Chapter 2: Making New Memories

"Things are progressing fairly well," the Patriarch said to the rest of the STU council. "Only one boy signed up for tankery this year at Oarai, but it was to the one spot that could accommodate him."

"Only one?" the Subjugator said. Not all of the STU Council was opposed to female participation in tankery, but the Subjugator was fairly vocal in his belief that females not only should not be dominant in tankery, but there should be no place for them in it at all. But while few in the STU shared his beliefs to the extent that he did, even fewer females involved with tankery viewed the STU's mission with anything more positive than indifference, so excluding them was not seen as impractical.

"The inclusion of boys is only the first and most fundamental change we want to see happen to tankery," the Progenitor said. "While it is happening more slowly than we would like, the situation is satisfactory for the moment, even though much work remains to be done until we achieve our goals."

"Yes, what matters most is how our people perform on the field of tank combat," the Patriarch said. "Centurion, will you be ready for the next phase?"

"Yes, Patriarch-sama," the Centurion said. "My people have made their preparations. We only have yet to hear back from the relevant party"

"Very good," the Patriarch said. "Should they succeed, the it will set in motion the events necessary for our rise to power. The Nishizumi school's reign as the foremost authorities on tankery will end and ours will begin."

As class ended and lunch began, Garai began packing his supplies into his bag. As he was doing so, two of his male classmates approached him. Garai sometimes wondered why he did not speak with many of the students outside the tankery crew more often, and the unpleasant feeling in his gut told him that he was about to be reminded why.

"So, Suou, hanging out with the girls again?" one of the boys said, expressing a similar opinion to what he had once said to Ou Taiga while being interviewed.

"Well, yes, I'm on the tankery team," Garai said. "I figure it's good to get to know the people I'm going to be fighting alongside."

The boy sniggered derisively.

"That's a real good one," the boy said, barely holding himself back from breaking out into contemptuous laughter. "Do they make you wear a skirt like everyone else?"

"No, I just wear my uniform trousers and dress shirt with the tankery jacket," Garai said, unused to dealing with sarcastic and snarky banter.

"With that girly little anglerfish on the back?" The first boy laughed out loud, apparently finding his own comment very amusing. "Whatever you say."

"Um, we should get going," the second boy in the group said.

"Right, right," the first boy said. "Hey, Suou, remember this," he continued, turning back to Garai. "Little girls play around in tanks, but real MEN join the military and fight in them!" He saw the second boy cringe in disgust.

As the boy and his walked away, toward the cafeteria, Garai noticed that the second boy, who had not approved of what his friend had said, was not following him. He stopped, let off a sigh, and turned to address Garai, speaking quietly enough so that only Garai could hear him.

"Sorry about Aizawa, Suou-kun," the boy who stayed behind said. "His dad has some pretty controversial political views, such as his belief that Japan should rearm and doesn't need to apologize for what it did in the past, and he's picked up on a lot of them."

"Is he a friend of yours?" Garai said.

"He is," the boy said. "He and I don't always agree, and he's not always tactful in expressing his opinions, but he's a nice guy to his friends, and he's fun to be around; the two of us have been hanging out since we first started at Higashizawa." He glanced at his watch, and at Aizawa, who was off in the distance, glancing at him half expectantly, and half disapprovingly. "Sorry, I've got to get going. My name is Ukita Akira, by the way."

"It's nice to meet you, Ukita-kun; I'll see you later," Garai said. He waved goodbye to Ukita, who hurried off to rejoin Aizawa while Garai resumed gathering his bag and school supplies.

Garai had difficulty taking Ukita's defense of his friend seriously. Perhaps Ukita was correct- at the very least, Ukita seemed to believe what he had said- but Garai had yet to see any evidence to suggest anything about Aizawa that was different than what he saw. In fact, if Ukita's claim that Aizawa was nicer than most originally thought was true, by that same logic, perhaps there could be evidence that Ukita had less pleasant hidden depths to him.

