Chapter 3

"So... it would appear that IT has survived..."

Two floating entities, both of them being female, hovered above a tall rock in the middle of a large body of water. Both these entities looked to be young adult women, wearing... revealing kinds of clothing, yet the two of them couldn't be any more different.

The one who had spoken took the form of a woman in her early twenties, with a rather petite-looking physique that made her look younger than she actually was. She had long, curly silver hair which fell to her waist in length while her eyes pierced through the surroundings with their golden gaze, carrying an inhuman feel to them. It helped showcase her lack of humanity with how her voice seemingly spoke as if multiple auto-tunes were being applied to her vocal cords, adding to the bone-chilling demeanor she sported.

For clothes, she wore very little: a simple black dress which looked more like it served as some kind of nightwear when going to sleep, covering only her torso and leaving the rest of her body exposed to the elements, showing her ghostly pale skin color as well as the matching black panties she wore. Aside from that, the dress came with a frilly collar around her neck, and on top of her head was a matching frilly headpiece similar to what a maid would wear, only with a pair of black rabbit ears protruding out the headpiece. That was all she wore, despite being in the middle of a cold body of water... though perhaps the fact that she had some... extra appendages to her person imply there was more to her than that.

These appendages turned out to be a series of long, triple barrelled turrets which had a sleek, black, and futuristic-looking appearance, sporting yellow interiors... as well as long black Tentacles that wrapped around their frames. Those tentacles even wrapped around the woman herself, making it difficult to see that the turrets were actually connected to her person while she sat on them like they were part of a makeshift throne.

Right now, this woman looked to be pondering something while seemingly looking out into the body of ocean that surrounded her and her companion... or to be more specific one direction in particular. Not only that but the way she had spoken implied more amusement and curiosity than anything else, amused that something that had a low probability of happening had happened and amusement at this result. One wouldn't be able to figure out the meaning of her cryptic words if they didn't know the context surrounding them...

But her companion? She was an exception, having a hand on her hip with a completely different expression on her face. Her expression looked to be more of annoyance and frustration than anything. "Tch, even with it being crippled, it still poses as a thorn in my side..." she growled, veins popping on the side of her forehead.

The woman in question looked to be in her early to mid-twenties, looking to be slightly older than her composed companion with the Tentacles. She had similar hair and eye color though, hinting at some possible relationships between them, with a difference being that hers was more straight and fell to her knees in length.

Her choice of outfit, while revealing, wasn't as revealing as her composed companions, however. It consisted of a pair of thigh-high metallic boots that each ended in angular, sharpened toes, with her waist being covered by a pair of short shorts of a similar appearance to her boots. Furthermore, around her torso was a mechanical-looking corset which was held in place by two straps that went around the back of her neck and were connected to some breast pads that hid her A-cup breasts. Several bands could be seen on her biceps just below the shoulders, and down beneath her elbows and over her forearms were a pair of black velvet-like gloves.

Just like her companion, she too possessed abnormal appendages, hers taking on the form of a large sting ray-like construct the same size as her, one which floated behind her back with about 6 long, sleek barrels similar in appearance to her companion's protruding from the front. In the center the construct had a sting ray's mouth which had a pair of fangs protruding downwards from the bottom, while behind it was a single long whip-like Tail, adding to the whole dominatrix vibe the woman had going for her. This construct also had a pair of open slots that looked to be for her hands to slip into like some kind of glider, and aside from it, she possessed a pair of triple-barreled black and yellow missile pods, 6 in total, connected to her waist by a futuristic-looking arch-shaped device.

That was where their similarities ended, however... as well as the biggest difference being that unlike her composed companion this woman's mechanical appendages didn't look 100% undamaged.

In fact, the opposite could be said to be true since the Sting Ray-like glider had multiple holes and cracks along with its frame, some being bigger than others. These holes looked to have been caused by large shells that had hit its person, while electrical sparks could be seen emitting from them, thin trails of steam rising upwards into the skies above. More sparks could be seen from thin holes along the tail while several of the glider's barrels looked to be bent unnaturally, the same being said for the waist-mounted missile pods. Several old-looking wounds could be seen on the woman's body also.

All of these pieces of evidence pointed towards her having recently survived a vicious battle, and judging from her tone she hadn't been a fan of this development.

Something which her companion also seemed to be amused about with how she spoke next. "You sent a sizeable fleet to finally best that mutant enemy of ours, lead them yourself thinking that without his allies the mutant wouldn't have been a threat to you. Such arrogant thinking isn't like you, Tester Beta." she calmly remarked as she remembered the report submitted to her by the woman beside her, who she had called Tester Beta. "Though considering who your target was, it's not that surprising you'd let the uphill nature of that battle get to you the way you did, especially when that mutant pimped you full of holes on more than one occasion."

"Shut it, Observer Zero." Tester Beta snarled, gritting her teeth at the humiliation she felt inside, a humiliation that wrenched itself inside of her at her current state. Even more so when she remembered the reason WHY she had been reduced to this state, to begin with, since even though her body could be replaced at any time if she should fall it didn't decrease the humiliation one bit that she had been defeated by such means. "I was able to cripple that ship before it fled from me like a little wussy bitch, the same as the rest of that bunch. That ship, and those like it, will never again form a fleet to fight against us thanks to me, and more importantly, their mutant should have been butchered by our secret weapon." she retorted.

