"Hello?"-Someone speaking/'Hello?' OR {hello?}-Norfolk's thoughts/"Hello?"-Radio comms?/Hello?-?
"The parties with the most gain never show up on the battlefield."-Naomi Klein
"Oh, man..." I mumbled to myself as I walked around and explored this base and the surrounding civilian population. The way I was walking in a S-curve and sometimes making heavy footsteps, as if angered gave me the impression of the trench coat Tyrants from resident evil. "What c-could I do around on this base which isn't related to training or more fighting and smashing and exercise drills?"
That was one of the problems I discovered about being a shipgirl, Sure. you have superhuman strength, You get to see the shikikan himself assuming the guy is not another one of these womanizers that would get thrown on the chopping block of a court along with the threat of having to explain a lot to DAPRA or Skunk works. You can sail around, do all the stuff that Kancolle shipgirls do comically... but when the novelty wears off, The base itself was just pretty damn boring. Once you took away the civilian shops that had no business being this close because, shocker. no business owner likes instability and the possibility of their land suddenly turning into a bombardment target any minute. then as it turned out, Even life as a shipgirl was quite monotonous. You didn't have the mild oppression as indoctrinated by Army training, sure. and the whole thing about shops were overused too much in comics let alone roleplay... but...
This much boredom is not healthy for someone like me who was just too curious and eager to savour exotic locations for my own good, Even Hong Kong or Singapore was much more interesting than the cranes behind me in the horizon and in my front. the outskirts that led to any actual settlements and the sight of a few guards patrolling there and then. Watching my fellow kin trying to butter up some of the top officers was amusing, but it quickly died when these same officers told them to buzz off, or either warned them to think twice with the threat of a investigation. Even the strange lucid dream yesterday wasn't leaving much for me to mutter on.
I felt really stupid sometimes, Like a Hypercube in Sphereworld. It had been imprinted onto my mind from reading so many fanfics and novels that the Venus society's RBE would improve humanity's condition as a whole, and from there. many socialism or even original communism's variants of a resource-based economy could be taken, in turn leading to post scarcity, helped by massive automation. a cybernetically managed economy, and of course. living within the Club of Rome's limits. not trying to exceed it with the Haber-bosch process. But when I wanted to leave behind my human body, This was not what i imagined.
Neither does being stuck in a war, a continuation of backroom and public meetings. filled with stupid right-wing revanchism. 'law and order' useful idiots, Insane dictators and tankies who missed Karl's original point on not being totalitarian idiots. Apathetic centrists who were too little, too late for when Austria was annexed and the Czechs fell. and social democrats and European liberals who were too busy fighting among themselves rather than actually thinking realistically and within their limits. Oh, and throw in a variety of shipgirls that look like humans, but happen to have gold eyes and white hair for the majority of their population. and now you have the First Kansen or Kanmusu Wars.
I looked up and above, This militarized town. or base was humming with activity, transportation vehicles constantly on the move. the importance of logistics being worth its weight in antimatter, along the roads and more than likely. a few freight trains. There was a runway for moderately sized air transports and helicopters, but nothing extravagantly big enough to support something like a C-5 Galaxy. A big runway would have certainly been preferred, but as it stood. enough money was being sucked into funding the war and researching the poorly understood shipgirls, and corners had to be cut-the solution turned out to be trains themselves who, were for pound for kilojoule, the most efficient means of transportation available within realistic energy efficiency limits.
In addition to the guards, I saw a bunch of 4x4s, military trucks. some defense industry representatives just leaving in their cars on the roads, SHORAD and Division-level AAA assets watched the skies, most of the SHORAD batteries being EU Union and NA equipment. and Division AAA handled by the Russians and perhaps the Chinese, Even Shore based anti-ship systems. Well. as much as they could afford to feasibly divert, with internal political tensions over the issues of Ukraine, who was responsible for who and who with Crimea and the South china sea, or Chinese ambitions to rise above America in a dick-waving contest once the unifying threat of the Sirens was over. For all their internal closed door meetings and possibility of corruption, The UN and Azur lane had spared no expenses in defending against the possibility of a Taranto scenario, but even it couldn't handle something like the American attackers at Ten-Go or the force sent at Iwo Jima, Against a attempted decapitation strike however. it was more than enough.
