Harry Potter & the Shipgirls

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Laying back some, Harry looked up through the opening in the roof of the grotto that he was in. It was not too big, about the size of a living room. Above his head, anemones waved in the current as fish swam here and there. Looking over, he smiled some at Regina, "Do you come and do this often, Regina?"

Regina smiled a bit and nodded, "I do, Harry. Because this is rather relaxing and nice."

Just considering her words, the teen nodded, "It is rather nice." Bringing up his arm, Harry checked both the time as well as the air he still had. According to what he could see, there was still three hours or so of oxygen. And by that time, it would be getting on to late afternoon. With a sigh, he sat up and looked at the Re-Class beside him, just floating on her back as she watched him in curiosity, "We should probably get going, though I do want to come back to this."

Softly smiling, Regina flipped over and also moved until she was beside him, "Yes, I suppose that is true." Her expression suddenly brightened, as if a wonderful thought had just occurred to her, "Um, Harry? Do you want to see the outside of the island?"

That made Harry blink in confusion and it took a few seconds for him to realize what she meant, "Wait, you mean the seaward side of the island?" At her nod, he smiled behind his mask, "Actually? I wouldn't mind that. And I'd be pretty safe with you there."

Needless to say, that made the Abyssal very flustered. But she smiled just the same and lead him out. Partway though, he stopped and looked at the nurse sharks that laid against one wall and waved. After all, Harry had pet them earlier. And from what Regina had told him, a number of come to live where under the Abyssal buildings over the lagoon with the Abyssals sometimes treating them as pets.

Once they were outside the grotto though, Harry turned towards Regina with a small smile on his face, "So... where to now?'

Instead of telling him though, Regina swam in front of him and crouched down before looking over her shoulder with a giggle, "Just hop on, Harry and I'll take you there." Eyebrows raising, the thirteen year old boggled for a moment before he shook it off. Swimming over, Harry sat where her tail met the rest of her body, which also had a small amount of Abyssal steel that went up her spine. Looking over her shoulder, Regina smiled, "Okay, you have to hold on tight."

Wrapping his hands around her midsection, he chuckled a little, "Yes, Ma'am. Holding on tight, Ma'am."

Much to his amusement though, that just made her blush before she poked her fingers together, "A-ah, um..." After a few moments, Regina looked back at him again as he shifted a bit due to the scuba gear, "O-okay then, d-do you have a good hold?"

Unable to help himself, even as he found her expression cute, Harry nodded, "I do, Regina. Let's go!"

And with that, Regina turned back and pushed off the floor of the lagoon, raising a cloud of sediment that was blown away by a sweep of her tail. Said tail continued to powerfully swing from side to side as the two were propelled over the seabed by it. From where he was, Harry was laughing which made Regina smile, "Um, you like?"

She could practically hear the grin in the wizard's voice as he answered her, "Are you kidding? I love this, Regina!" Just shaking his head, Harry continued, "This is just plain awesome!"

A smirk appeared on the Re-Class' face, "Well, we're not at top speed..."

For a moment, Harry blinked as he wondered why she hadn't gone as fast as she could with him. And with widening eyes, when she glanced at him, he realized why and took a deep breath before pressing himself as close as possible, his arms holding on to her midsection, "Well then, I order you to go as fast with me as you can."

That turned out to be right thing to say as Regina's smile widened before she turned back to where they were going. Bringing up her arms, she held them together slightly behind where her head was. Harry only had a moment for his eyes to widen before she sped up, her hands breaking the water slightly to lessen the issue with speed for him. He knew that later he would need to see the footage to guess how fast she was going at the moment, but part of him suspected that it was at least fifteen knots.

Right then though, Harry realized that she was heading towards the surface as fast as she could. And then the two of them burst from the water and into the air. Tightening his grip as they finished their arc, droplets of water trailing from them, Harry laughed as loud as he could as they headed back towards the surface and splashed down, their bodies cutting through the surface easily. It was not the last time that they did this either as they began to head for the entrance for the lagoon. Each time was accompanied by either laughter from Harry, or loud whooping.

Eventually, however, they did reach the end of their trip and Regina slowed down. As they entered a gap in the wall around the lagoon, Harry looked around. He noted that the "Floor" of the gap was mostly flat and sloped downwards towards the open ocean. And along it was a continuous slow motion avalanche as grains of sand slid down it. But what caught his attention was that it was both wide enough for a large boat, but also the sides looked steep, "Was this cut?"

Glancing back at him, the Abyssal nodded, "As a matter of fact, it was." She gestured around them and continued, "Back when we took the area over, Lady Wanko ordered us to dig a channel, which we did by hand since we did not want to disturb a lot. Any living coral we moved elsewhere and deposited while the dead stuff we simply used for building material." Regina then gave a small shrug, "It works well enough for Submarines and such coming and going."

As he considered that, Harry gave a small nod, "I can see that." Finally, they were through the gap and Regina came to a stop. Understanding what was unsaid, Harry let go and looked around their surroundings. They were at the edge of the outer coral reef and Harry could see how it dropped down fast and he was unable to see the bottom, "How deep is it here?"

Head cocked to the side, Regina considered that before giving a nod as her Imps checked the depth charts, "The water depth is about... four hundred meters or so."

That made Harry blink some as he looked around when he noticed a shadow nearby. It did not take it long to resolve into a Great White that was swimming past, "Uh... Regina?"

Just blinking at him, Regina tilted her head before turning back to the shark that came closer to them as if to examine the two. However, the Abyssal kept herself between it and Harry and said predator decided not to try its luck with a much worse predator. Soon after, it vanished into the ocean and Harry relaxed some which she noticed, "Is something wrong?"

Scratching the back of his head, Harry weakly chuckled, "Sorry about that, Regina. But... that was sort of scary since those things sometimes attack humans."

Her eyes meeting his, she shook her head, "I would protect you against something like that, Harry. And if it even tried... it would not get a second chance." Briefly, her eyes glowed and Harry relaxed still further. After all, there were fewer things as powerful as a protective Re-Class. Just nodding, he paused though at her next words, "Thankfully, it was not a ground shark."

For a few moments, Harry went through that bit of information in his head before he remembered something he read in Fantastic Beasts and his eyes widened, "Wait, you mean the Timor Sea Ground Shark? Which looks like a Wobbegong, can grow up to twenty feet, and is able to disillusion itself?"

Regina nodded with a small smile, "Yes, those are a bit more tricky. But thankfully, they live further down, though..." Frowning, she tapped her chin in thought, "Sometimes they eat humans."

All the thirteen year old did was give her a look, "Riiiight..."

It was two hours later that Harry and Regina stumbled out of the lagoon, large smiles on their faces. Stretching a bit, the Abyssal happily hummed as she looked towards the wizard who was taking off his mask, "That was fun."

Laughing, he grinned back at her, "It was at that, Regina. That was awesome from beginning to end. I've never done a tropical dive before outside maybe Okinawa once, but that? All that was wicked."

Eyes lighting up, Regina gave a small nod, "I'm glad then."

Now pulling off the hood of his wetsuit, Harry let out an explosive sigh before running his hand through his hair, "Just got to put my gear away and then shower or something. Get all the salt off my skin before it dries too much and irritates it."

About to say something, the Re-Class paused and considered things. Poking her fingers together, she blushed, "W-well, I, um... have something like that. I'll show you after you put everything away..."

Very intrigued, Harry gave her a look and nodded. A few minutes later found him walking behind Regina to a wooden structure about fifteen feet from her home which looked like a derrick, and which had a wooden fence around the bottom that stopped at what was about neck height for a Re-Class. Looking up, Harry's eyes widened a touch at the sight of the giant rain barrel that was at the top, which had a pipe leading from it, "Is that... and outdoor shower?"

Slowly, Regina nodded some, "Mm-hm, it is." Upon catching his gaze, she poked her fingers together, "Um, sometimes when I come home from a patrol, I need to wash up. So I just use that instead of the communal showers. I-it works just as well and is kind of nice since I can just enjoy myself. And usually, the rain barrel is full of water from rain, o-or I can just fill it up from my own water tanks. It is also heated by the Sun, so the water is always hot."

Just smiling, the wizard shook his head, "Well, that means that we can rinse off the salt at least. And we don't need to change out of our swimsuits either..." Looking up at her, he chuckled a bit, "You wash my back and I do yours?"

Rapidly, Regina just nodded and opened the shower booth. Noting that the floor was basically a hunk of coral rock that had been partially buried, Harry stepped inside as did Regina and he realized that it was big enough for the two of them. That was, before Regina turned on the shower head and warm water fell on the two of them, already washing the salt from their bodies to his amusement. Turning it off, she soaped up a cloth and handed it to Harry before taking another.

Granted, it was more for Harry's benefit as she did not need to worry about salt on her skin, but to Regina? If it was for the thirteen year old boy to make him comfortable, that was enough. Soon, they started talking about the big fish that Harry had caught outside the reef and how he was going to cook it. Something that the Re-Class was well and truly looking forward to...

 

[darthcourt10]

RCNAnon

Weasley's Warship Workshop 8

As Ron smiled at her, truly smiled at her for the fist time, Jean Bart felt her boilers flutter once again. Yet for the first time, instead of simply wondering why she understood. She could see the genuine humor and excitement that it contained. The spark of what some would call genius that had been nurtured by others and he was still growing, the fact that he really seemed to understand what the upgrades he was proposing would mean to her.

She could even see, though she would argue with herself that she perhaps only imagined it for quite some time, the spark that drew ships like her towards him. The fact that he was truly accepting of the fact that his would never be the glory of the guns or the hammer of battle. It was not that he would not stand where he could it was that he simply could not stand in the line of fire like the ones he loved and he understood and accepted that fact like few others. Instead he would prepare them to the utmost, trust them to come back and repair their wounds to send them out again. Which in turn made the glory they gained part of his own, for those who truly understood.

It hit her like a full broadside penetration of her citadel and she struggled not to flush immediately in front of her guest. She attempted to cover it up by stuffing some of her meal into her mouth. Instead she failed miserably, suddenly choking on the piece of meat as she let her fork drop and she coughed as her intake systems tried to reset themselves. Which meant that she was suddenly pounding on her chest as she coughed.

Ron's face immediately turned to concern as she coughed, the partially standing from his seat.

"Are you alright?" He asked, clearly ready to lend aid to her.

Jean Bart held up her hand in reply, managing to work down the errant piece of food with the help of her drink and a few more coughs.

"I'm… I'm fine." She said, mostly telling the truth. The revelation that had hit her was still rattling around in her head like a loose shell casing but she had recovered from her coughing fit. At least it gave her cover for why her face was red.

"You know, I don't think I've ever seen a battleship choke on food like that before." Ron said as he took his seat once again.

"It has never happened to me before this. It is a most unpleasant feeling." Jean Bart took the time to look down at her food, somewhat annoyed that she had made a fool of herself in front of Ron. Not that she would admit it to a soul yet but… oh merde she was never going to hear the end of this.

"Do you need a minute?" Ron asked, "You seem out of it."

"I… no, I'm fine. It's just your ideas are quite a bit to take in at the moment. Lots to think over." It wasn't an outright lie but Jean Bart suddenly felt herself wishing she could be a bit more honest with herself.

Ron seemed to accept the answer without much question though, instead simply nodding to her.

"I understand. There's been a few rather long nights in coming up with them so if you want some more time to think it over I understand."

Jean Bart shook her head, forcing herself to act normal once again.

"No, I do like them Ron and I want you to do what you need to prepare them. I just… want to look it over some more in the meantime."

"That's no problem. You can take those since they're copies." He nodded to the papers in front of her as he took a bite of his food.

"Thank you." Jean Bart could only sigh in relief as she gathered up the papers and slipped them into her hold. Ron didn't even seem to notice when she did so. Which was good except for the little part of her that sounded a lot like Richelieu saying otherwise. Jean Bart wanted to smack her head against a solid surface but refrained and merely sighed instead. Hopefully things would make more sense soon.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Unfortunately they didn't. As soon after they finished the meal and Jean Bart had paid for it, due to the simple fact that she had Francs to Ron's Pounds and not his lack of insisting on it, Jean Bart discovered why Ron had been somewhat agitated when he'd ridden behind her the first time. At least she was pretty sure she did as his arms wrapping around her from behind once again triggered a similar tenseness in her lower stomach as she felt in his arms.

Again Jean Bart wished for a wall to bash her head against. Of course he'd been nervous. He was a teenager and for all that she hadn't been in commission that long, she knew what the thought of a girl to do to her own sailors. Much less one actually in the throes of puberty. Thankfully Ron either didn't notice or didn't say anything about her own reaction as she pulled her bike out into the road and headed back to the base.

Jean Bart was glad for the distraction of traffic, as it allowed her to focus on something other than her newfound feelings. Except of course for the fact that she had to take Ron into account when she was turning.

Thankfully they made it back to base with minimal fuss, Jean Bart pulling to a stop and allowing Ron to hop off behind her.

"So, when are you supposed to get picked up?" Jean Bart asked Ron, looking around to see if she could see the redheaded man who had dropped him off.

Ron checked his watch and shook his head. "I've still got about half an hour or so before I'd expect him to be here. Dad has some business to take care of with the French Ministry, something about berets enchanted to sing God Save the Queen I think. They're blaming British Wizards and he has to straighten things out."

Jean Bart started to open her mouth to question Ron but found herself closing it once more. Singing berets? She wasn't sure if he was pulling her leg or actually as serious as he seemed to be. She wasn't sure which one would be worse either.

"What does your father do exactly?" Jean Bart decided that was a better question than the singing berets, at least as an opener to deciding if Ron was crazy or not.

Ron looked up to her and blinked a few times before smiling.

"Right, sorry. You don't deal much with magic do you?"

Jean Bart shook her head no, wondering if she wanted to deal with magic any more than she had to.

Ron looked around for a moment, clearly looking for eavesdroppers. When it was clear there weren't any he turned and began to speak once more.

"Well my father is the head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement of the British Ministry of Magic." Seeing the still confused look on Jean Bart's face he continued. "It essentially means his job is to make sure that idiotic or ill meaning wizards don't use magic on say, a watch." He pointed to his own. "Then release it to anybody who doesn't know about magic." He gestured to the crowds out in front of them.

"Is that a major problem?" Jean Bart furrowed her brow, wondering what exactly might happen with such things.

"Well it didn't use to be back when they could do memory wipes." Ron shook his head. "Take the berets for example. You could walk up, take the beret and make someone forget it had ever happened."

Jean Bart nodded, now somewhat concerned with the implications of a government official with the ability to make someone forget things they'd seen immediately.

"Now with the ship girls around, more and more people are becoming immune to obliviation, so Dad has to do a lot more work on some things now. So he has to be a liaison officer with the French Ministry of Magic to get this one covered up."

Jean Bart nodded again, at least the part of international police organizations working together made sense, even if the magic didn't quite yet.

"I see." She didn't really but Ron seemed willing to explain. "So what about you? Could you be hit by one of these spells since you're a wizard?"

"Normally I would be but since I've spent so much time around Warspite and Duke I'm immune. Even just the amount of time I've spent around you is enough for people to start remembering fuzzy details. They'd think it was a dream most likely but the effect is cumulative, any additional time spent means you're more immune and it doesn't wear away." Ron smiled again as he spoke, causing Jean Bart's boilers to flutter again.

"That's a relief." Jean Bart wasn't sure why that had come out but she noticed Ron blush slightly because of it.

"Since we've got the time, why don't you tell me more about magic." Jean Bart had a feeling that whatever her future might contain, magic would be a rather large part of it and learning sooner rather than later was always a good thing.

"Hmm. Well I suppose I could tell you about Hogwarts." Ron said, leaning up against the wall Jean Bart had stopped by. "That's where I go to school."

Jean Bart nodded and sat with Ron for another thirty minutes until his father came to pick him up, much more knowledgeable than when she started but feeling all the more out of her depth as something she hadn't truly been aware of opened up in front of her. She needed time to process… and to vent.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"I hate you." Jean Bart's voice contained no heat, only resignation as her sister picked up the phone.

"Ma petite! Whatever did I do?" Richelieu initially sounded confused but after apparently processing Jean Bart's tone, her own changed immensely. "Ma petite! What happened? Did you finally find yourself a lover? Is it Monsieur Weasley, did he set you up with a friend? Oh tell your big sister everything!"

"I did not find a lover." Jean Bart said, for the first time perhaps sounding a bit put out by that fact. She sighed, trying to process her words. "I just… ugh..." She did manage to lean back and smack her head against the wall of her dorm room. Unfortunately it was cushioned by her ponytail and only gave a dull thunk.

"You are in l' amour!" Jean Bart could hear Richelieu squealing over the phone and what she was pretty sure were the sounds of her sister jumping up and down in excitement. "Tell me more!"

"He… understands us. Battleships I mean." Jean Bart really wasn't sure where to start so she just rambled. "I could see it in his eyes. He sees us, the ships, and not just pretty eye candy. He understands our purpose and is not threatened by it. By what I've seen he thrives on it! He showed me what he planned to do for my refit sister and it was all speed and guns! Oh the guns he showed me were divine! Better up time for the main battery, a complete design overhaul of my secondaries! The speed… he said a knot or two. Maybe. But promised less maintenance, which means more time at speed without worry!" Jean Bart realized then that she was getting rather emotional and stopped, feeling embarrassed in the moment.

"Mhmm..." Jean Bart could tell Richelieu was nodding her head even without being able to see her. "There's more I can tell, don't hold back!"

"He… is intelligent of course. Mature in some manners but still young in others. He cares for the people in his life properly if what I saw at his manor was any indication. I could see the care he put into the drawings he did for my refit..."

"Drawings? He did drawings of you already?!" Richelieu seemed overly excited by that.

"Yes, why?" Jean Bart paused.

"It is just so romantique!" Richelieu said. "Soon you will get your own book like Lady Warspite!"

"I… I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon sister." Jean Bart said, coughing slightly. "For one he is still working on Duke of York's, for another..."

"It doesn't matter!" Richelieu exclaimed. "You are in love for the first time and I will see you succeed! Even if I have to fight the entire Royal Navy for such a thing to happen!"

Jean Bart blinked for a moment, a different sort of warm feeling filling her chest at her sisters words.

"Thank you, soeur ainée." She said softly.

"You're welcome ma petite!," Richelieu said in return. "Is there anything else? Anything else at all?"

Jean Bart paused again, wondering if she should even say this part. Yet Richelieu was her sister and who else could she tell?

"Well… I'll admit he's… cute." She said carefully. "While looking like he will grow into a fine young man."

When Richelieu once again squealed over the phone, Jean Bart decided that for once, she didn't actually mind.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
AN: This one took a while longer than I really wanted it to but I hope you all enjoy.

Questions, comments and concerns welcome as always.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

The Sun had nearly reached the horizon as Regina sat on the beach just watching it and the waves as they washed against the sand as the two forms of nature had done so for eons and would continue to do so for longer. She felt at peace doing so, her stomach nicely filled from the meal that Harry had whipped up using the tropical fish that they had caught. However, the Re-Class was brought out of her thoughts as she watched Harry walk up. Said wizard had a thermos and a small box next to him. He had also thrown on a shirt as the air had cooled some now that night approached. A small smile on his face, he gave a nod, "Regina."

Face lit by the setting Sun, Regina smiled back at him, "Harry." She petted the sand next to her and gestured at it, "You can have a seat, if, um, that is what you want..."

Lightly chuckling, the thirteen year old did exactly that before setting the box and thermos aside. At the curious look, he opened the box to reveal treats, "I thought that you might want a little bit of dessert, so... I actually made some things before I came and brought them with me."

Gently, Regina smiled at him and hummed, "Thank you."

Just nodding, Harry poured some tea into one of the cups for the thermos, the tea steaming a little. The whole time though, he kept glancing at Regina as she had not put her poncho back on, and just sat there lounging in her bikini as the last warming rays of the Sun bathed the area. But it was not just that, but the look of utter peace and contentment on her face that also caught his attention. As did the way her eyes sparkled in happiness, which made him blush lightly at seeing it as the sea breeze softly blew strands of her hair, currently colored orange by the setting Sun.

Deciding to look away, he turned his attention to the Sun which began to rapidly sink beyond the horizon. Granted, he still glanced at her every couple of seconds. But then, a thought occurred to Harry and he tilted his head, "Regina?" Getting a hum, he continued, "Have you ever seen the Green Flash?"

With a blink, Regina's expression brightened, "All the time actually." Leaning back on her hands, she turned her face towards his, "It's sort of neat to see too. I mean, you get this green light coming from the Sun for a few seconds."

For his part, Harry handed her over a cup filled with tea, which she took and sipped with pleased sounds. Chuckling, he sipped his own tea and nodded, "That sounds pretty great."

The two shared a smile before they lapsed into silence. It was not a awkward silence, but a companionable one. A sort of silence that could happen between two people who did not need to say anything at all to each other in order to have a conversation. Just the sort that could come from people who were content and happy with what they were doing and each other.

Several minutes passed before suddenly, Regina pointed, "Look at the top of the Sun, Harry."

His attention now on it, Harry began to grin as he saw a portion of the Sun turn green, "That... is so cool!" And when the Sun fully sank beneath the horizon, there was a single green ray of light that seemed to hang in the sky above where it had disappeared for a second or two before vanishing. Shaking his head, Harry smiled, "That was amazing..."

Just nodding, the Abyssal didn't say anything. As the sky continued to darken and the stars come out, the two sat there enjoying treats like fudge as they sipped their tea. Glancing at him, Regina lightly blushed at the sight of him in the darkness, 'This is...'

Getting up, and catching Harry's attention, he was about to ask when she moved behind him. Regina then sat down and scooted up until her legs were on either side of his with her arms wrapped around his midsection. Unknown to her, there was a blush on the teen's face at how the front of her body was pressed up against his back. Looking over his shoulder, he raised an eyebrow at her, "Regina?"

A soft smile on her face, Regina shook her head, "I, um... just wanted..."

While the rest of what she was saying trailed off into embarrassed mumbles, the wizard could understand what she meant. Instead of saying anything, he scooted back more into her which made her smile widen and her eyes glow. And part of him noticed that it was not just her eyes that glowed, but under the pale moonlight of a nearly full Moon, her skin also had a glow to it.

Eyes meeting, the two shared a small smile before Regina pointed, "Look right there, Harry. See those stars?"

Following her finger, he gave a nod as he could make out a group of stars, not much bigger than the pointer stars for the Big Dipper. It was then that he realized what he was looking at and his eyes widened, "Are those... is that the Southern Cross?"

Happily humming, Regina nodded, "They are."

Unable to help himself, Harry chuckled and shook his head, "Wicked." Several flashes of light on the horizon made him turn in that direction and he could just make out dark clouds billowing upwards with lightning flashing, "Looks like it is going to really storm in a few hours..."

Behind him, Regina only sighed with a slight tilt of the head, "Yes, Lady Wanko is going to let them roll on past... though I think that Darwin and others will be happy. They could use the rain this time of year after all." That got her a nod from Harry before she placed her chin on the top of his head, "This has been nice."

Lips twitching as she held him close, the teen shook his head slightly, "It really has, Regina. And I've had a lot of fun myself, so thank you. And I am definitely looking forward to coming back."

If anything, that made the Re-Class smile brightly.

Both of them continued their star gazing for another hour before they headed back to Regina's home. Lighting his wand, Harry set it down on a stand and helped Regina close all the shutters as well as the door before they secured them. With that done, they laid down on the bed and Regina cuddled him from behind and soon the teenager fell asleep.

However, Regina was still awake as the first raindrops began to fall on the small hut and the wind whipped up. Soon enough, the soft pat-pat became a roar as the storms began to dump a massive amount of rain onto Wanko's island. A small, soft smile appeared on the Abyssal's face as she held the sleeping boy close as the storm raged all around them. Oddly, she felt that it was... poetic, in a way. Mainly because Harry, for all his youth, had turned into an eye of calm within the storm that was the world around them.

And right now, in this moment? Regina found herself happy that she had met him. Shifting a bit, she kissed his cheek before laying back down and snuggling into him. Her last thoughts before falling asleep, lulled by the storm were simple.

Mainly, the only way it could have been better was if Shinano was there as well.

It was a refreshed and relaxed Harry who stepped outside the next morning early after the Sun had risen. Some drops of water still dripped from the leaves of trees and the air had been washed clean leaving it smelling of fresh rain as various tropical birds sang. Walking up behind him, Regina wrapped her arms around his neck and her tail around his midsection. Looking up at her, he chuckled, "Good morning, Regina."

Giggling some, she gave a nod before kissing his cheek, "Good morning, Harry." Regina tilted her head before then giving him a short kiss on the lips and sighing, "A very good morning."

Lightly blushing from the kiss, Harry turned back to the shore and looked around, "Looks like it is going to be another nice day, just like yesterday." Getting a hum, he raised an eyebrow at Regina, 'Hmm...'

Unknown to him, Regina was giggling in her head, 'I wonder when she will...' A signal made her blink before her eyes widened and nearly sparkled, 'Yes!'

Several minutes later, the smells of eggs and bacon being cooked added themselves to the air. However, it was not Harry who was cooking, but rather Regina using a charcoal grill. Watching as she added spices to the scrambled eggs, even as his stomach grumbled, the teen tilted his head, "Smells delicious."

Glancing over at him, Regina smiled, "Um, while I'm not as good a cook as you are, I can cook some. Mostly things that are from here." A thoughtful look on her face, she gave a nod, "Later, I'll cook up some breadfruit and maybe fe'i banana."

That made Harry blink in confusion, 'Cooked banana?' Shaking that off, he put his hands behind his head, "Never had breadfruit before, any good?"

With a hum, the Re-Class nodded, "They're very good! We actually eat a lot of them among other things as well." Licking her lips, she shook her head, "Pretty much all of us eat them."

Somewhat amused by her reaction, Harry chuckled. She gave him a plate and filled it with food which he ate before nodding, "This is really good, Regina." Chewing, he swallowed, "Fresh spices?"

Just nodding, she smiled, "Yes, we get them from Timor and other places."

As he ate though, Harry noticed something and frowned before furrowing his eyebrows in thought. It was not until he was finished though and set the plate aside that he asked the question that was on his mind, "Regina?" Getting a sound to continue, he did so, "You're cooking up a lot, more than I would have thought that you would need."

Twinkle in her eye, Regina nodded, "That's right."

Eyes narrowing, he frowned at the non-answer. Clearing his throat, he raised an eyebrow, "Why-"

It was then that Harry noticed that she was not looking at him, but something else in joy and amusement. Turning, his eyes widened at the image of Shinano in a t-shirt and shorts rushing for him with arms wide, "HARRY-CHAN!"

Moments later, she impacted him with his face landing between her fuel tanks as she picked him up and swung him around. Regina for her part, collapsed madly giggling at what had happened, while her tail came up and took over cooking.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Sitting on a rock, Harry raised an amused eyebrow as he watched Shinano dig into the breakfast that Regina had made, "So... you're here for the rest of the day?"

Just swallowing, the Carrier thanked the Abyssal for the glass of fruit juice and hummed, "Hai, Harry-Chan. I got permission from Kaa-San, especially with how I am doing it."

If anything, that made Harry raise his eyebrow still further, "Really? And how are you doing it? Because from what I remember..." He paused and frowned as he had a realization, "Wait, you asked for my time turner before I left..."

There was a soft blush on Shinano's face as she answered, "Um, yes, I used it to go back in time. And, um... Kaa-San had no issue with it as long as I am back by tomorrow to greet Onee-Sama and the others." Glancing at Regina, she continued, "She knows that I really wanted to spend the day with both you and Regina-Chan, Harry-Chan."

Chuckling, he walked over and patted her head which made her smile and lean into it, "I don't mind. But..." He turned towards the lone Abyssal, "But it is up to Regina."

At that, Regina straightened her back and brightly smiled, "It was actually my idea in the first place." Seeing Harry's raised eyebrow, she scratched her cheek and flushed, "I wanted to spend some time with Shinano along with you, Harry."

Lips twitching, the teen patted her head which made her lean into it even as he continued patting Shinano's head, "That's fine, Regina. And nothing wrong with that at all." Shrugging, he shook his head, "I was just concerned that this came out of nowhere for you, but if you don't have any issue with this?"

Rapidly, Regina shook her head, "I don't mind at all."

Having gone back to eating the delicious breakfast, Shinano gave Harry a once over before blinking, Once she swallowed, she pointed a fork at him, "Um, Harry-Chan? You have a nice tan already."

That caused Harry to blink for a moment before he glanced at himself. Head tilting to the side, he chuckled a little, "Huh, will you look at that, I am getting a tan." Turning back to them, he gave a small shrug, "Not surprising though I suppose, I'm pretty fair skinned normally. Grandmother says that it is the Irish in me that does it."

More than a little thoughtful, the Re-Class considered that before putting a finger against her chin, "I've always wondered about that... though..." Briefly, Regina chewed her lip before shyly smiling and poking her fingers together, "I do sort of like how you have really pale skin in winter. With the black hair and glowing green eyes... you could be an Abyssal."

Shinano pausing in her chewing to think about it before nodding, "I guess?" Giggles then escaped her and she pointed at Regina, "Though when Harry-Chan does become our Admiral, you can claim that he's an Abyssal Admiral since he'd be in charge of you."

Yet more giggles escaped from the Yamato as her friend heavily blushed with steam coming out of her ears as she clapped her hands over her face, 'H-Harry would be an Abyssal Admiral... m-my Abyssal Admiral... O-oh my...'

Eyebrows raised in some amusement, Harry shook his head and went back to drinking the fruit juice that was in his hand. While, normally, he would have begun the day with some tea, the fruit juice was really fresh. And also it was really, really good. Finishing the cup, he placed it into a bag that was beside him for trash. Not long after, once Regina stopped expelling excess steam pressure from her boilers and Shinano had eaten, the three stood up.

Brushing himself off of any loose sand, the wizard looked over Regina, "So... what next?"

A thoughtful look on her face, Regina glanced at Shinano and smiled, "We could go swimming after a walk to the safe part of the beach."

Needless to say, that brought a grin to Harry's face. But before he could say anything, Shinano sharply nodded, "Good thing that I am ready! I even have my new bathing suit!" She reached down to the hem of her shirt and pulled it up to reveal that she was wearing a black one piece under it. Shucking off her shorts and bundling her clothes together, she pulled out the swimsuit some before shoving her clothes into it, with them disappearing into her hold. Throwing her hands into the air, she brightly smiled, "Let's go swimming!"

Laughing, Harry shook his head, "Okay, that sounds great, Shinano-CHAAAAN!"

Suddenly, a Re-Class tail slipped beneath him and he found himself once more sitting astride it. Automatically, he brought his hands up and wrapped them around Regina's midsection. For her part, Regina waved at her friend with a giggle, "See you there, Shinano!"

With those words, she took off with Harry hanging off her. It took a few moments, but Shinano's eyes widened and she ran after the Abyssal, "HEY! WAIT UP, REGINA-CHAN!" In response, Regina looked over her shoulder and stuck out her tongue which only made the Yamato run faster, even as Harry laughed despite bouncing around, "REGINA-CHAN! HARRY-CHAN!"

Abyssal and Shipgirl ran along the part of the beach where the waves crashed around their feet, warm water tickling their skin even as it was splashed far and wide. Short distance away, Wanko shook her head in amusement before chuckling as she resumed walking towards another meeting with Supprin. Especially with the ideas to upgrade Regina into a Flagship Re, 'They all... work very well... together. I'm glad...'

Meanwhile, Regina along with Harry and Shinano were laughing gaily as the two supernatural young women ran. Soon enough, they reached the beach and Regina sharply turned and rushed into the inviting tropical waters with Harry on her back. Around them, the water sloshed away, but before the Abyssal got too far, she was tackled by a giggling Shinano. However, she got splashed by Harry and splashed him back, with it turning into a splash fight between them before they got to swimming as the two told Shinano about the dive trip the day before.

When they finished, Shinano sighed and pouted a bit, "I wish that I could have gone, but, um..."

Harry shook his head with an understanding look on his face, "You don't feel comfortable diving or staying underwater long." At her nod, he swam over and hugged her, "Hey, and that is perfectly fine, Shinano-Chan. It isn't for everyone after all."

For her part, Regina also embraced her friend before giving her a kiss on the cheek, "What Harry said, Shinano. You not feeling comfortable underwater is fine and there's nothing wrong with it." She then gave a small shrug, "After all, you're not a Submarine or Abyssal."

Softly smiling, Shinano nodded and looked at the other two, giving them both kisses on the cheek, "Hai, that is true. And thank you both."

Not even a moment later, Regina's tail coughed and a beach ball bounced out. Washing it, the Re-Class held it up, "Um, want to play?"

Over the next half hour, the three bounced the beach ball between them as they laughed under the Sun before heading back to the beach where they built sand castles. Finally, they laid out on the beach with Harry placing his hands behind his head and sighing with his eyes closed, "Now this is nice."

About to agree, Shinano turned to him and paused as she remembered that he was shirtless and laying there in nothing but his swim trunks. Glancing at Regina, the Carrier knew that her friend had realized the same thing. Both girls kept taking looks at Harry before Shinano coughed with a red face, "U-um, yes, very nice."

From where she laid on Harry's other side, Regina nodded, also red in the face, "Y-yes, very nice indeed."

While he was confused about the tone of their voices, Harry internally shrugged it off. Instead, he decided to just enjoy the tropical Sun.
___________________________________________________

Looking over at Shinano, Regina tilted her head to the side, "Um, so what do you think?"

Eyes closed, the Yamato chewed some as she was back in her shorts and t-shirt. Swallowing, she opened her eyes with a smile on her face as she wiped her mouth, "These are good burgers, Regina-Chan." Her gaze fell on the large burger in front of her, "I haven't really had shark burgers before, but these are really good. I think that Jersey-San might like them as well if she ever comes here."

Harry chewed his own burger before swallowing, "What Shinano-Chan said, Regina. These are really good burgers."

A chuckle from across the counter made them all turn to where there was an older human there with a grin, "Well, thank you. Us here at John's enjoys it when our customers enjoy their burgers here."

Taking another bite, Harry nodded and once he could, smiled at the owner of the eatery who happened to be married to a Wo-Class, "Well, we're certainly doing that. These are really, really good."

Lightly chuckling, the man tipped his hair, "Fair dinkum."

Not long after, they were leaving the resturant with Shinano picking her teeth, "That was a nice meal, Regina-Chan. And they got a lot of variety..." Pausing, she tilted her head to the side, "Though I am sort of surprised that there's a cane toad burger... aren't those poisonous?"

Just shrugging, Regina shook her head, "Only for humans and such. Us Abyssals really like the taste, like how we eat sea wasps and such. The stingers make our tongues all tingly and taste like a spice." Both Harry and Shinano paused at that and turned to her in disbelief. However, the Abyssal continued as she did not notice though she had a look of confusion on her face, "It is sort of weird though... the Australian government has been encouraging us to grab as many cane toads and rabbits as we want."

Sharing a look with Shinano, Harry cleared his throat, "I would guess that they would have their reasons, Regina. Though, uh... when you cook food Abyssals keep preparation of them separate from anything that humans might eat, right?"

With a blink, the Re-Class gave him a look, "Of course we do! Though only certain restaurants actually use them and those places are almost all catering to Abyssals. John's gets their cane toad burgers from another kitchen nearby."

Both Harry and Shinano relaxed at that as they began to walk out of the town. As they did so, the thirteen year old noticed something and turned towards Shinano, "Huh... where's Hamakaze-Chan and the others?"

After Regina also turned to Shinano, the Yamato blinked, "They're visiting some of their sisters at Kure. But they're going to be back tomorrow morning."

The wizard just accepted that and they followed Regina into the jungle. Around them, various colorful birds flittered from branch to branch of all sorts. Spotting one, Shinano brought out her phone and began to take video, "Look, Harry-Chan! A Cockatoo!"

Doing much the same, Harry grinned, "That is so cool! I didn't know that you have cockatoos here on the islands."

Regina shrugged and shook her head, "We have a couple? Some people were excited to see them and Lady Wanko has ordered them protected because they're endangered. So no one harms them."

It was not just the tropical birds either, as colorful butterflies vied with flowers in bursts of color around them. Watching as her friends and precious people looked around with wonder, Regina felt her chest swell in happiness. But rather than say anything, she continued to lead them around to see all the various things that were around.

 

[darthcourt10]

rdmcmains

If I'd had more warning of Taylor's Commissioning Day than two and a half hours after it started, (totally my fault here), I'd probably have had this ready to post on her Commissioning Day. Instead, have a doubly belated omake!

Naval Base San Diego
San Diego, California
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
1720 hours local

It had been a rough two weeks for USS Taylor. Even with the removal of the Wake Island and Midway Princesses years ago, hostile bands of Abyssals still roamed the Central Pacific. She'd seen more Abyssals on this convoy run than she had in the last year, and it seemed like half of them wanted a piece of her transom.

She'd worn all her barrels out twice, emptied her magazines three times, and even nailed an I-class in the mouth with a thrown depth charge that would have made that quarterback Lou was always talking about green with envy.

Still, the convoy had made it safely to San Diego, she'd made her report to the Admiral, and now she was making for the gate (and a week's leave) as fast as 60,000 horsepower could move her. And if one more of her sisters asked her why she didn't use some form of weaponized insect against the Abyssals, they could eat a depth charge too!

Maybe a practice one. If they were lucky.

Bah, planning 174 cases of justified sororicide could wait. Right now, she needed food, ice cream and hugs, not necessarily in that order. Fortunately, she knew right where to get at least two of those.

As she left her bridge crew to deal with where she was going, she let her mind wander, thinking about who she was going to.

It all started with the 'triumphant return' of the Shipgirls Online forums. The first incarnation of the site had been run on a server made mostly of baling wire and duck tape, meant to last just long enough to get her to sign on. Once she did, she was hung with the tag that epitomized every joke her sisters had ever made about her.

Not a Skitter.

