Chapter 287: Irony

"You died?"

"Um. I did. I could not survive that level of attack in the past."

"How did you..?"

"I overcame death. Cool, isn't it?"

"Un! Very cool!"

As Shiro and Unicorn conversed, Akagi and Nimi silently watched over them. To be honest, they found this interaction peaceful. During the past thousand years, they were too concerned with Shiro's state that it was only now could they slowly calm down.

Unicorn sat in Shiro's lap, making it so that the two were occupying the seats on his sides.

"What will you do now, onii-chan?"

"Saving this world." He replied with a smile. "That way, the others would be happy as well."

"..!"

The girl wore a bright expression as her purple pupils stared at him in admiration. When she first saw him, she immediately recognized him as Shikikan. Although his looks changed vastly, his current appearance was the closest to his Shikikan life. This was something that could not be changed no matter what.

"You could do it!" Unicorn said with an encouraging look. Clearly, she turned back into the usual bright kid who supported him in everything.

******

"What's the matter? You does not look fine."

Elizabeth (META) was curious behind Ash's silence. For some reasons, she could see that she was not her usual self.

"...Nothing. Why did you come here?"

"Finding someone. Yes, have you ever seen someone wearing a black robe?"

The moment she asked that question, the two of them fell silent.

"We did." Ash broke the silence first. "That person was causing an anomaly in this timeline."

"Anomaly? I see. That power is not something belonging to the norm."

She recalled the moment when they first met. Upon that person's disappearance, they investigated the "ruins" in that place. There, they found out that it was an "Arbiter" base. Sirens usually has a distinguishable Wisdom Cubes compared to the Arbiters. Seeing those anti-Siren equipment littering the place was enough to form that conclusion.

"Illustrious." Ember called out.

"...what is it?"

Besides their queen, two escorts followed her in this mission. Although, one of them, Illustrious, had been out of it lately due to a mishap—Unicorn had gone missing. It was sudden, but she got lost during their travels even though she took many precautions on it. In the first place, Illustrious did not allow her to come. Only, her healing abilities might be needed in this expedition. Their target was not something that they had ever encountered before.

Wiping out an Arbiter base single-handedly is enough to warrant such treatment.

"Your sister had been taken by that robed person."

"H...uh?"

She could not believe what she had heard just now.

"It was unknown when, but when that person came back, your sister was with them."

"..!"

Thick bloodlust enveloped the mundane blue sea. As someone who had been tormented by her painful memories every day, it was not completely impossible for someone to collapse. Yet, Illustrious did not. Along with the other surviving META ships, she endured it. Her little sister, Unicorn, had been the crucial reason on why she did not go insane yet.

Knowing that her sister had been kidnapped, she could barely control her calmness.

"Don't worry." Ashes spoke up. "We would see that person soon. Didn't he... say it already?"

*****

The start of a great war.

In the original timeline, it happened due to the clash in the Denmark strait. The HMS fleet led by Hood patrolled Azur Lane's boundaries, not knowing that Bismarck and Prinz Eugen would be intercepting them. In the end, Hood was sunk on the depths of the ocean while the rest of the fleet escaped.

When this information was received by Azur Lane, the war was fully blown. Nobody could take this aggressive stance lightly. Iron Blood became Azur Lane's official enemy whilst Sakura Empire's stance was ambiguous.

"Jamming is present several radius in our location."

"We could not reach the headquarters..."

Two KANSENs started panicking. Both of them wore matching clothing, something reminiscent to a maid outfit. In this area where the morning fog was dominant, their tense nerves unsettled them every now and then. After all, they did not know where the enemy would come.

Meanwhile, their leader did not lose her calm.

"Everything was accounted for." She declared. "Suffolk, Norfolk."

""Y-yes?!""

"Lead the way out. We are going to retreat."

""Y-yes!""

As the heavy cruisers, they were supposed to be covering the backline in fire, attracting aggression towards themselves. They are responsible for launching torpedoes towards their enemies while light cruisers cover the airspace with their anti-air armaments.

"No one will leave today."

From the distance, the one bearing the flag of a nation said. Her long blonde hair drifted in the air as her eyes contrasted her beautiful looks as it contains nothing but war-like intent.

The rest of the HMS ships were affected, save for Hood herself.

Immediately, she readied her rig and inputted several explosive shells along with few armor-penetrating shells. However, before she could even fire them, Bismarck overtook her.

Sou-! Sou-! Sou-!

The velocity of each shells were at 400 m/s. As a battleship, Hood has amazing destructive power, but her maneuverability dropped as a result.

Boom-!

Less than half of these shells struck her thanks to the cruiser's bullets—a timely occurrence—but it could not completely fend them off.

Boom-!

Some of the shells had hit her rigging, destroying a few of her artilleries. Fortunately, it did not cause another wave of damage to her as they were the unloaded ones.

"Miss Hood!"

"Don't! Do as I have instructed!"

"But—"

"Follow the orders!"

Knowing that this entire fleet was no match to Bismarck's specifications, Hood already resolved herself to die today. Seeing the leaving ships, she sighed with melancholy.

"History repeats itself..."

Hood could not help but feel ironic. Historically, she was sunk by the combined efforts of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. Now, the strength of the former left her with no other options.

Smoke came out from her rigging while her body sustained injuries. Blood trickled down her lips, a good portion of her clothes burned.

Silently, Bismarck was about to launch another wave of shells.

BOOM-!

She was suddenly interrupted by an air raid—an air bombing, to be exact. The moment she saw these, she deftly moved and started to dodge the bombs.

'What..?'

After the end of the curtain bombing, she was surprised that nothing struck her. It is virtually impossible.

"It's been a long time, or is it?"

A woman's voice resounded not far from the battlefield. As the fog cleared, the two sides were surprised of her.

"What are you doing here?" Bismarck asked.

"Oh? Am I not allowed here?"

Seeing her appearance, everything made sense. It is nearly impossible not to be struck by airborne bombs in a sudden attack, unless—

"What are you planning, Akagi?"

—the person herself was toying with her.