Narrator pow:
"You heard it? Beatrice and Reggia are in threat of becoming expelled from the school." One of excited voices caught Andou's attention while she had her casual morning stroll on the way to the Sensha-do district to observe other teams do their best before forming a line-up for sparring match against Bonple.
"I did, I did. And while most of these guys were merely following orders from above so I'm fine with them, the leaders must be punished twice as hard. No one simply betrays our school and destroys it's name." Another voice came towards her, making her convinced that latest sensations regarding Bahamian clan were disturbing for at least some students on the ship.
"Now that I think about it, I need to talk with Maken about this." Andou thought, swiftly switching from standard walk to Quick match as she turned left and direvted herself straight towards Maken's office located inside his small palace.
Andou pow:
"Wait, it's not within your jurisdiction?" I asked in suprise, shaking in my black tights as Maken smiled and took a sip of tea from his mug.
"School principal took this task for himself. I am classy authoritarian ruler, not dictatorial madman with megalomania." He responded, flipping his pen in the right hand while the left hold the cup.
"And the diffrence is?" I asked him, acting confused to get more informations from him for other things I had to do with him in future.
"The diffrence? Same as between my grey hoodie and your black dress!" Maken laughed, makinge fluster at the comment. "It's all about the shading, buddy. Authoritarians do bad things for a greater good and have thing around them to actually respect and be aware of, on the contrary dictators always descend into madness and being out of touch with reality thanks to disposal of anyone who dares to oppose them. The point I'm making here is not with being morally good but with prevention of becoming garbage." He explained his way of thinking, making me curious about how he went around the topic.
"And how does it implement to incoming trial?" I asked him again, trying my best to look impatient.
"The elements restraining me here are the students, just like you." Maken answered with solemn body posture, taking another sip of tea. "And now at least minimal majority of the students wants the maximal punishment available for Reggia and Beatrice for their little rebelion attempt and endangerment of our school's autonomy. Do you see the problem here?" He asked me again, which caused me to feel a bit embarresed upon sudden realisation of what he meant.
"So... You don't want them to be expelled?" I asked him, his face slowly turning from neutral to focused.
"Exacly. And many others also do." Maken answered, standing up from the chair and facing me with his whole body, visibly showcasing our height diffrence. "But if we want to help at least Beatrice with lighter sentence, we'll need one hell of a argument. Something that we haven't done before to give me right from majority of people here to enforce my will without endangering the delicate support..." He pondered, looking at the room's window and the clear sky behind it.
"Well, we have match against Bonple soon, right?" I asked him out of a sudden, struck with impovised thought about what to do.
"We do. And now that you suggested it, we'll win it!" Maken cracked a wide smile as he spoke before handing me over a moderetly long list with school clans and tanks. "Now go to Panamian clan and have their media machine spread out our line-up for next match alongside the conclusion we made in here, I have paperwork and one more hour of sleep before tomorrow." He added, pointing towards the exit with his pen.
"Sure! See you next time." I replied with a smile before turning around and leaving the room. "Now, it is a shame I don't have any pockets in here... Might aswell check the list while I have it in hand." I thought as I left Maken's office and took a stop few corners later in a shadow of opposing block. There, I took the list before my eyes and take my time to read it.
"Match is fourteen tanks on fourteen tanks in a deathmatch gamemode. Maken, French Guiana which is us... Two tanks each from Jamaican and Guadeloupan clans... One each from Uruguay, Ecuador, Martinique, Dominicana, El Salvador, Bermuda, Dutch Antilles, Haiti. Seems legitimate." I thought as I read the list, somewhat happy that I'll see some familiar faces in battle. "Now to inform the Panamians." I dedided afterwards, aware of the fact that someone was currently relying on me.
Maken pow:
"The operation was successful then." I thought haplly, eavesdropping the crowds on the main square from insides of freshy repainted CTMS-1TB1 who just stood at the side of the pavement.
As for the things I heard, they were mostly voices of pleased students who were not only happy at earning their representation in the battle but also seemed positive about the thought of deciding the final alteration of the Bahamian clan's leadership by the result group of biggest empathists could achieve alongside me, another person who's preference of lightening the sentence was widely known thanks to Andou and tendency to socialize longer that normal people do amongst my fellow students.
"Hmm... I heard enough, I'm satisfied." I smiled in a mix of satisfaction and relief as I turned on the engine and begin driving back to the Sensha-do magazine district to leave the tank back where it should be. Besides, even with all other tanks quickly approaching as personal ownership of specific clans as an upgrade, outsider deserve to get a vehicle capable of training or even opposing the stronger opponents. At least that was mine idea with keeping a whooping ammount of twenty-seven of these. Not spare parts, but slightly more even field to compete inside my school.
Assam pow:
"Neither Jajka, Lady Darjeeling, Orange Pekore, Semla or even Trout and others are available for reconnaissance regarding Maken's capability to mentally recover, as if tradition of delegations form other schools visiting the battles between other schools was supposed to be helpful." I sighed, learning forward and placing my head on the desk after realising that none of the team leaders from infamous mock battle between Bonple High School and Belwall Academy was keen to discuss the matter. "It's not even that they don't want to... They're just partialy traumatized on their own. Besides Jajka and Belwall who are just looking for ocassion to dig him six meters under the ground..." I lamented, overreacting my unability to do proper research on this matter, a thing I was supposed to be the best at.
