Girls Und Panzer: St. Casimir's Academy for Girls
Episode 1, Part 1: Welcome to St. Casimir's!
"Almost.. got it.. there!" the girl said, squinting a bit as she adjusted her uniform's tie in the mirror.
The process of donning her new school uniform had been unduly prolonged by attempts to tie the western-style tie. Given that she regularly tied her chest length light brunette locks back with a seemingly copious length of cloth, it wasn't inexperience tying knots speaking. Even back in middle school she'd had to tie her neck scarf for her seifuku. This neck tie was different. Maddeningly so. When it seemed she had finally gotten it right, she leaned close to the mirror to check it yet again. Nothing looked out of place. A grin spread across her face and she clenched her fists victoriously.
"Victory!" she exclaimed, just before her expression changed from satisfied to one of great concern. This just as she realized at seeing her alarm clock reflected in that same mirror, "Ah! It's already ten minutes before class starts!"
She became a cyclone of activity as she tried to get everything together for school. Being late was the last thing that the girl – her name was Suzumi Maiko – wanted; her experiences with tardiness hadn't been terribly pleasant back at her last school. At least not during her elective class, where the team captain was liable to hand out strange punishment for such an infraction. Best not to think about her right now. Maiko threw on her khaki uniform jacket, grabbed her school bag and nearly knocked over some books and a framed picture in the process. At the moment the dorm room was all Maiko's, since her roommate had yet to move in. Or maybe she wouldn't have one at all. Right now all the girl cared about was hurrying off to make sure she wouldn't be counted as late.
Without a moment to spare she flung the solid wooden door open and hopped through before glancing back at her fox-shaped alarm clock. Maiko realized in horror that she only had seven minutes now. She unintentionally slammed the door hard, attracting strange looks from a few girls in the hallway. No time to dwell on that, though, and off Maiko went. The dorm building wasn't meant to house all the girls who attended St. Casamir's Academy for Girls and a good many lived off campus with their families. As her family worked on the mainland, Maiko was one of the exceptions that did use the dorms.
Maiko passed through the hallway, down the curved grand staircase and over the modest floral carpet out the front door. As she sprinted from the dorm to the the academy's main academic building her ponytail whipped around in the air behind her head. Just as she blew past the hall monitor stationed at the front of the building, Maiko stopped dead in her tracks. Did she go to her classroom? Wasn't there supposed to be an assembly? Yes, she was almost certain there was. While she changed direction to head for the gymnasium the hall monitor was approaching her with a very dissatisfied scowl. Before words could be exchanged Maiko was off again, knowing that she'd regret exerting herself like this so early in the morning.
Her chest was heaving by the time she reached the open door to the gymnasium. Another hall monitor was waiting beside it however, and blinked in surprise at Maiko's sudden arrival. The brunette transfer student wasn't sure why. Then this second hall monitor glanced down at the display on her cell phone and back up at Maiko. Believing she was late Maiko managed between deep breaths to look apologetic. Surprisingly the hall monitor just smiled at her and motioned to the door, indicating she should go in. At this stroke of luck Maiko headed in and found her way to a seat near the back of the gym floor.
Over the quiet chattering of the numerous teenage girls inside, she could swear she'd heard the girl at the door tell her, "One minute to spare, Georgy-chan."
That couldn't have been right. No one at St. Casamir's could know about that nickname, could they? Sure she had resigned herself to being called Georgy while she was at Pravda High School. A change of scenery had seemed likely to result in people referring to her by her real name. Her musings were interrupted by a spotlight being shone on the stage at the far end of the gym. In it stood a girl whose posture indicated an air of authority, as did the way she spoke. Most of it was formalities – welcoming the girls back for another year, introducing the student council and faculty – but then came a section on mandatory electives came up. Several of them had brief speeches by upperclassmen who'd participated in them, but when it came to senshadou a video screen was pulled down.
"Senshadou! An important part of our culture, practiced by girls the world over to hone their character.." the soft-spoken girl's voice accompanying the film proclaimed.
