Author's Notes: While I was working on the next chapter of one of my stories, TWGOK: Beyond God's Mask, this sort of idea popped up in my head. Unlike my other ideas for other stories, this one seems big enough that I can make an entire chapter out of it at best so I decided to post this one up.
========== Prologue: Game Start ==========
Keima had better days in gaming as the Capturing God what with him clearing out dozens upon dozens of dating sim games in record time. Today, or tonight as it was technically at night but more specifically midnight, was an even better day. The reason being he just cleared "Crayon", a dating sim game notorious for its looping glitch that makes the game unwinnable. However, after spending a lot of time and sweat on it, he prevailed and cleared it in the end.
Right now, he was uploading all the related info about the game on the internet and marked it as one of the games he just cleared in his website through his computer. Half an hour later, all of the necessary information had been uploaded. With the game taken care of, he then accessed his mail account to see if he has any new messages. Waiting for the screen to load up, Keima opened a bottle of energy drink on the table next to his computer and drank some of it before putting it back on the table. A few minutes later, his account showed up on screen with new messages being highlighted. Keima then started opening and reading each and every message starting from the topmost messages down to the last on the bottom.
"Hmm… just like always", Keima muttered, "Most of them are just requests to clear some galge I'm still yet to get. Oh well."
After some time, Keima finished reading all of the messages save for one which was on the bottommost part of the screen of his email account. Just as Keima was about to open the last message, he looked at the name of the user who sent him the message.
"SaltMaker_4_L1f3", Keima said, "It seems like a new name."
Wrapping up his thoughts, Keima clicked the message with its contents loading up a few seconds later. Keima then spent the next couple of minutes reading the message which turned up being a tad bit longer than the usual ones he receives on a daily basis. Because the one who sent the message to him was a new name, Keima decided to also inspect on a scrutinizing manner the entire content of the mail to get some idea on what kind of person this new name was.
In the end, however, Keima didn't find anything that was of worth. It seems like this new name was the same as the other ones already mailing him. Just like the others, this person seems to be also recommending that he try out a new game. Said person also provided a link to that game. Clicking the link, a new page popped out and started loading.
When the page finally loaded, Keima spared a few moments to see what the new game was.
"Kantai Collection", Keima muttered, "So this is a browser-based game."
Keima then inspected the details of the game before him and even searched the net for more information. After looking for some time, he realized that it's apparently the talk of several forums and boards with some of them containing several threads spanning in three-digit pages worth of discussion already. Looking at the dates of some of the posts in such threads indicate that a lot of the posts that consists each page were generated in the same day. This indicates that this game was such a big hit that a lot of people were talking about it.
To drive the point even further, the game even has a wiki of its own where the rate of activity in it was almost on the same level as the forums and boards that talk about the game that he just visited. The activity was of such frequency that refreshing any of the wiki's pages shows that a dozen or so posts at the reviews' section have been just added when the same page loaded again.
"How did a game like this slipped under my nose for too long?", Keima asked himself.
Keima then back tracked the possible reasons on how he could have possibly missed this game. As he thought more and more, however, he immediately realized why that was the case.
"Crap", Keima muttered, "With so much of my attention diverted on finishing galges and… completing this contract with that devil, this shouldn't be really a surprise."
Just as he finished speaking, Keima touched the collar on his neck symbolizing his contract with Elsie, the devil bound to him, with the contract in question involves catching runaway spirits called "Weiss" which reside in the hearts of girls and must be forced out by using love which, in turn, entails him to make them fall for him.
That last thought made Keima cringe a bit. Real girls, the ones these runaway spirits inhabit were flawed and inferior to girls of the 2D world. They have so many shortcomings that he can go on and on to discuss how much they suck.
Pushing that thought off his mind, Keima shifted his attention back at the new game in front of it. Deciding that he wants to play the game to see if it was good, he then looked on how to get into the game.
"Hmm… so I need to create an account on this site that hosts this game", Keima thought.
Keima then started making his own site account. After filling all the necessary information, he now has an account with which to play the game. Navigating the site's game list, he browsed through the site's games until he found the game of his choosing.
"Okay, here I go", Keima muttered as he clicked Kantai Collection's name on the list of games.
After clicking the game's name, a new page loaded which took several minutes to completely load up. When the page loaded up, Keima saw two columns with each column having nine rectangular clickable links arranged in a vertical line. Although some of the rectangular links were green and some were red, all of them were named after the various bases the Imperial Japanese Navy operated during the Second World War. A fitting theme considering what Kantai Collection was supposed to be.
"Hmm… the ones that glow green have available slots while the ones that glow red are full", Keima said, "Well, let's select one that's not full."
Keima then decided on which server, actually what the rectangular links were, to join on. After a few moments, he then decided on which server to join.
"Alright, Iwagawa Airfield", Keima said as he clicked the rectangular link with the Iwagawa Airfield's name on it.
As soon as he clicked the link of the server of his choosing, the game then loaded again. A few moments later, a new screen showed up which happened to be asking what name he'll use in the game.
"Well, that's quite easy", Keima said as he typed on the textbox on screen, "Let's call it 'Kami'."
Clicking the OK button, the game then loaded again. As the game loaded, Keima took another sip on the bottle of energy drink on the table next to him. A few moments later, the game eventually finished loading.
