Basic Nautical Vocabulary

A Knot = 1.15mph or 1.852kph for those who don't know freedom units.

Port = Left wherever the bow is facing. This can be remembered by recognizing that

both are four letter words.

1 2 3 4

Starboard = The right of the ship wherever the bow of the ship is facing.

Note: Port & Starboard are always relative to the front of the ship. So if you are facing towards the back they don't change, They are fixed to the front.

Bow = Front of the ship's Hull, i.e the front. Mnemonic device: When you bow you bend forward.

Stern = Back most part of the ship, The back of the ship.

Flank speed = The true maximum speed of a vessel, this is mainly for emergencies only because it strains the boilers and crew. Boilers can be quite touchy and explody things when you abuse them. As Well as it just taking up considerable fuel.

Ahead Full: Means to go the Fastest recommended speed of a vessel.

XO = eXecutive Officer, Second in command of a Vessel.

Tin Can: Nickname for Destroyers because of their thin armor.

Ensign: A Naval or Military Flag that Indicates nationality.

ASW: Anti-Submarine Warfare

USS: United States Ship

IJN: Imperial Japanese Navy (This wasn't used historically, but it is used quite commonly for convenience.)

HMS His/Her Majesty's Ship

Author's notes

I can almost guarantee a few spelling mistakes, so please tell when you find them. I don't have an editor. Grammar should be at least decent and legible but sometimes my hands and my brain write completely different things. I'll proofread to the best of my ability but there is a high probability of me missing things. Formatting is weird, Am not sure if I should use more of the less formal Fanfiction style or Novel style. As for plot and story I can't make any promises since I am still pretty new to writing, but I'll try my best. I doubt I have to say I don't own this japanese franchise, especially when I am posting this on a primarily english fanfiction site. Please give me feedback so I can become better at writing and improve the story. I can't promise a consistent schedule because school and this project is to just get me to write something. I haven't totally outlined or plotted this out yet, but I have a few ideas of where this can go.

One thing, I am not writing about the Oregon City class heavy cruisers, I've made up an entirely fictional class of light cruiser that is lightly based on the Cleveland and Atlanta classes. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter #1: She flies with her own wings.

There were many things I'd rather not wake up to, but when I opened my eyes I had to say that this had to be up there. Blue for as far as the eye could see. Blue water and blue sky. The smell of salt wafting in my nostrils delivered by a cool breeze, light ocean spray accompanying it. Why was I in the ocean? And for that matter how was I not drowning? I'd never learned how to swim. I looked down, I wore a skirt, Not exactly all that new for me. The breasts were and the lilac hair that went to my shoulders. I just stood there, blinking for a while. I was a girl? Huh, I wasn't complaining, but I kinda wanted to do the whole transitioning thing myself. Getting a whole new female body somehow felt like I was cheating.

I lifted my leg out of the water, I wore a pair of ankle height boots with rudders and propellers on each. Cute thigh highs covered most of my legs. Cool, but that doesn't explain how the hell I am standing on water. Text on the hem of my skirt caught my attention, 122 in white blocky numbers like you would see on a ship. This smelled strongly of the two asian gacha games relating to ship girls. And With the unnatural color of my hair I was reminded strongly of anime. My dreams were never this vivid so that was straight out of the question. I pinched myself, nothing but pain that felt very real. So, I must have gotten Isekaied. I didn't really know what to think to be honest. What was one supposed to think when they'd been randomly thrust into a position they had read thousands of times. But The most important question was, was I in Kancolle or Azure Lane? Could be both for all I knew. Maybe that one american game that I'd seen on kickstarter or whatever. Victory belles or some shit? It would be important to know what I might have to fight. Aliens or Vengeful spirits. Only time would tell I guess. If I was a ship girl then I should have the buoyancy of a ship, so that answered the drowning question. Though it didn't stop the hundred of questions I was drowning in. I was in another world, in a new body. Existence liked to throw ya shit on occasion it seemed. This was one of those times. I let out a breath, I'd already had my fair share of perspective shattering events in my life, so what would be one more? I couldn't do anything about it, so I just decided to roll with it. And honestly I'd long since accepted the possibility of other realities and universes. Existence was too strange and large a place for them not to exist.

