Eisenkreuz Imouto

by Kuugen the Fox

Ooarai is in dire straits. The newest and most extensive tankery competition that Japan has ever seen has proven to be more than Miho can handle with just her tactical genius. There is only one person she can rely on in her time of need - but as fate wills it, this person is the supreme commander of another school.

1. Chapter 1

"Ah, they're a nuisance, an eyesore, an eyesore, an eyesore, eyesore, eyesore!" Momo Kawashima, PR manager of the Ooarai student council, had another fit of rage. "How is that shit allowed?! We should complain! Otherwise we're gonna lose! Everyone is going to lose! That's just unfair!"

About twenty meters away, on the ground in front of the tank she herself commandeered, sat the general commander of Ooarai High School, Nishizumi Miho – and she was so deep in thought that Momo's outburst went unnoticed.

"Lady Nishizumi, how is our situation?" Yukari Akiyama asked her; loader of team Anglerfish and close aide to general commander Nishizumi.

"Not good." Miho answered without looking up. When Yukari knelt next to her, Miho could guess what she was doing and reached for the bottle of water she was being offered. "Thank you, Yukari."

Yukari smiled and felt her heart skip a beat. The competition had been a blessing for her, being able to use her considerable military otaku knowledge and expertise to leverage it in the field into practical advantages. Being right by Miho's side and being looked at for advice and guidance by someone she admired was also breathtaking as an experience.

"We will be drinking dust and oil soon." Caesar, Takako Suzuki, reported in as well. She and Saemonza, Kiyomi Sugiyama, were in charge of rationing for the army – both of them part of the Hippo team, commander and gunner respectively.

"Talk to Nakajima and coordinate an expedition to the nearest river with Team Rabbit." Miho had her hands full with everything that was going on and no longer afraid to have her direct subordinates operate independently and with responsibility. Leading an army in a prolonged battle was completely different from the relatively short tankery matches before. It was completely unlike anything she had ever experienced.

Supplies were short and while they had completely eradicated Yogurt Academy two days prior, it had taken an unexpected toll on them. Ooarai, while the national champions, was at a distinct disadvantage because they had only eight tanks, and of those, Anteater Team's Type-3 Chi-Nu was being repaired by the Leopon team members, all of them doubling as the school's mechanics.

A primary advantage was that they were a school with a Japanese theme, so they had been able to avoid language studies and focus on practice, including physical and infantry drills for those that were able. But at the same time, their tanks were a completely mixed bag, so Japan's SDF was not financially backing them, like they were backing Chi-Ha-Tan. Having to pay for most basic supplies and uniforms out of their own pocket was a blow for Ooarai at first and without the Tankery Federation itself stepping in to act as an emergency sponsor, the school would have started crippled.

"Yukari?" Miho looked up from the heavily drawn on map of the battlegrounds they were on. "Can you find Hana, Erwin and-" Miho needed a second to remember who the last of the three people she needed right now was. "Piyotan."

"At once!" Dashing off and shouting names, Yukari served Miho more like a dutiful and completely obedient dog than a real vice-commander.

"Trouble?" Someone sat down next to Miho, munching on a ration cracker that tasted not much better than cardboard.

"Mako. It's a surprise to see you up at this hour." It was still before noon, but it was cold out and the wind was howling. The weather was going to get worse – the three girls from the morals committee had put in the time to learn a fair deal about the weather and predicting it with whatever gadgets they could get their hands on.

"Don't treat me like I hibernate during the day." Looking at the map, Mako did feel like going back to her tent and sleep. It wasn't just her tent, though. She shared it with three other people – the girls from team Mallard, on Mako's request. As many excuses as she made, she didn't want to trouble Miho by just rolling over when the marching order came down. "Maybe… I do hibernate during the day, but I just can't rest when everyone is on edge."

"We're dangerously low on supplies. With Pravda, Kuromorimine and Alliance One fighting over almost all of the crate drops, we haven't had much luck securing one."

"Can't we take supplies from the other small schools?" Maho was usually not involved in strategy. She drove Miho where she needed to be, when she had to.

"The battlefield is much bigger than we initially thought so it is hard to even find them – much harder still to take their base. Taking on a larger school is almost suicide. We can fight the less experienced schools like Chi-Ha-Tan, but even one or two casualties would put a serious dent in our fighting ability, so we need to pick our fights very carefully."

"Sounds like a hassle."

"I still have some plans to turn things around, but especially Alliance One is making me worry. Based on the information we got, even Pravda and Kuromorimine are wary of them. They have more tanks than everyone else, more supplies than everyone else, and they have two very good commanders that even out each other's flaws."

"We should hit them at night. That way they don't see it coming."

"The issue is that unless we can take them all out, they will just wear us down in attrition. In a normal match, that would not be a problem because we could eventually just wear them down with hit and run tactics, but they can actually repair their tanks in this scenario."

"Super hassle." Mako mindlessly munched on the ration bar and wished she had ketchup or something to mask the bland taste.

"You're right." Miho was glad that everyone around her hadn't really changed that much. They bickered over the last bit of real food and got into arguments over small stuff, but when she called them to arms, all of that was forgotten and Ooarai functioned like a well oiled machine of destruction.

"Lady Nishizumi, I mean, Commander! I brought them!" Yukari, ragged of breath and sweating badly, arrived with the three people that Miho had requested her to find.

"Jeez, Yukari, I told you to take better care of yourself."

Mako watched Yukari's heart nearly pop out of her mouth when Miho gave the half empty bottle of water to Yukari – the same bottle Miho had used to drink. Miho is so dense, she can probably reflect tank shells. I feel bad for Yukari.

"Sit." Miho pulled a piece of paper, folded a dozen times over, from her back pocket and unfolded it in front of her on the ground.

The three that were summoned, Hana, Erwin and Piyotan, all knew what Miho would summon them for. They all had one specific skill that nobody else had in their little army. Language. Hana spoke almost fluently Russian. Erwin had managed to attain fluency in German just in time for the competition and Piyotan spoke English. There was one more, Shinobu Kawanishi from the old volleyball team and now team Duck – she had specialized in Italian. It was Ooarau's combined effort to cover the languages used by the large schools that were opposed to them.

"I would understand calling one of us here – but why all three?" Erwin had just sat down to eat a meal; or at least what passed for a meal now.

"I decided that with the threat of Alliance One, we have to reach out and cease operations as a single entity. Erwin, I need you to talk to… my sister."

"Lord Maho, from the Black Forest?" Erwin knew exactly what Kuromorimine was referencing.

"Yes. Hana, you have been at the radio, listening in on Pravda, right?"

"As much as I can."

"How are things for them?"

"They are struggling against Kuromorimine. They have the upper hand whenever they fight on the terrain of their choosing, but Kuromorimine has the superior tactics and tanks. They are fighting an uphill battle. I didn't want to come to you with half information alone, but if you are talking about alliances – Pravda had chatter over radio that they are going to be putting down Kuromorimine soon and for good. They keep using a word I don't understand and I can't find it in my dictionary, but I think they plan to team up with someone."

"That is not good. Alliance One is already a very big problem. If Pravda allies with someone… maybe Bellwall or Maginot… but in the worst case scenario, they could even approach Alliance One..." Miho rambled by herself until Erwin called out for her. "I'm sorry. Erwin. The threat of Pravda allying with someone will be an excellent point of pressure when the time comes. Keep it in mind."

"Sure."

"Uhm… why am I here?" Piyotan, the gray-haired girl from team Anteater, was not very comfortable with being in this rather special circle around the commander herself.

"How good exactly is your English?"

"[I can hold a conversation about any kind of tank just fine… or most subjects, really… I practiced online a lot.]" Replying in English, the girl was suddenly faced with a lot of admiration; something she usually never had to deal with.

"I need you to perpetuate false information. We don't know what channels Alliance One communicates on, but we do know what channels are being watched by other schools. I need you to spread information that makes other schools think that there is internal discord. Weaken the power of their image. The longer they remain unchallenged and are able to amass supplies like they have been, the more difficult it will be to target them at all."

"Couldn't she just infiltrate them if she's that good at English?" Erwin felt a certain passion inside her when Yukari forced herself into the small circle, right next to her, having finally recovered.

"That's no good." Yukari didn't look at Erwin directly but kept her eyes glued on Miho. "Even if Saunders and Gloriana have like 300 people together, they will know an outsider right away. They all train together."

"Yukari is right. Infiltration is almost impossible. Sabotage is well within limits, but outright infiltration just will not work with the limit number of people participating from each school." Miho had thought that, maybe, just maybe, it could work if she constantly were to change uniforms and present herself to Saunders as someone from Gloriana and the other way around. But at the end of the day, Piyotan was not an experienced spy. It was not going to work.

"What should I talk about on radio?" Piyotan wanted to be useful.

"Pretend you are complaining to someone else about Gloriana. Saunders' girls are much more likely to openly complain due to the nature of their commander."

"Miho, is that all?" Hana wanted to go back. She had been teaching Saori little bits of Russian on the side in case something happened to her and the team needed someone else that understood Pravda.

"Erwin, I need you to stay. Piyotan and Hana, you're free to leave."

While Hana and Piyotan went to take care of their own business, Yukari asked about herself. "What about me?" When she spoke, Erwin's right hand tensed up a little. Nobody but Caesar knew about Erwin's feelings and even though she knew they were completely one-sided and would never come to fruition, she refused to let go of them.

"It would be great if you could go to team Leopon and ask them how repairs are coming along."

"Roger!" Yukari soared on her feet and bolted immediately. Erwin didn't flinch but wished she could have looked after her.

"You don't have to pretend when it is just you and me," Miho said and felt awkward when Erwin gave her a strange look. "It's probably weird to talk to me about that when I'm your commander, but… you like Yukari, right?"

Erwin unintentionally opened her mouth and no words came out, only stuttered sounds of trying to refute that. But seeing Miho's awkward yet knowing smile, Erwin gave up. Rapidly moving over the grassy ground and sitting next to her commander, Erwin stared at her. "How the heck do you know?" She paused. "Ma'am. How the heck do you know, Ma'am?"

"Lots of little things I guess. I wanna say intuition, but that's not much of an answer I guess. I can probably guess what you think. That she's so fixated on me that nothing you say will get through to her." Miho glanced at Erwin from the side. "I am not that dense."

"You're pretty good at pretending though."

"I'm the commander. If I get involved with my subordinates, I'll have complaints of favoritism on my hands. And it would compromise my ability to make decisions in battle. It's one thing to ignore that in a normal match, but out here, where losing someone means they won't be around for a week, maybe more, maybe much more… that compromises people."

"I didn't even think about this half as deeply."

"There is someone I like, anyway. And they're not going to this school."

That has to be that Erika girl from Kuromorimine that always hangs around her sister. "You're right. Talking about this with my commander is really weird."

"Then let's move on to work. We do have the numbers for Kuromorimine's primary channel, so contacting them will be easy. I didn't have time to learn German like Maho so I need you to be my translator."

"I can do that. I am not that good, though, so I'll need a few seconds to put the Japanese into German in my head."

"That's fine."

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

Two girls in German Bundeswehr uniforms bowed before Maho. "{Pravda escaped ous.}"

"{That's not unexpected. When did you cease pursuit?}" Maho addressed the two without even looking at them – instead, she controlled documents that Erika had brought to her an hour earlier.

"{At 1048 hours. We lost Pravda at the following coordinates-}" One of the girls tried to give an extended report.

"{Sector 46, northern borderlands, just beyond artificial river number five.}"

The two girls looked at each other and felt like they let their commander down. "{Commander, we accept full responsibility for the mission's failure.}"

"{If you have enough time to talk about nonsense like taking responsibility you should use that time to assist the others with securing the tents.}"

"{Understood!}"

Maho had adopted a policy of First and Last, Results matter and nothing else. After getting way too much into character as the Commander of the German Forces, a few of her trusted subordinates had told her that she was coming on much too strongly, even for her hardcore fans – Erika excluded. When someone failed a mission, under regular Kuromorimine rules there would be punishment waiting for them. But Maho did away with that. If you have time to apologize you have time to work, was something she said a lot lately.