"What?", Keima said as the game's user interface greeted him.
The user interface, consisting of six circular links, five smaller ones arranged in a star pattern with the sixth circle that was larger than the five other ones being in the center, located on the left side of the screen with a kanmusu, the human anthropomorphic personifications of Second World War warships, which were effectively the units the player, dubbed as an "Admiral", commands in-game on the right. This would have been normal if this showed up after he selected a starter ship, which could be Fubuki, Samidare, Murakumo, Sazanami, and Inazuma according to the game's wiki.
Unfortunately, the game's user interface showed up after he confirmed his inputted in-game name. Obviously, something was wrong. Unless, the information on the wiki he visited was now outdated by the time he saw it. As much as people talk about this game, Keima knew that not all information can be updated quickly. Either way, seeing there was nothing he could do, Keima just decided to play the game like any other player will do.
First thing he did was inspect the kanmusu, which appears to be the one assigned to him randomly if he were to guess, on screen. The kanmusu in question has her hair, colored in a shade of yellow making her a blonde, in pigtails with small anchors adorning her hair in the same way a ribbon does one on each side for a total of two. She was also wearing a peaked cap as well. As for clothes, she's wearing what appeared to be the top of a typical WW2 military's battle dress uniform with a black cross and a royal emblem of some kind decorating her left shoulder along with a slightly larger anchor for a tie. She's also wearing a short miniskirt. Behind her was a quad of twin-barreled cannons attached to her rigging which appears to be strapped behind her like a belt of some kind.
Should any attempt to click her be done just like any kanmusu as per the game's features say, it results in her letting out a childish sugary-inducing squeal. Keima frowned on that. The kanmusu obviously wasn't a kid given how she looks like. She even has a pair already which was accentuated by her uniform.
"What a mismatch", Keima commented.
With his first kanmusu in-game already accounted for, he clicked the Formation circle which is the topmost circle on screen. The game took a few moments to load up. When it finally loaded up, the first thing that greeted him were two columns of rectangular boxes with each column having three such boxes. Of the boxes, the left topmost box, marked by the number "1"superimposed inside a decorative golden circular five-petal flower, a chrysanthemum, has a rectangular snapshot of his first kanmusu's face with her name on its left. On the right of her name was her level, which was currently level one, and below it was apparently her HP bar. Below what seems to be a smaller box holding his kanmusu's name, level, and HP bar was what appears to be the four basic stats. The four stats themselves have icons that represent them. The first stat was represented by a twin-cannon gun turret pointing right and the second stat represented by another gun like the first one but has only one cannon on it and was facing the other direction. Below the two stats were another pair of stats with one of them represented by a pair of what seems to be rockets while the other one was represented by a slab of ship plating. Meanwhile, the bottom right part of the box, which was just under the image of his kanmusu's face, has another bar that was two to three times longer than her HP bar but appears to be empty and below that were two buttons. One of them was a yellow button with an icon of a magnifying glass and to its right was a green button with an arrow pointing right for its icon.
"If I'm not mistaken, the yellow button is for inspecting the stats of the kanmusu while the green one is meant to replace her with another kanmusu", Keima said.
Seeing that he just started playing the game meaning he likely doesn't have any other kanmusu other than what appears to be his starter ship, Keima didn't bothered clicking the green button as it won't show a list of kanmusu available as replacements anyway. He also didn't bothered clicking the yellow button either as, since he just started playing the game, he doesn't need any high-stat kanmusu yet. Considering that, assuming the wiki was still spot on about this, the opposition he was likely to encounter in-game for now wouldn't that be that tough that even the starter ship he was supposed to choose should be able to handle fairly easily.
Shifting his attention on another matter, he clicked one of the tabs in the horizontal menu bar that occupies the entire top part of the screen. The tab he clicked was the one that blinks every now and then. After he clicked it, the screen went black with a rotating circle at the bottom right indicating that the next page was loading. The next screen eventually showed up. A black-haired girl with glasses wearing what seems to be a sailor's outfit with a white-blue color scheme and a short hakama occupied the right part of the screen. On clicking the girl, the girl cheered up and went away by sliding downwards on the screen leaving the quest page, given that the page shows quests that need to be completed, in full view.
"Let's see…", Keima said, "Now, which quest should be easy to complete?"
Keima browsed through the available quests finding for any that can be easily completed. After several moments, he found a few quests that can be done easily.
"Got this", Keima said, "Two quests in one go. Craft a ship and Sortie a Fleet."
After selecting the two quests, Keima went back to the main page where his first kanmusu was waiting. When the page loaded, the kanmusu greeted Keima in a mix of some German words and some babble of Japanese words.
"Okay, let's craft a ship", Keima said as he clicked the circle that says "Construction".
A few moments later, the Construction page loaded. On the right side were four yards where ships can be built. Of the four, two were ready to be used while the next two ones were locked indicating they have to be bought with real money first. On the left side of the screen were four icons. From top to bottom, they were the Ship Construction which cannot be clicked since the page was technically for construction of ships already. The next one was the Scrap Ships option which can be used for disposing unneeded ships. The third being Equipment Development which was for making equipment that the Kanmusu use in battle and the last one was Scrap Equipment option which works similarly to Scrap Ship option but scraps unneeded equipment instead.
