"Two M4s, two M4(105)s and one Easy 8 currently in motion."
"That's a really beautiful formation, isn't it?"
A few hundred metres away in open rocky terrain, five olive green tanks moved uniformly in a wedge formation, kicking up dust clouds in their wake.
"Yeah. Although I expect that's not going to keep up once battle is joined."
"Those tanks are top-notch though, and the E8 is particularly agile with a powerful 76mm cannon. We'll have to be extra careful when dealing with that one."
"So long as we keep to the strategy, everything will turn out fine."
"Yes..." Sticking out from the cupola of a grey Pz. IV, a bushy-haired schoolgirl frowned nervously.
"What is it?" Asked her conversation partner, who was standing in the driver's hatch.
"Somehow, I still don't have such a good feeling about this."
"About this, you mean? Relax, Yukari-san! They'll never find out. The student council did a great job covering it up, so have some faith in them! Besides, it's pretty convincing, isn't it?"
"Well..."
"Bah, who am I kidding. Whatever it is, it shouldn't be a problem so long as I play it safe. We ready to go?"
"Yes. Please start the engine."
Akiyama Yukari watched the driver disappear down the hatch. Shortly after, the Pz. IV shuddered to life. The hull swiveled to the left, and the tanks that were waiting behind it came into view as they made to move off.
It was a ragtag bunch of misfits: a Type 89 embellished with volleyball motifs and proudly bearing the slogan "VOLLEYBALL CLUB REVIVAL!" in multiple places, a Pz. 38(t) painted glimmering gold, a shockingly pink M3 Lee, and a StuG III decked out in garish yellow and red sporting a quartet of war flags.
In contrast, the outer appearance of the Pz. IV was completely barren of any kind of customization. It currently led the other tanks down a shallow valley at cruising speed. The air filled with the sounds of rumbling engines and crunching gravel beneath tank treads.
"All five enemy tanks are on the move," a voice called out over the radio. Yukari recognized it as belonging to team commander Kawashima Momo, from inside the 38(t). "As discussed earlier, we are going to attract their attention and bait them into our hunting grounds where we will break them apart and annihilate them piecemeal. Team A will draw them in while the rest of you take up positions along the ridgeline. Commence operation Rapidfire!"
"Roger!" A multitude of voices replied over the comms. All of the tanks veered left into a cutaway in the cliff, with the exception of the Pz. IV which stayed its current course.
"Um, Kai-san, what are we supposed to do?" Isuzu Hana addressed the driver as she leaned out of the loader's hatch.
Kai rose from the driver's hatch once more. "We're supposed to fire on the enemy and have them pursue us. Ought to be a simple affair."
"Remember, if we lose we'll be performing the Anglerfish Dance," said Takebe Saori, looking over from the radio operator's hatch.
"This is our first match," Hana said. "All we can do is try our best. Let's go for it."
"That's right, nothing to it but to do it!" Saori chimed in.
Kai hummed in agreement, not wishing to even entertain the thought of performing the seemingly dreaded dance.
"Just being able to see American tanks moving about with my own eyes makes me so happy!" Yukari gushed merrily, practically dancing in the cupola.
"You sure look that way," Saori murmured.
Meanwhile, the only crew member who had not spoken so far, Reizei Mako, sat half-asleep in the gunner's position, her whole body lolling with the jerking motions of the vehicle.
The Pz. IV came to a halt near the edge of a precipice, a slightly elevated position with a clear view of the opponent tanks in the distance.
"Reizei-dono, wake up. Take aim at the enemy in the 2 o'clock and fire whenever you're ready."
The turret traversed and the gun bore down towards the Shermans. A moment later, a shot rang out with a terrific bang. The round whizzed in the air and dug hard into the ground mere feet away from the E8, sending grit splashing everywhere.
"Just a little off," Mako mumbled.
"That's okay, we weren't trying to take them out anyway," Kai stated.
The Pz. IV wheeled around and started back down the valley, the enemy in hot pursuit. Their cannons began opening fire and sending rounds down range. Explosions rocked the terrain everywhere around the Pz. IV.
"Evasive action! " Yukari commanded. "Our armour is thin, one shot from behind and we're done for!"
"I know!" Kai yelled. "I'm going to do some zig-zagging motions, everybody hold on!"
Boulders crumbled and rubble rained down from all around as the Pz. IV swerved left and right desperately to avoid them, as well as the munitions whizzing past with frightening alacrity. Behind them, the gunner of the Easy 8 steadily drew a bead.
Yukari looked back just in time to see a round flying squarely in her direction.
