The Legends Still Live On

Bogen Siebundzwanzig-komma-ein: Extras Neun und Zehn

Kapitel Fünf: Kaninchentanz

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"So," Erich began as he looked around the area before the hangars, looking a bit lost as to why he had to be there. He was standing beside Miho, who was far calmer than the restless blonde beside her. "You want to tell me why we're all gathered here, again?"

Everyone that was a part of the two Arts of Warfare programs for Ooarai High School was gathered together at the hangars upon special request. Every last one of them was there, including Erich's group of misfits, Miho's band of blood sisters, the rather diverse and clashing set of Student Council personalities, the muscle-heads that were the former Volleyball Club, the equally-former and equally-barbaric Badminton Team, the stuck-in-the-past history buffs, the young but talented football-playing first years, the overly strict and pedantic Public Morals Committee, the circle of beyond-addicted gamers, the reckless motorheads of the Automotive Club, and the public safety hazard that was the Aeronautics Club.

All of the tank crews and ground crews were present along with all the pilots. The only group that was missing was the group of first-year girls, whose whereabouts were unknown to all but a few.

"Apparently," Miho began with an air of calmness, which was the opposite of Erich's present restlessness. "The girls of Rabbit Team wanted to show us something."

"And that is…?" Erich asked back with his head tilted sideways in wonder.

The light brunette girl simply shrugged with a small mysterious smile. "They didn't say," she elaborated.

The blonde huffed and turned his head upward to the sky, silently begging the gods that be to have mercy on him. Because just standing there was the purest form of torture, what with how boring it was.

Miho saw this and had to hold back the need to giggle. It was very amusing to her right now just how much Erich resembled a child with his actions. Really, it wasn't surprising to her in the least bit: Erich had always been a child at heart, even when Miho herself had grown up during their still-ongoing adolescence.

Her attention, along with everyone else's, was drawn to the hangar doors when the telltale sound of them sliding open was heard. With the doors opened, all six members of Rabbit Team stepped forth out of them, in plain view of everybody else as they all stood line abreast. The only difference between them and everyone else was their present outfit: while everyone else wore what they normally wore during the school day, the Rabbit Team girls had all donned a pink skin-tight suit that had a fluffy rabbit tail just above their behinds, along with a set of bunny ears on their heads, also pink. All of the first-year girls also had in each hand a large kitchen knife.

The stares that everyone directed at them were so stupefied and prominent that the staring could likely be felt even from orbit. At this point, Miho nearly lost control over herself after recognizing that the outfit was similar to what she had worn to perform the Anglerfish Dance, a dance that was still plaguing in her mind via some very unpleasant flashbacks. The dance itself was a trigger to her, and a really reactive trigger, too, as Erich could attest to.

For the blonde himself, he was actually rather indifferent to the outfits, despite how provocative they appeared with how tightly they clung to each of the girls. His source of surprise was the implication that there were more dances like the Anglerfish Dance, something that, while he enjoyed using it to draw out the exquisite combination of Miho's ire, embarrassment, and libido all put together, he would honestly never expect to catch on otherwise. But he was wrong, it seemed.

And that's when the music started. The tune was outwardly similar to the tune used for the Anglerfish Dance, though it was tweaked a bit for the Rabbit Team's use now.

Usasa!
Usasa!
Usasa!
Usa!

The first portion – the 'Usasa, Usasa' part – was similar to the Anglerfish Dance's opening moves, though it was modified slightly using the kitchen knives. The main change was using the knife in place of a hand and slightly swinging that downward instead via a slow-paced flick of the wrist. Everything else was otherwise identical to the Anglerfish Dance.

That motion was repeated after the second line transitioning to the 'Usasa, Usa' part, but this time to the other side, requiring a quick twisting jump one-eighty degrees to face their left. The twisting jump was seamless, not affecting the rhythm at all.

U-sasa!
U-sasa!
U-sa-sa!

