It was difficult to find something to talk to Saratoga about, since she was a newly spawned, impressionable ship girl who hadn't been exposed to the wonders of the modern age long enough to have any preferences for any topics.
So Hiei and company had to spend the entire time walking to the viewing theater in an awkward silence, and since she didn't know Saratoga long enough to know which topics were sensitive and others were alright with her, Hiei opted for the silent treatment, but only because she didn't want to dredge up any bad memories and start their relationship off on the wrong foot.
And upon reaching the viewing theater, Nagato turned to Saratoga and explained how this viewing theater was used to bring new ship girls and sailors up to speed about the war.
"Alright, Saratoga-san. This is a small theater to show you a video in order to bring you up to speed with the Abyssal War. And after this, we'll try and get some lunch before I escort you around the base and introduce you to everyone."
But Saratoga had a different idea, requesting for an extended history lesson.
"Um, if it's not too much of me to ask, I'd like to learn more about what the technology and weapons of today are like. Perhaps it's my nature as an American to be interested in weapons, but after seeing the 8th Fleet in action, it's certainly caught my interest…"
Haruna nodded as she agreed amiably, Hiei seeing that despite her sister ship feeling somewhat uncomfortable in the presence of the American carrier, she genuinely wanted to be close with Saratoga in order to establish strong ties with their former adversaries and repair emotional wounds for the greater good.
"Certainly. In some sense, war is a technological race, and it'd be understandable if you wish to keep up with the times in terms of technological advancements. This way please."
Saratoga nodded as Haruna gestured towards the entrance of the theater, and Shigure gently pushed the carrier into the viewing theater in order to get the show on the road while Nagato placed a comforting shoulder on Saratoga before the three of them disappeared into the dimly-lit room, but Hiei was left with Haruna outside the theater as she asked her sister how she felt about this.
"Haruna… How're you holding up so far?"
Haruna's smiled drooped a little as she lowered her gaze, exhaling as she responded silently, for fear that the carrier would overhear them talking behind her back.
"I… I do not know, Hiei nee-sama.
I suppose… I should feel happy that we're blessed enough to receive another carrier, which helps us bolster our forces, but…"
Hiei tried to finish the sentence for her.
"But you aren't sure whether you should dislike her for being American?"
Haruna's eyes widened as she held up both arms placatingly in order to refute Hiei's suggested question as she responded, almost panicked and trying not to dredge up bitter feelings.
"Oh, oh no, nee-sama! She did not ask to be spawned here, of all places, and as an American, no less! And we are now allies with the Americans, so there should not be any feelings of resentment between us in order to work with them. It's just that Haruna immediately thought about American bomber planes when I saw her, and…"
Lowering her hands, Haruna seemingly deflated as she finished the sentence and remembered how she sank at the hands of several hundred bomber planes flying over her at Kure, raining Hell upon her and several other warships before sinking them all.
"It just reminds of Kure, and how I sank there…"
Hiei said nothing, but brought her in for a reassuring hug as she empathized with Haruna, sharing with her how she sank.
"You don't have to say anything, Haruna. I understand how it feels like to sink while coming under fire from bombers. Enterprise sank me with her planes in Guadalcanal along with the help of USS San Francisco, remember? Although I do believe the credit mostly went to Enterprise..."
Haruna nodded solemnly as she inhaled deeply, allowing the mood to settle down as the both of them tried to calm themselves down and not allow this to devolve into a pity party, Hiei trying to lighten up the mood by stating.
"Well, if we really wanted a real headache on our hands, we would have received Enterprise instead of Saratoga. No offense to The Grey Ghost, but her presence here would drive the carriers of the 1st and 5th Carrier division nuts trying to out-perform her along with giving the 1st and 2nd Carrier Division major PTSD attacks, and her presence alone would send about a quarter of us into panic attacks everywhere she went."
Haruna snickered, trying not to laugh at the sight of Kaga and Zuikaku, the hardcore carriers who were present in this base, pull at their hairs while trying to outperform the legendary American carrier, and responded with a fair bit of mirth.
"And would you be amongst those who would be afraid of her?"
