Chapter 11

63rd Sensha-Do Tournament starting ceremony, somewhere in Tokyo

Traf and his crew mixed into the watching crowd to avoid being spotted right there by those, who still thought that boys should be banned immediately from the sport, if they were chosen even as a maintenance crew. And he knew that showing up near their tank with toolkits didn't help matters at all.

Suddenly, he felt shivers running down his spine and turned. "You." Traf gulped. The Ice Queen of Kuromorimine stared at him with clear killing intent in her eyes. His crew also turned and Traf noticed the fear they both were trying to suppress. But they weren't looking at Erika Itsumi. The commander followed their stares and saw the one person that caused Miho to leave Kuromorimine - Shiho Nishizumi.

"Headmistress Nishizumi." The boy bowed to show respect, but sitting on a chair and bowing wasn't supposed to be done at the same time and Traf learned it the hard way with his head hitting the chair. "Pfffft…" someone tried to suppress their laugh. while George and Takashi, who stood true to the bro code, laughed their asses off. But they stopped, when Shiho shot a really angry glare at them.

The headmistress turned to Traf. "Who devised the strategy?" she asked. They boys shifted a bit. Neither of them expected that question. "It was me, Miho, SC and George. George told us which tanks we'll face, SC set up an ambush and I with Miho did the rest of planning and executing operations in the heat of the battle." The Ice Queen suddenly went red in the face.

"Boys shouldn't be in Sensha-Do! Their filth will destroy it!" she almost shouted. "Have you seen the online replay?" George bravely countered. The white haired girl stared daggers. "Ah, so you didn't. I expected that some of you won't watch it…" Takashi added, but he suddenly paled as he looked far to the right. Traf and George followed his example and saw a girl in Saunders uniform.

"From his reaction, I can only guess that that girl is Alisa…" Geroge whispered to his commander. Traf nodded in response. "Let's shield our driver from her sight. We can do only this much against a yandere." The radioman agreed and put a handkerchief on Takashi's face. That action almost made them laugh, but laughing could draw the unwanted attention of the yandere and most people around them.

And so, they kept quiet and waited for the start of the ceremony. About five minutes later, a man around 40 years old stood on the stage next to a giant bonfire that was still unlit and behind a microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the opening ceremony of the 63rd National Sensha-Do Tournament!" he begun.

"This year is special in one way: after 5 years, Oarai returns back from the shadows!" the man continued. "But, enough of babbling around! Commanders, vice-commanders and/or volunteers from each school, step forward!" 16 girls (Miho included) stepped forward as was asked from them. "Before you draw your number to determine which school will be your opponent in the 1st round, I, Renta Tsuji, hereby call the Firebearer from last year's champions, Pravda Girls High School to light the fire!" Another girl, this time with a torch, stepped forward and put the torch into the bonfire. For a moment nothing happened, but after a few seconds, a huge fire engulfed the wood.

The girl turned and walked away. "Alright, captain of Pravda, step forward and draw your number!" Tsuji said after a while. A short blonde girl, dressed in what looked like a typical Soviet tanker uniform, stepped forward with a cocky grin. She put her hand into a box and pulled out a single sheet of paper. "Pravda Girls High School earns number 3! Their match will be the 2nd of this round!" Tsuji commented.

Traf ignored most of the numbers, but when Darjeeling picked number 10, he hoped that Miho would draw number 9. And yet again, his expectations were shattered, when she picked number 8. Damn! We'll fight against Saunders! Well… At least, it isn't Kuromorimine or Pravda this early… he thought and shared a worried look with George. "Hey, Takashi!" the commander whispered. The driver turned to him. "Yes?" "We'll fight with Saunders in the 1st round."

And after hearing that, the driver turned death white. "Don't worry, If we face Alisa, I'll let you shoot her tank." Takashi looked at him from under the handkerchief. "Promise?" he asked. "Yeah, I promise." Traf sighed. "No homo?" George decided to tease them both. "No homo." The trio smirked instead of laughing.

