Disclaimer: I don't own Kantai Collection.

Free Agent

Arc 1: Tutorial

Chapter 1: New Circumstances

By Nim Maj

A Kantai Collection SI Fanfiction

Hast thou experienced lust? As a healthy young man I can say yes. I never acted on it though.

Hast thou desired glory? Yes. Who hasn't? I'd certainly like to have my actions recognized.

Hast thou 36 57 mm high velocity cannons on thy flight deck? Ye- wait what?

Go forth young man, and become legend! What!?

I woke up. I stared at a sun, glaring down at me. It must be about high noon. I already hate it. I try to move my body but it feels a bit sluggish. As if something is weighing it down. I hold up my right hand in front of me and notice… an armored gauntlet.

"What the hell?" I mutter in confusion. As I get my bearings, I stand up and get a look at my body. Hey! I have a red cape! And yup, I appear to be wearing armor. A complete suit of armor to be exact. Although ungainly at first, I seem to be adjusting more easily to the weight. Nearby, I notice a helmet. It offers complete protection with a draconic theme.

I notice I have a shield strapped to my left arm. It's pretty big and heavy but lighter than it seems. I can move it easily enough. I try to take a look at the front of the shield and I notice… 36 gun turrets? There are three banks of twelve gun turrets. The gun turrets appear to be visually similar to the guns on modern warships. Each bank has three turrets side by side at the bottom facing down, another set of three just a bit higher in elevation also facing down, followed by three more just behind it facing up at the same elevation, followed by a last row facing up at a lower elevation. Each bank is lined up along the shield. The shield has design similar to that of a flight deck.

No.

HELL NO!

I've become a shipguy?!

Now it's true that not all ships are referred to using the feminine pronoun, the Russians I hear are the biggest users of the masculine when referring to their ships. But that still means I'm probably dealing with the world of Kantai Collection. Cute girls doing cute things while fighting eldritch abominations fuelled by the past grudges of the most devastating War (capitalized) the world has ever seen. Fortunately some of the eldritch beings are cute but seriously, the setting is worse than it seems. I've watched The Grudge!

And now I'm dealing with a sea full of that shit. Oceans maybe? Bah, I'm human. I'll adapt and survive.

Anyway, it's not for certain that I'm dealing with Abyssals, the enemies of the setting, but it's a good benchmark.

But first, ROB, or whatever that decided to put me here even though I hadn't die… Oh. I did die. My apartment building got blown down by a super-typhoon ala the Wizard of Oz. With me in it. Well, ROB you have my thanks that you didn't do anything dickish like changing my gender. I am not going to say any bad thing about you. It could be aaannd I'm going to kill that thought right there.

Time to man up and get to work. I take stock of my surroundings. I'm on a deserted beach on an island and it seems pretty small. Further away it looks pretty deep. Now, if I'm a shipman, then I can walk on water. Doing so will drain my fuel, but I have to experiment to find out what I can do. Although I do wonder what exactly I am armed with. Ah! Hello instinctive knowledge! Yup. Thirty-six 57 mm high velocity cannons good for anti-ship, surface, and anti-air. I need to compare it in the future though. I don't know if what I've got is good or bad. It doesn't seem good for much armor penetration though so I should probably stay away from battleships.

Wait, I'm a carrier, even without a proper flight deck. Am I carrying…? What?

I think I retreated from reality for a moment there. I need to focus on getting familiar with my abilities. As I step out onto the water, it kicks up in an effect, as if something is bigger than my foot. I turn back, grab my spear, slip on my helmet and take to the water for my sea trials. Huh, it's like rollerblading. Good thing I know how to do that.

It's in the midst of exploring what I was capable of that I finally realized that I have radar. I met my first kanmusu/shipgirl that way. I figured out radar when I all of a sudden realized that something was passing nearby. I was doing a modest… 30 knots? I detected a presence nearby. I automatically tracked it even if I didn't know what it was or how I was tracking it. I figured it was pretty big. However, that big presence on my senses was quickly followed by a much smaller one. It was weird. Then I noticed a beeping coming from my hand. Looking down I noticed a "watch" that had a face that looked like a circular radar screen. A line was going around and around like a single clock hand. I immediately identified it as my radar.

Just in case, I tried out a ping of sonar to see if I had one. No dice. Got to watch out for subs then.

