Night had fallen, and didn't seem to be in all that much of a hurry to pick itself up again. The stars were shining overhead, the clear night sky indicating that the Abyssals had decided to leave the fleet alone, for tonight at least. Kisaragi and Yayoi were on watch, having relieved Mutsuki and Mochizuki a few minutes prior.
They'd briefly stopped by the pool to bum coffee (to Kongou's quiet disgust) and a couple of candy bars off of Shinano, who, despite her injuries, handed them over with a smile that was swiftly returned by the two 30th division Destroyers.
Shinano watched them walk off, Kisaragi animatedly describing a chocolate recipe to a silent Yayoi, before sighing.
"Something wrong Shinano?" Kongou asked, lounging close by, her form visible due to the camp-lights the fleet had set up earlier, as well as the soft blue glow that continued to emanate from the waters they lay in.
"I just wish, I wish I had sisters like that, sometimes." Shinano looked over at Kongou, "I mean, Yamato is the best, and Musashi has always made time for me when she's available, but... Well, I'm not a Yamato, not really, I just have the hull of one. In the end, I'm just, well, me, Shinano, the single Shinano-class Carrier."
"Shimakaze's also the only ship of her class, and I'm sure there are others..." I-8 said through her radio, her face and upper chest still a horrifying mess from where her frontal compartments had imploded. The blond submarine floated nearby listlessly, mostly submerged to get the most out of the healing solution.
"Hah, sometimes I wish I 'ad that problem." O'Bannon added her two-cents, laid out with her damaged leg in the water next to Kongou, "My nameship, Fletcher, has forgotten my name five times," she continued, "The only reason I 'tink a lot of my sisters even bother to remember my name was that incident with the potatoes."
"That was a wonderful throw, by the way!" Kongou said, smiling widely, "I didn't see, but Akagi-san told me you landed a pretty clean hit on a Ka-class's bridge! Gave Shinano the time she needed to give that 'ol rust-bucket the good old one-two- ACK!"
Kongou had made to do the classic boxer's stance, only for her forearm, bereft of structural support, to fall off into the water.
"Kongou-Sama!/holy shit!/what happened?"
There was a minor scramble to find and jam Kongou's arm back on, and it was a good twenty minutes of Kongou's engineering team howling at her before things quieted again.
...
"I didn't mean to, you know," Shinano admitted.
"Mean wot?" O'Bannon replied, elbows dug into the dirt as she sat up to look over.
"To hit that Submarine, it just... well, I was just so scared that I moved before I'd even thought about it."
"You picked fight, then."
"What?"
O'Bannon laid back down, "'Fight or Flight', that's what the humans call it. It's an adrenal response, or something, I dunno, I'm not a massive-enough nerd ta give specifics. Basically, if humans get the bejeezus scared out of 'em they generally do one of two things," she held up two fingers, "they either A: Run, pissin' their pants as they go," She lowered a finger, "or B: Stand their ground 'an fight, pissin' their pants as they do."
She turned her head to look at the Carrier, "not many pick fight, you did, and doin' that probably saved you or Gambie a torp or three."
The mass that was I-8's head turned in the water towards them, "Sorry for letting them through, by the way, the pack we ran into sacrificed a trio of their subs so the rest could slip by un-impeeded, I don't know what happened after I was hit, but we only managed to bag two of them."
"Oh, no harm done ne! Me, Iowa, and Nagato actually ended up breaking the enemies battleline completely when we cruised forwards to get you!" Kongou said, waving (Carefully, with her good hand) away the submarines worries.
"...It's nice of you to try and pretty-up my failure, unnecessary, but regardless, Danke, Kongou."
"You speak German?" O'Bannon asked.
"A smattering, yes, I try to keep sprinkling words in occasionally, just to keep them fresh in my mind." The Junsen rolled a little, before remembering her eyes were still in no condition to look anywhere, "The language reminds me of some of the best times of my life, that journey across the world during the Yanagi mission was something I'll never forget. Brest in France especially was something else..."
"Yanagi mission? Oh... your THAT submarine. The one that-" O'Bannon stopped herself a bit too late.
