Dein Weg ist Mein Weg
Chapter XXXVI
The Deal
"Hmm…"
"So, what's the verdict?" Yukari asked.
"Have them run it again," Maho answered, and nodded down to Saori to transmit the order. "Their grouping still isn't tight enough, and they should be able to shave at least another ten seconds off their time."
"You got it," she replied, and flipped a few switches on the radio beside her, before reaching a hand to her headset and continuing. "Heron team, get ready to run the course one more time. Your aim needs to be tighter, and according to Maho, you can make it through at least ten seconds faster-... N-no, Taiga… I… I mean, yes, that does sound interesting, but if you would just…"
Maho sighed and flipped her own radio to the team's shared channel. "Heron, I'm starting the timer in thirty seconds," she said bitterly. "Whether you want to spend that time getting ready for another run at the course, or idle and incessant chitchat, that's your choice."
"Oh, hi Commander!" Taiga's chirping voice answered over the crackling radio. "Sorry about that. See, I was just telling Saori about this video I checked out during lunch, maybe you saw it too. See, it was about this-"
"Just get moving, would you?" Maho said with an exasperated sigh, and collapsed back into her seat.
"Don't you think you're being a bit harsh on them?" Saori asked.
Maho just rolled her eyes at the question, before switching the channel once more on her radio. "Sodoko, you ready?"
"I've told you a thousand times, Nishizumi!" Sodoko yelled back. "My name's Midorik-"
"Whatever," Maho sighed. "On your marks. In three, two, one… Panzer vor."
The Char B1 bis rumbled to life once more, and set out on the small training course Maho had set up for the team, partially based on the one she had set up for herself a few weeks ago. The team had been running it daily ever since their match against Anzio, and all of the crews had shown at least some form of steady improvement, even if some were doing far better than others.
Considering the newly added crew had only been practicing for two weeks, Maho really couldn't complain about their performance. They were, by all accounts, doing decently. The problem, of course, was that decent wasn't enough. She glanced down at her stopwatch, and tried her best to listen to the sound of the tank moving and in the distance. It was going at an acceptable pace so far.
While she still seemed unable to reach the kind of clarity and peace of mind that would allow her to simply know every part of her surroundings, she too was slowly improving. She couldn't tell the exact positioning of the team's tanks when she couldn't see them, but she had at least managed to regain some of her ability. She could tell that she had a much easier time picking up on sounds it really shouldn't, and her brain was slowly reacquainting itself with how to use all the additional information to map out her surroundings. Right now, that meant she was pretty sure Heron team was approaching one of the more difficult parts of the track.
She scoffed quietly to herself as she considered the name once more. It really shouldn't have come as a surprise to her that the new crew would take on another animal as their callsign, like the rest of the team. With everything else that had been going on the last little while, It had simply slipped her mind that there would be yet another ridiculous and cutesy callsign for her to begrudgingly accept.
She had however in no way been able to predict the amount of arguing and debate that had taken place over the matter. The pipsqueak had immediately jumped at the somewhat waterfowl-like silhouette of the tank and suggested that the new crew should be called the mallards. Sodoko's protests had however swiftly put an end to that idea. Taiga had in her, as Maho had quickly found out, characteristic over-enthusiasm, gone through almost the entire list of animals that already had actual tanks named after them, and had after every bright-eyed suggestion had to have explained to her why this was nothing but a recipe for misunderstandings and disaster.
At one point, the discussion got so heated that even Mako bothered to voice an opinion. Whether it was in mere jest or real spite, no one was really sure, but her suggestion of Plover team, in reference to the symbiotic relationship between the Public Morals Committee and the Student Council, had been met with even louder protests than most of the previous suggestions combined.
In the end, a compromise had been reached with Heron team. It fit the rest of the team's focus on animals, wasn't too closely related to any other team or model of tank, and was at the very least agreeable to all involved. It even worked somewhat with the pipsqueak's original observation of the Char B1's silhouette being vaguely shaped like a waterfowl.
The sound of cannonfire drew her attention back to the practice session, and after a quick glance down at her stopwatch, Maho looked out at the practice range once more to see Heron team having just completed the part of the course where they would fire on the move, and were lining up for the final segment of the track. Precision fire.
The first shot was a miss, if a close one. Shots two and three hit the target, but would most likely have bounced on any of the more heavily armored tanks they were likely to face. Shot four was as good as a perfect bullseye, and shot five once again hit the target, while not being anything spectacular, and as she stopped the timer, she could at least note that this run had been five seconds quicker than the last, which was good.
Good, but not good enough. And certainly not perfect.
"Alright, I guess that's fine for now. Have Heron team move off the course for now, and send Rabbit team out," she said to Saori. "There should be enough time for every team to make at least two more runs through the course before practice is over."
"Uhm, Maho?" Saori said with a concerned look on her face.
"What?"
"It's… uh… It's Yuzu. She says she needs to talk to you."
"How fitting," Maho muttered. She had almost managed to rid herself of the bitter annoyance she had felt when it became clear that the Student Council wasn't going to show up for practice even though they were probably the ones who needed it most apart from the newly-formed Heron team, nor even provide any warning or explanation for it. And now that a stark reminder had been given her, she could feel that annoyance begin to bubble to the surface once more. "I have some choice words for her as well." She quickly handed the stopwatch to Yukari, before switching channels once more.
"Maho? A-are you there?" Yuzu asked. "You… you're needed in the Student Council's office."