The entire encounter had revealed a fair amount of what the boys in the school were like. Cliques from their previous schools often carried over to their new one, especially among the former Higashizawa students. Even if their friends were not joining them at Oarai, they often hung out with the same types of people that they had before. It was thus difficult for Garai, who was as much a stranger to the former Higashizawa boys as to the Oarai girls, to fit in. To some of those closed-minded students and insular groups, there was no room for a boy who did what was traditionally a girls' activity. Even with the rest, Garai faced an uphill battle breaking the ice and integrating himself.

But the rest of the boys did not matter. Garai had found his niche in Oarai, if not a traditional one. His comrades in tankery had accepted him, and even though Garai sometimes wondered whether they had good reason to do so, he knew that he was at home in the tankery team. He thus resolved to stay there for as long as he was able.

Having made up his mind, and having his mood improved, Garai hurried off to join his teammates for lunch.

As Mako and Saori walked to school one morning, a few days after Garai had started at Oarai and joined its tankery team, their conversation shifted to him.

"So, Saori, a boy has appeared in your life- what now?" Mako said, having forced herself awake relatively early for a chance to talk to Saori about this. Getting to school on time had gotten easier, enough so that she could do it regularly, but getting up any earlier than that required a great deal of effort for Mako.

"Uh… not much, according to the previous student council," Saori said evasively. "We're not allowed to date the male students, you know."

"This, coming from a girl who stood up to that same student council so that a girl she'd just recently met wouldn't get pressured into taking tankery, and only stood down when the girl in question changed her mind?" Mako said skeptically.

"Well, with all the girls in the school- I think it's still well over a 3:1 girl-boy ratio- there's no guarantee he'll pick me- if, that is, he's interested in girls at all- and also…" After quickly transitioning from one excuse to another, Saori trailed off and sighed. "All right, you got me, Mako. I've searched for a boy for so long that I never really thought about what I would do if I ever found one. I suppose I thought after I won the tournament, one or more would just come to me."

"And then from those boys who came forth, you would find the 'right' one?" Mako said.

"That sounds about right," Saori said. "In the later stages of that tournament, that fell to a secondary priority as I worked to keep the school open, to stay with you and everyone else. But now that we're done with that, and have a chance to go back to… lower stakes tankery games… I'm starting to think about continuing to try for one."

"Hm…." Mako said thoughtfully as she contemplated what Saori had told her.

"And before you ask, no, I don't yet know whether Garai is anything close to right for me," Saori said. "If I jump in without thinking, I could cost myself more than the chance at a romantic relationship. And I wasn't lying or making excuses when I said the rules were an impediment- who knows whether they'd scare him off, or how we'd proceed?"

"I suppose you're figuring out that reality rarely meets your expectations, especially as far as romance goes?" Mako said. "Your Prince Charming doesn't just walk into your life, leading you to recognize him as such instantly and fall in love at first sight, right?"

"I guess you could say that," Saori said. "Dad told me once that things in life hardly ever work out anything close to the way they do in fairy tales, but when they do work out, they're more fulfilling."

Mako silently listened, and nodded to Saori, conceding her point. She had heard that Saori's father had met Saori's mother through a dating service after graduating from college, two years after his college girlfriend broke up with him because of pressure from her parents. Saori's mother had admired her first crush from afar, only to discover that he did not view her in nearly the same way. Neither had been the other's first love or the person they had always seen themselves getting together with, but they fell in love, were happily married, raised a daughter together and had no regrets about any of that.

Mako's life had been difficult in many ways, but she, in spite of her laziness, recognized a meaningful triumph when she saw one. For the moment, all she could do for her friend was hope that she would find the right person for her, and recognize the opportunity when it came.

"But there is one thing I'm sure about," Saori said. "I'm glad Garai came here."

"Same here," Mako said.

