…
Where's the update you might ask?
HAPPY APRIL FOOLS! ! !
Alright, alright, no need to be mad now.
To make up for the lack of an update, I'll be giving you a short story written in collaboration with 101Salocin.
And by written in collaboration, I mean I wrote and he only edited it to make his character a Mary Sue.
Just kidding lol
It's been a blast working on this one, with the only thing I have to worry about is to avoid it being an M-rated lemon lmao.
Enjoy~
Where am I? What the hell happened?!
Assam was still groggy from being hit on the back of the head and so it came as a shock to her to find her vision obscured by some rough fabric that unsurprisingly covered her entire head as well. She tried moving around but found herself strapped into a chair of sorts.
Tied to a chair with a bag over my head. Great job Assam!
All she could remember at the moment was her mission; Find Lou.
Lou, or otherwise known as Louise Tuckerman, was a French-American transferee to Saunders who made a buzz on an international scale when her grandfather's M4A3E8 Sherman tank was found by the Gendarmerie in the basement of her family's residence back in France.
Instead of giving the tank up to the authorities; possibly seeing the armoured vehicle carted off to a museum, Louise immediately jumped at the prospect of achieving her dreams of being able to compete in Senshadou and so applied to Saunders University, pumping new blood into the school's rotten system.
Once on the team, she had proved her knowledge of mechanics and the operation of her own vehicle were unmatched and despite being a relative newcomer, Louise quickly rose through the ranks.
In addition to her prowess in Senshadou, the French-American was also a famed trilingual, capable of speaking French, English and Japanese without missing a beat. This was the only reason Assam decided to take on the mission herself, in spite of the risks fieldwork involved.
Going back to her present predicament, Assam had to deal with her sense of sight being blotched out, and so she had to rely on her other senses to give her a full rundown of her current situation.
Assam had already established that she was sitting on a chair; made from flimsy wood and most importantly, not bolted to the ground. Another rookie mistake was that her legs were not shackled to the chair, giving Assam free use of her legs, which she used to her advantage as she figured out that the floor she was placed upon was polished concrete.
Perfect for washing blood away. Assam thought.
Her hands were bound together behind the backrest and by the way her bindings were barely nudging as she attempted to rub her hands together, Assam concluded that they were tied with industrial-grade ropes.
But the sense she intended to abuse the most, however, was her hearing. With it, she could ascertain that a lone person was walking circles around her and something about the mystery individual's footfall suggested that whoever was walking was a young girl wearing thick boots just like her.
Cogs were starting to turn inside her head and she knew that if she planned her move well, Assam could dash up to the lone assailant and smash the chair against the poor bugger, smashing it to smithereens. She could then wiggle her way out of her restraints and remove the burlap sack before making her escape. All she had to do was wait.
It would, however, seem that Assam waited too long as she heard a knock on the door and a creaking door opened.
"Marie! Entrez, s'il vous plaît!" someone said in a language Assam couldn't understand as another set of boots joined the first pair before the door closed on them.
This what she assumed was a greeting was immediately followed by another girl, in a much more refined tone, but still in the same unknown tongue, saying, "Louise! Je me demandais où tu étais allée!"
Judging by the voices Assam was certain that there were now two people in the room, lowering the chances of her winning a fight and so she decided to wait, in case one or the other decided to leave.
"Eh bien, pourquoi m'avoir fait venir ici?" someone said in a questioning manner.
At first, she couldn't understand a word that came out from the pair's mouths; that was when Assam realised that they were speaking neither Japanese nor English but rather, strangely enough, French.
"J'ai une agréable surprise pour vous!" one proudly declared.
So with an effort, she tried to remember what little French she had learnt from her time in middle school and was able to finally discern what the two were talking about.
"La voici... the infamous spymaster of Gloriana!"
Assam then realized that whoever spoke was referring to her and was annoyed that her reputation made operations like this impossible to pull off. Things were easier back then.
"Good job on catching her snooping around!" the posh one replied and not soon afterwards the scrapping of something metallic, perhaps a fork against a ceramic surface and the sound of chewing permeated throughout the room, suggesting that the speaker was eating something.
"It was quite easy really, the problem with professionals is that they are predictable," came the reply.
