The Legends Still Live On
Bogen Vierundzwanzig: Kompanie der Helden
Kapitel Zwei: Vorschau – Lang leb die Könige
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The battle at Prokhorovka was over, at long last. After three months of great anticipation and preparation for a large fight between the Germans and the Russians – of which one of those months contained nonstop combat between the two of them just to get a leg up on each other before the actual fight – the fierce fighting between millions of members of each countries' high school Arts of Warfare programs had come to an extremely nail-biting end for the battle between the two countries' best. Schwarzwaldspitze Gymnasium and Pravda Srednyaya Shkola had cut no corners in their battle against each other.
When the dust finally settled, it was with utter disbelief and shock that the German camp gleamed the results of the fight. The reason being was that the single Tiger H1 number 212, commanded by Michael Nishizumi on the Schwarzwaldspitze side, had been taken out with a well-placed shot to its turret front.
The disbelief and heartbreak was magnified when it was unveiled that only one of the two Pravda T-34-85s had survived the final duel-like encounter. Kolenka's T-34-85 was knocked out of commission courtesy of the Tiger I, but the other T-34-85 had been able to take out the German heavy tank with a shot to the flat turret front, avoiding the angled hull that was nearly impossible for the Russian 85 mm gun to penetrate.
And it was with that exploitation of a weak spot that Germany lost its crown that year, so close to retaining it as well, and the Russian flag proudly flew over the battlefield to mark the occasion.
"URAAAAAAAAAA!" was the massive cheer bellowed in pride by the Russian side, ecstatic that they had finally upset their long-time German rivals and achieved victory. Kolenka, the Russian tank commander that led the ground battle, was more prideful than ever, not caring one bit that he had to get a lift on the sole remaining Russian tank due to his being taken out. The brutish Russian waved the Russian tricolor overhead with pride.
Sasha, the Russian fighter ace that led the aerial assault, was perhaps the only one on the Russian side that didn't share the same overjoyed sentiment. She could feel it as she looked on from the side with arms crossed and a neutral expression, that something was not right with how their victory was achieved. Something just felt so incredibly off, with how victory was achieved, and it bothered the blonde Russian pilot very much considering she could not readily identify the reason why, though she had a good idea as to one possible cause. A cause that Kolenka had trotted around and shown off like a pet at their base for about a week before the fight.
In short, Sasha didn't feel like Pravda had truly earned their victory over Schwarzwaldspitze. She felt that something out of their control had influenced the outcome, though she couldn't say what exactly.
She was not the only aviation leader that was dissatisfied, though the only other person with such a position presently there was clearly so dissatisfied over the simple notion of losing, that she didn't stop to think about how her side had lost.
Isabel-Justina Hartmann was not pleased one bit by Schwarzwaldspitze's defeat. She clenched her fists and ground her teeth down, greatly pissed that her side hadn't walked away victorious. The black-haired ultra-ace just wanted to scorch that Russian flag using only her eyes with the look of pure anger she had directed at the banner.
The black-haired Geschwaderkommodore had always been an extremely competitive girl growing up. That competitiveness, that pursuit to be the best, had not faded over the years. In fact, it had proven to be at its strongest in that moment of defeat via the Russians. She was unbelievably frustrated to have lost to Pravda, of all foes. She didn't look down on any of her opponents, due to her choosing to look at them in an analytic manner at every possible instance. Isabel just held a somewhat petty personal dislike for Pravda due to the Russian school being known for using some very underhanded tactics, and it frustrated her that those same tactics were now vindicated thanks to Schwarzwaldspitze's defeat.
Well, she did have to admit that she also didn't much like Pravda's Kapitan. Isabel hated that extremely smug leer that Kolenka directed at the German side at the traditional end-of-fight handshake, and she wanted so badly to slap that grin off his face. But she restrained herself, because she did not want to cause a scene and make herself look like a sore loser, even if underneath she was really bitter about this loss.
Taking the cue Michael Nishizumi had given as he moved to give the Russian brute a humbling handshake, Isabel did the same with Pravda's Komandir Divizii. The black-haired Geschwaderkommodore took note of the purposely neutral face that Sasha wore, along with her blue eyes that seemed to convey a message: 'I don't consider this a victory.'
