Author's Note: I know this wasn't here before, but I forgot one big thing. If this chapter looked a bit different from the previous two, that's because I decided to set aside the three sub-chapters approach and return to the traditional one long one. Not only will it take the toll out of piecing together three different events but also drastically cut the writing time for every chapter. But like I said before, I just experimented with that and if you have a preference, please do tell.
Chapter 5
First Class Party in the Irish Pub
Aboard HMS Unicorn
Shamrock Girls High School
10:12 PM
Shamrock had a distinctive atmosphere that made it different to St Gloriana or any other school carrier for that matter or at least the ones she had visited.
Maybe it was the fact that most of the carrier was covered in lush green vegetation or the fact that everywhere she looked, everything was coated in some form of the colour green; from the lamp posts that lit the mostly empty streets to the uniform of their chauffeur, Assam thought to herself while she sat on the front seat of a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, the same staff car used by the late General Montgomery.
She had instantly recognized the make and model of the car, being a car enthusiast and all, something she had in common with her father. The Rolls Royce sped through the roads, driving on the left, the same as with Gloriana and the mainland but which had long caused confusion during foreign port calls. The car was driven by a girl who introduced herself as Clare and reminded her very much of Orange Pekoe.
Both had the same fed-up look that Assam had long attributed to second-in-commands, especially those with cuckoo commanders. The similarities don't stop there, however, as both were ginger heads as well, although Clare's was darker and longer whereas Pekoe wore hers shorter and usually tied into a braided bun with such complexity that more often than not left her scratching her head. There was also the difference in their height, with Pekoe being shorter than her while Clare towered over her.
She looked at the backseat of the luxury car and smiled at the sleeping trio. Because the car had no canopy so to speak of, the salty sea breeze whipped their faces, causing the three to fall asleep. Poor Rosemallow was sandwiched between Rosehip and Roselle on either side and had no choice but to sleep as well.
Assam suppressed a giggle as she remembered the incident earlier where they had just met Clare, and she was sure that it would be one of her takeaway memories from this trip. It just goes to show how quirky the bunch were.
It was after they had arrived, loaded with their carry-ons and four 20 ton tanks, Rosehip had gotten impatient and begun to play tag with Roselle. While trying to get away from her driver, who was hot on her heels, the pink-haired girl had bumped into a taller woman, who, unfortunately, hadn't had big enough breasts to cushion the crash, which led both of them falling onto the floor.
After a bit of awkward apologising and helping each other up, they found out that the girl's name was Clare, and she was one sent to meet up with them. Clare was dressed up in a completely green uniform complete with a large beret that had a bit of what looked like ostrich feathers dipped in green paint sticking up in front of it.
"I do apologise for the rather lacklustre welcom-" Clare was saying when Roselle had popped out of a corner and in between ragged breaths shouted, "There you are! Get ready to lose!" before she caught sight of the girl before them and performed a skid that would have been at home at an ice rink, stopped in front of Clare, took her hands and shook it vigorously, all with a peculiar glare in her eyes.
"Hi! My name's Roselle, would you like to grab coffee with me? My number is-" But whatever her phone number was, Assam would never know as a hard pinch in the ear, performed by none other than Rosemallow, and sent her apologising while yelping in pain and glaring at her teammate before she remembered the girl in front of her and adopted a smile that would have been charming if it not for the watery edges of her eyes.
Clare had informed them that the school's logistics department would take care of the cruiser tanks (she had looked more excitedly at the tanks than at them) and led them into a flight of stairs that took them straight up to the carrier deck, where the Rolls Royce was waiting. Stowing what little luggage they had in the boot, they went inside and drove off.
"Miss Assam?" Clare had asked while she effortlessly changed gears.
"Yes?" Assam replied as she tried to dissipate her thoughts from earlier.
"I was asking if you want to go straight to the hotel or meet Shannon. You chose quite an odd time and date to visit. You see, today is the eighteenth birthday of one of our members, and we've spent the entire night partying, that would explain why I'm the only one who welcomed you," the girl rambled on, doing more talking and seemed to focus less on driving, but Assam didn't dare voice any protest.
