Nagato

Alright so the last time I posted was last year in September, damn. The whole time I’ve been writing and reviewing this story and doing a bunch of other shit in my life that has just taken up more time than it needed too. Anyway I hope you all enjoy this probably long awaited story-or at least long awaited post-that confirms I’m still around.

Nagato

Tyler rolled off the side of his boat, hand on his face mask and tether in hand. Once all the bubbles of his splash dissipated he looked around and checked his gear; he made sure nothing was snagging, entwined, or faulty before he began his descent. He swam down to the belly of a goliath beast; one that at one time was the largest and most powerful beings to glide across the sea. He swam to the rusted and barnacle covered belly before he started moving laterally toward four massive propellers, each larger than his boat, and two rudders that absolutely dwarfed him. That was where he passed the tether through the gap of a propeller and its shaft and brought it up and over to tie it. He grabbed the tether and looked up to the shadow above, pulling the tether to ensure a good hold. He looked back down and stroked the seam where the propeller shaft meets the hull and watched the massive beast stir and awaken.

“You know how much I hate that.” A booming voice sounded in Tyler’s head, he watched the propellers ever so slowly turn. “Find some other way to wake me.”

“How about I try the slit again?”

“NO.” She boomed even more fearsomely in his head. “NEVER AGAIN. Once was TOO much.”

“C’mon, what did you think would happen? You know divers come here and you know divers love to touch shiny smooth things at wrecks. It’s was so shiny and polished, so strange, I was gonna touch it.”

“Pervert.”

“How was I supposed to know?” He started his journey towards the bow. “And you never said hi, either.” She groaned.

“Guhhh! Hi, Tyler.”

“Hello, Nagato,” he chuckled a bit in his mask, “it’s always a dumb chore to get you to say hello, I don’t like dumb chores.”

“I don’t like dumb divers.”

“Hey!” He started. “I’m not a dumb diver!”

“I never said you were a dumb diver, Tyler, you’re a great diver, it’s fuck-up that really pissed me off.”

“It’s really not that uncommon for divers to drown in

wrecks.”

“You know where she drowned.”

“I do, and that most certainly was a fuck-up.” By this time he was passing where Nagato’s pagoda style mast would have been, if it weren’t bent over and stabbed into the sand underneath.

“I even tried helping her, but no, she fucked herself too much for even me to help.”

“Don’t dwell on it.”

“I try not to. Anything new in the world?”

“Well, since I helped lift Prinz Eugen there’ve been a lotta others lifted and rebuilt. The most recent one may surprise you.”

“Who? What? Which ship was lifted?”

“I want you to guess.”

“Arizona?”

“The American ship in Pearl? No.”

“Yorktown?”

“Nope. But you were close with the starting letter.”

“Yamashiro?”

“Nope, but she’s a battleship.”

“No.”

“Hmm?”

“No way. Impossible.”

“Ah? That’s what they said about finding Titanic.”

“No way in hell you lifted Yamato.”

“She’s sitting in front of the Yamato museum right now.”

“Bullshit.”

“I got pictures.”

“Show me, fucking show me now!” He took off his glove so that his hand was bare; he pressed it against her exposed metal hard and thought about the video he saw with Yamato in the dry dock, being converted into a museum.

“Oh Hirohito,” she knew he had long ago died but still revered to him, “she sails again!” Her arms that weren’t rusted to the point of immovable tried to reach out and hug him but him being more or less on her hull and not anywhere near her superstructure kept him well out of reach. “Do you think they’ll pick me up!?”

She sounded hopeful, excited, expecting a yes from him. But the problem was that ship salvaging is expensive, very expensive just to raise debris and propellers and rudders. Salvaging the whole ship-intact at that- is multiple times the cost of normal salvaging, that’s money that people dream of in crazy illusions, and that’s only the first stage of the process. Then on top of that there’s the use of the slipway and the cost of restoration and repair, that’s another fortune gone, and that’s all just to get the ship back to being usable. After that there’s the continuous cost of maintenance and repair, fuel and consumables, taxes and tariffs. That’s money that Tyler, Tyler’s kids, and the kids of his kids, could never ever earn in their whole lives combined. But he couldn’t say no to her, he couldn’t ever hurt her. “We’ll see, because I don’t know.”

“Hmmpff.” That was all she responded with. He had worked on the recovery of Prinz Eugen and she knew that. “Could you at least pull some strings, see if I’m in a line up?”

“I’ll at least do that.” There was a quiet moment while he checked his oxygen tank.

“I really want to sail again; it’s all I’ve ever done.” Tyler stopped, she sounded sad and depressed.

“What do you mean?”

“I never did anything spectacular, I never actually fought against a ship in a duel, I never stopped a landing, I didn’t really do as much as an American battleship. I may have had many more jobs than an American, hotel for a prince, rescue ship, I was a troop transport a lot, a floating plane killer, and flagship many times, but all I have are a few plane kills to my twenty-five years of service. Sailing was all I did mostly. We’d sail here, sail there, sail around a bit, sail back over here, Yamato, Fuso, and I, it’s all we’d do.” Tyler patted her side.

“Yeah, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, it won’t do anything if you are.”

“Why are you such a downer today?”

“Why?”

“You’re not you. You’re sad and depressed and miserable, you’re normally cheery.” She sighed in his head, he’s known and talked to her for about a year and that still freaks him out sometimes.

“I’ve been thinking a lot lately, I’ve been having bad dreams, just, I’m feeling like I did after we lost, again. I’m feeling like when I got nuked, as you say. I just wanted to die for so long.”

“Let it out, I’m here.”

