Chapter Text
While she continued to deal with the scarce remnants which now took her no real effort to do so, as once the effects of the mirror sea were gone the rest of the enemy Zeros were not only weaker, but they also moved sluggishly. They didn’t quite drop as puppets with their strings cut as she had hoped, but there was a marked change in the gravitas of their current circumstances.
Once Akagi had finished with most of the black Zeros that had surrounded them, once she saw the right opportunity, she sent a small squadron of airplanes, with a few torpedo bombers among those, in the direction that Warspite had pointed towards.
“Azuma-san, are you alright?” Akagi asked her Sakuran compatriot, as she intended to move onto their next task.
Now that the submarine force that they had brought hiding under their bigger ships on the trip to this location had completed their mission, of scouting or dealing with the mirror sea, it was apparent that most of the enemy trap had been dismantled. They had a moment to check on their state before heading forward on their newly acquired mission.
“M-me? I am well enough,” Azuma answered with concern evident in her “Rather, I should ask you instead. Akagi, what has happened? Has the sacred Sakura tree perhaps blessed you?”
“Un” a simple monosyllable confirmation and a minute nod was given by Akagi while looking straight at Azuma
Azuma could not only feel the truth coming from the simple yet undeniable statement she could feel it even from her aura. But she was able to witness that a bright burning pink light was coming from Akagi’s pupils, the same sort of light that could be seen on the kitsune’s older sister, Amagi, from Shinano, and many others with a true devotion to their country. Azuma thought that perhaps what she was witnessing was the most obvious and marked trait that they were true champions of the Sacred Sakura tree.
“The sacred tree reached me and then showed me visions. There are souls of fallen Sakuran warriors trapped within the Siren machines.”
Akagi stated this as she looked above them at a clear sky where only their combined Airforce remained, Enterprise had refused to simply rest and let everything to Akagi, so among the pink-fire airplanes many of Enterprise’s blue airplanes remained making rounds around them.
“I thought the planes held them captive, but no matter how many I brought down, I couldn’t feel a single soul being released during the entire fight.”
“I-I see… that would explain why these Zeros were so fierce. Oh! The black Amagi carriers!” Azuma said, in the sudden moment of her epiphany that she immediately shared, she had failed to stop herself from mentioning the vessels that had stressed Akagi so much before their combat against the black Zeros.
“Yes. My thoughts as well” Akagi replied as she looked at the direction her torpedo planes had gone to “Worry not about my temper. The Sacred Tree offers me its wisdom as well as a soothing calmness”
“Besides. The sacred Tree wouldn’t have given me this mission if it didn’t intend for our enemies to turn into cinders.” Akagi let out a low chuckle that sounded much more characteristic to her older sister, yet contained her usual promise of violence and retribution “Now come, Azuma-san. We must gather the others.”
“Warspite, I want to follow the two aircraft carriers that we encountered before.” Akagi gave a minute bow as she made her request to Warspite.
Warspite, along with everyone else, looked at Akagi as if she had grown a second head to make her request. For while it sounded like a simple statement, there was no denying this was the closest to an actual humble and courteous request from the pride-driven Kitsune.
“Y-yes, that should be our priority, they pose the highest threat we have encountered as of late. As such we should all go. And make no mistake, I want a full explanation on what just happened, but you are correct, the sirens were all too focused on escaping with these Copied vessels, which means we should take those out of commission.” Warspite said, relying on her experience to quickly shift her mindset and focus on the mission at hand as she mentally chewed at everything that had happened.
“We need more intel though; I barely saw one at the closest island.” Now focusing on this as another task, she was mentally reviewing what should be checked, rather than going at this new task blindly.
“Belfast, Enterprise, what’s the status of everyone?”
“Many scratches and bruises, but we will be fine, Lady Warspite” Belfast answered, at which Warspite nodded, simply deciding to ignore being called a lady.
“Akagi. How about you two?”