There was something off about her tone. All the warmth and care that usually filled Yuzu's voice had vanished, and in their place she instead seemed distant, her tone despondent and disheartened.
"What does the Pipsqueak want now?" Maho sighed bitterly, too annoyed to notice or care. "Whatever, it doesn't matter. I'll swing by once practice is over, as long as you mind telling me what kind of an excuse you think you and your crew have for not showing up for practice, and without even letting myself or Captain Chono know, no less?"
"Maho, this… this can't wait until after practice... It might already be too late… You need to come with me right now," Yuzu replied. It almost seemed as if she hadn't quite heard or listened to what Maho had said.
"I'm kind of in the middle of something here. As you three also should. Whatever moronic nonsense she wants to chat about, it can damn well wait until after practice. It's not like the school's going to burn to the ground if I talk to her about it in an hour.
"No, Maho, you… you don't understand. You need to come to the Student Council's Office. Immediately," Yuzu repeated, but then she hesitated. A few moments passed before she continued, with her tone changing once more. Whatever had been there before vanished, and her voice grew harsh, almost dictatorial. "A-...As Vice President of the Student Council, I am ordering you to report there this instant, Commander Nishizumi."
"Fine. I'll be there in a minute," Maho muttered. "Captain Chono, you there?"
"Yeah, I'm here," Ami replied, having presumably had the handset of the radio in the observation tower given back to her.
"Can you run through and supervise the rest of the practice? Apparently," Maho said coldly, "I have business elsewhere to deal with."
"Sure thing."
"Good. I'll see you later, and you can get me the cliffnotes." With that, Maho switched her radio off, leaned back in her seat, and put her face in her hands with a great sigh.
"What has happened?" Hana asked. "Is something the matter, Maho?"
"It's nothing," Maho muttered. "There's just something I need to go talk to the pipsqueak with now."
"Why's that?" Yukari asked.
"Beats me," Maho shrugged, and began to climb out of the cupola. "Saori?"
"Yeah?"
"You're in command while I'm gone. Just make sure everyone runs the course a few more times, and it'll be fine. Captain Chono will manage the rest."
"You got it, Maho!" Saori said with a nod and a smile. "Good luck with... whatever it is you need to deal with."
"Yeah, thanks," Maho muttered, jumped down from the turret, and began the short walk back to the hangar.
"We're expected," Yuzu said in a harsh voice to the two black-haired girls with equally black armbands that stood guard outside the doors of the Student Council's office. If the two girls hadn't looked spooked before, they most certainly did now, and they swiftly stepped aside and allowed Yuzu passage. "I've brought Commander Nishizumi as you asked, Miss President," Yuzu said as she entered the room, her shoulders slumping dejectedly as she walked over to her usual place to the left of Anzu's desk.
"Alright, Pipsqueak. I'm here. Where's the fire?"
Maho sighed bitterly as she followed Yuzu into the office. The light of the evening sun shining in through the panoramic windows of the office seemed to want to bathe the room in warm light, but instead left almost everything inside drowned in backlit shadows. And in these shadows, Maho froze in place as she stared down the demons within, and the world seemed to freeze with her.
"Hello, Maho."
In all her life, Maho had never seen her mother smile, and seeing it now for the first time, she could only feel thankful that she hadn't. A chill ran down her spine, consuming it whole, and the floor below her gave way to the abyss as she felt the tendrils of the void claw at her, her skin freezing to ice and the fire within her dousing under their cold everywhere they touched.
"Mother…" Maho said in a low, cautious voice, her eyes darting wildly between the cyclops with her satisfied grin, the pipsqueak's strangely disinterested smirk, Yuzu's nervous face, and the unsettling smile of her mother. She barely noticed the two girls from the Public Morals Committee that followed her into the room to take up positions on either side of her. "What… what are you doing here…"
"Well, Nishizumi," Anzu answered, looking over her steepled fingers at Maho, "I suppose you're owed an explanation." She leaned back in her chair, and threw her feet up on the desk, and as if to further drive home how little she actually cared, began to play with one of her pigtails as she continued. "We didn't exactly restart the Sensha-Do team just for the fun of it all. I know it might be difficult to hear, but unless we can win the national tournament, MEXT will be closing down Ooarai at the end of the semester, and sending the Zuikaku to be scrapped-"
"I know," Maho said shortly.
"You do?" Anzu said with no change of tone, but one of her eyebrows rising was proof enough that this information came as at least some sort of surprise to her.
"Yuzu told me shortly before the exhibition match with St. Gloriana," Maho elaborated, as her eyes began to lock on to her mother. "That's the only reason I got anywhere close to the team in the first place." She could feel herself begin to sink once more. Sinking into the cold yet comforting embrace of the abyss, as the world seemed to begin slipping away from her and color disappeared from the office, leaving her with nothing but cold and bitter anger to tie her to the grey mass of shapes that was the world.
"Huh…" Anzu shrugged. "Oh well, then I suppose I might as well just cut to the chase." Immediately disregarding her own words, she, instead of cutting to the chase, grabbed a bag of dried sweet potatoes from an open drawer and began to snack loudly and lazily on them.
"Would you just get on with it?" Shiho said coldly, without any real response from the pipsqueak, who only continued to ignore the rest of the room while wolfing down the rest of the bag.
"End this charade, girl, or I might reconsider my offer," Shiho added, but was interrupted by a loud belch from Anzu.
