The Legends Still Live On

Bogen Fünf-komma-ein: Extra Ein

Kapitel Sieben: Einseitig

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On another day aboard the Zuikaku, the group from Pravda had come for another visit. Whatever they were visiting for, they were just like they always were, that being Katyusha riding on one of the others' shoulders. Right now, she had chosen to ride on Sasha's. All of the Pravda folks were in their school uniforms.

During the time they were aboard, Anzu had caught sight of them in the midst of her stretches within her own school uniform. She stared on at the sight of Katyusha as she pointed onwards while atop Sasha's shoulders. After they passed by, Anzu ran off as if on a mission.

Soon, she found Aprikose not far away. "Aprikose!" she called out as she waved her hand up. "Gimme a piggyback ride!"

"Huh?" Aprikose wondered as he turned around. "What for?"

"'Cause I wanna see what it's like!" Anzu replied cheerful as always. "Now bend over!"

"Whoa, whoa," Aprikose stopped her as he held his hands up in front of him. "I'll kneel down, but I won't ever bend over in front of you."

"Oh, shut up!" Anzu retorted in good humor. Aprikose chuckled a bit at the response, but he kneeled down anyways.

Anzu then worked her way to sitting on Aprikose's shoulders. Aprikose held her by the ankles in support as he slowly stood and the pair balanced themselves.

"Oh ho, I see now," Anzu commented as Aprikose began walking onward. "So that's how it is."

"What does that even mean?" Aprikose wondered from below.

Anzu grew a mischievous grin as she began using her hands to play around with Aprikose's face. "Well, like this, I can play around with you as much as I like," she elaborated with a somewhat flirty tone.

Aprikose simply accepted his current state until Anzu got a little reckless with her playing. The Bavarian boy took advantage and bit the Japanese girl's finger lightly enough to not hurt her, but hard enough to alert her. Anzu pulled her finger away with a start upon feeling Aprikose's teeth bite down on it.

"I was fine with the rest of that stuff, but please don't get too carried away, or there'll be more where that came from," Aprikose spoke with a grin of his own.

Anzu dramatically sighed in mock disappointment as she settled with resting her arms on Aprikose's head while leaning forward.

Soon, however, Anzu spotted another specific pair of people in the same piggyback state.

"Hey, Miho!" she called out as she waved her hand. "Over here!"

The other piggybacking pair, that being Miho atop Erich's shoulders, stopped and looked over as Anzu closed with them atop Aprikose.

Erich snorted at the sight of the two Ooarai Presidents' current state. "Well, what a coincidence," he commented.

"Yeah, this girl's a real sly character, Erich," Aprikose replied. "Sag mir. Ist das normal für dich?"

"Au, ja," Erich replied with an amused grin. "Sie liebt es, mich als Diener zu haben."

Aprikose and Erich then shared a laugh with each other. Atop Erich, Miho grew another embarrassed blush while Anzu looked on with a raised eyebrow. She appeared somewhat lost.

"… Um, Miho?" the Japanese girl asked to the German girl atop Erich. "What did they say?"

Miho snapped out of her embarrassed state as she grew a bit confused at Anzu's question. She then remembered Anzu was the odd one out in this case with her being Japanese, and not German like Miho and the boys they were using as their steeds.

"Oh, that," Miho began as she grew back an embarrassed blush. "Eh, well Herr President asked if this was normal for Bubi, to which Bubi replied yes, and that I like when he's being my servant…" She grew even more embarrassed at relaying what was said.

"Ah…" Anzu realized. She gained a knowing grin after understanding what was said and its implications.

By that time, Erich and Aprikose had come back to normal, and the two pairs then set off alongside each other.

"Oh, by the way Erich," Aprikose began. "You should know that the Pravda folks are here, too."

"Oh, really? I didn't know that." Erich responded. He then grew a thoughtful look before he grew an idea. "Hey, let's find them! I have an idea I want to try with them."

The other three raised an eyebrow in confusion. They were very much confused about what Erich's idea could be.

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Later with the Pravda folks, they were walking about when they saw two pairs of people come walking towards them from ahead. The two pairs appeared to be in a similar piggyback riding state as Katyusha and Sasha were in currently.

The two piggybacking Russians raised an eyebrow in confusion while the other two Russians grew amused looks.

"Hey Sasha! Katyusha!" Erich called out. Anzu was atop Aprikose while concurrently waving to the Russians.

"Uh…" Sasha began with some confusion as the two groups of four approached each other. "Am I seeing things or is Mal'chik piggybacking Pirozhki?"

"I see them and the Ooarai Presidents doing the same thing, too," Katyusha responded in a similarly confused manner as she looked on at the two piggybacking pairs.

