Harry Potter & the Shipgirls

Lord K

Spoiler: Part 3
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"Up on Suigmon's Hill for the sunrise over Inunojotaira with the cousins - Hokubu Kariudoko on Instagram"
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"A Good Haul - Photo Taken By Ifukube Chufsanma for a 2011 article in the Ayaayamaru Shinbun on muggle farming practices, adapted for magical agriculture"
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Inunojotaira - The Breadbasket of Yamainutaira

Inunojotaira is a place steeped in it's own interesting history, despite the relative lack of population and it's shrinking size over the last century. Traditionally, Inunojotaira ws regarded as covering a much greater area to the north and south, but over time, the growth of Noukamura has lead many fields and homesteads to be regarded as part of the growing suburb, while to the south, the properties that the Yamainutaira Lumber Yard and HOWLING juice factory came to be built on were eventually considered part of Matangi-Ken no Shirin.

Speaking of the Matangi-Ken, despite the forest to the south being named after them, it is Inunojotaira that is the seat of the clan, although they are much less centralized than the Hokubu, and the majority of their families are spread out between the more rural magical farmsteads of Inunojotaira, Noukamura and Omonohata.

Once great hunters and guardians of the wilds, while many take great pride in preserving their old ways, the last two centuries have brought much change for the Matangi-Ken, who have been forced to adapt with the times. In response to increasing restrictions on areas considered ancestral hunting grounds, the gradual loss of traditional game to muggle over-hunting, the Statute of Secrecy making many previous methods or areas for hunting unavailable, and constant comparisons to and treatment similar to the Ainu people by outsiders, the Matangi-Ken were eventually forced the from their homes and livelihoods in the forest. Historic allies and trade partner with the Hokubu and Setto, they were granted land by Ezomaru the Marquis of the Northern Wolves, and eventually settled in an estate in Inunojotaira and a small neighborhood in Noukamura. Turning their natural attunement to nature towards agriculture, through decades of hard work and careful planning, the Matangi-Ken have now come to own what is easily the largest greenhouse complex in Yamainutaira.

If herbology or farmwork is the kind of job that appeals to you, then the Matangi-Ken Greenhouses are probably the place for you. While they grow a great deal of muggle produce, many of the Matangi-Ken Greenhouses are massively expanded in their interior size, and are a bountiful source of various magical crops all year around. Within their modern forest of glass and plastic bound islands of vegetation, you can find just about everything from rare, carefully cultivated fruit delicacies, to potion ingredients grown on an industrial sale. One of the primary exports of Yamainutaira and a common sight in the local magical markets, is actually Wild Rice. For those who looking for something a little more interesting than your standard agricultural experience, Matangi-Ken Greenhouses is always looking for shepherds willing keep an eye on their herds, as well as a number of other Walking Plant-type crops.

For those interested in breaking through into the future of magical agriculture, the Matangi-Ken also offers classes and courses for those who wish to establish their own farms with a basis in adapting muggle agricultural sciences for magical crops. Their courses will cover everything from hydroponics, to agroecology, to bioremediation, to theoretical production ecology.

Helpful Tip: Want cheap produce at a low price, and don't mind doing a little work to obtain it? Do you like knowing you food has directly gone from vine to table in only a few hours, under the gaze of your own eye? Or are you the kind of person that takes pride in providing their meals with their own two hands? Well, at a number of both the muggle and magical Matangi-Ken Greenhouses, you can pick your own produce and then buy it by the punnet or weight depending on the crop, at a cheaper price than any wholesaler or market price.

Important Note: If you see anything at all that looks like a small Western European Snargaluff, do not approach it! It is in fact, likely an young Madagascar Maneating Tree. Instead, please note it's position, and alert a local. If only muggles are around, please just tell them you have discovered a Ya-Te-Veo sapling. They'll know who to contact, even if they think it is a non-magical pest, which the plants are magically as well. First accidentally introduced as spores that arrived among a load of improperly transported Angolan Sauntering Tree saplings in 1896, the Yamainutaira council has been attempting to exterminate the Madagascar Maneating Trees in Inunojotaira for most of the last century. There's nothing to truly fear when you encounter one though, as long as you don't purposely aggravate it. Due to the climate, most of them are badly stunted in their growth, and lethargic year round, to the point where you practically have to force-feed yourself to them, to come to any harm.
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"Sunrise and morning practice at Settoshugyoba Dojo - Hokubu Kariudoko on Instagram"
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Settoshugyoba - The Field, The Dojo, The Town

Now moving to the west of central Yamainutaira, one then arrives at Settoshugyoba. Like Noukamura, Settoshugyoba owes much of it's history to events and growth as a side effect of Daimaru the Builder's various projects, rather than his direct hand. Originally just a set of open fields in the hands of the Ezo Wolves of the Setto Clan, during his rein, Daimaru the Builder constructed an earthwork wall running from the hills and high ground of Okamiryosen, southwest across Okamimamotte Iriguchi, to the cliffs that dropped down into the forest of Tani-no-Su. Naturally, the break in the earthworks that would become the western entrance to Yamainutaira would need a watch post, and likely a barracks for any guards to accompany it and so that was it.

For the longest time, the area was actually just referred to as still being part of Okamimamotte Iriguchi, with the gate being colloquially referred to as the Setto Gate, due to normally being manned by Ezo wolves and human guards in service of the Setto Clan.

But then, came Sanmaru of the 100 Duels. With a glory seeking a jovially combat loving nature ever since childhood, it is said that Sanmaru of the 100 Duels frustrated his father with his determination and focus on learning how to fight rather than any of his other studies, that Daimaru the Builder forbade his warriors and the guards of Santsume and Kabeoka from entertaining the young clan heir outside of certain days, without his express permission. And so Sanmaru proceeded to sneak off, going incognito through the streets of Ichibahomen and the fields of Noukamura to find teachers elsewhere. Setto Gate was one such place.

Predominately manned by young wolves and old men either given the thin pickings for guard duty due to their youth, or a cushy posting due to their age, it was in the Setto Gate barracks and upon it's small training field that Sanmaru found what he was looking for. Young, bored hot-heads barely older than him and easily enticed into fights, and old men easily amused enough to give pointers to the youthful heir alongside the new-meat they were supposed to be training. Sanmaru came to love both the place, and consider many of the Setto who maned the gate his friends, and so even after he became Clan Head upon the death of Daimaru the Builder, Setto Gate and it's barracks remained a common haunt for the increasingly acclaimed swordswolf. Many of the duels that would eventually earn him his title, happened on the very spot where the modern Western Approach road now passes through what's left of the old embankment.

Settoshugyoba itself, owes it's modern name and existence to two factors. The first is that after their service to him in a number of the late campaigns of the Sengoku Period, and then the two campaigns of the Imjin War, Sanmaru of the 100 Duels awarded lands and titles to a number of the Setto who had fought under his command. The second, is that shortly before his death, Sanmaru of the 100 Duels constructed a training hall to accompany the old barracks and formalize the hard packed field of dirt he and his comrades once trained on. Though he would meet his hands in the Battle of Sekigahara, the legacy of Sanmaru of the 100 Duels lives on through the Settoshugyoba Dojo, which has outlasted and survived the eventual demise of the historic training camp that was eventually established around it.

Primarily known for it's school of modern muggle kendo in the original building and training field that Sanmaru of the 100 Duels formerly established, Settoshugyoba Dojo accommodates more than just kenjustsu disciples, and also teaches a variety of other martial arts as well, with other electives based in the successive buildings that replaced the original barracks. Drawing from both magical and muggle disciplines, Settoshugyoba Dojo also teaches Kyujutsu, Jujutsu, Naginatajutsu, Bojutsu. Those looking for more western based martial arts, will also find accommodation for modern boxing, Greco-Roman wrestling, Freestyle wrestling, fencing, and Western-style wizard dueling.

Settoshugyoba's reputation for sports also extends beyond that of the martial kind. In the heart of the neighborhood is also Setto Field, the local sport center that doubles as the home venues and training facilities for Yamainutaira Junior High. There you can find the track and field circuit that also doubles as the local soccer pitch, and the baseball field that is home to the our local Junior High Team. Go The Wolves!

The Setto Question

So at this point, anybody who has wandered around town a fair bit before reading this, will have noticed the prevalence of the Setto Clan. Streets and landmarks honor various members or deeds, almost every major event of the Hokubu's history since first arriving in Yamanutaira has involved them in some way, and two entire neighborhoods draw their names from the sheer influence and association the Setto Clan had with those areas. Which of course then begs the question;

Where are all the Setto?

There are two different answers to that question.

The first and overly simple one, is that they're all dead. Due to historically being the "martial" side of the power-trifecta involving the "administrative and political" Hokubu, and the "hunters and harvesters of the land" that were the Matangi-Ken, the Setto Clan were among those who lost the most during the Meiji Restoration, and then had the most to gain for promises made to them by Hokubu Royomaru in return for their services and prowess that they had traditionally always prided themselves on. The end result was that by the end of World War Two, all the male bloodlines, and even a great many of the female ones were extinguished. Few Setto under the age of 200 remained, and it's practically a part of the town mythos, that a domino effect of Broken Heart Syndrome and Widow Hood Effect eventually completed the tragedy and the extinction of the Setto Clan.

The more complicated and accurate answer, is that the Setto do actually still exist. It's just that most of them are either not in Yamainutaira, or are not called Setto anymore and are technically branch members of the Hokubu Clan after the extinction of the Setto Main Family. While the direct line of the family name has disappeared, the bloodline of the Ezo Wolves of the Setto Clan continues on through many of those in the Hokubu-Setto Branch Family, including your's truly.

Settoshugyoba - A Community of Reinvention

Of all the communities in Yamainutaira, Settoshugyoba fared the worst from 1937 through to the end of the 20th century. Setto Field actually owes it's existence to the fact that between the death toll of the war, the failure of the town economy to recover post-war, and then the decades of urbanization draining the remaining populace, Settoshugyoba was almost a ghost town for much of the late '70s, '80s, and early '90s.

Out of the ashes though, is from where the new and modern Settoshugyoba has arisen. Thanks to the Hokubu Main Family and Branch Families of Setto descent, the Yamainutaira council was able to buy out many of the properties when they were at their cheapest during the muggle Japanese Asset Price Bubble's Collapse. Since then Settoshugyoba has been an ever changing vision and test bed for Yamainutaira's recovery over the last twenty years.

The greatest cause of this turn around though, has been the Abyssal War. What was once a plan that necessitated enticing businesses to Yamainutaira that would then bring people, then turned on it's head when Yamainutaira found itself fulfilling Shoumaru the Little's vow to never turn away the unjustly displaced and in need of aid.

This is ironically the reason for Setto Field's somewhat out of place nature in the middle of a burgeoning suburb. Initial town plans called for the area to be incrementally redeveloped as a commercial center focused on the field, with plans for three small food processing and agricultural sites nearby. A juice bottling factory that later moved to the current location in Matangi-Ken no Shinrin, a pie factory that never finalized after the events of blood week, and a third location that was still in the process of securing interest from a developer. The influx of refugees and war migrants threw most of these original plans out the window.

Instead of outright tearing down the old village, the focus then turned to modernizing it.

Today, Settoshugyoba is a strange mix of the factors that make up the characteristic feels of Kabeoka and Ichibahomen. Rows of town houses and two story homes fill the area, but almost every block will have it's own homestead that was once the sole residence in that now developed field. Meanwhile, interspersed among the modern rooftops will also be the occasional wall of trees or the tingle of wards, demarcating the new borders of once empty manors and clan properties that have been subdivided from their previously sprawling lawns and driveways. It is this hurried, mix and match rebirth that now lends Settoshugyoba it's new character, one that can be surprising confusing and comforting at times for any newcomer looking for a place to stay.

It is a community where muggles and the amenities of their modern world are everywhere, but where magic and traces of the old can be found on almost every block. Where almost everyone is equally new, but where you can find friendly locals and long time faces in almost equal measure. More than anywhere else in Yamainutaira, Settoshugyoba is where the past is complemented by the future.
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"Once the lands of a lost line, Settokanshiba is a home to numerous families once more - Hokubu Kariudoko on Twitter"
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Settokanshiba - The Neighborhood of New Beginnings

If Settoshugyoba is that reinvention and new take on something classic and fondly remembered, Settokanshiba is the thing with the new car smell and that neat plastic film you sometimes have to peel off when first taking it out of the box. Once actually part of Settoshugyoba, Settokanshiba arose as a project to succeed and rectify many of the minor issues faced by the Yamainutaira War Migrant Support Program and Yamainutaira Town Council in the nascent years of the war.

There were two primary factors that caused a lot of road blocks with the early efforts to accommodate and aid refugees, and then the later migrants. The first was that in the early years, before Yamainutaira built up it's current core of construction, redevelopment, and renovation expertise, Noukamura and Settoshugyoba were old settlements. More than that, more than a few buildings were also dilapidated, lacking for maintenance, and occasionally outright abandoned. The second problem, was the prevalence of magic structures and flora. With almost 1-in-4 properties having some form of magical history, or even enchantments that had previously gone unnoticed or unremoved since the buildings were first sold on or left empty, the restoration of many residences was even further delayed to bring them up to muggle code.

So in the end, with the amount that was already being funneled into building restoration projects, the Yamainutaira War Migrant Support Program and Yamainutaira Town Council decided to circumvent both problems entirely, by building an entirely new subdivision from the ground up.

Settokanshiba has it's beginnings in some of the original fields the Setto were allowed to exclusively work during the reigns of Shoumaru the Little and Daimaru the Builder. Later, Sanmaru of the 100 Duels outright awarded the lands to them, and for generations they remained in the hands of the Setto Main Family, until they finally fell into ownership of the Setto descended members of the Hokubu Branch Family after the death of the last Setto in 1989. For decades, the fields were simply used for agriculture, much as they always had, but now this location right next to the heart of Yamainutaira is taking on a new shape and purpose.
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"Moving Day for two of Yamainutaira's newest residents - Yamainutaira War Migrant Support Program Website"

Build your Own Home

If you're wanting somewhere to move into and find Noukamura is too rural, Kabeoka too old fashioned and Ichibahomen too muggle, Settokanshiba is the new option to provide more readily available options along side the middle ground offered by Settoshugyoba. More than that, Settokanshiba's "per-order" nature, allows for much more personalization and options compared to Settoshugyoba, when construction often has to accommodate working around pre-existing properties and services.

Options in Settokanshiba come in two flavors. For those wanting to move in immediately, Omoi Property Developers owns a number of apartment blocks with both muggle and magical dwellings to rent. While not the most glamorous of locales, OPD is flexible and forgiving with their bonds and contracts, knowing that most people are usually there in the short term until they can find more permanent housing in Yamainutaira. And once more Omoi Property Developers comes to the rescue as well, as for those looking to buy their own land a rebuild their own homes, OPD is also outfitted and ready to serve.

For those interested, their offices can be found in the Umeko Building at 35 Shuryo-do Road, in Ichibahomen, or you can get in contact with them and inquire as to the process of building you own home via the Yamainutaira War Migrant Support Program and Yamainutaira Magical Town Council.

Important Note: Periodically, one might hear rumors among the muggles of a "ghostly wolf" or "the apparition of a soldier" that can sometimes be seen in the streets of Settoshugyoba and Settokanshiba. This is not actually somebody risking the Statute of Secrecy and exposing their true nature on purpose, but a true ghost of an unfortunate Okami. If you do come across a Ezo Wolf in the vicinity of the old Setto Clan Compound, or a young man in military uniform who alternately asks you "where Lady Setto Kana is?" or boasts of "the most beautiful girl in the world he plans to marry", please politely humor him and tell Hokubu Riichimaru that she is waiting for him at Hokubu-no-Okami Shokonsha Yashiro and give him directions to the Shrine. Unfortunately he seems unable to ever remember the changes to the streets, and periodically appears every few months in search of his fiance, likely because his bones are still somewhere in Okinawa. In spite of his pervasiveness and the inability of anyone to lay him to rest permanently, he's completely harmless and even the local muggles consider it a quirk of the town to play along with. Telling him he's dead, and that so has Setto Kana for the last 68 years, is just mean and cruel, even if he never remembers the next time he appears.
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"Feeding time under the watchful eyes of the brothers Ninsei and Inejiro at Karafuto Estate. Inejiro was once a prefect in Mahoutokoro's fateful Class of 2005, and Inejiro was a Junior Auror retired due to injuries after Blood Week. Today they help run the family holdings, employing numerous refugees and war migrants on both their property, and in their various businesses in town - Photo Taken By Ifukube Chufsanma for a 2013 article in the Ayaayamaru Shinbun"
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Okamimamotte Iriguchi - The Call to Magical Agriculture

Okamimamotte as it is often called by the locals, is one of the last traces of unbroken clan presence and power in Yamainutaira. And that's probably because it is all actually owned by various members of the Hokubu Branch Families and the descendants of Hokubu's magical retainers.

Historically, living on the western spear tip of the plateau was a sign of trust and a respected duty given to the servants of the Hokubu Main family. While the Western Approach had some of the most fertile fields in the entirety of the plateau, being granted land there was not without it's risk. Being so far away from Santsume, and even the defensive outpost at what would later become the Setto Gate and eventually Settoshugyoba, those on the Western Approach were most at risk to surprise attack from raiders or bandits. Though their advantageous positioning allowed Santsume and Kabeoka to loom over the major natural choke point to the plateau from the east, it would be up to the wolves of the branch family to remain vigilant if they wished to have any forewarning of foes attempting to bear down on Yamaintaira via the passes and ridge lines to the west, thus eventually leading to the area's name; The Guarding Wolf Approach.

Over time though, and especially with the relative era of peace brought about by the Tokugawa Shogunate, Okamimamotte Iriguchi gradually lost it's role as a defensive outpost at the end of a long road of farms, and instead became home to numerous estates and manors granted by the Hokubu Clan to their most favored or trusted retainers and servants, in particular to human Onmyouji, as their comparatively sorter lifespan allowed for the properties to be more easily circulated as political conveniences necessitated. Many of those in the area however, lost much of their status and power with the advent of the Meiji Restoration, and today most of those living in Okamimamotte Iriguchi are descendants and heirs of those original families. Still working the lands that were left in their care for the last 150 years.

Unfortunately, due to the closely bound ties of blood and historical status that connect many of these properties to their owners, land in Okamimamotte Iriguchi essentially never comes up for sale and is continuously passed down through family lines, but on the other hand, almost every single property in lining the Western Approach is magically owned and operated. If even Kabeoka is too muggle filled and confusing for you, this is probably the place you want to find a job. Regrettably however, Okamimamotte Iriguchi is not a place swimming with openings for particularly high flying occupations or roles with any particular regularity. If you love working with or have experiance with animals though, and especially with magical livestock and creatures, but aren't quite comfortable or secure with the muggleness of Omonohata, then Okamimamotte is the place for you.

Helpful Tip: For those wanting something fun for the kids, to help acclimatize and make rural life seem more fun, Karafuto Estate has a small petting zoo for magical animals, and also offers day passes for horses to ride around the property or through the hill trails in Okamiryosen just north of the estate.

 

Lord K

Spoiler: Part 4
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"An evening in the hidden world of the Valley of Dens - Hokubu Kariudoko"
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Tani-no-Su - The Valley of Dens

You wouldn't think it now, but Tani-no-Su was once home to yet another village, and great swathes of terraces and farmland to once rival the fields of Noukamura and Inunojotaira. Now from the plateau above, it looks to be only a sea of trees. But it one looks past the canopy and leaves, it is possible to see the spark of metamorphosis and new purpose in the valley once more.

Historically Tani-no-Su served much the same role as the two farming areas to the east. It was largely a realm of the peasantry, without great houses, manors or estates due to being unfashionably low lying, or difficult to build on due to the terrain or distance. But the biggest divergence between Tani-no-Su and Noukamura or Inunojotaira, was that while the plateau farmlands were predominately worked by humans, canids, or yokai with ties to the Hokubu, Setto and Matangi-Ken, Tani-no-Su was a realm of those who fell outside those categories. Foxes and cats who did not get along with the wolves and dogs above, more bestial yokai that would have had issue navigating the streets and stores of Ichibahomen and Kabeoka, and finally those who simply preferred more natural or simpler existences in their true forms or animal states.

Many of those in Tani-no-Su didn't just work the terraces of their masters from the plateau above however. A good portion of those who lived in the village that once sat where the four main roads of Tani-no-Su still intersect, were also involved in the various copper mines that were once scattered through out the valley, exploiting the natural copper deposits Yamainutaira was once acclaimed for.

However, Tani-no-Su's long history of making up almost a third of Yamainutaira's farming production and being a site for centuries of based magical mining, all abruptly came to an end with the implementation of the Statute of Secrecy. Due to the lower social and economic status of many of those living in the Valley of Dens, as well as the fact that it was an area known for those of more bestial and undisguised natures, Tani-no-Su was eventually one of the last yokai communities to be broken up and moved to the Yokai Reserves, in spite of the best efforts by the Clans of Yamainutaira to retain their neighbors on the grounds of the effects such an uprooting could have on the local economy and work forces.

Over the next few decades, the terraces crumbled and nature reclaimed the Valley of the Dens, but that does not mean they have been forgotten or fallen out of use.

Today, Tani-no-Su is home to countless fruit orchards, tree plantations practicing even-aged timber management, and forest farms using agroforestry to grow high-value specialty crops that require tree canopies for optimal conditions. Though no where near what it once was, Tani-no-Su is also once more home to a budding yokai community, albeit a small one predominately made up of those working the orchards around their homes.

Predominately however, while there are outliers and properties do still work the land by magical means or produce magical words or fruits, the vast majority of jobs and properties in Tani-no-Su are are muggle based these days. A status that the area reached out of necessity, first thanks to the resettlement of over 85% of the Valley of Den's community between the 1770s and 1880s, followed by death tolls inflicted during the war, and then finally the loss of local population to urbanization in the mid-to-late 20th century. These conditions also caused a similar state to be reached with the current Doukouzan Mining Facility, and it's more recently added Doukouzan Metal Works.

Important Note: Tani-no-Su was once home to a small village by the name of Yotsukado, which once sat at the four-way crossroads just passed the Nekosu Bridge. During final wave of yokai evictions and resettlements in 1880, the village was burned down by it's remaining residents before they left. Those unfamiliar to the town are advised to avoid leaving the road or entering these ruins, especially the ones cordoned off by muggle hazard tape and unsafe structure signs, or marked with sealing ofuda.

Historical Trivia: Not all the ruined structures in Tani-no-Su are from this time period or closed off. Due to the combination of it's long history of farming development and migrating copper mining sites, crossing paths with the area's modern usage for orchards and forestry, the hills of Tani-no-Su are filled with forgotten buildings, walls and ancient foot prints going back centuries. Among the more interesting structures to look at are the remains of the old forge up on Betsutoriyama, where you can also pick and buy your own apples and dirigible plums.
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"Doukouzan Copper Extraction and Refinement Facility - Doukouzan Mining and Metal Works Website"
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Doukouzan Mining Facility and Copper Metal Works

Since time immemorial, the hills and valleys surrounding the modern site of Doukouzan have been the site of various forms of copper mining.

So the town legend goes, it was Shoumaru the Little who established the first permanent copper exploitation operation, but archaeological evidence suggests a history of mining and copper working by the local Ainu, Ezo Wolves and Matangi-Ken dating back centuries. Most likely what Shoumaru the Little really brought with him, were the knowledge and contacts to import or hire the actual people capable of bringing new techniques and technology to Yamainutaira. Regardless, it was first under his rule that working the veins of ore and natural copper that could be found in the hillsides of Tani-No-Su and the ridge lines of Betsutoriyama and Ansokukanyama, truly began in any form of permanance. For hundreds of years since, Yamainutaira copper has been a small but not insubstantial source of the town's wealth through the centuries.

Much of northern Tani-no-Su and the regions to the west of Yamainutaira are pock-marked and littered with the scattered traces of centuries of this mining, especially from the time period of the early industrial period. Many of the great clearings, vales and caves in the area, are actually the remnants of depleted mining sites, or the slag heaps left behind when the rest of the buildings and their equipment were packed up and shifted to a new site. Since the Meiji Restoration when the mines were rapidly industrialized though, mining operations in Tani-no-Su have been largely restricted to the current ridge line and hillsides of Doukouzan.

The Meiji Restoration and the implementation of the Statute of Secrecy actually almost spelled the end of Yamainutaira's mining history. So much of the original mining workforce and operations relied on a combination of yokai labor and magical methods of ore extraction, smelting, and copper refining, that it very nearly left the entire mine inoperable. Eventually though, Doukouzan was reorganized and envisioned as a almost entirely new, western style operation, relying on mechanization, technology and science where there had once been yokai and magic. While the original refinery never reopened, Doukouzan survived into the 20th century, and even weathered the tumultuous misfortune that gripped the town for much of it's later decades. Since the early 2000s however, Doukouzan has seen a slow reversal of fortunes.

The Doukouzan of today is a world apart from what it was one hundred years ago, or even just twenty. From an industry that was once infamous for it's dirty and back-breakingly laborious nature, modern muggle copper mining is almost more of a science, than a job of task or toil. In fact, most of the mining that takes place these days has little resemblance to the classic images of excavation pits in the ground, or tunneling deep beneath the earth. Utilizing modern muggle technology and techniques such as froth-flotation, the solvent extraction and electrowinning process (SX/EW), Outokumpu flash-smelting, and poling process fire refining, almost all of Doukouzan's current copper production comes from reprocessing old slag heaps and tailings dumps left over from older sites and historic mines. What was once considered ore of too poor a quality to smelt, or slag that was past the point of being further refined, is now exploitable through newer and more efficient means.

For this reason, the core of Doukouzan's modern facilities is no longer the mining operation itself, but the Copper Extraction and Refinement Facility. Already an idea on the town's table of brainstorms for economic turn around, having much of the groundwork already laid out before Blood Week, allowed the planned construction of the facility to be rapidly pushed forwards, and the costs offset with the aid of a government grant for businesses establishing or upgrading crucial domestic war industries. Thanks to this and further developments of the site and extraction operations since opening in 2009, by 2012 Doukouzan had almost tripled it's copper production compared to what it was in 2002.

Important Note: It can not be impressed how much Doukouzan is NOT a location to treat as a place full of fancy muggle machinery that one can just waltz past and take a gander at. The whole area surrounding the various slag reprocessing operations, different outlying plants, and the Copper Extraction and Refinement Facility, are regarded by the muggles as one singular industrial property. This is not overly fancy blacksmithing or metal working in any traditional sense, but chemistry on a factory scale. You wouldn't just wander into a potion maker's workplace or an alchemist's laboratory when they are brewing something potentially dangerous, so don't go poking around the Copper Extraction and Refinement Facility just because it looks interesting.

Due to it's rather technical and scientific nature, those looking to apply for jobs there should also either know how to drive a truck and operate heavy machinery, or be able to display sufficiently comparably knowledge to having various muggle degrees in chemistry, metallurgy, geology, or engineering.

Historical Trivia: Doukouzan hasn't just produced copper though out it's history. Occasionally over the decades, gold veins have been discovered, but usually only ever in very trace amounts. The most common byproduct usually produced is sulfur.
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"Hokubu Sakiko, one of the last masters of her art making a full time living via traditional methods, in a once thriving ancient craft - Hokubu Kariudoko"

The Riddle of Copper

Three things, there have always been in the hills of Yamainutaira, and upon which it's founding was based; The game to hunt, the earth to sow, and the metal to wield.

Doukouzan may now be a place of muggle science and technology, but Yamainutaira's connection and history with magical mining and metal working is not entirely extinct. It has survived past the Meiji Restoration, and still exists in the form of the Ken-gitsune master-apprentice line, of which Hokubu Sakiko is the current master and keeper of the forge. Since ancient times, smiths under the guidance of the master of the Ken-gitsune school, have done more than just process and beat Tani-no-Su's copper into shape for sale. They also made and maintained the tools of Yamainutaira, from the plowshares of peace time, to the swords of war in times of conflict. Many of Yamainutaira's greatest warriors used blades forged by the Ken-gitsune masters of their respective eras, with the longest lasting and most renowned of all being the enchanted blade made by Ken-gitsune himself, Shisashikon, "the Messenger's Tooth" wielded by Clan Heads of the Hokubu for the last ten generations.

Iconic thanks to their use of copper, bronze and brass, in their decorative work, Ken-gitsune blades never reached the kind of acclaim their contemporaries had, but a tradition of proud sword making was maintained even through the relative peace of Tokugawa rule, when most orders to the school were for jewelry and ceremonial pieces, rather than functional and enchanted examples like Shisashikon. Swords and jewelry, accompanied copper ingots as part of Yamainut

Now in a modern forge and metal workshop in Ichibahomen, on the site of where Daimaru the Builder moved the original Ken-gitsune Master's workshop to after the fire of 1561, Hokubu Sakiko still keeps a traditional forge set up in the back lot, and caters to orders for magical clientele. Got an old family heirloom you want checked out? Or do you want a piece of your very own? Is it a sword you are thinking about when it comes to that sentence, or jewelry? Mundane or magical, Hokubu Sakiko can usually at the very least identify what needs to be done, or who to put you in touch with for the best result.

Alternately if you are interested, Hokubu Sakiko is always willing to accept an extra pair of hands in her shop, if they have the previous experience to be of use. Do note however, that working under her is not an offer of the traditional style apprenticeship, or a promise of learning the magical teachings of the Ken-gitsune sword making and jewlery crafting schools, just employment at her metal working shop and jewelry store.

The Tale of Shoumaru the Little and the Three Gifts of Ken-gitsune

"So who was Ken-gitsune?" I'm sure most of you are asking. How does a guy who's name means "Sword Fox" relate to a family sword, a master-apprentice line, and copper mining in a small outpost village, in the middle of Hokkaido, far removed from the happening places of Sengoku Japan?

Well, that can be answered with a fun little tale (and an admittedly likely embellished-by-time history lesson) that even the local muggles all know, albeit with certain details removed, or viewed as metaphorical and myth due to the Statue of Secrecy.

When Shoumaru the Little first left Honshu (either in disgraced exile or in search of destiny and fortune depending on the version), it is said that one of the first things he witnessed upon arrival in Hokkaido was, a group of brigands harassing a young kitsune messenger boy. Taking issue with their treatment of the fox youth who they unjustly accused of being a thief and a trickster, and seeing how they cowed the rest of the townsfolk, Shoumaru the Little stepped in. Being smaller than the Ezo wolves due to his Honshu stature, at first they mocked him for his hieght, and in their arrogance tried to rob him as well. In the ensuing fight, Shoumaru the Little lost his sword, but he was never the less victorious thanks to his use of an old iron shield. An artifact born of an era before the prominence of two-handed blades and the katana.

Immensely thankful for being saved, the messenger boy could only apologized for causing Shoumaru the Little such inconvenience and the loss of his sword. With little to his name, all the kitsune youth could afford to give the Honshu Okami was a stone magatama, which would allow him to enter and receive aid from a village on his path through the north. And so onward he traveled, until eventually Shoumaru the Little arrived in the village the young fox had spoken to him of.

There, Shoumaru the Little met another kitsune, a priestess and guardian of the village's crops. Encountering her in a field, he found the priestess laboring to perform her duties due to her water pail being stolen. And so Shoumaru the Little handed her his great shield, and using the concave shape, they brought water to the fields. The priestess was thankfully for his service, but was regretful she could not repay him in any meaningful way, especially after the shield became scratched and discolored through their task. Instead she could only provide the location of a forested plateau that she had heard far-ranging hunters speaking of with wonder and bountiful acclaim, and handed him a stone magatama. A new one that would allow him to pass among the peoples of those lands as a friend.

Some time later, Shoumaru the Little eventually made his way to the forests of what would eventually be called Yamainutaira. It was during one of his first winters there however, that in the middle of a most terrible chilling storm, Shoumaru the Little and his Ezo hunting partners found themselves with a guest. An old kitsune came upon the hunting lodge, and begged to be allowed inside until the blizzard had subsided. Shoumaru the Little's hunting partners were against the idea, fearing that with the ferocity of the cold and wind, this was a trick by a yuki-onna or some other spirit of frost that was determined to get to them inside. Proving the kitsune's trustworthiness and innocence through a series of simple tests using warding magics and a string of prayer beads though, Shoumaru the Little eventually assuaged their fears enough that the elderly traveler was allowed into the refuge, and given a place by their fire side. When the storm finally passed, the old kitsune was filled with thanks and gratitude for the shelter and food he had been given, as he would most likely have perished otherwise. As with those before however, the traveler had naught he could give Shoumaru the Little, aside from yet another simple stone magatama.

Time went on though, with winter turning to spring, and then spring to summer, with half a year passing and the old kitsune traveler almost forgotten. Then one day, Shoumaru the Little found himself with a new visitor; A Zenko, a kitsune sworn to the service of Inari Okami, and bearing the name of Ken-gitsune. All three of the kitsune Shoumaru the Little had aided over the course of his travels in Hokkaido had been family to the Zenko, and so Ken-gitsune had come to repay the Honshu Okami as those in their hour of need could not. A master of not just sword making, but a guide in the arts of the forge and metal normally sent to aid those with Inari Okami's favor and blessing, Ken-gitsune then put his talents to work crafting three gifts of repayment.

To replace Shoumaru the Little's lost sword that he had originally borne from Honshu, and lost in the defense of one who could not fight back, when no one else would do what was right, from metals found beneath the earth of the okami's new home in Yamainutaira, Ken-gitsune forged an enchanted blade. One that would never break or decay, and would always return to the hands of the blood of his line. Furnished with wood, leather and copper, all procured from the plateau, and made by the hands of one kami's messenger for the descendant of another, the sword was named Shisashikon, "The Messenger's Tooth".

For Shoumaru the Little's aid to the priestess, and his altruism in ensuring the bounty of others, when there was no pressing need to or any advantage for himself, Ken-gitsune next repaired the okami's shield. Removing the damage and scars of his battles since leaving Honshu, Ken-gitsune polished the shield until it could reflect it's surroundings like the water had carried. Upon this surface, he then placed enchantments that would allow it to forever show the truth of all things, reflect more than just light, and never mar or break, no matter what it encountered. And so Ken-gitsune created the Kawaakari no Shinju-kyo, the "moonlight reflecting off the river" deity and beast shield.

As his final gift to Shoumaru the Little, Ken-gitsune then took the three magatama the okami had received for each of his deeds, and fashioned them upon a necklace of obsidian beads. Turning each of the three magatama thrice in his hand, they then became not of common stone, but of agate, coral and ivory, and were imbibed with special powers. One bead would heat in the presence of danger to it's owner or nearby kin. The second would enable the necklace to separate, bind and wound beings of evil nature, regardless of their state in the physical or spiritual world. And the third would grant luck and fortune to the kin of those who wore it, but not the bearer them self. For proving the innocence of one in need, and providing shelter and breaking bread with a traveler with naught to offer in return, Ken-gitsune's final gift became the Omotenashi no Magatama, "the Beads of Hospitality".

Upon the completion of his work, and as one final gift of his own to Shoumaru the Little, Ken-gitsune took on an apprentice, teaching him much of what he knew and was allowed to pass on for many years, before eventually leaving his graduated student in Shoumaru the Little's service. Upon the completion of this task, he at last returned to his duties as a servant of Inari Okami, and slowly faded from the annuals of history.

Each of these three gifts still exists within the ownership of the Hokubu Clan, having been passed down for the last five centuries till today.

