Chapter Seven:
Ikidzu strutted into the meeting room with unwavering confidence. Thanks to the evidence Itoku gave her nothing is standing in the way of ousting Doronuma. She took her usual seat near the other commanders and laid the folder on the table in front of her.
"Whatcha got there?" Obutsu asked, pointing at the folder.
"A strategy I want Doronuma to see." Ikidzu lied. Obutsu gave her a strange look but disregarded the folder. A few minutes had passed before Doronuma finally entered the room. Before she even opened the door all the way all of the other commanders stood up and saluted her right as she walked in.
"As you were," Doronuma said. Everyone sat back down, and Doronuma took her spot facing the other commanders. Doronuma began to talk over a map that was laying on the table in front of them. Judging by the map legend, the area was swampy and full of thick forests. At the bottom of the map was the Genkan Highschool's flag, and on the opposite side was the flag for Chi-Ha-Tan Academy.
"So here's the plan. We won't be able to charge in head first, but thankfully, they won't either. Chi-Ha-Tan is relentless, and always eager to charge in and light a grid square up like a Christmas tree…" She continued with her colorful language, talking about the plan that Ikidzu was ignoring.
"Any questions?" Doronuma asked. Ikidzu waited patiently for everyone else to go first, and when nobody spoke up, she opened the file and selected the piece of info she wanted to use.
"I do, commander," Ikidzu said. "What extra equipment will we be bringing with us? Any special ammunition, or spare parts?" Doronuma shook her head in response.
"You know as well as I do that we can't afford special equipment, our budget won't allow us to at this time." She disputed. Ikidzu smirked, as she pulled out a piece of paper detailing the transaction information of Doronuma's embezzling attempts.
"That's very interesting," She said, pushing the paper out in the middle of the map for all of the other commanders to see. They all looked over to it and read it intently. "We would have more than enough funds to afford all the spare parts and ammunition we need if you weren't taking it for yourself."
Doronuma snatched the piece of paper, and upon reading it went a ghostly shade of pale. Ikidzu pulled out more and more sheets of paper and passed them around the table to the other commanders. Some gasped at the numbers, others furrowed their brows in rage. But they all stayed silent. Ikidzu slid her chair back and stood up, pointing dramatically across the table.
"You've been stealing from us! Not just me, not just the school, but all of us! Your crew, your team!" Ikidzu shouted. The other commanders began to stir, and stand up in support.
"You're the reason we keep losing! We could afford a whole fleet of tanks if it weren't for you!" Sokudo shouted. She balled the paper up and threw it at Doronuma.
"Wait, wait! I can explain!" Doronuma cried, but nobody gave her the chance to weasel her way out. Hokori quickly ran to block the door, and Sokudo crawled over the table to grab Doronuma, with Obutsu holding her back. Doronuma tried to find another way to leave the room but ended up just cowering in the corner. Mokuzai phoned the school council and asked them to quickly come and sort out the situation.
After about a minute of shouting, the student council came in and busted down the door. Overall of the commotion, Ikidzu explained what was going on, and what it was that Doronuma was doing. The student council leader was shocked at first, but after thinking about it to herself for a moment, gently facepalmed herself.
"We should've known where all that money was going…" She growled. She pointed to Doronuma, and two large burly student council members walked over and picked her up by her arms. They dragged her out of the room to the fanfare of the other commanders. "We'll hold her until the police come. Would you mind if we borrowed some information to hand over to them?"
Ikidzu nodded and handed over the entire folder. "Everything you need should be in here." She said as the student council leader took it from her hand. Once the student council and Doronuma left, the door was shut and an uneasy silence settled over the room. Ikidzu walked back over to the table and stood near Doronuma's seat.
"What are we going to do now?" Obutsu asked. Sokudo situated herself by wriggling from her grasp and readjusting her clothing. The other commanders came and sat in their seats. "The club is gonna get shut down, isn't it?" Mokuzai sulked. "No, we're not gonna get shut down" Sokudo rebutted. The commanders began to stir, asking questions that didn't have answers yet.
