Chapter 11:

On the roof of Makoto's old house, Taro tightened the last bolt holding the tv antenna in place. He uncoiled the long cable attached to it and dropped the other end to his brother waiting below. "Just run the wire under the bottom of the front door for now, Yuji-chan. We'll make a neater and more permanent setup later, after the match is over."

"Hai." Yuji snaked the wire inside the house, along the living room floor, and connected it to the television that had been relocated once more to the large room's coffee table. "All done. Haruka-san, which channel should we set the tv to?"

"Setsuna told me to try channel forty-two first" the blonde replied. "If it doesn't work there, we keep going up one channel at a time until we receive her signal."

Yuji turned on the set and adjusted the television to the correct channel. "There's only static at the moment."

"Perhaps we need to give it a few minutes" Haruka suggested. "Sailor Pluto's Time Gate should lock onto the antenna soon." She grinned at her lover. "Ready for some hot tank-on-tank action, Michi-chan?"

"Normally I would have little interest in such an event" the concert violinist replied. She smiled, "But since Usagi and her inner court are involved, I'm rather looking forward to watching it."

"I'd fancy owning a tank myself" her companion joked. "I wonder what the trade-in value of my Ferrari would be towards a lightly-used Panzer?"

Yuji chuckled at the thought of Haruka and Michiru riding around Tokyo in a vintage tank. "If you did that, Minako would never stop pestering you to borrow it, Haruka-san! She loves driving her Ooarai Panzer!"

"I believe you're right, Yuji-chan" the tall blonde chuckled.

. . . . .

Standing high in the turret of her long-barreled Panzer IV, Miho turned around to visually check on her teams after the tanks had left their school ship behind. "Minna, everything looks good so far. Mako, keep us on this same street we're now on awhile longer, about ten minutes if I remember the route. I'll let you know when we need to make a left onto the road to the staging area."

"Hai."

A few minutes later, and still deeply suspicious of the reliability of the automotive club's tank, Yukari leaned further out from her open loader's hatch and peered back at the machine bringing up the rear of Miho's armored column. "The Tiger P is still with us, Nishizumi-dono. Maybe it's finally working properly."

"Fingers crossed, Yukari" Miho spoke into her throat microphone. "It would be awfully embarrassing if it breaks down before we even get to the match!"

"Maybe for our future battles, we should consider adding another vehicle to our fleet, Miho-san" her driver said over the intercom.

"Oh? What kind of vehicle, Mako?"

"A fire truck."

The Anglerfish commander giggled, "I'll take that under consideration!"

Yukari snickered, "I asked Satoko what her munitions load is for today's match, Nishizumi-dono. She told me they're carrying forty rounds of armor-piercing shells, a full set of tools, and twenty-three fire extinguishers."

"Not enough" Mako muttered. "Fire extinguishers, I mean."

. . . . .

Once through the port's main gate, the eight tanks picked up speed as they trundled around the outskirts of Nagasaki. Makoto radioed Ooarai's overall commander, "It seems we aren't very popular around here, Miho-san. There's hardly anyone in sight, not like it was with the cheering crowds lining the street in Yokohama."

"I noticed that too, Makoto-san. Quiet, isn't it?"

Saori spoke into her microphone, "I know why no one's around! It's because we all have boyfriends now, Miho. No other eligible guys bothered to show up today because we're finally off the market!"

"You'd like to think that!" Hana laughed. "Dating curry restaurants didn't count, Saori."

"Oh! I had a boyfriend before!" the Anglerfish radio operator insisted. "Well... to be honest, we never actually dated or anything, but he was a boy... and I knew his name so we were friends... kinda."

"Not even close" Mako murmured.

. . . . .

"Minna, we're getting a signal!" Yuuichirou exclaimed. "Kind of fuzzy, though. There's so many wavy lines on the screen, I can't tell what I'm looking at." The large living room sofa was filled with teenage boys, while Haruka and Michiru were relaxing on chairs nearby. The males all leaned forward in unison, eyes fixed on the flickering screen.

The image abruptly cleared and a musical jingle blared from the speaker. "Agh!" Yuji groaned. "We're watching an ad! It's a commercial from the other Earth!"

Taro grinned at his brother while turning down the volume, "We already get too many of those here in our dimension. But at least Setsuna's signal to the house is working now."

"They sell the same brand of toothpaste in Miho's Japan as they do in ours" Yuuichirou chuckled. "I tried a tube of that stuff once. It's nasty. Tastes like chalk!"