She'd seen this before and just had to smile. During her year at Pravda she'd eagerly joined their senshadou class in the hopes of making friends and finding a new hobby. Plus she'd secretly studied about the sport while in middle school. Not that anyone would have told her it was an unsuitable interest, but it was kind of old fashioned. Maiko really didn't want to look weird while trying to fit in with her classmates. A year later and she loved the whole thing so much that she'd resolved to join the team at St. Casamir's. There was just a thrill that came from riding around in an armored vehicle you couldn't get anywhere else.
When the film concluded, the girl who'd introduced herself as student council president announced, "For those of you interested in our senshadou program, we have some wonderful news: our new uniforms have just arrived. Behold!"
A second spotlight shined on a mannequin decked out in the new uniform, consisting of a khaki military style jacket with a high neck and gold trim, brown skirt and lace-up brown boots. It had a sleek cut to it that when mixed with the traditional military style looked surprisingly cute. Shrieks of joy and surprise rose up in a ruckus from the assembled girls, or a good number of them. Maiko could overhear comments about 'how cute' it was, or rumors that a fashion designer had been consulted on it, things like that. If that were true, Maiko thought, then the school put money into its senshadou program. That was absolutely fantastic! The assembly ended, girls headed to class and Maiko found herself eager to get back in a tank.
All through her other classes, she became increasingly excited about being part of her new school's tank team. Pravda had no small amount of money either, but it was nice to see that St. Casamir's seemed to take the sport seriously. She hadn't really thought of researching this school's program beyond finding out that it existed. Moving took a lot of her time up that could have been spent on such things. From everything she'd seen so far, that wouldn't be a problem. When finally the bell rang to indicate that her elective was the next class, Maiko was elated. It was time to meet the other tankers!
St. Casamir's kept its senshadou equipment behind the western-style school building, opposite the athletic fields. An extra large dirt space had been left to allow for some practice maneuvering the tanks, most likely. Maiko was convinced of that when she noticed some tread marks in the dirt as she walked towards her ultimate destination. Rising out of the ground before her was a long, tall cement building with tall hangar doors facing the dirt field. There appeared to be a number of girls out in front of this monolithic structure, talking excitedly to each other about the day so far, what they planned to do that evening, tanks and other topics of small talk. Being the new girl, Maiko didn't know anyone so she just smiled and waved at her classmates. They were nice enough to wave back and greet her, but they went back to their own conversations soon afterward.
Before she could speak to any of them, a tall girl with boyishly cut black hair announced, "Hello everyone! Welcome to St. Casamir's Academy for Girls' senshadou class. A lot of our team members were seniors last year, so let's do our best to pick up where they left off, okay? We'll be assigning teams in a few minutes, but first have a look at what we've got."
As she said this the doors were swung open, revealing the tanks inside along with maintenance equipment and other tankery paraphernalia. Following the other girls inside she noted that contrary to what she'd expected out of a school that seemed well off, there were only four tanks. A couple looked like light tanks unlikely to withstand much damage in a match against serious competition. Maybe they kept their other tanks somewhere else, or they were out on maneuvers? She stood there gawking in confusion at the mixed signals she was getting about her new school's tank program. Then there was a tap on her shoulder. Maiko jerked her head around to spot the culprit, and ended up having to look up a bit. It was that tall girl who'd spoken moments before.
"Hi Georgy," she greeted the brunette with a grin.
"Um.. excuse me, my name is Maiko," the transfer student tried to correct her.
"So you've decided to do senshadou, eh Georgy? I'm glad. Some of the girls over at Pravda told us all about you," the boyish girl continued on, totally ignoring Maiko's statement, "Happy to have another experienced girl around. You'll be a fine addition to the team. We might even make the nationals this year!"
"Th-they did?" Maiko began to respond to the first portion before asking, "Wait.. don't you just have to sign up for the nationals?"
"Exactly! You seem like the kind of girl who'll help us remember to file the paperwork," the girl continued to speak in her friendly tone, "I'm Tendo Minako, but everyone calls me 'Dabrowski'. I'm the captain of St. Casamir's senshadou team."
Maiko managed a smile, "Nice to meet you. My name is Suzumi Mai-"
"Georgy? Yes, yes, I know!" Dabrowski exclaimed, then put an arm around the shorter girl's shoulders and directed her attention to a shadowy corner of the cavernous building, "Now you've seen our PT-10, PT-14, Turan and Zrinyi II, but I think I know just the one for you, Georgy."