As much as she wanted to fall into a bed and sleep, professionalism dictated that it was best to meet their contact as soon as possible.
"If I chose to meet with Iona, sorry, I mean Shannon, where would you take us?"
"Since it's still early, they would still be at the pub, where we could give you a proper Irish welcome," Clare smiled. She was a pretty normal girl, normal in the sense that nothing made her stand out amongst the crowd. Well, except her eyes, those chocolate coloured eyes, which seemed to penetrate you when they stared at you and behind them was a fierce intellect, locked behind for fear of being ostracised by the same crowd. Assam knew, of course, because more often than not she saw it too when she looked in the mirror.
"Meeting her tonight would be fine if that isn't too much. Say, what about our lodgings for our stay here?"
"Your accommodations will be handled by the school. In fact, after I drop you off at the pub, I should be able to deliver your luggage straight to the hotel," Clare replied as she pulled the luxury car into a seemingly empty parking lot; empty except for a bunch of British interwar tanks and a single early war tank, in the form of a Valentine Mk III, all parked in front of a low building with lots of muffled music coming from within.
Huh…They brought their tanks out just for a party….Weird… Darjeeling would have had a fit if someone did that back home
Clare parked the Silver Wrath next to a Vickers A1E1 Independent, an interwar multi-turreted tank design that kickstarted other similar tank designs of the era, from the German Neubaufahrzeug to the Soviet T-28. It already spoke volumes about the school's team, as they seemed to lack proper tanks, as this one alone couldn't stand a chance against a Crusader, much less the Churchill.
The tank was as long as a bus and overall it all had qualities a tanker would find undesirable. It was big, it was slow, hard to manoeuvre, had a mediocre gun and its multi-turreted design caused confusion to the poor soul commanding it. The officers who watched the first and last trial of the tank suggested having holes on both sides, big enough for a stretcher to be brought inside the vehicle. Talk about confidence!
Parked on the other side of the lot was a Vickers Mk D, an offshoot of the Vickers Medium Mark II project built for the Irish Free State that featured a stronger, water-cooled, petrol engine along with a 6 pounder gun and all the Vickers .303 machine guns the tank could carry. Not much could be said about it, a slight improvement, yes, but nothing the heavy tanks of Gloriana would have any difficulty dealing with.
The only tank of note amongst the trio was the Valentine Mk III, the first Valentine variant that equipped the three-man turret, giving way for a loader to make the life of the commander less hellish, allowing him to solely focus on commanding rather than having to load 40mm shells into the potent 2 pounder gun as well. With a skilled crew, it could go toe and toe with the Crusaders and could hold itself quite well against the Churchill.
"Here we are at the Hare's Head ma'am!" Clare cheerfully said, before suddenly dropping her voice into a barely audible whisper as she looked at her in the eyes. "A fair word of warning though, not everyone here agrees to the captain's decision to welcome your envoy. But please, don't let it affect your visit here and enjoy our hospitality."
Guess Earl-Grey sama was right after all
"Thought you would appreciate the heads-up," Clare added, seeing her pensive look."
"Could you go inside and inform Shannon of our arrival?" was the only thing she could reply.
"Aye," Clare said as she got out of the car and walked the short length to the pub's door, pushed it open and disappeared inside.
Finally alone
Assam took a deep breath and looked back at the three. They looked so sweet and innocent, it would be a real shame to wake them up, especially Rosehip.
Not so naughty now, are we?
She reached out and gingerly placed her hand on the girl's cheek and began to relish the smooth silky skin of her kouhai. And she stood there; for a minute, an hour, a year, a decade, she didn't know and frankly, she didn't care. Time froze and eternity could have passed for all she knew.
In her overzealousness, she accidentally pinched the redhead's cheek, causing Rosehip to stir and mutter. "Yamete, onee-chan," and she quickly withdrew her hand.
The pink-haired girl sat up and looked at her with those orange-tinted eyes.
