The night before, Milica and her haggard looking group had been sitting in their office. They had received the ultimatum and had spent the day debating on how to reply to this.
"Just give in to all of her demands. There is no way that we will be able to win a war with Gisela head on." Milica told the group that they were defeated. They were about to accept all demands when she turned to the door, a notice had slipped under. "Wait." Milica told the group. She walked over and picked up the letter that had slipped under the door. She took it back to the table and she opened the envelope. Inside was some news: Saunders was beginning to mobilize. "Change the reply. Gisela will be in for a surprise."
Gisela was reading the ultimatum to see what they had agreed to, and it read thus:
(1) To suppress any publication which incites to hatred and contempt of the Dual-Alliance Monarchy. (+)
(2) To dissolve immediately the group named "Narodna Odbrana," to confiscate all its means of propaganda, and to proceed in the same manner against other societies and their branches in Serbia which engage in propaganda against the Dual-Alliance Monarchy. (+)
(3) To eliminate without delay from public instruction in Serbian school propaganda against The Dual Alliance. (+)
(4) To remove from the military service all officers guilty of propaganda against the Dual-Alliance Monarchy. (+)
(5) To accept the collaboration in the Serbian themed school of representatives of the Dual-Alliance Government for the suppression of the subversive movement directed against the territorial integrity of the Monarchy. (+)
(6) To take judicial proceedings against accessories to the plot of the 28th of June who are on Serbian gang's territory; delegates of the Dual-Alliance Government will take part in the investigation relating thereto. (X)
(7) To proceed without delay to the arrest of Major Voija Tankositch and of the individual named Milan Ciganovitch, a Serbian School employee, who have been compromised by the results of the magisterial inquiry at Sarajevo. (+)
(8) To prevent by effective measures the cooperation of the Serbian authorities in the illicit traffic in arms and explosives across the frontier. (+)
(9) To furnish the Imperial and Royal Government with explanations regarding the unjustifiable utterances of high Serbian officials, both in Serbian Gang's school and abroad, who, notwithstanding their official position, have not hesitated since the crime of the 28th of June to express themselves in interviews in terms of hostility to the Dual-Alliance Government. (+)
(10) To notify the Imperial and Royal Government without delay of the execution of the measures comprised under the preceding heads. (+)
Gisela read it over. Milica had agreed to nine out of her ten demands. The only demand she disagreed on was allowing their police to investigate the assassination on their school property. Then Gisela noticed a small note taped to the bottom of the paper. She removed the tape and unfolded the note. The note was written by Milica personally. It said: If you don't find our terms and/or reasons to be fair, we're more than willing to submit to the resolution of a conference. Gisela felt her blood beginning to boil. She hated conferences as she was always getting outvoted at those things. Gisela was livid at the reply that Milica wanted to have a conference and there was the possibility of getting outvoted. Well, no more for Gisela, not this time. She knew she needed to speak to Kuromorimine for advice. Manami was still with her family, so she contacted Runa who was busy getting her school ready.
"Hey there Gisela. You seem angry." Runa began the conversation.
"It's what the Serbian Gang sent in their reply. Milica wants a conference and I refuse to accept it as she will probably outvote me at those things. I want war with her at this point." Gisela told Runa about what she had got. Runa was apoplectic.
"What, you haven't declared war already? Five days have gone by, get on with it! This isn't what we agreed to, we're losing the sympathies of the people!" Runa shouted at Gisela that she was taking her time. When the assassination took place, while all the schools were enraged by this assassination, it was impossible to defend the Serbian gang. But now five days had passed and this reply to the ultimatum and the call for mediation made Milica and the Serbian Gang seem to sound like the most reasonable people. After all, what more could Gisela want?
"I'll go declare war now if I have to. I was waiting for the ultimatum to get back to me." Gisela told Runa that she was going to get her war, but things kept getting in the way. She then left the chat with Runa and decided for the first time to contact Conrad, the chief of staff of the army of Ausztria-Magyar, the Dual-Alliance's middle school counterparts. "Hello Conrad."
"Hey there Gisela. Anything you want to talk to me about?" Conrad asked Gisela if there was something they needed to talk about.
