Bears kill to protect their territory

Wolves kill to feed their pack

The only animals to kill for fun are humans

And you say we're not the real animals here?

December 7, 2014- the day when the abyssals first emerged from the Pacific, 10 years before Chapter 1 one of this tale. They had hit forceful and swiftly, not sparing even a single soul in sight. They were strong and intelligent, with tactics and equipment that seemed too otherworldly; It was clear to all that they were against an enemy that were unstoppable, indestructible; they'd already lost hope of emerging victorious in a war against them. But the world had has not yet lost in a battle of strategy and power, as naval superpowers strived to become the victor in the war. At first, they were winning, disposing of hundreds of abyssal fleets with newly-built warships, customized with breakthrough weaponry and technology- some had the firepower that could even rival the great Yamato's own.

Then, the abyssals began to adapt to their surroundings, developing new tactics, producing new varieties of themselves to be accustomed to various biomes and new armaments- such was enough to throw the naval forces off their feet. Victories were substituted by crushing defeats, regions that were formerly secured were quickly taken over by abyssals forces. And it did not stop there, they went onto land and began shelling anything within their vision- cities, military bases; anything being the keyword here. Society, as we knew was collapsing due to the deprived of natural resources and total lack of hope. The mysterious species that came from ocean's darkest and deepest depths were deemed the victors.

But there were few who had not yet given in and refused to acknowledge the abyssals' victorious efforts. They were known to the world as imbeciles, fools who had failed to see the hazard of messing with the abyssals; and among them were well-known scientists and everyday life heroes from different countries. The world had yet to see that good senses and judgement are overrated, and the ones that are keeping them back from victory. Curiosity and valor, such characteristics would only belong to a 'fool', the only characteristics you need to find a way out of the dark- and a specific 'fool' had managed to do that, going through drastic measures to create a weapon to defeat the abyssals- and thus the kanmusus or more easily, the ship girls were born.

Created by a group called 'SHDW', led by a mysterious masked figure more commonly mentioned as 'The Creator' by the first japanese ship girls, they were anthropomorphic personifications of naval vessels. Rumours said, that the Kanmusus project first started as a way to improve the armaments of current generation warships, but ideas were sent across one another and it had expanded, from making even more, bigger warships to making ones that could fire electromagnetic beams from powerful conductors- in short like railguns; until it had reached 'The Kantai Project', the ship girls you know and love today. In other words, their purpose was to create humanoid robots- though more humanly than machines- that were easily maneuverable with firepower equivalent to their real-life counterparts- and they were combat efficient. Instead of congratulating 'SHDW' and main The Creator for creating such breakthrough technology, Japan had gotten the endorsement- saying that - and whoever this 'Creator' was, he/she was long forgotten, erased from the minds of all.

Countries of the world demanded Japan to dispense the knowledge of constructing the ship girls intending to bring back their ships that had been lost to past wars- but however, they were all discouraged as Japan revealed to them that such information was classified, and to be only known to three superior naval forces- America, Britain, and Germany due to a huge amount of countries had gone rogue and no one knew which ones they were- no one was to be trusted.

And so they shared that knowledge to the three countries and they began creating their own ship girl forces in an attempt to take a stand against their new enemies- and they succeeded. But however- what all they didn't know that good things never last long. Three years into the conflict, four individuals had emerged, along with new types of abyssals; with bigger guns, and bigger attitudes. These individuals had come to be known as 'The Four Horsemen', with abilities and intellect far higher than any other known being. Allied forces were being pushed back again, but they still kept on fighting. Days turned into months, months turned to years, and maybe those years will turn into decades; but they abyssals just kept on coming. Many continents as we knew it, had turned into a barren wasteland with only little traces of civilizations left behind.

Anti-war protest and demonstrations were carried out all around the world, to try and stop the constructing of ship girls as they were costing natural resources that were limited which were adding to the deprivation of it from the start, and to also come to peaceful terms with their enemies. Walls were built around the remaining cities using funds that could have been used to build more ship girls, but it turned out to be a failure, as the abyssals broke through them quite so effortlessly.

So to speak, this brings us back to now August 15, 2024, a day of which will be called as the day of new beginnings; the day when the dragon has finally be found.

