Dein Weg ist Mein Weg

Chapter XIV

The Sisters

"Will… will I see you at practice this afternoon?" Azusa asked.

"No. I'm done with Sensha-do. Whatever happens to the team isn't my problem…" Maho replied in her usual dour tone, even if Azusa had begun to identify the softness hidden underneath in the two weeks since their first talk in the playground.

"Oh… alright then… Well, I guess I'll see you some other time then. Maho."

"Sure. You'll see me around. Later."

They parted and went their separate ways, as Azusa linked up with Aya who had been waiting for her a dozen or so meters down the corridor.

"Azusa…" Aya said cautiously as they began walking towards the lockers

"Yeah?" Azusa answered.

"Are you… I mean… Are you being bullied?" She lowered her voice further as she spoke.

"What? By who?" Azusa asked, confused.

"Nishizumi... " At this point Aya was almost whispering, and pointing behind her in a not very subtle way to where Maho was walking away down the corridor.

"What on Earth gave you that idea?"

"Well, you know... "

"No, I don't. We were just talking."

"Azusa, are you sure that's a good idea? I mean…" Aya stopped, and leaned in to whisper in Azusa's ear. "I mean… she's a delinquent, isn't she?"

"No, she's…"

"Hiya!" Karina interrupted in her usual cheerful manner, with Yuuki, Ayumi and Saki following behind her. "Whatcha talking about?!

"It's nothing," Azusa answered. "Aya's just got this idea in her head that I'm being bullied."

"Oh." They said flatly, and continued down to the lockers. As they changed their shoes, Yuuki spoke.

"Are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Being bullied?"

"Oh but for… No, no I am not being bullied."

"OK," she replied. "But if you were being bullied, then who…"

Azusa just sighed and walked out the door, not dignifying the question with a response

"Nishizumi?" Ayumi asked Aya as they passed through the gates.

"Yeah," Aya replied.

"Makes sense. She's a delinquent after all."

"She's not a…" Azusa tried to protest, but the conversation quickly moved beyond her control.

"Did you see the way she broke Kawashima's nose? I hear she even beat up the President a few weeks back."

"You've got it all wrong. She's…"

"I saw that! She was like a girl possessed. I hear the Public Morals Committee won't even talk to her unless they outnumber her by four!"

"Apparently she blew off school for an entire week just to get drunk with pirates!"

"You're all being ridiculous…"

"Ema heard from Maiya that Ruka told Naho that she got thrown out of her old school for beating up teachers who wouldn't give her perfect grades!"

"I heard it was because she blew up the principal's car!"

"Stop it…"

"That too! She's definitely from a Yakuza family! You can tell just by looking at her that she knows how to kill people!"

"Yeah, maybe she'll come for us next," Yuuki laughed. "Did you hear her during the match? She was so bossy, even though she was just the radio operator. Can you imagine if I was like that? It's no wonder she doesn't have any friends." They all laughed at the remark. Everyone but Saki, who was preoccupied by a butterfly, and Azusa.

"STOP IT!" She stopped in place and clenched her fists. "Stop saying things that aren't true. Ma-I mean-Miss Nishizumi's not a delinquent. She's kind and sweet and has a good heart and if you're going to keep talking about her like this, you can stop hanging out with me."

"Azusa, what's gotten into…"

"She's fragile, OK? You don't know what she's gone through, and she doesn't deserve you making fun of her!"

"We were just kidding Azusa…"

"No, you weren't. And just because she's not here to hear it, doesn't mean it was OK."

"I… uhm…" Aya stammered.

"We're really sorry Azusa. We didn't mean anything by it…" Yuuki interjected. "We shouldn't have said all that stuff."

"No, you shouldn't," Azusa said in a dour tone. She was going to continue, but her phone ringing interrupted her. "Hello? … Hi, Mom… No, it's fine. I'm just walking home with some friends… Yeah, I remember… Don't worry, I will… Love you too… Bye."

"What was that about?" Ayumi asked. Azusa sighed for the change of subject, but glancing at her friends they seemed sincere enough in their apology, so she let it go.

"My mom. She just wanted to remind me to wish my sister a happy birthday."

"Wait, you have a sister?" Karina asked as they started walking again. Saki and Yuuki waved and they split off to head to their apartment, while the rest continued towards their dorms.

