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CHAPTER THREE – A War Provocation
Szene 006: Drowning Fishes
"St. Gloriana Girls College's flag tank cannot continue the match!" The match announcer shouted over the radio. "The Winner of the semifinal match of 63rd National High School Sensha-Do Tournament is Kuromorimine Girls Academy!"
"Yes, I can see that." She ironically answered.
Asaka Haida were sitting at a table in an Ottoman coffeehouse owned by a certain high school, watching the semi-finals match between St. Gloriana and Kuromorimine from a massive Leopold screen on the other side of the field through widely opened windows of the coffeehouse. It was the idea Verena had told her two days ago. Gathering information and inviting other teams to a friendly match. She was wearing the Sensha-Do uniform. Unlike other teams, GSI wore the Sensha-Do uniform in almost all of their business.
I guess the next one will be either Pravda or Oarai for them lot. Asaka inaudibly pondered the implication.
"You didn't enjoy the match, Haida-chan?" A woman's voice distracted Asaka's pondering.
Sitting across her was a tall beauty with black long hair and brown eyes, wearing a traditional cafta dress and kilim boots. Between them was a table serving a pair of small cups of coffee and a plate of chocolate candy and Turkish delight.
"No, Miss Bosporus. it just...The Churchill missed too many shot on the Komm...I mean the Tiger I. could have won this." Replied Asaka.
"Well, I thought you rooted for Kuromorimine."
Asaka chuckled. "I root for the little guys, most of the time."
"Well, more of our special coffee, Haida-chan?" Bosporus poured a fresh brew of coffee into Asaka's empty cup on the table. "For the little guys."
"Thank you, miss." Asaka answered. "But I prefer you reconsider my offer to another of your delicious coffee, miss Bosporus."
Bosporus chuckled. "Flattery won't help, Haida-Chan. Why do you think we, Kebab High School, want to fight a friendly match with your team?"
Asaka took the coffee cup, she was about to take a sip but she noticed her hands are trembling again. The occurrence became even more common lately.
There they go again. Asaka remarked as she took a sip from the cup anyway. The taste was almost unbearably bitter, her favourite.
"Um...I just... I just thought you'd be interested." She answered. "Since Steyr is an Austro-Hungarian school, and yours is Turkish."
"That is true." Bosporus said as she took her own sip. "But, there's some priority to attend to, and a match can be expensive."
That's right. So, it's a no. Asaka thought, gazing at the darkness that was her coffee. She was pondering why Verena sent her on this task in the first place. She was simply not a people person.
"Coffee!" Suddenly Verena entered the conversation. Asaka didn't know when she even entered the coffeehouse. Wearing her white Sensha-Do uniform without the greatcoat, she pulled a stool and sat by the table.
"Do you know that I haven't get a good sleep for three days." Brusquely Verena said as she took Asaka's hot coffee and drank it all in in one go. "So, I finished my talk with Anchovy-san. Anzio is not ready for a friendly match; they are yet to fix their Materiels. Suzuki reported that Count has already booked a match with Saunders. Dietrich said that BC ended up arguing with themselves. Tamara passed on that Maginot's commander has some health issues. What about your talk, A-Chan?"
Nice timing, V. Asaka cleared her throat motioned to Bosporus.
"Vetsera-san, isn't it?" Bosporus friendly asked.
Verena turned at Bosporus slowly. "Ah. Bosporus san, I did sip into the ongoing negotiation. I am sorry, ladies. Allow me to un-sip myself."
"Don't worry. I have given the answer already." Bosporus said to Asaka and her commander, not unkindly.
Asaka sighed. "I am so sorry Miss Bosporus. Thank you for your time."
As Bosporus was about to be on her way, a girl passed by the huge window, the girl caught Asaka's attention. Bright short red hair and as bright green sharp eyes. She was wearing a dark green jacket over a red shirt worn with a black skirt, the School uniform of Pravda Girls High School. The girl noticed Asaka and approached the open window.
Red? no, don't come here, you... Asaka cursed. The redhead was the ace gunner/tank commander of Pravda, second only to their Vice-commander, Nonna. Yet again, her skill with a gun is not the highlights of her character, it's her irritating mouth.
"Hello there. Having a good coffee, I see. Little fishes come to watch big fishes, eh?" The redhead said as she approached the window.
A visible anger glowed from Bosporus' face. "And you are? Some random Pravda girl?"
"Oh, you don't recognise me? My name is Svetlana, second year, gunner/commander, usually T-34-86. Nice to meet you." Svetlana introduced with a wolfish grin.
"Svetlana? Svetlana the..." Bosporus said.
"...The Red Winter." Asaka and Verena completed at the same time.
