Chapter III

Trial By Fire

"Our instructor is late…" Makoto thought to herself, the Sensha-Dou students were once again gathered near the same warehouse they were at the day before. But this time, they were just simply waiting for their assigned Sensha-Dou instructor to arrive. Come to think of it, Tsuki and Asagi weren't here either, which meant that their team was currently only at around half capacity.

"So many people late, it's not nice to make others wait." Shiori puffed out her cheeks in anger of the missing people. She was already tired from having to wake up so early, but for them to have to wait even after getting here was pushing her to her boundries.

"It's not that many people Shiori-san, as I can count, only Tsuki-san, Asagi-san and our instructor are missing. And I'm sure they have their reasons." Hina patted Shiori on the shoulder as they waited somewhere between patiently and impatiently. The other teams seemed preoccupied, only Ryoko's team who were arguing Chess Theory, were in earshot, but Makoto could see the the others were able to pass the time.

"Hey!" After a period of waiting, Tsuki came into view as she trudged along, carrying a sleeping Asagi on her back. "Sorry I'm late, I had some…"business" to take care of this morning and up until now." Despite seeming comatose, Asagi gave a thumbs up from Tsuki's back as she regrouped with her new friends.

"T-Tsuki-san!" Shiori was the first to notice her, "You made it! But why are you carrying Asagi-san on your back?" She pointed out the obvious question on everyone's minds.

"Oh that! Well, I found her sleeping on the stairwell, and I decided to carry her here myself. Even if it meant that I'd be yelled at by the Trudance Officers, she's our teammate after all~!" She still seemed unexpectedly cheery despite having carried another person on her back, even if she had one of the closer buildings to campus.

"Oh well, what matters it that you guys are here now." Makoto smiled as Tsuki let Asagi stand on her own now. She stumbled a bit but regained her balance, maintaining the thumbs up that she gave earlier. "You're a really interesting person...Asagi-san…" Makoto mumbled quietly to herself.

"Thank you, I pride myself on being interesting…" Asagi, with apparently pretty honed ears, responded in her usual monotone voice. "You're probably thinking, wow she has pretty good ears to hear me. Yes, yes I do have pretty good ears to hear you…" Her boasting was still delivered with the same monotone voice. Makoto stared at her, rather creeped out, but averted her gaze elsewhere. Because someone was approaching them from the distance, their instructor?

"Yo! Tokai Girls High School!" She approached in a rather neat looking uniform holding a bag of Fried Rice Crackers and eating from it. "You guys want some Fried Rice Crackers?" When she got into close proximity of everyone, she offered the snacks inside the bag she was jiggling around. "Just kidding." She cleared her voice and looked over the students.

"Are you our Sensha-Dou instructor?" Natsuko placed her hands akimbo and stared at her with an unpleased gaze.

"Yes! I am!" She placed her snack bag down and stood towards the students in a confident manner. "My name is Futaba Izumi! Captain of the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force, and your League-Assigned Sensha-Dou Instructor." She said in a very commanding voice, different from the relaxed one she appeared with and picked up the bag again. "So you're the Tokai Sensha-Dou team?" She asked in the relaxed version of her voice.

"Yep! We have twenty students, five tanks and five teams!" Aizu in a confident voice rivaling that of Futaba's yelled out. "So, what are we doing today Futaba?"

"That's Captain Futaba to you…" She cut the confident Aizu's stance in half with her serious tone. "Just kidding." Then immediately went back to a relaxed state, "Well, you guys will be participating in a Mock Battle today between your five teams."

"W-what? A Mock Battle so soon? Aren't you sure we shouldn't just start with basic training first? What kind of instructor are you Captain Futaba?" Minori asked her with a menacing gaze and questioning the ethics of their instructor.

"Well. I need to know what I'm working with first, don't I? And besides, it'll give the girls and tanks a nice warmup before the actual training." She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a folded map. Unfolding it with one hand by simply waving it around in randomly direction, she held it with both hands, one of them clutching onto it and the bag of Rice Crackers. "These are your starting points, you girls should be pretty familiar with the grounds so that's all the instruction you'll get." She ate another Rice Cracker and threw the map over her shoulder.

"U-uh, Futaba-senpai! Are we doing it like an elimination match then?" Makoto raised her hand and asked when Futaba pointed at her.