"Well, we don't exactly talk that much anymore…"

"Oh. I'm sorry, Azusa, I didn't mean to…"

"No, it's fine. You didn't know."

"She's the older one, I'm assuming?"

"Ye-yeah, by a few years…"

"I wish I had a big sister. Then she could take me shopping and to concerts and stuff. Instead I'm stuck with my two brats of little brothers." Aya sighed.

"Yeah, me too. My sister's not much better. She's just so clingy." said Ayumi.

"Well, so were you back in elementary school," Karina said and grinned. "'Oh, please Karina, don't go away, I'm so scared…'"

"I was not!" Ayumi protested and nudged Karina on the shoulder, but they were all laughing at that point, except for Azusa who only feigned a nervous laugh, trying not to dampen the others spirits.

"See you tomorrow, Azusa!" Aya called to her from her end of the corridor. "Don't forget we have that test tomorrow!"

"I won't! See ya!" Azusa replied, and waved. She walked into her dorm-room and put her bag down by the door, before throwing herself on her bed. She spent a few minutes just lying there in the dark. Her curtains were pulled, so light was almost absent from the room, but after a while she got back up from the bed and sat down by her desk to study for tomorrow's test. She was pretty sure she had it all down, but a refresher couldn't hurt. She switched on the lamp beside her, put her textbook on the desk before her, and opened the top drawer. She got a pen that she put neatly beside her textbook, as well as a matchbook and some incense that she lit and placed in the burner beside a small shrine with a photograph.

"Happy Birthday, Sis…" she said in a low voice as she looked at the photograph, before looking down at her textbook and focusing on her studies.

"Maho Nishizumi, please report to the Student Council's office."

The call over the speakers had been annoying enough. At first Maho simply ignored it and continued eating, even as it was repeated several times over and more and more students both glanced at her and whispered amongst themselves about her. In the end, a quartet of near identical-looking black-haired girls wearing black armbands came over to her.

"Are you hard of hearing, Miss Nishizumi?" said the lead girl with an annoyed tone.

Maho ignored her as well, and kept her attention on her lunch.

"You are to report to the Student Council's office at once! I don't know what lax discipline your mother taught you, but here we follow rules and regulations." The girl continued, almost yelling now, and began flipping through a little notebook she produced from her sleeve. "Article 4; The Student Council have ultimate authority on all correctional measures and have the right to summon students at any mome…"

"Are you done?" Maho said in a dry tone, and put down her chopsticks.

"Eh? No, of course I'm not done!" The girl held up the little notebook in front of Maho's face, and pointed to a series of paragraphs written in a very small font. "I don't think you realize how many infractions you've committed, Nishizumi! And I intend to…"

Maho snatched the notebook from the girl's hand, and threw it onto a nearby table. "Then I'm leaving. I won't enjoy it, but whatever those idiots in the Student Council have to say will no doubt be more interesting than you." She got up and left the cafeteria. The black-haired girls, along with most of the room, stood stunned in silence as Maho left, taking a few seconds to process what had just happened. As she left and began making her way towards the Student Council's office, Maho could hear absolute pandemonium break out behind her.

"Alright, I'm here. What do you want, Pipsqueak?" Maho said in a dismissive voice as she entered the office. Anzu was sitting in a chair with her feet up on her desk, with Momo on her right and Yuzu on her left.

"That's 'President' to you, Nishizumi" Momo growled at her.

"Why hello to you too cyclops. How's your nose?" Maho chirped to the black-haired girl, almost smirking as she did so.

"Why you…"

"That's enough, Momo"

"But Madame President…"

"I said that's enough. Now you girls play nice, and I'll let you have some dried sweet potatoes!" The president showed a determined smile to them both. "Nishizumi, so glad you could make it. Tea perhaps?"

"Skip the pleasantries, Pipsqueak. What do you want?"

"No one ever has time for pleasantries these days." She sighed and shook her head in disappointment, but quickly returned to the conversation. "I wanted to inform you that you are to report to the ferry that rendezvous with the Zuikaku tomorrow at 11 o'clock."

"And why should I do that? If you want me to go grocery shopping for you, you can damn well send someone else."

