On the Verge of Darkness

The port.

Heavy Sakura dormitory area, outside Taiho's room.

Two figures with numerous fox tails stood outside the room, looking through the half-open window at Taiho inside.

"Lady Shinano, as you can see, Taiho's condition isn't looking too good..."

Amagi's gentle voice carried a trace of concern as she spoke to the large white fox beside her, Shinano.

As she listened to Amagi, Shinano observed Taiho's condition inside the room.

Shinano had previously remained asleep, trying to find the Commander's whereabouts within her dreams.

Amagi had come to wake her and directly pulled her here. As such, Shinano had not actually fully woken up yet.

After rubbing her hazy eyes and clearing her head a little, Shinano looked at Taiho, whose body was visibly surrounded by a faint black aura, and sighed.

"You summoned me here because you wished for me to help Taiho enter a dream, thereby easing her current condition, correct?"

"That is correct, Lady Shinano."

Amagi nodded, having no objection to Shinano's assessment. That had indeed been her intention.

"The method of entering dreams can indeed alleviate Taiho's condition, but it can only alleviate it."

"To resolve Taiho's current state completely, we must still find the Commander and bring him back as soon as possible!"

Shinano's voice was ethereal, but Amagi could clearly hear that Shinano was equally worried about the Commander. As married ship girls, neither of them worried for him any less than anyone else!

Amagi nodded again. She understood as well that unless the Commander returned, Taiho's condition could not be easily reversed.

"Princess Lala is searching for the signal from the Commander's game-making machine, but there has been no news so far. Our current guess is that Akashi, unsure of the specifics of that world, temporarily shut down the game-making machine for safety. It may still take some time before we can establish contact!"

Shinano nodded as she listened to Amagi explain the situation.

"I was unable to find the Commander in my dreams either. What is the situation with the Eastern Faction?"

Amagi sighed and shook her head at Shinano.

"Huan Chang attempted to use divination to determine the Commander's whereabouts, but unfortunately, perhaps because it spans worlds, the reading did not reveal where the Commander was. However, it was not entirely without results. After realizing the reading could not show where the Commander currently was, Huan Chang tried to calculate his condition indirectly."

"She succeeded?"

"Yes, there were results! Although she could not confirm where the Commander was, Huan Chang confirmed through the reading that the Commander would return safely to the port afterward!"

"Return safely to the port?"

Shinano repeated the conclusion, a trace of relief entering her voice.

"That is good! As long as the Commander can return safely to the port, I can rest at ease!"

Having gained a rough understanding of the progress in searching for the Commander, Shinano turned her attention back to Taiho.

"You did not tell Taiho about Huan Chang's divination result?"

Amagi first nodded, then shook her head and sighed.

"After we told Taiho these things, she did regain her senses for a moment, but... she quickly fell back into this state."

"Perhaps because Princess Lala's invention mistakenly sent the Commander to another world, Taiho currently does not quite believe Princess Lala's side's judgment. Even Huan Chang's conclusion is seen by Taiho as an attempt to placate her... In short... she must see the Commander with her own eyes!"

"Sigh, Taiho's feelings for the Commander are rather unhealthy. When the Commander is around, Taiho is fairly normal, but after he disappeared, those feelings just..."

"I understand! I shall go in and speak with Taiho first!"

Amagi nodded, opened Taiho's door, and stepped aside to make way for Shinano.

"Commander..."

As Shinano entered the room and approached Taiho, she heard Taiho repeatedly murmuring the Commander's name.

Perhaps because she had kept calling for the Commander without receiving any response, the faint black aura around Taiho deepened with every call.

Shinano sighed. Looking at Taiho before her, she spoke in an ethereal, gentle voice.

"Taiho, the Commander is unharmed. He will return safely very soon!"

"The Commander... will return safely?"

"The Commander has returned?!!!"

As though she had heard some crucial words, color gradually returned to Taiho's vacant eyes, and she turned toward Shinano's voice. However, after scanning Shinano from head to toe and failing to see her Commander, Taiho's gaze sank into silence once more.

"The Commander has not returned! You are all lying to me. You are all stopping me from seeing the Commander..."

As she muttered, a faint blood-red gleam appeared in Taiho's pupils.

Seeing this, Amagi outside the door hurried inside and came to Shinano's side, in case anything unexpected happened.

Something in Taiho's words seemed to concern Shinano. She frowned, looked at Amagi, and asked.

"What did Taiho mean when she said that all of you were stopping her from seeing the Commander?"

Hearing this, Amagi looked at Taiho and softly explained to Shinano.

"I think there may be two reasons why Taiho feels that way."

"The Commander has been very physically exhausted lately... Lady Shinano, you should know that, right?"

At those words, a faint blush appeared on Shinano's fair cheeks, and she nodded at Amagi. Of course she knew. After all, she bore some responsibility for her Commander's exhaustion. But she could not be blamed entirely—who told the Commander he liked holding her tails... Fox tails were very sensitive!

"I know. So Taiho's condition is related to that?"

"Somewhat!"

Looking at Taiho, Amagi recalled what she had seen yesterday.

"Taiho has a private collection room. Lady Shinano, do you know about it?"

Shinano nodded.

"I have seen it in a dream!"

"Then Lady Shinano should also know what Taiho keeps in that collection room!"

"I know. They are all things the Commander has used."

Amagi nodded, looked at Taiho, and continued.

"This collection room was discovered by Princess Momo! After that, Akagi and Roon found it as well! After Princess Momo noticed their attitudes toward the Commander, she planned to make them the first members of her mysterious plan. Those members also included Miss Mogador and Miss Scylla, among others..."