"Hey, Sasha, Katyusha," Erich began with his typical smile. "How are things going?"

"Pirozhki, what is going on?" Katyusha bluntly asked Miho.

Miho laughed lightly and in an embarrassed manner as she blushed yet again. "Bubi got this idea after he saw you always riding on everyone's shoulders," she revealed.

Katyusha looked on for a bit in silence before she looked over to Aprikose and Anzu. "And what about them?" she finally asked.

"This was her idea," Aprikose replied as he looked up to Anzu as best he could.

"Yup!" Anzu confirmed with her typical carefree demeanor as she laid her hands on Aprikose's face. "It looked so fun seeing you guys do it, so I wanted to know what it was like."

"But anyways," Erich spoke up again. "Sasha, Katyusha, would you care to partake in a little idea of mine?"

The two piggybacking Russians raised an eyebrow. "What may that be?" Sasha asked for them both.

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A little later, all three piggybacking pairs were lined up alongside each other. The ones on the bottom, that being Sasha, Erich, and Aprikose, were all ready to break into a sprint. The ones on top of them, that being Katyusha, Miho, and Anzu respectively, were all holding tightly onto them.

A few meters ahead of them stood Nonna. Nudelmann was off to the side of the piggybacking pairs.

"Okay, are you all ready?" Nonna asked the piggybacking pairs.

"Da!" Sasha responded fired up with adrenaline.

"Ja!" Erich and Aprikose concurrently replied in similar adrenaline-filled states.

"Pirozhki, your vozlyublennyy is starting to make me fear for my life with his ideas," Katyusha spoke up to Miho.

Miho shyly laughed in response with a blush.

"I don't know about you two, but I'm getting fired up for this race!" Anzu proclaimed with similar energy as the boys.

Nonna then raised her arms up above with the index and middle fingers extended together. She then swung them in a rhythm that signaled a countdown. She let them hang above her for a couple seconds before she quickly dropped her arms so she now pointed behind her with her two sets of fingers.

At that signal, the three piggyback givers broke into a sprint and quickly passed by Nonna. The piggy backers themselves held on a little more tightly as the piggyback givers launched.

The route they followed was a short one. It went through part of the surrounding residential area before it came back around to the starting point.

The first half of the race consisted of all three of them remaining close to each other. All of the guys were clearly using the conditioning from their Jägermeistern training as they ran quickly and with great stamina.

All the girls could do was sit atop them and try to not be a bother to them. But as the race entered its second half in going through the alleys and back streets, the girls started growing a bit more competitive.

At that point, all three were still close enough to each other that it was anyone's race. The girls chose to help out their guys by altering their combined center of gravity to be more favorable. In the straights this was them leaning over their heads, while in turns they leaned with the runners.

Soon, they all came upon the home stretch, and Nonna was at the finishing point with a checkered flag. Nudelmann was alongside her with his phone pointed the way of the competitors. The three competing pairs chose to give it their all upon seeing Nonna start waving the flag.

They then passed the finish line, and at the same time Nudelmann snapped a picture with his phone of the finish. All of the guys then slowly came to a stop as they exited their running. They had clearly given their all, as they now looked absolutely beat.

"Man, that was good, Mal'chik," Sasha commented as he regained his breath.

"Yeah, that was a good race, Erich," Aprikose similarly commented.

But soon enough, all three of the guys collapsed to the ground after their fatigue grew to be too much. The girls instinctively got off of them to save them more injuries, and upon seeing they were just exhausted, they chose to head over to Nonna and Nudelmann.

"Well, who won, Nonna?!" Katyusha demanded.

Nonna hesitated to reveal the results, but she then turned to Nudelmann. "You tell them," she requested.

"Fine then," Nudelmann replied. He then turned to the girls. "Well, as unbelievable as it sounds, it was a three-way draw." He held up his phone with the picture of the finish as proof. Sure enough, all three of them had crossed the 'line' at the exact same time.

Katyusha and Anzu dropped their mouths a bit in disbelief while Miho lightly laughed in her shy way.

"What?!" Katyusha and Anzu reacted. They were fired up from finding out they all had a draw.

"I have to admit, though, that was really fun!" Miho admitted with her smile. "Maybe we can do it again sometime?"

Katyusha and Anzu looked to Miho upon hearing her words, and both chose to drop their competitiveness as they shrugged. "Eh, alright," they acquiesced.

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Part of Projekt Jägermeistern.

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The author doesn't claim to own "Girls und Panzer" or any other references made. "Girls und Panzer" belongs to Actas. Any references made belong to their respective owners.

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