Chapter 2
School definitely seemed different this morning. Normally the first day was a time that most students loathed for one reason or another. But this morning was starting very differently. Miho noticed this immediately as she stepped out of her door and about bumped into a familiar face, quite literally. As she stepped out she was looking down at her bag to grab her key to lock the door and bumped into someone.
"Oh I'm sorry I didn't see you," Miho immediately apologized.
She took a moment to recognize him as Kendo Motoya, the commander of the boys Combat Team. He wasn't wearing the same uniform as the one he'd been wearing on Saturday. This time it was much more familiar. A black blazer had replaced the camouflage uniform over a white button up shirt, and some black pants and simple tennis shoes. On the front of the chest of his blazer was the Ooarai crest to finish off the school uniform.
"Oh, I guess I should apologize, I wasn't exactly paying attention," he said, holding up a piece of paper with a schedule printed on it, "I just got my schedule printed out this morning."
"I uh…guess you live in this building too?" Miho asked, rather awkwardly.
"Yeah…me and my roommate got lucky and got a room close to the school. He's the class president so he managed to get first dibs. Most of the rest of us are paired up in some of the old dorms on the edges of the ship. They've got quite a walk to school. Many of the others just took up residence in some of the old clubhouses you've got all around the ship."
"Still, how did they fit all of you?" Miho asked as the two of them started down the stairs.
"I asked that myself. Apparently our ships were designed hold something like twenty-five thousand students. And that's not with all the clubhouses around here. According to our class president most of the clubhouses that had to be revamped can hold five people normally, but with the current situation they actually squeezed in twice that number. Or so he says."
"So that's where they're putting most of you?" Miho asked as they now began walking up the sidewalk with several students, both boys and girls walking on either side.
"And he also said we squeezed in quadruple the number of guys into rooms that were traditionally meant for one person. But a couple of bunk beds and you can fit in four people. It's amazing how we all managed to fit in. All fifteen thousand of us," Kendo chuckled, "It's amazing how many spaces you can find when you really need to."
"Fifteen? I thought your numbers were comparable to ours?" Miho asked.
"Yeah well…" Kendo shrugged, looking kind of ashamed, "We don't have a record comparable to yours. At least you've had something to be proud of lately. Not like us, hard to get someone to want to go to a school with nothing of value."
Miho nodded, quietly understanding what Kendo was alluding to. She could tell it was something that Kendo was ashamed of, who wouldn't be?
"Miho, I wanted to thank you for keeping your girls from beating up my guys with a very large wrench. They may not look like they're appreciative, but believe me, they are," Kendo said after a few seconds of walking, "It's not really the way we wanted to start things out."
"Well it was an accident, it's okay. I'm just glad the spare parts weren't damaged. Those things are expensive," Miho laughed.
"We'll have our stuff out of your garage by day's end I assure you. The staff got a hold a pair of those containers off of a ship for us to keep our stuff. And I'd also like to apologize for the way we came across when we arrived. We should've known better than to be as expecting as we were. We're not exactly the people to be demanding."
"Oh, good, I'm sure the Automotive Club will appreciate that," Miho smiled, "And no need to apologize, your boys were told that they were to put their stuff there and we didn't know. It's just a failure to communicate on the part of the school board. You can't blame us for being protective of our tanks. After all, they are war machines and our Automotive Club treats them like their kids."
"Speaking of your grease girls where did they get that wrench anyway?"
"Oh that? It's for loosening the return rollers on the Tiger," Miho replied with an immediate knowledge that surprised Kendo.
"Man you girls sure know your stuff," Kendo whistled, appreciating the show of knowledge.
"Well we did win nationals, so I guess we do," Miho shrugged, "Mind if I asked about what happened with your ship?"
"Yeah there's a few rumors about what happened. Some say it was engine problems, others have said it was a problem with hull integrity. Our ship is pretty old so it wasn't unexpected. Either way there wasn't anything we could have done. The emails that went out said it wasn't a maintenance thing, it was just something that happened."
"That's too bad," Miho said, "Although it's not like we don't like having you, a lot of the girls are really excited about having the boys here."
"Thanks, we're all pretty glad we're at sea instead of stuffed in a makeshift warehouse. There's nothing quite like being at sea."
"Well that depends on what ship you're on."
