In the depths of the Siren naval port, Setsuna met with Compiler sitting atop her jellyfish-like rigging.
Wearing a white ceremonial dress, the pale-skinned loli sat on the rigging scaffold, surrounded by dozens of holographic interfaces.
Streams of scrolling data and code filled every screen.
She looked just like a top-tier hacker from a sci-fi film.
This loli Siren had always been quiet and taciturn. Purely in terms of technical prowess, she was the most skilled among all Sirens in the experimental division.
It was her handiwork that had equipped Setsuna with his second Wisdom Cube and led to the birth of Taihou-chan.
But Compiler was extremely reclusive. She had never taken part in any expedition, choosing instead to squat in the port calculating data that seemed endless.
"Commander, you've arrived?"
Seeing Setsuna, Compiler waved her hand and closed all the holographic interfaces.
She floated over leisurely on her rigging.
Her voice was calm and emotionless, lacking the lively and erratic tone of Observer or Purifier.
"Mm, long time no see. I came to check on you all."
"Observer said you're working on creating Navigator-TB?"
Setsuna asked with interest.
According to the lore, Navigator-TB was a special AI researched by the headquarters in Azur Lane, capable of analyzing battlefield conditions in real time by integrating fleet data.
She was a cute little loli—and in many ways, the Commander's daughter.
But since there was no headquarters here, TB had to be made from scratch by the Sirens and Setsuna himself.
"Yes. Navigator data has long been stored in the Siren database..."
"But after losing contact with the Tribunal, part of it was lost. I couldn't manufacture her."
Compiler slowly replied.
"Grey, that nanobot entity, is quite knowledgeable in AI technology. She helped me restore the Navigator's personality matrix."
"Oh."
Setsuna recalled that Grey got along fairly well with the Sirens.
Helping them restore necessary data was no small feat—worthy of being the pinnacle of Stellaris-era AI.
"How's your progress? If you need anything, just say the word."
"Want me to transfer some staff from the research institute? Grey's been busy with starship upgrades and can't spare the time."
Setsuna asked.
"...No need. I've completed most of her construction."
The loli shook her head gently.
"Now that the Commander is here, just in time. To finalize the 'Navigator,' I need your power."
"You mean just drawing some energy from me? No problem. Do you need a hull prepared?"
Setsuna rolled up his sleeves.
"No. Navigator is an artificial intelligence, not a shipgirl. No hull is required—just a Wisdom Cube to carry her will."
The jellyfish rigging behind the loli extended a mechanical arm. Setsuna handed her a Cube.
"Please wait a while. I will now perform the final initialization for the Navigator."
...
Setsuna stayed inside the Siren naval port.
Compiler would occasionally extract a small portion of energy from him for analysis, then frantically type code into her holographic screens.
She looked just like a real programmer.
Observer, meanwhile, was still training Abyssal Yamato—hoping to use the power of the Abyssal Fleet to grow a starship straight out of the ocean.
Purifier continued researching the Allspark, occasionally triggering minor AI crises.
Fortunately, the mini-Transformers were no match for the Sirens and could be swiftly suppressed.
The Sirens' methods were eccentric and nothing like the brutal image early shipgirls used to paint.
Setsuna could tell—they were deeply interested in cross-world technology, especially in the otherworld shipgirls and the Abyssal Fleet.
—If not for his watchful eye, that shameless Observer might've really kidnapped a few native shipgirls for research.
A few days later, one afternoon...
Compiler completed all the necessary preparations.
She brought Setsuna into the lab.
At the center of the room was a strange flower-petal-shaped device with a Wisdom Cube fixed in the middle.
The giant rigging behind the loli extended a mechanical arm, lightly pricking Setsuna's arm with a probe.
"..."
Just like when Taihou-chan was created, Setsuna could vaguely feel something drawing out his energy and consciousness.
Then, the mechanical arm injected deep blue energy into the Wisdom Cube.
Compiler began operating at blinding speed across the holographic screens in front of her.
"Navigator-TB initialization complete."
"Commander, please choose TB's personality and traits."
"?"
Setsuna froze, not quite understanding.
"What?"
"TB is an AI. As her creator, I can determine her initial personality."
Compiler explained in a calm tone.
"To put it in shipgirl terms... whether you want a yandere, tsundere, kuudere—any archetype is fine."
"???"
"Just give me a normal one."
Setsuna already had Taihou-chan as his resident yandere shipgirl—no need for another.
"Understood."
Compiler selected a few options on the interface and pressed confirm.