"Anyways, as I was saying," she continued, as if nothing had happened, the light smirk on her lips widening into a grin. "Your mother has graciously offered to use her considerable influence within both the Sensha-Do Federation as well as the Ministry to keep Ooarai's doors open. And all she asks in return, is-"
"Let me guess," Maho said bitterly, glancing over at the pipsqueak. She knew exactly where this was all heading. "All you need to do is expel me, isn't it?"
She cursed herself for not seeing it coming; It was way too sensible of a plan for the pipsqueak and her mother not to enact it. There was no way her mother could risk any further appearances of Maho publicly acting in opposition to the Nishizumi family, and there was no way the pipsqueak, or anyone else for that matter, truly believed that winning the championship was a realistic goal. And so obviously she would be searching for other ways.
Maho glanced with calm fury back and forth between the two culprits. Obviously one of them had instigated the arrangement, the question was just who. Not that it really mattered. In the end, it was her own fault. She had relied on the fact that her enrollment at Ooarai had been made in her dad's name and not her mother's, meaning that now that he was gone, the only way of getting Maho out was either to have her willingly transfer away, something she had no intention of doing as it would once again place her under her mother's guardianship, or to simply expel her, which would achieve the same result.
She would once again be subject to her mother's whims, and there would be no other escape left for her.
"I'm… I'm sorry Maho…" Yuzu answered in a dejected apology. "I… I wish there was another way, but…"
"But I've made up my mind," Anzu finished, and yawned loudly before turning her attention to another bag of sweet potatoes.
"It's not like it's a difficult choice," Momo scoffed. "A small price to pay, if you ask me."
"Try telling someone who cares, Cyclops," Maho replied, rolling her eyes in derisive scorn.
"Quiet. I taught you manners, and you will do well to mind your lessons," her mother snapped and even now, all these years later, Maho could feel the lash of the bamboo against her scarred back just from the force of the command. "Now," her mother continued and turned to the pipsqueak, "get this over with. I have better things to do than partaking in your circus."
"Go to hell…"
"What did you say?" Her mother didn't so much turn to face Maho, but instead simply glared at her over her shoulder.
Within, almost completely extinguished by the cold and darkness of the abyss, Maho could still make out a fire, if only just. A small spark of will and determination, even as she sank.
Before her mind's eye, she saw Koume, bringing her the tray of dinner that would end up bringing them together. As the image disappeared, she could sense the spark catching, growing if only by a minuscule amount.
She saw Chiyomi, her wondrous smile and eyes filled with joy, her laughter lighting up the room, and the spark within Maho lit up into a true fire.
She saw Emi, coming to join their dinners and telling her the truths that she needed to hear, and the fire grew.
She saw her dad, taking her in when she had nowhere to go, and showing her more love and warmth than she had been robbed of in all his years of absence.
She saw Ami giving her advice, Saori and Hana and Yukari and Mako forgiving her before the Anzio-match, even Azusa in the playground where they had first spoken properly. And with every face that flashed in her mind, the fire within her only grew and grew into a raging inferno. By now it filled her to the brim, and she felt as if flaming wings burst from her back, propelling her up and out of the abyss as the fire brought life and colour back into her vision.
"I said; 'Go to hell'," Maho repeated, channeling all the fire and energy within herself into nothing but a singular focus of her vitriol and determination. Her mother.
Her defiance was swiftly answered, as a jolt of pain struck her in the face swift as lightning.
"You dare question me?" her mother snapped back, now turning her full wrath and attention to Maho. "You seem to have forgotten the way of things, you insolent brat."
"I don't care," Maho answered sternly, and licked the blood from the crack in her lip where she had been slapped. "I don't care whatever dad might have seen in you. He was wrong, and I'm only glad he didn't live to find out. You're nothing but a selfish monster. If you think I'll just go quietly towards whatever you have in mind for me, you're wrong, and you're an even bigger fool than I thought you were."
In the following moments, Maho and her mother made silent battle with one another, the burning flames of determination that filled Maho's glare taking up arms against the freezing glacier of hatred and contempt that filled her mother's.
"Well, you're probably right," Anzu interceded, nonchalantly continuing as if she was blissfully unaware of the quiet war playing out before her. "I think we can finish this up now." She gestured to Momo, who grinned with beaming smugness at Maho as she placed a piece of paper on the desk before Anzu, and handed her a pen which she twirled theatrically around her finger a few times.
"Finally," Shiho said bitterly, and fixed the fit of her suit jacket as she turned back to Anzu, flashing another bone-chilling smile of triumph at Maho as she did so. Maho didn't even bother facing the pipsqueak. She had already resigned herself to the events that were about to unfold, and was simply letting her mind race, trying to explore as many opportunities for vengeance before fate caught up with her.
The two Public Morals Committee members having taken up position on either side of her definitely weren't there by accident or coincidence, but Maho felt relatively certain she could overpower the two of them if she just had the element of surprise. She noted the vase of flowers that stood on the small table next to the sofa beside her. If she was quick, and managed to act before her mother reacted, Maho might be able to crack it against the back of her head, and knock her out.
No, that will never work…
Maho might not have ever faced her mother in battle, regardless of if it was with tanks or just with their fists, but Maho knew her mother well enough to suspect that unless her first move was to take her down in a single attack, there was no way she'd get the upper hand. That left a different target for her retribution…
Ok, if I elbow the one on the left in the solar plexus while tripping the one on the right, I can snatch the vase and throw it at the pipsqueak. That should take her out of the picture for now, which gives me time to back off from the clones. Push the table at mother, then bolt out the doors. I don't remember hearing them being locked, she thought, trying to plan her route as far ahead as she could and clenching her fists, her body tensing up like a coiled spring in anticipation.
