“All bark and no bite.
Gave me a real scare.” “Next time I’m definitely dragging you back and training you eight hundred times.
Eight hundred.” After the shipgirls withdrew, Purifier floated on the sea for a long while before she finally processed what had happened.
The damage they had inflicted wasn’t actually that serious.
The main-force battleships and carriers had barely been scratched.
As for the destroyers and escorts that got chopped up, the Sirens had as many as they wanted…
she could just whip up a fresh batch whenever.
The real problem was the sheer insult.
A few destroyers had come at her with beam sabers and hacked away like they were chopping vegetables.
They hadn’t even left a scratch, yet it still left her thoroughly irritated.
“Whatever.
Maybe they got stir-crazy stuck in the Port and just wanted some exercise.” Purifier decided to comfort herself with that thought.
Since she hadn’t really lost anything, she couldn’t be bothered to chase them down.
The next day.
“Alert!
Alert!” Sunbathing Purifier was once again jolted awake by the alarm.
“Azur Lane fleet detected 162 nautical miles southwest.
Twenty-two units approaching at thirty-six knots!” “?” “Again?!” Purifier jerked upright and scrambled to lead her forces out.
This time, though, the shipgirls weren’t carrying shields or beam sabers.
They looked almost normal.
The only difference was a set of thruster-like devices mounted under their rigging.
“Activate thrusters!” Enterprise gave the order.
Boom…
The shipgirls rose into the air as if they’d strapped on rocket packs.
At several dozen meters altitude they deployed their full rigging and opened fire downward with their main batteries.
A few of the heavier carriers and battleships, however, had materialized too much rigging.
The thrusters lacked the power, and with a series of thuds they dropped straight back into the water.
Their companions had to fish them out.
“Ow ow ow… I knew I shouldn’t have brought the 460s… these things are way too heavy…” a certain big fox muttered while wringing seawater out of her tails.
“…” “Performance art?” Purifier stared, completely dumbfounded.
She had seen planes take off before, but never shipgirls.
Before the Siren fleet could organize a proper counterattack, the girls withdrew again and vanished over the horizon.
“Second test: optical-pulse propulsion system.
Capable of short-term lift-off, but cannot support full rigging deployment…
too heavy and you fall into the sea.” “Best suited for destroyers.
Extremely high manufacturing cost and energy consumption.” “Recommend finding ways to increase output…” They kept taking notes even while retreating.
“…” “Did you all drink too much coolant and forget how to digest it?” Purifier muttered, shaking her head.
On the fifth day: “Charge!!!
Capture the big-eyed cutie alive!!” A group of shipgirls rushed in with heat hawks for close combat.
On the seventh day: “Sniper her!
Sniper her!
Sniper her!!” A pack of destroyers lined up with nearly man-tall beam rifles and peppered her with shots from several kilometers away.
Multicolored beams splashed across her face.
They couldn’t break through her defenses, but they were every bit as annoying as a disco ball.
And of course they kept recording: “Hmm, fourth test: Beam Magnum.
Damage inferior to shipboard artillery, can’t hurt Sirens… doesn’t feel that strong.” “Recommend switching to larger-caliber weapons…” “…” A week.
Ten days.
Half a month… After enough back-and-forth, Purifier actually got used to the shipgirls showing up every few days to pick a fight.
They showed up with all sorts of weird weapons…
sometimes they managed to sink a few small vessels, sometimes they couldn’t even scratch an escort.
She simply stopped caring.
Go ahead and make noise.
You can’t hurt me anyway, and I’ve got unlimited destroyers and escorts.
She couldn’t catch the shipgirls either.
Watching the Port invent new gimmicks had become one of Purifier’s favorite pastimes.
Every time a silhouette appeared on the horizon she looked forward to seeing what ridiculous new toy they’d brought this time.
After round after round of these skirmishes, a strange mutual understanding formed.
The shipgirls never went all-out, and Purifier never bothered chasing them for revenge.
… A few days later.
“Hey, are we really not going to teach them a lesson?” a humanoid Siren floating nearby asked.
“What’s the point?
We can’t break into the Port anyway.
Let them mess around if they want.” Purifier continued lounging spread-eagle on her rigging, playing with the water.
“Their new gear is actually pretty interesting.
Weak, sure, but fun.
Look, look…
they’re here again.” She pointed.
In the distance another small shipgirl squadron had entered her sector.
“Let me see what you’ve cooked up this time~” Purifier planted her hands on her hips and swam right up to the front of the formation.
“…” The shipgirls exchanged glances.
Weird.
This Siren didn’t seem nearly as vicious as before.
She was even talking to them.
“Go ahead and shoot.
None of those little toys work on me anyway.
If I’m in a good mood I might even let you go, you know?” Purifier looked thoroughly smug as she faced Enterprise.
By now she had a solid handle on the new weapons the shipgirls kept pulling out.
Novel, sure, but none of them packed real power.
Very few could even match a battleship’s firepower, and none of them could crack a high-ranking Siren’s armor.
“Heh!” Behind Enterprise several shipgirls awkwardly hauled forward something that looked like a naval gun.
Roughly five meters long, around 300 mm in caliber…
shorter and thicker than a normal battleship main battery…
with a power supply unit attached at the rear.
“Don’t you already have rigging?
Why are you carrying a cannon by hand?” Purifier asked, puzzled.
“We don’t know if it works yet, so we didn’t mount it on a hull.
This is an experimental unit.” The shipgirls answered honestly.
“Oh.
Well, go for it then.” Purifier spread her hands, inviting them to try.
She had complete confidence in her armor.
“She seems pretty easygoing… is it really okay to test this on her?” a few destroyer loli whispered among themselves.
“High-ranking Sirens are tough.
It’s fine,” Prince of Wales said dismissively.
“Pardon us.” “Fire!” Zzzzt…
A sphere of golden light gathered inside the turret.
“Energy weapon?
You’ve improved, huh?” Purifier showed no fear…
only curiosity.
BOOM…
The massive recoil sent the shipgirls controlling the turret tumbling; they nearly fell into the sea.
A torrent of red-gold energy erupted from the barrel, punched straight through the two Siren battleships blocking the way…
their heavy armor might as well have been paper…
and slammed into Purifier, who was still watching the show.
“Oooooohhhhhh…
!” The impact launched the big-eyed cutie and her entire rigging into the sky like a meteor, vanishing over the far horizon.
“…” Several shipgirls squinted after the streaking figure, offering a silent salute, then pulled out their notebooks.
“Sixteenth test.” “MGX-2235 Calidus multi-phase beam cannon.
Capable of penetrating Siren battleship armor and effectively striking high-ranking Sirens.
Excellent power.” “Enormous energy consumption and recoil.
Suitable for conversion into battleship main batteries…” “Additional note: the high-ranking Siren in this sector doesn’t seem very bright.
We might be able to trick her into the Port someday.” ….