Saori was the last to get into the jacuzzi as the other girls had done the same, they were all very cold from the day's match and they wanted to spend the time together.

"Dimitri is adorable. I wonder if his brother will notice me?" Saori began, she placed her hands on her cheeks as the prospect of finding a boyfriend was running high.

"I think Dimitri has his eyes on someone else. We know for sure who that is. I don't know about his brother or the fact that he even has one. The possibilities are endless from what I have heard." Miho spoke, trying to calm Saori down and not let her get excited. "Keep calm Saori, I get your mother would be worried sick if you were going out with a stranger she doesn't know about." Miho added on. Yukari was busy relaxing in the tub as she was snacking on maraschino cherries.

"Don't know why we got these, but they are good. Hopefully we can pick up more tomorrow as there is a store closer to our resort. Well technically a gas station that refuels the snowmobiles. We should get more." Yukari told the group as Hana took some and began eating them. Yukari passed a couple to Miho with a simple request. "Try it, it should be good." Yukari requested. Miho did so as she took the cherries and popped them into her mouth.

"Good." Miho replied. Yukari smiled as Mako and Saori were taking some from the jar. Yukari realized there was nothing but juice as the cherries were gone. Yukari decided to drink up the juice.

"So, what's the plan for tomorrow?" Mako asked. She was ready to fall asleep.

"We'll see what Jatkosota has in mind. We're the ones not making the plans this time but we're going to work off what they are planning." Miho was cautious about what Jakotsota had but they knew they needed to be careful.


The next day would arrive as the girls were preparing for the second round. Miho was getting ready to tangle with Mika when Trout walked over to her.

"Well looks like we couldn't win against Mika as of yesterday, but we should move out and watch you try to crack her nut." Trout began. Miho looked at her friend while several of the students were preparing to head out.

"I mean we beat her in Sensha-Do so what's so different here?" Miho asked. "I can get into a race with her and still beat her."

"Miho. Racing is a spectator sport; it requires very little preparation! You sit, you arrange refreshments." Trout told Miho that she wasn't one to participate in something as trivial as a race. She grabbed a box containing white flakes, stuck her hand in and pulled out a large white flake. "You like potato chip?" Trout tossed the flake into her mouth and began to chew it. Within a moment, she burped out a bubble, this must be one odd potato chip. Miho continued to speak.

"We're not watching this race, we're running it." Miho responded to Trout. Trout turned the box as it wasn't potato chips, she was eating but rather soap flakes. Trout then began spitting the soap from her mouth as it tasted gross to her.

"You said what?" Trout asked Miho. Miho began bounding around Trout while she was trying to speak to her friend.

"If we're going to win, we might as well win second time in a row as those schools are counting on us to win." Miho replied. She stopped as Trout began speaking next.

"First of all, get it through your head that they wouldn't put you in a sled team even if you did win, which won't happen and if it did it wouldn't matter!" Trout tried to convince Miho that she wouldn't be a big shot even if she won the second time in a row. Miho knew she wanted to reason with her friend to see what she had to say.

"Trout, did 'ya ever think maybe you're the reason the other geese fly south?" Miho asked Trout if she was the reason why the geese were flying to their winter roosts because of her?

"If only your feet were as fast as your mouth." Trout muttered. She wasn't all that thrilled with the possibility of the victory. Many students of Miho's group fired up their snowmobiles and were preparing to move out.

"Hey, they're starting, Wish me luck!" Miho told Trout as she walked off to join her group for the face.

"Good luck kiddo." Trout muttered. Miho and Yukari boarded as the five groups drove off to see where their enemy was hidden. Ami and Trout were watching the positioning as Ooarai was in blue and Jatkosota in purple.

"Having pink dots doesn't help and I bet it won't help here. These colors can be easily recognizable as with our run in with Mika as of yesterday." Jenna began. She had just arrived after she finished helping Ami get the AA gun working so they could signal for the match to begin.

"Yeah at least blue can be harder to spot than purple… I hope." Trout continued. She was worried about Ooarai losing as it would give Mika a free hand to take on the champions.

