Chapter VI

The Trial's Climax

As the Battle shifts back and forth, it was clear that the remainder of it was going to be one huge waiting game of cat and mouse. Outnumbered and hiding, Tokai was going to take this battle as slowly as they can. They had dispersed themselves unevenly across the entirety of their town, or at least in areas defined as part of the Battlegrounds. "We're going to have to whittle them down one-by-one, Shiori, have everyone enforce radio silence for the rest of the match." Makoto didn't want to risk being exposed here and now, and certainly Lady Atkins was looking for any sort of edge over them right now.

"So what's our role in this?" Tsuki turned to her to ask, "I mean, what're we supposed to do, are we just going to wait around with our stubby gun for some poor Matilda or Valentine to cross our paths?" It was clear that she didn't think they were playing an active role, even if they had just charged the entire enemy formation not but a few minutes earlier.

"Hmm...what do we have for ammunition, aside from the ones we normally use." Upon her request, Tsuki jammed her hands into the ammo boxes and racks to see what they had to use. In total, they had the usual Armor-Piercing, High-Explosive and HEAT Rounds. But they had used some of their Smoke Rounds earlier to mask their escape as well.

"What could this be…" Tsuki picked up a piece of ammunition and started to read off of it. "Liquid Incendiary...huh...that's interesting." In that particular rack she was looking in, she spotted a few more of the same rounds, in addition to other ones with colorful names like: Hollow Charge, Illumination and the strangest, Vomit Gas Projectile. "Vomit Gas? Hey, Makoto-san! We can use any of the rounds we find back here right?"

"Yeah, they should be checking our ammo before the match and approve it themselves. So we should be able to use anything we can find in our ammo rack, what'd you find anyways?" Now Makoto looked back to make sure Tsuki wasn't just fibbing, and attracted the attention of the crew minus Asagi.

"Oh! I found some...special rounds to use against our friends at Lady Atkins, maybe. I don't really know how much we can really use these to be honest." While they were plotting on what to do to their enemies. Said enemies were hot on their trail, following whatever track marks or clues they left behind. Two such tank were Commander Chelsea's Team Cake and Commander Eve's Team Pudding.

"Keep your eyes open, they could be anywhere at this point, you hear that Eve?" Chelsea and Eve weren't the best of friends, mainly due to an incident regarding the latter being unable to cover their back reliably. "Or are you going to slack off again, like you did we when faced Hellenic Crown?"

"Don't worry, it's fine, besides, I didn't mess that badly." Compared to Chelsea, Eve was much more laid back and relaxed. Being the 4th and 5th Tanks of their Exhibition Lineup, they were always paired up together. Sometimes, just so Jasmine had something to laugh at, being the friction between the two.

"They were using 4pdrs! Four-Pounders! Half of them didn't even have cannons and were stuck with Machine Gun Type As!" That incident wasn't too kind to them, as they were in this exact situation when they were attacked from the sides by some Vickers Mk.E Type Bs fielded by the Greek School: Hellenic Crown High School.

"Shush. Your anger is only going to make it easier for them to hear you and ambush us." Eve brushed aside her long golden hair as they argued. "Besides, where are they even going to attack from? It's not like they have anywhere to do it." Just before she started to chuckle, a shot at point blank wrecked the side of her Matilda II much to the unsurprised look of Chelsea.

Adjacent to Eve's Matilda was Ryoko's StuG III Ausf. F/8 and the rest of Team B, parked neatly in a quaint little Ramen Shop. "Makoto! One tank down, withdrawing for now." She reported, squatting down due to the low ceiling of the building and the height of her position. "Thanks for letting us use your shop Mr. Hashimoto!" She turned and thanked the own of the shop, who was cleaning his kitchen.

"No problem Ryoko, just make sure you and your friends come over this weekend so I can beat you at Igo again before you head back out to sea." He waved goodbye as they backed out the rear entrance of the shop, and stared as they left behind large track marks. "Well, I really should have thought this out better." Before long he hung up a makeshift banner outside saying that his shop was vital to Tokai's first Exhibition Knockout and that the gun residue and the track marks in his shop were authentic.

"What a nice man…" Ryoko sat down in her hull and looked to her left, finding Kamiko with her mouth full of Ramen she had recently bought while they were waiting in the shop. The two exchanged a very long gaze at each other before the latter turned around into the side of the hull.

