"Creativity involves breaking out of expected patterns in order to look at things in a different way." – Edward de Bono
Winter has come around for Japan and this winter was the exception. It had been snowing since late October with many days dipping a few degrees below zero and this day seemed to be the norm. The students were locked into their schools as the howling wind tossed the snow around which acted like ice enclosed meteorites. Ooarai's students were feeling the chill of the wind as the snow blasted onto them. Three students were huddled up in the student council office as they were trying to decide on what to do next.
"I guess MEXT had a reason to cancel all matches for now. This wind isn't letting up." Momo began, she adjusted her monocle and shivered. She was feeling cold.
"We're trying everything we can to try to occupy ourselves. It's only been a couple of days since the new year began and the weather still isn't letting up. I think Pravda would make themselves a home in these conditions. All our students know how to do is burn precious petrol." Anzu responded. She was snacking on some sweet potatoes as a means of passing the time.
"When are you going to stop eating those?" Momo asked Anzu. Anzu stopped munching on them trying to come up with an answer on when she was going to stop.
"Never." Anzu told Momo. She placed another chip into her mouth as she was going to continue slacking off. Momo then shivered.
"Brr… where's Yuzu? I thought she was going to get the heat working. I don't think we have any heat as of the new year." Momo shivered. She decided to read the temperature before opening up the heating fans. They had been closed for some time as Anzu wasn't comfortable with too much heat.
"Oh I think she said she had a paper to complete. And hey! I thought you said the heat was broken." Anzu growled as the heat was filling the room.
"We need to keep warm and it is not broken. You just had the vents closed." Momo responded.
"They cost me money!" Anzu called out.
"So you say the school has no money yet you spend it all on sweet potato chips." Momo was ready to shout at Anzu for spending all of the money on what she wanted and not what everyone else wanted. Then the door opened as Yuzu came in. She had her boots covered in snow and she was carrying cup holders of warm drinks for them. She was shivering herself.
"Sorry for being late, I was held up getting hot cocoa for us. It's freezing out there. I felt like my fingertips were going to freeze off." Yuzu told them. Momo walked over as she took a cup for herself. She opened it and began to drink.
"It's not too cold but it's also not piping hot at the same time. I don't want to end up with a burnt tongue. Also, did you put milk in these?" Momo asked Yuzu.
"Yeah there's milk in there." Yuzu replied. She took hers and began to drink it. She also passed Anzu her's. "I bet the student president wants to warm herself up."
"Okay." Anzu sighed. She took the cup and began to drink it. Yuzu began speaking again.
"I think I'm going to need the entire room to myself as I still have a paper to finish. Hopefully I shouldn't be too long. Classes are still canceled as it has been about almost a month since we last went to class." Yuzu also stated that she needed to get her work done.
"Hopefully you shouldn't, hopefully we can make a new sport from this if we can gather some ideas." Momo told Yuzu as she didn't want to spend the rest of the winter held up inside of some school building and doing nothing.
"New ideas, a new sport? Can we convince Ami to allow us to do it until the weather gets better." Yuzu paused for a moment. She liked the idea but she didn't know if this was going to be feasible. She got out her laptop so she could log in and finish that paper.
"Yeah. We have to get creative if we can kill off boredom. However we need to start gathering ideas on what we are going to do as we have an idea but we need to brainstorm to see what it can be. It's too cold for the tanks so we need a new vehicle." Momo knew she had an idea but they needed to put the pieces together to see what they could come up with.
"I'm going to finish my paper, so Momo, Anzu, gather ideas for this new sport. Once you have the idea, come back to me." Yuzu instructed. Momo and Anzu nodded yes and they both left for Yuzu to do her work. They wanted to get some ideas for what they were going to come up with.
Momo was walking down the hallway as the slate for this new sport was empty. She had all of the ideas in the world to come up with this sport and it could be anything. She continued to walk as she spotted Anteater team's commander/radio operator.
"Hey Momo, I didn't know you were going to be roaming around here." Nekota began. She brushed her long blonde hair back before she continued speaking. "What brings you here?" She asked.
"Me, Anzu and Yuzu are having trouble passing the time and we think we should come up with a new sport but we have no ideas on what type of vehicles we should use." Momo began to lay out the situation to Nekota. She wondered if she was going to have any sort of ideas for what vehicle they were going to use.
"Come to my dorm and we can talk about more. I think we should keep it a secret, also you have no paper and pencil to jot your ideas down on." Nekota told Momo to come with her. Nekota opened the door to her dorm and let Momo inside after a short walk and then talking about the weather and how it was making them bored.
"Nekota, your room is… kind of sloppy as there are a lot of papers everywhere." Momo began to comment on Nekota's room etiquette.
