Chapter 1: Takebe Saori: Distance

I could hardly believe it when my friend, Nishizumi Miho- "Miporin" to me- greeted a girl who approached her in the tank café, and who looked like her, but with darker hair, as "Onee-chan". I was even more incredulous that the girl seemingly coldly brushed off Miporin by only saying that she did not think Miporin would still be doing tankery.

Miporin had already told me that she had a sister, although I'd heard barely anything about her except the fact that she, like the rest of the family, was interested in tankery, and very talented at it. Shortly after the team got going, we saw her sister on television, giving an interview after apparently being named an MVP in high school tankery.

I had some idea of how little we knew about Miporin's sister, all of which was information that the public was readily aware of. Akiyama Yukari, whom I called "Yukarin," was quite knowledgeable about this, and she had presumably heard of Miporin's sister before.

We did have one much more knowledgeable person about Miporin's sister- Miporin herself- but I had some idea that her family was a sensitive subject, even if I didn't know why. Some may think of me as a relatively shallow boy-chaser, but my desire for boys isn't all there is to me. I've trained myself in reading people's feelings.

So, whenever Miporin seemed down, I decided to change the subject, suggesting that we start eating when we realized that there was some reason why Miporin was reluctant to tell us why she had to switch schools, and that we go out for ice cream when it seemed almost everyone around us was excited about tankery, the choice of elective Miho was certain she wanted to reject. Talking can help us work through our problems, but only when the person in question is ready to talk, and in a good state of mind to do so.

As such, when our tankery instructor mentioned being a student of Miporin's mother, asked about her sister, and commented about how respectable the Nishizumi family school was, I decided to ask her about whether she had a boyfriend. It was possible she would say that the JGSDF had some policy against fraternization, but she seemed fairly receptive to the question, if a bit sly in her wording. I didn't get an answer, but the question had the effect I desired, as Miporin turned to me and smiled, and when the instructor resumed speaking, it was about our practice match.

It was obvious back then that even if Miporin's family was alive and well, something had happened in the past that resulted in her parting ways from her old school, as well as from her family, and coming here. And yet, as chance brought them together again, Miporin's sister seemed less than happy to see her.

Of course, I wasn't naïve enough to reject the possibility that Miporin's family was troubled. Not only was the Nishizumi family a difficult subject for Miporin, but the encounter with her sister in the cafe was mere days after Hana had been told, by her own mother, not to come home again, as a result of a disagreement regarding tankery. The idea of someone being disowned was thus neither an impossibility, nor something that we could assume only happened to other people.

But had it happened? Had Miporin's mother cast her out of the family? And was her sister being ordered to shun her? None of it seemed to justify treating one's sister so coldly. I was an only child, in a fairly normal and loving family, but I believed that I understood this much.

The girl with Miporin's sister, a girl with silver hair who seemed to be her vice-captain or an assistant of some sort, made many rude remarks about Miporin, our school, and our tankery team, which Miporin's sister didn't seem to care for, but didn't say anything to stop.

Mako chimed in to point out that it would be embarrassing if those on top of the tankery circuit were defeated by a newcomer, a comment that evidently got under the silver-haired girl's skin. At that point, Miporin's sister departed, neither concurring with nor contesting what we had said.

Yukarin told us that the girls were members of Black Forest's crew, part of the formerly reigning tankery champions. Therefore, whatever our reasons were for wanting to beat Black Forest, we were facing an uphill battle. At this point, knowing what Miho's former school was, I started to understand the expectations Miporin had been living under until now, even if I didn't yet know the entire story.


One evening shortly after the encounter, we decided to have an extra practice session, in hopes of slowly, but surely, bridging the gap between us and the champions. At that time, I took the opportunity to ask about the other situation relevant to Black Forest.

"Really, what gives those two from Black Forest the right to look down on us like that?" I said.

"We are an untested newcomer, and they were, until recently, the reigning champions," Yukarin said. "They have all sorts of powerful German tanks at their command, and many experienced tankers." Yukarin seemed almost on a verge of a "tank high" about the German tanks before she continued, her enthusiasm likely dampened by the thought of Miporin being treated so dismissively. "That doesn't excuse looking down on Nishizumi-dono, but it does explain the basis for their confidence."

"I know, but is there really no chance for us to win?" I said. "And shouldn't we at least get a little respect from them? We might be novices and we might have lost against St. Gloriana, but we're trying our best- do they think we're just fooling around?"

Mako nodded in response to my final question, agreeing with the sentiment I expressed. She could stand to try harder, but she's never been fond of people who are obsessed with certain endeavors, like the silver-haired girl from the café.