I decided I could be introspective while I tried to figure out how to move. I remembered that the ship girls sort of glided on the water, a little like ice skating with less leg movement. It seemed that balance was the most important factor, and well I'd say I was pretty meh in that department. I was an indoors type who'd spent most of their time reading novels, watching shows or playing games. When I tried to go on one of those balance rails they have at public parks I had slipped off after a few steps. As for moving about, I'd made walking a habit so I didnt die, but that was as far as my athleticism went. Going to the gym in covid times had been impossible. I tried moving forwards but just fell on my knees, cool water tickling them through my thigh highs. The water felt almost like solid ground, I pushed myself back on my feet. I had propellers, so maybe I just gave them power? I gave them a mental command like you would a limb, and viola wa I moved a bit. Somehow I could tell how fast I was going, 2 knots. It was a sort of subconscious feeling that was hard to describe. I just sorta knew. I guess ship girls come with inner speedometers. I gave my propellers more juice and I accelerated. I was soon to fifteen knots. Faster than I'd ever gone with my own capabilities, that's for sure. I face planted... several times. I then proceeded to fall on my ass, this was going to be like riding a bike, I just knew it. I finally managed to go 15 knots consistently after an hour, it only took far too many ass soaks to count. The sun dried my clothes and hair. Thankfully the clothing seemed to not cake stiff with salt, otherwise I'd have had a miserable time. After some time cruising I enjoyed finally not falling every five seconds. The ocean spray felt good on my legs and arms. My slightly soaked hair flowing in the breeze.

I was going west, another inbuilt instrument it seemed which I dubbed my ship sense. Now that I have the acceleration down I should get the maneuvering and decelerating down. Ship's didn't have breaks from what I remembered. So I guess they had to rely on the resistance of the water to slow them down, that ment reducing the power that I was sending to my propellers. I mentally prodded my propellers to slow down. Nothing happened. Huh. Made sense, if you suddenly had a new limb you'd probably have a hard time trying to control it. I was basically like I was going to have to learn how to walk again. One of the problems was trying to use the right, Nerve? It was like trying to grab something with your eyes closed without having a good Idea where the thing was. Then having to add the complication of having another thing you didn't want to touch. I felt like I had butter fingers, the sun bearing down on me as I searched for the right something to send my metal commands to. After many unsuccessful attempts I managed to get a hold of "it". I was used to thinking of abstract stuff but I don't think I could quite put what I did into words, it was far too abstract. I could sort of feel the power going to my propellers start to lessen, then I stopped all together. I started and stopped several more times, getting a feel for it. Now that I knew what to do I could do it with less effort. Now onto maneuvering. Using the rudders was a little less difficult, I got the hang of moving them much more easily, maybe because it was a bigger more obvious part? I don't know. While moving the rudders did make me turn, leaning into it seemed to make it much easier. However I did feel the familiar feeling of hitting the water several times because of my shitty balance. I remembered how much fubuki had to practice in the anime, so I didn't feel too bad about it. I got ok enough at turning to at least not fall seventy five percent of the time after I got soaked more times than I cared to admit. I made sure I was going north west because it would most likely give me a higher chance at finding some land and not finding myself in Antarctica.

After a few hours of sailing, practicing my movement. I felt a new feeling from my ship sense. I was moving towards a big blob. That must be my radar. Cool! A thought seemed to drift into my mind, Island. These senses were handy. I had started to feel pangs of hunger, so heading towards the island seemed like a decent idea. And I was getting pretty damn tired. Hopefully it had banna's and beds or something.

The island in question wasn't too big about medium size I'd guess. Palms waved gently in the breeze wafting cooly around me leaving a salty smell, the setting sun casting pastel rays through the leaves, down onto the ocean. I beached myself, when I set foot on dry land the rudders and propellers simply disappeared. That was convenient, I don't think I could have walked with that stuff on my feet. I felt a little weird on land, a subtle longing to go back to sea was in the back of my mind. Great, I was truly a ship girl through and through, Thinking like that.

A cliff stood a little farther inland near the beach, a wooden staircase had been built to get to the beach presumblity. I climbed starting to get wary at the chance of meeting people with this new body. But I didn't have to worry because when I got to the top I was on an outcropping that looked down at a harbor city. A harbor city that looked like it had been through a holocaust because it'd probably had. I could see small craters everywhere, the place had been shelled. A good majority of the buildings had collapsed. Whomever had done this hadn't wanted any survivors. Suddenly guns materialized at my sides, my rigging? A case had also appeared at my belt, curious I snapped it open. There were a pair of naval binoculars, I put them to my eyes. All I could see was rubble, nothing living besides a few seagulls and even they were small in number. I wasn't an avion behavioral expert, but they looked on edge.

