Chapter IV

Today And Tomorrow

Not but a few days after the initial Mock Battle Futaba had prepared for them, she started the Sensha-Dou team on a rigorous training regimen. Involving all the basics such as driving, gunnery and situational awareness. But in addition, she also taught how to do all of these skills with the highest efficiency along with other concepts such as camouflage, cover and use of armor.

Each team had particular niches that fit them, and Futaba knew that, she placed some of the teams on specific courses and exercises to make better use of their tank. Aoi's Team D crewed the M6, an American Heavy tank that was larger than any of the other tanks and with heavy firepower. It boasted a strange armament layout of a 3in(76mm) M7 Gun with a coaxial of a 37mm M6 as well as dual hull mounted .50cal(12.7mm) Machine Guns.

To make use of this layout, their gunner, Mai, was drilled to use the 37mm as both the ranging device and the secondary weapon. In the event she was forced to take action quickly, the 37mm would range the target with the 76mm being the main hitter, but for the most part, she used them in conjunction. "Loaders! Need rounds!" She spoke in a cold manner as Kyou loaded the 76mm Gun and Eiko the 37mm Gun. Staring down through the sight at a target located down a few hundred meters, she first fired the 37mm Gun hitting centermass. Then she adjusted the sight for the 76mm Gun due to the latter's lower muzzle velocity and heavier shell.

The second round hit the target dead on with her loaders getting right at work. Next she attempted to fire both guns at the same time, finding a median distance between the two gun elevations. The target presented to her would in technicality be smaller than most if any tank they would ever face and thus close misses were still considered a good hit. With a simple press on both guns, the two guns fired at closely the same time, both finding their mark at a close distance to the target. "Nice shot!" Aoi shouted as she watched Mai nail the target over and over again.

While they were being drilled on firing exercises, Ryoko and Team B were practicing long range exercises after an excruciating amount of work on Chie's driving that only did to make her even better. Particularly specified for long-range gunnery and tank identification using the Tank Identification Book Chie had allowed the team to use. Futaba made a particular insistence to this, saying that the StuG III Ausf. F/8 was the most powerful tank on the team but wasn't the most powerful in close range due to its fixed gun and weak side armor.

"Range...1,000 Meters…" Toshiko estimated the range of the fixed cardboard target. Chie had parked the tank behind a bush to simulate a common position they might find themselves in. Really, only Ryoko and Toshiko were in the tank, Chie and Kamiko had gone off to set up the targets themselves far down range. "Lasker-san, what tank did they give us this time?"

Up above, Ryoko was switching between her binoculars and the Identification Book repeatedly to identify the target. "Looks to be a Panzer IV...Ausf….Ausf...hmm...Ausf. F2." She had flipped through the many, many models and variants of the Panzer IV before guessing between the Panzer IV Ausf. F2 and Panzer IV Ausf. G, because the two looked alike. "They're facing directly horizontal to us, straight side shot."

"Okay...adjusting shot…" Toshiko shifted around the gun of the StuG III Ausf. F/8, the second to last model of the StuG III. It was armed with the StuK 40 L/48 gun, the same one used on the last versions of the Panzer IV and considerably more powerful than the previous StuK 40 L/43 was. "Ready to fire, at your command, Lasker-san." Downrange, Chie and Kamiko were doing the usual, discussing Chess Theory while sitting around in a ditch.

"I'm not saying that a good opener determines a match Magnus-san, I'm just saying it increases the odds of a victory. A strong opener limits your opponent's movement and makes it easier for you to pick them off." Kamiko was reasoning how effective a good opener could be to Chie. They had nothing to do, so something had to be said anyways, even then, the only thing Chie responded with was a nod. She was still peeved she had to hand over her Identification Book and wasn't particularly happy she had to do footwork.

