Chapter 2

Now, there were very few things that could cause Kosuke to go into a wild freaking panic attack. He and his buddies had gone through a lot together, more so than what typical teenagers of modern-day society would have had to go through, one such example being what could only amount to a civil war of sorts within their school which had almost gotten to a level where the staff members had to call in the police, the incident has resulted in the public safety committee being founded. Because of incidents like that and sometimes worse, it was something of a source of pride for their group to keep their cool in certain intense situations so they could figure out what to do then get it done.

However, right now the situation which Kosuke had found himself in... well, NONE of those previous incidents could have prepared him for this.

'Ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit! WhatthefuckshouldIdo?WhereamIwhyamInotinmyroomwhere'sjapanwhat...'

Thoughts like this circulated through his mind while panic ran rampant through his system like a bunch of wild animals did when ambushed by predators or when they heard the loud shots from gun barrels. While all this was happening, Kosuke wandered on wherever it was that he had ended up, he had forgotten to get a better look once this panic attack had set in. Barely registering the clanging under his feet that implied that he was walking on some kind of metallic surface, the male gritted his teeth while his eyes trembled.

This... wasn't ANYTHING like what he had been used to, nor was it anything he could have prepared himself for. It wasn't anything intense per se, no it felt more like a combination of things that could be used to describe his emotional state right now: Bizarre, shocking, confusion, and fear-inducing. These emotions spiraled together within his gut like a whirlpool trying to drag anything and everything on the ocean surface to its center then down into the depths below... and as of that moment, his rationality felt like an unlucky boat caught up within its gravitational pull. This time, his buddies weren't around to knock some sense into him either, so he had to deal with this on his own...

So far, he wasn't doing too hot on that front.

Perhaps a reason why he was freaking out so much wasn't just due to the sheer abruptness and how the rug literally got pulled out from under him, but also due to having never had had something like this happen to him before so he wasn't able to calm himself down enough to start rationalizing the scenario.

Nonetheless, Kosuke found himself unable to calm down whatever the reason may be...

BONK!

"Guh!"

That is, until during his moment of hysterical panic, the conflicting emotions, and his jittery nerves, pretty much everything ground straight to a halt upon suddenly slamming headfirst into something, which had caused him to get into a frog-like position and hold the top of his head. In the first few seconds he had almost lost all feeling within the center of his head before the following seconds brought that feeling back... as well as a strong painful heat that scorched around his skull, making it a wonder if he had broken it somehow. A cartoonishly large bump could be seen on top of his messy hair right now, pulsating red as the male groaned under his breath with his teeth bared and gnashed together. "Ouch... urg, that hurts like a bitch..."

Even under his current state, Kosuke bit back the urge to curse out to the heavens above with language that would even make a sailor do a double-take, not only would talking to himself sound absolutely pathetic (at least, Kosuke ASSUMED he was alone) but also thanks to that hit a bit of his rationality came back to him similar to how Isaac Newton figured out Gravity after being hit on the head by an apple. Part of him, an outraged part like those whiny bitches who hear someone mouthing off to them when they had a bad day, wanted to identify the culprit that had dealt to him this physical injury during one of the shittier moments of his life.

'What the hell hit me?! I was having a moment here...!'

Something to that effect one could say.

Thus, with one eye still closed the male briefly lifted the other despite the blurred vision he got from it, looking towards the direction he felt that his head had gone to bump into it and cause the injury. From his blurred vision, all he could see was some kind of long, metallic tube connected by some kind of... baggy something, kind of like a bagpipe, but this one looked WAY too big for that. 'What the hell is that? Some kind of... tube...?' the male wondered before his vision finally returned to full crystal clear clarity... and boy, what a shocking state Kosuke found himself in upon finally witnessing it completely to the point where both eyes flew open, his aching head all but forgotten in comparison.

It was no tube that he had hit earlier... it was a barrel and a really LONG barrel at that. The barrel itself looked to be one of three, with a leathery bag-like thing connecting its base to a large, rectangular metallic something. That something, Kosuke soon realized while taking a couple of steps back to view it in its entirety, soon became known to him as a Turret: a triple barrelled Turret.

'At the best guess, I'd say that each barrel is about over 60cm long...' the male thought as he looked around, starting to fully comprehend the place he had found himself in. The first thing he remembered before going into panic mode, was that he had found himself on a ship, and that fact became all the more solid thanks to him viewing his surroundings. Apparently, the hull itself was quite long and slender judging from what Kosuke saw when he leaned back to look down the Ship he had found himself on, he wasn't completely sure of its exact measurements though unlike the triple barrelled turret's guns.

Speaking of guns, it appeared that the Turret had about 5 brethren on board, making 6 triple barrelled turrets with 3 in the front and 3 to the rear. Each one looked to have similar measurements to the one he had hit, which seemed to have been the one closest to the Ship's Bow.