Assam felt that what little light that was passing through the bag was now blocked off, which could only mean someone was standing directly in front of her.
"Have you tried talking to her yet?" the eater asked and Assam knew for sure because in between the question, she could hear muffled chewing and swallowing.
"Nah, she's still knocked out, I'll call you when she wakes up," the other one replied, patting Assam's head, which made her blood boil.
This must not register on an emotional level. Assam thought.
"Alright, good job, I'll be taking my leave now, are you sure you don't want cake?"
Cake…. One of the persons in the room was none other than Marie herself!
Assam was waiting for a response but none came so she assumed the other person just shook her head. All she could hear were footsteps diminishing in volume before a door was opened and closed again.
Only a single set of footsteps returned and she heard the noise of the girl walking behind her, followed rapidly by a vinyl disc making contact with the turntable. Assam could make out the needle being put in place on the track and the eerie few seconds of silence were soon replaced by the exuberant first few notes of the track 'The Caissons Go Rolling Along'.
From the acoustics of the record, Assam guessed that they were in a small room, possibly underground. The footsteps were now drowned out by the music and she had to strain her ears more just to keep track of her target.
Once she determined the footsteps became louder and louder, Assam got ready to attack, until she felt something hard poke her head from behind and heard the hammer of a revolver get cocked.
"That's a Colt Single Action pushed against your skull, make any sudden moves and I'll pull the trigger," a girl said, all in perfect English.
Assam held her bated breath as she waited for the shot. But deliverance never came and she felt the gunmetal slowly disappear and soon more footsteps filled her ears.
However, these too disappeared, depriving Assam of any clues as to where her captor was. Only the antiquated tunes of trumpets from the record player were what she could hear as panic started to set in.
To her surprise, she felt the cloth bag suddenly yanked up from her head, blinding her with the harsh lights that shone above the room they were in. Her eyes took some time to adjust to the brightness and soon Assam was able to make out a figure before her. In front of her stood a girl who was as tall as her, with brown-coloured hair tied into a small ponytail.
"Know who I am?" the figure asked, again all in perfect English.
"Louise Tuckerman," Assam replied, not looking her in the eye. Instead, she looked around the room, taking into account her new surroundings. Her guess earlier was spot on, as they were in some sort of basement, filled with rusty tools and equipment, all covered in a fine layer of dust.
"Yep, in the flesh," Louise replied, making a bow, gripping the hems of the skirt of the Saunders uniform she now traitorously wore.
"Well, you really are, we caught you red-handed collaborating with BC Freedom!" Assam replied, now staring at her menacingly.
Louise melted at her gaze, her bravado all gone and the words that easily came to her before were now nowhere to be found.
"A-Assam-san… it's just... I didn't-... it was all… um… it was... all for show..." Louise trailed off, flipping through three languages like a juggler before finally settling on English.
Assam knew she could either further pressure the girl in front of her or simply remain silent, let her own conscience do the torturing. After some quick decision-making, she decided on doing the former, risking it even if the one she would be pressing was the one with the loaded gun.
"As we speak, SIB agents are on their way to arrest you, after which they'll kick you out of Saunders and send you and your tank back to Europe!" Assam said. It was all a massive bluff but her target was now too much of a nervous wreck to possibly notice that.
"They wouldn't! W-will they?... P-please, just let me explain…" Louise croaked, looking almost ready to go down on her knees and beg.
"I'm all ears," Assam replied, trying her best not to look smug as she felt chinks in the foreigner's armour starting to widen.
"W-well, we caught a BC Freedom agent attempting to make contact with me… After being interrogated, she revealed that they need help in making sense of crucial blueprints of their FCM F1 Super Heavy... Alisa thought we could take advantage of this and made arrangements. So as you can see, this is an OSS-sanctioned mission," Louise explained in rapid succession, as if speaking any slower would spell her doom.
Louise only stopped talking to breathe in some air before finally finishing off, "Wh-why would I betray the school I love?"
Assam only nodded and figured she didn't want to push her too far, and so put as many pleasantries into her next request as she could, "Now, will you please untie me?"
"Okay, okay," Louise replied, missing the irony that she had lost command of the situation and had relinquished her power to Assam.
