Nimbus Try I: Arpeggio of Hurt Steel [English Version]

Chapter 53

The ships walked together down the hall from Vanisher's office.

Their still lost pieces of memories of their forgotten lives had surfaced in one fell swoop, with the exception of Kongou's.

"I'm really a fish then, huh? Did she confirm something we never determined?"

"I wouldn't say 'we' right now," said Monogatari, Shifter and Zeitwächter at the same time, while avoiding Musubi's gaze.

"Oh," she replied with a blank face, "that's fine then."

Kongou just looked at her confused while the others joked around.

For better or for worse, she would have to get used to references to things to which she could relate even less than usual.

"Hey Kongou," Parasite came from the side, "since we're more or less one and the same person, how do you feel about poly relationships?" 

Zeitwächter kicked out after her half-sister and chased her a few steps down the floor before she came back, arms possessively wrapped around Kongou, "My child, find your own." 

A disappointed murmur went through the group, which elicited a giggle from Oki. 

Monogatari jogged forward a bit to keep up with the big strides of her buddies' (compared to her) long legs: "Aki, is it true that you are our mysterious killer?" 

"Eeeeeeh? Yada, yada," she said purposefully slowly, trusting the base's anti-eavesdropping devices, "I would neeeeeever do that."

"Ah, of course, that's the reason you're stinking more and more of blood and death every day!" Parasite called over.

"You've got that certified by God now: that's just my soul you're smelling!" was called back.

"Yes yes, of course!"

"Parasite, Zeitwächter," Kongou demanded the ex-sisters' attention and demonstratively raised her hand, which Oki clasped with her small one.

Her eyes were wide with fear and she was trying to become one with Kongou's leg.

"Sorry," the two muttered. 

Ordnung cleared her throat to change the subject: "Let's talk about something more important: how about the ranking? Zeitwächter is Sentinel flagship now, how does that affect your Bullshit Fleet and the rest of the ships?"

"I would say Brokencunt gets the lowest rank and the Black Fleet 2.0 remains subordinate to me as before?" asked Zeitwächter, to which Ordnung patted her on the back and Musubi (who was drowning more in the big ships than her sister) stretched her arms out and showed two thumbs ups.

Monogatari handed her book to Musubi and whispered something to her before pushing the redhead forward so that she was walking next to Kongou.

"We'll look into that together today."

"Why?" Kongou asked skeptically, because it was Monogatari's notebook. The only things she wrote in there were documentaries about... well, pretty much anything; it was very useful for planning and research, but not very interesting.

"I'll show you."

Zeitwächter hummed in interest, but slumped back onto her wife when the book wasn't opened.

They heard someone grunt in disappointment and mentally most of those present joined in the sound, which most likely came from Parasite, who had sprinted back to the group especially for that.

--

Later that morning, Musubi and Kongou had gathered in the latter's shared quarters, with Zeitwächter and Churchgrim on the bed, slowly but surely dozing off.

Musubi stroked the book's almost leather-like cover on her lap: "Monogatari said that after we left the concept communication system, it changed." 

"Changed how?" Kongou asked.

"I don't know. But she said I should look at it with you," a hand prepared to open it, "ready?"

"Ready."

The book was opened and nothing happened at first, it looked like the first, completely normal page of a book with publisher, publication date and all other standard information written on it, until Musubi opened the first real page.

An old picture, which appeared to be hand-painted and with faded colors faced them, just barely more recognizable than the faded writing on the other side. 

As Kongou and Musubi watched in wonder, a green and yellow glow swept over the pages, restoring the colours to their original brightness to reveal an artistic rendition of a priestess against a tarot card-like background. 

The same thing happened on the next page, only with a different image, and over and over the next few pages until Musubi stopped turning the them. 

Her mind full of wonder and confusion, Kongou looked over at Musubi. 

Musubi looked just like amazed, but but it was visible in her eyes that she recognized a few of those pictures "I think... these are biographies, or maybe just memories written down."

"Your memories?" 

"I suppose so." 

Kongou was... intrigued. Phenomena that she couldn't explain in any way other than "magic" -- the existence of souls, her own lineage, and these recordings of a past life -- were all deeply fascinating and at the same time frustrating because Kongou couldn't understand them.

She took one of the many pages in hand and held it gently while examining it.

It showed an image of Zeitwächetr, with animalistic ears and wings instead of a cloak, tips of hair and dress red with blood dripping from her claws onto her chains leading to a bloodstained gold watch without a face, and corpses upon corpses piled on the ground, the sky in the background red as if mirroring it.

Was that the tenth Try? The original Zeitwächter?

She looked up at the battleship, who focused on her with wise eyes. 

Was that really the creature slumbering in the body she had more than once referred to as just an "oversized cat"? 

Kongou reached out and touched Zeitwächter's cheek, knowing that she couldn't stand even her physical contact for long, and stroked the base of her jaw to the tip of her chin. 

The skin there was cold, like the hull of an inanimate ship, but her cheek had been warm: "Can you show me your teeth?"

Zeitwächte looked away, but reluctantly opened her mouth to comply.

Her canines and incisors in particular were discolored, a very slight red tinge had eaten into the artificial enamel and created a yellowish tint that would only disappear completely after a few days, maybe even weeks.

Hearing the door slam closed behind Musubi, Kongou leaned forward to whisper in Zeitwächter's ear, "As long as you don't bring your prey home, I'll keep helping you with the blood."

The black ship leaned her head against the albino's, purring, while Churchgrim pushed his way between them, confused but happy.

--

The door slammed behind Musubi.

"We don't stand a chance now either, huh?" Parasite stood leaning against the wall, one foot planted against it.

She almost jumped, but to be honest, Musubi was too down: "Yeah, it seems so, semms like that's our fate," she put a hand to her temple, "we really don't sound like an aromantic bunch of idiots, do we ?"

"No," laughed Parasite, dragging the scout with her, "that's why I'll bet with you that we're actually knee deep in love with the brat." 

"I fear that nobody knows how right you are about that." 

"Heh."