Hello, and welcome to the first chapter of Project Himebana.
I do apologize to those who were waiting for this for a while, but I wasn't too sure how to best approach this project until recently.
For those who want to know the specifics of how I thought of this project: I got the idea back during the publishing phase of Strike Heroes and announced it at the end along with Project Return (officially Strike Heroes 2: Roland's Return). The contents you'll find in here will be based on transcripts I found while looking around on the Internet, but there will be some original content as well.
Anyways, I've decided to publish this set of stories (the best I can describe it) along with the first chapter of Strike Heroes; Wings of Freedom, but this won't be on the same schedule as the main story...at least, not yet. As an added bonus, I'm going to be publishing the second part right after this one so be ready.
Also, I need to say this before we get started: I do not own anything here except for Roland and any characters I created during the course of the Strike Heroes series or will (probably) make during the course of this story. Anything having to do with Strike Witches belongs to their creators, and I also want to thank the people who made the English transcript for making this possible (I don't know who translated them right now seeing as it's been a while since I found the transcripts, but thanks should definitely go out to them for it).
So without further ado, I present to you the first of two parts of the opening tale here.
XXXXXXXXXX
Memories of Goggles (Part 1)
Charlotte "Shirley" Yeager pulled into the hangar on her motorcycle after performing a test drive for checking the bike's capabilities. Luckily for the buxom Liberion Witch, there wasn't anyone inside the hangar right now...though the roar of her engine didn't really seem to help out.
"Mm, what a beautiful sound!" she noted as she put the kickstand down and hopped off the vehicle. "It's in great condition!"
Well, at least the engine sounded healthy. For a motorcycle engine, at least.
"Shirley!" Francesca Lucchini shouted as she ran up to the Liberion Witch and hugged her tightly. "Welcome back!"
"Hey, Lucchini," Charlotte said in return. "I'm back!"
"Oh?" Francesca noticed a pair of new goggles hanging out of Charlotte's pocket. "You have new goggles?"
Charlotte chuckled as she pulled out said goggles. "Don't they look cool?"
"Yeah!" Francesca hugged Charlotte tighter before something crossed her mind. "Hey, hey, Shirley..."
Charlotte somehow picked up instantly on what she was about to ask, and she was quick in her reply. "No! You can't have them."
Francesca gave off a whine. "I haven't said anything yet...!"
"It's written all over your face."
"Eh?"
Charlotte sighed and, taking off the goggles the Romagnan Witch wanted (it was the best thing she could make a guess towards what thing the Romagnan Witch was about to ask about) from around her head and holding it inside her left hand, backed out of the hug. "Yeah, look." She then stepped up to Francesca and lightly placed her right index finger on the Romagnan Witch's forehead. "Here on your forehead." She then moved her finger across Francesca's forehead. "It says 'I want them'."
Francesca backed up quickly in surprise. "Don't make fun of me like that!"
Charlotte laughed. "I'm just kidding..." Her face then turned serious. "But even if you're asking, I can't give these away..."
"Come on, that's cheap!" Francesca threw her arms at her sides, making a patting sound. She then lunged for the goggles, Charlotte keeping her away with her right hand. "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!"
"If you want goggles, then they're selling new ones almost everywhere." Charlotte held up her old goggles a little higher. "Wouldn't you rather have new ones than these worn-out ones?"
"I don't want new ones, I want those!" Francesca pointed at the goggles in Charlotte's hand.
"Hmm…" Charlotte shook her head. "Sorry but…"
Francesca backed off abruptly. "Hmph! Shirley, you're so cheap!"
As the Romagnan Witch stormed off, Charlotte tried calling her back. "Ah, hey! Lucchini!" She then looked at the old goggles in her left hand. "…I've used these goggles for a long time while racing; I had them on when I broke the record in Bonneville Salt Flats, and they're about the only thing that hold the memories I shared with Draco while I'm here. I can't just give them to Lucchini even if she begs me for them..."
XXXXXXXXXX
"Good morning, Shirley!" Francesca called out cheerfully as she skipped into the living room the next morning. She looked around the room, but the only people she could see in there were Yoshika Miyafuji and Lynette "Lynne" Bishop. "Oh?" She looked confused. "She's not here…"
Yoshika and Lynette noticed her quickly.
"Good morning, Lucchini!" they said at the same time.