"Have you been following the story of the assassination followed by the ultimatum and I think something big is going to go down." Gisela tried her best to ask Conrad if he was familiar with what was going on.
"Yes, I would say so, but do you have an idea on what is about to happen?" Conrad asked Gisela if she had any ideas of what they were going to do.
"I was wondering from one friend to another, do you want to join the war with us?" Gisela asked Conrad if he was ready to join in on the event if this was going to go down. Conrad, much like Runa, was also apoplectic.
"What declare war, are you kidding me? YOU NEEDED TO TELL US DAYS AGO IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANTED TO DO!" Conrad shouted at Gisela. "My school's army won't be ready for another week or so! Plus, we don't know who we're mobilizing against! You want us to declare war on the Serbian gang?! YEAH, NOT WHEN SAUNDERS IS MOBILIZED AGAINST US WE AREN'T! Get us a guarantee of Saunders neutrality and maybe, maybe we can talk about mobilizing against the Serbs." Conrad felt his fury calm down. Gisela left the chat as she felt like she was in a tough spot. Pressured towards war by Runa, Conrad screaming at Gisela that his entire school's army wasn't ready. She began to think. The day wore on as Gisela continued to think. As the hours grew into the night, she began to reason with herself.
"Declaring war isn't the same as being at war." Gisela began to speak. She knew if she could declare war now, she could play Kuromorimine to her advantage and use that threat to capitulate Milica and the Serbian gang before she even needed Conrad's army to be ready to fight. Now we all can see this for the desperate rationalization that it is. We've all at one time or another gotten ourselves into an impossible situation and let ourselves believe that some wild hair-brained solution will surely fix everything but when we do it, the fate of the world isn't usually hanging in the balance. And so, the next morning, Gisela declares war on the Serbian Gang all the while believing she was going to bring peace by declaring war.
That morning that Gisela had declared war; the bus pulled up. Runa was standing on the side as the Kuromorimine commander stepped down. Manami had come back. Runa followed her and the first thing she did was go to her office. Manami sat down and picked up a copy of Milica's reply to Gisela's ultimatum and began to read it to herself. After a couple of moments, she dropped the paper and began to speak.
"With this every reason for war drops a way." Manami muttered. She knew that Gisela was pushing herself too far and she needed to get her to stop it. She knew she needed to go back out. Manami decided to head to the Dual Alliance to get them to call off the war. She planned to reason with Gisela and see if they could come to some solution. When she arrived, Solti greeted her.
"Gisela has declared war and we're mobilizing for the conflict." Solti began. Manami nodded and she knew she had to get Gisela to call it off. Manami decided to try small talk with them.
"I know." Manami replied. She walked off as she knew she needed to do her best to do what she knew best.
An hour later, Manami had gotten a stage together with the Dual Alliance's best students. The curtain opened with Manami holding a puppet with her one hand, the puppet was a dopey dragon with a crown on its head holding a peace sign.
"Listen everyone, we know that this was inevitable, but we need to be able to work together and not fire off the first shots at each other. We shouldn't be able to waste our lives in bloodshed that will be pointless. We need to be able to work together and perhaps try planning for peace." Manami began trying to bring her puppet to life. The students weren't buying her tactics as she knew she had to switch them up. "We have to try to come to some sort of agreement with Milica to prevent ourselves from trying to take over the Balkans. I say we will try to hold a conference." Finally, the crowd from the Dual Alliance began throwing rocks at Manami who was trying her best to hold a peace talk to try to get the war to be called out. They were having none of it. After several rocks were thrown, Manami decided to give up and head back to Kuromorimine to discuss further action to try to get the other great schools from pouncing in and adding fuel to the fire.
Manami returned to Kuromorimine as she was having a meeting with Runa. She had a couple of bruises where the rocks had struck her.
