Chapter II
Their Legacy
That next day, all the students that had signed Sensha-Dou as their Electives had gathered near some warehouses behind the school, including the Student Council who more or less ran the program rather than were members. All in all, Makoto counted around 22, including herself and her friends of course. All of them had clearly grouped into their respective cliques and were discussing about random things, like the things they were going to do after school or what tanks they had to use.
There was Ryoko Matsuoka, Kamiko Shizuka, Toshiko Koizumi and Chie Nishimura, who made up the School's Chess Team/Club, all of them practically masters at the sport. Then there was Natsuko Honda, Teruko Nakano, Mitsuko Yoshida and Haruko Tsukino of the Soccer Team, but is more like a club because they never participate in official competitions due to funding issues. The only other group was Aoi Sato, Eiko Watanabe, Kyou Himura, Ran Maki, Ume Ueda and Mai Kita, the one 1st Years who were interested in Sensha-Dou and had formed a group out of common grade. Finally, off to the sidelines were Tsuki Shukumei and Asagi Nasu of Class 2-4 who were more or less unaffiliated with anyone.
"Not a whole lot of girls signed up…" Hina looked at the others then back at her own group made of Makoto, Shiori and herself. "I suppose it wouldn't be that popular, to crew a tank…" She looked worried at what may come of this new class, it was clear that they would have to be pretty dedicated to it.
"No, it's fine, we shouldn't need that many students, because this is a small school, it's not likely that we'll have a lot of tanks, right?' Makoto knew a lot about how tanks could be operated in Sensha-Dou, especially the fact they didn't need to completely fill out a tank to work at maximum efficiency, the Radio Operator could be juggled other members she supposed. "Depending on the tanks we get to use, this number of students should just be fine.
"Oooooo~! I can't wait to start, especially with you here with us Mako-san~!" Shiori squeaked in excitement as Makoto, rather than listen, paid attention to the Student Council. Due to the rather unfriendly welcome she's had for the last few days, she didn't have a particularly high opinion of them. From what she saw and heard, they were discussing about the future of their fledgling Sensha-Dou program. Minori and Yukiko were talking each other, but Aizu was standing further away talking to someone on her phone.
Then she noticed that the usually smug President came back to her little group with a slight look of gloom on her face. That same face spread to her two subordinates who looked at each other for a while before assuming a confident facade. They stepped forward and spread out in evenly fashion and Minori sounded off the beginning of Sensha-Dou class. "We will now begin the Sensha-Dou class." She seemed quite leisurely despite the expressions Makoto saw earlier.
Suddenly the talk got louder as the Student Council started to open the large doors to the Warehouse. "I wonder what tanks there are, maybe a Tiger? Ooo, a Panther perhaps. You think they have a Pershing or a Centurion?" It all muddled together into what seemed like a singular string of of sentences. But the talk all but went silent when they saw just what tanks, or rather, singular tank they had for. Squinting at it in the darkness of the Warehouse, Makoto thought she knew what it was right away.
"A Chi-Ha?" She thought to herself as the students started to near the one tank inside. But then she changed her mind upon closer inspection, "No...a Chi-He?" due to the driver's viewport not being on a bulge in the forward hull. Finally, she took it all away with one look at the turret as well as gun, and her eyes opened with realization of what it actually was. Running up to its side and confirming her suspicions. "This is, a Type 2 Ho-I!" She shouted in clear earshot of the other students who replied with mumbling of how run down and weak it looked compared to their expectations.
Her friends looked nervously at the students around them before Shiori tried to continue the conversation. "What's...a Ho-I, Makoto-san?" She asked with a nervous laugh at the end and cleared her voice. "Is it good, at the least?"
"The Ho-I is a support Gun Tank designed by the Imperial Japanese Army, it's suppose to provide fire support but could easily function as Tank Destroyer. It's fast, mobile, well armed with a 75mm Howitzer, and best of all…" Looking at the outside hull, the suspension and the tracks, she looked just fine but needed some work and repairing. "She could be fully functional with just a bit work!" Her statement instilled a bit of hope and excitement into the others, who up until now, thought it was just a scrap heap of metal that wouldn't even function.