“You ever feel like that? You felt so bad you didn’t want to feel anything? You just wanted to lay down and die, to just go away? Leave it all? I did a lot after we surrendered, and even more as the bombs dropped on me. But if I really think about it I feel like I did after they sent off Yamato, when she was sent off for the last time. We were really close friends, she’d always be the one that the flag would go to but I was always around her. That didn’t matter. We did so much together that, that when she sank I died a little bit on the inside. I felt the same when Fuso sank. But Yamato hit me harder; she took more out of me.” She seemed to break down crying. “I can’t believe that she’s afloat again! It means so much to me!” This time Tyler did embrace her body with his arms, rubbing off some dead barnacles and doing his best to comfort her.

He spent the rest of his time with her comforting her and talking about what Japan is doing to Yamato, making her a naval war museum, and what’s happened to all the others that have been raised. He eventually had to leave so he did; he untied his tether and slowly ascended to the surface. He climbed into the boat and stripped off the heavy gear and stowed it all appropriately. He hooked his air tank to a pump that supercooled the gasses it pumped into the tank to their freezing point, so that it could hold many hours of air inside it. While this did make it many times heavier, it makes deep sea diving even more exploratory and diverse. It was this equipment that allowed divers to swim through Britannic’s hallways from bow to stern and back before they even needed to think about ascending. He started the pump and began the engine, sailing over to his camp out island not too far from Nagato. At his camp he wondered about raising her, he decided to give it a go. He called Tobias at around 5 o’clock. Tobias didn’t seem that happy.

“Tyler do you have any idea what time it is in Germany right now?”

“Oh shit. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, why’d you call?”

“Y’know that ship I like?”

“Yeah the Japanese one, what about it?”

“Yeah she’s alive.”

“You just found out? You’ve been diving her for over a year, wasn’t that your first wreck dive?”

“Yeah, way, way back. But I’ve known that for a year now..,”

“So? Did you just remember to tell me, or?”

“She wants me to pull some strings.”

“What, kind, of strings?”

“Is she in an order?”

“Hold on,” he heard the phone hit a table and a zipper open, and then he heard a lot of papers rustling as Tobias searched through. “No. No she’s not.”

“Fuck.” Tyler’s head dropped into his free hand, he rubbed his forehead as he thought. “Aw fuck, how am I going to break it to her?” Tobias could sense the sorrow in his friend on the other side of the world.

“You don’t want to hurt her, do you?”

“No, and especially not now.” Tobias didn’t respond, waiting for Tyler to explain. “She’s been really miserable lately, really depressed.”

“How depressed?”

“She wants to die.”

“Fuck.” What they had found on their journey to raise the first living ship is that when machines are rusted and in such deplorable states such as being a very old wreck they have the ability to simply die. They can choose whether or not to live or die, and many of the candidates were once alive but had given up on their lives. Depression doesn’t help that decision for life. “You don’t want her to die, do you?”

“No, I love her!” His fascination goes back to his childhood with Nagato, a relatively overlooked ship of history. But there was something about her that captivated his mind all through his life. “I can’t hurt her, I just can’t!” He was shaking with fear, how does he tell his lifelong obsession something that bad, and in such a teetering position? “What do I do, Tobey? What do I do?!”

“Calm down, calm down, I’ll make a mention of her at the conference later, well today now, okay? I’ll ask around and see if we need any testing done. That sound good?”

“Yes!” He was excited, still shaking but excited. “Yes! That sounds great! Thank you Tobias! Thank you!”

“Bye-bye.” Tobias hung up the phone and went back to sleep. Tyler put down his phone and stirred the soup he was cooking; his mind wandered and thought who would pick her up? America hasn’t actually picked up any ships, Britain has gotten a few, Japan got the Yamato, Prinz Eugen was sort of a dispute between America, who owned her at the time of the sinking, and Germany, that owned her when she was built, and Germany won the dispute but barely. It was a deal that Prinz Eugen would be a part of the U.S. Navy but with a German crew in German waters and would be modernized by Germany under American standards. Needless to say it was very complicated indeed and America is negotiating a tradeoff between the countries as well. He hoped that one country would outright claim her and no one else. As it turned out the next day, no one claimed her.

“What?” Tyler asked in astonishment.

“I’m sorry, but neither Japan nor America was interested in raising her, not to test anything, not to rearm her, not anything.”

“But don’t all those new systems that came up just two months ago need to be tested? I mean, they’re really just releasing it into the industry without testing?”

“They’ve already tested the systems on smaller craft and found that they all failed. If they failed on small craft sunk a week before, what’s it gonna do to a ship seventy years aged?” Tyler collapsed into a chair and dropped his head into his hands; his phone was on speaker mode.

“So,” he said with a sob, “she’s never being raised?” He expected a sorrowful confirm.

“No,” he picked his head up, “not necessarily.” Tyler looked into the phone with awe and scooted his chair forward towards it. “I also put out a general offer, once it was approved by the boss, but there’s a general offer out there.”

“So there’s hope?”

“Lots of it, it was out for about two hours and there were already three or four interested. I remember seeing Indonesia, United African Federation, and Australia-”

“Australia?!”

“Yes you Aussie, Australia.” Tyler was elated.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” He quickly said his goodbye and hung up, racing to get his gear together and get out to Nagato. He had all of his gear together and ready to dive just before sundown, night diving is very dangerous but a veteran diver of ten years like Tyler knows how to do it and how to do it well. He did as he always did by starting at the stern and tying his craft to the propeller. Afterwards he swam to the anchor and jostled the holds. “Wake up Nagato!”

“I’m awake! I’m awake!” She yelled in his head. “What? What is it? You’re excited.”

“You’re in a lineup!”