"I know that's the truth," Kendo smiled, "Hey I saw some of your matches on Youtube last night, impressive, but I'd also say you were pretty lucky in a few matches," Kendo replied, "And I know luck when I see it, we should know, we haven't had any for the past five or six years."
"How do you know? It took some real skill to do some of the things our team did. Like against Kuromoromine, the Rabbit took out the Elephant and the Jagdtiger. And what Turtle did against Pravda that was real skill."
"Oh I'm not saying that you girls don't have a great deal of skill. That match against Anzio and especially your match against Kuromorimine were great, I loved watching them. But it seemed to me you were lucky that you managed to get past Saunders at all, if they'd squeezed the trigger a few seconds sooner we may not be here," Kendo replied, defending his position.
"Well, they didn't and here we are," Miho replied even more testily.
"Uh…Miporin?" a voice quietly interrupted as the two students now stood in front of the school.
It was Saori, Hana, Mako, and Yukari. They were standing there looking at Miho and Kendo, and the looks on their faces showed their great surprise at Miho's considerable hostility towards Kendo. Miho herself suddenly reflected on the way the conversation had gone. And was surprised and somewhat embarrassed she'd gotten so hostile. This wasn't like her at all, and she didn't know why.
"Hey!" a voice yelled out, "Kendo, our classes are over here pal."
It was one of the other boys, waving at Kendo. Both Miho and Kendo saw that indeed there were new separate buildings to the school. The boys were going though one way, and the girls were going through the other. At each entrance were the schools' respective Morals Committees taking attendance as they all made their way into school. The entrance near the boys seemed to predominantly open up into a separate part of the parking lot that was now crowded with portable buildings two floors high. On their walls were lockers with overhanging roofs keeping them somewhat out of the elements. Miho had seen them being erected late Saturday night and all day Sunday. There were dozens of them, arranged on any flat ground they could be placed. Some were mere feet from the main school building, blocking the view of any windows they were in front of, others were out into the parking lot and some were even on the tank grounds with tall mounds of dirt topped with a chain link fence keeping them well separated from the tankery team's domain. But they hardly ever used it, preferring to use the open and forested ground just next to the campus instead of the sandy patch.
"Miho are you alright?" Hana spoke out as Miho and Kendo split.
"Huh," Miho stammered, "Yeah, why?"
"Well…" Yukari started quietly.
"You and Kendo didn't look like you were exactly hitting it off," Saori finished, slightly concerned.
"He-he…" Miho started, feeling another wave of frustration wash over her as she thought about what he'd said.
"What could he have said to get under your skin Miho?" Hana asked, not knowing what it took to get Miho even slightly irritated. They'd never seen Miho get angry.
"He said we were lucky that we won the tournament," Miho huffed crossing her arms over chest defensively.
"Well we kinda were lucky, in a way," Hana answered.
"But why would that get you angry? People have said worse and you didn't get angry," Yukari asked.
"Because…" Miho immediately tried to answer but couldn't. But Saori instantly jumped to a conclusion, and just like Saori she blabbed it out.
"Because they weren't cute boys! Oh my gosh Miporin you like him!" she giggled loudly, gaining quite a bit attention from passers-by.
Miho immediately blushed a hot red, and her defensive temper flared slightly.
"No I don't!" Miho snapped, casting a nervous side glance to the side where she could still see Kendo speaking with some of the boys who were in a group together.
"Denial! It's true!" Saori gushed again, starting to descend into a fit of giddiness.
Miho just blushed a hotter red, feeling the blood spreading through her cheeks as she grew ever more uncomfortable. It was true she'd never had a boyfriend, and had never really had experience with dealing with a serious crush, especially with Saori. But with her track record for being a bit of love hound, looking for any opportunity to meet a boy Miho shouldn't have been surprised. However it didn't make her any less irritated, she didn't like Kendo, and she couldn't get Saori to stop.
"Oh, school's about to start, we'd better get inside," Yukari said awkwardly, trying to get her friends to move on before things got really weird. Especially since they'd never seen Miho like this and didn't want to cross a line without knowing it.
"Fine," Miho sighed, almost grateful for the new distraction.
The five girls walked into school and immediately split up, heading out towards their respective first classes. Miho really needed school right now, if only to get her mind off of the events of this morning. Unfortunately, she knew that she hadn't seen the last of him, he lived in the same building, and went to the same school. It was going to be a long semester.
