Hello, and welcome to...whatever I'm doing with this.

It's a bit impromptu, but I figured that, as part of trying to get back into the swing of things here, that I do something "special". Though apart from releasing SH3's next chapter minimum (which I've had to restart due to losing the old draft and am currently working on it), I couldn't really think of anything.

Then I remembered something: I had something from much earlier in the series' life that I haven't really done anything with.

For context: the four stories you're going to see are things I wrote up based on some translated transcripts from the World Witches wiki back when I was in community college. This was way before I shifted more to trying to forge the story in a direction I wanted to try with SH3. The Google Doc I saved to my Drive says that I put it in back in 2018, though I'd have to check and see how old the original copy is when I remember to.

Suffice to say, these are...around minimum when I was writing SH2?

Anyways, I'm just gonna do something I wouldn't really think of doing and just...release them. These have been edited (my original plan was just to handle formatting issues and grammatical errors, but I've fixed up a few things beyond that), but these were edited in about a few hours overall, so you have been warned.

Speaking of being warned, I better add this disclaimer: I don't own anything but the characters created for the series. Characters not OCs are owned by their respective owners, as do any references made, if any. Also (this is a separate disclaimer, but I still wanted to put it in anyways), the footnotes at the end of each chapter are based on what I knew at the time, so they don't reflect my current knowledge. I'm only presenting them as-is with some fixes format-wise and proofreading.

With that out of the way, let's dive into the first story I found myself having written back then...

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Story 1: Sanya, Eila, and Ending Footage

If there was one thing that Roland could say about the sound he was hearing, it was that it sounded a lot like someone singing in Japanese.

Well, in the Fuso language, to be more precise.

Also, whoever it was that was singing, the voice was so loud that even Sanya had gotten up and was walking around like she knew where the sound was coming from.

"Good afternoon, Sanya," Roland said as he gave off a smile and waved hello.

"Morning, Roland," Sanya told him in a slightly sleepy tone. "Do you hear someone singing?"

"Yeah. I was going to look around and see who was doing it, maybe ask why she was singing." The only reason why the male Witch assumed it was female in voice was because the voice was in a range that a normal male voice didn't match (or something; Roland wasn't exactly sure what range that would be or even if the range existed[1]).

"It sounds like it was coming from the courtyard." Sanya gave off a cute yawn.

"The courtyard? We have one of those?"

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For Eila, there didn't seem to be anyone around right now, which was perfect for her practicing a particular song.

"Unmeisen~" the Suomos Witch sang as she danced in the courtyard, not paying attention to her surroundings.

Because of this, a certain voice caught her by surprise.

"Eila?" Sanya asked as Eila turned to see the Orussian Witch and Roland standing there, the male Witch giving off a confused look. "What are you doing out here in the courtyard?"

"Ah, Sanya," Eila replied as she was surprised by what she saw. "It's unusual to see you up this morning. It's only around noon, you know?" She then realized why she was probably up for. "Ah, could it be because you heard me?"

"Well, I think I could hear you from anywhere when you sing that loud."

Eila then looked at Roland and added, "And what about you?"

"About the same thing, but a smaller range," Roland simply said.

"I see…sorry. Did I wake you up, Sanya?"

"Don't worry," Sanya told her. "You're only good at singing, so it doesn't bother me."

Eila gave off a giggle really quick. "Really?" She then replayed Sanya's statement back in her head. "Wait, 'only'?"

Sanya shook her head. "Well, anyways…why are you dancing?"

Eila looked at her hands and noticed that her fingers were in the middle of a motion that she had been practicing. "Ah, this? You know how there was talk about making a Pee-Ar film in Fuso about us Witches?"

The Orussian nodded her head in understanding. "Oh yes, and Yoshika would have the leading role."

Roland blinked as he said, "Oh…wait, a Pee-Ar?" He wasn't exactly from this world, so it was odd to hear about something like that. Though it almost sounded like it would be like the anime back in his world.

"Yeah…" Eila walked up to Roland and leaned into his left ear, adding in a whisper, "Those people from Fuso have no taste. It would be much better to give it the leading role to Sanya..."

"I think that it'll be fine," the male Witch told her.

"So…" Sanya asked as Eila straightened up and looked at them as a whole. "How is that related to why you were dancing? What are you doing with your fingers?"

"Ah, this?" Eila had evidently not fixed her hands. "It's choreography. They've asked us if the two of us wanted to take part in that Pee-Ar as well. You were sleeping then and Roland was busy doing some training, so I was asked to ask you two later."

