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Author's notes
To make myself not so stressed out about making this totally perfect, I'm going to say that I'll touch it up eventually. A semi rough draft if you will. so I can write the damn thing. I rewrote quite a bit of the first chapter before I published, but am going to chill with this one so I can write. That's the main reason why I am writing this is to actually write something. I've been in limbo trying to write my own things but end up not because of my perfectionism. So I am going to allow myself to write shittly so I can actually improve. Not that I won't try to make it good, I just need to allow myself to write. So things will not be perfect and I think in reality that is fine at least for now. Sorry about the rant.
There should be a bit more action in this chapter and am hoping to be getting the main plot rolling a bit in the next few parts. I am going to segment this chapter so it's less work editing it. I actually wrote a good portion of it before I published the first chapter, but it had a few things I wanted to fix before publishing it. I will get around to fixing the first chapter because some of the dictionary things were cut, making it sound a little weird. I am completely new to using this website for publishing things. I hope you enjoy the story and thanks for the patience.
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Chapter 2: Mortality and Flight
The sun was rising when I exited the headquarters. Orange, pink and golden light reflecting off the water. The salty breeze ruffling my hair. I savored the calm for a few moments scanning the ruins that once was a port town. A sort of melancholy hung over the place as a site of a massacre often has, with the sleepy calm and light of the morning it was strangely beautiful even if it had been a site of suffering. Nature was slowly creeping in, liberating back its territory. Though in reality we were nature too, an innovative and quite destructive piece of it, but a piece nonetheless. Humanity just wouldn't admit it, we felt a need to separate from nature for whatever reason.
I decided I probably wouldn't be able to live off pure carbohydrates while sailing at least a thousand miles. The city was practically leveled so I didn't have high hopes of finding food there. My eyes landed on some store houses that were behind the HQ, It was worth a shot. The doors had been caved in, I poked my head inside. It looked like much of the supplies had been raided, crate lids littering the floor, but a few crates were still intact in a dark corner. A crow bar sat on the floor looking like it had been tossed aside. I used the thing to open up the first crate. MRE's for days. Yay, Shitty food! I opened the second, canned food, the third bars of metal. All eatables for a ship girl. I shoved a good portion of each into my bag. As I was pilfering, I heard a rock skid across the ground behind me. I wiped around rigging at the ready. A girl stared at me, rigging of her own pointing at me. She was small, her grey hair looking like it hadn't been combed in weeks.
"Zaffiey doesn't know you, where did you come from."
"The sea."
"No shit, Zaffiey's not that dumb, your a ship. Which port did you sail from. Zaffiey wants to know."
She seemed a little less tense when she got a good look at me, her guns not directly pointing at me anymore.
"I found myself suddenly in the open ocean, I didn't come from any port, at least not after my sinking. I got hungry so I came here to find food and a map."
"Ok. Oregon city," She said looking up at my hat, "Zaffiey figures you're a newly risen ship by your account. The U.S won the war but we have Aybassls to fight now."
Kancolle it was.
"So I'm guessing that's what shelled the shit out of the island?"
Zaffiey's face darkened with a frown, "Yes, Dozens of them suddenly appeared and shelled the island. Heavy cruisers and battleships. Zaffiey's five inch guns didn't do much but piss them off. Zaffiey must have been given the shitty early war MK14 torpedoes because not a single one she used was denoted. The commander of the base got most of the city safely with fleet girl escorts. Zaffie stayed behind to bait them away."
"That's brave, I don't know if I could do that."
She glared at me, "I didn't do my job well enough, some got through."
"If they had escorts they should've been fine enough."
"Yes, But Zaffiey worries anyway. If people died because Zaffiey did a shitty job, she will not forgive herself. She doesn't like to screw up with lives on the line."
I could understand that, I'd prefer to not have the lives of others in my hands, I could live with getting myself hurt. But getting others hurt was not something I wanted to be responsible for. I nodded.
"So you've been alone for how long?"
"A month, the ocean around here is patrolled by the abyssals regularly and it's deep within their territory. Zaffiey wouldn't get through it by herself. The base's Communication equipment is trashed and so are Zaffiey's. So she couldn't call for help."
"I'll try to help you get off the island if I can Zaffiey. But I don't have much experience fighting in this form so I don't know how well I'll do."
"Zaffiey appreciates that, any help she gets she's happy with." She said with a slight smile.
I held out a hand and she tentatively shook it. "Looks like we're sisters in arms now tin can."
She stuck out her tongue, "You'd better be able to keep up with me, Zaffiey is fast, Zaffiey wouldn't want to lose her lumbering comrade."
"Am pretty fast for a cruiser."
"Whatever you say."
