Shigure had slept soundly for two days straight after the battle with the Abyssal Princess, waking up on the 20th and feeling hungry enough to immediately gobble down two breakfast platters in order to ease the pangs of pain in her stomach, replenishing her nutrient and fuel levels as her body recovered from the fatigue accumulated over two night operations.
It was over a week after awaking from her slumber, and breakfast on the 30th was a simple affair, the canteen serving simple tuna sandwiches along with a modest serving of scrambled eggs and refillable coffee.
She had received the Coordinators' message about their sortie with the Infiltration Fleet on the 14th of May, and they were to escort the Infiltration Fleet out of the Safety Zone in order for them to perform their espionage duties.
And the joint sortie got her interested in wanting to know a certain pink-haired destroyer better, for various reasons...
Having entered the canteen with her sisters in order to get some breakfast, Shigure saw Kagerou, Shiranui and Arare standing at the end of the food line, and asked her sisters as to whether they would join the Kagerou-Class and Asashio-Class destroyers during breakfast in order to try and socialize with destroyers outside of their ship class, to which they agreed.
Shigure walked up to and started talking to the silent Kagerou-Class destroyer Shiranui, since Shigure saw her as being brooding and sulky (although Shiranui denied these claims, despite never breaking her "stone-cold killer" expression), and would likely keep what Shigure was going to discuss with her strictly between them.
Besides, she understood the destroyer well enough after reading her from a distance to know what she was like and what she would agree with, and wanted to talk to her and only her.
When Shigure made small talk by asking for her opinion on the 8th Fleet, Shiranui considered it momentarily before answering coolly, wishing to share her opinion of the 8th Fleet, but had to go off on a slight tangent before this.
"Well, I must first explain about this realization which will affect most ship girls who live long enough to contemplate the true meaning of our lives."
Shiranui looked at Shigure, explaining what might inevitably happen to ship girls who had fought this war for too long and had their spirit broken by a horrifying realization, and an important choice they would face at that point in time.
"You see, our lives are trapped in this endless cycle of life and death, between peaceful civilian life and a soldier in constant peril. A ship girl, after fighting so many battles and being brought back to life so many times, might eventually start to think that our lives might be ultimately pointless, since we're trapped in this violent cycle until we sink for good."
Shigure nodded solemnly, understanding that this was an uncomfortable truth which might fly over the heads of newly spawned ship girls, and likely sat in a dark corner in the minds of older ship girls who were still bright-eyed and hopeful enough to believe that there was a peaceful life out there for them, outside of the battlefield.
Understandable then, that over the course of the war and after countless battles, they would become disillusioned to this notion, since being revived so many times would blur the line between life and death, souring their outlook on life and wearing down their spirit.
They would be seasoned veterans who likely suffered from PTSD-induced depression by then after fighting two wars in both the past and present, brooding about their ultimate purpose in life before chancing upon a mind-breaking revelation.
The fact that their lives, which would have been plagued with life-threatening battles, losses and major global events which shook their lives and forced them to keep adapting lest they be left behind, and all their painstaking sacrifices likely never meant anything in the grand scheme of things.
The war never seemed to end despite every ship girl around them giving it their all, and likely never will.
They would all die like dogs on the battlefield.
Shiranui continued, her sharp eyes narrowing as she too, understood the depressing weight behind this revelation as she continued.
"When a ship girl breaks down after this inevitable realization, they have a few choices regarding their next course of action. One, they can retire in order to live a normal civilian life, which they certainly deserve after their long years of service, as their heart would no longer be in the fight, so to speak. Two, they can commit suicide."
Shigure inhaled sharply as she cringed, but Shiranui's expression softened a little in order to nod dejectedly as she explained.
"It's rare, but it does occur when they are overwhelmed by despair and see no way out of this cycle. Three, they can be institutionalized in the various state-of-the-art mental institutes across the country, especially those who can't seem to find a way to deal with the pressure and require professional care. Four, they can ignore the epiphany and be content with their day to day lives, fighting until they fall for good. It's not the best way to deal with things, but when faced with the threat of being broken by the revelation and the tragedies they've been through, it's sometimes better to choose to live in ignorance as they fulfill their duty to the end."
Shiranui looked away as the queue moved forward, Shigure noting that Kagerou commanded the attention of Arare, Yuudachi, Samidare, Kawakaze and Murasame in order to pass the time, Kagerou choosing to entertain the small crowd of destroyers with impressions of various ship girls.