The battle against Pravda was not going badly, but not nearly as well as she had hoped. Things were much worse in general than she had hoped. When news of Saunders and Gloriana allying had reached her, she felt genuinely worried about her school and team. But Maho had herself under control. She wanted to make her mother proud, but when she was honest with herself, she was in a little over her head in this competition. Pravda was not as weak, not here, as she had assumed, and trying to take them out, focusing on them entirely almost, was backfiring. On Kuromorimine and Pravda both. She was almost sure that there was no winning chance if things continued like this, not with the Allied Powers being a gargantuan damokles sword over her head – over everyone's head.

"[Erika!]" Maho shouted and when her second in command was not there after ten seconds, Maho stormed out of the command tent and looked around. In front of everyone else, she was still the cold, distant Maho that they all knew and respected – although few liked her for it. Spotting Koume Akaboshi, someone that was close to Erika, Maho whistled loud and instantly had the attention of everyone around her. "{Koume. With me.}" Waving the girl over, Maho had her follow her into the command tent.

"{Commander Maho-}"

"{Where is Erika? She is supposed to be here and discuss strategy with me.}"

Koume looked worried – not for herself but for Maho. Everyone could see how hard Maho was working and they all agreed on one thing; it was too hard. If you pull a bow's string back further and further, eventually the string will snap, no matter what. "{Commander, captain Erika and 26 of our soldiers are on a mission you personally ordered. The mission is-}"

And now it came back to Maho. She did order Erika to go out and hunt for supply crates. "{I remember. Dismissed.}" Maho sat down on a chair and rubbed her temple. When Koume didn't leave, she sighed. "{Koume, I said you are dismissed.}"

Koume looked around, peeked outside and then closed the tent. "Maho… everyone is worried. You are working too hard. Orders are contradicting each other since yesterday. When was the last time you slept?"

"{Mind your words, soldier. Leave.}" Maho felt a bit of anger well up inside, but more so than anger, she knew that Koume was absolutely right. But while Kuromorimine was well trained, well disciplined and skilled in combat, there was almost no one she could trust with day to day operations. Erika was too impulsive and the Kuromorimine students wouldn't listen to a transfer student like Alice so easily, not yet. Sheska was a bad idea, primarily because she was like Erika – but worse. And Koume was just a driver. I wish I could be as trusting of my girls as Miho… hah… Miho. I wonder what you're doing right now?

"How are you going to face everyone if you make a critical mistake in battle because you are completely overworked?"

Maho had enough. "If there were suitable task masters to relieve me of some of the administrative work I would have them do so."

"If they do not understand now, you should explain it to them."

Maho wanted to tell her off but she could see where this was leading. It was true that she was not doing the perfect job she wanted to do. Far from it, actually. On the first few days, she had been up for 22 hours each, constantly receiving reports, handling matters, giving orders and leading excursions. Right now she did not even have the ability to lead in battle anymore – she was too tied down at the base with everything that was going on. And this was hurting Kuromorimine in combat against Pravda.

It was my error to try and shoulder everything myself without thinking to train people to cover these tasks. Still… there is so much more to do than I thought there would be. Organizing rationing, repairs, keeping stock of war material, reading reports on enemy encounters, leading the troops, handling disputes between my soldiers, handling communication with other armies, scheduling activities on the base itself, preparing plans for excursions, reading reports on non-combat matters… I could easily fill thirty hours a day with working like this. But I cannot just up and go and say Okay, I was wrong, I need help. Mother would be incredibly disappointed. And I believe it would be a serious blow to morale as well. But… "If you are so eager to do so, you should volunteer yourself."

"Consider me volunteered, commander." Koume was a sweet girl but she knew when she had to stand her ground.

Maho pretended to be displeased but deep down, she was very glad. I think Koume knows that I cannot ask for help. "And what might you be volunteering for?"

"Taskmaster of Supply and Material."

That covers everything from rationing to keeping stock of our things and ordering repairs. That would be a big burden off my shoulders. Thank you Koume. And I am sorry I cannot tell you that. Due to her mother's brutal doctrine of labeling emotions as bothersome, Maho was supposed to always be like that – a machine of war. I wonder what made mother change so much. I remember that when I was very little, she was much more caring.

"{Maho, are you inside?}" Alice's German was a bit rocky at times and she tended to forget words. She was exceptionally smart, but she was also, as it turned out, exceptionally bad at German. The way words were pronounced just gave her trouble and the grammar was a living nightmare that followed her around.

"{I'm having an important discussion. Wait outside.}" Maho didn't want to be interrupted. Waving Koume closer so they could keep speaking Japanese – Maho just didn't have the energy left to make lengthy explanations in German – Maho asked her how much she understood of the job she was volunteering for.

Alice's bundeswehr uniform, which had to be adjusted quite a lot for her small size, was covered in dirt, top to bottom. An unfortunate mishap earlier when she jumped down from her tank and fell. "{I just want to give me report and go get me changed, Maho.}"

"[My report. Get myself changed.}" A blonde girl corrected her. "{Your German is terrible.}" She didn't have much respect for Alice – not outside actual combat or scouting operations.

"{I'm still your superior. Treat me with respect. I won't say it twice.}" Alice complained back.

"{Yes, yes.}"

"{One yes is enough!}

"{Alice.}"Maho's voice came out of the tent. "{Get in here before you and Sheska get yourselves in trouble.}" Maho was relieved to find out that Koume understood a lot of what it meant to handle matters regarding rationing. "{Koume, you may leave and close the front when you do.}"

The moment Alice was inside and the tent was closed up again, Maho reverted back to Japanese. "What now, Alice? You were just on a routine scouting mission."

"The weather is going to go bad. Really bad. The administration is handing out rain supplies for that already. I didn't wait for your approval to send out a single team to get them. They declared on all channels that nobody is to fire on a tank carrying supplies before the storm hits."

"You should still come to me first with this. But good work. How much of a storm are they expecting?"

"Something big enough to call it very bad."

Maho sighed and leaned back in her chair. The exhaustion was written all over her face.

"Maho. I know I only transferred here a few months ago and there are a lot of third years that don't respect me, but… you should give me a bigger command. At least authority over some aspects of day to day operations. I am not being used to my potential. I know I can handle at least things like reading reports and formulating strategy. Even Nishizumi strategy! My mother doesn't have to know that I am the one that did it."

"You would betray your style?"

"I am not betraying anything!"

"You really just want to fight against Miho, don't you?"

"I won't deny that it would be nice to fight Ooarai… but I'm a Kuromorimine student now. I want us to win."

"Your Shimada Squad has helped us out in some rather dangerous situations with Pravda, I must accept that."

"Then-"

"Are you confident that the others will be listening to you if I expand your command?"

"I commanded a team of university students. They'll fall in line."

"Spoken like a real commander."

"I am a real commander."

"You were not. But you will be now. I am putting you in charge of six additional tanks – draw up a list of 18 of your preferred picks and I will decide from there. Additionally, to go with your extended command, I am putting you in charge of foreign intelligence and evaluation of combat reports." Alice seemed relieved, which surprised Maho. "I thought you would be worried about having so much extra work."

"I was… a little bored."

"Bored?"

"You kept doing everything. I thought you would collapse if you kept going with that. What should I tell Miho if she learns that I sat around and did nothing while her older sister collapsed from overwork?"

"You really care about Miho, don't you?" Maho wanted to come across as friendly but her voice somehow carried real threat.

"I respect Miho a lot. And she's my rival."

"I am not sure our mothers would be happy with this sort of development."

"Why not?"

Maho was taken aback by this question. "Well… my mother doesn't seem to have a very good opinion of the Shimada style and your mother."

Ah, she doesn't know. Alice was in moral peril. While her mother did openly tell her to destroy the Nishizumi style and such, there was another side to all of that – one that was not on display in public and one that, Alice was sure about that, was not supposed to be known to Nishizumi Shiho or her daughters. Alice had learned about all of that on a rainy day at home, when she was exceptionally bored and somehow ended up going through her mother's yearbooks where she found some very interesting photos of her mother's teenage self.

"Mother has a very… special view of Shiho Nishizumi." Alice thought that was vague enough. She didn't want to lie to Maho, but she also didn't want to blurt out secrets that her mother seemed to want to keep to herself.

"In any case, do you need me to explain in detail what your new duties entail?"

"I did just say I commandeered a university team."

"I take that as a no then." Maho pointed to a large pile of documents. "Most of those are observational records from our scouts. Information is powers these days and knowing the exact extend of our enemies powers is important."

Alice walked over to the pile and flipped through some of it and looked like she regretted taking this job for a moment. "Why are we not allying with Ooarai?"

"Didn't you say you wanted to fight Miho?"

"Yes! But Pravda is really strong and Ooarai only has eight tanks. Miho is a great commander, but even she can't beat numerical advantages like these in a situation like this. And we could really use their expertise. Everything hinges on you, me and Erika right now, and it makes combat a bit difficult because we are using so many more tanks than we would in a regular match."

I can't believe this is the same girl that barely opened her mouth at school. She seems more at home on the battlefield than she is in a peaceful environment. I guess that is the Shimada style for you. "Kuromorimine is in a position of power. We are holding back Pravda and even the Allied Powers don't dare to just attack us outright. To ask Ooarai to ally with us would be to show weakness."

"Your Nishizumi style can be a real issue sometimes."

"It would be different if Miho asked us first, but… I don't think she will do that."

"Miho really struggles with asking others for help."

"We had to force our way into her match with you."

"It was a surprise to see all those schools come together to save Ooarai."

I would absolutely love it to fight together with Miho. To share a command with her. To… be with her the same way the commanders of Saunders and Gloriana are. Although that can never happen. Miho is a kind girl so she probably wouldn't say anything, but I bet she'd be disgusted to the core if she knew her older sister feels that way about her. Mother would probably disown me on the spot, too, if it somehow became public. Not to mention that she would tell me that I have to carry on the family line… ha… I wish I hadn't remembered that just now.

"You should get some rest, Maho. You look really tired." Alice was a girl that could adapt. When she commandeered the team at selection university, she really didn't have much contact with the women there. But joining Kuromorimine was different. The girls there didn't respect her. They didn't treat her like she was this special girl that had skipped grades and been to university. Not even the first years cared. Alice found herself in a world where she wasn't special anymore – so she toughened up a lot. She had to earn the respect of the other girls all the way from the bottom. She was just a simple tank commander when she started at the school and she had rapidly worked her way up by providing results. She still didn't do so well at school in terms of social behavior, but she had friends and she had a lot of respect from other first years and even a number of second years. But whenever she stepped out of the classroom and into the hangar, or rode on a tank, her worries and quietness flew away.

"If you are telling me to rest I must look like I am with one foot in the grave."

"You are pale."

Maho was shocked to hear that. "I am pale?" Looking at a completely plain mirror that was hung from a steel string above a small, portable sink, Maho found it terrifying that she indeed was a bit pale.

"It will be almost impossible to conduct operations during the incoming storm, so you should be able to get some decent rest then."

"[Kommandeur Nishizumi!]" A girl was shouting from outside the tent.

"{Come inside}" Maho quickly adjusted her posture and then glanced at Alice. "{Alice, you may leave.}" Looking at the girl that had now stepped into the tent, Maho waited for her to report.

"{We just received a message from Ooarai, over radio. The contents of the message as the following.}"

About two minutes later, Maho arrived at the radio tent, trying hard to control her breathing hut slightly out of breath after marching over there on the double. "{Sit rep.}" Maho clicked her tongue when everyone jumped up and saluted. "{I said sit rep, now.}" I thought I trained you to ignore formalities in emergencies.

Seconds later, Maho took the radio up herself. Due to the nature of all the schools being fluent in Japanese, as this was Japan, whenever a Japanese themed school engaged with a school of a different language, that other language had to be used for communications at all times. "{This is general commander of the German army, Nishizumi Maho. Identify yourself with rank, name and what you want.}"

Several kilometers away, inside a much smaller tent, sat Erwin and Miho stood next to her. A brief exchange, Erwin told Miho was Maho had said.

