Through the Camera Lens

…

"How hard we struggled to hide behind the curtains of civilization and progress. How hard we struggled to protect that light. How hard we pretended that all was well in the world… but so soon, the curtain will fall, and darkness will smother us all. You'll see it too... just as we did. So long ago." – The Observer, Tome IV

…

FROM THE DEPTHS OF DARK WATERS

Chapter 4: Through the Camera Lens

Anxiety.

That was the feeling that Ayanami had flowing through her body now, though she struggled to let the emotions effervesce to the surface. Unlike Akashi—who was given express permission to be at the Azur Lane headquarters—she wasn't necessarily welcome here. She was possibly even trespassing, and in all honesty, she was also spying on the events that happened here in favor of the Sakura Empire. She had been given a camera—an older, mechanical one that barely even works—when she was sent to Azur Lane and was told to collect information and intelligence about the many things being worked on here. Most of the many pictures she had snagged given her time in hiding at Azur Lane, had been about the metal machine that had just wholly annihilated her nation's army of Sirens in the blink of an eye.

And she was only moments away from jumping down and joining Akagi and Kaga herself before she caught sight of the machine in question blowing the roof off of the hangar it was stored in and moving towards the sirens without a noise being made in its wake. And then she watched as more sirens than even she could handle with a full team, be completely vaporized at only a moment's notice. She had been seconds away from joining those sirens in their demise too. And when it came time for her to receive orders from Akagi about what to do next, none ever came.

And she watched as the two of them left her alone at Azur Lane.

This brought her to now, left alone in a foreign place without anyone to call a friend, and on top of it all, she was in enemy territory and possibly standing against an opponent she didn't stand a chance against. When news eventually came about that the Sakura Empire had led the assault against Azur Lane—and it surely would—she would be the first to be taken prisoner and tried for espionage, possibly even alongside Akashi for the same reason, that was if she was reached by other ship girls first. If not, she didn't want to even begin to guess what her endgame might look like by that metal monster that she thought to be a far worse fate.

She had seen what power it held firsthand, after all.

To quell her fiery nerves, she now rested against a tree for shade, overlooking the port of Azur Lane and looking through the film she had taken of various things and objects inside of Azur Lane. She looked through the developed images that she thought were worthy enough to be used and noticed something peculiar in each one that she hadn't noticed before. Starting with the first image she took, at that. The first was of a hangar, the hangar where the metal object was stored and researched upon. And at the bottom right-hand corner, there was a series of white marks, which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a series of numbers. Nothing too out of the ordinary for developed films, though the number it displayed was certainly unordinary.

1200.00.00

At first, it seemed weird because of how large the number was. If she could truly take twelve-thousand photos, that would be excessive, especially for an older model film camera like the one she had. But when she looked at the second photo, what she should have seen would have been the first number, subtracting one. The second film should have read 1199.00.00. But it didn't. Instead, the second film read a number far more interesting.

1199.56.26

Ayanami stared at the film quizzically for a moment, looking away and looking back, as if expecting the numbers to magically shift back into their normal places and reflect the numbers she expected. But they never did. She moved to the next image.

1195.36.33

She flipped through another one, and another one.

1190.16.30

Her first instinct was to check and see if there was something wrong with the original film, and when she took the long strand out and began to look through the images, she noticed something even more peculiar. There were no timestamps on any of the blank films. No white lines where numbers should be if they were on the film, nothing at all to indicate what film number she was on, and looking through them all, there certainly weren't twelve-thousand images capable of being taken in the film.

Her second idea was that her camera was malfunctioning. But, when she examined the compact thing, she realized something horrifying that sat inside her stomach with unease. The camera was entirely mechanical. No electrical parts of any kind, therefore making it impossible for a date and timestamp to be added onto films. So, she continued to flip through the film again, noticing how each number was lower than the previous one before it, taking note that it seemed to be counting down.

After reexamining her film once more, she discovered something even more strange. The white color she had previously seen had slowly altered in color as the images progressed. The numbers seemed to blend into the background, when she had taken pictures of white buildings, the numbers were also white, when she took a picture of the metal mech the Eagle Union captured, the numbers were black. A slight shade lighter than the black on the machine itself, so that they were just barely noticeable.

So far, she had only seen white and black numbers. And when she flipped to the next image, her breath hitched, and her heart started beating faster than she had ever felt before. As if something in the picture had terrified her.