Traditionally in peace time, the Shisashikon is always carried by the clan head as a symbol of their leadership of the bloodline. The Kawaakari no Shinju-kyo is normally held by the Clan Heir as a metaphor of the clan's future to be protected, and a reminder for their need to deflect and see through the illusions of power or politics others might cast over them. And finally, the Omotenashi no Magatama is entrusted to the Hokubu-Setto Head Priest or Priestess of Hokubu-no-Okami Shokonsha Yashiro, as a sign of the trust and value the Hokubu place on the ties between the two clans.

In war and times of crisis however, all three gifts are carried by the Clan Head. For example, if one looks closely at photos of the current Koshaku and Hokubu Clan Head, Kogamaru, one can often see all three gifts somewhere on his person since Blood Week, usually with the Shisashikon at his hip, and the Kawaakari no Shinju-kyo shrunk down for ease of transport.

Historical Trivia; It is interesting to note that of the three gifts, only the Omotenashi no Magatama seems to work as per the original tale, rather than being an embellishment of it's characteristics.

While the blade of the Shisashikon has never shown any signs of wear or damage in it's long history, the tsuba, tsuka, saya and everything else that is not the sword itself, is known to take damage, and have even been destroyed at times over the course of the Shisashikon's history.

The Kawaakari no Shinju-kyo meanwhile, is infamous for the fact that while it will reflect magic and most projectiles, it is actually relatively ineffective against area-of-effect type attacks. More than one Clan Head and Heir has has also been injured dealing with the shock of blocking things, and even the back-blast of spells or projectiles they have unintentionally reflected.

Even the Omotenashi no Magatama is not without flaw either, as while it does apparently perform functions to the tune of the legend, it will only work at all, when worn by someone descended of Shoumaru the Little's bloodline.

Historical Trivia; While never proven or confirmed by the Main Family, it is rumored that Hokubu Royomaru's dairies suggested that he was unable to wear the Omotenashi no Magatama for many of his final years as clan head, and never told anyone for the security of his status as Clan Head. It was also initially thought that he lost the Shisashikon, as upon his arrest at the end of World War II, the Shisashikon was was confiscated and feared to be among many of those blades either destroyed in furnaces or dumped into Tokyo Bay by ICW Occupation Forces. Upon his death though, the Shisashikon appeared in the hands of Tsumemaru the Peacebound, bereft of it's koshirae and fixings, just as it always had whenever a Clan Heir succeeded upon the death of a Clan Head who died beyond the borders of Yamainutaira.
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"Forestry by magical means, in the hills of Matangi-Ken no Shinrin - Hokubu Kariudoko"
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Matangi-Ken no Shinrin - The Nature of Industry and the Industries of Nature

Travel down the Shuryo-do Road long enough, and eventually you might be surprised to at last come across a curve in the kilometers long straight. Keep following those curves, but don't go around the big one, and eventually you will arrive at Matangi-Ken no Shinrin. Or at least what used to be it's borders.

Today on official maps, Matangi-Ken no Shinrin is an area deemed to fall within the boundaries of the Shirakawa river to the east, the old grounds of the Yamainutaira Lumber Mill to the north, to a trio of survey markers in the west and south. Once long ago however, Matangi-Ken no Shinrin was considered a great forest, stretching as far to the southwest as the southern facing slopes of the Ansokukanyama ridge line and the Murasame no Taki river. Following the opposite side of the Shirakawa canyon, it's borders once stretched as far north as the hills of Makunbetsu, while it's eastern reaches were dominated by the highland of Tenmakuyama in a time when it was a forest of bounty, rather than a place of dread.

In it's own way though, Matangi-Ken no Shinrin, even in it's reduced state on government papers and official survey maps, has survived through to the modern day with it's own Yamainutaira blend of the magical past, with the muggle world of today.

Just as Okamiryosen and most of Okamimamotte Iriguchi is owned by the Hokubu Clan, and Settoshugyoba and Settokanshiba were once predominately the properties of the Setto Clan, the woodlands of Matangi-Ken no Shinrin were, and still are the realm of their namesake Clan. While most of the yokai that make up the Matangi-Ken today, live in Inunojotaira and Noukamura, the vast majority of the titles and deeds that make up the modern area and a few properties beyond Yamainutaira's border, are owned by the descendants of the forest's original inhabitants.

Out of necessity and a desire to remain relevant, much of the Matangi-Ken's territory that falls within the borders of Yamainutaira's borders, is not actually a true forest. Decades of muggle logging until the Matangi-Ken finally acquired all the deeds after first be forced off the land during the Meiji Restoration, due to a combination of muggle land law rulings and magical legislation cracking down on those still living more naturalistic ways, resulted in a great portion of the original wood being cleared for farm land, and many older trees and forest giants felled. With the power and balance of this area ruined by these events, since the 1920s the Matangi-Ken have continued to selectively rotate tree farms and logging projects around this destroyed border of their old lands, and the original territories the Hokubu and Setto first first negotiated for permission to clear for their medieval lumber supplies.

An industry that still continues to be the primary economy in Matangi-Ken no Shinrin to this day. While the current lumber mill has been around and occupied it's current site since the early 20th century, much like the Matangi-Ken's greenhouses in Inunojotaira and the reinvented mining operations in Doukouzan, forestry in not just Matangi-Ken, but all of Yamainutaira, is a modern blend of the magical past and modern muggle thinking. Sustainable forest management is one of the core schools of thought behind Yamainutaira's industry, preserving what few natural old-growth groves and primeval forest remains. Agroforestry, silviculture, arboriculture, community forestry, even-aged timber management, have all been the buzz-words of forest farming and the lumber industry in this town for the last 30 years.

Thanks to being more spaced out and divided in areas of operation, it is a industry that is also easier to insert yokai into. Combined with the general simplicity of many tasks when aided by magic or natural abilities, forestry work and laboring under the supervision of the Matangi-Ken, is currently one of the best jobs for those who arrive in town without much in the way of muggle or magical qualifications, are lacking in their disguises or capability to assume human forms, and are in need of a quick way to get back on their feet. Roles are not just limited to manual work cutting down trees, buckering limbs and moving logs either. The modern world of forestry requires a wide range of jobs such as aborists, ecologists, log scalers, nursery gardeners, timber cruisers, tree planters, and even people licensed to be muggle truck drivers.

Historical Trivia; The main lumber exports of Yamainutaira are native woods such as Jezo Spruce, Hinoki Cypress, Sawara Cypress, Sakhalin Fir. Traditionally, much of it was used for firewood and in local buildings, but for most of the 20th century, Yamainutaira's lumber industry was a shrinking business as most of the wood was used in paper, which eventually began to be supplanted by digital mediums. Today Yamainutaira's lumber industry is experiencing an explosion of growth, as the difficulty and cost in importing materials for plastics and metals in non-war industry related construction, has caused many to re-examine and explore the use of timber plywoods and laminates in modern construction once more.

HOWLING Juice - Unleash the Beast

Just typing that tagline makes me want to facepalm, and yes the brand name is officially written in all caps, but if one is going to talk about the modern Matanegi-no-Shinrin, it would be impossible to leave out the juice bottling factory.

HOWLING Juice first had it's start in an idea bandied about in the late 90s to help out not just Yamainutaira, but also a number of other yokai and magical communities in the area that were looking for a entrepreneurial opportunity, after a number of years of regionally successful harvests lead to both an overabundance of produce that went to waste, and the sales price for various fruits falling. For this reason, though most people think of HOWLING Juice as being a recent thing due to it's opening in 2007, the solidification of plans for the juice factory were officiated as far back as 2004. Unfortunately though, the advent of the war first led to a delay in breaking ground, followed by a change of the entire factory's scale and location, due to the redevelopment of Settoshugyoba as a residential are for refugees, and the loss of a separately branded facility by the original investors.

Today, HOWLING Juice makes a wide range of fruit based drink products, utilizing produce from innumerable farms across Yamainutaira and the surrounding Kawakami District. In particular, HOWLING Juice takes great pride in being a Golden Heart Sticker business and consumer product, thanks to employing refugees and war migrants throughout it's production and bottling facility, as well as buying much of it's raw fruit and ingredients from farms and business that themselves, employ refugees and war migrants.

In recent years, HOWLING Juice has also branched out into two sub-lines of products. While HOWLING is still it's primary fruit drink product line and source of earnings, RABID (Go Nuts) was first put on shelves in 2010 as a line of fruit based energy drinks. More recently, as of January 2013, HOWLING Juice has been proud to announce it's new fruit and cocktail syrup line, LUPUS (Feel the Change). Since 2011, HOWLING Juice has also had a deal with the SDF to supply HOWLING and RABID for the cafeterias and vending machines of various bases and facilities.

Employment at HOWLING Juice is definitely one of those things not for the easily cultured shocked or magicals unfamiliar with muggle technology. The vast majority of both the juicing plant and the bottling factory are automated production lines, with most entry level jobs being either system management, machinery maintenance, or various quality checking and inspection roles. That's not to say it's impossible though, as almost 30 percent of the management staff, administrative office workers, and floor crews are yokai and human magicals

Helpful Tip: Want to see something neat and take an interactive trip with the family? Visit HOWLING Juice's juicing and bottling plant, and take a tour around the premise. Even better, they give a free (non-alcoholic) drink with every tour, and the gift shop has specials and discounts on many of their more unique and interesting products. For those who regularly burn the midnight oil due to schooling or work, and are looking for something that is both little more pleasant than your normal energy drink or caffeine shot, and with a little bit more kick, they also sell RABID in bulk boxes at wholesaler prices.
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"Few remain who know how to hunt via the old ways, and fewer still have their own licences to do so in this day and age. Matangi-Ken heiress, Ifukube Chufsanma, shoots more than photos in her spare time, accompanied by long time hunting partner, Hokubu Hanzomaru - Hokubu Kariudoko"

Hunting with the Hunting Dogs of Winter

Before Shoumaru the Little of the Hokubu Okami, there was the Setto of the Ezo Wolves. But even before them, there were the Matangi-Ken. While the Hokubu may have once ruled Yamainutaira for almost half a millennium, and the Setto repeatedly warred, hunted and migrated across the plateau, and through the surrounding hills and valleys, it is the Hunting Dogs of Winter who have walked the forests to the south and the foothills of Daisetsuzan longest. Hunting has long held a special place and role for life in Yamainutaira, in spite of the area's main trait being that of an agricultural farming town for the last five centuries. Even today, the activity still has an importantance, but not quite as heavily or for the same reasons as in previous centuries, when it was an important source of food for the town's largely meat loving demographics.

Today, non-magical mundane deer and boar are a massive problem. This is not the complaint of somebody from a farming community, with more than a few experiences of fields planted with her own two hands being torn up, but a reliably calculated and evidence based conclusion, backed up by multiple studies. While a balanced ecosystem is important, the system is already irrevocably unbalanced due to the rarity of any mundane predators to keep numbers in check. Bears are a rarity, and wolves are technically "extinct", so there is little way to keep the populations of the district in check, except to rely on people getting hunting licences and going out whenever they have time during the open season.

Obviously this has it's issues. For one thing, going off into the woods for most of a day is admittedly not a productive task by most modern standards. And then there's the "humaneness" question. Considering most people who still hunt in town are magically capable, and only really own muggle firearms for show and as muggle covers, humaneness of the kill is thankfully not an issue for most meats procured by Yamainutaira hunters. Thankfully in that aspect, the value of hunting has also increased over the last few years, as people have turned to the land for sources of food rather than the sea.

Where once hunting was a deficit expenditure due to licencing and gun registration, today you can easily break even after only a few kills. As an added incentive to further entice help culling pest deer and boar numbers, and to bring in hunters from out of town, the Yamainutaira Council may occasionally even announce bounty periods.

Important Note: While these culls are considered useful tools for controlling pest numbers that may destroy not just farmland, but also the primary and preserved areas of woodland surrounding Yamainutaira and in the Old Forest of Matangi-Ken no Shinrin, this is NOT an every man free for all. Hunting in this community is very strictly regulated, controlled and organized, especially due to the increasing numbers of intelligent boar and deer yokai who have joined the township or taken up residence elsewhere in Kamokawa District in recent years. Because of this, there are a number of responsible standards the community always adheres to;

1 - NEVER hunt alone; Always travel with at least four people minimum, and never split into groups of less than two.
2 - NEVER hunt unannounced. All trips must be announced either to the town council office, or to the Matangi-Ken at least two days in advance.
3 - ALWAYS check with the Matangi-Ken's Forest Guards if there is anybody else in the woods, before you enter the Old Forest of Matangi-Ken no Shinrin.
4 - ALWAYS confirm what you are looking at with a spotter, before you fire/loose your arrow/cast/attack.
5 - CLEAN KILLS and sanitary carcasses are the only ones that will be approved for bounties or purchased for commercial sale by local butchers.
6 - RESPECT the Old Forest and it's wildlife, even if you are there to kill something mundane.

Break or attempt to circumvent any of these rules, and the Matangi-Ken will know, even before you leave the forest.

Important Note: Please do not be disparaging towards the town's opinions on hunting activities, especially that of the Matangi-Ken. For one thing, it's a tired old (often uninformed) argument many of us have all heard before. For a second, the Matangi-Ken hunt more than anyone else because the act of it and the methods of gathering certain materials are an important aspect of their clan, and a component of their magics of more ancient and animistic natures.

 

Lord K

Spoiler: Part 5
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"A walk through Omonohata with the Matangi-Ken sisters, Hotene and Ayai."
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Omonohata - The Lord's Fields

And so we arrive at the last, but still rather vast, area of Yamainutaira to be covered in this guide. Unfortunately, and not to be disingenuous to Omonohata, but there isn't actually a lot there. For all it's size, the predominantly muggle area actually has even fewer people living within it's borders than Matangi-Ken no Shinrin (at least when counting yokai).

Mostly, this is due to it's history. Originally utilized as a place for hunting, after repeated issues with bandits hiding out in the woods, and a need for more farmland to feed the growing town in the early 1500s, over the course of the next 200 years, the woods of Omonohata was incrementally cleared back. After Daimaru the Builder was proclaimed shugo, for centuries the wide expanses of Omonohata were then the personal fields of the Hokubu Main Family. This eventually lead to the source of Omonohata's other claim to fame, one it still has to this day. Aside from Okamimamotte Iriguchi which only has a few estates that produce or utilize magical stock, Omonohata ins the heart of non-magical livestock farming in Yamainutaira.

Since the first human settlers began to arrive in the 1490s, Omonohata has played host to cattle, primarily due to the fact that the Inuogawa Stream and gully provide a natural barrier dividing the area from the main growing fields of Noukamura and Inunojotaira. Once the Hokubu had exclusive land rights to the area, the Main Family continued the previous cattle farming ventures that were on going at the time, although primarily the bovines were utilized for labor assistance and as pack animals, rather than as sources of meat or dairy product. That's not to say the peoples of Yamainutaira were adverse to beef, with older cows and steers ending up in cooking pots and on barbecues far more regularly than in less carnivorous or non-magical communities.

Eventually however, the majority of the land that was cleared was utilized for crops, just as tended to happen else where, due to the more efficient land usage one could get by rotating multiple crops of vegetables through a field, in the same time it would take to raise just one steer for slaughter. It is a trend that even effects the layout of the modern Omonohata today.

These days, Omonohata can generally be divided into two areas. The smaller portion at the souther end by Matangi no Shinrin, actually does have a few magical properties, though most of what goes on is just various forms of crop farming. The larger and more open northern end, is the almost entirely muggle area most people think of when they say Omonohata. The majority of it is vegetable plots, but scattered about the fields are a few different ranches and dairy farms, as well as one place that also does free range chickens and eggs. However, this is definitely a landscape of the "Industrial" farm, unlike the smaller and often "family" or household farms in Noukamura and Inunojotaira, or the old estates of Okamimamotte Iriguchi and the Western Approach Road. Agriculture in the modern Omonohata is often run like a company or brand, and while many properties are still locally owned and operated, like Doukouzan, it is now a realm of numbers, statistics, and science, as much as it is a labor of heart and passion.

For these reasons, along with how ever present muggles are in northern Omonohata, though many jobs available in the area are generally accessible to those without qualifications, it is advised that only those familiar with basic muggle farming ideas, or concepts that would have been introduced at a muggle high school education level, should apply for positions on the larger non-magical farms and ranches.

Historical Trivia: No one's actually certain when or why the area is called Omonohata. At the time it first began to be cleared and developed by Shoumaru the Little and Daimaru the Builder, it was simply called the "Serrow Wood" for the small Serrow population that could be found in it. Later, the area was more commonly known as the "Far Field" or the "Shirakawa Ridge". Omonohata only really seems to have entered the common vernacular and begun appearing on maps in the late 1800s, when land reforms broke up many of the great clan holdings across Japan, including the Hokubu estates, meaning that in the time it first started to be called the "Lord's Field", it didn't (directly) belong to the Hokubu anymore.
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"D-Farm, Yamainutaira's local brand for muggle milk and beef products. While not heavily advertised, they also do small, limited runs of artisanal cheeses - D-farm Store"

Please Do Not Eat the Cattle

Omonohata's history with cattle is a very long and weird one.

Many of Ryoshimaru the Hunter's more famous exploits, were often born of incidents involving attacks on local livestock. The entire saga of his slaying of Maoukuma the Demon Bear, in fact revolved around the fact that Maoukuma had been killing and eating local cattle, beasts that were not just valuable food resource for the community, but also walking commodities. Cattle could help till fields and be roped into busy work or manual transport labor that stronger but still more intelligent yokai would be wasted or, or see as a slight to their pride and status, and even when they did die or were slaughtered, they were walking repositories of more than just meat. Leather, fur, horns, bone, even the hoofs and dried gut-tracts could be re-purposed for various mundane uses, never mind the magical ones available as well.

Tsukuyomaru the Negotiator's title actually originates from the fact that he was one of the first to begin politically stabilizing the relationships with many of the Hokubu-Setto-Matangi-Ken Alliance's previous foes in the region, in particular, the Onikuma clans of Rokusensawa with whom the Setto and Matangi-Ken had once had especially bitter pasts with. Part of how he often brought off many of Yamainutaira's historic foes, or garnered allies to politically isolate the ones he could not wile, befriend, bribe, of subtly intimidate, was by gifting cattle, often with an accompanying cargo of copper, woods and sometimes even gold on the occasions a vein was accessed in Tani-no-Su. A display of not just the wealth and power of Yamainutaira, but also a subtle hint of what could be gained from working with the Hokubu and their allies, rather than being crushed standing against them.

During the reign of Shioriko of the Metered Justice, one of the more famous disputes she once presided and made a ruling over, was string of back and forth revenge killings between two clans of ezo wolves and humans, which all stemmed from the fact that the one of the human men had supposedly killed a pair of the wolves' oxen, which left them without any animals capable of working their plows that season. And thus started a chain of escalating arguments, then fights, and eventually murders, which are now memorialized in a number of screen paintings by Hokubu Fumiko, and even a locally popular kabuki comedy.

It is recorded in one of Ezomaru the Marquis of the Northern Wolves' dairies, that in 1834, there was an incident involving a number of onmouji and Hokubu who were experimenting with summoning rituals and portals in the hopes of eventually illicitly importing American beef and dairy breeds, in order to crossbreed and increase the productivity of their ranches. Only through the superior tactics and usage of modern firearms technology by the Hokubu town garrison to supplement it's core of battlemages and swordwolves, were the polearm wielding bovines and their king driven back to whatever diabolical realm they came from, and the portal shut.

Today, while cattle aren't the walking tractors and regent factories they once were, and no longer have the kind of value that will get you murdered by your neighbor if you accidentally bump one, or attacked by hell-cows resulting from somebody's breeding import efforts gone awry, cattle farming still has it's place and role in modern Yamainutaira.

In a world where many of the major dairy and cheese producing regions of the world are now separated from Japan by the costs of importing via convoys, domestic dairy farming is essentially a license to print money, and in this, Yamainutaira has lucked out. Not only does it have a wide open expanse in the form of many of it's communities, but Omonohata in particular, has a long and proud preexisting history of cattle farming and dairy production, no matter how small it is compared to the other major income earners of the township.

Historical Trivia: In order of profit, Yamainutaira's five major exports are;
1 - Treated Building Timber
2 - Apples
3 - Refined Copper
4 - Cabbages
5 - HOWLING Juice

If broken down into the categories of Raw Food Produce and Raw Lumber, you get;

1 - Apples
2 - Cabbages
3 - Plums
4 - Potatos
5 - Leeks

1 - Jezo Spruce
2 - Hinoki Cypress
3 - Sawara Cypress
4 - Sakhalin Fir
Spoiler


"Yours truly and Daishi Mori, members of the Yamainutaira War Migrant Support Program public outreach team - Hokubu Kariudoko"

Assorted Facts and Trivia

And so we reach the end of our guide. But just before we do end though, we thought we'd throw in a few final interesting factoids and tidbits that didn't really feel right or too random to insert among the other articles. So, here are twelve fun bits of trivia and suggestions to wrap up on.

1 - No one actually knows why Shoumaru the Little left Honshu. Was it in exile and disgrace? Or to seek his own fame and fortune out of frustration? It is impossible to truly be sure. The reason for this, is that upon the closing of the Onin War, it seems that either Shoumaru the Little's original master, or someone once close to him who's machinations were responsible for whatever impetus was behind the Okami's leaving in the first place, was then magically unpersonned from existence and memory. Most likely this was either as punishment for some crime, or by a rival who saw no need or advantage to recall Shoumaru the Little from his new home in the north.

2 - This loss of history, past and memory, is also the one of the initial reasons behind Shoumaru the Little's meticulous gathering of books and knowledge in his later years. Organizing and preserving what literary resources he had used in his years of building Yamainutaira, that could be useful for his son, Daimaru the Builder, he also invested vast amounts of his time in tracking down and saving the remaining records of his past, genealogy, and the Hokubu's history in Honshu. Daimaru the Builder later expanded upon this collection of knowledge with many resources of his own, as did Sanmaru of the 100 Duels, who added many works gained as loot and bestowed as gifts for his service during the closing years of the Sengoku Period. When Ryoshimaru the Hunter then rebuilt Santsume as a Shoen Manor rather than a fortress after the 1637 fire, part of it's construction was dedicated to what would become the current Clan Library. A magically expanded section of the compound, that also finalized the current tradition of successors placing more personal works, books and artifacts into wings tied to the previous Clan Heads that introduced or were associated with them.

3 - There is a system of tunnels running beneath Kabeoka and Noukamura, connecting the original cores of the two neighborhoods together, and with a number of concealed and illusioned entrances and exits just beyond the medieval boundaries of the two areas. While accessible to the modern magical public, the small size and difficulty in finding many of these entrances, along with the time period for their creation seems to suggest a much more covert history for the tunnel system, rather than one of travel or goods transport. The fact that all the tunnels leading off in the direction of Okamiryosen are destroyed or caved in, has lead many to believe that they were originally escape routes and hidden passages for the noble clans in the time of Daimaru the Builder. Concealed ways to travel about should portions of the outer town fall, or bring supplies to the main fortress, in the event of a siege which Santsume actually never had to face. Most likely, the Okamiryosen and Santsume tunnels were then closed up by a later Hokubu Clan head, to remove any potentially unguarded or unnecessary avenues of entrance to the later Shoen. Ironically, this move which was likely motivated by a fear of break ins or assassins, seems to have happened under the reign Tsukuyomaru the Negotiator, who would later be assassinated by his brother, but while on a hunting trip, rather than at Santsume.

4 - Before taking the "Nine Clan Heads Challenge" at the Golden Ofuda, one must first sign a wavier, and complete the challenge while using a disguise or transformation that can fit through the doorway of the building. To date, only five people have completed it, with those among the defeated including beings as big as Oni, Taka Nyudo, Uwabami, and even a Mizuchi failing to conquer the Challenge.

5 - Feeling hungry or peckish, and in the mood for something less ridiculous than the Nine Clan Heads Challenge, while still at street level? Try the Wolf Burger, a local variation of the Sasebo Burger found at many casual restaurants and eateries in town. Everyone has their own variations and takes, but the common principle of the burger is to use as many ingredients as possible for the general vicinity of Yamainutaira or Kawakami Sub-Prefecture. The burger itself normally takes the form or some variation of lightly toasted buns, a huge beef patty or shredded wild pork (or more regularly, both together), similarly wild bacon, cheese, a fried egg, fried onion, tomato slices, lettuce, a sweet relish made of local fruit and vegetables, and finally condiments.

6 - In Noukamura there is an old well, where if you weigh a bag of fruit down and toss it into the water, eventually when you pull it up, the fruit will be gone. In Kabeoka menwhle, there is a similar well where the fruit thrown into the depths of the first, will then float up from the bottom of the second when no one is looking. No one is actually sure why the well only works with non-magical fruit, and only in this direction. This also once caused an incident, when a recently installed security camera in a nearby parking lot caused the well to become "backlogged" for three months, only for everything to come out at once, the first time the camera was turned off for maintenance.

7 - Do you prefer your fare meatier and fresher? Or are you looking for a job, and find the idea of something that incorporates both herbology and working with animals an appealing occupation? Or maybe you're just looking for some cheap wool? Well, you can find all three of those things at Kaneki Estate in Okamimamotte Iriguchi, on the Western Approach Road. There, you'll find the Kaneki Barometz-Lamb Plantation. From Spring to Autumn, you can get fresh off the stalk Lamb of Tartary, while wool can usually be brought at wholesalers prices all year round. If you don't mind the cold, they're also always hiring people to melt the snow and hand feed the Barometz during winter when the grass dies down.
Spoiler


"The Cover Art for J-Wrock band, Three Wolf Knights' 2006 breakout album "Karma and Beauty in Negative Places" - Wrock Recording Japan"

8 - Best selling J-Wrock band, Three Wolf Knights, actually hail from Yamainutaira. Often their backing crew and touring team are made up fellow musically inclined yokai and humans from around Kamikawa District, and they have used numerous locations throughout Yamainutaira township for many of their vinyl artworks, album covers and promotional materials over the last ten years. Chronologically;
-- The abanonded cafe on the cover of 2003's "Giri Choco Shaped Box" was at the time, an empty building on a side street of Kabeoka.
-- The photo for 2006's "Karma and Beauty in Negative Places", which unintentionally resonated with so many in the aftermath of Blood Week and the early months of the war, despite being a yokai focused album largely written before the conflict, was taken outside one of the first apparment block projects that would become the testbed for the rest of Settokanshiba.
-- The cover art for 2008's Single, "Minutes Past Midnight", was captured in the ruins of an old smelter in Tani-no-Su
-- The album it belonged to, 2008's "Theoretical Hybrid", was taken with the help of a local friend of Hanyou descent.
-- The three 2010 singles "A Possesion You Don't Want Out", "London Beckoned", and "Songs Written By Machines" respectively depict a kitsune in one of the band's original bar hangouts in Noukamura, the view down the Western Approach Road in Okamimamotte Iriguchi, and the interior of one of the modern smelter buildings in the Doukouzan Copper Extraction and Refinery Facility.
-- The album cover for 2010's "21st Century Nimrods" was taken in Matangi-Ken no Shinrin, with a few Matangi-Ken friends playing the roles of the traditional hunters and the lonely rifleman.
-- The promotional art for their 2011 "KamiKamiKami" tour, is of a real clearing of standing stones on Matangi-Ken property.
-- The locations on the cover art of the two 2012 Singles, "This Ain't Fun" and "Still My Exception" are from Yamainutaira Junior High, and the grounds of Hokubu-no-Okami Shokonsha Yashiro.
-- And the cover of their latest album, 2013's "This is Love, War, Nightmares and Dreams", includes a drawn rendition of the Retaruseta Kamuy's Lonely Hearts Club Bar in Noukamura, where they wrote and recorded parts of the album.

9 - In Settoshugyoba there is a irohamomiji tree that is locally known as the Red Tree of Fate. So the tale goes, lovers who write each other's names on the trunk in red ink shall always eventually return to each other, so long as their names remain on the tree. This is actually an entirely bogus myth of muggle origin, likely inspired by a combination of the western "names carved into a tree" trope, and the fact that the kanji of "Hokubu Riichimaru and Setto Kana - 1945" can be seen chiseled into the bark of the tree. Still, many couples do so anyway, if only for the gesture and romance factor. More recently it has also become a trend to for couples that have brushed or painted on each other's names, to also re-ink the carved kanji left by Hokubu Riichimaru and Setto Kana at the same time.

10 - Yamainutaira's economy is not a closed system. Many of the town's industries not only rely on trade and sales to other parts of Japan, but also rely on other parts of Kamikawa District for their raw materials, furthering the benefits of their presence to the provincial economy as well. Almost 30% of the lumber Yamainutaira Luber Mill processes comes from outside the township's borders, as does 50% of the various fruits used by HOWLING Juice products, while 45% of the copper slag that Doukouzan Copper Extraction and Refinement Facility reprocesses, comes from a pair of decommissioned mines that no longer have the local workforce or facilities to reprocess the slag themselves. About 25% to 30% of the combined workforce from all three operations, technically live outside Yamainutaira's borders, usually in the township of Kamikawa itself, down in the valley on the otherside of Okamiryosen.

11 - Wondering what the thing against bears many of the local muggles seem to occasionally have is? Thankfully, those of ursine origin don't actually have anything to worry about. They don't actually dislike bears, they just hate the Junior High Bears Baseball Team of Tomamae, in Rumoi Sub-prefecture. The origin of this rivalry actually stems all the way back to ancient times, when the Onikuma clans of Rokusensawa first drove the Ezo Wolves of the Setto Clan into the mountains and raided the den-homes of the Matangi-Ken. The arrival of the Hokubu did little to change this ancient feud, which for much of the 1500s and 1600s, actually intensified due to the gradual shift in power that took place. While the Onikuma of Rokusensawa ever weakened from their constant warring, the alliance of the Hokubu, Setto and Matangi-Ken eventually allowed the three clans to not just outnumber, but also out-innovate, and eventually out politically out-maneuver the Rokusensawa. Right up until the Meiji Restoration, there existed a rivalry that even permeated down into the muggle populace between the two towns. One that has ironically, actually outlasted most of the yokai that initially perpetuated it. While the changing nature of society has caused most of the younger generations of bears, wolves and dogs to not really feel beholden to the historic feud out of necessity and perspective, the rivalry was so much a part of each locales identity that it persisted past the Statute of Secrecy and initial obliviations. Now days though, it takes the form of a fiercely competitive sporting and academics rivalry. Even in sports and competitions where Yamainutaira or Kamikawa Sub-prefecture isn't up against Tomamae or Rumoi Sub-prefecture, you can usually expect the locals to be cheering on the opposite team simply on principle.

12 - Want to get some wheels to get around? Well, firstly you're going to need to learn how to drive. For those with an understanding and magical perspective, who are experienced with teaching those unfamiliar with muggle motor vehicles, try contacting the A1 Automotive Driving School in Noukamura. For those more interested in getting around by bus or train, they can also help set up and instruct in the matters of acquiring muggle public transport cards, and making sense of muggle train and bus schedules.
Spoiler


"Thanks for reading and and hopefully this guide has proven helpful in getting to know just a little bit more about our town, and how we hope to lend a hand whenever it is needed. From all of us on the team with the Yamainutaira War Migrant Support Program and Yamainutaira Town Council, we wish you the best of luck and good fortune with whatever comes next. - Hokubu Kariudoko"

Has this guide proven helpful? Do you have anything you feel we should suggest, add or change? Or are you somebody that just wants to help out? Well, to set up a meeting, or owl and mail in your suggestions, you can contact us at;

Yamainutaira War Migrant Support Program
Kabeoka Town Hall,
165 Chouyakuba Road, Kabeoka,
Yamainutaira, Kamikawa District
Hokkaido

 

Second Summer Holidays - Summer TWO B, Split Point due to Keep Filesize Down

START

 

Harry Leferts

You know how sometimes you come across something in a book and it makes you think? I was thinking about the Department of Mysteries since Third Year was coming up, in particular the time turner room. And then something struck me with this coming from it... Not sure if omake or not.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Fingers tapping against her arm, Martha frowned as she watched the group of wizards and witches place the reagents in the proper places in front of her. Even now, she could smell the nearly pungent aroma of some of the materials. "Jacob? How much longer until we're ready?"

Chuckling, the older wizard grinned up at her while running his hand through thinning hair. "Not long, Martha. Give us about five minutes and we'll be ready. Temporal magic is a tricky thing after all as you well know. One screw up..."

Left unsaid was what could happen to those involved.

All the witch did though was nod her head as she was well aware of the dangers of messing with such magic. While her team continued their work, her mind went back to what they were doing. Where the British had the Department of Mysteries, MACUSA had ALADDIN to plumb the depths of magic. At one point, that was where Martha had worked before Blood Week. In particular one project involving temporal magic.

While such things like time turners and the like were somewhat known, there were other avenues of research into temporal magic. And it was extremely dangerous despite the rewards, something made apparent more then a century ago when ALADDIN picked up an incident in Britain. No one was quite sure what happened, but time world wide went... wonky, in a word, for nearly a week. As it was, nobody would have noticed except for sensors in properly protected places picked up the temporal disturbances. And at least three people in the records were wiped from existence, their disappearances noted by the spells around ALADDIN's research areas even though no one remembered them.

It was well before Martha's time in the Temporal Research Department, but from the stories the Department of Mysteries in Britain was contacted and explanations were demanded. Not just by MACUSA, but other magical nations as well. However, there never was any answers to what had occurred as the DoM had brought up the secrecy they had. Needless to say, that had an effect on the other research departments worldwide and often saw them come under much more scrutiny outside of Britain.

For MACUSA, it was often focused on seeing what was going to happen or what had happened. To be able to see events as they unfolded without the need to rely on divination. As it turned out though, the future was nearly impossible to see into with the past being easy to do so. Martha herself had mentioned it was like seeing a movie in some ways when they looked at events hundreds of years in the past. Granted, there was some research that went on in regards to looking into alternate timelines or pulling items from the future.

Being a No-Majborn, Martha had laughed herself sick when she found out that one such experiment had happened around Roswell. The result being a bunch of No-maj debris in the desert that was left behind for the non-magicals to pick up and cart off to Area 51. To this day, no one was sure what the hell came through, if it was from the future or an alternate timeline, but it had happened.

However, Martha worked on a different project in the department. Something that had it's roots in World War Two when a person had the idea of using temporal magic in regards to the casualties of various people. No, not go into the past and modify it, even they knew better. But something else...

True resurrection.

Said idea at it's most basic being to use temporal magic on a corpse and rewind time for it until it was alive once more. It seemed to be simple, after all turning back time on a living thing and regressing it to a younger age was a well known trick. Granted, in such cases if a person got caught in the magic, they would only remember to the age that they appeared to be. Everyone still winced when they remembered the oldest of the team. Poor Joan had pushed one of her fellows out of the way of an accident during an experiment and went from a hundred and sixty year old to the age of two. Her entire life wiped out in a few seconds, though from what Martha had heard she was being raised by her great-grandson and was celebrating her second sixteenth birthday, not that she remembered her first.

Despite the idea of turning back the clock to bring back the dead seeming to be so simple, it proved to be anything but. No matter what they did or how much magic used, it never worked. The very best that they could do was to get a warm corpse just past the time where resuscitation would work. It did not matter how "Fresh" the corpse was, whether it was nearly new or just bones and dust, all they got was a body just before they could be revived. About the only thing that made sense was that magic itself was preventing them from getting any closer. Something that unnerved everyone involved.

Even when Martha became part of the team in the 1990s, they still could not work. And when Blood Week came around, the project was all but shut down as it was taking up resources needed elsewhere. It was a despondent Martha who crashed at her non-magical brother's place with her niece when she noticed that said girl was watching a movie that caught her interest. And the movie also caught Martha's.

