The Legends Still Live On

Bogen Neunzehn-komma-ein: Extras Fünf und Sechs

Kapitel Zwei: Das Attribut der Brille

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Late one night in his apartment, Erich was sitting at the table crafting a little piece of Jerry-rigged engineering. What exactly he was making consisted of one of the Scherenfernrohr scissor periscopes often used by German tank crews. The blond-haired German was experimenting with trying to make the scissor periscopes physically wearable like glasses. As to be expected, the table itself was littered with various materials and parts, including some not related to the creation being attempted. For example, there was a sheet of paper detailing a pattern for the Gitterplatte that was applied as a reticule in the lenses. Erich had already taken the steps to remove the grid plate from both lenses, but the paper was kept out of a lack of attention paid to it as more important things continued forth.

"So," he went to himself as he worked through the process of creating one possible method of support. So far, it was a simple leather band with cushioning inside it to make it more comfortable. "Bring it around here and connect… And bring it around here and connect…" He stopped for a second to inspect his handiwork by tugging on the band with his fingers so it was under tension. He then shook his head. "No, that won't work. The support is going to need to be stronger than I thought."

He then disconnected the leather band from its connections to either side of the scissor periscopes and started unstitching it in preparation to completely remake it. But as he started undoing the stitching, he felt some arms gently wrap around his upper chest.

"What are you still doing up this late?" Miho asked from her place behind him. She was leaning against his back with her arms around his upper chest with a smile and a voice that betrayed how sleepy she was. While Erich was still in his day clothes, Miho was in some sleepwear. It was her typical blue pajama pants coupled with her desert pink tank top.

Erich briefly stopped his work to look back to her. "Ah, nothing terribly important," he answered with a calm smile.

Miho raised an eyebrow, but kept her smile. "Wirklich?" she asked with some skepticism in her voice. "I don't know, all that stuff there looks to be serving some bigger purpose. So what are you really up to?"

Erich turned back to his work and continued unstitching the leather band as he explained. "I had gotten curious of whether or not it was actually possible to make a Scherenfernrohr that could be worn just like glasses," he explained. "I thought of it after Saori told me that she lost her glasses earlier today. You know how she needs them, right?"

"Yeah…" Miho nodded as she agreed, but with a hint of suspicion. "But why a Scherenfernrohr?"

"Well, that's just what I could think of on the spot," Erich answered. He soon finished unstitching the whole band and set it down. "But it's proving to be difficult considering the bulkiness of these and the strength needed of any method of support being much higher than I thought." He emphasized each of those traits with some appropriate hand gestures.

"Ah," Miho raised her eyebrows as she understood that the blond-haired German was just going out of his way once again to help a friend out. She then grew a more relaxed look and leaned against Erich's back again, such that her head was next to Erich's. "Well, don't stay up too late, please? You know I don't like sleeping alone."

"I know," Erich replied to her with a tone of assurance as he turned his head to face hers. He let one of his hands gently brush across her cheek. "I promise I'll finish up soon." He then gave her a quick kiss on the other cheek.

Miho grew a blush at the two forms of contact along with a feeling of butterflies inside her. Even though she had gotten plenty of kisses and even more from Erich, the contact still gave her that tingly feeling of happiness every time. "Alright," she acquiesced as she pulled back from her position of leaning against his back. She then began to walk over to the apartment's sole bed. "I'll be waiting," she added with a lusty tone before she got into the bed and lied down to sleep.

Erich rolled his eyes with amusement at the huge differences in her personality that Miho had yet again demonstrated. 'It's almost like she's a different person in every individual situation,' he thought to himself as he returned his attention to the Scherenfernrohr. 'But now… what to do for making supports that are sufficiently strong…' He thought for some time to himself until he lit up with a possible idea. 'Actually, I wonder if that bracket on Yukari's rangefinder can be adapted to the Scherenfernrohr… It should be plenty strong enough.'

He immediately settled on the idea and got his phone out. He texted Yukari, 'Hey, that rangefinder of yours… Would you mind letting me use its brackets for something?'