In the middle of their conversation, Ryoko had apparently given the order to fire, as a blank training round weighted like AP pierced through the cardboard target and planted itself firmly into the ground near Kamiko. In the process it was able to scare her into going to fatal position momentarily. "Come on Fischer...we have to go set up another target…" Chie lazily stood up and started off back towards the main field to fetch another target that was prepared by Futaba ahead of time.

Watching them from afar was Natsuko and her Team C, who were tasked with scout training. Their Type 95 Ha-Go was the smallest and fastest tank out their entire lineup. Aside from that, they had already proven to be excellent in rough terrain. "Whew...they fired right near Kamiko...poor girl…especially considering she still owes me money…" Natsuko was watching with her provided pair of binoculars. Quite unusual, as each member of the time was given their own pair, Futaba even instructed them on out-of-tank reconnaissance work.

They were used to the prospect of running long distance, but this was a lot more complex. Having to be aware of your surroundings at all times, making sure you're not spotted or making enough noise to do so. Unsurprisingly, the girls weren't too keen on this subject. But Futaba had just shook it off, "Maybe out-of-tank recon isn't your thing, but at least you can use the Ha-Go.", she distinctly said to them upon the end of that session.

"Haruko, next position." She reported, they had just recently received a new comms system for each tank as well. This allowed them to easily communicate among themselves and to every tank as long as their radio was still operable. Also a neat thing, at least for Drivers, was that now the Commander or someone close didn't have to nail them in the shoulders to signal turns and movement anymore.

"Understood!" Haruko was quite excited by this, her shoulders were still sore from all the times it had happened in the Mock Battle and in Training. But at least from now on she could sit back and relax. Something Teruko and Mitsuko were all to used to, half the term they sat around doing nothing until their orders came up.

They proceeded along their pre-determined path with Natsuko ever so often giving them changes in the path. She was busy looking at the other teams train, but also looking out for Futaba. She specifically said that she saw them, they would have to start all over again. Little did they know, Futaba Izumi was actually busy chuckling at how bad Minori of Team E was at gunnery. "Wow...this is really bad…" She ate another Fried Rice Cracker watching her shots fall flat.

The other two did just fine, and Minori did well on flat targets, but when she was given the outline of a tank. Then the shells suddenly started to fall flat, or overshoot, or she just flat out missed at anything beyond 10-50 Meters. "You really are bad at this Mino…" Aizu was forced to witness the display of terrible gunnery from her commander cupola on the Panzer III. It was bad enough that Minori was already the loader as well, but the fact she wasn't able to shoot was going to be an issue. Yukiko had fallen asleep at the wheel, somehow through all the constant grief of Minori and her 3.7cm Gun, before being woken up by Aizu.

"Are we done yet?" She looked up at Aizu, Yukiko hadn't actually done any driving today, at most she had gotten them to the range. But aside from that, at the very least the other teams were getting something done. Especially Makoto's team, as it stood they were more or less being self-taught by Makoto rather than having Futaba rushing to their aid.

"No not yet…" Aizu took out the cupola at Futaba who was standing in the shade eating her snackfoods. "Instructor-senpai! The Student Council needs to have a short meeting, can we stop for now and do it in privacy?" She shouted at her from about a few meters away.

"Sure, why not." She mumbled to herself before leaving to tend to the other teams. Now speaking about Makoto's team, Futaba had actually sent to relax for a little bit. Not only because she knew Makoto's mother, but also because they've made a lot more progress and where essentially leaving everyone but Ryoko's team in the dust. They were off by the vending machines chatting it up.

"It's was nice of Futaba-senpai to give us a break…" Hina said while sipping from a can of green tea she had gotten. "I honestly think this is the hardest I've worked on anything in awhile, even compared to my art projects…" She chuckled and continued to drink.

