As we left off, the explaining behind the appearance of an abnormality within the Mental Cubes that led to the possibility of Ship-boys to appear among the Ship-girls, and with the appearance of Siren ships closing in on the HQ of Azur Lane, we're brought back to Prince of Wales. Who's currently alarmed by the arrival of Siren ships that are approaching.
P. Wales: "The Sirens?! Intercept them, hurry! This is not a drill!"
Shipgirls: "Understood!"
Within hearing that order, Cleveland rushes towards the window as she took a look outside. The entirety of the base that is apparently Pearl Harbor, is now under attack by Sirens!
Seeing the damages that were happening within the base, Cleveland rushes out of the room and then to outside as she runs towards her ship, USS Cleveland.
P. Wales: "The Sirens, now? What a terrible timing... Is it by chance, or?"
Illustrious: "Could it be?"
Outside, Cleveland continues running across the base to reach the docks, where her ship is stationed. With Siren aircraft screaming around her. Meanwhile, PT-73 begins to pick up speed towards her Elco PT Boat on it's own docks to activate her rigging.
Cleveland: "Cleveland, knight of the seas..."
PT-73: "PT-73, engaging!"
While Cleveland jumps into the air and activates her rigging, PT-73 does the same too.
Cleveland: "Entering battle!"
The Heavy Cruiser and the PT Boat then turned into hundreds and thousands of Wisdom Cubes as they both head towards Cleveland and PT-73, forming and activating their riggings while they are in the air.
After it was done, Cleveland's Anti-aircraft guns and Main Cannons begin to turn towards the Siren Aircraft, to which she easily destroys them. While on PT-73's end, her two 50. caliber machine-guns on her left side began to fire at a rapid pace, clipping some of the wings of the Siren planes that were flying by.
*BOOM!*
Cleveland: "How's that?"
The aircraft then close in on Cleveland to fire their weaponry of missiles, and failed as a result before they were shot back by her. While PT-73 is holding off on her own against the Siren planes, giving rise with defense for the harbor against the air superiority of the Sirens.
*BOOM!*
Cleveland: "The ultimate weapon humanity developed to combat you Sirens... That's us, with the power of warships embedded into our bodies!"
As Cleveland stated with her words, several other Ship-girls were seen with their rigging deployed, in each group for the defense of Pearl Harbor. Though one was less graceful with a fall accident due to the weight of her rigging. And that rather klutzy Ship-girl happened to be HMS Norfolk, who ended up covering the front of her skirt rather shyly and quickly so no one would end up seeing her underwear, accidentally.
[Maybe I should've warned the readers about the fan-service of the anime because I plan to write down everything, and every detail regarding this. So, sorry to those who might be bothered with this fanservice, and the various chapters that might contain it.] - MatthiasWrites
Cleveland: "The power to defeat you!"
Cleveland's guns began to take aim, and fire upon another Siren aircraft as it disintegrates, before falling into the ocean with fire being ignited on it.
Several more Siren aircraft began to move closer, as Javelin moves in with her rigging deployed, and her friend Laffey following behind her to assist with the defense.
Javelin: "Javelin, going in full-power!"
Laffey: "Conditions green... let's go."
Both Laffey and Javelin begin to use their rigging's weaponry against the oncoming Siren aircraft before they were taken down.
Javelin: "Yes!"
Once everyone is done, they hear a sudden voice in the air as Sakura petals begin to appear.
"Yes, we were created by humanity to fight the sirens... But a difference in beliefs split the four major camps into two factions. One faction restricts itself to using only powers created by human-kind. That's you, Eagle Union and Royal Navy. The other faction is..."
A ship then appears with the flower symbol of the Sakura Empire's emblem, which Cleveland recognizes.
Cleveland: "That emblem..."
The flower then disappeared to reveal Akagi and Kaga, standing on their respective carriers, with Monowai standing at the front of his destroyer as escort for the two carriers.