"A PT-10? You have a PT-10?" Maiko asked, not quite believing that the school would actually use the fast but poorly armed and armored tank in competition. Then she asked, "So the other tanks are out practicing, right?"
"Other tanks?" Dabrowski repeated, looking a little confused.
Maiko pressed, "You know, besides the ones in this building?"
Dabrowski laughed, "Oh, you're silly Georgy! This is it!"
"What?" the brunette blinked in shock. This wasn't good.
"We have a small team, but that means everyone can get to know each other better. Like a warm, cozy family atmosphere!" the captain explained, then indicated the shadows again, "We do have one more of course."
Maiko stared at the corner, not seeing anything for a moment other than a large dark mass that might be some monster hiding in the corner. It seemed ready to lunge out and consume her, a creature from her nightmares. But then she realized it was something covered in a tarp. A closer inspection revealed something metallic underneath, and Maiko couldn't help but get up close to satisfy her curiosity. There were treads, she could see that. Before she could carefully remove the tarp, Dabrowski flung it away with a dramatic gesture. Underneath the tarp, collecting dust and some rust was..
"A T-34/85?! You have a T-34/85?" Maiko asked in total shock.
"We do! We just haven't used it in a long time," was the matter-of-fact response, "It's been sitting in the garage here for at least.. oh, ten years or so."
Maiko slowly looked over at Dabrowski, eyes narrowed as she dubiously asked, "So you use the PT-10, but not the T-34... why would you do that?"
"Easy," the captain responded, patting the T-34 as she explained, "Nobody's sure how to operate it. The instruction manual is in Russian, and nobody here can read Cyrillic!"
"Uh... huh," Maiko answered, certain there had to be a Japanese manual somewhere. Like on the internet.
"So how's it look, commander? Think she can still run?" Dabrowski asked, now sounding genuinely curious.
"Well, it's all intact.. I'd have to clean it out a bit, but it should be usable," Maiko responded thoughtfully, then glanced back at her captain, "Wait, what do you mean 'commander'?"
"That's what I meant about this being just the one for you! You're the only one with any experience around a T-34, so you should command it," Dabrowski cheerfully informed the new girl.
Maiko stared at the grinning tomboy silently for a moment. When she spoke, she was pleading with the girl, "Wait, come on.. I was just the communications girl at Pravda! And our tank was knocked out first during our last match."
"Don't worry, Georgy! Everything will be fine!" Dabrowski gave the girl a pat on the shoulder and then wandered off to chat up some of the other girls.
With those words Georgy had been left to fend for herself with a T-34 that had been out of use nearly as long as she'd been alive. She'd fleetingly glanced back at Dabrowski hoping the captain would return to assist her. Or at least offer some advice. When the captain instead became occupied with assigning girls to tanks, Georgy had hoped maybe she'd get some help that way. None of the other girls was sent in her direction however. It was with a sigh that the transfer student had started to assess what maintenance her tank would need, and to begin that maintenance.
A couple of hours later and she had made her way inside the T-34 to clean up the surprisingly minimal rust and dust there. It was almost as if the tank had been cared for even without being used. Georgy had changed into the school's physical education uniform consisting of a t-shirt and shorts so that her regular uniform wouldn't get dirtied. In the process of retrieving her extra clothes she'd also grabbed a photograph, which had now been put in a visible slot near the commander's seat. The picture itself was of a brunette girl in a Pravda uniform whose expression was probably best described as stoic. For all intents and purposes it appeared to have been taken without the subject's knowledge.
"Now I've just got the driver's station to do," she thought aloud, then looked to the picture she'd brought along with and smiled, "Are you proud of me, vice-commander?"
As she slipped into the driver's seat Georgy began humming Katyusha cheerfully. It was the sort of tune that got stuck in your head easily, and having happy memories tied to it did nothing to lessen this effect. They were happy enough that the girl became lost in her work and happily scrubbed at the grime and dirt around her current seat. What seemed like just a few minutes passed by and finally she had the area cleaned to her satisfaction. Georgy didn't even notice the crunch of loose rocks (the dirt field wasn't entirely dirt) underfoot as someone approached the building.
