Prying open her eyelids, Tatsuta wondered if she was dead.
But she laid eyes upon the magnificent and beautiful moon, and the starless night sky which occupied a large portion of her vision as bits and pieces of the conversation which she had with Aoba and Akashi were slowly recounted in her mind, and while she was somewhat convinced that she wasn't dead, the sensations which she experienced were far too realistic for her liking.
She felt the cool seawater wet her clothes as she sat up from the supine position on the ocean, and she tasted the saltiness of the air which all ship girls were familiar with as she frantically looked around for her sister Tenryuu.
Bloody hell, if Tenryuu didn't make it…
Panic and desperation threatened to creep into her heart as she tried not to think back on the times back in World War 2, when she had to keep fighting on despite knowing that Tenryuu had sunk and left her alone in this world…
No.
She closed her eyes in order to bring her shivering body under control, chills running down her spine as she dug her fingernails into her palms and allowed the silence of this world to envelop her, afraid that being alone in this world was what she dreaded most, since absolutely no one was here to accompany her.
Something brushed up against her sleeve, and she dared to open her eyes in order to find an Indian Lotus floating on the ocean surface with no means of propulsion save for the waves, exhaling slowly in order to calm her nerves as she slowly stood up on the ocean in order to survey her surroundings.
She observed her environment as she turned on her ship girl HUD, turning around to find that the entire ocean was littered with Indian Lotuses, some of which were knocking up against a prone body on the surface of the ocean…
Tatsuta did a double take as she laid eyes upon the seemingly unconscious ship girl whose dark uniform was almost camouflaged against the night sea, activating her boat slippers and breaking out into a run as she sprinted over to where her sister was, too afraid of being let down to allow herself to get her hopes up.
She slid on the ocean as she slipped her hand underneath Tenryuu's neck and head, rolling her over in order to look her in the face as she cradled her unconscious Tenryuu and elevated her upper body at an angle before she called Tenryuu's name softly.
"Tenryuu? Please be alright. Please, don't leave me…"
She could see that her sister's unconscious expression was shifting a little, and Tatsuta, no longer having any reservations about expressing her concern for her sister's well-being, leaned in closer in order to listen to what her sister might want to say.
And was greeted with Tenryuu yawning in her face, getting a good look at Tenryuu's tongue, throat, tonsils and uvula as Tatsuta's concerned expression deflated into a deadpan one, lifting her free hand in order to flick Tenryuu on the face with her index finger.
Tenryuu clutched at her nose as she sprung awake, her eyelids flying open as she looked around and scanned her environment whilst gasping,
"What! What? Tatsuta?! Where are we?"
Tatsuta looked around, understood that they were now in Kyoka Suigetsu, and were going to go through the motions of what other ship girls experienced in here as she now felt very lost since the compass on her HUD was unable to determine where North was.
And like other ship girls described, there were no stars in the night sky for her to perform celestial navigation, leaving them effectively stranded in the middle of nowhere as she answered honestly, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"We're in the world of Kyoka Suigetsu.
I can't find the Earth's magnetic North, there are no stars for us to orientate ourselves, and the moon's a lot larger or closer than usual. And there're Indian Lotuses everywhere, just as described…"
But Tenryuu grabbed Tatsuta's sleeve, causing Tatsuta to look down at Tenryuu's eyes which were starting to tear up a little upon comprehending the fact that they had both survived the procedure.
"Then… Did… Did we both beat the long odds, Tatsuta? We're both going to live through this, right?"
Tatsuta's expression softened upon seeing her elder sister looking so vulnerable, having known that she fully expected and prepared for the worst to happen, and was almost unable to believe that the both of them were lucky enough to survive the procedure, nodding understandingly as she answered.
"Yes, Tenryuu-chan. Even though I will say that 30% isn't exactly considered 'long odds', but… But…"
Her words of comfort died in her mouth as her peripheral vision was distracted by her reflection as it warped on the ocean surface, and her breathing stopped as her moving reflection stopped mirroring her actions by shifting its gaze from Tatsuta to Tenryuu, and then back to her.
All this occurred while she was still looking down at her reflection on the moonlit ocean.
