Muroto Cape, coastal area.
"Kongou, I'm back."
Kiana Kaslana reunited with Kongou.
"Maya, you did well."
Kongou looked toward Haruna and Kirishima.
Kirishima lowered her head, like a child returning home after failing an exam, holding a test paper marked zero. "We were defeated."
She felt utterly humiliated.
Two mighty battleships against one, and yet they were counterattacked and beaten by the submarine I-401.
"I've been monitoring your situation the entire time. Even though only your cores remain, it's good that you both made it back."
Kongou gave off the air of a cold, regal queen who seemed indifferent to everything.
But she cared deeply about the members of her First Oriental Fleet.
Haruna and Kirishima had indeed done their best.
"For now, you two should head to Sagami Bay."
"Understood."
Hearing Kongou's command, Kirishima nodded, while Haruna voiced no objection.
Without their hulls, there was nothing they could contribute in their current state.
"Makie, take them with you."
Kiana Kaslana suddenly said.
Having Makie Osakabe stay with her wasn't ideal. It would be better to let Haruna and Kirishima take her away—give her time to develop.
Even Herrschers needed time to grow.
After Kirishima and Haruna departed with Makie Osakabe—
"Maya." Kongou turned her head toward the other side, where Maya sat playing her instrument. "You heavily damaged 401, and it fled to Iwo Jima. I've already synchronized the relevant data with you."
She transmitted the information to Kiana Kaslana.
"Mm-hmm."
Receiving the data, Kiana Kaslana quickly processed it. Communication among the Fleet of Fog was carried out through a quantum network—faster than electromagnetic signals, with greater capacity and nearly impossible to intercept or eavesdrop upon.
It could transmit large amounts of information instantly and accurately.
Earlier intelligence had indicated that the battleship Hyuga, which was sunk by I-401, had built a supply base on Iwo Jima for I-401's maintenance and resupply.
In addition, Hyuga had modified the island with her own hull—installing armor plating and gun batteries onto it.
Now, Iwo Jima had become an immobile fortress warship.
"Kongou, do you intend to pursue 401?"
The intelligence from Kongou had not mentioned Takao.
"Maya, do you believe we shouldn't go to Iwo Jima?"
Since Maya's predictive calculations about the future were more accurate than her own, Kongou wanted to hear her opinion.
"I'll follow whatever orders you give, Kongou."
"By the way, Kongou—do you know where Takao is?"
Kiana Kaslana suddenly asked. Having kept her eyes constantly on I-401, she knew Iwo Jima's position and had discovered that Takao was there as well.
"Takao?"
Since Takao had left the Fleet of Fog and voluntarily severed her conceptual transmission, Kongou had been unable to locate her.
Why did Maya suddenly bring up Takao?
Kongou frowned, realizing something. "Maya, are you saying Takao is on Iwo Jima?"
"Mm. Takao has likely defected—she's joined I-401's human faction."
If not for that troublesome Admiralty Code, Kiana Kaslana would have already gone to the United States to attack the mainland, destroying their industrial infrastructure.
The protagonist's plan, after all, was to send a sample of the Vibration Warhead to America for mass production—thereby gaining a weapon capable of countering the Fleet of Fog.
In other words, she simply needed to ensure that mass production of the Vibration Warhead never happened.
However, while the Fleet of Fog could not attack land freely—her Honkai Beasts could.
Besides, the Vibration Warhead's effectiveness was limited. It only worked if the target's Klein field had already been saturated by repeated bombardment; only then could a single shot pierce a Fog vessel's enforced fluctuation armor.
At best, it could threaten Nagara-class light cruisers.
"Has Takao gone bad too?" Kongou muttered after a long pause. "Maya, what do you think about 401 having human crew members aboard?"
I-401, with its human crew, had already defeated Hyuga, Takao, Haruna, and Kirishima.
"Human crew are redundant to us."
The Fleet of Fog didn't need humans to operate—they possessed highly advanced Mental Models capable of complex calculations.
It was like humans and artificial intelligence competing in a game of chess.
Ordinary humans could never hope to defeat artificial intelligence.
If a human managed to win, it could only mean that the AI was not advanced enough, insufficiently trained, or lacked a complete database.
The Fleet of Fog was indeed advanced, but it was burdened by too many restrictions—and its database was far from perfect.
If the Fleet were ever to lift those restrictions or undergo enough combat simulation training... could the humans of this world still dream of victory?
Heh.
The Fleet of Fog didn't need human crew members; in fact, they were little more than a burden. It was that so-called Admiralty Code that bound them.
To Kiana Kaslana, the Fleet of Fog seemed like alien constructs, placed upon this planet for some kind of experiment.
Artificial constraints.
In technological warfare, victory always depended on who had superior technology—tactics were merely secondary.
Just like in The Three-Body Problem—did the Trisolarans need tactics to annihilate humanity?
A single Droplet could pierce through the entire human fleet.
When the Singer's Civilization wiped out lower civilizations, one sheet of dual-vector foil was enough to erase them.
Who needed tactics for that?
Kiana Kaslana didn't want Kongou to engage with I-401. If Kongou were to be "won over" by the protagonist, it would be troublesome for her.
Throughout the Far East, the Honkai continued to spread.
Once the Honkai energy reached a sufficient level, she would unleash a global cleansing.
Intercepting the protagonist's transport of the so-called Vibration Warheads meant nothing to her.
Humanity was already gone.
So what if the Vibration Warheads were mass-produced?
The designer of the Vibration Warhead—Makie Osakabe—was still in her hands.
The real key lay aboard the protagonist's I-401.
According to the intelligence she had gathered, the Fleet of Fog had two ultimate super-flagships: Yamato and Musashi.
Musashi still existed, but Yamato had vanished.
Even if I-401 wasn't Yamato itself, it was likely deeply connected to it.
The Fleet of Fog's flagship, Yamato, held an extraordinarily high status.
It was entirely possible that Yamato could mobilize the entire Fleet to strike against her Honkai forces.
She needed to complete her objective before Yamato appeared—or made any moves.
...
Hell Girl World.
Kiana Kaslana had established a new set of laws.
Most of them were copied from other worlds, modified to suit her needs.
Among them, the law enforcing monogamy and property division upon divorce sparked outrage among those with multiple wives and concubines, who complained that it would doom their family lines.
Whether those without multiple spouses would become extinct or not, Kiana Kaslana couldn't care less—but those bold enough to oppose her would definitely see their family lines end.
While she forbade men from taking multiple wives, she did not forbid relationships between men—or between women.
Heterosexual relationships existed only for the purpose of reproduction, while same-sex relationships were the true form of love.
Kiana Kaslana had no intention of destroying true love.
"My daughters... what are they up to now?"
She peered through the void, observing.
Bronya and Man Sui were together, raiding corrupt households every day—confiscating wealth and using it to build orphanages that took in abandoned children.
The old tradition of favoring sons over daughters remained deeply ingrained, difficult to change in a short time.
Many impoverished families, upon giving birth to girls, would attempt to abandon them.
Although laws and punishments had been established to prevent this, many still lacked the means to raise their children properly.
Moved by her own experiences, Bronya sympathized deeply with such children—and thus devoted herself to building orphanages across the land.