Maho's POV
It was two weeks since the IMAF landed on Kyushu. It seemed that the world famous might of Kuromorimine and Saunders faded away.
The students of Saunders were doing some rearguard actions, forced back by the Spanish teams and Sherlock Holmes Academy to the peninsula where their home, Nagasaki was located.
Maho's team was defending on the doorstep of Kumamoto, the home of Kuromorimine Girls High School and the Nishizumi style and residence itself. The Canadian teams together with Diamondback and Seinarukaze have already begun to surround the city.
The Nishizumi heir felt that she lost herself. She was always thought to keep advancing, no matter what. Now they were constantly giving up land and even if none of them said it loudly they all knew that the end was near and this city will fall.
Maho's and Erika's Tigers were positioned in the eastern part of the city, near a Sebun-Erebun grocery shop.
"Can I ask, what are your plans taichō?" asked Erika.
"It's not a coincidence that we've always tried to avoid fights in urban areas." said Maho while looking nervously to the east. "Our tanks prefer open fields, not narrow streets. This is a disadvantage for us."
"Another one is that we are outnumbered by far, am I right? Though we outgun most of the enemy tanks… there are just too many of them. In WW2 the allies used to send ten Shermans against one Tiger. Now Diamondback and the Canadians have about thirty Shermans against each and every one of our vehicles. Not to mention their other tanks and Seinarukaze."
"I'm aware of that Erika."
"I would just want to know… what can we do?"
"We fight on."
"I know our girls are determined to save Kumamoto. Do you think we are able to do that?"
"Hm. You used to be the one who is always certain of victory."
"I don't know if I am still that person Maho-san."
"Oh? Then what kind of Erika do I see now?"
"An Erika who lost herself. What are you fighting for taichō?"
Maho got confused by the question and remained silent.
"See? I couldn't give an answer either."
"Well, the old Maho would have said that she went to war for the Federation." said Maho.
"The old Erika would have said the exact same. But this Erika… doesn't know it anymore." sighed the silver haired girl.
"Neither does this Maho. To be honest, what I want to defend is this city, nothing more."
"I feel the same way. But still: is that even possible?"
"Don't tell the others my opinion, alright?"
"There's a padlock on my mouth."
"No." said Maho and shook her head. "It's not possible."
"So what are we going to do?"
"I'll ask the directorate for permission to evacuate Kumamoto and sail to Nagasaki with the school ship. If we rejoin with Saunders we would have a bit better chances."
"You want to leave this place?"
"I don't like the idea, I can assure you. But we can only fight another day if we do not get crumbled up here."
"Huh. I trust your decision as always taichō." said Erika.
"I hope I deserve it."
Half an hour later Maho got the answer from Tokyo.
"They do not let it." she said with a troubled voice and face.
"What did they say?"
"Get this: "We cannot afford to retreat without fighting and making the enemy pay the price for their victory. You shall defend each square-centimeter of JSF soil. Defend Kumamoto with persistence and leave the city only when you have no other choice."
"So they think we have another choice?" asked Erika.
"Looks like they are really so dumb."
"Leaders are not always right. But even then they are the leaders."
"A real leader knows what to do Erika." said Maho with anger. "They have absolutely no idea how to lead. I swear, those guys over there are closer to me than those nitwits in the directorate!" she said pointing toward the IMAF and the confederates.
"Are you now talking about your mother too?"
"I… I can only hope that she hasn't gone mad like the others."
Tokyo, JSF HQ
"Dismissed." ended Tsuji the meeting. Everyone in the room started to pack.
"Tsuji-sama."
"What is it Nishizumi-san?"
"Shouldn't we really think over the evacuation of Kumamoto?" asked Shiho who stayed on her chair.
Tsuji folded his arms. "I wasn't expecting this from you. I thought you would rather die than giving up that city. Which by the way is the home of your own style and school."
"I know. But what could my students do for the Federation if they lose there?"
"They will hold their ground, I'm sure about that. And when the time is right they will push the enemy back into the sea! Don't you trust your daughter?"
"I do with all my heart…"
"Then I'm glad she didn't hear you now. She would have been ashamed. I'm done." said the glassed man and left.
Shiho was let alone. Would Maho be ashamed of her? What does she think of this war at all? Does she hate her? Does she blame her? And what about Miho?
Miho's POV
Oarai, Anzio and Yogurt Academy lined up at Lake Inawashiro. A day later Pravda has joined them. They couldn't hold their positions on the eastern coast and had to retreat to the south. With this Viking Marine got trapped between enemy forces in northern Honshu.
In fact one of Miho's biggest problems was that there was a risk that they could be surrounded too. More or less they could hold up the central forces of Gustav's army group but at the left flank of the JSF's battalion, at Mt. Futamatayama Stromboli Boys High School and the Italian IMAF Sensha-Do teams led by Lucia were overcoming Yogurt Academy. Therefore Oarai went to help them.