That confused Isabel, even though she didn't show it outwardly as anything more than a brief pause. She then retracted her hand and turned around to walk off with no words spoken. She went off back to the airfield the Jagdgeschwader had used as an airbase for the fight. The black-haired teen remained silent on the way over, not trusting herself to not descend into another tirade.
Isabel had already gone on a furious tirade, aimed at her little sister, earlier when the fight had just ended. The complete amount of rage she had vented in that tirade was quite daunting to say the least: by the time it was over, not a single member of Scharzwaldspitze's Jagdgeschwader remained unconvinced of Isabel's nickname, the Black Demoness, being inapplicable to her. Her string of words was as sharp as knives and, when combined with her rather cold dismissal of her sister, combined to be collectively as lethal as an executioner's ax on the down-swing.
The amount of frustration Isabel felt towards her younger sister, Erika-Dietlinde Hartmann, was immense. The black-haired girl just couldn't comprehend what in the world Erika's thought process was during the time she never responded to Isabel's calls over the radio. That, and she had yet to find out why Erika had been gone for such a long time prior to the fight, but there was no way she would get that information for at least a day considering how hard she had scolded the blonde. She knew that they both needed their time to cool down and recover from everything.
Isabel knew she couldn't ever descend to hating Erika, for she loved her little sister too much, but dammit the blonde made it seem so easy to with how often she frustrated her older sister. Isabel just wanted to know what was going on through Erika's mind in the fight, to at least try to justify what she did. The black-haired Geschwaderkommodore didn't know what had occurred with the blonde's small flight, which made her even more frustrated with the lack of knowledge.
It was a never-ending cycle of hatred, directed at no specific entity, and Isabel was sick of it. She hated the whole world right now. She just wanted to see all of Prokhorovka get scorched to blackness as some kind of reprisal for her frustration.
Dreams are seldom shattered
By rogue actions under clouds
Isabel hated how she had failed in her mission to bring Schwarzwaldspitze Gymnasium its tenth consecutive overall victory in the International High School Arts of Warfare Tournament. It was a grand dream for the black-haired teen to achieve such a high level of glory and notoriety, and to be truthful, it was a very realistic dream to have. There was such a small chance of failure in achieving that goal that she had not bothered to think of the possibility of not achieving it.
But as small a chance as it was, the failure still happened, no thanks to her sister. Isabel was so conflicted on how to feel about her sister now as she clenched a fist absently. On one hand, she wanted to rip her a new one for being so irresponsible and such a child that it ended up costing all of them a chance at great glory. But on the other, it was Erika, and try as she might, Isabel could never bring herself to truly despise her little sister.
Victors come and victors go
Has our legend run aground?
Isabel let herself grow calmer the longer she stayed in her thoughts. She eventually figured that this defeat was simply one that had to happen eventually, as inopportune as it was, because victory and defeat was an interconnected cycle. One could not exist without the other.
But despite the necessity of loss, Isabel still clung to that great glory of Schwarzwaldspitze's streak of perfection, because she herself had already chosen the path of achieving greatness. Suffice to say that when she fully discovered who Erich Hartmann was, she grew to absolutely admire him not just for being her great-grandfather, but more for everything he had ever done in his life. To Isabel, Erich Hartmann was a true hero. The black-haired girl's admiration for him eventually grew into a passion to be just as great as he was. But the loss to Pravda proved to be a great roadblock in that path, much greater than she first thought possible.
What shall we now turn to?!
If legacy's torn apart?
When she got back to the airfield her side was using, Isabel was not necessarily surprised to see how bitter and hostile the rest of the Jagdgeschwader was. The loss to Pravda stung like nothing else. To be so close to achieving an unprecedented record and falling ever so short of the mark was immensely frustrating, and Isabel was far from the only one to feel that way. The collective thought among the Jagdgeschwader was that they had been robbed of a win.
Faith was lost!
And at what cost?!
Has the grand dream lost its heart?!