She was doing a surprisingly accurate impression of Nagato's stern and authoritarian, yet ultimately charismatic persona, thankfully spared from the battleship's wrath since the capital ship was somewhere else, and everyone else around her was entertained enough to treat it in good fun.
Shigure turned her attention back to the pink-haired Kagerou-Class destroyer as she listened to the last available choice.
"The fifth choice, and perhaps the choice which yields the most unpredictable results, is to essentially have fun."
Shigure blinked before slowly cocking her head in order to look at Shiranui, unsure if she heard the Kagerou-Class destroyer right.
And Shiranui, clearly seeing Shigure's expression of disbelief, shrugged as she tried to explain herself to the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer.
"Well, you see, our lives take a toll on us, and being modeled after humans, we can't handle this kind of pressure forever. The fact that we put in all our effort, and sometimes, there's nothing to show for it except dead comrades and lost battles makes it seem as if everything we do is pointless, and there's no point in living."
Shigure then had a sort of epiphany, her eyes widening slightly as she realized the significance of the fifth choice, and the potential pros and cons should the ship girl decide to let loose and "have fun".
"But when we let loose, we learn to accept our lives for what they are, and do our best to have fun and be happy in spite of all the depressing things which will happen to us, to carry out these seemingly meaningless tasks and learn to actually enjoy them in the process."
"To fight everyday and try to have fun doing what we do best, lest we be plagued with suicidal depression as the alternative, right?"
Shiranui looked a little surprised at how the destroyer before her understood this unorthodox life choice so quickly, but she nodded and looked away, her expression becoming neutral again as she explained how it worked.
"Well, it's debatable as to whether this last choice changes your life for better or for worse, since we would take to battle with abandon which would endanger our lives, as well as remove any qualms we had about making the Abyssals suffer."
Nodding as she remembered the 8th Fleet's colorful personalities, she continued this discussion with the Kagerou-Class destroyer as the both of them picked up a brown-colored food tray and approached the serving table, which displayed an assortment of foods.
"But what do you personally think of the members of the 8th Fleet, if you don't mind?"
Mutely moving along with the queue in order to get her food whilst pondering the question, Shiranui finally answered with her honest opinion regarding the 8th Fleet.
"The 8th Fleet's members are unique since most of them have chosen the fifth choice in order to deal with the harsh truths of this world, with very… interesting results. And while I can say that it turns them into lethal killing machines who don't play by the rules or the meta, it has… taken a toll on their psyches."
"Cite an example."
Shiranui thought about it, Shigure noting that she was accessing her memory banks in order to find any relevant information regarding the 8th Fleet before she replied.
"Do you know of Akitsu Maru, the IJA's amphibious assault ship-slash-aircraft carrier?"
Shigure nodded, having met the monochrome ship girl and had seen her in action on the battlefield, but she was interested to learn more about the katana-wielding ship girl as she leaned in to listen.
"I heard from a few ship girls that she traveled to mainland China and various Asian countries in order to understand more about the past of the IJA. I believe the statement she gave in court was 'to see and understand how those who suffered under us remembered this time period'."
Shigure cringed upon hearing that as she inhaled sharply, and Shiranui nodded at how bad of an idea that was, the both of them remembering the brutal reign of the IJA, where they caused the Nanking Massacre, the Bataan Death March, the construction of the Burma Railway and the Sook Ching Massacre, amongst many others. It was justified for Akitsu Maru to want to find out more about the dark side to the reign of the Empire of Japan in order to try and understand things from the perspective of the victims. However, being one of two ship girls of the Imperial Japanese Army, the second being Maru-yu the IJA submarine, it was easy for normally tolerant Asians to hate her guts. And seeing that political relations between Japan and the rest of Asia were lukewarm at best, because Japan had been building up (technically rebuilding) one of the strongest naval forces in the world out of necessity, things certainly didn't end well for the amphibious assault ship. Shiranui looked down at the food which was being distributed by the cooks of the naval base, the both of them silently holding out their trays while they moved forward in the queue as she continued.
"Well, as you can expect, she had stones and rotten food thrown at her by the resentful locals as well as receiving a lot of verbal abuse, and she was shunned by everyone there."
"And that was what drove her over the edge?"
Shiranui shook her head sadly as she refuted.
