Jeder Und Panzer

Black Jack

"The best way to live your life is to be spontaneous. Take it slow, life come to you – and then when its close, you kick its shins so it can't run away from you. That's the way our Commander rolls!" –James Doakes, gunner

You often told yourself to keep Tankery separate from everything else, something you've done almost religiously since day one. To be fair, it wasn't your tank – you may have been the commander of said tank, but that changed nothing as it belonged to a private collection who owner happened to know your father due to some bet or other. Originally, the owner had wanted to get into Tankery himself, but found he lacked the attributes to amount to anything close to decent, so he instead funded your makeshift team. Makeshift in that, two years ago, when you were fourteen, you barely knew them, although you knew how to tank. Back then, you had rolled around in the ever faithful M4 Sherman.

Eventually, after winning a few local tournaments that lead to most of the prize money being banked or used to fix and supply the tank, he'd retired the Sherman, letting it sit proudly at the forefront of that small collection, housed in a hangar. Five tanks, with that Sherman sitting in the middle, and you moved on to the next tank. This tank, you went to the tournaments in an Easy-Eight, acquired due to banked funding. After the acquisition of the better tank, however, your record began to become scratchy, with various holes beginning to appear in your resume. It all came to a head, though, with the first international tournament you attended last year, in Britain. At first, it had gone so very well, with you getting to the semi-finals, your tank having managed to survive an onslaught of European, and the occasional Russian, tanks. That was when it all fell apart.

Somehow, that Brit had managed to acquire a very rare tank as a tournament prize. A Matilda with some extra features. While it didn't feature a Littlejohn Adaptor, thankfully, it instead featured an A27 turret and a 6-pounder main gun. It wasn't until after you'd lost to that smug viper that you learned it was a 6-pounder, and by that time he'd already whipped your ass so hard it stung for the rest of the year. You'd gone in hard and fast, and while you outclassed him speed-wise, his gun hurt, and it dinged your armour very badly. Enough that when you'd lost, the tank was a wreck. They hadn't been messing around when it came to eliminating the competition. It was fast and thorough, and what happened at the finals hadn't surprised you at all, considering what you had seen advancing up the rankings throughout the tournament.

The official tournament ranked the Matilda as a rank five, given its armament, just as they'd considered your tank a rank six. The tank they'd gone up against in the finals was classified as a rank eight. You later learned that the Brit in charge of that Matilda, or Matilda Black Prince, apparently, had been hospitalised in the process of getting his team out a bad situation where their tank had been set alight. You hadn't heard from him since, so he had probably left Tankery for good. Right now, though, none of that mattered, that was all hype to get past the jitters you're feeling.

To clarify, you don't understand it.

How can dealing with a tank be easier than dealing with a girl, of all things?

"You must be Kay, right?" you ask, managing to calm your quaking nerves enough to speak. The second your sponsor, the same collector who had gotten you into the whole Tankery thing in the first place, had sold your services to one of Japan's most prestigious Tankery – or as the locals seemed to call it, Sensha-dou, which had a nice ring to it – schoolships in order to bolster their already impressive roster. With the funding received you'd upgraded from the E8, and under the collector's careful guidance, were now in possession of a modified M26, custom made by the best sport tank producers. Indeed, with the 90mm main gun and a Ford GAF engine nestled away under some mightily impressive armour, you could easily take whatever was to be thrown at you "I'm John. John Smith, the tanker your school hired?" the girl nods and smiles before extending a hand

"Yep, that's me! Kay Nakamura." She introduces herself, and now with a name to an admittedly pretty face you find yourself less nervous. Kay looks over your shoulder, apparently she was expecting more people to have come with you "The captain asked me to show you around the school, but I can't really do that when your crew are missing, now can I?" given the tone you can tell it's not meant in any condescending way, and you go along with it and chuckle, before shrugging

"They went to go see if they can find the mess hall." You reply, hoping that it would suffice for an answer. Evidently it does, as at the mention of something food related, you note that Kay's eyes have apparently glazed over slightly "Kay? Kay, are you alright?" you ask, waving a hand in front of her face and clicking your fingers, which snaps her out of this state, and she chuckles, not a nervous sort of chuckle like the ones you were used to giving around unknown members of the opposite gender, but rather a chuckle that says 'I'm confident, and in charge of this situation'

"Whoops, sorry about that." Kay apologises, that same grin now showing a few teeth on the right side. It was at least better than looking far enough down that you'd be looking at her admittedly impressive bosom – judging by the fact that your new contract holder said that your guide would be a freshman, this can't put her down to anything more than fifteen, sixteen at most – but it's not good that you're not looking her in the eyes "I was in too much of a rush getting ready for the tour that I forgot to grab breakfast, and it's almost lunch!" you manage to look her in the eyes once again, and this time your gaze keeps a firm grasp of where you're supposed to be looking, rather than erratically looking over your newly acquired companion

