Chapter Two

Erika had been blissfully unconscious during her evacuation to hospital. She only woke up the day after the surgery on her left upper arm, with the unnerving realisation that she had lost nearly two whole days somewhere.

She had lost more than that too. Obviously there had been no hope of saving her arm; most of it had been pulverised by the shell. Quite upsettingly for those who made the discovery, her hand and wrist had been found some way down the street from where she was hit. Erika was promised physio, rehab, counselling, and all the other sorts of aftercare that the hospital could offer.

Now, almost a month later, she was ready to return to school. Actually, she considered herself more than ready. Understandably, her parents and older sister had fussed and worried over her, but it had become a bit unbearable.

Not that Erika wasn't worried about her return to school. She would be, as far as she was aware, the only one-armed girl in Kuromorimine, and probably would attract quite a lot of attention as a result. She was also nervous about how she would cope with living on her own in her new state. She wouldn't, however, let any of these doubts or feelings show. She was determined to resume her life and be even stronger than before.

She arrived back on the Kuromorimine carrier ship dressed in casual clothes rather than her uniform. She was wearing light tan three quarter length slacks with canvas sneakers and a pale t-shirt. The short left sleeve of her top was snug around the fairly thick layers of crepe bandage that still surrounded the remaining top third of her left upper arm, the tip of which just protruded past the hem of her sleeve.

There was no one to welcome her; the truth was she had few friends and she had dismissed her hope that her idol Maho Nishizumi might be there to greet her as pure fantasy.

Her mother helped her move some of her stuff back into her room and it was quite a while before Erika could persuade her to leave. Once she had finally gone, Erika sat on her bed, pondering what to do next. The truth was, she was a bit tired from the efforts of moving back onto the carrier ship and all the physical and emotional efforts that had required. She decided to relax and turn in early, ready for whatever tomorrow would bring.

She lay propped on her bed reading an issue of Panzerkraft Monthly until this began to irritate her. It was hard trying to turn the pages with only one hand. Her brain kept trying to send signals to her missing left arm to hold the magazine while her right arm did the turning. Finally she got annoyed and threw the magazine across the room. It was then that there was a knock at her door.

Her heart racing, although she didn't really know why, Erika leapt up from her bed and went to the door. Without really thinking about it, she opened the door so that she remained standing partially behind it, with the left side of her body hidden from the view of her unexpected visitor. Once the door was open, she found herself looking at a short, young girl who she knew as one of the first years on the Panzerkraft team. Without a word, the girl handed Erika a small envelope and then departed.

Erika closed the door again and struggled to get into the envelope. 'Oh crap!' she cursed to herself. The flap was stuck down firmly and she couldn't hold it and open it at the same time with one hand. She used her initiative, and her teeth, and tore the thing open.

"See me in my office tomorrow 0900 - Maho"

Erika's heart fluttered. 'The Kommandant!' she thought, as she ignored what might be behind the meeting and thought about her idol.

….

Erika awoke from a surprisingly good night's sleep. She must have been worn out from the previous day, she mused. She went to throw the bed covers off herself with her left hand, but nothing happened.

'Oh crap… yeah… forgot… no left arm. Get a grip Erika!' she chastised herself. She reversed hands, got up and neatly re-made her bed as she always did. Then she went into the small, pod-style bathroom that her room was equipped with and took her pyjamas off. She used the basin to give herself a thorough sponge bath - sadly a shower was out of the question for a while as the dressings around her arm stump were not allowed to get wet.

After towelling herself dry she got her school uniform out of her wardrobe. It was odd to think that the last time she had put this away, it had been because she had changed into her Panzerkraft uniform on the day that she was confirmed as the next Kommandant.

'Oh crap' she sighed to herself. All that was in jeopardy now, of course.

She perked up her mind and tried to be more positive. 'School will be fine!' she told herself. She could still see and think and walk. She was right handed so she could still use a pen and a computer.

'Who needs two arms anyway?!' she asked herself as she selected some underwear from her chest of drawers. She was sure that she could cope just fine how she was. Two arms were only needed for things like turning magazine pages or opening envelopes or…

'Oh crap!'

...putting on bras, apparently.