"What plan?"

Shinano frowned and looked at Amagi.

"I do not know. Based on our speculation, it was most likely intended to have more ship girls in the port who are not yet married ship girls form vows with the Commander..."

Once Shinano learned that the plan would not harm the Commander, her furrowed brow relaxed.

Though it was not truly harmless, considering the Commander's physical condition...

"This plan... was stopped by Belfast, who had noticed it long ago, because of the Commander's physical condition!"

"The Royal Head Maid is indeed perceptive!"

Shinano nodded.

"The problem arose there."

"Akagi later told me that they had already agreed on how to divide up the time, and said they would go find the Commander after the meeting..."

Amagi gave a light cough and did not say the embarrassing things Akagi had told her at the time.

"...Make it a done deal."

Using a more tactful phrasing for Shinano to understand, Amagi continued her explanation.

"But... before they could even finish their meeting, we stopped them!"

"This may be the first reason Taiho developed such thoughts..."

Shinano nodded, looked at Taiho, then turned to Amagi and asked.

"Then... what is the second reason?"

"The second reason is probably... the key to the Commander's office..."

Hearing Amagi's words, Shinano frowned.

"What happened to the Commander's office key?"

"Taiho has always wanted to obtain the key to the Commander's office... but even now, she has not gotten it. Yet yesterday, Princess Lala casually took that key out of her pocket... Perhaps that was what provoked her..."

Shinano blinked, somewhat puzzled. It was not that she did not understand Taiho turning dark because of this, only...

"That key... is it not very easy to get?"

As she spoke, Shinano prepared to take the key she always carried with her from a pocket inside her robes. Not only did she have the office key, she also had the key to the Commander's bedroom...

However, considering Taiho's condition, Shinano did not take out the key after all.

"That key is indeed very easy to obtain! After all... casts of the Commander's office key have always circulated secretly around the port! But..."

Amagi hesitated. Looking at Shinano, who spent her usual time in dreams and thus did not understand certain special circumstances in the port, she pressed her lips together. In the end, she leaned close to Shinano's ear and whispered.

"The sailing ship Golden Deer did something that forced us to make certain decisions."

"What happened?"

Shinano was somewhat confused.

"Golden Deer is also one of the Commander's married ship girls. However, the Commander has many married ship girls, so we arranged shifts. But... that day, Golden Deer... perhaps seeing that the other married ship girls had all succeeded while her own turn remained far away, could no longer endure it. She took the key and went straight into the Commander's office... right in front of the secretary ship Queen Elizabeth and the Head Maid, she..."

Amagi's face reddened slightly.

"And then?"

"Then, on the grounds that such a scene would sully the Queen's glory, the Head Maid sent Queen Elizabeth out of the office. Queen Elizabeth had been watching with eager eyes and wanted to join, but felt embarrassed because the Commander had not given her a ring. It is said that Queen Elizabeth left that day with a terrible expression, while the Head Maid and Golden Deer did not emerge from the office until more than three hours later. As for the Commander... the Head Maid carried him back."

"After that day, Queen Elizabeth decisively changed the office lock. However... after doing that for the first time, Golden Deer seemed to develop a strange habit. When the key could not open the door, she simply took an axe and split it open."

"Then she repeated what she had done before. This time, Queen Elizabeth was once again escorted out by the Head Maid."

Shinano seemed to understand something.

"So the Commander's office door was replaced with that special alloy because of this?"

Amagi nodded.

"That is right. From that day onward, the furious Queen Elizabeth also transferred Warspite over. Every day, she guarded the office door and absolutely refused to let anyone else inside."

"After those two incidents, the Commander recuperated for two days. During those two days, the married ship girls who had originally been on rotation even complained about Golden Deer in the married ship girls' group."

"It was also because of this incident that the whereabouts of the Commander's office key came under strict control. The flagships of every faction, who were also the elder sisters of the married ship girls in their respective factions, took the matter very seriously."

"Besides the office, the Commander's bedroom was also heavily guarded. The Commander's bedroom door was replaced, and so were the windows; all of them were specially made. There is no need to mention the door—it is too sturdy. As for the bedroom window, it can be opened for ventilation, but the gap after it is opened... absolutely no one can get in through that window from outside!"

"Among those everyone watched especially closely were Taiho and Akagi. Both were considered potential 'dangerous elements.'"

"After all, if the two of them got hold of the key... and then did what Golden Deer had done... there might be two Queen Elizabeth METAs in the port!"

Amagi sighed again and remarked.

"That circulating cast is one of Akashi's hidden products. After all, the newly replaced office door was sold to Queen Elizabeth by Akashi. To prevent Akashi from selling casts of the key to Taiho and the others, Lady Yamato had Lady Cloud Immortal and Lady Musashi speak with Akashi several times! Only after Akashi repeatedly gave her assurances did they refrain from disposing of those casts."

(In Tiger's Benediction's voice line, she told the Commander that casts of the office key had always circulated secretly.

In Golden Deer's skin, she held an axe, and her voice line said the axe was for breaking down the door when she could not find the office key.

In the cruise ship storyline, the Commander's bedroom door aboard the cruise ship was specially made. It was said to be for safety.

In Bremerton's secret message: Bremerton, dressed as Santa Claus, got stuck in the window, and the Commander explained that the bedroom window had been specially made for safety.

As for what kind of safety those two instances referred to, or whose safety it was, no comment.

Also, Yamato has not yet been implemented and does not even have character art. Yet she is already present in the current storyline. She is probably like Enterprise META—always in the story, constantly dangling there, but never actually made playable.)