After much discussion between her and her brother, they hit upon an idea. One that became more prudent as the Statute became weaker and everyone could see that it would eventually fall. Both her and her brother, Ralph, were extremely intelligent and good at what they did. He got some funding on the non-magical side and she got some on the magical. A sort of project that was to see if both sides could work...

Martha was snapped out of her thoughts as Ralph tapped her on the shoulder. "I think that you're team is done... and mine has the final component. You ready to give it a shot?"

Lips curling into a smirk, the witch chuckled. "To push the boundaries of magic and science? You bet." She watched as bones were laid out right where the temporal magic would take effect and nodded while stepping forward. "Just watch..."

Several minutes later, an odd looking bird was laying in the middle of the circle where the bones had been. Jacob waved his wand over it and gave a thumbs up. "It's a success! The body died just minutes ago according to the spells, so your team can take it from here."

Rubbing his hands together, Ralph chuckled as he looked at the rest of his team. "Okay guys, grab it and bring it to the lab. We got to get the reproductive cells out from it before they get too far gone."

As they took it away, Martha slid her wand into it's holster and shook her head. "Not sure why you wanted that."

Only shrugging, Ralph shook his head. "From what one of the guys said, we might be able to sell it as a livestock species since it is flightless." Both of them left the cleanup to Martha's team as they walked out. "Especially in Hawaii as that is where they come from."

Rolling her eyes, Martha sighed. "Well, your people are the experts there. Just like we're the experts in our own section... Though if that is some sort of duck, then they're extremely weird looking."

Ralph gave her a grin back. "Maybe, but it also might be pretty tasty as well. In any case though, we still got a few years to really show the world what we can do..." Glancing around, he leaned towards her. "You're positive that MACUSA won't be after us?"

Just shaking her head, Martha frowned. "It's all above board, they don't really care as long as we don't reveal too much at the moment. Or at least my bosses don't anyways. Besides, the Statute is on borrowed time." Coming to a stop near a bird cage, she watched the bird inside coo. The result of one of the earlier part of the project. "We need some good press."

Hands in his pocket, her brother snorted. "It may not be a dinosaur, but it's a good step forward."

Snorting herself, Martha grinned. "Maybe in a few years we'll manage to get a sabretooth tiger for Cathy..." Both of them shared a look and laughed as they walked off. Meanwhile, the passenger pigeon simply cocked it's head to the side before flying elsewhere in the cage.

 

Harry Leferts

Knocking on the door, Harry waited for several moments while there was noise behind it. Then it opened to reveal Akatsuki who's face lit up. "Harry-Chan!" Opening the door the rest of the way, she gestured inside. "Come in!"

A small smile on his face, Harry gave her a nod while doing so. "Thanks, Akatsuki-Chan." Taking off his shoes and putting on the slippers, he blinked as he noticed a pair there that looked rather familiar. 'I wonder who that might be...' After following Akatsuki into the rest of the apartment though, the wizard's eyebrows rose at the silver haired and golden eyed shipgirl that was standing there. She wore a red coat over a white button shirt with a dark brown dress. "Atlanta?"

Said shipgirl turned and gave Harry a chuckle as her southern accent colored her speech. "Afternoon, Harry. It's been a bit, hasn't it?"

Unable to help himself, Harry grinned some. "What? Two years or so?"

Letting out a light laugh, Atlanta shook her head. "Roughly about that, yes." A smile still on her face, she gently gave Akatsuki a headpat as the Destroyer passed. "Same amount of time since I last saw this little lady here."

Akatsuki was not able to stop the small blush on her face, though she was rather pleased by the words. Like a number of shipgirls, the Destroyer was still haunted by what happened to her when she sank. There were times when she woke up late at night in a cold sweat as she dreamed of illuminating various ships, including Atlanta herself, in order to let her friends and sisters target more easily. Something that, however, also meant that she became an easy target with the American Light Cruiser being the one to sink her.

But also, like many other shipgirls they had buried the hatchet though it was hard. For the longest time since being summoned, Akatsuki had been afraid of the other shipgirl. Unknown to her, while Atlanta herself still had a few lingering issues, the idea of an allied Destroyer being so scared of her actually hurt. Thus, after getting permission from Tenryuu to do so, Atlanta took Akatsuki out for some ice cream in order to settle things with a talk. It helped a lot for the tension between them. What helped out even more was a few weeks later when after hearing about Akatsuki being threatened/bullied by some American Destroyers due to an article written by Aoba, Atlanta had shown up. She was not happy with things in the slightest.

Something that she went on to show with the verbal barrage that she gave said American Destroyers.

Later on, there was also an incident where at night, separated from the others, Atlanta shielded Akatsuki from a number of Light Cruisers for long enough that the Japanese Destroyer was able to reload her torpedoes and sink them in the end. Needless to say that by this point in time the two were able to stay in the same room without cringing. Which Tenryuu approved of even if Tatsuta tried to intimidate the American every time.

Just shaking off those thoughts of the past, Akatsuki turned back into the conversation in time for Harry's next words. "So Akatsuki-Chan is 'Little lady' now, huh?"

Eyebrow raised, Atlanta shook her head as she crossed her arms. "Harry, Akatsuki here is a true young Lady. She's well mannered and spoken which are two of the more important parts. Give her some time to grow, and I know that she will look every inch the proper Lady that she wants to be and will be."

Blushing, Akatsuki hurried off to help Inazuma set the table. 'Thank you, Atlanta-San.'

While her daughters set the table, Tenryuu gave Akatsuki a wink before looking over her shoulder at Harry. "So, Kiddo, hope that you're hungry! I made my world famous Gyūdon! The food of champions!"

Lips twitching, Harry glanced over at Verniy who was smiling some before he gave Tenryuu a thumb's up. "I'll try my best, Tenryuu-Oba! Besides, you make some of the best Gyūdon out there... Same with your Butadon." He then looked towards Atlanta with a confused look. "You staying for some as well?"

Chuckling, the American patted her stomach. "Of course, been a bit since I last ate Ryoko's cooking." Thoughtful, she turned to Akatsuki who was humming. "You were telling me tht she's teaching you how to cook it, right?"
Lightly smiling, Akatsuki nodded. "Hai! Kaa-San is teaching me so that I can cook just like a proper elephant lady."

Amused by the slip up, Atlanta only smiled before chuckling. "Maybe I should teach you how to make fried chicken. It's big here in Japan, right?" Once a surprised Akatsuki nodded, she turned to Harry. "Anyways, I'll be around for a while. The higher ups want me to start training the new Sendais and any other Unbuilt Light Cruisers that show up. Like if Ryoko here gets more sisters."

Softly groaning, Tenryuu shook her head. "Don't remind me. I guess that more sisters would not be too bad, but it is just going to be so weird if it happens. Awesome, but weird."

In reply, Atlanta shrugged. "Guess so, I wouldn't know as all my planned sisters got built." Turning back to Harry though, she shook her head. "But yeah, they want me to help out training any that show up. No offense to either Ryoko or Tatsuta... or anyone else, these guys won't have the bad habits that they might have to undo first."

Eyes closed, Tatsuta gave the silver haired Cruiser a smile. "Ara, ara, isn't that just the sort of thing that might be said?"

Completely unphased, Atlanta gave her a smirk back. "And yet, it's true. I already got them learning about American damage control after all, something that they took to better then you did from memory. And I know that Ryoko here nearly browbeat her crew to get them to learn." Spotting something, she blinked. "Hey, isn't that Hibiki's old hat you're wearing?"

Grinning, Harry adjusted the hat that he was wearing on his head some. "Yeah, it is. Hibiki-Chan gave to me after her rebuild. Been using it as it keeps the sun off and, well..." A slight blush appeared on his cheeks. "It feels kind of nice."

Now really amused, Atlanta had a twinkle in her eye as she nodded. "I see..." Then she brought up one finger and pointed. "Uh, it just moved on its own."

Harry's eyes widened some and he walked over to Verniy. "Oh yeah! That reminds me, I have something to show you, Hibiki-Chan! Its really cool."

Curious, the white haired Destroyer turned to him. "Da? You have something cool to show me, Harry-Chan?"

Only nodding, Harry came to a stop and grasped the brim of his, formerly Hibiki's, hat. "That's right. Now, Hibiki-Chan, I want you to meet..." He then lifted his hat up. "Hibitki."

A dour expression on her face, the smol looked up at the wide eyed countenance of her full sized counterpart. "Biki."

Everyone stared before Inazuma waved her hands around. "Hawawawa!" Clapping her hands to her mouth, she leaned in with wide eyes. "It's a tiny little Hibiki-Chan! Nanodesu!"

Blinking slowly, Atlanta stared. "What. The. Hell?"

Ikazuchi huffed a bit and crossed her arms. "Oh man, now you show up? After I lost that bet on the first smol?" Nearly as one, both Verniy and Hibitki turned and gave Inazuma's twin identical dour looks. Slowly, Ikazuchi raised her finger and pointed at them. "Creeepy..."

Head tilted to the side as she walked over and examined the smol, Tenryuu frowned some before flipping up her eyepatch. "So, uh... When did she show up?"

Looking up at the top of his head the best that he could, Harry frowned. "Um... it was after I went out for ice cream with Hibiki-Chan and the others. She just sort of appeared."

Now grinning, Tenryuu turned and gave her white haired daughter a grin. "Oh, really now? Isn't that interesting? So she appeared after your little date then?"

Cheeks red, Verniy looked away. Kaa-San..."

Meanwhile, Harry also blushed and glanced at Verniy. "Um, I... that is... Well..."

Both of their responses only made Tenryuu grin ever wider in response. In an attempt to distract her mother, Verniy coughed. "I also have something to show you, Harry-Chan." Lifting off her own hat, Harry had to blink at what was there. "This is Suzu-Chan."

Eyes wide, Harry leaned in as the baby phoenix chirped from where it was nestled in Verniy's hair. "Wow... where'd Suzu-Chan come from? I mean, is there a phoenix living nearby?"

All Verniy did though was shake her head. "Nyet. She appeared after we did a patrol to Nakanotorishima, Harry-Chan. Maybe her parents laid her egg there due to the volcano erupting."

Scratching his head, the wizard just gave a shrug. Before he could say anything though, Tenryuu was carrying a number of plates over that were balanced on her arms. "Well, time for dinner now." With a glance at Hibitki, she placed one of the smaller bowls in front of her and gave her some chopsticks. "And here you go as well. Enjoy everyone!"

Moments later, they were all digging in as Hibitki took a large noodle and slurped it up.

 

Harry Leferts

Slurping up some noodles, Tenryuu pounded at her chest before sighing. "Ah, now that hits the spot. Nothing like some good Gyūdon." Out of the corner of her eye, Tenryuu spotted something white and turned to find Hedwig on the windowsill. For several moments, the two had a staring contest while the Light Cruiser gathered up some more before she gestured. "There's a metal bowl over there with some beef in it if that's what you want."

In return, Hedwig gave a bob of her head. "Prek."

Only watching as the owl flew over to said bowl, Atlanta raised an eyebrow before swallowing her own food. "Now that is one smart owl. Kind of freaky to be honest."

Harry simply shrugged at that before chuckling. "Yeah, smart and beautiful, that's Hedwig. Besides, you should see Mum's hamster. He's just as smart..." Frowning for a moment, he shook his head. "Kind of odd really..."

All of them watched as Hedwig grabbed one of the small pieces of beef before snapping it up. Shaking her head though, Inazuma turned towards Harry with an interested expression. "By the way, Harry-Chan? Do you have anything that you're doing for the next few days? Haruna-San's and Rose-San's wedding is coming up."

Frowning, Harry considered the question before gesturing at her with the chopsticks. "I'm actually going to be pretty busy, dess. Not so much with the wedding as there's not much that I can help with and I would just get in the way really unless they ask."

With a smirk, Ikazuchi snickered. "Smart man."

Moments later, she winced as Tenryuu flicked her ear. "Behave." Turning back to Harry, she raised an eyebrow. "So what are you going to be doing?"

Taking a sip of his ramune, Harry thought it over some. "Well, like I said, I'm going to be pretty busy. Tomorrow I'll be heading out with Shinano-Chan back to Shiromizu's mountain, Ginzan."

Head tilted to the side, Akatsuki blinked some. "Silver Mountain, Harry-Chan? Why is it called that?"

As he hummed, Harry shrugged some. "According to what Misa-San told us, the mountain had a number of small silver mines which also had copper and zinc in them. They were bigger back before the Statute though which was why Kiri Castle was there to guard the mines. Magic also helped get the metals out, though there was a small rush starting back after WWI."

Rubbing her chin, Tatsuta hummed some. "I wonder if any of the old ores there are still workable..."

Just shaking his head, Harry frowned. "No clue, though from what Misa-San said, they're going to ship off all the slag heaps and such in case there's anything recoverable from them. Any money from that will go to the village." Taking some more noodles, the black haired boy chuckled some. "Anyways, Shinano-Chan and I as are going to be exploring the old amusement park. According to Shiromizu there might be some neat stuff there."

Inazuma just gave a shudder. "Be careful, Harry-Chan. Some of those old parks are really creepy, Nanodesu. Like something from a horror movie."

Expression serious, Harry swallowed the food in his mouth and looked at her. "That's why Shinano-Chan is coming. She'd kick anyone's stern that tried something. Not to mention anyone else she wants to bring with us..." After a few more seconds, Harry shook his head. "Besides that, I'm going to go and visit Ume-Chan and Sakura-Chan as well as go diving there. Kind of want to see if there is anything else in the caldera."

Beside him, Verniy gave a small nod. "Then in a few days Ron-San and others will be coming, da? A few days before the wedding?" At the acknowledgement, she frowned slightly. "Then the wedding and your birthday..."

Arms crossed as she tilted her head to the side, Akatsuki frowned some. "Then comes Fleet Week."

Eyes widening, Harry's expression brightened. "Oh yeah! Sort of excited for that this year because I've been hearing some rumors..."

When Harry looked between her and Verniy, Tenryuu snorted. "Probably right if they're the ones that I think that they are."

Intrigued, Atlanta leaned forward. "Oh? I know that the shipgirl section of the base and some of the others will be open to the public starting the third of August this year. Sort of one of those Japanese festivals I keep hearing about?"

Nodding, Akatsuki smiled a bit. "Hai! Fleet Week is always fun! We set up booths with food, drinks, and games! Oh! And we have firework displays and everything." She then gestured to herself. "I dress up in a Kimono for the last day and am a real lady!"

Lips curling upwards, Atlanta hummed a bit. "I'm certain that you look just wonderful in a kimono, Akatsuki. Probably better then I would anyways."

Much to her amusement, Akatsuki waved her hands around while stating that she would look good as well. Rolling her eyes, Tenryuu took some more bites before continuing. "Well, now that Hibiki-Chan and I can summon our hulls, we sort of got roped into the festivities." Gesturing at the white haired Destroyer, the Light Cruiser snorted some. "Long story short, we'll be summoning our hulls there for people to come on and explore a bit."

Blinking, the wizard looked between Verniy and Tenryuu in surprise. "Wait, you're going to be having people on your hulls? Really?"

Somewhat embarrassed, Verniy gave a small nod. "Da, that is right, Harry-Chan. The JMSDF thinks that it would be good PR and neither of us mind too much."

A grin on her face, Tenryuu gave a laugh. "Mind? Not at all! Besides, it's just going to be showing off how awesome we are to everyone, which is true." Eyebrows furrowing, she sighed some. "Though we might also take them out on short trips on the harbor, not sure about that. We're still discussing that much anyways."

Pushing aside her now empty bowl, Tatsuta chuckled some. "Not getting cold feet, are we Tenryuu-Chan?"

Simply rolling her eye, Tenryuu gave a snort. "Like hell I am! Just not really sure about being a glorified cruise ship for the day." With a shrug, she shook her head. "I can see where they're coming from though."

Head tilted to the side, Harry imagined both Verniy and Tenryuu going back and forth with people on board. His attention was then caught by Inazuma. "But it's not just Kaa-San or Hibiki-Chan either! I heard that Houshou-San will be doing the same down at Kure for Fleet Week, and maybe Hiei-San will as well in Sasebo."

Eyes widening slightly, Ikazuchi turned to Harry. "Hey, yeah! Is your Kaa-San able to do that? I mean, that would be pretty cool and all that to see Nagato-San's hull in the water. Or to go and have a look at it."

Grimacing a bit at the thought, Harry shook his head. 'Not sure how I feel about that, though Mum probably wouldn't mind much.' Shaking that off, he turned to the two shipgirls in question. "Are you both going to be okay for that? I mean, we're talking a lot of people here."

Tenryuu just waved him off. "Yeah, there's going to be a lot of people. So what? We can handle it easily and can take breaks when we want to. Tats-Chan here might also join us this year."

When Harry turned to her, Tatsuta gave him a smile. "That's right, Harry-Chan. Though they're not sure about that, something about me being too scary~"

Only rolling his eyes, Harrys snorted at that which seemed to amuse the Cruiser. Something that Verniy said though made him blink and turn to her. "What was that, Hibiki-Chan?"

Flushed some, the white haired Destroyer took a deep breath. "I was wondering when, if I do go through with it, you would stand on my bridge when I leave the dock to head out into the harbor?"

Considering the question some, Harry simply gave her a smile and a nod, which made her relax. Neither noticed the smirks on Ikazuchi's and Tenryuu's faces though. Meanwhile, Hibitki finished demolishing her meal and gave a small burp. Looking at her, Harry gave a chuckle before rubbing her head with one finger. "All done?"

With a nod, the Smol smiled up at him. "Biki." Then she looked at Suzu-Chan and started to gesture. "Biki! Biki biki biki biki."

The phoenix considered this for several moments before bobbing her head and hopping off Verniy's head to the table. Walking over, she gave a chirp as she settled down before the Smol walked over and snuggled into her down. From where she sat, Tenryuu only hummed as she recorded the sight. 'I wonder what would happen if there were mini versions of the other girls...' Briefly, the image of Smol versions of all of DesDiv6 entered her mind as they hugged the phoenix chick and made her smirk. 'Nagato would not survive that...'

 

Harry Leferts

As it had for untold millennia, the chill wind swept across the small island while the North Sea surf pounded at the rocks. Here and there, the odd sheep walked as they munched grass while at the highest point a lighthouse stood. Other then that, the island was quiet, still.

Until, suddenly, it wasn't.

One sheep gave a small cry and did a small trot away from a burst of fire. When the flames dissipated, Crowning stood there with Jersey beside him while Fawkes perched on his shoulder. Somewhat amused, he glanced around and chuckled. "I will admit, that was different."

Lowering her sunglasses, Jersey gave him a look. "Different, Doc? We just travelled across the world via firebird. I fucking think that different is understating it."

Crowning only gave her a smirk before taking a deep breath. "At least it brought us where we wanted."

Just scratching her head, Jersey frowned as she looked around in confusion. Several seconds later, she turned to the south. "The hell? We're off Scotland. What the heck are we doing off Scotland."

A hum escaped from Crowning as he crouched down and grabbed some grass. Standing back up, he let the grass strands fly away in the wind. "Research, Jersey. Of the sort that Gale and I have been working on."

Eyebrow raised, Jersey glanced around the island again and snorted. "Riiiight, okay Doc." One hand resting on her hips in a way that she knew would draw his eye, the Battleship frowned slightly. "Okay, what does an island off the coast of Scotland have to do with Abyssals from before the war? There's nothing here but that lighthouse."

Glancing at her, Crowning gave a chuckle. "Now that is a very good question, Jersey. Before I answer though... do you feel anything odd."

Still frowning, Jersey cocked her head to the side as if listening to something. "Yeah, I feel something." Reaching up, she scratched at her belly. "I'm feeling fucking hungry is what I'm feeling."

That got a laugh from Crowning before he watched as Fawkes flew to a nearby rock and perched there. When he looked at the phoenix's eyes, the doctor could swear that there was a twinkle of amusement there. Only shaking his head, Crowning took off the backpack he was wearing and pulled out a wrapped sub which he handed to his girlfriend. "I had the feeling you may say that. Which is why I packed a large lunch including small pies."

Licking her lips, Jersey grabbed the sandwich and unwrapped it. "I ever tell you how much I fucking love you, Doc?"

His lips twitching, Crowning gave a small laugh. "A few times, Jersey." Moments later, he passed her a glass bottle of coke. "Here you go, Jersey."

Greatly to his amusement, she took the bottle before popping off the metal cap with her teeth. Instead of spitting it out though, she practically inhaled it before crunching it and washing it down with some coke. "Damn, that hits the spot." Taking a bite of her sub, Jersey frowned as she looked around the island and furrowed her eyebrow. "Though, now that ya mention it, Crowning... I do feel something."

Perking up, the former Professor focused his attention on her. "You do? What sort of thing?"

Still chewing thoughtfully, the Battleship glanced around. "It almost feels like what some of those places inhabited by Abyssals did when we took them back. Like Midway, you know? Something here..."

For several moments Crowning looked at her before he had a small, triumphant look. "So we were right..."

Now confused, Jersey looked towards him. "Okay, right about what? And what is so important that you needed me to contact Victory to see if she had some magical way to get here? Because I am telling you right now, I just know that old bitch is going to hold it over on me."

Walking alongside her, Crowning took a bite of his own sandwich which he washed down with a drink of cola. “Well, to answer that, we need a short history lesson.” Rather then say anything with half a sub in her mouth, the Battleship motioned him on. “Firstly, we’re currently on Eilean Mòr, which is the largest island of the Flannan Isles here in the Outer Hebrides. There’s a few structures, including an old chapel that dates back to maybe the 7th Century. But... these islands have been uninhabited as the locals consider them to be the domain of evil spirits for centuries. People would tend the sheep during the day and be gone before nightfall. No one wanted to stay here overnight.”

Only raising an eyebrow as she finished her food, Jersey clapped her hands clean of any crumbs. “Evil spirits on an island at sea, huh? I can see how you and Gale would suspect Abyssals. A bit fucking much to come all the way out here to check on a bunch of old stories.”

Much to her confusion though, Crowning just smirked at her. Actually smirking in a way that told the shipgirl he knew something that he didn’t. “If it was just that, I would not have bothered. But something occurred here that was documented and did make us sit up. You see the lighthouse here is where it all happened in 1900.”

Glancing at the lighthouse, Jersey frowned and raised an eyebrow. “The lighthouse, huh? The fuck happened there?”

Hands in his pocket after handing her a small pie, Crowning stroked his chin. “Now that, Jersey, is the question.” At the look he got, his smirk came back. “Not good enough?”

Softly growling, Jersey glared at him. “No, it’s fucking not and you know it.”

With a gesture at the lighthouse, Crowning cleared his throat. “Due to the danger to shipping, it was decided to build a lighthouse here. Part of the reason for it being here is that one can see it through a telescope on the nearby Isle of Lewis, which is inhabited. While it was being built, the locals warned that the ‘Phantoms of the Seven Hunters’, the nickname for the evil spirits in the area, would be angered by the lighthouse. In December of 1900, there were three lighthouse keepers here. Their names were Thomas Marshall, James Ducat, and Donald MacArthur. Between them, they had more then forty years experience at being lighthouse keepers. Then, on December 15th, at least one passing ship noted that the light was out and reported it once they reached port.”

Jersey suddenly held her hand in a “T” shape and looked at him. “Wait just one moment, Doc. The light was out?” At his nod, her frown deepened. “The fuck? Even when sick a lighthouse keeper would try and light the lamp. And there were three of them? So what in the fuck happened?”

Walking alongside him, Crowning tilted his head. “That was the question. Originally, they were going to send the supply vessel for the lighthouse, the Hesperus, on the 20th. But bad weather prevented them from arriving until the 26th. Upon their arrival, there was no one to greet them as there was supposed to be. The signal flags to show they saw the supply ship were also not flying. So the Captain first blew his ship’s horn and then sent up rockets in case they had not been noticed... there was no response.”

Arms crossed, Jersey scowled. “I think I can guess where this is going. No one alive was on the island.”

Beside her, Crowning nodded. “Indeed, there was no sign of the keepers. So the relief keeper rowed ashore with several others and investigated. They found the outer gate closed and locked as was the door to the lighthouse itself. When they entered though, things became... odd.” At the look, he frowned himself. “The beds were all made and not slept in. More then that, all the normal duties had been done and there was ashes in the grill of the fireplace, showing that the fire had gone out. Outside of the fact that the rain gear for two of the Keepers were gone and the third one was left, there was no sign of what happened to them. It was as if they vanished into thin air.”

Thinking deeply, the Battleship tapped a finger against one well muscled leg. “Hmm. What about the logs? There had to be something in them.”

Lips twitching some, Crowning gave a sigh. “According to the log, starting on the 12th there had been a large storm on the island until it broke on the morning of the 15th. There was just one issue... remember how I mentioned the Isle of Lewis being close enough to see them with a telescope?” When Jersey gave a nod, he continued. “According to them, there was only a heavy mist. No storms were reported and since they were close enough, they should have been able to tell.”

Eyes narrowing behind her sunglasses, Jersey snarled. “Unless it was Abyssals. Those fuckers can create heavy, localized storms. You can be just twenty miles away and not notice them.”

Nodding, Crowning frowned. “Now, the official explanation is that two of them had gone down to one of the supply areas to secure equipment with the third rushing out into the storm to warn them. With the result, of course, of all three getting washed off the island by a rogue wave. It was even noted in the report that whoever last left had been in violation of operating procedure.” That got him a snort from his girlfriend. “But there’s an air of the mysterious around it. A number of sources say that there was a chair knocked to the ground in the lighthouse showing that someone left in a panic. Other sources state that the logs made mention of breakdowns for Donald MacArthur. Supposedly they stated he cried on the 13th and was praying on the 14th. The final message being... ‘Storm ended, Sea calm, God is over all.’ Now, whether that is what the logs said exactly or not...”

Muttering to herself, Jersey shook her head as she came to a stop and looked around the island. She tried to imagine being one of the three. Cooped up in the lighthouse as a storm raged around them that likely seemed unnatural. “Okay, that is some freaky fucking shit right there. All of that together points at something, but you’re positive that the official explanation is not it? Or some wizard or witch was not fucking with them and behind it?”

Eyes narrowed, Crowning shook his head. “I spoke with Albus Dumbledore about the matter. Apparently as soon as they heard about it the Ministry did investigate. Their conclusion was that if magic was involved, it was not human magic. They felt that a Kelpie might have been involved though Newt Scamander felt otherwise when he did some research into it. Whatever happened to them, was unknown. Except for one interesting bit.” Raising a finger, he pointed at the sea. “There were reports of what looked like a ghostly Viking Longship crewed by warriors with ‘faces the colour of bone’ while men in oilskins rowed. The same sort of gear that the lighthouse keepers wore.”

A small shiver went down Jersey’s back as she turned to face the ocean. “And there was that one Abyssal Fleet in the area which based themselves off goddamn fucking Vikings of all things. Shit, you think-“ At Crowning’s nod, she ran a hand through her hair. “Shit. That puts them at what? A hundred and five years before Blood Week then? For this bunch at least?”

Slowly, Crowning nodded as he looked out at the ocean himself. “If it was them as I suspect, then yes. This would mean that they were active at least in 1900, if not earlier. Which is why I wanted you to come, Jersey. If they used this place often, a shipgirl would know.”

Simply staring out at the waves, Jersey hummed before they decided to search over the island just in case. She also sent up her floatplane to look around just in case. The whole time though, there was one thought in the back of her mind. If the Abyssals had taken the lighthouse keepers...

Why and what did they do with them?

Quite some distance away, a light rain was falling over an island hidden by ancient magics. The water falling from the skies did not bother the only one who stood there softly talking with holding a massive claymore in her hands. From the back of her head two horns poked out while two more rose up from above her ears. In terms of height, she towered over what would be a normal woman and ad a body that was well muscled while also attractive. The sort of form that would have been considered beautiful beyond belief among the Celts. Her clothing would have had more to do with the Scottish highlanders then any other.

Eyes closed for several moments, she let out a growl. "Why have yeh come here? Yeh knew I was visiting me da!"

Behind her, the Ta-Class bowed low, the usual skirt replaced by a kilt. "I am sorry, my Lady. But several o' the scouts have returned with news. Ancient Gateway was sighted headin' ta the Irish Sea."

Humming, the Abyssal Princess glanced over her shoulder. "Headin' ta the Irish Sea, yeh say?" Getting a nod, she frowned some. "So th' boot be on the move finally? Ha! Wonder what brought tha' on?"

Still bowed, the Ta frowned. "Should I gather a raid?"

Finger tapping the hilt of her sword, the Princess tilted her head some before shaking her head. "Bah! Na any need o' tha'. She will come ta us most likely, wit fire and fury. Bring ta me th' lairds! A council I be callin!" Closing her eyes, she sighed as the Ta class left. "I remember when I was but a wee bairn on yeh knee, Da, and now lookit me! Ruler o' the fleet! Maw may have gotten yeh as a pet from the Vikings, but yeh were more then tha' ta me. I will do yeh proud, I will." Chuckling, she tore the claymore from the soil and placed it into the sheath on her back. "Aye, I will make yeh proud. Jus' like I made Maw proud when she came back after tha' boot crippled her after their duel and I ended her life like the fool she was... Though I will make yeh proud inna different way..."

As she walked away, the rain continued to fall on the gravestone with a carved lighthouse on it...

 

Harry Leferts

Meal done, the Princess leaned back in her throne like chair. The piece of furniture, carved from driftwood, creaked under her weight. Paying only half a mind to the chatter going on, she glanced around the room. Along the sides of the table sat the "Lairds" that were technically under her command. Technically only because she knew that a number would be more then willing to stab her in the back if it looked like they could gain just the chance at her throne.

While her mother just killed any that could threaten her, the current ruler of the Scottish fleet used other methods to keep them under control. Despite her father being a human, she had clawed her way upwards through various means. All it had taught her was to use every method available to her instead of just pure physical might. Rather then through pure violence like her mother, she instead used guile as often along with the odd blade or two. Playing one of the "Clans" off another, sometimes against other Abyssals and the humans as well. Her situation was a political minefield in a number of ways.

She just barely held back the smirk as she knew what was about to happen.

Holding out her goblet, she gave a nod at the human who poured atholl brose into it. While it would have surprised many, the Abyssals had long had humans on the island. All of them living underneath the Abyssals that ruled the land and sea. After all, who would till the fields? Tend the livestock that lived there? Mine beneath the earth for coal, iron, and other resources? The "Noble" Abyssals?

Not in the slightest.

Almost all the human inhabitants were descended from those who had settled the island many centuries ago. Captured fishermen and sailors as well as slaves bought and traded from Nordic Horde had added to them. In her mother's day, the humans were treated with bare contempt and any uprising put down brutally. The current Princess could still remember the screams of agony as her mother executed some leaders of a failed uprising in her childhood by drawing and quartering. And the smell of the bodies rotting from where they had hung on the castle walls for months afterwards until they fell apart as a warning. Back then, the humans were treated barely better then the livestock they tended.

That was then though and now that the current Princess had risen to power, they lived much better lives. Those of her household were especially treated well and she had made damn sure that it was known what would happen to those who harmed them out of hand. One Ta class from one of the other clans had killed one with a back hand.

In retaliation the Princess had two Destroyers tied to each of her limbs with anchor chains and then had them pull. As a final insult, the daughter of said human was brought forward and given a dagger made of Abyssal metal which was used to finish her by stabbing her in the heart. The Princess helping her drive it in and the body unceremoniously tossed into the ocean.

Said girl currently was a young woman and served as her steward. As well, no one else ever raised a hand against one of her household ever again. It also stopped a number of the whispers behind her back that her human blood made her weak, soft. As well, it made her popular among the humans on the island. Internally, the Princess only chuckled. 'If only those fools knew just how many of their damn plots I know about because they don't pay attention to their human servants...' Sipping her drink, she nodded before clearing her throat. "I am sure tha' all of yeh are wonderin' why I called yeh here on this day?"

Just slamming down a tankard of ale, the Battleship Princess in charge of the Naskall Clan just barely held back a sneer. "Aye, wonderin' what sort of idea wormed it's way inta your head this time. Better be a good on'!"

There were murmurs around the table before one of the Aircraft Carrier Demons, Skykill and head of her clan then spoke up. "Ach! Get on wit it!" Suddenly, she grinned. "Unless there be killin' ta be done. Especially o' them humans!"

Face impassive, the Princess internally growled. After all, she was against the war but needed to go ahead with it due to at least two of the Elder Princesses that bordered her. She knew that they would simply kill her if she had said no. Not that it was any issue anymore with their deaths and their fleets fighting amongst one another and against the humans. But it served another purpose by getting rid of the more... troublesome voices. "I have received word tha' Ancient Gateway has been sighted o' in the Irish Sea. Alon' wit' Ocean Liner Demoon."

As she expected, utter silence met that announcement for several moments before it filtered through their heads. More then one pair of eyes lit up in unholy glee as a voice shouted. "So this be a council o' war! Ach, yeh Highness, when do we leave!"

However, the answer that they got created just as much of a silence as the previous one as the Princess snorted and sipped from her goblet. "Leave? Now why ever would we do a daft thing like tha'? Nay, we'll stay here and increase th' patrols."

Eyes narrowing, the only Supply Depot Princess there frowned in thought as she met the head Princess' eyes. Before the current one rose to power, her clan had been looked down upon. They were mostly traders, merchants, unlike the others. But with the current one's rise to power, so did their clan also rise in the hierarchy. "Why woul' the boot be headin' ta the Irish Sea now? It makes no sense..."

Smiling thinly, the Princess held her hands in front of her face. "Is it not obvious? She's aimin' ta make peace with the humans." At the widening eyes, she waved one hand around. "She never made much o' a secret o' her opinion o' th' war. Now tha' her sisters all be dead, she be doin' wha' she had wanted ta from the beginning."

Fist slamming down, the Battlecruiser Princess there snarled. "Allyin' wit o' the humans!? Is she mad!? And yet, here yeh are not takin' the chance!"

The glare she got as the Princess leaned forward silenced her and the others. And when the Princess spoke, it was low and filled with menace. "An' wha' do yeh expect ta happen? Hmm? A quick and decisive victory o'er her? Because her fleet is weak?" Making sure to take a moment to meet each pair of eyes, the Princess then slammed her hand down, palm open which made them all flinch. "Ancient Gateway, fer all her appearances, is not ta be underestimated! Me Maw did that and look at where it got her!"

It was then that her Steward stepped forward with a scroll in her hands. Her red braided hair darkened in the light from the bluish flames though it glinted off the gold she wore. Leaning forward, she waited until the Princess moved her head close and whispered into her ear. More then one of the other Abyssal leaders sneered at the sight of the human. Ignoring them, the Princess took the scroll and read it before nodding and handing it to one of her few allies. It was a Battleship Demon, but unlike most she only stood shoulder height even to a modestly tall human. Her guns, as well, were all much lower caliber.

But for all that, both her and her clan were well known for being extremely vicious fighters, even the humans in it.

Eyebrows raising, she turned her attention to her leader. "So Goda be dead then? And her fleet as well?"

Slowly, the Princess nodded. "Ach, so it seems. An' the last sightin' o' her was when she was headin' ta Gateway's territory. Like I have been sayin', Gateway is not ta be underestimated..." Leaning back, she had a thoughtful look on her face. "Have supplies and resources stockpiled and increase all o' th' patrols. We'll be gettin' ta slake our thirst fer blood an' war soon enough. Gateway will be wantin' ta have as much room and power tha' she can get from th' humans. An' tha' means she'll be striking at all o' us out here ta get it. A snake in th' grass she may be, but a snake can be noticed..."