Keima then clicked one of the available empty yards so he can build a new kanmusu. Instead of a new page loading, a new page just slid up showing four counters with each counter corresponding to each resource that he has. The resources in question were fuel, ammunition, steel, and bauxite. Currently, he has a thousand per each resource.
With a seemingly reasonable amount of resources for a start, Keima chose one of the recipes he found on the game's wiki.
"Okay, two hundred fifty fuel, thirty ammo, two hundred steel, and thirty bauxite", Keima said as he verified the amount of resource he put in each counter.
When he was sure of the resource counts on all of the counters, he clicked the build button just below the four counters.
The construction page came into view again and the resource counters tab slid back with the shipyard dock he selected now has a ship being built there along with a timer before it can be completed and a pair of super-deformed figures, called "fairies" in-game, appeared to be working on it. Seeing the button, which was called "Instant Build" on the dock's right, he immediately clicked it. Clicking "yes" to the confirmation screen that appeared, the timer stopped ticking down. A few moments later another fairy popped out from the right and shot the ship currently being constructed with a flamethrower. As soon as the ship got hit by the flame thrower, the timer quickly went down until it reached zero. When that happened, the two fairies that were hammering the ship in a simple representation of dock workers building ships in real life earlier began jumping up and down while the fairy who shot the flame thrower exited to the right.
Seeing the ship was available now, Keima clicked it.
The screen then flashed white and remained as such for a few moments. After half a minute, the screen showed a rainbow hologram background with a short-haired girl in a sailor's outfit with no pants in the middle of it. The same girl was also carrying a pair of binoculars and wears some ornaments on her head that makes her look like a beaver. The newly-built kanmusu began speaking her introductory line upon being built but Keima didn't pay any attention to it.
"Okay, a rainbow background", Keima said, "It looks like I hit a rare ship in the first try already."
Keima noted that fact. From what he read in the game's wiki, kanmusu with a rainbow background were rare that a player will usually end up wasting a lot of resources just to get them. It was said that it wasn't uncommon for players to have done a hundred or so attempts to get a specific rare kanmusu of their choosing. There were also times that the same applies to what was supposed to be common kanmusu but that probably has something to do with just luck.
After the screen went back to the Construction page, Keima clicked the Formation box on the leftmost side of the screen and took him to the page where he can assign which kanmusu goes in which fleet. Once the Formation page loaded, Keima immediately clicked the green button on the second empty slot, just to the right of his first kanmusu, and immediately clicked the kanmusu he just built from the list that popped up from the right side of the screen. The game loaded for a bit as his newly-built kanmusu got added to his first fleet which was what he can effectively just use at the moment.
With two ships now in his fleet, he then clicked the button that redirects him back on the page where his first kanmusu was waiting. Just like earlier, his first kanmusu greeted him with the same words. As soon as the page loaded, he clicked the Sortie circle which was in the center of the five smaller ones which then directed him to a page that has a picture of a dockyard in the background with three large circles superimposed on it. The leftmost circle was colored red and it shows a battleship's main gun and an aircraft. The middle circle, which was grayed-out at the moment making it impossible to click, shows two super-deformed human figures with one wearing a white navy dress uniform and the other wearing a typical WW2 soldier's uniform. And the rightmost circle, also grayed-out like the middle one and can't be clicked as well, shows a compass and some resources.
Seeing obviously what he should click, Keima clicked the red circle and a new screen slid out showing four rectangular boxes and six icons at the bottom. Of the four rectangular boxes, only the top left box was available. The other three has a padlock icon in the middle. Like earlier, it was obvious what to click and he clicked the top left box. A new tab slid out from the right side of the screen showing some details and the sortie button at the bottom which he clicked.
As soon as he clicked the sortie button, the screen blacked out and showed some words before the map showed up but not before his first kanmusu, which was set at the flagship position, showed briefly. With the map in full view, the green shape of a ship appeared from what looks like the steering wheel of an Age of Discovery sailing ship before going to a small node, depicted as a small circle, linked to the steering wheel icon which seems to indicate the starting point by a line. When the green outline of the ship made contact with the node, a ripple effect triggered and showed his first kanmusu briefly again before some Japanese characters indicating that combat was about to begin showed up.
A few moments later, the battle screen showed up with his kanmusu on the left side and the enemy on the right side. The screen darkened a bit as more kanji started showing up. A few moments later, all of the kanji disappeared. His first kanmusu was the first to open fire on the enemy ships called Abyssals which look like monsters from a Lovecraft-inspired horror story. As his first kanmusu opened fire, a line slightly titled diagonally appeared with the words "SKC34 20.3cm cannon" showed up.
"Hmm… so she's a heavy cruiser", Keima noted.
Checking the wiki again on a separate page, 20.3cm cannons were the primary armament of most heavy cruiser-type kanmusu by default. Since his first kanmusu use a weapon like that, she was then a heavy cruiser.
Noticing that there's only one enemy to deal with while he has two kanmusu, the battle will be over as soon as either of his kanmusu took out the only enemy in the opposing fleet. Speaking of that enemy ship, his first kanmusu dealt a critical hit on it sinking it in just one shot. With the enemy ship sunk, the battle ended and the result screen showed up afterwards. Since his first kanmusu was the one who killed the enemy ship, she got the MVP award which gave her even more experience points than the second ship which he just built earlier. His first kanmusu also spoke in her sugar-inducing tone which further implies that she got said award.
