Chapter 3.5 is now gone, and say hello to Chapter 4: Welcome to the US! Thank you to the three people who voted on my poll, and all of them were in the "No" category. Hence, I will say that this will be in the fictional 2010's, and that things are around the same time as our time. However, the President will remain the President, no names attached. And no, I am not going to talk about the "great wall," unless I think that will be important for the plot.
This essentially means that the President will remain a minor character. From this chapter on, the girls will become truly the main characters. They will go on a wild adventure, especially when their tank seemingly creates portals on random! This will put them in the craziest places possible; hopefully, this will keep the audience wanting more.
Girls und Odyssey
Chapter 4: Welcome to the US
June 25, 20XX
5:45PM Sunday, Eastern Standard Time
Washington D. C.: The White House
The President sat in the Oval Office, slightly exhausted. Being a President was no easy job, but right now he had a pile of papers to sign.
"What a job," he muttered to himself.
Furthermore, the idea of the "Project Portal" laid heavy in his heart. The secrecy of it all irritated him; why did they have to hide it, even from the President?
"Arghh!" he cried out. "I have had enough!"
He reached for something underneath his table. Taking it out, he dialed on what looked like a flip cell phone.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring-click!
"Hello?"
"It is I," the President answered in a low voice.
"Initiate the reconnaissance?"
"10-4."
At the same time, but in Japan Standard Time . . .
June 26, 20XX
7:45AM Monday, Japan Standard Time
Ooarai High School carrier
"Everybody!"
Anzu roared, in order to quiet down the raucous crowd in front of her. All the girls in the club were whispering, crying, and talking at the same time, shocked at the revelation.
"I know you all are nervous!" Anzu coughed from screaming out loud. Momo gave her a handheld speaker. "T-thanks," she answered, taking it and adjusting its volume.
"I know that this is serious," she spoke through the speaker. "But please, quiet down!"
The whole crowd went silent, although a good number of them continued to sob and whisper.
"OK," she cleared her throat. "Let's get to the point: we were on a friendly, all-out match between all of us and the Anglerfish Team. It was a 'revenge match' for the very first match back when we first revived the Senshado. However, once again, the Anglerfish Team was defeating us one-by-one."
"So," cried out Erwin, with right hand hand. "Technically, they won."
A low murmur went through the crowd.
"No!" Momo roared. "We have three more on our side!"
"But," Oryou, the Hippo Team driver, spoke. "Back then, there were four against one; this one was seven against one."
Another low murmur emanated.
"Enough!" Momo roared, but her face betrayed her realization.
"She's right," Anzu said nonchalantly. "But she was winning again. Only the Anteater and the Leopon teams remained, and both decided to battle it out. However, getting to the point, they were the only eyewitnesses to what happened."
"Let me see," she continued. "The first to contact us was Tsuchiya, the driver of the Leopon Team. That was because she was the one driving and contacting us on the radio. From what we heard, both teams were firing upon Miho, but they witnessed a portal of some sort."
"A portal?" the whole club roared in confusion.
"I-I cannot believe it!" stuttered Nekota, coming out. "I-I was one of the first to see it! Miho's team fired out a strange, silver-ish shell, which suddenly created a white-and-blue hole in front of a boulder!"
"We saw it, too!" Momoga and Piyotan replied.
"Tsuchiya was the first to see it for us," Nakajima said, sweating a little. "When she said about a portal, I thought she was a little crazy."
"Hey!" Tsuchiya groaned. "But it was so bizarre . . ."
"Suzuki and I," said Hoshino. "Saw it too, and . . . yeah."
"But I did hear something from them on the radio," said Nekota.
Everybody turned to look at her.
"Wait," said Nakajima. "Normally, we all can hear the same thing, don't we?"
"Yeah," said Nekota. "But now that I think back, our tank was closer to Miho's, and I heard something funny . . ."
Silence.
"It-it was like a message of something," she continued. "S-something like 'Transmission Blocked . . . But I think our tank was closer, so I heard Miho's cry of something like 'Move it!' and 'Wait, is that.' Suddenly, I heard all of them scream, and they . . . were gone."
"How close was your tank?" asked Anzu.
"About 500 yards away from the tank," said Nekota.
"Mine," said Nakajima. "Was about 750 yards away."
