Chapter 19:

"Hurry up, Usagi-chan! It's nearly four! We're going to miss the bus!"

"Ok ok! I'm coming, Rei-chan! Keep your fuku on!"

The raven-haired girl outside Usagi's apartment door ceased her knocking, and waited until the blonde inside appeared. "Finally! What kept you so long?"

"I needed to freshen up, Annoying-chan! Isn't a girl allowed a few minutes to get ready for a party? And why are you taking your purse with you?"

"I'm bringing my cigarettes in case Ami and I are allowed to smoke after dinner... Nosey-chan!"

"Nosey-chan? Of all the nerve!"

Grumbling to herself, Usagi followed her friends downstairs and walked to the assigned pickup area a block away from their apartments. A large silver motorcoach was parked there, sporting the blue and white Ooarai Girls Academy school crest on each side, and with nearly all members of the other Sensha-do teams already waiting within. A hall monitor standing beside the door checked off each of the girls' names on her list as they climbed aboard.

Makoto chuckled, "Looks like everyone took Anzu's threat seriously. That Anglerfish dance Momo mentioned must be awfully humiliating."

They found seats together near the front and waited for the last girl to board. Just as the bus, driven by a third-year student of their Academy's vehicle club, began to pull away from the curb, they heard Miho's voice call out from somewhere behind them.

"Panzer Vor!"

A chorus of laughter filled the coach, and the teenage girls settled down for the ride ahead.

Minako asked the other blonde, "Did you bring your appetite, Usagi-chan?"

"Hai! I'm starving!"

"And there goes the buffet!" Rei muttered.

"Quiet, Rei-chan!"

Someone at the back of the vehicle began singing Yuki No Shingun, and most of the passengers quickly joined in as the bus drove through town, making its way toward a lower deck access ramp.

"Ami-chan, what's that catchy tune everyone's singing?" Usagi asked. "I've never heard it before."

"The Snow March? I'm somewhat familiar with it from history class" Ami replied. She lowered her voice and continued, "I'm unsure what specific situation it refers to in this world, but in the Japan of our dimension it's actually an old, rather sad song about Japanese soldiers on a particularly unpleasant winter march, where many perished from extreme cold and lack of food."

"Oh! That's horrible, Ami-chan!" Usagi gasped.

"We'll be singing it again after everyone finds out you've eaten all the food at the buffet tonight" Rei teased her hungry friend. Usagi scowled back at the miko but held her tongue.

With the bus approaching one side of their school ship, another vastly larger vessel moored near the Zuikaku came looming into view. "Minna! Look at the size of that ship beside us!" Minako exclaimed. "And I thought ours was big!"

"It's positively gigantic!" Makoto agreed, craning her neck to peer up at the ship's towering presence through a bus window. "It must be the St. Gloriana Girls College we'll be competing against tomorrow afternoon."

"You're correct, Mako-chan" Ami nodded. "They call it the Ark Royal. It's quite impressive!"

Miho left her seat and walked up the aisle to chat with her new friends after the bus had stopped, held up by a line of other traffic also departing the Zuikaku. "Ohayou! Before we left, Anzu gave me a sheet containing more information about the on-shore party we're attending. There will be a buffet, so those rumors were true, Usagi-san."

"That's a big relief!" Usagi grinned happily.

Miho laughed, "I thought you'd be pleased to know that!" She continued, "Dinner will be followed by some time socializing with the St. Gloriana girls and other guests afterward. Oh, and there's supposed to be music and dancing after that." The bus began rolling again and she smiled, "I'd better get back to my seat. Minna, my team is hoping you'll sit with us at our table tonight, if you'd like to."

"We'd love to, Miho-san" Rei agreed appreciatively. "Arigatou!"

After she left, Minako beamed, "I knew it! If there's dancing, there has to be boys to dance with! Which means fate is helping me find those five special someones for all the Anglerfish girls! Hehe! My secret plan is finally coming together!"

"That's ok, Minako-chan" Makoto grinned. "I'm sure there'll be plenty of time later for your not-so-secret plan to fall apart. As it usually does."

"Hmph!"

