Chapter 39: Anzio's party, part 2.
"Nishizumi-dono!"
The three girls turned in her direction.
"What?" Pepperoni asked her.
Yukari didn't believe her eyes: in front of her was Miho, her ex captain and great friend of hers, who she thought was dead! Overjoyed, she embraced her under the surprised gaze of the other two girls.
"Nishizumi-dono, you're alive! You don't know how happy that makes me!"
She stared at her with eyes filled with glee.
"But where have you been in the last three weeks? And how did you end up in Anzio?"
"… Have we met before?" The alleged Miho asked, with a mixture of surprise and embarrassment.
"Certain! We were together at the Ooarai! Don't you remember that?"
"Ooarai? I never set foot in that school!"
"Yukari-san, that's not Mihorin…" Saori told her, turning her in her direction.
"No?" The girl asked, confused.
"That's Supplì, commander of Team Alesia..." Saori informed her.
Yukari looked back at what she believed to be Miho, realizing that unlike her late captain, the girl in front of her had longer reddish hair and gray eyes. Immediately her enthusiasm gave way to her disappointment.
Kuso… Another false alarm!
She thought sadly.
"I apologize for the misunderstanding." She said, making a short bow.
The girl named Supplì smiled at her.
"Don't worry, it can happen that you get confused... You are Yukari Akiyama, right?"
She nodded.
"You know me?"
"I saw your appeal on TV about your friend Miho." She avoided saying she was dead, as she was self-evident.
"I too mistook her for Mihorin the first time I saw her." Saori intervened.
"You were very close to her, weren't you?" The second girl asked, who had long straight light brown hair that reached her back and eyes of the same color.
Yukari nodded.
"She was a special friend to us… I mean to me, Saori and our now former teammates. Thanks to her we were becoming a strong and motivated team… Our victory in the friendly against Maginot proves it."
Too bad Maginot had been weakened by the defection of most of her tank crew…
Pepperoni thought, forgetting that Ooarai had nearly beaten St. Gloriana and Saunders.
"I understand… But why did he decide to commite suicide? Has the closure of Ooarai shaken her to such an extent?" The brunette asked.
It was Saori who answered her.
"No... The reason is another, far more serious."
"Would be?" Supplì asked her.
"Miho found out that her mother, Shiho, had disowned her. Thus, with the closure of the school, she found herself in trouble: she could not go back to Kuromorimine, nor even attend other schools. She no longer had a family to support her. That's why she decided to kill herself."
Saori shook her head in disgust.
"When we found out she was headed to Aokigahara we alerted both her older sister and her mother."
"How did they react?"
"Maho agreed to help us search, but that woman…"
Her fists clenched as the memory of her enraged her.
"When we told her about Miho's suicidal intentions, she said that she could have killed herself, and that for her it was only a cause of dishonor."
That revelation shocked the three students of Anzio.
"That ugly bitch!" Pepperoni exclaimed.
"She's a slut…" The brunette declared.
"Did she really despise her own second daughter so much?" Supplì asked.
Yukari nodded.
And now that I think about it, Hana's mother was also very cruel… She even kicked her out of the house. Luckily mine isn't like that, otherwise… My childhood would have been even worse.
She thought, remembering the time before her meeting with the girls of the disbanded Anglerfish team, when she didn't have any friends.
"In a way she is co-responsible for her death… If she hadn't disinherited her now Miho would still be alive, and she would be attending some other school." She declared.
"But what does she do? I understand that she are a very influential person." The brunette said.
"We only know that she is a big shot in the sensha-do federation and matriarch of the Nishizumi family." Saori answered her.
"To me she should be standing on a sidewalk, looking for customers to entertain!" Pepperoni said scornfully.
Instead Supplì was amazed.
"Did you say… Nishizumi family?" She asked.
"You know her?" Her brown-haired companion asked.
The Miho-like girl turned to her, staring at her in amazement.
"You do not know? The Nishizumi is one of the richest, oldest and most prestigious families in Japan! Shiho as Saori said is a prominent member of the Federation and also has some influence on MEXT, and Maho, the eldest daughter, is captain of the sensha-do team (the strongest of all) of Kuromorimine, a prestigious floating school!"
"Ah, I understand... In fact, she seemed to have already heard this surname."
The brunette snorted.
"Better change the subject… My name is Amaretto, and I am the driver of the Pepperoni here, deputy commander of our team and one of the best cooks in Anzio."
"I am Yukari Akiyama, loader of Saunders Team Eagle, led by Kay herself. "
She pointed to her ex-partner.
"You already know Saori."
"And I introduced you to Supplì."
"We've met before, Yukari and I." Pepperoni suddenly stated.
Both Amaretto and Supplì stared at her in surprise.
"Oh yes? And when?" The first girl asked her.
"Before the match… It was her with Kay and a couple of others." She replied.
"And speaking of that, Yukari… I'd like to talk to you privately." She added.
An alarm bell immediately went off in Yukari's mind.
"You mean now?"
The deputy commander of Anzio nodded.
"It's urgent."
The former Ooarai initially hesitated. However, if she refused she risked making her interlocutor suspicious. So she smiled shyly and replied:
"Okay… Lead the way."