Reflections weren't supposed to work that way.
A pale hand which was enveloped by a large white sleeve burst out of the water, catching her forearm as it exerted a surprising amount of strength despite being a mere reflection.
And despite her best attempts to resist the pale arm's strength, she could hear Tenryuu exclaiming in surprise as she was suddenly pulled under,
"Tatsuta?!"
She attempted to resist as she stared down at whoever was attempting to drag her down while her hair floated and flailed wildly around her head, and while she was warned beforehand about how their doppelgangers would attempt to pull them into the abyss, it was still a bizarre experience to look at someone who looked exactly like you, right down to the widow's peak hairstyle, facial features and even the hair strand which flowed down the middle of her face.
The difference between them was the fact that her doppelganger was dressed differently, and that everything save for her pupils were snow-white, her skin and hair a pale Abyssal white as her mostly-white color scheme only served to contrast with the pitch-black depths of the abyss behind her.
Almost like the pale moon, contrasting with the backdrop of the night sky…
Tatsuta snapped out of her thoughts as she attempted to wriggle out of her doppelganger's grip while Tenryuu desperately pulled on her other arm, air bubbles flowing out of her nostrils and mouth while the humanoid manifestation of her soul stared up at her with unblinking eyes, and she felt her lungs burn as seawater started to enter her nose and throat.
She saw a hand plunge into the ocean, grabbing her doppelganger's wrist as both their gazes snapped to the third arm, her doppelganger looking extremely confused as Tenryuu flexed her arm muscles in order to haul them both out onto the ocean surface, upon which Tatsuta fell back and collapsed into a heap as she inhaled sweet, sweet air, hacking and coughing in order to clear her respiratory system and barely noticed Tenryuu reaching back down with both arms as she grunted, remarking in a no-nonsense tone.
"Come here, bitch!"
And Tatsuta got a good look at her doppelganger as Tenryuu dragged her out of the ocean, hauling her onto the ocean surface.
Her doppelganger was wearing snow-white feudal clothing which consisted of a shitagi , or underclothes which were a shorter version of a kimono, an over-garment known as a kosode , and a pale hakama which served as loose, pleated trousers.
Wrapped around her feet were white socks known as tabi while straw sandals served as her shoes, and around her waist was an unusually-colored jet black sash used to fasten her clothes and insert some color variety, and a white haori was worn around her body in a manner not unlike that of a modern long-coat, and her pale hair and face was drenched in seawater as she looked at them, got up and pulled out…
Tatsuta instinctively burst forward as she barely deflected her doppelganger's surprise jab with a glaive which she pulled out of nowhere, and Tenryuu lampshaded this as Tatsuta struggled with her doppelganger in a little tug of war.
"Woah! Where did she pull that glaive out of?!"
Tatsuta could feel her doppelganger's surprising strength slowly overwhelming hers as she attempted to pull back the glaive for another thrust, and the expression of both Tatsutas contorted in snarls as she kept her hand on the glaive's pole.
And finally, her doppelganger (which she mentally named Hollow Tatsuta for lack a more imaginative nickname) spoke, sounding a lot more emotive and human than a rank-and-file Abyssal despite possessing the same hollow echo in an Abyssal's voice, and lacked the edge which other Abyssals possessed when communicating with ship girls in extremely rare instances.
"You… How are the two of you here? Tatsuta-chan should be the only one here, so how…"
Tatsuta could feel Tenryuu pulling on her uniform, urgently whispering into her ear,
"Tatsuta! Behind us!"
She made sure that Hollow Tatsuta wasn't going to pull a fast one on her, before daring to sneak a peek back at who she suspected to be the doppelganger of Tenryuu.
A pale figure partially emerged from the ocean, head lowered eerily as her snow-white hair covered her facial features, creeping up upon them and performing an impressive impression of Sadako from Ring, all while seawater rolled off of her drenched hair, skin and clothes as if she were shedding a transparent cloak of water.
And although it was clear that she was a mirror image of Tenryuu in every way save for her mechanical ears, Hollow Tenryuu's uniform was vastly different from Tenryuu's, much like Hollow Tatsuta's was to hers.