"Don't judge me Lasker-san…" She embarrassedly mumbled. Something similar was happening with Eve when she had to report her own knockout to Jasmine. When she squatted back down into the hull, she found the disappointed gazes of her crewmembers. One of them, the Gunner Caraway, spoke up.

"You shouldn't have talked so much…" The silence in the hull was unbearable after that. With one tank down and Chelsea stranded behind lines, the other Lady Atkins tanks had to hurry up the pace and and use their numerical advantage against Tokai right then and now. Now was the pivotal moment in the battle, and Jasmine knew she had to seize it now.

"All tanks, you are to double your search efforts, we need to end this match quickly." She reported over the radio before huffing and taking a few deep breaths. She met the worrying gazes of her crew who stared at her in disbelief. "What? What is it guys? Is there something in my hair? My uniform?"

"Commander, you're never this energetic…" Lavender spoke up first, her eyes glaring through her hair. It's true, normally, Jasmine was very calm and collected, as were everyone else that had held her position as the Sensha-Dou Team's Captain. They often compared her to someone like Darjeeling from St. Gloriana.

"Yeah! But it's a welcome change though, I'm not too big of a fan of that whole facade you commanders put up." Anise nodded her head in approval, "I'm in favor of the new Commander!" She raised her hand high, at least as high as the fighting compartment allowed her.

"Guys guys, calm down, I'm fine, it's just that...this battle is getting me really riled up." She pointed her thumb in the general direction as where they thought Tokai's tanks were. "That's the Shimada Kid we're talking about over there, we've never made it close to even beat Sengoku High in our entire history. Really gets the blood pumping does it?"

"I-I supposed…" Mint was all confused about the situation, because she was new of course. She poured another cup of Oolong Tea and gave it to Jasmine. "I-I'm still really sorry about the Tea Problem we have." Jasmine looked at the cup of tea and then back at the girl across from her.

"Ah! It's fine." She ruffled Mint's hair, "It's not like this stuff is going to kill me anyways." Then she took a long nice swig despite it being just a tea cup, before spitting it all out onto the floor of their compartment. "Ah who am I kidding. This stuff is going to kill me at this rate…"

In the meanwhile, Commander Flan's Team Custard and Commander Scone's Team Biscuit were hot on the trail of one of Tokai's Tanks. "Scone! This direction!" Flan pointed in the direction of the track marks left behind by some kind of lighter tank and waved her two-tone blonde and caramel short hair around.

"Roger that, we'll back you up." Scone was tired of chasing Tokai around without any result. Now was their chance to truly have some action during the match. The tracks led them to a small building on top of some stairs. "Up there!" She spotted Tokai's Team C and their Type 95 Ha-Go, with Natsuko waving down at them.

"We're up here!" She waved and gave them a large grin as their tank moved forward and away. This left the two Matildas down below pondering on what to do next, as getting up those stairs would be a difficult feat for their tanks.

"Well, we could always take a detour around, we'll run into them eventually, right?" Flan was twirling around her short hair trying to figure out what to do. Suddenly, Scone's Matilda went ahead of them and up the stairs slowly. "S-scone!? What are you doing! That's too dangerous!"

"Ah bugger off! You're too scared to go up here, just watch our backs this time will you? What's that light tank even going to do to our frontal armor anyways?" Slowly her Matilda II climbed up the slope of the stairs, their tracks just around to keep them going. Scone's driver, Crumpet, was quietly crying to herself that she had to do something like this, while the Gunner: Cookie and the Loader: Muffin were scared out of their minds. "Brace yourselves, it's a bumpy ride.

Slowly and slowly the Infantry Tank moved up the stairs, much to Flan's horror as she was forced to standby and watch. She had informed Jasmine but was told to let her go. "Those are some idiots up there..." Flan's driver, Egg, mumbled to herself. The Matilda had finally met the peak of the stairs and was about to touch onto even ground. Just then, Scone realize that waiting for them wasn't the Ha-Go, but Tokai's M6 with Mai already at the gun controls aimed at their lower plate.

"Super Electro Speed Diving Punch!" She unusually shouted out excitedly as both the 37mm and 76mm Guns fired at near point blank towards the Matilda. Upon impact, it left the Matilda flying backwards and down the stairs as Scone barely had time to button back up.

