"Everything's ready."

Shiro gently mumbled, afraid of waking up the three girls beside him. At first, it was only Akagi and Nimi, but Unicorn insisted on being besides him. To this 'little sister' of his, he agreed.

Although, he was not asleep yet. Many things ran past his mind. After solving the trouble regarding leviathans, the next thing to do would be to gradually repair this world—that is, by salvaging everything from the broken world and implementing it to this one. There was also the lover from the past, Enty.

Moreover, dealing with the surviving META ship girl's ailments, correcting timelines, and searching for the two geniuses who disappeared were on his list.

'Those two could not have disappeared without any notice...'

Anzeel and Aosta, two geniuses with different viewpoints, were the reason as to why this world could continue 'living'. It is not wrong to say that they, along with Shiro, were the protagonists of this world.

'Still, I thought everything would be more difficult. At least I would be having a vacation.' He nodded inwardly. 'But...'

There was something that he could not forget. When he traveled into the future, something strange happened. Under his Beyond Creator form, he felt something.

'That coldness...'

For a moment, he thought that he was in the depths of cold darkness. It felt as if he was left in that place for eternity, with no one to interact. A despairing feeling took over him, but they disappeared as they went.

Shiro bit his lower lip. With his current power, he could finish thousands of deductions within a moment. Even so, he earned no confirmation as to what it truly is. [Mysteries] gave him no feedback, [Magus] said that there was no abnormality, and [Fenrir] gave unparalleled confidence that everything was alright.

For these reasons, he never divulged it to anyone—not to his wives and friends. 

Staring at the chat group panel, he saw the usual [Return from the Mission World to interact] notice in the chat room. Even so, he was free to scroll through the messages. Those silly texts, everyone's targeted jokes to Romani, up to Madoka's innocent replies.

Reading these, a smile drew on his lips. 

'Joining this chat group is never wrong.'

Through it, he saw may altered fates. He got to see their original fates as well as the possibility to overturn them—all thanks to the chat group. Knowing that it was created for the purpose of preserving the world, however, a heavy feeling sank in his heart.

In the future, in the place where they have to fight for survival, these silly moments would become precious. The plethora of [Inactive] statuses that he skimmed on the future served as a evidence supporting this fact.

'Sigh...'

He recalled the messages of Romani and Sakura. During that time, they were the only ones that he recognized apart from the trio who went to the present. This made him wonder:

'What about the others?'

What about his wives? Akagi? Nimi? Castoria? Altera? Musashi? Euryale?

What about his lovers? 

His friends?

...

'Fuck.'

In the end, he could only curse. The people who are with him as of the moment, are they alright? How much did they suffer in that cruel future? Most importantly...

Are they still alive?

Hence, he already drew many plans and contingencies inside his mind. After fixing this issue, there would be a time when there's no chat group missions. He would take that time to visit the missions worlds. With each visit, he would leave a portion of his contingencies. Moreover, there's no point in hiding it to others.

When he was sure that these contingencies would serve something, he would tell them everything. For now, pointless worries were to be avoided.

'Tomorrow... I can finally solve this problem.'

A solution worth millions of years of preparations.

The world would see it soon.

*****

The main problem that plagued Shiro's world was none other than the broken world's connection towards his world. When the connection was formed, the broken world held tightly—preventing the acts of severing it. Then, it sent phantoms, the images of its past inhabitants, to cause damage to their world. Through it, the broken world siphoned a portion of the world which is enough to sustain its existence.

With their extremely advanced technology, they won against their first fight against this world's natives. Even so, it was not a complete victory. Somehow, their technology was grasped by the natives, giving them enough strength to escape and regroup. Then, their counterattack began.

The main point here was the connection. If severed, would it cease the operations of the leviathans?

'Yes.'

However, it could just form another one again. For this exact reason—

'Total destruction.'

Shiro's plan focused on this. By gaining the acceptance of his world once more, he would be able to gain its support to travel within that broken world. After all, he was a Creator, not a Beyond Creator. A world's [Will] could destroy themselves to severely injure such beings. Worse, they could kill them outright.

These outcomes were not something that he liked to happen.

"Things are bound to become troublesome."

"Their reactions, you mean."

Nimi acknowledged Akagi's words as she replied:

"Aren't you a prime example of it? Your younger self used to do crazy things to show off your affection to him."

"Good times, indeed."

The nine-tailed fox smiled at her as she said so.

"Sigh... You are still Akagi despite mellowing down."

"And you are still that stern girl who wore a straight-face during official meetings."

The past few days, the two of them sent light jabs towards each other. They did not mean to harm the other, simply a way of them gauging the other's personality. After all, they had not met much despite them being in the same world. Nimi was a shut-in who filled in Shiro's role as the librarian during select times.

"Enterprise... She is one of his regrets."

During that war, Nimi (Z23) fell first than Akagi. Her scouting fleet encountered an immediate ambush, and she could only inform the headquarters that the leviathans had breached the perimeter. Along with her, more than a thousand humans died—all on the 'Battle of Biscay Gulf'.

As for Akagi, she was assigned as a reinforcement on an attack in the Leyte Gulf but was overwhelmed with the undocumented forces in hiding. Her planes were soon exhausted, their fuel ran out, and artillery exhausted. 