I hoped whomever had done this had been long gone. Let's just say seeing the evidence of genodcide made me feel the same as the gulls. I looked at my guns, They were triple gun batteries, I had three of them. I had five smaller twin gun batteries which seemed to be my secondaries. I'd guess they were 5 inches and my mains batteries were probably 6'. If I was right then I was a light cruiser. Quad torpedo tubes were strapped to each of my thighs. I was a living weapons platform.

I made my way down the hill to the town down a trail I'd found, light perching the canopy of trees along the trail. This place must have some maps I could use, I really didn't want to be sailing blindly. That would be a recipe for disaster. The town looked even more destroyed up close. Debris covering the streets. As I stepped over some of the rubble I saw white, bone, a hand. Cringing I walked on. Rubble crunching as I stepped on it sounding like grinding bone, wincing at each and every step. I found what looked to once have been a naval base in the harbor, which surprisingly still seemed to be mostly intact, maybe they were searching for things in it? May as well do the same.

I made my way through a broken gate which looked to have been rammed off its hinges, walking past the weed ridden lawn to a set of double doors which seemed to have experienced the same fate. I poked my head in warily. It looked deserted. The floorboards creaked loudly as I put my weight on them. The place smelled of dust. I searched the abandoned building, there were many empty conference rooms with nice looking furniture. Leather cushions and oak wood, craved with little embellishments. This couldn't be a naval base could it? Only the air force could afford all this crap. Many rooms were trashed, papers and office supplies strewn about them. Reminding me of a time when a bear had raided my trash can, my dad shooting his 12 gauge in the air to scare the thing off. After I finally convinced him there was in fact a bear eating our flowers in the backyard. Not entirely surprising, We lived in what was practically a reservation.

I found the kitchen, it was what you'd find at a dorm. A simple gas stove and microwave for the staff to make their meals. I checked the cupboards. Lots of instant ramen, some of the cheap crap that college students somehow lived on. But also some of the higher quality stuff you'd find at an asian market. Not quite the real stuff, but good if you're lazy. I checked the sink, no running water. Well no ramen for me. There were several large bags of kettle chips. I opened one and crunched down on a chip, salt and black pepper, my teeth seemed to grind it far more easily than I was used to. Still good. Guess it was my meal for today. The rest of the stuff was definitely not good, but sealed, salt covered chips could last a while. I Opened the fridge, some home made meals that had long since gone bad and dozens of water bottles. I looked at the stove and tried to turn the knob, all that came out was gass and I didnt have a match. I sighed and looked at the chips. A messenger bag appeared when I thought of how I was going to carry my many bags of salted carbs and the water. I shrugged. Not incredibly surprised and stuffed the chips, the water bottles and the ramen in for good measure.

The bag seemed like it was endless so I also stole a pot, pan and cooking utensils, maybe I could find a way to heat it up over a fire. The bag was handy. I decided not to over think how it worked and munched down on more chips. Damn I was hungry. Oddly enough the silverware in one of the draws looked rather tasty. I remembered some were that Ship girls could eat metal. Worth a shot I guess. I experimentally bit down on one it, the metal broke apart like a candy bar. I must have been able to exert some of my ship tonnage on it. I swallowed, I was perfectly fine. Interesting. So if things went to shit I could eat inorganic stuff. It wasn't too appealing being an ex-human, but it was an option. I stuffed some silverware into my bag as well, as well as various other metal things. The stuff seemed to fill me. What? Emergency food! Having raided the kitchen I entered the hall to find more booty, the floor creaking in my wake, hah ships puns. When I was done with this place it was going to look like the german auxiliary raiders had made another pass through.

I climbed a flight of stairs, this time finding officers quarters. I found many books of interest which I promptly slipped into my bag, what? Reading had practically been my life being a ship girl wasn't going to stop me. The officers quarters too had evidence of being combed. After pilfering the officers quarters of intact literate I found a pair of large oak doors. Must be the CO's office. I pushed it open, a large desk stood solemnly in the back center of the room near a large window. A large leather and oak chair accompanying it. Papers and knick knacks had been thrown all over the wooden floor. The last of the sun's light entering through the window, the curtains glowing with it. To my port there was a map covered with plastic hanging on the wall. Apparently the island was in the north pacific near japan. I'd always wanted to visit japan, but I'd never had the time or money to do so.