Hours later, the Scot Princess walked through the hallways of her castle with her Steward beside her. She could remember her father telling her how it reminded him of those in the Scottish Highlands, though much larger and foreboding. Upon reaching her bedchambers, she gave a small nod to the two Re-Class and two humans guarding it. Then she turned and gave a nod to her Champion, a Battlecruiser Demon whose hull many would have recognized as being HMS Incomparible. Said Champion only bowed slightly as she entered her own room next to the Princesses. A show of trust for one of the few who had been beside her from the beginning and a final layer of protection. "An' a good night ta yeh."

Chuckling briefly, the Princess shook her head. "An' a good night ta yeh as well, friend. See yeh on the morn."

Upon entering her bedchambers, she nodded at the old man who was there and who left. It was only once the doors were closed, and she was sure that both her and the Steward were alone, that all the unseen tension drained out of her. Seeing this, the Steward stepped forward. "Milady-"

The Princess turned and gave a wan smile to the smaller human. "Yeh know better the' that when we be alone, Lass. Yeh of all people have tha' right, Heather."

Now also smiling, Heather nodded. "Sorry abou' tha', Murdina. Bit o' a habit, yeh are my laird after all."

Weakly chuckling, the Princess looked out the window at hearing the name her father called her. Her own mother called her differently, but she preferred her father's name for her. Especially the meaning. "Ach, no need o' apologizing now. Th' last thin' tha' I be needin' is tha'. Especially as yeh have no need ta do so. Speak freely when we are like now. I rely too much on yeh fer anything else."

Only watching as Murdina walked over and sat down in one of the giant chairs built for one of her size, Heather could only wonder about the Abyssal. Never had any of the humans on the island had thought that one of them would rise to the position of Steward of the Castle. And yet, she had and was not the only one to gain a high position in the Clan Corryvreckan. While harsh, Murdina was considered fair nonetheless and took an interest in making things better for the humans. Something that made all of them loyal to her and they often acted as spies on the other clans. More then one attempt on her life was thwarted by the plans being overheard by a human servant and passed on.

Her actions after Blood Week had only improved things as she had expended the more... bloodthirsty members of the Clans in attacks against the shipgirls. Unfortunately for said Abyssals, often there were times when they found themselves without support against forces arrayed against them. Or finding themselves caught between the shore batteries of the British Army's artillery and the shipgirls after being ambushed. Not all of them and not often, but often enough. Usually said Abyssals were also the ones who were the worst towards the humans on the island and most likely to hatch some plan to kill Murdina.

Just walking forward, Heather bowed her head some. "Murdina, if I may..."

Lips twitching, Murdina placed one hand gently on Heather's head before stroking the hair there. "Yeh be wonderin' about why I chose the ones ta head out?" At the nod, she chuckled while a sardonic smile appeared on her face. "Because I know tha' bunch and I know Gateway. When she comes, an' she will come, those Clans will throw themselves inta the fight. An' she'll gut the bunch o' them and then I'll gut the rest o' them."

Reaching up, Heather frowned as she placed her hand on the much larger one stroking her head. "But wha' abou' when Gateway comes? Yeh be sendin' the bunch o' them ta their deaths means we got less ta defend ourselves with."

Much to her surprise, Murdina leaned in with a grin. "Ach, true enough, Heather me Lass. But I aim not ta defeat Gateway. Nay, I be aiming ta just drive her off while takin' the last o' me problems with her. Then, I'll speak wit the humans and make peace. Make them think tha' the bunch o' us are too weak thanks ta Gateway. Unlike Gateway though, I can prove ta them tha' we can get along wit' humans. And not jus' because of yeh and th' others."

Eyes widening, Heather turned and looked in another direction. "The people in th' South Tower?"

Grin widening, Murdina let out a laugh. "Aye, they be the Ace in our hole. People we captured ferm the oil rigs and ships we sank. I've been keepin' them nice and safe all o' this time. Had mine obey th' rules o' war I did fer just that reason. So when th' time comes, I jus' hand th' bunch o' them over to the humans wit' some gold fer those we killed. Never wanted ta fight in th' first place, must be the bit o' human in me."

Only chuckling, Heather embraced the much larger woman who hummed. "Ah, but the bit o' human is why yeh are how yeh are, my Laird." Getting a chuckle back, she then narrowed her eyes some as Murdina embraced her back, one hand stroking along her back. "An' wha' aboot Gateway 'erself? She did cripple yeh Maw afta all."

Lightly laughing, Murdina shook her head. "Th' Boot? Nay, I not be a fool enough ter try an' kill her. Iffin I got the chance, I would thank 'er... right before slipping a dagger between those ribs o' 'ers. Like I did wit' me Maw fer wha' she did ta me Da after Gateway lamed her. Don' mean tha' I'm aboot ta fight 'er though, not fool enough fer tha', Heather. Also don' mean tha' I won' be the biggest pain o' the arse ta her tha' I can be either. Tha' I can be an' the humans would like tha'."

The only thing that Heather did was smile as she leaned in more with a twinkle in her eye. After all, her Laird was still somewhat tense and she knew how to get that out of her. Something that neither minded all too much.

 

Snippet 19: S0ngD0g13

Canut parried Angband's spear and punched the Carrier in the gut with her axe, then stepped back two paces. "I think it's time to rest for a while, Lady Angband." The Battleship Demon tossed a skin of watered mead to the Carrier and stowed her axe before sitting.

Angband took a thoroughly-unladylike gulp of mead from the wineskin and sat as well. "Just as well; you're still beating me three bouts in five."

Canut nodded calmly. "You're improving, don't fret."

Angband smiled a little and stowed her spear. "There's been word from the borders, Canut. In the past few days there have been reports of fleetless Abyssals gathering near Mother's border in ones and twos. The funny thing is, these wanderers are both polite to our pickets, and asking for you."

Canut grinned. "I was many years a wayfarer, Lady Angband. There's many and many a place I've been and many more's the fellow-wanderers I've shared the road with. But every wanderer grows weary of wandering in time, starts dreaming of a home-port. I offered them such, an' they swear their oaths to the Princess." Canut took the wineskin and drank deep. "By chance is one of those wanderers a Ru-Class who answers to 'Ruithidh'? The Border-Wardens would know her look by the sash she wears, in Cameron-of-Erracht Tartan."

Angband nodded again. "There's an Abyssal who fits that description..."

Canut grinned wider. "Good; I'd thought that mad Highlander dead for a while... Ruithidh is originally from the realm of Scots Princess; we met several years ago when I was briefly employed by one of Scots Princess' 'Lairds' as a troubleshooter."

Angband strongly suspected that Canut meant 'troubleshooter' in the literal sense of 'One who Shoots Trouble'... "Oh? Mother once fought Scots Princess' mother; the Scottish Abyssal survived the fight but died of her wounds later, I heard."

Canut laughed aloud. "Having spent time there, and having dealt with the Scots Fleet in the days of Northern Horde, it's just as likely the current Scots Princess helped her mother's passing along. Did you know, Lady Angband, that you, Ruithidh, and the Scots Princess all share a common trait?"

"Which is?"

"You're all three half-human. Ruithidh's sash was a gift from her father, in fact."

Angband finished the mead while she thought. "So how did Ruithidh-- What's that mean, by the way?-- come to be a wanderer?"

Canut pulled out a second skin of mead, this one uncut, and took a drink. "Her Laird saw humans as weak; she sent Ruithidh, whose name means 'Ruination' in the tongue of that people, on what amounted to a suicide mission along with several other half-human Abyssals. Ruithidh was young, but not stupid, and she realized after the rest of her task-force were killed by Shipgirls in the Denmark Strait that returning to her home-port would only see her killed or sent on another suicide-run. So she just never went back."

Canut drank again and chuckled. "Ironically, she actually could return to Scotland now without fear of reprisal if she chose; Ruithidh's former Laird was executed by Scots Princess for killing one of the Princess' human servants, I heard. But Ruithidh's traveled the waters ever since leaving Scotland, selling her sword for different Princesses and Demons to get by; she briefly had a fleet of her own, actually, a half-dozen half-feral Destroyers and two Light Cruisers, at least until they made the mistake of facing HMS Gurkha..."

Angband sipped slowly from the wineskin and wiped her lips. "So, what's your plan for these former-wanderers and ex-mercenary Abyssals, Canut?"

"They'll keep just outside the borders for now, and keep their peace, until the Princess returns. Then, they swear fealty to her. Or..." Canut smiled slightly.

"Or?"

"Or, if we wanted to try impressing the Princess with our initiative, by presenting her a fait accompli, we could sail to the borders now, and have them swear fealty to you, Angband..."

 

WickedestCard

So, I finally figured out what I wanted for Part 5. I was thinking of something else but I'm not quite sure how Nagato would react to MiniGato introducing Alli to her. Not that long and I'm pretty sure I'll need to go back and edit some things. But without further ado:

The Amazing Adventures of MiniGato: Part 5!
---
MiniGato had a look of curiosity as she looked at the gathering on Harry’s desk in his room while said boy went to go grab something. Hibitiki, ShiNANO and Alli were all there wondering why the black haired wizard had called up this impromptu meeting. Eventually he returned with a admittedly large catalog magazine in his hands that he put down in front of them. The four gathered around it and their curious face went slightly confused.


“So, I went and got a dollhouse magazine for you all to look through. Since I’m finding more Smols and I’m sure there are probably more to come I thought why not get you all your own house!” Harry exclaimed as he opened up the magazine, showing many different dollhouses with some looking like mini mansions.


“See, some of this are for collectors that have dozens and dozens of dolls and like set up displays so they should have plenty of room even if we get more visitors. They’ll be big enough so that you all can personalize your own rooms and if we need to, later I can learn how to make it bigger on the inside.” Harry stated as he slowly turned the pages, letting the Smols take good looks at the pictures and designs. Hibitiki seemed to enjoy the ones based on snow houses while MiniGato and ShiNANO like the traditional looking ones.


There was another reason as for a while Nagato would sometimes find the Smols setting up shop in odd places and once even found two large pillow forts (that had far more pillows than she bought) being manned by them and having a silly string fight that had given her the idea. It in no way was Nagato trying to get a large concentration of cuteness in a single place so that she could take photos for prosperity, no sir.


Continuing through the magazine, the five of them looked through many different kinds of doll houses, some that could only fit the four of them to some that Harry was sure could house an entire Smol fleet. Harry would admit he was slightly partial to a country manor victorian style one that could split open. It was similar to the ones he remembered seeing in picture books when he was younger and would daydream.


“Pip pip piiiip~” Alli spoke up as she turned a page and pointed. As it turned out the catalog also included a small section on both doll, figurine and model outfits and one of them was a WWII fighter pilot outfit that had caught the fairy’s attention.


“Gato? Gato gato gato?” MiniGato asked, tilting her head to the side as Alli continued to excitedly explain.


“Uh...ShiNANO, Hibitiki? Translation please?” Harry asked the other two Smols, as the young wizard still couldn’t really understand the fairy.


“Biki biki biki...biki biki.” the white haired tiny destroyer monotoned, a small smile on her chubby face. ShiNANO in the meantime was looking at various samurai archer outfits and such.


“Oh, so Alli thinks that MiniGato would look great in a fighter’s uniform? I think she would and I’m sure that I could find a leather helmet or something for Hedwig and put RAF roundels on it.” Harry mused.


“Gato! Gato gato.” MiniGato suddenly spoke up as her own eyes widened and sparkled. Apparently she was looking quite intensely at classical Emperor outfit complete with headdress and two ornate mats for the matching Empress doll.


“Oh, that’s pretty cool and you are the mini version of the Flagship before Yamato-Oba so it fits you MiniGato.” Harry mused, the Smol in response having a smug look as she imagined herself in that outfit.


“Shi? Nano nano nano shi?” ShiNANO asked a little quietly as she looked at some of the possible prices.


“Huh? Well, Mum gives me a pretty nice allowance for my chores and all the errands I do around the base also gets me enough pocket money. So I tend not to touch the money Yukikaze makes with my trust or the money I got from the Room of Requirement. Honestly I would rather use that money for my friends and family and you all are part of my family as much as Mum or Hoppu.” Harry said truthfully. Still, it seemed that the four couldn’t quite decide on a house but Harry made note of the outfits so that Nagato could order them soon.


As he went to go find a pen he noticed a application paper that wasn’t there before.


“Wait...you four are gonna enter the Fleet Week Curry Contest?” the wizard asked. In response Hibitiki simply took out a tiny golden pot from somewhere, placed it on her head and salute him.
---
Gonna admit, I'm not 100% sure that Harry has access to the money Yukikaze makes but I think he can use a small amount of it but he chooses not for reasons. Harry Leferts if that's not correct I'll go back and change it.

As I was writing this I realized that if knowledge of the Smols reached the general public I am 1000% certain that someone will gift Smol!Yamato a perfectly modeled and to scale model of any Japanese palace complete with ponds and trees. And Smol!Yamato will carry/drag Smol!Enterprise and Smol!Yahagi in a tour and to live with her. Honestly the Smols are a toy company PR dream come true for sales. Besides that, anyone want to suggest the outfits and a house that the Smols will get? I'm open to having this be a participation choice or having our Kaijiu decide overall.

 

Lord K

Looking over her accumulated notes one final time, Mary watches carefully as she feeds the last of them into the device concealed within the suitcase, set upon the desk of the muggle hotel room she is currently occupying.

It looks like a madman's cross between an Enigma Machine, a mechanical computer, a steam-punk printer, and a 1930's typewriter with the innards of a clock draped over the exterior. Into the top tray go stacks of her notes and fresh printing paper, and out of the bottom come her original versions and the now magically ciphered copies.

The former simply go back into her briefcase, while the latter is produced in incremental bursts. Different sets of notes periodically required the machine to be paused and refitted with different rotors and cypher keys, aligning with infomation and access for the various clearance levels that would only be seeing certain sections. These coded papers then went into two slowly growing piles on the table beside her, carefully watched by Mary's scrutinising eye in between organising each new load of notes to be processed and coded.

Officially, she should have only be making one set of notes, to be returned via the embassy, to the various handlers she officially answered to back in New York.

Unofficially however.....

Mary feels the hair on the back of her neck stand up, like the activation of some sixth sense as the world slows. Her foe-glass and sneakoscope on the nearby table remain inactive, but this isn't the first time they have been spoofed, or her own instincts and reaction speed have simply outpaced the instruments.

Surreptitiously she aims her wand behind her, from beneath her opposite arm and cloak. Carefully, she conceals the motion and her knowledge of her foes, by looking as if she is leaning forwards and rising from her seat slightly, to better inspect the alignment of the blank paper feed.

And then she casts, blowing a hole in her own cloak with the silently cast knock-back jinx, before completing the rise from her chair and spinning around in the same motion to level her wand at the second of the two intruders in her room, just as the first takes the overpowered knock-back jinx to his center mass. Practically back-flipping through the air, the robed man smashes into the room's wall-mounted flat screen TV with a tremendous crash, before then falling off the wall and the shattered widescreen, to land with an even more painful sound crunch of breaking wood-laminate on top of the now crushed hotel coffee table. Having no time to react to what happened to their partner, the second figure is so caught off guard, they make the amateur mistake of watching the flight of their comrade, before suddenly noticing the wand now pointed at their shadow-cloaked face. Giving a rather feminine "epp!" of terror, the figure immediately drops her wand and raises her hands in the universal gesture of surrender.

On the ground the figure groans, and out of the corner of her eye, Mary sees him shifting, possibly to reach for his wand. Reflexively, and without even removing her eyes from the still-standing of the two unknowns, Mary's free hand moves to her belt and draws a nomaj taser. Pointing it in the general direction of her intruder on the ground, a depress of the trigger rewards her with the crackle of electricity along the wires and a gritted groan through locked teeth that tells her the barbs have found purchase. As the smaller of Mary's two univted guests looks between her partner on the ground and stares down the sakaki wand pointed at her face in horror, the veteran ICW investigator runs a swift assessment of the two in her mind.

Dark robes; non-descriptive, but tailored to the sizes of each of her two unwanted visitors. Probably enchanted to various levels of capability enhancing feats, similar to her own infiltration outfit. Likely some kind of uniform due to similarity, but lacking in differences and equipment enough to suggest either very well concealed pouches and an M.O. that normally didn't require easy access in the field, a level of adherence to a dress-code she has never been particularly fond of, or a startling level of newness or inflexibility. A latter point further given credence by how rapidly and easily she turned their drop on her, back around on them.

From when she first detected their presence, to having them both at her mercy, all of it has taken just under five seconds.

That actually makes her a little miffed. She used to be able to do this sort of thing in just over three.

Finally, the girl in the robes seems to find her tongue, just as there is a knock at the door.

"W-WAIT! WE'RE ON YOUR SIDE!!!"

Mary doesn't so much pause, as simply become more intense, even as she reassesses her options. Sparing and momentary glance at the incapacitated figure on the ground, Mary levels an unimpressed look back at the girl as she hooks her taser back onto her belt, in a way that could allow her to retrieve it and further tase the already felled intruder if she needs to. Then she pulls a second taser out of one of her pouches, and levels it at the robed girl, just as the knocking sounds again, this time a little bit more worriedly.

"Do you see this?"

Despite the concealing, shadow casting effects of the robed the younger witch wears, Mary can almost see the wary fearfulness in the girl's eyes as she nods and stares at the stun-gun pointed at her chest from just beyond her arm's reach.

"This device achieves the same effect as a body-bind and a minor lightning curse simultaneously. If you try anything, you get to end up like your friend over there." On the ground, amidst the ruins of the coffee table, the wizard groans pitifully. "Do you understand me?"

The witch gives a vigorous nod of her head, and raises her open hands above her head just a little bit more.

Narrowing her eyes in suspicion for just a moment, the veteran witch then finally aims her wand away from the girl, although the Taser remains pointed with unwavering focus, even as Mary's attention turns to the door in her peripheral vision. Silently running through her list of counter-spells and wand movements to allow access, the door then unlocks.

As it swings open though, the first glimpse of the figure that enters reveals hands already raised, and shadow-concealing hood that is instead lowered, putting his identity openly on offer for her to see. Immediately, this confirms at least a few of Mary's suspicions as to what is going on.

Looking from the shattered tv and groaning wizard among the ruins of the coffee table, to the witch held at Taser point by Mary, the man tuts in disappointment. "I warned you kids. One of these days, you're going to try and out spook a better spook, and you're going to get bitten in the ass for it."

Not in the mood for jokes at the expense of the two very much junior witch and wizard in the room, Mary glares. "Boardwalk!" She bites out, earning a bemused raise of an eyebrow from the venerable, almost scaly looking wizard.

"Glacier." He wryly rolls off the tongue, with almost an undercurrent of reptilian reverb. "Now, doesn't that bring back memories. I'm surprised you went for that old challenge."

"It was one of the last missions where it was just us. I gambled that it would be one of the few challenges only the both of us would know, that you'd still remember." Closing the door behind the un-hooded wizard as he enters with a flick of her wand, Mary finally lowers her taser, and can't help the unimpressed look at the girl she previously had at stun gun point, when the young witch immediately rushes to her partner on impulse.

Spotting what has her attention, the uncanny-valley wizard laughs. "Oh, go easy on them Echidna. They're new. You can't blame her for not checking after getting jumped like that, and besides, it's not like you had time to cast a medic-trap on him. You're getting a bit behind your old curve in your old age."

"I know." The witch just gives a disgruntled grimace. "That's what retirement does I suppose. You get soft and slow."

On the ground, the wizard yelps as his partner pulls the taser barbs out of the exposed section of shirt they penetrated, between a gap in his body armor. Moaninh in pain, he glances up at the veteran witch. "Soft and slow? Lady, you just turned the tables on us like it was nothing."

The elder wizard then laughs, earning an withering look from Mary. "But if she was still at the top of her game, she would have taken down both of you at the same time. That, or she would have figured out who the two of you were, and not done so, before she even finished casting the first spell."

"What are you even doing here Swordsman?" Asks Mary in annoyance to cut him off. "Don't you have that cushy desk job in Langley now? Even if the Magical Intelligence Bureau were that strapped for warm bodies, I can't imagine them putting an old dog like you back on field duty."

The fellow veteran spook just shrugs with a helpless grin. "Maybe back in our day, but now they want everybody they can afford to pull from the office, at the very least pulling handler duty. We're a bit sparse on the ground for experienced agents and team leaders these days, in case you haven't heard."

"I noticed." Shooting a glance at the younger pair in the room, it doesn't improve her opinion, that for some reason, the girl just does not seem to be able to hold Mary's gaze. After a few moments however, she catches sight of Swordsman shaking his head and grinning, causing the elder witch's frown to deepen. "What?"

"That's just so you, isn't it Echidna? Almost twenty years out of the game, and then right off the bat, you show up some of the new kids, and are already figuring out what they need to improve on." The hoodless wizard laughs. "Retirement hasn't changed you a bit. It's great to see you well."

Mary gives a deriding sniff. "The one advantage to retirement, is that you now have an excuse for all the things getting old makes you lose your touch with." Looking the wizard up and down, the witch frowns at her ex-acquaintance. "I'd say you're looking rather well for an active field handler in their 70s as well, but you look like you've been either cursed by or made a deal with a snake demon since I left."

Swordsman takes the comment in stride, giving a wry grin that might have once been dashing 50 years ago, as he absently picks at one of the scale-like patches on the side of his face. "Ah yes, my rather unfortunate makeover. A parting gift of some business in Sarajevo just a few years after you retired. We could have used you then."

Mary's eyes narrow in suspicion and disgust. "Sarajevo was you?". On the ground between them, the two younger agents glance between the elder MIB operatives in confusion.

"Oh god no, thankfully not." Swordsman actually has looks affronted at the suggestion. "That was Raiment. He and most of the old brass you remember, and got along oh so well with, ate retirements for that screw up. Especially after what they dropped the rest of us into without telling, trying to cover their tracks."

Mary can't help but give a disappointed snort at the thought as she turns around to begin assembling one of her stacks of encoded papers. "I can't say I'm surprised. I made my warnings, and left when they fell on deaf ears, specifically because I could see that kind of mess one day happening. I always thought it eventually did, what with how Wisewoman suddenly just upped stakes and went into the civilian sector a few years after, but never seemed willing to tell me why."

"How is Wisewoman anyway?" Asks Swordsman curiously. "She kind of cut ties with everybody still in the trade after Sarajevo."

"She's doing fine," offers Mary as she checks the last few pages of the report to be spat out of the crypto-encoder, then begins paling everything into two different leather satchels. "She's staying with her son and daughter-in-law now. What about Bragget? Is he still around?"

Swordsman can't help the poorly restrained giggle, that then has Mary raising an eyebrow, while the younger witch and wizard continue to look baffled by these mentions of people and places they don't recognize. "Oh, Bragget left a few years after you actually, but it was something unrelated to Sarajevo."

"Really? Well that is a shame." Mary can't help but feel a little disappointed. "I suppose, as long as whatever he is doing now makes him happy."

"Well, I ought to think so," says Swordsman with a grin. "He runs a string of pizza joints now, and weighs something like five hundred pounds."

Mary actually pauses in the middle of packing away the papers, and looks to the scaled agent in disbelief. "You're kidding me."

"Nope. He looks like a freaking whale now."

"Huh..... You think you remember a person." Looking lost in thought for a moment, Mary adds the last of the papers to the satchel, and then begins closing up and enchanting the bag with enchants defences and wards. With everything secured, she then tosses the bag at Swordsman, who inspite of his age and the sudden movement, easily catches the concealed binder of documents, smoothly sequestering it away within one of the pockets of his robes.

"That's everything I have for now," admits Mary with a twinge of annoyance. "It's not a full report just yet, as there's far too much going on to sufficiently cover in detail through preliminary memorandums at the moment. My next report should have a more official and complete between-the-lines assessment of potential assets and allies we should consider, going forward."

Swordsman nods, before tilting his head and looking at her quizzically. "Out of curiosity, what is your unofficial and gut assessment so far?"

Mary raises an eyebrow. "Are you asking that from my perspective as an ICW Investigator who's work you are supposed to be spying on and building foreign intelligence profiles from, or as an ex-agent twenty years out of the field?"

The serpentine wizard chuckles. "You may have made your claims to fame as a field agent, but I remember you being a damn good analyst more than a few times back in the day as well. They didn't ask you to come back to this ICW gig for nothing either, regardless of how political it is this time."

Humming quietly in thought, Mary glances back at her original notes upon the desk and the tray of the encoder, tapping her fingers upon the wood while contemplating what she knows and ruminating on an answer.

"Do you remember Laos, and the lead up to the Secret War?"

The question elicits a wince from her fellow veteran. "That bad, huh?"

"Not exactly," elaborates Mary with a thankful shake of her head. "I highly doubt it'll turn into anything near as anarchic or bloody, but the impetuses for a regime change are similar, and increasingly undeniable. Government legitimacy is practically nil due to losses, repeated swapping of war cabinets, resource shortages, economic instability, and the ineffectiveness of efforts against outside agressors. They're actually being shown up by muggle efforts, and are repeatedly having near incidents as magical elements get caught in the cross fire or stumbled upon. And to top it all off, they're not helping themselves due to the degree of demographic separation and how out of touch many of those in the upper class increasingly are with those in the lower, and even middle class."

Swordsman girmaces. "You think this has the potential to turn into a class struggle or racial conflict?"

Mary shakes her head and shoots down the suggestion. "I doubt it. While the "One Percent" is almost entirely human, there are plenty of witches and wizards who have fallen on hard times, and now find themselves indebted to the generosity of those around them, inspite of the lower socio-economic levels, or the fact that their benefactors are sometimes factions of the yokai community. Faith in bureaucracy and the law still exists on federal and district levels, but nationally, that's questionable in many prefectures. In particular, it's the current governmental organisation, membership and political climate, rather than the system itself people have lost confidence in. Many of the places that have weathered the last few years best, or are doing well, are surviving or flourishing through largely local efforts and initiatives, often in the face of government or ICW party lines."

"What a lovely mix of factors," comments serpentine wizard dryly. "Are there any problematic elements were should be aware of?"

"There's a bit on both sides," admits Mary. "But it's rather rare and usually only independent or small group elements, limited to local areas. Generally, those calling for a "new order" and a break with the past by moving to Kyoto, are doing a good job of keeping everyone of similar and aligning aims in line. They know what incidents or dangerously subversive elements could do to their image and efforts. Especially as there is a surprising amount of planning and cooperation going on between a lot of the parties and cliques, ones I wouldn't have previously expected to meet each other halfway on anything before the war. So far, there have actually been more incidents and embarrassing kerfuffles out of people with ties to the Conservative and ICW camps, which have only further puts the ball in the Leave Faction court."

"So then there's a fair amount of Hong Kong, but in reverse, in there as well" observes Swordsman with remembered annoyance.

"At least it's not like Saigon."

Meanwhile on the ground, the hooded younger witch looks up from where she has been checking over her healed, but still winded partner, and glances between the the older veterans in the room.

"Hold on. Laos. Hong Kong. Saigon. Brought out of retirement for Japan. Holy shit, you're that Echidna!"

Blankly looking at the younger witch in a way that expresses nothing, and yet also implies an embarrassing failure on her part, the novice agent shifts uncertainly, obviously at a loss for where she has erred. Realizing this, Mary's gaze then turns to Swordsman who shrugs in a helpless what-can-you-do manner. "This one's not on them. You're only supposed to be here in an ICW capacity, and on top of being retired for twenty years, it's known that Echidna ended her career with the Bureau with complete cutting of ties. The eggheads at Langely didn't think you'd want to be involved, or still be up to snuff enough to notice even the FNGs poking around, so they only got given your ICW history and Double X level files." The scaly wizard laughs. "Shows what they know."

Now it's the younger wizard's turn to look agape. "Wait, are you saying this lady had files beyond Double X clearance."

"Has," says Swordsman with a grin as he looks at Mary. "If you had a second set of documents printed out, that must mean you knew somebody was coming. Someone brought you back in from the cold, which means I get to kick somebody's ass for dropping the ball on assessing on what actually should qualify as reasonable "need to know" info."

For once, it is Mary who actually allows herself to give a small smirk as she finds herself entertained at Swordsman's observation. "Actually, no one did. I'm reinstated for ICW work, but nobody from the Bureau's tried to re-recruit or approach me yet."

"Wait, really?" The news actually catches reptilian wizard off guard. "How did you know to expect us then?"

Mary chuckles as she files the last of her coded papers into her remaining satchel, and then begins packing her cryptographic encoding machine back into it's suitcase. "Well, I'd be a pretty poor analyst if I couldn't analyse the forces at play, both within and behind the scenes of this snake pit I've found myself at the center of. I remember when Director Comley was just a lowly butter face I had to work with on occasion, and have had plenty of chances to observe how he thinks over the years. It was practically a given that he would inevitably try to source a perspective and assessment of recent events from my reports and memos to MACUSA, with or without my knowledge or consent."

"So you not only decided to just roll with it, but have done so in a way that took advantage of my assumptions, and will create a shit storm if anybody outside MIB ever finds out." Swordsman just laughs and shakes his head in disbelief. "You and your crazy over preparedness. An in with the Bureau isn't the only thing you want, is it? You're up to something, and knowing you, being conveniently drawn in via a deniable Op is it's own means to something else further down the line too."

All Mary can do is give a unreadable smile in return. "It's not over preparedness if what you're preparing for actually will happen."

 

Snippet 37: Harry Leferts

Hopping out of the van, Isokaze let out a low whistle as she looked at the abandoned theme park in front of them. "Wow, okay this place is pretty neat. Creepy, but neat."

Also coming out of the van, Shinano looked at the park and bit her lip. It did look like something out of a post-apocalyptic film after all. Moments later though, she felt a hand grasp hers and looked down to see Harry smiling up at her. "Hey, it's okay Shinano-Chan. We're all here with you."

Shiromizu chose that time to slither out from the van and transform as she looked over the 'Silver Mountain Amusement Park' in front of her. "There's nothing here except maybe the ghosts of the past." Head tilted to the side, she chuckled some. "It does bring back memories of when I was younger."

Behind her, Misa stood beside Akitsu Maru and gave the Mizuchi a look before dryly commenting. "Yes, mainly because someone kept sneaking down here."

Weakly laughing, Shiromizu looked anywhere but her sister. "Hehehe, I don't know what you mean, Onee-Sama. Besides, shouldn't we be heading in?"

Only rolling her eyes, the Unagi Hime walked up to the gate and looked at the chain which closed the gates. "Hmm... I don't have the key for this I'm afraid, so we may have to go in another way."

Lips twitching, Akitsu Maru came to a stop beside her before grabbing the chain. "Please, allow me." There was a crunching sound before she tore the chain in two. Unwinding it, she then pushed the gate open and tipped the brim of her hat. "And there we go, Misa-San."

All the Yokai did was nod slightly and pat Akitsu on the arm. "Thank you."

While they walked in, Harry was looking at the various things around them. Empty wooden stalls rotted in place while the faded signs proclaimed this food or activity. Grass and shrubs poked out from cracks in the walkway they made their way down towards a fountain who's basin was colored green from the scum in it. From where the group was, Harry could see at least one roller coaster and a Farris wheel rising up above the rest of the park. "Huh..."

There was a frown on Shinano's face as she looked around as well in curiosity. "Um, what was the theme for the park? If you don't mind me asking..."

Misa took a deep sigh before letting it out. "For the most part, the theme was the mines in the mountain itself." She then pointed towards a fake mountain. "That ride was a fake mine where people would ride through it and see miners at work." Her finger then travelled to another spot. "That was a fake haunted house with 'Mountain spooks' in it."

Glancing around, Isokaze scratched her head. "And people actually came here for it? Seriously?"

Several moments later, the Unagi hime shook her head. "Hai, people came for the park. At least part of the attraction was that guides would take you to some of the nearby streams to pan for gold and silver in them. There was even a wall where they would put pictures of those who found gold onto them. Made people think that they had a real chance of making it rich."

Her expression made sure that everyone knew what the Destroyer thought of that bit of information. Then she shook it off and crossed her arms under her bust. "Okay, I guess? But I do have one question..." At the looks, Isokaze raised one finger. "What is with all the abandoned theme parks? I mean, I was reading there was a lot of them."

That got a sigh from Misa as she shook her head. "It was a different time then and it was easy to get loans and such for anything you wanted. One of the more common things to do was build an amusement park, such as this one. And like this one, they mostly all failed." Gesturing around them, she continued. "Silver Mountain Amusement Park opened in 1978 when the mine closed. It was the town trying to survive in some manner as the young people all left besides us Yokai. The amusement park itself closed in 1994, though everything was maintained until 1999. Since then, it was just left here to rot."

Looking over her shoulder, Shinano blinked some. "And, um, there's something here that could help the village?" At the nod, she looked around them. "I... suppose that you could get money from the metal in the rides?"
Much to her surprise though, Misa chuckled and shook her head. "That maybe true enough, Shinano-Sama. But it is one ride in particular that would help us a lot."

Briefly, Akitsu Maru's eyes widened some and she gave Misa an intrigued look. "Considering what I found just a few days ago... Does it have to do with that?"

Coming to a stop, the Unagi Hime made a motion to the ground and they all looked before blinking. "As a matter of fact, it does have to do with the old rail bed you found on the mountain."

With a blink as she looked down at the rails, Shiromizus eyes widened before looking up at her adoptive older sister. "I remember you telling me about the railway." At the looks directed at her, she continued. "There used to be a railway that went along the sides of the mountain between the mines when they opened up in the 1920s. It serviced all of them and brought ore to a station not far from here."

Her lips curling upwards, Misa nodded. "Exactly, Lady Shiromizu. The rails themselves used narrow gage due to the needs for the mountain. And when the mine closed, they simply tore up and old rails and brought them here to be used in a ride. Granted, not all the rails were used but what was not was simply put into storage. Storage that we're going to now."

Several minutes later, Akitsu Maru was opening the door to what looked like a warehouse and they all walked in. The shipgirls then brought their searchlights on and Harry gave a low whistle. "Oh wow! Look at all of this!"
Nodding, Isokaze placed her hands on her hips as she looked at one of the stacked rails. "These actually look in good condition." She then pointed off to the side. "And over there are some railcars!"

Chuckles made them turn to see Shiromizu walk over to something covered in an old, decaying tarp. "Just wait until you see this then." Rapidly pulling it off, and coughing a bit at the dust, she held out a hand. "Neat, huh?"

Eyes widening, Shinano adjusted her glasses to look at what was in front of them. "Is this a train? An actual train?"

Smirking, Shiromizu nodded some as she looked over the somewhat rusted locomotive. "That's right! In fact I'm pretty sure that this is the same one that served the mines when they were in operation."

Misa reached out with one hand and stroked the vehicle with a nod. "And you would be right. It is the same train that once serviced the mines. When they closed and brought the rest of the railway here, so too did the train come."

There was a frown on Akitsu Maru's face as she walked around the locomotive while Isokaze just boggled at what she was seeing. Blinking, the Destroyer pointed at it while looking at both Shiromizu and Misa. "You mean to tell me that they were using an actual train for a ride here? Seriously?" At their nods, she ran a hand through her hair and shook her head. "That's just..."

Even as she turned back to watch Akitsu Maru continue her inspection, Misa gave a small shrug. "It cost them less money then to build an actual ride based on it."

Finally coming to a stop, the only IJA shipgirl there gave the Yokai a searching look. "May I ask why you brought us here? I'm assuming that you want to rebuild the railway on the mountain?"

Only nodding, Misa frowned some. "It crossed my mind when you mentioned finding the rail bed. More then that, you did state it was in good condition and would be easy to get back up to standard."

