The Legends Still Live On

Bogen Fünfzehn: Extra Drei

Kapitel Ein: Es ist das Anglerfisch-Festkrieg!

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"Jeez, how do I use this thing?" Anton muttered to himself as he fiddled with something. He was currently visible only through the lens of a camera. He was way up close to the camera, such that one of his hazel eyes was visible in clear detail to the lens.

Soon enough, on came a blinking light that blinked in sync with a beeping sound. "Ah, there it is!" Anton quickly observed. He quickly turned around and dashed back a bit to some other people. All that was noticeable at the moment was that all of them wore the normal Ooarai school uniform.

"Hey, get ready! Get ready!" he quickly beckoned them as the camera started to beep faster. Shuffling could be heard as people hastily got into their positions, and then the camera snapped a picture.

The picture taken was that of ten specific people that had a banner above and behind them. On one end was the distinct Ooarai insignia, and to the right written across the whole banner was a message that read, 'Congratulations on the international victory, Ooarai High School!'

In front of said banner were ten particular people with all of the boys of the group on one side and the girls on the other. On each of the edges looking like they were indifferent to the camera were David and Mako, left and right respectively. Beside each of them closer to the center were Nathan and Yukari, both giving off enthusiastic salutes to the camera. Next to those two respectively were Herz and Hana both giving polite smiles. Closer to the center were Anton and Saori, both with smiles and holding onto a shoulder of either Erich or Miho respectively, as if emphasizing that they were the centerpieces. In the center of the whole picture were Erich and Miho. Erich was behind with his hands on Miho's shoulders as the both of them held smiles at the camera.

XXXXXXXXXX

Everywhere in Ooarai City was packed full of people. For what reason was yet unknown for sure, but everyone appeared to be festive. The place where the picture had been taken was in front of Ooarai Station, where plenty of people were also around.

"I had heard about how the commemorative victory banner was at the station, but I'm glad we finally got to take a pic with it!" Saori remarked with a satisfied smile as she held a camera in hand. It was the same one used to take the picture of the group. Said group was now together elsewhere at the station.

"Yeah, and there's even cool stuff like this," Erich agreed as he looked over to another banner that Yukari had brought over. The banner itself had the writing, 'Celebrating Ooarai High School, congratulations on the victory!' The banner was also primarily blue and had the Ooarai insignia on it, but the banner was a slightly different shade from the Ooarai insignia's blue so as to distinguish the insignia more. There was also at the bottom a side view picture of a Panzer IV H, and at the top was a side view picture of a Messerschmitt Bf 109 K-4. The Messer was positioned such that it appeared to be in a dive.

"Oh, wow…" Miho awed a bit at the banner. She then started to blush a bit as she grew an embarrassed smile. "This is kinda embarrassing…"

"Ah, but this is only the beginning, Lady Nishizumi!" Yukari told her as she held the banner for the moment.

"But still, this is an extreme amount of people that showed up here," Herz remarked as he looked around the area.

"Well that's to be expected," Anton remarked close by. He now had a piece of paper that he was pulling out. "After all, today is the Ooarai Anglerfish Festival!"

The paper Anton held out was a flyer for the Ooarai Anglerfish Festival. Such activities involved included a dancing festival where everyone within would perform the Anglerfish Dance, a chef filleting an anglerfish still on the hook, and a live performance of the Panzer Five.

Miho took the flyer for a moment as she scanned it. She started to grow a happy smile as she saw everything that was within the festival. "Wow, this is amazing!" she observed.

Erich also took a peek at the flyer from over her shoulder, and he grew an interested smile as he looked at it. "Wow, this is quite the festival, huh?" he remarked. "First time I've seen such things here."

"And this year," Saori began with a proud smile as she raised a finger, "it's much more lively than usual thanks to us!"

"Ah, is that so?" Erich wondered as he turned his head to meet Saori's gaze. "I never thought it was because of us."

"Of course it is, eh!" Nathan responded with an enthusiastic look. "The local team was revived and became the overall victors in a world tournament! Of course something like that would make big news!"