"Yeah! She's a really cool instructor, she's smart and...and...lazy...and...she really just stands around eating Fried Rice Crackers now that I think about it…" Tsuki stared down at her bottle of Ramune gloomly. She was sitting on a nearby bench next to a sleeping Asagi curled up and taking over half the space. "She really isn't the instructor that I had honestly expected…"

"At least she isn't strict, I've heard other instructors aren't nearly as popular as she is...I'm surprised that we got her at all." Shiori raised her can of Barley Tea up towards the sky. Before looking down at Asagi, she had bought her a can of Iced Coffee but by the time it was dispensed, she had fallen asleep. "Futaba-senpai does remind me of a certain Driver though...just as lazy…"

Makoto leaning up against the wall the vending machines were placed, she had bought herself a simple can of Soda. In fact she had nearly finished half the thing really quickly. She thought to herself about how her mother would make her only buy bottled water ever and how free she was now that she was at different school. "What about you Makoto-san? What do you think of Futaba-senpai?" Hina looked over at her and posed the question.

"Oh me? Well...she says she knows my mother pretty well, though I never actually knew her all that well. But at the least she's letting me practice in the Shimada Style rather than the Golden Standard of the Nishizumi Style."

"Speaking of which, what's the difference between the two anyways?" Shiori nudged Shimada's arm to signal her question. "Does it really matter which we use if we win the match anyways?"

"There's a BIG difference between the two, or at least that's how everyone sees it anyways. The Nishizumi Style is aggressive, relies on intense training, heavy tanks and is very rigid. The Shimada Style was made to be the antithesis, it's more like a way of thinking. To use the best strengths of your tanks and leave yourself able to adapt to the situation at a moment's notice."

"That seems complicated...is that why you don't see many people use it?"

"Yeah, I suppose that it's hard to use, larger schools don't need to worry about that kind of problem, so the Nishizumi Style is more popular with them, which means they influence the smaller schools to follow suit. But they both have one glaring flaw, they were made by proud families, so that meant Direct Challenges were to not go unaccepted… conceited people to fight conceited people, that's the natural cycle…"

"You don't seen so keen on this stuff Makoto-san, are you okay about speaking to us about this?" Hina seemed worried for Makoto, she had suddenly got worked up with the mention of two styles.

"N-no...it's fine, I just don't like to talk about this kind of stuff, you see the kind of effect it has on me." The four girls stared at each other in awkward silence, Makoto was staring into the ocean in the meanwhile. So far away from the Mainland, yet so beautiful, the vast blue ocean was never something she paid mind to. She never paid mind to much things before now that she thought about it.

Before she could break into more philosophical thinking, Futaba had arrived to break up the silence. "Yo! Team A, how you guys doing?" She grinned and ate out of a Fried Rice Cracker bag while walking towards them. None of them really answered back so she just kept on talking, "No need to be silent guys. Anyways! Makoto, Aizu wanted you and the other Commanders at a meeting in the Student Council building."

"Eh?! I wasn't told about this meeting."

"That's because she asked to me to tell you a half hour ago, and I actually forgot about it until now. You should really go, it seemed urgent." Makoto stared at Futaba who had this cheery expression on her face while eating. "No seriously, you should really go, like, right now."

"Eeep!" She quickly bowed goodbye to everyone and ran towards the Student Council throwing away her soda in the process. The sun was still shining bright as the other students stared at Makoto who was running across the open. Some of them snickering among themselves. As soon as she entered the meeting room, she apologized to everyone, "I'm sorry for being so late!" They stared at her, they were in the middle of their briefing apparently.

"It's okay Mako! I didn't expect Futaba to remind you anyways, just take a seat and we'll continue." Aizu gave her a thumbs up and winked as Makoto sat down at her seat next to Ryoko and the other Commanders. "Anyways, continue with our meeting Mino." Gesturing her subordinate to continue with what she was saying.

"Anyways, as I was saying, our…'generous' president has taken the time to…'selflessly' arrange a 'fair' match with another school with the next week." There was a look of intrigue among everyone's face, especially more so when Yukiko dimmed the lights and Minori started the projector.