And it did.

The image was of a tree that she didn't remember taking. But it looked familiar. It was a shot of a dead tree, overlooking an overgrown… what, exactly? She couldn't make out what it was, but it looked similar to Azur Lane's port. But the buildings were collapsed and burned down with mottled walls, showing a pattern of altering patches of black and white and grey as if the full-color film had taken a black-and-white only shot. It would have been impossible to use white or black to mark a date and stamp on the image given the color scheme.

But there was one. And that was what terrified her.

In the picture, the number arranged themselves vertically to fit along the curve of the tree's trunk.

And then she realized why the tree looked so familiar. The roots of the tree in the image were exactly the same as the one she was sitting at now, and the numbers written along one of the trunks were written on the spot she was leaning against now.

968.33.44

Analyzing the numbers alone, she began to look for some kind of mathematical pattern. At first, she thought it was some kind of assigned numbering, but the difference between the numbers seemed far too sporadic to follow any kind of mathematical pattern she could follow. The difference between the numbers wasn't constant. She then guessed that the number represented the time in the form of hours, minutes, and seconds. And that meant each photograph she took had a number on it that represented the difference of time taken between two successive images and when they were taken.

But the number still didn't make sense if she were to consider it as such.

Until she thought of it as being a countdown.

A countdown that began one-thousand two-hundred hours ago. And the last image read nine-hundred and sixty-eight. Just over forty days.

Forty days until what exactly? She stood up in a hurry, seeking some kind of confirmation as she looked towards Azur Lane once more. Surely, someone there had noticed something similar and could confirm she wasn't imagining things. Thankfully, she knew just the people to go to, she had just recently helped them find that unicorn plushie by accident.

…

Ayanami had finally made it back to Azur Lane's port, where the main focus of almost every ship girl was still on the giant metal machine she had originally been sent to investigate. Thankfully, that was the boon that saved her from the reality of being found out. No one seemed to acknowledge that—in the distance—there were two carriers of the Sakura Empire, and as such, the girls around her that had previously been on high alert, were now more curious than on guard. Ayanami listened in on the conversations the two ship girls closest to her had without interrupting, taking the opportunity to slip past them in the daze.

"Apparently, it's human!"

"So, he is like some kind of Superhero?! Sandy, we have to go see him!"

"I'm serious Reno! Cleveland even took him back to her dorm!"

Ayanami quickly halted for a moment as she heard. Of course, she knew Cleveland, Ayanami had to learn a lot about her so she could more effectively study the thing she was put in charge of. Ayanami knew what dorm she was in, and she knew her sisters were there with her as well.

Well, not all of her sisters, but she knew that Columbia was. Learning where the pilot to… whatever that thing was, was good information to have. That meant the machine itself wasn't operational and it wouldn't be an issue for her to have to potentially worry about. Or so she hoped.

Ayanami began to move again, her quick steps resulting in her leaving earshot of the two Kansen rather quickly. The last thing she wanted to deal with right now was the attention that would be granted to her graciously by the Eagle Union ship girls once again from their never-ending amounts of curiosity. Ayanami was sure that she had already been—at the least—found out about by now, but the combined attention wasn't focused on her. Providing her with adequate cover to be more open in her movements.

Compared to other "Monster and Demons," reactionary academics were special in this particular case: amidst an adversary that the Eagle Union had no clue what to do about or how to defeat, their attention was better spent—at least in the early stages—trying to defend themselves from the thing in the event it was hostile. Or at least it should have been.

"Oh hey… it's Ayanami." The almost monotone voice came out as if its host had been exhausted rang out from behind her, and Ayanami recognized the source almost immediately without turning to look. Ayanami did detect two other girls with her. But she somehow hadn't noticed any of them approach behind her. In the woes of her own panic, she had made a mistake.

At least Ayanami knew they didn't see her as an enemy. At least not yet. Ayanami began to think about what she should do next. She was sure Laffey—the girl who called out to her—wouldn't question whatever request Ayanami asked her to do with the camera in question, but just as she reached for it, Laffey spoke again.

"You in trouble? Laffey will help." Laffey offered, moving closer. The two that were with her followed close behind.

