DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kantai Collection or any of the characters whatsoever. This includes the actual ships, their histories, etc. I'm just a fan of Kancolle as a gamer and of the ships as a history lover, nothing more.


(1)

Hot. She was burning up. Sweat trickled down her neck as she stood back up, forcing herself to endure the intense heat. She shrugged off the damage she had taken. There was no time to complain. Her enemy was standing on the water in front of her, a smirk on her face.

"What's the matter, Kiso? You're sweating buckets. Is the great Tenryuu-sama too hot for you? I'll turn down the heat if you beg me."

The arrogant provocation from the eye-patched ship girl, Tenryuu, was enough to convince Kiso to keep moving. She bit her lip until it bled. The pain woke her up.

"Hot? No way. It's actually gotten a bit cooler," Kiso declared. Extending her left arm out, she commanded the naval gun that was part of the rigging she carried to follow suit. "See for yourself how cool I am!"

Firing as accurately as she could, the Kuma-class light cruiser kept her focus on her opponent's movements, ignoring the painful sensation of the hot equipment burning through her clothes. The zigzagging evasion Tenryuu performed tried to close the distance between them, but Kiso's left eye kept the Tenryuu-class cruiser in her sights. As the two's gazes met, a pair of excited smiles formed on the eye patched duo's faces.

Battles on the high seas were always filled of tension and passion. For ship girls like Kiso and Tenryuu, they were also just another part of their lives. The roaring of their equipment being driven to the breaking point, the adrenaline pumping through their veins, and the feeling of letting loose in a single attack everything they could muster, the two light cruiser girls loved testing their abilities against each other.

Bang!

Kiso discharged another shell, one aimed straight for her opponent's face. As it approached, Tenryuu's left arm swung her sword through the air. She did not cut the approaching shell, however. Instead, she used the heavy blade to hit the side of it, knocking it into the water. Soon after, the shell exploded. "Not bad," Tenryuu remarked before gesturing to the spinning turbine that was attached to her rigging. "But you're going to need more than firepower to beat me."

"My thoughts exactly," Kiso replied, sweat dripping off her face like a waterfall. She expected nothing less from her practice partner.

Click!

The sound coming from her rigging told Kiso that she was ready to launch her torpedoes. Knees bent and her teeth clenched, Kiso locked on. She wasn't the only one. Like all practice battles between the two hot-blooded light cruisers, this one was neck and neck. From her crouching stance, Tenryuu was also ready to make her final move of the day. The turbine Tenryuu had added to her combat equipment was roaring loudly, preparing for one final burst.

"Brace yourself, Kiso. This is Tenryuu-sama's Ultimate Turbine Attack!" Tenryuu rushed toward Kiso at breakneck speeds.

Kiso stomped her foot on the water's surface. The sheer intensity of her rigging's heat caused steam to form. Pointing straight ahead, she announced her torpedo strike with vigor. "I'll show you what a real attack is!"

"Bring it!" Tenryuu readied her sword for a full on thrust. "I call this one the Subsonic Dragon!"

Kiso grunted in reply. The battle would end with the next attack. With her opponent approaching at close to 40 knots, she launched the torpedoes.

Booooooom!

The battle was over; however, it ended before the final blow was struck. The second Kiso's attack began, a hole burst in the back of her rigging, knocking the ship girl off her feet, onto the water's surface. Smoke escaped the machinery quickly but not before a second explosion occurred on her naval gun. The secondary detonation from the left blew her several meters to her right. Her body skid across the water as she tumbled.

"Gwargh!" Kiso opened her mouth, but all she could do was vomit blood.

"What th-!? Kiso!" Tenryuu skid to a stop as quickly as she could. She dropped her sword as she saw her practice partner in pain. "Hey, Kiso!"