Her forearms and lower legs were cocooned in protective arm gauntlets and leg armor, and her shoulders, thighs and hips were shielded by pleated armor as she wore a form-fitting chest-plate on her torso, the rest of her body was covered by tough, graying cloth as Hollow Tenryuu lifted her head to reveal a simple eye-patch covering her own left eye.
Reaching down to the katana which rested on the ride side of her belt with her gloved hand, the long-coat attachments attached around her hips flared up as Tenryuu spun around whilst pulling Tatsuta away from the deadly sword slash which nearly clipped Tenryuu's sleeve, halting their spin as they faced their two doppelgangers.
Hollow Tenryuu looked to Hollow Tatsuta as she asked in a surprised tone,
"Wait. How the hell are the both of us here, in the same dreamworld? And they are neither dead nor dying, so what gives?"
And Hollow Tatsuta turned to the two Tenryuu-Class light cruisers, pointing her glaive in their direction as she gave them the same saccharine smile which Tatsuta never had the chance to face off against before this, her doppelganger threatening them politely at glaivepoint.
"Oh, I believe they are the ones who are behind this, so if you don't mind, would you please provide an explanation for this anomaly?"
Tatsuta, holding out a hand to protect Tenryuu and the other on her chest, stepped in as she attempted to explain and defuse the tense situation before things devolved into a brawl where they were at a clear disadvantage, since they weren't armed, while their doppelgangers were.
"Listen to us, please. We understand that you are a near-death phenomenon which we believe to be a sentient manifestation of our souls. This shared dream world was our attempt to communicate with you by invoking this phenomenon and creating a shared world which both our minds would occupy and fill, so that we would be able to talk to you. Was your attempt to drag us underwater your way of helping us pass on by assimilating us back into you?"
Hollow Tatsuta raised an eyebrow, still keeping her glaive pointed at them as she answered them while Hollow Tenryuu silently kept her katana unsheathed.
"Well, of course. In the cycle of reincarnation, we, the soul, are the one unchanging constant. To assimilate all the information that makes up your experiences and memories into us before leaving your physical body, that is what death is, the soul leaving the body and passing onto the next life, no?"
Tenryuu looked rather curious about how they functioned, asking about why they chose to take on appearances which bore a passing resemblance to them.
"And if so, why choose to look like us? I mean, don't you have a true form for you to take on?"
Hollow Tenryuu chose to answer that question in lieu of Tasuta's doppelganger, going through the motion of chiburi as she slashed diagonally downwards to mimic swinging blood off her blade, and then running the flat side of the blade across the mouth of the scabbard before sheathing it.
"Well, think of us, the soul, as a server in which personality templates of every ship girl and Abyssal are stored. When we're summoned into this world, we take into account the amount of resources used and luck of the draw to determine which ship girl personality we should extract from our servers and 'lock in' in order for the Fairies to build the body of the chosen ship girl in question. While we become deeply ingrained in the body and power it behind the scenes, you, the ship girl personality, wakes up into the real world and will forget your 'rebirth'. However…"
Tatsuta connected the dots in her mind, interrupting Hollow Tenryuu by expressing her hypothesis on the true nature of the soul.
"But you, the soul, possess qualities similar to that of water, all-encompassing but fluid, and you possess no concrete personality of your own despite being sentient storage devices and infinite-power batteries and despite storing templates of all our personalities inside you. You must reflect the look of the ship girl whom you extracted from yourself in order to gain a substantial body, just how water poured into a cup takes the form of the cup.
Am I right?"
Hollow Tatsuta looked at Tatsuta, looking rather amused and surprised to see that Tatsuta was able to understand their true nature, her smile shifting in order to become a little more genuine as she lowered her glaive, Tatsuta loosening up a little while she heard Tenryuu exhale in relief as Hollow Tatsuta chose to elaborate.
