Ch 1 Chapter 1: Reborn on the Waves
Quinton Gounden never thought his life would end like this. One second, he was crossing the street, earbuds in, bopping along to his favorite song, and the next—a truck, huge and unstoppable, barreled toward him. His last thought? "I should've looked both ways…"
Darkness swallowed him.
When he opened his eyes again, the world was different. The air smelled of salt and metal. The sky stretched endlessly, painted with clouds drifting lazily over a sparkling ocean. But the strangest part… the ground beneath him wasn't ground at all.
He wasn't walking. He was floating.
"W-what…?" he muttered, trying to lift a hand, only to find… nothing familiar. No arms, no legs. Just massive steel plates, gun turrets, and decks stretching out farther than he could see.
A mirror-like reflection in the water caught his eye. His breath caught.
It was him—but not him. He was giant, armored, and terrifyingly powerful.
"Am I… a battleship?"
A sudden memory flashed: the games he'd played, the anime he'd watched… the name that had been burned into his mind: IJN Yamato, the ultimate battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. And now… he was it.
Waves slapped against his hull. The water surged with his movement, and instinctively, he knew how to command it. Guns turned at angles he hadn't consciously controlled, ready to fire. Armor thick enough to withstand anything. Speed, agility, and raw power coursing through his steel frame.
"Okay… deep breaths," Quinton said to himself. Or at least, he tried. Sound came out as strange vibrations against his metal body, but he could think—and that counted.
Suddenly, a ripple in the water ahead caught his attention. A fleet? Enemy ships? Sirens, maybe—the things that haunted the naval legends of his old world? They were coming fast, and Quinton realized something important: he wasn't just alive. He was in the middle of a battlefield.
"Alright… let's try this." He focused, feeling the hum of the Yamato's engines beneath him. Guns turned. Cannons loaded. The first enemy ship entered his sights.
The first salvo fired itself like instinct, a thunderous roar echoing over the waves. Water sprayed, metal screamed as the shells hit their mark, and Quinton felt something… exhilarating. This was power like nothing he had ever felt as a human. He was untouchable, unstoppable… but also, terrifyingly responsible.
He was alone. Completely alone, save for the enemy fleet advancing toward him. But for the first time since the accident, he smiled.
"Truck-kun," he muttered, "you messed up. You gave me a second chance… and I'm not wasting it."
The Yamato surged forward, engines roaring like a beast awakening. The ocean bowed to him. A legend had been reborn.