Francesca instantly skipped up to them.
"Yoshika, Lynne," she started, "have you seen Shirley?"
"Shirley?" Yoshika asked, looking surprised. She then shook her head. "No, I haven't seen her." Turning to Lynette, she added, "Lynne?"
"I haven't seen her either," Lynette admitted.
"Oh…" Francesca looked bummed out before she got an idea. "Hey, have you seen Roland?"
"Roland-kun?" Yoshika repeated, using her nickname for Roland. "I think I saw him in the halls when I got up."
"That's right!" Lynette added. "I think he said that he was going to the shooting range for some gun training when I saw him earlier. Maybe you could try there?"
"Okay!" Francesca shouted as she ran off to find Roland. "Thanks, you two!"
"Lucchini!" Yoshika tried to call, but the Romagnan Witch was gone. "…She's gone."
"I wonder what she wanted…" Lynette mused.
"Yeah…"
XXXXXXXXXX
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Lieutenant Roland Sage was getting into the groove for his gun training, using a Browning HP pistol to shoot at a few targets. His green aura was active, yet no animal features could be seen on his body.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
He had been at this for a while, using ammunition he had personally asked for from Commander Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke. While she had found it odd that he was requesting ammo for a handgun, she happily had him put in the proper paperwork. The ammo had just arrived yesterday, so he was going to put them to some good use.
BANG! CLICK! CLICK!
"Huh?" Roland asked himself as he looked at his gun, the barrel still pointed towards the target downrange. He figured out that he had fired off his last round for the clip, and he quickly pressed a button to release the empty clip, catching it in his left hand. As he put the empty clip down and reached onto the table in front of him for a full clip, he felt a disturbance in his surroundings, and thinking quickly he pointed his gun…
At Francesca, who jumped quickly in surprise.
"Eep!" she shouted.
"Eh?" Roland asked as he blinked and looked at the Romagnan Witch. "Sorry, Francesca." He lowered his gun and turned around, the male Witch setting it on the table after checking it to make sure it was considered "safe". His step-father had trained him in how to fire a gun, and one important rule he remembered was to "always assume the gun is loaded, even if it's completely dismantled". Turning back to face his uninvited guest, he asked her, "You okay?"
"Hmm?" Francesca asked as she looked at Roland in slight fear. Realizing that he was unarmed now, she sighed in relief. "Oh. Sorry for interrupting whatever it was you were doing…"
"Sorry about that, but I thought you were told not to sneak up on people like that."
Francesca let that fly over her head. "Hey, Roland, have you seen Shirley?"
"Shirley? Well…depends. Does she have orange hair? A body most girls I know would be envious of? Broke the land speed record?"
"Yeah, that one, you dolt!"
Roland cringed playfully. "Actually, I don't know. I didn't see her this morning."
"Ah…" Francesca looked at the ground in sadness.
"Hey, buck up, kiddo." Roland placed his right index finger under her chin as his right thumb rested in front of it. He then lifted her chin up gently, giving off a smile. "I'm sure you'll find her. Here, I'll even help you. Let me just put a few things away, okay?"
Francesca blinked before giving off a nod. "Alright, Roland."
XXXXXXXXX
"Shirley!" Roland said as he and Francesca stepped into the dining room, trying to locate Charlotte's whereabouts.
"Food!" Francesca added.
"Stop making a racket so early in the morning, you two!" Gertrud Barkhorn snapped as she and Erica Hartmann were sitting at the table, eating breakfast. The breakfast consisted of potatoes, eggs, and sausages.
"Sorry, captain," Roland apologized.
Erica was more interested in the potatoes on Gertrud's plate. "Trude, give me a potato!" She then made to lunge for it, only to be stopped by Gertrud. "Potato!"
"Don't steal my breakfast! Did you wake up this early for once just to take my potatoes?"
Roland gained a sweat drop (one of the perks of being in an anime was the ability to have that occur. At least, last he checked no one was able to actually gain a sweat drop on the back of their head like this in his world) as Erica replied with, "Oh come on! You could at least give me one!"
"Oh…" Francesca said as she took in the spectacle. "Shirley isn't here either…"
"Ya think?" Roland asked dryly.
"Hey, have you seen Shirley?"
Gertrud looked at the duo and said, "I haven't seen her…"
"Me neither," Erica added.