Additionally, he saw that the Ship had quite the small superstructure, with the forward and aft bridges being small enough to fit in the ship's very center. Yet, they were just the right size to incorporate the 6 triple barrelled turrets, not to mention he could see some smaller Turrets right next to the edges of the port and starboard sides. 2 in front of him on both sides with another 2 from what he could make out facing the opposite direction behind them, back to back. Quite large for some secondary guns, but considering that their placement made just enough room for the guns to rotate he wasn't going to complain. There looked to be about 8 of them from what he could see from his vantage point on the ship's bow, each possessing about 4 Barrels for some reason (he almost fell onto the floor at the strangeness those secondaries had). Furthermore, he could see what he recognized as a bunch of machine guns surrounding the superstructure on both sides, alongside some High Angle Double-barrelled guns, plus on the floor next to the turret closest to him Kosuke saw what looked like some missile launch bays, numbering at about 6 with 3 on either side of the frontmost Turret. In going with the theme around these things, Kosuke assumed that there would be more missile silos by the Ship's rear.

'Such a strange ship...'

Such thoughts filled Kosuke's mind despite the confusion he had over his general situation, as he regarded the ship he had found himself on. It hardly looked like anything in the modern navy, according to the few naval videos showing the US Navy he had watched on Youtube a few times, moreover, it looked more like a hybrid of both worlds, where there were the Guns of WW2 (the massive turrets, secondary guns, machine guns, and high angle guns) as well as that of modern tech (those missile launch tubes), which truly perplexed him... yet the more the male looked at the ship's design, the more he found it to be rather familiar despite its currently damaged state.

Oh yeah, he forgot to mention that.

Currently, the ship itself looked to have sustained significant damage, though not enough to be classified as heavy damage that needed emergency repair work done. 1 of the main rear turrets had a hole in its right side, while the other 2 rear Turrets had either bent barrels or smaller versions of the first one's holes. Similar damage, although not as extreme, could be seen on the 3 front Turrets, with the secondary guns looking completely unusable with most of their barrels looking to have been partially blown off. Various holes and the remains of fires could be seen on the forward and aft Bridges too, with pieces looking to have been sheered off while the hull itself looked to have various cracks, holes, and other such damages to it.

The more he looked the ship over, the more Kosuke wondered how the heck this guy remained afloat, even chugging along the waters like this with such ease. 'Guess it's true what they said about WW2 Ships, they were built to take hits and keep on trucking. Can't say the same for the majority of ships I've seen in the Naval videos.' The boy thought in confusion, rubbing the back of his head. Moving from his perch and noticing that the bow looked to be a bit larger than the rest of the hull, Kosuke hopped down towards one of the holes and kneeled before it, reaching out and hovering a hand over the holes. Instincts told him that something hot had been the cause due to the heat he felt and the lack of shell remains within the hole. 'But then... what could this guy have been fleeing from that could do this amount of damage to it?' Kosuke wondered.

Furthermore, Kosuke turned back to where he had been standing previously, the Bow. While it had the shape of a normal Bow, something about it felt suspiciously familiar just like the rest of this Ship... therefore, Kosuke leaned across the starboard side after walking there and making sure to balance himself so he didn't fall overboard... and his eyes soon shot open wide, his jaw opening so much that it could have hit the floor if this were an anime. 'Oh... hell...' he mumbled in his mind in disbelief towards what he was seeing:

Looked like the Bow itself had a surprise of its own... a massive, spherical DRILL mounted in front.

It looked to have been only slightly damaged, even if it was still and not rotating. Yet, the size of it was massive, easily enough to probably punch a hole through a Ship's hull then completely shred it in half like a spear puncturing its target after being thrown. Following this discovery, Kosuke had looked to the side and noticed a bunch of Sawblades attached to box-shaped slots on the ship, looking horribly chipped and cracked but still there, something which he confirmed by moving to the opposite side to be the same there too.

Finally unable to process all this information that assaulted his mind like soldiers taking a hill, Kosuke stumbled backward silently, his face one of disbelief as he finally sat down, leaning against one of the main Turrets (the same one which he had hit his head on previously the male noticed) before putting a hand on his noggin which he had angled downwards towards his lap. "This... is unreal..." The male whispered under his breath, shock flooding his being at all the information that was presented towards him sure, but there was one thing about all of this that stunned him most of all. "I... I know this ship..."

Yeah, all these things he had noticed, from the Turrets to the various other weaponry and finally the Drill/Sawblades combo he had recently just seen had confirmed it for him, with there being zero chances of him being able to deny it at this point. He indeed meant what he had muttered to himself just now, that he knew this Ship even if it weren't sailing under any flags, had its name not painted on its stern, heck its current state didn't even matter. Well, it did, but he didn't mean that he didn't care about the Ship, but he would recognize this bad boy no matter what state it found itself in.

This... this was a Battleship.

One of his OWN making:

The PROTO SATAN.

That had the name he had designated this ship during its construction in the first entry in the Naval Ops Series: Naval Ops Warship Gunner, named after the seven princes of hell in the 'Lanterne of Light'. The game was released for the PS2 by Koei before they became Koei Tecmo, as he had previously mentioned in a past monologue, but one of the best things about it aside from shipbuilding was how it combined WW2 tech with more futuristic technology such as lasers and energy weapons... that also included missiles and rockets too which Kosuke had recently started seeing the potential for. Thus, it allowed for all kinds of ships to be created, limited only by the player's tech levels and their imagination.