"No. While over there, she tried her best to help enforce the law and protect innocents, which resulted in a lot of property damage, including destroyed cars when she threw herself in front of cars which were on a collision course with civilians who were crossing the street."
"And was she at least thanked for it?"
"Of course not. They fined her for property damage and blamed the whole thing on her somehow. But there was one particularly nasty incident where she tried busting a drug smuggling ring somewhere in the Jiangsu Province. That's to the East of mainland China and where the Yangtze River is located, where she can sail in from the East China Sea down said river. Anyway, some of the drug traffickers thought it would be a good idea to try and swap out the white powder which Akitsu Maru used as her makeup with powdered drugs which she would accidentally inhale or taste when she suspected that something was wrong with her 'makeup powder'. This was done with the intent of getting her addicted to the powerful narcotic drugs which we suspect to be methamphetamine, incapacitate her with the withdrawal symptoms and eventually enslave her. However, none of them knew that our powerful bodies possessed an enhanced capability of resisting addiction, which led to their downfall."
"Really? Drugging up a ship girl in a hostile foreign land, expect her to not lose control of herself and pray to god that nothing goes awry with your attempt at capture?"
Shiranui nodded, continuing as she thought back contemplatively.
"Well, she ran straight into their headquarters, armed with her flaming katana and her Benelli M3 Super 90 shotgun in order to take them on."
Shigure, having collected her breakfast, shuddered at the thought of a drugged-up Akitsu Maru wielding her flaming katana Kagutsuchi and her 12-gauge shotgun, and was trapped in a land full of people who persecuted and resented her because of what she represented.
Not that it was anybody's fault, whether it was the civilian population who had been the victims of Japan at its worst and was understandably still resentful and even fearful of them, or Akitsu Maru, who wanted to understand her own past since she never got to choose her own identity, her own background and whether she wanted to be an IJA ship girl and likely felt alienated from the IJN ship girls, forever ashamed of the actions of the army which she represented.
She nodded slowly as a gesture for Shiranui to continue as they both sat down and helped themselves to their breakfast, Shigure remembering the mental note to talk to the Kagerou-Class destroyer, who was sent out on espionage missions, about her true objective about discovering everything which went on in this base and in this war.
"So what happened? Did she kill them all?"
Shiranui nodded, slowly chewing the tuna sandwich which was part of her breakfast as she answered Shigure's question.
"Of course. The drug traffickers, no matter how well-armed they were to fight a gang war, stood no chance against a ship girl who was more or less invulnerable to bullets, and was desensitized to pain due to the drugs which she accidentally ingested.vReports suggest that she ingested more drugs as she stormed the cartel, likely some sort of psychedelic drug which sent her further over the edge during her rampage, and was eventually put down by the Chinese military and the Beijing Special Police Force, who took her down with superior tactics, numbers and firepower. It got so bad to the point where the Chinese Army had to send in a battle tank and had to fire at her in the ensuing rampage in order to stop her. Luckily, even in her drug-induced madness, she never harmed a Chinese civilian (other than the drug traffickers), and never killed any members of the Chinese military or the Beijing Special Police Force, the latter of which is the Chinese equivalent of the Special Weapons And Tactics Units in various countries."
Shigure lowered her gaze as she commented, now starting to see her monochrome comrade in a new light.
As to whether it was positive or negative, the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer wasn't sure.
"The fallout of such an event must've been immense, seeing that a ship girl committed mass murder on foreign soil despite being under the influence of drugs, and in a country which still holds a grudge against us."
"Indeed. There was a lot of international debate on whether to try her as a criminal and either incarcerate or scrap her, or allow her to enter rehabilitation in order to prevent her from getting addicted to the various narcotics which she ingested. Like I said, our ship girl bodies are designed to resist addiction to narcotic substances to some extent, so even if we were to abuse any drugs or alcohol, our bodies would do its best to make sure that the withdrawal symptoms wouldn't cripple us like it normally would for a human."
"And seeing how Akitsu Maru-san is still here, did they incarcerate her?"
"Yes, and because our government and Admiral Haru pleaded leniency, she got a reduced sentence of three months after being charged with several accounts of manslaughter. And when she came back, she was purported to have… changed."
"Must've been hard to convince the Japanese government to allow Akitsu Maru-san back into Japan, much less allow her to sortie after having a criminal record, even if it was manslaughter."
Shiranui only nodded in response, and Shigure continued the conversation.