[The Flames Will Be Our Savior]- Chapter 3:Harsh Beginnings (Part 1)

Natsu didn't know how he got there, inside the bare, tight room, with grey compact walls that trapped him inside there, the only decor being a rickety chair that sat in the left corner of the room, a mattress with a blanket acting as it's duvet covers and a simple small table, but he did no give a fuck, the last one floated up into the air in a shining, minuscule ball, before flickering out of existence. Near the chair, practically above it, was a tiny, bulletproof glass window, and as you look out, you can see the breathtaking view of the fluffy clouds amidst the light blue of the sky- whitish gray, with the sun gracing it a bevy of colours, tinting it with orange, yellow and a slight bit of pink. The sun shone proudly overhead him like it always does, it's amber glow seeping through the window and keeping the room lit. Judging from the looks of outside, he must be in some flying contraption, as it soared high in the sky- maybe like a plane. He remembered the giant plane from earlier, owned by that huge man with the pipe; and those girls with the weird but awesome guns that could usher forth mass destruction.

He felt like he was deprived of sensation, though he could still move- barely, it's just that his body was desensitized. There was a continuous aching pain in his head that seemed to last forever and he heard faint ringing in his ears. Natsu felt a soft-like material wrapped tightly around his head which added to the effect of the splitting headache. He looked down and saw that his head wasn't the only thing covered by the material; he was shirtless, and the material; gauze bandages, was shrouding a wound on his chest that he remembered had earned earlier from when he tried to scare off the group. Natsu's shirt and jacket were neatly folded on the table, with his scarf placed on top of it. He grasped his clothes and promptly put them on before anyone could enter the room; he left his scarf to be dangling from the table.

Then, there came the knocking noises coming from the reinforced, metal door that was built on the wall opposite to the window.

"You awake now?" Came a gruff, female voice with a peculiar accent from the other side of the door. " guess not..." silence dawned upon him, Natsu was sure that the woman had left, and he sighed in content knowing he would be left alone to his accord for another couple of hours- it was the second time someone knocked on the door. It would be a time he would play out his escape, like one of those spy movies contained in VHS tapes he came across in his first year when the protagonist eventually gets trapped in something and makes his/her grand escape- or something like that.

But the silence did not remain for as long Natsu had hoped it would last, as the door suddenly burst wide open and banged on the wall, generating a deafening sound that could have rang throughout the plane and heard by its inhabitants- For Natsu, it was a different case, as it scared the living shit out of him.

"Well, you were awake the whole time, lil' vermin" Came the heavily southern accented voice, belonging from the woman earlier. Natsu looked up; having to have tumbled down the floor due to the shock caused by the sound, and caught sight of the woman's emerald green eyes, a darker contrast of color to that of the green eyes of a certain Celestial spirit Mage. Sitting on top of the woman's dirty blonde hair was a brown cowboy hat, looking clean and spanking new- well her clothes plus the hat were tattered and tarnished, but compared to Natsu's current outfit, it looked like it just came out of a store. The woman had such curvaceous figure; a frame that could rival that of Lucy's own.

"Hey, boss! flame boy's awake now!" The woman shouted to someone nearby, stepping out of the way as if someone was about to come in. Sure enough, someone did, emerging from the darkness beyond the room, and stepping into the barely lightened room; but through the light the window provided him, you could still make out a monstrous figure of a man. The man looked ancient, his age varying to 40-50, maybe even older; with slight wrinkly skin, and greasy, graying hair that covered his eyes, but you can still see the obsidian eyes, glinting like black beetles under all that hair. He wore a uniform, fit for an admiral, and sported many medals that decorated its left side. A familiar, black pipe sat on the corner of the man's mouth, smoke dancing on top it. Realization struck Natsu, as he realized it was the man from before, and accompanied him was a certain American soldier that stood his ground against Natsu earlier and managed to hold it off until the end- Jayden Bourne.

Jayden seemed rather docile and approachable, a complete difference to the expression he had earlier. His head was covered with bandages; soaked in blood, a reminder of the fight they had before. Though he looked friendly, there was a slight hint of determination and anger in his face, and the way he gripped on that AK-12 as if his life depended on it, sensed chills down Natsu's spine.

The man takes out his pipe and blows out a smoke ring, he gazed at Natsu straight in the eyes. "Alright, son," The man's voice was hoarse and barely managed to choke out the words. "We need to talk, Natsu was it?"

