Nimbus Child I: Games of War

Chapter 9

"Tirpitz reporting!", said battleship slid down the roof of the open pavilion Kongō sat in and landed in a crouch beside her, arms lazily hanging over her knees.

Kongō granted her a sidelong glance, then stared back out at the rain.

She had moved one of the chairs away from the center towards the outer edge where the rain barely missed her when she sat down in it.

Ouch, not in a good mood, Tirpitz cringed, feeling like she should say something but not knowing what without getting punched.

They had bonded during Tirpitz' stay in the North, sometime after Kirishima and Hiei had been lost.

Tirpitz had always been a whiny child, easily annoyed and even faster to complain about it to anyone who decided to listen – apparently, she also had had a tendency for self pity, because that was what Kongō had told her when she had pressed her to the ground and ordered her to shut up.

It had been the first time Tirpitz had ever seen her elder's facade break, and it had been terrifying. She had felt genuine, primal fear at that moment.

Most likely hadn't been the most intelligent thing to whine non-stop about losing her sister when Kongō's own wounds had been still fresh.

Somehow, they had bonded over that, before Tirpitz had slipped away herself.

"Do you...", she somehow managed to let the recording sound unsure, "want my report now, or is it a bad ti-"

"Spit it out, child."

Tirpitz straightened in her crouch: "AI are not changing patterns! I can hack them and all to theoretically speed up their learning tempo, but my code disappears into thin air once I hit 'OK'!"

"The world."

"Most likely, yes", she slumped again.

As much as Kongō sometimes hated to admit it, but Tirpitz' processor was the best in the world. She had been the one who had made the CCS and Joint Tactical Network into what they were today by copying the Fleet of Fog. Kongō was the basis of the program itself, but Tirpitz' processing power was so immense that she was able to host all the data traffic, the Enigma: Polaris firewall and Enigma's protection virus, Gletscher.

To make it short: if Tirpitz couldn't effectively manipulate the AI's code, then no one could.

"And 797?"

"All good."

Kongō nodded to that, but only continued to stare out, the rain so thick that it stole most of the view.

Tirpitz followed her gaze, water dripping off of her.

There was nothing there, but that didn't surprise her – Kongō was like that sometimes.

A few minutes passed, before a heap of towels fell on Tirpitz' head, making her duck in surprise and then free herself and look at the other with big eyes.

The fast battleship didn't look at her – she looked too much like Bismarck in that moment and that might have made her smile even though she wasn't in a smiley mood – and just made a vague motion with her hand.

Fine, Tirpitz grumbled to herself, before rubbing at her head with a towel.

Tirpitz didn't mind being wet (what was she supposed to do, get sick?) but apparently Kongō did enough to make her towels from her own nanomaterial.

"There are no traces of... the demonic ship... by the way", Tirpitz added to her earlier report, making Kongō hum.

They all hadn't even found a trace of that entity. By now, some thought she didn't have a physical body, while others wondered whether she might be residing in God's domain and thus unreachable for them.

"The answer probably lies somewhere in between", is what others considered.

In the end that didn't change anything though: they hadn't found the demon, so Oki was still under 24/7 protection.

Tiresome, Kongō thought.

--

Kongō's heeled shoes clicked on the ground, the rain having calmed down into a mere sizzle.

She had been called in for the usual flagship meeting in the main building, someone having insisted on meeting face-to-face at least once a month.

"It will strengthen our bond!" said someone (probably Montana) had said, "that's good for our morale!"

If all that mattered was face-to-face communication, then they could also just meet in the Concept Communication System, in Kongō's opinion, but if the young ones insisted...

A show of the times, perhaps.

They had always met in the main building, they would continue meeting in the main building.

Kongō opened the heavy doors, entered and put her umbrella down to dry. Then, she put some of the wilder strands of her hair back into order and started ascending the spiral staircase at the end of the hallway, coloured glass windows shining eerily in that typical post-rain haze.

She heard Bismarck's deep voice long before she saw her, long blonde hair the first thing that greeted Kongō from the top of the stairs.

Bismarck stood on the last step with one foot, the other already on normal ground, but was stopped from fully ascending by her sister signing something in what was clearly a heated manner.

"Tirpitz", Bismarck whined in annoyance, "let me through! You're annoying!"

Her sister huffed and continued their banter until it seemed as if Bismarck would get violent any second simply because she was stressed about being late (they still had five minutes and the door was literally right there).

Kongō's next step was purposefully louder, making the others turn to her, followed by Tirpitz excusing herself and leaving – her playtime was over: "Is everything alright between you two?"

"Just sisterly banter", Bismarck finally ascended the stairs and then turned to look back at the other.

The silver haired ship followed her up, a soft smile on her lips: "Is that so?"

"Yes", she fiddled with a sleeve.

"Then come", Kongō hooked their arms together, something they did often, and led them to the room as well, "we should not let our dearest colleagues wait."

"Of course!", Bismarck said, barely holding back from sprinting forwards.

She was always worried about being late, no matter how much time was actually left.

That was very adorable in the fast battleship's eyes.

Kongō smiled to herself, laying her second hand on Bismarck's arms as well and rightening the sleeve Bismarck had fiddled with, patting it once she was done

--

"..."

AN: Hi guys, hope you're having a good day! Don't worry, nothing happened, I just wanted to make this clear before something does:

Kongou is in no way or shape pedophil! The relationship she has with the child Bismarck is that of a babysitter and their charge – not more, not less. After they die they slowly, over the course of around 50 years, build up a tight friendship. It is only after those 50 years that they begin developing romantic feelings for one another and they have "finished" falling in love after another twenty years, so 70 in total.

If we now add those 50 years to their age when they sunk, they were the following ages when the romance began:

52 (Bismarck)

82 (Kongou)