Reich Marshal of the Belkan Reich

RM Vol 3: For a World without Boundary – Chapter 57: Lounge Discussion

Unlike before when Yuki had to juggle multiple professions at the same time, making it so that she isn't rarely seen at the Mansion of Knowledge. Now, there's at least one temporal clone of Yuki that is on a permanent station in the creative headquarters of the Reich. That clone, in particular, can be seen wearing a modified version of her Marshal attire: No cap, white short-sleeve shirt, black form-fitting pants, a necktie, and a white lab coat. Of course, there's still marking for ranks and military honors on her collar and upper left breast. This is mostly for identification, even though the Mansion is Yuki's backyard.

Much like any other day, Yuki is sequestered away in her hybridization of an office and a lab, a design that has been copied by both Einstein and Mobius for convenience's sake. Coincidentally, Nicolae never bothers getting her private lab in the Mansion, even though she regularly participates in many researches and experiments. Now though, Yuki has called for a meeting between the top brass of the Mansion, of which there are only five head honchos in the Mansion itself—namely Yuki, Dreamer, Nicolae, Einstein, and Mobius. Meetings like this are surprisingly common for them all, with Einstein and Mobius already so familiar with the path to Yuki's quarter that they can walk with their eyes closed. In fact, both of them kinda do just that as nearly all of their attention is poured into their work tablets. Einstein is reviewing schematics for updates to the Ravens' Mjolnir and SPI suits, while Mobius is busy figuring out ways to recover Raven candidates that are still stuck in temporal suspension. They do put their devices to sleep when the door to Yuki's workplace is upon them, flanked by a team of Reichsguards. Though Einstein and Mobius are very recognizable by their color-coded visage, the pair still present their ID and palmprints to be on the safe side. The guards smile and gratefully nod at their sensibility before one of them types a code on the door's keypad, opening it up in a sliding hiss.

Much like any other day, they expect to see Yuki either behind her desk or standing by her workstation. What they don't expect though is for Yuki to sit by the large lounge table, chatting animatedly with Dreamer and Nicolae... And are those smaller versions of Yuki? What the heck?

Now that Einstein and Mobius have arrived, the others in the room warmly greet them, with the Yukies inviting them over to take a seat. Both Einstein and Mobius took up the offer after returning the greeting, however, they can't stop themselves from taking a few looks at the Yukies in front of them. They thought they had since gotten used to the absurdity of this family of theirs, but clearly, they were wrong.

The three Yukies are just there, smugly letting Einstein and Mobius sizing them up. The first Yuki is, well, normal, not much to say about her. The next one though, is not just shorter but also younger, a Yuki that is seemingly barely ten years of age. Basically, she's a loli, wearing the same attire as the big Yuki but is form-fitted for her size. Let's call her Smol Yuki for now. Moving to the last Yuki, she is pretty much the same in terms of external clothing, but her bodily physique is quite possibly absurd in terms of cuteness. This Yuki is a Chibi Yuki if you go by the Japanese terms. And did they tell you that this one is hella cute?

Jokes aside, with the brainiacs of the Mansion now gathered in its entirety, the talk can finally start in all seriousness... Or not. Very calmly and not eagerly (which is a lie), Mobius glomps on Chibi Yuki, cuddling with the temporal clone like a teddy. Einstein, on her part, opts to shimmy closer to Smol Yuki before tentatively patting the latter's head. Smol Yuki leans into the head pat before finally resting her head on Einstein's left shoulder. Yuki, Dreamer, and Nicolae look at them with a knowing smile. Instead of questioning the existence of these cute temporal clones though, the pair of green and blue carry on asking like nothing has happened. In a way, it goes to say that they're quite adaptive to Yuki's random shenanigans.

"So, what's on today's agenda?"

On cue, Dreamer places her own tablet onto the lounge table, setting it up so it can cast a four-sided holographic video projection for them to see. While the video quality is substandard, it's still quite easy to recognize the view of an incoming missile that woefully misses its target before spinning out of control. The subsequent shot is much the same, with the missile seemingly unable to lock onto anything before going off to part unknown. Seeing that, Mobius can't stop a smirk from forming on her face.

"It would be hilarious if someone managed to salvage the missing missiles, maybe the US?"

The others chuckle, even Yuki adds. "Judging from the direction of the tide, if the missile hasn't exploded yet, then there's a high chance it will end up at someone's shore."

