Trembling with cold Nagato proceeded to put on some clothes she borrowed from Kongou. Dressing up was something she couldn't get a hold of and as such kept putting her clothes either front to back or inside out. This morning was no different, and the mysterious burns didn't make it any easier. Not to mention Kongou's clothes being a bit too small.
After some fifteen minutes she was fully dressed up, regretting that her navy uniform hasn't arrived yet. After brushing her teeth Nagato headed out towards the Arsenal. Her room was situated at the very end of battleship's part of the dorm, right next to Kongou's and Hiei's. Traversing dorm's still empty and silent corridors, she took an accidental peak outside the window located mid-way down the staircase.
The sight of fading autumn foliage made the nightmare-induced anxiety yield to the bitter-sweet feeling of nostalgia. For the first time since she woke up next to Sakawa, she really felt that she's back home. Back to the line of duty. Not just military duty this time, but the duty to erase her past failure and shame. No matter how weird this new world may be, no matter how eccentric her new commander is – she will finally find a glorious death on a field of battle.
Head in the clouds, Nagato bumped into a pink haired girl who's just entered the building. Looking exhausted and mumbling under her nose, she was playing with buttons on her dark, short-sleeved shirt.
"Two Tokyo Express runs in two weeks… Hara-san's a demon…", she let out a resigned sigh as if not even noticing Nagato.
"Uhm…"
"Oh!", the girl suddenly became livelier. "Are you a new comrade?", she began closely inspecting Nagato, stroking her sharp chin. "You must be! I'd have remembered such a happy face! My name is Kinu!", she paused for a moment. "No wait… Nagara-class light cruiser, Kinu! Let's get along!"
"Oh… right…", Nagato was a bit confused, she's met Kinu in her previous life, but this girl looked completely different. "Nagato-class battleship, Nagato. Pleased to meet you as well, Kinu-san!"
"Ah! Isn't this awesome?! It's so awesomesauce!", the cruiser shouted with sparks in her eyes. "A real deal battleship!"
"Well… Uhm…", unable to handle Kinu's fascination, Nagato's face went red. "There's still a long way in front of me, I've become a shipgirl just several days ago. Today's my first training with Katori-san."
"Ugh… Katori-sensei… It was nice knowing you, Nagato-san. However brief, I cherished our friendship.", cruiser's face turned grim as she grabbed her red ribbon – a part of her sailor top, now covered by a beige sweater. "Well, it's time for old Kinu to have some awesome dreams! See you later, alligator!"
The light cruiser ran off, leaving confused Nagato alone. Katori surely cannot be this bad, right? It's just her first training after all. Thoughts of the training cruiser reminded Nagato why she's even there, and a quick glance at her watch, a commemorative gift from the Vice Admiral, made her realize that she has to run.
Unfortunately, the Arsenal and dorms were on the opposite sides of the base. Running as fast as she could, different buildings and places were passing in front of her eyes. After a few moments Nagato finally stopped. In front of her stood a small tori gate leading to a shrine set up on Yukikaze's insistence. After some initial opposition from the brass, arrangements were made to have it officially dedicated to Daikoku, one the Seven Gods of Fortune, sometimes regarded as a woman and often considered a demon hunter. Various shipgirls were taking on roles of miko, resulting in a beautiful garden surrounding the shrine.
Nagato walked up to the tori gate and paid her respects before walking away a few meters and beginning her dash anew. Just as she reached the Arsenal, the battleship noticed a peculiar view. Six shipgirls standing on the banks of the training grounds, divided into three groups. Interested, Nagato walked a bit closer and recognized the fleet carriers. In the middle were Souryuu and Hiryuu, the only unarmoured flattops in the navy after Akagi and Kaga received their new riggings just a few days before.
The Dragons, as they'd come to be called by other shipgirls, were in the middle of a very heated match of rock-paper-scissors. Nagato quickly realized that they are playing for the right to choose the team they are going to join.
"Jan, ken… PON!", resounded in the empty bay, and Souryuu quickly ran to Akagi and Shoukaku.
"Kaga-senpai again?! What did I do to deserve this?", disappointed Hiryuu let out a loud sigh, as she slowly moved to Zuikaku and Kaga.
"If only you were putting as much back into training as into whining, Second Carrier Division, I might even go easier on you in the future.", Kaga summed up with her usual motionless expression, not amused by Hiryuu's whining.
"As if that's ever going to happen…", Zuikaku sneered louder than planned.
"Reserve ships have no voice, so let it stay this way.", Kaga let everybody know she got up on the wrong side of the bed. Then again, did she ever not?
Despite not approving of such a waste of time, Nagato couldn't help but smile and admire the hard work that the fleet carriers were doing. Not only they were working harder than anyone else, but also found a way to build synergy and teamwork no matter who their partner might be. Kido Butai's spirit lives on… I cannot afford to lose! fired up she picked up the pace to meet Katori.
As Nagato made her way up the hill leading to the Arsenal, the golden-haired woman came out to meet her. An unusual colour, which Nagato assumed was a result of a common mutation happening to shipgirls soon after appearing. Shoukaku sisters were the prime example of this. Initially their hair was the same colour as Nagato's, only to start turning white and dark green after just a few days of being back among the living.
Katori's uniform, contrary to other shipgirls, was downright ceremonial. In addition to the elegant design, its colours perfectly complemented the training cruiser's hair, create an aura of professionalism and diligence.