“I am!?” Her voice elevated in pitch and volume, “I am! When am I being raised? When!?” An arm that hadn’t moved in decades broke free and wrapped around Tyler. His tremendous excitement turned to fear; he’d seen her arms, seen them move and grab, but he’d never been wrapped by one. This arm was very much jagged and crusty, he feared for his cords.

“Uhh, well there’s no date but countries are looking at you.”

“Japan?!”

“No.” She paused and sort of whimpered.

“America?” She said with a depressed draw.

“No.” Nagato was confused.

“Then.., who?”

“Three so far,” he cleared his voice like he was gonna give a speech, “Indonesia,” he paused, “the United African Federation,” he paused again but extra dramatic here, “and Australia.” Tyler saw Nagato with a cartoonish grin as she responded.

“You’re Australian, aren’t you?”

“Bingo.”

“You told me a while ago about that, but why would Africa want me?” Tyler’s mind was completely blank.

“I’ve no clue.”

“Didn’t you mention that they’ve been pumping out new technology? Maybe they want me for something like that?”

“Maybe. But wherever you go I’ll go.”

“Why?”

“I’m all you have right now. Who else is going to be as comforting for you?”

“Yeah that’s true. Once I get my radio back I’ll have Yamato, so you can finally go home-if it’s not Australia that picks me up.”

“Oh I’m hoping for Australia, I’m praying that it’s Australia.”

“I thought you said you weren’t religious.”

“I’m not, that’s the thing.”

“So why do you want me in Australia so bad? You have other friends.”

“Well you have a lot of history with me-”

“I have a lot of history in general.”

“-but you were my first wreck dive.”

“Awe I’m flattered, how long ago? You’ve been diving for a while.”

“Ten years ago, when I was sixteen years old. I’d been snorkeling since I could walk, and so my parents got me diving before driving. My dad actually took me diving to you specifically because you’re not too hard to reach, hard to miss, well documented, and I had a model and a book of you when I was young.”

“Awe, so precious.” Tyler talked more about his first dive to her and then he told her what to expect when she would be raised. After that it was very dark and he had to go, Nagato said she was very excited to hear from him again and that made Tyler get butterflies lodged in his stomach.

He waited two days for more news and his patience paid off, he learned about who bought her. Australia had indeed bought her, to Tyler’s great elation, and they had bought her for two reasons. The first reason was to instill her as a Second World War museum in tribute to the Australians who gave their lives during the war and went into history overlooked, and the second reason was in tandem with the large science community in the UAF and Australia. They intended to conduct tests on her biomass for any radiation poisoning or mutation, basically they want to see the results of a radiation exposed living machine. This news came late in the night for Tyler so he would have to wait for the next day to tell Nagato, and as he tried sleeping he constantly rolled over and over, unable to calm himself. While he did eventually sleep his mind dreamt of raising her and the great elation they would share. Towards the end of the night while he slept he dreamt something different, he dreamt about confessing his love to her. He had never dreamt of loving her, marrying her (which Australia acknowledged and accepted), or having sexual relations with her; he only dreamt of her riding the waves elegantly, sounding her guns off with thunderous booms that echoed across the ocean, simply being with her and generally having a good time together, nothing that deep. So this dream of approaching her and announcing his love and compassion to her was different but wasn’t rejected or feared, he knew that she’d eventually know he loved her but he didn’t want that knowledge to change their relationship. In his dream she acknowledged it but never fell into his arms nor was disgusted by it, she simply accepted it and didn’t let that change their friendship. He wished and hoped it’d be just like that when he did tell her: just another thing he told her, nothing life changing at all.

The next morning he woke up later than usual but was able to get to Nagato sooner than ever before, and she was waiting, waiting excitedly for word on her fate. He didn’t even have to wake her up.

“Nagato! Nagato! They called!”

“They did!? What did they say?! What did they say!?!”

“You’re being raised!” She laughed joyously in his head and her hull creaked and groaned as she forced it to flex again. Tyler felt her awesome power as he had grabbed onto her bilge keel to get their direct emotions across. Tyler had never felt this much joy ever before in his life, her joy and his joy fused together to create a plethora of dopamine in their minds. They were high on happy.

He quickly spit out what it was she would be raised for and what plans were for her. She listened very closely, and tried to see herself there, as a museum ship with a big stick on her tongue as she said “ah” for the doctor. It made her laugh. Seeing how happy she was made Tyler very happy, very anxious to get her up and floating again.

“It’s set up for next month, that’s when the crew will get here! Oh I can’t wait! I can’t wait! I just wanna sleep the days away until they get here!”

“Sleep here, with me!” Tyler got that awkward feeling in his gut and he blushed like a school boy.

“I need air, and food.”

“No, no, we can do what Bismarck did with that deer!” That’s how she remembers the story of Bismarck and Rudolph. He didn’t think she exactly knew how that worked, it made her seem so naive, and she was nearly four times Tyler’s age.

“We can’t, though, you aren’t healthy enough.”

“For what? I just connect to you and that’s it.” He broke it down for her.

“Bismarck first mutated Rudolph into a humorph, after that she hooked up to him and sealed him up. Even though she did that when we pulled him out he was in such a critical condition we had to set up a full medical station there just to keep him alive while we, through Bismarck’s life systems, reestablished his immune system, circulatory system, parts of his nervous system, he was really, really messed up. I honestly never thought we’d bring him back to his body; he was so.., so mangled. Flesh was stripped off his body, silver-white bone was exposed, his clothes were in tatters and strands, and his body was honestly the same way. His skin that was left was yellowish-white and slimy, his eyes oddly enough stayed together well, so did his organs like his digestive system and brain but his lungs had collapsed and filled with water. His hair was really weird, very messy and slimy, too. He looked like he’s been dead for seventy years and thrown through a mincer and frozen. It really is a miracle that he was even alive, that his heart was still beating. It really was bad.”

