The Legends Still Live On
Bogen Neunzehn-komma-ein: Extras Fünf und Sechs
Kapitel Vierzehn: Das Wunder des Zufalls
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Many people were up and about aboard the Zuikaku early in the morning. The large school ship was bustling with traffic on its top deck, and almost all such traffic had a single destination: the school. It was the start of a new day, and with the new day came another day of learning. This reason was enough to motivate most of the people to get to the school, as their quick paces demonstrated.
Others, though, required quite a lot more persuasion to proceed. Enter 'The Bubi Problem': Erich was one of those people that needed such persuasion on a daily basis. His form of persuasion was Miho, perhaps the only girl who would refuse Erich what he wanted if it was necessary.
Such times included right now, where she was dragging him along the street on their way to school amidst the crowd. She had him supported by having their arms slung across each other's shoulders, with her bearing their weight. Erich himself was conked out, but he wasn't the only one there who was.
"Goddammit, David, why do you do these things…" Anton muttered in an exasperated tone. He was in a similar situation with having to support David as he dragged him to the school, as well. The black-haired American being dragged along was also conked out and unresponsive to the world around him.
Saori simply grunted as she tried to drag along an unconscious Mako. All together, the whole group was very sluggish in getting to the school, almost entirely because of the three that refused to come back to consciousness. It's not like that was enough to stop them, though: Miho, Anton, and Saori all had deep friendships spanning a decade with the respective ones they were dragging, so they had plenty of experience in this field.
The reason the three that were unconscious were unconscious, though, wasn't because of the usual reason of sleepiness.
"You know, I would've thought that at least one of them would've woken up by now, but I guess not," Saori commented.
Miho, in response, shook her head. "Forget about that ever happening," she dismissed. "There's no way any of them are getting up after what they went through last night."
Anton nodded in agreement. "Amen to that," he agreed verbally. "That's the last time I'm letting David waste himself away."
Saori grunted again as she shifted to get some better support with dragging Mako. "I don't think I heard about what happened," she commented afterwards with a look that combined her exhaustion and curiosity. "So what exactly went down last night? I remember Mako didn't show up to our girls' night, and I figured she just went off to do her own thing."
Miho rolled her eyes as she briefly recalled what occurred. "This Dummkopf thought it'd be a good idea to get hammered at a bar last night with guess which two people?" she said with annoyance to the end. Her tone displayed clear disappointment in the blonde she was dragging.
Anton kept the ball rolling, "The two people that have the most reason to drink away their sorrows." Anton wasn't dumb with his best friend's situation: he was well aware of the of David trying to use alcohol to find peace with all he's suffered, particularly in how his parents' lives were taken by people who held no regrets or remorse about the act, and how the same people had just barely failed to claim his brother numerous times. Adding to that, it wasn't the first time the black-haired American had done such things, either. The blonde American then shrugged noncommittally. "I mean, I guess I can't fault Bubi for trying to find a way to help, but there's the whole culture difference between him and them that I don't think he knows about."
Saori had an eyebrow raised as she comprehended the words. "Huh, well I didn't expect that," she admitted. She then looked down ever so slightly and continued in a softer, more distant tone. "Though Mako definitely has reason to try what you all said she did last night." The ginger knew that Mako was a relatively lonely girl: she had no one in her family left besides her grandmother, and she held an even deeper regret than what would be considered normal for one's parents being taken by an accident. Her regret stemmed from the fact that she had argued with her parents the morning before they were killed in an accident, and because of that, she no longer had the chance to apologize for her actions, forcing her to carry that burden.
"I swear when Bubi comes to that I'm going to tie him to the Panzer's roof and fire off all the shells we have," Miho swore with a clearly pissed look. "This'll be the worst hangover ever for him, mark my words."
Saori and Anton both took a second to stare at Miho with bewildered looks. Both then looked to each other with the same looks, as if they couldn't believe that the light brunette Panzer ace, well known for her kind and inviting personality, had seriously sworn to do something so cruel and sadistic as that.
"Hey, you guys look like you're having it rough!" the group heard from ahead. "Let us help you all out!"
The group was caught out of their stupor when they found two people coming in their direction from ahead. Ahead was Akebi Sasaki, who had called out to them, and Shinobu Kawanishi, both in their usual volleyball uniforms and clearly aware of the struggle the three conscious members in the group were going through.
"Oh, please, thank you!" Saori moaned out in relief, looking about ready to collapse. The two volleyball girls saw that the ginger was the most exhausted of the three, so they moved to help her first. They took Mako from her shoulders and took one of the unconscious black-haired girl's hands to drag her by. Saori looked on with a smile of relief, as did Anton, but Miho couldn't find the ability to smile. The cloud of dissatisfaction in her boyfriend hung over her head too much.
"Don't worry about it," Shinobu responded to Saori's gratitude. "Always willing to help out." The two volleyball players then matched pace with Miho and Anton, who still dragged Erich and David respectively under their own power. Mako hung in between the two volleyball girls still conked out.
Nearby in the crowd of people were the freshmen girls of Rabbit Team. All of them were doing their own things when Karina chose to look around the area out of boredom. She caught sight of Miho's group of people and grew wide eyes at the sight of Mako being dragged.
"Aaaaah!" she screamed as she pointed out towards them, at Mako more specifically. "They've captured an alie-!"
She was cut off by Azusa quickly pressing her hand against her mouth to silence the girl. "Just… don't," Azusa warned, though she wasn't too convincing: she held an extremely awkward look at the absurdity of the situation she was caught in, and Karina's exclamation, most likely derived from an anime she had watched, only further drove up the awkwardness.
"Shut uuuuuup!" three people loudly groaned out simultaneously. Erich, David, and Mako had finally been stirred into consciousness by Karina's scream, and they now felt the hammering within their heads. They all immediately winced in pain as soon as the words left their mouths, as the volume proved to be too much for them to handle in their states. They all raised hands to rub their heads in vain efforts to soothe the pain. Anton and Saori grew pained looks seeing their friends in such pain.
Miho, however, showed no sympathy for the one next to her. "Oh, good, you're awake," she said simply. She then began to forcibly drag Erich away from the others. "I'll see you later, guys. I've got a little problem to deal with now."
As the light brunette girl walked away briskly with an iron grip on the blond-haired ultra-ace's wrist, everyone else besides Saori and Anton raised an eyebrow in confusion. Saori and Anton, however, looked to each other with a bit of fear in their eyes. They feared for the kind of treatment Erich would receive from the more villain-like personality that currently dominated Miho's mind.
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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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