Shigure wasn't sure how to approach the name-ship of the Unryuu-Class carriers.
Amagi, who had introduced herself to her, was unsure of how to approach her sister ship and finally decided to ask Shigure for help, seeing that she knew Unryuu from the time in the war where she was an escort ship for Unryuu's first and last mission.
And when Amagi described her situation, she was honestly dumbfounded at the situation, and was actually rather interested in the mysterious carrier's thought patterns.
Amagi described that Unryuu had been in the Yokosuka Naval Base for far longer than she did, and unlike the lovable air-headed sister she was expecting, Unryuu was silent, contemplative and brooding, although not to the point of cutting all ties with her.
She often watched the clouds and the birds flying in the sky during her free time, but when Amagi questioned her about what she was thinking, no matter how often she tried, Unryuu would just brush her off, saying that she'd never understand whatever it was that she thought about.
And that was before Amagi discovered the internet, and the thesis paper that her sister shockingly wrote.
Unryuu had matured quickly, and had developed a theory of the true nature of the ship girl that evolved into a doctrine for ship girls of various nationalities to follow to become the ideal ship girl, having posted the paper online.
When Shigure heard about it, she wasn't sure what to make of it, but she knew Unryuu from their history together, and when she read through the paper on the computer in the library, she had a rough idea of what Unryuu was thinking about as she developed this doctrine.
And from the comments that followed the first publication, this was a popular, yet controversial way of looking at the life of a ship girl, yet many ship girls around the world have embraced and adopted it, improving their sortie performance significantly at a cost that seemed insignificant to some, yet meant the world to others.
And although variants of this belief were adopted unknowingly by ship girls in the past, Unryuu was discovered relatively early by the ship girls of Yokosuka at the cost of Taihou, and thus had more time to think and develop and refine the doctrine.
Shigure made her way to the Unryu-Class Carrier room shared by Unryuu and Amagi, standing before the door that had the label "雲龍" and raising her clenched fist to knock on the door, after which Shigure heard a young and soft voice responding.
"Come in."
And pressing down on the door handle with a click , she opened the door to reveal the Unryu-Class bedroom, the two beds in the room not occupying the entirety of the room as it seemed as if there was room for one more.
The well-sized room had a tatami mat with a classic Japanese tea table on it, and a tea set sitting atop the table with the cups flipped over to show that it currently wasn't with its supposed contents.
One bed that was neatly made had white bolsters, pillows and cushions arranged on the white bed-sheet. There were several jars of sweets and snacks atop the drawer at the head of the bed frame, the bottom of the bed possessing several storage drawers.
A large surreal poster was hung up beside it, depicting a beautiful formation of well-drawn clouds and was overlooking the ocean beneath.
It had a ship girl sailing over the clouds and looking out at the bright orange point at its center, representing a twilight sun that cast its orange glow on the airborne clouds, and by extension, the ship girl that was bizarrely walking on air as she looked at the scenery laid out before her.
The left side of the room was painted a bamboo green with a single bonsai tree on the single drawer present on this side of the room, contrasting with the right of the room which had a pure white color scheme.
There was a neatly arranged green bed here, the tea table positioned closer to this side of the room with a minimalist, yet homely feel to it.
Shigure deduced that the left belonged to Amagi as she wore a green kimono.
In front of her was Unryuu, who likely had the white side of the room to herself as evidenced by her white hair, partially white uniform, and cloud motif that was evident from her clothes.
Unryuu's white hair was wispy and shaped like a cloud while possessing a bejeweled hair ornament that held up her braided white ponytail. Her heart-shaped face was fine, and her yellow and silver tinted eyes were focused on the view beyond the window in the room as she observed the sunset outside.
Her uniform had an ornate design, the chest area designed to look like white clouds and was revealing a bit of cleavage as it was stretched to its limits, held at the collar by a yellow string tie.
Her short sleeves were a dark green that likely reflected her real life paint-job, her midriff exposed to show a healthy abdomen and shapely hips that were barely hidden behind a white mini skirt.
She had army-green thigh-highs that also had white clouds on them to drive home the point that her name meant "cloud dragon", with emphasis on the "cloud" part.
Unryuu looked to Shigure, who bowed politely towards her in greeting, and Unryuu barely nodded in acknowledgement as she looked back out the window which had a stunning view of the ocean and the setting sun.