Svetlana chuckled. "Red. That's correct, and you guys are, hmm let me see, Bosporus of Kebab High School. a Vampire of Kuromorimine rip-off, Shiromorimine so to speak, still dragging her sinking team from the seabed, I see. And among the little fishes, a shark! The drowned shark, Asaka Haida, herself, formerly of Kuromorimine Girls Academy." Svetlana's tone of speaking sounded refined and polite, but what she actually saying is the far opposite of that.
"Red." Asaka said flatly, though her fists clenched on the table, trying to hid its shake. "Please be careful with your next words."
Svetlana chuckled. She leaned into the window. "Tell me, how did it feel, to be trapped inside a sinking tank?" She asked. Then she dramatically whispered. "...and got thrown overboard again only because you barely survived?"
With which question, the memory flooded back to her senses. The taste of the mud, the sound of the engine, the scream of her crew. Just when she thought she already got over it, but the next thing Asaka noticed was her hand shaking even more intensely.
Don't be a fish in a barrel, Asaka. Talk back, or better, punch her in her smug smile. A part of her told herself.
Just when Asaka looked back to Svetlana to perform her next action, suddenly a cup-full of coffee splashed on Svetlana's face. Asaka really wished it was her who did it, but it was Bosporus, holding her emptied ornate cup with a shaking hand.
"Red, your disregard of another's life, you don't deserve to even be near a tank." Bosporus said with a cracking voice.
Svetlana licked her lips and wiped her face with a black ushanka hat from her pocket. "Don't I now? I can't but disagree. Skill and service in the name of the team decide who is more deserving, Miss Bosporus." She said with a serious tone this time.
Verena finally made a sound by giggling, ecstatically. She covered her face with hands as if trying to hold her obvious and seemingly oblivious laugh.
"What's so funny?" Svetlana asked.
Verena struggled to stop her laugh. "No... nothing. I just remembered something." She cleared her throat. "Would it surprise you that Steyr is slightly older than Kuromorimine and Pravda? However, no doubt history doesn't concern you. Anyway, how Katyusha and Nonna doing these days? Hope they're doing fine hanging and sending their comrades to a vacation in 'Siberia' over a small disagreement."
Svetlana paused for a moment, as if processing. "Hey, hey. I see what you're going for, Freiin. Don't bring those two into this."
"Genau!" Exactly! She exclaimed, gesturing her empty cup as she spoke. "Service and Skill, remember, Red? You bring your leaders into this as soon as you approach the window with that uniform on." Suddenly, the ecstatic façade was removed from Verena's complexion, replaced by her grave tone. "And, since you, Red, took it two steps too far by offending my team and my gunner. How about I demand a satisfaction with a Sensha-Do match?"
"Verena, no." Asaka whispered, trying to stop her to no avail.
"Oh, was that an official challenge, Mein Freiin?" Svetlana said with a wide grin.
"Exactly. I, Verena Freiin von Vetsera of GSI Sensha-Do Team, challenged Pravda Girls High School to an un-friendly Sensha-Do match. Relay that to your glorious comrade Katyusha, will you, Red?" Verena announced, loud enough for the whole coffeehouse to hear.
She stepped away from the window. "I will. Perhaps comrade Katyusha would like some little fish sticks after she eat-up Ooarai and Kuromorimine. The girl of her stature, who knows?" She laughed. Then she whispered. "But I doubt it."
"Good girl." Verena grinned. "Good girl."
Red tsk-ed her tongue, unimpressed. "Be in touch for the response, Baroness." She said as she walked away.
Szene 007: A Glimpse to the Future
"What the F did you do? Are you F-ing stupid, Freiin!?" Asaka asked as soon as Red went far enough.
"Ara? Hold your wrath, there, A-chan." Verena said, calmly while playing with her phones.
"Don't ara-ara me. Why on earth did you challenge them? They are out of our league. You said it yourself, we cannot challenge the big fishes!"
"No offense, there, A-chan, but are you that afraid of Pravda?" Verena looked at Asaka intently.
"With a good reason. We only have 9 tanks, crewed by a bunch of students that would sooner fight among themselves over a harmless joke..."
"Ten, with the new one. Hold on a sec..." Verena interrupted
Asaka interrupted back. "…Against the team with third largest tank arsenal in the country, with crews trained by members of Russian Armed..."
Verena placed her forefinger on Asaka's lips, instantly silencing her. "Let me explain myself first, vice-commander."
Verena took a piece of Turkish delight and put it in her mouth in her usual childish way. "The crews would fight among themselves over a harmless joke, that might be true. But what if the joke wasn't harmless? What if it wasn't a joke at all? What if it intended to the whole team?" She explained while chewing the Turkish treat.
