Well hey guys, eheheh...

Okay, I will admit this chapter took WAY longer than I expected, mostly because I needed time to think it out, procrastination and the fact I'm back at College, another big reason is that I've gone back through my story and fixed parts of it, among the changes where:

- Fixed multiple grammar and spelling mistakes (some may have slipped through, please let me know via PM if you find any)

- Fixed any potholes

- Katarina is now a full six foot tall (due to OCD)

- Added a few more sentences to be more descriptive

-DST is now know as Degman Škola Tankista and MTF is now known as Magyar Tank Főiskola due to corrected translations

Another piece of news I want to bring up, is that because I may have less time to write, I have been thinking of starting up a Discord server, to create a place for the information of this project to collect, and also to let people come together and talk about this and GuP stuff, and for me to put up anything interesting, I have a poll up on my homepage, aye for yes and nay for no, I will count it and announce the result when the next chapter comes out (which may be in a week or two... hopefully), also I have a second poll which allows you to vote for your favorite OC.

And finally, when it comes to Translators, I have a hold of a Czech and Hungarian translator, and in the process of getting a Serbo-Croatian translator, I am still looking for a Romanian, Swedish and Italian translator, If you are fluent in those languages and want to help the project, please PM me.

With that all taken care of, now its time for the reviews...

1:You should give Pravda an IS-7. Anyways, good chapter and I can't wait for the next one.

I was actually thinking of giving them that tank, but then after discussing it with someone, I changed my mind and decided to give them three smaller ones, but also all the others schools will be getting new toys, especially St. Gloriana and Chi-Ha-Tan will be getting a few crazy ones :-)

2:Will you feature any other DST-NTC, and if will they be more normal than the looneys at chagre?

Probably not, Katarina and Vlatko where really the only main characters for DST-NTC, most of the smaller students will be like them, cheering their 'Imperial Crushing' ways, but their will be some of them who do believe in fair play, one or two of them will show themselves at some point.

3:Kranvagn is best tank beachside SWEDEN Is best. Excellent chapter as always

Thanks, and the Kranvagn has showed its ability to lift :-)

4:Great chapter can't wait for more of these battles and FV005 blow them out them away that and the the t 26.

Also can't wait for the side chapter it's gonna be hilarious plus I wanna see Maho and Erika's face when they face FV005 plus it might give Tom some revenge from Kuromorimine for what Shino and Maho have put him though plus the boys will tease him thinking that Miho is his girlfriend and the girls will act jealous even though she denies it.

Nice to see you liked the FV4005 in action, and Kuromorimine will defiantly be unnerved by its gun (that's the power of fear-factor after all), the teasing and embarrassment part will affect the boys and girls in this story who slowly start to drift together, but I'm saving the biggest lump for later :-)

And now with that concluded, here's the chapter, enjoy


もっと個人的なもの - More personal things

The bathhouse was a nice addition to Ooarai's base, the light-yellow tiled walls surrounded the large square shaped pool full of steamy water, Anglerfish after the battle they had where now soaking up the moisture as they bathed in the water.

The main difference being that they were in swimwear, and also Falcon team had joined them.

"Isn't it kinda awkward you boys are here bathing with us?" Yukari questioned, with her and Anglerfish against one of the walls of the bath and Falcon against the other perpendicular wall to their left, with them all wearing swimming trunks, but also Nelson and Douglas where wearing white shirts which where waterlogged.

"Ehh, we have swimming pools back at Bovington, and they're used by both genders anyways, so for us it isn't awkward" Morgan told them, "well it would be nice to use this time to get to know you Europeans even better" Hana then gently mentioned, "aye lassie, it would be great to tell you all about our history, it's a good thing ain't it?" Ronald responded joyfully, but the girls were confused by his vocabulary, "sorry if I'm sounding rude but what's a lassie?" Saori questioned, "Scottish slang for a girl Miss Takebe" Nelson cared to explain.