"Proceed as planned." Miho had already discussed some of the most obvious things with Erwin. She herself didn't speak anything but Japanese, which meant she had to rely on translators. Luckily for her, without having to tell anyone, she had access to the four primary languages of the big schools.

"{Commander of Hippo squad, this is Erwin Ro-}" Erwin cleared her throat. I can't identify myself as Erwin Rommel. They'll think I'm freaking nuts. "{Commander of Hippo Squad, Matsumoto Riko. I speak with full authority for the Japanese armed forces under the flag of Ooarai, given by general commander Nishizumi Miho.}" This is more difficult than I thought. Erwin figured out just now that learning German and using German were pretty different things.

"Tell them we would like to open official negotiations regarding an official coalition of armed forces against the threat of Alliance One." Miho was glad that Maho was on the other end. She hoped that she was anticipating things right and that Maho was secretly hoping to ally with her but could not because Kuromorimine could not possibly be seen asking a smaller school for help, national champions or not.

How do I… Erwin needed a moment to put her thoughts together, fumbled her words as she muttered a brief practice sentence and then got conveyed what Miho was saying to Kuromorimine to the best of her ability.

There was a long moment of silence from Kuromorimine and Erwin grew a little nervous because of it. She was usually very confident, almost mockingly so, but having Miho depend on her like this – and having Ooarai's fate in the hand of her linguistic skills and not just her skills as a radio operator. I definitely said it right. I think. Unterbreitet… nachricht.. offizielles angebot… I don't see anything wrong.

"{Negotiations over radio are not binding. Sector 23, regional coordinates 45.27.112 in one hour. Kuromorimine does not tolerate tardiness.}" Maho answered herself.

There was no rule that negotiations had to be made in person, but Maho saw a chance to see Miho and more over, she didn't want to rely on a translator whose German felt a bit wonky. It was, technically, sound, but awkward. Like someone who had learned it second-hand or from games.

"That went better than I expected." Translating what Maho had said to Miho, Erwin then took off the headphones and reported to Miho. "I'm still gonna have to come, right?"

"Diplomatic talks still have to be in the non-Japanese language." Miho personally disliked that rule. It made things unnecessarily difficult for Japanese themed schools. It was simulating a realistic war experience, to a degree, but she still disliked it. "Yukari was our top student in physical drills. Find her and Akebi. We are not going to that diplomatic meeting without insurance." Miho smiled at Erwin just then. "I'm glad I have someone I can rely on to talk to Kuromorimine."

"Ha. It's nothing. Just a bit of foreign language." Erwin would never show that she was not actually one hundred percent confident in both her language skills and her ability to negotiate properly. Ninety percent, yes, but not a round hundred.

Setting out to find Anzu, who Miho trusted to keep things running while she was gone, Miho looked forward to seeing her sister. It had been a while, months in fact. And while she wrote letters to her and sometimes called, they hadn't been face to face until the day before the competition. And even then they didn't have the luxury of time to be themselves.

Preparations moved along swiftly. Miho had instantly decided to move with a light guard. There was a possibility, a very small one, that Kuromorimine and Maho were leading her into a trap, but that would be disgraceful for Kuromorimine and the Nishizumi style. Miho mostly ruled that out, but not completely. Yukari and Akebi were armed and ready to go in record time, the top two in terms of physical fitness and firing accuracy with anti-person arm. Yukari beat Akebi slightly in the physical tests but Akebi had a higher total accuracy as the gunner of the Duck team.

Ooarai had no jeeps or automobiles they could use for transport; everything they did need to transport was pulled by their tanks. Using her own tank to travel to sector 23, a completely flat patch of land that was covered in dirt from previous tank battles, Miho rode inside the tank instead of on top of it. Mako served as her driver because, among all of the drivers in Ooarai, Miho trusted her the most to get her out of there in case it was an ambush. Or something happened along the way.

Akebi's sensitive nature played well into her current job. Sharpshooting and recon. She had good eyes and she had very good reflexes. She was tall, a fast runner and had deadly accuracy with her sniper rifle, the only one that Ooarai had. She did poorly in skirmishes and her nerves were not the best when up close to the enemy, but with her long blonde hair in a steep ponytail and wearing the modern JSDF uniform, she looked imposing.

Yukari was almost ten centimeters shorter than her, but her small frame belied her physical strength. In arm wrestling, she was unrivaled and she was the only one that could effortlessly carry two rifles, two hand guns and several grenades at the same time. Some of the first years had taken to calling her the Nishizumi Arsenal because she was a walking arsenal at Miho's command.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Mako was not all that keen on teaming up with Kuromorimine.

"We're past the point of being able to entertain only the good ideas. And Kuromorimine places such emphasis on victory… if they invited us to a diplomatic meeting and then shot us they would immediately turn everyone else against them. They could never win then."

"You told the others to spread word on the radio if we don't come back, didn't you?" Mako put her foot to the pedal and the tank sped up. They were ahead of schedule and intentionally so – Miho wanted to be there first as a show of good faith.

Up on the tank, Akebi peered into the distance. There was smoke. "Miho, there's a battle happening in sector… I can't tell if it is 17 or 16. It might be right on the border. Beyond the pine forests and river seven." Giving her report to Miho via intercom, Akebi focused more on what she could make out in the distance before she went flat on the tank's surface. Her rather big breasts often got in the way during physical drills and while sniping, but she had adjusted her gun for her changed head position for just that reason.

"Can you tell who is fighting?"

"Give me a moment!" She liked being a sniper. She quickly lost her nerves inside a tank when they came under fire, but as a sniper, she was much more distanced "It looks… like a Somua S35. A french tank."

"What is Maginot doing so far south?" Miho talked to herself. Last we saw them they were all the way up in sector 28. Did they move their base? "Who are they fighting?"

The super gigantic carrier was separated into sectors. The northern most sectors were a cold climate and the southern most sectors were hot. In-between, it was temperate. The sectors were not all equally large and several of them were almost impassable for tanks.

"I can't tell. I can't see who they are firing at." Akebi rose from her position. "It looks like they are retreating to the south. Ah." There was a glimpse of another tank but not enough to identify it. "I saw a large gray tank but that could have been any number of types."

"Don't mind it. At least we know that Maginot is almost certainly to our south. Please keep watch." Miho turned off her intercom and mumbled by herself for a bit. Maginot is not a big threat, usually, but they came under new management not too long ago. It cost them a lot of members, but we never got the information on how well they regrouped after that. Maginot would have been very troublesome at their full capacity. They had around eighty people, and if they fitted an average of four per tank...being outnumbered eight to twenty would be bad, but not impossible. If anyone else joined the battle on their side however… and I have to account for attrition. Fuel and munition is not limitless and neither are other supplies. Having more tanks means being able to send out more scouts and take greater risks for each individual tank. I don't know how many tanks Maho has… ah, I'm really going to see Maho right now. Miho felt a bit relieved all of a sudden. Even if it was a trap, she would almost certainly just because Maho's prisoner and that thought kind of excited her. She could do… things to me. It would not be a war crime to use… that and do this and then that…

"We're going to enter the sector soon." Mako announced in her low-key voice and it brought Miho back to reality.

"Yukari, Akebi, do you see anything?"

Far away, but not for much longer, was Maho at this very moment. Mobilizing three tanks and twenty people felt overkill and dangerous to the people who knew where she was going. Ooarai was a serious opponent they respected – this was true for almost everyone at Kuromorimine, even the third years. And still, taking three fully loaded tanks and their crews felt like Maho was going to war, not to a negotiation. Everyone was not just ready for anti-tank battles but also ready for a battle on foot.

"{Commander, based on the way the clouds look, it will-}"

I know. It's going to rain soon. And when it starts, it probably won't stop for a while. We're in the middle of the ocean here, so visibility will be zero. Maho zoned out the rest of the report because she knew what it was about and she honestly had trouble keeping calm when knowing she was about to go see Miho.

"{Hurry up and finish! We leave in five!}" Maho shouted and she disliked having to shout. She really was not the type to do so, but her troops responded well to it. It played into their German language well. It was mostly stereotypes speaking within them, but whenever they spoke German, they did so a lot louder than Japanese.

Putting on a German army hat – Kuromorimine largely managed to avoid needing sponsors but they didn't turn down gifts such as clothing for the competition – Maho walked towards her tank, carrying a Heckler & Koch MG4, like most of her soldiers. It was quite heavy for firing paint bullets and being hit with a shot could hurt as much as being hit with a forcefully thrown sack of sand the size of a fist.

Erika had returned in the meantime. She forced her way into accompanying Maho by pushing another soldier out. Out of the twenty people signed up to attend the negotiation, sixteen were armed with MG4s and a backup Heckler & Koch USP – the Pistole 8. One particularly small member of the squad was armed with four Heckler & Koch P7; a weapon used only by the military police of Germany. The remaining three consisted of two snipers and one person, out of four in all of Kuromorimine's tankery crew, that was trained in personal anti-tank combat and had a special permit to wield a real weapon that fired munition as real as tankery allowed it – the Panzerfaust 3, a RPG that fired missiles and was for usage in tank battles only.

Maho didn't fully agree with bringing in modern weapons into a battle of world war 2 tanks, but the nature of the competition made it make a lot more sense than it would have in a traditional tankery match. But dislike or not, she would use everything at her disposal to win. Munition was limited, and it was impossible to outfit the entire personnel with weapons at the same time, but that was rarely, if ever, necessary anyway. Arms could be taken from shot soldiers and the standing order was to never let anything go to waste.

Taking her spot as the commander of a Panzerkampfwagen II Model F, along side two Hetzer – Jagdpanzer 38 – Maho waited for the remaining personnel to take their spots. She served as the fifth person of the usually four people operating a Panzer II. The Hetzer were operated by four people each as well. The remaining seven that were excess infantry personnel, rode on top of the tank, ready for combat at any time. Maho had little frame of comparison for this, but she believed Kuromorimine to be one, if not the most well disciplined army in this competition.

"[Panzer Vor!]" Maho's order came over the short range intercom instead of the radio. She had heard her mother complain that allowing these short range intercoms was worsening the authenticity of the competition being in the spirit of world war 2. Strangely enough, she didn't seem bothered by the weapons.

"{Commander, Ooarai is already there.}" The message came from Maho's radio operator. "{Should I tell our snipers to take positions?}

"{We are here to negotiate.}" Maho sounded pissed and the radio operator made sure to tell the other two tanks to not engage. There would be hell on earth if some baseless aggression blew these negotiations.

The three tanks from Kuromorimine, carrying two, two and three excess people that were visibly armed, arrived at the previously agreed spot and both Yukari and Akebi felt the little hairs on their neck stand up.

"Calm down." Miho saw the other tanks arrive through the driver's window. "They are wary of our offer and I would be too if I was Maho."

"But Lady Nishizumi-" Yukari didn't trust Kuromorimine at all.

"Stand down and do not engage even if they act a little hostile. You are only to fire if they fire first. This is an order from your commandeering general." Miho rarely pulled rank, which gave it extra weight when she did it.

"Understood." Yukari kept her weapons holstered. Akebi couldn't do the same as there was no way to holster a sniper rifle, so instead she kept standing – a clear sign that she was not taking aim at anyone.

Miho emerged from the tank and seconds after, so did Maho on the German side of things. Both commanders approached the center point that was between their parked tanks. "Maho. Good to see you." Miho was so happy that she forgot about the rules for a second. Maho reminded her by glancing upwards, where a drone was floating. Those things were surprisingly silent and ever present, which bothered Miho quite a bit.

"{Where is your translator, Miho? Do not tell me you were so excited to see me that you forgot to bring her along.}" Maho was disappointed that she had to speak German in front of Miho, fully knowing she wouldn't understand.

Erwin had spent the entire journey there in silence inside the tank and nose-deep in a dictionary for military terms. She absolutely didn't want to mess up an official negotiation. When she heard Miho's whistle, two short and high pitched ones followed by a longer, low-key one, she left the tank and quickly made her way over to her commander. Miho watched Maho's troops but if they were nervous, they hid it perfectly.