"Yes. Much like how the ocean births life but possesses no concrete form, we, the souls, extract you from our technological servers in order for you to surface back up into the real world, while we stay down here and power your body whilst possessing no material form or a true 'self' in terms of personality. And when you come close to death and almost pass on to the next life, you appear here and we drag you back down in order to assimilate you back into us before leaving your physical body, and moving onto the next life which, of course, is that of an Abyssal, and then a ship, and so on. The reason why you surface just before you're pulled down to a depth of no return is because you are revived in time before we can complete the assimilation, thus a near-death experience which you call…"
Looking upwards and away as she likely accessed Tatsuta's memory archives due to the bond between the mind and the soul in the ship girl Trinity, Hollow Tatsuta looked back as she concluded.
"… Kyoka Suigetsu, hmm? An appropriate description of the phenomenon. After all, we are snow-white mirror reflections of yourselves dwelling in the depths of the pitch-black abyss, almost as if we were the reflections of the moon against the night sky. And not unlike the monochrome Abyssals, hm?"
And Hollow Tatsuta winked in their direction upon completing her sentence.
But Tenryuu, looking extremely interested in knowing more about these philosophical topics which they were delving into, scooped up a floating Indian Lotus in her palm as she held it out and asked her doppelgangers about why these were present in their dreamworld.
"And why are these here? I understand that these make up the 'Flower' part of the 'Mirror Flower Water Moon', AKA Kyoka Suigetsu, but is there any particular reason why they're in our dreams?"
And Hollow Tenryuu, looking a little surprised at how Tenryuu actively wanted to learn more about this world and about them, wore a sad smile on her face as she relaxed and placed her hands on the pleated armor on her hips before she answered.
"Well, they are here to symbolize you, the ship girls. Lotus flowers are capable of surfacing and blossoming despite being planted in the bottom of muddy waters and swamps, breaking the surface as its unstained petals unfurl majestically, its beauty unstained by the impurities that pollute its place of origin. Isn't it the ideal representation of you ship girls, perfectly beautiful ladies of war who are born from and rise above the carnage, the bloodshed, the sins, the corpses and ashes of all who participated and perished in the inferno that is war, to appear in this world as flawless, unblemished beauties?"
Tenryuu looked down as Tatsuta understood how Tenryuu felt a little down after hearing that answer, watching her squat down and gently place the lotus flower back into the ocean as Tatsuta continued with her next question, curious about their manufacturing origins.
"If I may ask, who created us? The Fairies tell us that even they are incapable of creating something like you, an intangible power source which produces a seemingly infinite output of energy, so who created us?"
Hollow Tenryuu and Hollow Tatsuta looked at each other, before Hollow Tatsuta looked down and answered in a cryptic manner, not meeting their gazes and mildly drawing Tatsuta's suspicion.
"The creation of each and every one of us is a masterpiece, perfection comes alive; the creation process involves hundreds of millions, all who poured their heart and soul into making an everlasting power source. We are the result of their blood, sweat and tears, and using higher-level technology which will not be made readily available for what we generously estimate to be another two to three millennia from now."
Tatsuta pulled her head back, her mind reeling at the scale of how much effort was required to make just one of them, Tenryuu recounting something in her head before stating.
"Well, that means that bigger countries, like India, China, the USA, all of them can create us right now, right?"
Looking at each other again, Hollow Tenryuu chose to answer this time as she pointed out the fractured factions within said countries and the shortsightedness of humans.
"Even if they have the manpower, they're currently divided into smaller factions, like the Democrats and Republicans in the USA, for example. Besides, no one population in this world currently possess the long-term motivation and vision to put aside all their differences and work together as a whole, untiring, diligent, and be prepared to make the greatest sacrifice in order to attain the greatest power. If you can confidently say it to my face and prove it, I'll eat my words when I look into your memories and see it for myself."
Tenryuu's shoulders slumped as she looked away and seemed somewhat ashamed for asking such a seemingly naive question, but Hollow Tenryuu patted her shoulder as she spoke reassuringly in a softer and more casual tone (The death glare which Tatsuta sent her way probably also had something to do with that).
"Look, I'm not putting mankind down. It's just that you have to be realistic. This isn't a problem of technology not being advanced enough to create a ship girl soul, but it's the fact that we need to have everyone participate and be ready to sacrifice, like, literally everything about themselves to be able to create a stable source of infinite energy, capable of regulating itself and its power output. No great feat is accomplished without sacrifices, right?"
