AN: This story is by, and for, the fans of Girls und Panzer who aren't military otaku.
"Move in for a spike, and don't let them see where your eyes are going," said Noriko. "We can't get weak."
"Right! Let's go Ooarai!" saluted her teammates.
The Ooarai Volleyball Club was having an exhibition match today. The four members of the almost defunct club were playing against each other, knocking the ball back and forth for the other students. The volleyball court had been cleaned up earlier that afternoon with permission from the student council. Ooarai would be saved soon enough, and after that, the students would be free to return to whatever electives they wished.
Noriko had invited Miho and her friends out to the match. Miho, Saori and Hana were paying close attention to the game. Miho wasn't familiar with the rules of volleyball, but the speed and the passion of the players as their hands made contact with the ball, sending it soaring over the net and towards the opponent's side, was exciting.
"Who's winning?" asked Miho.
"Isobe's side, but it's a close match. If they win this next set, they can win the whole thing. Isobe's a bit on the short side, so it's tough for her to reach the ball sometimes," said Saori. She reached down and petted the black hair flowing down the side of her legs. A sleepy Mako rested her head in Saori's skit, mumbling something being a nun.
"Volleyball is an elegant sport, but the only version I've ever heard of is the beach kind," said Hana. "Do we have a beach volleyball club, too?"
"I think that club was absorbed into the current volleyball one," said Miho. "Does anyone know where Yukari is?"
Yukari was camping out under the bleachers with a pair of binoculars, observing the team at a closer distance than any of them were. The sunlight beaming down onto the deck of the ship illuminated the opposite side of the bleachers. Anyone who walked past would've seen Yukari's legs, clad in a greek skirt, shaking from side to side as she watched the volleyball club with a detective-like curiousness.
"So that's where they get their skills from," said Yukari, her voice echoing off the metal frame, "They're probably the most physically active people in this school. I wonder what's in those volleyball outfits that keeps their stamina going."
"Yukari, get out from under there," said Saori.
"Be quiet, I'm trying to sleep," snapped Mako, her eyelids fluttering up and down drowsily. "Wake me up when the game's over."
Now that Yukari had mentioned it, Miho could see how important their clothes were to the game. Sweat dripped off their bodies, making their volleyball outfits cling close to their athletic forms. Their smooth skin, lines of sweat visible on it even from this distance, had a light tan color to it that nobody on Team Anglerfish possessed.
The exhibition match drew to a close. Noriko's team had won, but just barely.
Team Anglerfish entered the locker room. The volleyball team had invited them in to talk about upcoming strategies, but as of right now, they were showering together and discussing amongst themselves. Miho and her friends sat down on the cold benches and listened to the hum of the air conditioner. In this stillness, they could faintly feel the ship sailing along the waves beneath them, but even then, it was barely noticeable.
They found their personal lockers for PE class. Miho opened hers up and revealed she had been storing a few sports drinks inside. The brightly colored, sugary drinks were passed around. The sounds of caps popping off filled the room. The cold air and the cold drinks were refreshing. Even to those who weren't playing a game, it was the middle of summer, and a large hunk of steel like Ooarai Academy was bound to get hot.
Miho gathered up the empty plastic bottles and set off towards the garbage can. A vent on the floor of the locker room, one of many to keep air circulating through the ship, was directly beneath her. She didn't notice the warm blast until she was standing directly over it. Mako turned her half-awake gaze towards Miho, and opened her eyes in an instant.
The cuff of Miho's skirt was caught on the upward breeze. She dropped the plastic bottles from her hands. One of them lazily rolled into the trash while the others scattered across the floor. The back of Miho's skirt flared up, exposing her panties to her teammates.
They were a pair of hip-hugging panties, light blue in color, with a printed cartoon image of a battle-damaged pair across the gap of her buttocks. Miho flushed bright red and tried to push down on her skirt, but the intensity of the vent only caused her skirt to flair up further. She stepped out and turned around to face her friends, whispering something under her breath.
"They saw it... they saw it..." she said.
"It's a bear," Mako said bluntly.
