The JS Genkai had yet to see combat in the abyssal war, which suited her crew just fine. The Hiuchi-class support ship was unarmed, after all, meaning she would have to rely entirely on the skills of her allies if shooting started. To an observer, those allies were a handful of shipgirl Kaibokan, Japan's loose equivalent of America's DE girls, and a pair of Matsu-class destroyers. The small fleet wasn't an unusual sight for the civilians, with Admiral Hirano constantly drilling her command to ensure battle readiness, but those departing knew they were actually the most substantial force to leave Maizuru in months.
USS Saratoga sighed, the binoculars hiding her face as she watched the occasional civilian gawking at their exit. If they were closer, they'd probably notice that her hair didn't fit regulations for a human in the US Navy, but with it tucked into her NWUs she currently passed as a mere foreign observer: Not a common sight, but not particularly unexpected either.
She shifted in her boots, the stiff fabric scraping against her skin as she looked away from the port's distant activity. The loose, ridged uniform was something she could probably get used to, but for most purposes she'd prefer her regular clothing. Shipgirls had an exemption to most nation's uniform regulations, especially at sea like she was, but since the carrier technically didn't exist yet she was stuck in these until they'd gotten away from the eyes of the uninformed.
Then, the real work could begin.
"How long has it been, since everyone's been on the ocean?" Saratoga asked, lowering the binoculars so she could catch the subject of her question in her peripheral.
There was a pause, as the training cruiser at her side considered the question.
"Not for half a year." Katori reported. "We don't need to schedule an escort when training at Lake Biwa, after all."
"Training in a lake..." Saratoga wondered, although it was at the fact the idea hadn't occurred to her until she'd been told about it. They could hop in a car and drive anywhere in Japan, so why not train somewhere completely safe?
"Hmm." The Aircraft Carrier hummed, approving of the idea. "Is it a nice place?"
She'd seen the ancient lake through the eyes of her pilots, back in her previous life, but that was seventy years ago. It could be polluted by now, or almost dried up like some she'd heard about.
"It's alright." The Training Cruiser tempered. "Sea conditions are always great, which isn't what you want at this stage of training. We don't have any destroyer escort there either, so they don't get the valuable experience they need with screens and keeping formation."
"Sorry, I didn't mean for training." Saratoga frowned, reviewing her question. Had she gotten the Japanese wrong? "Is it…" She paused, trying to find a different word for 'nice' while looking over at Katori. "uh…"
Was that a smirk?
"It's wonderful." The training cruiser answered, her stoic demeanor fading as she gave Saratoga a knowing smile. "You've got a great view of the mountains in every direction, and while you're out there it feels like an exceptional anchorage."
"It's not claustrophobic?" Saratoga asked, imagining the situation. Even though she wouldn't technically be trapped in the lake, and places like Pearl Harbor were much smaller, she wasn't sure how she'd take the realization the lake didn't have any outlets.
"It's fine." Katori confirmed. "There's enough room to get to cruising speed, and we don't have to worry as much about rocky areas anymore."
"We don't?" Saratoga asked, suddenly confused.
"It's the second form we have." Katori clarified. "If you don't know they're there, they'll tear into your hull, but if you do know what's coming, your hull form will disappear, just like when you're sailing onto a beach to walk ashore."
"...I hadn't thought of that." Saratoga admitted, mulling over Katori's statement.
"You haven't had time to." Katori reassured the carrier. "Out here, it won't matter that much. You'll get more chances to experiment once you're declassified."
The aircraft carrier nodded. Part of her had been a shipgirl for years, she supposed, but the gloomy Jellyfish Princess hadn't tested her new form that much. The Abyssal only really cared that she was surrounded by a radioactive fog, that she had a fleet of ships to toy with, and her conviction that, some day, The Abyssal Fleets were going to be kindling for nuclear fire. The technical aspects had never been a priority.
"That's true..." Saratoga started, her lips thinning to the ghost of a frown. "...But how much do we need to unlearn now that we're human?"
"Unlearn?" Katori echoed.
"There's probably a lot of tactics we use because that was the only way to do it at the time. I imagine some of what I'll be teaching everyone will just be an… inefficient way of doing things."
"You're right." The Training Cruiser admitted. "Us veterans can be pretty blind to our human selves sometimes, but we're not asking you to magically know all of the differences. You know Graf Zeppelin?"
"The German carrier?" Saratoga asked. "She's back?"
