"So you're saying that Brightkit isn't good enough?" Chika asked Ayami. She, Ayami, Hikari and Ritsu were patrolling an area after getting reports of strangers in their school. They didn't know who these strangers were and decided to investigate. Ayami turned her eyes to Chika.
"Those are just orange spots, Lionheart, we're looking for a cat that we can reasonably call fire." Ayami explained to Chika that they needed to find a girl whose hair was Highlighter Orange color.
"Does he have to be named fire?" Chika asked Ayami.
"Yes, we're trying to be organized here, Lionheart." Ayami expressed to Chika that they needed to name some person Fire if it meant making Stephanie's prophecy true.
"If we can't find one, I'll make the fire." Hikari expressed that she was willing to help her friends out if this meant trying to complete the prophecy Stephanie had envisioned. Everyone turned their heads to Hikari.
"Don't die Redtail." Chika expressed this to Hikari.
"Yeah dude, you're important okay, we can't have you dying." Ayami told Hikari that she wasn't allowed to die. Dying was gay to her. Then the bushes moved a bit as Ayami pushed them out of the way. "Wait, look!" The four girls poked their heads out to see Miho Nishizumi romping around in their school enjoying herself. Her feet happily patted the ground as she continued her romp in the forest.
"Hi there, my name is Miho Nishizumi." Miho introduced herself as Ayami grabbed Ritsu by her ankle. She then smacked Miho with Ritsu. "What was that for?"
"You needed to be tested." Ayami began as her mood then lightened up. "Are you interested in joining some sort of forest cult where we run around naked and fight each other?"
"Oh, of course! That is what being a real cat is all about." Miho replied, more than happy to accept the invitation.
Miho woke up in the trance of the dream that was telling her that she was a real cat. She had been sleeping outside for the night under the stars. The rest of her team was waking up as they decided to head to the center where Ayami promised the meeting. The girls gathered as Jake and Dimitri took a headcount to make sure everyone was there. Jake turned to Miho.
"Slept well last night?" Jake asked Miho.
"Not really, I thought it was going to rain on us." Miho explained that she didn't get a good night's sleep.
"Yeah, looks like the weather isn't going to be well, it might as well be a wet summer even though we're just a few days in." Jake explained. Ayami then got on top of her rock as she decided to make an announcement.
"My fellow warriors, gather around for a meeting, we must begin training." Ayami began. Everyone turned their heads to Ayami, they were curious to figure out what she had to say. "With the help from Firepaw in the location of the tanks, we might as well start assigning them to see who gets what. The help from Firepaw's friend would make good intelligence on who should get assigned to who. Since we have a big group of students and eight vehicles, we should begin trying to form a team using the most experienced students to use them." Ayami explained to the group.
"I say we should let Shinobu or Piyotan lead us. They're the tallest of the group and their eyes can try their best to spot danger. We have too many kits for the group." Rowan explained that she was putting forth the tallest students the school had.
"I had my vote for Miho, she led Ooarai's team to victory, she can use her wisdom to teach us how to use the tanks." Chika explained that she was choosing the overall commander of the school to teach them how to use the tanks.
"I have my vote for Yukari, she has an interest in them." Hikari explained. Many of the students felt like they were being pulled in various directions as many of the student's couldn't come up with a student to lead the group of ragged tanks.
"I say we should let Azusa lead us. She's the most legitimate student we have. Maybe she knows a thing or two." Tia voiced her opinion.
"I say you should shut up!" Rowan's voice boomed as she needed to get the crowd to quiet down. After a pause, Rowan began to speak again. "We're choosing Shinobu and that's final." Rowan turned to the tall volleyball player who felt like she was chosen at random. "You will be leading all of us, now come." Shinobu walked with Rowan as Chika, Addisyn and Hikari walked up to Miho.
"Miho we're terribly sorry for letting this happen, the three of us had our votes on you since Addisyn had been watching you before you came here. We thought you were the best candidate for the task." Chika explained to Miho and issued an apology to her.
"That's fine, I don't know why Rowan chose a student who knows the clutches of the Type 89 I-Go but not any form of leadership." Miho explained. Ayami walked over to Miho as she needed to speak to her about something.
"Miho, the large number of Ooarai students are being sent out onto patrol. Also Rowan's choice was based on whoever can see over the hills. She would have certainly chosen Momoga if she wasn't that short." Ayami explained. "Now you and the students are needed on patrol toward the entrance, rumors are spreading over the fact that Saunders students might have infiltrated our school during the night."