Isabel could see how the Jagdgeschwader was no longer the tidal wave of aggression it once was during the midst of the battle. There was lots of finger-pointing and scapegoating among all of them, and none of it was truly logical. The Jagdgeschwader had all previously pinned the blame on Erika, but they still had plenty of rage to vent, hence why they turned on each other and descended into infighting even after that initial scapegoating.
The black-haired Geschwaderkommodore grew frustrated with herself at the sight, because she was supposed to lead all of them into the golden gates of glory, yet she had failed. Even though it wasn't her fault that they lost, she still had to accept the overall responsibility of losing, as much as she didn't want to.
(Lost by our own or to our foes?)
Turned the tide!
The ferocity of the infighting amongst the Jagdgeschwader made Isabel feel sick to herself. Hearing the enraged howls of 'Verräterin!' was where she drew the line, and at that she strode forth to break them all up from their spats. It was somewhat hypocritical considering at one point in her tirade Isabel had called her sister a traitor, but the black-haired teen refused to let anyone else call each other traitors. She had only said that due to still being hyped on adrenaline from the fight, but now that she was relatively calmer, Isabel would not stand for hearing anyone else accuse another of being a Verräter, nor a Verräterin.
(Searches fruitless, still no one knows)
The secret remains
Seeing with a clearer mind now that was no longer fogged over with adrenaline, Isabel felt that she had not been fair to Erika before with her tirade, and she made a mental note to apologize later. She had just wanted to know what her younger sister was up to, both during the fight itself and for the several days before the fight that she had spent unaccounted for. But Isabel would have to wait, as Erika had already run off and was unable to be found by the elder Hartmann. She figured that her sister needed some space for a bit, so she would wait until the blonde was ready to talk again to both apologize for her own outburst and to ask about what happened with her. Until then, Isabel, as well as everyone else on both sides, was clueless as to what had transpired with the young blonde ultra-ace, which by association translated into what happened to make Schwarzwaldspitze lose the fight against Pravda.
Broken dreams of grand
Sing of our final stand
Long live Black Forest
Isabel had given the rest of the Jagdgeschwader a passionate verbal lashing for fighting amongst each other, and everyone under her command fell silent after hearing how greatly disappointed the Geschwaderkommodore was in their most recent actions. After getting their lashing, a lot of the members started shedding tears of absolute frustration as their clenched fists trembled. This wasn't at all what Schwarzwaldspitze's Jagdwaffe had pictured the aftermath of the fight being. The dream to go a full decade undefeated was now broken, and it was painful.
Brought by tankers' hands
Back to the fatherland
Lang leb Schwarzwaldspitze
Isabel's expression grew a bit softer when she noted how everyone else was also agonized by the sting of defeat. "Go get some rest," she ordered and dismissed simultaneously. "Tomorrow we start heading back home."
After that, Isabel gracefully dropped into the passenger seat of a Volkswagen Kübelwagen driven up to her by Michael Nishizumi. With that, the black-haired teen left the Jagdgeschwader to their own devices as she herself was taken back to the place she, her sister, plus Manfred and Michael Nishizumi had settled into as temporary residence for the campaign in the east.
Isabel sighed during the ride, feeling overwhelmed by the day's events. "Michi," she addressed Michael with a long-time nickname as she absently gazed at the passing scenery of fields and a few wooded areas that the sun was quickly setting behind. "… Tell me you're not getting as much of a headache from this scenario as I am."
Michael kept his eyes on the dirt road he drove the rear-engine general purpose vehicle down. He did offer a short response, however, "Not yet." He was very sure to include the 'yet' part, because the dark brunette predicted that the storm of frustration was not yet over. There was still a lot of fallout to come, he felt.
Returned back to our home
Our hearts heavy in our chests
It took a couple of days for the Schwarzwaldspitze Kampfgruppe to travel back through Eastern Europe to their home. They headed back to their land-based campus in Freiburg, because there was no need to travel by sea to get to the location of their most recent fight.
