"Alright girls, roll call," Haruna began as she gazed at the girls in the class. "Hanoashi!"
Here!" the Irish girl nodded.
"Taeko, Mei, Ainami," Haruna went down the list, before nodding toward her teacher. "We're all here ma'am," she smiled.
"Very well Haruna, take your seat and we'll get started," her teacher noted as Haruna let out a nod and sat next to Hanoashi, gazing up as the teacher began her lesson. They had a unique system covering five classes, one being a literature class, a math class, a civics class, a science class, and lastly a history class, each lasting about thirty minutes and having a small two minute break to stretch and swap textbooks.
Like the first school day back at her old academy, classes went by quickly. Really it was just some questions and answers sessions, some sepals on expectations, the order of the planned teaching scheduled, things of that nature. To her surprise though the Nishmari High school academy had offered to continue this program in exchange for a few extra students and two tanks in addition to the T-50's if worse comes to worse.
She learned a few things about Taeko and Hanoashi though. Both seemed more than happy to go into a relationship, albeit Haruna suspected that Taeko's eagerness was more out of desperation to find her way in life given that she sadly had a record. Hanoashi though...she seemed to have a deep seated desire for motherhood, if not that then to at least a deep desire to work with kids.
Lunch came sooner than she thought, and she walked up to Lumi. "Want to nab something with me?" she asked.
"Sure!" Lumi smiled.
"So, you excited to begin work?" Lumi asked as they headed on out.
"Pretty much," Haruna smiled. "Working in that small convince store sounds quaint."
"Lucky," Lumi chuckled. "I got the loud obnoxious department store," she added ruefully.
"Better pay," Haruna shrugged. "Not that we really need it," she added.
"Fair point...any idea on how we're spiting the proceeds?" she asked.
"Well, at minimum wage we're earning roughly twenty thousand a week, and we'll be placing five thousand per person into the united fund, and we'll be splitting three thousand each between Taeko and Hanoashi," Haruna noted.
"Meaning we'll each have at least about twelve thousand per week," Lumi calculated. "Not a lot, but it's doable," she sighed.
"Enough for us to buy our lunches and needs. Thinking about adding a small change fund for communal entertainment," Haruna admitted.
"Sounds good, but should we let Hanoashi take it with her, given she donated the player and tv?" Lumi suggested.
"Fair point, we'll bring that up later," Haruna nodded.
"So, you and Tryker getting along fine," Lumi asked quietly.
"So far, he's a good conversationalist. From what I've heard Taeko is getting along good with Nova as well." Haruna smirked.
"That's good, I mean I'm a bit worried about how sudden it happened, but they seem like good guys," Lumi paused, gazing at her intently. "I'm just worried about people going through what I went though. I suppose in a way I ought to be thankful it was just girls, but..."
"I understand, and I do know it's a risk, Tryker and I. But I'm willing to take the risk," Haruna promised gently.
"Let's just say that if they try to hurt you or Taeko in any way, I'm going to be pissed, and I have access to a T-50 light tank," Lumi warned, half joking, half serious.
"It's not worth you going to jail, but I do appreciate the sentiment," Haruna laughed nervously. Lumi is the kind of girl who was fully capable of doing something she'd later regret if one of her friends got hurt. I guess when you go through what she's gone through it's going to make you cautions towards other girls and protective of those you do manage to get close to, she mused to herself.
"So, what are you in the mood for?" Lumi asked.
"Pizza, ironically enough," Haruna noted.
"Sounds good to me, long as we don't make it a habit," Lumi smiled gently.
"True, it's fine once and a while, but not too often," Haruna noted. "And I'm treating this time," she added.
"If you insist, but I'm treating next time we go out," Lumi nudged her affectionately.
"I'll take you up on that then," Haruna smiled in return.
"So, when do we begin our practice?" Lumi asked.
"In four days, we can't practice without our instructor, and we need to ensure that the other girls are well trained," Haruna shrugged. We'll need to see how our instructors does first, she added silently.