The bus drove down a long loading ramp and passed through the city's port facilities. "That's odd" Ami mused. "I've been to Yokohama once before during a scholastic competition a few years ago, but this version of the city seems somewhat different from what I remember."

"It is strange, this dimension we were sent to" Rei spoke. "At first glance everything feels just like home, but there are so many small differences that make it truly unique. And some huge differences too. Like the school ships, for example. And Sensha-do."

"I wish they had Sensha-do back at Juuban" Minako thought wistfully. "Our regular classes with Haruna-sensei will feel so dreadfully boring and dull when we finally return home." She murmured, "If only Taro could be here with me... I don't think I'd ever leave."

"I find myself feeling the very same way, Minako-chan" Ami admitted. "Our classes at Ooarai have been quite stimulating. And like you, I'm enjoying Sensha-do far more than I ever thought possible. The only piece missing is my Ryo. I miss him terribly."

"I miss my Taro so much it hurts my heart" Minako sighed. "But that's ok, because when we finally get back to Mako-chan's house, my sugar muffin and I are going to make up for all this lost love-love time! Hai, we certainly will!"

Rei gave the blonde a sly grin. "Hard and fast, Minako-chan?"

"Ohhh yes!" the blonde girl with seemingly endless libido gleefully giggled. "Over and over and over again! All night long!"

. . . . .

The coach travelled several kilometers further inland before eventually turning into what appeared to be a large concrete parking lot. After braking to a stop, the passengers began clambering out to find a massive desert-brown tent set up nearby, with another somewhat smaller structure alongside. Each of the tent's angled roof panels bore a large insignia, the school's famous cup-and-teapot crest.

"That main tent must have room for at least three hundred people" Makoto observed. "Maybe even more. I guess the other one is the kitchen. I wish I could take a quick look inside."

"If the St. Gloriana girls know Usagi is coming, the larger one is probably just covering the buffet" Rei teased. "And it still isn't big enough."

"Stop exaggerating, Rei-chan!"

The miko feigned surprise. "I was exaggerating? Gomen nasai, Usagi-chan" the raven-haired girl apologized in her most innocent tone of voice. "I didn't realize it."

"Ohh! Now you're making it worse!" Usagi fumed.

Miho and three members of her team got off the bus and joined their new friends. Miho told their commander, "This will become the staging area for our tanks tomorrow, Makoto-san." She pointed, "The match will take place slightly further inland at a location that looks a little like a very large park, but with much more rugged landscape."

"I''m so looking forward to our battle tomorrow, Minako-san!" Yukari exclaimed. "And maybe tonight I'll even meet a cute boy and fall in love!"

Saori immediately retorted, "If there's only one eligible guy here, I've got dibs on him! And if there's two boys, you'll have to fight Mako for the other one. Isn't that right, Mako?" She spun around. "Mako? Where are- Minna, don't go anywhere yet, Mako is still asleep on the bus."

After Saori hurried back inside, Yukari giggled.

"I should've brought my bugle."

. . . . .

(Author's note: In case anyone's interested, here's Wikipedia's English translation of Yuki No Shingun, as partially sung by Yukari and Riko (Erwin) in GuP episode 9:)

Marching in the snow, stepping on ice

We can't even tell road from river

The horses are beaten, but we can't leave them

Just what is this place? It's all enemy country

Oh well, if we breathe a little bravery

I'll only ask for little: two of your cigarettes

..

Dried fish that won't cook becomes our half-boiled meals

It's not long before we're living half-boiled days

For this cold that can't be endured, a bonfire

Surely it will smoke, chaps! The green wood smoulders

Putting on a bitter face, a skillful speech

The "sour" thing here's a pickled plum

..

The clothes we wear are our carefree beds

We cover under our overcoats on knapsack pillows

With the warmth of our backs, the snow thaws

Soaking wet our millet-husk bedding

In bivouacs that won't tie, there are dreams

That the moon peeks into, coldly

..

Because we came here offering our lives

With a death resolution, even as we charge shouting

If the fortunes of war so wish, we must die in battle

The donated padded clothes, entwined in duty

Slowly, slowly, fasten upon our necks

Anyhow, the intention wasn't to let us return alive