Always Advancing
A Girls und Panzer fanfic
Part XXXIV: Band of Sisters
by Civilis
That evening, at the post-battle review meeting, Kay got up before the assembled Saunders tankers.
"Attention everyone!" she called.
When the assembled tankers had adopted a semblance of order, she began to speak. "I have a few important things to go over with you this evening. What you're about to hear is very personal and very emotional. I must ask that you keep it strictly secret. If you can't do that, I must ask you to wait outside."
From the crowd, Naomi spoke up. "If any of you blab this, we will make your life miserable."
"Potato Duty?" came a voice from the crowd, followed by laughter from much of the team.
"Potato Duty, or anything Pravda could do, will seem nice and relaxing compared to what we will do," Naomi said, keeping her tone serious, causing the laughter to stop.
There was much murmuring among the crowd, but nobody left.
"Is this about Oddball's… oddness?" came another voice.
"Yes, it's about Oddball," said Kay. "You will likely not believe what we have to say, but we've found confirmation at St. Gloriana, Anzio, Pravda, and now right here. Yukari, you up for this?"
Yukari, who had agreed with Kay's decision to explain everything, nodded, got up, and walked to the podium.
"Let me tell you a story," she said, "about my time doing Sensha-Do, at a school called Ōarai…"
She walked through her story of her time at Ōarai. She was light on the details of the battles, but heavy on the friendships forged, both among the team, and with the various teams they had faced in battle. She then filled in the details of where those friends were now.
"So those girls from the volleyball and movie clubs, they're like you?" asked a voice in the crowd.
"They don't have many of the recovered memories I do, but the skills were still there, buried. Having them spend time with tanks similar to the ones they had before helped them relearn those skills," said Yukari.
"I didn't tell you all because I wasn't sure how to explain this," said Kay. "I should have trusted you. Not doing so was a mistake. We're in this together. That's why we're up here today, to explain ourselves and let you decide where to go from here."
"Why?" came another voice from the crowd. "Yeah, I would have preferred if you trusted us, but it is kind of an unbelievable story. I can't blame you for thinking we wouldn't believe it."
"I don't know," said another, "I've been having weird dreams for a while. This might explain it."
"So are we going to bring the movie club first years and the volleyball players in?" asked a third.
"I was hesitant because that would mean putting them on the team ahead of the people that worked so hard the normal way. We did that once with Yukari. This is ten people," said Kay.
"They're fun," said a member of one of the Training Companies. "Besides, we're all on the same team. It'll be nice to know they'll be on our side when we finally reach the main team."
"It's good to know we're really not so bad we'd lose to a bunch of total newbies," added a second. "And you're right we don't have much practice against tanks other than Shermans. I say bring them in."
There was a chorus of agreement, largely driven by the Training Companies.
"Any objections?" said Naomi.
The room was quiet.
"We'll let the movie club girls know in the morning. The volleyball players don't know whether or not they're going to help yet. That's another mistake I've made, they're sore with me," said Kay.
"A lot of us are still sore because of them," said a member of one of the Training Companies. "They kicked all of our hides at volleyball yesterday."
"Tankery is a physically demanding sport," Naomi reminded the group. "I suspect it might be good for most of us to get a little more exercise."
"So where do we go from here?" came the voice of one of the veteran tankers. "We're out of the tournament, and from what you said, the Ministry may be taking over the team or something if Kuromorimine wins again. What can we do?"
"I, Oddball, and Arisa will be helping Pravda to give them as much of a chance as possible," said Kay. "I know it's very unusual to help another team, so I can't ask you all to help."
"Kay, you're our team leader," another veteran spoke from the crowd, "you've made mistakes, sure, but stop feeling sorry for yourself. What matters is that we keep moving forward."
"All of us here," said the head of the Transport Section, "are here because we find Tankery fun. That's the Saunders way. If the Ministry thinks they can change that, they'll have to get through us first."
"For us to do anything, we'll need to get some of the tanks fixed. Given all the damage, Kay, what should our priority be?" the head of the Maintenance Section asked Kay.