"They want us in as well?"

"Wait, they want me?" Roland asked, confused. Why was this sounding familiar to the male Witch?

"The main part of it will be made by editing old material, but they said they wanted to record new material for the parts with songs in it. Well, all we have to do is dance to match the song."

"I see…" Sanya turned around and started walking off. "Good luck, Eila!"

Eila snapped her fingers as an idea came into her head. "Oh, I know: why don't you practice with me?"

Sanya turned around and looked a little embarrassed as she shook her head. "No! That would be too embarrassing…"

"You know, Commander Minna told us to do our best since this is part of our 'duty'."

Roland looked at Sanya as the Orussian Witch thought about it. "Well…if everyone else is doing it as well…"

"Okay!" Eila raced up to Sanya and grabbed the Orussian Witch's hands gently. "Let's practice! Listen, first you hold your right index finger like this…" Eila let go of Sanya's left hand so that she could use show her friend the position.

"Like this?" Sanya asked as she copied Eila's finger position.

"And then the left index finger as well…" She let go of Sanya's right hand so that she could show the Orussian Witch the other position.

"Like this?" Again, Sanya followed her example.

"Yeah, like that! And while holding your fingers side by side, you say 'Un~mei~se~n'."

Sanya tried her best to say it, but it came out more like a question than a word.

"No, not like that!" Eila then gripped Sanya's wrists as she set out on correcting her friend's pose. "I'll show you…"

Sanya was surprised by Eila's odd behavior. "What are you doing?"

"Listen, the right finger's angle should be like this. The left finger's angle…" Eila set the fingers in question to the right places before she froze up.

Sanya's finger… the Suomos Witch thought to herself. It's so cold, but…it's so slender…and pretty…

"Eila?" Sanya asked as she looked like she was experiencing slight discomfort.

This was enough to snap Eila out of her thoughts.

"Uwah?!" she said quickly. "What?"

"It hurts if you hold it that tightly," Sanya told her. Indeed, the Orussian Witch's fingers were experiencing discomfort due to the way Eila had gripped them.

"Aaah, s-s-sorry!" Eila let go quickly and took a step back. "I just happened to err…you know?" Now the Suomos Witch adopted a nervous position. "Um…"

"What's wrong, Eila?"

"N-no, nothing…"

"You're hiding something…I can see it in your face." True to Sanya's words, Eila was blushing madly.

"Ugh…"

"Eila?" Sanya cocked her head to the left cutely as she gave off a curious expression.

"D-don't look at me like that!" Eila turned around and ran off.

Sanya sighed. "She ran away…"

"She'll be back," Roland told her, the male Witch having watched from the sideline. "For now, I think I can help where Eila had left off." He walked up to her and, gingerly taking her hands, formed them the way he had seen Eila do it. To his curiosity, Sanya was blushing slightly. "I'm not hurting you, am I?"

"N-no, not at all," Sanya said quickly. "Thanks for helping out, Roland."

"No problem. Just a gut feeling." That, and I recall the ending credits from the anime, the male Witch added. This is going to be easier than if I hadn't. "Now, I wonder what part I'm having for this…"

Letting go of Sanya, he watched as the Orussian Witch turned around and, taking a few steps forward, began singing a song…

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As Sanya finished the song she had started, Roland was standing there in disbelief.

He didn't really recall Sanya singing a song like that, but it sounded…

"That was a really nice song, Sanya," Eila said as she approached the duo again.

"Eila!" Sanya said in surprise as she turned and looked at the Suomos Witch, who had taken a spot next to Roland.

"I was hiding behind a pillar, you know?"

"Oh. So that was where you were hiding. I thought you ran away somewhere…"

"What made you think that…?" Eila then chuckled nervously.

"What about you, Roland?"

"Hmm?" Roland asked, baffled. "Oh, I've been here since you started singing."

"Oh." Sanya gave off another blush. "Although I usually don't mind when people listen…this was pretty embarrassing…"

"What, why?" Eila asked. "It was a great song!" She then clapped her hands together. "I know! Let's let the people in Fuso hear the song you just sang as well!"

"Eh?" Sanya looked a little confused before she shook her head slowly. "No…I don't think anyone wants to hear it anyways…"

"That's not true! I bet you'll become really popular!"

Sanya shook her head again. "No…I'm not interested in that…and I don't think that's true…"

"It's not true that it's not true! Because…I know how much I want to hear it…I'm sure that's true for everyone else! I'm certain!"

Sanya blinked. "You think so…?" She then looked at Roland. "What about you, Roland?"