"Great! But...there's twenty-two of us, and it's only one tank." One of the others made a very good point. "Yeah, aren't there any other tanks here?" Thus began another great conversion, to which Makoto sighed. They were right, twenty-two students on only one five-person tank, wouldn't work out too well.
"That's why we're giving you your first assignment." Minori cut the chatter in half with her blunt voice. "Today we're going to be searching for tanks, this Schoolship used to practice Sensha-Dou in previous."
"You will be responsible for finding these tanks, the only clues we have is that they are still somewhere here on the school grounds and the adjacent areas, but that's all they left." Yukiko added on to Minori's statement, "Aside from this tank, there are a good number of tanks you may be able to find, though it may be hard because they were just abandoned in random places."
"The deadline is...tomorrow." Aizu, in usually fashion, made everyone depressed extremely quickly. "I've been talking with the National Sensha-Dou League, and they've dispatched an Official Instructor. She'll be here tomorrow, and will only instruct us for a month, but she demands that we have a minimum of five tanks, as those are League Rules as well." She then bit her own lower lip, "I wish you guys good luck in finding our tanks." She bowed as if it meant anything, but all the students did was disperse and groan while doing so.
"So where should we start looking first?" Makoto, Hina and Shiori were all still standing around in the Warehouse discussing about their first place to search. Everyone else, including the Student Council, had already started their own searches. The Chess Team was looking around the ponds and lakes in the far back of the ship. The Soccer team decided to search in the more physically demanding mountainous regions and the 1st Years were looking in areas pretty close to the School itself.
"Well, everyone else has already gone, and you heard those 1st Years talking about searching around here." Makoto could only think of one other place to look, "There's always the dense forests nearby, if there's any place a tank could be abandoned, it would be in the woods where it's hard to find them."
"Right! There's no better place to search, what do you think Hina-san?" Shiori was getting all riled up again.
"Mmm, I think it's a good idea as well, it's always a good thing to be outside I suppose." Hina nodded and they all started to get ready for the long haul in the forests when Makoto noticed something. One of the girls had stayed behind and was peeping at them from behind the Warehouse doors. She didn't look like she belonged with any of the other groups at all.
"Um, hello?" When she reached out for the girl, she receded behind the door and peeped out again. "Aren't you a 2nd Year Student? Like us?" She nodded slowly but didn't dare to come out in the open. "Are you with anyone else?" This time she shook her head rapidly. "Hmm, would you like to join the search with us?" Her eyes widened and Makoto could clearly see her blushed.
"Y-yes! I would." She side-stepped into the open and introduced herself to Makoto and her friends, who had just been watching. "I'm Tsuki Shukumei, of Class 2-4!" In formal manner, she bowed while Hina and Shiori introduced themselves as well."
"Hina Kazehaya, Class 2-1."
"Shiori Tachibana, Class 2-1."
"And I'm Ma-" Before Makoto could even introduce herself, Tsuki apparently knew who she was just by looking at her. Mainly because she cut her off and yelled her name in giddy joy.
"You're Makoto Shimada! Class 2-1!" She squeaked out and ran to hug her. Makoto responded with a guttural sound and falling back. "It's so nice to meet you in person Makoto-senpai!"
"I'm not older than you…" She regained herself and picked both herself and Tsuki up and reformed her posture. "So, you must clearly know me." Tsuki dusted off her skirt bowed yet again.
"I'm sorry about that, but yes, I know you! I couldn't just keep in much longer that you were going to enroll in our Sensha-Dou program~!" She smiled and laughed at the circumstances as the other three just looked on. "So we were going to go out and look for tanks in the woods right? I know exactly where you could find one~!"
Tsuki led the three on a long hike deep into the woods, but Makoto quite enjoyed it. The grass was green, the trees were lively, the breeze was like and the sun was shining on like it always did. It always seemed like clear skies around here, she thought to herself while listening to the birds sing in the background. She had drowned out Tsuki and the others talking to each other all the way there.