Ayanami didn't waste her time with the offer, reaching into her pocket and retrieving the spare roll of film she had been given and placing it into the camera she had. She snapped a few quick pictures with the lens cap on, firing the shots off rapidly each one taken in the space of a few seconds. Ayanami did this to set a baseline she could use as a reference for the images they would take.

"Can you take a few pictures for me?" Ayanami requested, holding the camera out for Laffey to take, which she did without question.

"What is Laffey supposed to shoot?" Laffey asked, looking at Ayanami perplexed while both Javelin and the carrier—Unicorn—looked on in curiosity. Clearly, the two of them were interested in the camera as well as Laffey. In her own eyes, though, the camera was just a boring antique that served a purpose she didn't care much for. But she supposed that to some Kansen, it might have been more appealing than it was to her.

"Doesn't matter. Just shoot whatever you want." Ayanami said, thinking back to the pictures she had taken that did not follow any particular pattern. However, Ayanami would soon regret those words as she spoke them. The camera lens aimed up and a quick, mechanical tone rang out in a series of appealing clicks. The subject Laffey had decided to shoot was none other than herself.

Ayanami's mind suddenly filled with the imagined sight of the ghostlike figures appearing over her own body, forever captured in a still-life image like a hangman's noose. She shuddered for a moment, not wanting to see the image, but it had already been taken. "No, don't do that. Shoot something else."

"Too complicated…" Laffey lazily muttered.

Ayanami just stared blankly at the destroyer. Perhaps she should have expected as much?

"I want to try!" Javelin suddenly said, finally adding herself to the exchange between destroyers. Laffey handed the camera over without any hassle at all.

Javelin angled herself low and tried to snap an image of the port—but nothing happened. There was no staggering series of clicks that resounded in their ears.

"Why won't it take a picture?" Javelin asked aloud as she moved the camera around carefully, looking to see if she had made a simple mistake and had pressed the wrong button or something easily fixable.

Ayanami moved forward and quickly demonstrated to Javelin how to advance the film, turning the knob at the top of the camera. "Like that. You have to advance it after every shot. Annoying, I know."

"I kind of like it… it seems more antique that way. And thank you." Javelin said with a smile, moving into her earlier position. The shutter clicked, and Javelin had taken her first shot, and the second shot of the whole film. And then came a second series of clicking a few seconds later. Javelin stood before Ayanami less than a few seconds later, holding the camera and saying thanks once more to her.

But Ayanami wasn't entirely paying attention. Ayanami worked quickly, taking the camera, and opening the compartment that held the vintage-style film, taking it into her small, daft hands and looking at the roll with curiosity present across her face. Ayanami ignored the concerned look that came from Javelin and began to unroll the film before the three of them, holding it up to the sunlight above—or whatever was left of it thanks to distant storm clouds that brewed in the distance—and looking into the hazy film as it began to come more into view with each passing second.

Ayanami squinted her eyes, silently hoping the digits wouldn't appear this time.

She examined as close as her eyes could allow her without developing them without a magnifying glass. And to her surprise, there was no countdown. The negative held only the exterior black-and-white shots that javelin had taken of the port and buildings behind her. Javelin had used a slow shutter speed—in part due to Ayanami not changing the settings—and that made the photos seem amateurish, with some blurred edges the further away things got. But they were still enjoyable to look at, nonetheless.

Ayanami let out a held breath she wasn't aware she was holding. She lowered the film and began to think over the matter with her camera more carefully. First, the numbers that appeared over not one, but two sets of film, that which recorded the passage of time nearly perfectly between shots. Something that was typically only possible with objects that showed signs of intelligence, and the camera—a tool—managing to reprint those numbers simply shouldn't have been possible with having an internal clock or countdown.

Which meant something exposed them to the film itself. But what? And why?

Or did the camera just malfunction? Had some mechanism been installed in the camera without her knowledge? If that were true though, she would have noticed with her many, many practice shots when she took images at the Sakura Empire port. She could disassemble the camera, but she doubted she would understand what any of the components inside did regardless. But then she thought about the completely covered image she had taken.

She had taken a snap with the camera cover on, and the numbers still appeared. Faint, sure, but they still appeared. Which led her to believe the most likely source was some kind of penetrating light source. Her film only worked if there was a light source present when the snap itself was taken. It couldn't adjust the contents or colors unless an external lens itself was added…

Which meant her camera adding a time stamp wasn't possible without a source of light.