Testa Beta felt for certain that this had been the case, for she remembered that day all too well. She remembered leading a massive fleet of Siren mass-produced ships, big enough to be called an armada as the humans call a massive fleet in the past, against it and the fleet it was once a part of. It had contained mostly mass-produced models, those of Destroyers, Cruisers, Battleships, and Carriers in the dozens. The armada also had Siren Shipgirls amongst their numbers too, although quickly into the battle it had become apparent that the Fleet could hold its own even against them.

The damaged woman could remember the battle vividly, it not having been long since she had emerged from it, alive but not unscathed. She remembered seeing hundreds of Aircraft dominating the skies, filling them with flashing lights from laser fire and hot lead, almost making the skies more like that of flames with countless fireballs descending down into the oceans below. Those fireballs being the Aircraft obviously. The ocean itself hadn't been spared from such scarring either thanks to many of the warships being reduced to wrecks shortly into the battle, just from a single member of this once powerful force.

Fortunately for Tester Beta, her Shipgirls had been the winning factor for her side, having managed to catch the stronger ones by surprise and scoring some good hits that disabled a few of their stronger weapons, which allowed the rest of her forces to close in like a pack of wolves surrounding some delicious meat. This sight had made her feel a bit too cocky though, for when it had looked like defeat was imminent for the enemy the Mutant had the gall to pull a fast one on them and flee the scene, leaving behind a massive graveyard of ships in his wake. It didn't help that the battle had claimed all but a few groups of small fleets consisting of Cruisers and Destroyers, everything else having been sent to the depths. Much expense had been spent to get rid of this fleet in particular due to the threat they had posed, and even during their last moments, the fleet had still given her one last middle finger.

Fortunately, she had managed to nail the bastard at the last moment with a specialized toxin hr superior had developed, and considering how long had passed since then it should have overwhelmed his defenses by now. Death would be the only inevitable outcome.

Hearing that caused the calm woman Observer Zero to nod to herself, crossing her arms under her chest while uncrossing her legs. "But of course. That's why our Empress saw fit to spare you this time. That ship and its ilk may not have been destroyed, but with the death of that mutant, they will certainly pose little threat to us at this point. That should have been the end of it..." she remarked, trailing off to gaze back into the ocean before her. For a moment silence prevailed between the two female beings before the one named Observer Zero broke the silence with her next few comments. "But now we've gotten words that what remained of your great fleet, which was sent to hunt that Battleship down, has just been destroyed. Odds are that mutant has done something to render that ship hostile to us even from beyond the grave, and if that's the case then it's likely true that he did the same for the others, too. How interesting, indeed."

Tester Beta scowled at the tone her companion used but didn't say anything against it. She knew well that she had done her job and that was all she gave a damn about, plus now her grudge with that 'mutant' had been settled with this victory, no longer would she has to contend with the fact that the mutant would be alive, and even if he was alive it wouldn't be much longer. She could rest easy on that one...

But more than that, there was another matter for her and the others to deal with, one which she bet the superiors will order her to dispatch her forces once they've recovered their numbers. There were way more players on the board than their previous simulations here, more unknowns that would mix up the results of future simulations significantly.

Tester Beta grinned like a shark after a few moments of pondering this, her previous attitude vanishing completely the more seconds that ticked by.

Looked like she would have a lot of work to do soon.

Elsewhere...

Any lingering doubts Kosuke had about any of this being real or a very realistic-looking dream had long since died out at this point, though the male didn't like it. Not only that but waking up inside the captain's quarters of a Battleship was so much unlike awakening in a nice warm comfy house.

1 month...

That had been how long since Kosuke had first woken up on top of the main deck of a damaged Proto Satan. He had been able to tell this by counting down the number of nights that had passed him by, not to mention that he had been able to tell the time thanks to looking at the positioning of the sun, further helping him understand how long he had been on this place. Plus with the knowledge of the sun always rising from the east to set at the west, he had a somewhat decent grasp of which direction was where which would help him plan where he wanted to go from here on in. However, none of this detracted from the differences he experienced sleeping on a Battleship compared to a house.

To begin with, Kosuke had (much to his relief) indeed found a way inside the ship through the forward bridge superstructure, and from there he had managed to explore the majority of the ship during the first day. He had a lot of time on his hands, after all, so he wanted to at least make some good use out of it... and because of this, Kosuke had found a BUNCH of things that he hadn't realized Proto Satan had which somewhat mitigated his worries about surviving on this ship.

One of the first things he'd located was the Cabin and Sea-Cabin which a Ship's Captain would have used as his personal quarters. They had been the first thing he had wanted to find since he would eventually get tired and would need a place to rest himself for the journey ahead, a journey which he bet would be filled to the brim with dangers he couldn't even imagine.

Unfortunately, for some reason the Cabin had been mostly inaccessible to him so Kosuke had to use only the Sea-Cabin for the meantime, hence why he had initially spent the first night onboard the Proto Satan on a bunkbed. It... definitely wasn't the same thing as what he had been used to, to which it had made him wonder what it had been like for the men and women who fought on these vessels back during WW2.

He'd gotten used to the sea-cabin after the first week though, so nothing too drastic happened there.