"Mai-chan…" Kyou had never seen Mai so excited in the past before, even during their Training Match. Similarly, she was also a Fan of Kamen Rider Stronger so before Mai could even turn around and question the situation, she hugged her intensely. Even when Mai threatened to kill her if she didn't let go.

"But why Kamen Rider Stronger's Rider Charged Up Punch?" Ume looked over and asked Ran, who just shrugged. With Scone's tank at the bottom of the stairs and Flan rushing over to assist them, this left Lady Atkins with six tanks remaining, practically an entire search team down.

"Yush! We got them reeling now! That's why you don't mess with Tokai!" Aizu was throwing a little party of her own considering the recent turn of events. Tokai had all of their tanks in good condition, and with Lady Atkins still scrambling to recover and find them all, the odds had more than fully turned towards them.

"Oioioioi! That's not good…" Commander Mince of Team Pie looked behind them, they were the furthest within Tokai at this point. "We're having enough trouble trying to find them already, and now this happens?" She gritted her teeth and slammed her fist onto the roof of her turret.

"It's Scone and Eve, it should be expected, and nothing much is lost from those encounters anyways." Commander Gypsy of Team Tart sat in her Matilda opposite of Mince. "What we should be doing is focusing on trying to find them and end the match like Jasmine said." Just as she finished up, a 37mm round flew right past their turret.

"Commander! Behind us!" Gypsy's Loader, Treacle reported on the origin of the shot. Behind the two Matildas was the M6, followed suit by Aizu's Panzer III and Natsuko's Ha-Go, a very large force approaching them quite quickly.

"Their entire force!?" Mince reacted sourly, "Gypsy, we move now!" the latter nodded and both Matildas started to accelerate to their max speeds. "Commander! Three of Tokai's Five Tanks are pursuing us, they appear to have regrouped and want to finish us off for good! We need backup!"

"Well that's no good, Jasmine, we should move now to intercept their forces while we still have most of ours." Cream added into the conversation between all the remaining crews of Lady Atkins. "But in the end, it's your call, Commander."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! I know! Mince, stay calm, we're moving to your locations now!" The two Valentines were on the Main Road of Tokai, the plan was to lure them out into an open confrontation where Tokai would lose due to their inability to properly engage heavy armor. But now that plan was out the window, or was it.

"What are they doing!?" Makoto had not given the order to regroup and attack. In fact she hadn't been giving any orders as of late. She allowed the individual teams to direct themselves in the current confusion. "Shiori, please tell, what have you been hearing over the radio?"

"It seems like Aizu's the root of all this trouble, she's told everyone to hunt down those wild dogs. Wow, that's some language." Shiori chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck, "It does seem like Ryoko-san's team refused to comply though, so at the least we have someone else with us."

"Makoto-san, what do we do now?" Hina looked over with a question of her own. "We've lost control of the team at this point, and we can't really do much else either." She was certainly right, they were practically a two-tank team now, what with Aizu's contingency going all out.

"Don't worry Hina-san, we've done our work here, all thanks to Tsuki-san and her new shells, let's get moving and continue what we were doing before." They left the scene just moments before Jasmine arrived on scene, and discovered their handy work. The entire partition of that road was completely engulfed in flames. "I hope they enjoy our gift…"

"What the heck is this!?" Anise couldn't believe what she was witnessing from her gunner sight. The whole road ahead of them was on fire, at least a meter or two of effective flame layers. "Commander! How do we get through this without breaking the tank engines or killing ourselves!?" Jasmine herself was taken aback by this, she hadn't expected Tokai to field this type of tactic.

"All tanks, we're redoing the battle plan, we are all to move towards the secondary rendezvous point, the new plan is to regroup and hold out." The two Valentines turned around and started to move back away, moving towards another area where they could regroup properly. "Did they have some kind of incendiary round to cause this much fire at once?"

"Commander! This is Mince from Team Pie! We've been knocked out!" While Jasmine and her team were busy dawdling about, the pursuit between their two stranded Matildas and Tokai had eaten up their Pie. All Jasmine could do was grit her team and continue to direct her tanks forward.

