The 1st Fleet had no scheduled training on the next day so as not to tire them out, and thus Shigure could sleep in as long as she wanted.
She woke up to the sight of her beloved sister ship Yuudachi, who greeted her with a kind and patient smile, leaning in to give her a small but passionate peck on the forehead.
That was all that was needed to invigorate Shigure, who pushed herself up from her messy bed despite still feeling dead tired, the blanket hurled back as her feet made contact with the wooden floor, changing into a newly-ironed uniform as she lumbered over to her bathroom to do the usual song and dance that all girls did in the bathroom to get ready for the day.
After she exited the bathroom, having at least brushed her teeth and fixed her bed hair and used a wet towel to wipe away any sweat that might have accumulated on her face or body from last night's beauty sleep.
She exited the bathroom to find that Yuudachi had left a note on her bed, saying she'd make her way to the canteen first, in order to get her some breakfast, so that she wouldn't have to waste her time waiting in line. There was even a Poi at the end of her sentence.
God bless Yuudachi.
Shigure made her way over to the canteen, some of her muscles still aching and sore from the training yesterday.
Even though she was rather passionate about training as it was a means to become stronger, she was glad to have been granted a day off.
After Akashi's counselling session yesterday, she found that she had just missed her teammates' training session and was rather dispirited at not having gotten any training which was considered rather valuable to her as she had little actual combat experience and needed all the training she could get.
So she accepted Akashi's offer to make it up to her.
Akashi then ran her through an exercise regime that could help train up her physical condition and improve her flexibility and stamina, explaining to her that Shigure's muscles weren't as developed since she was created recently, and Akashi's exercise regime would make it much easier for her to catch up to her peers in terms of physical stamina and minimize the risk of muscle cramps or any sort of human setback that might occur.
Only that this exercise regime took place in the sports hall, Shigure being put through the muscle grinder as she was ordered to assume all sorts of obscure poses and do repeated motions to train up her body, having felt her muscles all throughout her body burn up as Akashi made good on her word to train the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer by stretching and straining her muscles to their limit.
Several times, like when she was attempting to do a split, Akashi would step in to 'help' her assume the pose as she felt her body get stretched and contorted in ways she never thought possible, and eventually wished she had never known as her joints creaked and her muscles ached.
She teared up a little at times, but kept silent as she knew that one needed to endure hardships to achieve great things, and Akashi was dead serious about improving her physical condition despite not being obligated to do this did touch her heart and made her feel a need to complete this without complaining too much.
Besides, Akashi was a repair ship and was thus knowledgeable about the limits of a ship girl's body and how to loosen up the muscles and joints within a ship girl's body to reach that limit without significant risk to one's body, Shigure never actually feeling much legitimate pain despite her muscles experiencing the strain of going through Akashi's grueling exercise regime.
And after the rigorous training session, Shigure had collapsed on the hall floor, desperately gasping for breath while feeling utterly exhausted and feeling as though every muscle group in her body was burning up after having been stretched and pushed to the absolute limit, Akashi wordlessly carrying her back to her room and plopping her back down on her bed before she almost instantly fell asleep.
She didn't know anything about the repair ship's past, but having seen her up close, Shigure could feel that something was terribly wrong with her.
While riding on the repair ship's back, Shigure noticed the red rims and slight eye bags that plagued her eye lids, along with her pink hair forming shadows over Akashi's face, likely from having to deal with critically injured ship girls around the clock.
Along with the pressure of being the head of an entire medical division, she had to evaluate the mental health of her comrades and play 'counselor' to the ship girls on their base while maintaining patient confidentiality, along with dealing with God-knows what else from her past.
Now, Shigure knew she wasn't the role model of perfect mental health, but she would like to personally talk to the repair girl sometime, and offer her a hug and a shoulder to cry on.
But back to the present.
Each step and every swing of her arms as she walked sent a pang of discomfort throughout her sore muscles, causing her to wince upon feeling like this even after resting up throughout the night.
This was the one thing that was a significant factor in their ship girl lives and how it factored into their battles and lifestyle, and that was their humanoid bodies.
While it made for easier maneuverability and made interaction between ship girls possible, having the best of both worlds with the power and armor of ships contained within the bodies of humans, essentially making them superhuman, it also had some drawbacks as well.
Their bodies required fuel to power their ship girl modes, and although their ship girl bodies could recover quickly with the help of nano-machines in the bathwater, there were other wounds that no machine could repair upon granting them sentience and recreating them as humanoids with their World War 2 memories intact, with emotional and psychological pitfalls abound and could pull them into a quicksand of despair where it was difficult to pull them out of.
They also possessed considerably shorter lifespans than the average human as they lived life on the edge, and were constantly being sortied and sent into life and death battles which not all of them returned from.
Some of them needed to be fed with gratuitous amounts of food, they all had to sleep in order to prevent fatigue and also needed to be clothed, things that they never needed as ships.
And when one considered the fact that they were often shot at and their clothes were often damaged along with sustained physical damage, it was no wonder that the tailoring industry was flourishing as they fixed or replaced shredded or burnt uniforms.
The ache that echoed throughout her body was one indication of such a problem.
In her ship days, even though she felt the 'pain' of being shot at and the strain of the ocean pushing against her as she raced across the ocean, there never was a nervous system that transmitted the sensations to her soul, or her mind, if she ever had either of those as a ship.
Sailors maintained her hull, and all she ever had to do was to do everything she could and leave the decision making to her captain.
Not now.