Aside from those rooms, Kosuke had also found something which pleased him greatly, a storage compartment that contained a BUNCH of supplies in it. Supplies such as food, drink, and such essentials were necessary for a crew aboard this ship. By his headcount, he bet that he could have lasted at least 2 months with the amount here, which Kosuke found to be a major blessing in this confusing time. With these supplies, as long as he carefully rationed them then he likely would be able to stretch their usefulness to at least 2 and a half months, but that would be pushing it.

In current times, Kosuke sat in the lotus position on top of the main gun closest to the forward bridge, looking out to the ocean in front of him. The wind blew his hoodie's hood behind him like it were a flag fluttering about, some areas of his hoodie doing the same. His hair rustled like grass while his eyes kept their gaze calm and focused forwards, arms crossed in front of his abdomen. As for the ship in question, it leisurely bobbed its way through the waves at about half its top speed, the familiar sight of waves crashing against its hull being fully visible to him. He knew this because he had set it that way as a means to conserve fuel... well that's what he told himself anyway.

What he meant by that was that thanks to those robots having finished emergency repairs several hours after the first siren ship battle he had ever experienced in real-time, Kosuke had found out a range of things revolving around his apparent mysterious ability to control this warship. Things both heightened his understanding of the ability's mechanics but also raised more unanswered questions about the ability itself including its origins.

To begin with, the whole managing its speed thing was something that he had found out about shortly after those repairs were completed, with him simply only looking towards the Reticle he imagined and setting the 'levers' on the left like in Warship Gunner. Right now there were 2 such levers activated on his makeshift UI, the best way he could describe it aside from menu or Recticle with the latter being more confusing since there were multiple Recitcles. Kosuke honestly didn't know if fuel was even in his Warship like a normal modern warship did since Proto Satan was pretty much completely powered by Gas Turbines. They were why it was capable of exceeding any WW2 Era Battleships in terms of speed after all, and from what little he knew about Gas Turbines they were quite good at running on various fuel sources.

Regardless of his confusion about fuel, it was still apparent that a Warship without fuel would be dead in the water, hence why he thought it best to not go full speed ahead and waste it.

Aside from his manipulating Proto Satan's speed, he finally figured out why the other guns like the machine guns and secondary guns didn't fire on the Siren Ships, for once the repairs got completed on his UI he found the list of weapons he could use expand to include those guns, and just by using his index finger like he was scrolling using a mouse wheel, he could switch between them. Apparently, the fire control system had been damaged by the previous battle this ship had likely been in, rendering everything saves for the main guns inoperable, but thanks to the repairs done to it those guns have now been returned to full capacity...

That was what he would have preferred, but alas reality wasn't that far.

Glancing behind him at the various weaponry Proto Satan possessed, Kosuke eyed the square-shaped metallic panels which contained the Missiles, AKA the Vertical Launch Systems (VLSI) with a wary gaze. 'Well, it probably would have been too much to ask for a complete rejuvenation for him...' he thought to himself, releasing one out of many longing sighs since his discovery about Proto Satan's overall state.

In Warship Gunner when one activated the emergency repairs function a single repair kit was used up, and in exchange, the ship would become completely immobile until the repairs were finished. During that time, all weapons would be disabled temporarily while the ship would be completely vulnerable to attack, so it was usually quite important to find a safe spot to hide in before initiating that function. Once that function did its job though, the ship would be restored to full health with its weapon systems being brought back online one by one, letting the player move while returning fire to any enemies who had gotten so close to them.

However, such fortune didn't grace Kosuke's Proto Satan here apparently, for the emergency repairs only mended the damage to the hull itself and restored the basic operating systems such as the radar, sonar, fire control, etc. The more high-tech' weapon systems like the VLS's or many of the auxiliary systems remained offline, unusable for the foreseeable future. What this meant that even if he wanted to, Proto Satan couldn't move at its top speed without its Enigmatech systems amping up its motor functions, nor would he be able to have more reliable AA Missiles from the VLS's.

If he were to gauge Proto Satan's current ability, it would be at just above 50%.

Kosuke had found this out shortly after the repairs had been done, which had been a significant let down for him since those robot things (he guessed he could call them repair drones considering their function) had reminded him of the emergency repair function. Well, it was indeed like what they say: lady fate can be quite the fickle mistress, and right now he had been on the worse end of that scale. Proto Satan wasn't at its full strength, thus he couldn't showcase its might as much as he wanted to.

However, it wasn't like lady luck had completely given up on him it seemed. Most of the auxiliary systems ran through the ship's superstructure, which had sustained only partial damage that had been repaired by the drones. Unfortunately, that didn't extend to the auxiliary systems, but those that had evaded damage completely were still operational. This included the electronic targeting system and auto-loading system, the former helping his AA defense swell in potency thanks to providing better accuracy for the machine guns whilst the latter ensured the Gatling-gun-like rapid-firing ability Proto Satan prided itself on.

Previous experiences had taught Kosuke to count his blessings when they happened, and this would be no exception.

