The Legends Still Live On
Bogen Zweiundzwanzig: Die Dichter und Denker
Kapitel Ein: Es ist Valentins, Schwarzwaldspitze!
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February fourteenth. The sweetest day of the year, Valentine's day. Taking its name from the great Saint Valentine, the day of love traditionally brought with it a vast amount of sweetness, both the romantic kind and the sugary kind.
It was no different aboard the Zuikaku with Ooarai High School, as the area around the school's hangars became the scene for a very large exchange in Valentines. Though perhaps it was somewhat sweeter among them than it was elsewhere thanks to the beauty that was childish innocence.
"Captain Nishizumi!" Ayumi, the 75 mm gunner for the school's M3 Lee, called out to the captain of the team. She and her fellow crewmembers for the oddball American medium tank were all rushing over to her, each with delightful sweets in hand. They all outwardly resembled children from their extreme enthusiasm of the day, some more than others.
"Happy Valentine's day, Captain!" Azusa, the de facto leader of the group of rowdy freshmen girls, formally wished her captain a celebratory day as she presented her gift of chocolates to the light brunette team captain.
"HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!" both Karina and Aya greeted Miho with very enthusiastic demeanors, much like small children, as they handed forth their own chocolate gifts.
"Have some Valentine's chocolate!" Yuuki offered her box of chocolates forth with similar enthusiasm. She was not quite as lively as Karina and Aya were, but she was certainly still pretty excited for that day.
Acting very much the same as her fellow freshmen comrades, Saki did not verbalize her enthusiasm, nor betray any of it on her face. As silent as ever, she still presented her chocolates for Miho to accept with just as much physical enthusiasm as the others.
"Ah, thank you all so much!" the light brunette Panzer ace herself greatly thanked the girls for their voluminous gift-giving with a bright smile on her face. The number of gifts she got was such that she had a bit of trouble trying to keep all of the chocolate boxes in her arms, as there were so many.
Azusa looked around for a bit, seemingly trying to search for someone, but she didn't find them apparently as she turned back to Miho. "Oh, Captain, do you know where Staffelkapitän Hartmann is?" the brunette freshman asked. "We wanted to give him some chocolate, too…"
"Oh, he's probably out and about pillaging other people's chocolate," Miho guessed the blonde's whereabouts with a slightly amused grin adorning her face. "You've seen how he is around the stuff." The Panzer ace was undoubtedly referring to when the freshmen had witnessed Erich pillage all of the chocolate Yukari had collected as part of her rations collection back when Ooarai had camped out at Fort Jackson within the United States, before they had faced Saunders.
Miho then dropped the amusement and grew somewhat apologetic. "But I'm honestly not too sure where he went," she shrugged apologetically.
The Panzer ace noticed how the Rabbit Team's members' faces began to drop at those words.
"But you can give them to me, and I can make sure he gets them later!" Miho quickly added to avoid having to deal with a collectively upset Rabbit Team.
That did the trick, as the freshmen's faces lit back up. "Thank you, Captain!" Azusa verbally thanked the light brunette Panzer ace while the others expressed their thanks by giving her a large sack filled with chocolates.
"Here!" Ayumi hefted the sizable sack to sit it down by Miho's side. "That's for the Staffelkapitän!"
Saori, who was nearby, let out a low whistle at the large sack that strained with holding all of the chocolates within it inside. "Wow, looks like they really know Bubi's appetite for chocolate," she noted, impressed.
She was precluded from further elaborating on her point when the freshmen of Rabbit Team started to push chocolates into her arms. "For you too, Saori!" Aya and Karina both gleefully informed as they thrusted their particular chocolate gifts into the ginger's arms.
"Oh, thanks, you guys!" Saori switched over into the caregiver mindset she usually used with the freshmen as she generously accepted the chocolate. She then pulled up a bag she had and reached inside, pulling out some boxes of homemade chocolate and handing them to the freshmen. "And here's some from me, too! Enjoy!"
Rabbit Team squealed with joy as they eagerly accepted the ginger's gifts. They then busied themselves with enjoying the delicacies made by Saori.
The redhead herself sighed wistfully watching them. "I only got to make chocolate for friends this year," she noted with a slightly disappointed tone. Always the one to try and impress boys, Saori had failed over the past year to get herself a boyfriend, meaning she couldn't make any chocolates for her boyfriend like she dreamed of doing one day.
"But isn't it like that every year?" Hana innocently reminded Saori of last year's failure for her to get a boyfriend, and the year before that, and the year before that, and so on. The black-haired flower arranger then took a sizable bite out of her chocolate gift, large in size and in a heart shape.