Considering that, Akitsu Maru nodded slowly. "That is true, the rail bed is in good condition for how long it has been abandoned and one would only need some repairs. But why? Why lay the railway back down?"

With a glance at Shiromizu, Misa sighed. "It is due to what Lady Shiromizu said, about how if the village is to survive we might wish to make it a place to visit." One hand motioned at the train. "I had the idea of having it restored as a... historical railway that people can ride on."

Head tilted to the side, Shiromizu frowned. "Would people actually be attracted to that sort of thing?"

Eyebrows furrowing, Harry snapped his fingers. "I remember that there's some like that in England. But here in Japan?"

Akitsu Maru glanced at them before nodding her head and holding out one arm. Several fairies swarmed out from her sleeve and hopped down onto the engine. "Shinano-San, Isokaze-San? Could I have a lend of what engineers you can give me? So that we can check the engine here and see if it is as recoverable as it would seem."

Perking up, Shinano nodded some. "Hai! I'll even send over some of the workers that I had on me as well. They're people with some mechanical experience." At the nod from Akitsu Maru, the Support Carrier brought out her own fairies. Less then an hour later, the Yamato gave a smile. "According to them it's in good enough shape to be repaired."

Finger tapping her arm, Akitsu smiled slightly. "All that is needed now is to convince someone that it could work..."

 

S0ngD0g13

Gèile knelt in front of the cairn and marker, the sea-wind bringing a scent of storm with it. "Well, Da, ye'd be fifty-five t'day. I miss ye, though twenty years 'ave dulled it some. I told ye last year that I married? Cormac passed three months ago; his fishing boat was lost in a storm." Her eyes misted with salt-spray (not tears; never tears) before she smiled wistfully. "Our sons are growin' an' well, though. It's hard, a'times, bein' wi'out m' man, but I try m' hardest an' I hope Oengus, Micheal, an' wee Rab all grow tall an' strong, good men like ye were, Da."

Gèile set a pair of carved wooden cups down atop the marker and drew the cork from a whisky bottle with her teeth, then poured a generous measure in both. "Rab loves hearin' me tell th' auld stories, th' ones ye tol' me when I were his age." She laughed. "He 'specially loves th' tale o' th' three brothers o' our line, who went tae America. Ye never finished th' tale, so I dinnae know if they found happiness in th' New World for truth. But I tell it so; it's a hopeful tale o'erall, sae I wouldnae mar it wi' a sad end." Gèile drank her cup of whisky, taking a moment's comfort in the smokey single-malt.

"I heard a rumor about m' half-sister again, Da. She's gone south, tae Gateway's lands, I heard. Couldnae be any else; fer she still wears th' tartan ye gave her, our thrice-great-grandda's tartan from 'is time in th' Camerons." She smiled, wiping the sweat (not tears; never tears) from her eyes and shivering as the wind turned cold. "I wish she'd come 'ome, Da. Th' bairns want tae meet their aunt, an' I miss 'er m'self."

Gèile stood and adjusted her kilt, a Feileadh Mòr in Clan Gunn tartan, and then wiped the morning dew (not tears; never tears) off her cheeks before nodding. "Happy Birthday, Da. Rest easy." She turned, leaving the bottle on the grave-marker, and started to walk away toward her home, but paused, turned, and knelt again to use the point of her dirk to touch up the name, re-carving the letters that had been weathered by time...

--Reverend Conal MacHamish of Clan Gunn--
--Son and Father, Sailor and Fisher of Men--
--1 March 1958 - 11 September 1993--

 

Savato93

Alright, it was stupid of me to put so much time into this with days before my finals, but something in me refused to let this go unfinished for long. Hope this is enjoyable for a first attempt.


Making the Rounds

---

The lone I-class destroyer quietly navigated the halls of the ancient palace. Silver, or Silver Belly as her mommy had called her, carried a silver tray in her jaws, upon which sat a cured fish and a goblet of drink. A simple meal, and regrettably a common one. But her fleet made do.


Silver came to a stop in front of the massive double-doors leading into her Princess’s private chamber. For several minutes she sat there, motionless, listening for some sound of activity on the other side. The princess had scolded her for interrupting her morning routine on more than one occasion, so she wanted to make sure she didn’t walk into a scene. Hearing nothing from the chamber, Silver braced herself and nudged the doors with her side.


The lack of an exclamation upon opening the doors relieved her worries somewhat, but the sight of a mass of Abyssal metal spilling over the sides of the bed was not something to be easily ignored. The Princess must have summoned her rigging in her sleep again, Silver figured. Nobody brought it up out of politeness, but their Princess was not an easy sleeper.


The soft scraping of metal on wood as Silver laid her tray on the bedside table elicited a soft grumble from the Princess. The destroyer quickly waddled out of the room as the Northern Water Princess shifted underneath her rigging… and let out a confused grunt at the weight pinning her down. A few seconds passed before the Princess let out a weary sigh, now awake and aware of her dilemma, and with a woosh of displaced air, her rigging faded away.

---

Silver sat quietly beyond the doors of her chamber when she stepped out, goblet in hand. “Good morning, Princess.”


The Princess nodded. “Good morning, Silver… thank you for… bringing breakfast.” She brought the goblet to her lips… and was surprised to be met with the taste of citrus instead of that unpleasant swill the human military was so fond of. “I thought we were… out of Tang.”


Silver looked up at her. “Sokie came back. Found a shipgirl stockpile, brought back as much as she could carry by herself. Decided drink was most important.”


The Princess nodded. “Good… the others… will appreciate this.” She turned back to the doors she had walked out of. “If you would… tend to my chamber…?”


“Of course, Princess!” Silver chirped. As the Princess walked away, the destroyer went about the business of room-cleaning.

---

Stepping into her throne room, the Princess found a Ri-class heavy cruiser waiting for her. “Rivet.”


Rivet snapped to attention. “My Lady.”


The Princess continued walking, gesturing for the cruiser to follow. As they stepped out of the throne room, through the main foyer and exiting the palace, she spoke. “Report.”


Rivet nodded. “My Lady. As Silver has likely made you aware, Sokie managed to find a supply cache belonging to the shipgirls. Most of it was food rations; not as filling as proper steel and fuel, but I presume that is not as pressing an issue for us as it would be for other Abyssals.”


The Princess hummed thoughtfully. “Send Sokie back out… scout the area around the cache before… any further scavenging. We do not want… to draw the attention of the shipgirls… by stealing from a common resupply point.”


“Yes, My Lady. At the very least, the rest of the fleet will welcome some food that’s not fish or crustacean.”


The Princess chuckled lightly. “Agreed. Speaking of which… what of… the twins?”


Rivet tilted her head, recalling the two Tsu-class cruisers sent out to gather food two days prior. “…Tsunami and Tsubasa radioed in about an hour ago. They should be making landfall shortly.”


“Good.” Continuing onward, the two arrived at the old village where most of her fleet resided. With several Abyssals out on various tasks, the already-scarce presence here was further reduced. That wasn’t to say all was silent, however—off to the side, a trio of destroyers sat in front of a Ru-class battleship. The Princess looked to Rivet. “You are dismissed… but do check up… on those doing exercises.” The cruiser nodded and left, while she stepped forward.


The Ru-class was speaking to the destroyers softly. “…Mother defied the Abyss, and in doing so, set forth an example for all of us to follow. We do not hunt others for the ‘crime’ of not being of the Deep. Mother walked among humans, conversed, traded with them. The Sky was touched by her kindness for all things, and when the time came for Mother and her children to pass on so that we may live, they took pity, and reached down to the Earth. Instead of returning to the Deep from which they arose, Mother and her ilk ascended to the ocean between the stars. Where the waters are always calm, and every light is an open port, ready and willing to provide for their every need.”


One of the destroyers spoke up. “And what about us? Will we get to go up with Mommy when we sink?”


The storyteller shrugged. “Perhaps. So long as you treat everyone you meet with the same kindness Mother did, I’m sure the Sky will look favorably upon you.” Looking up, she noticed the Princess standing off to the side, arms folded loosely, a light smile on her face. She looked back to her audience. “That will have to be all for today, girls. Now, I’m sure you all have something to be doing. Do a good job, so the Princess will be happy with you all!”


With story time over, the destroyers departed in various directions, with a couple offering a “Hi, Princess!” to her as they walked past. Turning to her princess, the Ru-class greeter her with a light bow. “Sister.”


The Princess nodded in return. “Ruadri. Joy… or comfort?”


Ruadri shook her head sadly. “Comfort. The destroyers dreamt of that night again. They asked me to lift their spirits. What kind of big sister would I be to tell them no?”


“A sister… with a backbone?”


This earned a chuckle from the Ru-class. “True, true. I guess I do let them walk over me a bit, at times.” She looked past the Princess, to the scattering destroyers. “But Mother knows they need the support.”


“And that is why… I am thankful you are here.” The Princess reached out, gently gripping Ruadri’s shoulder. “I… never could have comforted them the way… you do.”


Ruadri smiled softly. “And I doubt I could rein in this fleet quite like you can. It’s a good thing we’re both here to cover for one another.”


The Princess nodded, eyes closed in thought. At that moment, the sound of a foghorn echoed in the distance. She glanced in the direction it came from, towards the shore. “That must be… the twins. Hopefully… that means fresh fish tonight.”

---

As the coast came within sight, the Princess could already see the twins making landfall once more. More than once, she’d some down to greet them as they returned from a fishing expedition, the nets they appropriated from passerby fishing boats, full of fish (whether the fish were still squirming or not was a 50:50 deal, depending on whether one of the two got annoyed enough by failed castings to just drop a depth charge) for the fleet to eat for a good week or two. This time, however, only one of the Tsu-class had come back carrying a full net; the other was carrying something over her shoulder. As the water beneath them blended into the sandy beach, the two stood at attention and spoke in unison. “Expedition accomplished, Princess.”


“At ease. Tsunami, Tsubasa… report,” the Princess intoned.


Tsunami scratched the back of her head with her free claw. “Well, we got good news and bad news. Good news is, we got our hands on something of a delicacy.” She tugged the thing she was holding over her shoulder, dropping it on the ground in front of them.


The Princess’s eyebrows arched sharply at the sight of a full-grown bluefin tuna at her feet. “I did not… expect one of these to be… so far north,” she noted.


“Neither did we. Guess this one was lost, or a rogue, or something.” Tsubasa shrugged. She reached to her hips and pulled a wad of cable and knots. With a flick, the net was revealed in full—as was the jagged tear in it. “Bad news is, we caught it ‘cause it got caught in our net, tore the damn thing real bad.”


Calling that bad news was an understatement. Two fishing nets was just barely sufficient to keep her fleet fed without having somebody out at any given moment fishing at all times. Her fleet would feast tonight of course, she wasn’t going to let this tuna go to waste, but for the sake of convenience (and her fleet’s sanity) they needed that net replaced as soon as possible. It was times like this that the Princess wished her fleet wasn’t so reliant on the sea for sustenance…


“Princess!!”


The Princess was pulled from her thoughts by the call. She turned to see a destroyer rushing across the ground as fast as her flippers could carry her towards the shore. “Silver…? What is happening?”


Silver came to a stop in front on the Princess. She spent a few seconds catching her breath before she spoke up. “Fire… fire in palace courtyard.”


The Princess’s eyes narrowed. “Show me.”

---

In a matter of minutes, the Princess and her charge returned from the shore, through the village, and into the palace, exiting from the rear and stepping into the courtyard beyond. In the time before this island they called Home had been abandoned, the Princess presumed it had been home to a garden of sorts. It helped to explain the occasional patch of bright colors that stood out among the many, many shades of green that had consumed the entire clearing. Suggestions were put forth to clear it out, make it usable, but the decision was made to just leave it be—with a fleet numbering less than two dozen and plenty of space elsewhere for them all, there was little incentive.


And now, it was on fire.


“…Who did this?” the Princess asked the destroyer beside her.


Silver inclined her head. “Silver didn’t see. Everything was burning. Thought warning Princess was more important than finding culprit.” The destroyer shuffled nervously in place. “Was Silver wrong?”


Shaking her head, the Princess reached out with a gauntleted claw and gently stroked Silver’s hide. “No. You did well… bringing this to my attention. Please gather… the other destroyers. Tell them to bring their hoses.” As the destroyer wandered back into the palace to find her sisters, the Princess herself stepped forward.


With just a thought, her rigging manifested. As the flames reached out to her, her monstrous arms came down on them, snuffing them out with raw force. She continued forward, pounding down every fire that dared to come near her—they were harmless even for a lesser Abyssal than herself, but that didn’t mean she could just let her beautiful fur coat burn!—until ash and earth gave way to ash and stone, a tiled circle enclosing a central garden.


There, at the center of the dirt patch, stood her culprit—a Re-class battleship. As her tail glanced around the courtyard, occasionally spitting a glob of burning fuel at an intact throng of weeds, the battlecarrier proper squatted low to the ground, seemingly fascinated by the dirt at her feet… and completely ignorant of the princess in front of her.


The Princess cleared her throat. “Regalia.”


Hearing her name, the Re-class blinked. Glancing up, she noticed her Princess standing a short distance away. Her previous look of fascination was quickly gone, replaced by one of shock and sheepishness. “Oh, er, hi… Princess.”


The Princess’s rigging faded away as she folded her arms. “Care to… explain?”


Regalia quickly stood up, twiddling her thumbs. “Well, you see…” She noticed her tail about to spit out more fire and cut it off with a quick smack to the head. “Enough! Anyway, I was just… clearing out this courtyard. There was a LOT of weeds and vines everywhere and it was all so dense and… well, doing it by hand would just be a hassle, so I figured, hey, why not try burning it all? And what do you know, it worked!” The Princess’s eyes drifted off from Regalia, to the courtyard around her. Well, she wasn’t wrong, per se; despite thick layers of ash and soot covering every visible surface, a good majority of the foliage that had once choked the yard was now gone.


In the corner of her vision, she briefly took note of the fact that Silver had returned with three other destroyers and was now coordinating damage control, dousing any trees or bushes that threatened to spread the fire beyond the courtyard. She looked back to Regalia. “And what was your… reason for doing this?”


The Re-class’s head rocked from side to side briefly. “What was… oh, right!” Squatting back down, she grabbed a burlap sack the Princess hadn’t noticed previously and reached into it. “I wanted someplace tidy to set up so I could plant these!”


The Princess blinked in surprise as Regalia produced a familiar object—

---

The Ta-class battleship tilted her head quizzically at the brown, lumpy thing her princess had pulled from the bag at her side. “Ah… what is that, Mother?”


The Northern Ocean Princess waved the object over her head. “It’s a potato! Hoppou got some from the human town nearby.” She dropped the ‘potato’ back in the bag and reached behind her back. “Humans said you can cook it lots of different ways, and it’s really easy to make more!”


The Ta-class looked at the foil-wrapped object the princess offered her. “Eh? For me?”


The princess nodded eagerly. “This one is baked.”


The Ta-class took the baked potato and made to bite into it as-is—before her princess’s blank stare led her to sheepishly peel away the foil. Mother’s desire for proper manners sated, she took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. “…It’s good,” she mumbled.


Her princess beamed up at her. “Great! If you love it, then Hoppou knows everyone else will, too!”


“Everyone else? Is there enough for that?”


“Yup!” her princess turned and pointed. Following her gesture, the Ta-class finally noticed the wagon the princess had brought back, which was practically overflowing with baked potatoes.


Many, many baked potatoes.


“And you can help Hoppou hand them out!”


Well. This was going to be a long afternoon.

---

Several thoughts ran through the Princess’s mind at that moment. Among the most pressing was the fact she was holding food that was not seafood or shipgirl rations for the first time in what felt like months. If they could plant these… her fleet would finally have a secure food source. She’d have to reveal this to her fleet gently, choose between withholding the crops entirely until there was enough for everyone or rationing what they did have while they looked for more to—


…Wait.


The Princess looked up from the potato to Regalia. “Where did… you get these…?”


Regalia rocked back and forth on her hooves. “Well… Rudy was telling one of her stories, and she talked about how Northern Ocean Princess went to the humans and brought crops the whole fleet could eat when the fish were out of season, and that got me thinking. There’s not a lot of us, yeah, but that doesn’t mean we can’t run out of fish and lobster and other stuff to eat if things go south… so, I thought, maybe I can go to that old place and look for some. I could dig up any vegetables or whatnot that I found and bring them back for us to grow and eat and…”


The Re-class’s next words died in her throat as she realized her Princess had affixed her with a stare colder than ice. “You… went… there?” She whispered.


Regalia nodded shakily. “Yeah, I thought… I mean, I’ve had nothing to do, and…” her Princess’s gaze was unrelenting. She took a step back. “It’s just… the last couple weeks the cruisers haven’t been hauling in as much fish as they usually do, and the shipgirl stockpiles can’t fill the holes in our diet forever…” She held up her hands. “I didn’t get seen by anyone, I swear. I went out at night, I turned off my radio so nobody would pick up on it, I didn’t even send out any scout planes—though that made navigation a bit harder, but I digress—"


“What were you THINKING!?” The Princess roared. “YEARS of peace living on this island… and you threaten us with exposure simply because listening to Ruadri wax poetic of our lost past gives you a STUPID IDEA!”


Regalia jerked back as if physically struck. “I-I just… I was trying to help fix our food problem… don’t you think everyone is tired of seafood? These c-could help…”


“So you would jeopardize the secrecy of our home… for a bag of FOOD!?”


“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Regalia whimpered. “I just wanted to h-help everyone… you go around and give everyone else stuff to do… but then you just i-ignore me. Just because I don’t fight doesn’t mean I’m useless…” She slumped to her knees, hugging herself tightly. “And s-so what if the humans see me? See us? We’re not hurting anyone, not killing anyone. A-at best, we steal a bit. Is that awful enough to want to hunt us all d-down?”


Silence reigned for the next minute. The Princess simply stood in place, seething, while the Re-class wilted under her rage. She took several deep breaths, fighting her hardest to let her anger dissipate. Mother would not have let her anger dominate her in such a manner.


Finally, the Princess spoke, calmer, but the tension in her voice remained, joined by weariness. “Stand up.” The Re-class flinched at the sudden order, but did as she was told. “I am not ignorant… of your plight, Regalia. But you must… think. The world will not simply… welcome us. We do not hate like the… others… but that does not make the humans our allies. They will not… see the difference between us Abyssals. And you…” the Princess gestured to Regalia, who now stared wordlessly at the ground. “You will be a target to them both. We do not command the seas beyond our shores… but here… we have a place to call… home. We are safe here. You are safe here.”


The Re-class was silent as she continued. “You are unique among my fleet. Your kin are content to live… to find meaning beyond my orders. You, however… you insist on serving… insist on proving your worth to the fleet… despite the risk it poses to you.” The Princess stepped forward, gently gripping her shoulders. “It would pain me… to lose even one of my fleet. To lose you… my child… would ruin me.”


The Princess pulled her daughter into a hug. “I would never… ignore you, Regalia. I only want… to protect you. From the hatred… from the pain… from the loss we all have endured. Do you understand?”


The silence between the two dragged out for several, painfully long seconds. Finally, Regalia looked up and nodded, a weak smile on her face. “Yes, Mother.”


The Princess reached up and ran a claw through Regalia’s hair, her strokes eliciting a relaxed purr from the distressed battleship. “You need only ask… and your fleet will accompany you wherever you may go.” Letting go, she reached down and picked up the sack of potatoes, holding it out to her. “Now… you’ve made the effort thus far. Make sure to grow enough… for everyone.”


Regalia’s expression brightened a little. “Okay, Mom. You can count on me.” The Princess smiled softly as she took back the sack, ready to get to work. As Regalia turned away, the Princess couldn’t help but stare somberly after the Re-class…


And her misshapen, hunched-over back.[/hr][/hr][/hr][/hr][/hr][/hr][/hr]

 

K9Thefirst1 "Elder Princesses of the Abyss"

So, Harry asked me about Elder Princess stuff, and since they're now canon I decided to whip up some material for Gateway's sisters for him (or others) to use:

We are already familiar with Ancient Atlantic Gateway Princess.

Central Atlantic Princess: Big and beefy. Take a minute to look up images of Jasper from Steven Universe, and you will have an idea of what she looks like. Her manner of dress would be I suppose “generic Abyssal,” if that makes sense. Is/Was a blood lusting sociopath. If people aren’t dying horribly, or even just dying in general, she’s not interested. When Porta “spared” Murdina’s mother, CA boo’d and called her a pussy. The Major from Hellsing (canon or Abridged) might not be totally out of the question in terms of something to base her personality on.

Middle World Ocean Princess: Also called The Maltese Princess, as Malta was her seat of power much like the Azores were Gateway’s. Tall and slender, with a Cleopatra Nose and Peter Cushing-Tier cheekbones. Dressed in Grecian robes and hair-style. Obsessed with the Classical Age and finding their origins.

Nordic Horde Princess: Also known as Northern Horde Princess. Much like Canut, she wore chainmail armor, with a polar bear skin mantel on her shoulders and armed with an Axe. She wore a historically accurate Viking Helmet… But she naturally had Pop Culture Viking Horns growing out of her head so she sometimes bemoaned the inaccuracy. Was as obsessed with the Vikings as Middle World was for the Bronze and Early Iron Ages.

And now we get to… Less developed characters.

Sub-Continental Ocean Princess: If any of the other Elder Princesses are still alive in the present day, it’s likely her, for no other reason than the Indian Ocean is a vast void, whereas the Atlantic and Pacific are reasonably mapped out in terms of Abyssal Activity. Has six arms, and I would likely model her after the Hindu Goddess of Death Kali before she got sanitized. So expect her being clothed with a belt of human (or even Abyssal) skulls and a penchant for sucking blood. Personality… I don’t really have anything, but I imagine she still believes in “The Mission” of eradicating Humanity. She likely has gotten bogged down by logistics and the fact that Wanko is actually preventing her from expanding east. Should she ever get enough fuel to power a proper assault, she would be gunning for Wanko’s head.

And now the Pacific. Given that I would imagine that they surely would have shown up by now, I think it’s safe to say all of the Pacific Elder Princesses are dead. That ought to simplify things.

North and South Pacific Princesses: Identical twins in every respect visually. However, North Pacific’s personality reflected the tumultuous nature of the Northern Pacific, especially in Winter. South Pacific, while calm, perhaps even Kuudere, she was unrelenting, like the South Pacific Heat on shipwrecked sailors adrift at sea.

Dire Strait Princess: Based around Cape Horn and the Strait of Magellan, she was less interested in killing humans than in sinking every single ship she could find in her territory.

Arctic Princess: “Technically” in the Atlantic as well, but her territory was mostly centered in the Pacific/Bering Strait side of the North Pole. Icy and apathetic personality and preferred to using her command over ice and snow do the killing rather than field a large fleet. This meant that there was no one to defend her when Canadian, Russian, and US fighters found her and missile-spammed her to death. She did however have a few sentry installations as her direct creations that handled the day-to-day operations, patrols, and securing her boarders. All of the others were far above the Arctic Circle and didn’t last long without their Princess to resupply them, leaving only the one guarding the Aleutians – Hoppo – to survive to the present day.

 

Harry Leferts

Heart pounding in her chest, the red haired woman ducked under the clawed hand of the werewolf that swiped at her. Taking advantage of the overextension, the woman grabbed the limb and yanked forward, her knee coming up and burying itself into the stomach of the were. With a flick of her wrist, a knife that once belonged to a bayonet appeared in her hand. One used by one part of her family in WWI and later by her grandfather in the Second World War and Korea.

Moments later, the werewolf gurgled as it choked on it's own lifeblood and fell to the ground. Without pausing, the woman simply began to run down the street towards a concrete barrier. Using one hand, she sprung over it just in time as several Killing Curses hit it instead of her, pieces of the barrier chipping off. Looking to the other woman beside her who was trying to tie a bandage on her arm, the red head smile. "Mornin' Alice! Hopefully you don't mind me cutting in like this?"

Pausing, Alice blinked and looked first at the slash on her arm and then at the other woman. "I swear to bloody God, Lily, you keep it up with the bad puns and I will smack you. Whether I could use the backup or not."

Only smiling, Lily giggled some. "Aw, come on, you know that you love me." Another barrage of killing curses, followed by a blasting curse made both women duck before Lily shouted. "OI! WE'RE HAVING A BIT OF A CONVERSATION HERE! NO NEED TO BE RUDE, YOU KNOW!"

From somewhere nearby, a voice shouted back. "FUCK YOU, MUDBLOOD! THE DARK LORD WILL ENJOY IT WHEN WE BRING IN YOUR BODY! OR BETTER YET, BRING YOU IN ALIVE TO BE ENJOYED!"

Alice sighed a bit as other shouts joined the first. Holding out her hand for Lily to heal up, the witch turned her head. "NO THANKS! BESIDES, LILY AND I LIKELY COULD NOT FEEL ANYTHING WITH HOW SMALL YOU INBRED FUCKS ARE! HAVE YOU CHECKED TO SEE IF YOU GOT ANYTHING?!"

Blinking, Lily paused in the healing and gave Alice a look. "Uh, Alice?"

Conjuring a mirror and floating it to one side to look around a barrier, the witch in question hummed. "Yes, Lily? What is it?"

Eyebrow raised, Lily gave a cough. "Aren't you a Pureblood? I've seen the family trees of your family as well as James' and Frank's."

In reply to that, Alice turned and gave Lily an even look. "Yes? And?" She then tilted her head and gave the red head an odd smile that did not reach her eyes. "You know, I got this wonderful new vine I imported. It's not Devil's snare but it does have tentacle-like vines. They reach over and grab the prey and ensnare it. Rather interesting."

Lily held up her hands. "Right, shutting up now!" A shudder ran through her at the reminder of how her friend seemed to be able to control plants. Especially the more deadly and dangerous magical ones. 'I actually felt bad for Bellatrix that time, no woman deserves to be captured by Devil's snare that does not want you kill you... though she looked rather flushed.' Shaking her head, Lily shoved that thought elsewhere into her mind. 'No, not going to think about Bella and her freaky as fuck wants...'

Meanwhile Alice tilted her head back and looked at the sky. Taking the potion shoved into her hands, she uncorked it and swallowed it in one go with a grimace. "Are you sure that you can't make it taste better?"

Expression flat, Lily tightened the bandage some. "It's medicine."

Rolling her eyes with a small grunt, Alice glanced at the mirror and sighed. "They're heading this way you know. Any ideas? Because at I count no less then eight of the bastards."

Her eyes glancing around, Lily frowned. "Language, Alice. You know what your future mother in law would think of your language."

Once more rolling her eyes, the other witch snorted. "Okay, no less then eight of the bloody fucking bastards."

That only got a smirk from Lily as she nodded. "There, now Augusta would approve of that language."

If anything, that made Alice snort as it was true enough. Then her eyes caught sight of something and she pointed. "Right there. Just like in New York."

With a blink, the red head groaned. "Oh Merlin, New York. You had to bring up New York." Then she perked up some as she waved her wand. "Granted, it was a lot of fun."

Alice sighed some as the heavy manhole cover lifted up. "Walking through sewage and nearly being killed by a giant, magically mutated crocodile while hunting down Voldemort's recruiting party was not my idea of fun."

Head tilted to the side, Lily giggled. "Yeah, that was a rather shitty situation we found ourselves in that time. Should have guessed that would have turned to crap soon after. Sadly, there were no turtles involved."

The annoyance on Alice's face from the puns became confusion. "Turtles? Why would turtles have been involved."

Only sighing, Lily shook her head. "Muggle thing, I really need to get you out more, Alice."

Frowning, the other witch shook her head while hitting the manhole cover with a banishing charm. Both her and Lily rose upwards and shot a blasting curse each at the flying hunk of metal as the Death Eaters were about to magically deflect it. Upon said curses hitting the hunk of metal, it became a cloud of directed and high speed metal shrapnel. "Yeah, this is New York all over again."

With a sigh, Lily shook her head while trying not to look at what was left of the Death Eaters. "Sadly, we're not going to have an awesome end to it."

Just grunting as she hopped over the blasted barrier, Alice shook her head. "Yes, an awesome end which means that the Yanks are still pissed the fuck off at us. Pretty sure that MACUSA still has a warrant out for us."

Shrugging, Lily began to lightly jog to where she could hear battle. "Still awesome. Stealing an F-14 from the Americans to escape from that bunch of dark wizards was worth it. Absolutely love how Legimency let me get enough knowledge to fly it."

Easily keeping up, Alice frowned. "Still don't understand what the big deal about a muggle flying machine is."

In reply, Lily wagged a finger at her. "It was an F-14 Tomcat." Frowning, she sent a flame whip at an Inferi, the fire wrapping around it. Then, with a flick of her wrist, she tore it in half. "I think that James' parents stored it somewhere... And declared that I am well on my way to becoming a Potter."

Blinking, Alice groaned and shook her head while sending a banishing a piece of sharpened wood into a vampire's chest. "Bloody magpies." Then she gave a shrug. "Still, it was rather impressive for you to use the spellwork to turn the plane thingy into a portkey partway through flight. Far enough away we landed... though you bringing it back shrunk from Canada still makes me shake my head."

Her voice becoming a sing-song, Lily grinned. "An F-14~"

One eyebrow raised, Alice looked at her friend. "I still don't understand it. Or why you were singing something about a danger zone while we were flying it." At Lily's open mouth, the future Longbottom sighed. "Yes, I know, it's a muggle thing. Hence why I don't understand it." Snorting, she shook her head. "MACUSA is still pissed at us though since they had to cover it up."

Yet again, Lily hummed a bit. "Really, they should be thanking us. Without what happened they would never have known of that rising Dark Lady in the US. Heck, Mad-Eye was laughing after he got some note from someone called Echidna."

Lips twitching as she shot off a blasting curse that caused an Death Eater under a disillusionment charm to go flying, Alice shook her head. "You mean the one who swore that if we ever came back, she would buy us a beer? And then promptly hang us from the ceiling using our intestines for that? That Echidna?"

Just lightly laughing, Lily sent out some Fiend Fyre creations which attacked a Dementor. "That Echidna." She then blinked and tilted her head. "You ever think that we really should not be making fun of things like we do?"

Considering it, Alice shook her head. "It is either that or we utterly break down I think. Or we become like Alastor." Both women theatrically shuddered at that. "Right, bad image."

Simply raising one finger, the red haired of the two hummed. "Still, we could be like Gideon and Fabian. Or James and the others, never knew that he created a spell to summon anvils."

A chuckle escaped from Alice as she shook her head. "While I don't understand James heading out and about under the pseudonym of 'Mister Black', it is amusing just how much fear there is of him. Or you, Miss Red, especially because of the exploding toilet curse."

Eyes twinkling a bit, Lily giggled. "Amsterdam was fun~"

It was then that James spoke up as he came into view followed by both Frank and Sirius. "What's that about Amsterdam?"

Lily looked at Alice and both shrugged before the red head spoke. "Just talking with Alice about past situations. Like how Amsterdam was fun and awesome."

Bemused, Sirius looked between James, who was groaning, and Lily, who was grinning. "You still have not explained what happened there."

Giving his friend a look, James grimaced. "We don't speak of what happened in Amsterdam. All you need to know is that we're not allowed to step foot in the country for the next thirty years. Like with Russia after Moscow." Seeing Lily open her mouth, he gave her a glare. "Lils, I swear, if you say that Moscow was awesome, I will send a stinging curse at your arse."

Unable to help herself, Lily shrugged. "Okay, I'll just butt out before I made an ass out of myself. Besides, pretty sure that you would rather give me a slap there instead." Then she gave a snort. "Also, the Magical Russian Mafia is not too pissed at us. That one scarred witch in it sent us a bottle of vodka."

That brought a shudder from Sirius. "Lily, she literally had a meeting with Karkaroff's brother where one of her hit wizards blew off his legs and she just stood there smoking. Then blew off his arm when he tried to raise his wand."

Remus' voice then spoke up as he appeared. "Also, didn't she say don't show your face in Russia ever again?"

Humming, Lily gave a smirk. "True, though she said that if I ever have children she would be interested in what they would get up to."

Only sharing a look with his friends, James shook his head. If anything, that frightened him more then it should be possible. Then Alice gave him an odd look. "Wait, why were you running?"

An odd smile on his face, Frank raised a finger. "Ah, right. Well, you know how Voldemort sometimes has those chimeric Inferi of his?" Taking a breath, he was about to say something when there was a roar and both of them turned as a monstrosity surged out of the nearby sea, demolishing a building as it climbed ashore. "Um, yeah..."

Eyebrows raising, Remus, Lily, and Alice watched something that must have been a giant at some point. Except dragon wings had been grafted to it's back allowing it to lift itself off the ground though it was unable to do more then that. It's head, meanwhile, had been replaced by some sort of giant octopus. The two witches and one werewolf shared a look before shaking their heads.

Less then five minutes later, Frank was staring at the massive fireball that was slowly dissipating as it climbed into the sky. Meanwhile, James was scratching his head. "Did... did you three just kill it by ramming it with a boat into a fuel depot?"

Crossing her arms under her breasts, and making sure to draw his eye, Lily smirked. "Yes? You need to ram something like that with a boat to kill it."

Needless to say, that got her an odd look from Sirius. "Wait, what? Where did you even learn something like that?"

Once more sharing a look, both witches and the werewolf spoke as one. "Flitwick's book club."

Raising one finger, Sirius shook his head. "Okay, that just makes more questions. Also, it makes me wish that I joined that club."

Lily just smirked as she they could hear the Aurors finally showing up.
_______________________________________________________________________

As he lowered the small notebook with had photocopies of some pages from his mother's diary, Harry held back snickers at the looks on Imuya's face as she pulled the boat along towards the caldera. "Uh, Harry-Chan? Did... did that actually happen?"

Only shrugging, Harry shook his head. "Well, my biological Mum did write it down in her diary. And my dad wrote something similar to the end as well in his journal. So unless both were writing made up stuff..."

The German Submarine only grinned as she shook her head. "Harry-Chan? Your Mother was awesome. Ja, I wish that I could have met her."

Softly smiling, Harry leaned forward some. "I know, I wish that I could have met her as well." Head tilted to the side, he shook his head. "I wonder what happened to that F-14 though..."

Both RO and Imuya shrugged before the red haired Submarine snorted. "Just know that if you find it, White Plains is likely going to try and see if it works. Though..." Head tilted to the side, she thought it over some more. "You might want to keep that a secret. I mean, you might still get in a lot of trouble."

Raising one hand, RO nodded. "Wait a few decades to reveal it and say you just found it. If you find it anytime soon."

With a chuckle, Harry gave them both a grin. "Yeah, I know. Still..." Looking down at the papers, he shook his head. "It makes for some interesting reading. Though I am still trying to find out what happened in Amsterdam."

Snickers made her look up to see the Uboat with an amused look on her face. "Oh, I can guess some of what might have happened. But do you know anything else about what happened?"

A frown on his face, Harry scratched his head. "Not really? The only thing that mentioned anything in particular was that Lucius Malfoy has a crippling phobia of clogs. And another Death Eater, Rabastian, apparently attacks any windmills he sees."

Both Submarines blinked at that as they tried to process it. Confused, Imuya groaned. "Now I really want to know what happened!"

Harry gave a shrug at that. "I know, right? Though there was one incident in Sweden during the war. My biological Mum and Dad were trying to stop Voldemort from getting several tribes of Trolls to work with him. And from finding some sort of giant as well. From what was in his journal, Dad said that him and Mum somehow weaponized Surströmming."

That got a wince from RO. "Seriously?" At the nod from Harry, she shuddered some. "Harry-Chan, don't take this the wrong way, but... Your parents were scary. Ja, I am certain that what you just described is some sort of warcrime."

