It was not a long journey.
The shuttle ferry had taken only a few hours to travel from Tsushima to Toumai, where he had disembarked and made his way to the school. Having gone in and reported his attendance, he mingled with the other students as he waited for the opening speech.
Despite that, the students who were here had come in their cliques, and it had proven too difficult to just barge in on their conversations. That's why in less than half an hour, Norita had found himself standing at the boat pens, admiring the submarines berthed there.
One of them will be mine
He knew what his assignment was to be. The I-201, an old and reliable submarine, it had a very strong track record in the school's database, having been put through so many challenges and yet always able to welcome in new recruits. These sort of submarines were hard to find, as they often had to be pulled back from sorties some time or another because of problems. Despite that, the I-201 had yet to suffer any catastrophic breakdowns over its 12 years of service.
He was still pleased to note that years of studying and experiences had finally paid off! After all that hard work, he was going to be the Assistant Navigation Officer, second only to the Chief Navigation Officer!
On knowing his assignment, his adoptive family/sponsors had congratulated him over the phone, with Kevin proudly telling him that he too was awaiting his own results. Kevin had applied to the Yorktown Boy's Naval Academy, another prestigious school of submariners.
In fact, he should have received his letter a few weeks ago. Norita wondered why his best friend had never called to tell him the results–
"Maaarrrvvviiinnnn...!"
What?
Norita spun around on hearing someone call his name and was glomped by one overenergetic and familiar American boy.
The two boys fell over onto the floor, where the friendly greeting turned into a wrestling match. When the dust had settled, Norita was being crushed by the boy, who had him in an armlock. The boy panted as he struggled to regain his breath.
"Yield?"
"Yield."
The boys released each other, the boy pulling Norita up onto his feet. "It's been so long Marvin!"
"Yes, it is, Kevin-san. Please stop using that nickname..."
"Aw come on, I told you to stop being so formal around me! Just call me by my name!"
Marvin just gave his best friend a small smile. "Sure, Kevin-kun."
His best friend had not changed a bit. The boy was just as loud, energetic and blonde as ever, and it seemed his return to America had done his body wonders. Given how Kevin was affectionately rubbing Norita's head, the muscles Norita could feel were not just for show.
"So, you made it!"
"Yeah, I did–"
"Guess what? I did too!"
"Eh?" For a brief moment, Norita had a very strange impression of Kevin trying to fit into I-201, the American kid clogging up the entry hatch with his bulky build.
"I made it into Yorktown! Isn't that great?" Kevin clarified. "And since we start a week later that you, I came over with my family to see you off."
"Adele-san and Barret-san are here?" His voice came out somewhat strangled. These guys coming here had Norita floored.
"Hello there, kiddo."
"!" Norita froze at the sudden voice from right behind him. It was so baritone that fog horns wished they were as manly as him! Behind Norita, was possibly the bulkiest man he had seen in a long time. The man was blonde, muscular and had a funny handlebar moustache that even after all these years still gave him the temptation to tug on it. He was well built and tanned, probably having spent shore leave working out to build back his body.
The first time Norita had seen him, the man was leaner and less… developed that this muscular man before him. Needless to say, his brain had pretty much ground to a halt on seeing him.
"I would just like to say son, congratulations on making it in. I hear that it is especially tough to enter at this time of the year," Barret Dealey rumbled, his voice causing Norita's hair to stand on end.
"Y-yes… sir… Thank y-you sir" Norita stammered back, his left hand clenched behind his back to stop the trembling.
Barret reached over and clapped Norita on the shoulder, before turning to his son, "It's time to go"
"Okay, Daddy. Hey Marvin –ah, Norita–" Kevin turned around to face Norita. "Whenever you get back on land, don't forget to write to us, okay?"
Norita embraced Kevin, smiling brightly, "Of course I will. Good luck over there Kevin-kun."
Kevin laughed, bear hugging Norita, "Sure, you too, okay?"
As Kevin released Norita, Norita just waved goodbye to the retreating father and son. They were his adoptive family/sponsors/benefactors, who had agreed to both fund his education and living expenses in Japan. Their families had a history that really went back.
That, and there was another reason, but Norita didn't like to think about it.
"All first year students, please gather at pier 3. The principle's speech will begin in fifteen minutes."
Having arrived in the middle of the crowd, not to his surprise, Norita found himself unable to really see the man himself. What he did manage to catch a glimpse of was the man's famously bald head, a shining sun surrounded by a ring of greying hair.