But how was that even technologically possible? Where was the source of the light rays coming from with the cover over the camera itself? How was it aimed? Why?

Speaking from a technology standpoint, and given the current knowledge discovered through the years since the arrival of Sirens, Kansen, and Wisdom Cubes, such power would still be considered supernatural.

Deciding to test once more—her curiosity got the best of her. She rolled the film back up quickly and placed it into her pocket, exchanging it for the full-color film she had used previously. She placed the film in the camera, and rolled the film quickly, advancing it an unknown amount forward until she was sure she was past the multiple shots she had taken previously. She covered the lens with her hand until she was sure no light source was penetrating and snapped a picture, the mechanical sound ending shortly after the button had been pressed.

Repeating the same process as before, she removed the film and held it up to the sky, looking at it as it came into focus. And when she saw the image come into view…

When she fully saw the dark image come into view. Her few moments of calm had been shattered once more.

What should have been a completely black square and a spot in the film, had a small, off-color splotch situated neatly at the bottom right-hand corner. And based on the numbers she saw… it had never stopped counting down.

967.45.22

967.44.52

Hours. Minutes. Seconds.

Ayanami's face went pale.

She hadn't noticed when the other three girls gathered beside her.

"You worried?" Laffey asked again, the sleep still present in her voice, but with much more concern as the Benson-Class destroyer noticed Ayanami's own worried look.

"Oh my, you look like you've seen a ghost," Javelin added, Unicorn still standing behind her, peeking out to look at Ayanami as she tried to recover.

Ayanami began to brainstorm possibilities. Using different cameras, she might have been able to eliminate problems with the camera she had or the film as possible explanations. But by allowing the girls in front of her to take the pictures, she discovered an even stranger result: the countdown had only appeared in the images she took.

Desperately, Ayanami rolled the film back up and loaded the roll back into the camera, again advancing the film an uncertain amount forward until she was sure she was past the last image she had taken, then quickly handed the camera back to Javelin.

"Quick. Shoot another few pictures, like before."

"What? Look at your face! What is wrong?" Javelin inquired, but Ayanami quickly brushed her thoughtfulness aside.

"Don't worry about it. Please take another."

Javelin reluctantly took her camera once more, her eyes filled with a mix of concern and worry. Ultimately, Javelin passed the camera off to the girl who stood behind her. "Unicorn, would you like to help Ayanami? Just push this button. Right, like that. That's one, now you wind it like this to take another. Good!"

Unicorn learned quickly. She was interested in the camera itself and took many rapid shots, of random scenery and of her friend Yuni, the plushie thing that seemed to have a mind of its own. The girl kept going, taking photo after photo with each shutter clicking as if she were going mad. Shortly after, Unicorn handed the camera back to Javelin, who in turn handed it back to Ayanami, who made quick work to take the film out once again.

In her desperation, Ayanami had accidentally dropped the film, resulting in the creation of a pile of mangled films, like a tangled nest of snakes or a bunch of ropes that had been tied into an impossible knot. She panicked and searched through the images quickly. The numbers still appeared on the images that Unicorn had taken.

So, it wasn't just her own images the numbers appeared on, but they only appeared on full-color film. The worry that filled her earlier faded slightly at the revelation. Ayanami knew she couldn't solve the mystery of the numbers on her own, and she also knew she needed another camera to confirm her suspicions.

"Are there any other girls with a camera like mine?" Ayanami asked, looking between the three girls desperately in hopes of achieving an answer that could benefit her.

"Laffey knows Gridley." Laffey brought a finger up to her chin in thought.

"Gridley always has the one Enterprise gave her," Javelin added her thoughts to the conversation with a nod.

"Can you take me to her?" Ayanami asked, holding the camera and film carefully and close to her chest, not trying to hide the film or make much of an attempt to untangle it.

"Well, I don't mind, but…" Javelin began, but trailed off mid-way. Laffey took the opportunity to pick up where Javelin had left off.

"Laffey is going to see the spaceman," Laffey added, her tone steady and low. Ayanami couldn't help but blankly stare at the girl's rather direct and linear way of thinking, but she couldn't fault the girl at all for being curious either. Even Ayanami was interested.

"But! Gridley lives in the same dorm tower as Cleveland! So, maybe we could take you to her after?" Javelin quickly added, looking at Ayanami with a smile.

