Chapter 6

Traf sighed in relief, when his feet landed back on the floor of Oarai's ship. To his surprise, a very angry Miho stood just ten feet away from the platform. "Where have you been?!" she shouted/asked and sent chills down his spine. "I just went searching for some crew members and accidentally bumped into your sister." Well, that was a half-truth. "And she still cares about you." And a full one.

The brunette blinked. Her anger slowly disappeared from her features. He grabbed his new bag, shaped like a Tiger I (courtesy of the Nishizumis before he left) and walked towards his house. SMACK! His right cheek burned. "What was that for?!" he asked the culprit. "For making the whole team worried sick. Your letter wasn't that much helpful."

Traf mentally shrugged. Well, at least I tried. For the rest of his trip back home, he tried his best to avoid the other girls. Heh. It feels similar to my try to avoid Sangou and Mauko's groups… he realized with a smirk. And he picked up his apartment's keys from one of his many inner pockets of the tanker jacket.

He opened the door and let out a sigh. Since I'm back home, I should go buy new clothes, some supplies to clean my apartment and most importantly, food. He put down the backpack, walked right into his kitchen and snatched part of the money pile.

Miho and Instructor Chono arrived at the Oarai Girls High School's tank garage, only to see a golden Panzer 38 (t), a pink M3 Lee and a red and yellow StuG III with flags of all things on its hull. The Type 89B I-Go had a white text on the sides, but it was good enough to pass as an unfinished winter camouflage. But, the Panzer IV D still had its default Panzergrau without a hint of another color.

The youngest Nishizumi silently thanked whatever deity she could think of at the moment and giggled a bit. She turned to her mother's friend just in time to notice a very small smile that appeared for a split second on her face. "Th-that's not right! They just broke all rules of camouflaging a tank!" Yukari shouted suddenly.

Miho coughed to gain their attention and the girls turned to her. "Yukari-san is right. Large objects on the hull, golden or pink as the color of your tank… these factors will scream: 'I am here!' at the enemy. But, I am not my mother to punish you for this." The sudden unease, her statement caused, shifted away a second later.

Before she could say anything else, a ripping sound echoed on the small area before the garages. She turned her head towards it and saw Trafalgar removing the duct tape from the perfectly painted Tiger I's number designation. There also were two big bags near the hull. So, he was shopping… she realized immediately.

He turned to them and smiled slightly. Miho almost told her crew to go after him, but decided to not do it. She already gave him a suitable punishment for his actions, but not whole and now was the time to complete it. You wanted me to be like this, so face the consequences. "Trafalgar!" Miho called with a smirk forming on her lips.

As expected, he turned to her with a confused stare, which immediately turned into a fearful expression. "For sneaking out from training, no matter your excuse, you will run ten rounds around the garages and then take apart and put back together the Maybach HL 230 engine. Without help. If I notice you slacking or trying to get help, you will take apart your whole tank." She noticed that he paled and blinked several times.

"Jawohl, mein Kommandant!" Trafalgar saluted and ran towards the garages. "M-Miporin…" She turned to Saori. "...you scare me." Damn it! I overdid it and almost became like Okaa-sama… she realized and shook her head. "He needs discipline, Saori. This may happen in the future, but not too often. Also, he wanted me to act like a real Nishizumi. Now, I used the kindest punishment I could think of." The girl nodded at that explanation.

"I wonder, if there are any upgrades for our tanks or some more models…" she heard the boy mutter, when he passed around her. It would make sense to find more tanks and maybe a better canon for Panzer IV. And with that in mind, she turned to the Student council president and shared the suspicion with her.

Renta almost screamed in anger. The boy somehow got the only thing that no one can ever get: tank ownership papers and even had the guts to sneak onto Kuromorimine carrier to either search for crew members or sabotage their tanks! He must not join the Tournament and Oarai must be closed. I don't care about the consequences!

But, those were only a few of his thoughts. The rest involved dealing with that incompetent fool of a headmaster that was stationed on Oarai's school carrier and wiping out the Nishizumi name. If Shiho and her daughters die in an 'accident', I wouldn't have to worry about them. The Shimada family is next on the list. That powerhouses of Sensha-Do must perish to gain complete control of the rules!

He turned on his PC and prepared the numbers of the main schools, so Oarai will be forced to fight against either Pravda, Anzio, Kuromorimine or Saunders. And better thing: let Kuromorimine use the Maus before the finals. Even a Nishizumi will fail against it! he thought and didn't bother to hide his giant smirk. He will succeed even if Oaria somehow wins the Tournament and against the University.

They don't know that I erased evidence of Oarai having more than nine tanks and that I sold the other 11 tanks to Kuromorimine and Pravda. Who would notice that they lost some T-34/76s and Panther ausf. As? No one from the staff of the affected schools. And the students too.

Traf was very tired, when he finally reached his apartment with the bags that held his first stash of food, clothes, cleaning supplies, new tool kit and a First Aid kit. I should start looking for a part-time job… he reminded himself almost immediately. The shopping trip cost him a quite impressive amount of yen that God sent him.

He sighed and grabbed an instant ramen bowl. He searched for a pic with a microwave on it to avoid overheating the bowl. His knowledge of Japanese language was still at the level of a clueless foreigner, so pictures were his only hope of understanding a part of the language. If only I paid more attention to the Tamiya model sets… There was one of those Chinese or Japanese alphabets. Well, better luck next time.

He smiled, when a picture of a microwave entered his eyesight. But, it quickly faded. WHY?! I don't know if those letters mean minutes, seconds or hours! he thought and shook his head. There was only one way to get the answer: do or do not. He sighed and put it into the microwave and set the timer on three minutes.

