The 1st Fleet was at the canteen, Shigure chatting with a few of the naval base's ship girls, a little overwhelmed from the attention that she was receiving for no reason whatsoever as she ate her breakfast which consisted of a boiled egg to be eaten with her rice, some sushi and green beans to go along with their miso soup.
Naka and Jintsuu introduced themselves to Shigure, being the two sister ships to Sendai who was currently out on a sortie with the Infiltration Fleet, the last time anyone checked.
Naka was wearing the same orange, white and black dress that was standard of the Sendai-Class light cruisers, along with the two black shoulder gloves also worn by the three sisters.
She had two ahoge sticking out of her crown, and with two buns at the rear sides of her head with hair strands hanging down her head. She was cheery and seemed never to lose her smile, and the air seemed to brighten up around her as she introduced herself as the Base's idol,
"Naka-chan Dayo!"
Shigure was told that she was the Base Idol, and that meant a big concert was held every two months for the whole base to attend free of charge, and was an integral member of keeping the Fleet morale up through her upbeat and inspirational, yet meaningful songs.
She was also in line for a Kai Ni upgrade, having had an excellent service record in the past along with Mutsuki, who was also Kai and was preparing for a Kai Ni.
Although she introduced herself in an upbeat voice while softly shaking Shigure's hand, the destroyer concluded from their momentary exchange that while Naka held herself with confidence, it never went so overboard as to seem prideful, or even arrogant.
From the way she cheered the members of the 1st Fleet on and seemed genuinely interested in Shigure's experience so far in the base, she didn't seem to keep up any facade of sorts or hiding any deep-seated psychological issues.
She was just extremely enthusiastic about helping others out in any way possible, not just because she was an idol, but because she was genuinely a compassionate ship girl, who truly cared for her comrades.
Jintsuu was the opposite of her sisters, although no less compassionate and kind despite being quiet, concerned and supportive towards her sisters as she completed the Sendai-Class light cruiser trio.
The difference between her and her two sisters was that although she was also established to be a serious contender for Kai Ni, she was humble enough to admit that she was quite under-leveled and wasn't quite ready to receive it compared to her sister and thus supported her idol sister in her endeavor to attain Kai Ni.
Along with her orange-black dress and with her black long gloves, she had brown hair like her sisters that reached down to her waist, and the hair on her forehead was swooped down on both sides of her temple and twirled up at the ends, along with a green bow that held her hair up from the back of her head.
Ayanami was quick to let Shigure know that despite Jintsuu's polite demeanor, she was a closet drill sergeant, being more effective than Tone despite also being tougher as an instructor.
Her "drill sergeant from hell" persona was so feared that she was approached by few ship girls for training, despite the effectiveness of her training.
One of the ship girls who was previously under her tutelage, Maya, was instantly silenced upon being asked about Jintsuu, and only had a thousand-yard stare in response to her question, along with breaking out in a cold sweat and quiet mumbling like she had a PTSD-flashback.
It would have almost been funny, if Jintsuu wasn't standing right behind them, smiling innocently.
Some of the other ship girls under her guidance had gone on to achieve greatness, like Hatsuharu, Kawakaze, and Kiso, who had all gone on to achieve Kai Ni at the expense of refusing to talk about their time with the kindhearted light cruiser's training methods, which weren't abusive, simply grueling.
Shigure also kept a mental note about another one of her sisters being on the base, wanting to meet her sooner or later if possible.
However, Shigure noticed Furutaka moping at the side, entertaining whomever tried to make conversation with her, but when she left the table to retrieve a tray to put together another plate of freshly cooked food, no one stopped her or interrupted her small routine, seemingly used to it by now.
She was sitting with a ship girl who possessed grey-pink hair that was tied up in a side ponytail, and she had green eyes looking downwards at her breakfast.
Kinugasa donned a white uniform with a blue dress and sailor collar while a yellow necktie was reaching down her chest, a belt to hold up said dress while two thin black stripes ran down her unblemished white uniform top, finishing the uniform with brown thigh-highs and a pair of slippers in lieu of shoes.
Along with Furutaka, they both gathered to talk about something as they queued for food while everyone gave them a wide berth to respect their privacy.
When Shigure asked Ayanami about what was up with Furutaka and Kinugasa, Ayanami's face drooped in response to the question, Shigure already mentally preparing herself for the response that was to come with a depressed expression.
"She's taking the dinner tray to Aoba, who's holed up in her copper-shielded room."
Shigure's eyebrow was raised at that last remark, as Ayanami explained.
"Aoba's got a… condition, where she can detect a lot of radio waves in the area around her. And in order for the information overload to not drive her insane, she needs to stay in her copper shielded room to block out the radio waves. It's rather sad, really, when you consider what she was like before."
Shigure couldn't help but wince at that.
She didn't know how Aoba, the heavy cruiser that had survived several close encounters with the Grim Reaper in World War 2, had to be grounded and was even living like a recluse.
Ayanami noted Shigure's discomfort, and consoled her with her standard "name ship elder sister" voice.
"W-Well, if you wish to find out, you should ask Furutaka, or Kinugasa and even Aoba herself to find out what really happened.
I can at least say that no one fully understands the situation more clearly than those three. You can ask them, and I believe they'll try their best to fill you in with unbiased information to the best of their ability."
Shigure thought about it for a second, before noticing the Furutaka and Aoba-Class heavy cruiser duo approaching her, waving meekly to her in advance so as not to scare her off. Furutaka opened up the conversation, asking if Shigure would mind following them to Aoba's room.
When Shigure inquired as to why Aoba would want to meet her, the heavy cruiser duo looked away shiftily, unable to come up with a reason as to why their sister would want to meet the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer. Kinugasa finally took her chance to introduce herself, and to explain their predicament.
"Um, I'm Kinugasa, and I'm Aoba's sister ship. The thing is that, our sister's changed a lot ever since something happened to her, so we can't really understand anything she does anymore. But she wants to meet you, and we'd like you to fulfill that wish of hers and be someone whom she can talk to."
Furutaka looked down at the dinner tray, and her face couldn't get any more depressed as she had Aoba's best interest in mind, and clearly Aoba wasn't in the best of conditions if she could inadvertently make her sisters this depressed just by worrying about her.
Shigure sighed, resigning to her fate and picking up her tray to put it in the sink as she exited the canteen with the heavy cruiser duo, her curiosity now piqued and interested in what the Aoba-Class heavy cruiser was like.