Dreams are strange, I know that this is obvious. Everyone has had a moment where they thought it was just like a dream, After all. REM sleep can be that strange. you're in one place acting out something and then all of a sudden you find yourself running from something, as if someone just clicked the skip button on you ten times over. You have to consolidate memories after all, right?

Of course, the nature of dreams also means that you have trouble remembering them in the hours after you get up. you may remember fragments and bits, but rarely everything unless you write them down. Sometimes, you don't even remember the full sequence of what it was about, other times. you wanted to dream vividly and in control, but even then you still didn't notice until you woke up.

And yet... this was a entirely different beast. All i remember was the void, hearing voices and whispers. that i was walking faintly with a bunch of other guys and girls, and that strange things kept happening. that was all i could remember.

That would have been true, but right now? There was everything that screamed that this wasn't a dream. The fact that i felt fully energized and awake rather than feeling like i was disconnected and floating without any physical sensations of any kind. Or the fact that i had woke up underwater and actually felt fear instead of just feeling nothing, Or the fact i felt a lot shorter and i wasn't in my sleeping clothes.

"Wah...aah...aw..ah... This can't be happening.. oh god..."

Looking up briefly and blinking away my tears as i kept balling up on my knees. At that point i noticed the sky horizon was also real. the waves that drifted like i saw them on ferries, and the clouds drifting across the sky on a bright day. The sight made me want to believe i was still dreaming, but as time passed by. these hopes were quickly being dashed away.

"Awa...muh...wa..mmuhh." Cautiously sitting and standing up, I had expected myself to fall and submerge into the water, but i wasn't actually sinking. if anything, I was actually standing on the water like that jesus guy!

Then i noticed that i too was in shoes, shoes that people just don't wear when they go to sleep, at least. not ones that had a metal blade at the back. And I was very sure that i didnt wear a skirt when i slept! Everything else was starting to confirm my worst suspicions and fears. I certainly didn't drink, so it wasn't shopping. and that... hold on... is my chest...

Deciding to test if it was still a dream or not, i ran a hand down my left arm. blushing slightly from the tingling sensation, Once again deciding to see if this was still real or just a extremely real dream. I rubbed my leg and then touched myself in the chest, I felt everything rather than just it being all muddled.

So it was starting to look more and more like the worst case scenario actually did happen. God. What was disturbing when it came to just a bunch of drawings became devastating when you knew they were real people when one knew with certainly what was going to happen, or the many ways i could die or ways that i tried everything only to wind up with a bad ending.

Thinking about it carefully, I figured that the only way i would leave my dream was to reach its conclusion, but that seemed very slim especially with how awake i was and the fact all of this stuff on me weren't just cosmetic props. So do i just start walking? What do i walk toward? I didn't have any landmarks to go off and everywhere around me was the ocean, and i didn't once bother to memorize a map of the globe. Do i even have a calibrated compass unit? Did i just pick a direction, start walking toward it and await what happens? What if i went the wrong direction and i just kept walking until i dropped from exhaustion? Would that even be a dream at all? To walk until things go down?

GPS Signals down

...Huh? That was not supposed to appear in my vision, Sure. I had played around with VR equipment before, but... it was perfectly there in my vision rather than being offset or anything. I looked around frantically, and the words were still sticking in my eyes no matter how much i was turning my head around.

And on one of my headshakes i caught sight of what looked like a massive blocky gunhouse, holding a triplet of some of the biggest guns i had ever seen in my life. And from my sight. there was another one, each bolted to silver-gray finished metal that was connected to... around my back? And there was another one on my side as well, the whole set up was like a backpack that didn't weigh anything, Just from a rough guess. it looked like well over fifty kilos of metal that just didn't instantly send me careening down.

Trying to make sense of this all, I realized that if this was a dream. then it should have ended by now and it shouldn't have went on for as long as it was, And knowing my history with transformations in deviantart and how i became a fan of kancolle somewhere during 2018. Then... that meant...

Odd... I felt nothing like fairies nor the manjuu birds, That was bizarre. but i certainly did feel that... for lack of a better word... There was a 'virtual' crew, Ghosts. if you will. in that sense.

"Good god... i'm a shipgirl?"

I let out a breath and cautiously sat up, rubbing my eyes clear of tears to stare at the sky, in my head. i tried to gather my thoughts before they could spiral out of control even more. Not an easy task when you realized the sheer implications of what was before you, and the numerous ways i could die or what i was here for. Was it even kancolle or azur lane?

I was a shipgirl, A Kanmusu, or Kansen. presumably thousands of miles away from any help, Abyssals or sirens were sure to be the main enemy here. though i couldn't make a guess until i finally ran into them, It was a self insert born of the highest order, and way too much time spent browsing secretprojects or WW2aircraft stuff. it's the only way for how i got chosen to be thrown into this kind of world.

First objective meant finding land, Critical beyond belief. Link up with NATO, US Pacific Command. Australia SEA Command, Anyone. After that, Whatever happened next. i didn't care. The only problems was that i had no maps, no landmarks to go off on. Did i ever have charts?

"Shit..." I mumbled, not noticing the pitch in them. "I should be partly shipgirl right? And if warships have enough room for world maps..." I touched one of my turrets lightly, making the noise of what steel sounded like when someone stumbled against a beam. or at least what i thought it was supposed to sound like.

And despite waiting patiently, I got no response or anything. Not even any feeling. Making me moan in frustration and panic, Great... Without charts or literally anything navigation was down. Not that i ever knew how to set a course at least in real life scenarios, I had some small hope that maybe at least the virtual feedback from what represented a 'crew' could help. Which left only one option.