Akagi: "The faction that will use Siren technology to defeat the Sirens, Ironblood, and us, Sakura Empire."
A6M Zeroes begin to take-off from the decks of Akagi and Kaga as they took off in the air before turning into a blue and red variant-colored version of themselves as they circle the two carriers. With Monowai unsheathing his katana, with an embedded cannon mechanism into it's blade, and pointing it at the HQ.
Akagi: "Sakura Empire 1st Carrier Division, Akagi."
Kaga: "Sakura Empire 1st Carrier Division, Kaga."
Akagi, Kaga and Monowai: "Behold and tremble!"
[Timeskip brought to you by the author trying to organize his timetable]
Each scene shows the various groups of ship-girls fighting off the A6M Zeroes in their own way, sometimes they are comedic, with Norfolk falling onto the water by her rigging's recoil, some of them are serious, with some ship-girls needing assistance as they back away from the Zeroes that were attacking them. Everyone in Azur Lane is trying their best at clearing the sky from the Sakuran Zeroes, but they kept on coming.
Javelin: "There's no end to this!"
Laffey: "This could be in trouble..."
As the chaos ensued, PT-72 is getting into the water as he deploys his rigging, unbeknownst to PT-73, his older sister. Meanwhile, Supermarine Seafire Interceptors began to fly towards the sky as they shot down the A6M Zeroes from out of nowhere.
Cleveland: "Interceptors!?" She asked in surprise.
Cleveland turns around to see Unicorn, deployed in her rigging. She was the one who sent the Seafire Interceptors towards the A6M Zeroes, as she tightly hugged U-chan regarding the chaos that was ensuing.
Unicorn: "Don't bully my friends!"
As U-chan glows a bright light, they were suddenly large enough to act like a flying Pegasus for Unicorn. Allowing her to take to the skies as she sent more Seafires to attack the Zeros.
Kaga: "That girl is an aircraft carrier. Such a lean body, she's not much of a meal... But a prey is a prey." (Held up a mask.)
Kaga then held out a mask that belonged to her, as it ignited with a blue flame, and disappeared. Then suddenly, her carrier glowed, and transformed into a ferocious, nine-tailed beast. Stunning every ship-girl who happened to be nearby, or are busy with the remaining Zeros.
Because of that fox-like beast appearing, the battle is getting intense as the ship-girls of Eagle Union and Royal Navy had no idea on what to do in order to take down the monster. The beast then uses the attached carrier decks to launch A6M Zeros at Unicorn, hoping to take her down.
Kaga: "I shall devour you!"
Javelin: "Not on my watch!" (She pointed her javelin, [no pun intended] at Kaga.)
But before Javelin can fire, Laffey notices something travelling in the waters, and realized that it was heading towards her!
Laffey: "Watch out!"
Laffey didn't accounted for the cloaked boy that was rushing towards her as she pushed Javelin away from the thing that was heading towards her, a swarm of Torpedoes as Javelin landed safely. And before Laffey realized it, the cloaked boy ended up taking the hit for her as the cloak got blown off, followed with a pained cry!
*BOOM!*
Javelin: "Laffey!"
Laffey was affected by the blast radius of the torpedoes, but intact. Although, she's surprised to see the boy in PT-73's photo now uncloaked, as she tried to state to her friend Javelin that she's okay. PT-72 is wearing a two-tone shirt with the colors of Baby Blue on the top half and Frost White on the bottom half, followed with Ink-black shorts, Soot-brown colored gloves and his Cherry-red colored shoes with Metal-black soles. Along with that, he has short black hair, and blue eyes. Where did his cloak go? It was intact, but scorched a bit as it landed on one of the Eagle Union ships after it was in the air for a while.
Laffey: "Laffey... still combat capable.. The boy... had protected me.."
Javelin was confused before she noticed PT-72, now unconscious from the torpedo blast. It gave her a little fright to see a 5-year old Ship-boy, and a child of all things, to be blasted by a torpedo swarm, trying to protect Laffey. But it gave her a little determination to stop the invasion before she saw Ayanami, the Ship-girl from the hill, but now with the disciplined 14-year old Ship-boy, Monowai.