“We are fine, hurt pride at worst” Akagi stated.
“Hah. Z16, what of our friendly submarines?”
“Eh? Ah! Yes! their orders were to wander around the engagement place, until we give full clearance status, or until something newsworthy happens, they will keep radio silence on their end”
“Ok. Akagi, can you and Enterprise run some scouting force around and ahead while we make our way to the last known location of the carriers?”
“I already sent a small force ahead” Akagi said “nothing seems to be ahead of us, in fact, the carriers seem to be on their own. Perhaps they didn’t expect to have to escape so soon and they have any other closer back.
“I believe I can take their propellers off”
“Can you not take them down entirely?” Warspite asked as she pondered the distances and precision needed to pull such a feat for other carriers within the Royal Navy.
“I could, but I need them as complete as possible. We are to retrieve something from inside them.”
Warspite raised her eyebrow at that. It was not her first time dealing with flairs for the dramatic when it came to the various members from Azur Lane, as such the request didn’t come as a weird one.
“If you are confident that you can take down the propellers, go ahead with it” Warspite agreed as she signaled to everyone else to be ready to go on with their task.
Akagi closed her eyes and stood still, focusing entirely on the planes that were well into a pursuit with the fleeing copied-carriers. She maneuvered them to deftly evade the anti air support, splitting her planes in two different groups, able to create a pincer attack that would surely hit the propulsion systems of the copied black vessels. The irony of it all was not lost to her, giving place to a dark chuckle as she knew all too well the blind spots of the vessel’s as well as the angles, speed, and the minutiae of things that could assist in taking the vessels down.
And just as expected, Akagi was able to cripple the siren’s copy of her own vessel, it was a tad tricker for the Amagi aircraft carrier, mostly because she had to control her own rage. Even if it was a cheap imitation, she was basically taking shots at the glorious shape of what her dear sister’s vessel could have been. Akagi was not only promising herself that she would burn down the insolent heretical vermin that had dared to come up with such an idea, but at some point she was starting to be convinced that the twist of fate that had impeded her sister to foregone her retrofit was something in which the sirens must have surely had a hand in such an event, which would have allowed her otherwise to sail the seas along with her, as the first carrier division held by the Amagi class sisters.
Gritting her teeth through the ordeal, Akagi managed to cripple the second copied Amagi class carrier. Having left the two of them like fish in a pond, just waiting for them to arrive and snatch them. Akagi at least had a brief moment of joy when she managed to see the irate siren on top of the carrier’s deck as she seemed to struggle and wail at having to deal with both of the carriers being left without their propulsion systems.
“It is done, I have destroyed their propellers, we only have to go and seize the ships” Akagi opened her eyes once she had set the planes back towards her, encountering the baffled faces of her comrades.
“I could see the explosions, but I was barely able to get close enough on time to see the battle” Enterprise added.
“Remarkable, such precision is a feat in itself, not even taking into account how far away that fight took place.” Warspite stated, looking at the dot on the horizon, that was the island where they would find the copied carriers.
“Let us make haste.” Akagi suddenly said “We would still have to deal with their anti-air turrets. Besides, not seeing anything so far, does not mean we are completely clear from danger”
“I couldn’t have said it better,” Warspite stated, nodding at the words. “Z16, Minneapolis, are you ready to take the front again?”
“Yes. I have yet to find the prey we came for, I’m not willing to let it escape” Minneapolis replied firmly as she checked her gear.
“This is but barely a scratch! Like hell I would stop without giving them a good pounding as payback!” the cheerful Iron Blood destroyer all but yelled in response.
“Alright, then. Akagi, Enterprise, ” she looked at both of them intently, making it obvious the next part of their task was entrusted to them. “set a perimeter to make sure we are not caught unawares, and lead the way.”
“I think she just left?” Enterprise said, seemingly confused with her own statement.