Returning my attention to the radar screen, I noted that at the current course, the two blips would pass in front of me without me ever getting near them. They would pass me by. I'm not actually quite sure how far they are from me. I was debating on whether or not to identify myself to them. In the end, I decided to know if they were enemies or not by hailing them on all frequencies.

"Attention unidentified ships… uh, ahoy?" I need to work on my ship identification protocols. I had to wait a bit before I heard a response.

"Unidentified ship, identify ya'self." I heard on the radio. Wow, that is one… interesting accent.

"Uhm, independent ship…" I realized that I didn't know my original name. Instead, I simply recalled a new designation for my new life: Free Agent From Not Immediate Reality or F.A.F.N.I.R. Oh man, even though I remember being human and teaching kids, I can't remember my own name! I guess this is who I am now. "…Fafnir. Sorry for the wrong identification protocols. I'm actually a civilian." I had to wait a bit more before receiving a reply.

" Independent ship Fafnir, state ya' purpose." The girl replied.

"Uhm, I'm lost and would like to join up with you?" I asked. "Please." In a bit, the same person replied.

"Can't Fafnir. We're currently on an important mission and we can't slow down for ya'."

"Oh is that all?" I asked. "No problem, I'll just catch up then." With that, I increased my speed to 50 knots and began closing the distance.

"Are ya' kidding me? Civilian ships can't reach our military speeds!" she replied.

"Oh. I guess it's because I'm only technically or legally a civilian ship. I'm not in the military." I don't remember joining any navy in recent times. And I have no idea of this Wilkia that supposedly came up with my design. It sounds fake.

After some time, I spotted them. One was a tall girl with blue hair and the other was wearing a light blue kimono. "Coming up on your right." I radioed them. I saw the blue-haired one point her guns at me. I simply waved in reply.

As I got nearer, I could make out more details. I settled in next to them with blue-hair between me and kimono-girl.

The blue-haired girl was wearing a sailor-fuku with rolled up sleeves and a white beret. She had a very short black pleated skirt with a white line near the bottom edge going around the skirt. Thinking back to my knowledge of Kancolle, I think her name ends in –kaze. There's so many that I get them mixed up. Oh right, rolled sleeves means she's probably… Urakaze?

The teal (not light blue I think) kimono wearer was carrying a girl in her arms. Judging from her swimsuit, the carried girl was probably a submarine. I would have read her name on the front of her swimsuit but it was covered in blood. I easily recognized her as Iku though, otherwise known as I-19 because of her weird blue and pink hair and aside from her bloody uniform she was wearing nothing else.

Kimono girl's equipment was also an aircraft carrier's flight deck but it looked segmented. It wasn't straight. Her bow was carried behind her. Her quiver was half full I guess. I don't think she's a standard carrier though. I know all of them by sight and name. The new ones… not so well. She had dark hair that I hesitate to call black and pinkish red-eyes.

They were eyeing me warily since I was armed, armored, and faster than them considering they were doing 25 knots, probably slightly slowed by Iku.

"Ya weren't kidding me." Urakaze said in surprise and a little alarm.

We gazed awkwardly at each other for a moment. "Okay, hold on a sec" I said as I stowed my spear on my back and took off my helmet. I made a short bow while keeping up with them. "Independent ship Fafnir. Sorry about this. I'm a little lost. I am glad to see others in this sea." I greeted them and tried to disarm them with a relieved smile.

"How are ya' a civilian ship with that kind a' guns?" Urakaze asks incredulously while pointing at my flight deck.

"Ehehe," I chuckle embarrassedly before deadpanning "No one in their right mind would put guns in the middle of the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. It just defeats the purpose." I shook my head before asking, "May I know who I'm talking to?"

"Oh uh," the blue haired one began, "Urakaze, Kagerou-class destroyer." She keeps her eyes on me.

"Ryuuhou." The kimono-clad carrier replies. And that is a sweet voice! "I wish we could meet in better times." she says timidly. "But as you can see, we need help with Iku here." She says miserably.

"So… you need a drydock or a repair ship?" I ask.

"Yes. So I'm sorry we can't help you."

I close my eyes and wave her concern off. "I'm feeling safer just being near you. I was being honest when I said I'm a civilian ship. I found myself in these waters with no visible reason as to why." I opened my eyes just in time to catch a shared look between Ryuuhou and Urakaze. "I've never actually fired my guns yet." I remarked. "Being near professional soldiers is… reassuring." I assured them.