The room was warmly lit by the circular halo that was the fluorescent light on the ceiling of the room, and Unryuu stated.
"So, you're the one that Amagi-nee sent, hmm? I figured, since you and I know each other from the war."
Shigure nodded, understanding the fact that she escorted her on an ultimately futile attempt to try to reinforce the front lines and was sunk by a submarine, Shigure rescuing some of her crew as she sank.
Unryuu continued.
"I assume you've read about my thesis paper?"
Shigure responded, although thinking back on it, Shigure was certain that Unryuu, at the time of writing the paper, was more of the scatterbrained sister that Amagi believed her to be as the paper was rather childishly and simply written in its first edition, although her points were clear and the arguments valid.
The subsequent editions revised certain points, clarified others, and addressed the various questions and criticism that arose.
"It was rather… enlightening. The 'Nirvana' Theory, was it? The cessation of humanity within a ship girl, which is part of the Five Illusions to perform at our absolute best."
Unryuu now glanced towards Shigure, her eyes now interested in the thoughtful and insightful ship girl who sounded as if she wanted to learn more.
"Interesting. Unlike everyone, who calls my paper either a bunch of bull, or a heartless and cruel ideal that seems too utilitarian in nature, you seem to understand that this is a doctrine that I personally follow, and I don't force it on anyone."
Shigure motioned to Unryuu's bed, the carrier nodding as Shigure bowed again, adjusting her dress as she sat on the comfy and puffy bed.
"Yes, but I'd like you to explain the Five Illusions, in case I missed out something, or you have something to clarify or add."
Unryuu looked back out towards the window, mentally preparing herself for an in-depth explanation as she started.
"I came up with this theory as the base was going through a rough patch with the loss of Taihou in the very battle where they found me. I suppose Amagi-nee has already explained to you that Admiral Haru wanted to find me, but lost Taihou as a result, right?"
Shigure grimaced as she nodded firmly, hearing from a worried Amagi that she had heard others witnessing Unryuu expressing various stages of guilt and grief.
Many of them theorized that she felt some sort of overwhelming need to make it up to everyone and pushing aside everything she deemed unnecessary as a form of penance and to perform at her best all the time, eventually coming up with the Nirvana Theory.
"As I looked to the clouds and the birds flying freely, I wondered, 'Why do we suffer, and the birds and clouds don't seem to be affected by them?' And I slowly came to the realization that they didn't seem chained down by loss like we were, and that we had to let go of everything that held us back in battle. I came up with and wrote down this idea of how a ship girl should truly behave in battle to minimize pain and suffering while achieving the best results. To be a 'human' weapon would mean that our 'human' selves would hinder us in battle, this being something that has no place on a battlefield and should be suppressed."
Shigure narrowed her eyes at that, agreeing with both parties that while Unryuu's view of how a ship girl should behave in battle was an extremist's way of thinking, it was also generally accepted that to be a soldier, something within you had to be suppressed on the battlefield in order to easily perform gut-wrenching deeds like taking the life of your enemy before you hesitated and died as a result.
And to see it from Unryuu's point of view, as a standard carrier who was far weaker than the esteemed carriers like Kaga and Akagi, she had to resort to far more drastic measures to ensure that she could fight on par with the rest of the ship girl population.
She couldn't judge a ship girl who had neither talent or potential, yet possessed the drive to fight and win at all costs for the right reasons.
"The Five Illusions are what clouds a ship girl's judgement in sorties, but they are necessary to a ship girl's life outside of battle. These Five Illusions must be suppressed or thrown away in battle to achieve the greatest results in sorties with the least amount of losses.
The first illusion is Emotion. In battle, we must not be swayed by emotions, both positive and negative, for if we allow ourselves to be negatively influenced by these events, our hearts will waver and cause us to perform underwhelmingly. Whatever benefits these feelings may bring in pushing us forward is offset by the fact that is often causes us to act without prior consideration of the situation.
The second illusion is Humanity. As we sortie, we must throw away or suppress our humanity, lest we fail to perform what is necessary to succeed. If it is necessary for you to put a ship girl out of her misery, you must do so cleanly and efficiently so as not to let her suffer unnecessarily. This is a very utilitarian view of things, but it helps us focus only on the objective and helps us choose the right thing to do, and that is whatever helps us complete the objective in the most efficient way possible.
