Ina was lying in bed, sleeping. A little bit of light had been slipping into the room, but it didn't disturb her, neither it woke her up. Ina liked her bed. It was comfy. Next to her lay a boko, an old one. Old as Methuselah; eyes had fallen off, its colours had faded away, but that didn't matter to Ina; she loved her Boko. She got it on her fifth birthday, and has had it ever since, sleeping with it every single night.

Sleeping tight, she didn't know what was going to happen soon. Innocent, she didn't know what terror her alarm clock would be, in just a couple of seconds.

BOOM.

Ina screamed and quickly hid under her bedsheets, hiding from whatever danger was there. Then, she realised: it was her alarm clock. Her sister had played a trick on her and set it to the "explosion" sound, and increased its volume to its maximum. After all, she was the one who unpacked it, and Ina never used that sound. It was way too loud for her ears.

She got up and put on her school uniform. A white shirt with a dark blue vest over it, and a skirt of the same colour. She thought it fit well with her long, black hair. Then, she got stuck. Normally, her mother was there to eat breakfast with her. But now, she lived alone. No mother to eat breakfast with. She would miss her mother. And her father too. And the family dog… She would miss all of them.

Ina sat down on a chair, thinking about what she should make for breakfast. Normally, she would have a simple bowl of muesli. But did she even have muesli? She stood up, and walked to the cupboard where she left her food. No muesli. She then walked to the fridge; she only had some milk. Ina then realised that she had only taken food for dinner, and felt incredibly stupid.

One glass of milk. That would be her breakfast for today. Maybe she could find something to eat on the way to school. Her bag was heavy, filled with books, notebooks and other things she'd need. She walked towards her school, but with a quick stop at a conbini to get something for breakfast. She bought a fruit bar and ate it on her way to school. Her first real school day.

One person. There was one person in class… she was quite early. She sat down in one of the seats near the front, as she wanted to be able to pay attention easily. Within the next minutes, the eighteen other girls walked into the class, and the teacher followed shortly after.

After some quick introductions, the door opened, and a girl walked into a room. It was one of the people in the student council; she was there to gather the forms on the optional classes the girls wanted to follow. Ina then realised she had forgotten her form at her home. She didn't know what to tell the councillor.

As the councillor went around, taking in the forms, a girl said she had forgot her form. The student councillor softly smiled at her, like she was trying comfort her, and gave her a blank form.

"It's alright. Just fill this one in.", the student councillor told the girl.

Ina sighed in relief. It would be no problem. She was worrying without reason. It likely was a common occurrence that students would forget their forms.

Ina also filled in a new form, and the councillor went on to other classes, and the class resumed.

A couple of hours later, it was time for lunch. Ina was ravenous. The fruit bar was not enough to bring her through the morning. She got her food and sat down somewhere, alone. She was too shy to sit down with someone else. As the places in the lunch area filled, an average-sized girl with shoulder-length brown hair sat down next to her. She recognized her; it was the girl who forgot her form in class.

"Umm… hello", the girl said.

There was a silence, as Ina didn't know how to respond.

"O-oh, sorry.", the girl excused herself and started to leave.

"No, no. I need to be sorry, for not responding.". Ina felt bad for the girl. "You can sit here if you want."

The girl sat back down, almost happy that she didn't make Ina angry.

Ina continued: "What's your name?"

"Miyamoto Yume", the girl answered. "And yours is?"

"Kobayashi Ina", the black-haired girl replied.

After talking to Miyamoto-san for the rest of the lunch break, it was time for the introductory class of sensha-dou. The first ever time that Ina would be in an actual operational tank. Ina was incredibly excited to go.

She was one of the first ones there. As more and more of the girls who chose sensha-dou arrived, Ina started losing her patience. She was too excited. Couldn't it start already!

Then she noticed Miyamoto-san. She chose sensha-dou as well, it seemed.

Ina heard a sound in the distance; a roaring engine. Then she heard 4 more. The five tanks drove onto the grounds, and in the center was the KV-1. She wanted to be in the KV-1. The tanks stopped in front of the group of girls. Most importantly for Ina, Satomi opened the driver's hatch of the KV-1. She seemed to be it's driver.

Someone who seemed to be a teacher started talking a minute later. Telling things about sensha-dou and tanks in general that Ina completely ignored. She was too focused on the tanks. She only heard one thing from the ten minute talk: "Four spots need to be filled in the KV-1".