Although, what if they did lock them, and I just didn't notice… No, best not to think about that. If they're locked they're locked, and there's nothing I can do. Focus on what I can do. Foyer should be clear, and I can get to the staircase. Up or down, probably up. Too far to go to head down, they'll catch up with me, or at the very least call the police before I reach the bottom. I'm pretty sure I heard and saw mother's helicopter before, so if the pilot isn't too bulky, or I can surprise them, I could maybe overpower them and if I'm lucky, I'll manage to take off before anyone can stop me. I think the Aquila's reasonably close right now, so I could ditch the chopper, maybe see if Chiyomi or her mom could hide me until-
"Well, Nishizumi, I guess this is it. I hope you won't hold this against me," the pipsqueak said as she looked at Maho with a sly and satisfied smile, cracking her knuckles as she spoke. "But I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline your generous offer," she continued, and turned her eyes on Shiho instead. "I'm terribly sorry for taking up your time. Good day."
Maho's mind went blank for a few moments, as she tried to reconcile what she knew, or rather, what she thought she knew, with what the pipsqueak had just said. And no matter how much she tried, it didn't make any sense.
"What?" she said flatly, and looked at Anzu with a blank stare, the tension in her body unconsciously leaving her; like air wheezing out of a balloon.
"You heard me," Anzu replied nonchalantly, and lazily gestured to the two Public Morals Committee members. "Mazoe, Sadoka, that will be all. You can escort Lady Nishizumi to the landing pad."
The two girls looked with surprise at Anzu, and then at each other. A moment passed, and then another as they turned to look at Shiho, before slowly and cautiously moving to either side of her.
"M-miss… If… i-if you would c-come with us-"
"You disappoint me," Shiho said with calm fury to Anzu. "Crossing me... I didn't think you could possibly be that stupid."
Anzu shrugged. "I've been underestimated before. Why don't you ask your daughter how well it worked out for her?" The immense glee in the pipsqueak's voice, hidden under both a surface level of feigned respect, and a far deeper one of derision, surprised even Maho. She knew the pipsqueak enjoyed playing with her proverbial food, she had after all fallen into a trap not dissimilar to this one herself. But to act in such a way against mother… She didn't bear much hope for the pipsqueak's future.
"You play a dangerous game, girl. And you just made a terrible move," Shiho answered in bitter reply, with such a cold and cutting voice that Maho almost couldn't believe that it hadn't caused an icicle to impale the pipsqueak through the heart. Without saying another word, or letting Anzu answer, she turned on the spot, causing the two girls who were ostensibly supposed to guard and escort her to jump back several paces, and walked out of the room.
"A-... Anzu… What… what just happened?" Yuzu said slowly, shock and confusion still obvious on her face. Not that Maho could criticize.
If anything, she was impressed at the Vice President's ability to form thoughts into words so quickly after what had just transpired. Maho had always prided herself on her ability to take in information and use it to understand her situation in the blink of an eye, even in the midst of the most chaotic battle. But this was different.
She wasn't sure how much time had passed since her mother had stormed out of the office. It might just have been a few seconds. Maybe a minute. Maho might have stood there staring blankly and with her mouth agape for the better part of an hour, and she would have had no idea.
"What do you mean?" Anzu asked nonchalantly, and pulled another chip out of her bag of dried sweet potatoes, spinning slowly in her chair a few times.
"You… You didn't-... I mean… I thought you-... I thought you were going to…"
"To take her up on the offer?" Anzu added, finishing Yuzu's sentence for her.
"Y-yeah…" Yuzu stammered. "That…"
"What on Earth made you think that?" Anzu asked with feigned confusion, and turned towards Yuzu.
"But… you… I thought… You said you had made up your mind, and you… I… I'm sorry Anzu, but you're so stubborn; I thought…" Yuzu paused, and looked at Anzu. "I thought… I thought..."
"I told you I'd made up my mind, didn't I?"
Yuzu staggered backwards for a few steps, and collapsed into the chair beside her own desk, before staring blankly. "Unless… you… you never had any intention of accepting… did you?"
"You should have taken the deal," Maho said quietly as she stared at the floor.
"What, you thought I'd just let you take the easy way out?" Anzu asked. "You didn't think you could just scurry off our sinking ship that easily, I hope?
"It would have been the smart thing to do," Maho said matter-of-factly.
"Oh, Nishizumi," Anzu said, the smug smirk returning once more to her lips as she wagged her finger a few times at Maho. "I am, as you of all people should know, exceedingly stupid. Besides, I'm not very fond of people telling me what to do. Yuzu will probably tell you all about it," she added and glanced over to the brunette.
Maho locked eyes with Anzu, and for some reason she couldn't quite comprehend, she could feel a similar smirk spread across her own face. "You know what, Pipsqueak?" she mocked. "I'm starting to think that you're cleverer than you look."
"Beats looking cleverer than you are," Anzu laughed. "And besides," she added with a gleeful chirp and a pointed look, "you're only getting out of our little arrangement when you graduate or when I expel you out of petty malice, and not a moment sooner."
