So here is chapter 2 of Kantai Collection: Liberation. I want to thank everyone that has followed and reviewed my first chapter. Everyone has been really positive about this so it makes me want to write even more. This chapter will introduce you to the base and our first arrivals. It will also introduce you to my six OC destroyer girls. I hope you enjoy.
A.N This is another rewrite from its first publication.
-CanadianBacon
Kantai Collection: Liberation Part Two
First Arrivals
"Dialogue"
'Speaking to himself or inner dialogue'
Journal entries
November 23rd, 2023
Unnamed Naval Base, Okinawa Japan 1100hrs
'What is that?' I think to myself as I jump up in my bed. I'm a pretty light sleeper and can basically sense when something is happening around me.
The afternoon sun is shining brightly into my room at this point and that's when I locate the source of the noise. Looking through my window I can see multiple helicopters are approaching the base from the bay. There must be at least a dozen of them carrying some type of cargo which is slowing them down.
That's when I panic. "Oh fuck I slept in!"
Checking my watch confirms the time. It's already the afternoon and I'm still in bed. It must be from all the jetlag. The girls are going to be here any minute and I'm not even showered and dressed! What a great start to my career as an Admiral.
I quickly jump in the bathroom which is across my office from my bedroom, bathe myself, brush my teeth and take care of morning business. By the time I'm done the choppers are getting ready to land. So I quickly throw on my uniform doing the buttons up on my jacket as I rush outside.
'Great, now the girls are going to think I'm some shitty Admiral.' With a quick sigh I rush over to the landing pads. It takes me about two minutes to get there by foot and when I get there I'm surprised to see just regular men in army uniforms.
A man in an army officer's uniform approaches me when he notices my presence. He's a rather tall and lanky Japanese man with a thin looking face probably around my age. With a salute he introduces himself.
"Captain Yamada of the JSDF supplies division, sir. More importantly, project Kancolle."
I give him a salute back before he hands me a clipboard. He looks at me like he is eager to hear my response.
"What's this?" I ask him.
He gives me a smile before answering. "Oh, good you speak Japanese! I thought I would have to try and speak English. That there is just a manifest of all the stuff we brought you today. Take a look over it if you like, but I need you to sign at the bottom...here." He says pointing at the bottom of the clipboard.
"They didn't tell you I could speak Japanese?"
"No just that I had to get this stuff here this morning."
Looking at the list shows me that they brought some basic materials for building around the base like tools, bricks and wood, plenty of food and drinkables, twenty instant repair...buckets? Plus everything else the base would need for a week like toiletries. I sign my name at the bottom of the manifest and hand it back to Yamada. He looks at it for a sec before handing me a copy for documentation purposes.
"What the hell are instant repair buckets?"
"No idea sir. I'm just a supply captain. But one of my guys got a little curious and popped one open. It contained this green liquid. I wouldn't touch the stuff, so neither should you sir."
"Noted."
He looks around the area quickly. "So where are the girls?"
"Not here yet."
"Right...well me and the boys will get this put away for you and then we'll be off."
I breathe a sigh of relief.
"For a second there I thought I'd have to haul this stuff around myself."
"No sir, we can handle this...Oh and one more thing. I'll be handling your supply lines Anything you need, just give me a call and I'll do the best I can to get it for you, either personal or military it doesn't matter. Otherwise you'll have a steady stream of fuel, steel, ammo and bauxite from cargo convoys every morning."
"What about the Abyssal's?"
He puts his hands on his hips and sighs.
"The Abyssal's love to attack any convoy they can. They mainly operate subs and light vessels in these waters but they're a real problem."
"Subs eh?"
"Yeah, they patrol the waters around the island right now."
"Hmm."
"It would make things a lot easier for us if you took them out. How bout' this, if you somehow get rid of the subs for me and my boys, Ill getcha' something special." He says with a grin.
"Aright, you got it."
He gives me a nod before heading back to his guys. He starts barking orders and they start loading crates up onto trucks to haul them away into storage.
'If I'm to clear the sea lanes, that means having to find the Abbysal's base in the region first.'
As I'm thinking I realize that since the girls haven't shown up yet it would be a good time to check out the base before they get here. I pull out the map I was given with that in mind and I head back towards the HQ, which I've dubbed the Mega for now.