It didn't seem to matter to everyone returning, though. Everyone within the Kampfgruppe was feeling pretty bummed out from the loss to Pravda. In addition to the loss bumming them out, the Panzerabteilung was also not as bright due to none of them having heard a single time from Erika. It was disheartening, because unlike the Jagdgeschwader, the Panzerabteilung's overall opinion on Erika was pretty positive; they all very much enjoyed hearing of her, which in practice or sometimes in combat was mostly when she decided to blast her favored heavy metal music over the line, but they still liked to hear her regardless. It was disconcerting to them all when that heavy metal never sounded a single time.
Endless war, and all for naught
We can finally have some rest
It was disappointing to have to return having not achieved their objective, but the Schwarzwaldspitze Kampfgruppe could at least look forward to having some time to rest and deal with the frustration in their own ways.
The biggest exceptions to taking time to rest were Isabel and Michael, because the life of a Kommandeur for Schwarzwaldspitze didn't much allow for rest. The Geschwaderkommodore and Kapitän were already planning ahead for the next season, busy as ever.
Manfred Nishizumi, however, spent his so-called 'rest' mentally going over recent events, in particular anything that could've happened to drive Erika away. It was painful every time he remembered those sea blue eyes being as wet as the sea itself with tears of emotional turmoil.
What will be uncovered?!
From that May's frustrating fight?
Isabel was wondering similar things, too. She never liked being in the dark when it came to battle, but especially she didn't like to be out of the know if it was something involving Erika. Admittedly, she was starting to get a little worried, as she hadn't seen her sister since coldly dismissing her back at Kursk. The black-haired teen wasn't excessively worried, however, as she was already used to the blonde going off for random reasons. She was pretty sure she was fine.
Back at Kursk!
What happened there?!
Will it ever come to light?!
But Isabel still wanted to know exactly what had happened during the time spent in the east, so she started investigating around. She just had to know what had happened to cause Schwarzwaldspitze to lose, that way the problem could be resolved.
Manfred Nishizumi was also curious about what had happened, though he was more concerned with how it related to Erika. He had tried to call her numerous times, but every single time, the blonde runaway never picked up. "Please, Erika…" he practically begged for his latest message, deeply concerned about her well-being ever since she abruptly left. "If anything else, at least tell me that you're okay…"
(Lost by our own or to our foes?)
Turned the tide!
"GEH WEG!" Erik Ignatz raged at Isabel to leave him be. The black-haired Geschwaderkommodore had only wanted to ask him what he had seen happen after learning he was one of the members of the small tank detachment led by Manfred sent out during the battle at Prokhorovka. That detachment had strangely gone silent like Erika's small flight had part-way through the fight, and Isabel had a sneaking suspicion that both of their disappearances were interconnected with one another. But the black-haired ultra-ace backed away and gave up on asking Erik, as she could clearly see from his flaring temper how the light blonde Panzer III commander was still overly embittered by the loss.
(Searches fruitless, still no one knows)
The secret remains!
Isabel then moved onto the driver of said Panzer III, also coincidentally one of the few friends Manfred Nishizumi had managed to make. Karl Ackerschmidt was much more friendly compared to the bulk of Schwarzwaldspitze's warriors, hence why Manfred got along with him really well. With some brown hair with a tinge of red in it along with sky blue eyes, Karl did not possess a hot temper like many of his comrades did.
But the Panzer III driver couldn't tell Isabel anything about what happened during the fight against Pravda, because whenever he recalled the scene of Erika limping towards the Tiger while dragging along a burn-inflicted Hanna Jochen, he nearly hurled from the memory. It was horrifying how much pain he saw in both of the aviators.
Broken dreams of grand
Sing of our final stand
Long live Black Forest
"Sorry, fräulein Geschwaderkommodore, but I lost contact with her before that point," Helmine Bimmel shrugged with apology when Isabel asked for her recollection in the hangars. The crew chief for Erika's Bf 109 had long, silky smooth black hair reaching the middle of her back and a pair of blue eyes. Helmine was a very kind person at heart, and one who held friendships in very high regard. For instance, when she heard that Erika had gone missing, she immediately insisted on leading a rescue mission to retrieve her. If it wasn't for Isabel holding her back, she would've gone on her own regardless of whether she had help or not, considering she had quickly grabbed a Karabiner 98 Kurz rifle to arm herself with. She had a fierce loyalty to Erika, unmatched by anyone else on the Jagdgeschwader and by that note was one of the biggest exceptions to the Jagdgeschwader's generally negative outlook on Erika.
