Harry Potter & the Shipgirls

[darthcourt10]

Snippet 137: S0ngD0g13

They say "don't let them in"...

Kaylee sat in her bedroom, eyes red from tears and her teddy-bear, Rupert, clutched in a deathgrip. She was shaking in the aftermath of another nightmare; at least, she thought, she'd managed to muffle her voice and not wake the whole house...

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"... Just close your eyes and clear your thoughts again"...

Aso couldn't sleep; she kept remembering... The Incident... She tried meditation, but serenity eluded her, rest eluded her...

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I have no heart, just ice and stone...

Aso, unable to sleep or even relax, did as she always had and wrapped herself in a veneer of strength, burying her fears and inner demons under the strong, unyielding Warrior she had to be...

She rose and started walking outside...

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... Made up of nails and teeth and bone...

Kaylee wiped her eyes roughly and snarled at herself to get a grip; she told herself that she was stronger than her fears, harder than her demons...

She threw on her coat and went outside; her room was too close and she needed fresh air...

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I can fake a smile; I can force a laugh...

Kaylee wandered without direction, and each person she met, she wondered if they could see through the false smile and fake cheer, to see the damaged, broken girl inside...

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I can dance and play the part, if that's what you ask...

Aso walked along under the moon, her feet carrying her where they willed as her mind twisted in circles and knots and her face betrayed none of her insecurities; if all the world were a stage, Aso certainly knew the steps to the dance...

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Weakness is a wound that no one wants to speak of...

Aso found herself sitting on the front steps of Houshou's house, of his house, in the silence of the night. No one was awake, and no one was around, so in silence, Aso let herself into the back yard and in silence let herself break down and cry, let her weakness out...

Before her eyes Aso saw the other Carriers, the Villagers, Houshou, and James. Aso saw the people she'd hurt, and the people she'd helped; there were more she'd hurt than helped...

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... And cool is just how far we have to fall...

Kaylee found herself sitting against the side of the pilothouse aboard the Polly, tears streaming down her face and the grip of one of her LeMats in her hand...

"Look how far I've fallen... I'm too weak, too damaged... It hurts too much..."

Kaylee saw her friends and family before her eyes and smelled lavender and honeysuckle on the wind...

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You know it's gonna hurt so why would you want more-ore-ore?

You know it's gonna hurt so why would you want more-ore-ore?

You know it's gonna hurt so why would you want more?

Aso felt Houshou's arms, and James', enfold her in a gentle hug as James whispered to her...

Kaylee felt her pistol pulled gently from her hand and felt ghostly arms crisscrossed with razor-scars wrap around her, and heard a phantom voice whisper in her ear...

"I know it's gonna hurt, but you're worth fighting for."

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Standing beside his mother, Harry was smiling as he was watching the launch ceremony. It was just a stroke of luck that he was home to be able to see this one. Oddly, there was a feel in the air of history being made, which was not impossible. But to Harry, there was another reason why this was important.

And that reason was a tearful and smiling Fubuki who stood in full uniform.

From where he was, Harry gave his older sister figure a once over. On her chest were all the medals and awards that she had gotten since she had come back. Not all of them were Japanese either. There were ones from Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada, and others. All of them gleaming. Also catching Harry's eye was how at her waist she wore the sword he got her all those years ago. The very same sword recovered from her wreck and which belonged to her last Captain. It may have looked out of place, but he knew that she would wear no other on this day.

To either side of Fubuki stood Yuudachi and Mutsuki while Kana herself stood just behind her "Sempai". All of them silently giving her strength as the last few motions for the launching of the ship in front of them were done. Eventually, the speech wound down and the old Admiral smiled and bowed to Fubuki before presenting her with a hatchet, it's blade nearly shining in the sunlight due to being so polished. Taking it in slightly shaking hands, Fubuki gave a small bow to the Admiral with a watery smile on her face. "Thank you, Teitoku."

In reply, the Admiral just chuckled some. "You are very welcome, Fubuki-San. This is the least that we can do."

With that done, he moved back and Fubuki walked forward to the stand that the Admiral had been at. Hatchet gripped in one hand, she looked down at the string and then up at the ship in front of her before her smile brightened. Raising the hatchet, Fubuki brought it down, breaking the string. At the same time, the commissioning bottle swung down and impacted the ship's bow, shattering. And as the ship slid backwards into the water, Fubuki let out a breath before her smile became so painful, it nearly hurt as she whispered her next words. "Welcome to the world, Fubuki-Chan... I know that you'll do your best."

Briefly, though she could have imagined it, the shipgirl swore that she could see a little girl on the bow. Said girl was wearing a more modern version of a schoolgirl's fuku and looked a lot like Fubuki herself. And then said spirit saluted Fubuki with the older Destroyer returning it as she fully entered the water and the spirit vanished. Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she turned to find Yuudachi there with a smile on her face. "Congratulations, Poi. It's a girl."

That got her a small giggle from Fubuki who gave a smile back. "Hai." Feeling Mutsuki on her other side, her smile widened some before she looked over her shoulder at Kana. "Come on over here, Kana-Chan."

A blush on her face, Kaga's twin walked over until she was right behind Fubuki. "She's... Beautiful, Fubuki-Sempai." Then her lips twitched some in an expression similar to some of Kaga's. "Just like her mother."

Of course, that only made Fubuki blush, though the Destroyer couldn't help but smile before turning her gaze back to the Destroyer now in the water. "This is just so... amazing. A new ship class, named after me. She's so big, much bigger then what I was when I was launched and... She's like me."

Harry's voice made Fubuki turn to regard the younger boy that she considered a little brother. "Really, Fubuki-Nee? She's bigger then you and like you?"

Lips twitching, Fubuki nodded. "Hai, Harry-Chan." Gesturing at herself, she shook her head. "When I was launched, I was less then two thousand tons. But Fubuki-Chan there... she's just over ten thousand. When I was a steel hull, she would have been considered a Cruiser, not a Destroyer!" Turning back, the shipgirl shook her head. "But it's more then that, Harry-Chan. Like I was the first modern Destroyer, she's the first Destroyer of her own type."
With his head tilted to the side, Harry considered that some and looked back at the JS Fubuki. "Because she has railguns and lasers, right?"

Shaking her head, Yuudachi wagged a finger some. "Not just because of that, Harry-Chan. She's more special then that, Poi! Especially with her reactor providing power."

Eyes widening some, Harry's mouth opened in an "O" shape as he remembered. "That's right! She has a Polywell fusion reactor for power." Now grinning, he looked over at Fubuki who was watching her namesake intently. "That's really cool, Dess."

Nodding rapidly, Mutsuki gave Fubuki's hand a squeeze. "It really is, Harry-Chan. The first of a future type of Destroyer."

Behind Fubuki, Kana nodded. "She's amazing, just like Sempai."

Despite the blush on her face, the "Mother of Modern Destroyers" could only smile. Seeing her namesake and being here? It was beyond priceless to her. To her, it felt like she had seen the birth of a daughter in a way. 'She is amazing...'

Having been listening in, Nagato shook her head while whispering to Goto beside her. "We have a lot to thank Iona-San for. And not just because she helped us with those other Fleet of Fog ships. If she had not left the Beacon she did behind..."

Slowly, Goto nodded. "True enough, Nagato. We might well still be having issues developing the technologies we have. Railguns and lasers would have been harder, but we might have gotten there in a few years. Fusion though..."

With a snort, Nagato shook her head. "Maybe if they funded that type some more. But still... It's an amazing time to be alive and I hope to see more. Perhaps they might now build some fusion plants..."

All the Admiral beside her did was nod. "We do owe a lot to her gift to us." Frowning, Goto watched as various people kept cheering. "Sometimes I wonder if we will ever meet her again and be able to thank her. And then I remember what happened and know that would not be a good thing."

Considering that, Nagato nodded some. "I suppose so." With a glance at the politicians nearby, the Battleship raised an eyebrow. "I am surprised though that they were pushing so hard for her."

The chuckle that Goto released made Nagato turn to him with a frown. "Of course they did, Nagato. It's a point of pride." With one hand, he gestured first at Fubuki and then at the steel hulled Destroyer. "We built and launched the first modern Destroyer in the world. One that every other one is patterned after. And now? We have the first fusion powered Destroyer with railguns for a main armament. The Americans are going to launch their first railgun and laser equipped Destroyer six months from now."

Nagato frowned some before furrowing her eyebrows. "Their Zumwalt class? I thought that was a Cruiser?"

Grimacing, Goto shook his head. "There's been an argument whether to call the railgun equipped version a Destroyer or an 'Escort Cruiser'. I don't really think that anyone is quite sure yet. But as I said, national pride was on the line. And the Fubuki really only has the laser CWIS, railguns, and power plant as being new."

Only nodding, Nagato smiled a bit as she watched Harry give a sniffling Fubuki a kleenix. "Hmm." Finger tapping on one arm, she nodded some. "To move on from there... is everything ready for tonight?"

Upon Goto's face there was now a grin. "Hai, everything is ready. Akagi apparently took over all the preparations for it. And Yamato helped as well from what I have been told."

Her own lips curled upwards, Nagato let out a chuckle. "That is good to hear. Fubuki-Chan will be surprised when we arrive at Komatsu for the party instead of the Mess Hall..."

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Washing the dishes from lunch, Harry looked over his shoulder at Hoppou who was practically bouncing where she sat. "Excited for tomorrow, Hoppu?"

Briefly, Hoppou stopped and nodded at her adopted brother with a wide grin. "Yes, Big Brother! Hoppou is really excited to go to school tomorrow! Rei and Asuka told Hoppou all about how fun school can be!" Frowning, she placed her finger against her lips in thought. "Hoppou hopes that they like Hoppou though."

Aeroprin frowned as she turned to Hoppou. "They should like you, Mama. They should. But if they don't then I will do something."

Sighing, Harry walked over and flicked her ear. "You'll do no such thing, Blackie Smokie." At the Abyssal Princess' pout, he shook his head and used his secret weapon. "It would make Hoppou sad and also make her look bad."

Nearly stricken at the thought, she turned to Hoppou who nodded. "Big Brother is right, Blackie Smokie! It would make Hoppou sad."

While Aeroprin muttered an apology, Harry gave her a half hug. "Hey, it's okay. Heck I would want to head down there and do something if they started being... meanies. But we can't do anything unless they are really mean." When the Abyssal turned to him, he gave her a wink. "And if it comes to that, I'll do something or Mum will. Just leave it to us."

Relaxing some, Aeroprin nodded. "Okay, Uncle Harry."

Just giving her one last squeeze of the shoulder, Harry turned to the humanoid avatars of the other Abyssal Destroyers. From the chokers around their necks, their connection to their real bodies left and went out through the sliding glass doors of the balcony and down. Internally, Harry shook his head at the memory of bringing them up via broom as well as how tightly they had held him. Granted, Hoppou sometimes muttered about how she was still working on a way to allow them to "Dismiss" their true bodies like shipgirls did their rigging to let them walk around in their avatars.

At the moment though, all of them were watching what was going on with cookies in their mouths.

The fact that it made them look like squirrels with nuts made Harry laugh. It was not helped as each of them tilted their heads to the side in utter confusion. Eventually Harry's laughter stop and he turned back to Hoppou who was looking at him curiously. "So, you had something to show us, Hoppou?"

Eyes widening, Hoppou jumped to her feet. "Ah! Hoppou forgot! Be right back!"

With that, she ran into her room and shut the door. Once she did so, Harry turned to Aeroprin and raised an eyebrow with a knowing smile on his face. "Hoppou's not the only one worried, is she?"

Blushing lightly at being read so well, Aeropring played a bit with her fingers before slowly nodding. "Yes, Uncle Harry. I worry because Mommy is going to be away for most of the day. And... and I can't go with her."

Gently, the black haired boy reached over and clasped her shoulder. "Hey, look at me." Once she did, Harry continued. "Hoppou will be perfectly fine. And more then that, I got no doubt that she will be spending lots of time with you when she gets out of school, understood?" At the nod, he then smiled. "As to going with her? Keep up your studies to catch up and we'll see what can be done, okay?"

Surprised, Aeroprin looked at him as did the Destroyers. "Really, Uncle Harry? I might be able to go to school with Mommy? And... and spend time there?"

Very slowly, Harry nodded. "Yes, you might be able to if you keep up your studies." He then turned to the others. "And that goes with you as well. If you do good, then you'll be able to go to school as well."

Needless to say, he got a bunch of megawatt smiles for that before they all turned to each other and started talking excitably. But they did not get long to chat before the bedroom door opened and Hoppou called out. "Big Brother? Could you make the sound?" Amused, Harry began to tap his fingers onto the table in the form of a drumroll for a few seconds before Hoppou hopped out. "Taa-daa!"

There, in front of them, stood Hoppou in an elementary school uniform with her backpack on. A smile on his face, Harry clapped his hands some. "You look adorable, Little Sister. Really, really cute." Then he gave her a thumbs up. "You're going to beat out everyone else there."

Her eyes wide, Aeroprin was also clapping her hands. "Mommy looks so cute! So cute!"

Preening under the attention, Hoppou closed her eyes and gave them a large smile. However, hearing Harry get up, she opened her eyes and watched as he walked over to the counter. "Big Brother? What are you doing?"

In reply, he quickly did some things before pulling out a camera. Then Harry handed over an object in his hands. "Well, I want to try something, Hoppou..."

Roughly fifteen minutes later, Goto walked back into his office after getting some coffee and a few snacks from the machine outside. Upon entering though, he had to blink at the odd sight that met him. No, it was not the sight of Nagato nearly in a coma staring at something outside the window. More then once, she spaced out at seeing something cute after all, though it had gotten rarer over the years.

Granted, her nearly being catatonic was somewhat new.

What did catch his attention though was Ooyodo. His normally unflappable Secretary Ship was staring out the window while also rubbing her chest where a human's heart would be. As he got closer, he raised an eyebrow at what she was saying. "Oh Kami... my boilers..."

Needless to say, Goto watched this for a few seconds before taking a sip of his coffee. Then he slowly nodded with his throat being cleared. Granted, that got no reaction from Nagato, but it made Ooyodo split her attention between him and what was going on outside. "Ooyodo? Is something going on?"

Licking her lips, the Light Cruiser shuddered. "It's... Harry-Chan and Hoppou... They're, well..." Another shudder went through her before she pointed outside. "I... You should see this."

Curious, Goto set down his coffee and walked over. At reaching the window, he could hear Hoppou's voice and looked down at the courtyard and froze. Mainly because down there was the Abyssal in her school uniform and backpack on. However, more to the point, she had a piece of toast in her mouth and was running around as Harry recorded it. "Hoppou's flate! Hoppou's flate!"

Utter silence enveloped the room before Goto reached up and rubbed the side of his face. "I'm pretty sure that I am going to need to go and see a dentist." At the look from Ooyodo, he gave a half smile, half grimace. "My teeth feel like they're rotting."

Head tilted to the side, Ooyodo considered this before looking at Nagato who was twitching. "H-Hoppou... so cute... Too cute... boilers overloading... But in good way..."

Turning back to the Admiral, Ooyodo frowned. "What sort of reaction do you think that we would get from Wanko if we were to show her this."

Just grabbing his coffee, Goto continued to watch as he found himself unable to look away. "I fear for her heart. Or whatever the Abyssal Installation version of that might be." Sipping his coffee, he looked down at it in puzzlement. "Okay, my coffee tastes even sweeter now..."

Still watching what was going on, Ooyodo blinked. "Same with mine... How do you think that they got the sparkles to form around her."

All Goto did was shake his head. "I have no clue. Either its because of MWSB or some sort of... MASB."

Outside, Jersey walked into view and noticed what was going on. Her sunglasses slipped down her nose as she stared before she grabbed at her vest before collapsing to her knees. "FUCK! FUCK! MY GODDAMN FUCKING BOILERS!"

Watching this, Ooyodo sipped her coffee as Jersey fell to her side still shouting about her boilers and her teeth. Then Hoppou and Harry were out of sight. "Should I put this on the List?"

There was a frown on Goto's face as he considered this. From a short distance away, he could hear someone shouting. "ENTERPRISE IS DOWN! REPEAT, ENTERPRISE IS DOWN! GREY GHOST IS DOWN AND SO IS YAMATO-SAMA!"

Slowly, he hummed. "Maybe, give me some time to get my blood sugar levels down first." At the look Ooyodo gave his coffee, he raised an eyebrow. "What? It's good coffee, even with the sweetness."

A sound made them both turn to see Nagato stagger to her feet before she dove out the window and made the building shake. Then Nagato, or rather Nagamon, charged off with the battlecry on her lips. "CUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTEEEEEEE~"

With a final sip, Goto turned away and walked back to his desk. He had work to do after all and prepare for anything that might happen.

Just another day in Yokosuka.

 

[darthcourt10]

Snippet 138: S0ngD0g13

Zuikaku logged onto SGO to check her messages and paused when she saw a new thread titled 'An Open Challenge'. When she clicked on it, the first post was a video...

The camera was focused on Kaylee, standing at a range table with her coat hanging on a hook behind her; the Ironclad was wearing a USMC Modular Tactical Vest loaded with magazine pouches, and Zui could tell by the way it bulged that the vest had all four SAPI plates inserted. Kaylee calmly finished loading rounds into her last magazine and picked up the M4 on the table, inserted the magazine and sent the bolt home as she turned to face the camera. Visible under her left arm was the butt of a holstered 1911A1, and a cutlass hung at her left hip.

"Show them the course." The camera turned and panned across the Kure Rifle Range, showing a horde of steel ringer-targets painted red, green, and blue, and tatami cutting-targets. Kaylee spoke, narrating. "I'm standing on the five-hundred-yard line of the Rifle Range. That yellow stripe on the ground," and the camera dipped to show the stripe that made tight zigzags along the length of the firing-line and back all the way to the target-pits used during rifle-qualifications, "is my course. The object is to run the course and engage the targets as fast as I can. Red is rifle, green is pistol, blue are noncombatants and add five seconds to my time, and the cutting-targets are for my sword. Each valid hit subtracts five seconds."

Kaylee tapped the forward-assist on her rifle and stepped onto the starting-mark. "Go."

She erupted off the mark, and her rifle came up. In the lower-left corner a timer was running, and a counter appeared for hits. The M4 swung left and barked twice, then right and fired twice more, each hammer-pair striking targets. The next was a quartet of green targets; Kaylee dropped her M4 to hang on its one-point sling and drew the 1911A1 from under her arm.

BAMBAM-BAMBAM-BAMBAM-BAMBAM-CLICK

Kaylee pressed the magazine release and flipped her wrist to toss the empty mag free even as her other hand slotted a fresh one home; she released the slide and holstered the pistol, took up the carbine again, and continued shooting without ever breaking stride...

At the end of her run, which had taken her ten trips across the entire hundred-yard width of the range, Kaylee walked up to the range table again and dropped the last empty magazine from her carbine before dropping the bolt on an empty chamber. She'd run the course in four minutes forty seconds, hit each of the hundred valid gun targets twice, each sword target once, and clipped a noncombatant target once, without ever missing. As Kaylee calmly removed the vest, her score was calculated on-screen.

Run Time: 280 seconds
Valid Hits (-5 seconds per): 300
NonCom Hits (+5 seconds per): 1
Total Score: -815

Kaylee faced the camera and smiled. "That's my score. To all Shipgirls and Shipgirl-Associated Military Personnel, I say only this." She picked up a leather falconer's gauntlet from the table, held it up for the viewers to see...

... And threw it down on the table with a loud SMACK.

 

[darthcourt10]

Snippet 139: S0ngD0g13

The Battleship Demon sailed onward, trailing behind the Chi-Class Cruiser who had met her at the border of Gateway Princess' territory. The Cruiser was looking over the Demon's axe, her brows lifted in curiosity. "Why do you... Why did Skadi's fleet all use blades? I can't see how getting that close is a good thing..."

The Demon smiled under her hood. "Sometimes a foe gets lucky and closes under your guns, inside your fishes' arming-distance. It's good to know how to fight at hand-strokes like that. Plus..." She stopped and looked up, spotting an Abyssal ahead of them, alone and looking confused and nervous.

"A Seaplane Carrier... Those are Goda's colors on her... The Hell is a lone Seaplane Carrier doing out here?" commented the Cruiser. "She must have gotten separated from the fleet somehow... Oh, well; tough luck for her, I guess." The Chi-Class started to aim her torpedoes when the Demon held up a hand.

"You asked me why my sisters and I used blades and fought close? There's one other purpose besides defense for it. Distract her, keep her planes busy, and watch."

"Okay..."

The Battleship Demon swung wide away from the Cruiser, circling out to port. The Carrier saw them approaching and panicked, trying to launch planes as she turned to flee only to be turned back by a spread of torpedoes close off her bow.

The Demon suddenly heeled hard-over and rushed close at flank-speed, her secondaries booming and silencing her hapless victim's few defensive guns. The Demon caught the Seaplane Carrier's arm and locked the elbow straight as she rotated her hips and levered the Carrier down to the water's surface, then used the arm-bar hold and one foot to hold the Carrier down as Imps streamed out from the Battleship Demon's rigging and onto the Carrier.

The Cruiser, having come closer, could hear the popping of small-arms from the Seaplane Carrier's hull, before she went limp. The Demon released her and both stood, though the Seaplane Carrier's expression was now slack and lifeless.

"A boarding? That's..."

"Useful, at times. The prize-crew won't be able to hold her indefinitely, but they'll hold long enough. It comes in handy, at times. Remind me sometime to tell you about the Sack of Lindisfarne..." The Demon watched her Prize fall in behind them. "Lead on, Border-Warden."

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"Princess! Liner Demon!" shouted a Destroyer. "Word from the border! My Division-Lead's sent me to bring word; she's escorting a Battleship Demon in who says she wants to join you! She says the Battleship Demon used to sail with Northern War Demon!"

 

[darthcourt10]

K9Thefirst1

Another segment. Again, made with rapid production in mind rather than artistic perfection, so it's a lot more telling than showing. Apologies.
*-*-*-*-*

On the Coast of Israel, Present Day

Doctor Mustafa of the Israel Antiquities Authority had often followed up on claims of discoveries all over the Levant. It was more common than some would imagine. After all, after some six-thousand years and a continuous exchange of territory between empires and you had a recipie for any random schmuck turning over a rock and discovering a buried market from the Pre-Roman period, or a conman claiming such, hoping to make a quick buck. There were a great many more of the latter than the former. But the Authority would much rather endure a thousand of them rather than risk missing out of one truly genuine find, and so here he was, following up some boys claim at discovering a flooded Egyptian Tomb.

It wasn't an impossible claim. Egypt did stretch all the way up the coast to modern day Turkey during the New Kingdom in the 15th Century BC. And while a colleague proposed a local Government official could potentially have the influence and power to warrant the effort to have an Egyptian burial, not even he thought it was likely. This far from the core territories? And this close to the sea? Still the photos sent were compelling, and presuming anything survived the water well enough to be recorded, it could give new insight to the past... Assuming this wasn't an elaborate hoax of course.

