Alright, an attempt at something new! I've been dying to write a Strike Witches fanfic ever since the series ended recently, so I figured I would get started on one. Though I have many AU ideas in mind for the series, I just wanted to do one that was a bit more canon before I start doing what I do best with it. Doing a canon story for something so short was a bit of a challenge, but once I got my ideas straight, it proved to be quite easy. So thank you for putting up the Strike Witches sub category under manga/anime and now on with the story. Hope you like it!
From,
Symbiotic
It just seemed to be another day so far at the base of operations on the Britannian coast. Just like most other days on the base, the day began with the typical return of Orussian witch Sanya Litvak from the daily night patrols that had to be conducted to keep things around Britannia safe. Like many other mornings, her return signalled the beginning of a whole new day for all of the witches of the 501st joint fighter wing. Shortly after Sanya returned, the morning bugle call began to slowly awake each and everyone of the nine witches (except for Sanya) from their previous night's deep sleep to get ready for their day's duties.
Even though Sanya had been out the whole night and others were still groggingly getting up, there was one witch that had already been up for a few hours in the morning. That witch was the 501st second in command and the first ever witch to sucessfully utilize the Striker Unit that had been developed by Dr. Miyafuji to combat the menace of the neuroi. Working on her swordsmanship form with gracefully strokes for hours on end, Major Mio Sakamoto had been up for two hours before all other witches had even thought of getting up. She functioned like this every morning, the purpose being to keep herself in the absolute best shape that she possibly could for the next bout of combat that the 501st could be caught up in against the neuroi. Only when she heard the sound of the morning bugle call did Mio decide to sheath the katana that she carried into battle time and time again to go in to greet her other witches. Normally not else was on her mind at this time, but this was different. Today was a special day for Mio, and the thought of that special day made things a bit different for her to say the least.
"I just hope no one does anything today for me," Mio thought in her mind. "It's not worth it and I don't want it to happen anyway. Besides, it's not as important as other things that have happened around here lately."
As she walked in and thought about what today was, Mio ceased to pay attention for a bit of what was going on around her. Not knowing what she was getting closer to as she continued to walk towards the main structure of the airbase she lived on for the time being, Mio continued to walk blindly and thought nothing of it until she was stopped by an unmoveable force. Feeling herself ram into someone else and stumbling back a bit, Mio rubbed her head a bit and then looked up at who she had bumped into, but it didn't take long for her to figure out who she had ran into.
"M-major S-sakamoto!" Flying Officer Perrine Clostermann exclaimed. "I'm terribly sorry Major, I should have payed attention to where I was going. Please forgive me for my incompetence."
Hearing Perrine's pleas for forgiveness made the twenty year old witch from Fuso laugh, much to the perplexment of the fifteen year old witch from Gallia. Perrine was used to keeping things ever so formal and tight to the utmost degree, a trait that was shared among witches Minna Dietlinde Wilcke, Gertrud Barkhorn and even Mio herself, but none of them held it to the degree that Perrine did. Many saw it as rather hilarious at times, and this was one of those times that one of them found Perrine's uptightness and formality, confusing Perrine since the major she had come to admire so much was normally much more stern then she was now.
"Don't worry about it Perrine," Mio assured the blond Gallian witch. "It's nothing. I wasn't paying attention either myself."
Those words furthered perplexed Perrine. Mio always payed attention to things, or at least always seemed to be paying attention to things around her at all times. Hearing Mio admit that she wasn't paying attention to something and that was the reason that the two had collided as they walked was something that definitely bamboozled Perrine. Curious as to find out more, Perrine asked a question that would help bring her towards admitting something that she never thought she would ever tell Mio Sakamoto.
"Is everything alright Major Sakamoto," Perrine asked considerately. "You normally seem much more alert."
"Yes," Mio stated stoically, in a way that Perrine typically saw from Mio. "Everything is fine. Now go on, as you were Flying Officer Clostermann."
Mio then walked away from Perrine. On her mind was the fact that she had just lied to Perrine, one of her most trusted comrades and one of the strongest witches there was. She had lied to her about what was on her mind, when inside she was being mercilessly torn apart by it. On one side she really wanted to tell someone, any one of the witches, what was on her mind about today. But on the other side, and the side that was keeping the other one surpressed for the time being, she didn't want to say anything since she seemed to feel it was a waste of time. Perrine on the other hand was even more complexed by the words of her major, and now felt the need to investigate the cause of what she saw as distress among her commanding officer.
"Alright alright, breakfast is served," Eila Ilmatar Juulitainen proclaimed sharply as she stepped out with a plate with various meats, cheeses, and breads from behind the counter joining the dining room and kitchen together. "Come on now, get it while it's still fresh now, it took me all morning to make these."
"What was it that you made anyway Eila san?" Yoshika Miyafuji asked as she walked up to get her breakfast from the platter that Eila had put out onto the counter.
