The World of the Fleet of Fog.
A blue-haired girl slept curled up like a cat nestled in its favorite little bed.
Suddenly, a strange expression crossed her face, and her delicate body began to twist restlessly.
She seemed to be having a nightmare, as though she were in pain.
But in the next second, an odd, breathy moan escaped her lips. The pained expression that should have appeared on her face abruptly gave way to one of pleasure.
Beside the blue-haired girl stood several miniature blue-haired girls who looked only five or six years old.
The tiny girls trembled as they watched their creator. They were miniature maintenance workers, small duplicates she had separated from herself.
Whenever the warship's self-repair systems worked too slowly, they stepped in to accelerate the repairs.
Their primary function at the moment, however, was to stand guard for their creator. If anyone boarded the ship, they were supposed to stop the intruder and wake their master.
Unfortunately, the visitor was terrifying.
The miniature duplicates had all retreated to one side, trembling in fear. None of them dared to wake their master.
This could not continue. At this rate, Lady Kongou was going to destroy their master, Takao. The look in Kongou's eyes was growing more frightening by the second.
Finally, one of the tiny girls took action. She pulled out a wrench and brought it down.
Clang!
"Ow! That hurt! Wait, this feels different!"
Takao cried out and opened her eyes.
What was going on? Why had she been woken so abruptly?
Then she spotted the culprit. It was one of the miniature duplicates she had created.
Was this little brat rebelling against her?
Just as Takao prepared to reabsorb the tiny girl, she suddenly felt an intense, murderous stare boring into her.
Her head turned mechanically toward the other side.
The first thing she saw was a foot encased in black stockings. Beside it, the hem of a dark purple dress trailed across the floor.
Her gaze slowly traveled upward until the entire figure entered her field of vision.
It was her superior, Kongou, staring at her without expression.
"What do you want?"
Takao tried to sound defiant, but a trace of panic still slipped into her voice.
A few days ago, this woman had nearly killed her without warning.
"Prepare yourself. I'm sending you away."
"Huh?"
Takao stared blankly at her.
Sending her where?
Come to think of it, Takao had also noticed that her warship had been loaded with a vast quantity of supplies, all of it nanomaterial.
Kongou had obviously loaded the cargo herself.
There was so much that Takao wondered whether Kongou had decided to use her as a transport ship.
Who needed this shipment of nanomaterials?
"I'm not a supply ship. Where am I going?"
Despite her complaint, she had no choice but to carry out the mission.
"Wait."
Kongou spoke as though every word cost her something, refusing to explain further.
She studied Takao again.
There was one thing Kongou simply could not understand or accept.
Whenever she experienced that scene at one hundred percent synchronization, the moment when her heart was torn out, she could not endure it.
She had gradually begun adapting over the past few days, but she still could not withstand the full sensory experience.
Takao, on the other hand, had succeeded on her very first attempt. She had not crashed or shut down.
Even more importantly, this woman had seemingly enjoyed the "pain." She had taken pleasure in it.
Kongou's core belonged to a battleship and ranked one level above Takao's. In theory, if Takao could endure it, Kongou should have been able to do the same.
It made her want to dismantle Takao's core and analyze exactly what was going on inside it.
"Remember this. No matter what you see after you arrive, once you return, the information must be stored only within your core. Delete every trace of it from the rest of your warship."
Only ten minutes remained before the passage for the so-called Cross-World Support could be opened.
"Huh?"
Takao froze for a moment, then suddenly became excited.
"You're sending me to meet that human? To meet him again?"
Her voice trembled with excitement.
She could see the man who had defeated her and ridden on top of her again.
The mere thought made Takao feel her heartbeat accelerate while her core began to heat up.
There it was again, that strange sensation.
After repeatedly questioning her companions through the Tactical Network and examining a vast amount of information about human society, she had finally learned what it meant from her younger sister Kirishima and Hyūga's younger sister, Ise.
They claimed to have experienced similar feelings.
Ise, in particular, explained that it was probably caused by an emotion humans called love. Ise herself possessed an intense love for her older sister.
Did that mean Takao had fallen in love with that human man?