'At least...' pausing his internal monologuing for a moment, Kosuke looked back towards the direction Proto Satan was headed, lifting his right arm and mentally expanding his senses to 'take control' of Proto Satan, hearing the whirrings of the machinery within followed by the elevating barrels from the front three gun turrets. He then lowered his arm and released the hold he had on them, letting the Turrets return to their default positions. Perhaps there were some leftover jitters of excitement still inside him from the knowledge that he was a controller of one of his ships, the male mused internally while a small chuckle escaped him. He didn't mind, it was good to have SOMETHING to feel happy over. Helped maintain his sanity. 'in terms of defense I'm not exactly helpless. Several small fleets can attest to that...'

Over the last month, Kosuke had gotten into a couple of engagements with what he could only assume to have been mass-produced Siren ships, those fleets seemingly not noticing him coming till it was too late. Maybe the reason why they employed portal technology (something he had seen a few times here and even in the Azur Lane Anime) was to compensate for possible short-ranged radars? Cause Kosuke had found himself to get pretty damn close as well as prepare full broadsides before the Siren Ships could fire back. It wasn't like they could even do that since the high-velocity shells from Proto Satan's main/secondary guns completely obliterated them, but st, ill the point remained valid. These fleets mostly consisted of destroyers and cruiser types though, no sign of enemy battleships or carriers which had made dealing with these fleets easier he supposed.

One exception had been made though, and that had been his latest encounter with the Sirens about 1 week ago, where Kosuke and his ship had suddenly detected a bunch of enemy aircraft coming towards him from the starboard side, to which Kosuke quickly took control of the various machine guns (apparently he could only operate one kind of weapon at a time, and without a certain feature that proved more annoying than expected) to shoot them down. The battle had lasted about 2 to 3 hours he wasn't sure due to being in the thick of it himself having to stay on deck to directly manipulate the guns into shooting down the enemy planes, during which he began to understand a bit better why Carriers replaced Battleships during post WW2.

If it weren't for his targeting systems being active then Kosuke would have had a much harder time, he figured.

Afterward, it had taken him a short while to track down and blast the enemy Siren Carrier to kingdom come, to which once he did so Kosuke felt like an avenger finally getting his target down on his knees: QUITE satisfied, before he continued on his journey... after scrapping the ship of its supplies as he had for the other Warship fleets he had encountered. Made Kosuke feel like a goddamn pirate all the time, but hey the supplies actually proved useful in restocking ammunition and parts for repairs, so that was something.

Maybe he should be all like 'you shall remember this day as the day you almost caught Captain Kosuke!' or something...

Instantly Kosuke cringed to himself, face palming and hanging his head in a depressed manner. "Nope... far too cringy, can't say it as Johnny Depp can," he mumbled under his breath while also wishing that actor who had made so many people smile had a happy life after the drama surrounding his ends.

Dragging his palm down his face and letting it slide off his chin, the male lifted his head to look at the horizon before him once more, one of the few things he could do right now aside from monologuing and a few other things to maintain his sanity, hence the massive monologue he'd went into earlier. Not only did it make him feel like someone actually pays attention to his struggles as arrogant as that sounded, but it also gave him something to do, something to help rein in his sanity and stop himself from becoming a freaking degenerate lunatic. Humans were a social bunch, it was almost genetically hardwired into them, so one being alone for such a long time period wasn't ever going to result in anything pretty. He bet there were a few examples of this throughout history, but he couldn't think of them at the moment.

One other thing that he liked to do during this month of being stranded though aside from monologuing... was theorizing.

And BOY did he have a LOT to think about!

One of the first things he had to think about was: why the fuck was he even here? Wherever here was, anyways...

Kosuke had several ideas that correlated to this theory, and each pointed towards the incident with his phone right before he had first woken up on Proto Satan's main deck. It was obvious that event, in particular, had a massive link to his appearing here as well as the image he had seen right before the event had happened: that strange red cube that looked like a Wisdom Cube but with several differences in appearance.

Thinking back to that time, Kosuke remembered several details he had failed to notice previously, like how suddenly hot his Phone had felt when it had appeared. It had felt like he had been holding a freaking miniature radiator in his hand, yet the warmth didn't burn him. One might think that would have hurt like hell and caused him to drop his phone as if it had electrocuted him, but nope. No, strangely enough, the warmth felt similar to the heat of adrenaline, a byproduct from a rush one only got when they were in an intense situation that normal folk would have tried to get out of immediately or outright avoid. Aside from that, he had felt this strange sensation rush through him... one which he had some personal experience with whenever he found himself cornered, with nothing left to lose.

There were a LOT of questions in his mind revolving around that event, but none of them would be answered for a while, Kosuke believed. Thus, he selected the next theory he'd developed:

The world of Azur Lane.

That was probably the type of world that he had fallen into. The whole isekai cliche from his world aside, Kosuke recalled that this had happened because he had opened his Azur Lane app for his routine commission checkup. But then that icon had appeared, the icon which had resembled a wisdom cube in appearance minus a few differences. The rest well was history... but then there were the Sirens, enemies of humanity in the game who had taken over a majority of the world's oceans until humans managed to gain the use of ship girls to take back a few oceans, resulting in a stalemate-like situation. Kind of cliche if one thought about it, but hey it was what it was.

But then the whole of Azur Lane got split into two factions due to a difference in ideals: the Azur Lane and Crimson Axis. Resulting in that damn three-way war between them and the Sirens.

Quite probably one of the stupidest decisions ever made.