"Figures…" Roland muttered.
"I see…" Francesca said in return. "She's not here either…Then where could she be?"
Gertrud didn't answer that question immediately, instead choosing to ask one of her own.
"Shouldn't you two eat some breakfast?" she asked. "We have Eintopf, Weißwurst, and rye bread today."
"The potato is mine!" Erica called out as she retried her attempt to get one of Gertrud's potatoes, being stopped once again.
"Hey, Hartmann!"
"Oh, I know!" Francesca said quickly. "She must be in the bath!"
"Bath?" Roland asked as a slight shade of red appeared across his face. Being the only male Witch on a team of females, he wasn't really too thrilled by the idea of looking into the bath area.
"Hey, Lucchini," Gertrud told her, "you have to be a good girl and eat breakfast or you won't grow!"
"Actually, breakfast doesn't sound like a bad idea..." It wasn't that Roland didn't want to help find Charlotte, but if she was really in the bath then he didn't want to faint again.
"I'll eat later!" Francesca shouted as she grabbed the male Witch and left, dragging Roland behind her by the collar of his shirt.
Roland found himself struggling to get the Romagnan Witch to let go of his shirt. "Hey, Francesca! Leggo!"
"I do say..." Gertrud said as she sighed. "Shirley isn't having it easy either...And neither is Sage..." She looked at her plate and noticed something off; there was now a surprisingly lack of a certain food item. "Hey! My potatoes!"
"I ate them all," Erica told her as she patted her stomach in contentment, a smile on her face.
Gertrud growled. "Argh! Give them back!"
"Too late, they're gone."
XXXXXXXXXX
"Shirley!" Francesca shouted as she and Roland stepped into the bath, Roland's eyes darting to and fro hesitantly. "I know you're in here!"
"Ah, Lucchini," Mio Sakamoto said as she called out to them from the bath water. "Sage, here for a morning bath?"
"Huh?" Roland asked as he looked at the major. It only took a microsecond for his light blush to explode into a bright red as he frantically used his right hand to shield his eyes. "Augh! You girls really need to put up some sort of sign outside the bath, jeez!"
"Ah, Major..." Francesca said as she groaned. To her, Mio was the last person she wanted to see right now...
"Yeah, I got a little sweaty after morning practice," Mio told them. "What do you say, do you two want to join me and train late-"
"Nope!" Francesca was both quick and adamant in her answer.
"It's important to keep practicing, you know!" Mio scolded the Romagnan Witch.
Roland was more hesitant, as indicated by his tone: "Well, I could take you up on the training offer, but the bath..."
"Anyways, more importantly, have you seen Shirley?" Francesca chose to ask.
"Yeah, I saw her in the hangar a while ago," Mio told them.
"Thanks!" She grabbed Roland by the shirt yet again and dragged him out, the male Witch protesting along the way.
"Hey! Don't forget to close the door...!" Mio realized that they were gone. "She ran away...and with Sage too..." She then noticed Perrine Clostermann standing there, looking a little reserved. "Oh? What are you doing there, Perrine?"
"Ah, umm..." Perrine started as she tried thinking of how to form her question. "Major Sakamoto, would if it be alright if I joined you...?"
Mio frowned slightly. "What are you being so reserved for? Rank doesn't matter in the bath."
Perrine cheered up instantly. "Yes!"
XXXXXXXXXX
"Shirley!" Francesca said as she ran into the hangar, Roland being dragged behind against his will. "Found you!" She looked around quickly before realizing that the buxom Witch wasn't in there. "...She's not here..."
"Can I please stop being dragged around now?" Roland asked her. He was surprised that Francesca was even able to drag his weight behind her. Hopefully this wasn't a gag that he was going to be subjected to for a while.
Francesca didn't reply, instead dragging Roland deeper into the hangar as she continued looking, specifically where Charlotte's Striker Unit rested.
"Haha!" Francesca shouted as she found the Striker Unit. "Shirley!" Instead, she found Eila Illmatar Juutilainen and Sanya Litvyak nearby, the Orussian Witch looking like she had just gotten off night patrol. "Oh, it's just Sanya."
Eila took some time to look at Francesca as the Romagnan Witch let go of Roland's shirt, making the male Witch flop onto the ground with a soft thud.
"What do you mean by 'just Sanya'?" the Suomos Witch asked, feeling insulted.