"And we all heard it, too!" Momoga and Piyotan cried out in unison.
"It's apparent," said Nekota in a whisper. "That there was something weird with Miho's tank. None of us have a transmission disruptor or something."
"Did they add something to their tank?" asked Azusa. "I-I don't think Miho would do that kind of stuff!"
"She never did," said Nakajima. "We're the mechanics here! We do all the fixing! She never told us about this, so I don't think she's the kind to do so!"
"I think I know."
Everybody turned to look at her. Saki Maruyama was a first-year young girl who was known for one thing: not speaking. Almost as if mute, Saki rarely talked, but her friends in the Rabbit Team knew what she had in mind. If she did speak, she spoke in a rather nonchalant tone. So, when she spoke up with a little nervousness in her voice, it was a rare moment. Even her whole team stepped back in shock.
"I saw her," she continued. "Not long ago, on June 22, I saw her leave the garage around 5:00 PM. She was still her usual self, as usual. I secretly admire her, along with my Rabbit friends. But I saw a white ball of light move nearby the garage."
Silence. All of the girls either had pale faces, sweated profusely, or both. It was hard for them to tell which one was scarier: the mysterious ball of light, or the fact that Saki spoke so much.
"Saki . . ." Azusa spoke hesitantly. "Go . . . on, please . . ."
"The ball seemed to have a purpose," Saki continued. "It then went into the garage, and Miho did not see it. She left. I saw it go in. So, I went inside. I saw nothing, except for her tank. I went around. No ball of light. But the tank did glow a little."
She fell silent.
"G-go on," Azusa persuaded her, yet her voice shook. "T-tell us what happened."
"The tank looked like the same old," she continued. "Then, I saw it."
Silence. Now, everyone was starting to shake. Even Anzu, despite her nonchalant face, flinched.
"The tank turret moved," she continued, ignoring the gasps from the crowd. "There was no one in there, I checked inside. But the tank felt weird. It looked quite clean, and I saw arms come out of it."
"Arms?!" many of the girls cried out.
"Some kind of mechanical arms," she replied, ignoring the sighs of relief from them. "Appeared from the gaps of the tank, and started to . . . fix the tank."
"Wait," said Nakajima, realizing with a start. "So that's why she did not tell us to fix the tank. She checked it, but found no damage or anything to fix. I thought it felt too clean and too perfectly fixed. And I know that none of the Anglerfish Team members are experts at mechanics!"
"And," Saki said. "I heard something on the radio."
Everybody in the room stared at her again, faces paler than ever before. A few of them started to shake, as if about to faint.
"What did it say?" asked Azusa.
"In English," Saki said. "I cannot understand all of it, but something about 'Project' and '51' or something."
"And?" asked Azusa, but dropped the question. Saki went back to her usual self. She stopped talking, and just stared into space again.
"Ahem . . ." Anzu spoke through the speaker, but in a low, hesitant voice. Everybody stared at her, glad to be over with the "incident."
"I-I think," said Anzu. "That we'll keep this a secret, for now. I will call you all one-by-one, file the reports, and try and deal with this."
"W-what are we going to do about their parents?" asked Erwin.
"Ah," said Yuzu. "That's a good question."
"Wait," said Anzu, eyeing the horizon. The school carrier was starting to dock on a port nearby. She smiled.
"Let's make an excuse," she said. "That we're on a field trip. A very long one."
"And a good one," said Saki. Anzu sweated at that.
In only one or two hours later, Anzu announced through e-mails and phone calls that the whole Senshado Club was on a "surprise field trip."
"We've got to find a way to deal with this!" said Momo, shaking as she packed up her belongings for the trip. "H-how can we explain this to authority?"
"But good thing we're in summer break," Yuzu said. She also shook, packing up her items to carry for the long trip ahead.
"We'll try and find a way," said Anzu, trying to be as calm as possible. "Just I hope that Miho will be alright . . ."
"Student Council?"
All three members turned around. Saki stood in front of their room. They all stopped to stare at her.
"W-what is it?" asked Anzu.
"I . . ." she began. Saki breathed out a little, and shivered.
"I remember another thing," she finally spoke it out. "When I was in the tank, checking for Miho and her comrades, I found something in the tank."
