Everyone underestimated the speed of the mannjuu work crews, including the manjuus themselves.
With their help, in under a week Highwind's hull is almost fully repaired. The breaches on her hull had been sealed and now they're just installing new steel plates on her sides on the fourth day. The manjuu and my self-declared niece's engineers are planning to get started on demounting her disabled heavy cannon later on in the day for a replacement.
Highwind and I were checking out her new replacement gun today, brought over from the armory via truck. It was a single mount dual-purpose 5-inch/38-caliber gun on an open pedestal mount. Her previous heavy cannon, also a 5-inch gun made by a Valean arms manufacturer, was currently being hosed down by crewmen to... wash out the blood and viscera from its previous operators. It's a good thing nobody among the passengers have seen it on account of the retractable feature of her class' forward mount.
But anyway, the two of us were here looking over her new gun while manjuu workers bring a crane over. With us was her first officer Maxim, security chief Flint and a team of ten gunners getting to know their new gun. Although...
"They look lost." I spoke as I saw a gunner scratching his head while reading a manual. Flint shrugged.
"Never seen a gun like that before miss." Flint responded as he scratched his beard. "I've read the specs. It's not bad, pretty good actually."
"These 'flak' shells are revolutionary stuff." Muttered Maxim while he read the manual beside us.
"That too." Flint nodded his head at the first officer. "But ah, our old heavy cannon needed fewer guys to crew it, around six or seven for good performance. But the new one needing at least ten guys? Not to mention us being unfamiliar with it."
"Retraining and further familiarisation with the new gun will be needed, maybe while we're sailing." Again spoke Maxim, closing his manual and turning to me. "Can you help in that, miss Iowa?"
"Hmmm." I tapped a finger on my chin as I thought about it. Seeing as I'm the battleship spirit here do I know how to work my own guns?
... Yes actually. Huh. Memories of my old crew working my armaments throughout my decades of service surfaced along with the knowledge, training and instinct involved in doing their duties. So if I tried I can maybe channel my old drill instructors on Highwind's gun crew and shape them up.
"I believe I can, yes." I responded, snapping my finger as I did. "We'll just have to arrange the training schedules for the gunners, and I'll have to load additional training rounds for Highwind."
"That'll be a huge help Iowa, thank you." He gave me a thankful smile then brought out a notepad. "I'll arrange a meeting with you later, when you're free of course. I heard from Highwind you'll be summoning your hull today?" Ah, right that!
"Yep, after Highwind gets her gun mounted." I said, glancing at my fellow shipspirit helping out with her gunners in checking over the gun and grilling the poor mannjuu who happened to be nearby on its specs. "Have to make sure nothing's wrong anywhere and restock on spent shells and munitions. I was hoping to get more training rounds too."
I had asked Cpt.Sunny to make some arrangements regarding that yesterday. He got back to me earlier this morning saying that a dock has been made ready for me. Can't wait to go and do that.
"Will there be any explosive or dangerous effects when you do that?" Flint joined in on our talk to ask.
"No, just a bright flash of light. Why?"
"Because a lot of our passengers are gonna turn up, that's why. Their safety is my job." He answered back, his reply surprising me a tad.
"What? How did they hear about that?" I asked because I certainly didn't go out of my way to announce my plan to the whole crew. Then my answer revealed herself with a nervous whistle nearby.
Turning back towards the gun, there was Highwind. She shifted on her wheelchair, fidgeting with her fingers and giving me a slightly nervous smile.
"Hello auntie! N-nice gun!" She said with a thumbs up.
Oh, what the hell there's no way I cam get mad at her over this. I ended up chuckling, quickly followed by Flint and Maxim, with Highwind breathing a sigh of relief.
"Maaan, I'm beat!" Nandor spoke aloud, walking sedately out the front doors of the fortress building. Stepping fully out in the sun for the first time in days, he stopped for a moment resting his hands on his hips to admire the sunny view.
The complete passing of the storm gave the young treasure hunter a fantastic panoramic view of the harbour. Stretching out from either side of him were all the buildings making up the naval base. Built against the walls on the cliff were depots, warehouses, multi-floored boxy buildings and even a small town to the right. All of them gleamed white under the afternoon sun, circling around the sparkling blue waters of the harbour over which squawking seagulls flew around.
It all would have been more beautiful though were it not for the craters, rubble and signs of decay.
Done taking in the view he stretched his arms up, shook his body after and took a deep breath through his nose, smelling the nice salty aroma brought in by the ocean breeze. He also caught his less-than-stellar stench that way, making him wrinkle his nose with distaste.