"Incoming!" Suddenly, a round hit the ground far in front of them as far down the road, Makoto's Ho-I had gotten ahead of them. The round spewed liquids all over the ground that instantly were set ablaze. "S-so that's that they were doing…" Chai couldn't believe her eyes. A second round followed in the remaining area of the road and cover their escape completely.

The two Valentines returned fire, inaccurate at that range and missed Makoto completely. "Hina-san, Tsuki-san, Smoke Rounds if you would please." Before they could get a bead on her, the Ho-I launched a smoke round down at the ground throwing a massive cloud of smoke to mask them.

"Tch! Hiding again?" Anise slammed her fist down on a nearby contain to express her rage. "Commander, we can brave those flames no problem at this speed, just go right through and take them out once and for all." It was true, at the speed the two Infantry Tanks were moving at, they could completely negate the flames and prey Makoto, however, it would prevent from going to the aid of their allies at their rendezvous point.

"No, the safety of my crews come first, Chai, it's a right turn here." Jasmine stared at the smoke cloud with intent as they rounded the corner, surely Makoto was having some sort of enjoyment out of this. It was in fact the very opposite, she was in fact having the worst time trying to convince Aizu to call off the attack.

"Aizu, it's a bad idea to attack now, even if we're even, they're more skilled than us, and they will have some kind of plan against this, the hiding was our entire advantage against them. Challenging them in open combat is practically suicide." Was Makoto's entire argument against the full-out assault. But Aizu wasn't too convinced, especially with how the match has been going in their favor up until now.

"Listen kiddo, you may be our ace, but I have two eyes and I can see that we're gaining momentum, just you watch we're going to wipe them off the map!" The four British Tanks were now nearing their rendezvous point, as all their roads were leading into one open area. Three Matilda IIs and two Valentines were all that were left, but Jasmine knew exactly what to do with that.

"All tanks! Hadrian Formation!" Jasmine shouted out the order as Makoto could only watch on in awe as to what happened next. Hadrian Formation referred to a great wall built by the Romans in their territory of Britannia during the ancient times. This wall was never broken by any force that had faced the Romans until they abandoned their territories in the British Isles, the idea was that they were to do the same.

"Roger!" The remaining commanders all agreed on their orders and made sure the Drivers knew what to do. Right off the bat, Gypsy, having tired of them following her, had her drive pull a 180-Degree Turn and reverse up. She was joined alongside Flan and Chelsea forming the first portion of their wall. They were backed up by Jasmine and Cream forming a W-like shape in theory. Now the stage was set, Tokai's spearheading column was met by Jasmine's unimpressed gaze.

"All tanks! Fire!" An absolute wall of 40mm, 57mm and 75mm fire met the very vulnerable Tokai Tanks. They reacted back with their own desperate fire to ward off Hadrian's Wall.

"Fire fire fire!" Minori yelled out as she fired and loaded the gun, all by herself, so really, she was just yelling at herself to shoot even more than she could. The M6 ahead of them had done the same, but their loaders had been tuckered out at this point and Ran abandoned her .50cal position to go help Aoi and Mai cycle fire.

"Not even the most powerful or precise of strikes we can make is going to break through that wall." One-by-one, the Tokai Tanks feel to the onslaught of fire, first came the M6, followed by Minori's curses coming from the Panzer III and finally the Ha-Go which let off one final round in futility.

"Oopsie, guess I didn't think that plan out all too well." Aizu chuckled and patted the back of her neck. Their entire tank was dusty now and all sorts of nasty stuff was in their hairs. "Oh well! There's always a next time for everything, contact the recovery crew on our whereabouts, Minomino." She smiled at an absolutely fuming Minori.

"Well this isn't good, Hina-san, fire a HEAT Round into one of those tanks and Asagi-san, please get us out of here before they spot us." The Ho-I fired a HEAT round directly into the rear of one of the Matildas, particularly that of Gipsy's, and retreated as the crews from Lady Atkins recovered from the attack and the sudden Knockout of their comrade. All the while, Makoto was on the run now, only she and Ryoko were left. "Shiori-san, please contact Ryoko for, we need to figure out a plan of attack."

While Makoto was figuring out her next step, Jasmine and her remaining crews were left to recover. "Four Tanks left, those Tokai Girls put up more of a fight than I had expected. Don't think that last part was apart of the Shimada Girl's plan…" Jasmine was getting tired already, the battle has exhausted her more than she had initially planned for. "I hate to say, but it's time for us to go on the offensive, it's unlike me, but the odds are more in our favor than ever."