"I'm actually beginning to miss you, Rosehip. Even with all this insubordination, you were at least happy and knew how to make others smile while repeating the same antics all the time..." I caught my head before tilting to the right and effortlessly falling in my bed sideways, empty thud of suddenly affected springs echoing throu the room. "I can only hope you're new friends indeed are as good as I heard and saw yesterday..."
Rosehip pow:
"Do a flip! Do a flip!" I changed, encouraging next girl in line to jump in comical style downwards into the pool.
"That's whole twelve feet! I'm not jumping!" Shy blonde girl denied, turning around and buming into Leon who was next in line.
"In that case, I'll assist you." Leon smiled, catching the girl by the ribs and taking her up into birdal style carry before jumping with her into the pool.
"Heheh, and I thought a side job of guarding you guys from killing themselves would be boring." I smiled, throwing my personal opinion towards the gathering.
"Boring? In Sudamericana, with you? No chance in a lifetime!" Leon responded, emerging from the water with the girl still in his hands. "If you could make me of all people be so happy from simply living then same applies to everyone here!" He added, recieving wide applause from the bystanders.
Maken pow:
"Hmm... Yes, that will be good..." I said to myself in deep thought, reading suprisingly wide report from other clans who made the requests to buy their own tanks to help our school in incoming tournament. "Bah! The rivalisation this year will be the toughest Sensha-do saw in it's whole history. It really makes me think..." I thought, checking the news on my smartphone, where the incoming 64-th National High School Sensha-do Tournament was meant to have fourteen-two teams competing in heavly changed system consisting of mixing group stages and classic knock-out matches alike. "I guess I have no choice, they'll get their tanks." I sighed, approving my donations for new tanks.
And oh boy, the list was long. Nicaragua clan buying three CV 33 under agreement to giveaway their M-3 Stuart to Panamians, Guiana clan taking into their ownership a Vickers A1E1 Independent, Barbados buying Vickers Medium Mk. II, Belize buying a Light Tank Mk. VII Tetrarch, Caymans purchasing Vickers Medium Mark I, Antigua Barbuda buying Matilda I, Saint Kitts Nevis taking full ownership over Matilda II, Anguilla buying Cruiser Mk. I and Cruiser Mk. II, Saint Lucia buying British tank destroyer called Archer plus US Virgin Island and Puerto Rico clans somehow finding and buying three T1E4 Cunningham and Marmon-Herrington MTLS-1GI4 respectively. In two words word: Shopping spree.
"Hehehehehehhhh... At least now every clan has personal tank and ability of representation on individual scale." I smiled after the series of stemple smashing, reaching my mental limits for founding other's happiness.
"Sir?" Nakiyama cut my divagations short, walking in with a well-perserved document. "I apologise for interruption but Hondurian clan just placed to me a request for one hundred thousand Yen they'll spend on things needed to build a Hetzer." He said, explaining his abrupt arrival with genuine confusion painted on his face.
"They are going to build it themselves? Give me that." I ordered in mervous style, implying that this was more serious that usual. Needless to say, Nakiyama handed me the card right after I said it. "Hmm... Seems a little bit... Professional. But I'll... Agree on this." I said after a while fo readong the documentation and internal struggles, granting my firmly stamp on the paper. "You know what to do, friend. The winds of change are coming." I added on the side to school principal, both of us somewhat relieved at the moment.
"Right away Sir." Nakiyama responded, turning around with now rightfully stampled papers and left the room, closing the doors behind himself.
"Now, let's see if arms race is going to be beneficial in a short term..." I thought with malicious smile, taking a look at the currently available data about Bonple's Sensha-do team, a data limited by their personal rules and other minor things but a useful one nothenless.
Andou pow:
"Hey girls! What did I miss?" I asked my group as I walked into the living room at the late evening, tired but happy after hard-working day.
"Not much. Besides fact that group draw for next National High School Sensha-do tournament is happening after our match against Bonple and expanded format in our match against Tategoto nothing happened." Ella responded from the couch, watching the news on TV.
"Expanded format?" I asked while rising an eyebrow at the unexpected news.
"Chi-Ha-Tan Academy decided to join on Tategoto's side while preserving the number balance, which allows Maken to deploy more tanks from our school for thsi match." Angela explained, drinking her glass of avocado milk at the table. "Maken promised that all of our clans would be allowed to play at least once during the pre-tournament sparring matches, so this expansion seems to be his personal decision." She added, showcasing us her phone, on which a press article with a headline "Chi-Ha-Tan Academy's Sensha-do club with huge anonymous donation!" Confirmed her theory.
"Yeah, seems about right." I replied, having no issues with the change. "Anyways, we I'm going to rest now, tomorrow we have very important day after all." I smiled, turning on my heel and heafing back to the corridoor and then towards staircase.
"Things take time, Andou. Now get rest or you end up like Oshida." I repeated myself in mind, taking steps on the rectangular stone boulders used to build the stairs. "And dear God, I will not go as low as she did..."