"Hmm?" Sanya asked as she looked from Eila to Francesca and a now-lying-down Roland. "Lucchini, Roland, what are you two doing here?"
"Getting dragged around..." Roland groaned as he sat up. "No thanks to Miss Pull here."
"Sanya," Francesca began, "have you seen Shirley?"
"No, I haven't seen her."
"Okay...Thanks anyway..."
"Hey, don't act like I'm not here!" Eila snapped.
"Oh, yes," Sanya decided to add. "But I saw a motorbike heading towards town earlier this morning."
"You did, huh?" Roland asked her. Checking his surroundings, he realized that Charlotte's vehicle was indeed gone.
"Oh?" Francesca asked as she looked around as well. "Ah, yeah, Shirley's bike isn't here!"
"Stop ignoring me..." Eila groaned.
"Where did Shirley go...?"
Eila sighed. "If you're that curious, why don't you ask Commander Minna?"
"Yes, I don't think she would go out without telling anyone," Sanya added in agreement. "She probably told Commander Minna where she went."
"I see!" Francesca said while nodding her head. "Thanks, Sanya!" She hugged Sanya quickly before running off to find the commander, leaving Roland there.
"Come on, stop ignoring me!" Eila shouted, still irritated.
"Oi..." Roland said to himself as he shook his head. "She's something..."
"Lucchini is always so energetic..." Sanya said as she started swaying from side to side.
Roland noticed the movement and raised an eyebrow. "Uh-oh. San?"
"Sanya?" Eila asked as she looked at her friend. "Are you alright? We better get you in bed..."
Sanya fell to the ground, and only Eila's prediction allowed her to get up and catch her in time to keep the Orussian Witch from hitting the ground.
"...Ah, Sanya is..." Eila said as she lifted a sleeping (or unconscious) Sanya up onto her feet. Or, rather, as much onto her feet as the Suomos Witch could manage. "I better carry her..."
"Let me help," Roland offered.
XXXXXXXXXX
Minna was busy going through some paperwork when she heard footsteps in the halls.
Actually, she already knew Francesca was coming thanks to her magic, and she was right as the Romagnan Witch burst into the room, barely panting.
"Commander Minna, where's Shirley!?" she asked quickly.
"Lucchini, let's knock before we enter, okay?" Minna told her calmly as she looked up from her task, a quill in her right hand. "Also, we don't run in the hallway. Okay?" Somehow, she sounded more like a mother with that statement, but then again she had that sort of air around others.
Francesca blinked quickly in surprise. "Y-yes!"
"Okay, good. So what was it you wanted?"
"Eh, Commander Minna, where is Shirley?" Francesca still sounded hyper.
Minna chuckled lightly. "Calm down a little."
Francesca took a deep breath and tried again. "Y-yes...Um, I was going to ask, where is Shirley?"
"Shirley? Yes, she was here this morning asking for permission to leave."
"Where did she go?" Francesca sounded curious.
"Well, according to the rules, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but she went to London."
Francesca's next sentence sounded down. "I see..."
"If you want to really badly, I can try to contact her if you want."
"No..." Francesca shook her head. "It's okay..."
"Really? Then, good luck with training today."
"Yes..." Francesca walked out of the room, feeling depressed.
Minna noted Francesca's current mood. "She seemed kind of down. I wonder: is she's alright?"
XXXXXXXXXX
Roland was busy eating breakfast with Yoshika and Lynette (after escorting Eila and a sleeping Sanya to the Suomos Witch's room, a fact the male Witch chose not to ask into) when they saw Francesca enter the dining room, looking upset.
"I can't believe Shirley left without telling me..." the Romagnan Witch was telling herself. "She's never done that before...Maybe she's angry at me..."
"Lucchini, what's wrong?" Yoshika asked as she looked at Francesca.
Francesca looked at Yoshika and the others. "Ah, Yoshika...I think I made Shirley angry."
"Eh? Shirley?"
"How?" Roland asked.
"Lucchini, what happened?" Lynette asked next.
"Well..." Francesca began as she explained what happened yesterday, serving herself breakfast as she talked.
Once she was finished explaining the situation while eating, Yoshika thought about it for a while.
"Hmm," she began, "I don't think she's angry..."
"I'm sure there was just something she had to do," Lynette added.
