Greetings from SeekerMeeker.
The answer to what the factions are is below the chapter.
And this is a nice transition chapter, hopefully so.
Now, the journey continues!
Girls Wild Rise
Chapter 13: The Reveals
In a savanna...
3:00 PM; November 28, 20XX
"Miho, stay alive."
Rip!
"Save me."
Strip!
"Save Senshadou..."
Crunch!
"Miporin!"
"Miho-san."
"Nishizumi-dono!"
"Nishizumi-san."
"Miho!"
"Eh?"
Miho woke up, shaking her head.
"Another dream?" Mako inferred with a concerned eye.
Everybody in the tank was staring at Miho, who had dozed off into a nap. While sleeping, she mumbled something, then twitched, sparks of energy flying in the air. It was because of this that her friends woke her up.
"Ah!" Miho responded with a small giggle. "Sorry to bother you. Yes, I had a dream."
Noticing the sparkles, she dusted herself, and the lights faded away.
"What was your dream?" asked Saori.
She was not alone.
"Sounds scary!"
"Oh! Was that a prophecy?"
"Come on!"
Miho giggled, as the other teammates voiced their concern through the radio. Now that she thought about it, the radio still worked.
"Are you curious?" she asked.
The others nodded, while others screamed in the affirmative. She then described her dream, checking her throat mic to make sure that it was working.
"This one was very short," Miho said. "I remember little, except for hearing my mother's voice and some...crunching noises."
The mood inside the tank suddenly dampened.
"Cheer up!" Saori said. "At least we have hope! Look, five of our eight teams are safely here!"
"But the dream was scary," Mako shook. "Especially the crunching noise parts."
"Must be some sort of a foreshadowing?" Anzu lazily asked, munching on her dried sweet potato chips.
"In hoc signo vinces," said Caesar.
"Eh?" the others asked.
"Under the sign you will conquer," explained Caesar. "As God supposedly told Constantine, leading to his victory in the Battle of Milvian Bridge against the forces of Maxentius, by inscribing Christ's symbols on shields."
"That's right!" her teammates declared their usual catchphrase.
Miho blinked, clutching her chest.
"Man," Saori said. "You know, Miporin?"
"Hmm?"
"How are you so slim and athletic?" she asked. "Especially now that your chest is bigger?"
"Eh?!" she gasped, blushing. She clutched her chest, which felt bigger than expected.
"Ah," Mako said. "Now that you mention it, Nishizumi-san's chest is a lot bigger than usual."
Miho blushed even redder, as her friends stared at her.
"I-I am not that attractive," Miho waved off with her left hand.
"Miho-san!" Azusa interrupted the conversation (Miho sighed a little, glad to change the topic). "So, what do you think your dream meant?"
"Last time we heard your dreams," said Mako. "Yeah, now that Azusa-chan pointed out, your dreams were about the apocalypse, but..."
She shivered.
"...your dream now seems to talk about your mother," she finished, still shivering a little.
"Ah!" Miho uttered. "I remember a little more now! Before my mother's voice, I remember walking through some forest, then fighting against some enemies...I don't remember what or who they are, then our tank fired a shell, and then my mother's voice spoke."
"So," Yukari said. "Something in the future?"
"Yes," Miho replied. "And it...sounds like something is going on. Although my mother's voice was clear, those crunching noises sounded like...biting and chewing."
Everybody else shivered, gulped, or sweated.
"Let's change the topic," Miho said, and this time, everybody was glad.
She went up the turret, and looked around, her hands down.
"Huh," Miho noted, checking her throat microphone. "Girls, can you put the tanks on auto-drive?"
"Eh?" some of them asked.
"There is a button," she explained. "Mako-san told this: find a diamond-shaped button with the word 'AUTO.' It should be there."
"Found it!" four voices replied.
"Press it," Miho said. "Then, all of us, please get out and look around."
"Eh?" a few pondered. "Wonder why..."
However, trusting their commander, all 22 girls went out of their tanks. Some, like Miho and Noriko, watched with all of their bodies out of the tanks. Some exposed only their torsos, while others only peeked out their heads.
They all gasped.
"Strange," Hana noted. "Even though we saw this before, this area feels...different."