"Did Rosie say anything about this?" Miho asked, thinking Rosie had infiltrated the school and was acting as a spy to lure Saudners in.
"Rosie? Who's she?" Ayami asked, she didn't know who this student was.
"She's a Saunders runaway student currently taking up shelter in an abandoned bus. We still don't know why she ran away." Miho explained. Ayami nodded about what Miho had said.
"Okay, I'll go speak to her about it if I find her, but for now, Miho, you're going to be patrolling around an area near the bus to see if we can find her." Ayami explained the plan.
"All right." Miho replied. Ayami nodded as she decided to take Miho to the area of the abandoned bus. When they arrived, Ayami got off of her bike and she began speaking.
"I'll be off to find her, Ritsu and Mio are with Azusa and her friends and they are nearby, if anything happens, shout for us and I'll rush over." Ayami explained. She turned away and began to go looking for Rosie. Miho headed in another direction and she began to walk away with her bike in tow.
"Man this place seems… unnerving when I'm alone and without the sun." Miho told herself as she continued to patrol, there weren't many bright spots in this wilderness as Miho walked along. Suddenly the bushes moved as Miho prepared to act defensively. "Who's there?" Miho asked. The bushes exploded as a ragged old lady attacked Miho. Miho was tossed to the ground as the lady stood there with nearly a foot on her.
"What's a girl like you doing out here, I bet you'd have something nice for old Tomori." Tomori told herself as she looked at Miho whose face was flat in the dirt. Miho exploded up and knocked Tomori to the ground.
"Not such easy prey huh?" Miho asked. Tomori was on the ground before she got up to face Miho.
"Not apprentice. But, you need to do a LOT BETTER!" Tomori shouted.
"You're in another school's territory, You need to leave!" Miho warned Tomori to leave or else she was going to get a thrashing from the Sensha-Do captain of her team.
"And who's going to make me?" Tomori asked. Miho stared at what seemed to be an old mangy lady who was attacking her. She knew she needed to win this fight. "I will hunt. I'll leave or maybe even stay a while." Miho exploded, she had enough of Tomori and tackled her to the ground. Tomori recovered and pinned Miho to the ground. Miho struggled to get the girl off of her. Miho kicked Tomori off of her. The two continued to toss each other around on the ground as the girls didn't know what to expect from this fight. Miho eventually got the upper hand as Tomori had grown exhausted. Miho then pinned Tomori to the ground as the old lady was panting. Miho had won this fight.
"Had enough yet?" Miho asked as her breath was in ragged gasps, she was clearly exhausted.
"Never!" Tomori replied as she got up. "If… I weren't so hungry and tired, I would have shredded you to pieces. Finish me off, I won't stop you." Tomori asked Miho for her mercy if she was truly going to kill her. Miho hesitated as she realized that this old lady attacked her out of desperation.
"Uh…" Miho began, she was wondering what she was going to do to help Tomori, she didn't want to kill her as the latter requested her to do.
"What are you waiting for?" Tomori began as she was getting impatient. "You're acting as soft as a school girl."
"I am a sensha-do student of Ooarai." Miho told Tomori. Tomori listened and she began speaking.
"Don't tell me that this school is getting desperate that they have to recruit students from other schools." Tomori began. She didn't know what Miho was capable of and the fact that she thought she was going to finish her off.
"Cedar Lake Academy's not desperate." Miho began. Tomori then made her request clear once more.
"Prove it. Act like a warrior and finish me off! You'd be doing me a favor!" Tomori told Miho as her voice began to falter. This made Miho feel bad for Tomori.
"You seem to be in an awful hurry to die." Miho expressed to Tomori that she wasn't going to complete the request and wanted to think of a way to help this old woman out.
"Yeah! That's my business. What's your problem kitty? Are you trying to talk me to death?" Tomori asked as her voice was still taunting Miho to explode and finish her off. Miho felt like that she was in a snag, she didn't know if she wanted to follow along with her request and complete the deed or she should try getting Tomori to trust her.
"Wait here." Miho told Tomori before she began to walk away. She needed a moment to herself before she could come to a decision. Tomori laughed at the fact that Miho was definitely going to take her sweet time when it came to this.
"Are you kidding me kitty? I'm going nowhere!" Tomori explained to Miho. Miho hadn't strayed too far away as she began to think, she definitely didn't want to kill her. She began thinking of what this old lady needed. She said she was hungry and tired, she must've been out here for days with nothing decent to eat. Then Miho remembered something, she had packed some lunch with her as a means of getting through the day without going hungry herself. Miho then unpacked the mackerel rice mix with bean sprouts inside of it. Miho then walked back over to Tomori. "Well hello again kitty, I thought you went to fetch some of your warrior friends."
