April the 8th, naval time 6:00AM, Crew's perspective.

      Vice Admiral Ito's speech to the crew of The Yamato went down fairly well. It would go on to be repeated on the other nine ships as well for those not listening to the wireless. In the speech it was mentioned that the original mission had been scrubbed. The enemy was unreachable and there was no foreseeable way back to Japan. This effectively meant, they were lost or MIA. Despite this news, there was now considerable excitement among the sailors. People felt relief that the suicide mission was over. This crazy world of impossible things was exciting, although scary. The men had dubbed this crazy world, Watatsumi, after the God of the Sea. According to ancient Japanese Dragon myths, the Watatsumi were huge dragons capable of becoming human. Where else could this be? Still others were saddened because they would never see their families and loved ones.

      April the 8th, naval time 10:00AM, Kenta's perspective.

      Kenta was rather tired from being forced to man a post at his 25mm anti aircraft gun. Four hours of nothing but boring scenery had driven him mad. Sure this was a new world, full of surprises, but so far all he could see where giant trees, and an evil giant sun burning his already tanned skin. Oh and the endless water. The ocean was murky blue, the heat and humidity were sticky, and the sun never stopped mocking you. The only good thing so far about this place was the water. Apparently the water had been deemed fresh enough to drink. This was quite shocking to everyone in the fleet as this appeared to be a sea. In an hour Kenta was scheduled to join a group of men. That seemed to be the only duty less boring than this. "Catch a big dumb fish, seems better than this boring post." Thought Kenta.

      With his shift now over, and the Asashimo not yet ready to sortie, Kenta made his way to the mess. There he found that other crew members of the Yamato had been posted on the Asashimo for the mission. Many of them were already eating. Some were there simply to meet the people they would be working with. All in all, the meal was pleasant. The mood was not that sorrowful and some even played around as they jumped really high and tried to hang onto bulkheads. One man had managed to jump over several feet. This new game had come out in the discovery of the decreased gravity, it seemed a fun pastime for some. Kenta thought it was overly childish. Yet when no one was looking he tried his best, he was still short mind you.

      April the 8th, naval time 6:00AM, Whaler's perspective.

      The Wani was a Giant fish that looked like a Huchen, yet was over eighty feet long, some longer. One could guess it was over 150 tons, and would have enough meat to feed the entire fleet assuming its flesh was edible. The name itself was given by the sailors. The Wani was a mythical sea monster, and this fish definitely lived up to that name. This Wani was a monster, truth be told. The ideas for capturing it were just as wild as the Wani was. Lacking nets, spears, or harpoons; the crew had set out to find a solution. Vice Admiral Ito gave them four hours to find a solution. For an hour they thought. Then a solution was presented.

      Seven or so fisherman who had been aboard as sailors put together an action plan. The plan called for making use of some of the war supplies to furnish the things they would need. After some heated discussions with some of the commanders, access had been granted. Within three hours, Arc welders had turned rifle bayonets into over 150 harpoons. Cabling and rope were both found or scavenged. Some of the hardware aboard had even been modified to pull in lines. It would be crude but effective. The Asashimo was outfitted with extra salt and electric coolers.

      The current situation would become dire in the next few days if the whaling plan failed to work out. With Gasoline now being extremely rare and limited, other crewmembers were put to work on switching over the steam engines to available fuels like Whale oil, or wood in a worst case scenario. Vice Admiral Ito had even ordered all engines in the fleet stopped, and switched everything over to batteries to conserve fuel. The exception being the Asashimo.

      April the 8th, naval time 11:00AM, Shouta's perspective.

      Shouta was another would be whaler. He had been selected purely for his arm strength. He'd been selected and trained within the last four hours. The group of trainees was made up of quite a few people. The group of two hundred men came from several of the other ships including the Yamato. Even now he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, the training was rushed after all. Well it was a bit too late for him to make excuses now.  Now aboard The Destroyer Asashimo, she had already started her engines in pursuit of the large Wani creatures.

      Considering the usual speed of the ship, the Destroyer Asashimo did fairly well with keeping pace with the large Wani creature swimming close to the surface. Shouta was already with a group of men bracing a single line. The first harpoons were shot at the monstrous Wani creature. To be precise one couldn't miss hitting a Wani, as they seemed to travel in large packs. The one they had hit just happened to be closest and the smallest of the bunch.

      April the 8th, naval time 11:10AM, Kenta's perspective.

      Everything aboard the Asashimo seemed to be going fairly well. The ride was particularly rough, but not the worst he'd had. Still it did not help Kenta's stomach as he tried to digest his lunch. He was manning another Anti Aircraft Gun. The 25mm Anti Aircraft Gun was not as big as his on the Yamato, but still he felt relatively safe behind it. They were racing away from the fleet, but it could not be helped, still it left Kenta feeling a bit insecure.