"{I'm Erwin.}" She held out her arm towards Maho to shake hands.

"{Like Erwin Rommel?}" Maho was not a history buff, but she knew some of the big names of the country she sort of represented.

"Riko Matsumoto." Miho offered with a smile that was a little fake.

"{The weather won't hold for much longer. We can skip the formalities and cut right to the core of why we're here.}" Maho didn't want to end up in the pouring rain.

Erwin translated for Miho and looked sour. I feel stupid telling her this, knowing that Maho understands what I am translating. This is a really stupid rule. But I guess everyone would just have Japanese schools act as their intermediary if they didn't have it.

Miho could tell what was going on and so she whispered in Erwin's ear and then nodded.

Yukari and Akebi watched from the distance. "What do you think they're talking about?" Yukari wanted to be there, but having someone like her in the middle of a negotiation would just make everyone pointlessly nervous. She could take two, if not three, girls of Maho's size and fitness at the same time and have them all on the ground, in pain, within a minute or two. All that working out she did was finally paying off big time.

"They don't look as tense as I thought they would be." Akebi could make out most of their faces despite them being about fifteen meters away.

"I kinda don't want to be allies with them. But if Lady Nishizumi says it's for the best I won't complain."

"You're already complaining."

"I mean to her!"

Erika watched the on-going negotiations somewhat annoyed. She had asked Maho three times to be present there with her in case something happened and all three times she had been shot down. She wanted to order the snipers to take position in case Ooarai was laying a trap, but Maho had given explicit orders against that as well. And refusing a direct order like that would have serious consequences – in the worst case, such as causing an unnecessary conflict with a potential ally, Maho could kick them out of the tankery team and have them immediately removed from the competition. Nobody wanted to risk that.

Maho looked at Miho after hearing some of the offers and demands that Ooarai had. "{Those aren't exactly advantageous conditions for Kuromorimine}"

Erwin whispered to Miho, who whispered back and Maho watched with invisible jealousy. She still had to present the tough commander of Kuromorimine, especially to this Erwin girl.

"{Ooarai has a number of specialists available and would make their services available for Kuromorimine.}"

Having the various specialists of Ooarai on call would be very good. They do have some very good mechanics and infantry people from what our intelligence said. Of course, there is Miho and she's the best commander around, but that goes without saying. I also heard that they have a surprising number of people speaking a secondary language. I'm surprised this Erwin girl even speaks German this well. It was complete hell to get this good in such a short time. I had nightmares about my teacher for weeks. I know I am forgetting something. "{I cannot possibly allow Ooarai free access to our supplies.}" Maho watched more whispers.

"{If not free access, then what kind? Sharing supplies is the one of our main conditions.}"

If they are pushing this hard to have access to our supplies, they must be really short. We're not doing stellar either, but we're far from running out. I could probably squeeze them for quite a bit of extra cooperation by leveraging this, but… it's Miho. I know that if I handle these negotiations with good faith, Ooarai will be a much more valuable asset rather than bullying them into making concessions they are not prepared for. "{There is no special treatment for anyone in Kuromorimine. A commander receives the exact same amount and type of supplies as everyone else. Ooaria has to agree to that treatment as well." Having them be subject to the same rationing as everyone else under my command should be reasonable. We'll have to adjust the rations a little bit but Ooarai are scarcely forty people, if that.

"{That's acceptable.}" Erwin translated for Miho again. It's not like we handle rations any differently anyway.

Maho stepped back and looked at her troops. "{How well armed is Ooarai? We have roughly seventy percent Kampfbereitschaft, based on weapon quantity alone.}"

Erwin looked at Maho for a long moment. Shit. Is Kampfbereitschaft a special portmanteau of words? Or does it literally just mean combat readiness like it sounds like? I hope it's the latter. Whispering to Miho, Erwin whispered back and forth a few times until she finally had something to tell Maho. Okay, lets see… "{Roughly ninety percent of our soldiers could be armed and sent into combat.}" Erwin phrased it differently on purpose, just in case she made a mistake interpreting Maho's question.

Ninety percent? I mean, yes, they are only around forty people, but how did they train people? And where did they get the necessary weapons? "{How many Snipers? Any combat specialists?}" More whispers and Maho was getting a little tired of it.

"{That is confidential. Only an ally will be privy to that kind of detail.}"

"{How about a ten minute break? Is that acceptable?}" Maho wanted some time to think about the offer, so she asked for a break. I really, really want to just take them up on this, but appearing too eager to form an alliance with Ooarai will hurt Kuromorimine's image. I have to appear like I am having mercy on them or I am merely using them.

Parting ways after accepting a ten minute break, Miho was not unhappy with the terms but not happy either. "It's unfortunate that I couldn't get Maho to agree to a shared command. I'm not surprised that she wouldn't give up complete control of Kuromorimine but I had to try."

"Lady Nishizumi!" Yukari waved from the top of the tank.

"You really helped me out, Erwin." Miho looked at the blonde with a big smile. "If they accept the alliance, we will have to move our camp. I'll have to re-assign tent placement and so forth. You won't mind sharing a tent with Yukari, would you?"

Erwin, the always confident Erwin, opened her mouth and only a strange creaking sound came out before she blushed and pulled her hat deep into her face.

On the other side, Erika was already asking Maho how the negotiations had gone. "{Better than expected. There is little- no, no reason to decline the alliance. They basically just want food and supplies.}" It's not entirely true that everything they want is just some rations and supplies. They also want us to protect each other by having a joint encampment, like Saunders and Gloriana. And some smaller things that aren't worth mentioning to Erika right now.

Maho spent the ten minutes break going over every detail of what they had discussed. It was a good offer. But she couldn't quite understand why Miho was making it. Are they really so low on supplies that they are in danger of having to withdraw from the war? They should be able to take on some of the smaller schools just fine. Unless… they are struggling in the same way. It's true that the Western Allies have hoarded a lot of supplies as of late. They're sitting in the middle of the temperate zone and are starving everyone around them. Pravda and Jatkosota occupy most of the northern region and… who was it that occupied the southern parts? They're the least suitable for tanks because of almost tropical growth and driving a tank through a jungle is just a terrible scenario. I believe Chi-Ha-Tan was trying to consolidate the southern region and bring it under their control. They do have the numbers, if only that. It's no coincidence that the temperate zone is the one where most of the big schools have settled down. This reminds me that we have been completely unable to track down the whereabouts of Anzio's base.

Sidetracked by thoughts of the battlefield, Maho focused again on the alliance. Considering our forces, even with Ooarai we account at best for 2/3 of what the Western Allies can field. We would need Chi-Ha-Tan or… maybe there are some alternatives I haven't considered yet. With Ooarai as public leverage, I can present Kuromorimine as a force of equality – The Axis to the Allies. To put a stop to their hoarding and self-preservation. Unless something is done, they will win by mere attrition and outlasting the rest of us while we fight each other. But even with Miho by my side… Kuromorimine has many enemies. Of course we need to deal with Pravda quickly before they start to imitate us and pull someone into an alliance. But that Anzio is still a completely unknown factor to us worries me. We have seen one tankette from them. Where are they? What are they doing? There is also the matter of Jatkosota. They have relatively few forces but they keep hiding out in the northern most part of the battlefield and only come down to the temperate zone every so often. We have sketchy ideas of their arsenal at best. And what in god's name do they do to their tanks? It's hard to tell what is what with them because everything is modified so much.

Someone banged on the tank from above. "{Ten minutes have passed.}"

Miho on the other hand had racked her brain on how to follow up these negotiations. An alliance always evolved and change and she had intentionally held back some critical information she could leverage with Maho later. She hoped she didn't have to pressure her own sister too much, but in this scenario, Ooarai came first – even if her feelings told her otherwise.

Maho gave Miho a little smile when her little sister arrived together with Erwin. "{Kuromorimine officially accepts Ooarai's conditions and will treat them as an equal partner from now until the end of the alliance.}"

Erwin quickly translated and Miho stepped forward. "I'm looking forward to working with you."

Maho opened her mouth and hoped that Miho could read just a little bit from her lips. Moving her mouth like she was saying So do I, in Japanese, Maho was glad when Miho smiled at her and held out her hand.

Shaking hands was cut short by a faint, distant roar that was carried across the winds on the open plain they were on. "{Thunder.}" Maho turned around and whistled twice, long. Within the minute, Erika had come running. "{Explain to the blonde girl where our base is. The alliance is official now.}"

Erika didn't seem too bothered but she didn't even greet Miho and instead went straight into explaining to Erwin how to find the base. Kuromorimine was situated in an exceptionally good location.

To the west and east of their base were steep hills that no tank could climb without ruining the engine and taking forever. To the south was a thick forest and, beyond the forest, a steep cliff that was treacherous in every way imaginable. Only the north offered an actual passage to the rest of the battlefield, albeit it was theoretically possible to drive an unmanned tank off the cliff by taking a massive detour around the camp and slowly climbing up various slopes to the cliff. But there was no way for the tank to fly all the way to the base. Maho had them build actual fortifications because she knew that there could not be a better location on the entire carrier.

Erwin took notes because she couldn't memorize all those coordinates and landmarks. The carrier was, even by schoolship standards, absolutely enormous and the entire surface area constituted a battlefield.

Thunder reached them a second time and Maho was instructing the two Hetzers, as well as the armed infantry, that they were to go with Ooarai and act as observers as well as physical aid – Ooarai was going to move their base and set up in the forest behind Kuromorimine.

Yukari viewed the developments with light suspicion but when she saw how happy Miho was with how things had turned out, she switched tracks. Since Maho's tank was going back and that one had transported armed personal as well, Yukari waved over two of the Kuromori girls. "You can ride with us."

The two girls, both had long black hair and MG4s, looked at each other. A situation like this was not covered in the rules. Official business between teams, if one team was not Japanese, had to be in that language. But basic conversation between participants was not covered in that. "{It's not fair that they can just speak Japanese but we have to use German.}"

Yukari suddenly felt a little out of her depth. "A-Akebi, what are they saying?"

"Erwin is the translator, not me."

One of the girls heard Yukari and quickly jumped up the tank. She was one of the twenty-four people that had endured an eighty percent ratio of infantry drills while the rest of Kuromorimine trained with the opposite ratio.

Grabbing Yukari by her collar, the girl faked a confrontation to get close enough that the drone above them couldn't pick up on what she was saying. "We can't speak Japanese with you. We do understand you, though. And thanks for letting us ride. It'd be really crowded on the two Hetzers. Now push me real hard."

Yukari shoved the girl. "What's the big idea?!"

"{And?}" The other girl shouted.

"{Strong like a bear. Get your butt up here, they're letting us hitch along.}"

I guess they're not actually bad people, Yukari thought as she got a wink from the girl she just shoved and sat further to the side, where Akebi was moving as well. A third girl joined them and she greeted Yukari and Akebi with a smile and waving her right hand.

"Maho!" Miho called out, standing in front of her tank and her older sister turned around, standing on top of her Panzer II. "I'll see you soon!"

Maho's heart fluttered and she saluted Miho. "{Be careful!}" Telling Miho to be careful, like a caring older sister, Maho felt all giddy on the inside. Winning the competition was important of course, but if she could do that with Miho by her side, it was going to be so much better.

Miho's tank, the Panzer IV Model H, quickly traveled back the same way it came, with two Hetzer's in peaceful pursuit. Erwin had her hands full operating the radio and learning the important Kuromori frequencies as well as some code words and then translating all of that to Miho. It dawned on her now that she was going to have to do this non-stop from now on and she felt tired out just thinking of it.

Thankfully, Miho had an excellent memory and she picked up on words that Erwin repeated a lot to her. Thankfully, German pronunciation was not all that different from Japanese, unlike English. "I didn't expect this to actually work out." Erwin was glad to be given a break.

"I expected Maho to leverage our bad situation against us much more than she did. It almost feels like she did the bare minimum to appear having leveraged us."

"She's your sister. She probably didn't want you to hate her."

