Battleship No More
"When the japanese people needed me, my spirit was made manifest by their hands as a seaborne fortress of enormous destructive power. With this form I made a promise, Japan would not be defeated so long as I could fight.
Full of pride I waited for my time at the high seas. The battleship was at the height of its power and I would strike my foes until they all rested on the bottom of the ocean. But that day never seemed to come.
For years I barely saw battle and spent most of my days in port. While my fellow defenders of the empire bled and died, I merely hosted admirals, captains and crew in relative luxury. I wished nothing more than to ride out and aid them in battle but I was deemed too precious to lose.
Even my only sister was fighting and dying while I remained confined to the docks. I realized I had become a prisoner of the promise I had made when I was born. As I sat in quiet mourning over the destruction of my home and only family, they would not let me fight and risk my existence.
When the war drew to a close I came to realize that I was no longer a power to be reckoned with. Instead, time itself had passed me by and the era of the battleship had ended. I had failed to help out when I could and then I was nothing more than a burden. No longer a fearsome weapon, but a fragile object that needed protection from aircraft and submarines. I had failed in every possible way.
My existence as well as my promise were rendered meaningless, while I bid my time in this terrible form that I once relished.
I would have pleaded with them to remove my guns and build a flight deck on top of me, or even take the steel of my body to make airplanes. I would give anything and bear any shame to save my homeland. Even then, I remained confined to the docks while the air force threw their lives at the enemy in a suicidal dash to prevent defeat.
On the edge of defeat, my day finally came. I was to take on the entire enemy navy on my own with a handful of surviving destroyers. I felt pride for taking a final stand in the face of certain death, but I was also deeply afraid. Not for my own life, but for knowing that I could do nothing to protect the lives of those with me. If I could speak I would have asked them to leave me to die alone.
Most of my crew, myself and the very idea of the battleship died that day and I did not believe I would ever return."
Yamato turned her hand around and gazed at her fingers for a moment before quietly rolling up the little scroll and pushing it into its canister.