Now, she had a mind of her own along with a humanoid body to fight battles with and could use to communicate with her teammates, and was now able to form coherent thoughts of her own.
There were also smaller things in life she had to learn, one example being the morning rituals like brushing her teeth and eating breakfast along with downing her daily fuel and steel intake.
She also had to wear fabric that barely served as protection against what the enemies threw at them, instead wearing them to cover up their humanoid bodies to protect this thing called 'modesty'.
Not that these things mattered, especially when a gunshot from an Abyssal could blow off an entire shoulder, or when she could lose a leg from a torpedo coming her way and ensuring a painful trip back to the docks if they didn't outright die from these wounds.
Sure, they could recover from it far quicker than any human, but then, who'd want to survive excruciating pain, rather than die quickly and painlessly?
Shigure could now sort-of understand the many desensitized ship girls that were tired from the endless sorties, the never-ending suffering and the countless losses, and decided to end it all by taking their lives or were institutionalized after failing to do so.
No one wanted to live forever, especially when you were stuck in a perpetual cycle of violence and loss.
Shigure sighed, the drooping of her head causing her neck muscles to act up as she moved away from the barracks, wondering if something was wrong with her to start thinking about such morbid stuff this early in the morning.
Sometime in between the stroll over to the canteen, Shigure met up with her sister, Samidare.
She had sapphire blue hair and eyes, her long hair stretching down and nearly touching the back of her thighs as she wore a sleeveless, collared dark-black and white sailor uniform, bangs hanging over her forehead, the same dark blue hue shared by her elbow gloves and her black thigh-highs gracing her legs.
She was graceful, yet kind, as she bowed to her sister in greeting, and her smile brilliant as she regarded Shigure warmly, with a look of familiarity as she conversed with Shigure along their path to the canteen.
Shigure was relieved that another one of her sisters was on this base, and from her interaction with her, she didn't want to wake Shigure up after seeing her sleep so soundly after Akashi's stretching session.
Samidare seemed to be a kind ship girl, who personally wanted to meet up with her sister Suzukaze, and didn't have the best of eye-hand coordination, stating that she sometimes dropped items and tripped over herself while walking, but she did her best to cover up her mistakes, explaining that she had trained and developed faster reflexes to catch objects that she dropped.
They chatted about their time in the base, where Shigure listened attentively to Samidare going on about the happenings on the base, sharing the time that she sortied with some of the ship girls.
She had acquainted herself with the ship girls of different classes, along with learning about their lives and experiences, and how she had been learning about the art of knitting and embroidery from the internet, having quite a fair bit of spare time as a bench warmer on the base.
When Shigure asked her how she felt about being side-lined, Samidare smiled down, acknowledging her intention in asking such a question, and replied serenely that she understood her limits as a low-tier destroyer.
She knew that she wasn't in the priority list of girls to sortie, despite the Admiral trying to include everyone in the fleet roster, cycling its members as often as she could without interfering with the fleet's teamwork.
She listened to Samidare chat about her little adventures a bit more before they reached the doorway of the canteen. There, Yuudachi had already queued up for their meals, and she waved at them to get their attention, the two Shiratsuyu-Class destroyers making their way. Yuudahi had on her usual carefree attitude, especially now that she was going to eat with Shigure and Samidar at the same time.
"Oiiiii, Shigure-chan, Samidare-san! I waited in line to get your breakfast, so you'd better be grateful, Poi!"
Samidare and Shigure bowed in appreciation of the gesture, as Yuudachi simply gave them a wide grin that exposed her pearly-white teeth, happy that she was able to help her sisters in any way possible.
They sat down on the benches to recite 'Itadakimasu' before picking up their utensils to dig in. The meal was modest, the classic miso soup coupled with a bowl of cooked rice, and a hearty serving of salmon and eggs.
Samidare even had a cup of coffee in lieu of the usual fuel can that was served, Samidare explaining that she wanted to break away from the norm a little as she tried coffee in the morning to keep her awake.
Shigure talked to her sister ships, Yuudachi talking to her about her own training with the 3rd Fleet and recent global events concerning the ship girls.
Shigure nodded as she looked at her happy-go-lucky sister, known to a lot of ship girls as the Nightmare of Solomon due to her stellar performance at the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, and Shigure wanted to see her grow into the headstrong Kai Ni destroyer she knew her sister ship would be.
Yuudachi looked back at Shigure, and asked affectionately.
"Ah, but I'm likely talking a little too much, Poi.
A penny for your thoughts, Shigure-chan?"
Shigure blinked, but she gave Yuudachi a tired smile as she admitted.
"Nothing much, I'm just a little tired from training with Akashi-san yesterday."
Yuudachi's smiled drooped a little at that, expressing her opinion on the repair ship candidly as she leaned in.
"Maa, I don't want to talk bad about Akashi-san behind her back, I feel that she's bad news, Poi..."
Shigure's interest was piqued at that, asking with a little more concern as she thought about Akashi.
"That's interesting, Yuudachi.
How's she 'bad news', and before you ask, no, I'm just just want to hear my beloved sister ship's opinion on this."
Yuudachi blushed a little at that, shaking her head adorably to clear her mind as she gave her honest opinion.
"Well, I'm not sure how, but I can almost smell the blood on her hands, and it made me really uncomfortable the first time I had to shake her hand.
And she's a doctor with the smell of antiseptic, medical things and death, you get me, Poi?"
Yuudachi leaned down as she elaborated, picking up small amounts of rice with her chopsticks to eat as she did so.
