AN: Forgot to mention that Kirishima is in her Kai Ni form here.
Enjoy the chapter dear readers!
"Starboard five degrees!"
"Starboard five degrees, aye Sir!"
Captain Alexander Reed was standing on the bridge of the Milius, conducting the docking. The flagship, the Abraham Lincoln, and two of the other destroyers were already at their moorings, tied to the sides of piers; it was now the Milius' turn to stand to one of the three moles.
While Reed was giving orders, Ryan was standing on the right bridgewing, acting as the "eyes" of his captain. The American destroyer approached the pier at low speed and with careful maneuvers.
"Left standard rudder!"
The ship got closer and closer to the concrete and Ryan saw Japanese sailors waiting for them to help with the hawsers. Those men and women in the white uniforms were the first foreigners he saw in a very long time.
Finally, the Milius was at the pier, the hawsers were thrown out and the vibration in the hull died down as the four LM2500 gas turbines were stopped. The Japanese sailors down there placed the nooses around the bollards and with that the long journey came to an end.
The young first-officer was excited beyond imagination; his inner child came to the surface. He was on his very first overseas campaign, on the other side of the globe, in Japan, a country he heard and read so much about but never could visit until now, and now he could see real battles. Oh yes, this will be a great adventure.
Soon all the ships of Task Force 99 were anchored in the bay at Shimoshima Island.
"Come Grazzini, here come the formalities." said Reed.
"Yes Sir." nodded Ryan and followed his captain to the deck. The ramp was already in place and the two officers walked down on it.
At its lower end Ryan took a breath, raised his foot and a second later he stepped on Japanese soil. To others it may not have seemed like a big deal, but for him, it was a big moment. Apart from one or two tours to Mexico and Canada he never really left the US before; and now there he was on the far side of the Pacific; and this fact made him truly happy.
"Do you like it?"
"Sorry Sir?" asked Ryan.
"I just thought that that big smile on your face has a reason." teased him Reed as they kept walking on the pier.
"Well, I don't deny it Captain, I'm quite excited." admitted Ryan.
"Me too Grazzini, me too. You've all the reasons to be."
"Am I not too enthusiastic Sir?"
"Not by any means. In fact, I like that in you. You remind me of my young self."
"In that case I'll stay like this Sir." nodded Ryan.
In mean time they reached the end of the mole where the captains and first officers of the task force were gathering. In the front stood the overall commander of the fleet, Admiral Richard Walker, who was giving his orders from the bridge of the Abraham Lincoln.
The Admiral stepped to a Japanese naval officer, dressed in all white, then the two sailors changed salutes.
"Admiral Hirayama Kaito." introduced himself the middle-aged Japanese man.
"Admiral Richard Walker." said the American then offered his hand.
"It is a privilege to meet you Admiral Walker. Welcome you and all your comrades in Japan. Thank you very much for your support."
"It is our pleasure to be here Admiral Hirayama. Arriving here is kind of a celebration for us."
"I can say the same. Can you send me the commanders of your ships and your shipgirls to my office later? I need to do some paperwork with them."
By this time all the American shipgirls were also ashore.
"Definitely, they'll all go today."
"Thank you very much. Welcome you here once again and good luck!"
After this, Hirayama shook hands with all of his allied ship commanders.
"Hajimemashite teitoku." said Ryan when it was his turn to be greeted by Hirayama, surprising the other man.
"You speak Japanese?"
"Not really Sir. Unfortunately, I only know a few words and phrases."
"I see. Yet, I'd say your pronunciation is quite good."
"Arigatogozaimashita." bowed his head Ryan.
"You are full of surprises my young friend." said Reed after Hirayama walked away.
"Well, I'm trying my best Sir." smiled Ryan.
He then noticed that they were already watched from the distance.
X
"They are different than I thought they'd be." commented Nachi, as she watched the scene with crossed arm.
"Namely?" asked Myoko.
The sister cruisers were standing on the far side of the square that separated the Japanese and American parts of the base.
"I don't know. They just... look a lot more disciplined than I thought Americans are."
"Well, they are soldiers after all."
"Hm. Have you seen any of their shipgirls yet nee-san?"
"Not really." replied the oldest sister of the Myoko-class. "Are you concerned about them?"
"More like confused." replied Nachi. "What should I do when I meet them?"
"Just try to be friendly. If you can't be in peace with any of them, just let her go, don't start a fight. We had far enough of that back then."
"Aren't you angry at them?"
Myoko was thinking. "We would have done to them the same thing what they did to us, wouldn't have we?"
"Yes... I guess so."
X
"Looks like they have a good taste." commented Ryan as he and Reed were walking up the stairs of the command building.
It was built in baroque style, and its inner decoration was also quite tasty.
"You would accept a cabin like this, wouldn't you?" asked Reed jokingly.