"I actually ended up having a printer leak ink all over the place and we're in the process of getting a new one. Assuming Piyotan is going to get the printer over here and the snow isn't going to slow everything down." Nekota walked in as she decided to clean her room up a bit. Getting a waste bin, she placed all of the papers that had been affected by the printer malfunction into the trash. Thankfully the printer was no longer leaking ink so Nekota decided to begin cleaning it up. Momo reached for a paper and a pencil. "You're free to take some, just return the pencil." Momo took a couple sheets of blank paper and a pencil as Nekota finished cleaning up her mess. She double checked to see if the printer wasn't plugged in so the mess wasn't bound to happen again assuming there was still ink in that printer. Nekota now got out her game switch and inserted what she wanted to play inside. Momo got the clipboard and sat down on the couch with Nekota sitting next to her.
"So we decided that tanks we can't do as the conditions would be hazardous. We need another vehicle that could be more or less well adapted in crossing the snow. Anything with tires I don't think will work as they can't grip the snow very well." Momo began to lay out the situation to Nekota who was booting up her game.
"You know OTR's exist like quads. But I can kind of see where you're coming from." Nekota told Momo.
"Yeah. Also I remember Miho putting Vinterketten on the tank as they were track extensions put on the tanks to help them with traction in the snow when we had that match with Pravda as of last year. We need to find something with that type of traction as we don't want to slip around, freeze or get into accidents." Momo told Nekota about what she remembered from the semi-finals match that they had. Nekota began to think as she continued booting up the game.
"I don't think I've participated." Nekota responded. She continued to think of what vehicle they could use that had no problem crossing the snow. "What about a snowmobile?" Nekota suggested. Momo paused as she heard the word. "They're vehicles that travel across the snow. I haven't driven one in years but I do remember driving one when I was twelve in a race."
"Do you remember what you did?" Momo asked her friend if she remembered anything from her younger years.
"Not really, all I knew was the race taking place abroad and that was it." Nekota told Momo. Momo jotted the vehicle down, they were getting somewhere now.
"What should we do with the snowcraft? Have races? That seems boring. I think some of us will go crazy as we don't get to shoot something like the tanks but how are we going to keep ourselves happy if we can't shoot each other?" Momo asked. She needed something more exciting than just driving around.
"So, have you heard of balloon battles in the racing game I play on occasions?" Nekota asked Momo.
"I'm not one to play video games." Momo replied. Nekota nodded as she began to look at the screen of the game she's playing. She needed to explain this to Momo.
"So in a balloon battle match in the game I'm playing, you need to pop the opposing teams balloons, whoever loses their balloons first is the loser so you need to make sure your balloons are safe while taking out the enemies." Nekota explained how this game was going to work to Momo. Momo thought of it as a neat idea though she had a question remaining. She jotted the ideas down on the paper.
"How many balloons do we get from the start so we can know what kind of matches we're dealing with?" Momo asked Nekota how many balloons each snowmobile will have attached to them.
"Three." Nekota responded.
"So like three strikes you're out except those strikes are popped balloons?" Momo asked, she jotted the ideas onto the paper.
"Basically. Except the question is, how do we pop the balloons as we can't use sticks and stones as sticks have no range and stones can hurt someone. How can we pop balloons effectively as they can be flying at a million miles an hour and they could be very hard to hit?" Nekota asked as she was finishing up the game. Momo began to think of an idea that could help them and make the game a little more engaging.
"I think Ooarai has an armory right by the school entrance, we don't use it that often as it's meant for the home guard to protect Ooarai from any sort of intruders. The home guard was disbanded a couple of years before me, Yuzu and Anzu came to Ooarai due to budget problems. I wonder if I have the keys to get access inside." Momo told Nekota of something that only a few students knew about. Nekota nodded as Momo began to escort her to the school entrance. Fortunately though, they didn't have to go outside in the freezing cold. "Okay I think I have the key." Momo told Nekota. She began shifting through the bundle of keys to see which one was the right one. She remembered that the shortest key was the one that was needed to get into the armory.
"There it is." Nekota called out to Momo. Momo stopped as she picked the key out and nodded.
"Thanks." That was all that Momo had to say. She pushed the key into the lock and began to fiddle around with it. Then the door unlocked when Momo pushed the key to the right. There was a loud clunk when the lock was undone and Momo pulled the door open. She was the first to step inside with Nekota following in with her. Momo began feeling the wall around for a light switch and then she flicked it on. The entire room lit up as the light hadn't been turned on in a while, almost as if the sun was coming up for the first time in months. "Welcome Nekota." Momo told her friend.