"Assam-senpai? Where are we and why are you blushing so much?
"The cold winds just make my cheeks flush and my scarf is still in my luggage. We're now outside Shamrock's pub and we'll go in a few minutes so it's best to wake up Roselle-san and Rosemallow-san.
That was close
After a while, when the rest had been woken from their slumber, Clare returned and told them Shannon was ready to meet them before she threw a question at them.
"Say, I know it's all of a sudden but I do hope you brought a present?"
The four of them looked at one another. Fortunately, they came prepared as other than the stamp and tea blends, they also packed expensive teacups and Assam retrieved one. The cup was placed in a transparent plastic case and was made with the finest porcelain, or so the shopkeeper said. Rosemallow produced a length of ribbon and with a bit of work, the box was more pleasing to the eye.
With one last intake of cold air, Assam steeled herself as she followed Clare inside, gripping the small box with her two hands. It was like entering a portal to another dimension, the music increased tenfold as she heard the door closed behind them. The smell hit her hard first, the scent of polished wood mingled in the air with the combined musk of over a dozen people locked up in a room for hours at end.
Most of the bar's tables had been used to form a long one and on it was the remnants of what was probably a hearty dinner; plates littered with refuse, soup bowls drained of their contents and a platter, based on the frosting in it and around it, along with a sullen knife next to it, that once held a cake of sorts. But what caught her eyes were a large number of pint glasses, which would suggest alcohol was somehow involved in this party or probably not, if this school had the same regulations back home.
However, the tables were now abandoned as most of the guests took pleasure in dancing on the area cleared by the tables, accompanied by the cheery music Assam had been hearing ever since they arrived, played forth by a band cooped up on the stage. The most energetic of the group twirled around like a ballerina while playing the fiddle, swaying from the tunes she produced, her short orange hair bouncing behind her. Next to her sat upon a stool, was a girl wielding some sort of bagpipe-like instrument and seemed like the ballerina's elder sister or something. This one wore a cone hat on top of her similarly orange-coloured hair, the kind of hat restaurants force you to wear if you are celebrating your birthday on the premises.
So this is our birthday girl then
The next one had a different hair colour, black, although it had dyed streaks on it that would give a Gloriana guidance counsellor a heart attack. This girl held an accordion and was the source of much-needed contrast to the other instruments.
Assam would have studied the band further had she not realized that they had stopped playing and subsequently caused the dancers to pause as well as the two groups now engaged in an uneasy stand-off waiting for who would be the first to take a shot.
A scuffle ensued in the other group as someone tried to make their way through the crowd. Moments after, a small figure emerged, looking quite silly with cake frosting on her eyebrows and hair. Assam breathed a sigh of relief; minus the frosting, she recognized the face. It matched the photograph Earl-Grey-sama had provided them, which she had an intense staring contest with a few nights prior. The girl was none other than Iona Yoshimura herself, also known as Shannon.
"Herro, Gud evening. My name is Shannon, naisu to meat yah!" the girl introduced herself in terribly broken English, meanwhile, Clare next to her uttered what sounded a small whimper and hid her face in her palms, before running off to Shannon's side and whispering something into the shorter girl's ears; no small feat since Clare was taller by a wide margin and she had to bend her knees just to alight her mouth with the girl's ears.
Shannon looked on in disbelief and sternly asked Clare to repeat herself, and when she seemed to understand, she looked again at the group in front her and cleared her throat.
"Sorry, sorry, I mistook you for foreigners! I'm Shannon, captain of our Senshadou team. Welcome to Shamrock!" Shannon said, now in the common tongue, before approaching them and placing both her hands on Assam's shoulders and gently planting her freckled cheeks on both sides of her Assam's face, much to Assam's surprise.
And just like that, the perceived veil of hostility came crashing down like a wall, uniting both sides, or at least most of them. Several girls still wore a wary expression of distrust, amongst them the birthday girl herself, who was glaring at her, piercing her soul.
"And this must be the renowned Rosehip and her crew! It's an honour." She repeated the process on Rosehip, but this time had to tiptoe to reach the redhead's cheeks, lingering a bit longer that made Assam uncomfortable.
