Salutations! This is Nuko with a fic on my current obsession, Kantai Collection. Kancolle Short Stories will be a collection of short stories that don'e necessarily have any connection with each other. I have the urge to write about it every now and then and I'll put them up here if I ever make some.

This particular story entitled "Zodiark" was made from a challenge by a forum user of the same name.

The original story (the 1st draft) was only 4000 words... but then I decided to revise it and by the time I realized it, I already had 4.5k worth of words even before I finished act 1 (and this is 3 parts...). Well I said screw it and just go with a 3 shot story~

=={Zodiark}==

=={ACT I}==

=={Reminiscence}==

He sat on his ever so familiar seat in his office doing normal day to day tasks that all admirals had to go through. Though such a way of phrasing made it sound like there were various different tasks he needed to attend that required him to be on the move constantly it was in reality far worse.

Admiral work was compromised of 80% paperwork. Hence most of his time was spent seated on his disturbingly familiar seat reading the printed and written ink of varying colours on white sheets of A4 and legal sized paper. It had somehow become an unwritten and unspoken rule among his beloved ship girls that his seat was not to be touched and was for his exclusive use only as they feared that the imprint on the leather might change if anyone even tries to get near.

He honestly only had himself to blame for his current situation really. He had a distinguished military service despite his age and had participated in many operations due to both the skills and talent he had displayed during training. The scar across his eye was one of the many relics left by those days.

Ship girls at the time weren't common knowledge and so his perception on what an admiral did was rather different. It was a boyhood dream of his to command a large battleship and thread the open seas. Such a thing was more than worth any amount of paperwork he would ever have to deal with. Unfortunately however said boyhood dream was forever crushed by the fact that he was actually the admiral of a fleet of ship girls and was not going to be riding a humongous battleship in the open seas anytime soon.

There was resentment at first, one he carried even until he first stepped into the Buin base. Said resentment however was all completely dissipated exactly 6 nanoseconds after looking meeting his secretary ship.

He wanted to say to headquarters that using cuteness like that was absolutely criminal but he had to admit it was damn effective in inspiring him to work. He only had to glance a bit to his beloved ship girls in order to take the wear he felt from paperwork.

'Speaking of which, the main fleet should be back by now… what would be taking them so long?'

For a moment his brain rushed to every grave possibility. From an tragic sinking in battle to Aoba finding his most embarrassing childhood secrets and spreading them around with her newspaper but he stopped himself.

His girls were strong and well trained. There was no way they would lose to some abyssal during a sortie, especially with his strict 'no sinking' policy and his childhood secrets were all locked into a metal chest with over twenty different locks and copious amount of chains, buried ten feet under the ground in a forest filled with dangerous animals that only his family knows how to navigate. Anyone who knew of this had already passed away or could be trusted with his life.

Aoba wasn't getting anywhere near that thing. He had long ago wanted to destroy it but he didn't want to go against the wishes of his deceased parents whom wanted to preserve such memories. Though he wanted to argue that said memories needed to be burned into ashes and scattered into the air, he decided otherwise.

'Aoba's been getting too curious about me lately…. I might have—'

*Knock* *Knock*

His musings that had gotten severely side-tracked was broken by a knock on the door. He was again reminded of why his girls were late and if Aoba had gotten to them but his thoughts were again cut off as he saw an unfamiliar face.

Among the main fleet that entered, which was composed of Yamato, Nagato, Mutsu, Haruna, Akagi and Kaga, was a brown skinned girl with a strange attire. She stood moved with grace and stood with dignity. A calm and collected air surrounded her and her eyes, behind the glasses, showed confidence. Her attire, which was composed of nothing but a red skirt and a sarashi, covered her voluptuous figure. Her rigging was large and numerous, easily classifying her a battleship

All was silent as he spent time looking over the new recruit, sizing her up, reading her posture and non-verbal cues. He had done the same with all of the new recruits and he was impressed that she stood and looked back at him without flinching or fidgeting.

The small smile she showed him when he had looked directly at her face said two things: 'Look all you want, I am proud of who I am and there is nothing I am ashamed off' and 'Like what you see?'.

He decided that he like this one very much.