As I'm walking towards the building I notice that just outside the front of the mega is what looks like a dirt field marked with chalk lines. It reminds me of a track back in high school but it's also big enough to serve as a parade square.
Heading inside the first floor of the HQ contains a hallway running around the length of the building with multiple doors. Straight across from the front door there is a two door room. Above the door way has a sign that says Operations on it. Deciding to head there first I find out it's my command center for the entire base. The room itself is pretty large, containing a map table of the Pacific in the middle. There are also a bunch of charts, chalk boards, and radio systems. I just wonder who is going to staff all these positions.
After getting a good look at the room I head down the halls and find out that they're the dorm rooms for the BB's and CV's.
Heading outside and around the back brings me to the dorms for the rest of the fleet. They are divided by ship class and there are a lot of them, especially for destroyers. Inside each room you'll find a three story bunk bed, a kotatsu, some dressers, cabinets and a desk.
'Looks like I'll be getting a lot of destroyers in the future.'
From the dorms I head to what they call the "docks" which confuses me slightly, I guess Ill find out when I get there.
As I'm walking, I notice how beautiful this place actually is. The base is cut-off by mountains covered in lush green jungle. The water in the bay itself is clear blue and shiny like you'd expect from the Pacific. It's a huge difference from the gloom and grey of the Atlantic. It makes me feel like I've actually struck it pretty lucky with this posting. Now only if that luck should stay everything would be just fine.
I smack my head. 'Now I just jinxed myself.'
When I arrive at the docks I'm met with something I wasn't expecting.
"Is that an onsen?" I say aloud in surprise.
The building is what I thought an onsen would look like thanks to pictures on the internet. It's a wood structure unlike the rest of the base and has a few streams of steamy water running out of it.
Heading inside to the change room confirms what I thought. It's an onsen for sure but why do they call it the docks? I take a peek at the water itself and there are three big pools and four smaller ones with a timer set to 00:00:00 above them. Above those four pools are these conveyor belts for some reason.
'God, I want to try this out right now!' I think excitedly but unfortunately the girls could find me literally with my pants down, ass out.
Heading back outside I walk down the path heading for the school house. On my way I pass a beautiful garden plaza with a bunch of benches and picnic tables.
The school house is a long one story building, red bricked like everything else with a big bell on top. I head inside and it's pretty basic. The classrooms are separated by ship class once again. The classrooms for the destroyers and light cruisers are larger than the others though.
My next three stops are the mess hall, Mamiya's cafe and the arsenal. This base is bigger than I thought and it's already 12:30 in the afternoon.
'Where are those girls? I hope nothing happened on their way here.'
As I'm thinking to myself I hear the helicopters starting back up. I guess the Captain and his men are done putting everything away. One by one they lift off and head out over the bay. As I'm watching them I see Captain Yamada giving me a salute in one of the open doors. I return the salute and before I know it I'm all alone at this base once again.
'Seriously, where are those girls? I'm actually kinda worried something happened.'
You can't really help it when you know that there are human girls that fight monsters for a living to feel worried about them. Knowing I can't really do anything for them until they get here though, I continue with my exploration. The mess hall is on the other side of the base from where I'm at so it takes me about five minutes to get there. The path takes me by the harbour which is big enough for three ships.
'Alright, I wasn't expecting this.'
This base surprises me once more because the mess hall is just a large restaurant. I had the image of a big cafeteria or something. Nope, instead I get a fancy looking restaurant that comes equipped with brick ovens and huge food storage. Yamada's guys were kind enough to stuff everything away properly and it looks like we're fully stocked for now which is nice. Having tons of food gives me one less thing to worry about.
The more and more I tour this base makes me realize it's something special. This is more like a resort than a naval base. Not that I'm complaining and I guess it makes sense. Admiral Takei did tell me that these girls weren't regular sailors so this kind of set up is to be expected.
Right next door is the small establishment called Mamiya's cafe. It's a nice looking place that reminds me of this one bar back home. You got a main floor and a loft with tables all around. On the back wall you got the kitchen. I don't who this Mamiya is yet, but I'm sure I'll find out soon enough.
Further down beside the harbour is the arsenal and storage for the entire base. On my way there I can see the smoke stacks rising from the buildings and when I get there it's more like I imagined it would be. The warehouses are rather large buildings that house the bases military supplies, nothing special. Heading into the arsenal I'm greeted with a fully stocked workshop. Everything we'd need to make improvements or build our own is here. I just don't know who's going to be doing that.
