The Legends Still Live On

by der Jagdexperte

The Arts of Warfare aren't just about the fights. It's also about everyone that participates in them, including what they do every day outside of combat. What happens when the Panzerkraft girls are let loose in their everyday lives? Very interesting things. What about if the Jägermeistern guys are included as well? Get ready for a lot of tomfoolery. Part of Projekt Jägermeistern.

154. Kapitel 28,1

The Legends Still Live On

Bogen Achtundzwanzig: Die zwei Freunde

Kapitel Ein: Interner Machtkampf

XXXXXXXXXX

'No… she wouldn't…' Erich thought, desperately latching onto that last tendril of hope that maybe he was mistaken.

Before him, stance ready to spring to self-defense, was Miho. This here right now was an utter tragedy to her, one that just made her even more upset upon recognizing it was practically unavoidable.

She had managed to shatter the complete, unyielding trust Erich had in her.

That was saying something, considering there was no one he trusted more than her for anything.

"How long?" Erich asked in a low voice filled with a whirlwind of emotions. Hatred, heartbreak, betrayal, disbelief, all of those.

Miho did not want to answer, because she knew the truth would devastate him. It was already bad enough as it was, but she knew if she answered that there would be worse to come.

"Do not FUCK with me, Miho!" the blonde all-but-yelled at her when she didn't answer. "How long!?"

Answering was unavoidable, as all the evidence had already been discovered. So, with a heavy heart, she whispered, "Ten years."

She saw it. She saw something in those deep blue eyes of his just snap. Erich lowered his head for a moment. When he lifted his gaze back to hers, she saw his eyes were no longer that gentle, kind blue they normally were. Now, his eyes were stormy and icy.

Without warning, he flew towards her with only the thought of coldly-served vengeance in his head.

'I'm sorry…' Miho wept in her mind as everything fell apart. Her very best friend had now been turned against her.

XXXXXXXXXX

Miho: Now, I know what you're thinking. 'How did this happen?' It's not a happy tale, so don't get your hopes up.

Before I show you, I just want you to understand this: be wary of being too compliant. Otherwise it will become impossible to break free from compliance's grasp, which can have a whole host of consequences, good and bad.

My situation was very specific, but my point remains: sometimes, becoming too compliant means your will no longer remains relevant. Instead, someone else's will take precedence. And, like any other time wills clash, conflict will erupt. But, in this case, someone like I had described ends up becoming the enemy to one side just because they remained compliant, whether by force or willingly, to the other side.

Oh, that sounds like a mess. How can I describe it better?... Perhaps it's similar to this: imagine your family was killed by an assassin, but that assassin was operating under the orders of a higher master. From the assassin's perspective, they may have not been given a choice in it. They had to do it, whether to ensure their own survival or because they had grown too complacent. They may not even have wanted to do it, at all. But it doesn't matter in the end, because you'd still blame them for the death of your family.

Yet, all of that could have been prevented had the assassin stood up for themselves and not submit to something they didn't want to do.

I guess my ultimate point is this: don't let someone else make your decisions for you. Otherwise things can get much, much worse if you forgo your own control.

I speak from experience.

XXXXXXXXXX

Earlier that day…

In the Ooarai hangars, was almost no activity.

In fact, the only ones there were Miho, Erich, and their respective crews. The crews weren't up to much. Rather, they were busied by binge-watching some American show Anton had sucked them into projected onto one of the walls. They were all huddled close together in camping chairs, which presented the problem of David being unable to see over Mako's chair.

"Can you move your seat up?" he asked her politely, seated behind her in his own chair. It was strange hearing his monotonous way of speaking try to mix with politeness.

"No," Mako flatly responded, otherwise not outwardly showing even a hint that she heard him.

David had no outward reaction to that besides scooting his chair over a little bit, as much as the tight spacing would allow.

Elsewhere in the hangar, both Erich and Miho were standing over a table riddled down in work relating to the Arts of Warfare programs.

"No, feel free to leave a message," the blonde said over the phone. "… Why leave a message? Because I like to see how high I can get the number of missed calls." He then hung up on Anzu.

But in seconds, his phone rang again, this time from Aprikose. "No, don't!" he groaned out, choosing to immediately hang up before answering.

He was sick of the Student Council constantly calling him. Granted, he couldn't blame them. After all, they were a lot busier now as all the work they had pushed back started to creep back up on them, but he was just sick of getting calls all the time. Couldn't he get a break?

"Just tell them to contact me from now on," Miho said, not even so much as glancing up as she looked over her master chart for combat readiness.

"Gladly," he sighed in relief.

He quickly shot out a text to all Student Council members, saying, 'If it's Arts of Warfare-related business, PLEASE bother Miho with it instead of me.' Afterwards, he shoved his phone back in his pocket.

Not five seconds later, Miho's phone toned with the arrival of a new message.

"Really…" Erich shook his head.

The vibrant brunette took out her phone and opened the message. Reading it, she gasped as if something just came to her. "Scheiße!" she cursed, looking to him with wide eyes. "I forgot to get that clearance form for keeping aboard the T-Stoff and C-Stoff! Can you take that for me? Danke!" She said everything very quickly in one breath, shoving her phone in his direction before sprinting off.