When he closed his eyes the main fleet that stood at both sides of the new recruit converged and stood behind said recruit. Yamato stepped forward with a smile that was a mixture of relief and elation.

"Admiral this is Musashi. She had just been constructed through LSC. We had bumped into her as we were returning from the sortie" Yamato spoke gently and calmly like always. He could feel her barely masked desire to jump for joy.

He sat up straight and looked at the new recruit, prompting her to introduce herself. She respondd with a nod and straightened her posture.

"Musashi, second of the Yamato class, has arrived!" She introduced herself.

"Welcome to the fleet. I am admiral…. Zodiark. I a pleasure to be working with you" He looked at Musashi's expression as he stated his name while resting the side of his face on his hands to bring attention to his scar.

Showing his scar and saying his name was another way for him to gage the personality of the recruits. His name either provoked a confused or interested look on the recruits for the normal ones and indifference for the stoic ones. His scar on the other hand was usually met with concern, slight interest, barely masked interest, and his favourite, unmasked looked of admiration coupled with sparkling starry eyes. The last ones were from Tenryuu and Kiso. The only different meeting was with Aoba who had essentially interrogated him seconds after introduction.

He had never let his guard down against Aoba since then. Partly due to his training of intentionally keeping information about himself limited and partly because he had a lot of things he didn't want others to find out.

Musashi on the other hand replied with a raise of the brow and a smile, things he attributed to as expressions of slight interest. He concluded she was one of the calmer non- excessively battle crazed ones. The introduction and way of speaking told him she was proud.

'This is going to be an interesting one'

=={Zodiark}==

He slowly opened his eyes and sat up on his bed. He stayed that way for a moment, recalling the dream he just had. The sleepiness was all already gone.

It was a dream of the first time Musashi had come into their base. It was vivid and he could remember every detail of the dream. He remembered that Aoba had crashed in shortly after the introductions, charging through the door while holding a pad of paper and pen, and began asking questions. Musashi didn't bat an eye and answered every question down without shame or embarrassment, even the one including her three sizes. It was chaos.

He smiled at the fond memory but quickly shook his head to shake it off before he started to think of sadder ones that followed it. He got up from his bed and changed into a set of comfortable sportswear and quietly went out of his room, making sure to lock it before leaving. He had no need for curious ship girls going inside.

He grabbed a bottle of water and made his way to the track and field course on the training grounds. The sun had yet to set and the place was dark with minimal lighting but he adjusted his eyes quickly due to practice and performed some warm-up exercises.

When he was done he started jogging around the track, pretending not to notice the small hidden cameras on the lamp posts scattered around the field. He knew who put it there and allowed it to capture him in. He chose his battles and he was pretty sure there were copious amounts of pictures and videos of himself circulated around the base. If it helped motivate his girls then he had nothing to complain about. It was all fine as long as there weren't any in his shower room.

After the jog he proceeded with post exercise stretches and cooled himself down with some water. He went back to the room to take a shower on the bathroom connected to it, making sure to check for any weird equipment inside first. After the shower he got into uniform, making sure to check that everything was in order.

"Admiral, you're energetic in the morning too, huh?"

He immediately looked behind him as he felt like he heard a familiar voice. One he shouldn't be hearing, but only saw a pair of broken glasses sitting atop the table.

He approached it and fiddled a bit with the pair of glasses., smiling bitterly at the memories that had accompanied it. As he raised his head he saw the date on the calendar and the dreams and voices he saw and heard made a bit more sense.

It was the 24th of October, the day that he, the fleet, and the entirety of the Buin base had lost someone important and cherished.

It was the day that they had lost Musashi.

He gently clutched the pair of glasses that once belonged to his secretary ship, reminded of the time he learned of her sinking but shook his head to ward such thoughts off.

"Even now I remember that day clearly. No… I made sure to burn it into my memory."

"I would see dreams about you and sometimes I would hear your voice… It's alright though… if you are still here watching over us then don't ever let me stop feeling your presence and hearing your voice. I… would rather like that than the alternative"

He spoke, mostly in hopes that Musashi was truly there with him to hear. He had this unreasonable fear within him that he might someday forget what it felt like to be around her, what her voice sounded like when she spoke, or how she looked like every day. There were times when he fully expected her to be the one to enter the door of his office, and at times hoped for it to be the case.