“I guess it shows how far medicine has come in only a few scores.” She did not feel too good picturing that body, she rejected her previous idea and sent him home. Well, back to his camp. “Wait,” she stopped him, “how am I not healthy enough?”

“To mutate me, you’d get maybe halfway through it and we’d both be fucked. Like deathly ill fucked.”

She let him go that time and off he went. He got back to camp and decided to island hop back to a port to restock on supplies enough to last him until the exposition arrived. That supply run took up a week and he got back two weeks and four days from the expected arrival, so he decided to break out the easel and paints and start painting. It was something he’d acquired recently in his life, boredom aboard a ship can be a good catalyst for talent. He sat on the beach gazing out to where Nagato lays and he tried to picture what it’d look like with her on the waves again just after lifting. He started by painted the shore and the sun, the shore was in the foreground and he put the sun to the east and rising, painting the sky a purple orange for beauty. He then thought long and hard about what she would look like, trying to picture her not in her glory but in her decrepit state was very hard and stomach churning. He eventually thought of her in a way that seemed fit, he started by putting her long and short hull on the water in its rustic green and orange color, then he started building the structure and then superstructure. He put the most astern mast over like the Arizona’s fell and the forward pagoda mast bent forwards as well, the majority of the pagoda was intact with gun and rangefinder platforms barely hanging on, the smokestack was crumpled and fallen over. The gun turrets had their guns lodged up to the sky, like they had given out and gravity drug the barrels down as she was over turned. She was a form of her glory but indeed recognizable. He was happy with how she looked and so he put in the shadows and highlights before moving on to finishing the sky and clouds around her. It took him most of the afternoon to finish it, and once he got it done he carefully moved it into his shack and set it to dry before he recovered his paints, stand, and stool.

He made his dinner and started his mental preparation for raising Nagato, it starts out with combing over her hull looking for entry points that need sealing. Next the superstructure is examined for integrity while the surrounding area is mapped and plotted for objects that Nagato could run into if she gets caught in a current. Once the hull and superstructure is externally concluded as sound either drones or divers are sent into the hull and superstructure to get a entire conclusion on stability. Once that is done measures are taken to compartmentalize and prepare the ship for the stresses of being raised. Generally the compartments are over pumped with gas to make them buoyant and counter the external pressure of the water outside, normally dead metal ships of serious rusting wouldn’t ever survive this process but because living ships are very flexible and tolerant of these stresses they can take it all the way onto the surface. While on approach to the surface gassed are carefully taken out of the ship to reduce the likelihood of the ship exploding from the pressure. There are multiple methods, all used at the same time, to ensure the pressure is equal to the pressure outside and one method is someone is there with the ship asking if anything feels wrong or off. He saw himself navigating the p-ways and bulkheads and compartments, scanning her corners for holes, her welds for tears, her walls for openings. He saw himself giving the ‘a-okay’ and ascending to the surface, regearing, and heading back down to be the ‘hand of God’ as he rode her to the surface not too far away. It’s a good depth but it’s not a deep dive and well within veteran diver range. He did this day after day, night after night, every day and night until they arrived. They arrived with the usual two ships, one for towing and support while the other had the pump equipment and water gear. He tottered his boat out and tied up to the dive ship and readied for the dive. He went out on his own before anyone else because he already knew her, he really hated briefings, and he already knew way more than they knew about her position, condition, and attitude.

“They’re here!”

“I KNOW!” She was extremely excited, she couldn’t contain her excitement, her hull was creaking and groaning and moaning and roaring with her movements. This upset Tyler.

“Nagato you need to calm down! Remember you can’t flex and stretch like that or you could break in half and sink right back to the bottom again!”

“I know! I need to relieve myself somehow!” Tyler began getting a little anxious, nervous, and embarrassed. He wasn’t sure what that meant, he wasn’t sure how long they’d have alone, and he didn’t know if he even could.

“Just breath, don’t think too much about it Nagato. You’ll be calm by the time we raise you.” She kept squirming around, creaking and groaning. He decided for her best interest he would go up to the ship and request that they sedate her. Once the others had dived down they confirmed that they’d need to seriously sedate her because of her instability. Tyler participated in scoping her and the area out, updating her about her state and giving her the good news. “You’re in really good condition Nagato, very good.”

“That’s great, Tyler.” She said slowly, they drugged her good and made her pretty dopey. She still could function intelligently but she tended to react less enthusiastically and with a mellower mood. Basically they turned her into a pot head. He was inside her body where vacuum excavation of sand uncovered lesser rusted areas, some areas with manipulators, and he was in one of those rooms talking to her. He was well aware of her state and that she is still her but diluted, she’ll remember every bit of this and he decided to confess to her there and then. Just so there’s no overreaction about it to either end of the scale.

“Nagato, I’ve been fascinated by you ever since I was a wee boy, just a kid in grade school, and I’ve grown a real fondness of you, a fondness not at all light-hearted. I love you, Nagato, and I really want to see you happy and alive again, and if you don’t love me than I’m alright with that. Please don’t let this change us, please don’t change because of this, but know that I’ll always be ready and willing to help you. With whatever you need.”

“Awwwe.”

“I just don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

“Awe come here!” She pulled him into a hug against a beam. “I love you, too, Tyler. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, either.” The way she talked to him convinced him that she didn’t understand he loved her more than a friend, that he would marry her if she loved him the same, but he didn’t mind this. He didn’t mind it a bit. She loved him like a friend, just like before, and he was happy she didn’t push him away.

