My first impression was a mixed feeling... from the overall look, one wouldn´t notice the origin of this place- the paper doors had been replaced with more sturdy ones, the whole appearance of the school was higher quality, higher durability, higher.. survivability. Afterall, people could bomb this place, or shell it from the coast. Still, from the layout and the look from the outside, you could tell it used to be a place where little kids learned their vocabulary, studied ancient rome, solved math problems. Now, the gym hall had been replaced with a factory, complete with forge and machinary to build and repair shipgirls. The pool was kept intact, probably for the fitness and overall excersize of the ships, in the back yard, a ramp was heading down the bay into the water, fitted with a steam pressured catapult to start the ships with a bit of speed.
The headmasters office... renamed the Admirals office was my destination. Opening the door i didn`t expect much, but... what i found inside was rather nice, actually. Just what you´d expect an office to look like, with a large open window, parquet floors (At least i think they were, could be a cheap chinese plastic imitation) a nice, small desk, a couple of drawers, and near the door, a small cupboard with a Taisho sword on a display stand... i was expecting that, the martialistic nature of a wartime interior design.
While the office itself was very nice, although a bit plain, i couldn´t help but notice the young girl already there, waiting for me… her appearance was a bit odd. Short, with black hair in a bobcut, thickened eyebrows and big puppydog eyes, her entire body seemed.. small, in every respect- short limbs, short torso, small hips and shoulders, virtually no chest whatsoever, like a midget, which made her head look bigger than it was. Oddly, the pale girl was dressed in a white swimsuit that resembled those worn in swimming classes, with a Kanji written on it in red bold letters- her name, likely. Finally, to finish the odd look, she wore diving goggles and a snorkel, as if… she didn´t really know how to swim.
"C-commander, Sir! …I. I mean Admiral! Yes, Admiral. I am the Type-3 submerged transport vehicle, Maruyu, and i´ve been assigned to work with you…!" Maruyu looked at my face for a few moments while I was stunned by her…. Timid appearance and equally quiet voice. That wasn´t what I expected a Shipgirl to be like. "…..oh dear, you… haven´t heard of it?"
"Huh? Sorry, heard of what? I was distracted for a moment… that Kanji on your chest is a bit hard to decipher." I made up this excuse, before giving her a salute in return. "Lieutenant Commander Shichiro Yamamoto, designated to lead this naval base… so, its actually neither, Maruyu, i`m no Admiral yet."
"A-ah… but, you are our commander, like an Admiral, so… its shorter than Lieutenant Commander, too!" Maruyu insisted, and while I lowered my hand I felt like giving up, not really caring about it. Afterall, being called an Admiral felt… nice. Rewarding, even.
"…Well, fine, call me Admiral, but in return, I get to call you Maru, okay?" Grinning, I made my way to the desk without giving her time to protest, but she still gave some as I sat down.
"Maru?! But… but my name is Maruyu.. ….mmmmmm. So long as you`re not calling me a mole, I guess its fine…" Slowly, a smile perked up in her face also, while I got used to my new seat… or I tried to. It turned out to be harder than expected.
"So, Maru, who else is assigned here? I didn´t see anybody coming in." As I asked this, Maruyu once again turned pale.
"A…aahh, you haven´t heard… uhm… well. Maruyu is the only one here so far… they left us some resources and supplies, but they´re barely enough to build a ship…" That turned out to be only the pinnacle of the iceberg, as I would later find out, but I already suspected this could be part of the reason why they assigned me, a newbie, to this base.
"…Oh, right then. I suppose our first step would be to aquire more…" Once those words left my mouth, a fairy hopped onto the desk and two others rolled out a map, while old, it displayed our current position and the surrounding seas and islands just fine. Some locations were marked, such as other naval bases (If they still existed, given the age of this map), fuel refinearies and mining plants.
Seemed like I would only have to plot a course…
"Oh yeah, before I forget… Maru, you`re a transport ship, right? Isn`t it too dangerous for you to cross Abyss infested waters?" Wrong question, she turned a bit gloomy after that.
"M-Maruyu is capable of fighting…! … a little…" She swallowed, and one of the faries brought me a spreadsheet, showing Maruyu´s statistics- combat effectiveness, diving depth, range, speed, et cetera. I very nearly avoided yelping out when I noticed her combat effectiveness was nearly nonexistent, and she could dive… about as well as a human, really. Not quite the impressive submarine. This was my first ship, huh. Damn Admirality Board.
"Well, this calls for a change of tactics, then. Rather than taking the direct route… we`ll be making a few detours, disgusing our position here, and here." Marking a few spots on the map, I took a pencil away from one of the faries, scared she´d stab herself in the face playing with the writing tool that was the same size as her body. Her cheeks then puffed up, and she pouted, sitting on a pencil eraser instead.
"A-ah… you really trust this to Maruyu?" The submarine looked at me with a beaming expression, but also a bit of fright. Inside me, the wish to get rid that fear bubbled up, and I reached out to touch that small shoulder of hers. She twitched briefly, as if scared I would break it, but I merely gave her a pat.
"You won´t be alone. I`ll come along."
"…Wh-wha-what?!"
"I won´t leave you alone out there, Maru. I`ll come along in a boat and help you out."
"Bu.. but that's…! Too dangerous, Admiral!"
I smirked to her, patting her once again. She was… cute, in a way, and I could see myself grow fond of this little submarine.
"Don´t worry so much about me, Maru. I can fight for myself, and the boats have guns on them, too… still, if it all works out we won´t even see an Abyssal ship." I looked deep into her eyes, curling up a fist around the pencil. "Do you trust me? I trust you. If you trust me… then we`ll make it through there without a hitch."
It took a few moments, but… Maruyu nodded, and gave off a faint smile. As it seemed, she was trusting me… slowly, but surely. Giving her an affirmative nod, I stood up and grabbed the Taisho sword that was on display near the door. While it was highly unlikely Abyssals would allow me to whack them with that sword, it was… more of a gesture than anything else.
"Lets go then…! We`ll be back before the Abyss even sees us coming!"
As it turned out, they HAD seen us, but at least it was merely a scouting party…. Three faint black spots in the ocean, chasing us for a while, but eventually pulling away , leaving us be as we were likely unattractive targets to them. Beginners luck.
Maruyu was still shivering all over when we returned from our four-hour round trip, and I had her sit down in the office while faries started unloading the boat… and Maruyu´s comically small container she kept cargo in, until one handed me a checklist with the lot we had secured. It wasn`t that much, but… it would allow for a ship to be built, barely. That's what it was all about- with two ships, we´d be able to gather twice as much, and then we had three, four, five, and soon enough we´d have this base up and running.
Maruyu was still shivering.
"Admiral… that was really scary, the way they kept following us… Maruyu was expecting them to start firing at any second…"
I had to agree. I had been on the edge of my seat, too, seeing myself faced with certain doom so soon after the employment to the naval base, but… while I blamed it on trusting Maruyu that we survived, it was likely just dumb luck.
"I`ve never seen them up close either… It was pretty scary, yeah." Sitting down again, I went over a chart of options for ship construction, before telling the fairy wearing a yellow hardhat to start producing one. Hopefully it would be good. "Its about time we start getting some firepower, though. We`re not going to win a war, hiding behind reefs and shallow sea. Still… I think you and me will have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks, Maru." I grinned at her, and she gave me an expression I couldn´t read. Something between being scared, looking forward to it and… blushing. Really, that girl… wasn´t a warship, not even close. She felt more like a person than a hulk of steel.
I could get used to that, I thought.