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It had been two days since Hasegawa arrived in Tokyo. He was being kept in a separate section of the palace from the rest of the building, under the watchful eyes of the palace guards.

Yamato had been busy dealing with matters of the war, and the two had not yet had the conversation that she had wanted. 

Despite having been in this other world for four days now, Hasegawa had yet to learn anything substantial aside from the fact that there were women who had the names of historical warships and seemed to have control over those warships, and that the Yamato Empire, most likely this world's equivalent of Japan, was at war with Eastasia, which was probably China.

Myōkō, despite having been assigned to being Hasegawa's guard, rarely spoke to him, and mostly kept to herself. Hasegawa didn't really understand it, but getting removed from the frontlines must have really been a blow to her.

The daily routine was simple: wake up, walk around the gardens, eat, walk some more, eat again, and go to bed. It was incredibly boring, and Hasegawa was wishing for something, anything, to happen.

While Hasegawa was sitting in the gardens, with Myōkō sitting silently a few feet behind him, as she had been for the past two days, always shadowing him wherever he went, a young woman with white hair that went just below her shoulders and bright blue eyes walked up to him.

Hasegawa recognized her from Yamato's audience chamber as one of the guards, either Yukikaze or Isokaze. 

"Hasegawa-san," she said as she approached him, "Yamato-sama has sent for you. Please follow me."

Hasegawa and Myōkō both stood, and the woman began to lead them into the palace.

The walk was quiet; neither Myōkō nor the woman spoke a single word, and Hasegawa mulled over the possible topics that Yamato wanted to discuss with him. 

Did she want to us him as a weapon, or bargaining chip?

No, that didn't make sense. It wasn't as if he had any special abilities. He was just an average engineer. 

That might be it. She had remarked on the printing quality of his passport, and maybe she wanted him to replicate technology and weaponry from his world?

Hasegawa couldn't say anything for certain. He would find out when they got there, so he just had to be patient.

***

Yamato was sitting on a small mat in the middle of a small, square room that felt even tighter because of the presence of Yahagi and the rest of Yamato's guards.

The woman walked up to Yamato and kneeled, bowing her head. Myōkō did the same thing behind her, and Hasegawa, who was starting to get used to this, did the same.

Yamato was the first one to speak. "Yukikaze, thank you for bringing our guest. You may return to your post."

Yukikaze lifted her head. "As you command, Yamato-sama."

She stood up and moved to fill a gap between two of the other guards.

"Please, have a seat, Hasegawa-san," said Yamato, motioning towards another mat.

Once he was settled in, a tray with some tea was brought in, and Yamato began to talk.

"Hasegawa-san, allow me to explain the workings of this world. It is called Oceanus, and more than 99% of its surface is covered in water. Scattered across the world are about ten thousand islands, the largest of which is 20 kilometres across. 

"According to historical records, there is a parallel world to Oceanus, called Earth. For most of our history, travel between the two worlds was possible, as they were connected. However, 110 years ago, a man from Earth named Marcus Schumer came to Oceanus, and was the last person to travel between the two worlds."

Yamato paused and sipped her tea, as Hasegawa went over all of this in his head. 

So this was a parallel world to Earth, and he was the first person to come here in over a hundred years? 

But that still left a lot of unanswered questions.

Why did people have the names of historical warships?

How was Myōkō connected to her ship?

And this Marcus Schumer and the 110 year gap? If anything, Yamato was just giving him more questions than answers.

She put down her tea and continued. 

"This world, unlike yours, has beings known as shipgirls: young women who are bonded with hulls that share the same name and soul as them. We were, originally, created by the Builders, people from you world who, upon coming to this one, gained the ability to breathe life into empty hulls and bring us into existence. 

"However, there are very few shipgirls left in this world who were created this way. Our Yamato Empire, for example, has only one."

She paused. This didn't make any sense to Hasegawa. If only one shipgirl in the enitre country had been created that way, then how had the rest of them come into being? It didn't seem as if shipgirls appeared naturally after all.

Looking around the room, despite how they tried to hid it, all of Yamato's guards seemed just as confused. Did they not know about the builders?

He decided to ask the question. 

"If only one of you in this entire country was created by a builder, then how were the rest of you created, Yamato-sama?"

"For the past hundred years," she began, "we have been created by something called the Singularity. It was created by Marcus Schumer, and, in addition to creating new shipgirls who are mirrored off of vessels from Earth, it stopped all travel between Earth and Oceanus and prevented the nations of Oceanus from going to war with each other, creating peace for a hundred years."

Hasegawa was confused by this. "But isn't the Empire at war with Eastasia right now?" he asked.

Yamato gave a nod, and a small smile formed on her face. 

"About a month ago, the Singularity was destroyed by an unknown force. Because of this, tensions that had been left to sit for a century erupted, and the world was thrown into chaos. Several wars have started in the past few weeks, including ours against Eastasia. However, due to the fact that no new shipgirls can be created, what we call war is really just minor skirmishes that don't cause any casualties with occasional attacks by overwhelmingly powerful forces in order to take territory without any losses.

"However," she said, and her tone changed into a happier, more triumphant one, "now that we have you, that will no longer be the case. You have the ability to create more shipgirls for us to strengthen our forces, and you can repair shipgirls who have been damaged, allowing us to wage war in a far more aggressive and efficient manner."

She finished talking, and took another sip of tea.

"What do you say, Hasegawa-san? Shall we work together in order to create a new future?"

Hasegawa was deep in thought. He had built warships in Japan, before coming here, so constructing weapons of war wasn't something he was entirely opposed to. But could he be sure that Yamato would use his abilities for a good cause?

Forget cause, how could she be sure that he even had these abilities at all?

He made up his mind.

"I'll consider it. But first, Yamato-sama, can you even be sure that I have these abilities?"

She smiled and said, "Of course I'm sure. But if you need proof, why don't we go down to the dockyard, and you can test out your new abilities."

At that, she stood. Hasegawa stood too, but he his mind was distracted with thoughts of what his future had in store.