The Legends Still Live On

Bogen Siebundzwanzig-komma-ein: Extras Neun und Zehn

Kapitel Einundzwanzig: Süße Tortur

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"(From the depths of hell in silence
Cast their spells, explosive violence
Russian nighttime flight perfected
Flawless vision, undetected)"

The blond-haired ultra-ace Erich-Dietrich Hartmann narrowed his gaze in inspection at the cluster of wooden pins – which were arranged to vaguely resemble a field gun – inside of a white square about thirteen meters from his current position. All his focus was directed to figuring out the best way to knock them all out of that square in one fell swoop.

"From the depths of hell in silence!
Cast their spells, explosive violence!
Russian nighttime flight perfected!
Flawless vision, undetected!"

Believing he had found it, he soon shifted his stance so his left side was facing the cluster of pins. He hefted a bat in his right hand a few times, reaffirming the feel of it as he gripped it very near the end. Then, with a forward step of his left foot, he twisted his body towards the pins while simultaneously precisely chucking the bat towards them with a side-arm throw.

The bat spun nearly flatly through its arc until striking the pin formation with a resounding crack, scattering them all out of the white square.

"Pushing on and on
Their planes are going strong
(Air force's number one!)"

"JA-ha-ha!" Erich whooped with a laugh as he swung his fist up in accomplishment. He then swiftly turned to his left, where a few others were observing him from. He pointed at one with a very vibrant-colored brown, almost brownish-red, head of relatively short hair. "Pay up! I won the bet!"

"Somewhere down below
They're looking for the foe
(Bombers on a run!)"

Miho Nishizumi rolled her eyes with an affectionate smile and plucked out one of the chocolates in the red heart-shaped box she had with her. She then tossed it across towards the blonde with a flick of her wrist. The German ultra-ace greedily caught the treat out of the air with his mouth and relished the taste of it. It was a reward he always loved claiming, and this occasion was no less.

The bet itself was about whether he could knock out all of the pins on his first try. While that might not seem difficult in itself, it was a lot harder than it looked due to this being the first ever time Erich had tried his hand at gorodki. Gorodki was a Russian game in which the goal was to knock out groups of pins – called 'gorodki,' and arranged in various formations – out of a square zone – called the 'gorod' – by throwing a bat at them. Objectively, the idea was to knock them all out in the fewest possible tries. It was similar in concept to what would result if both skittles and horseshoes were combined together.

"You can't hide
You can't move
Just abide
Their attack's been proved!
(Raiders in the dark!)"

Despite the fact that there were some speakers blasting Sabaton in the area he was playing, Erich found it to not be a hindrance in the least bit. It affected him not, because he was fully conditioned to heavy metal assaulting his ear drums day in and day out.

Fittingly, the others that were present with Miho included Pravda's finest. No, not their secret police. Rather, it was merely Sasha, Nonna, Nudelmann, and Katyusha. The diminutive leader was perched atop the shoulders of Nudelmann that day, with Nonna to his left and Sasha to his right. Among the small group, Miho was to Sasha's right.

"Silent through the night
The Witches join the fight
(Never miss their mark!)"

The reactions provided by all of them were all distinct. Katyusha applauded politely, uncharacteristically without comment. Below her, Nudelmann tilted his chin up a bit, giving him an overall impressed expression. Nonna had eyes open a little wider in disbelief and eyebrows raised, though she also managed to look a bit pissed, overall appearing like she had been cheated.

"Canvas wings of death!
Prepare to meet your fate!"

Sasha had by far the most colorful reaction out of them all. "What the-… How the hell did he do that!?" he asked with an incredible amount of disbelief, simultaneously making some wild hand-motions in a similarly stupefied manner, among which was the flinging of them. "Not even I could do that my first try out!" He brought a hand to his chin as he rethought his previous statement. "Of course, it doesn't help that I was only five and could barely hold the bat..."

"Night bomber regiment!
Five-hundred eighty-eight!"

"I'd like to know how he did that, as well," Nonna said, still looking a bit pissed as she steered the conversation back to the blond-haired German's unforeseen performance. Out of the four Russians present, she was the one who took gorodki the most seriously out of them all. And to have Erich just demonstrate absolute perfection on his first ever attempt at the game felt like a slap in the face to her own talent for it.

"Undetected!
Unexpected!
Wings of glory!
Tell their story!"

Miho shrugged off the question. "That's just how he is," she divulged. Nonna and Sasha listened to her intently, being as Miho was the number one source on everything about Erich. "He's got this knack for being extremely adaptable, in the sense that he can do any particular thing to perfection, even if he's never done it before."

"Oh, come on, that's fucking bullshit!" Sasha loudly denied, refusing to believe Erich was the embodiment of perfection. "A god, Erikh isn't!"

"Aviation!
Deviation!
Undetected
Stealth perfected"

Miho shrugged a bit meekly in response, wearing a timid smile. "Well, I can't say he's disproven that notion…" she chose to further say.