When Tyler told Tobias of this later he said that Tyler was in the friend zone, but Tyler didn’t see it that way. He saw being in the friend zone as actively trying to date or marry someone, that’s not what he’s trying to do with Nagato. Tyler’s not wanting to marry or date Nagato, he is willing to propose if she feels the same about him but as far as he’s concerned they’re just close friends with deep concerns and compassion for each other. They aren’t lovers and while he would be her lover he doesn’t want to be her lover that bad, he loves her but will let her be happy with whoever makes her happy, whether that be himself, another man or woman or ship or whomever.

Because of her relative shallowness night operations were viable and high brightness illuminate lamps were shone down upon Nagato and enough light made it to her to give the impression of a clear night with a full moon and no water, but even with this headlamps were issued and only external work on the hull was done. Tyler did try to talk to her as much as possible but what with work taking up most of his time down and sleep and gear prep taking up the rest, he really found it hard to talk to her often. Still the end goal pushed him past this feeling of guilt and he worked hard and diligently. Nagato was constantly sedated by a crew every four hours that would come down and rub in gunk that they affectionately called “whale dope” because of its drug effect on the ship and initial use to drug whales caught in nets to free them. For ships what has to be done is get direct contact to the metal, so no rust, no algae, and no paint. So all up and down opposing sides of Nagato’s keel were bright silver slices about a foot long and three inches wide.the team would come down and expose these again and rub the gunk into her system. This kept her relaxed and stable during the work. In a week everything was ready, the hull had been sealed and compartmentalized, the area cleared, the sub-tugs in place, and the pumps ready to do their thing. The only thing left to do was get a final confirmation from Nagato and get the signal from ‘The Hand of God’ and that’s exactly what Tyler was doing.

“Are you ready, Nagato?” He asked anxiously with his hands on one of her 14 cm hull guns.

“I’m ready to go! Get me home, Tyler!”

“She’s ready! Affirmative action, affirmative action!” The phrase rolled off his tongue and sparked his excitement; he heard the pumps’ vibrations through the hoses and saw the hoses twitch with the changing pressures. He grasped the massive gun in his hands and brought himself close to it, pressing his exposed cheek against the metal for Nagato to feel his excitement, his abundance of excitement. He felt her grow warm and affectionate; it made him grow warmer, too. He realized just how long it’ll take just to dislodge her from the mud, it took Prinz Eugen an hour just to get free from the mud, Nagato was bigger, heavier, and much deeper in the mud than her. So he started sharing childhood stories with her, she would recall specific events and tell him some highlights of her life.

That was more than enough time to get Nagato unstuck and being righted as she went to the surface. He moved from the hull mounted gun to the conning tower, a few feet behind the second gun turret, and held onto the porthole where glass once was. This was where Nagato wrapped her arms around him again, this time they were from under the bridge’s chin and were sealed with mud and so they were nearly brand new. Her arms were exploratory but not too exploratory; they would trace the cables, cords, and wires from gear to gear and trace his limbs and body. He wasn’t upset by any of this; all she wanted was to get to know him more.

“Will I finally be able to see you?”

“Yeah, you’ll get eyes so you can see.” At around that time one of her arms trailed a little too high up the leg and met his groin. At first she was unsure what it was, being such a different feel compared to his calf, but she caught on and he felt her bridge faceplate grow hotter as she blushed. She instantly pulled away from that once she figured out what it was.

“Oh um, I’m sorry-”

“No no, it’s fine. You can touch it I don’t mind. Anywhere you’d like.” She instantly went back for it. At that moment his penis and testicles were cold and shriveled up because of the cold water, but as her relatively warm hand and tendril explored in the region mixed with the warmth from her blushing body they grew to about their normal size. Nagato was actually entwined in how they did that. She tried to push them back into their first form but they would grow back as soon as she let go. Tyler noticed how amused she was by his cock; the more she toyed the more he resisted the urge to let it grow big and bold. He tried his hardest but in the end natural reactions prevailed and his member started to grow. Again at first Nagato was puzzled by what was going on, trying to fight it back but once it became a stronger opponent she blushed even more and let it be.

“I-I didn’t mean to do that.”

“I tried not to let it happen.” They both became embarrassed, but Nagato wanted more, she wanted to feel how big he got and how hard he was but she was too doped out to get in the mood. She was too mellow to get horny enough. Deep down she wanted it but the motivation didn’t reach her arms. Oh well. They talked more about their past on the way up and before long Tyler had to break away and swim off of Nagato before she broke the surface. He tread water and watched her hull break the surface. Compared to her painting, the painting made her look right off the slipway. Her masts were folded over and her smokestack had flattened at the top until it was level with the majority superstructure aft and forward of it, her midsection looked like a mess of steel toothpicks and crumpled paper balled up. Her gun turrets stayed firm and locked her anti air armament was littered everywhere. The impact dislodged the smaller caliber guns and dropped them to the floor along with various crane and aircraft handling equipment. Her spotlights were all shattered and strewn about while the support beams for the mast looked like bendy straws. She was blinded by the nuclear bombs when her delicate eye-glass was shattered, easily curable unlike human blindness, but her mouth was still intact and still shark-toothed. When she felt the crisp air flow past her again it made her smile, and the soulless sockets of shattered glass mixed with the rust and shark grin spooked and creeped many people out-including Tyler. He quickly broke his gaze away and returned to work. Nagato was towed first to an Indonesian island port for fuel transfers from her fuel tanks and to refuel the two supporting ships. Nagato arrived at her new slipway just by Campbelltown shortly after where work began on her restoration. It was more than just restoration work, however.

There was a team of six people with radiation measurement gear and probes and sampling lab kits, they were touring around the whole ship pricking and prodding and scraping and sampling. They seemed impressed with the readings but not surprised. After a few days Nagato’s body functions adjusted to life without being flooded and she could speak again, Tyler anxiously stood on her forecastle deck waiting for her to speak.

