Chapter 1

The sun still shone as brightly as ever. Birds still chirped in the trees and school girls still laughed with their friends as they walked home. Everything was the same as it always was, and yet-

Everything was different. For a single young girl who walked, head hung low, through the crowds. She ignored the smell of bread and fresh fruits that would have had her smiling. She ignored the cute signs around her. She wished she could ignore the chattering girls around her. Every time one of them mentioned the word 'tank' or 'panzer', she flinched a little. Every time one of them mentioned signing up for the new club, she looked away guiltily. This school shouldn't even have tanks. That was why she came here!

What should I do? My friends want to do this so much, but I-I-

For Miho Nishizumi, it should never have been a question. She had left her old school entirely to avoid tanks and because her family...well, her family was what they were. She never had lived up to the name. So when her new friends had been so excited and wanted her to teach them, all it did was bring up painful memories.

"I can't do it." Miho whispered to herself. Her hands clenched in her skirt, as she looked up, noticing that the crowd had vanished and she was alone on the path to her apartment. Alone.

She really was alone now, wasn't she? Even her new friends wanted her to do something she couldn't.

"How can you run away now?!"

A flash of silver hair and grey eyes had Miho wincing and clutching her skirt tighter. She'd run away once, and now she was running away again. It was horrible of her but she couldn't stop herself.

"I'm sorry..." and as she spoke those two words, Miho didn't know if she was apologizing to Saori and Hana, herself, or to her old teammates. "I'm sorry I can't do it."

She could almost hear a scoff in her ears, as she dejectedly walked up the steps to her new home. The young girl wanted nothing more than to cuddle her Boko and go to sleep. Maybe that would give her the strength to say no. She never was able to say no to her mother or sister, but she wasn't home anymore. She was on her own and she needed to make her own choices.

Right?

With a soft sigh, Miho reached into her skirt pocket to grab her key. She always did let herself get like this whenever something came up. Her sister never said anything, but her old fri...comrade always did.

"You're such a crybaby, Miho. Toughen up!"

Despite herself...a small smile crossed Miho's face. In her own, harsh way, that girl always had known how to cheer her up. And she did miss her. She really, really really did!

"I hope everything is fine back home."

With that, she opened her door and stepped into her apartment. Or, rather, she tried to.

"Hold it!"

Without even realizing it, Miho's face slapped into her door. Flinching back with a little eep of surprise, her hands came up to rub at her red little nose, while her brown eyes widened in shock. For standing beside the door, her strong hand gripping it tightly, was another girl. Familiar ice-grey eyes staring right through Miho, under straight silver bangs. The angry glare was nothing new.

The uniform the girl was wearing, white-and-green, was.

"It...Itsumi-san?"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Erika Itsumi was quite certain she had never seen such a pitiful sight in her life. Mind you, she had said that every time she saw Miho Nishizumi after a long time away from the girl. She had said that the first time she had ever seen her. And yet, for all of that, this took the cake. A Nishizumi should never hang her head like that, completely unaware of her surroundings. A Nishizumi should never retreat or fall back. And a Nishizumi should certainly never so blatantly show her emotions, when they made her look so...

Sucking in a calming breath, Erika cut her mental tirade off.

She isn't a Nishizumi any more, is she? Was she ever?

"Itsumi-san?" Miho's cracked voice echoed in Erika's ears, sounding more downtrodden than it ever had...other than the last time she had seen the girl.

Not a good reminder, that.

"Why are you just standing there, acting like you've seen a ghost?" Erika couldn't help the snark, even smirking a tad as Miho flinched back from her. Really, the girl was just too easy to tease.

Miho could only seem to stare, her mouth working into a little frown. "W-why are you here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" The silver-haired girl rolled her eyes, her hands gesturing down on her new- uncomfortably revealing -uniform. "I followed you here, clearly. Now are you going to let me in, or do I need to ask you?"

It was a testament to long experience, that Miho didn't even question Erika. She just squeaked and moved out of the way, letting the taller girl into her apartment.

An apartment that was so quintessentially Miho Nishizumi that it almost made Erika sick. Pink everywhere and stuffed animals on every flat surface. It was almost sickeningly cute and cuddly. How this girl lived like this...

But then, would she want it any differently? Did she expect something like her co-former commander? No. Not really. The Nishizumi sisters were always polar opposites. Perhaps that just made it easier to understand how things had gone so wrong, because of her and Miho's stupid choice to save her. Now, how to make up for that?

"You know, I'm not really surprised your room looks like this." Erika spoke up, as Miho tried to slink past her quietly. All it succeeded in doing was having the girl flinch again. Sighing deeply, Erika stepped to the side and crossed her arms over her chest, a single eyebrow climbing up her forehead. "I'm not going to bite, you know."