After clicking the battle results, a notification showed up indicating that he just got a ship drop. Clicking the screen for a second time, the screen showed up the animation of a card spinning as it occupied the center of the screen before exploding into a bright white light. He then saw the kanmusu that dropped.
Sporting short pink hair with a short ponytail and wearing a white polo under a gray school vest with a skirt of a matching color with the vest and some black spats underneath, the new kanmusu, a girl just a few years younger than Keima in appearance, introduced herself in a stoic and monotonous tone. Keima noted the torpedo tubes attached to her legs which seem to be her primary weapon.
After seeing the kanmusu who just dropped, he was then met with the option of either advancing forward or retreating. Seeing that both of his ships were still in good condition, he opted to advance. The game then loaded a bit before taking him back to the map with the green figure of the ship indicating his fleet now on the node he just beat. A compass then showed up with a fairy in a wizard-like getup seeing her hat and what seems to be a wand with an arrow for a tip to its right. He clicked the compass causing it to spin. It took a few moments before the compass stopped and his fleet got sent to a node which turned into a horned head that was a bit bigger than the last node that just turned red indicating that it was the boss node that will unlock the next map as soon as it was defeated once.
Like before, battle was immediately initiated and a loading screen showed up. The loading screen gave way to the battle screen showing both fleets, Keima's and the enemy's, on the left and right of the screen with the former amounting to two kanmusu and the latter to three enemies. After several kanji showed up, both fleets opened fire on each other. Keima's first kanmusu was the first to attack and the attack in question nailed its target with a critical hit where the damage surmounted to more than a hundred points of damage. After that, one of the enemy ships attacked and decided to hit his second kanmusu. Fortunately, said kanmusu managed to dodge the attack. After that, the second kanmusu opened fire and critically damaged one of the enemy. Incidentally the enemy she hit was the same one that tried to hit her. Another enemy attacked but failed to hit Keima's first kanmusu. After that, a line of kanji highlighted by green light showed up in the middle of the screen as the remaining ships that weren't critically damaged launched a closing torpedo salvo. Said torpedo exchange completely nailed the last surviving enemy ship while none of Keima's kanmusu was hit.
"Well, that went better than expected", Keima said as the battle result screen like the one earlier showed up.
After clicking the battle result screen, with his first kanmusu taking MVP again, another notification showed up indicating that he got another ship drop.
"Another battle, another ship drop", Keima muttered as he clicked the screen again to see which kanmusu was it this time.
The same animation of a card spinning as it went to the center of the screen played out before exploding into bright white light again. When the light subsided, Keima was greeted with the sight of a kanmusu that took the form of a girl his age wearing an orange-colored sailor outfit with a black tie and a dark orange skirt. As far as personality goes, this kanmusu was the invert of the first ship drop he got what with this kanmusu's seemingly energetic personality that seems to turn into one of hyperactivity especially when talking about "night battle" as she said her introductory line.
"Night battle, huh?", Keima said as he glanced on the clock on his computer.
Upon seeing that it was already 2 AM in the morning, Keima decided to get some sleep. He still has class tomorrow. Just as he was about to turn off the computer after logging out of his account on both his mail and the website where he just played the game, he ended up glancing to the side of his computer desk as he thought he saw somebody.
And somebody was actually there. Although the lights were out, Keima can still make out the distinct features of the person inside his room which was just literally in front of him.
First off, it was a girl. She's wearing a peaked cap and her blonde hair was arranged in pigtails with mini anchors serving as ribbons. As if to match her peaked cap that speaks volume of being a military personnel, she's also wearing a battle dress uniform with her bountiful assets being accentuated by it and a rather dangerously short miniskirt. The miniskirt was so short that Keima can wager that doing a skirt flip with it should be easy as a pie. She's wearing boots and knee length socks given that her socks just only extends all the way up to her knees. Remembering the game he just played, the girl in front of him resembles his first kanmusu.
Keima stared at the girl with the girl's green eyes staring back in return. From a girl's perspective, his stare was one that can be easily lumped in with that of a creepy pervert. As a result, the girl was blushing red just by Keima's stare. However, he, with his galge gaming mind working on, ended up going for a much closer look at the girl that managed to somehow get inside his room without him realizing it causing the girl's face to go even redder. A couple of minutes later, he backed off and thought deeply about this.
"Okay", Keima thought as his fingers touched his chin, "How did a girl managed to get inside my room?"
Keima looked around inside his room. The first that he looked at was the window of his room. It was shut close meaning the girl in front of him can't break through there. He then looked at the door. It wasn't locked meaning she could have entered his room from there. However, either his mom or Elsie would have spotted her before she can even get in front of the door of his room if she really went there unless she was able to sneak in which seems highly unlikely.
Running out of options, Keima stared at the girl, who still hasn't moved where she was standing, and walked closer to her.
"Okay, how did you managed to get inside my room?", Keima asked calmly, "And who are you?"
The girl tried to answer but all she was able to say was some babble of incoherent words in a sugar-inducing tone.
