Miho Chan
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Prelude One: Flickering Fire
🕑 Added 2023-11-29 01:19:38 +0000 UTC"This is unprecedented! Think of the possibilities that Kyoto and Owari represent! We didn't even mean to summon them! We had simply prepared the materials in a desperate attempt to call some of the ships we lost back." A voice lanced through the mire that had settled over my mind, searing brightness bringing me sharply back into the world of wakefulness.
'No. Let me go back to pretending that this is all some sick joke. Please!!'
I stared blankly at my hands, the part of me that insisted that this was all some terrible joke forcing my brain into a never ending loop of anxiety and self doubt. The person who had brought me out of the living haze prattle onwards, mentioning something about attempting a "summoning" directed towards several of the "Projects" that had been 'Ordered but Never Completed'.
'You're a kanmusu… Hells, I can't even finish that joke because I don't remember my fucking name! Though… I suppose I'd be either Kyoto or Owari. Heh. A Modern Province with the Imperial Capital or the home of Oda Nobunaga, the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven.'
It was all one giant fucking joke. I could remember useless bits of trivia, like the random factoids that my brain had spat in my metaphorical face when the names "Kyoto" and "Owari" had been mentioned, but I could not remember my name, nor the names of the people whose faces I couldn't even remember but knew I loved with all my heart.
'... Focus. Breakdown later.'
With herculean effort, I aborted my spiral, compartmentalizing in a way that I knew I'd pay for later and turned my attention to silently assessing the room around me. I was standing on a pool of moonlit water, someone standing at my side that a part of me that wasn't part of me insisted I recognized, the spiritual outline of a Yamato Class Battleship surrounding her; though my brain did supply immediately afterwards that they were in the 1944 Configuration that Yamato had been refitted into. A closer inspection also revealed that they bore 10cm guns in place of the 12.7cm guns that should be there; The planned layout for Warship 111 and 797. My…
Sister. Owari-Neesan. The part of me that wasn't supplied. Well, that confirmed that I was Kyoto, but for now, I turned my attention away from that revelation to look around the "room" we had been summoned in. Though, honestly, calling it a room was a misnomer. It was more akin to a small warehouse than anything else, the pool of moonlit water we were standing on covering a vast majority of the room, a faint smell of salt wafting up from it, oh so similar to the sea yet lacking a faint bit of the smell I usually associated with the Ocean. Bleachers filled with men and women in dress whites were positioned 'behind' me, all of them resolutely standing at attention.
Finally, to our front, a rather interesting combination of individuals stood, all of them but two arguing amongst themselves. People in professional scientific outfits with rather interesting equipment debated with priest and shrine maidens wearing traditional Shinto outfits, with both sides occasionally stopping to confer with Naval Officers also wearing dress whites mixed among them.
Yet, to me, the two professionally staring at me and my sister caught my attention the most. A woman- No, my 'eldest sister', Yamato-Neesan, stood alongside a male sailor wearing an Admiral's dress whites, the former's lips parted in surprise, and the latter… The latter looked tired, as if the weight of the world was pressing down upon him. He was also… My eyes widened a tad. He was far too young. He looked to be thirty at the oldest.
'... None of them are going to say anything… are they?'
As I opened my mouth to greet the people arrayed before me, the-Owari raised her own voice, her right hand pressed against her forehead, "What- Where… Nnnn, what's going on? Why am I a girl? I- Yamato Nee?"
Her-Our eldest sister looked towards the Admiral pleadingly, receiving a firm nod in return. Without any other prompting, she leapt onto the water, walking upon it as if she was Christ himself.
'Interesting. She didn't need her rigging to do that. I assume it's some sort of passive blessing or some aspect of ourselves as kanmusus? Will have to explore further; I'd hate it so much if I couldn't re-earn my SCUBA cert… I had one of those?'
Wincing from the pain of attempting to reach for something that was no longer there, I shook my head and refocused on Yamato, who by now, had crossed the distance between us and swept Owari into a firm hug, whispering something I couldn't catch into her ears. My other sister- Owari-Neesan, whispered something back, this one a bit more audible to my ears;
"How? Why oneesan? I wasn't even completed! Work on Kyoto wasn't even started! And she's also back, as… a Carrier Conversion of all things!"
