Hymn From the High Seas (Azur Lane x Commander Male Reader)

Furthest Reaches, Deepest Depths

I grunt against a weight on my chest. Damn, it's cold. Dark, too. I try to move, but my body's unresponsive. Hold on. I can't... I can't breathe. What's happening? This weight's digging into my chest! The weight pushes into my torso and almost crushes my ribs, sending a rush of vomit up my throat.

Liquid spills out of my mouth and nose as I cough, and my chest burns and constricts with the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. Yet, I can finally breathe. I take a deep breath of air only for it to be blocked by another mouthful of salty liquid as I lose myself in a second coughing fit of burning lungs.

Turned over and holding myself up with my hands, all I can concentrate on is continuing to breathe as someone rubs my back. It's not vomit. That salty tang... Salt water? Realizing my eyes have been squeezed shut, I blink foolishly as I get a hold of my surroundings.

Prinz Eugen sighs and brushes wet, gray hair out of her face, crouched down with one arm over her knee. Roon rubs my back, a grateful smile on her face while Bismarck wipes her eyes behind her.

I look down at the floor and sit back with Roon supporting me. The floor's black with rugged basalt, the walls curving upwards into an arching ceiling which I mistake for the night sky. Bioluminescent plant life glows like a celestial array above us, granting us light in this dreaded, rocky abyss. The passage of time can only be told by the rhythmic drip of salt water from the walls and ceiling.

Roon throws herself onto me in a hug, "I thought... I thought you were..."

Eugen places my service cap back on my head, "Not a word of thanks, hm?"

I gulp down the bitterness of salt as I realize, "I... drowned... What happened?"

"A vortex sucked us into the ocean," Bismarck's voice echoes as she crouches down beside me, "None of us remember anything after that. When we came to, we found ourselves here. Only, you weren't here. You were in that pool of water over there," she points to a pool at one end of the chamber, "U-96 spotted the bubbles from your last breath and fished you out, and Eugen resuscitated you. You made me pray to god for the first time in a while by taking twenty minutes to wake up!"

I glance up at Eugen, "Thank you... I guess I owe you my life now."

"That's Prinz Eugen to you," she glares down at me.

I try to stand only for my legs to fail, "Sorry, Prinz Eugen."

She holds her hand out and mutters, "I was only joking."

Eugen pulls me to my feet, and Roon helps to carry me on her shoulder until I'm able to stand on my own. Now that my head's less hazy, I reassess the open chamber.

Basalt rock all around us. An underwater cave? An old magma tube, maybe? I look to one side of the chamber, observing the pool of water I'd nearly drowned in. It extends further down the chamber and into a tunnel that branches off into two different pathways.

Fortunately, everyone's in one piece. A quick check of Bismarck's rigging shows no damage, but that's impossible. Even after a miracle, we'd have a few scratches at least. We were literally eaten by a maelstrom!

Eugen and Roon stay by my side as I wander around and make sure everyone's unharmed. It just doesn't make any sense. We should be at the bottom of the ocean right now, drowned and turned into fish food.

The very fact that we're alive suggests this was no accident.

"Someone check their depth gauge," I look around for one of the submarines, "U-96, what's it reading?"

She stares forward, her eyes glowing as she examines her internal instruments, "Shit... think mine's busted."

"What's it say?" I press.