"Are you the man from the Antiquities Authority?"

"I am, Doctor Abraham Mustafa."

The boy had a strong handshake. No doubt from working with his tools, if his claim of building the ROV floating in the tidal pool was accurate. The pair made small talk, predominately with Mustafa asking the college student to clarify what he has said in his e-mails. As his story went, the boy and his older brother had lived in the area during Blood Week and its aftermath, and on the day they were to move inland they spied a group of Abyssals digging into the rock they were standing on in the present day. A quick telephone interview with the parents the week before had corroborated the story, and records with the government confirmed that, yes, this family lived in the area at the time, and the date of their change of residence coincided with an incursion the Israeli and NATO forces repulsed in this very spot. And the massive tidal pool the two stood at was certainly unusual, as far as Abraham was aware. A quick look through the GoogleEarth timeline and a chat with the geological surveyors of the area confirmed that this pit was not present until six months or so after Blood Week.

Soon enough, the home made ROV - a project the Engineering Student had been working on for well over a year now - was in the water, and the vertical propellers pushing the buoyant machine into the depths. On the monitor showing what the machine was seeing, the two men observed the cut of the rock made by the Abyssals. Mustafa reminded himself of what another colleague told him, when he raised the question of what could survive being immersed in water. Given the steep sides of the pit and the depth, there would be very little movement in the water column, even at high tide, when it was connected with the sea. Therefore, marine life would use up the oxygen in the lower layers quickly. So any organic matter that had survived the centuries - such as wood - would likely be in a condition not to dissimilar to what it was before Blood Week. However, the mummy - if there was one to begin with - was not likely to have survived. Still, the sarcophagus would still contain vital historical information, even if the body it contained was tragically lost. The hole at the bottom of the pit was trickier, being only slightly larger than the ROV. It took a couple of tries, but the young man was able to finagle it into the right position. And from there, they descended into the tomb...

At Mustafa's direction, the pair began a proper survey of the chamber. By the contents, there were objects like what one would expect of a tomb. However, there were few of the items expected in an Egyptian-Influenced tomb. No furniture, nor game boards, or clothing items. None of the things that someone of Egypt or the regional powers would want in the afterlife. Rather, the majority of the items were those of war. His trained eye identified at least two chariots, with a third likely behind them. Along one wall was the battering ram from a warship, the bronze lion's head at the end still glistening. Pots and vases and other containers filled the remaining space, all were filled with swords, bows, arrows, and slings. Along the back wall, the ROV recorded a mural covering the entire surface. Given the artstyle, it was no wonder that the lad considered it Egyptian. It would take weeks of careful analysis by the Egyptologists to decipher the hieroglyphics, but what Mustafa could make out was a story of nine... Goddesses? Emerging from the sea with their army, and laying waste to the forces brought to bear on the land. In time, the nine goddesses were victorious, and then proceeded to turn on each other. And in the corner were stacks of fired clay tablets. Squeezing the ROV between the ceiling and the top of the shorter of the stacks to get a look at the writing on them suggested Sumatran, or perhaps Babylonian... Doctor Mustafa was certain that this was far to complicated to be a hoax, though the Antiquities Authorities would need to recover the tablets and see if the writing was accurate before they could make strong conclusions.

The ROV turned around and was making for the opening, when Mustafa saw the dais in the middle.

"There! Down there, can you get closer my boy?"

"Sure thing doctor."

They were so focused on the artefacts that they had missed it, the dais that the body had been laid out on. Apparently, the individual buried here was not Egyptian, as there was no sign of a sarcophagus or even linen wrappings. Either the body had been laid out on the marble dais in the nude, or whatever finery they were buried with did not survive the passage of time. All that remained were the bones. The digits and extremities did not seem to survive the ravages of the millennia, but the more significant bones did, even if in fragments. Hips, legs, spine, ribs and arms. They all were present, though their scale suggested an individual of unheard of size for the time period. If the Archaeologist had to give a guess, he'd place the individual at nearly eight feet tall. But what most stood out, what stunned the Doctor and the Engineering student to a stupor for nearly twenty minutes, staring at the monitor screen... Was the skull.

A largely human skull... With nine blackmetal horns sticking out of the crown. Horns that were not metal creations jabbed into the bone, but were natural growths.

Horns instantly recognizable from thousands of images from Abyssal Princesses the world over...

"I need to make some calls."

 

[darthcourt10]

WickedestCard

So, I know I said in the next snippet of the Amazing Adventures of Minigato would show off the power of the Smols. Well, slight correction to that is the power of simply Minigato, though that should still be more than enough. Also, I remembered a long, long time ago when I had played the Prisoner of Azkaban game for the GameBoy Advance and that there were minor enemies to fight in the hallways of Hogwarts which lead to this.
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Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was well known for being a safe place for young witches and wizards to learn their craft in their school years thanks to the watchful eyes of the Headmaster and the various other teachers and staff that were on hand. Even with the terror brought on by the Basilisk's attacks that reputation has not waivered much as many praised the quick thinking of The Boy Who Lived Harry Potter and Professor Lockhart in stopping those attacks.


However that did not stop various pests and critters from roaming around the grounds and halls as they have always done. Sure Mrs. Norris and the various pets of the students did much behind the scenes to help curb this but for the local Fairy Bar, some extra measures were taken just to be safe. After all, the various sailors, marines and pirate fairies can still remember their service and do not like having their good time interrupted by rats, pixies and other various nasties. Which is why it was a fairly respected post for those to give up leave and liberty to man the 'defense posts' which really meant they acted as slightly more aggressive bouncers but it was usually enough for any trouble.


Which is why the three fairies, one US and two Japanese were slightly worried as they listened to a pirate fairy about the unusually large group of pixies, (apparently escaped ones from a abandoned attempted to prank Lockhart), magical rats of a large size and some fire salamanders that seemed ready to stage a legitimate attack on the bar. Still, the four kept their cool and gave the report to the Head Bartender (a officer fairy from HMS Hermione) who immediately ordered that all willing shipgirl fairies to grab their locked up weapons from storage and to begin setting up fortifications. He also asked the fairies that worked there as dancers, waitresses and servers to evacuate to a safer place which most did though some stayed behind stating that they could help with their own magic.


It was this scene that Minigato found as she made her way to the Fairy Bar, having heard from it from some of Nagato's fairies. Multiple US fairies setting up sandbags and tiny machine guns in rows in front of the entrance, Japanese and English ones setting traps and ambush spots, the pirate ones setting up a few cannons and even a group trying to haul a couple 40mm pom-pom cannons into place.


"Gato? Gato Gato?" Minigato asked the Captain of Hermione as she walked up, several of the Japanese fairies with looks of confused awe and relief, thankfully being let through.


"Oi, oi oi! Oi oi?" the Captain responded even as he himself looked confused about this turn of events.


"NA? Gato Gato, Na! GATO!" the Smol shook her head as she looked around and nodded, "Gato Gato"


"Hey? Hey!" a Marine fairy spoke up from where he was handing out tiny Grease Guns to others. The response he got was the mini battleship pounding one fist into her hands and then pumping it up into the air. Which just so happened to get the attention of all the gathered fairies.


"OI! HEY! DESU! ARGH!" a simultaneous cry rang out, actually startling the Smol, who hadn't noticed she had gained the attention of most of the gathered forces. Even the normal fairies looked as to have gotten a confidence boost from seeing that they now had a Smol Battleship to aid them.


"Na? Gato Gato." Minigato shook her head, trying to hide the small blush that was now on her cheeks as she turned her focus to the task at hand.


The first wave was apparently the Fire Salamanders running up and ready to breath fire though that was soundly handled by a trap of trenches and water with some of the marine fairies dropping grenades to finish them off. (The Salamanders were later mysteriously found in the Potions classroom with a note)


Next came some normal sized magical rats that were clever enough to jump over the trenches but these fairies knew better than to rely on a single line of defense and had already fallen back. The second line consisted of hidden MG nests and tiny depth charges jury-rigged to act as mines so as the rats charged down the hallway they were quickly put down. (These rats were later found in routes that many of the pet cats like to go through and were even cleaned up to be more edible)


Finally the pixies decided that they had enough and gathered their rats of unusually large size and together with the remaining Fire Salamanders charged through the already abandoned MG nests to the main line of defense. The flying pixies were then met with exploding light AA fire and cannon blasts as the 40mm and 20 pounder cannons roared to life.


Still this did not dissuade the main pixie leader as he weaved and bobbed through it all and was poised to get his hands on a normal fairy that was delivering ammo, or at least that's what he thought.


"GATO!" and then that pixie realized what being met with several thousand tons behind small fist of a Smol Battleship felt like. Fairy Battleship Minigato was on the field and she was to show the halls of Hogwarts the might of the Big Seven Smols. Which included the suplexing of several of the enemy forces. There was even a surprise appearance of a certain abyssal fighter and mobile AA that Minigato invited.


Needless to say, there was a celebration party afterwards. Though some of the other Smols had a hard time believing when until both US and Japanese sailors confirmed it and even said that Minigato now had a small following in the magical community of Hogwarts.
-------

Well, hope that was at least enjoyable for some people. Actually had to open up my old paperback copy of Chamber of Secrets to make sure it was pixies that Lockhart used in his lesson since I know that some dickish asshole would use the same as a prank but then would decide against it after the ordeal of the Basilisk was finished. And cue epic end card title voice for a silly thought I just had as I type this out:

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR OUR FAVORITE SMOL BATTLESHIP! COULD HER NEW FOUND FAME MAY COME BACK TO BITE HER? PERHAPS IN THE FORM OF THE MOST DREADED OF CREATURES: A FAIRY OTAKU FANGIRL!!!!!!!!

What do you guys think?

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

On the screen was Maruyu who smiled and gave a thumbs up. "Okay, we're all set up. You ready, Harry-Chan?"

From out of view, Harry's voice could be heard. "Hai, Maruyu-Chan! I'm all ready for this... And this is going to be so freaking awesome."

Now grinning, Maruyu coughed into her fist. "Okay..." She wagged a finger in front of the camera. "I'm Maruyu, a Type 3 Submergence Transport. Not a mole! Mogu, mogu." Then the Submarine gestured at the table in front of her. "For this challenge, I shall be using a Pre-War Nambu, a Type 38 Rifle, and a Type 98 Military Sword. In front of us is the course that I am going to navigate."

Using the camera, Harry focused in on it to show the course. Then he started to talk. "Now, the rules for the challenge are as follows... Maruyu-Chan will be following the yellow zig-zag of the course. Pistol targets are blue, rifle green, and sword are purple. Non-combatants are red. Each hit to a non-combatant adds fifteen seconds to the time while each direct hit to the actual targets subtract two seconds in this case."

It only took fifteen seconds, but he turned back to where Maruyu was...

Key word there being: Was. Instead, there was nothing but empty space. Then Harry panned out over the course before several targets were hit dead on. But when he turned back, there was nothing there. This continued for some time only showing either the bullets hitting the targets, or targets damaged by a sword with an empty course with the odd cardboard box. As the last target fell, Harry's laugh could be heard as he focused on the end of the course. "Awesome, Maruyu-Chan!"

Of course, the cardboard box lifted revealing Maruyu there also grinning. "So, how did I do? Mogu, mogu?"

Still snickering, one could imagine Harry shaking his head. "Awesome, altogether you beat out Kaylee's time by about forty seconds. Not bad, Solid Subu, not bad at all."

Maruyu just grinned and gave a thumbs up. "Awesome! Hey, Harry-Chan!" She then tapped the side of her head where there was a gopro. "We're uploading the footage that I recorded as well, right?"

Within seconds, one could hear Harry snort. "Of course!"

The video then switched out to "Submarine View" which showed things from Maruyu's view. It also revealed that she had been there the whole time, except for being hidden under a cardboard box between popping out to either take a shot or to use her blade. At the present, Maruyu was watching the video and nodded to herself as it ended. Then she held out a hand. "Great work, Harry-Chan!"

Only grinning, Harry gave a laugh. "Thanks, that was actually a lot of fun, Dess." Stretching some, he sighed before logging out of Youtube and SGO. Moments later, he closed his windows and shut down the computer. "Anyways, I wonder what sort of reaction that is going to be getting you."

Unable to help herself, Maruyu let out some giggles as she shook her head. "Good ones, I hope." Head tilted to the side, she hummed some. "I hope that Kiso-Nee-San is happy with them though."

All Harry did was smile over at her and shake his head. "I'm sure that Kiso-Oba will be really happy with what you pulled off. After all, you made it look easy and awesome."

That brought a pleased smile to Maruyu's face as she scratched her cheek. "Thank you, Harry-Chan." Getting onto her tiptoes, she gave him a kiss to the cheek before grasping his hand. Her expression then turned mischievous. "Anyways, I remember someone stating that if I beat Kaylee-San's time that he would make me something."

Gently squeezing her hand, Harry nodded some. "As a matter of fact, I did. How does a pasta bake sound?"

Eyes twinkling, Maruyu patted her stomach. "Sounds about perfect, Harry-Chan. And just what I need for tonight before I head back to Kure." Sighing, the Submarine shook her head. "Sorry that I'm not going to be here to see you back to Hogwarts, Harry-Chan."

However, the black haired wizard only shook his head. "Hey, none of that, Maruyu-Chan. After all, you've been watching me for over a month now. Besides, it's only for two months and I'll be back after all."

Slowly, Maruyu gave a nod. "That is true enough, I suppose." As the two left the building with the computer lab put aside for the shipgirls, Maruyu closed her eyes and tilted her head before smiling as she felt the warm sunshine on her skin. Not to mention the warm skin of the hand that held hers. Opening her eyes, she gave Harry a look. "Are you going to be seeing me off tonight?"

Just smiling, Harry shook his head in amusement. "That was what the plan has been. Why? Did it change or something?"

Lips twitching, the little Submarine shook her head. "No, just wondering is all." The smile on her face then grew some more. "It actually feels pretty good that you'll be there to see me off back to Kure after all." Both of them continued walking some before Maruyu remembered something. "That's right, you have some cargo to send back to Kure, right?"

Blinking, Harry nodded some. "Yeah, I'm sending some of the trunks we found in that room with the expanded insides. I put them all into the largest one, kind of like those Russian nesting dolls that Gangut gave to Hibiki-Chan."

There was a thoughtful look on Maruyu's face as she remembered that gift before nodding. "I remember Gangut-San giving those to her." Then she furrowed her eyebrows. "I'm still amazed that nothing bad happens when you put something with an expanded inside into something else that has an expanded inside."

With a snicker, Harry rolled his eyes. "It's not like it is in Dungeons and Dragons, Maruyu-Chan. Nothing happens in that case after all." Just shaking his head, he frowned some. "Anyways, I wonder what Aso-San wants with them? Kind of odd that she would want something like that."

Also frowning, Maruyu chewed her bottom lip in thought. "I really don't know, Harry-Chan. I don't understand it myself. They're useful for storing and carrying cargo around, but not much else. And the largest is what? About the size of the inside of a 18 wheeler trailer on the inside?"

Harry nodded at that. "Roughly. And the smallest is about the size of a cube van... Still though, kind of strange."

Unknown to him, Maruyu was also wondering about why Aso would want them. She had heard rumors, but not much else then that. Shaking it off, Maruyu let out a sigh. "We'll find out eventually."

Simply frowning, Harry accepted that. Then he perked up some and looked at Maruyu directly. "By the way, how is Regina doing?" At the confused look, the black haired boy continued. "At the training that you were giving her with grapples and stuff."

Brightening at the question, Maruyu gave a nod. "Actually, Regina-San has been doing very well at what I've taught her. Sure, it is all just basic stuff, but she's soaked it up like a sponge. And I can tell that she enjoys learning it, especially after she learned that it can be used to capture other Abyssals." Finger tapping her chin, she hummed. "I'm willing to bet that if given the chance, she would learn some other martial arts as well."

Head tilted to the side as he considered that, Harry slowly nodded. "I guess that she would at that. She seems pretty driven."

Attention now on him, Maruyu raised an eyebrow and had an expression on her face as if she knew something that he didn't. "I think that I know why." Despite the confusion on Harry's face, she changed the subject before he could ask. "So how are your own training going? I know that Inazuma-San was going to give you a test of some sort."

That caused the confusion on Harry's face to disappear as he nodded. "Well... Inazuma-Chan gave me a test in Aikido before she left. I moved up the next Kyū and she thinks that I might move up to the next Dan before I head back to Hogwarts next year." Glancing around, Harry leaned in. "I've also been taught some knife fighting by Louisiana's Marines. I'm not as good as they are, but I'm still getting better."

In reply to that, Maruyu only smiled. "That's great, Harry-Chan!" Moments later, she wagged a finger at him. "Just remember not to slack off. You won't get anywhere except through hard work after all, it doesn't come easy like it does in fiction or in manga after all."

Straightening, Harry nodded some. "Hai, I know that, Maruyu-Chan. I'm going to work as hard as I can at it, don't worry."

Later that day as evening set in, Maruyu was stretching at the end of the pier as she prepared for the long journey back to Kure by herself. Her fuel tanks were filled with good food from the pasta bake and bread that Harry had made for her. At the footsteps coming up, she turned and smiled some. "Harry-Chan!"

Just returning the smile, Harry nodded. "Maruyu-Chan." He then jerked his head back to the trunk he was carrying. "I got the trunks for Aso-San."

Tilting her head to the side, Maruyu straightened up some and nodded as she took in the trunk. Gently picking it up, she looked it over before pulling her swimsuit away from her body which made a blushing Harry look away. When he turned back though, the trunk was gone and Maruyu was adjusting the straps of her swimsuit. "There we go, it's now in my holds."

Only nodding, kept watching and he found his eyes giving her a once over. What he missed though was Maruyu blushing some as she noticed that fact. But when he returned to her face, her blush was gone. A smile on his face, he walked over and gave her a hug. "I'm going to miss you, Maruyu-Chan."

Hugging him back, Maruyu smiled brightly. "I'll miss you too, Harry-Chan. But like you said, it's just for a few months. And then you'll be back and telling me all about what happened at Hogwarts, okay?" At his nod, Maruyu leaned back some and smiled even more as she noticed that Hachi and the others had joined them. "Guys!"

Iku had a small curl of her lips before shaking her head. "You didn't think that we wouldn't say goodbye to you before you head out to Kure, did you?"

All Maruyu did though was shake her head with a knowing look. "No, I didn't think so." Walking over, she hugged Iku before heading to the next Submarine. Even Taigei had shown up and she gave the Submarine Tender, who was like an older sister, a tight hug as well. Pulling back, she smiled at them. "I'll see you in a few weeks, okay?"

In reply to that, Shioi gave her a thumbs up. "Hai, we'll see you in a few weeks in Kure while we're on our patrols. Or maybe Sasebo if you're there instead."

Simply nodding, Maruyu gave a nod. Then she spotted Hachi jerking her head towards Harry with a smile on her face. Something that made the Submarine's eyes widen as she felt her cheeks burn at the silent conversation between them. Before it could get any further though, Maruyu felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Harry there. "Hai?"

What she did not expect was for Harry to lean forward and press his lips against hers. It went without saying that Maruyu's eyes widened and her cheeks felt like they were on fire. But before she could do much more, Harry pulled back from the short peck with a chuckle as he rubbed his neck. "I'll see you around, okay, Maruyu-Chan?"

Just swallowing, Maruyu nodded as she noted the looks of surprise on the other Submarines' faces... except for RO who had a massive grin. "H-hai, Harry-Chan! I'll see you around then." Face hurting from the smile there, she gave one last wave and dove into the water, easily slipping beneath the surface before she headed out of the bay and southwards, towards Kure. More then once though, she placed her fingers against her lips and brightened.

 

[darthcourt10]

Snippet 140: S0ngD0g13

Kaylee laughed as she watched videos of people taking her up on her challenge, then paused when she felt a tugging at her leg. She looked down to see Boromir tugging her trouser-leg. "What's up, Boromir?"

"Whatchu laughin' at, Grandma Ginia?" the little Acromantula asked.

"Just some videos. And don't call me 'Grandma'; it makes me feel too old. Where's your brother?"

"Faramir's asleep, but I couldn't sleep well. Got bored."

Kaylee chuckled warmly. "Want to hear a story, then? It's a good one, about my daddy, Eric McAmis."

The tiny arachnid jumped onto her lap, nodding. "Yeah! You tell stories almost as good as Cousin Jaw or Uncle James!"

Kaylee smiled. "I do? Thanks, Young'un. Anyway, my story. My daddy, Eric, he used to be a soldier in the Army, in the 75th Rangers. Now, folks in the military always get lots of nicknames as they go along, like how Azuma calls Monitor 'Yankee-Boat', and I call her 'Blue-Belly'."

"Or how Aunt Monitor calls you 'Gray-Back', right?"

"Just so, my clever Boromir. Anyhow, Dad was odd because no one had managed to find a nickname that fit him. There was already a person in his unit nicknamed 'Tennessee', and the rest of his men were just plain stumped on what to nickname him."

Kaylee smiled, remembering when she was little and her dad had told her this story. "Well, one day Dad was helping a friend of his off-base work on a car; he'd just sent that friend off to the store for more... 'Foamy-Sodas', when a couple punks came up the street. They were big and mean, and they were sure-as-sunrise huntin' trouble. Well, they saw the wife of Dad's friend and started flirtin' with her, but she didn't like those punks so she told them to go and f-, fly off away from her."

"What happened then?"

"Well, bein' told to fly off didn't make those punks any sort of happy, so one of'em hauled off and slapped Tracy right across the face. They didn't know Dad was there, 'cause he was up in the bed of his pickup lookin' for a tool and hid from view by the camper-shell, but when they'd walked up Dad had got real quiet and listened. When that one punk hit Tracy, Dad came out of his truck with a big-old wrench he called his 'Be Cool Tool' in one hand and a piece of jack-handle in the other, and lambasted that punk right in the shoulder." Kaylee was grinning as she recounted the tale; she'd brought that same wrench to Japan with her and given the inch-and-three-quarters drop-forged combination-wrench to Jaw, and her father's handwriting in black Sharpie along its length still proclaimed it the 'Bitch Be Cool Tool'. "Well, that other punk spun around and pulled a knife out from under his jacket, and he tried to stick my daddy with it. Tracy watched Dad knock that knife aside with the jack-handle easy as swattin' a bug, and then Dad laid into that punk hammer-and-tongs. After it was all said and done, those two punks left on stretchers and Tracy swore Dad's hands were fast as rattlesnakes striking."

"Rattlesnakes? I saw those on the tv."

"Yup. What really cemented Dad's nickname after that was when Tracy's husband, 'Irish' Lee O'Young, played a joke on Dad by changing his phone ringtone to a song. Dad heard the first few words, 'Rattlesnake oh Rattlesnake, what makes your teeth so white', and laughed before finishing the line himself. 'I been living in the Bottom all of my life and I ain't done nothin' but bite'. Ever after that, Dad's nickname was 'Rattlesnake'."