Brought by tankers' hands
Back to the fatherland
Lang leb Schwarzwaldspitze
After asking pretty much everybody involved within Schwarzwaldspitze's Arts of Warfare program for their recollections and getting no satisfactory answers, Isabel began getting frustrated with the lack of information again. Was there a single person besides Erika who knew what happened? All the black-haired teen wanted was to know what happened, and yet it seemed fate did not want her to learn that information.
But soon enough, Hanna Jochen came to Isabel's office unexpectedly. Isabel had to fight hard to keep her composure, because seeing one of her most talented pilots tainted with prominent burn marks across her face – remaining even after she was treated – was sickening and very upsetting to the black-haired ultra-ace. Curiously enough, the black-haired Geschwaderkommodore saw that the blonde seated before her did not hold the same level of arrogance as she normally did. Instead, Hanna was much quieter and reserved, and Isabel could tell that some part of that was because of the burns across her face: those marks had otherwise ruined the face of a perfectionist, and the black-haired teen imagined it to be quite a shock to the system to find out that all of that effort spent building a perfect body was now gone in an instant.
Isabel eventually figured out the other reason why Hanna was notably more reserved than arrogant, and that had to do with how the blonde retold the events she was asking for from her own point of view. Not a single detail was wrong, considering Hanna had been with Erika for the entirety of the events in question, but Isabel was a bit thankful that the blonde was unable to retell the point in which she was trapped in a burning fighter, since Hanna had been rendered unconscious from the force of the crash landing in the trees.
After finishing talking with the facially-burned blonde, Isabel knew she needed to try and find Erika herself rather than wait for her to come to her. She really needed to apologize for her tirade against her. Only a second after Hanna left her office, Isabel got an unexpected invite on her computer for a video chat. Even more unexpected when she accepted was that the caller was Sasha, Pravda's Komandir Divizii. The blonde Russian ace had a talk with her German counterpart that centered around what Sasha knew of Erika's time spent in Kolenka's captivity.
During the talk, Isabel had to try really hard to keep her composure, because she was feeling a very volatile mixture of emotions taking in what Sasha said had happened to her sister. One of the most obvious emotions was sheer anger at the brutish Russian for putting Erika through all that mental torture.
Sasha seemed to already know Isabel was feeling that particular emotion, because she reassured her with, "Don't worry, I'll knock the living daylights out of him for you. I'd do it anyways, but I can do it for you as well."
Though she wanted to torture the brutish Russian herself, Isabel thanked Sasha for that consideration, and their chat soon came to an end. After knowing what Hanna and Sasha told her of the events she wanted to know, Isabel knew she desperately needed to find Erika as soon as possible and try everything in her powers to gain forgiveness from her. Now, it made so much sense as to why Erika looked so afraid of her during her tirade against her. Looking at it from her point of view, Isabel had made herself seem to be a monster with her actions. She had effectively destroyed Erika's perception of her in one fell swoop and alienated her from the understanding older sister that Isabel had always been.
"Where is she?!" Isabel nearly yelled at Manfred Nishizumi back at their campus residence, on the edge of losing her composure.
The light brunette Tiger ace was caught off-guard by how desperate the elder Hartmann appeared for knowing where Erika was, but he was also afraid of what Isabel could be capable of if she lost control of herself. So Manfred slowly took out a note, a very particular note, and handed it to the black-haired girl, bracing himself for a reaction. Unseen, Michael Nishizumi peeked into the area to see what had made Isabel raise her voice so much.
For our honor!
For our glory!
For my sis who fought and bled!