"Where are you leading us Tsuki-san?" Shiori had finally broken and asked her the obvious question.
"There's a secret and isolated waterfall all the way back here, I know because I often hike and camp out here. I came across this tank while on my travels and I've made this waterfall a frequent spot for me to stop while on break or leave." She described as she held on tightly to her pack and she walked the woods like she knew it like the back of her hand as well.
"Wow, are you always out here? I envy you for having so much time to spend outside of school or other matters." Hina chuckled as they started to enter clearing in the trees.
"You could say that I have a lot of free time." She smiled in the clearing, revealing a nice waterfall and spring coming off of one of the small mountains on the Schoolship. "Here we are~! The tank is right over there." She pointed to a tank tipped upside down in the nearby flowing stream. "It's a Panzer III Ausf. G modeled, armed with a 3.7cm KwK 36 L/46.5, it has more armor than any of the previous models and can be retrofitted with a 5cm KwK 38 L/42 if we ever need you." She quickly ran out the explanation to this tank like she memorized it.
"Wow." Were the only words that came out of the others' mouths as they examined the tank. Much like the Type 2 Ho-I, all it needed was some maintenance work for it to be fully operational by the end of the day. While they were busy marvelling and figuring out a way to get it back to the school, the other groups had been busy with finding their own tanks. The Chess Team, headed by Ryoko had been searching in the springs and ponds all day."
"Lasker~!" Toshiko moaned out Ryoko's nickname in the club, "We've been searching all day and we haven't found anything." She was extremely tired from all the walking and sometimes even wading as well. Out of the four, she was the most physically disadvantaged, "We should've just stuck to playing chess and beating all the local teams. Spring after spring after spring, some ponds here and there, but the rocky yet-grassy terrain was wearing her off.
"Don't waver Kasparov, we'll find a tank soon." Kamiko gave her a thumbs up and an encouraging statement. Though it had little effect on the fatigued Grandmaster(but not really a "Grandmaster") who was wavering near one of the springs. They had been searching this area for a long time, they thought that if a tank got stuck in one of these springs, they would've abandoned it there because of water damages and how deep some of the pools are.
"That's easy for you to say Fischer!" She called out Kamiko for doing the pointless, Kamiko was always much more athletic than the rest, though she was only just as skilled as anyone else in the club. "I'm just going to take a lie-down for a while, wake me up when we find something." She attempted to sit down, but didn't realize she had just backed up onto the edge of spring.
"Uh, Kaspar, that's not a-" SPLASH! Toshiko had tried to sit down on open air and fell down when she gave away in her legs. However, she didn't didn't fall all the way into the spring, but instead she landed on something quite hard and thick with a resounding thump as she did so."
"Oh, you landed on a tank." Chie pointed out the odd shape in the spring and went to examine it. "Looks like a Sturmgeschutz III, Ausf. F/8 model." She had pulled out her tank identification book she had purchased just for the Sensha-Dou program."
"Nice work, Kaspy-chan, Magnus-san, both of you for finding a tank, now all we have to do is find a way to get it back to the grounds." But then it had occurred to her that she didn't know how, "So, how do we do that? Hehe…" While Chess Team was busy with their work, the Soccer Team was also busy traversing the mountainous regions with climbing gear and hard work.
"This is a nice warmup for later!" Natsuko shouted out as she rappelled down a rock slope in one of the rock faces. She and Teruko were doing all the work, Mitsuko and Haruko were supposed to keep their equipment safe and prevent it from breaking or slipping. "You ready for some Igo Soccer later, Teruko!?" Parallel to her was Teruko, all the way on the other side of the rock face look around.
"Yeah! We need to borrow some Go Chips from the Chess Club later!" She was scanning the horizon and nearby rock terrain for anything resembling a tank. "I don't see anything yet Natsuko! Anything on your side?" On the other side Natsuko was doing the same but couldn't find anything. Meanwhile Mitsuko and Haruko were busy looking around on top near the equipment.
