As it had worked before, she didn't see a reason to change tactics although she thought that getting excited putting on a Sunkus uniform was a little weird. Although, Yukari had to admit that she was not the best judge of what was and wasn't weird. But fortunately, as her commander was prone to saying, the Oarai Sensha-do club was not a place where anyone cared too much about being 'normal'. Every group had their own thing and she didn't think there was a single member who didn't have a quirk of their own that set them apart.

Except possibly the Public Morals Committee.

Erika had given her her blessing to go on this reconnaissance mission even if she had her misgivings. Yukari had misgivings of her own. It was entirely possible that Anzio knew about her visit to Saunders and would be on the look out for her. After all, she had fled the Saunders campus on foot with a small mob chasing her and then Captain Kay had chatted to her at the match about it. It was public knowledge. She didn't think that it would make a good impression if Anzio caught her and she was founding hanging by a rope around her ankles at the station in Oarai. It would be embarrassing for everybody.

Erika had mentioned Anzio while talking about how various people were playing with fantasies. She now understood what she meant. Anzio the schoolship and town was built with Italian style architecture which wasn't odd considering it existed to promote Italian culture within Japan. What was odd was that the school seemed to be locked in a permanent state of festivity; like a Disney version of a Roman orgy. No sex. No alcoholic drinks. But eating, drinking, singing, dancing, girls playing instruments, girls painting, girls cooking, even one girl with a chainsaw carving an ice sculpture which had no relevance to her mission but Yukari still documented with her camera in spellbound silence. The girl reproduced the Venus de Milo and then people were scooping up the shavings for their drinks.

It was a stark contrast. The school was astonishing colourful while the students wore an almost monochromatic uniform; dark blue skirts, white pantyhose and shirts, black shoes and a dark blue beret. The only colour was the green and red on the emblem on their shirts. But while the uniform was dull, the girls weren't. They all wore their berets at a jaunty angle and she couldn't see anyone who wasn't enjoying themselves at this perpetual party. If anything, the school uniform served to emphasise the colour of the school.

She asked a couple of girls about it and they happily said that it was always like this at Anzio. They also cheerfully declared that their school was poor and so all the food stalls was how they made up their budgets. It didn't seem to bother them at all that this was a terrible way for their school to exist; fleecing the students to fill its coffers. But as everyone seemed to having the time of their lives, it didn't seem to matter how light their pockets were.

Yukari had heard that Anzio was even poorer than Oarai but she wouldn't have believed it. The Italian styled buildings were superbly maintained although as many of them were Renaissance in appearance, a little ruggedness only made them look more authentic. It was the same with the landmarks. Dominating the view was a replica of the Coliseum and she wondered why someone would go to the expense of building a reproduction of the Coliseum but in its ruined state. They could have built it the way it was meant to be.

Not that any of the tourists seemed to mind and there were a lot of them. No one paid any attention to her and her video camera because there were people with cameras everywhere. They were taking pictures of everything and everyone. She couldn't think of anything at Oarai worth taking a picture of.

She saw a stall that could only belong to Anzio's Sensha-do team; its roof was shaped like an Italian tank destroyer. She took a few moments trying to figure out which particular model before deciding it was merely a stylistic depiction rather than an accurate replication. When she stepped up to the stall, she didn't say anything but the girl working there in an elaborate chef's uniform instantly began whipping up a meal for her. The girl had oddly asymmetric hair, with a single braid hanging in front of her ear on her left side. Some corner of her brain remembered the term 'Lovelock'. The braid on the left side was a symbol of devotion for a loved one. Perhaps she was in love. She was certainly in love with food as she prepared the Italian dish and described it in a passionate tone the whole way through even though she must have prepared it many times already before she had shown up.

"Aaaaand presto! That's three million lira!"

"Eeeh?" Yukari squeaked. "What year is that exchange rate from?!"

The Anzio girl was confused that someone couldn't do the conversion but not suspicious. "Yeah… It's three hundred yen."

Yukari paid her and then eagerly set in. "Before it gets cold." She handled the fork, momentarily thinking it had been a while since she had used one, and then tried a mouthful. She felt herself blush at just how delectable it was. It took all her restraint to finish eating before praising the chef. "It's delicious!" She gushed.

The chef was not modest. "Isn't it?" She said with a theatrical wave. "Anzio makes the best Italian food in Japan and I make the best Italian food in Anzio." It was a boast made in good humour; like the rest of the school.

"So you're part of Anzio's Sensha-do team?"

"Driver, gunner and commander!" The girl gushed happily.

"Why every position?"

"I operate a Carro Veloce." She made another theatrical gesture. "They only take two crew so we take turns driving and shooting. It keeps things interesting."

Yukari hadn't thought of it that way. "Do you do that in your other tanks too?"

"Of course! Some of us specialise but we still like to try everything. I've taken turns in our tank destroyers as well as our tankettes; it's a whole different experience!"

"I heard you have a new vehicle now. A heavy tank." Yukari said.

The chef's eyes narrowed. "What? Where'd you hear that?"

Yukari had a momentary flashback to Saunders and Alisa and Naomi realising she was an imposter. "Umm-"

The girl laughed. "It's on display in the coliseum today! It's not a secret now!"

"Oh. Oh good."

