My head feels it's swimming, and this pounding sensation is really getting on my nerves. I groan out of disorientation and open my eyes. With my vision restored, I find myself staring blankly at the white ceiling of my room. The air conditioner is on, I can hear it. And it looks like my laptop is still up and running as well. I forgot to turn it off, it seems. Strange, I didn't remember anything about getting to bed without turning my laptop off, and why am I in bed on the first place? As far as I'm concerned, I didn't-

Oh.

Yeah.

Right.

I turn my head slowly to my right to see a certain small, brown-haired girl on the floor beside my bed, sitting on a traditional Japanese position. The manifestation of the Armored Aircraft Carrier is looking right at me with her light chocolate-brown eyes. I can see that her equipment has been stowed away, and she just sits there plainly without her heavy-looking gear. I blink twice, before turning my attention away from her, and give myself a self-pitying sigh, while also raising my hand to cover my face.

As cliched as it may sounds like, I think this is not a dream.

A round of silence sets in between us. I know well that she's noticed me waking up, I mean, she was staring at me after all, but she doesn't say anything, which makes the situation to be rather awkward. Now, I may have already mentioned this to you guys, but I'll say it again. I'm kinda- I'm an introvert, alright? Meaning, I don't like socializing with people, I don't like talking to people, and I pretty much dislike crowds, parties, big groups, and so on, in general. Not that I'm shy, well maybe I'm a little bit shy, but this predicament is just too much for me. What can I say to her? Nineteen years old, still single, and 90% of my time talking to women is with my mom. Yeah, and people ask me for relationship advice.

"Uhm," I try to begin, with my tone dry and my voice slightly muffled, thanks to my hand. "Taihou..." I sit upright on my bed, also noticing that I'm still wearing my shirt from afternoon.

Her face lights up slightly at the mention of her name, but she still maintains her straight posture. "Hai, Admiral?" She hollers back calmly.

I groan again. "What... what happened? Why am I on my bed?" I ask her slowly whilst wrecking my brain to remember the past events.

"You... you passed out?" She answers me hesitantly, her head bobs lightly to her left. "You just... fell down, and I decided to carry you to the nearest bed."

I blink. She carried me? Oh, she IS a Ship Girl after all, but the idea of a girl her size to just carry me around is just... absurd. I rub my temple for a few seconds and sigh again. Louder, this time. This is really happening. Taihou, a fictional character from a damn F2P browser game is in MY room. Now, for some people, this might just be their greatest day ever, or even a fanboy's wet dream, but for me, it just happened too fast. Even my brain is still processing the whole idea of a KanMusu inside my flats, not to mention, she ALSO calls me 'Admiral'. I can't really say whether I should be amazed about this, or just follow my instincts and bang my head hard enough to the wall.

Hey, then again, it could be from a major concussion.

But I passed out, huh? Now that's weird. I mean, I'm a guy, and we guys have better pain tolerance, let it be physical or mental. Mind you, even if I'm sick, I would never let my consciousness go away so easily like that. It's just ain't my thing to just black out. Is this experience so traumatic, that I just couldn't handle the reality and nose-dived into the ground? Well, nah, this ain't traumatic to me, since I love Kantai Collection anyway, but, seriously, though. A part of me just want to scream out, telling the world that this is not happening, but another part of me tells me to stay calm and assess the situation. I think it would a better and a much more viable choice to just choose the latter.

"Okay..." I breathe out, as steadily as I can, because, I can literally feel that my body is still trembling, either from excitement or anxiety. "What time is it?"

"We have passed sixteen-minutes after Twenty-Two-Hundred hours, Admiral," She replies almost autonomously, even her tone sounds robotic all of a sudden. "Ano, should I prepare some alcohol with the late night snack, Commander?"

I look at her in an amused fashion, she's even saying her hourly lines! "What, no, no! I don't drink!" I stop her quickly. "Just, stay here for a sec'. I have a couple'o questions fer ya," I order her to stay at her place. "And it's not like you're gonna find any stash of alcohol or beer anyway in this place. I'm not the kind of guy who likes to get drunk," I added.