"B-but.. But I thought…" Yuzu stammered as she began to slowly recover from her shock. "I-I… I thought you had already agreed to everything? She said you and her already had an arrangement in place? If you were never going to accept, why… Why string her along like that?"
"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it 'stringing her along'," Anzu said. "Especially her mentioning it as she entered was the first I ever heard of it."
"But then… why… why did she think-..."
"Beats me," Anzu shrugged. "Maybe there's another school carrier out there at risk of closing, and she just got us confused." She spun around in her chair once more, and looked out the window for a few moments. "Hey, you think it could be Saunders? If so, I kinda feel bad for Kay having given up her school for our sake, just because they didn't win fair and square." She gave her chair another spin and faced back towards the room, continuing to ponder as she did so. "I guess that would explain why those girls got so zealous in making sure we lost-..."
"Why?!" Momo interrupted with her fists clenched, stomping her foot on the floor with her. "Why didn't you take the deal, Madame President?!"
"Hmm?" Anzu hummed curiously as she turned to look at the cyclops.
"Why?! Why didn't you go for it?! Tell me!"
"Momo… Sweetie…" Yuzu said in her usual caring tones, rising from her chair even though her legs still seemed a bit unstable from the shock of what had happened.
"DON'T CALL ME SWEETIE!" Momo yelled, and pointed angrily at Maho. "WHY IS SHE STILL HERE?!" YOU COULD HAVE FIXED EVERYTHING. OOARAI WOULD BE SAFE, AND ALL IT WOULD HAVE COST US IS THAT NARCISSISTIC BASTARD!"
"It wouldn't have mattered what she offered. As long as Nishizumi's a student here, it's our job as the Student Council to protect her," Anzu said with a shrug. "She's part of the team, and she's one of us."
"No, she's not!" Momo protested, her face turning redder by the moment as tears started to run down her cheek and her voice began to crack. "She's nothing but trouble! She's a violent delinquent, and she's a narcissistic bastard who'd be better off in a jail cell than here. So why didn't you take the deal?! It would have fixed everything! Ooarai would be safe again, we wouldn't have to do this stupid Sensha-Do thing, and we'd finally be rid of her!"
"Momo, I think you should sit do-" Yuzu said as she approached and reached out to her friend, but Momo just knocked it aside.
"Just shut up! You need to listen to me! You have to listen to me! I can't help you if you won't listen to me!" Momo began to pace bitterly back and forth, and threw her hands in the air. "Why can't you take any of this seriously?! Why am I the only one who's taking this seriously?! MEXT is gonna close Ooarai down once the semester's over, and you're putting all our eggs in her basket?"
"Momo, just calm down," Yuzu said and tried once more to put a hand on Momo's shoulder. "We're gonna make it through this, you'll see. We're gonna win, and then everything's going to be fin-"
"No, we're not! Wake up, Yuzu! Stop living in your stupid fantasy world, and wake up! 'We're gonna win the national championship'? Really? That's the wondrous plan that's going to fix everything?! Us?! We're a bunch of newbies who can't do a thing! We're nobody, Yuzu! We have six worthless pieces of crap, and we're going up against the best schools in the country! Just think, Yuzu! Think for once in your miserable life! This isn't some stupid sports anime where we can just win through the power of friendship and some plucky enthusiasm! This is the real world, and so why won't anyone take this seriously, listen to me, and realize that we're crap?! We're crap, and we're going to lose! And when we do, this whole school's gonna disappear! So would someone just listen to me and take this seriously?!"
The room fell silent, as Momo continued to pace bitterly in a circle, before stopping, and turning her eyes on Anzu. "Why?!" she demanded in a cold voice. "Why didn't you do it? You were the one who said we should take whatever solutions presented themselves, so answer me! How could you not take the damn deal, after everything I've done?"
Anzu didn't answer at first. She simply nodded, stood from her chair, and turned to look out through the window at the carrier below with the setting sun meeting the endless sea along the horizon.
"Momo…" she finally said with a sigh. "Is there something you want to tell me?"
"Ma-madame president?" Momo said, taken aback and stammering out her response, as if she just now was beginning to realize what she had said.
"You wouldn't happen to know how Nishizumi came to the conclusion that she and I had an arrangement, would you?" Anzu asked flatly.
Yuzu turned to look at Momo, her face conveying the horrified realization. "Momo… you… you didn't… p-please tell me you didn't?"
"I… I…" Momo's voice trailed off a few times as she tried to speak, until she finally shook her head and closed her eyes, almost yelling her confession to the room. "I contacted Lady Nishizumi, and arranged the deal with her in your name."
"I see," Anzu replied shortly, and lazily walked back to her chair, pulling yet another bag of sweet potatoes from one of the desk's drawers, opening it and taking a bite out of one of the chips as she stared nonchalantly up at the fan in the ceiling. She seemed as if she had completely lost interest in what was going on in the room, and beyond her occasionally reaching for another chip to snack on, she didn't seem too dissimilar from Saki, the loader of Rabbit team's 37mm gun.
"I… I didn't want to… I-I mean… I thought it wouldn't be a good idea to raise your hopes… i-if it didn't work out…" Momo began to explain, her words and demeanor growing less cohesive by the second. "S-s-so I… I just tried-... I j-just tried to-to-to get it ready, s-so you could just sign o-off on it…"
"Momo?" Anzu said disinterestedly, still only staring up at the fan as if she was counting its rotations.
"Y-yes, Madame President?" Momo paused in her rambling, her face lighting up like a christmas tree through the tears that still stained her cheeks and eyes.