Only when that someone called out, "Hello? Is somebody in there? I'm here for the senshadou class!"
Georgy was so surprised that she instinctively jerked her head up to scout out who was speaking. And promptly hit her head against the closed hatch with a heavy thud. She clutched her noggin in pain as she cursed her own stupidity for a moment. Then she scrambled up to the commander's position and opened the hatch. No need to repeat that incident in a different spot. As she rose out of the properly opened hatch she noticed the girl who'd called out. This newly arrived girl was a little shorter than Georgy, average build and auburn hair down to her shoulders.
"I knew I heard some humming!" the new girl exclaimed with satisfaction.
Maiko blinked in further surprise before commenting, "If you're here for the class, you're a little late. I think almost everyone's gone home."
The girl looked off to her left, then back at Maiko, "Yeah, there's only a few girls over there by the big long tank. They told me to come over to this one!"
"Oh? I guess you're in my crew then," Georgy shrugged, reasoning that Dabrowski had at last sent her someone.
"Really? This one looks really strong!" the redhead cheered as she proceeded to climb up onto the T-34 and look around, "I'm sure this is the thing I'm going to be awesome at!"
Georgy was starting to have a bad feeling about this as she remarked, "You're so confident.. have you done something with tanks before?"
"Never!" came the merry response as the newbie rapped her knuckles on the turret's steel.
"Not even once? So do you know anything about them?" the brunette transfer student asked as she climbed out of the tank.
"Well.. I know that they're loud, they're made of metal and that the student council told me I needed to pick an elective if I wanted to stay enrolled," the girl responded casually, now starting to peer into the hatch Georgy had emerged from, "So I picked this at random. But I'm sure it's destiny!"
"You.. picked senshadou at random? How is that destiny?" Georgy groaned. It was as bad as she'd started to fear.
"That's right!" the girl answered, voice echoing from inside the T-34 as her top half seemed to be swallowed by the hatch. Then she emerged herself with something in her hand: Georgy's photograph, "Who's this? Your girlfriend?"
"What? No! Of course not!" Georgy rushed to deny the inquiry, snapping the picture out of the stunned girl's hands.
"Really?" her new crew member probed, still looking a bit shocked.
"Yes," the appointed T-34 commander nodded, tucking the picture away so the girl wouldn't fixate on it.
"Georgy-san? Is everything all right?" asked a third girl, who'd approached the T-34 while the first two were speaking.
Both Georgy and the redhead gazed down to see whoever had spoken up. There just in front of the Russian-built tank was a small girl with glasses and her black hair in two braids. In her hand was a clipboard with a pencil attached by some string to a hole in the clip at its top. She looked a little timid but eager to help if she could. Georgy stiffened at being called by her nickname by yet another girl from the new school. Meanwhile the redhead's attention shifted to the gun protruding from the tank's turret.
Maiko "Georgy" Suzumi at last nodded, "I guess it's okay. Not like I expected to have a bunch of experienced teammates or anything."
"I see you've met Niitoki Kagura-san," the glasses girl told Maiko, checking something off on her clipboard before adding, "Dabrowski-dono has appointed me to this team as radio operator. My name is Hata Hikari. It's a pleasure to meet someone as talented as you, Georgy-san."
"Talented? Me? I guess I was okay on the radio, but I wouldn't say talented," Georgy answered, puzzled why this fairly normal seeming girl was complimenting her so.
Kagura interjected, "Hey, hey, I want to shoot the big gun! KA-POW!"
Meanwhile Hikari explained, "You're nicknamed after Marshal Zhukov, aren't you? Surely that means you possess great tactical ability."
"That's not really it at all," Georgy raised her hands defensively and shook her head. Oh the misconceptions!
"Then why does everyone call you that name, Georgy-san?" Hikari asked curiously, tucking the clipboard under her arm.
"I bet the tracks sound so cute when they clatter!" Kagura remarked, once again paying no attention to the conversation going on nearby.
"Um.. I'm getting a little hungry," Georgy answered, trying to deflect the question as she suggested, "How about we continue this over food? I think there's a tank cafe somewhere in the neighborhood."
