She wasn’t ever supposed to be the target of a summoning… for one she hadn’t been a ship in her previous life. She was pretty sure her previous life had been a normal American one. It had been peaceful, unlike the one she was in now. Where before there were college courses, martial arts club once per week, and DnD on Saturday nights… Now there was the roiling of a major tropical storm over her head. While her memories were fuzzy she knew she didn’t live near the ocean previously. The Great Lakes yes but nothing like the storm tossed seas around her. The sky was black and even the gods seemed to piety the girl as the heavens rained upon her. She didn’t understand what was going on… Where the hell was she and how did she get here?
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Far away in a different time, and in a different place had lived just an average human woman. Living in the good ole’ United States during the 21st century was born a blessing and a curse. A time of unprecedented peace yet also unprecedented tension and trauma. Growing up in a world ravaged by political violence, world spanning epidemics, and the shift away from previous ideals had left a generation scarred. While she would no longer have a name in the course of a few hours at this time she did. Kasey was about as normal as a 21 year old geeky college student could get. Growing up near Lake Erie in the rather dull state of Ohio she had lived through two decade spanning conflicts in countries she honestly couldn’t point out on a map, a pandemic that kept a whole world inside long enough to fry their brains, and the general unhinging that overcame her family and loved ones. In the last year of her 4 years at Ohio State University she had missed much but honestly dreaded going home for the holidays to visit the family. Things just weren’t really the same… Everyone was always angry about politics and the last thing she wanted was to spend her Christmas hearing about all the things that would happen in 2025.
If anyone would have told her that this would be her last day in this reality she would have scoffed and told you to stop spending too much time watching anime. Maybe later she would reflect and regret that the last conversation she would have with her parents before getting in the car to head their way was an argument. Even now as her memory of the day included looking at her reflection in the rear view mirror, she couldn’t remember what she looked like. It was almost like whoever she had been previously didn’t really exist. Sure the idea of her existed… she had a life previously. Friends, hobbies, late night gaming sessions with pizza, hell even what she had envisioned her level 15 Elf Bladesinger had looked like. Just not herself or her name.
She had pulled out of her apartment complex and was about to turn out onto the busy streets of Columbus when it happened. Almost too fast to even be aware something slammed into her driver side as she pulled out, killing her on impact. After all, not even the best built car will survive a fully loaded trash truck whose accelerator had gotten stuck. Though despite what she thought death would be life this wasn’t it. Instead of heaven awaiting her, oblivious into nothing, or gods forbid hell she found herself sitting on a storm tossed ocean. Her hands had gone up as a reaction to the car crash but now as she put them down the girl was reconsidering that maybe she had ended up going to hell? Maybe an endless, violent, and dark ocean wasn’t mentioned in the scriptures but there were plenty of other religions out there with hells… Maybe she had gone to one of them? Also why was she sitting on the ocean and not sinking into it? Supposedly you didn’t sink in places like the Dead Sea but even there you couldn’t literally sit on the water, right?
The environment aside, the ocean wasn’t the only thing different. Feeling her body she felt different… Sure she wasn’t scrawny before as her favorite physical activity was martial arts and had been since she was a kid but she had never felt this lean. Her skin, while soft, was tough like armor and what chest she had previously was lacking. Almost like she was in that awkward stage of development again. The other thing that caught her attention was her outfit… She was dressed in what seemed at first Navy Blues but with a rather cute pleated skirt and stockings. Maybe she was cosplaying as a stereotypical anime student with a military vibe? Either way as she reached her chest she noticed two things. A name tag that only stated CGN-42 but with no actual name and that her heart didn’t beat. The first was confusing but the second was downright terrifying.