"Then we'll just go on the school tour thing after grabbing something to eat, then!" you declare, your voice barely raised above its usual pitch. You were getting more confident – she talked to you like a person, after all, rather than a tanker, which was an improvement, at least – as Kay nods happily, and promptly leaving you in her wake as she hurries towards one of the many off-shooting corridors that cut away from the main foyer, though you picked up the pace, too "Must be mighty hungry if you're heading off at that speed, Miss Kay." You get a hearty laugh as a reward for the remark

"Not really, I'm just feeling peckish." You're surprised at that, as if this was peckish you'd dread seeing how fast she'd move if she was starving "You're Japanese is good, by the way. How long did you spend learning?" you weren't expecting the compliment, and as a result you fell back into that nervous state, though Kay doesn't seem to notice, instead focussing on going as fast as possible towards the cafeteria without breaking school rules – this means she is somehow going fast enough to make you sprint after her just to keep up, without being chastised for it

"I- I had half a year," you manage to stammer out – a feat not helped in the slightest by the fact that you were beginning to pant. You were the commander of a tank, not the loader, and as a result you did less physically exerting things. Johnny could run for quite literally hours, being a former member of the track team, and put that to use with his role in the tank – it had shaved at least half a second off last time any of you had bothered to check "It's nothing compared to our comms, though." You tell her, growing confident once more now that you had wrapped your head around receiving a compliment from a stranger. It was at this moment that you hear them – your crew.

The synchronised voices with drastically varying pitches was a very easy giveaway.

This serves to excite your would-be guide all the more, and she opens the cafeteria doors to an unusual sight

"- The only girl for me!" The other four members of your team are stood on one of the long tables. They're clad in their usual tanking gear, and you know for a fact that Johnny should never start singing before Marie. That's usually the warning for a fight, not that you mind, as it allows you to assert your dominance over the team by virtue of being the strongest on the team. You know that's a lie, however, as Sarah is actually the most capable brawler on the team, though she enjoys letting you think you're the dominant party member. The gathered audience, made up of most of the student body, turn to look at you as the doors reach the end of their hinges

"Is that your team?" Kay asks, despite the answer being very clear. Almost embarrassingly so, in fact. Johnny - the strong loader, who couldn't punch fast enough to hit a very large snail, with his distinctive grin and scraggly attempt at facial hair – had his arms around Marie, the Comms, and Sarah, the driver. Marie, in turn, had her arm around James, the gunner. Literally covered in oil stains and grease marks, many of which had been on their slacks long enough to have basically become permanent additions to the outfit – not that you could brag that your gear was clandestine, but it was at least less dirty due to the fact that all you had to do was sit in the cupola, with most of the time there spent with your upper half poking out. You nod, grimly staring each and every one of them down "They sing nicely." Her English is far from perfect, but it's surprising to hear fluent English when you expected them to know a few key words and the like

"Don't compliment them, ma'am." You tell her, slipping into English, not removing your gaze from the four idiots stood on the tables "You'll only encourage them for an encore." The four of them begin to chuckle, completely aware of the fact that you're testing your new employer's ability to speak your native language. She seems to recognise the challenge, too, as her eyes narrow slightly. You know now that the game is truly afoot, and that the student body seems to recognise at least a few of the words the two of you are using, as the group closest to you are now watching "I'd like you to meet Johnny Olson, Marie Cassidy, Sarah Louise, and James Doakes. Loader, Communications, Driver, and Gunner, respectively." Kay seems appeased with this, and nods accordingly

"Then you must be the Commander, yes?" she asks, once again already knowing the answer. You, in turn, nod, and she very eagerly claps her hands, quickly and effectively garnering the attention of the entire cafeteria. Two more girls emerge from the crowd, one tall and skinny, the other shorter and a tad more plump. The lanky one eyes your crew wearily, and Johnny winks at her, receiving a roll of the eyes as a reward for that attempt. The two promptly take up places just behind Kay's shoulders, and so you guess they must be her lackeys, for lack of a better term just yet "Alright girls, this here are our newest Sensha-dou crew! They're here to help train the new recruits in time for the nationals!" there's a mixed reaction to this. Mostly because you know for a fact that the nationals had finished just under a week ago, with a victory from the school calling itself Kuromorimine, continuing an apparently long running winning streak. It also served as several things, one was that the oldest daughter of the headmistress had been made into the leader of their Sensha-dou team, and revealing to you that said daughter's mother happened to be the creator of the current trend in the sport, and arguably one of the most powerful people around when it came to that particular matter.