"A cafe? I'm there!" Kagura responded first as she hopped down, grinning at the thought of a snack.
"That's fine with me," Hikari concurred.
Having postponed an answer for the moment Georgy climbed down and excused herself momentarily to change clothes. Embarrassing as the story of her nickname was, going into town in her dirty PE clothes was more so. Luckily there was an office in the corner of the building she was able to use for the purpose. This time she'd kept her tie knotted so that she could just loosen or tighten it as needed rather than try and tie it again. After emerging from the office, she rejoined Hikari and Kagura and headed out across the school grounds. They made small talk as they passed by the various campus buildings, trees and even a well maintained garden. It turned out Hikari had some knowledge of tanks after all, being the president of the school's Tank Appreciation Society club. That was a strange thing to have as a club activity, but it did give Georgy a little more confidence in her crew.
Just as the group stepped out the gate at the entrance of the school, they found themselves near a traffic intersection. This would have been uneventful had an oncoming car not decided to roll forward while at the same time a beaten up little truck had the right of way. It should have caused an accident. Instead the truck somehow managed to veer out of the way, brakes screeching as its rear end missed hitting a parked car by mere centimeters. The driver of the truck honked angrily while the driver of the sedan had hit the breaks and looked terrified. There was just enough time for the girls to notice that the driver of the truck was another girl about their age with black hair stuffed under a baseball cap. Georgy was struck by how pretty she looked, even when angry, but then dismissed the thought.
"That was close," Georgy spoke as the truck drove off, oddly in the same direction the cafe was supposed to be.
"She was awesome! I couldn't do that even in a video game," Kagura added, while Hikari remained thoughtfully silent.
With the day a little more complete having witnessed either a near accident or amazing feat of driving skill, the girls hastened themselves to the tank cafe. Its general direction had been known to Georgy, but Hikari turned out to know exactly where the establishment was located. From what little interaction they'd shared Georgy was already starting to appreciate the soft-spoken girl's presence. Sure she would have to figure out how to command a tank, keep Kagura focused on learning to fire the main gun and translate the instruction manual. Having one girl who did know something about tanks would ease the burden a bit.
The tank cafe itself was only about five blocks away from St. Casimir's main gate, tucked away just up a set of metal steps adjacent to a Family Mart. As if it weren't abundantly clear what the building atop those stairs was, there was a tank painted in the window. A cheery looking white cartoon eagle sat atop the tank, a cup of something nice and steamy clutched in its wing somehow. Peculiar, but everything else about senshadou here so far had been kind of strange. To add to the weirdness of her day, that beaten up little truck from earlier was parked on the street next to the cafe. Georgy just shrugged at this, figuring the girl who'd been driving it was stopping to look at a map or make a delivery.
As the trio opened the cafe door, it jangled; bells had been attached to the opposite side. Throughout the interior was a wide range of tank related decoration, ranging from promotional posters for senshadou to completed model kits and even a few autographed pictures of teams. About half of those weren't St. Casimir's team photos. There were a few other girls in the place, but this appeared to be a slower time of day for business. In addition there was music faintly playing from hidden speakers. Hikari looked thoughtful as the T-34 girls found their way to an empty booth.
"Ah! It's the Panzerlied!" the radio operator finally remarked, smiling a little for the first time, "I thought I recognized it."
"Who's a what now?" Kagura asked, completely confused.
"It's a song about tanks," Georgy explained, picking up a menu to scan her options.
"Oh," Kagura responded, taking a menu for herself while asking, "So what do we call ours? I like Tama-chan for it, personally."
When the other two just looked confused, Kagura rolled her eyes and elaborated, "What do we call our tank? It needs a name, doesn't it?"
"It's a T-34/85," Georgy said, blinking in astonishment at the strange suggestion her gunner had made.
"And what does that mean?" the redhead repeated.
"It means it's a T-34 tank with an 85 millimeter main gun," Hikari offered tentatively, "Would you like me to explain our tanks for you?"
"Sure," Kagura answered, nodding emphatically in an attempt to make it look like she completely understood what the radio operator had told her.