Assam felt the ropes around her wrists slacken and stood up, stretching around and without making it obvious, felt for the trinkets around her waist. And as another stark reminder that she was dealing with an amateur, she was quite surprised to find all of her gear still in place.
But what sealed the deal was the hilariously unbuttoned holster on Louise's right hip that held her sidearm as the brunette circled the seat and now stood in front of Assam, her back precariously exposed.
While Tuckerman was busy looking at the door, worried that someone may burst in at the worst possible moment, Assam made her move.
Taking advantage of her target being distracted, she took a step forward, reached for Lou's holster and immediately pointed the revolver at the centre of the back of Louise, cocking the hammer as well.
"Not the smartest move, eh?" she whispered into the ear of the now more than ever frightened girl. However, not wanting to risk whether the bullets were real or rams, she decided to simply threaten Louise and have her replace her position on the chair.
That would mean they had to change clothes.
"Now strip," Assam said, making up her mind.
"... What?" Louise croaked, visibly shaking at having her own gun pointed at her.
"I said strip or do you want me to say it in French?" Assam replied, now losing patience and jabbed the barrel of the gun against Louise's back, making her point clear.
"F-fine," The girl sighed and started undoing her holster, which she dropped into the floor.
Soon came the grey blazer and the red skirt, as Louise peeled off layer after layer of clothing, revealing more and more of her pearly white skin, before finally removing her shirt, exposing her bare back to Assam.
Louise, now only on her olive green bra and her black panties, asked, "Y-you want me to take off my underwear as well?!"
"That would be lovely for sure, but that won't be necessary," Assam replied as she started unbuttoning her own cardigan. "Now face the wall, will you?"
Louise didn't need to be told twice as she shamefully walked towards the brick wall while Assam bared herself, neatly placing the clothes she took off into the chair as she wore the Saunders uniform on the floor, which she found out was a size smaller than her own but still otherwise fitted.
When she was done fixing the Saunders black tie, Assam asked Louise to come forward and ordered her to don the BC Freedom uniform she had worn as a disguise. As she made her way to the chair, Assam noted the slender figure of the foreigner and how her mismatched lingerie only served to complement her brown-hair.
She didn't give Louise the luxury of privacy for fear of retribution as she watched the Tuckerman wear every piece of the BC Freedom uniform when the ongoing track that was filling the room stopped and the loud silence replaced its place.
The brunette stopped fumbling with the zipper on the black skirt and looked straight at Assam's eyes, "C-can you shut that off for me, please?"
To avoid repeating the same mistake Louise did, Assam transferred the Colt to her left hand, still keeping it pointed at the still half-naked girl and used her right to reach out the turn off switch for the gramophone.
With just occasionally darting her eyes behind her, Assam groped around before finally finding the device and without sending it off into the ground, managed to stop the disc from spinning.
Louise finally finished changing her costume and Assam sat her at the same wooden chair she had sat on mere minutes ago. She poked the gun at the girl's back as she tied the poor soul's hands behind her.
With some snooping around, Assam found more rope that she used to bind the legs of Louise, to prevent her from running around and breaking her bonds. For good measure, she fashioned a handkerchief she found in the blazer's pocket into a gag, which she stuffed into the still confused French-American, before finally placing the bag, completing the switcheroo.
Before opening the creaky door, Assam readied her instant hair dye which she would use at the first bathroom mirrors she came across to mimic the foreigner's brown hair and stored the gun into its position.
Looking back at the tied-up Louise, Assam couldn't help herself and uttered a few parting words.
Adieu, Lou!
Honestly, I was on the fence on whether to release this or not but considering this goes against my plans for the BC Freedom arc (Yes, I plan ahead. Shocker, I know right?). I figured this is the best use for it.
Special thanks, of course. to Salocin for letting me use his character, no matter how terrible I wrote her haha. If you haven't read it, make sure to check out Ace to learn more about Louise. I would also like to give thanks to Sharky for the initial proofreading and for Rihno for the overall proofread, you two are the best! And, finally, to you, my dear readers, who have read this far, I give you my sincerest gratitude!
Anyways, back to working on SAS for me, I'll try to publish another chapter within this month but I'm not exactly great at keeping promises….
Until then, cheerio!