Saori didn't respond, but grew an extremely pouty face and moaned in barely-contained annoyance at Hana's humiliating of her.
Elsewhere around the hangars, exchanges of Valentine's gifts carried on. Like with the badminton team.
"Hey, pass it over here!" Ron beckoned as he waved his racquet as a signal that he was open. It wasn't a normal racquet, but it was one made of hardened chocolate. It wasn't strictly meant to be functional, but the badminton captain demonstrated that it could be by swinging and sending a chocolate shuttlecock over to his fellow team members. He and his buddies chose to make a game out of the chocolates they had received from everyone.
"I have no obligation to follow with the customs of the padre," Saemonza discussed with the group of history buffs as she crossed her arms. All of the history lovers looked really tame by comparison to everyone else around them who were celebrating the day. It didn't even seem like they were even embracing the day's joys.
"Same as the left," Oryou agreed with the other Japanese history buff.
"It's not like this was originally a part of the day's celebrations, anyway," Wolf noted as he nonchalantly tipped the brim of his Schirmmütze up with his fingers.
"Saint Valentine certainly didn't have this kind of celebration in his honor in mind when he went up to face the executioner," Caesar spoke up in agreement with Wolf.
"This is just a conspiracy for chocolate manufacturers to make even more money than they do already," Abe opined.
"… That being said…" Erwin began, noticing everyone around her subtly slipping their hands under their various historic outfits, including herself.
"Friendship chocolate attack!" all eight of the buffs proclaimed as they brought out their hands and thrusting forth various chocolates of their own, each very intricately detailed and suiting the specific history lover they came from.
Wolf's chocolate represented the insignia of Jagdgeschwader 3 'Udet.' Erwin's appeared most like the Reichsadler, excluding the Hakenkreuz. Leonidas had a chocolate that was a miniaturized form of a Corinthian helmet. Caesar had a chocolate Roman Coliseum, with crumbled sections just like the real Coliseum. Gustav had a chocolate hirschfängare, a small sword meant for close combat and once used by Carolean artillery troops. Saemonza was obviously proud of her chocolate uchigatana. Abe's chocolate was a sculpture of the distinctive top hat he often wore. Oryou had a miniature chocolate sculpture of Ryouma Sakamoto.
A few seconds of awkward silence ensued between all of the history buffs as they still held their unique chocolates out, Gustav and Saemonza holding theirs out like actual blades.
"Well…" Wolf eventually broke the silence abruptly. "I guess we all had the same thoughts, then. So, shall we do the honors of exchanging Schokolade?"
Back with Miho's closely-knit group, Yukari came sprinting toward Miho. "Lady Nishizumi!" she beckoned the light brunette as she slowed to a walk upon approaching the group, panting to regain her breath.
Miho turned to find Yukari walking up to her looking exhausted. "Oh?" she raised an eyebrow in wonder. "Why the rush, Yukari? Is something wrong?"
"Choco… Choco…" the tank guru tried to say, but she was caught in between trying to say what she wanted while also trying to regain the breath that she needed.
Miho, however, managed to deduce what she believed she wanted to say. "Ah, you want to give me some chocolate?" she guessed as she grew a smile.
To her surprise, though, Yukari madly shook her head to deny that. "Bubi…" she got out next, but once again, her need to breathe overwhelmed her desire to speak.
The light brunette Panzer ace blinked and raised an eyebrow, evidently caught off-guard by that. "… Wait, so Erich wants to give me chocolate, is what you're saying?" she asked as if it was not to be believed.
Yukari was fed up with talking, so she simply pointed her finger to her right – Miho's left – and let the light brunette figure it out for herself. Miho looked over to where the tank guru pointed and let her jaw drop in shocked disbelief when she caught sight of what was happening over there.
"Come on back!" Erich waved a hand back to a dump truck that was backing up. "Come on, you're good! You're good!" The blonde had a grin that went from ear to ear as he directed the dump truck back.
Eventually he held his hand up in a fist, a gesture that was understood to mean 'stop.' The truck stopped, and Erich took a second to look back. He caught Miho's eye and shot her that same face-splitting grin he had earlier. "Let her rip!" he broadly declared as he raised an arm up as a cue to the truck driver.
Said cue was for the dump truck to dump its load, and the truck did so. Out of the bed came an avalanche of chocolates that rushed out in a grand river of deliciousness, burying the blond-haired ultra-ace in the process. After the entire load of sweetness was deposited, the dump truck drove away, leaving a mountain of chocolate in its trail.