I smiled, she was going to be an interesting companion.
Suddenly whistles split the air, then the ground shook, a moment later BOOOM!
"Aybassls, probably doing target practice." Zaffiey said.
Several more whistles accompanied the last, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM BOOM, BOOM!. The were getting closer. Zaffiey took my hand and practically dragged me out of the storeroom to a trapdoor that hugged the HQ's wall, guiding me in.
"Welcome to Zaffiey's dungeon." She said.
We sat in silence. Listening to the whistles and the following booms.
"They do this often?"
"A decent amount, Zaffiey thinks it's their only real source of entertainment besides killing each other.."
"They don't sound the brightest, do any of them talk?"
"Zaffiey's barely been three hundred miles off the island since her summoning. So she hasn't heard anything about them talking, she'd guess probably not, but she could be very wrong. "
Footsteps caught our attention, something was walking uncomfortably close to the trap doors. The doors creaked open, I motioned for Zaffiey to take on the side of the cordare leading to the exit. She nodded. I unsheathe my sword. The thing was probably looking for loot. Heavy footsteps echoed as it went down the flight of stairs. My palms sweat against the black ray skin of the saber. I steeled myself, going deathly calm as I usually did in situations like this. When the hulking figure got close I thrusted the saber into it. It shrieked in pain, but grabbed me by the throat, dropping all its weight on me. I fell on my back, the thing strangling me. I gave it the best punch I could given the circumstances, pannick griping me with it's cold hands. Zaffiey pulled a knife from her belt. she gripped it like an ice pick and slammed it into the things neck. Her body weight and strength in it. The knife slid in and out the other side, sickeningly easily, dark almost oily blood spurt out. Zaffiey quickly withdrew and stabbed, again and again and again. She finally stopped, shakily standing straight as it stopped choking me and withdrew the knife. I flung the thing off of me while it convulsed, it's hands covering its neck trying to cover the bloody holes in its throat. It finally stopped, eyes glazing over, sitting in a pool of its own blood. I stared into its red eyes for a few moments, stunned. Looking into them was surreal, they reminded me of my mortality. How fragile life really was. I could have easily been the one in that position.
"I must have severed the bridge from it's vitals." Zaffiey said softly, wiping the blade off on the abyassl's white dress.
So, this was death. I took a deep breath and pulled out the saber, almost throwing up at the wet metallic sound. I wiped the blade off and sheathed it.
"It most likely wanted food. Zaffiey will pack her stuff, She does not think it will be safe to be on the island any longer after they find one of their ships is messing. We'll stay in the jungle till night, then leave. If that is ok. Zaffiey is counting on you for some fire power."
"Ok, but am no heavy cruiser."
"Still have more power when it comes to artillery."
"I can probably give you some torpedoes if you'd like."
"Zaffie would appreciate that very much."
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The night sky was full of stars, no light pollution for thousands of miles. I looked at all the search lights that were scanning the sea, searching for us presumably. I used my binoculars trying to find any weak spots in what was pretty much a blockade. I wanted softer targets that both of us could overpower. Entering a fair fight when you could help it wasn't a great idea. I'd given Zaffiey a decent portion of my torpedo stores, she'd have a better time with them. My crew craning the things out of my hold, I just placed the things on her deck so my crew didn't have to lug tens of thousands of pounds from me to her. Though I had a feeling they could have easily handled it. When the torpedoes were put into the tubes they grew to size. If that wasn't evidence we were magical I don't know what was.
"These aren't mark 14's?" She asked.
Howison was on the deck of my rigging, "Nope, they're stolen japanese designs, with a few tweaks to work with our launchers. They worked well for the last captain so I think they'll do just fine."
"Last captain?" I asked
"Am not exactly captain Howison, more just a sort of manifestation or fragment of his skill, some memories and experience. The same goes for the whole crew with their counterparts, even the cat. Well, am not sure about that, I think she might be the only original crew member."
"Hm, good to know." I said, with a laugh.
Zaffiey's captain came out of her rigging and gave us a wave which turned into a salute.
"Good to meet you Oregon, Captain." She said nodding. "Make sure to keep our girl safe, we'd rather stay outta the ocean."
"We'll try our best." I said.
Both captains nodded to each other.
"Alright, All hands to general quarters. I have a feeling we're going to be heading into rough seas." I said. My crew swiftly got to their stations. I looked at Zaffiey, she nodded.
"You should probably take point sense you're faster."
"You'd better keep up, Zaffiey doesn't want to be alone by herself in the pacific right now."