She does what she's asked and straightened her back without verbally answering my request. She does look confused for a few moments, though.

"So, I've been out for six hours?" I begin, still not believing that I could actually pass out, for six hours, no less.

She nods. "Correct, Admiral."

"And you've been lookin' after me, during that six hours period? Never leaving this room and all that?"

Another nod, although this one is much more slower and much more hesitant.

"Goddammit, that sounds hella creepy," I scratch the back of my head.

"But, Admiral, you don't have any secretary ship, right?" She reasons, finally breaking down her calm image and looking a bit uncomfortable. "I think it's a job for us secre-"

I put up my open palm to her, effectively silencing her. "Look, Taihou," I trailed off, my eyes wander off to the ajar door, and I might just have the perfect chance to have a sit-down with her. "Ugh, just follow me, will ya'?" I jump off from my bed, landing gingerly on my feet upon the carpeted flooring. I make my way to the door and shuffled my hand at her, giving her another gesture to tread behind me. She complies wordlessly, curtly standing up from her sitting position and totters towards me.

I wonder, if you're sitting like that for hours... I wonder if it, you know, hurts? Won't her muscles be sore after all of that?

Exiting my bedroom, the usual, darkened view of my apartment room's living quarters greets me, with the only still living TV as its light source. I also forgot to turn off the TV back then, it seems. Well, there goes my money again, well spent on the room's electrical bills. Gotta be on an extra go-green mode if I want to survive this month. I stroll to the nearest light switch to flip it up, turning the lights on, but not before turning the TV off first, of course.

Taihou's reaction upon seeing my room is, uh, pretty normal, although she looks a bit surprised, considering this is her first time being inside someone's personal spaces, I think, or she wasn't expecting her quote-unqoute 'Admiral''s room to look so, uhm, so, normal? Heck, even I sometimes think that this room looks a tad bit too plain for my tastes. White walls, white floors, little to no decoration, and an overall dull and boring atmosphere, and an interior designer's living nightmare.

"Ya hungry, Taihou?" I look over my shoulder to gaze upon the girl. "Cause I sure am."

She hums with hesitation, her lips forming a slight frown. "Umm, no, Admiral. Besides, it's already late in the night," She curtly declines. "Ano... Taihou... Taihou can help you if you're trying to make dinner!"

I shake my head as we both finally enter the kitchen area. "Supper, Taihou," I corrected the Carrier. "I ain't makin' some heavy food this late at night," I drone on, opening the fridge to browse any food worth making. I still have to feed her, though. From what I've seen at the KanColle wikia, both carriers and battleships alike consume LOTS of resources, and I mean LOTS. And, as the host of this room, I have to at least make myself a good first impression to her. "Normal food's fine with ya, right?"

Taihou's lips twist in uneasiness, she has probably realized what I'm up to. "Admiral, please, it's fine-"

"Just answer the question, please," I order with a small groan. Taihou has always been a polite girl, judging from her lines, that is.

"Hai... hai, Admiral," She finally mumbles, looking away from me to stare at the ground.

"Good," Is the only thing that I can reply back to her. Just then, I pull out two pieces of fresh egg, and whipped two bowls of rice from the rice-cooker. I also grab myself a frying pan and a clean bowl. If you haven't noticed, yes, I can cook for myself. It's how I survive out here, you have to be independent. Cook yourself, work yourself, shop yourself, do stuff yourself. Of course, there will be more freedom for us students, but take note that we also have to do ALL of the housework ourselves now.

I crack open an egg while leaving one on the table beside it.

"Omelette, or sunny side ups?" I ask her again.

She blinks. "Excuse me, Admiral?"

"Omelette, or sunny side ups, your egg, I mean," I repeat. "It's for ya, ef-wai-ai, and, no, before you even say anything, yes, I know that it's weird for me- I mean, weird for an Asian to whip up an egg in the middle of the night, but it's the only thing I have here. So, sorry, but no curry, at least yet," I press on, not gonna lie, though, I am learning how to make curry and other dishes aside from eggs and frozen foods, and instant noodles, they're gonna be much more easier to make compared to getting some take-outs from the nearby eatery.

