Author's note: Sorry for the long time it took to make this chapter. If it seems a bit messy and like it was written over a long period of time with style changes between certain paragraphs; that's because it was. I was a bit distracted from writing doing other things but I eventually ended finishing this chapter today, even if on a point where the story should logically continue. That's to be a bit of a tease, really. I hope these things aren't too annoying, but I'll be trying to start writing again.

Ina sat down after a long training session, and checked her phone. She had missed a lot of messages. She had made a group for her friends; a lot of people were in it. It seemed to be mostly Saori talking to the other Ooarai girls. The ishikuma girls tended to stay silent, preferring to talk little. However Ina was quite active. She enjoyed talking to people like this. The amount of control, the lack of body movements she otherwise had to take look after, it all comforted her. That all allowed her to talk more freely.

Tommorow would be the day. The very first match. it was against St. Gloriana, a strong school focusing on heavy tanks supported by light cruiser tanks. Their Churchill Mk. VII would definitely be a tough nut to crack, with it's almost inpenetrable 152 millimetres of armour. They'd have to get on it's side to be able to get through it's armour. Did they even have a gun that could go through it's frontal armour? Perhaps the AC IV's 17pdr could, at very close ranges. One, two hundred metres perhaps? Those are dangerously close distances. No, they would have to take out the tank by it's sides. Not an easy mission, but as it would likely be St. Gloriana's flag tank, it would be the only way to win.

The 25 extra millimetres of armour had proven to be very good for the KV-1. It pushed the armour to a point it could stop almost any gun; especially the British ones. St. Gloriana had a firepower problem; their guns tended to lack against enemy heavy tanks. If Ishikuma angled it's armour, St. Gloriana would have serious trouble penetrating their tanks. Especially the KV-1 and the AC IV.

A night passed, and it was the day of the great battle. Ishikuma's first official match. Hundreds of parents, teachers, medical staff and students had gathered for the match. It would take place in a foggy, hilly forest with lots of chokepoints. It would be horrible for the enemy heavy tanks, while Ishikuma only had to worry about the KV-1. But they could manage without. It was faster than St. Gloriana's heavy tanks anyway, the Matilda IIs especially.

Ina walked over to the St. Gloriana camp in order to greet the opposing team's commander before the game. It was not part of official sensha-dou rules, rather it has become some sort of a tradition to do so. Is her posture right? What should she say? How will they react? She started to bite her nails. Perhaps they won't like her. Some schools are quite hostile to Ishikuma. Is St. Gloriana one of them? They may be.

As she got there, she noticed it was a bad time to come over. They were all drinking tea. She could see the tanks; one Churchill, five Matilda IIs and four Crusader IIs. Perfectly lined up, ready for battle. Onwards she walked, to the multitude of tables placed there, with dozens of girls sitting around them. One of the girls; Darjeeling, former commander of the sensha-dou team, was sitting near three other girls wearing the St. Gloriana Sensha-dou uniform. They seemed to enjoy themselves. Ina walked over to them, Darjeeling should know who the commander is.

Ina put on her best posh accent, prepared for some extremely polite and refined talk and was ready for talking to the girls. She hoped.

"Excuse me. May I ask you a question?", she requested of the girls.

"Of course you may!", one of the girls responded in perfect English, in an accent as posh as it can get.

"Umm, who is the commander of the sensha-dou team?", Ina then asked the girls.

"I'm Orange Pekoe, commander of St. Gloriana. Nice to meet you.", a small blond-haired girl said, sitting next to Darjeeling. It seemed like they were close friends. "And these are Darjeeling, Roseship and Ceylon.", the girl added. Ceylon was the girl who talked to her in English. "Nice to meet all of you. I'm the commander of Ishikuma's sensha-dou team.", she said awkwardly. "Are you enjoying your tea?", she added, trying to start a conversation.

"It's splendid. St. Gloriana makes tea that's almost as good as real, proper, British tea.", Ceylon said in rather broken Japanese. It seemed that she is English in origin.

"Ah, nice to hear that. Now, I beg your pardon. I will stop bothering your high tea.", Ina said in English to the girl. Unlike most Japanese people, Ina could speak fluent English; she had learned it as a little child doing research on tanks. Ina also had some level of competence in German, as she learned a bit of it to study German tanks. However, this has also lead to some… less wanted results. "Ich bekomme immer einen großen Kampfwagenkanone von dir ;)", was one of the messages a German exchange student living in Japan sent her. He made a lot of these kinds of comments, but she had grown to accept it. She didn't want to hurt him as she was his only friend. So accepting his comments was just part of it.