“ねぇ、タイラー、やっと緒に話せるね！” Tyler’s huge grin turned into a scowl.

“You don’t know English, do you?” He muttered, she, too, heard the other but understood nothing.

“糞、母国語が違うんだ！”

“I think we should stick to this for now.” Tyler said mentally.

“I guess we have to.” She responded, after a pause she chuckled aloud. “What were we expecting?”

“Like how we knew each other for years and never bothered to actually talk?”

“No,” she laughed louder, “neither of us cared to ask.”

“I guess that’s a little funny.” The next day her window frames were set and the replacement eye-glass was put into place. They had to shock the window to boost its life to align with Nagato’s. She opened her eyes and looked around; they were a deep red, almost a burnt red. Tyler thought that was a strange color, she had to have chosen that color-she said she originally had brown eyes-when she was being interrogated for anything she wanted as far as modifications went. That really seemed to be her big request. She had another, but that one is much more sensitive and will take a longer time to fulfill.

Because the majority of Japanese battleships and battlecruisers are wholly British designs and replicas, much of Nagato’s bodily attributes are copies of British bodily attributes. British living ships-mostly female for tradition and temper-were examined and studied by Japanese engineers in their building and final states. This at first wasn’t a problem with Nagato or Fuso or Kongo, but when they were modernized their original genitals that were on the fantail were moved and enlarged for a more realistic use. This was the problem because when they were enlarged they were not set up to be properly cooled, and Nagato, Fuso, and Kongo especially suffered from very hot and irritating genitals. Their original genitals were fairly small and while they had no ability to cool other than in a very sexually active state-that wasn’t very efficient at that-they were small enough that not enough heat was generated to become displeasurable, when they were enlarged they became displeasurable. They found that occasionally they could open the covers for their slits and swish some sea water around to cool themselves off, and that’s what Nagato was doing when she met Tyler, cooling off. That was her only other serious issue that she demanded be fixed.

The day after her eye-glass was installed was a national holiday in Australia, so no one was working on Nagato. It was just Tyler and Nagato in the slip. Tyler was walking astern of her and on the dry dock floor, and since their ‘bonding’ she was much more open towards Tyler. She knew he was there but took the chance to cool off anyways, she didn’t have any seawater to use and the air wasn’t too useful but she took what she could get. It was at least something to her. Tyler was gawking at how absolutely massive she was, the crews had cleaned all the gunk off and now Tyler could see all of Nagato’s steel plating and vents and pump wells, everything was massive. Then he saw her in all her glory. He didn’t see how big her womanhood was when he was diving but in the light from the reflective water in the slipway he could see it was absolutely massive. It blew his mind with its size; the Japanese must have expected some very big warships to pop out of there.

“Hey Nagato, uh, are you trying something?”

“Trying to cool off. A hosing would be very nice.”

“I don’t think any hose could touch you, they aren’t big enough.”

“Please try? You have no idea how bad this is!” He tried anyway and it didn’t help, the hose didn’t even have enough pressure to reach her belly. She was going to really let her anger go and go on a long and tremendous rant on things that piss her off when she remembered one way that it could be helped-but she could never do it to herself well enough. Tyler did say he would make her comfortable, help her with whatever she needs. “Tyler.., I need something from you..,” her mood has swayed from an irritated desperation to a seductive luring. Tyler was completely thrown off.

“Uh, what?” He stammered, slightly confused.

“I need your compassion, your drive, I need your lust!”

“Nagato, what the fuck? Where the hell did this come from?”

“I need something to help cool off, please? I need some shit to get me going, I can’t push myself far enough to get all nice and cool.”

“But sex? Really?”

“I mean you can of fuck me whenever you want but I really need something now.” That subtly aroused Tyler.

“So.., how does sex help?”

“Just get me wet and that’ll help so much. Pleeaasssse???” She tried pulling her fantail slit apart with her many manipulators and tendrils for grooming/play/protection/etc to entice Tyler but it didn’t really help. Barely anything was showing through the dark slit. Tyler was still excited, his heart was racing and his mind was shooting off thoughts everywhere, should he take it? Should he just do enough or go all the way? Would it hurt their friendship? Would it boost their camaraderie?  She felt his excitement and she played with it, teasing him and luring him, and the closer he got the more excited she got. She had never been touched before but she has touched herself plenty, out of boredom and desperation, and the idea of not being the one to do it made her heart race and her mind shoot out thoughts. His long and time consuming trek to her conning tower boosted both of their teasing and lust, their loins felt like powerful electricity coursing through their genitals! This tension and excitement only made the actual foreplay much more exciting, gentle hands passing over the bodies, fingers trailing around, naughty deeds spoken and threats of violation accounted for. They surely were ready for a good long evening alone together. During the foreplay Nagato had only revealed the sex part at the base of her conning tower, and in the moved armored plate’s recess was a vulva nice and flush with the surrounding ‘skin’ but when they actually went to touch each other the vulva jutted out from the tower.

“What are you? A man or a woman?”

“I’m a woman! You’re looking right at my vagina, aren’t you?”

“Well,” he leaned side to side, examining a short and stubby shaft with a few pipes along side it, probably for cooling her of for other bodily needs but either way, “it looks like a penis, a short, fat, chode penis.” That made her laugh.

“Having some insecurity problems, Tyler?”

“Maybe..,” that made her laugh even more while the thought of her having a cock shut his stiffy down. He wanted to do it with her but he needed some help so he took his hand and touched her vulva. It was warm and soft to the touch, plush and malleable, it restarted his cock. He slid his middle and ring fingers up and down the lips, she quietly whimpered and squirmed, closing her eyes and gasping in air. The more effort Tyler put in the stronger Nagato reacted, as he increased her efforts her vaginal piece gently thrusted up and towards him and his caressing before it’d return to where it started, in revolutions.