Asaka saw what was Verena going for, "What do you mean? What'd you do?"
She showed her phone. A recoding app was open. "What if someone recorded Red's provocation and send it to the Student Press Unit back in the school? The team would stop fighting for their each department, and start fighting the common enemy. That's still our goal, right? And don't worry, I will remove the part when she mentioned you and your old crew's...significant emotional event."
Asaka laughed. for once, she believed it would work. "Okay, I admit that's smart. You're genius, Verena!" Asaka impulsively pinched Verena's cheeks with both of her hands. Then she realized what she was doing and cringed back, embarrassed. "Sorry about that."
Verena casted her faint and cryptic smile. "Of course."
Asaka cleared her throat, trying to clear the awkwardness as well. "But that would only solve quarter of our problems. As you said, we have to win, or at least give a good fight and our tanks is simply not enough."
"You are forgetting I am here, are you not?" Bosporus finally spoke again.
Asaka honestly forgot about Bosporus' presence there. She was even more embarrassed after what she did to Verena earlier. "Um, Bosporus-san."
"You seem to be really enjoying the free show." Verena joked.
Bosporus laughed. "Yes, I truly am. You both are really cute together. Tell you what, I will read your fortune." She said as she arranged the cups in the table.
"The coffee sediment reading thing?" Asaka asked.
"The Turkish tourist scams?" Verena blurted cynically.
"Hey, Verena! Don't say that!" Asaka glared at her. "Read the room. We are in a Turkish coffeehouse."
"Scam, huh? Do you think so?" Bosporus face showed a faked annoyance. "Because, maybe, just maybe, the telling will save you on your quest."
Verena and Asaka looked at each other.
"I guess there's no harm with a try." Verena said.
"Sure, we need all the help we can get." Asaka responded almost at the same time.
"Güzel! Now, I want you two to cover the cup with its saucer, like so." Bosporus instructed as she covered her cup with a saucer.
"We two? There's only a cup." Verena was confused.
Bosporus chuckled. "Yes, you have to do it together. Who told you to drink from someone else's cup? Now your fortune for the next 40 days is entwined with Haida-chan."
Entwined with Verena? Asaka pondered
"Well, in my defence, I was thirsty and crashed." Verena said. "Let's just get this over with A-Chan."
Asaka and Verena held the saucer together and covered the cup with it. "What's next?" Verena asked.
"Hold the cup and the saucer in the air with your thumbs and index fingers, like so." Bosporus instructed further. "Do it together."
Asaka and Verena did it like instructed, holding the cup together awkwardly. "This better not be a jape, Bosporus-san." Verena complained.
"Most certainly not, Miss Vetsera. Now, look at each other and make a wish inside your heart and told yourself how much this wishes to become a reality. And while doing it, revolve the cup counter-clockwise around an imaginary sun between you two three times."
"Alright. commander, let's start" Asaka said, looking at her commander.
The two girls are staring at each other, and spin the cup. Asaka made the wish.
Verena chuckled as they finished revolving the cup, "Why the red-face, A-Chan." She asked.
Asaka was flustered, shaking the cup in their hands. "No... Nothing, You're just very beautiful, that's all." Asaka said, almost impulsively.
Verena smiled with a blushing face. "Oh, am I now?"
"Stop flirting and focus, girls. The next part requires your cooperation."
"We are not flirting!" The two commanders denied at the same time.
Bosporus appeared as if holding a laugh. "Okay, okay. That was not a flirt. Now, turn the cup upside down, so the saucer is now below the upside-down cup, and place it on the table. While you do it, I will recite the magic word."
"Alright, we'll do it on my mark." Verena said. "One, two, flip."
The cup was now on the table, so does Bosporus' cup. Upside down on its saucer.
"Okay, I will read it. You two stay calm, yes?"
Verena and Asaka leaned to Bosporus in attention.
Bosporus opened Asaka's cup and studied the dregs patterned inside. "Oh, I see an Eiffel tower, a mountain, a lake." She then opened her own cup and compared it with Asaka's. "Oh, I see a Panzer IV and Panzer III, also some Turans and an Elefant, struggling in the sundered battlefield."
"What does that mean?" Asaka asked. "Do we have a chance?"
"Hold on, we don't have any Panzer IV or Panzer III." Verena interrupted. "Neither do Pravda."
Bosporus turned the cups upside down, and placed her hand on her chin. "That is unusual, because my team happens to have both Panzer IV and III. Hmm, curious."
Verena leaned in more closely. "This is not a normal reading, isn't it?"
To which question, Bosporus only smiled. "I changed my mind. May I suggest a small alliance against the Red menace?"
Chapter III – A War Provocation – END