"Um...talk about what?" Natsu asked. The man signaled both Jayden and the woman to exit the room with a tiny nod. Without any hesitations, they exited the room and closed the door behind them, leaving both Natsu and the man to stand in the illuminated, barren room. "What do you want to talk about...?"

"Earlier, those fire powers you had, you destroyed that building, you ate the fire, and the smoke or mist, why did it feel solid?" The man demanded, his expression darkening. "No lies as well, or you'll have to answer to this" The man pulls out a .44 Magnum revolver from a holster that was wrapped around his right thigh and aimed it directly at Natsu's head. "So no lies, okay?"

Natsu gulped- hard. Without his firearms and his trusty knife, he felt weak; well if things go south, he'll just have to rely on his slayer magic, but then again, he would end up destroying the plane and crashing it into the frigid ground- or into freezing water. Natsu chose to explain everything- except for his mission; it was something only for him, something he did not want anyone other than him getting involved with.

But before Natsu could utter one word, the man settled his revolver back to its holster, and reached his hand towards Natsu, as if he wanted him to shake it. "But before you start talking, my name is Burry, Aaron Burry" Natsu extended his arm and shook Burry's hand.

"Is something bothering you?" Burry asked, remarking the puzzled expression that appeared on the younger male's face.

"Um, sir...if you don't mind me asking, but how did you know my name?" Natsu asked. He noticed the subtle change of expression as he called him 'sir', though it did not last long. "Sir?"

Burry smiled, but with no humor. "Ah, that abyssal companion you had, she told us, she's in safe hands right now, don't worry, we won't harm her, she's quite...important" The man mumbled the last word, Natsu could barely hear it. "Any more questions?"

"None, sir"

"Good, now tell me about your abilities, and from the looks of it, you're one powerful individual I presume," Burry said, as he drawn out his precious pipe from his pocket, lit it with a lighter, and installed it into his mouth; he waited for Natsu to start.

"Well, ya' see, there are other people me, they're called mages, wizards, whatever you want to call them, we- the mages, are gifted with powers we call, 'magic" Natsu started to explain, though he would have stopped there, the look in Burry's face told him that he didn't believe it. "To use our magic, we need to use our 'Magic power', but it quickly depletes if we use our magic too much"

"And if this 'magic power' runs out, do you stop using your...magic?" Burry asked.

"Well, if the 'container' that holds the 'magic power' becomes empty, this thing called 'Ethernano'- which dwells in the air, and well anywhere, will come from the atmosphere and enter our body, filling the 'container'" Natsu continued. "It's like a car, if the tank becomes empty, you need to pump gas into it to get the car to work again" The look in Burry's face was utter confusion; like as if Natsu was saying something shocking. "Em...what it is?"

"Those words...Admiral Marvell said those exact words when the Union first interrogated her...this guy...maybe he came from the same place as her" Burry muttered, looking away from Natsu's gaze. "It could be possible..."

"Hey, sir, is it ok if I can exit this cell? it's really cramped, ya know?" Natsu complained as he leaned against one of the gray walls. "And can I go meet up with Chinatsu?"

"Chinatsu?"

"Oh! She's the abyssal, I decided to call her by that name" Natsu said. Though, before Burry could reply, another woman- Natsu remembered she was with the group earlier; who was beside Burry the entire time, entered the room. With her, a red holographic panel with various pop-ups and scrolling messages that floated just above her hand.

"Oh, Iowa, what is it?" Burry asked, already putting his index finger on the panel, and to Natsu's surprise, Burry manipulated the panel physically, dragging it up in front of him. With two of his fingers, Burry expanded the size of the panel into more like a screen. More messages began popping up and covered the entire panel, about catastrophes that befell multiple cities; but there was one that stood out from the rest. Intrigued by it, Natsu walks closer to inspect it. His eyes scanned the entire thing top to bottom, every single sentence he read became more shocking than the last "...Kan...musu?" Natsu slowly repeated the underlined word of the message.

Burry chuckled. "Never heard of it?" Natsu nodded, though his eyes were fixed to the screen, going up and down as he read what was contained. He was gaping, which sent Burry into laughter, the woman stood there confused, debating whether she should laugh along with the old admiral or just stand there unnoticed until the loud, bellowing laughter of her admiral had come to a cease; and from the looks of it, it wasn't going to end anytime soon.

