The phone continued to ring for a couple of seconds. Megumi was debating what to do. She walked over to the phone and picked it up. She was wondering about who it was going to be from.
"Hello?" Megumi began. The person on the other side sounded a bit frantic about it. At the rate she was speaking, it wasn't good.
"Hey Megumi, this is Milica, we got some terrifying news." Milica began. "Yogurt Academy has declared war on its former allies." Megumi's blood ran cold. Sofia wouldn't do anything like this.
"Did Sofia declare war on you?" Megumi asked if this was going to be the case. Milica began to think if Sofia was the one behind all of this.
"She isn't. She's trying her best to do damage control and she really isn't successful at it. It was the first year, Srebarna, who started the war." Milica explained that Sofia, the current leader of Yogurt Academy, wasn't the one that started the war. Megumi sighed with some relief that Sofia was innocent, but she didn't know if her efforts were going to be successful.
"Are you trying to get into contact with Sofia to see how this situation will deescalate?" Megumi asked. She didn't know what caused this war to start in the first place. Milica began to think about it but she came to no conclusion.
"I have nothing as of now and I have to go. I need to help fend off a counterattack." Milica then hung up as Kay walked over. She didn't know what the conversation was.
"What was it?" Kay asked Megumi if she had any ideas of what was happening.
"Yogurt Academy had declared war on their former allies and now Sofia is doing her best to control the damage.
"Will this escalate into something bigger?" Kay asked. Were they caught flat-footed, and they had no time to make preparations? Kay looked away as she began to pace back and forth trying to figure out what to do. Megumi began speaking next as she sensed the anxiety in her.
"Calm down, I promise you that the squabbling of the smaller schools isn't going to escalate into a big conflict that will involve us." Megumi reassured Kay that they wouldn't have to fear so much as of now. Kay looked back at Megumi as she began speaking.
"As reassuring as you might sound, I don't believe you." Kay got up and walked away. Megumi was left by herself. Then the phone began to ring again. Megumi wondered if Milica was trying to call her again to give her an update to what was going on. She hesitated for a moment before picking up.
"Hello Megumi, this is the Saunders courthouse as we just finished the trial of Yuri Nakamura who has been convicted of activism of changing one from being female to male and vice-versa, political violence against Kay's ideals. She and several others are being convicted for their crimes and we need you to give the punishment." The judge began speaking. Megumi sighed as it wasn't Milica giving her an update.
"Okay so the appropriate punishment for her would be hard labor below the decks. If Alexandra were here, Ms. Nakamura would have been sentenced to death by hanging. Since I'm being nice, we should just throw her into prison." Megumi told the judge that they should be left to rot away for their actions.
"Thanks for your input. We should be able to finally convict those criminals." The Judge told her before he hung up. Megumi sighed as she knew there was still a lot of work to be done. Kay was doing her own thing and was too lazy. Alexandra was in exile and Lola was hidden away. She really needed some help. She looked at the letter she had received from Alexandra, and she began to read it over. Alexandra missed her dearly and so did Megumi. She thought, could Alexandra change things if what Kay was saying ended up being true. Megumi then grabbed the computer and began to type a letter to Alexandra; she was ready to bring her back.
Dear Alexandra
I am doing well myself, and to answer your question: Yes. I want you to come back, there is a lot of tension going on in the school and we are worried about what will happen. Kay is getting antsy about it and we don't know what is going to happen. We think the other schools will explode into war and we could use your help to train the students and get them prepared for it. We got a lot of new stuff that you need to see before we can get your opinion.
Sincerely, Megumi.
Megumi pressed send to Alexandra as she was making a risk by bringing back the girl that Kay hated. Hopefully, she could get the groups in short order and have the entire school reorganized. Megumi was hoping to hide her away like she did with Lola.
Alexandra had said goodbye to Fumie and Lisa and headed back to Saunders to see Megumi. She promised to send letters over to see what the condition was going to be. She was definitely going to miss her new friends. However, she hadn't seen Megumi in months, the tradeoff seemed to be a return to the old days for her, but Alexandra didn't know if she was going to feel welcomed. Alexandra knocked on Megumi's door.
"Come in." Megumi told whoever it was that was at the door. Alexandra opened the door up and walked inside. Megumi looked at Alexandra and she had a big smile on her face. "Alexandra, you came back!" Megumi got up and walked over. She gave Alexandra a hug. Alexandra hugged back, relieved to have her old friend.
"I know I would. I missed you." Alexandra replied. After a happy reunion between them. Alexandra released Megumi and she began speaking. "This place feels so different compared to the last time I came here."
"So, what's new?" Megumi asked.