"That's it, where's a bat at?" Nonna practically demanded in her perfectly measured tone, refusing to let this challenge against her gorodki mastery go unanswered.

As the air grew anticipatory with the impending gorodki face-off, Katyusha yawned as if bored, tapping the side of Nudelmann's temple lightly. That was a gesture understood to refer to how she wished to go somewhere else now, and the giant Russian obliged her by taking them both elsewhere, away from the blooming gorodki rivalry and the absurdly loud heavy metal.

As Nudelmann carted her around, the diminutive Russian took the chance to observe the surrounding area. The Kiev had made a stop at Le Havre, of all places, and it was… interesting, to say the least, to Katyusha. It wasn't often that Pravda came to the west without toting around their massive arsenal. Oddly enough, the Zuikaku was also there, hence the presence of Ooarai's diverse student body along with the Russians of Pravda on the streets of France.

What the diminutive Russian saw a lot of was people exchanging cards – almost all of them being red in color – in addition to these red heart-shaped boxes that a lot of young men presented as gifts to young women. Red roses were also among the items being exchanged, either singly or as a bouquet given as a gift to a girl. Further along the lines of the heart boxes, Katyusha also caught glimpses showing that they were filled with delectable sweets. She recalled having seen Miho with one of those boxes earlier also, and had this nagging feeling that Erich had something to do with it.

Oftentimes when these exchanges occurred, Katyusha had to force herself to turn away out of respect, for the exchangers, usually a man and a woman, would often immediately start kissing lovingly afterwards. It didn't take a lot of deducting for Katyusha to figure out that most of these pairs were lovers or something close to that label.

But none of what she saw lined up with anything she had ever seen before. For the life of her, she couldn't come up with any logical reason why everything that was happening was happening. For a second, she wondered if she had completely missed out on something and was simply oblivious to what was happening, but she ruled that out soon enough. She was sure she was wide awake and fully conscious, thoughts her own.

Katyusha didn't notice, but she had been unconsciously looking around in a restless demeanor as she thought. Nudelmann could feel her subtle squirming, however, but he simply waited for Katyusha to swallow her pride and just ask.

Finally, after several minutes it seemed, the diminutive Russian caved in. "Nudelmann, is today a special day or something for westerners?" she asked, crossing her arms in a haughty posture.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Nudelmann answered, wearing a small grin at the knowledge that he was right about Katyusha's curiosity being too insatiable for her to quell down. "February fourteenth is a special day in the west. Today, they celebrate something called 'Valentine's Day.'"

Katyusha grew a look that said she understood yet didn't understand at the same time. "… I think I can safely assume that it's nothing like the church's Saint Valentine's Days, then?" she put forth her assumption, referring to the Eastern Orthodox practice of honoring two different Saint Valentines, on different days. At least, Katyusha hoped she was correct in her reference. She wasn't religious, so she wouldn't trust her own word on such matters.

"No, not at all," the Russian giant confirmed. "Though originally it was a day to honor Saint Valentine, eventually in the west, Valentine's Day grew to have many connotations alluding to romance, meaning it's often considered a day of love. Such love is often symbolized by gift giving, where people will give presents to their 'valentines,' or their significant others, but giving gifts to friends is also quite common. Most often these gifts are things like roses and boxes of chocolate, though they're certainly not limited to those only."

At the last sentence, Nudelmann subtly reached inside one of his outer shirt pockets. From within, he soon found what he was looking for. "In fact, I've got a gift of my own for you right here," he revealed with a small grin as he brought out the gift completely. It was a rather normal-looking box, with Pravda's hammer and sickle parody insignia on it.

But judging by Katyusha's rather enthusiastic gasp, it seemed she already knew what was in the box: delectable treats. "Spasibo, my favorite giant Nudelmann!" she practically exclaimed to the world as she lunged forth, hand outstretched and ready to grab her treats.

However, with a trickster's smirk now adorning his face, Nudelmann extended his arm fully in front of him. This made Katyusha stop for a second to think, but not for long as she tried reaching the box again. But it was in vain, as she was simply too short to reach out to the box without falling quite a distance to the ground, though if one asked her she would say that Nudelmann's arms were too long, rather.

Watching her cling one arm onto the giant's head to steady herself while shimmying herself fully onto one shoulder and perilously trying to reach out for the box was extremely amusing. On the whole, such an antic provided a very comedic scene to anyone who passed them by, as Katyusha's vain attempts to reach the box without falling off Nudelmann's shoulders were humorous enough to make them instant internet stars.

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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. The music belongs to Sabaton. Any references made belong to their respective owners.

Feel free to ask any questions if you have them. Please note, however, that questions asked without being signed in will not be answered. The author would prefer to address questions outside of the story, and leaving questions while signed in provides that ability.

Special thanks to ChillingComrade for his idea of east-meets-west.