Five tanks, on automatic drive, traversed a terrain, in which numerous trees dotted the lands evenly. Nearby rivers, however, trees formed massive, lush forests, while grasses and herbs covered wherever there were no trees. Thousands and millions of animals, from antelopes to elephants, cascaded throughout the plains. It was just another savanna...
...or so they thought.
In the flat areas, baobab trees dotted on the grassy fields. Farther away, but not very far away, the forests surrounded the rivers. However, behind the forest and on the hills, the trees looked familiar.
"Those are oaks," Mako noted.
"Oaks?!" multiple girls gasped.
"Wait a minute," Hana said with a small gasp. "Now that I remember from my lessons with my mother about flowers, baobabs are native to Africa, oak savannas are native to North America. Why are two types of savannas together in one area?"
"That is strange," Miho pondered.
"Oak savanna?" asked Yuuki.
"Think of a savanna," said Mako. "Then, replace the African trees with oaks."
"That is..." Yuuki's voice trailed off. Although everybody knew oaks, the idea of oaks in a savanna setting sounded...weird.
The tanks continued to roam. This time, the tanks plowed through a huge field of colossal grasses, cracking the stems like mere sticks.
"They look like elephant grasses from India," Hana noted.
"Eh?!" the others gasped.
"Wait a minute..." Mako groaned. "I am no expert on nature, but I know that there is no way that an oak savanna, an African savanna, and a Indian grassland will be in the same area."
Suddenly, the girls found their tanks entering a dense forest, and Hana immediately recognized the trees.
"Eucalyptus!" she replied. "Native to Australia."
"OK!" Momo broke the silence with a shriek. "One moment we were in an African savanna, then we notice an oak woodland-thing from North America, went through a field of Indian grasses, and now we're in an Australian forest?! At least four different natural regions in one area, and we traveled only for miles! What kind of magical logic is this?!"
"Kawashima-san," Miho said. "You make a great point."
"I did?!" she reacted, blushing. "N-never had anyone praised like that...in a while."
"What is this magical madness?"
The girls all turned to look at the one girl that nobody expected to talk.
"I mean," Saki said, staring at the giant trees. "This is so enchanting. Africa, then North America, then India, and finally, Australia. Think about it: this island is so...Edenic."
Her own teammates gawked. She rarely spoke, but speaking that much was...beyond belief.
"Ah!" Karina said. "Sa-Saki-san! Do you want something to e-eat?!"
"Calm down," Miho said. "Saki-chan, what do you mean?"
"This place is so like a paradise from a fantasy story," Saki replied.
"Fantasy..." some girls noted.
"Augh!" this time, it was Yukari's turn to scratch her head. "This is crazy! I love tanks! I love shells! I love everything military and logical! This is illogical beyond my own poor head!"
"Let's keep our heads," Miho said calmly, surveying the areas. "Even I have never known magic, only in stories, so we adapt and see what will happen."
The tanks continued to march on. Chirps, whistles, and all kinds of noises sang throughout the canopy, as the girls sighed, awed, and took pictures.
"This is so great!" Aya noted, as she took pictures after pictures with her cell phone.
"Ah..." Saki moaned, as a butterfly flew over her.
Animals of all kinds scattered throughout, as Miho watched on.
"What animals inhabit Australia?" asked Saori. "Besides kangaroos and koalas?"
"You're asking the wrong girl," Mako said.
"Eh?!" Saori frowned. "You're the genius at school!"
"Being 'genius at school' does not mean being 'genius at survival,'" Mako retorted. "Remember? I am not an expert on nature. There are different types of being smart, you know?"
"Hold!"
Everybody stopped, as each driver went down to deactivate the auto-drive. The girls then stood still, as Miho looked around sternly.
"Oh," Miho said, giggling. She started to check her breasts.
"Umm..." the others asked.
"Sorry," Miho replied, blushing. "False alarm. Something jiggled inside my...chest."
"Miporin!" Saori groaned. "Don't alarm us like that!"
"What happened inside your chest?" Hana asked. "And your chest is bigger, much bigger."
"Eh..."
Everybody stared. Miho realized that she accidentally got into a topic that she wanted to avoid, again.