That smile was back on Hikari's face as she threw herself right into things with, "Well, we have two Polish tanks, including the 10TP which has a 37 millimeter main gun, two machine guns and can go up to 75 kilometers/hour. There's four people in the crew like a lot of other tanks, but it's faster than most.. but it doesn't have a lot of armor – it's thickest on the hull, at 20 millimeters."
Seeing that Kagura was going to have trouble processing this, Georgy translated, "So it's small and fast but can't take much damage in a match."
"Got it!" Kagura nodded eagerly, then remarked, "Oooh, they have an orange cream cake!"
"Then there's the 14TP, which is basically just an upgraded 10TP. It can only go up to 50 kilometers/hour, but it's got thicker armor and ours has a 47 millimeter gun. While they were never used in battle, plans existed and our board of directors paid to build versions for our team," Hikari related, barely paying attention to her menu as she spoke of tanks.
"It's a better protected and more powerful 10TP, but not as fast," Georgy summarized again, "I think this New York cheesecake sounds good, but there's also a double fudge option.. dare I give in to temptation?"
"Be strong, Georgy-san!" Kagura encouraged, pretty much settled on her choice.
"Our flag tank is usually the Turan I. It's Hungarian and not a lot of people know about it, so it's not as popular as panzers are. It's got an extra person in the crew, so there's five people in the crew. The top speed is around 47 kilometers/hour and it has better armor than the Polish tanks, though its gun is only 40 millimeters," Hikari recalled, tapping her left hand on the table absently while she added, "That's Dabrowski-dono's tank."
"About as fast as the second tank, but better armor and a little smaller gun," Georgy interpreted for Kagura, "But.. I could really use the extra boost of the fudge.. or maybe this green tea flavored cake."
"And then there's the Zrinyi II. Because it's got a really big gun it's the slowest tank at our school. It can only go 43 kilometers/hour tops and its turret doesn't move so it has to turn all at once to aim. However I think its 105 millimeter gun makes up for that if we can protect it from getting hit immediately. Like the Turan, it's Hungarian. There's four people in the crew, and we in the Tank Appreciation Society like to call it the 'Monster of St. Casimir's'," Hikari concluded her explanations, then glanced back to her menu.
"It's for taking out the heavier tanks on the other team, but it can't aim any direction besides straight ahead," Georgy concluded as well, tugging at her ponytail as she stressed over which dessert to order.
"So most of them have four girls on their teams? We've got three, so what do we still need?" Kagura asked her teammates and setting her menu down.
"A driver. Gerogy-san is the commander, I am the radio operator and loader, and I believe that makes you the main gunner," Hikari provided the answer and stopped before saying more.
"Are you girls ready to order?" came a fourth voice as the waitress arrived at their table.
"I think so," Georgy replied before looking up and stopping dead in her tracks at what she saw.
There stood a tall young lady in what looked like military uniform complete with a little overseas cap. Having never actually been to a place like this Georgy had had no idea of what to expect. With her long dark brown hair past her shoulders the girl didn't quite look fully like a tanker as the uniform was supposed to suggest. Then again many girls who did senshadou had longer hair; the difference was that it was more comfortable to put it up so it didn't get caught on something inside the tank. All the same the girl was quite pretty.. and Georgy quickly dismissed those thoughts. Not the appropriate time to be having them. Kagura stared too, but in a more suspicious way while the girl stood there waiting for the team to place an order.
"I think we'll have one green tea cake, one orange cream cake and.." Georgy spoke up at last and glanced to Hikari, who pointed to the item she wanted, "One New York cheesecake."
"Okay, we'll have that right out!" the server responded after noting their choices, then snapped off a salute with a bright smile.
As the girl walked off to place their order, Georgy watched with a distant smile and bit of red in her cheeks. Everything slowed down from her perspective. The music that was being piped in was calm and soothing rather than at a march tempo. A report on senshadou being shown on TV proceeded as if on a lethargic playback. Occasionally a fragment of laughter from another table would embellish the tranquility of the moment. Georgy's imagination was far, far away from the tank cafe for that moment. Meanwhile Kagura was trying to ask her something, and soon a hand filled Georgy's vision waving up and down.
"Oi, Georgy! Oi! Are you still with us?" Kagura called out for the third time and finally the transfer student showed a reaction.