He took a few deep breaths and washed his face with some cold water to get himself back to normal. It wouldn't do for his ship girls to see him as he was now. He couldn't take the looks of sadness and concern they would have when they saw him like that. He liked seeing them smile and laugh, or with the more stoic ones, a blank face that hid their emotions of happiness. Though he never points it out, he could always tell whether his more stoic ships were feeling sad or happy. It was in their eyes and body language.

Unfortunately the ship girls could also do the same with him. The amount of time they had spent had given some of the girls the ability to read him. It was rather worrying when Akebono was being gentle with him.

With another deep breathe he fixed his uniform again and checked his expression on the mirror. Seeing that he looked relatively normal enough he headed out.

"Once again and just like always, watch over me today, Musashi"

=={Zodiark}==

=={Reminiscence}==

"Listen up." He spoke, his voice stern and his face serious. The fleet stood straight, knowing what was to come. Yamato was in front, serving as the flagship for the operation. To her side was Musashi. Behind them were Nagato, Mutsu, Akagi and Kaga. They were going to head out to the newly discovered area in sector 2-5.

"You are not allowed to sink." He started. It was a speech he would make for every major sortie. It was the policy, the absolute rule that he imposed upon the ship girls. Even minor ones were accompanied by a small reminder of it.

Major sorties usually involved exploring new territory, locations with known boss appearances or going on locations dubbed "extra operation maps". They were far more dangerous than normal ones with a very risk of sinking for the girls.

"You are going out there well equipped in both weapons and intel."

"You will move and proceed with utmost caution and alertness."

"You will fight with precision and adherence to the tactics you are trained in…"

"… and finally remember. That your lives will always be more important than anything else"

"If even one of you takes major damage, you will retreat no matter what"

"Understood?"

He finished, emphasizing the most important parts. He had said this countless times before and would continue to say it no matter how many times more. He wanted it to a point where every ship girl in his base, regardless of their tasks, would be able to recite his speech when prompted to at any time.

It was dubbed by his fellow admirals and by the ship girls as the "Pledge of No Sinking". A crude name but the contents and the intent of the pledge were what mattered most.

"YES SIR!"

His girls replied in unison, their face completely serious. The pledge of no sinking was very important and relevant to them. They held their comrades dear, especially those they have fought with in history. Some they saw as families, some they saw as close friends, and some they saw as significant others. Hence to them, the pledge meant everything.

He nodded as he heard the reply. He smiled and looked at all of them.

"Be careful out there and take care. Come back home safe." He said with warmth and a bit of worry. The girls all smiled confidently in response.

"Don't worry admiral. This Musashi won't be defeated so easily" Musashi spoke, causing him to grin. They had gotten along particularly well since her arrival and she had served as his secretary ship often.

"Make sure you don't. Alright… Sally forth" He saluted and the girls responded with one of their own. He saw them off as they went off into the seas.

He would later regret not personally checking all of their equipment. A regret he would carry for eternity.

=={Zodiark}==

"Admiral?" A voice broke him out of his thoughts. He did his best to suppress the need to shout and jump in surprise. He spent a second to organize his thoughts before looking at the one calling to him.

'Right... I'm in my office. Calm down.'

"Yes?" He answered as he raised his head, making sure his voice sounded normal and his expression professional. His heart sank at as he saw who it was.

'Damn… of all the ships that would catch me like this…'

Aoba stood in front of his desk. Her usual happy and mischievous look was replaced with a worried one. That meant she might have seen through him despite his attempts at hiding.

"I came to report about the current state of our resources, they number at 20 thousand for each except for bauxite which is at 10 thousand. The records show that the ones obtained from expeditions minus the ones used for the sorties don't match up. We should have far more than what we have right now" Aoba spoke in seriousness as she stated her findings.

'Damn… she's speaking seriously. She noticed and saw through me'

The fact that Aoba was being serious was enough proof that she did indeed see through him. His girls were very considerate and in Aoba's case, she probably felt like that he wasn't up for any of the usual antics and so reported seriously.