"Well, young one, it'll be a free-for-all, so yes, elimination." Normally things would go one, but Futaba took a closer look at Makoto. With a face that looked like she recognized her, "Well, I'll be...you're Motoko's daughter, aren't you? Send Shimada-senpai my regards I wasn't able to attend as a commentator in last years Tournament." The mention of Makoto's mother being a senpai of their Instructor made the others burst into conversation. "Oops, guess I wasn't suppose to mention that aloud…" She bit into another large Rice Cracker. "I suppose I really explain everything now, shouldn't I, is alright with you Makoto?"

"I guess, it doesn't really matter to me all that much." Makoto shrugged giving the cue for Futaba to start explaining things about Makoto's heritage.

"Well yes, I did just say Shimada-senpai when talking about Mokoto Shimada. While she's technically not my senpai, I consider her one anyways. She's the most skilled user of the Shimada-style of Sensha-Dou, the second most used style only bested by Shiho Nishizumi's own Nishizumi Style" The explanation didn't appear to help much as it only furthered the volume of conversation that was being made. "Hehe, didn't appear that I made much impact, did I? Anyways, Makoto, is your sister and mother doing well?"

"They're both doing fine, Futaba-senpai, how do you know of my mother though?"

"Truth be told, I'm not a student under the Shimada Style of Sensha-Dou, I'm was a student of Kuromorimine back in those days. I only knew her because she'd often give lectures on Armored Warfare Theory during my early days in the Military, despite the fact she wasn't enlisted at all. We became close acquaintances ever since then, almost like teacher and pupil."

"I see, Futaba-senpai, could we get on with the training today? I feel like standing around isn't going to do much."

"You want to get right into the action? Just like your mother...always so straightforward." She reached into her Rice Cracker bag and noticed it was empty, so she crumpled it up and threw it into a nearby trash bin as well as cleared her voice and straightening her posture. "Anyways! It'll be a simple procedure, go to your starting points, find your opponents and blast them with your guns, let's get started right away." She waved at Aizu, who up until then, was staring off into the distanced, once cued, she and the other Student Council members opened the Warehouse, revealing freshly painted and repaired tanks, to which no one 'ooed' about. "Alright, form into your teams and assign crew positions. If your team consists of three people, you'll need a Commander, Driver and Gunner. Four people, you can add a dedicated Loader and with five, a dedicated Radio Operator."

Makoto and her team regrouped on the top of their Type 2 Ho-I, "She makes it sound so simple…" Shiori groaned after climbing in, "But we're not even sure at what each of us are good at." Hina reassured her again and she continued with the spiel that Makoto really should've been giving. "So, there's four of us…" Then she noticed something was off, "Wait a minute...Four!? Where'd Asagi go!?" It seemed like Asagi, yet again, conveniently managed to vanish without a trace. "Fine then," Shiori huffed, "Makoto, if you don't mind, I want to be commander for now, you could be the gunner, Hina could be the loader and Tsuki can be Driver...I'll stick Asagi into the Radio Position for not being here later."

They laughed all off and realized that while in their little predicament, everyone else had figured out their positions and were already turning up their engines. Shiori let the others go in first and the came in herself, the turret wasn't too cramped, but wasn't what she was really used too. "Oooo, these controls are really different from that of a German Panzer, this will take a lot of time to get used too." Tsuki whined from the front of the hull.

"This tank is based on the Type 97 Chi-Ha and Type 1 Chi-He, it's almost nothing like a the Panzer series of tanks…" Makoto inspected the gun sights and cleaned them off with her skirt before looking through them again. They looked fresh out the factory, the range markers were just fine, if not just a little faded. "Hina, could you check and see what kind of ammunition we have stored in here?'

"Uhh...okay…" Hina looked in the nearby ammo rack and made inventory, "Looks like we have some… Armor-Piercing, High-Explosive, Illumination, Smoke and Hollow Charge...is that good?" She looked back with a worrying glance, she didn't know what any of it really meant in the terms of Sensha-Dou.

"Actually no, Hina-san, it's just perfect, now when I a specific round, I'll ask for you to load it. When you load it, use your knuckles and ram it in quickly to lower risks of injury." Makoto instructed her for a bit and then then was interrupted by Tsuki being able to put the engine into idle. She made some strange sounds upon the roaring of the engine, to the dismay of Shiori. "Tsuki-san...are you on a Sensha-high?"