Back to the hull, it was actually known as a variant of the Battleship Hull called a 'Drillship', named after the Drill mounted in the Bow. Combined with the saw blades on its sides, and one gets the Drillship which had the purpose of ramming into and shredding Ships like it was a close combat weapon.

Of course, the Drillship would have proper defense and an imposing as fuck aura to its name, what with the giant Drill mounted in its Bow, when he had built the blueprints for the ship in the game Kosuke had seen how the majority of the drill was INSIDE the bow with only the tip visible, hence why the Bow was shaped the way it was as well as why it was larger than the rest of the deck.

Heck, once he figured this out, he remembered everything else about the Ship: With a displacement of 29,078 tons, it was much lighter than the common WW2 battleships, but it had an ABSURDLY high speed for a Battleship. Clocking up to 55.8 Knots, it possessed about 48cm worth of Armor Plating on its person, although he wasn't sure how that stacked up to actual WW2 Battleships in the game it was pretty good defense, capable of holding off a bunch of Torpedos if they were able to hit the Ship since it was so fast.

Then, and THEN, there had been its arsenal:

X6 61cm 50 Calibre Guns (the main guns like the one Kosuke had introduced his head to like an idiot)

X8 25.4cm 50 Calibre Guns (the formerly strange choice of secondaries, unfortunately, NOWG didn't have proper secondaries so he had to... improvise)

X8 12cm High Angle 65 Calibre Guns (Initially Kosuke hadn't been too fond of them, but the extra AA defense which was their primary purpose in-game wouldn't have hurt)

X12 40mm Machine Guns (One of the BIGGEST carries of the entire game for him, he'd decked them out on his Ships almost as an exclusive. They were ESPECIALLY useful when a certain game feature was activated)

X6 Anti Air Missile VLS's (Vertical Launch System)

X8 Anti Sub Missile VLS's

X2 Anti Ship Missile VLS's

... There was a REASON why Kosuke had called it a hybrid of two worlds earlier, and he had personal experience with how useful those VLS's truly were especially the sub ones. Combined with effective radar and sonar that had a huge ass range to them, and this Ship had been a BEAST on the battlefield, shredding through enemies like paper mache whether they were ships, submarines, or even Aircraft from Airfields or Aircraft Carriers, which had been the cause for the Battleships becoming obsolete IRL. Its high speed was also attributed to its various auxiliary systems, most of them being offensive based until the second playthrough when he had gotten access to more movement-based ones.

As a result, he had built a whole FLEET of ships under the idea of 'bizarre-looking, but gets the job done'.

Yet even with all this Proto Satan, for all that it had going for it, wasn't even the strongest Ship Kosuke had built. In fact, his 'fleet' consisted of a bunch of Ships: 2 Battleships, 2 Cruisers, 2 Destroyers, and 2 Carriers, each with their own unique 'quirks' that made them absurdly effective in battle.

Therefore, to actually find himself on TOP of one of his treasured ships which he had built through blood, sweat, and tears (Kosuke knew he had been exaggerating there, but he didn't care) had been one thing, but then there was the sheer abruptness of the experience which resulted in him finding it to be quite surreal. Part of him wanted to cry out of sheer joy at the experience, making him wonder if this was what professional shipbuilders would feel like if they got to sail on the vessels they had a hand in building, but then another part of him worried about the reason WHY he had woke up here instead of his lovely home and family.

However, those two things PALED in comparison to something else that reared its ugly head before, and now had taken dominance over his thought process currently: WHY was the Proto Satan not only sailing these waters in god knew where, but also DAMAGED to such an extent?

THAT was the big question here if one asked him. He could ponder the other things later.

This thought caused Kosuke's eyes to harden, his lips pressing into a firm line as concern radiated within his being. Sitting in a cross-legged position, the male put one hand on his kneecap while the other went to his chin, cupping it whilst he leaned forward slightly, the gears of his brain starting to churn. 'From what I saw, it looked like the majority of Proto Satan's damages had been done by something hot, I'd guess that it had to do with some kind of laser or another energy-based weapon. I'd say that'd be pretty strange since Proto Satan was meant to have potent Electromagnetic Shielding capabilities in-game... although there were SOME lasers which could damage it more than the shields could protect it from.' the male mused. 'Then there's the fact that I woke up here, on his main deck, which boggles me still... hang on a moment.'

Now that he thought about it, he may not know where he was exactly, but didn't he have some clues already? With a quick rummaging of his hoodie, Kosuke searched for his phone and quickly found it. He recalled what had happened before he had blacked out, the whole thing with the Azur Lane stuff and the weird icon, which also cast his suspicions towards a possible culprit for Proto Satan's damaged state. Maybe he could get some answers from there somehow? Maybe even call someone for help, as stupid as that sounds considering how marooned he currently was.