Smaller maps lay one the big desk which I took. A glint caught my eye. A naval saber. I'd always wanted a sword, but the aforementioned money restraints had held me back from that venture too. I took it off it's stand and unseathed it. It looked to be legit, not just a ceremonial wall hanger. It was a beautiful object, weapons had a sort of attractiveness to them even if their purpose was to kill. Sort of like warships. People often forget they could also be used to defend. I affixed it to my belt. The weight felt good. Having a weapon on me had always felt natural. A standing mirror was in the corner, I looked at myself. For the first time in a long time I did not feel shitty about my appearance with a face that didn't quite feel like my own. I was cute, a smile across my face. I wore a sailor uniform like a japanese school girl would wear, black with purple stripes, my straight lilac hair going just past my shoulders. dark purple thigh highs on my legs, silver anchors stitched at the center top of them. I realized that the hat I wore was a beret, words in gold stating "USS Oregon City" at it's brim, an anchor emblem pined on it. On my shoulder there was a patch with a golden beaver, it's teeth holding a torpedo. A silver battle star on my collar. There were several ribbons on my chest. I wasn't sure what they meant, was this stolen valor? I definitely haven't done anything to deserve any ribbons. But something from the ship side of my head begged to differ. Which made me feel uneasy. Was I going crazy?

I took off my cap looking at it, trying to find something else to preoccupy my brain. I saw silver inside the berret, a silver name tag in the middle of it said "Prop: CL-122" My Hull number? same as what was on my skirt. CL denoted what type of ship I was. Light cruiser, which confirmed my suspicions. The torpedo tubes I had were a little weird, later U.S Cruisers didn't really have torpedoes because they could be detonated easily by a stray shell. They didn't want their relatively expensive cruisers damaged when they could lay down four destroyers for the same price. Which could do said torpedoing better. When in doubt it was a safe assumption that the government did something because of money. I guess the atlanta's had torpedoes, so perhaps I wasn't a total outlier. The sun was setting below the ocean, leaving the room in golden low light. Nothing else caught my interest so I decided to find a room to sleep in. I found a room I thought wouldn't be picked at random by anyone or thing that might pass through. The locks on the doors were also a plus. There was a nice looking bed, which had silky sheets. Definitely officers quarters. Though the quality was off, Military spending rarely splurged, perhaps it was privately founded. All I knew was that I definitely wanted a soft velvety blanket. I put the sword next to it and flopped on the bed. The thing cracked down the middle under my weight as soon as I put my knee on it.

"What the fuck?!"

I then remembered I was in fact a multi thousand ton warship in the form of a girl. I sighed. I dragged the mattress out of the frame and threw it on the wooden floor. When I tentatively put my weight on it, it held. But looked a bit like a squished marshmallow. I Looked up at the ceiling. what the hell has my life come to. Life is fucking werid. I summoned a fantasy novel from my bag and read until my brain chilled out. Otherwise I'd stay up all night thinking about my situation and stressing myself out. After an hour I put the book back in the bag and put my head on the pillow. Some of the feathers burst out. Fuck my life.

It was night when I felt the torpedo slam into my hull, moments later a sharp pain. Cold water entered my hull creating an extremely unpleasant sensation. I heard shouts as my damaged control parties scrambled to get the flooding under control. My captain growled under his breath.

"Are the tin cans clear?" He barked.

"Yes sir!"

"One less thing to worry about. Fire two spreads at the battleship."

We'd ran into them on an ASW patrol, running into a damn carrier group was not something we were really equipped to handle. I wished the torpedoes to strike home and they did perfectly. Hitting the broadsiding hulk. It wasn't expecting an american cruiser to have torpedoes. It's guns fired and suddenly I had a massive hole in my bow. It hurt like hell, but it was far above the water line. It wouldn't sink me. The battleship blocked the opening between the two pieces of land we were near. The second closest exit being blocked by a thick wall of naval mines. It would take them hours to reorganize and get around these islands or days to get the battleship out of the way. We'd successfully stop the enemy ships from flanking the main fleet. By the time they got out our fleet would be long gone. Our Tin cans had done quite a beating to the escort ships, even hitting the carrier, each sink brought us ever closer to the end of this bloody war.