"I mean, I don't have anything against her as a person, since she's nice and wants to help heal and repair everyone.
But her and the 8th Fleet are..."
Yuudachi shivered upon recalling something, and Shigure was now interested in the enigmatic 8th Fleet that had spooked Yuudachi so much, almost wanting to learn what was it about them that spooked Yuudachi so much to fear them all, despite the blonde Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer being friendly to everyone.
And now that she thought about it, although she had seen quite a lot of ship girls populating the canteen, where ship girls of various fleets had come and gone, she had hardly seen the 8th Fleet's members entering the canteens, Shigure hypothesizing that they may not want to eat with the majority of the Yokosuka Naval Base's ship girl population for some unknown reason.
Shigure looking back at the concerned Yuudachi and patted her head affectionately as she pointed out something that endeared her to her sister ship.
"Well, thanks for the heads up, Yuudachi.
I feel that I can trust you to detect the trustworthiness of other ship girls, much like a faithful hound would, hmm?"
Samidare giggled upon hearing that as she sipped on her coffee, and Yuudachi was pouting with her cheeks puffed out, exclaiming.
"I'm not a dog, Poi!"
Shigure calmed her down as she ate her breakfast, sharing her thoughts with Yuudachi as she originally intended.
"I just remembered that you're the Nightmare of Solomon, and I was thinking how wonderful that you'd eventually be strong to attain Kai Ni and hold that title proudly."
Shigure expected Yuudachi to start boasting about herself or start accepting Shigure's praise sheepishly, thinking that she had her sister ship all figured out.
The last thing she expected for Yuudachi to drop her chopsticks and clasp Shigure's hands tightly, looking into her eyes as she admitted.
"I-I don't want to achieve anything without you, Shigure-chan!
I admit, I don't think about all these complicated things like you do, but I know one thing."
Yuudachi looked into Shigure's eyes, and Shigure could almost see into her sister ship's green irises, which were actually aperture lenses cleverly disguised to look as human as possible but unable to completely hide the mechanisms underneath their humanoid bodies, Yuudachi exclaiming.
"I want to be with you all the way, Shigure!
I remember feeling so bad when I was revived, since I learnt about what you had to go through after I left, and how you you suffered in the nighttime where I shined, which made me feel a little ashamed about my accomplishments..."
Shigure flinched upon hearing Yuudachi say that, and looked away at that, unsure of what to say about that.
But her sister ship wasn't having any of that as she let go of Shigure's hands and clamped her face, causing her lips to pucker up and feel a slight sting upon her sister slap her palms on her cheek, continuing.
"I'm going to live on, Shigure!
I want to protect you at night so that you wouldn't have to feel afraid anymore!
I want to survive this war and live life with our sisters in a world where there's no more war.
So please look after yourself, alright, Poi?"
Samidare leaned in to lean in next to Yuudachi to explicitly state the support that they would always be able to provide for a sister ship.
"Shigure, I know that we can't change the past and replace those whom you've lost.
But I also want you to know that we're still here, just like you are, and it doesn't hurt to admit to us that you're afraid and allow us to carry some of the burden for you.
We're warships that have been through our share of war and death, and come back stronger because of it."
Shigure looked at their heartfelt expressions, blinking and seeing that they were absolutely serious about helping her out in any way they could.
Shigure lifted her hands to slowly pry Yuudachi's hands from her face and feeling the slight sting of the cold canteen air hitting her face, but she looked to the both of them as she gave her response.
"I appreciate you all being here for me.
And I want to say, I understand that our lives are fleeting and that we may sink at any time."
She looked into Yuudachi's eyes as she unflinchingly continued despite them wincing a little at the blunt admission of their own mortality.
"But I now know that those aren't the things that we should allow to cast a shadow over the fact that we can spend the present as the Shiratsuyu-Class sisters again.
I want to take the time to slow down and appreciate every meal that we eat together, every sentence that we speak from one sister to another, and every second that we spend together."
Gesturing to the trays of food that were left partially uneaten, Shigure gave them her best smile as she tucked in, feeling better about today despite her sore muscles still acting up as she let the fact sink in that she was eating a meal with her sisters, and took in the moment as her sisters brightened up and followed suit, the three of them merrily eating their breakfast as reunited sisters.
Shigure was walking down the wooden corridors of the barracks, distractedly looking out of the window and at the small garden that was surrounded on its four sides by ship girl bedrooms, probably an aesthetic choice to have a garden so close in proximity to the ship girls' bedroom, with sliding doors to allow access into the garden so that they wouldn't be woken up and be constantly reminded of the war.
Shigure was resting up since yesterday had been rather taxing on the 1st Fleet to have gone up against a stronger opponent, not that she would know since she missed out on quite a lot of it, and Shigure was taking the time to enjoy the quieter moments in life.
Her idle thoughts were disturbed and she was brought back to reality by a bickering duo, one of them energetically shouting,
"The 5th Carrier Division is better!"
Followed by a mature and patient voice that responded calmly,
"It's obvious that the 1st Carrier Division is better."
As Shigure located the source of the voices that came from behind a door, she stealthily made her way to the door that was simply marked '鳥の巣', which, translated into English, simply meant 'Bird's Nest'.
Shigure quietly activated her radar to scan the carrier bedroom, and found six occupants in there. One of the dots was pacing back and forth, constantly circling one of the solitary dots.
The other four simply sat themselves at different areas, and made no move to either stop the argument or attempt to join it, likely used to it by now.