"Whew. This a lot of work, be right back, I need to check on something, Mitsuko." Haruko looked over the edge of the rock down at the other two. "Hey, you two, you got anything down there? We haven't found anything up here yet!" They responded back with resounding negatives and Haruko sat back and relaxed. "I really do hope we find a tank soon."
"Why? We do have all the time in the world afterall. Well, minus the fact that we need them by tomorrow, but there's no rush to it. The sun isn't going to set anytime soon Haruko."
"Yeah, but I didn't expect I'd have to be traversing such terrain for a tank Mitsuko, why did our predecessors have to abandon their tanks without keeping any records of it? It just doesn't add up. I mean, why would we even think that they abandoned one here of all places?"
"Still, this type of terrain is perfect for working up endurance and training in driving the tank isn't it? At least on the more stable areas of the region anyways. Besides, leave no stone unturned."
"I suppose…" Haruko stared up at the sky, the sun blared down on her and she shielded her eyes from its rays. The entirety of this place of mountainous and rocky, a bunch of dropoffs and impossible places to get with rappels. The sun shined everywhere, but where were some areas even the sun could not reach. Rocks, rocks and rocks as far as the eye could see, the forests were in a neat border near the furthest ends. But then, something flashed and caught her eye, "Hey, Mitsuko, hand me those Binoculars would you kindly?"
"Uh...sure, here," Mitsuko reached for her pack and took out a pair of high grade binoculars that she personally owned then gave them to Haruko. "Why do you need them, did you see something?" She watched as her friend bring the binoculars to her ears look off in the horizon. Looking in the same general direction, she also saw a gleam in the distance as well, "Is that?"
"Yeah! That's a tank!" She saw a tank up high on one of the higher coves in one of the rock faces far away. Giving the binoculars back to Mitsuko, she looked down and yelled at the two girls below. "Hey! Natusko! Teruko! We found a tank!" The two looked up and she pointed in the direction of the cove. They pulled out their own binoculars and looked in that direction.
"That is a tank! Come on girls, we're going to relocate!" Natsuko started to climb up the rock face and once together, they all packed up all of their climbing/rappelling gear to relocated. After some gruelling hiking they reached the surface right above the cove they needed to get into. They nailed down some nylon bungee rope and put their safety harnesses, nailing the cords down as well. The two took off from the edge and landed safely on the side of the face and slowly made their way down. With one last jump, they made into the cove and looked at their prize.
Teruko took out her flip phone and snapped a picture of the tank then she sent it to the Student Council with the message of "What tank is this?" A while later, they responded back to her, "This is a Type 95 Ha-Go light tank, it's Japanese." She fistbumped Natsuko but then pondered the question, "Right, so how are we going to get this tank out of here...and how did it get in here anyways?" While they were busy with that, the 1st Years had their own worries, they had searched a lot time for records of the tanks their school used to operate but found nothing.
Aoi was leading the group of six girls and suggested where to go next, "So according to the maps, our school used to store their tanks in places other than that warehouse." They had borrowed a map from the library that dated back a long ways and it indicated that they used to store the tanks in a rather isolated space on the school grounds. "Hmmm, so this is the building."
They had stopped at a very unkept building, far in the corner of the grounds, "A-are you sure this where we'll going to find a tank?" Eiko was holding onto Aoi, her legs were shaking quite rapidly as she was scared by how run down this building looked compared to the others.
"Yeah Aoi, are you sure you were reading that map correctly? We didn't bring any flashlights in the first place. I only have the one here." Kyou held up her personal flashlight and waved it around. The others started to agree with them, insisting that Aoi must have read the map incorrectly.
"No, I'm sure this is the building that the records point towards, and come on, don't be afraid, it's just an old building, it's not like anyone was murdered here, let's go." The others looked frantically at each other, but had to go with Aoi anyways because they just had to follow someone. She opened the door, an old wooden green one with peeling paint, and it noticeably creaked as she did so. "They should really oil this door…" The room was completely dark, and she tried to turn on the lights with a switch nearby, but it didn't look like it worked.
