Dein Weg ist Mein Weg
Chapter XXX
The Friends
"It should be criminal to schedule Sensha-Do matches this early," Darjeeling muttered and yawned. "Whose idea was it even to travel halfway across Japan just for this?"
"It was yours," Orange Pekoe answered dryly as she helped Rukuriri set up the brewing station, chairs and table from the Bren Carrier.
"In fact, I believe you insisted, despite our protests," Assam continued and gave her eyes a quick rub, trying to hide her own tiredness.
"Is that so?" Darjeeling replied as she stared bitterly out across the field from the small hill they had set up their observation post on. "Thank you," she added as she was handed a cup of steaming tea.
"So, do you really believe you'll gain some further understanding of Nishizumi with this little field trip?" Assam asked as she sat down and received her own cup.
"Oh, I do hope so, my dear Assam," Darjeeling answered cheerfully, all the bitterness and gloom of the early morning vanished in an instant with only a few drops of tea in her stomach. "She is a fascinating girl after all. Especially if what you told me is true."
Assam shrugged, and took a small bite of a sandwich from the plate Rukuriri had put down on the table. "I make no promises. I just hear what I hear."
"Forgive me, Lady Darjeeling," Orange Pekoe said as she finished pouring her own cup and walked over to her seat, "but despite your continued attempts at explaining your fascination with Miss Nishizumi, I truly do not understand. Surely she is just what she appears to be? A daughter of a great family leading an insufficient team, no?"
Darjeeling smiled, and looked over her shoulder to her companions, gently stirring her tea, mostly for dramatic effect. "Do you know this saying, Orange Pekoe? 'Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.'"
"Yes, Macchiavelli, is it not?"
"Indeed," Darjeeling answered with a nod, and took another sip. "Oh, and I must commend you on the tea, My dear Pekoe. Most exquisite. An added dash of honey, I believe?"
"Ah, no, My Lady, it's-" Rukuriri began but Orange Pekoe quickly interrupted.
"It is as you say, Lady Darjeeling. Your palette truly is a cut above the rest of us. But whatever do you mean? Do you believe there is something else to Miss Nishizumi?"
"I am yet to be certain, but she is undoubtedly an odd phenomena. And odd phenomena require further studying. It may only be a hunch, but I believe she may show us her wings today, if all goes we-"
"DARLING!" Darjeeling's voice was immediately drowned by the gleeful cheer of Kay pouncing on her, wrapping her arms around Darjeeling and almost tackling her to the ground. It was nothing but a miracle that she didn't drop the cup or saucer she was holding, and even more so that she didn't spill any tea.
"Hello, Kay…" Darjeeling muttered through gritted teeth, straining against the Saunders Commander's grip and trying to break free. "What a… coincidence… to find you here. Now unhand me, you uncultured brigand."
"Awww, can't I even get a kiss first?" Kay asked teasingly yet affectionately, and struggled equally to close the distance between her and Darjeeling's lips while Darjeeling tried her damnedest to keep them apart.
"You may most certainly not!" she protested. "And if you continue to refuse addressing me as Darjeeling, you never will!"
"Oh?!" Kay said with a satisfied grin, and let Darjeeling go. Her trap had been sprung. "So what you're saying is that if I address you as Darjeeling I can have a kiss?"
"I-no-I mean-well-you-but-no…" Darjeeling stammered, but Kay was already down on one knee holding her hand as if she was proposing.
"Darjeeling, my vivid rose, my island in the storm, how most ardently I love you! Should I compare ya to a day where the cicadas humm and the sweat rolls down my back? I could-"
"Yea-yeah, that's enough out of you, Commander," Naomi said dryly as she walked over, giving her commander a light knock on the head. "Also, if you're going to quote something, especially to that one," she gave a quick nod to Darjeeling, "then at least make sure to do it properly." She paused for a moment to drag Kay back a few paces, before continuing. "Lady Darjeeling, Miss Orange Pekoe, how good to see you again." She nodded in turn to Darjeeling and Orange Pekoe, and then to Assam who in addition received a rare smile spread over the sharpshooter's lips. A smile Assam involuntarily answered.
