Hymn From the High Seas (Azur Lane x Commander Male Reader)

If Violence Burned Away

The moon hangs high above the docks, the twilight across the horizon mixing with the waves like an ocean of dark red wine. I'd been throttled enough by today's workload to leave the office in disarray and head home sooner, but the ocean view called for me. Now that I'm here, my intuition doesn't say why. Nevertheless, the view is something I'll never tire of. The sight alone is enough to heal me of my weariness.

Manjuu waddle past on the carrier beside me, having finished their work for the day. Their feet shyly slap away and out of earshot, leaving me well and truly alone with my thoughts. I sigh, holding my hands together as I lean on the railing. As much of a sedative as it can be, the silence and rumination allow ugly memories to surface in my thoughts, and the Siren's scream makes me grip the railing.

Like the girl she was buried with, she died nameless and without her comrades. It's not right. None of this is right. It's rich to say it now, knowing the ongoing worldwide slaughter, but I can't stop the thought from churning in my head over and over and over again.

The worst of my recent cognizance comes from the very victory in the Felling of Atlantis. That battle alone was decisive in more ways than one. The shadows of Enterprise and Takao revealed themselves, the Empress gave me her omen, and we won a crippling victory against the Sirens. It was so crushing, in fact, that the Sirens in the Atlantic suffered noticeable losses, and they lost their foothold in the region.

When peace talks come in the future – an inevitability for any war's end – they will use that meatgrinder of a battle against me. They will hold that day against me as the day every Siren lost a loved one. They won't forget. No matter how much time passes or how many humans they kill, it'll take an ocean of human blood for them to even consider a ceasefire. It's precisely because of the Felling of Atlantis that I've put us on the rails to a long, bloody war.

The road ahead will be bumpy and cratered, and with each and every battle I fight along its pavement, it's bound to end in rubble.

Footsteps behind me, "What are you doing out here?"

I turn around, and Yorktown approaches me with her bald eagle on her shoulder.

She frowns at me, her animal restless, "You should be home by now."

I glance up at her carrier, "My work decided against that, tonight. You?"

She admires it for a moment before sighing, the vessel disappearing into flakes of starlight, "I was having issues with my navigation systems. The Manjuu took care of it, though."

Before I can respond, her eagle spreads its wings and leaps towards me. I flinch back at the size of its talons, and I hold my arm out. The feathery beast lands on my forearm and folds its wings, regarding me with commanding, light brown eyes.

Yorktown chuckles, "Ardent's never perched on anyone but me."

I hold the great avian above me, and he drops onto my shoulder, making me hunch over, "So long as he doesn't peck my eyes out..."

"He'd never do such a thing. He is a brute with wings, but he has manners," she smiles, walking up to me and offering her arm to Ardent.

The bird refuses another perch and, instead, takes flight into the night air. His dark wings disappear against the gradient of the cosmos, only given away by the disturbance of the stars around him.

Yorktown crosses her arms, still staring upward, "So stubborn, that thing."

"Not as much as Enty," I smile, making Yorktown look down.

"You can say that again," she says with a light grin, "So, what brought you here?"

I conceal my thoughts and look out at the ocean, "Stuff I'd rather not talk about."