I had took up drawing on any capacitive screen i could get on my hands lately whenever noone was watching, while I hadn't done much on that hobby of mine before being sent here. I remembered drawing a few things with a mouse, as horrible as my skills were, I had modified a picture and just before I became Norfolk, began planning to get a graphics tablet and even practice on kid's coloring books. or sketch down several things on paper. A sparrow missile relying on the Monopulse principle, power plugs. a indoors A/C unit, and a few horrible anime faces without having had taken any actual tutorials beyond just a mobile app. All of these in a few hours, but being a shipgirl here meant that for whatever reason, I kept procrastinating or either running into mental blocks of some kind. Maybe in the future I could find a drawing tablet with screens or just get a cheap capacitive pen and take some rapid courses beyond the hours i spent watching videos for beginners and free lessons on a website assuming i could squeeze it into my schedule, but for now... It was nothing more than a hobby of mine when noone was watching.
But, inevitably. my eyes went to a mass of white hair and familiar clothes.
Kent.
Immediately, my legs sped up into a fast pace. walking toward her, I remembered the memory of waking up in the baths. seeing her attending to me, only to be exposed to a wardrobe accident. right? Maybe I should clarify it to her...
"Kent!" I called out, trying to put on a cheerful show. Kent turned around, her gaze's meeting mine's and red irises widening as she spotted me, I had hoped to talk it out to her after the wardrobe accident and during the time I spent training, but I had either procrastinated or was too busy and the last time I had a chance, It had been at the welcoming party. It would be a stupid thought to think that anything would have changed, Sure. She had scared me, but at the same time I was not entirely free of blame myself. and she was going to keep hitting herself every chance she got to think until I tried to show her that I wasn't giving her the cold look. "Kenttt!"
"Oh! Norfie!"
I laughed as she rushed over, her arms wrapping around my neck, her head leaning on my shoulder as if she didn't have a care in the world. I returned the embrace gently, a sigh escaping my lips. It had been a while since the last time I had seen her this close and intensely, I hadn't seen her this emotional since the day after the whole incident with the baths, the day before I fully took in my bearings about this new world and began to adapt.
"G-geez. Kent, You don't need to...!"
My body couldn't help but smile at the feeling of her arms around me. Sure, she might have made me see something not suitable for the kiddos, but at the same time, I had seen her sometime during the welcome party and I had run into her. She had been kind to me, had even apologized for the accident and my reaction to it. I had wanted to talk it out with her, but I hadn't seen her much since. At least it was a good start.
Violet eyes wandered and fell on the clothes she was wearing. it was very different than the one she had been wearing the last time I had seen her. instead of the white, tight one-piece-suit that left little to the imagination and a maid's skirt and attire, she had a red jacket with a white undershirt and a pair of black cargo pants. Casual clothes? Like the one I saw on pixiv?
Kent pulled back, her gaze still on me as we communicated over these social gestures. Behind her being completely annoying in construction, she had a energetic and quite kind personality. something that was exploiting my weakness right now. "So what you have been up to, Norfolk?" She asked, her face half-elated. half-nostalgic at seeing me, as if the whole bathroom incident never happened. "I heard you got into some big battle against the sirens."
I nodded with a gentle and cute smile, No need to screw this up right now or be angry toward her for absolutely no reason. Without my past friends, I realized that being too alone isn't very healthy even if you're had a rough past. especially if you're trying to keep up the act of the actual brunette cute-bun being happy and not down or depressed for half of the day. And as much as I never would dare say it, I did actually like her along with Repulse and Vestal and Shropshire that she... wasn't very much like the people i met online, that at least she was capable of holding a conversation without resorting to strange, meme-y words or becoming a social wreck within minutes. much, much better than I could do myself without becoming shy.
Plus, As it turns out. without the insulating padding of not having anything to worry about and now, having a lot to worry about with a mandatory 'job' and the constant threat of being maimed. you can vent to real friends and they won't gossip about you, or lean on their shoulder for comfort even in the midst of a breakdown, And if i didn't want to repeat my anti-social experiences in my past life or make Kent distance herself from me...