"A good day to you as well, Naomi," Darjeeling answered, and walked over to sit herself down beside the table. "I see Saunders have also taken an interest in Ooarai. Or are you merely here for the splendid company?"
"Well, one good thing doesn't cancel out the other, does it?" Kay answered and grabbed the cooler and one of the camping chairs Naomi had brought, sitting herself down beside Darjeeling and draping a hand over her reluctant companion's shoulder.
"I see…" Darjeeling sighed. "Then, would you like some tea? I am certain Rukuriri has a splendid blend for you."
"Nah, you don't get any energy from tea this long before lunch!" Kay laughed, reached into the cooler, and opened a bottle of cola. "It really should be illegal to schedule Sensha-Do matches this early in the morning, shouldn't it? Anyways, Cheers!" She clinked the glass of her bottle against the porcelain of Darjeeling's cup, the gesture so violent that a good fourth of the bottle's content left Kay's possession and instead found itself mixed into Darjeeling's tea, a cloud of dark appearing in the otherwise golden-brown liquid.
"Uhm… well…Miss Naomi," Orange Pekoe attempted, trying with no real success to divert the conversation from the argument flaring up anew between Darjeeling and Kay, "Are you drinking cola as well, or would you…"
"Tea would be much appreciated, thank you," the grey-haired girl answered with a smile as she placed her own camping chair down, placing herself on the opposite side of the gathering from her commander, beside Assam. "Black, Indian, no milk, one cube of sugar."
"You're in luck," Orange Pekoe smiled, and almost instantly handed Naomi a cup. "We already happened to have that particular blend ready."
"Ah, thank you very much," Naomi said, and took a sip. "Mhmm, yes. I always did enjoy a cup of Assam," she added with a smirk, taking the tea's namesake's hand in her own and leaned in to give Assam a quick peck on the cheek. In response, Assam could only blush and stammer something unintelligible.
"Alright, it all seems clear…" Maho mumbled and took a final walk around the StuG III, with Erwin following shortly behind.
"Thank you, Commander," Erwin answered with a nod and a satisfied smile. "We've made sure to take good care of her."
"So it would seem…" Maho replied. "Very well, the StuG III is prepped and ready. You and your crew are to stand by until the match starts, understood?"
"Of course, Commander. We'll be ready!" Erwin continued, and gave Maho a quick salute. One which Maho answered with a nod, before turning and walking away across Ooarai's preparatory area.
With the StuG III now cleared, her own Panzer IV was the only tank left to be inspected. Tsychiya had assured her this morning that all the tanks were in prime condition and fully prepared, but old habits died hard, and Maho wasn't going to let even the smallest dent or mechanical failure go unnoticed. Especially after the disaster of their battle with Saunders.
And so, ever since Ooarai had first arrived at the field, Maho had spent her time making her way through every one of the team's tanks, checking the treads, the turret, every inch of the hull, the ammo storage, and everything else to make sure they were ready.
Other than her own bitter inspection, the camp was rather quiet. Noriko and the rest of Duck Team were playing volleyball over by the Type 89, the freshmen were all chatting away from where they sat spread out atop the M3 Lee, the student council were discussing something Maho couldn't care less about in hushed tones by the Panzer 38(t), and Hippo team seemed to be playing some chess-like game that Oryou had informed her was called 'Chaturanga' beside the StuG III.
"Is everything loaded?" Maho asked dourly as she arrived at the Panzer Iv and began her inspection. This one in particular she was even more pedantic with, both because it was her own tank, and because it was the flag tank. The unfortunate sabotage in their last match also didn't help her relax.
"Yes!" Yukari said with a grin as she climbed out of the Loader's hatch. "She's all loaded up and ready to go!"
"Good…" Maho muttered. "Then you're dismissed until the match is about to start."
"Oh…" Yukari answered, and shrank slightly. "Y-yeah… of course…" her shoulders slumped as she reached the ground, and walked over to talk with Hana and Mako a few meters away.
"Taka!"