'... I am going to kill someone if they Shinano'd- Shinano-neesan is perfectly fine as she is! She's just- a half finished half baked conversion that was destined to fail. I just hope that if Shinano-nee is back that she's actually properly converted to a support carrier, though the dockwork that would take is absurd…'
"Owari-nee, I'm right here…" Before I knew it, the words were out of my mouth in a voice not my own, a soft soprano that sounded far too innocent and 'youthful' to be coming out of the mouth of a warship designed to kill, "And I don't think Yamato-nee knows either. She looked just as confused as the scientists, miko, and theologians that are arguing by the person who's dressed a JMSDF Admiral's dress whites-" A lance of pain shot through my head as I reached for a memory that wasn't there, for context I didn't have, and-
I shouldn't know that why did I say that now they'll actually be paying more attention to me why why why…
Gritting my teeth as the foreign memories and experiences asserted themselves, I slammed my mouth shut with an audible click of my teeth, doing my best not to collapse from the absolute agony the pounding migraine in my head was giving me, wanting nothing more than to just lie down and forget about today for now. Sadly, that wasn't possible.
"Kyoto? You… know about the JMSDF?" Yamato-nee asked, looking more than a bit perturbed. I nodded, fighting a losing battle against the pain that was already making it almost impossible to formulate a thought properly through my ADHD and Autism, "... More questions for later, I suppose. You look… unwell."
"Gee, thanks for noticing- shit!" My facade broke, and I stopped trying to pretend I was okay, the dam I had built around my emotions bursting, overloaded from the events of the day as tears began to stream down from my eyes and I collapsed like a puppet with cut strings to the 'floor' that the water was providing me. "Shit…" I managed to get out, fist slamming against the water, giving just about as much resistance as one would expect as I stopped caring about restraining myself…
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Watching her youngest sister that never was collapsing to the floor, Kyoto's face a rictus of agony and grief so raw Yamato almost flinched back, the Eldest Sister of the Yamato Class put her worries about Owari and Kyoto's existence to the side as she wrapped her sister in a firm hug, silently offering the younger carrier a shoulder to cry on. The state of her dress uniform was barely even worth considering, this was her sister, no matter what had happened to Kyoto nor the fact she was unaware the carrier could even be summoned or exist until a few seconds ago.
Seconds later, Owari joined in, rubbing Kyoto's back and kneeling down behind her, letting their youngest sister cleanse herself of her grief and shielding her from the eyes of the rather curious onlookers.
In the couple of minutes it had taken for Kyoto's wracking, largely silent sobs to fade into occasional tremors and barely hiccups, Yamato had already resolved to not even bother interrogating her sister about the knowledge she shouldn't realistically have; Kyoto wasn't in any place to deal with that at the moment, and whatever grief she was feeling, it was both raw and real, there was no way that her sister wasn't exactly what she was presenting herself as. A semi-confused grief stricken young woman. As her sister finally fell still, she let her tight grip on Kyoto slacken, pulling back as she looked her in her tearstained eyes.
"Feeling a bit better after that cry?" An upwards quirk of Kyoto's lips was all she got, but at this point, Yamato would take it. "Come on, Kyoto, Owari. Let's get you somewhere more private so we can clean Kyoto up." She tilted her head minutely towards her sisters, giving them a chance to object, before nodding and pulling her youngest sister up with a grunt of effort.
"Thank you, nee-san." Her sister's voice was quiet, still filled with pain, yet something else, resolve, if Yamato had to guess, underlined her statement, "I… needed that."
"I'd say so, if you were crying so hard." Owari replied softly, the fourth of their class obviously not exactly the best at "humaning" as it were, "If I find out who hurt you so much, I'm going to kill them."
'Oh wonderful, Musashi is going to enjoy having another of our class be more inclined towards violence than peace.' Yamato bemoaned internally, glancing towards her youngest sister to make sure that Kyoto hadn't taken any offense to Owari's admittedly blunt statement. Given that she was openly smiling, if a tad woodenly, she would guess that Kyoto was much more socially aware than Owari was.
"I don't exactly think you can kill the absence of my loved ones, Owari-nee, but I appreciate the thought." Kyoto responded, some brightness returning to her eyes, "And Yamato-nee, if we could get the interrogation done today, I'd prefer that to putting it off. It'll just hurt more the more I put it off."
'My my, Kyoto-chan is a responsible girl, it seems.' Yamato thought as she gave her youngest sister a nod of affirmation. "Of course, Kyoto. After we get you cleaned up and introduced to the base."
