Interlude I: Preparations

Traf looked on the battles that Chi-Ha-Tan ever played and had a very hard time resisting the urge to facepalm. Like seriously?! Who in their right mind would go kamikadze with a tank?! he thought and sighed. Those people were out of their minds and also they would be their teammates at the exhibition match later this month.

Just yesterday, the long awaited Panther shipment from Kuromorimine finally arrived and George with Boris and the SC were looking for anyone willing to man the tanks, leaving Traf and the rest of the commanders to prepare a suitable tactic against the -Pravda team and so far, it was next to impossible.

But, he had to give credit to their captain Nishi for bravery and trying to reduce the amount of the suicidal charges to minimum, but they still were happening and causing him a strong headache from just seeing it. Those Type 97 Chi-Has and Type 95 Ha-Gos were better suited for scouting and hit & run than kamikadze.

Suddenly, his phone (which he bought a week ago) ringed and he picked it up. "Traf, how is it going with the tactic making?" Takashi's voice asked him. "Not good. Chi-Ha-Tan is the type to go full kamikadze and throw away any advantage. How am I supposed to work with those girls that are totally nuts?!" he answered with a bit of frustration bleeding into his voice.

"I agree with them being nuts, but they were chosen by the roulette, like our enemies. But, Nonna would definitely pose a problem," his driver said nervously. "Yeah… Anyway, had George, Boris and the SC made any progress with their search?" Traf changed the course of conversation to something as important.

"Yes, they did. But, we only have drivers, radiomen and gunners chosen from the lot. The results for the positions of commander and loader would arrive soon, tho…" Takashi replied and Traf let out a sigh of relief at hearing that. At least something good was happening.

"Will they be complete before the exhibition match? It would be good for them to have at least the basic training completed," Traf stated. That was after all his priority over trying to find a solution with the Chi-Ha-Tan problem. "And… I think that I found something about Mark IV Male hidden somewhere in one of the few sailors' bars, or at least something looking like it, being used as a grill," Takashi continued after a few seconds, causing Traf to laugh a bit.

"Really?! A Mark IV Male being used as a grill?!" he responded after composing himself, switching back to his serious mode. "Write searching for it into the three point long 'To do' list. Tsuneo and Amai with Hina and Nina would be able to handle the repairs for it," he said and shivered at the simple reminder about the two girls that were still thinking that they have no name.

"Roger, commander!" Takashi replied enthusiastically and hung up the call, leaving Traf to figure out something to do with their problems. And from that moment, he decided that he hated paperwork associated with this part of the research.

Later that day, the office of the Student Council

Anzu smirked, when she got a rather flamboyant idea about celebrating their victory at the Tournament. "We should invite all schools that participated in the Tournament this year," she muttered to herself and smirked a bit.

"What was that?" Momo asked impatiently. "Oh, only that we should throw a bit more extravagant party and invite at least the participants of this year's Tournament," Anzu answered casually and munched on another sweet dried potato. "Not a bad idea. But, I think that some other schools won't take it well," Yuzu added her own opinion.

"Fine… but which schools would be like that?" Anzu asked as she finished the dried potato and pulled another sack of them from her secret hiding place inside the table. "Koala Forest Academy for example," Yuzu answered and Anzu nodded at that. She had heard enough about the school to know that they're masters of extravagant parties like Saunders and Anzio and also participated in most of the larger Saunders-made ones.

"Write them down then. We can hold a mock match with all schools divided into two teams before the feast. Oh, and we should rather avoid buying vodka and any other alcoholic beverage," she said and smiled at the thought of telling the whole school about the party, when they have the preparations finished.

Miho checked all information that Trafalgar gave her in his report about Chi-Ha-Tan and Takashi's suspicion about a Mark IV Male being used as a grill in one of the sailors' pub, that he got from definitely not spying on the sailor girls.

She had known about the school that would be on their side just a little, but the amount of critique from Trafalgar about kamikadze charging even from a very advantageous position surprised her, but he actually gave a bit of praise to their commander, which reduced the charges to dire situations only.

But, Miho would never describe the school as totally nuts, like he and Takashi did in the report. That description was a bit over the edge for her, but her inner self was defending the boys that they were right to call them like that.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated and she looked at the messages, finding that the SC had something to discuss with her tomorrow after the training session. And Miho only sighed at that. It would probably be just a report… she thought and tried to calm herself down. But she knew that the SC could be rather… unpredictable at times (like that time, when she had to either win against Darjeeling or dance the Ankou dance, which she dodged very closely).

Takashi was surprised. Not from the mention of the hidden entrance to that one bar, but from the actual complexity of it: a short tunnel behind a fake wall with a pole leading downwards, but also too short to actually reach the ground. And were those… mats that he had fallen onto?!

Suddenly, he heard muffled voices from above and he had enough time to move out of the way before Traf, George, Boris, Grigori and Ivan fell on the same mats he was on a few seconds ago.

"Another happy landing," Traf announced happily, drawing chuckles from the rest of the boys. "Takashi, we're here just to ensure that we won't have to pay ransom, like the PMC had done several times with Sodoko," George said after the small pile of bodies separated from each other.

"We should rather continue to finish what we started. Going back isn't an option right now," Boris added and the six boys muttered in agreement. "If we fail, we'll end up in the Locker of Davy Jones," George joked and Takashi heard that someone started whistling the familiar tune from The Pirates of the Mediterranean in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit.

And after a few minutes of walking, the boys finally stood before the entrance to the bar. "This is where the fun begins," Takashi muttered as Boris and Ivan entered the underground pub, the rest following them.