If it had been anyone else, they probably would have had a snide comeback. Miho just looked away, her face flushed pink. "Sorry..."

I swear to...if I hear her say 'sorry' to me one more time, I'm slapping her again.

Calming herself, with great difficulty, Erika sat herself down on Miho's thin bed. "Whatever. Are you going to tell me everything this time, or are you going to lie to my face again, Vice-Commander?"

"I-I-" Miho stuttered, her bag falling from limp hands to the floor. A piece of paper with a prominent Sensha-do elective on the very top. "What are you talking about, Itsumi-san?"

"Deep breaths, Erika. Deep breaths." Muttering under her breath, the silver-haired girl reached out and grabbed Miho's arm. Dragging the girl down onto the bed next to her, where she couldn't possibly escape.

Miho's resulting eep of alarm did her no good, as Erika turned her around to stare directly into her eyes. Even with that, the girl tried her damndest to look anywhere but into the silver eyes that were observing her so intently. Her brown-ish red hair covering them. Her head tilting to the side. Her voice shaking as she struggled to get a word out.

Dear god was this girl a wreck.

"Fine then." Erika grumbled, releasing her grip on Miho. Turning to lean back against the wall, while the other girl scuttled away from her, Erika let out a deep sigh. "I'll tell you why I'm here, then. I expect an answer when I'm done."

Kuromorimine, the previous week

What a pitiful girl! Pathetic! Is she seriously leaving all of us, after one mistake? Is she that afraid of looking everyone in the eyes?

It had been over a day since she had last seen Miho Nishizumi, and yet still, Erika couldn't stop the raging inferno of her anger. That girl...that girl had gotten under her skin like no one else ever had. From the moment she had met her and seen her given command right under The Commander, Erika had always considered Miho weak. Inexperienced. Completely incapable of leading in the Nishizumi Style. Any number of other things.

The point was, the girl was nothing like her sister or mother. And to Erika, who idolized Maho Nishizumi, it made the younger sibling weak. And yet, and yet, for all of that?

She had thought they were comrades after the battle with Continuation. Even, perhaps, friends. That battle had shown her that, with the right push, Miho was an excellent commander all on her own. She was just too soft. Erika had finally understood what The Commander had been telling her, all along. It only made her that much more angry, when she had up and left.

"Goddamnit!" Erika slammed a hand into the wall next to her, not even caring if anyone heard her. Her teeth ground together, and she felt an annoying stinging in her eyes. "Was all that talk about 'friends' and 'helping each other' just an act? Are you that scared of facing everyone, Miho?"

There was no answer. Miho was gone, and she had taken the heart out of the team with her. For all of her many flaws, that had always been true...Miho was the one that people went to when they needed someone. Miho was the one that everyone knew would let them cry on her shoulder. The one who showed how she cared about them.

"I hate this," not even noticing her throbbing hand, Erika turned on her heel and walked towards the tank sheds. There was someone she needed to see.

Someone who looked up at her, the moment she entered the room. A fuzzy haired girl, who had been Miho's long time friend...and Erika's gunner. A girl who stared at her, with sweat running down her brow. If the tools beside her were any indication, she had been fixing a Panther damaged in the match with Pravda. Akaboshi was no engineer or mechanic.

Damn it all to hell, was everyone trying to do something different now?

"Commander?" Akaboshi's soft voice echoed in the annoyingly silent maintenance shed. "Why are you in here?"

Erika grunted in a fair bit of annoyance, "I can go wherever I want, Akaboshi. I'm amazed you are still here. Everyone else left."

The girl shrugged, a soft smile crossing her face. "Even Miho...yeah. That's why I haven't left, and I think it's why you're still here too. Right?"

Those words served to bring Erika up short. Her boots clacked against one last floorboard, as she stopped dead. Her grey eyes narrowed to flints, a glare already directed at her former crewmate. How did she...?

"Miho saved us all." Akaboshi was used to her glares. She didn't even flinch, as she turned a bright grin over towards her former commander. "Way I see it, the least I can do to make up for that is to stay. Miho gave us everything, and I want to make sure that wasn't a waste. Plus..."

Here, the girl set her tools down, and patted the Panther gently. A soft smile replacing her bright grin, while her hand ran across the dull yellow paint of the medium tank.

"I want to do sensha-do with Miho again, someday. I can't do that if I leave here, you know?"