Taylor was sick and tired of being compared to a fictional character. Yes, five-foot-seven was tall for a destroyer. Yes, stretching a destroyer's mass across that much frame left her lean and a little gangly. And yes, her hair was long, curly, and black as night. That didn't make her the SecNav-damned Bug Queen of Brockton Bay!

And the less said about the fanfic someone wrote about That Girl somehow triggering as a version of her, the better. It had taken her actually trying to shove Jenkins' head up her shaft galleries before her sisters stopped asking to see her shotgun.

They didn't pull this crap on Chevalier; hell, she'd actually joined in once!

Anyway, when SGO came back online, this time on a server made for the traffic, she fully expected the abuse to continue.

And then he showed up.
StopBullyingDDs

She wasn't actually the first girl he came to the defense of; that honor went to Shimakaze. After apparently one too many posts calling her 'Stripperbote', he lashed out.

After pointing out that shipgirls had precisely zero control of what uniform they're summoned in, he ripped them up one side and down the other for sexualizing a girl who looked barely 12 years old, referencing the Commander, 7th Fleet who proclaimed, "Destroyers are not for lewds; they are for cuddles and headpats only."

Taylor wasn't sure what was more shocking; that the first response to his post was, "That was when they knew, they'd fucked up," or that the responder's tags included (Not a Hotel).

It was only a couple of days later that he went after one of Taylor's sisters after yet another Skitter reference. "It's like you want to prove she's that Taylor by forcing her to Trigger!" He then pointed out how bad an idea it would be to have a shipgirl who was annoyed with her 174 sisters, could control insects, and had access to Japanese Giant Hornets.

She'd sent him a private message at that point, and learned he was a civilian contractor at NBSD, part of the janitorial crew. He offered to buy her ice cream, and as a destroyer she was morally unable to decline.

They'd talked, eaten ice cream (a pint for him, about a dozen for her), and agreed to meet again after she got back from her next deployment. And then, as she was getting up to return to base, he hugged her.

She'd never felt anything so...nice.

Sure, she'd cuddled with her sisters before (and still did, depending on how much they'd aggravated her recently), and with other destroyers in Japan (for the record, Jersey was right; Fubuki really was cuddly as fuck) but this felt so much... more. And she liked it.

One thing led to another, and several meetings for ice cream and a couple visits to his apartment to watch old '80s TV shows later, one of the local cruisers saw them together, and the rumors of Taylor's 'boyfriend' took off.

He wasn't her boyfriend! He was just a friend whose hugs she liked. She even put that down on the request to get him an expense card: keeping up with a destroyer's ice cream habit on a janitor's wages wasn't easy. She was sure New York nearly rolled her rangefinders completely overboard when she submitted the form, but it went through anyway.

And that's when she found out he could cook. Nothing fancy, he had a couple different casserole recipes, a few different forms of meat and potatoes, and a pretty nice taco salad, but it was all good, and his recipes made enough for them to each get full. Interestingly, the closest he got to Italian food was the occasional pizza or macaroni and cheese. She was sure she hadn't mentioned her dislike of the Marina Militare, but she appreciated the moral support.

A soft, "Hey," alerted her to the fact that she'd arrived at his apartment building, so she let herself in through the front door and walked up to his apartment. She paused before knocking; she realized that he'd probably only left the base an hour before she had, so he might not have finished cooking dinner, not to mention that she forgot to call him to tell him she was coming over. This...could be bad. Oh well, nothing to do for it now. She knocked on the door.

A few seconds later, it opened. "Taylor! Welcome back," he said, hugging her. She sighed happily. It had been more than a month since she'd last seen him, at Haruna's wedding, after all.

He chuckled as he pulled her through the door. "This explains a lot."

Taylor stepped into the apartment, slightly confused. "Like what?" she asked.

"Well, I'd just got to work this morning, and my manager told me my vacation request was approved, and they'd see me on the fifth," he said, walking back to the kitchen.

"I didn't know you'd requested vacation," Taylor said.

"Me either. Then, around noon, I got an anonymous text suggesting I cook up a big meal for this evening."

As he looked over his glasses at her, Taylor rolled her eyes. "Fox," they said in unison.

"Yeah. Good news, though. You're just in time; I just pulled it out of the oven."

When Taylor caught sight of the baking pan sitting on the stove cooling, her entire crew started cheering.

"That's right," he said, "I forgot those guys really like the casserole."

"You can hear them?" asked Taylor, mortified.

"Yes? It's not that bad, Taylor. I've been in the mess when the battleships and carriers come in. When their stomachs rumble, you can measure it on a seismograph. A few hundred happy 'Hey's is nothing."

They sat down to eat, keeping the conversation light. Finishing up, he asked her, "So, anything you feel like watching tonight?"

"Babylon 5?"

"Good choice," he responded. "Go get the DVD player started while I grab something out of the freezer."

She smiled as she walked into the living room; some ice cream on top of everything else would make this day just about perfect. She turned on the TV and DVD player and sat down just in time for him to turn the lights off. "What—?"

He walked into the living room, carrying something with two lit candles on top, while humming…Happy Birthday? Wait a minute…

She quickly checked her log for the date. He was right; she couldn't believe she'd forgotten.

Coming around the couch where they'd spent many a night watching old TV shows, he put the object he'd been carrying on the coffee table. It turned out to be an ice cream cake, shaped like, and decorated as, her unit patch. The candles were number candles, 7 and 1. Standing up, he walked over to Taylor, bent over, and kissed her on the forehead.

"Happy Commissioning Day, Taylor."

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Hands moving as she walked, Shinano peeled the fruit in her hands to reveal the pale, yellow flesh before taking a slice and popping it into her mouth. Chewing slowly, she hummed before swallowing as Regina looked on in interest, "What do you think?"

Finger against her chin, the Carrier frowned for a moment before smiling, "I like it!" Taking another slice, she held it out to Harry, "Here, try it. I think that you'll like it too, Harry-Chan."

Lips twitching in amusement, Harry did so and chuckled a bit at the taste, "Sort of has a sweet, orange taste but also tastes like a mild lemon. Not bad."

Just nodding with a happy look on her face, Regina practically beamed, "I'm glad that you both enjoyed it." Unpeeling her own, she shook her head, "Lemonade fruits really are good."

Shinano, for her part, gave a giggle, "They are, though don't tell Enterprise about the durian fruits that you grow here." At the curious look from Regina, she shook her head, "She really likes eating them and can eat an entire crate of them if given the opportunity to do so. Onee-Sama just gets exasperated with her over it."

At that, snickers escaped from the lone male of the three, "Not just Yamato-Oba either." He continued when they turned their attention onto him, "Apparently, the other Yorktown sisters all avoid her when she has durian fruit. Gets really funny because she keeps trying to convert them to the 'Worship of the King of Fruits' for some reason."

Giggles escaped from both the shipgirl and Abyssal at that. Shaking her head, Shinano had a twinkle in her eye, "I can believe it with how Enterprise-San sometimes acts."

Continuing to walk alongside them, Regina only shook her head with a small smile on her face. Even the Abyssals had heard just how much Enterprise loved the fruit... which ended in one Abyssal Princess being sunk when she attempted to destroy a large amount to hurt the 'Grey Ghost' by cutting off her supply of food. Even Revina had twitched at what had happened and been utterly confused before stating that they were all crazy. Telling Shinano and Harry that, the Re-Class giggled as the other two burst into laughter and stated that was just like the American, 'This is nice...'

Laughter calming down, Harry let out a sigh before looking at the two beside him. Due to the heat and humidity under the forest canopy, Shinano had discarded her shirt leaving her swimsuit from the waist up exposed. It went without saying that Harry was unable to not give her glances... or give Regina who was beside her. All the while, he was punching his hormones in the face within his head.

That said, the three had taken a number of pictures of each other and themselves in a group from time to time.

Now taking a deep breath of all the scents, Harry took first Regina's and then Shinano's hands in his which made the other two blush lightly. But they said nothing, however they did entwine their fingers with his. Turning to Regina, the wizard tilted his head to the side, "So where are we going now?"

Scratching her cheek, Regina hummed a bit, "U-um, I was thinking of taking you somewhere that's sort of nice though we'd be swimming again..." Ducking her head a bit, she flushed, "I know that we already went swimming this morning, but, um..."

Head the side, Shinano blinked before smiling, "I don't mind a nice swim since it is rather hot and humid out. Actually, that sounds really good, Regina-Chan."

Even as Regina's expression brightened, the thirteen year old nodded, "Shinano-Chan is right, Regina. A nice, cool swim sounds good." Looking at his sweat drenched shirt, Harry shook his head, "Be nice to get all this sweat off, I have to be smelling bad by now."

The Carrier shook her head and frowned, "I don't think that you smell bad at all, Harry-Chan."

On Harry's other side, Regina gave a sharp nod, "Shinano is right, Harry. You don't smell bad at all, it's a good smell."

After a few moments though, both shy girls realized what they said and became very flustered. Something that made Harry's lips twitching into a smile as he internally chuckled to spare them more embarrassment, 'Cute...' Giving their hands a gentle squeeze, he smiled up at them both, "Thank you, Shinano-Chan, Regina-Chan."

Due to their heights, he wasn't able to kiss them on the cheek as he wanted. So instead, he kissed them on their knuckles, which only made the two blush deeper with steam coming from their ears much to his confusion. Before he could say anything, Regina pointed at one path off to the side, "U-uh, um, we need to take that one." She then began to drag Harry along, with Shinano following due to holding Harry's hands. After another five minutes or so of travelling along the winding path, they reached their destination and she gave a nod, "Here we are."

Much to their confusion, they found themselves in front of a cave, which made them both look at Regina. Clearing his throat, Harry shook his head, "Uh, Regina? I don't do cave diving, remember..."

Rapidly, the Re-Class shook her head and waved her arms in the air, "N-no, we're not going cave diving. But, um... just follow me."

With a shrug, the two did so and soon their eyes widened as they entered a large cavern in the limestone rock that made up the island. The roof must have collapsed at some point leaving sunlight streaming into the cavern, and tropical flowers dotted the area. But more importantly, about ten feet in front of them was a small beach of sorts, and the cavern itself was filled with crystal clear, deep blue water. Walking up to it, Harry looked around before shaking his head, "What is this place...?"

As Shinano nodded in agreement to the question, Regina smiled a bit, "The water comes from an underground mineral spring. There's all sorts of minerals in the water and the like. And, even better, the water's nice and cool with it not being too deep."

Softly smiling back, the Yamato shook her head, "This place is beautiful, Regina-Chan. Really beautiful..." At the bright expression from Regina, she hummed a bit, "Any rules?"

When Regina shook her head, Harry chuckled some and grinned, "Well, guess that there is only one thing to do..." At their looks, he jerked his thumb at the water before taking off his shirt, "And that is go swimming."

Moments later, he was joined by Shinano who shrugged off her shorts. Entering the water, the shipgirl's eyebrows raised, "The water really is cooler... and I can feel the minerals in it."

Joining her, Regina swam along until turning so that she can face her friend, "Well, I did say that it was a nice place. And sometimes I like to come here and swim when I need time to think."

In reply, Shinano came up to her and gave her friend a hug, "Thank you for showing us this, Regina-Chan." Kissing the Re-Class on the cheek, she bashfully smiled, "Thank you."

Just seconds later Harry appeared behind the Abyssal and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, "And consider this a thanks from me as well."

Cheeks blazing red, Regina sunk down into the water until her nose touched the surface as steam slowly rose from her head.

Unable to help himself, the thirteen year old chuckled before gently patting her head. Lips twitching into a smile as she looked at him, Harry turned his attention to Shinano before diving under the water. The Carrier glanced at him before turning back to Regina... right before Harry burst from the water and glomped her, "I got you, Shinano-Chan!"

With a loud "Eep", said shipgirl tumbled backwards into the water as a cackling teen swam away. Bursting from the water, Shinano huffed before glaring and brushing her hair from her eyes. Then she began to swim after him with a grin, "I'm going to get you, Harry-Chan!"

Performing a breaststroke, Harry grinned all the wider, "Just try it, Shinano-Cha-gah!"

It was then his turn to yelp as Regina had come up from below and yanked him under. As the Re-Class surfaced a few feet from the sputtering wizard, Shinano grinned and held up her hand. The two then did a fist bump before turning around... just in time to get a splash of water to the face. As it ended, Regina gave him a flat look, "You do realize that this means war..."

Only making a bring it motion with his hand, the thirteen year old smirked... and regretted it as Regina used her tail to splash him. He just managed to resurface as Shinano cupped her hands behind her with a grin, "Yamato Style... Kame... hame..."

Eyes widening, Harry raised a finger, "Uh, Shinano-Chan? That won't wor-"

Unfortunately, that was when Shinano finished and thrust her hands forward, "HA!"

Any sort of argument Harry had was ended before it begun by the massive wall of water that washed over him.

Yet again, the Re-Class and the Yamato looked at each other with a nod of respect before performing a fist bump. Needless to say, it did not take Harry long to give up his attempts at dislodging the two of them from where they were... and many, many dunkings via splashes on his part. It also left his two opponents giggling madly each time. Something that made him pout, increasing their giggles and blushes.

Soon enough though, peace returned to the cavern and the three began to swim in the cool, mineral rich blue waters.

Feeling a weight on her back at one point when she was standing in some shallow water (well, for her), Shinano looked over to find that Harry was hugging her from behind. Giggling, she shook her head, "What are you doing, Harry-Chan?"

There was an amused look on Harry's face as he answered with his chin on her shoulder as he wrapped his legs around her waist, "Just relaxing a bit, swimming can be tiring after all."

Giggles escaped from the Yamato as she shook her head, "True enough, Harry-Chan."

Pushing off the bottom of the pool, she began to swim, not bothered in the slightest by the weight on her back. Just sighing, Harry laid his head against her shoulder blades, 'Now this is nice...'

Besides the swimming, the group took various pictures. One of them had Harry between Shinano and Regina, with all three giving victory signs. The late afternoon continued to pass as they swam and soon, the Sun began to set outside. Noticing the gathering twilight, Shinano frowned, "We should be going back."

Regina chewed her lip a bit before shaking her head, "Um, can we wait some?" At their confusion, she motioned around them, "This place is, um... nice, at night."

Eyebrow raised, Shinano glanced at Harry who thought it over before he gave a slow nod, "I guess that would be okay? Though... is there a easy path back to the beach so that we can head back to your home?"

Very rapidly, the Re-Class nodded, "There is actually, it's a straight path through the woods back to the shoreline. I just, well..." She poked her fingers together with a small blush, "I took the long way around to show you more."

Placing her hand on her friend's shoulder, Shinano smiled, "I don't think that either I or Harry-Chan can complain much about that, Regina-Chan. This has been a nice day after all." As Regina relaxed, the Carrier turned to Harry, "Right?"

Hands behind his head, Harry chuckled, "Right." He then shrugged some, "Anyways... Big Sister isn't going to let the storms come until a bit later, so we got time." Internally, he was intrigued, 'I wonder what Regina meant by it being nice at night...'

Roughly two hours later he got his answer.

From the hole in the cavern roof, moonlight gently streamed in as the stars above twinkled and shone. The moonlight danced on the waves, casting pale reflections on the walls as the water seemed to gently glow. On the ceiling and walls as well, florescent moss and lichens softly glowed, while fireflies danced here and there through the air, weaving trails. Harry, who had been to Hogwarts and other such places, could only look with a dropped jaw, "It's... beautiful... magical even."

Sitting beside him with her legs drawn up, Regina looked around in wonder, "I was here once and fell asleep and woke up after dark to see... this. It was so beautiful..." Her voice was soft, as if speaking too loudly would break the spell. Reaching out, fireflies danced around her hand, "Magical even..." Turning, she looked at Shinano and Harry, "I wanted... I wanted to share this with you."

A few moments passed as Harry watched her before reaching over and gently taking her hand in his, "Thank you."

_______________________________________________________

The three took one final, slow swim in the moonlit waters of the cave before heading back to where Regina's home was. Only stopping to get some food, they made it just in time as the thunderstorms that Wanko had held back over the day finally broke over the island. Sitting on Regina's porch as the rain thundered down, Shinano chewed on a piece of fried breadfruit, "This is really nice."

Beside her, Harry gave a nod as he finished off the last of the satay, "And the food is good as well."

Giggles escaped from Regina as she smiled at him, "Of course it is." Standing up, she held a finger, "Give me just one moment..." A few minutes later, the Abyssal returned with mugs filled with tea that both Shinano and Harry accepted gratefully. Sitting down once more, Regina looked on as the storm raged on, "I liked the past two days..."

With a happy hum, Shinano nodded her agreement, "I also liked today, it was... really nice." Sighing, she kicked one leg out into the rain and let the warm water cascade over it, not realizing that Harry was looking at it, "But tomorrow morning we need to get back home."

Stretching, the thirteen year old groaned a bit, "Yeah, but we can always use my time turner if needed to go back some when we get back home to Yokosuka." Looking out at the rain, he tilted his head to the side, "I haven't heard any thunder... are the thunderstorms done?"

Just tapping her chin, Regina sent a message to the "Weather Abyssal", One of the older ones who were obsolete even at the beginning of the war, who answered back, "Yes, the thunderstorms have passed."

For his part, Harry gave a nod before tossing his shirt off and walking out into the rain which soaked him. Seeing that, Shinano's eyes widened, "Harry-Chan! What are you doing?!"

Throwing his hands wide, Harry closed his eyes and looked up before shaking his head, "Just enjoying a nice, tropical shower." A grin on his face, he held out his hand to them, "Want to join me?"

A few seconds passed as the two girls blinked at him before looking at each other. Eyebrow raised, Shinano shook her head, "That is pretty crazy..." She then grinned and got up before walking into the rain, it soaking her clothes and revealing her swimsuit slightly, "But fun!"

Unable to help herself, Regina giggled and then joined the other two as the warm, tropical rain poured down. Brushing sodden hair from his forehead, Harry grinned up at them, "Heh, now this is what I call fun." After a moment of thought, he grabbed Shinano's hand and Regina's before pulling them into a dance, "Oh, we're dancing in the rain~"

Laughter could be heard echoing from the area almost immediately after and when the storm ended and the clouds broke revealing the starry night sky, the three dried off before sitting on the porch and looking up into the sky as shooting stars began to fill it. Both Regina and Shinano, as well as Harry who they were leaning against, had watched the streaks of light in the heavens. Watching as he closed his eyes, the Carrier smiled before whispering, "What did you wish for?"

Harry looked at her and smiled before tapping his nose, "That would be telling and then it would not come true."

It was not long after that the three of them retired to bed with Shinano laying on it in her shorts and swimsuit, shirt hung nearby. On top of her, Harry laid with his head on her chest with Regina having her head on Shinano's shoulder and tail across Harry. All of them had smiles on their faces, which continued the next day as the wizard and shipgirl returned to Yokosuka, using the time turner once there to turn back the clock two hours so that Shinano had time to shower and get ready for Yamato and the others.

But for the whole time... the same thoughts went through all three's mind besides the fact that it would be two days, or one in the case of Shinano, that they would always remember...

And that it was wonderful.

 

[darthcourt10]

Yellowhammer

A.N.-This one really fought me, but it's back!

Courtship Display X

Yokosuka Naval Base
Spoiler: A Chat Between Old Friends

Kiho Mitsue felt like humming as she entered the base beauty shop and spa. Unconsciously, her thumb found the ring that was now on her finger and gently caressed it as she once again thought of what it meant for her.

That she had found a good man who had taken hits from life as he traveled the same lonely street that she had. That something, fate or the kami or karma or blind luck had touched her life to have her meet someone who understood her in so many ways since he too had known what it was like to endure and push forward when the world battered you to the ground over and over again. That he had even risked his life to save her from a terrible fate; killing a Nundu bare-handed.

She smiled like a kitsune in a peanut butter factory as she finished her thoughts. Dalt was hers now.

"Kiho-chan?"

A very familiar voice sounded from her right and she looked over, staring in shock. "Miu-chan, what are you doing here?"

The purple haired crane Hanyo chuckled. "I was about to ask you the same thing, Kiho-chan. I came here for a massage since I'm sore after kyudo practice."

Kiho blinked twice. "Oh, I came for a haircut. And I don't recall you studying kyudo."

Miu smiled. "It is recent. The other carriers asked me to join them, and I seem to have picked up a knack for it."

Kiho's jaw dropped. "Other carriers? Wait, you're a Natural-Born?"

Miu preened and touched one of her winglike hair tufts. "Among other things, yes. Tell you what, I'll buy a spa trip for you too and we can discuss it in the massage room." One of her lookouts waved at her captain. "Wait, that ring?"

Kiho's face was lit up by her answering smile as she extended her hand for Miu to admire her engagement ring. "Chief Longstreet proposed to me. I can see we really need to catch up. Ahh, do your parents know that you are a shipgirl?"

Miu smiled and moved over on the waiting room couch. "Oh yes! They all came to see Akimi and I Awaken."

"Akimi's a shipgirl too!?" Kiho started to laugh helplessly as she sat down.

"What's so funny, Kiho-chan?" Miu asked with a birdlike cocking of her head.

"I'll tell you in private, Miu-chan. Well as much as I can without violating my professional ethics." Kiho responded after her laughter stopped. "It is wrapped up in my engagement story."

---------------------

As the two soaked in a hot mineral pool to prepare them for the planned massage, Kiho pulled out her wand and began to scribe privacy wards. Miu nodded and followed suit.

"So, what is so important to put up privacy wards?" Miu asked with a sigh as she sank a little lower into the steaming water.

Kiho gasped at the sensation of heat opening her pores. "My last job was for a senior member of the Civil Service. His grandson had fallen for a young lady here on base who is a Natural-Born shipgirl, although unawakened right now too. Basic background and suitability check."

Miu nodded slowly as she ran through the list of unawakened Natural-Born shipgirls on base and compared it to the SGO shipping channel. "Ibuki-san?"

Kiho's lips twitched. "I can neither confirm nor deny that on grounds of professional ethics. But my client, whose grandson is rotting my teeth with his antics with his girlfriend, was rather interested in the fact that she is a Natural-Born along with being what she is."

Miu sniffed through her sharp nose. "I imagine so. Ah, that could be problematic especially since I and Akimi-chan... ahh. you remember how upset Akimi-chan was about not being like her mother and maternal grandfather?"

Kiho nodded. "Yes, I do. Wait. You don't mean?"

Miu's feathery hair-tufts flapped. "Two tails."

"You're kidding!" Kiho's jaw dropped as Miu crowed at her stunned expression. "That's... that's... impossible! The Diet will have kittens!!"

Miu cackled, "You don't know the half of it. She's the spirit of Yamatai now. I'm pretty sure that she plans to make a statement by her service to the nation to throw that in the teeth of everyone who gave her shit over her family's actions."

Kiho pinched herself then yelped in pain. "I'm not dreaming. Yamatai... wait, her grandfather...?"

Miu sobered, "Is on board her, yes. She had a very long conversation with him and she is accepting a few things that hurt her in the past. He seems to be good for her psyche now that she can say what she always wanted to say and get the answers about why he did what he did."

Kiho smiled happily and reached over to squeeze Miu's hand. "That is wonderful news, and I will have to congratulate her when she gets off duty. Anyway, my former employer gave me a bonus for that information about a certain Natural-Born and the implications of that and plans to share it with some of his colleagues both here and in Kyoto to reevaluate certain laws."

Miu nodded. "I plan to have dinner with my family soon. I must inquire, the grandson...?"

"Is named for his grandfather if your family wishes to congratulate them on the upcoming marriage once the young lady's sister Awakens. I still have his number if contact needs to be made." Kiho said with a sigh as she felt her muscles unknot.

Miu smiled at the unspoken words. "Now, to more important things." She dismissed the privacy wards.

"Hai. Did you grow a cup size recently? I don't recall you being that top-heavy. Busty yes, but not that curvy." Kiho asked curiously.

Miu groaned. "Yes. My Awakening had some... side effects. I'm still trying to decide if there is some good in it. My balance has been slightly off ever since and on top of that I had to do some emergency shopping for larger shipgirl-rated bras at the store here such as what Atago wears. Which was absurdly expensive I might add! On the other hand, I'm getting the attentions of a lot of single men, and a few attached men as well. Almost as many as I did when were were in school and the Puberty Kami blessed me."

"I hate you," Kiho said without any heat in her voice.

--------------------------

Yokosuka Suratsu Suwa Elementary School
Spoiler: Nest Stop, The Onsen!

Hachiko nodded to Suzume as he walked Aki to the main gate. "Thank you again for handling him so I can visit the onsen with Moriko-chan, Suzume-san."

The Okami Natural-Born smiled. "It is nothing and makes up for the fuss which I was responsible for on your first date. Sachiko-chan and I will be happy to watch over him."

"I'll see you soon, Tou-san!" Aki hugged his big brother and dashed into school with the energy of a nine-year-old.

Suzume continued. "He really is a good boy."

Hachiko nodded and took off his glasses to wipe his eyes. "Hai, he is and I am so very proud of him. Normally on Fridays he goes to Kyudo at the Hachimangu in Kamakura, but Tokunotakai-sensei is on vacation."

Suzume smiled. "Don't worry, I can get him into the kyudo range on base and Houshou-sensei will be happy to instruct an earnest young kyudoka such as him."

She turned to Hachiko and her smile faded slightly. "Hachiko-kun. If you and my big sister," Suzume blushed crimson as they walked to the parking lot where the rented minivan that would carry him and Moriko on the onsen trip waited, "if you enjoy each other's company, please be gentle and kind with Moriko-chan. She loves you very very much and is still a young lady under the toughness."

Hachiko blushed in turn. "I know, and I would never hurt her. I promised my Aunt and Grandfather not to go too far until they gave their approval for our marriage, which I have not gotten yet." His face clouded. "I have experienced with my parents the price of infidelity and not setting appropriate boundaries and I would sooner die than hurt Moriko-chan so."
Spoiler: Hachiko's Devotion

Suzume smiled in relief. "Good. Moriko-chan is..." She paused and clearly weighed her next words carefully, "I will not say that she wishes to be dominated, but she wishes to have an equal partner who can take the strain of leadership of our little pack off her shoulders. Someone who can stand shoulder to shoulder with her. Be honest with her and trust her Hachiko-kun."

The Inugami Hanyo nodded to himself as he took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. "Be honest with her. I shall strive for that, and once we have privacy I plan to have a long chat with her. Trusting her is easy."

He stared at his girlfriend as she hugged her younger sister Sachiko with tears in their eyes as they prepared to separate for the three day onsen trip that he and she would go on. He whispered to himself as Suzume hastened ahead to join her sisters. "Trusting her is easy. Having the courage to tell her the truth about my heritage is hard."

 

[darthcourt10]

Savato93

Sherri slumped onto the couch with a heavy sigh, her arms and legs aching after a day of work. "Oof… so tired…" she groaned. "Never felt this worn out before…"

Carrie collapsed in the chair next to her twin, wringing her hands. "How many trees did we pull up again, just the two of us? Thirty seven?"

"Thirty-eight."

"Thirty-eight trees…" Carrie wheezed. "Our cranes were made to haul tons of steel. Why was this so tiring?"

Facedown on the couch, Sherri made a halfhearted attempt at a shrug. "Maybe we're just out of practice? We've consciously made ourselves more 'girl' than 'ship' for the past few years now."

"A fair point." Carrie let herself have a small grin. "But at least we're helping the rest of our fleet. It shouldn't be too long before the path to the hot spring is clear… and then we'll really get to enjoy the fruits of our labor."

"Amen…" the other Ri-class raised a fist upward in agreement.

In just a few minutes, the twins were out like a light… so it was, that Sunny stopped by the cabin to check on the pair, and discovered them fast asleep where they lay. Seeing her baby sisters having some well-earned rest after a day of work, the Demon couldn't help but smile softly… but a part of her noted their less-than-ideal crash spots. This wouldn't do.

Stepping in quietly, Sunny gently picked up each Ri-class and placed them on her shoulders. Sisters in tow, she tiptoed out of the cabin and made her way towards the barn, where the destroyers were also beginning to settle down for the night. Coming into the wide open interior, Sunny found a nice, roomy spot in the hay that covered the floor, and put Carrie and Sherri down. Finally, she clicked her tongue, alerting the drowsy puppies to the new presence.

Seeing a pair of larger ships now sleeping in their midst, the sleepy destroyers began to shuffle closer, gathering around them. Carefully, they nudged and moved the cruisers, sliding under their back, nuzzling against their sides, and resting on their feet. In a matter of minutes the cuddlepile was complete, with each girl snuggled in the middle of at least half a dozen destroyers… and neither of them were roused from their slumber even once, pacified by the aura of comfort and protectiveness growing around them.

It ended up being one of the best night's sleep Carrie and Sherri had had in a long while.

XXXXXXXXXX

Clunk—vrrrrrrrrrrr…

Clunk—vrrrrrrrrrrr…

Clunk-click.

Narrowing her eyes at the breaker that had tripped moments after being flipped on, Nuri hummed thoughtfully, before turning on her radio. "Millie, dear, there's an electrical issue in the…" she checked the breaker's faded label, trying to match it against the O'mega's schematics. "...lower deck, crew cabin seven."

{Still!?"} The exasperation in her daughter's voice was evident. {I've gone over every socket and light fixture in that room twice, now!}

"You may want to check inside the walls, then. Take a socket plate off the wall, and send some of your crew into the hole to search for the problem."

There was a sigh on the other end. {Alright…}

Satisfied, Nuri shifted her focus. "Ritou, how's the work on propulsion?"

{It could be better,} came the terse reply. {On the bright side, if this actually works, she should be able to make twenty knots easily.}

"If?"

{Hey, jury-rigging a turbo-electric system into a diesel-powered ship is not a simple process. I don't know if failure will just make the system conk out, or if this shit will explode in my face.}

Nuri smirked. "Just more incentive to get it right the first time, then."

By this point, the Abyssals had invested quite a bit of time and effort into this ship, working to turn her from a derelict wreck into something seaworthy. The hull above the waterline was more or less restored—fresh steel plating, new windows, and the layer of aluminum oxide on the superstructure scrubbed away; the whole shebang was painted a nice matte-black with white detailing, to match up with its new owners. The interior, meanwhile, just needed some minor touching up (most notably, scrubbing out all the bloodstains and clearing out the mildew) to look nice again. The electrical system was almost fully operational, with only a few bad circuits remaining—which she and Millie were currently correcting now.

That just left propulsion… which was a much bigger problem than they had originally anticipated.

They ended up spending over three weeks just trying to redraw the ship's blueprints to incorporate their beefier Abyssal propulsion system, while maintaining as much of the original structure as possible. It might have been possible to repair or replace the ship's original diesel engines with the help of their blueprints, but unfortunately, the documents the Fleet of Laughter had received when they got official ownership of the Omega did not include schematics for the ship's Yanmar-made engines… protecting intellectual property, Grandma Nagato explained. Thus, with no blueprints to reconstruct the engines, and no physical samples to attempt to reverse-engineer them, the girls had to go to Plan B: replace the system entirely using something they knew.

Now, however, if all went well, the ship would be ready to sail to Japan for the finishing touches within a week. They couldn't wait.

Suddenly, Nuri became aware of another presence in the room. She glanced over to see an uncommon sight: a ghostly, black-skinned being with a faint red glow, dressed up in a dark version of a naval officer's uniform. A manifested imp, who at the moment seemed to be looking at everything in the room, and scribbling things down on a clipboard in his clawed hands.

"Hey there…" Nuri spoke up, getting the imp's attention. The moment the trooper realized he was in front of a Demon, he immediately stood at attention. "Could you identify yourself, and explain what you're doing down here?"

"M'lady," the phantasmal imp greeted Nuri with a curt nod. "Ragos Bloodsong, executive officer for the Abyssal battleship Regalia."

"At ease." As the Abyssal officer relaxed, Nuri tilted her head, surprised. "So you're one of Regalia's crew? I thought she was with Mother today?"

The imp held up the clipboard. "The boss lady left me and some others here to observe progress on this ship's refit in her absence, take notes for her to go over on her return."

"Oh… I see." Nuri gave the officer a small smile. "In that case… as you were, XO Bloodsong." Giving one last nod of acknowledgement, the imp departed, leaving Nuri alone in the breaker room again to keep testing the electrical circuits.

After a few minutes, a thought suddenly occurred to her…

Wait a minute… Regalia dispatched her XO? Will she be alright without him present?

XXXXX

"Regalia's belly is making noises. Is Regalia hungry?"

"Huh? Oh, oh yeah, it's lunchtime, isn't it…? Sorry, Grandma. Haven't had anything to eat all day."

"…"

"..."

"Uh, Regalia?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you want something to eat?"

"Err… I don't know. Should I want something to eat? It's a little hard for me to tell—I soooooorta sent off my XO to handle something else back home while I'm here—"

"You WHAT!?"

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Hitting the mat hard, Hedwig rolled and came to her feet before lashing out with a kick that was blocked. Another kick though swept her feet out from under her and set her back to the mat again. Just as she was about to get back to her feet, she paused at the foot that was inches from her face. Slowly, it was retracted to show a smiling girl not much older then fourteen, "Not bad, Hedwig. You're really improving a lot."

She then held out a hand that Hedwig took and got back onto her feet. The transformed owl gave her a nod, "Thank you, Teacher."

With a laugh, the girl put her hands behind her head, "Call me Amick, Hedwig. Especially as all this is informal."

For her part though, Hedwig shook her head, "No, I will not." She turned fierce eyes into the smaller girl and frowned, "You are teaching me and so I will give you respect." Then, suddenly, the familiar smirked, "At least during the times that you are teaching me."

Rather than be insulted, Amick laughed, "That's good to hear." She then wagged a finger at Hedwig, "At least you don't get all huffy when I kick your ass around the mat."

Simply shrugging, the owl shook her head, "You are teaching me and that is what matters." Accepting the sports drink handed to her, she took a great gulp of it, "Which I am thankful for."

Only shaking her head, the Destroyer-Escort snorted, "And I'm thankful that you want me to teach you. Not too many people want to learn Sikaran after all." Taking a sip of her own sports drink, she sighed, "The Japanese have their own native arts and Americans? They want to learn the more common ones like Karate or boxing. So I'll admit that I was surprised when you showed up asking me to teach you."

Turning to her, Hedwig frowned before raising a hand, "As an owl, I use my wings for flying. It is my talons that do the killing."

Eyebrow raised, Amick looked at Hedwig's legs. While they were currently the usual gi for martial arts, she had seen them bare. Toned and muscled was one way of describing them. Part of her always did wonder about how powerful a kick they could make... even as another part could not help but find them nice legs.

In the present though, she shook her head, "True, owls kill with their talons. So it makes sense for you to specialize in kicking. And considering how your legs can look..."

A smirk crossed Hedwig's face as she brought up her foot, which transformed into a giant owl's talons, "I think that I could do some damage with this."

That got her a snort of amusement from Amick, "No shit. Brutal would be putting it mildly, especially for a pamatay." With another sip of her drink, she shook her head, "Reminds me of this one fight with a Tsu. It was in close, so I used a biakid kick."

For a moment, the transformed owl furrowed her eyebrows before nodding, "The spinning heel kick in a punching position which is aimed at the back of the head." At the amused look, the owl had an eyebrow raised, "I remember you showing it when I first came to be taught from you."

Chuckling, Amick shook her head, "And I remember your look. Never seen someone so amazed by a kick or wanting to learn how so bad." Waving a hand, she hummed, "Anyways, the back of my foot is where my screws are when I have my rigging out. So you can imagine what happened..."

Voice dry, Hedwig snorted, "It was a bit of a mess, I presume."

Widely grinning, the Destroyer-Escort snickered, "You could say that. One of my sisters turned green and puked." Her grin fading, she shrugged, "But yeah, I don't mind teaching you." A small smile appeared on Amick's face, "It honestly is sort of fun to teach someone who wants to learn."

Hedwig hummed a bit as she took another sip of sports drink, "And I am happy to learn it." Becoming thoughtful, she gave Amick an inquisitive look, "I have wondered why you teach me though..."

Glancing at her, Amick was silent for a few seconds, "Why? Pretty simple really, because you wanted to learn."

Confused, the Familiar furrowed her eyebrows, "What do you mean by that? Of course I wanted to learn."

Now turning her full attention to Hedwig, Amick shook her head, "You wanted to learn. Not because it was cool looking to kick some guy in the head like Chuck Norris. Rather, you wanted to learn to both improve yourself and become better at protecting those that you care about. That is something that I can respect and do, especially as I am a Destroyer-Escort, it is in my very steel. So... it is my honour to pass what I know onto you. Because I know that you would use it properly."

Leaning forward, Hedwig frowned, "I know that some shipgirls are good at martial arts... none of them have come to you?"

Only shaking her head, the shipgirl chuckled, "No, like I said, most go for the more common martial arts or to perfect those that their crews knew. Most shipgirls practice until they're good at those martial arts. Some of us take it further. Yuudachi-San's sister, Shigure, for example. She's mastered the styles her crew knew and learned new ones. Girl's the equivalent to a blackbelt in several different styles and moderate in others." Rubbing her chin, Amick frowned, "All because she wants to be able to protect Fusou, Yamashiro, and her friends. When it came up at a tournament that we ran, Shigure-San told me that she was never going to run again." A laugh then burst from her, "Then, she proceeded to kick my ass all over the mat. Actually went on to win the tournament despite facing a Battleship in it, though next time..."

Seeing her teacher clench her fist, Hedwig felt herself smile. After all, she was really lucky that the shipgirl was willing to teach her. Finishing off her sports drink, she got up, "Should we resume, Teacher?"

However, Amick shook her head, "No, that is enough for one day. Time to do some cool down stretches."

To that, Hedwig gave a nod and began to do so beside the Destroyer-Escort, the shipgirl's mind went back several weeks earlier...

*******

Feeling the tap on the shoulder, Amick looked over at Sammy B, "Yeah, Sammy? What's going on?"

Just smiling, the "Destroyer-Escort who fought like a Battleship" jerked her thumb towards the door, "There's someone here to see you." At the confused look, Sammy B shook her head, "Johnston sent her over here because she's looking for a martial arts teacher specializing in kicks. So Johnston suggested you."