Popping out from the top of the mountain of chocolate, Erich spread his arms out to his sides in a grand fashion. "Alles Gute zum Valentinstag, Miho!" he proclaimed a happy Valentine's day across the hangar's surroundings to a very stunned Miho.
The light brunette Panzer ace couldn't find any words to say about what the hell just happened, so she settled with just blinking a few times. She was rendered absolutely speechless from receiving a truck-load of chocolate as a Valentine's day gift.
"Please tell me you'll share," Mako came up from behind her out of nowhere and nearly begged. The sleepy tank driver was wide awake now with her mouth nearly drooling of want for the mountain of chocolate that was just delivered to Miho.
The light brunette soon snapped out of her stunned state to approach Erich, who had begun to make his way down the pile. "What-just… what the devil is this?" she asked him when she reached the blonde after he descended to the ground.
"Your Valentine's gift," Erich answered as if it was obvious, still with an ear-to-ear grin. He noted that there was a large crowd of people watching him, but he made no mention of it, instead choosing to let them be entertained.
"What made you make the, I'm assuming, tremendous effort to get me such a gift?" Miho asked next. It made no logical sense to her to expend such a huge effort for something that was for only one day. It must've taken a lot of work to deliver that much chocolate on such short notice.
Erich raised an eyebrow but kept smiling. "Don't you remember?" he responded with his own question. "You once said you wanted to get a truck-load of chocolate for Valentine's day."
Miho blinked once before her face started to contort as if she was holding back a lot of laughter. "Ach mein Gott," she uttered a brief 'oh-my-God' before she burst into giggles. After being prompted by the blonde, she remembered full well what he was talking about. "I was six!"
The blond-haired ultra-ace shrugged as if it was merely an insignificant detail. "Either way, your wish is now reality," he said. He then quickly drew her close and surprised her with a kiss.
It lasted only about a second before he pulled back, but that second was all-too-brief for the light brunette to return it. But she now became aware of the audience around them, which to be fair, she thought, she should've taken note of earlier. Either way, her natural shyness kicked back in as she flushed a deep red when she heard the catcalls, making her seek shelter within Erich's arms from all the prying eyes.
"Ach, du bist ein Arschloch," Miho called him an asshole for making a scene. She was not a fan of public displays of affection because of her shyness, which only served to egg on Erich to do more of them. Because, as he had once said, she just looked so ridiculously adorable when she was embarrassed.
The blond-haired ultra-ace snorted in amusement at the jest, but made no move to release its source. "Aber bin ich dein Arschloch," he responded that he was her asshole. The light brunette made no attempt to deny that, because they both knew it was the truth.
"So does this sort of shit happen every year with you two?" Anton asked the pair as he approached with Nathan and Herz in tow. David was already diving into the mountain of chocolate to sate his sweet tooth. They had all worked with Erich to bring the dump truck around before, which explained their absence earlier.
Miho turned within her blond-haired asshole's arms to face the others when she heard them approach. Her tank crew had approached as well with them, including Mako, who she gave a subtle nod to. That nod was her permission to feast on her chocolate, which the sleepy tank driver immediately began to do as she rushed the chocolate mountain.
The light brunette didn't mind so much with her friends watching when it came to her and Erich being lovey-dovey, because they were her friends. "Haha, nooooo…" she denied the blonde American's assumption as she shook her head with a smile. "Otherwise I would've already grown sick of chocolate." Her smile then took on a more reminiscent nature. "Though Valentinstag is always fun together…" She felt the blonde behind her nod in agreement.
Standing amidst her little band of friends, Miho briefly wondered how the day was faring for both her and Erich's elder siblings.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Herr Staffelkapitän!" was what Alfred-Joachim Hartmann heard as he looked through some papers within a notebook, which forced him to divert his attention to the speaker. It was a busy day aboard the Graf Zeppelin, even though it was also Valentine's day. On that point specifically, the black-haired ultra-ace felt he already knew what he was being called for before even hearing it be said.
Before him stood Erika, who continued when she had his attention, "A large package arrived, addressed to you." She had a clipboard with her, which held a shipping manifest on it detailing what had arrived for the Black Devil.
"Mmm-hmm," Alfred nodded in acknowledgement. 'Knew it,' he thought as he moved to get the package itself.