"Maho is still Maho. She wouldn't mess around in tankery because of personal feelings."

"You'll have to ask her then." Erwin picked the headphones back up and got back on the radio when it crackled.

"It's gonna rain." Akebi looked at the distant sky. Right above them the sky was completely blue with scarcely a cloud here and there. "The horizon is all black."

One of the two girls from Kuromori reacted as if she had been called by name. There was a lot of noise from the tank so she tapped Akebo in the shoulder. "{Did you say something?}"

Akebi looked like she was put on the spot. "[N-No?]" I'm stupid, that's English.

Another girl grinned and shook her head, then pointed at her own lips "[Nein.]"

"[Nein?]" Akebi repeated.

The girl nodded enthusiastically and started laughing before she showed her a thumbs up, causing the volleyball player to blush.

"Hey! No seducing our members!" Yukari interrupted conversation and earned a big laugh from all the Kuromori girls. "What?"

"{Will you take it down a notch up there? I can hear you over the damn radio!}" Erwin shouted from inside the tank, so loud that Miho covered her ears and Mako wanted to just drive the tank into a ditch to do the same.

"{Someone's real mad.}" One of the Kuromori soldiers joked and the other two punched her shoulders. They were quiet after that and all thought the same thing. Commander Maho is gonna take off our head if Ooarai complains about us first thing after we set up an alliance.

Miho made sure that Erwin radioed ahead to the base so things were already being packed – stuffed into crates, barrels and everything that could be used as a container. The German soldiers that had been sent along as helpers were quite amazed and distraught by the lack of proper equipment at Ooarai and the ingenuity with which they compensated for it. The language barrier was only one way, so at least it was easy to tell the Germans what to do.

The blue sky had darkened significantly by the time the Ooarai base had been packed and all the tanks had been loaded. Thanks to the two Hetzer that had arrived together with Miho they were able to transport everything at once. Their pace was slow and it would take them hours to get to the Kuromori base.

Erwin rode with the rest of the Hippo crew and happy that there was no more translating to do for the moment. "I think my head is about to turn into Baumkuchen or something."

"Into what?" Saemonza, the gunner of the team, was a bit bored since it was a purely logistical trip.

"The cake. It's a German specialty." Erwin explained and moved her neck in a circle, trying to relief some stress.

"This alliance came a little out of nowhere." Caesar had been quite surprised when the news hit and spread around the base like a wildfire.

"I'm glad the commander came up with the idea." Oryou, the driver of the team, breathed a sigh of relief. "I was so sick of ration bars."

With the transport being purely logistic, most of the soldiers, at least the ones that were not on guard, took the chance to take a nap. Ten heavily loaded tanks, almost all of them dragging crates or drums on makeshift sleds behind them across the plains, slowly advanced towards the fortified German base.

Miho spent much of the travel time nose deep in Erwin's German dictionary so she wouldn't have to call her all the time. It was impossible to learn enough to have a real conversation in just a few hours, but knowing what some words meant was a big help. As overall commander of Ooarai, she was also expected to address Maho in German every time they discussed anything about the competition, which would be the majority of the time.

"Miporin, there's a message for you from Erwin." Saori notified her commander and almost caused Hana to fall over – the black haired girl was resting against her to catch some much needed sleep. Yukari was up top, together with the Kuromori girls from before and getting taught a few words of German. She was getting along with them surprisingly well. "The commander of the Hetzer at the front is telling us that they got a message from their HQ. BC Freedom High School and Viking Fisheries are having a mud slinging match right on our route so we need to take a detour around them."

"Right." Mako didn't look forward to prolonging the trip even more. She wanted to take a nap, like Hana.

"Contact everyone else and tell them to stick to the line and follow the Hetzers." Miho didn't even need to look up from the dictionary to give such a simple order.

Because of the detour, the black clouds caught up with tank caravan. They were still over thirty minutes out from the Kuromori base when Miho gave an emergency order and every tank sprung to life. With the exception of the drivers, all of the girls were suddenly out and about, pulling rain planes from specifically marked places and covering their precious cargo – their entire belongings.

And sure enough, within minutes of the last plane being attached, the floodgates of heavens opened in all of their majestic power and nearly drowned the girls still out of the tanks. Visibility dropped to fifty percent within the minute, then even less. It was difficult for the drivers to even see the tank right in front of them.

The Kuromori soldiers were completely unprepared for the deluge that was slamming them and the majority of them was soaked to the bone as they squeezed into the now very full tanks. Nobody voiced a complaint and the German troops really appreciated that since they really didn't have any right to just occupy the already scarce space inside the vehicles.

Arrival at the Kuromori base was an ordeal by itself. With the visibility as low as it was – it was difficult to see more than two meters ahead at this point – and Ooarai not really speaking any German other than Erwin, it was a hassle to even identify themselves without being fired upon. It took considerable effort from Kuromori and Ooarai to have the tanks of the latter pass through the base without rolling over any tents or crates. There was no way that a base could be established in torrential rain so the absolute essentials were pried from beneath the rain covers and for the time being Ooarai was stuffed into the command tent, the radio tent and the supply tent, split into group all over.

The rain did have the advantage that the drones had retreated for the time being. Maho and Miho both knew that they would be back as soon as it was clear that this rain was not going to stop anytime soon. Storms out on the ocean often lasted a lot longer than storms on land. Away from the rest of her soldiers, Miho received a cup of actual coffee in Maho's tent. It was a treat, as far as she was concerned. Maho was still very much dry while Miho was soaked. "You should change into something else. If Ooarai loses their commander to a cold it would be a PR disaster."

"Are you okay not speaking German?" Miho sipped the coffee and hated the taste. It was way too strong, no sugar and black to boot.

"No drones." Maho smiled wide as she walked past Miho to a large coffer that held two changes of clothes. Kuromori was well equipped and not exactly lacking for sponsors after having won the nationals so many times. "Are you okay wearing a Kuromorimine uniform?"

"It's a little nostalgic." Miho put the coffee on the small table that Maho had in her a tent. Starting to peel off layers of uniform in front of her sister, Miho felt a fire burn inside her. Maho is looking at me strip. It's making my heart race like crazy. I wish she'd just grab me, push me down and… No, what am I thinking? She's still my sister. I need to keep these thoughts under control while I'm around her.

Maho's pulse was so high that she feared she was going to faint at any second now, or worse, get a nosebleed that she couldn't explain. Hearing her heartbeat hammer in her ears, Maho turned away and made sure, five times, that the tent was closed properly while Miho changed. But she still couldn't keep her eyes away. "Have you grown a little?"

Miho was just swapping out shirts – she had kept her mostly dry underwear on – when she paused, half dressed. "I don't think so? At least it can't be much. Maybe a centimeter, probably less."

"That's not what I meant." Maho joked with a grandiose smile and hoped that she was passing it off as a sisterly teasing well enough.

"You sound like a pervert, Maho." Miho giggled behind her hand and grabbed the Kuromori skirt that her sister had provided. "How do I look?"

"Like me, just a little younger and much more beautiful."

"Beautiful? You think?" Miho picked the coffee back up. "Thanks for the clothes, Maho."

"I'm glad you called for this alliance."

"Are we… still talking as the commanders of two armies?"

"Do you want to?"

"No. And I guess I can let my my older sister in on a secret. We have been eating ration bars for three days. It was really hurting morale. We also only have eight tanks and in a competition like this I can't beat someone with three or even five times as many tanks. They can tow their vehicles and repair them, we don't have the parts. I had no choice but to ask someone for an alliance."

"So you asked your older sister."

"I thought that if I have to work with someone, I'd want to work with someone I love and respect."

Maho averted her face and blushed. "You respect me? Even now?"

"You're my sister. I'll always respect you. Unless you lose against someone like Waffle Academy. I'd lecture you."

"Lecture me?"

"I would have you kneel on the ground and put books on your legs."

"Are you from the early Showa period?" Maho couldn't help but grin at the thought of Miho lecturing and punishing her.

"That's mean."

"It's such an old fashioned punishment."

"Our Nishizumi style is much older than the Showa period!"

"It is. I see you didn't forget what mother taught us."

"How is… she?"

"She's not really mad at you anymore. She still doesn't really talk about you but your photos are back in her study." Maho closed one eye. "I peeked when I went back home."

Miho looked incredibly relieved. "I'm glad."

"When you went to Ooarai and mother was on her crusade against you and I was caught in the middle… I'm sorry I couldn't do anything." Maho was a very caring person that was burdened by having to act like she didn't care at all.

"Mom is kind of… intense with everything she does. Especially tankery. It's almost like I was committing sacrilege in her eyes. But I'm glad she doesn't seem to think that anymore."

Before their conversation could continue, someone walked right into Maho's tent. "Who… "Maho burst into laughter before she could even finish asking who dared to just walk into her tent unannounced and interrupt Miho time.

Alice had walked into the tent and her hair was covering her entire face like a curtain. Maho could have sworn that it was absolutely impossible that she could see anything like this. "Alice, why are you here?"

Sweeping the slick, wet hair curtains from her face, Alice looked past Maho and right at Miho. Now that she was suddenly face to face with her, Alice didn't know what to say for a while. "Good to see you, Miho."

"You sound so formal, Alice." Miho got up and stood in front of Alice. "I would hug you but I just got dry and-."

Alice pulled back her hair and with expert motions pulled it into a wet mass that resembled a ponytail. "We can fight together this time." Alice held out her hand. She was still quite a bit shorter than Miho and her wet clothes and hair made her look even smaller.

Taking Alice's hand, Miho looked really happy. "Are you happy at Kuromori?"

"Maho bullies me."

Miho turned around and her older sister put up her hands in defense. "I do not." Maho trembled when Miho kept looking at her in disdain. "Miho, you have to believe me."

Then Miho and Alice both started giggling and Maho realized she had been set up. "You two are terrible."

"I see you changed quite a bit, Alice." Miho sat back down. "Maho, can you give her a towel?"

"I'm fine. A Shimada won't be deterred by a little ra-acho!" Alice made an entirely unconvincing argument. Alice rubbed her nose. "A Shimada is not deterred by a little rain."

"Maho, who is this tough girl and what have you done to the real Alice?"

Maho sat down on her field bed and faced Miho. "It's strange, isn't it? She was pretty shy when she first transferred here. I told her that she wasn't going to get any special treatment – and she didn't – and look at her now. She's respected by all the first years and even some of the second years."

"Ohh." Miho sounded amazed. "You did so well, Alice."

"I am not that little girl that lost to you anymore, Miho." Eying Miho's coffee, Alice was surprised when the cup passed to her hands. "I can have some?"

"You look like you need it a lot more than me."

Maho could hardly contain herself watching that, knowing exactly what was about to follow. Alice partook from the coffee and her face did a miniature implosion – as if she had eaten a sour plum whole. "Alice can't drink black coffee like the rest of us."

"I can." Alice squeezed her eyes shut and tried to drink the coffee but she just couldn't take how bitter it was. "Bitter… ew..."

"Now this is more like the Alice that I imagined I'd find here." Miho was glad to be surrounded by these two. "I have to admit I am a little disappointed we don't get to fight each other. But fighting together makes me happy too."

"We cannot win together. I thought about this earlier, during the negotiations, but this competition will only allow a single school to win. Even in the case of mutually assured destruction, the school that caused more knockouts will be considered the winner."

"So if Miho and I take out each other again, I still win!" Alice sounded enthusiastic about that.

"I won't be easy to defeat." Miho jokingly taunted Alice. "And we'll both have to survive all the way to the end to determine who is better."

"I'm glad the two of you can talk like that without flinging icy stares at each other like our mothers do."

Alice had been surprised how often Maho brought up her mother. But after seeing that Maho was actually a very kind person and connecting the dots on why she behaved like a dictator out there, it was no longer surprising.

"I wonder if their differences in tankery is why they dislike each other." Miho wondered out loud and found it strange that Alice was staying out of this conversation. When she looked at her, it felt like she stared down a frightened animal that was doing its best to stay invisible. "What is your mother like at home, Alice? Does she ever mention our mom?"