"Oh!" Yuuki cried out with an innocent smile. "Did I hear something?"
Miho silently clutched her chest, blushing. Mako then turned around to face Miho.
"Did you store something in your chest?" she blurted out the "forbidden question."
"Y-yes," Miho replied.
"Eh?! You use it to store something?!" multiple voices squealed!
"That's not typical of Miporin!" Saori gawked.
"Um..." Miho admitted. "My...pockets were too small, and...my bag was already full...so it was the only way."
"What did you store in there?" asked Mako.
"Mako!" Saori screamed. "Girls need some privacy, you know!"
"Th-that's alright," Miho said. "I stored a small Boko doll and a book inside."
The others blinked.
"That was it?" Saori asked. "Oh, sorry to bother you. But Hana is right; your chest is bigger than I expected."
Miho looked down. She thought that her chest was big, because she used it to store two items. However, she realized that Saori was right; the reason why she managed to store them inside was...because her breasts were quite big. Although all girls who were Chosen became bigger and bustier, Miho noticed that her chest was a lot bigger than usual. Indeed, she wondered why.
"Eh..." Miho trailed off.
"This is another magical enchantment," Mako declared. "But...it did not make...yeah."
She trailed off, not wanting to reach the conclusion. Mako hoped that her own inference was wrong, since her chest was indeed larger, but not as large as she wanted.
"I-I assume that everybody got changed," Miho said, trying to reassure her friends. "I-I don't think that I have the biggest chest. O-onee-chan had a bigger chest."
"Really?" Anzu asked with a sneaky smile, as she stretched out a measuring tape.
"Eek!" Miho squeaked, trying to cover her chest.
"Kawaii~," a few girls noted Miho's behavior.
"Ahem!" Momo roared. "Let's stop with this nonsense and look around!"
"She's right," Miho said, looking up. "The scenery is...beautiful."
The girls stared up, and the trees and vegetation all around looked so verdant and lush.
"Wow..." the girls said in awe, drifting in thought.
Miho smiled, glad that the topic was changed again, but she stared around. Her mind started to wander about everything that happened...
Miho and her friends traveled on a barge to escape from California, and headed into New Cal.
There, they made landfall, and encountered New Cal's weirdness.
The girls entered a mouth of a river, after encountering some unusual animals.
Miho's team reunited with the Turtle Team...
...then the Duck Team...
...then the Hippo Team...
...and finally the Rabbit Team.
Afterwards, the girls lost the barge, as they had to escape from a bizarre storm of magical craziness, and encountered the Nuroks.
The girls then entered Little Bighorn, the main area of the Nuroks.
The girls then learn to live with the Nuroks.
Suddenly, the girls suffered some mistreatment, only to rise up to help the Nuroks fight against the New Silicon.
"...so many things happened," Miho pondered, unaware of her friends staring at her. "Now, we are just traveling around."
Her dreamy eyes glanced her friends, snapping her out of her trance.
"Hmm?" she noticed. "What's wrong?"
Suddenly, she felt something clutch behind her back.
"...look," Saki said, not with a scared face, but with eyes of wonder.
Miho slowly but cautiously turned her head to look down. Her eyes gleamed, and so did the others'.
"Kawaii!" everybody screamed, as Miho squealed like a sweet little girl, as she gently patted the baby animal on her back. Squealing, it let Miho carefully take her off, and Miho held it in both of her hands.
"Kawaii," Miho squealed, staring at it.
"Yip-yip."
In the eucalyptus forest
5:00 PM; November 28, 20XX
"Where is its mother?" Yuzu asked.
The girls now set up camp at a nearby cave. Once again, the girls split into groups based on what they were doing:
The Duck girls went out to fish at a nearby river, where they were wrestling with giant fishes. The Hippo girls went out to hunt, while the Rabbit girls were gathering wild fruits and other foodstuffs. The Turtle girls all took charge of guarding the tanks.
Last but not least, the Anglerfish girls all were responsible for two things: preparing the camp kitchen, and...
"Kawaii," Miho said, hugging the koala joey.
The small koala squealed and whispered, as Miho let it climb on her chest. The little, gray animal looked so much like a teddy bear.
