Burning Sensha-Do Chapter 5, a girls und panzer/ガールズ&パンツァー fanfic

Dear readers! Thank you all for the positive reviews, it truly feels good!

Secondly, in the former chapters I accidentally wrote April instead of June. Forgive me, my mistake.

And lastly: please murmur a pray for the Notre-Dame!

6th June, afternoon

After the mess in Tokyo the delegations were travelling home. Stromboli travelled together with Landsknecht again and they waved goodbye in their hometown Nagaoka. It was evening when Kiyoshi got home. His parents waited for him.

"I've heard what happened there." Takako said confused.

"And? What do you think Oka-san?"

"Are you sure that all of this was necessary?"

"Believe in you son's discernment Takako!" Kiyoshi's father said sitting on a chair at the kitchen table.

"Mother." Kiyoshi said. "I love my school. Do you know that?"

"Of course I do son."

"And you know that I love practicing Sensha-Do right?"

"Same."

"Do you understand now? With my friends we love our schools so much that we want them out of tyranny and we want to play Sensha-Do as real players."

"So you see those girls and their schools as enemies?"

"No Mother, my enemy is the tyranny. I respect girls and women with all my heart but we also expect this from them in return. Furthermore, the person who is currently the biggest threat for us is a male."

"And who would it be?"

"Does the name Tsuji Renta mean anything to you?"

"Tsuji Renta… Wait! Wasn't it him who tried to close Oarai Girls Academy twice?"

"Exactly. Considering our situation in the Federation, do you think that he will let our schools live in long term? Because we don't." Takako was just staring.

"I understand son." She said quietly.

"Thank you. I'll be upstairs." He bowed to his parents then headed to his room.

"Just be careful son!" His father, Etsuo said after him. "It's important to defend our dignity. But the excessive pride is dangerous."

Miho's POV

Weeks passed. At the end of June everyone on the Oarai carrier ship were preparing for the summer break. The 64th National Sensha-Do Tournament also took place. Though they could only catch the second place (Saunders has beaten them in the finals) they were happy. It was still a pretty good result after all. People were enjoying the summer vacation at the beach. However, for the members of the JSF it was a time of madness. Ever since the three candidates started their campaigns after the conference, the discourse in the Federation has been pushed to the stretching point. The directorate received multiple warnings from the boy's schools – who didn't eliminate the Advocacy Alliance - about what will happen if Tsuji becomes director. They've even got threats of deny of obedience. In the first days of July the situation has entered a new level. The threats were no longer about disobedience but secession.

"We inform you that the Advocacy Council along with the whole Alliance sees that the potential election of Tsuji Renta as a federal director threatens the sheer existence of our schools. Therefore, not seeing other way out, we consider that our safety is only insured outside of the Japan Sensha-Do Federation. We suggest you think about what you are doing!"

Miho read the messages like that in the newspapers and what she felt was fear. She still remembered the battle of words in Tokyo and the empty rows of seats after the boys left the meetings. She never expected this.

One evening she and the rest of Oarai's Sensha-Do team were at the tank shelter cleaning and repairing the tanks when the iron door opened and Yuzu stepped in.

"Girls, I think you should turn on the TV!" They turned on the appliance which was hanging from the shelter's wall. They saw the evening news. The sign said that the broadcast was coming from Sapporo. A square was filled with more than 1500 students in the school uniforms of Tsar Peter, Mannerheim and Odin.

"What the…?"

It was a protest at the JSF administrative building of Tsar Peter Boys High School's home city. The students of the Finnish and Norwegian styled schools from Otaru and Kushiro joined their Russian friends in Sapporo. They were whistling and scanning mottos. The screen has changed and showed Niigata, Shizuoka, Nagoya, Hiroshima and some other cities and towns. The same was happening everywhere.

Earlier that day

At late morning De Gaulle's student council received a letter. When they opened it they have found an SD card. The short message said: "Do not try to find the sender of this letter, just play the sound recording and reveal it to the others!"

Strange. They put the card into a laptop and pushed the play button. When the recording ended the boys were in disbelief what slowly turned into anger. Quickly they've sent it to the other schools of the AA.

Landsknecht Boys High School

Isato called Kiyoshi to the student council room.

"I think you'll find it interesting." On the recording Kiyoshi heard the voice of Oishi Akihiro. He was a secretary general of the Strengthening Committee.

"Of course we were playing with the votes of the boys. We have formed the result. Financially, Tsuji is the best option for us. Obviously it was not true that we took their opinion into account. They could have known that we were lying since years. I just hope we didn't screw up totally. Now, those idiots are getting frustrated. We could have kept going and reap the budget of them smoothly but now here we are. I suggest you to do something or your little banknotes will fly away!"

"Call everyone! Now!" Kiyoshi instructed the student council. "Show this to them then get Stromboli and let's head to the office of the instructor!"

At night the streets of Niigata were clogged by the more than 500 students of Landsknecht. They marched through the city to the circumferential JSF instructor's office. The crowd swelled to far over a thousand people when Stromboli arrived. (They were in the same district as Landsknecht.) Some of them were waving the flags of the two schools. Landsknecht's was split diagonally to a black and a red part. In the middle of it was a shield before an oak leaf and inside the shield was a dragon with raised head. Stromboli's banner was deep red with a golden roman eagle holding a green olive branch in its claws. They also sang; first was The times they are a changin', then came the marches of the schools. Landsknecht's students sang the Die Wacht am Rhein.

Es braust ein Ruf wie Donnerhall,

wie Schwertgeklirr und Wogenprall:

Zum Rhein, zum Rhein, zum deutschen Rhein,

wer will des Stromes Hüter sein?