"You've met my second in command, Clare, now get ready to meet my trusty third in command and tonight's birthday celebrant, Erne! Come here you oldie!" Shannon beckoned to the girl on the stage, who gently replaced the pipes on her stool.
"Jeez, Shannon, I just turned 18 today, it's not like I'm an old prune or anything already. Heya, I'm Erne, nice to meet you all!" Erne said, flashing a visibly fake smile.
"Happy Birthday, Erne, we brought you a present!" Assam smiled but had years of practice of making such smiles and it came forth effortlessly. Why would this girl and others be so cold to them? Had they committed some faux pas? Maybe she shouldn't have forced them to crash someone's party?
A slight movement from her flank stopped her from letting her thoughts run riot. Rosehip had nudged her side, apparently, she still hadn't handed the gift over and Erne's hands were outstretched, ready to receive it, looking kinda sheepish.
"Ah, my bad, still a bit groggy. Hope you love it! We didn't know what you would want, so we hope it is up to your liking. She handed the box over and was pretty amused at how the masquerade fell and a sweet genuine smile replaced it.
"A teacup, how thoughtful of you and this pretty…" Erne said, muttering the last bit with a mere whisper.
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that last bit?" Assam asked on a bid to hear the rest of what the ginger was saying.
"I said it's pretty elegant, as expected of you St Gloriana students. Now, since it's my birthday, would you like anything to drink or eat perhaps?"
"We just had dinner back at the ferry-" Before she could finish, Erne had slithered her arm around her shoulders and shouted. "Drinks it is then! Laune, bring five more pints for our guests!"
Assam tried to protest that she didn't drink but it fell on deaf ears as the upbeat tunes returned, louder than ever. She tried looking for support from her companions, but they either didn't know what a pint was or by the look on Rosehip's face, knew exactly what Erne was talking about.
They all settled down on a table that was quickly cleared clean and began to break the ice, wanting to know more about the other, out of general curiosity or a hidden motive, who knew. Most of the guests on the dance floor also joined in, happy to take a break from all the dancing. The drinks came not long after, delivered by another orange-haired girl ('what is it with this school and orange heads?'she thought) but the colour this time is toned down into a shade that was truly like Pekoe's hair. A cold glass was placed in front of her, filled to the brim with an amber coloured liquid with a thin line of foam on top. Beer.
The drinking age in Japan is 20 years old, a fact that school girls her age liked to bitch about, considering it is 18 in the United Kingdom; but remove the poshness and the tea, the fact remained that they were still a Japanese school. Assam, however, other than the champagne Earl Grey-sama had given them, had no other ordeals with alcoholic drinks, so she has no qualms.
A commotion arose next to her as the barmaid bringing up the drinks spilt beer on Rosehip, staining the redhead's Senshadou jacket with the foul-smelling concoction. After some hastily made apologies and offers for towels, Rosehip accepted the girl's apology and simply removed her jacket, wearing only her blouse just like when she played card games in the lounge shed.
"Please forgive Laune, she's really clumsy, now perhaps a toast," Shannon said, hoping to defuse the situation before it got critical.
"What should we drink to, ma'am?" Roselle pitched in, holding her glass expertly in one hand, while Rosemallow next to her cautiously gripped it with both hands, eyes wide in fascination and suspicion.
"Friendship between Shamrock and St Gloriana?" Clare suggested, holding a wine glass with a red shaded beverage. It was probably a cocktail of sorts, swishing delicately in its container
The entire table echoed with shouts of both "Cheers!" and "Kanpai" from all around the table. Assam couldn't help but join in and raised her own glass as well before taking a small sip and tried her best not to gag out.
Her first thought of what beer tasted like was that it was immensely bitter but after a few more sips it seemed more palatable. Overall, she preferred good old fashioned tea, but this wasn't half bad. In front of her, after the toast, Erne had a split-second bitter look in her face that probably wasn't caused by the beer.