She's shocked to see two Ship-boys, but she's mainly focused on Ayanami to see why is she fighting her, while Monowai is trying to acknowledge the situation. Meanwhile, PT-73 is shocked to see her little brother, now unconscious from the blast when she heard the explosion that was meant for Javelin.
Javelin: "You...!"
(Mind): "There were two Ship-boys?! Where did they came from?"
Monowai: "My name is Monowai, Umikaze-class Destroyer of the Sakura Empire." (Unsheathes his Katana as he prepares himself)
(Mind): "Huh, I guess I'm not the only male Ship in this world. I felt a little disturbed to see that child take the hit for that Eagle Union ship, but I must focus on my goal!"
Ayanami: "Sakura Empire, improved Fubuki-class Destroyer, Ayanami..."
(Mind): "I didn't recall seeing a Ship-boy and a child to be capable of deploying their rigging! Aren't they the enemy?"
Ayanami brings her katana up as she lept into the air, with Monowai charging to the front, and the left to attack Javelin, who managed to block them with her own weapon.
Ayanami: "Taste the power of the demon...!"
Monowai: "And feel the wrath of the Sakura Empire!"
Javelin: "But why?"
Monowai: "Because..."
Ayanami: "We're enemies of course!"
Ayanami brings her guns up-close to Javelin and fires a shot, but Javelin leapt out of the way in a back-flip as she landed, trying to fend off both Ayanami's attacks with her katana, and dodge Monowai's 2, 3-inch, 12-pounder Guns as he fired at her from a distance.
Meanwhile, Unicorn is trying to get the beast off her trail as she launched a couple more Seafires Interceptors at it. But the beast proved to be too powerful for the little Carrier as her Seafires got obliterated by dozens upon dozens of flaming A6M Zeros that shot them down.
Watching the beast take down Unicorn's Seafires with ease, Laffey tried to do something, but she's too sleepy, combined with the damage from the torpedo swarm's Area of Effect, she's too weakened to make a move to assist her as she fell to her knees, watching with helplessness as Unicorn struggled to bear the oncoming storm of Zeros.
Kaga: "Is that it? Was I a fool to expect a challenge?"
Akagi: "Oh, Kaga, you're enjoying this."
Akagi watches from a ship's mast as several Shipgirls tried to take the storm head-on to eliminate the Zeros. While for Javelin, she had to leap onto the deck of an Eagle Union battleship to dodge a swarm of torpedoes from Ayanami. She pleaded Ayanami to stop and at least help her before Unicorn could be taken out, but the request came in too little, too late.
Javelin: "Please! If you continue, Unicorn will...!"
At that moment, Unicorn did whatever she could to bear the storm, but in the end, she's shot down by an oncoming Zero, knocking her out of the sky as the 3 ships stared with horror, with the exception of Monowai who managed to use the confusion to get back to Akagi and Kaga.
As Unicorn looked above her, and in-front her, she saw the giant Fox closing in, about to eat her as it opened it's mouth. She shuts her eyes closed in fear, as she prepares herself for the worse, with Cleveland screaming to try and help her before it can happen.
Cleveland: "Stop~~!"
Suddenly, yellow energy artillery shells began to fly upwards, then downwards as a bright blue Eagle began to break through the Zeros before punching through the beast itself, followed with the artillery shells hitting the beast on it's head, surprising Akagi as it occurred, who is watching the eagle transform into an Eagle Union SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber.
Akagi: "What?!"
[I thought I might go for the proper translations instead of adding Japanese words onto it. Would it even make sense due to it's random-ness?]
As Akagi looks out into the distance, an Eagle Union Carrier is seen, along with a Fletcher-class Destroyer. With two girls on the tops of their decks, with the first being Enterprise, and the other girl being the other ship that is escorting her.
Cleveland: "That ship, and is that...?"