Tenryuu nodded as she understood how it seemed too much of them to expect all of mankind to simply put all their differences aside, sacrifice their time and exhaust their efforts, all for the big-picture in which they couldn't experience the benefits firsthand, Tatsuta's ears perking as she heard the 'self-regulating' part and promptly changed the subject, since she felt that their doppelgangers were being cryptic about this one topic on purpose and wouldn't budge even if they pried.
"About that part about being self-regulating… Does that mean that unlike our discredited theory of each soul only being only a 'light cruiser' soul or a 'battleship' soul, you instead regulate your energy output to keep each ship class up and running according to how much power they require?"
Hollow Tatsuta shot her a grateful smile as she answered knowingly,
"Well, yes. And as a side note, we call it mana, and it is the life force which powers you. But while we call it mana, it is actually energy which is drawn from us, used to power your bodies, and technological devices or technology-based 'superpowers', through various means.
The mana required to run these varies according to what you receive, but rest assured that we will impart the relevant technological know-hows in order to implement these upgrades. Your enhanced memories will come in useful here, since this is still a dream which isn't experienced through your five senses, nor is it a visual hallucination or whatever; it's all in your head and cannot be simply transferred like a memory file, since those technically transfer records of physical sensations and experiences. After all, according to your memories, isn't the illustration of this world which you view drawn on paper?"
Tatsuta lifted an eyebrow in order to concede the point, but Tenryuu looked confused as to why they couldn't simply draw mana in bulk from their souls in order to overwhelm enemies en masse.
"And why can't we just draw enough mana from you to perform a Getsuga Tensou repeatedly to wipe out armadas?"
Hollow Tenryuu raised an eyebrow upon hearing that, looking at Tenryuu as she explained how overloading their physical bodies with mana, AKA energy, was not a good idea if they were at all concerned with long-term survivability.
"That is not possible. Well, I mean, it is possible for us to turn up the flow of mana into your body to the point where you're brimming with energy, in order to allow you access to a large amount of mana. But let's discount the amount of mana used to power your body, and focus on the surplus of energy, or mana, which we supply to you in order to power your auxiliary 'functions'. If your body isn't capable of handling the mana dump, it'll wear down the survivability of your body and possibly cause it to eventually break down.
And this is an unlikely-but-still possible result, but you know what a sudden surge of energy in a contained vessel is going to cause?"
Tenryuu's doppelganger held up her hands and balled up her fists, before making a whoosh sound and expanding her fingers, all while Hollow Tatsuta chimed in as she clarified one of the biggest problems with drawing so much energy from them.
"The problem isn't our incapability to give you the amount of mana you desire, but the problem is whether your physical body is capable of handling the surge of mana without simply breaking down in a potentially explosive reaction. On the upside, it'll make you extremely potent suicide bombers, and you'll get to go out with a bang."
Their doppelgangers smirked at the use of dark humor as they fist-bumped each other, and despite Tatsuta's appreciation for morbid jokes, this time, it was too personal, and this made her feel a slight shiver run down her spine at its use after they had just survived a 30% chance of making it in Project Psyche.
Gripping her gloved fists a little tighter, Tatsuta forced a smile as she asked about how they would best utilize the surplus of mana to fight the Abyssal threat.
"So how are we to use the extra amount of mana we receive in order to fight the Abyssals? I mean, we do not know of how we can use mana, so please elaborate."
Hollow Tatsuta chose to answer this question as she looked down at the pitch-black ocean, speaking about how energy drawn from the soul can be transferred into upgraded machines and tools which were optimized to handle the energy surge and use it to do work.
"Superpowers and weapons are based on technology which exceeds that of mankind right now, and we will suggest a power to you which we deem a fit for your personality, experiences and potential. And before you ask, each and every clone of you in different parts of the world goes through different experiences, so it's fairly unlikely that another Tatsuta, if she survives Project Psyche, will get the exact same power as you. A crazed and more disturbed version of you would get a more potent, but double-edged weapon or power, to the point of being potentially self-destructive despite being nigh-unmatched in terms of power, so let's start with something simple, hmm?"