Conversation flowed out like their drinks and so they talked about everything for an hour, all except those that needed to be talked about. She nursed her drink carefully while Rosehip chugged hers down, asking for another glass not long thereafter. Speaking of Rosehip, she and Erne immediately clicked and engaged in an intense discussion. Assam would have loved to talk more to someone reasonable like Clare but unfortunately, the girl was already booked by Roselle and by the looks of the bottles on the table the two seemed to be drinking something other than beer, perhaps it was wine? Nonetheless, the two laughed and giggled like two schoolgirls, which they really were, so that comparison doesn't make sense in this context.
With no one else to talk to, Assam just chatted with Shannon and tried to confirm what little information she received about her and the school while giving away as little information about herself and St Gloriana. After a bit of poking, she found out that the girl was indeed in her second year and that she loved to collect autographs. Then the talk suddenly turned to their tanks.
"Initially, our only tank was the Independent, which we found in an abandoned storage facility inside the carrier, along with other auxiliary equipment. The Vickers was leased from the museum onboard and the Valentine, well we brought it using money from a fundraiser we started," Shannon confided, clearly getting more drunk as time went by, loosening her tongue and making her spill potentially valuable information.
From the old school records left behind by previous batches, Assam was able to analyze the seizure of "donated" equipment from Shamrock that was subsequently shipped back to Gloriana. It would appear that they left behind some materiel that was useless to the school, made evident by these being wiped from the inventory.
That Independent must have been one of them
But buying a fairly capable tank that could stand up against what the other schools have to offer, now that piqued her interests. Where could they get enough money to buy such good stuff?
So she asked, "What did you sell in the fundraiser? Clovers? Drinks?", in order to get an answer.
Shannon looked up from her drink and puffed out her chest. "Clothes; I sew them personally," she said, proudly and gestured around the table. "See the uniforms they're wearing? All made by me, with some little help from others of course."
"You do? That's amazing!" Assam complimented, fully realising the intricacies and fine details woven into each uniform, every thread tailored with passion and dedication only someone with devotion can possess.
The orange-haired lady spent a while describing every element of the uniform from the buttons used to the distinctive feather plume in the caps that was apparently called a hackle. After a while, Shannon excused herself to go to the bathroom and Rosehip whispered to her ear. "Assam-senpai, do I have something in my face?"
Assam looked over and stared at her face, now a bit flushed because of the alcohol. "No, why?"
She noted that Rosehip took a glance at her still soaking wet jacket before replying, "It's just that girl who spilt drinks on me earlier has kept on staring at me for a while now."
With a shrug, Assam jokingly said, "Maybe she's just feeling guilty about having spilt beer on you?"
"Oi, Rosy come here! You said you wanna best an Irish lass, then you have to beat her at her own game, so let's have ourselves a drinking contest. Erne had called from the pub's counter, a long line of shot glasses next to her, with a smiling bartender behind.
The two of them walked the short distance and Rosehip was the one who asked the question that was stuck in her mouth, " So, what are we drinking tonight?"
"Whisky, none of that watered-down muck we had earlier." Erne handed Rosehip a glass and gave her another one of her smiles.
She must have had a worried look for Rosehip tapped her shoulder and reassured her, "Don't worry senpai, I'll drink her under the table!" before sitting down.
Erne burst out laughing, "I'll make you eat your words or rather drink them!" And with a clink of their glasses, the two swallowed down their drinks and slammed down their shot glass on the counter, before reaching for the next one.
The contest started to attract a small crowd of onlookers. One of them was the barmaid that gave them their drinks or in Rosehip's case, spilt it on her. The girl in question saw her through the throng and moved closer, "Hi, you must be Assam-san, I'm Laune, nice to meet you!" she said.
This was the girl that Rosehip said was looking at her all night long.
"It's a pleasure meeting you as well." Assam shook the girl's hand and as much as she would love to pry into this potentially suspicious person, she didn't want to lose sight of her kouhai who was already six shots in on her drinking match against the Shamrock girl.