"Yes Sir." chuckled Ryan. "A house like this on the hills, west from old Santa Cruz, looking at Monterey Bay would be very nice."
"When was the last time you were home?"
"Two days before we raised the anchor Captain."
"Are your parents alright?"
"Luckily they are. It's just... harder for them to let me go. Especially after what happened to Elena..."
"Ah yes..." nodded Reed, and his face changed to a more serious expression. "Admiral Hirayama's office must be right around this corner." he said when they reached the top of the stairs to change the subject.
The two went around the corner, but they almost bumped into four figures. And those four persons, namely, four young women practically jumped back as if they saw something scary; one of them, a girl with short, light brown hair even raised her fists as if she was preparing for a fight.
The two Americans also took a step back in their surprise, not really understanding what was going on.
"Hey hey, easy everyone, calm down!" Another one, a long grey-haired girl, seemingly came to herself after the first shock and tried to calm down the other three. "You too Hiei-neesan, don't worry." she said to the one who seemed to be the most hostile of all of them.
Meanwhile Ryan and Reed were just standing there with their surprised faces, not knowing what was happening.
"Hiei." thought Ryan. "Could they be..."
"Ehehe, sorry. We didn't mean to offend you." said the Japanese shipgirl in almost perfect English and with an embarrassed smile. "We didn't see any Americans since... Well. It's been a while." she said, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Ah. It's... It's alright young lady." found Reed his voice.
"Still, we are deeply sorry if we caused trouble to you." said the girl and bowed to them.
"May I ask something?" asked Ryan.
"Sure thing." nodded the shipgirl.
"Aren't you the ships of the Kongo-class?"
"How do you know?"
"By the name of your sister." looked Ryan at Hiei, but immediately turned back to Haruna, as Hiei was literally killing him with her gaze. "I heard a lot about you."
"Oh, I see. You're right. I'm battleship Haruna, third ship of the class. Nice to meet you!" saluted Haruna.
"Kongo-desu." saluted Kongo. She was calm, but so expressionless that Ryan couldn't decide what she was thinking.
"Hiei." said the second sister in a much colder tone and a grimace, like she was talking to a despicable person.
"Kirishima."
"We are honored to meet you. I am Alexander Reed, captain of the destroyer USS Milius." returned Reed the salute.
"Ryan Grazzini, first-officer of the Milius." saluted Ryan as well.
"The office of your Admiral is located on this corridor, right?" asked Reed.
"Hai. It's the third door, you can't miss it."
"Thank you very much."
"Your very welcome." nodded Haruna. She then noticed that Ryan was really looking at something. At first, she thought, they just looked interesting to him. It wouldn't have been surprising; for her, these two men were very exotic too.
But then she realized that he was looking at only one of them: Kirishima.
She looked at the youngest sister, who was standing at her left side. Kirishima looked away shyly, so did Ryan after he realized that he was staring for too long.
"Damn it!" cursed himself Ryan mentally. "Now she'll think I'm a weirdo..."
But Kirishima didn't think that. Instead, she looked back at him sideways, examining him through her glasses.
What surprised her was how young he was. Though being a first officer, he was just around her age, in the middle, or in the second half of his twenties. Reed was like a typical senior officer; his hair was turning grey, and he was in his late fifties-early sixties.
Ryan on the other hand had a young, shaved face, well-groomed, raven black hair, and deep blue eyes.
"Then. Excuse us." said Reed and the two Americans continued their way toward the office. Ryan though barely resisted the urge to turn back and look over his shoulder at them, or rather at one of them.
"What do you think?" whispered Haruna into Kirishima's ear when they were out of earshot.
"What do I think?" asked her sister.
"Come on, you know what I mean." said Haruna, gesturing with her head behind them.
It was barely visible, but she would have sworn that the slightest hint of red appeared on her sister's cheeks.
"N-no. I don't." stammered Kirishima as the four battleships walked on the corridor; making Haruna to grow a small smile.
Knock, knock.
"Enter." a voice said from inside, so Reed and Ryan opened the big, double leaf oak door and stepped into Hirayama's office.
They found the Japanese admiral sitting behind his desk, with big towers of sheets of paper on it.
"Your names?"
"Alexander Reed."
"Ryan Grazzini." Both of them saluted.
"Ah yes, I remember you from earlier." nodded Hirayama and put two pieces of documents before them. "Would you both please sign these here and here?"
They both reached for the pen and leaned over the table.
"Is something wrong?"
"Pardon me Sir?" asked Ryan with the pen in his hand.
"Your face seems to be troubled." said Hirayama.
"Oh, it's nothing Sir. Captain Reed and I just had an encounter with some of your shipgirls, that's all."
"I see." frowned Hirayama, knowing how some of his fleet girls felt about their newly arrived allies. "How did it turn out?"
"Quite well I'd say. One of them was not too friendly, but another one was very kind. The other two seemed to be calm."
"Weren't they the Kongo-sisters?"