The relative silence of Ooarai's camp was broken by a voice cheerfully calling out, a voice which upon inspection belonged to a girl with long blonde hair, and wearing a uniform consisting of a grey jacket with matching shorts, tall black boots, and what appeared to be a knife fastened in a black belt around her waist. And while most of Ooarai either ignored the call, or merely gave a confused glance over towards the girl, one was not like the rest.
"Hina!"
With great leaps and bounds, Caesar made her way from the StuG III to meet the girl, and the two embraced one another near the outskirts of Ooarai's gathered tanks, before taking one another's hands and beginning to chat.
"Who the heck is Taka?" Erwin asked of Oryou and Saemonza, who could only shrug.
"I guess… Caesar? Probably?" Oryou posited with some uncertainty, and the three of them continued to look wide-eyed over towards the two girls.
"Long-time, no see!" the blonde girl, whose name was apparently Hina, said with a smile.
"Yeah, it's been way too long, hasn't it!" Caesar replied with an equally-sized smile.
"So you really did take up Sensha-Do! That's so awesome!"
"Yeah, it's been great!"
"So, which tank's yours?!"
"Hehe, it's a secret!" Caesar said with a grin and a sly wink, placing a finger across her lips.
"Oh, yeah, I guess that's right," Hina answered with a laugh and scratched at her neck. "We are adversaries for the day after all…"
"Well, this certainly is a different side to you, Taka," Erwin teased and threw an arm across Caesar's shoulder, giving her an equally teasing look as the rest of Hippo team came over.
"Indeed it is," Saemonza continued, giving Caesar a playful jab in the side as she came over. "Oo-la-la…"
"I-uh-eh-uhm-I mean…" Caesar stuttered as her face began to bloom into shades of crimson, neatly matching her scarf as she struggled for words in her embarrassment. "Oh, cut it out…" she meekly retorted after a few moments. "B-besides, it's not like that…" she added, even if her tone and the color of her cheeks seemed inclined to paint her a liar. She shook off Erwin's arm and took a step away from her friends, and placed herself beside Hina. "This is Hina. She's also from Tsukuba. We went to the same Middle school."
"And Elementary school," Hina added.
"And Kindergarten," Caesar finished.
"Oh, so you guys basically grew up together, didn't you?" Oryou asked with a knowing but friendly smile.
"Yeah, I guess we did," Caesar answered, before gesturing to the rest of the StuG III's crew. "Hina, these are my friends from Ooarai. Erwin, Saemonza, and Oryou. We're in the History club together, and we're all on the same tank!"
"Greetings," the three of them said in unison, and nodded.
"A pleasure to meet you all," Hina answered, before turning back to face Caesar and giving her a look; the sort only shared between lifelong friends, and that really could mean any number of things. In this particular case, it seemed a signal to once again shut out the others from their conversation. "Even though we're enemies today, we'll still be friends forever, right!" she asked of Caesar with a smile.
"Of course! So let's make today's fight a fair and square one, Okay?!"
"Yeah!"
From her place beside the Panzer IV, Maho glanced over for a moment towards the pair as they continued chatting, but as an unwelcome emptiness appeared in her chest, she continued with her inspection and ignored the commotion. She let her eyes run across the front armor plate as she walked past with a trained and methodical approach. When she was certain she could find no trace of problems, she moved on to the other tread, thankfully placing the tank between herself and the spectacle of childhood friends meeting again.
She couldn't bear such a clear reminder. Not today. Not when they were facing her…
She was halfway through checking the drive sprocket when the sound of a car nearing caused her to glance back over to the gathering of people, and her heart had further reason to sink.
"CARPACCIO!" a girl in the same uniform as the blonde but with flowing twin tailed mint-green hair yelled, and jumped off the reconnaissance car just as it parked, walking over to Ooarai's tankers. "STOP FRATERNIZING WITH THE ENEMY!"
What exactly transpired after that, Maho didn't know.
"Maporin? What are you doing?" Saori asked from her place a few meters away, giving Maho a queer look where she had curled herself up on the ground, nestled closely against the tracks of the Panzer IV.