"Alright only a couple more stops and..."
I stop talking to myself when I see some figures on the horizon entering the bay.
"Holy shit, they're here." I say to myself in shock.
A part of me still didn't believe this whole thing for some reason but now I can see plain as day. They look like their skating on water and it boggles my mind. They're heading in the direction of launch pad which is on the other side of the fricken base.
'I really should have taken that jeep that was parked beside the mega.'
Running in my whites isn't the best feeling in the world and even though it's November it's still pretty hot here. As I rush my way over, I see them heading for the cliff face wondering what the hell they're doing. To my surprise the cliff opens up for them to enter.
"Shit, I wish I was there to see that." I say aloud to myself in disappointment.
I stop running when I make it to the metal doors that lead to the launch pad. As I'm walking towards them the doors open towards me instead. I stop in my tracks and from the doors nine figures emerge. They're all carrying bags and suitcases that I assume contains some personal belongings. It isn't much but I guess they wouldn't really have a lot.
That's when I get a sudden pain to my head.
'This is like that dream I keep having. I didn't realize till now but the girls in my dream were...ship girls! What the fuck? How'd I see the future?'
"Umm…are you okay?"
"Huh?" I look up from my thoughts to see one of the girls face to face with me.
"Do you speak Japanese?" The girl says in her best English.
The one that asked if I could speak Japanese had black hair with a blue headband in it. She had blue eyes covered by some glasses. She had a real librarian look to herself.
"I do." I reply as calmly as possible.
"Are you Admiral Qween?" She asks my name pronouncing it like Queen.
"Um, it's pronounced Qu-inn, and yes I'm the Admiral."
"Admiral Qu-inn, I'm the Light Cruiser Ooyodo. Please leave the fleet administration & supervision to me." She says with a salute.
I return the salute. "Pleasure to meet you Ooyodo, so if you handle the fleet, what I'm I supposed to do?" I ask her jokingly.
She gives me a smile. "I'm sorry, I meant that I'll be your secretary and help you with fleet administration and supervision."
Tyler and Ooyodo had finished their discussions and walked towards the other girls. All the young girls kind of tensed up in nervousness at his presence. Not sure what to think of him just yet.
"Alright everyone, please form up in a line. The Admiral wants to introduce himself and he wants you to do the same."
The girls quickly get into a line and look at Tyler.
"I'm Admiral Tyler Quinn and I look forward to working with you. For now I'd like to learn your names, so let's start with you on the left." I point at the short brown haired girl with yellow eyes that looks very nervous.
"I...I... I'm Inazuma, pleased to meet you."
"Nice to meet you Inazuma, I look forward to working with you." I say with a smile making her calm down a little. She even cracks a little one of her own.
"Alright who's next?"
A girl with pink hair and green eyes steps forward with a big grin and points at herself. "I'm Repair ship Akashi. Leave the arsenal and the repairs to me!"
"I was wondering who would work the arsenal. Glad to have you with us Akashi." I say giving her a nod.
The next girl steps forward and she is definitely different. She has these two floating antennae above her purple hair and I have no idea how they're there.
"So you're the commander, huh. Well, you better try your hardest." She says while looking away from me and crossing her arms.
'What the hell is up with that attitude?'
"As long as we both pull our weight I'm sure we'll be fine. You haven't told me your name by the way." I say with a chuckle and smile. She just blushes and retreats back into line.
"Murakumo." She says just loud enough for me to hear.
The next girl too step forward has dark brown hair and green eyes. She reminds me of your typical Japanese school girl, if those even exist.
"Nice to meet you! I'm Fubuki! Thanks for having me!" She's says quickly while bowing.
"Nice to meet you Fubuki."
The next girl to step forward has pink hair and eyes with a couple of scrunches holding her in twin tails.
"Ayanami-class Destroyer 'Sazanami', Master, nice to meet you." She says with a curtsy and smile.
'Master?'
"Nice to meet you but you don't need to call me master, Admiral is fine."
"But I'd like to call you master." She says with a pout.
"Alright, whatever floats your boat?"
'No pun intended.'
The last of the Destroyers steps forward and she has deep blue hair and blue eyes.
"My name is Samidare! I look forward to working with you. Please leave any escort missions to me!" She says with a bright smile.
"Nice to meet you Samidare."
