Talk:Akitsu Maru/@comment-27516748-20180601174353

Beautiful girl, I've been counting the days since the day I rescued you from Escort Water Princess in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. February 26th to June 1st... that's 95 days. 95 days of diligent training, daily PVP, overnight expeditions.

I was determined to find you ever since I first saw your picture shortly after beginning my career. Expensive and frustrating attempts to bring you home through LSC proved fruitless, although I was able to find several other incredibly rare ship girls this way.

Leyte Gulf was hell.

When I heard that you were at the gulf along with numerous other ships, I immediately set out to rescue you and as many others as I could. I had the flu. I was running a high fever. I was in pain. Sometimes I had to give orders from my bed. Sometimes, we had to turn back. One lucky run, we saved a new girl. I screamed, a truly unholy sound because of my sore throat, I'm sure. I scared the other girls a bit, but I couldn't help it! I finally found you. What a beautiful sight.

People say you're not a particularly stunning ship. "What kind of ship is this?", they say. "It's just a ship with a flight deck on top. She's weaker than a destroyer, not even suited for combat. Not even a proper carrier. Where's her hangar and arresting gear?  The runway's not even long enough for planes to take off! What an ugly-looking thing. What's her combat history? A single landing at Java?! That's it?! What did she do with the rest of her time?! What a joke! The Army has no business building ships."

I'm sure you've heard all of it. Now, I want you to forget all of it, because I love everything about you.

What matters to me is that from the time you were built until the time you were sunk, you did everything you were supposed to. Even if it was Point A to Point B to Point C to Point D over and over and over until Queenfish got you, you were a good girl.

You ARE a good girl. You're a hard-working, professional, intelligent ship that takes pride in being an Army ship despite all the naysayers and is proud of her accomplishments. You should be proud of yourself. You got a lot of important work done.

Now, you've been given a second chance at life, and I hope that this time, your time on Earth lasts longer than just a few  wartime years spent making transport runs.

If it's alright with you, I'd like to ask you if you would spend that time with me.