"If you would be so kind," Ayanami accepted the offer, figuring there was no use trying to change Laffey's mind.

And she didn't entirely want to change her mind either. Ayanami could use the opportunity to establish better relations with those around her, while also taking the opportunity to get on the good side of the… 'spaceman,' as Laffey had called him. Whoever's side he was on, was surely the most powerful, from what she had seen. By extension, she would be safe if he was on her side.

"Okay. Let's go see the spaceman," Laffey repeated once again, starting to walk with Javelin and Unicorn in tow. Laffey was leading the group, and Ayanami now began to follow alongside them.

What could possibly go wrong? Surely, she wouldn't run into the Grey Ghost.

…

Cleveland let out a deep sigh. She knew her sister was only joking around with her, but it was still embarrassing enough for her. Cleveland had finished tending to her Bonsai trees, pruning them down and watering them, making sure to keep them away from a draft, but still near the window she now found herself staring out. Her room had a very large window, which she had pulled a chair up to and began to carefully watch the world outside as Aphelion still laid unconscious on her bed.

The world outside had turned… surprisingly bleak, quite quickly. While it was by no means super sunny previously, it had gotten significantly darker outside than the forecast had predicted. In the distance, she could see storm clouds rolling in, and with them came a misty wall that crashed down with violent force. The clouds were also low, possibly the lowest she had ever seen, and… the most active she had ever seen.

Yes, the grey clouds in the distance had been lit up brilliantly by plumes of blue that streaked across the sky and gave the dark grey clouds a ghostly appearance as a result. She had seen lightning before, but she hadn't ever seen so much of it in one place. Lightning began to visibly zip around, striking aimlessly in the ocean with anger, creeping closer to the base with each passing second. And closer to the base itself, the clouds began to drift, and the sun peaked through and shined down onto the base itself.

A typhoon was coming. The first Azur Lane had in a while.

Cleveland reached for the phone she had sat in front of her, taking a moment to send Columbia, Denver, and Birmingham a message about the storm that was approaching. Cleveland had just sent the message in the group chat she was in with all of her sisters, figuring it was easier that way than to message them all individually. Before she got any response, the doorbell rang out through the apartment she was in.

Cleveland spared a glance at Aphelion, then thought about who could have been at the door. Her sisters—the ones that lived with her anyways—all had keys, so that ruled the possibility out of it being any of them. Maybe it was Enterprise? She stood quickly, and with brisk steps made her way out of her room, through the living room, and looked through the peephole of her door. Sure enough, Enterprise was standing in her view. Cleveland wasted no time opening the door for her.

"Enterprise! Fancy seeing you here, ehehe…" Cleveland laughed out, the sound coming out being a bit awkward. It wasn't very often she got guests when she did it was limited to Helena and a few others. "Please, come in!"

"Thank you," Enterprise said, walking through the door that Cleveland held open and looking around carefully. "You keep this place in nice condition,"

"Heh, thank you! Me and my sisters try." Cleveland said with a start, puffing her chest out with pride.

"May I have a seat?" Enterprise asked, gesturing to the couch that Columbia had originally been laying on while watching TV.

"Please do. Can I get you something to drink?" Cleveland offered.

"I appreciate the offer, but I'm okay." Enterprise politely declined, taking a seat and waiting for Cleveland to have a seat along with her.

Eventually, Cleveland did exactly that, deciding to sit adjacent to Enterprise on the couch so they could have their conversation with ease. At first, there was a moment of stagnant silence before Enterprise finally broke the silence. Cleveland wasn't sure where to start her explanation or report today, so she was thankful Enterprise led the conversation for her.

"First and foremost, did you learn anything about him?" Enterprise started, turning to look at Cleveland, her position upright at perfect attention.

"I did… not all of it was good. But I learned something very important too!" Cleveland explained, recalling the events of her conversation with Aphelion as it occurred. "I guess I should start at the beginning?"

Enterprise only gave a nod in response.

"Well… he isn't from this world at all. I mean, not from this world as in he is from a world where the events went differently from how they do here." Cleveland explained the first of the things she had learned, and predominantly the thing she thought was most important. It wasn't the first time such an event had happened, but it was the first time a world like his had been explained.

"An alternate reality. Another one, I mean. Please continue," Enterprise nodded, bringing a hand up to her chin in thought.