"When I signed up for Sensha-Dou, this wasn't what I expected, I didn't expect to be searching around dark buildings, at least having my own flashlight would help…" Ran hid behind her best friend, Ume who would just following Kyou and her constant movement of the flashlight.
"Would you mind getting off of my back, Ran?" Ume was getting annoyed that Ran was holding on to her so tightly. At this point, she was more annoyed than she was scared of the building just earlier. But Ran refused to loosen her grip on her and stayed clinged to her waist.
"Yes! I would mind very much if I had to let go of you."
"You guys are idiots…" Mai was the furthest back and mumbled to herself half the time, she wasn't voluntarily put into this group, more or less she just had no one to go with. Now she was wishing that she would've gone with that girl, Makoto, rather than these girls. "Hmmm?" By now, her eyes had adapted and she saw something ahead. "Guys!"
Her suddenly yelling frightened about all of the girls in front of her, including Kyou who dropped the flashlight. She frantically tried to pick up when she did, she shined it at Mai who shielded her eyes from the focused light. "W-what is it Mai!?" Eiko yelled at her, "You almost gave me a heart attack!" Mai just simply pointed ahead of them.
"There's a large covered object up ahead." The other girls looked there and didn't really see it. "No, Kyou, give me that." Kyou ceded the flashlight to Mai and shined it right on this large object. It was clearly covered in a few rain sheets and then a another thicker one right over them. "They really tried to hide this, didn't they?" Mai commented as they neared the object.
"Alright, guys, help me get these covers off guys!" Aoi mustered the others to help her pull off these sheets one by one. The first one they pulled off was the really thick on on the top. The moment they pulled it off and they tossed it down, right when it hit the round, it unleashed a huge cloud of dust. To which the girls covered their eyes and face to avoid. "Wow, this has really been here a long time." They pulled sheet after sheet, each one having considerably less dust on the last before the final one was pulled off. Mai shined her/Kyou's, light on it, it was a rather large tank.
"Well, what a surprise…" She flipped open her phone open and texted to Minori. "We found a tank, send a team to get it." And then flipped to back into rest. "So, what do you guys like to do in the dark?" She shined the light on her face and stared at everyone else, much to their horror.
By mid-day, they were able to find four tanks, creating a minimum lineup of five tanks. Aizu was quite impressed with what they were able to find. She and the Student Council, for the past few hours, had been sitting around telling the Tech Students what to do and where to go. "M6 Heavy Tank, Type 95 Ha-Go Light Tank, StuG III Ausf. F/8 Assault Gun, Panzer III Ausf. G Medium Tank and a Type 2 Ho-I Gun Tank." Minori read off the complete list of tanks they had now.
They were all old and clearly hadn't been maintain for at least a decade or two. "So this is what we have…" Shiori groaned, "I'll be honest, that hype I had earlier? It's worn off because of all the hiking we've done." By now all she wanted to do was go home to a nice dinner, even though it wasn't even close to evening yet.
"That's why you need to get more often Shio-san." Tsuki was still chugging along at a nice pace. To which Shiori was peeved of at and looked at her menacingly. "Err...I mean, yeah, Shiori...that sure was a lot of hiking we did…" She gulped because she was honestly scared of Shiori might have don't to her if she kept on going. But then she noticed a tired looking girl walking towards them, "Asagi? Where have you been all this time?"
Asagi stopped near their group, it's then that Makoto realized that this girl had practically disappeared off the face of the Earth during the search. "I've been places…" She spoke in a tired monotone voice, thinking about how she was sleeping on a bench after about five minutes of searching, she had just woke up. "I didn't find anything, but it looks like you guys did…"
At this point, Aizu had stepped onto a wooden box to announce something. "Alright! It's time to assign tanks! We will be doing so based on what groups had found what tanks! With the exception of you five." She pointed at the group around Makoto before continuing, Minori had handed her a clipboard of the team rosters. "The Type 2 Ho-I will go to Team A, made of Makoto, Tsuki, Hina, Shiori and Asagi."
