It was obvious that something had happened to Kongou, flagship of the Fleet of Fog's First Oriental Fleet.
Her massive battleship had unfolded into a terrifying combat configuration, looking as though it were preparing to unleash every weapon it possessed.
Even the Super-Graviton Cannon appeared to be charging. The entire hull glowed so intensely that the ship looked ready to explode at any moment.
Upon noticing the abnormality, the other members of her fleet immediately tried to contact Kongou, but received no response.
Both visual observation and their optical systems revealed that something was clearly wrong with the Mental Model standing on the deck.
Under those circumstances, their only option was to approach and investigate.
However, they soon discovered that if their warships drew any closer, Kongou might open fire on them.
In the end, they had no choice but to send their Mental Models aboard in person to check on her.
Now that Kongou had been brought back to her senses, however, she insisted that nothing was wrong and told them not to worry.
"You call that nothing? You looked like you were about to go berserk. I nearly got shot."
Someone muttered under her breath.
"Kirishima, do you have a problem with what I said? Speak up!"
"Huh? No! No, I don't have a problem with it. I'm glad you're all right, Kongou."
The chestnut-haired girl wore her hair in a shoulder-length cut and dressed rather like a human delinquent. Sweat beaded across Kirishima's face as she frantically waved both hands in denial.
She was genuinely afraid that Kongou, whose gaze was absolutely terrifying at the moment, might suddenly attack her.
That was no joke.
The woman standing before her had no sense of humor to begin with. She truly might do something like that.
Kongou's oppressive gaze lingered on her for several seconds before finally shifting away, allowing Kirishima to release a long breath of relief.
"Lady Kongou, are you certain there's nothing wrong?" Hiei asked. "I'll be reporting the abnormality we witnessed to the Supreme Flagship."
Well, look at that. Hiei really was impressive. She actually dared to talk back to the queen herself.
"Do as you please."
The two sisters stared at each other.
No, that wasn't quite accurate.
Hiei was the only one glaring at Kongou as though trying to pressure her into yielding. Kongou, meanwhile, plainly couldn't care less what Hiei chose to do.
In the end, Hiei would probably be the one to give in.
Kirishima had secretly witnessed Hiei's unusual behavior around her elder sister before. Hiei was utterly infatuated with Kongou.
She was rather like Takao's younger sister—someone who adored her elder sister to an absurd degree. The only difference was that Hiei didn't dare reveal those feelings. She was probably afraid that the queenly Kongou would find such behavior irritating.
Even Hiei's stern, aloof demeanor was actually an imitation of her elder sister.
"If nothing else is wrong, you may leave."
"Of course."
Kirishima responded first without hesitation. She couldn't wait to get away.
"Takao, you stay."
Huh?
Kirishima wasn't particularly surprised that Takao had been singled out.
Takao had been the first to notice Kongou's abnormal behavior and the first to board her ship. Ever since coming aboard, however, something had seemed off about her. She had stood rigidly at attention like a common private, which didn't suit her usual personality at all.
Now that Kongou had ordered her to remain behind, cold sweat poured down Takao's face.
"Let go!"
Kirishima said this while prying Takao's fingers from her hand.
As Kirishima passed her, Takao had grabbed her with all her strength. The look in her eyes practically begged Kirishima to stay.
If something happened, she wanted Kirishima there to help share the blame.
Takao had probably discovered the truth behind Kongou's abnormal behavior. Perhaps she had stumbled upon some deeply hidden secret and was now in serious trouble.
Kirishima had absolutely no intention of suffering alongside her.
"Waaah!"
Takao's grip was forcibly broken, nearly causing her to fall. She glared furiously at Kirishima and the others as they hurried away.
What a disloyal bunch!
Forget it. What was there to be afraid of?
After encouraging herself, Takao forced herself to calm down and looked at Kongou.
But as the others departed one after another, leaving her alone with Kongou, the pressure became almost unbearable.
"How much did you see?"
"N-Not much."
As she answered, Takao pulled out an object and tossed it back to Kongou.
When Takao had first boarded the ship and approached her, she discovered that the abnormality originated from data Kongou had been reading from a hardware device.
Wanting to understand what had happened to her, Takao had connected to it and downloaded the contents herself.
As for what she had glimpsed, it definitely hadn't taken place in their world.
It was probably something humans had filmed—a fictional story of the sort they called a movie.
Kongou always acted as though she despised humans, yet apparently she had secretly obtained a human movie from somewhere and watched it in private.
What a dishonest woman.
Kongou scanned the storage drive Takao had thrown to her. Then, without warning, she crushed it in her hand, startling Takao slightly.
Inwardly, however, Takao relaxed.
It seemed her deception had worked.
The data Takao returned to Kongou was incomplete.
She hadn't fabricated any of it. She had simply retained most of the data within herself.
To put it another way, the data she returned to Kongou was only a two-dimensional recording—the equivalent of an ordinary human watching a flat image on a television.
Most of the data Takao had secretly retained supported three-dimensional, fully immersive viewing.
Kongou had apparently only noticed the superficial disguise. She had seen the deliberately preserved records showing that Takao had watched it like an ordinary television program, but hadn't traced the deeper data structure. Otherwise, she would have discovered that Takao had separated the information into multiple layers.
Takao had installed an alert program that would activate if Kongou discovered the hidden partition. Since no warning had reached her, Kongou clearly hadn't conducted a thorough analysis.
Heh. Kongou had obviously been in such a hurry to destroy the embarrassing evidence that she'd fallen for the trick.
Takao wasn't stupid. There was no way simply watching a movie could have caused such an extreme reaction from Kongou.
That "movie" definitely concealed some kind of secret.
It was anything but ordinary.
"I don't want anyone besides you to know about this. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, yeah, I understand. I won't tell anyone. I'd rather not have you silence me permanently."
"You may leave."
"Bye, then."
Takao turned and departed, carefully keeping her expression natural so Kongou wouldn't notice anything.
Once she returned to her own ship, she could take her time examining the data and discover what exactly had affected Kongou so deeply.
As Kongou watched Takao disappear, a dangerous light flickered within her wine-red eyes.
Since Takao had already seen part of it, Kongou would use her as a test subject.
The Superdimensional Channel claimed it could facilitate travel between worlds, didn't it?
Then it would have to prove itself before Kongou believed any of this was real.
She would see whether the human named Kain dared to enter her world.
If he came, she would throw him at Takao and let her deal with him.
If he truly possessed the power shown in the broadcasts, then he should be capable of defeating Takao.
And if he could do that, it would prove that his experiences were real.
(End of Chapter)
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