We decided to leave the island on the western side because it looked to be the least guarded. A half dozen destroyers, Captain Lowsion said I could take them on easily enough. I apparently was partly made to hunt down destroyers. We creepted down onto the beach from a forest path, I could hear my heart slowly quicken, moths fluttering around my stomach. It was a moonless night, a slight breeze blew past us and brought sea spray with it, the cool water felt good on my skin. The waves whispering against the sand. Zaffie entered the water, her shoes suddenly sprouting rudders and screws, which I could barely see in the star light. She gave me some distance and I stepped onto the water. A longing in my subconscious lifted, the feeling of moving with the waves brought a joy and comfort. It was also a little, disconcerting. It felt like I had feelings that weren't exactly mine. But were? Something about it just nagged at me. I shook my head like a bug was buzzing around my head and gave my propellers steam.
Zaffiey and I went ahead full, We wanted to get as much distance as fast as we could from the Abyssals. We'd be severely fucked if we were surrounded. We formed a single file to make it harder to lose each other. We used radar to know where we were in relation to each other. We could see search lights in the distance from both port and starboard. We avoided the sources, steaming farther and farther away from the Island. We sailed unmolested for around fifteen minutes until My radar picked blips sailing towards us; it didn't seem like they had detected us. But in a few moments they would and they wouldn't be able to slip past, So I decided to use surprise to our advantage. I sped up and taped Zaffiey's shoulder, I told her what I had in mind. She gave a thumbs up.
Falling back a distance, I fired star shells, butterflies dancing in my gut, the report of the guns shattering the ambience. After a few moments the shells illuminated the twisted shark like figures of abyssal destroyers. My fire control quickly got a solution and the night sky began to fill with tracers. My six inch guns fired rapidly, lighting up my own position. The butterflies quickened their dance. The captain had said something about auto loaders. A large explosion suddenly dominated the night sky. I must have hit a magazine. The destroyers sat stunned for a few moments and we capitalized on it. Zaffiey and I fired a spread of torpedoes at the group and lit them up with gun fire. A few moments later more explosions flared up. We'd sunk half a taskforce in a minute. While the rest were still in a daze we started our retreat, trying to conceal our selves in the darkness. More blobs on the radar told us that dozens of ships were heading towards the commotion. Star shells started to get closer and closer to our position. Puff! One hovered over us, letting all know our position. Lead started raining down on us, plumes of water shooting up all around, bracketing us. A shell hit Zaffiey in one of her turrets.
"You ok!?""
"Don't worry, Zaffiey is fine, She's dealt with worse."
A shell Ricocheted off a thicker part of my armour belt, most have been a 5' shell, according to Howison I had pretty light armor for a cruiser. I was made for speed.
"We really need to get our asss out of here or we're sinking." I said
She nodded.
"Ahead Flank!"
We steamed as fast as we could, shells whistled, dropping behind and around us. Sending pillars of water spraying into the air, close enough to soak us. The wind began to pick up, which then brought rain. Thick, cold, pounding rain. We sailed on, the shells continuing to rain as well. The shells slowly decreased in accuracy and stopped all together, the radar signatures all but fading, the storm kept picking up. They'd seemingly given up. Wind threw rain in my face, it didn't seem to blind me like it should have. Another ship perk I guess. Zaffiey seemed to fair just as well as I did. I enjoyed the rain, I'd always found it soothing, less people too. Reducing our speed to 32 knots, We sailed on for hours making sure we were sailing north-west. Our agreed destination was the fleet girl naval base in japan. The route to the U.S according to Zaffiey was far too treacherous to travel with such a small force, as well as it just being closer. I'd found japanese culture interesting so I wasn't complaining, it was a country I had wanted to visit when I had a chance, visit the maritime museum with the huge model of yamato, Some of the Shrines and temples and of course my weeb self wanted to go to akihabara at least once. After another five hours the weather began to clear to a drizzle. It was 0600 hours or 6 am. I felt pretty beat.
"Zaffiey suggests we summon our ship forms so we can sleep."
"What?"
"You can summon your hull, your ship self. Some call them silhouettes."
"How do you do that?"
"It's like calling your rigging but outside of you."
I tried with the vague directions, but nothing happened.
"It's not working."
"You have to accept you are human."
"Why?"
"Zaffiey thinks It's pretty intuitive stuff. If you don't accept who and what you are then you can't summon the other manifestation of yourself. It's pretty common for newly arriving ships to not be able or so Zaffiey's heard."
I knew I was human, So Does that mean I had to accept I was also a ship? How the hell do I go about doing that?
"Zaffiey is guessing you can't do it at the moment. Zaffiey understands, it took her several weeks. When you can summon your ship you won't break things when you put your weight on them if you do not wish too. So take that as an incentive so you can use a bed."
"Heh."
"You tried to sleep in one didnt you?"
"Yeah."
