Gee～z, it's been a while since I've written in here, hasn't it?
Since I've last opened this journal, a lot has happened! The town has pretty much been fully rebuilt and refurbished. The roads are a～ll nice and smooth, and they even straightened up the tower from the town hall building! It was sitting ju～st a tad lilted after the ground shook.
We've also entered into the last month, and you know what that means! Yup, it's snowing and all kinds of cold. I mean, it's already been that way since the end of November, but that's just not important.
Oh, I've also been in correspondence with the people at the naval base. The admiral and the other officers won't speak a word when I ask 'em about the large scale operation, but the newly posted Aoba there is a little more talkative. Thank goodness!
From her, I know it's just a medium-scale operation, nothing too big. However, judging from the intense activity on base, I'm assuming it's maybe～, just per～haps started already. That or the admiral is willing to get his hands in the game again, haha! That man is only doing this job as a part-timer, you know? He's all kinds of busy as it is.
Anyway, I did write a segment on the town again now that we've rebuilt, thank goodness! I did take a walk around, and golly! It is as lively as ever. The liveliest I've seen it.
That is to say, I saw a group of the Fubuki-class making a ruckus with the Sendai-class. No more than just 20 people on the street there.
Now that I think about it, the whole town is rather quiet, don't you think? People are just staying inside, y'know. Yura conducted an informal poll the other day, and it came out to be about 2,500 people here! You'd guess it would be a ghost town.
But anyway, I digress. I have a story to show you, after all! Can't hold you up for tha～t long, now can I?
This one's about the origins of us shipgirls and also how our flesh and bones are connected to the steel and rivets of our past selves.
Ooo! That's a good phrase! Lemme just plop it in the story and then I'll let you read it. Hope you enjoy!
From Steel and Rivets to Flesh and Bone: the Origins of the Kanmusu
The existence of all shipgirls is shrouded in mystery. How did we come about? Why are we tasked with this fight? Who exactly are we?
These questions are the type to float through your mind amidst a sleepless night. Usually, they have no answers, but after some careful digging, I am pleased to present to you the definitive origin story of us kanmusu.
Transportation similar to those used by kanmusu has been in development for a long time, and some versions are even available to the general public. One example is back-mounted water jetpack. Although used mainly for pleasure due to its limitations (external power source, relatively short range), the functional idea was the one that inspired the propulsion systems for kanmusu, according to Hinasao Asimoto.
"What if we could take the power from pushing water around to push a human around? That was the idea," lead developer Hinasao said.
His team also took inspiration from Kevlar bulletproof vests for standard clothing as well as ring stand clamps for equipment mounts.
So the ideas were all there, but when exactly were we "born", so to speak? To answer that question, we need to understand the history of the enemy, the Abyssal fleet. In many ways, our history is intertwined.
Abyssal ships' exact origins are not completely clear, but sightings of what was then thought of as unusual whales date back to 2005. Following a sharp rise in Abbysal ship sightings, the number of shipping accidents increased tenfold within a manner of months. By the end of the fiscal year 2012, losses due to accidents were so high that it became wholly unprofitable and shipping businesses went out of business. As a result of this, air shipments increased, but this did not fully account for the loss of jobs and the global economy started to slump. It was during this recession that the Abyssal ships decided to land their first strike on military forces.
December 10th, 2012. Yokosuka Naval Base. The JDSMF was running usual maintenance on ships in the harbor when they started receiving gunfire. Reports say that it was from the direction of the island right outside of the base, so dispatch teams were sent for reconnaissance and possible neutralization of the threat. They took helicopters to quickly assess the situation.
What happened next could only be described as fantasy: a chi-class torpedo cruiser (as it is now known) emerged from the back of the island, and with one shot apiece, shot the helicopters out of the sky. There were no major injuries, but many were left with scratches, bruises, and burns.
The chi-class CLT (abbreviation for torpedo cruiser) was strangely humanoid, and it was fast, comparable to a jetski. Despite receiving fire and even some direct hits, it seemed unphased. It then launched a multitude of half-meter long miniature torpedos towards the coastal defense ships in the harbor. Some were detonated prematurely by the defenders, but the rest hit squarely on their mark, sinking 4 of the 6. To finish off the rest, the CLT fired directly at the hulls of the ships. The shells were miniature, only about 25mm in caliber, but it left dents as if a full-sized artillery piece had fired into it. All ships were sunk.