"Wha-HEY!" Erich yelled after her, dumbstruck for that split-second and nearly dropping her phone. "Don't leave me alone with all this!" Alas, Miho paid him no heed and ran off to her task. "… Aaaaand she's gone. Scheiße…"

Looking down at her phone, Erich read through the message his girlfriend just received. It was from Yuzu, and it said, 'I tried placing the order for that delivery of fuel, but to get the Komet's I need your authorization. Can you take care of that?'

"Wait a minute…" the blonde contemplated. "If clearance was an issue, then couldn't I clear it up?" He thought for a moment, but then shook his head. "Nah. Too much work for me."

He chose to write up a return message that just said, 'On it.' It didn't matter if he was answering in her steed, because, for all intents and purposes, he knew Miho was on it regardless.

His brow furrowed, however, when he caught sight of a message chain that looked very peculiar to him. Mainly, the peculiarity stemmed from the messages being exchanged with Miho's mother. He thought it strange because as far as he could tell, Miho never once tried contacting her mother ever since he found her aboard the Zuikaku.

But… now that he thought back, he had seen her sometimes texting at various times in the past, but whenever he brought it up, she would dismiss him, saying it was nothing important. And he let it be. Maybe these were the messages he was thinking of.

It felt so wrong to him to snoop through her phone like this without her permission, but Erich was just too intrigued to resist himself. He figured that he could beg for forgiveness later. Ergo, he tapped the chain and opened it, beginning to read through it.

As he began reading, he felt more and more like he had just stumbled on something he was never meant to find out. But, at the same time, he was struck in disbelief at what he was seeing. Because this just couldn't be right. There was just no way.

… Was there?

He knew Miho. He knew her. Better than anyone else, he'd argue. Almost mockingly, however, there was no possibility he could think of that would explain this in a way that fit her personality. 'Or,' a tiny corner of his mind whispered traitorously, 'maybe you never knew her at all, and this is how she really is.'

Erich shook his head, trying to shake off those thoughts. This was his best friend, the person he trusted more than anyone else, that he was talking about. Surely she has a reason for this?

'But, if she did, then how would I figure it out?' was the question he thought. He didn't think she would be forthcoming about this with how she had deliberately concealed it from him, so the next best option was to figure it out for himself.

Currently, the only information he had on the matter was that which lied at his fingertips, as it was highly unlikely he could get into other sources of information. Miho was very meticulous, observant, and organized. She could notice something was out of place the moment she walked into a room.

He looked through the chain, getting a deeper and deeper feeling of nausea at how long it went. What made it feel so sickening was the incredibly vague wording used. Nothing was ever explicitly mentioned, and it looked as if what was implied was only able to be deciphered if one were in on the secret.

It was mainly a series of status updates, prompted by Shiho, but it looked as if Miho was willingly answering, giving sitreps on an objective of some kind. Popping up a few times were references to a plan that was never explicitly mentioned. The whole chain had a feel to it not unlike that of planning a coup if Erich was interpreting it correctly. It sounded very devious in a background sort of way, having just enough pieces to it to make it sound like some sort of plot.

Then the really disturbing part was when Miho was prompted on suspicions and loyalties. It was disturbing because her answer was that there was not a hint of suspicion, but simultaneously it was written in a very prideful sort of way. The same manner was used whenever answering about loyalties, with the short answer being loyalty was assured. But the disturbing part was that she had not specified whose loyalty was assured. The way it was written, it made it seem like there was more than one person whose loyalty was being discussed. And the real unsettling part was that often suspicions and loyalties were questioned in tandem, making it seem like both were intertwined in some way. With that, Erich got the feeling that there was someone loyal to the cause that was unaware of that fact, meaning they had no idea about this hidden agenda at all, which meant this person likely wasn't supposed to be aware of this in the first place and was meant simply to be used as a tool when the time came.

Oh, now he was feeling really sick.

Looking back up at the time at the top of the screen, he noticed a couple of minutes had passed, and that Miho was likely to come back soon. But he hadn't yet deciphered what was going on in this plan, so when she came back, he knew he would lose his chance at uncovering whatever this plan was.

Finally, he thought of something. Leaving the hangar, he called out to his and Miho's crews, "I have to go! Tell Miho I went to the library!"

He got no response, but that was because he knew they were completely sucked into the show they were watching and didn't want to lose focus. Hence the lack of a verbal answer. But he knew they heard him anyway and would tell Miho when she came back that he went off.

But he had no intention whatsoever of heading to the library. Rather, he began to run back to the dorm they shared. He only threw out library because it was the first thing he thought of. 'Information' led to 'library.'

All this time he managed to keep flicking his thumb across the phone's screen to keep it unlocked. Not knowing her passcode meant he had to do that to keep the information he now had. And he had no intentions of letting it go.

XXXXXXXXXX

'Well, that mess is now gone,' Miho thought with satisfaction as she strolled back to the hangars.

It was just a case of forgetfulness that caused that trouble, and it was now taken care of. Now, the Me 163's special – and highly volatile – fuel and oxidizer were ordered along with the other types of fuel needed for the Arts of Warfare programs' vehicles, conveniently at the same time.

It was only a problem because there was an extra line of legal stuff to go through regarding liabilities with rocket fuel due to how volatile and dangerous it could be when mishandled. Hence the need for top-level authorization – in other words, either hers or Erich's name on the form – to acquire it.

But that train of thought lost track quickly when she noticed the ultra-ace himself was no longer in the hangar. Rolling her eyes with a small grin of fond exasperation at the assumption he was skipping out like always, she instinctively dug through her pocket to find her phone and send a message off to Erich, but it was then she realized with a start she had left it with him when she left. Striding to the table with all their work spread out over it, she quickly saw it wasn't there.

