On the space station.
"Mm…"
With a faint groan, Yae Sakura slowly opened her eyes.
After being brought back by Ikaros, she had fallen unconscious due to the mental shock and exhaustion.
The first thing that entered her sight—
Was a pure white ceiling.
The room's furnishings were in a futuristic minimalist style, completely different from the poor little fishing village in Shinano.
Many of the devices, she didn't even know their purpose.
"Where is this?"
The last thing she remembered was Ikaros saying she would take her to find "Master."
After that, her mind blurred, and she could recall nothing more.
Looking down—
Her shrine maiden robes were intact, even the dirt had been cleaned off somehow.
It seemed they truly bore her no hostility.
She sat up and glanced toward the window.
At once, she froze.
Outside was not her familiar Yae Village, nor the sea or forest she knew.
But a sky full of stars.
Countless brilliant stars shone against the dark backdrop of space.
Below, a blue planet slowly rotated.
"Where am I?!"
Yae Sakura was stunned.
It was a scene she had never witnessed before.
She instinctively wanted to open the window to look closer, but the porthole was fully sealed.
"You're awake?"
Clack—
Several little lolis walked in, opened a holographic interface, scanned Yae Sakura's body, and nodded.
"Mm, all vital signs are normal. Recovery is going well."
"This place is…?"
Yae Sakura asked in confusion.
"This is the Starsea Empire's Honkai No.1 Space Station. After you and Rin were rescued, both of you fell unconscious for two days due to severe mental shock."
"The Commander ordered the medical Angeloids to give you necessary treatment."
"Ah?!"
At this time, Yae Sakura was just a country shrine maiden, still young, unable to grasp what was happening.
But from their words, she realized—
She was actually floating outside Earth's orbit.
"Rin!"
"Where's Rin?! What did you do to her?!"
The girl scrambled out of bed, barefoot, rushing toward the door.
"In the next room. Don't worry, she's fine."
Clack—
As the door opened, Yae Sakura saw her sister Yae Rin, sitting on the bed, speaking with Setsuna.
The little girl had long cherry-colored hair, clad in the ornate ceremonial robes of the ritual.
Compared to Yae Sakura, her figure was much smaller, carrying a delicate, fragile air.
"How are you feeling?"
Setsuna rubbed Rin's head.
"Ah… Mm, I'm fine now, thank you…"
Rin clenched her fist, wiggled her feet, and stepped firmly onto the solid ground.
Her expression was dazed and filled with disbelief.
She remembered clearly—her tendons had been severed.
Yet in just a day or two, after a sleep, her body had completely healed.
Even better than before.
Since childhood she had been weak and sickly, barely able to walk freely, always cared for by her sister.
Now, she felt overflowing with strength.
"Rin!"
Yae Sakura threw herself at her, the two sisters embracing tightly.
Setsuna and the shipgirls looked on with satisfaction.
"Superstitions kill."
Yukikaze poked her head in, muttering.
"Why pray to a Fox God for rain? Just pray to the Commander. We have weather control devices. Or pray to me—my weather manipulation magic works too, nanoda…"
The shipgirls dismissed her words; Yukikaze's supposed "luck" was itself treated as a superstition in the fleet.
"You are… the Commander?"
After making sure Rin was safe, Yae Sakura looked toward Setsuna.
"Mm. From now on, come with us to see a larger world."
Setsuna nodded.
"There's no need to stay in that backward little village any longer. What do you think?"
"…"
Without hesitation, Sakura nodded.
"I will."
"Thank you for saving Rin, I… I will repay you."
At the moment when the Yae shrine head had severed Rin's tendons, forced Sakura's hand to kill her own sister, and the villagers cheered them on—
All ties Yae Sakura had with that village were cut off.
Toward Yae Village, she felt only endless hatred. But in truth, it was already nothing but ruins.
"…"
Rin, timidly, seeing Sakura agree, also nodded.
"Your doctors are amazing, but… we might not be able to afford the fees… still, I'll do what I can to help."
"No need."
Setsuna smiled and patted Rin's head.
Though she was the younger sister, she was more thoughtful than Sakura. Even now, she worried about paying medical expenses.
The shipgirls couldn't help but smile.
"Stay here to recover for a while, get familiar with everything, and once we return, you can go to school."
"Mm!"
The two sisters nodded together.
"…"
Setsuna looked at Yae Sakura, feeling like something was missing from her head.
Ears!
Without ears, Yae Sakura wasn't complete!
"Tch. Step up the Honkai energy research—I need controllable Herrscher energy."
...
Meanwhile—
On the space station.
After several days, Fu Hua had mostly gotten used to life here.
Every day, Setsuna worked with the science lolis to construct a mathematical model of the Honkai world, simulate its future development, and run small-scale Honkai energy experiments.
Fu Hua, on the other hand, received what Tohru called "treatment" every day—
A strange magical energy was infused into her body.