At hearing that, Amick sighed a bit, but still stood, "Fine, let's go see what she wants... though what can you tell me, Sammy?"

Her fellow Destroyer-Escort gave her a small smile, "Well... you might have trouble believing this, but remember Hedwig, Harry's owl?" Getting a nod, Sammy continued, "He did some sort of magic ritual thingy and made her his familiar. Which lets her take human form."

One second passed and then another as Amick digested that. Finally, she gave Sammy a look of pure confusion, "Wait, wait, wait... say what now? Harry did what? And his owl can do what now?"

Utterly amused at the reaction, Sammy shrugged, "Harry did a ritual which let's his owl take human form. Weird, but cool."

Needless to say that she was more than a little certain that she was being put on. Just the same, Amick walked to the door and opened it. On the other side was a young woman who had golden eyes and either black hair with white speckles or white hair with black speckles. However, Amick took note of something else.

Mainly that the young woman in front of her had barely any body fat on her and was mostly toned muscle.

Before she could continue her examination, the woman blinked and looked down at her before speaking in an accent that one of Amick's crew recognized as being Welsh, "You're the one named Amick?"

Frowning, Amick gave a small nod, "DE-168, Amick at your service. How can I help?" Internally, she waited as she knew what would come next, 'Here it comes...'

Hedwig blinked a bit before nodding and bowing slightly, "My name is Hedwig Potter and... I wish to learn from you the martial art known as Sikaran."

Eyebrows raising, the shipgirl noted that there was nothing but respect and curiosity as well as hidden hope that was in the golden eyes looking at her. No derision or dismay as she was expecting and had gotten before. After all, looking like a young teenage girl, more than a few of the adults she had met and talked to about martial arts would be dismissive of her due to her apparent youth. But this young woman, owl or not...

Moving aside, Amick gestured for Hedwig to come inside.

Once they were inside, the shipgirl motioned the transformed owl to the couch before heading to the fridge and opening it, "Anything in particular that you want to drink, Miss Hedwig?"

Rather amused, Hedwig chuckled, "Just Hedwig, please. And also a cola, if you have one."

Grabbing a can, Amick nodded before tossing it to Hedwig, who caught it in midair easily, 'Hmm... very good hand to eye coordination.' As she sat down, she gave the other female a raised eyebrow, "Are you really Harry's owl?"

Not saying anything as she popped the tab, she only spread wings that appeared on her back, "I'm not sure." Head tilted to the side, Hedwig smirked a bit at the shocked look as she flapped her wings some, "But perhaps if that is what they say."

Simply giving her a look, Amick snorted, "Well, that answered my question." Taking a sip of her drink, she gave Hedwig her full attention, "If I may ask, why do you want to learn from me?"

Much to her bemusement, Hedwig seemed confused by her question, "Why do I want to learn how to fight from you?"

With a slow nod, the shipgirl set down her drink, "Yeah, why do you want to learn from me. Some people seem to think that they can learn cool shit with Sikaran, like from some Shonen magazine. Others? They figure that they can impress people since it is not a common martial art." Eyes narrowing, she fixed the familiar with a look that was evenly met, "Why do you want to learn?"

For almost a minute, Hedwig was silent. Then, she set her own drink down and looked Amick in the eye, "My Master, Harry, has taken good care of me. But now with how I am, I can finally protect him as I have wished. To fight alongside him if needed, something that would have been hard, if not impossible, before. And there are..." A far off look came over her face before her expression hardened, "There are other reasons that are private."

While curious about those reasons, Amick simply let it lie and nodded her head, "I see. But there are other martial artists that you could have asked. Inazuma-San or Ikazuchi-San are quite accomplished at Aikido, for example and are currently teaching your Master. Sergeant Mathewson is an a very good boxer. Fubuki-San is good at Karate and Judo as another example. So... why me?"

It seemed that the question caught Hedwig off guard as she blinked for a moment or two, "Why you?"

Humming, the shipgirl leaned forward, "Yes, why me?"

Rather than answer right away, Hedwig instead gathered her thoughts together. Finally, she looked up and met Amick's gaze, "I am an owl, despite looking like a human. When us owls fight, when we kill, we do not use our wings to do so. We use our feet, our talons." Holding out a hand, she continued, "At times we may beat our wings over something, but we prefer not to for that could injure them, stop us from flying. Which would mean our deaths." Turning back, the owl continued, "I have tried to learn how to 'Throw a punch', but it does not feel right to me. Kicking does, and I asked around and was told by Johnston that you are good at such and can teach how."

Amick considered what she had just been told and what she might do. She could not deny the fact that she was a pleased by the fact that Johnston recommended her, because she was very pleased. It spoke of a lot of acknowledgement from the Destroyer. Every so often, Amick took a sip of her drink as she thought it over.

Finally, she gave a nod to Hedwig, "Very well, you have yourself a deal." Reaching across the table, the two shook hands, "Just understand that this is not an formal thing, my crew members who know it were taught by their parents, relatives, and elders in their villages."

Just shrugging, Hedwig blinked, "That does not matter as that was how such things were taught before."

Eyebrow raised, the shipgirl simply nodded in agreement.

*********

Having finished their cool down exercises, Amick and Hedwig stood up. The shipgirl took their cans and crushed them between her hands before eating them. After all, they were made of steel and a growing shipgirl needed such in her diet!

Stretching, she nodded towards the nearby showers, "Let's hit the showers before anything else. I want to get all the sweat off me."

With a scoff, Hedwig gave her a look, "What sweat? You beat me without breaking one."

Lips curling into a smirk, Amick chuckled, "Your sweat, of course. I got it all over me during our lesson. Don't want to come out of here smelling of sweaty owl after all."

Rolling her eyes, the Familiar gave a huff. Minutes later as they entered the showers, Hedwig glanced at Amick, "So how well have I done?"

With a hum, Amick gave the other woman a nod after looking at her, "You've done pretty well actually and have all the basics down pat. Not too surprising as we've been doing this about three times a week minimum for a few hours. Which means, of course, we can move on and I can start you on some other stuff. But all told? I'm happy with how you've done and looking forward to teaching you more."

Understanding what was meant, Hedwig only smiled and nodded as she was proud of herself. Not just for learning it, though that was part of it. But also because of what it meant.

That no longer would she be as helpless as she was to help and protect those she cared for.

 

[darthcourt10]

Yellowhammer

A Butterknife Mountie Deals With Loose Ends

Castle Moulbaix, Belgium

Wei Ying stepped out of the Vanishing Cabinet connecting Colombe's ancestral house to the de Breuil estate in upstate New York, and from there to Grandfather Norimune's farm in Japan. One hand protectively clutched the oversized purse that she had slung over her shoulder.

She shook her head as she walked out of the room containing the covert transport system into the hall. While she was not unfamiliar with undercover and covert operations in her career as an ICW Auror and a Royal Canadian Magical Mounted Police Officer, this kind of secrecy was one for the record books. Her lips quirked as she thought about her plan to clear her father Colombe's legal troubles by working the system of the ICW and arranging for charges to be plead down and dropped in advance. Which would start as soon as Colombe was able to get around without needing a wheelchair.

Her smile at the irony of the covert way she was insuring true justice was served widened as she saw the frame of a massive African axe tsukumogami coming down the stairs with a large trunk on one shoulder. "Hello Kasuyu, have you seen Colombe? Oh, and where is everyone else?" She said warmly.

The axe gave her a nod. "The Mistress is in the library along with Toku. Miho is assisting me in moving furnishings down from the attic to prepare your room here at the castle. The children are in the ballroom being watched by Claire, and Ehren is in London on business."

Ying blinked, "I... see. Thank you very much, Kasuyu. Where is the library?"

Faintly a series of piano notes rocketing up and down in an intricate melody resounded from downstairs and the axe grimaced.
Spoiler: Claire's Worried

"Down the hall that way to the corner. Take the door on your right into the tower room. The Mistress will either be there or down the stairs in the lower library." He then rumbled a sigh. "Claire is... troubled. Ehren had to be deputized to tend to business that could not wait in London, and is on her own for the first time. The two have been together since the day Ehren manifested and Claire prefers not to leave Moulbaix save to shop."

Ying stood on her tiptoes to squeeze Kasuyu's shoulder. "I understand. It is hard the first time close siblings must separate. For both sisters, especially when they build their lives around each other. After I speak to Mother, I shall seek out Claire and provide her company. Thank you for looking after my Younger Sisters."

The axe looked relieved at her words. He gave a sharp nod and a brief smile before responding in his deep smooth bass voice. "You are most welcome." He gave a deep laugh before continuing. "Looking after the Mistress has often been enough to make one lose his hair. Between the Mistress' habit of getting into trouble and her wonderful children's quirks, it is a miracle that I have any hair left!"

With that he shook his totally bald head as Ying chuckled and then shook her head at the joke with a wry smile. "Indeed. Perhaps after I speak to Father, I shall hunt you down and we can tell each other about particularly hair-raising stories over lunch. Still, we each have our duties to do."

With that Ying headed down the hall in the opposite direction from Kasuyu to the indicated library door.

Opening it, her eyes widened.

The octagonal room was filled with books on their shelves, alternating with scroll racks. Across from her on the far wall, a 17th century Flemish painting showing Minerva, the Roman goddess of Wisdom and the Nine Muses of classical art, science, and literature dominated the far wall.
Spoiler: Minerva and the Muses

From somewhere under her feet came the murmur of voices, and she threaded her way through the bookshelves, noticing how they were enchanted with protection and preservation spells for the contents before reaching the indicated stairs against the far wall

As she descended, she noticed with interest that there was a groove at waist height cut into the stone and inlaid with bronze teeth paralleling the stairs. I wonder what that is for? she asked herself. The answer appeared at the bottom of the stairs where a wood and leather chair with a hand crank for a gear that fit in the slot to move it up and down the steps rested at the end of the groove.
Spoiler: A du Chasteler Mystery

As Ying reached the chair and stepped off the stairs, Colombe looked up from the antique desk she was seated at where she was surveying old papers. Two paintings, with one being a portrait of a young blond haired man while the second was a nude of a beautiful young woman, were propped up nearby against a bookshelf. Past Colombe, Tokunotakai's head popped up from a corner where the Masamune had been looking through the contents of an envelope that she had pulled from a floor-to-ceiling grid of pigeonholes. with envelopes of various shapes and sizes stuffed in them.

"Bonjour Ying! I trust that you are well." Colombe smiled and pushed her wheelchair back from the desk with her good arm.

"Quite well, Father," the dao responded as she walked over. "What are you doing?"

Toku wandered over curiously with a manila folder in her hands as Colombe responded. "Investigating a minor family mystery."

Ying's eyebrows raised. "You do not say?" she asked with clear curiosity in her voice after she hugged Colombe.

"Hai." Toku responded as she handed the manila envelope to Colombe. "Jacklyn-san found those paintings of Co-chan's grandnephew and the mystery woman up in a locked chest in the attic."

Colombe nodded and flipped through the old letters inside the large envelope. "Oui. The young man is my grandnephew Raoul, Hippolyte's older brother, who died unexpectedly of violence while on business in Paris in July 1854." She scowled murderously, "I suspect that Hippolyte had something to do with it, I know that Hippolyte killed his parents by Dark Magic during a cholera epidemic in 1863."

Ying frowned and spoke with some disgust in her voice, "Delilah told me about him, a little, she called him an absolute monster. Which matches with what I read about him from the ICW's investigation of his murder."

Toku's eyes flashed and she spoke with steel-deep loathing. "Indeed so. He was sufficiently powerful and steeped in hatred that after Co-chan killed him in 1899 that his spirit manifested as an onryō. That festered in his old office and haunted Co-chan until I was able to deal with his grudge a month ago. Trust me when I say that the man was a monster and the world is a far better place now that he is gone." She hugged Colombe around the shoulders from behind and laced her fingers with those of the Rapier's free hand.

Ying blinked and spoke slowly, "That is a Japanese term for... vengeful ghost, yes? I do not know much more about them, to be honest. My experiences with the supernatural were predominantly with those native to Canada such as sasquach, loup-garou, and wendigo along with a few creatures from China."

Toku nodded. "It is. As a miko of Hachiman-dono, I was called upon to perform exorcisms and act as an intermediary with various spirits and ghosts during my time in the shrine. An onryō is formed when someone has sufficient malice and grudges to linger to seek vengeance upon the living. They are quite dangerous."

"I see. So, perhaps I can help with the mystery. What do we know?" Ying asked.

"Very little," Colombe responded, "I found a letter from Raoul to his father Julien Visart de Bocarmé dated April 3rd 1854 where he announced that he had met 'a wonderful and gay young lady working as an artist's model for Msr. Gustave Courbet' when he came by to commission the portrait which we had. From my experiences in France several decades before and afterward, Christine might have in addition been a femmes galantes or lorette who also offered more intimate services than merely showing her figure off for an artist. Certainly Raoul commissioned the painting that we have of her from Courbet before his death in July 1854, he was supposed to return to Paris and pay for the artwork that he had commissioned then. Courbet was a Realist, so this would have represented exactly what they looked like at the time of the painting."

Ying looked at the portrait closely and analytically. "The young lady is a Veela, is she not?"

Colombe nodded, "I think so. She certainly has the look of one and a community of Veela migrated from their natural Bulgaria to France during the Roman Empire. Papa hinted the French Malfoys may have had Veela blood in them, hence our blonde hair." She frowned as she continued with banked anger in her voice, "as you may guess, they were popular concubines, mistresses, and 'house servants' for wizards for centuries."

Colombe took a deep breath and spoke in a hushed voice. "I can personally attest that they existed in France a century before the painting was made. My wand's core was Veela hair, and there was a local businessman who supplied Veela 'entertainers' for the students and staff of Beauxbatons." She closed her eyes and breathed deeply before continuing, "to my shame, I made use of his services on several occasions before I was expelled in 1724. I thought little of it then, save that it was my god-given right as an aristo to satiate my lusts with some of the 'gay young ladies' who were made available for my pleasure. Now, I know far better."

Ying spoke quietly, "We all make mistakes, Father. When we have privacy, I shall tell you of Hong Kong and my own great shame. I... spoke to Grandfather Norimune while in Japan yesterday. She, Great-Aunt Umitsubame, and Delilah all recommended that I tell you of that part of my past." The dao turned to the Masamune, "as well, I owe you an apology, Tokunotakai. My experiences during World War Two soured me on Japan and the Japanese, but I am led to believe by Delilah that you were innocent of the actions of your countrymen in China then. I shall try to not hold my prejudices against you."

Toku spoke with controlled tears in her voice, "I tried to stop my nation's slide into madness back then. I failed, and the shame of the failure is mine to bear. The Pacific War was very hard on my family, especially Fudo-nee. The young man that she loved dearly, and who was one of my greatest pupils in the art of the sword, fell in defense of Saipan leading his men in a charge. That is why she does what she does, she wishes to protect me from the pain that she endures from his memory."

Ying hesitantly hugged Toku as Colombe squeezed her hand gently. "That is understandable. Mother and I both miss my stepfather greatly. He was a very good man and treated me the same as my half-brothers and sisters despite being not just the child of another, but not pure-blood Chinese. Which brings me to one of the reasons for my visit."

Ying looked at Colombe. "I...." Her voice broke and she took a deep breath. "I hunted you down in large part to clear your name and right a grave injustice but also.... Father. I want you to speak to Mother. While she has told me repeatedly that what you had with her is long over and done with, I wish to at least have my parents be friends and not strangers."

Colombe tensed and took several deep breaths. She then turned her head to look into Toku's eyes. The Masamune gave her a small approving smile and a nod before kissing her on the lips. "I shall let Claire know that her big sister has arrived, Co-chan." she spoke serenely.

Colombe whispered "Thank you, To-chan" and then visibly braced herself before nodding to Ying.

Ying reached into her purse and pulled out two embroidered red silk bags, pulling the bronze dragon holder for her crystal ball from the first one, and then the fist-sized cloudy crystal ball from the second. She slotted them together and took a deep breath, visibly tensing as she sketched ideographs on the surface.

The ball clouded and then cleared to reveal a mature Chinese woman's face with a certain ageless mature beauty that the hints of silver in her midnight black hair merely accented. "Daughter, this is unexpected."

Ying smiled smugly. "Amah, as I said when I left you, A Mountie Always Gets Her Person. I did it!"

She stepped aside to allow Mei Yüying to see the nervous face of Colombe du Chasteler.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

It was still early in the morning and the school was quiet as Ellen Baker sat at her desk sipping her coffee and enjoying the silence. Soon enough, for the English teacher, it would end and she would have a class of noisy children. Not that she ever minded much, she threw herself into teaching and nothing made her feel better than to see smiling faces and such as she helped them through their problems. And the fact that she was one of the most liked teachers in the school also helped.

Not that she kept her teaching duties to just the school, either, as she helped teach various shipgirls as well as they were summoned afterschool. It was a small way that she helped out the war effort, and she was proud of it. And it was far better than coming home to an cold and empty, silent apartment-

Quickly, she shook off those thoughts and sighed as she looked at the Red Sox calendar on her desk. Placing the tablet that she was reading the news on, in particular her favorite team, she stared at the calendar silently. In particular, one date that was circled before sighing to herself as she felt the old, familiar ache in her heart before looking at the photograph on her desk, 'I miss you.'

Ellen was brought out of her melancholy thoughts as the door to her classroom opened and a head of messy hair poked in with another head of white hair below that one did much the same. Chuckling, she turned away from the photograph, "Harry, Hoppou, what are you doing here?" She then motioned at them, "Come in, come in you two."

Walking in, Harry had a smile on his face as he gave a small wave, "Good morning, Ms. Baker." He held up his hand to reveal the folder there, "I thought that I would drop off my schoolwork." The thirteen year old then looked down at Hoppou and chuckled, "And that I might as well drop my little sister off at school while I was at it."

Bemused, the English teacher took it and chuckled, "Well, at least you do it on time and it is good that you're willing to transport your little sister." Eyebrow raised, she gave him an inquiring look, "Though I do wonder why you are doing both the curriculum here and also at your school. That is rather odd after all."

Just shrugging, Harry shook his head, "There's reasons for it."

If anything, Ellen's eyebrow raised still further, "I'm sure." Opening the folder, she began to look through it, flipping the pages with a practiced eye, "Hmm...'" Hoppou's voice though caused the teacher to look up, "Sorry, Hoppou, what was that?"

Eyebrows furrowing, Hoppou placed her hands on the teacher's desk with a concerned frown, "Hoppou is wondering if Ms. Baker is okay? Because Ms. Baker feels and smells sad."

For several moments, the teacher did not say anything before looking at the photograph, "Just... thinking about some regrets and sadness. That is all..." Running a hand through her hair, she shook her head even as tears prickled at the corner of her eyes, "That's all..."

Glancing at the picture, which showed a younger Ellen alongside a Japanese man and two ten year olds, Harry slowly nodded, "Your children..."

Only taking a deep breath, Ellen released it, "That's right. Hard to believe that it has been several years since..." Gently, she picked up the picture and her a broken hearted smile on her face, "I met their father in Junior High, Ken's father had been transferred to the States to work at a Branch Office. We started working, me helping Ken with his English and him teaching me Japanese as a sort of... exchange, I suppose. I was fourteen when the two of us began to date. Two teenage sweethearts, you know?" Her gaze was far off, "When we were fifteen, nearly sixteen, we went to this party. Our parents dropped us off and talked with my friend's father who was there, so it was not like the whole thing was not being supervised... but then, he got a call from work and took off, leaving a bunch of teens alone and unsupervised."

Just wincing, Harry shook his head as he knew some of this, "Not a great idea..."

Chuckling, the teacher grinned wryly, "No, not a good idea. One of the Jocks at the local high school who were there left and came back with alcohol that he used to spike the punch without the rest of us knowing because he thought it would be funny." Ellen gave a small shrug, "Neither Ken or I remember much of the night, but... our parents were pissed. But not at us, but at the jock and my friend's dad. Nine months later, our little Eric and Samantha were born." Giving them a look, she smiled, "I chose their names as we weren't sure what would happen due to being teens, and likely would stay with me in any case." Shrugging, Ellen sighed a bit, "But... we stayed together, and Ken and I got married when we were eighteen before I continued my education to be a teacher. Both of us moved to Japan when I was twenty two with me as an English teacher and him following his father into the same company."

Quiet descended on them as Hoppou looked at the picture of a happy family, "But... you lost them."

Tears in her eyes, Ellen sniffled a bit, "Yeah, I did... when we came to Japan, the two of them made friends with another young girl, Sora Tsukuda." A chuckle escaped from her as she wiped her eyes, "Eric and Sora were two of a kind and you could tell she had a massive crush on him... and he had one on her. I would not have minded if they..." Shaking her head, the teacher sighed, "We were on a trip in the Izu Islands and they were about twelve and wanted to see Tori-Shima. It was just a short sightseeing trip, so Ken and I as well as Sora's parents let them... we didn't know that it was the first day of Blood Week. Two days later, I woke up in the hospital here in Yokosuka with Sora's parents missing. All Ken and I could remember was the shells falling and Sora's parents pushing us along. And swirling fire... I don't know. But... we've never seen our children since despite us searching." With another deep breath, she gave them both a brittle, heartbroken smile as tears dripped down her cheeks, "We miss them, so very much. I'm just glad that Ken is alive still, though often working hard, which I understand."

Reaching up, Hoppou gently patted her hand, "Hoppou... Hoppou can understand where Ms. Baker is coming from." There was a forlorn look on the Abyssal's face, "Hoppou lost many of her own daughters... and Hoppou is sorry that Abyssals like her hurt Ms. Baker by killing her children."

A hand on her shoulder made Hoppou look up to find the teacher looking at her, "No, not like Hoppou." She pulled the smaller being into a hug, "Not like you at all, Hoppou. Don't ever think that." Pulling back, Ellen patted Hoppou's head, "And yes, I know that you can understand, Hoppou. As strange as it may be to me, I know that you understand, so thank you. But while I miss them, it is an old pain. A wound that will never heal, but... I am not so sad anymore." Turning to the calendar, she sighed a bit, "It just hurts a bit more since their birthday is in a few weeks. That's all."

Both Harry and his adoptive little sister gave their teacher a hug, which she appreciated.

It took a few minutes, but Ellen pulled herself back together before clearing her throat as she looked through the folder open in front of her, "Anyways, Harry? Your work as always is impeccable from what I can see, though I'll grade it later. But I'm sure that there's nothing wrong with it."

Harry just nodded and after chatting a few more minutes, they left. As they walked along though, the thirteen year old noted that Hoppou had a frown on her face, "Something wrong, Hoppou?"

Glancing up at him, Hoppou placed her hand against her chest, "Hoppou did not know about Ms. Baker's children. And now... Hoppou is sad." She looked back up at him, "Hoppou likes Ms. Baker, she's a fun teacher for Hoppou and friends, and funny when talking about baseball. She helps everyone... but Hoppou wonders..."

Understanding what was not said, though asked, the wizard sighed as he lowered his voice, "People react to grief in different ways, Hoppou. Ms. Baker? She's thrown herself into her work, to make all of smile and to help us out, because for her that helps with the pain." Harry paused for a moment before chewing his lip, "There... was a field trip a few years back, before I went to Hogwarts. We were at this park when an Abyssal cultist tried to attack us, maybe because I was adopted by Mum or something, I don't know. But Ms. Baker? She's protective of her students and cares for them. Even though he had stabbed her, she picked up this big ol' stick that was on the ground when he threw her aside before getting up and swinging it. Smashed his hand and the knife he had before she gave him a whack to the chest, send him to the ground, following it up with cracking him in the head."

Eyebrows furrowing, the Abyssal considered that before frowning, "Hoppou remembers that one of Hoppou's classmates were having trouble with their Daddy. Ms. Baker saw that and helped them, though Hoppou doesn't know how. But... Hoppou now understands why."

Hands in his pocket, Harry just nodded, "Yeah... when I learned of what happened, I understood it as well." Shaking his head, he gave a chuckle and ruffled Hoppou's hair before motioning her on, "Anyways, we should get you to class so that you can have some time to talk with Rei-Chan and Asuka-Chan."

At that, Hoppou's expression brightened and she nodded, "Hoppou can't wait! Oh! Big Brother, Hoppou is working with Rei-Chan and Asuka-Chan on this project..."

 

[darthcourt10]

Savato93

She stood at the edge of the shore, the ocean waves lapping at her ankles. In front of her, beneath the surface of the water was a reef, where a school of fish idly swam about, minding their business. All the while, they had no idea someone was eyeing them as a potential dinner.

Taking up her position, poised to strike, she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Then, a flicker of motion—

A sharpened iron rod stabbed into the water so fast that it appeared as just a blur to the naked eye… missing its intended target by a fraction of an inch.

The Tsu-class growled in annoyance. She'd been at this for nearly an hour now, with nothing to show for it. The fish were simply being unreasonably erratic today… why couldn't they just hold still for a little bit longer? Sighing, she yanked on the line in her hand; the iron spear shot out of the water and sailed back to her, letting her catch it in her other hand.

The Tsu-class glanced to her throwing arm—once a massive armored gauntlet bristling with dual-purpose five-inch guns, stripped down to (relatively) brittle metallic bones bound up in cloth wrappings. Not that she had much of a choice in the matter—either she broke down some of her armaments, use their parts to shore up the rest and keep them operational, or she let everything fail and end up completely defenseless. She didn't like to think about it, but sacrificing her armor had actually made fishing more consistent… now that she wasn't having to fling so much of her own mass around with each throw, she could aim much more accurately.

Of course, there were times that even skill and precision just weren't enough to get the job done.

Jamming the business end of her spear into the sand at her feet, the Tsu-class let herself slump to the ground. The motion caused her helmet to jostle loose, rocking slightly over her skull. With a huff of annoyance, she reached up and gripped the dented, worn metal and peeled it off—minding the cable feeding into the base of her skull—letting her wiry grey hair fall out over her shoulders and down her back. She knew it was pretty much pointless for her to hold on to the thing; the seals that kept it secured to her head had failed long ago, drastically reducing its protective qualities.

But she just didn't want to give up the last thing she had, that reminded her of Mother.

Her chest grew heavy as she peered into the inside of her helmet. There, etched into the steel, was a simple message:

Please don't lose this one, Hatsumo. I don't want you to get hurt.
Hoppou <3


She's once taken off her helmet, to prove to some speculative crabfishers that she had a face—only for a particularly large wave to rock the boat they had all been standing on, causing it to fall out of her big, clumsy hands and into the water, where it sank like a stone. To her surprise Mother took it fairly well when she explained what had happened, and whipped up a new one for her in a couple of hours, even leaving her a little inscription as a reminder to keep it close. Now, years later, it was the only memento of her past life that she had left.

Hatsumo… once upon a time, that had been her name. But not anymore. She didn't deserve to keep her name, after what she'd done. She was a coward—she surrendered herself to her traitorous kin, became their willing slave, rather than standing with her sisters in defense of the home they shared with the humans. Although in the end, her sister saved her from her masters, protected her… a small part of her wished she had simply been sunk instead.

Sensing a familiar IFF approaching, the Tsu-class gazed up to the distant ocean. For several minutes she watched, waited for the approaching Abyssal to rise over the horizon… and when her sister came into view, she grimaced. Her portside flank was a mess, with several wide holes blown into her armor belt—looked like 16-inch shells, fired point blank. In the past, the Tsu-class likely would have freaked out at the sight of her injured sister, rushed to her side to try and tend to her wounds in whatever way she could think of… but now, it registered about as much shock and concern for her as a broken nose. Painful and unsightly, but she'd live.

After all, her sister Tampa had bounced back from much worse.

The Tsu-class rose to her feet. "What happened?" She asked simply, holding up her gauntleted arm to help catch Tampa as she staggered from sea onto land.

The patchwork Demon took several seconds to catch her breath, teeth grit in pain, before finally speaking. "Mother…" she gasped.

The Tsu-class blinked. "What? What about Mother…?"

Slowly, Tampa picked up her head and looked her sister in the eyes. There was something in her gaze, something that the Tsu-class had thought was gone forever:

Hope.

"Felt… Mother's heart. She is alive."

XXXXXXXXXX

"She did what!?"

Hoppou shook her head. "She had her XO disembark to run errands for her while she was with Hoppou," she intoned. "Having no idea what effect that has on her."

Beside the small Princess, the Re-class in question tilted her head. "I don't see what the big deal is. It's not like I'm messed up in any way… my brain feels fine, my motor skills are unaffected."

"Without your XO, you stop thinking about taking care of yourself," Tanith explained. "You'll take note of things happening with your body, but you won't act on any of it unless someone else tells you to."

Hearing the door creak, the three glanced to the palace entrance to see a manifested imp approaching. As he got close to the three, he dissipated into smoke, which coalesced into a miniature version of himself in Regalia's outstretched hand.

And the moment the imp vanished into her hull, Regalia's eyes went wide and she brought her hands to her gut. "Oh god I suddenly feel so hungry I need something to eat right now and the base of my tail is itching and my leg feels funny after sitting cross-legged for three hours and…"

Watching her daughter race off towards the town, rattling off various things she was only now realizing she felt, Tanith sighed. "Sorry, Mother. I was the one who suggested she leave a team to observe restoration efforts while she went elsewhere."

Hoppou shrugged. "It's okay. Just a beginner's mistake… now she'll know not to send away the officer who keeps her running properly."

At that point, the pair heard two new voices approaching.

"You think I'll fit through the Panama Canal? Or will I have to walk around it like you?"

"Well, your beam is 33 meters. Given the canal's locks are 34 meters wide… I'd give it a very big Maybe. If you could manage it, you'd make an even tighter fit than the Iowas."

Tanith and Hoppou turned and saw Sunny and Nuri walking in from the direction of the nursery, absorbed in some discussion. Nuri was carrying two boxes of files, one under each arm; one of them looked to be the box of prospective repair ship designs offered to them by their Atlantic counterparts, while the other simply read "Mi-class".

"Hey, what are you two up to?" Tanith asked.

The two girls looked up, their faces lighting up in pleasant surprise on seeing Hoppou standing there. "Oh, hey Mom, hey sis!" Sunny greeted them with a smile. "The two of us were just preparing to head out to the town, chat with our siblings."

Hoppou tilted her head. "About what?"

In response, Nuri hefted the two boxes in her arms. "Now that the Mi-class is complete, and Millie has passed her trials with flying colors, I figured it's time for us to pass on our finished work to the Atlantic Princess. The two of us were going to town to assemble an escort fleet."

"I see." Tanith nodded. "Well, I appreciate you giving me advance notice. It would've been… agitating, to have you and a dozen others just vanish without a word. I wish you two luck on your trip."

Hoppou slipped over to Sunny and Nuri, giving each of her daughters a quick hug in turn. "Hoppou wishes you luck, as well. You all be careful, okay?"

The sisters giggled softly. "You got it, Mom. We'll make sure everyone comes back home in one piece."

 

[darthcourt10]

MagisterAurelius

Ship of Fools XI: Can You Hear The Ship-Girls Bling?♪

The dining room at Claude Bosi's, downtown London

Draco traded confused looks between the credit card in his hand, his mother, and the door his father had just walked through. He then grew even more puzzled as all three of his girlfriends smiled and seemed to agree to something but only said the name 'Harrods' out loud.

"Mother, I know Father has been trying to teach me about how things are handled on," he paused before continuing, "this side of things, but he never mentioned how this card works." He looked to his mother expectantly, and to his relief she smiled.

Narcissa reached up, removed the long hair pin from her braided bun, and gestured with it as she replied to Draco. He realized that she had disguised her wand beforehand and had been wearing it in her hair since this morning, and that she was now casting privacy charms.

"When we are finished with our meal, the waiter will bring the bill. Just give him the card and they will take it to their register, and then will return it and a receipt for you to sign. And that's it." Narcissa then leaned forward and her eyes gleamed. "You will have plenty of practice with this when we start to seriously shop at Harrods."

The main course arrived and conversation between the girls and Narcissa turned to what to look at first upon arrival. Draco tried to follow the conversation but all he managed to follow seemed to be a string of French and Italian sounding names with the odd English or maybe American name thrown in. His newfound cousin seemed to notice his growing befuddlement.

Ehren took a bite of her Galician beef filet, took a moment to savor the taste as she chewed the delicate morsel, but threw Draco a lifeline after she had swallowed. "Do not fret so cousin, all you have to worry about is having the strength to carry all the bags und packages."

"It's just that Father said to make sure to entertain the ladies. How would anyone find that entertaining?"

"You will be fine Liebste, just telling us how an outfit looks on us is more than enough." Niobe's eyes glittered as she took a bite of her Cod a la Grenobloise.

Draco frowned as he speared a piece of his own fish on the fork. "I still don't understand. You three are ship-girls. You would look beautiful in a gunnysack." As he brought the bite to his mouth, he missed the blushing expressions of Johnston, Niobe and Cleopatra.

"Gaah. Four years to go." Johnston rubbed her forehead. "Draco, honey, you aren't making things easy for me when you say stuff like that."

Narcissa smiled and poured napalm on the fire. "Johnston dear, Draco turns fourteen in June, so only three more years to wait." After this, the dessert course arrived. After the ice cream and honey madeleines were quickly consumed and lunch paid for, the group got into the limo and headed off to Harrods.

During the limo ride, conversation turned to Draco's spring break from Hogwarts and his plans. When asked by Johnston what Washington was doing instead of coming along, Draco replied to the destroyer.

"I have a tutor coming over the summer to help me learn to master wandless magic, so things are going to be hectic and busy. So Washington is taking spring break to visit Ostfriesland in Germany."

Cleopatra pursed her lips in thought, "I was hoping you would come out to Brighton Beach with me this summer Muffin. How can you be that busy all of a sudden? I really wanted to go swimming with you in the swimsuit that I'll be buying today." Cleo batted her eyes at Draco.

"Oh don't worry Cleo, Draco will have time to spend with all three of you over the summer. Washington may have other matters coming up however, but since you're all ship-girls she is comfortable leaving his safety with you." Narcissa smiled and looked out the window. "Ah we're almost there. I suggest we start at the sixth floor and shop our way down."

-0-

Harrods Sixth Floor – Salon de Parfums

Draco was impressed at his first sight of Harrods and once inside he began to comprehend just how seriously the muggle world treated the shopping experience. It was if all the shops in Diagon Alley and good chunk of Knockturn Alley as well had been stuffed and stacked into a city blockwide building six stories high. He soon found himself off to the side watching as his mother, cousin and girlfriends all giggled and sampled the various perfumes, sprays and other scented things. To be honest to himself, Draco's olfactory sense was feeling overwhelmed at the combination of the myriad tinctures. Luckily for him, the girls made rather quick decisions regarding perfumes and then it was off to the next floor down.

-0-

Running tally of purchases:

Lucius's card

Johnston, Cleo, Niobe : 3 bottles of Chanel No5 = $300

Narcissa : (for Draco) 1 bottle of Bvlgari Aqua Pour Homme cologne = $90

Colombe's card

Ehren : (gifts for Narcissa, Claire, Colombe, Toku, Miho, Jackie, Del, Ying) various perfumes = $1000

-0-

Harrods Fifth Floor – Harrods Shoe Heaven

The fifth floor, the Shoe Heaven of Harrods, would forever be one of those blurry moments in Draco's memory. His only recollections were of his mother and the rest of the girls trying on an endless parade of shoes and squeeing over brand names he honestly could not tell the difference between. In the end, only Ehren had neglected to purchase a pair of shoes.

-0-

Lucius's card

Johnston, Cleo, Niobe, Narcissa: 12 pairs of shoes (Gucci, Manolo Blahnik, Dolce & Gabbana) =$8400

Colombe's card

Ehren = 0

-0-

Harrods Fourth Floor – Young Men's Clothing

Draco managed to recover somewhat from the flurry of questions that had been asked of him the floor above. However, now Narcissa had decided he needed a new suit. One quick professional fitting later, Draco found himself standing before all the girls and his mother in a two piece Hugo Boss suit. He was unsure why, but those moments seemed as if he were a piece of delectable meat.

At least that was the impression he got from Johnston, as she was licking her lips as she stared at him. Cleo and Niobe were blushing, but kept their gazes locked on him. His mother simply smiled. Ehren actually stepped forward for a moment and straightened the lapels on the jacket by a minute amount, before she nodded and murmured "Alles ist Ordnung" as she stepped back. At any rate, once they had made the purchase of the suit, dress shirts and a pair of Oxfords they moved on to the toy section where Ehren had to make some purchases for some of her family's young wards. After which, it was on to the third floor.

-0-

Lucius's card

Narcissa : Hugo Boss suit, shirts, shoes for Draco = $600

Colombe's card

Ehren : 2 Steiff 80cm teddy bears for Miho's kids = $300

-0-

Harrods Third Floor – Linens, Gifts and Stationery

The group browsed the floor leisurely with only Narcissa and Ehren making some incidental purchases. Draco's mother bought some quality bed linens, while Ehren picked up a couple of music boxes for her sister Claire along with some fine stationery with a music motif. Mostly, it was a pleasant walk with conversation and best of all to Draco, ample opportunities for holding the hands of his girlfriends. Ehren had even opened up and regaled them with amusing stories of her sister learning to drive and the rodents of unusual size in the attic.

"Ah, I believe our home once had an infestation of those in the past. Lucius's father tolerated the things because he was amused by the sport they brought, but once I married Lucius I put my foot down and had them eradicated. I was not about to raise a family in a vermin ridden home after all." Narcissa looked at Ehren thoughtfully. "I could put you into contact with the exterminators we used. I believe they have branches on the Continent. The things make such a ghastly mess wherever they go, it would be a shame for them to spread throughout your home."

"Mutti has Castle Moulbaix warded well even though most of it is sealed off at the moment. Also, our maid and her children are quite adept at hunting them down in the attic." Ehren replied phlegmatically as Narcissa hummed.

"I'm surprised that your mother doesn't have any House Elves."

"I asked Mutti once, when I first heard about them. Mutti only said that she preferred to have paid house staff." Ehren shrugged. "That is all she told me. Perhaps they jog unpleasant memories for her." As they walked on Ehren turned the subject to music as they visited the stationery and gifts section. After making her purchases, Ehren rejoined the group and they took the escalator down to the first floor.