The two girls were seen on the deck of their respective ships, with Enterprise on her carrier, but the second one seemed really determined and excited about something. This 12-year old girl, USS Pandora, is a recently recruited Ship-girl in Azur Lane. While overly curious, she's also restraining, but she can't help it regarding her discovery of Ship-boys when the Research News came out, which got her interested. Pandora is a blue-eyed girl with medium-long brown-hair, who wears a Coal-black jacket with indigo-outlines, with a Porcelain-white colored V-neck with the same colored outlines. She wears that with a Navy-blue, 2-layered skirt with white medium socks and matching shoes, as well as, a white-colored cloth that she wears to cover her shoulders, along with the front and the back of her body like a cape, just like Cleveland! Along with that, she retains the same cloak that covered her with an Omni-cron symbol behind the cloak's back.
And right now, she's getting her A-game on as she begins to prepare.
Akagi: "An Eagle Union aircraft carrier... Is that who I think it is?"
Monowai stopped for a bit when he reaches Kaga after his small retreat, as Dauntless Dive Bombers begin to fly off the distant carrier's deck to attack the Siren ships.
Cleveland: "That's her! That's Eagle Union's strongest aircraft carrier!"
Monowai: "Kaga, what is... Wait, is that her?"
Akagi: "The Grey Ghost, the Great E...!"
Kaga: "So it's you!"
Monowai: "And along with that, I see her. 'The Destroyer of Curiosity'.... USS Pandora!"
Enterprise: "Enterprise... engage!" (Swipes her left hand in front of her.)
Pandora: "USS Pandora! Engaging!" (Mimics Enterprise's action, but with her right hand.)
Both the USS Enterprise, and the USS Pandora began to glow, and change into several hundreds of Wisdom Cubes before forming both Enterprise's and Pandora's rigging. With Enterprise's rigging retaining her carrier deck on her left, before her bridge transforms into a tightly strung longbow.
While for Pandora? She retains four of her 5-inch guns on both sides, stacked on one level higher to retain a spot for her turrets to fire, while her last 5-inch gun is in the shape of an integrated pistol of a complicatedly designed short-bow that can fire energy arrows, just like Enterprise's bow, like she's taking inspiration to follow her whilst creating her own path. She held the pistol in her left hand as Enterprise held her bow in her right hand, as 8 tubes retaining torpedoes remain at Pandora's hips, it left 2 of those tubes un-accounted for.
Enterprise and Pandora: "Here I go.." (Enterprise), "Here we go!" (Pandora)
Enterprise begins to move across the water as SBD Dauntless Dive Bombers begin to follow, with Pandora attacking the Siren ships one by one with her 4, 5-inch guns, all around her. Enterprise then lept into the air before landing on one of the Dauntless Dive Bombers as they flew across the sky, giving Pandora a bit of a spectacle for flair as she wiped out around 7 Siren ships with her guns, and an additional of 8 Siren ships, mostly destroyers, but also a couple Siren carriers with her torpedoes.
Enterprise's SBD Dauntless begins to fly into the thicket of lasers that came from the Siren ships, trying to dodge past them as she closes in, getting at least near enough to attack Kaga's beast, with Pandora arriving right behind her after dealing with a couple more Siren ships.
Kaga: "Interesting!" (Sent a wave of blue fire arrows towards Enterprise)
As Kaga sent a wave of fire at her enemies, Enterprise begins to weave and thread through the fire that was sent towards her as she fired her bow, while Pandora managing to follow suite with the oncoming fire arrows and firing her short-bow, and pistol component. Two-to-three energy arrows are fired as one of them had split into several other shots, downing some of Kaga's A6M Zeros, while 3 of them were near enough to attack Enterprise, the 2 of them were destroyed by Pandora's arrow shot, nearly missing the chance as she nodded at Enterprise and went to attack Akagi, while Enterprise lept from her Dauntless, and attacked the other Zeros that were heading towards her.
Javelin: "Incredible..."
