Kantai Collection: Winds of the West

Chapter II: Calm Before the Storm

Nowaki closed her eyes. She relaxed her shoulders, arms, and hands. She was sitting on the grass, beside the other ship girls who had already accustomed to the activities of daily living. Even though she could hear the other girls grumbling and complaining about how hard the exercise was, Nowaki paid no heed.

"That's right Nowaki," Myrdin said. "First, concentrate on what lies within you. Your past self. Allow the memories to return."

Nowaki was grateful for Myrdin's praise. In the past days she had observed the man, one of the things she noticed was that he rarely says something unless he truly meant it. Getting complimented gave her the impression that she was on the right track. She was close to materializing her weaponry.

Myrdin had explained to them that since their essence, or their "soul" was that of warships, it was possible to bring back the weapons that they had used in their past existence.

"Magic makes nearly everything possible in this world. Thus, pieces of equipment you had back in your old world, especially the ones engraved on your memory, can be materialized through magic," he said. "Watch."

Myrdin took a piece of stone from his pocket. As he closed his eyes and started chanting in a language that did not make sense for the girls, the stone transformed into mud.

"That is but one application of magic. You girls are more complex," Myrdin remarked.

He then proceeded to explain that many spells were integrated in their creation, intended to augment the central Incarnum magic of their souls.

"In order to materialize your equipment, first you have to assemble the model in your mind. When you have a clear vision of what you want to create, you will have to 'feel' the energy of Incarnum that permeates this world and use that energy to give form to what you have in mind."

Myrdin added that they won't have to worry about using the energy of the world, as the amount we needed was infinitesimally small compared to the theorized quantity contained in the universe. He also said that the energy was not lost, but rather borrowed and later released when we dismiss our equipment. He stressed however, that the ship girls have to worry more about the Incarnum energy they use from their bodies because it is not infinite compared to the world. He said that they would need to periodically refill the amount that they have. In their case, food and sleep would be enough to replenish their day-to-day needs, but if something happens that caused a large loss of Incarnum, like a pitched battle or grievous wounds, they would need drastic measures.

"Say, Sir Myrdin, I have had this question in mind about Incarnum," Nowaki said. "If Incarnum users can shape whatever they wanted from their minds, why not have them create our weapons and use them instead. Because judging from our complexity, the costs of creating one ship girl would have been immense."

"Firstly, there is a problem in the number of available Incarnum users."

He explained that Incarnum was a relatively infant school of magic. Whereas the traditional schools of the Arcane and the Divine had existed for millennia, Incarnum and Psionics were but a hundred years old. Few users of Incarnum exist, and most of them had the inborn talent in sensing and wielding this energy. As a fighting force, there would be enough to form a squad, but they would be hard-pressed in a battle involving tens of thousands of soldiers.

"Second, we have no idea how your weapons are used. The only thing we could do was to provide your souls the means to manifest them."

For their weapons to manifest, Myrdin explained that the Incarnum contained in their souls would be converted to material form. This process incorporated scores of various spells in the creation of ship girls - like a miniaturized version of a popular spell fireball for their cannon rounds and stoneskin for their protection.