Akashi and Admiral Haru were loitering about in a hallway, the Admiral and Akashi both standing in the adequately-lit corridor as Akashi held a folder in her left hand while chatting with her commanding officer.
They were waiting for the right time to enter the Coordinator Room to start the meeting as Admiral Haru delayed the meeting a little to wait for Aoba, taking the time to discuss some matters with the repair ship to get a few things out of the way.
"So Junyou's in the docks, right? She okay?"
Akashi nodded, having checked the light carrier's injuries before meeting up with the Admiral.
Junyou had been merrily sipping on her wine as she feasted on the snacks that were provided before her arrival at the docks to help facilitate her recovery, Akashi noting.
"Don't worry. She's recovering quickly and the color's coming back into her cheeks, although I think that might be a result of the wine that she's sipping on while recovering..."
Upon being admitted into the docks, her teammates were very reluctant to leave Junyou alone, should the light carrier's condition take a turn for the worse despite the near-miraculous properties of the bathwater in the docks.
However, they eventually relented as Akashi personally reassured them that Junyou's injuries weren't that severe compared to what the ship girls of other fleets had to go through, the girls of the 1st Fleet wincing at the repair ship's blunt admission.
Akashi also notified the Admiral about Hiei's condition.
"Hiei's also in the docks to make sure that her arms recover properly after that cannon shell-catching stunt on the off-chance that her bones or muscles were injured in any way. Even with her tremendous strength as a fast battleship, I shut her up by saying that those were large-caliber cannon shells that she caught with her bare hands, and she's no Nagato or Yamato-Class battleship. She hasn't been remodeled, and I was afraid that she suffered minute cracks in her steel bones due to the overwhelming force behind the Ru-Class's large-caliber cannons, this being something that must not be left untreated."
Admiral Haru nodded in agreement, marveling at Hiei's successful attempt to catch a cannon shell fired from a slow battleship's cannons, this move being even more impressive in hindsight when one took into account the fact that she was a battle-cruiser, and thus possessed less armor to protect herself should she fail to pull off the move.
She asked the repair ship,
"So what about the others? Anything else worth noting about their conditions?"
Akashi shook her head reassuringly, although she did explain the situation to Admiral Haru to clarify things a little, leaning back on the cool concrete wall and tucking the file underneath her armpit as she elaborated.
"Well, the Tenryuu-Class sisters, Shigure and Ayanami weren't injured in the sortie, although I must note that they strangely want to go on even more sorties to get stronger. I've talked to them, and even though they all express varying degrees of enthusiasm about the future, they all pretty much said that becoming stronger is the only way to progress."
Admiral Haru rubbed her chin while contemplating the situation, wondering out loud to make sure that the repair ship could hear her.
"Well, I'm simply worried that they might not be able to handle what the Abyssals might throw at them, especially since the Abyssals haven't revealed any new technological advancements for nearly a decade now."
Akashi took out a hand from her skirt pocket to gesture questioningly, somewhat interested in the Admiral's thought patterns as she responded.
"So you really believe that the Abyssals have been cooking up something for the last ten years, and have been hiding it so well that we haven't found out anything despite all the intelligence networks of the world working to solve the Abyssal problem? What else else could they come up with now that they've created the Princesses, which most people assume to be the epitome of Abyssal-kind?"
Admiral Haru shrugged as she turned away, shoulders hunched in thought as she speculated, dead serious about trying to predict what the Abyssals could be building underneath the ocean.
"Well, ever since World War 2 ended, there was the tension between the Americans and Soviets as they pushed technological advancements to the limit, and look at where we are now. You never know..."
And after about ten seconds of awkward silence as Admiral held up her chin with her left fist whilst supporting her left elbow with her right hand, she snapped her fingers as she had a flash of inspiration.
"Say… You ever wonder what's better than a nuke that operates on nuclear fission?"
She could hear Akashi's breath stopping behind her, but she could hear the repair ship trying her best to answer the question as Akashi clarified with a suspicious tone.
