Disclaimer: I don't own KanColle nor any references used in the story. I only own my OC and the rest are rightfully owned by their respected owners.
Captain Ozawa Hayao of the Kongou-class Fast Battleship, IJN Haruna, was not having good noon.
After safely passing through the Inland Sea of Japan, and into the Pacific Ocean south of Kyushu and east of the Ryukyu Island Chains, the voyage was relatively peaceful during the winter season of January in the year 1948.
The keyword being "was".
While the past few hours have been considered peaceful by him and his crew, but then a storm suddenly broke out as if it came out of nowhere and the sea was raging almost as if it was fitting itself in anger.
It was most likely due to his inability to swim.
"Helmsman, maintain bearing and speed! We need to get out of this storm as possible!" he ordered, witnessing the torrential storm outside the bridge with thunder and lighting clapping in unison.
In times like this, he hated storms of this magnitude.
Suzuki Seiya, the IJN Haruna's Helmsman, replied, "Yes sir! Leave it to me!"
"Satoru, contact Hibiki using the ship's searchlights via flashing light signals, and tell them to do the same! And before you ask, we're having communication problems with the radio, so do as I say!"
"Yes, Captain!"
He then went to the tube that was connected to the engine room.
"Serizawa, how's the engine?"
"Fine, sir! Engine running at optimal cruising speed despite the raging storm outside!"
"Good, I'll leave things to your hands down there Chief!"
"Sir!"
Hayao grinned to himself, he was happy and relieved to have a strong and capable crew that can be relied on in time.
Ever since he had graduated from the Naval Academy, he was a little bit worried about his crew since he was called Captain. But as it turns out, his crew was one of the best he had seen so far.
"Captain, don't you think it's a bit strange?"
Hayao turned to his second-in-command, Commander Shimazu Yuzuru, and replied.
"No, I don't think so, why?"
"It's just, strange. One moment it was all peaceful but a storm suddenly broke out of nowhere and all hell let loose. Earlier weather reports stated that today's voyage would be peaceful even when we reach further south and reach Indonesia. Please forgive me if I said something out of place, Captain."
"No, I think you're up to something. But as of now, we have to worry about that later, and focus on getting out of this storm."
"Yes, Captain!"
After that exchange, Hayao wondered in his mind.
He's right. It is strange. Earlier weather reports stated that it would be a fine day for a voyage towards Indonesia. The likeliness of those reports being wrong is abysmally low, as the Empire controlled the entirety of the Pacific and it would have warned us a large storm coming from the Marianas Islands alone. This isn't right at all.
The raging waves rocked the Battleship, but it did little to impede his thoughts.
No, as I said to him, I have to worry about this later. The crew needs their captain, I'll be sure to do my role.
As time went by, the storm gradually began to get stronger. The more they went further south, the worse it became.
Almost as if an anomaly was around the area.
"Sir!" Satoru, the lookout personnel, called, "Hibiki signaled us, they say we need to turn back! They also say the storm is threatening to overturn their ship, and we need to return to port as soon as possible!"
After hearing those words, the IJN Haruna immediately decided on the course of action.
"Very well. Helmsman!" he bellowed, "Hard rudder 180 degrees left! We're getting the heck out of here!"
The Helmsman complied with a nod, "Yes, Captain."
"Satoru, contact Hibiki, signal them that we're turning back to port!"
"Sir!"
"Chief Serizawa, can the engines go for flanking speed?"
"The engines all fine and dandy for flanking speed, Captain! With the new engines installed a few months back, I'd say she can go for maximum speed as fast as she can for three hours max!"
"Good, with that kind of speed, it's more than enough to escape this hell of a storm." Captain Ozawa remarked, before giving the next order, "Turn the rudder! Full speed!"
"Turn the rudder!" the Helmsman repeated.
"Full speed!" Chief Engineer Serizawa shouted at the Engineer Personnel
With that, IJN Haruna turned her rudder and Hibiki quickly followed suit as they left the area, gradually facing less danger the farther they went from the south towards the north as they return safely with everyone on board.
At least that was supposed to happen.
A bolt of lightning struck Haruna at her forward batteries leaving everyone inside the bridge temporarily blinded at the sudden flash of light, and.
As their blindness quickly subsided from the flash, the ship's second-in-command was the first to react.
"What the hell was that!?"
"A lightning bolt you, idiot!"
"Artillery Officer, you have no right to say such things to your Commander!"
"Oi! I was stating the facts to this idiot of a Commander here, Navigation Officer!"
"I know what a lightning bolt is! I was asking what the actual hell was that lightning bolt struck our forward batteries!?"
"Now you're just adding words from your previous sentence!"
"I haven't finished that sentence before you answered me!"
Before it became a full-blown argument between the Commander and the Chief Artillery Officer, Haruna's Helmsman quickly interjected.
"Guys," he began, "Where's the Captain?"
"The Captain? He's right here, right beside m-!?"