"I did, Admiral Blake Lewis was the one to inform me, Princeton helped plan it all o-out. but, I-I did want some extra reinforcements assigned t-to my squadron." I looked down. "I-It went well, but not w-without a few heart-stopping moments."
Kent was silent in understanding, getting a general guess to what had happened from the rumors. "Did any of our ship...mates get badly hurt? How bad was it?"
"T-Tirpitz was a bonfire, Libeccio nearly had a long-lance-style cookoff happen. The Illustrious sisters got bombed out by armor piercing bombs perfect against their protection scheme, And Admiral hipper. I.."
Not wanting the talk to devolve into a series of boring questions about the battle, I beamed up to her face with the best shy smile I could put on. "But you shouldn't w-worry about it for now, Can we go on a walk? Chat with each other? Maybe leave this base and to the nearby town?" I asked eagerly, wanting already to leave this base and explore the world beyond the guards and military activity. not concealing the excitement in my voice as the heavy cruiser's face clenched up in thought, before giving me her answer.
"I don't know, I'm still a little worried about such a idea. I don't know what to do off-base here." She answered with a sigh, pulling away slightly and looking down at me with a soft gaze. "But if it will make you happy, We can leave the base, go for a walk if we want to chat, Norfolk." Kent nodded with a gentle smile, still holding my gaze. as my mouth turned into a open circle in palpable eagerness, the brunette underneath the british thin-armor girl already wanting to drag her off and out of here if she could as she couldn't contain her excitement anymore.
"T-Then what are we waiting for? We should really go!"
"It's a bit sudden, but sure! You can go with me. Norfie! I was thinking about shopping!"
"Of course! I would love to! I was just hoping we could leave the base today, I-If that's okay? I don't want to impose or anything..." I said, my timid and shy nature coming through once again as I fidgeted in my seat. Norfolk, please work with me!
Kent laughed. "No problem! It's okay, I was going off-base anyway. We can shop together."
At that point, I gave a huge smile with these puppy eyes, barely able to contain my maniacal laughter and sounds of joy as I almost jumped up and down. clearly very wanting to get out of here, If her ingame story is anything to go by. Kent's sports girl energetic nature and my own tendency for zoomies should do great together, especially now that I was feeling like I had just ate too much sugar.
Patting my head softly, Kent began to walk. following me as I ran off ahead, hopping and skipping with so much energy it almost seemed unnatural in such a tiny ball of moe, My face might be young and vital, my eyes bright and wide, but somehow, inside that childish face was an entire human life, years and years of experience and wisdom and lessons.
I looked up at the sun, where I winced briefly before looking away. my eyes automatically adjusting as photochromic mechanisms and nematic-like systems acted to block out glare and any long-term pain before my pupils responded and began to polarize. That was one of the many quality-of-life things i appreciated in this Kansen body, One of the things I had discovered is that although shipgirls and humans looked very similar in basic body shape, there were subtle differences. differences enough to render a Kansen less similar to a human than humans are to the lesser primates.
Structurally I might be identical and duplicated, but anyone looking into my curious eyes would immediately tell you that was wrong because, although at first glance all shipgirls seem identical to a human being, underneath the skin. the basic structure was modified and changed in silent and subtle ways to account for the flaws that had happened in the last million years during the evolution of Homo sapiens, useless organs. fragile joints, design flaws. being addicted to carbs and yet eating oneself inside out from the damaging effects of carb usage due to ancient eating strategies in a era of scarcity, all just to name a few. All of these had been corrected or either repurposed - they would be things you wouldn't want in a cute. human-sized killing machine.
And yet there were similarities, The body shape was the same, the same pattern. even the behavior from the kiddos resembled human children, It was just that the building pattern is changed slightly.
Although it seems dramatic, being a shipgirl is less a total transformation, in some ways, than it is a skillful rebuilding and rearrangement. I swore I could even lift a entire fridge in a strange pose without making my arm ache! I made a internal note to thank whoever created the entire shipgirl species for not being a complete intelligent-evolution idiot later, that is. If i ever had the chance as we reached the checkpoints, Kent getting our stuff in order before we left. My eyes paying the guards no mind as my concentrated wavered ever so slightly under the heat.