He walked back to the main hall and grabbed the bag with clothes. It was heavy, but he had enough clothes for several occasions now (except marriages and other similar events of course). He put the bag near his bed and chose to only take out fresh underwear, socks, working trousers and a shirt. I'll sort the clothes later. Getting the food into the fridge and eating is a priority for me now.

And he walked out from his bedroom, only to hear the timer beeping. Never before he was more grateful for hearing it.

Maho and Erika were overseeing two Panther crews that were not careful and scratched some paint on them. Their punishment was scratching the rest of the paint and repainting the Panthers. The Kommandant of Kuromorimine Girls High School Sensha-Do team suddenly noticed a glimpse of almost faded blue and white markings on both Panthers. What the…?! she thought and walked towards them, Erika in tow with a confused look on her face.

"Go get mein Okaa-sama." One of the unfortunate girls nodded and dashed away. "These Panthers are second-hand. Okaa-sama should know which school sold them to us." Of course, there were only a few things that she didn't know. The school symbol was one of them. But, she had a strange feeling, as if it was connected to something… or rather someone she knew.

They waited for about five minutes, when her mother arrived. Maho wordlessly pointed at the symbols and noticed that the emotionless and cold Shiho Nishizumi showed surprise for a second. "Those symbols… are pointing at the former owner. It was Oarai Girls High School, but how and why did these tanks get here?" she muttered. Oarai?! That means… Miho's current school! Maho realized.

"The color is almost faded. They could be here for five or more years…" Shiho continued muttering and suddenly stopped. The air around her started to be unbreathable, when Maho knew that her mother started releasing something. It was dormant for almost 10 years… until now. Killing intent… Okaa-sama is really pissed at someone. But, it disappeared almost instantly. "Someone forced Oarai to stop their Sensha-Do activities five years ago and their tanks disappeared in the same manner as the teams that were operating them…"

Maho gulped. 60-100 girls went missing?! How did no one notice that? she thought and got an idea. "Okaa-sama?" Her mother looked at her. "We should create an all-boy crew too, but only for unofficial matches. With more than one boy crew in Sensha-Do, we will force those, who were behind the Oarai disappearances to make a move again and expose them." Erika and the other girls shared a surprised look, but Shiho Nishizumi nodded slightly as an approval for the idea with a hidden message in her eyes.

Assam stared in disbelief at the message from her Kuromorimine contact. After five years, two of the lost tanks of Oarai were found by pure luck. She grabbed one of blank sheets of papers and wrote down the Oarai tanks (without the Tiger I) and the two found Panthers. She knew already that the school had originally 20 tanks, but they disappeared without a trace five years ago.

She grabbed another sheet of paper. That one had all tank transfers of about five years ago. There were five Panther ausf. As and six T-34/76s transferred for free from an unknown source to both Pravda and Kuromorimine. That means that Oarai tanks were stolen and sent to the two powerhouses. Hmm… but there is no word about the other four tanks. These were important news for the spymaster of St. Gloriana.

I should contact Darjeeling-chan about this. No. I must do it! she thought and grabbed her phone. Assam immediately found the correct contact and touched the 'call' button. "Yes, Assam-sama?" a sleepy voice of Darjeeling asked after a few seconds. "I have some distressing news about the Oarai case from five years ago." "Oarai case?" Assam sighed and told her everything that she and her predecessor found out.

"...and I believe that it is somehow connected to Renta Tsuji's plan of closing Oarai." "Well, we got too deep into this mess now. Our safest bet is to play that we know nothing." Assam agreed and ended the call. The less people know, the safer it is for us to find a solution for this case.

Takashi was waiting for the right train to get him to Oarai, when a chopper landed next to him. It had the symbol of St. Gloriana on it. He stared dumbfounded on it, but a voice got him out of that state. "Get in! We know who you are and where you are going!" He nodded and rushed in with his medium-sized trunk.

Inside were only two other people. One of them was a girl and the other one a boy. Both had pink hair and the boy also had a trunk. It was lying next to him and had a St. Gloriana symbol embedded on top of it. "Hey mate," the boy started like he was an old friend of his. "Hey." The girl sat in the pilot's chair and started the engine as they awkwardly started at each other.

"We're in a hurry to get you both to your destination. The name's Rosehip by the way." Takashi blinked. He only heard about the energetic girl from St. Gloriana, who always ignored some orders and somehow disabled her tank's speed limiter. "Oh no…" he muttered and suddenly, the chopper flew three times faster than before.

"I heard stories about her. And they were not exaggerated." The boy chuckled. "Onee-sama is sometimes even worse than the stories say." Takashi blinked. He is… her brother?! he thought. "My name is Takashi and I have a yandere girl from Saunders on me." The pinkette looked behind her. "You mean that Alisa girl? She often uses dirty tactics when she is in battle."

Takashi shook his head at that. I should better start avoiding her from now on. "And I am George. Glad to meet you, Takashi." The boy silently thanked the newly named George for breaking the awkward silence again. "We'll reach our destination in two hours, but you'll have to wait another three for the first morning transport to pick you up. Darjeeling-sama ordered me to get you there ASAP. Finally an order that I like!" Rosehip announced and left Takashi to wonder about her sanity. She could be either hyperactive or she just drinks too much energy drinks… or both.

And with that in mind, he looked out from the window to guess their final destination before they arrive there.

A/N

Hey guys! Here is chapter 6. Sorry for the long wait, but school left me almost no time to write, so it took longer than expected.