The lost battleship of the southern trench

Chapter 23

Yammy Pov, Flashback April 4, 2020, location Sasebo Naval base

It has been a few days since Kaga arrived at the base, and I've recently noticed oddities of how she is acting. I hadn't met Kaga personally until five days ago, but I knew plenty about her from Nagato, and Commander Akahito. She seemed similar to myself in many ways, but at the moment she seemed to be very depressed.

I don't know why but, Commander Akahito, and Admiral Nakamura thought it was a good idea to move Kaga over here. From what I know, she has a very close connection to Akagi. From the looks of it she's in a base that she is unfamiliar with, without any companions, and she's isolated away from everyone. The only time I've seen her was on a short training exercise, even then she seemed depressed.

I was worried for her, as she didn't seem to be interacting too much with anyone. I disliked seeing other people of the Sakura Empire depressed, or sad, and wanted the best for them, I wanted them to be happy. So I decided to see if I could possibly help. I walked over to Kaga's ship, where she was most likely and boarded her ship, making my way up to her flight deck.

When I reached it I could see her aircraft was parked neatly on the deck. But soon I saw her sitting against the landing gear of a Zero. I walked up to her and could see her face look blank, yet her eyes looked like she was thinking.

She didn't seem to notice me, as I walked closer, until I asked "do you mind if I sit here?" I pointed at the bit of deck right beside her.

She seemed to be snapped out of a trance, and looked very surprised at me "Y-yamato, what are you doing here?" She asked.

"I thought you were lonely, and needed a bit of company" I answered.

She hesitated for a moment as she looked up at me "Well... I'm fine by myself"

I let out a sigh "you don't seem fine, by yourself. You've been alone since the last exercise two days ago"

She hesitated again before she asked "what are you trying to get at?"

"I'll be blunt, Kaga" now I sat down beside her, and even with me sitting, I could see how much smaller she appeared to me "I'm worried about you. You're a new ship girl in this port, filled with some of the most elite ships of the Sakura Empire. Most any new ship girl would be nervous about being in such situations, as is whenever you're in an unfamiliar area"

"You're... worried about me?" She asked.

"Yes, I love all of the Sakura Empire, and I wish for the best for everyone. Including you. Right now you seem... depressed. Is there anything you'd like to talk about with that? I know I might be a stranger, but I find it quite relaxing to at least tell someone else about my woes"

Now Kaga hesitated for a long moment before letting out a heavy sigh "it's... multiple things, my failure with the Orochi, not being with my Dear Sister Akagi, being in this place with not so much as the fifth Carrier division..."

I nodded along with what she said "care to explain?" Then Kaga went on a very long talk about what has been bothering her.

She apparently felt down at what had happened with Orochi. She thought working alongside the Sirens was abhorrent, but they said that their technology could bring back the dead, specifically Amagi in that case. She went along with it so that her sister Akagi would be happy, but it only seemed to make things worse. The Amagi that came back was apparently only Orochi's puppet. And Orochi toyed with Akagi and her own feelings for its own use. It made her depressed, as it made her feel worthless. It said that Akagi only loved her because she saw a shadow of Amagi. Coupled with the fact that she couldn't spend time with her sister Akagi anymore, and she didn't even know anyone at the base past a few greetings, it just made things worse.