The last two women step forward together. One looks like she could be the mother of all these girls and the other looks like her daughter that's old enough to attend college.
"I'm Mamiya, pleasure to meet you Admiral." The woman says with a bow.
"And I'm Irako. We'll be taking care of the meals around here."
"Oh so you're the one that owns that little cafe! It's a nice place and I look forward to trying your food." I say with a smile.
'Now that solves the cooking staff issue.'
"Yes, please come by after. I'd like to treat the Admiral." Mamiya says with a bright smile.
"I'll make sure to drop by."
'She really does give off this motherly vibe.'
"Alright everyone I'll take you to your dorms."
On our way there I realize I don't know what ship class Mamiya and Irako are. So I don't know what dorm I should bring them to.
I turn to face the two ship girls that are in the back of the pack. "Mamiya, Irako, please forgive my ignorance but what ship class are you two? The dorms are separated by class so I'm not sure which one to bring you to."
"We're both food supply ships. Our rooms are actually above the cafe on the second floor." Mamiya replies with another sweet smile.
"Food supply huh, it makes sense, but the cafe is out of our way. Do you think you could find it on your own?"
"Oh that's no problem. Just remember to come by later for dinner." Mamiya and Irako give a wave before parting from the group.
When we arrive at the dorms I offered to help the destroyers move in and get settled but they just stared at me and said it wasn't necessary like I was some weirdo. It bugged me because I didn't think I overstepped any boundaries or anything? I tried to insist but they wouldn't let up. Akashi told me that her room was in the arsenal instead and Ooyodo requested she get a room in the mega so she could be close by which I agreed to seeing as she is my 2IC at the moment.
When Ooyodo and I arrived at her room she hands me a small black briefcase full of paperwork, books and files.
"You're already giving me paperwork to do?" I say with a sad sigh.
She just giggles in response and tells me it's just a bunch of information I should read up on, including files on each of the ship girls. She adds that any questions I should have should be answered in those papers so I should get reading promptly.
'I guess that's better than paperwork.'
"Alright, I'll go read these up in my office I guess."
"Okay, I'll help answer any questions in a bit after I'm done unpacking." Ooyodo says with as she closes her door behind her.
'I wonder if these will tell me what those buckets have in them.' I think as I head up to my office to do some reading.
POV Switch to the Destroyers
Fubuki, Inazuma, Samidare, Sazanami and Murakumo were gathered in a room after unpacking.
"He seems nice." Samidare said breaking the silence between them.
"He looked scary but he was actually very nice, nanodesu."
"He wasn't rude or anything and he was being pretty helpful."
"I wonder where the master is from. He isn't Japanese that's for sure."
"Yeah, could he be some special Admiral with super strength or something?" Fubuki said with starry eyes.
"I don't think that's it Fubuki-san." Samidare replied with a giggle.
"Well, who's going to ask him who he is and why he is here?" Murakumo said and everyone shared glances.
No one spoke up.
"Well if you are all scared to do it, I will!" Murakumo said pointing at herself as she played brave for everyone. She started walking out the door.
"Wait Murakumo-san, that's not a good idea!" Samidare yelled after her.
"Huh, why not?"
"He said he would call us out later when the other girls showed up. He's probably busy and you should go disturbing him without permission."
"You worry too much."
"Oh boy." Fubuki sighed.
POV Back to Tyler
"Hmpfh" I sigh as I heft some boxes up
'They could have at least put it in a corner or something.'
Yamada's men just stashed a bunch of office supplies in the middle of my office. At least I have enough things to fill the empty spaces a bit. As I'm pushing my desk around I hear a rapid series of knocks on my door.
"Oh good, Ooyodo come in here and..."
The door opens and instead of Ooyodo its Murakumo in the doorway.
"Oh, hey Murakumo since your here you help me out a bit?"
Murakumo gets a shocked expression on her face. "B..B..Bu"
"Thanks, you're a big help." I say giving her a smile.
She just gives me a pout and picks up a box. "Where do you want this?"
"Uhhh, just leave those boxes for now. I want to get the furniture put somewhere better."
"Fine~" She just drops the box where she stands with straight face.
After about twenty minutes of moving things around and putting stuff away my office looked like I wanted it to. With that said there isn't much, just a couple of desks, empty bookcases and filing cabinets. I'm going to see if Yamada can get me some things to fill this place in.