"Did it ever cross your mind that there was a reason I wasn't doing something so underhanded?"
"M-m-madame P-president?"
"Anzu…" Yuzu said under her breath, and shook her head in disapproval, but made no other attempt to intervene.
"Did you consider that I would have preferred to keep that particular ace up my sleeve, instead of wasting it on a losing hand like this?" Anzu let her head fall lazily to the side, so that she, without exerting even the slightest energy, was now looking right at Momo.
"I… I… I… I-I-I-I j-just…" Momo was now properly unraveling, and it was clear that she struggled to coalesce her thoughts into words, and even more so getting them out. She continued to stammer incoherently for a few more seconds, her panic obviously growing more and more as she began to sniffle and cry even more. Finally, as she looked back and forth between Yuzu and Anzu in search of anything at all, finding nothing, she pointed a shaking hand towards Maho. "B-b-but it's a-a-all h-her fault," she sobbed, "a-and sh-she needs t-to answer for eve-eve-sniffle-rything she's do-"
"SHE'S ANSWERED ENOUGH, MOMO!"
The sharp yell and accompanying slamming of a hand on the desk was so sudden that both Maho and Yuzu jumped, and stared blankly at Anzu. There hadn't been any evidence of a storm brewing, and instead her fury had struck like a lightning bolt from a clear sky, taking all of them by complete surprise. As Maho looked blankly at Anzu, she realized that it was the first time she had ever actually seen the pipsqueak angry. In fact, as she thought about it, she couldn't even think of a time she had seen her irritated or annoyed either.
"B-b-b-ut-"
"She's answered enough," Anzu repeated coldly. "And I thought I had enlisted someone clever enough to understand that when I brought you on to this council." She muttered something inaudible under her breath, letting the fingers of her hand drum against the surface of the desk as she looked at Momo, before sighing and glancing over at Maho. "What do you say, Nishizumi? You want a seat at the big girls' table? It seems a spot might open up…" she mutteringly added as she looked back at Momo.
"W-Wha-..." Momo looked at Anzu, then at Maho, before collapsing to her knees and bursting out into a deluge of tears once more. "N-no, please! Please, don't k-kick me off the council! I'll do better, I swear! I won't say or do a thing out of line, ever again, j-just p-please don't replace me w-with h-her!"
Maho glanced at Anzu for a moment, and sighed. She then took three quick and determined steps towards Momo, and grabbed her by the collar, pulling her as hard as she could back to her feet and slamming her into the wall behind her.
"Stand up straight when your Commander is talking to you," Maho said sharply, and looked the cyclops in the eye with such an intensity that she could probably have pierced the skull. Momo just continued to sob and sniffle, and looked to Anzu and Yuzu for a rescue, but none was in sight. The closest was Yuzu who anxiously rose from her seat, but still kept her distance.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you," Maho continued, and pushed Momo into the wall once more. When she was certain that she had the cyclops' attention, and that she would be able to stand somewhat straight by herself, she switched her grip; letting go of her collar and instead just holding Momo firmly by one shoulder, pinning her to the wall.
She stood there, silently, and simply watched; staring at the prey before her. The crying, whimpering shell of a girl that was her prey. Her own mind was a raging battlefield of emotions; anger, sadness, terror, relief, and a billion others clashing, and through it all, a singular desire coalesced from the myriad wills battling it out.
She wanted to punch her.
She wanted to channel every fibre of her anger and fury into her fist and drive it square into the stomach of her prey.
She wanted to smash that idiotic monocle into a million pieces, and see the light of hope leave her eyes.
She wanted to put her hand against the cyclops' throat, and squeeze her windpipe tightly as she begged her to stop. Begged for mercy and forgiveness.
She wanted to reach her hand down the girl's throat and tear out her appendix.
There was nothing this hollowed-out husk of a human being could possibly do to stop her. All she could do was cry and sob and sniffle like a child who'd scraped their knee, begging and praying for help that would never come as Maho tore her limb from limb.
Never before in her life had Maho ever felt such a burning desire to do harm to another. There was no person on earth, living or dead, that she would rather turn into a fine paste than the whimpering raven-haired girl before her.
Blackness overtook the world as the iron gates that were her eyelids closed, and she blinked.
As they parted once more, nothing was different. Maho was still pinning her prey, the black haired monster that had tried to take everything away from her, against the wall. Just as before. And just as before, it stared back at her with the bitter coldness of an avalanche.
Her mother's glare met her eye, and the gates of darkness closed once more.
She felt like she had let her imagination run wild with all the torment she could bring for an eternity, but she still found herself standing there, pinning the sobbing cyclops against the wall with barely a moment having passed.
She could feel the fire within her go into overdrive, and her muscles tensed up to the point that Maho thought she might burst. She felt arcs of lightning and flame, power incarnate, dancing along her free arm, and she began to pull back, preparing to bring justice and rightness back to the world. And as she looked at Momo and met her eye, their faces barely a metre apart, she saw nothing but unending terror filling the void beyond the flood of tears as the cyclops struggled against her grip. It was too late. There was no escaping the jaws of a tiger. The only option was waiting for the moment they would snap shut and crush your neck, and feel your life fade away as the end overtook you.
Seeing her hand pass by in the corner of her eye, Maho instinctively glanced over, and looked pensively at it as she let her fingers slowly open and close, almost seeing the invisible surges of power snaking across her hand and arcing between her fingertips.