Kyoto offered Yamato another smile, nodding but otherwise not speaking up. The trio of kanmusus quietly made their way out of the warehouse like summoning chamber into the open sunlight of Yokosuka, a gasp escaping both Kyoto and Owari's lips as they beheld the Modern Skyline of the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area (in Owari's Case) and the signs of battle and damage still visible on several of the buildings and facilities near the coast (In both girl's case).
"They've pushed so far?" Kyoto whispered to herself, Yamato barely managing to catch her sister's neigh inaudible statement, the carrier wincing a moment later, pain briefly evident on her face before she schooled her expression, "What happened to Yokosuka, nee-san?" She stated, as if nothing had just happened.
Pushing the questions racing through her mind to the side for now, Yamato answered her, "The Abyssals, our enemy, hold the Marianas." She began, making a choice to fish for information from her youngest sister.
Kyoto, revealing more of her knowledge, swore, language that would make a sailor either blush or swoon pouring forth from her lips in both Japanese and English, finally slowing down into something that wasn't vulgar language a good few seconds later, "They're doing B-29 Raids?" Kyoto asked sharply, her eyes hard with fury.
"They are. They started off trying to replicate the Allied Bombing Campaign, then switched from incendiary munitions to conventional when they realized that they weren't doing as much damage as they'd like trying to repeat history." Yamato answered, a hint of her own concealed anger leaking into her voice.
"... Ah." Owari snarled moments later, catching on. It seemed she wasn't a slouch either, and it seemed that she did bear some memories of that time, "That… seems less than ideal."
"Yes. We only just recently managed to push them fully off of Okinawa and Iwo Jima." Yamato added, suppressing the images that came to mind as she explained.
Some things just were not done to people, and it turned Yamato's stomach that her own nation had done similar things to other humans during the Second World War.
"... How long, Yamato? How long have we been at war again, and what's the current date?" Kyoto asked, no, it wasn't a question, it was a demand for information.
"For just under a single year, and it is currently December thirtieth twenty twenty three." She answered neutrally, watching her sister closely as her expression flashed through grief, confusion, and then resolve.
"Is Russia still playing games in Ukraine?" Kyoto asked conversationally, receiving a shake of Yamato's head as an answer, "How'd that particular war end?"
"NATO intervened when it became clear that Russia was unwilling to play ball with Ukraine or assist the world with the Abyssals. We are very lucky that the incident did not go further, though Russia is currently facing… difficulties as a result of their international isolation and insistence that they can handle the Abyssal War on their own." Yamato answered, noting the sigh of relief from her youngest sister, "When did you die, Kyoto?" She asked in turn, receiving a minute widening of her sister's eyes as she confirmed that particular theory.
"November eighteenth, twenty twenty three. That much I can remember clearly. Everything else is a blur; I'll explain more in depth later, Yamato. Owari-nee is getting confused." Her youngest sister answered neutrally, turning towards their silent sister and bowing in apology, "Sorry, Owari-nee, for essentially ignoring you."
"It's okay, Kyoto," The mentioned battleship waved the apology aside with an easy smile, "It's clear that a lot has happened since what little of me that was complete got scrapped or used to upgrade Ise-san and Hyuuga-san."
"Nineteen forty two, right, Nee-san?" Kyoto asked with a tilt of her head, her sister nodding, "How'd you know about the B-29s then?"
Owari laughed, "I didn't. I just assumed that it was significant given that firebombing was mentioned. I don't even know how the war ended, but I assume we lost, given how things were going when they scrapped me." For a few moments, the battleship just looked sad, "I just hope that our people didn't pay too heavy of a price." Then, moments later, she brightened, "They can't have, if they've built something so wonderful in the now."
Yamato blinked, genuinely not having expected that level of insight from her newly summoned sister, looking towards Kyoto who looked just as confused.
"What? I can be insightful too!" Owari protested, pouting, "You've known me for all of like, ten minutes!"
Kyoto snickered, much to Yamato's joy, "So we have. Sorry nee-san, you kinda came across as a stab first ask questions later type of gal in my mind when you said something about killing what hurt me."
"Hey! I was just being a good older sister!" Owari protested, mock-growling at the snickering gremlin that was their youngest sister.