She blinked as comprehension returned and asked, "Huh? What is it, Niitoki-san?"
"You missed it! There was this cute little truck that rolled up with the cakes and dropped them off," Kagura told her, and indeed the tank-shaped desserts had arrived. Before Georgy could say anything the redhead continued, "So Hikari was saying you were going to explain why you're called Georgy. Go ahead!"
Once again Georgy fell silent as she hesitated to tell the tale of her nickname. She really didn't want to and had hoped she could just leave it behind her at Pravda. Given that everyone was already calling her Georgy, avoiding it was going to be nearly impossible anyhow. How they would receive the story was something that the transfer student was also worried about. Looking at Hikari she felt like the girl would probably be able to keep it to herself and not render judgment on her. When her eyes flitted over to Kagura, the eagerness on the girl's face made Georgy worry. There wasn't any way of telling what Kagura expected to hear, but it probably wasn't even close to the truth of the matter. At the same time Georgy felt guilt about keeping something like that from girls she hoped would be her friends. They'd find out eventually, so better to just come out with it herself.
"Well.. when I was back at Pravda, there was someone I liked. And I guess I showed it because pretty soon I was making some pretty dumb mistakes. My teammates noticed and started to ask who it was that I liked.." Georgy told them while poking at her cake with a fork, "I couldn't tell them because they would've thought I was weird or maybe joking. So.. I panicked and blurted out 'Zhukov! Georgy Zhukov! He's really cool!' They all laughed and started calling me Georgy after that..."
She flushed red at admitting it and stared at the table. Hikari did her best to cover her mouth as she giggled a little at the silliness of what her commander had admitted. Kagura tried hard not to laugh but then couldn't hold it in and broke out into a fit of giggles of her own. Georgy feared that the other girls would start teasing her and kept staring down at the green cake in front of her. Not how she'd wanted to start her tenure at St. Casimir's. Seeing that laughing was making the brunette feel embarrassed, Kagura switched gears suddenly.
Kagura could see that the waitress from before had been hanging around their table, acting very nonchalant as she listened in. Despite appearances the redhead was quite perceptive. Once again Kagura eyed the girl suspiciously and then decided for Georgy's sake to take action. At first Georgy just heard Kagura slipping out of their booth, still laughing a little. Then there were sounds of a scuffle occuring and despite herself Georgy looked up out of curiosity. There was Kagura standing on her tip-toes trying to knock off the waitress' hat! Why she was doing this wasn't very clear at first. Simultaneously the poor waitress was waving her arms in a desperate attempt to keep Kagura's hands away from her head.
The overseas cap flopping to the floor signaled the distraught waitress' defeat at the hands of Kagura. Next the redhead took a baseball cap she'd had in her school bag and pulled it down on the waitress' head. For her part the waitress looked considerably annoyed. That was enough to make Georgy start to understand what the heck Kagura was up to by harassing the waitress. She even started laughing at the realization as well as the sight of Kagura standing there triumphantly with a flustered waitress.
"Ah ha! It was you driving that truck! You can't deny it now!" Kagura proclaimed, picking the girl's overseas cap off the floor and handing it to her.
"You saw that?" the waitress asked, expression switching from annoyance to surprise.
"I couldn't miss it! You were amazing!" Kagura added, giving the waitress a pat on the back.
"Thanks.. I guess," the waitress tried her best to smile but couldn't quite do it.
"Come on, join us! You've been working so hard," Kagura goaded the young lady, who looked back over the counter at an older woman (presumably her boss).
When the woman smiled and nodded, the girl sighed and sat down in the booth next to the girl who'd knocked her cap off. Kagura wore a look of idiotic satisfaction at her ingenuity. After switching out the baseball cap for her military cap the waitress looked over the other girls, sizing them up. She refrained from saying anything, though, which made Georgy feel a need to speak up. Might as well welcome the poor girl to their circle since Kagura had pulled her in.
"So why did you wear the hat when you were driving?" Georgy asked, taking care to ask in a friendly tone.
"I don't exactly have a driver's license yet, but the owner is short-handed and needs someone to pick up supplies for her. My mom taught me some things about handling a truck, so I volunteered. Since I don't want anyone noticing that I'm a little young to be driving, I wear the hat to hide my face a little," the waitress answered.