She let a second pass, glancing towards Momo and back at her hand. And then another.
She drew a deep breath, filling her lungs with air and feeding the flames within her, let her hand close into a fist, and exhaled.
"I take back what I said," she said in a low voice, releasing her grip on Momo's shoulder and letting her arms fall back towards the ground, the tension and fire slowly ebbing away like a tide. "You would have made an excellent Nishizumi." She sighed and looked over her shoulder to Anzu, and muttered "I'll pass on the council seat."
"Oh well," Anzu said with a shrug. "Fair enough."
Seeing the light of hope start to return to Momo's eyes, Maho refocused her attention on the cyclops. "I don't think you've quite realized what you've accomplished here today," she said matter-of-factly. "You're completely right, you know? You are nobodies, and we do only have six pieces of junk. So we're both in agreement: Winning the championship is impossible," she added with a chuckle.
In the corner of her eye, Maho saw Yuzu prepare to interject, so she continued before she could be interrupted.
"Well, nigh impossible." she shrugged. "It was still possible that we could have pulled off the miracle Yuzu and the pipsqueak believe in. If you'd just done as I told you, and everyone did what was asked of them, then maybe we could have stood a chance in the finals." She stopped and shook her head before taking a step towards Momo. Predictably enough, she flinched, her body tensing up as Maho reached out and placed a hand across her shoulders as she continued to speak in a low and pointed tone.
"Except, here's the issue; someone decided to try and mess about with things she doesn't understand, and arranged things in such a way as to piss off my mother, who just so happens to be the patron of Kuromorimine Girls' Academy, and one of the most influential members of the Federation." She paused, glancing down at the cyclops' slumped and trembling form. "In fact, allow me to explain this with small, simple words, so you're sure to understand. You just made my job a lot harder. Maybe even impossible. But it's a good thing I was brought up to not believe in impossibilities. Isn't it?"
She let go of Momo, taking a few steps away as she simply took in the room, before turning back, putting a hand on Momo's shoulder once more, and smiling at her. The room fell silent for a second or two, as Maho felt the tension slowly leave Momo's shoulders. Another second later, she seemed to realize that the storm had passed, and she allowed a small innocent smile to begin to appear on her lips as well.
Maho gave a small, smiling nod to Momo, who, after a hesitant moment, nodded back. She then tensed up once more and almost looked as if she was about to crumble, as Maho dug her fingers into Momo's shoulder as hard and deep as she could, still letting the warm smile remain on her lips as she continued.
"I'll let this slide, you scheming buffoon. Just this once. The second I walk out those doors, this is all going to be forgiven and forgotten. I'm not going to hold a grudge, and I'll simply assume that you are just too stupid to even comprehend what you just tried to do to me," Maho said with words sharp as steel, cutting at Momo's flesh with every syllable. "But know this; If you so much as think about plotting to take me down like this, or undermining my leadership of the team ever again, even just for a moment, then I will not only leave that very second and laugh with glee as MEXT sends this ship to the scrapyard; I will also rededicate the rest of my life to ruining the rest of yours. And you are going to find that unpleasant. Am I clear?"
Momo didn't say anything, nor did she look Maho in the eye, although if it was because of shame, fury, or the presumptive pain from her shoulder, Maho couldn't tell. Not that she particularly cared. Momo didn't speak, and instead answered only with a whimper and a small, barely noticeable nod, her arms trying in vain to free her from Maho's grip while her head remained bowed and her posture as slack as a flag on a still day.
"Am. I. Clear?" Maho repeated sharply, and dug her fingers even further into Momo's shoulder, making sure to let her nails aid in bringing her point home
A second passed and then another, as Momo gasped and whimpered from the pain, before she finally forced herself to stand up straight, or at the very least as straight as she could stand with Maho's vice-like grip on her shoulder, and looked up to meet Maho's eye. "C-crystal, C-co-sniffle-commander…" she sobbed, her head bobbing in a series of small, seemingly unconscious nods as she answered
"Good." Maho muttered, released her grip, turned and walked away. Momo had barely been free for a moment before her legs gave way under her and she collapsed back to the floor, sobbing. Yuzu sighed and walked over to sit down beside her, handing Momo's monocle back as she hugged her shoulder and patted her head as she spoke gently to her.
"Are we done here?" Maho muttered bitterly, and sighed as she returned to the center of the room. "Some of us have things that are actually important to do, as opposed to you three, it would seem."
"Nah, that should be everything," Anzu answered cheerfully, throwing her feet back onto the desk as she returned her attention to her dried sweet potatoes.
Maho sighed once more, and started to walk away to the doors to take her leave. But as she neared the doors, the muffled sound of increasingly distressed voices appeared from the other side, drowning out Momo's sobbing wails.
"Hey, you can't go in there!"
"O-on the order of the Public Morals Committee, w-we o-order you to sto-"
"You and what army?!"
""Wait! Stop! Mazoe, grab her!"
"Sadoka, help! She won't stop!"
"Just block the door, she's not getting through the both of u-"
The doors of the office flew open, knocking Maho out of the way as a determined-looking Saori entered the room like a raging thunderstorm. "HEY!" she yelled angrily and pointed at Anzu. "What's all this sneaking around and whisking Maporin away during the middle of practice about?!"