"If we're going down, let's go down fighting," suggested one of the veteran tankers. "Let's pull the biggest tanks we have out."
"Don't forget the movie club and the volleyball team," said one of the Training Company members. "Is there anything we can get them better than a Stuart and a Lee?"
Kay looked around as the team began eagerly working on preparing for the uncertain future.
"… and that," said Hana, "is the story of Ōarai's Sensha-Do team."
The St. Gloriana formal dining hall reserved for the Sensha-Do team's meeting was quickly filled with polite applause.
From the podium, Hana looked over the crowded hall. Even after her months at St. Gloriana, she still wasn't quite used to the formal Western dining etiquette that the school had adopted, at least for its elite, but her own formal Japanese upbringing gave her enough poise to fake it well enough to pass. Today, though, she need not have bothered. Scattered among the tables, she could see the occasional pair of chopsticks and soft drink hidden amongst the formal silverware and teacups.
Not that she was entirely beyond taking advantage of the relaxed formality on this special occasion. The English teapot closest to her seat held Japanese green tea. She could see Yuzu pouring a cup even now, and had spotted a few of the other students pouring a cup from it even when a regular teapot was closer.
Normally, the official announcement that two of its members had been elevated to the school elite known as the "Tea Garden" would have been a strictly formal occasion. This time, Darjeeling had made the decision to throw that particular tradition out the window.
The alumni had expressed their displeasure, and had been politely told that there was a time for tradition, and this time, tradition could go hang. The St. Gloriana Sensha-Do team looked after its own.
She looked down the tables at the four members of the Auto Club. They had, at least, managed to find clean uniforms, though with them it was likely that they were clean because they were never worn. They were also, at least, attempting to follow the rules of etiquette. Still, Darjeeling had made it clear that had they shown up in their overalls, covered in grease, they would still be seated.
The applause finally died down, and she stepped aside as Darjeeling joined her at the podium.
"Thank you, Sencha," said Darjeeling, using Hana's new Tea Garden nomme-de-guerre given the formal circumstances.
She turned to the audience. "Before we serve the main course, does anyone have any questions? I know this is a lot to take in."
One of the girls raised a hand, and Darjeeling nodded to indicate that she should speak.
"How much of a problem is this Ministry thing?" asked the girl. "I mean, we've had to change our traditions as it is…"
Another girl that Hana recognized as Rukuriri, one of the senior infantry tank commanders, cut her off. "We've chosen to adapt our traditions to the changing times. Yes, Rosehip and Sencha do not meet the alumni's ideal image of what is proper. But we chose to take them, and they've worked to fit in. But having some outsider force their ways on us is something we cannot accept."
"Rukuriri, please, let her finish," said Darjeeling.
"I mean, you have a point, but we don't even know if this is real, yet," the girl concluded uneasily.
"You're right, this all may be for nothing," said Darjeeling, "but have you heard this saying: 'Before anything else, preparation is the key to success'. We don't know, yet, but when I ran our theory by the alumni, without providing the unusual source behind the theory, several have said they've heard similar rumors."
Orange Pekoe raised her hand, somewhat timidly.
"Yes, Pekoe?" said Darjeeling.
"I think a more relevant saying to our current situation is 'Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse'," the smaller girl said. "We are innovating, and should continue to do so regardless of what the Ministry ends up doing. Conforming to somebody else's way of doing things, regardless of who or why, is the opposite of innovation and will destroy our traditions as well. St. Gloriana, our school, needs both tradition and innovation. However, ultimately, we must not forget that in the end, it is our school."
The room broke into spontaneous applause. Hana was both heartened and surprised to see both the traditionalists and the newcomers united in support.
Darjeeling looked stunned, briefly, before recovering. "Well said. Now, it looks like we've held dinner for long enough."
"Attention!" Nonna called the assembled Pravda Sensha-Do team to order.
The girls lined up in front of the reviewing stand quickly came to order, driven by the more disciplined members prodding the stragglers.