As Commander Shimazu turned to his side where the ship's captain should be. All that he had found was no one.
Nothing.
"Captain?"
"Oi, where's the Captain?"
The rest of the bridge personnel could only look in shock and horror as to where their captain was.
It was almost as if he wasn't even there in the first place.
"Captain..." the Commander of Haruna whispered in sudden realization
Their Captain was gone.
Earlier. January 8th, 1948. Kure Naval District. 0600 hours
It was a cold winter morning. And Ozawa Hayao knew it from the moment he went outside from his cabin and into the pier outside of his ship.
He was a man in his early 20s looked out to the snowy skies with charcoal eyes as he continued his way to the port of the famous Kure Naval Arsenal that was responsible for building largest vessels and they had constructed the legendary Yamato-class Battleships that have served splendidly in the Pacific War in that very district.
He was about 163 cm tall, far taller than average Japanese male height of 150 cm.
His abnormally tall height might have been inherited from his grandfather, Ozawa "Onigawara" Jisaburo, who was easily two meters tall. Hence, his classmates would often compare him to be as tall as an American or any person in the Western hemisphere.
Even though this is a genetic trait of the Ozawa Family. And the average height of the Americans is at least 12 cm taller than me... He thought, as the memories of his time back in the Naval Academy before he had graduated.
"Oi, Captain Ozawa!" A man called out with a loud voice from behind, breaking off his thoughts "Nice to see you this morning, ya ready for our first mission."
He was a man relatively shorter than Hayao, he has short black hair, chestnut eyes, showing a toothy grin at Hayao's face.
"...Commander Shimazu, you don't have to yell that loud. It's like 0600 hours."
Commander Shimazu Yuzuru, a man who seemed to be in his early 20s and Captain Ozawa Hayao's second-in-command, let out a boisterous laugh that Hayao could swear that it can be heard throughout the whole district.
"Don't be like that, Captain. After all, we have at least two hours before we could sortie out for our first mission. And don't you were like the carefree, laidback type of guy of back in the Academy, do you, Captain?"
"I'm still that same guy, you know! I always look serious when I'm deep in thought and when the situation calls for it."
"Yeah, yeah, and you're still that same guy who always has an unhealthy obsession with every piece of technology the Imperial Navy developed either jointly or independently from the Army. The latter, most of the time. The former," he tilted his head side-by-side, "A big meh."
"...I hate you, you know that." he said blankly before he continued in his usual carefree attitude "Anyways since the mission will start at 0800 hours, let's go to the ship that we are assigned to escort."
"You mean IJN Hibiki? The last of the four Akatsuki-class Destroyers, the twenty-second Fubuki-class Special Type Destroyer, that have managed to survive the Pacific War? The Unsinkable Ship?"
"Yes, yes, it is her." he answered nonchalantly as he started walking, "Now come along Commander, we don't have all morning standing here and chat as we did back in the old days."
"Yes, Captain," he says before he started walking alongside him.
It took them a good few minutes of walking before they've made it to the ship of their destination.
A Destroyer Ship, anchored near the pier, with the morning sun shone all her glorious visage as one of the formidable warships the Imperial Navy possessed during the Pacific War.
Yuzuru whistled, "So this is IJN Hibiki, huh? People called her the Unsinkable Ship, some called her The Phoenix, and others called her The Destroyer Having The Destiny To Survive The Pacific War. Those are some sweet titles she held." he remarked, clearly impressed by the sight of the last Akatsuki-class Destroyer, "Haven't seen her for a while and she already gets a modernization from the get-go. She looks like she gained a thousand long ton weight."
"Yeah, it's been three months she's been received a modernization approval from High Command to meet the demands of the Acquisition Project for the Indonesian Navy. Her upgrades involve a new and powerful Type 5 and Type 6 Fire Control Director as a replacement for the Type 0 and 1 Fire Control Director which these previous Fire Control Director can control five gun mounts, and an elevation speed of 12 degrees per second that also ensure that control officer, layer, and trainer can observe the same target to minimize error and that the Fire Control Computer transmits data to the guns. The newer design, the Type 5 and 6 on the other hand, can control eight gun mounts, an elevation speed of 16 degrees per second, and has the capability that can ensure that observation of the same target error can be minimized further than before."
Hayao explained in his usual laidback tone as he continued.