The Oarai students also had their studies in addition to their tankery practice, and as part of them, they had a math test and an essay. Each was preceded by a great deal of effort put into studying and writing, while each was followed by students worrying to various degrees about how well they would do, based in part on their academic skill and self-confidence.

"So, how did everyone do?" Miho said as she met the rest of Team Anglerfish and Yukari in the tankery hangar.

"Ok, I guess," Saori said, unenthusiastically, showing a 82 in math and an 80 in writing, then glanced over to Miho's tests, in which she scored a 96 in math and a 95 in writing, "Wow, great job, Miporin!"

"Thanks, Saori-san," Miho said, "even if it isn't quite as good as what my sister usually gets." Maho was among the top students in her grade at Black Forest. "How about you, Hana-san?"

"Very well, thank you," Hana said, showing her tests- a 92 in math and a 94 on the writing essay.

"I did fairly well," Yukari said, showing a 89 in math and an 85 on writing.

"Nothing too surprising here," Mako said, showing perfect grades on her math test and essay.

"What about you, Suou-kun?" Miho said.

Garai turned around his papers. He had scored a 99 on his math test, but only a 79 on his essay.

"That's better than most of us in math," Miho said.

"Math tests are kind of a joke around here," Mako said cynically.

"Don't say that, Mako," Saori said. "Sure, they're easy for you, but they're harder for a lot of other people who may not be good at math. Can't you be happy that Garai's almost as good as you in math?"

"I'm not saying I'm not happy for him, but Saotome-sensei's tests are often math problems pulled from the books," Mako said. "I think she's not good at teaching anything other than rote memorization. Master that and you've mastered the class."

"You have a point, Reizei-san," Garai said. "I actually didn't think I was all that good at math, or school in general."

"If that's true," Mako said, "then it shouldn't be too hard for the others to get up to or near your level if they take some pointers from you."

"Glad I could help," Garai said with a smile.

"So what was the question you got wrong?" Miho said, and Garai showed her his paper, pointing out the mistake. "I see… a simple calculation error near the end of the problem. It seems you missed that 2x near the end." Miho and the other girls, even Saori, had gotten that problem correct, though none of them mentioned or even noticed that detail.

"But the good thing is that we all passed our tests," Saori said. "It'd be a problem if any of us failed, since while we're required to have an elective, we have to keep our grades up to compete in tournaments."

"That's right," Miho said. "We need all hands available for the tournament or other matches given the number of people we have. And more than that, I'd like to keep doing tankery with everyone included."

Tank practice that day concluded, and Garai's performance as loader had improved substantially. He had surpassed Haruka of the student council, and even the new loaders of Anteater and Leopon team, although most of the loaders who had filled their positions last year were still better than he was in the heat of battle, in which staying calm and at peak performance were as important as speed.

Afterward, Miho and the others gathered around to talk with Garai in hopes of learning more about him.

"So, Suou-kun, where are you from?" Miho said. "Some of the boys apparently came from schools that shut down, while others transferred from other schools, while the first-years were just starting high school, and might have intended to go to one that's no longer open."

"Transferred?" Garai said. The first possibility was self-explanatory, while the third did not apply to him as a third year.

"Since you're a third year, Miporin's curious about where you were going before or why you left," Saori said. "You know, something like your family moving, one of your parents getting a new job or getting transferred, you confessing to someone and getting turned down, that sort of thing."

"My family…" Garai said hesitantly. "They… didn't factor into my decision."

An awkward silence ensued as Garai's teammates and Yukari looked at him and each other, processing what he had said and trying to gauge the mood. What more could they say when, to them, it seemed clear that Garai had no desire to discuss his parents any further? Around the time that they concluded that they should talk about anything but Garai's family, Saori broke the silence.

"You know what this place has that your old place probably didn't?" Saori said. "Potato-flavored ice cream! We should go there, sometime!"

"That is a wonderful idea, Saori-san!" Hana said. "Would you be interested in going there some time, Suou-kun?"

"Yeah," Garai said, his expression brightening. "Potato flavored ice cream sounds like something I haven't had before, but they have other flavors, right?"

