Azur Lane: Story of the Blind Battleship Rewritten

Chapter 7: An Important Question

Arkansas jumped up from his sleep in a cold sweat, putting his hand on his head, he took some deep breathes. He got up and was getting ready, his internal clock saying it was almost 4 AM, so it was time for some morning PT. His morning PT consisted of him walking around base and the exercise area, he looked to the rustling noise he heard behind the tree and grinned a little. He was being shadowed by a Sakura ship because Nagato wanted to keep an eye on Arkansas. Arkansas wondered what he did wrong, he didn't do anything too bad...

Except for the landmine... and the Siren.... and the shark.... and the Zero... Okay, maybe he did do some stuff bad. Arkansas shook his head and said, "I need some coffee." 

Arkansas ventured away from the exercise area and started wandering to the canteen again retracing his steps. He heard yesterday that his ship was nearly repaired, and it's rigging should be summonable? He never heard of rigging, so it confused him. After his repairs were complete, he'd be sent on a practice mission against a land target, and then head back to base for a shakedown cruise and skill test. 

Arkansas knew he was pretty undisputed in CQC, there was however a ship in the Royal Navy he heard of that had a sword. He looked forward to challenging her despite her ship having bigger guns... and apparently her not knowing the concept of pants. Arkansas just playfully sighed and ordered some rice, ohitashi, and coffee for breakfast. After which, he starts eating and drinking his food. 

His ears twitch, someone was trying to sneak up behind him. Trying to, they hadn't relaxed their breathing so he could hear them. He then hears, "AT EASE!!" Arkansas is still drinking his coffee completely unsurprised and turns around and says "That will only work once. You won't be able to sneak up on me again."

Zuikaku just laughs and says, "Why not?" Arkansas just has a sly grin and says "I know how you breath, my ears are sensitive enough to pick up heart beats. So don't try that." Zuikaku immediately is surprised and says, "I-I-I didn't know you could do that."

Arkansas only chuckles and says "Well these are fennec fox ears, I can hear just about everything. Anyways, why you here?" Zuikaku only coughed slightly and says "Got my orders to transfer with you to the main base, and was ordered to train you on what rigging is."

Arkansas yawns and says "Heard about it, have no idea what it is." Zuikaku nods and says, "Well, let's get to the practice area, I can show you." Arkansas just nods and finishes up his coffee. Afterwards he follows Zuikaku out to the practice area still unaware of what rigging was. It wasn't something of his world, and the most he could figure out from other kansen was that it was some sort of... exo suit? 

That just sprung the question for Arkansas of what the hell is an exo suit.

Zuikaku summoned her rigging, which was on the less grand side of an aircraft carrier's rigging. Zuikaku was thinking to herself, and then said "Rigging is an extension of yourself. You can feel everything that happens to your ship. It is a part of you, your soul pretty much. Try visualizing your ship around you."

Arkansas just sits thinking about what mystic explanation this is, but does it anyways. A few minutes later at the repair dock, his battleship started breaking down into mental cubes and formed around Arkansas. He felt the changes to it, not only did his back feel like it had another 26,000 tons on it, but it made him feel stronger and faster. His rigging appears in 2 hulls of his ship split apart in places and in pieces, with 3 turrets on each side of him. 2 of them were in a superfiring position over a set, while the others hanged at the sides. 127mm and 40mm guns were on his rigging as well along with a catapult on top of one his turrets.