"I do believe the answer to that is 'a nuke that operates on nuclear fusion'. But are you really sure that the Abyssals are that desperate to try and wipe us from the face of this earth?"
Admiral Haru shrugged her shoulders yet again as she considered all possibilities, citing the Abyssal attack on the American East Coast.
"I mean, the Abyssals invaded the American East Coast in, like, 2007, right?
They hid their true objective of stealing the American nukes behind the large-scale land invasion, which they successfully pulled off despite heavy casualties.
I'm a little worried that what us humans have created, the Abyssals can do better given enough time, and the lack of nukes flying around with each passing year does nothing to alleviate that concern."
She turned around to see Akashi nodding and conceding the point, simplifying her Admiral's concerns by summarizing.
"So you're worried about the possibility that the longer it takes for the Abyssals to introduce nukes into the equation, the harsher the fallout will be when they do, right?"
Admiral Haru nodded, although she tilted her head and raised an eyebrow as she tried to rein in her own imagination as she remembered another point that the Wo-Class made during the interrogation.
"Well, like the Wo-Class explained, they don't want to inherit a nuclear wasteland full of radioactive rubble and dirt, but I don't know..."
Admiral Haru took off her Admiral cap and scratched her head, wishing she had the answers to the various questions about their enigmatic adversaries, like how they were able to summon a never-ending horde of Abyssals and where they all spawned from, since the consensus was that they came into this world via some sort of portal deep beneath the ocean.
She wanted to know their ultimate objective and the primary driving force behind their deep-seated desire to eliminate all humans, and whether they had any chance of winning in the long run seeing that the Abyssals were likely going to introduce new technological weapons into the war.
"I don't have the answers. I want to solve the Abyssal question, but the first thing about a puzzle as complicated as this is having enough pieces on hand to even begin..."
"I believe I can help with that."
Both women looked at the approaching heavy cruiser, the LED light tubes that lined the ceiling of the corridor illuminating her silhouette and the dull copper helmet that shielded her mind from the radio waves in the environment.
The copper helmet was designed to protect her head, looking something like Magneto's helmet from "X-men" as the front had an "M" shaped design, the metal edge going up the sides of her face and followed the contours of her eyebrows to form an arch over her eyes and joined at the bridge of her nose.
Admiral Haru had looked through the design plans to confirm its construction with the human engineers of the Yokosuka Naval Base, and she knew that Aoba likely had to let down her hair before wearing the helmet to ensure maximum protection from any ambient radio waves, and her ponytail would only get in the way.
Aoba walked towards them, the short corridor allowing her to somehow overhear their conversation despite the helmet covering her ears, Admiral Haru's expression brightening upon seeing the Aoba-Class heavy cruiser attending this meeting and slowly coming out of her shell, Akashi remarking concernedly.
"Well, seems like our little hikikomori is finally breaking out of her little shell. How're you feeling?"
Aoba nodded uncertainly in response, looking as though she was somewhat uncomfortable with stepping out of her "comfort zone" that was the confines of her bedroom.
But the copper-shielded room was no different from a prison cell in Admiral Haru's eyes, and she was simply glad to see Aoba trying to get out more and socialize as she took a step towards the now-stationary Aoba-Class heavy cruiser and slapped her heartily on the back, merrily exclaiming with a genuine smile.
"Yo, Aoba! Welcome back!"
Instead of the intended encouraging effect she wanted the action to have on the shy Aoba-Class heavy cruiser, Aoba instead shied away from the touch and looked visibly scared of the Admiral as she flinched at the intimate contact.
Akashi raised an eyebrow in surprise upon witnessing the heavy cruiser react so adversely to another being coming into contact with her, Aoba blinking quickly before recovering somewhat and looking down at her shoes, hanging her head and not looking anyone in the eye as she fidgeted on the spot.
Admiral Haru's smile faltered upon witnessing the consequences of a ship girl being cooped up in her bedroom with little to no contact with the outside world for years due to her condition, but recovered enough to mask her disappointment at her own crass behavior as she nodded towards the other end of the corridor, suggesting.
"Come on. The meeting's about to start, and I don't want to be late."