"Come now, Erne-san is my friend and she wouldn't allow herself to be beaten by someone else, same can be said by your pink-haired friend, their match would last all night long." Laune cackled. "So, to pass the time, would you like to join me in a game of darts, gunner against gunner?"
As it would seem rude to refuse, Assam nodded and followed the girl to a corner, which was quieter than the rest of the pub. While walking, she registered a mild surprise when she noticed that the rather mechanical clanging against the wooden floorboards was caused by the fact that Laune's right leg was just a prosthetic, something that must have been hidden by her long apron earlier.
She tried her best to avert her eyes from staring too often to avoid offending the lady. In doing so, she noticed that Roselle and Clare had moved to a secluded booth and were entwined like two lovebirds.
"Like the leg?" Laune mused. "Don't worry everybody looks at it all time, no need to be ashamed."
Did they just let an amputee into their team? Interesting….
"Why was your leg amputated? Illness?" Assam asked, in curiosity.
The girl frowned and thought for a long time before answering. "No, it was an accident."
Assam decided not to question any further and remained quiet. Shortly thereafter they reached the dartboard and Laune walked the short distance to acquire the projectiles needed and approached her.
"Here we are, here are your darts-" she handed her three used darts-"and since you and your friends are the guests of honour tonight. I'll let you have the first shot."
Assam lined up her shot and carefully let the dart fly, but due to either her having never really played the game before or that she was still dizzy from the boat ride or a combination of both, she managed to mess up her shot and it struck the outer circle of the dartboard.
Her ginger-haired acquaintance laughed. "You have to do better than that to beat me." She threw her dart and it landed an eyelash away from the bullseye.
She obviously had more practice in this. Assam thought. But she wasn't the type of girl who'd give up so easily. So she stood up for her turn, and with all the skills of being a gunner slowly coming back to her, she sent the dart flying straight to the dead centre of the board. Bullseye.
"Not bad," Laune nodded, appreciatively.
Over the next hour, they continued taking turns at peppering the dartboard and in the process, she learnt more about her opponent. Laune was a girl who let her emotions make the better of her, getting angry when she missed her targets and quickly becoming arrogant when she hit a bullseye. In terms of her gameplay, she was pretty accurate but rather lacked precision, placing her shots all over the board while Assam's own, on the other hand, bunched up around the middle except for that lone dart from the beginning.
One notable event that raised the hairs on the back of her neck and triggered alarms all over her mind was their conversation over the few remaining darts. Laune had asked an odd question.
"Say, Assam-san, what would you do if you finally found that person who caused you pain and misery from long ago?"
"I would be angry of course."
"Murderous, even?"
Assan was so shocked that she misthrew her shot causing it to gaze the outer fringes of the inner circle. But other than that, it was just a normal game and at the end, Laune excused herself to close up the bar or something to that effect and so Assam returned to the counter and met a grisly scene.
Tables were overturned and bottles of alcohol carelessly discarded on the floor, mingling with the girls that had already fallen to the spell of liquor. Fortunately, Rosehip was not among them, however, even more embarrassingly she found the girl on top of a table, bottles in hand and dancing around like an exotic dancer of sorts. Below her was her quasi-Irish opponent, who must have been the first to pass out and was reduced to a drunken stupor.
"Ha! I won!" Rosehip bellowed, using an uncharacteristically crass tone that reminded Assam of the errant Yakuza gangsters from movies.
She had never seen her kouhai act like this in the short period of time since they had met, sure she was crude and unrefined at times but at least she had her manners.
She probably had too much to drink
Times like this called upon her better judgement; a test, if you will, of not only her own character but also how she could fulfil the given task of being a senpai.
"Rosehip! Get off that table this instant!" Assam reprimanded, trying her best not to place her arms on her hips, so as to appear older, so she used them to tug at Rosehip's skirt as if she needed more persuasion.
"Assan-senpai, you… look very… very lovely tonight…" The pink-haired slurred, before pulling one of her hands, bending down and planting a very wet smooch. "Saw that in the movie we watched, always wanted to try it on you, hehehe."