Kiso heard Tenryuu's voice, but her vision was hazy. Her rigging was on fire on and weighing down on her. She didn't have the energy to turn over. Tenryuu approached, reaching out to check for injuries but was forced to pull her hand back from the heat. Seeing no other choice, the light cruiser girl took off her blazer and tossed it over Kiso. She could then flip her so that her head was no longer in the water. She then removed the scorching red rigging as carefully as possible so as to not let the hot metal burn Kiso's skin further.

Kiso said nothing as Tenryuu assisted her. She could say nothing. There was only one thing on her mind as her heavy eyelids closed.

'It's hot…'


(2)

"This isn't an ordinary case of overheating. Repairing the rigging hasn't removed the problem and the replacement riggings are showing signs of the same stress."

"Yeah, looks like it's not just the rigging that's reached its limits. Let's go over the details with Yubari when we get back and see if there's anything else we can do, Akashi. Sorry we couldn't do anything else to help, Aoi. In the worst case scenario…"

"Please, don't mention that. I'd rather that scenario have a 0% chance of occurring. Thank you for coming, Vice Admiral, Repair Ship Akashi. I'm glad my Kiso was under your care."

The voices outside the recovery room stirred the sleeping ship girl from her rest. The subject matter was heavy, so she strained herself to listen. Of the three speakers outside, Kiso could discern one of them to be the familiar voice of her trusted commanding officer, Rear Admiral Yukiko Aoi.

"She'll be up on her feet again in a bit less than two hours. The remaining injuries will disappear after a little extra rest and a bath. Make sure to inform her. We'll report this incident to the fleet admiral and see if he has any insight on the matter. You understand what we're going to tell him, right? Sorry… I'll treat you to some drinks later if you need someone to talk to."

The sound of footsteps could be heard as the people outside left. They became softer and softer with each passing second. Soon after they faded, a knock could be heard on the door to Recovery Room 03 of the hospital wing of Sukumo Anchorage's naval base.

Knock! Knock!

"Pardon the intrusion, but you're awake aren't you, Kiso?"

"… Yeah… You can come in."

Kiso had been hesitant to respond, but she had to as she was speaking to her superior officer. Admiral Aoi did not enter, however. She remained standing outside, leaning against the door, the shadow of the back of her head visible through the opaque glass.

"I'm glad you got through that explosion with only moderate damage. As expected of one of my girls," complimented the woman. "You gave me quite a scare when Tenryuu towed you back pale as a ghost. Onee-san was worried, you know?"

The lighthearted remark from the admiral made Kiso feel a little better. "You sure don't sound like you were. Tho' I guess I should be thankin' ya for patching me up so quickly."

Speaking through the door had its benefits. The admiral couldn't see Kiso's face so she did not have to force herself to smile. She was trying to sort through the small snippets of the conversation she had heard earlier. Her rigging overheating seemed to have been the least of her problems. Her admiral choosing not to enter the room was clear that something was up.

"Kiso… how are you feeling right now? Hot? Cold?"

The admiral's question caught the Kuma-class light cruiser off guard. She inspected her own body. While there were bandages wrapped around her from her shoulders down to her stomach, there was no pain. If anything, the only complaint she had was that the bandages felt tight and sweaty.

"I feel pretty good actually. It's not hot like it was when I had my rigging on."

"I see. Then would you mind telling me what the temperature is in that room? It should say on the wall to your left."

Kiso did not understand why the admiral made such a request, so she complied out of curiosity. She noticed the thermometer hanging on the wall. The peak of the mercury was in an unnatural location. "Um… I think your thermometer's broken. It says it's around 40 degrees in here."

On the Celsius scale, such a temperature should have felt hot, but her body said otherwise.

"It's not broken, Kiso. That's definitely the temperature in there. You felt hot earlier because you were in contact with the metal rigging. If you touch something metal now, you would surely feel that same heat. Getting to the point, however, you've caught a little bit about what the vice admiral and Repair Ship Akashi were saying earlier, am I correct?"

Kiso flinched. The admiral was sharp. She knew her well. The light cruiser had been worried about what she had overheard, and the woman had picked up on it immediately.