One little thing I had learned was that when the first shipgirls were deployed, They weren't wanted. They weren't right, They weren't normal, They didn't even fit within the imagination of most men and some women, They were not traditional wives who were complete submissive, cooked and did her best to... sate you while your daughter said 'Pop!' and your son was too busy being a jerkoff in soccer. But the common image of the Traditional wife was born in 1950s america, Of upper middle class women who could afford a nanny. in contrast to middle class wives who would have had to share a few duties all down to the lower class who were forced to share the household chores and plow the fields because you needed all the hands you could. The widespread melting pot of women and girls with impossible, glittering hair color. or unnatural eye color and odd cultural norms from the World Wars, all these uncannily human-looking girls who heavily resembled the 'Other people' enemy - Nobody knew what to call them.
I stopped to twirl on my feet, I had seen some heavy trucks and cars on the roads, but we were on the sidewalks. In a way it was comforting, Car-centric cities were very disconnecting and helped to cause a major wealth gap. which combined with unemployed, undereducated young men or angry people are recipes for a disaster unless you thought shoving them into being trained soldiers was a good idea... Which was sort of the point anyway, seeing as they are the only ones to offer benefits and retirement in a neoliberal. sub-fascistic economy devouring itself that rolled 4-year degrees with horrible advice into manual labor or bullshit jobs. and trade schools weren't much better, unless you were willing to work in conditions so horrible it was comparable to a open-air fenced camp with armed people everywhere. Walking alone with Kent was oddly somatic, in its own independent community, little-village way.
Maybe there would be some nice retirement for me if I survived this war and not end up being a second-class species. "Heh."
It was the efforts of the UN's respective major countries, the war effort changing and eating away at promised prosperity and constant prodding of the media to portray things in a positive way that had made the difference, They had made shipgirls accepted wherever they were seen. You don't say no to people who do a good chunk of the fighting against 'bad guys' since it would make you look un-american and un-patriotic or make it seem like you were insulting your own country to the tribalistic nationalists. That was what I found out from my online browsing and hours of search engines. The sleuths on reddit had been right when it came to people not caring until the very leader they cheered on to hurt other ethnics ended up hurting them, or being the refugees themselves. As always with gullible idiots. It gave me endless laughter to see some alt-right figures demonizing shipgirls as being too 'woke' or 'not womanly enough' when they hadn't even heard of female soldiers or the Iron ladies of China. or un-pragmatic democrats making their messages misunderstood and infighting among themselves in contrast to a unified far-right cooking pot that had resorted to team mentality and making fun of the 'other side' or 'other people'.
Realities and the greater societal norm had ensured that shipgirls were made respectable, They made them desirable to have around. The UN even organized a few videos where famous shipgirls named after leaders or something great made speeches and talked about global problems and how they could be solved. Out of a desire to make shipgirls not seem alien and make them more like Japanese idols, and not at all to make up for the fact these same shipgirls never had any real say. But whatever the reason, They were at least not too busy being revanchist or being complete nativists throwing 'uncivilized third world' people to the ever rising threat of the war. Positions of power were not appealing to someone like Richelieu or Queen Elizabeth. It gave you something to do, but killed the soul and idealism in a era where power hungry despots were frowned on heavily, replaced by flawed democracies infested by lobbyists and a out of control elite class wanting to keep their interests safe.
"Hey, Kent... Can you t-tell me about yourself?" By now, minutes had passed. Without my phone to glue my eyes to for trivial information or to watch more videos of people corrupting games, I was running out of things to do during the entire time we had been walking. Even as the sight of buildings filled our vision in the distance, I was wanting to do something now. and the only thing that came to my mind was to ask her about herself.
"O-oh. Why?"
"I just want to hear you out. Kent!"
Letting one side of her eyebrows flutter in interest, Kent motioned for me to slow down and allow her to catch up with me to touching distance. prompting me to immediately stop and freeze in place as we slowed down to a leisurely pace. I imagined her and the other County sisters together, of her telling the story about that tiger. The picture was a little comical, but not as funny as some of the more outlandish things I had envisioned in the past like Ayanami and Enterprise being together. Kent just telling her tale out loud was a concept I could live with.