"You have doubts?" Limu asked as they entered Mizuki's Pizzeria and sat down, ordering a four cheese and a supreme slice respectively.
"Let's just say that building our team around that young lady is not exactly desirable considering what she did last year," Haruna shrugged as their Pizza was delivered, alongside a drink and a small side of fries.
"You mean Hanoashi?"
"No, Miho," Haruna took a bite of her supreme Pizza. "Apparently she ordered a few tanks too close to the ledge of a cliff, in rainy weather no less. One of them fell off the cliff and into the drink, though Miho jumped in and rescued them..."
"From a situation she created," Lumi muttered as she took an angry bite of her Pizza. "Yeah, that's a concern."
"Blaze isn't pleased by it," Haruna shrugged.
"What commander would be?" Lumi agreed. "I mean in our world that'd land one of us in jail for negligence at best."
"Well, it didn't, and the student council is insistent on Miho leading the team. That's why I said that we're giving the minimum amount of assistance until we know how it's going to pan out," Haruna took a swig of water, and let out a small chuckle. "Blaze calls it panzer drowning, what Miho did."
Lumi paused in eating, and gazed at her, eyes wide. "Panzer drowning?" at her nod the girl erupted into laughter. "That's...I mean what nearly happened was bad, but Hanoashi's way of describing it is just too funny."
"It was hard not to burst out in laughter when I heard it. But it was apt though," Haruna noted, before sighing. "Still, it's a troubling situation, and we're going to have to play a rather dangerous political game in the moment."
"Yeah," Lumi sighed, and quietly finished up her meal, Haruna following suit.
"Welcome back," Taeko smiled as Haruna entered the office and sat down. "Rough day," she added softly.
"Annoying day," Haruna huffed. "Not used to bowing for one. Also not used to the convenience store uniform, and then there's the Automotive club, no wonder she was so ticked at them," she paused and shuddered. "You managing alright?" she asked glancing at her.
"Yeah, just was going to say that the rice is almost done, Blaze is keeping an eye on it while I cleaned the office. Hope you don't mind," Taeko smiled gently.
"I appreciate it Taeko, thank you," she smiled in return. "May I ask a question?"
"Go ahead," Taeko nodded.
"Did you like sports? I mean your parents forced you into it, but..." Haruna paused, not wanting to antagonize the girl.
But Taeko let out a quiet yet sad smile. "I always wanted to go into volleyball, but mom said that was too girly," she admitted quietly. "But yeah, I did enjoy it sometimes, though mostly I resented the fact that I was forced into it."
"Do you resent being forced into maid work?"Haruna asked gently, feeling a bit guilty about placing it on her friend. Or a girl she wanted as a friend at least. There was something she liked about Taeko, although she couldn't place her finger on it.
"No, Haruna...that's different. No one would hire me after what happened and you took a big risk on taking me in. Serving as one of the team's maids is the least I can do. And...I enjoy this more than I did sports."She shook her head and smiled. " Believe me I'm much happier here than I ever was before."
"I'm hungry, is the food done yet!"
"Ah, there's Mikiko," Haruna sighed, shaking her head and rising up.
"Commander said that we eat together," Hanoashi pointed out.
"Then Haruna's a Maus damn kill joy!" Mikiko hissed, before walking off.
Taeko glanced at her worriedly, but Haruna just shrugged and walked up and whacked Mikiko on the shoulder. "Eat a Maus damned Snickers," she hissed, handing her one.
Mikiko, to Haruna's bemusement and the shock of both Hanoashi and Taeko actually took the Snickers from Haruna and ate it, sighing in relief.
"Better?" Haruna asked.
"Better, they worked me to the bone," Mikiko sighed.
"Good, you need it," Haruna turned and walked back to Taeko. "Joke from our world," she added as Mikiko walked into the supply room and covertly grabbed an unmentionable before heading to the bathroom. "Happens every time of month," she added quietly.