Boromir laughed, and Kaylee laughed with him before asking, "You excited to start training and be a Navy Working-Spider like your mama?"

"Nuh-uh. I don't want to be a Squid-Spider; I want to be in the Army like Great-Grandpa Rattlesnake."

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Hands in his pocket as he walked along, Harry glanced at Natsumi who was walking beside him. Said girl was also looking at him with a small smile on her face. "Thanks for walking me to school, Harry-Chan. I really appreciate it."

Laughing lightly, Harry rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I don't mind it. And I figured that I should come and get my first bunch of assignments here personally." There was an upturn to his lips as he tilted his head back. "Besides, it's been a while since we walked to school together."

Also thoughtful, Natsumi nodded. "It has been a bit, hasn't it?"

Just blinking, the black haired boy noted some wistfulness in her voice. "Hai, it has." Somewhat amused, Harry shook his head. "Maybe in the future it will happen more often once I get out of Hogwarts."

Shy smile on her face, Natsumi gave a nod before reaching over and grasping his hand in hers. "I'd like that, Harry-Chan. I'd like that a lot."

Not saying anything, Harry glanced at the trees and chuckled. Seeing the confused look on Natsumi's face, he shook his head. "Nothing, just thinking about the fact that I'm lucky enough to be walking you to school in the first place thanks to how the holidays worked out."

Head tilted back, the Kitsune gave a sniff before she spoke in a haughty voice. Granted, by the sparkle in her eyes Harry knew that she was just having some fun. "And as you should be! After all, it's not all the boys that I pay such attention to."

Amused, Harry shook his head. "Well, I would hope not!" For several moments, both of them had serious expressions on their faces before they broke down laughing. Some people nearby glanced at them, but then turned away as it was nothing worth paying attention to in their view. Wiping a tear from his eye, Harry grinned. "Sorry, couldn't help myself."

Natsumi just snorted some. "Same here, Harry-Chan. I'm sorry, but that's not me and not you either."

Grinning, Harry snorted. "Agreed, Natsumi-Chan." Still holding her hand, he stretched some. "I wonder what most of our old classmates think of me at the moment."

The giggle beside him made Harry turn and regard Natsumi, who simply smiled at him. "Depends on who you ask, Harry-Chan. Those bakas who had issues with you being a foreigner mostly go on about how things are better with you gone. I think that they're just jealous myself because now you're not there taking attention away from them."

All Harry did though was roll his eyes. "I will never understand that. I mean, what did they have to be jealous over?"

Rather amused, Natsumi shook her head. "What indeed." Unknown to her, Harry could have sworn that she sounded like a younger Haru. Not that he was going to tell her that, it would get him a whack to the head. "And some of the girls have missed you as well... for various reasons anyways. Most of them though are just confused."

Eyebrow raised, Harry looked at her. "Confused? Why? I mean... why would they be confused about me not being there?"

Humming, Natsumi scratched her chin in mock thought. "Well... there is the rumor that you are going to a very exclusive school for gifted children in the Scottish Highlands. One that your rather well off parents had paid for before their deaths and takes in a very limited number of students each year. Yet you also do work for our school here in Japan so that you are covered in case some of the credits don't transfer over..."

On Harry's face was a rather even gaze. "A rumor, huh? How very odd that is... I wonder who spread it?"

Yet again, Natsumi hummed with a mischivous smile on her face. "Who indeed? Not that anything about said rumor is actually false oddly enough. Just... stretched, a bit."

Lips twitching, the twelve year old shook his head. He knew where the rumor came from after all, the source being the girl next to him. "I see..."

Not saying anything else, though she knew they both knew what had happened, Natsumi smiled. After a few moments though, she raised an eyebrow and leaned forward. "So..." Having gotten her friend's attention, she was nearly skipping. "What do you think of my uniform?"

Blinking at the odd question that had seemingly come from nowhere, Harry frowned. "Your uniform?" At her nod, he considered it before scratching his head. "It's nice? I mean, it looks good on you... Though that's true for anything."

Face red, Natsumi looked away before slowly turning back to him. Internally, she sighed a bit at his answer being so... very Harry. But that also made it all the better to the Kitsune. Still holding his hand, she twirled in place which made Harry stare as her skirt flared out some. "Really? It just looks good?"

Harry cocked his head to the side and then nodded. "It does look good, very cute. But like I said, that's true for a lot of stuff you wear." Raising a finger on his free hand, he shrugged. "Like when you're in your Miko clothes." The wizard's eyes then trailed to her hair. "And you're wearing one of the ribbons that I made for you."

Reaching up, Natsumi touched the golden ribbon in her hair. Yes, she didn't need it but she enjoyed showing it off. And it was allowed by school policy after all. "Well, my hair is getting longer and I needed to tie it back. Besides, it looks nice and any girl wants to look good."

Once more, Harry shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Though you always look good."

It went without saying that Natsumi was beaming. That was something that she always enjoyed about her friend. Unlike a number of those at the school, to him her supernatural beauty was worth nothing more then a shrug and when he complimented her looks, it was in the same tone as the sky being blue. Just a fact of life that she looked good.

Needless to say, she enjoyed it when he made that sort of comment.

Several minutes went by as they walked along before Natsumi tilted her head in curiosity at the look of thought on Harry's face. "Harry-Chan?" When he looked at her, she continued. "Something on your mind? You're being pretty quiet."

Frowning thoughtfully, Harry furrowed his eyebrows. "Just... something that came up the other day at your house." At the confusion, his frown deepened. "Um, Haru-San had some friends over and one of them stated that she was a Yuki-Onna hanyou." Due to his own thoughts, Harry missed Natsumi's eyes widen some. "Anyways, some stuff came up regarding the situation with the Yokai in Japan."

With a deep breath, Natsumi let it out. "The... Yokai?" At his nod, a frown grew on her face. "What sort of thing? I mean... I can't imagine that Oba-Chan said too much."

Left unsaid was Haru giving out hers and Natsumi's secrets. However, Harry shook his head at that. "Well... it was more the stuff about what's going on on the Yokai side. I didn't know that a bunch of Yokai were trying to get involved in the defence of Japan after Blood Week."

A grimace on her face, Natsumi nodded. "Hai, they even went to the local Ministry. With how thinly they were spread out and how they had been decapitated, you would have thought that when the Yokai offered to help out, at least with defending the Reserves in a form of a militia that they would jump. But... they stated that w-they, couldn't be trusted. That they were too much like beasts then thinking beings like humans."

There was a disgusted look on Harry's face at that. "Bakas. How many lives could have been saved before the shipgirls pushed back the Abyssals?"

Shaking her head, Natsumi frowned. "A lot of people. Heck, even with that you had Yokai fighting battles up and down the coast to save people where they could. Not that the Japanese Ministry would admit it, even with some turning a blind eye to them helping. But generally, they wouldn't allow Yokai to help for their precious Statute. And it's not just Japan either. From what I heard, it's the same way for a lot of places in the world."

Now frowning, Harry considered that. "Huh... So there's a number out there who would help out, but the governments won't trust them? Even if it would save lives?"

Eyes narrowing, Natsumi frowned at him. "Yes. But whatever you're thinking Harry-Chan, it won't help."

Turning towards her, Harry blinked. "What do you mean?"

Just rolling her eyes, Natsumi shook her head. "I've known you for years, Harry-Chan. That look on your face is the same one that you have when you got an idea of some sort."

For several moments, Harry chewed his lip. "Well... what if someone speaks up about that? Stating that it would be a good idea for them to let even non-humans help out where possible? Someone respected. I mean, there's Dumbledore, but..."

Scoffing, Natsumi gave him a look. "Dumbledore-San can't do anything, Harry-Chan. Even if he wanted to, pushing for it from his position in the ICW would see him get in trouble due to politics."

With a glance to her, Harry coughed. "But what if someone else did so? Someone who doesn't need to play politics to stay in their position and thus could speak out in some way?"

It took several seconds, but Natsumi was staring at him. "Harry-Chan... are you saying... Are you suggesting what I think that you are? Because, well..."

However, Harry shrugged. "Why not? All that Boy-Who-Lived stuff might as well be useful for something. If nothing else, England might listen."

Rolling the idea around in her head, Natsumi frowned. 'I think that your fame might extend further then that... Oba-Chan did say that all of Europe knows... But would that help here in Japan?' A number of seconds passed before the Kitsune gave a nod. 'Maybe? I mean, if he can get the European countries onboard... He could get some real change done here.'

Moments later, she snapped out of her thoughts as Harry continued. "... I mean, I'd have to talk with Naka-Nee and the others. But they could get something whipped up and would get my point across."

In reply to that, Natsumi gave aa small nod. "I could see something like that..." When the two separated, they had their own thoughts regarding Harry's idea...

 

[darthcourt10]

Snippet 141: S0ngD0g13

"Say again?" asked Kaylee. "The Magicals turned volunteers away?"

"Because they were Yokai, yes. They claimed the Yokai couldn't be trusted not to 'give in to their baser instincts'," replied Ushio. "At least, that's what the word from Tenryuu and Ooyodo said. I don't like it, Kaylee-chan."

Kaylee scowled fiercely. "Nor I, Ushio. Reminds me too much of my old war; there were folk who swore the Yankee Negro Regiments would either be too cowardly to face the flames of battle, or else uncontrollable. It was all so much bullshit, o' course; the 54th Massachusetts proved that at Fort Wagner, and the all-black 'Buffalo Soldier' cavalry units proved it again fighting the Plains Tribes. But the stigma still lived on for a long time."

Kaylee took a breath and looked out to sea; her crew were sunning themselves on her deck. "In World War One, the 369th New York National Guard Infantry Regiment was an all-black infantry unit, the first to go 'over there' with the AEF. They nicknamed themselves the 'Black Rattlers'; the French called them 'Men of Bronze'; the Germans gave the 369th their most famous nickname though, for how fierce they were and how they never once lost a man to capture, nor lost a trench or a single foot of ground. The 369th Infantry, the 'Harlem Hellfighters', showed how preconceptions about race were bullshit. So did the Red Tails and the Black Panthers during World War Two. Not that the word or opinion of a Gaijin carries much weight, but I say the Japanese Ministry needs to pull their heads outta their shaft-galleries and give those Yokai who want to help the chance to help."

Ushio nodded. "I agree. I really do; the question is whether or not the Wizards would agree."

Kaylee spat over the railing into the water. "Those damn-fool Mahou-Baka at the Ministry and ICW need to realize that the Yokai live here too; Japan gets skacked by Abyssals and the Yokai die right alongside Magical and No-Maj alike. It's the same with every other coastal nation. Either we all fight, or we all die."

"Hai."

 

[darthcourt10]

UCCMaster

Probably during Harry's first or second year at Yokosuka base. Prehogwarts

---

Jersey had many issues with her Soviet counterpart, but she tolerated Gangut's proletariat antics for the most part, most of which could be solved at the bar. However, when Gangut brought other naïve shipgirls into their fights, the ship of freedom had to draw the line.

"What in god's name is this?" She hollered at the trio. Said trio consisted of a clearly drunk grey haired battleship, a partially drunk white haired destroyer, and one confused brown haired boy, the trio of them hefting what appeared to be an RPG over their shoulders.

Harry stared at Jersey with pleading eyes, begging her to save him from the madness that was the Russian duo.

"Come now Comrade Harry, read our glorious declaration."

"Da!" Verniy added, her white hat over her hazy eyes. "Read Harry…"

Harry reluctantly pulled out the sheet of hastily and somewhat sloppily written text. "Capitalist swine! We are here for one purpose, to restore Communism!"

"I don't like where this is going…" Jersey muttered, shaking her head. Crowning chuckled, shaking his head as well. "This is most certainly amusing."

Gangut nodded in agreeance to Harry's forced demands. "Yes, we shall begin our glorious conversion of our poor capitalist friend Jersey."

"Not happening!" The battleship crossed her arms, glaring at the RPG wielding fast battleship.

"Fire!"

Verniy pulled the trigger…to silence. After a few more tries, she sighs and puts down the launcher.

"What's wrong comrade little one?" The grey drunken ship hollered.

"We failed da. We failed Communism." She muttered.

"Oh no!" Gangut cried in defeat. "Another defeat for the proletariat."

"Not Khorosho." Hibiki agreed.

"Can I go home now?" Harry pleaded.

Suspiciously, Jersey picked up the launcher, surprised at the light weighted feel. "Looks like so crummy commies made this shit." She muttered, half chuckling to the professor. But when she looked up, she saw the trio retreating for their lives.

"Get back here! That's it!" With that, she hoisted the launcher, adjusted the forgotten safety, and pulled the trigger. "Taste the power of Freedom!"

To her genuine surprise, the head of the launcher shot out with a rocket, propelling towards the trio. Crying out in fear, Harry threw his hands out, only to find his fingers wrapping around the plastic warhead. "Hey! I got it!"

"Well done Comrade!" Gangut grinned, giving the boy a slap on the back.

Verniy patted his head softly. "Da, very Khorosho."

"Now," the grey battleship grinned, taking the warhead. "In the name of our glorious Communism! Cyka Blyat!" She hollered, throwing the warhead towards the American duo.

Gritting her teeth, Jersey threw her arms out to receive the warhead…only to see it collide into the professors…nuts. With a cry of pain, Crowning crumpled to the ground as the Soviet anthem played from out of the blue.

"That's it! This is war!" Jersey cried, summoning her rigging. "You've crossed the line!"

"Now we are talking, Capitalist swine!" Gangut agreed, summoning her own.

BOOM!

The warring duo froze as both slowly turned to see a very overprotective mother, full rigging summoned. "That's enough!"

"Mother!" Harry cried, flinging himself against her warm hull. "Save me!"

"Hush dear, mother will handle everything." She turned back to the shivering battleships. "The Empire of the Rising Sun declares this war over! Is there any questions?"

"No, not at all. Empires are fine…wait what the fuck am I saying?"

"Ya! Your empire means nothing to our glorious *donk*" With that, the Soviet battleship collapsed under the fist of Hibiki's true colors.

"Khorosho." She nodded. "Hail the emperor."

With peace restored throughout the base, Nagato nodded. "Very well then. Return to your stations." With that, she picked up her scrawny son and brought him into a strong cuddle. "Are you okay Harry? I'm so sorry I didn't mean to let this happen! I thought Tenryuu was watching you all but then I find her passed out at the bar…please forgive me!"

"Mom, it's okay!" The boy hugged his mother tightly. "I'm okay now."

"Hai!"

And thus mother and son walked away, having won the war against the allies and soviets all the same time.

---

This video has "ABSOLUTELY" nothing to do with this snippet.

 

[darthcourt10]

NotHimAgain

So, based on my very limited knowledge of Japanese language and alphabet, going to guess that the kanji used for Ryuusei are for... "dragon" and... "star?" (I'm honestly not sure what "sei" is in this context)
Heading Home

-----

The quartet of Abyssals are silent as they dart across the water's surface. It is not the silence of the morning, fraught with frantic energy, excitement, and trepidation. It cannot quite be considered the silence of night, either, it is not tired and spent. It is the silence that is born from each sharing a question and no one wanting to ask it: "what now?"

The Black Princess doesn't even have the strength to ride the waves herself. Even if interacting with the dog helped her reassemble herself, her outburst spent her energy to the last drop. Instead she rides piggyback on the White Princess, the only member of the group both strong and large enough to lift her. Ruri looks over at Nemo, the cruiser looking down at the waves as they sweep under and past her feet.

Welp. This is painful. Screw this.

"Hey, Nemo," she says blasely, "made yourself a new friend?" Nemo blinks and it runs down her body like a wave, startling awake and coming to life.

"Actually, I think I did." Her back straightens and she slows down slightly. "She's… interesting, but I kind of like her. We got along pretty nicely, all things considered."

"Great. That's… great." Ruri nearly groans. The conversation is dead faster than it was born, and she doesn't like it when that happens. "Say, what are we gonna do when we get back? Her ladysh… Uh, Mother is looking quite a bit worse for wear than when we left." The White Princess looks back over her shoulder at her. "I-I'm sorry, did I say something—"

"No, not at all," the Princess smiles wistfully at some distant memory that Ruri never got to see. "In fact, I think you should keep doing that. I think that Ku-Tan will rather like it." She lifts her shoulders, then lowers them. The Black… Mother sags at her back, form like an old rag doll that Ruri once found floating in the debris of what might have been a once-inhabited ship. "As to what we do when we arrive home, I'll put her to bed… and then explain everything to everyone."

"But… isn't that a secret?" Nemo's eyes are wide, stunned and maybe slightly horrified.

"Nemo," the White Princess says, quietly comforting as if the wisdom she's imparting is something fought for and hard won, "It's true that secrets are something important, maybe even sacred, between allies. Sometimes, though, a secret becomes harmful to it's keepers. When that happens, if you care anything about the other keeper of the secret, you have to tell someone else before it hurts them."

Nemo grimaces, trying to sort the information that she has just received out. From her looks, her heart isn't providing her much to work with.

"And now then," the White Princess says brightly, masking the melancholy of the last few moments, "Negotiations haven't been ruined, but we're going to be on slightly shaky ground for the foreseeable future. Ruri, I know it might be difficult for you, but I'll have to ask you to be at list a little bit subtle in your attraction to the battleship with the ra—"

Ruri doesn't quite catch the next bit. Her feet are swept out from under her and she spins over the waves, shoes over kettle, carried by her momentum. With a scrabbling motion born of pain and reflex, she rights herself, sawing drunkenly in motion.

"Oh," Nemo says quietly, "That's what that looks like from the outside."
-----

The three schoolchildren sit on the beach, watching the stars. At their feet, Yamamoto-San lies on his stomach, eyes half-closed in doggy annoyance at the lack of activity.

"They liked your dog," Takumi notes at length. Tachibana slouches backwards and groans.

"I thought that little girl wouldn't stop petting him," she grumbles.

"I don't know, I think he was enjoying it," Sakurada—should he call her Yakumo-san now? He gets the feeling that they're on some different level than they were before, but he's not entirely certain what it is.

Tachibana snorts proudly. "That," she says, "is because Yamamoto-San is awesome." The dog stirs briefly, lifting his head at the sound of his name. When nobody is forthcoming, he slumps back down.

"He definitely handled the Black Princess well," Takumi agrees.

"Yeah, okay, that's something that I'm never going to get used to. Seriously, I'm going to turn around some day and you'll be having tea with the angel of death or something." Takumi chuckles, and Tachibana grins rakishly.

"Sure wish I could have him longer," she murmurs, reaching out with her leg and rubbing behind his ears. Yamamoto-San stirs, and rolls over on his back. This seems puzzling—the dog seems perfectly alright to him.

"Tachibana-san?" Yakumo asks. Tachibana's smile begins to fade, and she clamps it into place just as fast.

"Dogs don't last forever, you know?" she false-jokes, reaching out farther to massage his stomach, "and Yamamoto-San's been around a bit longer than some I could mention. He's got a couple years left in him," the dog whines, and she stretches her smile out a bit farther. "It's a while yet he'll be here, but… he'll leave us some day."

"Well that just killed the mood."

"Sorry."

"No, no, by all means. Wax eloquent as much as you need to."
-----

Hoppou squats on the couch, a cloud of gloom surrounding her. Harry already tried warming up some milk for her—the only result was Hoppou squatting on the couch holding a mug of cooling milk with a cloud of gloom surrounding her. Harry turns to look at his mother, who sighs.

"She's learned something about the Twin Princesses that she wants to help with," she explains, "but the nature of the problem is such that helping isn't really an option for her."

Harry scowls. "Is this something that I can't hear about?" Nagato shrugs helplessly.

"I'll ask Admiral Goto about it in the morning," she says. "Right now, it's late. And while I'd rather we not go to bed in a mood like this, I've got a morning patrol."

Harry hums in affirmation, the wheels in his head turning. There is a problem before him. What can he do to help?
-----

Well what do you think, sirs?

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

By her desk, Natsumi gave a wave out the window as Harry left the school. If she was in her true form though, her ears would have likely perked some as some of the other girls spoke up. "Look, there's Harry-San! He actually did come here today!"

One of the other girls nodded with a thoughtful look. "Hey, he kind of looks like that one British actor. Except Harry-San's eyes are green, not blue."

Giggles came from another one of the female students. "And also Harry-San is younger then he is. Still, if he even looks a bit like him when he grows up..."

As the others continued to chat, Natsumi sighed some and leaned against the window. When some of them mentioned that he had a lot of money though, her eyebrow twitched. 'Of course some of them would hold that important. Bakas don't even really know him all that well.'

It was then though that the teacher came in and walked to the front of the room. Standing straight, Natsumi looked at her classmates who all stood at their desks. Within moments, she took them through the usual greeting of the teacher before nodding at him and sitting down herself. Just another day at school and as the class rep...

Or so she thought.

Hearing the teacher clear his throat, she looked up at the teacher who had a small smile on his face. "Welcome to a new year, students. We do have a surprise though as several new pupils have transferred in this year." For some odd reason, Natsumi felt a feeling of doom fall on her as the teacher turned to the door. A shiver that started at the tips of her ears and made it's way down to the very tip of her toes and tail. "You may come in now."

While the group came in, Natsumi felt her eyes widen at the familiar faces that made it up. Behind her, Natsumi could hear some of the boys commenting on how the girls looked while the two boys at front were looking at Natsumi. One of the girls smiled some and wrote her name down on the board. "My name is Ayaka, please take care of me."

Natsumi just laid her head on her desk. The feeling of doom now made so much sense. 'Oh... this is going to suck.'

Sitting at her usual spot outside when it was lunch, the Kitsune opened her bento and smiled a bit at what was inside. Especially the dessert as she knew Harry made it for her. Before she could get into it, a shadow fell over her and she could see Ayaka there. "Fox."

Instead of replying, Natsumi took a bite of her food and chewed. "Mongrel."

Eyebrow twitching, Ayaka leaned in. "Call me that again, Foxy." Crossing her arms over her chest, she huffed a bit and glanced around. "So this is where you ran off to."

Calmly continuing to eat, Natsumi hummed. "Not run to, wanker." At the confused look on the other girl's face, she internally grinned. 'She doesn't know British insults? Ooooh, this is going to be good. Thank you so much, Harry-Chan!'

Quickly shaking off her confusion, the other girl growled much like a dog. "Sure you did. One day you simply left."

Softly snorting, Natsumi shook her head. "If that's what you want to believe, Muppet. But in reality, one of us decided to grow up. And now I'm training to be better."

After a moment of confusion though she knew she had been insulted somehow, Ayaka crossed her arms. "Oh? And here the rumor is that you came to Yokosuka to chase some boy." Leaning down, she smirked some. "Maybe I'll try my paw at him."