"So you all did say you were from a school called Bovington right?" Miho asked, "yes, Bovington Tankery Sandhurst, founded originally in 1917 to train new army recruits on the new 'Mother' tanks during the great war" Tom told, "so tankery has been around in Europe for a long time hasn't it?" Saori questioned, "yes it has, well it was basically invented by us Brits along with the tank" Tom continued, "so why haven't we heard much about Tankery in your continent then?, that's what I'm struggling to figure out" Saori wondered, Tom turned to Nelson, who had a better knowledge of the history of Tankery in Europe.

"Well for a few reasons, firstly, Tankery, or Panzerkraft, or Sensha-dō, whatever you wish to call it, had a poor time trying to get itself to the masses, it wasn't seen as much of a school curricula worthy sport, but really a leisurely pursuit for the ones who could privately afford it, until the schools on a lower level were finally able to start teaching it, secondly, Europe had been in the grips of two world wars and after that, the iron curtain which had split the continent down the middle with capitalism on the west side, and communism on the east side, people didn't want some students running around near the border like some brown bear near a military base and almost starting a nuclear winter by accident… and I'm not even joking about the bear that literally happened once, and thirdly, there was quite a bit of anti-war sentiment surrounding tankery, it tried to stay as a feminine sport, like over here in Japan, but nobody was really rushing to take up tankery."

"The European Economic Community (the predecessor to the European Union) had founded the ETA in the 1960's to try and bring some regulation and promotion to tankery in western Europe, in the east, the Warsaw pact had formed the Kommissar's Committee of Tankery Education, or KCTE to bring along the same promotion and regulation among the eastern bloc schools, the ETA had Bovington, Gotland, Campania and a few others under their authority while the KCTE had at the time, with a few other schools, Žatec-Pilsen, MTF and the Yugoslav Armour Academy, or Jugoslavenska Akademija Oklopa, or JAO under their grasp, all of us had our own school ships and respected cultures on those ships".

"So what happened after all this?" Saori wondered, Nelson continued with his answer, "well the first major event was in the early 1980's where our good old friend Thorvald Sigmund Emil pushed forward his changes to tankery in the ETA, the three main points being that firstly, tankery should be made a full school curriculum which was available to any student, secondly, a strong funding source should be used to back the entire thing, to promote broadcasts, merchandise, repairs to the environment and structures, for schools to buy and maintain tanks, that sort of thing, which the ETA in the end would be the governing body to provide all the funds, all to try and bring the knowledge and means of the sport to the masses, and finally, boys would be allowed to participate, the entire feminine sport thing just wasn't working in Europe, although this would be dependent on if the school was all-girls, all-boys or a mixed bag, the changes came into effect quickly in the ETA, and the KCTE also accepted the proposals when Emil offered them across the curtain".

"In the 1990's, well communism came down in Europe, the KCTE soon became defunct as it had lost all its backing, and the ETA came in and absorbed it into the association, also the Yugoslav wars happened, and this soon brought an end to the JAO, which split into the two schools we know today, DST and NTC, the former for Croatia and the latter for Serbia, after Romania overthrew its communist government, one of the first agendas of the new government was to form a tankery school, which would later go on to become SCARLAT".

"So when did all the tournaments start happening?" Miho asked, "just recently actually, they started around two years ago, before that, any fight which happened between two schools was basically an un-official exhibition match, as the ETA neglected to hold any tournaments themselves, it was known as the Pan-Europa academic tankery championship, there's been two so far, the first was won by a German team, and when the second came along, we were forced to participate in it" Nelson mentioned.

"Why were you forced?" Hana said curiously, "you all know the Bovington museum?" Morgan questioned, "oh! oh! yeah I do, I've been there when I was little" Yukari chirped, "well that museum was going to be closed down due to lack of funding from the higher-ups" Tom lamented, "what? They couldn't close it down! It had so many unique vehicles" Yukari blubbered at the sudden realization.

"It was going to shut down, but the manager had the bright idea of signing us up for the tournament, I at first had my doubts, as Bovington didn't even have a physical tankery team at the time, choosing to teach the sport through paper exams as it was cheaper, making people on the outside refer to us as a 'tankery school in name only', but we scraped together any tanks which could be used and we participated, and through teamwork, we went through four hard battles, going up against Žatec-Pilsen, SCARLAT and DST-NTC, and finally the German team who were the previous victors and won against them all, and the museum was saved thanks to us" Tom finished.