That, and his face looked like a frog.
Despite the snickering of some students, the man delivered his speech. It was simple and to the point, and in as many words: Submarines are serious business, everyone here is important to the future of the country, so go out there and learn the Way of the Submarine, for when you return to shore, you would have grown into a rugged, mentally strong man capable of taking on the challenges the nation will face.
It was rather bland, in Norita's opinion, though he noticed some people were hanging onto every word the man had spoken. One of them stood out to him, a bucktoothed boy wearing a pair of rather thick glasses.
Once they were dismissed to their submarines, Norita immediately went over to the boy. The boy failed to notice Norita coming up behind him until Norita placed his hand on his shoulder.
The boy turned to face him, and they simultaneously gasped.
"Norita-kun?"
"Yahachi-kun?"
The two boys stared each other down, before breaking out laughing as they shook each other's hands.
"It's good to see a friendly face around. How has it been for you?" Norita asked, as he started walking towards the I-201.
"Just great. Managed to get my glider model to start working. Given time, I'm sure I can get it to run on its own power." Norita tried not to snicker at that.
"You still not giving up on that project of yours?"
"No way!" Yahachi replied. "This thing can work! There's just some problems that I need to work out first…"
"Sure, sure..."
As the two boys talked, they reached the I-201's gangway. "I guess this is it for me, where are you posted at anyway?"
Yahachi looked at him like Norita was being daft. "You mean we've been talking for so long, and never asked each other our postings?"
"Eh..."
"I'm here, on the I-201!"
"Oh."
The two friends walked up the gangway, and stopping at the entrance hatch, Norita clambered down first.
Apart from the walls of the submarine curving inwards like a claustrophobia inducer, there were pipes and wires running the length of the submarine's interior. A quick glance at the map told him the crew bunks were forward of the officer bunks, so he quickly made his way over to dump his things. There weren't too many people running about inside the submarine, so Norita had to assume that the others were either busy in some other part of the submarine or they had yet to arrive. Claiming the bottom bunk for himself and Yahachi the top, the two boys split up. Yahachi had been assigned to Engineering, while Norita was assigned to Navigation. The other two cabin mates had yet to arrive.
Reporting back to the command centre, he attempted to find his superior. There were only three boys here in the command centre. One of them was obviously the captain, going by the captain's hat he wore. He went to approach the two other boys.
"–firing solution would be very difficult, considering the terrain."
"Then, if we go around this formation? The currents can help move the sub without us needing to use too much of our propellers."
"And then what? Run out of air and electricity before we get into place?"
"Well, we could–"
"Excuse me."
The two boys looked up from their discussion. They were hunched over a large table in the command centre with a bunch of charts spread out over the table. The first guy talking was wearing a red jacket tied around his waist, while the second guy was wearing his orange sweater.
"Hello, my name is Hashimoto Norita. I am the Assistant Navigator, and I look forward to working with you," Norita offered his olive branch, bowing as far as he dared in the confined space. Now, if they would take it…
"Hi, my name is Sakamoto Kuzuki, I'm the Chief Torpedo officer, and I will be responsible for fire control and stuff like that," the red jacket guy replied, extending a hand for Norita to shake.
"As for me, I'm Nishina Kawabe. I'm your commanding officer, Chief Navigation Officer. I most certainly look forwards to working with you," said the boy with the orange sweater. Norita having shaken Sakamoto's hand, shook hands with Nishina. It didn't escape Norita's attention how his superior officer's handshake was much firmer than Sakamoto's.
"Thank you," Norita told both boys. "If I may ask, may I know what problem are the two of you discussing?"
The boys showed him the maps, with mini plastic figurines of submarines placed on the map. "Ok, the situation's like this. We are this submarine," Nishina pointed to the red plastic piece. "And the enemy are these pieces," he pointed to the other 3 grey plastic pieces. "The challenge is for us to find a way out of this pincer," he gestured to the three submarines encroaching on the red piece from three different directions.
Norita studied the set up for a moment, and running a few calculations, he moved the grey pieces around slightly. Doing that, he kept repeating the action, running calculations and shifting the pieces until he said, "Ok, this is when you fire the torpedo."
Seeing the confused expressions on their faces, Norita quickly began to explain himself. "The enemy knows we are in this general area. That's why they are using the pincer formation. It's a way for the two subs at the front to hem in any submarines in the middle. Now, the thing with this setup is that the enemy pieces only know our general location. At this point, they will not yet dare to fire a torpedo. If we move, they will find us, right?"