Unfortunately, when he opened his phone's screen all he saw was a white, blank one, nothing else. It wasn't even loading anything properly, causing Kosuke to groan in annoyance after a couple of moments of waiting for something to change... it didn't.

'Damnit, looks like my phone's messed up... guess I can't rely on this thing right now.' He thought while gritting his teeth, before cupping his chin again and putting his free hand on his elbow while getting to his feet, proceeding to wander the deck around the front foremost Turret.

'Alright, the first thing I should do is probably to fully explore Proto Satan, since this ship is basically my lifeline at the moment so its status needs to be clarified. Know the terrain, know the surroundings, and it's easier to plan. I'll do that by starting with the forward and aft bridges, then see if I can get below deck. Never could do that in the game, so I wonder if that will be the same here. If that's the case, how will repairs be done? I know jack shit concerning repairing a ship but from those vids on youtube about the US Navy, I can guess it would take a long ass time, months if I had to guess. That's not the kind of time I have, nor do I have the know-how or the resources to help my Ship...' Kosuke mused, worry seeping into his being before he shook his head, slapping both cheeks with his bandage covered hands. 'Ok, one thing at a time Kosuke, remember what dad said: take time, solve things one at a time, or if that's not possible, make sure to have a clear view of the situation at hand to act appropriately.'

Thus, with his thoughts concluded, Kosuke proceeded across the deck towards the forward bridge, hoping to find an entrance that could lead him inside the Ship so he could see what he had to work with.

That is...

PING...PING...PING...PING...PING...PING...PING...PING...PING...!

Before something ELSE occurred that brought his attention.

"Grk!"

Just as he made his 10th step, Kosuke paused mid-step and gritted his teeth, a startling sound escaping his lips as his right hand suddenly shot to his head. The sheer abruptness of this caused him to stumble A look of immense irritation plastered itself onto his face while what he could only describe as a sound akin to a radar wave kept echoing from within the depths of his mind. Not only that but every time he heard it while his eyes were closed, strangely enough, he saw what looked like a wave of sorts expand outward from the center, illuminating a blue space save for an area where a bunch of smaller 'waves' erupted. They vanished much quicker than the large 'ping' wave, but the large wave kept on reoccurring within his mind, almost like...

Eyes shot open, and a gasp escaped Kosuke's lips when an idea crossed into his mind. 'Wait a minute... don't fucking tell me I have a freaking RADAR in my head!' he screamed mentally, closing his eyes again and this time seeing the ping waves much more clearly. Indeed, from what he had heard it indeed sounded like a Radar of sorts, but that just confused him even more than he already was. Why the heck did he have a freaking RADAR inside his head? What the fuck was going on here?!

PCHEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW!

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Before he could recover from this surprise (although Kosuke did recall hearing this sound somewhere before, right now that thought got rendered moot), multiple geysers of water shot up around the ship that got accompanied by loud tremors that shook the entire ship.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...!" The male stammered while flailing his arms about as he stumbled across the deck, struggling to maintain his balance. In the end, he barely managed to catch himself on one of the main gun turret barrels, before he finally managed to put two and two together. 'Shit, now this is just sucky! First I find myself stranded on a ship, then there's the radar thing and likely, I'm being attacked from whatever that radar picked up!' he roared in frustration, gritting his teeth as he stepped away from the turret and mildly flinched when he saw more geysers erupt around his vessel.

Part of him felt it fortunate that none of them had hit as of yet, but he wasn't about to tempt fate.

Now, where the hell was the enemy? Closing his eyes again, Kosuke focused as hard as he could to try and visualize the Radar once more, this time pulling a guess and putting more concentration into it. The last time had been quite a bit hazy so he couldn't make much out, but if he focused more on visualizing the image maybe that could be a deciding factor? Kosuke wasn't sure where the idea came from, but usually, the mind's eye was something that had a lot to do with visualization and all that stuff. He had PLENTY of experience with this thanks to himself, his bros, and his old man, so he hoped to hell that it was the right call to make here.

As a result, he apparently did make the right call, even as various eruptions happened when a couple of hits got scored on Proto Satan's superstructure. Minor ones, luckily, but still. In his mind's eye, Kosuke found a... what he could only describe as a 2D grid of sorts which was filled with mostly blue with white grid lines across it. A bunch of letters ran down the side while along the top were a bunch of numbers. Whenever that PING sounds occurred, a wave akin to that of a radar appeared from what looked like a white ship icon which spread across a vast portion of the grid, several red ship icons briefly appeared... though once he looked at them he noticed that they stayed visible.

'This... this is...!'

Suddenly, Kosuke got an idea and quickly opened his eyes before remembering the side which the tips of the enemy ship icons had been pointing from the port side. As such, he quickly ran towards that direction, stopping close to the edge and looking out to see if he could get a visual upon them... and he soon did so. In the far distance, he could make out a couple of black figureheads rapidly advancing towards Proto Satan's position, numbering at about 15. Initially, Kosuke wondered how he could see so far away, cause those things looked to have been at least above 10 kilometers away yet he could make them out with more clarity than he had anticipated...