Kendo too felt the same way. He wasn't used to having a roommate. Especially his own class president who was a third year, and not a second year like himself. Another thing was that he and the other guys of Ooarai Boys High School were pretty much confined to these somewhat cramped and humid portables. There were dehumidifiers for each building but here in the Pacific they didn't do as much good as the guys inside would have liked. But thankfully, their teachers were suffering the same way, and they were allowed to at least keep the windows open to get some cool breeze through the room and were also allowed to take off their blazers.
But what he wasn't used to most of all was being in a, partially, co-ed school. He, like the others in his school, had been excited for the possibility to be in a co-ed environment. However now that he was here he had already gotten off on the wrong foot with some of the girls. Miho Nishizumi was pretty much his opposite number at this school. He was the leader of the Ooarai Combat Team, and Miho was the leader of the girls' Tankery Team. But the difference for him was that she'd actually managed to do something useful in her tenure as commander. He on the other hadn't had the chance quite yet. He'd received command after the last commander of the team had pretty much botched the job after being picked because his father was on the school board, making the team a complete mess of disorganization, no practice schedule, poor discipline in matches, and a general laughing stock just so he could have something on his resume. The membership on the team had plummeted, forcing them to completely dissolve their fourth platoon because they didn't have enough people to keep it effective, not like any of them were all that effective to begin with.
So Kendo had been given the job. He had been the only second year to ever hold the position of commander in Ooarai's history other than Miho herself, although she didn't count because of the fact she was the girls' tankery commander. Kendo had only been a squad leader, but was at least a good one. The three platoon leaders were all third years, but didn't want to be the overall commander because each of them were best friends and didn't want to be put into a position of authority over one another, and they were the ones who'd voted Kendo into the predicament he found himself in.
"Hey Kendo," one of the platoon leaders in question called out as he was walking in between the portable buildings, looking for his own locker before class began, "What's the plan today?"
"Oh, Shigeki," Kendo replied, seeing the similarly sized third year walking over, "I don't think we'll have practice today. Everyone's picking their elective today so all we'll be doing is getting our stuff into those boxes."
"Alright makes sense. So any plans as to what we're doing tomorrow?" Shigeki asked again.
"Probably get everyone organized into platoons, the emails I've gotten saying who's going to stay on the team pretty much match numbers with what we ended with. But we did lose a few guys and got some new ones as replacements," Kendo replied, "We should also get some uniforms to the ones who are new so we can start with some PT the next day. I'd bet hardly anyone worked out or got into any sort of shape over the break."
"You're not wrong there," Shigeki chuckled, "What about weapons? Everyone turned in their stuff after the end of the season so we might want to at least get the new guys used to carrying them."
"No, we'll need to weed out the weak before we do that. And there's no sense in trying to convince me Shigeki, we're not here to show off for the girls. I'd actually like to win a few matches this time around."
"Well we can do both," Shigeki chuckled.
Kendo just shook his head, he'd always known Shigeki, he had been his own squad leader as a first year, and later his platoon leader until he'd been given the position of commander. Shigeki had always fancied himself a ladies' man and bragged about his girlfriends all the time, the names and hair colors changing almost daily to the point that Kendo had stopped believing him, although it didn't stop him from still bragging.
"We'll need some of our guys to stand watch tonight, like we did at our ship. You think you can find six guys to run four hour shifts? Make sure they're guys we had from last year," Kendo said.
"You don't trust our accommodations I assume?"
"Well…no. It's also just to try and get the guys back into a rhythm, with everything that's been happening we could all use some kind of normalcy."
"I knew it was the right choice voting you for leader. I think we'll be alright this year. We've got good equipment, decent weapons, and now we've got a leader," Shigeki chuckled, seeing how well suited he now realized Kendo was for the leadership of the team, "I'll take a look at who we had on our watch schedule, and keep going with that."
"We still haven't had a practice, much less a match. Don't put me on a pedestal," Kendo replied, feeling the pressure of his responsibility falling like a ton of bricks, "You might not like what happens if you're expecting great things."
"I'm not expecting you to win the championship Kendo, just…a winning season at best. I know we can do it," Shigeki shrugged, patting him on the shoulder, "Listen I'll take care of the guys standing watch, you just get a schedule worked out our first match against Koala is next week."
"I know, thankfully we didn't get a really dominating opponent to start out with."