Keima, upon hearing the tone of the voice in question, massaged his forehead for several moments and looked around. Seeing the bottle of energy drink that was already half-full resting on the table, he grabbed it before switching his focus to it and the girl several times. After a while, he took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and put his glasses back. However, the girl was still there indicating she was real at least.
He continued staring at the girl who was getting embarrassed from the stare she's receiving from Keima for a few more minutes before he sighed.
"Damn", Keima said, "I'm starting to hallucinate things."
After speaking, Keima drank the remaining contents of the bottle of energy drink and put it down on the table before making his way for his bed removing his glasses upon reaching it.
"A good night sleep should make this hallucination go away", Keima said off-handedly as he lied down on his bed and pulled the blanket over him before going to sleep.
As Keima's consciousness went to dreamland, he could hear the girl screaming to him in her sugar-inducing tone. Said girl appears to be also trying her best to shake him up off the bed and talk to him given that he can feel her hands, quite light if he were to be asked, attempting to remove his blanket while babbling in incoherent German from the sound of it as well. Because the girl's hands were quite light while Keima's grip on the blanket was firm, the girl was unable to remove the blanket covering Keima.
A few hours later, the first rays of light came into view and a girl's childish voice can be heard just outside Keima's room.
"KAMI-SAMAAA!", the girl's voice from the other side of the door yelled, "It's morning already! We'll be late for school if you don't get up quickly!"
A couple of knocks on the door was heard as the girl just outside Keima's room urged him to get up and prepare for school. With Keima apparently still not having any ideas of getting up from his bed, the girl decided to barge inside his room. Noticing that the door wasn't apparently locked upon trying to twist the door knob, the girl immediately barged in from the door.
The girl, wearing a white-red-pink color-schemed female student uniform of Maijima High with a pink flowing gel-like long piece of cloth and a broom with her, came through the door and started berating Keima for being a sloth.
"Nii-sama! You should…", the girl, Elsie, trailed off upon seeing what was in front of her.
In front of her is her older brother still on his bed apparently sleeping with his blanket still all over him. However, there was a person on top of his older brother. Said person was a girl wearing clothes that screams fanservice good enough that it can turn on any male otaku's hormones if the dangerously short miniskirt and her military-style uniform that accentuates her figure especially her rack was any indication.
Getting a certain impression from what she just saw, Elsie blurted out.
"NII-SAMA, YOU IDIOT!", Elsie screamed.
Elsie's scream reverberated inside the room strong enough that it caused Keima to fall off his bed. With a thud, Keima groaned as he felt hitting the floor in the fall.
"Elsie…", Keima groaned, "Didn't I tell you not to get inside my room?"
"NII-SAMA! You just brought a girl inside your room!", Elsie yelled, "That's so unfair!"
"What?", Keima asked.
Before he can speak anything else, the girl from last night came into his view. The girl, seeing that Keima's gaze was locked onto her, immediately stepped off him. Regaining his balance, Keima looked at the girl for a few good moments before wearing his glasses. After seeing the girl was still there even with his glasses on, he immediately turned to Elsie.
"Elsie, did you do something to me last night?", Keima asked.
"I didn't", Elsie answered, "Nii-sama, just who is this girl? You said you have no interest in real girls."
"I don't know either", Keima said as he turned on the girl, "Just who are you?"
"I… I'm Prinz Eugen", the girl said as her sugary-inducing tone rang inside the room.
"What?", Keima thought, "The name she just said sounds more of a guy's. What's going on?"
Deciding to see if his suspicion was correct, Keima walked towards the girl calling herself 'Prinz Eugen'. He stared at her for a few more seconds, causing Prinz Eugen to blush, before doing something that no sane or straight guy would do to check if a girl was a trap.
He groped her breasts which her uniform was obviously accentuating. Prinz Eugen let out a cute squeal as Keima groped her chest while Elsie was completely dumbstuck over what his older brother just did. Meanwhile, as Keima groped Prinz Eugen's assets, he began to think.
"Hmm… these things are real", Keima thought before turning to Elsie, "Elsie, use your sensor to…"
Keima was unable to finish what he was about to say as the end of a broom met his face head on. He then found himself flipping over and crashed straight to his bed face first.
"Ouch…", Keima groaned from the sudden impact.
"Nii-sama! You pervert!", Elsie yelled, "Stupid Nii-sama! Stupid Nii-sama!"
A few seconds later, Keima went back up as if nothing happened. Adjusting his glasses once again, he creepily stared with his glasses shining opaquely at Prinz Eugen.
"So you're actually a girl", Keima said as he closed in on Prinz Eugen until they're almost face to face, "For a real girl with an inappropriate name, you possess several traits that only 2D girls have and sport them well. However…"
Keima then turned to Elsee, whose jaw was dropped as if she saw something shocking, and belayed an order to her.
"Elsie, use your sensor on her, this girl might possess a runaway spirit which probably allowed her to sneak inside my room last night", Keima ordered.
"A…A-ah yes!", Elsie said, "Kami-sama didn't get attracted from this girl in front of him. Maybe he really isn't that kind of person."
Elsee then used her sensor on Prinz Eugen. However, instead of making a beeping noise that indicates that a runaway spirit was close by. I didn't make any response whatsoever.