"S-sorry, this is the first time I've done this outside of simulations…" She blushed, "And I get really excited, really easily too…"

"It's fine, it's normal for most first-timers to have that happen, we should really get out to the grounds, let's go!" Bracing in their positions, Tsuki got the tank moving, they were the last to leave and drove into the grounds, which were basically the nearby forests. In their final locations , each team were very well separated from each other with a bridge and ravine( no one knows why it's there) separating two major forested areas. Shiori's Team A, Ryoko's Team B and Natsuko's Team C were on the western side while Aoi's Team D and Aizu's Team E were on the eastern side.

From a tall tower, Futaba was looking at them through highly magnified binoculars and was supposed to start the battle. "Okay, all teams in place!" She said through a loudspeaker, "We're going to be making the Mock Battle a bit more interesting. The new teams are as follows. Team A is on one, Teams B through E are on another, battle is still elimination."

"W-what?" Makoto looked back towards the tower, her own crew was freaking out over the new circumstances. Even she herself was worried, but then quickly realized that it was just a Mock Battle, and that her opponents were also Trainees as well. "It's okay guys, even if we have the odds stacked against us, we can still win. The other teams are really spread out, let's get them out before they can regroup."

"Alright then!" Futaba leaned back on her chair and took another bag of Fried Rice Crackers seemingly out of nowhere, "Mock Battle, Commence!" But it was now that she realized something important she forgot to do earlier. "I probably should've given them maps…" Then she proceeded to eat some more Fried Rice Crackers, "Oh well, they can figure it out."

Tokai Sensha-Dou Mock Battle

Shiori's Team A

Team A:

Type 2 Ho-I - Medium Tank

Shiori Tachibana

Joint Trainee Team

Team B:

StuG III Ausf. F/8 - Tank Destroyer

Ryoko Matsuoka

Team C:

Type 95 Ha-Go - Light Tank

Natsuka Honda

Team D:

M6 - Heavy Tank

Aoi Sato

Team E:

Panzer III Ausf. G - Medium Tank

Aizu Kishida

"You seem so confident Mako-san...but none of us have experience like you do…" Shiori squirmed in embarrassment of the pure assurement Makoto had instilled into them just then. "Couldn't you just take command instead? I'm sure you know how to do it better than I do…" Makoto glanced back from her gunner sights upon hearing mention of taking command, she thought of her previous experiences with that position and declined.

"No, no, no, that's not necessary, at least not until it gets serious, besides, you wouldn't want me in command anyways...I'm a lousy commander." She simply laughed it off and kept looking through the gunner sights. "Hey, Tsuki-san, keep down this road, and when you need to, Shio-san will tell you the direction you need to move." Makoto then turned around and started to instruct Shiori on the basics of commanding a tank crew while they still had time.

"Roger that~!" Tsuki was actually getting tired, the gears and steering mechanisms were starting to tire her out. The limited vision wasn't going to help her out either, she'd open the hatch above her, but didn't want to stop her driving just to do that. Meanwhile Shiori was also worried about the responsibilities of being a commander, telling the gunner where to aim, the driver where to drive, she clearly wasn't prepared for this when she took up the position.

"After all of this...I wonder where the other te-" Shiori attempted to say something clever about the other teams being lost. But was soundly interrupted by the sound of a nearby gun firing in sequence to a shell whistling by. "W-what!?" She swiftly took the initiative and looked out the opening in the cupola, which she didn't close. Right behind, was Natsuka's Team C and their Type 95 Ha-Go!

"Mitsuko! You missed the shot!" Natsuko looked down at yelled at her gunner, who whose position was given to Mitsuko. "Doesn't matter now, Teruko! Load another shell! Haruko! Keep on them!" The Ha-Go lurched from its position, as they were lying in ambush for Shiori's Team A.

"Roger that!" Haruko shifted the tank into a higher gear and they started to tail Team A's Type 2 Ho-I as Teruko took another 37mm Armor Piercing round from the ammo rack and rammed it into the gun breech with Mitsuko gaining a good sight on the rear of the Ho-I. A second 37mm round whizzed by the hull of the medium tank as the two tanks were speeding across a dirt road.