"Where did you get panties like that?" asked Yukari, "I know you had all those teddy bears in your room, but I never thought to bring it up."
"Those are from my sis," said Miho. "The Nishizumi style is a tough upbringing, so whenever I got through training, Maho would get me a Battle Bear. Eventually I started collecting them on my own before I transferred out of Black Forest. She got me the panties, too. As a birthday present."
"I know that toyline," said Saori. "That's a spinoff of the Entrail Animals, isn't it? They were a bit of a fad when we were younger. Let me see them again!"
Saori grabbed Miho underneath her arms and lifted her off the bench. She flipped up Miho's skirt, once again exposing the animal-print underpants. "They're so cute!" Saori said. "They really fit you!"
"Thanks?" said Miho confusedly.
"There are lots of boys who'd be interested in something like that. The Battle Bears must be like lucky panties to you. You know, for a date," said Saori. "I'm wearing a pair right now."
"Saori, are you sure you should be doing this?" asked Hana, putting one hand on her friend's shoulder.
"We're all girls, and we've already seen each other naked," said Saori. "I don't see what the harm is. Ta-da! Sexy-cute!" Saori lifted up the edges of her skirt, revealing a pair of bikini-cut panties in alternating white and light blue stripes. "These are all the rage among the boys."
"What makes these particular panties any luckier than the kind you normally wear?" asked Hana. "Confidence is something that has to come from within, not from a pair of fabric."
Saori spun around and showed the front of the panties. They dipped in, revealing enough skin to tease what might lie beyond the cotton border, but also not enough that it would violate broadcast standards for the tournament. "These are for what comes after," said Saori.
"You've never actually gone on a date, how could you be mentally prepared for what comes after?" asked Mako.
"All the magazines I've read can't be wrong," said Saori.
Hana unclipped the side of her skirt and folded it up neatly. She placed it on the bench and let the cool air blow past her. "In my house, when traditional clothing is worn, we don't often wear panties or a bra, but when in public, the Isuzu family prides itself on the best," said Hana. "This is my style, like the delicate petals of a flower blooming beneath my waist."
"That's unusually dirty for you," said Yukari, rubbing her elbow up against Hana. She looked downward and took a step back.
Hana had donned tanga-style panties made of black lace. The contours of her hips were visible, thin and white and smooth, the very essence of a Japanese lady. The faint smell of iron and sweat could be detected, but it did nothing to downplay the refined image of beauty projecting from their teammate. Saori and Yukari reached out and grabbed the edges of Hana's panties, feeling up the stitches of the lace between their fingers.
"The texture's amazing," said Saori.
"Do those get good ventilation?" asked Miho. "I wouldn't want you to be stuffy while you're wearing black in the sun."
"They have enough breathing room," said Hana. "I would never wear something saggy, but these fit around my waist just fine. You're all welcome to use my personal tailor. After we win, of course."
"My turn!" Yukari said. She stripped off her entire school uniform, standing there in her underwear. "I've been practicing changing rapidly every morning." Mako continued resting on the bench, not paying attention to any of this.
Yukari's outfit could only be worn by someone like Yukari. A pair of boyshorts made of a sturdy but flexible fabric and a sports bra made of the same, both in camo patterns. Yukari put her hands to her hips and posed proudly. "These can endure anything. I have them in desert, city and tundra, too."
"Do you have anything not in camo?" Miho asked.
"Why would I need anything else?" Yukari asked.
"Yukari..." Hana said politely. "What if you had to go out in public like that? If there was an emergency and your clothes were still in the wash?"
"That sounds like a bad dream," said Saori.
Mako twitched in her sleep, brushing her leg against one of the lockers with a loud clang that reverberated for a few minutes, drowning out Yukari's voice. Miho asked her to repeat what she had just said.
"They're not panties, so it's not embarrassing!" Yukari said.
"I thought you were going to wear a thong," said Saori. She had read in the history books how that had been a preferred style at a girls' school in the past.