She took it out, put it on Anzu's table, and silent left.
Anzu, Momo, and Yuzu all looked at the paper. All of the words were very large, bold, and in capital letters:
PROJECT PORTAL
AREA 51
SUCCESS
STATUS: MISSING
"What is this?" asked Momo.
"Area 51?" asked Yuzu.
"And it was in Miho's tank," said Anzu. "After that mysterious ball . . ."
She fell silent. She stared into space, like Saki, but in deep thought.
"Prez?" asked Yuzu.
"Yuzu," she spoke. "Keep this document. We'll need it for something bigger . . ."
June 25, 20XX
5:45PM Sunday, Eastern Standard Time
Somewhere in the farmlands of northern Virginia . . .
"I-is this a field trip?"
Saori said what everybody wished was true. All five of them were stunned, standing there as still as stone. The revelation of their tank, and the fact that they all were in the US, gave them one of the biggest shocks of their lives. Now, they were in the middle of nowhere, just a vast expanse of American farms, forests, and a single highway.
"W-what should we do?" Yukari hesitantly asked.
"The radio!" Saori blurted out, and dashed to their tank.
"W-wait! Saori-chan!" Miho called out, but she was gone. "Girls, let's go!"
The others nodded. Into this strange, new world, they all decided that sticking together was the only option. The four followed their panicky member, going through shrubs and trees to find their location. Miho was the first to reach the location, but she stopped cold.
"Miho-san?" asked Hana, but she also fell silent.
Yukari and Mako finally arrived, but they all gasped. The tank was still there, but it changed colors. Normally of a reddish tinge, it was in a color of green and brown, so that it was well-camouflaged. However, that was not the shocking part. Saori herself was standing still, pale as a ghost. She stood to the right of the tank, but to the left . . .
A man with a bushy beard, a worn hat, and a heavy overall stood to the left of the tank. He grunted, as he cocked his shotgun.
Everybody was silent. Now, in the middle of nowhere, a man with a gun was standing in front of five high school girls, who had no guns, no protection, and no idea of where they were. The man alone had a gun; the girls only had a tank. However, the tank was useless when it had no people in it to function; hence, the man had the advantage here.
Now, the man slowly grunted, making the others tremble. Then, he spoke only one question:
"Wanna come to my farm?"
He spoke in plain, American English. Unfortunately, the girls in front of him were all Japanese. The good news was that they all took English classes.
"Uh . . ." Miho was the first to speak. Giving a curtsy, she approached the man. The man grunted in approval.
"Not . . . Ingrish speaker . . . but . . . I . . . can say a lit-to," Miho said.
"Nice English," said the man, smiling. Miho suddenly blushed; he reminded her of Santa Claus.
"Ho-ho-ho!" the man spoke. The others loosened up, sighing in relief. He really did look and sound like Santa Claus. Even Saori warmed up to the man, and approached him cautiously.
"Hello," she greeted. "H-how may we help you or something?"
"Oh!" the man spoke. "Perfect English!"
"Where did you learn that so fast?" Yukari cried out in Japanese to her.
"Hey! English is one of my favorite topics!" she pouted, but in Japanese. "And isn't that the language of Hollywood or something?"
"You guys," the man said, smiling. "Want some rest? Come with me."
All of them understood him quite well, except Hana.
"G-gomen-nasai?" she spoke.
"Hana!" Saori hissed at her old friend. "Speak English!"
"Ho-ho-ho!" the man laughed. "Just go to that barn over there."
He pointed it with his right index finger. All of the girls stared at the horizon, and saw a simple barn not far away.
"Drive through the forest," he told them. "And carefully come with me. You know what will happen if the police find out about a 'runaway tank' these days . . ."
The man turned around and walked towards the same barn in the distance. "That's my farm," he told them. "Take your time to carefully come!"
The others looked at each other, and Miho nodded. They all went back into their tank, which felt both familiar and strange at the same time. Mako started to turn the engine, but noticed something.
"Miho," she said.
"Yes?" Miho asked.
"What are these?"
They all looked. On the right side of the driver's seat was a set of buttons and screens. All of the buttons, however, were in a variety of colors, including the labels on them. A blue one with yellow labels flashed out: CLOAK.
"Cloak?" asked Saori. "Some kind of an invisibility button?"