"I-I'm sorry, Madame President," one of the two girls from the Public Morals Committee said over their shoulder once she, together with her colleague, had rushed past Saori and formed a barrier between Anzu's desk and her. "We… we couldn't stop them…"
"If you're trying to force her to something she doesn't want to again, I'll have Hana throw you in the se-"
"Saori, please," Hana said in calm tones as she entered together with Mako and Yukari. "I'm sure everything is alright."
"Oh yeah?!" Saori said with some strange combination of triumph and worry. "Then where is she?! I told you we should have gotten here sooner! They've probably already whisked her away to who-knows-where doing who-knows-what! Now tell us where she is, you-""
"Uhh… Saori?" Maho interrupted as she got herself back to her feet and raised a hand to catch the ginger girl's attention.
"Oh… Maho…" Saori said with surprise.
"What… what are you doing here?" Maho asked as she walked back over to the rest of them.
"When you did not return after the practice session had ended, we all began to feel worried, and so we wanted to ensure that you were doing well," Hana answered, and bowed politely to Anzu. "We of course apologize for our intrusion, Miss President."
"Nah, don't worry about it," Anzu replied with a wave of her hand, and continued snacking on her chips. "Mafoe… Fadocha… Yoo… yoo twoo cwan leaf now…"
"What… what happened here, Maho?" Saori asked as the two girls left, having only just now noticed the crying Momo in the corner. She walked over and took Maho's hand, before glaring at Anzu once more. "I swear, if you tried to pull anything… If you tried forcing her to do anything, or tried to blackmail here, or-... If you mess with Maporin, you mess with us!"
Maho glanced over towards Anzu, who only shrugged and continued to eat her chips, apparently not caring in the slightest as to how Maho answered the question.
"It's nothing to worry about…" Maho said after a few seconds, and let go of Saori's hand, placing herself between her and the Pipsqueak. "The Student Council just wanted to talk about our tank lineup, and see how we might improve it."
"Oh?! Like what?!" Yukari asked excitedly, looking back and forth between Maho and Anzu.
"Well…" Yuzu said calmly as she got up from where she had been sitting, and walked over to her desk, grabbing a folder of documents and flipping through them. "According to what we can find, although the old team's documentation in the last few years before it disbanded leaves a lot to be desired, there's supposed to be a few more tanks still left on board that they couldn't manage to sell off. As for what exactly they are, I haven't been able to find out quite yet."
"But, couldn't that have waited?" Saori asked, not quite convinced. "Surely you could have handled this tomorrow? Or at the very least after practice was over?"
"Well, we only just found out," Anzu replied in a surprisingly convincing tone. "Better to strike while the iron is hot, and all that."
"Oh…"
"Anyways, we're pretty much done here," Anzu continued. "You're free to go."
Saori, Yukari, Hana, and Mako gave some small nods as goodbyes, and began to leave the office.
"Hey, Nishizumi," Anzu said just as Maho was about to join them.
"What?"
"I'm not going to regret this, am I?"
Maho paused slightly at the question, and especially the uncharacteristic sincerity apparent in it. In the end, all she could do was shrug. "I don't know," she replied, put a hand on the doorknob and was just about to leave when she stopped, and looked over her shoulder at Anzu.
"But whatever happens..." she paused, before nodding one last time to Anzu, "Thank you... Pipsqueak."
Next time on Dein Weg ist Mein Weg: Phoenix team eat dinner, make a surprising discovery, and the team begins the search for another tank, leaving tensions running high between Maho and Azusa
Author's Notes:
So yeah… This chapter didn't exactly turn out the way I thought. As you might have guessed if you read the preview in the last chapter, originally I was planning for this chapter to include a lot more stuff, but as I kept writing this part of it just kept on growing and growing, and suddenly this single part of the chapter was longer than over a third of my published chapters. So I decided to split it up, and keep the other stuff back for chapter 37 instead. I hope this doesn't bother anyone, and if so I do apologize.
But anyways, yes! There is a lot of stuff that's paying off in this chapter, and I really enjoyed writing all of it. Especially the building tension of the scene as Anzu plays with her food. There's also Maho dealing with Momo, which went through a couple of different iterations before I settled on what you all have read here. There's also a, at least to me, pretty interesting parallel between Alysa and Momo here, with both of them going way beyond what their pretty laid back leader thinks is necessary or ok with behind their backs in order to gain victory. There's a couple of movie and TV-references thrown in for good measure, and finally there's also something I've been looking forward to all the way since chapter 2: Maho starting to make peace with Anzu, and for "pipsqueak" to become a nickname rather than an insult.
Other than that, by the very nature of this chapter really only focusing on a single scene, there isn't too much more for me to say. As you probably noticed, Mallard team has been redubbed Heron team in this universe. I don't plan on changing too many names, just to make it easier to remember, but since in canon Mallard team was come up with by Miho in a very Miho way, and Maho in this universe doesn't care for the nicknames, I felt that using it wouldn't really make sense. Especially since Sodoko pretty obviously doesn't like the name. So Heron it is, and at least we're sticking to waterfowl.
I cannot express how much I adore all of you for your kind words and all the reviews, and I hope that this chapter can meet all of your expectations. As always, I would love it if you chose to leave a review and letting me know what you thought about the chapter.
This brings us on to the final business of the day, when the next chapter is out. I highly doubt there's gonna be another one this month, and so my guess is that chapter 37 will drop some time during the beginning of July. As always there are no promises, but that is my hope.
Thank you all so much for reading, and I'll see you all again in a little while!
/Rihno