The first slide showed an image of a school emblem, showing a tea kettle with a Brodie helmet over the handle and steam coming out of the spout. The background was a light blue and the whole image was presented inside an escutcheon."This is Lady Atkins Girls Academy, they've been kind enough to participate in an Exhibition with us next week. I've already put in an executive order to bring us to port within that time frame." Aizu was standing in the far back and crossing her arms.

"Right...moving on then, they will be our opponent in an Elimination-type match, the rules are simple, immobilize every tank on the opposing team. The battleground will be Tokai and the surrounding lands." Minori proceeded with the rest of the slides, "According to our 'generous' president, they will be being eight tanks to battle with us. The first are their five Matilda , these are thickly armored infantry support tanks but are armed with 40mm Guns, do not underestimate them because of their speed or size."

"The next will be this Valentine , this is their secondary command it, it isn't as thickly armored as the Matilda, but has a much superior gun, a 57mm High Velocity, it's capable of immobilizing any of our tanks at almost any range or angle. And their final tank, commanded by the Captain, is the Valentine , armed with a 75mm Medium Velocity gun, the same type used on the American M4 Shermans, it too, is capable of immobilizing almost all of our tanks, do not take either of them lightly as well." Minori then pushed up her glasses, "Or you'll find yourself a quick knockout."

"Er...um…so what's the plan!" Aoi quickly blurted out, quite loudly at that.

"Well we were hoping our double aces could figure that out, Makoto? Ryoko? What are your thoughts?" She gestured to the two who were sitting next to each other, they looked at each other then back with slight concern. Neither of them could really be considered aces, especially Ryoko who had only had one battle thus so far.

"Well their tanks are definitely slower than ours…" Makoto started, "and they're also pretty clumsy in cityscapes. Perhaps we should lure them into a trap some sorts." Ryoko added onto her stratagem.

"Right, using combined firepower, we could render their armor moot. Between the AP of the M6 and StuG as well as the HEAT from the Ho-I, the frontal armor of the Matilda will be nothing. The problem is where do we lure them? The outlying lands of Tokai aren't too keen for such maneuvers…"

"Ooo! Ooo!" Natsuko raised her hand high and proud and the two allowed her to speak. "We can lure them into Tokai itself. It's allowed within league rules and we'll have the advantage of knowing the place ourselves!"

"That's actually… a pretty good idea." Even Minori recognized that it was the only chance they had to best Lady Atkins in combat. "But we're going to need bait, would you be willing to do that Natsuko?"

"The Soccer Team is always willing if it helps!" Natsuko placed her fist in her palm and grinned.

"No. It's too obvious, if we do it with the Ha-Go, they'll know it's a decoy. How about this...let me go with the Ho-I, we at the least have the firepower to hit back. We'll draw them into the town, where we'll split them up, we'll fight our battles individually, and prevent them from working with each other."

"Good then! Well, that basically ends our meeting, now we can all go back...to more training...of course…" Aizu hesitantly ended the meeting ,which meant they all had to go back to Futaba and her training. Undoubtedly she was likely just bumming around eating Fried Rice Crackers. "Oh yeah! Before I forget, because I'm so 'generous', I've decided to give you guys some positive encouragement. If we win, we're going to go to a hot spring, if we lose on the other hand...we're going to be doing the Anglerfish Dance at the Summer Festival instead of the poor 1st Years" With a single fell swoop, she was able to put everyone in shock as they left the room.

"The what!?" When Makoto had relayed the news to her friends they freaked out equally the same. Even Asagi took the effort to wake up, but trying to actually get up only put her back to sleep. "I swear, I'm going to that little Aizu and te-" Shiori stopped short of actually finished her sentence and cleared her voice. "Okay! I've decided! We have to win this match, doesn't matter how, as long as it prevents us from doing the Anglerfish, it'll make me happy."

"W-what is the Anglerfish Dance anyways? Is it really that bad?" Makoto, not being from Ibaraki, was confused on the text. She didn't know any of the customs or any of the particulars of any of the Prefectures this far up north. She, like the rest of her family, were from Aichi, so anything deviating from that region, she would completely be lost on.