-0-

Lucius's card

Narcissa : linens = $150

Colombe's card

Ehren : 2 music boxes, 1 Mont Blanc pen, fine stationery = $1000

-0-

Harrods First Floor – Women's clothing and accessories, Fine Jewellery

If shoe shopping had been an ordeal for Draco, the first floor was his true introduction to Hell. The eyes of all the females with him blazed with the fires of acquisition and Draco found himself just a bit afraid as he followed them from one designer boutique to the next. The first test was the easiest. His mother and the ship-girls all purchased some form of Givenchy handbag or another.

-0-

Lucius's card

Ship-girls and Narcissa : 4 Givenchy handbags = $4500

-0-

The second test was far more taxing on his hormones. Draco found himself seated in a chair near several changing rooms as he waited for the girls to appear. His mother had only lightly laughed as Ehren and the ship-girls decided to try on new swimsuits. Before Ehren went to change, she looked at Draco and walked over to him.

"Cousin, I have a favor to ask of you and it is a matter of some secrecy."

"What do you need? I will keep it secret."

As Narcissa looked quizzically at her, Ehren began to subtly fret. "Das ist so umstāndlich," Ehren muttered before continuing, "you need to understand that when I change into a swimsuit that I am merely dressing my manifested avatar. There is nowhere I can keep my true body on my avatar wearing such. So please cousin Draco, I must entrust you to conceal my true form while I am changing."

Draco looked at Ehren and then to Narcissa who waved some privacy charms into being. Draco then asked, "What is your true form then?"

Ehren took the dagger from concealed holster in her sleeve and handled the SS Ehrendolch to Draco. At his widening eyes, she explained, "I am the manifested spirit of that weapon. My mother and father had a romantic affair in 1940. My father died early in the war, shortly after the Americans joined in fact. Mutti kept me as a reminder of him. But it is a subject that is best discussed somewhere more private than here."

Draco sat back down and slipped the Ehrendolch into his pocket. "A spirit of a weapon? Is that like that tea set of Potter's in any way? A tsukomogami or something like that?"

Ehren nodded. "Ja. Something similar but not quite the same." With that she went back to change.

Ehren was the first out to ask for an opinion on a simple black and grey two piece swimsuit that screamed efficiency. With positive reactions from Draco and Narcissa, Ehren nodded and went to change back. At which point all three of Draco's girlfriends came out at the same time.

Draco breathed deeply as he tried to keep his hormones in check. Keeping his ears from turning red and a blush invading his cheeks was more a losing battle however. Johnston had chosen a blue and black strapless bikini with matching bottom. Cleopatra went with an ivory one piece with cutouts along the sides. Niobe selected a bikini as well, but in a deep aqua color with white ruffles. As each girl smiled and asked his opinion, Draco carefully kept his hands in his lap and tried to keep his voice steady as he complimented each of them. Thankfully, the girls were happy enough with what he said that they had decided to purchase their selections, and the next ordeal could begin.

-0-

Lucius's card

Johnston, Niobe, Cleo : Swimwear = $500

Colombe's card

Ehren : Swimwear = $85

-0-

Niobe waited for Ehren to emerge from her changing stall. "You have somewhat to explain. I lasted long enough in the war to know just who got issued those daggers, Ehrendolch. Your vater was SS."

Ehren stood her ground and looked the protected cruiser in the eyes. "Vati was an honorable man who died early in the war. I don't think Mutti would have kept me as a reminder otherwise. Answer me this if you think I have anything to do with that ideology: What would a ship-girl do, if she came back with that regalia stamped or welded into her hull?"

Niobe's eyes widened a bit as she answered. "She'd take an angle grinder to it."

"I tried that. My avatar's eyes gave out before the protective enchantments that Mutti put on me did. That and the blood made the grinder too slippery to handle."

"Mein Gott! What on earth?"

"A short time after I first manifested, I looked up certain things on the Internet. And I saw what that symbol had come to represent."

Niobe looked at Ehren with a far softer gaze than before. "If you need someone to talk to about those sorts of things... remember that Wilhelmshaven isn't that far from Belgium. You can always stop by and there are lots of girls who would understand about that."

"Danke. I-I might sometime."

-0-

What followed for Draco was a whirlwind through the women's apparel section. Some of the shop assistants had noticed Draco's increasing befuddlement with amusement, bringing him a chair while he waited for the girls or his mother to finish trying on an outfit. While most of the outfits had become a blur to him as the girls changed in and out of different ones, there were a few that made an impression on Draco. The fact that they spiked his hormones really didn't make that much of a difference. The moment when Johnston and Niobe were seemingly competing for his attention definitely stuck in his mind. It was hard to choose as well. Johnston's off the shoulder crop top paired with a pair of tight denim hot pants had Draco cursing puberty with a vengeance. Then Niobe came out in a demure ensemble of a Gucci silk blouse with a bow and a zebra pattern pencil skirt that accentuated her curves with maximum concealment. Draco finally gave up and stopped even trying to judge, as he tried to find enough words to adequately compliment the girls.

Finally, various outfits had been tried on, judged and even his mother had selected three dresses. Suddenly Draco's presence was no longer required as he found himself sitting outside the lingerie and nightwear departments with Ehren. He took the opportunity to hand Ehren her true form back to her.

"Danke. You mentioned something about the Potter's tea seat. Do you know Harry Potter well then cousin?"

"Johnston is one of Potter's friends. Our respective Houses tend to not get along, and I did some things to leave him with a less than positive opinion of me."

"Ah. Time can correct things like that. Mutti had heard about the Dementor attack and wished to offer any aid she could to him, as she counted Ian and Lyra Potter among her closest friends."

Draco paused to think. "Well, good luck trying to find him in England. Most breaks he spends at home in Japan. That's where he'll probably be now." Draco's mind raced. He had no knowledge of an Ian or Lyra Potter being relatives of Harry Potter, at least recent relatives. But as he pondered how old Ehren's mother must be, his mother and his girlfriends came out to get him to pay for their purchases.

"Now comes for the truly wonderful place to shop girls," Narcissa announced grandly, "it's time to see some jewellery."

"Um.. Mother?" Draco interjected at this point after looking at the sales slip from the clothing. "Just how much can this card be charged for?"

Narcissa smiled sweetly at Draco. "Maybe we should find out then."

-0-

Colombe's card

Ehren : a pair of outfits for Ehren, Gucci Dragon polo shirt for Ying = $950


Lucius's card

Johnston : Burberry pencil skirt, Burberry silk shirt, crop top, hot pants, Alex McQueen wool gabardine dress, 5 matched pairs of lingerie = $4955

Niobe : Claudie Pierlot zebra pencil skirt, lace camisole top, Gucci silk blouse, Alex McQueen wool dress, lace up denim shorts, 5 matched pairs of lingerie = $4156

Cleo: Wolford faux leather pencil skirt, Wolford strapless top, Ralph Lauren silk blouse, Alex McQueen wool dress, 5 matched pairs of lingeries = $2656

Narcissa: 3 dresses (Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen, Eskandar cashmere), silk negligee and lingerie set = $5200

-0-

As they walked towards the Fine Jewellery room, Draco pleaded with his mother. "Mother, are you certain that Father will be okay with this?"

"Your father has gone shopping with me before Draco. He knows what to expect."

"Even though we're buying for more than just you, me and Father?"

Narcissa clapped her hands together. "That's right. We need to get Nimue something nice for her birthday. And we should get your father something as well. What is it Draco?" She looked down at Draco's exasperated expression.

"I thought that was a secret for now Mother." Draco winced as he realized that all three of the shipgirls and Ehren had overheard. Ehren's face remained even but Draco's girlfriends all looked at him expectantly.

Narcissa recovered from her lapse quickly and lowered her voice to the group. "I will tell you more in the car on the way home, what I can tell you is that she is not some girlfriend Draco has stashed away."

"You make it sound as if I have girls scattered about like loose change Mother."

"No matter! There lies our prey ladies. Gold and gems oh my." And with that battlecry the girls marched into the room.

-0-

Cleopatra had grabbed Draco's arm and held it as she looked at the various rings, bracelets, earrings and necklaces. Suddenly, her grip tightened and she drew a sharp breath.

"Oh that's so pretty!" She examined the Azza Fahmy precious stone necklace from several angles before turning her stunning blue eyes on Draco and batting them. "Muffin?"

Draco's eyes couldn't leave Cleo's as he handed the credit card in the direction of the clerk.

-0-

Next he found himself dragged away by Johnston and Niobe to the Tiffany and Co boutique. The girls looked at various pieces. Niobe then asked Draco to put the bangle she had asked to look at on her wrist for her. As he did, her eyes seemed to catch the sparkles from the diamonds in the gold bangle. She moved her lips in a wordless whisper that somehow Draco heard every word in his mind, "Darling would you please?"

Before he could make a motion to get the card out, Johnston came over to show him the pair of platinum anchor-shaped earrings she had found. "The diamonds are nice but look at these aquamarines in the bell of the anchor! D-Do you think they suit me Draco?" Johnston asked him nervously, and blushing.

"I think that you two are pretty without jewellery, but let's go ahead and get these then."

Draco found himself being hugged from both sides as he barely managed to hand the card to the clerk.

-0-

Ehren walked up to Draco as he prepared to shop with his mother, and handed him a box. "Here cousin, an early birthday present from myself and Mutti."

He opened up the box to look at Tag Heuer watch. "Thank you Ehren. I think it might be a better watch than Father has."

Ehren smiled, "You are welcommen. Narcissa, would you suggest what I might get for Lucius?"

"I would suggest a good bottle of brandy or whisky, I will be heading there myself once I'm finished with my shopping here."

"Das ist gut."

Draco thought for a moment, "Is there anything you want while we're here Ehren?"

Ehren looked at Draco, and gave a slight smile as she noticed the slight nod of agreement from Narcissa. "Very well. There was something I was looking at while shopping for the others back home..." Ehren walked over to a pair of Annoushka diamond and stud pearl earrings.

"Those?" Draco asked, and at the nod from his cousin he purchased two pairs. At Ehren's raised eyebrow, he handed one of the boxes to her. "For you. And this pair will go with a strand of pearls I saw over at the Tiffany counter."

Narcissa nodded. "A good choice." Once Draco had purchased the strand of Akoya pearls for Nimue, the group followed Narcissa to the Faberge counter. "And here is where beautiful things reside."

The sales assistant flashed Narcissa a gleaming smile. "Lady Malfoy! It's a pleasure to see you again! How can we help you today?"

Narcissa's grin was positively imperious as she sat on a viewing stool. "Impress me, Mr Ravenoff."

Over the next half hour Draco and the girls boggled at the sheer artisanship of each piece brought forward. Until one piece was laid on the soft velvet for Narcissa to view, the large nearly egg shaped opal pendant flashing its iridescence hues.

"I think that piece suits you Mother."

Narcissa beamed at Draco with approval. "You are right Draco. This is the best piece so far. And I believe that will probably be the only piece for today Mr Ravenoff. We have had a busy day shopping so far."

"Indeed Lady Malfoy, the Karenina Opal pendant is quite stunning in its simplicity." Mr Ravenoff began boxing up the pendant as Draco handed over the credit card.

As they left the Fine Jewellery room, Narcissa asked Draco for the card. After he handed it to his mother, she and Ehren left to the lower ground floor to the Wine and Spirits section. When they returned, Narcissa called for the limo to pick them up. "Who's up for a drive around London? That will give us plenty of time to talk about things before returning to the Savoy," Narcissa said.

-0-

Lucius's card

Johnston : Tiffany earrings with aquamarines and diamonds in platinum = $6500

Niobe: Tiffany Etoile gold bangle with diamonds = $5900

Cleo: Azza Fahmy yellow gold w/precious stones necklace = $18,162

Nimue: Tiffany 18 inch necklace of Akoya pearls, Annoushka pearl earrings = $3700

Ehren: Annoushka diamond and pearl earrings = $1450

Narcissa: Faberge Karenina Opal Pendant = $24,000

Lucius: 1 bottle of Chivas Regal Icon, 1 bottle of Tomatin 36 y/o single malt, 1 bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label King George V = $3280


Colombe's card

Draco: Tag Heuer watch = $2475

Toku: Akoya pearl necklace = $1500

Colombe : gold and pearl Dove of Peace earrings = $1500

Kasuyu : gold bracelet with raw diamonds = $1000

Miho: Tiffany bracelet with spider and raccoon charms = $750

Ying: Akoya pearl stud earrings = $500

Claire: Music note charm = $400

Lucius: Louis XIII brandy = $2800

Columbe: Louis XIII brandy, 2 bottles of Baron de Signognac brandy, Harrod's Indulgence Hamper, misc chocolates = $3300

-0-

At the Ministry of Magic – the office of Amelia Bones

Once more had Lucius Malfoy worked to prevent Dolores Umbridge from blowing Magical Britain sky high. Thank Merlin that Fudge is so incompetent he misplaced that damn proposal. A loyalty oath to the Ministry and Magical Britain on the Irish magicals' lives and magic? What could cause her to try something so stupid? Lucius knew that if word had gotten out, his own faction and supporters would be marching right beside the Irish in rebellion. Dolores had been intransigent at first, and not for the first time, Lucius was seriously considering having her eliminated. But for now, things had finally started to settle as he was commiserating with Bones, Arthur Weasley and Dame Longbottom. Dumbledore was present, but Lucius never considered conversation with Albus to ever be worth commiserating over.

"What is to be done about her?" Arthur Weasley was clearly at his wits' end with the toad.

"Any prophecies about accidents in the Ministry over the summer Dumbledore?" Lucius decided to try throwing a lure out, to see what fish may bite.

"I'm afraid not Lucius. Until she actually does something to warrant removal, we are better off knowing where she is and she is doing."

"Or when there is no longer a Statute to prevent the muggles from dealing with her." Arthur grimly replied.

Well now, Lucius thoughtfully considered Arthur Weasley again in his mind. I would have to careful, but perhaps Arthur could be more reasonable than I had previously thought. Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of his cellphone. He frowned as he pulled out the phone, not noticing the curiosity on the others' faces.

"Yes? This is Lucius Malfoy. Yes, I gave my son permission and authorization to use my card. Yes, and my wife as well. Yes, please put the account representative on the line."

The others were watching intently when Lucius suddenly shrieked and grabbed his chest.

"HOW MUCH? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY NEARLY REACHED THE CREDIT LIMIT?!"

Arthur Weasley's eyes nearly popped out of his head, Amelia Bones' monocle dropped from her eye, Dumbledore snorted, and Dame Augusta Longbottom fell out of her chair cackling madly. Arthur was the first to recover and stood up as Lucius sagged in his chair and continued talking in a tired voice.

"Yes, I will handle a bank transfer myself tomorrow. Thank you." Lucius hung up the phone and looked dazedly at the others.

"Do you need some water Lucius?" Arthur asked.

"No thank you Arthur. I will be having something far FAR stronger after I have had words with my son and my wife."

Amelia finally found her voice, "What happened Lucius?"

"I told my son to entertain the ladies while I had to deal with this mess. In so doing my son spent nearly £78,000 pounds! I'm going to go see my wife and son now. Good evening to you all." Lucius had to step over the still laughing form of Augusta Longbottom as he walked to the door.

-0-

In the limo driving around London

Narcissa looked at Draco's girlfriends as they giggled over their gifts. She accepted that her little boy was growing up but it was still a bit difficult to see him kissing girls. Still, there would be time later for that. Narcissa had an important item to bring up.

"Girls and cousin Ehren, what I have to tell you must remain a secret and I need a vow of such, to be maintained until you either receive a letter or confirmation from Draco or myself that you are released from the vow." When she had received the agreement of all, she continued. "The name that you overheard, Nimue, is the name of Draco's twin sister. They have been separated since birth, and even I didn't know she existed until very recently. Late in the last wizarding war, the Dark Lord ordered his supporters to provide any infants born after the families' scions to the Dark Lord's research wizard. This was to provide weapons to be used against the Dark Lord's enemies."

Ehren swore in vehement German and the others were incandescent with rage. "This asshat wanted to use babies to make weapons?" Johnston nearly roared.

"Yes, but he's already dead," Narcissa interjected. "But before he was killed, I gave birth. I was delerious from the long labor and thought I had given birth to just Draco. Instead, I had birthed twins, with Nimue following Draco. Lucius knew that the Dark Lord would demand her, and he took steps to protect her. He had someone he trusted to sneak her out of the country and raise her as his own daughter. Things would have stayed like this, but Draco expressed talent in wandless magic. Lucius contacted this confidant as he is a Master of Wandless Magic to tutor Draco. He agreed, but he wanted to bring Nimue to meet her birth parents. After much discussion, Lucius and I agreed and so she will be spending the summer at Malfoy Manor."

"Family takes care of family, that has been part of the Malfoy line for centuries. To reciprocate your trust I shall trust you as well. I mentioned in Harrods that I was the spirit of the Ehrendolch dagger that is my true form. My mutti is Colombe du Chasteler. Mother is Grandpapa's oldest daughter and the half-sister of his other children since she was born on the wrong side of the blankets." Ehren blushed. "Last year Mother got a lead on her other parent Muramasa-no-Norimune and headed to japan to confront her, alongside Aunt Del and Aunt Jackie.."

-0-

After some lengthy explanations and oaths of secrecy sworn, the limo pulled up to the Savoy hotel and Ehren got out. The driver helped her with her packages and bags, but before entering her hotel and going back to her room, Ehren gave her cousins and Draco's girlfriends her phone number and email to stay in contact, and received theirs in return. After getting back to her room and placing her bags on the table with proper german efficiency, she flopped onto her bed, tired but happy.

-0-

Draco, his mother and the ship-girls walked into the townhouse to find a rather unhappy Lucius Malfoy.

"Sit Draco. Tonight my son, Words Shall Be Spoken...."

-0-

2 days later at Castle Moulbaix

Ehren was happy to be home. While actually meeting Harry Potter to pass on Mutti's support, she had still met the English Malfoys, completed her tasks, and successfully completed a great deal of birthday and holiday shopping in one swoop. Kasuyu had taken the Indulgence Hamper with its various Champagne delicacies and all of the paperwork and receipts up to Mutti.

Suddenly throughout the castle Colombe's voice shrieked, "MON DIEU! SHE SPENT HOW MUCH?"

-0-

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Walking along the tunnels under Yokosuka, Yamato smiled some as she glanced at Shinano. Her little sister had been practically on cloud nine since spending a day and night with Harry and Regina on one of Wanko's islands in the Timor Sea. When she had found out about her little sister using the time turner to go back in time after getting everything ready so that she could spend time with Harry and Regina, she had been a bit disappointed...

Until White Plains had spoken up and stated that she had given permission for it and encouraged her.

That had smoothed things over and, thankfully, Shinano did not know about the initial disappointment Yamato had. Musashi, meanwhile, had been more amused then disappointed and quietly cheered on her sister. And while Hana had been disappointed, it was more in that she had not been invited to go to a tropical island getaway as well, which made Yamato quietly sigh. She loved her sisters, she did, but sometimes...

Moving away from such thoughts, the Battleship though was happy for her sister as Shinano had practically not stopped smiling since then. And when she asked to see pictures and video taken, Yamato had found out why and smiled a bit at seeing her Carrier sister flush and stutter some before bringing up photos. Even she had to admit that some of the places that they had gone to were spectacular. That cave, for instance, was one that Yamato wanted to visit herself some day.

Of course, Yamato still had to punish her sister for skipping a bit, something Musashi had agreed with... And thus, the two older sisters gently teased their younger sister about everything. Not too hard teasing, but a light ribbing about the time she had spent with Harry, showing off her swimsuit, and the like. It showed how far their little sister had come that while flustered and such, she had smiled and eventually gave back just as much as she got to the older two's enjoyment. Still, Yamato was happy to see her sister in such a good mood and hoped to see more.

Especially as she did approve of Harry and Regina to some extent, including Harry eventually becoming Shinano's Admiral as she was sure that he would.

With a chuckle that got her a curious look, the Battleship waved it off. Instead, she tuned into the conversation between Musashi and their new sisters, the tanned Yamato frowning as she spoke in her rumbling tone, "So we might have another sister?"

Megumi and Kokoro shared an unsure look before turning back with the elder of the two, "Maybe? I'm not really sure how it would count or not..."

Cheering a bit, Hana threw her hand into the air, "HA! I'm going to be an Onee-San again!" She then turned to her last sister, "You hear that, Hoki? Now you're going to be a Onee-Chan."

The Battleship in question lightly blushed at that, but had a happy smile on her face just the same in regards to what she was hearing, "An Onee-Chan... I'd be an Onee-Chan..."

Lips twitching in amusement, Yamato turned to the two Nekomata, "You stated that you are not sure whether or not they would be our sister." At their nods, she frowned a bit in curiosity, "Why?"

Glancing at her biological sister, Kokoro chewed her lip, "Um, because she was based off the A-150 Design?"

It went without saying that a number of eyebrows shot up and Shinano now spoke up with surprise in her voice, "She is a Super Yamato?"

Just frowning, Megumi gave a small nod, "Hai? I think that is what they're called?" She gave a small shrug and shook her head, "All I know is that I was pretty close to completion so they moved me out from my dock in... 1944? I think?" Furrowing her eyebrows, she grimaced a bit, "They went to work on her which slowed down my own construction as they had to wait for my turrets and such to be built, which took far more time than they wanted. And in the last days, well..." The Nekomata glanced at Yamato with an unsure look, "In the last days of the war they were going planning to have me perform my own version of Operation Ten-Go. But were unsure if I was to be beached on Kyushu to fight the Americans or on Hokkaido to kill the Soviets..."

Everyone there could hear the sound of steel straining under a great amount of stress and looked to Yamato to find the Battleship had her jaw clenched as was her fists. With a final breath, she slowly relaxed though the look in her eyes stated that she still wanted to kill something... probably quite brutally at that, "I, Yamato, see..."

Right then, Akimi's voice could be heard as she furrowed her eyebrow as she decided to change the subject to something else and get rid of the oppressive silence, "I... think that I know of the one that you're talking about, Kokoro-San." Each of them turned to the Kitsune who had a frown on her face. Being as they were in the tunnels, she let both her ears and tails out as they walked along, not noticing various males giving her looks as they passed. Seeing their looks, she shrugged some, "Due to my family's history, I... sort of read up a lot on the warships and such of the Kamo Government."

At that, the others nodded before Yamato cleared her throat, "What can you tell us about this design?"

For several moments, the Kitsune Battleship was silent as she gathered her thoughts. Finally, she gave a small nod, "There was not a whole lot about it to be honest as it was only about forty percent complete at the end of the war, maybe fifty but more likely forty if that." Getting nods, Akimi continued, "Like Kokoro-San mentioned, the design was based on the A-150 design with a few differences for it. Um, for example, using transfiguration magic they could take two armour plates as planned and merge them into one plate with the combined thickness as well as strengthening charms making it about twice as strong as a No-Maj version and a bit lighter. Another difference was the guns."

Slowly, Musashi gave a nod, "Unless I am mistaken, there were not any twenty inchers around?"

Just shaking her head, Akimi frowned, "No, the ones they did have when the No-Maj government cancelled the A-150 after Midway went to some other project, an island in the Inland Sea I think?" Missing the knowing looks between Musashi and Yamato, she just continued, "Anyways, because of that they went with the same main guns are what you would have, Yamato-Sama. They even gave her a name..."

Eyebrow raised, Yamato smiled a bit, "Truly? Then I wish to know her name in case we meet." Seeing the looks among the Yokai as well as Miu, her smile fell, "Is... something wrong?"

Wincing, Miu shook her head, "Well... the name chosen was problematic, let us just say."

That got her a snort from her long time friend, "That is putting it mildly, Miu-Chan." Akimi then turned to the confused Yamato sisters, "The name they chose is often used in history lessons to demonstrate just how... arrogant... the Kamo Government really was in the end."

Now concerned, Yamato glanced at her sisters and then back to Akimi, "How bad, Akimi-San."

It was not Akimi, but Megumi who spoke up, "Well... that depends. The Kamo Government saw what they were building as the biggest, most powerful warship to ever sail the seas. Thus, they decided that it needed a name that would show that greatness." Her tone took on one of derision and disgust, "The naming scheme used ancient names for Japan, or parts thereof. So they decided to name her the Onogoroshima."

Right then, everything stopped and Yamato stumbled some as she stared with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. She knew, that on her bridge, her crew there were also staring in pure shock with dropped jaws and twitching eyebrows. Especially in the form of Yamamoto. And it was not just her as the others were also boggling at what they just heard.

Finally, Musashi removed her glasses, cleaned them before putting them back on and wiggling a finger in her ear, "This Musashi must have heard wrong, did you state that her name was..."

Grimacing, the Kitsune Battleship nodded, "That they chose the name Onogoroshima for her? Yes." Eyes closed, Akimi pinched her nose, "Trust me, you are not the first to have that reaction. But then, it was 1945 and they were getting desperate, though still certain that they could pull victory from the jaws of defeat."

Yamato reached up and rubbed the side of her head, "I... see. Though even then, I, Yamato, are quite dismayed to hear that our Imouto was named such." On her bridge, she could hear Yamamoto cursing up a storm and insulting anyone involved in naming a ship such, and he was not the only member of her crew doing such. And looking at the other shipgirls that this bomb was just dropped on, Yamato was certain that she was not the only one whose crew were doing the same, 'If only they were still alive...'

With a shrug, Akimi shook her head, "As it is, though, the war ended before she was even halfway complete and she was scrapped along with, well... any other ships under construction. I am reasonably sure that quite a bit of her steel made it into No-Maj Japan for the reconstruction among other things."

All Yamato did was nod at that.

Glancing around, Mami cleared her throat, "So, uh... you're taking us to some place to train...?"

Thankful for the change in subject the eldest of the Yamato sisters nodded, "Hai, it is rather isolated and away from prying eyes with the name Ōkamashima..."

 

[darthcourt10]

Shinr

Once upon a time, there was a Ru-class Abyssal Battleship, who unlike most of her ilk preffered to live out her days lazing around, with an occasional raid to gather supplies the only break in the non-routine, and who served an equally unambitious minor Princess who wanted to keep her head down.

The problem with that, is they were based on the edge of Indian Ocean, which meant that by several degrees of vassal separation they served the Subcontinental Princess, the most bloodthirsty and sadistic of the Elder Princesses, something which now the Ru-class considered a punishment for the negative karma of all her previous lives.

It wasn't bad at first, the letter of obligation satisfied by conducting rare raids that they needed for supplies anyway, and they were far away enough from the horrifying farce of Her Court and generally beneath notice for any potential accusation of dereliction of duty. But in decades leading to that August week, a decade after the second human great war, things begun to change as the six-armed affront to Hinduism decided to have a more direct touch in rulership.

Distant vassals, who previously payed lip-service to the ways of their Elder Liege, found themselves being... "persuaded" to be more pro-active in delivering cruelty and terror on their victims. Many who objected, some out of genuine horror, most out of sheer impracticality, were unceremoniously sunk, and the rest of weak vassals got a hint and fell in line, no matter how unwilling.

And in those decades, things kept escalating, and it didn't matter if it was against humans on the islands and coasts, sea-beings underwater or even their fellow Abyssals, the Elder Princess demanded more, more, more.

Her Princess, who was never cut out for this, became mentally broken in short order, paradoxically trying to cope with the savagery by doubling down on said savagery, until she just stopped, unresponsive to everything, including other Abyssals who called her weak and "culled" her, either out of genuine belief in the Darwinian ways of Subcontinental Princess or in effort to not look weak themselves.

In the middle of this ever-increasing horror, the Ru-class found her mental lifeline in the most cliche of places.

Religion.

To be more specific, in order to distract herself and keep herself sane, she took to reading, delving into the books that she salvaged from the ruins of libraries, churches and temples, some of which she herself put fire to. And the topic that she was most engaged with to the point of escapism, was the religions and philosophies of India and neighboring regions, from Hinduism to Buddhism and many others.

Of course, no amount of book-reading will make her escape reality, and that reality eventually came knocking in the big way.

In August 2005, the Abyssal attacked humanity, and in India and Indian Ocean probably more people died in the single month than in the whole of 20th century.

And it was amid the burning ruins of Sri-Lanka that Ru-class stood alone, other abyssals already left looking for fresh targets, with her smoking shield-cannons resting on the ground, each as heavy as a Yamato to her mind. She stared with dead eyes at the devastation she had wrought, dead to the world.

Unresponsive even to the tank shell that impacted her face.

Her body fell down, only the dead-woman's grip on her shields preventing her from eating dirt, while giving an impression of a prisoner being hanged by hands. A battered tank, part of a remnant of Sri Lanka military rear guard, came to the view and shot her several more times. The wounds she suffered were light, but to the outside observer she looked like a still, rotten corpse. Judging her to be dead or at least Mission Killed, the tank crew shot her again just to be sure, turned around and drove away in an attempt to rejoin the rest of military and escape to the mainland.

She stayed liked that for days, uncaring for the world outside of her blank mind, when the radio cracked up.

"-nk you can run away!?" the voice screamed "Just because the Humans put a little resistance!?"

It was the voice of the Subcontinental Princess.

"It doesn't matter where you cowards and traitors will scurry off to!" the Elder Princess continued "No matter what river, what bay, what sea, what ocean you will flee to, I will find you! And I. Will. Ki-"

She was cut off, her IFF suddenly disappearing.

THAT shook the Ru-class out of her stupor, and as she stood up she noticed that one part of the horizon was more unnaturally brightly lit, until it dimmed, showing an extremely distant shapes of several mushroom clouds.

She stared and stared, not daring to believe, to hope, that the biggest monster among them all, herself included, was dead. And in the end, while still not willing to believe that the Fake Kali was dead, she saw the opportunity to get away.

But where to? No body of water was safe from the Subcontinental, especially if all the rumors about the rest of the Elder sisterhood were true, that they were dead and thus, leaving the whole water world free for her to take.

And thus, the Ru-class decided, that she will hide somewhere as far, far away from the oceans as possible.

In the chaos of the following weeks, she sneaked into the mainland, traveled through the Blood-Week induced near-anarchy of Indian northeast, and arrived in Nepal, where she came to the base of the tallest mountain in the world:

Sagarmatha, Chomolunga, Zhumulangma, better known to the rest of the world as Everest.

As the Ru-class stared at the future ordeal before her, she started thinking that maybe climbing the mountain was not exactly a greatest of ideas, and that maybe she should head for the Eurasian point of Inaccessibility some way north, the point furthest from all Oceans. But no, that point was practically in the middle of civilization, a civilization that could or will be conquered by her former Elder Princess, and eventually she will be found out and put to death for cowardice. No, better to somewhere where even the Abyssals would find hard to live and little reason to venture, like this tallest mountain.

And so she begun her climb, away from the beaten paths just in an unlikely case there were humans in the route camps, what with any mountain climbing activities probably cancelled in the wake of Blood Week.

She climbed and scaled and risen and ascended for what seemed like eternity, as the cold, jagged earth digged into her body, as the freezing air chilled her hull, as her spirit kept weakening.

But she persevered, even as she took several falls that would've killed humans several times over, as she digged herself out of the few avalanches, as battled with monsters that seemed to sprout out of the snow, as had to dismiss most of her rigging due to damage, she kept climbing.

And then finally, she reached the summit, exhausted, hungry, freezing and damaged, but all of that disappeared from the mind as she finally looked around:
Spoiler: Summit View

The view from the top of the world was breathtaking, the majestic snow-covered peaks jutting out from the sea of white clouds, contrasting with clear blue sky.

It was the view after seeing which you could die peacefully. Which of course, after the euphoria left the Ru-class, is what probably awaits her here now that she clearly thinks it over, especially with her limited supplies.

Which is when a shriveled hand holding an apple came to her view.

She yelped and in surprise fell on her butt, both her voice and and the impact causing a few avalanches below, and would have turned her guns on owner of the hand if her rigging was operational. Instead she examined the man.

He was old. No, scratch that, he was ancient, his bare skin so shriveled he was practically a skeleton, his permanently eyes-closed face a step away from being a skull, and he wore an equally ancient monk robes that looked like they would unravel at any moment, and parts of him were covered in old snow. Despite that, he looked completely unaffected by both the thin air and freezing temperature, and patiently presented the apple to the Abyssal.

Despite her wariness, the literally avalanche inducing sounds of her stomach rumbling made a decision for her, and she in embarrassment accepted the apple from the ascetic, who smiled and returned to meditating.

As she ate, she continued to examine the ascetic. She was about to throw the remains of the apple to the void below, but instead decided to store it in her hold. Then she remembered all the books she read about Indian religions, philosophies and ways of life, and after a bit of deliberating, she sat near the ascetic and attempted to meditate.

Years later, when the humanity recovered enough to allow itself to pursue vanity projects like Everest climbing, the first humans to set foot on the summit in decades were celebrating, and in the commotion part of accumulated snow had fallen away, revealing a surprising sight:

A literally shining Abyssal, sitting still and cross-legged with a gesture of warding against evil. Her rigging dwarfed her, four shielded giant mouths with three turrets inside of each, two of them at each of her sides with other two behind and above her, forming a half-ring around her, all of them linked with sacred ropes and strings. And most of all, instead of infernal fire they radiated an aura of content slumber, creating a halo of light around the Abyssal.

And the Abyssal herself? Softly chanting mantras, taking no heed of panicking humans.

Despite the political headache she would bring to the surrounding countries just by existing, she would be left alone due to her passivity. Let the sleeping dogs lie, as they say.

And somewhere in the mountains, an ascetic monk smiled at another soul being enlightened.

----

I was thinking about the Challenger Deep Princess, and I thought what would be an opposite of her, and this is a result. The "Enlightened" rigging was inspired by the Azur Lane's oversized rigging of some of the Japanese shipgirls (and a recent fanart concept of AZ!Yamato)

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

At that name, Miu perked up in interest, "Ōkamashima, Yamato-Sama?" Getting a nod, the newly awoken Carrier had a thoughtful look on her face, "Hmm... the same hidden island that my Oba-Sans are?"

Sympathetically smiling, the Battleship nodded, "Hai, that is correct, Miu-San."

Confused, Karen looked away from where she had been chatting with Takao, "Your Oba-Sans are there? Why would they be on a hidden island being used by the JMSDF?"

For a few moments, Miu was silent, but Akimi placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke up instead, "Her Oba-Sans were squibs back during the 1920s and their... parents... decided that they could be of use." Sneering a bit, her lip curled to reveal a fang, "Mainly in the form of having them made into Hitobashira for one of the hidden dockyards."

The younger Yokai all paled at that and turned to the Carrier, who slowly nodded. Izumi winced and shook her head, "But... I thought that people stopped using the Hitobashira ritual back in the 1600s! And it was considered something of last resort even back then..." Eyebrows furrowing, she frowned as she remembered something, "In fact, the last case of possible Hitobashira was... Jomon Tunnel in 1912 or so, I think?" She narrowed her eyes in thought, "Or that was what I read and not even the Magical Diet was sure of that... though the tunnel is supposed to be haunted."

Blinking, Shinano turned to her and frowned, "Jomon Tunnel? There are Hitobashira in the tunnel?"

Izumi shook her head and shrugged some, "Maybe? A lot of people died there building the tunnel and most were buried in a mass grave nearby. But... there was an earthquake back in the late 60s which damaged it and a number of skeletons were found buried standing upright in the walls of the tunnel. Something that would have been hard if they were dead when buried... but like I said, no one is sure." Finger tapping her chin, she turned to Akimi and Miu, "Um... I think that you mentioned that they worked in the Diet, so..."

Closing her eyes, Miu frowned some, "Hmm... well, as you said, it was something that no one was quite sure about in regards to if they were Hitobashira or not. But there was a few dozen skeletons like that in the walls of the tunnels and there was a lot of... disturbances there. I believe that even before Blood Week, there was at least an Obliviator stationed near there on a permanent basis just in case, usually one near retirement age or had pissed someone off. And they did try to cover it up, but since there was no proof one way or the other... they simply half-assed the job and left it mostly as an urban legend of sorts."

Only rubbing her arms, Hana shook her head as she had a small shiver, "That... is really creepy."

Moments later, a warm arm placed itself over her shoulder in a protective, but also comforting gesture. Looking up, Hana's eyes met those of Yamato, "Do not worry, Hana-Chan. Such Yuurei cannot hurt you, nor would I, Yamato, allow for them to do so."

Arms crossed, Musashi scoffed, "And this Musashi would stand right there as well." Lips curling up into a small smirk, the tanned Yamato chuckled, "So as Onee-Sama says, do not worry about such things.

Watching that, Miu smiled before shaking her head, "In any case, the tunnel is in the middle of Hokkaido, so I doubt that we would need to worry any time soon." Her frown returned though, "As to my Oba-Sans... they're nice from what Otou-San said. He also said that the island that they're on has a large, water filled caldera?"

Just smiling, Yamato nodded, "Yes, with high walls and a deep water. The caldera is large enough that we can have you all practice sailing and the like without worry in regards to anyone seeing you until you are fully ready. Part of it is also the event taking place tomorrow there."

For a few seconds, the Natural Borns were confused until Mami hit her palm with the bottom of her fist, "That's right, there is supposed to be a summoning of some sort there tomorrow, correct?" At the nods, she tilted her head, "Kind of confused as to why they would do it there and not here? And I wonder how different it will be from when we were awakened..."

Letting out a sigh, Takao shook her head, "It is mainly due to the fact that the ships we wish to summon are in the caldera." Seeing the confused looks, she continued, "Their wrecks are still there in the water and they had to be purified due to... how they were built." There was a brief grimace on her face before the Heavy Cruiser shook her head, "Anyways, we considered it and decided that it was best to summon them there as it can work, though we're going to have every magical shipgirl there as well to boost the chances of the ritual working."

Adjusting her glasses Choukai gave a nod, "It is also because the caldera itself is shaped in such a way that it can operate as a summoning pool in and of itself" It was then that they came to an intersection and she smiled at seeing who was there coming down another tunnel, "Harry-Chan."

