
Midstep, she halted. Her head whipped around to where the sound came from.
Her rigging was snacking on something, its metallic jaws open and closing tightly around whatever it was eating.
"...Oh, it's just you."
Breathing in steadily, she felt an odd embarrassment rise up at how startled she was. Shuffling towards her rigging, she observed what it was eating—a barrel was sticking out of its mouth, which oddly looked like the gun she had picked up moments before.
…And she promptly froze up as she realized it was eating that same gun. The only evidence she has found to be helpful so far.
"Wait, no..!"
Grabbing the ends of the barrel before it all disappeared in its maw, she pulled, bringing it out halfway. However, what came out was hardly a gun. It was a mishmash of wood and metal, coated in oil.
She withdrew her hands in disgust, which was all it took for the rigging to consume it fully, leaving nothing behind.
It had the audacity to growl at her for the interruption, snapping its jaws one last time. She glared at it in response, fists clenched.
Yellow eyes looked into hers, unflinching.
The contest continued briefly, but the shipgirl was the first to break eye contact. Sighing, she released her fists. She had better things to do than get angry over a lost cause.
'...Wait till we get home. I'll deal with you.'
It didn't spend a glance at her warning, wading over to the metal-filled box. The submarine promptly moved to the table. Ignoring the crunching noises behind her, she inspected the various objects scattered on the wooden surface.
Various books were scattered over the table, some written in Ironblood while others in.. English?
Ignoring the Ironblood books, she reached for one open on the table. The schematics of… something was drawn on it, coupled with descriptions and labels.
She flipped to the cover page, using her finger as a bookmark to return to the earlier page.
Nikola Tesla and You
The name was immediately recognizable. After all, every Ironblood KANSEN had some degree of proficiency in engineering. So, who wouldn't recognize the creator of AC himself?
Yet…
"I don't remember him releasing a book like this…"
Flipping back to the page where she had found the book, she began to read through the schematics.
"Thanks to the invention of energy cells, an internal capacitor can be charged with sufficient wattage to emit a high-power laser, capable of melting through steel in seconds…. "
As the submarine kept reading, she felt something unpleasant stir in her gut. If this wasn't fictional drivel, judging by how it was written in English…
….The Eagle Union and Royal Navy were figuring out how to make lasers.
The implications of this were a mess, to say the least. A ploy by the sirens, the anomaly….
or something far worse.
"Lord Bismarck needs to know," she drew out, her voice tight with dread.
Book clutched like a lifeline, she whipped around to relay the news to her rigging, ready to tear back to port.
However, her foot collided with something solid and hard , causing her to step back.
A wall? no, a wall hadn't been there before.
Her head turned upwards in confusion and was met with something cold pressing against her temple.
A tall figure, taller than even Lord Bismarck, loomed over her. It wore a gas mask, which reflected the flickering firelight into two glowing green lenses, peering out from the mask. A black-gray tube attached to the side of it winded around to the back.
'...What…'
She dared not move, her limbs locked up in surprise and shock. It towered over her, not even moving an inch. The light from the fire danced on a crude inscription etched across the helmet—
'Forgive me, mama.'
A lump formed in her throat, which she quietly swallowed. She didn't want to think about the implications of that.
How had it bypassed her sonar? As if in answer, a warm, fetid gust of air puffed through the mask, brushing over her probably terrified face. A click followed, and she realized that a gun of all things, was currently pressed against her temple.
A tiny part of her terror and shock was replaced with confusion. Didn't it know that small arms did not affect KANSEN?
"I'm guessin' whoever this 'Lord Bismarck' is forgot to teach you manners, eh? Ever heard of not touching others' stuff?"
It- His voice was…. unquestionably synthetic. An impossibly heavy accent was layered on it. Sounded like one of those Eagle Union ships… was Nevada her name?
'Were we compromised by the Eagle Unio-'
BANG
Her world spun in a deafening boom as she felt herself get flung through the air. The force of the impact slammed her against something solid, jerking her head in the opposite direction. But the world kept spinning. A confused mumble escaped from her throat as she was yanked backwards, the air a roaring torrent in her ears.
Thud
And then she stopped.
Everything lurched to a sickening halt as her head snapped forwards. A dull pain radiated from the back of her skull. Her vision, momentarily stolen by the crash, swam back into focus in agonizing waves. Blurry shapes danced before her, swaying precariously along with her head.