"How do you know?" asked Hana.
"Yukarin told me," she answered. Yukari blushed in the background.
"Mako," began Saori. "Let Mipo-"
Click.
Mako pressed the button, and the whole tank started to shake, then was still.
"Nothing?" asked Saori.
"It is cloak," Miho gasped, her head outside of the hatch. The others opened their own hatches, and gasped.
The whole tank was invisible. Even their hatches were invisible, from the outside. Only the interior walls and everything inside were unaffected.
"This is so cool!" exclaimed Saori. "Tank with invisibility? Awesome!"
"What a game changer!" cried out Yukari, beaming with joy. "This is so much better than sneaking into a school carrier!"
"Girls," Miho said calmly. The others turned to look at her, in silent respect.
"Let's try out the tank," she told them. "After we go to the farm."
The others agreed. Even in tense situations like this, Miho kept her cool.
"Good thing you have that Nishizumi style of combat," said Yukari with a squeal. "Do you guys learn about more than just survival?"
"Well," she said, blushing a little. "We also learned English and German. A lot."
Miho suddenly saw the same man wave in the distance.
"Let's go for now," she told them. "And plan our next move."
The others nodded, as Mako revved up their tank to move towards their first destination . . .
April 25, 20XX
6:00PM Sunday, Eastern Standard Time
Somewhere in the farmlands of northern Virginia . . .
"So, girls," said the same man. "What bring you all all the way here?"
"Umm . . ."
The girls were all now at the table, waiting for the man's wife to prepare the food. It was a cozy dining room with a rustic feel, befitting a rural home. Four of the girls sat on the edges of the rectangular table, big enough to fit six people. Miho, however, sat on the far end of the table, while the man sat on the other end.
"Oh!" the man realized. "I forgot to tell you all my name. I am Martin. Martin Ranger."
"Thank you for your hospitality," all of the girls replied, bowing. Apparently, all of them practiced their English ahead of time.
"No need to bow," said Martin. "We're Americans here."
"Honey!" Martin's wife called out. "Help me here! Your ribs are burning!"
"Mary!" Martin moaned. "How many times did I tell you about barbecuing!"
He sighed, while the girls giggled.
"Sorry, girls," he told them. "Hold on, as I need to go and assist."
Martin got up from his seat, and walked with a military gait into the kitchen. While the couple was in the kitchen to deal with their cooking, the girls started to talk among themselves.
"They're so nice," Miho remarked.
"Smells so good!" Saori exclaimed.
"I wonder how American food taste like," Hana pondered.
"It's America!" Yukari roared.
"Dessert time," Mako just said.
"Mako!" Saori yelled at her. "Have some manner, please!"
"What should we do?" asked Miho. "We can't really pay them back."
"Oh . . ." Saori recognized. "I guess we can pay them back someday."
"You don't have to!" Martin roared from the kitchen. Saori and Miho both jumped at that.
"Good," Mako said. "Problem solved."
"Mako!" Saori admonished her. "Don't take this too lightly."
"Well," she replied. "We need every blessing in this land."
"Good point," said Hana. "We are foreigners in a foreign land, you know?"
"Say," said Yukari in a low whisper, and everybody craned in together. "Let's check our tank."
"After you get good food, and good sleep!" Mary yelled from the kitchen. "You girls sure look tired!"
"O-oh!" Miho replied. "T-thank you!"
"You're welcome!" Martin yelled. "And your English is perfect!"
"T-thank you!" she answered. "I-I re-practiced it on our ride here."
"And that fast?" asked Saori. "How did you remember so fast?"
"She's the leader," Mako said nonchalantly. "Don't question her survival power."
Saori pouted, but everyone smiled in agreement.
"Sorry to keep you all up!" Martin said. "We'll be ready soon!"
An hour later . . .
"And here we are!"
Martin and Mary piled the table high with plates after plates of food. All of the girls were . . . more than a little hungry.
"Wow . . ." Miho and Saori both stared in amazement.
"It's amazing," Hana remarked.
"Oh . . ." Yukari was drooling.
"Let's get to the sweets," Mako commented.
"Mako!"
"I mean, after the entrees."
Laughter filled the whole room, as Martin seated back to his place.
"So," said Martin. "How do you guys do your thing?"