"So the drug high and the prison experience changed her?"
"It's likely that she came across the revelation while she was under the effects of the drugs, likely brought on by despair after learning about the army which she represented, and after facing the overwhelming hatred from the locals. It seemed as if she chose the fifth choice, to 'be happy' in spite of how she saw herself."
Shiranui used her index and middle fingers on both hands to air-quote "be happy" before looking down and lowering her hands, using her right hand to wrap around the handle of her coffee cup.
It was an unremarkable white cup which had a few superficial cracks on it, but that didn't compromise the cup's ability to hold its contents without leaking as far as Shigure could tell, Shiranui bringing the cup up to her lips.
The coffee within the cup was steaming as a small plume of smoke was wafting from its surface, indicating its high temperature.
"She's a little… quieter now, having weaned off the drugs after a 'cold turkey' treatment in prison, and she's nice to other ship girls. But the reason why you likely haven't seen her around is because there are several rumors about her being a shady drug dealer when off-duty. She also hangs around and bunks with Bismarck, since they both see the similarities between them, and one of them is being the embodiment of terrible regimes."
Shigure nodded in agreement, thinking more about how Akitsu Maru might have changed for the worse since she was imprisoned by the Chinese authorities after killing the "bad guys" while in the midst of the ship girl equivalent of a midlife crisis.
It might have been tempting for her to choose to live a free and happy life despite that traumatizing fiasco, and since Shigure hadn't seen her around despite being on the active fleet roster, it meant that she, like Aoba, was likely somewhat of a recluse when not ordered to sortie.
Shigure nodded, although she looked at Shiranui inquisitively as she asked the Kagerou-Class destroyer a question in order to get to know her better.
"But between you and me, assuming you've lived for far longer than you already have, which would you choose when your time comes?"
Shiranui thought about the question as with her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, before letting Shigure know about what she would hypothetically choose in that scenario.
"Well…bI would certainly try my best to live with that revelation, because I have to keep believing that my work, no matter how insignificant it may seem, is making a difference in everyone's lives."
Nodding, Shigure noticed that Kagerou managed to elicit a bout of laughter from the surrounding destroyers with her impressive impression of Kongou, Yuudachi and Kawakaze laughing heartily while Arare, a stoic destroyer much like Shiranui, was barely suppressing her growing smile, and Samidare covered her mouth as she giggled elegantly at Kagerou's impression.
Now that the table's attention was distracted by the name-ship of the Kagerou-Class destroyer, Shigure's eyes twinkled as she leaned in to ask a secret question.
"And I'd like to ask about something else, and this is the main reason why I want to talk to you. I'd like to ask if you were interested in finding out whatever secret project Admiral Haru's been working on with Akashi and Aoba?"
No reaction.
Shiranui looked back at her with her hardened gaze and poker-face, considering her words as ship girls chatted and ate their breakfast around them, going about their merry business while Shigure waited for a reaction or an answer of sorts.
Finally, long after Shigure looked away and admitted defeat in the little stare-down with Shiranui, the Kagerou-Class destroyer picked up her cup of coffee again as she noted.
"You understand that this is grounds for treason, no? Spying on our own Admiral?"
Shigure shrugged as she explained herself to Shiranui in a hushed tone, knowing that the she had a good chance of convincing the Kagerou-Class destroyer to form an alliance with her in order to uncover the Admiral's secret plans, elaborating.
"Well, it's not as if we're trying to uncover information in order to sell out our Admiral or our country, we're simply trying to find out what's going on behind the scenes in order to better understand the situation. You understand that things are starting to spiral out of control with the advent of the Flying Dutchman and various signs of the Abyssals stepping up their game. I believe you're familiar with 'Apocalypse'?"
Shiranui's eyes snapped towards her direction as her attention was drawn to "Apocalypse", and Shigure now knew that she commanded Shiranui's full attention upon namedropping "Apocalypse" in order to let the Kagerou-Class destroyer know that she knew more than she let on, continuing.
"Look, as a sister ship who's protective of her sisters, I think you understand me when I say that we need to take some risks in order to find out as much as we can about what goes on in this base and make sure that they don't compromise the safety of our comrades or our sisters. Surely you can at least understand that sentiment?"
Gulping, Shigure waited as Shiranui considered her proposal with another sip of her coffee, understanding the risks of asking someone else to help spy on the Admiral in order to learn about confidential projects, especially if Shiranui could simply pay lip service and agree with her here, and report her to the Admiral in order to stop her before she had even begun.