"Well… his world sounded… horrible. He explained the place he came to as a place that only held the physically perfect. Any illness of any kind, regardless of how little, was—in his words—destroyed. And mentally unsound people were… thrown into space." Cleveland explained further, the strange emotion swelling inside of her once again as she thought back to the words Aphelion had said to her about his home.

"I… see. And how did he end up here?" Enterprise further questioned.

"Apparently… he sacrificed himself. His home was attacked by Sirens, and he stayed behind to fend them off from humanity as they escaped. It sounded to me like he was abandoned. He fell into a singularity left behind from his home's warp and ended up here." Cleveland recalled the words she had been told, and the more she thought about it now, the worse the scene that formed in her head became. She had a vague sense of what the term warp meant in context, but she didn't entirely know what it entailed.

"Service before self. Commendable. Did you learn anything else?"

"Kansen didn't exist in his world." When Cleveland spoke those words, Enterprise looked shocked. It was a rare moment when Enterprise's normal stoic, screamingly monotonous personality broke, and emotion shined through the crack. It was this information Cleveland deemed to be extremely important.

"That's… new."

"And… I have something possibly even more important!" Cleveland quickly moved, standing up from the couch and moving just enough for Aphelion to fall into her view from the door that led to the room she had left open. She pointed at the still-sleeping Aphelion with pride as he lay on her bed, as though she had been the one to discover some great epiphany or claim. "I handed him a wisdom cube and it started to act all weird!"

"Weird? In what way?" Enterprise spoke carefully, the realization slowly spreading across her face.

"Well, it started glowing bright and humming initially, and then it suddenly popped open like some kind of puzzle box! It broke apart in this flurry of blue arrays like when new ship girls are made! And then it wrapped around him! And then he kinda… fell unconscious, haha…" Cleveland explained with an awkward laugh. She quickly tried to correct herself and make the situation sound better than she made it out to be. "But he is fine though! He should be awake in no time!"

Enterprise took a moment to stare at Cleveland with careful and calculating eyes. Her thoughts clearly ran rampant by the conglomerated information that was given to her in a short period of time. She stood up quickly and walked towards where Cleveland had been pointing, stopping just at the threshold of the door that led into her room.

"You think he could be…" Enterprise trailed off, carefully looking at Aphelion from a distance.

"Yes." Cleveland's response came almost immediately, without any amount of hesitation or second thought. There wasn't any need for Enterprise to continue her questioning, Cleveland's confidence was understood with perfect clarity. Cleveland had finally gained her staggering amounts of confidence back with her answer, and Enterprise noticed immediately.

She knew Aphelion wasn't like the other commanders who had tried to lead Azur Lane and failed. She couldn't explain entirely why, but it was a feeling she had developed the moment she had met him, like some kind of sneaking suspicion that never left her. Inside, she couldn't deny it either. Being near him, was something other ship girls would take notice of themselves. Being near him… it was hard to explain. Like it was… awakening something deep inside. It made her feel stronger. Cleveland shook the thoughts away mentally, her resolve set in stone.

In her eyes… Aphelion wasn't a commander; he was the commander. The most important figure.

"We don't have a place for him to stay. At least, not a place that isn't already occupied by ship girls." Enterprise said, her eyes still focused on Aphelion. Cleveland hadn't noticed, but his body had returned to normal, and he was now fully visible again.

Just as Cleveland was about to jump at the opportunity and offer the vacant room that she and her sisters had, Enterprise continued speaking.

"The only option I have is to let him stay with other girls for the time being. The only options we have available here are the Gridley class, Mahan, Sims, and a few others. I know Biloxi has just recently moved dorms, so there is a spot open here as well. I figured it would be better for him to be with someone who is at least familiar with him. I'm fairly sure he probably trusts you more than anyone so far, you have the most experience with him, which also makes you the best suited to be his… escort, for a lack of better words. I promise—if you allow it—he will only be staying here temporarily though, especially if he truly is what you say." Enterprise explained the situation, averting her attention back to Cleveland.

"We can house him!" Cleveland quickly jumped on the offer this time. Indeed, she and her sister normally wouldn't have had space, since there were six of them altogether stationed on the base. But Biloxi had recently moved, which was the reason their normal six-bedroom complex now had a vacant spot. "I don't think my sisters would mind!"

Enterprise gave a nod. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience. It will only be temporary though. I will try to expedite the process as much as possible."