Sakamoto nodded.
"So, if we stay still, we can let the ocean current here carry us this way," Norita held the red piece and shifed its position. "And that will bring us into the best torpedo angle! The enemy submarine will hear our torpedo, of course, but that's what we want.
"By firing the torpedo, they will need to take evasive manoeuvres first. So we simply dash forwards, and we will be inside their torpedo safety range, while presenting a large sonar shadow to the other two, so they can't shoot us for fear of shooting their allies!"
The boys looked over the map and the scenario that Norita had just described. "Hmm... I can see how that will be effective, but our goal is to escape. How can we do that?" Nishina posed a question. "From what I see, we are stuck with them until either of us runs out of air." From next to him, Sakamoto's eyes suddenly glimmered with an idea.
"We could hide on the seabed," Sakamoto jabbed his finger at the chart, causing the pieces to jump about. "We're so close, that I think if let our momentum carry us and sink slowly, we can blend our sonar signature with the formations around here! The I-201 is seriously quiet underwater, guys! We can, like, keep drifting this way, and hug the trench and slip past them!"
Engrossed as the boys were in the tactical scenario, none of them noticed the captain coming over. "Oh hey," he commented as he approached the boys. Immediately the three of them whirled around and saluted him, Norita's heart beating wildly in his chest.
"At ease guys, my name is Yonehara Daigo, and I'm your captain. What's the interesting discussion about here?"
"Sir," Sakamoto replied. "We are discussing possible tactics to defeat enemy submarine formations, sir."
"Oh? Enlighten me."
Norita spoke up next, repeating the plan to the captain.
"...hum. Well, it seems ok to me from what I can tell, so good work guys! Just... Sakamoto."
"Yes, Captain?"
The Yonehara's brow furrowed. "Just a quick question about this, but isn't I-201 rated for just 100m depth? The escape route you are proposing... needs us to shadow the trench at a depth of 130m"
Sakamoto winced. "Um..."
"Perhaps," The captain's grin rivalled that of the Cheshire Cat. "I should conduct a depth test before we leave."
"Ah-" "Um-" "Oh god-"
"For now, though, I want to have everyone in here in the next fifteen minutes. The instructor will be coming aboard soon," Yonehara chuckled at their worried faces. "Don't worry, even if we sink here, there's a rescue ship docked outside the harbour. They'll keep us alive. Do you guys know if my secretary is here yet?"
The three boys looked at each other and shook their heads.
"Ah well, guess I have to make that announcement myself."
As the captain went over to the microphone, the boys went back to their discussion.
"Attention all crew members, this is your captain speaking. I want all of you in the bridge in fifteen minutes."
As one, the boys all over the submarine began making their way towards the bridge. Norita helped Nishina pack away his charts while Sakamoto folded up the table. With the addition of the Instructor, there were a total of 32 people crammed into the tiny space.
"Alright, men. Attention!" barked the Instructor.
The 31 boys sharply stood at attention, saluting the Instructor with a loud "Hai, Taichou!"
The Instructor glanced around at the boys. She did a quick head count, and ordered the captain to the front. Yonehara did so, saluting the Instructor.
"Crew of the I-201, this will be your maiden voyage. You will be spending the great majority of your time here below decks, cramped in this hell hole of a moving torpedo. You will learn to work together, to overcome any differences between each other, and if it's ever necessay, how to sleep together! By the time you return to shore, I expect to see not boys, but matured men! Do I make myself clear?"
"YES MA'AM!"
"Good! You are dismissed. Set sail in fifteen minutes." With her last order, the Instructor left the submarine.
Yonehara turned to address the crew, "Ok, you heard the lady. Prepare to set sail!"
The boys rushed off, making sure everything was bolted down and rigged for sailing. Norita brought the table back out for the charts to be spread out on. As the command crew prepared the command centre for sail, Norita dashed back to his room. Returning, he took out a document tube. Inside, were multiple pieces of large transparencies. Taking his marker, he then quickly began aligning the transparencies to the map. All around him, the engines rumbled to life as he felt the vibrations through his feet.
Norita was soon joined by Nishina, who helped him tape down the last transparency to the charts. "Thank you, Hashimoto-san."
"No problem. You have markers right?"
"Yeah, I have them."