"The Anglerfish Dance is this really silly, and so bad it's catchy, dance that some town down south called Oarai made up. It caught up...really fast, and spread all throughout Hitachinaka, Naka, Mito, all the big cities until it firmly planted itself here in Tokai and beyond." Even Tsuki looked sorta erratic about the subject as well.

"And yes...it is that bad Makoto-san…" Hina rang in on it as well, "I hear that it's impossible to erase the shame of having to do it. Which is why they always have the 1st Years do it, I just barely dodged it last year at the draw…" Makoto could visibly see her hands shaking while holding her Green Tea.

"We have to win! I don't need that embarrassment to haunt me for the rest of my life!" Asagi unusually put some actual tone into her voice and raised her hand pointing at the sky to signify her ambitions. Rather than actually trying to get up herself and doing anyways.

"I see...well we have another week until that match, and we do have to wake up pretty early...at like...6:00AM just to get everything set." Upon mention of the time they had to arrive, Asagi sat right up and shook her head rapidly in disagreement. She wasn't a morning person, as if that wasn't painfully obvious.

"Okay! It's been a good time serving with you folks, I no longer care if I must do the Anglerfish Dance, but I shall not wake up at 6:00 AM. Human Beings, i.e me, cannot physically wake up that early, it is impossible and unnatural."

"B-but Asagi! Who'll drive the tank?" Tsuki spitted out her ramune when Asagi suddenly straightened up. Asagi was the only one of the five that were able to actually drive the Ho-I with any skill. The closest was Makoto, but she had to be the commander, anyone else wasn't that proficient.

"You'll just have to deal with it." She didn't seem like she wasn't going to change her stance on the issue any time soon.

"H-hey! We'll wake you up! And by we, I mean Tsuki-san, but still!" Shiori was begging for Asagi to continue Sensha-dou. Mainly because she didn't want to have to do the Anglerfish Dance, but also because they weren't really friends yet but really could be in the future maybe. "So please at the least have the effort to wake up early in the morning Asagi-san!"

"Yeah! W-wait what?"

"Sorry, but I have no reason to wake up at 6:00 AM, everyone should still be sleeping at that point which means I get to sleep too. I'll do the Anglerfish Dance, just still Aizu to stuff it later!" Asagi took the Iced Coffee Shiori had bought her, at this point it wasn't really chilled anymore, and started to leave. "I'll see you guys outside of Sensha-Dou, sorry for this…"

"Asagi-san...I have heard about what Aizu does to people who do things like this…" Hina started to speak in a rather dreadful tone unlike herself, "I think she does something far worse than making you do the Anglerfish Dance, if I recall, she does something on a more personal level…" Asagi looked back with with a disturbed that asked the question for her. "In your case, she might just take the credits...and tear up your class recommendation right in front of you." That finally broke Asagi, she bit her lower lip and clenched her fists before punching the vending machine, which she wasn't really allowed to do in the first place.

"Finefinefinefinefine...I'll do it, and then when I graduate I'll beat up Aizu…" She went back to her usual monotone voice and sat back on the bench. "We should get back to training soon...we've been on break the past hour or two at this point…" And she 'dutifully' reminded everyone that they were overdue for returning back to training of course. So training they did, sorta did, because Futaba was still really unprofessional so it was really more like summer camp with tanks. This went on for a week, by then the ship was starting to near Tokai's port for the Exhibition.

Makoto had woken up pretty early that day, she checked her phone for Hina and Shiori's texts that they were ready. They certainly were, but on the other hand, the opposite was true for Asagi and Tsuki. She decided to dress up quickly and check up on them, suppressing her desires when she had passed through the shop under their rooms. Tsuki's door was closed, but she did see some light at the top of the stair case. "Wow, this really is like brushing a cat…" She heard them speaking, more Tsuki than Asagi, and found that the door to Asagi's room was wide open.