"I see. Please check in with the bauxite supplies and try and see if you can find where the discrepancy comes from. Try and ask the carriers as well and by that I mean Akagi. If Akagi won't budge, ask Kaga. If she averts her eyes while answering even by a millimetre, then Akagi's guilty."

He tried to make it sound like a joke to appear fine though he was being particularly serious with the last statements. Kaga was a serious person but she had the tendency to do weird things when it came to making Akagi happy.

"Understood" Aoba replied curtly and saluted before walking out the door of his office. He honestly wished that she just stayed and tried to get details of his history from him like she usually would.

This was going to be a very long day.

=={Zodiark}==

'Damn it. Damn that Aoba. I understand that she did it out of concern but I don't know how if I can take any more of this'

He cursed in his head. Everyone knew what day it was today so he had done everything he could to hide the slight feeling of depression he had. He was quite sure that he would've succeeded if he hadn't let his guard down with Aoba.

"Haaah… I love all of them but I really am fine now…" He spoke to no one in particular. He was grateful for their concern and consideration but he didn't like burdening them, or anyone for that matter, with his problems.

He was just reminiscing. It wasn't like he was stuck in one corner of the room writing sad and emo-ish poetry. That was years ago when he was younger. He was a mature adult now.

'The expedition fleet... Akebono came in and didn't say "shitty admiral" even once. She even spoke gently. GENTLY. To me of all people.'

Akebono was foul mouthed and often times abrasive especially when it came to dealing with him, but when she knew he was sad for one reason or another she usually held back ad chose her words. The others from the expedition fleet also expressed their concern in different ways.

Shimakaze was very quiet, making sure not to make a single sound or even speak unless addressed to. He had once jokingly scolded her for her constant utterance of 'speed' and she had probably taken her to heart much to his regret. She only looked at him timidly.

Ushio and Yukikaze had blatant look of concern and sadness on their faces as they looked at him. Shigure, the flagship, looked gently at him probably wanting to give him a hug. Her sister on the other hand, Yuudachi, was giving him a hug. He arms were wrapped around his head as she pushed the side of his head to her chest.

Thankfully that only lasted for a few minutes before they went off for expedition 21. That was only the start though and it got much worse.

When he came in to the cafeteria for lunch many of the girls tried not to glance at his with concern. Normal human food was served there, which the ship girls could also eat, and Mamiya gave him extra helpings. Houshou made sure that he didn't have to do anything as she served the food to him. Chitose and Jun'you had offered to pour him a drink but he refused.

When he was at the table, Akagi, the greatest glutton of the base shared her food with him. Shared her food with him. That itself was already insane but against all odds Kaga, Akagi's number one fangirl, didn't even show a hint of jealousy like she usually would. She remained stoic. Worried stoic, not usual stoic, not even jealous fangirl stoic and though there were very minute differences between those expressions, he could tell.

As he was getting back to his office Ooi and Kitakami passed by and gave him a small tap on the shoulder. Fusou and even Yamashiro gave him small hug as he passed by them. The small destroyers that he encountered practically charged at him in an attempt to hug him. Inazuma was close tears as she did so.

When he took a break after finishing his paperwork later, he sat on the bench around the small plaza in the middle of the base. That place could be seen almost anywhere from the base. Naka happened to be there practicing her singing and saw him. He signalled to her that she should continue and not mind him but she did something different.

She sung. Not her usual upbeat, cheery and high energy idol songs that may actually get annoying at times and that only some of the other ship girls truly enjoyed. She sung a hauntingly beautiful ballad in a calm and gentle voice with none of the usual theatrics. By the time she was done, the majority of the girls in the base were spectating from different parts of the building. He simply nodded to her to show his gratitude to which she smiled warmly.

At 3 in the afternoon while he was in his office. Kongou came in and served him tea. She didn't speak a word as they drank it in peace. When they were done she approached him and embraced him gently. Not her usual cling and/or flirty hugs, it was an honest to god hug of comfort. When she let go she encouraged him that they were always there for him no matter what and left.