"Oh, don't worry, that won't won't be necessary. Anyways, as I was saying; You'll report to the ferry in the morning. If you had been at our training sessions these past two weeks, you would have known that the entire team is going to Tokyo tomorrow for…"

"And why does that concern me?! I'm not on the damn team!"

"Oh, well, after your performance in the exhibition match against St. Gloriana, I took the liberty of adding you to the course."

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Maho glanced around for something to throw at the diminutive girl but couldn't find anything, so she had to resort to waving a fist in her direction. "You'll explain why the hell you did something like that, or I'll make sure you and the cyclops have matching noses!"

"Well, in part because I thought you did quite an excellent job and thought we could use you, and in part because the team elected you to be our commander."

"If you know what's good for you, you'll take me off that team and find another commander. And you'll damn well leave me out of your scheming!"

"Perhaps I wasn't clear," Anzu said with a mischievous smile, and picked up a form from her desk. "You'll be on that ferry tomorrow either way. It's just up to you if you go with us all to Tokyo for the day and then return here as our commander, or if we simply drop you with your luggage at the docks."

"Are you threatening me?" The subtext in Anzu's words was more than clear.

"Threaten is such an ugly word. I prefer 'encouraging'. It has a much more positive ring to it."

"You'd expel me just because I won't do what you want?"

"Of course not. Surely you don't think I'm that petty?" Anzu leaned back in her chair, her smile widening. "Buuuut I could quite easily, and with all right, expel you for assaulting a student council member, as well as your multiple counts of absence from school and extracurricular activities, disrespecting the Public morals committee, associating with known delinquents… You know, stuff like that."

Maho thought about Anzu's words for a few seconds, before coming to a decision. She looked down at the floor, before looking back up at the girl with a confident smirk. "I don't believe you." She turned and walked towards the door.

"You know, I've been hearing some interesting rumours lately... All the way from Kumamoto," Anzu said in a taunting tone behind her. "Rumors about the daughter of some great family who ran away..." Maho froze in place, her hand on the doorknob. "Now, I'm sure these rumors wouldn't be concerning you, but either way, as a responsible Student Council President, it's my duty to inform your family of your whereabouts in the event of expulsion." Maho could hear the sinister glee in her voice. "I'm sure your family would be very happy to see you again, Nishizumi, and I couldn't possibly deny them the joy of reuniting with you."

Maho grimaced and gripped the doorknob even tighter. She almost thought she was going to crush it in her hand. She turned her head slightly, and glared at Yuzu. Had she been the one to rat her out? Or had Anzu figured it all out on her own? Either way, it didn't matter. Maho couldn't risk her mother finding out where she was without the protection of enrollment. The moment she was no longer a student, her mother was bound to find her and bring her back to Kumamoto. Maho couldn't allow that. She would even prefer just jumping ship entirely to avoid that fate. But even when she had had that option before, she didn't go for it. What evidence did she have that she was any braver now?

She drew a series of deep breaths, before answering the president with nothing but disdain in her voice. "Then I guess I'll see you at the ferry tomorrow, madame president." She didn't even turn to face the short girl as she replied, and as soon as she was done, she left the room without another word.

Azusa had never seen anything like it. She had been to Tokyo once or twice, but she had never seen anything quite like this. She, along with the rest of Ooarai's team, was seated in a large room formed like an amphitheater. Apparently it was usually a concert hall, but today it was the venue for the opening ceremony to the National Sensha-Do tournament. Teams from all over Japan were gathered in the large hall, and everywhere you looked there were girls in different uniforms. Down on the stage stood a rather fat and bald man with a microphone, reading names of schools one after the other off of a list. When a school was called, their commander walked up on stage and drew a number from the table in the middle of the stage. There weren't that many slots left in the bracket projected on the back wall.

"Entering slot five, Maginot Girl's Academy will face off against Anzio High School."

A girl with long blue hair and an equally blue jacket had just drawn the lot for her school, leaving only four possible slots for Ooarai to fit into. Apparently they could be facing some place called Koala Forest or Bonple, they could end up having an immediate rematch with St. Gloriana, or they might face a very American-looking team called Saunders. Azusa didn't know anything about who these teams were, except for St. Gloriana, and even though she looked forward to a rematch, she had overheard Miss Akiyama talk about how strong they were during a practice session, so perhaps it was better if they faced off with someone else.