Four spots. Commander, loader, gunner and radio operator. The driver would be Satomi. The girls were instructed to choose tanks. Ina almost ran towards the KV-1. If she was there first, she would have to get a spot. She also noticed Miyamoto-san and two other girls walking towards it. They had their five crew members.

"Hello, I'm Kobayashi Satomi, the driver of this tank. May I ask you for your names?"

A tall girl with long, reddish hair quickly responded: "Hayashi Noriko."

Then, a second girl responded. She looked a lot like Miyamoto-san, but her hair was black, and she was slightly smaller. "My name is Kita Yuuki."

It was Ina's turn now. But before she could say anything, Satomi started talking. "And this is my little sister, Kobayashi Ina!", she then put an arm over Ina's shoulder.

Miyamoto-san, silent and shy as she is, went last: "I'm Miyamoto Yume."

Satomi then gave everyone a role: She would be driver, Noriko would be the gunner, Yuuki would be the radio operator, Yume would be the loader and Ina would be the commander. Then she prepared the team for the upcoming practice match. Ina didn't know there would be one; she didn't pay attention to what the teacher said.

The tanks moved to their positions. The match would take place in a hilly, forested area; all tanks at least one kilometer from each other. Ina would have to give commands for this. She had never done such a thing; why did her sister put her in such a position?

Ina looked at the map. The closest tanks would be the Panzer II H and the and the Ram II. The Ram II two had good armour and a decent gun, and it would be the greatest threat to them. It would have to be taken out first.

And the signal was given; the match had started. Ina's very first match.

"Go to the tall hill north-east of here. We are taking out the Ram II.", she commanded Satomi.

The tank started driving, and Ina opened the cupola, looking. She saw a tree falling over in the distance; a tank had driven against it, most likely. She then heard a shot in the distance. It was loud, likely the SU-122. It had the largest caliber gun of the bunch, but that didn't mean it was the best.

Three minutes later, the tank was on top of the hill. It was one of the tallest ones in the area. They could see far, but they didn't see any tanks.

BANG.

And the KV-1 shook. They had been hit by something. Ina looked out of the cupola. And there it was, almost completely behind them, hidden in the bushes; the Panzer II H. It was an incredibly fast light tank, at least twice as fast as the KV-1. It had caught up with them, and now was behind them.

"Turn the turret! Beh-"

BANG.

The Panzer II fired again at the tank, but didn't seem to penetrate it's armour. That itself wasn't a weird thing, the KV-1 had incredibly strong armour, at least 70mm of steel all around.

Ina continued: "Behind us, 5 o' clock."

The turret started turning, and Ina was waiting for the next shot. But when the turret had finally turned, the Panzer II H was gone.

Ina heard another shot in the distance, then got a lot of dirt in her face. The shell had just barely missed them. After the dust went away, she saw it. The Ram II had shot at them.

"Turn the tank to the left, Hayashi-san, turn the turret to 40 degrees from center.", Ina commanded.

To her surprise, Hayashi did exactly that; 40 degrees, not a thousandth of a degree off.

Now, her tank was angled. It was safe from the shots that the Ram would fling at it, at least from the angle it was at.

"Ok, take fire at the Ram II.", she commanded.

"The gun can't go down more. I can't take aim properly.", the gunner responded.

Ina then knew what was wrong: Russian tanks had horrible gun depression. They could not aim down much. She got stressed, and didn't know what to do.

Satomi, seeing her sister's stress, took the initiative drove forward a bit, down hill.

BOOM… BANG.

And Hayashi fired at the Ram II, and from the sound of it, hit it too.

She looked out of the tank, and saw the white flag coming out of the Ram II. It had been taken out. Ina then got a rush. The rush of taking out a tank. They had done it; they had taken out their first tank. It felt so good. She completely had forgotten about the Panzer II that was driving around.

Another shot in the distance, the SU-122 again.

BANG.

And the KV-1 was hit again, saved by it's incredibly thick armour. Was it the SU-122? Or the Panzer II again? It could also be the BT-5. She probably was going crazy. They couldn't be under fire from 4 tanks at the same time, could they? She saw a tree fall over in front of the KV-1.

"Drive forwards so we can investigate, but keep our tank angled.", Ina commanded.

She looked outside the cupola.

It was the BT-7, driving straight at the KV-1, likely thinking their armour would be enough to take on any gun.