"This is Shirley we're talking about," Roland replied. "I'm almost certain that she's not angry. Especially not towards you. Though I'm not sure about trashing her Striker Unit, even if you put it back together without much of an idea on how she had it..."
"You think?" Francesca asked, confused. "But..."
Yoshika then got an idea. "Well then, how about making some sweets to give her when she gets back?"
"Sweets?" the Romagnan Witch and Roland both asked.
"As a gift to say 'I'm sorry'," Lynette explained. "We'll help you!"
Francesca instantly became cheerful once she heard that. "Okay! Let's do it!" She then bolted into the kitchen.
"Ah, Lucchini, wait!" Yoshika shouted as she jumped up and ran after the Romagnan Witch.
"Yoshika, Lucchini, wait for me!" Lynette shouted as she followed suit.
Roland simply stood up slowly and casually walked into the kitchen.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Yoshika, Lynne, what are we going to make?" Francesca asked as she realized that she had no idea what to make for her friend.
"We just recently got some supplies from Fuso, so I was thinking we could make some Fuso sweets," Yoshika suggested.
"Fuso sweets?" Roland asked as he was busy washing his hands. The male Witch was trying to figure out what was in the little Fuso Witch's definition of "Fuso sweets".
"I'll make some scones and shortbread then!" Lynette announced.
"I'll help you both out!" Francesca announced.
"Same here," Roland said as he turned off the water.
"Yeah, thanks, you two," Yoshika said cheerfully.
They had started working on the preparations when Mio and Perrine walked into the kitchen.
"Taking a bath after training feels great!" the major stated.
"Yes, indeed!" Perrine added proudly.
Mio instantly noticed what the girls and Roland were doing. "Oh, what are you four doing?"
Yoshika looked up from her task and noticed the newcomers.
"Sakamoto!" she said, surprised. "Perrine!"
Roland, once he lifted his head from helping Lynette with something and turned to look at them, noted that Perrine looked slightly less annoyed at Yoshika's statement than usual.
"We're making sweets for Shirley!" Francesca said cheerfully as she was busy helping Yoshika out.
"Oh, sounds fun," Mio said as she walked up to Yoshika. "Mind if I give you a hand?"
"No, please do," Yoshika said as she nodded her head.
"If the major is going to help out, then..." Perrine started.
"Then perhaps you could help me and Roland, Perrine," Lynette suggested.
Perrine was surprised. "Eh, well, I was thinking of helping Major Sakamoto out but..."
"Alright!" Mio stated as she washed her hands. "If you help Lynne and Sage out, I'll help Miyafuji and Lucchini."
"Yes please!" Yoshika said excitedly.
"Yay!" Francesca said cheerfully. "Let's hurry up and make some sweets!"
Perrine growled to herself.
"Argh...I guess I have no choice..." the Gallian Witch said to herself before turning to Lynette and Roland. "Lynne, Lieutenant Sage, what do you want me to do?"
"You can start with sieving the flour..." Lynette said.
XXXXXXXXXX
A while later, and the group were still gathering the materials for the treats and had even started to make them.
Well, the girls were doing it; one thing that the other Witches on the base could agree on was that it was generally not a good idea to have Roland use something without at least watching how to use it. Case in point, the toaster: given it took him a few minutes of staring at the device, two slices of bread in his hands ready for toasting, before he ended up asking Yoshika about where to stick the slices (thinking back on it, Yoshika was a little uncertain about whether she should have helped him out before then considering his confused look), Roland had no clue about how to operate some of the appliances. So for now, he was watching the girls at work while he scribbled down some notes or something.
"What are you making, Miyafuji?" Mio asked the younger Fuso Witch as Yoshika set down two bowls containing some ingredients.
"We have some glutinous rice and azuki beans, so I was thinking of making maroon zenzai," Yoshika explained.
"Maroon zenzai?" Roland asked as he looked up from his scribbling, confused. "What's that?"
Yoshika took some time to explain it, but Roland still wasn't too sure (he simply placed the word down on the paper and made a mental note to do some research about it to get a better idea of it).
"Yoshika, what is this hammer!?" Francesca asked as she lifted up a rather large mallet. The mallet looked like its length exceeded a meter.
"Whoa!" Roland shouted as he barely ducked under an accidental swing from the Romagnan Witch. "Watch where you swing that, Francesca!"