"They aren't listening to me. I tried to open peace talks with the group, but they decided they wanted nothing of it. So, after much thinking I have decided to make a novel solution to the crisis. Halt in Belgrade." Manami told Runa that her new plan was to have the Dual Alliance just take over the capital of the Serbian gang as it was just a short walk from the entrances of the school. "If they could occupy the capital, they can declare victory of the war but also show the other schools that they don't plan to annex the Serbian gang. Solti told me the condition that they will not annex a foot of their land and we can do it quickly to perhaps keep Saunders out of the war." Manami knew the idea was fool proof. However, there was one problem, this letter needed to go to Gisela and Manami didn't want to go back.
"Well, you should have told me about this when you went to the Dual Alliance about this and there is no need to go back." Runa told Manami that the letter needed to go to Gisela, but Manami didn't want to have a repeat of what was to happen.
"Pass it along to agents and don't tell Gisela that try to not adopt it too hard. I'm just hoping this works in our favor." Manami gave Runa the news as one of the agents came in. Runa finished packing the plans up and passed it to the agent.
"Pass these to the agents of the Dual Alliance to give it to Gisela. I'm pretty skeptical about the Halt in Belgrade plan working but if it works, we can avoid a big war." Runa told the agent. The agent nodded and took the letter and departed. Runa and Gisela were hoping for this to work.
Meanwhile in Saunders, the sun was setting, and Alexandra, Lola and Megumi were on the edge. Suddenly a mad knocking was heard. Alexandra went over to the door and opened it. The student sounded frantic, and she began giving the news.
"The Dual Alliance is shelling Belgrade!" She began. These reports were false of course, Conrad's entire school wasn't going to be ready for another week or so, but Alexandra and her friends had no way of knowing about this.
"Time to let the dam break, I want war with Gisela." Alexandra told the student as she looked at Megumi.
"Tell her to give the order, we're going to war with the Dual Alliance." Alexandra told Megumi to contact Kay and give the order to begin the war. Megumi nodded and she decided to go over to Kay. Megumi arrived a few minutes later before she sat down with Kay.
"Kay it's time. We need to give the order to announce that we're declaring war against the Dual Alliance." Megumi told Kay. She slid a piece of paper to Kay and Kay grabbed a pen. She knew that the time had come, and she signed her name into the paper. General war had been ordered. Megumi got up and began walking away. Kay didn't know if she was going to make the right choice by having Saunders declare war.
Nighttime came and Kay couldn't sleep over the decision she made. She rolled around to see the alarm clock. It was 1:00 AM. She didn't know what she was getting herself into and she was worried about dragging Kuromorimine into the war. She decided to get up and opened up the computer and she knew she had to contact Manami and give her the urgent message and try to get her attention.
Am glad you are back. In this most serious moment, I appeal to you to help me. An ignoble war has been declared upon a weak gang. The indignation in Saunders, shared fully by me, is enormous. I foresee that very soon I shall be overwhelmed by the pressure upon me and be forced to take extreme measures which will lead to war. To try and avoid such a calamity as a School-wide war, I beg you in the name of our old friendship to do what you can to stop your allies from going too far.
Kay.
Kay had pressed send to Manami and she was going to reach out to her personally to see if they could avoid this war. She wanted to make sure that they would see each other not as leaders of their schools but mostly friends, ordinary teenagers living their lives. Kay was waiting around for a couple of minutes waiting for a reply from Manami and after three minutes of sending the message, Kay got her reply from Manami.
Immediate affirmative, clear and unmistakable answer from your school is the only way to avoid endless misery. Until I have received this answer alas, I am unable to discuss the subject of your telegram. As a matter of fact, I must request you to immediately order your troops on no account to commit the slightest act of trespassing over our frontiers.
Manami
Kay read the message over. Manami was clearly awake too and was sending the messages out to her. Kay read the letter as Manami was unable to come to a clear conclusion but now with the message being sent. They knew they were going to deal person to person to see if they could avoid this war. Kay began to type, and she sent this to Manami.
Thanks for your message, conciliatory and friendly. Whereas the official message presented today by your ambassador to my minister was conveyed in a very different tone. Beg you to explain this divergency! It would be right to give over the Austro-serbian problem to the Hague conference. Trust in your wisdom and friendship.