"They do," Miho said. "At the very least, they have standard flavors like chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, so you should find something you like there."

The girls smiled as Saori's attempt at changing the subject succeeded. But none of them could deny that the conversation after that seemed more awkward and forced than it had been before, as Garai's apparent lack of family became a proverbial elephant in the room.

After eating ice cream out, Garai waved goodbye to the girls and prepared to go on his way home. However, he barely was a few feet down his separate path until he noticed Mako walking alongside him, after a whispered exchange with Saori.

"Hey," Mako said. "You want to talk about earlier?"

Garai nodded, hoping to hear what Mako had to say first.

"I've known Saori a long time," Mako said. "She's not the best in academics and occasionally comes off as a boy-crazy ditz, but she knows people surprisingly well. At first I thought it was just because I was her friend that she understood me well, but I've noticed that she can tell when things are upsetting people, and change the subject, even if she's only met them recently. This was true for Miho when she first started here, and I think the same applies to you."

"That makes sense," Garai said. "I'm grateful that Takebe-san stepped in; it wasn't going to be easy to talk about my family or give an excuse for not doing so."

"And there's another thing, too," Mako said. "I'm also the type who doesn't talk about her family much, so I have some idea where you're coming from. Saori understands that fact, as well as the reason why it's a difficult subject for me. In my case, my parents died in an accident while I was in elementary school- to make matters worse, the last time I spoke with my mother, I had an argument with her."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Reizei-san," Garai said.

Mako gave a slight smile in appreciation. "I suppose now you know why my friends don't talk about it much," she said. "Saori, the only person you and I know who heard about it from me, remained quiet about it until my grandmother, my only remaining family, was hospitalized, at which point she told our friends on my request, around the time Miho's…" Mako cleared her throat, stopping herself short.

"What's this about Nishizumi-san?" Garai said, confused.

"Sorry, I don't think it's my place to tell you; you'll have to ask Miho," Mako said. "But in any event, around that time, I remembered that while my parents were gone, I still had fond memories of them, and learned to appreciate those memories, as well as the lessons I had learned from them."

Garai sighed. He recognized Mako's advice as a good way to keep perspective, but felt as though it would be applicable to almost everyone besides him.

"That's the problem," he said. "All I know about my family is that they're gone; I have no memories of them- odd, considering that I'm otherwise good at remembering things. The only part I remember is having a younger sister named Mariko, but I apparently lost contact with her at some point. I don't even know if she's alive, or if she even knows I exist. I remember growing up in a special facility, but that's it."

An uncomfortable silence ensued between them. Garai was unsure of what more he could say, and Mako was unsure of what she could say in response.

"I honestly don't know what to say," Mako said. "There are some like Miho, who, despite not showing much of their problems, need a comforting hand or a kind word to get through. There are some like Hana, who typically act strong and simply ask those close to them who share their pain to not suffer as well. There are also those like myself, who don't care much for giving or receiving meaningless gestures of sympathy, although it doesn't necessarily signify that we're not having a hard time."

"I see…" Garai said as he pondered what Maho said. "I honestly hope that what I said didn't come off as insincere to you." Mako shook her head with a slight smile and Garai, relieved, continued. "I suppose I only said what came to mind, which I felt would be most appropriate."

"Unfortunately, although you seem to be in the first type, like Miho, I don't know what I say that can help," Mako said. "The only thing that I can say is that if you have no memories, you also are free of regrets. If you've managed to get this far, then you most likely have a great deal of strength in you, and, whatever happened to them, your parents must have known it as well. Eventually, regardless of whether they're ready, parents have to let their children go out into the world, and as the time came for yours, they must have realized you were, or would be, ready."

"Thank you for the talk, Reizei-san," Garai said.

After walking on for a little while longer in silence, Mako took a few steps off to the side after crossing the street, and stopped.

"My place is over that way," Mako said. "I'll see you tomorrow, Garai."