"That… actually sounds like what happened to us." Ryuuhou says sadly.

"Hmmm, do you also remember dying?" I ask, taking a shot in the dark.

That gets the attention of the two. They eye me warily again. "That's… actually true." Ryuuhou says carefully.

I nod and start to put on my helmet. "Then as people in the same boat, err circumstances, allow me to help you. You need to find allies?"

"Ya'. More friends means we can deal with those freaky ship girls and fish things."

"Freaky fish things?" I clarify before turning to Iku. "Did they hurt her?" I ask.

"Yes," Ryuuhou answers. "they attacked without warning simply telling us to sink."

"Alright, I have even more reason to stick with you." I declared. I turned my attention to my radar. Hopefully I could find new contacts and warn Ryuuhou of their presence. Although I was a battlecarrier, I didn't carry any scouts. What I did carry was… weird.

"Thank you." Ryuuhou said in relief. "Ano…" she started hesitantly.

"Yes?" I said while turning my attention to her.

"How will you help?" she asked hesitantly.

"Ya', have ya' got radar or something?" Urakaze asked me.

"Uhm, yeah." I said wait let me check. I closed my eyes to try and get information on my radar system. "Huh, SK, SC, Sg and Mark 4?" I turned to them and asked. "Does that make sense to you?"

Urakaze looked annoyed. "Again! Why don't we have more of that?!" she muttered.

I looked at Ryuuhou. "Is there something I missed?"

Ryuuhou looked down, trying to avoid my gaze. "The Imperial Japanese Navy had some problems implementing radar." She said. I suspected she was trying not to say anything specific.

"Huh, ok." I turned my attention back to my radar watch. I was soon alerted to new contacts. They seemed to be moving fast… for them. "New contacts" I told Ryuuhou.

She perked up at that. "Can you tell how far?"

"Uh sorry, I'm rather new to operating radar. I can tell you that at their and our current courses and headings, unless they have radar and spot us they might pass us by."

Ryuuhou looked downcast.

I decided to help her out. "The problem is: we don't know if they are friendly or hostile. You could send an air recon force to see if they're friendly or not and radio them our position if they are. If not, we can possibly go undetected. Alternatively, we could radio them, but doing so might lead to radio intercepts or whatever. They might track us back either way if we do."

Ryuuhou was looking down in contemplation. She also seemed to be looking at the injured and unconscious Iku. She looked up at me.

Hmmm. I think she is having trouble trusting me. If she sends a force, she has to give Iku to someone else. If she gives Iku to Urakaze, I would be free to blindside her. If she gives Iku to me, I could have a hostage. "How many are there?" She asked. I checked my radar again.

"I think… maybe five destroyers or light cruisers or…." I tried before I gave up. "Honestly, it's a moderate sized blob of contacts. It could be three heavy cruisers. I don't think it's big enough for a battleship or a carrier. They do seem to be in a close formation"

Ryuuhou looks down again. However, she soon makes up her mind. "Okay. I'll send a recon force." She turns to me. "Please hold on to Iku." She says offering her to me. I nod and take Iku into my arms. We wait as Ryuuhou sends a single flight of planes (I'm not good enough to recognize the type) to identify the contacts. Soon she smiles with relief. "Hamakaze, Yuugumo, Makigumo, Uzuki, and Akashi-san." she quietly informs us. Urakaze breaks out into a smile too. Hamakaze, a sister?

"Really?! Hamakaze?!" she asks Ryuuhou who nods as she seems to finally let go, as if she no longer carries a heavy burden. "They're waving at my fairy. I'll radio them."

Then my watch beeps as it detects new contacts. "Uhm, Urakaze," I start hesitantly. Do you think you could take Iku first? My radar just detected new contacts. I need to check them."

"Sure." she says and moves to get Iku. After handing her off I check my radar and notice the pretty big blob of new targets.

"Uhm… Ryuuhou-san?" I begin before looking at her and noticing her paling face.

"They're being chased by a large force." She informs us breathlessly.

I take a second look at the growing blob of contacts on my radar. "That's… yeah. That's a lot." I confirm.

She turns to me. "Fafnir-san, can you help?" She asks desperately.