“I concur” Akagi responded “A single -standard- siren aircraft took off from the carrier while I focused on weakening the anti-air turrets, since then the response from the vessels is close to nil”
“I would think that makes sense from a purely strategic view, if the vessels are truly sitting ducks, it would make more sense to abandon them rather than risk confrontation with us” Belfast shared her opinion.
“But, what about a good brawl then?” Z16 questioned
“This is true, most of the time the sirens end their engagements in grand final encounters, there’s usually more zeal to them” Minneapolis said, sharing the iron blood’s destroyer opinion, to a degree.
“Minneapolis-san, can you tell if there is any source of enemy left behind?” Akagi asked, the honorifics raised more than one eyebrow in response, but she refused to address the question in the air.
Minneapolis for her part didn’t pay much mind to honorifics, she had grown used to many quirks within Azur Lane, instead she focused on the area in front of them.
The two black Amagi class carriers floated aimlessly on the sea, more than one trail of smoke indicating fires going on, mostly involving the turrets at the sides surely, but aside from that, the vessels seemed completely devoid of life to them.
After squatting down while on top of the sea’s surface, touching the water, lifting her hand and then standing up and peering at the skies seemingly focusing on something in the air between her and the vessels.
“The spirits don’t sense anything alive inside of the vessels, nor do they see or hear sirens around. But it doesn’t end there. They seem… bothered, annoyed. Something inside of the vessels carries the Siren’s taint and the spirits find it disquieting” Their head hunter explained, the most straightforward she could, which was still too cryptic for some of them. Warspite just tilted her head to the side.
“Well, that’s much more spiritual than I can comprehend, at least we know there are no more ambushes coming our way within here.” Warspite said.
“Lady Warspite, please don’t unnecessarily jinx us, we don’t have a shining record for this mission so far” Belfast replied.
“pfft, please, I am too old to believe in things like jinxes.” She rolled her eyes at that.
“Oh? Is that the sort of thing you tell Mr. Hunt? That you are too old for his attentions?” Belfast quipped with mischief evident to her words.
Warspite sputtered at that, coughed a couple times and blushed fiercely as she looked in a whole completely different direction from everyone’s eyes which had set on her at that moment.
“Goodness gracious, Belfast! Marriage has given you a sharp tongue!” The Royal Navy dreadnought finally said once she had found some sense of composure she was comfortable with.
“You know the saying, hang with Eagles and you will learn to peck. And I must admit I do love my two Eagles” Belfast merrily responded, her fingers touching Enterprise’s arm briefly, which earned her a small smile from Enterprise as well as a slight blush, with no one else noticing the intimate gesture.
“Anyhow, we should tackle this as seriously as possible. Enterprise-san, if you would, I need your assistance for this, yours too, Minneapolis-san” Akagi stated without taking her eyes from the vessel in front of her.
“Wouldn’t it be better if all of us go? Or you meant you want the rest of us to tackle the other ship?” Warspite asked, cocking her head to the side, intrigued by Akagi’s intentions at the moment.
“No. The three of us will enter both ships in such a manner. Right now, these ships are closer to floating tombs than ships. I mean this in more of a literal way.”
Minneapolis’s eyebrows shot up at that, she then squatted facing the vessels, moving her hands along the moving water with her fingertips touching the surface every now and then, from time to time her hands would move towards her mouth as if she was trying to whisper at the winds.
“I will explain things fully once we accomplish our task, otherwise I risk wasting the power I was granted for this task. As for why Enterprise and Minneapolis, it is because these souls need to be reminded that their war has already ended. Seeing me might not help in this endeavor, but seeing their former foes that survived them might.”
“Just…” Warspite sighed and shook her head seemingly deflating a bit “Just promise me you will write a full report on this. I am willing to admit this is going over my head, so I would first need to find someone to make sense of this for me”
“Worry not. I am sure this experience will be enlightening to say the least” Akagi bowed minutely at Warspite and then looked at both Enterprise and Minneapolis who in turn simply nodded their heads in acknowledgement.