To be honest, Erika wanted to snipe at her about that. But she couldn't. Damn her, but she couldn't. Miho, foolish girl that she was, had saved them all. Erika knew the odds of surviving in that tank were pretty low...the water pressure would keep the hatch shut, and the tank would leak until they all drowned or ran out of air. If Miho hadn't-

Resisting the urge to shake her head, Erika instead just...waved a hand at her former gunner. "Yeah, yeah. You're too happy, you know that?"

Akaboshi blinked, and opened her mouth to probably ask what she meant. Erika didn't give her much of a chance, settling instead for leaving and heading back to her dorm. She had a lot to think about now.

If nothing else, there was a strength to that silly girl's words. A strength that was different from the one Erika had known her whole life. But strength nonetheless. And, well, she needed to think about what she had said to Miho. She had yelled and screamed at her, because it was all she knew how to do. She was never good at the huggy-feely stuff. Miho had looked broken, and Erika had probably only made it worse. The girl lost them the match, but she saved her life, and Erika repaid it by being a bitch to her.

Good job, there, wasn't it?

Alright, maybe I was wrong to act like that. Still, you would think that she understands the Nishizumi school...leave us, finish the match, and then save us.

Even as she was thinking that, Erika was walking on autopilot down a hallway at the school. Her room wasn't that far away from the tank sheds, and most of the school was still mourning the loss.

"Watch it!"

Except, apparently, for one girl who nearly ran into her. Erika turned her grey eyes up, staring down on a shorter girl. The redhead wasn't exactly familiar to her, but Kuromorimine was massive...she didn't know everyone on the ship or in the school. This girl, on the other hand, clearly knew her. Considering she backed up and bowed her head sharply.

"I'm sorry, Itsumi-san! I didn't realize who you were!" The redhead barked out, refusing to look up.

Erika just blinked slowly. "Right...where were you going in such a hurry?"

"Oh! I was going to let everyone know the news!" The way the girl spoke that had Erika staring harder. There was a cheer in her voice that was completely at contrast with how the rest of the school felt.

Who in their right mind was cheerful when they just came off losing a chance at a decade-long streak in the Nationals? So the obvious question was, "What news?"

With a grin on her face, the redhead leaned forward. Almost conspiratorially, like it was some big secret. "I heard that the Principal disowned the old Vice-Commander. She was so angry at what that girl did, that she cut her right out of the line of succession! I bet she ran away with her tail between her legs, the idiot."

What. What. What.

Feeling her heart stop, Erika slowly reached her hands up, and clasped the girl on the shoulders. She didn't notice her wince, or that the grip on the girl tightened. She just leaned forward, ever so slowly, and ground out. "What did you say?"

"That the idiot who lost us the match was disowned?" Credit where it was due, the redhead didn't back away. She did gulp, however, at the look on Erika's face. "Come on, Itsumi-san. Aren't you happy? Because she went back for you we lost!"

Erika was not happy, as a matter of fact. She didn't tell the girl that, instead letting her go and charging off to find The Commander. If anyone would know the truth of what happened, it was Maho Nishizumi.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It didn't take Erika much time to track her Commander down. Maho wasn't exactly making it hard, with the way she was standing outside Miho's old room. If it were anyone else, she probably would have had a sad or contemplative expression on her face. The Commander? She didn't show any emotion at all. For all Erika could see, she would look the same at this room as a particularly interesting insect she stepped on. Why?

I've seen her with Miho before. She doesn't act like this.

"Commander?" Erika called out, breathing a bit heavily as she jogged up to the older girl.

Maho twisted her head slightly, still not showing a shred of emotion. "Hm? Itsumi?"

It would take a strong person to not flinch back slightly at Maho's words. Erika liked to think she was strong enough, as she squared her shoulders and walked up to The Commander. Her gaze held Maho's. The Commander's held her.

She wouldn't back down. She couldn't.

"Commander," repeating the title, Erika straightened her body out. Now or never... "What happened to the Vice-Commander? A girl I ran into said that she was-"

"Disowned." Maho cut the younger girl off, raising a single eyebrow. "That is what you wanted to ask, correct?"

It couldn't be true. Why would...

"But why, Commander?!" Erika didn't notice that she was acting out of order. Nor did Maho seem to care about it-about anything at all. "I know she made a mistake, and she should have been punished for that. Forcing her out of the team, out of the school, out of your family..."

"The Nishizumi School allows for no weaknesses. Miho knew this, and she still went against everything she learned."

Show some emotion! Something!

Maho didn't acknowledge Erika's internal cry, continuing like she was talking about nothing more interesting than the weather. "Mother made the decision to punish her by removing her from the line of succession in the family. She may keep the Nishizumi name, and Mother will continue to financially support her until she is out of school. However, she may not return to Kuromorimine and has lost the right to the Nishizumi style."