Assam awkwardly pulled back her hand and continued asking Rosehip to step down from the table. "Come on now, don't make this difficult for me."
"Alright... but I won senpai, I won! That ought to show that blabbermouth who's boss," Rosehip declared out as she hopped down from the table, almost going out of balance in the process.
"Oi, I can hear you, you know!" A shout came from below. It would seem that Erne had woken up from her booze aided slumber and was trying her best to stand up, which was a pretty pathetic attempt, and it came as no surprise that she fell down immediately.
Once she had her footing (not without the help of a few nearby students), the ginger pointed at Rosehip and asked, "Was that an insult you just said?"
Rosehip turned around and glared at the girl with a look of arrogance Assam didn't know the girl had possibly brought upon by the alcohol, "And if it was one?"
"Then I'll challenge you to a duel!" Erne shouted back, making heads turn all across the bar as people felt the electrifying spark of an imminent fight.
Oh, you got to be kidding me!
Assam moved in to intervene but was stopped by none other than Laune, who held out her back and simply said, "This is a matter of honour, you must not intervene."
This in no way calmed Assam down, not even a little bit and she remained on edge as she watched the duo proceed, with Rosehip declaring her agreement to the challenge.
Erne looked taken aback by this bold display and Assam noticed a flash of fear in the girl's eyes before being overtaken by the hazy, erratic look of a drunkard; as if for a moment the girl's confidence faltered before her bravado came forth once more. "Alright, what weapon would you like for us to use?"
She must be crazy, both of these two will be hungover as heck tomorrow and having a duel would be just asking for trouble.
"Tanks," Rosehip answered cockily
"I'm sorry?"
"You heard me, tanks!" Rosehip repeated, this time with an irritated look on her face.
"You must be joking... Duelling in tanks? How is that even possible?" Erne asked in exasperation.
"It's an age-old tradition back in our school..." Rosehip mumbled out, before dissolving into a pink mess.
Everyone must have registered the same look of surprise at this statement and Assam watched people buzz about with activity, trying to make sense of their new knowledge. She then felt a burning sensation that someone was gazing at her and turned around to see Rosehip looking straight at her, red-faced as ever, but what caught her attention were the eyes. Although the pink-haired devil had a blushed look on her face, the eyes desperately begged for help, tugging at her heartstrings.
Quick! Think of something fast, something sensible that a bunch of drunks would believe.
"Yes!" Assam shouted out to be heard, "Dueling with tanks is a tradition as old as time in Gloriana, in fact, it was one of the twelve tasks the next in line commandants has to complete in order to secure her position."
She saw that everyone began nodding and a wave of relief had begun to surge through her, thinking she'd hoodwinked every single one present when she noticed a little girl step out of the crowd. The lass has golden coloured hair, something refreshing and unique compared to the sea of gingers, tied into pigtails using green scrunchies. A pair of red horn-rimmed glasses completed the girl's nerdy look, something Assam personally avoided ever since she learnt how to fix herself up. The geeky image was only cemented by the notepad clutched tightly in one of the blondie's hands with, of course, a pencil on the other.
"Miss, my name's Avoca and if you don't mind but what are the rules of this tankery duel of yours?" The girl's voice was a barely audible whisper and Assam had strained to pick up what was being said, to save the poor child the embarrassment of having to repeat what she said.
Ah, bugger someone just had to ask... Think Assam think, you read up on all things before you left, you read this before and you just have to remember it
Assam quickly racked her brains, her thoughts colliding with each other, creating a stampede that left her mind in a mush. The lack of sleep, the lingering seasickness from earlier, coupled with that glass of beer earlier only made matters worse, but she knew it was a must that she didn't leave her kouhai hanging, "The rules are pretty simple, just like in a regular duel, a location and a time will be selected, with each side bringing a tank of their own. I believe the other rules could be discussed on the spot."
Avoca (or was it Avocado?) looked at her with gratefulness and admiration before the girl in question busied herself in attending to her notepad and blending back into the crowd, going off to God knows where. With the additional rules provided, the two duelers had agreed to meet at 10 o'clock tomorrow on a wide field just behind the school complex.
