Author's Note
I had the idea for this fanfic in my head for a while, and I was planning on finishing my other fanfic before typing this out.
Of course, I changed my mind about that as you can probably tell.
Now, ironically, the night before I started on this story. My fanfic notes somehow got deleted, so I have to rewrite them from memory.
Yes, for both fanfics...
Also, I'm not going to bother with honorifics with this fanfic. So if there are any Japanese readers here, please don't mind about that.
Well, that's that I suppose.
Enjoy the story.
Prologue: The Invitation
Kay was bored.
Really bored.
With the excitement from the tournament dying down, things sort of fell back into a routine.
Shensha-do training to keep everyone in shape.
Paperwork to file in.
No excitement.
No anticipation.
Until next year.
In her office, Kay occupied her time by digging into a bag of chips, folding paper airplanes out of the stack of paper left on her desk (it probably wasn't anything important), watching the final match of the tournament (heck, Darjeeling told her that even she thought the Char B1 being flipped over was a bit amusing), rewatching the final match of the tournament (and forcing out a small chuckle at the Char B1 flipping over), digging into a second bag of chips.
Bottom line: Kay was bored.
Scratch that, she was dying from boredom.
Just as she was about to dig into her third bag of chips, someone knocked on the door.
"Come in!"
"You know, commander, you should really start getting some healthy snacks in your office stash."
Kay glanced nonchalantly at Naomi, who was leaning against the doorframe, "Hey, it's not like I'm going to end up like a ball later."
"And why not?"
Kay shrugged, "It'll either go to my boobs or get burned off by my diet belt."
"You could just eat less..."
Kay mused for a second, "Well, I guess that's one option. So anyway, is there anything I could do for you, Naomi?"
Naomi placed a small package onto her desk, "This came in this morning," she wasn't sure what it was, but based on her commander's reaction, it was something Kay had been expecting.
What had been unadulterated excitement was suddenly replaced by sheer concentration, something that Kay rarely exhibited.
That really caught Naomi's attention.
She watched just as carefully as Kay grabbed a letter opener from a drawer, slit open the top of the package...
...and pulled out a DVD case.
Naomi didn't know what to make of this, all those carefully executed actions, for a DVD?
Unless it was something important?
"Naomi?"
"Yes, ma'am?"
Kay spun the case around, "Do you have any idea what this is?"
Naomi scrutinised the cover, proclaimed in big, bold English letters was "ART OF PANZER: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON EXCLUSIVE SET", near the bottom was "PACKED WITH NEVER SEEN BEFORE CONTENT!". It also featured what appeared to be a silhouette of a tank, the turret was easily recognised as the M48's turret, the hull was obscured by outlined silhouettes of high school students. The rest of the cover was a simple, dark gray colour.
"It's..."
Kay cut her off, "This...is a special, boxed set of an anime-influenced animated series made in America. I've been waiting a TWO WHOLE week for this to arrive. Only 120 of these sets were ever released! I happened to find this on an online store and got it for the easy price for...umm..."
"For how much exactly?"
"23700 yen..."
"It didn't occur to you that it might have been a scam?"
Kay blushed, "I...guess I didn't think about it too much...I was too busy worrying about something else..."
"And what was that then?"
"The company sent me an E-mail saying that the set got stuck in Africa, and I had to send some extra shipment fees..."
Naomi sighed, "Good thing this was legitimate...It also kind of explains why you seem distracted during training these few days."
"Well, yeah. So, then I had this thought. If this box set was so rare, why only keep it to myself? So I've decided to invite some people to watch it with us!"
"Us?"
"Yep, you, me, and Alisa, who I think is meeting up with the others right about now..."
"Wait, they're already coming?"
Kay's smile widened even further, "Of course! I invited the shensha-do teams of all nearby school carriers! I think it was...let me see...Miho...that would be Ooarai...Kuromorimine...and St. Gloriana too!"
Naomi shook her head, 'What exactly were you going to do if it was a scam?'
"Now, I need your help to commandeer one of our classrooms for this exclusive showing!"
Naomi didn't have time to form a response, as Kay dragged her out of the office and towards the classrooms.