Rushing over to the wheel, Nishina took control as he began to give orders to the enginemen. "Increase power to 15 percent on the diesels. What's the sounding under the keel?"
"20m and holding."
The submarine gently eased its way out of port, guided by a tugboat. Once clear of the harbour, the captain retreated back inside the command centre. Nishina looked over at the captain, and raised an eyebrow. The captain nodded in answer.
Nishina asked sonar for another depth check.
"80m and increasing… holding now at 150m."
"Ok, take her down to 100m."
"Yes Captain," turning back to the task at hand, Nishina repeated the order across the ship. "Rig for dive. Switch to electric drive"
It took a while before each section had announced that the ship was rigged for dive, at which point the descent began.
It was a terrifying feeling. Norita could feel the submarine sinking, feeling it move out further into the sea. He grabbed a marker and began to plot out the submarine's position on the charts. Meanwhile, the captain went over to the mission cabinet. There, he and the deputy captain inserted their keys into the two keyed lock, and turned. Opening it, they retrieved a manila envelope. Yonehara took out the mission files, and spread them out on the planning table. Norita had to move the charts to make space for the captain.
As the submarine levelled out at its depth of 100m, Yonehara, the deputy captain poured over the mission files with his deputy, following which he took to the microphone.
"Attention, this is your captain speaking. My name is Yonehara Daigo, and I look forwards to working well with you. As long as you do your job well, to your utmost, then I will see to it that you are duly rewarded.
"Today, we sail for our first training exercise. We will sail for the Ogasawara islands. There, we will attempt to detect and take down another submarine, the I-58. After we defeat it, we will go on to our next mission, which I will only release then.
"For our mission to be a success, I need the fullest cooperation from all of you. Only when every man does his utmost, will we pass the test to become full-fledged submariners. I wish you all the best, and may the Emperor be with us."
Ending the message, the captain turned to the rest of his bridge crew. "So, anyone up for cards?"
As the submarine made its way South East, Norita eventually stopped his tracking to leave for lunch. On entering the mess hall, he grabbed an extra plate of food – shredded chicken in gravy with white rice – for Nishina. Having finished his meal quickly, he left the mess, not bothering to stick around and listen in on the gossip.
Back at the bridge, he handed Nishina his plate, and held the wheel for him while Nishina ate his meal. The charts on the table were once again cleared out of the way for Nishina's war games. The players were Sakamoto and Nakamura. The two players were equally calculative and cold, and both of them liked to consider themselves good at strategy.
Again, it was the submarine question. How does one submarine escape from three enemy submarines searching for it?
Norita just watched the chart he had pinned up for himself in front of the wheel. He knew roughly where they were, and it was just a long straight path for now. Nishina had cleared the slightly difficult "run" earlier where they weaved through the maze of shipwrecks and coral reefs to avoid detection by other ASW machines. For the first hour, the captain never let the submarine go higher than 100m. In fact, they had been underwater for so long, that it was going to be time for the submarine to surface to replenish air supplies. At 15 minutes before the scheduled resupply, he broadcasted to the sub to prepare for surfacing.
The captain was back on the bridge in time for Norita to begin.
"Dive fins to five degrees up. Ballast, bring us up."
The two engineers responded well, the submarine beginning her climb. As the submarine reached a roughly 10 degree climb he told dive fins to keep them on a 15-degree plane. The submarine broached the surface not too long after, with the vents opening to expel stale air. The periscope went up to look around and to run the diesel engines. Here, the submarine would remain surfaced for the rest of their journey.
It was going to be a long journey, covering a distance of over five hundred nautical miles. Norita had helped plan this out, he simply didn't envy the amount of standing he would have to endure for the next 8 hours.
While he stood at the wheel, his thoughts drifted over to how he had ended up in the submarine. 11 decades ago, Japan had won the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. From there, their desperate need to replace wartime losses in men and material lead Japan to discover the massive deposits of Methane Hydrate their islands sat upon. Ever since then, Japan had devoted themselves to collecting and using that very Methane Hydrate deposit.
The Methane Hydrate was extremely useful, decomposing into methane gas which proved a very good fuel. This newly-found self sufficiency had led the once warmongering nation to step back and enjoy their new found wealth. This hadn't lasted for too long.