"Wait a second", Elsie said, "The runaway spirit sensor will immediately trigger if there is a runaway spirit nearby automatically. Since my sensor didn't make any response, this girl doesn't have a runaway spirit."
"Hmm…", Keima thought, "So there's no runaway spirit involved here. That's reassuring. That means I won't have to do any conquering after the last one. However, just who exactly is this girl? There's still no explanation how she managed to get inside my room quietly."
"Elsie, is it possible this girl is also a member of the Runaway Spirit Squad?", Keima asked suddenly.
"Uh, no", Elsie said as she brought up her hagoromo, the gel-like piece of cloth floating around her, which turned into something resembling a computer screen, "There's no such person in our squad."
"So she isn't one of Elsee's comrades", Keima thought.
Just before Keima can think further on what to do, Elsie yelled at him.
"Kami-sama! Prepare for school now!", Elsie yelled, "We'll be late if you still don't prepare!"
Keima looked at himself and noticed that he still hasn't dressed up for school yet.
"Damn, I need to get dressed up for school", Keima muttered.
Keima wasted no time going out of his room to have a shower before donning his school uniform. It took him less than fifteen minutes to get it all done. By the time it was over, he already had his backpack hunched on his back and was on his way down to the first floor of his home where his mother was waiting for him with Elsie and Prinz Eugen in tow.
Unfortunately for Keima, he only realized that Prinz Eugen was with them when the three of them had already entered the dining room leaving them in full view of his mother. Bracing himself for the worst, as his mother doesn't know who Prinz Eugen was for sure, he began to quickly think of excuses he can do to escape this unnecessarily triggered event.
However, the first thing that his mother said instantly defused the problem that Keima was anticipating.
"Poniko-chan, hurry up and dress for school. I know you have a liking for anime much like Keima over there but do it in moderation", Keima's mother, Mari Katsuragi, said, "I already filled up the necessary documents for you to get enrolled in school after you went home from Germany the other day. It would be disappointing if you don't get to school on your first day."
"What?", Keima thought, "Mom just acted as if this girl was living with us all along. Just who is this girl?"
"Ah, yes mother", Prinz Eugen replied.
With so many thoughts racing in his mind, Keima wasn't able to ask his mother about the girl, Prinz Eugen, that she just called "Poniko." Since it would look suspicious for him to ask who Poniko was when her mother was acting as if she had been part of the family all along, he ruled out asking his mother about this. A few moments later, he managed to finish his breakfast. However, instead of going to school, Keima and Elsie were forced to wait as Mari had Prinz Eugen dress up for school and accompany the two.
Several minutes later, Prinz Eugen, now dressed in the same uniform as Elsie, showed up. With Prinz Eugen now dressed for school and carrying a hand bag where all her school items were stored, the trio then departed and went on their way to school.
Silence determined the atmosphere of the long walk from home to school. Aside from the sound of footsteps, there was not even chatter among the three as they walked. However, after some moments, Keima was the one to break the silence.
"So, who are you really?", Keima asked, "As far as I recall, I don't have a younger sister going by the name of Poniko."
"I-I'm Prinz Eugen", Prinz Eugen answered, "A heavy cruiser of the Admiral Hipper-class."
"What?", Keima said as he looked at Prinz Eugen from head to toe, "You don't look like a ship."
However, the next thing that Prinz Eugen, after putting her hand bag on the ground, did shocked Keima and Elsie as well.
Out of nowhere, a quad of twin-mount heavy cruiser cannons materialized out of nowhere. Said cannons were smaller than the actual guns used by real heavy cruisers but they were still big that they would have weighed down Prinz Eugen, who wasn't showing any signs of being burdened by it, severely. As if the cannons not weighing down Prinz Eugen don't make a lot of sense, the next thing that Keima realized was that all four twin gun mounts were attached to a belt strapped to Prinz Eugen's waist by limb-like extensions. The belt-like ring of metal that was strapped on Prinz Eugen also had what appears to be the bow of a ship attached to both sides of it as well. By rule of physics, the metallic limbs supporting the cannons should have crumpled down already since there's no way those thin metal limbs can support the weight of the cannons. The bow of a ship attached to her metal belt shouldn't also be able to support it. However, both of them do.
Despite all of this, the most glaring thing that Keima noticed was her outfit. Instead of the Maijima High female student uniform she was wearing earlier, she's now wearing that same uniform that screams fanservice from earlier. She even wears a peaked cap. While Elsie was blabbering incoherent nonsense over what she just saw, Keima began to think over what just happened.
"Now that I thought about it", Keima thought, "She kind of looks familiar now."
As Keima's thoughts went deeper, he suddenly remembered something now that he saw Prinz Eugen in that form.
"Wait", Keima thought as he stared hard at Prinz Eugen, "That game from last night!"
Adjusting his glasses, Keima then began to speak.
"Do you, by any chance, have somebody you consider as your older sister?", Keima asked.
"Y-Yes", Prinz Eugen replied.
"Hmm… looks like I now have an idea to what's going on", Keima thought as he sighed, "She's a battleship isn't it?"
"That's right", Prinz Eugen said.