"It sounded great," the male Witch told her. "I'm sure that there are people who will like your song."

Sanya then sighed. "Well…okay then. I'll sing…"

As Sanya prepared to sing another song, Eila leaned towards Roland and added, "So it's thanks to us those people from Fuso will be able to hear Sanya's beautiful voice!"

"You shouldn't say it like that," the Orussian Witch said sternly.

"Oh?" Eila blinked. "Sorry…"

"As you were, Sanya…" Roland said with a wave of his right hand.

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Later on at night, Eila and Sanya were in the sky as the Suomos Witch was escorting her Orussian teammate.

Also, Roland had tagged along because Minna had said something about him getting some more experience in night combat after the last time he was out at night.

"Flying at night sure is nice, don't you think?" Eila asked as they flew through the night sky.

"Yeah," Sanya told her.

"So, do you see anything?"

Sanya shook her head lightly. "No…nothing."

Eila then turned herself around so that her back was to the ground and flew like that, laying her hands behind her head. "It's been a while since the last time it was just the two of us flying night patrol."

"Um, Eila? Roland's with us, you know…"

"Oh, sorry. Forgot."

"Thanks for the notice," Roland said as he flew next to Sanya's left side (Eila had taken her right side). "Sorry for being a third wheel in this…"

"It's alright, Roland," Sanya said as she looked at the night sky around them. "There was a full moon on that night as well."

"'That night'[2]?" Eila asked before she realized what Sanya was talking about. "Oh, that night. But Miyafuji was with us along with Roland then, so I wouldn't say it was just the two of us…"

"Oh, but we were able to beat the Neuroi because Yoshika and Roland were with us."

"Well, it's not like Miyafuji's a bad person, and it's not like she doesn't have talent, so…" Eila then did a double take. "Wait, what did you just say?" She recalled the last statement made by her friend. "…'Yoshika'? What do you mean by 'Yoshika'?"

"What?" Sanya looked baffled. "Yoshika is Yoshika, right?"

"I can't believe you're calling her by her first name…when did this happen?"

"She's got a right to call people whatever she wants, you know," Roland told the Suomos Witch.

Eila then shook her head. "W-well…it's not too bad having people like her around…but…the fact that she doesn't know much about life in the army is a bother. And she sometimes says strange things and breaks regulations…seeing it from that point of view, she still has a long way to go, right?" When Sanya and Roland failed to answer, she looked to her left and saw that the Orussian Witch and the male Witch were giving her a surprised look. "What's wrong, you two? You both look surprised."

"Well…" Sanya began nervously. "I think this is the first time I've ever heard you say 'regulations'."

"I…surprisingly agree with Sanya…" Roland added. "You don't look the type to use a word like that."

Eila raised an eyebrow. "And just what might you two mean by that?"

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"Speaking of that," Eila said as they continued flying, "the major told me about a form of entertainment from Fuso called 'manzai' a while back. Have you heard about it, you two?"

"'Manzai'?" Sanya asked.

"Not really?" Roland added.

"Apparently," Eila explained, "in it, there's a tsukkomi who does the tsukkomi, and a boke who does the boke."

"Tsukkomi?" Roland asked, still confused. "Boke?"

"Who could have guessed?" Sanya said.

"Yeah!" Eila replied quickly as she snapped her fingers. "That's how you tsukkomi! You have got talent for this!"

Roland grew more confused. What the hell were they saying? It was like they were talking in a different language.

"I just said the first thing that came to me…" Sanya admitted.

So did it mean that it was like improv?

Roland shook his head.

For all he cared, they could be speaking in words only girls would readily pick up; as he was in a squad with nothing but girls, he was surprised that he was even listening to this.

"Sui~hei~sen~" Eila said as she looked ahead.

"Don't you mean 'unmeisen'?" Sanya asked.

"Wow, great! We make a great pair for this!"

Sanya sighed. "No, that's enough…"

"Aww…" The Suomos Witch gave off a sigh of her own. "I'd bet we could have made it far…"

Made it far for what? Roland asked mentally. Someone tell me, dammit…

"No…" Sanya cleared her throat as she added, "…'The path to good art isn't simple'. That's what the old lady used to say."

"Old lady?" Roland asked, curious.

Sanya nodded her head. "Yes, an old lady who often came to our house to drink tea before I became a Witch." She then sighed. "Doesn't it happen to you two that when you try to remember adults from your childhood, you can't remember who they were or where they came from?"

