[Night Witches]
"Whoever is happy will make others happy too."
—Anne Frank
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The first few days Bismarck had spent living with Makie as her pseudo guardian/caretaker were quite puzzling for the mental model at the time. The male was countless times subjected to Makie's weird rants about the clothes he wears. To avoid suspicion he went with the idea that he was a German captain that tried to sail his ship to Japan to visit family, but was shot down by Fog off the shore of Yokosuka. The little girl made a fuss about how he stood out so much with that jet-black regal military uniform, so he begrudgingly changed his apparel. Bismarck now always wore a black sweater, skinny black jeans followed by black dress shoes. He stole the look from a magazine he found a maid reading on her break.
Makie said he looks good so he stuck with the clothes. Bismarck also stopped wearing his hat, although that shouldn't come as a surprise since it would look quite off with his current clothes. Days turned into weeks, and Bismarck found himself quite infatuated with the cultural aspect of human society. His interest was at first focused on history, although that quickly proved to be a dead-end as the manor's library didn't provide enough source material. Then came the novels. And oh boy did he spent a lot of time reading. Bismarck couldn't even begin to fathom how humans come up with these crazy ideas seemingly on a whim. Truly, the unpredictable nature of humanity should they acquire weapons capable of fighting Fog on equal grounds would make for a fine spectacle to witness. Speaking of such weapons, Bismarck discovered something truly remarkable about Makie. The girl was extremely smart, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. What truly impressed him was the fact she was in the midst of perfecting a design of a vibration warhead torpedo, a weapon more powerful than a conventional corrosive torpedo. Yet, the former Kriegsmarine flagship found himself almost uninterested in it. Granted, he very much wanted to know the inner and outer workings of it. But he was in no rush to learn, especially now since it was not even finished. Makie would often leave on weekdays to work on the weapon, leaving Bismarck to his own devices. He would spend the time reading, unsurprisingly. He also stumbled into the "manga" territory, but he didn't dare tread far into that degenerate landscape after seeing the name of one particular manga. Its name was "Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo"... He genuinely wondered if someone had a stroke while printing it. Bismarck will just... steer clear of that for now. Living with Makie was quite comfortable though, and to his own surprise, he quickly became fond of the little girl. A little bit too much one might even say. He stuttered at the thought of becoming an overprotective parent-like figure to the little Fraulein, but she seemed quite happy so he didn't bother thinking too much about it. Makie would often drag Bismarck into her strange games, like some board game called Monopoly which Bismarck couldn't win for the life of him because of TAXES. But there was one activity Bismarck quite liked doing with Makie, and that was, in Makie's own words, chillin' 'n readin'. The two would just lay down in one beanbag, Makie cuddled up to Bismarck as he read her a novel. The maids secretly took photos while the two weren't looking and printed them out before putting them into an album that they placed into Makie's room to one day find. It was a calm and cushy lifestyle, but it wasn't unwelcome. It was a good one year, even though Makie hasn't stopped calling him Bon-Bon at any point in his stay.
Unfortunately, it was just the calm before the storm...
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It was a quiet night in Yokosuka when they attacked. Two fast battleships, sisters in arms, Kongou-class Japanese warships with their guns aimed at the imposing wall the government managed to build around the coast of Yokosuka. Bismarck merely stood outside of the lavish mansion and watched as the two warships tore through the wall with ease. What could they possibly want? The plans for the vibration warhead torpedo, obviously.
"Of course the government warships don't stand a chance... Stubborn bastards. Hmm? What's... I-401?" now there was a name Bismarck hadn't heard for a long time.
I-401 used to be a rather famous defector a few years ago. A blue I-400 series submarine, one of the three sisters, two of which were Yamato's lapdogs. The third, I-401 defected a while ago and managed to stay under the radar until... now. Truly, a submarine's stealth technology is nothing to scoff at, even more so at this particular one's. And she's fighting the Kongou sisters now... What's going on? Why is she defending a human city? So many questions yet no answers in sight. Maybe the I-401 managed to obtain a human crew? It's not too far fetched to think so, considering how Makie was capable of changing Bismarck's attitude and overall thinking. The two continued to try and sink I-401, but from what the information Bismarck could gather at such a distance and without his hull, they were being unsuccessful. At least that was the case until a blaring alarm sounded off in the dark-haired male's head.
High potency of gravitons detected!
"...Scheisse," he cursed under his breath, not being able to do much else other than watch as his graviton readings spiked.
A dire situation arose as the two Fog warships merged together, forming one massive Super Gravity Cannon that could very well rival Bismarck's own if he still had it. Their combined power was nothing to scoff at, certainly not. Comparing it to his orbital weapons platform though was still out of the question, mostly because he couldn't use it now. One of the sisters was responsible for handing the energy built-up while the other focused on the aiming.
Their target? The floating vessel of I-401 which they had managed to imprison in an invisible vortex of gravity as the water was pushed away from the Fleet of Fog vessels.
"Bon-Bon...?" a girl's soft voice managed to grasp his attention, a half-awake, half-asleep Makie with a big pink teddy bear in her arms appeared behind him, clutching the plushie as she watched the scene unfold before them.
"...You should go back to bed, Prinzessin," surprisingly softly replied the male mental model as Makie chose to stand beside him, latching herself onto his side and holding his hand.
"What's happening?" the girl's question was not unwarranted and only made Bismarck sigh.