The third illusion is Bonds. We must understand that just as a weapon must not falter, we must not feel too attached to this material realm and always be ready to cast away our bonds with our sisters and seniors should they sink in battle, lest our spirits sink along with them. It is imperative that we do not cling on too tightly to these bonds to our friends, sisters, and even our material bodies, for they may entangle us and trip us up in the most inopportune of moments.
The fourth illusion is Morals. We must understand that war is a place where it is difficult to apply human morals. The victors write history, so if we were ever to lose, we would be vilified in the Abyssal history books, and the same would happen to them were we ever to win. Added to the fact that we know nothing about their motives, we must not believe that what we are doing is correct just because we fight for the sake of others, and feel justified in killing Abyssals. Another thing that would no longer affect us as we let go of the illusion of morals is guilt over killing the Abyssals, something that may contradict the moral righteousness of others. The gun does not feel guilt over killing someone as it expels a bullet, and on that note, the ship girl, who is a weapon first and foremost, must not concern herself with what is right or wrong, and exists only to do her job in war.
The final illusion is Desire. We must not feel the desire to harm our enemies, as the act of killing itself, even in war, is already a sinful act. We must do our duty efficiently and not seek to unnecessarily hurt or torture Abyssals, lest they repay the deed tenfold. The desire to win when taken to extremes, especially when we're losing will lead to desperation that will lead to our downfall via mistakes made, as evidenced in the last World War. The thirst for revenge is also another blunder that threatens to drive us insane with our own hatred and grief, and we must learn to let it go. Desires are all about gratifying the self, and we must give up the self in favor of the mission, as the weapon must have no desire of its own."
Shigure nodded, thinking about these "Illusions" that surround a ship girl's life.
They were part of being human, but in sorties and battles, they did nothing but hinder them, especially when they were essentially human weapons, and the human nature and psyche was fallible and thus very unreliable.
If they were to let go of these illusions in sorties, they would essentially be embracing the side of themselves that were created to be weapons and ultimately machines, making hard decisions and fighting without any hesitation no matter what happened.
Shigure contemplated the Five Illusions for a moment, before bringing something up that she read at the end of the paper to address those that read the paper.
"You said something about things that should be noted about the Five Illusions and that they were almost as important as the doctrine itself. What were they, exactly?"
Unryuu, now in full lecturer mode, was into educating Shigure as she started the final part of her lecture.
"The first thing to note, is that you must not force this doctrine upon anyone, as everyone is entitled to their own personal beliefs. The Nirvana Theory is also not a standard for you to judge everyone by, as we are all different. The second thing is that this theory and doctrine is not perfect, and are not the equivalent of The Ten Commandments. There are bound to be loopholes and exceptions, and there exists moments in the war where it is advisable to do what may not be in the best interests of everyone, but instead do what you personally feel is correct. The third thing to note is that the acceptance the Nirvana Theory and 'letting go of the material self' is not a sign to disregard one's own worth as an asset to humanity and accept a suicide mission if a better alternative exists. Each and every ship girl vessel is sacred and should never be thrown away with such inconsideration."
Shigure nodded, gravely understanding that this doctrine was never meant to be applied to the innumerable situations where countless factors, amongst them being the circumstances of a situation, had to be taken into account. This war was a losing fight, so to speak, seeing that the enemy had seemingly limitless reserves and had no shortage of resources to wage a long-term war on humanity and all of ship girl-kind. It was folly to think that anyone, from a lowly destroyer to a prominent battleship, should consider themselves expendable and pointlessly throw their lives away instead of retreating in order to cut their losses and fight another day.
Unryuu continued on, now not even pretending to look out the window as she thought about the various counter-arguments and valid points that were brought to light and were already addressed long before this discussion.
"The rejection of Morals should also mean that one is amoral, to carry out her duties faithfully without being hindered by moral issues, such as killing of Abyssals unflinchingly like how a gun shoots a bullet regardless of who is at the other end of the barrel. But this is not an excuse to do what is immoral, where you know right from wrong but aspire to do wrong anyway, such as torture as a form of self-gratification. The final thing to note, and perhaps the most important note, is the fact that the Five Illusions are not necessarily bad for us, and are accepted outside of sorties and battles. Even when we are ultimately weapons, there exists a part of us that is human, and acceptance of the humanity within us is required to live a normal life. Grieving over a lost friend, loving an Admiral, enjoying life, accepting the desire to improve oneself and essentially, being human. Those are acceptable as we live our daily lives. It is, however, unacceptable to have them interfere and influence us in our sorties and cost us dearly in terms of injuries, net losses and fatalities."
