It took a day or so, but eventually Kongou and Hiei emerged from the lab looking more fierce than ever.

"Say hello to Kongou kai ni hei!" Kongou shouts cheerily as she shows off.

"And say hello to Hiei kai ni hei!" Hiei says, trying to mimic her big sister. There are not many visible changes to their over all outfits save for an extra white vest-like article of clothing that blends in with their uniform, creating a collar and the illusion of a short cape, shorter boots, long socks and a different headband but the real changes lie in their weaponry: In addition to better guns Kongou has a small pocket on her uniform where she keeps tiny orbs containing seaplane bombers, and Hiei has more or less the same thing except she uses seaplane fighters. "What do you think? Cool?"

"Yeah, looks pretty cool to me." Vinh chuckles.

"Okay that looks pretty awesome." Jack chuckles and he braces himself as Kongou hugs him tight. "You know... You don't have to do that every time."

"What? Why not teitoku?" Kongou giggles as she lets go. Jack finds himself without an answer and she giggles to herself once again.

"Dude, why haven't you made any moves yet?" Vinh whispers into Jack's ear. "She's fallen so hard for you that it's not even funny!" That made Jack choke on his own saliva for a few seconds, quickly attracting Kongou's attention.

"Teitoku!" Kongou says as Jack puts up a hand. "What did you say to him?" She then asks Vinh.

"I didn't say anything." Vinh chuckles innocently. "He must have been thinking of something and he got interrupted."

"What were you thinking of?" Kongou asks.

"Nothing." Jack replies as he recomposes himself.

"Are you sure about that?" Vinh asks.

"I don't think he would like you revealing his secrets. You wouldn't like it if I did that, would you?" Kongou asks, trying to stick up for the admiral.

"You know I'm just playing around, don't worry!" Vinh laughs. "I wouldn't dare do that to my higher up here."

"Yeah right." Jack snorts. "Come on Kongou." And with that Jack and Kongou head to his quarters as there is very little activity from the enemy.

"Does he do that a lot?" Kongou asks.

"He's kind of a fool, likes messing around with us, but he never means actual harm." Jack replies. "Otherwise he would have already spilled my secrets to you. Anyways how are you liking that remodel the fleet admiral gave you?"

"It works really well!" Kongou says. "I got to test it out before I showed it off for you guys and it's really good!"

"Just make sure you don't use your planes inside the building, the last thing we need is for one of them to blow up something we need." Jack chuckles before they both burst out into laughter.

"Do you really think me that irresponsible? No way!" Kongou laughs.

"Yeah like the time you used one of your AA guns because a bug had flew into your room?" Jack laughs.

"I was scared!" Kongou says sheepishly as they continue to laugh. Eventually they both fall back on his bed and they chuckle to themselves.

"Man we've come a long way haven't we?" Jack chuckles. "To think that back then when I was just an ordinary seaman, I would come to be the admiral I am. You got along well with me even when I was just starting out."

"I mean how couldn't I? I'd heard other rumors about you and how chivalrous you were." Kongou replies. "We really have come a long way."

"You've probably fought more battles than I have considering how long you've been here." Jack says. "You've aged real well."

"I can't go without saying you have as well." Kongou replies. "And well... During all this time..." The battleship looks away to hide a blush.

"What is it? I won't judge." Jack says, and Kongou turns to face Jack, still red as a tomato.

"Well... Um... Ah..." Kongou keeps stalling. "Urgh! Dammit Kongou just spit it out!" Kongou shouts in her head. At this point the battleship is visibly panting, her boilers going much harder than normal, and Jack gently and carefully rests a hand on her shoulder lest he get punched.

"Seriously, you okay?" Jack asks. "You look like you're going to explode..."

"Uguuu... Um... Uh..." Kongou stutters. "I... I-uh..." Finally Kongou grabs Jack's shoulders and blurts it out, words running over one another just to get out of her mouth. "IreallylikeyouIcouldn'tfindabetterwaytoputitIunderstandifyouwon'tsaylikewiseImeanyou'remyadmiralitcouldn'tworkoutcoulditpleasesaysomething!" She then stands up and looks away once she's done, not wanting Jack to look at her. The admiral takes a few seconds to process and decipher what Kongou had just blurted out before chuckling. "Why are you laughing? That's so mean teitoku!" She suddenly asks, looking at the admiral.

"No no, I'm not laughing about that." Jack says as he stands up. "Was it really that hard to get out?"

"Huh?" Kongou asks, looking like she had just been asked a dumb question.

"I will admit, I like you too." Jack replies, slightly turning away to hide his own blush. "Maybe we can try another outing in the city? Just us this time?" The admiral is completely unprepared as Kongou glomps him and knocks him onto the bed. "Oof! I take that as a yes..." He says weakly, wind knocked out of him by the glomp.

"I would love to teitoku!" Kongou says cheerily.