"Yip-yip," it squeaked.
Miho blinked, then looked at it closely.
"Oh," she noted. "It's injured."
"Eh?!" the others gasped.
"Saori-san," Miho said. "First aid."
"Here you go," Mako replied, holding the white kit out.
"When did you have it?" Saori asked in shock, as Miho nodded in gratitude and opened the kit.
"Just in case," Mako said.
All except Saori and Mako carefully took care of the joey, as Miho carefully separated the fur with two pairs of forceps, looking for any wounds. Saori and Mako both looked after the grills and food dehydrators.
Miho grimly nodded.
"It got scratches all over," Miho said seriously. "Get them."
Knowing what she meant, Yukari and Hana both took things out of the kit.
"Little koala," Miho said, putting a finger to her mouth. "This will hurt."
The joey blinked innocently.
"It really will," she said again, sniffing. "But it's important."
The joey blinked again, but as soon as a cotton swab with antidote touched its wound, it cried.
"Ahhhh-ooh! Ahhhh-ooh!" it whimpered, as it tried to get out.
"Kawaii..." all five girls moaned, as its cry clearly sounded like an actual baby crying.
"It hurts me," Saori sniffed. "Miporin, I admire your resolve."
"I do what I can," Miho said, sniffing. "Hold still."
The joey looked up at Miho, staring at her face. Then, Miho dabbed another wound with the swab. To her surprise, it winced, but did not cry. After dabbing all of the wounds, the girls then put bandages on.
"It looks so cute," the girls groaned, glad to be done with the "painful" process of treating the joey.
"Kawaii," Miho said, holding the joey up in the air. "It even looks like Boko!"
"Boko?" it suddenly spoke.
"Yes," Miho began. "Boko I...oh."
The girls stared at the joey, while a grill was starting to burn.
"Lost my mum," it groaned. "Want my mum..."
Miho and her friends were stunned, not because it was talking, but because it talked when it could have talked earlier. Sensing Miho's hands losing grip, it struggled out, then jumped on top of Miho's bosom.
"What's this black leaf?" it asked, trying to gnaw at the black ribbon.
"No-no," Miho said, which it obeyed. "It's not leaf."
"Do you have nipple?" it asked.
Miho and her friends stared, then they all looked at Miho.
"No-no!" Miho said. "I am not your mother."
"Yip...yip..." it cried. "Want my mum. At least you seem like mum."
The girls all sniffed. They could not tell whether to be in awe, or be sad.
"Don't worry," Miho said, patting it on the head. "We'll try and find your mother."
"Much obliged," it cried, snuggling into Miho's bosom.
"Eh?" the girls asked.
"Ah," the joey said, looking up at Miho. "You girls not Brits?"
"Brits?" the girls asked, then shook their heads.
"Brits bad," it groaned. "I mean 'thank you very much' for helping me. Mum got separated, while she tried to distract them."
"Brits..." Saori noted, then gasped. "British?!"
The girls blinked. Miho gasped.
"St. Gloriana?!" Miho asked, aghast.
"Wait," Hana began. "Are you sure-"
"Team!" Noriko's voice roared, as she and her team crashed in, quarry in hand.
"Wow-wow!" the girls gasped, shocked at the sudden entrance. Frightened, the joey then dug into Miho's cleavage, exposing its butt. It now looked like a gray fluffball between Miho's breasts.
"We have great news!" Noriko began. "And we have-kawaii!"
She turned fangirl, as she and her team dropped their carcasses to watch the ball of fur between Miho's chest.
"Aww!" the girls squealed. "Baby koala is snuggling in!"
"Eh..." Miho winced, as the koala was scratching at something.
"Where's the nipple?" it squicked.
"Aww," the Duck girls continued to fawn. "It's talking now."
The Anglerfish girls blinked.
"Talking?" Shinobu asked. "It's a talking koala!"
"So much cuter!" Akebi squealed.
"You said about great news," Miho said. "What news?"
"Ah!" Noriko said, shaking her head. "I already told everybody else! It's..."
On the edge of the eucalyptus forest
6:30 PM; November 28, 20XX
"You said that you saw the tracks of a tank?" Miho asked.
