Welcome all readers to my first fanfiction, also my first attempt to write something. Because this is the first time I write fictions so please don't be harsh on me.
The fiction's main OC is a sole male like most teitoku fictions, but there will be some difference in personality. For my first fic, the traits of my MC depart from the usual slacker or pervert. The characteristic of my main will be shown in the course of the story, so stay tune to that.
Also, this fic may have a lot of battle scenes, so forgive me for that. I used them to develop character's personality and continue the stories since I can't find another approach to develop my mains. The combat mechanics of the game will not apply here, though I will still use a bit of it. There will also be some strategy planning scenes so if you don't like them, you may skip.
I hope you'll read and enjoy my fiction and I'll try to keep this story up-to-date as frequent as possible. Reviews are highly appreciated, constructive criticisms are even more appreciated.
Disclaimer: Kancolle belongs to Kadokawa gaming, all characters except for the OC belonged to their respective owners
Update: Some contents of chapter 1 has been rewritten so that the MC looked less stupid
Chapter 1: Arrival
"I'm completely lost"
The young recently-promoted Admiral, with a skeleton-like body but rather boyish-looking face and silky black hair, was looking for Chinatsu Naval Base, the main headquarter of the K.M.S project, on foot for his 1st day as a high-ranking general. But it seemed that on his own, he couldn't navigate well through the island. After all, the boat that carried him all the way from mainland Japan dropped him somewhere else on the island instead of the port. He sighed lightly, sitting down on a rock nearby, pulled out a small silver vacuum flask, twisted the cap off and took a sip of the water inside. After a few minutes, he stood up and continued his journey.
His journey led him to a deserted city, once the crown-jewel of Japan. The city now lied in ruins, with buildings and skyscrapers once stood proudly as symbols of the country's modern industrialization vanished, leaving only debris scattering everywhere. Only a few remained, but it was only a matter of time until they joined the others. This was a checkpoint of his journey, a museum of the war between humanity and the Abyssal fleet. A scene that the young Admiral never wanted to see, as he quickly made his way through piles of scrap littering all over the place.
As he was wandering where to go next, a sight quickly caught his attention. A tall woman was standing there, her long auburn hair fluttered slightly in the wind. Her cute face was softened by the dim sunlight, her sparkling brown eyes stood out under her small orange parasol. The young Admiral stopped right when he saw her, stunned by her unmatched beauty. 'What is she doing here?' He thought to himself. It was hard to imagine such a beautiful woman wandering around in such an apocalyptic city.
"Excuse me, are you Admiral Hiroshi Lanne?" She suddenly said
"Huhh…yes, that's me." He was caught by surprise
"Thank goodness I've found you! You were so late that the base thought something happened to you" Her reply was full of relief.
"Did the base send you here?"
"Hai" She answered "I was tasked to find and escort you to base as soon as possible"
"But allow me to inquire, who are you?"
"Ah, sorry for my late introduction" She saluted "First of the Yamato-class battleships, Yamato. Pleased to meet you, Admiral"
"It's a pleasure indeed." He returned the salute
"Shall we go back to base? I'll take you there now"
'This girl.' Hiroshi thought to himself as he followed her. No matter how he sees her, she looks just like a normal girl and yet she is a kanmusu fighting for humanity. It's hard for Hiroshi to believe that fact. Not for someone who first sees it
"Well, here we are"
After 15 minutes of walking, Hiroshi arrived at the destination he supposed to arrive 2 hours ago: Chinatsu Naval Base. The huge base looked modern but it still retained classical traits from several decades back. But for a base this size, it appeared abandoned.
"It's quiet, where is everybody?" Asked Hiroshi
"Everybody's doing their job, they are either inside or out there looking for resources"
"Resources? I thought bases like these have supply lines that provide resources weekly"
"Yes sir, we have supply boats coming every Friday, but our provision is sometimes not enough, so we have to search for additional"
"I see…"
"I would love to be your base tour guide but you have to be at the Administration Building right now. You were 2 hours late after all"
"Well…t-that's" He scratched his head embarrassingly. Truly embarrassing for a former infantry general like him.
Anyone would wonder why an infantry general was given command of a naval fleet consisted of cute girls with guns and torpedoes. Well, the truth is that he was about to be given a different position in the army after his promotion. It came after Kurima Campaign. The objective was to destroy an Airfield Princess situated on a large Pacific island, breaking the marine blockade between Japan and North America. The target was situated on a smaller island to the north of the main island, separated by a river. Some K.M.S's CVs would bombard the island while land forces organize a false attack so as to distract the enemy. But the Admiral in charge of the fleet that day purposely deserted the land forces to death. Left alone, Hiroshi maneuvered several regiments pass the river and blitzed the Airfield Princess. After 2 hours of bloodshed, despite 80% of Hiroshi's infantry regiments were either killed in action or effectively knocked out, they emerged with a victory. As a result, he was promoted but at the same time, the Admiral was arrested, court martialled. Because there were no replacement, Hiroshi was assigned the new Admiral of the K.M.S project.
"Sir, we have arrived at our destination"
"Thanks for your guidance Yamato. One thing…I would like to take you up on your offer."
"Offer?" Yamato leaned her head slightly, confused by Hiroshi's question
"You said that you wanted to show me around the base, don't you remember?"
"Oh, of course sir. I'll take you around as soon as you finish your work for today" She answered him with a smile on her face.
"Then it's 1700 this evening? Does that fit your schedule?"
"Yes sir, 1700. I shall remember the time"
"Then it is settled, please don't be late
"Yeah ~ see you later Admiral" She waved her hand slightly and turned to walk away
Wasting no time, the young Admiral headed inside the Administration Building with a quick pace. After climbing up to the second floor and walking down a classic hallway, he found himself standing in front of a wooden door labelled 'Admiral's Office'. It would be his place of works for years to come
Hiroshi knocked the door and a shout came from the inside: "Enter!"