"Roger that Commander, I'll inform the other crews." Lavender got busy at work communicating with the remaining tanks. Both teams were now formulating what were pretty much their last plans of action. The match was quickly spiraling towards its end, and something aggressive has to happen to bring it there. While Lady Atkins planned to do just that, Makoto had other ideas in her mind, having consulted with Ryoko to form a more defensive and unorthodox plan.

"They're going to attack us right away, since there's only two of our tanks left, it's obvious that an attack to take us out should come soon." Makoto had seen right through the way Jasmine was thinking. But it wasn't like it was a very complex plan, most people could figure their own numerical advantage. Then again, those same people probably just saw the failure that was Aizu's Offensive.

"Right, but what should we do about it, we no longer have the advantage, they're practically right on top of us this time, no conveniently placed slopes to slow them down this time." Ryoko wasn't so promising on their chances at victory, the recent turn of events had overpowered the recent successes. "The best we can do is take them down with us, and maybe look good while we're doing it."

"A last stand then, I can do that, Ryoko-san, could you by chance, pose as decoy for us? That main road could be a really good place for you to set up a good arc of fire. The flames should've died down by now." The Liquid Incendiary Rounds they had deployed earlier weren't all that long lasting, mostly due to the quality of the rounds, and maybe some Regulation Rules in the mix too.

"Flames? There were flames involved?" She questioned what Makoto had just said, mainly due to the fact that she and her team had been busy evading Lady Atkins. As well as actually coming back to Mr. Hashimoto's for some Ramen during the match as well. "I don't even want to know what you've been up to, to be honest."

"Ooo, has Makoto been a pyromaniac all this time? At least that makes her interesting." Toshiko was about to insult Makoto's personality, but she was stopped when Ryoko pushed her hand into her face repeatedly. "Ow! Stop that!" She covered up her face when the barrage of hands didn't stop.

"Alright, we'll get set up on the main road and see what we can do while we wait around. But you're going to have to lure them our way, it's not particularly a good idea to let the Tank Destroyer be bait, sorry for the particular wording." She had a point, the StuG III was maneuverable, but in no way was fit to really be bait. Naturally, the only remaining tank was Makoto's Ho-I and since it was an annihilation/elimination match and not the standard flag match, there was a lot less focus on losing that many tanks.

"Sure, at this point, my team is used to being bait at this rate, we'll be with you soon Ryoko-san." She tapped on Shiori to tell to her cut off the radio and was now in pretty awkward silence with the rest of her crew. "Well, guys, looks like we're going to be bait, again, I guess." Her icebreaker put the others in high spirits, even if their current role was rather mundane.

"Alright Mako-san, at least it's better than sitting around." Shiori grinned widely, which was rather ironic, as her entire job was practically just sitting around doing nothing half the time anyways. Being a Radio Operator really was that role that was always leftover for last. "And don't dare say I'm a lazy bum."

"You are…" Asagi mumbled to herself as she got them back into gear and rolling again. They were going to drift in and out just within visual range of the Lady Atkins Formations and try to lure them towards Ryoko. "I want something as an reward after this...maybe treat myself to some of Mr. Hashimoto's ramen before it's back to instant stuff." She continually talked to herself mainly because without her, this team likely wouldn't be doing nearly as well mobility wise.

"Me and Hina-san will fire at them to catch their attention and to make it seem like we're attacking, how does that sound Makoto?" Tsuki was enthusiastically holding up some Armor Piercing rounds they had leftover. "We may be running out of these HEAT Rounds and these AP Rounds may as well be as useful as HE, but I suppose it doesn't matter if we're leaving it up to Ryoko-san."

"That's right, all we have to do is catch their attention, shouldn't be too hard, but if anything doesn't happen, we have to try everything we can to make them chase us down the main road." All members of the crew nodded their heads in agreement as they neared the last position of Lady Atkins, who were already preparing to move out again either way. "There they are, fire as we pass through the streets, doesn't have to hit them or even come close to hitting them."

Unexpectedly, shots started to ring out as low velocity rounds impacted the dirt and the buildings around them. They caught the attention of the remaining Lady Atkins tanks and their crews. "Commander, they're firing at us, rather poorly too, what should we do about it." Cream watched as the rounds just all blindly missed them, and she somewhat felt some pity about it.