But then the moment he got a better look at them those thoughts became moot.

Futuristic-looking appearances.

Predominantly black color schemes with red as the secondary color.

Guns that fired what looked like purple energy rounds upon Proto Satan.

All of these equaled to them being from one faction in particular: the Sirens.

'Oh hell... if I'm in the Azur Lane world then I'll be FUCKED if those Sirens catch me...!' Kosuke thought as a bead of sweat formed over his forehead, although he wasn't completely sure since geysers were erupting around him every few seconds now. From what he could tell, it seemed that those Siren ships looked to be similar to the mass-produced ones in the game itself, nothing too crazy and not NEARLY enough of a challenge for a Shipgirl to take out with their smaller size, greater mobility while retaining their firepower.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the same advantages...

Yet, as Proto Satan continued to get bombarded by those ships which were raining down hell upon him, Kosuke struggled to think of what he could do next. He HAD to stop them from sinking his Drillship since it was his only lifeline at the moment, and if he were to guess then he'd say that these Sirens were responsible for the previous damage his ship had gone through, something which sparked the flames of rage inside of him. Ignoring them for the time being, Kosuke snarled while racking his brain for ideas, doing his best to focus his mind on something lest he suffers another panic-induced spiel. 'Urgh, shit I need to come up with something, fast! If I don't...'

The image of a burning ship, split in half while slowly sinking beneath the waves filled his mind... and he did NOT like it.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

'Think, think, think, think...!'

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

'GODDAMNIT, THINK!'

BANG!

Finally, a hit landed on Proto Satan, close to its stern though it had landed on top of its deck armor, so little damage had been done. Hearing that nearly made his heart leap out of his chest while Kosuke experienced a classic horror jumpscare, his eyes shooting wide open while a shrill gasp escaped his mouth. Glancing over and seeing nothing but a rising plume of smoke near Proto Satan's stern, the male gritted his teeth with a building vengeful rage burning within him at increasing intensity.

One might wonder why Kosuke wasn't thinking about going into the forward bridge and try to find some way to send out an SOS for help or something similar. Well, Kosuke didn't believe in something like that being conveniently possible in this situation, as it wasn't very realistic to imagine that there just HAPPENED to be something capable of fighting the sirens nearby. Plus he didn't like having to request help too much, a little if necessary but to him if one were to keep asking for help and relying on others, what would they do if they suddenly COULDN'T do that?

Not only that but combined with everything else about his situation Kosuke just didn't have it in him to keep it contained anymore. He let it out in an angry roar to the heavens at the unfairness of this all, glaring with utter HATRED towards the approaching Sirens as he, fuelled by rage, threw his right hand forwards. "DAMN YOU... DAMN YOU A-"

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

"?"

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

The sound of metal twisting around rung throughout his ears, coming from all around him and sending chills down Kosuke's spine. Eyes filled with confusion, their owner turned his head around to look at the source only for them to be mixed with a shock when he saw something he had NOT expected... Proto Satan's main guns, the six triple barrelled turrets, each of them had swerved around to point towards the approaching Siren ships, which now were beginning to split into opposite directions... almost like they had been waiting for those things to move. The group of 15 ships had become 2 groups of 8 and 7 ships respectively, one having 2 Cruisers and the other having 3.

Nonetheless, Kosuke wasn't focused on that as he looked down at his right hand before bringing it up to his face. "What the...? Hmmm..." During the heavy bombardment, Proto Satan was experiencing from the splitting Siren ships, the male hummed thoughtfully hummed as an idea popped into his mind from that bizarre experience.

Whatever had just happened, it had happened when he had used his arm just now, his right arm to be more specific. He wasn't sure if it applied to both arms, but he wasn't willing to check at the moment, instead, he wanted to see if he could replicate what happened.

Raising his hand in a slow yet unsure manner, he once again pointed towards the ships heading to the west, and once again he heard the sounds of mechanics whirring as the six turrets turned towards the space in front of the ships... exactly where Kosuke had been pointing at. Also, Kosuke could have sworn there was some kind of targeting reticle in his gaze, but that wasn't something he could figure out the mechanics behind in the heat of battle.

At that moment, a small surge of excitement bubbled within his chest and as his hand-shaped its index finger, middle finger, and thumb into a gun-shape to which he heard the sounds of bullets sliding into place, Kosuke felt that excitement swell massively in one swift instance. Finally, he performed an upward jerking motion as if to mimic a pistol's recoil.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

At once, all 6 triple barrelled turrets erupted like volcanos, firing off a collective salvo straight towards the area where the Siren ships were headed into with their rounds being accompanied by loud booming sounds similar to roaring thunder. So loud in fact that Kosuke had to cover his ears while wondering how the fuck he hadn't gone deaf from the collective sounds that were made.