"Huh?" asked Miho.
"He's talking about etiquette," explained Saori.
"Oh!" Miho understood. "In Japan, we say 'Itadakimasu' before we eat."
"Ita-da-ku-miso?" Martin tried to pronounce it. Giggles filled the room, and he blushed.
"OK!" Martin shook himself. "In America, for many of us, we say grace."
"How do you do that?" asked Hana.
"First," said Martin. "Let's see what you do."
"Itadakimasu!" all five girls cried out (their hands were in the proper posture), but only Mako started to get into her food.
"Mako!" Saori hissed. "We're not done yet!"
"Please . . ." grunted Mako, as she put down her fork, smeared in barbecue sauce.
Saori sighed, as she and the others directed their focus back to their hosts.
"That simple?" Martin wondered. "OK, for your sake, we'll keep ours short."
Martin and Mary both bowed down their heads, putting their hands together. Everybody except Mako did the same. Mako, noticing that no one was looking, slowly touched her fork with her right index finger, and tried to lick the sauce from it.
"Mako . . ." Saori hissed. She saw her. Mako groaned, and wiped her finger off with her napkin, and bowed her head down.
"Grace," he prayed. "Thank you."
"Grace!" the others replied.
"Alright!" Martin roared. "Just eat 'em all!"
"What is this?"
"What's this?"
"Is this American?"
The girls bombarded the couple with questions after questions, as they tried out a variety of dishes, known and unknown.
"Is this KFC?" asked Yukari, munching on a piece fried chicken thigh. "Oh! So oily, and so juicy!"
"Stop making me feel that!" Saori moaned, piling her food with what she thought was salad. "At least I have these cooked greens or something . . ."
"That's cooked kale and collard greens," said Mary. "Relatives of the cabbages and radishes from Japan."
"Oh!" Saori exclaimed, and piled her dish high with steaming leaves.
"Get your nutrition," Mako commented nonchalantly, as she feasted on her Buffalo wings. Her face and hands were smeared with sweet barbecue sauce, and she licked herself with silent passion.
"Unfortunately," said Mary. "Cooked greens also come cooked in butter and bacon."
Saori paled, but swallowed and just continued to eat.
"This is amazing," said Hana, as she took a whole hunk of ham away.
"Um," said Martin. "That's enough for three people."
"She actually can eat all that," said Saori.
"She can?" Martin and Mary both asked, their faces etched with shock.
"I thought Japanese eat less than that," said Mary, feeling a little nauseous.
"Bacon-wrapped oysters!?" exclaimed Yukari, munching on skewers of oily goodness. "I never heard of these!"
"We call them angels on horseback," said Martin. "Funny, huh?"
All five girls imagined angels with bacon wings riding on oyster shells, and chuckled a little.
"Mako!" Saori cried at Mako. "You're eating too many wings!"
"These are great," Mako grunted, crunching on Buffalo wings. "I saw these before, but none this juicy or saucy. Hmm . . . sweet!"
"You said this is a corn dog, right?" Miho asked, wielding a golden-brown, sausage-shaped skewer on a stick. The bitten top exposed the real hot dog underneath. "Oishee!"
"Oishee?" asked Mary.
"I guess that means 'delicious?'" speculated Martin, to which Miho nodded.
"By the way," said Martin, as he and the others continued to eat. "How did you all get here?"
All of the girls stopped eating, and looked at each other. Mako nonchalantly sucked on the barbecue sauce on her fingers.
"I think it's going to be tough, huh?" asked Martin. He then leaned on his chair, which squeaked in complaint. He coughed, then started to stare at the girls before him with a strange eye. The girls started to listen more closely; they could tell that he wanted a serious talk.
"Let me get to the point," he said in a strangely serious voice. "In the middle of nowhere, you all somehow ended up in the United States of America. To make matters worse, you girls are in the Senshado, what we Americans call Tankery. To make matters even worse, the US recently abolished the sport, so the use of tanks by civilians is technically . . . illegal."
The girls looked at each other again, this time with a worrisome eye.
"I want to say this, in order to warn you girls," he continued. Mary stood by, looking back and forth. She clearly cared for the girls.