"This was originally a place for sightseers," Mako remarked with a small grin. "But it seems like the amount of visitors here has only increased after this place got on the headlines for the Arts of Warfare."

"Yeah, and it's splendid how the city thought about trying to contribute to the increase in popularity of the area, even with their limited power," David continued with a slight grin.

"That's true," Herz agreed. "It appears that various collaborations have been started up throughout the city."

"Oh!" Saori started with some widened eyes that displayed eagerness to them. "So does that mean a lot of fans of our school are thronging the crowd throughout the area?" She then brought her hands to her cheeks as she started growing a dreamy look. "Oh, my! What should I do if someone proposes to me?!"

Nearby, a bus drove by. Said bus had decorations on its side. There was a drawing of a KwK 40-armed Panzer IV along the bottom section where there weren't any windows. Covering one of the windows was a vinyl of a late-model Bf 109, shown in planform view. Numerous people started to take pictures of it as it passed, and Saori turned to them in response.

"I don't know. They all seem to be absorbed by all the collaborations, no?" Hana countered Saori with.

"Hey, let's all go look at something else," Miho suggested with an awkward smile.

Why she had such a smile was because Saori now had a scrunched-up face that displayed her displeasure with Hana's comment. She was also upset with the fact that such a comment was true anyway, despite her not wanting it to be true. "Oh, screw you…" Saori muttered.

XXXXXXXXXX

Later, the group chose to swing by another area of the now festive city. The area they were now had some parked cars, but none that were driving around. Over this area was a sign that said, 'Welcome to Ooarai!'

"Ah, so the city's now a car-free place!" Miho observed as the group entered the area.

"Yeah," Saori nodded in agreement. "Since they're holding exhibitions for itasha and other stuff!"

"Uh…" Erich began in confusion as he raised a finger. "… What was that word you said?"

"Oh, itasha?" Saori asked him as she turned to face him.

"Yeah, that," Erich nodded affirmative.

Saori then rolled her eyes a bit in exasperation. "Man, you really need to get some Japanese under your belt, Bubi," she remarked as she crossed her arms. "I mean, this," she emphasized by holding a hand out in gesturing to him, "is just ridiculous for someone living in Ooarai now."

Erich rolled his own eyes in good nature. "Yeah, yeah, I'll get to it some day," he waved off. "But anyway, what are those things?"

"Well, to answer your question," Yukari began. "Broadly speaking, an itasha is a car that has pictures attached to it. Though almost all of them are just remodeled cars."

"Ah, really?" Miho wondered as she looked around for a bit. She then pointed in a particular direction where she had spotted something. "Because there's a Panzer IV over there."

"Yes, of course," Yukari waved in agreement. "Cars that use our Panzerkampfwagen IV as a motive are also-Wait, there's a Panzer IV for real?!" She changed gears as she was looking around the area when she suddenly spotted what she recognized as a Panzer IV.

But this Panzer IV was far smaller and oddly proportioned with respect to a real Panzer IV. Also, the driver's vision slot and the hull machine gun were on opposite sides, where the driver's area was instead on the right side. Besides those discrepancies, it looked much like Ooarai's Panzer IV H, even going so far as to have the Schürzen and the specific decals and camouflage on Ooarai's model.

"Are you serious right now," Erich deadpanned as the group approached the 'Panzer IV.' He then shook his head slowly. "I'll never understand Japanese culture."

"It looks like the city made this by remodeling a light truck," Miho observed as she held a somewhat awe-filled smile. Many of those around her were either looking on with some admiration at the recreation, or they were looking at it in disbelief.

"Man, they have such enthusiasm…" Anton remarked with some disbelief.

Nathan started looking around elsewhere in the meantime, and he quickly found another interesting thing. "Oh! Over there's a Messer!" he excitedly pointed out.