The group high-fived each other, except Asagi who was still distancing herself from them, feeling too tired to go any further. "The StuG III will go to Team B, made of Ryoko, Kamiko, Toshiko and Chie." The Chess Team was busy arguing about what openers to use during matches to really give any action. "The Type 95 Ha-Go will go to Team C, consisting of Natsuko, Teruko, Mitsuko and and and Haruko." That group cheered with an assortment of Soccer terms and puns.
"Next, the M6 will go to Team D, consisting of the 1st Years: Aoi, Eiko, Kyou, Mai, Ume and Ran." The 1st Years got busy celebrating with each other, some of them were holding hands and jumping. "Finally, the Panzer III Ausf. G will be crewed by myself, Mino and Yuki as Team E, for now anyways. Now, the last matter for today, we have to clean the tanks for the Techies to fix up, they've already spent all of today trying to get that darn Type 95, let's make things easier for them."
"Alright guys, the five of us will this tank cleaned, right?" Makoto got her team up to speed quickly and soon enough were starting to clean the Ho-I. But then Makoto noticed something, "Hey, has anyone seen Asagi?" She asked the others, but they all shrugged and went on with their duties as usual. "How convenient, she just disappears just as we were about to get working again…"
Over the next few moments was a series of getting all the water, hoses, soap and buckets they would need to clean these tanks. All the girls had changed into casual clothes so that their uniforms wouldn't get wet. After that was just a long period of washing off the exteriors and cleaning the interiors. Makoto and Team A had the one of the times doing so, the Ho-I was still in pretty good condition when they got it, all they needed was to just clean the exterior and dust/clean the interiors.
However, unlike them, Ryoko's Team B and Aoi's Team D had a much harder, similarly was Aizu's Team E which had to drain their Panzer III much like the StuG. Meanwhile Aoi's team had to clean an extreme layer of dust and molds allover the M6, with gas masks even, over their casual white clothing lended to them by the school. Ryoko's StuG had to be completely drain from top to bottom, and there was a lot of water vegetation that had to be removed, along with the occasional fishes which had to be rushed into a fresh water.
Lastly was Team C, who in all honesty, had the least effort in cleaning their tank. The cove that they found the Ha-Go had shielded from pretty much all weather, dust, vegetation and wildlife. All they really had to do was clean the tank and insides from what actually managed to get into the tank. Some water and dusting here or they, and much like the others, at the end of the day, they were completely finished with cleaning the tanks. "Nice work! It only took...the entire day, but we managed to get all these tanks retrieved and cleaned!"
"We!?" Minori and Yukiko were panting from all the work they've been doing as of late. Yukiko said her, "The rest of us have been doing all the work, all you've been doing is sitting in that lawnchair." She pointed to a nearby unfolded lawnchair parked in front of the Panzer III, "And the most work you've done is yell at us and the Techies! At the least, you could've not sat in front of us drinking soda."
"Yeah yeah yeah, Semantics, anyways, that ends today Sensha-Dou class, we're dismissed, don't forgot, tomorrow you have to get here around in the morning this time." Aizu quickly dismissed everyone to avoid any conflict and went off towards the Student Council Buildings, but not before telling a bunch of Technology Students that had just got there, what to do. Her subordinates each sighed and trailed off after her, they still had more work to do concerning the rest of the Program itself. Thus, only Makoto, Shiori, Hina and Tsuki were left, the Chess Club went to argue with each other behind closed doors, the Soccer Team had practice as per the course and the 1st Years just went their separate ways after realizing the only thing in common were their ages.
"Sooooooo…" Tsuki waltzed over to her new friends, "What are you guys doing after school?" and she asked everyone with a smile. "Did you guys want to come over to my place if you're free?" Today was abnormal because Sensha-Dou class was the last one of the day, starting tomorrow it would begin in the morning and become a daily thing for them, especially now that they had the tanks for it.