Regardless of all the mandatory stuff, Kosuke still didn't have full certainty about it. What he meant by that was that even if he was in Azur Lane, he wasn't sure what the current status of the overall situation was, was it like the anime where Azur Lane's forces were converging on a large naval base reminiscent of pearl harbor? Or would it be like in the mobile game itself where pearl harbor had similar occupants to historical origins? Kosuke didn't know, and he likely wouldn't know for some time.

The whole mystery about his Proto Satan and why he had the abilities over it he wasn't much closer to solving either, but that one had been put as a secondary priority on his list. Mostly because there was something about it that he had discovered shortly into his stay on the main deck. That something made Kosuke's brow twitch while he idly glanced down at his torso and abdomen area, his lips pressed together into a flat line.

This left him with the decision of what he should do in the long run, and there hadn't been much progress into answering that dilemma. For one, he had no clue where the hell he freaking was, which country's waters he was currently sailing through, and even if he did know which country's waters he sailed along in the WW2 era things were WAY different compared to what he knew back in the modern age. The Sakura Empire was basically the navy of imperial Japan, and he did NOT appreciate the things he'd heard about their war crimes similar to the Iron Blood, who were basically the Germans. The Eagle Union and Royal Navy may be British and American respectively, but he didn't fully trust them either. While they won the war in his world and were painted as the heroes of the day, the winners would always make history favor them and gloss over crimes they had committed.

Let's not even BEGIN to consider how they would react to his Ship, the male mused with a grimace while he saw Proto Satan smash its bow downwards which caused waves to rise both sides of its Bow.

Having an unknown Battleship of no specific allegiance was always going to upturn a few eyes, and if it were floating under someone who they saw as a novice in naval warfare then he did not doubt that they would try to steal his ship from him. Kosuke dreaded what could happen in such a bleak scenario, honestly. Heck, it didn't even LOOK like an ordinary battleship, concealing its uniqueness had already been knocked off the table just from that alone.

Part of him also suspected that it's possible this was just a world with Sirens in it, meaning no Ship Girls or any familiar Azur Lane lore to it. One reason why he suspected this had been due to his lack of any encounters across this ocean over the last month. It worried him somewhat, therefore him going to those nations and expecting haven would be like walking into a den of wolves. Then again, if this presented itself as an alternate WW2, then a den of wolves may as well be the best descriptive for the world of Azur Lane...

Just with Warships manifested as sexualized Shipgirls.

'Now that I think about it, the devs for Azur Lane must have known what they were doing, taking advantage of lonely weebs by making a game filled with ship waifus to give them some sense of wish fulfillment...' Kosuke thought while he let the soft winds brush against his face, leaving a calming and comforting effect in its wake. The male's gaze then sharpened as he stood tall atop his perch on the Turret, pocketing his hands inside of his pants while he mentally asserted control over Proto Satan, the same straining sensation manifesting within his gut while he made a scrolling motion to select the high angle guns.

In any case, his long-term plan was to find a safe place to dock his ship, probably at one of the more minor nations at the moment. He wasn't sure if they would be able to completely repair Proto Satan, in fact, he actually highly doubted it since they likely wouldn't have the resources needed to maintain it. Not to mention that a lot of them wouldn't necessarily be trustworthy (especially the Russians from what he recalled of their history during WW2) at this time either, but compared to the major nations they would be the lesser of two evils. Their smaller size and lack of resources also meant that they likely wouldn't be able to pull very many snitches on him until he found a way to restock on fuel.

THAT would be his bigger priority compared to ammunition since he had been STACKED with that stuff from the various siren engagements.

After switching through the weapons that he had access to, to make sure that they were still functional which had been another thing Kosuke did to keep himself busy, the male sighed as he withdrew control from the ship, letting both the ship as well as the pulling sensation in his gut go. He then proceeded to hop off the turret and landed in a crouching position atop the main deck. Getting up, he proceeded to head inside his ship through the superstructure, seeing that today had been like most of the others: uneventful with nothing in sight. He still had things to do onboard Proto Satan, so he wouldn't be bored at least but even they can get tedious fast without some kind of excitement to switch things up.

Just as he reached the door to the forward bridge's interior and had reached out with his right hand to grasp its handle...

PING!

"?!"

All of a sudden, a change occurred in his routine that shook Kosuke down to his very core, a change from the usual boring routine he had long since stopped caring about calling 'mundane'. The change sent ripples of electricity through his mind, sparking it back to life even though part of him had wondered if that change had simply been a hallucination, a part of his own subconscious desire to not lose his sanity.

PING!

A second ping inside the back of his mind wiped out that possibility, as well as filled him to the brim with a feeling of excitement, evidenced by the massive shit-eating grin that formed on his face. 'Alright, FINALLY!' he thought to himself, his mental radar having picked up a signature somewhere nearby... about northeast of his position if he was reading his mental radar right. The pinging only further reinforced his sudden uplifting in mood as he quickly rushed away from the entrance to the superstructure, climbed on top of the main turret gun he had been on before, and quickly took control of his ship. He didn't mind the pulling sensation in his gut that manifested when this happened this time, instead, Kosuke focused solely on his task of directing the ship itself.

He did this by holding both arms out like he was holding an imaginary wheel in front of him, then proceeded to spin the wheel towards the portside direction.