He was out by the hangars, just outside a building that served multiple purposes. First, it had his office. Second, linked to it was also Maho's office, because Schwarzwaldspitze placed a huge emphasis on combined arms combat, which they felt could be best achieved by making the commanders of land and air forces work together. Third, it served as a connection between the Panzerkraft and Jägermeistern hangars, even including a common briefing room meant for both land and air forces to use simultaneously, which went back to the emphasis on combined arms combat. To summarize, it could be thought of as an overall command center.
Choosing to open the package where he stood, the Black Devil opened the box. Inside were a huge amount of chocolates gifted by many would-be admirers. It was obvious by the way some of them were addressed. While the gifts from some were more formal in nature, given by how they were addressed as 'für herr Alfred,' a lot of the gifts were from those would-be admirers, as they were variously addressed. Usually, they were left simple with just 'Alfred' and a heart. Some went for a more blunt display of their affections, choosing to address their gifts with 'Ich liebe Alfred,' a few instances replacing 'liebe' with a heart. There were also plenty of occasions where Alfred's name was replaced by his well-known nickname, the Black Devil, or Schwarzer Teufel for those written in his native tongue.
Alfred simply stared into the box after opening it with an unreadable expression. In his mind, he had already identified which gifts were from admirers and which were more formal as he mentally sorted through the box with his calculating gaze.
"This is the fourth one for you this morning," Erika noted, looking a bit annoyed and exasperated. Such emotions were because she felt like her current duties as a secretary weren't anywhere close to being worth the time spent doing it with the amount of work she had done so far, which, to be fair, was quite a lot. "We've already had four come in for fräulein Kapitän and ten for herr Staffelführer. All of them were filled with only Schokolade."
The light blonde Tiger II commander looked over to where Maho was, who was nearby and similarly opening a package stuffed to the brim with chocolate, before looking over to where Hans Jochen was, and she let out a groan of disgust when she saw him. The egotistical Me 262 pilot and second-in-command to Alfred had a gaggle of girls surrounding him. They giggled at everything he said and sensually fed him bites of chocolate.
Erika chose to ignore the narcissistic blonde in favor of returning her attention to Alfred, who was still intently staring into the box he just received. "This is to be expected, though, with how well-known and popular Schwarzwaldspitze is throughout Deutschland and the rest of the world beyond," the Tiger II commander noted. "Let's stack them up for now in the corner. If we distribute them out gradually for everyone to eat-"
She was cut off when Alfred suddenly dunked his hand into the box to delve through it, a focused look crossing his brown eyes.
"Herr Staffelkapitän?" Erika asked in confusion seeing the sudden change in his demeanor.
She was answered when the black-haired German extracted his arm from the box with a box of chocolate in hand. This box of chocolate was special, though.
"Wait, that's…" Erika paused as she read the labels. "… That's from fräulein Kapitän's sister?"
The box of chocolates was from Miho, as the box stated. It was addressed to 'Alfi,' a childhood nickname Miho had come up with for the elder Hartmann as a little girl and had continued to use ever since. A small message was scrawled over the paper, saying, 'Alles Gute zum Valentinstag, Alfi! -von Miho und Erich'
"He pinpointed the exact box he was looking for, and actually knew it was there to begin with…" Erika was busy trying to comprehend what sort of black magic Alfred just pulled on everyone that was watching, which was a sizable amount given the Staffelkapitän's popularity.
The black-haired ultra-ace simply opened up the box and took one piece of chocolate to eat. After chewing it and swallowing, he grew the smallest of grins, a sign of great satisfaction to those who knew him well enough to read him. "Yup," he confirmed to Erika. "Miho knows my tastes."
A pang of jealousy flared up within Erika at the mention that Miho knew what Alfred preferred most, something that caused her jaw to clench in anger. The wild-tempered blonde had always held an animosity to the younger Nishizumi, because no matter how much Erika tried, Miho always ended up having the better favor among everyone, and was able to do it without really even trying. That bothered the Tiger II commander a great deal, because she always put forth her best effort in everything she did, and yet it seemed to be for nothing, at least in her eyes.
"Wait, wait, herr Staffelkapitän!" Erika sprung into action as she started to shuffle through her pockets with vigor, almost desperately so. "I-I had also…!"
Eventually, the blonde girl pulled out a heart-shaped box of chocolates. The chocolates themselves were made by her own hand, though it was quite a struggle for her to do so. It was her first time making the treat, so it took some effort to make it.
But before she could push the box into the Black Devil's hands, a thought struck Erika and stopped her in her tracks. She pulled back the box to herself and grew noticeably less confident, because she had just realized that she didn't even know what kind of flavor the black-haired ultra-ace preferred.