"Also, what do you think about the other European commanders Miho?" he then asked, "hmm? Oh, well, Zlata seems to be a nice person, a bit shy and fragile though, but she had a really nice voice" she disclosed, "yeah, she's actually an amateur opera singer in her spare time, she could sing her country's anthem so beautifully it would make its own original composer weep, although from what I've heard she has a problem with stage fright, and that's why she took up tankery to try and give herself courage, and ended up as a commander as she quickly became popular with the team, which is a majority of first-year students, as she was nice, kind and gave a lot away, but as you've seen, she's still got her issue of cracking under pressure, but I do know she has the courage, she just needs to find it" Tom replied.

"But Katarina though" Miho shuddered slightly, still having that image of staring into her cold eyes, "that Croatian girl? I did see a picture of her once and I say she looks rather nice" Hana then mentioned, being unaware of what happened at the meeting, "she is, but that is if you get past the fact she's a smoker, is six foot tall, and will rip your head off if you insult her in any way" Tom revealed, "is she really that bad?" Hana wanted confirmation, "yes Hana, and after being forced to look into her eyes, I can say that with confidence" Miho quivered, Saori then remembered something, "I think I remember reading on social media that she went on a rant and proclaimed she would 'destroy those imperialists', whatever that means" she wondered, "she's probably referring to Saunders and All-Stars, those two teams do represent the forces who have conspired against her kind in the past" Nelson theorised, "what stuff in the past?" Mako asked, who was managing to stay awake at this point, "Yugoslav war history and political stuff, you don't really want to be bored with the details" he replied.

"And what about Vlatko? I've seen him before and he's creepy if you ask me" Saori remembered looking at a picture of him, "he's a sort of person who keeps to himself and only speaks when it's required, as he values his own breath, although really he's the one who prevents Katarina from going full agro on everyone who goes against her, but compared to her, he's more authoritarian through stature rather than expression, and despite his quietness, he's still a competent commander".

"Theodor looks better than him that's for sure, more respectable as well" Miho continued to the Romanian, "ehh, sure he's shows respect for his rivals, but I will warn you he does has a bit of a condescending personality, his politeness in combat is to really get his enemy into a state of reassurance, before he completely smashes them with the strategy of umbra războiului, or after translation, 'shadow war'" Tom admitted, Miho didn't really think he was that condescending, she had seen those sorts of people in the past, Marie, Erika and to a small part Megumi came to mind, but as she thought about it more, hearing his words and watching his actions back over in her head, she realized a part of Theodor's personality was intertwined with his tankery strategies.

"And finally that leaves Annie" Tom pointed out, "I saw a picture of her and, just, aww she's just so cute" Saori chirped, squeezing her cheeks slightly with her hands Tom smiled "yeah she's one special someone, her small and cheerful personality really gives life to European tankery, she may be very short, but she does manage it herself, although sometimes, Margaréta and Tamás give her a hand with things", "has she had any piggy-backs before, like with Katyusha and Nonna?" Yukari questioned, "on occasions, but not all the time, and it's usually Tamás who gives them, just to give her height in situations where it's required, but she, unlike Katyusha, doesn't have a Napoleonic complex, and always shows kindness towards the ones close to her" Nelson then jumped in, "I did see after Katarina dropped Katyusha, Annie rushed in to defend her" Miho recollected, "she does have a bit of a fangirl attitude towards Katyusha, when all the European teams were being organised for the tournament, I remember watching an interview with her and she did mention her inspiration towards Katyusha, mainly due to their similarities in stature, and was highly willing to meet her, and as you saw Miho, she did and those two seem to have become quick friends after seeing them shake hands".

Miho smiled to that realization of a friendship blossoming between two other commanders, then Douglas stood up, showing off his blue trunks with a white saltire across it all, "sorry lads but I'm starting to get a bit wrinkly if you know what I mean" he admitted, Miho held her hands up and also noticed her fingers starting to show those signs, "yeah maybe we should to" she suggested, all the boys and girls got out of the water (with Saori pulling Mako out as she was starting to fall asleep as usual) and proceeded to grab towels and cover themselves.

