Back at port, Kongō had separated from her group of old ladies.
Since Sonne didn't allow her to use her legs – that were tightly bandaged to keep the nanomaterial in place – Myōkō had roped Bismarck into carrying her (she would have done it herself, but Kongō was taller than her, so that would have looked a bit goofy).
"Where do you wish to go, Kongō?", asked the blonde.
She was tall, with sky blue eyes, long hair and fair skin, her clothing consisting of some sort of olive uniform (she thought navy blue didn't suit her) adorned by the German flag in black, red and gold hanging over one shoulder.
Kongō quite liked her expressive face – it blushed easily: "I have nothing particular in mind", she smiled up at the other, making her blush, "is there a place you wish to go to?"
Bismarck avoided her eyes the moment she felt the heat on her cheeks: "There isn't."
"Not even a bit?"
A shake of head made Kongō humm in thought: "What would you usually do today, Bismarck?"
Both of them knew each other for multiple decades already and had become friends in the first ten years, so they of course knew each other's routines quite a bit – Bismarck's normally included relaxing things.
"I would normally take Stauffenberg and Geist out for a walk", she looked down at the German Shepherds, Stauffenberg, and the white puppy, Geist, trotting beside them happily, "but we're already doing that."
Their usual schedule had been dragged forward to accommodate Kongō.
The fast battleship looked over her dutiful carrier's shoulder to take a look at Myōkō, who was trailing behind them, for a moment: "And what would you do then?"
Bismarck thought about it for a while, her legs carrying them along the usual walk route: "I think I would read a book:"
A hum: "Let us do so, then."
"Huh?", Bismarck looked down at her, "wouldn't that bore you?"
"I am not so easily bored, dear Lord."
With Tirpitz being the Lone Queen of the North, "Lord" had become an – perhaps inevitable – nickname, together with "Child King", which was only used by Hood.
A barely noticeable blush was the case this time around: "Then I'll bring you to my ship. Uhm, what about Myōkō…?
Kongō didn't even look at her, though they had probably communicated beforehand: "That won't be a problem. May she board you as well?"
"Of course, I don't mind. Myōkō likes standing on high places, right?", the battleship wasn't asking the heavy cruiser directly because Myōkō didn't talk unless strictly necessary, "she can stand on my superstructure, if she wants."
"Many thanks, dear Lord", Kongō started playing with some of Bismarck's hair that fell over her shoulder.
The blonde looked down when she felt her hair being tugged on, Kongō not meeting her eyes as she was busy braiding.
"What is your opinion on the child?", Kongō began after a while of pleasant silence.
They had entered the Sakura Avenue by now, pink cherry blossoms falling down around them and light softly filtering through the foliage, the dogs happily running around and trying to catch petals.
"Which one?"
Kongō was pretty old, after all. There were not many ships here that were older than her – everyone could be a "child".
"Oki."
"She is a good child and loves her sisters and friends."
"And as ship?"
Bismarck had to think longer here: "I think she would listen to commands well and wouldn't do anything overly risky. Strength wise… well, she is a Yamato, right? There is a lot of strength there going by stats."
But she refused to fight, so only assumptions could be made.
Of course, fighting was not something anyone would be forced to do – superbattleship or not – but it would've been a great help.
What's more, Oki obviously didn't show great confidence in keeping the world going, though Bismarck of course couldn't know that.
Kongō nodded at the battleship's words: "Indeed."
About a quarter hour later, they had arrived at the main dock area where the ships were docked, the silhouette of giants like Montana present as much as small vessels like Umikaze.
Bismarck summoned her Klein Field, resized the hexagon to be quite large and angled it so that Stauffenberg and Geist could get up and board her ship body. Since it was already there, Myōkō and she used it as well.
Myōkō immediately took the chance and jumped on the highest part of the battleship's superstructure, Geist and Stauffenberg immediately collapsed by the ship's cat, Oscar, and Bismarck sat her guest down in one of the chairs situated on the foremost part of her deck.
Other than the chair, there also was a table and another chair, the objects normally used by the Bismarck sisters to enjoy their freetime together.
"Thank you very much."
"No problem", Bismarck made sure that Kongō's legs wouldn't hit the ground harshly and then sat down in her own chair.
Kongō folded her hands in her lap, enjoying the sea breeze, while the other hesitantly began picking up a book and reading.
It took a bit, but once Bismarck was sure that the silver haired lady didn't want anything from her, she managed to relax.
