Chapter 7
After Fubuki and the Iron Fleet exited the storm and into open, calmer waters, she cleared her throat and called out, "is everyone here?"
After everyone looked around and confirmed that they all made out the storm, they all nodded to Fubuki with Bismarck remarking, "everyone is present and accounted for ma'am."
Fubuki blushed at the statement, "there's no need for that," waving her hand while nervously laughing. After composing herself, "alright let's have everyone group up by their ship type, destroyers, light cruisers, and so on ok."
Everyone seemed confused about Fubuki's latest command and Graf Zeppelin spoke up, "um, Fubuki aside from the destroyers and battleships there's only one shop per type so?" After which everyone just burst out laughing.
Fubuki realizing her error blushed and facepalmed from embarrassment. "I…I'm aware Zeppelin, but each type requires a different method of training so splitting you all up by type should make the process a little more smoother," she responded.
Accepting her explanation, the ten girls all lined up according to their type. As Fubuki looked up the ten an idea came to her, "Bismarck and Z-4 could you come here please?"
As the two girls came to her she told them, "since there's more than one of your guys' type I'm gonna train you girls first so while I'm training the cruisers and Zeppelin, you two can get the others of your type trained, does that seem like a fair proposition?"
After looking at each other for a second both girls nodded, with Bismarck commenting, "seems like a great idea."
With that matter resolved Fubuki had Z-4 start first since she would have more people in her class than Bismarck, "ok Z-4 let's start with the basics, since you seem to have movement down for now we'll mainly focus on your attack, do you know how to aim your gun?"
As Z-4 got into her best interpretation of a combat stance, Fubuki already noticed some problems with her posture, "ok first of all you're gonna be fighting enemies not getting ready for a briefing, lower your chin so that you're actually facing your soon to be target and spread your legs apart a little, that'll help you when you aim and deal with the recoil of your gun firing, it may also help you react faster to enemy attacks due your body not being as stiff, try and copy me." As Fubuki assumed her combat stance, Z-4 copied her, smiling, Fubuki proceeded on, "ok now imagine there's a target in front of you, aim in the direction of the target and shoot," Fubuki really wished that there would be some kind of terrain or anything that she could have them shoot at to get them good at aiming.
After Z-4 took a few shots Fubuki sent her over to teach the other destroyers what she taught her since there weren't any actual targets for them to shoot at. She then turned her attention to Bismarck next, after she took position where Z-4 was, Fubuki couldn't help but be impressed by Bismarck's array, "Wow Bismarck you've got quite the array of weaponry."
Bismarck smiled at the compliment, "thanks, yeah my main armament are my 38cm main guns with a secondary armament of 15cm for either anti-air combat or to combat enemy ships at close range," she explained.
"Ok," Fubuki continued on, "well your training will have to be different since your guns have to aim primarily by your eyesight and radar. If you have it, try getting your guns to all aim directly in front of you," she instructed. After Bismarck had her guns turn to face directly in front of her, Fubuki was impressed by how they moved in unison. "Good, seeing as your turrets are able to align with the target you've picked, let's see how well they can fire together, just pick a spot in front of you and have them fire." After Bismarck complied and took a few practice salvos, she headed over to Deutshland to show her what to do. Now turning her attention to Zeppelin, "ok Zeppelin yours shouldn't be too difficult, do you know how to launch your planes?"
"Yeah," Zeppelin answers, taking up her bow and grabs an arrow, pulls back the string and lets go. As the arrow shoots out and splits into six planes, Fubuki quickly notices the lack of coordination between them.
"Ok," Fubuki began, "it seems like they don't really know how to coordinate and hold formation, so they should probably try and work on that for now," she suggested. Looking up at the planes even more, Fubuki couldn't help but be somewhat entranced by them, they just seemed so different, almost the opposite to the planes she was used to seeing. Maybe it was because of the darker color scheme, the white cross outlining another black cross inside it, the seemingly slimmer yet bulky build of the planes, or maybe the overall sharpness of their design and how they moved. What it was, she felt as if they seemed far more meaner and more deadly than any other plane she'd seen so far. "Wow," she accidentally let out, "I've never seen planes like those before."
"What do you mean," Zeppelin asked, causing Fubuki to snap out of her trance.
Slightly blushing, she said sheepishly, "well, it's just that your planes, they seem to unique, they honestly look like knives flying around out there, so sharp in their design and movements, like if even if you were to touch one of the wings could get your fingers cut clean off, it's almost terrifying yet intriguing."
"Well with your help, maybe they could live up to that impression if not surpass it," Zeppelin responded, smiling as the two girls shared a laugh together.