The advertisement soon mercifully ended, replaced by a screen of text around a prominently displayed Saunders school crest, while a female announcer's voice promoted the upcoming match.

. . . . .

Having followed Miho's Panzer onto the side road to the staging area, Makoto remarked, "That's more like it! Here's the missing crowd we we wondering about."

"The curbs here are totally packed with people, Mako-chan!" Minako exclaimed. "Minna, look over to the right! There's a tv camera! And there's one of those drone thingies flying above us! I hope Setsuna can record this on tape to show my honey muffin!"

The girls of every Ooarai tank began waving to the gathered Sensha-do fans as their cheering intensified. "I'll never get tired of this!" Makoto grinned, waving at a group of junior high school boys. One of them saluted her, and the brunette returned the salute with a big smile.

"I hope Yusei made it here in time to see Miho drive past. Minna, let me know if anyone spots the Anglerfish team's boyfriends!" Luna team's driver urged.

"Why? Are you planning on stopping our Panzer in the middle of the street and giving them another one of your infamous love lectures, Minako-chan?" Rei teased the blonde.

"Of course not, silly! That'll happen later, when future Usagi brings the happy couples to Nerima for Phase Three!"

"Something else I'm not looking forward to hearing" Makoto shuddered. "I still haven't gotten your last lecture to Miho and the girls out of my head, Minako-chan." She frowned, "Minna, what's that weird crunching noise in my headphones? Does anyone else hear it?"

Rei grumbled through her microphone, "Usagi smuggled a bag of chips into our Panzer, Mako-chan. What you're hearing is the sound of her mouth hard at work. There'll be crumbs everywhere in another minute."

"Ohh! Rei-chan, don't be such a snitch!" Usagi hissed.

"Wonderful" the brunette sighed. "Usagi-chan, do you have to eat? Now?"

"I'm really hungry, Mako-chan! Doing Sensha-do gives me a big appetite!"

"And we haven't begun the battle yet" Ami giggled as she continued carefully wiping dust from her gunner's eyepiece with a tissue.

"Miho told me there'll be a ninety minute break between when we meet the other teams and the official start of the match" Makoto told her radio operator. "You can finish your chips then, ok? And that's not a suggestion, it's an order, Usagi-chan."

"Fine!" Usagi muttered, reluctantly folding the bag closed and tossing it on the floor of the Panzer's hull. "I'll save the rest for later, if I don't starve to death first."

. . . . .

In the lead Panzer, Miho noticed that Yukari had stopped waving at the crowd and slipped back into her seat. She dropped into the turret to check on her loader, finding the curly-haired girl cradling a shell in her lap and writing hiragana characters on its cylindrical casing with a red felt marker. She asked her friend, giggling, "Autographing a round for your boyfriend, Yukari?"

"This shell isn't for my Ryoto, Nishizumi-dono" her loader replied with a bright smile. "It's a good-luck round I'm saving for later in the match, when Hana is firing at your sister's Tiger. This is the shot that'll knock her tank out of action!"

"Hontou? What does it say?"

"From Ooarai with love" Yukari grinned.

"That's perfect!" Miho laughed. "I only hope we get the chance to use it!"

. . . . .

Back in Makoto's living room, the teens fell silent as they watched Kay lead a column of ten M4 Shermans into the staging area, accompanied by the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' school theme song being performed by a massive nearby band that dwarfed the number of St. Gloriana musicians who had played before their match against Ooarai.

"Those are some serious-looking machines Saunders has there" Taro spoke in awe. "I hope Miho's tanks are up to the task."

"Me too, brother" Yuji murmured, realizing that his beloved fiancee and her Luna team could soon become the target of the Shermans' potent 75mm main guns.

Haruka chuckled, "Their orchestra is nothing to sneeze at either, if that counts for anything. About the only thing they're missing is a harp section and a grand piano."

They watched the tanks park side-by-side in a huge field, to the right side of a stage containing two microphones, and backed by a pair of speakers and a gigantic Saunders school crest. Four tall flagpoles, two at either side of the stage stood empty, but a pair of students wearing grey blazers and red skirts quickly raised the Saunders school flag on the first pole as the stirring song played on.

"The hosting school, Saunders I believe it is called, must be quite wealthy indeed to regularly stage such events" Michiru spoke. "This is an altogether impressive beginning to the girls' Sensha-do competition. Wouldn't you agree, Mamoru-san?"

"Hai. Very impressive" the university student nodded.

Ryo frowned. "And very intimidating too."

. . . . .