"See you then, Reizei-san," Garai said, waving goodbye as their paths diverged.

As Garai went home, he found himself surprised to realize how much he had admitted to Mako, even in his hasty attempt to brush off the conversation about his family. But when he realized how much she had told him about herself, and what she had almost told him about Miho, he simply concluded that it was natural for friends to be open with each other. Even so, he conceded to himself that there was still a great deal he had not told them, and wondered if he would ever be truly ready to tell them.

The next day at school, tankery practice continued. As Garai had gotten the hang of loading quickly enough, Yukari was spending all of her training time with Mallard Team. The team had come far since the match with Pravda, but was still one of the less experienced teams. Yukari had to come to terms with the fact that Gomoyo was a far cry from Mako as a driver, and Pazomi had neither Yukari's skill as a loader nor Hana's skill as a gunner. But they had improved quite a bit since the new year had begun, as had the others, especially Anteater Team, Leopon Team and Turtle Team.

"Thank you so much for helping us, Akiyama-san," Gomoyo said. "Sodoko tried her best as commander, but she said she never saw tankery as anything other than temporary, and as such, there was a limit to how helpful she could be, and how much she would improve."

"It's my pleasure," Yukari said. "A lot of people see tankery as quite intimidating, with five separate tasks that must be done well individually and in concert. There's little that makes me happier than helping people get the skills they need to climb over that wall and learn just how much fun and how fulfilling tankery can be."

Yukari knew that it took more than confidence in one's tankery skill, an enjoyment of tankery and a basic grasp of one's role to win official matches. But she realized that many of the Oarai tankery team had begun with none of these, and she believed that the newer members could rise to the occasion as those who came before them had, especially considering how little the disparity in their experience was. Whatever opponents awaited Oarai's revived tankery team, it would still be possible for them to win.

After tankery practice concluded, the student council approached Miho.

"Nishizumi-san, we have a message for you," Haruka said, handing a printed e-mail to Miho. Miho read over the e-mail, which was written by someone named "Nishizawa Sasuke," although the stilted, formal writing and the lack of first-person pronouns gave the impression that he wrote it on behalf of someone else.

"Shirosame Academy challenges us to a tank match?" Miho said, turning to Yukino. "I'm willing to accept, provided that doing so meets with the student council's approval, President, but... I've never heard of them."

"You have our permission," Yukino said, "although I didn't see anything in the letter that indicated it was asking us whether we wanted to participate. It reads like a commanding officer mailing deployment orders to a soldier- it's an order, not a request."

"They can't seriously compel us to attend, can they?" Miho said. "According to tankery rules, the worst that can happen to a school that is a no-show in a tankery tournament is disqualification. In exhibition matches, being a no-show without a good reason is typically a black mark on a school's reputation, but little else happens."

"Maybe it's just me," Yukino said, "but I can't help but feel as though they're not taking such a tone out of mere bravado or arrogance, even if they do seem to possess the latter. Besides, it might be a good opportunity to test how the three of us, as well as the other new members, are doing compared to our peers, and how the teams with a different makeup, like yours, are faring."

"There is another matter," Shizune said. "Shirosame Academy, as well as its tankery crew, is entirely male. Not only that, they were, until recently, unaware of anyone besides males being involved in tankery."

Omake

Miho lay in bed, dreaming about the past. Unfortunately for her, the dreams that came to here were not always pleasant ones, if not all of those were traumatic.

She found herself back in the tank café, eating her dessert with teammates, shortly after the tournament brackets for the last tournament had been set.

"Vice-captain?" Erika's voice came, causing Miho to remember when it was. Almost on cue, as Miho remembered, she then followed up with a snarky "Oh, that would be former vice-captain."

Miho then turned to her sister, remembering that she had also been there around the same time she noticed her.

"Onee-chan…" Miho said.