She stays quiet with her eyes still planted upon the kitchen floor.

"Taihou..." I sigh in exasperation, posing a dissatisfied look on my face.

"O-Omelette, sir!" She quickly gains her composure back, seeing her hasty attention.

Cracking open the other egg and mixing it into the same bowl, I spin around the fork to get the yolk and the other things combined, add some salt here and there, mix them up for another few seconds, heat up the pan, pour some oil. Hey, I may not be a gourmet chef, but I can at least make a good egg. Here's a tip from a DIY-kid, if you wanna make some good omelette, use strong heat and lotsa oil. If you're trying to be healthy, use coconut oils instead, but the key to make an awesome fried egg is that, strong heat, a lot of oil, and a lot of seasonings (salt). Trust me, I've been making eggs since I was, what, five years old? I know how a good omelette tastes like.

I pour the mixed yolk and such to the heated frying pan, letting the egg to produce a loud sizzling noise when the liquid hits the pan's heated surface. I also take a shark inhale, absorbing the aroma of the omelette to determine whether I'd mixed it right or not just now. Turns out pretty alright, I guess, at least it's gonna edible. I'm pretty surprised I can cook at this still, slightly shocked state. If a major thing happens, usually when I get an extra assignment, I go home late, or when I'm just lazy, I literally lose any motivation to do anything.

"White or fried?" I query, raising my spatula at her. "For the rice."

"...White, Admiral," Another strained reply from Taihou.

I merely give her a lopsided grin. "Nice choice," I continue to work on our dishes silently, it's not like I don't want to talk to her, but again, I'm introverted, I just can't think of any topic, or anything at all, for the matter, to talk back to her. I ain't used to have guests on my room, and even if I do have guests, it's usually my friends for a group project, or in a much more rare occasion, my parents. So, having a Kawaii-Kawaii-Moe-Moe-Kyun girl to pop inside my room is just, err, new, and, uh, awkward.

When I'm done with the eggs, I place the absurdly large piece of omelette on a plate, a wider plate at that, shovel in the chopsticks from the utensils case to the rice bowls, and add slide the finished products down the counter along with an extra soy sauce and chili/tomato sauces. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I use chopsticks too, most of the time. Been using those cute little things since I'm a kid, got used to it and has been using it ever since. Of course, I'll still use the fork, spoon, and knife, if the situation really calls for it.

"Now, I don't know if ya like yer egg plain or spicy, so feel free to add some seasonings there," I point out to the three bottles filled with sauces. For the record, I always eat my eggs plain, salts are the best. "If you're ready, go sit on the chair and eat up."

Taihou stares at her bowl with a blank expression on her face. My God, this girl is just so modest. Just look at her, being shy and careful with the plate and bowl and all that! I can see that she's contemplating on whether to even accept the meal or not. Ultimately, she decides to not use either of the sauces and carries her minute-made supper to the table, this time though, the Armored Carrier just sits normally on the chair, considering I didn't order a Japanese low-feet table as a furniture. I follow her soon after, taking the seat right across her.

And then, silence.

Neither of us make any noise or sound, and neither of us start to eat.

I hate awkward moments like these.

"Alright..." I finally speak again, ending the silence between us. "I think it's time to get some rules grounded."

Taihou, unsure on what to do, just blinks. "Admiral?"

"First off," I raise my index finger, pointing it upwards to make a 'one' sign. "Don't call me Admiral. Do I look like some high-ranking Naval personnel or somethin'?" I jab a thumb at myself, only to get no response from her. "No, right? So don't call me Admiral."

The unlucky Carrier frowns slightly. "B-but, Admiral, that's highly unlikely of Taihou to address you without such title."

