Dead Oceans: A Kantai Collection Quest

-You seem surprisingly accepting of this

---

"You're not as suspicious of this as I though you'd have been Admiral," you say, as Admiral Tenpei finishes looking over Jintsuus armaments. "Even with video footage, you haven't asked anything about what she is. You've clearly taken her seriously, but..."

A thought strikes you. "It does seem like you know more about Jintsuu than I do. Like she isn't the first you've seen."

Tenpei chuckles, the tips of his mouth curling up briefly. "Sharp as your record said, Lieutenant-Commander. Excellent. Yes, you have the fight of it, and Jintsuu is genuine. Follow me, let me introduce you to the others. After that, there is much we have to discuss."

With that, Tenpei taps his cane on the ground once, and begins walking towards the largest of the buildings off in this secluded corner of the base.

"Asuka- he did say others yes? There are others like me?" Jintsuu bounds up to you, barely able to contain herself.

You gently pat her head, before starting to follow Tenpei. "That's what he said. Come on, let's go see who we're being introduced to."

Jintsuu nods, running off up the path, before catching herself and returning to a proper walking form as she nears the admiral. Akemi walks up beside you as you follow. "We've really got ourselves into something else here haven't we. Still, if there's more like Jintsuu, me and my rifle might end up being out of a job.

"Like you'd ever put that thing down. I'm surprised you left it in your cabin this time around," you scoff. "But you're not the only one interested in seeing where this goes."


After entering the main building of this compound, Admiral Tenpei leads you through to a lounge of sorts, where he says to make yourself comfortable, before disappearing off through another door, deeper into the complex. A few minutes pass in relative calm, as Jintsuu fidgets in her seat, before you hear the sound of footsteps approaching. You and Akemi stand, as Jintsuu snaps upright again, barely able to contain herself. The door opens, and Tenpei returns, leading six other girls.

Leading the pack is a girl in her early 20s, with short, light grey hair, wearing a very lightweight looking uniform in white, trimmed with a teal that matches her one visible eye- the other is covered by an eyepatch. Following her is a girl slightly older than her, lilac hair tied back into a ponytail, dressed in a more conventional uniform with a camera slung over one shoulder. Behind them is a pack of girls that all seem a few years younger than them, and one last girl who seems around Jintsuu's age.

The last into the room has straight black hair, tied back and with a headband keeping a few stray strands out of the way. Like the rest, she's wearing a uniform of sorts, this one with a yellow tie and a black outer thing from her ribs to the waist. Out of the pack of three younger girls, one is wearing a navy blue uniform, with straight blonde hair and green eyes, one has short blue hair done up in buns at the side with a sleeveless uniform, and the last and youngest of the three has the plainest uniform. Actually, everything about this last girl just seems plain.

As the crowd funnels in, Jintsuu glances nervously at you. It seems like she wasn't expecting so many others to be here.

---

[] Motion for her to take the lead and introduce herself
[] Motion for her to wait, let them introduce themselves first

-Motion for her to take the lead and introduce herself

---

You nod to Jintsuu, motioning for her to go ahead. "Go on, it'll be fine."

Jintsuu pauses for a moment, before stepping forwards towards the new arrivals. She bows, and salutes them. "Hello, I am Jintsuu, of the Sendai class light cruisers. I am so glad that I have met others like me."

"Nice ta meetcha too," says the eyepatched girl, pulling Jintsuu into a brief hug, thumping her on the back, then releasing her. "Name's Kiso. Always good to have another of us show up. Come on everyone, get yerselves introduced."

The older girl is the next to step forwards, giving Jintsuu a brief nod. "I'm Aoba- so, can you tell me anything about where you were? Anything juicy happened, or any interesting places you've been?"

"Sempai, please give her some space, she's only just got there," the plainest girl says, putting herself between Aoba and Jintsuu. "It's nice to meet you- I'm Fubuki, I hope we can be friends."

"Mmmm, It'll be fiiine," says the girl in the dark uniform, waving spacily to Jintsuu. "I'm Yuudachi. It'llll be fun working with you, poi."

The last two girls step forwards at once, the blue haired one speaking up first. "You can call me Urakaze! And here's Akizuki."