Alice looked away and at this point it was blindingly obvious that she was hiding something.

"You were saying something strange about her earlier, too." Maho remembered that now. "That she has a special view of our mother?"

"It's better you don't know."

"That kinda makes me want to know even more..." Miho felt a bit embarrassed that she wanted to pry. Her relationship with her mother had been kind of bad for a very long time now, every since she first discovered tankery, so they never talked much and certainly not about the Shimada. So she wanted to know. About how someone like Alice's mom saw her mother – someone who had most likely met her on the battlefield.

"They used to be close." Alice still looked away and she looked even wetter than before now.

Maho and Miho both needed a second to register and process that. "What?!" The word came out of their mouths at almost the exact same time.

"I saw some photos of them together." A lot of photos. Mom had an entire yearbook filled with just photos of them together. And she looked so happy in all of them. Alice was a clever girl, so she connected the dots. "When they went to high school together, they were friends."

"I can't imagine that." Maho tried to picture her mother as someone that was friends with Shimada Chiyo. It's hard to imagine mother as a teenager to begin with…

"Me too." Miho could hardly remember a time when her mother had not been like she was now.

"A-Anyway." Alice didn't feel like blabbering out any more of her mother's secrets. "Maho, we have forty two people that have nowhere to sleep. Koume asked around and at most they can get about twenty of them to sleep in their tanks."

"Putting up spare tents in this rain will be a disaster." Maho saw an opportunity here. "We can't ask them to sleep in their tanks, however. Not only would that still leave a number of them with no place to sleep, but it's possible that this rain is going until tomorrow. They would be confined to the tanks unless they stepped out into the rain."

"Should I go and find Koume?" Alice really wanted to take a larger part of command, because she was used to it, but Maho was very stubborn about having other people do part of her job.

"They can't get to their sleeping bags… it will be crowded but there's no other choice..." Maho mumbled in a low voice for a moment. "We're going to make use of our field gear."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about..." Alice couldn't follow.

"The MIA bags."

"We have only about fifteen of those." Alice didn't remember the exact number.

"What are you two talking about?" Miho had been watching the conversation with interest.

"MIA bags are just really large sleeping bags designed for usage in hazardous environments. Because they're made with long time use in mind, such as the arctic, they allow for some minimal movement inside so soldiers don't suffer from their limbs being numb after extended use."

Kuromorimine has really amazing equipment. Yukari probably knew about these things but we could never afford something like that. "So you're going to… let us borrow those sleeping bags?"

"We do have regular sleeping bags but they are in the storage crates… which are currently standing out in the rain. So we won't be able to get to them."

"Those cover bags are not in storage?"

"Like weapons and all other combat material we need to have those at the ready. I don't know how Ooarai handled training, but a number of our students have specialized in infantry warfare over the last few months. The cover bags are distributed to them." Maho explained things to Miho with a smile. "Honestly, I thought we wouldn't end up using them because this is a tankery competition. But it doesn't hurt to be prepared."

"You're such a worrywart, Maho."

"You think so?" Maho looked away and wondered if Miho was right.

Are they… pretending to be flirting? Alice was an only child, so she didn't know what it was like to have a sister but after attending Kuromorimine for a few months she could definitely tell when one girl had the hots for another girl.

"I'll get word to Koume. She'll work something out." Leaving the tent, Alice ran as hard as she could through the downpour, regretting that she had not put on a rain mantle, even if it was comically large for her.

"She's like a changed person."

"Only out here." Maho's soft smile caused Miho to stare at her, which in turn caused Maho to blush. "Does it look weird when I smile?"

"You should smile more often, sis." Miho really loved the kind Maho, the real Maho.

"I-I'll try."

"What did you mean, only out here?"

"Alice is still pretty quiet and shy in class or around school in general. One day some of our third years, they weren't on our tankery team, found Alice lost on the school grounds and thought she was an elementary school student. And because they were kinda pushy and tall, Alice couldn't get a word out to correct their mistake so they dragged her all around the school looking for her parents."

"Poor..." A few giggles escaped Miho. "Poor… Poor Alice." Miho's face looked like that of a hamster – she was trying very hard not to laugh, picturing all of that happening.

"Laughing at… Alice is really… mean..." Maho turned away because she didn't want Miho to see that she was about to burst into laughter herself.

Sitting down next to her sister in a hurry, Miho took the chance to hug Maho from the side. "You really do bully Alice! You villainous sister you."

Ah… Miho is so close.. I can feel… a lot of her. Maho's thoughts raced and she didn't say anything when Miho didn't let go. Just facing the back of the tent and letting her little sister hold on to her, Maho was breathing faster and faster. What is wrong with me? To get this excited over my little sister… it's true that I haven't really seen her in a while, but… but… ah… she smells so good, even after getting doused in the rain.

"I'm really happy we can fight together." Resting her head against Maho's shoulder, Miho really indulged herself. I know it's bad… to take advantage of Maho like this. She'd probably still love me even if she knew how I feel but things would be so awkward… and mom would definitely disown me this time.

"Miho… I'm the one that's happy we're fighting together now. It's not just about you being a good commander… but having my little sister so close by is really going to put me at ease."

"Geez, you make it sound like you have to worry about me all the time!" Miho complained and pushed her entire body against Maho, the two of them nearly falling off the bed. "I'm only a year younger than you."

"Next year I'll be at the university branch of Kuromorimine. We won't be able to face each other at the nationals that year."

"I'll win for us both. And then we'll be able to see who is really the best when I attend university."

"Are you gonna be okay with your studies, though?"

"You're treating me like a little girl. You bully." Miho bounced against Maho again and just rested against her sister's back then. "I hope this competition lasts for some time."

"You were running out of food just a few hours ago."

"That's because the conditions were unfair! Schools had to find sponsors or pay for things out of their own pocket and Ooarai… we might have won the nationals, but..."

"Schools like Saunders and us had a clear advantage from the start. But if I had to praise any of the poorer schools for their performance then it would be Anzio. We had a general idea of what you were doing with Ooarai and where your camp was, but we have absolutely no idea where Anzio is, what they are doing or how many tanks they have. They're a total mystery entity."

"Is it okay to tell me confidential information like that?"

"Is my little sister going to tattle on me?"

"You're a bully, Maho. Stupid."

"Have you been watching anime lately, Miho?"

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Miho puffed up her cheeks.

"It sounded like a line from an anime."

"I'll call you Commander from now on then."

"Please… don't." Maho felt bad all of a sudden. "I'm sorry."

"See, I can be a bully too."

"You're a bit of a different person when you're alone with me."

"I think I understand the kind of burden mom's expectations place on you. Everyone at Ooarai hopes that I'm going to lead them to victory against impossible odds but I'm not the world's greatest commander."

"You are the world's cutest little sister, though."

"I'm gonna blush."

"I mean it!"

"That makes you the world's best older sister." I know you're following mom's doctrine because you want me to be able to be free. I'm not that dense, Maho. And I love you for that.

"R-Really?"

"Uhm… I'm sorry to interrupt..." Koume, with a bright red face, made her presence known. "You ignored my asking to come in two times and it is raining and… I didn't see anything!"

No, no, no, what kind of misunderstanding are you creating here?! Maho jumped up and knocked Miho off the field bed. Catching her with her spartan reflexes, holding her like a knight would catch a falling princess, Maho only worsened the situation with her smug expression, making Koume cover her eyes with her hands. "We were just-" Having Miho sit back on the field bed, Maho tried to straighten out the situation.

"W-We are s-short on cover bags to h-have everyone from Ooarai get one. F-For now I had them group up in p-pairs to share one each. I s-swear I didn't see anything! T-That's all!" Koume was so embarrassed to have witnessed the two sisters doing what they were doing that she ran out of the tent and into the torrential rain without a second thought the second her report was finished.

"Don't worry Miho, I'll explain things to her!" Turning to the field bed, Maho found Miho with her own face bright red and making starry eyes at her. "Miho?!" Putting her own forehead on Miho's, Maho tested her for a fever. "You had me scared for a moment… I thought you had a… fev… er… Miho?"

Looking at Miho's face this up close made Maho's heart beat in overdrive. "Miho… you're kinda… close..." Maho had spent a lot of time hiding her feelings so she was still in control of her actions.

Miho's face was as red as she was embarrassed and excited. Pulling away, just enough to get breathing space between their faces, Miho looked down. "Uhm… I heard that there's a lot of girls at your school that… I mean… you seem to have a fan club. Do any of those girls..."

How did she hear about that? "I keep telling them that I don't want them to fawn over me, but..."

"I can understand them, though." She's blushing and she isn't backing away from me at all. If there is even the tiniest chance that Maho is comfortable with other girls coming on to her… maybe I could too…

"Understand them?"

"You're cool and beautiful and you're the commander of the tankery team. That's enough to make most girls swoon."

Maho was not tone-deaf either when it came to reading a girl's feelings. "I didn't know you preferred girls, Miho. That's a bit of a shock."

"You… think it's weird?"

"No. Erika is like that, too. I think… a lot of the girls at Kuromorimine are like that. At least in the tankery team."

"I bet that's because you're the commander. All the girls that fancy you joined up to be closer to you."

"Is that how things are at Ooarai?" So Miho is into girls… I had no idea. And she's still so close. I'm not dreaming, am I? Pinching her own leg, where Miho couldn't see, Maho felt a sharp pain reach all the way to her neck. I am definitely not asleep. Thank you, whichever god is making this happen for me. If she likes girls I just… I just need to… convince her it's not strange… to like your sister. Maybe.

"Siscon."

Both Nishizumi's flung around like they had been launched by a catapult and looked at a mightily pissed off Erika. "E-Erika, this is not-"

"How is this not what it looks like? The only way this could be any more what it looks like would be if I caught you in bed." Erika was standing there with a rain cover over her uniform and head, dripping on the floor constantly. "I always thought you were a bit too fixated on Miho but this is really something else."

"Erika, watch your mouth." Maho wouldn't let Erika talk to her, or Miho, like that. "First of all, you're presuming a lot here from just watching us be in each other's company for the first time in months."

"Miho. Look me in the eye and tell me that this is not what it looks like. Mind you, I really don't care if you two are into each other – I have seen much weirder things." I am never going to be able to look at magical girl cosplay quite the same way again… ugh, just remembering it is making me want to…

Miho looked straight at Erika. "It's… it's not..." She blinked, shook her head and tried again. "It's not… what it looks…" Miho looked away again. "I'm sorry Maho, but it's like Erika says. It's… gross, isn't it?"

"When I said siscon I meant both of you. In fact, I think my commander is way more intense about this than you are, Miho. Isn't that right Maho?"

"How dare you-"

"So you don't see Miho that way? So you think she's gross?"

"What? No! What are you even talking about? I won't let you insult-"

"There we go. Double siscon. I knew there was something going on here. It was worth it to force it out of Koume. I can't even imagine how awkward it would have been to watch the two of you have obviously the hots for each other and still deny it constantly." Erika took a large step forward and faced Maho. "At least I know that Miho is a good commander or I would be asking if this whole alliance was only because you wanted to spent time with her."

"I would never-" Maho could scarcely get a word in; Erika was on a rampage and Maho had never seen her quite like this.

"And Miho! You better not let this get in the way of doing your job as a commander! S-Saving Koume and me back then was one thing, but this is something else! The war takes priority!"

"Eh? No… what just happened here…" Miho was so confused. No way? No I mean… no way! Maho feels like that about me? It wasn't just me? And what is Erika doing here? What did she even come here for? And she's too close! Too close! Miho's mind was going places faster than the bullets from a Porsche Tiger's machine gun. Erika was right in front of her face.

"Listen! I'm not gonna tell anyone – but! You two work out how to keep yourselves from doing whatever you were doing anywhere but in here!"

"Erika, who do you think you are-" Maho nearly took a step back when Erika bolted around and was suddenly right in her face.