A long sigh escaped Admiral Aoi, loud enough for Kiso to hear through the door. "… I'm not sure how much you heard, so let me quiz you. For starters: your rigging's overheating. Do you understand what the cause of that is?"

Kiso was about to reply that she assumed it was a problem in the machinery, but the temperature of the room gave her a big enough hint to reject the thought. In fact, she already had enough clues to give the admiral the correct answer. She just did not want to admit it.

"According to Akashi, other replacement riggings started to show the same behavior when we put them in contact with you," the admiral paraphrased the repair ship's account. "As a ship girl, you understand what that means, correct?"

"…Yes…"

Of course Kiso knew. A ship girl's ability to fight with the power of full sized ships never came from their equipment in the first place. If that were the case, any ordinary person could go into combat. Only ship girls could use the fairies' technology to combat the Abyssal Fleet. The reason why?

"The equipment the fairies develop can only work when the user supplies the energy straight from their very being: their souls. Ordinary humans can't do that. Only you ship girls can." Despite Kiso's earlier answer, Admiral Aoi still decided to explain to hammer the point in. "Unfortunately, you're body is emitting energy at far beyond the normal level, Kiso."

Kiso looked at her hands. As much as the admiral's explanation made sense of what had happened, she still refused to believe it. "No way… That sort of thing's just impossible."

"… I guess it's natural for you to think that."

Suddenly, the door opened. It closed just as quickly, but there was enough time for Kiso to see her admiral's white uniform as the woman threw something inside. Kiso jumped out of bed to see what it was. The second her bare feet came in contact with the floor, she realized it felt like she had jumped onto asphalt that was under the summer sun.

Kiso approached the item on the floor. It was an ice pack which melted rapidly, leaving a pool of water on the floor that also began to evaporate. When she picked it up, the process hastened. That confirmed the admiral's claim.

"Damnit…," she cursed. She couldn't deny it any longer. She didn't feel hot, but that was only because her body had gotten accustomed to the excess energy while she was unconscious. Her body really was affecting the environment. If she touched a person, just how badly could she…

Kiso froze. The face of an eye-patched rival of hers popped up in her mind.

"T-Tenryuu!" Kiso ran toward the door, slamming her fist into the wood. The energy she was releasing coupled with her blow and caused a large crack in the door. She had realized that if the ice melted so easily by her touch, she could have hurt her comrade without knowing. "She towed me back. How's she holdin' up? Don't tell me that I-"

The admiral waited for Kiso's breathing to settle before she gave her response. When she did, it was enough to calm the light cruiser down. "She's fine. Her clothes were singed pretty badly, but her own energy output was enough to counter yours and leave her body unharmed while she piggy-backed you home. She should be out of the docks in a few more minutes."

Kiso blinked. Assured by Admiral Aoi's confidence in her answer, the light cruiser girl let out a breath of relief. "Phew… Well, ain't that good news…?"

Unfortunately, the admiral did not feel the same.

"… While that may be the case, we're not taking any chances. Vice Admiral Tokita is going to the fleet admiral to request pulling you out of the fleet," the admiral's voice became softer, as though she had stepped away from the door. It was a little harder for Kiso to hear her superior, but the woman's words caused the ship girl's heart to sink.

"Pulling me out? You can't be serious!"

"As it stands now, if we send you out to sea, there's a high probability you'll be a danger to yourself and the others. We can't risk you or your rigging overheating in the middle of combat. You'll be relieved of your duties for the sake of the fleet."

Kiso raised her fist, ready to slam it into the wooden door, but she stopped when she realized that the admiral had a point. She relaxed her arm, letting it fall to her side. She clicked her tongue. It was the only thing she could do to let her emotions seep out. "Tch!"

"I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you all of this, Kiso. There's nothing worse than having to dismiss one of your best girls…," Admiral Aoi found continuing the conversation difficult when she knew that her subordinate was so vulnerable.