Regardless of what was said before, they circled the vessels cautiously, analyzing them. Akagi guided them to board one of the two ships, which they entered only after seeing no response from the ships, going as far as to take down a couple of the remaining anti air turrets, in order to see if there was any sort of reaction.
They decided that the best way would be to jump straight to the deck, and from there they were to make their way to the bridge. This plan was simple and yet all too effective, as they found no opposition, other than too small passages which meant they had to recall their riggings. The passages were still uncomfortably small for them even without their riggings, these passages were also completely filled thanks to Akagi’s tails. The only other obstacle they found was one bulkhead door on their way being tightly closed, before they decided to breach it with naval artillery, they agreed to try open it normally, and anticlimactically enough they found it was not welded shut or anything like that. Apparently, the copied aircraft went as far as to copy minor manufacturing defects, like doors that shut too tightly.
“That door always annoyed Yamamoto-san, he hit his head once when opening with too much strength and he-“ Akagi chuckled briefly as she started sharing that tidbit of info with a bit of nostalgia, until she suddenly went quiet.
She was not the only one, in fact everyone had gone quiet. Kansen would rarely share their memories as naval vessels. Some were open to share their knowledge gained and could give a recount of certain events, such was the case of Warspite, who would retell whole campaigns in order to spread the renown of the Royal navy’s campaigns. But for most of those willing to share their past “lives”, it was a thing they did behind closed doors only with people they trusted.
Meanwhile, others couldn’t quite recall such memories as well, or at all in fact. Some even would completely ascertain they held no such memories. But how much of that was true, was something all the Kansen agreed to not delve deeper without an actual reason.
“Akagi, this vessel?-” Enterprise tried reaching to Akagi
“This vessel must be a trick created by the sirens! That's what this is… Anyway, we must hurry.” Akagi cut her and continued moving forward, swiftly moving into one door, and getting out of Enterprise’s view.
“Wait, Akagi! I didn’t-” Enterprise really wanted at the very least to make it clear that her concern laid on the siren copied vessel being so similar, to the point where even smaller existing defects were present. The sirens weren’t keen on small nostalgic details that “gave character” to something, or verisimilitude for that matter. They seemingly cared only for mathematical precision, upgrades, data, and cold numbers.
But before Enterprise could pose her question properly, she reached the room at which Akagi had entered and immediately came to a halt right beside Akagi.
They had finally reached the bridge. But instead of the helm, they found a device that held some sort of black bubble about 2 feet in diameter, or rather, it seemed to contain some sort of black smoke inside of it. Upon further inspection, Akagi and Enterprise both saw that the wisps and swirls of smoke inside of it were the result of some objects moving in circles inside of the bubble, they realized this mostly due to the light emanating from two of the objects inside. They drew closer to get a better sense of what they were looking at.
“Are those wisdom cubes inside of that thing?” Minneapolis was the first to break the silence.
“There sure seem like wisdom cubes, but all this smoke show is not letting me see it properly”
Enterprise got closer to the black bubble, but Akagi stopped her, putting her arm in front of her.
“Wait. We haven’t seen anything else, this could be the siren taint that Minneapolis warned us about”
“I believe this to be true, it feels… unnatural” Minneapolis said.
“What are we to do then?” Enterprise asked, an eyebrow raised at that.
“I believe this is the reason the Sacred tree has lent me its powers, as such this is where I would need your assistance” Akagi nodded twice at her own words.
Enterprise and Minneapolis looked at each other and then at Akagi, before they could formulate their question, without peeling her eyes off the bubble the Sakuran signaled for them to come closer.
“Here, I think it should suffice for you two to make physical contact with me, just put your hands on my-” Akagi didn’t have the time to finish her sentence, at that point Minneapolis had simply jumped into the fluff, head first embracing some of Akagi’s tails.