"Thanks for that Murakumo. It was nice of you to help." I said with a smile.
"I...I didn't help because I wanted to. You asked me and since you're the commander I couldn't say no." She said with a blush.
I notice that her emotions link into her antennae thingies, when she gets flustered they turn pink.
"So what you want to talk about?" I ask sitting down in my chair.
"Huh?"
"Well you came here for a reason. I'm pretty sure that wasn't to move furniture around."
"Y...yeah we wanted to know what some foreigner Admiral is doing here."
"Oh is that it? You have a problem with me?" I said intensely and while standing up.
"N...n..."
'This is too easy'
"Some gaijin Admiral is bossing you around? Well look here…"
Murakumo's floating things were dropping at this point and turning a dark red so I decided to stop teasing her.
"Murakumo... "
"Y...yeah?"
"I'm here to look after you girls, conduct missions and find out what these Abyssal's really are. Yes, I'm a foreigner but I won't be the only one on base here, oh and sorry for scaring you." I say with a chuckle.
Murakumo looked shocked or surprised for a second. I must have scared her a little bit but now she was visibly shaking at this point.
"I'm really sorry, I was just playing around…"
Murakumo grabbed a pen from one of the boxes and lifted it up like she was going to throw it.
"Murakumo...wait a sec..."
"IDIOT!"
With a sudden thwack I was hit square in the forehead with that pen at speeds I couldn't dodge. It sent me flying from my chair onto the floor.
"What…the..fuck…"
After laying on the floor for a few seconds in a daze I got up and Murakumo was gone.
"Ugh...I deserved that."
'Make note, these girls can turn anything into a weapon.'
Feeling my forehead I noticed a bump and some blood.
"Well shit."
I go into my bathroom and start inspecting the cut in the mirror. It's a small one but the forehead bleeds a lot so I'm going to have to cover it.
"Admiral?" I hear Ooyodo's voice from my office.
"In here!"
"I'm here to...eek! What happened to your head!?" Ooyodo sequels and drops some papers in her hands. It was probably a pretty shocking seeing my face dripping with blood.
"Oh this" I say point at the cut.
"Just a parting gift from Murakumo." I say with a chuckle while cleaning the cut.
"That's unacceptable! I'm going to get her right now!" Ooyodo said with some surprise and anger in her voice.
"That won't be necessary, I deserved it."
"How did you deserve that?"
"Long story, it's best to forget about it." I say as I put the bandage on.
Ooyodo just sighs deeply.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'll talk to her about it later." I say walking out of the bathroom to sit in my chair. Ooyodo just follows me and stands by my desk.
"So what is it your here for?" I say rubbing my forehead forgetting that she told me she was going to help sift through the files she gave me.
She just taps the stack of papers and files on my desk with her index finger.
"Oh...right, what's in these?"
"It's everything you need to know on how to work with ship girls. Like an owner's manual of sorts. For example, have you been to the docks yet?"
"Yeah I was there this morning. Why do they call it the docks?"
"It's for when we get injured or fatigued. The four individual pools heal our bodies while the larger pools can heal fatigue and rejuvenate us. Our rigs protect us from physical damage somewhat but they put great stress on our bodies when damaged, so we need to rejuvenate our bodies in the pools."
"I understand."
"Wonderful, now you received some buckets in the supply run today right?"
"Yeah, what do they do?"
"They will instantly heal any of us when the contents are added to the pool. Let's say a girl has to stay in the bath for nine hours but you need her out sooner. Just add a bucket to the mix and viola; she's all ready to go."
"Hmpf, how the hell does that work?"
She just shrugs and tells me she's not a scientist. "I remember hearing something about na-no machines? I don't know what that means though.
"Anyways, is there anything else?"
"Yes, our personal files detailing each ship girl are….here, oh and that you may assign a small number of the girls to be your personal aides to help with secretarial duties along with me if you feel like they've deserved the post."
"Good to know. I haven't really seen any of them perform yet so Ill hold back on that decision for now. What about the rest of the bases staff?
"The reset of the bases staff should arrive in the night."
"In the night? Why?"
"It's a surprise."
"A surprise? You shoul..."
I was interrupted by a knock on my door.
"Enter!"
Samidare opened the door and stood just inside.
"Oh hey Samidare, how can I help you?"
"Umm, there are some ship girls in the bay."
"What!"
I rush over to my window to see six figures entering the bay.