"Yeah, we could've drawn Pravda, Saunders, or Kuromorimine. We might be able to get our season off to the right start this time around."
"Yeah, hopefully, listen we gotta get to class, I'll see you and the other guys at the tank team's hanger so we can get our stuff situated."
"You sure it's our stuff you're wanting to take care of?"
"Wha-what are you talking about?" Kendo stuttered.
"Please, we all saw you walk to school with Miho Nishizumi, you dog you," Shigeki teased, playfully slugging his commander in the shoulder.
"We're in the same building and we were just talking. Besides, I don't think we parted on the best of terms. She thinks I believe that her team got off on luck alone."
"Well they kinda did," Shigeki shrugged.
"Well you go say that to one of the girls on the team. You might want to grab your helmet and faceplate first," Kendo replied.
"Please, what are they gonna do? They're just girls," Shigeki laughed.
"That's why. Haven't you heard of the saying 'Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn' before?"
"Oh that's just an urban legend," Shigeki laughed, not really taking it seriously, "If you ever need some pointers on women you know who to call."
"Yeah, not you," Kendo laughed as well, "Seriously, I don't wanna be late. I'll see you later."
Kendo turned and walked out to the portable labelled with the number on his schedule where he'd start his first day of class. It went like any first day went, slow, and all he wanted to do was just get to the point where he got to pick what he was going to do. So, finally, lunch came around, later than normally would have if he was back at their own ship. It made sense, they only had one cafeteria for both schools, so it made sense for the guys to go afterwards. After all, why would they shorten their hosts' own lunch period when they weren't really the cause of the boys' predicament?
Lunch was around the time that Kendo knew his team mates would be choosing whether or not to return for the exhibition season. He'd already gotten his sheet in, and saw several of his team mates with their sheets, and thankfully, the more experienced guys were staying after stopping by and asking what they were going to do. He walked the cafeteria a little bit, looking to see if anyone new was looking to join the team, which he was really hoping for. They could use all the help they could get given their history.
But unfortunately, not many decided to join. They were choosing to join other clubs and sports like baseball, kendo, martial arts, football, basketball, or soccer, which he couldn't blame them for. No one lost so badly and so often last semester than the Combat Team. But, that could change, the Combat Team had quite a few guys who knew how to fight effectively, they had some leadership, and they had some effective weapons to work with. However, the one thing that Kendo was uncertain of was the leadership of their leader, himself.
The day had gone fairly well, the atmosphere was one of complete excitement that had been tampered down with disappointment with the realization that the school officials were doing everything they could to separate them. Saori in particular was pretty down about that particular development. She had repeatedly groaned sourly about the fact that the two sexes were separated as they were, in her words 'it's not natural and it's not fair.'
This easily put Miho in a somewhat better mood. There was something slightly amusing about watching Saori pout and the mood pervading the school was new to her. It was one of expectant giddiness, and Miho herself sort of felt herself caught up in it. It wasn't unexpected really, the school was doing great, she had a great bunch of friends, the tankery team was just hitting its stride, and she couldn't ignore the possibility she might soon find herself with a boyfriend. All in all it was harder to be apprehensive than it was to be excited. This was the kind of thing that really made the day fly by for her.
So once the final bell rang Miho found herself walking out with her friends out to the hangar. She had a pretty simple day planned out, just a quick inspection run to make sure their tanks were all good to go for practice the next day. However one thing she wasn't expecting was the appearance of some new girls standing in front of the hanger.
Miho recognized the three of them as the lone members of the Archery Club, their second year leader, Yoshie Miyamoto, and the first year twins Kunie and Iria Kitamura. Yoshie was a reasonably tall girl with blue eyes and blonde hair that was tied into a messy bun and had a fiery personality, seeking to brag all the time about her and her team's prowess with their bows at competition. Kunie and Iria were, as expected, the same short petite stature and build, same red hair, and green eyes. But they made a point to differentiate from the other. Kunie had her hair long and straight through a tough period of grooming and straightening while Iria let her hair go wild with its curly mass pulled into a high pony tail. These two girls were intensely competitive, and were known to spend hours trying to best the other at just about anything that struck their fancy, and like Yoshie they were very god shots, having been in the now disbanded Rifle Club.
"Miss Nishizumi?" Yoshie called out, walking up to Miho.
"Oh you don't need to be formal with me Yoshie," Miho smiled, "Are you girls here to join the team?"