"Warships...weapons...what the fuck is all this shit?" Natsu muttered, finally taking his eyes off from the screen. "What are you people, you're using innocent girls as weapons?" From the tone of his voice, you could tell he was disgusted, appalled by the works of the inhabitants of the world, now he didn't know what to say.

"They are girls, but they ain't no ordinary ones, now listen up, boy," Burry said. "They are the Kanmusus, or in English terms, the ship girls. They are...well how should I explain, humanoid personifications of warships, created by the Japanese with their highly advanced technology, 7 years ago, a year before the abyssals attacked. Ever since then, countries have been scrambling on top of one another in order to get one of them, there were fucking wars between all of them, adding to the destruction of the world. Poor bastards, they couldn't see that the abyssals were the real problem, not each other...that's why they're all dead!" He added the last part quite cheerfully; Natsu had viewed him as an eccentric old man, he was surprised that he was right.

"Anywho, America then demanded Japan to share their knowledge, their knowledge of creating the ship girls, to which they surprisingly agreed and invited America, Britain, and Germany to their land. We were...taken aback at what we saw, these ship girls, were like robots, except with flesh and skin, we saw them in action, and everything...it was...just amazing. Japan then explained to us that they weren't really the ones who first created them, they stole the plans from an individual the very first ship girls mentioned as 'The Creator'. No one knows who this Creator is, but whoever he or she is, they're a complete genius"

"So what happened, after you visited Japan?" Natsu asked, wanting Burry to further the explanation.

"Japan created 10 ship girls each for us and distributed the information of how they managed to create them. We were winning key victories, securing various regions across the globe! We were finally winning, the abyssal forces were decreasing, and we thought that we were gonna win..." A faint smile appeared on Burry's face, it looked like a mix of both happiness and sadness. Natsu wasn't really sure, but whatever jumped into Burry's mind, it made him smile. "I was a fool, boy, all of us were, we were blinded by both success and pride that we failed to see a new threat looming over on the horizon"

"Woah, Woah, wait, there's another problem other than they abyssals!? Seriously?!" Natsu burst out, unable to contain his shock. Burry shook his head, a response Natsu hadn't expected at all. "Then what is it!?" Burry's meaty fingers began swiping at an indomitable rate, the numerous pieces of information on the enlarged panel vanishing swiftly. All of them were gone, all but one- a hazy photo of four individuals standing next to each other. In the photo, they were all nothing but shadows against a lighted background, the only color being their pairs of eyes, which seemed to glow radiantly.

"These, are 'The Four Horsemen', a group of abyssals with bizarre abilities, similar to your and Chinatsu's own. They appeared 3 years after the abyssals first appeared, along with new types of abyssals, and when they first came, they started shelling naval installations, major cities- anything they would find, they would destroy it. America, as you saw was obliterated in a blink of an eye, England had been set alight, Africa had sunk into the ocean- literally, and everything that I once knew and loved was reduced to nothing- not even a speck of it was even left" Burry spat, shaping the panel into a more cube-like appearance and transferred it to the woman. "Iowa, take the Cube to Crye, he said he needed it for something important" The woman nodded and proceeded to exit the room, along with the holographic Cube that was once the gravitating panel.

As the woman closed the door, a question had sprung into Natsu's mind. "Who was she?"

"Ah, her name is Iowa, a ship girl and my loyal secretary, it's hard to believe that she's strict now compared to how she was like when we first met" Burry gave a long sigh. "Wars really do change people, huh?" He noticed the puzzled expression that once again settled onto Natsu's features. "What is it again, boy?"

"If ya don't mind, but what were the...um...magic the four abyssal had?" Natsu asked.

Burry released the pipe from his mouth but instead of storing it in his pocket, he kept it held between his thumb and index finger. "The one in the far left is fast as heck, reaching up to a speed of 300 mph, or even more. With that speed, it could even whip out a fucking tornado- but the thing is, it's blind; though it doesn't let that weakness drag it down, as that thing uses his heightened smell, touch, and hearing to evade attacks and fire without hitting comrades. The one next can summon a dome around it for defense, the dome is so tough that even the most effective AP shells can't penetrate it and for some unknown reason, the dome can shoot out spikes- however, it's known to be the slowest in the group. Now, the other two..." Burry was in deep thought as he tried to recall the last two's abilities. Suddenly, his face lit up. "Ah! I remember the one in the far right has monstrous strength, it managed to take out three fleets of ship girls the last time it appeared, and rumors has it that it could destroy a whole mountain! A whole fuckin' mountain!