"Hmm…" Eila said as she thought of something. "Oh yeah, there was this old man who got drunk and randomly gave us cans of surströmming…Who was he again? I think he was from Korvatunturi or something…" The Suomos Witch shook her head in frustration. "Ugh, bad memories…"

"Don't feel bad," Roland said. "Happens to everyone."

"What about you, Roland?" Sanya asked.

"Well…I don't recall too much about my own childhood, but…there was a friend of my dad's that I had some memories of when I was younger, I think when I was about five. Of course, I did see him again, but it wasn't until I was about fourteen, so I guess he doesn't count too well."

"I see…The old lady I told you two about often taught me songs and such as well…" She started singing a bit.

Eila recognized the song and replied with, "Oh, I know that song too!"

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"Hey, you often have to fly night patrol all by yourself…" Eila pointed out as the girls finished singing their song. "Don't you get bored?"

"I'm used to it, so not really," Sanya told her. "What about you?"

"I don't like it."

"Not enough experience yet, so I can't really tell you[3]," Roland added.

Sanya sighed and continued with, "But…sometimes I get to hear the voices of other Night Witches. There are Night Witches all over the world, and even if we don't get to see each other in person, we can still get to know each other that way."

"Y-you have correspondence with Night Witches from all over the world?" Eila asked.

Roland was about to ask why there were more than one Night Witch in the sky but caught himself: like the idea that more Witches with healing magic like Yoshika's existed, there had to be more Witches that shared Sanya's magic ability.

"…'All over the world' might be an exaggeration…" Sanya replied to Eila's statement. "The one who has been furthest away until now was from Neue Karlsland, I think."

"Neue Karlsland?" Eila sounded surprised. "But that's in the southern hemisphere!"

"Yes, at that time a meteor burst happened and…" She then realized that the two people with her probably didn't understand what a meteor burst was. "Ah, a meteor burst is a phenomenon where meteors that fall down towards the Earth create ionized particles high up in the sky. If you send magic waves there, they can go very far, so you can hear each other's voices."

"I see…"

"There are a lot of layers in the ionosphere, and it differs depending on time zones and seasons, but at this time or year there's a phenomenon called the Sporadic E layer that sometimes happens that is especially good for telecommunications."

"Y-you don't say…"

"The witches in Karlsland are especially enthusiastic about this; they said they want to try doing a moon bounce sometime or other." She then looked at her companions. "Can you believe it, you two? They say you can send magic waves towards the moon and communicate though the reflection. That means you can reach any place from where you can see the moon…" She noticed that Eila and Roland were busy processing the information she had laid on them. "Ah…Am I talking too much?"

"N-no!" Eila shook her head quickly. "Hearing you talk this much…you must be really into this!"

"Can you tell us more?" Roland asked nicely.

"Sure!" Sanya said cheerfully. "It has become a custom for Night Witches to ask each other about what unit we belong to, and then we send each other Queue-Es-El cards."

"Queue-Es-El cards?"

"Yes! I have some with me right now." Sanya fished around and pulled out some QSL cards she had inside a pouch she had with her. "This!"

Roland blinked. He thought he was the only one who pulled things out of his pockets.

Oh well, as long as she wasn't pulling out paper to write letters he didn't really care.

"You have quite a lot of them…" Eila said as she and Roland looked at the QSL cards in Sanya's hands. "So that's what you carry around in the pouch around your waists. I had no idea…"

"Yes…" Sanya told them. "That, and a pen and paper. I have to write everything down right away or I'll forget."

"Let's see…" Eila grabbed a QSL card at random and looked at it. "Ooh."

Sanya looked at the one Eila had selected and said, "Ah, I received that from a Night Witch I got to know just recently."

"Hmm…" Eila started to read the details aloud. "'Good day, or should I say 'good evening'? This is the Night Witch from Karlsland. Right now, I'm practicing high altitude scouting during night-time 12,000 meters over Romagna'."

"She writes when she's training?" Roland asked out of curiosity.

"She doesn't seem like a serious person…'I said practice, but there are long periods of time where I'm all alone, so I do feel lonely sometimes, but I'm very glad I got the opportunity to talk with you this evening. I hope…'" Eila gave off a quick sniffle.

"…'I hope you will be able to meet your parents soon…'" Roland continued for the Suomos Witch. "'I'll do my best over here as well. From: Heidemarie Schnaufer'." The male Witch gave off a smile. "She seems like a really good person."

"Heidemarie is a captain, so she's a superior officer, Eila," Sanya said as she went to comfort her friend, who was crying a little. "Come on; don't cry to other people's letters…"

"I see," Eila said as she wiped her eyes and gave off a sniffle. "It's a good thing you're getting more friends…" The Suomos Witch then got another brilliant idea. "Sanya, could you sing a song before we return to base?"