But despite having never talked to her before, she trusted the pink-haired destroyer before her.
She knew that Shiranui loved her sisters and seemed like the kind of ship girl to do anything for them as a well-intentioned extremist, and as a member of the Infiltration Fleet which was often sent out in order to find out more about what the Abyssals were up to, she could count on Shiranui to provide her with information so long as she did the same with anything she uncovered.
One way which she could accomplish this with someone like Shiranui was to be completely honest with her, point out the situation at hand and fear-monger a little before appealing to the destroyer's protective instincts, and the best possible outcome was for her to get the destroyer's cooperation and secure herself a source of information.
The worse outcome was that she would face a court martial and be punished by a senior ship girl, probably either Akashi or Nagato, neither ship girl being more preferable over the other.
But hey, like she said, how was she going to learn more about enemy activity if she never took any risks in order to take the first step in establishing trust with other ship girls?
And Shiranui seemed to echo this thought as she asked, although it was phrased more like a question asked in order to sate her idle curiosity instead of a question which would influence her final decision, asking.
"What's stopping me from betraying you and reporting you to the Coordinators? From what I understand, you seem like a smart ship girl, if a little reckless in your attempts to get stronger…"
Shigure lifted an eyebrow in order to concede the point as Shiranui continued.
"You do not possess any leverage over me, and you also look unwilling to resort to force in order to extract the information out of me… Was your plan to point things out in a way which would accentuate the negative, appeal to my protective instincts and better nature and pray that everything goes your way?"
The Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer froze up from the Kagerou-Class's eerily accurate description of her plans, and she could feel the sweat start to line her forehead while Shiranui now had a deadpan expression as she lightly karate-chopped her forehead, causing Shigure to tear up as she clutched at her head, whimpering.
"What was that for?"
Shiranui, now picking up her utensils in order to dig into her breakfast, chided Shigure for possessing the foresight to predict how this conversation could go, yet doing nothing to at least try and avoid the worst possible outcome from coming true.
"You knew that I could betray you and tell on you as soon as you revealed your wish to spy on the Admiral and uncover whatever she's been planning. And your plan was to count on the power of friendship to protect you from a court martial and from the likes of Nagato and the Coordinators? I'm actually considering accepting your proposal simply out of pity for your sheer naivete."
Shigure pouted as she, too, started to dig into her breakfast in order to feed her body with the necessary amount of nutrients and fuel before attending her training session with the Infiltration Fleet, answering.
"Well, I didn't want to rely on such concepts like luck or friendship due to their unpredictability and thus unreliability, but you're a fellow ship girl. I think it would speak volumes about my faith in my fellow comrades if I was unable to extend my offer to you without any bribes, threats or try to maneuver myself into a favorable position before this conversation. It's best that I offer you this secret alliance on equal grounds as an act of good faith, and even though I perfectly understand the need to use tricks and dirty moves in order to get what you want, but I'd only use them on the enemy. The only situation where I'd use these tactics against you is if our system is a cutthroat one, and we have to treat everyone, even our supposed allies as enemies, and I think you wouldn't want this, right?"
Shiranui hummed, thinking about things as she ate her serving of scrambled eggs, swallowing them before answering gratefully after realizing that a ship girl who had never talked to her before trusted her to such an extent.
"Well, being a cynical ship girl who's lived a fair bit of my life dealing with the Abyssals while hiding in the shadows, I suppose I felt a little surprised that someone whom I've never met before would trust me to such an extent. But then again, I think that a bit of trust in your allies goes a long way. And I'm grateful that ship girls can still trust one another like this, although whether this is a good or bad thing is still up for debate…"
Sighing in defeat, Shiranui looked towards Shigure as she accepted Shigure's offer for an alliance to both spy on the Admiral and share confidential information with each other, answering.
"In the interest of finding out everything which goes on behind the scenes in order to stay updated on the bigger picture, I suppose sharing whatever information we uncover about the Abyssals with one another isn't out of the question. And spying on Admiral Haru may be quite the deplorable thing to do, but I will take the bullet for the sake of protecting my sisters and teammates. Besides, I understand your potential, but you certainly need someone to guide you on the ways of this world; I certainly wouldn't want to see you die because of it."