"Traversing turret!" Makoto took to the turret mechanisms naturally and turned it all the way around. Last time she had checked, the round that Hina had preemptively loaded was High Explosive. It was more enough against the Ha-Go, but the gun and sights were giving her trouble. This tank wasn't designed for firing on the moving, so instead of firing at the Ha-Go, when she pressed down, the round instead went into the dirt, exploding on impact and sending a mess of dirt, rock and smoke into the air. Which forced the Ha-Go and Haruko into a different direction as it startled her.

"Woah! Nice shot Mako-san!" Shiori had watched all of it transpire from the cupola and looked back down under at Makoto. She just smiled back at her compliment and nodded at Hina to load another round. But this time she signalled to load Armor Piercing, because she expected to run into either the StuG III or M6 next, the Ha-Go had been driven far off-course by her tactical shooting and they were on course to the nearby bridge. But their next threat came not too long after their previous encounter, "Tank! Right ahead!"

"It's Team B's StuG III Ausf. F/8" Tsuki panted out as she was the next best option until Makoto could traverse the gun around. "What do I do Commander!?" As the gap was being closed, Toshiko, who was assigned gunner, was zeroing in with the main gun. The tank was almost completely silent save for the sounds of the engine and the gun moving to get its mark.

"Turn right! Sharp right!" Shiori looked down and yelled at Tsuki to make a hard right down another road, but it was clear that she was unable to hear the yelling with all the noise. Suddenly, she kicked Tsuki in the right shoulder to signal a right turn, something that Makoto had taught her earlier, though she likely kicked a bit too hard. Either way, the signal was received and the hard turn was made, barely evading the shot that Kamiko put out just then.

"You missed Toshiko…" Kamiko lightly made karate chopping motions on Toshiko's head when the latter failed to hit their mark. She responded by elbowing Kamiko back in the gut, leaving her in pain. "Owie…." In the middle of combat, as opposed to personal conversations and Chess Meets, they referred to each other to their actual names rather than their personally assigned nicknames.

"Now now, no need to fight amongst ourselves, the only major landmark they could possibly be heading for is the bridge…" Ryoko sat with her right hand rubbing her chin, "Kamiko, get on the radio and tell the other teams to regroup around the bridge, we'll put Team A into check there…" She smiled and laid back in her seat, "It'll be a grand finale to our first battle…"

In the meantime, Makoto had a completely different plan in store, she knew that the bridge was too open and too limited for them to move freely. If they went there, it would simply just be a shooting gallery for the other teams. They needed to get somewhere so that she would able to use the Ho-I's 75mm gun properly. They entered an opening in the forest when Shiori suddenly yelled, "Tsuki! Watch out!", Makoto looked out the gunner sight to see a rather familiar figure walking towards them as well as the motion of their tank stopping just short of her. "A-Asagi-san!?"

"Hello…" Asagi, in her usual monotone voice, greeted them as if nothing was different was the situation. She instead casually climbed onto the frontal hull and squated down. "I see you guys skipped the basic training…" She tiredly stared at where the gunsight would be and tapped it.

"Where have you been!? We've been a person short this entire time! Why would you just disappear like that!? How do you think we feel!?" Shiori bombarded Asagi with a long string of her own questions and remarks about how teammates shouldn't abandon each other like what she did. Rather than respond, Asagi just opened the hatch above Tsuki who looked back with shock.

"Hey, there...you want me to replace you?" She ended the question with some actual emotion behind it as opposed to other phrases she would say. Tsuki didn't hesitate to retreat into the seat of the Radio Operator as Asagi replaced her in the driver's position and closed the hatch.

"Did you even listen to me? Do you even know how to drive this tank?" Shiori switched to talking down into the crew compartment and was still yelling at Asagi, although for different reasons. This time, she actually responded back, right after just looked back at Shiori with a cold emotionless gaze.

"Yes. I also know how to operate the hull machine gun, "She pointed at the gun Tsuki sat behind, "how to load the rounds," then at the ammo rack and Hina, "as well as operate the turret and fire the gun at accurate ranges up to around 400 Meters. If it was possible I could be a one person tank crew…"

"R-really?' Shiori looked at Asagi with shock and a newfound respect for the person she had just yelled at, right before that respect was shot down within seconds of being gained.

"No, just kidding...but I do know how to drive this tank…" She grinned and got the tank up to speed again with little effort from her physically. It looked as if she was glued to the vision slit she was given ahead when Tsuki looked over at her. "It'd be nice if you could stop staring at me…" She continued to operate the steering mechanisms with ease, "Where to, commander?"

