The Naval Base of the Unnamed Ship Girls

"The Fallen Ones also said that?" Adun asked curiously, not expecting a ship girl to speak first.

"It's just the other way around. Those fallen ones keep claiming that ship girls and deep-sea ship girls are one, so they all turn themselves into something neither ship nor ghost," Prince of Wales replied to Adun's question.

"Good idea, although completely wrong." Yadun, who had secretly studied the difference between Wo-chan Xiao Bei's soul and Kogan's soul, could say with certainty that no matter what happened in the transformation process between deep-sea ship girls, their souls, at least the souls of their ship equipment, were completely different.

"However, since you were able to come up with that idea, I definitely want to get a Fallen ship girl to study it when I have the chance." Adun's words were as if he were looking for a guinea pig.

"Stop talking nonsense, what exactly do you want, Adun?" Tidu, confused, quickly interrupted Adun's train of thought and asked.

"Let's test the ability we just used on Hyperion and see if it works on ordinary Abyssal ship girls." Since his admiral asked this, Adun answered seriously.

"Testing on ordinary deep-sea ship girls? Adun, you've already tested them on the Nautilus?" Tidus keenly grasped the word "ordinary" in Adun's words.

"Yes, I've already secretly done this experiment on the Deep Sea Princess before, and the results were good, but I don't know if this ability will still be effective on ordinary deep sea creatures, like Wo-chan."

It is indeed the Deep Sea Princess, but not the Parrot Road. Adon only said half of what he meant and kept the other half hidden.

“This is quite a good experiment. So, Your Excellency Adun, is there anything you need us to do?” the Prince of Wales asked, understanding what Adun wanted to do.

"First, I need to confirm whether you can perfectly control your innate hostility towards deep-sea ship girls. This is very important." Adun's subtext was that if you can't control it, it's best not to participate in this experiment.

Surprisingly, the first person to come out of the room after hearing Adun's words was Veneto.

“After all, she is a first-generation ship girl. No matter how strong she is in combat, it is difficult for her to control her hostility towards the Abyss. If it weren’t for Lord Adun’s constant suppression of the Abyss ship girls under his command, Veneto might have lost control long ago,” Nelson replied as he walked out with Veneto.

"Sis, why are you pulling me?" Rodney was also pulled out of the room by Nelson.

Those remaining in the room, besides Omega Yuriko who clearly wouldn't have a hostile reaction to the deep-sea ship girls, were the battleship girls Prince of Wales, Richelieu, and Vanguard from Naval Base 233, as well as... that heavy cruiser that was always shouting "Eugen-Ou".

"Why are you looking at me like that? I'm a hero-class ship girl, after all!" Vanguard said loudly when he saw the distrustful looks from Prince of Wales and Richelieu.

"You can summon your Glory Form now?" the Prince of Wales asked with some surprise. In fact, she wasn't the only one surprised; the ship girls of Naval Base No. 233 who remained in the hall, including their young master, all looked astonished.

"I...I've only been learning for a short time, uh, I'm getting nervous with you guys watching me like this," Qianwei said, feeling a bit pressured.

"She truly lives up to her father's words about the most promising new ship girl." Charlotte recalled the introduction her father had given her about the naval base ship girls. Her father had specifically mentioned that among the ship girls who joined Naval Base 233 after the war, Avant-garde's talent was unparalleled.

Simply put, she's the academic genius among the ship girls, someone who can learn anything quickly.

"No wonder you've been experiencing unstable ship equipment lately," said Prince of Wales, who had twice reached the level of a Hero-class ship girl, with an "I see" tone.

"So that's how it is? I thought there was something wrong with my ship's equipment space." The vanguard seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when he heard what the Prince of Wales said.

“It’s just that you’re adjusting to the changes, that’s why this is happening. It will pass in a while,” the Prince of Wales said in the tone of an elder.

"How long is a period of time?" Vanguard asked, concerned about the occasional occurrence of his ship equipment popping out on its own when he got emotional.

“Every ship girl is different. It has nothing to do with talent or strength; it’s probably a matter of luck.” The Prince of Wales couldn’t say how long it would take either. She remembered that it took her more than a month to stabilize after she first acquired the Glory Ship Equipment, while the second time it only took less than a day.

"I see." The vanguard, somewhat disappointed with the answer, asked, "Should I remove the ship's equipment and set it aside to avoid accidentally firing the cannon?"

“I think you’d better go out,” Richelieu said from the side.

"No way, I'm not going out for something this fun." With that, Vanguard summoned his four pot-shaped ship rigs and dismantled them.

“Suit yourself.” The Prince of Wales, not wanting to comment on the behavior of his curious junior, continued, “We are ready, Your Excellency Adun, what do you need us to do next?”

“Next, I will release the hostile suppression on Wo-chan, and then use another method to reduce her deep-sea power. You just need to keep an eye on her.” As Adon spoke, he increased the pressure on Wo-chan’s shoulder.

"Wo!!Wo!!" Unlike Hyperion, who still had the energy to shout and yell, Wo-chan, who was being tormented by Adun, clearly showed a pained expression.