'HOLY SHIT! IS THIS...?!' He shrieked mentally, eyes wide open while his ears remained covered by his hands, hair fluttering freely thanks to his hoodie not being raised. 'IS THIS THE SOUNDS SAILORS HEARD DURING WW2 NAVAL BATTLES...?' If this was true, then World of Warships and other naval games didn't do them enough justice. Nothing he had ever heard could compare to the sound of massive guns unleashing their rounds upon their enemies, nor could anything measure up to the sheer EXHILARATION that coursed through his system upon seeing each ship get hit by a bunch of those same shells.

Only thing was, and this did dampen his mood slightly, but that group which was the larger group

Not for long, he figured.

Several geysers behind him alerted the male to the other group of siren ships closing in on him from the other side, causing him to scowl as he ran to the ship's stern. 'Looks like I'll have to deal with them before they surround and overwhelm me with energy rounds.' Kosuke thought, and when he reached his destination he quickly raised his right arm once more, pointing it towards the undamaged ships and hearing the telltale signs the turrets turning made. Once they stopped, which was unusually fast for a Battleship's guns, Kosuke repeated the motions he had done earlier.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Once again, the same results happened with the Guns firing their second salvo, though unlike before this salvo had a much... different result. Instead of mildly scraping across their superstructure and also blowing through some of their turrets, these literally blew up like they were made from plastic explosives, catching Kosuke by surprise briefly before he forced himself to calm down. 'Hmm, looks like I got a better hit there...'

After thinking this, he eyed the burning wreckages to see how all of the ships now were in pieces, slowly sinking beneath the ocean depths. That HAD to have been a lucky shot or something, but he wasn't going to complain, thus Kosuke turned his gaze back to the damaged Siren ships, intending to fire another salvo on their asses...

Only to pale when he noticed a bunch of long tube-like objects launch into the water with their trajectory pointing towards Proto Satan's bow.

'Torpedos!'

Kosuke wasn't so sure if the Armor Plating his Battleship had would be enough to repel torpedos, even though in the Warship Gunner itself it had about 43cm of armor plating over its form, and from the few times, it did get hit they weren't all that dangerous. Still, he didn't feel too enthusiastic about testing that out right now and he would have tried to move the ship out of the way... only, and he was fully aware of this, but Kosuke couldn't move the ship by himself. Nor could he do so in time to avoid the Torpedoes, so with that in mind he quickly ran towards the center of his Ship's deck to prepare for the worst.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

About 6 Torpedos had been launched, but 5 of them had hit Proto Satan in the Bow just beneath its Drill. Each hit sent huge geysers upwards and splashed water onto the Bow and a bit of the deck close to it too, although, upon Kosuke recovering from a brief stumbling spiel and peering over the starboard side to see where the hits had landed, he discovered that the torpedos hadn't actually penetrated that much into the ship's armor, and judging from what he felt beneath his feet it didn't feel like there was any flooding being caused.

Releasing a small breath to alleviate the tensions building within his chest, Kosuke quickly raised his right arm once again, and thanks to the majority of the other ships being in the front only the front 3 Turrets responded to his physical command, although Kosuke didn't mind since it was better than nothing... plus it was STILL 9 whole barrels. The group of Siren Destroyers and Cruisers looked to be trying to split apart again, but the male would not allow that.

With another jerking back motion...

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

...More shells got launched at the Destroyers since he didn't want them releasing more torpedos. It helped that he had recalled which ones had already launched theirs so he put more priority on the ones that hadn't. Though in the end, he didn't really have to since the Shells all hit their targets, blowing the majority of the Destroyers sky high with a combination of explosions erupting across their hulls.

Another salvo later and the Cruisers had followed suit, since each Cruiser had been mixed in with the Destroyers, probably as an attempt to hide within them as well as provide better artillery cover, likely in place of Battleships. However, that also served to trap them since, once all the Destroyers got blown to bits by Proto Satan's guns, their 'protection' became their 'cage' that made them easy pickings for the following offensive.

The battle was over, the burning and sinking wreckages being proof enough while Kosuke sat down on his ass next to the foremost front main turret, heaving and gasping for breath as the adrenaline from the fight finally left his system.

"PANT...PANT... Sheesh, that had to... have shaved a few years... off my life..." the male wheezed, suddenly feeling like he could go to sleep for a week or something, due to the fatigue wrought throughout his body.

In his past, he could recall several intense moments that had made him feel certain that he had known what it was like to face something potentially dangerous, though perhaps it had been mitigated back then thanks to his bros going through them alongside him.

However, NONE of them had compared to quite possibly his very first taste of a REAL ass naval battle.

Speaking of which, now that he was slowly coming down from the adrenaline rush brought about by intense combat, Kosuke raised his right arm again and looked at its open hand, a frown on his lips. 'That could have gone better, but hey it also could have gone much worse...'

The best way he could summarize that battle would be with two words: 'terrifying' and 'awkward'. The terrifying aspect came mostly from it being his first time engaging in a fight on a Ship like his Proto Satan, to hear the thunderous roar of angry gunfire from such a close range made the sounds he heard when playing world of warships or warship gunner feel tame in comparison. Then there was the fear of not knowing how it could have played out as well as being one of the battles where his life truly was on the line. If this was what naval sailors in both the past wars and modern navies felt whenever the prospect of battle loomed over them, then Kosuke had a lot more respect for them.