"I decided to take a tour of the place and it seems to be that the stores I had made to sell domestic products to the people are now all owned by foreign companies. I saw a Levi's on the way there and I wondered, how did they get there? I wasn't a fan of wearing jeans to begin with…" Alexandra paused before she looked at Megumi's uniform. This wasn't the uniform that she had pushed out. Only thing that remained the same was the red skirt. "Did Kay make the school more business-like? If she did, then it would explain why outsiders have taken over the school. If I was here, this would have never happened." Alexandra seemed to not be pleased with the changes Kay had made when she left her position.
"I know. I wouldn't invite foreigners over either. Kay said it was the way to "Americanize" the school and the older students don't like what the first year is saying. Plus, she is spending most of our money on parties that we can't afford. The school seems to be falling into a state of neglect and part of it had been destroyed in a revolution that didn't really change much." Megumi explained to Alexandra what had been going on when she left the school for Pravda. It seemed to be a massive culture shock for Alexandra.
"Where did Kay go?" Alexandra asked Megumi where their leader had gone off to.
"Probably off to party, we tried to curb her spending, but she just whined like a little kid." Megumi explained why the school was turning into what it was, and Alexandra nodded. She too wasn't happy about it. She knew she needed to take her mind off of Kay as she just wanted to inspect the armory.
"Can I see the armory? I want to see what is new." Alexandra asked. Megumi sensed that Alexandra wanted to see what they had got from the time that she had gone away.
"Sure thing." Megumi replied with a calm smile. Megumi and Alexandra prepared to leave the office when the phone began to ring. Megumi was getting annoyed with the phone; this was the third phone call so far today. She felt like she wanted to ignore it and spend time with her friend, but she walked over and picked it up. "Hello?" Megumi asked curiously.
"Megumi, this is Mahou from Count High School." Mahou told Megumi. Megumi hadn't spoken to her in a long while.
"Mahou, it's been a while, what did you want to talk to me about?" Megumi asked Mahou. Mahou paused for a moment as she began to think about it. She began speaking next.
"Count High School has declared war on Yogurt Academy." Mahou began. "Not only us but Kebab as well. Yogurt Academy is fighting three schools and we're moving in to take advantage while Srebarna's head is turned."
"I know and Milica told me that Sofia was trying to do damage control to no success. I think this will cause Srebarna to sue for peace now." Megumi told Mahou that Yogurt Academy was now fighting five schools at once and there was no way they could manage that.
"We'll tell Sofia and Milica to give you an update once this war is over. We're just hoping that we can cut it short." Mahou replied. "I got to go now." Mahou hung up the phone before Megumi began to think. She turned back to Alexandra.
"Let's go see the armory now." Megumi told Alexandra. Alexandra nodded and they both left the room.
Megumi and Alexandra made their way to the armory where they began to happily chat among themselves. They discussed many things, Where the school was heading, the wars Saunders got itself into, the revolution that didn't change much, Lyova resigning and being replaced by Pyotr, Pyotr's assassination and so on. They caught up on everything when they reached the dirt road that the horses and armored cars practiced traveling down on.
"You seem to have a lot to talk about when it comes to it at the end of the day." Alexandra began. "I can't believe I missed out on all of that." Megumi looked at her friend and smiled.
"I know you did. I wanted to show you around while Kay goes to have her party, hopefully the food and the drinks will hold her back if they last." Megumi joked with Alexandra which caused the latter to laugh a bit.
"You've never lost your humor Megumi." Alexandra added. "Also, I sensed you returned the horses to service which I am happy about."
"Yes, we did, it was a response to begin mobilizing the students for a potential war. It's the reason why we decided to bring you back as your experience will prove to be a valuable asset against our opponents, Kay doesn't have the skill or the charisma to lead." Megumi explained that they were getting their act together and how they were going to play this conflict out. They looked up to see the clouds steadily gathering on the horizon. They didn't know if the storm would affect all of the schools, but it was steadily building up. Alexandra was confused.
"War? If I was there, I would try to maintain peace between the schools, is there anything that went wrong?" Alexandra asked, she continued to look at the clouds gathering around, she was trying to figure out what the future held for her and what this was going to tell her.
"We tried but it's only a matter of time before the first shots will be fired and we will all have to fight each other." Megumi told her. Then a beeping sound was heard like a car horn. Megumi and Alexandra looked at the road to spot an armored car meandering its way into the scene. Megumi looked up as the crew performed their exercises, the machine gun in the armored car opened fire in bursts, taking out a couple of stationary targets. Alexandra looked on as she was interested.