Even before the Japanese cruiser could reply, however, another memory bubbled up from her time under the Abyss's influence. One of her now-sunk carriers, Hypocenter, had been going over her and her sister's last mission, describing an aircraft type she'd never seen before. From the description Jellyfish had immediately recognized the strange aircraft as Stukas, and had sat down most of the fleet for a technical lesson on the new enemy aircraft. After that, though, she'd put the incident aside, not paying the implications much mind. It's not like the Abyssal had cared much for individual nations, after all.
"She is. Works with the British Royal Navy, I think. Part of a joint task force with a couple of destroyers, an oiler, and a modern submarine. They do the raiding she was designed for, then once she's gotten in a good strike or two, all of the shipgirls pile into the submarine, and it slinks away from any counterattack abyssals throw together."
"Willingly sinking yourself?" Saratoga shuttered at the thought. Merely imagining being crammed into a tube smaller than her hull, hundreds of feet into the depths, sent a primal fear flying down her keel. "I don't think I could do that."
"I don't know how they can," Katori agreed, "but what's important is this: She still needed training from the British in how to prepare a strike, manage a CAP, and generally handle her air wing. What's the american phrase? Bread and butter stuff?"
"Fair enough." Saratoga conceded. "I guess approaching things from a pure ship standpoint is good enough as a start."
"That's all we expect." The Japanese cruiser agreed.
The American hummed in agreement, but didn't speak up beyond that. The hum of the Genkai's engine settled between the two as they watched the shoreline shrink, the port sliding below the horizon. It was about time for them to set sail themselves.
"In that case," Saratoga started, paying attention to how her uniform's fit changed as she stretched. "since we're sticking to the plan, I should get into my actual uniform."
"You just need to summon your rigging." the training cruiser informed her. "It'll show up."
"Onboard?" Saratoga asked, casting a worried glance down at the Genkai's deck.
"It's just some extra weight." Katori Teased. As she spoke, a thick mist rose from her back, dissipating to reveal the smokestack and guns of her rigging. "She can handle it."
To prove her point, the training cruiser hopped slightly, her rudder heels landing on the deck with a quiet click.
"Okay, what about this?" She asked, tugging at the collar of her NWU.
"Your crew can take care of it." Katori smirked, fog slowly engulfing her rigging as she stowed it again, turning to leave. "I'll let the students know it's time to hit the water."
Saratoga watched the training cruiser disappear belowdecks, leaning on the railing as she mulled over the new information. Experimentally, she held her left hand out
A familiar weight settled on her head, her port hand instinctively wrapping around the grip of her deck. Saratoga rose slightly as her boots faded away, and she could suddenly feel the wind on her legs through her tights. Awareness spread into her rigging, as much a part of her as her flesh and blood, to the point where she could feel the wind sweep across her deck and buffet against her island. This feeling… she was certain she hadn't experienced what it was like to summon her rigging before she'd been rescued from the Abyss.
Why was all of this new information in the first place? Had memories along those lines from the Jellyfish Princess just not emerged yet, or had she never bothered to stow her rigging?
The carrier shivered, remembering the oppressive fog. Knowing Jellyfish, there was a good chance it was the latter.
It had been far too long since Saratoga had been at sea. Sure, not that much time had actually passed since her short sea trials off of California, but after everything that had happened Saratoga welcomed the simplicity of a sea voyage.
Several great lakes bombers rumbled down her flight deck, the biplanes easily catching the wind and rising despite the 1000lb bomb slung under each of their bellies. They wouldn't be as effective against submarines as a depth charge, but none of her current aircraft had been developed to handle depth charges, so they were completely absent from her magazines.
The ships of their screen had a good service record, both learning from mistakes made in the second world war and hardened by experience in this conflict, but Saratoga knew no abyssal submarine would see eight aircraft carriers sailing in formation and not attempt a run on them. Her screen certainly wouldn't object to additional eyes searching for periscope wakes.
Besides, while Vestal hadn't done the best job explaining the system to her, Saratoga knew she needed to re-familiarize herself with these obsolete aircraft before she could look forward to using something more modern. Contributing to the defense of the convoy, or at the very least coordinating with the Japanese destroyers protecting her, should help get her air wing into the 1930s.
"Amagi, this is Katori. You're drifting to port, check your course."
Of course, there was still her real mission. Observers from Saratoga's Air Wing had been stationed on each of her students, quietly assessing the japanese carriers' work and taking notes for Saratoga to pour over later. Simple things like seakeeping were already being covered by Katori, leaving Saratoga with not that much to worry about until their first aircraft took off.