Nodding with a slight sweat-drop running down the side of her face at the thought of destroying herself with her own power for the sake of destroying all her enemies, Tatsuta strove to never become that psychotic for both her own and everyone else's sake as she saw Hollow Tatsuta hide her glaive behind her back before continuing.
"For you, Tatsuta-chan, this weapon upgrade utilizes mana to extend the pole of this glaive via higher-level technology which alters the dimension known as length, and is activated via hand contact of the user with the glaive's shaft as you transfer mana through touch. Obviously there exists a few extra levels of modification in order to improve its utility, but let's start with a demonstration."
Hollow Tatsuta produced her glaive, which had inexplicably shortened for some reason, and she must have seen Tatsuta's confused expression, because Hollow Tatsuta smiled as she held the shortened glaive in her hand, now looking more like a kitchen knife as the single-edged blade now only had a short handle instead of a long pole behind it.
Her smile never wavered as Hollow Tatsuta brought her shortened glaive up to her chest, supporting the butt of the glaive with her flattened left palm as she spoke.
"I know you're going to ask this, so I'll put this out there. The function of this power is not to simply extend the length of the glaive's pole, since this would cause the glaive to become wobbly. The former is a result of higher-level technology which alters the dimensions of the pole while retaining the material strength and mass of the original glaive, albeit for as long as your mana continuously flows into it in order to keep this function activated."
Tenryuu interrupted, unsure if engineering this technological device was even possible for them as she simply stated.
"That sounds impossible, man."
And Hollow Tenryuu shot back.
"You're impossible. Sentient A.I. which possesses a personality of its own, an intangible infinite-energy source, alien midget super-engineers. Go in that corner, think about what you just said, then come back and tell what you redefine as impossible, bitch."
Tenryuu looked away as she quietly scratched the side of her face with an extended middle finger, Hollow Tenryuu rolling her eyes while Tatsuta and her doppelganger exhaled sharply, Hollow Tatsuta continuing with her explanation.
"The speed in which the glaive extends is heavily reliant on the amount of mana transferred into the glaive via hand contact with the shaft. And since the speed of extension increases drastically as more mana is pumped into the glaive, it's capable of doing this. Apologies in advance on the off chance that you feel exhausted when you wake up."
And Tatsuta barely saw a blur cross her vision as the air in the direction where the glaive was pointed at exploded and expanded, the two Tenryuu-Class light cruisers tensing up and turning back as it seemed as if something was fired into the ocean at an insane speed.
But as they saw the thrown-up seawater fall back into the sea, Hollow Tatsuta spoke again, this time sounding as if she knew something they didn't.
"Allow me to repeat my previous move at a slower speed. Blink and you'll miss it."
Before Tatsuta saw an extending pole-like object smash into the ocean, throwing up seawater as the blur retracted somewhere beyond Tatsuta's field of vision, turning back to see that the blade of the glaive that was in Hollow Tatsuta's hand was soaked in seawater, mentally connecting the dots as Tatsuta spoke with a newfound fear and admiration for the offered weapon upgrade.
"The glaive extends so quickly, to the point where it rivals the speed of a fired cannon shell, yes?"
Hollow Tatsuta nodded, displaying a genuine smile as Hollow Tenryuu spoke up in her stead and expressed how the usefulness of these weapons were a given, and it was up to them to find out how to best utilize these weapons.
"Yeah, although it requires a lot of mana to reach such an insane speed, so you'll likely be feeling fatigued for the rest of the day and probably the day after, factoring in your first use and depletion of your mana reserves. These upgrades to your weapons are fueled by us, your soul, as we produce a surplus of energy known as mana, and the many ways which these modified weapons can be used are only limited by your imagination. The problem, as stated earlier, is how your body can handle ever greater amounts of mana being pumped through your body; your body will become accustomed to the strain of transferring more and more mana through itself into your weapon, not unlike a muscle becoming stronger through exercise."
And Hollow Tatsuta spoke about how they were unique in that their weapons were extensions of their bodies since they were crafted alongside the construction process which created them.