All was quiet and still in the cabin of a passenger plane. The dawn sun poured in from the windows, bathing the surroundings in a mellow orange glow. Fast asleep in an economy class aisle seat was Kyle Lin, a young man with short black tousled hair.
An announcement chime sounded out over the intercom, followed by a male voice.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We're bound to touch down at Tokyo, Haneda Airport in roughly 30 minutes..."
Kyle woke up with a start. Glancing around the cabin, for a brief moment he struggled to comprehend his surroundings.
Oh, that's right, He thought to himself. I'm not at home anymore!
Until four days ago, Kyle was hating his life. Fresh out of college but unable to secure decent employment, he had been working a shift job at a burger joint flipping patties and taking shit from his boss. With nothing to write home about with his Bachelor's degree in Linguistics, he had been banking on getting picked up for the American Gunnery League Draft after graduation, having played for the highly reputed Hanley University school team, but those positions had been ultimately taken up by his more prominent contemporaries. A lack of tank commander experience proved to be his liability.
One fateful day, he was playing World of Tanks in his room when an important call came in. The caller ID on his phone displayed an unfamiliar number with a prefix from overseas.
"Hello?" He greeted suspiciously.
"Good morning, am I speaking to Kairu Rin?" Asked a heavily accented female voice. It was nighttime, and Kyle recognized the accent. The lady on the other side was calling from Japan.
"Yes, you are."
"My name is Ami Chono, and I represent the National Senshado Federation in Japan. May I have a few minutes of your time?"
Senshado? He was familiar with the term. Transliterated it meant 'Way of the Tank', and it was the name of the type of gunnery that was played in Japan. That would possibly explain why he was having to entertain a seemingly random overseas phone call. His interest was piqued. "You have them."
"Thank you very much. By the way, you appear to have JPLT N1 certification, so is it comfortable for you to speak in Japanese?"
「ええ、日本語でも大丈夫です。」 ("Yes, I'm fine with it as well.") His passion for anime, maid cafes, and visual novels had motivated him to learn the language in his four years of college, and in that time he had achieved near-native fluency of the language. In this particular venture he was very proud.
"Wow, your Japanese is impressive!" Ami had reverted to her native tongue as well. "Thank you. Let us continue in this manner then. May I confirm that late last year you applied for the JET Programme with CLAIR?"
"That I did." Kyle remembered putting in a written application and attending an interview for the Japan Exchange Teaching programme, an initiative by the Japanese council of international relations to employ foreigners in language teaching positions in schools around Japan. In other words, it was a job teaching English to Japanese students. He figured it was a job he could do given his language ability, but that had been a while ago and he had not since received any notification on whether he had been selected.
"Well, it had been acknowledged that you possess experience with the operation of tanks while playing college gunnery in university. Your application to JET had been forwarded to us and filed for reference, along with words of commendation from the recruitment department at CLAIR."
"Uh huh."
"To get to the point, a high school had very recently revived their Senshado curriculum, and they had put in a request with the Fuji Tank Training School to engage a stay-in tank operation instructor. Due to preparations for the International Senshado Championship which is to be held in Japan in a few years' time, our manpower is stretched thin and we are unable to field a trainer who could be posted to the school over a long term. Noting your desire to come to Japan to live and work, I am pleased to offer this position to you."
It was exactly the kind of break he was looking for. Kyle was over the moon.
He accepted without hesitation, and over the span of the next few days he packed his belongings, sold or gave away whatever else he would not carry, converted all the money he had into Japanese Yen, made a big scene of his resignation at his workplace, bid farewell to his housemates, and hopped onto a sponsored flight bound for Tokyo.
"... Once again, we thank you for flying with ANA." The plane captain concluded his announcement.
Kyle was welling up with excitement. He could hardly wait for the plane to touch down.
Upon landing he retrieved his worldly possessions from the baggage conveyor belt, clothes and assorted essentials packed inside a beaten rucksack, and emerged out of the transit area. Waiting for him on the other side and holding a placard bearing his name was a striking young lady with short straight black hair, wearing a olive green military office uniform.
"Good morning! You must be Chono-san," Kyle greeted in Japanese, bowing. "Please call me Kai. It's nice to meet you."
Chono Ami smiled cheerily and bowed back. "Good morning! Nice to meet you too. My, your enunciation sounds even more refined in person. You'd fit perfectly in here for sure." She handed Kyle her business card, who took it respectfully with both hands and studied customarily. He came to see that she was a captain in the Japan Self-Defence Force.
"There is a taxi waiting for us outside, so let's get going." Ami began to walk and motioned for Kyle to follow.