Speaking of which, now that her own aircraft were up, she could focus a bit more on her students. They all had been preparing an even mix of bombers and fighters to launch ever since her observers had boarded, but couldn't have begun until they were free from the Genkai. Now that her own aircraft were off her deck, it was time she got her first real look at her students.
Who should start, though? Amagi came to mind first, but that was probably because the triple-decked conversion had just been scolded by her fellow teacher. It wouldn't be good to single her out. Beyond that, it didn't really matter who launched their aircraft first, so Saratoga instead focused on the ship ahead of her.
"Katsuragi, this is Saratoga." There wasn't any obvious change in the Unryu-class's hull form, but the distant shipgirl seemed to straighten when Saratoga mentioned her name. "Begin launching aircraft."
"Uh- Acknowledged!" The green-clad carrier stammered. "Standard Carrier Katsuragi, sortieing aircraft!"
The line had clearly been rehearsed, and didn't really have a place on their communication net, but Saratoga held her peace. Her students had studied training material from every side in the second world war, but remembering any of it while putting it into practice was an entirely different matter.
The sheer complexity of carrier operations made her wonder how Abyssal carriers without a teacher like Jellyfish were any threat at all. The early wargames the Crossroads fleet performed would have been an embarrassment if anyone else had witnessed them.
Saratoga stiffened, shaking her head to evade the memory that suddenly emerged from her subconscious. Murray might be interested in Trinitite's performance in wargames against her sisters, but that wasn't a part of her life Saratoga could dwell on right now.
Anyways, this first sortie was only for her to assess the skills they'd developed, either from experience or their attempts to train themselves after they'd been summoned. Therefore, instead of interrupting them to correct issues, she'd quietly take note of the mistakes they made and draw up a report of her first impressions. From those reports, Katori and her could determine the ideal training regimen for their fleet. She'd make mistakes, perhaps reading too far into stress-induced slipups, but misconceptions could be adjusted after a few more exercises.
One of Saratoga's observers on Katsuragi had started transmitting from the backpack radio he'd brought aboard. As one of her staff replied to the transmission, Saratoga concentrated, expanding her vision to the observer she'd placed there.
Katsuragi's flight deck wasn't as... full as she'd expected. Watching as the first aircraft, an A7M 'Sam' fighter if she guessed correctly, began to crawl forwards, she couldn't help but notice that only a handful of aircraft were actually spotted on the deck of the Unryuu-class. A few aircraft were still tucked behind her island, some folded up for storage as crews maliciously poured over a few they were still rearming.
A small frown played over Saratoga's features, but she didn't voice her disappointment. She hadn't expected the Japanese carrier to spot her aircraft for operations as quickly as she did, but the assumptions she'd made had set her expectations too high anyways. Despite being a veteran of world war 2, Katsuragi never had a chance to field aircraft before, only practicing with the other Unryuus after she was summoned, so it would make sense that she would have trouble putting everything into practice.
Well, it was better that she performed air operations slowly then recklessly. Both would be a deadly weakness in battle, but the former only needed practice to fix.
On the bright side, it hopefully meant she'd taken her research into damage control practices to heart. The observers in Katsuragi's armored hangar didn't have the clunky backpack radios the one she was currently watching through did, so Saratoga only had a view of topside operations, but judging by how cautiously the deck crew was acting she hoped that meant things would look… safe down there, at least.
Both through the eyes of her observer and from her position astern of her student, Saratoga watched as the first aircraft caught the wind, rising well before Katsuragi's deck ended and uneasily climbing to join Saratoga's museum pieces above the fleet. The aircraft was joined by another about forty-five seconds later, her pilots giving each other plenty of space before attempting to take off themselves, until another command crackled over the Fleet's net.
"All ships, this is Katori. Come starboard to 330."
Saratoga quietly cursed herself. Had she spent too much time on her own air operations, giving her student not enough time to launch her aircraft before the fleet entered their scheduled zig? It would have been enough time for her sisters- or Trinitite, she thought darkly- to launch the aircraft they'd spotted on their deck, and the green Unryu-class didn't have that many to launch to begin with, but she was new at this! Saratoga should have ordered her to begin launching almost immediately after they'd turned into the wind, giving her a better view of her capabilities.
