Dinner was a relatively simple affair, everyone in the base at least mildly curious as to what kind of ship girl Shigure was, seeing that her World War 2 counterpart was relatively well-known for being a lucky ship, Shigure looking down and trying not to draw too much attention to herself
There were girls like Maya who were clearly stronger than the rank-and-file ship girls, the heavy cruiser possessing toned muscles on a lithe body, with a turquoise green beret and a sleeveless girl scout uniform that complemented her biceps and supple, rounded shoulders.
She radiated strength through her cheerful demeanor a pride that was likely earned through hard work as she flexed her impressive, bulging muscles like some sort of bizarre bodybuilder's mating dance to awe Shigure, Hiei giving her look that simply told her to just go along the more colorful personalities quietly.
They were loud and eager to know about their new comrade, but could also sense her quiet nature and eased off the inquisition whenever she seemed overwhelmed.
The other kind was like Hibiki, a quiet, Russian-Japanese girl with a vacant attitude and a sharp eye for character, quietly observing her. Sporting a schoolgirl uniform with bleached hair held down by her black sailor's hat, the canteen was silent as she came up and asked Shigure a question, and watched her response.
"You can't protect everyone all the time, Shigure-san.The war that sunk us all proved that. Now that you're here, are you going to fight to avenge those who have sunk?"
Shigure was quiet as the crowd waited with bated breath for her response.
Finally, she replied.
"I don't believe I currently have any right to say this, but I'd rather fight for those who're still alive. I'll get stronger, of course, and I do remember and honor my sunken comrades. But the dead don't seek vengeance, and I don't think my friends are so weak as to need me to protect them." Smiling down from her seat, her head tilted as she retorted.
"But don't let that stop you from asking for my protection. I will become stronger than you, after all."
A chorus of "OOOOHHHHHHHHH" s reverberated throughout the room, as Hibiki brought her black cap down to acknowledge Shigure with a nod, as well as to hide her smirk as she slipped away, a faint
"We'll see about that." was made out through the cheering of the dispersing ship girl crowd.
Hiei explained as they ate their food, that girls like Maya had been upgraded twice, the first level of upgrades being Kai, and the second being Kai Ni.
To achieve such a level required not just the existence of a second remodel that was available, but also hard work and a good battle record achieved through hard work and the blood, sweat and tears of the ship girl.
If the Admiral was confident enough to "invest" in the ship girl's second remodel, they could access a power that elevated them above rank-and-file ship girls.
Not that Kai was an insignificant upgrade, Hiei noted. It was a major step up from being the "default" model, in which ship girls could reach a skill cap, and be frustrated seeing their growth plateau.
Kai was a cheap enough upgrade and meant that a higher skill cap could be achieved and unlocked new possibilities, in which Kai Ni was more expensive than a Kai upgrade, but could reach limits that she claimed Shigure couldn't even begin to fathom right now.
Nodding at that, she noted two other females approaching, one of them having her hands wrapped affectionately around the arm of the other, the ship girl in question being a young female adult with two buns atop her brown hair with an ahoge, two loose braids hanging down her forehead while wearing a black skirt and thigh-highs.
She wore a miko uniform with her metal-winged headband like her sister ship Hiei and was certainly rather expressive of her love for the other female adult, Shigure noting out the corner of her eye that Hiei wasn't hiding her jealousy of the white-clothed female, Shigure coming to the conclusion that Hiei likely loved her sister ship in more ways than one, seeing that their uniforms matched almost to a tee.
It was the white-clothed female adult that she was observing, the destroyer having been unable to sense anything from her despite already figuring out that she was the Admiral, since there was a certain "feeling" that all ship girls exuded to distinguish themselves from a human, some weaker signatures fainter than others who were stronger.
The woman standing before her had the signature white trousers and coat of an Admiral, the coat hung over her shoulders like a cape draped over her exercise top that was covering her decently-sized bust.
Her toned and sleek body was partially obscured by her coat and top, but Shigure could see her firm abdomen muscles exposed beneath her top, which indicated the Admiral's physical prowess which Shigure personally didn't want to be on the receiving end of.
Her long red hair was tied up in a ponytail behind her head, atop which sat a black and white officer's cap with the insignia of the Japanese Navy proudly emblazoned upon it. Her epaulets displayed four stars on each shoulder, which meant that she was of a very high-rank.
Admiral Haru raised her hand to hand-wave away Shigure's attempt to get up from her canteen chair to bow down to her, chuckling as she commented on her being here.
"Oh, don't worry about greeting me with a bow all the time; I'm not so good with such stifling customs, and I personally make it a mission to meet any ship girl newcomers.
Admiral Haru here, your commanding officer and the leader of the Yokosuka Naval Base."
The Kongou-Class battleship jumped up and glomped the Admiral, cheerily announcing with a fair bit of English sprinkled into her Japanese.
"And I'm Kongou, Hiei's sister and Admiral's one true lover and future wife, DESU!"
Admiral Haru cooed as she patted Kongou's head, reminding her about her relationship with all the ship girls.
"Don't be like that, Kongou-chan.
You know that you're not my only lover, right? I have Yamato, Nagato, Ashigara and Musashi, amongst others, as my other lovers, and it wouldn't be fair to them and lill' ol' me if I only have one liver and reject the others, right? And besides, I love all ship girls, especially those that are in my base, so you know that I strive to express that love for them in every way I can, hmm?"
Kongou closed her eyes as her eyebrows furrowed, releasing one hand to clench determinedly as she conceded.
