After a couple of days since the rebellion had been put down, Saunders felt like their duty was done and they were moreover comfortable with what they were doing. Kay was relaxing in her chair while enjoying her drink.
"Yep, I can't believe this coke tastes sweet, much like the freedom we have over the school and now the Yellow Sea." Kay began. Their position in the Liaodong peninsula and the Yellow Sea as a whole was indisputable. "Plus, those markets to Manchuria are making us tons and tons of money." Kay added as they were growing rich off of this lucrative trade. Megumi and Lola were busy while Kay was sitting back and getting all of the rewards.
"Will some of that money be going back to the school?" Lola asked while she was writing another novella.
"I don't think so." Kay began. "This will be used to pay for all the parties I will be hosting in the future." Kay told Lola what the purpose of the money will be used for. Lyova was doing some balancing of the budget before he turned his head to Kay.
"Kay, our agriculture isn't going to be able to keep up with your parties unless we reform some of our practices. The money will be able to cover the purchases for now, but we can't rely on everyone to give us the materials we need. We have to make some of them too." Lyova explained that certain sections of the school were falling behind and needed some changes if it was to keep up with the rest of the school. Kay wasn't listening, however. She had her own objectives. Lyova continued to speak: "Also the steel workers are going on strike again as they don't like your working conditions, they even threw rocks at their bosses. And the big problem with this is when everyone is unhappy there is only one person to blame. The person running the school." Kay began to growl with anger.
"The people hate me! What do I do?" Kay asked before she began thinking. She then got a brilliant idea. "Oh, I know, why don't we find a weak and pathetic school to go to war with. We'll win easily and everybody will love me again."
"Why don't we just try treating the people better?" Lyova asked. Kay got out her bazooka and fired it at Lyova. It made a sputtering sound before something came out. She looked down at it as it was proving she was pretty weak. Suddenly a message began to come through. It was Tsutsuji. She wasn't happy, Kay picked it up and began to read it.
Dear Kay
What you are doing in the Liaodong peninsula is appalling, it's our property and you have no right to be there. We're claiming Korean docks as we want to expand further. If you recognize our claim to Korea, we'll let you do your thing in Manchuria.
Sincerely Tsutsuji.
Kay puts down the letter as she begins to weigh her options. Tsutsuji was the Chi-Ha-Tan commander who wanted all of these ports to herself and now she was feeling the need to have revenge against her biggest rival. Could they fight over this port or resolve this peacefully? Kay thought that Saunders had just gotten over the rebellion and needed time to cool down, so she was in favor of the more peaceful solution.
"I don't know how I should consider weighing my options on what to do. Anyone got any suggestions?" Kay asked her friends in the room.
"How about we arrange a meeting with Tsutsuji about the whole issue and try solving it that way. All you need to do is recognize her claim to Korea and she will leave us alone." Lyova gave his suggestion that they should try to recognize the claim but to Kay, where did they get Korea, and it seemed a bit unfair. Korea wasn't part of the deal with Cixi that happened a couple days ago. She knew that Chi-Ha-Tan had no right being there and they needed to leave.
Kay and Tsutsuji had organized the meeting and they were now sitting down to discuss the best course of action on what they should do about the situation.
"Kay, it seems that you have invited me over to discuss these matters with me." Tsutsuji told Kay. Lyova was watching in the background in the hope that things were going to go okay.
"Yes. We wanted to see if you were willing to help us settle the Manchuria Korea question." Kay began. She turned her head to Lyova before he gave the thumbs up, Kay was going in the right direction.
"Exactly." Tsutsuji began. "We weren't happy about what we received from Cixi a couple days back and we decided to get docking rights to Korea. So, if you respect our claims to Korea, we will leave you and Kuromorimine alone." Kay began to think about it. She remembered when Kuromorimine had gotten themselves the port of Tsingtao during the treaty, but they haven't talked about it since.
"What is Manami using the port for?" Kay asked Tsutsuji if she had any ideas for what the port was being used for.