"Hmm? Is there something wrong with it?" Natsu asked. "Is it the most powerful out of all of them?"

"It is able to create a domain around themselves, where everything that is inside it, be it the air, water, fire, blood, earth, shadow, light, and metal can be controlled by the user. The only thing that they cannot control are the humans stuck inside the domain, it destroyed an entire city with this ability, and that was it's only known appearance"

"Huh, sounds interesting," Natsu remarked.

"Y'know, when you attacked us, I actually thought you were an abyssal, but it turned out I was wrong" Burry confessed. "You can go freshen yourself in the lavatory, down left once you exit the room, we'll talk again later" And just as Burry was about to turn and leave, a voice sounded out through a nearby intercom.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are in our final approach to the newly built, Yokosuka Airfield and will be arriving approximately in 30 minutes, in the meantime, please accommodate yourself with our beverages and freshly-made food"

Natsu heard the click of the door opening and saw Burry hurriedly walked out from the room. Natsu sighed, he seized his scarf and wrapped it around his neck twice, before stepping out from the room.

The lavatory was unexpectedly cramped, smaller than the prison-like room he had awoken in. Like most lavatories he had seen throughout his days down in America, they were much bigger, with more space, but the plane's lavatory provided no space at all. When he entered, his shoulders were touching the walls, and to get in quickly and effortlessly, he had to walk sideways. The mirror in front of him was quite large for a lavatory that size, and there were cracks everywhere, though it hadn't damaged the reflection of Natsu.

Bruises stained his pale-turned skin with a sickly light blue. Natsu's salmon hair had grown longer and had reached down to his lower back. His hair wasn't the only thing that hadn't grown, his canine teeth had extended over the past years and was protruding out from his mouth. The bandage on his forehead was damp and sticky; soaked with fresh blood that sustained its constant gushing. He could not feel the pain on his forehead, nor did he even want to- all he could feel was insensitivity.

With a sigh, Natsu unwrapped the gauze bandage from around his forehead and quickly stuck his hand on the wound to try and stop the bleeding, but for some miraculous reason, as he felt his hand felt the sticky liquid, the wound stopped bleeding.

"Ah! I managed to stop the bleeding!" Mavis' voice popped in his head. "You should thank me, took me so long to heal you! With most of my magic power gone, just healing you already wastes all of my remaining power!"

Natsu chuckled at the sudden cry of the young girl. "Haha...didn't know you were actually healing me there, First Master"

Natsu heard Mavis sigh. "That's alright, Natsu-kun, but anyways, I'm not here to just heal you, I have information about the Akumas"

"Hmm? What is it then?" Natsu asked as he turned on the sink's faucet and began washing his squalid hands.

"The four pe- uh, I mean abyssals that the man described are four Akumas" Mavis reported. "Well, apparently that's what Zeref said..."

"Heh, he's probably misleading us..." Natsu scoffed, cupping his hand together to collect the water as it poured from the faucet. A second later, he splashed the water against his face.

"You still don't trust him? Even after all these three years?" Mavis questioned

"Nope, and I never will"

"He helped you, just for your information. I know he's done a lot of terrible things in the past, but you need to forget all of that, worry about the future, not the past"

"How can I?!" Natsu snapped. There was no response from the young ghost, suggesting that she had lost connection with Natsu. "Great..."

Deep under the Atlantic Ocean was supposedly the sunken city of Atlantis- but in truth, there was no city, or anything- it was just the darkness that inhabited the space

Along with the abyssals- us.

It was true, the abyssals had now occupied the World Ocean; no one was safe to travel across it, even if you owned high-grade weapons. Such task would be impossible to complete without the aid of the ship girls.

Yes, ever since that day, there has been a rule that any humans who cross the ocean would be sent to 40 years in prison. Unfair right? I think not.

They deserve to rot in their cells, watching from their barred windows, helpless and alone as we kill their species. Trails of blood and destruction in our stride...yeah, no one can ever stop us. We will demolish all we we, oblitirate our obstacles, until...

THE DAY WHEN THE HUMANS WILL NEVER EVER SEE THE LIGHT OF THE SUN AGAIN...