At that point, Keima now knew what really was going on. While playing the game last night, he read the wiki related to the game and learned a lot of things pertaining to the game. One of them was the information about Prinz Eugen. Remembering the information about her on the wiki, she deems Bismarck, the only German battleship currently in-game, as her older sister. However, as far as he was concerned, it's quite far-fetched. After all, Prinz Eugen was a heavy cruiser whereas Bismarck was a battleship. If there's somebody that can be considered as Prinz Eugen's sisters, it would be her sister ships. Either way, she looks somewhat similar to Bismarck so it's quite convincing.
"Got it", Keima replied, "Now that reminds me, how did you exactly came into reality? You're just a girl of the game world."
"About that", Prinz Eugen replied, "There's a screen of light that appeared in front of me showing you. The next moment that came out, I'm already in front of you."
"In galges that deal with virtual girls in-universe", Keima thought, "Whenever virtual girls get summoned, there's a ritual that has to be done beforehand... wait, could be me playing the game for the first time be that ritual?"
Keima looked at Prinz Eugen before shifting his attention elsewhere with some of his fingers below his chin.
"If I did summoned her through that way", Keima thought, "Could it be possible that the other kanmusu I now have in-game also pop out?"
Thinking about it, he tried to recall how many kanmusu he got so far in the game. As far as he can tell, he got Prinz Eugen, two destroyers, and a light cruiser; Four kanmusu in total.
"Should it come down to it, I have to deal with three other 2D girls", Keima thought before switching his attention back on Prinz Eugen, "Poniko, change back into your student clothes now."
Keima then looked around the surroundings only to see that nobody was there except the three of them.
"We don't want to drag attention", Keima added.
"Y-yes!", Prinz Eugen replied.
In a flash, Prinz Eugen was back in the same Maijima High female student uniform she was wearing earlier. With herself back to wearing her student uniform, Prinz Eugen grabbed her hand bag that she put on the ground earlier.
With things under clear understanding now, the three continued on their way. Along the way, Keima asked several more questions to Prinz Eugen.
"Prinz Eugen, are those cannons of yours as powerful as the real ones?", Keima asked.
"Yes", Prinz Eugen replied.
"I see", Keima said, "Do they need real ammunition by the way?"
"No, they don't exactly need mundane ammunition", Prinz Eugen answered, "I can tell you more about it at home later."
"Well that takes care of that thing", Keima said, "Hmm… since they seem to be not limited by ammunition in the way I'm thinking, there's no worry of her running out should the need arise."
The one thought that Keima just had now put him on a stop. However, he was able to conceal it with a poker face look as he continued walking together with Elsie and Prinz Eugen.
"What would I need it for anyway?", Keima thought to himself.
Recalling what he knows of the game starting from last night, the kanmusu were effectively magic in that they were the human personifications of historical warships packing the firepower and durability of the warships they represent then some more of it in human form. However, what makes them truly magical was that they were the only ones capable of damaging the Abyssals, listed by the game's wiki as the vengeful spirits of fallen warships, the primary enemies of the kanmusu.
Spirits…
The Weiss were also spirits although the specific term used on them was "runaway spirits." Keima thought deeply about this one fact that he noticed. Since the weaponry that the kanmusu wield was capable of damaging what amounts to hostile spirits, could they also affect the Weiss in the same manner since they were also spirits?
Before it can get any far, Keima knocked the thought off his head. The Abyssals and the Weiss, while both spirits, were still different from each other. For one, the former was simply the enemy of the game that Prinz Eugen came from while the other was a real threat that can only be truly dealt with with the help of a Runaway Spirit Squad member such as Elsie. However, since Prinz Eugen was real now, it's possible that the Abyssals were now real as well.
Keima shuddered at the thought of it. Although the Weiss was guaranteed real as far as he know, he has a breathing space when it comes to them since they start out pretty weak, as far as his encounters with them were considered, giving him more than ample time to deal with them while they're vulnerable. By contrast, the Abyssals were vengeful spirits fueled by hate and other negative energies. To make matters worse, it's highly unlikely that the trick he uses to deal with the Weiss will work on them unless... it does for some bizarre reason or two. Worst case, he might end up having to deal with some of them, the Hime and Oni-type Abyssals in particular, should they be real.
Doing a simple comparison that doesn't count things like existence, the one that already has a self-sustaining power source, as hate and grudge doesn't die out on its own, if it does, easily, was simply far more dangerous than the one that has to get its power source from somewhere before it can become powerful.
As Keima's thoughts went deeper, he along with Elsie and Prinz Eugen had entered Maijima High's premises without him realizing it. Several moments after they entered, several murmurs from the other students already inside the premises or just about to enter started to crop up.
"Hey, who's that girl?", a male student whispered, "She looks cute."
"Looks like a transfer student to me", a female student whispered.
"I wonder on which class and year she'll be in", another male student whispered.
"She's wearing the female high school student uniform and she looks to be our age so she might be a second year like us", his friend said, "I wonder on which class she'll be in though."
"Wait a second…", another male student whispered, "She's accompanied by otamega and her sister!"
"No way!", his friend exclaimed, "I can't believe this!"
"Just what is his relation with her?!", a third male student grumbled in annoyance.
As the whispers and gossips continued to surmount, neither of the three paid any attention to it with Keima deep in his thoughts. He was thinking so deeply that he didn't even bothered to bring out his PFP to play it which was what he was doing roughly every single day on the way to school.