The girls all feasted, then after packing, followed the Duck Team. The Type 89 I-Go sputtered, as the girls were enthusiastically driving fast.
"Yes!" Noriko said, out of the cupola. "While hunting for it, we saw the tracks! We then marked it with a distinct tree trunk!"
"And did you color it?" asked Yukari, squealing with delight.
Finally! she thought. A tank, and not another magical thing!
"Yes!" Noriko said. "With lots of blood."
Silence.
"Oh..." Noriko said, realizing what she said. "Sorry; it should look obvious."
The girls kept traversing the plains, with trees and animals all around. A few animals were stalking the tanks.
"There!" Noriko declared after what felt like half an hour.
They all looked. A visible tree trunk, devoid of branches and colored dark, stood. The girls all came out, and went to the pole.
"And here it is!" Noriko said, pointing down to the ground.
The girls looked, and gasped.
"Fresh tracks!" Yukari squealed, checking the marks on the ground. "Good! They are fresh and clearly defined! The soil here is soft enough to allow marks behind!"
"What type of tank is it?" Azusa asked, looking at the tracks.
"Hmm," Yukari pondered. "It's a Crusader tank."
The girls gasped.
"St. Gloriana is here!" Mho gasped, as she and the others looked around.
"Crusader!" Yukari squealed with delight. "Finally! We now see a tank from-wait!"
Yukari blinked, as the others looked at her.
"Didn't they bring in a Churchill?" she asked. "Instead of a Crusader?"
"That's not important!" Erwin said, as she and the others started to rev the engines. "Let's find them!"
"Wait!" Miho gasped. "We don't know where the tracks go yet!"
"I think we don't have to," Mako said nonchalantly, her right hand pointing. "It's there."
The girls all looked. Far away was a forested hill. However, a small stream of smoke was coming out of it, and the tracks were going towards it.
"Let's go!" Miho commanded, as they all got onboard and drove as fast as possible.
Five tanks roared through the plain, traversing the grasses with zeal. After miles and miles of traveling, the girls stopped at the edge of the forest.
"So," Yukari began. "What should..."
They all looked around. The tracks suddenly disappeared, miles after they reached the hill. In fact, the tracks on the ground suddenly disappeared.
"Huh," Miho noted. "The tracks are now gone. Now that I think about it, our tanks leave behind tracks, but then they disappear afterwards."
"Magic-magic," Mako sighed.
"So," began Hana. "Where can we-"
"You're here."
A silhouette suddenly popped out of a nearby bush, startling all of the Ooarai girls. Immediately, a few of them, including Miho, summoned their weapons. Miho's sword flashed out, raised towards the silhouette.
"Have you heard the saying," a tired voice attempted to speak. "Good news from...distant land...cold water to a weary soul..."
"Proverbs 25:25," two voices spoke at once. One was from Miho, and the other was from a smaller silhouette, which stumbled through the vegetation.
The koala joey dug deeper into Miho's chest.
"Friends..." the blond-haired girl showed up, her face revealed by Miho's weapon light. "I am...so glad..."
"Darjeeling-sama!" multiple girls screamed, as the girl suddenly collapsed.
Alright, so here is the answer to each faction's origin:
-KKK of New Cal (this one is obvious).
-Warriors of Norden (inspired by the Vikings/Norsemen and Warriors of Odin)
-Dixiecan Republic (fusion of Confederates and survival experts and fanatics)
-New Sparta (obvious)
-BLACC (Black Lives Matter, but radicalized)
-Dharma Rashtra (Hindutva)
-Zhongua (obvious)
-Cartel de Supremo (drug cartels from the New World; see chapter 11)
-Neutah (religious extremist version of Mormonism)
-Nazeons (obvious)
So yeah, a cliffhanger. I intended to introduce more, but I am pleased with how this chapter went.
Please review etc., and check out Chapter 12, which has a disclaimer about my poll on my profile page. Thank you!
(I need advice on whether the chapter was rushed. Plus, it had a small recap of all ten chapters, minus 11 and 12.)
And yes, Miho's chest will be an important factor later.
Let's keep calm and drink tea!