As a final middle finger, it directed its escorts to fire at the base itself. The salvo caused a stockpile of ammo underground to detonate, and the entire base was essentially leveled.
In an attempt to gain reconnaissance on these formidable enemies, planes were sent to follow them from a distance but were either shot down or lost visual on them (as the enemies seemed to be invisible to conventional radar).
Thus was the first major loss of many that would plague humankind for the next year. Traditional ships were annihilated by their Abyssal counterparts from sheer maneuverability and superior firepower. The only thing that stood a chance were aircraft carriers, but they, too, were overtaken when Abyssals started sending aircraft carriers of their own.
The UN sat down at a classified emergency defense meeting to determine the best course of action. After fierce debating, the only proposal that stood up was the idea to fight fire with fire: find and create ship people just like the Abyssals.
But why only women and why in Japan? Because Japan quickly pulled ahead with its research while other nations stagnated. Also, women's spines are curvier, so they can carry more weight and not tip over, which was very important during the development process.
The development process of the kanmusu was very brutal. Rarely, the human test subjects drowned or were crushed by their equipment. Many teams of scientists around the world worked long nights and burned out, seeing no positive results. After a handful of months, development in the United States of America was halted by an ethics committee on grounds that human life was being too readily sacrificed in the experiments and the current safety precautions were not stringent enough. Russia and China were poised to be the contenders for the first successful shipgirls, but they were still far from a working proof of concept.
Fast forward to the fateful day of April 1st, 2013. A Japanese fisherman is rescued from a capsizing boat along with a young girl in school uniform. She was rather wet, and the fisherman says that he found her floating face down in the water. When paramedics arrived to revive the girl, they were found that her vital signs were stable but rather unusual. She was rushed to the hospital, where she regained consciousness. Her first words after coming to were "Actual people?!"
This took the doctors by surprise. When asked questions about her past, she would answer foggily or with nonsensical answers. Her memory was scratched, and her vitals were still unusual for somebody of her stature, albeit stable.
Her name? Inazuma.
Her mission? To eliminate the abyssal fleet.
Her family? Doesn't remember one.
After a stay at the hospital, Inazuma was transferred to the experimental shipgirl laboratory established at Sasebo. After signing all the consent forms as well as passing the physical exams and other tests with a healthy margin, her conversion began.
Her innate knowledge of the systems that the engineers devised was astonishing. She readily gave feedback and gave suggestions for the development team to implement.
April 18th. Inazuma was now fitted with the newest prototypes and ready to truly set sail for the first time with all her equipment. Both her rigging and her battle equipment had been tested independently, but this was the first time everything was to be tested at once.
The team was nervously excited at the prospects of this test. All checks passed, and Inazuma took her first steps as a kanmusu at an artificial pond in a remote corner of Japan. The team watched in awe as she skied around gracefully in the water and fired shots at the targets. Mostly misses, but the equipment was not at fault. The torpedos deployed without an issue and struck their target with a large bang.
She returned back and said with a beaming smile to the cameras, "Great success, nodesu!" The development team was cheering as well.
After the conversion process was perfected, the first naval base of kanmusu was opened at Kure on April 2xth, 2013. Many more followed, and the rest is history. The Kurisaka Naval Base situated next to the town is a secret base established in June 2020 in preparation of a large-scale operation.
But who are we, exactly? At one point, we were humans. However, during the conversion process, we are imbued with the soul of the ship we embody, causing a massive change in the inner machinery of our body. Although we are essentially human, we are not 100% so.
Our past memories are also wiped and replaced with the memories of the ship as well as a basic set of memories and skills. Our personality can dramatically shift, and our physical appearance warps as well.
Although the vast majority of shipgirls today are just found amidst the seas as Abyssal POWs, it is required of every kanmusu naval base to construct 4 kanmusu every day to fine-tune the process.
Although some details may forever be shrouded in mystery, the origins of the kanmusu are undoubtedly one of clear struggle and triumph.
So～, whaddaya think? Nice? Yeah, I thought so.
It is rather long, I know, but it's just such an intriguing story! Until next time :]
Draconid_Jo
By