      The whaling seemed to be going successfully on the other hand. Each harpoon kept managing to hit it's mark and lines were slowly being dragged in by the men. The Wani thrashed on deck as men were pulled and yanked in response. Some took hatchets to the Wani while others broke the ammo conservation rules Ito had just recently established. The poor Wani creature suffered on the deck as it was filled with a few dozen rounds from type 99 light machine guns.

      April the 8th, naval time 12:20PM, Shouta's perspective.

      The first catch had been successful despite countless injuries among the crew and several concussions. Shouta's hands had been burned by the rope in his hands when the Wani had futilely tried to escape. All in all it was a good catch, but the Captain of the Asashimo was out to impress Vice Admiral Ito, and had ordered the men to catch another one.

      Thankfully the other deck hands had taken over the cutting and processing of the first Wani. It even seemed there was good news as the Wani had lots of fat to make into whale oil. This meant there was hope for the fleet to keep moving in the lend of Dragons, Watatsumi.

      April the 8th, naval time 12:50PM, Kenta's perspective.

      The second operation was now underway, Kenta was still clinging to his gun. This was partly because all free hands had now gone to processing the first Wani. "Man was that fish big." Kenta thought. And that was pretty much all there was to it, he didn't particularly want to get friendly with that fish corpse. It wasn't particularly clean or sightly either as the thing squirmed after death on the deck.

      Well the second set of harpoons started to hit home as a general alarm was sounded, this immediately halted all the men dragging in the second Wani. Everyone looked around and then some of them started to panic. There was three large creatures soaring through the air as fast as Zero's. They were impressively large, with wing spans over 100 feet and a body length of roughly 30 feet. The large flying creatures had a gold beak, were mostly black, and had white hind tail feathers and shoulders. The worst part. They were coming straight towards the ship.

      Without thinking or receiving orders, Kenta's terrified hands had already pulled the trigger. Kenta's 25mm Anti Aircraft Gun sprang into action. The first bang, bang, bang, was soon blanketed out. All twenty seven of the other Anti Aircraft Guns had also opened fire. It seemed that all those aboard the Asashimo had agreed what their priority should be.

      April the 8th, naval time 1:10PM, Ito's perspective.

      Vice Admiral Ito had finally managed to lay in his bed on the Yamato. He had been up for over thirty five hours straight now. The operation status aboard the Asashimo had been confirmed a success forty minutes ago. The success of the operation marked the first chance for survival the fleet had, since it had left from Tokuyama. Their chances were still slim but he felt he could now rest. Eye's closing rapidly Vice Admiral Ito shortly drifted into dreamland. For seven minutes, he had peace.

      Bang, Bang, Bang, the cabin door was shaken. Vice Admiral Ito sprung awake at the loud noise. "Vice Admiral Ito, you're needed at the radio!" Yelled Aruga, the Captain of the Yamato. Vice Admiral Ito responded and stood up grabbing his sword from bed. It was not yet time to rest.

      April the 8th, naval time 1:20PM, Shouta's perspective.

      It was absolutely terrifying, Shouta's ears were ringing. The Giant birds approached much faster than any dropped bomb. The Anti Aircraft guns were blazing all around him yet he still didn't move. It wasn't that he was heroic or brave, quite the contrary actually. His fear had gripped him hard, unlike the others he had not fled or taken shelter. Instead his grip on the tow line in his hand only tightened in response to the shrieks of the birds.

      April the 8th, naval time 1:23PM, Kenta's perspective.

      For what seemed like minutes now, Kenta had shot at those damned creatures. After the first one had been blasted out of the sky, the others took notice. The two remaining birds were flying nearly twice the speed of Zero's in circles around the Asashimo. At best he thought they had managed to clip the wings of one of the birds. The third bird in the water showed no signs of movement. Its bloody corpse did attract a large swarm of fish though. They didn't seem to be retaliating as of yet, but Kenta was still terrified of that large shrieking creature.

      Than it happened, both the birds flew abruptly right into the center of the Asashimo. One of them was hit with several rounds of fire from Anti Aircraft guns and slumped painfully to the deck. The other grabbed the Wani still splashing around on the deck. Within seconds the creature was gone with the Wani. It had snapped all of the harpoon lines attached to it.

      April the 8th, naval time 1:28PM, Shouta's perspective.

      Shouta was still standing in the middle of the deck grasping his line alone. That's when the giant birds flew straight down towards  him. Finally his feet had found the strength needed to dodge. The first giant flailing bird crashed into a heap  right beside him, much to his relief. Yet, his troubles were still not over, as the other monster flew towards the Wani. "Oh shit." He managed to say, just as his line was pulled along with the Wani into the air.

To be continued.