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Chapter 5: Knowing Some Allies
"Do you know a certain Kazuma Nakamura?" Alheid asks.
Leon looks at her and nods.
"He was a friend of mine. A smart fellow who liked to read. He was the commander of the USS William P. Lawrence. He helped us Delta forces in a couple of missions." Leon says.
Alheid looks up at him.
"Only Suzukaze knew him the most. From what we know she was activated three years already." she says. Leon sighs and gets up.
"I see. Come on, let's get back to the port. Everyone is there waiting for us." he says, walking towards the port.
Alheid smiles. "Alright Commander."
"So all four of you would be joining our unit." Leon says as he looks at the three tank girls and Suzukaze.
"Yes sir." they say.
"Well I guess welcome to our small unit then! You guys can have your little reunion now." Leon says.
Heavy tank KV-2 'Alyona': A quiet tank girl, quite taller than everyone else. Standing at 4'8 she surpasses Erwin by a bit. She carries a small rocket launcher on her shoulders that represents the 152mm howitzer she carried back in the war. She wears a Russian tankers uniform, except that the pants is replaced with a skirt. She has silverish grey hair and red green eyes.
Type 3 Chi-Nu 'Chiyoko': A really energetic girl who loves to fight. She wears a green kimono with a katana at her right side. She has an Arisaka rifle slung around her shoulder that represents the Type 3 75mm gun she used in the war. She stands at 3'8 and has silver hair tied in a ponytail and jade green eyes.
Flakpanzer IV wirbelwind 'Alheid': A mix between Noel and Erwin in personality and looks except with pigtails. She wears a uniform similar to Noel. She has quad MG 3s that can deploy on her back. She stands at 3'9 which is almost the same height as Noel. From what Leon can tell, she likes to smile a lot and shout 'SUPPRESSIVE FIRE!' while firing all of her machine guns.
Tenth Shiratsuyu class destroyer Suzukaze: She's kind of shorter than Yuudachi and a bit taller than Harusame. She has twin tailed dark blue hair and green eyes. She smiles a lot and as Leon noticed, she is a bit sly. She has a gear box behind her back that probably helps her cruise in the water and create ammunition for her 12.7mm cannon. She stands at around 5'2 which is probably average height for destroyers. The noticeable difference between the three is that Suzukaze has a different uniform than the others.
Tomlin smiles, watching Valeriya and Alyona talking to each other, Valeriya smiling and laughing.
"I have not seen Valeriya smile this much… I kind of feel bad…" Tomlin says, taking a deep sigh.
"Well that's the same as me looking at my two girls. I've never seen them happier." he says.
"Everyone looks pretty happy. A lot of reunion going on."
"What about Chiyoko? She looks alone…" Tomlin says pointing her out. It seemed true that she looked alone.
Leon walks over to her side and sits down beside her.
"Hey, Chiyoko, you okay?" he asks, smiling to try and cheer her up. Chiyoko sighs.
"I'm alright, commander…" Chiyoko says smiling back at him.
"You don't look like you're fine, Chi." he says. He pats her silver head lightly.
"It's alright to tell me. I'm your commander after all" he says. Chiyoko leans on his arm, kind of surprising him.
"Everyone seems to be so happy… They have fellow comrades that they knew and are friends with… I don't… even the destroyers don't quite talk to me…" she says while wiping a tear from her eyes.
Leon looks around. Everyone seemed to be really happy and here was a girl beside him who didn't quite fit in with the rest of them.
Leon hands Chiyoko a handkerchief.
"It's alright, Chi. Later, I'll get you something." he tells her.
Chiyoko feels a blush rising from her face.
"Why are you being so nice to me, Commander?" she asks shyly. Leon chuckles a bit.
"You can say otherwise, but I don't feel comfortable when girls cry. I always felt awkward around them if I don't do something...hehe" he says.
Chiyoko smiles. "Alright then, thanks commander. I feel better now." she says giggling a bit.
"Leon, you're alright!" a voice says. He turns around and sees Phoebe standing there with two guards left and right of her.
"Umm...why do you have guards beside you?" Leon asks.