"I'm not here!" Maho answered in as hushed a voice as she could, trying her best not to be n. "If anyone asks, you haven't seen me in a while! In fact, tell them I'm not even playing today! Tell them I'm , maybe I got the flu or something? Yeah, that's it!"
"What are you talking about?" Saori continued, not in the slightest seeming to understand why she should lower her voice, much to Maho's chagrin.
"Can't you tell I'm hiding?!" Maho continued, keeping her hushed tone, and glared at Saori. "So go out there and tell them I'm not he-"
"Where is Maho Nishizumi?!" she heard Anchovy yell over from the gathering, and she cautiously moved herself even more behind the Panzer IV.
"I'm sorry, do you have business with Commander Nishizu-" Yuzu tried to answer, but Anchovy just interrupted her with a dismissive wave, her growing fury apparent in her voice. "Call her here."
"Duce…" Hina, or Carpaccio, or whatever she was called, tried to put in as a way of defusing the situation, but to no avail.
"I know she's here," Anchovy continued, her fury now growing chillingly calm. "I know she's hiding somewhere, and you are going to bring that coward here."
"Oh, Nishizumi!" Momo chirped loudly, her delight being apparent in the sing-song:y tones of her voice as she came over to the Panzer IV, and with a smug grin running from ear to ear, pulled Maho to her feet and out into the open. "Our opponent wants a word, and surely a daughter of such a fine family as your own wouldn't be so rude as to refuse them."
Now removed from her cover and revealed to the world, Maho could do nothing but glare at the self-satisfied cyclops, steel herself, and sigh. She began walking over towards the gathering, but every step felt like she walked on burning coals or shattered glass, and made nearing the Panzer IV seem like child's play. The air felt thick and heavy like molasses as she walked, the world putting more and more secure barriers in her way as she took step after step and her body wished to do nothing other than to turn and run away. But ultimately, it wasn't her choice to make, and she found herself face to face with the enemy commander.
"Hello, Chiyo-"
The answer was swift and fierce, interrupting Maho before she could even get the full name out. She took a deep breath as she looked down, and reached a hand up to touch her cheek, a mild reddenning heat appearing where she had just been slapped.
"Don't you dare call me Chiyomi..."
The tone was cold and bitter, with Anchovy refusing to look at her. Not that it mattered. Maho couldn't bring herself to look her opponent in the eye either. She was in too much pain. The slap had hurt more than the shell of a Maus ripping her chest to shreds, and Anchovy's words cut Maho deeper than every lesson her mother had ever marked on her back combined.
"And don't think you showing up here again like this means I'll forgive you for what you did." She paused for a moment, before finally staring directly at Maho, her gaze cutting like daggers. "You turned tail and ran. And I'll be damned if I lose to someone like you."
Part of Maho wanted to retaliate. To defend herself against such slander, and to strike back with her own. Another part simply wanted to claim ignorance as her defence, to say that anchovy must have mistaken her for someone else. A third part was busy wishing and praying for a sudden case of amnesia to strike her, to hide away the memories that her mind replayed in vivid accuracy, and obscure them in the fog of her psyche's deepest depths, so that she could honestly say she didn't know what Anchovy was talking about.
But they were all overruled.
Overruled and silenced by the vast and unending majority of her, the part that knew exactly how guilty she was of the crimes Anchovy had silently accused her of, and how deserving she was of her scorn and hatred. There was no defence to be made.
With Maho offering nothing but silence and dejected looks as answer, Anchovy turned on the spot and walked away, back to the car that had brought her there. Carpaccio, for her part, remained in place for a moment, looking uncertainly back and forth between her commander and her friend, until Anchovy called out for her, and she sprinted over towards the car.
"W-well, I'll see you on the field, Taka!" she called back towards Caesar and gave a quick wave, before the car began to speed off towards Anzio's camp.
"Y-yeah," Caesar stuttered. "See you on the field, I guess..."
"What's up with that girl?!" Saori asked angrily of the rest of the team, who had remained gathered a few paces away from Maho and Anchovy's confrontation, once the Anzio girls had left. "Wasn't that way too cruel?!"