"What is it, Erika?" Alfred wondered about what Erika had to say before, but she had grown lost in thought and took a long time to respond. "Erika…"
Within the Tiger II commander's head, she was busy freaking out over what to do now. 'What if he doesn't like it?' she had thought. The thought that the Black Devil might not like her chocolate bothered her more than she felt comfortable admitting.
"Erika?" Alfred tried again to get a response.
"Um… Well, you see…" Erika began meekly, sounding very uncharacteristic of her usual self-confident attitude. Her face was tinged a slight red from that unheard-of-for-her shyness.
The black-haired ultra-ace noticed how the blonde Tiger II commander's face began to flush red. His response to that was to close the distance with her and place his hands on either side of her head, in an attempt to logically deduce why she was turning that way.
That shocked Erika very much into speechlessness, and she soon rapidly flushed a deep red from the extreme closeness of the Black Devil, so close that his forehead rested against her own. She was unable to think clearly when she was so close to the black-haired ultra-ace. A part of her wanted to break away out of embarrassment, but another part of her wanted to lean further into him. The lack of her ability to think at that moment meant she held still, unable to decide what she really wanted.
"Your face is red," Alfred noted as he held his calculating gaze with the blond-haired girl's. He brought one of the hands resting on either side of her head to her forehead, a move that, to her, felt more like a gentle caress. "Could you perhaps have a fever?"
Erika couldn't respond due to her brain effectively shutting down from the Black Devil's touching. It just felt so nice, and the fact that he had verbalized concern for her made her heart flutter even higher.
Eventually, the normally wild-tempered blonde was brought back down to earth when she felt Alfred pull away from her. It caused an unpleasant and upsetting emptiness within her.
"You do feel a bit hot," the black-haired ultra-ace noted as he held the back of his hand to Erika's forehead. He soon pulled that away, too. The Tiger II commander wanted so badly to lean further into that gentle touch, but she was still frozen from the shock of just being so close to him. "Don't worry about heading to practice today. I'll tell Maho that you're at the infirmary and unable to fight, so go over and get some rest there."
Alfred began to head back to the command center, but he stopped at the door and looked back over his shoulder to Erika. "Understood?" he asked.
"Uh-yeah, right…" the blonde Vizekapitän stuttered, finally finding her voice.
The Black Devil nodded before entering the building and shutting the door behind him, leaving Erika standing outside holding her box of chocolates that he failed to realize were a gift for him. The entire time, he had not betrayed a single emotion on his face, making it impossible to know what he was thinking unless one knew him well enough. He could've been thinking anything from what was waiting back home for dinner to the idea of breaking out the whips and chains for extremely kinky business.
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"Verdammt, why couldn't I give it to him…" Erika sulked later as she walked throughout Schwarzwaldspitze's school grounds, still with her chocolate in hand. She was berating herself for just standing there like an idiot instead of actually speaking with Alfred like a normal person, or giving him her gift. It wasn't like her to freeze up like that.
She passed by a few of the Jagdstaffel pilots that were preoccupied with raging over some elaborately-designed chocolates. Erika didn't bother to pay them any heed. She just didn't feel like even looking at any Jagdstaffel pilots after she had made a fool of herself trying to talk to the one Jagdstaffel pilot she actually liked.
"Küss meinem Arsch, Dora-Flieger!" the Ta 152 Pilot cursed as he ripped off the wing of a chocolate Fw 190 D-12 with his teeth in an animalistic manner.
"Ich werde ihn in die Hölle schicken!" the Ho 229 Pilot raged about how he would send that Dora pilot to hell. He barely avoided crushing his chocolate with his fist out of anger. His chocolate was of an Ho 229, which was made to have a chunk of its right wing break off with ease.
"Ich hasse das Dora-Flieger so sehr!" the Fw 190 Pilot raged about his extreme hatred for that Dora pilot, looking behind him on instinct for the enemy Fw 190 D-12 he constantly felt behind him ever since that time in the Finals fight. He couldn't decide whether to eat or fiercely obliterate the chocolate Fw 190 D-12 in his hand.
"Gib mir noch ein Versuch!" the Bf 109 Pilot raged about wanting another chance to fight that Finals match. He had devoured his chocolate Bf 109 F-4 all the way to the cockpit.
"Idioten," Erika muttered how those four pilots were idiots, and continued to walk on. She soon noticed some of her other comrades within the Panzerzug, and feeling a bit curious, she decided to hang back and watch them.