"Well I want to cross the bridge to the other side, it seems that we're having a lot of trouble on this side already." Shiori crossed her arms and sat confidently, just to spite Asagi's attempts at getting to her.

"Not you...I'm talking about Makoto…" She put it quite bluntly how little she thought of Shiori's abilities as a commander, despite never seeing her in action yet. "Where to, commander?" She reiterated the question right after she put down Shiori's confidence yet again.

"This girl…" At this point, Shiori was grinding her teeth in anger with fists clenched.

"Hey, Shio-san...are you doing fine in the commander's seat?" Makoto looked over at her, rather worried and placed her hand on her shoulder. Shiori just sighed and lurched over.

"No...I'm not used to being such a commanding person, I don't see how Futaba-senpai or Aizu do it. Do you want to take over for me, Makoto?" She thought about it for a long while, her past was still haunting her of course. But her friends had been there for her in the past, and so she would have to be there for them.

"Alright, I'll be commander, while we're at it, could we move some of the other crew members around?" The other three members of the crew nodded while Asagi was still driving them who knows where. "Tsuki-san, you seem to be pretty capable with physical activity, just not endurance things like driving, you could be the loader, Hina, you seem like the kind of person who doesn't miss a detail, you should be the gunner and um...Shiori, you're pretty good at...small talk I suppose, you could be our Radio Operator."

Shiori stared at her with a menacing gaze, "Really? Smalltalk?" then sighed, "Alright, fine, I'll be honest, I'm not going to be any good at those other positions." The crew switches different positions, with Makoto occupying the center seat in the turret, with Hina one side and Tsuki on the other. Meanwhile Shiori sat down next to Asagi at the radio station near the front and looked over at Asagi, "I think I made a mistake…" Asagi reached over and patted Shiori on the head, much to her dismay, and then went back to her duties.

Now the issue is where they would go, clearly Makoto knew that the bridge would be a death trap. "If only I had a map...but Futaba-senpai didn't give me one, which means none of the other teams must have one either." Suddenly Asagi reached back and gave her a map of the local area silently. "W-where did you get this?"

"Don't question it...just tell me where to go…" Asagi had already memorized the area, considering she was wandering it the entire time, before the Mock Battle had even started.

"Head the wooded area that's in full view of the bridge, the one that's closest to our position, Asagi-san." Makoto intended to take them out while they're in the open, the bridge was located in an area that opened up, nice and clear for the 75mm on the Ho-I to hit its mark, granted that Hina could do so.

"Roger…" Asagi droned on and got the Ho-I moving, the movement of the tank was way smoother than when Tsuki was driving it. It had just occurred to Makoto how much better of a driver Asagi was, even when compared to her old crew. In fact, she was so focused on Asagi's driving that before long, they had reached area they intended to sit down at.

"Okay, so what's the plan commander~?" Tsuki was eager and already holding 75mm Armor Piercing in her hands. "The gun is loaded with Armor Piercing, we still have the remaining High Explosive, Hollow Charge and specialized rounds if needed."

"The gun's trained on the bridge, ready to fire." Hina sat still waiting for the plan to unfold. Meanwhile Shiori had been listening on the conversations of the other teams, since this was their first battle, they hadn't been set on different channels.

"They didn't even switch to a different channel Mako-san, looks like they're going to reorganize here and hunt us down as a pack…" Shiori had settled down next to Asagi quite well, mainly because she'd been paying attention more to the radio than she was the person sitting next to her.

"Alright, so here's the plan guys, we're in a good position, the trees mask us and the view we have is perfect. From what we know, they're going to be trying to catch us here...what they don't know is we're not going to be there. It's simple, they show up, we shoot at them, it'll take them some time to figure out where we are, so we have a window of time before we're fired on.."

"So basically, we're just going to catch them by surprise and um...snipe them off?" Hina placed her hand on the breech of the gun, "I think I could do that…" she was unsure as to what she could do. She was precise with a brush and pencil, but she'd never handled a gun before. But at the ranges presented here, all she needed to know was the basics of estimating range and firing velocity.

"Okay, if that fails. we're going to have to pull back into the woods and play cat and mouse with them, alright then! Operation...um...I got nothing, but Operation! Commence!" The yelling inspired everyone to do their best, meanwhile there was still nothing to shoot at. "This was a lot more action-packed in my mind…" Makoto sat with her head in the open waiting for the first target. As if right on cue, the other four teams appeared, Team B's StuG III, Team C's Ha-Go, Team D's M6 and Team E's Panzer III.