From her place on the stand, flanked by Klara and Anzu, with Katyusha and Sodoko behind them, Nonna could see that even Mako in the back was standing at something approaching attention. Almost. And that may have partly been Gomoyo propping her up. Still, for her, that was respectful.
"Our officers and school are proud of the glorious victory you achieved for Pravda against Saunders. You all went above and beyond the call of duty. I could not ask for a finer team," declared Nonna, causing the assembled tankers to start to cheer.
Before the crowd could get too happy, Nonna cleared her throat to silence them. "However, with the challenge still ahead of us, we cannot afford to be lax in discipline. As we have less than two weeks before the National Sensha-Do Tournament final against Kuromorimine, we will be working hard to prepare. Training rosters will be distributed after the assembly."
There were groans from the audience, though they were quickly silenced by Sodoko, who had stepped forward and glared at the more vocal objectors. Duty accomplished, the Discipline Committee member stepped back.
"Now our esteemed Cha…. Comrade Anzu would like to say a few words," said Nonna, gesturing to the Student Council Chairman. In truth, Nonna actually found the girl easy to work with. Since the meeting after the Saunders match, she'd always been careful to defer to Nonna's authority when it came to Sensha-Do. She even showed up to practice early in the morning without complaint. Then again, according to Sodoko, she didn't actually do much in the tank, and it wasn't like they could really practice much until Mako showed up, and Nonna had been careful to stick to the letter of her agreement with that one.
In some ways, it had helped that the two Pravda leaders had such different personalities. Anzu could be the reasonable, nice and friendly negotiator, backed by the stern, uncompromising threat of having to deal with Nonna and the Discipline Committee if you didn't agree to her suggested compromise.
Then again, there were times that having a relaxed, lazy leader had its downsides…
"Yo!" said the Chairman, waving to the crowd. "Thanks for coming out, everyone! The Student Council and entire student body are proud of what you have accomplished. I've gotten the Agricultural Committee to dig in and provide some extra treats for everyone."
She gestured to a pile of bags of dried sweet potatoes set on a table off to the side.
"As Nonna has said, we've got one big push left. We'll be working hard, and will all have to make some sacrifices. Also, we'll be having visitors from some of the other schools here to help, so treat them well," Anzu continued.
A girl in the crowd raised her hand. Nonna and Sodoko quickly glared at her, but before the hand went completely down, Anzu spotted it.
"Yes, Nina?" called Anzu.
"Akiyama Yukari will be among the girls visiting us, right? Will we be able to get her autograph?" said Nina.
A number of the girls in the audience brightened at the prospects of meeting the legendary spy.
Nonna nearly facepalmed, until she realized Klara was fighting down a smile. Nonna nudged her friend forward.
"Yes, Nina, we will be having a lot of important Sensha-Do players here," said Klara. "We will try to make time for autographs from all of them. And pictures." She grinned.
"Speaking of Yukari," said Anzu, "there's a secret behind her. Let me tell you all about Yukari and a school called Ōarai…"
"Oh, my head…" moaned Anchovy, as she stumbled into the lounge of the Anzio Sensha-Do Team.
"Buona Sera, Duce!" said Caesar, from the kitchen area.
Anchovy was about to correct the girl, but remembered that Caesar's Italian was much better than her own.
"What time is it?" she managed to stammer.
The festivities after the match had gone on for longer than expected. Then there had been the matter of getting everyone back home. Using the Saunders jet had helped, but her sleep schedule had been completely demolished. Looking around, most of the team members in the lounge around her were in a similar state, either asleep or half asleep.
She replayed the events since she had woken up. There were a number of things that she didn't remember that seemed rather important that she determine the state of. One thing, finally, made it through her brain.
"Wait… didn't we all decide to keep the History Club from cooking anything in the club kitchen?" Assisting Saunders in fouling Pravda as a prank was one thing, fouling their own club area was another.
She lurched over to the kitchen area, to find the four History Club girls standing around Pepperoni and Saori.
"What's going on here?" Anchovy demanded.
