Journey

July 27th, 2002 - South Yamato Sea - Yamato Empire

They had been traveling for about a day now, or at least, that was how it felt. There weren't any clocks in the cabin, and Hasegawa's watch, which was an electronic smartwatch, couldn't get any signal and wouldn't work. Hasegawa was passing the time reading, not that there was much to read. It was obvious that the cabin was never used, shown by the wrinkled sheets, the dusty shelves, and the empty lockers. 

The only things in the cabin aside from the two bunks, the two lockers, and the desk were three books. The first was titled, "Regulations Guide of the Imperial Navy" and was a five hundred-page rulebook for navy personnel. The second book was "Characteristics of the Myōkō-class Heavy Cruiser", and was a smaller guidebook that had detailed descriptions, schematics, and training guides for every part of the ship from her prow to her stern. The last book was "The Yamato Guide to Foreign Languages", and was the largest of the three. Because Hasegawa had no interest in military regulations, and he already knew most of the details of Japanese heavy cruisers, the last book was the one that Hasegawa spent his time reading. 

From these books and his brief interaction with the woman who called herself Myōkō when he came onboard, he had gathered a number of things about the world that he now found himself in. Number one: no countries from his world existed here, though many of them had similar copies. Number two: the copy of Japan was the Yamato Empire, which seemed to mirror the Imperial Japan of the 1930s. Number three: there did not seem to be an differences in language between the two worlds, for example, the Yamato language was exactly the same as Japanese. Number four: this world had technology at a similar level to what his world had had in the 1930s, but there were some strange differences. 

This was as much as Hasegawa had been able to gather from his reading. He wouldn't be able to find out anything else easily, as the woman who called herself Myōkō had confined him to this cabin, where he was supposed to stay for the entire journey. It was pretty spacious, and was probably an officer's cabin. It had a small bathroom that it shared with another cabin, but the other door was locked. 

The only times that Hasegawa was able to leave the cabin was when Myōkō took him to the officers' wardroom to eat. The two of them would sit with their food at opposite ends of the room in silence, with Hasegawa seated far from any doors or windows, and a handgun sitting on the table next to Myōkō at all times. They were always the only ones there, and, from what Hasegawa could tell, they were the only people on the whole ship. That should have been impossible. The Myōkō-class heavy cruisers required between seven and eight hundred officers and crew to properly run the ship. With only one person actually doing anything, the ship should have been inoperable. Instead, she was sailing across the seas, and was evidently combat capable. 

That was the largest of the strange differences in this world's technology: the ability of the vessels to operate un-crewed. It was something that Hasegawa could not explain, unless he started going into the realm of science fiction or fantasy. It didn't seem real, the way that the ship operated, and he couldn't understand why the woman called herself by the same name as her ship. But he couldn't answer any questions, and could do nothing but wait.

***

It had been several days since Myōkō had found the man named Hasegawa Kenji. She did not know how he had gotten into the middle of a warzone, or even why she was taking him to Tokyo. The only reason she could think of was a story that she had heard when she was younger. Kawachi was an old battleship who was almost as old as the Singularity itself. She was old enough to remember a story that had all but faded away in the modern age. She had shared that story with Myōkō, a story about the Builders, special people who came from another world, and had the ability to create shipgirls without the Singularity.

She had almost forgotten that story, until Hasegawa had appeared. He had appeared in the middle of the sea out of nowhere, on a rock that had not existed until he was on it. He had an identification that was not from any country in this world, but still seemed legitimate, and beyond the technology of Yamato, or any other country that Myōkō had been to. Now that the Singularity was gone, they had to try everything that might allow them to reinforce their military and strengthen their navy. To that end, she was bringing Hasegawa Kenji to Tokyo, to bring him before the Empress.