As they strode side by side down the arrival hall of Haneda Airport, Kyle observed her surreptitiously. She was remarkably attractive, with excellent makeup sense and a shapely figure that showed through her form-fitting clothing. He could not help but be taken in by such beauty, just as with any other pretty lass he comes across. They said Japan was the land of all things beautiful, Kyle thought. Whoever they are, they're certainly right.
"So how was your flight, Kai-kun?" She asked.
"Superb. The food was great, I slept like a log, and now I'm ready for a brand new day. Japanese airlines are truly amazing, miles better than the ones back home," Kyle answered honestly. He admired the Japanese greatly for their perfectionistic drive and cordiality.
"I'm glad to hear that. Let's hope you can say the same about our Senshado," Ami quipped. They both laughed.
"I must really thank you for accepting this position at such short notice, though," She added. "Things would have been slightly troublesome otherwise."
"Not at all, in fact I should be the one thanking you guys. I can't express in words just how glad I am to be given a chance to do this. It's everything I could ever dream of, being able to pursue my passion once more when I thought it was all over. I am very grateful."
The two of them passed a pair of automatic sliding doors and exited the air-conditioned embrace of the indoors to face the warm dry atmosphere outside. They piled into their reserved transport, which began making its way to the JGSDF Headquarters in Shinjuku where Kyle was to complete the registration process.
As he gazed out the car window, all he could see were streets, buildings and people of an unfamiliar land. He was now truly away from home, in a country he had longed so much to see. He allowed this thrilling realization to creep up on him, bringing together with it feelings of uncertainty, elation and incredulity.
Japan was his home now. A new chapter in life had begun.
At the headquarters, Kyle made some introductions, attended a few briefings regarding terms and regulations, settled additional administrative matters, signed the contract, and in less than two hours was promptly given the position of assistant tank instructor and bestowed the honorary rank of 2nd lieutenant. There was a small welcome party afterwards where he interacted with a few other officers, who inquired and spoke on a variety of topics like his combat experiences, favoured tank models and doctrines, and his fluency in Japanese. Everybody seemed absorbed by his presence, and he felt extremely welcome.
Presently he was conversing with Ami once more.
"Unfortunately, due to the nature of your work you will be hardly seeing these other colleagues, if at all. You will be corresponding mainly with me, your direct superior," she explained.
"Yes, ma'am." Kyle nodded. Ami seemed like a pleasant enough person, and she was pretty hot to boot. He had no qualms working with someone like her.
He did, however, have other uncertainties in his mind.
"If I may clarify something, though... Senshado... It's a sport practised only by women, right?"
"I'm impressed. How did you know?"
"A former teammate of mine in university used to do it in high school. She's Japanese."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, and if she weren't playing for the National League right now I believe she would have been in my place."
"A Hanley U alumnus, currently in the NGL, with a Senshado background..."
"Yes, she's the one you're probably thinking about. There's only one person who fits that description."
"Indeed. She's very famous over here, you know."
"As I'd expect."
"And you were teammates with her?"
"She was my TC."
Ami was intrigued. "I see... My, how very interesting. And you're somehow upset that things turned out this way? That she isn't here, or that you aren't there?"
"No! Heavens, no. I'm so glad to be here. Immensely happy. I'm just saying... I'm a guy."
"And so? Does that change anything? Tanks are not public toilets, are they?"
"No... That's not what I mean. Rather, aren't things done differently around here? Are you all really okay with having an outsider like me?"
Ami paused considerably before answering.
"I think the male-female issue should be the last thing you should be concerning yourself with right now, Kai-kun. At the end of the day, tanks don't discriminate. Everyone carries rounds, squeezes triggers, steps on pedals the same way, guys and girls alike. Gunnery, Senshado, Panzerfahren, they're all the same at the fundamental level. What you already know, you can convey directly to your students. What you don't, you'll pick up very quickly I imagine."
She suddenly grinned impishly. "Instead, quite the opposite, you ought to be happy right now that you're a guy."
Kyle was ecstatic, honestly, but he strove not to show it.
"My responsibilities as an instructor come first, ma'am."
Ami narrowed her eyes blithely. "First, you say."
Here was somebody who clearly knew how to target the weak spots of a tank. Kyle kept up his businesslike disposition and changed topic.
"That aside, I can't help but be amazed at just how fast everything's happened over the past few days," He said. "Not one week ago I was still in Pittsburgh, living a dull day to day kind of life, and before I knew it all of a sudden here I am in Tokyo, enlisting in the Japanese army, about to take on the job of a lifetime. I normally assumed that things like these involved a lot of waiting and red tape, and I was also prepared for a much more elaborate initiation process, but everything seemed to just flash by so rapidly. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but it always like this when bringing in foreign instructors?"