"And last thing!" Tsuji suddenly said, surprising everyone. "Next year we will start this Tournament with a new school, called Raven's Nest Girls University!" he announced bitterly. Wait, what?! A university will definitely have a High ground over everyone! Traf internally shouted. There were several cries of protests as an answer from the crowd. "I'll rather see boys than a university in this Tournament!" was the most common protest that came also from some watching Kuromorimine students.

"Calm down everyone! This school will be forbidden from using super heavies and heavies in the Tournament!" Tsuji shouted and the crowd calmed down. Interesting… As if Tsuji really had something planned with this school... Traf thought and forced himself to listen closely for the rest of the ceremony.

About a hour later, a certain tank-themed café

Miho looked at the booth next to the one, where she and her crew were sitting. The boy crew of Tiger I was chatting and sipping tea there. They also caused quite a commotion, when they entered. Mostly earning snarky comments from other students about raising their hopes too much, because boys can't join Sensha-Do, but the rest (workers and male occupants) joked about them being the maintenance crew of a secret Nishizumi or Shimada, who operated the tank.

Wait for the truth to reveal itself. Suddenly, the door opened and two figures, one of which she hoped to not see right now and there, entered the café. "Oi! Look! Both the Ice Queen and the Kommandant of KMM decided to enter this fine establishment!" George announced with a slightly joking tone.

The two newcomers ignored the boys and walked straight towards Miho. "Nee-sama…" the younger Nishizumi almost whispered. Maho sent her one of those brief smiles like the ones she gave her last year, when she did something right. "Don't get your hopes too high, you failure. If you didn't abandon your tank, we should have won!" Erika snapped, earning cold glares from the three boys behind her.

"If she didn't do that, they all would be dead! Only a moron will abandon his subordinates in need!" Traf countered and several of the occupants agreed."I don't care about casualties, if they bring us victory!" her former friend shouted back at the boy. "You are crazy like Hans ze Flammenwerfer. If our schools stand against each other, I'll make sure to be the one, who will disable your Königstiger."

Those two last sentences made shivers run down her spine with how cold the threat sounded. Luckily, no one else than his crew, Erika, her sister and herself heard what he said. Yet, the change in atmosphere was noticeable for a good three seconds. After that, the boys finished their tea, paid for it and left the café. "Sorry for ruining the mood." They all bowed and left for their school ship.

After that, her sister somehow got Erika to walk to the furthest free booth, while giving her a brief look of apology. "Can I have another one?" Mako suddenly asked and showed that she already ate her treat. "Okay, just one more. Then, we go back to the ship." And her crew smiled at that.

The next day, near the briefing room of Oarai team

Takashi sighed as he and his commander entered the briefing room in the school building. The rest of the commanders plus the SC were waiting there already. "Sorry for being late. But, I wanted to take my driver here for one reason." Takashi stepped forward. "Our fight against Saunders will put us against three variants of M4 Sherman tanks. A classic M4, M4A1 and a Firefly. The middle variant is also probably the flag tank."

Miho nodded. "That would make sense. M4A1 is a slightly better version of the classic Sherman, but I doubt that their captain will command from it." That gained the attention of Anzu. "And who do you think will command the tank then?" she asked Takashi. "I have a strong suspicion that it will be Alisa and her friend nicknamed Helmet-chan." Momo put her head into her hands. "But, the Firefly is the biggest danger for us!"

Takashi jerked his head alongside his commander. "No. Alisa would do literally anything to achieve victory. She would most likely be jamming our comms or something like that. And on top of that, she is a yandere. And she is after me." Now, everyone was left speechless and shocked (Trafalgar only played the shock).