Enterprise’s lips flatlined at that, it wasn’t that she had never thought about stroking the tails of one of the Sakuran kitsune’s tails, it was in fact something that had gone through everyone’s mind within Azur Lane. But rather, she was confident that Akagi intended to have them put their hands on her shoulders which Enterprise was more than happy to comply with, although, in reality it was much more easy to get a hold of one of the tails, which were everywhere truth be told, than Akagi’s shoulder which basically involved getting right beside the kitsune.
Sighing internally, deciding it would be as awkward to try and shimmy around the tails within the somewhat limited space of the bridge, just to reach Akagi’s shoulder, Enterprise gave up, reaching forward and getting a hold of one of the tails in front of her.
“I suppose that works too… uh, I can actually feel the connection. Yes, this ought to do”
Akagi put her hands in front of her, as if trying to hold a ball, within moments, a small pink flame appeared right between her hands. She seemed to focus intently, closing her eyes, within mere moments the flame grew bigger and brighter. Enterprise thought that she could feel the flame as well, it didn’t seem to emit any sort of heat, but there was a certain warmth to it, the more she looked at it, the more she felt from it. Rather, it was a mixture of various feelings, a certain amount of pride, a fair amount of sadness, a dose of concern, a hint of anger, all of it wrapped around a weird sense of nostalgia and longing.
Without fully realizing when, Enterprise saw that Akagi had pushed the ball of fire, which now was big enough to envelope the dark bubble. The black smoke started to bubble in a weird way, making small crackling sounds here and there, creating little explosions, but little by little becoming much clearer.
There was a point in which the fire subsided, Akagi gave a sigh of relief, now looking back at the space where the bubble had been before. Four items remained in place of the bubble, still floating in a circular motion as they had been doing so before, the two wisdom cubes which had a bright clear white pearlescent color to them, and two more things that made everyone’s eyebrows raise in evident confusion. Everyone but Minneapolis who was still taking advantage of being given “permission” to dive onto the Kitsune’s fluffy and luxurious tails.
“Are those army dog tags?” Enterprise asked, before her thoughts could really hold a grasp of the meaning of such articles being in the “heart” of a siren ship.
“Yes… The id tags of many of the pilots that ate, laughed, cried, fighted, and died, as part of the crew serving inside ‘The Akagi’ ” She said with deep solemnity in her voice.
She took the metallic tags first, letting the other articles still floating in place, she carefully put them on a piece of silk that she procured from somewhere within her clothes and after a quiet and simple prayer she stored them within her clothes as well.
“These souls deserve a proper burial. I will see to it.”
Within seconds of removing the dog tags the whole ship rumbled, the metal creaked and a general sense of discomfort was felt all around them.
“The ship feels more like a husk now” Minneapolis said, still somewhere within Akagi’s tails “Could sink once we remove everything”
“Un. I agree, let’s make this quick then.” Akagi said.
She swiftly grabbed the two white wisdom cubes and handed them to Enterprise without a comment or any evidence of concern about handing her such valuable articles. In return the ship rumbled once again yet much stronger now. Once it subsided, the vessel felt less like a ship and almost as if they were standing on top of a -vague idea- of a ship, like being on top of something that shouldn’t be there at all, both disconcerting as well as disorienting at the same time, like a sense of unease being born out of a sense of sudden strangeness.
Akagi then grabbed the last article that was still floating and seemingly floating, a metal shard the width of a fist and less than a foot in length, looking jagged and twisted, as if it had been ripped from a bigger metal piece. The moment Akagi held it she felt how it seemed to resist her pull, which made her wary of what could happen.
“We run out the moment I grab this. I believe this ship will collapse once I do.” Akagi said, her two companions simply nodded in response.
Akagi almost ripped the metal shard out of its place floating mid air, and just as they all thought the ship began rumbling much more violently this time. They didn’t need any other signal, making their way out of the vessel using all of their enhanced strength and senses, in turn getting out of the ship and back onto the water at neck breaking speed within a time that would actually impress a naval “Health and safety” officer.