"A few years ago, the US government issued a very famous referendum of some sort. Known as the 'Tankerxit' now, it was a special vote for millions of Americans to vote whether to keep the Tankery in or not. By a close upset, the Anti-Tankery side narrowly won. It caused quite a commotion when it did occur, but by now most of us Americans are used to the new situation. Apparently, we quit the Tankery because of both the high costs and the fact that it was closely tied to the stock market here."
The girls continued to listen, trying to understand the situation. Martin coughed, and continued.
"This essentially means that all tanks are now deemed in the hands of the military. All civilians with tanks either had to give up their property, or get special permits to keep them. Those with older tanks were more likely to keep theirs, because they were . . . well, older and hence less useful."
"Wait," Yukari raised her right hand high. "Tankery uses not just WWII-era tanks?"
"Correct," said Martin. "The Tankerxit also had that option, but I guess many Americans either preferred the newer models, or just did not read the questions right. Regardless, when the result was shown, many Americans went ballistic."
"Huh?" asked Miho.
"Flying into a rage," said Saori. "It's sort of like an idiom."
"Riots broke out in the main centers of Tankery throughout the US," continued Martin, frowning. "I cannot believe people vandalized and turned mob over things like that. Some of them, unfortunately, brought their own tanks into the downtowns and started to destroy property."
"Are you serious?" cried the girls.
"And a few infamous ones," said Martin. "Unfortunately loaded their guns and . . ."
He did not need to say more. All of the girls stared, aghast at the news.
"Who would even do such a barbaric thing?" Hana asked, in a mixture of of both English and Japanese. However, Martin completely understood her emotion from her reaction.
"Good thing no one actually died," said Martin, hearing sighs of relief from them. "But that was the last straw. The US government then forced all associates, private owners, and such and such with tanks to comply with the Tankerxit result. Now, most of us live in a world without even seeing a tank."
"When was this?" asked Miho.
"Exactly ten years ago," answered Martin.
"Ten years-wait, that long ago?" Yukari exclaimed. "I-I didn't hear this back in Japan!"
"Well," said Martin. "Japan cares about Japanese news, while America cares about American news. Most news reports do not spread outside of their homelands. I am also surprised to hear that Senshado apparently still is alive and kicking in Japan."
The girls stared at each other. Senshado sure became a Japanese phenomenon.
"How about other countries?" asked Yukari.
"Like I said before, America is America," said Martin. "So, I don't really know about other countries, and whether they still practice it to some degree."
"But we have Internet!" Yukari cried out. "I have been thousands upon thousands of reports, but that of this kind!"
"But," Miho suddenly said. "We're not here to discuss the Tankery by country or news; we have to learn how to get out of here."
"Exactly!" exclaimed Martin. "That's why I am telling you all this. I don't know how you girls somehow ended up in the middle of nowhere here, but a group of Japanese girls in a WWII-era tank in the middle of post-Tankery America is, well . . ."
"Complicated," the other girls finished his sentence. They all secretly were glad to have taken English classes.
"How was that possible?" asked Martin.
The girls looked at each other, and silently nodded at Miho. Miho cleared her throat, and explained the whole story . . .
April 25, 20XX
8:00PM Sunday, Eastern Standard Time
The Ranger Farm
"That is how we end up here," said Miho.
Martin and Mary both stared.
"Wow . . ." Mary apparently was amazed.
"Impressive," said Martin. "Something went wrong with your tank, which somehow changed. It then fired some kind of a portal, which led you all to here."
"But how?" asked Yukari. "I remember loading a shell and-wait!"
Yukari concentrated, trying to remember. The others looked at her.
"I-I think I remember," she said. "Among the shells we had, one was of an odd, silver-ish color. I put that last time and . . ."
"That's it!" Miho exclaimed. "We need that shell!"
"Do we have more?" asked Saori.
"I don't know," Yukari replied. "I think we need to check."
The hosts looked at each other, and Mary nodded.
"Girls," Martin caught their attention. "How about you all take a good rest for today? It's too late to go out; anyway, you all also need to know more about the state of the US these days."
The girls looked at each other again, and Miho nodded.
"OK," said Martin. "Let me tell you this: the US may or may not be what you would expect. I've had my fair share of weird ideas people have about the US, and us towards them as well."
"So, why were you so friendly towards us?" asked Saori.