Vmmm—
The Wisdom Cube fixed in the device burst into blinding light.
It gradually floated into the air, becoming a small orb of light.
The light orb twisted and transformed.
A few minutes later, a girl not much larger than a destroyer gently descended.
Setsuna reached out just in time to catch her in his arms.
She wore a white dress, her skin pale like a Siren's—so white there was no trace of color.
Silver hair, blue eyes, with a tuft of sky-blue highlight at the front of her bangs.
The little girl slowly opened her light blue eyes.
She glanced around, rubbed her eyes, then looked at Setsuna.
"Umm... Com...mander?"
Her voice was ethereal and pleasant. Navigator-TB had inherited part of Setsuna's memory from his power, giving her a faint familiarity.
"Oh, how adorable."
Holding the confused little loli, Setsuna felt overwhelmed by cuteness.
"I am... Navigator-TB, the latest auxiliary AI personality developed by the Sirens, at your service..."
The little loli introduced herself in a halting manner.
"I can perform various intel compilation and tactical analysis tasks through the fleet's radar and sonar systems."
"...It is my honor to assist you in combat, Commander."
Hiss—
Though Navigator-TB was an AI, she looked no different from a shipgirl—just a bit paler.
In fact, she resembled the Siren leader, Dreamweaver.
There was definitely more to her origin.
"Navigator-TB's computing power is extremely strong. She can formulate optimal battle strategies based on fleet intelligence—perfect as an advisor and strategist."
Compiler introduced her earnestly.
"However, my database doesn't contain much on daily life knowledge, so Commander, you'll need to teach her those things from scratch."
"?"
Setsuna set TB down and patted her head.
"Raising a loli AI? I've got experience."
"Come on, let's start with a few Five-Three workbooks to get in the mood."
He pulled up a holographic interface.
"Richelieu, Yat Sen, or Taihou—anyone around? Help me raise a kid. Chen Hai, get her an enrollment slot."
"???"
...
In less than an hour—
News that the Sirens helped the Commander make another child spread throughout the fleet.
Shipgirls flooded to the gates of the Siren naval port, all wanting to see which lucky girl had just birthed a little shipgirl with the Commander.
"Siren restricted zone, no unauthorized entry!"
The Executor on gate duty sternly blocked their path.
Besides the Azure Lane shipgirls, Arpeggio shipgirls and Kancolle girls had also gathered. Many Spirits and Heroic Spirits showed up too.
Everyone wanted to witness the miracle of cross-species childbirth.
"Commander-sama, you already have Taihou and Little Taihou. Why are you having kids with someone else again?"
"Was it Little Belfast? Little Richelieu? Or Little Chen Hai...?"
Taihou, holding Taihou-chan's hand, charged toward the naval port.
"Why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have minded... I really wouldn't..."
"...You two don't look like you 'wouldn't mind.'"
Belfast watched their yandere expressions and sighed.
"Ehh? The Commander has a kid now? With who? But didn't he say he didn't want children before? We always used protection..."
Kanae rubbed her belly, confused.
Instantly, she imagined some dog-blood drama where the Commander just didn't want kids with her, while secretly having one with someone else.
The entire harem of shipgirls, Spirits, Heroic Spirits, and dragon girls gathered, glancing at one another.
Everyone was accounted for:
"Richelieu, Chen Hai, Tohru, Taihou, Esdeath, Yat Sen, Kanae, Jeanne Alter, Jeanne d'Arc, Mio..."
"Everyone's here?! And it's not your kid?!"
Gudako looked around, bewildered.
The entire harem squad shook their heads together.
"Gua~ Either the Commander met an old flame from another world, got her pregnant, and is secretly hiding her in the Siren port..."
"Or one of the Sirens took advantage of the Commander while he was weakened during modification, beat him down until he knelt, and dragged him back to the port for star-powered—uh—reproduction!"
Gudako immediately stirred the pot with dramatic flair.
"Look, it's only been a few days and there's already a kid!"
"???"
The shipgirls didn't mind Setsuna having more oath-bound shipgirls—they had long since accepted they couldn't have him to themselves.
But Gudako's scenario was so wild, it forced everyone to consider verifying it.
"Commander! Akagi is here to rescue you! You can only be my ○○!!!"
"Damn it! I haven't even had my turn—who was the pest that got ahead of me?!"
A certain fox in a short, revealing kimono charged forward, launching the gate-guarding Executor into the air, and stormed inside.
The rest of the gawking shipgirls, Spirits, and others followed behind in a stampede.