"Yeah, unfortunately the school wouldn't let us have archery as an option with the season over," Iria grumbled.
"So we decided you could use some girls with our skillset and we could have fun at the same time," Kunie finished.
"Well…we'd like to get you started but we don't have spare tanks," Miho sadly replied.
"We know," Yoshie replied, "But apparently we talked with Yuzu and we found out you're missing one according some old records we found in the library."
"Missing one?" Yukari asked, "How'd you find any records of it? We scoured the ship trying to find any traces of other tanks."
"It was in the old school financial records room under lock and key. Students weren't allowed to look at them because they had teachers' salaries on them or something like that."
"Well what kind of tank was it?"
"We don't know," Iria replied, "The ink was all blurry, but we could make out an 'M' and a two right next to each other and a blurry number right next to it."
"An M series tank? It's obviously an American model, only the Americans numbered their tanks like that. And you said it was two digits with the first being a two?" Yukari asked.
"Yes, and a medium length name after it. Like I said the file was just about ruined, it was a miracle we found it at all," Kunie said.
"Hmm…it could be one of three tanks, a Locust, a Chaffee, or, best of all, a Pershing," Yukari said.
"The records said it went missing shortly after the tankery team was disbanded and they never found it again."
"Ooh…a ghost tank," Saori noted.
"If it's out there we can find it," Yoshie said proudly.
"I don't know, we tried to find all the tanks we could before our last round against Kuromorimine and only found the Type-3. I don't know if that tank is even still aboard," Miho shrugged.
"It was probably stripped down and sold off piece by piece. If it is on board it's probably just a hull if anything by now," Yukari pointed out.
"But if we find it will you promise to let us use it?" Iria pleaded.
"I don't see why not," Hana replied, getting nods of agreement from the other girls of Anglerfish.
"If you can find it it's all yours. But if you're going to be on the team you'll need to learn all the parts of a tank, how to drive them, aim and fire their guns, and care for tanks. We can always use new crew, even if we don't have a tank for you," Miho said.
"Awesome, you won't regret this Commander," Yoshie said excitedly.
At that moment Miho saw the familiar form of Kendo, her male counter-part, and the same guy she didn't get along with all that well. She saw that he wasn't alone, nine other boys were with him, all of them wearing their normal school uniforms. But most had the dark blazers off for good reason, it wasn't all that cool out here. Miho immediately made a point of directing her attention away from them and walked into the hangar to that most of the girls were already inside, talking with one another about whatever it was that had happened today or they were looking forward to happening. Miho went over to the Automotive Club girls who were tooling around with the new lift making sure it was functioning properly.
"How are the tanks looking?" Miho asked, walking over to them, and knew the answer before they could respond just from the happy looks on their face.
"We're all good here commander. They're looking just fine," Hoshino responded first, confirming Miho's thoughts.
"You think we can take them out today and run a quick inspection?" Miho inquired.
"Of course," Nakajima stated, "But we can't really get all of the tanks out of here right now. We're waiting for those boys to move their trucks out of the way. The school board put a couple of cargo containers right next to the outside wall over there with a chain link fence topped with barbed wire."
"So they have a place for their stuff now," Miho said, somewhat pleased to know that there was now no need for them to share space with one another.
Miho now noted that the boys were now grabbing their keys to the three trucks and the jeep from the locker where to the tanks themselves were located.
"Hey Miho, isn't that the boy you were arguing with this morning?" Mako asked as she noticed the boys starting to jump into their trucks while many of the girls kept a rather close on them, especially the Automotive Club who knew from first-hand experience what had happened the last time the boys had driven their trucks. The shattered wooden box outside was a reminder of that.
"Yeah," Miho replied, keeping her back turned.
"Well don't you want to at least try and apologize?" Hana asked.
"Apologize? For what?" Miho said sharply.
"Well you did get mad at him for him pointing out something that was true," Saori ticked.
"But he-he," Miho stuttered again, and grew frustrated with this rewind of this morning's conversation with her friends on this exact matter.
"Besides, he is kinda cute," Saori added on again, "And besides I'd bet that he likes you too. Look at the way he looks away whenever you look at him."
"How could he like me after that argument we had this morning?" Miho asked curiously, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Oh I know these things Miporin, trust me," Saori bragged.
"But you've never had a boyfriend Saori," Yukari pointed out.