"Nishizumi Miho to Bilyana."
"Here's Bilyana." came the reply from the commander of the Bulgarian styled school's team.
"How is it doing there?"
"Not too great. I've never known that P40s and Semoventes can cause this much of trouble."
"Hey, I'm listening too!" sounded Anchovy's annoyed voice in the radio.
"Sorry Chovy. I'm just saying that I've never dealt with this much Italian tanks before."
"Don't call me Chovy!"
"Anyway. What do you suggest Bilyana-san?" asked Miho.
"We'd have better positions if we'd retreat to Shirakawa and Sukagawa. There we could find good ambuscades between the buildings and plough field."
"There you can feel home, huh?" asked Anchovy. The students of Yogurt Academy were operating agricultural vehicles at home along with their tanks and they cultivated agricultural products and roses as well.
"You're damn right Chovy. What about you? Do you have pasta where you are right now?"
"Hey!"
"Copy that Bilyana-san." said Miho and changed the subject. "You can count on us. We will be at the Shakado River near the stadium in Sukagawa."
"Paзбрах (understood) Oarai! And we line up around the Yakumo Shrine."
The two teams went to the named locations and waited for the invaders. Miho's Panzer IV drove inside a dark warehouse and stopped at a window looking westwards. Soon she noticed the closing enemy.
"Hana-san. Target that Panther in the front next to that Tiger. Do you see it?"
"I do taichō." replied Hana looking through the crosshairs.
"Fire when it gets closer than 300 meters."
"Yokai!"
Kiyoshi's POV
Landsknecht Boys High School's commander and commanding general of the Confederacy of Independent High Schools was watching the area in front of him with his binoculars from the advancing tank.
He couldn't see the enemy. The question was whether they were there or not. If they are there they sure set up a trap. This can be risky.
"500 hundred meters." said Hana in Miho's tank.
"Aim at the lower part of its frontal armor."
"Yes taichō."
They were waiting. The enemy tanks were getting bigger and the roar of their motors and clank of their tracks were getting louder.
"400 meters." reported Hana. "That's it my little lambs. Come on. Just a bit closer."
Anon, anon…
"Panzer halt!" commanded Kiyoshi. The whole army of the rebel school stopped where they were.
"For real?" grimaced Hana. They were only 15 meters away from the designated distance.
"Patience Hana-san."
"Motoren aus!" The tanks of Landsknecht stopped their engines. Kiyoshi took off his headset and listened. Nothing. There was silence. He took his binoculars again. Houses, fields, roads, a few trees… Wait a second! Between those two houses… A short, 57 millimeter cannon and sprockets! "Achtung all units, there's and enemy Type-89 to the left! Tank 25 and 26! Get it!"
Two Panzer IVs moved forward and both of them fired three rounds.
"Did you hit it?"
"Negative General. We've missed. It got away."
In the next moment a shell struck one of the Panzer IVs on its side armor and white flagged it.
"Scheiße!" Kiyoshi looked to the left and saw Oarai's Tiger P with smoking barrel, lurking behind scrubs. "Heavy tanks on the left flank, take that out!"
"We got it!" cheered Hoshino.
"There's more where that came from." said Nakajima. "Tsuchiya-san, backwards!" As she said this an 88 millimeter shell slipped off the side of Leopon Team's turret, making the four girls inside to cover their ears.
"Artillerie open fire! Aim well! Do not risk any civilian buildings!" The self-propelled guns behind Landsknecht's back fired and shells began to explode around Oarai's positions. They were shooting for about two minutes. They couldn't see the effect however. "Hold your fire! Panzer IIIs! Go ahead and do reconnaissance for us!"
The medium tanks moved forward and entered the town.
"General! We met resistance and lost four tanks! The enemy concentrated its forces between the stadium and the Beisanji Park! We need support!"
"All Zugs! Geradeaus Marsch!" ordered Kiyoshi and the army began to move again.
"I have you now." said Hana and fired the cannon, taking that certain Panther out of action.
"How is it going there Bilyana-san?" asked Miho.
"We managed to stop them so far. Temporarily…"
"Do your best! We retreat to the southern side of the creek!"
"Ycпeх (good luck) Oarai!"
"All teams! Gather together and follow me!" commanded Miho her friends.
The boys got confused when they didn't encounter anyone, but they quickly found out where Oarai went. When they arrived to the bridges the girls' school unleashed a salvo. It cut through the first line of the confederate tanks like some terrible blade, cutting down ten armored vehicles.
"Jagdpanthers! Smoke them out from there!" ordered Kiyoshi. A second later it was he and his crew whose ears met pain because of a bounced shell.
Then one of the tank-destroyers hit Miho's tank on the top of its hull. "The turret's hydraulics is gone!" reported Hana. "I switch to manual control!"