He waited for a response to come, and in the meantime, he took a look at everything on the table, mentally confirming everything he needed was present. Most importantly, he confirmed that a small glasses case was present. It was underneath a load of other materials Erich had used to experiment with creating some sufficient adaptations for the Scherenfernrohr to be worn as glasses. In the case itself was a pair of glasses with a thin red frame that wasn't present on the upper portions of the lenses, and inscribed onto the case itself was the name 'Saori,' both in the owner's native Kanji script and in a more prominent, cursive Romanized script.

'It's not like I necessarily lied to Miholein, though,' he thought of the glasses, particularly about how he was responsible for why Saori 'lost' her glasses. He then grew a grin not unlike a child's mischievous grin. 'Let's just hope that this works as I planned it…'

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The next day, Saori was walking down the street on her way to school, fittingly in her school uniform. She was sifting through her black cat bag for something, but the look on her face suggested she wasn't succeeding in finding what she wanted.

"Goddammit, did I forget my glasses?" she cursed as she rummaged even more through her bag. "Ugh, this is going to make it hell to try seeing stuff up close."

Behind her and walking towards her was one Erich-Dietrich Hartmann. "Hey, Saori," he greeted with a wave.

"Eh?" the ginger-haired girl went as she instinctively turned to face the voice. She blinked before it registered in her mind who was there judging by the distinct youthful German voice. "Oh, hey Bubi."

"Hey," the blond-haired German responded as he stopped near her. He then raised an eyebrow in curiosity at her current state. "So what are you doing?"

"Ah, well I'm trying to find my glasses," Saori elaborated as she continued rummaging through her bag. "But I'm thinking that I forgot them since I can't find them in here."

"Ah," Erich raised his eyebrows in enlightenment. "Well, I think I have something that could work out for the time being until we can either find your glasses or get some new ones."

"Oh, really?!" Saori asked with a greatly enthusiastic smile and giddy attitude. "Can I use them?!"

"Whoa, calm down," Erich requested with his hands held out in a gesture to stop. "Of course you can use them. No need to be so giddy. Just do me a favor and close your eyes."

Saori raised an eyebrow in confusion, but complied and closed her eyes. "Why do I need to close my eyes?" she asked.

"Oh, just because of the huge change in focus your eyes are about to undergo," Erich provided as he dug through his own bag and brought out the Scherenfernrohr he had been messing with the night before now in a complete state. Now, it had the supporting frame of Yukari's German EmR1m coincidence rangefinder Jerry-rigged to fit and support the scissor periscopes. "That should give you a clearer picture than just slipping them on. Now just hold still…"

The blond-haired German then gently mounted the modified Scherenfernrohr onto Saori with the frame resting on either shoulder and eyes against the looking lenses. Erich then performed a final check that the system wouldn't fall off or otherwise do something unintended. As instructed, Saori remained still, though she did shiver a bit internally when she felt the boy's touch. She didn't find Erich's touch in particular to be the reason behind her shudder, but more because of just having any boy touch her. After finishing, the blond-haired German ultra-ace stepped back. "Okay, you can open your eyes now," he granted as he stood before her.

The ginger-haired girl opened her eyes and immediately found her vision much clearer than it was before without her glasses or contacts. "Oh, wow!" she awed as she looked around. "This is so much clearer! But they do feel somewhat restrictive…"

"I think all glasses feel that way to some extent," Erich opined as he held a grin. Another thing he was holding was his laughter with regards to how Saori looked at the moment with wearing Scherenfernrohr.

Saori thought for a second before she shrugged. "Eh, I guess so," she agreed with Erich's opinion. She then turned and began to walk off, but she was looking back at the blond-haired German. "Well, come on! We can't be late to school!"

"Yeah, I'm coming," Erich said as he started walking the same way, all while holding back laughter at her looks. He then fell into step beside the ginger-haired girl.

"Oh, speaking of which," Saori began. "Where's Miho at? She's usually with you all the time."

Both of them then felt an arm lay itself across their shoulders, and they felt the presence of someone else between them.

"Oh, I just had to go get something," Miho informed with a sweet smile from her place between the two. She wore her school outfit like the others were.

Erich tensed, as he could tell that things were about to head south judging by the tone of voice Miho used. He recognized it as being overly sweet, like the tone she used whenever she had him trapped for something he did. 'Ach, Scheiße,' he thought to himself.

"Saori, could you take those off?" Miho asked with her usual kindness, all while she looked to Erich with a glint in her eyes saying that she knew exactly what her boyfriend was up to, and that he would pay for it. She then took her arm off of Saori to pick out something from her pocket. It was Saori's glasses case. "I found your glasses."