Placing her bento to the side, Natsumi got up and stared the other girl in the eye. If one was to look at their shadows, they would have seen those of a dog and a fox facing each other. Then, to Ayaka's surprise, Natsumi gave a barking laugh. "Oh, I would pay to see you try." Grinning and showing her teeth, the Kitsune had glee in her eyes. "Harry-Chan likely would not even notice you." While Ayaka blinked, Natsumi turned to the other three and smiled. "It's good to see you, Usagi-Chan. And I'm surprised to see Kaku-Kun and Itō-Chan as well."

While the named Usagi shyly shrugged, the one she called "Itō-Chan" snickered some as the light caught her slit pupils. "Come on, Natsumi-Chan. You can call me Rika-Chan by now, even if it's been some years."

Beside her, Kaku only shrugged. "I don't mind what you call me." He then jerked his thumb at Ayaka who was huffing some. "Sorry about this."

Just sighing, Natsumi waved him off. "It's okay, Kaku-Kun. Besides..." She then shook her head as she held up her hands in a 'What can you do?' sort of gesture. "Barking dogs don't listen to anyone."

Once again growling, Ayaka huffed a bit before internally smirking. 'Just you see, Ono Natsumi-San. We'll see who the top dog here is...'

Meanwhile, Natsumi looked between them. In particular, she focused on Usagi who's nose twitched a bit as she looked back with pink eyes framed by oddly whitish hair. "So what are you bunch doing here anyways? I haven't seen you since before I left for Oba-Chan's."

Frowning, Kaku shook his head. "Not a clue, my Oji-Chan asked for Kaa-San to move here. He's working on some sort of project with Haru-San... Something about a museum?" At Natsumi's nod, he continued. "Anyways, he convinced her to move. Something about it being one of the safest spots in case of... you know."

Natsumi frowned at that, but nodded. "I can see that actually. The area is extremely safe with the shipgirls on the base. None of the magicals even bother coming around out of fear of them and not wanting to set them off." Glancing around, she smirked. "Last winter, we even had an entire clan of Yuki-Onna show up for a wedding here. And they barely even hid what they were to those who would be able to tell... Heck, one of their youngsters is now going to the nearby elementary school as well in the same class as Hoppou-San." Then the Kitsune frowned some. "I think that my own Haha-ue is considering moving the family here as well..."

Each of the others eyes widened at that. But then Usagi became thoughtful. "It would be nice to be able to be somewhere safe. Where we don't need to worry about one mess up causing... you know."

There were nods from each of them, but Natsumi shrugged some and sat back down. "Anyways, you don't need to worry yourselves about the area. It's pretty safe and the Yokai that live around here keep to themselves. Any hostile ones... don't last with the shipgirls."

Huffing, Ayaka crossed her arms. "You're acting like you know so much, Ono-San."

All Natsumi did though was grin as she continued to eat her lunch. "Oh, I know quite a bit having lived here. Especially about the shipgirls..." Internally, she was grinning so hard it would have hurt if it was in real life. She just could not wait for Ayaka to realize some facts. With that, Natsumi turned back to chatting with her old friends from before Yokosuka.

Sure, Ayaka would try and become her rival, Natsumi knew that. But that was in the future, right now she wanted to ignore that for now. And besides... the Kitsune could use the challenge.

Later that day, she was waiting outside the gates of the school when she perked up and started to wave "Harry-Chan! Over here!"

On Harry's face was a smile as he walked over. "Natsumi-Chan!" Coming to a stop by her, his smile widened some. "Have a good day?"

With a sigh, Natsumi rolled her eyes some. "To an extent. The barking from a dog nearby though was really annoying and gave me a headache."

Confused, Harry was about to ask when a chuckle nearby made him turn. "Oho! So this is Potter Harry-San then?" Turning, he noted three girls and a boy standing nearby. One of them was giving him a once over and then gave Natsumi a smirk. "Aren't you going to introduce us."

Just sighing again, Natsumi gestured at them. "Allow me to introduce some old friends from before I came to Yokosuka. We didn't go to the same schools back then, but we knew each other. First, we have Akatsuki Ayaka, Itō Rika, Tsukino Usagi..."

At the look from Harry, Usagi tugged at her ear. "My Tou-San is an Otaku like Natsumi-San's..."

That only got him a slow nod as Natsumi gestured at the boy. "And Kaku Kenta, but everyone just calls him Kaku-Kun."

Rubbing the back of his head, Harry gave them a small bow and smile. "A pleasure to meet you all." When he stood up though, he found Ayaka almost against him with a smirk on her face. "Um..."

Ayaka chuckled some and tilted her head as she noticed Natsumi's eyebrow twitch. "It is a pleasure to meet you as well. Maybe you'll show us around...?"

Much to her confusion, Harry shrugged. "If that's what you want, though it might need to wait as I'm busy for the next few days and will be heading back to school in Scotland."

Lips twitching, Natsumi cleared her throat. "Um, Harry-Chan? We got to get going... I'm going to be late for Cram School."

Eyes widening some, Harry reached over and shook the blinking Ayaka's hand. "Anyways, it's been nice meeting some old friends of Natsumi-Chan. Hopefully you have a good time here in Yokosuka as well." Turning, he grabbed Natsumi's hand and started pulling her along before nodding at the others. "Hope you all have a good day."

For several moments, Ayaka stood there as Harry and Natsumi disappeared around the corner of the building. Her hand held out still in complete befuddlement at what had happened. Then she felt a tap on her shoulder and Ayaka turned to find Usagi there with a small tin. "... What's this?"

Head tilted to the side, Usagi blinked. "It's ointment so that you can treat that burn."

Coughing, Kaku turned his head and laughed while Rika hissed. "Damn, Usagi-Chan! You know that murder is illegal!"

As her eyebrow twitched, Ayaka growled. "I hate you all."

 

[darthcourt10]

Lord K

A.N./ I openly admit, this has largely been written without access to a reliable Internet connection, and thus most of my usual ability to research. Being stuck out in the middle of nowhere can be painful sometimes.

Delivery

The room is hazed, the air a half cloying mixture of mechanics' grease, flight suits, and bodies too long in them, undercut by the tobacco smoke of analysts, ground bound staff, and the odd pilot who just doesn't care what it does to their lungs, all in flagrant violation of the artistically defaced No Smoking sign by the door. Always a maverick lot by practically necessitated secondary attribute when looking for pilots with the right kind of guts and daring to do what they do, none bother to voice any complaint in the hastily allocated office building that the Abyss Divers of the 13th/7th have long since adopted as their permanent home and administrative center on the edge of Iruma airfield with gusto.

Barely bothering to hide the wrinkle of her nose, Ai momentarily breaks her unreadable watch of the front of the board-room-turned-briefing-room as the seat beside her is taken. Pressing out the creases in his hastily donned uniform, Kudzu makes Ai thankful for her illusions as he blearily glances around the room and then moves on to attempting to tame his unruly bed head.

"Well, whatever they got everyone up for this early, it better be good."

"The entire unit is here," comments Ai with dry observation and no hint of early morning tiredness, or the abrupt awakening. "Mozu 3 should be out on the tarmac doing walk arounds for their Strike-BARCAP in an hour."

"Which means either big, or something drawn out." Resisting the urge to stretch, in the end Ai's wingman is unable to resist a jaw cracking yawn. "Oh joy."

Just then, the seats on either side of them are taken as Taikomachi and Boke arrive, the latter skilfully balancing a quartet of coffees on his briefing clipboard. "Tengu, Kudzu. I bring emergency supplies!"

Kudzu perks up, and already looks somewhat more functional from the scent alone. "Boke! You sir, are a blessing upon this accursed and hateful world!" From behind them, somebody else starts ribbing his wingman for not bring him coffee as well.

Accepting her own coffee with a polite "Thank you" and a greeting to the two recently arrived members of Umiu 2, Ai then turns her attention forward once more, as the lights dim and one of the pilots in the center of the room starts the overhead projector with the customary poke of a broom that has become ritual ever since somebody lost the remote. As the gossiping din quietens down to the low murmur of hurriedly finishing conversations, it is only when the shadowed form of Major Ugeki takes the stage beside the screen, that something finally approaching professional military silence falls upon the room.


Behind the squadron's commanding officer, the last of the loading screens fall away with the words "Sword and Shield", to present a digitised map of Japan, Northeast Asia and the Northwestern Pacific.

"First of all, I'd like to apologise to everyone for the lateness, or rather the earliness of the hour. I know we've all finally just started getting used to the current pace of rotational operations after Iwo Jima, but Abyssals are as Abyssals do, and for that reason, this one comes straight from the top."

In the corners of the screen, images, co-ordinates, numbers and other assorted intelligence data begin typing themselves into existence, while the main focus of the digital map resolves itself into one of topography and grid squares, zooming in to encompass the island chains of the Bonins, surrounded by vast, lonely swathes of open ocean in the rest of the display. Across the top of the screen then scrawls the phrases "External Document #20567" and "Enduring Typhoon - Zone C8S", the later of which then receives the circular attentions of Ugeki's laser pointer.

"This upcoming operation will be in support of the ongoing JMSDF and JASDF joint venture, Enduring Typhoon. Somebody pulled words out of a hat, so today we're going with the very fitting code name, "Thunder Delivery."

That draws a number of chuckles from around the room as the major continues.

"For the past few weeks, JMSDF kanmusu patrols have been reporting irregular light force and raider actions in the Bonin and Ogasawara Defense Zones. As many of you know, capturing Iwo Jima was supposed alleviate much of this pressure, and while Abyssal air presence and battle fleet scale formations have largely disappeared, raiding forces and capital-flagship led incursions across the Outer Sea of Japan Defensive Line continue to remain a problem."

Piloting his red dot between a number of inverted crimson triangles that appear on the display to signify previous engagements, two larger bands then highlight the northeastern and southwestern edges of the map.

"For this reason, Intelligence has come to the conclusion that due to the regularity of these encounters and the short ranges of some of the Abyssal assets encountered, we are looking a previously unknown Abyssal Installation, Princess or evolved flagship presence, likely operating from outside the established sea lanes and patrol lines opened up between ourselves and the Bonins. After much debate, the likely location of these previously unknown Abyssal facilities or leaders has been narrowed to somewhere either northeast or southwest of these areas of operations. Due to the numbers and tenacity of these Abyssals, combined with our inability to locate any singularly larger facility, JMSDF Intelligence has concluded that we are likely looking for two or three smaller presences, although JASDF intelligence still hasn't entirely ruled out the less likely possibility of a very well hidden singular large base with permanent, heavily developed infrastructure as well."

On the screen beside him, the highlighted southwestern edge flashes, signalling an abrupt shift of the display's focus as it rapidly zooms out and begins scrolling to the right and downward. Finally slowing and zooming back in, Okinawa and the southern half of the Ryukyu islands now hang in the upper right corner of the screen, the rest largely dominated by nothingness, barring two distinct groups of red and yellow squares, far away in the open Pacific to the east.

"Due to the abruptness of this mission, and this particular unit's "reputation" for taking the high risks and delivering on the higher rewards-" a round of muted cheers breaks out that Ugeki has to silence "-the 7th Strike Fighter Squadron has been specially requested for dealing with what we believe to be one of the possible origins for the raiders into the Iwo Jima Defensive Zone, while the JMSDF kanmusu air assets deal with the closer one."

In the corners of the screen, grainy satellite and crisper U.A.V. images appear, detailing a pair of somewhat nondescript and odd looking Abyssals, lacking in immediate armament or monstrous features, but also in possession of some rather terrifying physical strength, judging by how one of the pair is captured in crystal clarity, bridal carrying a Ru-Class that looks more sunk than afloat, what with her torpedoed belly and magazined turret. Annotations and highlights begin appearing, even as images of the noted surrounding Abyssal support elements begin popping up, while Ugeki focuses the majority of his attention on the two outliers.

"While they aren't conclusively the masterminds of our Abyssal incursions, these two unknowns have been the most likely and uniquely identified thus far, with their capabilities also making their discovery and destruction an advantageous opportunity for the JMSDF as well. What you are looking at is what we believe to be a pair of Abyssal Floating Dry Docks."

More pictures appear on screen, this time comparing the Abyssal medics-cum-mechanics with great massive ocean going constructions in grainy scans of 70 year old photographs.

"The USN, and a few of the other Allies to a degree, used a number of these during World War II, and while they couldn't work anything near as drastic as this, the largest among them were certainly game changing pieces of mobile infrastructure, enabling emergency repairs and limited maintenance on vessels that would have had to detach from fleets and put into ports with the appropriate facilities. While it has yet to be ascertained if these two can generate new Abyssal fleets in any strategically viable amount of time, they have recently been observed repairing Abyssals previously written off as sunk. And though this doesn't completely explain our mystery Abyssal presence in Zone C8S, the denial of enemy support assets potentially even more robust than their real life counterparts, is an opportunity too great to ignore, especially if they are reliably repairing Abyssal raiders previously thought and listed as destroyed."

Focusing on the eastern most of the two formations, a rolling column of text begins listing known enemy ship types and possible extras that could still be operating in the area. Ugeki however, places the focus of his laser pointer on circling the largest red square among the eastern-most group, prioritised with its own especially bold outline among the messy scrum of crimson, orange and white target markers.

"Your task in making this happen, will be the destruction, or at least disabling, of the eastern most Abyssal Floating Dry Dock, or AFD-East for short. The Abyssals will almost certainly wish to preserve such vital support assets, and so a simultaneous strike on both AFDs has been planned, to reduce the chances of them hiding away the second while we deal to the first. However, due to the distances and operational range that would be needed to coordinate a dog-leg around AFD-West's radar picket, kanmusu naval-air assets were ruled out in favor of a conventional air-power strike on AFD-East. Even then however, this will be a marathon mission, so I hope you're all brushed up on Mid-Air Refuelling."

At Ugeki's command, a new wave of markers begins cropping up across the display, this time in friendly shades of blue and green, and now as a mix of squares, circles and arrowheads. It is one of the markers crossing through Okinawan waters however, that captures Ai's interest in particular.

"Our Deployment for this mission shall be from Naha Airbase. For those of you who haven't been there before, that's the SDF base on the south side of the island, not the USN one in the center. So that means the locals won't charge us through the nose at tourist rates for victory drinks." Cheers and laughter breakout among many of the pilots, though Ai's gaze remains calculating and fixated on the board and the highlighted flight path back up to the north.

"For those of you who have been there before however, I must tragically report the completion of repairs to the base facilities side of the airfield. So booking into the airport hotel for the overnight we spend there before and after the mission is likely off the table." This time assembled pilots boo and jeer with faux displeasure.

"Speaking of our overnight there, we will be flying out later this evening once the requested conventional air assets join us here at Iruma, to help coordinate our temporary transition between bases. Air-to-Air refuelling shall be provided at point Alpha-Romeo during the mission proper, but should anybody suffer issues with their external tanks on the flight down to Naha, we will also be escorting the 404th Tactical Airlift Tanker Squadron, who should be more than capable of providing. Due to the extreme range of this mission and it's penetration deep into Abyssal territory, our offical Pancake for the transition flight and the mission itself shall be Kadena Airbase. Unofficially, if you do get shot down or for whatever reason can't make it home, crash where the rest of us can't see and start swimming."

It's always Ugeki's black-humoured instructions that make the new blood in the unit, stand out against the veterans. Taikomachi looks uncertain at the suggestion, while Kudzu just chuckles along with the rest of the more experienced pilot crop. Ai however, remains impassive, concentration split between following along with the briefing, and considering something else in her mind as she continues to note the marked out trail of the planned flight path to Okinawa.

"If you do manage to drag your sorry bird to Naha and proceed to inconvenience the rest of us by painting the runway, the Alternate for the rest of you is again Kadena. For those willing to settle for "close-but-no-cigar", CSAR will be provided by the JASDF's Air Rescue Wing Naha Detachment within the circle marked Sierra-Zulu. For anybody further out, you better hope that the JMSDF's US-2s of the 31st Fleet Airwing find you before the Abyssals do. Finally, the AWACS tasked with making sure that hopefully doesn't happen, and that all of you make it undetected to and from the target via the specified route, will be your old friends from the Airborne Early Warning Surveillance Group's 604th Squadron operating under the call sign Sora-Me."
Underlining the relevant information with his laser as it appears on screen, Ugeki finally turns back to face the rest of the 7th Strike Fighter Squadron.
"So, with those basics out of the way, I believe that makes it question time. Any takers?"

Automatically, Ai raises her hand. Capturing Ugeki's attention, the major nods for her to go on. "Lieutenant Kobayashi?"

"For the transfer between Iruma and staging at Naha, shall we be carrying out the flight armed, or carrying only fuel stores for the journey?"

Immediately the room bursts out with chuckles and ribbing at her "blood hungry ways" and "kill-stealing" with one particularly loud voice jokingly requesting that "she couldn't at least leave some scraps behind for everyone else for once?". At the front of the room, Ugeki finally quietens everyone down with a faux roll of his eyes.

"Okay, okay everyone. Settle down. To answer your question Kobayashi, the transfer flight will be of minimal air-to-air load out. JMSDF patrols and a convoy have passed through the area recently, and so Abyssal surface presence is believed to be low-to-negligible. For this reason, and to also save on fuel spent carrying unnecessary armament, you're all being given the standard two sparrows, two sidewinders and full cannon self-defense setup, just in case you do run into something that you feel you must shoot down.

"Self-defense? Haha, that's a laugh!" Somebody crows loudly from the back of the room "Tengu makes Abyssals take supposedly AA-only armaments down their stacks, like Garyu with her ping-pong ball and garden hose trick!"

"Man, screw you Kero!" Comes the retort from the dark skinned pilot with a scarlet past, turned one of the few pilots in their unit who can rival Ai for kills. "I should never have convinced you guys to let me show you that trick. At least some of us land without imitating frogs!"

Shaking her head, Ai draws more than a few chuckles from those around her at the comment of "How crass", especially as the unprofessional back and forth between Kero and Garyu continues to the amusement of many, until Ugeki finally intervenes. Her focus however, now returns elsewhere, the seeds of a plan now formulating in her mind.
----------

Ai leans back against the wall, nursing a soft drink in one hand and her phone in the other. To the outside observer, she looks like any other pilot, communicating with friends or loved ones operationally secure messages of vagueness, boasting of things to come, or saying things not wished unsaid just in case. Should anyone actually come up to her, the phone of Lieutenant Aina Kobayashi would even show a series of painfully formal, but still heartfelt communiques with her aunt, one Airi Kobayashi. For Ai herself however, what matters is that she is leaning against one of the few spots on base visible from beyond the exterior fence, but masked or hidden by various surroundings and camera angles, to form a rare island sheltered from all eyes, both digital and human.

A message from "Airi" appears on her IM chat.

Aina responds.

There is a short moment of silence, followed by a loud crack in the air behind her that Ai takes great pains not to react to. Any chance for it to be head beyond her isolated corner of the base, is drowned out by the screaming roar of a KC-737 tanker touching down on Iruma's main runway. Though she knows she will see nothing if she were to turn, the subtle shift and flow of the air she instinctively feels, still forewarns her of the invisible, cloak-garbed limb that reaches out to her.

As with the first, the ensuing crack is lost among the auditory chaos and cacophony of a military airbase in full pre-operation tempo.

Far away from her original destination, as the discomforting feeling of her abrupt side-along apparition extraction fades, Ai opens her eyes to find a much different location than the one she just left. Through cigarette and smog stained office windows, the urban sprawl of one of Tokyo's seedier districts greets her. What she immediately turns her attention to however, are the figures hurrying between the various crates, boxes and filing cabinets piled ceiling high, with almost the same urgency and purpose as the ground crews on the base she just left. One of them in particular, has obviously been waiting for her.

"Kiba! My apologies for the short notice."

"Ai, you made it!" Navigating his way across the muggle office turned underground resupply nerve-center, the Okuri-inu greets Ai with equal measures of weary relief and eager excitement. "And no apologies given, we would have moved heaven and earth to get these supplies together. We were just worried we wouldn't be able to figure out a way to get them to you in time."

Ai nods before giving a polite inclination of her head to the figure now relieving itself of their invisibility cloak. "For that, my thanks must belong to the one who managed to ensure such a swift and unnoticed spiriting away of my persons."

Kiba chuckles and claps the young Japanese wizard on the back with a hearty clap. "Ha! You hear that Ban? Praise from the high lady herself! Next thing you know-"

"I can not be here long Kiba" Ai regretfully can't help but interrupt him. "I can only be gone for so long, especially should one of my wingmen come looking for me to query our upcoming flight plans."

"Right, right-" the wolf yokai nods, attention once more turns serious. "Let's get to it then. Ban, I'll need you to hang around to help take everything back."

"No problem Kiba." Nodding, the wizard is question moves to rejoin the cluster of activity at the center of the room, congregating around six ovaloid vessels in particular. Her own focus shifting to them as well, Ai gestures questioningly.

"So, what exactly have you managed to put together?"

"Mostly essentials for new parents, kids and the elderly that they're low on. You said it was just fuel stores they were making you take for this right?"

"Our wing pylons are going to be fully loaded, but barring any last minute changes, only the center line position should be taken up by an external tank."

Ai's answer, cause the wolf yokai to give a breath of relief. "Good thing that hasn't changed then. Ban and a couple of his old school friends expanded the interiors of some metal crates to be like their old school trunks, but to trying and keep the lids a reasonable size while still keeping the things streamlined and charmed, we ended up making them the size of 44 gallon drums and had no time left to fix anything" The Okuri-inu then scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. "They look almost like wingless bombs now more than anything else."

Ai's brow narrows in contemplation. "Maybe it would be for the best to go the last step anyway, and shape some fins upon the ends. It would decrease the likelihood of a drop going awry."

"Good point- Hey Junko!" Grabbing the attention of a witch attempting to help a pair of rabbit yokai and a kappa manhandle a levitating crate labeled "Baby Food" into an opening half it's size, Kiba then gestures at the bomb-shaped silver vessel between them. "We're going the whole hog! Ai says fins will help anyway!"

The witch gives him a look mixed between frustration and "I told you so", before replying back with a thumbs up and returning her attentions to the floating box. Ai however tilts her head with bird-like inquisitiveness as she examines what other contents are within the Mcgyuver'd magical supply pod Kiba and company have assembled.

"Infant formulas, baby mash, reusable diaper clothes, toddler healthcare potions, assorted regents for brewing, charms, clothing." Ai looks to the wolf with concern "This is quite the collection goods Kiba."

The Okuri-inu's expression is one of determination. "Well, when you said where your flight path was taking you and what you were offering to do, we weren't going to let this chance pass us by without making the most of it."

"Do I wish at all to know how you even acquired such quantities of rationed goods on short notice?"

"Let's just say a bunch of us are going to be living off ramen for a while. It's nothing we haven't done before." The grin Kiba shoots her is one of roguish devil-may-care, but the slight clench of his fist and the unsaid "I" does not escape the notice of one who has known him as long and closely as the kotengu has.

"So what contents will be in the others? Further yet, how exactly am I to drop these things without dashing them upon the earth?"