Shigure nodded thankfully as she started on her tuna sandwich, noticing that Kagerou was now imitating the Shokaku-Class carrier Zuikaku and was displaying the traits of the "tsundere" with Kaga as the target of her affections.
And she was oblivious to the fact that a livid Zuikaku was standing behind her as she performed her impression, the mother of all false smiles plastered on Zuikaku's face as several veins bulged from her temples and her neck along with a threatening aura emanating from her very pores, but these were ignored by the Kagerou-Class destroyer, who faced away from her.
Everyone at the table other than Shigure and Shiranui were trying their best not to laugh at Kagerou's accurate portrayal of the Shoukaku-Class carrier's blatant crush on Kaga while in the presence of said carrier, and were desperately trying their best to signal to Kagerou in order to get her to stop, but their signals weren't getting through.
And Zuikaku finally made her presence known by bringing up her palm in order to slam it down on the crown of the Kagerou-Class destroyer's head, Kagerou freezing up before breaking out into a cold sweat.
Sweat-dropping at the sight of an irritated Zuikaku leading a defeated Kagerou out by grasping one of her twin-tails, Shigure leaned in as she noted Shiranui visibly fighting the urge to leave her seat and stand up to Zuikaku for daring to harm a hair on Kagerou, sharing what she knew with Shiranui in part to distract her from the scene before them, whispering in a hushed tone.
"Well, in a conversation between Admiral Haru, Aoba and Akashi which I overheard, they were talking about how the Abyssals were developing a railgun which could warp the landscape with each shot, and how the Abyssals destroyed the island which they used for the test in order to cover their tracks. Admiral, Aoba and Akashi cited the possibility of it being related to 'Apocalypse'."
Shigure continued as she explained herself to Shiranui, feeling a little relieved that she had someone to open up to about the downward spiral towards disaster which she had the dubious honor of witnessing firsthand.
"I fought the Southern War Princess a while ago, and before she committed mental suicide, she revealed that 'Apocalypse was the production of new Abyssal units and weapons in order to launch another land assault, but doing it right this time. One example is said railgun likely being mounted on a tank destroyer chassis in order to create the mother of all tank destroyers. They wish to drag the entire world into another World War, and when the last ship girls fall and what remains of mankind is at the mercy of the Abyssals, they…"
Shigure swallowed the uncomfortable lump in her throat as she revealed their plans to exterminate mankind and wipe them all from the face of the Earth.
"They plan to reenact The Final Solution on all of mankind. They likely plan to leave nothing behind which would indicate the prior existence of mankind or ship girls before their reign."
Shiranui silently considered the situation as she finished her breakfast, downing the last of her tuna sandwich and wiping her gloved hands together on a tissue with a grave expression on her face before answering honestly about what she had uncovered on her last infiltration operation, and what she thought about the situation.
"When we infiltrated an abandoned Abyssal base, we uncovered the receipts for 'Apocalypse'. The amount of resources which they had transported, likely via underwater transport routes, was like nothing we'd ever seen before. So I understand the 'Apocalypse' part of the discussion, but the railgun and the plans for a land assault are new to me. We'll have to step up our game from here on out."
Shigure nodded grimly as she explained the need to find out what was going on behind the scenes in order to get the full picture of the entire war, and to find out any plans to combat the Abyssals, explaining herself.
"Look, if you remember, I said that there was a secret project between Aoba, Admiral Haru and Akashi named Project Psyche. I haven't uncovered the details, but Aoba-san was called out of her copper-plated room in order to work with the human engineers, the Fairies and Akashi instead of working on the project from inside her room, so it's something very important if Admiral Haru, being the caring woman she is, had to get Aoba out of her room in order to work on Project Psyche. Admiral Haru likely recruited her because of her research into the ship girl mind which almost killed her."
Shiranui nodded as she saw the logic in Shigure's theory, but warned her since as the name of the operation implied, they were likely delving into uncharted territory.
"Yes, but as the name 'Psyche' suggests, they might be researching into what the soul consists of, although it's just a hypothesis based on the project name. Even though I expect Admiral Haru to do everything by the book by respecting our rights and assessing the risks before making a decision, it's best to assume that the reason for its secrecy is because they don't want the Abyssals to find out about this, and the participants are possibly at risk of dying for real."
Shigure nodded grimly as she took a sip of the coffee in her hand before she asked a question which she had been contemplating, and narrated her thought process.