The ginger-haired girl was none the wiser to the smile on Miho's face that held far more meaning than it appeared at first. "Oh, you did?!" she reacted as she turned to her light brunette friend. She instinctively took off the Scherenfernrohr she was wearing and held them in her right hand with her arm hung down to her side. "Where were they?!"

The glasses and their case were quickly snatched from Miho's hand as Saori quickly donned them again. Miho held a grin at the sight. "Oh, I just happened to find them back in our apartment," the light brunette German girl stated, deliberately being extra clear in her speech. She held Erich close to her with her other arm using more force than was necessary so as to get her point across to her boyfriend that he was screwed. "I found them in the messier portions of the apartment."

Saori blinked at the information she just learned. After processing it and deducing what her friend meant by the words, she looked down at the Scherenfernrohr in her hand. "… Wait, what's this about?" she asked as she turned her head to face Miho's face.

In response, the light brunette German girl took out her phone and turned the screen around so Saori could look at a picture. "This child is a bundle of mischief," Miho responded with a calm smile mixed with a glint in her eyes that showed she was absolutely in control of the blond-haired German caught by her arm.

The picture Saori was looking at on Miho's phone was one of her wearing the Scherenfernrohr. The ginger-haired girl quickly grew a look of horror when she saw her appearance and stepped back in reaction. "A-Are you serious…?" she asked with a whisper. 'No…,' she thought as she looked to Erich. 'How could he do this?! Why would he try and publicly humiliate me with some kind of prank?!'

Miho saw what Saori was doing and also turned her face to look to her boyfriend still trapped by her. "I'm sure you know, Saori," she began with that same powerful and controlling glint in her eyes. "That when a child does something to try and hurt someone, that they need to be punished for it." She deliberately emphasized 'punished' to get her point across. Saori slowly nodded as she received the message and started to grow a more determined glare at the blond-haired German.

Erich was still trapped by Miho's arm, already well-aware that he was screwed and about to pay the price two-fold for his immaturity. He then looked to the one holding him hostage, particularly into her controlling eyes. "Please be merciful," he requested in a somewhat begging tone. "No Red Army stuff, please…"

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Several hours later, the history buffs that made up Hippo Team were settling into their Sturmgeschütz III Ausführung F, in preparation for another practice to begin. All were in their usual historical outfits mixed with their school uniforms.

"Remember," Erwin began as she dropped through her commander's hatch. "Wenn zwei sich streiten, freut sich der Dritte."

"Ad victoriam ex machina," Caesar similarly spoke from her loader's post to the right of the 7,5 cm StuK 40 L/43. She was putting on one of the headsets used to communicate throughout the vehicle.

Erwin was similarly putting one on. "Everyone ready?" she requested over the comms.

"Hai!" Oryou confirmed from the driver's post.

"Yoshi!" Saemonza similarly confirmed from the gunner's seat. She was ready to start shooting the Sturmkanone.

"Sic est!" Caesar confirmed from the loader's spot.

"Alles-warte eine Minute..." Erwin began, but she backtracked herself. She noted something was missing from the roof above her, and she grew a perplexed look at it. "Has anyone seen my Scherenfernrohr?"

"Huh?" the other three girls in the assault gun went in confusion as they looked to where Erwin was pointing up. Indeed, the Sturmgeschütz's scissor periscope was missing from its usual spot in the roof by Erwin.

"Huh, I wonder where it could have gone..." Erwin mused as she looked at the hole in the roof where the Scherenfernrohr was supposed to be mounted.

Just then, the commander's hatch opened to reveal Erich from the outside with a given up sort of look. "Here," Erich said with a resigned tone as he handed over the Scherenfernrohr to Erwin. Notable about him now was that he had a sign hanging down from his neck. Written on it was, 'Ich bin ein unreifes Kind und ich muss dafür bestraft werden.'

Rather than install the Scherenfernrohr immediately, Erwin took a moment to snort in amusement at Erich's appearance. She perfectly understood through the sign that he was being publicly humiliated. She got on the radio and remarked over the channel, "I love what you did to your Freund, fräulein Kapitän."

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Part of Projekt Jägermeistern.

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

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