Hiei thought about how she would react to her killer, before understanding that the warships of both sides were simply performing their duties to the best of their abilities in World War 2.
She answered simply.
"Yes. For a while, at least."
And Haruna probed deeper in order to determine if her sister was capable of forgiving someone who sank her.
"And would you forgive her, nee-sama?"
Hiei blinked upon hearing this, and pushed herself away from her sister in order to contemplate the question while looking at a concerned Haruna, who was trying to get her to open up to her sister ship about her sinking and confront it, because the both of them knew that the world was becoming increasingly connected.
It was simple for Hiei and her fleet to be sent overseas, and it was entirely possible that the longer Hiei lived, the greater her chances of meeting either Enterprise or San Francisco and having to come to terms with her own sinking through the combined efforts of both carrier and cruiser. She knew the textbook answer to this question should a civilian or reporter ask them this question, where the ship girl in question should give the model answer.
"Of course! The past is in the past, and we should put aside our past grudges in order to work together to defeat the Abyssals!"
But in reality, things were a lot more complicated than that, since every ship girl differed in personality and could range from being entirely fine with forgiving the foreign ship girl who sank her at the drop of a hat, to harboring a grudge for years on end and never considering forgiveness as a possibility for them, making foreign operations extremely difficult for everyone.
The possibility of a ship girl turning out to be the latter was extremely rare, but with twenty years of producing an innumerable variety of ship girls, there were certainly a few of them around the world who were placed on the watch-list immediately after being brought into this world, although they were given several chances to overcome their hatred as part of their ship girl rights.
For Hiei, she wasn't sure if she was magnanimous enough to forgive Enterprise immediately after meeting her like the saintly Haguro and Chitose, but she wasn't the kind of ship girl to hold onto a grudge forever.
Was she?
Finally, Hiei looked Haruna in the eye as she gave her sister her honest answer.
"I'll do my best to forgive her, because there's no possibility of teamwork if we keep holding onto these grudges and feelings of animosity. But I admit it won't be easy for me to do so for Enterprise and San Francisco, the latter having disabled my steering with her shells while the former bombarded me with her planes."
While looking away as she brooded, this being an entirely new thing for her as she saw herself as quite energetic and cheery, but was surprising even herself as she responded maturely.
"But those hypothetical scenarios can wait for the future. Right now, I'm more worried about Yukikaze, who was my escort ship back then. I've always wanted to talk to her to help her come to terms with any negative feelings she might still harbor after scuttling me all those years ago. But despite being a fast battleship, she's always evaded me as though she knows when I'm approaching her to talk about her actions at Guadalcanal. It's getting rather vexing, really…"
Haruna gave a small smile as she made a suggestion to help her beloved sister out.
"To Haruna's knowledge, Yukikaze-san still receives counselling sessions from Akashi-san, right? You can ask Akashi-san to arrange a session where you talk to Yukikaze-san with her…"
Hiei's face lit up as she saw the ingenuity in that plan, slapping her palms on her sister's shoulders as she exclaimed, breaking out into a smile.
"That's genius, Haruna! Thank you so much!"
Jumping and glomping her sister with a bear hug and with a wide smile on her face, Haruna was caught off-guard as she warned,
"Nee-sama! I can't…"
As Hiei felt the world spin about her while Haruna was thrown off-balance by Hiei's hug, Hiei falling on her back and landing on the wooden long tiles that made up the floor as Hiei winced at the floorboards hitting her back, thankfully cushioned somewhat by the two hospital gowns shielding her back.
Haruna fell on her and tried to slap a palm on the floor to stop her face from meeting Hiei's, but her hand slipped as she fell forwards, almost parallel to Hiei as her lips met Hiei's for a split second.
They both gasped as Haruna hastily lifted her face while still sitting on Hiei, but they then both broke out into embarrassed smiles as their spirits were a raised a little after her own antics eased the mood, and she now felt rather invigorated after knowing that Shigure was alive, she had an idea of how to get through to Yukikaze, she had quite the productive discussion with Haruna about her past and Yokosuka now had a new carrier within their ranks, further bolstering their forces and increasing their air-power.
This was turning out to a good day indeed.