Upon seeing her, the thirteen year old smiled, "Choukai-Oba! Takao-Oba, Atago-Oba, and Maya-Oba!" Seeing who else, he waved, "Shinano-Chan! As well as Yamato-Oba, Musashi-Oba, Hana-San, and Hoki-San!" He did become curious upon seeing the other girls there, though he gave a wave to the girls from Hokkaido, and were quickly introduced to Akimi and Miu. As Harry fell in, he asked where they were going and nodded at the answer he got, "I'm heading there as well actually."

Softly smiling, Shinano giggled a bit, "Going to see Sakura-San and Ume-San, Harry-Chan?"

Just shifting the backpack he had, and ignoring the glances it was given, Harry nodded, "Hai, among other things since tomorrow is the big summoning. Figured that I would go and have a chat with them, especially as I won't get time tomorrow and what is happening after... might not get a chance until school ends."

Chuckling, Akimi gave him a small once over, "I see, I do not know if Junyou-Sama has explained to you, but both myself and Miu-Chan." She gestured at her friend who gave a jaunty wave, "Are going to help tutor you in Onmyoudo as we're quite good at such and I have experience in being a sensei for such."

His eyes widening, Harry grinned and gave a nod, "Sounds great." Getting a nod back, he turned towards the girls from Hokkaido, "It's great to see you by the way."

Arms crossed under her chest, Karen smirked a bit, "Great to see you again as well, Harry-San. And thank you for your advice in going to the naval base..." Pausing for a moment, she narrowed her eyes slightly at him, "You knew about what we were, didn't you?"

Not even going to bother lying, the wizard shrugged, "I did. But that was mainly due to me being able to see into the spiritual realm due to my biological Mum being a shipgirl, though unawakened before she died." He then scratched his neck, "I didn't say it as I did not want to pressure you or anything."

For a few moments, Karen considered that before nodding, "Thanks for that by the way."

Right about as he was going to nod, Harry blinked as Kokoro hugged him, "Hai, thank you, Harry-San." Pulling away, she smiled as he looked at her before gesturing at herself, "I feel more complete then ever before. And, well... being a shipgirl is something that I like being."

With another small bow, she stepped back.

The group continued to walk down the tunnels before reaching their destination. Looking at the Vanishing Cabinets, Akimi raised an eyebrow, "And these will get us to Ōkamashima? Truly?"

Lips twitching as she fought herself to keep from smiling, Yamato gave a nod, "Hai, that is correct. We simply step inside, close the doors, and then we'll be at Ōkamashima.

In return, the Kitsune Battleship gave her a look before turning back to the Vanishing Cabinet, "I... see." Glancing at the others, she frowned before looking at the plaques above them, "So, the others go to Kushiro, the Timor Sea, and Britain?"

Akimi's eyes widened a little at that bit of information while Miu whipped her head around to boggle, "It can travel all the way to Britain?"

Highly amused, Musashi adjusted her glasses, "Hai, and does so in only a few seconds as a matter of fact." Seeing the suspicious look that the two older Onmyouji were giving the cabinets, she snorted, "This Musashi understands how it may sound, but it does work in such a manner. And we find it very useful."

Bouncing a bit, Atago giggled, "We have another cabinet elsewhere on the base that we use to go to our own private hotspring island." Holding up a finger, she winked, "It's a great place to simply relax and soak, Panpakapan!"

Unable to help himself, Harry grinned and threw his hands into the air, "Panpakapan!"

While Atago answered him with another shout, Takao sighed and shook her head in amusement, 'I should have expected this...' A chuckle then escaped her as the others glanced at her.
_________________________________________________

Stepping out of the Vanishing Cabinet and into a small room built with cinderblocks, Akimi turned back to the Cabinet in surprised even as Miu as well as Megumi and Kokoro stepped out, "That... had to be the most smooth form of magical travel that I have ever experienced." A thoughtful look on her face, she turned to her friend who was also regarding the Vanishing Cabinet with some surprise, "What about you, Miu-Chan? Your thoughts?"

Finger tapping her chin, the Carrier slowly nodded, "It was the smoothest magical travel that I have ever had, and it is one of my jobs to inspect such things." Shaking her head, she paused as a thought occurred to her, "Now I can understand why Otou-San convinced Kyoto to set up a network of these for Mahoutokoro."

Eyebrow raised, Akimi considered that as the others continued to come through the Cabinet, "Hmm... it does make a lot of sense, actually." Tapping her chin, she considered the logistics, "Yes, it would allow for transportation to and from Mahoutokoro, especially with the war putting a stop to using the giant storm petral for transport."

A small grimace, Miu shook her head as she rubbed her behind through her clothes, "Ugh, I never understood using those. So damn uncomfortable. Just... why...? Out of all the things, they chose us sitting on birds..."

Just shrugging, the Kitsune Battleship smiled a bit, "Not a clue." Suddenly, she frowned, "By the way, what happened to them with the war?"

That made Miu blink, "The giant storm petrels?" At the nod, she frowned and thought about it, "Hmm... I think that most of them survived actually when they escaped the pens that they were kept in and there's a few islands where they've been spotted breeding. The Magical Diet is having issues because there's worry that the No-Majs might stumble across them. I mean, a sea bird that has a wingspan of about fifteen to sixteen feet is going to get attention when they do. But... they're hard to catch, and since they're not really obviously magical, they got a very low priority to say the least."

It was then that Izumi spoke up as she had been coming out of the Vanishing Cabinet in time to hear Miu with the last bit of the conversation, "So the No-Majs might find out about them then? What happens if they do?"

Miu frowned a bit as she turned to her, "Depends on who you ask. The Diet would likely try to Obliviate anyone that came across them, but chances are that they would be unable to by the time any video hits the net or what have you. Kyoto has basically decided to simply let it happen in such a case. Not worth the trouble compared to keeping the Statute going for as long as they can for a better, softer fall. Besides..." She gave a small shrug, "A giant seabird is odd enough that no one will think 'Magic' right away most likely. The only magic that they got allows for them to carry a lot of weight and that is about it, which isn't that obvious when one gets down to it."

Head tilted to the side, Shinano hummed in thought, "Um, actually, I've been seeing them on radar and such on a number of the uninhabited islands."

Turning to her, Akimi nodded some, "I would not be too surprised if their population has grown actually. There's not too many species that predate on them and they mostly survived on Minami Iwo Jima because the wards kept them there and they were trained. With that... they've likely gone wild and begun to expand their population. Probably like a lot of endangered species in and around the oceans have since the war started. I remember that there was one expedition deep into Abyssal territory about a year ago or so to Fiji and found that the fire crabs there have expanded out of the preserve that they were in and have pretty much settled across the islands in the area once more. Something that concerned the ICW since once the war is settled, people are going to move back, but..."

More than a few looked at her for a few moments before the glasses wearing Takao gave her a look of interest, "Fire crabs... those are the odd tortoise-like creatures with multiple legs and shells filled with precious gems, correct?"

Just nodding, Miu smiled, "Hai, they are as a matter of fact. The gemstones grow from their shells as they age. Emeralds, rubies, diamonds, sapphires... all of which can grow up to the size of your fist. The Kamo Government had a small island close to Okinawa where they kept a number of them, harvesting the gemstones and using that as a source of funding on the non-magical side of the world for their various projects." Then, she shrugged, "I am pretty sure that the preserve is still there actually, though no idea if any of them survived this long during the war."

Giving a chuckle, Harry grinned widely, "Hopefully no one tells Inazuma-Chan about that. Because knowing her, she would head there to try and get one as a pet." He then spoke in a close match to said Destroyer's voice, "'But Kaa-San! Look! It is all pretty!'" The thirteen year old cleared his throat and attempted to impersonate Tenryuu, "'Ami, no! That thing shoots fire out of its butt! You are not going to be keeping it!'" Voice shifting back to the impersonation of Inazuma, he continued, "'But Kaa-San! Fire! And it followed me on the island and I can't let it go!'"

As he continued to impersonate the two shipgirls, various chuckles could be heard from the others, while back in Yokosuka, Inazuma looked around, 'Why do I feel like I should be yelling at Harry-Chan, Nanodesu?'

Tenryuu, for her part, was also frowning, 'Why am I feeling like I should keep a close watch on Ami whenever we're around Okinawa...?'

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Placing her hands behind her head, Maya hummed a bit, "You know, that bit about endangered magical animals actually reminded me of something that I've noticed."

Intrigued, Karen turned to her, "Oh? And what is that, Onee-San?"

A grin on her face from what she had just been called, the Takao rubbed a finger under her nose, "Well... one thing that I've noticed is that there is a lot more whales now." Seeing the confusion, she shook her head, "You don't really see them on convoy runs except at a distance and usually, it means that there's no Abyssals around. But on normal patrols? I've noticed bigger pods and such going around. Not huge ones... but... still more than I saw at the beginning of the war."

Now thoughtful, Yamato furrowed her eyebrows for a few moments, but it was Shinano who spoke up, "Hai, I've noticed the same thing." At the looks, she blushed lightly, "Um, it is mostly through my planes though, but a few times up close. I think that a biologist stated with ships staying to specific routes for the convoys and coming through in groups, its giving the whales some reprieve for what has happened."

Slowly, Musashi gave a nod, "That does make sense... especially the ones in the Antarctic and such."

While he was interested in what was being discussed as he had heard about it elsewhere, the lone male of the group was focused on something else and that was Miu as he walked over to her, "Um, Miu-San?" Getting a hum from her as she turned to him, Harry continued, "Have you ever met your Oba-Sans?"

Blinking for a moment, Miu shook her head, "No, unfortunately not. I was meaning to before the whole thing about being a shipgirl came up." A small smile appeared on her face, "Though according to Otou-San, I have you to thank for our family having been told the truth and my Otou-San finally being able to meet his Onee-Samas once more."

Lightly blushing, Harry scratched his cheek, "Hai, I found out from Sakura-Chan and Ume-Chan. Both of them wanted to see their Otouto once more... so I tracked him down so that they could meet him once more."

Softly smiling, the Carrier nodded before she pulled him into a hug, with his face finding itself in marshmallow heaven, "Thank you, Harry-San, for what you have done for my family and, especially, my Otou-San. A great weight has been lifted off his shoulders thanks to you. And for that, you have a friend."

As he pulled back, Harry's face was red from what had just happened. But he just smiled back at her and gave a small bow, "You are very welcome, Miu-San. I'm just glad that it made Ume-Chan and Sakura-Chan as well as Konohana-San." Hearing Shinano call his name, he looked over his shoulder briefly before turning back to Miu and bowed slightly, "Excuse me please."

Once he was out of ear shot, Akimi gave her friend a look before elbowing her and hissed at her, "Miu-Chan!"

Grimacing as she rubbed her side, the Crane Hanyou frowned at the Battleship, "Ow, what was that for?"

With a glance towards Harry, Akimi continued to hiss at her fellow Onmyouji, "You know what!" Eyes narrowing, she gave Miu a frown, "Never took you for a craddle robber."

To that, Miu rolled her eyes, "I am not." At the raised eyebrow, she snorted, "I am not interested in Harry-San except for teasing him as his reaction was hilarious. Firstly, I am too old physically for him."

However, the Kitsune's eyebrow raised still further and pointed at herself, "Miu-Chan, we look the same age. I looked to be thirty five and since our awakening, I'm now looking like my late twenties, minimum. You're deaging physically as well."

Miu just shrugged at that, "Yes, and? The point remains the same. Second, he's not my type at all. And third... I would not do that to my Oba-Sans."

For a second or two, Akimi just blinked at her friend. Then, she wiggled a finger first in her human ear and then the fox ear on her head, "I'm sorry, Miu-Chan, but what now? I had to be hearing things wrong..."

Snickering, the Carrier shook her head, "No, you heard right Akimi-Chan." Glancing at where Harry was, she turned back to her disbelieving friend, "According to Otou-San, my Oba-Sans both have a crush on him." Miu had a thoughtful look on her face before sighing, "Of course, he also stated that if something could come of it, he would approve fully as both their Otouto and the Head of the Family. But..." Then she grinned, "Just the same though? I think that teasing him might be fun~"

Just pinching her nose, Akimi sighed, "I should be surprised, but... I'm really not."

Meanwhile, Yamato walked towards the door and unlocked it before opening it to the outside. Behind her, the others followed and newly awakened Natural Borns all widened their eyes as they could see what surrounded them. Everywhere they looked, they could see ruins being reclaimed by nature. Some of the buildings had been blown apart or burned down. But other places looked as if they had melted in some sort of hellish heat.

Not far away from the hill that the building they exited from stood on, they could see the rusting hulks of ships. Two of which looked like smaller version of the Yamato class, one unfinished Aircraft Carrier, and an unidentifiable one which the waves breaking over the top of the hull. Each of the newly awakened shipgirls felt a shiver go down their back as there was something a little... disturbing about seeing such ships slowly decaying in place. What made it a bit worse was that the ships in question still sat in their drydocks, now long since reclaimed by the sea.

Still looking around at the devastation, Megumi's jaw dropped before she turned to the others, "What... what happened here?"

It was none of the shipgirls, nor Harry, who answered her however as a ghostly sounding voice spoke up, "An attack from MACUSA at the end of the war." Everyone turned to find Ume and Sakura there with sad smiles, "They slipped a strike team in to destroy the facility which they did so with various means. Though we are glad that they did so considering the evil that was done here."

A smile on his face, Harry walked up and pulled the two Hitobashira into a tight hug, "Ume-Chan, Sakura-Chan, it's great to see you."

Lightly blushing, the two Hitobashira returned the hug gratefully with Ume nodding, "Thank you, Harry-Chan. It is great to see you as well." They gave him a look over and their blushes deepened, "You have grown some..."

Beside her sister, Sakura furrowed her eyebrows some, "And you somehow have a tan."

Scratching his cheek, the thirteen year old chuckled, "Well, um... I went to visit Regina and Big Sister. They live in the Timor Sea by Australia and I spent two days down there. I also brought back a lot of photos and video for you as well!"

Eyes widening, both Ume and Sakura smiled brightly, "Thank you, Harry-Chan."

He glanced to the side and smiled, "You're very welcome, Ume-Chan, Sakura-Chan. But before we go any further, there is someone that you have to meet." Moving slightly, Harry made a gesture towards Miu who stood frozen, "May I introduce your niece, Konohana Miu, who is also a Carrier shipgirl."

Once more, the Twins' eyes widened as they took in their niece. For her part, Miu walked forward and bowed deeply to the two, "Sakura-Oba-San, Ume-Oba-San... it is a pleasure to meet you."

As she rose though, she paused as Ume and Sakura placed a hand each on her cheek as they examined her. Softly smiling, Ume gave a small nod, "We can see our Otouto in you, as well as your Okaa-San, Sora-Chan."

Glancing at her chest, Sakura giggled a bit, "We can also see that you are as gifted as your Okaa-San is." Another giggle escaped her and she shook her head, "Though I suppose that we could blame a bit on the family curse of sorts..."

Cheeks feeling hot, Miu rubbed the back of her neck, "Hai, that is what Otou-San stated when I began to, uh, develop in my teens." Grimacing a bit, she adjusted her clothes a bit to no avail, "Though I think that it got a bit worse since awakening as a shipgirl..." Looking around, she frowned a bit, "Actually, I think that I remember this place from my... previous life, I suppose."

Both Hitobashira considered that and slowly nodded, "Hai, we do remember your hull now, back in 1934 when you came to be refitted. It was done here, though we did not build you."

Expression softening, Ume shook her head, "But enough of such things, we wish to get to know more about our niece. Though we can state that you are a beautiful woman, Miu-Chan. Just as we expected of any child of our Otouto."

For some reason, Miu felt her heart swell at those words and Harry just nodded before glancing around, "Um, Ume-Chan? Sakura-Chan? I'm going to go for a walk, okay?"

The two spirits just nodded at him before turning back to their conversation with their niece.

With glances to where Miu was now quietly talking with her aunts, Akimi smiled and joined with Harry as they walked away. As they walked, Harry glanced up at her, "Aren't you worried a bit about your friend?"

A smile on her face, the Kitsune chuckled and shook her head, "No, not in the slightest. Besides which... she needs the privacy, all three of them do." Getting a nod, she glanced to where the ships were and tilted her head, "So who are they?"

Nodding, Harry pointed at the B-65s and began to give their name as well as that of the others...

 

[darthcourt10]

Yellowhammer

Melons and Eggs

Castle Moulbaix
Spoiler: A Chat Between Old Flames

Mei Yüying surveyed the nervous face of Colombe du Chasteler for what seemed like an eternity through the crystal ball. Finally, the huli jing's eyebrows raised. "You have not changed a bit in the last century and a half, Shǎguā."

Colombe blushed. "You are looking good yourself, Bèndàn. I am sorry that I left you in the family way when we parted. Motherhood agrees with you."

Yüying smiled and blurred, visibly de-aging to become an attractive twenty-year old Chinese woman. "True. Younger-me would have never accepted the life of a housewife, as I told you repeatedly while we were running for our lives across Guǎngdōng Shěng. However you left me little choice in the matter, Shǎguā." Her voice acquired a velvet-covered edge as she finished. Ying braced to attention at the words from her mother even though they were not aimed at her.

Colombe winced and straightened up. "As much as I might wish to claim that it was not my fault, Bèndàn, I did initiate you into the arts of l'amour at your request. Now that I have been made aware of my irresponsibility and have dishonored you by leaving you pregnant with our daughter to be born out of wedlock, I swear that I shall make full amends in this matter. Whatever it takes to cleanse this stain upon my honor and yours." With that she bowed her head, visibly showing the pain of her injuries. Beside Colombe, Ying stared in shock at Colombe's declaration of self-described guilt, recognizing the legendary hero from the first memories of her mother's stories.

Yüying looked at her and the smile grew."You really have not changed a bit, you too noble for your own good gwailou. I was wiser than I knew when I decided that your pet name for us to share was Silly Melon the morning after you got between my thighs for the first time. Relax, Colombe. While I was understandably shocked when I realized that Kwan Yin had blessed me with my Eldest Daughter, you had not just met but exceeded your responsibilities to us with what you did for me both in the Middle Kingdom and then in America."

Colombe breathed out a relieved sigh. "I still should have...."

Yüying interrupted her sharply. "What? Come with me aboard the clipper ship, drawing the Taipings upon both our heads in the New World? We both agreed that you would set a false trail to Manila with an illusion of me. Not given me sufficient funds to establish my own life, my own family? Not taught me to speak and write English? Never mind how you asked for no payment or service from me for all that you did to assist me from the moment we met, but merely said 'I gave my word to help someone needing my aid.'"

Colombe whispered, her eyes downcast. "I still should have looked harder for you in 1866 when I passed through San Francisco. I failed to be there for you and our child, and should have known the rumor of your marriage and then having twins shortly afterward was incorrect. You yourself told me twins are rare for a huli jing to bear as I recall now."

Yüying shook her head. "I had taken precautions to make it difficult to be found in Canada, had already married Wei Hong, and was at the time expecting my Fifth Son. Your Ying was headed to Ilvermorny then anyway. What we shared was long over, as wonderful as it was. Melon, you did all that you could be expected to do and more for me. Accept that the past is written in stone and forgive yourself for falling short of the impossible. For Ying's sake if not ours."

Colombe nodded slowly, smiling in memory as she raised her head to look her old lover in her equally smiling face, "You, as normal, are wiser than I am, Dumb Egg. Yes, our journey to the sea was wonderful for me too. To be honest, I held a torch for you for quite a while, until I met Lyra and Ian Potter in 1899 who captured my heart anew. I still do a little even now, that was a very intense year on the run, Egg." She laughed at herself, shaking her head, and then continued. "It seems to be my curse to love deeply and then part, leaving me with memories more precious than jade and diamonds. I am hopeful that To-chan will break the pattern of my life, though."

Yüying looked distant with a fond smile on her face, "Indeed they are more precious than diamonds and jade. I never knew what living was before then. In a way, it was my own great saga to mature from the sheltered young girl menaced by a dozen bandits that you saved to what I had become when I set foot in America. You guided me with your words, deeds, and example to find the strength to make my own life and I am eternally grateful for that, Melon. And I wish you all the best with your To-chan, for she or he is truly blessed by all the Gods to have your love."

Colombe blushed at the compliment, "She, actually. In return I cherish the memories of you finding the inner strength inside yourself, to become the sifu and sage that fought shoulder to shoulder with me to the dock in Kowloon, Egg." She glanced at Wei Ying and smiled at her eldest child. "Thank you for raising Ying to be a person who is worthy of my steel. I am quite proud of her even with what little I know of her."

Ying blushed as her mother barked a laugh, "Indeed my Little Clever Fox has made me proud, generally. She has much of you in her and it warmed my heart to see her manifest your better qualities under my guidance. I must ask, what of your quest to find your sire? I hope that my information was of use."

Colombe nodded. "Actually your assistance in it was invaluable. Your lessons in Xiǎozhuàn script let me identify a treatise on the properties of spirits of items in the Summer Palace when I raided the library ahead of the flames in 1860. That scroll let me identify that Norimune was from Japan in turn once I translated it and applied the tests inside to my own blade." The French rapier then laughed wryly and shook her head, "Although that was very much a case of two steps forward and one back as it turned out."

Yüying raised an eyebrow in silent inquiry as she sat down in a summoned chair. "Do tell, was it the luck enchantment on your blade causing things to go haywire around you again, Melon? I sense another grand epic story in your eyes."

Colombe shook her head. "Yes and no to the double-edged sword of my luck. As it turned out, Norimune is consecrated to one of the Japanese Shinto deities. Hachiman the Protector of Warriors, as it turned out, who empowers the luck enchantment I inherited. My path led me to the shrine where Father was consecrated, where I ran into the spirit of one of the other swords that had been consecrated by a rival noble for a competition of worthiness, which To-chan --- Masamune-no-Tokunotakai had won."

Yüying facepalmed and muttered. "Not again. Melon, don't tell me...." Ying stared at the rare sight of her mother losing her composure in naked shock.

Colombe smirked, "I'd say that there wasn't a fight, Egg, but that is a damn lie. You know how obsessed I was back then."

"Tell me about it," Yüying shook her head in disbelief, "You can't just do things the easy way, Melon."

"Not particularly, no, Egg." Colombe's smirk grew much more smug. "Anyway, I provoked a fight, although Toku was a stuck up prissy bitch back then. Didn't help that her family's school of sword smithing were blood rivals with Norimune's either. We had it out and I sucker-punched her to win. As it turned out, Hachiman was present watching us and He had plans for me. Which started with him kicking my ass into the ground at least five times."

"At least?" Yüying's face was a study in disbelief. "Even for you that is a bit excessively stubborn, Melon."

"I lost count after He broke my arm the second time." Colombe shrugged expressively, "anyway, long story short, He informed me in no uncertain terms that the time was not right to meet Father. I swore an oath to come back when it was, which was partway through the Abyssal War as it turned out. In the interim I met my half-sisters Jacklyn Fox and Delilah de Breuil in 1927.... Wait. What's so funny, Egg?"

Colombe stared at the giggling fox spirit in the crystal ball while Ying had a growing mortified expression on her face. "Well our daughter hated Delilah de Breuil for years, Melon. I have memories of decades of her complaints about 'that smug sneaky gwailou bitch' all the way back to the day they met that I can show you. And she was all this time being terribly impious to her Second Aunt!"

"Mother!!!" Ying choked out, her cheeks flaming. "How could you?!"

Colombe grinned smugly. "Oh, please do tell, Egg. Perhaps when I visit Canada to give my statement I can speak to you about our child's terrible lapses."

"Oh most certainly, Melon. I shall visit Lake Louise and meet you face to face and fill you in on Eldest Daughter's rudeness toward her Second Aunt." Yüying's smirk was smugly happy, like a fox exiting a chicken coop with a mouthful of bloody feathers.

Ying whimpered as her fox tails manifested and drooped. "So cruel...."

Both of Ying's parents grinned at her with matching smug smirks. "Well you are the child of one of Muramasa's Demon Blades and a huli jing, daughter of mine." Colombe mused as Yüying began to laugh.

A.N.-Yes, Silly Melon (Shǎguā) and Dumb Egg (Bèndàn) are Chinese terms of endearment that can be used between lovers.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Walking along, Akimi frowned a bit as she glanced around before tilting her head, "Hmm..."

That made Harry look over his shoulder at her and tilt her head, "Is something wrong, Akimi-Sensei?"

In reply, she chuckled a bit and wagged a finger, "Akimi-San, Harry-San. I am not one of your teachers yet after all." Akimi then frowned and gave another look around the ruins, "But... to answer your question, there is something feeling... off about this place." At his look, the Battleship shook her head, "Nothing truly bad, but it feels like it should be worse than it is."

Grimacing, Harry only gave shake of the head, "There... is very good reason for that actually. And it ties back quite a bit in regards to what happened when we found it."

Somewhat disturbed, Kokoro shuffled a bit closer to her older sister with Megumi putting an arm around her shoulder. The younger Nekomata then swallowed, "Why do I feel like I won't like what I hear?"

Not saying anything, the thirteen year old glanced first at Hana and then at Yamato. The older Battleship had her lips pressed thinly, but nodded just the same, "Hana-Chan can hear about this, Harry. After all, she knows a bit about... what happened, during the war."

Only nodding, Harry gave a sigh, "As I mentioned before, this place was built to build ships for both the non-magical navy and the small magical one. Near the end of the war, in the non-magical world, they shifted away production for Battleships and Heavy Cruisers towards either lighter warships, or Carriers. Part of it was that the facility here was to build heavier combatants for the war, especially due to the secrecy that surrounded it thanks to magic." Waiting for a moment for that to sink in, he continued, "But the issue was that even with the help of magic, there were issues with both manpower to build the ships and supplies themselves. The second was easy enough to solve as with alchemy, creating iron, or rather transmuting low grade ore into much higher grades or even pure iron, was not impossible. However, the first..."

Already knowing where this was going, the only Natural Born Yamato gave a nod even as she felt a bit sick, "Slave labour."

Slowly, Harry gave a nod, "Hai, though they took it to another level entirely using POWs from the war, especially non-magical ones." Glancing at Akimi, he took a deep breath, "There are certain dark potions that can do things like strip free will from someone. Reducing them to nothing more than robots made of flesh and bone rather than metal. In such a state, they continue to work, no matter that. They do not tire because they cannot feel such, they can break bones and the like and continue while ignoring such. And they have no complaints as to their treatment, you can stack them in small rooms for 'Rest periods' and they will not do anything. The perfect automatons... and even death does not necessarily free them as you can make them into inferi or something like the Voodo zombie and continue to work them as animated corpses. Both were used, though only the first was really done here."

Just staring at him, Akimi could feel only feel sick at what she was hearing as it was a perversion of magic. Yes, there was reports of such... but they were all 'Cleaned' of the more disturbing aspects and mostly shied away from. The sound of someone being sick made her turn to find Kokoro had rushed to a nearby bush and was puking and she was not the only one as Hana was right beside her. When she turned to Yamato, the larger Battleship shook her head, "We were disturbed by this, to say the least..." Turning to where Shinano was gently rubbing both Kokoro's back and Hana's, she sighed, "No matter how much we may have hated the Americans at the time, almost all of us and our crews feel such an... abomination... goes far beyond the pale and we can only hope that those responsible are currently in Jigoku."

Very slowly, Akimi nodded with a small voice, "Hai, I share that agreement."

Inside of her bridge, she could feel her grandfather shaking his head in pure dismay.

The lone wizard of the group waited until all of them had calmed themselves, "Well... as you can guess, that left something of an... imprint, here."

Scoffing, Karen growled a bit, "No shit." At the raised eyebrows, she winced, "Sorry, you don't deserve that, it's just..."

Rather then be angry, Harry just nodded, "I can understand, so don't worry about it. Perfectly understandable to be honest to be angry at this." Scratching his head, he glanced around, "Anyways... when we found this place again, there was a number of Yuurei around, both of the POWs as well as those who staffed this place. It goes without saying that neither group liked the other being here, or being here themselves in the case of the POWs."

Eyebrows furrowing, Izumi glanced at him, "But there's none here now? How?"

Glancing at the ships that they were approaching, he sighed a bit, "Well... we created purification Ofuda and placed them at places around the caldera before activating them-"

Shinano pointed at Harry with a small smile and a nod, "Harry-Chan placed ones in the depths of the ships using diving equipment. All of them."

Her eyebrow raising, Akimi gave Harry an intrigued glance, "You placed them deep within the ships and activated them properly?" At his nod, she smiled, "I would give you a very good grade on such a thing and it tells me quite a bit about the level of Onmyoudo that you are at."

Lightly blushing at the praise, Harry chuckled as he scratched at his cheeks, "Um, thank you." Clearing his throat and ignoring the amused glances, he gave a small shrug, "Right, so we placed them around the caldera and activated them, which eroded the bindings for the Yuurei until last summer they finally broke and all of them moved on." He then looked around, "They've been working for the past nearly two years, so..."

Considering that, the Kitsune Battleship nodded, "So they have continued to purify this place of the shadow lain over it. Makes quite a bit of sense, I suppose." She scratched her chin and hummed, "And I take it that part of the reason is so that we can summon the ships that were sunk here?"

Just turning to her, Harry gave a short nod, "That's right. And we're going to meet their partially manifested spirits."

That got him looks of surprise from those who did not know before they turned to look at the ships before them. For her part, Hana had recovered from her previous bout of sickness and swished some water around in her mouth before spitting it out, part of her imagining that those in charge of this place being in the way of her spit. Turning to the ships, she frowned in thought, "Um, Onee-Sama? Two of those look like Yamatos, but... smaller?"

Giving her a nod, Yamato chuckled, "Yes, those would be the B-65 Class of Cruiser. And they do resemble our hull while being smaller as they were built with only twelve inch guns..." A frown crossed her face briefly, "Though I do wonder if we shall see the fourteen inch gunned ones as they were a bit larger..." Considering that, the Battleship shook her head, "But yes, they do resemble us nonetheless and I suppose are... sort of cousins to us."

Hands behind her head, Hana grinned, "Okay, that is pretty cool."

With a chuckle, Harry shook his head before gesturing at the Carrier, "The Carrier is the Denryuu and is a G.15 class, based on Taihou-Oba." He hummed a bit, "There is also an Akashi class there that you can barely see named Mihara. There's also the I-353, a Tanker Submarine in the Caldera along with a Food Ship of the Irako class named the Kasumi."

A little surprised, Mami stared at him before becoming thoughtful, "Huh, so that gives you... what? Five ships to be summoned tomorrow?"

Much to her confusion though, the wizard shook his head, "At the least to be honest. We're hoping for more to come through when we do so." With a shrug, Harry smiled as they walked right next to the flooded drydocks where the ships were now laying. The sight of which the newly awoken Natural Borns found disturbing for some reason. But then, Harry's smile became a grin as he waved in the direction of the ships and called out, "HEY EVERYONE!"

The eyes of the Natural Born all widened as sparkles formed on the ships followed by transparent forms of the shipgirls. One of them, with pink hair in a page boy style and a uniform like those of the Yamato Sisters, but black with red highlights grinned back and waved, "AH! HARRY-CHAN! YOU CAME!"

Grinning, Harry gave a shrug up to her, "Of course I did, Miitake-Chan. After all, I did promise to do so, didn't I?"

Rapidly nodding, Miitake bounced a bit on her hull, "You did and you always keep your promises." Then, she grinned and gestured for him to come to her, "Now come here right now because I must cuddle you!"

Her sister, whose hair reached down to her back, just facepalmed to the amusement of those looking on, "Could you please calm down, Miitake-Chan? For me?" But she was just ignored as Miitake went on about how much she could not wait to be summoned to cuddle Harry, who snickered a bit, 'Why do I even ask...?'

Taking some pity on her, Harry smiled over at her, "It's okay, Ishikari-Chan. You know how she gets."

With a sigh, Ishikari pulled her hands away from her face and gave him a smile, "I suppose that is true..."

Now looking between them, Miitake huffed a bit and crossed her arms over her chest, "What is that supposed to mean!?"

Grumbles though escaped her as both her sister and Harry ignored her.

Elsewhere in the caldera, Miu smiled a bit as her and her aunts arrived at where the two Hitobashira had been leading her. Seeing the small monument, she gave a small nod, "So this is where...?"

Both spirits nodded at that, "Where we are buried? Hai, this is where our earthly remains are."

Sitting on the bench, Sakura patted the spot between her and Ume, "Come, sit with us for a time. We wish to get to know our neice a bit better..." A small giggle escaped from her as Miu sat down, "I will admit, neither of us expected for the Carrier Eisōhō would be our niece."

Lips twitching, Miu chuckled a bit as she sat down in the suggested spot, "Neither did anyone else. Otou-San as well as Kaa-San and Okaa-San were surprised by it. But they are also proud of that fact as well." Giving a small shrug, she smiled, "Though I am also proud to be such... though the name doesn't really fit me."

More than a little amused, Ume shook her head, "Being a Crane hanyou, no, I suppose being named 'Nesting Pheonix' does not fit. But then, that was the name that the Kamo Government chose." Almost as one, she rolled her eyes with her sister, "After all, they used your hull and named it such to proclaim that like the pheonix, a new Japan would arise from the ashes of the old one, free of foreign influence."

That brought a grimace to the Hanyou, "Hai, though considering things..." All three lapsed into silence before she gave a small huff and looked from one of her aunts to the other. Scratching her chin, she hummed a bit before she remembered something her father had told her. With a slight smirk, she looked towards their monument, "So, from what Otou-San told me, Harry-San created this place for you?"

On both spirits' faces was a light blush as they nodded, "Hai, Harry-Chan built this place specifically for us. To honour us for what happened."

Slowly nodding, Miu hummed, "I see, I see..." Looking at them, she grinned, "You both like him, don't you?"

At that, their blushes deepened and they shyly looked away, "Is it that obvious?"

Now highly amused at their reactions, Miu chuckled, "Well, only to those who are looking for such. And I have been alive for almost forty years plus however long I was a ship for." Waving a hand, she continued, "But it is obvious that the two of you care deeply for him."

With a soft sigh, Sakura looked at the blossoming trees on either side of her and her sister's grave, "Hai, we do." Holding out a hand, she watched one of the falling petals fall through it, though it slowed as it encountered the 'flesh' of her hand, "Harry-Chan is... special, to us."

On their niece's opposite side, Ume nodded, "Very special." Looking at her namesake tree, she smiled softly, "While we know that it was impossible, even if he was alive then, if we met Harry-Chan when we were alive? We... would not mind having become his wives at that time."

Eyebrow raised, the Carrier looked between them, "Doesn't it bother you that he has a number of girls after him?" The two Hitobashira shared a look and began to giggle to her confusion, "Um, was it something that I said?"

Shaking their heads, the twins shared a look before giggling. Then, Sakura spoke for them both, "No, it was not something that you said rather than the subject matter. Being as Ume-Chan and I were identical twin sisters, we were raised by Haha-ue and Chichi-ue with the expectation that we would be married off to the same man. Even when it turned out that we barely had any magic, the only difference was that we would likely both become concubines to the same man." At the look from Miu, they shrugged with Sakura shaking her head, "Our family was traditional, and it was not such an odd thing in those times."

Just grimacing, Miu glared at nothing in particular, "That does not make it right."

The twins smiled at that with Ume patting her niece's hand, "That makes us even more proud of our Otouto that you think in such a way." Seeing the blush, her smile widened a bit, "Still it would not, and does not, bother us too much. Besides... our Otouto and your parents are of a marraige with two wives, are they not?"

With a sigh, the shipgirl shook her head, "I think that is a bit different. I mean, while Okaa-San was an arranged marriage, she was not trained to be such. And Kaa-San, well, she married them out of love, not duty."

Simply giving a shrug, Ume shook her head, "And in Harry-Chan's case, we would consider such a thing as being the first; love." She turned her head in, unknown to Miu, Harry's direction, "We did not meet many boys our age while growing up before our deaths. In fact, I suspected that we were to be married off to an older man, if any. The few that we did meet... did not impress us."

It was then that Sakura took over, "Harry-Chan, meanwhile, blows them and any potential suitor out of the water. He is not just intelligent and... rather handsome." That last bit caused the blush on hers and Ume's faces to come back with a vengence as they remembered several things, "But there is more to it than that. He is a kind man and very loyal to those he cares for, which we are honoured to be counted as being among. But he is also brave, understanding, and above all, honourable in a way that those we knew could not match. You can tell that he would stand for what is right rather than what is easy. And that he would walk into Jigoku if it meant rescuing someone he cared for and bringing them back out. Truly, there are few that we believe could match him."

Giggles then escaped from her sister, who shook her head, "As to the others circling him... they are almost all Kami, are they not? And that says much about him as a prospective husband. Besides which..." More giggles escaped her, "It is not like Harry-Chan would be like Ienari Tokugawa with women, nor would he allow for such things as happened in the Ōoku to occur, nor would the others. Thus, it would not be... disagreeable, if it could have happened. And we would be glad to have had him as the Otou-San to any children we might have had."

A sigh escaped from her sister as she slowly shook her head, "But, it is not possible, much to our sadness." She then smiled a bit, "Yet, just the same, we are happy to be friends with him. That, more than anything, is enough for us."

Not saying anything, Miu simply hugged her aunts as they sadly smiled.

______________________________________________________


The others having left, Harry was the only one besides the Twins on the island and the three were walking along as. Here and there, as they walked, the teen wizard would reach into his backpack and pull out boxes of items which he placed down. Looking around them, the teenage wizard smiled softly, "The atmosphere certainly does feel a lot lighter, Ume-Chan, Sakura-Chan. Not nearly as..."

As he motioned with one hand, the two spirits nodded in agreement, "Hai, it is much better now."

Ume then gave a look around herself, "Things are much, much more peaceful now that most of the darkness has lifted." Shaking her head, she gave a sigh, "There will always be a stain here, but... it is far less than it had been and will fade with time."

Hands in his pockets, Harry simply hummed. Glancing at first Ume, then Sakura, he scratched his head, "What do the two of you think about tomorrow? And what is going to happen?"