Before the U-boat could entirely focus, a blue flash tore through the room, practically searing her eyes. One of her hands snapped to cover them, and she grit her teeth in pain. A wave of heat followed, and it subsided in seconds.
The same synthetic voice from before muttered something out of earshot.
"...EMPs sure are han…"
—Her eyes snapped open. She was staring at the wooden ceiling above… a faded brown. Some dust particles were floating down towards her.
Her ears were ringing…
…Her rigging! Where was her rigging?
She pushed herself off the ground with too much strength, the floor under her palms cracking. Resting her back against the wall she had just crashed into, the submarine looked ahead, scanning for any signs of her mechanical companion.
—Which lay a few feet away, on the ground, erratically twitching.
She immediately began lifting herself upward at the sight. Without her rigging, she was practically useless. Her torpedoes wouldn't fire properly on land, and Submarines weren't trained in other types of combat, given that they were required to stay hidden underneath the surface. If this was a siren experiment, she doubted her deck gun would do much damage.
'Scheiße, I need to unsummon my rigging and resummon i-'
CLANG
A brown boot slammed on the maw of the metallic reptile, receiving a weak snap of its jaws in return. Her hand slipped in surprise before she could unsummon it, and she slid backwards, her head hitting against the wall once more, eyes trailing upward to the rest of the figure.
He was covered head to toe in some kind of armor, littered with dents and scratches all over its surface. Whatever was left of its black paint job had faded, parts of its metallic surface glinting from the fire. A duster was draped across his shoulders, trailing against the floor.
His right hand was clutching something, but she couldn't quite make out what it was.
She blinked and felt a shift in the air, a subtle pressure that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
Her gaze flicked upward and met…
…The armored figure standing right over her.
He leaned towards her, with green lenses emerging inches from her face. She could see her terrified reflection in them, tinted green and distorted. Her body stilled, and her hands and jaw locked up.
An idle thought of what lay behind the lens passed through her mind.
"...Huh, usually that'd be enough to knock someone out…" He muttered, his voice sounding even more synthetic, yet more terrifying than before. Bringing a gloved hand to rub under the bottom of his mask, he half-shrugged. "Oh well, I have more options anyway."
'….What?'
Her eyes locked on his hand, which wandered into his duster and brought out a corked vial. It held a colorless liquid, tinted orange by the light of the fire.
"Who-" The U-boat began, sneakily clenching her fists behind her. With a distraction, she could land a hit and get to her rig-
"Who do you think?" he cut in, his tone not changing, yet still sounding terrifying.
The Submarine paused, all the strength she had placed into her forearm forgotten.
.
..
…
'…Oh..'
Her eyes widened as she began to connect the dots. She opened her mouth, but most of her words died right on her tongue before they could form.
"Yo…. You're the ano-"
She could feel the grin emerging on the figure's face beneath the mask. "Ring a ding ding, kiddo. Here's your prize."
With a flick of his wrist, he popped open the cork with his thumb and poured the contents of the vial onto the cloth before slamming it onto her face.
"Wai- Mmmmphhh…! "
She sucked in a breath through the cloth on reflex as dark spots started to appear from the corners of her vision. Her fingernails scratched across the floor, and she felt her consciousness begin to slip away.
'….I… have to… get.. ba..!'
One of her legs lashed out as she tried to free herself, but she simply heard the man shift in response. The submarine raised one of her hands to grasp at the cloth, but it fell limp halfway through.
As her vision entirely faded, she thought about what would happen back at the port if she went MIA.
As darkness claimed her, a single thought flickered in the void: U-556 and U-81. They'd be worried, wouldn't they? They would probably disobey orders and try to find her.
Yeah…. That sounded like them.
'I'm sure.. They'll… be fine… without… me..'
Hi, I'm back. Mb for the sudden hiatus. Before yall start blasting me, I do have this and one other chapter written out, the reason I had to go silent was cause life hit me in the face with exams and more exams along with cram school, its not over, but ill be free next month so I can finally get back to writing. I also need to rewrite some the 1st chapter because I put way more effort into this one than chapter 1, and now that I have a direction planned on, I gotta add in some details into chapter 1, I'll post the OG chapter 1 on ao3 if anyone wants that because I'm not into fully deleting stories, thats a dick move.
Thats all, next chapter should be pretty soon, just gotta tweak it.