'I'm sorry I wasn't good enough for your love, Isabel. I tried and tried my hardest to make you proud of me, but I guess I wasn't trying hard enough. Perhaps I was going in the wrong direction the whole time. You can consider this as my resignation from the Jagdgeschwader, but if I can make one last request, then please make sure you pick someone worthy of being your next Oberleutnant. I still want to see the team do well, even if I'm not a part of it anymore. With that being said, I guess this is goodbye. I will always love you, Isabel, never forget that. I just can't deal with the pain of that love being unrequited. That's why I need to leave. So, goodbye, Schwester. -Erika'
Isabel read through the whole note with her hand shaking, and found herself unable to speak for fear her voice would crack in anguish. As tears began to well up in the black-haired girl's eyes, Isabel knew that she was right in the way Erika saw her: as a monster. To now know the consequences of her adrenaline-driven actions, she would've done anything to take them back.
For my grave mistake, she will see me as dead!
The black-haired Geschwaderkommodore fell to her knees and, slamming her left fist into the ground, let out a cry of agony as she fully descended into tears. Her left hand was easily broken from slamming it into the hard floor, but Isabel couldn't bring herself to care about that. The pain of driving away the one person she loved more than anything else in the world, her dear little sister, hurt so much more by comparison.
Why did she have to speak her mind so carelessly at that precise moment after the fight? If she would've held her composure, then everything would be just fine still. But no, Isabel just had to vent her rage of losing onto an Erika that really didn't need that ferocious scolding on top of everything else she went through. For that, Isabel would never forgive herself, and she saw no chance of Erika ever forgiving her. Despite how she never wished for it to happen, Isabel knew that Erika had every reason to see her as dead to her.
Broken dreams of grand
Sing of our final stand
Long live Black Forest
This wasn't supposed to happen. Isabel had always dreamed that Erika would be by her side all the way, and that they would both climb to the top and achieve true greatness together. Now, that dream was no more after the black-haired teen's actions. Her impulsiveness ruined everything. Her extremely competitive spirit ruined everything. Her harshness ruined everything. And what made it even worse was that Isabel had effectively lived up to her popular nickname with her actions: she felt like she really was a demoness, with the blackest of hearts. The Black Demoness was a monster.
Brought by tankers' hands
Back to the fatherland
Long live Black Forest
As Isabel let out her pain, Michael kneeled down beside her and held her close to him. It might've seemed to be a vain effort, because after everything that happened, Isabel appeared to be inconsolable. But Michael didn't want her to suffer alone. He just wanted to be there for Isabel, a lifelong friend, in her darkest hour. He let her cry to her heart's content, which he knew meant that he'd be there for a while. But it didn't matter to the elder Nishizumi: he'd stay there forever if need be for one of his best friends.
Broken dreams of grand
Sing of our final stand
Long live Black Forest
As he watched Isabel cry harder than he'd ever seen before, Manfred felt even more upset knowing that he had indirectly been a cause of her pain. Not only from his assisting Erika during the fight and therefore contributing to the loss, but also his failure to stop her from leaving afterwards. It didn't matter which one it was, because what made the younger Nishizumi feel even worse was that Erika was having to suffer through similar pain all by herself, with no one there for her.
Brought by tankers' hands
Back to the fatherland
(Lang leb) Schwarzwaldspitzeeeee!
Seeing Isabel so broken from the falling-out, Manfred decided in that moment that he just had to go out and find Erika. He couldn't allow his best friend to suffer all by herself, he just couldn't. It didn't matter to him that he'd have to leave everyone else behind in his quest to find her; he was sure Isabel and Michael would understand. Even if he was missed by anyone – which he highly doubted thanks to him not being able to make many friends – he wouldn't change his mind. He didn't want to have to forever remember Erika by that single kiss she gave him before exiting his life forever. He just couldn't accept it. So he packed his bags and departed Schwarzwaldspitze Gymnasium as well, in a search to find his greatest friend and potential girlfriend if that kiss held any meaning.
With everything that happened to Erika and Isabel, both Manfred and Michael could see how the relationship all four of them had with each other was going to change drastically from then on. Things would change, and they would change until they were no longer recognizable.
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Part of Projekt Erika.
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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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