"Oh these guys? They're just here to protect me, a town representative." she says. She looks over and nods. The guards walk off, but still keep their eyes on him.
"I got you a medium sized apartment. For you, Tomlin and the girls." she says.
"Where is it though?"
"Well, it is near the port, which is pretty nice." she says.
"Could you take the girls and Tomlin there first? I want to go downtown for a bit." Leon asks Phoebe. She looks at him for a bit.
"Okay. I'll be off now." she says. Leon watches as she walks off looking for Tomlin and his girls.
"Chiyoko, let's get going!" Alheid shouts.
"There's something I want to check out in the city, Alhied-chan! I'll go back later!" she shouts towards Alheid.
"I swear if you get into a fight again, I won't be happy, Chiyoko!" Alheid shouts back.
" I won't!"
Both of them watch as the two groups leave.
Leon looks at Chiyoko.
"So, where downtown do you want to go?"
"Hmm… Maybe let's go to the asia town. I know some good places there, because I always go there if I'm bored and not fighting." she smiles, her green eyes flashing a bit like a jade stone shimmering in the sunlight.
Leon nods a bit.
"Go ahead, Chiyoko, lead the way!" he said. She smiles and grabs his hands, dragging him towards Asiatown.
Time: 1648 hours Near dusk… Location: Southern East district in San Diego.
"So this is Asiatown huh…" Leon says as he looked around. The streets buzzed with people walking around talking. The feeling of civilization was here. The aura was one that felt that there was no apocalypse, nothing to worry about in the outside world, where you don't have to worry about survival, only enjoy your days.
"Yup!" Chiyoko smiles as she runs along the streets giggling with delight. Leon sighs and follows the little Japanese medium tank girl. He looks over at one of the stores. One store had something that caught his eyes. It looked like a small japanese cavalry sword. He walks in and takes a look around. On the wall, all sorts of Japanese swords, lances, and bows stood on the racks on the wall.
"Amazing huh, Commander." Chiyoko says, suddenly appearing beside him. He nods.
"This is where I got my katana. I like the blacksmith here, he is really nice to me." She says smiling at him.
Something catches Leon's attention. It sat in the left corner of the store. Leon walked up to it, inspecting it.
"Ohh! Commander, that's a Uchigatana! I actually helped the blacksmith here forge it!" Chiyoko says excitedly. "But it's really expensive though…"
Leon checks the price of the Uchigatana.
$1,500 the price tag said.
"I want it...but it's really pricey…" he says out loud. Chiyoko smiles a bit awkwardly as she takes it.
"The main reason why it's that pricey is because I actually took a long time to etch engravings onto the blade." she says awkwardly.
Leon opens up the sword case to take a peek. The insides was silvery with small bronze letters etched into the sword.
'勝利はそれは価格だ支払うことを喜んでいる人のために予約されています'- the words read.
Chiyoko smiles. "It's an old saying! I liked it a lot so I etched that into the blade. The sound of a door being closed draws his attention. He looks over towards the counter and sees an elderly man walking over to them. Chiyoko smiles and runs over to give the man a hug.
"Nakajima-sensei!" she announces happily as she hugs onto him. The old man smiles and pats Chiyoko's head.
"Ahh...Chiyoko-chan… you're sensei is getting old, so don't hug me that tightly!" he says, chuckling a bit.
"Commander, This is my teacher and the blacksmith here! His name is Yushin Nakajima sensei! Nakajima-sensei! This is my new commander!" she says, her smile widening. The old man looks up at Leon.
"Nice to meet you sir. I'm Yushin Nakajima…" The old man smiles and offers out his hand out to greet Leon.
"Leon Henderson, Nice to meet you, Mr. Nakajima." He says, shaking the old man's hand.
"So you're a commander? You seem a bit young to be one... " Yushin says looking at Leon.
"I'm around 35 years old, but I look around 27 so that's probably the reason." he says.
Yushin smiles. "I used to be like that back in the day…" he smiles. He then looks over at Chiyoko.
"You've gotten yourself a very energetic girl here, Henderson-san." he smiles as he points to Chiyoko.