Ayanami, who happened to be fighting Javelin, and didn't seem to pay attention to Monowai going back to Akagi and Kaga, happened to be astonished with the way that Enterprise would attack her foes. It isn't long before a yell from PT-73 broke the environment for the 3 destroyers.
PT-73: "72! C-Come on... get up!"
PT-73 begins to worry about her little brother as Laffey give him to her, and she tried to protect him as she sailed away until the invasion is over. She seemed to be in tears regarding what happened.
Monowai had to step in front of Pandora in order to stop her from reaching Akagi. He knows that Enterprise is on a whole other level than him and would attack Kaga, but if he can stop Pandora from attacking Akagi, who happened to be assisting her sister, then it's worth it.
Monowai: "So then, 'Destroyer of Curiosity'. Get ready..."
Pandora: "IJN Monowai... Been a long time eh?"
Monowai charges forward with his katana while Pandora begins to block his blow with her short-bow. The rapid sword strikes that Monowai is making had forced Pandora to back away, and fire energy arrows at him, making him use his katana to block the arrows, and hopefully reach Pandora in order for a decisive blow.
Meanwhile for Enterprise, she noticed the beast as she jumped from the Dauntless Dive Bomber, watching as it got destroyed by Kaga's beast. While in mid-air, she shot an energy arrow that turned into a trio of bombs, that stuck and exploded on the beast's head, followed with Monowai taking the blasts from Pandora's pistol/short-bow as he fired back with his embedded 3-inch 12-Pounder cannon, blasting Pandora back as Monowai charges forward to close the gap.
As the legendary carrier lands on the injured beast, she made a dash towards Kaga, who's eyes are now glowing with blue. Pandora suddenly has herself stuck with Monowai's katana, it's edged blade inching closer to her neck as she can muster all of the available strength she needed to repel Monowai's strength. Kaga's voice is heard as she puts up a fight against Enterprise, the strongest of the Eagle Union aircraft carriers, and Pandora's idol inspiration.
Kaga: "Entertain me, phantom!"
Akagi: "Wait, Kaga!"
As Pandora finally manages to push Monowai away with the remaining strength she can gather, his blade scratches her stomach after he was repelled, rending a wound on her as she gave a scream of pain. She is in shock to see that her wound began to bleed a little as Monowai began to run towards Enterprise, and maybe take a shot at stopping her from shooting Kaga with an arrow, while Pandora fell back from the pain, tearing up and gritting her teeth as she watches her idol take the shot.
As Kaga tries to send in more plane-shaped fires towards Enterprise, she dodged them and stopped them all with her longbow as she leapt towards Kaga, in mid-air, leaving her a little frustrated as Monowai takes the shot.
Kaga: "You..."
Enterprise: "You're mine..." (Fires her bow)
As the shot held true, the arrow hits Kaga in the heart, and the center of her chest as blue fire began to appear in the place of her wound, her eyes and her mouth. And Enterprise is suddenly sent flying to the right before she landed, taking a hit from the disciplined 14-year old's cannons who was too late to stop the attack, but in time to knock her away as he tried to reach Kaga as Akagi screams out for her sister.
Akagi: "Kaga!"
Pandora: "Enterprise! I- ow!"
(Mind): "No, no, no...! I-I can't die now.... I-I can't!"
Pandora tried to go help her idol, but she's weakened by the previous assault that came from Monowai as she collapsed on her back. With Kaga damaged, the Fox Beast disappeared in a blue fire, as she tried to get back from the damage while she looked at Enterprise with anger.
Kaga: "How dare you injure my body! This body belongs to my dear sister!"
Monowai: "Kaga, you okay?"
Kaga: "I'm okay, thanks for your help...."
Enterprise, who is looking at the formally dressed 14-year old with a silent gaze, seemed to be a little bothered with it interrupting her before she heard Akagi's voice.
Akagi: "Enough, Kaga."
Kaga: "Dear sister! I can still fight!"