She indicates the other girl, who nods, speaking up herself. "Where'd you wake up? Oh- if you're newer, let me know if you're struggling with anything in this world- I've done a bit of research on things so I can probably help you with anything you're struggling with."
So many others... it's more than I was expecting there to be
With all the introductions being done, Kiso gets the rest of the fleet to give Jintsuu a bit of room, as she starts trying to answer some of their questions as best she can. After a bit of that, Tenpei speaks up. "Come on girls, why don't you show her around the base a bit, get her settled in. I have a few things to discuss with Lieutenant-Commander Kitsurabi."

Kiso salutes sloppily, and she starts leading the fleet of girls starts heading towards the exit. Jintsuu pauses for a moment by the exit, looking back towards you.

---

[] Ask if you can go with Jintsuu for now
[] Ask what sorts of things Admiral Fujimura wants to talk about
[] Just go with him for your discussion

-Ask what sorts of things Admiral Fujimura wants to talk about
-Just go with him for your discussion

---

"If I may Admiral, what is so urgent a topic?" You ask, not leaving the room just yet.

Admiral Tenpei pauses in his exit from the room. "Why, to discuss your future assignments. After an encounter like this, there's far more for you to do, and it would be a waste to have you wasting away on a firebreak." He says jovially, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

It does make a certain degree of sense- Jintsuu and others like her are quite clearly something kept secret to some extent, so you'd want to limit the people exposed to it. So as you're in on the secret now, it makes sense to transfer you to something else related to this. As you're about to move to follow Tenpei out, you hear Jintsuus voice from behind you.

"Admiral- if it is not too much to ask, may I request that I remain under the Lieutenant-Commanders command in whichever role she is in? She has given me no reason to doubt her capabilities, and I must express a personal desire to remain with her." Jintsuu says, arm held in salute, even if you see a slight tremble at her fingertips.

"Well well Lieutenant-Commander Kitsurabi, you must have made quite an impression." Tenpei muses, before replying to Jintsuu "I shall take your request into consideration; at the very least, she will not be being returned to a role out of contact with this fleet. Now, you should probably go catch up with the others, or you'll be left behind."

Jintsuu nods, rushing out of the room. You dismiss Akemi, who goes off to sort out the last docking affairs. Leaving just you and Tenpei to make your way to his office. He motions for you to take a seat by a large table, as he gets and unfolds a large map onto the table. It's a map of the seas between Japan and Australia, it's scale extending into the pacific as well. Several areas on the map have been encircled in red, while other areas on the map are denoted with small green markings. Given that these markings include the location of your firebreak base in the islands, as well as the base you're at right now, you would assume they correspond to friendly installations. Which would mean that the red circles must correspond to the Abyssals...

"Exactly." Tenpei interrupts your thoughts, sounding rather pleased. Were you that unsubtle with where your thoughts were going? "You are quite quick on the uptake. Yes, this map is one that shows the current situation regarding the Abyssals. They might seem to come from nowhere, or to emerge from beneath the waves where they please, but there are still patterns to their behaviour; times when their fleets surface right at whatever target they have are quite rare. Most of the time, their courses can be tracked back to an origin."

"And these areas would be where they lead back to?" You interject, before glancing down at the marked locations.

"Not exactly- these areas are... hotspots, for want of a better phrase. Areas not only where Abyssal courses often lead back to, but also where high levels of activity is observed." Tenpei sighs. "The issue is, that these areas have been growing. The Abyssals have been expanding their areas of influence over the past months, and I'm sure that as someone who's been in a frontline role against them, you've seen a worrying trend in the types of abyssals that have appeared as well."

He's right. Over the time you've spent in command of the firebreak, instances with larger or smarter, humanoid abyssals, have been growing more common of late. And with Tenpei's comment about their zones of activity growing larger... shit, the entirety of the phillipines is marked as a hotspot; you'd heard from some more distant relatives back there that it was bad, but you'd no idea it was that bad. You snap yourself back to the task at hand after a moment though- now isn't the time to think about that. "You're saying that there's an escalation happening on their end."

"Exactly."

And yet, despite saying something like that, that the enemies forces are growing stronger, when the firebreak plan of dealing with Abyssal fleets was already in play because you couldn't fight them conventionally, Admiral Tenpei doesn't seem concerned in the slighted.

---

What do you say after that thought strikes you?

[] You've got something planned- Jintsuu and the others
[] Where do you need me to do