I wonder... do we count the Kancolle fairies as characters? Other than dolls they are independent beings after all.
For practical issues yes, most of them are part of the equipment of the shipgirls. Still is just a generic way to group them, because not all are identified yet.
I asked because there are tons of posts where the character number excluded the fairies. Looking at fairy_(kantai_collection) 1girl shows quite a lot posts with single shipgirls and one or more uncounted fairies.