"I'm busy with some of my art projects at home, plus with the ones I already have to do, sorry Tsuki-san, but I just don't have any time." Hina bowed and looked up, "Speaking of which, I really have to go, goodbye everyone, see you tomorrow!"
"What about you Shio-san? Did you want to come over?" Tsuki looked like she was starting to get desperate at this rate.
"Sorry, but no can do, I already have plans with some of the other girls this evening, and my schedule is just filled up tonight, sorry Tsuki, but I'm just really busy." Shiori also apologized and soon she had to leave too, she waved goodbye as she ran to meet up with some other students.
"I suppose you're busy too, Makoto-san…" Now Tsuki just looked gloomy and depressed. But Makoto knew she didn't have anything to do after school, not really any friends or studies she had keep up with. As far as she knew, she was completely free for the night.
"Actually, Tsuki-san, I'm free for the night, I could easily free up sometime to hang out with you if you wanted me to." Makoto simply smiled as Tsuki started to give off her usual cheery and energetic self.
"Really? That's great! Come on, what're we waiting for, let's go!" She impatiently waited for Makoto to get her bag before just pulling her along out the gate and down the street. They didn't get particularly too far however, apparently her building wasn't that too far away from main campus, it was one of the first buildings they ran into and it didn't look all that big to be honest. When they entered, it didn't look like a normal housing at all, it looked more like a shop to be frank, they sold a bunch of merchandise about tanks and Sensha-Dou in general.
"Uhh...Tsuki-san...this isn't your room, right?" Though she was intrigued that this was an actual store on the ship. She was more worried that Tsuki had made a stop somewhere without telling here. She did inspect some of the magazines and looked at them, some of these were pretty old and looked more like memorabilia.
"Course not silly, I'm registered in the room right above this one, this is one of the first buildings on the ship, so it was mixed-housing with storefronts being groundfloor." She was busier looking for anything new than having them go straight up to her room, "Let's hang around here for a while Makoto-san, since we just passed our first day of Sensha-Dou, hmmm, this is a new issue." While Tsuki was picking out new items in the magazine section, Makoto decided to watch the TV mounted in the corner.
It appeared to be talking about the events for Sensha-Dou for this year, seemed like it just finished up the section about National Championships, the captain of Kuromorimine had just stopped talking. Right then, they switched to a segment about the other major event this year. There was mainly nothing of note for the majority of the time she spent looking at it, but soon enough something caught her ear. "This year, the Secondaries for the National High School Sensha-Dou Tournament has just received a new entry, after their crippling defeat in the 62nd National Championships, Sengoku Girls High School was not invited this year to the 63rd National Championships."
Makoto looked up too see that shining emblem, that crest that so signified everything for her. Even Tsuki, preoccupied with searching through magazines rather than having them go somewhere, took noticed. "Uh...Makoto-san?" She said in a very worried tone and expression. Makoto just waved back like she knew what was happening up on the screen.
"We'll now interview the new captain of the Sengoku Sensha-Dou team, Mikoto Shimada, and her thoughts on the circumstances this year." The screen cut to a rather stoic looking girl, with a striking resemblance to Makoto, wearing a deep taupe colored uniform with a cloak over it. With the microphone placed close to her face the reporter asked her, "So what are your thoughts about being uninvited to the Championships this year?"
"Well, I do think it's a shame that we would be unable to participate this year, but I also think that we will show everyone what we can really do at Secondaries as well." She answered in a calm manner and didn't even look back at the camera as she was bombarded with more questions.
"Are you going to let last year's defeat affect your this year at all?"
"No, I won't allow the unfortunate turn of events that occurred during our Semi-Final with Pravda to deter us from winning this year. It's like I said, we will show everyone what Sengoku's famed Shimada Style looks like."