"Just bear with it. Don't be too surprised by what happens next." I remember when I first did this to South Dakota, even Adun, who was somewhat prepared, was shocked, let alone the admirals and ship girls in front of me who had no idea what Adun was doing.

Surrounded by two admirals and several hero-class ship girls, Wo-chan, whose power was being suppressed by a surge of energy from Adun, was undergoing subtle changes throughout her body.

At first, she wore a deep-sea ship girl uniform, which was revealing and covered up as much as possible while saving fabric. Gradually, the clothes changed into a black and red uniform that tightly wrapped her body.

Immediately afterwards, the deep-sea aircraft carrier scepter that Wo-chan had casually placed aside split into two parts. One part became a steel-framed ceremonial knife that hung on the left side of Wo-chan's body, and the other part became a ship hull with a deck that draped over the right side of Wo-chan's body.

Her pale hair hadn't changed much, except that its color had changed from a lifeless, pale white to a snow-white with a bluish tinge.

Finally, the biggest change was to the jellyfish-like vessel on Wo-chan's head that could be used as an umbrella on rainy days and always extended an unknown number of tentacles. Under Adun's power, this jellyfish-like vessel transformed into a white-headed, black-feathered eagle within a fusion of colorful light.

"...This is truly unbelievable." The Prince of Wales's wine glass once again clattered to the ground due to his owner's discomfiture.

"I, I, I, I, what did I see?!" the avant-garde, whose worldview had been shattered, cried out helplessly.

"Godfather, am I hallucinating?" Even the usually composed Richelieu unintentionally summoned his quadruple-mounted gun rigging, which shows how much shock wo-chan's transformation had caused her.

"Wo?" Wo-chan, feeling the eagle land on her shoulder, opened her eyes and said in surprise.

Chapter 148: What happened in the past is irrelevant to the present.

Wo-chan was once a ship girl who was sunk in battle. Although Wo-chan herself was not quite aware of this, her former commander, South Dakota, admitted it.

In the eyes of the Deep Sea Princess, there is still a big difference between naturally born Deep Sea ship girls and Deep Sea ship girls that are transformed from ship girls who have been sunk in battle.

No one expected that this deep-sea colonel, who only used a string of "wo" as his language all day long and couldn't walk without aluminum, had such a big background.

"I'm not seeing things, am I? Wo-chan used to be on the aircraft carrier Essex?" Tidu rubbed his eyes, his gaze lingering on the bald eagle on Wo-chan's shoulder and the clothes that covered his body.

"Whoosh..." A bunch of ship girls rushed into the deep-sea gothic-style hall again. This time it wasn't Adun who opened the door, but the ship girls who had been peeking outside who excitedly squeezed through the door.

"Where? Where? Let me see, let me see, wow, it really is Essex..." Rodney, the first ship girl to get up, shouted in a voice that could be described as loud as a dinosaur.

“The scent is right, it’s the original Essex. This deep-sea aircraft carrier was once an original Essex,” said Veneto, who once again became a cushion at the front due to his smallest size.

"The original Essex? So, Wo-chan is a legendary ship girl with a name and a story?" Nelson asked, remembering something after hearing what Veneto said.

"That's right. Although there have been quite a few Essex-class first ships that were summoned over the centuries, the number of Essex ships that sank in battle without leaving any successors is not large."

The Prince of Wales looked at the still-adjusting Essex version of Wo-chan with a meaningful gaze, paused for a moment, and then said:

"Each of them is a legendary ship girl, worthy of being recorded in history."

"Wo?" Wo-chan didn't react to the Prince of Wales's words. She was just twisting her body, seemingly unaccustomed to the clothes that covered all her skin.

"Wo...Wo-chan...is Essex?" Charlotte, who had just realized what was happening, looked at Wo-chan, who no longer resembled a deep-sea ship girl at all, and stammered.

"Adon, did you turn Wo-chan back into a ship girl from an Abyssal ship girl?" Tidu strode over to the Essex version of Wo-chan, wanting to see if there was anything about Wo-chan that still connected her to the Abyssal ship girl.

"To be precise, it's not that she turned back into a ship girl, but rather that her body remembered what she used to look like." Adon frankly admitted that he couldn't truly turn the deep-sea ship girl back into a ship girl.

In fact, Adon was unaware at first that the deep-sea ship girls who had been transformed from ship girls who had been sunk in battle would be restored to their former appearance.

When South Dakota, the first experimental deep-sea princess, underwent this change, she even thought she had turned back into a ship girl.

Unfortunately, in Adun, with the help of the experimental assistant, the head maid, Renown, it was determined that the changes to the Deep Sea Princess South Dakota were only physical changes and did not alter anything inherent to the Deep Sea Princess.

In response, the South Dakota Deep Sea Princess appeared to be both disappointed and relieved, leaving Adun puzzled.

"What do you mean by recalling what you used to be like? Right now, Wo-chan looks like a ship girl, okay? I swear as a formal admiral, I'm absolutely not mistaken."