"Well… you can't say that it wasn't a spectacular declaration of war." Anzu replied, with her usual laid-back brand of casualness.
"Although…" Yuzu said cautiously, "It seemed more aimed at Nishizumi than us…"
"But… it's alright!" Yukari said with not quite as much conviction as her words would have required. "We'll show them! We're not going to lose against that bunch!"
"Maporin… What was that about…" Saori asked concerned as she walked over, but Maho just remained in place and stared blankly at the ground. "Mapo-"
"It's nothing…" Maho mumbled. "None of your business… I just… I knew her… a long time ago..."
"But she seemed really upset with you. Is this because of what happened at last year's finals? 'Cause she really seemed like you two-"
"I said it's none of your business!" Maho yelled, and turned to face Saori, feeling her cheeks turn red, either from anger or sadness. She wasn't sure which. "So stop trying to put your nose where it doesn't belong, or one of these days I'm going to break it like I broke the cyclops'"
She didn't leave any room for Saori to pry further, as she pushed her out of the way and barreled past the rest of the team.
"Don't you dare call me Chiyomi..."
"Don't you dare call me Chiyomi..."
"Don't you dare call me Chiyomi..."
Anchovy's words echoed over and over in Maho's mind, her own guilt providing ample acoustics to keep the repetition going for eternity.
She bowed her head lower and wrapped her arms around her knees more tightly, huddling herself into not much more than a ball of sadness in the Commander's seat of the Panzer IV. The sun hadn't been up very long yet, and the morning was surprisingly cool, leaving the air inside the tank almost chillingly cold. This, together with the darkness from the turned-off lights and closed hatches, left the inside of the turret the perfect place for Maho to slowly sink down.
Back into the shadowy embrace of the abyss.
Even after all her struggle to stay afloat, all the hardships she had faced and fought, none of it mattered. It didn't matter, and she knew as much as she sat there waiting quietly. Waiting for her breath to shorten and her skin to grow cold. Waiting for her field of view to grow dark and fuzzy and her thoughts to slow as her brain tricked itself into believing she was drowning. Waiting for it all to end as Anchovy's scornful words continued to echo, just sitting in place and wishing for the depths to take her, for the many dark tricks her mind played on her to finally win out over her body, and for the grim reaper to come and take her away.
For what was the point? All Maho had ever struggled for, the world had taken away from her. All that kept her afloat was torn from her side one after the other, dragging her down towards the depths and drowning her in hurt.
Seeing her own attempt at protecting Miho and keeping her sweet and innocent sister safe from the Nishizumi style backfire, and for Miho to instead become a coldblooded fanatic, ready to sacrifice anything and anyone as long as it led to victory, was a knife stabbing her heart. But her sister was still in there somewhere, Maho knew she was. But still she sank...
"Don't you dare call me Chiyomi..."
Having to watch Emi lie still and unconscious in a hospital bed had been a painful blow, but one she could ultimately live with. Emi was going to wake up one day, surely. But still she sank...
"Don't you dare call me Chiyomi..."
Having yelled at and insulted her father, and for that to be their last moment together, that ate her up inside every morning and every day. But she had made her peace with that mistake. But still she sank…
"Don't you dare call me Chiyomi..."
Having found out that Azusa, the one person she believed she could trust, had lied and deceived her ever since the beginning, and having to know that what she had believed to be friendship was nothing, it cut deep. But still she sank...
"Don't you dare call me Chiyomi..."
Having let down Koume, and turning her best and only remaining friend against her, it was almost too much to bear, a burden which might break her completely at any moment. But still she sank…
"Don't you dare call me Chiyomi..."
"...Don't think you showing up here again like this means I'll forgive you..."
"...I'll be damned if I lose to someone like you."
What was the point…
Anchovy hated her, and had every right to do so for what she had done. And that was a blow she couldn't handle.
She reached the bottom, and could sink no further. The world was cold, dark, and quiet. Quiet, but for a single phrase echoing endlessly through the depths, burrowing ever deeper through her heart and soul, and leaving nothing in its wake, nothing but a black void.
"Maporin! You in here?!"