Kay
A flurry of messages would go back and forth. They still hoped they could avoid the war and have a conference. This would continue for a few minutes before Kay decided to fall back asleep. That morning, Kay, having some vigor, decided to tell Megumi to call it off. War needed to be avoided at all costs. She picked up the phone and called Megumi
"Megumi, I would like to make a request." Kay began. Megumi picked up the phone back and it was Kay that was trying to call her.
"What is it?" Megumi would ask Kay. She decided to speak to her about it.
"I would like to cancel the mobilization." Kay told Megumi that overall mobilization was going to get called off. Megumi began to splutter that calling off the mobilization meant that they were going to have to do it.
"What, you're crazy. You know the consequences of calling off mobilization means what we're going to have to do?" Megumi asked about what was going to happen if they called off the mobilization. Kay knew she had to be firm as the leader of Saunders for her words.
"Cancel it." Kay told Megumi before she hung up the phone. Megumi knew that Kay had overridden Alexandra's order and now this left Megumi speechless. She decided to head to Alexandra to tell her about what exactly had happened. Megumi found Alexandra a couple minutes later and began speaking.
"Alexandra, I have some news from Kay. She had given the order to cancel the mobilization." Megumi began speaking to Alexandra about it. Alexandra froze because of what Megumi had just said. She was shocked. Kay was the one who was willing to go behind her back and call off the war that she so desperately wanted to protect Milica and the Serbian gang from. However, she didn't get the memo about the Halt in Belgrade plan.
Megumi, Alexandra and Lola decide to meet with Kay personally along with the Patriarch of the Orthodox church and they go down for a knockdown-dragout meeting with Kay. It was crowded, hot in the room, talks were going nowhere. Kay decides to pause, and she walked off to the window and began staring out of it. Snow covered the school grounds, almost if it was a contrast to the hot and stuffy room. She wanted to open these windows, but she couldn't. She continued to stare out the window for the next few minutes before coming to no conclusion on her reflection. Lola got up and walked over to Kay as she wanted to talk to her. She felt like Kay was going in circles and she needed her to come to some kind of conclusion.
"Kay, we know how difficult it must be for you to decide." Lola told Kay. Without intention, these words sliced through Kay's happy exterior. Kay for her time as leader of Saunders was called a weak, indecisive and feckless leader and she hated it. She grabbed her fist and banged it on the window. She wanted to shake off all of those names that she had been called for so long. She wanted to show her school that she wasn't someone who followed her friend's middle school who also couldn't make up her own mind and went off to party. With Lola's words, Kay finally turned around and said:
"I will sign the order." Kay told them. Alexandra and Megumi nodded; they were going to finally have their war after all.
Back in Kuromorimine, they were starting to make progress with their plan.
"We're actually making progress with the Halt in Belgrade plan. Earl Gray has even shown her support." Manami told Runa and Gisela that they were coming around to help this. Gisela still seemed skeptical about this as she didn't.
"I won't accept this." Gisela told them. Manami and Runa looked at her in their computer screens as they were wondering why. "I can't accept this unless Saunders halts their mobilization."
"What's the status of Saunders?" Runa asked Manami. Manami began to think about it as she wanted to figure out what Saunders was doing.
"Saunders is still mobilized and we think she might launch her attack on Gisela and the school." Manami explained to Runa that Saunders was still prepared for war whatever way they were.
"Wait, they're still mobilized?" Gisela asked as she wanted to see if they were still geared up for a war.
"Yep." Manami told her. She began thinking about Megumi and Alexandra, the two girls she had close ties with and by the looks of things. She knew she couldn't trust Gisela fully but there was something that was bothering her. She turned to Runa before silencing Gisela.
"All of the MEXT schools are being thrown into a lethal Catch-22 in these last few days. It's still thought that if we arrive first and be ready for battle while our opponents are arriving, we will just crush them every time and much like Conrad told us, mobilization can take days to complete. It is a herculean task to move the hundreds of students and supplies that would make up a school army. If the Dual Alliance stops mobilization and the Serbian Gang or Saunders attacks, they would be crushed. However, if Saunders cancels mobilization and we or Gisela attacks, Saunders would have lost without a fight so Saunders cannot stop mobilization." Manami explained the situation to Runa that the schools have to either mobilize or lose the war.
