5th chapter of the story. I've already got the outline written since then. This is part of the recovery from the lull update.
Disclaimer: I still don't own anything. Even Google. Trust me.
Senshado und nichts ー 5 『Die Panzerfahrerin und das Leben 』
[Miho]
Leyton-san, who is Yukari's friend was standing in front of the table along with Anzu, Momo, Yuzu, Nekota, Straweberry, Nakajima-san, Sodo-san, Yukari and me. "So, what do you about this?" Yukari spoke.
"This is a pretty old map of the ship, I'm not gonna lie, about twenty-five years or so," Leyton-san points her finger on one of the spaces in the middle of the ship, "this is supposed to be the farming area but here it's marked as the power plant."
"So what about the pencil markings?" Anzu asked.
"Probably some sort of coordinate system or something, look, the layout is represented in both top and side orthographic views, try marking it in a computer to see what's up. Do you have a PC or laptop here, I have the file in my USB, but unfortunately, it's a CAD blueprint."
"I do, and I have Sketchup installed, will that work?" Nekota raised her hand.
"Yeah, that would do."
"Nishizumi-san, can I do it at home? I'll give you the results on Monday." Well, it's already past 3 and the storm is quite near.
"Okay, can we dismiss now Anzu-san?"
"Yeah, dismissed," she said after nodding.
[Louise]
"Strawberry-san, could you go help me at my house with this? I'm not good at reading maps at all," Nekota-san asked me.
"Okay, I'll just pass by the shop to get my first pay, it's my day off too."
"Oh, I can help you with that." We soon passed the shop and got into Nekota's house. It was quite a small house. "Tadaima," Nekota said after getting in, "come in, Strawberry." It was a two storey house and was quite spacious and empty. "I never had a guest or two for a while, except for Piyotan and Momogawa," her bag was placed in an orderly fashion and I followed it just to pay respect.
"You live alone?" I said after observing the rooms in the second floor. We were in a room with a computer which had three screens.
"Yeah," she sat down a large chair that was comparable to Anzu's before turning on the computer in front of her, "mom is at New York and dad is at the mainland at Tokyo, both are workaholics, so I'm always left at home until I entered Oarai."
"Workaholics?"
"The ones who love work."
"Oh, got it," I said, "do you have a large table here?"
"The kotatsu is big enough, I think," she opened the wardrobe which felt more like a separate room, "here, help me." I soon assisted her in pulling a table with a heater underneath it. I placed the map and started to stare at it carefully.
"Don't you think it's weird?"
"Why?"
"A layout of the ship, which is 25 years old, hidden inside a tank encyclopedia, used as a bookmark for the Hummel, ain't it weird?"
"Yeah, that's quite suspicious."
"Let's get to that later, I want to see what does this contains." We soon started the process of looking at the blueprint and comparing it with the CAD. "That reminds me, why do you have a CAD in the first place?"
"To look at tanks."
"Okay, well, I think this goes to here and here," I replied while pointing out the next few markings. There were some few loose markings that didn't made sense, but we still marked them anyway. After 10 more markings, we had a ship filled with markings and lines. "What do you think of it?"
"A coordinate system? Wait, let me try removing the excess lines." And the picture soon popped up, it looked like it was pointing to something. "Here, I made a print of it," she said while handing me a piece of paper, "oh, it's already 9, want to have dinner?"
"If you insist." There was a reaction inside of me telling no but my body said yes.
"Let's go downstairs, I guess I could cook you something," Nekota said while removing her glasses and changing her clothes. She wasn't slouching or anything when we got down, she was more of a beautiful model that you see in the magazines than a shy girl in ugly glasses. I was dazed as I thought that Nekota had transformed into a magical girl but no, she just changed her clothes. "Do you want to learn how to cook? It's much cheaper to do than buy from the convenience store but I do like some food from the convenience store."
"Sure," I guess this could work, considering my economical stance right now. She soon took out a pouch of tomato sauce, a bag of straight pasta, some ground beef, some hotdogs and some spices. She taught me how to cook a simple spaghetti. We soon had our own fill, it was quite tasty too. "Hey, could I sleep here for the night, the school is quite far from here."
"Isn't it better to be near the school?"
"Yeah, but I sleep at the garage, so that means I have to walk to the school right now but I feel uneasy walking at night, sometimes I feel like, somebody's watching me."
"Well, it's okay, you can use the guest room but you'll be using the futon due to the fact that I only have one bed here and I think that it can't fit us two."
"It's okay, I've been sleeping inside the radio operator's hatch recently, quite uncomfortable but better than sleeping in the cluttered storage room." Yes, the storage room was so cluttered that you don't know what are bolts to screws. I soon slept in the guest room. A guest room that was big enough for four people. Well, I guess they're quite rich. Morning came, a Sunday with a bit of rain. I climbed up to Nekota's room only to see her sleeping in the gaming seat that she was using. It was usual for me to sleep in my school uniform as it was one of the few garments that I have. I sometimes go commando, as Yukari-san terms it, when laundry day comes, today is one of those days, except that my clothes are currently at school and I have no clothes with me. I didn't planned ahead this far. I opened the fridge only to see some few pieces of meat, some potatoes and nothing else, so she didn't shopped for anything yet, eh? Well, I guess I could make something out of this. Manager taught me a thing or two in cooking while we were bored at the night shift. I soon started cooking a dish called Adobo, manager said it was not a Japanese dish but a foreign one. It was quite simple and tasty that I learned it easily. I soon finished cooking by the time Nekota got down and it was already 12 in the noon. "Is it good?"
"Not bad but a little bit of salt, I guess." Yay, I've been praised. Wait, isn't it natural to be praised? Why am I excited over such trivial matter? Nevermind, let's just eat. We soon ate the dishes that I made and she let me keep the leftovers because that she was going to the supermarket later. The rain subsided for a while but it was still cloudy. I guess I can get back to the garage now.
"Well, I'm taking my leave then, Nekota-san," I said before I walked out her front door.
"Be careful then, see you tomorrow!"
"Yeah, see ya!"
[Miho]
A day soon had passed, Anzu was looking gloomy and I was too. Momo was to announce something that they needed everybody. "Alright, you know that the Senshado community has it's own set of exhibition matches," Momo shouted and all of the girls agreed, "good news, bad news time, good news, after a grueling day, we managed to avoid the typhoon, bad news, Anzu's punishment is to make the losing people wear the anglerfish costume for a whole week."
I've experienced wearing skintight latex suits (it's part of a job, well, you may or may not want to believe that) and it was fine, except for the sticky part, I can relate to the OGHS Tankery Team.