Prelude One: Flickering Fire

"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.