The voices didn't stop even when she snuck up to the door, the energetic voice bragging on about how the 5thCarDiv was better, while the monotonous voice deadpanned that the 1stCarDiv was better.
It wasn't until the monotonous voice changed up the game, and intoned,
"The 5thCarDiv is better."
And the energetic voice boasted,
"The 1stCarDiv is better, and you know it!"
A few silent seconds passed before Shigure heard the monotonous voice quietly replied, and yet Shigure could practically feel the slight smile on her face as she lightly mocked,
"I'll keep that in mind."
Before Energetic Voice sputtered in protest at what she just said, trying to come up with a witty retort, before lightly sniffling and wailing, a light 'bamf' as Energetic Voice cried into someone's body as she whined,
"Shoukaku-nee! Kaga-san's bullying me again!"
As a sisterly voice consoled her,
"There, there, don't worry about it, Zuikaku. If you keep improving yourself, you'll eventually reach the level that the 1stCarDiv is on."
"B-But right now, am I not better then Kaga-san?"
"Errmm, h-have you ever won any of the archery contests that you've challenged Kaga-san to?"
"N-No?"
A pregnant silence ensued, before the sniffling reached a fever pitch, and a new 'bamf' could be heard as Zuikaku cried again, now sounding as if she was in a new position in the room.
"WAAAAHHHH!
Akagi-san, Kaga-san and Shoukaku-san are conspiring against meee!"
Shigure held up her palms in an attempt to cover up her snicker, and failed as her laugh escaped her lips, causing everyone in the Carrier bedroom to freeze up as the voices stopped.
Shigure was standing outside of the carrier bedroom, and was debating on the pros and cons of making a choice to run away like a frightened schoolgirl when the door swung open quickly and the interior lights slightly blinding her for an instant, before her apertures focused and shrunk to compensate for the increase in brightness, and she saw a ship girl at the doorway, her light tangerine kimono top and her green pleated skirt as part of her main uniform.
She also seemed to have some sort of board that covered her hips and crotch, held up by two bands of string that stretched around her hips to from some sort of apron, the board that covered her hips styled like a flight deck and had the katakana 'ヒ' on the top left hand corner.
She had a grey headband that had white stripes running across it, and the rising sun symbol on her forehead and holding her short brown hair down with a barely-noticeable side-tail on her right temple.
She was looking down at Shigure inquisitively, her eyebrow cocked as she was likely wondering what a destroyer like her was doing outside their room, Shigure's horrified, yet resigned expression calculating the odds of her successfully outrunning a carrier.
Shigure was sitting in a seiza position, her feet neatly tucked underneath her thighs and bum as her arms were straightened out, her hands clenched and placed above her knees and her head lowered respectfully in the presence of several senior ship girls.
The girl who greeted her at the door introduced herself as Hiryuu, and her sister, Souryuu, who had the same kimono top in a teal-green colour instead of the orange colour of her sister. She had her dark blue medium-length hair in twin tails.
She had a softer expression that was more sympathetic and understanding, but she didn't have a Japanese headband wrapping her head unlike her sister, and her apron having no katakana.
Two ship girls that were sitting on the same bed on the left of the room had the same uniform. A black muneate, or a female archery chest plate, likely made out of metal or something similar, her white kimono top and an azure blue pleated skirt beneath.
She had the same flight deck apron that was likely the norm for two-thirds of the room's occupants, excluding Shigure, and her medium length brown hair tied in a side tail to the left of her head.
She had introduced herself as Kaga, Kaga's apron having the katakana 'カ' on it. She had the same air of seriousness and her grave and no-nonsense expression directed towards Shigure.
The girl sitting next to her was rather jovial and carefree, her brown hair flowing straight down as her eyes sparkling at the newcomer. She had on a red dress with the same muneate her chest, along with the same several red ribbons holding her kimono together, the Red to Kaga's Blue.
Her flight deck apron had the katakana 'ア' identifying herself, and had cookie crumbs littered on it, her cheeks stuffed with food and the carrier possessing the enthusiasm and appetite of a squirrel as she held a cookie jar in her hands, half emptied by the carrier. She was introduced as Akagi, and waved to her happily when she entered the room, which Shigure replied in kind.
The last two sisters in the team, both wearing the same shortened red miko uniform dress and white top, steel thigh boots, and the same muneate that provided more cover than Kaga's or Akagi's.
The difference in them was that at their top right hand corner was the katakana 'ス', pronounced 'Zu' for Zuikaku, and the other had 'シ', 'Shi' the first katakana of the name Shoukaku.
Zuikaku had dark-green hair that was done up in long twin tails held up by white ribbons, and was like Hiryuu, but being more brash than the Kai Ni carrier, getting up in Shigure's face to question her about her presence outside of their bedroom, Shigure respectfully keeping silent.
Shoukaku was more subdued, standing back as her sister interrogated Shigure, awkwardly signalling and pleading for Shigure to forgive her headstrong sister. Her silver hair was long, and flowed down her back and a hairband was holding up her hair, positioned above her forehead. The hairband itself was red, with a white ring around it to symbolize the Japanese flag and Air Force.
Shigure finally raised her head, to find Zuikaku come face-to-face to her as she stated,
"How much did you hear, huh?"
Before Shigure deadpanned,
"Enough for me to assume that you and Kaga are a comedy duo."
Zuikaku sputtered as everyone in the room save for Kaga started snickering at how accurate the destroyer's assessment was from that short interaction between the two rivals of the 1st and 5thCarDiv.