"Oh no… Look over there!" Miss Akiyama from team A whispered to her friends, but Azusa heard it as well, since she was sitting right behind her. She looked over to where Miss Akiyama pointed, and saw a group of stern-looking girls in grey and black uniforms, many of them glaring at where Ooarai was sitting in general, and at the Commander in particular.

"Excuse me, Miss Akiyama…" Azusa leaned forward and whispered, "But who's that?"

"That's Kuromorimine. They're one of the best teams in Japan. With the exception of last year, they've won every championship for the past ten years." The brunette looked nervously around herself for a second, before turning around and whispering in Azusa's ear. "It's also Commander Nishizumi's old school…"

"Oh…" Azusa gave a short nod to her senior, and sat back down in her seat. The fat man on stage spoke, and another call went out over the speakers.

"Representing Ibaraki Prefecture, Ooarai Girl's Academy. Would Commander Maho Nishizumi please come to the stage to draw the lot for Ooarai Girl's Academy?"

"May I take your orde…"

"Coffee, black, as strong as you can make it."

"Ok, Black coffee. Anything else?" The waitress chirped with a smile.

"No."

"You sure? We've got some excellent strawberry cakes..."

"If I wanted something else I would have already ordered it," Maho growled and glared at her, and so she quickly scampered off. Once she was alone, Maho sighed, closed her eyes, and leaned back in her seat. Why on earth did she have to pull that one? She had a good three-fourths chance of not picking that one, and yet she did. Why? If winning the championship had been unthinkable before, now it was beyond all possibility. Now there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that they'd even get past the first round.

Of all the schools they could have faced in the first round, Maho just had to pick Saunders. A hastily thrown together group of amateurs in half-a-team's worth of sub-par tanks against a top 4-school with a budget rivaling some prefectures. They were nothing less than screwed.

"Your coffee, miss." The waitress chirped as she returned and put the cup before Maho.

"Thanks," Maho mumbled in reply and handed over a few bills. "Keep the change."

She took a sip of the scalding hot coffee, and it was indeed strong. It burned her mouth both from taste and temperature, but still she drank. She needed to be clear-headed if she was gonna find a way to solve this. Not that there was a way to solve it. All she could do was minimize the damage.

Kay was a strange one. She was so completely different from herself that there was no way Maho could predict or plan for what she would do on the field. But apparently she had a deep sense of fairness and sportsmanship. The kind of stuff many derogatory and downright insulting comments had been based on at Kuromorimine. Concepts like that were only seen as crutches the weak leaned on to excuse their own lack of ability. Just thinking about it sent shivers down Maho's spine.

But maybe if she could appeal to that supposed weakness in Kay? Maybe if she could turn the battle from a one-sided slaughter to a fair fight with equal numbers. Not that there would be anything fair about it. Saunders' tanks outclassed pretty much anything Ooarai could muster, so even with even numbers they would be certain to lose. The first round was a flag match though. Maybe calling her out for a duel could end it quick and easy. Either they got lucky and took out the enemy flag tank without issue, or they would be eliminated there and then. No, that would never work. Surely there were limits to even how low a fair-minded person would sink.

"DAMN IT!" She slammed a fist on the table and swore, causing a large part of the otherwise quiet café to freeze for a second, before sound and activity returned.

Within, Maho was nothing but a torrent of anger, fear, uncertainty, sadness, and bad memories. She was going to repeat her every mistake on that field, wasn't she? She was going to get people hurt. She was going to act like a tyrant. She was going to destroy people both physically and mentally. She would be the sole reason for a dozen and more people being left broken and shattered by the end of it all, wasn't she?

"I guess it's true what they say: a cockroach really will survive anything!" As if Maho's worries weren't enough, she was called out by the voice she wanted least to hear in the entire world. "And here I thought a rat like you would have just scurried off somewhere to shrivel up and die of shame."

Beside her stood a girl with light blonde, almost white hair in Kuromorimine's uniform. Erika Itsumi, one of her old subordinates. Maho simply gritted her teeth and ignored her taunts. She had enough problems to worry about as it was.

"But I guess I should thank you. Your failure worked out pretty well for me in the end." Erika seemingly invited herself to sit, and took a seat opposite Maho where she leaned back with a smug grin. "Gave me a very nice promotion. At least Lady Nishizumi sees my talents for what they are, instead of trying to keep me to the side like you did." She put her hands behind her head as she stretched herself out further, and looked down at Maho. "I'm amazed you even dare show your face around here after what you did. I thought you were more of a coward than that."