"They're not here!" Minori had been assigned gunner of the Panzer III and was waiting to shoot at Team for a long while. They had paired up with the M6 as soon as the match had started and started to fall under the command of Ryoko who was temporary commander for the Joint-Trainee Team.

"That's something I wasn't able to foresee…" Ryoko mumbled to herself and then grabbed the radio receiver. "All teams regroup on my side, we'll have to do this the hard way." The situation had changed, they would have to individually take them down in the forests rather than it be nice and easy at the bridge.

What they didn't know was that the entire time, Makoto had been watching them in the opening. "When they start to cross the bridge, Hina-san, you should fire." If they took out one tank on the bridge, they would be able to completely block off the bridge access for both teams.

"Roger…" Hina was tracking her targets carefully, "Ready to fire on command…" she kept traversing the turret to keep up with the M6 and Panzer III which were crossing the bridge to join Ryoko. They made the mistake of having the M6 go first, which severely slowed down the process.

"Fire!" Hina pressed down and the round was launched from the barrel, travelling quite a distance to its target. However, she had not accounted for target distance and the round fell short. "Traverse the gun upwards to compensate for distance, use the markers as reference if you have to."

"They fired at us!" The crew of Aoi's Team D was scared straight with the fact they were fired upon. A symphony of cries rang out as Ume was trying to keep the tank straight. It was such a large tank that it was hard to maneuver on the bridge, that fact that it was just a reinforced wood bridge didn't help it.

"Idiots…" Calmly traverse the turret, it did so quite slowly, what with having both a 76mm Gun and 37mm Gun in it. She was busier trying to gain a sight on the Ho-I, they had fired from the flank, but where? She looked through the gunner's sight and through scanned the bushes. "Where could you be…" She said to herself, just before seeing a reflection of the Ho-I was it was traversing.

"Fire!" Hina had taken the time to compensate and get the proper gun elevation this time around. The Armor Piercing round thrusted through the air and planted itself firmly into the side of the M6. Due to the very light armor on the M6, it was a knockout blow signified by a white flag popping out from the turret, just when Mai had gained her mark on the Ho-I too.

"Team D is Immobilized! Knockout!"

"Aww…" Aoi sat back in her seat, they hadn't even been able to do anything in the mock battle at all. However, the Panzer III behind them had more troubles to deal with. They were stuck behind the M6 as it went first. The only way out would be to reverse back, there was no room to traverse the hull all away around.

"Hit!" Minori yelled out as she sent a 3.7cm round hurling towards the Ho-I, the higher velocity carried it further. But it fell short and it slammed into the rock face of the ravine. There was no longer anytime to load another round and readjust aim as Hina hit her mark on the Panzer III, a shot on the side, centermass and another white flag.

"Team E is Immobilized! Knockout!"

"So this is the Shimada Style...or it's just smart thinking...interesting way of going about it…" Ryoko studied the approach that Team A had taken to ambush them. "Natsuko-san, keep your distance, we don't need you to...Team C's already gone hunting for them haven't they?" While Ryoko was busy analyzing the situation, Natsuko had decided to go head on.

"We're close to them I can feel it!" Natsuko was watching from the cupola for the Makoto. She then buttoned up because she had gotten hit in the face with branches a couple of times. "Alright, you know where they fired from, let's go get them!" The other three nodded and Haruko navigated her way over to the Ho-I's firing position.

"Roger that…" Haruko skillfully drove through the woods, but she couldn't shake the sinking feeling that something was off. Would they really just stay in one spot, she didn't know the members of Team A personally. But no one would really stay after they fired, would they? Her suspicions were confirmed when they reached the spot. "They're not here Natsuko…"

"Then where could they be?" Mitsuko impatiently crossed her arms and huffed. She was more than itching to fire the gun at least once at a target. Natsuko instinctively opened up the cupola and looked around.

"Behind us!" Teruko had been watching out, but she took a glance out the view sight for the rear machine gun. Right behind them, as Natsuko found out when she looked around in terror. The Ho-I was idle right behind them, and Makoto looking out from the Cupola right at her.