"It looks like they finally showed up."
Turning to Ooyodo she has an excited look on her face.
"Go grab the others and meet me at the dorms."
"Yes!" Ooyodo says with a salute before rushing out of the room to gather everyone else.
I head out of my office and outside making my way to the launch pad. The girls have already made their way into cliff and are probably on their way out by now.
By the time I arrive the girls are patiently waiting for someone to show up. When they notice my presence they perk up. What is immediately apparent is that there is definitely a connection between ship class and the girl's age. It seems that destroyers range from the early teens to the mid high school age.
As I get closer I get a better look at these new girls. That's when I notice one of them has a torn up uniform with some burn marks and cuts. I panic at the sight thinking she has been really hurt and rush over to her side. Adding to the looks is her multiple scars across her body.
"Are you alright!? Do you need to get to the docks!?" I ask her and she just stares at me in shock.
"U...uhh..ge..get off me! I'm fine, I'm fine!" She yells shaking me off.
"What do you mean your fine?" I ask her with a confused look.
"This is the way I look." She replied very irritated with me.
"So, you're not hurt?"
"No!"
I get up and back off. The other girls just observed the scene with mixed expressions.
"My apologies, I thought you were hurt."
"Hmpf."
I sigh before turning to the rest of them.
"I'm Admiral Quinn, nice to meet you. From now on you'll be under my command so I'd like each of you to just give me your name for now and we'll go over details about yourselves later."
One of the girls raises her hand like I'm some sort of teacher. She has long white hair and some pretty cool looking ice blue eyes. She wears a pin in her hair that looks like some sort of bird and white scarf hangs around her neck. Her uniform is what I suspect the WW2 RCN sailor's uniform looked like but she has the sleeves rolled up and the shirt unbuttoned.
"Sure, what's your name?"
"My names Haida, Tribal class destroyer of the Royal Canadian Navy. You can leave escort duties to me and my sister here." She says hugging who I assume to be her sister. She has a slight English accent which surprises me because she is supposed to be Canadian but then I remember that Tribal class destroyers are British built.
"Nice to meet you Haida, if you don't mind me asking, what is that pin in your hair?"
Haida looks up like she's trying to see the pin herself. "Oh that is a thunderbird; I wear it for my namesake"
"Oh cool, I guess the same goes for your sister?" I say pointing towards the two feathers sticking out of her sisters brown hair.
The girl juts shakes her head in a yes motion and looks towards the ground.
"What is your name?"
"I..Iroquois, like the tribe." She says so quietly I almost couldn't hear her.
'Oh jeez, I wish the Japanese girls luck pronouncing that name right. Wait...Iroquois!'
The girl named Iroquois looks very similar to her sister except that her eyes are green and her hair is brown. She wear the same uniform as Haida but she kept her shirt done up. She also seems to be quite the collector. From what I can see she has this black and white striped scarf, a Norwegian flag pin on her collar and some sort of gold ring on her right hand.
"No way, I was the Captain on the third ship to have the name Iroquois." I say both surprised and delighted.
She looks up at me now with a small smile. "Really?"
"Yeah, she was a strong, proud ship and I'm sure you share some of her traits."
Her smile grew.
"I can tell you some stories later, okay?"
She just looks up and smiles. "Okay."
I turn to the girl I freaked out over earlier. You wouldn't blame me if you saw her though. Her uniform is a standard navy blue USN sailor's outfit but it's in tatters. She has blonde hair and these orange eyes that remind me of fire. Her body is covered in small scars.
"Alright, now I know we got off on the wrong foot here so let's start over."
She just looks at me with a sour face before turning away from me.
'Well...shit, I'm burning bridges already.'
"It's Laffey, that all your gonna get." She says while looking away from me.
"Fair enough."
Now the next girl is something special. Or she looks special in the way she's dressed herself. She wears a USN navy sailor's outfit but that's where the similarities end. I can best describe her as a pirate from the Caribbean. She wears a tri corner hat, black cape, flintlock pistols and a fricken sword.
"Alright Ill bite, what's with the outfit?" I ask this girl.
The girl just smiles, pulls out her sword and makes a pose. "Fufufu, this isn't an outfit. I'm Johnston, pirate of the Pacific. Battleships, Heavy Cruisers I don't care bring them all on! I and my taffy sisters here will sink you all for the prize!" She says while swinging her sword around making the others duck and dive for cover.