"Yeah well, I might still do that and don't call me kitty." Miho told Tomori as she began to unpack her back. Miho pulled out her lunch as she thought she was willing to share with the stranger. "Look, if you don't want this." Miho began. Tomori was looking at Miho's lunch, it looked good. Tomori was quick to change her mind.
"Uh no. I do want it." Tomori told Miho. Tomori began to dig in, she was truly living up to her words that she said to Miho. Miho managed to figure out a way to somewhat win her over. Tomori ate the food and then turned to Miho. "This is the first meal I've had in days." The bushes rustled as Tomori couldn't say thank you to Miho.
"Shh, someone's coming." Miho told Tomori to not speak. Ayami appeared with Ritsu, Rowan and Chelsea.
"Firepaw, what have we here?" Ayami began speaking to Miho. "An old cat and one I know well. You're Kuromorimine's doctor and nurse, what are you doing so far into our school?" Ayami asked Tomori.
"I was Kuromorimine's doctor." Tomori began. "Now I choose to travel alone." Tomori expressed that she wasn't with anybody and she was going around on her own. Chelsea stepped forward and began speaking next.
"This old cat is no use to us. Let's kill her now, as for this kitty-pet, she should be punished for feeding this flea-bag." Chelsea expressed what she wanted to do next regarding the rules that Miho had broken when it came to strangers. She definitely thought murder was going to be a good solution to this problem. Ayami lowered her hand down and ordered Chelsea to stay put.
"Keep your claws in Darkstripe." Ayami told Chelsea that murder wasn't a good solution to this mess. Ayami walked forward and wanted to spend time with Miho. "All of the students speak of Tomori's bravery and wisdom. It may help us to hear what she has to say. Come, we'll take her back to camp, then we'll decide on what to do with her and Firepaw. So Yellowfang, can you walk or do you need help?" Ayami asked.
"Hmph! I still got legs!" Tomori told Ayami as she got up and walked off with Ayami and the others. Ritsu came forward as she wanted to talk to Miho about the stranger she had.
"Have you heard of Tomori?" Miho asked Ritsu about the girl they had encountered.
"I've heard some." Ritsu began. "Apparently she was Kuromorimine's nurse before becoming the school's head doctor. Which is unusual." Ritsu paused for a bit before she continued to speak. "I can't imagine her alone out here, she's lived her whole life in Kuromorimine."
"What's a loner?" Miho asked Ritsu as she was trying to find her way around the discussion regarding Cedar Lake's definitions for certain words.
"A loner is someone who doesn't go to school but also doesn't belong to a group in Cedar Lake. Rowan says they're untrustworthy and selfish. They often live around town in the school's apartment buildings but they rarely come into the woods." Ritsu explained to Miho what a loner was. Miho nodded, she now understood more of what this school was going by.
"I might end up a loner once Ayami is finished with me." Miho told Ritsu that she was going to get kicked out of the group for certain for helping Tomori out. Ritsu looked at Miho and wanted to speak to her.
"Ayami's very fair, she won't throw you out. She certainly seems to be pleased to have an important person with her as a prisoner. I'm pretty sure she's not going to make a fuss about you feeding the poor old flea-bag." Ritsu explained to Miho that Ayami was willing to listen to others and wasn't quick to jump to conclusions on what their punishment would be. Ritsu and Miho began to walk back to their camp so that Ayami could give out the news regarding what was happening.
"May all students gather beside me for an important meeting." Ayami began, the group had gotten themselves back together as both Tomori and Rosie were sitting by the edges of where Ayami was. Miho sat next to Ritsu and Azusa, wondering about what was going on. "I'm sure you all heard of the prisoner we brought back today. There is something else I want to tell you, some very grave news. We spotted Saunders helicopters flying around the school from what I can gather from Hikari and Chika. They were most likely scouting our ship so they could land and sneak aboard. If that happens our school is going to be attacked when we least expect it."
"What does this mean? Are we going to get attacked in some way?" Nina asked some of her friends as the crowd was asking questions about Saunders sending out scouting missions, Ayami lowered her hands to quiet the crowd down.
"We don't know, Kay is most likely giving us no warning of when she is going to strike." Ayami explained.
"Perhaps Yellowfang has answers." Chelsea began. "After all, she probably works for Saunders." Chelsea was picking on Tomori when asking Rosie would have been a more obvious choice.