"It's no problem, just leave him to me! I promise to take good care of him!" Cleveland enthusiastically let out, offering Enterprise a toothy smile and thumbs up. Just as Enterprise began to turn, Cleveland remembered something else important.

"One more thing! There was a Sakura Empire carrier that made contact with me shortly after the Siren attack. I shouldn't make baseless accusations… but it seems very strange to me. Her name was Akagi, and with how quickly she arrived after the Siren attack it seemed that she knew they were coming." Cleveland began to explain the strangest of events that had happened that day. She couldn't form any valid accusations against the girl, but it was very suspicious and worth noting regardless. "She didn't attack me, despite being very aggressive. She clung to Aphelion and called him 'my commander.' She also came with some strange-looking Wisdom Cube. It was a deep purple and looking at it gave me the creeps."

Enterprise took a moment to think.

"If Akagi was here then Kaga probably was as well. Unannounced. That's… worrying. Keep an eye out for other Sakura Empire ships. See if Akashi knows anything. What is this about a purple Wisdom Cube?" Enterprise laid her thoughts out bare, ending with a further question about the peculiar case of an odd-colored wisdom cube suddenly appearing.

"Leave it to me! And It's hard to say. Whatever the cube was… Aphelion's machine didn't take kindly to it. It said it detected a Siren presence near the pilot and took actions to exterminate it. The machine blasted it away with some strange energy weapon… I've never seen or heard anything like it. It was like the air around me became electrified, and when the weapon cleared out, there wasn't anything left. Akagi left after that, her sister Kaga was the one that came to get her, so yes, they were both there." Cleveland further explained, earning yet another nod from Enterprise.

"I fear for what this occurrence could mean…" Enterprise uttered under her breath. "Let me know if you find out anything else."

"No problem! Leave it to me!" Cleveland happily answered, bringing a hand up with her thumb extended towards herself once again.

"Thank you. If you can, see if you can learn anything more about Aphelion's armor and weaponry. If he is willing to share, and if you can collect any information regarding it, the technology he has could be a major help for us all. I will disperse the information you have told me today to the girls in the Royal Navy." Enterprise said, turning and walking steadily back towards the entrance of Cleveland's complex. Just before opening the door, she turned and offered Cleveland one last gesture. "I will make some arrangements to have additional funding given to you for his safekeeping. Oh yeah and thank you for the fried chicken. The seagulls enjoyed it before I got any."

"Ahaha… my bad." Cleveland awkwardly laughed out as she only just remembered that she left the spilled food on Enterprise's ship. Enterprise smiled for just a moment before returning to her stoic expression, clearly humored by the reaction. Just as the door swung open though, Enterprise was met face-to-face by a very odd group of four. Three destroyers and a light carrier.

Cleveland recognized them all but was only familiar with three of the four. Laffey, Javelin and Unicorn stood in her doorway, and with them was Ayanami—a Sakura Empire destroyer. Enterprise's eyes narrowed very evidently for only a moment's notice, but she didn't say a word. Instead, she decided to walk past them all with a nod of recognition, leaving Cleveland alone to figure out why the four of them were there.

"We are here to see… the spaceman." Laffey lazily spoke, her eyes staring at her with a dreamy haze.

"Umm… he's sleeping at the moment," Cleveland said, the words coming out with clear confusion.

"Can we see?" Laffey pressed once again, her attention focusing directly on Cleveland without any hint of waver. Clearly, the girl was going to stop at nothing until she saw Aphelion. Cleveland couldn't help but admire the girl's shocking amount of drive when came to topics she was curious about.

"Sure!" Cleveland eventually caved, allowing the party of destroyers and the carrier to enter her home with a confused and happy smile.

The day only seemed to get more and more strange.

End of Chapter 4: Through the Camera Lens

Sorry~

Military delayed me, as well as art. This chapter was originally about 12k words long, but I cut it in half to allow myself another buffer period. I've been trying very diligently to set this story up to fit into the story of Azur Lane, realistically.

Leave me a comment if you've enjoyed it, it is much appreciated and means a lot to me! I love interacting with the community, even if I don't see eye-to-eye with a lot of views I've seen herein.

-AL_Shamastus

Edit 10/23/2022: Fixed an Issue where I accidentally included 'Aoba.' I didn't mean to do that yet.