"Good morning, Nagato-san. I see you are early as well.", Katori smiled warmly, fixing her glasses.
"G-good morning. It's a pleasure to meet you.", Nagato felt a bit crestfallen. Knowing that she's considerably late, she expected some kind of disciplining.
"We've got a great weather for training today, don't you think? Please, follow me. I'll walk you through rigging equipment, fitting and anchor weighing processes first, then we'll practice navigation a little bit.", Katori turned on her heel. Her purse, made to look like warship's bridge, made a wide circle before hitting steel pieces ornamenting the edges of her beige jacket, with a loud clank.
"Does it mean that there will be no firing practice?", disappointed Nagato let out involuntarily, her face immediately turning red at this break of etiquette.
"It depends on your performance, if your sailing skills turn out to be acceptable, I see no reason to not visit the gunnery range.", yet again, Katori's warm and friendly voice confounded Nagato.
"Yes, understood!", she quickly regained her composure and answered in a proper manner.
Even if she felt offended or angry, she didn't let it show and kept her pace and perfect posture. That was another thing Nagato's immediately noticed. Katori's walk wasn't just steady. It was inhumanely so, to the point that even while walking down the stairs leading to the practice range, fringes of her golden epaulettes remained motionless.
The training grounds turned out to be well hidden in a small coppice, right behind the Arsenal. The view of the sea was blocked by a tall, steel coated wall and a large building covered with camouflage net. The woods effectively muted all sounds of the mock carrier battle taking place just few hundred meters away and allowed for a calming and pleasant melody of the waves to be clearly heard. Nagato's heart started racing.
"It's kind of nostalgic, you know?", Katori sighed disappointed. "I haven't been here in a long while. We haven't had that many newcomers in the recent months. It sure makes the Imperial Navy look weak, seeing how Americans and British keep bolstering their fleets with Shipgirls."
"When did the last Shipgirl appear? I mean, before me.", Nagato's interest peaked.
"Around two months before your rescue operation, Sendai just wandered into the base, shouting about night battles like possessed. I have to admit, I've never had a student who was so rowdy, yet so enthusiastic and talented at the same time.", Katori smiled to herself, as they entered the building.
They were welcomed by two sets of stairs, one leading down and the other upwards. Nagato was immediately hit by an intense and familiar combinations of smells of steel and sea. She could already tell that the building was open on the other side.
The training cruiser led the way upwards. The staircase was dimly lit with two rows of floor lights, one at each wall. As they walked, their shadows triggered something in Nagato's mind, reminding her of the nightmare of the night before. With each steps their silhouettes dancing on the walls were getting blurrier and blurrier. Soon all that was left was grayness and Katori, who was right in front of her just a moment ago, disappeared in the thick black mist and the smell of the sea turned rotten and sour as if hundred bodies filled the bay.
Trying to convince herself that it's all in her mind, Nagato pressed on, towards the dim light atop of the stair. The pain in her arms that she's been successfully ignoring until that moment, resurfaced with doubled strength. Knowing that Katori is somewhere in front of her, Nagato grit her teeth and kept walking, as steadily as she could, not to reveal her state.
Just as the stair ended, so did the fog disappear. Seeing her surroundings clearly now, the battleship leaned on the wall. Bent at the waist and panting heavily, her embarrassment overshadowed the still lingering pain.
"Are you getting nervous, Nagato-san?", Katori crouched, touching battleship's cheek and closely inspecting her face. "Please, don't worry about it. A lot of Shipgirls I've trained went through this. It can be quite taxing to be back to the sea in this new body.", the cruiser helped Nagato straighten up, supporting her with her body, and led her towards a bench overlooking the sea. "Please, rest a bit, while I check whether all the preparations were done."
"O-ok… Thank you. And… sorry.", Nagato gasped out, trying to catch a breath and calm down.
"Don't worry about it.", Katori smiled warmly before disappearing in the door behind the battleship.
Nagato sat motionless, her palms hiding the frightened expression on her face. What's going on with me? I just had a nightmare… Do all Shipgirls go through this? Is it something that humans have to bear with on a daily basis? Unanswerable questions accompanied by the sound of waves created a chaotic symphony which flooded her mind with relentless force. Listen to the waves, listen to the waves… Unwilling to give in, she kept repeating the words, that she's heard scared Ushio mumbling after an air raid on Yokosuka.
Breath. In… and out. In… and out. Actively trying to block out the thoughts pulling down her mind, Nagato tried to synchronize her breath with crashing of the waves. Soon, she was calmed down enough to raise her head. An endless blue. All she could see was the sea and the time stopped to matter. Walls around her became invisible and even the Awaji Island looming in the distance seemed non-existent. Oh, how she missed this.
Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder. Instinctively, Nagato, abruptly pulled out of her trance, grabbed the palm touching her and tried to throw its owner over her shoulder. Instead she's found herself lying on the ground. With her vision blurry from the fall, the battleship didn't immediately recognize Katori standing over her.
"And this is why sleeping during the class is bad for you, Nagato-san.", Katori seemed unimpressed with what transpired just a moment before.
"My humblest apologies, Katori-dono!", Nagato immediately got on all four and began apologizing. "I will put my hands on the wall.", she added after finally realizing a leather-clad pointer in Katori's hands.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes!", the battleship shouted.
"I'm not going to hold back, are you sure?"
"Y-Yes!", Nagato's voice broke a bit.
"Ok, here I go!"