"Ugh, I really need a shower too. Wet wipes do not make a clean man." He muttered. He then noticed the curious sight of a large yellow blob crowding around one of the docks, with a few smaller boats of varying types out on the water as well. Bringing out his trusty binocs gave him a better look, seeing the blob and those riding the boats being made up of a lot of excited manjuus, had to be more than a couple hundred of them there. Many of the industrious bird people carried banners and flags with messages of welcome written in them, waving them to and fro.
There was also a much smaller crowd next them composed of Highwind's passengers and crew. Nandor was able to see, under one of many sail shades the shipgirl herself at the front seated next to her captain talking to Iowa.
"I gotta see this." Turning back around he called out to his mentor who was lagging behind on account of talking to a group of manjuus. "Hey teach! You mind if I go ahead?!"
"No, go on! Something came up!"
"Alright, thanks!" So saying he stretched his legs once for each, did a few hops then he sprinted. Over five hundred meters to the quay, all the way.
"Semblances are awesome!" He thought, still marvelling at the passive effect despite unlocking it two months ago. He calls his semblance Indomitable, which grants him unlimited stamina, greater physical abilities, endurance and focus as long as he has aura. It's what kept him alive so many times since then, like when he had to outclimb a beringel who made the ancient Sun Temple in the jungles of Mistral its lair.
A few minutes of nonstop sprinting later he made it to the edge of the yellow blob. Now here he can't just run through them so he had to slow down and carefully make his way past them. The average manjuu is only almost half as tall as an average male person though so he didn't find it as bad as going through a busy marketplace, and in no time he made it to the human (and faunus) filled part of the quay.
It's less crowded here with plenty of spaces even, with tables covered in snacks and refreshments even placed here and there so it didn't take him long to make it to the end where he wanted to go.
"Hello there!" He called out to the group, made up of not just the shipgirls and Cpt.Bernie but the other important people of Highwind's crew. "What are we celebrating today?"
It was one of the officers who answered him, he thinks its Maxim Omm. "Oh it's not us, the manjuu are the ones celebrating." He answered him after sipping on a cup of some juice. "Iowa is going to summon her hull. Word got around though and a lot more people turned up."
"Her hull?" Nandor asked, turning to look at the dock and guessing the probable size of a battleships based on size of the space between the quays. "Will it even fit here?"
"One of the manjuus said this one can fit an aircraft carrier, whatever that is." One of the crewmen nearby answered, an engineer too based on the symbol on her shoulder. "Oooh, can't wait to see a real battleship up close!"
"Oh she's gonna go ahead." Maxim pointed ahead with his cup, prompting Nandor to turn back and see her summoning her... what did she call it- rigging! Right, her rigging in a flash of light and cubes. Three massive turreted rifles, along with many more smaller guns took shape, the young explorer remembering the thunderous roar of her guns several days earlier at the reminder.
A quick thought had him bringing out his scroll to record the event, just in time too as just as he'd tapped the record button Iowa had leaped off the quay up high into the air. All the while she started glowing again, brighter than before, then-
SPLAAASH!!
First came a flash of light near blinding in its intensity, forcing Nandor and the other spectators to look away. Then a loud and massive splash sounded in front like a herd of Goliaths doing a collective cannonball at once. His eyes had recovered soon so he quickly looked back, and saw a wall of water and seaspray heading for him. All around him people were crying out in surprise and some even in laughter.
"I should have worn my swimming trunks for thi-"
"Ahhh, this feels great!" I couldn't help but say aloud as I stood atop my number two turret. Once again summoning my hull is like stretching but way better. Looking with my eyes and through the extra 'eyes' placed on parts of my superstructure, where lookouts would have been stationed, allowed me to see there's still plenty of space between my hull and the qauys on either side and behind me. My bow was pointed out towards the harbour so I can sail out quickly.
"What do you guys thiiink..." Finished relishing the moment, I turned towards the others but then I trailed off. Because I just noticed then the effects of summoning a massive ship from nothing. I forgot doing it displaced a lot of water, water that had to go somewhere.
And that somewhere were to all my sides, where crowds of manjuus and Highwind's crew were standing on. Much of them on the front rows ended up getting splashed. Many people were shouting in surprise, indignation and amusement, with many of the younger kids even shrieking and laughing in delight.
"Sorry!" I shouted their way. The manjuu though showed no signs of being bothered, in fact they got even more excited. Confetti were even being fired up from parts of the crowd as their chirps grew louder.
The waters eventually settled down, and with that came the awe from pretty much everyone in Highwind's crew. Gasps, exclamations and whispers of awe, I can hear them from my perch. Plenty of them have their scrolls out too, no doubt capturing photos and videos of me.
Haha, that'll go sooo well when they post it...
"AUNTIE YOU'RE SO BIIIIG!" Shouted a drenched Highwind, hands cupped around her mouth as she did.
"Thank you!" I shouted back. Now then, time to lower my gangplanks. Hope Cpt.Bernie's plan works out...