Ooarai's base also had a common room full of pieces for any occupants to kill their time on, there where a few objects, a pool table, a television with sofas and chairs to sit at, tables with their own chairs, a dartboard, fridge with and a small kitchen counter, it had everything for the team when they wanted to chill out.

"Good thing that the repairs on that StuG transmission didn't take too long" Nakajima said, still wearing her orange overalls (she along with the rest of Leopon team had the exception to wearing their tankery uniforms all the time) as she was preparing to take a shot on the pool table, with her participant Knugen watching on, "working on gearboxes is hard work, I should know as I've done that times before" he revealed as Nakajima took her shot, the cue ball hitting the five-ball and sending it bouncing around, but it didn't make it to a pocket, "aww man" she complained to the failed shot and turned back to him, "have you been in the engineering field as well?" she asked, "of course, I'm from Västra Götaland, pretty much the industrial heartland of Sweden, came into contact with many pieces of machinery over my time, with cars and tanks being predominant" he told, getting himself ready for his shot, he hit the cue ball and it in turn, hit and knocked the eleven-ball into a pocket, "so you've driven other tanks before?" Nakajima questioned, Knugen stopped for a second to think, "yeah, I've driven a few tanks, I've been in a Strv m/42, an Ikv 90B, a Leo prototype, an EMIL heavy tank, and even an Strv 103, so yeah I've been behind the wheel a few times in my life, and also worked on a few engines" he explained, in the process preparing himself for another shot on the table, he hit the cue ball and it hit the two-ball in a manner he didn't intend, the cue ball skated across and went into a pocket, with him looking rather annoyed in return, "för guds skull varför jag" he complained in his mother's tongue, "tough luck" Nakajima confronted, giving him a pat on the back.

At a few chairs at the edge of the room looking in, Caesar and Alberico where both talking to each other, in Italian of course.

"So you were from Rome am I correct?" Caesar asked "yes, my original residence wasn't too far from the Vatican actually, Hugo was from Taranto, Alfonso from Palermo and Floriano is from Florence, we were from all over Italy before we came to Campania school" Alberico confirmed and then mentioned, "when did you start getting into tanks then?" Caesar probed, Alberico looked at the roof as he went through his mind, "the first tank I was in was an L6/40 light tank, once I met the rest of my crew, we used a Carro P43 where I was the radio operator, when we got the Standard B for us, since Alfonso had the radio's as a commander, I became the Loader for the magazine" he told, "so where did you get your tank from, how does the European system work?" Caesar questioned, still curious about the origins of their current tank, Alberico scratched the side of his head just below his peaked cap, "well how it all works is that a school can partner itself with a tank parts manufacturer, they are all under the authority of the ETA anyways, when we want a certain tank built, we can send ETA verified blueprints of that tank to them, and then they can produce the tank for us, it's how us Europeans are able to field exotic prototype vehicles like ours" he explained, "well, that seems interesting" Caesar said in interest.

At the two sofas, most of Rabbit team and also Erik and Hugo where watching the TV screen, Karina had the remote and was flicking through the channels but huffed, "ai- they really don't have this tuned to anything interesting" she complained, with Saki still staring blankly at the screen, "or anything our taste" Yukki added on, "or anything European" Hugo finished off.

Then Azusa came into the room and walked towards them, "hey, I just found out there's a news program for this tournament, it's going to start soon" she announced, she then took the remote off Karina and proceeded to punch in a channel number, after that, the TV turned to another channel, Azusa sat down as the program went through its intro's, Nakajima, Knugen, Caesar and Alberico came over to see what was happening.

The camera came down onto a desk with a boy and girl sitting at it, in smart looking clothes, the girl looked instantly recognisable.

"Hey its Taiga!" Aya exclaimed in joy, "so it is" Azusa said surprised, "I see the placement she got was rather high up in the broadcasting side of the tournament" Karina added on, "and who's the boy next to him?" Yuuki said in curiosity, the boy in question was around 5' 4" in height and was wearing a suit, he hand light brown hair and light blue eyes, "that's Ragnar Kristiansen, he's been taking a broadcasting class at a private school which also has a small hand in tankery, pretty good at his job" Hugo recalled off his mind, "he does seem to be Swedish by his name and looks" Ayumi theorised, "Norwegian actually" Erik corrected her, with the group turning their attention back to the screen".

