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 than 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 form 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, to 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.