For the next two lines – the 'U-sasa, U-sasa' part – things changed a bit. The first portion was effectively repeated as they all jumped and twisted to face back to their right, but this time the girls used both knives and brought them up to their heads, making pseudo-horns with them. When the 'U' part came along, the girls would all slightly jerk the knives upwards a bit higher before returning them back down. In time with the 'sasa' part, the knives were all dipped downwards with a quick flick of the wrists, one dip per 'sa.'

The next line – 'U-sa-sa' – was quite fast-paced. For the 'U' part, the girls all jumped and twisted one-eighty degrees back the other way, while again flicking their wrists to dip their knives in a downward motion, still keeping them in the horns position. For the first 'sa,' they jumped and twisted one-eighty degrees again, and they repeated the flick of the wrists again. The second 'sa' was identical, with another one-eighty degree twist and flick of the wrists.

It was quite the unique dance, one that both Anton and Saori instantly approved of if their cheers were anything to go by.

"HELL YEAH!" Anton roared in approval, raising a fist with similar vigor. "YOU RULE, GIRLS!"

"AWESOME!" Saori cheered quite loudly, like a cheerleader in a vague, twisted sense. "YOU'RE THE BEST, GIRLS!"

It was no surprise that the blonde American and ginger Japanese girl cheered so heavily for the first-year girls: the two of them both loved them dearly. The relationship they all had was much like family, in a twisted way.

The first-year boys, on the other hand, were starved for a reaction, simply because they were rendered speechless by the first-year girls' act. Of all of them, only Matthias outwardly showed that he was flustered by the girls' very figure-hugging outfits, as evidenced when the football he was dribbling with his feet – a real football, not one of those over-glorified rugby balls the Americans like to call a football – in an attempt to keep it in the air for as long as possible, was sent higher than normal out of surprise from one kick and bonked him on his head when it came back down. The others were either completely clueless as to what was going on, or, in the case of Bastian, had no opinion on the matter.

"Aren't the knives a bit much, though?" Hana wondered, still holding a peaceful smile even though it was by no means an appropriate expression.

Herz heard the Panzer IV gunner and simply quirked an eyebrow up at her. He found the question ironic considering he had been carrying around his compound bow and quiver, filled with arrows, all day and had gotten no extra attention because of it. To illustrate his point, he took an arrow and pointedly nocked it into the bow he held at the ready in his other hand.

Hana noticed the point the nomad Prussian archer was making and amended, "Your point has been received."

The history buffs had mixed reactions: some of them had blank faces while others had faces filled with intrigue.

One of the blank-faced buffs, Wolf, noticed the intrigued buffs, and he immediately commanded, "Nein." It was a simple command, but it carried all the meaning he needed.

"Please, by Odin's beard, do not come up with a Hippo Dance…" Gustav, another of the blank-faced buffs, deadpanned upon seeing the faces of intrigue in Caesar and Oryou's faces.

And then there were Miho and Erich's reactions. Miho immediately turned away and buried her face into the blonde's neck as she started having Anglerfish Dance flashbacks. If she had known that this was what the Rabbit Team girls wanted to show them all, then she never would've allowed it to happen. But, as she had learned over the years, hindsight is twenty-twenty.

Erich, on the other hand, was not terribly affected by the dance as he instinctively enclosed his arms around the relapsing light brunette. Instead, he furrowed his eyebrows when he heard that word being repeated in the song, with varying voice inflections and timings. "What the devil does 'Usasa' mean?" he muttered, lost.

Miho let out a slightly annoyed groan at the blonde's timely question, as she didn't wish to hear anything having to do with that dance, but since Erich's lack of comprehension of the Japanese tongue had reared itself again, she was effectively obligated to answer. "Usa," she corrected, still keeping her face buried into the crook of his neck. "And it's short for Usagi, which means the same thing as Kaninchen…"

Erich raised his eyebrows and hummed in understanding, making the connection that the word was really just another way of saying 'rabbit.' He then thought nothing more of it and simply stood there with his arms around his longest friend and lover. Personally, if he had it his way, he would set the dance to Sabaton's Man of War, just to see what would happen. But nowadays he didn't much get his way thanks to the light brunette minx in his arms, who always got her way instead.

Not that he minded, though.

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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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