"Refueling for coal." Tsutsuji began. "Mittelschule des Königsimperiums is using Tsingtao as a refueling port as they still run-on coal. Ooarai Girls Academy also refuels from there as it is within their range as the poor school can't have a good place to take on cheap coal."
"A fuel source huh?" Kay asked. She began to think about Korea and why they decided to claim it. "Why do you think Korea is yours?" Kay had to ask.
"We actually took it as we needed more ports." Tsutsuji told her. Kay remembered something. Chi-Ha-Tan had managed to take something that wasn't considered theirs.
"More ports, did the Koreans know about this or you just walked straight into their homes and announced that you were using their ports?" Kay asked. She didn't like this one bit.
"We didn't. They were fine with us going in there and using their ports for refueling." Tsutsuji told Kay that the Koreans were more or less fine with them showing up to refuel.
"Tsutsuji. You should have told us about this before you went out of your way and decided to take over. And because of your actions, we don't recognize your claim to Korea." Kay told Tsutsuji that what she did was unfair and the fact that she didn't recognize the claim due to them entering and taking over without their permission. Lyova looked on as the tension was beginning to boil over. He didn't like where this was going. Tsutsuji however was willing to continue to compromise.
"We'll let you do your thing in Manchuria if you let us do our thing in Korea." Tsutsuji told Kay about it that she was willing to let her do what she wanted if she could recognize her claim. Kay however felt confident that she could push Tsutsuji around.
"Uhh… I don't think so, we've got the largest army in the world." Kay stated that they weren't going to recognize their claim. "What do you have?"
"I'm the empress of Chi-Ha-Tan." Tsutsuji began. She got out her phone and showed Kay a picture. "I have a giant mecha suit."
"Woah. Cool." Kay told her. "But I don't see you as a threat and we don't recognize your claim to Korea so you can scoot on out." Kay was willing to push Tsutsuji around and hold onto her claims. "Now leave." Tsutsuji looked at Kay thinking she was going to regret this. The claim was made, and Kay was refusing to accept it. Tsutsuji left the room. Lyova slapped his face. Now he was worried that the two schools were going to make war with each other. He entered the room.
"Kay, that wasn't what you were supposed to do. Now we have to get everyone mobilized for a potential war that we were trying to avoid all of this time." Lyova began as he was fuming at the mouth. He wasn't happy while Kay was smug about this. She was ready to win this, but she didn't realize what Chi-Ha-Tan was going to do if they were going to bring her to the knees.
Alexandra meanwhile was talking to Fumie as she was enjoying her time at Pravda so far.
"What's the worst thing that has happened to you?" Alexandra asked Fumie if she had any ideas about what the worst thing happened to Fumie.
"I was exiled to Siberia." Fumie stated.
"How bad was it?" Alexandra asked.
"Not that bad, it was just the bowels of this ship." Fumie stated that it wasn't bad. "Worst part of it was having my mother and law live with me and I wasn't too thrilled about it."
"Yeah, I also exile my students to Siberia, literal Siberia." Alexandra told Fumie what kind of punishment she also handled.
"Literally? I think you must be one of us in the end." Fumie replied. Alexandra laughed for a bit while she was thinking of what to say next.
"Yes, literally and we took all of their stuff as well. We kind of made a profit off of it until something happened to me and I was sidelined." Alexandra told Fumie about what exactly had happened. "With Kay in control, the quality of the school has gone downhill though I may be making a guess since she kicked me out on the first day and I never got to see what the school looks like. But if she is turning it into what she likes and not what the older students like. Then there will be some problems." Alexandra explained that there was going to be some kind of conflict within the school going forward.
"Do you want to overthrow Kay and reestablish what you want with our aid is what you might be saying?" Fumie asked Alexandra if that was what she wanted to do. Alexandra began to think about it for a moment. After a couple of seconds of thinking and reflection. She came to no conclusion.
"I'll give it some deeper thought, it's still too early to go running around and causing chaos in Saunders." Alexandra told Fumie. They then walked into the room and the students began to sit down and the meeting began.