"Oh Makoto…" Asagi instantly noticed her walking up in the stairwell, "You thought I wouldn't be awake, didn't you? Well jokes on you, because I can be three-fourths asleep, it counts and you can't do anything about it..." she had something to be proud of for once. Actually being awake at anytime before noon had to be some kind of miracle granted by the gods.

"She's making me brush her hair...with her cat brush...the cat's on my head isn't it?" Now that Tsuki had mentioned it, Makoto noticed there was actually a brown cat on her head, it had looked like her actual hair the first time around. "Please get it off...I don't need cat stuffs on my head when we're done." Looking around Asagi's room, it was even blander than hers. Solid White walls, a simple mattress for a bed, a closet in the corner and a kotatsu in the center, that was about it.

Asagi was sitting on top of the kotatsu while having her hair combed, "You guys realize we have a half hour until it's call time right?" While Tsuki was fully dressed and ready, Asagi was the exact opposite, it looks like having her hair combed was the first step in her morning.

"Half hour…? Oh darn…" Slowly Asagi stood up and walked into her closet, shutting the door. Before either of them could respond, or Tsuki getting Asagi's cat off her head, she walked back out completely ready. "Okay, let's go…" Even her hair was perfectly combed, much to Tsuki's dismay as she just spent a lot of time combing it her way. "Stop standing around staring at me…" She didn't even spend time to look at them, already in the staircase leaving the floor.

Makoto and Tsuki left as well, when she closed the door, Makoto noticed that there wasn't an electronic lock for the door. Instead it was traditional key and knob, if there even was a lock at all. "Weird…" She mumbled to herself before following after the other two. Following with their assumptions, the three had walked all the way to the brand new designated garages for their tanks. For a long while, they had been using the same warehouse for their tanks, but now they were in a new building all by themselves.

She did find it weird how no one besides them were in the streets coming up to campus. Not even the shops and bakeries were open, their doors locked and blinds closed up. It was off-putting and eerie to say the least, but at the least she had Asagi and Tsuki, even if they weren't too talkative this early in the morning. Even at campus there wasn't anyone, it was abnormal to see a school campus without any students to traverse it. "Hey Guys!" Shiori had noticed them walking towards the garages and waved at them wildly. Even she was surprised that Asagi was able to keep her promise and meet them here.

"Hey!" Tsuki had ran over first to hug her with Hina smiling behind them both. "I managed to wake up Asagi too, and she forced to comb her hair even though she magically makes it well kept somehow." Tsuki grinned and and nudged Asagi, whose expression seemed like she wanted to kill everyone because of how early she had to wake up today for the match, which is likely what she wanted to do. There wasn't much of an introduction, everyone knew what they had to do, the morning proceeded with the Student Council simply opening the garage doors, each tank had their own space with some extra rooms just in they got more tanks.

"Moment of truth…" Makoto thought to herself as she let the others get into the tank first before sitting in her seat. Between Hina and Tsuki, with Asagi to the right of her feet and Shiori the other side. "Let's head towards the platform." They proceeded to lead the rest tanks towards the loading platform. The tanks weren't exactly going to fit on the normal walkway so they improvised with the cargo loading platform. Even if nothing was going on and off due to the late moment redocking, they still had to wait for the paperwork to go through with the dock workers. Due process she supposed while sitting around in the cupola.

She did however, just happen to look off into the ocean just in time to see a huge schoolship approach the dock as well. It was much, much, much larger than their schoolship, which based off of the Japanese Carrier Shokaku. "Whatcha looking at?" Curious as to why Makoto hadn't made any movement yet, Tsuki decided to look out the rear hatch to see the schoolship as well. "Oh...so that's what they meant when Lady Atkin's schoolship was a scaled up HMS Illustrious…hey you know what, I feel really small and insignificant now…" She responded just before going back to her seat and closing the hatch to allow Hina to pat her on the head.