"Ah, just leave them for now, angle your armor if you have too, just focus on checking your remaining ammo and supplies before we head out." Jasmine wasn't too worried, as long as they kept their frontal armor to the Ho-I, there was practically no way for them to penetrate their tank with AP at that range and it was too far away for Hina to properly aim HEAT.

"It's not working, they're not following us Makoto-san." Hina had noticed their lack of activity while she was targeting them. For now it seemed like Makoto's entire plan of attempting to lure them was failing. "Sadly, I don't think we're allowed to directly fire incendiary rounds at them, so what do you want to do Makoto-san?"

"Don't worry! I got this." Suddenly, Shiori had pulled out a megaphone like device and started to put some batteries into it and turned it on. "Testing, One,Two,Three, alright, I think we're good to go. I got something nice to say to those girls that'll surely incite them to come and strangle us."

"W-where did you even get that…" Tsuki asked as Shiori attempted to wedge her way through the Ho-I's turret space. "This isn't how turrets work, four people aren't supposed to be in the turret!" Despite the normally spacious design of the Turret, it surely wasn't meant for four people, but Shiori had somehow managed to squeeze through. She popped her head of of the cupola and pointed the Megaphone towards the Lady Atkins tanks.

"Hey! Black Tea sucks! Green Tea for life!" As long as it took her to get up there, it took nearly a quarter of the time to just finish up and squeeze back down to her position again. "That should get them riled up and chasing us pretty soon, I hope anyways." Makoto wasn't too convinced however.

"What was that suppose to mean, why would that ever make them want to come after us-" She was cut off by the sound of small caliber cannon fire coming from behind them. "Please don't tell me that actually worked." It had actually worked, somehow Shiori had gotten the Lady Atkins crews riled up enough so that they would chase after them. "How did you know this Shiori-san…"

"Oh Mako, you should know that British People and generally British-like People love their Black Tea to death. Seriously, they don't like it when you insult Black Tea." She leaned back on the Hull Machinegun precariously and had an annoying smug smile on her face. "See, I can be useful~" While she was able to trick them into chasing their tank, it was now up to Asagi to get them where they were needed.

"Great, always leave it up to me…" She swerved and evaded the rounds coming from behind them. Rushing out of the buildings with the tanks behind them, they were now speeding down the main road. Quickly treading over the charred road that resulted from Makoto's earlier plans, who was now contacting Ryoko.

"You guys ready? They're coming right now!" She held on for dear life, which was quite odd seeing as she was more afraid now than she was at the start of the match charging their formation head on. "I hope this pans out in the end, I really don't want to do the Anglerfish Dance either." She dreaded the thought of it, as she was given colorful descriptions by her friends before the match.

"They're coming, alright, let's see about this." Toshiko rubbed her hands together and got in place. She stared down the road with her gunner's sight, waiting for the first British Tank to come over the horizon. First come Makoto's tank, far ahead of her own pursuers due to their significantly faster speed and acceleration. "They should be just behind her…"

Then her targets came, Two Matildas followed by Cream's Valentine IX. The first shot was nice and easy, as the Matilda was practically line up for a shot for her. "It's like one of those festival games!" She laughed as her round connected with Flan's Matilda and knocked her own. But then, she realized something, "L-Lasker...weren't there four tanks left on their sides."

The sudden realization hit Ryoko as well, there were only three tanks chasing after Makoto, where could that last one be? Their answer came in the form of a 75mm APCBC Round hitting the side of their StuG III and knocking them out. Jasmine had seen right through Makoto's plan and taken advantage of the chase. "Asagi! Turn here!" With their ace in the hold down, Makoto planned to take the fight into a more favorable position for her.

Using their superior speed, she was going to try and take out as many tanks as they could before their likely to be inevitable loss. "We're going to use up the remaining HEAT rounds Makoto-san!" Hina reported that they were switching to what's left of their HEAT rack and as they rounded the first left corner and were going to round the next left one to catch Lady Atkins as their side.

"Fire!" Makoto shouted as they turn the corner and in front of them and found Chelsea's Matilda facing towards them. The HEAT at this range combined with Hina's now more focused and desperate attitude had impacted the Matilda, throwing it back a few feet and knocking them out. "Forward, the Valentine should be on our direct right." She was proved immediately wrong as Cream's Valentine IX drifted around the corner to face them.