As Maho stood there and calmly laid out why her sister had everything taken away from her without showing a hint of emotion, Erika felt something inside her shatter.

The Nishizumi Style is about strength. Never retreat, never back down, always advance. Heavy firepower and heavy armor to defeat the enemy in detail. Weakness was to be removed, and hesitation anathema to the doctrine. If you couldn't keep up, you didn't belong. If you failed, you were to be punished for harming the rest of the team. There was no room for errors, hesitation, caring, or anything but strength and determination.

That was the Nishizumi Style that Erika had always idolized.

And now, I see it being used to remove a girl from her family because she saved my life. How pathetic am I...

More importantly, how did I not see this before? Miho...how much of her leaving was her own choice? Is this the Kuromorimine that I wanted to be at, so badly? Can I-can I actually understand why she left?

"Th-thank you, Commander." Erika snapped off a salute, hiding what she felt deep down. Maho saw right through her. "You've given me a lot to think about."

Without another word, Erika ducked into her own room, and shut the door behind her. She didn't notice the single tear roll down Maho Nishizumi's cheek, as her eyes drifted to her sister's dorm.

With a melancholic sigh, Erika fell back against the wall. Miho was staring at her with wide eyes...but at least she wasn't running away this time. It was an improvement?

"Well, now you know why I'm here." Erika grumbled, refusing to show weakness in front of this girl. Instead, she turned on Miho and dared the girl to say anything. Or, rather, anything other than an answer to a very specific question. "Why are you here?"

"Itsumi-san..." Miho whispered that name, her eyes still refusing to meet Erika's gaze. "I-I didn't lie, to you. I really did want out of sensha-do. I can't...I can't take it anymore!"

Erika didn't even hesitate, "Lies. I know how much you enjoyed what you did, even with The Commander and I pushing you so hard."

"But I can't..."

"Yes you can, damnit!" Erika snapped, refusing to let Miho fall into a spiral of depression again. Her voice softened, ever so slightly, when she continued. "You can command very well, Miho. Maybe not as well as your sister, or mother, but very well. Everyone hated that you left."

Well, everyone but that girl and her friends. But she doesn't need to know that, now does she?

Miho shook her head, "I only lost..."

Erika, frankly, didn't know what to say. Miho had convinced herself that she was horrible at the sport, because her mother told her. Because her sister didn't stand up for her. How in the world had she missed this? It wasn't like Miho hid it, not really. Erika knew from the start that she didn't think she was good enough. Hell, she had let Erika win their first match because Miho was convinced she wasn't right for the Vice-Commander position. What a stupid, pathetic, excuse for...

Here to help, Erika. Here to help.

Sighing softly, Erika forced herself to moderate her tone. And soften her grey-eyed gaze. "Look, Miho, you're too hard on yourself. But if you really don't want to do this, no one can force you to. I know this school restarted their team, but if they need someone, I can do it. Still, I don't want you to give up on your dreams that easily."

Despite herself, a small smile crossed Erika's lips. As she remembered the first days of middle school.

"Man, I was so stupid to think I could ever give this up...I love it too much. Don't do that to yourself, alright?"

If Erika was expecting a response, she wouldn't get one. Miho had grabbed onto her shoulder, and pulled herself tight against the taller girl. Her face was buried in Erika's arm, tears wetting her uniform.

And, where that would normally have her fly into a rage, Erika just sighed and let Miho get out what she needed to do. She had come all this way to make sure the girl next to her had a friend she could count on, and she wasn't going to leave that easily.

No matter what.

Yeah. This is a thing.

Mind you, this comes about for two reasons:

1. Watching the first part of das Finale

2. Finding an old file on my computer.

This is, by the way, not said old file. I did have 15k or so words written of that one, then it was pointed out to me that Erika going to Ooarai (which is actually pretty popular in fanart, if not the English fanfic community) could be an interesting idea. I decided to read her spinoff manga (Phase: Erika, just ended recently) and...yeah. The last two chapters in that, and especially the last chapter, make a situation where I could see her going after Miho with the right push.

In this case, having her mother a bit more of a bitch than usual, and adapting the LN!Erika in. In the light novel version of the series, Erika was in the Panzer III that nearly drowned. As such...we have that here.

Combined, it's enough of a push with her Phase characterization to have her do this. That, and I'm letting my inner crack shipper out. (and doing a pun for the title)

Also, as for Miho, let's remember how much of a wreck she was in the first episode and then up that because of the different situation. She's still mostly in character.

(now, to see if this gets any interest)