A beam of light shining down upon her turned her vision white and blank for a moment as her eyes readjusted, and Saori called down to her through the now open hatch above her.
"Hey… are you doing ok?"
Maho didn't answer. She didn't move either for that matter. She just remained in place and waited for Saori to go away.
Which of course, if she had been considering things properly, she should have known wasn't going to happen.
"Maporin? I said 'are you do-"
"I'm fine!" Maho growled up without lifting her head. "Just leave me alone and I'll be great."
"W-well, the thing is, the match is starting soon, and… well…"
She sighed, and somehow let her head bow even lower as her shoulders slumped. "Fine," she muttered, "I'm coming…"
Maho remained in the tank for a minute or two longer once Saori had left, the open hatch acting as both spotlight and annoyance, ultimately driving her to rise from her seat and leave the confines of the turret. The match was waiting for her after all.
Anchovy was waiting. Waiting to defeat her and truly drive her point home.
She sighed as she entered the tent to change into Ooarai's full tank uniform. This was a proper match, and she was going to have to wear that infernal jacket again, no matter how much she hated it, and there was nothing she could do about it.
With this inescapable fact joining the chorus of troubled thoughts and echoed words in her mind, she shed her trenchcoat and folded it neatly, placing it beside her bag, which she reached into to grab Ooarai's tank jacket.
But the jacket wasn't there.
Confused, and with her annoyance beginning to flare up again, she began to methodically remove items from the bag. Even though she clearly couldn't feel the jacket in there, and she under other circumstances would have been happy to see it vanish into thin air, she nonetheless kept looking for it like she was possessed, removing item after item from the bag in her search.
At the bottom of her bag she instead found a parcel, hastily wrapped in brown paper and with a piece of string sloppily tied around it.
"Saori!" she yelled out to the world at large, and with bitter steps exited the tent to find the ginger girl and then have her produce Maho's tank jacket. She was the only truly likely culprit.
"Y-yeah?" Saori answered with a light stutter, having stood talking with Hana, Yukari and Mako beside the Panzer IV that was parked just outside the tent.
"What is the meaning of this?" Maho asked bitterly, and held out the parcel in one hand, her foot tapping the ground as she gave Saori an accusatory look.
"Oh!" she answered with a cheerful smile. "It's a gift. From all of us."
"Saori, I don't care about your vapid attempts at courting my friendship right now. Where is my tank jacket?"
"Maho," Hana said after a short moment of silent glances between the four friends, "I think it would be best if you opened it."
The look in her eye wasn't exactly commanding, nor stern. But it possessed an air of knowing that momentarily stilled Maho's anger, and she acquiesced into unwrapping the parcel, letting string and paper both fall to the ground as she freed the contents from its brown prison.
For a moment, Maho didn't quite understand. Didn't quite grasp what she was holding in her hands. Or rather, she did understand. At least what it was. What she didn't understand was why it was in her hands, or why Saori and the others had engineered to put it into her possession.
Held in her hands was a tank jacket, just the same as the rest of Ooarai's jackets. Durable suede made up the outer layer, and comfortable white cotton made up the inside. The white serafuku-styled collar with red detailing was equally present, and the lining seemed identical to the rest of the team's jackets, with the fabric both being sturdy enough to keep one warm when fighting in the cold, and breathable enough to hold off a heat stroke during the warmest summer day.
But still, it wasn't like the jackets the rest of the team wore. Where the others wore jackets in a dark navy blue, the color Maho so detested for its ability to drag unpleasant memories from her days at Kurmomorimine back into the light, this jacket was different. The suede was instead a bright and lively sky blue, almost taking on the color of aquamarine when the light caught it the right way.
Adjusting her grip to allow the neatly pressed fabric to unfold into its full splendor, she turned it over to inspect the back of the jacket, and to continue her unconscious inspection of the quality of the handiwork.
The back of the jacket then provided her with yet another difference to the one that had come before. Where the rest of the team merely had simple screen prints of their tank's callsign, the cartoony animal drawings the respective tanks used as insignia and had taken as nicknames, covering the back of their jackets, this too was a case where this new jacket was leagues apart from the rest.