Nekota stared at the armory walls in awe, there was a mixed collection of rifles ranging from M1 Carbines to Enfield pattern 14's. A couple of M3A1 grease guns were also there as well as a Swedish M/21.
"Wow this armory is small but these weapons hadn't been used in a while." Nekota told Momo about the gun collection they had. Momo walked up to the wall and grabbed an Enfield Pattern 14 from the wall.
"Well we should let Takako and Riko get a look at these guns, I think some of their parts are missing but I'm not too sure about that." Momo opened the bolt up to see that this rifle was completely fine to her.
"We should call them over." Nekota responded. Momo nodded as they began taking the guns out of the room for an inspection.
Takako and Riko had arrived shortly afterward and they were disassembling the guns and taking a tally of them to see which were missing parts as well as cannibalizing certain guns for parts.
"Well the small armory we have while impressive has a lot of guns that are missing parts. We're tearing apart some of the guns for parts to be used in them and we'll sell the others off to be refurbished. The Swedish machine gun we have is perfect though it needs a new firing pin as the current ammo is paintball rounds, this is still firing BB's which are no longer being used. One of the Grease guns had to be cannibalized as it had all the good parts but it was missing its stock and good springs. The carbines and rifles had many parts missing but we were able to interchange with them but that doesn't really leave us with enough guns to make a team with." Takako told Momo that most of the guns they had were nothing more than junk with bits and pieces that were good.
"So we need to update the armory?" Momo asked. Yuzu walked over and she began whispering to her. "Can you get this list over to Ami so we can make a new sport?" Momo whispered to her.
"Sure." Yuzu whispered back. She took the paper from Momo and walked off with it to write it down to Ami.
"Yeah, it needs to be updated and what guns are good need to be modernized to use the current ammo." Riko said to Momo about what had to be done.
"How many good guns do we have as of now?" Momo asked as she wanted to take a tally.
"Only four." Takako replied. "We're going to purchase better everything as well as update the armory."
"Where could we purchase arms on the cheap? Anzu is still constricting Ooarai's budget for sweet potatoes." Nekota said that good arms are going to cost a lot of money, something Ooarai doesn't have. "Plus there were no handguns in there."
"That is being sorted, we just haven't found someone as of yet." Takako replied.
"Can we call Naomi and buy and test these weapons on the cheap. If we get some results in, then we can determine what we're going to need." Momo suggested. Naomi could be used to test the weapons and ship them what they needed.
"Good idea. We should let her test the weapons as well as bringing a crate of assorted weapons over. We can replenish the home-guard's weapon stocks." Riko told Momo. Momo got the phone and began to dial in Naomi's phone number.
Naomi was busy cleaning her office space such as getting the dust off of it. She was working alone this time around as the others were busy doing their own thing. She then picked up a photo of Kay that she had lying around on her desk and she sighed.
"Why did she have to be so impulsive for her girl? She is never going to be able to recover now." Naomi told herself. She continued to polish her desk when she got a phone call. Hearing the phone buzzing. She decided to pick it up. "Hello?"
"Hey this is Momo from Ooarai, we're coming up with a new sport to help supplement the downtime as Sensha-Do has been canceled for the time being. We just need you to test fire some of the guns we have as well as update the arsenal as a lot of these weapons are missing parts. Only four of them were able to function." Momo began talking to Naomi.
"Only four, I think I should be able to get some parts and new weapons to help you update what you have but I think we need to test fire the ones that are working to determine if they work or not with the new ammo." Naomi responded to Momo's demands.
"Also we have no handguns." Momo added in.
"Okay I'll bring everything you girls need." Naomi told them. "Want any drinks with that like Citrus or Cream?"
"Nope, just Stolichnaya." Momo responded.
"I don't think we have that but okay. Expect me to come within the next hour or so with some of the weapons needed." Naomi stuttered a bit at the beginning, where did Ooarai want vodka from. She told them she was going to bring an assortment of weaponry for them to use and test to see what they were going to like. Momo could count on her.
An hour would pass as the snowstorm softened up a bit. Naomi was walking through Ooarai covered in snow. Bundled up to her head. She was helping Anteater team move the crate to the student council's office. Naomi knocked on the door to tell them they're here. Nekota went to the door and opened it.
"Come in." Nekota told Naomi. Naomi was the first to enter with Momoga and Piyotan carrying the crate, they then set it down as Naomi was looking at the mess the students had made.
"Look at the mess here. Have you been disassembling the guns?" Naomi asked. She looked at the mess of rifles that they had on them.
"Yeah we had to cannibalize a few to get the parts we need." Momo responded. "And as a result, only four work."