"Aye, when you put it that way, I see your point, Admiral Haru!bBut I won't give up on our relationship so easily here, and I'll make you accept me as your first wife with my Burning Love, desu!"
And Hiei couldn't take the scene anymore, hurling herself on her sister and inadvertently shoving her weight onto her Admiral as she exclaimed, "Onee-sama, don't always look at Admiral Haru!
I, too, want to be in a relationship with Kongou Onee-sama as well!"
"Ahh, Hiei, be careful, desu! The Admiral can't take the weight of two battleships..."
The trio eventually fell onto the floor, an entanglement of limbs as Hiei hugged her sister ship tightly while Kongou hugged her own Admiral in turn, while her Admiral was struggling whilst trying her best to push herself up despite two fast battleships weighing her down as a few ship girls rushed over to help them up.
And Shigure was sitting there, unblinking with her dull eyes staring off into space as she tried to wrap her head around this next tidbit of information that she learnt about her Admiral and the ship girls of the Yokosuka Naval Base.
A lesbian Admiral who commanded one of the most powerful bases in Japan, if not the world, and casually spoke of a polygamous relationship with some of the most powerful ship girls of Japan, especially the revered battleships of the Yamato-Class and the Nagato-Class.
Sure, she could feel that the Admiral was genuine in her words and her love for them was undeniable if the tone of her words were anything to go by, as well as the way she softly and fondly patted Kongou on the head, but Shigure was still unable to process this fully as she had only one word to respond to the commotion before her.
"What."
As Shigure stood up and they both deposited their plates near the sink near the canteen door, Hiei commented about the base and what time should they be back in the barracks.
"We usually set curfew at around 10 pm, so the bedrooms will be mostly empty at this hour. Don't worry. You'll meet your team tomorrow. They'll be there for you, as will I and my sisters."
The entirety of the walk to the barracks was spent in silence, Shigure content to let the fuel and various human foods digest in her stomach, starting to feel the exhaustion that came with spending a large part of the day sailing, and the impact of having to deal with a new base and new friends, while Hiei decided that Shigure must've been exhausted and perhaps a little overwhelmed by today's events and revelations, and was perfectly fine to let the comfortable silence linger.
The fluorescent lights that gently lit up the corridors that they walked along were surrounded by mayflies, circling around the light source in a chaotic dance, oddly fast and energetic for little beings with a lifespan of less than a day. The comfortable and quiet chirping of crickets, camouflaged and hidden within the recesses of the base, served to fill the air between the two ship girls, both quietly retiring into the night.
Hiei stopped in front of a door, a nameplate etched "白露", indicating the Shiratsuyu-class destroyer bedroom that lay beyond the 2-paneled, simple mahogany door in front of them.
"Well Shigure, this is it."
Shigure quietly opened the door as Hiei stood back.
The destroyer bedroom was rather spacious, clearly accounting for the number of the sisters Shigure had. Double-decker beds stood in silent vigil, lined up in rank and file to ensure simple navigation in the dark.
The ambient light from the corridor shone into the room, illuminating the space before her as she spotted the window at the end of the room that was open to allow fresh air in.
If she looked close enough (and she really didn't wish to, she was quite tired from today's events), she could see the individual removable name tags pasted onto the bed frames, likely indicating the names of her sisters.
Shigure didn't wish to turn on the lights to interrupt anyone's beauty sleep or startle anyone in the room, so she dragged herself onto the nearest bed, plopping down on its comfortable sheets and looking up to Hiei for affirmation.
The battleship, now in the room, lightly chuckled, and nodded to the destroyer, noting.
"You're tired, I get it. Good night, Shigure."
"Good night, Hiei-san."
Turning her back and closing the door with nary a peep, Shigure was left supine on the bed, finally getting some time to collect her thoughts in the darkness shortly before deciding to leave the thinking and worrying to tomorrow.
Right now, she needed some sleep to rest up and prepare herself since meeting her team tomorrow was going to be quite an experience, if the colorful personalities of today were any indication.
Not that she had anything against her fellow ship girls, having worked with quite a lot of them during her "lucky" streak during the war. It's just that she hadn't had the time to properly get acquainted with being a ship girl.
The previous base simply told them of their basic functions, and shoved a weapon, identified as a 12.7cm Twin Gun Mount, into her hand before teaching her how the wars of today was to be fought.
They must've sent a message to the bases that took in the transferring ship girls to fill them in on world history, the Kure Naval base more focused on securing their supply lines down South East Asia that went through Singapore into the Bay of Bengal. Then the transfer order came to simply sail to Yokosuka, not 3 hours after she came back from her first two sorties.
She sighed.
All in all, it wasn't so bad being resurrected as a ship girl.
At least they had some rights as sentient beings, and Admirals now had some semblance of accountability, preventing them from going overboard with their commands.
She and the newly created ship girls back in Kure had all survived their sorties, mostly because they were in protected waters and were engaged in simple skirmishes by guided by more experienced ship girls to teach them the ropes.
She couldn't help but think back to Nagato and Hiei, the burden of war surrounding them and weighing them down, and was visible through the chinks of the armor that was their personas, likely due to carrying the burdens of the war and heavy responsibility that was the safety and well-being of the ship girls under their charge.
She wondered if she would eventually look like that, with stress lines, a ton of regrets and guilt weighing her down, and a thousand-yard stare acquired through the loss of those closest to you.
After all, that was how she pretty much felt the last time she fought in a war.
It was the last thought that ran through the little destroyer's mind as she allowed the darkness to envelop her, her mind drifting away and Shigure eventually falling asleep to conclude today's events.