Whether Tidu uses the naked eye or his admiral network to perceive it, the Essex-class Wo-chan sitting in Wo-chan's original position is a perfectly normal ship girl inside and out.

"Wo??" Finally realizing that everyone's attention seemed to be on her, Wo-chan, not knowing what was going on, hid behind Yaton.

"Don't be afraid, I just made you look like you used to. Do you remember what you look like now?" While comforting Wo-chan, Adon used his psionic energy to create a mirror in the air in front of Xiao Bei and asked Wo-chan about her reflection.

"Wowowo!" (Ah, there's an aircraft carrier ship girl! Admiral, watch out!) Startled, Wo-chan realized it was her reflection in the mirror when she saw the aircraft carrier ship girl in front of her striking the same pose as herself.

“Wowo…” (No wonder I felt something was off) Wo-chan said, seemingly somewhat dissatisfied with her body.

"Don't you recognize me anymore?" Yaton asked, seeing Wo-chan's reaction.

“wowo…wo” (I don’t recognize this. Is this the old wo-chan? She’s not pretty at all.) Essex version of wo will shake her head in response.

"Has she not regained her memories?" Seeing this, Tidu slumped weakly into her seat.

"To be precise, those are not Wo-chan's memories." The Protoss are accustomed to judging whether they are still one by examining the essence of their souls, so Adun does not think that the ship girl before the battle and the Wo-chan who transformed from that ship girl are the same ship.

“But she has clearly returned to her old self,” Tidu said in a low voice.

"That's because her body still remembers what she used to look like." That's why Adon said that Wo-chan's transformation was just her body remembering what she used to look like.

"Adon, I'm warning you, don't take advantage of your abilities to do whatever you want." Tidu suddenly remembered something and spoke in a warning tone.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Adon asked, unaware of what bizarre situation his admiral had come up with.

"For example, having Wo-chan transform into Essex and become an undercover agent or something," Tidu said, recalling the various destructions those Fallen ship girls had caused to the human ship girl faction.

"Uh...where are you going to infiltrate?" Ayton didn't understand what his admiral was talking about.

"And what kind of undercover agents are they? They're probably helping the Deep Sea gather intelligence on us, or sabotage us or something." Seeing Adon's confused look, Ti didn't know if Adon was pretending to be stupid or if he was really stupid.

"...As my ship girl, Wo-chan should be on the human side now, right? She's already on our side, so why is she still acting as a spy?"

Upon hearing Tidu's warning, Adon responded somewhat bewildered.

"Well...that's true." Realizing she was the one who was dumbfounded, Tidu quickly changed the subject and asked the ship girls of Naval Base 233, "By the way, do you remember which Essex ship I am?"

“There are several possibilities, but it’s hard to be sure if Wo-chan hasn’t regained her memories,” Veneto said, calming herself down by gulping down coffee.

"Restore memories?" Upon hearing Veneto's words, the admirals and ship girls present turned their attention to Adun again.

"...Looking at me won't help, it's impossible." Ardon spread his hands to indicate his helplessness.

"Adon, why don't you give it a try?" Tidu asked, still unwilling to give up.

"Impossible is impossible. The transformation between ship girls and abyssal ships, and whether or not they can retain their memories, depends entirely on themselves. Just like the Nautilus, unless I intervene during the transformation, I have no way to recover Wo-chan's memories."

Yaton said very seriously that in her eyes, the transformation of a battle-sunken ship girl into a deep-sea ship girl is like a house changing to a completely different resident. Perhaps the resident will still use some things left by the previous resident and remember what the previous resident looked like.

But memories are not something that the soul can share.

Chapter 149: Tidu and Charlotte, a Couple with a Wonderful Relationship

"What a pity, I was hoping to see a legendary ship girl resurrected." Tidu said with some disappointment after hearing what Adon said.

"Resurrection is impossible, but if you can find Wo-chan's past information and tell her that it's her story from her previous life, maybe she can remember a little bit."

Seeing his admiral's somewhat dejected look, Yaton offered a solution that was hardly a solution.

"What's the use? No matter what, Wo-chan is now a deep-sea ship girl." Different factions have different worldviews. Even if you let Wo-chan see her glorious deeds, it's just like reading a novel.

“That’s true, I don’t really like how it is now either,” Ardon nodded and said.

"wowo" (Admiral, I feel so uncomfortable, when can I turn back) wo-chan twisted and turned uncomfortably.

"Take these," said Yaton, pulling out a few aluminum strips from his ship's equipment space and tossing them in front of Wo-chan like food.

Even though her body had transformed into that of a ship girl, her love for aluminum bars remained unchanged. Holding the aluminum bars, Wo-chan immediately banished her discomfort to the deep sea and continued to nibble on the aluminum bars with great concentration.

"...You're quite skilled." Titi, who hadn't expected Deepsea to be raised like this, felt like all those years of fighting with Deepsea had been for nothing. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she asked, "Don't you like how you are now, Wo-chan?"