Now confused, she walked over towards where her and his crews were at, guessing he was with them.

But he wasn't. It was just the crews, eyes glued to the show being projected on the wall. It made her raise an eyebrow and idly wonder if not here, then where else Erich could be.

"Hey, guys?" Miho prompted.

"SSH!" everyone else hissed at her before returning their gaze resolutely to the show.

She raised her other eyebrow, a little put off by their hostility. But it just gave her the information that they were completely sucked into the show. It meant she had to change tactics. Looking around for whatever the source of the show was, she quickly found out it was Yukari's laptop playing it. It rested atop the Panzer IV's rear deck, with a charging cord running from it to one of the floor-mounted outlets.

'Fine, if you want to play that way,' she thought, silently striding to the laptop and delicately pressing the pause button with one finger.

"Hey! What the hell! Oh, come on!" a wave of protests resounded from the group at the interruption.

"Just answer a quick question for me and I'll leave you alone to watch… what are you even watching, to begin with?" Miho started to assert herself, only to get caught up with what weird show they were watching. She recognized it as looking somewhat anime-esque in style, but there was something off about it.

"Avatar: The Last Airbender," Anton supplied. At Miho's quizzical expression, he began to explain, "Well, it's an American cartoon drawn in a similar style as anime and is in part defined by its heavy integration of East Asian culture-"

"Ah-ah. Later, maybe," Miho interrupted with a hand wave, conceding to come back to the topic later. It did interest her a little bit, truth be told, but it wasn't important now. "Do you all know where Erich went?"

"He said he was going to the library when he left," Saori provided, helpful as always.

"Thanks," Miho returned with a smile, pressing the play button and walking away.

She logically concluded that Erich must've taken her phone with him to the library. As she set off for said building, she wondered why he would take her phone like that. She thought it may have been a whimsical choice. It would certainly fit his modus operandi of harmless immaturity. So she didn't think he had any sinister intentions with it.

Of course, that wasn't to say she wasn't still annoyed by him taking her damn phone in the first place. It was her fucking phone.

XXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile in her apartment, Erich had already fully dived into the information he discovered. And it wasn't looking pretty.

He read as many messages as he could, trying to find out as much as possible. He was looking out for anything that might lead to something concrete, but he had no luck for the most part. The language used was too cryptic to have any specifics deduced from it.

Until he found one message talking about how Shiho had sent Miho an updated version of a plan of some kind. Given the previous occurrences of the word, he assumed the plan they spoke of was the one they had been talking about before.

That message gave him some satisfaction, namely because he was finally getting somewhere. He assumed this plan was sent via e-mail, so he backed out of the messages and went straight to the e-mail app. No requirement for a password on the app meant he had easy – and full – access to all her folders, including, crucially, her inbox.

Now it was merely down to finding out which of these e-mails didn't quite belong. He highly doubted Shiho would send e-mails to her youngest on a whim, so it made sense to him that he would find just one e-mail sent by her.

"Junk. Junk. School. Junk," he muttered as he scrolled. "That's mine. Junk. Junk. School. School." He raised an eyebrow quizzically. "I don't think I want to know who sent that one."

After another minute, he finally landed on the one oddity in the bunch. It was hard to spot at first, as it looked like it was sent by a burner account, but it didn't have the typical promotional appearance that a junk e-mail would have, so it gave him reason to check it at least.

"Ah, here we are," he observed triumphantly. That ended up being the jackpot. That e-mail featured nothing but a single attached file with a name denoting the file was a revision. Assured this was the one, Erich decided to forward the e-mail to himself.

Afterwards, he booted up the computer in the room and brought up his own e-mail. Opening the message, he momentarily hesitated to open the attached file, unsure if he really wanted to find out what was in it.

Mentally going back and forth with it for a little bit, he eventually shook his head. "Well, I've come this far," he said to himself. "It'd be a waste of effort to not continue forth."

Now resolved, he opened the attachment, bringing up an outlined plan.

But, upon seeing what the plan entailed, as well as its final objective, Erich felt as if he'd been punched in the gut. This was so much worse than he had imagined.

"No, no, no, no…" he shook his head in denial. Eyes darting back up to the screen, he immediately looked away again, squeezing his eyes shut. "No, there's no way… There's just no way…"

But the proof was right in front of him. It was undeniable. Now, Erich was wondering if he had ever known Miho, because in light of his discovery, he just didn't recognize her anymore.

XXXXXXXXXX

"What in God's name is going on?" Miho thought aloud with a bit of frustration as she walked along the sidewalk.

She hadn't found Erich at the library, which really threw her for a loop, because she couldn't figure out why he would lie about that. Every possibility she thought of was written off when she thought a little deeper and recognized that his attitude wouldn't lead to that possibility. The only thing she could think of that made even the basest kind of sense was that it was a long practical joke, but even that didn't quite make total sense when she thought about it.

If it was just an elaborate prank, then her friends would've had to have been in on it. But they weren't. Miho read their expressions and mannerisms when she talked to them earlier. They had acted in a way that was just too genuine. If they had been in on it, then there would've been a few oddities in their behaviors she would've noticed. That was especially true for someone like Saori, who wore her emotions plain as day on her face.

So it left her back to square one: why did Erich lie about where he was heading?