"Well, we hope that Mika can't play the right notes to the kantele as she will be moving and not taking any action. She wanted to bring it with her, but she needs to participate and instead leave the work to her friends." Ami added on. Mika was pretty lazy in terms of doing anything. She then walked up to the AA gun once Ooarai was in position. She pulled the trigger, sending the round into the air as it had signaled the beginning of a match. Now the fight to see who can claim the top spot is beginning.


•1&4 Ooarai Girls Academy vs Jatkosota High School

•5&7 Pravda Girls High School vs Kuromorimine


Ooarai's groups began making their way through the forest as they were going to look for these students. According to the radar, they seemed to be bleeping and getting closer. Then the purple dots began to scatter. Miho, who was leading the group noticed the odd behavior and decided to contact the others.

"Jatkosota has dispersed, we're going to fight these battles out individually. It is best if we don't get encircled." Miho told the group to split up. They began to split up and head for where the dots were. She was going to adapt her plan off of the enemy's behavior.

"Right on, let's trap them and finish them off." Azusa called out with excitement. She loaded up her Auto 5 as it was going to mince-meat the entire enemy group if they had the chance.

Azusa and Aya drove off to where one of the purple dots were located. They were moreover confused about where the enemy was as they didn't see her.

"I'm looking for purple, but I don't see it around here. We must be right on top of them." Aya began.

"But where?" Azusa asked. She continued to look around for them as she was moreover curious to find where they were. Azusa continued looking around to see where they were, trying to find oddities in the color of their surroundings. "Can't see anything out here." Azusa told Aya. She continued to look around and then she spotted purple at the corner of her eyes. "That must be it!" Azusa called out to Aya. Aya began to drive over while keeping a lookout. The gunner must've gone off somewhere else to survey the terrain, now came for the time of catching them off guard.

Azusa raised the Auto 5 and began blasting it at the purple balloons, popping one before the gunner noticed what was going on. She raised her KP-31 and began spraying it at Memphis group. Azusa popped a balloon but one of her's was taken out. Aya panicked and drove away. Now they had kicked the hornet's nest and they were now fleeing. Unaware that the rest of Jatkosota had been mobilized, Azusa began speaking.

"Miho, we made contact with the enemy and that has made them angry. They're driving straight at us." Azusa called out. Miho nodded as she continued to listen.

"Mobilized and ready, the other groups are moving out after you." Miho told them. All Azusa had to do was keep her group alive while Miho and the others went in for the finishing blow. The four remaining groups of Miho's teams began to move in on them. They were unaware that Jatkosota wasn't like what they had faced in the match before.

Miho and the individual groups began moving out as they were closing in on Jatkosota. However, two of the purple dots were behaving erratically again. Miho tried to figure out what this was. Suddenly, the three remaining dots rejoined up and began charging the other way. Miho knew what this meant.

"Brace yourselves!" Miho called out. The three snowmobiles appeared on the horizon with eight balloons they had. Yukari raised her M/21 BAR and began firing as Nekota fired her grease gun. They both popped one balloon each as they had six balloons remaining but not one of their teams had been knocked out. Miho was worried about this as the groups from the rear fired, popping another two balloons. They had four remaining now. Mika was just observing this as she was playing her Kantele while her lackeys did the work for her.

Both groups turned around as they were preparing to fire at each other again. Miho knew this was now or never to take out three teams. Miho turned her back to not see Memphis group with them. Where have they run off to? Then the three KP-31 gunners circled around again, spraying their SMGs at the four groups, their deep magazines, shredding up the forest canopy as they charged, four more balloons from Ooarai were popped in succession as Yukari fired away, eliminating one of the KP-31 groups. Nekota did the same thing as she popped another balloon. The two KP-31 gunners with just one balloon left, turned and began charging straight at Miho's group in their attempt to finish them off. Mika was speaking to the remaining gunners as she had a new plan in mind.

"Pull back, we're going to continue hitting Ooarai where they are at their weakest." Mika gave the order. Even though she wasn't in the thick of the fight, she was still giving orders based on what was going on with their radar and seeing a group down and the other two at low strength, she was doing the sensible thing, regrouping and attacking again. Miho was guessing they were going to get ready for another charge when she saw what remained of the group was now pulling back. Miho knew that she had an opportunity to follow behind and trap these two.

"Follow them but we need to make sure they aren't leading us to a trap." Miho gave the order to pursue her enemy, but she wanted to hold her fire for the time being as they needed to figure out what Jatkosota was up to. The four groups began following as they were still unaware of where Memphis group ran off to.