"Fire!" Natsuko buttoned up just as the round hit the hull of the tank, due to the weak armor values of the Ha-Go, it was registered as a penetration as the white flag popped out of the turret.

"Team C is Immobilized! Knockout!"

"Three down…" Through Makoto's quick planning, they were able to ambush two tanks and trick another. "Alright guys, so far so good, but now there's Team B and Ryoko…" She knew that Ryoko had to be smart and clever to had been put into command, plus she's heard that out of the four members of the Chess Team, she was the best.

"Amazing...looks like we're the only team left…" Ryoko analyzed the situation yet again, running the most likely scenario in her mind. It was clear that they had the superior firepower, but it was fixed and they were at a disadvantage against the Ho-I and its turret. However, due to the terrain, the StuG would be much easier to hide compared to the Ho-I and they would have a lot more time to prepare due to the distance between them. ""Chie-san, get us into the forest, we'll stick to the original plan, let's wait them out and see what they do…"

"Roger." Chie started to reverse the tank into some additional cover, behind some bushes and trees to mask themselves. With Toshiko and Kamiko ready with the main gun, carefully, Ryoko opened the hatch to the StuG and stuck her head up at just eye level. In the meanwhile, Makoto was busy hunting them, she was readily on alert because she also knew how easy it was to hide the StuG.

"Keep yourselves ready guys…" Hina was ready at the gun, her hands on the turret traverse and gun. Tsuki had another shell really, High Explosive because of the thick frontal armor the StuG had. Asagi was adamant on driving correctly and Shiori was...well she wasn't doing anything other than checking her phone because she didn't have anything to do.

However, they had fallen right into Ryoko's trap, in the open, without any knowledge of where the StuG was. Toshiko had all the time in the world, manually adjusting the aim to hit center mass, doesn't matter where they hit, any shot on the Ho-I would result in a penetrating shot and instant elimination. Makoto's tank was facing theirs, and the commander watching for the slightest sign of Team B. But just then, she was able to catch wind of the very tip of the StuG's muzzle break shifting the bushes. Toshiko could see the shocked expression of Makoto's face when she realized, "Checkmate…"

Reacting quickly, Makoto pulled herself under the cupola and kicked Asagi on the back and then on her left shoulder. Signalling that she had to hard turn left and did so with smooth transition. Switching to a lower gear and moving forward then a hard turn left just as Toshiko fired. The round just barely grazed the side of the Ho-I's hull when Ryoko knew the jig was up. "Forward! Try and get around them!" Chie revved the StuG into gear and accelerated it forwards towards the Ho-I while Hina turned the gun to meet them.

The StuG made a quick turn, drifting in the soft dirt around the Ho-I with Asagi quickly responding and turning in the same direction to counter it. She was close enough to knock the StuG's gun aside when Toshiko fired again, this time into the air rather than her intended target. "Load!" She yelled back to Kamiko who rushed another round from the rack through the breech. Now parallel to the StuG and pointed in different directions, Asagi moved the tank into forward to get behind the StuG and prevent it from firing again.

"Wow...they're really going at it…" Far away from the action, Futaba had been watching through her binoculars and eating Fried Rice Crackers. "Such mastery of the steering…" She commented on the skillful driving of both Asagi and Chie, both have which have been able to avoid knockouts because of it. Then she focused on Makoto, she wasn't lagging behind even a little bit with the situation, but Ryoko wasn't too far behind in her commands either. "They're certainly not treating this like a Mock Battle." She chuckled and fed herself some more Fried Rice Crackers.

She observed the StuG reverse and hit the Ho-I trying to get behind it, it appeared that Hina was have difficulties with rotating the turret on time. It's true that the Ho-I's turret wasn't all that fast nor was it very well stabilized, giving Ryoko's Team B a chance to take an opening. Chie quickly traverse the tank parallel to the Ho-I and moved it forwards and attempted to make a quick half-circle turn and get a shot off once at a far enough distance.

But Asagi and Makoto saw through their plan, "Block their gun!" Makoto yelled at her loudest down at Asagi. In the middle of the StuG's half-circle, Asagi had turned to meet them and quickly moved the tank forwards. The Ho-I hit the StuG just before it fully half-circled, and Ryoko realized the situation at an instant. because of the StuG's fixed gun position and the way the Ho-I was contacting with them, the Ho-I's side was blocking the gun from traversing any further to get a shot off. "Fire!"