Vals came in for a dive, my bofors fired away. A bomb hit my stern sending another sting of pain, badly damaging my rudder. I knew If I didn't do something my crew would all die, so I willed myself to move. I used what was left of my rudder and hauled ass out of doge, my 5 inchers joining the AA. I knocked quite a few japanese birds out of the sky. But a lucky kamikaze got through my screen and rammed into my back battery, crippling it. I accelerated myself to flank speed, my full 37.5 knots, The air was full of flak as I steamed out of there.

I managed to go a good distance before the damage and the strain finally got to me, my boilers burst, ripping a large chunk out of my hull. My rudder tore off making it impossible to steer. I sailed straight towards the shore beaching myself. More Vals dropped more bombs on me, my remaining main batteries becoming burning wrecks. Some hit my superstructure.

The captain sighed and looked at his XO who nodded. He took the intercom receiver, "All Hands Abandon ship."

My crew climbed off me, running off the beach into the trees. My captain waited till the last man was off me before he himself did, the ship's cat on his shoulder. He put a hand on the remnants of my bow, "You did well old girl, you earned your rest." He patted me a few times, a look of regret in his eyes. Then gave me a salute. After a moment he ran after his crew. I gave the ship version of a smile. I did my duty to the best of my abilities. I'd saved what crew I could. That was a ship's number one responsibility, keeping her crew alive which were basically her children. I shot down what planes I could with my remaining guns via targeting computers. The sky reminded me of a night at a port in San Francisco on the fourth of july. The sea ripped me off the island into the ocean. I heard a Val dive. A final bomb pierced my deck, igniting my Magazines. A final firework to send me off. My hull split in two, sinking into the cold depths of Davy Jones's locker.

I jumped out of bed, Gasping. I could almost still feel the cold, salty water in my lungs. That had been a weird ass dream. I'd been a ship. Those memories had been oddly nostalgic. Déjà vu? Where the hell was I again, oh yeah the shelled city. Ship Girl shit. I blinked, morning light streaming through the curtains.

"Hey!"

I jumped, Grabbing the swords leaning against the remains of the bed.

I scanned the room, looking for the source.

"Down here silly!"

I looked down, a small, dark brown haired girl wearing a dress uniform, a naval service cap and a knee length skirt stood on the remnants of the bed smiling at me. She gave a wave.

"Uh, who are you?" I asked

"Your captain, I am one of your fairies, Captain Howison"

"Oh, uh what?"

I guess I'll have to play dumb.

"Were the manifestation of your crew."

"Uh, You live inside me right? That's kinda weird…"

"We live in your rigging and hull, so not exactly, your hull and what not is in your human body exactly, sort of superimposed. It's hard to explain. As for weirdness, we'll just have to use an honor system when it comes to privacy."

"You'd better, crew included."

"Aye! Pissing off our ship would be unwise."

"Glad you know your place captain, I'll take that as a promise." I said, smiling to take the edge off.

I sat up, attaching the saber to my belt. I didn't know what to think about having people pretty much in me twenty four seven, I liked my privacy and I liked my alone time. I go a little loony without it, I have to get it, both for myself and the people around me. Also the crew ponding around me didn't sound appealing, even if it was exactly directly. Damn that all sounded wrong.

A Black cat jumped up on the captain's shoulder, "~Rrrwaow!~"

The captain smiled, petting the cat, "This is Halsey, The Ship's cat."

Not having a ship's cat was bad luck, or so I've heard, so I was glad to have one. Plus having something to keep rats out and off of me would be more than appreciated if said rats could even get on me somehow. That cat sure had some lungs too.

"So you're the admiral, nice to meet you."

"~Meow~" She said, Giving me a look. As if to say, "You know your place too."

"So, Captain how do you get aboard?"

"Through your rigging."

I summoned my rigging and put a hand out to my captain. She sat down on it, cat blinking contentedly on her shoulder and I placed her on my rigging. She gave me a thumbs up and disappeared into a hatch. Dismissing the rigging I stretched.

"So, Uh Oregon City what should we call you?" The captain's voice said in my head.

Great, I had voices in my head.

"Oregon I guess, I Doubt we're going to run into BB-3." I thought back.

Though it would be interesting to meet the pre dreadnought named after my state.

I straightened my clothes, now that was cute I was going to take my appearance much much more serious. That meant getting toiletries and a comb was being put on the list of goals. The bed splitting had not helped my appearance, that's for sure. For once in a long time I felt a warm swell of excitement to exist. Sure I was in an unknown environment, but I could live with that, I had lived it. I felt whole, truly alive. A smile crossed my face.

Let's figure out what the hell we should do next.

End of Chapter 1