Smol Yuki raises her hand. "If they're smart, they must have built-in failsafe for such a case."

Chibi Yuki shrugs her tiny shoulders while kicking her legs in the air. "Did you forget? The things the Japanese procure are dirt-cheep to a laughable extent. I won't be surprised if they botch the failsafe to keep the cost down."

Dreamer chimes in. "There's also the fact that they have a very unbalanced military doctrine. So far, it has been noted that their technological prowess has long since outpaced their military thinking. Probably, at least half of the Japanese officers don't know how to perfectly utilize the available technological advancements. It's why ONI has noted the weird nature of their military procurement, with them not adopting widespread usage, yet."

Einstein takes a glance at Mobius to see whether she has anything to add, but instead, she sees Nicolae is now feeding Chibi Yuki some cookies together with the green-haired doctor. Sighing to herself, Einstein speaks up.

"Such details are a boon to us, at least. Their procuring subpar weaponry and with such limited capacity will be a boon to us, at least for a short while. Until Vill-V or Amaterasu can get a grasp on their military, we can rest assured that our military will stand unchallenged."

Smol Yuki presents another subject while closing her eyes, however. "It may be good for us, but not necessarily good for our allies over in the Pacific. Even with the abysmal hit rate and questionable effectiveness, the Long Dynasty and the USA have no countermeasure for an 80km attack. If they perform a saturation missile barrage, even the combined fleet from both nations will sink before seeing the enemy."

Yuki nods in agreement with Smol Yuki's concern. "It's a good point. This is why I am calling for a meeting here to determine what can we do to help our allies, not too much of course, just something simple. Yggdra knows when the Japanese decide to smarten up and start refitting their navy wholesale with the good stuff."

Dreamer winces. "Unfortunately, due to the activeness of certain supernatural elements in Japan, our spies have a much harder time doing their tasks nowadays."

Mobius, who has been silenced thus far, joins in the conversation while handing Chibi Yuki another cookie. "While we can't really help our agents just yet, I think we can just refit our allied warships with some sort of CIWS. A rudimentary version, of course, not too much bell and whistle but could get the job done in a pinch. Though how to do that, I will leave it up to you girls."

"Oh! Oh! I got an idea!" Nicolae raises her hand excitedly. "Judging from the situation, a CIWS like Mobius suggested should be the correct choice, at least for the foreseeable future. Obviously, we can't give them something that is still classified by us. So, why not retrofit some of their AA systems to handle the task of a CIWS? The Long Dynasty has those license-built 37mm autocannon, the Americans have their design for a 37mm anti-air gun, so why not give them the Gepard treatment and give them counter-missile radar? It won't be a sophisticated upgrade, and should be easy enough to link them with the equivalent of the Chinese and the Americans' fire control systems."

Yuki ponders at the suggestion. "Huh... It may actually be quite useful for them. The Chinese will jump at the chance, but the USA will take some convincing. Not to mention the latter is still getting around to introducing radar to their Navy. It's a recent thing before the Yellowstone eruption, making it so that it will take them a while to get the upgrades."

Dreamer adds. "At least they will be getting the time to ease into the upgrade, Master. For now, Japan will be focusing on the Chinese and maybe Indochina first. By the time they can rear their head to the East, the United States should have a sizeable and somewhat modern force to keep them occupied. Still, can't be wrong getting our allies up to parity with current Imperial Japan."

Carrying on from there, Yuki takes in the additional suggestions and thoughts from the rest of the brainiac group as they review additional information that the Chinese and their spies have gotten for them. Overall, it paints the Japanese military in an amusing, if still potentially deadly light.

At the end of this particular topic, Yuki once again nods at the group. "Thank you, all of you, for contributing your thoughts on this subject. Once things are implemented, I am sure the Japs will be crying tears of blood, wondering why their weapons not working properly. Now, we just need to actually work out some blueprints for our allies to use."

Before anyone can volunteer themselves, Nicolae raises her hand once more. "Me! Me! I am quite bored currently, so can I pick up this task to get my brain going? The results will still be foolproof, I promise!"

All the Yukies giggle at Nicolae's excitement, but ultimately nodding. "Alright, since we can all trust Nicolae here to get the job done, this task is now in your good hands. Don't be surprised when the moment arrives and the Chinese and Americans start singing you praises for saving their hides."

"It will be a sight to behold, not gonna lie. Praising an Outer God as their savior." Chibi Yuki chuckled.