Just as how painful it was for Shiro to see KANSENs die one by one, it was also painful for Enterprise to see everything until the end. 

"We should be expecting another addition soon." Akagi added.

"Along with the six others." Nimi's pupils flashed as she skimmed through the events that transpired. She has the established [Library of the End], thus it was not hard to see history in the past.

"There's also the ambiguous ones... Dear's charm is still as deadly as ever."

Soon, they went separate ways, each accompanying an avatar of 'Shiro'.

*****

Azur Lane Base.

It was a usual sunny day. KANSENs who had nothing to do wandered around the base and sailed to the boundless ocean. The visits of the humans carrying their supplies were periodically scheduled, which is why nobody paid much attention to it except the guards.

"Sigh... I miss everyone."

"I agree! It's not as lively as before..."

Javelin's and San Diego's mumblings reached the perpetually-sleepy Laffey.

"It is..."

From the festive mood of Azur Lane, it devolved into a tense state of pending war. The Destroyer that they were always together with, Nimi-chan, left as soon as the Iron Blood Empire declared independence. Everything happened in the span of a night, leaving most personnel and KANSENs unaware of the situation until they woke up.

"...Huh." Laffey's confusion was turned into surprise as she said, "Look."

As they stood at the higher portion of the base—the small natural cliff often frequented by them—she could see most of shore's view.

"What is it?" The red-haired girl asked innocently as she squinted her eyes towards that direction. "Wh-wh-what?!"

"Ah..?"

Javelin soon followed along the two before being swept by their surprise.

"""Nimi-chan..?"""

There, they saw Nimi and a hooded KANSEN deactivate their rigging as they stepped onto the docks. They saw the former holding the hand of the latter.

"Such proximity..?!"

"What is going on?!?!"

They saw her converse with the hooded KANSEN, lightly laughing then and there. Clearly, she is very close towards that person. Then, their gazes met with the hooded person's.

The deep amber pupils held a thousand stars in it—a feeling of piercing through all falsehoods emanated from it.

For a moment, the three girls went silent. This was the first time they felt something like this. Even so, this strange pupils felt extremely familiar.

When they saw this face, their minds blanked out. It was not only due to the charm that he possessed, making him look perfect in their eyes. Rather, they felt a strong recollection about that face. When looked at properly, the hooded person looks very similar to their—

"Commander?"

*****

Unlike Nimi, Akagi led Shiro to their base using her wakizashi. With one swing, she opened up a portal straight to the place. As to why she chose to do so instead of spending their alone time first, she said:

"I want to see the reaction on her face already."

The strongest wingman between the two of them on their timeline.

The leader of the Sakura Empire.

The small girl whose wish was to peacefully spend her time, only to be forced by the 'unseen crises'.

Under the Sakura Tree, they interrupted Nagato's tea time. Her eyes widened as she never expected someone to intrude her quarters. Then, her surprise turned into shock as she saw a familiar figure among the two.

"...What are you doing here?"

She looked at Akagi who was supposed to be on a mission. Along with her was an unknown man. But, as soon as she saw his eyes, she was captivated by it. Upon processing it, she turned to his face—revealing an appearance of untold proportions. She does not know why, but he possessed an aura around him that made him desirable.

Then, the realization.

"..!"

Although greatly altered due to time, she still saw the similarity.

"Shikikan..?"

*****

"Stop, sister!"

Unicorn's words promptly halted Illustrious' about to be launched fighter planes. By self-destructing them, she could easily incapacitate her enemy easily.

Instead of running towards her direction, Unicorn stayed at the person's side.

Seeing her, the other KANSEN, Ash, dropped her shooting stance. They had separated two days ago to search for Unicorn. Ember was with Hiryuu META while Ash was with Illustrious META. With their enhanced states, they were confident enough to face the potential troubles in this timeline. That included accidental encounters with this world's KANSENs.

"Did he do something to you?!"

Illustrious' unfettered hostile gaze was sent towards the man. He kept looking down, and it was only when he came to a decision did he face her. He did not place any inhibiting powers nor hidden his face, which is why they could see through him now.

For a moment, the two KANSENs fell silent as their gaze met his. 

Illustrious' pupils trembled as a chill was sent to her spine. It would be alright if their face was similar; he could be his version in this world. However, he has the same eyes as him! The image of a precious friend flashed to her mind as she saw more of their similarities as time passed by.

As for Ash...

Splash-!

Dropping her bow, her entire body froze. Logically speaking, this should not have happened. This could be an attack led by their enemies, using his appearance to make them vulnerable. It actually happened two times. Each time, she obliterated his image before proceeding to her main targets.

This time...

'What..?'

...she could not bear to do so.

[Affliction: Lose all emotions akin to a living machine.]

While her affliction might have been one of the worst cases documented, it was also the one which helped her lead the others. She became unable to form bonds with others. Still, she protected them as a 'directive' inside her mind. This delicate situation formed the reliable-yet-emotionless leader of the Ashes faction.

With the directives of 'Protect them all' and 'I need to sacrifice them for the greater good' contradicting, it allowed her to retain her last bit of humanity. When one of the two sides overwhelm the other, it would be the time for her judgement to be flawed.

Even so...

Even so..!

There was no way to NOT feel anything in front of this man. She was about to speak when he went ahead of her.

"I... am back."