Looking across the rest of the port, even the other dock works were amazed as to the size of this ship. "Oh poopie, I don't get to see the big schoolship." Shiori fussed about not being about to see the giant HMS Illustrious because there wasn't an accessible hatch in the front of the hull. She puffed out her cheeks and threw a minor tantrum. After the due process actually got processed, the tanks were allowed on land for the first time, just in time for Makoto to see Lady Atkins's being docked. Surprisingly, the ship was somehow about to fit, even though Tokai was just a small town with a port. Rolling down the streets, the town was all set up for the Exhibition.

Somehow, word had gotten to here pretty quickly, nothing interesting ever happened in these small towns. So even an Exhibition Match would spice things up, it seemed more like a festival than anything, but that was likely because the Summer Festival was fast approaching. "Hey Makoto, I have a duty for you to fulfill as as the team's newly appointed Captain." Aizu was able to contact her headset privately, through black magic likely, "Before the match starts, I need you to represent our school, I'm sure you know this already, but that means all the formal procedures." Normally, the Captains from each team, alongside the other Commanders, would before the match. The Captains would shake hands, signifying their sportsmanship and the start of the match.

"Gotcha." She replied as cityscape turned into ruralscape, they were able to look at the field ahead of time due to their early arrival. Personally, Makoto had never actually gotten a look, while her friends and the other crews were busy setting up and relaxing before the match started. She decided to survey the place for changes to their strategy, the main portion of it still included Tokai itself, but she wanted to know if there was a place they could fight beforehand.

From her position, she could see that there was a depression in the land near the starting area. It bordered between Tokai and Hitachinaka, but she bet she could lure them easily through there. Off in the distance, there appeared to be a pretty tight pass, a good place for an ambush, if time permitted it, the distance between here and there was extreme, nothing a bit of stalling could fix. That pass led into forest and eventually into the very outskirts of Tokai. From there they could maneuver freely, with Lady Atkins's infantry tanks having a hard time trying to keep up.

It would be on the spot, but she had some confidence in her team. Even if Lady Atkins's was numerically and technologically superior to them. It was a matter of who had the better tactics, it almost always is. "Makoto!" Apparently Tsuki was dispatched to go get her back for the match. "It's time! Lady Atkins's tanks and crews have lined up and are ready for the match, let's go!" Following her back to the starting section quite a distance away, the fact Tsuki was able to even find her was something else. Arriving on site, she saw Aizu confidently posing in front of a massive banner she had the print shop print out for the match.

Equally matching the banner happened to be a large British Flag on the opposite side with the Emblem of Lady Atkins next to it. Looking at the crews on that side, they were dressed up in what appeared to be full battle dress for this occasion. They had nice neat black knee skirts with a red short jacket over a black long sleeve and black long boots. There were a few variations here and there, caps, hats, scarves, mufflers, maybe even Garters or Kneesocks. But the base outfit largely remained the same for all of the crews. Their tanks were equally as nice looking, clean, well maintain, the Matildas had a nice coat of Celadon and the two Valentines they had there was in a nice shade of Jade.

Midway through the starting area, Tsuki waved goodbye for Makoto to join the other commanders. Arriving in the middle of the field between the two teams, she stood opposite of Lady Atkins's commanders, between Ryoko and Aizu. There were five representing Tokai and eight representing Atkins. "Alright!" The match official spoke through a micro, cameras and speakers had been set up all over the place, with a large viewing screen in multiple places for anyone who wanted to watch. "Captains! Commence the formalities."

Looking around, Makoto walked forward just as she did the previous year, with confidence in each stride. There she met face to face with the Captain for Lady Atkins, she went by the nickname of Jasmine, after the tea. "Let's have a good match." She looked at Makoto through her brown hair, and the two exchanged handshakes. They bowed to each other before heading back to their tanks, a highly abridged version of official formalities. But now came the moment of truth, Makoto thought to herself as she entered her Type 2 Ho-I and planted herself firmly in the commander's seat. Now came Tokai's first match against another school, Lady Atkins Girls Academy would be their first ever opponent.