It was making her head hurt to think about it, so she decided to just drop it for now and think about where he could possibly be. If not the library, where else would he have gone?

He still had her phone with him, so she wondered if it was possibly related to that in some way. Maybe he had been intrigued with something on there? It wasn't as if she kept many interesting things on her phone.

… Or at least, things that didn't interest her. Maybe she had to think about it from Erich's perspective. If she was him, then what would she do with her phone?

She tried to remember everything on her phone, cataloguing everything in it as things that would be interesting to him and things that would not be interesting to him. At first, she was still stuck, as there wasn't any obvious thing on her phone she could remember that would intrigue him.

But then she recalled how Erich's mind worked: he was someone who went after the small details to build a bigger picture. So chances were, whatever he was interested in wasn't blatantly out there in the open. It was also likely whatever he was interested in was connected to something else. With that in mind, she dug deeper into her mentally-constructed phone, not leaving one app unchecked.

She recalled that she had a chain of messages exchanged with her mother, but she had dismissed them from being his interest at first. It was highly unlikely that he would decipher their meanings thanks to the vague wording used in them.

But she thought perhaps she should mentally go through them again, just to completely rule them out. She knew Erich had a very stubborn determination when he wanted something badly enough.

A frigid chill suddenly swept through her as she came to the realization that maybe he was determined enough to try and figure out what those messages were saying. It was a terrifying thought to wonder if he could do it.

Shoving her fear to the side, she tried to think about it rationally. If – and this was a big 'if' – he did try going about uncovering the meanings of those messages, then she knew he would eventually be led to check her e-mail. When he did that, she knew he was competent enough to find the e-mail with her mother's plans for her. But the plan couldn't be opened on her phone. She knew it could only be opened on a computer, and she had made sure it was deleted from the files of the computer in their dorm to prevent Erich from discovering it.

With that, she figured there was nothing to worry about and that her secret was safe. There was no way he could gain access to her e-mail on the computer.

But she was continually bothered by the idea that he may have found a way regardless. Thinking hard, she tried to figure out how he could still get access to those plans with that roadblock in the way. He couldn't gain access to her e-mail on a computer, so what other way was there?

She felt the breath leave her lungs suddenly as she thought she figured out a way. With access to her e-mail on her phone, there was nothing stopping him from forwarding the e-mail to himself. And then he could open his own e-mail on a computer, open the forwarded e-mail, and open the file from there.

Now she was feeling nauseous. She knew that if he found out what was in that file, then he would be destroyed emotionally. That was why she had never told him.

Suddenly she found herself standing in front of their dorm room. She wondered what had brought her here, because she was so consumed in her thoughts she wasn't paying attention to where she was heading. Maybe it was instinct that brought her here.

She hoped her instincts hadn't failed her. Opening the door with her key, she was relieved yet anxious to see Erich sitting at the desk in the corner, where the computer was. Gently closing the door behind her, she slowly advanced towards him, wary of how he hadn't paid her any notice yet. He was just staring at the computer screen.

She glanced at it, and immediately flinched in pain at what she saw. 'He knows.'

On the screen was the full detailed plan Shiho had for her. It wasn't terribly complex, but it required one thing above all else in order to succeed: Miho needed Erich's complete trust in her and his complete ignorance of the plan.

Yet, she could tell immediately now that she had lost both.

"Was that all I was to you?" Erich spoke up, voice almost completely devoid of any feeling except for the barest hint of betrayal. There was too much of that feeling in him to fully conceal.

Turning towards her, he slowly stood up. The stinging sensation of betrayal was as plain as day on his face, and Miho had to blink back tears at the amount of hurt.

"Was I just some… objective to achieve?" he asked, further clarifying his last question. "Or was I more of an asset? A tool? A puppet?" he snarled out, "Meant to serve your will all while you lie to my face?"

She knew the one thing he hated the most was being controlled. That was why she didn't tell him anything earlier, because she knew he would feel betrayed beyond comprehension.

"Tell me," he began almost nonchalantly, slowly walking a circle around her. Without physically turning her body, she kept him in sight. "Are any of those friends of yours, actually your friends? Or are they merely a means to an end for you? Because I can't tell the difference anymore."

Miho did her best to not break down at the venom-laced words. Having Erich speak to her in such a way was doing a whole lot of damage to her.

"What were you going to do once you won?" he asked next. "Were you just going to kill me? Make it look like an accident?" He cocked his head to the side. "Or maybe you would've wanted to use me as a plaything?" He came to a stop in front of her. "Or did mother dearest have another plan in the lineup for you? What would that one have consisted of? Because you would've already gotten for her everything she desired by then: my family's school under her management as well as the fortune it made, and me at your loyal service as your puppet. Or husband, if you want the official term, but it makes no difference. You would've still had me as your fucking slave."

Miho looked down, eyes heavily misty. Yes, it was true that part of that plan for power that she would've ended up wedding him, but she would've wanted to marry him anyway, regardless of whatever plans her mother could concoct.

"What would've been her next plan?" he prompted, completely off-kilter in attitude now. When she didn't speak, he noticed and mocked her. "It's okay, you can tell me. What more could you lose in doing so?"

She really had nothing to lose anymore, and she had already had enough of concealing ugly truths. After a lengthy pause, she took a deep breath and said one word, "Heirs."

His fingers twitched. Both were surprised he managed to restrain himself from choking the life out of her right then.