"Here, I got some Schokolade for you!" the Jagdpanther Commander offered a box of chocolate to the Maus Commander.
"Oh, thanks a lot!" the commander of one-hundred eighty-eight tons of pure German engineering responded with delight as she accepted the gift and quickly began to eat out of the box. "This is good! But as long as it's edible, it's good enough for me!"
The Jagdpanther Commander then looked around at her other comrades. "It's pretty amazing how popular some of our warriors are, isn't it?" she asked around to make conversation.
"Yeah!" the Panther Commander readily agreed. "Fräulein Kapitän is the best in the country!"
"Add to that herr Staffelkapitän," the Panzer III Commander added before she began to munch down a piece of chocolate.
"Yeah, him too," the Maus Commander nodded her head in agreement before reaching for another chocolate.
"And don't forget herr Staffelführer!" the Panther Commander was quick to add. A little too quick, judging by the scoff the Panzer III Commander gave.
"Please," the Maus Commander rolled her eyes. "We don't need to hear more about how you want to submit yourself to him."
"Hey!" the Panther Commander retorted to the accusation. "I never said such things!"
"No, but we know you were thinking them," the Panzer III Commander interjected just after finishing a piece of chocolate. The Panther Commander flushed red, but made no denial of thinking about what the Maus Commander had insinuated. The Panzer III commander then got everyone back on topic. "But you're right about all three of them being great at what they do. They were all selected for the national team to fight in the World War Tournament in a few years."
"Hey, look what I just got!" the Jagdpanther Commander spoke up again after reappearing with the group. The other three Panzer commanders looked over to the commander of the German tank destroyer and noticed she held a box.
"What's that?" the Panzer III Commander spoke up for everybody the question on all their minds.
"It's a package of Schokolade that was addressed to us!" the Jagdpanther Commander informed excitedly.
The other Panzer commanders all went, "Ooh!" They were now just as giddy as the Jagdpanther Commander, because who didn't love getting chocolate?
But after opening the box and digging up their particular chocolates, the four Panzer commanders grew silent. They were no longer sure whether they wanted these chocolates or not, because it was obvious that these chocolates were attempts by someone to screw with them.
Each of them held a relatively large chocolate sculpture. The Jagdpanther Commander held a chocolate Jagdpanzer 38(t). The Maus Commander held a chocolate sculpture of a Maus with its turret turned, a white flag stuck on top of said turret, and an I-Go otsu perched on its engine deck. The Panther Commander also held a chocolate Jagdpanzer 38(t). Lastly, the Panzer III Commander held a chocolate Panzer III J1 with a white flag resting atop its turret.
The attempt to screw with them was successful as all hell broke loose with the four Panzer commanders after they were so bluntly reminded of their blunders in the Finals match.
"Who did this?!" the Maus Commander raged hard enough to make the fury said super-heavy tank was capable of seem tame by comparison. "Who orchestrated this elaborate practical joke?!"
"Again, why are there two Hetzers?!" the Panther Commander angrily questioned.
"From 'Ooarai's Masked Hetzer?!'" the Jagdpanther Commander nearly blew a blood vessel after reading who the package was sent by.
"Who the hell cares?!" the Panzer III Commander yelled before beginning to devour her chocolate Panzer III, after plucking the white flag off the turret. "Again, who shot me?!"
Erika had enough of watching even more idiots and decided to walk off, shaking her head and again muttering, "Idioten."
Her walking off meant the Tiger II commander missed the arrival of Koume onto the scene. She was just as composed and happy as always as she made her way to the foursome of raging Panzer commanders with a box of chocolates in hand.
"Um..." the German commander for one of the many other Panthers tried to interject, but she wasn't heard. She tried again, this time in a louder voice. "Guys? Have you all seen Erika lately?"
"Who cares?!" the Jagdpanther Commander turned and snarled out of rage. "Just help me decide what to do with this verdammter Hetzer!"
Koume didn't take any offense to the rage being briefly directed onto her, instead simply walking off with a smile still on her face. "I wonder where Erika went…" she wondered. "Miho sent some Schokolade for the both of us, so where is she? I want her to get her share…"
Her walking off meant she missed the Jagdpanther Commander choosing to eat her chocolate Jagdpanzer 38(t) over the other options of crushing it, burning it, vaporizing it, or making an improvised bomb out of it and returning it to sender.
XXXXXXXXXX
Later, Erika was within the infirmary and listening to a doctor's recommendation for her. She was sitting up on the edge of one of the beds there.