"Chuuni~" Kyoto teased, a squawk of protest erupting from Owari at the accusation, the Battleship somehow understanding the much more modern slang; Yamato blamed the mechanics of their summoning, that or some of Owari's dock workers had survived far past her "death" and were providing the ship with their knowledge. Either or, really.
Regardless, as she continued leading her now bickering pair of younger sisters towards her dorm room for some privacy, Yamato smiled, openly and honestly, for the first time since the horrors she had witnessed on Okinawa.
It seemed, for once, that her life was looking up, rather than spiraling ever downwards.
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It helped to laugh. I remembered telling someone I cared deeply about that, though I could remember not the context of the situation nor the names of the individuals speaking. Yet, it seemed whoever I had been before my memories had… shattered was a rather wise individual. Laughing had helped. It eased the pain gnawing at me into something more manageable, just as crying my heart out had.
Owari was a joy to be around. A over-the-top, bratty yet shockingly mature older sister to balance the responsible, wise, and demure eldest sister that Yamato was.
'Ah, and there goes my meandering train of thought again. I really need to stop doing that…' I mused to myself even as I laughed as Owari shot another playful barb my way, admirably keeping up with my modern slang despite how out of date she should be due to the time when her last memories should have come from; nineteen forty two. 'Best not ponder why, in that path lies madness.'
Playful jabs and barbs continued to fly between us, with speed and mock ferocity so fast and great that I wasn't give any more time to dwell on the rather depressing thought of not being able to remember my loved ones, and before we knew it, we had arrived at our destination, Yamato-nee coughing to gain our attention.
"Alright, you two, we should have some privacy now." The Flagship of the Combined Fleet interjected, more than a little amused by our antics, "Kyoto, do you want to do your best to explain everything from your end? Or would you prefer if I ask you questions?"
I paused, genuinely having not expected to be offered the choice. I had; evidently wrongly, assumed that Yamato would simply ask me questions, and I would be expected to answer.
'Neesan wouldn't do that!' The part of me that wasn't me insisted, and I found myself agreeing with her fully for the first time, 'I… know that now, at least.'
Drawing in a deep, fortifying breath, I nodded, "I'll explain, Yamato-nee." With the affirmation given, I launched into my explanation, "I'm… Not Kyoto. At least, not fully. Honestly, I don't know how it happened, but I don't think there was enough of her to fully form a ship-spirit." Pausing to make sure that my sisters understood, I continued, pointedly avoiding looking at their faces, "While I can't remember my name, most of my life, or anything beyond the fact I was human, once and a bunch of pointless trivia, the fact remains that I lived a life, from November of nineteen ninety eight to the date of my death in twenty twenty three." Taking a breath, and burying the pain that came from slamming a hammer against my bruised and battered heart of glass, I continued, "I had loved ones, people I was going to spend the rest of my life with, and now only scattered memories of our interactions remain. Not their faces, not their appearance, and certainly not their names, nor mine."
Tears pricked at my eyes, and I resolutely shook them off. Now wasn't the time to be crying again. I needed to be as professional as I could and report to my superior officer so she could absolve me of what little suspicion on the circumstances of my existence there were. Another, far more shaky fortifying breath, and I launched back into it, "I, there are also memories that aren't mine. They interject occasionally, giving me context or insisting that I'm wrong about something with knowledge that I never had in life."
I hated that my mind wasn't fully my own. It scared me more than anything else.
An oppressive silence settled over the room as I finished my verbal vomit, still shaking somewhat as I pushed myself back into the state I was at before, managing to stay standing and somewhat at attention despite Yamato's piercing gaze looking over me. Finally, she broke the silence, "... I believe you, Imouto."
'She doesn't hate me… Neesan couldn't hate us. Like I said, I'm starting to believe you, er, us, Kyo.'
Relief filled my body, and I relaxed, fatigue filling me as the events of the short less than an hour it had taken for all this to happen finally caught up with me. An audible, sharp gasp of relief escaped me before I could contain it, and I let myself fall to the floor, my brain finally noting that my body was different than it was before as I did so. I 'metaphorically' told my brain to shove off. I could be concerned with my appearance later; though having hair that reached my ass was rather nice…
'Focus, Kyoto. Focus, because neesan is about to say something, damn you.'