The door slowly opened. The 3 girls inside the room were aware of who was coming in as they saluted the instance the Admiral's face was seen.
"At ease." Hiroshi commanded as he walked into the room and put down his bag. "My apologies for my lateness. I was quite lost back there"
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name's Hiroshi, Hiroshi Lanne. Former lieutenant general of infantry. I'll be your new commanding officer starting from now"
"Welcome to Chinatsu Naval Base, Admiral," the black haired girl replied to his introduction. "I'm Nagato, first ship of the Nagato-class battleship, also the current secretary ship"
"A pleasure. And, may I ask, who are the two of you?" He asked, referring to the brunette and the girl with glasses
"I'm Mutsu, sister-ship of Nagato" The brunette answered his question. Hiroshi nodded and then looked over to the last one
"Ooyodo sir, I'm in charge of the communications equipment" The girl wearing glasses added
"Good to be working with you" Hiroshi looked at the three faces in the room.
There was a strange atmosphere going around.
He knew instantly that they were doubting his ability. It was a strange thing after all, an infantry general commanding a naval fleet. As he already knew what was going on, he didn't have any reasons not to be straightforward.
"You are questioning my ability, aren't you?"
The girls were taken aback a bit. They weren't expecting what he just said.
"I must admit, my knowledge in naval combat obviously aren't as good as most admirals. And I'm fully aware that any mistake I make can be costly. You are all warships that met ill-fates back then. I know the feeling. But I believe I can tell you this in complete candor: if you follow closely what I ordered, what I wanted you to do, no kanmusus will meet those fates one more time."
He paused for a few seconds, looking at the expressions of the three battleships. Expectancy is what showed on their face, no doubt. He continued.
"And here's my first order. Contact those in charge of the equipment. Make sure everything is intact, from engines, ammunitions and fuels. And do it now. Double check, triple check or quadruple check are encouraged, if you are not sure. If you don't take up that, then all consequences and responsibility will fall to you if anything happens. I don't want defective equipment lying around in my base."
"Hai~!" The girls shouted as they scattered
"And as a personal favour" Hiroshi addressed Mutsu. "Can you give me the dossiers of all active kanmusus in this base? I need it for…better understanding of the girls here"
"Of course sir" She replied as she left the room
Seeing all the girls occupied with their task, Hiroshi made himself occupied as well. He had a look at all the reports needed to be done by the end of the day and made a schedule inside his mind. Of course, he didn't forget his meeting with Yamato this afternoon, so he decided to do the more important paperwork first. While he was deep in his work, he noticed someone putting a stack of paper on his desk.
"Sir, here are the dossiers you requested." Mutsu said
"Very nicely done Mutsu." He spoke politely. Mutsu blushed slightly at his response as she went back to her position
He quickly went through the dossiers, trying to memorize as many faces as he can. At one moment, a kanmusu's profile caught his attention.
"Incredible…" Muttered Hiroshi
"What incredible sir?" Asked a curious Mutsu
"This one" Hiroshi answered handing Mutsu the profile of a heavy cruiser. "Sinking the combined Allied fleet, going one against five back in the war. She is something"
"It's Haguro" Mutsu looked over the dossier. "She covered for Kamikaze so that she could escape and then fought against five British cruiser"
"A bold move indeed" Nagato added
"She must be very courageous. I look forward to meeting her." Hiroshi commented
"I hope you get to meet her soon, you'll find out something staggering~" Mutsu said in a cute and mysterious tone. He got curious but decided to continue looking at the dossiers.
After looking at several profiles, he stumbled across one. The picture showed a young girl with magenta hair and a pink hair pin resembling parts of a flower. It wouldn't have caught his attention if the photo didn't have a red cross on top of it. The picture sparkled curiosity in Hiroshi as well as a feeling of sorrow somewhere in his heart. He didn't notice it, but somehow it caused him to hesitate on asking.
"What's the cross here on this dossier?" He gave a few looks at the dossier and decided to go on with the question anyway. At that instant, he knew he had made the wrong decision.
The room went silenced, an uncomfortable one.
Nagato, Mutsu and Ooyodo was in deep silence.
The atmosphere clearly indicated the answer to his question.
And in addition, it also said to him the things they never have said.
He knew this too well.
"You have the right to not answer" He said, knowing fully well the wounds he had just opened. "I'll go into that on my own"
"She…sank near W Island" Nagato suddenly spoke, struggling to control her emotions. "She was heavily damaged by an Abyssal aircraft. But because her team was too far away, she sank before they could reach her…If only I hadn't~"
"Enough…Please. If you don't want to talk about it, then don't. I shan't dig into this any further. No one in particular is responsible for this. Let this go at once." Hiroshi halted her speech quickly.
His first day at his new position work, and he had already become a stone that stirred up the mud that resounded at the bottom of these girls' heart.
It was like a bad habit, the first time at everything.
Nagato remained silenced for a while, her eyes moistened. She felt responsible for the death of Kisaragi, but at the same time, she knew that the Admiral was right.
"Let's move on. I have an order for you" Hiroshi uttered. It wasn't anything important, he just ordered her to get him a drink. His idea is just to make her forget what happened. It somehow worked, a bit.
An hour went by, Admiral Hiroshi had finished most of his important paperwork. He stood up from his desk stretching his arm and glanced at the clock hung on the wall nearby.
"Oh shit, I'm late again!"
It's already 1730. He was 30 minutes late.
Hiroshi suddenly rushed out of the room and ran downstairs. He didn't even bother taking the lift. Another bad impression, maybe?
'She must be waiting for me.'