Not a minute passed after the agreement before a smaller, orange-haired girl, who Assam recognized as the fiddle player from earlier, came and picked up Erne, whom Assam had correctly assumed was the violinist's older sister.
"Ah, I'm terribly sorry for the attitude of my sister, she's usually not like this. By the way, Annalee's the name," the fiddle player said, extending the hand not wrapped around Erne as she propped up her pitiably drunken sister, with the help of Laune, who had now shed her barmaid apron, revealing her prosthetic for all to see.
Shannon...Clare... Erne... Laune... Avocado now Annalee, either they picked the most Irish-sounding names possible or there is a pattern that I just fail to see. Definitely worth looking into later.
Assam shook the musician's callused hand and introduced herself as well, making sure to keep an eye out for Rosehip, who by now had settled on a stool and was beginning to doze off. Laune and Erne's younger sister took their leave as they propped up poor Erne between them, asking for other people to open the pub door for them.
One by one, Shamrock students began to leave and she checked her watch to see what time was and realised that it was already ten minutes past midnight and so she set it upon herself to gather up the crew, especially they would all have an early start tomorrow. Roselle was unsurprisingly still with Clare. Her head was on the brunette's lap and she jumped like a gazelle when she saw Assam approaching. Rosemallow was quicker to be found as she was still sitting in her chair and was busy chatting with a girl that looked eerily similar to Darjeeling in terms of looks, minus the blonde hair but with a beautiful rose hair clip.
The stack of plates on their otherwise clean table suggested that the two had done nothing but eat the dishes Hare's Head had to offer and drink non-alcoholic beverages, the latter being a blessing since Assam didn't need to deal with any more drunks.
The Darjeeling-look-alike stood to attention when she saw their party approaching and bowed down in front of them, "Hi, I'm Inny, nice to meet the both of you," she said, addressing both her and Roselle, then turned to face her only. "And you must be Assam?"
"Yup and it seems the two of you are getting along quite well," Assam responded.
Inny smiled and took a scoop of bar nuts. "Ever heard of this quotation? A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world."
Darjeeling would love to meet this lady, she even has the quotations down pat!
As luck would have it, Assam spent some of her time perusing quotation books as she might not always be the victim of her fellow blonde's quotation addiction; it never hurts to be prepared.
"Leo Buscaglia, I assume?"
Inny looked at her, half in astonishment and the half that spoke thankfulness. "Correct! I suppose you need help with carrying your friend?"
"How did you know?" Assam asked.
"Rosemallow-san and I were watching when the commotion began. We even made bets on who would win tomorrow," The Darjeeling-look alike replied, with a hint of a wink and surprisingly, one of Darjeeling's mischievous smiles.
And with the four of them, (Clare had gone ahead to start up the car), the arduous task of lifting Rosehip was accomplished much more rapidly and with less back pain. It was only when they were all strapped in that she realized that they left Rosehip's jacket and she excused herself to retrieve it.
Now with a still pungent-smelling jacket draped over her shoulder, Assam noticed a glint of porcelain and what looked like shards behind a small patch of bush. With the help of a handy penlight she always carried in her purse, she decided to investigate and that was when it hit her.
It was the teacup they had given earlier.
Author's Notes: Surprised you haven't waited months for another update? Well, I'm trying a different approach that (I hope) would shorten the time between each update, without (Again, I hope) sacrificing quality.
One last thing to note, I'm thinking of adding signs before each chapter to indicate who's the protagonist of that chapter, so stay tuned for that.
Once more, thank you to the usual folk that helped in the writing of this chapter and to you my readers, who persistently keep reading this stuff, thank you to you as well.
That's all for now and as always, leave a like, subscribe and hit tha- Wait, wrong script, okay, once again. That's all for now and as always fav, follow and leave a review, till next time!
PS: (08/28/20) Added an important scene and also descriptions for the other tanks as well, along with fleshing out other characters as well, hope you enjoy!