Asagi took one look at the tank in front of them and accelerated their Ho-I to an even high speed. Just barely dodging the shot put at them from the front by making a slight turn to the left. They came in at a collision angle to the Valentine, just grazing the side of the the latter's tracks and she slammed on the brakes to drift around them. "Oh that's not good…" Cream reacted calmly as the Ho-I came around them and their turret came to with Hina blasting them at point blank with 75mm HEAT.

By now Jasmine had arrived on scene with her tank and came across the smoky hulls of her subordinates. "Oh dear, they managed to do this much damage huh…" Her attention turned to Makoto ahead of her, their Ho-I next to Cream's tank, within a large dark cloud of smoke.

"Crew here, we're ready to engage the enemy." Mint had nudged Jasmine, who looked back at the smiling girl. Then at the rest of her crew, Anise's wild grind, Lavender's weak smile and the barely visible one of Chai. "Alright then." She nodded and looked ahead, "Let's see what you got!"

Makoto could her yell at them, but it was indistinct,"Let's engage them, finish off this match once and for all. Sensha! Forward!" They got back up speed and at the range between the two, they would have to aim well to make sure their shot counted. "Drift around the StuG Asagi-san. Hina, we're going to fire HEAT at their side, okay." While they were going to engage the Valentine XI, the evacuated crews were watching back it play out back at their camps, the newly arrived ones from open back trucks.

The Valentine XI was stationary next to the smoking hull of the StuG III Ausf. F/8 and waited for the right time to fire at them. Picking up quite the impressive speed, mostly because they were on even ground, the Ho-I was at their left of the StuG hull with Anise tracking them. "Fire!" Jasmine shouted as they closed the range to practically point blank, however, the round they had fired was too well tracked, Anise overcompensated her shot and it went wide.

Now, Asagi had started to turn the tank, a lot of smoke kicked up from the way she drifted the Ho-I. But in the middle of it all, she had realized something, especially from the way they were turning. She had not compensated for the high speed she went in at when they entered the turn. "Crap…" She uttered as the tank spun out of control and she was unable to turn it. Spinning around rather than smoothly around the Valentine, they had found themselves completely the opposite way from their target.

"Now!" Jasmine and her crew took the chance while it was still presented, Chai turned the hull of the tank in conjunction with Anise's traverse of the turret. The latter aimed the gun at point blank towards the rear turret of the Ho-I and waited for the magic word. "Fire!" Jasmine's order signalled the end of the match with a hit to the back of Makoto's turret, knocking her out.

Final Analysis

Tokai Girls High School

Team A:

Type 2 Ho-I - Medium Tank

Makoto Shimada

Immobilized by Team Tea

Team B:

StuG III Ausf. F/8 - Tank Destroyer

Ryoko Matsuoka

Immobilized by Team Tea

Team C:

Type 95 Ha-Go - Light Tank

Natsuka Honda

Immobilized by Team Coffee

Team D:

M6 - Heavy Tank

Aoi Sato

Immobilized by Team Cake

Team E:

Panzer III Ausf. G - Medium Tank

Aizu Kishida

Immobilized by Team Custard

Lady Atkins Girls Academy

Team Tea:

Valentine XI - Infantry Tank

Jasmine

Survived

Team Coffee:

Valentine IX - Infantry Tank

Cream

Immobilized by Team A

Team Biscuit:

Matilda II - Infantry Tank

Scone

Immobilized by Team D

Team Custard:

Matilda II - Infantry Tank

Flan

Immobilized by Team B

Team Cake:

Matilda II - Infantry Tank

Chelsea

Immobilized by Team A

Team Pudding:

Matilda II - Infantry Tank

Eve

Immobilized by Team B

Team Pie:

Matilda II - Infantry Tank

Mince

Immobilized by Team E

Team Tart:

Matilda II - Infantry Tank

Gypsy

Immobilized by Team A

Victory Goes to Lady Atkins Girls Academy

"Folks! At this time, Lady Atkins has been confirmed to have won the Exhibition Match. All Tokai Tanks have been immobilized, with a single tank remaining from Lady Atkins. That concludes our Exhibition Today, there is a new special from the local Ramen Shop owned by Mr. Hashimoto, be sure to check it out! Have a good day." The announcer gave her amazingly long endnotes and thus, the match was over. Recovered from the field and brought back, the girls from the Ho-I were amazingly dusty and dirty when they came back.