"So, we wanted to state that Katyusha and her lackeys are in Saunders, they are waiting for our orders to strike." Nonna began the meeting with Katyusha's status. They had been hiding away for a few days while waiting for the perfect moment.
"Okay good so I have been getting questions regarding something we eat for breakfast." Fumie began with the topic of the meeting. "Can we say that cereal is a soup?" Fumie began.
"No. We can't, even though it can be a grain and grains can mean anything but for something with milk, it can't be. It has no meat, no vegetables, no potatoes, so on and so forth." Another student called out as something could mean something completely different depending on person to person. Fumie knew that she needed to back up her claim.
"But it's floating around in some kind of liquid, so I say that it's a soup." Fumie told the opposition, the debate was quickly becoming heated, and Fumie was unwilling to give an inch.
"Fumie! A breakfast item is not a soup. Get it through your mind already!" The opposition leader called out. Fumie was ready to explode at this point.
"You pig-ignorant, half-witted, fatuous morons! Cereal IS a soup!" Fumie shouted as she wanted to make her point clear. The opposition couldn't take it as they had no idea what Fumie was talking about. The opposition leader went forward and began speaking to Fumie.
"Listen, Fumie. You're a smart girl, but you have no idea what you're talking about. We're out of here." The opposition leader told Fumie before she turned, and her entire group left. Fumie then turned to her friends.
"All in favor of cereal being a soup?" Fumie asked them. They all raised their hands as they seemed to all agree with her. Fumie smiled happily before she began speaking. "Hey, would you look at that? We're in the majority." Fumie told her group. So, Fumie set up her own faction within the party called the Majority or Bol'shinstvo if you're speaking Alexandra's language and the other faction became known as the Minority or Men'sinstvo. And oddly enough: The Majority were in the minority and the Minority in the majority. The Men'sinstvos were more moderate unlike Fumie who wanted everyone to agree with her and her uncompromising ideas. And if you, weren't you were going to get a big-brained beatdown.
"Fumie is taking control of the group in Pravda." One of the Mensinstvos began. "I'm worried that her actions could easily lead to a one student dictatorship." Lisa paused before she began to think.
"Come on, does Fumie look like a dictator to you?" Lisa asked the Men'sinstvo. Her friend coughed before Lisa turned and began to walk away. "I'm off to Saunders to help coordinate strikes and supply the workers. If you need anything, be sure to let me know." Lisa then got up and left as her friend was left to contemplate what she was going to do next.
Tsutsuji wasn't satisfied with what exactly had been happening after coming to no conclusion with Kay over the whole issue. She needed some support if she was going to assert the fact that Chi-Ha-Tan Academy wasn't the school to be messed with. Fortunately for her, she was quick to find an ally. She walked over to the door and began to knock on it.
"Come in." Earl Gray told whoever was at the door. Tsutsuji opened the door and walked in to see that Earl Gray had arranged tea for her. "Ahh Tsutsuji. How did your talk with Kay go?" Earl Gray would ask. Tsutsuji pulled out a chair with her and she began to speak.
"It went terribly. We presented our claims of Korea to Kay, and she refused to accept it." Tsutsuji began. She grabbed the cup and took a sip of the tea. "We're running out of options; we tried the diplomatic solution but that ended up going nowhere. We have to go to war with Saunders." Tsutsuji felt like they had no other option other than to push the button and physically fight Saudners over this. Earl Gray began to think about it for a moment as Saunders was a pretty frightening school and she tried to figure out what to do about it. After a minute of thinking. She began speaking.
"Okay Tsutsuji. We'll come to an alliance to make each other feel a little less scared of Saunders." Earl Gray began. She then got out a piece of paper and slid it to her. "Sign here and it will be finalized." Tsutsuji got out the pen and signed her name into the paper. She was grateful for Earl Gray's assistance.
"Anything else you want to talk about?" Tsutsuji asked Earl Gray if she wanted to finish this tea. She wanted to stick around a little bit longer while taking another sip of the tea,
"Yeah, I do. I want to give you some advice if you want to declare war on Saunders, hit them hard and hit them fast. They probably won't know what had hit them. They're slow to respond so keep hitting them like lightning." Earl Gray told Tsutsuji how the war against Saunders should be conducted, they needed to strike first to disorientate them. Tsutsuji nodded.