"Careful with that or I'll take it away!" I yell as I dodge a swing.
Once she hears that she puts it away very quickly and smiles innocently.
"What do you mean by prize anyway?"
"Oh, you know~ MVP."
"MVP?"
She just gives me a look of confusion. "The commander doesn't know what MVP is?"
I scratch my cheek in embarrassment. "I just started this posting, explain it to me."
She smiles and grabs her sword again...
"No sword!"
"Kay~." She says with a smile as it slides back into the scabbard. "MVP is given to the ship that does the most damage to the enemy in a sortie."
I shake my head in understanding. "Oh okay, so bragging rights then."
"Well most girls just want praise from the commander." She says with another smile.
'This girl may be a little crazy but she's adorable.'
"Alright thanks Johnston, just keep that sword away or I'll take it away, got it."
She gives me a salute. "Yes commander!"
Looking at the last two I can guess that their Johnston's sister ships because they share a similar face.
'Wait, how's that work? Did the Abyssal DNA change their appearances? I guess that could explain a lot of things. Destroyers are young girls because they were small. While girls like Ooyodo are seniors in high school.
"So, are you two Johnston's sisters?"
"Yes, I'm Hoel and she's Heermann. We make up the taffy three, nice to meet you." The girl named Hoel answers. She looks like your typical teenage girl in a USN sailors outfit while Heermann looks similar except she wears a sailor's cap and some glasses that are a little big for her.
"Now that's everyone so I'll bring you to your dorms."
We promptly left for the dorms and it was getting pretty late now. The evening sun was setting creating this beautiful scenery. The girls seemed enraptured by the sight also. As we were walking I noticed Haida staring at me.
"Hey commander, what happened to your forehead?"
I rub the bandage on my head forgetting that it was there. "Oh, I teased someone a destroyer a little too much so~ she threw a pen at me."
The girls looked at me before breaking into laughter, even Laffey giggled a little.
"Did you forget we are super strong commander?" Johnston said in-between bouts of laughter.
I even chuckle a bit. "Yeah, but she reminded me all right."
The rest of the walk was pretty cheerful. These girls weren't shy at all and happily engaged in conversation with each other and me. I did have some time to think about something though. How will these girls react to each other? They were enemies during the war and now they're supposed to be friends and allies. The last thing I need is them to be fighting amongst themselves.
Once we got to the first destroyer dorms Ooyodo had the IJN girls outside ready to meet the USN and RCN girls. Their eyes locked and all conversation ended now, they just stared at each other.
'Oh shit oh shit oh shit, please don't fight. You could probably wreck this entire base!'
Instead of the bout I was expecting to happen any second they just kindly approached each other and traded introductions, smiles and handshakes. I swear my heart skipped a beat but thank god they're cooperating. Johnston is showing off her sword to Fubuki, Sazanami and Samidare while Haida is trying to grab Murakumo's antennae things. Inazuma is curiously questioning the shy Iroquois on all her different accessories and everyone else is chatting happily.
Ooyodo walks up to me with a smile on her face. "Did you think there would be bad blood?"
"Maybe, I had no idea how you guys would react." I say with a sigh.
"Well, we were enemies long ago...in a different war. I'm not saying all the girls will be as cooperative but you shouldn't need to worry about any fighting really. We all know who the enemy is now, and who we fight for." She says while looking at me.
"Glad to hear it. Can you do me a favor? Show the girls to their rooms for me. I'm pretty hungry and haven't eaten all day."
"Oh that's fine, you can't do everything you know, that why I'm here. Mamiya and Irako should have dinner ready soon so go right over."
"Alright thanks, see ya in a bit." I say with a wave leaving for the restaurant.
'Oh god I'm so glad that worked out. After what Murakumo did earlier I don't think I could handle a whole fleet of pissed off ship girls. Wait, how the hell did they know Japanese? There wasn't even any hesitation to speaking the language. These girls surprise me more and more and it's only been a day!'
As I'm passing the front of the mega, I get this strong whiff of something good. My stomach growls almost instinctively at the smell of food. I follow my nose to the scent which brings me straight to the cafe.
'I wonder why they're not using the restaurant.'
I poke my head in the door and notice Mamiya and Irako hard at work. Mamiya notices my presence and gives me a warm smile.