"Well, you don't appear to have a fever, judging by test results," the doctor revealed her determination. "But you should definitely rest for a little bit."
"Okay…" Erika nodded without much energy. "My apologies for wasting your time."
"Don't worry about it," the doctor waved off the concern. She then turned to leave. "If something happens, do call."
After the doctor left Erika, the Tiger II commander flopped back unceremoniously onto the bed with a loud sigh of disappointment. "Just what the hell am I doing…" she muttered as she popped the top buttons on her gray Schwarzwaldspitze shirt with one hand before resting said hand on her head. "Now that I think about it, last year…" She trailed off as she recalled what happened last Valentine's day.
XXXXXXXXXX
Last year at Schwarzwaldspitze was pretty similar at first glance. There were really only three people being absolutely showered with Valentines, that being Maho Nishizumi, Alfred-Joachim Hartmann, and the hot-shot rookie Hans Jochen.
For Alfred, being renowned as the Black Devil had attracted a large crowd around him at the main entrance to the school, filled with people each trying to get their gifts into his hands. The black-haired ultra-ace didn't appear fazed by any of that, instead accepting them indiscriminately. He kept his poker face despite being confronted by a multitude of fans and admirers vying for his attention.
From around a corner of a nearby building, three people watched the scene. There was Erika, who was looking frustrated and on the edge of snapping at the sight before her. There was Miho, who grew more timid at the sight of so many people. And finally, there was Erich-Dietrich Hartmann, who seemed rather amused at the whole ordeal his brother was putting himself through. The two girls each had a single box of chocolate with them, while the blond-haired Gustav Experte had none, and for good reason.
"See that right there, Miho?" the blond-haired ultra-ace waved a hand in the direction of the crowd surrounding the Black Devil. "That's why I don't give him any Schokolade. He already has enough without my pitching in to last him for a year."
"Well, I actually want to give him a gift, unlike your selfish Arsch!" the light brunette Tiger ace retorted to him with a smirk. She then looked back to the crowd around Alfred and grew nervous again at the sight of it. "But that sure is a huge crowd around herr Staffelkapitän…"
"Well, it's like I said earlier," Erich began. He lifted a finger. "All that Schokolade would be-"
"Can't you do something to get us closer to him?!" Erika snapped at the blond-haired ultra-ace and cut him off. The ferocity of the snap startled the other two. "You're his damn brother!"
"Well, that's the thing…" Erich responded in an attempt to placate the hot-tempered Panzer III commander. "For one, I don't give him Schokolade. I have Miho to take care of that for me."
"And with that said, I tend to give him my gift at home…" Miho further elaborated, even though she was pretty anxious about what Erika might do next.
'Ugh, and I thought I could gain something by staying close to that lazy fighter bum!' the hot-tempered blonde thought in frustration. "Forget that and just give me a hand here!" she fiercely demanded. "Since it's come to this, we need to charge in!"
"Huh? Uh-I mean, yes!" Miho stuttered out in surprise at the hot temper of the Panzer III commander coming onto her.
"PANZER VOR!" Erika proclaimed her command and rushed forth with a raised fist.
"Vor…" Miho weakly followed her example with her own fist as the two Panzer commanders rushed into the crowd.
Erich, on the other hand, stood back and watched. "Well…" he began to himself as he grew an amused smirk. "She did say to give her a hand…" He then began to golf clap as he watched Miho and Erika get sucked into the sea of people surrounding his brother.
Eventually, the two Panzer commanders were chucked out of the crowd and onto the steps leading up to the school's entrance. Erich walked over to them and noted how they appeared to have just come out of a battle.
He retained his amused grin as he looked down on the both of them lying on their backs. "I never knew Bruder's fans were that ferocious," he remarked. "You two look like you were thrown out to the wolves."
The two crushed Panzer commanders eventually sat up, Miho sitting up straighter than Erika who leaned back onto her arms. Both still had their chocolates, surprisingly. Miho's was still in hand while Erika rested hers on her lap.
Despite being crushed by the crowd, the light brunette Tiger ace still found it within her to smile. "Alfi-I mean… herr Staffelkapitän's popularity sure is something…" she remarked, just barely remembering to stay more formal and changing the way she addressed Alfred.
"Yeah…" Erika mindlessly agreed as Erich took a seat beside Miho. He was sitting beside only Miho, not bothering to take the space between the two Panzer commanders. He did not want to get caught in the middle of a fight between them for a second time. Once was enough.