"I noticed. It's alright." he says.
"So you wanted the Uchigatana, Mr. Henderson?" He asks. Leon nods a bit. "Yeah, but it's a bit pricey… I can't quite afford it." he says. The old man smiles.
"I heard that you had gotten rid of the infected around the area in the western part of this city, if I'm correct."
Leon nods his head. "Yup… It was a pretty difficult task eliminating over 60 infected, how did you know?"
"My niece is a guard there. She told me all about what happened. One of those infected almost bit her until she said someone, a little brown haired girl stabbed it in the neck with a knife and basically saved her. Afterwards, she said you were there fighting the infected back with some other girl." he said smiling.
Yushin hands the blade to Leon. "I'll give this to you. It's been hanging on the shelves for about a month now. Chiyoko and I forged this 2 months ago, but no one buys it." he sighs.
Leon looks in complete surprise and shakes his head.
"No, Mr. Nakajima, there's no way I can do that…" he says.
"Just take it, Henderson-san. You helped me out by keeping my niece alive. Just take this as an appreciation gift from me to you." he says and hands over the blade.
Leon accepts it after a while. "Thank you, I guess, Mr. Nakajima." he says as he shakes his hand.
"You're welcome, Henderson-san. Also, please take care of little Chiyoko here." the old man puts his hand on the top of Chiyoko's head.
"If you excuse me, I'll need to complete a small task at hand right now, Mr. Henderson, I wish you a good afternoon."
Leon nods. "Alright then, I'll see you soon Mr. Nakajima."
As Leon and Chiyoko leave the store, he looks up at a small clock tower.
7:56 the time read.
"You want to grab some dinner, Chi? It's almost dark anyways." Leon asks. She nods.
"ITADAKIMASU!" Chiyoko shouts as she starts slurping up a medium bowl of ramen. Leon had found a small shop that sold ramen for a decent price (screw those shops that sell a small fucking bowl of food for $10). Leon lifts up the small bowl and his chopsticks and starts eating the ramen.
"This is actually pretty good." he says as he gulps down another mouthful of the ramen.
"Right!" Chiyoko says, her green eyes lighting up.
Leon finishes the small bowl of noodles. He gets up and heads over to the counter and hands over the money for the food.
"Thank you, come again…" the man says as they leave. "That was good, huh, Chiyoko?" Leon says more like a statement than a question.
Chiyoko nods, her head. As they walked three men approached Leon.
Leon noticed that one of them had a knife, and the other one had a handgun.
"We saw you in that restaurant. Don't worry, just hand over the money and we won't hurt anyone." one of the guys said.
"Fuck off." Leon says as he takes Chiyoko's hand and walks away from them. The sound of a safety being switched off could be heard behind him.
"I won't repeat myself again… Hand us what you got." the masked man says holding the glock 18 to the back of his head.
"Commander…?" Chiyoko asks, uncertain, knowing if she does something, it could potentially get Leon killed.
Leon bursts out laughing.
"Do you guys really think that this would scare me?" he asks. Reaching into his pocket, he feels the grip of his K-BAR. The street thugs not knowing what he's doing draw their weapons. A glock and two knives.
Leon turns around, drawing his K-BAR. "Let's get this over with. Chiyoko, stand back." He says as he runs forward, towards the three men. The thug with the Glock hastily aims with the gun, firing it at point blank range while his hands were shaking uncontrollably.
Leon kicks the gun out of his hands, and socks him in the face with the butt of the K-BAR. He turns around and catches another thug's hands, and twists the arm until a painful crack could be heard. The man screams in pain and shock as he crumpled onto the floor writhing in pain.
"Commander, behind you!" Chiyoko shouts. Leon ducks just in time to see a knife swinging past him. He takes the knife in his hand and stabs the man behind him, catching the thug on the leg.
He then hears a gasp. Turning around he sees five more thugs armed with knives and a revolver.
"C-commander….help me.." Chiyoko whispers. Leon looks over and sees a thug holding a knife at her throat. The thug smirks.
"We told you just give me the money on you. You refused so let's get this done the hard way." the leader said.