"Actually, yes Sir." replied Ryan.
"Ah yes, everyone's favorite Kongo-sisters. Don't worry about them, they might seem to be odd and scary sometimes, but all of them are very kind-hearted."
Ryan was not sure about Hiei, but he could imagine this about the other three. What interested him the most however was what Kirishima could be like. Wait a second...
"We're done, thank you for coming." said Hirayama and exchanged salutes with his two American comrades.
"We had a long trip from home, hadn't we Grazzini?" asked Reed when they exited the command building.
"Longer than all my previous travels before together."
"That's why I'm giving the crew a day off. That includes you; go ahead and look around, get to know the place. You can go back to our barracks at the evening."
"Thank you Sir." nodded Ryan thankfully. "I wish you a nice day."
And so, the young man went on his own way, exploring the naval district. After almost an hour, he had to realize that it was huge. There were not only docks, storages, workshops and other military facilities, but also places where the shipgirls and other members of the navy could spend their free time.
Ryan was truly impressed; it was not anything to build such a place, and Hirayama must have been a very good officer if he could run the entire district and keep it together.
He was thinking like that, when someone stepped out of the building before him. And that someone has happened to be none other than Kirishima. She stopped when she noticed him, and for long seconds the two were just standing there, staring at each other, not sure about what to do.
Finally, Kirishima brought herself to take an uncertain step toward him. Ryan also started walking, until they were face to face with each other. Now it was Ryan's turn to notice something on her. She was tall, much taller than he imagined a typical Japanese person. Ryan was exactly 180 centimeters tall, and she was only a few centimeters shorter than him, so she could easily look into his eyes without looking up.
Kirishima was the first to speak up. "Hi." That was all that came to her mind at first.
"Kirishima-san." greeted her Ryan.
"You remember who I am?" asked the fast battleship in English, surprised.
"Sure I do."
"I just thought you'll not remember which sister I am because of the... circumstances we met in. Sorry for that once again."
"No problem, just forget it. Well, I can't deny it was a bit strange; but looks like I have a quite good memory. However, if you allow me to do so, I'd like to introduce myself again now that we are in calmer conditions."
"Of course Ryan-san."
"So, you remember too. Anyway. I'm Ryan Grazzini." he said, extending his hand towards Kirishima. That was when he remembered that shaking hands wasn't customary in Japan. 'I mean..." He quickly pulled his hand back and performed a slight, awkward bow.
Kirishima was silent for a few moments, then Ryan could hear her, letting out a small chuckle.
"Getting used to things?" she asked.
"Yeah... Something like that."
"Don't worry about it too much." said Kirishima kindly, and she offered her hand. "Nice to meet you Ryan-san."
Ryan was now much calmer, and he silently let out a sigh of relief. "Nice to meet you Kirishima-san." he said and shook hands with her. "What a coincidence."
"Not really, I was here for supplies. What about you?"
"The captain gave us free time, so I decided to look around. I'd say you live in a quite pleasant place."
"Indeed, I really like being here, it's very homey." nodded Kirishima.
"And now what are you planning to do, if I may ask?"
"I'm going to visit Yubari-san to work on my radar; then I'll catch up with my sisters."
"I see. Then I wish you a nice day." smiled Ryan, leaving Kirishima wondering, what this burning feeling in her face could be.
"You to Ryan-san. And...see you later." smiled back Kirishima and bowed.
"See you later Kirishima-san."
They both went on their own ways, but Kirishima silently turned back to have one more look at him. As he was walking away, she smiled once again. She just had a short, but a friendly conversation with an American. Moreover, it was way easier than she thought it will be.
Who knows? Maybe this will not be that bad after all.
She turned around, went around a corner and almost collided with someone the second time that day. This time however it wasn't a sailor. An American shipgirl was standing before her, most definitely a capital ship; she was practically towering over Kirishima. The young woman was wearing a long coat and had braided, white hair.
"I-I'm sorry." stuttered Kirishima; the sudden appear of the huge figure confused her.
The other girl said nothing, just grimaced and kept staring at her with a very sinister look in her blue eyes. "I couldn't find your admiral." she said with an unfriendly voice.
"H-He must have gone somewhere."
"Hmph. He calls us to his office, then he's nowhere to be found. What a reliability." the American girl said condescendingly.
"He's a good admiral! If he went away, he has a good reason!" said Kirishima's as her confidence started to return.
"Yeah, I'm sure about that." said the other girl with a mocking smile, raising an eyebrow, then she simply went on. "Anyway, tell him that Washington was looking for him." she said without even turning back, so she couldn't see Kirishima standing there frozen and trembling...
AN: Hello everyone! Here is Chapter 2!
Thanks to: "Just a random guy117" and "Cemalidor", thanks for the "follow" and "favorite"!
Thanks to: "rattler2431", thanks for the "follow"!
I appreciate it!
Stay tuned everyone!