When looking back at the ship, they saw it tremble without affecting the waters, it seemed to glitch and crackle as if it was badly loading image on a tv screen, before it started twisting one way and another, pieces of it simply falling of onto the water, as if whatever glue was holding it all together had ceased to work. Which was an apt allegory once the idea occurred to them.
“Well, that’s that” Warspite said as she drew closer to them.
“Look at it go down, that’s kind of a disquieting sight, you know? Being part ships and everything” Z16 said, she seemed to squirm for a bit, an obvious case of goosebumps.
No one was certain if it was because it was indeed some sort of memory from being a ship, or if it was due to the unnatural feeling the ship started basically oozing out the moment the articles at its “heart” were removed.
“Quick. We can have explanations once we are done, I don’t intend to leave the last ship, nor I want to be delayed for any reason” Akagi didn’t even wait for the rest of the girls to answer her, she simply made her way to the next ship.
Enterprise and Minneapolis looked at each other and then at Warspite, the latter nodded at them and they made their way to follow the Sakuran Kitsune.
The ship was similar enough that their trip inside of it was much faster than on the last vessel. They made their way to the bridge, once again finding the dark bubble and the siren technology holding the ship together.
“Wait! Akagi, Maybe we rushed things last time, I think we should at least take some pictures of this contraption,” Enterprise said.
Akagi stood in place quite for a while without saying anything, she then turned her head slightly to the side and looked at Enterprise, one narrowed eye looking at her with burning intensity as well as pink flames coming from within.
“Why?” was all she said, her tone was cold and full of anger.
Enterprise didn't flinch at the sight, for starters she felt like she wasn't asking something that would be detrimental nor would it be against anyone’s interest within Azur Lane.
“Akagi, if we understand how they made this, we could have ways to develop countermeasures. who knows, maybe Yuubari can create some weapon that will cancel whatever energy is used here, rather than fight ships such as yours at their peak”
Akagi turned her head back towards the dark bubble, she visually trembled for a moment before she clicked her tongue in obvious annoyance and defeat.
“Do as you will, but hurry. This is not something I wish to delay at all.” Akagi moved to the side, allowing for Enterprise to take a camera that she had somewhere within herself.
She took several pictures of the whole thing, the machine that was in place of the helm, the bubble and what looked like conductors, which they had not noticed before, that touched the bubble and went onto the floor, probably going somewhere into the ship.
“Ok, I hope that’s enough, I wouldn’t know if it’s not, really” Enterprise shrugged her shoulders, moving back to allow for the Kitsune to move in front of the device.
They performed the same sort of rites as they did before, with Minneapolis being much less overenthusiastic about it, although she did still grab a whole tail and held it like a hugging pillow. Akagi made yet another ball imbued with Sakuran holy energy and dispelled whatever siren energies were within the device.
Despite being their second time at this, the articles inside made them halt once again. They saw two pearlescent white wisdom cubes again, another long jagged metal piece, and this time instead of dog tags, they saw one single Sakuran Empire navy officer cap.
Akagi didn’t waste a single second and she snatched the cap, bringing it closer to her eyes, inspecting it fully, turning it around, doing it with such intensity that she paid no mind to the ship’s rumbling noises nor the shaking coming from it, she did so until she found the answer she was looking for.
“Oh. Aoki-san, you old fool… You intended to die along with me, and now you would repeat such a fate for my sister?” Akagi then embraced the cap in silence.
Neither Enterprise nor Minneapolis said anything, when they heard the prideful kitsune’s voice crack, rather they felt like they were interrupting a very private moment somehow, like hearing bits of conversations that weren’t meant to be disclosed, as such they decided to do the polite thing and pretend they weren't there. When they heard a quiet sob escape from Akagi’s lips they were certain this was something they shouldn’t even share by mistake.