"She likely would've wanted me to produce heirs and heiresses to both schools with you. Whether willingly…" she hesitated, ashamed she had even remotely agreed to the idea before, "… or by force."

"'By force?'" Erich let out a harsh, bitter chuckle. "I have no doubt in my mind you could." Wanting to bring up another point, he said, "Why you, though? I thought if your mother wanted anything regarding family business, that she would use your sister. After all, she's her favorite. Is it because you wanted to be the favorite?"

"It's because she wasn't suited to this kind of work," she answered honestly. "She's not the type to get close to people and get into relationships. Plus, it would've been too much load on her considering she's set to inherit our school. She wouldn't be able to handle the extra load all by herself."

"So that's why mother dearest wanted heirs out of you instead. Divide and conquer." He pieced it together for himself, still reviled. "Well, there's a first time for everything. Even the unfavored have their moments in the spotlight."

Turning around, he slowly walked to the back of the room by the window, crossing his arms. "Or, maybe 'darkness' would be more appropriate since you've been working with her in the shadows," he added on.

Upon facing away, Miho adjusted her stance to allow her to quickly defend herself if need be, because she didn't believe this would end cleanly. She feared Erich would be too far gone for that.

She took a deep breath, and reasoned with him, "I never wanted to. Yes, I had promised her that I would marry you, and have your children. But you're wrong about all my motivations. I didn't follow that plan for the promise of power. I only did it for two reasons: because I wanted you, and to appease Mother. You know how she is, so surely you can understand why I want her off my back. The only way I saw to do that was to cooperate with her and give her no reason to pay me any mind. When she first sent me that plan, I had no intention of following it in the long run, but I had to keep her from coming down my back. I had to make her believe I was still with her so she wouldn't interfere."

Erich's body was tense in indecision. He just didn't know what to believe. 'No… she wouldn't…' Part of him was still screaming that it was all a lie, that she was only saying that to keep him compliant and loyal. But another part of him recognized the honesty in her voice and how genuine she sounded. It was difficult to figure out which side of him was right.

He turned around to face her, as calm as he could be now. Yet, he still looked full of a mixed bag of hatred, anger, and betrayal. In a low voice, he pressed, "How long?"

That was the question Miho had wanted to avoid if possible. The answer, she knew, would completely alienate him and shatter what little trust he still held in her. It was bad enough he thought he would've been a puppet, as the one thing he despised over all else was being controlled.

"Do not FUCK with me, Miho!" the blonde screamed at her, the tension within him at an all-time high. "How long!?"

'I'm sorry,' Miho silently mourned for what she knew was coming. With a heart heavy in regret, she whispered, "Ten years."

She could practically feel something snap between them. That was the last strand of faith he had in her, and now it was torn. She could see it as his blue eyes just stared blank for a second before he inclined his head down.

Ten. Fucking. Years. In other words, since the moment they met. She had been playing him for that long. He was such a dummy for not seeing it sooner. He should've expected this out of her family years ago. It made perfect sense for Shiho to see an opportunity then and lunge for it. And Miho, spineless as she was to her, played the perfect little spy for her. He wanted to strangle the life out of her for those ten years of lies.

When he looked back up at her, she nearly shuddered in fear of his gaze. It was just terrifying with how stormy it was now.

Without warning, he jumped across the room for her. She quickly recognized he wanted a fight, and instincts took over as she leaned way back, nearly touching the floor and letting him overshoot her.

Having flown right over her and missed, Erich flipped mid-air and pushed off from the door opposite with his legs, sending him flying back towards Miho. He was incredibly light-footed and agile in his fighting style, though he wasn't playing to all of its strengths presently. Rather than trying to evade attacks until his enemy tired out, like he would normally do, he was blinded by rage and going on the offensive.

Shooting back into a stance, she had turned only to find him heading for her again with no down time. Bracing and blocking the oncoming blow, she fell back from the force of bodies colliding, but even so, she also kicked out and swept his legs out from under him, making him collapse as well. She had a unique fighting style that relied more on fluidity, with the ability to smoothly turn defense into offense and turn her enemies' attacks against them.

She used her hands and, arching her back, smoothly tossed herself back up into a stand, then sprinted for the door while he recovered. But just before she reached it, he twisted onto his front and threw a knife at her. The blade embedded itself into the door, only just barely missing her hand reaching for the handle, and only because she hesitated for the slightest moment, unsure if she should continue the fight in the room or get out.

She started at it, looking back to him with a horrified expression. All she got in return was a glare of hate and bloodlust. He was further gone than she could've predicted if he was unconcerned with using a deadly weapon against her.

Quickly getting her wits back when she saw him get back up, she opened the door and ran out to the open-air hallway, yanking the blade from the door and taking it with her in the process.

She ran for the stairwell, but she knew he could run faster than her. Acting on instinct, she abruptly stopped at the top step, sensing he was about to launch himself at her back, and ducked, making him fly over her. She also turned his attack into her own attack by grabbing his arm as he flew over her and hurling him at the opposite wall of the stairwell.

His back impacted the wall and forced the breath out of him for a moment. As he recovered, it gave her enough time to get down the stairs to the ground, though he wasn't far behind, quickly in pursuit.

Miho drew the knife and turned around, stopping. Erich, wary of the blade, stayed out of its range and came to a halt, recognizing the threat for what it was.

"Please, Erich!" she pleaded with him again. "I never wanted to fulfill her wishes!"