At once, Kosuke felt the shift start to tilt in that direction beneath his feet, the male having leaned to the opposite side to maintain his balance while Proto Satan made the steep turn in the direction he had told it to. With a click of the male's tongue, the Ship soon got switched to full speed mode, the Turbines within roaring to life while the massive Battleship sailed on forth towards his destination.

Minutes into the journey towards the signature, thoughts raced through Kosuke's head that was fuelled by the adrenaline rush born from the excitement flowing through his veins.

Questions like...

How long had it been since he had felt like this?

Even though he had counted the days that had gone by to estimate his stay aboard Proto Satan to be just about a month, it had felt like much, MUCH longer since he had been able to actually talk to someone. Like he had mentioned previously, humans were a social species, not meant to be alone forever lest they lose grip over themselves.

He had only been stranded atop Proto Satan for a month at most, but even then he had slowly felt the claws of insanity start to dig themselves into the back of his mind, which sort of gave him a deeper sense of gratefulness towards those who managed to survive such experiences. Though perhaps the effects had been altered somehow thanks to the few Siren encounters he had across the last month since they gave him something to focus on, plus Proto Satan had quite the facility loadout within its superstructure that separated it from the WW2 era warships.

Additionally, if he were able to take himself out of the excitement he felt inside and actually think about it, then he'd figure out just how hopeful he had really been at finally encountering something, ANYTHING, that would potentially allow him to engage in conversation.

His excitement only spread faster through his veins thanks to the pings that gradually increased in volume the quicker Proto Satan sped through the water, almost as if it were reflecting the feelings within its master. Kosuke, through all of this, began to wonder what his first encounter with potentially non-siren beings would be like since despite his usually very reserved and logical stance on strangers the excitement just poured out of his pores without any possibility of stopping.

Soon enough, the male began to see something up ahead, what looked like a ship's silhouette bobbing up and down on the waves. Judging from the vague outline he saw, Kosuke determined it to be a Cruiser of sorts, nothing that could pose a threat to his Battleship even when weakened so he didn't worry too much there. Not only that but from his WW2 Knowledge there were 2 subclasses of Cruiser: Light and Heavy with the former being defined by carrying about 6-inch guns whereas the latter got defined by their 8-inch ones. Why he thought of that at this moment was that due to the outline he could see a set of 5.5-inch guns on its form which to him, classified it as a Light Cruiser. Even less of a threat to Proto Satan, Kosuke felt as he neared...

Although those thoughts soon vanished COMPLETELY when he managed to get a closer look at the ship itself, as well as a strange case of de ja Vu.

'Holy... that thing's barely floating at this point...'

That was his sole thought while surveying the sheer amount of damage that this Ship had sustained. Holes were blown in through multiple parts of its hull, about 6 on the stern, bow, and 4 holes amidship. Fortunately, none of them were large enough to cause flooding, and from what he had seen they weren't caused by anything like torpedos... No, THAT damage remained close to the stern in the form of ovular-sized holes near the stern's rudder, meaning there may be possible damage below there too. He didn't want to think if the other side of the ship was similarly damaged, but it did seem to slant sideways in the direction of the compartments that would be flooded meaning that it likely wouldn't be long before the ship would sink beneath the waves. Small smoke trails rose from its damaged superstructure as evidence of there having once been fired on the ship, fires which seemed to have been hastily put out.

Just what the hell had this thing been fighting to get like that?!

'From what I can see, looks like a lot of those holes were done by either some kind of shell or torpedo, so that can rule out the Sirens although I'm not 100% positive. Definitely looks to have sustained a few torpedo hits though.' Kosuke thought to himself while he slowly proceeded to turn Proto Satan a little as they neared the floating vessel whose guns didn't move to point themselves at him, hinting that their fire control had been damaged too.

Shit, that was bad. This ship's a sitting duck.

Soon enough, the male's Battleship slowed to a halt when its hull aligned itself to be completely parallel to the damaged Light Cruiser, easily dwarfing it in size and length while Kosuke himself hopped off the Turret to the railing so he could observe the warship more closely. As he leaned over to do so, he looked it from stern to bow to see if there were any occupants onboard still alive, since there were BOUND to be corpses floating about in a situation like this.

However, no matter how many times his eyes scoured the damaged vessel's deck Kosuke just couldn't see anyone.

"Huh... is it deserted? But in that case, one would have scuttled the ship in this situation..."

Mumbling in confusion to himself, Kosuke sighed at this discovery that had been made, all before he took a few steps backward, just to get some running space for himself. After judging the distance to be satisfactory, Kosuke broke into a mad sprint with each food SLAMMING into the Warship's deck, hopping onto the top of the railing and using it as a springboard to leap through the air, flipping about before he descended towards the smaller ship.

Spiraling down towards its main deck, Kosuke flipped himself forwards and, once he made contact with the hard material, rolled across the deck several times before he managed to shift into a kneeling position once the momentum had been mostly dispersed. 'Phew, boarding successful. Guess mimicking Joker from Persona 5 has a bit of fun to it after all...' the male mused, thinking back to the time when he had first woken up aboard Proto Satan, how awkward he'd been. Now, here he was a month later performing stunts and flips all over the damn fucking place.