"Thought we don't eat snacks in front of the others" Hanoashi glanced away from the pot briefly.
"Under normal circumstances, no," Haruna pointed out. "But we give Mikiko this one reprieve, trust me, she's better with the candy bar than without it." she warned, bemused.
"If you say so," Hanoashi shrugged.
"That's what the bag of chocolate chips is for," Haruna mused. "Feeding her chocolate is the best way to do it. I'll be prepping that batch though, since only I know how to make it properly."
"If you say so," Hanoashi shrugged.
"Sorry if I got a little carried away," Mikiko called, before sitting down on a cushion, glancing up at Haruna. "Commander, what's a titan?"
"I'm sorry, come again?" Haruna asked, feeling puzzled by the question.
A Titan?" Mikiko asked again, before shaking her head. "People keep saying that I look like the type of girl who'd slay a titan."
"Don't ask me. Though we might take out a Panther, which would be fairly close to a titan in our books," Haruna shrugged.
"Actually, the co-ed and male high school leagues tend to avoid panthers due to the teams maxing out on the T-50 light tanks," Hanoashi admitted. "Though the all girl's schools don't follow the same agreement and a maximum of three T-50's is allowed in the co-ed leagues so we'd be good either way."
"That's a relief," Haruna sighed. "Then that means that we can use the T-50 light tanks to our full potential."
"We're home!" Lucy called out as a rather tired Nisan and Lumi followed. Haruna ran up to Lumi and helped her over to one of the cushions. "You alright?" she asked softly.
"Heavy lifting,"Lumi sighed, glaring up at Haruna. "It's not your fault, but we're starting exercises this evening." she whispered.
"Meh, fair point," Haruna nodded, feeling a tad guilty about slacking on their routine, but dismissed the feeling. "Alright everyone, we'll be starting our normal exercises, 100 of each set, starting an hour after our meal time. Taeko, Hanoashi, that means you too," she ordered as she gazed around.
"Yes commander," Hanoahsi and Taeko saluted although both girls seemed a bit daunted at having to do so many.
Despite the dinner being good, the exercises...weren't so hot. Taeko at least had had the proper clothes for it, where as the rest of them save Hanoashi had to do them in their thick maintenance uniforms, which was hot and a lot more restrictive then they'd like.
To make matters worse, Hanoashi had to do it in her underwear as all she had aside from her school uniform and maid outfit was her white short sleeved tee-shirt and pink tennis skirt.
"We really need to get some workout clothes," Haruna huffed, as she took off her maintenance uniform and slid into bed, no longer caring about the whole no sleeping in underwear-rule. Really no one cared about it anymore, ironically it was Hanoashi's group who started the trend, and everyone began following suit so to speak.
Waking up, Haruna let out a small sigh as she edged out of the bed, and helped Hanoashi and Taeko fix breakfast. Well, she mostly fixed Mikiko's pancakes.
"So you have to melt chocolate into the pancakes, and broil them in more oil than usual?" Taeko mused in interest.
"Mikiko always has a bad month, so we try to help her out," Haruna sighed. "I'm not affected by it as much, and Lumi...well she just crawls into someone's bed and holds their arm, so be prepared for it Blaze," she warned, glancing at the Irish girl.
"Heh, no worries, I kinda like the physical contact," Hanoashi shrugged. "My only complaint about Yukaro is that he's a bit too much of a prude when it comes to that. Nova is as well. Tryker however..."
"It's stupid, Rikona offering to tie up Haruna but not me," Taeko muttered.
"You were tied up as punishment by your father, of course she's not going to risk bringing up bad memories with you Taeko," Hanoashi pointed out. "Nova's a no go, although he might allow some light handcuffs if you ask nicely."
"Honestly, I'm not all that worried about bondage, given I'm so used to it," Taeko huffed.
"Rikona has just as much right to say no to trying one up as one has the right to tell her no to being tied up," Haruna reminded her. "Still, I'm a bit nervous, but excited about the prospect."