"But if Saunders mobilizes, then that means we have to mobilize too or face the same dilemma." Runa explained that with Saunders preparing for war, they needed to prepare too or risk getting left behind. Manami began speaking again.
"Yeah, but with us mobilized, what can BC Freedom do but mobilize themselves?" Manami asked as Saunders was allies with BC Freedom and they would most likely declare war on them if Kuromorimine harmed Saunders in this. "After all, the victory we snatched from them in the beginning of the year must've taught Azumi a hard, bitter lesson on what happens if she arrived at the field too slowly and she will not be making that same mistake again."
"The dominoes are beginning to fall?" Runa asked Manami. Manami began to think about it for a moment.
"They are but we still have Kirishima and maybe she could ask Alexandra one last time to have her call off the mobilization. She has the desire but not the means to play her part in avoiding this crisis." Manami told Runa that Kirishima was still at Saunders, and they could probably have her have one last meeting with Alexandra and try to convince her to call off the mobilization.
Alexandra was in her office when she heard a knocking on the door. Alexandra walked over and opened it up. It was Kirishima at the door, and she wanted to speak to Alexandra.
"Hey, how are you doing?" Alexandra greeted her with a smile.
"I'm doing good, but I have one request." Kirishima told Alexandra how she was doing but she had one thing to ask her about.
"What's that?" Alexandra asked Kirishima if she had to say her request.
"Call off the general mobilization." Kirishima began. Alexandra knew Kirishima was going to say this and she knew she wanted to be there for her allies.
"No." Alexandra replied. She wasn't going to have the school demobilized as Gisela could declare war on her. Kirishima began to heat up as if she was trying to make a plea to Alexandra.
"For god sake's Alexandra, there will be no winner in this war." Kirishima began. "If we fight, it will be revolution, it will be the end of Sensha-Do as we know it, it could be the end of us both. Won't you please call off this madness?" Kirishima tried her best to get Alexandra to reconsider her decision, which could have some destructive results. Alexandra looked back to Kirishima as she had one word for her.
"No." Alexandra told Kirishima, her decision was final, and she was sticking to it. Kirishima then dropped to her knees and began to plead:
"If you do this, it will be slaughter, I beg of you in the name that is all right and decent, call off this mobilization." Kirishima tried her best to get Alexandra to change her mind on the matters. Alexandra began to think about this. Alexandra turned her head back around and she looked at Kirishima.
"No." Alexandra replied. Then Kirishima rose up to her feet and grabbed a piece of paper from her uniform pocket. She then passed it to Alexandra.
"Well in this case I have the honor to inform you that… we're at war." Kirishima told Alexandra before handing her the slip of paper. Alexandra took the paper, but she felt Kirishima still felt unable to collect herself and she continued to speak. "I don't know how I'll be able to leave Saunders like this. I don't know how I'll be able to pack." Alexandra felt bad for Kirishima as Saunders and Kuromorimine were potentially at war with each other.
"Don't worry, I'll send someone to help gather your things. It was nice chatting with you." Alexandra told Kirishima that someone will go and help gather her belongings. Kirishima left the scene as Alexandra was left alone in her room, unable to gather herself. She then began speaking to herself. "One month from now, a million men are going to die. The Seminal Catastrophe has begun." Alexandra was feeling the regret of her decision. Even though she wanted to protect her ally, Saunders wasn't ready to prepare for the war to come.
War was here.
End of part 3
[A/N]: Part 3 was such a big drag for me as this took much of the summer to complete and now with that season winding down, I feel like no one is reading, everyone is heading back to school and therefore they have mobilized their students for another year. Another year of learning for some and another year of war on their minds. And with war now having finally arrived, the schools are eager to use their new toys to try them out on each other.
This would be the beginning of the 61st Sensha-Do tournament or as I like to call it: "1914-1918." Saunders was a key contributor to the war as they just wanted to protect their allies but now with Milica in their alliance and BC Freedom backing them up. They seem to be ready, but they don't know what it means to be prepared. Part 4 will be the war entirety until something happens to Saunders.
Let me know how Part 3 has been and what I should do for Part 4. I have to get going now. See you later.