"It's called a kine," Yoshika replied as she gently took the mallet away from Francesca. "You take the glutinous rice that we're cooking right now, put it in a large mortar, the usu, and pound it with this."
"Kine?" Francesca asked.
"Usu?" Perrine asked, confused. "I don't understand."
"Looks like a hammer to me..." Roland noted as he eyed the kine.
Kirby for the win? The male Witch asked himself.
"I had heard new supplies from Fuso had arrived, but I can't believe they sent things like this to us," Mio said as she was trying to figure out why there were those items in the last shipment of supplies.
"Yes, it seems like it got mixed in with the rest of the luggage..." Yoshika admitted.
"Okay, leave the mochi pounding to me!"
"Okay, thanks!" Yoshika smiled cheerfully. "It should be done soon..."
XXXXXXXXXX
A longer while later, the kitchen had a pleasant smell inside.
More accurately, the area had a pleasant mix of all the treats being made so far (which was consisting of materials for "maroon zenzai", scones, and shortbread so far).
"Oh!" Francesca said as she noticed the smell. "What's that smell?!"
"Oh yes, it smells really good!" Lynette complimented.
"Does it really smell that good?" Perrine asked, confused. She sniffed the air around them gently.
"Smells like normal rice to me..." Roland noted. "I think." He couldn't currently remember if rice had an aroma when cooked.
"Ah, yes, the smell of freshly cooked rice is great," Mio commented.
"You can eat it like this as well!" Yoshika commented as she scooped out a little bit of the rice. "Just add a little sesame seeds and salt..." She proceeded to put the items in question on the rice once she formed it into a particular shape.
"Oh, okowa. Let me have some."
Yoshika handed Mio one of the treats she made on the spot.
"I want some too!" Francesca added.
"Okay, here you go," Yoshika replied as she handed Francesca an okowa treat.
"Thanks!" Francesca said in return. It took her a while before she felt her hands starting to burn. "...Ah! It's hot, it's hot!"
"Ha ha ha," Mio said in amusement, "well, it was just cooked, so that's a given!"
"Oh..." Francesca tried the treat after blowing on it. "It's sticky yet it's springy and tastes pretty good..."
Roland opened his mouth to ask for one, but he decided not to. He was going to be eating it later on anyways.
Yoshika had given one to Lynette, who tried it and said, "It tastes very good, Yoshika!"
"Well then, let's pound away!" Mio announced. "Miyafuji, help me out with the water."
"I'll help too!" Francesca shouted as she joined the major and Yoshika.
XXXXXXXXXX
A few minutes after, and it was feeling like a race. In fact, Roland could barely keep up with the instructions given to him by Lynette as he was busy cycling through the instructions as fast as he could.
Perrine took a look at how Team Miyafuji was doing and was surprised.
"Lynne, lieutenant, we can't lose to them!" she stated.
"Trying here..." Roland said. He was working on remembering the next thing that needed to be dealt with.
"Eh?" Lynette asked as she focused on her treats. The rest of her sentence was some instructions. "Yes...then, put some butter in the bowl and..."
"Like this?"
Roland grabbed the butter out of the fridge (they had left it there until they needed it) and had Perrine measure the material out before putting it into the bowl.
"Um, make it a little more thick..." Lynette started.
"Little more thick?" Roland asked.
"Hmm, this was harder than I thought..." Perrine noted to herself.
XXXXXXXXX
"What's that sound?" Gertrud asked as she and Erica entered the kitchen. The Karlsland captain had been busy trying to get her blond-haired teammate to get up for the day (the usual, really) when she started hearing some pounding sounds. Curious, she had come here to investigate.
"Something smells good!" Erica noted as she sniffed the air.
"Ah!" Francesca shouted as she turned around and spotted the newcomers. "It's Captain Barkhorn and Hartmann!"
Sadly, she was holding the kine, and Roland just so happened to be passing by (luckily without anything in his hands), so...
Cue the male Witch being slammed in the forehead by a wooden mallet.
WHACK!
"OW!" Roland shouted as he fell onto his rear, holding his forehead in pain. "Lucchini! That hurts, dammit!"
"Sorry!" Francesca apologized as she looked at the captain and Erica.
"Ah, Lucchini, Sage," Gertrud said as she noticed the two from earlier. "Did you eat your breakfast?"