"For the latter, you have a point, Takebe-dono," Yukarin said, "good sportsmanship is part of tankery. And for the former, we do have more than a chance- we have Nishizumi-dono!"

"We will not have to face them until the final match, and only if both of us make it," Hana said. "We do have more immediate problems, like Saunders."

"That's true," I said. "But since that's true, shouldn't Miporin's sister be rooting for her, or wishing her good luck? They might be on opposing sides, but even if Miporin's sister is fighting to win, there shouldn't be anything wrong with wishing that Miporin can get as far as possible, right?"

"Maybe she can't express it?" Mako said; as I gave her a confused look, she elaborated. "You've said it before, Saori; I'm not the most open with my emotions, but I care about others."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Mako," I said. "But Miporin seemed fairly upset by how cold her sister was acting."

"I suppose what I'm asking is- why not give that same benefit of the doubt to Miho's sister?" Mako said. "It's the only time we've met her in person, after all."

I paused, finding that question difficult to answer. I had known Mako for years, having many chances to see that there was more to her than met the eye, and past the surface of a lazy and apathetic individual lay a surprisingly caring friend. Maybe she did have a point, and I was judging Miporin's sister based on one encounter with her. First impressions are important, but they are not the be-all and end-all, and Miporin's sister had said very little in the encounter. When I thought about it, I knew more about some strangers I met on the bus, some of whom were good-looking guys, than I did about the sister of one of my close friends.

We then got back to work on our tankery practice. Whether we hoped to humiliate Black Forest, show that we were not to be underestimated or learn more about them, we had a lot of work to do and many matches to win before we could face them.


We ended up seeing Miporin's sister much earlier than we expected, after our match with Saunders, the first in the tournament.

A little while after we had won, Mako got a call from the Oarai hospital, informing her of her grandmother's collapse and hospitalization. This presented a problem, because while Mako was desperate to reach her grandmother, the Oarai Academy ship was away, and at the moment, we had practically no way of getting to the hospital where Mako's grandmother had been taken.

But then we heard a voice that I recognized as that of Miporin's sister, who told us to use the helicopter they had brought so that we could reach the hospital. The silver-haired girl objected, but Miporin's sister insisted that this was tankery. It clearly wasn't a case of her doing a favor, but her belief that acts of kindness were part of her personal tankery philosophy.

Mako quickly boarded the helicopter, not wanting to waste any time. Just as quickly, I followed her, wondering Miporin's sister's decision to help us had been made with the same haste. Sitting inside the helicopter, I noticed Miporin thank her departing sister, but couldn't tell what expression her sister had on her face.

Thanks to Miporin's sister and her vice-captain's reluctant cooperation, we made it in time. We heard that Mako's grandmother had been injured badly enough to be hospitalized for some time, but her life was not in danger.

Despite that issue being resolved, I had many unanswered questions about Miho, and so did Mako, the type who usually did not seem the type to get involved in others' problems, yet was deeply worried about Miho, even as her own grandmother, the last member of her family, was seemingly in great peril.

I asked Mako about it in the interminable wait for news regarding her family, and Mako said that, all things considered, she had little to complain about regarding her family while they were still alive. They had high expectations for her, but ones that were within her ability to meet, and that she had only understood that after it was too late and her parents had been killed in an auto accident.

So I had to ask myself- if Miporin or her sister unexpectedly perished, would the surviving sister be fine with any of their awkward encounters ultimately being the last time they saw each other? I didn't think so, but could only ask one of them for specifics.


On the boat ride back to school, I met with Miporin on the deck of the boat, looking out at the stars. Miporin observed that all of us had a great deal going on, having met all our families except mine. I took the opportunity to share Mako's concerns with her. She seemed touched, but did not do much except confirm what I had already heard from her- she had come to Oarai by herself.

Miporin told me little at the time, and it was not until later that Yukari mentioned the incident that caused her to leave Black Forest- when she went to save the sinking tank, abandoning her flag tank in the process and apparently costing Black Forest the championship as a result.

With that in mind, I considered everything I knew in a new light. Miporin, having great expectations placed on her in the past, was thus uncomfortable with being considered the greatest hope for Oarai's return to tankery. In particular, Miporin was probably afraid that the Student Council's drive to success would reach ruthless extremes, and she would be discouraged from making the same decision that she once had.