"Okay I'll have to update the firing pins on these, then test them and give you the results." Naomi told them. They nodded and she picked up the guns for testing.
"Okay come back when you have the results." Momo told Naomi. Naomi nodded and she left the room. Hopefully this should take too long as Momo hoped for. Momoga and Piyotan were still feeling the chill from when they greeted Naomi. Takako and Riko were reassembling the guns they took apart to make sure which pieces went where. Momo opened the crate to see what was inside.
"Wow, Naomi wasn't kidding. Look at all of those rifles." Nekota began. She began pulling them out. New M1 Carbines, M1 Garands, Enfield pattern 14's. Even a Thompson and Grease gun in there. They even pull out a couple of Browning Auto 5's.
"I guess she wanted to give them all to us as they had them laying around." Momo replied. Nekota smiled as she continued to take the guns out of the crate. At the bottom were ten handguns, M1911's, a Webley Revolver, M1895 Nagant, TT-33's and a couple of P08 Lugers.
"Yeah this should be enough to have an entire team." Nekota told Momo. She placed the hand guns on the desk as there were four M1911's, two TT-33's, two P08 Lugers, a Webley and the Nagant revolver respectively.
"We should thank Naomi for these arms. All we just need to do now is wait for Yuzu to come back with the results from Ami and then we can begin planning for how we can conduct this sport with the rules Ami placed." Momo responded. Riko and Takako began packing up the junk guns into the crate while waiting for the results from Naomi. Naomi came back a couple minutes later as the two girls were just about finished packing.
"So I have the results." Naomi began. The Swedish M/21 worked perfectly with the new firing pin being added. The rest were experiencing problems where the guns either quit or didn't fire at all. I'll be taking those off of your hands but I hope the replacements would do the school good." Naomi told them only one of the guns worked flawlessly, the rest had issues.
"How do you want to be paid?" Momo told Naomi if she wanted the money for them bringing everything they needed over to their school.
"I think the trade of the rifles is enough. Thanks for doing business with us." Naomi responded. She placed the guns that had the problems back in the crate and closed the crate up. Momoga and Piyotan grabbed the crate and began to carry it back.
"Well we got everything we need, I think we still need to be supplied with ammo as they didn't come with the guns. We just got the weapons themselves." Nekota was eyeing over the Nagant Revolver. She picked it up and began flashing it around and posing with the handgun.
"If we don't have ammo, I bet Ami will supply us some to see how the trials are going to work out." Momo replied. Nekota then pointed the gun at Momo's face which caused her to get worried. "Hey don't point that at me." Momo said with slight annoyance in her voice. Nekota pointed the gun down as she laughed.
"My bad." She told Momo with cuteness in her voice. Yuzu then walked in. She was excited about the news.
"Momo, Ami came back to me on your proposal." Yuzu began. Momo lifted her head up with excitement to see what she had said.
"What did she say?" Momo asked. Yuzu gathered the papers that she wrote down from the email into bullet points and she began speaking.
"Well she gave the green light to the sport idea but she is coming to observe as of tomorrow with the snowmobiles that we will be practicing with." Yuzu told Momo that Ami had given the green light to the sport meaning they had their sport but there were some regulations to the sport. "These regulations include:
•No guns weighing twenty-five pounds or more.
•All must be fed from some kind of magazine.
•Six Snowmobiles per school and five per team
•Establishment of radio group, first aid group and repair group. First aid group gets the last snowmobile.
•No shooting students or non-participants directly.
•All snowmobiles must maintain coordination with the Radio Group.
…with that said, we need to get the team together and establish ourselves very quickly if we are going to impress Ami tomorrow. If not, then the sport might be canned and we'll have nothing to do for the winter." Yuzu finished off what Ami had requested. Nekota was still looking at the arms they had been supplied while Momo continued to think.
"Okay. You have my word, we should let the Sensha-Do team know about this. When we get ourselves organized." Momo replied. Yuzu nodded but then she realized something.
"Where's Anzu?" She asked. Momo looked around to see where their student president had wandered off to.
"Not again." She sighed. Momo knew she needed to fetch her. She walked away as Yuzu decided to make an announcement. She turned on the microphone and the speaker.
"Attention Ooarai Sensha-Do club, can I have your attention please. Meeting will be held in the tank garage in ten minutes. We have some exciting news." Yuzu made the announcement. Now the team needed to be established.
[A/N]: This chapter was a killer as I had no idea how to really start it off. Now that it has been established, now it's time to get practicing and establish the participants for Ooarai. Just Ooarai, the rest of the schools would come along in chapter 3 hopefully and then we can begin the matches. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the start of the story as I really want to get this done fast. See you in the next chapter, goodbye.