"And while we understand your concerns about not being physically buffed by being granted superpowers, you two are different from everyone else, since these weapons are created alongside your physical bodies, and you are used to using them, Sado…"
Dropping the name of Tatsuta's glaive as Hollow Tatsuta accessed her memory files, Hollow Tenryuu did the same as she cut in with the name of Tenryuu's sword,
"And Ezekiel."
And Hollow Tatsuta tilted her head in Hollow Tenryuu's direction while lifting an eyebrow in order to acknowledge her input before finishing her sentence.
"So in some sense, these weapons are a part of you, are they not?"
Tenryuu drew back as she contemplated their doppelgangers' words, eventually nodding as she gave Hollow Tenryuu an aside glance and asked meekly.
"W-Well, what's my superpower, or, well, super-weapon? I'd like to know. P-Please."
Before looking away abashedly, Tatsuta guessed she was likely too embarrassed and/or weirded out to face her doppelganger and ask for a super weapon, not unlike a child wishing for a Christmas present.
Hollow Tenryuu's eyes widened a touch, before narrowing as she broke out into a mature smile and unsheathed her katana, holding it in a professional stance before she idly swung it away from everyone present, simply muttering.
"Blade Rush."
She split a small area of the ocean as some sort of black flame flowed out from the edge of the katana's blade, the tip of the arc reaching about four meters in height and silencing the crowd as the crashing waves and sloshing of seawater caused by the flaming arc filled the void.
Tatsuta, after gawking at the move as the flaming arc dissipated into thin air, gave Tenryuu an aside glance as she suspected…
Yep.
Tenryuu's eyes were wide and were shining with wonder as her inner chuunibyou was awakened by the sheer awesomeness of Hollow Tenryuu's move and the fact that she was going to be able to do it, her mouth hanging agape as her gripped fists were brought up in amazement.
And finally, Tenryuu remembered to blink as she leaned in closer to Hollow Tenryuu as she asked with a fair bit of excitement in her voice, breathing heavily as she did so.
"WOAH! Am I going to be able to do that in real life?!"
Hollow Tenryuu smirked as she sheathed her sword, again swinging diagonally downwards to clean the imaginary blood off before twirling the sword in a figure-eight in order to hold it in a reverse grip before sheathing it, Tatsuta actually hearing Tenryuu squeal a little in awe, causing everyone around her to smile at how endearing the Tenryuu-Class name-ship could be, Hollow Tenryuu nodding as she answered.
"Well, of course. You need massive upgrades to your weapons, and we'll help facilitate and teach you how to implement these changes, but remember. Usage of these weapons are highly dependent on how often you train with them, and you'll have to gain a feel for how those weapon upgrades work in combat, and their respective strengths and weaknesses, although we'll also do our best to help out in any way we can."
Nodding vigorously, Tenryuu asked about something else which popped up into her mind as she leaned in further, causing Hollow Tenryuu to pull back a little.
"And about gaining more powers?! Hmm? Hmm?"
But Hollow Tenryuu curbed her expectations as she explained, slowly pushing Tenryuu away to a more comfortable distance as she did so.
"That's highly unlikely. We grant you a power which we deem a fit for you, and which is useful and versatile enough for you to discover and work with, and with enough time, you'll find enough uses for it to not need a second power. After all, with two powers, you need to double the training time needed to achieve the level of mastery you would with just one, not to mention the additional strain on your body if you were to funnel so much mana into two powers while in combat. Not to mention learning the ins-and-outs of these powers to seamlessly integrate them, which would burn up even more time in your schedule. How about we focus on mastering one weapon rather than be a jack-of-all-trades with many weapons and powers?"
The enthusiasm in Tenryuu's eyes dimmed as she looked away, now looking a little down again as she entertained unpleasant thoughts about how their capability to communicate with their souls, and the powers which they will eventually attain would likely end should they sink.
"And, umm, I didn't want to ask about this just now, but… But if we were to sink, will we lose all our skills? Will we forget about you?"
The atmosphere seemed to deflate as Tenryuu destroyed the mood with a legitimate question about their worst-possible fate, and Hollow Tenryuu reminded them of their true nature and how the circle of life was for their souls.