I slapped my hand against my face, I know KanMusus are supposed to be innocent or dense, but her politeness is just too much. "Whatever, just Don't call me Admiral, or Commander, or anythin' that could signify someone's rank within the military."

Her scowl turns deeper. "Hai... sir."

A shrug came from me. "Well, at least 'sir' sounds better," I then raise both my middle and index fingers. "Second, well, this is more like a request than an order, really, but you can speak English, right? If you can, can we please keep our conversations in English? I know a bit of Japanese, but I'm not good at it. But it's okay if you don't wanna do it, I still can roughly translate a word or two on my own, and can at least hold up a few sentences without failing."

"Of course, sir," She nods respectfully. "I may not be a native English speaker, but if such conditions suit your needs, then Taihou will speak in your language."

I nod back to her in acknowledgement. "Good, good," Now, I raise my ring, middle, and index fingers, but this time, I also add my amused face as a bonus. "Third, do yerself a favor and talk in, you know, first person perspective?" All of my fingers curl down except my index one, and I use it to point it at her with a rather accusing emphasize. "It feels really uncomfortable for me to hear someone referrin' to themselves in third person. Now... I don't know how Japanese people point themselves out durin' a conversation, but we're speakin' English right here, you know what I'm sayin' Taihou? No offense on your language and all that, though. Again, it's not like I'm gonna force ya to speak in bloody perfect English, like, hey, I'm not even Caucasian, but, yeah."

"Ano, sir-"

"Come on, come on, listen to this," I groan aloud, cutting her mid-sentence. "'Tai-houh', two syllables. 'Ai', one syllable. Simple as that. Still, not gonna force ya to do it. It's yer choice."

Looking uncertain once more, the girl stays quiet, until she opens her mouth again. "Taihou- I mean, I will try, sir."

A grin forms on my face without me realizing it. "Hashtag-Asian-Powah," I mumbled out loud, suppressing the grin down. "Now, lookie here... I'm sorry if I look like I'm bossin' you around, but, I also want you to know that... how should I put it... you, you're not really supposed to be in here."

Her eyebrows rise, and her expression turns into something that one could describe as being 'full of suspicion'. "Pardon... pardon me, sir?"

I sigh again. How many times have I sighed today? I've lost count, really. "Eat first, talk later, 'kay? The food's gettin' cold."

Hearing a small 'itadakimasu' from the Carrier, I shrug as I also dig into my omelette.

...A bit too salty, but still good enough I guess...

Our meal pass in silence, this time, it's not awkward, but rather, uneasy. Probably because I just went all out and said that she's supposed to be a fictional character? I know that sooner or later, I have to show her about Kantai Collection itself, and that she's not real. But for now, I also have to consider the choices if she's really going to cling at me, at least for a few weeks. Should I call my mom? God, no. She would only make the situation even worse, I can already picture her, squealing and over-exaggerating over her own son finally getting laid.

So, for now, I probably should just play along. Gotta make sure to brief Taihou up to speed, though. Since, this is the real world, and we're not in a war with the Abyssal and stuff.

"How's the egg doin' for ya?" I ask of her opinion. "No need to be bashful, just tell me how the omelette tastes like in your honest opinion."

She didn't expect me to come up with such question it seems, as she fidgets when I ask that. "Ano... eto..." She plays with her own chopsticks, a sign of nervousness. "It... it tastes good, sir. A bit too much salt, but still, quite a delice."

Amused by the fact that she used a little bit of French noun, I give out a tiny, unnoticeable smirk. "Just leave the plates on the table, I'll do the dishes in the morning," She complies, placing her chopsticks down tidily on the bowl, clapping her hands together and muttering a 'Gochisousama' with a small and peaceful smile on her face. "Now, one last thing before I officially end the day... here, let me show you around the... uh... 'base'..." I stand up, silently prompting her to do the same.

She knows something's up, alright. Especially when she hears my really, really forced and strained 'base' part.