He had noticed another vehicle that appeared extremely similar to Ooarai's Bf 109 K-4, but it was highly miniaturized. It was detailed such that it perfectly represented the Ooarai 109 in every regard except for size, but there was noticeably a chain that went around the tail wheel and back into the fuselage via the tail wheel's clamshell doors.

The others looked over to it and just stared at it in silence for a bit with disbelieving looks.

"… Okay, now how do they even make such things like that?" Erich wondered as he gestured to the 'Bf 109.' "What, do they just take a tricycle, make it bigger, and then put on a fancy frame?"

He then felt a tug on his jacket. He turned to find Miho had done the tug, and she was now pointing down the street they were all on. Parked along the street were various cars and other vehicles all configured the same way to represent the entirety of Ooarai's vehicles.

Erich just looked on in silence for a bit with a blank look as he comprehended the sight. "... You know what? Forget it," he finally spoke up as he started to shake his head. "I've had enough of this weird Japanese stuff for one day," he ended as he walked off somewhere else.

Miho just awkwardly laughed as she nervously rubbed her ear. She then looked over to the girls of the group. "Sorry about that," she apologized.

"Eh," Saori waved off with a hand with an unoffended smile. "Don't worry about it. I think we've come to expect that by now from him."

"In the meantime," Hana politely interjected with a raised hand, "how about we take a look at the rest of the itasha?"

Miho nodded with a happier smile. "Sounds good," she accepted.

XXXXXXXXXX

A little later, the combined group currently missing Erich had reached the end of the line of itasha, and two people were looking pretty pumped with energy still.

"Man, walking around a city with such a great mood on warfare is sheer bliss, eh!" Nathan opined with some energy still within from seeing all the recreated vehicles earlier.

"Yeah…" Saori replied a bit awkwardly as she glanced beside her. Both Nathan and Yukari, the two most obsessed with anything related to the military, were marching onwards by Saori's side still full of energy from the recreations. Behind them was the rest of the group. "Who knew that the city would get dyed in a monochrome of war…" She then turned her head back forward and spotted Erich nearby. "Oh, hey Bubi," she greeted with a smile.

Erich, however, did not respond as he stared on ahead with a calm grin.

"Huh?" Saori blinked in confusion upon not seeing him respond to her. "Is something wrong, Bubi?"

What happened next caught her off guard greatly. Another Erich popped out from behind the one she had just spoken to.

"You called?" he asked with a grin. He also had a plate of kebabs and corn dogs in one hand, and he currently had a single kebab in the other.

"Eeeeeh, there's two Bubis?!" Saori reacted in surprise as she stumbled back a bit. The rest of the group noticed as well.

"Man, looks like food expenses are starting to pile up already…" Anton remarked as he observed the food Erich had gotten. Erich had by now eaten up his current kebab completely.

"Oh, don't mind this guy here," Erich gestured as he shook around the other Erich a bit with his current free hand. The other Erich was in fact a cutout. "It's just a cutout I found in the storefront." He then looked from side to side for a bit to observe their current street. "And from the looks of things, you can now meet any one of the Arts of Warfare members via just looking to the storefronts."

"O-Oh, so that's what that was…" Saori realized with an awkward smile. She had by now recovered from her surprise of seeing two Erichs earlier. "If they're doing it with every single member, then the number of those stores collaborating in this must be pretty high. It sounds like it'd be almost impossible to see all of them in just one day, wouldn't it?"

"Well, why don't we get started on seeing them?" Miho suggested with a bright smile.

Everyone else looked to each other for a little bit before they all shrugged. "Eh, alright," they all responded.

And so all of them walked off again throughout the city looking at various storefronts for anyone that looked familiar to them. Upon spotting one particular cutout, Erich nudged Miho a bit. Miho looked over to him and saw him point off at one storefront. She followed his finger to find that said storefront had a cutout of her in front of it, and she grew an embarrassed blush and looked away as a result of seeing it. Erich snorted in amusement at seeing her reaction.

"Ah, speaking of these storefronts," Anton began as he turned around to walk backwards while still facing the rest of the group. "You all remember that store, Sakanaya Honten? One of Pravda's fighters crashed into it, didn't it?"