The room had three double-decker beds, spaced evenly throughout the room, and the frame of the middle bed facing the door. There were two desks that were being straddled by the beds on the far end of the room, and there were quite a few bags of chips and an assortment of snacks that were piled up on the tables, along with a standard table lamp that stood over the pile.
The few drawers that came along with the drawer had papers filled in them, Shigure seeing several paper edges sticking out. The room was quite well maintained despite the number of occupants it held, and a soft white glow of the two lights on the roof illuminated the room, one directly above Shigure as she faced off against Zuikaku.
"H-Haahhh?! I'm not a comedian, I'm a proud member of the 5th Carrier Division!"
"Y-Yes, I could infer that from the 4 times that you proudly announced how much better you were compared to the 1stCarrier Division. Other than that one time when that you said otherwise."
"RRRGGGHHHH!"
"U-Um, Zuikaku, maybe you shouldn't get triggered by a destroyer getting the best of you…"
Shoukaku finally spoke up, trying to pacify her sister who was pulling at her twin-tails comically, obviously frustrated by Shigure's 'straight-to-the-point' attitude reminiscent of her arguments with Kaga.
"Yeah, since that's Kaga's job, pfftt!"
Hiryuu piped up before bursting out into a fit of giggles, Souryuu softly slapping her on the shoulder to discourage her from teasing the carrier like that, although she also had a smile creeping up her face.
Zuikaku only seemed to get more triggered by this, her arms cycling as she softly whacked Hiryuu, resorting to making babyish squealing noises as she was getting tired of receiving the brunt of the teasing from everyone.
Shigure observed the situation, drawing the conclusion that Hiryuu and Souryuu were the two disciples of Kaga and Akagi, the two default leaders of the carrier team. Zuikaku was likely the aspiring star, and Shoukaku was the Team Mom, trying her best to defuse whatever conflicts that arose from within the team.
Akagi was the carefree one in contrast to Kaga's stone-cold demeanor, which likely allowed her to calmly assess the situation and make the tough calls.
She was also likely the most respected carrier on the base other than Houshou, who Shigure remembered was introduced to be the mother of all carriers.
This was evident, when even the Kai Ni Hiryuu looked to Kaga apologetically, which the stoic carrier nodded in acknowledgement, and Hiryuu continued to laugh softly at Zuikaku, who was still acting out in frustration at everyone around her and oblivious to the subtle cues around her, Shigure being a silent spectator to the entire spectacle.
"Hmmph! That stuck-up 1stCarDiv bitch, when I get my Kai Ni, she'd better watch out, 'cause I'll be the best in the base!"
Zuikaku was complaining to the quiet Shigure, who was meekly following behind the Shoukaku-Class carrier as she was stomping around vehemently, trying to let off steam by gaining some distance from the source of her annoyance.
Although Zuikaku was venting her frustration, it was clear to Shigure that she was accommodating towards her, slowing her pace to allow the destroyer to keep up as Shigure took smaller steps than her.
Not that they were going anywhere in particular, Zuikaku simply taking a hike around the mostly-empty barracks to let off some steam.
"So, what do you think, does she need to take it down a notch? I can't stand the way she criticizes me every time, and point out my flaws!
UURRRGGHHH!"
Zuikaku got triggered again, pulling at her twin tails again in exasperation, Shigure wondering if her hair was supposed to be as short as Kaga's, and the only reason her hair became so long was that she kept on pulling at her hair so much whenever she got triggered or got too frustrated at anything, so much so that she stretched them out permanently.
But she gave her advice based on her earlier observations,
"I believe that the both of you aren't communicating well enough, and that this causes the conflict that exists between you two."
Zuikaku paused, and looked back towards Shigure with a befuddled expression that convinced Shigure, that she had to clarify herself.
"U-Um, it's just that, it seems that you're putting too much focus into your feud with Kaga-san, and if this continues, you might risk your life in order to prove a point.
And I do believe that while Kaga-san is tolerant of your attitude, I do believe that she doesn't want you to go that far just to prove that you're better than her."
Zuikaku seemed more confused than anything at this, and disputed,
"Yeah, but if I risk my life and I do prove that I'm better than her, isn't that a win-win?"
"Yes, but how many times can you escape death?"
"I'm a lucky ship!"
"High luck doesn't guarantee your survival.
Trust me, I would know."
Shigure was stung upon hearing Zuikaku say something as thoughtless as that, and perhaps it was something that Zuikaku liked to boast about, but Shigure wasn't having any of that as she personally didn't like anyone talking as though they naturally had an immunity to death.
Zuikaku looked at Shigure upon hearing that, and Shigure could see that the Shoukaku-Class carrier was suddenly hit with the weight of her own words as she cringed upon realizing who she was talking to, backtracking as best she could while unable to meet Shigure's eyes.
"Well, I just want to show that we're better than her. I can't stand the fact that she does everything so…"
Her face contorted comically, as her arms formed claws and she held them up at an angle to claw at her imaginary foe, obviously frustrated at Kaga's ability to back up her status as an unforgiving senior and an inhumane screech escaping her clenched teeth.
"She does everything so…so… so perfectly!"
Shigure sweat dropped as Zuikaku raged on.
"Every time I mess up a shot, she makes a snide remark about my form every, single, time, and as I turn back to shoot back a retort about her shooting stance, there she is, letting loose a perfect shot, and I'm too awestruck to even criticize her form!"
"But don't you think that instead of criticizing it, you should instead learn from it, since you admire it so much?"
"B-But, that would mean that I'd have to ask her to teach me her ways!"