"The first day of the tournament has passed us and we've had a fun day watching the teams go at it in their prime" Taiga started, "the first fights we have seen this day have mostly been the teams fighting against many of the Jinzōno vehicles, small skirmishes taking place near the home bases, but generally rather simplistic" Ragnar then backed her up with his own thoughts, "Indeed, but we did almost see a fight form between Žatec-Pilsen and Saunders, but the Czech tanks did make an effort to turn away and avoid contact" Taiga then mentioned in conversation, "yes, and I can see the reason behind that, as all schools don't start with too much resources so they'll be trying to avoid each other to prevent any unnecessary losses, Jinzōno on the other hand, are much lower risk opponents" Ragnar pointed out, "smart thinking" Taiga approved, they then both looked back at the camera.

"Now we do have some people to talk to today but before we get onto that, we do have some texts and posts to read which have been sent in from devoted Japanese and European fans, so, Ragnar?" Taiga then laid out and asked her colleague.

"Well let's start with this one from jaja2534: Wow can't believe this giant tournament is happening, big fan of BC Freedom in both the official tournaments and tankathlon's, sooo pumped that Asparagus came back to her old school and is commanding them again, Marie, Andou and Oshida are definitely going to like having her back on board, Allez my comrades! #AsparagusReturn #BCFreedom #1ESGBT" he read off.

"Nice, and here's one from PragaKrál_CZ: Joy from the Czech Republic, number one fan of Žatec-Pilsen and their commanders Zlata and Marika, also watching the entire thing with bottle of Plzeň brand beer (non-alcoholic of course), Marika's favourite brand, wish I could give them a hundred cases, make us proud my besties! Pro naši pýchu! #ŽatecPilsen #Czechia #1ESGBT" Taiga then read off the next one.

"Another one here from SenpaiMistro732: All shouts for Chi-Ha-Tan! Baroness and her little-chan's, you are the best! #ChiHaTan #KinuyoNishi #Tamada #Fukuda #Hosomi #1ESGBT" Ragnar picked up another.

"Looks like we have a bit of a patriotic one here from LovacHerzog81991: Haha! Our glorious Katarina will be victorious over them all! Us Croats and our Serbian brothers will march together and crush pathetic imperialists under our feet! Ići Katarina! Ići Vlatko! #HrvatskaSrbija #DST #NTC #ImperialistCrushing #1ESGBT" Taiga read.

"Here's another good one from Nishi-Dono2123: cheering for Ooarai from the start, Miho is such a cute commander, glad she had the one and only Tom Bolton on her team as well, both the victors of Japanese and European Sensha-dō tournaments on the same team, all the other schools better look out. Go team Ooarai! #MihoNishizumi #TomBolton #Ooarai #Bovington #1ESGBT" Ragnar read out another text.

"Lots of people are cheering for us guys!" Yuuki cheered, "sure, we are known as the school who came out of nowhere and as the underdogs beat all the ones at the top" Azusa mentioned.

"Now that's not only what we have in store tonight, as we have two guests to speak to" Taiga then mentioned,

The camera then changed to show two men also sitting at the desk, the one further away was familiar, while the other closer one not so much.

"Welcome onto the show, Shichiro Kodama, director of the JSF, and Stanisław Warszawski, chairman of the ETA" Ragnar, introduced.

The girls knew Shichiro well, but Warszawski was different, being 5' 6" tall and being slightly large around the waist, wearing a black suit with a white and red tie, he had a slightly wrinkled face, with brown eyes with a pair of square glasses and short dark grey hair covering his head.

"It must be exciting to see the sides of tankery from two different sides of the world coming together" Taiga started, "indeed it is, a lot of work has been done between the JSF and ETA to make this entire thing possible" Shichiro replied to her question.