"Come on girls! Do not reduce the intensity!" said Miho.
The battle raged on and by the evening it was still a deadlock. Oarai was holding Sukagawa, Yogurt Academy Shirakawa and Anzio and Pravda Koriyama.
It didn't change the fact however that the northern front was only about 80 kilometers away from Oarai. And they could only hope that Viking Marine can help them somehow.
Maho's POV
Maho hated to admit it but she knew it was over, even if their leaders didn't want to believe it. The southern districts of Kumamoto were already lost. Kuromorimine barricaded the bridges in vain, the IMAF and the confederate teams were about to cross the Midorikawa River.
The other two groups of enemy tanks have occupied most of the city center. More or less it was only the coastal area that was still on the hand of the girls' school.
Maho decided that it is time to make a hard decision like Trout and Katyusha did before.
"They said: evacuate when necessary. Now it's necessary."
"Are you sure Maho-san?" asked Erika.
"You know what? I don't care what they'll think. I'm responsible for my teammates. At my own risk I order the evacuation of Kumamoto. Erika, tell it please to everyone and inform the schools ship too."
"Verstanden! Attention all units! To the seaport immediately! We are leaving for Nagasaki!"
Shortly after this the girls of Kuromorimine returned to their school carrier (which still had bombed facilities on it, including the garages) and it set sail with them. The team gathered together on the aft deck and they watched their home fading away on the horizon. They knew that in those exact moments Kuromorimine's city was falling to enemy hands.
They felt lost. As if the ground was pulled out from under their feet. The invincible Kuromorimine… The representative of the glorious Nishizumi style… Their old glory…
All of these old beliefs of theirs were lying in ruins. Kuromorimine was far not invincible; the Nishizumi style couldn't help them and their glory was in the past.
"I'm sorry everyone." turned Maho to the others. The girls looked at her. "I've failed you." Maho on the other hand couldn't bring herself to look into their eyes. "I'm so terribly sorry."
"Failed us?" asked Koume. "What are you talking about taichō?"
"I was meant to lead you to victory. I wasn't able to do that."
"You did something way better Kommandant." said Jagdpanther-chan. "You brought us out from there so we can fight on. We shall say thank you to you."
"THANK YOU COMMANDER!" bowed the whole team.
"Please girls…"
"Don't say anything taichō." said Erika kindly. "We couldn't wish any better person to lead us. Do not lose yourself."
"Huh. If only I could get you out of this whole thing so you wouldn't have to do this anymore." sighed the Nishizumi heir.
"The time will come for that too." said Koume. "For now we have to be satisfied with what we have now."
"And what do we have?" asked Maho weakly. "What more than these tanks?"
"We have each other." smiled Koume and the others.
Maho nodded, also with a faint smile. "I tell Kay that we are coming."
Late in the afternoon the ship anchored down in Nagasaki and Kuromorimine's team joined Saunders. They had to divide their forces in two however. The second victim of the American nuclear bombs could be approached from two directions. From Shinsaikai Bridge at the mouth of Ōmura Bay and from the ness east from the city.
The reinforcement for Saunders came just in time. Together with Kuromorimine they could hold the enemy up. A bit longer…
Gustav's POV
"They are not bad. Not at all." admitted the general. It was still obvious that in the end they will beat the JSF, but it turned out that it will be a longer procedure than he thought.
"What's next?" asked Fabian.
"I will send Colin and Ibrahim to attack Koriyama from the north. We have to outmaneuver them somehow."
"Guess you are right."
"Can I ask something Gustav." asked Silvia.
"Natürlich."
"I know you very well. You look somehow… different."
"What do you mean?" asked Gustav.
"I couldn't explain it. But you have a different aura since you returned from your lonely journey in the forest. Did something happen?"
"Even if something had happened I wouldn't be obliged to tell it. There was nothing."
"Although I know that this is a fib… I'm not asking any questions. You are right. You don't have to tell if you do not want to."
"You know me too well." said Silvia. "But thanks for being understanding."
"Come on, what was it Kommandant?" grinned Fabian. "Did you have a date there?"
"Just keep your eyes on the targets…"
Klara's POV
Klara's leg healed enough to sit in a tank again. This night she was together with the rest of Pravda in Koriyama. Her tank was parking in the Kaiseizan Park.
"Are you alright кoмaндир?" asked her driver, seeing the Russian girl's expression.
"Yes. Thank you." nodded Klara.
"Are you still under the effects of your injury? You look like as if your thoughts were completely somewhere else ever since you've returned."
"Y-Yes… It must be that."
"Or is there another reason?"
"I'm fine, I promise." said Klara in a calming voice.
"I believe you as always." replied the driver girl.
However she was right. The fight was only in the second place in Klara's mind. She was constantly thinking about that young boy who helped her in need. How could she find him? She was curious about him. She needed to meet him again. Wherever he is right now…
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