"It's going to take forever to get this stuff out of my hair…" Shiori was more concern about her own hair than she was about the loss, or even that they have to do the Anglerfish Dance now. "Oh yeah, the Anglerfish Dance,I forgot about that too,maybe the suit will cover my hair up." She felt her hair, it was rather dusty and it was all tangled up, much to her dismay.

Asagi was sleeping on Hina's lap as they rode back and Tsuki was too tired from the constant reloading of the gun to actually talk any. As they got back to their camp, Aizu was waiting for Makoto to arrive. "Welcome back." She happily greeted them, but the former was waiting for all hell to break loose since they lost. "Ah don't worry about me chewing you over for losing, it's just an Exhibition Match anyways, and I'm really more crying on the inside that we're all going to have to do the Anglerfish Dance."

"I see, I will be going back to my station and check my tank, alright? You, just don't do anything." She left Aizu to her own emotion, all of which Makoto wanted no part of. However, what she didn't expect was Jasmine, waiting for her at her tank, she and her uniform were spick and span, all nice and clean. "Oh hey! You're the Lady Atkin's Sensha-Dou Commander person."

"Yeah, I just wanted to say congratulations on the new team, I was skeptical when Darjeeling had told us to face you guys in their stead. But, you exceeded my expectations, I do wish we had the full lineup here with us, but I suppose it was good practice to use the Matildas and Valentines." She smiled and offered a handshake, "You certainly did good Makoto Shimada."

"Yeah, you too…" They exchanged handshakes and Jasmine went to go pick something up behind the Ho-I. She didn't know what she was doing at first, "Um, what are you doing there." Jasmine returned with a basket full of Tea and presented it to Makoto herself.

"Here. Me and the other crews got together some Tea for you, we all pitched in for this." In reality, it was all of the Oolong Tea that they despised drinking, and so they just give it all to Tokai. There was practically enough tea in there for a single person to be drinking for months. "And I discussed something else with Aizu shortly after the match had ended, we got here before we did because of the great engineering of the Matador, and you should check that slip of paper in there. It's also something that oddly enough, Darjeeling wanted me to give to you too."

"Slip of paper, Darjeeling? You mean the Captain of St. Gloriana? What could she want with me…" She searched through the endless bags of Generic Brand Oolong Tea, it seemed like it was endless anyways. "Geez, it must be at the bottom or something." Finally, she felt the slip at the very bottom of the basket. "Is this it?" She pulled it out and started to read it.

"Congratulations! You and your School have received an (Un)Official Invitations to the National Sensha-Dou Secondaries!." Jasmine had actually read aloud for no apparently reason for Makoto, "Basically, Tokai's been preselected for the National Secondaries, which means you skip all the preliminaries and prerequisites required to get in. The drawing for the Tournament is a week from tomorrow, I hope to see you there, as only the Leading Crew is invited."

"Leading Crew? Does that mean me and my crew?" Makoto had never exactly been over how the command hierarchy in the Team worked. The closest she had remembered as that Aizu referred to her and Ryoko as their Double Aces.

"Yeah, I would think it's you, after all, you've demonstrated that you're probably the best one out of all the teams I've seen here today. Anyways, I have to leave, we're leaving port tomorrow to prepare for Secondaries ourselves, tell Aizu thanks for the match, see you next week Shimada-san." As quickly as her exchanges were, she left just as quickly, off towards her own team's camp.

"Hmm...National Secondaries…" She remembered her sister and her interview on the TV the other day. She was going to be there, and certainly her Mother was going to notice as well. This meant some very deep things for her, but, as long as she was with her new friends, there was not nothing that could stop her from going. "Alright, we'll be there next week then…but for now, I have to figure out how to do the Anglerfish Dance.

National Secondaries may have had their drawings next week. But here and now was the biggest problem. Tomorrow, she and the rest of the Sensha-Dou Team were going to do the Anglerfish in place of the First-Year Students. Surely, that was going to be a tougher challenge than any School or Tournament would ever give them, except Asagi's rage of course.