This pattern continued for a little while before he started pushing his fingers into her vagina. He first just brushed in a little, testing the water, and when he was met only with a quick moan did he continue. He pushed in quickly and only until his mid-joint before whisking it out again and again. She reached with a hand to his and showed him how she liked it-deep. She pressed his hand against her skin forcing his fingers as deep as possible and he quickly caught on, he soon took over thrusting his fingers deep inside before drawing them back. During this Nagato felt amazing, like never before, better than if she did it herself, she just had to grab something to hold on to, and so she reached out and gripped his shirt while all around her hull she grabbed onto various objects like chains, cable, structures, gun barrels and the like. Her hand on his shirt sporadically would break off and grip his arm, or a leg, or his back, just trying to get a grip of him. Her whimpers, gasps, and whines told Tyler he was doing a good job and to keep it up while the soft metal flesh on his fingers broke way for his entry and didn’t hesitate to shut tight behind him as he left, her metal flesh was tenderly soaked and heated, encouraging his cock for a taste of it. His long member throbbed against his underpants and yearned to be released from its isolation, and so it was.

His free hand quickly undid his belt buckle and wrenched his pants off before he started stroking his throbbing cock to rub out the easy one. That was when he used that hand to grab her hand and wrap it around his cock, nice and firm, and started showing her how to rub his out. She was a fast learner and very soon had him moaning and shuddering as he fought to last forever. She had a full grip on his cock and was enjoying how hard and thick it was when all of a sudden she was hit with a massive orgasm. “Oh shit! Oh fuck!!” She moaned, both in Japanese aloud and in Tyler’s head.

Her grip on him was tight and he took over rubbing one out while she recouped from her orgasm, and she had done a pretty good job up till then; Tyler didn’t take very long to rub out the rest of it. He sprayed his cum onto the deck between his legs and squeezed up all he had, he was ready. Nagato thought that he was done, that she was cool enough and could make it until night to ‘freeze’ as much as possible but she was wrong. Suddenly she felt his cock against her lips stroking up and down collecting her juices. Once his head was nice and wet he found the opening and pushed into her soaking vagina. It felt even better around his cock than his fingers; slick and plush flesh breaking way for his entry and gripping his member as its throbbing made itself well known to Nagato. Every one of his long drawn thrusts made Nagato squirm, made her hot, made her lust for more! Their orgasms had multiplied their sensitivities and heightened the pleasure to extraordinary levels, neither of them had gone this far for pleasure, and neither of them were going to stop here.

Nagato’s arms more intensely grabbed and gripped Tyler and they began tearing his shirt and leaving marks on his arms. She had lashed around his back and kept him pressed against her conning tower while he worked her over. His loving thrusts and penetrations makes her tongue slip and constantly she mutters things under her breath in between moans and yelps. He didn’t know what she was saying because she wasn’t sounding in his head consistently, but even with the language barrier he knew she was loving and enjoying this. He then tried to focus on his enjoyment, he almost transcended to another world when he did so, because his hormones were so lively and enthralling. Not only did it all feel so good and lustrous but also right and belonging, he didn’t feel like this was just a favor, no, but rather something deserved and wanted; like it was something they needed. That seemed to blow every feeling sky high, indescribable and unsurpassable. He felt his ecstasy rise and fall, rise and fall, rise and fall periodically like he was coming closer to orgasm but never quite reached it while Nagato was almost the opposite.

For her she knew that this was right, it was needed, that sex with Tyler was a must. Ever since being hopped up on drugs and releasing their feelings she knew this was inevitable and that she would be longing for the right moment-and her longing and patience provided her with the sweetest fruit. She was in a state almost identical to Tyler’s but rather she was achieving orgasms, very many orgasms, every time she felt him about to cum she would beat him to it and thus her tightening hold on him would disappear and he’d cool off. Every time she came she did transcend into another world for a while, a world where her whole body was enthralled and saturated with the hormones and the sensual feelings that Tyler was providing, she would have appeared to be stoned above cloud nine to someone watching but to her it was all in good cause. She would return to her relative normal state about three quarters ready for another orgasm and it was only after about twenty times did she realize that he wasn’t getting this high and needed some help. So she tried as hard as she could to keep a very tight hold on him so he could get off and after a few tries that is exactly what happened.

Tyler’s second orgasm hit him like a freight train. He jerked out of Nagato and came like a shotgun onto her vulva while he slumped over her massive tendril and drooled onto her conning tower. For a good seven or eight minutes he seemed drugged out and stoned like Nagato did when she would cum, but unlike Nagato he was down for the count. It was only after he came to did they realize the moon had replaced the sun and that they had been at it for nearly two and a half hours. In the moonlight he looked upon Nagato’s vulva and saw how covered she was in his semen. It was all over the face of the tendril in glops and sone were strung to each other and two thick strands were still on his oozing cock. He then noticed that her whole tendril face was wet with her coolant and that it left a wet and warm imprint on his crotch, while the front of his balls and inner thighs were also covered in it, too. It was very warm and enjoyable. Nagato felt his hot steamy cum all over her crotch and it made her mellow and gleeful, warming her as well. Her tendrils seemed to have minds of their own as they explored Tyler’s hot, naked, and sweaty body. Wrapping around and gripping thighs, biceps, pecs, calfs, forearms, abs, his jaw, his hair, and stroking his ear as she mellowed out and just relaxed. He felt so nice in her arms; his constant and steady breathing with his slowing heartbeat really made her feel homely and loved. She felt tired and she could feel how Tyler’s body was relaxing; he, too, was tired and both were falling asleep.

