The 1st Fleet was now sitting back in the same seat of the Shinsengumi establishment, and the 1st Fleet was now relaxing as the 2nd Fleet had to soak in the bathwater of the docks to recover completely by tomorrow, Tone having demonstrated to Shigure and company how the ship girls of today fought their battles to hold the line against the Abyssals.
Shigure was talking to Ayanami about the 2nd Fleet, asking a senior about how hard they had to train in order to achieve such skills to defend themselves in battle, Ayanami answering calmly.
"Well, attending training sessions is one thing, and seeing that ship girls like Sendai and Shimakaze take part in lessons outside of sorties to improve their agility, a vital factor in our performance seeing that we're the fastest ship girls in the fleet."
Shigure lifted her eyebrows at that, Ayanami taking a sip from her ramune bottle before answering and elaborating on the fighting styles of the ship girls.
"Destroyers like us are fragile, but are the fastest in terms of speed and have great numbers. And with great speed means greatly improved evasion abilities along with high luck, you and I, and we perform extremely well in night battles."
Shigure's eyebrow creased at that, but Ayanami didn't seem to notice, or decided to exercise tact by not drawing attention to it as she continued.
"The weaker destroyers often go on expeditions to resupply our base, since we can't survive off of the resource donation of various companies forever."
Shigure lifted an eyebrow at that to accept Ayanami's point, the name ship of the Ayanami-Class looking forward as she explained the light cruisers.
"Light cruisers are more powerful than us destroyers, and it's reflected in their stats and their teenage bodies that are more developed in terms of their physique and the skills available to them."
"And let me guess, heavy cruisers are more powerful than that, which is reflected in their 'young adult' looks, while carriers and battleships are created as full-fledged adults to reflect being the epitome of physical strength?"
Ayanami nodded as they both looked at the bickering Hiei and Junyou, the fast battleship holding the wine bottle away from the light carrier while Junyou desperately lunged and stretched her hands out to try and grasp the wine bottle while leaning on the fast battleship, the entire comedic routine involving a lot of physical contact and hair-pulling.
Shigure sweat-dropped as she commented on the sight before her, asking her silent comrade.
"I believe that maturity doesn't always extend to their behavior, right?"
Ayanami could only chuckle at the sight of the last two members of the 1st Fleet 'getting along so well", commenting.
"Well, of course not, for things wouldn't be as interesting now, would it?"
Shigure lifted her eyebrow in acceptance, noting,
"So, each ship class has a unique specialization, us being raw speed and light cruisers being agility. I'm making an educated guess that heavy cruisers are well-rounded, carriers having powerful situational awareness and enhanced sight, seeing how Ryuujou was able to coordinate all her bombers so well across the entire battlefield. And battleships obviously are the strongest in terms of physical strength and firepower amongst all ship classes."
Ayanami nodded serenely, commending.
"You seem to be rather perceptive, as that point about the carriers having powerful sight can pass by those who didn't know of it before."
Shigure shrugged, remembering her time with the light carrier on their fleet.
"Well, I remember Junyou often commenting offhandedly about a few things that required me to get closer to see what she had seen, which led me to come to that conclusion, it being a skill naturally required to complement their powerful radar and to visually keep track of the planes in the sky."
Ayanami nodded, looking back at the sight of the two squabbling ship girls, before gentle hands reached out and relinquished the wine bottle from Hiei's grip, Houshou standing next to their table as she asked, being the unofficial mother figure to everyone as she stood before them all.
"Well, by the sound of things, I believe you've seen the 2nd Fleet in action against Abyssal bots on the training grounds, am I right?"
Tenryuu's face lit up like a Christmas tree upon hearing that, speaking animatedly about the feats that the 2nd Fleet pulled off while using her fingers and hands to mimic the motions like an overexcited child, Tatsuta smiling at her sister ship's enthusiasm.
"Oh yeah! Sendai was like, flipping over the Ta-Class, and Shimakaze was like, tstshtshtsh while stomping on a Ri-Class's face..."
Houshou giggled as she held the wine bottle beside her, Hiei and Junyou already patting themselves down as they tried to make themselves look presentable in front of the mother-ship as Houshou asked.
"Well, I believe that it's a simple matter for you to achieve that level of skill in due time."
"Really?!"
Shigure was rather surprised at the possibility of someone currently as weak as her could become that strong, although now that she thought about it, she had a Kai Ni remodel like quite a few ship girls in her fleet.
This would mean that they, like the 2nd Fleet, possessed quite a fair bit of untapped potential when one looked at the fleet composition, Houshou answering her question as she gave Shigure a warm smile.
"Oh, of course. Even after all of you achieve your final forms, it's not what you can achieve alone, but instead as a fleet to cover each other and take down opponents tougher than you. You all now play a part in ensuring each other's survival, and I do believe that you'll do everything in your power to ensure that you all come home alive."
The 1st Fleet nodded at that, wondering about what new aims they were going to have to set for themselves upon seeing what they could achieve to be at the level that the 2nd Fleet was currently at, not just to attain victory for the sake of the Yokosuka Naval Base, but also to protect their comrades in battle.