"Your mom's a truck driver? That's cool!" Kagura exclaimed, not caring who heard her by this point.
"Yeah, it kind of is," Georgy agreed, "I'm Suz... I'm Georgy. These are Hata Hikari-san and Niitoki Kagura-san. We're on the St. Casimir's senshadou team. They handed us a tank the school hasn't used for years.. because nobody can read the instruction manual."
That made the waitress perk up, "The T-34?"
"Well yes, that's the one we're going to be us-" Hikari started to acknowledge.
The waitress eagerly took Georgy's hand, looked into the commander's eyes and said, "Please, let me drive it! I've always wanted to operate something with that much horsepower!"
"Sure.. but I'd like to know your name, since we're going to be friends," Georgy agreed, again surprised at the way the day was turning out.
"Miyase Marika! I won't fail you, ma'am!" the waitress insisted, saluting again before grinning evilly, "Just wait until the other teams see us coming for them! They'll be sorry they drove out onto the same field!"
Before Georgy could say anything more, her cell rang. She answered, "Hello?"
From the other end she could hear Dabrowski's voice, "Georgy! I have some wonderful news! We've got our first practice match scheduled for this Sunday!"
"Already? Isn't it a little soon?" Georgy asked nervously. She hadn't even looked at the T-34 manual yet!
Dabrowski laughed, "Didn't I say not to worry? Anyway, you're going to love this next part!"
Georgy hesitated before asking, "What part?"
"We're going up against a team from Pravda!" Dabrowski announced cheerfully, then hung up after adding, "So get ready! I want to see our T-34 out there with us!"
Georgy had started to get a little comfortable, recovering from revealing the source of her nickname. Being told that not only would they be rolling out for a match, but one against her former teammates, shattered that comfort. A stunned look appeared on her face as she sat there wordlessly nibbling at her green tea cake. It remained plastered there as the girls said goodbye to Marika and went their respective ways home. Hikari lived a couple neighborhoods away from campus, but both Georgy and Kagura headed for the dorm complex. Kagura was speaking excitedly but the taller girl couldn't process any of it, still trying to get the idea through her head of fighting Pravda. Eventually she finally started hearing the noise of Kagura's voice, then started to pick out words.
Soon she understood what the redhead was saying, "I can't believe we're roommates! This is so great, Georgy! I thought I would be all alone since I was late checking in, and I didn't have a roommate last year."
"Right," Georgy nodded, and then proceeded to change into her powder blue pajamas.
She let her hair down and silently brushed it after setting aside the cloth which kept it up during the day. Kagura meanwhile was poking around Georgy's collection of books and making comments about how many graphic novels there were. At some point she mentioned not realizing that Georgy would be into something, but the brunette didn't really pay much attention what she was holding up. After a while Georgy slipped under the covers and closed her eyes trying to get some rest. With Pravda coming up she'd need every ounce of sleep she could get. Yet her sleep was to be interrupted a couple times by Kagura.
"So Georgy, about that person you liked when you were at your last school, were they-" she tried to ask.
"No," Georgy answered.
"But it's okay if you-" Kagura added.
"Niitoki-san-"Georgy groaned as she fidgeted with her blanket.
"We're roommates, Georgy! Call me Kagura," her roommate insisted.
"Fine, Kagura," the brunette corrected herself.
"Yes Georgy?" Kagura asked eagerly.
"I'm really tired," Georgy explained, pulling her blanket up as she concluded, "Go to bed."
Kagura didn't immediately sleep but Georgy soon did, worn out by a day full of surprises and awkward moments. It was only going to get more awkward from here on out. But at least she had a crew now! She'd have to learn how to command a tank and interpret the instruction manual for the others. Hikari seemed to know a lot about tanks, so she could help with that while operating the radio. Having the small girl load shells would be a bit of a stretch but she seemed competent. Marika could definitely drive well, so she might be just fine. On the other hand, Kagura would be a hassle to teach how to fire the tank's gun. Georgy just hoped somehow, some way it would turn out all right. Even still, the girl had to admit it had all been kind of fun so far.