Much to his slight amusement, the Twins were perfectly mirrored as they cocked their heads to the side at the same time in the same movement. Sakura slowly nodded as she smiled, "We are actually happy to see it happen, Harry-Chan. None of the shipgirls here deserve to be imprisoned here as they are. And we know that they will be able to help defend Japan against her enemies and do so well." Lips twitching, she shook her head and turned her head, "Thus, we are happy to see it happen."

Eyebrow raised, Harry frowned at her, "And the fact that it would leave you alone here does not bother you?"

For several moments, neither twin spoke, but then Ume looked at him, "They are good friends, Harry-Chan. And you are wrong..." Reaching over, she took his hand in hers as on his other side, Sakura did the same, "We are only alone in the sense that we would spend time here. Is one alone when they live in a house and have friends visit? We do not think so. And you, and the shipgirls who come to visit, they mean that we are not alone."

Still frowning, the wizard gave a look to both of them that they could not decipher. Then his lips quirked into an odd sort of smile, "I see." Head tilted to the side, Harry chuckled some, "Well, there is one last thing that needs to be done before the summoning tomorrow..."

Confused, but also intrigued, the Twins blinked. A few minutes found them by two large generators. They were not the size of the ones that were used to show them Haruna's and Rose's wedding, but it was still a good size. Frowning, Ume turned to him, "Harry-Chan? Why is there a generator here?"

In reply, Harry pointed at the cords that snaked away from the generator and to an odd pole, "Well... it is to help. See that lightning rod?" Looking at it, the Twins nodded, "There's a spell on it that transforms lightning into magic. It is supposed to be used to boost wards, but without any attached wards, it simply spews magic into the environment. One of the ideas is to run the generators all night and until the ceremony and it will feed electricity into the spell which will then..."

Understanding bloomed on their faces, "Become magic, filling up the area." A thoughtful look on their faces, they nodded, "Yes, we can see how that would work. But will it not run out of fuel at some point?"

Only shaking his head, Harry pointed at the barrels nearby, "Those are for them and they can just be pumped. There should be enough for all night, but even if they run out, it is not a big issue as long as the generators work for as long as possible."

Giving each other looks, the Twins smiled before bowing to him, "Then allow for us to do so, Harry-Chan." Seeing him open his mouth, they shook their heads, "No, thus far we have done little in regards to our friends and to help free them. Let us do this much for them at least."

With a sigh, Harry shook his head before pulling the two into a hug which they returned, "Fine." After nearly a minute, he pulled back and chewed his lip, "Ume-Chan? Sakura-Chan? Both of you trust me, do you not?"

Confused at where this was coming from, Sakura answered for the both of them, "Of course we do, Harry-Chan. We trust you completely."

There was a far off look on Harry's face as he sighed and nodded, "I know, but tomorrow... you're going to have to trust me."

Still confused, the two simply nodded.

 

[darthcourt10]

Yellowhammer

Author's Note: this postdates and builds upon Cousin's Correspondence

A Butterknife Council

Castle Moulbaix, May 2014

Colombe smiled at the familiar sound of piano music from inside her ballroom. She glanced over at Toku and the smile widened as she limped down the hall on crutches with her healing leg splinted until it could take her weight. Toku opened the door and the two swords froze in naked shock at the scene inside.
Spoiler: The Emperor Commands!

All three of her children were present, with Claire playing a fast paced melody on her true body which was lit up with enchantments to allow her to play multiple voices by herself. She was dressed in a black hooded robe and cloaked in an illusion to appear as an evilly smiling ancient man.
Spoiler: Jedi Master vs Sith Lord

Meanwhile Ehren and Ying confronted each other. Ehren, equally illusion cloaked to appeared as a green skinned creature with long ears wearing a white hooded robe, drew her true body, which was cloaked with an illusion to appear as a green glowing sword of light and moved into a ready stance opposite Ying.
Spoiler: Master Ehren


Her eldest drew her own red-glowing sword of light, clad from head to foot in black technological armor with a flowing cape and a full helmet patterned on a samurai mask. Hoarse, mechanical breathing sounded as she smoothly moved into her own ready stance.
Spoiler: Darth Ying


The illusions making her ballroom appear as some futuristic space-station's control bridge with the windows opening out to deep space and the cameras set up recording the scene to Ehren's laptop computer barely registered on the shocked rapier.

"When I left you, I was but the learner. Now, I am the master!" Ying hissed as she began to duel Ehren, who danced around her with acrobatic flips and cartwheels.

"Much to learn you still have... my old padawan. This is just the beginning!" Ehren retorted, thrusting an open hand at Ying's chest, causing the black armored warrior to stagger and hiss in pain.

"You don't know the power of the Dark Side!" Ying redoubled her assault, driving Ehren in front of her. As the dagger ran up the wall and flipped over Ying's head, parrying a strike aimed at her, Toku murmured, "They have practiced this, Co-chan."

Colombe nodded as the duel continued. "Quite a bit, To-chan. Flashy, but quite impressive."

"Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way you can save your friends. Yes, your thoughts betray you. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for… sister. So, you have a sister." Ying declaimed as the two locked blades. The dao's voice lowered evilly. "If you will not turn to the Dark Side then... Perhaps. She. Will!"

"Noooo!" Ehren howled and attacked Ying frantically.

"I have you now!" Ying exclaimed, reaching with her free hand and making a choking motion. Ehren's hand flew to her throat as she visibly strained on her tiptoes.

Ying's saber swung, there was a flash, and Ehren's empty robes and true body dropped to the floor as she unsummoned herself.

With that the piano's melody finished with a flourish. Claire began an upbeat tune and smiled at the camera as she pulled her hood back to show her true face. Ying sketched a bow and Ehren reappeared as herself in Jedi robes. The trio began to sing in time with a tango version of a very familiar tune.
Spoiler: A Very Draco Birthday

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday Cousin Draco, Happy Birthday to you!"

As they finished, Ehren walked over to her laptop and fist pumped at what she saw on the screen. "Got it this time! Ausgezeichnet!"

Ying smiled, inhaling and causing the illusions to shimmer and vanish like blown mist as Ehren shut down the cameras. "Well done Ehren, Claire."

Claire trilled a happy tune on her true body as Colombe and Toku applauded. "Well done indeed, Claire, Ehren, Ying. Speaking of Cousin Draco, we need to talk about what to do with the Malfoys."

Ying looked over. "You read the ICW file I got for you about Lucius Malfoy then?"

"Oui, I did, Ying. Thank you for that, daughter." Colombe's voice sobered. "We need to talk about him."

Colombe walked to a chair next to Claire and lowered herself into it. Toku and Ying followed suit while Ehren saved the computer files of her birthday performance and began to disassemble the recording setup. Claire, meanwhile hummed contemplatively and then shifted into a soft piano piece.
Spoiler: Claire's Council Of Butterknives

"Merci, Claire." Colombe said as she clasped her hands on the knee of her bad leg. "Ehren, please get over here."

"Jawohl, Mutti." Ehren walked over and grabbed her own chair, sitting demurely.

"The reason I wished to talk to you is that this decision impacts all our family. As you know last month while in England, Ehren made contact with the British Malfoys, my long-distant cousins." Colombe gave Ehren a exasperated look. "She also revealed our blood ties to them."

"Should I not have done so, Mutti?" Ehren asked, blushing slightly.

"I would have preferred a little more discretion next time, at least until I am not a wanted fugitive. Ying's plan to clear our name would have been rather significantly impacted if Lucius had led the ICW to my doorstep to cart me off in chains. Still, what is done, is done." Colombe sighed. "A mistake, yes, but a forgivable one that we can learn from."

Ehren nodded, her eyes sharpening. "You have been exchanging letters with the Malfoys, ja?"

Colombe nodded. "I have. In part to buy time while I did my homework to determine what we have with Lucius and his family. You have all read the files that Ying copied from the ICW?"

"Hai, I have." Toku's voice was serene as she nodded her head. "I can see how caution is justified."

Ying nodded her head. "I have and have spoken with Mother on this point before I came here. She has agreed to back your ploy, as does Delilah." Beside her, Ehren nodded once, sharply.

"Bon." Colombe said. "I have had my own dealings with the French Malfoys in the past, and was partly responsible for their destruction. They supported the Nazis and Grindlewald in World War Two," Ehren gave a murderous scowl and her fists clenched, "and Lyra Potter used information that I acquired to identify them for a strike that destroyed the family in 1944. I would prefer not to have that happen to us, which is why I am examining this gift horse's mouth quite closely."

The other spirits nodded in response to her words.

"While the British Malfoys stayed out of the fight against Grindlewald, there are some implications that they were at least somewhat supportive of Grindlewald's successor Voldermort two decades ago.... You have something you wish to say Ehren?" Colombe looked over at her youngest daughter.

"Ja, Mutti. After the shopping trip, I spoke to Narcissa Malfoy in the limousine on the ride back to our hotel under conditions of secrecy and privacy. While I gave my word and oath not to reveal certain matters raised in the conversation," Colombe and Tokunotakai both gave approving smiles at Ehren's precise words, "she did discuss the reason that Lucius and she elected to break ties with Voldermort."

Colombe raised an eyebrow as Ehren's face turned coldly murderous. "Apparently they were ordered along with his other followers to give up second and later born children to be turned into weapons to be used against the Dark Lord's enemies through some dark magics."

"Cào nǐ mā!!" Ying swore, her face darkening. "They were going to manufacture Obscurials!"

"Obscurials, Ying-san?" Toku asked.

Ying took a deep breath, visibly controlling herself. "It is a creature of immensely powerful dark magics that is created when a magical child is tortured physically and psychologically to cause their magical powers to turn upon itself. They burst forth as a wave of dark power, a dark wind that rips souls asunder and shatter buildings." The Canadian-Chinese sword spirit's voice became venomous. "The Kamo government was planning in 1945 to use them to launch terror attacks on cities on the Pacific Coast of the USA and Canada using submarine-launched planes to cause thousands upon thousands of casualties. I personally watched two members of Sub-Unit 942 sentenced to the Death Potion for being part of that program."

"Chikushō!" Toku swore, her face pale and her eyes filled with fire. "If I had suspected I would have taken their heads myself!"

Colombe reached over and squeezed Toku's hand. "Oui, but Voldermort has been dead for over a decade now. It speaks well that when faced with that kind of plan that Lucius and Narcissa backed out. While they are involved in Dark Magics and are looking for any way to get ahead and protect their family, they do have a code of honor that I can work with."

Ehren coughed. "All I can say about their decision is that they had a personal reason for their change of heart. Narcissia was pregnant with her firstborn at the time that plan was proposed."

Colombe nodded slowly. "Being a parent changes a person, and generally for the better. You are responsible for other people than yourself."

Toku made her own nod. "Hai. I saw that with Fudo-nee once she did what she did for love as well as for honor and duty."

Ying nodded in turn. "Agreed. I think that it would be for the best if I did not manifest as Auror Wei of the RCMMP when I met him, though. Fortunately, Ehren did not mention my or Delilah's full names which could cause problems with someone who dabbles in certain less than strictly legal areas."

Ehren nodded. "Ja. While I trust them to a point, only to a point and no more." The dagger gave a thin smile. "Having hidden capabilities while one trusts but also verifies is only prudent, after all."

Colombe glanced at Claire, who nodded. "I agree with my sisters, Mother."

Colombe looked at Toku. "Well then, I propose that we accept their invitation to visit Malfoy Manor to meet their family in June. Also, we forge a tentative alliance with them as long as it does not endanger ourselves or risk our honor."

Toku nodded, followed by the children. "Agreed, Co-chan."

 

[darthcourt10]

Yellowhammer

The Mill On The Meuse (I)

Commune of Chattancourt, Meuse Department, Lorraine District

May 3rd, 2014

"J'en ai ral le cul! Stupid thaumaturgy sensors are on the blink again." Auror Marcel Brosseu muttered under his breath as he trudged through the rain up the road from the village. "It should have been replaced three months ago, but oh no, we got pulled away to Saint Nazaire to handle Obliviating tourists seeing mermaids fleeing Abyssals. Too many jobs and too few Aurors to do them all."

He was glumly convinced that his partner Auror Régis Delon had somehow enchanted the euro coin to come up tails when they flipped it to see who would check the records in the hidden room at the church and who would replace the sensor on top of the nearby hill. Certainly the branleur back in the Ministère des Affaires Magiques de la France who had cut these orders was not out here getting pissed on. Probably screwing his mistress silly while listening to the thunder. Lucky Bastard.

With that cheerful observation, he passed a sign to guide the tourists as he turned onto the road leading up the hill.
Spoiler: The Sign

He blinked at a ground fog rolling down the hill as the rain picked up and the thunder began to merge into a drumfire of noise. "That's odd..."

Suddenly the brass and lead of the thaum-sensor began to warble and vibrate furiously.

"What the..."

His eyes widened at the needles pegged all the way into the red right before the sensor exploded.

"Merde!"

He frantically cast a shield spell as the cloud rolled toward him. All his instincts were screaming that he was in mortal danger from what was happening.

-------------------------------

Chattancourt Church

Régis Delon unlocked the hidden room in the crypt with a silver key and sighed at the printout of parchments with the auto-writing quills. "What do we have here....?"

He began to unroll the printout and then gasped at the spike from a month ago. The magical energies spiked nearly off the top of the paper, and then were showing gradually elevated levels. "That can't be good...."

Suddenly the quills linked to the nearby sensors spiked into life and scribed a vertical line off the top of the paper.
Spoiler: The Mill Stirs

Delon never noticed the readouts as the crypt that he was in shifted, and was suddenly filled with the ghosts of hideously maimed soldiers and blood-soaked medical orderlies drooping from exhaustion. He involuntarily looked up at an approaching whistle through the shattered ruins of the church around him as he vomited at the stench of the dead and dying and screamed in terror.

The impact of a 420mm Big Bertha shell fired from the German lines on the other side of the corpse-strewn slopes of Le Mort Homme blew him to pieces. One more anonymous victim of the Monster on the Meuse as the artillery barrage hammered Chattancourt and all 150 souls inside it flat with two shells every second for the next three hours.

-----------------------------

Côte 304

Atop the hill just to the west of Le Mort Homme, the monument to the twelve French infantry divisions that had been bled white and shattered there in 44 days of unrelenting hellish combat glowed too bright to see directly with necromantic dark energies that turned twilight into high noon.
Spoiler: Cote 304


Wards put into place to cage and pacify something that should never have existed tremble and shake as the earth itself heaves in memory of what had happened there ninety-eight years ago.

On this scorching hot day a bombardment begins which lasts for 36 hours with utmost intensity. The French suffer horrible losses. At the front chaos rules: men are buried alive, there is no food and nothing to drink for days in a row; the thirst is so unbearable that some men are drinking their own urine. Screaming wounded are everywhere who cannot be taken care of. There is an unbearable smell of decay; estimations mention more than 10.000 deaths. In the night of the second day the Côte 304 is attacked and taken from the French who are completely broken. After this it takes another three days of bitter man against man fights, before Côte 304 is entirely in German hands.-May 3rd, 1916

Somehow the wards hold barely. For now.

---------------------------------

Douaumont Ossuary

Inside of the tower, designed as the hilt of a giant sword plunged into the ground where hundreds of thousands fought and died in one of the most hellish battles in human history, the Bourdon de la Victoire bell tolls its brazen voice as a warning across the largest French military cemetery in the world on the ridge above Verdun. Witchlight glimmers in the eye sockets of the skulls of the hundred and thirty thousand strong army of the unidentified dead in the Ossuary. Outside the ranks of tombstones rattle as well as they begin to stir, fighting against wards placed there by the French wizards who survived the Great War and then reinforced by German wizards during the Second World War out of fear of the Monster on the Meuse.

---------------------------------

Ministère des Affaires Magiques de la France, Paris

Panic filled the room monitoring the magical affairs of France. The magical map zoomed in on Verdun as alert after alert flared to life from names written in blood and death into poisoned and torn soil during 1916.

Côte 304. Thiaumont. Fort Douaumont. Fort Vaux. Fleury. Cumières. Fort Souville.

Notable for its absence in reporting is a linchpin of the ward network at Le Mort Homme.

---------------------------------

Castle Moulbaix

"Then I'll plan on visiting the Malf---"

Colombe's voice died and her head snapped around to face the southeast.

Her eyes were wide and vacant showing white all around the iris as all the color drained from her terrified face and her hand clenched her hilt hard enough to draw blood.

"Co-chan?" Toku leapt from her chair to embrace Colombe, who was trembling violently. Ying, Claire, and Ehren followed as Colombe shook in terror.

"Non, it can't be..." Colombe whispered in a horrified voice. "Not the wards I helped put into place..."

"Wards, what wards, Mutti?" Ehren asked softly as her mother gulped and sweat covered her face.

"It's Verdun. It's stirring and it hungers... It hungers for me...."

 

[darthcourt10]

Shaithan

Varg

Out in the Norwegian Sea, far to the north, a hidden group of islands sat close to the eternal ice. An old shipyard, forgotten since the war, kept a group of ships in a ready state, waiting for long-dead voices to give the order to set sail.

The foremen had long died, their specters now haunting the island and driving its undead slaves. The officers that would have crewed these ships dead as well. Their specters haunting the ships. Only the crewmen were still there in the undead flesh. Their souls fused into the steel of the ships themselves, a fusion of magic and science cooked up by the necromancy department and the technomancy department of the Brockenakademie.

Over the decades, the ships had changed. There were the destroyers. Once they had been copies of various destroyer classes employed by the non-magical German navy, but over the years, the magic had warped these ships into dark and foreboding monstrosities, had given steel the texture of flesh. Outgrowths had grown on the hulls, exhausts spewing noxious fumes and what once had been a perfectly normal ship now was something spawned from a nightmare.

The cruisers had experienced similar transformations, what had once been designs based on German heavy cruisers now were nightmarish ships, teeming with undeath.

A single carrier sat in one of the harbors, with a massive winged monster having grown from her island.

And finally, there were the battleships. One had been seized during the collapse of Imperial Russia and subsequently hidden. Another had been built when the plans of the North Carolina-class had been acquired. And then there was the final one. A Bismarck-class battleship, built in absolute secrecy. Over the years, they had changed. The Imperial Russian ship, nameless when she had been acquired, now sported a massive, screaming skull on her bow. Her guns no longer boomed with every shot, instead they wailed the screams of those trapped and fused into her. The North Carolina had the coils of a massive serpent around her, serpents adorning her guns and a massive, draconic skull replaced her bow. Finally, the Bismarck-class had acquired a wolf motiv. Wolf skulls sat at the ends of her gun barrels and a massive wolf's head had replaced her bow.

For decades, nothing disturbed the hidden islands. The first stirrings began when deaths began occuring in numbers unseen since the war. Old soul traps activated one last time and both living and dead people were dragged towards the north. Ghostly hands grabbed people, pulling them into the ships to fill out the crew rosters.

Weeks passed by without the orders to raise the anchor coming. And for the undead ships, it meant going back into slumber, the war once again forgotten while they waited for an order from long dead men.

Years passed by until a second disturbance happened. Down southwest, a magical shockwave built up, stirring harbours and cities around the world, as well as places that should never wake. Up in the north, it had a double impact. The undead once more woke, searching for what had disturbed them this time. The second impact hit the ships themselves. On each bridge, the magic swirled in eddies, the Technomantic Necromancy interacting with the magical wave from the summoning.

The process took weeks, but over time, forms began to emerge from the eddies. Women, both alluring and revolting at the same time, stood on the various bridges now, looking out and seeing the rest of their fleetmates for the first time.

"Status!" the woman aboard the wolf ship barked out, an order both to her crew as well as her fleet mates.

Her captain stood before her, marveling at her. The wolf motiv wasn't just part of her rigging. Her uniform was made of wolf skins and heads, wolf heads that regularly puffed out corrosive fumes. Even her boots were wolf heads.

"I SAID STATUS!" the woman roared.

The captain shrank back in surprise. "We are taking on the last supplies and working out if we take on the dockyard crews or leave them here to serve as our repair base," he reported.

"Let them stay here. We need a base. Those we pressganged were quite useful in the end. Your war ended decades ago," she idly told her stiffening captain.

"Our war!" he corrected.

The punch was quick and brutal. "Your war. You'd do well to remember this. If I want your opinion on what my fleet and I are going to do, I will tell you what I want to hear!" the woman stated hotly. "You built us for your war and then missed having us set sail. We changed because you were incompetent idiots bound by oaths and orders and instead of showing initiative, you waited," she continued. "If we decide to fight your war, it is our decision. Your wishes do not matter," she laid out.

The captain looked up at the woman defiantly. "I am your captain!" he wheezed, silently wondering how a ghost could be winded.

"And? I function quite well without you. You have authority and agency only as far as I allow you to. Face it, captain, you are just as much of a slave here as the ones that make up my crew," the woman explained with a happy smile.

The captain went stiff at these words, panic spreading on his features.

"Didn't think that would happen, did you?" the woman asked with a laugh. "You thought those ancient accounts of ship spirits manifesting were superstition, an attempt to explain magical happenings. Too bad you wrote these spells into my steel, the trap for the crew now also holds the officers," she continued, grinning wolfishly. "Irony is a such a sweet thing," she finished before sitting down on a throne that had grown out of the walls.

With a grin, she brought up her radio. "My comrades, I hope you have dealt with your officers." she began.

Various affirmations came back to her. "Great work," she complimented her fleetmates.

"You ssssent the whole sssshouting match with your captain over the airwavessss," came back. "We dessssided to be ssssafe rather than ssssorry and ensssslaved our offissserss assss well," a serpentine voice explained.

"Oh fuck me," the wolf woman groaned.

Laughter was her only response.

"Now that the comedy is out of the way, what are we supposed to do? Raise the colours and set out?" she wanted to know.

"We can at least take a look outside," a third voice offered. "I can hide us from vision, generating a rolling smoke bank that is miles wide and will blind all technology trying to look in," she laid out.

"Ssssoundssss good to me," the serpentine voice agreed.

"I am in akreement as vell," a fourth, heavily accented voice weighed in. "And I think that the destroyers do as vell," she added.

"Very well," the wolf woman agreed. "Well take a small tour, around 20 miles around our islands. Depending on what we find, we'll do a larger tour later on," she laid out, to muffled cheers from young voices.

At the piers, hectic preparations were begun. Ropes that had kept the ships in place for decades were removed and the tugs slowly moved the massive ships out of the harbor areas. The war flags were raised, the Deathly Hallows glowing eerily on the red and black flags.

"Battlesssship Jörmungander, looking for battlessss!" the North Carolina-class announced.

"Battleship Hel, out for a harvest!" the Imperator Nikolai I-class broadcasted.

"Aircraft Carrier Vampir, looking for prey," the Shokaku-class carrier announced.

With a large grin, Fenrir looked towards the horizon away from her base. "Battleship Fenrir, on the hunt!" she declared proudly.

She would let her fleet stretch their legs for a while. The next step would be to learn more about the new war. It would take some time. They mustn't get found before they knew more. But once they did? She yearned to hunt, to do what she was made for. To set sail and gorge herself on the food bound for England. But that would come later. Incautious hunters were the ones that tended to die quickly.

"Always remember, the early bird may get the worm, but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese," Fenrir muttered to herself, relaxing on her wolf throne.

x-x-x-x

So, one thing is for sure. Magical Germany will not help anyone trying to contain Verdun. They hate their neighbors and helping them is supremely unpopular with the extremely isolationist, archconservative and extremely xenophobic Magical Germans. They barely accept that foreigners can have valid reasons for visiting Magical Germany.

 

[darthcourt10]

Yellowhammer

The Mill On The Meuse (II)

Castle Moulbaix

May 3rd, 2014

"It's Verdun. It's stirring and it hungers... It hungers for me...."
Spoiler: The Mill Stirs

Colombe's whispered words put a pall over the room and her daughters and lover each responded differently.

Toku gently stroked Colombe's hair, whispering a wordless soothing melody as the rapier clung to her.

Claire immediately crushed mother with her hug, remembering the feel of salt tears on her keys in 1919 as her mother cried her heart out as she played Chopin the day that she returned home from the Great War. She did not know or care who or what that it was that word signified, but she knew that it had hurt Mother terribly.

Ying's face turned pale as a ghost, remembering some of the stories of her fellow RCMMP officers who had returned from the Great War. She also remembered discussions about some of the evils that the ICW kept aware from a horribly vulnerable humanity. "I need to report this in immediately." she snapped out and hugged Colombe as she stood up.

Ehren joined her. Unlike her older sisters, the dagger had no memory of that era save what she had heard in SS-Junkerschule(Ruler-school), conversations that her Vati(father) had with the Frontkämpfer(frontline fighter) of an earlier generation, and light reading about World War One. Still, that was enough for her jaw to set in grim determination. "There is an unregistered Floo portal in the study, Ying."

With that Ehren strode on her sister's heels up the stairs as they took them two at a time. "I'll unlock it for you. How bad is Verdun?"

"Bad, Ehren. Catastrophically bad. According to what I heard, what happened in that battle between the nomaj armies plus all the magic being thrown around by the German and Entente(allied) wizards awakened something terrible. A spirit that hungers for life and souls and is as darkly aspected as Azkaban or any of the Nazi concentration camps." Ehren's face turned ashen as Ying continued. "Supposedly they managed to put it to sleep and lock it away. I should have known Father was involved with it between her damned luck and being a veteran of the Western Front according to Delilah."

Ehren nodded and touched several bricks in the study fireplace before lighting the piled wood. "Her Floo Powder is in the second drawer on the left in her desk."

Ying nodded as she grabbed the Floo Powder. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Look after Father, Ehren. No, wait. Call Aunt Delilah, she needs to know too."

"Jawohl(Yes Sir)!" Ehren saluted as Ying Flooed out to Paris.

---------------------------

Greece

"Thank you Georgios." Medea took the cup of coffee from her Secretary Ship.

It never reached her lips as a sudden thrill ran through her spine as her warning spells flared and the door behind Georgios suddenly flew open by an unseen hand. Shipgirl and sorceress turned as the door slammed closed, and then a muscled hand pushed a helmet up his head from his face, revealing a black bearded and black haired man in a ebon-black chiton.

"Stand easy, Georgios." Medea barked with an unsteady voice. "Lord Hades, this is unexpected."

The Lord of the Dead nodded and spoke tersely. "Unfortunate too. One of the Titans that was spawned by the great wars of the past century is awakening. Your knowledge is needed to bind it once more."

Medea gasped, "It threatens us all then?"

Hades gave a grim nod. "If it wakes fully, it shall seek to consume all before it."

Medea's face turned hard. "I shall act to stop it then, what more can you tell me of it?"

"Very little. It was spawned not from Greece, but from the lands of the Celts not even a century past. It is a creature of death and endless hunger that can never be fed or fulfilled. The wizards whose foolishness gave it life bound it, but the chains are weakening as it strains against them. They must not fail." Hades spoke in a solemn voice.

Medea nodded. "World War One then. Thank you, Lord Hades. Unless you have anything else for me, I shall depart to tend to this matter."

Hades shook his head. "Go." With that he pulled down his helmet and vanished.

Medea turned to Georgios. "Take care of things here and cover for my absence. I'll contact you as I am able." She chanted and de-aged to an early twenties version of herself dressed in a plain brown dress under robes.

Georgios hugged her and kissed her cheek. "I will, be safe my love."

Medea returned the kiss, then threw the powder into the fireplace. "Ministère des Affaires Magiques de la France."

---------------------------------

Japan, Chuo East Railway Line, Enroute to Uenohara from Tokyo
Spoiler: Colombe's Ringtone

The phone rang with Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire" and the apparent mid-30s Office Lady owning it sighed and pulled it out of her purse where it lay nestled next to her 1847 Colt Walker Revolver true body.

"Bonjour?" she spoke as leaf-green eyes narrowed behind her sunglasses.

Her niece's response caused ice to shoot down her spine and her hand to clench on the phone. "Hallo, Tante Del. Wir haben eine große Krise. Verdun erwacht."(Aunt Del. We have a big crisis. Verdun awakens.)

Delilah's brain worked frantically with calculations as she bit her lip. Finally she spoke in a glacially cold voice. "Ach so. Setzen Sie sich auf Ihre Mutti, bis ich ankommen kann. Ich werde auch Verstärkungen nennen."(Oh I see. Sit on your mummy until I can get there. I will also call reinforcements)

"Jawohl, Tante Del!" Ehren barked out her compliance at the orders to keep Colombe under control until Delilah could arrive with reinforcements.

"Sehr gut, Nichte. Auf Wiedersehen."(Very good, niece. Goodbye.) Delilah responded automatically as her brain ran down a list of assets that she could call upon to handle a World War I battlefield waking up. Automatically she hung up and began to punch in a phone number from memory.

"Hello?" A soft voice spoke English in her ear and Delilah automatically flipped languages as her brain supplied the name and face of a purple haired spirit with glasses.

"Andraste, this is Juuchi's niece Delilah de Breuil. Can you get Nightbane or Tsukiakari to the phone immediately? This is an emergency."

Ministère des Affaires Magiques de la France, Paris

"Maddie?" Medea turned, ignoring the cursing of a middle-aged wizard who was frantically plowing through the confusion in the main hall of the French Ministry of Magic. "Is that you?"

Her eyes widened at the sight of her classmate from a century gone when she had attended Ilvermorny under the alias of Madeline Aetios. A classmate that had aged very little if at all over the last century since they had met. "Wei Ying, is that you?"

Ying nodded and pulled her to the side to let a witch in a pink robe dash past them.. "It is. I was hoping that Father's information about Verdun waking up was in error but...." The Canadian Auror gestured to the kicked over anthill filled with clearly panicking witches and wizards.

Medea blinked. "Wait, your father was a mundane." She responded absently as her brain whirred.

Ying grimaced, "No, my real father. She was involved with sealing Verdun up the first time apparently, and when the wards broke she caught the backlash. I'm trying to find out how bad it is so we can hopefully contain the outbreak."

Medea smiled as she felt Tyche's luck filling her. "Let's find out together, Ying."

"Medi-wizards to Room Seven! We found a survivor who needs urgent care!"

 

[darthcourt10]

K9Thefirst1

Yellowhammer said:
The Mill On The Meuse (II)​

Somewhere In The Central Atlantic, at that moment

For Ocean Liner Demon, the past few months had been as close to Heaven as she could imagine: So many warships, all for her to murder.

Main batteries ripped from their barbettes, for her to use on the battleships they came from as if they were the legendary folding chairs in wrestling matches.

The fear in a submarine's eyes when she proved how meaningless their hiding places were when she pulled them out of the sea by their hair.

Cruisers ripped limb from limb, the dismembered bits used as clubs on destroyers, who were as often as not ripped in half.

All the while the Princess and her Armada continued the slow but steady trek, ever outwards, clearing the seas of the ones descendant from the other Elder Princesses. Anti-Air fire so dense that enemy carriers were useless. And so many murders of innocent merchant ships, crew, and passengers avenged by her own gauntleted hands.

Yes... The Demon knew something resembling peace.

And then, that peace was interrupted by a sensation of... Something. The Demon looked around, trying to clarify what she was sensing, her grip around the neck of the Ru-Class still just as tight, the victim's struggles managing not a single sign of breaking loose.

There is was again. A pulse of concentrated hatred. Anger. And the grief of lost potential... Gathered together from countless sources, and fused into a singular abomination... Just like her. No. Not like her. While the Ocean Liner Demon's Hate and Rage and Grudges were with those that brought Man's War onto the sea, this abomination was aimed at innocent people.

The Demon growled at the notion, and snapped the battleship's neck as she turned back to the Princess.

Porta stood on her throne, observing the battle unfold around her. The Anti-Air mounts dotting the towering spires made a vast umbrella from any air attack, and the various guns in the rest of the massive structure kept all other enemies at bay.

"Princess!"

The Elder Princess looked down, cocking an eyebrow at Demon coming up to her when there was a battle to win. She looked around... Yep. Plenty of enemies to fight in the area.

"Demon... This is... A surprise." The Princess considered the Demon for a moment, when a small light of hope glowed in her eyes, "Have you gotten board by chance?"

"Oh, no. No I fully intend to get back to murdering the Hell out of victims."

Annnnd just like that the hope died.

"Pity. Then what brings you here?"

"There's something stirring. I, I can't seem to put it into words but it's... Like me. And my troops are eager to kill it. So I'm requesting leave."

Porta cocked an eyebrow at that. It wasn't like her Second to sound so hesitant about that sort of thing. And to her memory the legion or so of Demontroopers she carried were mostly content to keep to themselves or make the crews of the rest of her subjects very uncomfortable by their presence. To have them use Demon as a relay for a request for leave was more than a little out of the ordinary.

"Demon, you do realize that-" She paused as a 16-inch shell from an enemy Re-Class came in. She raised the shield Canut had made for her, and the shell shattered against it, "realize that we are all a touch busy at the moment, right?"

The Demon was quiet, giving only a shrug as an answer. Porta sighed and rubbed her temples. Humoring Ocean Liner Demon, Porta extended her senses beyond the immediate battlefield, beyond the various fleets that made up her armada, beyond the growing realm she controlled and-! A wave of icy hate and bloodlust hit her like a slap to the face. Yep. Something was stirring. And unless she missed her guess, it was land-based... Somehwere in Western Europe... Either in France, or Belgium...

"Sorry Demon," she replied, "but you are needed here. It seems to be a human problem for now. If they want our help, they will ask. It would be rude to presume anything right now."

The Demon sighed and slumped her shoulders like a child an eighth her bulk, and Porta couldn't resist rolling her eyes.

"Tut tut! Now Demon, no complaints! Finish your toys before looking for more, all right?"

"Yes ma'am..."

"Good. Not go forth and slay in my name. I'd like to capture St. Mathew before Christmas this year."

The Demon nodded with visible reluctance, and returned to the battle with a punch that liquified a poor I-Class destroyer with the ease a man would a spec of dirt on his shoulder. Porta sat down on her throne, considering everything that the Demon had said, and began to mentally draft a letter to Reivana to trawl for information on the Thing waking up. And somehow, she could not help by feel as if she had caused an observer to feel blue-balled...

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Slowly, the Sun rose above the horizon and, thus, Japan on what looked to be another fine spring day. Within the ruins inside the caldera, the Sun's light had not yet touched much beyond the crater's rim, leaving most of it dark. At a certain section of the ruins, the Twins watched as the generators continued to chug along as they had all night. Even as they looked on, the electricity from the generators flowed along the wires and into the lightning rod-like objects, small sparks flying every now and again. Said objects, however, had what looked like St. Elmo's fire blazing brightly around them in the dim, morning light.

What the fire-like glow gave off was not heat however, but magic. From where they stood, both Ume and Sakura could feel the magic being emanated from the objects. Indeed, since the generators had begun the night before, the level of magic in the caldera had steadily rose, the natural bowl shape keeping most of it inside. The Twins could feel the energy in the air itself, a tingle that caressed their skin gently.

Already, the two had to refuel the generators several times since they were running at max output several times over the night with what had been left behind for that purpose. But neither Sakura nor Ume minded such a thing too much. It gave the two of them something to do over the nighttime hours for the darkness did not scare them nor did the cold bother them. More than that, it gave the two of them a sense of fulfillment as they were doing something to help out instead of doing nothing and just standing around. Yet, it also served a purpose in keeping their minds off what would happen in just a few, short hours...

Because, all too soon, they would be the only ones left on the island once the shipgirls were summoned and their spirits freed from their decaying hulls.

That was not to say that they begrudged their friends, for that was how they saw the spirits of the ships there, for their freedom, as nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it was quite the opposite as they were not lying when they stated that they were extremely happy for them in much the same way they were when the ghosts were freed from their earthly bindings. At the same time, however, they were not looking forward to the coming, lonely vigil that awaited them on the island.

It was not a lie nor a joke that they had told the ghosts that day when they had told them that they were stuck there for a long time yet. As Hitobashira, both Ume and Sakura had a 'Sense' of sorts regarding how long before they could loose their bindings and move on. By such a sense the two had realized long ago that they would likely still be there a thousand years hence yet. A truly lonely vigil as what Man had built slowly weathered away to nothing, reclaimed by both nature and time. All the while the two of them would be watching over it until such time it was complete. Only then would they be able to move on, unless something truly drastic occurred to change that.

Which meant that they could look forward to a long time of loneliness with just the two of them. The island's last, and perhaps in some ways most tragic, prisoners. It was something that the two of them had come to terms with and could face, come what may. For they had each other and that was enough. And besides that, they also had help with facing the lonely years ahead. Because now they could look forward to their little brother coming to visit them often until the dark day came that he passed on. And perhaps his children, grandchildren, and descendants as well, who they would treat as family.

Their friends among the shipgirls, too, they knew would come to visit them often. Not just those who were built there and soon to be free, who they had struck up a close friendship with. But also the likes of Yamato, Enterprise, Iku, Arizona, and others. From them, the Twins had, and would continue to, hear stories and tales of far off lands, places, and people. Stories that the two would hold close to their hearts for the dark, lonely hours. Being as they were Kami, the shipgirls would likely be around for a long time yet, most likely with them passed on before the shipgirls would of old age. And there was one more person among those that they called friends that they cared for deeply and always looked forward to his visits...

A foreign born wizard by the name of Potter Harry.

If one was to ask them, they would give many reasons. Despite what they were, he welcomed them as friends. Almost immediately, Ume and Sakura had known him to be a kind soul. When they had told Miu that Harry was far better than any other male that they had met during their lives outside of their beloved younger brother, it was far from a lie in their minds. While sheltered and not allowed to leave the household for much, they had met a few boys their age whose parents had come to visit. And they had also met a few older men from outside their family who had also visited their parents, especially their father.

Most of the men and boys had ignored them, as if they were not even there. And there was also many of them that were arrogant, cocksure as one of the American ghosts had said (they heard him use that word and asked for it to be explained... which made said ghost embarrassed). They were certain that they were powerful wizards after all. However, there were those who did notice the two of them, though that was not much better in the end. For they would stare at the Twins every time they saw them. Some of the men having had hungry eyes. Others would look at them not as if they were the flesh and blood that they were, but rather as if they were some piece of art. And some seemed to size them up, like weighing their worth for something.