"Now we do have a few questions for you both tonight, one main question we have is how the European damage system works and how its calculated" Ragnar asked, Warszawski was the one to answer, "well in terms of equipment the tanks are equipped with the same sensors and electronics which are on the Japanese tanks, for the Japanese vehicles only a few chips which controlled the systems had to be changed to make them compatible with the methods we use, to put it simply, when a shell strikes the tank, the 'virtual shrapnel' is calculated by the sensors, where it goes and what it hits, if it should damage or destroy certain components, if it should knock out a crew member, how much it damages the crew compartment, that sort of thing, it does sound a bit complicated but the system has been perfected over its use", the Polish chairman spoke.

"Interesting, another question we had was a concern about the participation of MBT's, was there any attempts in order to make them more balanced?" Taiga said, "the MBT's which participate in tournaments have been made to certain regulations, for example, the steel and alloys which they are made are made to the code and strength of steel and alloys used in tank production back in the 1960's, also their stabilizers and fire control systems have been weakened along with the other mentioned changes, such as the banning of gas-turbine engines, ATGM's and modern night vision systems, but do note that last point doesn't apply to anything made before mid-1945, but back on point, we at the ETA do believe these rules do make a participating MBT a worthwhile opponent, but not a complete overpowered monster" Warszawski explained.

"I also wonder just how much effort went into this, trying to get multiple Sensha-dō teams from two continents together to participate must be one big choir" Ragnar wondered, "indeed, we had to get all the schools and their school ship's together in the area…" Shichiro began to talk, behind them on the backdrop, pictures of the European school ships were being shown.

It first showed Žatec-Pilsen's ship, being based of a President Masaryk river monitor, DST's was based off a Ciclone class destroyer and NTC had a Z class destroyer, SCARLAT had a school ship based off the Amiral Murgescu minelayer, but the most grand had to be MTF's, being based on the Szent István dreadnought, all the ships of course being huge compared to their inspirations, with sprawling communities across their large decks.

"We also had the challenge of getting every tank to the battlefield, all in the same configurations and getting the teams on the same page, the logistics to make this all happen is in itself huge, getting all the people, the news crews, the judges, everyone had to pitch their own efforts into this large project, to bring both Japanese and European tankers together for the first time ever in a grand tournament nobody has seen before" Shichiro finished his statement.

"So this is the largest thing you all have prepared in your careers?" Taiga asked, "indeed, and for me it will be my last, as my term as chairman will be over after this tournament, and the gears will turn in the ETA to elect a new chairman or chairwoman" Warszawski admitted.

"What are the likely candidates for your succession?" Taiga wondered, "they're can be many runners in the leadership if they choose to run, the likely candidates will be Leo Ibsen, Director of the ETA media group, Reiner Leopold, Director of the ETA tank compliance committee, hmph... Sandra Hendriks, Organizer and Director of the European transition team, and if he wants to, Thorvald Sigmund Emil, instructor of the ETA High school and University league can be another candidate on the ballet" Warszawski listed.

"Well I personally hope for your success after your term is up, and thank you both for giving " Taiga wished for, she and Ragnar turned back to the main camera, "well that's what we have for now, stay tuned as we go back into the roots of tankery in Europe, in this special piece up next" Ragnar finished their part.

Meanwhile outside, Saemonza, Oryou and Shinobu where in the night air, Saemonza was practicing her bow skills, shooting her arrows perfectly at a random trash can lid they had hung up on the exterior fence, with the latter two looking on.

When Saemonza finished her volley and walked over to the target to pull her arrows out, Jörgen came up to them, curious to what was going on.

"What are you all doing?" he asked the girls, "Monza's just practicing her archery skills" Oryou answered him, "well she does seem to have a good shot" the Swede responded in kindness, Saemonza walked back up to him, she stopped for a moment as she realized it was the boy she had been eyeing up, she grabbed a bit of courage and took the final few steps.

Oryou knowing that Saemonza had been bluffing decided to play a bit cheeky, "your the Elk team gunner ain't you?" she asked, with Jörgen nodding in response "isn't it true that you were good at archery? You know, living up in the Swedish wilderness and all" Oryou continued to probe.

"Please don't Oryou" Saemonza begged in her head.

Jörgen then looked at the target and then to Saemonza, "fire one of those arrows" he asked, Saemonza gave a weird look in confusion, but just shrugged and turned to face the target, she put an arrow in her bow and pulled the string back, after some careful aiming, she let the string go, the arrow flew through the air and struck the lid right in the centre.

