The first few days were brutal, getting used to the torturous daily routine. The pushups and the running and the carrying were all just a part of the morning wake-up routine, and Sergeant Dodger wanted them to finish it in four hours so they had more time in the morning to do more running and carrying. The afternoon had obstacle courses and drills that changed every time. Wire nets that they had to climb under that the Sergeant would jump on or kick at to simulate the chaos of the battlefield. There were ropes and nets to climb, walls to scale, and rolling logs to cross.

All this was training. They also had an exercise period in the evening so that their bodies would be properly tuned for war, building their strength and stamina. This included more pushups and jogging, though the girls were all delighted to find that they had access to an actual gym for exercising. The explanation they were given was that it wasn't part of their drills and after the initial warmup each day they would be given the freedom to choose whatever exercise set they wanted.

This freedom proved to be a blessing to Noriko, who spent much of her exercise time playing volleyball by herself. Other girls would join in from time to time, but most wouldn't return the next day. The fact that she could practice her moves was enough to keep her sane. After the first week and a half, Yukari decided to join Noriko regularly. She managed to persuade Saori to join as well, and then recruited Tsuchiya and Rosehip to alternate days, filling out two teams of two.

The afternoon was necessary lessons, all of them sitting in large lecture halls listening to officers explaining military technology or tactics in detail, or teaching them at least passing levels of various languages they might need to know at some point in their future. They were encouraged to drill their language lessons with girls from schools that specialized in whichever language. There was also mathematics, engineering and electronics, and international wartime law. They learned that their academic lessons were a fast route to becoming an officer, a thought that appealed to a number of them.

After the day had ended, the hundreds of exhausted girls headed back to their rooms. Each room housed thirty girls, pieced together from all the training groups of a hundred each. As such, Yukari got to know the girls she shared both a room and a training group with. Pepperoni, Erika, Maho, and Noriko were the ones she could find just about any time of day. Of course, it wasn't as easy as that to find someone to have a decent conversation with.

As soon as she had found the quickest path to becoming an officer, Maho had spent every spare moment in studying. She was very short with everyone, especially the girls from Ooarai as well as Erika. Both Maho and Noriko's beds were at the opposite end of the room from Yukari and Pepperoni. Erika wasn't so far, so she normally joined them in conversations, but Noriko usually got caught up talking with other girls along the way.

Yukari found that Erika was a very disagreeable girl who had a tendency to look down at everyone else. The more time went by and the more she talked to her, the more Yukari realized that Erika was just like that. She didn't have any reasons for it that she could justify, she just did it. But in this crowded and busy base, Erika was rather lonely. No one ever really talked to her, and she was still very much just a girl. Yukari decided to just go with Erika's apparent attitude problem and be a friend to a girl who didn't know how to make friends.

Pepperoni was stranger still. She was restless, excitable, a little dense, and possessed a large appetite. It turned out to be the plant chunks that she enjoyed, though she got used to the meat chunks rather quickly. Yukari had learned, through Sergeant Dodger shouting at them, that Pepperoni was indeed a Japanese girl, but that she hated the way her name sounded and so had gladly adopted the name given to her by her teammates at Anzio. As such, Yukari got an uneasy sense that if she were to dig deeper into this peculiar character, she would find that Pepperoni was much more of a troubled person than she would ever willingly let on.

It was three weeks into their training, Yukari was sitting cross-legged on her bed and talking with her new circle of friends. Noriko had made it over eventually and was occupying the other end of Yukari's bed. Erika was sitting at the foot of Pepperoni's bed, sharing it with its owner. The two Ooarai girls and Erika were wearing their PT clothes, and had been considering heading for their second shower of the day. Most of the girls at the camp had at two showers every day, so it was normal. Pepperoni, on the other hand, had abandoned her shirt and was just lounging in her shorts. She only did this on days when the temperature was more than unreasonably hot, but that meant almost every other day.

"A large pepperoni pizza with me on top." And so their conversation topics seemed to return to the same things again and again.

Erika gave a disgusted look at Pepperoni. "You on top?"

She shrugged. "Eating it, of course."

"That's revolting! You're not even sharing it?"

"Share it? She asked what I wanted the most. I'm not sharing it."

Noriko let out a sigh and turned to Yukari, who was busy trying to enjoy the mundane conversation while it lasted. "What about you? What do you miss the most about home."

Yukari shook her head. "I don't know. I mean, I miss my parents, and I miss our school, but… I think the thing I really wish I could do right now is get back in the Panzer IV."

"The tank? You miss your tank?"