"I don't care," he callously rejected her words. "You fucking used me."

He immediately went on the offensive again, front-flipping and aiming to kick her shoulders. Holding her hands in the places he targeted, she fell back, falling into the attack, and used the momentum of his strike to push his feet off and fling him into the air. She smoothly rolled backwards and up into a stand, deftly readjusting her hold on the knife and holding it ready, even though her hands were killing her now.

He followed through on her repulsion of him, backflipping in the air to land lightly on his feet. Not losing any energy, he charged her again. He threw a quick left-right-left combo, all hits landing, before getting onto her right side and hooking her right leg with his foot, breaking her stance and throwing her off balance. He deftly stole the blade from her right arm with his own right hand, swiftly bringing his left arm around her shoulders, and holding the blade to her neck.

Before he could bring the blade to bear, however, she pushed back. Since she was in his hold, that threw the both of them to the ground, her on top of him on his back. The impact loosened the hold enough to allow her to wriggle free, and she rolled off to her right, snatching the knife again from him.

However, he recovered extremely quickly, and came at her while she was still recovering herself. Her answer to him was to grab his arm and use his own momentum against him by flinging him away from her a full one hundred eighty degrees away, putting distance between them.

"Erich!" she tried again to get through to him. "Please, I don't want to fight you! I just made a mistake!"

"… So did I," he retorted, looking her dead in the eye as he said it.

It wasn't hard for her to see the real meaning of his words. He thought befriending her and getting so close to her was a mistake. That was what finally made her shed tears. Those words probably hurt Miho more than any physical blow Erich could've dealt her.

He threw a right punch, which she crouched under and evaded. He swiftly turned back and followed with a twisting kick, twisting his body through the air to use both legs in the attack. She jumped back to evade, but was able to smoothly retaliate with a sweeping kick to prevent him from throwing her off the offensive entirely, forcing him to duck.

He followed with a swift series of jabs – right, left, right – into her torso. The first two she took, stumbling, but the last she was prepared for. She grabbed his arm, twisted so her back was to him, and hurled him over her, using his own attack against him.

Upon hitting the ground, Erich's hand came up and grabbed Miho by the throat. With that grip, he began choking her, even as she was crouched above him, before eventually throwing her over him and sent her to the floor.

He got up, albeit his face twitched in pain as the bruising he endured started showing itself. He approached Miho, ready to make her pay for her sins.

Her breath would only come through because of adrenaline, as the grip he had on her was crushing enough to have left her gasping. There was most definitely a bruise around her neck now. But hearing Erich come up behind her, she waited until he got close enough, and then wrapped her legs around his waist and twisted. He was thrown to the ground, and let out a pained grunt as he hit the floor.

She quickly and smoothly turned and arranged herself so her legs held down his arms, and held the knife above him, point ready to plunge into his neck.

They both froze in that position, with Miho in the power position over Erich. Both were beaten up in their own right, with bruises littering the both of their bodies and the both of them breathing heavily from exertion.

Miho knew Erich was a challenge to fight. Having seen him in the past, she knew the only reason she was able to win was because he wasn't in his right mind. It didn't make beating him any easier, as he always fought at such a quick pace. But his natural tendency to be evasive and outlast his opponent fell away in favor of relentless offense. But a relentless offense just didn't suit him. He just couldn't maintain that level of strength for a long time.

Her distinct vibrant brown, almost amber, eyes, were filled with sorrow and were red from crying. Everything that had just happened was almost too much for her to fully process. She would never forget this day.

The blonde's gaze was flickering between her face and the cross hanging around her neck. The Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds – one of only twenty-seven – that used to be in his family before he gave it to her as a gift. He did it because he had trusted her implicitly and wanted to show said trust by giving her something so important to his family, because he saw her as family.

Now, though, he was far from considering her family anymore.

Looking back up, he spat at her, "That cross belonged to my family! You don't deserve to have it!"

He didn't even seem concerned that she had a knife to his throat, but at those words, she dropped her gaze to the blade in contemplation.

It pained her to admit it, but he was right. She didn't deserve it. After all, she had kept such a huge secret from him even though he had complete trust in her, had considered her family. There was no way she was still worthy of having it if she was perfectly fine with working behind the scenes and subtly manipulating him to serve her will. The question of whether or not she actually did manipulate him was irrelevant. Just the fact she had even considered it was the problem.

Having no more fight in her, she withdrew the knife from his throat and took off the cross. Getting off him, she set it in his hand and closed his fingers over it with her own hand, relinquishing the historic award back to its rightful owner.

Standing up to her full height again, she left him with one last gaze full of regret. "I'm sorry," she breathed out before walking away, head hung. She knew he wouldn't accept her help after everything, so there was nothing more she could do for him, as much as she wanted to take care of him and clean up all his wounds and heal him, physically and mentally.

Erich stared at her as she left, still filled with a generic anger for her but also a hint of confusion. The honesty she had shown left him befuddled. Why would Miho show such honesty to him even after it was clear he no longer believed anything she said?

But then his bruises caught up with him as he hissed in pain. He decided, for the moment, to just lie there on the ground. Until enough of the pain went away at least.

There were less comfortable surfaces than concrete, he figured.

XXXXXXXXXX

After enough time, Erich was feeling better physically. Mentally, he was calmer, though still feeling the effects of betrayal and heartbreak.