"I'm no traitor for Saunders. Nothing would make me share secrets with a brute like you!" Tomori snapped at Chelsea. Ayami spoke up again.
"In any case, our school needs to prepare itself for when this does happen, our need for warriors is great. We shall get around this by speeding up the training of all three of our apprentices, they need to be ready to fight for us. One of them has been sharing mentors with Graypaw and Ravenpaw. I shall take Firepaw on as my own apprentice." Ayami announced that she was going to take Miho and train her herself. Rowan stepped up as she had some objections to what Ayami had just said.
"So Miho is getting rewarded, not punished for feeding an enemy instead of feeding her own clan?!" Rowan asked as she objected to Ayami's announcement. Ayami looked at Rowan and she began speaking.
"Firepaw is my apprentice, I will deal with her. Yellowfang is allowed to stay until she has recovered her strength." Ayami told Rowan. "We are warriors, not savages, she is to be treated with respect and courtesy."
"But the clan cannot support Yellowfang, we have too many mouths to feed already." Chelsea fired another round of anger at Tomori.
"I don't need anyone to care for me!" Tomori shouted back, she didn't like how some of the people were treating her around here. "I'll split open anyone who tries!" Tomori continued to shout. Ayami turned to Miho and began speaking to her next.
"Firepaw, as punishment you have to take care of Yellowfang until she recovers." Ayami told Miho her punishment would be to help the stranger out if she did already today. Miho bowed her head as she couldn't do anything about it.
"Yes Ayami." Miho told her that she had to accept this.
"Very well, the meeting is dismissed. I would like to speak to my senior warriors alone." Ayami told them. She walked off to speak to Hikari, Chika and Rowan about the situation at hand. Miho walked up to Tomori.
"You sound very angry, is there a reason why?" Miho asked Tomori as she and Mako went off to help her out.
"Some of those students are pretty rude, they don't want to welcome me." Tomori expressed this to Miho.
"Well, the students of Ooarai will help you out. I mean I should be dedicated to this type of work." Miho gave her answer. She was going to try to help Tomori out. Tomori paused when she heard about this.
"Thanks Miho." Tomori replied. Miho then decided to bring Tomori to one of the vacant cabins nearby as one of the students had decided to bunk up with another. Tanya opened the door.
"This is Tia's cabin, she agreed to loan it over to you Tomori, is there anything you need help with? Cooking, turning the water on in the shower?" Tanya spoke to Tomori if there was something she was going to need help with regarding the cabin.
"I should be fine, at least you aren't a scrap of fur." Tomori replied to Tanya.
"Well not the best thing you could have said but Miho and her friends should help you out any chance they get." Tanya told Tomori.
"Thanks." Tomori replied. Tanya walked out as Miho sat her down.
"Is there anything you need, miss?" Miho asked Tomori. Tomori looked at Miho.
"I should be good. If I need anything I'll call you over, don't stray too far." Tomori replied. "Even if it's for someone to talk to." Miho looked at Tomori, perhaps she was alone and the fact that she was most likely tired was a sign of a possibility of her not being able to function and being irritable. Miho left to see Shinobu and Momoga who were chatting to themselves about what happened.
"Have those students made any progress?" Miho asked.
"Barely. Half of the students don't know what a tank is and how to operate it. Driving is all they know so far but even then they just ram the tanks into each other." Shinobu told Miho.
"That's rough. I'm stuck taking care of Tomori, meaning I can't be of much use to you." Miho expressed that for what she did, she was being punished.
"Yeah it's going to be rough especially when the best student and the one with the most experience is being punished for feeding a stranger. Good grief no wonder these girls don't trust outsiders." Momoga added to what Miho had said. "How does feeding a stranger equal punishment?"
"Beats me, she said she was tired and hungry so I decided to give her my lunch and she seemed to be thankful for that. They think that anyone who is an outsider is from Saunders and that nurse was clearly from Kuromorimine. Ayami didn't go after Rosie, she was the more obvious target as she is from Saunders. I don't understand." Miho expressed her frustration that she had taken on some form of mistaken identity. Tomori watched the three of them from the window. She noted what was going on. She kind of felt bad for Miho. Miho helped her out and now she was taking the blame.
"I don't think these girls know what compassion truly is. Except for a few but they usually stick to themselves, there is a cabin for everyone and they only bunk up with themselves." Yukari joined in the conversation. She and Tanya were walking along and they sat down. "I got snubbed off by Chelsea when she told us that Shinobu knew tanks more than I did."
"Oof. I know Volleyball more than tanks. The tanks are your special field?" Shinobu asked Yukari about the topic.