In 1923, Japan suffered its greatest natural disaster when the city Iwaki, of Fukushima prefecture, sank 16m beneath sea level. A great many lives had been lost, and when the official investigations were carried out, results pointed towards an expanding cavern beneath the city, which had once been filled with Methane Hydrate. The mining of the chemical had caused water to flow into the space, quickening the decomposition into methane gas and the sudden loss of foundation for most of the city. By the time the results came out, it was far too late to stop the resulting chain reaction. City after city, town after town sank as the newly created cavern network beneath Japan literally caused all the home islands to sink.
Relief methods were in place, with the IJN providing many of their ships to house refugees, and the government looking into ways to built floating buildings. Within 5 years of the sinking, the first floating city of Tokyo was established. From then on, floating cities sprung up, one after another. Given how now Japan relied almost literally on the sea for survival, it was decided that educating the youth to take up a niche position in the Navy or other Marine-related occupations would be the best way to go. That's why the first Marine High School, Yokosuka Girl's Marine High School was established in 1934. Built over the remains of Japan's former Yokosuka Naval Base, the floating school provided over 300 jobs for teachers and staff, over 1600 jobs for engineers and other support staff and a place for over 500 students in its first year. The school kept expanding since then, with other schools similarly being built and opened, with very encouraging results.
Fast forward to 2015, there were a whole range of Marine schools to choose from. Apart from the famous school at Yokosuka, there were others at Sasebo, Kure, Maizuru, Hiroshima and Nagasaki that specialised in preparing youth for positions in the navy, be it the Blue Mermaids or the Silent Service. At other schools across Japan, the Marine schools trained their youth for life in the Marine industry, such as trade shipping, fishing and the like.
As the captain went up the sail with the lookout, Norita couldn't help but notice the glances the secretary kept throwing at the hatch the two had just disappeared into. The secretary caught him looking, and quickly scurried away towards the Officers' rooms. Looking around him for the first time, Norita realised just how lonely he was. Everyone had bugged out once the submarine finished surfacing, leaving Norita the only one left in the bridge.
"Ah... wish I had some music up here..."
Author's Notes
Hi guys, thanks for coming. To those who know me from before, yes I have returned. For how long, I don't know, since this is a lull in my studies that I'm using to write with. As stated on my profile page, I have been busy writing while I was away, but have not yet uploaded them on my account. I won't actually upload those stuff yet, until I finish this story, since I don't want to split my readers' attention.
In other news, I have updated the Prologue. It's cleaner, more detailed, and I hope it's now up to your liking, Wisconsin.
Additionally, FF. net seems to have a problem with the reviews. They're not showing up when they should, and I can't PM you back. No worries, I can still read your reviews, so keep them coming.
This story is set about one year before the events of Haifuri, which means that no, the guys will not be fighting the Harekaze. I still intend to take them there, but they need a world building of their own first. The world of the Boy's Schools in Haifuri is very undeveloped, and since I'm from a Boy's School, I cannot let this go unchecked. For all I know everything I have ever written about submarines might be false, but to the best of my knowledge (and Tom Clancy's) everything related to submarines and ASW is real.
So, I hope that you guys have enjoyed this tale for where it is today, and there will be more to come in the following weeks. I update every Wednesday (GMT +0800).
BTW, I hope you guys spotted all the references so far.
And pleasepleaseplease go check out Hieda no Akyuu. He's an awesome writer, whose masterpiece Ambience: A Fleet Symphony is one of my top favourites.
Update 13/10/2018
Hi everyone, NamelessSlinger here. It has been such a long time since I last came aboard to update this fanfiction, but it's not because I lost interest! I have been really busy with school and major exams, and I have not been able to find the time and energy to continue writing. On top of that, having taken such a long hiatus, I developed a fresh perspective on Haifuri.
Honestly, the early chapters are sub-par. I wrote them when before episode 8, before RATt was revealed and before that bit about a lost research submarine was revealed. As such, these few chapters were written with absolutely 0 direction, made all the messier when I tried to shoehorn in a proper conspiracy plot. As such, I will be going through these chapters one at a time, updating them with revisions here and there to tune them more towards my desired storyline.
Lastly, I have been experimenting with more ways to introduce characters, so good riddance to the stupid backstory chapter that honestly can go and die. I wrote it as a backstory for Norita, but due to popular demand, wove from it my zero-sense-of-direction story "Haifuri - Contact!"
And yes, I am working on a more typical what-if Haifuri story where Yahagi- I mean, Mashiro- is assigned Captain of the Harekaze.