"Okay." Tsutsuji then finished her tea while thinking how she was going to pull this off. Earl Gray was giving the call to strike quickly to throw them off balance. Tsutsuji smiled to herself. She was ready to make Saunders have a very bad day. "Let me see what I can do." She told herself.
A good chunk of the Saunders team was stationed on the Liaodong Peninsula as they were getting ready to tour the Manchurian territory. Tsutsuji was ready to use Manchuria as her new playground. Under the cover of the dark night sky, she slipped in with her sensha-do team and began firing at the Saunders tanks in a sneak attack as she thought of Earl Gray's advice. Her tanks fired at two of the Saunders M4 Shermans and disabled them. Now everyone was shocked.
Morning would come as Kay had been hurried down to her office with some news by Lyova and those at the port. She entered her office to see Lyova, Lola and Megumi right by her. They wanted to give some news regarding what happened that night.
"What did you guys call me down here for?" Kay asked. She went over to her mini-fridge and pulled out a bottle to drink. She twisted the cap off and began drinking it.
"We got the news that Chi-Ha-Tan has launched a surprise attack on our tanks in Port Arthur. Looks like Tsutsuji is done negotiating. She wants war with you." Lyova told Kay about what the situation for this was looking like. Kay nodded, probably war was a good thing as it was a means of uniting the school under a common cause.
"Mobilize the students. If Tsutsuji wants war, she'll have it." Kay told Lyova. Megumi nodded before she decided to go give the order of general mobilization. Kay thought there was no way that a tiny school like Chi-Ha-Tan could beat a big school like Saunders and she was filled with spunk.
A couple hours later, the students had been mobilized and were turned to face against Chi-Ha-Tan and they were being led by Megumi. Kay had prepared a speech which was just a short announcement to get the crowd cheering. Kay walked out onto the balcony with Lyova following behind her. Below Kay was a crowd of a couple thousand students, workers and people living at the school. Kay looked on with excitement as she was going to make the announcement.
"Hey everyone! We're at war with Chi-Ha-Tan!" Kay shouted with excitement. Everyone cheered on happily as they were more than excited to finally have an enemy that they could be at war with. Lyova looked at the crowd as they were cheering. He then got a message on his phone from Megumi about the war with Chi-Ha-Tan. He leaned over and began to whisper into her ear. Kay looked back and she began speaking. "Hey everyone, I just got news about the war. We're… losing the war." Kay told them. The cheering crowd then began to angrily point their thumbs down and their excitement was replaced with anger. How did Kay screw up so badly?
Chi-Ha-Tan was winning right off the bat, it was an embarrassing blow to the school. Kay had enough problems already and now she had been internationally humiliated. The public were outraged and throughout the day, unrest was increasing. Kay needed snuggles now more than ever.
"This isn't my job, Kay." Lyova protested while snuggling Kay.
The tension was rising rapidly, and Saunders was on the verge of revolution. Kay looked on as Megumi had delivered a letter to her.
Dear Kay
I'm stepping down from my position as leader of the Manchurian army and Himari will be taking my place. The students wanted diversity and inclusion in their ranks and have no will to fight. Entire groups of students look like they're ready to mutiny and I don't know if I can take it. I need some time to cool off and I will be spending that with my friends. I hope you're happy with yourself Kay.
Yours, Megumi.
Kay felt like she had been shattered, even though she wanted a quick war to regain the support of the school and that support was going against her.
It was all coming to a head.
[A/N]: Another short chapter but this is going to be the buildup for something big coming. The first revolution out of three. This is moreover filler in its lead up. Tsutsuji gets an alliance with Earl Gray, Earl Gray telling Tsutsuji that she is confident enough for her to declare war on Saunders. All of this because Kay isn't treating the people well and now the people are ready to fight back. Katyusha and Lisa are getting ready to make their move so the next chapter will be a bit more focused on them. Let's get the revolution started.