"I'll be filing a report to the Admiral to explain the oddities behind your summoning Kyoto, but otherwise, all we have left to do is schedule a battery of basic training for both of you; I'm assuming that whatever brought you here didn't give you combat experience?" Yamato stated, receiving a shake of both my and Owari's heads in return, "Right. We'll get on that. For now, we'll wait for the Admiral to respond with an all clear, then we'll head over to the mess hall. New summons always enjoy a good meal, and it'll be a good way to bond with our other sister and the kanmusu stationed at Yokosuka."
Putting aside the nugget of information that both Shinano and Musashi were present in Yokosuka, I couldn't help but perk up at the sound of a 'good meal', and before I could help myself, I blurted out, "It's not Friday, is it?"
Yamato blinked, processing the question, giggling as she understood what I was asking, "Sadly, you did not have the good fortune to be summoned on Curry Friday. You'll have to make due with salmon, rice, and assorted vegetables today."
'Oh Neesan, that's quite literally the only thing that beats curry for me.' I thought, trying not to let my eagerness show (and failing miserably, given the amused quirk of Yamato's lips and the visibly curious look on Owari's). "I love Salmon and Rice. Is there going to be Miso as well?"
"More than likely, imouto." The best neesan in the world (what!? She was giving me salmon! I loved salmon!) replied, patient, dignified amusement radiating from her like waves. Pausing, she tilted her head to the side in a seemingly nonsensical manner, before continuing, "Speaking of, the Admiral responded. We can head to the mess."
"Oooh, I can't wait to try real food!" Owari chirped in unrestrained excitement, leaping to her feet and grabbing my arm, "Come on Kyoto, food~"
Blinking, I didn't even bother fighting back as my other older sister as she dragged me out of the room, our amused eldest sister following behind us, her pace purposefully slow as she teased us in her own way, Owari pouting adorably as Yamato took her sweet time to follow behind us. 'This' I thought, following behind the insistent orbit of the newly summoned kanmusu I now called neesan, 'If I have this… I think I'll be okay.'
After all, I'd never gotten to be a little sister before. It'd be… nice, being the youngest and not the oldest.
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Translation notes:
- Whenever Kyoto uses "Shit" she is saying "Kuso", which is, afaik, about the closest swear to shit there is in Japanese. Most characters who swear that are not explicitly noted to be swearing in English will be swearing in the closest equivalent Japanese Word. I will attempt to provide those words in these notes as they come up.
- Kyoto is largely thinking in Japanese, though occasionally a bit of English will interject into the thought process, being formerly bilingual. For those of you who know, you know that this is a rather relevant piece of information that should make you suspicious.
- Nee-san: Older Sister
- Onee-san: More formal way of addressing an older sister/referring to them.
- Imouto: Little Sister
- Chan: A suffix attached as an affectionate term, generally towards someone younger that yourself. A term of endearment, can also be used mockingly, though Yamato is using the affectionate/endearing one.
- Kanmusu: shortened/abbreviated form of Kantai Musume, which literally translates to Fleet Daughters or Fleet Girls. The Japanese way of saying "Shipgirls"
Historical Notes:
- Kyoto is wrong that 111's Planned Layout was the 1944 Config with 10cm guns replacing the 12.7s. In Reality, only 979 was planned to have that layout initially. She fails to make this distinction because at the time of writing I didn't actually remember, and this is an SI, so it makes sense that she'd be wrong
- Shinano was sent to sea to deliver suicide rockets to another base while still far from complete. She was shoddily constructed, and a single torpedo salvo from the USS Archerfish sank her, giving the US sub a record that she still holds to this day (Most tonnage sank at once or largest warship sunk). Her watertight compartments utterly failed, and several officers reported that several doors were not properly inspected to be seaworthy. Kyoto is being extremely unkind towards Shinano through no fault of her own, and most of her resentment is directed towards Imperial Japan as a whole.
- The Allied Bombing Campaign against the Japanese Islands caused extreme civilian casualties. Notably, Kyoto (the city) was largely spared of this in both WWII and the Abyssal War. After all… The Abyssals do like their Historical Reduxes.It should be noted that this bombing campaign (Abyssal War) is largely mitigated by Land Based interceptors and air defense (including modern hardware)
- Owari (Warship 111) Was scrapped for parts on the slip in March of 1942 when she was roughly 30% complete. She is largely guessing, as stated, based on what little context she has available. Given that Yamato and Kyoto were casually mentioning the bombing of Japan, she assumes that, as Yamamoto kinda sorta predicted, the US eventually won.
