The Seas were rough but they could no longer turn back, losing Taiwan would lead to other nations falling or joining the new rising power.

The Liberated Federation of China.... a powerhouse that threatened the entire worlds freedom. And into the onset of the 3rd world war the planet grew anxious.

Mirai, DDG202 Aegis Destroyer Maya based Yukinami-class Target ship or for a lack of a better term... Missile Bait.

Along with the Mirai participated 4 of her 6 Sisters. The Yukinami, Matsukaze, Haruka and Sakae composing the JSDF fleet sent to escort 3 US Carrier Fleets and 1 Indian Cruiser.

The Mirai was assigned to be the target ship of the Indian cruiser and already she could feel the pity behind her back. The others were talking as if she was deaf, in a way to Mirai, she was being mocked.

"My how I pity the Target Ship. Capable of sending high frequency jammers to protect entire fleets and yet..."

"They're incapable of defending themselves, even the brass at top ordered us not to save them if they ever get into trouble."

Mirai could only grit her teeth from the comments of the fleet she was escorting, even then she thought of ways of surviving the following battle.

"Is that a Katana by her waist? My how sly are their commanders?! They're giving the poor beautiful ladies a false sense of hope..."

Mirai seethes trying to calm herself. Not realising that she had neglected her duty until the consequences had already moved for effect and caused a...

A Loud Explosion resonated within the seas and silence soon followed. The source was nonother than the Cruiser Mirai was supposed to protect and as the VLS lit up like a christmas tree, the entire hull of the ship splits into two.

Vaguely Mirai could hear the faint screams of her surrounding not knowing why or what is happening. She could tell people were screaming while others were trying to give orders. She... stood there and upon closing her eyes another shout came from her surrounding, while the voices were hard to make up Mirai had to intercept the missile.

Using the downgraded Aegis System computers locked unto the target and soon 4 SAM flew off her Cells to intercept.

The CIW's on board was fake so she had to rely on the cheaply produced 76mm Autofire gun on her bow to shoot down incoming missiles.

For the Yukinami Target ships to be produced en-massed of atleast 6 vessels the Aegis System and many components were produced cheaply, while the Mirai was armed all of it barely worked to save cost as they were never meant to be offensive or deffensive ships. For a single Yukinami and a Maya Aegis Destroyer the cost comparison is over 1/8th of the original price tag. So for the entire price of 1 Maya Destroyer 8 Yukinami-class target ships can be made.

The plan had worked in the beggining of the war with two of her sisters saving CVN Enterprise, but soon the Chinese was able to identify and avoid the target ships. Mirai was never the intended target of the attack, and due to the downgraded equipment she had been deplyed with, the Missiles she sent to intercept missed.

And another dreaded barrage came. The cries of every Kansen in her surrounding rang in her head, Mirai only stood there as she witnessed the death of her entire fleet.

[Mirai of the 6th Offensive Fleet your other members are not responding whats the situation over...]

There came no reply from Mirai evem as the Flagship of the entire operation ordered her to do so. She only stood there mesmerized.

Soon anti-ship missile barrages targeted the other fleets and the Radio was stucked with loads of traffic.

[Hunter Killer Drones!!!]

The voice of her Sensei snapped Mirai out of her entranced state. And immediately she manuevered away from the destroyed wrecks of her fleet.

Even at that time she had not summoned a part of her rigging and mostly stayed in it's ship form but her heart pounded with an extreme anxiety as the Radio Chatter at the comms slowly died down.

In her heart she kept shouting and shouting as if to deny what reality had already whispered.

In a couple of hours she reached a deaf silenced battlefield and the burning fires from the surface of the ocean had darkened the skies slowly the first drop of rain touched her face, as she slowly approached a Carrier tiliting from it's front.

Flying in it's mast was the prided flag of the Japanese MSDF Flagship,

"Hiyo..." her voice was oddly silent. And her expression turned grim, slowly she approached the stricken vessel that was slowly sinking.

And just as she turned the corner the cocking of a gun can be heard and Mirai looked to the source to see her sensei, teacher and mother figure.

Hiyo smiles and drops the pistol into the ocean. She wiped her lips that drooled blood and covered her waist with a trench coat.

"... Mirai...chan... You're alive haha...." She laughed whole heartedly but her eyes screamed excruciating pain.

"Sensei..."

"Don't!... do not approach me... I'm slightly jumpy from our Rear-Admiral's marriage proposal..."

"You're bleeding... this is no time for Jokes! You're bleeding alot! I must...!!"