The Siren patrols tried to hold the line, but were quickly overwhelmed.
"Let the Commander go!"
"The Commander belongs to all of us!!"
"Let me see the Commander's lovechild..."
Step, step, step...
In the lab, Setsuna had just been playing with TB.
Suddenly, a ground-shaking rumble echoed, as if a massive army was approaching.
BANG—
The door burst open.
A flock of noisy shipgirls rushed in.
"Commander-sama! Taihou's here to rescue you! Damn Sirens, I knew you were up to no good—how dare you bind him here to extract his ○○ for childbirth!"
"Unforgivable! I'll make them pay...!"
Taihou lunged forward.
"?"
Setsuna was utterly confused. All he did was ask someone to help raise a child—how did that evolve into him being kidnapped and ○○'d?
And then they all saw TB.
The little girl in a white dress sat on Setsuna's lap, tapping away at a holographic interface.
Her snow-white skin and silver-white hair were unlike any shipgirl or Heroic Spirit.
Everyone exchanged glances.
Mini shipgirls were essentially smaller versions of big shipgirls.
The one who resembled TB the most in the room was...
"?"
Compiler loli had been quietly coding atop her rigging when she suddenly felt dozens of intense gazes converge on her.
"Commander, I thought going after Nagato was your moral limit."
"But wow... just wow. Your shamelessness is bottomless."
Gudako gave him a knowing look and patted Setsuna on the shoulder.
"So, when are you planning to have a destroyer-type shipgirl bear you a mini-mini shipgirl?"
"???"
...
"We're truly sorry!"
"Really, truly sorry!!"
Half an hour later—
Everyone bowed in apology.
Setsuna had taken some time to explain the situation properly.
The human instigator of the wild rumor was thrown into solitary confinement, while the shipgirls stared at Navigator-TB in awe.
"She was born from Siren tech? An artificial intelligence?"
From the outside, TB did share many features with the Sirens—she even looked exactly like Observer Zero.
Originally stored as data in Compiler's archive, TB only came to life after Grey helped complete her missing pieces and Setsuna provided a portion of his energy.
"You're saying she can assist with fleet combat?"
Richelieu crouched down to inspect TB, who was about the size of a destroyer.
Cute and delicate—not at all like a fighter.
"Link... once linked to a host system, I can organize intel and perform tactical analysis via radar and sonar systems..."
"But here... I can't link to the host. Offline mode only..."
TB stumbled through her explanation.
"Even in offline mode, I can still perform fire control calibration, data integration, and route plotting tasks..."
She didn't seem to understand what any of it meant—just mechanically reciting lines.
"Commander, we're not seriously sending a kid this small into combat, right? She can barely talk!"
"We already have combat AI in our ship systems. Let her grow up like Taihou-chan."
Glorious and Shoukaku were full of motherly instinct as they hugged and comforted TB.
"Hmm... alright."
Setsuna stroked his chin, thinking it over.
No matter what, TB would definitely need some school time and developmental support.
"Host system? What do you mean by that?"
"It's... um... the host system..."
TB fumbled her words.
"She means the Siren system core—where Dreamweaver resides."
Compiler floated over and spoke softly.
"Normally, Navigators can tap into a portion of Siren power and processing capacity."
"But without a connection to the host, it's... unfortunate."
"I had hoped she might allow us to contact the Arbiter faction."
Her voice remained calm, but Setsuna could sense a hint of quiet regret.
From what he recalled, the Sirens were a massive organization.
Purifier and Observer belonged to the Experimental faction—essentially the R&D department.
Then there was the combat-oriented Arbiter faction and the leader of the Sirens—Dreamweaver.
Setsuna did want to help reunite the Siren girls.
A family should be whole.
All the shipgirls? He wanted them all.
All the Sirens? He wanted them too.
The Sirens' technology far surpassed the Abyssals—they had bizarre and advanced black tech, including the ability to create mirror seas akin to parallel universes for experiments.
"You want to find someone? We already have FTL capability. We could try exploring space in the Azure Lane universe."
"Maybe the Arbiters are hiding in some big nebula—or we might find a clue."
Richelieu crossed her arms, offering the suggestion.
"..."
"It's worth a try, though I don't have high hopes. I don't believe they're in that universe."
Compiler nodded faintly and looked at Setsuna.
"Commander, I hope that one day you'll master the power to traverse parallel worlds."
"Dreamweaver and the Arbiters... they may be hidden across countless parallel universes in the Azure Lane world."
"I want... to find them."
—
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