"Isn't that the point?"
"Eh?"
Zuikaku's expression was now straight out dumbfounded, uncomprehending of the wisdom hidden in the destroyer's words.
Shigure explained sagely, her index finger raised in order to get the carrier's attention and to illustrate her point.
"You see, you must learn from the best, which is currently Kaga, otherwise you'll forever be stuck in this back-and-forth relationship, where you're not performing to Kaga's standards.
Right now, the both of you are painfully aware of that, and she's stuck with making cold but observant remarks, probably until the end of time, since you're too prideful to explicitly ask her to teach you, and she keeps a respectful distance.
Answer me this, Zuikaku-san, have you ever heard even one of Kaga's remarks, that explicitly attacked you as a person, instead of criticizing your form, release or conduct?"
Zuikaku started, raising her right index finger her mouth opened up to retort, before her mind stopped, racing to find one, even one incriminating comment in her memory drives, that she could use to prove Shigure wrong.
After a solid 15 seconds perfectly mimicking the stillness of a statue, when Shigure started to look a little uncomfortable while wondering if she had broken the carrier, before Zuikaku slowly twitched her finger and slowly lowered it in defeat.
She couldn't find it.
Shigure could see that the Shoukaku-Class carrier had truly tried, but no matter how hard she tried to protest, Kaga-san's comments had likely all been beneficial in some way to help her improve her shooting form of to point out a flaw, without direct physical intervention to help her or attacking Zuikaku directly.
Shigure dropped her finger to let her hand hang by her side, closing in and asking.
"Is it truly such a repulsive idea, to ask your self-proclaimed rival for lessons to help improve yourself?"
Zuikaku sighed, replying meekly.
"Not entirely… It's just…"
Shigure leaned in closer to give her full attention, as she noticed Zuikaku looking uncomfortable, her cheeks colouring.
"I'm embarrassed…"
Shigure had to mentally replay that last part, and manually amplify it to hear what she said.
And when she heard it, she drew back, observing Zuikaku who was looking as if she wanted to be anywhere other than here, but it was hidden well behind her façade of toughness.
As to the reason why…
Zuikaku had feelings for Kaga.
She mentally took a step back, and reviewed everything about the situation.
From what she learnt from Junyou when she spoke of the modern world, the tsun part of tsundere meant to be initially cold to who you liked, or at least try to hide your feelings.
Check.
The reason of the whole rivalry thing was likely to get Kaga's attention, the target of her affection.
Check.
Embarrassment at taking the initiative, and getting closer with her crush via a one-to-one training session?
Check.
She noticed several features on Zuikaku's body as well, her contracted pupils and slightly colored cheeks along with a few stray beads of sweat to indicate heightened heartbeat, and her body posture awkwardly held up to indicate a false image of bravado, likely concealing something.
She wasn't an expert on body reading by any means, but Zuikaku wasn't a hard ship girl to read.
Not that she'd ever say that to her face.
But she was going to point out the elephant in the room.
"Do you like her, Zuikaku-san?"
Bingo.
Zuikaku sputtered, and her face was flushed as she bolted forward, and held her palm to Shigure's mouth to silence her, fiercely whispering.
"Shh! How do you know that?! You haven't even known us for a day yet!"
Shigure slowly held her arms up to pry Zuikaku's hand from her mouth, and conspiratorially whispered:
"It's not difficult.
But, please explain, why do you repress your feelings and treat your senior, who might be cold but ultimately means well, with such disdain and refuse her training because of the very feelings that you're repressing?
It's a self-perpetuating cycle."
Zuikaku was stunned, suddenly looking very afraid of the very sharp and observant destroyer before her.
But she swallowed the lump in her throat as she silently pulled Shigure into a corridor not often used for navigating the building, and closed her eyes to take a few deep breaths.
The stale air that permeated the corridor, only made bearable by the air-conditioner at the end or the corridor pumping in fresh air to create a current of air, and she slowly opened her eyes to find Shigure looking intently up at her, every bit interested in hearing her explanation out.
Zuikaku looked away, as she looked around to make sure that there wasn't anyone nearby to overhear them, Shigure wondering why she was so adamant about keeping these feelings secret.
And now Zuikaku was looking into her eyes, trying to ascertain as to whether she was trustworthy enough to share this secret with, Shigure trying her best to look as nonthreatening as possible to convince the Shoukaku-Class carrier.
And the carrier's head finally drooped upon the entire thing being exposed by the newcomer destroyer, giving as she muttered.
"Sigh, I'll tell you what I want you to know, but I promise,"
She held Shigure by her shoulders, and pulled her in close to whisper in in ear, in a sickly sweet sing-song voice that promised only pain if her secret were ever to be revealed.
"If anyone hears of this, and this spreads throughout the base, I'll know who to find.
And when I do, being used for target practice will be the most lenient of your punishments, do you hear me?"
Shigure could only nod her head vigorously, already convinced that this was one secret that she would take to the grave with her.
Zuikaku looked convinced of the destroyer's sincerity, and let her arms drop to her sides to try to describe her problem.
"W-Well, it's like, all throughout my time here, Kaga-san has always been the very picture of a perfect carrier.
Being calm and collected, never missing a crucial shot, and the shots that aren't so important, and…sigh…the rest of the shots, too."
Zuikaku raised her hand to scratch at the back of her head, suddenly looking rather embarrassed now that she was getting into describing her emotions, her face reddening again.
"As to how I feel about her, i-it's like, I do admire her unflappable demeanor, and I like how she's, like…hmm…cool?"