"As you can see, this here's my room," I spread my arms out dramatically, "Make yerself at home Taihou. Mi casa is su casa," I pause for a moment. Did I say that one line right? "You already know the layout. My bedroom's right over there, and this is the kitchen plus the dinin' room. Just outside of here is the main livin' room. And... while I don't have any... 'docks' for you to have your repairs, there's the bathroom, a tub's there too, I ain't got any insta-repair buckets or anythin' that could actually make it to look like an actual dock... but the tub's the closest thing we'll ever get..." I solemnly look down. "Sorry."

Yeah, this 'get-to-know-you' quickie is not going so well.

"And finally, the final rule in this establishment is..." I uncurl my fingers to a four. "You don't have to use your equipment, like, at all."

Taihou looks confused. "E-eh...? But why, sir? I thought Ship Girls are supposed to have their equipment ready to be equipped at all times."

"Reasons vary, Taihou. Reasons vary. Firstly, can't you see it already?" I say slowly, my patience running thin. "This is not a naval base, and I'm not a military man, let alone an Admiral. I don't have anything to support your needs, Steel, Ammo, Fuel, Bauxite, nothing. I have none of them, alright?" I bite my lower lip at the revelation. I'd hoped to do this later rather than sooner, but, "Secondly, it's 'cause..." I motion myself to the room's back door that leads us to the balcony.

I open the door, revealing the spectacular, panoramic view from the seventeenth floor of my apartment room to the city below us. The apartment towers still stand majestically, accompanying my own tower, the large streets below still buzz with life, even at this hour. Distant honking noises, some rumbles from car engines, and the soft blowing wind greet us along with the waning moon up above. It's rather cloudy today, so there are no stars, unfortunately. The nearby mall is within its closing hours, yet, many vehicles appear to get into that place. And I can see my campus grounds from up here as well. It's a large complex with multiple buildings within it. A good place to set up an apartment, really.

"...It's cause this, this is yer new home," I softly speak, leaning my hands against the balcony's hand railing. "Welcome to yer new 'Naval District', Taihou. Where this time, our main enemies aren't the Abyssal, but the real enemies here are the everly-growing poverty, corrupted government officials, environmental issues, terrorist attacks, increasing idiocy, and good-guy wannabes," I smirk internally. That should be a good enough summary of our current metropolitan life.

I look back to the Armored Carrier, who just seems to be just looking at me, and then back to the scenery, and then back to me again with wide eyes, and a disbelieving expression. She's just taking in the view of the city's nighttime, is she... dazzled by it? Well, a Ship Girl like that never really seen the view from here after all, right? I'm just gonna consider this as a treat for her. Just let her enjoy the moment, ya know? After inhaling and exhaling a large amount of pollution, I turn back to her.

"Come on, let's go inside," I instruct her to follow me back to my room, in which she answers me non-verbally by just trailing behind my back.

Why am I taking this so well?

"It's your first day here, so I know you must be kinda tired," I awkwardly cough, trying to end the day with a girl in your crib just makes the situation ten times more weirder. "If you wanna retire, you can use my bed, I'll just sleep in the livin' room. No protests. Admiral's orders. Any questions?"

She bobs her head up and down, veryyy slowlyyy. As if her neck joints are getting rusty. "Actually... I do, sir."

I snap my fingers to make a click. "Shoot."

"...What, what do you mean by... I'm not supposed to be in here... sir?" She says that with a few pauses and delays.

Oh damn, did I upset her or something? Why's her tone so grim-sounding? And damn, she's already asking for some explanation. On her first day too, no less. I wonder if she's gonna take in all of the info well. Should I start explaining about the Second World War? Nah, she already knows what happened, I think. I think. I mean, she must've already known that she's an incarnation of her sunken, real self, right? That means, she would surely know about the outcome of the war, at least. And I'm not too good and history anyway, so~

"Inside my bedroom if ya want my part of the story," I jab a thumb to my room. "I think it's 'bout time anyway..."