Thankfully her diversionary question works. "A mixture of fancy charmwork and onmyouji protections. Featherweights and Levitation should hopefully allow you to cart them around without too much trouble and only a little wind manipulation, until you can attach them to the hardpoints. Ban and a few of the others are nifty hands at invisibility spells and illusions, and should have extra help once Tsukino turns up." Leading her across the room, Kiba now points out two of the most tightly packed and carefully packaged vessels present.

"Those two over there, are mostly medicines, potions and assorted first aid kit contents, with the one on the left mostly being nomaj stuff. Easier to scrounge up off the human black market, and no point burning favours and cash on minor stuff mundane medicine can do as good of a job for, when it comes to minor pangs and cuts the more human-like yokai can use them on."

Directing her attention to another container, Ai catches a glimpse of a harried nekomata in a coat hurriedly thrown over a nurse's uniform. Leaning over a vessel subdivided into compartments and containing an assortment of more "exotic" fresh and chilled goods, the cat yokai disgorges a clown-car-esque chain of blood transfusion packs into one of the ice filled bins. Kiba elaborates at Ai's confusion. "We've been hearing for a while now, that things have been getting a bit thin for many of the more "specialist eaters" and those with "unique" dietary requirements, so Naomi has been saving up many of the "off" goods she should be disposing. While it might not be fresh, it'll arguably be better than if we had to shrink and portkey everything onto a boat and had to sail it through the wards at some still unknown point in the future."

Shifting attention yet again, the next two vessels are thankfully much more mundane in contents. Mostly food in the form of canned goods and ration packs being hastily crammed into their respective vessels by a pair of tsukimogami, as the wolf yokai continues on. "Space always was a premium, but with a lot of the coast still fucked up by the Abyssals, farming enough food beyond the bare basics to keep bellies full is also supposedly becoming an issue, especially when only the brave still hunt the sea for replacement food groups. The rations are just emergency bulk incase anything happens, but please try to make sure the cans make it, they're mostly preserved fruit and vegetables."

"Priority goes to the infant goods, medicines and cans," repeats the disguised kotengu. "I shall do my utmost to ensure that."

"Great!" Announces Kiba as her proceeds to lead her to the final vessel being overseen by Ban, now replete with metallic tail-fins, and slowly fading from vision. "Because this last container is mostly just luxuries and commodities junk, like clothing, books and candy."

"Candy?!" Ai stares at the Okuri-inu in open baffled confusion. "I offer to deliver aid supplies to a reservation at an unnecessary risk to my cover and a possible infraction for misuse of JASDF aircraft if discovered "tampering" with my strike fighter's load out and fuel numbers, and you pack an invisible and enchanted container full of confectionaries and literature."

It takes a moment for Ai to realise the wolf yokai has played her. Recognising the suppressed laugh tugging at the corner of his grin, Ai sniffs disdainfully and lightly bats at his shoulder. "Haha, very much amusing. You have earned your reaction. What have you actually sequestered in this container then?"

"I will admit, a lot of this stuff is more luxuries than anything else, but it's the little things that can add to quality of life. There's material for crafting less readily available or personalised clothing, and the books are a mix of children's new learning, home-school study exercise books, teacher resource texts, and a general mix of literature chart toppers that've come out the last few years and would be unavailable on the island."

"And the sweets?"

"Those are for the kids."

Thinking for a moment, Ai can't help but wince at memories of her own youth lived through the commodity deprivations of the last war to come to Japan's shores. "I suppose it would be remiss of me to begrudge such a small gift as that among all this cargo." Noting a particular crate with the top crowbarred open and leaning against the wall, Ai allows herself a moment of nostalgic remembrance. "Especially when many of those of younger age will have unlikely had the opportunity to experience some of the rarer magical confections you seem to have tossed in hodgepodge among the non-magical majority."

Kiba chuckles, producing a pair of bars from his pocket and showing that even his good will and intentions are not immune to peanut-buttery temptation. "Well, you wouldn't be much of a magical Gail Halvorsen if you didn't go full Candy Bomber on the one-off chance you may get to do it."

"Hmm, true." Ai nods, before looking at Kiba knowingly.

"There just so happens to be one notable issue with that comparison however." Teasingly, she then delicately plucks one of the magical candy bars from Kiba's offered hand. "Halvorsen was a Colonel. I'm not."

Pausing for effect, Ai then smiles.

"At least not yet."
----------

For what should be such a boring and routine flight, Ai has been riveted by nerves even greater than that of before some high-risk operations.

Kilometers above the bright blue expanse of the Pacific, most of the rest of the 7th Strike Fighter Squadron have long since been lost to the onerous monotony of flying in a glorified straight line, with only the periodic interruption of flight leads checking in with air control or receiving expected course corrections at the various waypoints along the flight path. At this point, most of her own Umiu flight is throughly mired in the tasks of simply staying focused on flying, and not becoming distracted by daydreaming or gazing upon the ever closer glimpses of Okinawa now throughly in view. With half the squadron and the tankers still still strung out behind Umiu 2 however, arrival at Okinawan airspace will most likely herald another long period of procedural induced boredom in a holding pattern waiting for everyone to catch up and regroup before finally beginning to land whenever Naha Air Traffic Control can fit them in among the stacks of civilian aircraft that make use of the base's shared runway with the local airport.

Many are operating almost as much on autopilot as their aircraft, now comfortably settled into the flow of memorised reaction and rote procedures performed a thousand times before.

For Ai however, the last few hours have been nothing but barely hidden worry and nervousness, hidden behind her normal ever-implacable and unfazed self that she presents to her fellow pilots.

The hardest part of the whole operation thus far, was the routine walk-around of her plane with her plane's mechanic crew. Always stickler for knowing her own plane in every detail, regardless of how her magic helped, her thorough last minute chat with Umiu 2's crew chief was not anything out of the ordinary. It also thankfully provided the perfect distraction. An opportunity to pull to the far wing tips and absorb the attentions of one of the few other people in tune enough with her aircraft to automatically notice that something was off or going on with her Abyss Diver modified F-15j.

Off in the sense that as silently as possible, six literally invisible shapes that only an aerokinetic of fine finesse could detect or manipulate, were being floated up to, and then locked onto the six free belly hardpoints.

The final part of securing the mundane secrecy her magical aid drop, involved more magic. Clambering up into her cockpit and strapping in, to any outside observer, Lt Aina "Tengu" Kobayashi would have been seen going through the normal procedures of a flight start up. Deep within the electronic and computerised bowels of her aircraft however, carefully applied applications of air flow and minute bursts of wind where it should not reach, proceeded to slightly dislodge a variety of circuit breakers and select mechanical components.

With it's customary sequence of hums, beeps and whirs, Ai's flight displays and computers loaded to read a weapons load of two sparrows, two sidewinders, and three external fuel tanks.

The hardest part after that, was maintaining an imperceptible barrier of wind around her f-15j for various periods of the flight, attempting to make up for the added weight and excess surface area, by creating an artificially improved and more fuel efficient streamlined shell. More than ever, Ai was thankful for the paper offuda taped to the wall of her leg well, checking it's integrity almost as regularly as her own instruments through out the flight.

Now finally, after so many hours, Ai had heard the beep of her navigation computer announcing her arrival at Waypoint Yankee-Romeo.

Yankee-Romeo was not a waypoint listed in of either of the Thunder Delivery flight or mission plans.


With very careful application, another pin-point flex of her magical abilities within the interior of her aircraft temporarily kills her flight data recorder and kill cam.

A mental timer starts in Ai's mind, the intention being that the lapse in the data recording must be low enough to be brushed off as a lone temporary error, and not something to be pursued and looked into later, potentially revealing evidence of her other tamperings.

Reflexively flicking through the controls on her HOTAS, Ai's flight computer now brings up the release options for all seven of her belly hardpoints. This, inspite of the fact that her targeting computer still only reads the sparrows, sidewinders and external tanks as the only occupants of her f-15j's hardpoints.

Ai then glances down at her knee-board, a hastily scribbled number vigorously circled in the corner of her maps and flight notes. The location of what she and Kiba, after much educated guesswork, hope to be the geographic heart of the island none of her fellow pilots can see, nor any of her F-15j's multi-million dollar suite of cutting edge sensors actually detect. Looking at the slowly ticking down numbers of her flight computer's GPS, Ai then sets her targeting up for high altitude bombing.

It has all the hallmarks of the kind of mission Ai hates. She's dropping veritable dumb bombs, almost entirely on instrumentation, some of which won't be useful due to the wards, and filling in the gaps with constantly changing mental math, that she may or may not have right to begin with.

And then there's the most egregious issue of all. Ai abhors high altitude bombing. At such great hieghts, her own air speed will carry her out of range of the drop-pods, and any chance to make inflight adjustments to their descents in order to guide them onto target. At her current altitude, trapped by her need to maintain flight formation with the rest of the 7th Strike Fighter Squadron and the members of Umiu 2 on either side of her, the potential margin for drift with normal 500 pound dumb bombs is something like half a kilometer. With cargo pods enchanted to automatically slow and cushion their descents, Ai has no clue what to expect.

All she can do, is pray.

The numbers on the GPS continue to roll closer to the number on her knee-board, with all the tension building finality of a countdown.

Turning her attention back to her targeting computer, Ai punches in what numbers she has. Ground target position (estimated), altitude, air speed, bearing, payload weight, outside wind speed, weather state; The computer happily crunches the collective data input before spitting out a course correction and time to release. Ai ignores the former, and focuses as the later counts down in tandem with the GPS coordinates. At her current air speed, her release point is set for almost a minute before she reaches the location originally written on her knee-board.

The release timer ticks away, the slowly shrinking half-moon on her HUD around the targeting reticule now imposing itself into her vision for added effect. Sweat beads on her brow as the final moments before the release point draw ever inexorably closer. Desperately, she prays nothing comes about that will demand her attention as a pilot or flight leader.

At thirty seconds to go, she almost has a heart attack as the AWACS, Sora-Me, strikes up a request with Umui 1-1 to begin shifting to a new bearing as the first phase of entering a holding pattern above Naha with the civilian air traffic.

At twenty seconds to go, her focus narrows to a tense razor edge as she hits a bout of turbulence, one that begins bouncing and rocking the ground bound circle of her targeting reticule with a worrisome drift.

At fifteen seconds, the inside of her gloves run clammy with sweat, and she feels the pinpricks of claws and feathers threatening to make themselves known with the increasingly taxing split of her magic between illusion and flight control.

At ten seconds, the dreaded turbulence finally subsides.

At five seconds, she narrowly avoids violently swearing when somebody sneezes, touching off the voice-activation in their mic, and blasting the sound across most of the squadron's frequencies.

Finally, she hits zero, and with the timely distraction provided by most of her fellow Abyss Divers alternately querying the identity of, and then ribbing the sneezer, Ai releases her precious cargo.

Though she has no one to say it to, Ai can't help but run the call word through he mind as she rapidly mashes the bomb release button.

'Pickle, pickle, pickle, pickle, pickle, pickle,'

Cargo pods away.

Liberated of it's magically lightened burden, the slight jump and lift of Ai's F-15j is unnoticed by those on either side of her, still focused on the misfortune of the unlucky person to break the monotony of their flight.

Heart still pounding, Ai quickly reaches out while she can and makes subtle directional shifts to the trajectories of the invisible vessels, accounting for the slight course correction she didn't take, just moments before they then disappear from her reach. Beyond her touch, and then swiftly beyond her sense as well, their fate is now entirely out of her hands. All she can hope, is that her faux bombing run was on target, and that the keys on the cargo pods automatically dispel their invisibility effects once within the wards of the Yokai Reservation below.

Within the bowels of her aircraft, brief flickers of magic see countless disengaged components and electrical breakers reset. To cursory post-flight inspection by ground crews, her aircraft should now read as if it simply ran a normal flight from Iruma to Naha, albeit while running slightly (but acceptably) more fuel hungry than usual.

Job now done to the best of her ability, Ai leans back in her seat and exhales, reflecting upon the risks she has taken over the last few hours.

Regardless of how and where the Magical Diet feels it's responsibilities to the citizens of Japan ends, Ai knows the oath she took upon becoming a pilot. And as a member of the JASDF, her responsibility is to all of the citizens of Japan. Regardless of magical ability or race.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Glancing up from where he was looking over an email, Harry blinked at the sight of Rose sitting there with her eyebrows furrowed. "Is something wrong, Rose?"

With a jolt, Rose sat up straight and then blinked before she turned to him. "Wrong, Master?" At his nod, she frowned. "Why would you think that?" In reply, the twelve year old raised an eyebrow and turned to look at the papers in front of the Tsukumogami. Blushing, Rose glanced away. "Oh... um..."

Expression softening, Harry frowned a bit. "Rose? You can tell me if something is bothering you."

Humming, Rose picked up one of her cups with steaming tea in it before she sipped it. After a few moments, the cup was set back down. "It's not that there is something wrong, Master. But..." Briefly, Rose searched for the words before shaking her head. "Just sorting out some items regarding my wedding to Haruna this summer."

There was a twinkle in Harry's eyes as he grinned. "Ah, that sort of thing. You set a date?"

Rose only nodded at that. "We're thinking about holding it in July, a week before your birthday."

As her finger tapped the table, her eyes fell upon her engagement ring and she found her eyes growing moist. Unknown to her, Harry had a soft smile on his face as he looked across at her and then at her ring. "Still can't believe it, can you?"

Slowly, the tea set shook her head. "No, I... I still have trouble believing it." Gently, she traced the ring on her finger as her smile grew. "Never have I thought that I would have the chance to be married. After all, I am a tea set and... And here is Haruna, wanting me as her wife." Taking a deep breath, Rose held a hand to her chest. "It makes me so very happy, Master. As if a nice pot of the most wonderful tea was bubbling away in my chest. So very strange, and yet I never want it to end."

Leaning against his hands, Harry chuckled and shook his head. "I don't blame you. But want to know something between the two of us?" When the Tsukumogami across from him nodded, he continued. "I think that Haruna-Oba is very lucky to have you as her special someone. And I think that the two of you will make each other very happy."

Once more looking down at her ring, Rose let out a giggle. "I think that we already make each other very happy as it is, Master." For a moment, Rose's traitorous mind went back to the night of their engagement and what happened in the Captain's cabin that the two had shared that night. They did not go very far, after all Rose was a proper Englishwoman, thank you!

Nothing of that sort of thing until they were good and properly married...

A fact that Haruna respected and made Rose love her all the more. But even then, what had happened brought a blush to her face. Especially as it had turned out that Haruna had greatly appreciated how the doileys she had given Rose for Christmas had translated to her human form. Just the thought made the boiling inside her intensify as she sighed. "So very happy..."

Confused, Harry glanced to where Rose's actual body was sitting out and noted that there was quite a bit of steam coming from it. It didn't help that Rose herself had a dazed look in her mind and a very odd smile as steam drifted out of her ears. Shaking it off, Harry smiled a bit. "Well, that's good to hear, isn't it?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Rose coughed some. "Um, quite."

While he was still confused about how and why Rose was acting the way she was, Harry only nodded. He may have had a small inkling about it, but he preferred not to go any further along in that direction as Rose was an older sister type figure. "So... three months then?"

Head tilted to the side as she thought it over, Rose frowned in thought before shaking her head. "More like... three and a half months, I believe." Taking a sip of her tea, she let out a hum. "Haruna has already begun speaking with Miss Ooyodo regarding matters and I think that she decided that she will handle the catering while I shall send out the invitations."

Rather amused, Harry chuckled as he guessed why. "Because you have the better handwritting, right?"

There was a smile on Rose's face as she nodded. "That's right, Master. We decided on how they will look and will start sending them out soon enough..." Frowning, she tapped her chin. "Do you think that any of your friends might be willing to come?"

Leaning back, Harry closed his eyes and considered the question. "Pretty sure that Hermione wouldn't mind and neither would Ron." A smirk crossed his face for a moment. "Especially if you also invite Warspite to it. Neville probably would as well, don't know about anyone else though."

Only nodding, Rose simply nodded. "That's understandable. Perhaps you can invite some others if you could?" When he nodded, she became thoughtful. "We're also inviting Tiger and a number of others from overseas."

For several seconds there was silence before Harry gave her a look. "How are you going to handle wedding dresses? I mean, you can't see Haruna-Oba's and she can't see yours."

Much to his surprise though, the tea pot shook her head. "Actually, Haruna and I did speak about that. She shall be dressed in a wedding kimono while I will be wearing a dress. To honor both our homelands."

Suddenly, an idea occurred to Harry and he smiled a bit. "What about honeymoons? Have you given any idea as to that?"

Confused, Rose gave it a moment of thought before shaking her head. "I... I'm afraid not, Master. Neither I nor Haruna gave it much thought as she is unable to get much time off. According to Miss Ooyodo, perhaps a week? We were going to spend it as we did last year on your family property."

Eyebrow raising, Harry frowned at her. "That's not a proper honeymoon, Rose. Both of you should be relaxing during it."

Blushing, she nodded slowly. "Perhaps, but it is the best idea we came up with considering the time that we do have." At the look on Harry's face though, Rose blinked. "Master?"

Harry gave her a look before he shrugged. "Going to think it over, Rose. But if you think of something, then I don't mind pitching in." As she opened her mouth, he raised a finger. "You're family, Rose."

Cheeks pink, Rose nodded though she did so with a smile. "Thank you." Several minutes passed in silence before the Tsukumogami turned her attention to Harry's laptop. "By the way... What were you looking up?"

With a blink, Harry glanced at the computer and then his eyebrows raised. "Oh yeah! I was just reading some news that came out. You know how the JS Fubuki was just launched, right?" At Rose's nod, he smiled. "They just laid down the second of the class and released her name, the JS Mutsuki. They're also already planning for a third to be built and from what Goto-Oji told me, they're going to be used as Command ships for the JMSDF."

Tilting her head to the side, Rose smiled a bit. "Really? Miss Mutsuki will be having a ship share her name?" When Harry nodded, she clapped her hand. "Oh, how wonderful. I am very happy for her after all."

Still reading a bit, Harry nodded as he scrolled down. "Yeah, Mutsuki-Nee is going to be very happy about it."

Needless to say, Rose furrowed her eyebrows. "Is going to be, Master? What do you mean?"

Lips twitching, the black haired boy turned the laptop around and showed Rose what it said. "It was just announced an hour ago as an official decision. So it's kind of breaking news."

Slowly reading, Rose nodded in thought. "I see. But why do you think that Miss Mutsuki does not know of this?"

In reply, Harry raised a finger and waited. Just as Rose was about to ask, there was a nearly ear shattering squeal of pure joy that broke through the air. Grinning, Harry snickered. "Because we didn't hear that before, which means that Mutsuki-Nee just found out about it I think."

Once she blinked, Rose was unable to help herself and began to giggle. "Oh my, Miss Mutsuki certainly does sound rather happy." The smile on her face, she listened carefully. "And I don't think that she is the only one."

Eyebrow raised, Harry also listened carefully. Somehow, he was not sure how, but he could hear the barest shouts of "Poi" from a distance away. And they were happy Poi sounds at that. Snickering, he nodded. "Yeah, I think that Yuudachi-Nee is happy for her too."

With a shared look, the two of them broke down into laughter.

 

[darthcourt10]

Tiypo

A snippet from the nearish future. Brought to you by sleep deprivation, lewdness, and ENHANCEMENT.
--------------------------------------

Waiting in a doctor's office Haruna absentmindedly rubbed her stomach as she happily thought back to the recent events in her life.

It was almost 2 months after hers and Rose's wedding. Their honeymoon, while amazing for normal reasons, had also allowed her to address the barely restrained appetite she had developed over the last two years for her tea set partner. And she hadn't been the only one feeling that way.

At one point Rose had decided to prove that being petite enough to be mistaken for a boy meant that all of Haruna's strength and combat prowess didn't just give her the right to be the "man" of the relationship.

With an astounding show of skill, the seemingly weak British girl had flipped the human battleship onto their bed before climbing on top to show her affections. Rose hovering over her, deep auburn hair undone and cascading down around their heads, trapping in the in the intoxicating aroma of smoky black tea blending with the tang of freshly polished silver, whispering how deeply she loved Haruna; she had red-lined so badly that she nearly fainted.

The door opened with an squeak, shaking Haruna from her daydreaming and causing her to flush with embarrassment at where her thoughts had wandered to. It was a bit of an ongoing problem that she didn't dare tell anyone about, though sly smirks she had noticed on Rose hinted that her partner had her figured out. The person in question walking through the door behind a middle-aged female doctor perhaps partially of Central or South American descent if Haruna was to make a guess from get lightly tan skin and non-Asian facial structure. Rose made her way over to Haruna's side to sit a chair next to the hospital bed while the Doctor patiently waited.

"Mrs. Haruna, Mrs. Potter, it's nice to meet you two. I'm Doctor Reyes, with the UCLA Ship Girl Medical Program." Her tone carrying the joy of a person who truly felt they were making people's lives better.

"Haruna is pleased to meet you as well Doctor." Haruna returned, giving a slight bow from her seat.

"Thank you for traveling all the way to Japan just to see us, and using our given names is fine." Rose added while she moved to quietly hold one of Haruna's hands.

"I should be the one thanking you." the Doctor replied as she handed over a paper to the couple listing a variety of medical procedures mostly for Haruna, but a few for Rose as well.

She continued as the two looked over the paper, "With how few pregnancies have occurred amongst Ship Girls, each case is an opportunity to further our understanding of your kind and help ensure the safety of the generations to come. Even more so that you too are not quite human Rose, if more near-human races appear medical communities world wide must be ready to treat them. So today we will be building a medical profile for the both of you, and if all goes well we can use the results to help build a baseline for others."

A few hours of taking blood and oil samples, a small shaving of Rose's pot, a few notes on new found cravings for iron and silver, and a few other things left the last procedure as an ultrasound.

"Before we proceed with the ultrasound, I'd like to ask you to consider a new experimental version we have been developing with the help of some returned submarines." Reyes said as she prepared a tube of gel and maneuvered two bulky devices on cart wheels.

"What would be the difference?" the battleship questioned, her hand gripped Rose's slightly tighter.

"My hope is that we will be have much better resolution than with a traditional ultrasound." Reyes answered, "Normally by this point in development an ultrasound can detect a heartbeat, but the high metallic content of your body even when you do not have your equipment expressed should allow for enhanced acoustics if the right resonance frequency can be found to reflect the sound. There should be no danger to your child but I do need your permission since this is extremely new."

"I think we should try Haruna." Rose said, taking her other hand to completely enclose Haruna's.

Her wife looked turned and took a long look at her, finding her eyes having taken the tone of a deeply brewed camomile and the subtle aroma she gave off having shifted to match.

"Haruna will try!" she said with confidence.

The next few minutes was filled with a slathering of gel on her stomach and the Doctor fiddling with the machine before imagery started to appear on a screen that was built into the device. And whatever the three had been expecting was not what they saw.