"At least that makes some sense." Erika shoved Pepperoni away from her. "This idiot wants food."

Pepperoni shoved her back. "You can't tell me you like the food we get here. I don't think it's all that bad, and I think I'm alone in that, but even I would rather just about anything else."

The door to the room opened, and a Corporal stepped in. She looked around for a moment, then handed a bag to Noriko. "Hand these out." She then turned and left.

Pepperoni sat up and leaned in close to the bag, sniffing it curiously. "Is it eats?"

Noriko was about to open it and look, but then she noticed Pepperoni's face getting too close. She held the bag away from the inquisitive girl, opening it so Yukari could see. "Someone has passed a duty on to me. What is it."

Yukari blinked in surprise at what she was seeing. "It's… letters. I think it's mail from home."

Jumping up, Noriko held the bag aloft. "Mail call! We have mail!" Nearly all the girls in the room got up and started moving to crowd around Noriko, cheering about how they were finally getting letters from home. She held the bag up as high as she could so that everyone could see. "Back to your beds and I'll call out your names and hand them out! If you start rushing like this, some letters might get ruined!"

Slowly, but obediently, they all made their way back to their own bunks. Noriko reached into the mail bag and pulled out the first letter, reading the name on it out loud. The girl who the name belonged to raised her hand. Noriko carried the bag to the middle of the room and handed the letter over to the girl. She reached in again and called out the next name. Continuing this way for as many letters as there were, some of the girls noticed that she skipped over a couple, reading the name silently and putting it back in the bag. The reason for this became clear once she was done and headed back to the group she'd been talking to.

Noriko reached in and pulled out the last three letters. "And these are for us. Yukari, this one's from your parents. Erika, one from your sister. And the last one is mine." Erika let out a defeated sigh and accepted her letter, but Yukari eagerly grabbed hers and opened it. Pepperoni didn't seem bothered by the fact that she hadn't received anything, but then Noriko reached both hands into the bag and pulled out a package. "And this one is addressed to 'Pepperoni-senpai'."

"Holy shit, it is eats!" She snatched the package away, turned around, and opened it. She let out a short sigh, but started laughing all the same. "I was hoping for something more elaborate, but I guess a lot of food we make at Anzio doesn't travel well." She held out the package to show everyone. "It's just bread, but it's good bread."

Erika and Noriko were slowly reaching for the food, unable to control themselves.

Before either of them could get any, Pepperoni stood up and announced to the room. "I've got bread from Anzio for anyone who wants some! I'll pass it out for everyone!"

Yukari, meanwhile, was absorbed in reading her own letter. "Guys, I… I'm not sure what this is… I think it's a joke, but…"

Erika took her letter and looked over it. "There's three pages, but… the first page is addressed to you by name, from your parents, and the other two are addressed to 'big sister'. It's from your little… brother or sister."

Yukari shook her head. "But I don't have any siblings." She took the letter back and read through the second and third pages. At the bottom of the third page was a separate paragraph addressed to her again, definitely in her mother's handwriting. She read over that last paragraph, looking for answers and reading it out loud when she finally found what she was looking for. "She's staying with us for now." She jumped up, surprising Erika and Noriko. "It's for Maho! The last two pages are from Miho!"

Maho, who hadn't received any mail, had heard Yukari's outburst and was already walking over to them. She caught Yukari just as the younger girl was about to run over to her. "My sister is staying with your parents?"

Yukari nodded. "I think so, yeah." She hurriedly handed over the two pages of the letter to Maho. "Right, uh… here. I, um…" She turned around and held the first page up. "I have my own letter to read still."

Maho turned and walked back to her bunk, reading her sister's letter. She was staying with Yukari's parents and had told them what Maho had done for her. Yukari's father was teaching her how to cut hair so she could help around the shop. Miho had taken sole command of the remaining girls from Ooarai's Tankery team, and without tanks they had only one thing to work on. She was doing her best to drill them so that they wouldn't be caught so unprepared when it was the first-years' turn to join them. She emphasized how much she missed everyone, and wished them all the best.

Maho sighed in relief. It sounded like Miho was obeying her command to keep away. Of course she would want the first-years to be prepared, as they would undoubtedly be drafted as soon as possible, and Miho wanted to help them train. Miho had expressly mentioned how she wanted Maho to get along with her friends and look after them. Maho had no intention of letting anything happen to them, but in order to do that she had to become an officer. As an officer, she would have a lot more options available to her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a startled yelp from across the room.

Yukari stood up and shouted, clearly alarmed. "My mother is pregnant?!"