"But who would Admiral Haru choose to participate in this project, anyway? I would understand if she had to choose a ship girl who's skilled, but wouldn't affect the base too much should the project go south…"
Shiranui then deadpanned, pointing out the announcement about the conspicuous reassignment of new ship girls to the 1st Fleet despite three of her four teammates recovering fast enough in order to attend training.
"Well, the member composition of your fleet's been rearranged despite the fact that everyone save for Junyou has recovered enough to attend training. Do you think any one of your teammates might be involved?"
Shigure's eyebrows furrowed as she considered the question, and thought about how Junyou, Hiei and Tatsuta were still hospitalized.
But while the light carrier still had some trouble with her recovering eyesight, Hiei and Tatsuta had recovered enough to the point where they were able to attend yesterday's lightweight training session, where Tone had toned down its intensity in order to make sure that they didn't overexert themselves.
Tenryuu was training with Abukuma whenever she wasn't visiting the 1st Fleet, but could any one of them have volunteered for Project Psyche?
"I don't know," Shigure began.
"Hiei's training with the battleships while Tenryuu's attending training sessions with the stronger torpedo cruisers and Kai Ni light cruisers. Personally, I can see Tenryuu accepting this offer in order to get stronger and overcome her weakness of being the nameship of a mediocre light cruiser class. But I can't say for certain unless I meet them again…"
Shiranui then stopped her, pointing out the fact that they were now playing guessing games, which was a major time-waster, stating bluntly.
"Then I'll stop you there and tell you that you're now attempting to guess which ship girl's part of the project, which is a wild goose chase at this point in time when we don't have enough information to start narrowing the list down. And at this point in time, whoever's been chosen to participate in this project is of secondary importance right now because, One, we have a sortie coming up soon and we can't distract ourselves with these 'maybes' with so many ship girls in Yokosuka. Two, finding out what this project entails and what it aims to do is more important than trying to figure out who's in on the project, although finding out their identities will be important when we wish to learn of their progress behind their backs."
Shigure nodded solemnly, thankful that she had a senior here who had a good head on her shoulders, reminding her of their priorities since she had likely dealt with a few tough intelligence gathering scenarios on the field for a while now.
She looked back at Shiranui, asking the Kagerou-Class destroyer as she too, finished her cup of coffee in order to revitalize herself before facing the day.
"I realize that compared to everyone, I'm rather weak since I was recently constructed. If you don't mind, may I ask you for guidance on how to improve myself and become a better destroyer?"
Shiranui lifted an eyebrow as she noted wryly, highlighting her recent sorties and the amount of danger she had encountered thus far, either by choice or otherwise.
"Well, after taking into account the sheer amount of life-and-death situations you've been in for the, well… To my knowledge, it's been barely a month after you've been constructed, and even as a fellow comrade, it's worrying to think that you're this unprepared… Please do not be misled by my stoic demeanor, and believe me when I say that deep down, I'm fearing for your future."
Shigure sweat-dropped as she flinched upon hearing the Kagerou-Class destroyer's honest opinion of her and how she was a magnet for trouble, but Shiranui's gaze softened somewhat as she met Shigure's gaze and continued.
"But I understand that you've been through a lot, both in the past and the present. And it's clear from what we've learnt so far that things will get even worse for us from now on. Seeing that you constantly get dragged into these life threatening situations and your luck allows you to walk out of them like it was a simple breeze…"
Shigure lifted an eyebrow as she conceded the point, and understood the fact that the pink-haired destroyer didn't mince her words when she pointed things out, politely listening to Shiranui's assessment of her.
" … I understand if you wish to improve yourself in order to perform better instead of relying on your luck all the time. Things are changing, and whatever's coming, it might be too much for me to expect that you won't be in the eye of the storm."
Shiranui blew on the surface of her coffee cup before taking another sip of coffee while her gloved hands tightened on the cup's handle, looking at Shigure with a mysterious, contemplative look in her eyes.
"I will teach you what I know. We have a training session after this, and I can try to teach you a few things there in order to help you avoid making too many rookie mistakes, some of which can still be committed by ship girls who've been around for a while."
Shigure graciously accepted the offer, raising her palms in a placating gesture as she remarked, expressing her gratefulness for the destroyer's willingness to help her become stronger in order to protect her sisters and her teammates.
"I understand. I just want the both of us to help each other out, and if you have something to teach me about battle techniques and tactics, then I'll be in your care, Shiranui-san."