"I suppose I should start from the beginning, It wouldn't make any sense otherwise."
I nodded, one hand held and closely listening. There was a pause in the air as Kent collected her thoughts.
"I was built as the leader of the Kents, The subclass of the Counties!" Kent was unused to whether she should refer to herself in second or third person. "We were the first heavy cruisers constructed nearly a decade after the First world war, when Britain was pretty much bankrupt on the loans that we borrowed from the United states. We were too busy trying to control governmental spending and rein in the war debts. The Royal navy was still one of the most powerful navies, a far cry from what it is today. But with the threat of the Germans gone, Everyone was starting a naval tonnage arms race. I was built after the first restrictions were passed, and you can guess that it really shows in my poor armor and bad top speed, Our... builders simply had too many challenges to overcome in speed, firepower and armor, and we were expected to protect the trade routes of the colonies, and we ended up with twins. which is really, really bad if you want firepower in a treaty design."
I swallowed and nodded, having done some basic study on the Counties. but not into the history of each specific ship.
"Our design was really conservative and cautious, we even had the same vulnerable magazine next to our turbines and boilers, the same complicated funnel exhaust too, but we did have some innovations. We were really toughly built and what we lacked in armor, we made up for with our stability which really helped if we flooded badly. and for the first time. We had some means to shoot down the biplanes of the time with our main guns, If you could even call them dual-purpose. but they were just so slow against close-range aircraft, with no useful fire control and a overly complicated inefficient design that gave a lot of trouble. All of this came at a cost to our weight, but we did have torpedo blisters to help absorb torpedo detonations.. against everything else, we were like really big destroyers, with only any meaningful armor over our magazines and in a splinter deck. but you know that already."
The background around us began to shift as for the first time in what felt like hours, somebody walked past us. it reminded me of the villages that you could walk all the way to the town in less than a hour or either ride a bus to. Kent paid them no mind and made sure to avoid us from making a unsafe crossing "I don't really remember much happening when I was commissioned other than being assigned to Singapore and getting the first version of the HACS FCS and being fitted with a catapult, and a slight upgunning of my paltry 102mms." Kent shrugged her shoulders slightly. "I attended a Naval conference in Singapore and then I got sent back to home for yet another refit with useless machine guns, before four years later. I ended up getting a big refit... which gave me some actual armor! Could you imagine that? Armor that didn't leave me feeling naked and so vulnerable to even a destroyer's touch!"
Kent beamed energetically, and I chuckled softly. being able to tell that this had to be a big thing for her since it meant that at least she couldn't be left dead in the water by some hotshot of even so much as a 152mm splinter or a 100 kg bomb blowing up right next to her. Still to hear about how cautious her design made me feel like I wanted to correct that one defect, Why use twins when you could design a triple with all the time in the world after the treaties had been passed? Many ideas were buzzing in my mind on how Kent or the other cruisers could have been cheesed. most of them involving technology beyond what was available after the end of WW1.
"Anyway, other than a bunch of cosmetic makeup and stuff like moving my director and pom-poms, No hangar because that would really push me over the Washington treaty limits other than getting a stronger catapult for the walrus boat. I saw the beginning of the Second world war with my own eyes. I remember joining Suffren and some destroyers that i don't really remember to track down Graf Spee in the Indies, only to find myself escorting convoys a few months later. Convoy escort duty..." She finished with a distasteful tone, and i let her continue. crossing a street intersection as the heavy cruiser made a 'bleghh' face before continuing, her eyes observing road safety norms.
"I know you wanted to fight Spee, but the Empire's lifeline was the colonial trade routes~!" I added with a giggle.
Kent just snorted. "Yeah yeah. So Sarde-...Italy joined the war because of that pact stuff, I got moved to the Mediterran fleet, and I remained there other than bombarding a few shore fortifications, and weeks later I took part in escorting some convoys when Malta was under siege, or was it the Hats operation? I can't remember..."