Pick a direction at random at cruise speed and better hope that i don't run out of oil or coal before i make landfall. Already the odds were stacked against me, But as i said. without anything to go off on, it was the only thing i could do, and even the smallest corvettes had enough fuel to keep them going for a entire international trip. So i decided to turn about fifty degrees to my right and start walking.

I took a single step and that was when i realized just how difficult it would be to manage everything about being a shipgirl.

My other foot in all of a sudden felt like i was moving in quicksand, A squeak bellowed from me and i tried to power through that feeling of lead weights on my leg. What followed was me trying to exert as much force as possible just to even be able to walk properly, kind of like the kerbal or supermutant walking posture before i had to stop, Then followed me nearly stumbling and falling over as i caught myself in time. The fact i hadn't winded up face-down in the water was only a minor detail. It felt like i was trying to learn how to walk again!

"Jeez, Can't even walk slowly on the water. Do i even have engines? assuming they just don't blow up on me." Instinctively i felt for it, Was there a way to bring the engines up to full speed, Did you 'think' of it, or was it like moving your arm and leg the way you would move your arm to pull a lever? "Do i just say it out loud or think strongly about it?" It wouldn't be the weirdest thing i had to deal with today, right? Still, you don't know it until you've tried it. right? Assessing where i wanted to go, i closed my eyes and... tried to think loudly, letting it echo and repeat in my mind.

Full power, move that way.

I felt a hum and tremors run down my body and into my boots, before i heard a loud screeching noise which prompted me to look back. Right, I had forget that i couldn't just start turbines from a cold standstill, but anxiously enough i waited, and after what felt like a few minutes agonizingly passed. the surprisingly muffled roar of turbines picking up speed reached my ears as I began to wobble forward. It was like as though i was standing on a trolley that was slowly accelerating, with my feet firmly glued to it. Before long, i had only just realized that i had reached running speed, Without the strain.

However, i knew both figuratively and instinctively that i could go faster, that this was a child's toy by modern power plant standards.

So i began to push more. allowing that pulsating feeling at the back of my chest to hum ever stronger.

I felt the wind starting to whip into my face, Normally. If i were in a bus or a taxi, I would have slipped my head back inside out of fear and from how uncomfortable it would get. But for whatever reason - almost putting it down to kanmusu physiology - it didn't bother or irritate me in any way, I started feeling a adrenaline rush and a distinct pounding in my chest that was different from the one at my back. Not from exhaustion or fear, but from pure unadulterated excitement like a teenager driving a fifty hundred horsepower muscle car, I had the ocean to me and more power i could tap into.

So i reached for it, and went faster. and faster, And faster with steam until I ran up against the limits of what i could put out.

"HOLY MUTSUKI OF ALLLL!" I screamed, a wide surprised gape look on my face, It felt like skating along water. I didn't need to, but experimentally, I tried and i didn't crash out! This was heart-thrilling and both awe-inducing! I was sailing and it was like i knew just how to do it! It felt like i was floating on weightless bubbles!

'Full reverse!'

So of course, In my typical curiosity I decided to slam the brakes metaphorically, with my engines responding near-instantly, and too quickly. I was moving far too quickly to balance myself. Saltwater flowed into my mouth as I skidded out, hit the water and started to roll over into my end. I came to a stop, sitting on the waves, now practically soaked like i had just went swimming. Furiously shaking my head. I coughed to myself. Maybe I shouldn't go full blown flank speed until I was used to sailing at cruise speed.

But alas, It was still fun!

And i wasn't going to wait till next time to try again. Maybe if i looked closer, I might see a possible weakness to how fast i can go. speaking of which... I just realized that i probably wasted a lot of fuel as of now...

"Ah geez," I muttered. some of the tightness and despair in my chest partly gone from the feel-good chemicals coursing through my body from going that fast. "I forget that fuel isn't forever, not even if i was all fuel bunkers and nothing else..." I finished that with squeezing the water out of my coat.

Now that this was probably all real, It made sense that my first priority should be to find a friendly port to pull into, Even if i started out with full fuel tanks. they wouldn't last even a battleship or cruiser that long, and without knowing where i was. I might spend weeks cruising aimlessly until i finally ran and became a stranded hulk, The idea made my hair stand on its end in a sense. God knows what might happen if I were to be captured by abyssals or sirens.

And so, i stood and continued on my initial course. dialing down speed until things seemed slow enough that it seemed like the idea of cruise speed, it was still faster than i could run let alone Usain bolt himself before this whole thing all started. And while i was still trying to take in the experience, What I had remembered was still vibrating in my head.

'Fuel doesn't last forever.'

"Fuel isn't forever." I repeated to myself, more for formality than anything else.

I shook my head again, It must have been just wishful thinking and my soul was suddenly rewiring itself because now, In addition to not being frightened anymore, i had a immediate problem. And that brought me back to my present problem.

Doesn't seem likely that i will be finding anything like the UN or other ports still held by any global coalition, As strong as my long-term memory of important things was, Even I wasn't going to hide the fact that when it came to things that seemed trivial or mundane, my ability to make long term memories out of them was very lacking. But I'm not a complete idiot either, Hopefully. If things were what they seemed, the best that might happen if there was nothing is to... find nothing, or perhaps some places i could scavenge for supplies where my shipgirl physiology might just show itself, or at the worst. I would be discovered by a enemy carrier battlegroup, worn down and probably sunk or either captured alive.

A weary sign issued from my throat.

I took a deep breath, straightening up a bit and let the faint wind tickle the moisture off my face, gathering strength as i began my options, I just needed to make sure i didn't run into anything i couldn't handle.

And yet, i didn't notice the lightning bolt pin that was on my head.