I nod. "Yeah. If your allies are under attack I'll do what I can." I raise my shield. "They may look small but these guns have armor piercing ammunition. They probably won't go through a battleship's armor though. Plus, I'm a battlecarrier. Unlike regular carriers, I can take hits and dish them out. My armor is pretty thick though I don't have any comparison."

"How thick is it?" she asks.

"Um, 31 centimeters at the belt?" Ryuuhou and Urakaze look at me in incredulity. "Uhm, is that bad?"

"Fafnir-san," Ryuuhou begins, "Nagato-san has 30.5 centimeters of armor plating along her belt. She's a battleship."

I blink in surprise. "Oh. Cool." I nod. "Then I guess I'll reinforce them while you provide air cover?" I suggest.

"…Did you see?" Ryuuhou asked Urakaze as Fafnir left. He was going at crazy speeds.

"Yeah. He's got a letter pinned to the back of his cape."

"…Should we tell him?"

"Mmm, Yup. Maybe tell the others to tell him before they attack."

"Right."

"Ahoy!" I greeted the destroyers and repair ship as soon as I caught up.

Hamakaze was a white-haired Kagerou-class destroyer I was told. She had a uniform similar to Urakaze but was worn properly. She also wore black pantyhose.

Yuugumo had green hair, white long-sleeved collared shirt, a purplish school uniform with a dull teal bow. At least I think its teal. I think she's wearing steel-gray pantyhose too. She's the nameship of the Yuugumo-class destroyers.

Makigumo is Yuugumo's younger sister and she's short. She has brown or pink hair, I can't quite tell. Her eyes stand out because they're yellow and her uniform is the same as her sister's but it seems to be too big for her.

Uzuki is a Mutsuki-class destroyer. She has pinkish-red hair, a yellow crescent moon clipped to her hair, and wears a dark-blue sailor uniform with black collar and skirt with pinkish-purplish frills at the bottom edges of the skirt.

They surrounded Akashi, a shipgirl who was taller than them. She had pink hair, a white sailor uniform and navy-blue skirt and collar. She had cranes on her back along with armor plates scattered over her body.

"Hi! So you're Fafnir? Our reinforcement?" Akashi asked brightly.

"Aye mam. I.S. Fafnir. I've joined up with Ryuuhou-san for mutual protection. Pleased to meet you." I introduced myself.

Akashi inspects my armaments critically. She whistles appreciatively. "That's a rather unique design. Is it effective?"

"We'll find out. But I'm confident I can take on anything that isn't a battleship. Speaking of which, do you know the composition of your pursuers?"

Akashi grimaces. "Around seventeen ships. 3 heavy cruisers, 5 light cruisers and 9 destroyers we think. That's what we can tell from their guns. We found an uninhabited island with abandoned facilities and were planning to stay there but these things showed up."

I nod. "Then you know the plan?"

"Yeah, Ryuuhou briefed us. But, are you sure you can take them?"

I nod again. "I was told I'm essentially a battleship with a lot of smaller guns. I've got armor piercing shells and if things get hairy, I can launch fighter/bombers to help me. Ryuuhou-san has also launched a wave of torpedo bombers. I'll distract them first, then you hit them from the side while Ryuuhou-san hits them from above."

"Battleship? Are you serious? No way. How thick is your armor?" Yuugumo asks in disbelief.

"31 centimeters." I say before I notice Ryuuhou's planes have caught up. "Alright, operation begins. Look for your opportunity!" I tell them before breaking off and heading straight for the enemy fleet. I accelerate to attack speed.

"… Really?" Yuugumo asks thin air.

"Oh." Akashi notes." I just remembered. We forgot to tell him about the letter." Shaking her head, she begins reorganizing the destroyers. "Let's get ready to do our part girls."

The plan was rather simple. I would charge in first guns blazing and break through their lines. Once past, I would turn left and flank them on their right. Hopefully they would try to mob me. Either way, their attention would be split facing two enemies, me and Akashi's group. Then, while they are distracted, Ryuuhou's bombers would hit them from the air. Fortunately, they didn't have any air cover or battleships so I was pretty confident I could last until Akashi's group could put torpedoes in them. Although I was nervous, I took comfort in the fact that I could tank shots like the best of them. I just hoped I didn't need to deploy fighters 'cause then… yeah, they were just too surreal.