She gave me a sympathetic look and patted me on the shoulder, "That is Inevitable for all Fleet girls. Don't worry, Zaffiey did it too."
Zaffiey stretched out her arm, with a flash a destroyer splashed into the water. She was flying Both an american and japanese ensign.
"Why do you have a japanese ensign?"
She looked a little sheepish, "Uh, She forgot to tell you that Zaffiey was sold to the japanese after the war. She's sorry, she wasn't thinking about it."
"It's fine."
"You aren't mad?"
"I don't see why I should be."
"Ok."
So Zaffiey was apparently a japanese ship. That must have been pretty difficult, going from being enemies to working for them that fast. She was a bit like Hibiki in that way.
I sighed, I'd better get this silhouette thing down so I could sleep in a bed. I had slept on a mattress on the ground for years, I was used to it, but having a bed frame was quite a bit better. I drew focus to the ship side of my mind, where all the ship senses came from. A wall of apprehensive, doubt and confusion seemed to put a barrier between me and it. I thought back to my past life, I was still holding onto it. I felt like if I loosened my grip on it I would lose myself. My past life hadn't been bad, but it certainly hadn't been perfect or what I wanted. Divorces, a shitty "stept father." A kind but angry dad and less than ideal jobs. That's how things go sometimes, I knew I'd miss my family even if I was kinda distant to them, I cared for them even If I wasn't very vocal about it. That's just how my personality was and they weren't exactly open about many things, I'd never ever truly know how much they'd kept from me in their pasts. Things were often not what you originally thought they were, not as perfect. I couldn't do anything about being here as far as I knew, there really seemed to be no way to go back to my life. So, as I always did, I accepted it. I was a ship girl. I let go.
Zaffiey looked at me with a concerned look. An anxious look.
She was probably still worried about flying the Japanese ensign. When I was thinking people told me I often had a grumpy look. I tentatively put a hand on her shoulder.
"You're fine Zaffiey, My captain was a scholar of japanese culture." The fact seemed to slip into my mind, it felt a little weird. "He respected their courage and pitied them. Knowing their culture he knew they were socially pressured, indoctrinated, ostracized if they didn't fight. One of the worst things for the Japanese. Despite being sunk by them, I don't hate them either. If we should blame anyone it was the politicians."
She looked at me with her purple eyes, "You are a good person Oregon. Zaffiey wishes she could completely forgive them."
I actually blushed at that, I didn't really think I was that great of a person and I wasn't complemented like that much, it was a good feeling even if I didn't know what to think. But I could understand the not forgiving part, even if you forgave them, you couldn't quite forget. Hell you probably shouldn't. The wall disappeared and the ship side became more me, I guess. The memories of the Oregon city mixed with my own, it sort of felt like they were actually my own. Who knows maybe they were.
"Am hardly that great."
I put my hand out and tried to summon the ship side. With a flash a cruiser splashed into the ocean in front of us, displacing water. The hull was painted in a grey, blue and black dazzle camouflage. It looked like an Atlanta class stole three of a Cleveland class's main guns and slapped two in the front and one in the back, keeping the rest of her five inch guns.
It gave me a strange look, I couldn't really think of any ship that had two different main gun calibers. My stacks were Trunked together. My bow had a raised fore peak with a gentle curve to the water line giving me an elegant Japanese ship like look, they built their ships like they did their swords, functionality with beauty. My Stern however was more blocky giving me an American unitarian touch.
"You're a weirdo, Oregon." Zaffiey said, looking at my ship with a smile.
"Yes, I am. Thank you." I said, giving a bow.
My crew scaled with the ship, but they were still quite small. Only going about to my stomach. But they were strong, luging around boxes and what not without effort. They were also all female, which seemed to be a theme when it came to things dealing with ship girls. Why? I don't know, But if I had people pounding around me I think I'd rather have women doing it. Maybe that's why? The ship's badge caught my eye, it was the same as my patch. A golden beaver holding a torpedo in its teeth, a ship wheel behind it. In a ribbon banner: "Fly with Integrity, Mercy and Courage." An interesting motto for a warship, but I thought it was profound enough. Mercy was more honorable than killing in my opinion.
The captain gave me one of the state rooms. Let's just say having a bed was a blessing. Plus having a shower was nice. Once I'd gotten enough rest I recalled my silhouette, Zaffiey and the Captain said we were still in dangerous territory and that our ship forms were much easier to hit and spot. The ship had made quite a good distance while I was asleep, Apparently we were over half way to our destination. In another seven hours we would be in japanese territory. The butterflies yet again danced about, but this time it was a good kind of dancing. I was excited.
End of Part One of Chapter 2
Thanks for reading!