The two weakened teams led Miho and the others to their trap. A lone student with her M/28 rifle was looking down its spitz iron sights as she was tracking the enemy.

"Mika, we're leading Ooarai into the trap, give the girl permission to fire." Aki began speaking on the radio. She was down to just one balloon as Ooarai was closing in on them. Now they needed to launch a new attack and take out the rest of Ooarai.

"Okay, we should be ready to fire." Mika replied. She was still strumming the kantele as it was giving signals to the other groups to get ready. "Jouko you ready?" Mika asked her.

"Tell the wind girl to shut up." Jouko grumbled. She wasn't feeling up to her very best and didn't want to be bothered. The four snowmobiles were driving through the snow in pursuit of the group. Jouko raised her rifle and up and bam! The single shot popped the last balloon of Shiloh group as they took the leader, Miho, out of the match. The remaining groups split off as they were beginning to panic. They had lost their leader in all of this and now they needed to figure out where this new threat was coming from. Jouko slung the rifle over her shoulders and hopped onto her skis. "Let's move." She spoke. The snowmobile driver drove off as Jouko followed her using the skis. Nekota spotted someone skiing away from the scene as the remaining girls were trying to figure out what to do next.

"There she goes, after her." Nekota told the group as she was assuming command. The three remaining groups moved off to find the enemy and take her out. Jouko knew that she wasn't going to keep up and get caught. She knew she needed to hide somewhere and fight the enemy out on foot.

"Make it back to Mika, I'll fight the enemy myself. Try not to get eliminated." Jouko instructed her driver to head back to their leader and let them know about what the situation was turning into. The driver nodded as she went off to find Mika. Jouko knew she was alone fighting off the enemy all by herself while against three teams. She skied off and dropped her cap on a log near some snow to trick the others to think she was there before she would ambush them from the rear.

Nekota and the others drove up to find themselves at a crossroad. They were unsure of what they were going to do next as Jouko could be anywhere in this wilderness. They continued to look around as Nekota spotted the cap. She fired her grease gun at the cap and knocked it over.

"We got it." Nekota told the group thinking it was her. She got off her snowmobile and walked over. Instead of finding the supposed girl she shot at, it was just the cap. Nekota picked up the cap as she didn't know if they were being baited into another trap. Suddenly a shot came from behind as Shelby group's second balloon popped. The others were feeling anxious.

"Crap, she's right behind us!" Akebi called out and began firing her Type 14 rifle at the girl thinking they needed to keep her suppressed to see if they could prevent her from popping any more balloons. The three groups were caught in a fire fight with Jouko and there was always the possibility of the others making their way back and finishing the three of them off. But one question was racing in everybody's minds, where was Memphis group?


Memphis group had driven off as they were going to complete some objectives of their own. Aki and Mikko were talking to Mika about what they encountered as the team was down to just four groups.

"Miho has been taken out along with one of our Soumi groups. We're down to our last balloon but we don't know where Jouko and her group had skied off to?" Aki began. Mika began to think about what could happen next.

"It must be Jouko trying to win the match single-handedly. I think we should put on some celebration before we face the opposing team." Mika told the group that they will celebrate their victory if their friend was going to fight Ooarai herself. However, her prediction seemed only false. Mika was unaware of Memphis group driving behind them as they swooped in for the attack.

"There they are! Fire!" Aki shouted. She began spraying her KP-31 at Aya and Azusa as Azusa was firing the Auto 5 shotgun at the static targets. Aya was driving fast to try dodging Aki's incoming fire. Within a minute, Mika, Aki and the other group that was with them were knocked out all simultaneously as Aya drove away from the scene quickly as she didn't want to stick around in case they started firing back.

Jouko's driver noticed something as three X marks lay on her radar as a blue dot was moving rapidly to her. She knew she needed to find Jouko and evacuate her somewhere safe.

Jouko meanwhile was trying to keep the rest of the groups distracted as she managed to pop two more balloons so far. The three groups were down to their last balloon as the three girls were running out of ammunition.

"Where is this final team and Memphis group?!" Riko shouted. She didn't know where these girls were. Did they go missing was the question. Jouko raised herself up and popped Oakley group's last balloon.