With a shake of his head, Kosuke put those thoughts to the back of his mind and got to his feet, pocketing his hands inside his sweat pants before proceeding to stroll across the deck to search for any survivors. If there really wasn't anything here or anything in the deck that could show him what had happened here then perhaps he could have Proto Satan scrap it for parts. It shouldn't take him very long considering how small this ship was compared to his Drillship, it'd at least take an entire afternoon at least if he were to guess how long it'd take.

Right after he finished the majority of exploring the main deck, though...

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!

"Hm?"

All of a sudden, Kosuke stopped by the ship's bow when he heard a beeping sound coming from his hoodie's pocket. Was that his phone? That thing had been behaving quite weirdly ever since he first woke up aboard his Ship, and he had yet to figure out what the deal with it was. 'Ugh, what the heck does this thing want with me now...?' the male thought with a grumble of annoyance, raising his right hand to pluck his phone out his hoodie and look at its screen. Soon enough, his eyes caught on to the message in the middle just like the whole thing with the robots:

[Unknown ship detected. Proximity conditions met. Would you like to scan the ship for a Blueprint? YES/NO]

'Blueprint? What the fuck is going on here...?' the male wondered while lifting an eyebrow upwards in confusion. A few seconds into viewing this message he began to think about possibilities relating to the naval games that he had played, since according to his experiences these mysterious abilities he had were connected to them somehow, Naval Ops and World of Warships more specifically. This theory had helped him get a rough idea of how to control his Ship more effectively so he didn't look like a dumbass.

One idea that came to him stemmed from the Warship Gunner entries from the Naval Ops trilogy, regarding the 'prebuilt series' section which hadn't been something that he hadn't delved into very much. Apparently, the prebuilt ships were blueprints for actual historical vessels one could sacrifice a slot to construct for use in combat. This 'scanning for a blueprint' could be related to that somehow, he figured but he wasn't completely certain since World of Warships revolved around historical vessels too.

Well then, how about seeing what it would do? It's not like there was anyone on deck and if this ship had truly been abandoned then it wouldn't be much of an issue. With that, Kosuke pressed the 'yes' button while mentally preparing himself for whatever was going to happen afterward.

Alright, the first thing that happened was his phone's camera suddenly started shooting out a bright light like some kind of old-fashioned film camera, one aimed towards Proto Satan's superstructure. Shortly afterward, a bunch of robots bursts out from small compartments on the said superstructure that soon started to surround the Ship, with each one starting to emit bright lights from their heads that went throughout the vessel's structure.

All the while, Kosuke witnessed a bar appear, one gradually being filled on his Phone's screen with the word 'scanning' hovering over it.

'This phone makes me wonder if I'm tripping sometimes...'

Before long, Kosuke ket out a low breath, he hadn't realized he had been holding once he saw the bar reach 100%, a 'can complete' message appearing in its place. 'There, whatever I started has been finished, so I should probably think about completing the exploration of this Ship's lower floors soon... huh?' the male thought to himself, about to turn and head for an entrance to the ship's interior he had noticed... when out the corner of his eye Kosuke spotted another message appearing on his Phone's screen.

[Japanese Light Cruiser Yubari: Blueprint Archived. Resources needed for mass production. Emergency Repairs on Ship possible. Initiate? YES/NO]

'Huh? Now THAT wasn't possible in the games...' Kosuke thought in shock when he read the message, almost doubting the sight before his very eyes. He briefly wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him, but after pinching himself a couple of times the male saw the same message still, meaning that this WASN'T any kind of hallucination. Performing emergency repairs on another Warship aside from the one he controlled? Was that possible in the Naval Ops series? Kosuke racked his brain to remember, but nothing came to his mind.

Still, he recalled how well Proto Satan's emergency repairs had been, compared to it which was a hybrid of WW2 and modern tech, if he did the same for this ship then the results would likely be far better.

Wait... what did his Phone say this Ship's name was?

All of a sudden, a wave of dread rushed through him as a cold sensation settled within his gut. If he had a mirror, Kosuke felt that he would have seen his face losing color and his mouth dropping open. The two words 'holy shit' could very well have been plastered onto his face and it'd be an accurate description of his emotions right now. The moment he had felt this way was when he had read that one name on the message since it triggered memories of his time playing Azur Lane. Not to mention the connotations it had NOT boding well if what he feared was accurate.

'Don't tell me... this Ship is-'

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!

Another message suddenly appeared above the previous one, almost as if his Phone itself saw this as a greater priority.

[Damaged Lifeform present in Ship. Vitals at 40% and destabilizing. Proceed with caution.]

The very INSTANT he saw that message, his mind quickly concluded who his Phone had detected, but there wasn't any time for other thoughts to come into focus. Nope, instead, all Kosuke did was a quick turn around and dart for the entrance to the Ship's interior. On his Phone, a map of the ship came in the form of the ship itself in a grid-like format which Kosuke used to locate the 'lifeform' that it had detected, one which had been represented by a crimson-colored dot on his makeshift 'map'.

Along the way, Kosuke heaved and panted, a strong heat rushing through his veins as heavy thuds accompanied each footstep, the clangs of metal ringing beneath his feet. The teen's breath came out in labored breaths as quick gasps escaped him in rapid succession, his lungs burning in protest at the lack of sufficient oxygen intake, but Kosuke couldn't bother to think about all that stuff right now. Instead, what he felt drove him at the moment was the confirmation of a dreaded theory inside his mind.