Monowai gave a bit of a sigh as he checked his wounds from his minor skirmish with the 'Destroyer of Curiosity', and wanted to tell Kaga his opinion.
Monowai: "As much as I hate to admit it for Akagi, she's right... We need to retreat for now." He said it as he looks at the state of the Siren fleet that was getting wrecked up by the Azurian Forces.
Akagi: "I know, but there's a right time for everything."
As a couple Siren ships were destroyed, the three of them turned around to see Prince of Wales, and Illustrious with their Riggings activated. Unicorn got back up after seeing the Beast getting destroyed by Enterprise's efforts, along with Pandora's as she saw her sister figure Illustrious.
Unicorn: "Big sister!"
Cleveland: "Sheesh, someone's late."
Akagi carries a black Mental Cube, that had a similar appearance to the ordinary Mental Cube, but this one is black, no one except for Akagi and Kaga know where did it came from.
Akagi: "We've accomplished our goals, mostly. This mission is a success."
Kaga seemed hesitant regarding the mission, but she agreed.
Kaga: "Yes, dear sister. If you say so..."
Monowai: "Come on, we need to retreat, now."
Monowai knew he made the right choice to retreat as heard the sound Enterprise aiming her bow and arrow at Kaga, Akagi and himself.
Enterprise: "Do you think we're going to let you get away?"
Akagi: "Oh, what a scary glare. I'm about to lose my composure."
Monowai: "Akagi, can you shut your mouth, you idiot?"
Akagi: "Oi!"
Enterprise didn't say anything as she begins to take aim, but she loses sight of them when a red-plane shaped origami smacks her hand, throwing off her aim as she looked at the origami before it disappeared completely as it ignited itself with a red flame, leaving nothing behind.
When Enterprise looked in-front of her, Kaga, Akagi and Monowai had disappeared thanks to the 14-year old using a smoke grenade to mask their retreat with insistence, as another Carrier sat in the distance with another Ship-girl on it's deck. The image isn't clear thanks to the smoke, but the figure, that is IJN Zuikaku, who happened to be practicing a lot of swordsmanship to battle the Grey Ghost with her Katana.
Zuikaku: "My seniors, it's time."
Monowai: "Thank you Zuikaku, now let's get out of here."
Akagi: "Yes, let us take our leave."
Enterprise: "Wait!"
Ayanami watched as the three ships begin to leave Pearl Harbor, before staring back at Javelin, and deciding to leave as well, with Javelin trying to get the words out in order to call out to her, but she already left.
As Ayanami begins to flee from the damaged Pearl Harbor, she caught sight of Laffey who happened to be nearby, looking at her. She didn't want to pay attention as she fled, with the Manjuus, chicken-like creatures that began to try and repair the damages, and fish up any of the downed Ship-girls and if any, the cloaked Ship-boys.
Akagi: "Azur Lane, consider this as a formal declaration of war."
Kaga: "We, the Sakura Empire, along with Ironblood, will now crush your deception."
Akagi: "The mighty must control the future. Heaven's will resides within us, the true conqueror of the seas."
Akagi and Monowai: "For we are the alliance of crimson blood... We are, the Crimson Axis."
After they disappeared amidst the Sakura petals, everything is finally over. Azur Lane is officially split in two, after that declaration of war, and their goals had been altered.
P. Wales: "They got away... She really saved us."
Illustrious: "Enterprise, the mightiest warrior of the Eagle Union... But, there is so much pain..."
As a couple Ship-girls tried to lend aid to 'The Destroyer of Curiosity', Enterprise stares at the sky with an eagle soaring through with a mighty cry.
Enterprise: "One battle after another...."
[Man! That was a long one to write, so what'd you think? I hope I didn't took it too far regarding the damages that I could've made them do, but I tried to limit it as best as possible, whilst giving them everything they got.] - MatthiasWrites
Created on October 14th, 2021
10:19am
Finished on October 14th, 2021
3:09pm
[Total Words: 4224 Words]