Her eyebrow was cocked when she was at a loss for words as to how to describe a positive trait about the stoic carrier.
"I really don't know what about her attracts me, but the mere fact that she's in the 1st Carrier Division, and the fact that she's so damn smug about it, just pisses me off and make me want to show her the greatness of the 5th Carrier Division.
But to do that, I had to suppress my feelings for her, and face her like I would a true rival."
Zuikaku now looked rather conflicted, her emotions now surfacing and interfering with her disdain concerning the 1st Carrier Division.
"But now that you mention it, as to why the feelings that I'm suppressing are now interfering with my decision to ask Kaga-san for advice,"
Zuikaku sighed again as she released Shigure, looking down at her shoes as though they were the most interesting thing in the world as she admitted.
"Yeah, I guess it's true.
I've always hoped that if time passes, these feelings would go away.
But no, the feeling's persisted, and right now, the advice that you've given is sound.
But the question is how I'm to make peace with these feelings without letting Kaga-san know about these feelings, because I'm definitely not ready for that yet."
Shigure lowered her head, brooding over the question, before raising her head to answer the carrier.
"Well, you can try to explain that you're uncomfortable with taking lessons from her, but that's not going to stop you from asking.
She'll understand if you're flustered around her, but your dedication and your humility is likely to impress her, and she'll likely accept.
As to how you're to make peace with your feelings, I'm sorry, but you'll have to figure that out on your own."
Zuikaku seemed a little dejected at that last sentence, but her face suddenly brightened up, trying to look on the bright side as she remarked,
"Ahh, it's alright! You've helped me enough, and I've got something to work with now! Thanks!"
Zuikaku gave Shigure a vibrant smile upon having accepted the Shiratsuyu-Class's well-meaning advice, Shigure unable to suppress the smile that also graced her face in response to the Shoukaku-Class's genuine smile as they both looked at each other, able to enjoy each other's company as ship girls who were able to connect with each other on some level.
The evening sun had set half an hour ago, and the island in the middle of the ocean was shrouded in darkness as a few orange rays of sunlight still shone through the night and peeked over the horizon.
They barely illuminated the highest point of a island that was silently sitting in the midst of the dark ocean in almost meditative silence as its world was plunged into darkness once again.
The reason for said silence was the simple fact that mankind had never settled on the island that was located in the middle of nowhere, and didn't bear the trademark signs of human civilization like small plumes of smoke or artificial light sources that glowed in the midst of the forest like the luminescent tails of fireflies to keep the darkness at bay.
The forest was devoid of mankind's influence, and yet bore the usual signs of occupation that were dirt paths leading into the forest as a result of people trampling on the grass to go somewhere inland as well as disturbances in the lay of the land.
There were also several trees cut down to create a large clearing in the middle of the island, the dead trees reclaimed by nature as the trees were occupied by wildlife and flora with bugs and plants infesting the fallen tree barks, the wildlife on the island relatively unaffected and unconcerned about the war going between the metal-fleshed humans and the unnatural aliens that came from the sea.
This quiet and dark island was what greeted the Infiltration Fleet, this not being the first time laying their eyes upon this little island located out in the Pacific Ocean and slightly beyond the Safety Zone that divided ship girl territory from Abyssal infested waters.
Sendai and company had sneaked in when the sun had set after taking the entire morning and afternoon to confirm the Abyssal patrol routes and evade them, timing their entrance to coincide with a swap in Abyssal patrol fleets, all six of the ship girls wearing black to minimize the risk of an Abyssal spotting their flashy uniforms in the middle of the night as well as using their night-vision ability available to them as ship girls to navigate in the darkness, their world now a grainy green.
The Infiltration Fleet had already taken off their boat slippers as they approached the island, unable to use their ocean-based footwear to walk on land and leaving the job of maintenance to the Fairies who watched over their battle backpacks and boat slippers.
Chitose had already split up to hike up the hill located near the southeast section of the island to keep an eye on the surrounding ocean with the enhanced ocular organs that carriers possessed lest the Abyssals decide to change up their patrol routes and sail towards them, while Goya was patrolling the surrounding ocean for the exact same reason.
Sendai, Shiranui, Kagerou and Arare were patrolling the island while armed with two handheld 12 cm Single Gun Cannons each, the only weapons in their arsenal that were small and light enough to be wielded on land with minimum penalties to their movement speed, and some form of protection was better than none at all.
They were working on setting up the top-secret equipment that was loaned to them to be field-tested, Sendai having carried the five steel pikes that were wrapped in a blanket and tied with a black rope to secure it against the elements as Shiranui and Kagerou carried two shovels each to make their jobs easier.
Kirishima had explained to them that these pikes were designed to cancel out radio waves within the area that they covered and prevent radar from detecting their presence.
But they needed to see how large of an area the pikes could cover before the machine was unable to function, taking into account the shifting terrain that was the island it had to cover and the effectiveness of the radar-blocking pikes when going up against Abyssal radar.
And after an hour and a half of hiking, hard work digging up sand on the shores of the island to cover a large enough area and planting the spear-like machinery, the pikes were now ready to cancel out all radio waves and disallow radar from detecting the island to hide their presence on the island.
But activation would have to wait, as Kirishima had predicted that if they activated the pikes to block out all radio waves, it would include the radar of the ship girls on the island. Their search would be far harder if they couldn't split up to search the entire island while keeping in contact with each other.