Alright, it's gonna go simple as this: open laptop, open KanColle, open the wikia, tell her she's not real, go to sleep, and then hope that all of this is just a dream. Rinse, repeat. Rinse, repeat. Rinse, repeat. Alright... alright. Let's do this. Both of us enter my bedroom again, with my laptop's screen already blackened out, probably due to the prolonged time being active. I tell Taihou to wait for me while I bring the rest of the system up and running. It only takes a minute for me to set everything up, so I unplug the charger and present my laptop's monitor screen for her to see.

"Here," I say simply.

She blinks, confusion spreads clearly on her face when she sees the my home port screen, with Kirishima as my flagship/secretary. "Ano... while Taihou doesn't really recognize her very well... but isn't she a...?"

"That's right," I click onto the 'Organize' menu, bringing up my full, main fleet which consists of four Battleships and two Carriers. The lineup is as follows from left to right: Kirishima, Kaga, Souryuu, Hyuuga, Ise, Fusou. I know, awkward setup, but I just love dem BBs and CVs, and I've been tryin' to get Haruna for the past few weeks as well, aside from the Deutsche-Marines (Kriegsmarine) ships. For her, I've been goin' non-stop on 400/200/700/40 recipe. Got a Hyuuga on my first try, and got two Kirishimas in a row in my second and third attempt. It works pretty well, but I've been getting Takao-classes with that recipe ever since my third attempt, Maya, to be exact. I have four of her right now. Anyone got any potent Battleship recipes, or should I just blame it all on RNG-sama? Oh right, I almost forgot, thanks to that guy who helped me with the expedition tips. Gonna go and grind my ships to expedition 30 soon enough.

Oh right, to more important matters.

"Recognize these girls, especially the Aircraft Carriers?" I hover my mouse above both Kaga and Souryuu to give her an extra emphasize.

Her eyes runs through my fleet's setup before going wide-eyed and pulls her face away from the computer screen. "This is... this Kaga-san, right? From the First Carrier Division? B-but what is she doing here? What is this?"

"This, Taihou..." I clear my throat to prepare myself for the big reveal. "Is Kantai Collection, Kan-Kore for short, an online game where we Humans can play with our computers. Now the thing is, we are supposed to control you guys that are inside the game... but now that seeing you here..."

She freezes solid. "A-are you saying that... Taihou is supposed to be only a 'thing' inside a virtual world...?" She whimpers pathetically, with a voice so low and quiet, I could mistake it for a whisper.

Grinding my teeth together, I finally reply: "Yeah, they even have an article about ya," I open the KanColle wikia about the Armored Carrier. "As you can see... this is, well, you. The main problem here is, YES, while you and the other girls actually exist, you guys only exist IN GAME. Yer not supposed to be HERE, in the REAL WORLD, ya get me? In this world, there are no Abyssal ships or other Ship Girls or what not."

Or is it?

#CueIlluminatiTheme

"You... you are not joking, right, sir...?" Taihou's body wavers slightly, and her voice begins to fail on her. Her hands are also trembling.

I shake my head in negativity. "Unfortunately... no, I'm not jokin' around. For now, yer trapped in our world, Taihou," I close both tabs and closed my Google Chrome. "But look, I ain't plannin' to let this go unanswered, I'm gonna start searchin' for a way to sort this mess out, Google some stuff, ask Kadokawa Official for any errors regarding the game. For now, though, get yerself comfortable on my home. You'll probably be here for a while," After hearing no response, I look over my shoulder. "Taihou, ya listenin' there?"

A petrified-looking Taihou just stands there without saying anything, her eyes unfocused and her breathing is erratic, almost sounding like she's hyperventilating or something. Just as I'm about to say something, however, her brown eyes roll upwards before her lids closed themselves and her small, short body crashed down to the carpet floors with a soft, dull thud. She just passed out. Well, I did kinda expected this... but still,

Are you kidding me?

Looking completely unamused at my current predicament, I smack both of my open palms into my face, and sob silently to myself. Great, and NOW she decides to go out cold. I have to do something with her. Can't just let her stay like that on the floor. Ending my self-loathing session, I whimper out one last sniff before picking the unlucky Carrier up. Well, she's surprisingly light. Really light even. Thank God that her actual weight didn't come with her moe-fied look.

