One month later...

After that whole incident, Yukari was imprisoned for two counts of attempted murder and since Takashi more or less had diplomatic immunity, was not met with any sorts of charges. Within months, he recovered since he was a fast healer and that the bullet miraculously did not puncture his lung. He returned to tankery so fast, that he hadn't the time to even tell his team what had happened yet. Hana had also made a fast recovery, and returned after two weeks.

Takashi stood on top of his Panther with a devilish grin on his face and a glimmer in his emerald-green eyes.

He had received (and was wearing) his own uniform, a black, white, and light blue WW1 German Hussar's Uniform bearing a Totenkopf, a flag/patch of his home state in America (Texas), his coat of arms (Aalen, Germany) and Ooarai's logo. His uniform was complete with tall black leather boots and gloves, a German Hussar's sabre and a nickel plated Luger P08 on his belt, and a pair of binoculars wrapped around his neck.

This match looked quite fun...They were facing Chi-Ha-Tan academy, a school led with great enthusiasm, as well as incompetence and rigid (and in his opinion totally pointless) rules of attacking, Pravda, which needs no introduction, and Anzio, one which he held with great respect for, but absolutely no fear for. Ooarai was teamed up with Kuromorimine and Bellwall, both great choices for this. This was an elimination match, one which would take place over several days and was definitely no base match.

Takashi jumped into the tank to retrieve his mapand hand-held radio and signal his driver to continue without him. He left the tank and went to a nearby hilltop, stopping set up his radio and maps over a wooden crate. Perfect spot for reconnaissance.

For the next hour or so, he continued to give directions and target locations over the radio to his team, proving to be quite an asset. He had actually become so distracted by his duties, that he failed to quickly notice that he was being surrounded.

Takashi heard the sound of engines and turned to find a Type 97 and a P40 behind him. He quickly told Kita (a radio operator from Bellwall) that he was about to be captured and threw his radio off of the cliffside before retrieving his electric lighter, lighting the map on fire and kicking the crate and everything else off of the cliff.

Anchovi and Nishi both stepped out of their tanks to capture him. The two commanders, whom he both somewhat dwarfed, stood in front of him smugly, waiting for him to give up. With an annoyed look on his face, Takashi removed his sword and side arm from his belt as the two looked at him with delight.

"You've got me. I surrender."

Takashi saluted his two captors before surrendering his sword and side arm to Anchovy, whom he viewed as the one who was more worthy to recieve his weapons from his surrender. He was brought into the P40 and subsequently handcuffed, blindfolded, and sedated at the request of Katyusha so that he couldn't run away or see where the camp is.

He was brought to a tent and handcuffed to the post in the middle. He woke up around thirty minutes later.

He then, with much difficulty, removed his boot and moved behind him, retrieving a bobby pin from it. He then bent it properly and proceeded to unlock the cuffs and put his boot back on before putting his hands behind his back again.

He looked around and noticed that for whatever reason, Anchovy left his gun/sword belt inside the tent, probably after helping with something and/or because the blade was too long for her stature and was tripping her up. The latter was more likely the case since there was snow all over the bottom of the scabbard. On the same hook, a great coat was hanging. Anchovy probably borrowed it from somebody much taller than her (most likely Nonna), judging from the snow left on the bottom of it as well. Besides that, there was really nothing else in there, besides a scarf, also on the same hook and a few other assorted camping items including a lantern.

After scanning the tent, he heard the sound of horses, which sounded fairly close. They were probably being used for scouting, as tanks were too loud for such a thing. He thought that it would be a good idea to do that next time. On second thought, maybe not, since he and Saemonza were probably the only two who knew how to ride.

A few minutes later, Klara entered the room carrying a blanket and a piece of cloth.

"I'm going to move you to the fire but first I-"

Without leaving a single scratch on her, Takashi swept Klara's feet out from under her, catching her with his arm, and applying the sedative to her. He then set her down before wrapping her tightly with the blanket, shifting her into a more comfortable position, and kissing her on the forehead.

Takashi then put his Hussar's hat back on, fastened the strap for it, and moved to the hook, first putting on the great coat, then the scarf, then his gun belt.

Takashi peered through the tent to see that it was dark and most of the occupants of the camp were asleep, including the student from Anzio sent to guard him. He looked around for horses, spotting a fine paint horse about twenty meters away. He say no one close to him and elected to calmly walk to her, as running would cause unwanted attention. He walked up to the left side of the horse, uniting and mounting it before setting off at a slow trot, once he thought a sentry spotted him, he went into a full gallop, successfully escaping the camp.

This was the easy part in hindsight since he still didn't know where he was. He rode around for hours looking for the camp until he finally saw the light of a camp fire. He nor his mount had the energy to run there and thus slowly dragged themselves along, finally arriving at around midnight. When they got there, his horse lied down and he rolled off of her. Miho and the intirety of Hippo team were sitting around a camp fire not too far away.

Oryou was the first to see them. "Wait. Is- Is that Takashi?"

At that moment, all of the girls rose from their feet and came to the aid of the two. Ceaser helped the horse, leading her to a good place and giving her an apple while Miho and the rest of Hippo team helped the barely-conscious Takashi to Miho's tent at her request.

Takashi slept as if he was dead that night, not waking up or even moving at all until morning.