Made up of a multitude of thin pieces of leather, all expertly sewn into place, the back of the jacket had a perfect replica of the photorealistic phoenix she herself had painted onto the Panzer IV splayed across it, with not a single inch of it having the wrong color or proportions.
"Why…" Maho asked, or more accurately stated flatly, as she stared blankly at the jacket.
"Well, we could all tell that you were not very comfortable with the team's jacket," Hana answered.
"Yeah, it's the color, isn't it?" Saori asked. "It's too similar to your old school, right?"
This question, or rather, the intelligence that Saori had seemingly figured out Maho's issue with the regular jacket, caused her to look up from the jacket, and barely having the time to hide her shock and worry at the news.
"It was Yukari who first realized," Saori said with a smile, and nodded her head towards the loader, who blushed and squirmed awkwardly.
"W-well… I mean… I just… I just kinda guessed…" Yukari stuttered, trying to deflect the credit Saori gave her, but not to much avail.
"Is that so…" Maho said flatly, and let her eyes fall down again.
"So, do you like it?" Saori asked with cheerful tones after a few seconds silence, but Maho didn't answer. She just stared down at the jacket in her hands, and remained silent. "Mapori-"
"I've been unfair…" Maho said in a low, solemn voice.
"What?" Saori replied, confused.
"I've been unfair. To all of you," Maho repeated, louder this time but just as solemnly. "No. Not unfair. Worse. I've been horrible." She looked up at her crewmates. "So, while I know you have no reason to oblige me, could we perhaps start over? From the beginning?"
A moment of silent confusion followed as her four crewmates looked back and forth between one another, but ultimately they all nodded in turn.
"Of course," Hana answered, first to do so. "Whatever you may need."
"Yeah, obviously!" Yukari followed with a cheer.
Saori, for her part, didn't say anything but her nod and general expression was answer enough.
Maho took a deep breath, and bowed, far lower than she would normally. "Maho Nishizumi, Tank Commander, but please, just call me Maho. Pleased to meet you, and I hope we will get along well."
She remained bowed forward for what felt like an eternity of awkward silence, feeling more ridiculous with every passing moment. But then, the silence was broken, and as Maho looked up, she saw the rest of her crew bowing to her one after the other.
"Saori Takebe, Radio Operator! Glad to meet ya!"
"Hana Izusu, Gunner. I am very pleased to make your acquaintance."
"Yukari Akiyama, Loader. This is gonna be awesome!"
Mako didn't really say anything, or move for that matter, and instead just remained still where she was leaning back against the Panzer IV. At least at first she did, but after having one of Saori's elbows jabbed into her side, she stirred into something resembling life. "We already know one another though," she mumbled in annoyed tones to Saori. "She knows my name, I know hers, so what's even the poi-"
A stern and determined glare from Saori silenced her protests however, and she gave a quick, lazy nod to Maho. "Fine…" she sighed. "Mako Reizei... Driver... Cool meeting you, I guess..."
It might have been a small gesture, to many disrespectfully so, and even though Maho didn't exactly consider herself and the rest of her crew friends, she knew enough about Mako to know just how much respect and affection was to be found in that small nod.
She returned the nod, and followed it up by answering the others' as well, before looking down at the jacket again.
"So… uh… what do you think, Maho?" Saori asked after a few moments. "Do you… like it?"
"Thank you…" Maho said softly, without looking up.
"You're welcome!" Yukari cheered, before realizing what she had done and shrinking back slightly. "I-I mean…"
"The match is starting soon. You go get changed, and we'll get everything ready," Saori cut in to save Yukari, and after a short nod, Maho turned and walked back into the tent.
She folded the jacket back together and placed it beside her bag which she repacked just as orderly as she had unpacked it, before picking the jacket back up and putting it on. Just like the one it had replaced, it fit her excellently, and just by virtue of the new colors, felt far more comfortable than the old dark navy one.
After a few moments of adjusting the cuffs and collar, and making sure the fit was to her liking, she paused, and reached a hand up towards her face, only to find that it was wet. A moment passed, and then another, as she struggled with understanding why.