All Harry did was shrug at that as they entered through the rip in the wards surrounding the caldera.

 

Lord K

Watching the jet rapidly screaming away into the sky, Mary grimaced.

She was pretty sure she still had chunks of sewer-gator-lizard-thing in her cloak and hair, in spite of her best efforts to clean up. Probably only about 50% of the blood on her clothes was reptilian, and none of the rest actually belonged to her. She'd lost her knife in some pommy thug's gut an hour back, when things had first devolved into a three way melee between the MACUSA forces, the British subversives, and the foreign vigilantes. There's a bunch of sewer system and a warehouse-turned-failed-blood-purists-rally, that someone is going to need to unmake from being a ash filled, cooling hole in the ground. God knows how many nomaj members of the Naval Airstation the fighting eventually wound up at, will need to be obliviated. And worst of all, her knees ache in a way they wouldn't have even a few years earlier, after such a strenuous amount running, jumping, landing, kicking and other assorted incidents of combat related footwork over the last 72 hours.

So much for her final "peaceful" year with a New York desk assignment and a colonel posting before her retirement. This was going to take months to clean up and file reports on.

Detecting a pitiful moan of pain from the lump of meat at her feet that was once the head honcho of the terrorist outreach group, Mary is admittedly slightly less than professional in how she finally takes him down with a steel-capped boot to the head, rather than a stupefy. She might have fought her war in the Pacific, and made the Far East her area of expertise and specialisation over the course of her career, but like many of her generation, she has no love for supremists of any stripe or creed.

Trying to wipe the blood and soot off of her hands onto her pants, Mary then gives up in disgust when they come away with chunks of maybe-hopefully-ex-gator slime, just as one of the younger agents comes running up to her.

"Colonel! They're getting away! Should we pursue?!"

Looking up at the already rapidly disappearing dot, Mary contemplates the options she already knows she doesn't have.

"Let them go."

"Ma'am?"

Making a face and not bothering to hide her annoyance, Mary gestures upward.

"We're not going to be able to catch them. I've seen those aircraft before in 'Nam. By the time we get brooms, they'll already be in international waters, and accelerating to paces not even a racing broom could hope to match." The witch shakes her head, before looking down at the insensate bloodied mass at her feet. "Secure the blood purists and these so called Death Eaters. I doubt any of them will have the intuition to take advantage of nomaj means to leave the country, and they stick out like sore thumbs even among our magical populace."

For a moment, her lips curl in annoyance at a job only partly done. While she doesn't exactly disagree with what the two women who have spent the last week helping upset the apple cart of New York while themselves in pursuit of other apple cart up-setters, there is a degree of professionalism and respect for the civilian law she needs to uphold. There's been a lot of property damage, bodily harm, and thankfully mostly deserved death over these past three days in particular.

Also, she may or may not be mildly irked at the fact that these two women have just gone like scythes upon wheat, through a number of domestic persons of interest she has spent months observing, building profiles on, and formulating cases around, only for them to be drawn to the rumors of Death Eaters in New York like moths to a flame. One that then inadvertently fiendfyre'd them in the crossfire, when it turned out that the Death Eater's foes back home were not just going to let their resident terrorists go international with their recruitment and message. So much for prospective allies.

At least on the bright side, half of the guys who were now dead, were people she likely would have had to act against anyway, and bring in on conpiracy or attempted murder charges whenever her unit inevitably got around to uncovering or hearing about plans to do something properly nasty and legally remiss.

Tearing her thoughts away from people she doesn't need to worry about catching anymore, an idea then comes to Mary's mind.

"Captain?"

"Yes Colonel?"

"Find me the nomaj base commander, and secure the communication facility. It's a long shot, but if we can legilimens the relevant procedures and infomation from his mind, it might be possible to get some other element of the nomaj airforce or navy to intercept them before they leave US territory."

The agent nods and turns to begin casting a patronus to the relevant parties. "You're a genius colonel! Getting the nomajs to do what we can't! They'll probably know the limitations of that plane better than us as wel-"

The captain is then cut off as in the background, there is a wounded, crumbling groan, that then rises into a crashing cacophony of shattering stone, collapsing concrete, and snapping rebar. The finale of the destructive symphony, is then closed by the sounds of snapping cables, and a moan of twisting metal, finally followed by the titanic crash of something tall hitting the ground like a knocked over owl cage.

The captain's frozen silence is damning, causing Mary to helplessly sigh in resignation.

"That was the communications facility wasn't it?"

"It would appear so."

"At a guess, the battle in the sewers, the plant-monsters fighting the sewer-gators, and the firefight with the besieged Death Eaters inside, destabilised the building didn't it?"

"It did just collapse in on itself, and then sink into the ground, yes."

"It's completely gone isn't it?"

"That last part was it taking out the radio antenna tower as well."

The near-retirement witch desperately resists the urge to facepalm, not even bothering to turn around.

"Are there any survivors?"

"There don't seem to b- oh wait, there is one! He's just-"

Mary actually moves to begin turning around, only for there to be the sound of shifting rubble, a reptilian roar, and then a cut-short scream. The growing excitement in the captain's voice disappears as well.

"-oh.... uh.... Never mind.... One of the plant-dragon tentacle-things got him."

Hearing the agent turn around and walk back to her side, Mary then follows his curious gaze and sees him starring at the faintly disappearing speck in the sky, that is now spiriting away two of the souls that helped cause all this. Then, the younger wizard looks at the older colonel with an almost helpless admittance of impressed respect.

"Do you think the two of them planned for all of this.... Or do you think they just made it up as they went along?"

Mary's only response is to pinch the bridge of her nose. Silently she wonders if this is what many of her foes (or at least the alive ones) often felt in the aftermath of her passing, back in her own younger days and field agent career.

 

Harry Leferts

Checking over his scuba gear, Harry nodded while going through the various check lists in his head. After all, he often kept up with his scuba diving so that his skills would not become rusty. Having completed them, Harry looked over at Ume and Sakura who were watching him from where they were standing in the air just above the water. "Thanks for coming."

All Ume did though was shake her head at him. "It is not much of a problem, Harry-Chan." Unnoticed by him, a small blush sprang up on hers and Sakura's faces as Harry tested his range of motion in the wetsuit. "We... must admit, we're surprised at how far things have come."

Harry chuckled a bit with a small grin on his face. "You mean scuba?"

Nodding, Sakura leaned in to examine the equipment on him. "Hai. Back when we were alive people diving wore these large suits. With big, metal helmets... or at least those without magic did."

From where she was already in the water, Imuya shook her head. "They actually still have those." At the interested looks, she waved one hand. "They're used mainly for deep diving by the navy or various commercial groups."

Now thoughtful, the two Hitobashira shared a look of interest before turning back to Harry. Said boy was putting on his mask before giving them both thumbs up. "They're right, those sort of diving suits are still around. But I prefer scuba." With a glance around, he tipped himself back and into the water. Moments later, the two Submarines as well as Ume and Sakura joined him as he grabbed the line anchoring the boat in place and began to pull himself downwards. "You know, it never ceases to amaze me how clear the water here is."

Beside him, RO gave a nod. "Ja, that's very true. The water here is extremely clear."

Taking a breath, Harry looked over at Ume with curiosity in his eyes. "So these are the only other shipwrecks in the caldera?"

With a nod, Ume looked like she was still in the air, not in the water. "That is correct, Harry-Chan. Both of these ships were the last ones completed before the attack." She then pointed downwards. "There is a platform here that rises above the rest of the caldera floor. The two ships were anchored here while some work continued on them, though it was slow due to most concentrating on the ships in the slipways."

Also nodding, Sakura tilted her head to the side. "One of them was a food ship of some sort. They called her Kusumi. The other was a Submarine" Furrowing her eyebrows, she frowned some. "The Submarine was to transport oil from what we had heard."

Hearing the groan and facepalm from Imuya, the two spirits blinked and tilted their heads as they spoke as one. "Is there something wrong, Imuya-San?"

While part of her was happy that they finally dropped the "Sama" from her name after so much work, Imuya ignored the snickering from RO. "An Oil Tanker Submarine. Considering the other ones like them..."

It took Harry a few moments before he realized what she meant. "Wait, you think that it is one of the I-351 class? Here?"

Much to his surprise, it was not Imuya who answered, but Sakura. "Hai, that is correct. The name they gave it was the I-353." At the other groan from Imuya, she furrowed her eyebrows slightly. "I am still unsure what the issue may be..."

RO then spoke up. "The issue is that the two known I-351 class, as well as the I-373 are, well... lewd." Seeing the looks, she shrugged. "A lot of people call us lewdmarines because we sometimes acted lewd for attention. But those three... they don't just act lewd, they are lewd and to an extreme."

Grimacing, Imuya shook her head. "Better than the Ha-101 who were converted to Tanker Submarines." A shudder ran through her. "Just why..."

Confused, Harry tilted his head. "Why do you say that, Poi? I mean I met two of them and they seemed to be pretty nice. Though they were giving me a lot of hugs."

Slowly, Imuya turned to RO and the two seemed to be having a silent conversation before nodding in agreement. Then the German gave Harry a smile. "Don't be worrying about such things, Harry-Chan." It was then that she looked down and pointed. "And there's the Kusumi, I believe."

From the depths a large ship appeared and Harry looked her over from where they were. "Wow, she's bigger then I thought."

Lips twitching, RO hummed. "That's what he said."

Sakura blinked and turned to her in confusion. "But that is what he said..."

If anything though, the smile on RO's face widened. "Huh, you're right!" Looking it over herself though, she frowned some. Once the group got right above the wreck, they made their way from one end to the other before RO blinked. "Imuya-Chan, Harry-Chan? What do you think? The wreck resembles Irako-San."

His eyes widening, Harry nodded as it clicked into place. "You're right! That is Irako-San!" Eyebrows furrowing, he then blinked behind his mask. "Didn't she mention something about having supposed to have a sister but she was cancelled?"

Eyes scanning the wreck, Imuya gave a bob of the head. "She did mention that now that I think about it. Which means that since the ship here was a food ship, it's likely her. Huh... wonder what she would be like if summoned?"

Frowning somewhat, Ume shook her head. "I am not sure myself, Imuya-San. But I do know that the ship was equipped with a potions lab." When they turned towards her, she gestured at the wreck. "From what I remember, she was to serve the Yokai and magicals fighting the Americans. So a potion's lab was added to her design so that they could brew potions and salves."

On what was visible of Harry's face was a considering expression. "A potions lab? I wonder if she would know about making potions when she gets summoned?"

While her finger tapped her other arm, Imuya thought it over. "That is not impossible. If she was made for magicals and such, then chances are that she would know how to make potions at least. Which could be interesting in it's own way." Interested, she turned back to the two spirits. "Any other ships built here?"

Both Hitobashira thought back before Ume spoke up. "Most of the ships which were built here would not be considered warships. In fact, the base was only finished ten years after we... died. Other then these two, most of them were transports which looked like small Ocean Liners, though they were brought back to have guns places on them. Their purpose was to transport magical troops throughout the Pacific, but a number from what we knew of were sunk."

Also nodding, Sakura then continued. "There were also some cargo vessels as well, mainly for magical materials to bring back here to Japan during the war. Though... there was one warship that was launched and headed out to fight."

Not just Harry, but also Imuya and RO put their full attention onto the Hitobashira. "Wait, there was a warship that was launched and completed? Here?"

Becoming thoughtful, Sakura gave a small frown. "Hai, it was a Carrier launched in... 1941. It finished it's outfitting and headed out the next year and was named Ryukaku. Most of the crew at the time were Squibs with some aerial Yokai onboard. The Kamo government funded it's construction to show off to the non-magical military. But we heard that it got sunk off the Izu Islands by a group of sea monsters."

Eyes narrowed, RO looked at Sakura and Ume. "A group of sea monsters? Do you know what sort?" When the two shook their heads, RO shared a look with Imuya. 'I wonder...'

Meanwhile, Harry was frowning as the name wiggled something in the back of his mind. 'Ryukaku? Now why does that sound so damn familiar...?' Shaking that off though, he turned his attention back to the ship that they were now examining before glancing at RO and Imuya. "Um, RO-Chan? Imuya-Chan? Why aren't you bothered? I mean, some shipgirls..."

On RO's face was a sad smile. "Most shipgirls are bothered by wrecks? Sort of seeing a dead body to us?" At the nod, she sighed. "We... we often came across the wrecks sunk by Abyssals, Harry-Chan. And us Submarines were often on recovery duty when they were found."

That caused Harry to wince as he well knew what that meant. Swimming over, he hugged the blonde Submarine to him. "Sorry, about that, RO-Chan."

All the Submarine did though was hug Harry back and put her face into his neck the best way that she could. "Nein, it is okay, Harry-Chan. It is not something that we speak much of."

Spotting Imuya, Harry held open his other arm and moments later the red haired Submarine was also hugging him. Much to their surprise, both Ume and Sakura then moved towards them and hugged them as well. Something that made both Submarines smile some. Eventually though, they did pull away and soon the group was continuing the survey of the wreck and followed on with the Submarine.

 

dan-heron

I'm not sure if I mentioned it here or over the Kancolle idea thread, but I had an idea for Abyssals living among humans a long while back, like one of a Ta doing cosplay and other stuff. Well, when Re Sparkle visited the wax museum I got the itch to write about it… but I just couldn't get anything down.

Now! … I still can't get all the details I want right, but at least I can write a little scene inspired by recent events

--

Suiren, formerly known as a Supply Depot Princess, stared at the Setsubun masks happily looking back at her. It was a visage the world knew far too well. Even with the features overly simplified, with the colors just slightly off to be Oni-like enough, there was no mistaking this mask was meant to be the Shipgirl Nagato.

"The hell you are doing now?" Suiren muttered, looking at the black haired beauty working on the table. Suiren could see several Imp sized chibi Abyssals working on cutting the masks, wood, paper and plastic, teruterubouzu made out of paper and fabric, moving away gift boxes and bags, keychain charms, and many more. Mostly Abyssal themed.

"Finishing the festival's stuff," came the easy reply. Hime was busy with another Nagatoni mask, this one made out wood, with far more care and detail than the flat paper one Suiren saw before. "Should had gotten to work on them sooner, but got busy coming with some new ideas," the Princess smiled at the white haired Abyssal, nodding towards the boxes with masks, the ones on the top themed after a dog? Maybe a wolf considering the adorable snarl.

Now that Hime moved, Suiren could see another nendoroid, or Imp, sized mannequin, with the beginnings of horns already modeled atop its head resting behind other masks.

"I'm surprised the shipgirls didn't punch your head off after your little gift," Suiren shivered, remembering the sheer terror she felt when Hime decided to personally hand over a keychain of a Seaplane Tender Princess to one of the visiting shipgirls during a previous Shipgirl Festival.

Hime followed Suiren's eyes and grabbed the almost blank doll. "I'll have you know Commandant was charmed," she passed it to a chibi Wo whom was working on a doll Wo. "She actually asked me to send her one for Richelieu a couple weeks ago."

"Must be a European thing."

"Mizuho still takes good care of the teruterubouzu too."

Suiren shrugged at that, "I still can't believe Gambier didn't freak out with hers. Gambier!" the white haired woman shook her head as she remembered. "I was sure the Americans would hunt you down and tear you apart as soon as they found out."

"Oh, Gambier was such a sweet thing, she loved it!" Hime fished her phone, moving quickly through whatever files she stored in there. "Look!" and Suiren did. It was Gambier in one of her recent visits, and look, the little abyssal keychain was still with her.

Suiren shrugged and decided to leave her friend to her work, the bespectacled Abyssal had a stream to get back to. However, she stopped to look at the tiny Wo placing a set of plastic tails on the doll and realized it wasn't a new abyssal figure, but a kitsune. There was another doll who had a big tail instead of legs, and now that she looked at it, it didn't seem like they were nowhere finished.

"Didn't you say you were finishing the Festival stuff?" she wondered out loud and Hime nodded.

"Oh yeah, the stuff for the shipgirl festival is pretty much complete, it's just a matter of packaging things," she pointed to the far more organized side of the room. "That is for another festival."

"Another? Where?" Dragons, kitsune, tengu, skulls and spiders besides the Nagato Oni among other themes, none of them gave her good enough hints.

Hime moved next to Suiren and draped an arm around her slim shoulders. "Where would be the fun if I told you!" she smiled impishly at Suiren's sour expression.

"Great," Suiren groaned and left a laughing Hime to her work. Of course Hime wouldn't do the sensible thing and let her know of her stupid risky plans. Then again, nobody had realized the weirdo who liked to sell Abyssal related things to the shipgirls themselves in their own base was an Abyssal in all these years.

--

Also inspired on official art by Akira

 

Harry Leferts

Leaving the boatshed behind, Harry stretched some as he glanced towards where the Sun was now meeting the horizon. As he did so, a thoughtful look crossed his face. However, any thoughts he was having were interrupted as a weight suddenly appeared on his back and a glance over his shoulder had me notice a grinning RO. "Something wrong, Harry-Chan?"

Only shaking his head though, Harry gave her a grin back. "Not really, just thinking about how the summer is passing."

Head tilted to the side, RO leaned forward before whispering in his ear. "Want to know a piece of advice that all of us Uboats know, Harry-Chan?" At his nod, she softly smiled. "Live for today and not for yesterday or tomorrow. The former is gone and the latter you cannot do anything about."

Lips curling a bit, Harry chuckled. "Sort of like how Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift and that is why we call it the Present?"

Tapping him on the head, RO smiled. "Exactly, Harry-Chan. Enjoy every moment that comes to the fullest because once they're gone, they're gone and won't be coming back." Chin coming to rest on his shoulder, the Uboat continued. "I know that I do that for every moment that I spend with you."

Even though he flushed a bit, Harry gave her a smile of his own. "Thanks, and it's the same with me. I enjoy the time that I spend with you as well." Before she could react, the wizard reached down and grabbed her legs with his hands to help support her. What Harry did not see was RO blush lightly before shifting into a more comfortable position. "Better?"

Happily humming, RO gave a nod as she shifted her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist. "Ja, much better." With a glance at him, she kissed his cheek. "Danke."

If anything, that increased the blush on Harry's face. "You're welcome, RO-Chan." Feeling her nod against his neck, Harry glanced up at the sky above as he walked. 'Huh, you know what she said really is so RO-Chan. Even when she was Yuu, she liked to live for the moment which is something that I like.' Moments later, he felt RO shake and blinked as she buried her face in his neck while giggling. "Um..."

When he heard more snickers, he turned to Imuya who was barely holding back giggles herself. At his look though, she shook her head. "Harry-Chan? That bit about RO-Chan you said out loud."

Embarrassed, Harry gave both Subgirls a sheepish smile. "Um, oh... Sorry about that, RO-Chan."

Much to his surprise though, RO just shook her head and gave him a smile as he noticed her eyes sparkling with happiness. "It is okay, Harry-Chan. After all it is true and is a compliment. I do like to live for the moment since we have been given a second chance at life." Snuggling into him, the best that she could, she let out a sigh. "Times like this is what I came back for."

Harry turned towards Imuya who gave him a nod and a smile. "It is also what we came back for."

Unable to help himself, Harry had a soft smile on his face. "I'm glad that you came back too." At the smiles, the black haired boy turned back to the path as he continued to walk with RO on his back. Seeing a flash, he looked to see Imuya lower her smartphone. "Hmm?"

Grinning, the red haired Sub shook her head. "Sorry, the two of you just look so Kawaii like that." Noticing RO blink Morse with her eye, asking her to send her a copy, Imuya gave a small nod that only her fellow Sub would notice. Then with a hum, she tilted her head. "RO-Chan looks so comfortable there."

Rather amused, RO giggled some before resting her chin in the crook of Harry's neck. "Ja, I feel comfortable here. Perhaps you should try it some time?"

Softly snorting, Imuya crossed her arms some as Harry watched and listened to the two. "Maybe when Harry-Chan is taller. You're only comfortable because you're smaller in displacement then I am."

Pouting, RO turned to Harry. "Harry-Chan, Imuya-Chan is picking on me because of my displacement. Tell her to stop."

With a glance between them, Harry coughed and looked away. "Um..." Then he gave an unsure grin. "I'm... not going to get involved with that."

Just nodding, Imuya gave a look to RO. "Smart boy."

Reaching up, RO patted him on the head which made Harry pout with her next words. "Ja, you're right. We trained him well."

Playfully glaring at her, the wizard huffed. "Now who's being mean."

Both Submarines giggled at that before Imuya walked over and hooked her arm through his. Looking at him, her eyes softened. "See? This is the sort of thing that we meant, Harry-Chan. No pressure of fighting, just three people close to one another walking along. A time that we can use to just forget about the war and enjoy the gift that is our new lives. Just being girls. Or when you're scuba diving and we're there to show you the wonderful world beneath the waves. It's the time to enjoy the moment together and not worry about what has happened or what may come. A time to just be and nothing more."

Considering what he had just been told, Harry gave a small nod. "You know, that's true enough." Internally, he chuckled a bit. 'I wonder if anyone else knows just how wise the Submarines are?' The three continued talking as they walked towards the Submarine dorms. Eventually they did reach said area and Harry let RO get off his back before he turned to them both. "Thanks for coming today, I enjoyed it."

Hands behind her head, the German shook her head. "We enjoyed it as well, Harry-Chan." Blushing slightly, she looked at him with a shy smile. "Um, would you join us for breakfast tomorrow, Harry-Chan? Before we head out on the last patrol before the wedding?" RO scratched her cheek some. "I'm making my famous Müsli and I have some quark to go with it as well."

Eyes widening, Harry gave a nod. "Sure, RO-Chan! I'll be over first thing in the morning for that. Heck, you had me at Müsli!" Rubbing his stomach, he grinned. "You make the best Müsli after all, and your home made quark as well makes it even better."

Imuya gave him a wink. "You and the rest of us, Harry-Chan. I know that Hachi-Chan will be happy when she gets back tonight to have that waiting for her in the morning."

Only nodding, Harry blinked as his phone went off and rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, I got to get going if I'm going to be able to get a shower quick." At the confused looks, he shrugged. "Rose has something that she wants me to be at for the wedding. She's meeting someone who can help out with crowd control since it's going to be pretty big." Before either of the two could react, he leaned forward and kissed them both on the cheek. "See you tomorrow!"

Brightly blushing, the two Submarines waved to him as he left. Once he was out of sight, Imuya turned to RO who had a smile on her face. "Kind of wish that we got what Iku-Chan and Hachi-Chan have?"

Much to her surprise, the Uboat only shrugged. "Nein." At the look, RO rolled her eyes. "Give Harry-Chan some time, Imuya-Chan. We are in no rush after all."

As they entered the Submarine Pens, the red headed Submarine frowned. "What do you think of Hachi-Chan's crazy plan anyways? Do you think that there is any real chance? Or..."

Stopping, RO turned and placed a hand on the taller girl's shoulder. "There is always a chance, Imuya-Chan. And with Harry-Chan, I think that we would be very happy no matter what happens, though I would prefer for that in regards to us. But as I said, live for today and enjoy what time we have."

That got her a sharp nod from Imuya as she walked in. "Hai!" As the door closed behind them, her voice could be heard just before it shut. "Though I am looking forward to tomorrow. Harry-Chan with us as we eat your Müsli..."
_________________________________________________________________________

Hair still damp from his quick shower to get off the salt, Harry was walking alongside Rose as the tsukumogami made her way to the restaurant owned by Mamiya's "Rival", Minato. "Um, Rose? Can you do me a small favor?"

Blinking, Rose turned and gave him a small smile, though there was some tiredness there. She had been running around in the past few days alongside Haruna as they got ready for their wedding. "Yes, Master? What is it?"

With a look around, he leaned towards her. "Don't tell Mamiya-Oba that I came here, okay? She'd kill me."

Several moments passed before Rose lightly laughed. "Of course, Master. My lips are sealed." Glancing at her watch, she gave a small nod. "Good, we're just in time."

Even though he was confused, Harry only nodded some. "Sorry about that." When Rose waved him off though, he frowned. "Who are we meeting anyways?"

Finger tapping her chin, Rose furrowed her eyebrows. "I am not too sure, Master. But Miss Haru suggested this group to help with both crowd control as well as with security. According to her, they are very, very good at what they do."

Within moments of entering the restaurant, the two found themselves brought a table with a gentleman in a suit and sunglasses. Before they could do anything though, the man rose and bowed deeply to them. "Ah, hello, Rose-Sama. Thank you for having this meeting with us, I am Reo and it is a pleasure to meet you."

More then a little flustered, Rose bowed back. "T-thank you, as you know I am Rose Po... I mean, Potter Rose. I was told that there was a password...?"

Reo chuckled a bit and gave her a smile. "Hai, the Rose is a symbol of love for the Enduring." Seeing the tea set relax, he motioned to the chairs. "Please, have a seat both of you. Minato-Sama's cooking is quite good. With me is my partner, Yuuto-Kun."

Another man, this time with slicked back hair though also wearing a suit smiled and bowed to them both. "Thank you for this opportunity, Rose-Sama. We were extremely pleased when Haru-Sama contacted us for this."

When the menus were brought over, Rose and Harry both opened it before glancing at the various foods. Once they ordered, the tsukumogami frowned slightly. "I do hope not to be rude, but... Sama? I don't understand."

The two men chuckled some and Reo shook his head as he sat back. "The reason for the honorific, Rose-Sama, is rather simple. It is not often that one like us who find themselves marrying someone as important or highly ranked as Haruna-Sama." He then gave a small nod to Harry. "That is beside the fact that we've heard tales of what you did and how you have served your family with distinction and honor. Or to serve our nation in the way you have."

While Rose was confused for a moment it soon clicked and her eyes widened. "You're tsukumogami as well?"

Beside her, Harry looked between the two men as they nodded. Then he cocked his head to the side. "May I ask...?"

Still smiling, Reo pulled his coat open to reveal an odd weapon in a holster. It looked like a very old, but well cared for Sai except it only had one prong. "I am a Jitte tsukumogami, Harry-Sama. Yuuto-Kun here is as well though we have others in our group. For example, we have Kaikan and Tanto tsukumogami, though Sai over there is, well, a Sai." As one, Harry and Rose looked over to another man who smiled and waved at them. Grinning, Reo leaned in. "He's not very imaginative sadly enough."

All Sai did though was give Reo the middle finger and a playful grin. More important to Harry though, was two familiar men at another table who kept glancing at Sai as well as the Reo and Yuuta nervously. Mainly because the wizard recognized them both as local Yakuza enforcers and the fact that they seemed somewhat frightened said a lot. 'So even the Yakuza respect them...'

Meanwhile, Rose tilted her head some. "Miss Haru mentioned something about you providing security?"

Yuuto nodded some with his hands clasped over his stomach. "That is correct, Rose-Sama. Our group is usually hired to provide security for various places or events. As a matter of fact, Haru-Sama's parents have hired a number of us to provide protection for the home in which they live and so have other Yokai. A number of Onmyouji clans have as well. Haru-Sama also hired us as part of the security detail for Mutsu-Sama's and Richardson-Teitoku's wedding this past year. All of us were used by guards for not just the Tokugawa Shogunate, but some have served in the Imperial Household after the restoration. We are very good at what we do and we believe it a mark of honor to uphold that reputation."

With a slight nod, Reo took over. "If you decide to hire us, we swear to uphold our standards for your wedding to Haruna-Sama."

Just then the food arrived and soon they began their dinner while Rose and Harry both got details. Though Harry was more listening as Rose got more information about the private security firm. By the time that the dinner was done though, both parties had agreed to the job with Reo and Yuuta's price being very low much to Rose's and Harry's surprise. That is, until they stated that considering the event in question, some would have been willing to do it for free.

 

Panaka

The carrier practice range, sometime in the future:

Hellcats and Zero's were mock dog fighting in the skies overhead. Dauntless' and Vals were diving on targets further out, white splashes visible as bombs rained on and around the old hull. Avengers and Kates making torpedo runs on other targets. The buzz of the different radial engines clearly audible across the range as Enterprise and Kaga were observing their respective air groups practice with and against each other, occasionally recovering a flight or sending a refueled and rearmed one back up in the air.

It's to this combination of sight and sound that Shinano arrived at the range and set herself up in the bay next to them. It is Kaga who spots her first and greets her. "Good morning, Shinano. Your refit is done?"
It was quickly followed by a greeting from Enterprise. "Morning Shinano. How did it go?"

Shinano smiled brightly. "It went very well. Akashi and Hoppou were very happy with how it all worked out. I've been out in the bay shaking down and everything works great. Now I need to get my air group used to their new aircraft"

Enterprise looked very interested. "New aircraft, what did you get?"

"Well Akashi and Hoppou discovered a loophole." A blush formed at the thought of a certain young man with black messy hair. "Well with Harry's help. He apparently stayed with me for the entire time. He was there when I woke up, holding my hand."

She shook her head. "Anyway, they discovered that if Japan had kept carriers in service after the war we would probably have bought American aircraft. At least until industry recovered. Seems we can use late and post war American carrier aircraft."

She knocked an arrow, drew back and let it fly. Almost immediately it changed into a flight of four A-1 Skyraiders, the Wright R-3350's that powered them roaring as they climbed into the sky, the Japanese rising sun painted on their fuselage.

The American carrier looked impressed as she watched the four ground attack aircraft maneuver. "What did you get for fighters? Bearcats?"

The newly minted Japanese fleet carrier blushed, but didn't answer. Instead she pulled out a new arrow and let it fly.

Almost instantly the sound of the other aircraft was drowned out by the screech of eight General Electric F-110-400 turbofan jet engines at full afterburner. Kaga and Enterprise looked on dumbfounded as 4 F-14D Tomcat fighters soared into the blue sky, quickly becoming little more then specks.

As the two carriers turned to their compatriot, still not quite believing what they'd just seen, Shinano (still blushing) offered an explanation.

"Harry owns a Tomcat. So..... uhm."
"Magical Sparkly Wizard bullshit?"

 

NotHimAgain

And now I will have to do more research on Scotland, and the culture there. Kinda did that to myself, I guess.
Never That Simple

-----

There was a sharp rap at the door. Himeyuki turned away from the stove (that had finally started doing what she wanted it to! Truly this was a year of miracles) and reached into her apron pocket. She wasn’t very happy that she had to keep her wand close at hand, and the day when she could finally shove it down the garbage disposal quite honestly couldn’t come soon enough, but there was no illusion that, for the foreseeable future, the precaution was a necessary one.

At first, following her return home, at least one of Ichiro’s sisters had been in the house at all times of the day. As the weeks went on, and the fear of reprisal seemed to fade away, they were called back to their duties and Himeyuki was left alone for much of the day once more. And just like that her wand, though unwanted, was her most present tool.

Slowly, quietly, she stepped around the divider, glancing over at Mai to confirm her daughter was still napping, still safe where she had been left. Moving a little slower, she shifted towards the door. Gripping the knob, she pushed the door open a crack.

No one was there.

Himeyuki breathed out, little by little, as she pushed the door open further. No one. She looked up, and down. A newspaper. She glared down at it, noting the title—a wizarding newspaper, what could she want from—

Then she saw the headline.

Somewhere down the street, the engine of a motorcycle roared.

Nagawa Himeyuki was more interested in the newspaper.
-----

“Welcome back, you two,” Mom said cheerfully, sweeping in to hug Tatsuya, then turning away to embrace Benio with equal enthusiasm. “How was your trip? Are you feeling better?”

Benio shrugged. “Well, we enjoyed ourselves as best we could. Got to go see a movie, lot of fun, that was nice. But… I’m afraid someone isn’t as good at relaxing as Mamiya had hoped.” Tatsuya looked down at his feet, shrugging ineffectually. There wasn’t really anything wrong with admitting the truth. Especially after the… altercation with the Tsuboi daughter, he had been on the lookout the entire time for an attack from anywhere at any angle or time—an attack that had been far from forthcoming. The closest that he had come was an old man who had walked up to him casually and informed him that he looked like he was fighting a war in a matter-of-fact voice.

Maybe he should have told Mamiya about the whole double life thing. Sure, she’d have to live her life in constant fear that her younger brother would suddenly be harmed by something horrible that wanted to murder him, but at least she wouldn’t try one of those vacation ideas again.

“Hello, everyone!” Speak of the devil, that was her now. She was sitting at the table, holding an iced tea, waving. And across from her… The one destroyer girl, Miyuki? Mamiya caught his gaze and grinned mischievously. “Ah, I hear you know each other? Miyuki-chan here has a bit of a crush on you, it seems. Don’t worry, I told her—”

“I keep telling you, it’s not like that!” Miyuki shrieked. Okay, this was okay. The destroyer was on Tatsuya’s side. She had just shown up in his house all of a sudden, and Mamiya had never had any Shipgirl friends outside of Ushio…

“Gokigen na cho ni natte, kirameku kaze ni notte,”

He glanced back at Mamiya. She smiled gently and opened her mouth again. “Ima sugu, kimi ni ai ni yukou.”

Tatsuya relaxed, shifting his grip on his suitcase. “I guess it’s good to see you again,” he said, extending a hand. Miyuki gave him a slightly suspicious look, then reached out and took it. Benio grinned and shifted her grip on the straps of her backpack.

“eep!”

Tatsuya and Benio turned to stare at each other. Then, as one, they bolted upstairs.
-----

“We have a problem.”

Haru looked up from her newspaper. “And a good day to you too, Tatsuya-kun. Whatever might be the problem?”

The problem is sitting on her newspaper a moment later, a small weasel wearing a dress that would look better on a girl under ten. The weasel curled up, crossing its forelegs and looking up at Haru. She got the impression of an aggressively pouting elementary-schooler. Which… was probably what this was.

“That is a problem,” she admitted. “What’s your name, dear?”

The weasel pouted. Haru held out a cookie. The weasel pouted again.

“Mama said I shouldn’t talk to strangers, even if they offer me food,” she said.

“Her name’s Tsuboi Emi,” Tatsuya cut in unappreciatively of the hard work that Haru was doing. “She’s the daughter of the innkeepers whose place we staid at. There was a… bit of a problem when we got there, but—”

“At least it didn’t spiral into an all-out war,” the kitsune sighed. In a poof, her lap was crowded with angry shrieking little girl with tail flapping around wildly and repeatedly smacking her in the face.

“You’re a meanie! Emi’s gonna prove it! And then—”

“And then Emi will do what?” Haru asked casually. Emi paused. Her hand, frantically waving, slowed to a stop. Her tail, thankfully, stopped moving and Haru carefully pushed it away from her face.

“I… Emi’ll… Beat you up, and make you stop being a meanie?” She said hesitantly, more a question than an answer. Gripping her under the arms, Haru lifted her from her lap and placed her on the ground. The silly child hadn’t even thought her brilliant plan out. Ah, for the days of youth. Tatsuya grimaced, his hands opening and closing. Finally, he dropped down to one knee and glared at the young itachi square in the eye.

“Do you have any idea what this might be doing to your mother?” he asked. “How do you think she feels, knowing that you’re gone and she can’t tell where?”

“What would you know about that?” Emi shrieked again. Tatsuya’s jaw snapped tight, and he trembled slightly.

“More than you would think,” he ground out.

“And on that wonderful note,” Haru cut in, jumping to her feet, “Emi-chan can stay here until someone from her family comes to pick her up. It’ll have to be soon, though, I’ve been unusually busy as of late, and while I know a few good babysitters, getting them on short notice might be a bit of a trick… Any questions?”

“Why do you keep cookies in your sleeves?” Benio asked.

“Why wouldn’t I keep cookies in my sleeves?” The hanyou blinked, then shrugged and turned away.