Jörgen then walked to her side and held his hand out, signalling he wanted a shot with the bow, Saemonza handed the bow to him along with an arrow, he took up his position and took aim with the weapon, Saemonza was taken aback by how perfect his stance was, right leg placement, string taut evenly, no death grip, steady hands, he looked like a pro archer to her.

The Swede then let go of the string and the arrow whizzed through the air, its point hitting dead on the rear of the earlier arrow embedded in the metal lid, the wooden shaft was split clean down the middle as Jörgen's arrow continued through, his arrow finally came to rest in the metal target, with the two halves of the earlier arrow curved upwards and downwards respectively.

Saemonza was utterly speechless to the sight of the split arrow, "damn that's a good shot" Shinobu praised as Jörgen turned back to Saemonza, "as a man who had to live on the edge and learn to hunt in the Lapland wilderness, you can see where my gunnery skills come from, now excuse me, I need to go do something" he told, giving her bow back, he turned and walked back to the main building.

Oryou noticed Saemonza's shocked expression, "pfff no I don't Monza said" she teased, referring to what Saemonza had said earlier in the StuG, Saemonza then turned to her surprised and with a hot blush now on her cheeks, "s-shut up!" she snapped back, now embarrassed, both Oryou and Shinobu laughed at the sight.

Erwin was sat at her desk in her office, with a map in front of her doing a few plans, she had decided to plan for tomorrow's operation ahead of time and was looking at assaulting a depot in a mountainous area of the play area.

A knock on the door then took her out of her thoughts, "come in" she called out, the door opened, and the person stuck his head around the edge,

Of course it was Alfonso.

"Ciao Erwin" he greeted, walking fully in and shutting the door behind him, "err hi Alfonso" she replied as she returned to the map, Alfonso walked over to and pulled a chair from the wall over to just in front of her desk, he lounged in it casually as he watched her work.

Erwin noticed this and looked back up at him, "are you here just to play or something?" she questioned with a cocked eye, the Italian smiled back, "just came here to see how you were doing" he insisted.

"Well, I'm busy planning tomorrows operations, probably going to go up into the mountains" she proceeded to explain, Alfonso just nodded, "you don't seem to be interested in that don't you?" Erwin then probed, noticing the look on his face, he then smiled.

"Well the real reason I came here was to show you something I have" he mentioned, he then reached into his jacket and pulled out what looked like at first a square piece of paper, but when he turned it around to show Erwin, it was revealed to be a black and white photo of a man in Italian tanker uniform, standing next to a Carro M13/40 somewhere in the desert.

"Who's that?" she asked a bit confused, "that's my great-grandfather, Mercurio Salvatore, he was a tank commander in the North Africa and Italian campaigns, I thought you would be interested in him as well, mainly because he fought under your namesake" he revealed.

"Wait? F-Field marshal Rommel himself?" Erwin stammered slightly in surprise, Alfonso smiled and proceeded to tell his story,

"Yes indeed, my great-grandfather was very fond of that field marshal, he fought alongside him through Tobruk and El-Alamein and all the way back to Tunisia, even after Italy changed sides, my great-grandfather continued to fight alongside the Germans in the north, defending the Gustav line and fighting in Anzio when it was invaded, but he was not fighting for the Germans nor the Italian people, but for the field marshal he was inspired by, and stood close to his ideals of treating his enemy with respect, but when he was on the Gothic line, he heard of Rommel's death, the Germans would say he died from a heart attack, but my great-grandfather, with knowledge of the July 20th plot which happened a few months earlier, thought otherwise, the Germans had just killed one of their own hero's, and he would not stand for that, so one night, he and his crew in the tank, drove south and out of the Gothic line, turned himself in at the nearest Allied outpost, and switched sides to the Italian Republic, he continued to fight for the Allies until the wars end in 1945, and it was said that upon the victory in Europe being read out, an American soldier said to him that his country would be proud of him, but my great-grandfather replied with, 'no, Rommel would be proud of me'".

"And he went back to his life with his tank, the tank was handed down the hands of the family, and now it sits in the garage at my home, but that wasn't the only item, he also had his tanker helmet and a picture of Rommel, both handed down to my generation".