"Nothing worse? That's a rich lie," Kiso ground her teeth. "Just where the hell am I going to go if I'm like this, huh? Are you going to just dispose of me now that I'm at my limit? Don't tell me you do this to other ship girls, too. Did you really think you could get away with that? I'd rather go down fighting!"

The other side of the door was silent. Kiso knew her words dug into Admiral Aoi effectively. They had been comrades together long enough to know how the other thought. Where the admiral could cut shut Kiso down with reason, Kiso could make her speechless by attacking her conscience. The air between the two was thicker than the door separating them.

"… This is just me talking to myself…"

Admiral Aoi paused. Kiso did as well when she realized the message in her superior's sentence. She was speaking off the record: not as the admiral Aoi but as the individual Yukiko.

"I don't know what the fleet admiral is going to decide. I don't know what is going to happen after my adorable subordinate is relieved of duty. I don't know if she'll be scrapped or contained or operated on or cured. There as much a chance as one as there is the other. It's a scary thought, leaving things to luck. I don't even know if what happened to her is my fault or not…"

Kiso sat down, leaning her back against the door. She would have expected Yukiko to do the same, but of course the woman did not. It would be too hot for her after all.

"I'm certain that she's furious at me, that subordinate of mine," Yukiko spoke formally, but with her tone felt playful in a sense. "I'm worried about the girl, but I can't simply defy my superiors on my own whims. The other kids will have trouble if I go out of line and get transferred out."

She was concerned for the rest of the ship girls under her charge. That alone, Kiso understood was something which had to be put ahead of her own well being. To be completely calm and rational despite the circumstances, Yukiko Aoi was truly a respectable admiral. But even so, it made her sad thinking about it.

"But I'll burn that bridge when I cross it."

Yukiko raised her voice. The declaration was loud enough to cause Kiso's eyes to widen in surprise before she even made sense of the woman's words.

"Whatever the fleet admiral decides, I may be forced to comply, but I can't simply ignore my favorite subordinate when she's in over her head. She must be terrified that she could hurt others without meaning to. I'll have to do what I can to help her out. A good number of people owe me favors, though some of them are a little shady. Still, it's not like I have a 0% chance of making a difference. "

"A-Admiral…," Kiso was stunned by how kind the woman was being. Those serious words, spoken knowing that if she were overheard, she'd be reported for rebelling… Kiso rubbed her eyes, reflexively mumbling that some 'stupid dust' got into them.

"I guess I'm a pretty weird girl, talking to myself so much," Admiral Aoi began to return to her office position. She tried to not sound happy at hearing her subordinate through the door. "I've got to do my best so that my precious subordinate stays by my side."

As Kiso heard Admiral Aoi walk away from Recovery Room 03, the ship girl stared at her hand. A drop of water from her eyes landed onto them and began to evaporate away. Resolute, the girl reached for the metal doorknob above her. The burning metal hurt, but she endured it.

"Aaa… I can take this much…"

Whatever Yukiko decided, Kiso would listen. The woman was willing cross any ocean for her. As a ship gir- No, as a person, she'd certainly do the same.

The next day, Kuma-class Light Cruiser was removed from the list of ship girls assigned to Sukumo Anchorage's naval base.


Chapter 1! The original plan was to make multiple chapters about different ship girls getting Kai Ni, but as Kiso's is running fairly long and I'm having writer's block with Jintsuu's, I thought it'd be better to separate them into different stories. The OC Yukiko Aoi may show up more since I actually bothered with a name, but I'm trying to focus more on the girls. My belief is that there are multiple admirals at the base to deal with the massive number of ship girls, though, so we'll see as time goes on.

By the way, I'm totally enjoying the anime. Hearing multiple 'Poi's' is motivating enough to get me to write. There's a reason why I have a Yuudachi wall scroll, though all my girls are still too low level to even start considering Marriage (temp) [And my money's on Jintsuu]. I haven't played for a while so I'm a bit sad about that. ~Richi