The year was 2039, the year that would be forever be known as "The Year of Devouring".

That was the year that the parasite Abyssus had introduced itself to humanity, unannounced and uninvited. It was a strange creature that had suddenly risen from the dark and murky depths of the sea, a dangerous creature that not even the most experienced scientist knew existed.

Humanity had only a short moment of confusion and curiosity before it attacked, suddenly changing those emotions to fear and panic. After its arrival to the surface, the parasite attacked and turned every living thing within its grasp into prey. The militaries of the world retaliated against them but the battle soon turned one-sided.

Ships were sunk without much effort; Jets were peppered with holes as they ascended into the air; missiles evaporated into dust before they even made a hit. It was completely one-sided, the Abyssus merciless as they continued to ravage the seas, edging closer towards the lands of the Earth. Eventually this parasite gained a new name: Abyssals.

While the Abyssals were powerful, their fatal flaw was within their merciless behavior. Humanity learned that they couldn't immediately fight them with force and instead took a different approach, an approach that was far less flashy than the blazing guns of ships. They used research, science, and even religion. Anything that they believed could be a weapon against the threat.

Throughout history, one thing has always stayed consistent with humans: They do not go down with a whimper but with a yell. Humans do not immediately surrender to a powerful threat, they fight against it, kicking and screaming until they no longer can. Their civilization was at stake and while the Abyssals were strong, they soon used the resources they had to create a weapon that could fight against them, a weapon that was strong enough to become a protector of humanity.

The weapon known as the Fleet Girl.

Kancolle: All or Nothing

Act 1: Awakening

The beginning of a Fleet Girl's was not inside of a dusty factory nor was it being given a warm welcome by her commander. Instead, the first thing that a Fleet Girl saw when she opened her eyes was the white of the hospital room. The first thing she heard was not her commander but the sounds of bustling medical staff and the loud beeping of monitors.

At this stage, the shipgirl was not a gallant and brave warrior but instead, she was just as vulnerable and afraid as the people she would be tasked with protecting. It was similar to a freshly born child's first moments in the world: it was strange, confusing, and scary but it was also a place that felt familiar in a sense.

The young girl's pupils constricted as she stared up at the bright ceiling light, that harsh light that seemed to blind her to actually aid with her vision. She moved her hand over her eyes to block it out and sat up. As her vision cleared, she slowly observed the area around her.

Is this a hospital?...

The last thing she remembered was the dark void embracing her and the distant voices of someone who she couldn't remember tearfully sending her off. Her mind was a thick fog, clouded, and memories were nothing more than vague fragments that were hard for her to piece together. Despite this strange and unnatural feeling, somewhere deep in her gut, she was supposed to be here. It was a reason that she couldn't say right now but it was something important, especially to her.

She looked towards the windows of the hospital room in order to gaze outward as the mild conditions outside. Her reflection was of a young girl with short straight hair, hair that was the color of ripe strawberries, who was wearing a gown of a saturated mint green. She slowly lifted a hand and ran it through her hair, like a child who had just gotten her hair done and wanted to feel the grease in-between their fingers. "This is..."

The door to the room had suddenly opened and quickly took her out of her thoughts. She had turned her head towards the person who had stepped inside; she was a tall and thin bespectacled woman who wore a labcoat of pure white, her dark brown hair tied up in a messy ponytail, and a clipboard in her hands. With these visualizers, it was clear to her that this woman was some kind of hospital staff.

"I see that you've finally woken up." She said with a smile. That smile of hers was warm, comforting even to the young girl who had just woken up in an unfamiliar place. "For a minute, I was worried that you would never wake up. I really don't want to see any more failures in my lifetime, that's for sure. The emotional impact of it is far too great to see in person."

"Where am I? Who are you?" The girl had asked the woman. "I don't even remember being admitted into a hospital of any kind."

"Do you remember anything?" The woman asked. "Any images at all?"

"Well..." Her brow furrowed as she pressed her lips together. "I remember a man. I don't know who it was but it was...it was almost as if he was saying goodbye to me, sending me off. Then everything was black and I woke up here."

"I see." The woman wrote down something on her clipboard before looking back up at the girl. "Well, I think that its pretty much clear that your operation went well without a hitch. Most girls usually have a foggy memory when they're recovering but it'll clear up in due time." The woman then gave her a salute. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm AH-5, hospital ship, Solace. I'm one of the hospital ship girls who works inside of the Naval Medical Center here in San Diego."

"Ship girls?"