The girl would evidently be a problem

"Now then, if you'd like to get off of the table so you can let our gracious hosts get back to eating, I'm certain we can all have a lovely talk about what needs to be done around here." Your team grumble slightly, but they comply and remove themselves from the tabletop, stepping through a gap in the students, which is filled in the second they finish by whichever student vacated it. The impromptu audience watches the lot of you, before Kay motions to a smaller table near the windows, vacant since you entered, so the previous diners probably vacated it before your team tried to be a barber shop quartet. It's a tight fit once you do navigate your way through the crowd shuffling back towards their tables, with only four chairs to eight people, leading to your crew simply remaining standing "So, what's the standard formation, composition, and training regime for your crews?"

"We normally stick to using a left-hand echelon, with the flag tank – usually the team captain's – in the centre. Fourteen M4 Sherman light tanks, supported by a M4A4 Firefly. We mostly stick to light and medium tanks." You nod at the answers given. The M4 was an admirable tank, one of the most famous in history, in fact, much as your time in one would prove. The echelon was an easy formation to conjure up, what with it being a simple line at an angle – maintaining it, however, was harder than you'd think, having to maintain the same speed when it was easy to go a good bit faster than needed "It's not that we don't have heavy tanks, it's just that we don't have enough to make effective use of them, so we often just leave them in hangar." A damn shame, in your opinion. Heavy tanks packed the heavier punches in most teams, and could take a good hiding. Of course, that wasn't the case with most American heavy tanks, but they were speedier

"I see." You state, before Kay excuses herself briefly, returning with a stack of food, completely catching you off guard while leaving her two companions unfazed. Indeed, even the rest of your crew look beguiled at such a large amount of the stuff she fetches back with her, and are even more surprised at the rate she packs it away. She doesn't take note of the fact everyone that wasn't her two companions, who have remained silent thus far. With that in mind, you turn to her lankier compatriot, mostly because the shorter one is currently being flattered into silence by your ever vexing loader "Does she always have this much food?" the lanky one, who was until that moment looking out of the window and blowing bubble gum, turns to regard you with cold eyes. They'd be put to good use if she was a gunner, or a member of some form of archery club

"This?" she queries, pointing to Kay, who was happily eating with her eyes closed, and yet never misses her mouth "No, this is a light snack compared to what she usually has."

Your crew's jaws collectively drop.

Roughly two hours later saw you situated inside the Student Council room, you and your team sitting at one side of a desk while on the other side two tall girls flanked a revolving chair that was looking out towards the window. A minute passes in tense silence before its occupant turns it around, revealing… a girl who looks a lot more Asian than most of the people you've encountered so far here. You don't mean anything rude by that, it's just that the people you met during the tour – of which there were three; those of course being Kay, Naomi, and Alisa – and a good few bunches of people you saw had all looked at least ambiguously western in terms of descent

"The name is Akemi Fujimoto." She tells you bluntly, leaning forwards and steepling her hands, elbows resting on the desk "My team doesn't need assistance – we have a long history in Sensha-dou. What we need, however, are more guns. Your tank is remarkably strong – I believe the tank duelling circuit classifies your tank as a rank eight? – and just about all that we use are the M4 and its variants. A medium tank is good, but when your enemy can both outrun you and hit harder, then it just isn't enough. We need a big gun, and lots of them. We have two M26s sitting in the hangar under tarp, waiting for the parts needed to fix them up to come in. Once those parts arrive at the start of the next month, we can begin training properly. Are there any questions?"

"Not that it pertains to Tankery, but where will my crew and I be staying?" you ask, genuinely curious. Akemi smiles lightly, and you realise that your ability to read people was worse than ever "It's just that we were never informed before we took the job, and I doubt miss Kay would know such a thing."

"There are a few flats still available in the block on the 72nd street. Not too far away from the school, of course, as it's the freshman residence if they don't have family here." She explains "Fifteen minutes out at best, just continue straight ahead once you go out the gates and you can't miss it, on your right. When you're ready to go, just tell Ami down by the entrance desk that Akemi's given you flats 43, 44, and 45 – anything else?" you ponder for a moment before asking

"Can you tell us anything about the other schools?"

"Sure. Kay and Tanaka have more knowledge on the whole thing, but I'll tell you what I can while classes are still going on." She replies, reaching out to her right, where her… aide? Hands her a folder marked with a stamp shaped rather like a tank. Fitting, you think "Saunders loves good food and medium tanks, especially if they're based off of the Sherman chassis. We also have a best barbeque competition every few months. St. Gloriana loves tea and all things British, and all the values of the former Empire – their forces usually consist of Matildas and Churchills." she leafs through the papers pulled from the folder "Maginot loves art and their tanks are very… bouncy, at a distance. A big enough gun can and will put a hole in them.

"Anzio is a very unusual lot when it comes to their schooling. They pride themselves on their elaborate cooking, rather than prioritising Sensha-dou. As a result, they mostly have tankettes, and last I checked, a Fiat Ansaldo. They tend not to get far, at all and they went out in the first round when St. Gloriana went up against them. Pravda loves heavy tanks, and our guns tend to have trouble penetrating the slabs of metal that they call 'armour', they have some sort of system designed around something called 'Rubles'. The last one I can really tell you about is Kuromorimine.