They had what appeared to be a black and white thermal image view, not all that dissimilar to what would be expected from a spy drone, of a dry dock large enough for a battleship but with no ship present. Haruna could just make out small sparks coming and going from the center and she instinctively realized had to be the simplest form of spirits she could materialize; the spirits of workers who had toiled to bring her into existence so long ago but had not left an impression great enough to fully come into being. Now they were working on something new, but there was no obvious keel, had they not even finished laying it yet?

The Doctor started twisting a few dials, "Hold on, I'll try to enhance the image further on the spot."

The image zoomed up on a small spot in the center of the dry dock, making the image fuzzy for a few seconds before a wave of clarity crawled down the screen and allowed them to see what was being worked on, shocking the married couple speechless.

"Oh my!" the Doctor exclaimed, her many years of work allowing her to react even when faced with even the most outlandish situations, "Congratulations, it's a tea set!"

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Sitting back in a chair, Dumbledore glanced around the room that he was in. Due to the top down search of Hogwarts, he was currently staying in the home that Victory had claimed as hers in a guest room. Oddly, the elderly wizard had not minded it all to much. Now though, he was looking down at the desk in front of him. "I do not believe it, Fawkes. It should be impossible."

From his position on a perch, Fawkes opened one eye and glanced at the desk. Upon seeing it though, his eyes both opened became wide with surprise. Then the phoenix let out a trill.

Just nodding, Dumbledore smiled as he stroked his beard. "Quite right, old friend." He then waved his hand at the desk with his smile widening. "For once, I have completed all my paperwork. This feels quite good."

Once more, Fawkes gave a trill.

Much to the bird's amusement, Dumbledore got up and nodded. "Yes, this is a once in a blue moon event. And that means that I can finally go and have some nice, relaxing fun." Walking to the closet, he opened it and began to root around in it. "Now where is it... It must be somewhere in here." After several minutes though, Albus failed to find what he was looking for and frowned. "It's not here..." Turning toward the door, he cleared his throat. "VICKY!"

Elsewhere in the house, the shipgirl shouted back. "WHAT IS IT, BUMBLEBEE!?"

A frown on his face, Dumbledore narrowed his eyes. "DON'T CALL ME BUMBLEBEE, VICKY!"

He could almost hear the scowl in his friend's voice. "DON'T WANT ME TO CALL YOU BUMBLEBEE, BUMBLEBEE!? THEN DON'T BE CALLING ME VICKY! NOW WHAT DO YOU WANT!?"

Just sighing, Dumbledore grumbled to himself before calling back. "WHERE IS IT!? I CAN'T FIND IT!"

Confusion could be heard in Victory's voice as she answered back. "WHAT!? WHERE IS WHAT?!"

Rolling his eyes, Dumbledore frowned. "MY HAWAIIAN SHIRT! THAT'S WHAT! NOW WHERE IS IT!?"

Victory's voice drifted in from wherever she was in the house. "UH, YOUR HAWAIIAN SHIRT!? THE ONE WITH THE EYE SEARING COLORS AND PATTERNS?! THAT SHIRT!?"

Lips turned downwards, Dumbledore nodded. "YES, THAT SHIRT! WHERE IS IT!?"

There was a pause before the shipgirl answered him. "OH, I HAD SOME PEOPLE PUT THAT AWAY!"

Eyebrow twitching, Dumbledore took a deep breath. "WHERE!?"

Within moments, Victory shouted back. "SOMEWHERE! WHY DO YOU NEED TO KNOW, BUMBLEBEE?!"

Scowling, Dumbledore glared. "WHY DO I NEED TO KNOW? BECAUSE I NEED IT!"

Almost immediately, Victory fired back. "YOU NEED... NUH-UH! NO WAY! DON'T YOU EVEN THINK OF RUNNING OFF TO DO YOUR BIG KAHUNA SHENANIGANS!"

Dumbledore frowned before poking his head out of the guest room door. "I NEED TO DESTRESS! WITHOUT IT, I'M IN DANGER!"

However, despite everything, he could hear the scoff. "DANGER!? MY TIME WITH YOU IS IN DANGER!"

If anything, that made Dumbledore's lips turn even more downwards. "ARE YOU DAFT, WOMAN!? THE BOWLING PINS ARE CALLING ME! WE'RE TALKING THE GREATER GOOD HERE!"

Annoyance though was coloring Victory's tone as she answered back. "GREATER GOOD!? I'M WHAT!?" Then Dumbledore's eyes closed half way with an unimpressed look on his face as she continued. "BUMBLEBEE, I AM THE GREATEST GOOD THAT YOU'RE EVER GOING TO GET!"

Just outside the house, two Royal Marines were hearing both of them shout back and forth. Whenever Victory was in her home, there was always some Royal Marines there to stand watch. Currently, the older of the two sighed and shook his head. 'Those two.'

Clearing his throat, the younger Royal Marine frowned. "Uh, Sir? I... have a question..."

With a chuckle, the older Royal Marine smiled. "Let me guess, Lad. You're wondering if this is normal?" At his nod, the Marine laughed. "Aye, this is about normal for them."

From an open window, Victory could be heard shouting. "IN NO WAY IS LETTING YOU GO BOWLING IN THAT SHIRT AND SHORT COMBO FOR THE GREATER GOOD, BUMBLEBEE! AS A MATTER OF FACT, PREVENTING SUCH IS FOR THE GREATER GOOD! NEXT THING THAT YOU WILL BE SAYING IS YOU GOING SURFING IS FOR THE GREATER GOOD!"

Not even a moment later, Dumbledore fired back. "THAT IS FOR THE GREATER GOOD! MY GREATER GOOD! AND THE SURFING IS FOR WHEN THE WEATHER WARMS UP!"

A loud laugh could be heard from inside the building. "HA! THAT IS A DAMNED LIE, ALBUS DUMBLEDORE! THERE IS NO ONE ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH THAT WANTS TO SEE YOUR WRINKLY ARSE ON A SURFBOARD!"

Dumbledore though laughed himself. "YOU STILL SORE ABOUT LOSING THAT SURFING COMPETITION TO ME, VICKY!? NOT SURPRISING!"

Slowly, the older Royal Marine nodded. "Yes, rather normal for the two of them. Besides, this will get us at least a Pint down at the local pub."

The younger of the two just stared at him in disbelief before turning away. 'Right...'

Meanwhile, Fawkes just sat on his perch and watched as well as listened to the argument going on in the household. If nothing else, the actions of his pet human amused the phoenix to no end. Especially his pet's actions.

Granted, he had considered making the shipgirl a pet of his as well, but Fawkes decided to err in caution for that. Still, what the two got up to when together always gave Fawkes more then enough payment to weave such things.

And so, the phoenix sat back and waited. Especially as he was being fed and pampered by various servants and the like. Just how he was currently enjoying himself greatly.

 

[darthcourt10]

S0ngD0g13

James sat in the recording booth and tuned his guitar while Houshou prepped the camera. "Ready?"

"Ready, James."

James smiled. "Remind me to thank Naka for letting us use her old booth, Houshou." The camera started and he addressed it. "Hi, y'all; I'm James McAmis, and while I don't dance like Miss Naka, I can sing and pick guitar. I'm gonna play the English sea-shanty Roll, Alabama for ya. Enjoy."


.........................................................

What neither knew was that the air vents in Naka's old recording booth carried sound straight into the Summoning Chamber, where Kaylee, Monitor, and Azuma were setting up to record a rendition of Boromir's Lament...

"You hear that, Monitor?" asked Virginia.

The Union Ironclad nodded, cocking an ear. "Sounds like someone singing... I can't hardly make out the words except for 'Roll-something-Roll'..."

The three Ironclads felt a weight seem to settle across their shoulders, and the Summoning-Pool waters began to churn. "Girls, someone's tryin' to come through," said Azuma, her accent drifting and becoming that of CSS Stonewall again. "She feels... Like us! A girl from Our War!"

Virginia grinned and clapped. "Then by God, we'll help her on! Monitor, Stonewall, Bonnie Blue Flag!"

"Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern Rights, Hurrah! Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star!..."

After that song ended, Stonewall started the next one and the others joined in...

"... And we'll shout, shout the Battlecry of Freedom!"

As the waters frothed and foamed, James, unknowing, decided to play louder, and sing louder; the Ironclads could make out the song and started singing it together...

"When Alabama's keel was laid;

Roll Alabama Roll!

She was laid in the yard of Jonathan Laird!

Roll Alabama Roll!

Her keel was laid in Birkenhead!

Roll Alabama Roll!

Down the Mersey-Channel she sailed then;

Roll Alabama Roll!"

"Liverpool gave me guns and men!"

The singers stopped, looking at the tall girl in roughspun trousers and shirt under a gray jacket, a gray CSN kepi on her head and hair black as a raven's wing.

"Steam Sloop-of-War CSS Alabama, ready to roll."

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Birds were twittering as the breeze caused the leaves on the trees to rustle around the Shrine. Taking a sip of her tea, Haru turned and gave Harry a small smile. "It won't be long until you return to Hogwarts, is it?"

Opening his eyes, Harry shrugged and shook his head. "I'm heading back to Hogwarts in about three days. Sure, it's only until June, but..."

With a hum, Haru smiled a bit more. "There are those who are going to miss you, Harry-Chan. Natsumi and a few of the others especially." A splash caught both their attention and they turned to where one of the ponds had ripples spreading out from where one of the fish there had jumped. Turning back to Harry, Haru chuckled some. "Though from what I hear you have a trip planned once you get back from Hogwarts?"

There was a frown on Harry's face before he nodded. "Yeah, Mum won a lottery just outside the base. It's a free trip to a Ryokan up in the mountains. Mum's bringing both me and Hoppou there to spend time together, just the three of us."

For some odd reason, Haru felt a twitch in her tails which made her wonder before she shook it off. 'I'll consider that later.' As a sigh escaped her, she stretched some. "Sounds rather interesting, I will admit. Perhaps one day you'll be able to travel to Gifu and find yourself a guest of my family's hospitality. My Haha-ue and Chichi-ue still live in the family compound there. It has been in the family since the Sengoku Jidai and was built at that time when the area was the Mino Province."

Eyes wide, Harry stared at her for several moments before blinking. "Huh... I'd be invited to stay there?"

In reply to that, the Kitsune raised an eyebrow and gave a barking laugh. "Harry-Chan, you'd be invited to stop by at any point by now. My parents have heard much about you from myself as well as Onee-San. It's an open invitation from them at this point." Taking another sip from her tea, she hummed. "Personally, I think that you may well enjoy your stay there. It's peaceful there, and the town it is located in is a small Jōkamachi which still retains much of it's character. According to family lore, it has been there since before the 1100s, though once during the Sengoku Jidai my family was driven out for a time, we did return. The compound itself is on a small mountain overlooking the town."

Head tilted to the side, Harry considered that for several moments. "Has Natsumi-Chan been there?"

Lips twitching, Haru chuckled. "Hai, she has. In fact, she spend many happy days there when she was much younger. Often times learning the family history upon the knees of my parents as well as Hoshi-San and Tsuki-San."
Silence fell over them as both of them had their own thoughts. Haru, was thinking about how Harry might react if he ever did go there. It was a highly amusing thought after all, especially as she considered his reaction to the Yokai who lived in the area. Meanwhile, Harry was more wondering about the invite itself as he knew what Haru and Natsumi really were. There was something missing there, something that bothered him though he did not know what he was missing. "I... think that I would like that."

Only nodding, Haru gave him a soft smile and patted him on the shoulder. "As would Natsumi-Chan, I think. Most likely she would be showing you around."

That brought a smile to Harry's face as he imagined it before shaking it off. After all, there was something that he had been wondering for a while. "Um, Haru-San? Can I ask you a question?"

Eyebrow raised, Haru nodded. "Of course you can, Harry-Chan. Though I will note that you have been asking some questions."

Rubbing the back of his head, he chuckled. "Um, yeah, guess that I have." Both of them were quiet as they waited for Harry to put his thoughts into order. Finally, Harry let out a breath. "I suppose that it was something that was brought up. I heard from some of the Tin Can Mafia that Akebono saw a Kami up in Hokkaido fight some Abyssals. And you got Aunt Mo stating that the Hawaiian gods fought the Abyssals. But..."

With a hum, Haru placed her tea to the side. "Ah, I see." Nodding, she leaned forward and frowned. "You're wondering why none of the more powerful Kami have shown up? Amaterasu-no-Ookami for example?"

Slowly, Harry nodded. "That... was what I was wondering, yes."

Looking up at the sky, the Miko stared at the clouds in thought. "It comes down to something rather simple, I'm afraid. Politics of a sort."

Not having expected that answer, Harry blinked. "Wait, politics?"

A chuckle escaping her, Haru looked at him with a smile on his face. "Is it so surprising that the Kami, and other gods out there, also deal with politics?" Once Harry shook his head after giving it some thought, she continued. "But yes, it comes down, ultimately, to the form of politics of the divine. From what I have gathered for the most part, most divinities out there are keeping out of it so that the others will not interfere."

Head cocked to the side, Harry blinked. "What do you mean?"

There was a twinkle in Haru's eyes as she internally shook her head. 'He looks so much like a curious kit.' Clearing her throat, she sighed. "Let us just say, for a moment, that the Kami such as Susanoo came down from their homes to fight the Abyssals. There would be issues as to whom us mortals would follow, would it be the government or the Kami? But there is more to it then that." Hand raising, the Kitsune made a gesture to the west. "If the Shinto Kami came down, then the others would need to respond. The Chinese gods would also appear, if only out of fear of what the Kami might do. And then the others would as well such as the Olympians if they still exist."
Eyebrows raising, Harry stared at her. "You mean, like Zeus and stuff? The Greek Gods?"

Frowning, Haru nodded. "Hai, that is who I mean. But now imagine, for just a moment, Harry-Chan. You know of them after all. How would they react the first time someone in the Greek government did something they did not like? Or told them what to do?"

It went without saying that Harry blanched at that. He knew enough of the old myths to have a very good idea of how the Olympians might respond to someone telling them "No" or "Don't do that", especially someone not a god. "Ah... yeah, that would be really bad."

Slowly, Haru shook her head. "That would be putting it mildly, I'm afraid. And it would not be just them either. Imagine the Aztec gods appearing in Mexico? Or the Norse in northern Europe. It would cause things to go very bad, very quickly. As a matter of fact, I would not be too surprised if it lead to the end of what is currently civilization."

Just furrowing his eyebrows, Harry nodded. "And that is why the Kami don't show up? Because by doing so the other gods won't interfere?"

Haru hummed, but nodded. "That is what I have gathered from matters, yes. Things are on a knife edge as every group understands that if they interfere, then the others will too. And some of them are enemies of each other. I would imagine that the Egyptian and Greek gods would not look upon each other kindly. Nor would the Norse as yet another example. If the Olympians were to interfere, then the Egyptians would jump on them and likely start a war as neither one could leave the other alone. However... I personally believe that those sympathetic to humans are buying time so the more troublesome ones will find that they are unable to interfere much."

Blinking, Harry boggled some. "How so? What could humans do in such a case."

Once more taking her tea, Haru gave it a sip. "You have already seen what mortals can do, Harry-Chan." At his confusion, she shook her head. "Shipgirls. Each one of them are powerful enough as Kami. While the more powerful gods out there could easily kill a shipgirl, what about a dozen Battleships or Carriers? Or two dozen? Or more? In numbers, you could have it where shipgirls through just numbers could bring down gods. Eventually, you will have those with nuclear devices, except spiritual. As much as it pains me to say it, we perhaps could use such as I doubt even one such as... Zeus, I believe his name is, could take a nuclear strike and not be badly harmed." Waving one hand, the Miko continued. "And then we have the Abyssals now allied with us as well."

A frown on his face, Harry stared down into his tea before looking up at her. "But what about Pele? I know that Aunt Mo stated that she met her once. And the other Kami that have shown up."

Tilting back her head, Haru looked up at the sky in thought. "Pele has been appearing to mortals for some time. Even before Blood Week, I was once in Hawaii and heard tale of her appearing at the side of the road. Perhaps due to that she has been given a pass as have the others in Hawaii. As to the other Kami and gods that have been reported? They are either local ones or those far enough down on the totem pole so that the more powerful ones do not see the need to do anything. Just the same though, I think that we should prefer that they not interfere too much as it is."

While he thought over what Haru had just told him, Harry nodded as he tried to ignore the shiver that went down his back at some of the thoughts that crossed his mind.

 

[darthcourt10]

Snippet 145: S0ngD0g13

Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan looked over the assembled Fairies before him in the appropriated taproom of the 'Underhill Club', Kure's Fairy Bar. They represented several ships, mostly Japanese, though there were also Americans from Sasebo and Kure, and often from visiting shipgirls as well. Twice a week the Underhill's taproom was commandeered by Buchanan and used as a schoolroom for the shipgirls' crews, particularly Midshipmen, Cabin Boys, and Ensigns.

"Silence," he called out. "Good Day, Gentlemen. Or should I say, Good Evening. I know most of you, but I'd like our newest classmates to stand and state their name and vessel."

A slim young Fairy stood, dressed in dungarees, and saluted. "Ensign Richard Tolson, USS Taylor, Sir." He sat after Buchanan returned the salute.

The next was a burly teen in Royal Navy uniform, who also saluted. "Midshipman Samuel Wallace, HMS Hermione, Sir." And so it went on until all the new pupils had introduced themselves.

Franklin nodded. "Thank you. For those of you who are attending for the first time, my name is Franklin Buchanan, Flag-Officer in the United States Navy, and formerly in the Confederate States Navy also. I held, during the American Civil War, the post of Captain aboard the CSS Virginia and later became the first and only full Admiral in the Confederate Navy." He smiled slightly and continued. "More germane to the current setting, prior to the outbreak of hostilities I was appointed the first Superintendent of the school that would become the United States Naval Academy, serving in that post from 1845 to 1847. This is me continuing that tradition, and expanding your own educations."

He held up a packet of papers. "Tonight's lesson will begin with, as the modern sailors say, a pop-quiz, on astronomy and stellar navigation. Be advised, the penalty for misbehavior in my class is two hours of pack-drill with Sergeant McCaffery there," Buchanan said, pointing to the stocky Scots-Irish man in Confederate Marine-Corps uniform by the door, "per offense, plus said offenses being reported to your own chain of command." He passed the quizzes out as he spoke. "The quiz is twenty questions; you have one hour to complete them, starting now."

....................................................

After the hour had elapsed, Franklin led a review of the questions, and then ushered the students out of the Underhill Club and down to the shore, where he had each pupil demonstrate their ability to navigate by the stars and identify individual stars and constellations. Satisfied the students were absorbing the lesson, Flag-Officer Buchanan dismissed his students with the assignment to write an essay, minimum six hundred words, on the history of stellar navigation, and to also calculate their ship's position each night for two weeks by the stars, their calculations to be checked against their ships' Logs next class.

As the Fairies departed back to their respective vessels, Franklin smiled; teaching was something he truly enjoyed.

Now if only I didn't have to twist Miss Kaylee's metaphorical arm to make her take her studies more seriously...

 

[darthcourt10]

Snippet 146: S0ngDog13

"Y'all Y'all?" asked a Fairy in a gray uniform from the floor of Akashi's workshop.

The Japanese Repair-Shipgirl picked the Fairy up and set him on Her workbench. "Yes, Brooke-san?"

The Fairy unrolled a set of plans and Akashi used a magnifying glass to look them over. "Y'all Y'all Y'all Y'all."

"Hmm... I see... You're proposing to lengthen her from 275 feet to 325 feet, and widen her beam from 51 feet to 76? Her propulsion?"

The Fairy flipped to a second diagram. "Y'all Y'all, Y'all Y'all."

Akashi nodded thoughtfully. "I can see how an improved screw and better gearing would at least let her keep her speed... I'm assuming you're planning on improving her armor and battery as well?"

Brooke turned to another diagram and spoke at length.

Akashi scrutinized the plans. "Okay, I can see replacing the Dahlgrens with Hotchkiss-type seven-inch rifles; you'd lose the raw stopping-power of the nine-inch smoothbores but more than make up for it in range and rate of fire. The same with replacing the Brooke Rifles with Hotchkiss eight-inch rifles. I can't quite make out what you have replacing the twelve-pounders, though... I think the ink smeared."

"Y'all Y'all Y'all-Y'all."

"Hotchkiss Revolving One-Pounders?" Akashi whistled in respect. "With the right mounts those could be quite formidable. And two more at the stern?"

"Y'all."

"That still leaves fifty feet of extra gun-deck open."

The Fairy gestured toward the diagram, showing his idea to shift the broadside guns toward the center, splitting the open space into two twenty-five-foot sections fore and aft, then pointed to each open section. "Y'all Y'all Y'all-Y'all."

Akashi smiled. "Hotchkiss Revolving Three-Pounders, you say... To borrow an expression from one of Naka's gaming-buddies, this would make her a lot more 'killy'. The proposed refits are workable, though I'd like to try finding a way to improve her speed if possible without sacrificing armor; that said, you as her original designer would know her best."

Brooke spat to one side at the thought of thinning his girl's plates.

Akashi nodded respectfully to the Fairy. "Thank you for bringing me these, Brooke-san. I will certainly take them into consideration for her eventual refit."

As he left Akashi's shop, John M. Brooke whistled a jaunty tune...

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Walking towards the Summoning Building, Harry glanced to the side and blinked some at the sight that met him. For a moment, he thought that Naka was there in the clothes that she was summoned in before remembering that she was currently in Pearl. Eyes wide, the black haired boy realized who he was seeing there and smiled some. "Um, Naka-San?"

Said Light Cruiser jumped some and turned to look at him with a blink. "Ah? Oh, Harry-San!"

Now that she was looking at him, Harry could see some differences between her and the other Naka. For example, her hair was a shade lighter then Naka's own. As well, she also had two orange ribbons for her hair buns. "That's right." Placing his hands behind his head as they walked, he frowned some. "Haven't really seen much of you around."

Lightly blushing, Naka-α chuckled weakly. "I've sort of been in heavy training since being summoned. Mostly in Tokyo Bay..." Pausing some, she frowned as she looked around. "Things have changed so much since I was being built."

Head tilted to the side, Harry nodded at that. For some of the shipgirls, there was a lot different between what had been and what things were like now. "Huh..."

Glancing at him, she sighed. "Let me guess, you thought that I was in Pearl with my Nee-Sans?" At his nod, she rubbed the back of her neck with a grimace. "I would have been, but... Despite everything, I don't know them enough. It felt like I would be intruding if I went there."

Eyebrow raised, Harry shook his head. "I don't think that it would be intruding myself. Pretty sure that Naka-Nee, Sendai-Nee, and Jintsuu-Nee would all like you there."

Still frowning, Naka-α considered that for several moments. "Maybe... But I'll think on that later."

As they entered where the Summoning was to happen, Harry looked around and blinked a bit as he noticed that some of the metal bars he had made were there. From where they were standing, both Harry and Naka-α could see a large amount of the Summoning Pool. Glancing at the Light Cruiser, Harry raised an eyebrow. "Um, Na-San?"

That made her blink and turn to him in confusion. "'Na-San'?"