"One last one…" The reported quietly mumbled in the background while flipping some pages, "Now, have you any word on the resignation of the previous Captain, your sister Makoto Shimada?" There was the question Makoto had been waiting for, she had known the past would've caught up to her now, what a funny way for it to be televised now. Mikoto clearly looked unsure about the question, breaking her calm and confident train of thought.
"My sister? I would like to refrain from answering that question. I'm sorry ma'am, but this interview is over." She quickly dodged the question and forced the crew to cut off the broadcast. Makoto didn't particularly expect that kind of response, especially from her sister of all people.
"Makoto? Are you okay?' Tsuki came up beside her and placed her hand on her shoulder with a rather worried face.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I don't know what I expected from watching that broadcast anyways." Makoto sighed and scratched the back of her head, "It doesn't really bother me anyways...what does bother me is what happens when my family finds out I'm beginning to practice Sensha-Dou again…" She sighed against and vibrated her lips, creating an annoying sound. "Oh well! It's fine, I still want to see what your room looks like Tsuki-san, at least before it's curfew, you guys do have that, right?"
Tsuki chucked, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that, come onit's through this door." and back up through a door in the corner of the room. The two girls traverse the stairs inside up a short distance before they reached her room. She then took out her ID in her pocket and placed it through the scanner to open the door. "Welcome to my home~!" They entered a brightly colored room decorated heavily with items related to tanks. Posters, figures, models, books and magazines, even documentaries and movies, were in every part of the room.
"Wow…" Makoto whispered under her breath as she looked around, even she wasn't this fanatical about tanks. "Where do you find the place to buy all this stuff, let alone even afford it."
"Oh! I work down at the store below as a part-timer, since I'm a student, I get paid and I have a nice discount too, so every so often, I come down there to buy something. Every so often turned into...pretty often, and now my room is filled to the brim with this stuff. But I don't mind, it's still something that I'm interested in." She cheerily set her bag down and sat down on her bed, before fully laying down on it as well. "So, what do you think~?"
"I think it's great that you've found something that interests you…" Makoto said while poking around the models a bit, "But don't you think this a little bit...too much? There has to be like, a few dozen models here alone."
"I suppose it's too much, but does it really matter? There's nothing else to spend money on here, besides food, water and clothing of course. And you can take it that I'm really into tanks, correct?"
"Yeah, I could say that you're into tanks, it that why you decided to enroll in Sensha-Dou Tsuki-san?"
"Yeah, it is why I enrolled in Sensha-Dou, I get to have good grades, get credits and actually spend time doing something that I've always wanted to do. It's like career shadowing, I think, sort of, I dunno." She sat back up and shrugged.
"Huh...oh by the way, how do you know Asagi?"
"Asagi Nasu? Oh...she lives in the room above mine, I swear she sleeps through half the school day, even while during class too, she always looks so tired it's almost depressing."
"So do you know why she signed up for Sensha-Dou? She doesn't seem like the kind of person who would enjoy it, or anything related to physical activity at all."
"She's explained that to me before that she thinks that it's easy credits for school, she wants to graduate as soon as possible. I don't know why she'd want to, but she seems successful, her grades are high, I guess, she's never been booted from a class for sleeping before."
"Hmm...hey, what time is curfew? I don't need someone knocking on my door and knowing that I skimped over the time."
"Actually Curfew is still a ways off but I'm assuming your building is pretty far away, we spent way too much time down in the store, but at least you got to see my room. And you know...the store too I guess…" Tsuki thought back to the way Makoto was so intently watching the new broadcast earlier. "It's a shame we didn't get to hang out for longer, I suppose we can just hang out some other day. Tsuki led Makoto down through the store and watched as she ran off into the distance, into the setting sun.
Tomorrow is when that instructor got here, Tsuki thought to herself for a bit, about what Sensha-Dou was really going to be like other than menial labor demanded by the Student Council. But at the same time, she also worried for Makoto, she must have had something holding her back since her days at Sengoku. And she especially worried about Makoto when her past truly caught up with her, it's been almost a year since that fateful match, and who knows what may happen tomorrow.