yamato (kantai collection) drawn by shizuma_yoshinori

And then, the fated Operation A. The reborn 1st and 2nd CarDiv's desperate tactic of outranging the enemy was broken in the face of the enemy mobile unit's overwhelming air defense. The open naval battle in the Marianas was the Kido Butai's final decisive battle, ending in a one-sided and definitive defeat.

The Combined Fleet, driven into a corner, with their crushed resolution, fought in the open naval battle in Leyte. Zuikaku, Fusou and the rest, their bodies were literally used as scapegoats, which created a gap from which we could not recover. This would be when I would be separated from my little sister, Musashi. For the first time in my life, against the enemy fleet, I could let loose all of my main battery, but...

The world's strongest mobile unit, everyone, with them, I headed towards an ocean where an overwhelming amount of aircraft carriers cruised and their planes ruled the sky. I received orders to sortie in an ocean from which we would never return.

Then came my last spring. All surviving ships that could move were gathered into a single fleet. I lead Yahagi into our final two battles. We are the 2nd Fleet.

And then, Hiei, Kirishima. Both lost battleships. I remained on standby in the rearward Truk harbor. Yes, I was always ready to sortie.

While the fierce fighting continued, I never went to the frontlines. And then, due to my high standards of living, I was ridiculed with the title "Yamato Hotel". But, they're mistaken.

I am Yamato, the battleship. Always able and willing to fight. In reality, the decisive fights I looked for were nothing more than sortieing in a harbor.

And yet, the time to fight had already passed. I never could face the enemy force. In the end, Operation Z, the plan made for a fleet to engage in a decisive battle did not come into being once again. Operation Z was an operation to defend the Marianas Islands. It was planned with the intention of leading to a "decisive battle", in which Imperial Japan would inflict devastating losses to the US. Long story short, the plan got leaked and led to a colossal loss to Japan

In reality, with this battle, the Combined Fleet was devastated. We still had ships remaining, but... well, we no longer had either fuel or planes in a satisfactory amount. Also, the Southern Sea Transport Routes were shredded into pieces.