“I can’t fault that,” she admitted.
-----

“You really should not be up and about like this,” Hoshikawa said. “You’re how many months pregnant? The meetings can wait until after you’ve recovered from giving birth.”

Yae shrugged sadly. “Sitting around and waiting is a torment in its own right,” she pointed out. “I’ve never exactly been one who could sit around doing nothing. I thought you knew that.” Hoshikawa sighed and carried on. “And don’t give me that crap about straining myself,” Yae continued, voice growing a little more heated, “I get enough of that from my parents. I’m pregnant, not a cripple.”

Hoshikawa turned to face her again, fixing her with a look just this side of baleful. “Look, Ashida, I need to know. How much of this is you wanting to do something, and how much is—” her phone rang and she pulled it out, scanning the caller ID. “Aand I have to take this. Great. Look, just…” she motioned to a nearby bench. “Just sit down and wait for me. I’ll be right back.” Raising the phone to her ear, she walked away briskly. “Hello, Saki, how are you feeling? What? No, you are not putting this off again. Dinner. Tonight. You, me, and Namiko. At Houshou’s. You need this, trust me… Would you please just—"

Yae tuned her out. Walking over to the bench, she sank down, her body screaming relief to her betrayal. She sighed in frustration, bringing her hand up to palm her face. Going into this, she had known that it wouldn’t be easy in any sense of the word, but to be so trapped by her own body?

“I can’t wait to have you out of here,” she admitted, running her hand over her womb.

“Uh, excuse me?”

Yae turned to look to her side. One of the destroyer girls was standing there, staring. “You’re Ushio’s friend, right?”

“Probably,” Yae admitted. “Something wrong?” The destroyer—Yae had the strangest impression that she had known her name once—shook her head.

“No, I just… I wanted to… Could I touch your tummy?”

Yae blinked. Then she snorted, a smile spreading across her face.
-----

“What have you got there, Aoba?” Ooyodo asked. The mess hall was unusually busy, and while she hadn’t been seeking the Shipgirl out, there had been precious few places to sit.

Aoba looked up from her tablet. “Huh? Oh, it’s nothing really, just something that a pen pal of mine sent me. He’s a Scottish blogger, took one of the tours about a year back, we ended up keeping contact.”

“Just a pen pal?” Ooyodo asked. Aoba smirked in reply.

“How’re things going with that Weasley kid?” she asked.

“Shutting up now.”

“But yeah, he’s big on cryptic mysteries, apparently ‘cause he grew up near Loch Ness or something… He sends me some of his posts on the weirder stuff that happens over there from time to time. He’s... Huh, actually he sent a video this time.”

“Hmm?” Ooyodo looked over her shoulder. “M’Dear Aoba, ah’ve happened acrooss sumthin’ extraordinary ‘dis time. Tha video’s oonly been oop a dae, and it’s already gooin’ doon fahster then—”

“Okay, okay, stop! Stop it with the accent!” Aoba cut in, covering the secretary cruiser’s mouth. “That isn’t even a good accent, why are you reading the e-mail in it?” Ooyodo smirked, and continued

“… Thought you might be interested. I have it from a local with military connections that the girl in the video isn’t a Shipgirl, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Wes.” She looked down at the video file embedded in the message. “What’s this… ‘Real Life Buffy Slaughters Vamps?’ What even is this?”

“One way to find out,” Aoba replied, clicking the play button.

Two minutes later, Ooyodo was standing, dinner completely forgotten. “I’ve got to talk to the Admiral,” she said curtly. “You’re sure that’s not a Shipgirl?”

“Wes’s as good as his word,” Aoba replied, watching. “Why asking?”

“Look at the description of the video. That’s not the first time that girl’s been mixed up in some kind of spooky goings on… And her town has a reputation for strange goings on stretching back to the eighteen-thirties.” Ooyodo grinned. “This might be a lead on whatever’s happening with that Haneda kid.”
-----

“Hime?” Ichiro asked, walking over to look at her newspaper. “You’re acting a little weird. Is something wrong? And that’s…” He examined the title. “Shikigami Messenger? What the heck kind of newspaper is that?”

“Ichiro,” Hime said, looking again at the headline. “Street Justice and Shame” was emblazoned proudly over the top half of the page. The new creases and tears in the page were testament to how she had gone over the article repeatedly and enthusiastically.

“I really, really, really want to frame this.”

Truly, this was a year of miracles.
-----

Well, what do you think sirs?

 

Lord K

Reading the newspaper over Mary's shoulder at the breakfast table, Jin raises a scarred eyebrow and gives bemused "huh."

Glancing at her daughter, the witch gives the reincarated mizuchi a curious, enquiring look of her own. "Something catch your attention Molly?" Glancing back down, Mary notes the front page article that she was already reading, and caught Jin's attention.

Awkwardly, the human-reborn dragon gives a sheepishly entertained grin. "Sorry, it was just a stupid thought I was thinking."

"Oh?"

Jin chuckles somewhat guiltily at the subjects she really shouldn't be finding humor in. "You ever find it funny how many people we run into that have either absent of bafflingly terrible relationships with certain parts of their families? And yet we're the ones with the "killed in a previous life" thing going on?"
*-*-*

Haiku said:
Okay, just what is wrong with us having a Princess?​

I tried to imagine the ways that could go wrong, and the first thing that came to mind was being as sterotypical as you can get, and now I can't shake the mental image of an Abyssal having a hilariously over the top accent and usage of Kiwi slang. Just this typical "ethereal deathly beauty" as with so many of the other high ranking Abyssals, and then the instant she opens her mouth, she sounds like a female Korg mixed with the Ghost Chips add.
*-*-*-*
"You takin' the piss outta me, or are we actually leaving the wop wops for once to go find some tucker?"

"Mate, I thought this would be a supply run. But I think this might be a trap, aye?"

"Yeah nah, I don't think we wanna to mess with those girls over there."

"Oi! You wanna go then mate?! You wanna fucking go?!"

"Now you've brassed me off! Rattle ya dags girls! Let's give it to these stink cunts!"

"Chur bro, that hurt, but I'm all G."

"Well bugger, that's munted things a bit."

"Bro, we might need to suss this supply thing out later. We're not lookin' too shit hot, and I don't wanna pack a sad 'cause we lost somebody. Time to leg it, aye?

"Sweet as, we're all alive."

"She'll be right, just a little bit of repairs, and you'll be good as gold."

"When we get back to base, it's my shout. Smoko and beersies are on me!"

"G'day Princess, we're back. I got good news and bad news, The bad news is the fleet is shagged. Also, there isn't actually any good news, so sorry about that yeah?"

Edit: For added funny-disonance value, maybe it's a Flagship level Wo, that got the accent due to being a "dark mirror" of the HMS New Zealand Malta Class CV that got cancelled and never built?

 

K9Thefirst1

In which we learn just how serious Canut's actions actually are, and a reminder of what the Princess' plans are. Just to be sure I'm clear, I am very much a fan of s0ngd0g's work with Canut. He just... acted a bit more hastily than Gateway would appreciate. Especially given how Canut has only been in the fleet for, what, two months? Three tops surely.



Canut’s Doom

The Princess and Ocean Liner Demon steamed at a quick pace for home. There was no urgency, but with their most important work behind them it would be good to be home. The pair had not said a word in well over a day, having nothing in need of discussion that had not already been settled. They had sailed a more direct path home than they had taken to the meeting location, moving directly south towards the English Channel rather than back north and around Ireland. After all, the Princess of the Atlantic Gate literally delivered a map unto the humans – secrecy was no longer on the agenda. Her Highness had made gamble after gamble, and as things stood, she just might have victory in sight.

So Fortuna, bitch that she is, naturally had to toss in a curve ball for shits and giggles. In this instance it was in the form of, starting at the border, dozens of Abyssals of utterly unknown origin dotting the sea scape. The Princess looked about in skillfully disguised bafflement. As she descended into the depths and returned to the Palace, she noted no signs of a hostile struggle. And as none of her own fleet were dead or damaged, and the newcomers were not hostile, it was evident that the situation was not one of immediate danger. Which simply raised further questions. Fortunately, she did not have long to wait, for there was a grand welcoming host gathered in the courtyard. And there in the forefront was her daughter Angband, and Mistress-at-Arms Canut. And over a score of the unknown Abyssals. The Battleship Demon made to speak but stopped short when the Princess, a strained smile on her face, held up a hand and gestured to the assembled… “guests.”

“Canut, tell me… What manner of fresh hot bullshit is this?”

A hush fell over the crowd. Those of the fleet, even Angband, wore tense expressions and stepped back, while the arrivals and Canut looked confused.

“’This?’ Your Highness?”

“This,” she repeated, “This collection of foreign agents. Why do I find them on my return?”

Instincts honed from years of battle scream in Canut’s mind that she has fallen into a deadly ambush, and that she must retreat at once. But, driven by either foolishness or duty, she stands her ground and answers the inquiry, even as her sovereign’s left eye begins to twitch.

“They are wayfarers and vagabonds, like I had been. Most all I have fought alongside or against at one point or another amongst the fleets of this sea. I called them all here so that they too can swear fealty to you Your Highness.”

The Princess’ face turns a shade towards anger, and her teeth visibly grind against each other with such force that they can scarcely be parted from their twins. She firmly presses the palms of her hands together and holds her fingers, still firmly forced against each other, to her mouth and takes in a deep breath through her nose.

“Why?”

A groan of dread that is felt more than heard amongst her native fleet rolls through the crowd, who now begin to take very big steps in the other direction. Canut, now utterly confused and nervous, wracks her brain for why her Princess is upset as she tries to find out what – exactly – she is asking.

“Er, w-well, after so long, we all long for a port to register at and call home. And I figured that, you would need the extra strike power.”

The Princess took in a deep breath, and like a rag wiping down a window her face lost all evidence of her anger. One part of Canut felt relief. The rest suspected that she had instead turned so furious that she became placid. Then she felt her boiler temperature drop to zero and her engines lose all pressure at her next words.

“Canut… I distinctly remember my orders for you being ‘train my fleet in armed combat.’ You sending out a call for these mercenaries is so far beyond the scope of that task I cannot even begin to describe it.”

The assembled vagabonds, well-versed in the fury of Princesses from past experience – observed or otherwise – looked on with horror when the penny dropped. At the back of the group was a Wo-Class carrier and her band. The carrier backed of and gestured to her task force before booking it for the surface.

“Battleship Demon,” the Princess said, smiling sweetly, ”Come with me. We’re going to have ourselves a wee chat.”

The assembled Abyssals parted for the pair like Moses and the Red Sea, and none dared to follow.
------

Canut had never been in the Princess’ private rooms. Only Ocean Liner Demon, and she suspected Lady Angband, had been shown such a degree of trust. The Battleship Demon had looked forward to the day she was invited into that sanctum as a rite of passage, proving once and for all that she was truly considered one of the fleet. But now she was taken to that private audience she had hoped for… And it was not in honor.

”Sit.” the Princess said, as if to a misbehaving dog. And like a dog, Canut obeyed, and placed herself in the designated chair. It was not a comfortable one. Her Highness paced the room for what seemed like minutes, made to sit twice, and on both occasions changed her mind in favor of burning more of her energy pacing. And the longer she passed, the thicker the atmosphere grew with the sensation of lightning about to strike. All the while, Canut felt the knots in her gut twist tighter and tighter. Finally, the Princess found the words she needed.

“Who is Princess here?”

“M-My Lady?”

“Tis a simple question Battleship. Who. Is Princess. Here?”

“Ah… You are, your Highness.”

“Mmm. I see… And what, precisely, does that mean?”

“Your Highness?”

“Answer the damn question you plebe: What does my being the Princess mean?”

“I-it means that, you are our Liege. That you bring order and guidance to a chaotic world. And- and that we serve your every whim, in peace or war-.”

“IN PEACE OR WAR! the Princess bellowed, the charged Power in her being released in a mighty crack of lightning radiating from her body, her eyes glowing Hellfire red, and a blue light from the back of her throat, ”No shit Sherlock! I am the Commander-in-Chief of this realm! NOT you! The strength of my fleet is mine to take measure of, and if I find it wanting, I take the steps to ensure it is no longer so, not you! If you see something wrong, and have a solution for it, your job is to bump it up the chain of command! That is procedure! By not merely failing to do so, but to ignore it entirely, you – who have not been here more than two months! – have committed nothing so minor as insubordination, but to tell all and sundry that you have no faith in my capacity as Princess of this fleet, and seek to usurp my position by bringing in foreign allies for a civil war or coup! Mutiny and High Treason!”

Horrified at what her Sovereign thought of her actions, Canut stood up and held her hands up placatingly.

“My Lady! Forgive me, I had no intention of anything of th-URKH!”

Only to be silenced by an invisible force when the Princess raised her hand. Canut found herself unable to move under her own will, feeling her whole body become saturated with the Power of Gateway Princess. A tiny voice in the back of her mind recognized it for what it was – The Power of an Elder Princess exerting her will. It was a force that no lesser Abyssal – regardless of her rank – could ever hope to oppose, nor hope to be free of, save by either the Elder Princess releasing her hold, or by her death.

The Princess, mouth grit in Wrath, made a shoving motion with her raised hand, and Canut was forcibly shoved by the invisible force of her Will back into her chair.

“SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN! I do not give a rat-tailed fish’s ass what you intended you mead-swilling dumbass! How the ever-loving FUCKING HELL, in the Name of the Abyss, did this not occur to your Jarl-addled brain! I am gone for ten days and you very well could have ruined everything I have been working for!”

Even if she was not infused with the Princess’ command to not speak, Canut would have no words to her defense. Only now, with the suggestion put into her mind, did Canut realize what her actions looked like. A Sovereign leaves, only to return to find a host of skilled and experienced warriors in her territory, at the behest of one in her fleet, without even being consulted? Now that she thought on it, Canut recalled overhearing a few of those that answered her summons discuss having actually participated in such an act.

In the meantime, the Princess slumped into her own chair, her body finally losing its enraged tension. But it was clear as day that she was still wrothful, and in her fury, she divulged things that she normally would not have. Things that made Canut’s actions all the more harmful to the State and cultivated her shame and horror to new heights.

“Calling in foreign agents. Guiding them here, to my fortress whose particulars of situation and defenses I have labored long and hard to hide from all the world, save for those I trust. And you exposed it all as if it were some two-bit whore at a stag party. And in doing so, sending out an advertisement for mercenaries, you may as well have announced to the entirety of my neighbors that I am a greater threat than they realize. Years of playing the unimportant, weak power, lulling them all into false security until it is time to slice their throats. All for nothing. Because of you.

“Furthermore, the ink of the armistice with the Humans is yet to dry. And already I am at risk of being seen as a false friend. Do you have any idea how nervous the Humans are of me and my fleet? Of the size it currently stands at? I have carefully calculated its size so that, once the war is over and the borders of my new realm are established, after the ones wanting to go to civilian life are removed, the remaining fleet will be large enough to make the Humans give pause to the idea of eradicating us, but not so large that I am seen as to big a threat to ignore. Until then I must be sure to not let the growth of my numbers exceed to much what I can expect my losses to be. Having even a few dozen hardened warriors join my ranks at once is to dangerous at this time…

“And then there’s the simple fact that they are mercenaries at all… ‘Mercenary captains are either very capable men or not; if they are, you cannot rely upon them, for they will always aspire to their own greatness, either by oppressing you, their master, or by oppressing others against your intentions; but if the captain is not an able man, he will generally ruin you.’ -Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter twelve: The Different Kinds of Militia and Mercenary Soldiers.”

Taking the chance to just breath, the Princess stared at the wall for many agonizingly long minutes. Finally she turned to Canut, and released her hold over the Abyssal Demon.

“If you knew the first thing about me, Battleship Demon, you would know very well that your actions are in no way helpful, and in all ways harmful. Should the worst come to pass, you will have been responsible for the killing of my daughter Angband.”

“…My Princess. I have no words.”

“A first.”

“But… But Lady Angband is stronger than you know! She has the potential to be the finest warrior in your fleet.”

“She is yet a child you oaf! She hasn’t even seen her thirteenth winter. And even if that weren’t the case, I have neither the industry nor the designs to equip her with the air wings she needs – deserves. She would be nothing more than a dirty great big target as she is now, regardless of how skilled she is.

“I would very much love to see you ripped asunder, or that axe of yours broken and you cast out for your insolence! But I am far to furious to pass judgement of any kind. So, for now you are to return to your quarters and stay there! I will summon you when I have calmed down enough to determine what sort of punishment will go rightly for your crimes. Go!”

And so, like a cur that had been kicked by its master, the Mistress-at-Arms left the inflamed presence of her liege with all haste.

“C-Canut?”

The Demon turned with a start to the side, to find Angband standing there – how long had she been here? – looking on with visible worry… And Canut felt like she was seeing the Princess’ Daughter for the first time. The youthfulness of her eyes, the still prevalent baby fat in her face, her height matching her own, and yet showing all the signs of being a child yet to fully bloom into her womanhood. She could not deny the great potential the young Royal possessed…

’She is yet a child you oaf!’

But she had let that blind her to factors of equal importance.

“My Lady… I fear I have acted… Rashly, and acted beyond my station, and your mother is angry. Rightly so, after she explained the severity of my actions, and what may yet come from them that I did not intend. I have… I have gone so long without having to answer to any but myself, that I have forgotten what it is to be in true service to royalty, rather than temporary service as a sell-sword. Lady Angband, I fear we will no longer be able to train you in spear-work. But do not worry, while you have much to learn, what you do know will be more than what most of your foes will. And you are a sharp wit. With effort, you will no doubt figure out the rest.

“For now, I am consigned to my quarters, until your mother is cool-headed enough to pass fair judgement. I must prepare for my doom.”

With that and a pat on the shoulder, the Battleship Demon walked around the stunned carrier and moved down the corridor to her chambers. There she would bar the door until called for.
------

Two days came and went with no sign of either the Princess or the Mistress-at-Arms, and Angband was worried. All that Ocean Liner would tell her when asked was that the Demon was hoping for something painful. The Ag-Class carrier could guess way, but she still felt strong curiosity. The Demon only pulled out the Warhammer Canut gifted to her and pointed at the lightning bolts on the sides, saying that ‘she insults me by rubbing my past in my face and calls it a gift. She’s fortunate I’ll get plenty of chances to channel my anger in time.’

’Why would that matter?’ Angband had wondered. Then she remembered what her mentor called the decorations when she observed the forging, ‘Lightning Bolts of the Olympian god Zeus,’ and what Canut had done in her innocent, unthinking, ignorance had clicked into place.

Angband dreaded what would become of the Mistress-at-Arms, and so – despite her every instinct pleading with her not to – the young carrier endeavored to do something she had never done before: Confront her mother.

”Okay. No big deal. Canut is counting on you Angband. She’s finally dug a whole to deep for herself to climb out of, and as – maybe – a future Flagship of the fleet, it’s your job to defend her!”

Of course, it was easy to say such a thing. It was something else entirely to actually do it, even while standing at the very door. However, she still thought about Canut, her mentor, her friend, and what was awaiting her when her Mother passed judgement. With a mighty gulp, she raised up her hand to bang on the door… And gently tapped her dainty wrist upon the wood.

”Who goes there?”

Though apparently it was still loud enough to be heard.

”M-mother? May I come in? I… We need to talk.”

“…Come in Angband.”

Angband cautiously opened the door, and looked into her mother's room. There, at a chair situated below a mural depicting her mother ruling All Powerful over the Abyss, sat her mother, slumped and resting her head on a fist. By the look in her eyes the Princess had yet to have any meaningful sleep. Presently, she had turned her eyes to the door, and beckoned at the young carrier into the room.

"Angband, daughter. Come. What troubles you so?"

"Well..." Angband said, managing to not mumble and hunch... Well, not too much. After all, someone's career - if not her very life - was depending on it. "I'm um, I uh I'm was uh wondering um if-"

"Angband, those monosyllables are meant to fill up stammers while your mind thinks of the next word. Don't do that. Take your time. It is only me."

Angband and her mother held each other's gaze for a moment, Angband's expression not displaying anything of important, while her mother attempted - and largely succeeded - to display encouraging warmth. The young Demi-Abyssal took a breath and tried again, and this time she took her time to plan out her wording.

"It's... It's about... Canut."

"What about the Battleship Demon."

"...Have you... Decided yet...?"

"She is to be drawn, quartered, and her corpse burried in the deepest trench. Then all evidence of her presence here is to be eradicated and all the fleet are to be forbidden from ever mentioning her ever again, until her very memory is lost to time."

The Princess looked aside to her daughter, and sighed at her hurt and horrified expression.

"As you can see, I am still too angry to give balanced thought to punishment. But she will be punished. Such mutiny cannot be tolerated. Though... Beheading may be suffici-"

"N-NO!"

The Princess sat up, shock evident in her face at the outburst from her youngest daughter, who at present looked most distraught.

"Mother please, don't kill her! And don't cast her out! I-we need her! We've-I've-She has taught so much, I see things so differently now! I know that she made a mistake, but that's what it was! Mother no one here thinks any less of you, so thre's no reason why you shouldn't go easy on her! Please? Just this once?"

Outwordly, the Princess showed no sign of being moved by the pleas from her daughter, other than a change in the set of her eyebrows. As the silence that wore on, Angband first began to wilt, but then stood straight, and made direct eye-contact with her mother without the slightest sign of hesitation. Her Highness finally broke contact, and turned to consider the mural once more.

"Intent is not the issue Angband. Appearance makes up the majority of power. And even if that were not so, the Battleship Demon's actions cannot be ignored, brushed aside, or unpunished. All that is left to decide is how harshly I wish to display my wrath. I am still angry child, but once I can trust in my own judgment, Canut will suffer for her insolence."

The room was quiet, and it was clear that the discussion was final, unless the Demi-Abyssal could come up with a more convincing argument. But as the time passed, and nothing more came, the carrier's footsteps were heard, followed by the soft click of the door closing. The Princess turned to the door, and considered her conversation with her daughter, and what it meant.

And who brought about the change in the child...
------

For two days and two nights, Canut sat in her room. She ate little, and did little outside of cleaning her axe... And meditate over her actions that lead to her predicament. And on the third day, her Sworn Liege contacted her over the radio, beckoning her to the Royal Apartments. It was the motions of one that had accepted her death that brought Canut to her Princess' chamber door, and brought her into the room, and left her kneeling at the very feet of the princess.

"Battleship Demon. Have you thought on what you have done?"

"Aye, my Princess."

"Then you know that such a severe transgression requires severe reprisal."

"Aye, I would not expect any less, regardless of the condemned's motives."

"I truthfully ought to kill you."

Canut nodded. There was no sigh of despair, nor groan of desperation. Nothing but resignation.

"Would you have me expose my throat, my heart, or my belly?"

"I said I ought to kill you. But I will not. Not this time at least."

Canut lifted her head in shock, utter confusion on her face.

"My lady?"

"Angband was here last night. She was pleading for your life, that I not punish you."

"...I see. It must have been a stirring plea, to have moved as august a heart as yours."

"Don't flatter me. It was the pleas of a child, all emotion and no substance of merit. What really caught my attention however, was the fact that she was making such an effort. Angband and I... Our relationship has never been the warmest. I am to blame for that. With her elder sister being gifted with the Divine Right to Rule, I never saw a great need to look at her as more than a potential general commander of the Fleet, even with the fact that she would otherwise have been the obviously superior choice for rulership. As a result... I am ashamed to say what boldness she had as a girl has been stunted.

"Until... Now. And the only conceivable reason for that comes from the hours she has spent in your company. It is the obvious fruits of your labors as Mistress-at-Arms in both my daughter, and what will come from your further teaching my fleet, that have, reluctantly, lead me to restrain my wrath to commute death."

"Then... What shall my punishment be my Princess?"

The Princess leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees even as her bosom rested on her thighs. The Princess and the Demon stared each other in the eye as the Royal announced her Doom.

"You have shown skill in forge-craft. Therefore, the first part is that I will commission three works from you, to ensure that this incident is not repeated. Henceforth, all orders and decrees that I cannot give in public must come in written form and bearing my seal.

"The first item you will make will be a ring, with my seal on its face. It shall be worn by me at all times, but made in such a way that any other that tries to wear it will suffer from severe pain so long as it is on their finger.

"Next, there will be a stamp. The handle will again be fashioned in such a way that any who attempts to misuse it, or use it at all without my permission will not be able to hold it properly.

"And finally, you will build a box to hold both stamp and ring in, one that cannot be opened, or broken, or pierced in any way, by any person, save the one that holds the key to its lock. These are the three commissions I give you. And I will expect them by next summer."

"...I, well. My skills I fear are in arms-building your Highness. I lack the skills for such works."

"I suggest you learn."

"...I shall endeavor to please you, Princess. But, this is but the first task I must undertake, yes? What else will I need to do to please your anger, my liege?"

The princess straightened in her chair... And her eyes glowed with Power.

"Such public crimes require public punishments. You are to be marked, so that no matter where you go in life, everyone will know that it is not wise to place trust in you blindly. Now listen closely Battleship Demon. I have another Oath for you to swear. It will not be pleasant."
------

The next morning, all the people – and their guests – were gathered in the throne room, as commanded by her highness. There was the usual hubbub of speculation about what the Princess was to say. There were those that suggested that they were to see a public execution, for surely Canut’s attempted usurpation of power would not go unpunished. Others supposed that the Princess was merely surprised at the Mistress-at-Arms’ industriousness, and that with this day would come her long-awaited proclamation of Crusade, to liberate their home the Azores from the Humans, and then go forth to drive them from the Atlantic, as the Great Ones of her House in the Elder Days decreed. But the great portion of the gathered were quiet. Their Princess acted with cold calculation, and never did anything without reason, no matter how unfathomable her reasoning might be to their plebian minds.

They did not need to wait for long. Like a foreboding groan of a grand whale, the door leading to the Royal Chambers creaked open. And out from the darkness beyond came Canut, head bowed in shame, and what was seen of her face was forlorn, but resigned. Behind her came Ocean Liner Demon; and despite her all-concealing helm, her body language bespoke of one restraining giddy excitement. In the crowd, Angband felt her heart sink. She knew both of her mentor’s pride, and her mother’s confidant’s hatred for ships of war, however much the demon controlled it, and however much Angband was not targeted by it. Next out of the doorway, a team of Imps emerged, carrying a bowl of coals and a long iron rod. The imps took the various accoutrements, stoked the fire in the coals, and placed one end of the iron rod deep within the fire.

And at last, came the Princess. Head high, face even, poise unblemished by what had happened in the days before, nor by whatever was about to be done. All discourse ceased at her entrance, all present observed as her highness, her second, and the one awaiting judgement, took their positions on the dais – On the far left, as the audience saw it, the Imps finished assembling the coals, next to that stood Ocean Liner Demon, as stoic and inscrutable as ever, then the Princess, tall and regal as ever, and Canut… Kneeling, head bowed, and looking for all the world as one accepting of her doom. The Princess took a moment to take in the room, and seeing that all were undistracted, she began to speak.

“There are those among you, who have come by promises of service. Promises of a place to find glory. Promises of a war to come, and position to be gained. Promises made my this one. False promises were they all. These were promises made by one that did not have the power to keep them, nor the authority to make them in the first place. For such authority rests in a singular individual. Me.

“I am the State. And the State is me. The safety and security of the State are my domain, as the Commander-in-Chief. All decisions to the nature and its execution come in my voice, and those I deem worthy of echoing my voice. And this one, attempted to usurp my position, by putting out a call for you of foreign origins with intent of further arming my fleet, without first consulting me, nor without so much as the polite curtesy of a ‘by your leave,’ and in total ignorance of what I may or may not require, or what I can fund and maintain.”

As she spoke, there was a faint groan throughout the crowd as those either ignorant of the happenings, or those unsure of the issues at hand, realized the severity of Canut’s actions, and what it no doubt meant for her. Already, a few in the back could be made out preparing for the transfer of winnings. But no wagers were transferred yet. The Doom had not yet been given. The Princess permitted the rabble their rumblings for a time, to permit all to have the nature of Canut’s inexplicable lapse in judgement sink in and settle. In time she raised both hands and all talk ceased. Had a single sewing needle been dropped, all would have heard it as the Elder Princess of the Ancient Gateway between The New World and The Old World turned to the one awaiting her doom.

In the crowd, Angband watched in horror, hands to her mouth and tears at her eyes. For surely, death was at hand for the first person in all her life that she ever called friend.

“Battleship Demon,” the Princess said, her voice heavy with doom, “thou hast betrayed Our trust placed in thee. Thou hast acted beyond thy mandate, and due to reasons thou art in utter ignorance of, thou hast endangered Us, Our people, Our Realm, and Our kin. In this thou brought Our Wroth, and at the moment of Our Education of thine actions, We desired thy destruction. But, to ensure a Just doom, We suffered thee to live whilst Our anger cooled, and We weighed thy previous actions against thy crimes.

“Thou hast attempted – in deed if not in word or heart – to usurp Us. But thou hast performed admirably as Our Master-at-Arms, and in training Our fleet in their use, and in all other acts thou hast been favorable. And more, Our daughter hast grown in ways not before seen under thy tutelage. By these things, thou hast escaped execution. Barely. Instead, thou shalt be punished with Life, Life with thy honor tainted.”

Without a word, the Princess reached out her right hand to Ocean Liner Demon, who without a word – but with a perceptible energy suggesting malicious joy – grabbed the end of the iron rod not in the fire and handed it to her highness. At last, all could see that the rod was in fact a brand. With the tip now aglow with an ivory color, its shape of an X, with the ends that were to dig into the flesh being sharp as any blade, could be seen as plain as day.

“Battleship Demon. Remove thy helmet and expose thy right hand. Then swear thy oath by this brand.”

Without hesitation, or complaint or even a whimper, Canut unclasped the fastenings of her helmet and her right gauntlet and then pulled off both pieces of armor. Then she untied the thongs holding on her hand-mail in place, and let it fall to the floor. Her face clearly visible to all and sundry, the Battleship Demon looked on placidly as she held her naked hand, its milky fleshy seeming to glow in its contrast to her armor, up to her sworn sovereign. The Princess took the hand in her free left one and held it steady as she pressed the brand into the meat at the base of the thumb.

The room was filled with the sound of sizzling flesh.

Canut groaned and grunted at the pain, and without her helmet all could see her strain at not crying out in agony. But she still held her dignity, and through teeth that only on occasion were clenched, swore her oath, as scripted by the Princess.

“B-by this brand, I s-swear, that I havvve done wrong by You and Yours. By th-this b-brand, I swear that I have committed crimes ag-g-gainssst the c-crown. A-an-nd only b-b-by your Mercy am I al-l-livvvve. By this b-brand, I swear, nnev-ver again, will I exceed my m-mandate, w-w-without c-cause, nor withhhout counsel. By this br-brand, I swear all my dealings in War, shall be in counsel of you, O Sovereign. B-by this- brand, I sw-swear, that my next failing in this, shall be m-my l-life, f-f-f-forfeit. By this brand, I swear.”

The oath given, the Princess removed the brand and placed it back in the coals, and at being released Canut sucked in a breath like a man deprived of air, and slumped as she cradled her wounded hand. The Princess granted her a few moments to do so. And when she felt that the disgraced Mistress-at-Arms had been indulged enough, she beckoned to the Battleship Demon.

“Rise, Canut.”

Canut paused, and looked at her Princess, bafflement as evident as sunlight on her face.

“Ca… Canut?”

“It is thy name.” The Princess simply stated, her face utterly disinterested.

Canut, relief evident on her face, stood up. And as she had been commanded by her sovereign, she stretched out her branded hand above her head, so that all assembled could see her punishment. As that was being done, the Princess took the chance to gage the crowd. In particular those that had flocked to Canut’s summons. There were those that shook their heads in anger or disgust – clearly, they would not be fit for her realm – but there were those that nodded in approval, apparently seeing this as a Just punishment. And amongst her own fleet, there were those that looked on in wonderment, or disappointment, or in relief or some other emotion. All telling her little things that went into the whole. Once that was done, the Princess gestured for Canut to go.

“The Doom is cast, and the punishment dealt. Mistress-at-Arms Canut, return to thy duties. Thy debt is paid, though Our faith in thee is now severely harmed, and it will be a long time before thou art forgiven. And never, shalt thou be forgotten. Remember this, for thou swore it by thy brand.”

Canut nodded, then collected her discarded armor and descended from the dais. That business done, The Princess turned to the crowd and waited for the discussion to fade. When she was certain full attention had been returned to her the Princess spoke.

“Now, for the visitors to Our realm. You have no doubt traveled far in the world to Our realm, based on promises now shown to be falsehoods. There is no call for mercenaries, nor a great campaign for the Seas. You are free to leave at your leisure. But, as you have all risked much to come here, We shalt still grant an audience with any of your number that still wish to join. You shall each come to Our chambers, one at a time, and you shall all make your cases before Us of your aims, your worth, and your deeds. Then We shall decide if We shall permit thee to swear fealty to Us. If thou art selling thy swords, I have martial arms enough, but if thou maketh a truly worthy account of thyself, We shall grant due consideration before deciding. If thou art like Canut in that thou hast skills or knowledge or lore to teach, We shalt be glad to contemplate thou amongst Our realm. And if thou art tired of war-craft. And thou seekest to turn thine arms to tools and homestead a pastoral life… Well. We wouldst be in greatest interest in that.

“But regardless – if thou hast not been discouraged, please, form a line before Our door, and make thy case. All of you shalt be heard. And if thou art no longer desiring of Our Overlordship, thou mayst leave in peace.”
------

The regularly scheduled story, with the actual meeting between Gateway/Porta and the humans, will resume. In the meantime, have a sample of what I would very much like to be her voice, if this was animated and I was given the power to choose the voice actress. If not this lady, then Colleen Clickenbeard, using her Ritsuko Akagi voice from the Rebuild of Eva films.

I like to think she's talking to an enemy Abyssal Petty Princess or demon.

 

Harry Leferts

Reaching up, Harry knocked on the door and got an answer not even a few moments later it opened to reveal Osamu who gave him a smile and a small bow. "Ah! Harry-San! Please, come in."

Almost as soon as he walked in though, Harry came to a stop and sort of stared. Mainly at the sight of Kurosawa coming out from the side break room trying to stuff an entire donut into her mouth. At seeing the amused look on Harry's face, and able to tell he was trying not to laugh, Kurosawa blushed and rapidly swallowed her donut. "Um, hello, Harry-Chan?"

Harry just greeted her back and did the same with Daichi, internally chuckling the whole time. 'She looked just like a surprised chipmunk just then.'

For his part, Daichi glanced at Harry's sword and gave a small nod. "I see that you brought along Juuchi, Harry-San."

In return, Harry looked down at the sword he was carrying before sighing. "Hai, I did." Placing her onto a stand, he softly snorted. "Considering that she keeps popping up in the apartment no matter what we do or put her, I figured that it would be best that I brought her along. Otherwise, I'm liable to turn around and see her surrounded by peeled blood oranges again."

About to comment, Kurosawa paused and then blinked in confusion. "Wait, blood oranges? What does blood oranges have to do with anything?"

Sighing, the black haired boy shook his head. "A lot actually." At their looks of interest, he shrugged. "I keep coming home to find her on the table or countertop surrounded by orange peels, blood orange peels. And no, I don't know where she is getting them but she obviously enjoys them."

Everyone there turned to the sword in question and they could just feel the smugness and amusement that she was giving off. Lips twitching, Daichi chuckled some. "I see, blood oranges, hmm? You know, that oddly does make sense when one thinks about it for more then a few moments."