"We decided to teach them to cook," Saori explained. "We're starting with the basics."
"The problem is they can cook, they just shouldn't all cook together," Pepperoni added.
"What happened to your hair?" Saemonza gestured to Anchovy's head.
Anchovy felt her head, trying to figure out what was wrong. It took her a long moment to realize that she had just stumbled out of bed and over to the club lounge without taking the time to do her hair up into its usual twin drill tails.
"Dammit… where's Carpaccio?" Anchovy groaned. "Carpaccio!"
"Yes, Anch…" said the girl, emerging from the commander's office, Momo in tow. She stopped in surprise and smiled at her commander's helplessness. Rummaging in a nearby desk, she found a comb and began to restore Anchovy's hairdo.
"While you're here, Duce, I have the preliminary report from our Pravda expedition. You'll be glad to…" began Momo, but Anchovy's dismissive wave cut her off.
"Did we make money?" Anchovy asked.
"Yes, quite a lot," said Momo.
"Good," said Anchovy. She thought for a second. "Momo, you're much better at running the team than I am. You've got a cape… I left mine in my room. You be the Duce." Anchovy giggled. "All hail Duce Momochovy!"
Just about everyone in the room stopped and stared at her, startled by the outburst.
"But… but… you can't!" said Momochovy. "I don't know anything about running a team!"
"You were a big cheese at Ōarai! You can do anything!" Anchovy yelled back.
"What's this Ōarai thing again?" said one of the girls.
"You know, the whole 'alternate lifetime' thing!" said Anchovy. "We've gone over this already! Oryou, you're good at long explanations of historic stuff. Once we get this Duce thing straightened out, go over it again."
"I don't know anything about leading a team," said Momochovy. "Everyone obeys me when I do the business stuff because I work for you! Nobody wants to follow me!"
Pepperoni stepped over to Anchovy. "Without you, who would we get to wait tables?"
"Without you, who would recruit people to join?" Erwin added. The other History Club members nodded in agreement.
"Without you, Anchovy, where would Anzio be?" said Carpaccio, kindly, as she finished Anchovy's hairdo. "Nowhere. You're the heart of this team."
Anchovy looked around. The disruption had woken most of the girls. "Do… do you really think so?"
Saori walked over. "Do you know why I'm sticking with Sensha-Do? Because unlike those idiots in the fashion club, you and the team made me feel important and appreciated, back when we were chasing Yukari. Who was it that took command?"
"Duce," said one of the girls.
"When we faced off in noble battle against Saunders, who led the charge?" said Saemonza.
"Duce!" said most of the girls, louder.
"Who managed to get us recognized as a great power alongside Saunders, St. Gloriana and Pravda?" said Oryou.
"Duce!" cried the room.
"Who stood up for me against Pravda's Chairman?" said Momo.
There was some murmuring about not remembering the event in question.
"It was Duce!" said Momo.
"Duce! Duce! Duce!" came the cries.
Anchovy stood up. "I… I didn't know you all felt that way," she said.
"We wouldn't be here if we didn't," said Carpaccio as she finished Anchovy's hair. "We're here because you brought us together."
She gestured to Momo, who unclipped her cape and handed it over. Carpaccio fastened the cape around Anchovy's neck.
Anzai Chiyomi, also known as Anchovy, feeling boosted by the display of support, stood up, yet it was Duce Anchovy that addressed the room. "Thank you, all, for telling me how you really feel. Thanks to all we've been through, all we've done, we've proven that Anzio is not just grace and diligence but also strength. As your Duce, I could find no finer girls to share that triumph. Now, let us go out and make sure that all know that Anzio is a school to be respected!" she roared.
"Viva Anzio! Viva Duce! Viva Anchovy!" came the happy shout.
"Now, has anyone seen my contact lens case?" said Anchovy. "These glasses don't feel right."
Next: Always Advancing Part XXXV: Mission to Pravda
Author's Notes: It didn't seem to be in character for Mako to be the one reminiscing about Oarai. I also got a lot of mileage out of subverting Anchovy's usual appearance.