The cold temperature inside the room dropped further with the silence between the two. The woman opposite of Shiro does not know whether he was truly him or a fake, thus her vigilance.

"Weird... There's still someone higher than you. A will inside this thing, perhaps?"

He knocked the huge cylindrical object. It was very similar to the [Wills] of each worlds. Having conflicted with many of them, he would not mistake it. Moreover, he discovered more detailed information once his "acceptance rate" increased. Turns out, the Sirens and the Arbiters have the same origin. Their compositions, which is already similar to each other, only differed on how their [Wisdom Cubes] were created.

The former has a central command related to the change of timelines, while the latter focuses on controlling the Ashes faction. In a way, the two of them worked in conjunction of each other.

"Right. This was my mistake. I let my emotions run first."

While Observer Zero was confused, Shiro made a pulling gesture. Transparent ripples spread from his arm. By the time he pulled it back, he was holding the cuff of a familiar Arbiter.

"What?!"

Arbiter: Temperance was surprised to see herself still alive. For all she knew, the attack far surpassed anything recorded within their database. It directly aimed at her core—at her existence—and erases it. 

When her feet touched the ground, she came to face with the same man who attacked her before.

"Eek..!"

She slipped as her feet stumbled upon each other. As a result, her rigging disappeared, leaving her appearance of a little girl with a sprained nose.

"W-what do you want from me..?!" She said with a dignified expression.

"...Look around you first."

"A-ah..?"

When she saw Observer Zero staring at her with a calm look, she knew that she was inside the shut-in's room. The leader of the Sirens was known as such. Though, she has the highest hierarchy due to her activating the leaders of the Arbiters.

After sighing, Observer Zero voiced her doubts:

"What is your intention?"

"The same as yours."

"You sound very confident, Sakurai-san."

For a moment, his image overlapped with the Fukushiro Sakura from the records. His wit, intelligence, and daringness were the crucial factors that held the leviathans down despite their side having lower numbers back then.

"Of course. Having a strong power is enough to throw the tides of a battle. But as you can see—"

"You are being rejected." She continued his words. "Are you really the Commander?"

It had been a long time since his death in this world. Hundreds of years had passed since then. Only his records remained on the archives of the three factions. This left the others from different timelines to not know that the Ashes used to have a Comamnder.

While there would be a certain event that would reveal some secrets in the future, that might not happen due to Shiro's intervention. 

(A/N: The Ashen Simulacrum event.)

"That, I am."

The golden cube floating on top of his hand suddenly enlarged itself as it was done "talking" with the "Host" inside the cylinder. With enough information gained on its archives, Shiro accomplished his purpose on his visit.

Just as he was about to leave through his [Aurora Curtain], he left a string of words.

"When you see me again, it's the time to settle everything."

When he disappeared, Observer Zero kept her calm and communicated with the "Host". It was also the one that provided them the knowledge of different timelines as well as manipulate them. They aimed to acquire enough variables that could be used on their fight against the leviathans.

[It is the real Fukushiro Sakurai. His signatures, down to his "existence" is a proof of that.]

Surprised, she asked, "Why is he rejected by our world?"

[He is someone who broke through the limits. He should not be addressed as a mortal anymore.]

Knowing what it implies, countless possibilities entered her mind.

"A god..."

*****

'I didn't expect for Aosta to create such beings.'

While Anzeel focused on strengthening the Ashes faction, Aosta created the Sirens as well as the Arbiters. Each of them were a genius in their own right, which is a prime reason as to why their world had not collapsed until now.

Anzeel aimed to shape a new future for the remaining META ship girls. They did not affect the other timelines and instead used their own strengths to achieve their goal.

On the other hand, Aosta aimed to create a better future regardless of the cost. He did not care if dozens of timelines would collapse by his doing. As long as enough variables were gathered, he believed that they would be able to resolve the threat one day.

However, they disappeared in the end. They could not surpass their limits as they had focused in these aspects. Moreover, the experiments harmed themselves to a terrifying degree.

After all, mortals playing with concepts such as time would not end up well.

"What a harvest."

While the [Genesis Cube] could scan his world, the more accurate info was stored inside the Sirens' archives. He knew that it would be bad if he showed up into the Ashes' base, considering their connection towards him. One wrong step and a contradiction would occur. The contradiction of [Shikikan is dead] and [Shikikan is alive] would lead to the world's [Will] harming itself.

Putting the cube away, he went to the Denmark Strait.

"Oops."

Looking at the fighter and bomber planes circling around Bismarck, he knew that Akagi went ahead and settled their "rivalry" from the past. Smoke rose up from the latter's rigging, indicating that she had been damaged to a huge extent. Meanwhile, Akagi appeared unscathed, though he knew that her ammunition has been depleted.

Limited by this world, she could only manifest her power as a KANSEN, just like Shiro's case. Still, it is enough for Akagi to play with her.

"Dear."

She immediately sensed him as he appeared behind her.

"Let's go. We'll settle everything tomorrow."

"Alright."

Holding his hand, Akagi left this place. Of course, the stone-faced Bismarck saw everything.

'What..?'

Too bad, another KANSEN would be just as dumbfounded as she are.

"Shiro."

"Nii-chan!"

When they arrived, the battle between Nimi and Eugen was already over. While Prinz Eugen might have been a heavy cruiser, Nimi's "destructiveness" as a destroyer was off the charts. It enabled her to win against the many-versus-one scenario, something that should have only been possible for a carrier.

"Good work." He said as he headpatted the two girls. After all, he could not leave just one behind, could he?

As he did it, he never forgot about Akagi and patted her head, too.

Soon, they left, leaving behind the confounded ship girls speculating the identity of the hooded man.