"I don't think you appreciate what I am doing here, commander. You two would have danced around the issue for the entire war and it would have definitively messed with you. Now you can be as lovey-dovey as you want and nobody but me and Koume are the wiser. And just to be completely real – there's nothing strange about a girl liking another girl. This is not actually world war two. We have gay people marrying in Kyoto. And there's a whole lot of girls in out ranks that would definitely bully Miho if they knew you were this close because they'd be jealous as heck. You're my commander so I need you working at capacity!"

Whirling around, Erika reached beneath the translucent rain coat and pulled out a stack of papers. "There. Reports. That Ooarai girl… what's her name… black bob haircut, whatever – she wanted me to get them to you." Erika slammed the papers on top of the folding table and paused. "I'm leaving." Storming out of the tent, she left two extremely confused and perplexed Nishizumi's behind.

"What… was that? What just happened?" Maho's capacity for the unexpected was exceeded by a multitude right then.

"I… don't know..." Miho was too thrown off her guard for the fact that she and her sister shared their feelings for each other.

Outside the pouring rain, just a few meters away from the tent itself, stood Erika. I knew it. I knew it forever. Well, not like this, I didn't know. But I knew it was never gonna work out for me. I always tried so hard and I never got anywhere. No longer standing but marching forward, just forward, wherever it would take her, Erika was on collision course with one of her subordinates. Pushing her out of the way so hard that the girl not only fell but landed almost on her face, Erika kept storming away, her face every bit as wet as her boots. But it wasn't the rain that did that.

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

The rain didn't let up. Ooarai would have been forced to spread across numerous tents if not for a number of forthcoming Kuromori students that offered to swap places – Two Kuromori students vacated two field beds and slept in one of the cover bags that were for Ooarai instead. This allowed up to four people from Ooarai to stay in the same tent. It was crowded, to say the least – like four people staying in one room at someone's house.

Six of the Ooarai girls had drawn the short straws when it came to determining the guards for the night. Among them were Mako Reizei and Midoriko Sono – or Sodoko as Mako kept insisting. The other four included the entire volleyball team – a freak happenstance that caused the Kuromori students to call them the cursed team of Ooarai, much to the dismay of those four.

"I hate this." Mako was fighting her sleepiness with increasing futility and Sodoko slapped her for the third time now. "I hate you, too." Her voice was almost devoid of emotion – she was simply too tired to muster any.

"It's not my fault you're a terrible guard!" Sitting in front of the Sumitomo M2, a heavy machine gun, Sodoko really despised her own luck. "I can't believe those Kuromori girls are sitting out here without a complain in this weather. Nobody is gonna come! I know it makes sense to put up some guards but why are we going to be up here for four hours before we get relieved? Four hour in the rain! Even with the rain coats, my feet are ice cold and I can- hey, Mako, are you listening?" Shoving the girl next to her, Sodoko was even more annoyed when she just made a groaning noise.

"Yes, yes… it's not your fault..."

"Is that all you heard?!"

"I don't know what you want from me. It's dark. It's cold. It's wet. I'm sleepy. Super sleepy." Mako slid over the metal – the two of them sat on top of a tank that formed a defensive barrier with other tanks – and raised up her rain coat, as well as Sodoko's, to learn against her and get some warmth off of her. "… you're not really all that warm. You've been shouting so much that I thought you'd be warmer."

"I am not a heater for you to use!"

"Eh… don't be like that. It's not like anyone's watching."

"It doesn't matter whether anyone is watching!" Sodoko was running out of energy. If this keeps up and I have to keep getting upset because of her antics for the next three hours I am going to fall asleep myself. I guess it won't hurt to let her get close.

It didn't take more than a minute before Mako was asleep again, resting against Sodoko. The two of them managed to remain relatively dry, even with their rain coats covering only their left and right sides respectively, thanks to the rain cover that Kuromorimine had fabricated in a hurry. Leftover parts from tents they didn't need to pitch, held in place by an iron bar in the center, lodged into the tank and held down by a handful of rocks to either side. "Mako… wake up. You're making me sleepy, too." Sodoko suppressed a yawn as hard as she could and shook the driver quite a bit before she gave up. I can't keep waking her up every five minutes for the next three hours. I'll go nuts.

Sitting there in silence, with only the rain all around her, Sodoko kept glancing at Mako's face. She's gotten a bit cuter. She should cut her bangs though. And her hair is too long! It is really pretty though… Reaching for Mako's long hair on her back, Sodoko played with it for a few minutes. Well… maybe having long hair is okay. She's a driver. She doesn't really have to move around a lot. And having her participate in infantry stuff… Sodoko made an exhausted face just thinking about it. I'd have to carry her back. I can already see it. Some way or another, it'd end up with me having to carry her. But at least she manages to come to class more frequently now so I don't have to worry about her repeating a year.

Time stretched and stretched, like cheap gum, and Sodoko became increasingly bored and focused on the only interesting thing she had access to – Mako. Has she gotten cuter lately? Being in the Ooarai tankery team, it felt more natural to just admit that liking girls was a pretty normal thing. Sodoko was no exception there, even though she wasn't nearly as open about it as most of the others.

"Mako?" Facing the girl with long and beautiful black hair, Sodoko got a little closer to her, their shoulders touching now. "Mako. If you're just pretending to sleep, I will get you detention." When there was no response, Sodoko quickly and stealthily stole a kiss from Mako. It didn't faze her. After being around so many girls that liked girls, this much felt little different from a kiss on the cheek between friends. "You taste like the rain."

"Assault," Mako said and lightly opened just her right eye. She didn't say anything else and just looked at Sodoko, who was visibly launching into a mental scramble to find a good excuse. "If you wanna kiss, just say so. Kissing me while I sleep is assault."

I must be stupid to have expected something else from her. "My bad."

Mako closed her eyes again. "If you're not gonna do anything, lemme go back to sleep..." There was not even a yawn before Mako was back in the land of dreams.

I can't figure out what I like about her. Everything she does is against the rules and rules are important. Well… having friends is important too. But still! It's a kiss! Don't be so nonchalant about it! The silence that ensured drove Sodoko almost mad. You want me to do something? Okay then!

Fumbling around with Mako's JSDF uniform until she got the buttons open, Sodoko slid her left arm behind Mako's back, inside the uniform. I can't believe she actually wore the Ooarai combat uniform properly under the JSDF one. Ignoring her duties for just a few short minutes, Sodoko opened up the Ooarai uniform as well and she could sense Mako shiver a bit and move in closer by instinct. It is well within my rights as the public morals committee chairperson to check whether she is breaking any regulations. And look what we have here. A black bra? How indecent! That is definitely against school regulations.

"Molester." Mako opened up one eye again but looked as expressionless as usual. "I'm cold now."

Sodoko was tired of Mako's antics leading her around by the nose. "Get closer."

"Isn't this you taking advantage of me?" Mako got closer anyway and grabbed Sodoko's other hand, pulling it towards her and resting it against her left side. "Your uniform is all cold and wet outside."

Taking off my uniform while I stand guard… but technically I am not on Ooarai base grounds, so our own regulations don't really apply here in the same way. I suppose, for the sake of fixing Mako's temperature and to avoid her catching a cold, I could make an exception and share some of my bodily heat with her. Undoing her own buttons in a hurry, not just those of her JSDF uniform but also her Ooarai one, Sodoko was irritated when she saw Mako's blank look. "What?"

"I didn't say you should strip… you're a pervert. Seducing me out here in the rain where I can't run away."

"You make me sound like an evil doer!"

"You're shouting again. Scary." You are so easy to lead on, Sodoko. Mako was not particularly peculiar about she was intimate with. Not that she didn't believe in love, far from it. But she also didn't think there was any harm in being a bit more free. Saori would never let me hear the end of it if she knew about this. Putting her arms around Midoriko's waist, Mako felt her warm body first hand. "Now there is all that temperament I was looking for..."

"I just don't freeze easily!" Sodoko huddled up with Mako. "I didn't plan on seducing you or anything. I'm not like that."

"Eh… I was gonna say it's okay to touch my boobs and stuff."

"Don't say boobs! You're a girl! Have some decency!"

"Sodoko… you're too tight. You'll never find a girlfriend like that."

"That's fine with me!"

"It's okay. I'll take you if you can't find anyone else."

"I don't want a lazy girlfriend that constantly sleeps everywhere, is always late to school, doesn't wear out uniform properly, is as expressionless as a teruterubozo and-"

"Mean." Mako tightened her embrace around Sodoko's waist and – before Midoriko could even react to it – unhooked her plain white bra with one hand. "They're as small as always."

"Excuse me for not being Takebe or Isuzu!"

"It's fine. I like small ones." Suddenly resting her face against Sodoko's bare chest, her completely nonchalant behavior prevented Midoriko from even feel particularly embarrassed.

It's not like anyone can see what we're doing anyway. And it's better than she's with me than someone else who would get strange ideas and possibly leave their post. Deserting is definitely against school regulations. With Mako in this strange position, Sodoko had her hands free now and ran her right hand through Mako's hair repeatedly.

"You should grow out your hair."

"No."

"You'd be cuter that way."

"Don't care."

"Don't talk like me."

"See how annoying that is?!"

"No. Just makes it hard to remember what I said and what you said."

"And you're one to talk about breasts! You have barely any yourself!"

"Hm… if I had big ones like Saori I could maybe use them like cushions..."

"You definitely couldn't!"

"I can use you as cushion then..." Rubbing her cheeks against Sodoko's small breasts, Mako enjoyed how warm they were. "Comfortable..."

"Am I just a cushion to you?!"

"Talkative cushion."

"Hey!"

"You should get some shut-eye too..." Mako yawned and crawled on top of Sodoko's lap, sitting there and facing her. "Sodoko..."

"W-What?" Is she gonna confess to me now or something? Don't you dare!

"You need to eat more."

"Huh?!"

"Your lap… is not very comfortable."

"Then get off!"

"It's not that uncomfortable."

"Make up your mind already! And stop fondling my boobs!"

"Now you said boobs."

"Why you…!"

"You're too tense, Sodoko… you're gonna pop a vein. It's bad for your skin to get so angry."

"Whose fault do you think that is?!"

"Do you enjoy living like that? Always being mad?"

"Don't quote anime to me!" Sodoko didn't know what to do so she kissed Mako, without much passion, and certainly without tongue, if only to shut her up. Five seconds passed. Then fifteen. Then a full minute. She's… gonna keep quiet now, right? She'll be shocked and-

"You're awful at kissing." Mako looked thoroughly unimpressed.

Even through the streaming rain Sodoko could be heard screaming You idiot!

=== Eisenkreuz Imouto ===

Maho and Miho looked at different ends of the tent. After Erika had left they had quickly come back to reality and it dawned on them that even though they felt the same about each other, they couldn't just jump into bed together. Maho did keep her sleeping bag in her tent in case her field bed was covered in documents as it happened frequently.

Miho was using the sleeping bag right now and it smelled like her older sister. "Maho?"

"Hm?"

"How… uhm… how long have you been feeling that way about me?"

"Since you left Kuromorimine." Maho was much less embarrassed about the situation than Miho. She knew that she was going to be able to be completely herself around Miho from now on, but Erika blowing it all up had also taken away a lot of excitement and tension and she was still emotionally deflated.

"I'm glad."

"Miho?"

"I was afraid that you had been feeling this way for a lot longer and kept it to yourself all that time."

Maho was sleeping in her field bed instead. Her feet were right at the end where Miho's head was. For the time being they had decided that they would take it slow – and slow meant not sleeping in the same bed and jumping into having sex on the first night together.

"What about you?"

"Hm… I don't really know. I didn't think about it much during the nationals but I did think about you a lot when I left Kuromorimine."

"I'm glad too."

"We're more like than mom thinks."

"She might disown us both if she finds out."

"We can't let her find out then."

"I'm still going to work to inherit the Nishizumi style. I want you to be free, Miho. Even if it means I have to marry someone and have a daughter."

"It's strange how children in the Nishizumi family are always daughters, right?"

"Maybe the god of tankery gave us their blessing."

"The god of tankery? What is that supposed to be?" Miho chuckled. "You say some hilarious things, sis."

"Don't laugh!" Maho blushed and was glad that Miho couldn't see that. "I was being serious!"