As soon as I got in range I opened fire. Fortunately, I seemed to have an autotracking capability, the guns were automated and began targeting everything. I had to tilt my shield up at an angle so that I could maximize the firing arcs. I also began taking fire but they were kind of spotty.

In my run up to their front lines I picked out a destroyer as the target of my spear. I guess I surprised them when I got in close because their fire became more sporadic. Then I was in the midst of them. One light cruiser actually tried to block my path. I shield bashed her and sent her flying. A destroyer charged at me mouth open but I stabbed it with my spear.

Huh. I think I'm really strong too cause I didn't feel the need to let go of my spear. I was able to easily wrench it out of its mouth as I passed. Then I was through. I increased my speed to flank and began turning left. All this time my guns kept firing.

As soon as I took up position on their right flank, I really focused on them. They seemed to be confused. I throttled down on my speed to match their and took manual control of my guns so I could focus on them one by one.

When I opened up with all my guns on a single target, I was surprised by how fast they reloaded. A destroyer was sunk after 3 seconds of sustained bombardment. It looked like a continuous stream of shells. Like machine gun fire except from 36 machine guns firing in concert. It took about 50 shells before exploding. Then it was hit by about 50 more.

I switched target and sunk another destroyer after 4 seconds. Another destroyer 4 more seconds after that. I changed targets to a cruiser and it took maybe 7 seconds to blow. Another destroyer went down 4 seconds after that.

That's when I tried to take out my first heavy cruiser. It lasted about 9 seconds of sustained continuous bombardment.

Holy crap their armor is light! They're melting away under hundreds of shells. Huh, maybe that was the point. At that point in time the torpedoes from Akashi's group finally hit. I don't even think the bombers had to finish them off. But they tried anyway.

Damn. I think I could have taken them all on. I wonder who came up with this design.

Author's Notes:

Hello readers! It's been over two years I think since I wrote a story or even updated. Real Life left me busy. But now, I'm unemployed and on summer vacation! I'm no longer a full time teacher but I'll take up Masters this coming school year.

In regard to my other stories, well it doesn't look good. I don't intend to follow up Herald of the Void because Games Workshop retconned the Necrons. Void Tyrant is waiting on inspiration. Unfortunately I can't play the game that inspired me in the first place. I'd need a better computer first. So we're looking at least a few years unless I can get my hands on the tabletop game.

Now for this story. I'm sure some of you are wondering about why I would write a story about Kantai Collection? The answer is: it combines two of my favorite subjects: Anime/Manga and History. I am a history teacher and even graduated a history major. And Kancolle is deeply tied to history. (I wish it would come out on the iPad so I can get the game.) The cute girls are certainly a bonus.

I also wanted to finally try my hand at a Self-Insert. I wanted to explore what I would do in these circumstances. This is new ground for me and will be largely written in the 1st person POV but with a few inserts in the 3rd person POV. Please note however, that I am also rusty. I hope I can entertain!

So, about my new body: I was largely inspired by the design by karbengo. I suggest you search on youtube his Let's Play Warship Gunner 2 Chapter 31: Covered by Ashes. He introduces a ridiculous battlecarrier design based on cramming a crapton of small modern guns all over the flight deck. He then proceeds to easily wipe out all the enemies on the map including battleships.

I didn't transfer all the innovations he came up with nor did I introduce the game mechanics which lets you launch regular planes on a blocked up deck. It's just not realistic. But don't worry, my fighters take off vertically and are not helicopters or Harriers. They're weirder. I think some of you can guess based on karbengo's comments. If you watch his later episodes you stand a better chance of figuring it out.

So here are my (approximate) stats (tentative): (mix of Wikipedia and Kancolle style)

HP 85

Firepower 4 (15) [36x]

Armor 70 (89)

Torpedo 0

Evasion 45 (75)

AA 84 (130)

Aircraft 6

ASW 0

Speed Very Fast

LOS 60 (110)

Range Short

Luck 15 (50)

Hull: Essex-class aircraft carrier (WW2)

Speed: ~59 knots (perfect conditions = 109.268 Kmh, 67.896 mph)

Armament:

Slot 1: 36x 57mm high velocity guns (auto-fire)

Slot 2: 6 aircraft (currently ignoring)

Slot 3: Essex Radar Suite (SK, SC, SG, mk. 4)

Slot 4: Repair Team

And Kai will make me stronger! ^^