"Well, there's only one thing we should focus on for right now," Obutsu said. "We have no Overall Commander. Who's gonna run the club?" The commanders all in unison looked at Ikidzu. "You're the vice commander, that means you're next in line Ikidzu." She continued.
"Oh… Well, um…" Ikidzu stuttered. If she were, to be honest, there was no way she thought she would get this far. "I don't have a speech prepared but uh… With the loss of Doronuma Shitsugen, I, Ikidzu Maru, will assume her position until further notice." The other commanders nodded in agreement.
"Who will be your new vice-commander?" Mokuzai inquired. The gears in Ikidzu's head started to turn. At first, she said she wanted to pick Itoku because she's her friend. But Itoku isn't a leader, she isn't quite cut out for the job. On the other hand, Mokuzai, Obutsu Hokori, and Sokudo haven't had the chance to lead, so there is no way to judge their performance.
"For the time being, I'm not going to pick anyone," Ikidzu stated after a brief and awkward moment of silence. "I would first like to see how everyone performs in a position of leadership. I know Doronuma hasn't let anyone step up and be a leader. So we're going to do away with that, and try something new." The commanders remained still and quiet.
It had been two weeks since the Doronuma fiasco had passed. Reading the court case, she discovered that she was found guilty of embezzling money, and was sentenced to ten years in federal prison, and a fine of ten million yen. Luckily enough for Doronuma, her lawyer appealed to lower the sentence to five years, and community service until she pays off the fine.
She had recently gotten a letter from the student council that they had gotten the money back, and had reinstated the funds that were stolen from them. When she first saw just how much money was stolen, her jaw almost fell right off of her skull. She had an idea of how much, but it never really clicked until she had seen just how much was taken. With the money now back in the club's hands, Ikidzu could start the rebuilding process.
Her first move was to use some of the money to start a recruitment program. They were seriously short on numbers, mostly due to their Tankalathon background. If they wanted a chance to beat bigger schools they needed more people. Starting with their next match, the limit of tanks is going up from five to ten. She also used this program to help her determine who should be first in line to be vice-commander. She held a meeting with the others and told them whoever recruited and trained the most people would get the position, and they seemed ecstatic to get started.
The next thing she decided to do was use the old gun from Doronuma's Type 97, and convert one of the Type 95's into a Ke-Nu variant. It was surprisingly cheap, and the metal shop club gave them a great deal. The final step was buying a new tank. Her first idea was to buy a tank destroyer instead of a full-blown tank because they tend to be cheaper, but the "no open-topped vehicles" rule prevented her from getting her hands on one.
So she held a meeting with Saunders. She explained their situation, and their Tankery Commander was very understanding. She said that they would lease an M4 Sherman to them with a monthly payment. She also said that they can at any time return the vehicle for whatever reason. One problem though, the tank wouldn't arrive at Genkan until a week after their match with Chi-Ha-Tan Academy.
Speaking of Chi-Ha-Tan, she still needed to have a meeting with the other commanders to come up with a plan. Chi-Ha-Tan was armed with almost the exact same arsenal of tanks, so taking them out wouldn't be difficult. It's their attitude that worries her. Doronuma was right about them rushing into battle as fast as they could. She had seen some previous matches featuring Chi-Ha-Tan, particularly the time they paired themselves with Ooarai against Pravda and Gloriana.
Leaning back in her chair, she started to think about a battle plan. She could remember the map with enough detail to structure an idea. The terrain was heavily forested and covered in swampy marshes. Moving on its own would be difficult enough, and a desperate charge would be out of the question. Furthermore, keeping any semblance of order would be difficult as well.
The terrain was a double-edged sword, however. No matter how Ikidzu structured the order of her tanks, they would have the same problems and limitations as Chi-Ha-Tan. After all, all of their tanks apart from the M3's they had were exact copies of each other. And that's when it hit her. A false flag operation.
Not in the same sense as Doronuma's false flag operations, Ikidzu could simply repaint the camouflages of her own tanks to that of Chi-Ha-Tan instead of giving every tank a flag. She'd have to run it by the other commanders first, as well as gather more intel before it can be put to the test on paper. Thankfully she still had two weeks until the match, so she has plenty of time to figure it out.