Maho just kept ignoring her, causing Erika to lean down across the table. "Hey! I'm talking to you, you coward!"

"I don't have anything to say to you. I did what I did, and you know it was right."

"'It was right'?! You call destroying everything we worked for for ten years 'right'?! You could have destroyed the flag tank and won the match, and instead you snapped and panicked like a weakling!

"Hey!" Maho's heart sank further as she heard Azusa call out from the table behind her. Apparently she hadn't been left as alone as she had wanted, seeing as the commander of the M3 stood up from her seat and walked over to their table. "You don't talk like that about our Commander!"

Maho sighed as a vicious smile spread across Erika's lips. "Well, well, well… What have we here? It looks like this place isn't doing it's pest control."

"Azusa, stay out of this."

"So, this is your newest little toy?" Erika smirked at the newcomer. "I see you have a type. Although she seems to have more spirit than your last one... Tell me, 'Commander', did you tell her what happened? What you did?" While Erika might be speaking to Maho, here words were clearly meant for Azusa. "No, of course you didn't. You wouldn't want to scare away another fresh-faced weakling, would you? Who would you hide behind if you did?"

Maho lifted her gaze from her coffee, and faced Erika. "Leave her out of this. This is between you and me." Erika only laughed, and turned to look at Azusa.

"The last girl she pulled into her clutches hasn't woken up since, but it's good to see she was so easily replaced." She refocused her attention to Maho. "Still, you even showing your face again disgusts me, you arrogant bastard. And don't even get me started on you doing Sensha-Do again. You should have just stayed at the bottom of that river with the rest of them. That would have been 'right'."

"I said… You don't talk to our Commander like that!" Azusa said with a determined tone. "The Commander has done nothing wrong, and you're not going to go around and spread lies about her! She's twice the tanker you'll ever be!"

"Why, you little…" Erika stood up and faced Azusa fully, causing the younger girl to take a step back.

"Azusa, I said stay out of this..." Maho said in a low voice.

"No, Commander. I won't." Azusa steeled herself anew, and looked Erika dead in the eye. "If you want to insult my commander, you're going to have to go through me first. I would say we'll settle this in the finals, but someone like you probably wouldn't last that long."

Erika's face turned from one of petty amusement to one of raging fury in an instant. "You insolent rat. I'll teach you not to meddle in things that don't concern you!" She raised a hand to strike Azusa, but Maho caught it, holding Erika's arm in place.

"I said, this is between me and you," she growled, "And if you hurt so much as a hair on her head, I'll make sure you don't live to tell the tale."

"Oh, I'll show you hurt…" Erika began to growl back as she wriggled free of Maho's grip, but she was interrupted mid-sentence.

"ERIKA! That's enough!" a voice called out, and a girl came walking over towards Maho and Erika. She wore the black jacket and red skirt of Kuromorimine, had light brown hair under her side cap, and a look in her eye that Maho recognized all too well. Erika turned silent and snapped to attention at her call, fear mixing with something else in her eyes.

"Yes, Commander Nishizumi!"

Next time on Dein Weg ist Mein Weg: What was Erika talking about? What actually happened before Maho left Kumamoto for Ooarai?

Author's Notes:

So, yeah… a lot happened this week. We got some more development of Azusa, Anzu played the ace up her sleeve, Maho got made commander (against her will), we started the tournament, Erika showed up, and I could have sworn there was something else… Oh yes, Miho made her debut.

Ever since I started this series, I've gotten a number of people asking me what happened to Miho, if she's alive, and so on, and it's been quite a challenge keeping this little secret, but finally I don't have to play coy. Yes, she's very much alive, but, as with many other characters in this series, she might not be exactly the same character that we know and love from the original story.

Anyhoo, in other news, this chapter marks the 10th tuesday in a row that I've posted, which is a really nice milestone to get to. I don't have any plans to slow down, so Tuesday's will keep their place as the day for updates for the foreseeable future.

As always, thank you so much for your ongoing support for the series, please leave a review to let me know what you think, and I'll see you next week.

Until then, Ciao!

/Rihno