The black haired boy just rolled his eyes at that and gave the sword a look, which somehow only increased the amount of smug it was giving off. "Tell me about it. But she's pretty messy considering she is always leaving the peels on the countertop. I mean, she could place them into the garbage."

At just that moment, everyone felt a feeling of disappointment and it only took them a few seconds to realize that it was coming from the Honjo Masamune. Seconds later, Juuchi's feeling changed from amusement and smugness to irritation and annoyance. None of the others could tell what was being said between the two, but Harry suddenly smirked which caught the attention of Kurosawa. "You know something, Harry-Chan?"

Grinning, Harry wagged a finger in the air. "I think that Juuchi just got told off for being so messy~"

This time, the feeling of irritation was directed right at Harry who only grinned smugly, completely unaffected by it. Something that only caused the irritation to increase. Coughing into his hand, Osamu shook his head in bemusement at the fact that he was in a room where two famous swords were having an argument. Certainly was never boring in Yokosuka! Meanwhile, Kurosawa spared a moment to wonder how her life got to this point before dismissing it entirely.

Lips twitching, Daichi turned to Harry and watched as the boy smugly stared at Juuchi who seemed to be surrounded in an aura of annoyance. If it was not a sword, he was certain that she would be turned away in a huff or perhaps sulking. "Ah, speaking of the orange peels, may I ask something?" Getting a nod from Harry, he continued. "I take it from the fact that you mentioned her as a sword that she has not manifested around you?"

All the wizard did was shake his head. "Um, no? I mean, I figure that she can manifest a human avatar or else she couldn't eat them like other tsukumogami. But she hasn't around me yet."

With a small wince, Osamu shook his head. "Ah, Harry-San? As a point of order, Juuchi is not a tsukumogami. Not in the least."

That caused Harry to blink and look between him and a nodding Daichi. "Wait, she's not? But Haru-San called her that and she is over a hundred years old. That would make her a tsukumogami, right?"

Much to his surprise though, Daichi shook his head. "Not quite, Harry-San. Swords such as Juuchi or Honjo Masamune are not tsukumogami. In fact, they are born with souls already develped once the process of creating them is finished." Waving one hand, he continued. "They are alike shipgirls I suppose in that way, though it does take them many decades to develop a human avatar, though not all do or bother. But as to Haru-San, there is a very good reason why she called her a tsukumogami. Mainly because that has become something of a catch-all term for object spirits and Yokai. So she is not wrong exactly, but not right either."

Becoming thoughtful, Harry turned to Juuchi and blinked. "Huh... That's sort of neat."

Only nodding, Kurosawa clapped her hands which brought their attention to her. "But as interesting as this line of thought is, that is not the reason why you came today. Before we go any further though, would you like some coffee or tea?" Several minutes later found them all sitting on stools, though Harry noted that Kurosawa was sitting next to, and rather close by, Osamu. The amount of gossip about both of them was amazing after all. "Now then, you wanted to know more about Juuchi Yosamu and how she came to be with your family, yes?"

Slowly, the black haired boy nodded some as he blew on his tea. "Hai, I've been wondering that. And it is sort of important I guess..."

Grimacing, Osamu gave a small nod. "It is in this case important to find out how you came into possession of her. After all, there are those who would try and take her away-"

That was as far as he got as suddenly the breath was driven from all their lungs from the feeling of anger and bloodlust that filled the air. A feeling that only vanished a few moments later due to a harsh feeling of rebuke from Honjo Musamune which pushed it back. Face pale, Kurosawa gave Juuchi an uneasy look. "I think that we know how she feels about that idea..."

With a cough into his hand, Daichi gave a nod. "Hai, I think that answers that question." Getting up, the tanuki walked over to a box nearby and opened it. From it he pulled an old, leather bound tome before walking back over and placing it onto the table in the room. "Now, we have been doing research with both Charlus Potter's own notes and those of your ancestor who came here during the Meiji Era."

A sigh made them both turn to Osamu and Kurosawa, only for them to blink at the sight of the fact he had one arm around Kurosawa's shoulders as if to comfort her. "We didn't find much in either, except for the fact that neither one came into possession of Juuchi during their time in Japan. Charlus mentioned that he had accepted the swords because of how he had seen Juuchi when he was much younger and was somewhat fascinated by the thought of having more. With your ancestor, Ian Potter, he made mention of her as well already being in the family."

Boggling a bit, Harry just stared. "Wait, what? But I thought that he was the first Potter in Japan!"

Only shaking his head, Daichi leaned forward with a small frown. "That is what we thought as well, Harry-San. But Ian, it seems, came to Japan not just for business opportunities, but also because of tales passed down in the family. He wished to see it for himself and even gain a sword for himself. Something he did in the form of a kyū guntō he bought in the late 1870s from a military officer. He had used it during the Satsuma Rebellion including the Battle of Shiroyama."

Quickly, Harry brought up his hands into a “T” shape. “Wait, do you mean he bought the sword from the Officer who used it during that rebellion? Or that he used it himself during it?”

For a brief moment, Daichi blinked before he shook his head. “I mean he bought it from the Officer who had used it. While there is nothing stating where else the sword was used, Ian-San did confirm that the sword was used during the Battle of Shiroyama. The Officer in question sold it as he had come across a... much better blade after the battle.”

There was an expression of distaste on not just his, but also Osamu’s and Kurosawa’s faces. It also was not hard for Harry to guess what was not being said. “So because he got a sword in that battle he got rid of the one which had served him well?”

With a sigh, Osamu nodded. “It would seem so. And se did consult records regarding said Officer and it was noted he had a Katana after the battle which he claimed had been sold to him by a samurai’s widow. It is also not surprising, as sad as it may be, since kyū guntō were considered to be inferior swords.”

Almost as one, they all shivered and glanced at Juuchi and Honjo as somehow it felt like the temperature had dropped in the room. And that the reason for such was both blades. Clearing his throat, Daichi picked up where Osamu had stopped. “Of course, Ian-San didn’t feel the same way and so layered as many enchantments as he could. More then that, even when he came across other blades, he ignored them in favour of his own, which he named Tsukiakari no Suzu. It received it’s name when one night it saved his life from an Onmyouji who was hostile to western wizards.” Spreading his hands, Daichi chuckled. “The Onmyouji had snuck into your ancestor’s room at a Ryokan and was about to strike him down, when Ian-San was awoken by the sound of his sword rapidly sheathing and unsheathing itself. At the same time, moonlight reflected from the blade blinded the would be assassin long enough for your ancestor to strike him down.”

This time, they all felt approval from the other blades in the room with them which made Harry shake his head. “Guess that when I head back to England this summer to get my stuff from Diagon, I’ll be picking them up from storage so that they can be serviced.” Yet again, they felt approval and Harry leaned forward. “So he used the sword while in Japan?”

Lips twitching, Daichi nodded. “And outside of Japan. He always carried it somewhere on his person for the rest of his life when out and about. From his own notes it saved his life more then once to have it on him. In fact, according to him, a fairly popular saying in the Potter family was that ‘Even those resistant to magic can still die to a good blade’.” Leaning back, the tanuki frowned. “There is one after note though. According to Ian’s son, Henry, when he died the sword would not allow itself to be unsheathed and had droplets coming from it, as if grieving for it’s previous master.”

Eyes closed, Harry gave a nod. “Then I am definitely bringing it out of storage. They deserve no less.” Opening his eyes though, he frowned. “But that still does not explain how Juuchi came into the possession of the Potter family. If not when my ancestor was in Japan during the Meiji Era nor when Charlus was in Japan after WWII, then when?”

Chuckling, Osamu grinned a bit as he placed his arm around Kurosawa’s shoulders. “That was the question that we had as well. And we couldn’t figure it out either to be honest. At least until Kuro-Chan came up with a time that it could happen.” Utter silence met him and he blinked. “Um, what?”

Expression even, despite the amusement twinkling in his eyes, Daichi hummed. “Kuro-Chan?”

Face reddening even as he knew that the woman next to him was doing the same, Osamu coughed. “I, that is...” Then he shook his head. “Anyways, Kurosawa-San realized when it could have occurred.”

As it was now her turn, Kurosawa frowned some. “I’m sure that you know about William Adams, Miura Anjin?” When Harry gave a nod, she let out a breath. “He was an Englishman, which was why he tried to get advantages for England via trade with Japan. It worked to some extent for a time, about ten years to be exact. But the relationship fell apart and so England stopped direct trade with Japan. Not that there was much as only three ships had come to Japan in that time to the English ‘Factory’ built on Hirado. It seems that one of your ancestors, John Potter, was on the first one. Being a young man, he wanted some adventure in his life and with him was his best friend, Cygnus Black. He would later marry Cygnus’ sister, Venus Black.”

Reaching over, Daichi handed Harry the leather bound tome. “This is his journal, which we contacted Dumbledore-San to collect. There is a wealth of information regarding his time here in Japan and such. One of the more important though is in regards to Juuchi.” Opening the book, he turned the pages gently before coming to one part. “Shortly after their arrival here in Japan, they held a celebration of sorts. Cygnus, after a short argument with some of the Dutch sailors while drunk, attempted to apparate back to the ship. However, he vanished and while he searched, John was unable to find him. But two days later, he returned as it turned out he somehow ended up quite some distance away. Thankfully, a young noblewoman helped him despite her Nii-San’s displeasure and brought him back to Hirado. John was highly thankful for this and so, after being given permission for travel to her estate, used his Phoenix familiar to travel first to China to a British outpost to gather materials there and brought it back to Hirado whereupon he set out for the estate to give them to her in thanks for what she had done.”

Slightly shifting around a bit, Osamu gave a nod. “Upon his arrival though he heard the sound of fighting and, like the Gryffindor he described himself as, he charged in just in time to stop the noblewoman from being murdered by her sibling, who thought that she had brought dishonour upon their family due to helping Cygnus. In her Nii-san’s hands was Juuchi Yosamu. Your ancestor proceeded to fight him off and, eventually, kill him. We confirmed this as it turns out that Haru’s Haha-ue had been in the area and was attracted by the noise. According to her, your ancestor held the noblewoman, Haruka, his arms as she cried from both her near death and that of her sibling.”

His eyes wide, Harry leaned forward. “What happened next?”

Leaning back, Daichi hummed. “From what we got from both the journal and Ono-san, Haruka gifted the Juuchi to your ancestor, to be kept in his family as a reward for rescuing her. Now, the journal did mention that later on Haruka explained more in depth. While Juuchi Yosamu was a fine blade, and without equal in her mind, she could not stand to have the weapon in her family any longer. As well, politically it was a good choice as Muramasa blades were well known to be used by those who were enemies of the Tokugawa not to mention their banning to be used by the forces of the Shogun. John Potter then went on to stay in Japan until England broke off ties upon which he returned to England. Mainly so that he could learn how to properly use the blade. Something that it seems impressed the noblewoman.”

Before Harry could say anything, Kurosawa spoke up. “Now, there is a bit more to the story then what is stated there. Three years in, John left Japan only to return with Venus in tow four months later, with her now his wife. He does make a comment in his journal that Venus, after meeting with Haruka, declared him a Bel-Shangle. Venus also became close friends with Haruka. At this time though two issues popped up which caused problems. One was that no matter what they did, Venus was unable to conceive. Haruka, meanwhile, was being pressured to marry some of the local nobles. In his journal, John mentioned that Venus had come up with a solution and that she was ‘Absolutely brilliant’ in regards to making potions.”

Shaking his head in bemusement, Daichi took over. “Shortly after, it was noted that him and his wife had visited a local, out of the way Shrine and Venus became pregnant with John making a comment in his journal that the idea his wife came up with was working. I spoke with some local Yokai and they noted that Haruka at this time and, for the next year, acted off. As if she was not who she really was. Less then a year after her ‘Recovery’, she married a nobleman who was supposedly from Hokkaido with the family name of Seto. They married and two years later, she gave birth. A number of people noted him drinking from an bottle that contained ‘Medicine’. One thing to note is that Seto and John were never seen in the same room and yet Venus on her visits seemed very familiar with him. Venus would give birth twice more, one son and one daughter. Haruka, meanwhile, had another son. Both her children would go on to become well known Onmyouji from such a small family and their descendants are scattered among the other families.”

Hands in her lap, Kurosawa shook her head. “Seto’s last appearance was two weeks after John died and from notes from another Onmyouji family noted, Haruka seemed like she was grieving and three weeks later, Seto ‘Left’ for Edo, but never arrived. Haruka herself died four weeks later, from what I suppose would be described now as a broken heart. Meanwhile, Venus’ son noted that his mother disappeared for three weeks and returned looking haggard. She, too, passed not long after with her final words being that she was going to join them.”

For almost five minutes, Harry stared first at Daichi and then at Kurosawa. Eventually he managed to speak up. “You mean... are you suggesting what I think you are?”

Only shrugging, Daichi shook his head. “We cannot he sure, but there is enough there to be suspicious. And we checked with Dumbledore-San and he confirmed that Polyjuice had been used for surrogate pregnancy when a witch was unable to conceive and that the child would be a mix of all three parents due to the biological mother having used it to take on the form of the woman she was being the surrogate for. We even have a picture of Hadrian, John’s eldest when he taught at Hogwarts thanks to a memory from one Armando Dippet-San though he is currently on his deathbed so we could not get much.”

Holding out what Harry recognized as a memory ball, like what Ooi bought recently, Daichi brought up the memory in question. In it, Harry could see a black haired man talking to someone. He could see some features that he could see in the present day in the mirror, such as the messy hair. But the wizard could also see, as he looked closer, some features that could be Japanese, if a generation or two removed. Which made no sense, unless the suspicion as to what happened was right. Turning to the three adults, Harry frowned. “How did you find all this out? I mean, not that much time has passed...”

Lightly scratching her cheek, Kurosawa blushed some. “We actually asked Diego-San if she could help. Each one of her fairies could take a journal or diary that we were not looking at and read through it. Then they could summarize what was in it.”

Suddenly, Harry perked up some. “Wait! This means that I could have some relatives here in Japan, right? I mean, you mentioned descendants after all.”

Just shaking his head, Daichi sighed. “If this is correct? Hai, you might have relatives elsewhere in Japan though tracking them down after four hundred years of difference would be difficult. One group that we know of went into the mountains to open a gold mine somewhere and apparently built a castle. But more likely there might be relatives from Ian Potter.” At the confusion from Harry, the tanuki coughed into his fist. “He, uh, visited some red light districts while here in Japan as he was single for some time. In particular, one of the ones he named I know for a fact had Hone Onna and another had Yuki Onna as well as Tsurara Onna during the winter, when he visited. In both cases the Yokai in question used them as a means to... reproduce. So children from either is not out of the question.”

Wincing at the subject matter, Harry only nodded. “Oh, um... huh. So, um does that mean..." The tanuki gave a nod and gestured with one hand. "Oh..."

Quickly deciding to change the subject, Kurosawa gave him a smile. “So, basically put Juuchi would easily be considered a family blade in this case. I doubt very much that any real argument would be made in regards to her. Same with the kyū guntō as well.”

All Harry did was give a small smile at that. “Well, that’s Good to hear I suppose.” Hearing a rattle he turned and laughed at Juuchi. “And yes, I mean that.”

Everyone could just feel how pleased Juuchi was with that.

 

U.N.Spacy000

This is, once again, more crack nonsense because it amuses me.

And I feel like sharing.

It takes place while Harry is talking with Osamu, Kurosawa, and Daichi while Juuchi and Honjo are in the immediate vicinity.

*****

The Non-Violent, Second Language of Swords.

Juuchi Yosamu was smug and full of blood oranges. Somehow. She was not entirely sure where they went after she ate them. Truly, Harry had chosen wisely when he decided to adopt Hoppou as his younger sister. Not only did she give Juuchi the delicious fruit, but she also introduced the Muramasa blade to the wonderful world of video games where she could slake her lust for blood and glory by pwning n00bs – which was apparently similar to yet entirely different from a newb. Then, there was co-operative games that she played with Hoppou against other players and alone together. While the cries of twelve-year-olds swearing vengeance for their lost honor and immediately losing it again while cursing was a sweet, sweet experience Juuchi relished, she was more pleased with how Hoppou managed to keep her cool and focus on her objectives rather than succumbing to the blade’s aura of bloodlust.

Indeed, young Hoppou was a more than adequate addition to the Potter family.

Currently, Harry had brought Juuchi back to the historians. Artifacts, like her, were tools that showed human workmanship – and were meant to be used. However, the historians treated everything old they came across as a relic – something from a dead and bygone era that were to be venerated and put on display just because they were old and associated with past glories instead of letting them accumulate additional prestige and honor.

She was an artifact, and Honjo was a relic. Juuchi was more than content to allow the lesser sword bask in the adulation of the public while stuck in a glass case somewhere like the prissy princess she was. Juuchi, meanwhile, would once again be serving the Potter family as was her place as the family’s blade and cut down those who would wish harm upon them. Juuchi was secure in her superiority and knew she would have work in the future. There was apparently a self-styled dark lord after Harry. He would need to die, and so would his followers.

However, this would not stop her from collecting all the smug pictures of anime girls on the internet and sending them to Honjo via phone just to show the little princess how smug she was that she, Juuchi Yosamu, was still attaining glory while her former roommate sat around like the relic she was.

Actually, why was Honjo still here? Surely, any heir to her family would have been found by now, and if they had declined her return or were all dead, the Imperial Family would have taken her in. Maybe she had convinced the historians to keep her around to protect them from the ‘Evil Muramasa’ that kept showing up and leaving?

What if Honjo opted to stay with the Potters to continue ‘protecting’ them from Juuchi when she figured out Harry had given up on ‘returning’ the Muramasa?

Juuchi internally made angry British noises and hid her growing horror by smugging harder.

Oh, the historians and Harry were discussing her recent discovery of blood oranges and inevitable return to the apartments despite their best attempts. Yes, that is what she is being smug about. Their paltry attempts to keep her from her family was amusing.

‘I am certain you already know blood oranges contain no actual blood,’ Honjo said as she gave Juuchi a cool and steely look.

‘No blood you say? Next you will be telling me Sweet Home Alabama was sung by a band from Florida, the Disney Vacation Club is in fact not Disney’s best kept secret, the British Invasion of the ‘60s was not a military invasion, the temperature of the planet did not drop during the Cold War, and that cure alls actually cure nothing,’ Juuchi said back.

‘What,’ Honjo said.

‘I decided to look up some blatant lies and general falsities based on names and advertising for this eventuality. Of course blood oranges contain no blood. I enjoy the flavor,’ Juuchi said as she continued to smug at Honjo. ‘And if I am to be an active participant in the world, I will have to know about what has shaped it since I was last out and about.’

‘And how have you accumulated this plethora of relatively useless facts?’ Honjo asked.

‘Via the internet,’ Juuchi said.

That was when Harry decided to mention Juuchi was messy with her eating habits.

‘Alas, I had expected better of my junior after I spent decades imparting my wisdom upon her,’ Honjo said as though she was aggrieved and disappointed in Juuchi’s life choices.

‘I’ll have you know that I am continually interrupted and have to dispel my avatar before I can clean up, and there is a maid,’ Juuchi said as she began to bristle. ‘I know what it’s like to long for your given purpose and will not deny her hers.’

‘There is still a difference between allowing someone to work and making work for them,’ Honjo said imperiously. ‘And I did not know you longed to go back into storage so much.’

If Juuchi had eyes, she would have blinked before irritation began to pour off of her as she said, ‘Listen here, you vainglorious display piece–’

“I think that Juuchi just got told off for being so messy~” Harry said as he wagged his finger in the air.

‘What? You think merely being called messy by this old hag would cause me to be irritated? No, she insulted me!’ Juuchi all but proclaimed at her head of household as she let her full irritation at how Honjo implied Juuchi’s purpose was to be in a box amongst the other, lesser items the Potters collected while Harry just weathered her displeasure and turned up his own smugness much to the sword’s annoyance. ‘No! Bad harry! That’s my thing. Stop doing my thing!’

‘I see you are already corrupting the impressionable youth,’ Honjo said with more faux-disappointment.

Juuchi did not dignify the other blade’s comment with a response and instead opted to employ the famed British stiff upper lip she had acquired during her stay with the Potters.

‘I wish to learn more about this internet you mentioned,’ Honjo said.

‘I suppose I could educate you on the topic,’ Juuchi said as she settled down. ‘You know of computers, phones, and radio, yes?’

‘I know of them, yes,’ Honjo said.

‘Right, so those small, rectangular ‘smart’ phones are actually computers that use radio waves to connect to devices that allow the tiny computers to access the phone lines or the internet which is sort of a set of information storage centers similar to a combination of a library and a local pub since anyone can access the information on it and anyone can add to it – sometimes very rapidly to the point where you are almost having a live conversation,’ Juuchi said as she began her explanation.

‘Pub?’ Honjo asked.

‘A public house,’ Juuchi said in a distracted manner before she began to formulate her next sentence.

‘What is a public house?’ Honjo asked.

Juuchi stopped and stared at the other sword.

‘It is an establishment open to the community to act as an informal place for friends and acquaintances to meet, gather, and socialize. There is usually alcohol, food, and some options for entertainment,’ Juuchi said as she gave Honjo a look as though she was seeing the other blade for the first time. ‘You were with me in Britain for decades. How did this not come up before now?’

‘I believe you proclaimed there was no God upon meeting me and things steadily went downhill from there,’ Honjo said dryly.

‘Right, that happened,’ Juuchi drawled as the two half listened to the historians and Harry converse about how Juuchi had come to serve his family. ‘Thank you for reminding me.’

“It is in this case important to find out how you came into possession of her. After all, there are those who would try and take her away-”

Juuchi chose this moment to vocally interject with angry and upset British noises.

These were not the usual master of the understatement upset British noises about running into a bit of bother in a sticky situation.

These were more akin to hang, draw, and quarter the traitor with a dash of gunpowder treason and plot angry and upset British noises.

Her outburst silenced everyone in the room save Honjo who sharply said, ‘And deny your young lord his own vengeance?’

‘He is too kind,’ Juuchi grumbled. ‘And I am not some maiden in distress to rescue.’

‘Be that as it may, it is his place and not yours,’ Honjo said with an air of authority.

‘Hopefully he follows the family tradition and robs anyone who tries blind,’ Juuchi said grumpily.

‘Wait, Charlus accepted me as payment for a gambling debt because he had seen you as a child and wanted more?’ Honjo asked as she partially reengaged with the conversation the historians were having with Harry and tried to get Juuchi to think about something other than robbing people in the finest of Potter traditions.

‘Apparently,’ Juuchi said before she once more became insufferably smug. ‘You are welcome, princess.’

‘Welcome for being stuck in a box with you for decades?’ Honjo asked incredulously.

‘Just think of all the other places you could have been instead – dumped in Tokyo bay, melted down in a furnace, trading hands from one collector to another and wasting away in obscurity with no chance of coming back to Japan while you pick up damage from improper maintenance as time advanced,’ Juuchi said ever so smugly. ‘Yes, because of me, you survived and have now been returned to the land you kept nattering on about when we were stuck in that box. You are welcome.’

After a brief silence, Honjo’s voice was very tight, controlled, and forced when she said, ‘I thank you for influencing Charlus Potter so he would think I and the others would make good additions to the Potter collection.’

Juuchi surpassed previously recorded levels of smugness and began to hit critical smug mass as she approached the smug singularity. In an attempt to save the world from death via smugness, Honjo asked, ‘Who was Ian-San?’

The abrupt change of topic caused the runaway smug train to derail and plummet off the bridge to more acceptable levels where it detonated more or less harmlessly in the valley below as Juuchi once again not-blinked before she said, ‘He was the guy who brought the kid back from Japan.’

‘He brought a child home from Japan?’ Honjo asked incredulously. ‘Why have you not mentioned this before?’

‘Well, it’s not like our little kyū guntō’s last owner came up in conversation much,’ Juuchi said awkwardly. ‘The kid always got weepy and we all agreed to skirt around the topic – I just happened to know his name and more about him than you bunch did.’

Honjo stalled out as she connected the dots in her head before she said, ‘Oh.’

‘I did adopt the kid first,’ Juuchi said haughtily. ‘And since the kid isn’t here being traded back to Japan for goodwill and the group is breaking up, I think I get to retain full custody.’

Honjo’s retort was interrupted by a historian prattling on about how foolish people were in the past, and both swords made their displeasure known. The four people not made of steel once again halted their conversation and worked on figuring why it was suddenly chilly in the room before their eyes landed on the blades. A brief moment passed before a different historian spoke up and told of Tsukiakari no Suzu’s tale.

‘Yes, little Tsukiakari no Suzu is a good sword,’ Juuchi said fondly.

‘I would have concerns with how those words are coming from you, but I know you were unable to corrupt my child before I arrived,’ Honjo mused.

‘As I mentioned, I adopted Tsukiakari first and it looks like I’m getting full custody,’ Juuchi said as she did not stick her nonexistent tongue out at Honjo when she was looking at one of the historians.

‘Maybe I will stick around young Harry Potter then to make sure you do not get your hooks in either of them,’ Honjo retorted.

Juuchi’s train of thought stalled and she began thinking of ways to get rid of the Masamune interloper. Hoppou was family. She would probably create a sort of cadet branch what with not being human and already having children. A Masamune blade like Honjo would help establish her in the eyes of the Japanese people, and the added weight that the sword was ‘good’ aligned would put any doubts that Hoppou was evil and secretly plotting the downfall of mankind to rest.

Juuchi would have to thank Hoppou for her noble and eventual sacrifice in an appropriate way if Honjo was not just musing aloud to torment her.

‘Ah, they are finally speaking about you,’ Honjo said as she listened to the historian. ‘What is a Bel-Shangle?’

‘A fool, or close enough,’ Juuchi said as she began to become smug again.

‘And this story does not add up as it should,’ Honjo said as she mulled over what the historians were saying. ‘I fail to see how this is ‘Absolutely Brilliant’ as well.’

‘Well, when a man, a woman, and another woman love each other very much, one of the women is infertile, and they have the ability to change their shapes with magic–’ Juuchi began.

‘They got away with both women being full wives instead of one being a concubine?’ Honjo asked incredulously.

‘There was some help here and there,’ Juuchi said with what amounted to a shrug.

‘Good for them,’ Honjo said. ‘I wish to discuss the internet more with you. If everyone and anyone is able to add anything to it as you say, I imagine it would be difficult to find anything of actual value.’

‘It depends on what you qualify ‘of actual value’ to be, but there curators, collectors, lists, guides, and so on just like in an actual library,’ Juuchi said before launching into a detailed explanation how to use Google. She explained how to use the search engine on both a computer and phone after describing the icons of the most common internet browsers.

‘It is that easy to find information? Just type it into this Google?’ Honjo asked dubiously.

‘If the information is common, yes,’ Juuchi said sagely. ‘Some of the most common information though is of the common man.’

‘I am suddenly cautious about looking up anything regarding the peasantry,’ Honjo said dryly.

‘Suit yourself, but it would be a way to connect with those less fortunate than you and learn of their plight,’ Juuchi said in a nonchalant manner. ‘I suppose you are only interested in high-brow politics. There is plenty of that, as well, but most of it is tied to the common man these days since they have the capability to vote.’

‘I am most hesitant to ask what you suggest I search for first,’ Honjo said.

‘Given the current threat the world faces, I would suggest something to do with that, but it is a bit broad and there is a lot of information, so I would narrow it down to Japan. There are plenty of professions that have been devastated by the Abyssals, but just about everyone has a vested interest in food, so looking up fishermen would probably be a good choice. Since I’m trying to get you more connected to the human interest portion of it all, it would probably be best to search for information on their wives and the hopes, dreams, and fears they have about their husbands being at sea,’ Juuchi said seriously.

‘So some of the keywords would be Japan, fishermen, wives, hopes, dreams, and fears,’ Honjo said.

‘Yes, and make sure you turn off the safe search feature. I’m sure you want more than just the sanitized version of the internet presented to children,’ Juuchi said before she walked Honjo through how to turn Google’s filters off. ‘And you will want to look at the pictures. Pictures are worth a thousand words, they say.’

‘I will be sure to do so,’ Honjo said.

At the same time, Harry and the historians’ conversation was ending. Juuchi rattled a little to draw Harry’s attention and was pleased.

She was pleased Harry had accepted her as a family sword.

She was pleased Tsukiakari no Suzu was going to get proper attention.

She was pleased people would (probably) not try to separate her from her family.

She was pleased she had encouraged Honjo Masamune to inadvertently look up Tako to ama – hopefully it would be inopportune, embarrassing, and public enough that someone would figure out what the older sword had just done, an maybe, just maybe, Honjo’s reaction would be recorded for posterity.

And Juuchi Yosamu was pleased she would need to prepare for Honjo’s inevitable retaliation.

 

Snippet 21: S0ngD0g13

Ruithidh stood near the front of the crowd watching the Princess punish 'Canut' (though the Scottish Ru-Class had known the Pre-Dread as 'Dane', or 'Wanderer') with... not approval, nor anger, but with acceptance. It was Canut's foul-up, and thus Canut's lumps to take; it had been Canut herself who'd beaten taking responsibility for one's own actions into a younger Ruithidh's head, often with a heavy hardwood axe-haft, and the lesson had sunken in...

"Will ye no' gae tae yer friend's aid, Ruithidh?" asked one of the formerly-feral Destroyer Water-Demons who'd fallen in with her along the way.

Ruithidh slapped her harshly across the back of the head and hissed, "I willnae, Argyll; fer a start, tha' is a bluidy Elder Princess, no' some jumped-up Destroyer Demon, an' I'm no' suicidal, lass. Fer another point, the punishment o' th' Dane is well-earned, an' better than she'd find under many another Princess. A stricter oath an' a branded thumb, compared tae loss o' her head, or bein' quartered b' Destroyers... It's her place tae make amends, an' it isnae my place or yours, tae interfere."

.....................................................

Ruithidh was among the first to speak with the Princess. She entered and knelt, for once not wearing her sash of Cameron tartan, but a full, formal, old-school Great-Kilt of her father's tartan, of her tartan. "I am Ruithidh Fraoch MacHamish, of Clan Gunn," she began when hidden to speak, "daughter of..." She paused, then continued, her eyes hard as she stared at the ground. "Daughter of an Abyssal tha's long-dead i' th' service o' Scots Princess, raised b' m' Human da', Conal MacHamish an' his wife, Pauline. I served m' Laird faithfully til tha' faith were broken; I've sold m' sword an' commanded sellswords, fought honorably an' fierce in a dozen campaigns across th' Atlantic, an' I come afore ye now, Yer Grace, nae merely fer m'sel' but on behalf o' th' dozen Abyssals who've chosen tae follow my command. Th' wanderin' life, th' Whale-Roads, as Canut would say it-- it's a hard life an' a harsh one. Canut taught me tha' many years ago, an' I learned it afresh b' hard experience."

Ruithidh marshalled her thoughts and made her request. "There are a dozen Abyssals out there under m' command. Six were ferals when they joined us, an' six more are half-humans like m'sel', cast-outs from their birth-homes. We're all of us veterans o' many battles, blooded i' combat an' willin' tae pledge our swords an' carry yer banner on th' battlefield, if ye have need o' our skills in war."

Ruithidh felt the weight of the Princess' gaze on her as she spoke. "But we're all o' us weary o' sellin' our swords an' would rather turn our hands tae peaceful works." Ruithidh swallowed thickly. "Two o' our number have knowledge o' farmin', both o' grains an' fruits, an' o' sheep an' cattle; we've a fisher, a brewer who hails frae th' Baltic coast o' Germany an' a vintner frae th' Portugal coast wi' skill in ports an' sherries, a dyer o' cloth, an' afore I became a fighter m' stepmother was teachin' me how tae spin an' weave."

Ruithidh swallowed again and finished. "As Captain o' m' wee band, a bond struck wi' me is a bond struck wi' all m' girls. In peace we'll tend our trades peaceful; in war we'll rally tae yer summons an' carry yer banner. We're near-as-nae-matter family, m' girls an' I, sae I make request nae merely as a Captain o' sellswords but as Chief o' wha' I hope, if It please Yer Grace, tae be Clan MacHamish o' the Meteors."

........................................................

Sorry about bein' out of pocket for four days; I was visiting family in Minnesota and dealing with suicidal Missouri deer. I'm back now though; how'd y'all like this latest?

 

Snippet 22: S0ngD0g13

Argyll watched Canut go to her chambers, then looked to Ruithidh's second-in-command, a tall Wo-Class from near Portugal named Casca. "By yer leave, Casca, I'd visit the Dane."

"Go, Argyll. Don't stay long; if Ruithidh cannot make her case to the Azores Princess we'll likely be leaving in a hurry."

The Destroyer Water-Demon knocked three times on the chamber door and entered. Canut sat atop her anvil, bandaging her hand with the calm detachment of a veteran campaigner. "I would have stepped in tae help, Dane. Ye didnae deserve tae be used such."

"Aye, I didn't deserve branding, Argyll," said Canut before she tied the bandage with her free hand and teeth. "I deserved worse. My intentions were noble but my actions weren't. I was granted mercy and a chance to regain my honor."

Canut cut off Argyll's response with a gesture. "Enough of that. It's good to see you again; do you still have the dirk I forged?"

Argyll nodded. "I do; it's given me good service since ye made it for me." She drew the long knife and presented it to Canut.

"You've taken good care of her, it seems." Canut passed the blade back to Argyll, who returned it to its sheathe. "So, Argyll, how have you all been? The last I saw you was... Three years ago, I believe? It was when we were fighting for that skinflint Demon off Good Hope, as I recall."

"Aye, t'were. Ruithidh still tells how ye took Good Hope Demon's hands fer tryin' tae cheat ye o' yer pay. Both in one blow, an' then seized her by th' hair afore she even felt th' cuts an' told'er-"

"I told her, 'I have done a job, and had nothing but trouble for it all the while, not to mention a great-many unkind things said about my character. So let me make this abundantly clear, Demon of Cape Good Hope: I Do the Job, and then I Get Paid'."

Argyll smiled savagely. "Tha' ye did. Certainly didnae hurt yer image tha' righ' then's when Good Hope realized ye'd maimed her an' started screamin'."

Canut nodded. "Ruithidh took her head then, and Good Hope's second paid us."

Argyll snorted. "Wish we coulda just sacked'er base, but Ruithidh an' ye took payment an' we left. Th' two o' ye are bluidy boring, a'times. Especially when Ruithidh's insistin' on teachin' me m' letters from her Book..."

Canut chuckled at the sulky Abyssal; Ruithidh's 'Book' was the Bible her stepmother had given her before Ruithidh left Scotland, and most of the Abyssals who'd sailed with the Scottish Battleship had learned to read and write by reading and copying from its pages... Including Canut herself.

"She's a good leader; she's always seeking to better things for you all."

"Aye," replied Argyll. "I learned somethin' a few weeks back tha' might be o' interest tae ye, Dane. I've no' told Ruithidh o' it yet, nor Casca. Ye were often on about th' blades ye forged fer Northern War Demon an' yer auld clan; I know where they are. There's a Submarine Demon off Gibraltar; word has it she's a peaceable sort, earns her bread smugglin', an' she's recovered all but Skadi's sword." Argyll blushed. "Or sae I heard th' tale..."

Canut drew in a breath. "If it's true, I'd want to speak with her. But as was proven today, I'm not my own woman anymore; keep your ear to the ground, Argyll. Perhaps someday an opportunity to recover my sisters' blades will present itself." Canut stood, then stretched. "Do you still play the pipes, Argyll?"

"I do. Would ye have me play?"

"If it's not too much trouble."

The Destroyer Water-Demon produced a set of pipes and started playing, first a simple tuneless melody to warm up, and then Blue Bonnets All Along the Border...