The search was tedious, the Coordinators having predicted that they would have at least six hours after sunset to search the entire island before the Abyssals arrived, to which they'd detect the abnormality on the island and decide to check.
The four of them were determined to search the entire island, which thankfully wasn't that large as it was only four acres in terms of area, the ship girls starting with the artificial clearing in the middle of the island as the ship girls looked around to find the myriad of strangely-shaped rocks that was not the work of any human or ship girl.
They split up the clearing into a grid, whereupon the four ship girls would search the four sections of the clearing to make sure they didn't miss anything as they inspected the various rock formations to see if they contained some sort of well-kept secret, Sendai even smashing one rock with her steel fist to make sure that the relatively brittle granite wasn't hiding Abyssal steel.
That was an hour ago.
A sweating Arare, who was carrying the sling-bag that carried the syringe and their infiltration equipment to access and recover lost Abyssal data, perked up as she saw some sort of strange symbol being produced upon sitting down at the edge of the clearing, blinking as she stared at the entire rock formation that was sitting out in the clearing.
She leaned and tilted her head sideways as she shifted her body to crawl on all fours, observing how the rocks were placed in the clearing, all of different shapes and heights.
They ranged from destroyer-height to coming up short of knee-height, but there was one thing that the Asashio-Class destroyer could see from her point of view.
These rocks weren't supposed to be here, despite how innocuous they looked.
And now that she had positioned herself well enough, she called her teammates over as she pointed out.
"These rocks look like they're leading somewhere."
And Kagerou voiced out a disbelieving,
"Eh, are you sure?
Could it be the Abyssals trying to mislead us or something?"
But Sendai respectfully disagreed, citing the strange sight that beheld them as they approached the island.
"No, man, I don't think that's the case.
Remember all the boulders that the Abyssals brought onto this island back when the Abyssal War started, some of which we came across and looked pretty obvious someone hauled 'em here?
And don't you think these rocks are markers, as we see here..."
The Infiltration Fleet looked forward, seeing that the rock formation of varying heights and seemingly scattered randomly throughout the clearing lined up almost perfectly from their point of view to form an iron sight of sorts, with the stones forming a 'U' with a short rock jutting out in the middle.
"... and might be arranged to indicate a direction to travel in?
I mean, I might be wrong, but remember that this pointed in the general direction of one of the boulders located in my section."
Kagerou shrugged in response, while Shiranui added her own opinion on things.
"I think that everything here's just a diversion.
They wouldn't be so stupid as to hide what they're up to here in plain sight since this's the first place we would start looking, and I think that the few boulders we've seen here are markers, to hide one amongst many.
And besides..."
Pointing to the rocks that didn't completely line up with the formation, Shiranui noted.
"I think there're a few false markers to mislead us, as looking at this formation from different angles would give different results.
We have to assume that the Abyssals wouldn't want us to find it, and would do their best to give us false leads, since it seems as though the formation points in different directions."
Walking around the formation, they saw that the formation of the rocks were shaped in such a way that allowed them to point in five different directions, the four of them convened to decide on whether they should split up or stay together to get things done faster.
But finally, Kagerou pointed something out as she thought about the formations.
"Y'know, I won't say that I'm 100% correct on this, but I'm here thinking if they would want to hide their secret in a location where it's closer to the Pacific Ocean where they come from?"
Everyone blinked at that, accepting that logic as they walked into the forest, doing their best not to disturb the wildlife as they trekked through the grass and trees and followed Kagerou as she sounded as if she had a point.
And after three minutes of brisk hiking, they found themselves facing a boulder sitting right in the middle of a distinctly smaller clearing, one of many strange monuments scattered throughout the island.
This boulder was the closest to the Pacific Ocean when compared to the four other boulders that the rock formation pointed to, but wasn't the closest to the shoreline when comparing it to the boulders littering the island, since a few boulders lined the beaches and effectively hid it amongst other dummy boulder markers.
Sendai and the girls got to work in moving the average-sized boulder, selected likely because of its portability and the weight it possessed, the Infiltration Fleet easily able to achieve a heavy cruiser's level of super-strength when they all turned their ship girl modes on as the boulder was finally moved aside, the girls getting to work on digging a hole to uncover whatever lay beneath the boulder.
The Coordinators had told them that the shovels that they brought served two purposes, where one was to dig into the beach to install the radio wave-jamming pikes, and the second was to uncover any potential Abyssal secret hidden underground, since if a cursory search of the island surface yielded no results, where else could they go but down?
And fifteen minutes of sweat-filled excavating with the speechless and slightly imposing boulder being a bystander as they had dug a deep and wide pit where the boulder once set and getting their uniforms dirty, Kagerou's drudging shovel hit something hard, the hard and sharp echo of metal upon metal ringing throughout the site, silencing the ship girls present and causing them to freeze up upon hearing that.
Sendai and Kagerou discarded their shovels and immediately dropped on all fours to push the dirt out of the way, while Shiranui and Arare, both of them resting up to prevent exhaustion before the sortie that was to come later, joined them in the pit and mimicked their motions to clear the dirt from steel.
Uncovering some sort of steel hatch that was now dulled, the four ship girls gazed upon a symbol imprinted into the dark steel, a stylized capital 'A' designed to look like a shark swimming towards the surface ala Jaws, complete with small yet sharp teeth and small beady semicircles to symbolize shark eyes.
This was the rarely-seen Abyssal symbol used by the underwater invaders, and much like the Imperial Chrysanthemum was to the Japanese, whatever was stored beneath this hatch was undoubtedly Abyssal property.
Jackpot.