003 ~ The Boneyard of Ships... [text / public]
Yes, I'm still aboard the Victoria II. Yes, it really is being decomissioned. It's going to an aeronautical museum! But first, the battle is waging between the various branches of the military, at the fleet office level and even here in the dockyard, to lay hands on whatever is salvagable from Vicky's carcass. The Navy has stationed a unit of guards around the ship just to keep any of our overly eager colleagues, especially the Army, from stripping the ship of anything that has not been authorized for removal.
There aren't very many of the original crew left aboard. Most have long since gone on to their next ship or to shore duty or to leaves of absence. I'm staying on to help with an exhaustive inventory of equipment, machinery, weapons, fittings, furniture, and so forth. It is a courtesy on the part of the fleet office that I am allowed to remain on the ship and endanger life and limb while declaring to angry uniformed strangers who have finagled their way past the guards, "No, Commander, you may not cart away those cannon. Your papers do not indicate that you have official permission."
I haven't really got a choice, since I haven't really got a job.
THE BASTARDS HAVE LOST MY PAPERWORK.
I inquired about this a couple of months ago when a new ship assignment had not come through in a timely manner. I have contacted the main office here in Bellcius and have now spoken to fleet officers of three ascending levels of rank, and they have all hemmed and hawed and checked with the records department, and so far their consensus is that there was never a Lieutenant Hisoka Kurosaki serving in the armed forces. I have pointed out to them that I graduated from the Belarus Academy second in my class and that my ship assignments include Mary Rose, Adrasteia, and Victoria II, and that I have signed copies of every piece of paper I have ever been issued since I signed my life over to the military. I have even personally presented the said pieces of paper to the said officers. To no avail.
I have long since drawn my last paycheck, and obviously there will not be another until this matter is cleared up...if it ever is.
Oh, well, enough of my problems.
Others have had worse.
I can't believe it, still. It all seemed to happen so fast, during and after the Erealian fiasco...
Well, I must not be emotional. It was not a disaster, even though it was a blood bath. The life of the Erealian crown prince was saved, thanks to a number of courageous people, some of whom spent some painful down time in the infirmary afterwards. Lt. Commander Rangiku Matsumoto, Major Flynn Scifo, and Lord Larsa Ferrinas Solidor literally hauled his Highness, Prince Humperdinck, out of the pirate vessel's cargo hold under a heavy hail of gunfire. Commander Miles Edgeworth and Lt. Commander Kotaro Katsura created a necessary diversion in the infirmary, thus distracting key Manifesto personnel from coming and killing the rest of us. In the pirate captain's cabin, Major Toshirou Hijikata sliced, diced, and chopped whomever tried to get between us and Admiral von Karma, whom the Major and I were there to protect. Admiral von Karma himself planned the action, and had it not been for his intervention, Captain Redbeard certainly would have carried his political stunt to its logical conclusion and executed the prince the very next day. In the end, it was the Admiral himself who dispatched Redbeard, who would not surrender.
I include these details because some of the newspapers did not get the facts straight as to what happened and who was present. This is a public post. I am forbidden to talk to reporters, but the facts I have related here should be easy for any editor to verify with a simple phone call to fleet headquarters.
*pause*
It's a strange thing...
...so, how is it that Commander Edgeworth...?
*another pause*
I remember, one time when I was a teenager...I was witness to a springtime battle in the woods west of Bydan, between an aging pteralynx and a somewhat younger member of his pack--an ambitious rival, apparently. The old one, although savaged and bleeding to the point where it was obvious he could not possibly live, managed to slice his adversary's jugular vein. But do you know what?...at the end of the summer, I spotted that fierce and indominable razor-clawed old flying feline, soaring over the trees, badly scarred but very much alive, and still the undisputed leader of the pack.
I don't know what this means. I am having the most horrible sensation of deja vu. I have lived these times before. Mary Rose. I have been here before. Only, the outcome was different. Captain Hashida is dead. Commander MacAlpin is dead. They are all dead.
Well, note to self: do not get the past mixed up with the present. Hashida and MacAlpin hated each other. I can't draw any parallels with Victoria, on which I served for so little time and about which I know nothing.