"Eh? Why all of a sudden?"

"Isn't it great that everyone might be able to hear your voice if you sing here, right now?"

"Oh…" Sanya blushed slightly. "You're exaggerating…" The Orussian Witch then cleared her throat.

"Hurray! Hurray! Sanya! You can do it, Sanya!"

"That's a little…embarrassing…"

"I want Sanya's song to reach all over the world!"

"…Stupid…"

"It's just Eila, Sanya," Roland told her.

Sanya just sighed before she started to sing another song…

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It was closing in on morning when the trio came in for a landing, and it was when they were putting their equipment away that Eila realized something they had forgotten.

"I-I just remembered something very important…" the Suomos Witch said carefully before adding in a panicked tone, "What should we do?!"

Sanya and Roland looked at each other in confusion.

"What?" they asked Eila.

"You know that Pee-Ar film?" When the Orussian Witch and the male Witch nodded in agreement, she continued. "I forgot that we were going to film it today. And we're supposed to gather in the hangar at ten o'clock."

"Eh?" Sanya asked. "Really?"

Roland looked at his watch, which had his Striker Unit stored within it, and added, "It's almost six, Eila…"

"Sorry!" Eila said in apology. "I was careless!"

"Don't worry, it happens to everyone, Eila…"

"But what should we do?" Sanya asked before she yawned a little. "I'm…so…tired…" She gave off a longer yawn.

"T-that's not good!" the Suomos Witch exclaimed. "Don't fall asleep! Please! Really, we have to practice until it's our turn!"

"Well, you look pretty tired yourself…" The Suomos Witch had indeed looked like she hadn't gotten a lot of rest lately.

"Yeah…so it shows, huh? See, I got lost in doing tarot yesterday, so I haven't actually slept at all…" Now it was Eila's turn to yawn. "Ugh…It all just feels like a lot of trouble…should we just go to our rooms and sleep?"

Sanya shook her head. "We can't do that. You said it yourself: 'This is also part of our duty'."

"You did say that," Roland added. "We have to do it, for the sake of everyone in Fuso."

Eila sighed. "Yeah, okay…do you remember the choreography?"

"Um, you do it like this…" Sanya began as she manipulated her hands into the positions Eila had shown her.

"I'll get you two some coffee or something," Roland told them before he gave off a huge yawn. "I'll ask for Commander Minna's permission to take a quick nap after the shoot…" The male Witch stumbled off to get his teammates something to perk them up.

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[1] Given the songs he had heard back in his world, this wasn't exactly accurate; he had tried singing the high-pitched parts of A-Ha's "Take On Me" for a singing-based video game and was barely able to do it, his throat wanting relief from his attempt.

[2] "That night" referred to the encounter with a Neuroi that Eila, Roland, Yoshika, and Sanya had during a round of night patrol the night after Yoshika's and Sanya's birthdays. For more details, please refer to Strike Heroes, Chapter 10 in this case.

[3] His only real experiences for staying up through a night were Fourth of July days (with the help of a nap before the night started), some trips to Knott's Berry Farm when he was in middle school, a trip to Disneyland in California around the same timeframe, his senior graduation trip, a Sober Grad event that started about an hour after he had graduated, and the night mission he had flown before while with the Strike Witches. All of them were too far away from each other to give him any help currently.

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And that's the end of this chapter's story.

Also, around the time of this story's publication, it's the (if I did the math correctly) tenth anniversary of the first chapter of "Strike Heroes" on this site! As such, I'll share some thoughts on this as well as other elements of the series at the end of each of these chpters.

To start off with, I guess it'd be the...existence of these chapters in general.

The time I was working on this is rather hazy story-wise, though looking at these the idea would be similar to something I would end up publishing ("Strike Heroes Himebana") in that I took a translated script, add Roland to them, and edit them to better fit how I had presented the series at the time. At some point, though, I forgot about these, though like I said the idea also exists in a later story I'd publish (this is possibly one reason why I decided that would try making a more original story with SH3 (Even if it's taken...perhaps 5 years and counting until he gets an update ready and published...).

Anyways, I'll move on to the next chapter and see you guys there. Since I'm going to be publishing all these at once, I won't be doing my usual end-of-chapter thing, though I do ask you to still do it for each chapter if you want (even if it's to leave a reminder for me to keep an eye on for future writings).

So without further ado, I'll see you real soon.