Hina had just caught up with the action with her turret and lowered the gun down as Chie tried to pull away. But at that point, it was too late, as Hina unloaded a 75mm Armor Piercing round into the side of the StuG. The duel they had ended with a white flag popping out of the StuG's hull.

"Team B is Immobilized! Knockout! Team A wins the Mock Battle!"

Final Analysis

Makoto's Team A

Team A:

Type 2 Ho-I - Medium Tank

Makoto Shimada

Survived

Joint-Trainee Team

Team B:

StuG III Ausf. F/8 - Tank Destroyer

Ryoko Matsuoka
Immobilized by Team A

Team C:

Type 95 Ha-Go - Light Tank

Natsuko Honda

Immobilized by Team A

Team D:

M6 - Heavy Tank

Aoi Sato

Immobilized by Team A

Team E:

Panzer III Ausf. G

Aizu Kishida

Immobilized by Team A

Victory Goes to Makoto's Team A

In the aftermath the two crews of the last two teams met personally for the first time, Ryoko and Makoto met each other face to face. "Nice work Shimada-san, you managed to take us out with pure skill." Ryoko offered her handshake to Makoto who accepted it without hesitation. Her heart was still beating hard from the duel they had just had not but a few moments earlier.

"You too! Your planning and crew are both very skilled, it's an honor to had dueled you Ryoko-san." The two girls grinned at each other while the other members of their crews talked with each other. Particularly interesting was the exchange between the two drivers, Asagi and Chie, who just stared at each other for a long while before they shook hands. At the end of the day, all their tanks were recovered by R&D and the teams lined up for their instructor.

"Nice work! You all crewed your tanks exceptionally, especially for most of you, who are first-timers." Futaba winked at Makoto upon mention of the phrase first-timers. "Your Mock Battle has shown me what I need to focus on during training, but also that this group of students may be some of my best pupils starting out, training begins at the same time tomorrow, be prepared. I'm not going to hold back." She crumpled up the bag of Fried Rice Crackers she had just finished and threw it into the nearby trash can.

"Class is dismissed!" Aizu shouted and the members of the Student Council watched as the students walked off, including Futaba as she went who knows where. "Hmm, what to do for the rest of the day…" Aizu thought to herself.

"Ma'am, we should head on back to the office." Minori pushed up and Yukiko nodded, "We do need to authorize for 'our' Izumi-san to come back soon, shouldn't we?" Aizu instead shook her head and stood with her hands akimbo.

"Nah! You guys can go ahead and go on break for now. I'll do all that stuff by myself, you guys can go relax for all your hard work these past few days." Minori and Yukiko looked on in shock, their President had never been so kind before, "That's an order, enjoy yourselves today, social with the other Sensha-Dou students today too." She grinned and her two subordinates walked off in the direction of the school build as Aizu took a detour to the Student Council building.

Later that day, when she had finished all the paperwork for the day, including the ones for 'their' Izumi-san, she decided to contact someone. At least to prepare ahead for the Sensha-Dou, behind everyone's back nonetheless. She dialed a particular number and waited for them to pick up, "Hello? This is Darjeeling of St. Gloriana Girls High School, may I ask who this is?"

"My name is Aizu Kishida of Tokai Girls High School." Aizu answered the question in her most polite voice, which she only used when on official business because otherwise, no one would take her seriously.

"Mmm, how may I help you today?" She answered back.

"We have just reinstated our Sensha-Dou Program, and we were wondering if you were available for an exhibition match after our regulation training is finished." Darjeeling raised an eyebrow to the question, they had just received a similar request not but a few days back, and had already prepared for it.

"I'm sorry, normally we wouldn't deny a request like this, because our schedule is busy, it's funny, another school with a situation just like yours had asked days earlier. We've already accepted their challenge, so as you can understand, we sadly don't have the time for your school." But still, Darjeeling felt a little sad that she wasn't able to help this new school out, "But, would you want me to give you the number of another school I know? I'm sure the Sensha-Dou Captain there would surely accept."

Aizu listened carefully, "Sure." taking out a notepad and writing down the number and when finished said her goodbyes to Darjeeling. Looking at the number, she obviously didn't know, but decided to look it up in the official Sensha-Dou directories. After meticulous searching, she found the school, it appeared to be a branch-off of St. Gloriana: Lady Atkins Girls Academy. They were going to be their next opponents, Aizu was sure.