-8-

...Is My Friend

"Shiho Nishizumi!"

"That's Shiho Nishizumi?" Nora asked, still tense with her finger poised over the trigger.

"Yes, it is!" Kay said as she put herself between Nora and the closet. Nora clicked the safety on and lowered her weapon. "How do you join tankery and not know who she is?"

"I only joined because I need units."

Kay put Shiho's are around her neck and helped the woman out of the closet. They couldn't have made three steps before they collapsed onto the bed. Another pain ridden noise came from the instructor's mouth.

"Nora, get to the tank and get some painkillers," Kay ordered. "Tell them what the situation is, but they must stay there and fix the track."

"I'm not going anywhere," Nora denied. "I'm not leaving you alone with her."

"That was an order."

"No amount of orders will get me to leave you alone with her with that," Nora said, gesturing to Kay's waistline. "Especially, with what you plan to do with Maho."

Looking down, Kay saw the pistol she stuffed into her pants.

Kay let out a frustrated sigh.

"Okay. Director Nishizumi," Kay began, punctuating Shiho's title. What are you doing here? Why is it happening? What is your part in all of this?"

Shiho grunted as she propped herself up with her elbow.

"I might be able to answer all three questions."

Several hours earlier…

Rain hammered down from the black storm clouds that choked the night sky. An FW-200 lumbered through the darkness, lightening briefly illuminating the Kuromorimine insignias on the wings.

Inside the aircraft, the air was thick with tension. Shiho gripped the ends of the armrests.

Right next to her, standing in the aisle, was a figure in black. It was holding a Type 89-1 on her. Somewhere behind Shiho, was another gunman. She didn't know where he was exactly, but five people hijacked her plane and she only knew where four of them were exactly.

One was in the cockpit and was now flying the plane. One stood in front of the closed cockpit door with an MP5 in hand and was also clad in black. The other stood up from the freshly executed body of Shiho's pilot.

The executer was younger than Shiho and had a slightly smaller frame. Short messy brown hair capped her head.

"So," she said with a smile. "I bet you are wondering what this is all about."

She spun the pistol in her hand in a "crazy" gesture.

"Kayaba," Shiho sighed and stated with dry sarcasm. "For what reason do I get for this unexpected pleasure of Shinozaki's lapdog coming down to see me?"

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked!" Kayaba bounced into the seat in front of Shiho, either seemingly unaware that she was insulted. She placed her pistol, a Walther P38, on the table between them, barrel facing Shiho.

"Ya see, despite what you may believe, there are people outside of your family and group of lawyers that know about the disownment of your little masochist teddy bear. Mistress knows how much you hate her. How much you despise her. How much you wish she would just disappear from your life."

Kayaba briefly waved her hands in emphasis.

"So, Mistress decided to help you out! So she got her hands on some...scratch that... many shells from the war and mixed them into the Panzerfahren Federation's shell supply just before this match! And this match is perfect!"

Kayaba jumped up and could barely contain herself. She was happy. Very happy. But the amount of screws she had loose was about as subtle as a nuclear bomb exploding on an erupting volcano at night.

"This match isn't televised! The public won't notice something is up!"

"And when they find out the amount of casualties?" Shiho challenged. "They'll know something's wrong."

"Ah, well, when you play around with weapons, people will die. Besides, you don't even care if your own students drown."

Suddenly, Shiho grabbed the P38 off of the table, placed it under the chin of her guard, and pulled the trigger. Blood splattered on the ceiling of the cabin. She aimed and shot at Kayaba, but her target ducked behind a seat and the guard by the cockpit door was killed instead. Shiho turned around and put two shots into the guard in the back of the plane. Turning back to face Kayaba, she pulled the trigger, but she got nothing.

After a brief pause, Shiho threw the empty gun at Kayaba. Kayaba caught it and began reloading. Shiho grabbed an M9 from a corpse. She raised it on Kayaba only for her aim to be knocked away as she pulled the trigger and was staring down the barrel of the P38. A swipe of her hand made a bullet narrowly pass her and she raised her gun only for it to be knocked away again.

They exchanged blows, blocks, and shots as they tried to end the other. Air rushed through the cabin as the bullet holes in the aircraft only increased.

Finally, the slide of Kayaba's P38 locked back. Shiho got the upper hand and managed to shoot Kayaba. The bullet went through her shoulder and into the cockpit.