She didn't understand the principle, but she could feel her thinking gradually changing.
At the very least, when she saw the lolis conducting Honkai experiments, she could suppress her instinct to lash out.
With the Book of Fuxi keeping her company, life was a little more interesting.
After millennia of unchanging battles against beasts, a little relaxation wasn't so bad.
"Mm…"
She wandered through the station, looking around.
The science lolis' complex experiments and math she couldn't understand.
But she found interest in some of the small items of daily life—especially the inventions of the interstellar age.
Some lolis she had gotten closer to would enthusiastically explain them to her.
As she strolled—
She came upon a large room in the residential sector.
Inside, rows of life-support-like pods stood.
Lolis lay inside them, wearing hemisphere devices on their heads, seemingly asleep.
Several staff members operated controls at the main console.
"What's this?"
Fu Hua asked curiously.
"Oh, this is the immersive gaming machine."
The supervising loli introduced it excitedly.
"It extracts a person's consciousness, then constructs a fully simulated game world inside their brain, giving a completely immersive experience."
"The Commander said he used something similar back in the Heaven's Lost Property world. But here, we only provide proper games."
"Like Resident Evil, GTA, that sort of thing. Of course, you can also watch movies. It's immersive! No different from reality!!"
She opened the hatch of an empty pod.
"Immortal big sister, do you want to try? It's really fun!"
"Oh?…"
Fu Hua hesitated.
While she struggled, the Book of Fuxi kept urging her.
"Come on, try it, old fossil. Even I want to give it a go."
"Let's see how far future humanity has come. This thing is way more advanced than what Cangxuan and Dan Zhu made, right?!"
"…"
After a moment of conflict, Fu Hua lay down inside.
"Fine, no harm in trying."
...
"Where's Fu Hua?"
In the control room, Setsuna suddenly asked after her.
"She's trying out the immersive gaming machine."
A loli replied.
"?"
"You mean the kind that uploads consciousness?"
Setsuna's expression turned strange.
"Mm? Yeah."
The loli nodded.
"Ha?!"
Setsuna's face grew even stranger. He nearly slapped the table.
"Take me there!!"
"Do you know what happens when you upload an Immortal's consciousness, leaving only a body without it?!"
...
In the leisure and entertainment sector.
Clack—
Fu Hua adjusted her clothes and lay down inside a pod.
Following the loli's instructions, she put on a helmet-like device.
The Fuxi automaton floated nearby, watching with keen interest as Fu Hua tried out this new technology.
"This is a game machine built on consciousness-uploading technology. It allows a person to experience everything from a first-person immersive perspective."
"It's really popular in the Starsea Empire. Everyone lines up to play when they have free time."
The supervising loli eagerly introduced it.
"A game machine… quite novel."
In the Previous Era, Fu Hua had heard of such things, but never of machines that interfered with consciousness in this way.
"We offer all kinds of popular games here—Resident Evil, Red Dead Redemption, Dark Souls. Immortal sister, you can choose freely."
"If you'd rather watch a movie, just pick one. This is way better than a cinema."
"Oh, and by the way, the current most popular movie here is the Port remake of Your Name. It tells the story of the Commander and a shipgirl from Azure Lane swapping bodies."
The loli tapped at a holographic screen, and a selection menu appeared before Fu Hua.
"Choose whatever you like, Immortal sister."
"…"
Fu Hua wasn't familiar with the Starsea Empire's entertainment.
She glanced once, then shook her head.
"You choose for me. I'll just try it."
"Okay—"
The loli thought for a moment, then operated the holographic panel.
"Let's play Azur Lane. This one was developed by Akashi and the Sirens. It's based on real events, so you can use it to get familiar with shipgirl life."
"Everyone loves it—it's even an online game."
"That's fine."
Fu Hua nodded. She might as well learn about the Starsea Empire and the other race.
[Consciousness upload ready]
[Loading server… Azur Lane]
[ID recognized. System check complete]
[Upload commencing!]
Shwoosh—
With the pod's mechanical prompts, Fu Hua felt her consciousness drifting farther and farther away.
Her vision went dark, and she found herself in a void.
"Manipulating consciousness, is it…?"
The sensation felt oddly familiar.
Her own Divine Key, Fenghuang Down, could manipulate brain signals and control awareness.
It seemed the Starsea Empire had achieved something similar through technology.
But using it for entertainment—this surprised even Fu Hua.
Before long—
Shwoosh—
"Welcome to the Port!"
The scene before her shifted, the darkness exploding into light.
She opened her eyes again—
She now stood in a completely unfamiliar place.
Blue skies, the sea, and buildings flying the Azure Lane naval flag.
"Congratulations on joining the Port!"
"You've received beginner equipment: Destroyer-class ship rigging (early model)."
A holographic UI popped up before her like in a game.