"Oh, yeah," Saori nodded in agreement. "There was also one of Saint Gloriana's tanks that crashed into it during our first practice fight, and then later one of Pravda's tanks got stuck under the rubble from that Pravda fighter that crashed into it."

"Well, damn, I didn't know that," Anton responded with raised eyebrows of intrigue. "I wonder what's become of it since then." He then spotted something nearby. "Oh, hey! Look at that!" He then led off the other guys to the place that caught his interest.

All of the girls looked on at them for a little bit in silence before Miho spoke up, "So… you all still want to head over to Sakanaya Honten?"

"That sounds nice," Hana opined with a polite smile.

Saori shrugged. "Yeah, sure," she accepted. "I guess we'll meet up with them later."

The girls then continued on to the store they were looking for, but Saori soon suddenly stopped when she saw the storefront itself. "A tank crashed into it again?!" she reacted in surprise and disbelief.

Sure enough, there was something that looked very much like a Matilda II in front of the store. But Miho looked closer to inspect it better, and she soon shook her head.

"No, that's not it," she revealed. "It's just an extra large cutout."

"Oh…" Saori reacted with realization.

Miho also observed a couple of people having some tea there, as well. They were seated at a table as they had their drinks. They looked pretty familiar to her, as well. "But that being said," Miho continued. "Those people having tea are…"

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At said table having tea for the moment were Saint Gloriana's two Arts of Warfare commanders, Darjeeling and Arthur. Both wore their normal school outfits at the moment.

"Spending tea time in Ooarai holds a certain class to it, doesn't it?" Arthur remarked after lowering his cup a bit.

"That's true," Darjeeling agreed. "By the way, do you happen to know of this…" she began as she turned her head to a voice she had heard and recognized. But she then blinked in confusion. "Oh?"

Why Darjeeling was so confused was because she thought she had heard Miho's voice nearby, but she had turned to and instead found Anton. In reality, it was just a cutout of him, though Darjeeling wasn't able to recognize that fact.

"Oh, I had thought that I heard Miho's voice, but it was just you," Darjeeling remarked with a bit of an awkward smile.

"Yo, what's goin' on?" a voice responded from behind the cutout as an arm waved from behind it. The voice sounded like it was trying to imitate an American accent. The cutout itself was shaking a bit, and a few other articles of clothing were visible from behind it.

Darjeeling still held an awkward smile as she looked on at the cutout as if it was a real person. "I wonder if he was the one commanding that bloody eighty-eight?" she whispered with a tinge of displeasure in her voice that was the result of her brooding at the sight of the one that commanded the vehicle that took down two of her tanks in quick succession with ease, but her face did not show that.

"Who knows for sure?" Arthur responded, having heard her. "It's been some time since we've come to see the people of Ooarai." Arthur then turned and waved at the cutout of Anton that was by now starting to get away. "Well, please give our regards to your school's commanders!"

A salute was sprung from one of the arms behind in response. Behind the cutout of Anton were the five girls of Anglerfish Team. All of them were hiding behind it, and all besides Mako had nervous sweats as they tried to move backward without compromising their hiding.

Finally, all of them managed to get out of sight of the two British tea-drinkers, and they all breathed a sigh of relief as they got out of their forced hiding spot.

"Why did we hide from them?" Miho wondered.

"Somehow I felt that it would have taken a long time if we simply walked in as ourselves…" Saori said with a look of relief.

"Yeah, and Anton's cutout just happened to be in a convenient place," Hana remarked.

At this time, Mako also spotted with a start the real Anton coming up behind them all. He didn't look very happy with the girls at the moment. In fact, he looked a bit pissed with them. The rest of the guys were behind him with highly amused looks.

"Hey, do you mind?" Anton spoke up to announce his presence, and all of the girls turned to him with varying nervousness on their faces. He beckoned for the cutout of him, and Hana quickly handed it over. Anton then walked off with some force to his steps.