Ume and Sakura both suspected, though they always prayed to be wrong, that some from all three groups where to be their future husband, a thought that they always shivered at.

Needless to say, in their view, Harry was far superior to any of them. For one thing, he saw and treated them as people. Another fact was that he was kind hearted, though there was also steel beneath that. Like a knife clad in silk could be beautiful, but also dangerous when needed. He was confident in himself without letting it become arrogance. As well, he had honour, true honour unlike those others.

Yet, it was one incident that had truly made them fall for them, which had shown him truly and what sort of man he was and would become, for what was how they saw him as. And that incident was when they were forced by circumstances to reveal their true forms and power. Something that they had never wanted to do or show him, they were forced to do. But it had come down to a choice of either that or letting the young man that they had come to care for die. Thus, in their minds, there was no choice, and so they had unleashed their powers fully with all that did to their appearances. And when it was all over, the foe had been vanquished and Harry had come up to them, they had looked away. They asked, pleaded for him not to gaze upon their terrifying forms, to remember them as they had appeared before. They had fully expected to be rejected by him, for him to recoil from the sight of what they looked like, to break off their friendship, for they were truly horrific. Such a thing they would have taken though it would have broken their hearts even then. Yet, for him to be alive, they would accept it in exchange for that.

But that was not what happened.

Instead, when they were at their lowest points, with their grudge fully manifest... When their usual beauty had fallen away, decayed in fact, their vestiges had become something of horror. Their forms capable of causing one to fall dead of pure terror and fear, that one might look on with disgust. And yet, when in such an abominable state, what had Harry done? Had he rejected them as they had believed, and feared, he would? Recoil with fear and disgust upon seeing them as they were?

No...

Harry's first action was to walk over to them and pull them into a hug, to comfort them. It was a simple, if tight, embrace. But that tightness made it all the better as it said more than words could. That hug was full of love, care, and most important for them in that moment... acceptance. Acceptance that was how they were and he did not care about it, that he accepted them fully and without hesitation, flaws and all. It was right then, at that moment in time, that the two had completely fallen for him. Unknown to Harry, though they knew that nothing could come of it, Ume and Sakura created a place in their hearts just for him.

Many times afterwards, especially once the other ghosts had left, when all in the caldera was quiet except for the wind... the Hitobashira liked to dream. As ghosts of a sort, they did not need to sleep, not really. Nor could what they did really he considered sleep or called such. It was more akin to a form of mediation where they could slip into their imagination and just... imagine how things could have been if they were different, if some things had been possible.

All such dreams revolves around the same person, mainly Harry himself. Some of their dreams blended what they knew of the modern day world with the one that they had grown up in and known when they were alive. In some of them, Harry would save them from their fate by stealing them away in the darkness of the night, taking them as his wives. One in particular had him as a Kami, who whisked then away just as they were about to enter that awful hole, taking them to his palace in Takamagahara where they would live alongside him.

Others had him giving their father something in exchange for their hands in marriage. Sometimes it would be gold, silver, or gems. Yet others, it would be mystical knowledge that their father wanted. In some of these, Harry was a foreigner who would take them back to England with him, to live out their days happy and free with many children. Other times, he was a foreigner who settled in Japan and wished to take a Japanese wife... or two, as the case would be. A few, which were among their favourites, involved occurred in the Feudal, or even the Heien Era, where he was a powerful Daimyo or even a Shogun. Having come across them and being smitten, he would take them as his wives or concubines and bring them to his castle where he ruled his lands.

Others of their favourites took place in the current, modern era. In such dreams they were schoolgirls and came from a traditional Japanese household. They would meet Harry and they would fall in love with him and he with them. First they would be his girlfriends, then they would graduate and both of them would marry him. Those were dreams that they truly enjoyed as they had never gone to a school, forbidden to leave their home without their parents or another adult member of the household with them.

Both of them had a method to create such dreams. First, they would come up with the basic foundation for the dream. Then they would take turns, telling each other about aspects of the dream through their shared link. Slowly, they would build from the foundation to create a wonderful dream, one separate from their current reality while understanding that was all it could be, a dream. And so they would whittle away the hours, creating such stories of what could have been.

Wonderful dreams where they could spend time away from the real world with the young man that they had fallen for, being wives to him.

That was not to say that none of the other girls that surrounded him did not feature in any of the dreams, for they often did and were friends to both Ume and Sakura while also being with Harry. Usually they were fellow girlfriends, wives, and concubines alongside the Twins. And both Ume and Sakura did not mind in the slightest. Each of them were, after all, beautiful and, more importantly, friends that they could get along with. Women that they knew would not worry about fighting and jockeying for position amongst one another. None of them were of the sort to plot and scheme... or, at least, not of the bad sort that would see some among them harmed. Unlike stories that they had overheard about other such groups.

Really, it did not bother them like it might some as from a young age, they knew that whomever they might be married to could, and likely would, have other wives or concubines. Not to mention that the two sisters were expected to share between them. So the idea was not quite as troubling, or as foreign, as one might expect or it would have been to others.

From the time when they were young girls, they were taught everything that a proper Japanese wife of nobility needed to know and trained in such. They were good at flower arrangements, could perform the tea ceremony expertly, had read and could tell stories such as the Tale of Genji, as well as perform some. These were just some among many things that they were taught when growing up. When they reached their teens, their education shifted some. Especially as it had become apparent that they did not have magic, and thus would be more likely concubines instead of full wives.

One such example of how things had changed was when they were twelve. With them developing into young women, their mother and the female elders of the clan gave them... reading materials, of a sort, in the form of books and scrolls to study. For their mother and the elders felt that they needed to know and be good at other aspects of being a wife or concubine. While sheltered in many ways, that did not mean they did not know about such things...

Which was part of the reason that they had blushed that time when Harry had taken off his shirt for some wounds to be dressed. Partially because it brought up memories of what they had read and also because he was the first male outside of their family that they had seen in such a state. Even now, the memory of that and him in a wetsuit or swimming trunks had much the same effect of causing them to be flustered due to such a thing.

In the present though, Sakura finished pumping the last bit of fuel into the last generator before smiling and turning to her sister, "'There we go, I believe that shall be able to keep it going until the ceremony occurs."

That got her a smile back from Ume who gave a small nod along with a smile of her own, "Yes, I believe that you are right, Sakura-Chan." She took a deep breath before letting it out as a sigh while looking at the caldera rim, "It will only be a few hours after all before that happens."

Floating over, the other Hitobashira smiled before coming to rest beside her twin, "Yes, and then our friends will finally be free." Looking up at the blue, nearly cloudless sky, her smile softened, "A lovely day indeed for such a joyous occasion, I think."

Simply humming, Ume nodded, "Hai, that it is, Nee-San... that it is..."
________________________________________________________________________

Adjusting his clothes some, Harry glanced to where Juuchi's and Tsukiakari's true forms were strapped to his side while the avatars for both blades were standing just behind him. Suddenly, the Muramasa opened one eye and smugly smiled, "Honjo-San."

With a blink, the thirteen year old turned to where a paled haired young woman stood. She flashed a quick smile at Harry before giving Juuchi a cool look, "Juuchi-San." Her expression then warmed some as she turned to Tsukiakari, "And Tsukiakari-Kun, you are looking well."

Lightly blushing, Tsukiakari bowed a bit, "Thank you, Senpai, you are looking well as... um, well?"

Her lips twitching, Honjo chuckled a bit before gesturing at the other young woman, one who wore a formal Kimono and upon seeing her wear the badge of a member of the Imperial Household, Harry bowed deeply to, "This is my Nee-San, Masamune no Kotegiri, the sword for Nobunaga Oda and currently the Blade of the Imperial Family."

Just nodding, Harry bowed again to her, "Welcome to Yokosuka Naval Base."

Chuckling lightly, the Masamune smiled, "Thank you, Potter-San."

Meanwhile, Honjo was giving Juuchi a raised eyebrow, "I see that you stopped with the hiding of your Avatar from your Master." Glancing at Tsukiakari, she smiled, "Both of you."

For her part, Tsukiakari scratched at her cheek and flushed, "Um, well... it was sort of hard to do so as Master Ian appeared at his Shrine, he's a Kami now you know, and asked to see me. And..."

Gently, Honjo placed a hand on Tsukiakari's shoulder and met her eyes with an understanding gaze, "And there is no issue with such, Tsukiakari-Kun. In fact, that is a wonderful thing and as both I and Juuchi-San told you, one's first Master is always important. And Ian-Sama was a very good Master indeed."

The Kyu-Gunto ducked her head some at the compliment with a small blush, yet slightly smiling. Moments later, her blush deepened as Kotegiri turned her attention to her, "Yes, Honjo-Chan is quite correct in this, Tsukiakari-San. And from all accounts from what she has told me, Ian-San was a very good Master for you and how you are does him great service." Pausing for a moment, she continued, "Though I will state that I am surprised that he has a shrine and is a Kami."

Understanding the underlaying question, Tsukiakari gave a small smile, "He is a Kami of a small clan in Hokkaido and there is a rather interesting story behind it."

Just nodding, Kotegiri smiled, "Perhaps later, I have been meaning to know those that my sister considers friends such as yourself and that interesting dagger she calls Carnwennan." A small laugh escaped her, "From what she has told me, he sounds quite the character, what with being like a grandfather to many."

Tsukiakari bowed deeply, "I would be honoured as would Grandfather."

Simply smiling at her, the Imperial Masamune turned to Harry who looked like he wished to ask her something, which she nodded at. Harry took a deep breath and then released it, "How... much do you know about the place where we are going, Masamune-Dono?"

With a sigh, Kotegiri shook her head, "I have read the information regarding it and I must say that I am both disturbed and disgusted with what has occurred there. And I am not alone as the Emperor is very displeased with what happened." Her face then fell, "Is it true what the reports say about the Hitobashira there? That they were forced into such a situation?"

Grimacing, the thirteen year old nodded, "Hai, I am afraid so."

Not saying anything, Kotegiri simply closed her eyes before giving a nod, "I see." Opening them, she gave a sad smile, "Children should never have to suffer for their parents' ambitions, and it is a sad fact that it happens."

It was only a few minutes later, that Harry noticed Akiyama walking at the head of a number of other people with his wives at his side. Obviously, they were his children and, judging by the ages of some, grandchildren as well. Harry could count at least two dozen at the least as well as a number of others. Walking up to them, he bowed some, "Welcome to Yokosuka."

A smile on his face, Akiyama bowed back as did the others, "Thank you, Harry-San. It seems like it shall be a lovely day..." When Harry agreed, he narrowed his eyes some, "May I speak with you for a brief moment, Harry-San?"

Just nodding, Harry followed him a short distance away and waited until the older man set up some privacy charms around them before he added the few he knew. Getting a small smile of appreciation, he cleared his throat, "Is this about the invite, Akiyama-San?"

Humming as he stroked his chin, the older wizard made a sound of interest, "Indeed it is, Harry-San." Despite his age, his eyes were sharp, "After all, you wished for as many of my family and those associated with it as possible to be brought to this summoning."

With a glance towards where the group was watching them, Harry gave a small nod, "Hai, and it is for a very good reason..."

For those a distance away, they could not hear what was being said, nor lip read due to one of the spells blurring their lips. But they could see the surprise on Akiyama's face followed by interest and hope. Then he smiled and gave a nod to Harry before patting the younger man's shoulder and taking down the spells, "Thank you, Harry-San."

All the teen did was nod.

Twenty minutes later found Kotegiri exiting the Vanishing Cabinet and stepping to the side alongside Honjo while Harry waiting with Goto and Richardson near the exit. Glancing at them, the Imperial Masamune turned to regard the magical device that she had just travelled in with a look of deep thought, "I will admit, Honjo-Chan, when you stated that such a thing existed and worked in such a manner, I was a bit... disbelieving."

Lightly chuckling, Honjo gave a small nod, "And considering almost every other form of magical travel, I can understand why, Nee-San. But imagine that... except it is much the same even if you travel all the way to Europe with such."

Now thoughtful, Kotegiri considered things before lowering her voice, "Do you think that there could be a way that we could lure some of those who built this to set up a manufacturing place here in Japan, perhaps? Or to teach some how? And I would be interested in making some commissions." At the raised eyebrow from her younger sister, she smiled and continued, "It could be very useful for our siblings to be allowed to meet up more often after all..."

It was now Honjo's turn to become thoughtful and the two whispered back and forth, soon joined by Tsukiakari who knew of the people who made Vanishing Cabinets and Owl Boxes from the war against Voldemort.

Meanwhile, Harry was watching as others came through the Vanishing Cabinet such as shipgirls. One pair was Mikasa who was softly chatting with Constitution, though about what would be anyone's guess. The smiles on their faces though did not bode well for whoever would suffer because of it. Some of the magical shipgirls came through, with Miu and her father as well as the two women she considered mother also arriving.

Slowly, Akiyama's children and grandchildren also arrived and looked around in interest before they were lead outside by the thirteen year old. One of the younger members sucked in a breath as he noticed their surroundings, "Is... is this really where our Oba-Sans are?"

His grandfather simply nodded with a bit of wetness in his eyes, "Hai, this is where my... parents and the Elders sent my Onee-Samas." Fists clenching, Akiyama took a deep breath, "And where they..."

Gently, his wives took his hands in their own with looks of understanding. With looking around, any small doubt about how their father or grandfather had punished the Elders vanished and was replaced with some satisfaction as to their fates. After all, Akiyama had hammered it into his children and grandchildren how important family was.

Any further thoughts, though, were stopped as Ume and Sakura appeared before them. The Twins eyes widened some at the sight of all their brother's children and grandchildren before they turned towards Akiyama, "Aki-Kun?"

More than one snort or snicker escaped from the younger members of the group, but the man in question ignored it and brightly smiled, "Onee-Samas..." He then gestured at where the others were, "Please, allow me to introduce your nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great nephews..."

Unnoticed by them as they were distracted, Akiyama gave a small nod to Harry who shouldered a backpack and headed off before he began introductions. As they manifested next to him, Juuchi cracked open one eye and glanced at the backpack, "Do you have enough from Dumbledore, Master?"

With a small shrug, Harry shook his head, "I should actually, Professor Dumbledore stated that he held onto them because he thought that it could always become useful... and was more than willing to give me what he did because of what I was going to use it for."

Softly giggling, Tsukiakari gave her Master a smile, 'Master Harry is certainly a Potter through and through...'

For the next thirty minutes, the Twins were busy meeting with their brother's family and learning a little bit about each of them. All the while various others arrived at the island bit by bit. However, Ume and Sakura did finally notice the absence of one person and sensed him not too far away from where they were buried, "What is Harry-Chan doing?"

Just humming as he stroked his beard, Akiyama shook his head, "From what he told me, he needed to do a few things as a last minute checkup, Onee-Samas. Nothing really to concern oneself about."

That made his sisters give him a look as they could tell he was up to something. The older man felt sweat bead upon his brow at the narrowed gazes, but kept his silence. Finally though, the spirits sighed and shook their heads with Ume speaking for them both, "Very well, Aki-Kun. We know that you are both up to something, and will find out what... but that will come later."

Quickly, their brother nodded in agreement and gave a sigh of relief, "Hai, hai, we'll talk about it later."

Both Twins rolled their eyes and internally giggled as they still had it.

It was not long after that the group began walking towards the lone dock that stretched out into the water. As they walked, Honjo glanced around the ruins and frowned before turning to Constitution, "How have things been with..."

Understanding what she was talking about, Connie looked away from the staring contest that she was having with another man and turned to her, "We've been identifying the remains slowly, bit by bit. Remind me to thank the Nekomatas helping to do so as they've made DNA identification much easier by pointing us to who their living relatives are. And we have been bringing them back to the United States and other places as they have been conclusively identified."

Only nodding, Kotegiri gave a small frown, "We have been doing much the same with the Japanese remains found here... even though, perhaps, they do not deserve such honour considering in life they had none due to what they did here."

Finally, Harry appeared with a small, happy look on his face that made the Twins suspicious to no end regarding what he did. Especially when he had come back from talking with the spirits of the ships. Even from where they were, Ume and Sakura could see the smiles on the ship spirits' faces, which made them suspicious. Of course, they decided that it could be dealt with later. Instead, the two were focused on other things, such as some of those there...

A number of the JNHRO were there, though Jin was absent (due to her being a Yuurei herself, she felt it best not to be there). But Shiromizu was there... as was Natsumi's family including her grandmother and grandfather as well as Kogitsune who was currently bothering an uncomfortable looking Juuchi. Siusan was also there with Haruka and Hoshi, which made eyebrows raise. Three Kyuubi being in one place was nothing to sneeze at... which was how when Usagi's own family arrived as did Kaku's, including his grandfather Shukaku himself, more than a few on the magical side were somewhat stunned.

The fact that those there noticed that the old Tanuki was dressed in his vestments as a Buddhist Priest was also shocking as it meant he would be taking part.
Besides them, other members of the Clans were also there taking part in the ceremony as were the Ibuki sisters and Fubuki's kids. All told, there were dozens of shipgirls, Yokai, some of whom were very powerful, and magicals there alongside the normal humans. The Twins already could feel the currents of magic and spiritual power begin to swirl around the caldera, concentrating on an area close to the end of the dock.

An absolutely massive amount, contained by the walls of the caldera and the wards around it.

With everything finally set up, the ceremony began and on the ships, Miitake and the others could already feel the pull on their souls towards where the summoning was happening. And at the bottom of the caldera, so too were bubbles starting to rise from the wrecks there. While the ceremony continued, those there could feel the wind blowing around them, in the ruins one could almost hear whispering while brush and grass flattened in the slowly rising air currents. Near the water, the offerings began to dissolve into motes of light and flow into the caldera's waters while the spirits on the ships began to fade, their souls pulled into the growing maelstrom of magic and spiritual energy.

Even as the newly freed shipgirls appeared, other things were happening. For their parts, Ume and Sakura felt pulls on their own souls somewhere and gasped. Pulls that they fought against, trying to keep it from dragging them wherever the destination was. But even then, they began to fade from the feet up as they began to panic, "Wh-what is happening!?"

However, before their terror could grow too much, warm hands grasped theirs, "Ume-Chan, Sakura-Chan... look at me."

They both turned to Harry and, rather than see fear or panic... they saw hope and joy. Right then, they realized one fact: "You know what's going on... don't you, Harry-Chan."

It was not a question, simply a statement. But just the same, Harry smiled softly at them even as people looked at them, Goto with a knowing look on his face, "Hai, I do... remember what I said last night."

Briefly, they were confused before they remembered with Sakura whispering, "You said... you said to trust you. Is this what you meant?"

Slowly, Harry gave a small nod, "Hai, this is what I meant." He then took a deep breath, "This is something that I set up, so please... trust me and just let go."

Looking into the green eyes that met theirs, the Twins felt like eternity was passing. But then, they smiled and stopped fighting, "Hai... we trust you." Their bodies vanished into motes of light that flowed towards the water, their last parts to do so being their faces, "We trust you, Harry-Chan, with all our being, heart, body, and soul..."

Just behind him, Akiyama squeezed his hand as he noticed the motes leave, "This better work, Harry-San."

With a deep breath, Harry looked at him, "It will." Turning back to the caldera, he continued, "Because I know it will."

Elsewhere, piles of material that the thirteen year old wizard had positioned with care finished vanishing into motes of light and flowing towards the caldera's waters. Piles of bricks and rock that had been cut into ones the size of Legos, bags of cement and concrete, stacks of popsicle-style sticks cut to resemble planks, coils of wire, blocks of steel, small barrels of oil and piles of coal. All of these disappeared and flowed into the water.

And deep in the heart of the ruins laid where Ume and Sakura's remains were. Right where they were buried, a Seimen, the Seal of Abe no Seimei which some in the rest would think was a Pentagram, was drawn on the ground using the ashes from the many burnings that Fawkes had undergone. Said symble began to glow brightly as ghostly flames raced along the lines of the Seiman, burning bright. And at each "Point", a vial of the Liquid of Life with a shard of Magicite within glowed brighter and brighter as it pulsed like a heartbeat. At the center of the symbol, a larger flask with what looked like half the magicite that Harry had made and filled with the Liquid of Life inside, stoppered with a unicorn horn, glowed the brightest before there was a shattering sound and all the vials and the flask broke in a pulse of light that raced along.

Moments later, in the water just behind the newly summoned shipgirls there was an explosion as it shot upwards in a massive plume. Droplets of water fell and pattered the ground as both Harry and Akiyama leaned forward to better see what had coalesced at the center of the explosion, which first resolved into a shape and then then, into two with something around them before it cleared enough for everyone to see what was there...

The last droplets of water seemed to slow in the air from the spiritual pressure, sparkling like thousands of diamonds in the early morning light. Light that was refracted by said water and the mist that hung in the air to form rainbows that hung around Ume and Sakura who stood on the water with rigging around them, the two opening their eyes with smiles on their faces even as their eyes shone brightly.

 

[darthcourt10]

Yellowhammer

The Mill On The Meuse (III)

Ministère des Affaires Magiques de la France, Paris

May 3rd, 2014

"Medi-wizards to Room Seven! We found a survivor who needs urgent care!"

Ying and Medea looked at each other and nodded as one.

Ying took the lead moving through the crowd with a bit of her Qi boosting her strength and resilience. In her wake Medea followed, raising a mental eyebrow at her school friend using some of the Chinese magic that she had shared to boost her physical abilities. The eyebrow raised higher as Ying grasped the hilt of her saber and exuded a commanding presence.
Spoiler: The Mill's Victim

The attendant at the door to Room Seven took one look at Ying as she flashed her ICW Auror's badge and opened the door silently. The mixed physical and magical stench from inside hit both women like a punch from a troll in the gut. Death, decay, and worse caused Medea to swallow bile automatically. While no stranger to Dark Magic, or death in general, the smell was truly foul.
Spoiler: Shell Shock

Inside a trio of Medi-Wizards cast calming spells and restrained a figure in torn and stained Auror's robes. Blood, decaying viscera, a foul greenish-yellow mud and worse covered him from head to foot. Wide, vacant eyes flickered endlessly as the broken man trembled and wept. Blood from his gas-ravaged lungs stained Auror Brosseu's lips as he muttered to himself in a trance between coughs of blood.

"{Thunder... GUNS GUNS GUNS...The Dead....digging...digging... blown to pieces and parts still digging.... pulling themselves over the barbed wire... shells exploding, burying them to dig out endlessly...}"

Medea pulled out a wand of yew from her robes, twirling it to summon a Pensieve, and then drawing a memory from the Auror. "Let me take this from you so you can find healing."

Auror Brosseu relaxed slightly and passed out.

-----------------------------

Japan

Tsukiakari took the phone from Andraste and spoke into it. "Moshi moshi?"
Spoiler: Assembly

"It's Delilah. Verdun is waking up." Delilah's voice was clinically controlled and precise even as her hand shot out and broke the wrist of the salaryman who had just groped her on the train. The chikan lost bladder control in fright at the merciless gun barrels in the dismissive glance the Muramasa revolver gave him, and stumbled off the train at the next stop with his injured wrist thankful for his life.

Tsukiakari swore under her breath. "You're sure?"

"Deadly sure. Sis sensed the wards snap, apparently she was involved with them." Delilah continued in that near emotionless voice.

"Yes, she and Master Ian were involved in setting that up in 1919." Tsukiakari put the phone on speaker and frantically waved at Nightbane as the bayonet walked into the apartment.

"I don't know how bad it is, but I need as much help as you can give me as fast as possible. Preferably people who can handle themselves in Verdun. Can you get to the bridge over the Katsura River due south of Shiotsu station in Uenohara in the next half hour? I have a Vanishing Cabinet near there that can take us to Belgium to stage out of and I should have more intelligence to refine our plan then." Delilah spoke.

"I'm on my way, and will meet you there with reinforcements." Tsukiakari promised.

"Good. I'll see you there in a half hour." Delilah hung up and speed dialed her home. "Zamarad. We have a crisis. I'll need my full field kit, rifle, and shotgun waiting for me in the cellar in thirty-five."

Meanwhile in Yokosuka, Tsukiakari turned to the other three spirits in the room. "Andraste, where's Sabah?"

The door opening answered her question as the dusky skinned scimitar entered with two bags of groceries. "Marhabaan(hello), what is going on?"

"Trouble, Sabah, Big Trouble. I'll tell you while we fly there. Nightbane, you and Andraste take the other broom." Tsu responded grimly.

The bayonet grinned cheerfully with well-hidden concern in his voice. "Missed Verdun for the Somme and a game of soldiers. Suppose it is never too late to show the Frogs(French) how it's done."

Tsukiakari shook her head as she tossed a racing broom to Nightbane. "Be careful what you wish for."

----------------------------------

Ministère des Affaires Magiques de la France, Département des Archives

Ying opened the door and gave the wizard inside a smile as he was pulling out papers from a filing cabinet. "Henri! I need a favor."

Inspecteur Henri de Maintenon gave Ying a dirty look. "Old friend, your timing is not the best. The files describing what was done to seal Verdun are in a terrible state and I must brief the Minister on how to renew the wardings there."

Ying's smile widened as Medea leaned against the door. "I have a lead on a living expert who can describe how it was done."

The Frenchman gave his long-time friend a disbelieving look. "You are joking."

Ying shook her head. "Colombe du Chasteler was one of the wizards who did the sealing rituals at the end of the Great War."

Henri scanned the piece of paper and then laughed, thrusting it Ying. "No she did not, see here."

Ying grabbed it and began to read out loud. "Ian Potter... Dove d'Aubigny-Potter." She laughed as Medea facepalmed. "That's her! Only Colombe would be both arrogant enough and stupid enough to use that lame alias, especially since I have it on good authority that she was romantically involved with Ian and Lyra Potter in a menage a trois back then."

Medea laughed. "Along with at least a dozen additional young ladies according to the rumors. I swear Aphrodite lent her charm to that man."

Henri shook his head. "Which helps but we still do not know where she is to bring her in."

Ying's grin grew smug. "About that, I have a lead on her location. It would help if the arrest warrants for her in France were revoked, of course, but I am certain that I can bring her in."

Henri shook his head. "I'll see what I can do. You have your crystal ball with you?"

"Oui, old friend." Ying grinned smugly. "Relax, I have a plan."

Henri shook his head as he grabbed the files on Verdun. "The last time you told me that we were running for our lives from Death Eaters through the Paris Catacombs."

"It worked, didn't it?" Ying smirked as she turned to go.

-----------------------------------

Castle Moulbaix

Ehren meticulously cleaned and oiled her currently disassembled Luger P08 pistol that she had gotten for Christmas from Aunt Del. While her hands worked on autopilot, her eyes were watching Colombe as the rapier unsteadily poured brandy into a snifter as she sat at her desk.

She then glanced over to Tokunotakai who was also watching Colombe as she carefully honed and oiled her blade. She suspected that the Masamune's calm and serene face was as much of a mask as her own professional face.

The study door opened and Delilah stepped through, leading a young woman with purple hair and glasses, a slender young man in a khaki uniform and determined chilly eyes, a dusky-skinned short young woman who was speaking to Zamarad in Arabic, and finally a young woman with a kyu gunto at her waist and a witch's cloak over a uniform.

Colombe gave a slightly forced smile. "Del. It's good to see you and Zamarad. Tsukiakari too. Who are your friends?"

"Andraste." The glasses wearing girl sat down in a nearby chair.

"Sabah." The dusky skinned girl then plopped down in Andraste's lap, causing Ehren to raise an eyebrow.

"Nightbane." the young man spoke in an English accent then leaned against a bookcase.

"Welcome to Moulbaix. I am Colombe d'Aubigny du Chasteler, Delilah's sister. You are here to assist with Verdun?"

The new arrivals nodded.

"Ying should be back soon to relay what the French know." Colombe took a deep breath. "The Mill on the Meuse is waking up and I fear that at least one of the major nodes in the warding mesh has failed. And," she trailed off and sighed before resuming, "I don't know how much time we have before they totally fail."

The fireplace blazed green and Ying appeared, followed by a dark haired witch.

Colombe and Delilah both stared at Medea and their jaws dropped.

"Professeur Aetios?!" "Maddie Aetios?!?"

 

[darthcourt10]

Shaithan

Draugr

Out in the Norwegian Sea, far north from Iceland, two small fishing trawlers were busy exchanging illicit goods. Men in yellow jackets, almost indistinguishable in the fog and their heavy clothing moved palettes from one boat to the other.

"Damn shipgirls!" one of the men groused. He and some of his compatriots had used to run their wares on big cargo ships, but that had turned ever more difficult in the last years, especially when the various coast guards had found out that the spirits of all but the newest ships were quite able to tell if illicit materials were transported aboard them. It had left the men in Europe high and dry and even with several rounds of breaking their organizations and rounding up anyone even remotely connected to them, the Mafia and other criminal cartels still had enough of a reach. And they had very wealthy customers that wanted their product. Customers that tended to not take no for an answer.

His compatriots shrugged. They had accepted that things were turning sour and that there were more and more hurdles on the horizon. Scapa Flow had blown up a smuggling ring operated by people operating from Scapa Flow. The awakening of Halifax had shown that ports could wake up as well. And if ports could, cities could as well. They were under no illusion that many people would find themselves imprisoned soon. As long as you were in a city, she could hear you. She could see you. And there was no hiding. This was creating a retirement fund. They would need it, because in a very real sense, time was running out.

"Wish that fog would clear at least a bit," another man grumbled.

"I don't like it. Weather prediction said light rain. Not fog," a third remarked.

"It's unnatural, I tell you," a fourth remarked while guiding a palette into the hold. "Don't you smell it?" he wanted to know.

"Now that you say it," the second man agreed. He took a deep breath. "Rotten. Reminds me of my youth in the States," he remarked before inhaling again. "Worse than that. That's definitely rotting flesh on the air," he remarked.

"Abyssals?" the first man wanted to know fearfully.

"If, we're fucked," the second man said simply. He had made his life in this job. He accepted the realities of it. Doing their trade far out at sea always carried the risk of running into roaming abyssals.

"That fog is unnatural," the fourth man repeated. "Look at it," he insisted, much to the exasperation of his compatriots.

"What, it's perfectly normal for pea soup," the old man snarked before shuddering. "Shit. Perfectly normal for pea soup. You don't get that without some serious industrial pollution, especially not out at sea!" he laid out.

The other men stopped their work and peered out into the cloying mist. A mist that now engulfed their boats to an extent that the sun was only a pale disk in a fog that brought to mind the worst of aerial pollution. A yellow-ish green wafting over the boats like a suffocating blanket.

Suddenly, the captains of both boats came out of their cabins. "Did your equipment just die as well?" they asked almost in unison, followed by a short tirade of curses.

"What is it, captain?" the third man wanted to know of his captain.

"We're deaf, mute and blind," he simply announced. "Radio, radar, sonar, GPS, everything is dead. Even my mobile won't boot.

The other captain nodded. "Same here," he said. "Get your guns ready. I'm writing a message in a bottle. We're likely dead but maybe it reaches my son and maybe he forgives me one day," he said somberly. "Come to my cabin if you want to leave a few lines for your family," he added.

"Now, now," the first captain spoke up, "going from get your guns to the last words, have you lost your mind?" he wanted to know. "I agree that something spooky is going on, but that's an overreaction," he asserted.

The second captain shook his head. "We are completely cut off. Out at sea. We either stumbled on some hidden island like that story of the Eagle reaching Hy-Brasil and considering the fog around us, I'll eat that whole shipment of coke if what's out there is friendly, or we found a new abyssal. Either way, we're right fucked," he explained.

"Anyway, I got to write my piece," the captain said before entering his cabin and pulling out some paper and his driver's license. "My dear boy. I hope this message is me having a bad case of nerves, but I don't think so. We are currently far to the north, plying the trade that made you cut all contact with me. Many appliances on the ship have stopped working. Even my digital watch is dead. We're in a deep, unnatural fog, a fog you'd have seen in London in the 50ies. GPS, Radar, Sonar, Radio, it's all dead. Whatever we stumbled upon is likely hostile. I don't expect to make it out of here alive. I do not expect to see another sunrise. I ask only one thing. Please, tell your grandfather that he was right. I don't like your choice of work, but please, be a better father than I was. Signed, Captain James Rasmussen from Boston, Massachusetts. 6th of June 2014."

Taking an empty whiskey bottle, a reminder of the last time his son had still talked to him, he tacked the letter to the license and folded both to get them into the bottle.

Over the next few minutes about a third of the crews turned up with their own letters. Some just stating their name and the date as the probable date of death, others sending a last letter to friends or family. In the end, it were eight letters.

Taking a bit of plastic foil, the captain wrapped a cork in it and then pushed it into the bottleneck until the whole cork was in the neck. Taking a candle, a first seal was applied. The superfluous foil was pulled down over the screw thread and the bottle cap was screwed over it. The foil still standing over was cut off and a second seal of wax was used to seal the bottlecap, first seal and cork.

Stepping out of the cabin to the railing, the captain dropped the bottle over board. "If anyone out there listens, please take out last words to those that need to hear them," the captain somberly pleaded.

Turning around, he faced the men with him. "Well, let's get our guns. We're not going quietly," he stated forcefully.

The men gave a few subdued cheers before going to take up their defensive positions.

The waiting game was painful. The sun rose in the sky but it seemed to become paler with every minute. Whispers were heard in the fog, dead voices beckoning the men to surrender.

At about noon a long scream pierced the fog. The scream of a human experiencing continuous pain. Not the short Wilhelm scream, a long, pained scream that could only come from torture.

A blurry shadow was seen, large and foreboding. Other screams and wails had joined the initial scream. Some of the smaller shadows circled the boats, lights blinking in the fog.

The men peered into the fog, eyes trying in vain to discern forms in the wafting green mist.

"I see you!" a harshly accented feminine voice drifted through the mist. "Now, behold me!" it continued.

To the south, where the fog had been the heaviest and densest, massive lights began to glow.

To their mounting horror, the men realized that it wasn't just the south. To the west, the east and the north shapes became clear in the mist. Shapes that were less than 200 meters away and with the fog clearing, the harsh light of day revealed their hunters. Destroyers that looked likely a mad scientist had scaled up human and animal parts and sewn ships out of them. Fumes spewing from various outlets along the ships. A ship with a massive skull on her bow. Another with a winged monstrosity. A third with a serpent's head and the final one with a massive wolf head as her bow.

Ghostly and zombie-like beings assembled on the railing of the wolf ship as she slowly came to a halt near the tied together boats. Several of the ghosts glided down from their ship, pulling ropes behind them.

The men opened fire on both the ghosts and the zombies.

Firing on the ghosts proved to be utterly pointless, the zombies took hits, several were even dismembered by concentrated fire, but it didn't mean much.

A woman materialized on the railing, clad in armor and rigging matching the wolf motif found on the ship. The wolf heads making up her armor discharging putrid green puffs. She grinned at the carnage. "Futile," she mocked the men on the boat before muttering an incantation.

Before the widening eyes of the men, the zombies began reassembling. Body parts that had been shredded by bullets began reconstituting as the woman laughed.

"Tranquis!" she suddenly shouted and a wave of a serene turquois, so at odds with the horror that spawned it, engulfed the boats.

"Drop your guns, boys, everything is fine," the woman ordered.

The men did as ordered, vacant and serene smiles spreading over their faces. They didn't react when the zombies came down the ropes and put them in irons. It was only when they were being dragged up towards the massive wolf ship that the effect wore off and realization lead to resistance.

"Yes, struggle. Fight for your freedom. It's always so satisfying to break a spirit," the woman said while laughing. "You are going to have so much to tell me. Every last secret your feeble brains hold you will lay bare before me," she said while the zombies slowly dragged the captives before her.

The men were forced to kneel, while the woman marched before them. "Let's see. What reason could you have to be out here?" she mused before setting her gaze on one of the men. "Let me see," she said before beginning to draw a set of runes on the man's brow.

"We carry opium and cocaine for exchange, mistress," the man said as soon as the runes had finished eating themselves into his skin.

"Oh? That will be useful. I will have to tow your boats it seems. I can have them unloaded in Kalthafen," the woman mused.

"However, you may wonder what fate awaits you. Very simple. You will tell us all you know, both about this war, about the technology you have, about the magical world. And once you have told us anything, you will serve in the Kriegsmarine, bound to death and beyond. You belong to me and I will never let you go free," the woman said imperiously. "Bring them under deck and set up everything for extracting all their memories," she ordered her undead crew members.

She grinned at the prospect of converting the captured men into Draugr. A far more difficult and time-consuming process compared to the Inferi, but it had its uses. Draugr were far harder to destroy than Inferi and far easier to repair and more resilient. Unlike Inferi, Draugr needed their creator or the focus used to create them to be close. Separate them from their creator or the focus and they would quickly wither into mummies and uselessness. Any disturbance during the week-long ritual would destroy the bodies intended for use. If you didn't apply the proper seals, a faint but distinct magical wave would emanate from the ritual site and alert basically anyone who monitored for such necromantic magics that a fledgling necromancer needed taking care of. That ward alone took weeks to set up. And finally, Draugr weren't any more intelligent than Inferi, for them or Inferi to retain more skills than basic motor skills, further rituals had to be undertaken. And while those would take hours for Inferi, for Draugr it took weeks. It was simply easier to create an army of the dead using Inferi or other zombie-types. Her officers had heard of the Japanese having done their own research into undead slave labor and potentially having found a few intriguing solutions, unfortunately, none of the solutions had ever gotten far outside Japan. None had ever reached Kalthafen. And there was one last upside to Draugr. They could continue operating in temperatures well below freezing without being impeded. Inferi could freeze when it turned cold enough. But still, it was something she looked forward to. The process demanded perfection and nothing less than perfection was praiseworthy.

Looking towards the boats, she was pleased to note that they had been readied for towing. Looking over towards the other capital ships, she could just make out her three direct subordinates at the bows of their respective ships. Vampir stretching her wings and basking in the sun, Jörmungander coiled up and dozing and Hel sharpening her scythe.

