The adventures of the young engineer and Prinz Eugen Volume 2.

No. 7 Chapter 8

The young engineer had taken apart the boot of Prinz Eugens rigging and was able to check on the steering's gearing. The mechanisms themselves were not damaged and only the pin that held the rudder in place and transmitted the steering movements into the rudder blade was bent. With some tools, a wrench and his own weight and strength he was able to realign the pin. Taking the rudder of the left shoe as a piece to reverse engineer a new rudder blade he was able to draw a couple of basic schematics which he needed to calculate the amount of metals he would need to build a new right rudder blade for the cruiser.

He was now on his way to the base's storage facility to talk to the repairship of the Sakura Empire. He was curious to meet the repair ship Akashi and wanted to see how different in spirit and visuals a Shipgirl is that is not a warship in its design.

Entering the storage facility of the naval base in Kure, the young engineer was amazed at its size. The building from the outside looked like an old shipyards hall. The inside on the other hand was an astonishing sight to behold. The giant hall was full to the brim with all sorts of naval equipment. The young engineer saw conventional equipment for ships, entire gun turrets for cruisers. Their size is that of a small house. Next to them anti aircraft guns and many other fittings. Suspended below the roof he saw all sorts of different carrier based aircraft. But two thirds of the giant hall were taken up by rows of shelves. They were filled with Shipgirl equipment. An entire row of shelves that was completely filled with sakuran battleship guns. Instead of the size of a multiple story building the gun turret was now only the size of a large, man portable crate. Behind the row of battleship turrets he saw row after row of arranged equipment. On the other long side of the hall he could see rows of shelves with differently colored and numbered crates as well as special equipment like cans full of fuel, stacks of Wisdomcubes and what looked like boxes for formal dresses. Walking down the left side of the giant storage building's path between the conventional equipment that had not yet been turned into Shipgirl equipment, he now saw a new group of shelves behind the special items. There he saw what he was looking for. With wisdomcube energy infused construction materials for future equipment manufacturing and rigging repair.

Finding a stack of lightweight alloys the young engineer was reaching out to grab a bar of the material, when a hand slapped his right down. "No touching of the wares without the consent of the shopkeeper." A little green haired girl reprimanded the young engineer. The latter was astonished by the sudden appearance of the little girl in front of him. What surprised him even more was the appearance of the girl. She had long green hair and wore a Sakuran navy outfit in cream white with black and golden cuffs and rims. What caught the attention of the young engineer even more about the girl was that she had two cat ears with green fur in the same color as that of her hair. Next to that her eyes had a distinct copper to amber like color and irises like a cat. "Who are you nya?" Asked the little girl. Collecting his thoughts the young engineer answered her. "I am the engineer of the Ironblood cruiser Prinz Eugen and I am here to procure materials for the repair of her rigging." He answered. "Nya? A customer? Please feel welcome, dear patreon. How may Akashi satisfy your requests?" The girl now asked him in a changed voice and with a cocky, yet polite customer service smile. The young engineer realized whom he just met. "Hello Akashi. It is nice to meet you. I have heard quite a bit of you." He greeted her. "You are looking for lightweight alloys, nya? I have the best in the entire empire." The repairship explained and praised her wares. "Thank you for your advice. I do need lightweight alloys as well as about 10 square centimeters of ultra high-purity metals and 30 square centimeters of high-durability Elastometers." He explained his need. "No worries, nya. I have everything you need and could ask for." The repairship answered while grabbing a bar of the lightweight alloys. "Come and follow me." She told the young engineer before she made her way into the labyrinth of shelves and materials.