"Don't..." Mirai had intended to carry Hiyo but was stopped when her hand reached to Mirai's. "A Cherry blossoms for only a weeks time, and yet every second of the beautiful pink blossom oddly felt like an eternity... Life is short but every passing second is an hour to be mesmerized by......." Hiyo pointed to Mirai, another teaching was passed on.

Mirai's eyes twitched, as Hiyo's grasped on the American trench coat loosened revealing that her lower half had no longer been attached to her upper body.

Hiyo's eyes dulled when she realized Mirai's expression so she had looked away. "I bore a child with me, I thought it was a good idea to surprise the admiral after the operation.... but I think it'll just disgraced him so keep it a secret will ya?" She looked to Mirai one last time till she had breathe her last. With a smile she mutters. "My blade is now yours my gentle disciple....."

Mirai couldn't accept it, no matter how much hours had passed she tried and tried again to hear her Teachers voice. While successful in her final attempt however, Chinese Destroyers had already been sent to investigate and soon thereafter the vengeful spirit that had slept in her gentle aura awokened under a bloodstained night.

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"""""""""

"Ahck—!!" A Cruiser screams as she was thrown into a far off wall while choking in her own saliva.

".... DRAW YOUR SWORD AND FACE ME!!" Another cruiser presumably the sister of the other one had her Katana drawn and pointed to Mirai.

They were in a great hall where Commanders and their respective Secretaries met.

With a Samurai gauntlent in her right hand Mirai's smile deepened as she taunted her to come closer.

"Make me." Mirai grins widely, clearly she was mocking the Sakura Empire's duelist infront of the other commanders.

Kongo who had brought Mirai there under the aformentioned person's insistance couldn't look the other Commanders in the eyes as she began imagining her punishments from here on.

The Cruiser charged valiantly shouting a warcry before getting the same treatment as her sister, sword parried, punched in the throat and thrown into a wall.

"Look I know you fellas are scared but I'm here under a majestic proposal, a once in a lifetime opportunity!" Mirai says with delight.

The commanders didn't share her delight as all either looked in fear or hatred over her prior action. Realizing this her expression turned bored and approached the Sakuran commander

However one Commander had eyes like a wolf and he unlike his comrades was quick to reply.

"And that is?" He used few words that conveys his intention. Even Mirai who was flamboyant in her presentation immediately turned serious.

"I, JDS Mirai... Have a proposal that can end not only your reliance on Azur Lane but also to Siren Technology." Mirai says with confidence of her plan.

"And that is?" The Wolf eyed commander asked. Now curious as to what it may entail.

"Commander!" Akagi, the Secretary of the Wolf eyed commander calls out in objection to the idea.

"Orochi is draining our resources, and if it fails then the best solution in our hands is... whatever she is implying."

"Then let me explain, hehe..."

Essentialy Mirai had proposed a weapon based on the Wisdom Cubes. It wasn't far fetch as Wisdom cubes were already being used not just for ship girls but also the new Hunter Killer Drones.

Mirai knew of the project in every aspect of it's detail as she had worked on it for a few years both during and after the war, not merely as the vessel it had been tested on but explicitly was a key engineer.

Mirai is a self taught engineer when she had forced herself to be in the same power as standard Destroyers explicitly salvaging sunken electronic equipement and systems then merging it to her existing downgraded Aegis Computer.

The overall concept of weaponized Wisdom cubes were to create an ingredient titled as Wisdom Dust where in a wisdom cube is proccessed into dust then under specific material create a Nanoma Sand.

A Nanoma Sand is basically a Nano Machine Construct in which improves over all performance of ship girls.

"As you can see the Concept is there, I only need the resources and position to start development. I'll give you 2 minites to decide."

"What is it do you want first?"

"Make me a High Ranking Officer."

______

"""""'"

"Belfast is somewhere in this base and we're gonna get her. Our Mission from Ford is to destroy techbology developed from Bell and rescue her and retrieve her rigging. Mission will constantly update so remember if we ever do get in trouble immediately send a distress signal to Ohio."

"Got it sis. Lets go fight our dreadful past, and eventualy..."

"Go home."

×××××××××××××××××

Afterword:

I had not written in a while and this is the result of what the story I had recently read influenced me.

If you do not know what it is, it's called Lost Battleship of the Southern Trench, and it's very good! I can't stop rereading it! It's so good that I made an immediate sequel to this inspired by the aformentioned story.

...

As mentioned above there is a Sequel so yes, I'm ending this sooner than later currently we are at chapter 18, and to my estimates I believe we only have 30 or so chapters left till we conclude the Prologue for the Sequel.

A few days before I had read the story I'm now inspired by, I was completely convinced I should discontinue this series but ever since I read it. I felt like I just saw the type of plots I wanted to see, I wanna continue more but that will be all for now.