“Oh shit, I really am dead and this is the afterlife!” Her voice yipped out in fright as she tried to scramble back, finding that she skidded across the water almost like she was on moving ground. “Wait… wasn’t there an anime or game similar to this?” She asked herself trying to recollect the rusted vault of her memory but couldn’t pull up any details outside of the concept. She was a ship? How, why, when, and what all went through her mind before looking down at the name tag again. Was CGN-42 her name? Didn’t those usually have things like SS Something or nother? Did she not have an actual name and that is why she couldn’t remember it? That still made no sense as she hadn’t been a ship before this mess. College kids do not suddenly show up on an ocean with fractured memories and having potentially lost a few years off her age. At least they normally didn’t? Maybe this was all a vivid hallucination before her brain died after being turned into hamburger by an oncoming vehicle?
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“Okay… Let’s assume I’m not actually dead just in case. Where am I?” She asked herself, deciding that just in case this was real she needed to figure it out before she died again, or sunk in her new case. Identity could be figured out later, survival was a bit more important. “Do I have anything on me that could help?” Asking nobody in particular the girl poked around in all of her pockets and her person trying to see if she had anything on her. Not finding anything physical the next option was to see if maybe she had any special abilities that would help? Especially as another angry wave smashed into her as if trying to shove her underneath the surface. Sick of feeling wet she struggled to get up onto her feet before finding that she could indeed stand on the rough water as if it was the ground. After some practice she was able to balance correctly without falling and then began to try and move. Almost like magic she found herself being pushed forward adding to the validity of her situation. She had suddenly become a ship girl and was now cruising through a stormy sea without much issue with experience under her belt.
“Okay this is kind of fun once you get used to it.” She laughed after realizing that the motion didn’t give her sea-sickness. It was almost as if this was where she belonged, well without the rain at least. The waves were kind of fun to ride, making her wonder if this was how surfers felt though she doubted it. “So I can move, but do I have any equipment? What about weapons? I’m pretty sure the C in my designation refers to Cruiser.” Again to nobody in particular she tried to talk her way through the situation. Deciding to try invoking the logic of the supernatural the girl focused inward to see if maybe there was some ball of magic or something like in fantasy novels and such.
Almost immediately after trying to view inward in a spiritual sense she could almost see what she was. Thinking of her body as a hull helped visualize and indeed there was a crew of what looked like mini-hers doing sailor things. Focusing on the captain, or what she thought was the captain gave her even more insight. Awesomely she didn’t actually have to speak or anything, the beings just reacted to her intentions and suddenly the world around her didn’t feel as scary as what she realized was her sensor array came on. Suddenly she could interpret the world around her in ways her previous self couldn’t. Everything within about 100nl appeared in her vision like the trippiest AR gear ever. Looking around herself she could see radar blips as red dots in the distance with ranges attached and the identity of the particular dot. Looks like GPS was working as well as she could pull up a holographic 2D map in her vision of the world with her currently being about 150nls west of Hawaii.
“Wait… if I have GPS navigation does that mean that we have satellites? Pretty sure that’s how GPS works…” She asked herself before coming to a startling conclusion. She was in something approximately similar to her old life. If that was the case maybe she could get back home and this whole thing could turn out to be some crazy alien experiment or something and she had just been dropped off. Was it likely? No she was pretty sure she had been hit by that garbage truck and was dead inside of her 10 year old Honda Civic. But maybe there were Americans and she could contact them?
Willing it to happen she managed to get her weird spirit crew to send out an SOS before turning towards Hawaii and setting course thanks to GPS. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad? Seems like she was going about 30 knots currently and counting the weather she could make it to the islands within about 6 or hours. Would she want to hike 6 hours in this weather previously? Nope not a chance in hell but here she didn’t seem to mind nearly as much. She must have some mass behind her because she was cutting through the surf pretty easily and the rain didn’t seem as bad when water ran off you. Even her clothes didn’t seem to get soaken so plus there!
“I always wanted to visit Hawaii! Not a bad way to spend Christmas!” She couldn’t help but cheer as chugged on ahead, keeping an eye on any new blips that appeared in her vision. With SOS on, maybe someone would find her before she had to make the whole trip alone?