As for the awkward part, that came mostly from his own actions during this engagement, the memory of which would later down the line be one of embarrassment for Kosuke. If any of his mates learned of how he had acted here then he bet they wouldn't have ever lived it down, he'd maybe even die of humiliation. Part of him really regretted not learning more about naval combat during the various ages, something which he could have done since it qualified as part of his and his father's philosophy.

Still, as much as he hated his previous actions since they were very much unlike his usual self, Kosuke found solace in the fact that it could have been worse. After all, as much as he didn't like admitting it, he was just an ordinary dude before suddenly being stranded on Proto Satan, so maybe it wasn't TOO unexpected for him to react in the ways that he did.

'Then there's the whole stuff with the Turrets...' Kosuke then recalled what had happened with his Drillship's main guns, experimentally raising his right arm to the air. When he did this, the male briefly felt something akin to a 'spark' rush through his mind before the feeling of something being stretched within him manifested itself, causing him to wince briefly. Perhaps this feeling had been there before but he had ignored it due to adrenaline.

Shaking his head, Kosuke once again tried to experiment with this apparent manipulation, moving his arm left and right akin to a swerving pendulum. In response to this, he heard the sounds of metallic whirring as the front 3 turrets mimicked his arm's movements, though in addition to this Kosuke once again noticed the vague silhouette of a targeting reticle appear before him, though it looked more like a smokey mirage right now than anything.

So he wasn't seeing things earlier, then...

'Hmm, as weird as this may sound that reticle looks familiar... hmmm...' he thought, narrowing his eyes as he tried to figure out how he could make it more visible to his gaze. He tried multiple things out of guesswork, such as squinting and leaning his head forwards which didn't change the image very much, until the third idea came to him which was to close his left eye and slightly widen his right.

As a result, the reticle completely solidified itself in front of him... and in a couple of seconds, Kosuke finally realized what it was that drew him to it. 'Ah! I see so that reticle is like the one from Warship Gunner!' he thought in shock, taking a moment to process this discovery.

For those who didn't know (or were too lazy to check it out) the warship gunner reticle consisted of multiple 'parts'. There was a single targeting reticle in the middle of the screen which currently followed his gaze, whereas it floated within a larger reticle with several components to it. Components like a 'throttle' section which currently showed that he was not traveling due to being at the 'N' level, with an 'R' for reverse and a '1', '2', and '3' with the latest being the full speed of his vessel. At the bottom were some symbols of varying status afflictions such as fires, flooding, rudders, etc, pretty much giving him everything he needed to know but in the simplest way possible.

Straight and direct with little BS, something he had quite liked about the first naval ops game.

All these things temporarily vanished in the following seconds though, when he noticed several 'other' oddities aside from the reticle.

Oddities such as a menu shaped like a 'list' in the bottom right corner of his right eye's vision, in addition to what looked like a small version of the mental 'grid' he had seen before at the lower-left corner. The former was what he focused on first though, for it resembled the list of weapons that Proto Satan could use in Warship Gunner, though right now he could only see the top option which had the number 1 beside it: the main 61cm primary guns. It had a small bar at the bottom f the list that named the guns as such, while beside the '1' was an ammo count to which Kosuke further believed his theory about Proto Satan having been in battle beforehand since it was just over 11,000. He remembered in the game that the max ammo capacity for his Ship was over 20,000 shells.

'Whatever happened, it must have taken a sizeable chunk out of Proto Satan's ammo stocks, and considering its quirks...' Kosuke thought, idly noting that there weren't any other weapons he could use on the list, even though there were the smaller caliber guns and machine guns about. He suspected that Proto Satan's damaged state was responsible for this, though even that didn't necessarily explain why he couldn't use the secondary guns, high angle guns, or the machine guns since they shouldn't be electrically powered unlike the rest of Proto Satan's arsenal.

As for the smaller grid opposite the list, Kosuke believed that it was probably the Warship Gunner's version which probably served the purpose of a large scale world map or something, whereas the world of warships version was more area-specific, more geared towards close combat scenarios. It made sense to think of it like this since that game specifically focused on ship vs ship battles without much context.

All of this seemed like so much to process, yet despite it all the one question which Kosuke asked himself after opening his closed eye and returning his vision to normal, as well as lower his arm to let the outstretched feeling disperse with the telltale sounds informing him of Proto Satan's guns returning to their default positions was...

WHY was he able to do all this?

Now that he had some time on his hand, the sounds of flickering flames echoing around him from the burning wreckages, Kosuke finally got the chance to ask the most important questions like why the HECK he was able to do all these things. It felt strange no matter how one sliced it, that he was suddenly able to command a ship like his Proto Satan with just a few simple gestures, though from the few times he had caught Keijo reading various isekai novels, Kosuke found this similar to the op power trope that a lot of isekai heroes possessed just randomly as part of their wish fulfillment power fantasies. He so hoped that wasn't the case, though.