"It's because you all look so scared," said Martin. "And the fact that our original guests canceled their invites at the last minute. Speaking of which, I need to reconsider my friendship with them . . ."
"Which," he continued. "Leads me to another point: be careful with whom you trust. All of those who invited canceled for less-than-good reasons. I guess that they were indeed busy, but they should have warned us ahead of time."
"So that's why you were out," said Miho. "In order to find anyone who can help you all finish the meals."
"Exactly," said Martin. "Now, let's explain about the US in details, as much as I can tell you . . ."
"And get ready," Mary said, yawning. "For a long lecture."
Martin Ranger commenced his long, long lecture about the US, from its cultural and historical foundation to the present status. Miho and the others were not too surprised at some details, such as it having huge military forces and its huge wealth; they already saw that with the Saunders school, which was American-themed. However, there were some things that they learned that they did not see in Saunders: high obesity rate, heavy reliance on cars at the expense of public transportation, obsession with highly sensitive topics (such as racism), and the like.
By the time Martin finished, it was 10:00PM.
"Oh!" Martin realized, looking up at his grandfather clock. It slowly rang out the time.
"Time for bed!" Martin yawned. All of the girls before him yawned as well.
"Oh!" Miho moaned. "T-thank you for the hos-hospi-tall-lity." She kept yawning as she tried to give her thanks.
"Sleep time," Mako put it succinctly. Everybody else agreed.
"I hope you know everything I said," Martin said. "But to be honest, I got a little off-topic, talking about all kinds of US stuff that might not really matter."
"N-no! Ha . . . ha . . . I-I mean that we actually enjoyed it," said Yukari. They actually did. Each girl enjoyed one topic from the long lecture that Martin gave. However, they were too tired to think clearly now.
"OK," Martin shrugged. "But we don't have a bed for five-"
Squeeek!
Everybody stopped and listened.
Ka-chunk! Klonk . . . klonk . . . Whoosh!
"Wait a minute," Yukari whispered. "Isn't that from our tank?"
"Eh . . ." Miho pondered, and slowly stood up.
"You're going?" whispered Saori, shaking.
"Not going, not going," Mako shivered violently. She was even more scared than Saori.
"I-I am going to check it," said Miho.
"Please," said Yukari, getting up. "I am coming with you."
"I want to see, too," said Hana, getting up.
"Then I am going too!" replied Saori. "Mako! We all go together!"
Mako said nothing, but shook her head furiously.
"We are all in this together," said Saori. "We're team, right?"
Miho nodded, and even the Rangers nodded in affirmation. Not wanting to be rude, Mako slowly rose up with the others, but clearly showed her displeasure and fright at the ordeal.
All five girls slowly crept towards the garage that held their tank. The Rangers followed behind; Martin even brought out his gun as a safety measure.
Tap, tap, tap.
Beep, beep, beep.
Bzzzz . . .
Squeeak!
"It's making quite a noise," whispered Hana.
"Let me be front," whispered Martin. "I better protect you girls."
"Me too," said Miho.
"No, no," said Martin. "You're just a little girl."
"I may be a little girl," Miho whispered back. "But I am a commander and a leader. Leaders take responsibility seriously, including protecting one's friends."
Martin stared back, surprised at the girl's resolve. Mary whistled in approval. All of the girls eyed her with admiration, especially Yukari, who was beaming with fanatical joy. Martin only sighed.
"Alright," he answered. "But keep to my side."
Miho and Martin both approached the door, the only barrier between them and the tank.
Squueeakkk!
Ka-chink! Ka-chunk!
Hiss . . . Buzz . . . Fzzz . . .
Click!
"Ready?" asked Miho. Martin nodded, but stared at her. Miho Nishizumi suddenly had a different face: very focused and determined. Martin remembered seeing her face; it was so innocent and confused. Now, she looked very mature and ready for action.
"Impressive," said Martin. He cocked his gun.
"I am just ready," replied Miho without a second thought.
"That's our Miho!" whispered Saori. The others nodded back.
Then, they opened the door, and gasped.
So, I end this chapter in a cliffhanger, because I realize that the chapter was going a little too long. I originally wanted to show the tank's powers, but I realize that the chapter was going too long. So, once again, please review! I hope this was a realistic way to help the girls to learn more about the US! Panzer vor!