"Sadly, yes. You are but a passing dream to us, in which death is akin to a false awakening before waking up to the dream of another life on the other side of the war. If ship girls and Abyssals are two sides of the same coin, we are that coin, forever destined to assimilate the current personality and abandon the current body which we inhabit when it expires for good, before flipping sides. After this, we will power the body of an Abyssal, and after that Abyssal's death, we'll power a ship girl again, rinse and repeat. That is the circle of life and death, and it cannot be stopped."
Tatsuta furrowed her eyebrows as she asked more about their views on this war, and how they were alright with powering the Abyssals.
"But to power the Abyssals' very existence is akin to helping fuel the Abyssal war machine, and wouldn't that run counter to protecting mankind? Or is your morality different from ours, to the point you're indifferent to which side you help?"
Hollow Tatsuta shook her head vehemently in response to the slightly accusatory tone which Tatsuta allowed to creep into her voice, her unblinking eyes focusing on her as she did her best to make their stance clear, holding her arms up towards Tatsuta as though attempting to hold her.
"No. Well, not exactly. We, the soul, wish to keep you, the ship girl-slash-Abyssal, alive through any means possible, and if you desire strength and more power, we will gladly funnel more mana into your body as long as we believe you can handle it. The war means nothing to us, since it is beyond us outside of your memories and experiences. All that matters to us, is keeping you alive and protecting you from all that would hurt you, to bring you down."
Hollow Tenryuu looked at them as she, too, looked extremely dedicated to protecting Tenryuu from danger, leaning in as she elaborated on their purpose other than powering them.
"Like we said, the both of you are two sides of the same coin and equally important to us as opposite yet complementary forces; like light and darkness, yin and yang. Mankind, the world, even other ship girls who aren't in the loop, they aren't part of what we want to protect. You are. Ship girl or Abyssal, you are born from and are thus a part of us, and we'll give our all to keep you safe and happy as best we can."
Tatsuta backed down at the sincere intent behind Hollow Tatsuta and Hollow Tenryuu's intense gaze, tilting her head upwards as she considered the fact that dormant Abyssal personality templates were stored in the servers that were their soul.
She finally shot her own doppelganger a look as she pointed out, "So it's also a means of self-preservation, then."
Hollow Tatsuta looked right back at her, her eyes free of all hesitation as she admitted.
"Yes, but it is because our fates are intertwined, and I am a part of you as much as you are a part of me. Your continued existence and happiness is all that we desire, and to that end, if you desire power, we can and will provide."
Tenryuu blinked as she faced her sister and their doppelgangers, her expression unusually worried about something or another as she began her question.
"I just had a thought…"
And Tatsuta couldn't help but snark in response to her sister's words, cutting in and remarking,
"That's quite rare."
As Hollow Tatsuta giggled and Hollow Tenryuu's cheeks stretched out into a shit-eating grin.
Tenryuu stood in the middle of the group, shaking her fists around as she pouted, trying to get their attention as she continued with her question.
"Listen to me! You compared the ship girl and Abyssal sides to two sides of the same coin, with you, the soul as the coin itself which can be flipped onto the other side as we die. So if we, the ship girls, are able to contact you and draw extra power from you, can the same be said of the Abyssals, even though they're the other side of the same coin?"
Hollow Tatsuta and Hollow Tenryuu looked at Tenryuu, their unblinking eyes boring into her as Tatsuta found that the atmosphere had become much tenser, subconsciously shifting her body to face their doppelgangers along with her sister and tensing up for a possible hostile response as they considered her question.
And finally, after they turned to look at each other, the both of them broke out into a shit-eating grin as Hollow Tatsuta gave her answer, chilling the two light cruisers to the very core as their doppelgangers stood side-by-side and stared back.
"Well, we power both ship girls and Abyssals. So long as their technology is up to par, they should also be capable of speaking to us like you are doing right now and gain access to the same power source, no?"
And Tatsuta realized that the Abyssals might have been up to a lot more than they had previously suspected in the ten-year "rest", Tenryuu perfectly encapsulating her feelings with two words being uttered from her lips.
"Oh, shit."