"Right, that one's from Eguchi-Yuushindou right across the street…" Yukari informed with a nervous grin.

"Yeah, we can't just go and use it for our own reasons…" Miho figured with her own nervous smile.

"Well, I for one greatly enjoyed seeing how you girls used it," Erich opined with his highly amused grin. "It was hilarious."

Miho still held her nervous grin before she got an idea, and her face then started to change into a more mischievous grin. "Oh, is that so…" she said to Erich in a tone he could tell was purposely sweet.

He raised his eyebrows a bit at the sudden change in her attitude. "Hä?" he wondered as he raised an eyebrow in confusion at her current demeanor.

"Well, I just happen to know of something that I find to be so Urkomisch," Miho elaborated as she slowly circled around him with a teasing finger dragging along his torso and upper back. She also had a grin that said she was greatly enjoying what she was planning for Erich. As she came to a stop at his right side, she suddenly took hold of his ear.

"Autsch, autsch, autsch, autsch!" Erich reacted when he was forcibly pulled along by the ear yet again.

Miho giggled at the reaction as she dragged him along by force. "See? I told you it was funny!" she said with her same smile that displayed just how much she was enjoying the current situation.

In the meantime, everyone else stared on at them walking off. They had looks that clearly showed just how strange they thought the two of them were.

"So…" Herz began. "Are we going to stick with them or let them do their own thing?"

"Eh…" Saori went as she thought a bit. She soon came up with something. "I guess we can stick with them. They don't seem to be 'in the mood,'" she quoted with her fingers, "right now, if you know what I mean."

"No, I don't know what you mean," Mako responded in a deadpan.

Saori grew a scrunched up face of annoyance hearing Mako purposely deny understanding her words, and she chose to not respond to her attempt at teasing her as she chose to walk on alone. Anton snorted in amusement at what Mako implied, and some others held amused grins. The rest of the group soon started walking again to catch up with Saori.

XXXXXXXXXX

Later after strolling around and seeing various other places, the large group of ten then came to the space in front of the Ooarai Marine Tower, which was the gathering area for the main event of the festival. It was currently crowded with many, many people.

"Man, seems like there's many times the city's normal population here, eh…" Nathan observed. He and the others from his group were in the far back of the area where the crowd had gathered. "Trying to break through that iron wall of a crowd would be a horrible idea."

"There should be a stage up there, but I can't see it from here…" Erich voiced as he stood on his tiptoes to try and see over the crowd. But he wasn't able to because of both his slightly shorter than average height along with just how many people were in between him and the stage.

Miho was also trying to get a look at the stage, but she wasn't succeeding, either. She grunted a bit in dissatisfaction before she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. "Huh?" she wondered as she turned towards what she saw.

She had spotted a bungee trampoline nearby that was currently having a kid strapped into it. After getting settled in, the kid then started to jump on the trampoline below, and he used the bungee cords to aid his jumping height, which grew to be tremendous.

Miho looked at the bungee trampoline jump in awe. "Oh, that looks fun!" she awed with a bright awe-struck smile. "What's that?"

"That's a bungee trampoline," David informed from nearby in his usual monotone. "It looks like with that, you can jump about eight meters high."

Erich heard David, and he soon grew an idea if his growing smile indicated anything. He then started over to David. "Hey David," he said as he got his attention. He then beckoned him to follow. "How about a recon flight?"

"What?" David wondered. He was confused by what Erich had asked, but he followed him anyway.

XXXXXXXXXX

"… Wait, what?" David hesitantly asked again a bit later, but he now did so with a blank look. His dark brown, almost black, eyes appeared to be devoid of anything besides dread. He was now strapped into the bungee trampoline.

"Go see what's happening on stage!" Erich said to him from a railing to the side of the bungee trampoline. The rest of the group was gathered there, and most of them held smiles of encouragement for David. Some were mixed with awkward smiles, like with Miho and Hana. Mako, however, did not offer encouragement with her blank look, but her look was mixed with a slightly sympathetic look for David, as she understood very well why he was hesitating now.