"Traditional Suomos breakfast dish that's what Miyafuji!" Eila stated proudly. "See back home, what we do for breakfast is take a piece of bread, swipe margerine on it, and then take some kind of meat and cheese and just eat it like this. Here let me show you."
Reaching down and taking some ingredients off the platter, Yoshika watched carefully as Eila picked up a butter knife and quickly spread margerine across the bread with speed and preciscion that made Yoshika look on in awe. Then with equal amounts of speed, Eila placed a slice of ham with some provolone cheese on top of the bread with the margerine and then held began to bite into it with a smile. The whole process was seen by Yoshika as simple yet amazing that Eila was so graceful yet so fast with it. The fact that it also was exotic prompted Yoshika to start making her own sandwich. The one she made was with Turkey breast and American cheese that had been brought in thanks to the efforts of Charloette "Shirley" Yeager. Placing both of these slices on a piece of white bread and then placing the open sandwich on a plate, Yoshika carried her breakfast back to the table and began to munch on it with delight, finding she liked the taste just as much as Eila appeared to.
"Wow Eila san this is amazing," Yoshika said happily. "Arigato Eila san."
"Don't mention it Miyafuji," Eila told her with a smile. "You make breakfast for the rest of us so much that it's only fair that I make some for you."
"Arigato Eila san," Yoshika said with an equally great smile, continuing to eat her sandwich with delight, watching the others in the room go up to the plate and get some sandwiches for themselves to eat. Along with Yoshika, there was also Sergeant Lynette Bishop, Lieutenant Colonel Minna Dietlinde Wilcke who served as commander of the 501st Joint , and Officer Francessca Lucchinni eating breakfast in the room with Yoshika and Eila. Each one of them all made their own respected open faced sandwiches and took their seats at the table to begin eating.
"What did you put on your sandwich Lynne chan," Yoshika asked curiously, looking at her new best friend's open faced sandwich.
"I put on roast beef and swiss on mine," Lynette told Yoshika with delight as she swallowed the first bite of her sandwich. "I really like it, it's very good. Thank you Eila."
"I put Sopressata and Ricotta on mine and placed it on Italian bread," Francessca told them happily. "Ricotta is my favorite cheese, ringraziarla for putting it out Eila. This is molto saporito!"
"I have no idea what you just said but I guess you like it so that's good," Eila told Francessca, making another sandwich for herself. "Hey Minna, what did you put on yours?"
"I put mine on rye, and it's Zungenwurst with Limburger cheese," Minna said with a smile, earning a look of disgust on the face of Eila that Yoshika, Lynette, and Francessca looked at with with curiosity.
"What's wrong Eila san?" Yoshikas asked inquisitively.
"You look very ill all of the sudden," Lynette pointed out. "Is it because of what Minna put on her sandwich?"
"I don't see anything wrong with it," Minna told them with a smile as she munched in on the sandwich. "It's traditional Karsland meat and cheese that I have grown up on, so obviously I'm going to like it."
"That still doesn't excuse the fact that what your eating is still nasty," Eila said in disgust. "Ah whatever, everyone's got their own preferences I guess."
"But what is it that you're eating that would make Eila so disgusted Commander Minna?" Lynette inquired, a bit excited to know what her commanding officer was eating that would make Eila look like she was going to puke.
"Well Lynette," Minna began to say carefully. "Zungenwurst is..."
Before Minna could say anything, the door to the dining room slammed open to reveal a very breathless Perrine Clostermann standing in the doorway. Panting heavily and sweat pouring from her forehead, everyone in the room looked on in curiosity as Perrine walked into the room and stood at the edge of the table, earning glances from everyone that to her looked rather disrespectful. Angered by the strange looks and lack of attention that she was getting, Perrine slammed her fist violently on the table, making the whole surface shake and get the attention of everyone at the table who was there.
"What is the meaning of this Officer Clostermann," Minna demanded as she stood up from her chair. "Can't you see we're trying to enjoy a meal?"
"My sincerest apologies Commander Minna," Perrine said hastily, giving a shaky salute to her superior officer. "But I have some urgent news about Major Sakamoto!"
"Major?" Eila said with her mouth full as she ate her sandwich. "What's wrong with the Major? She never has any problems."
"How dare you talk to me with your mouth full Eila!" Perrine shouted in a rage. "Don't you have any manners at all?"
"Yeah but I'd rather not use them around you four eyes," Eila mocked, continuing to talk with her mouth full and eat her sandwich as Perrine looked on in disgust.
Deciding quickly that it wasn't worth it, Perrine turned back to the other witches who were eating their open faced sanwiches and earned attentive glances from all of them, especially Minna and Yoshika. Those two had the most attachement to Mio, Minna being Mio's commanding officer and one of her best friends and Yoshika being Mio student and close friend as well. Lynette gave a bit of a concerned look, being the caring person that she was. Though she did know Major Sakamoto and trained with her and Yoshika a lot, she did not feel the attachement that Minna and Yoshika did to Mio. Francessca and Eila simply continued to eat, but continue to keep their ears open to hear what Perrine had to say, which she quickly began to tell of before the attention she had from the others was lost.