"All that fighting prowess the Black Knights have taught you and you still haven't learned to pick a pistol with more than eight rounds," Shiho said disapprovingly. "Give my condolences to Shinozaki."

Just as Shiho pulled the trigger, the plane lurched forward into a dive. Kayaba caught the bullet in the face and Shiho felt panic as the plane dropped out of the sky.

"So this is happening because you disowned your own daughter?!" Nora nearly shrieked in disbelief.

"Apparently so," Shiho said dryly.

"And you don't care about what happens?!"

"Why do you think I wanted to fly out here in the first place?" Shiho said sternly. "I want this to stop just as much as you do. It just so happens that Kayaba told me everything."

"You seem like you know these people," Kay stated her observation. "What? Are you in the business of killing people too?"

"No," Shiho answered quickly. "Shinozaki was a rival of mine and Shimada's. She was always the third track of us three and was hardly relevant. Kayaba was a subordinate of hers. After graduating, Shinozaki joined the Self-Defense Force and was later dishonorably discharged. She founded the Black Knights and Kayaba dropped out of school to join her."

"Who's Shimada?" Nora asked.

"Head of the Shimada style of tankery," Kay answered quickly. "And the Black Knights are...?"

"Officially, they are a private military contractor. But I know that they do more...egregious work for Shinozaki or anyone who is willing to pay."

"'Egregious'?" asked Kay.

"Atrocious, terrible, very bad," Nora said, listing some synonyms.

A few heavy moments of silence passed.

"Okay then," Kay declared as she lifted herself up from the bed.

"What now?" Nora asked.

"We take her to the tank and have her tell the story to the others."

~o~

"You've can't be serious..." Naomi said in disbelief.

"What?" Alisa said as she stood up from her work. "Is that-?!"

"Yes," Kay interrupted as she and Nora set Shiho down next to the tank. "She has a story to tell you. Nora, come with me."

Naomi and Alisa sat down to listen to Shiho. Naomi gave a bottle of painkillers to the Shiho, much to the headmistress's gratitude. Kay grabbed a hose and a gas can and walked over to the knocked out Locust. Nora followed with two cans, rifle still slung over her shoulder. They began siphoning gas out of the Locust.

"Hey, Kay," Nora said. "I've been wondering about the assistant driver before me."

"Who? Amy?"

"No, no. The one before her."

"Oh, Lindsey," Kay sighed. "She was a handful. She was a freaking Einstein in class and only needed to finish up extracurricular. Sort of like that Reizei girl in Ooarai. Only problem is that Lindsey would not shut up. Always going on about how smart she was and how dumb we were. Really, and I mean really overconfident."

"Any reason for that?"

"Probably because she was raised in a 'flawless bubble' and is always treated as a 'precious little princess', Kay said mockingly. "Spoiled bitch."

"Do you know what happened to her?"

"Don't know, don't care."

Meanwhile...

The sun was slowly setting. A group of five women stalked towards the Kuromorimine-Ooarai base. They were dressed in black and carried machine pistols on their persons. The patch of a black knight could be seen on their sleeves.

"Okay," their leader said as they got into the cover of trees. "The base is just up ahead. We are going to approach from the back and grab one of their tanks. Now change."

She dropped her duffel bag and opened it. They all grabbed a uniform and stripped down to change into it. All except one.

"Hurry up and change," the leader said to the young girl who just stood there.

"I can't..." the girl said.

"Can't what? Change clothes?" the leader asked scornfully. She finished buttoning her uniform.

"I can't do this!" the girl wailed. "I can't kill-!"

"Listen, you whiny bitch! You came to us. You wanted to start out at the top? Well, boo-fucking-hoo! You start out at the bottom like everyone else." The leader shoved the uniform at the girl and pointed her gun at her. "So, you change or get a bullet in your head."

Lindsey held back her tears as she changed into a Kuromorimine tankery uniform.

A/N: Sorry for the wait. Classes got in the way along with a nasty bout of writer's block. Not to mention that I lost my initial draft of this chapter and had to start from scratch.

What really gave me trouble was the reason behind this story's events and how to present it. Feedback will be greatly appreciated. If it is a criticism, please do it constructively. That is a lot more helpful than "This sucks!"

Also, I've started a blog. It's still a bit bare and with only one post so far. More information about it is on my profile page.

Take care guys and gals and I'll see you all in the next chapter!