That's it folks, the last chapter. Looking back at the entire thing, I think I'm pretty happy with it. Sure, there were a lot of bad chapters, but there were two or three good ones, too. And I am a beginner and not a native speaker, so I think looking at it this way, it isn't too bad. Anyways, I hope that this chapter will make another entry in the list of good chapters in this story. And I also have another story planned, so that's that. Now, without any further boring phrases, this is officially the beginning of the end. Chapter 18, everyone.

Maho took a deep breath. So far, this day had been awesome. Of course, it was her birthday, but there were lots of other good things. Her motorcycle was finally fit for the road, Yannik and Helen would most likely come over to visit her, Miho was doing fine, she could even look forward to Miho visiting her some day, and her suspicion about Erika and Koume had been confirmed in the best way possible. Now, if Helen and Yannik were to actually come over, this day would be perfect.

Right when she was thinking about that, her phone vibrated for the presumably hundredth time on that day. Normally, Maho would have been at least a bit annoyed in this situation, but she was in a way too good mood for such things, so she unlocked her phone without any further thoughts about it. Immedeatly, her mood got even better as she saw that Yannik had texted her the following:

„Hi, Helen feels better now. When should we be there?"

Enthusiastically, Maho started typing a reply.

„Uhm... Maybe in about one and a half hours, I still have a tiny little thing to prepare. Would that work out?"

Not even five seconds later, Yannik's short response arrived:

„Sure"

With that being set, Maho entered her kitchen, eager to prepare the last thing missing for a nice birthday party. With an apron around her body and an exited glow in her eyes, she set the oven temperature to twohundred degrees Celsius.

„Now where did I save that recipe...", Maho thought, scrolling through the documents saved on her phone. „Ah! There! Now... For the dough I need one egg, twohundred grams of flour, seventyfive grams of sugar and seventyfive grams of margarine... I've got all of that here...Now, for the filling, twohundred grams of sugar... Bloody hell, this cake is the archenemy of any diet! Anyways. Now, where did I put the flour...?"

About twentyfive minutes later, Maho put the unbaked cheesecake into the oven and closed the lid. After washing her hands in the kitchen sink, she set her phone's timer to one hour, which was a time about five minutes before Yannik and Helen were to arrive. Looking around, Maho decided that that time would best be spent tidying up the living room, considering there was a fair amount of stuff just lying on the floor. Picking up a thick book, Maho's thoughts started drifting away as she started thinking about what she could do together with the two.

In Japan, Maho had last truly celebrated her birthday when she turned seven years old. From that day on, the importance of her birthday slowly started shrinking. From that age on, the only important thing had been to train rigorously to become the best tankery commander Japan had ever seen. Her mother had made sure nothing distracted her from that. Every day had been strictly planned, from the morning to the late afternoon. Little to no freedom, everything was laid out towards tankery. In this system, there wasn't much free space for birthdays. Of course, it was briefly mentioned and Maho got presents, mostly tankery related things, from her mother and usually something more personal from Miho, but that was it. No big celebrations, no deviation from the usual rulebook. And now, here in Germany, Maho found herself to be free. Away from tankery, and away from her duties as heiress of the Nishizumi name. Free to do whatever she liked.

And things she wanted to do included truly celebrating her birthday for the first time in twelve years. But there was one slight problem, which was that Maho had no idea what to do in this scenario. The birthday parties Erika had told her about, which, admittedly, were themed according to the stereotypical western teenage parties, usually included a larger group of people, music, lots of food and occasionally even alcohol. But today, they'd only be three people, and Maho had no idea what would be fitting for this.

Having finished tidying up, Maho sat down on the small couch and started thinking about what to do. Alcohol was out of question, Maho had had quite enough of that. Music would be possible, but only over her small bluetooth speaker, but in the small room that wouldn't be a big problem. But entertainment was Maho's biggest concern, since in regards to movies, the best she could offer was her small laptop screen and she didn't own a TV. In that regard, the only things Maho had in her apartment were a few board games she had purchased the week before. They were nothing special, for example Monopoly and Risk, but in Maho's mind, it was better than nothing. Seeing this as the best option, Maho put the game boxes on the table.

With almost everything prepared, Maho went to the kitchen, seeing it was about time for the cake to be taken out of the oven. After checking whether it was done or not by sticking a toothpick into the filling and checking whether it sticked or not revealed that the cake was indeed done, Maho took it out of the oven and set it down on the kitchen table, so it would be ready when Helen and Yannik arrived. Somewhat proud, Maho took a step back and took a satisfied look at the almost perfect cheesecake in front of her. Just as she was doing this, the doorbell rang.

After hastily hanging her apron next to the kitchen door, Maho hurried to the front door to open it. As she did so, both Yannik and Helen looked at her, massive smiles on their faces.

„Hi", Maho greeted them. „Come on in!"

„Well, Maho...", Helen started. „I might or might not have been sick and I might or might not have used that time to buy you a present..."

She handed Maho a nicely wrapped box.

„Oh come on! Really? You didn't need to do that..."

„Hey, open it!", Yannik said, grinning broadly.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Maho carefully ripped the wrapping paper off. Then, she took out a small pocket knife and started cutting open the cartboard box. Looking inside, a huge smile appeared on her face.

„No. You did not seriously...", she exclaimed, a shine of joy in her eyes.

The end.

That's it. The story is over. I know the ending is a bit abrupt, but who doesn't like a good old cliffhanger, with the only exception being that it is totally up to you to imagine what happens next. I want to thank everyone for reading this far, and I really hope you liked this first story. A review would be very much appreciated, after all, and I hope you'll leave one. And just incase someone is interested, I have another story planned that I will probably start in early 2020. Same franchise, but darker. Now, I don't want to completely destroy the feel rather than once again thank each and every one of you, and I want to especially thank Sharkycast and Crusader332, who both upload on here, for their massive help with this story. Thank you, really. But anyways, happy new year 2020 lads!