"What? Is that the helmet you were wearing in your tank?" Erwin asked, Alfonso smirked and nodded, "jeez, you have history" she marvelled, leaning back in her seat, "well as a historian is that what you're supposed to examine?" he said with a slight flirty tone.

"Damn, I went straight into that one" Erwin cursed to herself, now with a bit of a blush on her face.

But Alfonso then just laughed at her embarrassed look, "that look on your face was funny, but yes, putting it simply, I do have a long family history, especially in tankery as I was taught how to operate a tank early on, even before my time at Campania Tankery School" he then confirmed, Erwin hummed to that in satisfaction.

Now she really was interested in him.

"Well thanks for that story, but I do need to get back to planning this operation for tomorrow" she recounted, "okay then" Alfonso approved and stood back up, then gave a bit of a smirk, "I will like to see what you come up with, piccola volpe mio" he breathed with a slight flirty tone again, Erwin was confused by that word as he walked to the door, "addio Erwin" he parted and walk out the room.

Erwin continued to work, but that word which Alfonso had said to her kept nagging at her in the back of her mind, it had soon got to the point of where she could not work anymore, she decided to find out, she got up from her desk and walk out of her room, shutting the door behind her.

After walking down the corridors for a bit, walking past the office at a junction which contained the public morals committee, she reached the door of the commons room, just in time to see Caesar walking out,

"Hey Caesar, can I ask you something" Erwin intoned, pulling Caesar off to the side, "sure, what is it?" the other girl replied, "well, I heard this Italian word, but I don't know what it means, can you translate it?" Erwin asked for, "what was it roughly?" Caesar probed, "well, it sounded like piccola volpe mio" Erwin mimicked, the sudden look on Caesar's face was of one of slight uncertainty mixed with embarrassment for Erwin, "wait, is it a curse word or something?" Erwin questioned the look she was getting from her loader, "erm, Erwin, that word translates to 'my little fox'" Caesar admitted.

"EHH!?" Erwin yelped, now with her cheeks red hot with embarrassment, Alfonso had wooed her in his own language, and the worst part of it was, she actually thought the word sounded so pleasant and exotic.

"Who said it to you?" Caesar questioned further, Erwin took some time to get the courage up and get rid of some of the embarrassment, "Salvatore-san did" she mumbled, she expected for Caesar to tease her, but to her surprise, Caesar kept her composure, "I see" she responded to Erwin's embarrassing answer.

"Wait, you're not going to tease me like Oryou or something?" Erwin vacillated, Caesar rubbed the back of her head "well if I did that I would be a hypocrite" she admitted, "what? Hold on, are you in the same situation?" Erwin went further, Caesar then took a deep breath herself, "I think I may have a crush on Alberico" she revealed, "really?" Erwin said in return a bit shocked, "yeah, I mean, he's nice, he's great to talk to, in English and Italian, and also, and this is the part which really got me" Caesar said and then paused, "and what?" Erwin pushed a bit, "he also studied Roman history like me" the other girl finished.

Erwin leaned back a bit and took a deep breath, "you don't want a boyfriend, don't you?" Caesar theorised, "no Caesar, it's just it feels embarrassing, what will the other girls think of me?" the Hippo commander admitted, Caesar just shrugged her shoulders, as she was in the same position, "I don't really know, knowing how Oryou jumps on these things, I bet ridicule will be what meets us, especially since these boys are from outside our culture" she theorised,

Erwin huffed, "okay, how about we just get through this tournament and then deal with our relationship problems later, that's something we can both do can we?" she then suggested, Caesar nodded to that, "but what if, you know, we do end up in a relationship, or any of the other girls for that matter?" she then asked, "well we better be ready for the embarrassment" Erwin sombred, she then turned around "well I need to go finish off my plans before I go to bed, it is getting late" she then parted, "ok, see you later" Caesar responded in kind, and the two walked off.

The Europeans were having their effect, not just on the battlefield, but in the team itself.


Translations

för guds skull varför jag = for god's sake why me (Swedish)

piccola volpe mio = my little fox (Italian)

addio = goodbye (Italian)