"I'm getting really pissed off here…" Leon says as he takes the hilt of the Uchigatana. He unsheathes the blade, swinging it at his sides.
"Get him boys. He's definitely out numbered." the leader says.
"What is this, Yakuza 5?" Leon asks as he roundhouse kicks one of the thugs. He hits another man with the blunt side of the sword on the side, which causes him to fall over. A thug grabs his arms and holds him back while another throws punches at him. He elbows the man behind him in the jaw and pick up the dazed man. He hurls the screaming man at the other in front of him. He looks around him to see if there are any others. He takes his K-BAR and throws it towards the thug holding Chiyoko at knife point.
A scream could be heard and the sound of a body falling over writhing in pain. The K-BAR had impaled itself in the man's shoulders. He looks over at the leader. He is shaking now stepping back. He draws his revolver. Leon hears something else shoot behind him. The thug shouts in surprise as his revolver is shot out of his hands.
Chiyoko smiles as she chambers out the bullet casing on her Ariska.
She smirks. "Finish him, commander." she says while smiling.
Leon approaches the leader.
"You know, I get really pissed off when people try to intimidate others."
He cracks his knuckles and takes another step forward.
"But I'm more pissed off that you tried to hurt my girl who had done nothing wrong." he says.
"I'm sorry! I won't do it any longer. Please!" the thug begs.
Leon ignores his begging and grabs the man's head. The thug screams as Leon slams his head against a street lamp giving the thug major head injuries. He tosses him onto the ground and kicks his sides. Leon stomps on the thug's elbow, dislocating the joint. He grabs the thug one last time and stares menacingly into his eyes.
"You dirty low lives really piss me off. I don't care what your fucking excuse is, but NEVER threaten my girl." he spits on the thug leader's face. The thug nods in pain and then falls unconscious.
Leon walks over to Chiyoko.
"You okay, Chiyoko?" he asks while walking over to the unconscious thug with his K-BAR impaled in his body.
Chiyoko nods as she shrinks the Type 99 Arisaka back into a comb.
"I'm okay, commander. You don't need to worry too much." she smiles.
"Let's go, Chiyoko. The police or someone will find them eventually." Leon says.
Leon opens the door of the apartment wearily.
What's the worst that could happen? He thought as he closes the door behind him. Suddenly a red faced Erwin walks into him.
"Hai commander~" she gives him a toothy grin. Her breath smelled of alcohol. Immediately, he walks into the living room where he sees a drunk Noel and a drunk Valeriya smiling, dancing around and singing drunkenly.
"Moskau Moskau, wirf die Gläser an die Wand,
Russland ist ein schönes Land
Ho ho ho ho ho
Moskau Moskau, deine Seele ist so groß,
Nachts da ist der Teufel los
Ha ha ha ha ha
Moskau Moskau, Liebe schmeckt wie Kavia,
Mädchen sind zum küssen da
Ho ho ho ho ho
Moskau Moskau, komm wir tanzen auf dem Tisch,
Bis der Tisch zusammenbricht
Ha ha ha ha ha"
They sing in German, bursting out laughing as they did. Tomlin sees Leon and immediately tries to explain what happened.
"So apparently Phoebe gave me this glass bottle that looked like water. We opened it an hour ago by the way. So what happened was that we passed it around and took a drink each. As soon as Valeriya drank it, her face turned red and she started to act all happy and excited for some reason. I took the bottle too late and took a sniff of it. It turned out to be vodka… But it was a bit too late to stop them." Tomlin says while trying to apologize to Leon.
"Alright, but where are the other two girls, Yuudachi and Harusame?"
"Oh, they went to sleep already."
"By the way, what happened to you?" he asks.
Leon sighs. "I've had a stressful day, I'm heading off to sleep." Leon walks towards one of the rooms to sleep. He looks at the clock in his room.
2214 hours the clock read. Leon closes his eyes and slowly falls into deep slumber.
Leon sits in a chair aboard a destroyer.
"Say, Dad, what am I doing here?" he asks. The sounds of prop planes dogfighting over head could be heard and a stuka carrenes down over head.