Ina walked back to her team. The match would start in an hour. Time to get ready, mentally and physically. She should eat something before the game starts. One of the sandwiches she had prepared for lunch had disappeared just five minutes later, thus reducing the amount she had to two. How many minutes left? Forty five? Forty five minutes… she didn't feel like talking to any of her teammates, and neither did they, it seemed. Ishikuma was a school with a very introverted student body, and the extraverted ones seemed to concentrate themselves into groups with their fellow extraverts.

Ina sat down and took out her phone; perhaps she could chat with others. Kinuyo? No, she has her own match today. Miho? She's watching the match, if she wanted to talk to her she should go to her. She decided to talk to this one guy, one of the nicest people she has met. A foreigner, never having lived in Japan, but yet they met online on a forum. He seems to like her a lot, perhaps a bit too much. So did she, often finding herself smiling while chatting with him. Ina didn't know why, but she liked him a lot. Perhaps it was the similarity in personalities between them. Whatever it was, they were really close.

Chatting with him, time always flew. Minutes would feel like seconds, and hours like minutes. Soon enough Ina had been disrupted from her fun chatting though.

"Ina, get ready! We will exchange greetings in 5 minutes!", she heard. Time to get into the KV-1 and drive towards the place where the starting ceremony will start. The first official one. And not the slightest bit of anxiety. She was confident that Ishikuma was able to win this battle, with some good tactics and gunnery.

Ina was completely taken away with all the little details of trip through the forest. Every little animal sound, every branch they crushed, the relief of the ground, she noticed all of it. But soon enough they got to a decently sized clearing in the middle of the forest, just large enough to do the greeting. It was routine; the commanders meet, shake hands, they do the greetings with all the participators and then they go to the starting positions.

As the shot signifying the start of the match could be heard thundering through the forest, terrifying a lot of animals there. Ina was a bit spooked by it too. The very first official match had started!

The tanks moved forwards slowly, crushing saplings, branches and probably some bugs too, birds flying all around and hills being crossed. But despite this they would still be going faster than Saint Gloriana. What tanks did they have again? A Churchill, some Matildas, perhaps a Valentine or a Crusader…

Ina looked over to Yume. "She seems off. She has never stimmed this much. Is she alright?", she thought.

"Yume?", she asked. "Are you ok?".

The girl was startled. "Y-Yes! Of course!", she answered. However, Ina could just not believe it. "Are you sure? You don't seem so."

"I really am!", she responded. But it was still really hard to believe. But usually she wouldn't lie so brazenly. Something to keep track of during this match.

Little happened for minutes, yet everyone was alert. Not for enemies, but for bumps in the road. You never knew what would happen. You go up a bit, slowly and then BOOM. You're on the ground again.

Suddenly a shot could be heard and Yume suddenly pulled Ina towards her. The girl was crying, hugging Ina tightly. "Ina, I want to go home. I can't do this. I'm going to have a breakdown." She said. More shots could be heard, and with every shot Ina was hugged tighter.

"Umm… It'll be alright. Let's switch places, okay? I'll do the loading and you'll have all the time you need." The commander offered. Yume nodded, moving over to her new position whilst still crying.

Suddenly the tank was hit yet not taken out. But Yume lost her balance, hitting her head on the KV's steel armour. Ina saw it happen and quickly went over to help Yume, maneuvering in the tight confines of the steel tank. Now it was their turn. The KV-1 fired at something. But at what, she didn't know.

Another shell hit the tank. Probably the two pounder guns, Ina thought. Yuuki pulled her leg.

"The BT, Panzer II, Ram and SU have been taken out. St. Gloriana still has three heavy tanks remaining."

And then she also remembered that she had to reload. The sound of her stimming could be heard throughout the tank.

Outside the tank, a large gun could be heard firing. Perhaps the Thunderbolt? Or was it the Churchill. Then the sound of a flag popping. Ina had no idea what was going on at this point. But they were done for. More shells hitting the KV-1 could be heard. The constant hits and the slow realisation of her failure, of her friend crying, of ruining it for her team hit her hard. Eventually the heavy tank was taken out, ending the match, and the tournament, for Ishikuma.

Ina leaned back a little, sitting down on the floor of the tank in tears. It was all true. She always ruined everything, she never did anything right. Her crewmates were talking to her, but she didn't respond at all. She just sat there, hiding her head in her legs, and cried, and cried, and cried...