So did this mean that Miporin's sister, tank commander for the school she had left, was a ruthless individual? I would have accepted that without question if I had heard the entire story about Miporin's departure just after meeting Miporin's sister, but after the way she helped us with the helicopter, and overruled her vice-captain by saying that was part of tankery, I had to wonder what her true personality was, and how often she expressed it.

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. Miporin's sister seemed to suppress her emotions. And perhaps Miporin herself had tried to prevent herself from expressing how painful she found the Student Council's attempts to recruit her into tankery in spite of her experiences with it, but could not bring herself to do it.

I wondered if we would ever get to see Miporin's sister in an unguarded moment. Perhaps the rest of her team, including the rude girl who was her vice captain, who saw her on a daily basis and had more chances, had seen her composure drop, but I began to doubt that. Miporin was hesitant to take command of Oarai, and I could only imagine that the pressure that the commander of Black Forest's tankery team had to endure was even greater.

I didn't see or hear much of Miporin's sister until the finals, when Miporin and her sister faced each other in the pre-battle greetings. The two didn't say much to each other- perhaps not much needed to be said, since each of them knew what they needed to do. I did, however, hear that one of Miporin's former teammates walked up to her to thank her for saving her last year, which was a promising sign. Perhaps not all of Black Forest was obsessed with victory. Perhaps some of them still cared for their old friend. Perhaps Miporin's sister was one of them.

A long, hard battle against Black Forest ensued, but in the end, we were victorious. Miporin walked up to her sister, not quite sure what to expect. Miporin's sister congratulated her on her victory, then gave her a warm smile, and approved of her style of tankery, glad to see Miporin had found one after so long.

I watched from a distance, unsure what to make of Miporin's sister, exactly. Had she changed as a result of our defeating a seemingly invincible tankery team? Or was it possible that she had been like that, all along? In either case, what seemed clear was that she was proud of her sister, and I was happy for Miporin- both for what she had accomplished, and that her sister seemed to be a kind and caring person.

As Miporin parted ways with her sister, I regretted that it was likely that I would not get to know her very well, perhaps always defining her by her relationship with Miporin. But in the short time we had seen each other thus far, I had seen indications of what she was outside of being commander of our strongest rival. And if the small glimpses at the person Miporin's sister was at heart were any indications, perhaps it would be a pleasure to get to know her better if we meet again someday.


Author's Notes

This fic is slightly similar in concept to Off The Path, but rather than focusing on different perspectives on an event, it's seven different perspectives on a person- namely, Maho. As such, the six other people besides Maho(Saori, Emi, Erika, Shiho, Kikuyo and Miho) will not only have different perspectives on Maho, but will know her in different contexts, with the seventh and final chapter being Maho's own perspective.

The fic was inspired by one GuP fic, in which an OC viciously lays into Maho for not doing more for Miho, an accusation that was not only inaccurate, but also unjustified given what the OC had seen and heard of Maho so far. The author raised an interesting point about how it serves to show how Maho's relationship with Miho looks to outsider, but it seems more likely that Maho has enough self-awareness to know already, as she expresses in Chapter 7 of Little Army.

I chose Saori for the representative of Anglerfish Team because she seems like the warmest and most emotionally open member of Team Anglerfish, has the most normal family, and has ties of some sort to the rest of the girls. She's also the one who asks Miho about her family, albeit at Mako's suggestion. She also, in spite of her boy-crazy demeanor, has the capacity for being serious and quite caring when one of her friends is troubled, and seems to have the best insights about others' feelings of all of Team Anglerfish, (not counting Miho, who has her own unique perspective on Maho).

Saori, as the one who knows Maho the least, is meant to, in some ways, represent how someone who's only watched the anime might see Maho- as an Aloof Big Sister who, nevertheless, has a few Pet the Dog moments to show redeeming qualities, whose final scene could be interpreted as the result of character development or having been here all along. That's why most of the scenes here are from the anime.

You may see the characters using various terms to refer to Maho. Their choice will reflect their relationship to her- friend of her sister, acquaintance, subordinate, mother, maid and sister- as well as how well they know or relate to her, and how much their relationship is indirect or based on a position Maho has. As with first-person perspectives, the same scenes will be colored by the various participants' memories of them, which is why I had the narrators tell us about the scenes, as though they were telling the reader a story.

One last note- Miho will enter into this fic a fair amount. Not only is she the main character, but she heavily factors into Maho's motivations. Most of the narrators interact with both sisters quite a bit (some with Miho more than Maho), and, as I mentioned before, one of them is Miho herself.

Edited to make a few changes.

Next Time: Emi thought she had all the reason she needed to hate Maho. But will that reason be challenged when Emi finally meets Maho?