"Armored cars, when did you get them?" Alexandra asked, the armored car continued on its way as it went to continue its practice.
"We bought the first few and then the armory produced the rest, we placed an order for more and we're going to wait for them to materialize." Megumi told Alexandra. Alexandra began to think about it, and she nodded and strangely smiled.
"I'm probably one of the more traditional students of Saunders but your motorization efforts I actually do end up liking, these would be used to make breakthroughs and the cavalry will attack the rear and logistics." Alexandra admitted that even though she was more of a cavalry fan, she actually did end up liking the sight of the armored car. Megumi nodded before she turned to Alexandra.
"We've also been experimenting with armored trains too. We were wondering if there was going to be any big war, we should have a mobile hospital and artillery with some support to the field. It will be our form of speedy defense and it will help us get from place to place." Megumi explained that they will not just stop at armored cars.
"How many armored trains does Saunders have?" Alexandra asked.
"Two armored steam locomotives and ten armored carriages, some fitted with machine guns, some fitted with artillery. Kay made the order for them, but we haven't seen much use for them." Megumi explained what exactly was going on. Alexandra nodded as Saunders was using everything to get themselves prepared for war.
"If the storm is bound to strike, we should continue increasing the production in the hope that we should be ready to fend them off." Alexandra felt like her words were teetering on the point that things were going to spill over, and they needed to open up the armory and arm the students with what they had available.
"We just don't know when, the day that passes today is the indicator that we have survived it. Nothing will happen and when things will go on. We should use every moment to put the entire school on high alert." Megumi admitted.
"I sense your tense posture. Are you sure that war is bound to happen during this week?" Alexandra asked Megumi.
"I don't know for sure but by the looks of things, there will be a strong chance that god will say yes." Megumi gave her answer, she wasn't sure about it, but she knew it was going to happen. Alexandra nodded and began to ask something completely unrelated to the conversation.
"Where's Lola?" Alexandra asked Megumi.
"She's in my room and that is where you are going. It is to avoid suspicion from Kay that I am harboring fugitives and criminals against the school." Megumi told Alexandra that she was going to join her friend in the room where she hoped they were going to be safe.
"Okay then." Alexandra smiled at Megumi. She hadn't seen Lola in what seemed to be an eternity. Megumi smiled back to Alexandra, and she began to lead her to her dorm.
Megumi leads Alexandra to her dorm room. Megumi inserted the key and unlocked the door. She opened it to see Lola was lounging out on her bed and reading a book. Alexandra's face lit up happily before she began speaking.
"Lola! How is my favorite writer doing?" Alexandra asked. She ran up and gave the first-year girl a hug. Lola hugged Alexandra back as Megumi watched, the three of them were finally reunited.
"I haven't been writing for a while ever since I tried to put a warning label on the soda bottles. Megumi told me to stop writing to avoid any detection from Kay. She is pretty much hiding me." Lola explained to Alexandra that Megumi was hiding her away.
"Keeping her safe… I see." Alexandra responded. Megumi sighed. Taking care of Lola inside of her dorm was hard enough but having Alexandra stay with her and Lola was going to be a hard task. She didn't know where they were going to sleep.
"This room could barely sleep two people, let alone three." Megumi was trying to figure out where they were going to have Alexandra. Alexandra began to think as she was taking a survey of the room.
"I wonder if we can fit an air mattress in here. It will help sleep up to three students. Two of us will sleep in the bed and one on the air mattress." Alexandra suggested. There was a large space between the bed and the wall. Megumi looked to see that she was right.
"It will be a little awkward to try not stepping on each other as this isn't such a spacious room." Megumi seemed to be a little pessimistic about this working out, but she was willing to give it a try. Megumi went into her closet and pulled out the air mattress she used on a few occasions. She got it out and found the pump. She began to blow the mattress up for Alexandra while Lola stepped in to help out. Megumi was grateful for the help. "Thank you." Megumi told Lola as she was helping blow the air mattress. Alexandra watched as the air mattress was blown up full of air and it was now snug. Megumi tossed an extra pillow down for Alexandra to rest her head on. She also tossed down the decorative blanket she had on her bed for display, but that blanket came in handy when they had extra guests over.
"Don't be. As long as it's just the three of us and we help out in any way we can, we should be fine." Alexandra told Megumi to not worry about it. Megumi sighed as she began to think about what to do next. She was hoping for a phone call from either Mahou, Sofia or Milica about the situation of the current war. Finally, the phone began to ring. Megumi went over to the phone and picked it up.
"Hello?" Megumi began the conversation. She waited for a moment in silence before the person on the other side began speaking.