"Ah Admiral, come in come in. We were just about to ring the bells for dinner. Here this is for you, a plate specially made for the Admiral."
She hands me this large plate with white rice on one side and this mixture of meat and brown sauce on the other.
"Hey, I haven't had curry since I lived at home. Thanks you two, it looks delicious." I say smelling the food.
They just give me a smile before I sit down in a corner and dig in. Mamiya rings the bell signalling meal time and soon enough the girls rush in eager to get their food. The USN and RCN girls are hesitant about curry at first, but grow to like it. Soon enough I'm done my plate and looking for seconds. Irako is happy to oblige and grabs me another plate.
As I'm eating I notice the girls looking over at me once in a while meaning I'm probably the topic of conversation. That or they're too nervous, shy or embarrassed to sit and eat with me. I wouldn't be bothered if they did. Actually I'd rather prefer it.
Almost like she read my mind Akashi gets up and walks over to my table.
With a slap on my back that sends me forward she sits down across from me. "Hey Admiral you setting in alright? How the little ones treating ya? What happened to your forehead!? It wasn't there last time I saw you."
"Hey Akashi, I'm doing pretty well. They're pretty well behaved for the most part and this was a parting gift from Murakumo over there." I say nodding my head in her direction. "It was my fault though."
She just laughs. "Well, knowing her you did something to piss her off."
"Yeah~, so how's the arsenal looking? You got everything you need?"
"For the most part, I can't wait until I have some proper work to be done."
"Well if you need anything just tell me and I'll get the mainland to send it over."
"Sweet, thanks Admiral."
"Speaking of work, what can you do in there?"
"Well, I can improve the girl's rigs if you give me the supplies to do so."
"Yeah, how so?"
"Improve their armour, weapon platforms stuff like that. I'm also responsible for repairing any damaged rigs after sorties but Ill require steel and fuel to do so. Oh and bauxite for planes but you don't have to worry about that right now. If you want I can give you a list of different costs and things like that. I may even be able to build completely new rigs and weapons for ships and then you can send them back to the mainland. Who know, maybe they'll give you another ship back or something?"
"Alright, give me a list when you can and I'll see what I can do."
Ooyodo see me and Akashi having our conversation so she gets up and walks over to sits down beside Akashi.
"Hey Yodo, are you worried about me talking to your new best friend?" Akashi says in a teasing tone.
"I..it's not like that. I overheard you talking to the Admiral and I wanted to add some things for him to know." She says forming a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Admiral, I wanted to talk to you about the kinds of missions you can get the girls to perform. Sending them out on combat, escort and search and destroy sorties are a given but you can also pit them against each other in practice matches or send them out on expeditions for resources.
"Alright I see, thanks Ooyodo."
The rest of the meal went by rather quickly. After everyone was finished I called all of them out to the track field just out front of the mega to give them their final orders for the night. Everyone will be responsible for keeping their dorms clean and tidy. I'll be making a weekly inspection of each room just to see if they're living like slobs. Obviously I can't go sifting through their clothes because Ill get killed but just as long as the floors are swept, windows are washed and tops dusted I'll be happy. Morning wake up is 8:00am and lights outs are 10:00-11:00pm for girls that are performing missions the next day. Otherwise you're free to do what you want. Go to sleep at 4:00am and wake u at 2:00pm, whatever. But if you have a mission and are late for no good reason there will be hell to pay. Tomorrow though, will be a rest day. I want everyone to get some sleep and be ready for their first missions two days from now.
After that I dismiss them for the night and I head up into my office. I decide to check my e-mail to see if the mainland sent me anything of note.
I now regret that decision.
Admiral Howland wants me to give him a status report on the base along with some missions. Takei wants me to give him a status report of the girls along with some missions. The other Admirals have sent mission requests and supply requests for me. Yamada wants a list of things I want so he can get them ready and finally I get another e-mail from Takei saying that he's sending two heavy cruisers to organize the training. Tomorrow afternoon I should be getting Tone and Chikuma. He sends me their files along with their pictures.
After realizing all the paperwork I have to get done on day one I remember one of the reasons I never wanted to be an Admiral in the first place.
Alright so now we have Chapter 2. Thanks for all the support and reviews guys, it makes me want to write this thing even more and I'm glad people are enjoying it. I hope the chapter gave you an idea of the base and the OC ship girls. Next chapter should be a little shorter so it should come out sooner.
-CanadianBacon