"They've won the tournament for the past eight years. They love heavy armour and keeping things orderly – that's how we tried to fight them, scattering them. You can guess how well that went when they had a Tiger II and a Ferdinand in the front row. Just to boast, they even had their flag tank be a StuG!" that must have been a painful loss, then "They've all been hiring new tanks, just like yours, to fill up their ranks. The only new tank I've seen on the battlefield, though, was Kuromorimine's. They refused to say what it is, who crews it, and the crew themselves refused to show up when they won. All we know is that it's got a very good gunner, as they could fire from so far off we couldn't see them until we were being hit."

This is very bad.

You can feel it in your bones

"Who lead Kuromorimine in the finals, then?"

"Maho Nishizumi. Nepotism at its finest, in my opinion." She seems perfectly fine with just holding this conversation, but now she's looking at the clock "Shiho Nishizumi has dominated the Sensha-dou Committee for years. Her style of Tankery has been the go to thing since she lead her school to victory about twenty years back. You do know about the Schoolships, right?" you nod, and she sighs in relief "Good. School's almost out, and since you're teamed up with the current batch of freshmen, you'll be able to head over there with your new friends." For the first time since you entered the office Akemi smiles, even though it's a small one

"Thank you for your time, ma'am." You tell her as you head to the door. You do have to check out your new home, after all.

"So you're on our floor?" Kay asks, as you adjust the duffel bag on your back and tighten your grip on the cardboard box in your hands. In your right jacket pocket is the key to flat 44, and everything else you have are key possessions – the non-essentials are in storage at home, your family probably preparing to fetch a few things when they find the time for a holiday "So, how was Akemi?"

"Yes, and she was nice enough." You opt to answer the two questions in one go, instead choosing to focus on your surroundings. Crossing roads while being distracted was just plain stupid, after all "She said that you could help me and my team in terms of tanks." Kay nods, a grin cropping up onto her face as your group halts once again at the edge of a road, waiting patiently for the signal to go. One which appeared not ten seconds later, and as you cross you take note of how tall the apartment block is. People had called you remarkably tall for your age, standing at six foot two.

Not that you really understood that part, all of your crew were of the same age – seventeen – and they stood at similar heights

"Well, we can always start on the other schools team composition tomorrow – I'm not needed on Saturday until the afternoon." She informs you, and you nod in appreciation "That reminds me – since training's tomorrow afternoon, Nagamasa will want to meet you. Aoi's our team leader, so she'll want an update on the team roster as soon as." She notices the questioning look on your face "She was ill today. Nasty cold, and she didn't want anyone else to have it."

"I see." You note. There were ten flats to a floor in the building, and your was on the fourth. Getting there would be easy – especially for the more physically inclined members of your crew "Tomorrow would be fine for us. Isn't that right?" you ask the group, who all mumble out affirmatives, faces obscured by their own luggage. Kay takes this response positively, and gives you all a smile.

Your newfound ability to talk to girls slips away again as you arrive, and begin your ascent

"Great!" Kay states, as you continue up another flight of stairs, thankfully the stairs were on both sides of the building, enabling easy climbing. It isn't long before you arrive "Mine flat's number 50, over on the other end of the row." And with that she leaves you to unpack.

Friendly girl, isn't she?

Author's Notice:

Yes, this is a tribute to BlackJack's GuPQ. As such, the tank is indeed a SuperPershing, as was alluded to.

First of all, I wish to apologise for my tardiness. I have had many problems, some of which pertain to writing. One such problem being that I can't write Kay, not without making her into a caricature of the actual character. I also wish to apologise for not including enough of her in the chapter.

Another note is that I have established a time line. This will be set one year before the events of Little Army. In other words, the Third Years of the anime are at present first years. This means of course, that Miho has not yet deigned to continue her secondary education. If you do not know what I'm on about, here's another reason I was taking so long.

Research.

I intend to shape this universe to fit my style. That style being that you, the readers/voters choose who I write about. While doing this, I researched Japanese education ages. Their secondary education ends at fifteen. Many of them choose to extend this period of their life to age eighteen due to peer pressure, among other things. Miho, being a second year in the anime, would be around seventeen. Maho, as a third year, and an outgoing student, would be eighteen.

One final note I'd like to add, is that I'm moving onto a specially requested chapter. This chapter will feature... Darjeeling.

This loosely defined timeline will last until all anime third years have a chapter.

They are:

Anzu, Assam, Alisa, Erika, Maho, Orange Pekoe, Momo, Yuzu(mi), Katyusha, Nonna, Naomi.

I'll end it here, so until Next time.