"Everything will be alright.", Ina reassured herself. "It can't be that bad, can it? It's just my first day at high school."

Ina was very anxious about going to high school, even if she tried to convince herself she wasn't. It was the first time she was at a school this big, being born in a small town in central Honshu.

It also was her first time on a carrier, which only made it more uncomfortable for her. She was not used to the waves, the subtle rocking of the ship's hull and the fresh air filled with thousands of birds, flying around.

She kept thinking about it while walking to Ishikuma Special Girls' High School, her new high school.

However, it was not a "normal" high school. It was a special ed. school, for adolescents with mental handicaps. It would give more support to the children, often catered to their specific needs, in order to have them reach the same standard of other children, and often even higher ones.

Five years ago, Ina had been diagnosed with Asperger's Disorder, a lighter variant of autism. She was glad to go to a school that had extra support for her and could help her reach her fullest potential, something that other high schools would not be capable and experienced enough to do. Her needs were too different than the ones of any other student.

She stopped walking all of a sudden. A thought had popped up in her mind. "I forgot my ball at home.". Ina stood still, not moving an inch, and started thinking about what she would do. If she went back home to get her "ball", that being her stim toy, she would be too late for the introduction. That would be unacceptable. She couldn't be late for the first day of school! But she knew that she would be so anxious that she would need it.

More thoughts: "You're such an idiot, such a stupid, stupid little girl."

Those had been words said by one of the bullies at her old school. More and more memories returned from back then, from the years of bullying she had endured. These words created little holes in what her mom called "The bowl of hope and happiness". Through the years there had been so many holes created, it was more like a colander.

Any hope or happiness that entered would leave it immediately, through the "holes". It was how her mother tried to explain the depression Ina had. As she remembered more and more things, anxiety started to build. She couldn't handle it anymore. She wanted to go home, but also wanted to continue going to school. She was completely overwhelmed with thoughts and fear of the consequences. Either be late for school, be frowned upon, insulted and bullied like she had been for years, or stay like this all day without her stim toy.

"Ina!",

Ina heard someone call her name, and was startled. She tried to hide her tears. "What happened? Are you alright?".

Ina was too scared to respond, but made a futile attempt to do so anyways. "I- I'm al... alright."

She then looked to the ground, trying to avoid eye contact. She didn't want to interact with anyone at the moment.

The girl then crouched in front of her, trying to get below her face and be able to look her in the eyes. It was her older sister, Satomi, is a third-year student at Ishikuma High.

"I noticed you left your stim toy at the table after breakfast, and wanted to catch up with you before you were at school."

Satomi opened her hand and put the toy in it. "I thought you would need it today."

Ina, stuttering a bit less now, responded with a slight smile of relief. "Th- thank you, Satomi-chan".

She grabbed her handkerchief and wiped away some of her tears, despite looking like she had cried, and walked towards her new school with Satomi.

Ina explained what had happened, and thanked Satomi again for bringing it. Maybe she was worrying a bit too much about it. If anything happened she could always fall back on her sister. They arrived just in time.

She sighed. Now it was time to meet everyone, the student council, her neighbors and everyone. So many new people, everything was different. She was scared thinking about it. Her life would be so different. Everything. Anxiety grew again, and she started using her stim toy.

She walked into the main hall of the school, where two hundred seats were placed. She noticed it was in ten rows of twenty, but most seats in front being occupied, she sat down somewhere on the ninth row, counting from the front.

After some time of introductions, names she forgot almost immediately, the keys were distributed: she would be in campus nine, room seven. She looked around, and counted the seats. She sat in the ninth row, on the seventh seat, going from left to right. It was an interesting coincidence.

But also the fourteenth seat, if you went from right to left. And the second row counting from the back. It seemed to only be coincidence if you looked at it a certain way.

There were ten campuses with twenty rooms each; at least for the first years. Each campus also formed a class; a class in which she would follow most of the mandatory subjects. The classes were smaller than in other Japanese schools; this allowed for greater support to individual students.

But other than the mandatory classes, you also had to join a club. There were many, but one in particular interested her; Sensha-dou. The art of tankery. She had loved tanks since she was a little kid, the mechanics, how the tanks worked, how many different kinds there were; it was her special interest. She knew everything there was about tanks. Names, designers and design dates, variants and the differences between them. It was clear she would join the Sensha-dou club.

Every campus also had a couple of mental health experts. After the instructions, Ina had to follow them. They would show her the way to her campus, her new home. She would be alone for the very first time. She would have to become independent. However, she would get support at first with that. They would teach her new things, help her as much as possible, and then slowly help her less and less, until she could do it alone. It was standard practice for dealing with students who have Asperger's Syndrome.

After 10 minutes of walking, the group arrived at Campus 9, and were shown around by the mental health experts. It was shaped like a square, surrounded by walls. But the walls were the rooms. Twenty-four in total, despite the campus only having twenty rooms. She thought it was odd, but during the tour it became clear these were the offices of the mental health team.