He didn't want to think he had become some shitty doormat of a self-insert protagonist.

That would be just like becoming an Azur Lane commander!

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!

... Just before he could go on a full mental rant about how pathetic self-insert characters were and why those who used them were just as pathetic, Kosuke heard a beeping sound come from his pocket. Stalling those rants with an agitated growl escaping his lips, the teen plucked the cause for the sound out from his pocket, revealing it to be his Phone.

Upon doing so, Kosuke glared down at the screen which had flashed on into a completely white version of itself. "So you somehow are working, but then... eh?" Soon, his agitation turned into confusion when he noticed a message has appeared in the screen's center in a format similar to Azur Lane notifications:

[Enemy wreckages scanned. Possible supplies are available from salvage operations. Would you like to salvage these wreckages for supplies? YES/NO]

This message stared up into the eyes of the cautious-looking male, whose lips pressed together into a flat line while his brain sped into overdrive as he tried to comprehend what this message may be intending for him. "This is..." he muttered under his breath.

From what he could tell it seemed that something had happened that had resulted in this message being sent to him, but by who? and for what purpose aside from asking him if he wanted supplies or not? Kosuke somewhat answered that question with a resounding 'yes' since he could do with re-stocking his ammo and tools for some emergency repairs for his Ship. Possibly even restore its arsenal to full capacity so whatever had happened here wouldn't be repeating itself so easily.

Proto Satan was pretty much both a ship he had built in a videogame as well as one of his biggest clues as to what the hell was going on here. Thus, repairing and maintaining it would be on the top of his list of priorities.

Thus, raising his free hand Kosuke tapped the 'yes' on the message presented before him.

He... did NOT prepare himself for what happened next.

BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI-BIRI!

"?!"

How many times was he going to jump today? The answer kind of unnerved him as Kosuke nearly felt his heart leap out his chest at the sudden mechanical sounds erupting into existence in great numbers. Their source came from behind him, so he turned towards the Drillship's superstructure and, before his eyes, he saw dozens upon DOZENS of robotic-looking creatures burst out the holes in the ship's superstructure. Each of them looked to be half as tall as he was while being shaped somewhat like robotic jellyfish, though their tentacles looked to be shaped into various mechanical tools as they flew out towards the wreckages surrounding Proto Satan.

From there, Kosuke found himself witnessing each of these things rip the wreckages apart after some of them completely LIFTED them out of the water before they could fully sink. Each piece that got ripped off, was passed to another one of their kind which would then bring it back to Proto Satan, floating inside the superstructure with various mechanical sounds being emitted from within.

Some of them even completely melted the parts they stripped from the wreckages into this dark sloppy paste using some kind of flamethrower device on one of their tentacles, of which they would then seemingly 'drink' it before floating back to the holes across the Ship's hull. They would then proceed to spew out this silver-colored liquid onto these holes, of which the liquid would quickly harden and fuse itself with the ship's hull like it were a human body rapidly regenerating some minor wounds, eventually closing up these holes on the Hull.

While all this happened...

Kosuke held no doubts in his mind that this was going to take some getting used to.


Chapter end!

Hello, hunter here.

Since it seems that people like this and want to see more, I guess I can continue it. Don't expect frequent updates though, since I'm usually quite busy. However, this chapter was quite fun to write, and perhaps writing for a new fandom may do me some good. Not discontinuing my other stories, but writing for something new may refresh my ideas.

Also, a couple of things:

Kosuke has indeed gotten some strange abilities, but there will be a reason for this. What that is I won't spoil, but as part of those abilities I included a UI that's a mixture of both world of warships and naval ops warship gunner, I've been slowly won over by the former due to the sheer number of ships it has available, plus its game engine makes me wish it could be used in a remake of the latter, bringing warship gunner into modern-day and out of the PS2 era.

Plus, for those of you who haven't played naval ops warship gunner, it is indeed possible to make a Battleship that has such absurd specs, in fact, one can even choose which nation's technology can be used as a sort of difficulty setting. What I used may be showcased in this fic as a lore point or something I'm not sure yet, but regardless expect to see a whole fleet of unique warship gunner ships with their own little 'quirks' to them as mentioned by Kosuke. if you all have any questions, lemme know either through reviews or PMs, and I'll try to answer them as best I can.

Next, one of the hardest things I found with this chapter was writing a proper naval battle. This is my first time trying to write for naval combat, which is also something I'll be doing as part of a project I'm doing at University, some added incentive to continue this fic one could say. I'll try to get better at it as time goes on, probably will use WOW's formula while researching WW2 Naval warfare tactics.

Regardless, hopefully, this chapter can give you an idea of what will be expected for the story's future fights, at least until the Ship Girls start coming into the picture which will be soon, I can definitely say that. Though I'm not sure you'll be able to guess how that may be. Since the majority of AL fics seem tobe either lewds or self insert commander fics, I'll try to come at this from a different angle.

Hopefully, you all liked the chapter and look forward to the next one.

PEACE OUT!