Just nodding, Harry shrugged. "Well... you and Naka-Nee share the same name, right?" At her nod, he continued. "But it would get really confusing if the two of you were in the same place. So... Naka-Nee and Na-San."

For several seconds Naka-α considered this before smiling. "Na-San, huh? I suppose that would be okay." Looking out over the water, she frowned some. "Any idea as to who they might be trying to summon?"

Humming, Harry furrowed his eyebrows some and glanced at the material for the summoning. "Well... there's some aluminum there. So maybe something with planes?"

Eyebrows raising, Naka-α glanced at him in curiosity. "Planes? So you think that they might be going for some Carriers then?"

Slowly, Harry gave a nod. "It's possible? I mean, while all the major Carriers have been summoned..." He trailed off in thought for a moment. 'Except for one...' Then the wizard shook it off. "There's still some Escort Carriers and Seaplane Tenders as well. I know that Fubuki-Nee has been wanting one for her Battle Group."

With a blink, Naka-α looked from him to where Fubuki was talking with Mutsuki and Yuudachi. Behind them was Kana who was looking on in curiosity. "She wants aircraft for her group?"

Arms crossed, Harry frowned some. "Hai, she wants some air cover for their operations just in case. Especially after what happened recently when they were attacked. Though I think that one of the American shipgirls might show up as well."

Considering that, Naka-α only nodded. "I see..." Glancing at the group again, she raised an eyebrow. "Um, considering the rumors though..."

Harry snickered some. "I know of those rumors and they're pretty funny. If you ever ask Fubuki-Nee, she goes really red in the face while Yuudachi-Nee just looks really smug. Mutsuki-Nee just has this smirk on her face..." Then he frowned in thought. "Kana-San has steam coming from her ears though as she really becomes flustered..." With a shake of the head, he turned to Naka-α. "By the way, Na-San, have you joined the betting group?"

Interested, said Light Cruiser looked at him. "Betting group? For what?"

Looking around, Harry leaned in. "The one that says eventually that Akagi-Oba's Battlecruiser self gets summoned and joins her group. And how Fubuki-Nee would react to that."

Finger tapping her chin, Naka-α frowned. "Hmm... I might be interested. But what would they call her then in such a case? I mean, you couldn't call her Akagi after all."

Only shrugging, Harry shook his head. "There's some bets there as well. I think that Kurobi is one of the names at the front of the running. Jizo is another one as well."

Thoughtful, Naka-α gave a nod. "I might be willing to take part in the betting. Might be interesting."

Unnoticed by either one, Kaga and Akagi were both nearby and listening. Kaga only had a smirk on her face while Akagi resembled her name with how hard she was blushing. Not helped, of course, by the knowing look on Kaga's face which she shot a glare at. "Stop."

Bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet, Kaga hummed some. "I don't know what you mean, Akagi-San. Stop what?"

Still glaring, though it was ruined by how red she was, Akagi huffed. "With that smirk! I know that you're behind those bets!"

However, all Kaga did was continue smirking. "I don't know what you mean, Akagi-San. Not a clue." Then the Carrier noted something and nodded. "It appears that they're starting the ceremony, Akagi-San."

When the Ceremony concluded and a number of shipgirls were summoned though, everyone just stared. One of them held up what looked like a flying boat with a smiling face on it. "I'm Seaplane Tender Akitsushima!" She then held up the flying boat even higher. "Make sure to remember me with this Taitei-Chan, alright!"

One of them was clad in a blue Yukata top over what looked like a Miko outfit. More then one person noted that her rigging resembled Chitose sister's when they were Seaplane Tenders. Saluting, she stood straight. "Good day, Teitoku! I'm Seaplane Tender Nisshin! All the firepower of a Cruiser with the flight capabilities of a Carrier!"

However, it was the last six shipgirls there that made everyone boggle. Four of them were dressed in very familiar orange outfits. The one with a topknot style hairstyle spot first. "Hello, I'm Ayase! The fifth of the Sendai Class."
Another, this time with her hair done in a long ponytail also bowed while the one beside her, who had twin ponytails did the same as they spoke together. "Minase and Otonase, the Sixth and Seventh of the Sendai class, at your service."

The last of the orange wearing Cruisers took a deep breath. "I'm... the Eighth of the Sendai Class..." She paused and looked lost. "Um, I don't have a name yet, but I am more then willing to help!"

Now stepping forward, a Battleship nodded with many there realizing that she had the same style outfit as the Yamatos, but in Shinano's colors. "I'm Warship 797 of the Yamato Class, Improved Shinano-type. Please take care of me."

Once she was done though, the final one took a look around with an interested look. Obviously a Carrier, there was something familiar about her. Her silver hair was done up in a bun and she was dressed in a formal, purple Yukata before she bowed. "Good day, I am Shoukaku, the second of the Houshou Class. I am very pleased to be here."

Glancing to the side where Naka-α seemed to be nearly vibrating, Harry blinked. 'Well... this was certainly different.' His thoughts then went back as the whole room was filled with silence and he remembered some of his dreams. 'I wonder...'

His thoughts did not get much further then that though as the room practically exploded into conversation.

 

[darthcourt10]

mikelima777

On another note, instead of bashing characters how about extracting saltiness???

********

Astoria Greengrass was the baby of the family, and was "daddy's girl." But her normally sweet demeanour hid a troll that enjoyed drinking the salty tears of her online foes. Even her father was not immune, not that he would know.

"Really, Tori?" Daphne deadpanned as she watched her sister play World of Warships. Astoria may have been in an American destroyer, a Fletcher, but she was in a division with a non-magical pen pal. Said friend was currently in the Tier X Japanese destroyer, Shimakaze. The Greengrass sisters could see the big, german battleship in their way, with a very familiar username. It was after all, the usual handle that their father used online. And Astoria along with her friend had come up with a cunning plan.

"If Father figured who you were, you're so grounded for life." Daphne snarked. Astoria stuck out her tongue before typing into the game chat as she enacted the plan. At the start of the match, she had noticed a famous name on her team, and had noted that said teammate was heading to engage her dad's ship.

********

Cyrus Greengrass was actually not bad a player, considering he had managed to get to Tier X. Normally, he was about give his share in a match, but time and again, several things would trigger his rage.

Chiefly, Japanese destroyers, and players using a three-letter word that drive him insane.

"Fuck your POIs!!!!"

This time, as he engaged two destroyers, a Fletcher and a Shimakaze, he failed to spot a looming threat bearing down on his big, juicy battleship.

********

Paul "TheMightyJingles" Charlton, formerly of the Queen's navy, grinned as his latest prey chased the destroyers, a perfect feast for his new battleship. His Tier IX premium battleship Missouri was angled properfly, varying his speed and direction to avoid torpedoes, and now in front of him was an irresistable target for his 9 16-inch guns. He was still chuckling as his teammates in two destroyers distracted his prey, while spamming chat with "Poi"

"A Großer Kurfürst Broadside on to a battleship? That's a paddlin'."

Several seconds later, the youtuber laughed manaically as he read the results. "Four Citadel hits, and I get the Kraken Unleashed, ahahahahaha!"

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Everything paused inside the office as a loud growl could be heard. One that was soon joined by others which made Shinano blink and look down at her newest sister who had a bright blush on her face. "Um, are you okay?"

Cheeks red, Warship 797 shook her head. "I-I'm okay, Onee-Chan." Another growl came from her stomach as she held it. "R-really..."

A small smile appeared on her face and Yamato was about to say something when Shinano reached into her clothing. "Ah, I think that I got something for you." Everyone was watching her as she dug around for several moments. "There we go!"

Her smile growing, Shinano pulled out a bag of what looked like tiny pancakes. A rather large bag at that. Taking the bag as Shinano went back to checking her pockets, Warship 797 blinked. "Pancakes?"

Slowly, the Support Carrier nodded with her tongue poking out of her tongue. "Hai, silver dollar pancakes." Noticing the looks, she gained a slight pinkish tinge to her cheeks. "They make good snacks for patrols. And I'm really good at them... Onee-San likes my Dorayaki."

With everyone looking at her, Musashi coughed and adjusted her glasses. "They are actually quite good and as she says, they are good for a snack."

Meanwhile, Shinano kept digging around before pulling out some small jars. "I have jams if you want some on them as a topping... Strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, black currant, apple, and cloudberry."

That last one made Yamato's head whip around to stare at her sister in surprise. "Cloudberry jam? You have cloudberry? How?!"

Confused as she nibbled on one, Houshou's sister frowned. "Is that really that odd, Yamato-San?"

Frowning and giving her younger sister a look, Yamato narrowed her eyes some. "Hai, cloudberries are not common. They only grow in the wild and in the far north... Even I cannot get some except at great cost. So where did you get jam for them, Shinano-Chan."

Eyes shifting to the side, Shinano coughed. "Um, I have my ways, Onee-Sama." Then she offered the blueberry to her youngest sister. "Here, this should go well with them."

Not sure as Yamato was now grumbling about secretive little sisters, 797 took some and placed it onto a pancake before eating it. Moments later she brightly smiled and continued to happily eat it even as the other newly summoned shipgirls were all also eating some. None of them noticing Ooyodo gripping her hair in annoyance. 'Gah! My supplies!'

Before anything else could happen though, there was a knock on the door and they all turned to it. Clearing his throat, Goto spoke up. "Come in."

Poking his head through the door, Harry blinked some. "Um, Teitoku? You wanted to see me?"

As he leaned back in his chair, Goto nodded. " As a matter of fact, I did. Come in and have a seat... is Junyou with you?"

Said Light Carrier's head appeared above Harry's with a smile. "Eyup! Here I am, Teitoku." Taking a sip from a bottle, she shrugged at the looks. "What? It's a time to celebrate."

Rather then say anything else, Goto only sighed and shook his head. Once the two were seated, he looked at the "Unbuilt" shipgirls with a thoughtful look. Then he turned to one of them in particular who was examining Harry closely. "Ayase?"

Glancing at him, Ayase turned her attention back to Harry. "I remember you... from that dark place." Then her eyebrows furrowed. "But you had a golden thread linking us."

Now leaning forward as the other newly summoned Sendais nodded, Goto frowned. "You mentioned that before. That you recognized Harry-San here from some sort of other place..." Turning towards Harry, he raised an eyebrow. "Would you happen to know what they're talking about, Harry-San?"

Also frowning, Harry turned to Junyou who had a thoughtful look on her face. Then the Carrier nodded some. "That's why I'm here actually. Harry-Chan here has been having some odd dreams for the past few months." Seeing the looks, she waved her free hand. "Nothing bad, just odd. He did come to myself, Ryuujou-Chan, and Haru-San about them as he was worried. We all had an idea recently what was going on but..."

While Junyou took a sip of her drink, Harry gave a nod. "I guess that this confirms it?"

Even as the somewhat eternally buzzed Carrier nodded. Nagato looked between them before propping herself against Goto's desk. Arms crossed, she frowned some. "What sort of odd dreams have you been having, Harry?" Briefly looking at Junyou, Harry began to slowly explain. When he got to the bit involving a black cord from his forehead, Nagato's eyes went straight to the scar there. He even explained recently that he yanked on it and pulled a bunch of energy from it which went into the golden cords once it went through him. Eyebrows furrowing, she turned to Junyou as her adoptive son finished his explanation. "What do you think is the explanation then?"

For several moments, Junyou was quiet before sipping her drink and then leaning back. "Before now, we weren't really all that certain about things. But now? Now we're pretty certain about what might be going on here." Once more taking a sip, she put her thoughts into order. "From what we can tell, the... magic... that brought forth Montana and the others was not done. When Harry-Chan here rescued Louisiana, it was trying to complete whatever it was doing, and so connected to him."

Her eyes widening, Nagato straightened. "Is Harry in any danger? From what happened..."

Slowly, Junyou shook her head and waved the worries from some of those there off. "Nah, in fact the Kiddo is in no danger at all. And mainly because of this." Tapping his scar, she continued. "We all know that he has some sort of connection to the Dark Baka." It went without saying that only a few understood what that connection was. "From what we can tell, the ritual is syphoning off magic and what have you from Dark Baka, draining him. Harry-Chan here just acts as a sort of... filter, if you will, for what is coming through. All the while the ritual itself is slowly breaking down as it was never meant to last this long."

Ooyodo frowned some and looked up from the notes that she was taking. "Breaking down? And how long will it last, do you think?"

Humming, Junyou closed her eyes and thought it over. "Now that is the big question. But from what we can tell from Harry-Chan's dream journals? I doubt that it will be around much longer then this time next year if it even reaches that point. In the meantime though, the spell is doing quite a bit of work as it seems to be hitting the souls of unbuilt warships for the Imperial Japanese Navy, and to a lesser extent the USN."

Up until now, Enterprise was silent but her head snapped upwards. "Wait... the rest of the Montana class appeared in the past year. Do you mean..." When Junyou nodded, she became thoughtful. "I wonder who else might appear..."

Humming, Junyou looked at the ships there with a thoughtful look. "Most likely, if the ritual continues on the USN side, then you'll see those ships who have existing sisters even though they themselves were never built. So possibly three more Midway class for example. Or more Alaska class, that sort of thing as they would be the easiest and there would be a connection to this world for them... Might want to give a head's up about that."

Just nodding, Enterprise made a note of that in her logs. It would make things very interesting for the most part after all. Before anyone could say anything though, a phone rang and Shinano looked down at herself. It took only moments before she brought her cellphone to her ear and blinked. "Kaa-San?" Those closest could make out what sounded like babble, but Shinano nodded some with a blink. "Oh! OH! Okay, Kaa-San." Moving her thumb, she nodded some. "Okay, Kaa-San, you're on speaker."

Everyone there could hear the loud squeal from White Plains before she let loose. "Eeeeee! I heard that you got your final sister, Shinano! Congratulations, Yamato! Musashi! Shinano! I'm so happy for you!"

Blushing some, Shinano had a megawatt smile on her face. "Thank you, Kaa-San. And, um, we're really happy to have her with us as well." Then she blinked. "But how did you find out? It's only been two hours..."

The answer came almost immediately. "Through the Jeep Carrier Mob, how else? Us Escort Carriers know all about the rumor mill and heard about it! I think that we beat out the Tin Can Mafia this time!"

Eyebrows furrowed, Enterprise mouthed the words as she glanced at Yamato. Said Battleship shrugged and shook her head. Meanwhile, Shinano simply nodded as that made perfect sense to her. "Ah, okay Kaa-San."

White Plains then continued. "Oh! Does your sister have a name yet?"

Frowning, Shinano glanced at said Battleship who was listening with interest as she spoke. "Um, not yet? But we're going to get her a name soon enough, Kaa-San. Right now though she's eating some pancakes I made."

Pretty much everyone there could somehow hear White Plains nod. "Oh! That's good! Shinano's Little Sister, make sure to eat plenty! Shinano makes really good pancakes after all and you need to eat to become nice and strong! And I hope that you're eating properly as well, Yamato! None of that 'I need to eat as little as possible' you sometimes do."

A smirk on her face, Musashi nodded. "That's right, Onee-Sama. You need to eat properly."

Said smirk though was wiped away moments later as White Plains spoke up. "And that goes for you as well, Musashi! No matter how good they taste, hamburgers alone do not make for proper eating. You need to eat some greens as well, like spinach! That will make you really strong with all the iron in it!"

Now it was Musashi's turn to blush as she slid down in her chair with a grumble. "Hai..."

On the other side of the phone, there was a huff as White Plains sighed. "Make sure that they eat properly, Shinano, okay? I'm counting on you!"

Back straightening, Shinano nodded as the light glinted off her glasses. "Hai, Kaa-San! I won't let you down!"

All Yamato and Musashi did though was blush and look away even as they got grins from various people even as the now youngest Yamato kept chewing her snack.

 

[darthcourt10]

NotHimAgain

Anyone remember Katie, the somewhat demented submarine in Hawaii? This idea just happened.

Through Katie's Eyes

-----

"Hello again, Katie," the short girl says, poking her in the forehead. She isn't sure what 'Katie' is, but she says it a lot. "How are you feeling this fine morning?"

She watches her for a second, then holds out the fish that she found. She doesn't often see the short girl eating, so it would be a good idea to bring her some food, right?

"Ah… thanks for that," the short girl replies, taking it from her hands. There, now feeding is complete. She cocks her head to one side, examining the short girl from another angle. "Oh, I know! Here!" Now she is holding out one of those white, round, sweet things that she has taken to giving her. She isn't sure she likes them, but receiving them feels significant. Also…

… She attempts to focus through the haze that is the world. On something that looked like the white, round, sweet things, only it wasn't round and she doesn't think she ever tasted it. And it had eyes, red or gold or redgoldredgold… Was it another short girl, like the one in front of her? Or smaller… Was it…

What was she doing again?

Oh right, white, round, sweet thing. She might as well take it.
-----

Well what do you think, sirs?

 

[darthcourt10]

Snippet 148: S0ngD0g13

Alabama stood in the corridor outside, her hands tucked under her armpits to hide their nervous shaking and her kepi was pulled low over her eyes. Virginia was inside, making her report to the Federal Admiral, Richardson. The Confederate Sloop-of-War had been taken aback to see her former countryman under Yankee colors, but had held her tongue when the Abyssal War had been explained to her by the three Ironclads. It was... It was a lot to take in.

"Hello," said a girl from next to her. Alabama jumped, startled, and she could hear her Bosun cussing the lookouts for lazy landsmen, for letting the girl come alongside without calling out.

Alabama faced the girl; on closer inspection she rather favored Admiral Richardson, a daughter, most likely. "Good day to you, Miss," she said, a faint smile on her lips.

"You must be newly-Summoned; I don't quite recognize you," the girl said in a friendly tone. "Oh, I'm Jane, Jane Richardson." She suddenly closed one eye and squinted the other, and Alabama read her lips as Jane mouthed as if to herself something about 'see the Ship not the Girl'. "Let's see... Wood-hulled, three masts and one stack, but not large enough to be a Frigate, and... The Stars and Bars? Confederate Navy, like Kaylee?"

Alabama was once more taken aback. "Yes, actually. Screw-Sloop CSS Alabama, at your service, Miss Richardson."

Jane smiled brightly. "Built at Laird & Sons, in Birkenhead? The commerce-raider?" At Alabama's nod, she smiled brightly. "Awesome."

Alabama nodded slowly. "Maybe so. I'm... I'm not so sure, though, Miss Richardson."

Jane frowned a bit. "Well, why not?"

"I can't really see myself being of any use, really. I mean, what good's a wooden ship going to be in a war like this one, where everyone's got ironclad ships that go twice my speed or better and carry guns that can fling shells big as beef-steers over the horizon?"

Jane reached out and hugged Alabama one-armed. "It's not so bad; the Ironclads at Kure mostly do coastal patrols, and the Abyssals around the Inland Sea have mostly been older types of ship, some even wood-hulled like you. Most of what they've had to deal with lately were East-Indiamen and Wako pirate junks. I think the worst the Ironclads have faced was the Abyssal that caused Virginia to Awaken. She was out shooting in a dory with Azuma; you'd know her as Stonewall? They got jumped by an Abyssal Mohican-Class, a twisted version of Kearsarge. Kaylee Awakened during the fighting."

Alabama smiled a little more. "She told me about that fight, actually. Charged a Sloop-of-War in a dory, shooting at her with pistols; that must have been a sight to see." She felt her nervousness bleeding away as she spoke.

..............................................

Her nerves returned when Virginia opened the office door and motioned her in. Alabama entered and came to attention, saluted crisply, and said, "Confederate States Ship Alabama, reporting, Admiral Richardson."

John returned the salute. "At ease, Alabama. I trust you're doing well since being Summoned?"

"I am, Sir. Virginia and the others made sure I was fully-coaled and watered before we came here from Kure, and the journey hasn't put much dent in that."

Richardson nodded. "Good. Now comes the interesting part. Alabama, you're much the same as Virginia, in that you were sunk while still in Confederate Commission, and there's no longer a Confederate States of America. I am, on behalf of the United States Navy, more than willing to accept you into the USN. If, of course, you're willing to take Yankee colors; the US military abolished the draft several decades ago and is all-volunteer now."

Alabama bit her lip. "What purpose would I serve, Admiral Richardson? I'm a wooden ship in a war with armored ships far beyond my capability to fight. Miss Jane, your daughter, I assume, mentioned coastal patrols..."

Virginia spoke up. "True; it's the primary duty of myself, Azuma, and Monitor, and the Minesweepers, along with whatever Carrier support can be shook loose. Speaking of, Admiral Richardson, I heard tell there was a Carrier Summoned up at Yoko?"

John nodded. "And a Seaplane Tender. I'll try to get Akitsushima stationed here and attached to your patrol-group, Virginia."

Kaylee nodded, slipping into her role as de facto Executive Officer of the Kure Coastal-Patrol Flotilla. "That would certainly expand our scouting range, Sir. Our striking power, too, if she can utilize Rufes or some of the larger flying-boats like H6Ks or Catalinas." She turned to face Alabama. "If coastal patrolling doesn't suit you, Alabama, there's also the School-Guard." She looked back toward Richardson.

John pursed his lips in thought. "That's an option as well. Lord knows it would be good to have an American presence at Hogwarts."

Alabama's eyes widened. "Y'all know about Hogwarts? About Magic?"

"We do," said Admiral Richardson. "I take it there are Wizards among your crew?"

A tiny figure, one of Alabama's Fairies, suddenly hurled himself out into the open, snarling as his arm came up. Several others tackled the Fairy and bore him down to the deck. Kaylee threw herself between the Fairy and the Admiral, having seen the Fairy's pistol, and she had a LeMat drawn and leveled in an instant.

Alabama threw her hands up as more of her Fairies dogpiled the Carpenter's Mate and wrestled the Dance revolver out of his hand. "That wasn't by any order o' mine, Virginia; I was about to say, some of my crew were descended of Scourers. I swear, I didn't give the order."

Jintsuu and Arizona burst through the door right then, riggings out, but paused when John held up a hand. Kaylee lowered her pistol, though she didn't lower the hammer or return it to its holster. "I believe you, Alabama, but we've gotta make certain. So you just stand real still there. Lieutenant Jones, Sergeant McCaffery, take some Marines across to Alabama and help root out the Scourers in her crew; maybe they can be talked around after spendin' time in her brig. Kaylee laid a hand on Alabama's shoulder. "I'm sending some Marines across to help deal with the Scourers."

"Thank you, Virginia. In the meantime, that still leaves Carpenter's Mate Barebones to attend to. I believe him and the Bosun are gonna have to have a long talk... Oh, and much as I'd prefer not taking Yankee colors, I can't really sit idly by, so if you're sure I can be of service, I'd like to volunteer."

"Welcome to the United States Navy, Alabama."

 

[darthcourt10]

smthng (Continuation) My supplies!

Harry Leferts said:
Now it was Musashi's turn to blush as she slid down in her chair with a grumble. "Hai..."

On the other side of the phone, there was a huff as White Plains sighed. "Make sure that they eat properly, Shinano, okay? I'm counting on you!"