Taking the light tank out was easy. They had to aim the gun, hit the tank anywhere and it would be taken down. And that's exactly what happened, they shot it and a white flag appeared. Two tanks down, three left.

Another shot of the SU-122 in the distance. And this time coming towards them, likely spotting them taking down the BT-7. The tank being angled, the shot simply bounced off. No damage done at to the KV-1 at all. She ordered Hayashi to shoot, and so she did, hitting the SPG at a distance of over 1km. She seemed to be a skilled gunner, or maybe she just had luck with her shots.

BANG.

The KV-1 shook. Ina got out of the cupola, and saw the Panzer II right next to their tank. It had flanked them. The white flag came out of the engine of the KV-1… it had been taken out by the Panzer II. The match was over. The Panzer II had won.

Ina was shocked. She completely forgot about the Panzer II, she was so focused on taking out the other tanks.

"I-I'm sorry", the commander said. "I forgot about the Panzer II"

Satomi, seeing the distress of her sister, responded after 5 seconds or so.
"It's okay. Everyone makes mistakes", she paused. "We may not have won, but the Panzer II only did because we took out the three other tanks before it flanked us!", she continued. "Winning is not the most important thing anyhow. It's about fun, learning, spending time with your team! Winning is just a nice addition you have sometimes."

Ina knew her sister was right. They didn't have to win. Winning was just a dessert to the main dish of fun, friendship and learning. Sometimes, she was envious of her sister. Satomi was wise, intelligent and independent… all things she was not. However, in her admiration she'd often forget that her sister had the exact same mental disability she had. But she had overcome it. And that is what Ina would do too. She would become great, just like her.

Just before class ended, Satomi invited the KV-1 crew over to her room, which was the S311 (Seniors, Campus 3, eleventh room), for dinner. She also recommended them to tell the mental health team people just to make sure they didn't go looking for the students thinking something went wrong. With them, they wanted to know what the students did, as most of them weren't too stable.

After informing the medical team, she went to her sister's place. It was on the other side of the school; it took almost fifteen minutes to walk there. When she got there, her sister was already preparing dinner.

"Hmm, it smells delicious!", Ina told her sister.

"It's soon to be ready!" the latter replied.

Ina sat down, and waited for the other girls to come over. First there was Yuuki, then Yume and Noriko. The crew was complete, and Satomi brought the plates.

"Itadakimasu!", the five girls said in unison. After such a tiring practice session, they were ravenous. For the first two minutes, there was silence, except for the subtle sounds of the girls eating.

"Tasty, isn't it?", Satomi said, trying to start a conversation.

"It is.", her little sister responded, before taking another bite of the food. She tried to hide her anxiety; she never spent any time with people and didn't know how to act. The others didn't seem to know how to either. It ended up being a long, awkward silence as no one knew how to start the interaction. It didn't come naturally either, as they had met each other only that day.

"Thank you for the food.", Yume told Satomi, with the other girls following her example and saying the same thing.

When the girls had left, Satomi started crying. "What did I do wrong? Did they not like the food? Did I say anything weird?"

"It's okay.", Ina said, trying to comfort her sister. "They were just nervous. Or maybe they enjoyed the food so much they didn't want to talk!".

Ina didn't know how to deal with the situation. She hadn't seen her sister like this yet. Anxiety started building. She didn't have her ball. She couldn't start stimming because her sister would notice. What to do. Should she hug her?

Ina got in closer to her sister, attempting to start making a hug. But before she could, her sister almost jumped into her arms. She really accepted the hug, crying into Ina's vest.

Satomi hugged her extremely tightly, saying things that were completely unintelligible through the all the crying.

After four long minutes, Satomi finally stopped hugging Ina. It felt awkward for Ina, trying to calm down her idol, the person she looked up to, her older sister. Usually it was the other way around, Satomi standing up for her, calming her and defending her.

"You can go home if you want.", Satomi told her little sister. "You probably still have things to do." To Ina it was clear Satomi wanted her to leave; they were very much alike in that regard.

"Thank you for the hug", mentioned Satomi just before Ina left. "I needed it."

"It's no problem", the younger sis responded. "You've done the same for me, after all."

When Ina got home, she went to bed immediately. She was completely drained. School, the match and her time with Satomi had been very tiring. She cuddled her Boko, and even though she had insomnia, fell asleep in mere minutes. Another day lay ahead of her, and she hoped it'd be more cheerful than this one...