"I didn't think you'd still be doing tankery," Maho said. Miho found hearing it in the dream as painful as she did back then. Despite understanding that Maho truly loved and cared for her, it still hurt to hear her sister speak to her in an aloof way, and Maho enjoyed acting in such a way as little as Miho enjoyed hearing her do it.

"If I may say something, I don't think Miho-san's decision was incorrect" a voice across the table from Miho said.

The words sounded familiar. But Miho was surprised to hear that Garai was the one saying them, having stood up from where Yukari had sat that day.

"I hadn't met him back then…" Miho thought. "And didn't Yukari-san say what he did?"

"What did you say?!" Erika said defensively, instead of in her usual smug tone.

"You heard me," Garai said. "The next time you dare criticize Miho-san for trying to save lives rather than winning some stupid tankery game, imagine how it would feel if you or someone you cared for- if any such people exist for you- were in the sinking tank. Would you rather have what would have happened to them without your intervention on your conscience?"

"Th-Those are the rationalizations of someone who always loses," Erika said. Miho knew that Erika was, in spite of her ego, thin-skinned, but remembered that Erika had considered Yukari's argument unworthy of a proper rebuttal.

"Here's something for you and the others in that ivory tower of yours," Garai said, mimicking the essence of Mako's taunt to Erika, and some of her word choices. "You've never faced a team like us before. They say trying new things is good, so allow us to introduce you to defeat."

Barely containing her anger, Erika stormed off in a huff, and Maho followed, her expression one of quiet awe.

As Miho woke up, her mind flashed back to the dream. In it, Garai inserted himself into her past. He did many of the things that her friends- primarily Yukari, his predecessor as loader- had done. And he did so with more success, as well as confidence that was uncharacteristic of him. What did it all mean?

Author's Notes

Thank you for the reviews.

severstal

Regarding the titles, Mako will later make fun of them, noting that she finds them, and the STU as an organization, rather pretentious and arrogant; to put things into perspective, the STU Council make Erika look humble by comparison, and she makes it known at a few points how little she thinks of them. On the other hand, it should be noted that at least one member of the Council is using his title to hide his real identity.

Joannes808

It's worth pointing out that Erika and Shiho oppose what the STU does, although not for the most benevolent reasons (they think they're arrogant and haven't earned what they plan on taking for themselves- which is true but also a perception born from their elitist view of tankery). The STU is wrong, but might it be possible that tankery is in need of some significant and revitalizing change? Quite a few fics here have seemingly taken a stab at answering the question of whether and how tankery needs to change, and it will be addressed here as well.

As for the rest, the story's still in its opening phase; it's expected to be about 25 chapters long, and the details are slowly being revealed over time.

With Tankery being dominated by females, I imagine that there are some misogynistic types who believe that it is only meant for females, while males should only crew actual tanks.

One has to wonder how Saori would react if she met a boy she was potentially interested in without him expressing an interest in her. My guess is that, given her lack of romantic experience, and how anticipating seems to be better than having, she would be unsure of how to proceed.

Interestingly enough, Girls Und Panzer doesn't seem to have much of a shipping fanbase at all outside of Canon/OC pairings, possibly due to a lack of ship tease within the show itself.

My interpretation of how the girls, besides Mako, who is at the top of the class, do in school is largely a guess, based on their general intelligence.

The omake was meant to reflect a trend I've noticed in fanfics, in which people often revisit the scene in which Erika and Maho encounter Anglerfish Team in the café, and the OCs of the fic proceed to tell off Erika more effectively than Yukari and Mako did- I'm not sure if it's more due to them wanting to give their OCs a Crowning Moment of Awesome, or because they don't like Erika. As for what meaning Miho got from the dream (if any), I'll leave that up to your interpretation. A secondary reason for including that was to revisit the scene in light of the revelation in Little Army that Maho cares for Miho and that her aloof behavior is a façade. I'm leaving Miho's reasons for the dream, and what, if any, message she can draw for it, up to interpretation.

Ending Theme Team: New Mallard Team