The light brunette girl tried to think of something to say to make it less awkward around Erika, finally settling with something. "… Let's give our best next year!" she tried to raise their morale, though she was anxious again about what the hot-tempered Panzer III commander might do.
"Yeah…" Erika mindlessly agreed again, surprising Miho a bit. But the Tiger ace didn't question the sudden agreement. "… But I'm definitely not sticking with either of you next time."
"Hä?" Miho went in surprise at the hot-tempered blonde's words while Erich barked a laugh.
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In the present day, Erika finished reminiscing on last year's Valentine's day. She remained face up looking at the ceiling for a bit before she roughly turned over onto her side to fall asleep, still sour about the memories from back then.
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Some time later, Erika cracked her eyes open from her deep sleep. She let out a tired groan as she closed them again, sitting up as she rubbed the sleep out of them and waking up.
"Ach Scheiß, I can't believe I actually fell asleep…" the blonde Tiger II commander remarked in a tired voice that held a bit of incredulity in it as she got off the bed to stretch. She had not expected to actually fall asleep after recalling some of her more unpleasant memories of the past.
"I wonder if practice is over already… Hallo?" she called out within the room to see if she got a response from anyone who was there. She got none, so she assumed no one else was there with her. 'I guess I'll just eat my chocolate back at home then…' she thought depressingly as she fixed up her Schwarzwaldspitze school uniform and put her chocolates back into her pocket. 'Shame.'
"Erika," she heard a voice calmly call out to her. Her head snapped to the source in surprise, as she knew whose voice that was.
She wasn't wrong in her assumption of who it was, as she found Alfred-Joachim Hartmann sitting on one of the benches nonchalantly. He was still in his Jägermeistern outfit, evidently having come straight from practice. That notion was further reinforced when Erika spotted the black-haired ultra-ace had his small pilot's logbook and a mechanical pencil in hand.
"Herr Staffelkapitän?" the Tiger II commander responded in surprise, not at all expecting the Black Devil to come back to her.
Alfred snapped his logbook shut. "How are you feeling?" he asked coolly as he put away his logbook and pencil.
Erika started towards the black-haired Staffelkapitän, her steps growing less confident the closer she got to him. "O-oh, there was nothing to fret over!" she responded as she reached back into her pocket and pull out her chocolates, sensing another opportunity. "Thank you for your concern…" The Tiger II commander started to blush when she got within arm's reach of him, for a few reasons. One was how the scene from earlier, with Alfred getting very close to her, jumped back into her head. Another was because she thought he looked hot in his Jägermeistern uniform, what with how he could leave his jacket completely undone like he didn't give a damn and still look so commanding. Yet another reason was how touched she was by him coming to check on her.
"But is something wrong, herr Staffelkapitän?" Erika asked as she stopped ahead of Alfred, looking up at him with hopeful eyes. "Is there anything I can do to help…?" She asked her questions in a hopeful manner, because she really hoped she could make something happen with him, but she was still nervous. It was only natural for her to be nervous around the one boy she actually liked.
"Hä?" Alfred briefly said before he looked down to Erika's hands, spotting the box of chocolates she held. He then recognized what she had wanted to do before. "Ah…" He looked back up at Erika's face as he grew the smallest of grins, but the Tiger II commander knew from how he did it before that such a small smile for him was basically equivalent to a large smile from anyone else. "Actually, Erika, I don't think I've gotten any Schokolade from you yet."
Erika wouldn't have believed she would find herself in such a situation outside of a dream, but she knew it was no dream from the way she could feel her skin heat up under the now warm gaze of his brown eyes. She slowly handed over her box of chocolates to Alfred, and the last thought she had was, 'Finally!'
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"Ad victoriam!" was what blared from Erich's phone aboard the Zuikaku, and he halted his devouring of chocolate to listen. After hearing nothing follow up, he began to pull out his phone. "Well, let's see what Bruder has to say," he said, knowing from the tone that it was a text from Alfred.
He pulled up his texts and found his brother's message. It read, 'Erwarte Gegenseitigkeit.' In other words, expect reciprocity. In layman's terms, expect a return gift.
The blond-haired ultra-ace shook his head at his brother's odd knack for being very elaborate yet very brief in his words. "Hey, Miholein, looks like we're getting more Schokolade," he said to Miho with a smile. The Panzer ace gagged in response, to which he laughed. After that truck-load of chocolate, he didn't think Miho would look at the delicacy the same way again.
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Good for Erika. She deserves some happiness.
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. The music belongs to Sabaton. Any references made belong to their respective owners.
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