"We finally got a heavy tank. Everyone's going to be so surprised! It's the.. The uh…" The chef's enthusiasm dimmed as she struggled to remember the name.

"If it's an Italian heavy tank, wouldn't it be the P40?"

"That's it! You're a real tank connoisseur, aren't ya?" The girl clapped Yukari on the shoulder and she had hands like clubs so she that Yukari had to resist rubbing her arm. "The P40 of course. We spent a long time saving up for it. We had to go hungry for a long time but we were finally able to buy it. Big Sis is really excited about it."

"Big Sis?" Yukari was confused.

"Our Captain; Anchovy. That's what I call her. Big Sis in her big new tank. She runs it around the course every, even though we don't have much fuel to spare! She really wants to get fully to grips with it before the next round. We'll be facing Oarai, and they've got some good tanks so the P40 will be a surprise to them. Everyone's used to us only using the tankettes and tank destroyers ever since we stopped being able to afford the spare parts for the M13s and 14s."

"Oooo, I would have liked to have seen them. No one really uses M13s and M14s."

"Well like I said, the P40's in the Coliseum right now. Go check it out." The chef clapped her arm again. "But not before you've eaten, eh?"

Yukari ate her meal and watched the chef engage with other customers with the same easy-going friendliness. The Sensha-do club's stall was clearly very popular and she wondered just how much food they would have to sell to fund their tanks. Obviously, not enough considering their line-up of tanks, though the chef had many regulars and greeted them all as old friends. Looking around, Yukari wondered how everyone was in such remarkably good shape when with food like this, they couldn't possibly have stopped eating. She would have been unable to fit into her T-50.

When she finished and left, the chef hadn't forgotten her and gave her a cheery 'Arriverderci' to send her on her way, whereupon she was almost run over by a CV. The little tankette trundled by with two Anzio girls in their Sensha-do uniforms sat on top of it, waving a banner. They were headed for the Coliseum and she followed; the tankette clearing a convenient path through the crowd.

The stadium at the drawing had been big and impressive but the stone of the ruined Coliseum was something else. For a moment, it overawed her and she used her camera to document the incredible structure before her one true love asserted itself.

She had never seen a P40 before because the only surviving originals were on display in Italy and Italian tanks weren't popular in Japanese Sensha-do so they were rarely used in tournaments and were never on display. She thought that was a shame was because the P26/40 was a striking machine. It had sloped armour like a T-34 but that armour was riveted like a Panzer 38(t). The two tanks looked related and even their names followed similar conventions; the 38 and 40 referring to their year of adoption. But the Czechoslovakian and Italian tanks weren't related at all. She knew from her reading that the P40 took many cues from the T-34, from a captured model supplied by the Germans and it did look like an Italian copy of one. Maybe it was inferior to an actual T-34 or an improved Sherman but it was still a magnificent looking machine.

The girl standing on top of it was equally magnificent. The girl wore the same jacket as the other Anzio Sensha-do girls but she combined it with puffed trousers instead of shorts which emphasised her high boots more than the bare legs of the other girls. She had her hair in a set of huge twin tails that made President Kadotani's look small and helpless by comparison. She also carried a riding crop in one hand that she used to emphasise almost every word she spoke. Yukari knew who she was. She was Anchovy. The Captain of Anzio. The Duce.

"This is our secret weapon!" She declared, to the crowd of people who clearly weren't Sensha-do students in the vast open space of the Coliseum. The crowd full of people taking pictures on their phones and cameras. "Now no one can say we don't have proper tanks at Anzio!"

"Duce!" One of the girls cheered and several others echoed her and Anchovy turned and noticed Yukari with her video camera. She winked at her and gave her the peace sign and the Sensha-do girls in the crowd took up the chant.

"Duce! Duce! Duce!"

Yukari turned her camera on herself. "The morale here is amazing!" She declared. The Coliseum began to thunder with the chant and the Duce punched the air and the crowd followed suit and Yukari joined in. Anzio was perhaps the poorest of the Sensha-do practicing schools, ever since Oarai's team had disbanded in the past, and yet they were possibly the cheeriest people she had ever seen. They had one tank comparable to the hundreds Saunders owned and it was enough for them to begin what was clearly going to be a riotous party. "Good thing spirit doesn't add extra millimetres of armour or they'd be impenetrable!"

"Duce! Duce! Duce!"

The chant filled the stadium, echoing off the walls and growing until Yukari was sure everybody on the ship could hear it. Even with Student Council's banner and tank balloon at the school gates, no one was really paying attention to Sensha-do at Oarai. Here though, it was impossible to ignore. Perhaps she was witnessing a Sensha-do revolution at Anzio and next year, they would have replaced all their tankettes with P40s. It could be the start of something huge.

She didn't know if in Anzio terms it was going to be a wild night but she still regretted that she had to leave. She need to get this information back to Oarai, where she was expected. Her parents would also be worried if she didn't come home as well. Or perhaps if she came home in the morning with her tail between her legs after a wild party, they would be delighted at her burgeoning social life.

With considerable effort, Yukari extricated herself from the mob in the Coliseum and with even more effort, didn't go back for a second helping from the Sensha-do food stall. She had enjoyed her visit to Saunders but she would take any excuse to return to Anzio.

(2234)

Author's Notes

I thought this would be longer. Still, it was fun to write about Anzio from Yukari's perspective.