That message had identified this ship by Yuubari, the Japanese Light Cruiser which had been an experimental one that had paved the way for future warship technologies according to what he had researched about the ship during his off time.

Indeed, that had been the name his Phone had attached to the ship...

So when it mentioned a lifeform needing medical aid Kosuke only thought one thing.

By the time that he had gotten to the location where the life form's signal originated from according to his map, Kosuke found two things: one, he apparently had gotten to the Ship's AFT Bridge which had significantly more damage done to it compared to the FWD Bridge, something which he would be thinking about later. The second thing he found...

Was a single humanoid body slumped against a wall, seemingly unconscious... and VERY badly injured. Just like the voice in his phone had suggested.

The body itself looked to be that of a woman, one who looked to be between 13 to 15 years of age although he wasn't sure if that was her actual age. If this was who he thought it was (and it definitely seemed like it, considering all the evidence) then this person may be a whole lot older than that. Her hair was black in color similar to a lot of Japanese people and looked to be arranged to waist length in two large ponytails that reminded him of balls for some reason, held together with white ribbons as well as a pair of golden bells near their ends. Atop her head, he could see a pair of matching fluffy canine ears that currently hung lowly. As for her eyes, they remained closed so Kosuke couldn't identify them right now.

While she had a petite-looking body, she wore a thigh-length green kimono that had golden outlines and looked to hang off the shoulders, exposing them and a bit of her torso to show off a small amount of her cleavage area. Though Kosuke focused more on the armored Corset that wrapped itself around her waist since it resembled the sides of a ship more than anything, and upon further examination similar plates could be seen on the ankles of her white thigh high stocking-covered feet, feet which ended in traditional sandals. Behind her, Kosuke saw a large, long tail that currently laid sprawled out to her left side, and while this pretty much confirmed this woman's identity for him...

It didn't deter him from observing the sheer amount of damage done to her.

'Holy shit...' Kosuke thought as he kneeled beside the unconscious girl while looking her up and down to detail the injuries she'd sustained. A trail of blood ran down the side of her forehead and had covered one of her eyes, likely forcing it to remain shut due to how dry it looked. Her left leg looked to be bent in the completely wrong way with her arms having long trails of blood sliding down her hands, dripping from her fingertips with some fingers being bent horribly, obviously broken. Her kimono looked shredded in several areas like her sides and a bit of her abdomen to expose some of her underboobs, while various purple-colored bruises could be seen across her torso and shoulders. Her lower lip looked to be split apart and her hair looked to be a mess right now, same with her tail which had some ends longer than others.

Needless to say, she looked to have been put through the wringer.

Thinking fast, Kosuke scooped her up into his arms like a husband carrying his bride down the aisle, mindful to not aggravate her various injuries while also noticing holes in the back of her stockings. He knew that she should be moved elsewhere and he had a good place in mind having remembered that Proto Satan, during his initial exploration through its facilities, had a small infirmary built into it with the supplies one might expect from such a place. He may not be a professional but he sure could do his best to help stabilize her condition, though a part of him remarked that a doctor would have been preferred since they would know what the fuck they were doing.

Once he had her securely in his arms, Kosuke made a beeline out of the AFT Bridge towards his Ship.

One good thing about this he would later think to himself would be that his first non-hostile encounter in this world had finally happened... though whether or not that would remain so would be anyone's guess.

Chapter end!

Hey guys, welcome to a new chapter.

Now, just so you know I know very little about naval warfare and the like, I think I already mentioned this previously. A lot of terminology stems from what little research I've done about what was what back then, but what I DID figure for certain that a difference between light and heavy cruisers were their armaments, more specifically the former had under 6-inch guns while the latter had more than 6 inches. I hope that's correct, plz lemme know if I got that right, plus if there was any other terminology I can use for this story.

Next, the whole beginning scene was mostly exposition, but it WAS plot-relevant. We've seen the Sirens be all mysterious, all-knowing, and the like, so I wanted to mix it up a bit and give them a scene showing that they too sometimes have to get serious when the time had called for it. Just look at what happened to Tester Beta, and trust me, once you see what did that to her you will DEFINITELY understand why they spent so many resources to try and destroy them. There's going to b a lot of mystery elements so far though, so I understand if that's not your cup of tea. Though the answers likely won't come for a while, so be warned.

Next is the whole stuff with Kosuke, I wanted to showcase here that not everything is the same as in Warship Gunner, as well as to showcase where he is at power-wise. His ship, Proto Satan, is indeed strong but it's not capable of using its full armament at the moment (hopefully the implications I left can explain why). This will change in the future and you will see why this Ship the Sirens regarded this ship so highly. Kosuke himself is slowly getting used to his situation and there have been some hints to things I'll be using in future chapters. Hope you like them when you see them.

Finally the Yuubari scene and oh boy, finally we have our first Shipgirl encounter. Although it could have been under better circumstances considering how injured she is. Why was she out here? Who injured her? What happened to her escorts since a single Cruiser will easily get shredded to bits in open water (my world of warships gaming account can attest). Hope you liked the chapter, and the story so far by extension, and look forward to when I upload more.

PEACE OUT!