"We don't know but the one thing we might ask is if they're still in the match?" Nekota asked as she didn't know where Memphis group was. She continued firing the grease gun as Jouko was forced to move again.

"Where are they!" Noriko shouted. She looked at her radar as the two dots were on the verge of meeting not too far where they were.

Aya and Azusa were in the pursuit to find the final group as Azusa finished reloading her shotgun. Aya was driving as fast as the snowmobile was allowing her while she kept her eyes open for the enemy that was going to be appearing on the horizon. She then spotted the lone snowmobile driver as it was just her.

"There she is!" Aya shouted. "Get ready Azusa!" Aya called to her gunner. Azusa nodded as she had finished reloading and was ready to go. They drove up to the lone driver as Azusa took aim and rapidly fired three times into the snowmobile, popping all three. That was the last of them taken out as Aya drove off the regroup with the others.

"And Ooarai snags a narrow victory." Ami announced. Jouko didn't get the message and was still fighting the three groups. She managed to take out the three groups before the announcement was made. She was still firing as the balloons were popped but now came the task of taking the students out. Suddenly, Memphis group appeared on the horizon, so Jouko turned her rifle to face the new threat coming at them. Azusa raised the shotgun and fired two more rounds into Jouko. Jouko fell as the paintballs hit her jaw.

"Argh!" Jouko groaned as she landed in the snow. Azusa got off the snowmobile and ran over to Jouko.

"You, okay?" She asked her. Jouko got up as she was still holding her stinging jaw from the impact of the shots fired at her.

"If I could be better." Jouko grumbled as her jaw was still in agony.

"Why did you keep firing at us when Ami announced that the match was over, and we won?" Akebi asked. She rushed over to Jouko and began to tend to the stinging jaw she had. She placed some snow on it to bring the swelling down a bit.

"I only did my duty, and what I was told to do as well as I could." Jouko responded. She tried to get up to her feet with some assistance from Akebi who was acting as a crutch for her.

"We'll get you back to your cabin to get treated, just hang in there." Akebi reassured her while she escorted Jouko back. The others decided to clean up the field as Ooarai was moving on to the final match.


Akebi, Mika and Midoriko were at the cabin as Akebi was tending to Jouko's jaw that Azusa shot earlier today. Mika was looking at Midoriko as she wanted the condition of her friend.

"How is Jouko?" Mika asked. She was worried about her friend.

"Jouko is going to be fine, just some swelling from what we examined." Midoriko gave the results to Mika.

"Okay good, I thought Azusa did something worse to her." Mika replied. Midoriko began to think about it before she began speaking.

"Possibly we can do something together otherwise that we will not be able to do." Midoriko seemed worried about what kind of trouble Azusa could possibly get because of her actions and they needed a compromise.

"Want to go out later?" Mika offered her. Akebi turned her head to the possibility.

"Sure thing. We don't know who we're facing later so we need to figure out who we have dinner with." Akebi was more than pleased to spend the evening out.

"Alright, good luck in the final match tomorrow." Mika responded with a smile.


Much later, Dimitri and Brook were talking to each other about today's match that Pravda had against Kuromorimine.

"Well Dimitri, we're facing Ooarai tomorrow for the championship." Brook gave the news that Pravda had triumphed over Kuromorimine.

"That's good to hear, I'm pretty excited to hear about it. I think the new strategy is paying off." Dimitri said with a smile. She walked over to Brook as he was carrying something for her. "Vladimir has loaned you one of his daughter's dresses." The dress was teal with white ends at the sleeves with a black waistline. It also had a large teal hair ribbon for tying someone's hair down.

"You bought me a… tent." Brook responded as she was looking under the dress as if she was looking for something. Dimitri looked down the collar trying to find his friend.

"What are you looking for?" Dimitri asked Brook as he was excited to see what she was looking for.

"I think that music box you have, I think it's still in here." Brook tried her best to joke with Dimitri and tease him. Dimitri laughed before he gave the simple few words for Brook.

"Come on, just put it on. Please?" Dimitri asked Brook for this simple request. Brook nodded as she gently took the dress and began to feel it, it was definitely soft.

A couple minutes later, Dimitri was playing a quick game of chess with his uncle while they were waiting for Brook to show up with the dress so they could teach her something. Vladimir moved his queen into its final place to end the match.