"Just some... light show," he slowly replied as he watched the massive energy reading go up and up, were they planning on taking this city down with I-401?!
The crackling of green and yellow lightning could be heard all the way over to them. The fizzling sound of water being vaporized upon touch, and the screeching sound that only Bismarck and other mental models could hear as the gravitons were compressed to the point of decay. All of this power aimed at one target that desperately wriggled and writhed, the blue submarine's engines being pushed to their limit. But despite their overwhelming power, a Super Gravity Cannon has one major weakness, the warship firing has to create a hole from where the cannon fires, effectively creating a weakness in their seemingly impenetrable defence. And whoever was guiding I-401 knew of this, or rather counted on it as the vessel began firing rockets and even corrosive torpedoes. Jumping into the jaws of danger doesn't even begin to describe the situation. Truly, an act of bravery in face of impending death. Unfortunately for I-401 though, one of the two joint mental models still had enough processing power to create a Klein-field strong enough to stop the hail of missiles and a single corrosive torpedo.
"Uwah!" a sudden yelped sounded from Makie as Bismarck quickly placed his hand around her eyes and activated his Klein-field around them, "Bon-Bon, what are you-"
"Don't look, the light will blind you," it was a pathetic excuse but Makie being a good girl listened to her friend.
"Are you going to be okay, Bon-Bon?" a small smile graced Bismarck's usually stern face, a rare occurrence which sadly no one witnessed.
"I'm fine, don't worry Prinzessin," just a moment after finishing his sentence, Thanatonium readings spiked and with that Bismarck knew that the battle was over.
A corrosive torpedo fired from a hidden location flew into the joint battleships just before the two Kongou-class sisters could unleash an attack that would most certainly annihilate I-401 in an instant. Instead, the torpedo exploded and set off a chain reaction. The explosion made the compacted energy of gravitons unstable, and the end result was a massive explosion that tore both combined warships apart.
-BOOM-
The sound of a powerful explosion ripped through the air with enough force to create a small earthquake followed by tidal waves a few meters high. The shockwave it created was strong enough to blow anyone in the vicinity off their feet, but luckily Bismarck had protected both himself and Makie with his wave-force armour. The show of power however did accomplish one thing, it reminded Bismarck of just how powerless now. No vessel and extremely low on nanomaterial. As the explosion died down, there was nothing left of the two warships. Then, slowly and gently, silver snow began falling from the sky. Inactive nanomaterial. Bismarck sighed as he gently began guiding Makie back to her room to sleep. What he didn't fail to notice was something crashing into a warehouse on the property. He will have to investigate later, now, Makie needs her sleep.
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The next day, both Bismarck and Makie had ventured out of the mansion to investigate the partially destroyed warehouse at the edge of the property. This was where they usually stored miscellaneous items like furniture and such. Bismarck didn't want to bring Makie along in case the unidentified piece of debris was a mental model, which could lead to more trouble than he bargained for. But the little girl was very adamant about coming along, so here they were. Immediately upon walking towards the entrance of the warehouse they noticed a large and thick black coat lying on the ground. Bismarck picked it up and instantly noticed its unique composition, thick, heavy, but extremely force resistant. It didn't take a genius to deduce that the unidentified object was now most certainly a mental model. He neatly folded the coat and carried it under his arm. Makie happily strolled into the warehouse, as if ignoring all the imaginary danger signs saying not to do so. Bismarck raised his sensors to their maximum and instantly picked up two energy signatures just in front of them. Two mental models must be the two sisters...
"Look Bon-Bon, a girl!" true to Makie's words there was indeed a girl unconscious on a BENT and CAVED IN metal crate.
Bismarck could only blink, why was she almost naked? The Japanese mental models did have a small reputation for being a bit... wacky, in his newly acquired slang words. Next to the unconscious blonde was a strange spherical device. A Union Core, standard model by the looks of it too. Must be the other sister, meaning this blonde girl was the only one that managed to maintain her physical appearance after the blast.
Makie picked up the object and examined it, knocking on it a couple of times. It was surprisingly light but felt like it was harder than steel, which wasn't untrue. Bismarck could only sweatdrop as Makie started to juggle the Union Core around like it was a toy.
"Prinzessin, don't throw that around," he glanced back at the half-naked girl, then at the coat in his hand, then back at the girl, then back at the coat, then back at the girl, and then he just threw the black article of clothing onto the blonde to cover her up.
"Hey, Bon-Bon, can you carry her home?" Bismarck had once again blinked in response to Makie's innocent question, how can one girl be so naive?
Even so, this is a mental model, one of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet that could kill her at the snap of its finger and she wants to bring this unknown girl home? Wait... does she... not realize that the girl is a mental model...?
HOW NAIVE IS THIS GIRL?!
"Sigh, alright," and yet he agreed, he really agreed despite knowing the dangers!
He didn't even realize why, why he agreed to such a stupid request but he did it anyway. Wrapping the coat around the lingerie-clad girl was easy, as was carrying her to Makie's room. The child must have a heart of gold, maybe she was hoping of getting a... friend, like Bismarck? They did meet in a similar situation, only he was conscious. Perhaps the past could repeat itself. Makie needed friends, she deserved them. But should the Fog try to kill her and obtain the vibration warhead torpedo information that way...
...
...
...
"There will be hell to pay..."