Back straightening, Shinano nodded as the light glinted off her glasses. "Hai, Kaa-San! I won't let you down!"

All Yamato and Musashi did though was blush and look away even as they got grins from various people even as the now youngest Yamato kept chewing her snack.​

Suddenly, the door to the office slammed open. For a few seconds a short, well-built form stood in the doorway, panting. Then the girl's eyes zeroed in on Warship 797 and she nearly teleported to the four Yamato sisters' position. "IsthisthenewYamatothen!?", the she blurted, her whole form nearly vibrating as she stared at the newly summoned ship.

Yamato put a hand on the girl's shoulder, and one could almost hear the sound of metal grinding against metal, as the pride of the Japanese fleet tried to restrain the giddy girl. "Yes Hana-chan, this is our new imouto, Warship 797."

Quickly Hana whipped her head around to stare at the older battleship. "797? What kind of lame name's that!?"

Unseen to the overexcited girl, Warship 797 winced. Yamato quickly handed her parasol to Musashi and knelt next to Hana, putting her hands on the both shoulders of the girl and looking her in the eye. "Hana-chan," the battleship began, her voice sombre. "It hasn't even been an hour since Warship 797 was summoned. Unlike you, her keel was never even laid, so she was never given a real name. Also, please don't call your sister 'lame'."

The excited gleam in Hana's eyes quickly died down, and the girl's shoulders slumped. After a few moments she averted her eyes. "Sorry, Onee-san."

Yamato gave Hana a smile, and gently turned the girl around. "It's not me you should apologize to, Hana-chan," the eldest of the Yamato sisters said, and gestured at Warship 797.

For a few moments Hana hesitated. Then she glanced at Yamato, who gave her a look that was equal parts encouraging and chastising. Hana gave Warship 797 a small nod. "Sorry about that, I shouldn't have called you lame." She then gave Yamato, who gave an approving nod, a quick glance.

Warship 797 gave the girl a hesitant nod. "That's, um, all right. I, uh, forgive you… Hana-san? Um, I don't think we've been introduced..."

The grin that had disappeared when Yamato had scolded her again lit up Hana's face. "I'm Hana! The fourth of the Yamato sisters!" Then she pointed a triumphant finger at Warship 797. "You should call me onee-chan!"

"Hana-chan!" Yamato immediately admonished, causing the girl to whirl around.

"But Yamato-nee! She's now the youngest of us, so she totally should call me onee-chan!"

"Hana-kun," Musashi rumbled before Yamato had time to reply. "While it is now true that you are no longer the youngest of the Yamatos, the fact that you are now an elder sister means you must also act like one!" The dark skinned woman lowered her glasses enough to peer over their rim. "Only then will this Musashi allow to 797-chan to call you nee-san. Understand?"

Hana gave the second of the Yamato sisters a doubtful look before focusing on Yamato, who nodded. "Musashi-san is correct in this matter, Hana-chan. Your younger sister looks up to you, now, so be prepared to fulfill her expectations. The role of an elder sister is not an easy one."

For a few moments the two Yamato's looked each other in the eye, before Hana gave a determined nod. "Yes, onee-san!"

Yamato smiled. "Now, please introduce yourself properly to your new imoto."

Hana gave another nod, before whirling around and bowing at Warship 797. "I'm Aruga Hana, the fourth ship of the Yamato class! I'm your nee-san, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me! I may still be pretty young, but I'm still a…" For a few seconds Hana hesitated before nodding to herself. "But I'm still a fleet carrier like Shinano-neesan! So I'm sure I can help you with anything!"

Yamato raised an eyebrow, as Shinano let out an embarrassed squeal. "A carrier, Hana-chan?" the eldest Yamato asked.

Hana gave another determined nod. "797-chan's clearly a battleship, so I have to be a carrier now! Otherwise Shinano-nee would be left all alone!"

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

Slowly waking up, Harry sighed a bit as he laid in his futon. While the beds at Hogwarts were nice, he was actually pretty used to futons as well. As he woke up though, he realized that there was something off. Frowning, Harry moved his head and sighed at the familiar squishing sensation which told him that Regina was once more cuddled into him with his head against her chest. On his leg, he could feel her tail resting while she had one arm around his midsection.

But that was not what was a bit off as he was used to that by now.

What was off became apparent as he felt movement and looked down to see a head of blonde hair pressed against his chest. He could also feel the rest of said shipgirl's body pressed up against his which made him blink. "Hachi-Chan?" When said Submarine looked up, his frown deepened in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

Lightly blushing, Hachi looked away. "Well, Hacchan..."

Expression softening, Harry realized what must have happened the night before. "You had another one of those dreams, huh?" When Hachi pressed her face back into his chest and nodded, Harry just reached up and stroked her hair. "What to talk about it?"

All Hachi did though was shake her head. "No, I... Hacchan does not want to talk about her dream."

When the black haired boy simply pulled her close, the Submarine closed her eyes. After a few moments, Harry let out a sigh. "Then we won't, that's all there is to it." Which was not to say at the wizard did not have an idea about what happened in said dream... Glancing at her, he raised an eyebrow. "But there's more to it, right?"

Giving a slight nod, Hachi sighed. "Well, you are going back to Hogwarts for at least two months, Harry-Chan. And... I'll miss you." Eyes still closed, she relaxed into the embrace. "I'll miss this."

Only nodding, Harry hummed a bit. "Sorry about that."

However, Hachi shook her head with a snort. "You have nothing to be sorry about, Harry-Chan. Nothing at all." For a few moments she was quiet before continuing. "I just hate it... and the reason why I need to do this sometimes. At least those dreams aren't coming that often anymore."

Placing his chin on her head, Harry smiled. "Well, that is a good thing, right?"

A weak chuckle escaped from Hachi at that even as she nodded. "Hai, that is true. Besides... this is rather nice, just being like this." Carefully wrapping her arms around the boy she was cuddled into, and making sure not to wake up the Abyssal also cuddling him, Hachi tilted her head back some. "Could we just stay like this? For a little bit?"

Slightly smiling, Harry gave her a small tilt of the head. "Sure thing, Hachi-Chan. Besides, I like this sort of thing as well." At the sight of Hachi looking up at him with a similar smile to his own, became thoughtful. "Hmm..."

Blinking, Hachi raised an eyebrow. "Is... something wrong, Harry-Chan?"

Harry just shook his head. "Nothing wrong. But..." Much to the Submarine's surprise, Harry leaned down and pressed his lips against hers for a second. Pulling away, his smile grew a bit. "Huh... that's just as nice."

Meanwhile, Hachi's face resembled a tomato as the same thought ran through her mind. 'Harry-Chan just kissed me! Harry-Chan just kissed me! My first real kiss and it was with Harry-Chan!' Even though her face felt like it was on fire, Hachi buried her face into Harry's chest and gave a small nod. "Hai... that was just as nice."

Unnoticed by either of them, Regina had one eye cracked open and was watching them. But the Abyssal did not do anything else though she felt rather happy with what she was seeing. After all, she could agree with Hachi on what was said.

Roughly an hour later, the group entered the mess hall with Hachi still practically on cloud nine from what had happened. In fact, she could not help but look forward to talking with Iku and the others. Just as they sat down at an empty table with their breakfast though, Harry blinked and waved. "Hey! Na-San! Shinano-Chan! Over here!"

Twisting around in her seat, Hachi could see Naka-α as well as her newly summoned sisters. Also with them was Shinano and Warship 797 along with White Plains. Upon seeing them, all of them walked over though Harry did blink as Ayase gave a small bow. "May we sit here, Harry-San?"

Somewhat confused, Harry only shrugged and smiled. "Sure, I thought that you would want somewhere to sit after all."

Brightly smiling, White Plains took a seat before putting her food down. "Thank you, Harry. We really appreciate it."

As she sat down, Shinano nodded. "Hai, Kaa-San is right, Harry-Chan. We really do appreciate it."

Glancing at White Plains who was now digging into her rather sugary cereal, Harry chuckled. "You're really welcome." With a bite of his own food, he raised an eyebrow. "So how did last night go?"

Naka-α gave a small shrug at that before shaking her head. "About as well as could be expected, I suppose. Jintsuu-Nee was rather surprised about it. And Onee-Sama Naka-Nee was also surprised while Onee-Sama was grumbling about not being able to come here to meet us."

When Harry looked towards her, Minase slowly nodded. "Meeting Onee-Sama was... interesting." She pointing ignored the knowing looks and snickers at that. "But it was nice, though I never would have thought that we would have had the ability to talk with her like we did!"

Beside her, Minase's near twin Otonase nodded. "Hai, it was right out of science fiction. While we were not there it was still like we were face to face."

Slowly nodding, Harry turned to Shinano. "What about you, Shinano-Chan? How was your night?"

Thinking it over, Shinano tilted her head some. "Um, it was really nice. Onee-Sama cooked up all sorts of food for us. And Kaa-San brought out some of her ice cream." Smiling, she gave the Escort Carrier a smile. "It was really good too."

Only looking towads Shinano, White Plains leaned over the table some. "Shinano was really excited over how Hana is going to become a Carrier just as awesome as she is. Both of them stayed up really late and that is why Hana isn't here. She's back home still sleeping after all after Yamato and Musashi took her back to her mother."

Face in her hands, Shinano mumbled a bit. "Kaa-San..."

However, Harry just nodded. "Yeah, Shinano-Chan is really awesome. And Hana can learn a lot from her about being a really great Carrier."

Now attempting to sink below the table, the giant Carrier chewed her lip even though she had a rather happy smile on her face. "Harry-Chan..."

Just giving Shinano a smile, Harry watched as White Plains gave her a pat on the head before he turned to Warship 797 as well as the eighth Sendai sister. "So have you chosen any names yet?"

Frowning as they thought it over, 797 shook her head. "Not yet? We have a few ideas for me..."

Slowly, the unnamed Sendai raised her hand. "We got a list of names. I might take the name Mu though, after the river. But, um, we're not sure yet." She shared a look with her sisters. "We want it to be a family decision."

While Harry nodded at that, Ayase frowned some as she turned away from where she had been watching Regina work her way through a tower of toast slathered with honey. "Harry-San?" At his nod, she continued. "May I ask what you're doing today?"

Blinking, Harry turned towards her. "Today?"

Even as she blushed lightly, Ayase nodded some. "Hai. I was just wondering on some matters."

Amused, Naka-α shook her head as she watched her sister. Part of her mind went back to when Jintsuu had explained to her that each of them had seemed to take up a different aspect. Sendai as a Shinobi, Naka as an entertainers like the Ordoriko, and Jintsuu herself like a Samurai. 'Seems that Ayase-Chan might become like the bodyguards of old in a way. And when one adds in that she found out that Harry-San is responsible for her life...'

Meanwhile, Harry shrugged some in thought. "Um, mostly spending time with people. This afternoon though I'm going to do a quick run over to Ōkamashima and stay there for a few hours with Ume-Chan and Sakura-Chan. Not going to see them for a few months after all and it's sort of hard for them to write back."

Confused, 797 looked between her sister, who was nodding, and Harry himself. "Why would it be hard for them to write back, Harry-San?"

The answer she got made not just her, but also the other new shipgirls stare. "Because they're the Hitobashira of the island. They're kind of like ghosts in a way, but they're really nice. And they can only send letters out if someone picks them up after dropping off mine."

Eyes wide, Minase slowly nodded. "Oh..."

Not having noticed, Harry then went to a different subject. "What are you all going to be doing today?"

Glancing at each other, they considered their replies before the eighth Sendai spoke up. "Well... after we get checked out by Akashi-San, it's mostly us getting used to being... Like this. But I don't think that will be much of an issue."

Hachi had a smile on her face as she shook her head. "Hai, I don't think it will be. So you'll be at the party tonight then?" As the conversation veered off into another direction, Harry simply smiled and enjoyed his breakfast surrounded by friends.

 

[darthcourt10]

Harry Leferts

His wand moving in circles, Harry slowly smiled as the last bit of the stone merged together before nodding as he stopped. "And there we go, now we just got to fill it with soil." Looking over his shoulder, he smiled at Sakura and Ume who were watching him. "Give me a moment and I'll pull out the bags."

All the two did though was nod as they continued to observe with awed expressions. Just as Harry finished his work, the two of them bowed to him with bright smiles on their faces. "Thank you for this, Harry-Chan. We both appreciate all that you have done for us in this."

With a spell to clean his hands, Harry just shrugged as he put away the empty bags. "It's not big deal, I just thought that the two of you should have something here where you rest." Seeing the teary looks in their eyes, he got up and walked over to them. "Did I do something wrong?"

To his confusion, the two just hugged him tightly before Ume spoke. "No, no you did nothing wrong, Harry-Chan. You have done so much for the two of us since we met you and... it makes us happy that someone cares."

Seeing that he was still confused, Sakura gestured at the small courtyard where the two were buried. Inside, within the stone boxes sprouts of wildflowers could be seen and there was now a bench of sorts along one wall. But what had made them tear up was the additions that Harry had made on the outside opposite of one another. "You created this spot in our honor, Harry-Chan. Just what you had done before was far more then we had. But now? You added two trees on either side, a sakura tree and an ume tree. To represent us."

Just scratching his cheek, Harry chuckled some. "Well... it seemed right somehow I guess." Tilting his head, he looked from one of the small trees to the other. "Hopefully they grow nice and big. Then they'll shade it and when they blossom..."

Ume's eyes had a far off look to them. "And then their petals will swirl around this area. That is a lovely image..."

Moments later, the two Hitobashira took his hands and they stood there with smiles before Sakura shook it off and looked at the black haired boy. "So what do you wish to do, Harry-Chan? From what you have stated there is still some hours before you leave."

Nodding, Harry frowned some. "Yeah, today is my last full day before heading back to Hogwarts." Then his eyebrows furrowed some as they started to walk. "Kind of wish that I could learn that spell that Haru-San knows. The ones that can show my memories."

Confused at this turn in the conversation, the two spirits blinked. "Show your memories, Harry-Chan? But why?"

Harry just looked at the two and chuckled. "Well, so that I can go and show you two Hogwarts. And maybe other places as well since... you know."

Both Sakura and Ume had wide eyes before they thought it over. Then their expressions softened at the thought. "That would be quite nice. We could see the world as it is now and see a school of magic. Something that we never got to see because we were born with such low amounts that we could not be accepted at such a place."

Frowning, Harry snorted some. "Which was stupid. So what if you can't perform magic openly? You could still go and learn potions or history. Or let you go to any school really."

Unable to help herself, Sakura giggled. "Perhaps that is true, Harry-Chan. But that was not the way that things were done. And our family was... traditional, to say the least."

Still frowning, Harry only shook his head. About the only member that the two mentioned in their talks was their little brother and that was about it. And neither of the two were sure that he still lived despite everything. Shaking it off, he let out a huff. "Anyways, as to what I want to do? Not a clue."

Needless to say, that sent the two spirits into giggles once more before they began to consider things. Humming in thought, Ume looked towards her sister. "Perhaps show Harry-Chan more of our island? There is much that he has not seen after all."

Cocking his head to the side as Sakura nodded, Harry raised an eyebrow. "Really? Like what?"

For several moments Sakura considered the question before slowly nodding. "There are many places, such as on the rim of the crater." She then pointed at one spot in particular. "Such as right there is one place."

More then a little curious, Harry looked and could just make out what looked like a collapsed steel structure there. Whatever it was looked like it was broken in half by something. "What is that? A radio tower?"

Slowly, Sakura shook her head. "No, that would be where the airships once moored."

That made Harry blink before he turned and looked at her. "Airships? They used to come here?"

Head tilting to the side, Ume frowned. "How much do you know of the war, Harry-Chan? On the magical side?"

Frowning himself, Harry shook his head. "Besides what you told me? Not too much. I mean, Haru-San doesn't really talk about it and while Junyou-Oba and Ryuujou-Oba know some stuff, there's not a lot that they told me... though I really never asked. And the books at Hogwarts mostly deal with what happened in Europe."

Just nodding to herself, Sakura looked up at the mooring tower in silence before speaking. "You must understand, Harry-Chan, the war's coming was not a surprise. It was in fact a long time in coming as horrible as it was both on the magical and non-magical sides. On our side, we began to prepare and one of those ways was to construct a number of Airships."

Eyebrows raised, Harry looked at her. "But why would they construct Airships? I mean, I would assume that they would be magical."

Looking at one another, the twins nodded before Ume took over. "You likely know that long distance broom flying is extremely hard to do. As it turns out, so is regular flying for beings like Tengu. The Airships had broom fliers and flying Yokai on board them. They would fly high above the clouds and the fliers would search out for any possible enemy magicals in the area. Special spells made them light up when they noticed something and so the Airship would get a warning of someone in the air or in the area."

Suddenly, Harry froze as something occurred to him. Slowly, he turned to the two spirits and frowned. "These fliers... did they ever do stuff like follow non-magical aircraft from close up?"

Both Ume and Sakura blinked at this before nodding. "Hai, they did so. Not just American, but also Japanese as well." Furrowing their eyebrows, they frowned. "But how did you guess?"

Only sighing, Harry shook his head. "Way back in the Second World War, American pilots reported seeing odd lights in the sky. Ones that often followed them around. Since they didn't know what the lights were, they called them 'Foo Fighters' or UFOs, Unidentified Flying Objects. From what I read, they thought that they were some Japanese weapon, but Japanese pilots reported them and thought that they were American. After the war, some people thought that they were aliens..."

It took a few seconds before the Twins realized what had happened and began to giggle. Holding a hand to her mouth, Sakura's eyes twinkled in mirth. "O-oh my! I ever expected such a thing to have happened, Harry-Chan. That is quite humourous. Did they really believe such?"

When Harry nodded, Ume's smile became a grin. "Nee-Chan is right, that is amusing."

Lips twitching, the wizard shook his head. "Yeah, it is pretty hilarious. Some of Enterprise's pilots reported them... I can't wait to see her expression when I tell her what must have happened."

After their snickers and giggles died down, Sakura hummed some before shaking her head. "Perhaps though we should see the mooring another day. I think that there is somewhere else you might wish to be." She then turned to Harry and smiled. "Do you have your broom with you?"

Eyebrow raised, Harry nodded before gesturing to their small hut. "I have it back at your home, why?"

Slowly, Ume bowed. "If you wish, I can go and bring it to you." When Harry nodded, she disappeared to his surprise. Before he could say anything though, he could see his broom heading towards him. Within moments, Ume landed and handed it to him. "Your broom, Harry-Chan."

Taking it, Harry got onto it and held out a hand. "Want some help getting on?" Both spirits smiled and took his offered hand and once they were settled in, Harry rose up some. "Mind telling me where we're going?"

In reply, Ume raised her hand and pointed. "Could you head for the ships, Harry-Chan? And land upon the Carrier?"

Not sure what was going on, Harry nodded some. "Um, sure? I can do that." It was less then a minute later that he landed on the unfinished Carrier and looked around. "Well... here we are. But why..."

All Harry could do was trail off as another ghostly apparition appeared. Said teen girl looked a lot like Taihou, except her hair was reddish-grey and she had a ponytail not unlike Fubuki's. Part of Harry also noted that she was also a bit bustier then her older "Sister" as well. Bowing, the apparition smiled. "A good day to you, Harry-San. Welcome to my hull."

Eyes wide, it took a moment for Harry to reboot before he bowed back. "It's an honor to be here, Denryuu-San. Thank you for welcoming me here..." Pausing, the wizard realized something and blinked. "Does this mean that you are close to being summoned?"

Frowning, Denryuu looked off into the distance before chewing her lip. "I am... unsure of that, Harry-San. But perhaps?" Just shaking her head, the frown became a smile again as she turned back to Harry. "However, I wished to see you and to thank you."

Unsure, Harry tilted his head to the side in confusion. "To thank me?"

Taking a step forward, Denryuu nodded as she came to a stop in front of him. "Hai. It is thanks to you placing those Ofuda within my hull that I am finding myself... lighter, then I was before. The darkness is lifting with each day for which I am truly grateful." Then her lips twitched a bit and she glanced to where the two B-65 wrecks were. "And I am not the only ones either."

With a blink, Harry turned and found that both hulls also had female apparitions on them. Both of them stood there in uniforms not unlike the Yamatos, but their uniforms were black colored instead of white. Another difference was their pink hair with one wearing it in a pageboy style and the other letting hers flow down til it reached the small of her back with a single ribbon keeping it up. Raising his hand, he gave them both a wave. "Hi?"

Smiling brightly, they waved back to Harry with the one with short hair excitedly jumping in place as she beamed at him. Cupping her hands to her mouth, she shouted over. "Hello, Harry-San!"

Then the wizard looked to the opposite side where Akashi's sister laid just under the water and noticed the apparition there. Said woman had on a uniform like Akashi's and had steel grey hair as she sat upon where one part of the wreck broke the surface. Seeing Harry was looking at her, she gave a wink and a wave. Blushing at the attention, Harry rubbed his neck. "Heh... never really expected this sort of thing when I came today."

Moments later, he blinked as Denryuu gave him a gentle hug. "Perhaps you should have. Especially with how thankful we are with what you did when you..." A blush could just be seen on her transparent cheeks. "When you went into our hulls to help cleanse us. Something that we can never say thank you enough for."

It was then that the short haired B-65 cupped her hands to her mouth again with a grin. "BUT WE'LL CERTAINLY TRY! AFTER ALL, UME-SAMA AND SAKURA-SAMA STATED THAT YOU'RE GOING TO BECOME A TEITOKU! AND EVERY TEITOKU NEEDS A GOOD FLEET!"

Amused, Denryuu shook her head some. "While I would not put it as... excitedly as Miitake-Chan has, she does have a point." She then turned back to Harry who's jaw had dropped and was now looking at a blushing Sakura and Ume. "They spoke to us about how you already have several ships for a fleet for when you become a Teitoku. Hopefully, when you do, we can find a place there to help you in thanks for what you have done for us."

Chuckles made him turn to where Mihara was with said shipgirl nodding. "Besides, every fleet needs a Repair Ship. Hopefully you'll consider me when the time comes."

Just scratching his cheek, Harry gave a chuckle. "Maybe..."

However, the moment was ruined as Miitake shouted again. "HEY! HEY! DON'T HOG HIM! HARRY-SAN, COME OVER HERE! I WANT TO HUG YOU LIKE NEE-SAN DID!"

Facepalming, Denryuu sighed and shook her head even as Harry rubbed his neck while Ume and Sakura giggled. Not helping matters was how the now blushing Ishikari was glaring at her sister. "What the heck is that supposed to mean!?"

If anything though, Harry and the two Hitobashira became more amused as the two B-65s bickered with each other. Part of it was that Harry was actually pretty happy that things were turning out well and that the spirits of the wrecks were slowly becoming more happy as their hulls became purified. His blush though was mainly because of how Shioi, who was back on shore, was currently rolling around in laughter while RO grinned. Both of them having followed at a distance as they were taking their turn to watch over him on a visit...