After climbing a few floors to get into their room, Keima and Elsie went to their seats. A few moments later, their home room teacher, Nikaido-sensei, showed up.
"Before classes can begin", Nikaido said, "I would like to announce that we have a new transfer student in."
Murmurs filled the room as every student other than Keima and Elsie speculated on what kind of person the transfer student will be. However, before their speculations can get any further, the door slid open. With the door out of the way, the students got a clear view of who the transfer student was.
Upon first sight, the boys in the class were allured when they saw the transfer student. It was a girl wearing the Maijima High female student uniform. Sporting green eyes and blond hair along with a youthful-looking face, she caught the eyes of every single boy inside the classroom. With the door open, the new student walked in until she's in front of the class. After writing her name on the blackboard, she then spoke which caught every student bar Keima and Elsie by surprise.
"Hi, everyone", Prinz Eugen said, "I'm Katsuragi Poniko, the new transfer student. I hope that everyone is nice to my brother, Keima, sister, Elsie, and me!"
As everyone was caught by surprise by the statement, especially by the tone of it, Keima adjusted his glasses as be brought out his PFP to play it.
"Well, this new game starts now", Keima thought as he turned on his PFP.
- PROLOGUE END -
PS: This story, assuming I'm able to follow up on this with more chapters, will likely be more or less about slapstick humor at best. Expect a lot of shenanigans in later chapters as the story progresses. By the way, since the kanmusu are basically anime girls with lots of typical anime girl clichés attached to them, almost everything that Keima knows about 2D girls, which are basically anime girls as well, will apply to them.
Also, in case you haven't noticed, I specifically didn't mention the names of any kanmusu that appeared in this chapter save for one of them but I did describe them. Anyone that plays (and familiar with) the game Kantai Collection should be able to figure out who they are based on the description alone. I even used their most notable characteristics so the people concerned should be easily able to identify them based on just that.
Now that I thought about it, since various kanmusu will be appearing in later chapters and, thus, interact with Keima, I find it important to make a table on which age bracket does each kanmusu belong to because Keima stressed at one point that the age of the girl depends on how a conquest will go (and, therefore, how will he behave when around them). For starters (note: this is just my take so this is liable to errors):
All of the destroyer kanmusu bar some exceptions (i.e. some of the Kagerou-class, the three Akizuki-class, some of the Yuugumo-class, among the others) will be in the same age bracket as Minami (the swimmer girl). Meanwhile, destroyer kanmusu that appear far younger (i.e. all four Akatsuki-class, three of the Yuugumo-class, all but perhaps one of the Asashio-class, at least one of the Mutsuki-class) will be grade schooler kids. The destroyers marked as exceptions will be in Keima's age bracket.
As for the light cruisers, most of them will be in Keima's age bracket. Exceptions are two of them, both of them being 4-slot light cruisers (quite a rarity seeing every other light cruiser only has 3 slots in-game), are old enough to pass to Kusunoki's age bracket. The two light cruisers of the Tenryuu class could probably be put on Kusunoki's age bracket as well since they kinda look old enough for that. While technically not light cruisers, one of the two training cruisers could either be on Keima's age range or Kusunoki's while the other is in Nikaido and Jun's range (both teachers with the former being Keima's teacher while the latter is a friend of Nikaido's on top of being one of Keima's conquest targets in canon).
Regarding the heavy cruisers, all members of both the Takao and Myoukou classes are on Nikaido and Jun's age bracket. Meanwhile, those of the Mogami, Aoba, and Furutaka classes as well as Prinz Eugen are in Keima's age bracket. The Tone-class is kind of a toss-up to me and I'm not sure if they'll be in Kusunoki's age bracket or just in the same age range as Keima.
As for the battleships, all of them will also be in the same age bracket as Nikaido and Jun. They're all obviously old enough for this to be the case.
For the Aircraft Carriers, they're on the same boat (no pun intended) as the battleships which means they're also on Nikaido and Jun's age bracket. However, the two Shoukaku-class carriers and that carrier that bears Keima's surname look young enough that they look like they'll fit in well in Kusunoki's age bracket so they go there. For the only German aircraft carrier in game, she kind of looks like to be on the same age as Prinz Eugen in-game so I'll lump her on Keima's age bracket as well. Ditto for the light carriers except two of them (one uses scrolls to launch her aircraft while the other uses a bow) which I think can be tossed in Keima's age bracket since they look young enough. The same also applies to the only armored aircraft carrier in-game (the one that you don't need any remodels to turn into one).
Lastly, for the submarines, they're similar to destroyers which means they'll also be in Minami's age bracket save for one (the one with almost no combat capability) which will fall as a grade schooler.
Well, that's what I have in mind. Like what I said above, I took the effort to ensure that I didn't specifically mention any kanmusu by name except when referring to their classes. However, if a kanmusu makes her first appearance in a chapter, I'll start referring to that kanmusu by name in the author's notes from that point on provided she did introduced herself in said chapter. If a kanmusu appears in a chapter but doesn't introduce herself to Keima or to others, she won't be referred by her name until she introduces herself.
By the way, regarding Prinz Eugen's name "Poniko", I got it from Yume Nikki. Japanese names that start with "P" seems fairly rare for some reason at least to me.
Anyway, next up: Prepare for a serving of pudding.