Francesca nodded her head. "Yup! We just did with Yoshika!"
"Weren't the potatoes good?" Erica asked them.
"Definitely," Roland groaned as he stood up, his hands still holding his forehead in pain.
"I liked the sausages better," Francesca admitted.
"Eh?" Erica asked her in shock. "Really?"
"Ehm," Gertrud started as she eyed the kine, now in Mio's hands, "what's with that huge hammer Major Sakamoto has?"
"It's a tool to make a kind of sweets from Fuso called omochi with!" Lynette proudly explained.
"Lucchini wanted..." Mio began.
"...to make some.." Roland continued, a pained tone in his voice.
"...sweets for Shirley," Yoshika finished.
"Looks fun!" Erica observed. "Can I try?"
"No, you can't," Gertrud told her.
Erica looked at the captain in shock. "Why?!"
"Nothing good can come out of you helping out with making sweets."
"What do you mean by that? I just want to help out!" the blond-haired Karlsland Witch crossed her arms and turned away from Gertrud as she huffed. "You're so cold! Heartless!"
"Wha-" Gertrud stopped herself and gave it some thought. "...Well then, I guess I have to join in as well then."
Francesca and Roland were both surprised.
"Um, captain?" the male Witch asked. "Pardon me for asking just in case, but...you know how to make sweets too?"
"Of course!" Gertrud stated proudly. "Making sweets is a form of science! You have to have the right amount of ingredients, time, and the right techniques. It's very fitting for a Karlslander!"
Roland blinked in surprise. "And you even take cooking seriously..."
"Stop giving a speech," Erica added as she became cheerful once again, "we have to start working!"
Gertrud shook her head to focus.
"...Yeah," the brown-haired Karlsland Witch said before she checked something. "But if we're going to join in as well, this kitchen might be a little small."
"Indeed, you have a point there," Perrine acknowledged.
"Would be kind of dumb for eight people to be in the kitchen," Roland noted. "We can barely fit six."
"Okay, I'll go talk to Minna about this," Gertrud announced as she left the area.
XXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile, inside a certain wing commander's office, Minna was busy reading some more paperwork when she heard someone knocking on the door.
"Yes?" the commander asked as she looked up. "Come in."
Gertrud opened the door and stepped into the room.
"Sorry to bother you, Minna," she told the wing commander.
"Ah, Trude," Minna replied, using Gertrud's informal nickname, "something on your mind?"
"Well, see..." Gertrud gained a slight blush as she was trying to explain it as best as she could without sounding too mushy or something. "Making sweets..."
Minna was confused. "Making sweets?"
Gertrud shook her head and recovered quickly. "Yeah, it seems like Lucchini wants us all to make sweets for Shirley."
"It's a little early for Saturnalia, isn't it?"
"You're right, it's not Saturnalia, but preparing and giving away gifts can be a pretty good way to deepen friendships, don't you think?" The Karlsland captain thought about what else she needed to add before she thought of something. "Oh, and by the way, before I forget...Lieutenant Sage is helping out as well."
"Roland?" Minna gained a slight blush. "Well, it's nice to see that the lieutenant is helping out. That, and it's good to hear you say something like that."
Gertrud blinked. "What do you mean by that? I'm just thinking those Liberions who just eat strange things need some of Karlsland's more refined sweets..."
Like Roland? Minna thought. The male Witch seemed to be the closest to Mio in terms of eating, willing to consume most of the food and drinks the girls made. There were some exceptions, though, like alcohol-based drinks (no idea why a lieutenant of his age didn't want to drink beyond "not drinking while on duty"). The commander waved her right hand in the air. "Yes, yes."
"So? Do I have your permission?"
Minna lowered her hand and nodded with a smile. "Sure. Go ahead."
"Good. I'll go tell everyone else!" Gertrud walked halfway out the doorway when she remembered something. "Oh, if you have time, could you make that?" She stressed the word "that".
"That? You mean Baumkuchen?"
"Yes, it was very good the last time you made it." Gertrud left the area.
Minna looked at the doorway. "Oh, Trude, you...I wonder if Roland's ever had any Karlsland treats..."
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Alright, there's the first chapter for the beginning of this series. Like I said, the second part will be published right after this one.
Anyways, thanks for reading this story, and I'll see you guys in a bit.