He had practically disappeared to everybody, having gone off the grid into the forest that was utilized as the tank training grounds. He often went off on his own to think whenever he experienced something that shook him to the core. This was one of those cases.

"Hurts, does it not?" a highly refined, silky smooth Norse-like voice snapped him from his thoughts.

Whipping to face the voice, he saw a tall man dressed in some complex black leathers with green accenting leaning against a tree with arms crossed. Other distinct traits of his included midnight black hair and piercing emerald green eyes. Immediately he felt a certain unease about him.

"Being lied to," the man clarified.

Quirking an eyebrow, Erich carefully thought on whether or not this was someone he should stick around and talk with. "… Who are you?"

"A traveler who is wary to your plight." Noticing the skepticism on the blonde's face, he smirked in amusement. "You need a name, do you not? Fine. You can call me Loki."

"How do you even know about my 'plight?'" Erich asked, making finger quotes.

"Well, I have quite a lot of experience in the arena of lies," Loki unveiled, waving a hand around nonchalantly. "I have always been told I was good at telling them."

Rolling his eyes away, the blonde dismissively retorted, "Yeah, I'm not willing to listen to any more lies. I've heard enough of them today."

"I was not finished," Loki said, giving a pointed look to him. "It may not look it, but I have gone through the same ordeal you are going through: finding out your entire life was a lie, that you were meant to be nothing more than a tool."

Now fully facing him, Erich was at least intrigued. He was still wary of Loki – strange name, though he guessed maybe his parents held the Norse gods in revere – as he gave off the aura of a snake, but now he was at least willing to hear him out with how sincere the man sounded. "And?" he prompted with a raised eyebrow.

"You feel rage coursing through your veins, do you not? Unrestrainable hatred?" Loki asked.

The blonde thought for a while before answering, "Not as much as before, but it's still there."

"Of course it is," the Norseman nodded, having fully expected that answer. "Such betrayal is not easily forgotten. It can take years to get over it. But that is an important first step, to get the initial rage out of your system. It comes down to what you do after. That will decide if you sink or swim."

"Well, what did you do after?" Erich turned it around on him.

"You do not want to know," Loki told him, looking dead serious about not wanting to talk about his own dealings.

"Well then give me some good advice if your experience is so bad," the blonde snarked.

"Easy. Wait."

Erich blinked. "… That's it?"

"What, were you expecting some long-winded speech about making up and mending differences?" The Norseman chuckled. "Hahaha, no. I know that would never work at this stage, nor am I one to advocate such methods." He then returned to a serious attitude. "But I was serious about waiting. I know you would never consider resolving anything while the wounds are still so fresh. The only thing I can suggest is to not do anything drastic and to keep your options open. You never know when you may need her help again."

"Ha! You think I would ever ask her for help again?" Erich spat back. "Not over my dead body!"

"Keep thinking like that, and 'over your dead body' could become your reality," Loki sharply rebutted. "And did you not hear me earlier? I know you would never consider it now. But later when you have had time to cool off and think, I guarantee you the idea will sound much better than it does now."

It all seemed sound to the blonde, though he just couldn't get that nagging feeling out of his head that there was more to this Loki than he was showing. "Why the devil should I trust you?"

He smiled, almost as if in glee at the idea. "That is just it. You cannot trust me. Nor should you." Fixing him with a hard stare, he continued, "For all my word is worth, it does not change the fact that I have experienced this as well. And you can trust me when I say that any kind of long-winded plan of vengeance you may be concocting will not be worth the end result of inevitable failure."

"'Inevitable failure-' maybe for you but I know I would succeed!" Erich shot back, offended that Loki knew what he was thinking and still said no to him. No matter whether he understood him or not, he had no right to predict his future like that.

"No, you will not," the snake-tongue repeated with complete confidence. "If you let vengeance consume you, then you are guaranteed to land yourself in a world of hurt ending with a prison cell with your name on it. If that is the path you wish to follow, then by all means, I will not stop you. But I suggest you think deeply on it." He tapped his own head with a finger. "If you rush head-first into something without a plan, then you are most definitely guaranteed to fail in whatever it is you are attempting. It is simple logic."

Erich growled and rushed at him, wanting to roll his head for his 'logical reasoning.' Loki saw it coming, however, and deftly side-stepped him before pushing against his back and guiding him to slam into the tree he was leaning against.

The blonde felt like a truck had hit him when he ran into the tree. He fell onto his bum, rubbing his head where it had impacted. Looking around, he found Loki was no longer around. Every direction he looked, he saw nothing but more forest. It was as if he just vanished into thin air.

He huffed, pissed. "I hate him," he muttered.

Now alone in the forest, he was left to his own wildly-coursing mind. Though he still held an indescribable hatred towards Miho, he couldn't help but think on Loki's words of idiocy, if only to find a way to disprove the logic in them.

But, looking up and noticing how dark it was getting, as well as remembering how exhausted he was from the beating he'd taken, he sighed and decided to find someplace to sleep. He'd think on the Norseman's words later.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Listen to the wind blow, down comes the night
Running in the shadows, damn your love, damn your lies
Break the silence, damn the dark, damn the light"

Miho had gone back to her dorm – it seemed as if it would be just hers from now on – and just had no energy to do anything else. Her fight with Erich had left her hollow and utterly exhausted, as well as bruised. Even though she technically won the physical fight, when taking every other factor into consideration, it felt more like a pyrrhic victory. She may have won, but it came at the cost of their decade-long friendship.