His father looks at Leon, keeping his hands on the 40mm bofor AAA turret.
"I need to warn you about what lies ahead of your path, Leo." he said. There are splashes of water everywhere besides them as bombs miss their marks and hit the water beside them. The 40mm bofors open up on a pair of stukas diving at the ship. One of the stukas start tumbling into the sea, loosing it's right wing.
"You may have found civilization, Leon, but dark times lie ahead. There still isn't a perfect world out there, Leon. It's still war we're fighting here, and there is no turning back. One fatal flaw, and it's all over." Leon's father says as he continues to fire the AA battery.
Leon hears a whistle and looks up. A 250 kg bomb sails towards the ship and punches a hole at Leon's feet. The explosion shakes the ship as the stuka pilot flies away, leaving the incapacitated ship to sink slowly.
Leon jolts awake, still feeling invisible pieces of shrapnel on his back. He feels an arm on his chest. He turns around and sees Erwin snoring beside him, muttering something about American 75mm guns being inferior to her 88mm gun. He gently removes her hand off of his chest and gets up. He walks towards the kitchen and sees Tomlin on the balcony staring into the harbor, smoking a cigarette. Leon walks out onto the balcony and stares into the harbor with Tomlin.
"Funny how staring into the harbor helps calm things down, huh" Tomlin breaks the silence.
Leon nods. "Sure does." he says
"Why are you up so early, it's only 519 hours."
"Can't sleep… it feels like I'm on a normal body schedule."
"So what are you going to do now?"
"Probably going to take a walk around the pier or something."
"By the way, where did you get the Uchigatana?"
"Somewhere…"
"Of course…"
Leon gets up and heads down the hall towards the front door.
As he opens the door he feels a hand holding onto his Multicam uniform. He turns his head to see who it is. Noel stands behind him.
"Let me go with you, commander." the grey haired girl says while she stares up at him, her blue eyes glimmering.
Leon nods. "Sure, go ahead, Noel. I'm not going to stop you." he says as he closes the door behind them.
"So where are we headed, commander?" the little girl asks looking up at him.
Leon points to the docks.
"Probably the pier. I have nothing to do right now, and I'm kind of used to walking around or taking a jog early in the morning." Leon says.
Noel nods as they walk towards the docks.
Leon sips some warm coffee while walking along the docks. He looks out at the early sun, feeling the sea breeze blowing across his face. Noel on the other hand is munching silently on a crepe that Leon bought for her.
"Admiral?" a voice says behind him. Leon turns around and sees a dark blue haired girl running towards him.
"Good morning, Suzukaze, if I remember your name correctly." he waves.
Suzukaze nods.
"Yup, you got my name correct." she says. "Why are you over here?"
Leon walks over to a bench.
"I just wanted to take a walk for a bit. I'm used to being active in the morning by taking a walk or running a bit."
Suzukaze nods, smiling a bit, but then her smile disappears.
"Just like Admiral Nakamura…" she whispers.
Leon stares at her and then remembers what Alhied told him the previous day.
Only Suzukaze knew him the most. From what we know she was activated three years already.
"Sorry to ask you about this, but what happened to Nakamura? It's ok if you don't tell me." Leon says.
Suzukaze shakes her head.
"It's better if you knew what happened to him… Alheid told me you knew him as a friend so I feel responsible to tell you of what happened." she said.
Leon nods and listens to her.
"So it all began 3 years ago, before this shitstorm happened…."
A/N: Chapter 5's done. There are some features here that you've probably never thought of such as Chiyoko's (type 3 Chi-nu) gun to be able to change into a gun. I hope you all enjoyed this fifth chapter. I'll do this anyone who's interested.
If you want me to add in an OC, it could be a tank girl or a ship girl, either put it in the reviews or PM me. Give me a description of the girl (Tank/ship type, looks, personality, etc.) I'll consider them and may add them in future chapters.
Also just for you all to know, the next two or three chapters would be an account of Suzukaze and her previous Admiral's time before the apocalypse. Thank you again, and I'll see you all in the next chapter.
-Lenju II