"Hm?!"
Fu Hua looked down—around her floated several miniature gun turrets and torpedo launchers.
Ship rigging. She had heard Setsuna mention it a few days ago.
"A virtual illusion game?"
In a flash of thought, she understood.
That device outside uploaded her consciousness into the game server, letting her experience it fully in first-person.
It was much like the illusions Fenghuang Down could create.
"Eh? A newbie?"
Suddenly, several girls surrounded her.
Some were little lolis, and one was a black-haired girl with butterfly hairpins.
They too had ship rigging, their equipment far more ornate than hers.
"Hello, I'm Kanae. This is Shinobu, and these two are Akame and Kurome."
"We're about to farm the Siren Purifier dungeon. Want to join us?"
Kanae extended the invitation warmly.
"This is…?!"
Fu Hua was a little surprised.
"Azur Lane is an online game. If others at the base are also playing, you can meet them inside."
The admin loli explained.
"Oh…"
Fu Hua nodded, impressed by the intricacy of the game.
"I haven't seen you before. Which world are you from? If you're using the holo-game machine, you must be one of the Commander's companions, right?"
Kanae and the others, who were playing online, crowded around Fu Hua, asking her all sorts of questions.
They gave her a rough explanation of how things worked.
"Mm-hm. We're not shipgirls, so we can't manifest real rigging, but we can experience it in the game…"
"If you want to be a Spirit or a Servant instead, you can try Date A Live or Fate/Grand Order…"
Under the guidance of these veterans, Fu Hua began to grow familiar with the game.
Basically, she was taking on the role of a new shipgirl.
Through missions and sorties, she could grind for better equipment and progress.
Shwoosh—
She stepped onto the sea, enjoying the wind against her face and the waves beneath her feet.
Boom boom boom—
With a thought, the rigging beside her fired, sending up columns of water in the distance.
"Interesting…"
It was her first time experiencing life and combat from a shipgirl's perspective.
Soon, she was immersed, joining Kanae and Akame in running naval dungeons.
Fighting in this way, exchanging artillery fire on the open seas, was a novelty even for someone who had walked Shenzhou alone for millennia.
The only thing that puzzled her—
In the game, she sometimes encountered native Azure Lane shipgirls.
Their figures left her confused.
Most cruisers, battleships, and carriers could only be described as exaggerated.
Even some destroyer and submarine lolis were surprisingly well-built.
"Isn't the scale of this world a bit… off? Or are they just adjusting their figures on purpose when logging in?"
Fu Hua couldn't help but wonder…
...
Elsewhere—
The admin loli managing the immersive game pods sat in front of the console, snacking while casually watching the monitoring data.
Every so often, she gave Fu Hua some in-game tips.
Her job was simple: guide new players, and make sure consciousness uploading and downloading went smoothly.
When someone logged in, she uploaded their consciousness to the server. When they logged out, she downloaded it back to their body.
As long as she didn't download consciousness A into body B, there would be no problem.
The devices were researched by Akashi, the Sirens, and Daedalus, manufactured by Bulin. Their reliability was top-notch.
After running so long, nothing had ever gone wrong.
"Looks like Immortal sister really likes Azur Lane. Maybe I'll recommend FGO next, let her play a Servant in the Holy Grail War?"
As she muttered—
[Alert! Alert!]
[Unauthorized consciousness download detected!]
[Pod No. 35—unauthorized consciousness download detected!]
The alarms rang through the room.
"Huh?!"
The loli jumped. Pod No. 35 was Fu Hua's.
She quickly called in several Angeloids, tapping frantically on the holographic console.
"That's strange. I didn't log her out—she's still playing in Azur Lane. How could there be a download?!"
She frowned. During gameplay, a person's body was just an empty shell.
Unless the system bugged and forcibly pulled her consciousness back…
But the monitoring showed Fu Hua was still happily in the game.
Then—
On the monitors, the data suddenly spiked wildly.
"Someone's consciousness has invaded Fu Hua's body?! Did another player get downloaded by mistake?!"
"No… no, this isn't from the server! This is an intruder!!!"
The loli panicked, immediately contacting the science division for support.
At the same time—
Inside the pod, Fu Hua's calm expression twisted.
Her eyes flew open, and she took a deep breath.
Inside her mind, several voices overlapped—
"Mm… what am I doing? Where is this…?"
"Let me think… I am… Immortal Phoenix…?"
"Why am I in this pod? I should get out."
"It only opens with commands at the terminal?"
"Heh, against my fists, that's no problem."
Bang—
She smashed the pod lid apart with a single punch, tearing off the helmet.
Standing up, she clenched her fists, feeling the strength coursing through her. One hand on her hip, her gaze sharp and wild, she surveyed the room.
"Hah!"
"This is the true Jingwei, the true Hua, the true me…"
"I shall twist all creation!!"
—
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