The first thing Ina did after the tour, was go to her room. She wanted to know how it looked.

Ina grabbed the key, put it in the lock and turned it to the right. Click. And the door was now unlocked. Anxiety was growing again. She paused for a dozen of seconds, took a deep breath, and then entered the room.

She saw a lot of things. A kitchen, a bed, all sorts of counters, boxes which held her things and a pen on a table, next to a pile of papers. She walked over to the table, sat down on a chair and started reading the papers. It was a bunch of information, most importantly her timetable and a form. On the form, she had to enter which club she wanted to join. Without a second of thought, she chose Sensha-dou.

Then, she had to unpack. She didn't know how to do so. There were three boxes. But with which one should she start? Where did she have to put her stuff? So many questions, so little answers. Anxiety started building up again. She didn't know what to do. She started stimming. Rocking her leg, biting her nails, squeezing her ball. And then…

Knock knock.

Someone knocked on her door. What to do? She didn't know who it was. Should she open the door? Should she act like she's not here? No, they know she is here. She has to open the door.

Ina stood up, still squeezing her ball, and walked over to the door. After taking a deep breath, she opened it, and looked who was there.

It was Satomi. She was relieved it was just her sister.

"Hey Ina! Is it a problem if I help you unpack?", Satomi asked.

Ina was still anxious, but she shook her head positively.

"Ah, great!", within seconds, Satomi was inside and walked over to the nearest box and opened it.

"It seems like you didn't do anything for this past hour. Are you sure that you're alright?", Satomi asked.

"Hour? It has been an hour already?" Ina couldn't believe that she had been stimming for that long.

"Yes, I was just thinking about what club to join." Ina quickly responded, and joined Satomi in emptying the first box.

After another thirty minutes of work, all the boxes had been emptied. Satomi sat down on Ina's bed.

"What now. Do I offer her a drink? Is that appropriate? Or do I just sit down next to her?" Ina thought.
After a couple seconds of thinking, she chose the former.

"Would you like a drink?", Ina asked her sister.

Satomi accepted her offer. "Yes, I'd like a glass of water."

Ina prepared two drinks; one for her sister and one for herself. She sat down next to Satomi. They drank and talked a bit. It was mostly listening to her sister talking about how much she loved the school, and how she hoped that Ina would spend time with her now that they're finally together again.

She then asked: "What club are you going to join?"

Ina tried to respond, but was cut off by her sister before she could do so. "I know already, you're going to do Sensha-dou!"

Satomi knew her little sister too well.

"So we'll be together!" Satomi looked really excited. She had missed Ina, it seemed.

Knock knock.

Ina was startled by the sound. She quickly walked over to the door, and opened. It was her psychologist.

"We are assembling in the square in five minutes." The psychologist then walked on, to the next door. Satomi excused herself and rushed back to her campus. She would have to assemble too, it seemed.

Ina went to the square. The mental health team was offering a lunch to the new students. After eating some delicious soup, the team had to do another thing; meetings with the students. They would have a fifteen minute talk with every single one of the students. When the last one had had her meeting, they would help the students gather ingredients for dinner and cook it.

Ina was the seventh student to have her meeting. It was nothing out of the ordinary: just meeting the psychologists, with everyone telling a little bit about themselves. It was over fairly quickly. Then, she had over three hours until they would do anything else. Three hours. Ina didn't know what she could do. After some thinking, she decided to go exploring the school. Maybe she'd find something interesting.

After 30 minutes of looking around, Ina found it. The Sensha-dou club. She saw tanks. A KV-1, BT-7, Panzer II Ausf. H., Ram II, and a SU-122. A diverse range of tanks for sure. A heavy tank, a medium tank, two light tanks and a SPG. She walked around, in amazement. Then she opened the cupola of the KV-1 and sat down in it. Her favourite tank. A Russian heavy tank, so strong that no German panzer could penetrate it for 2 years. It was one of the best tanks of the war. She could go on about it for hours. She looked around more. She found pictures, pictures of teams, of battles. She was completely absorbed. Before she knew it, it started to get late. She would have to go back to the campus, as much as it would disappoint her to leave this place. But she'd be back.

It was evening. Ina just had eaten her dinner. The time was 7 PM, so she would have 3 hours before the lights would have to be turned off. She didn't know what to do next. She could go back to the tanks, but was tired. It had been a long day. On the other hand, she could go to bed early, but that would mean she'd only wake up earlier the next day.

Ina grabbed a notebook and started drawing. Drawing tanks, formations, tactics. Soon it was 10 PM. She'd have to stop drawing. With nothing to do, Ina showered and went to bed. It had been a long day for her. Tomorrow, school would start, and she would need to be well rested for that.