Shigure nodded, finally and truly understanding what Unryuu was aiming for.
A perfect split between the human and machine, embracing one and rejecting the other whenever appropriate.
This was an unusual, yet strangely enough, very powerful way of looking at life when being a ship girl.
The doctrine contradicted what she assumed was the "conventional" ship girl way of looking at life, as most ship girls saw their human selves becoming increasingly intertwined and eventually fused with their ship selves that were designed to be weapons of humanity.
But what the Nirvana Theory stated was that the human part of ship girl was weak, and was too volatile to be of any use to ship girls in a world as violent as theirs.
So they had to suppress and snuff out all humanity and emotion within them as they sortied, cutting off all ties with this world and solely focus on carrying out their duty, which would allow them to achieve a heightened awareness in battle and do what others would not in order to achieve victory.
Paradoxically, by accepting this theory into their lives, it would be theoretically simpler to distinguish the complexities of life from the burdens of war and how to handle them separately, unlike those who had them intertwined and allowed to weigh down on them constantly, something the human mind was likely never meant to handle in the long-term while using their unreliable moral compass to guide them.
But one thing was bothering her.
"Unryuu-san, I would like to ask. You said that it was inappropriate of us to feel desire in sorties. What about the desire to live?"
Unryuu looked to Shigure, not even batting an eye as she answered without hesitation in her voice.
"Desire breeds desperation, especially when we are not getting what we want. The desire to live can be counted as an exception, when you decide to cut your losses and retreat wisely to fight another day, and to avoid needlessly sacrificing the lives of ship girls. But allowing it to cloud our judgement is wrong, and we must accept death as an eventuality of life, and not retreat too often, resulting in a net loss."
Shigure thought about it.
Truly, it was a powerful doctrine, allowing the ship girl to block out all unnecessary thoughts to assess the situation coldly, to momentarily disregard tune out all pain and fight on without hesitation.
Any mistake is attributed to the human self.
The machine half of the ship girl is never wrong, and only human error exists within the ship girl.
But she asked one last question.
"But, to fight our battles in such a machine-like way, is that not being almost the same as the Abyssals, who also seem emotionally dead as we meet them on the battlefield?"
Unryuu nodded, apparently looking as if she had answered variants of this question over the course of time.
"Of course, you must know of the saying,
'Fight fire with fire'. I personally believe that our humanity is holding us back from achieving our full potential in battle, and if we were to suppress our human selves to fight like the Abyssals, who utilize overwhelming quantity over quality to hold the line, we would be able to easily wipe out entire armadas with but a handful of our fleets. I believe that we should be able to, at any time, become a machine to fight enemies who behave like machines. And the primary difference between us and them is that we are able to switch between these two selves, the ship and the girl if we trained ourselves. But so far, there has been no evidence that Abyssals, aside from Princesses, possess anything resembling what we could call 'humanity', although we must remember to keep our minds open and not judge them for who they are."
Shigure looked away, already fearing the carrier that she once knew and saw sink to the bottom of the ocean in a burning wreck, now returning as a meek, silent and brooding carrier who looked and behaved in an air-headed fashion, yet possessing a far more dangerous outlook on life than any other carrier in terms of mindset.
If there was ever a more fitting comparison, Unryuu would be like the eye of the storm, where the calm of the carrier belied her true deadliness in terms of her mindset and way of thinking.
"And regarding those who say that fighting while being like the Abyssals is something undesirable?"
"Nonsense. We're barely holding the line as it is, and this war will force us to betray the expectations we set for ourselves and commit morally questionable deeds sooner or later. Our job is to win this war as quickly and as efficiently as possible, and if that means doing throwing away our humanity, which, might I remind you that we weren't even supposed to possess as weapons of war, and accept what others deem 'undesirable' to improve our odds of survival and victory, it would almost be an insult not to accept it. Their desire to remain untainted by the horrors of war and come out unsullied is beyond my comprehension.
We can discuss about this so-called 'honor' when we're either victorious or dead."