"No, hold on a minute," David said in hesitation with fear in his eyes and nervous sweat drops coming down his head. He tried walking towards them, which served to also stretch and tension up the bungee cords.

"You've got a keen eye, don't you David?" Anton called out with encouragement in his voice and on his face. "And you're light, so you're perfect for this!"

"Take-off permission granted for reconnaissance flight, eh!" Nathan enthusiastically encouraged.

"But I'm not good with tall-" David began, but the tension in the bungee cords finally unleashed itself, and the cords propelled him upwards with great force. "Plaaaaaceeeeees!" he continued in a yell of terror as he got launched upwards.

David went up quite a high distance, and he could now see over the entire crowd. Despite his current amount of terror from being so high up, he concentrated on trying to pick out what was occurring on the stage at the very front of the crowd. He could currently see on stage a large anglerfish on a hook with a bucket under it. Next to it were an announcer and a chef with a large knife at the ready.

'There it is!' he noted to himself. 'The anglerfish filleting on the hook.'

David soon ended up falling back down to the ground because of gravity, but he then bounced off the trampoline and back up higher into the air. He did not enjoy it one bit, but he forced himself to observe what was going on once more on the stage. He now saw that the anglerfish was no more. It had been filleted very quickly, almost instantly.

'He did it that quickly?!' David thought in disbelief as he came back down. He then relaxed himself to prevent from overly stretching the bungee cords and sending him back up again, as he now wished to get off.

He soon got his wish when he finally stopped bouncing some time later, and he got down from the bungee trampoline with a sick look to his face.

"So how did it go?" Anton asked him as soon as David stumbled over to the group.

"The anglerfish…" David began with a sick look. "Disappeared…" He also had a look of restrained anger mixed in with it, no doubt from being effectively forced to do something that invoked his fear of heights.

"What the…" Anton went in confusion. "I don't get it. What does that mean? Did something happen on stage?"

While that was happening, Erich got a call on his phone. He brought it out in confusion as to who could be calling him. "Huh?" he wondered until he saw the caller ID, which let him return to normal. "Oh, it's the student council."

XXXXXXXXXX

Elsewhere, the entire student council was at one of the Cooking Fan restaurants. Aprikose was waiting around the others for the moment as he held his phone to his ear.

"Hier Erich," he soon heard greet him instead of the dial tone he had been hearing prior.

"Ah, hey there Erich," Aprikose greeted with his usual carefree tone. "So right now, us six went over to eat some of that SC-katsu, but we asked for a rather large serving so… I was wondering if you wanted to come over and help us out with eating it?"

The dish Aprikose was referring to was right in front of all six of them at their table. The dish itself was a katsu dish, but it was deliberately shaped to appear like a Sprengbombe Cylindrisch. It was rather large in size, as well.

"Ah, I see," Erich responded over the line. "Well, I'll see what I can do."

XXXXXXXXXX

Back at the Ooarai Marine Tower, Erich hung up his phone and put it back in his pocket.

"Wait, wait, wait, Bubi," Anton began as he waved his arms in a crossing motion gesturing to wait for a second. "You do know that the Cooking Fan that's not aboard the Zuikaku is quite a distance away from here, right?"

"Huh?" Erich reacted in confusion with a raised eyebrow. "Last I checked, it wasn't that far away." He shrugged. "It's only a few miles away. Besides, I can just fly there in the Messer."

"Ugh, I wanna wring his throat so badly now…" Saori muttered as she clenched her fists, clearly restraining herself from trying to wring Erich's throat.

Miho could see her friend's current state of self-restraint, and she simply brought a hand to her head and sighed with closed eyes. 'He just doesn't understand that everyone wants to go with him,' she thought to herself. 'If only he could actually perceive the impact his actions can have on others…'

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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.

Feel free to ask any questions if you have them. Please note, however, that questions asked without being signed in will not be answered. The author would prefer to address questions outside of the story, and leaving questions while signed in provides that ability.