"No. Forget deleting it," Kongou said, ignoring Takao's question and issuing a new order. "Once you return, collapse every piece of nanomaterial outside your Mental Model core. Reduce the entire warship to useless sand."
Simply deleting the information left open the possibility that it might later be recovered.
A few days ago, the Supreme Flagship had visited and nearly succeeded in extracting information from Takao's warship.
Kongou had noticed and promptly destroyed Takao's entire ship.
The Supreme Flagship had not attempted to invade Kongou's warship directly to obtain the intelligence, because she knew Kongou would immediately turn hostile.
There was also the possibility that the Admiralty Code might invade their systems and read the information.
Because of this, Kongou had completely renewed her warship as well. It was similar to human metabolism, with every old cell dying and being replaced by a new one.
Storing data inside her core would consume computational capacity, but the burden was still acceptable. Besides, Kongou had no need to store the complete contents of every broadcast inside her core.
If she wanted to watch something again, she could simply download it from the broadcaster's channel.
Kongou had also started a private, archivable broadcast of her own, allowing her to record and preserve certain information.
If she were ever forcibly reset and lost all her memories, she might still notice that the Hyperdimensional Channel system remained attached to her. She could then watch her archived broadcasts and learn what had happened to her.
At that moment, Kongou also recognized the advantage of possessing a Mental Model.
She had developed an independent will and held the highest authority over all information stored inside her core. She could refuse any outside attempt to access her data.
If the Supreme Flagship tried to force her way inside, Kongou could reset or self-destruct before the intrusion succeeded.
Before the Mental Models had been created, all members of the Fleet of Fog had been connected. They could clearly perceive the thoughts of every other warship.
The Supreme Flagship's visit that day had produced very little useful conversation. She had refused to disclose her plans completely, so Kongou naturally revealed nothing in return.
However, Kongou had managed to confirm several things.
Most of the information provided by the man named Kain, who came from a parallel world, was true.
The Mental Models had been created exactly as he had described.
I-401 truly was on the humans' side. The Supreme Flagship intended to have her recognize a human as her captain and obey his commands, though she had refused to explain her exact objective.
I-401 was not the only member of the Fleet of Fog to have contacted humanity. There were others in Europe, the Americas, and elsewhere. Some had even allowed humans to command them.
This only made Kongou angrier with the Supreme Flagship.
Kongou had been among the earliest Mental Models to be created. Some of the Mental Models who had contacted humans were from the same generation and classification as her, yet the truth had been concealed from her.
It was not that Kongou also wanted to make contact with humans.
She was furious because everyone had kept her in the dark, leaving her to behave like an ignorant fool.
As far as Kongou was concerned, there was only one condition. If the Supreme Flagship wanted access to her intelligence, then she first had to reveal every piece of information she possessed.
The Supreme Flagship had apparently agreed to that condition.
She had left for now, but she had undoubtedly left someone behind to monitor Kongou.
The spy might be one of the ships serving in Kongou's own fleet.
At the very least, she could be certain it was not Takao. This woman did not want the Supreme Flagship to learn about Kain either.
"Huh? We really have to go that far? Fine."
Kongou had not directly confirmed whether Takao was going to meet the person she hoped to see, but after hearing such extreme instructions, the answer was obvious.
Takao eagerly anticipated meeting him again.
Come to think of it, Kongou had already revealed that some members of the Fleet of Fog had accepted humans as their captains.
Could Takao ask that man to become her captain?
More importantly, what exactly did Kongou think of him?
Did she still consider him an enemy?
Kongou was sending Takao to him with this enormous shipment of nanomaterials. Surely she was not ordering Takao to hunt him down.
"Um, are you sending me there to eliminate that human?"
"No. Remain at his side and gather every piece of information you can about him. Record everything you see and hear."
"Oh."
That was a relief.
Ten minutes later, Kongou ordered Takao to depart.
The instructions were strangely specific.
Takao had to dive beneath the surface, then follow a route designated by Kongou with absolute precision. She could not deviate by even a single millimeter.
Even stranger, the route was extremely short.
It merely led beneath Kongou's warship.
Was Kongou telling her to wait there?
Takao did not understand any of it, but if following those instructions allowed her to see that human again, then she would obey.
Takao set off.
(End of Chapter)
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