It was nearing nightfall, and there was a noisy wind blowing through the outside hallway, but she wasn't even close to falling asleep. She may have been exhausted, but she just couldn't sleep, which was why she was lying in bed facing the ceiling, earbuds from her phone in her ears and listening to whatever random song came next. This one happened to be 'The Chain' by Fleetwood Mac, an almost depressingly ironic song for her situation.

She couldn't stop thinking about everything that had happened. She felt almost exactly like the lyrics said: by running in the shadows with her harboring this huge secret from her friend, plotting against his family, she felt like he now was totally uncaring of what happened with her. Damn her love and her lies, in other words. When the silence surrounding her mother's plans was finally broken, her thoughts on said plans were made irrelevant. Dark or light, it didn't matter what end she swayed towards, because the only way that conflict could've possibly ended was in disaster.

"And if you don't love me now
You will never love me again
I can still hear you saying
You would never break the chain (Never break the chain)"

Perhaps Miho's greatest potential fear was losing Erich's undying love and care. But now that she had, her new greatest fear was that she would never get it back no matter what she did. She had utterly shattered and squandered the trust he had placed in her, had given him no reason to trust her.

"And if you don't love me now (If you don't love me now)
You will never love me again
I can still hear you saying
You would never break the chain (Never break the chain)"

It was utterly depressing and tragic because she remembered many times over the years when their friendship was still strong, that he would always say he was always there for her. Many times, he had promised that he would never break the chain between them. And yet, now it was broken. And it was all her fault.

"And if you don't love me now (If you don't love me now)
You will never love me again
I can still hear you saying
You would never break the chain (Never break the chain)"

She sighed brokenly. Her eyes were still reddened, from both earlier when they fought and more recently when she got to her dorm.

She remembered it like it was yesterday. When she had first met him, she had recalled seeing a little glint in the eyes of her mother. At the time, she didn't understand why, but as she grew she came to understand what she was doing. Her mother was already making plans even way back then.

What she hated most about herself was that she wasn't entirely repulsed by the thought. To her, that was just who her mother was: a planner, someone who remained five steps ahead. She had never seen the problem in that, because that was her mother's modus operandi. Even as cut-off as she seemed in attitude, her mother had still taught her everything she knew. It was hard to think of her as being wrong, even though she technically was.

She knew her mother. She wasn't power-hungry, even if it seemed that way. She had honest and benevolent intentions when making that plan. She didn't want to hurt the Hartmanns, but rather help them in the long run. The way she saw it was that, to help them, she had to have a hand in their workings, because she believed her having the reins would lead to prosperity. She was convinced the Nishizumi way of thinking was inherently superior, and that if everyone followed her way, then the world would be better off.

Perhaps, Miho figured, the crux of what made her mother a problem was that her line of thinking was that the end justified the means. She had no issues with doing anything immoral if it allowed her to achieve her goals.

But, perhaps now, Miho did. It had cost her so much more than having to scrap a plan.

So, with some regret for having to break away from her, she decided to send her mother a message. 'Asset has discovered plan and rebelled with no hope of correction. I've been completely compromised. No alternatives are feasible, asset is too unstable. Delete this message.'

She knew her mother would understand her hidden meaning in her message: that she just couldn't serve her anymore. The line to delete the message would cement the fact that she was breaking their chain. Its significance was implied since the line had never been used in the past.

She heard the door open, and with a start, looked up. Her heart leaped in her throat.

She observed Erich walk in, pulling the door shut behind him. He seemed almost weary with how bloodshot his eyes were. He was far from the person who walked out of the dorm that morning. But, then again, neither was she. Both were bruised and battered and torn apart.

He walked across the room and collapsed forward onto the couch in the room, immediately falling asleep. He never spared her any form of acknowledgment, having convinced himself he only came here because there was nowhere else to go.

But just the fact that he came back at all, was enough to make Miho turn over on her bed and silently cry again, only this time she was filled with hope. She knew things between them may never be as they once were. Too much had happened to completely forget. But him coming back gave her hope that maybe they could rebuild. Maybe they would never become lovers again, but that had never been the highlight of their relationship to her. To her, they weren't just that. They were also best friends, and she treasured that aspect of their relationship the most.

They had a lot to work out, and she didn't get her hopes too high up. She knew there was a very real possibility that they'd never see eye-to-eye again. But with him coming back, she had to at least try.

She knew their relationship was a mere shadow of its former self, but the important part to Miho was that the chain between them had still held. They had kept together even if in only the basest way. As the final verse came up, she mouthed along to it, treating them almost as a prayer.

"Chai-ai-ain keep us together! (Running in the shadow!)
Chai-ai-ain keep us together! (Running in the shadow!)
Chai-ai-ain keep us together! (Running in the shadow!)
Chai-ai-ain keep us together! (Running in the shadow!)
Chai-ai-ain keep us together! (Running in the shadow!)
Chai-ai-ain keep us together! (Running in the shadow!)"

XXXXXXXXXX

Part of Projekt Jägermeistern.

XXXXXXXXXX

The author does not claim to own "Girls und Panzer," the music used, or any other references made. "Girls und Panzer" belongs to Actas. The music used belongs to Fleetwood Mac. Any other references made belong to their respective owners.

Credit goes to William Lamb for indirectly inspiring the idea to break Erich and Miho apart.

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.