"Additionally, she is armed with three twin-mounted Type 6 12.7 cm/60 DP gun, replacing the twin-mounted Type 3 12.7 cm/56 DP gun which the previous Type 3 was derived from the Army's Type 3 12 cm AA gun which can effectively shoot down targets 12 thousand meters from sea level. Furthermore, she is equipped with an improved ammunition shell with a reduced weight of 0.5 kg less than the standard 12.7 cm shell used before the Pacific War. She also comes with a powerful and advanced Autoloading Mechanism that allows her to fire her shells per minute by a factor of four. That also includes her new engines installed into her that can statistically be speaking, increase her speed up to 15% as well as a 25% increase in maximum range and enough energy to power the entire ship with no ill drawbacks at all. But for all its drawback, the Autoloading Mechanism made the main guns unstable for a sustained fire at 15 seconds, and it only did was further increasing her weight, especially-"
"And you can talk about the new stabilizer system installed on every warship the Imperial Navy that can help sustain a constant barrage of a further five seconds with the same accuracy, and yadda, yadda, yadda gun accuracy better than before." Ozawa's second-in-command interrupted, "Seriously, Captain, you need to lay down your obsession regarding literally every piece of technology used for naval warfare, it's unhealthy. And I was making a joke about her weight."
While it is good seeing his friend talking like he did back the days when they're learning in the Naval Academy to become enlisted officers for the Imperial Navy. Yuzuru did not want to hear him going on-and-on about how good the warships had been in recent years. He knew the gist of it, and that was it.
"...I guess you're right, my bad, Commander Shimazu." Hayao apologized while retaining his laidback tone, "But I'll only tone it down a bit."
"It's good that you admitted it, Captain. But what's with those formalities, we're pals, aren't we, Hayao?"
"Nah, I can't call you by your name, Commander. In public, it's a protocol, but when it's just the two of us... Meh, whatever you say, Yuzuru."
Yuzuru chuckled, "Now there's that laidback, carefree Hayao that I know and respect. C'mon man, let's go back to Haruna. I'm sure you're going to give some of our crew a major headache with your tech obsession."
With a carefree look and a laidback tone, Captain Ozawa Hayao replied, "Sure, why not? Anyways, did you know, that both IJN Hibiki and Haruna, with their new engines, can cruise 18 knots while maintaining the same range as their previous engines?"
"Yeah, yeah, Hayao, I know."
With that, at exactly an hour had gone by, both IJN Hibiki and Haruna sailed towards Indonesia.
"Ugh... What happened...?"
The freshly-graduated Naval Academy student now Captain of a Fast Battleship, asked mostly to himself as he groggily opened his eyes as he woke from his slumber. Still slightly dazed from the sudden flash of light the lightning bolt had produced.
Feeling the warm rays of the sun and the cool breeze on his face, he had noticed he was lying on a comfortable bed with blankets covering his body.
And by the sound of the loud fluttering curtains by the supreme subjugation of the salty wind, he assumed he was in a building near the ocean of some sort.
Oh, right. One moment I was standing at the bridge, the next thing I know lightning struck and everything went black.
Hayao sat up and quickly clutched his head in pain, feeling a brain-splitting headache that he never felt before in his entire life.
It hurts! How the hell did I even get this headache!?
After a few minutes had passed, finally feeling the accursed headache receding and the slight dizziness falters after a minute of excruciating pain, he slowly went out of bed as he stood up in defiance of the gravity's omnipresent might.
He still felt tired though, but he had enough energy to peer out of the window of his room. Silently appreciating he wasn't in a cell of some sort.
As he looked out, he saw a familiar sight in front of him.
Am I back in Kure? He thought in wonder as he stared outside.
He noticed that there was something wrong.
Where are the ships stationed at the port? Where're the dockyards? What the hell are those buildings over there!? Those weren't supposed to be there!"
Ozawa Hayao was usually a laidback, carefree man from both the Academy and his home. He wasn't the type to worry about things he didn't care about.
But what he saw, startled him.
Before he could give in to the stress, and the sudden spark of his headache. The voice of a nervous young girl called out.
He turned to his back as he saw a girl with black hair in a small ponytail and payot in front and black eyes. She wears a serafuku with a white and dark blue color of blouse and skirt.
"A-Ano, are you okay, sir?" she asked nervously to Hayao.
Hayao blinked his eyes thrice at the girl in front of him before he replied.
"No, I don't think so," he answered truthfully.
"Then, would you like me to help you go back to your bed. You're very tired, it seems."
"No, I think I can handle myself, err..."
"Fubuki. My name is Fubuki. What's yours?"
"...Hayao. Ozawa Hayao. And, Fubuki, nice name your parents gave you. You might have been born in, what, a cold blizzard in the middle of a winter season or something?"
"Err, right, yeah." she says awkwardly before steeling herself, "Uh, Ozawa-san, but if you're feeling well enough, I can take you to the person in charge of this place, if you wanted to."
"The person in charge? Since when I got permission to see the person in charge? And who is this person you speak off?" he asked in his usual laidback, carefree tone. Nonetheless curious enough for the girl, Fubuki, to notice.
"Uh, the Admiral, sir..."
Hayao widened his eyes in shock but still retained his laidback vibe as he nodded.
"Sure. Give me an hour, I think I'll be ready by then."
Fubuki nodded before Hayao asked another question.
"Ah, by the way, where is my uniform?"
I apologize if I made a mistake.
That is all, gabrielchiong11, out and be safe from the virus.