"Hey there Megumi, sorry for keeping you waiting, I just finished meeting With Sofia, Mahou and Ankara. Sofia lost the war, but we decided to not punish her severely as she wasn't the one that started this war to begin with. We ended up winning though Sofia decided to make peace with Kebab in a completely separate meeting." Milica began. The Second Balkan War had ended with the coalition completely defeating Yogurt Academy.
"Okay I'm glad the war is over and your ties with Yogurt Academy?" Megumi asked, she didn't know what the present ties with the school were going to be. Milica began to think about it for a moment before she began speaking.
"The coalition has dissolved as everyone wants more from their neighbor to the detriment of the others. And because of the dissolution, we have potentially no allies. We actually fear that Gisela would use the chaos from the war to take advantage of us and gobble us, the Serbian Gang down like what she did with the Bosnia and Herzegovina Gangs before us. We need a way to counter her so we can be able to resist her while someone comes to our rescue for the days to come. War is coming." Milica explained to Megumi that their greatest enemy was right on their doorstep, and they were making preparations to attack. Megumi began to think about what exactly was going to happen before she began speaking.
"I'll arrange a meeting tomorrow that would put your gang under our protection. And by the looks of things. We could use another ally as we have been branching out to the other schools to make friends. We will guarantee the independence of your gang." Megumi told Milica that she had her back. Milica who was listening to the other side of the conversation began speaking again.
"When do you want to hold the meeting?" Milica asked Megumi if she had any ideas on when they were going to meet up and possibly smooth the tension out.
"Tomorrow morning." Megumi told Milica.
"Okay." Milica told Megumi before hanging up. Megumi nodded as they had a meeting arranged to see if they could get Milica on their side. However, that wasn't the only phone call that Megumi was going to get. Moments later, the phone began to ring, and Megumi decided to pick it up to see who it was out of curiosity.
"Hello?" Megumi began.
"Hey, it's Mahou again and you heard the victory of the war?" Mahou began speaking to Megumi. Megumi began to think about it before she began speaking again.
"Yeah, Milica told me a couple moments before. Plus, she has arranged a meeting with the school tomorrow morning so we're going to have our hands full about it." Megumi explained to Mahou about the previous phone call she had with Milica. Mahou nodded as she began speaking again.
"Yes, it's also clear Rumi, Azumi, Alexei and we want in on the meeting as well. We are starting to make our decisions as the schools around us are beginning to boil. This war out of recent memory is making us tense for what is about to come. We would like to know what your plans are and how we can prepare ourselves." Mahou explained to Megumi that her current allies as well as Count High School want to jump in and find out what Megumi planned on doing. Megumi knew that she was going to have her hands packed again compared to yesterday. Kay wasn't responsible so she was juggling out all of the work.
"Will you be coming over Mahou?" Megumi asked the commander of Count High School if she was going to be there.
"Me and Noemi are going to be busy with some exercises. We're sending Ileana to represent us and figure out what is going on. Plus, she is also telling us to side with Saunders as our relationship with the Dual Alliance over Transylvania still runs deep." Mahou explained why they wouldn't be attending in person and who they were sending over to represent them. Megumi nodded before she began speaking again.
"Okay. Come over tomorrow and we shall decide on what to do going forward." Megumi told Mahou that Ileana was free to come over and attend the meeting. Mahou nodded.
"Well, we got to go, catch you later." Mahou then hung up before Megumi knew what was going on, her meeting with Milica was going to be an alliance wide affair. Megumi had a lot to cover and talk about.
A rock had been dropped into space, but gravity was pulling the rock closer and closer to the Sensha-Do schools and that rock was war.
That night on the ship of the Dual Alliance, several students slipped into a run-down cafe as they were waiting for someone to come. Then the door opened as one of the students slipped in. She was carrying a package. She set the package down on the table and began to open the package. Inside of the package was a single piece of paper, a newspaper clipping. The other girls hushed each other as the girl who brought the package in, leaned forward for a better view. Another girl slid a candle forward to light up the room better so they could see what the newspaper clipping said. Circled in red, the headline read thus:
The Archduke and his Wife to Visit Sarajevo.
[A/N]: Leaving this on a cliffhanger as this would begin to mean something and it's another event that happens in the long and winding road that will be the downfall of Saunders and with this new event, war is beginning to speed up and each chapter that passes, that chance only becomes greater and greater. The cliffhanger in the end is what is about to come in the next chapter.
Megumi is reassuring Milica that she will defend the Serbian Gang; Alexandra returns from exile though she is mostly hiding away for the time being and The Second Balkan War has ended. However, there is still more and things are only heating up more and more.