At some point in the year 1914, Kongō had made her sisters, Hiei, Kirishima and Haruna, ready for meeting Lion and Princess Royal.
They wouldn't do so in the physical world, but Kongō had found out that she could manipulate the CCS – which only allowed for calls – into a sort of digital room, where the mental models could appear in.
Others couldn't do that, for some unknown reason (they had experimented), so sometimes requests came in for Kongō to host.
Lion and her sister found themselves in such a room, looking around with big eyes, fascination shining in them.
The room was seemingly endless, with a dark sky streaked by the red traces of a setting sun and water underneath them that seemed deep and shallow at the same time, but that they didn't sink into regardless.
"Mother."
Surprised, the two twirled around to look at the voice's owner, coming to look at four faces.
Kongō had lost every last race of her babyface, features now sharp and attractive, clothing more Japanese in nature.
Hiei was mostly grown, but still had a child-like air to her. She hid partially behind her big sister, had a friendly face with eyes that looked like the sunrise and Princess Royal's brown hair.
Haruna was almost completely hidden behind her eldest sister's legs, a curious blonde head with blue eyes peeking at the – to her – strangers.
Kirishima was bolder, standing with her little fists pressed into her side, black hair escaping its braid and another pair of blue eyes, dark like those of her aunt, twinkled boldly up at them.
The youngest two didn't even reach Kongō's hips yet.
Lion somehow assumed that her eldest wasn't fully grown yet, even though they were already the same height (she would be correct).
Princess Royal and Lion, in all their splendid catness, had to actively hold back from cooing at them and instead kneeled down.
"Hello you", the sisters said in synch, smiling at them.
Haruna backed away, but Kirishima puffed her chest up: "So you are our mother and aunt?"
Her eldest sister looked down at her and said, with warning in her voice: "Kirishima."
"Hello!", she immediately corrected, feeling the cutting gaze coming at her from above.
The Splendid Cats shared an amused look, before Lion held out a hand: "That is correct. I'm Lion, and that here is Princess Royal."
"Kirishima", said the blackhead, accepting the hand and tugging Haruna out with her free hand, "and that here is Haruna!"
Haruna looked as if she really wasn't okay with this, staring with big eyes and looking back at Kongō in a silent plea for help.
"Your outfit is very cute", said Princess Royal, nodding towards the colourful patterns on her child's kimono (was it a kimono? She thought it was).
The little battlecruiser blushed, ducked her head and hid behind Kirishima, said sister unsuccessfully trying to get her back out.
Princess Royal busied herself with them, so Lion stood up and smiled at Kongō: "You've grown", she looked from Kongō's ever-serious face to Hiei, "and you look wonderful."
Hiei's eyes widened, but she smiled: "Thank you."
Lion's face softened: "Is Japan treating you well?"
She was worried about them not being accepted – not by the country, they had spoken nothing but praises about the Lions and Kongō before and after her launch – but by the ships.
It was irrational to fear that since they had accepted the members of the 6-6-Fleet easily and all the ships weren't against someone just because they came from somewhere else.
Racism was a foreign concept for each and every ship from each and every nation. A ship was a ship, in their opinion, no need for differences and hate just because of that and especially considering that fleets consisted of ships of various different original nationalities since the dawn of time.
If they hated you, then they hated you and they would do it right.
Anyway, Lion was worried nonetheless, but Hiei luckily nodded: "Very well."
Lion's eyes closed for a moment: "I'm relieved", she then reached out to grasp Kongō's hands, caressing them with her thumbs, "your hands have become rougher."
Kongō watched as the battlecruiser turned her hands over to look at them: "Mikasa-nee-sama has been teaching me how to use a katana."
"Ah, very good", she petted Kongō's hands and then let go, folding her own hands in front of her and looking up (!) at her child, "why don't you ever smile, Little Diamond?"
The others looked at the pair when the nickname sounded.
It wasn't true that Kongō never smiled, but most often she had a neutral or serious face, which wasn't the most approachable expression.
Kongō "cocked" her head, the motion so miniscule it couldn't even be called that: "I smile when I'm happy."
Lion actually cocked her head: "So you're not happy to see me?"
"That is not-"
A giggle interrupted her: I know I know, I was jesting", the overall situation was just… a bit worrying.
There was a lot of unrest in the world currently – someone like Kongō would be serious about that.
Kongō was right about that. They wouldn't meet again.