"Don't worry, Patton. The Hippo team will gladly chase the flag tank to your kill zone!" Erwin shouted suddenly. "First Knispel, now Patton… I wonder what will be the nickname for George?" Takashi muttered. "I also have completed the most likely outcome of other battles this round. If we win, our next enemy will be Anzio. Next ones who will most likely get into round 2 are KMM, St. Gloriana and Pravda. And I think that the latter three can make it into the semi-finals."

"So, if we win against Saunders and Anzio, Pravda will be the next one to face us…" Miho said and spaced out for a while. "And I and George planned on using a phone to communicate with you. The Tournament is made in a way that they can hear every single word we say. So, we will also stay in radio silence." Takashi nodded at the idea. It would most likely give them an upper hand against whatever Alisa will do with the communications and avoid the revelation about them.

"But we still need the exact numbers of the M4s and M4A1s. Only the Firefly is known to be alone in their arsenal…" Takashi added. "By the way… have you seen Yukari today?" Yuzu suddenly asked. "Oh no…" Trafalgar muttered. "She most likely went to spy on Saunders, ignoring the consequences!" he shouted afterwards.

"I'll give her a ton of work, if she comes back empty-handed!" Momo growled. "Momo-chan, calm down…" Anzu said with a bit of anger in her voice. "DON'T CALL ME MOMO!" Takashi had a hard time suppressing the smirk that was trying to form on his face and he could say the same for his commander.

"Let's go help Fred and George with creating those Shürzen. They'll definitely need it." Takashi nodded and both the boys left the room, heading towards the garages.

Meanwhile on a certain Floof-invaded ship

Alisa was raging. The spy escaped in the last second and got away with precious information. Kay discouraged her from trying to change the flag tank to M4A6 and also warned her that if she will get caught cheating, she will get court martialed. But I must win to get Takashi notice me! she thought and smiled. She will install her precious piece of equipment into the flag tank and lead the team into a victory!

They still had three weeks until the battle, so Kay should be willing to at least field instead of four basic M4s those better M4A2s. Or even at least one M4A3E2 Jumbo! And she also had one mystery to solve: where in the Hell did Takashi go?! He was destined to be hers only! And no one will take him from her.

Maho came back in her mind to the moment at the café yesterday. The boys only protected her sister, who in turn unknowingly revealed that she is the commander. But one statement still left her in some kind of shock and fear she never felt before. It was like Erika got marked by a hungry beast that almost broke out from its cage.

And also that feat from the same boy was filled with the strong will of a seasoned veteran who got promoted to the rank of captain at some point. Yet, why he was able to do that was beyond her. No rookie should be that powerful. I bet that Erika almost got into her submissive self… she thought with concern for her vice-commander. The fight against Pravda at the last Tournament gave her a lesson to be more caring about her subordinates, but also not too much.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated. She looked at it and noticed that it had an unknown caller id detected. She picked it up. "Yes?" The voice on the other side was threatening and had clear malicious intent. "You are going to use only Tigers, your best TDs and the Maus in the upcoming matches, or your sister will be killed!" the voice said calmly. Maho knew that she got cornered. "And what if I refuse and my sister dies?" she countered with her own steel voice. "Then you will leave Kuromorimine and join Raven's Nest!"

"WHO are you?!" she finally asked the voice. "The headmaster of the Raven's Nest Girls University." Maho was shocked at the revelation. "You sound more like a member of some terrorist organisation than a headmaster of a school!" she shouted after a while. "Remember this: win this Tournament and I'll spare you. Lose… and you will be killed."

And with that, the call ended. No matter what, do not mess with a Nishizumi. You forgot this and it will be your last mistake! the commander of the Kuromorimine Sensha-Do team thought. There were innocent lives at stake and she felt the need to save as much as possible. But she didn't know how deep she got involved into the scheme.

A/n:

We almost reached 1250 views on this story! Thank you for the support guys. I know that this is not the best GuP fanfiction, but y'all are amazing at continuing with your support, especially user narutouzumaki9718!

Anyway, see ya later!