Azur Lane: Story of the Blind Battleship Rewritten

Chapter 4: An Old Duel

All the ships were gathered outside Arkansas' room and were discussing about some things concerning him. Nagato then says, "He's completing promises..."

Both Enterprise and Cleveland look a little confused and ask, "Promises?" Nagato then nods, confirming their statement. She then says, "Yes. Before he was sunk, he made wishes, or promises with other ships during the final operation..." She breathes in slightly, shaken by the memories, but continues speaking. "The ones he asked for were the other ships. We can visit Sakawa tomorrow about her promise."

Vestal looks over to the room and says, "I'm worried about him." Nagato tilts her head to the right a bit and asks, "Why's that?"

Vestal responds to her saying, "When I was doing health checkups on him and checked his wisdom cube, it only showed the integrity at 47.3%." This surprised the ship girls around Vestal, and she continued talking. "I'm wondering how he can even stand, much less talk to us right now. Yorktown was in a coma when her integrity fell below 65%. Somehow he's still here. I'm gonna check him again when he's sleeping."

Enterprise nods a bit and says, "I agree. I'm worried if his integrity is that far gone already." The ships continued discussing about Arkansas' wisdom cube until the twin carriers Zuikaku and Shoukaku were walking by and found the group.

Shoukaku asks the group, "What are you guys talking about?"

Cleveland looks over and says, "Talkin about Arkansas. Apparently his wisdom cube is only at 47.3%." The revelation surprised the twin carriers as well, and Zuikaku remembered back to when Arkansas was coughing on her ship. She then comments about this. "When we were heading back, he was coughing slightly. I asked him about it, but he just excused it as how bad his ship was."

Vestal was rubbering her chin and said, "It's true that ship condition is linked to our health. But coughing isn't really common with kansen. That last person I've seen coughing before was..."

Shoukaku fills this in, "Amagi. When she was dying."

Vestal nods, and walks back into the room. She was grabbing some syringes and walked over and noticed Arkansas had a slight coughing fit while he was asleep. She panics when she finds blood near his mouth and hurriedly attached the machine to Arkansas. The machine displays the integrity at 47.13%.

The number was lower than the last scan. Vestal looks worriedly at Arkansas who was still asleep. She hooks an IV and heart monitor to Arkansas, takes a blood sample to test, and leaves the room. Walking to the test area, she begins testing the blood. It'll take awhile and she decides to walk back to the other ship girls.

All the other ships could see Vestal had a worried face, she immediately starts talking. "I don't have good news."

Nagato was slightly concerned and asked, "What's the problem, Vestal?" Vestal looks over to her and says, "I did a new scan of his integrity. It was lower. It was at 47.13%. I... I fear... I fear he might slowly be dying."

Enterprise asked, "If he's dying, why's he doing these promises. Surely he should just be resting."