"Yes. Rowan wasn't impressed with the performance and I couldn't agree more with her. I managed to squeeze a compliment out of her during the training practice and when I went on the patrol afterward. "You can teach a girl to be a cat but you can't teach a cat to be a diplomat. A cat wouldn't have the capacity to think of how to be a leader if it tried." I wouldn't be surprised if these girls don't know what being a warrior is other than beating the ever living daylights out of a stranger they don't know about." Yukari expressed her concern that some of the girls wouldn't know how to operate their tanks.
"At least Rowan is befriending us faster than some of the other students." Momoga added about the fact that the strongest and fiercest girl of the entire school was warming up more and more to the Ooarai girls than anyone else.
"I think we may need to change how we approach this going forward. I'll have a chat with Ayami tomorrow morning about the current situation and ask if we can get some more outside help to help train the students." Miho expressed the fact that they could use some more help if it meant training up the school. "I'm stuck with Tomori until my punishment is lifted."
"Yeah that's bad. Our leader is stuck taking care of someone else rather than using the skill she has." Tanya added. "Anyways I think someone will have to contact Dalmatia and invite her over."
"Wait Dalmatia, how is she doing? I haven't spoken to her ever since the All-Stars University match we had not too long ago." Yukari asked, wondering how her friend was.
"Yeah… she's… all right. I hadn't spoken to her in a while and that was only a couple weeks ago. She says she was being transferred from SSISSN to Jatkosota since Istria was graduating and was going to leave her alone. She was worried about Dalmatia trying to survive in SSISSN on her own, especially with the violent gangs the school is known for." Tanya told them as she didn't know about it. "Either that or Rowan is going to have her tank sniped by that one Jatkosota girl who is hiding somewhere and waiting in ambush."
"Jouko huh? I don't know if the two of them found each other and became friends?" Yukari asked, but she didn't know if those two girls met.
"Me either. It is something we should discuss when it comes to this and if we can bring them in and have them help out our woes." Tanya expressed this to Yukari. She, Miho and Yukari walked into Tanya's cabin as the girl had everything laid out for them. "Well I hope you like the skylight dome, I like it when the sun hits it, it's a signal for me to wake up." Tanya explained as she prepared the beds. She pulled out the second bed she had in storage and the bed underneath it.
"Indeed there is." Yukari replied. "When should I call her?"
"Do it now, hopefully this will bring her over tomorrow morning." Tanya replied and she yawned. "Good night everybody, we have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow." Tanya flopped onto the bed as her head hit the pillow and fell asleep. Yukari finished texting Dalmatia to see that Tanya was out cold. Miho yawned and she fell asleep too. Now came the task of trying to care for Tomori.
"I hope Tomori isn't that bad." Miho told herself as she too fell asleep.
"Hey Dalmatia." Jouko began as she wanted to talk to her about something.
"Yes Jouko?" Dalmatia replied. Jouko took the shot and sniped out another enemy soldier.
"I've received a message from Mika that I am heading to Cedar Lake as the students there don't know how to operate tanks." Jouko expressed the situation to Dalmatia. Dalmatia fired and took out another enemy soldier.
"I received a similar one from Yukari saying the school needs help, they aren't making progress and the leader has chosen inexperienced students to teach them as Miho is currently being punished for feeding a stranger." Dalmatia added that she too was given a message by Yukari asking for help.
"Wow, looks like the group surely doesn't know what to do with themselves. I say it's best we go over there to figure out what they need help with. After this campaign ends, we pack our things and get ourselves over." Jouko explained the plan. Jouko finished the campaign off as she took out the enemy leader resulting in her and Dalmatia winning. "Good game?"
"Good game." Dalmatia replied. "I'll text Yukari back and tell her that we're on our way." Dalmatia explained to Jouko.
"Okay. Good night Dalmatia." Jouko told her friend as she exited the lobby.
"Yeah good night." Dalmatia gave her reply. Off to bed they went.
Help for Cedar Lake was coming.
[A/N]: The story continues, we need more reviews and since this site still hasn't been updated in 2 months, I can't keep track of how many views I have. I need to figure out if everyone is still reading this. And yes I've been flip flopping back and forth between writing projects as it's going to be a bit of a leap-frog with this. At least everything in life is going normal so nothing is going on.
Also how did I write Tomori, there will be more of her in the next chapter as Miho attempts to take care of her by Ayami's orders of Miho's punishment for feeding her. Hopefully there should be some interaction between them.
That's all I have, goodbye for now.