"Well today, when I got up and saw the Major training like she normally does, she seemed to be out of focus!" Perrine told them rapidly and distressingly, making the others look at her even more attentively. "Her movements seemed stressed and her form seemed really off balance and she wasn't correcting it. It was if she just wanted to get through the exercise as fast as possible without doing anything else! When does Major Sakamoto ever act like that?"
"Well maybe she was trying out a new form for her training?" Lynette proposed. "Major Sakamoto is always looking for ways to better refine herself for combat."
"Lynne chan is right Perrine san," Yoshika pointed out. "Are you sure that what she was doing was really out of focus!"
"I'm not done yet Miyafuji," Perrine shouted violently, earing an aghast look from the fourteen year old with from Fuso. "Don't you know anything about talking in turn?"
"She didn't know now please continue Perrine," Minna ordered calmly, but inside she was getting slowly annoyed with the pestering behavior that Perrine was exhibiting to her. Minna was given no time to dwell on it though, for Perrine began to talk once again of the Major that was the 501st second in command.
"Well when I went out to go see what was going on," Perrine stated, "I physically ran into Major Sakamoto. Now I know I was not paying attention very well myself, but Major Sakamoto would never run into someone! She always would dodge the oncoming advance so that way she would not be injured at all."
"She probably made a mistake," Minna replied back to Perrine, earning an enraged look from the Gallian witch as she stood up to put her plate in the kitchen sink. "Look, this is a waste of time, I got a lot work to do today and I bet the major is fine."
"But something is bugging her and I can tell!" Perrine shot back at Minna violently. "I demand permission to investigate!"
"Listen Perrine," Minna said as she walked into the kitchen and placed her dish in the sink, where Eila picked it up and began washing it. "People aren't perfect, not even you and the Major. I am very sure that nothing is wrong with her at the moment. If something was, I would know."
"Well you don't know because I know something is and I demand permission to investigate," Perrine stated again with the same rage as before. "If I can prove something is wrong we can help the Major out, and wouldn't you want to do that?"
"Commander Minna can Yoshika and Lynette play a game with Shirley, 'Trude and Erica?" Francessca asked. "We've been training so hard the past few days and we really could use a break."
"Sure that's fine," Minna happily said with a smile, temporarily shutting Perrine out much to the Gallian girl's annoyance. "You three go off and play now."
The three younger girls ran out of the room led by Francessca, leaving on Perrine, Minna, and Eila still in the area where the witches ate every morning and evening. Eila was still eating her sandwich in one hand while preparing the sink for her to wash the dishes that Yoshika, Lynette, and Francessca had put in the sink for her to watch. Perrine was still following Minna out of the kitchen, even after Minna had put her dish away.
"Officer Clostermann what do you want from me?" Minna asked exasperatingly.
"I just am just looking out Major Sakamoto's well being like you do Commander Minna," Perrine assured her. "I'm not doing anything to hurt her, I just want to see if she is alright. Please, let me investigate. I'll be doing a huge service for you since you would not have to do it yourself."
Minna thought about it for a few seconds. Being concerned with the well being of everyone who served under her, Minna was always concerned about the health each witch in the 501st Joint Fighter Wing. That meant keeping a close watch on both mental and physical health so that way if they did need treatment then she could get it for them quickly and with ease. Even though she suspected nothing was wrong with Mio, she did have no viable reason not to believe what Perrine was saying about the major being the sign of something bothering her. But she also knew that Mio was very keen and any investigation on her would not be able to be able to keep a low profile for long, and if Mio found out about what was going on with the investigation she could be angry. Though a large part of her did want to tell Perrine to go away and stop annoying her, she still was a bit concerned about Mio's well being since it could affect her combat performance. So with a heavy sigh, Minna gave Perrine her answer.
"You can investigate the Major just so long as you keep your intention on the low side and you do not hurt the Major," Minna told Perrine, making her conditions very clear. "Understood?"
"Merci Merci Commander Minna," Perrine said with delight. "I'll make sure I get to the bottom of this and you won't be disappointed."
"Then you better get started," Minna ordered Perrine in a happy tone, making Perrine run out of the dining room quickly to go further investigate the plight of her major. Once she was gone, Minna let out a hefty sigh and frowned. "What kind of mess have I just caused?"
"Either you have just allowed a very big one to be caused," Eila pointed out. "Or you can help assist Major Sakamoto."
"Lets just hope it's the latter," Minna said with a roll of her eyes. "I really don't feel like cleaning up any messes today. As you were Eila."
"Yes Commander Minna," Eila replied back, continiously scrubbing the dishes that were in the sink as Minna walked out of the dining room and left her alone. In her own mind, Eila worried a bit about what Perrine was going to do, but didn't care too much for it. It was a side thought in her mind, and one that she just kept out while she continued to work on cleaning the dishes.