"That's we are, you and me. We're ships in the form of humans, newly reborn." Solace then gave her a small smile. "It's rather strange but I can assure that's what we are. Now, do you happen to remember your name and class? Most shipgirls after their operation seem to have enough memory to tell me that, at least. I just need you to be able to tell me."

"My name?" The young girl was silent for awhile, scratching her cheek before she finally had answered Solace. "BB-39, Pennsylvania-class battleship Arizona. That's my name."

Arizona. Yes, that was her name. She was the battleship Arizona, a ship of hulking mass and strength just like all battleships were. Even though that was her name, she couldn't answer why saying it felt so...weird. The minute her name had came out of her mouth, she felt as if she had done something wrong.

Or perhaps she had assumed that was the case by Solace's wide-eyed expression, her grip on the clipboard so strong that her knuckles turned white. Arizona tilted her head at Solace, confused. "Di-Did I do something wrong?"

"Wrong?" Solace had said a little too strongly before she coughed in an effort to get herself together. "No, you didn't do anything. I was just...surprised by something, that's all. Besides, it's rather irrelevant to the situation now." She then pushed her glasses up. "Since you're awake, I think that you should meet the commander. Are you up for it?"

Arizona slowly nodded. "Sure. I would like to meet this commander, my commander."

"Great, great!" Solace said with a smile though Arizona could feel the atmosphere in the room change compared to earlier. Despite that, she couldn't exactly tell that it had changed before of how nervous Solace was. "Wh-Why don't I get a wheelchair so you don't have to worry about walking the entire way there, alright?"

Arizona gave a silent nod and a small smile to the hospital ship as she left the room.

[ 0 ]

After she had closed the door, Solace had taken a deep breath and quickly exhaled it out.

Arizona. Out of all of the ships that they could've summoned, they summoned the fucking Arizona. Summoning Arizona wasn't bad at all but her summoning certainly would make waves within the base.

Arizona was a newly summoned ship girl and thus her memory was still foggy. However, Solace had been summoned earlier and she had time. Time to remember every single moment of that day, the day that her home was on fire. She remembered the battleships that belched out thick black smoke into the skies, the frantic rushing of people as they desperately tried to cling onto their life while saving others, the flames that engulfed an once peaceful base.

She remembers her past life as clear as day, being one of the ships who were rushing around trying to save people.

As her mind went back to that day, she wondered about the possible fate of Arizona. Some had said that the ship girl program was a second chance for the once great heroes of the Second War and that statement resonated perfectly with Arizona's summoning. However, history had its ways of repeating itself.

Would she have to see that image again? The image of Arizona being torn in half as explosions rocked her entire core, that image of men laying dead within her steel, that wide puddle of oil, but instead of it happening to a hull of a steel, it would happen to a human body?

She shuddered at the grisly thought and then took another deep breath, shaking her head. No, she can't start worrying about that now, especially when she was just coming out of her slumber. This was a second chance for all the ships of the old wars and no ship deserved it more than Arizona. She just hoped that fate could be on her side for as long as it can.

Solace then walked off to retrieve a wheelchair for Arizona, her mind now focused on the new shipgirl whose previous death had propelled a country into a war that gave birth to the former lives of the USN Fleet Girls.

Author's Note

So, this is my first Kantai Collection fanfiction in a long time and I'll come forth and say that yes, the idea of a Kancolle fanfiction starring the USN boats of WW2 is incredibly overdone at this point and dare I say, overrated. Even more-so are my choices of protagonists for this.

Despite this, I wanted to give this fanfiction a shot while trying to work on a Touken Ranbu fanfiction. This idea actually was inspired by two things: A fanfiction on Wattpad which was essentially the Kancolle anime but with the cast swapped out with American boats, the Kancolle anime itself, and the highly popular Kancolle fanwork, Pacific. Also, Boku no Hero.

So with those inspiration points in mind, I decided to make a fanfiction that could be summarized as "The Kancolle Anime: USN Edition". I'm using the Kancolle anime as my backbone for the story's progress, creating a fanfiction that is in a similar tune to the anime. However, I'll be taking some liberties here and there; I will try and keep all the key plot points though.

Since this is USN girls, I'll try to use my own designs. With the canon USN girls in KC, I'll just use their designs and make some minor changes to them.

...I'm probably fully aware that my fanfic is probably not going to be up to league with many of the Kancolle fanfictions here (some of which have grown on me) but one of my 2018 goals is improvement in my writing so I'll try my best! I'm posting this on SV as well.