There was an audible sound that sounded something like a sigh forced through a cheesegrater from I-8's mangled mouth, "Ja, THAT Submarine."
O'Bannon quickly tried to apologize, "I'm sorry! Me sister's always sayin' my mouths' faster than my brain, I..."
I-8's arm snaked out of the water to wave away the Destroyers apologies, "Don't worry about it, I've been called far worse than 'THAT Submarine', trust me."
Kongou looked a little sad as she stretched herself out, poking the floating Submarine with her big-toe consolingly, "hey dess, you know I'm here if you need to vent."
"I-It couldn't be that bad, could it?" Shinano asked.
"An old Australian man called me 'Floating Auschwitz', to my face once. Trust me, people have said worse than you." The Junsen gently swatted away Kongou, who hadn't stopped poking her with her foot, "it makes me glad that our fairies arent our actual old crew, I don't think I could handle that bullenscheiße again. That's part of the reason I had a refit before I even THOUGHT about going out onto the water."
"...Ok, I'm lost, what does that have to do with a shitty former-crew?" O'Bannon asked.
"When I was summoned, I had late-war armaments, that means I was filled to the gills with Kaiten torpedo's, and had the pilots running around inside me."
Kongou screwed up her face, "Ugh, nasty things, those were. Half the reason most of the subs equipped with them sank at all was because they had to stay so close to the surface. I'm glad that all that sordid business is over and done with." She nodded resolutely.
"Ja, no kidding, my pilots were quite relieved to receive Kouhyouteki to pilot instead. The brass at my summoning were more than eager to replace them as well, apparently, they presented an 'image issue' with the media, Pfff! As if that's not obvious."
"That's still better than mine, I almost collapsed when I was first summoned," Shinano said.
"Stagefright?" O'Bannon asked.
"No! I was only partially built when I sank, I wasn't even finished fitting out yet! I was on my way to Kure when-" The big Carrier grimaced, "a-anyway, when I was summoned, I was missing a good amount of structural support, I almost fell apart, literally, right then and there in the summoning room."
The two ships with discernable faces grimaced, while I-8 just made a noise that sounded like one.
"Jeezus, talk about first impressions huh?" O'Bannon said.
Shinano nodded, shimmying further into the pool "Keiko, my Admiral, you met her at the base, practically had me shoved down her throat, none of the other Admirals wanted me, too much work for a half-built failure, I guess. There's not much prestige to commanding the 'Carrier that sank immediately'."
"THAT'S NOT TRUE DESS!" Kongou thundered uncharacteristically, before quieting herself, "You may have started off as a blank slate, but you've more than earned just as much fame as any Carrier I've ever known in THIS life!" She pointed at the ground, reinforcing her point, "you may not have a large airwing, and you may not get into many fights-"
"T-This is my first real combat mission-" Shinano started, but the Battleship just cruised right over her.
"...But you've supplied more planes to Carriers in the field than I've had proper tea! And I'm a big bloody tea-drinker ne! You could almost say it's my 'thing'!" Kongou continued, "you've been a tremendous asset to any Carrier group, in-combat or not, and by extension, everyone who's ever relied on their air-coverage to make it back home!" She ended the small rant with her good finger pointed imperiously at the Carrier, who, for her part, stared at it like it was the barrel to a 18" naval cannon.
...
...
Kongou waggled the finger teasingly, "Now I don't want to hear any more talk about you being useless, ne? I'm sure the Destroyers wouldn't constantly pester you for snacks if you were, for one!"
Dramatic atmosphere sufficiently broken, O'Bannon cautiously nudged the Carrier's uninjured side.
"Hey, speakin' of snacks, got any more of them candy bars? Iowa cut off our Ice-Cream supply fer the nexttwo months, and I'm crashin' hard."
"O-Oh! sure! here..."
Kongou watched as the big Carrier passed O'Bannon a couple bars of chocolate, and if she did it with a small, slowly growing smile?
"Well," Kongou thought, leaning back and letting her Gammie-arm submerge more fully into the water, "that was my mission accomplished, wasn't it?"