I don't know whose this misfortune belongs to, but I can't really complain now. She did carry me to my bed a few hours ago, so I should return the favor. Tucking her into my bed, and turning off the lights, I carry my laptop along with the charger as well as my smartphone out of my room into the living room. Good thing tomorrow's Saturday... I can have more time to think about this. I need consider some things as well too. I'm not gonna let Taihou to just waltz out of the room lookin' like that. And now that I've got two mouths to feed, I might want to search for a better job.

Or... better yet...

Nah, I'll just think this through tomorrow. I'm wayyy too tired and too exhausted to even think right now. Let's just see if something's up on Steam or my phone. First up, my LINE. Got some new messages over the past six-to-seven hours, most of them are about LINE games, like Cookie Run or LET'S GET RICH and stuff. Never played them, never cared about them. Next up, Steam. More MOBA invites, no news regarding Grand Theft Auto V, some random dude I don't know trying to add me. Ignored.

Heh. Rekt.

Shutting down all of my gadgets down, I plop myself to the nearest couch. The time is about... eleven, twenty-two PM. Gah, no wonder I'm feeling so under the weather. With Taihou here, my expenses will surely double itself. Gotta break my piggy bank soon... huh, and I've been saving so I could get either a PS4 or a Puppy. I've always wanted a Golden Retriever. Nah, she's my guest, and a host, I should treat her as best as I could.

But my parents gotta know about this too... hope they're not gonna freak out, though.

Argh, Goddammit, this is too much... this night is going to be a long one...

I just can feel it.


I'm Going Mad

First Confusion: Welcome to Insanity


Author's Notes:

I somehow got this chapter up and running with just a few days left worth of studying before the final school exams begin. Somehow.

But where are my manners, welcome back, dear readers for our first chapter of I'm Going Mad. Now, before we start, I just want to point out that this work of fiction is not posted in the Humor category, so please expect more serious moments rather than the laughable ones. Although most of the scenes will be mostly lighthearted and none too dark. Trust me, I've written one too many dark fics that this is the only getaway I could think off.

Many thanks to those who have followed and/or favorited this story, I didn't expect this sorry excuse of a literature project, made in like, an hour in the English exam could get so much popularity. Now onto the next thing, I just want to point out that this work of fiction will also not, or most likely not, feature any fight scenes. Expect lots of and lots of and lots of slice-of-life, and lots of character development. KanColle has too many fics about Admirals and his/her Ship Girls, so I think a slice-of-life only work should add a nice touch to the mostly-action genre.

Now about my character, Mister Ambiguous A.K.A. No Name right here have a slight Southern accent. Just to clear things up, if you're all gonna try and be salty, no, I'm not copying Hieda no Akyuu's Damon Polchow's way of speaking in his/her fic, Ambience: A Fleet Symphony. But if you're still gonna raise a strike on me for having my character speak in a slightly Southern accent, go ahead. Damon Polchow, and his speaking style belongs to Hieda no Akyuu, I do not own his/her character nor his way of speaking. Just another added note, that fic's awesome.

Next thing is, character interactions. Since this is character development heavy, I just want to ask you guys if the interaction between the two characters are realistic enough or are too cliched. My character's personality too. While he is introverted, like me in real life, I don't really have any problems talking with someone. So please take note that introverted =/= shy. I do have problems when conveying my feelings out, or when trying to start and maintain a conversation though.

Enough real life diaries, sorry for any OOCs, sorry for any grammatical errors, since this is my very first time writing in a present-tense perspective rather than past/past-perfect tense, and big thanks to Tamonmaru for his/her tips to unlock Z1 via the expeditions. As always, with each new chapters, I will probably ask for advice regarding the game, like in here, let it be recipes, tips, or any other things that could help me get the perfect waifu in-game. Well, I hope you enjoyed the story so far, flame it if ya don't like it and thanks for reading this one.

Traesto.