“That was amazing, Tyler, that was amazing.” Tyler let out a long drawn groan before he responded.

“Did that help? Are you better now?” Her arms wrapped around Tyler and held him tightly.

“Oh I’ve never felt so good before! You’re all I’ve ever wanted!” That made him feel special, made him feel even better than he did. “I knew you loved me, too, sweetie. All I ever wanted to be my man.” That caught him off guard.

“Wait, I’m your man? Like relationship marriage man?” She was confused.

“Did you think we were something else? I thought you knew since I was being raised.” He admitted he didn’t think she saw him like that. “Oh no, Tyler, you are all I want to be mine, you’re kind and caring, helpful and lively, and good at sex. That’s all I wanted, simple, yes, and you exceed in all of them-” a tendril slithered down to his flaccid shaft and held it in a coil, “some more than the others.”

“I can’t be perfect, what’s wrong with me?”

“Well, you could be more assertive. You’re too much of a yes man, tell me no. You are daddy after all.” That got Tyler thinking as he fell asleep in her arms, bundled up and snug against her tower.

Every night they were alone they had sex and every night Tyler became more dominant, yet every so often they would have sex more like the first night. Sex that was long, smooth, relaxing, and seemingly drug-induced. As Tyler became more and more dominant Nagato became more and more clingy during sex, and she began leaving cuts and scrapes on his back and arms. He never feels the pain at the moment it happens but it concerns him how she is cutting him-it isn’t very deep or anything but it’s still cuts. This went on and Tyler began noticing strange differences in his body.

His veins had started turning grey, and his finger and toe nails also began changing color, his stomach and guts would sporadically begin hurting and cramping. He would have fevers and aching limbs at times but it would pass and he would feel great, better than before. As it progressed more and more and his skin began turning grey he worriedly visited the doctor. The doctor had no explanation; he visited others who had no reason for it. It was when he visited the doctor that examined Nagato did he get his answer. “To put it simply, Tyler, you’re mutating.” He was dumbfounded. “We’ve seen this before, but that was in a more controlled environment and with many enzymes accelerating it. At the stable level, the life bearing metal and its alloys are very passive, almost submissive, but when agitated, or in this case radiated, it turns very aggressive and bonds with carbon-based matter. In extreme cases it can break through the stability of other metal alloys, but this is very energy consuming and taxing on the life-metal. Radiated life-metal in particular is weak-aggressive. To put it short your interaction with Nagato and her bodily fluids is seeping into your body and bonding with your flesh. You’re transmutating into a humorph where normally she would have to transform you.”

“So, what’s gonna happen to me?”

“We don’t know for sure, yet. So far nothing life-threatening. Your friend Tobias is going through the same changes with Prinz Eugen. The bomb testings must have destabilized Nagato and Prinz Eugen and caused them to be radiated, and their bodily fluids more aggressive than normal.”

A few more months passed and Nagato had been launched, she had in that time been fixed on what media there was about her and she had been acting very strangely. She had been demanding flesh foods like beef, pork, poultry, and fish, as well as some various metals to consume. It worried Tyler that he might soon be a father but nine months passed and nothing happened. In those months Nagato gained contact with Yamato over the radio and neither of them stopped talking for a week. After a year of pregnancy syndromes, in the night, Nagato wasn’t herself, and this worried Tyler greatly. As he was walking along the deck he spotted a slick figure climbing aboard the fantail. At first Tyler was concerned, who broke into the docks? After a few alternatives going through his head he felt that it was a curious swimmer from across the bay. It’s a lengthy swim but doable, and from the silhouette in the moonlight she certainly looked fit enough. He grew comfortable with the situation and approached the woman on the lower deck. “Hey!” He called as he transcended the ladder, “you’re not supposed to be here on the ship, y’know.” Quickly the figure turned to him and retorted.

“I am the ship.” The voice and eyes peering at him made him slip and fall on his ass.

“What the fuck?” She sounded exactly like Nagato, only without the booming echo her voice had. “Who are you!?”

“Tyler, it’s me, Nagato, can’t you see?”

“No, no not at all!” She approached him and in the moonlight he could see she was entirely naked and in her hair there was the silver fluid Nagato had inside her, Tyler was bewildered and lost. “Stop! Stop right there!” Nagato’s arms from the nearby turret reached down and held him against her barbette.

“Tyler, it’s me. It really is me.” He heard this in his head, but it echoed twice, not the booming echo but like twins were speaking in unison. His head hurt and his body shivered.

“What the fuck?”

“I made me, a little me, a human me.”

“H-How? Why?”

“I don’t know how, but the more we made love the more I felt human, the more I felt like I could be human.”

“How did she happen?”

“I wanted it, I wanted to be human, so I made me like a baby, but I’m full grown.” The way Nagato explained that was between speaking through Tyler’s head and Nagato, the human. Tyler had a panic attack before he passed out. Nagato helped herself carry him inside to where he slept and spread him out on his bed to let him rest easy. Nagato watched him sleep comfortably in the bed, she decided to climb in with him; this is where her new body flailed around trying to work the sheets. She was still learning how to walk and move, as well as most other bodily functions. She eventually found her way under the bed sheets and cuddled against Tyler; she didn’t want to move, she didn’t want to leave his side, and she felt very warm under the covers. This is when she told Tyler why she did this through his subconscious. “You said you thought you’d marry a woman that liked to cook in just an apron and try all sorts of new foods, I want to make that dream real like you’ve made mine.”

Fin

Nagato and Prinz Eugen are much like Ratbat’s living machines, their bodily life metal is aggressive, not as aggressive as forced adaption but will naturally take over a flesh body. Ask your questions in the comments! I still check the site daily.