Ami's smile softened into a serene one. "I for one firmly believe that expedited processes is the Blitzkrieg of the modern world. Strive for excellence through speed! Smash past all obstacles to snatch the objective! That's my way of doing things, and that's exactly how I roll with Senshado as well."
She thrust a thumbs-up gesture at Kyle.
"Also, you're actually our first and only foreign instructor. The Senshado Strengthening Committee, which I am a part of, has always been making plans for the future of Senshado going forward. Desiring a greater presence in the international stage and deeming our traditional techniques exiguous over the long run, we felt it was a good idea to introduce overseas talents to groom the local community so as to sharpen our competitive edge. There was, however, one aspect that posed a huge obstacle in this venture: the language barrier. It was startlingly difficult to find anybody who met our three main criteria: that they have tank combat experience, that they are not already engaged in something else, and most importantly that they could speak adequate Japanese. This was what mattered more to us, you see. You could imagine our elation when we discovered you through your JET application. At this juncture, the fact that you are a male is trifling in comparison."
Kyle raised his eyebrows. What she said made plenty of sense, but the notion that he was the very first gaijin in the system was news to him. Not making it into the NGL had turned out to be a blessing in disguise. This was an incredibly rare opportunity for someone like him.
"That's amazing, I never saw things that way," He said. "Guess I really struck the lottery, huh?"
"We both did. We had actually been keeping tabs on you since some time back, but we never truly found a way to commence this programme that had been on the drawing board for ages, until the day the request from that high school was forwarded to me. I called you immediately. The initial intention was to have me become their stay-in instructor, but I saw an opening and arranged for you to be inserted in my stead, thereby kickstarting the proceedings. This was in effect to create as little complication as possible within the executive committee."
The captain cast a furtive eye around and lowered her voice as she added, "not everybody was on board with the whole deal, I should inform you. This was how I managed to break through the opposition for the most part."
She reverted to a normal tone again. "Anyway, we hope to be able to learn as much as we can through your experiences and pave the way for more foreign instructors to come in the future, so let's both work hard." Glancing at her watch, she added, "Speaking of which, things aren't slowing down for you just yet. We have a schedule to keep, and the school is expecting our arrival in a while. Gather your things, it's time to head to your actual workplace: Oarai Girl's Academy. You'll be staying there during your tenure, so we shall settle accommodation matters once we arrive. You're also supposed to be issued a uniform but I'll have to get that delivered to you instead within the next couple of days."
Already? Kyle thought. Man, I really gotta get with the rhythm. He steeled himself for what was to come. Here he was, about to set off to yet another alien location in Japan, in which he will work and dwell for the foreseeable future.
"Understood. Where exactly is it?"
Ami referred to something on her PDA and began reading aloud a set of geographic coordinates. Kyle did not understand.
"It's out in the middle of the ocean," she clarified.
For a moment Kyle thought his Japanese abilities were failing him.
"Ocean?"
"Yes, likely doing anywhere between 5 to 20 knots."
It provided no elucidation. A school in the middle of the ocean? Some kind of remote island? How is it moving then?
His mind flooded with a dozen questions, but one in particular came to the forefront.
"How are we going there?"
Ami made a face as though he had just asked her what colour the sky was.
"In a tank, of course."
A/N: Thank you for reading my story. This is an alternative take to the Girls und Panzer main storyline, where a past event took place differently from the original story, and as a result Miho remained a student in Kuromorine Girl's High School. I thought this would be an interesting angle to explore that would change the story drastically, and more importantly my objective was to cast a greater share of limelight to the other secondary characters in the series. Everybody deserves a chance to shine, and as for Miho, while she hasn't been written off entirely, she's simply in a different place now. (Beside Maho, just how I like it.)
The decision to introduce a male original character in this story was based on the scene in episode 2 where Anzu tricked Saori into thinking that the instructor was a guy. What if that part was true, I wondered? That would cause quite the upheaval in the Senshado community. I'm aware that this isn't a new concept, though. There are numerous stories in here doing the same thing, and I know many readers have probably gotten bored of it, if not outright detest it. That's why I'm especially glad you decided to give it a try. This one is going to shape up a little differently, and I will be grateful to have your patience. I will work hard not to disappoint.
My perfectionist nature dictates that I make small revisions to earlier chapters every now and then. Just small minor ones, nothing that would break the story. I apologize for that. If you're new here, I welcome you warmly and I hope you enjoy your reading experience. If you're back here because I've only just updated after a really long time and you've forgotten what the story was all about, enjoy the improvements to the previous editions. I'll be revising published chapters less and less the longer the story drags on, so don't worry about having to constantly start from chapter one every single time to catch all the changes.