Yukari put one leg on Mako's back and placed her elbow on her knee. "I might be interested in one of those, but the string digging into my ass would make it tough to focus. I like these because they're easy to slip off. You don't want to end up like the bugle girl."
Ooarai's brass band had played at many of the school's events, but the bugler's incident was one whispered of around the school. There were rumors that she had since transferred to Amanohara Academy, but these were unsubstantiated.
Yukari kept rubbing her foot on Mako's back, inching slowly towards the hem of her skirt. This was enough to rouse the slumbering genius from her rest, at which point she bucked Yukari off. Yukari landed on her hands, giving a thumbs up on her descent. Mako brushed her skirt, and, for a moment, lifted it up to reveal her own set of panties.
The ever eagle-eyed Hana caught a glimpse of them, and seized Mako's hands. She flipped over Mako's skirt, exposing her white panties. They were the most basic, generic panties one could find, but against Mako's white skin, they exuded a sense of grace. They were freshly pressed and smelled like they had just come out of the laundry, once the girls got past the stink of sweat on their bodies.
"Get your hands off my panties," Mako said. "What's with all the looks?"
"They're very... plain," said Saori. "Are you even trying?"
"It's about comfort, not style," said Mako. "Nobody's going to see them, anyway."
Saori pulled off Mako's skirt. "Not if you keep wearing your skirt like that!" Mako retaliated and grabbed Saori's breast. She squeezed the soft flesh between her palm, feeling the texture of Saori's bra through her fingers.
"Mako, if you keep rubbing them, they'll get bigger!" said Miho.
"Isn't that just gossip?" asked Mako, continuing to massage Saori's chest.
Saori's face flushed bright red. Mako's grip was tight. She tried to pull the hand off her uniform, but her own hands were sticky with sweat, and slipped off Saori's arm. Saori got a glance down at Mako's panties, and noticed something sticking out that she hadn't seen on anyone else. A few strands of black hair, looking almost like they were blurred out against the white, were poking out of the band of Mako's underwear.
"What are you looking at?" asked Mako.
Everyone looked away. The four of them spoke in unison, reading each others' minds. "It's very Mako-like."
Miho broke the silence. "I thought I noticed when we were changing into the anglerfish outfits. For the festival," she said meekly. "Those outfits were embarrassing. We weren't wearing anything underneath, so my body smelled like rubber for a few days. What if somebody saw me getting tense because I was nervous?"
"All that sweat and rubber was uncomfortable," said Saori, "If you're going to attend a festival, you should be wearing one of those kimonos."
"You don't wear underwear with those, either," said Yukari. "Japan's pretty amazing, isn't it?"
Hana put her hand to her chin and glanced down Yukari's body. "What do you do when it's that time of the month? Those kinds of panties don't look like they'd be able to hold much."
"I don't use that method," said Yukari. "Compared to the stuff you do in a match, that kind of pain is nothing." She nodded happily.
"There is one thing I've been wondering," said Miho. "Every time we go ashore, I end up losing a pair of my panties in the wash. Panties aren't like socks, so where are they going? Are they getting mixed in with the other girls' laundry?"
"There's a thought," said Hana. "Maybe one of the girls at Saunders is wearing a pair that once belonged to you. It's camaraderie."
"I was really hoping that didn't extend below the waist," said Miho. Hana comforted her by giving Miho a hug. The girls felt the winds of the locker room blow through their skirts, which none of them were wearing by this point.
The sound of rushing water in the background slowed to a halt, and Noriko stepped out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel. She saw Team Anglerfish sitting there, touching each other around their legs and exposing their many varieties of underwear in her line of sight.
"Exterminate with great speed!" said Noriko. She pointed her finger at the girls, focusing her attention on Saori in particular.
"Isobe, what was it you wanted to talk to us about?" asked Yukari.
"It was about sports drinks... but put some clothes on already!" said Noriko. "As the leader of the volleyball club, this locker room belongs to me!"
Isobe started chasing Yukari playfully around the room. Miho felt better when she saw this, and cracked a joyous smile. The dog days of summer upon the open sea would continue, but next time they made port, Miho would invest in a pair of bloomers.