"Katsuragi, this is Saratoga." The Lexington-class began, keeping the regret out of her voice. "Cancel operations for aircraft still on your deck."
She didn't want her student launching the rest of her strike into a crosswind, especially since the last aircraft on her deck were heavier Judy bombers.
"Saratoga, Katsuragi, acknowledged."
Even through the radio, the shame in the young carrier's voice was obvious. She clearly thought she'd embarrassed herself. If that didn't change once everyone else had a chance to screw up, she'd have to fix it in the debriefing.
"Katsuragi, Saratoga." The converted battlecruiser spoke up again, her crews spotting more aircraft for ASW duty as she turned out of the wind. "You did fine." She reassured her student, although Saratoga doubted the young carrier would listen to her. "Take your aircraft north, have them drop their ordinance over open water, and direct them back to you for landing. I just want to focus on arming, takeoffs, and landings today."
That was going to be a fiasco. She'd specifically ordered that everyone only launch their aircraft with a minimum fuel load, but she guessed plenty of her students were going to be seeing Maizuru's repair baths after they returned. She knew how dangerous a poorly-trained carrier could be from experience.
Even from her fragmented view of life on the other side, Saratoga had more than one memory of Bearcats and Helldivers slamming into the stern of an awaiting Wo-class. For a few weeks they'd had to switch to landing their aircraft on the airstrip humans had built on Enyu, sheepishly walking ashore and scooping up their aircraft after training was completed.
Saratoga became suddenly aware of a small smile that had crept onto her lips. Surprised, the Carrier suddenly straightened, brushing an errant strand of hair away from her bridge as she forced a stoic expression. Had she been… nostalgic?
What the hell? The Jellyfish Princess certainly hadn't been endeared by her minion's incompetence! Where did that feeling come from?
She shook her head. No matter how she thought about it, what Saratoga was doing with Japan's rookie carriers felt… Familiar. The experience of not just teaching, but training shipgirls was unearthing far more memories than she was comfortable with.
Adjusting the way her deck sat on her shoulder, Saratoga sighed again, removing a magazine from under her dress and slotting it into her rigging as additional great lakes bombers were brought up from her hangar. Zuikaku had been very adamant that the Crane Princess and herself were different entities, but if Saratoga was asked if she could say the same thing about Jellyfish…
She wasn't sure she could honestly agree.
The magazine settled into her rigging with a click, the ker-clack of Saratoga instinctively racking the bolt snapping herself out of her thoughts. Damnit, she needed to stop thinking about this! Activating her radio again, the Carrier picked another one of her students at random.
"Haiou, this is Saratoga."
"Saratoga, Hoiou affirms." The Converted Ocean Liner responded. Unlike the awkward distance that dominated a lot of conversations between Saratoga and Japanese shipgirls, the light carrier had been oddly eager to meet her, even introducing herself in surprisingly good English.
"Once we turn into the wind, launch your strike, then report once your aircraft are in the air."
Was she trying to suck up to her new instructor, or had she done a better job putting the Pacific War behind her then most? Saratoga wasn't sure, but the question was more fun to ponder then dwelling on… back then.
Thanks to Jessetheswift for betaing this interlude!
I had an internal debate while writing this chapter when relating to the shipgirls talking over radio. I did some research on protocol, found lists of callsigns for US Navy ships but not JMSDF ones, realized I would have to make new ones for returned shipgirls...
I probably could have powered through that, but at the end of the day, it's just sort of clunky to read, so I've ended up fudging the protocol to ignore the ship's four-letter callsign and just use their name. Maybe that's an acceptable break from reality, maybe it isn't, but it is sort of in line with what radio chatter we've seen earlier in the fic and it should be easier to read.
Still, if the protocol I used is painfully incorrect, feel free to correct me. I couldn't find any good sources on naval radio protocols compared to civilian maritime ones, but part of that failure was due to life circumstances preventing me from dedicating the time to really research this stuff.
Also, is Katsuragi in any other kancolle fics? Saratoga's team is mostly characters who exist in game, but are very rare in fics. Getting to explore those characters is a nice bonus of writing these interludes. Most of the groundwork of making an OC is done for you, but they aren't so flushed out you need to worry too much about being consistent with canon. It's nice.
Anyways, I explicitly avoided introducing everyone this snippet. It's not that I expect readers to forget all the names if I just threw a list at their face, but asking them to do so when that isn't plot relevant (for this arc) just feels kind of mean. Plus, it wouldn't be very interesting.