She had been consumed by sadness and depressed thoughts after Anchovy appeared, yes, but for some reason, ever since opening the parcel she had been unable to even bring it to mind. Still, after a moment or two more, she quickly rubbed her sleeve across her eyes, drying it all off before reaching down into her bag again.
First she picked up Miho, the small teddy bear its namesake had given her, caressing it with her thumb for a moment, and carefully stuffing it into one of the pockets of her jacket before once again reaching into the bag.
"So… I guess it's time, huh?" she said in a low voice to herself, and stared down at the two small white bottles she held in her hand, and the wordy labels that covered them. She unscrewed the top of one of them, and sighed as she looked with apprehension at the white and green pills inside.
"Maho!" Saori said with a cheer as she looked up and out of the Radio Operator's hatch. "That looks great on you!"
"It does, doesn't it…" Maho replied with a nod.
"But, shouldn't you be getting into the tank? The match is about to start, isn't it?"
"Yeah, I'm coming," she answered and got up from where she had been kneeling beside the tank. "I just had to check something with the treads first." Once she was standing again and had brushed the grass off her knee, she quickly and skillfully climbed up on the Panzer IV, and into her seat in the turret. She had barely sat down before Mako got the tank moving, and the right side of the tank lifted slightly with a small, near unhearable crunching sound accompanying it.
"What was that?" Yukari asked.
"Don't worry about it. It wasn't anything important," Maho answered with a confident tone, leading Yukari to not ask further, and instead simply give a look to Saori, who shrugged.
"By the way," Maho continued, "again, thank you for giving me another chance. I know there wasn't any reason for you to do so. So thanks."
A moment of silence followed, with her four co-inhabitants of the tank giving each other a look. "You're welcome," they each answered in turn.
"Thank you, by the way," Saori added.
"Huh? For what?"
"For taking it."
Maho nodded to Saori as answer, and was about to speak when Mako interrupted.
"We're in position," she muttered, and the tank rolled gently as it came to a halt. Just in time it would seem, for moments later the whizzing sound of a rocket pierced the air, and a soft explosion accompanied the red puff in the sky.
"Alright," Maho said as she pressed against the microphone on her throat, calling out to the rest of the team, all five of Ooarai's tanks lined up beside her. "Operation Meistersinger von Nürnberg is now in effect. You know what to do."
The rumble of engines stirring to life filled the air as the rest of the team began to move out under Erwin and Azusa's command, and Maho followed them with her gaze as they moved into the forests and beyond her sight before switching her radio to the internal channel, and speaking once more.
"Panzer vor!"
Next time on Dein Weg ist Mein Weg: Emotions run high as Anzio and Ooarai descend into a war of deception, pride, and troubled pasts.
Author's Notes:
And so, another chapter, another cliff-hanger, another wait. Mostly a week of interesting character interactions, with some more appearances from Saunders and St. Gloriana both, the long-awaited meeting between Taka and Hina, and a confrontation between Maho and Anchovy. Whatever could possibly have happened between them in the past? We also get a new jacket for Maho, and a fresh start for the members of Phoenix team. Which is all neat, if you ask me.
For those of you who've read the original GuP-manga, there are also some neat references to pick up on. The most obvious one of course being the fact that Anchovy here takes a lot more inspiration from her manga-counterpart than the version we all know and love from the anime. And if there's anyone here who hasn't read the original GuP-manga, I'd actually really recommend giving it a read, if only because it gives a really neat insight into what the series could have been.
The actual battle is next, and you can bet that a true showdown between our two rival commanders will follow.
As usual, no promises when the next chapter is out, but my hope is that it'll arrive some time in the first half of April. Either way, I hope to have it out to you all as soon as possible, because I know how much you all enjoy this story.
I know I say this every single chapter and that it's probably getting repetitive, but I still want to thank you all for the incredible support and kind words you've given me, and if you have the time I would love it if you left a review with your thoughts so I can continue to make the story better, and also just because it's great to hear what you think.
Until next time, see ya!
/Rihno