Yuubari came in right after and placed a manga, an anime dvd and a light novel of her favourite series on top of his table and quickly left. Amatsukaze, Samidare and Hatsukaze came in, hugged him for a second and left afterwards in succession.

Those were actually the most notable ones as nearly every ship girl in the fleet had made sure to express their concerns in one way or the other.

'Just a bit more… The day will end soon and I'm sure they'll feel that I'm all better tomorrow. I just have to wait for the main fleet to return'

He thought as he sighed in exhaustion. He picked up some of the snacks left by the Kongou sisters and drank some of the cola left by the submarines when they came by. The main fleet was to return within an hour and that would signal the end of his day and he could return to his quarters.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

He was a bit surprised at the frantic knocking from his door and quickly asked them to come in. The main fleet with worried and confused faces came in. They were composed Haruna, the flagship who was being trained for her next remodel, Yamato, Mutsu, Nagato accompanied by Shoukaku and Zuikaku.

Yamato had one look at him then proceeded to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Before she could speak however, Aoba came bursting through the door.

"Aoba, what—" He was cut-off as Aoba was didn't seem to notice the others and was frantically flipping through her notes.

"Admiral, call back the main fleet. There was a sighting of a Battleship princess at sector 2-5! I don't think they're properly equipped—"

"Aoba… calm down. The main fleet's here" he said sternly, catching his attention. The news surprised him but he needed to calm everyone down.

"Alright, Yamato, is this related to why all you have returned early?" He asked seriously. He looked at all of the girls in the main fleet to see if there were any major damages but was relieved to find that there were only moderate damages.

"Yes. As we were approaching the target node on sector 2-5, we were met with an unexpected situation. The fleet had been the expected composition except for one… among them was a Battleship Princess." She reported with a disturbed look on her face.

"The Battleship Princess was slightly away from the fleet and nearer our location. I was quite sure that she had noticed our presence but paid us no heed. Both Zuikaku-san, Shoukaku-san and Haruna-san had already sustained moderate damage in the former node so I had decided to call for a retreat." She continued and ended her report. The three moderately damaged ships in question looked a bit down but he smiled at them to make sure that they won't take it to heart.

"That was the correct decision. Yamato and the rest, please get rested, repaired and resupllied. Aoba, stay here and tell me more" He ordered and the fleet all left after he received a short hug from all of them.

'Is it really that obvious?' He couldn't help but ask himself. The main fleet shouldn't have been able to know of what was happening in the base unless Aoba had gone out of her way to tell them via transmission….

He shook his head, putting it off for later. He needed to focus since a stray Battleship Princess was very worrisome. If one could stray at sector 2-5, then it was possible that others could stray off to other sectors. He shuddered at the thought of one getting to sector 1-1, the training grounds for the ship girls.

"Admiral" Aoba caught his attention. This time she was truly serious, the type of seriousness that only came during important situations. He nodded to let her continue.

"Earlier today I had received reports from HQ and other bases bout sightings of a stray abyssal travelling through different areas. It been nothing more than hearsay at that point and nothing concrete but at about 1500 hours I had received news of a report from Kanoya Base whose fleet had actually encountered said stray." Aoba continued while flipping through her notes.

"They confirmed that said stray was actually a Battleship Princess. They had encountered her during an attempt at clearing 2-4. According to the reports of the fleet itself, she had appeared at the second node right after they had cleared the enemy fleet in there." She had a disturbed look as she mentioned that an upper-class abyssal ship would appear at the second node. It went against the behavioural patterns that have been observed and documented over the years.

"They had prepared themselves for an assault but to their surprise, the Battleship Princess had retreated from them instead. Information is currently being reviewed by HQ. They will be sending a formal notice later this evening to warn admirals of the dangers of sortieing in the totality of sector 2." She closed her notes as she finished reporting, giving him a look of concern about the recent events.

"Thank you. Please keep up with any developments and keep me informed. Get some rest, it looks like you've worked hard enough for today. Inform the others that we will have a general assembly tomorrow. Attendance will be mandatory. That is all" He told Aoba in seriousness. The situation was actually far more grave than what it seemed.

"What the heck is happening?"

A question directed at no one in particular.