"I'm sorry." That does make it funnier, Maho. Miho grinned by herself. "It's… weird, talking to you like this, knowing I wasn't the only one feeling this way. Even if we feel the same it's still.. weird. We're sister."

"Does it bother you?"

"Bother? No."

"But you're afraid of what others will think."

"You're not?"

"Of course I am. I would probably lose all respect from my comrades. Mother would be furious. And everyone else would probably look at both of us like we're freaks."

"You didn't have to make a list..."

"Even if all of that could happen… I still want to be with you."

"Maho..."

"You don't?"

"I do!"

"You worried me for a second."

"I wouldn't lie about my feelings."

"You have gotten cuter since the nationals, Miho."

"Liar. I haven't changed at all. My hair is the exact same and I haven't grown in any places at all." Ooarai took measurements rather regularly.

"Your cuteness cannot be measured by just your measurements or looks."

"You're going to make me die of embarrassment."

"Nishizumi Miho – retired due to embarrassment. Ooarai disqualified due to unconditional surrender of their commander."

Miho needed a moment. "Mom would have a heart attack."

"I wonder if she's satisfied with the way I'm leading Kuromorimine. She's probably mad that we teamed up, too."

"I think mom is proud of you. She's already got to contend with one failure and-"

"She doesn't think of you that way. She was just… really mad that you left Kuromorimine and that you started doing your own style. I asked her what she thinks of Ooarai participating in this war. Miho will prove to be a thorn in your side that you best remove quickly. If you don't, she might turn the tides of war against you. I think that's her way of saying that you're strong."

There were sniffling sounds and Maho rose up in her bed. "Miho? Are you crying?"

"I'm… just glad she's not angry with me anymore."

"It must have been hard for you when you first went to Ooarai."

"It must have been even harder for you!"

"Yeah." Maho rubbed her temples for a few seconds. "But I knew that if I carried on the Nishizumi style the way mother wants, she wouldn't force you back into it. And I think the style does suit me. But I think once I attend university, or enter the pro league, I'm going to stop pretending like I don't care."

"You're one of the nicest people around after all."

"Y-You think so?"

"It's true."

"Everyone out there would declare you insane if you said that to them."

"That's okay. It's enough if I know, for now."

"Are you sure that you're not the nicest girl-" Maho was interrupted halfway.

"{Commander. Permission to enter?}"

Maho quickly peeled herself out of bed and grabbed her clothes. She was dressed in record time and just gestured Miho to stay in her sleeping bag "{Enter.}"

Miho didn't recognize the girl so she was either someone that had joined after she left or a first year.

The girl was well aware of the protocols regarding disturbing the commander at night. "{A number of hostiles was fired on by the guards at the northern perimeter.}"

"{Origin?}"

"{Unknown.}"

"{Numbers?}"

"{At least six, unknown if there are more out there.}"

"Maho, what's goin-" Miho cringed. "[Maho, situation?]" Miho didn't really speak German, she just knew some words and phrases from memorization.

Maho looked terribly out of place as she tried to explain with gesturing and with as little German as possible that there were assailants of unknown origin at the northern edge of the base.

"{Hostiles. In the North.}" Miho was glad when Maho nodded enthusiastically and she also felt a bit embarrassed because the guard, who had been rather tense as she reported to Maho, looked almost giddy. She gave Miho a big smile and a subtle thumbs up behind Maho's back.

"{Wake up the infantry.}"

"{Understood.}"

"{Triple the guard on the northern perimeter and double the guard on the other sides.}" Maho treated every act of aggression with utmost seriousness.

The girl repeated her answer and saluted.

"{Dismissed.}" Maho had the guard dismissed and grabbed her rain coat, then turned around and knelt next to Miho. "Get everyone from Ooarai that is trained in infantry to show up in rain gear and armed." Whispering to her, Maho ran out of the tent just seconds later.

Miho was almost right behind her, bursting out of the sleeping bag and throwing on her clothes in a hurry. She didn't have a rain coat but that didn't stop her from leaving the tent. The base was on high alert and German orders and reports were barked back and forth from everywhere. The rain had gotten even worse and the ground was a big muddy mess at this point. Water splashed under heavy boots, mud covered those very same boots and everything near the ground.

A number of Kuromorimine and Ooarai soldiers were watching from the entrance of the tent. Yukari was not one of them. Armed with two Howa Type 89, assault rifles – one for primary use and one for back – Yukari made for quite the imposing soldier, organizing the Ooarai forces that were trained in ground combat. Excluding the six that kept guard, of which only the volleyball team was trained in combat, Yukari temporarily commandeered twelve people. For a small school like Ooarai, it was important to not be helpless in the event of a ground assault.

Miho found Yukari pretty quickly, wielding a Howa Type 89 herself – it was the standard weapon that Ooarai had access to. Only a few select members wielded other weapons. "Kuromorimine has detected an unknown number of hostiles!" Miho didn't like raising her voice but if she needed to shout, she could. Her voice carried effortlessly through the rain, and the passing Kuromori students were watching with an improved opinion of Ooarai. Despite the rain and a lack of rain coats, there was no complaining or behavior out of line. "My understanding is that there are at least six confirmed hostiles with the possibility of a lot more being out there in the dark. Because of the bad visibility, we will move in two squads of seven. I will be leading Kawashima, Nekota, Momoga, Piyotan, Caesar, Saemonza. Akiyama will lead Erwin, Oryou, Nakajima, Hoshino, Suzuki, Tsuchiya. Stay in radio contact with regular reports every 150 seconds. Move at single place. Take extra care to move in formation with Kuromorimine! Avoid friendly fire at all costs!"

All thirteen, including Yukari, of her soldiers slammed their heels together. "Roger!"

Drones were flying all over the place and Miho was not happy about that. It was difficult to coordinate with an army they couldn't really talk to. Even reports between foot soldiers counted as official business in a situation like this. "Erwin!" Miho singled out the blonde. "Explain basic directions and commands like Hold your fire to everyone over radio. Keep your channel open and keep talking until we are a hundred meters past the outer line."

German shouting, Maho's shouting, pierced the veil of water all around them and Miho turned around to see Maho shouting in German – standing on top of a tank, in full uniform and armed with a MG4 in hand. She looks like a real soldier. "Don't let Kuromori show us up!"

Ooarai let out a battle cry and Miho had them break into the assigned teams immediately. Maho was still shouting and a squad of six moved past Miho in double tempo – not quite running but much faster than just marching speed.

Miho advanced with her squad and the ground just outside the base was in an even worse condition than inside. It was pitch black and despite Kuromori's wealth, they had no flood lights. Small flashlights were mounted on the guns themselves, not by the manufacturer but by the soldiers themselves – flashlights were available in abundance and tape was cheap. It was the best they could do.

"How the damn heck are attackers moving through this darkness and rain? I can swim in my boots, I'm wet to the bone and I can't see a thing!" Momo complained.

"Kawashima, save your complaining for later." Miho reprimanded her immediately and the girl shut up with her teeth gritting.

Systematically spreading out in a half circle and advancing slowly, Momoga all of a sudden pushed Saemonza and Caesar, advacing side by side, out of the way like they were bags filled with air. Several bullets flew right over their heads. "Enemy fire!" Caesar shouted. How the heck did she know we were about to be fired upon?

"Commander, enemy fire from 190- One o' clock!" Momoga had excellent eye-sight and her short height belied her physical strength – which was top of the line within Ooarai.

Miho made a decision right away. "All hands open fire!"

Within an instant, all of the Ooarai soldiers threw themselves into the mud beneath the grass, ignoring how it splattered all over their uniforms and weaponry, on their cheeks and hair. More bullets soared over their heads mere seconds after.

Even Momoga could no longer make out where the bullets were coming from but they fired at the exact location she had previously identified. A hail of paint bullets roared into the dark in front of them. "Cease fire!" Miho gave the order just seconds after she had given the last one.

Alarmed by Ooarai's firing, Kuromorimine had halted their advanced. Miho watched in amazement as Maho passed by her, completely ignoring her, carrying a large slab of plastic. Riot shields?! Kuromorimine has riot shields? Miho was impressed when a group of eight, including her sister, marched past them. "[Folgen und sichern!]" Maho shouted at them.

Another Kuromorimine soldier, one without a shield, sprinted towards them from the back, gesturing the Ooarai troops to get up and follow the shielded squadron – and protect their back.

Ooarai could feel their heartbeat hammer in their ears. This was the first time they had been fired upon in live combat. Although it would only end with possibly being removed from the competition, to them it was like death – dishonorable death.

Forming a perfect line behind the shield squadron in reverse, Miho heard Maho give orders constantly over radio. She couldn't understand almost anything but on instinct alone she could tell that they were systematically sweeping the area – Maho had trained her soldiers well.

Firing sounds came from the east of the shielded group, from the direction of a Kuromori squad led by a second year called Sheska and the firing sounds came closer quickly. "{Snipers! Take cover!}" One of the girls shouted and these were words that Miho understood.

"Take cover! Snipers are firing on them!" Kneeling down, the shield squad formed a ring around them, their legs tight together. Each of the Ooarai soldiers aimed at the exact gap between shields and had their nuzzle poke through it. They could fire in any direction at a moment's notice.

There were screams of pain and agony from the same direction and then firing noises came from the west – the exact opposite direction as before. With this many hostiles around… this has to be one of the larger schools. Saunders and Gloriana? Maybe Pravda? Pravda is definitely tough enough to traverse all this way in the rain. Those girls might as well be made of steel and fueled by vodka. Miho was just holding position at the moment, it being far too dangerous to run around when the troops were being fired upon from both sides.

Yukari, about forty meters away from Miho, had her face almost touching the mud beneath the slick grass – Erwin was right next to her and had been shot. "Where did you get hit?"

"Right leg."

"How bad?"

"I think it just strafed me."

Yukari crawled around Erwin, ripping the flashlight from her assault rifle and putting it between her teeth. Shining light on Erwin's leg, she saw where she had gotten hit. Talking with the flashlight in her mouth, nothing she said was eligible in any way. The pain bullets did leave bruises when they landed a direct hit, which was used as secondary confirmation of a hit. If her leg was bruised, she was most likely going to be disqualified – a soldier couldn't serve very well with a perforated leg.

For Rommel to go out like this... Erwin tried to sound sarcastic but she was really tense. Bullets were still passing over their heads and it wasn't really being hit that scared her – having to leave the competition and leaving Ooarai crippled without a proper translator, that was what really worried her. Casualties in war were normal, but she didn't want to die yet.

Drool was running down Yukari's chin, not that it was possible to tell that through the rain, and she was finally finished checking Erwin's leg. Having to roll up the completely wet trousers was a real drag while lying down. Taking the flashlight from her mouth, Yukari switched guns – there was no way she could get it taped back on in this rain. "You're lucky."

"I knew it was nothing." Erwin rolled over and grabbed the rifle she had dropped. Soldiers all around her were firing at the dark up ahead. And then the firing stopped. Then the advance stopped as well. Something had happened. Yukari's com buzzed and she hit the button to listen. "Return to base. Threat has been neutralized."

Yukari, covered in mud and feeling like she had just taken an ice bath, rose and put her thumb and index finger between her lips. A horrifyingly loud, sharp whistle caught the attention of everyone around her. "Return to base!"

There were no questions of why and what happened directed at Yukari. They were at war and they were soldiers. It had only been a few months of training but they understood well how a soldier had to behave.

"What do you think happened?" Oryou had caught up to Erwin – she had preciously advanced past them and opened fire at the spot she thought had fired the bullet that hit Erwin.

Erwin herself limped a bit – the bullet had only hit the side of her leg and in such cases she was allowed to continue participating at full physical capacity after a medic had cleared her. Until then she was treated as someone injured.

"This whole attack feels off. The threat was neutralized far too quickly." Something is fishy. There is no way any school would be stupid enough to attack Kuromorimine at night with so few forces that they could be wiped out in less than fifteen minutes after the initial engagement. Something strange is going on here.

=== Panzer Halt ===