We walked past the sidewalks, which were merging into the main roads. with a good deal of traffic and footwalkers sprinkled in there and there, despite the spectre of war and being near a active Kansen base, commercial and business activity must have been steady sort of like a pseudo-yugoslavia during the NATO bombing campaign. Already I felt eyes on me and on Kent, and I felt a small urge to fit in within the crowd so as to not stand out.
"I love to talk more, Norfie. but can it wait? We're in town now."
"S-Sure!"
"I don't w-wanna wear that."
I blinked my eyes at the offender of the cute clothes that Kent had chose for me, We were currently in a clothes store in downtown, I would tell you where exactly, but that's not important for now. What is important is this mass of ribbons, frills and colors plus moe that the british cruiser was holding in her hand.
"Why?" Kent asked, the confused look on her face was somewhat spoiled by the way her lips were twisted. "You said you wanted to have a look around!"
"Yes, yes. but I simply wanted to look, n-nothing more!" I tiredly groaned, trying to avoid creating a scene of a kid berating a grown up.
"Why not? There's no rule that stops us from buying in stores so long as it's not excessive."
"No and no."
"Just... try it on!" Kent whined. "You don't need to buy it if you don't really want to!"
I grumbled, realizing that i was not winning in this argument. Yes, I have bigger guns and a much more modern and bigger armor scheme than her and she's winning this because these things DO NOT MEAN ANYTHING in a argument of speech!
I grabbed the dress with a defeated huff and stomped toward the changing rooms, I get it on. say no, toss it on the closest rack and not screw around with the stupid dress again, Also. because I was starting to feel awkward and shy due to the presence of the store attendant standing there being in the middle of two squabbling shipgirls that wildly differed in their physical ages.
Still, I did make sure to grab the jacket and baggy outfits that I'd been looking at. too, Maybe these would suit my nature better.
I threw my clothes off and got the dress on as quickly as possible, cussing to myself with a few online euphemisms and swear words mixed in, This. by the way, is why I don't really like being in the clothes section due to memories of my parents, being forced to test the new shoes because they wore out too quickly. but no, It had to be Kent's outdated vision of kids in cute dresses. And I felt like blushing, because in the mirror I looked way too cute and moe for someone behind these violet eyes and brunette hair.
I emerged from the changing room, Kent's reaction was all I needed to know. her eyes lighting up like fireworks on the fourth of July and awwing and oohing over the way I was being really cute right now, and I couldn't help but let a awkward expression cross my face, Her letting out that squeal when I walked out made me want to grab her and smash her head against the nearest mirror i saw.
"Whooahh! You look really cute in this dress!"
"Yeah... Now can we please just get out of here?"
Kent just laughed as I walked back into the changing room with me swearing up a storm to myself, We got our orders in check. We bought the jacket, the pants. a hoodie and a couple of other stuff in addition to the dress, Kent had also gotten shopping around for her own things while she was here, She had ended up picking an admittedly great looking sundress that I couldn't help but faintly mutter to myself that it really made her look younger than she should be under the sunshine.
The rest of the trip was uneventful, While I had tried to start up a few conversations. It wasn't anything more than weather talk and my ADHD was getting to me, since with so many people around. I didn't feel like i could listen to her laying out her historical experiences to me. Kent did ask me a few times on how I was doing with Dorsetshire, and how life has been for me. The former of which was that we simply don't speak, and the latter that it was alright for me. Something interesting I found out was the way that the heavy cruiser talked about the admirals... It was like...
I couldn't lay my finger on what, but it sounded like it went beyond just respect... It, sounded like a form of... devotion? Idolization? Blind loyalty? I knew that in some forums that shipgirls could disobey their commanders once, but after that they self destructed. either that or they couldn't go against them even if they wanted to, The only example i had to go off was Taihou, and that was from her ingame version. not the actual real Taihou. In a way, it sounded almost too much like a subtle form of programmed, built-in brainwashing for my tastes. since I viewed Blake as just another admiral who earned his rank in a officer's school, not some special grand human whatever.
Finally however, after hours of this. We were back on-base, and i was too tired to care further with my thoughts. Throwing my clothes off and stripping down to my bra and panties, I just got the blankets over me. closed my eyes, and then abruptly fell asleep. dreaming of memories that shouldn't belong to me.
Awareness sparkled and subsided.