"Hey! That's not my fault," Saori fumed, "I bet in less than a week I'll be in a relationship."
"You do tend to flirt a bit too much Saori," Mako said plainly, bored with the conversation.
"That's how you let boys know that you like them. They can't tell otherwise," Saori responded.
"Yes we can!" one of the boys called out from where he was sitting on top of the truck's cab with his feet hanging in front of the windshield.
Some of the other boys laughed at that as Saori blushed a bright red.
"Hey don't you have boxes to run over?!" Hoshino snapped, surprising everyone including herself at her outburst.
"Nah, we only do that on Saturdays," the same boy joked, getting annoyed looks from some of the girls now, especially the Automotive club.
"Shinpo, shutup!" Kendo now snapped back, walking out from behind the first truck.
"Yes oh fearless leader!" the boy known as Shinpo said with a hearty chuckle.
"We'll get these trucks out of your way," Kendo yelled over to Miho who nodded with a neutral expression, "Let's go fellas."
With that the trucks' diesel engines started up and they began rolling out through one of the other doors that had been opened up for them. This time all three trucks were driven out without incident, much to the girls' relief seeing as they had quite a few boxes that were stacked around that needed homes. Miho now saw that the whole team was present and decided to let everyone go out on their own to get reacquainted with their tanks and give them a quick once over.
"Okay everyone mount up and get reacquainted with your tanks. Take a drive to the front of the ship and back. Take note of anything that you see that's not quite right with your tanks, after that come back to the hangar and make sure you let the Automotive Club know about anything that's wrong with your tanks."
"Hey Miho," Anzu called out walking over as the others were starting to get into their tanks, "Got a minute?"
"Of course," Miho responded.
"I managed to get us a match next week against Koala. Well, they actually asked for the match, and we agreed," Anzu said nonchalantly.
"Oh that's great," Miho smiled, "Koala will be a good way to get back into competition."
"Part of the reason is that the boys have their first match against Koala the day after we have ours. Seeing as both schools are going to be in the same place it seemed like a no brainer," Anzu informed Miho.
"I guess that makes sense," Miho shrugged seeing the logic of it all.
"But there was something else," Anzu said, "I was talking with the boys' class president and he asked me if I'd put out the word that they're having a match and invited us to come watch. You think you can make an announcement later, just to see if any of the girls are interested?"
"Oh, I think that'll be fine," Miho said partly through her teeth, she had some stuff to do right before that match and some of her classes were going to be a lot of work.
"Great!" she said, grabbing Miho around the shoulder, "Looking forward to it. Oh, he also said he'd pay us back by doing the same and inviting the boys to our match."
Miho saw some of the tanks were already started up and the Char, Type-89, and Type-3 were already rolling out the doors with the Tiger(P) right behind them as the StuG was starting up. She walked over to her own tank that was idling as it waited for its commander. Everyone was poking out of their respective hatches, not really wanting to be inside the stuffy tank when they didn't need to.
"Are you ready to go Miho?" Yukari asked, brimming with excitement like she did any time they got into their tank.
"Of course," Miho said, climbing up the hull and plopping down into the commander's cupola to make sure everything was as it should be inside before ordering Mako forward following the M3 Lee.
The tanks all rolled out of the hangar, and Miho saw the line of three trucks off to her right with those same boys unloading crates and cases from the beds and depositing them in a pair of green containers surrounded by a fence. She couldn't help but notice that when she tried sneaking a look at Kendo who was talking to three of the boys he too chanced a look at her, and averted his eyes the moment they locked. Miho too did the same thing, and immediately remembered what Saori had said.
Was it true? Do I actually like him? Does he like me? What is happening on this ship?!
There we are, another calm chapter with some hints as to what all is gonna happen later on involving some schools that are known to exist in their "league" so to speak. I haven't yet picked out what tanks Koala will use, but if anyone has any suggestions I'd like to hear them. I kinda forgot what tanks they use, I remember that someone told me last time I had this chapter posted but I sort of forgot.
Another thing is that some of you will think that Miho wasn't very in character earlier when she was talking to Kendo. Before you start running your mouths remember its two chapters in, a lot hasn't been told about Miho's past personal life outside her relationship with her family so I'll be exploring that shortly, and I will create a reason for her to act a little differently and it'll be something she'll have to work at and develop.
Next Chapter Preview: Practice and romance, it can happen at the same time.