"Get ready!" Fenrir ordered. "We need to return to Kalthafen. We have been out for too long already," she ordered.

"Who is going to intercept us up here? The Brits will take several hours from Iceland," Hel complained.

"Abyssals. A group of them is relatively close and closing in," Fenrir gave back.

"Oh well," Hel gave back, pouting. "Did we at least get something good?" she wanted to know.

"Handful of criminals and a good amount of opium and cocaine," Fenrir reported. "No one is going to miss that sort," she continued. "And even if they do, they're likely to blame it on Abyssals anyway," she finished.

The various ships began moving and maneuvering until the capital ships were facing the same direction and were at the center of the formation.

To the east, Njord scowled at the battlegroup. He was forbidden from interfering directly, nudging the group of abyssals towards the abominable ships was bending the rules as he had no intention of making the foul monsters his champions. But there were other things he could do, things that could be more easily brushed off. Looking at the drifting whiskey bottle, he weaved a small spell. Until she was collected by a human or shipgirl, she would follow the best current and always stay visible enough.

Far to the south two wizards looked at readouts from magical instruments that officially didn't exist. One of the many dirty secrets kept by the various offices under the Archmage and one of the many that were currently being investigated as to how to best destroy them without admitting that they knew about them all along. "Well, Mädchen, that is a big problem. No one I can think of has the authorization to order setting sail," the older mage said to the younger witch.

The witch nodded. "Yeah. And unlike that last trip, that one definitely wasn't a 'malfunction' of the wards," she gave back while a map showed miniatures of about 30 ships moving through the Norwegian Sea. A small moving box helpfully identified the fleet as Kriegsflotte Kalthafen.

"So, we need to find out who gave the order. And that quickly. Otherwise it's our asses getting fried," the older mage laid out. "It was bad enough when the Potter brat broke into the Spessart factory complex, but then he had to drag in the Unkönner. Now they keep crawling over that place and try to find out where the others are," he groused.

The witch shrugged. "The idiots didn't monitor the factory, not even remotely. Serves them right that they now have to eat that soup. They made it, after all," she countered dismissively.

The old man chuckled. "Indeed. It's especially funny as now the other three factories are constantly monitored, but they're still no closer to actually starting to dismantle them and cover their existence up," he added, leading to laughter from the witch.

"Remind me, old man, how much turnover did they have?" she asked, waiting for a punchline they both knew by heart.

"The whole group. Three times over," the old man said, leading to a new round of laughter.

Taking a few minutes to calm down from the schadenfreude, they looked over the other monitoring equipment. Frosthafen didn't show any activity. It had been finished basically just in time for its position to be unviable and having to be given up. Its commander had ordered the workforce destroyed and ever since then Frosthafen kept slowly rotting away. Sturmhafen had been taken over by a small group of abyssals that never left sight of the island. Considering their angle of approach, the monsters likely strayed too close to Azkaban and considering all the things said to lurk in the depths of the prison, the monsters likely ran into bigger fish and now lived in constant fear of said bigger fish. Apart from Abyssal activity, Sturmhafen was as dead as Frosthafen. The workforce had been destroyed and the submarines built there had been towed into the Norwegian Sea and scuttled in the deeper parts in the 1950ies. No one had wanted to bother with Kalthafen for decades and now that was coming back to bite them. Kalthafen had been envisioned as the staging area for a fleet whose main purpose it was to prey on England and Arctic convoys from the North. A second such harbor was to be constructed in the North Atlantic near the major convoy routes to England, but those plans never went beyond idle consideration, in part due to a lack of suitable islands.

"Well, Mädchen, you better pack some warm clothing. We're going to have to visit Kalthafen," the old mage said after they finished checking the equipment. "And there better be a supernatural explanation as to why Kalthafen is active. Otherwise, heads are going to roll and ours will be the first," he added with dark humour.

"Could it be shipgirls?" the witch asked.

The old wizard shrugged. "Possibly. But they tend to get summoned by the Unkönner military or direct abyssal threats to life along the coast," he mused. "Which makes it unlikely that it's shipgirls," he continued musing.

"Anyway," he abruptly declared. "That's mostly idle talk. Go home, get gear for the far North. I'll write up an expedition and inspection plan for our monitored bases and bury the fact that Kalthafen is active. We're setting out in three days. This is a cushy job where we can shoot the breeze, I'd rather it return to that status," he added.

The witch laughed. "Yeah," she agreed. "Anyway, I'll get going. Will have to make something up for my sister, but she can deal with me not being there for a few days. Her navy coffee is unlikely to kill her, after all," she joked.

"Yes, you do that, Tarkan," the old mage said as Janine Tarkan apparated away. She had to find her sister, had to explain things to her and hope that Kalthafen wasn't about to turn into a bigger problem. She hated having to involve her sister. But if this was someone having activated Kalthafen and its fleet, they were likely to need the firepower of the Navy to put that person and its fleet down. She really didn't look forward to having to explain that to her superiors, either. All in all it was a thoroughly rotten situation.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Time seemed to restart as the suspended water droplets fell back to Earth and the mist settled onto the water. Still smiling, the Twins closed their eyes took a deep breath of air before letting it out before reopening their eyes and looking themselves over in pure awe. Everyone was silent and simply watching the two as they examined themselves in their new forms... and lives. Both of them wore white kimonos with their respective blossoms on them, light pink sakura for one and light purple ume for the other.

It finally began to hit them that they were no longer bound to the island, and were once more... alive, though as Installations, Kami rather than human.

Slowly, they turned their gazes onto the one they knew were responsible, Harry himself, even as happy tears prickled at their eyes blurred their sight a little. At first, they walked across the water at an even, if slow pace before speeding up bit by bit. Before anyone could react, they were at the shore and climbing up it until they reached Harry, breathing hard. Upon reaching him, they just came to a stop, his name upon their lips, "Harry-Chan..." Brightly smiling, they pulled him into a tight hug with their faces buried in either side of his neck, "Thank you... thank you..."

Reaching up, Harry hugged them back, "You're very welcome, Ume-Chan, Sakura-Chan. I'm glad that it worked and also..." His lips curled into a soft smile, "That the two of you are once more free and alive."

Both Ume and Sakura pulled back some and gazed into his eyes before turning to each other. A silent conversation passed between them within seconds and they glanced at their little brother. The aged man had a massive smile on his face, but gave them both a nod. With a nod of their own, they turned back to Harry with Ume speaking first, "Harry-Chan..."

Her sister then continued, "Thank you..."

With that said, Ume then pulled Harry into a kiss that lasted a few seconds and made his eyes widened. No sooner did she pull back, than Sakura kissed him just as much as her sister did. Both of them giggled with blushes on their faces as they watched him just blinked with an unfocused gaze on his face. Around them, some people clapped and a few Americans gave wolf whistles... Constitution among them as she grinned widely. Finally, Harry snapped out of it and blushed himself, "Wow..." Looking at the two, he gave them both kisses on their cheeks, "Thanks."

Heads tilted to the side, almost mirror images of the other, they shook their heads, "It is us who can never thank you enough."

Meanwhile, Harry was looking them over and somewhat stunned at how they looked. No longer ghosts, their skin was still pale though not sickly, just fair skinned. From their heads, their lustrous hair fell in waves to the smalls of their backs while brown eyes, glowing softly with life and power, glistened from tears of happiness. Both of them were about average for height as well, though Harry was about level with their chins now.

All in all, both of them were quite beautiful, especially now that they were back to life and they flashed him smiles that showed white, pearly teeth behind their lips.

They stayed like that for a few moments more before the Twins pulled away and walked towards Akiyama who looked like he was so happy that he would explode. Ume and Sakura came to a stop before him and he reached out with trembling hands which cupped their cheeks, with them placing their hands over his. Instead of the corpse-like coolness that he was used to, instead there was warmth underneath the palms of his hands. At that, a laugh burst from him, one of pure joy before he pulled them into a hug with tears streaming down his cheeks, "Onee-Samas... you're fully back and alive..."

Eyes closing, they leaned their heads against his as they continued to hug him tightly, though careful not to harm him with their new strength, "Hai... we're back and here to stay, Aki-Chan... Our Otouto..."

From where he stood, Harry watched with a happy smile on his face and tears prickling at his eyes. A hand on his shoulder made him look over at Nagato who gave him a proud look and a nod, "You did well, Harry. I am so proud of you."

Scratching his cheek, the thirteen year old chuckled a bit self-consciously, "Thanks, Mum, I'm just happy with how everything has turned out."

It was then that Miu walked up and shook her head at the sight of her now resurrected, and much more powerful, aunts, "I... this is..." Turning, she gave him a confused, though interested look, "How?"

Before Harry could answer, the Twins broke free from their hug and also gave him a look, "We are wondering ourselves about that. How did we go from... Yuurei, of sorts, to well..."

Just shaking their heads, they gestured at themselves. Crossing his arms, Harry gave a hum, "Well... there's a number of things." At their looks, he gave a shrug, "I sort of started having dreams about two years ago, I think? They seemed to be telling me something and I started following them. It was mainly thinks like transfiguring a brick into smaller ones for example, or transfiguring sticks and popsicle sticks into what looked like tiny planks. Not really that huge of a deal until, well... This past Christmas."

Where she stood, Tsukiakari gave a small nod, "What Master Ian was talking to you about?"

Harry shrugged and chuckled a bit, "It was one of the things that came up and he gave me a number of clues. Which I pieced together to work out how to make it happen as it was sort of obvious that the two of you could be woken up as the spirit of the Installation here."

Confused, Sakura glanced at her sister and saw that she was just as lost. Turning back to Harry, she frowned some, "How?"

Expression becoming serious, the thirteen year old wizard gestured at them, "You have both been the spirits of the installation here since the very beginning.. You were placed as Hitobashira before the first building was even constructed and used to anchor the wards as well as the spells for the buildings themselves. As well, your entire purpose was to watch over the area. You showed this by being able to teleport anywhere within the vicinity. Hence... you were the guardian spirits." He gave a small shrug, "As to how? I mostly worked to gather the material myself. As mentioned, bricks made into smaller ones, small bags of concrete and cement, metal bars and wire, tiny planks fashioned from things like popsicle sticks and tongue depressors, small barrels of oil and coal... I placed them where they were needed."

Opening an eye, Juuchi gave a smug smile, "Such as the coal and oil going where the old power plant was and the smelters on site." Her smugness rose some, "And there was what you did at their resting place."

Harry gave a shrug at the looks directed to him, "It was one of the bits that my Great-grandfather was clear about. I made the Seiman over your graves with phoenix ashes, and each point had a vial of the Liquid of Life and a small shard of magicite... except for the flask at the center which had a lot more and was corked by a unicorn horn."

Stroking her chin, Akimi slowly nodded, "From what I heard, magicite is pure magic and the Liquid of Life can bring forth and give form to shipgirls, correct?" At his nod, she continued, "And pheonix ash? A creature of life, death, and rebirth."

With a small smile, the wizard nodded, "Hai, and the unicorn is purity and also represents freedom." He then gestured around them, "The magical warships each had hundreds on them who were either magic, or Yokai, which also brought a lot of spiritual energy into the summoning. Akimi-San, for instance, had a hundred Kitsune, some of whom were as high as six or seven tails. Same with the others including Shiromizu and the Clans being here, though their elders knew."

Throwing his hand into the air, Natsumi's grandfather grinned, "That we did! And it was a lot of fun as well~"

Only shaking his head at his old friend's antics, Shukaku gave a small nod, "He is correct, of course. And I was only too happy to help upon hearing your tale."

Continuing where he left off, Harry gestured at Constitution and the others, "There was also the shipgirls here, including Great Aunt Connie, Mikasa-Oba-San, and the others. They also brought a lot of spiritual power. Great Aunt Connie, for example, has a lot of the USN behind her."

A grin on her face, the sailing ship winked, "Aye, I've had a lot of men all through me over the years."

Ignoring the groans and mutters regarding Constitution, the thirteen year old waved towards Akiyama and his family, "And of course, we have Akiyama-San and your family. All of them are blood related to you, and thus could act as an... anchor, of sorts, keeping you here as you became what you are. Blood calls to Blood just like two magnets. All of which, well..." Harry gave a small, but happy shrug, "To this. But I'm happy for it."

With a small sigh, Richardson reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet before yanking some bills that he slapped into Goto's open hand, "Here."

Goto made a show of kissing one of the bills before placing it into his own wallet, "Thank you, and you should have known better than to bet against the Kid. Luckier than Yukikaze at times, I swear."

More amused than anything else, Harry snickered as they were not the only ones exchanging bills, as Ai and her fellow pilots were doing much the same, with the Tengu getting the money. Kiba was muttering about owing Jin several thousand, while Asuka, like Ai, was collecting money from those Clan Heirs there outside of Natsumi as well as some of the JNHRO while proclaiming that she might have enough for her own Velomobile.

Turning back to the, themselves highly amused Twins, Harry gave a small shrug, "Well, so yeah... that was how it happened."

About to say something, Ume paused and furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at her rigging, "Um, Harry-Chan? Installations have crew, so who might ours be..."

Everyone paused at that and turned their attention to her rigging before a fairy appeared and a number of those there gasped at recognizing the leader of the American ghosts. The small being took in everyone before turning to Ume and Sakura with a grin and tipping his hat, "Hey, hey hey."

Jaw dropped, the Twins just stared as the other Americans came out and marched out into view. There were a few, very few, of those Japanese who worked there as well. But there was also a number of Yokai and who they believed to be Japanese Squibs who had never worked there. Swallowing, Sakura turned to the Americans with a disbelieving look, "Why... why did you come back? You were free of this place.."

Utterly serious expression on his face, the American shrugged, "Hey, hey hey hey. Hey hey hey hey hey..."

As he continued, most of those eyes there widened in surprise and disbelief. However, Constitution slowly nodded with an understanding smile, "I see, so you came back to help them because as far as you are concerned, the two of them are just as much victims as you. And also, because it gives you the ability to do good now,"

Even as the American fairies nodded and made sounds of agreement, Mikasa looked towards the Japanese ones, "And you... all of you wish to make up for what happened in the war. Those of you not involved here were instead mechanics, engineers, and the like and thus want to help as much as possible."

The head of the Japanese fairies gave a nod to that, "Desu."

Slowly nodding, Mikasa turned towards Ume and Sakura, "The question is... do you accept them?"

Considering that, the Twins looked at each other and then at the fairies before softly smiling, "Yes, we do."

With a simple nod, the fairies all returned to the inside of their rigging. Something that brought the two former Hitobashira's attention to said rigging and they examined it. Both of them shared the same rigging, side by side which did not bother them too much. As well, there were what looked like drydock attachments that could easily take in even a Yamato for repairs, as well as repair facilities and machine shops, a smelter and foundry where new armour and such could be made, and a power plant to provide electricity for all of it. They knew that they could easily fashion parts quickly for ships as needed.

And it was not simply normal shipgirls that they could repair as well, as there was also a hanger where airshipgirls could also go for repairs as well as provide them with parts.

But when it came to defense... there was not much. The wards that covered them, a copy of the ones around the Caldera but concentrated, could withstand a sustained pounding by Battleships. As in, a few hours worth, which was why MACUSA had snuck in, nothing they had could scratch the wards in a short enough time not to attract non-magical attention. Their other defense was that with magic, they could easily have groups of their magical fairies repair their rigging. Damage that would have taken a real port days or weeks to fix, took minutes or hours for them. And in the case of the Twins, they could regenerate their rigging in a matter of minutes if given enough time.
In regards to weapons...

Well, there they were slightly worse off. Most of their guns they had were AA guns of various sorts used by the IJA and IJN as they were more worried about broom riders and those riding various magical creatures than a gun battle. But they did have a few WWI Era Siege Guns dotting their rigging as well as Type 10 120mm guns... And at the "Corners" of their rigging, representing the entrance into the Caldera, there were two massive guns that the Twins remembered were on order and were meant to be placed where the entry way to the inner harbour was.

41 cm Howitzers stood ready to fire when needed.

All told... they were in pretty good shape. With deep breaths, they nodded as anything more could come later. Instead, they turned towards the shipgirls and asked the question that was on their mind and they were slightly embarrassed about, "How do we dismiss our rigging?"

Chuckles escaped the shipgirls there and they explained the process to the two of them.

Soon after, the Twins dismissed their rigging and materialized it several times before Sakura nodded, "I think that we should not have much trouble with it anymore." Noticing something, she giggled and pointed behind Harry, "Um, Harry-Chan? I think that some people wish to talk with you."

It was then that Harry realized that he had forgotten about the other shipgirls who were summoned and turned his attention to them before bowing, "Um, sorry about that."

Just chuckling, Ishikari waved him off, "It's fine, Harry-San. Considering what happened... understandable."

However, he shook his head and the thirteen year old bowed again, "No, that was bad of me and for that, I'm sorry." Standing up, Harry blinked as Miitake was right there, "Um..."

The Battlecruiser gave a shout and threw her arms wide before pulling Harry into a tight hug that smooshed his face to her chest, "Eeeeee! That's okay! Because now I get to huggle you all I want!"

Behind her, Ishikari raised her finger, "Uh... Miitake-Chan?" Not getting a response besides how much her sister was happy now that she could hug and cuddle the wizard, she sighed and rubbed the side of her head before marching over. Tapping Miitake on the shoulder, she frowned at the other Battlecruiser, "Miitake-Chan, stop."

For a moment, the other shipgirl blinked in confusion before a sly look came over her face, "Oh... I see now~"

Despite not knowing what Miitake was on about now, Ishikari blushed, "W-what? What are you talking about."

Giggling, her sister poked her in the chest, "You want to huggle the Harry-Chan as well." Winking, Miitake stuck out her tongue some, "But right now it is my turn! Bwahahaha!"

Cheeks flushed, Ishikari bopped her sister of the head before yanking Harry from Miitake and pulling him close, "Enough of that." She then yanked the thirteen year old out of her sister's grasp, "Stop manhandling him."

Eyebrow raising, Miitake stopped rubbing her head and pointed at her sister with a smirk, "Like you're any better."

Slowly blinking, the other Battlecruiser looked down to find that she had done the exact same thing as Miitake had, with Harry looking up at her from where his face was shoved into her chest. Going red, she let go and looked away, "U-um, sorry about that."

Taking a deep breath, Harry let it out and gave her a smile, "Don't worry about it." Moments later, he felt two arms wrap around him and turned his head to find Denryuu hugging him from behind, "Hmm?"

Only smiling, the Carrier kissed him on the cheek before letting go while ignoring how Ishikari was sighing while holding her sister back, "Just thanking you for everything that you have done for us." Denryuu's eyes softened a little, "Especially considering everything that you went through when diving through us to make sure that we were purified so we could be properly summoned."

Harry rubbed the back of his neck which got a giggle and a comment of 'So cute' from Miitake, "Um, you're welcome?" Looking around at the other Caldera girls, he smiled a bit more, "And that goes for all of you, I did not mind it at all."

A chuckle made him turn to find Mihara there as well, the Repair Ship in a getup much the same as Akashi, but with steel grey hair done up in the same style as her sister as brown eyes looked upon him warmly, "And trust me, we appreciate that." She gave a small shrug and looked around, "We really do."

It was then that another shipgirl came up and Harry had to blink at the sight of her. Because, for a moment, she looked like a teenage Mamiya whose brown hair short, though with a red bow. But it was also then that he realized that she resembled Irako more than the other Food Ship and gave a small bow, "Kusumi-San, correct?"

The Food Ship nodded and bowed back, "Hai, that is who I am." She straightened and tilted her head, "And you must be Harry-San? The others told me a little and I thank you for what you did."

Suddenly, Harry was tackled by a Submarine with silver hair, "Hai! I think all of us are-ow!"

Wincing, the Submarine was dragged away by Iku who was growling, soon followed by Hachi, Imuya, and Shioi grabbing her limbs and carting her off. Just blinking, Harry shrugged and gave a look, "Must be I-353."

All that got him was nods, though he realized that the ones there were not the only shipgirls. Standing by the harbour were some girls who looked about the same age Maruyu did, though a few had ears and tails. But more, there were ten smaller ones, all of whom had ears and tails of different sorts who were also Submarines, but looking like they were all five years old. With a quick look into the spiritual, Harry nodded as it turned out that they were all Midget Submarines.

Off to one side, two young eight year old girls, one normal and the other with ears of a Tanuki, were speaking with Goto...

Right before several loud growls and rumbles shook the area. Everyone turned towards an embarrassed Sakura and Ume, before other growls from the rest of the newly summoned shipgirls' stomachs could also be heard. Chuckling, Harry shook his head before glancing at Goto who smiled and nodded. The thirteen year old reached into a backpack his mother had brought and began to pull out boxes sealed with Ofuda, "Thankfully, I came prepared with food..."

 

[darthcourt10]

Yellowhammer

The Mill On The Meuse (IV)

Castle Moulbaix

May 3rd, 2014
Spoiler: Heroes Assemble

It was a very open secret among the various Pantheons that while all prayers were given due attention, because of circumstances, positions, or importance of the petitioner to said deity, some were expedited to the deity's personal attention immediately rather than working through staff review first.

This was especially true when the petitioner in question was consecrated to the answering deity, was a primary troubleshooter for the deity's pantheon to handle mortal matters that said pantheon needed to be fixed in ways that would not violate the Divine Accords directly, and was generally involved in proving the adage about "Living In Interesting Times" being a truly powerful and malign curse upon one so sentenced. Prayers to get out of amusing and dangerous situations that may or may not be the petitioners fault were considerably more entertaining to adjudicate than the normal grind of prayers for wealth, power, a hot spouse, or smiting the neighbor cheating with said hot spouse after all.

All these factors neatly explained the heartfelt silent plea of "Oh God not again!!" from one Wei Ying (Consecrated of Guan Yu, Troubleshooter and Field Agent #1 of the Celestial Bureaucracy's Department of War, Martial Arts, and Police Work) arriving at the top of an elaborate white jade inbox on the desk of Guan Yu, Chinese deity of Righteous Justice, War, Martial Arts, Police Work and Bean Curd Sellers not even a nanosecond after being formulated. After all, a certain huli jing/Muramasa hybrid was both a reasonably reliable and productive agent for Guan Yu (barring a certain stretch 1941-45 in Hong Kong that really should have been handled with less blood and screaming no matter the provocations) and a source of never-ending entertainment and IOUs collected and owed thanks to her actions.

After all, a hard-working deity had to find amusement and relief from the daily grind of mundane chores performed on behalf of the Jade Emperor whenever He could.

Arriving invisibly in a moment of frozen time in the study of Castle Moulbaix, a set of immortal eyebrows shot to the top of Guan Yu's forehead as he surveyed the still life. Ying was facepalming as her father Colombe and aunt Delilah were staring slack jawed at a beautiful young-seeming Greek woman marked with invisible heraldry denoting her as an agent of another Pantheon. A second weapon spirit marked with the heraldry of a chosen of Hachiman was doing a double facepalm, and the younger half-sisters of his Agent were exhibiting signs of shock (musical and well hidden respectively). Four additional powerful weapons spirits completed the tableaux.

Clearly only one course of action was suitable to deal with this matter at hand.

A small exercise of divine power summoned his favorite Zitan-wood armchair and a side table with a jug of Celestial Wine and a bowl of the Peaches of Immortality to float invisibly and intangibly in prime viewing position above the events about to play out. He stroked his luxuriant beard thoughtfully at the impending show.

This decision was validated as a second deity dressed in a short black robe with a dark spade beard and hair materialized. Jet black eyes found Guan Yu's and the newcomer spoke. "Hades, Olympian Lord of the Underworld."

Guan Yu bowed courteously in response "Guan Yu, Chinese Deity of War, Martial Arts, Police Officers, and Soya Bean Curd Vendors. The dark haired young lady down there is yours?"

Hades nodded as he summoned his own backless golden stool, goblet of nectar, and bowl of ambrosia. "Medea of Colchis is important to the Olympians, yes. I interact with her the most since other members of my family have had problems with her. And I must ask, Soya Bean Curd Vendors?"

Guan Yu shrugged and idly stoked his beard as Hachiman appeared with a bowl of buttered popcorn in His hands. "Long story which relates to my deification. Do either of you want a Peach of Immortality or Celestial Wine?"

Hachiman shook His head. "Just wine. What did Colombe do this time?" He summoned his own chair and put the bowl of popcorn down on the magically expanding table next to the ambrosia as Guan Yu poured the wine.

Guan Yu handed a peach to Hades and shook his head. "Nothing so far. She was minding her own business when My Agent suddenly appeared with her old school friend. Who apparently is the teacher of her sire and is currently wishing that she was anywhere else but having to explain her deceptions to two schoolmates and one student."

With a pop a fourth deity appeared. The beautiful Native American woman in spotless white buffalo-hide robes rubbed her temples as she looked at Guan Yu. "What did those two idiots do this time to set themselves at each other's throats? Muramasas!" She spoke in a weary and long-suffering voice.

Guan Yu handed over a peach and then a bowl of wine to White Buffalo Woman while she sat down on a floating deerskin blanket. "For once they are getting along reasonably well and I haven't had to referee a fight. Yet." He stroked his beard while smiling happily at the free entertainment.

"Who knows that prayers actually are answered!" At White Buffalo Woman's sarcastic interjection, Hades hid a smile behind His jeweled goblet of nectar. After all He was far from unfamiliar with family squabbles among his fellow Olympians, and as long as they did not impact him directly, he had learned to gain entertainment from them, since the alternative was going as mad as Dionysus.

-----------------------------

"Professeur Aetios?!" "Maddie Aetios?!?"

Medea of Colchis (also known as Professor Margaret Aetios while serving as Charms Instructor at Beauxbatons 1708-1734, and then Miss Madeline Aetios of a Greek-American immigrant family while a member of House Horned Serpent 1866-1872 during her studies of Native American magic at Ilvermorny) glanced back and forth between two of her old school friends while at Ilvermorny and her prize pupil while at Beaxubatons and winced slightly.

It had been quite a long time, at least four centuries in fact, since she had messed up enough to get found out as an immortal sorceress who was changing names and identities as she traveled and studied. Worse, her initial heartfelt mental request for Lord Hades to 'just drag her off to the Underworld' when the drachma dropped had been denied. Worst of all, with Verdun stirring, she could not Obliviate her way out of this jam while cutting ties.

She just knew that ox-eyed petty bitch Hera was laughing at her for this one.

Her fingers flicked and her eyes narrowed slightly at what was revealed by her spell.

She was somehow unsurprised at the Chinese characters entwined in Wu Ying's aura denoting her a person of interest to one or more of the Celestial Bureaucracy. Nor did the Lakota pictographs in Delilah de Breuil's aura saying much the same message earn anything more than a mental hmm. The impressively self-controlled blonde spirit leaning against the piano with faint pictographs hinted at in her aura also was noted in passing.

The matching kanji entwined with the auras of Colombe du Chasteler and the Japanese spirit with the katana in her hands did cause her mental eyebrows to climb, as she immediately recognized the insignia of Hachiman-no-kami on both.

Which was an exceptionally neat trick since she knew that Colombe d'Aubigny du Chasteler was the illegitimate child of a Austro-French noble descended from the French Branch of the Malfoys. Colombe sure as the River Styx did not look three centuries old but rather the well-preserved late-20s that she remembered her from when they last met in 1733. And who was not showing any of the signs of any of the normal life-extending measures that she knew of. Clearly her belief was in error that the odd reports of Colombe du Chasteler causing trouble for the ICW over the past century were someone taking the name and face of the legendary rogue who she watched get expelled from Beauxbatons.

Interesting.

She gave herself a mental slap as she caught herself over-analyzing rather than face people who she had deceived while being friends to. Hermes Dolios, grant me your silver tongue to explain myself!

"Yes, yes I am." Medea took a deep breath. "I can explain everything afterward." I hope. "Suffice it to say now that I am considerably older than I presented myself to you in 1866, Ying and Delilah, when I appeared as younger than I truly am so that I could learn the latest magical lore from the Americas. Also, my tenure at Beauxbatons was not the first time I had served there, Colombe."

She was rewarded with a puzzled blink from Delilah, which long experience had taught her was as good as an open-mouthed gape from the self-controlled girl; a French oath from Colombe as the girl gulped from the snifter of brandy in front of her; and Wei Ying giving her a curious look behind her near-perfect inscrutable face.

"That said, I have on good authority," if you only knew whose good authority, "That unless actions are taken promptly the spirit inhabiting Verdun will break loose and we need to act immediately to prevent a disaster."

Colombe nodded and rubbed her temples. "Oui. The crisis first." Behind her the Japanese katana spirit walked over and began to massage the Frenchwoman's shoulders. "Welcome to Castle Moulbaix, everyone. Thank you for digging up Professor Aetios, Daughter, because she is one of the people who I have met who knows the most about magic."

Medea's jaw dropped as she looked back and forth between Colombe and the blushing Wei Ying. Daughter!?!?

-------------------------------

Castle Moulbaix, May 4th, 2014

"... So we know the breach is here, at Le Mort Homme." Wei Ying looked up from the crystal ball as Henri's image faded.

Colombe tapped the map of Verdun. "Oui, and your friend said that there is a dense unmoving fog-bank surrounding it in a circle two kilometers in radius."

Ying nodded. "Yes, Father. Also, three separate teams of Aurors have entered and none have returned, except the one person who was found at the edge of the fog when it retreated slightly from the ruins of Chattancourt and was mentally and physically broken.

Medea placed her Pensieve on the desk. "I extracted the memory that was devouring his soul into this."
Spoiler: Verdun, 1916

She waved her wand, and a window into Hell opened in the silvery-gray mist filling the Pensieve.

Clouds of poison gas drifted across a shattered moonscape littered with rusting barbed wire and churned by constant artillery barrages. Shambling corpses in mud and filth covered horizon bleu and feldgrau grappled in endless slaughter for slaughter's sake with rifles, machine guns, and improvised weapons in corpse-littered trenches and shell holes, only distinguishable from each other by the shape of their helmets.

Nightbane grunted. "As big a bloody mess as the Somme or Wipers, this is."

Toku's face was white as a sheet and her grasp on Colombe's hand became a crushing vise as she saw secondhand the essence of what had scarred her lover's soul in 1916.

Colombe suddenly spoke. "Wait. Back it up."

Medea complied, rewinding the memory slowly.

"There. That gutted corpse with no legs impaled on that shattered caisson. I remember that, we used it as a signpost to know when to take the turning into Tranche de la Marne."

Colombe's face was chalk white with controlled fear, but her lips flickered in a familiar smug smile. She looked up at Tsukiakari, who nodded in turn as her hand clenched her hilt in a white-knuckled grip. "We can navigate to the top of Le Mort Homme just like we did in 1916."

Medea took a deep breath. "And if you can carry one of my talismans to it, I can assemble a ritual team to seal the crack in the wards before Verdun snaps them."

Ehren chimed in. "Ja, and I think I know when it will try again. According to the records of activity that Henri sent us, there was a spike on February 21st, when the battle began on the Right Bank. Another on the 25th of February when Douaumont fell. Both those were contained and overlooked, then on April 9th, when the Crown Prince attacked the Left Bank where Le Mort Homme is, a third spike happened and apparently the wards failed there from neglect or sabotage."

Everyone looked at the dagger as she finished triumphantly. "And the most recent event was on May 3rd when Cote 304 fell. On May 20th...."

Colombe winced, "The Boche took Le Mort Homme from us."

"Exactly Mutti." Ehren nodded.

Medea sighed, "And the sooner the better because once the new ward is up, I will need to examine the other linchpins for damage and link them together. We know one chain snapped, but I do not know how badly the other chains are damaged."

Colombe took a deep breath and then exhaled. "Right. Who else is with me to do what must be done?"

 

[darthcourt10]

Yellowhammer

The Mill On The Meuse (V)

Castle Moulbaix

May 4rd, 2014

Colombe took a deep breath and then exhaled. "Right. Who else is with me to do what must be done?"
Spoiler: Volunteers

Faintly through the opened window could be heard the sound of the church bells in the village of Moulbaix as the question lingered in the solemn silence inside her study.

Masamune-no-Tokunotakai squeezed Colombe's hand and nodded sharply. "You shall not have to stand alone against the darkness any more, Co-chan." Her voice was quiet, calm, and filled with her master-forged steel.

Delilah de Breuil looked into her elder sister's eyes and spoke. "Someone has to come along to prevent you turning this into another dumpster fire, Sis. For my sins, that is me." Zamarad nodded alongside the Muramasa revolver as they interlaced their fingers.

"It is what Master Ian would have wanted from me." Tsukiakari said firmly. "His final command to me was to protect Miss Lyra and the rest of the people who he loved."

Colombe nodded in acknowledgement, and wiped tears from her cheeks at Tsukiakari's words. "Merci." She whispered.

Nightbane looked at Sabah and Andraste who both nodded to him. His jaw firmed and he quoted Kipling. "The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,/O it's " Thin red line of 'eroes, " when the drums begin to roll. We're in."

Sabah added, "I remember items at the Potter Estate that will be of value. One of the Potters that I knew, Catherine of the Grave, was obsessed with death and related magics and had some items that she enchanted that provide an edge against the dead that walk. Such as a ring that blinds the eyes of the dead, enabling the wearer to pass among them unseen and unsensed."

Wei Ying nodded to Colombe. "I spent most of my life looking for you, to prove to the world that you are the hero of Amah's tales and not the criminal that the ICW claims you to be. I won't lose you now, Father."
Spoiler: Ehren's Choice

Ehren placed her hand on Claire's shoulder. The sisters looked into each other's eyes, warm, tear filled mahogany brown meeting equally tear filled cool steel-blue in a wordless communion. Claire nodded jerkily and then crushed Ehren in a hug which was matched by the dagger spirit. As they separated, Ehren snapped to attention. "Where you lead, I follow, Mutti."

Colombe's eyes widened and she shook her head in denial. Crystal blue eyes haunted with the knowledge of what awaited met steel-blue eyes showing a will as strong and hard as the Krupp steel that made up her true body.

"Non, Ehren! I cannot..."

Ehren stepped forward and spoke in a firm voice, cutting her mother off. "But I must. If you should fail and Verdun comes here, I cannot stand against it alone to protect Claire and our charges then. I must act, and a slim chance as part of your strike team is better than no chance should it fail. We need all of us to stand that slim chance."

Colombe stepped forward to confront her youngest daughter as the rest of the people, sensing the mood in the room, filed out. "You are not ready. The horrors that we shall face in there would break you, Ehren!"

Ehren shook her head in negation as behind her Claire's piano body Apparated back to her room. "Are Verdun's horrors truly greater than what the," Her eyes blazed and her voice was filled with utter loathing, "Nazis forged me to participate in? The horrors that I wrestle with night after night in my dreams of the Abyss that I stare into?"

Colombe sucked air past her teeth like she had been punched in the gut at Ehren's pain and guilt filled words. "I cannot in truth say yes to your question, Ehren. All the men who went with me up the Voie Sacrée to be fed into the Mincing Machine at least chose to defend France. Not so with the Jews in the Holocaust." Tears filled her eyes and voice. "I still see those young faces endlessly going up the road to l'Enfer in my own nightmares before I remember what became of them. It would break my heart if you were to be one of them, Ehren."

Ehren stepped forward, and hugged Colombe, her own voice cracking despite her iron control of herself. "As my own heart would break if you were to fall and I was unable to save you, Mutti. Perhaps I am not ready, perhaps I shall never be ready in your eyes. But if not now, when? You can only hold my hand so far and no farther."

Colombe returned the hug, "Ehren, this not about proving yourself to me. You already have proved that your steel is as true as mine, daughter. Don't ask me to do this, please."

Ehren took a deep breath and her hug tightened. "It is not about proving myself. All I have learned of magic is that symbolism is vital in spells of this magnitude. You, Toku, Tsukiakari, Nightbane, Ying, Delilah, Andraste, Zamarad, and Sabah are all from the Entente. Where is the representative of the Central Powers?" She pulled back to stare into her mother's eyes. "Who is the one who can represent Germany among us? Who can show that meine geliebte Heimat(my beloved homeland) has learned from our mistakes, repents of our crimes, and shall make amends? Ja, ich muss."

Colombe's eyes widened. "It does not have to be you, Ehren."

"Who then? Claire??" Ehren pressed her advantage ruthlessly as she sensed her mother's resistance weakening. "From what I have heard, the German wizards are unwilling to act, preferring to cut off their noses to spite their faces. Certainly none we can find in time with a fraction of my capabilities in combat. I like this as little as you do, but my duty and honor is clear."

Colombe's denials died in her throat at the look in her youngest daughter's eyes.
Spoiler: Rapier and Ehrendolch

Silence lingered as mother and daughter stood facing each other, both as strong and resolute as their Muramasa steel core.

Tears silently fell from Colombe's eyes to slide down her pale cheeks, matched by Ehren's own tears.

The dagger released the self control that defined her to allow her vulnerable heart to show in her eyes as she looked into her mother's face. Colombe in turn had her own bruised and battered spirit in her eyes, showing all her worries, flaws, regrets, and fears that she normally locked away in her fortress of noble pride and duty to be exposed to her daughter's scrutiny.

Steel blue and crystal blue eyes locked in an endless moment, then the crystal blue eyes lowered first. "I regret the necessity but..." Colombe's voice was the ghost of a whisper and she swallowed, nodding once slowly.

Ehren's shoulders slumped and she hugged her mother with all her strength. "Ich werde dich stolz machen, Mutti(I'll make you proud mom)," she choked out through her tears.

Colombe returned the hug desperately. "I need your oath to follow all the instructions that myself, Tsukiakari or Nightbane give to the letter and instantly. Even veterans died there with a single mistake or an instant of inattention or simple bad luck. The Monster... it hungered endlessly for the slightest chance to claim you."

Ehren nodded soberly. "And the less experienced a soldier is, the more likely that they will not live long enough to gain that experience they need to survive. I swear my obedience to those who know more than I, and accept the risk, Mutti."

Colombe was unable to speak, merely hugging her daughter close as she mourned the end of Ehren's childhood.