The sea wind brushed past Akagi's vivid crimson robes. She absently, almost obsessively, stroked the black cube in her hand, its ghostly light swirling within as an eerie, enchanting smile played at the corners of her lips.
"Kaga, tell me," she murmured, "is it more interesting to watch a perfect creation slowly fall apart, or is it more pleasurable to snuff out that first, fragile glimmer just as it begins to bloom?"
Kaga's snow-white hair lifted gently in the breeze. She frowned faintly. "Akagi?"
"The measure of value has never been as simple as it looks on the surface, my dear sister."
Akagi laughed softly, her gaze never once leaving that ominous cube. "The more fragile a spark appears, the more it sometimes needs to be crushed completely... before it can grow into a raging wildfire."
Her words paused in a strange, lingering way. A flash of fanaticism and memory flickered in her eyes.
"And besides... I have sensed a trace of something... a scent I have missed beyond all reason. I cannot be mistaken..."
Kaga's expression turned grave at once. She dipped her head slightly. "I understand. My blade is ready to be drawn at your command."
"Hehehe..."
Akagi's laughter was bright, yet tinged with a warped tenderness. "That will not do, Kaga. You are my most precious little sister. How could I possibly allow you to step into danger?"
She slowly raised the black cube in her hand, wide sleeves billowing as if stirred by an unseen wind.
"Ayanami has already infiltrated that base. Once her report arrives, the curtain for our little feast can finally rise."
On the surface, this so-called "Project Orochi" was a grand military scheme, a plan for the Sakura Empire to use Siren technology to forge the ultimate weapon and crush Azur Lane in one overwhelming blow.
Yet only Akagi and Kaga knew its deepest layer... it was in truth the "Amagi Revival Rite" that they had secretly plotted together with the Observer.
The black cube, which would continuously absorb battle data from Azur Lane's shipgirls, was destined to be implanted into Orochi.
Akagi was convinced that through this, the sister she longed for day and night... Amagi... would undoubtedly return.
She did not fully understand how Siren technology intended to achieve resurrection through Orochi, but it was the only hope she could grasp, and that alone was enough for her to stake everything.
The original attack had been scheduled for three days later, when all of Azur Lane's vanguard detachments would have arrived, including the Eagle Union's legendary "Ghost"... Enterprise. At that time, the main forces would still be unsettled, making it the perfect moment to collect data while avoiding a direct clash with their full might.
However, the Observer had informed her that there was now a "special human" present within the base, and that the data obtained from him could greatly accelerate the progress of the plan.
The Observer had even "thoughtfully" strengthened the Siren fleet dispatched for this operation, just a little.
Driven by her obsession with bringing her sister back, Akagi chose to believe... and decided to strike ahead of schedule.
Ayanami's mission was simple and crucial: locate this "special human" and probe the true strength and weak points of the base.
Time flowed by. Around three hours later, Ayanami's message finally arrived.
"Base status normal. Only anomaly is the appearance of a human male."
Akagi's lips curved upward in satisfaction.
"So the human the Observer is interested in... is him?"
A mere human. What could be so special about him...
But the Observer never spoke without reason. If that was the case, they would simply bring him back to the Sakura Empire.
Reviving Amagi remained the highest priority, but Akagi had not completely abandoned her judgment. Any human who warranted special mention by the Observer was unlikely to be ordinary.
"All right," Akagi said suddenly. She flung out her arm, sleeves spreading behind her like blood-red wings.
The black cube in her hand erupted with a deep, devouring glow, as if light itself were being swallowed.
"The time has come."
Her voice shed its lazy languor in an instant, leaving only cold command and burning fanaticism.
"Feast, begin."
As her words fell, the clear sky above was suddenly smeared with darkness, as if an invisible giant hand had splashed ink across the heavens. The air grew heavy and oppressive in the span of a breath.
Several violet-black rifts tore open over the sea behind them. From those wounds in space, countless steel silhouettes rose in eerie silence.
A dense, horizon-spanning Siren fleet surfaced, covering the waters as far as the eye could see. Their cold hulls glinted with lethal light.
On the other side of the dimensional gates, their trajectory pointed straight toward the base's harbor, where the shipgirls' rigging lay docked and idle.
Akagi's intent could not have been clearer... strike straight at the heart, and cripple their claws before the battle even began.
The sea breeze suddenly carried the scent of smoke and gunpowder. The suffocating stillness that comes before a storm was shattered completely.
...
Roaring explosions and the thunder of artillery suddenly rolled in from the direction of the harbor.
Kenji, who had been chatting with Javelin and Laffey, snapped his head toward the sound.
A Siren raid...? No... Akagi?
The timing is wrong. Illustrious and Unicorn are not even here yet.
Thoughts flashed rapidly through his mind as he looked at Javelin and Laffey beside him. Javelin's face was already tense with worry.
"Commander!" she shouted urgently to Kenji. "Please head straight to the underground shelter. It is much too dangerous out here!"
Before she had even finished speaking, a Siren carrier-based aircraft screamed overhead at low altitude, its shrill whine cutting through the air. The weapons mounted beneath its fuselage were clearly visible.
Kenji did not try to play the hero.
He might have Time Stop and his new skill, Challenger, but Javelin and Laffey knew nothing of his abilities.
If he stayed by their side now, all he would do was divide their focus. It would be far better to move to a quieter place, observe, and strike when an opening appeared. That was how he could hit the enemy hardest when they least expected it.
He quickly materialized a batch of Oil and Coins and pressed them into Javelin and Laffey's hands, then turned without hesitation and moved off to find a vantage point.
Seeing Kenji withdraw so decisively, Javelin relaxed slightly. She and Laffey exchanged a brief nod, then sprinted toward the harbor at full speed.
Their rigging was docked there. They had to equip it as fast as possible and join the battle.
By now, the harbor was already a scene of chaos.
"Sea Knight" Cleveland stared grimly at the Siren aircraft rampaging overhead.
"Hey!" she shouted toward the small pink-haired figure who had just arrived. "San Diego, got any way to deal with these pests?"
"Hehe, just watch the great San Diego..."
"Boom!!!"
A string of bombs fell with pinpoint precision, detonating in a deafening blast that engulfed San Diego's rigging in flame.
"Waaah! My rigging!"
San Diego clutched her head and wailed.
"Damn it!"
Cleveland cursed under her breath and threw herself into action, forcing her anti-air guns to their limits as she tried to weave a net of fire in the sky.
The base's anti-air capabilities were woefully inadequate. The situation was already critical.
Yet the danger did not end there.
Cleveland twisted aside suddenly, barely avoiding death.
A carrier-based plane trailing a ghostly blue flame roared past where she had been standing barely a moment before. Its strafing fire tore across the surface of the sea, throwing up a chain of violent splashes.
At the same time, somewhere deep within the shrouded heart of the Siren fleet, a mass of eerie blue fire surged up, chilling enough to make the soul tremble.
A voice filled with arrogant battle lust and absolute confidence tore through the mist.
"War always sifts the strong from the weak. The battlefield... has never had any place for the weak."
A thunderous roar shook the air.
A gigantic fox-shaped energy construct, formed entirely from that same ghostly blue flame, burst out from within the fog, looming high above under the stunned gazes of the gathered shipgirls.
It looked down upon them all, proud and merciless.
...
At that same moment, Kenji was standing face to face with a shipgirl.
"Kenji," she said coldly, "the human who appeared out of nowhere in this base... and even dares to call himself a Commander."