"Checkmate." Vladimir told his nephew. They heard the door open to see Brook who was wearing the dress and needed the hair ribbon. Dimitri seemed to be excited. Vladimir stood up to see Brook beautiful in the dress. "Wonderful! Marvelous! And now you are dressed for a grand party with brass instruments, plenty of high-quality food and all the time in the world to dance with your partner. And you will learn to dance for one as well." Vladimir stepped aside as he decided to let Brook meet the person she was going to be dancing with. "Dimitri…" He got up as he walked over. He had one last thing to add on. He took the hairbands holding Brook's twintails up and they fell down, creating some fluff in her hair. Dimitri then attached the teal-colored bow like ribbon in her hair. Once done, he stepped back to take a look before he reflected on Vladimir's words on how he should dance.

"I'm not very good at it." Dimitri awkwardly admitted to Brook he wasn't skilled at dancing. Brook placed one of her hands on his hand while the two teens placed their hands on their shoulders. They began to dance in the living room while Vladimir watched.

"And... One, two, three. One, two, three." Vladimir began as he watched the two of them dance. The two of them were dancing awkwardly as he didn't know how the two of them were dancing away. He then stopped and decided to make a few corrections. "No. Brook, you don't lead. Let him." Vladimir was referring to Dimitri as he wanted to lead her and not the other way around. "And now to the test you two will be put through." Vladimir got out his nephew's music box and began to wind it up. After twisting the winder a few times, he decided to let it play as the music of the box began to fill the room. Brook and Dimtri grabbed their hands with one while Brook placed the other on his shoulder and his hand on her waist. They began to dance together.

"The dress is really beautiful." Dimitri began. He spun Brook a bit before she began speaking.

"Do you think so?" Brook asked with a smile. She began to blush at Dimitri while he continued to dance with her.

"Yes. It was nice in the hangar, but it looks better on you." Dimitri responded. He could notice Brook blushing a bit as she definitely seemed to be in a state of calm happiness. "You should wear it."

"I am wearing it." Brook softly spoke to Dimitri. Vladimir watched the two of them dance as he was happy to see his nephew spend it with the girl of his life.

"Right. Of course. I... I... I was trying to give you uh…" Dimitri was lost for words as Brook began speaking to fill in his words.

"A compliment?" Brook asked.

"Of course. Yes." Dimitri told her as he continued dancing with her. Vladimir was watching them as he closed his eyes and began singing to himself.

"It's one two three and suddenly, I see it at a glance. She's radiant and confident and born to take this chance. I taught her well, I planned it all I just forgot romance Vlad, how could you do this? How will we get through this? I never should have let them dance." Vladimir watched them while the music box was playing out. Once the music box stopped, the two of them stopped dancing.

"I'm feeling a little dizzy." Brook began. Dimitri tried to prop her up to make sure she wasn't going to pass out.

"Kind of feeling lightheaded?" Dimitri asked if that was what she meant.

"Yeah." Brook responded.

"Me too. Probably from spinning." Dimitri told Brook He kept her still in his hands while they tried recovering from the spinning. "Maybe we should stop."

"We have stopped." Brook responded. Dimitri began to think of what he wanted to say to her next.

"Brook I uh…" Dimitri tried to think about whether he should do it or not. He had his hands on her face ready to drag her into the moment he was excited for. He pulled his hands from her face. He was not ready for it as of yet. "You're doing fine. Good luck out there tomorrow." Dimitri got up and left. Brook looked on as she decided to change and depart to get some rest as of tomorrow. Kay was looking from the bushes outside of the cabin in a snowstorm. She was cold but she was watching it all unfold.

"She has moved on. Moved on without me." Kay turned and walked away. She felt heartbroken because of it. Tomorrow was the tipping point to all of this and the remaining schools had to be ready.

It was Pravda vs Ooarai.

[A/N]: Some things are pretty sweet as someone is finding out what it means to have someone truly love them. The next chapter will kind of explain what happens afterward with the music box and why it's important to their relationship. I've been foreshadowing this from as far back as chapter 4 and now it's all coming together. Next chapter will be them putting the pieces together as well as the final match. And then after that it will be the conclusion of the story as it is. Stay alert for when I post next. See you later.