"Don't tell me that you are going to let Tryker tie you up if you like it," Lumi popped in.
"Okay, I won't tell you if I decide to do just that," Haruna smirked.
"Cheek!" Lumi hissed. "But seriously, are you sure you want to do this Haruna? Being tied up like that can change you..."
"The curiosity is too strong for me Lumi," Haruna sighed deeply.
"Your funereal then," Lumi shrugged and took her seat at the breakfast table if you could call it that. Really it was just two collapsible tables they sat on the ground collapsed, and ate off of while sitting on cushions. Chairs were too expensive and even though the table was only inches from the ground, it provided a barrier so to speak.
The meal was quick, as was the cleaning which Haruna helped with, and the girls went about their day. School was fast, she ate with Lumi again, this time at a fairly cheep seafood place, and the workplace was better than yesterday, but still an adjustment from her old job.
As she went into the building however she noticed three new girls in the room. "So, you finally came," Haruna nodded.
"You were right," Miho whispered.
"How did you know!" the russet haired girl known as Saori hissed.
"Kinda hard not to then the council comes right out and says it," Haruna gazed at the three girls. "Let's go to my office and we can talk," she added. "Taeko, fix three extra-portions of rice for our guest," she called out.
"Yes commander!" Taeko called from the kitchen.
"A maid?" Miho asked.
"Yes, Taeko and I are maids, what of it?" Hanoashi walked by, entering the rooms as they she did a final clean.
"We pay them a portion of our paycheck in return for their cleaning and cooking services," Haruna explained.
"You get paid for doing Sensado?!" Saori gasped.
"No, we work after school," Haruna shrugged as she entered her office and sat down, urging the other girls to do so. "Now Miho, they want you to lead the team," Haruna began.
"But I can't, I cant!" Miho cried out.
"Not as you are, no," Haruna shook her head. "You are still affected by last year's incident, aren't you?" she dared to ask.
Miho gazed down and nodded. "Yes," she whispered softly.
"You'll have to get over it." Haruna sighed. "Furthermore, they might try to hire an instructor who's a bit too close to the Nishisumi if you will," she added.
"Why?" Miho gasped.
"To point everyone to you," Haruna noted. "If that happens, you might have to make the difficult choice between doing what is right and remaining a Nishisumi," she warned.
"But..." Miho glanced down, clearly upset by this.
"How can you say that!" Hana growled.
"Yeah how dare you!" Saori added to the protest.
"Miho, do you want to be a Nishisumi?" Haruna asked softly.
"Not really," Miho sighed. "I just...I just want to be me," she added.
"Like I said, our doors are open to housing you if worse comes to worse. You'll have to get a part time job of course, but it's not that bad," Haruna reminded her gently.
"But what makes you think that the instructor is going to point everyone towards me?" Miho asked after a bit.
"Just call it a hunch," Haruna shrugged. "That, and it's what the student council wanted," she added.
"This...is troubling news to me," Miho admitted softly. "I...don't want to go into Sensado again. Between the incident I cause and everyone hating me..."
"I understand," Haruna noted gently. "But like I said, I doubt that the student council is going to say no. You can try, of course, but the chances of that are fairly slim that they'll just up and suggest it."
"We can hope, right?" Hana interjected.
"Honestly...I'm not too sure we can even do that," Haruna sighed. "Truth be told though I'm not exactly comfortable working with Miho after the accident."
"You keep bringing that up," Saori pouted.
"Well...considering she commanded her troop to drive onto a rocky cliff side during a rainstorm..." Haruna shrugged.
"Miho...that's too reckless," Hana chided.
"I know," Miho gazed down.
"To be perfectly clear, I don't think that Miho is a bad person, she just got too reckless and paid the price of the rejection of her old school," Haruna pointed out. "I can sympathize with you Mhio, the hurt of the rejection and such, but it was a fair reaction. At least you managed to save the five in the Panzer III which fell into the water."
"Yeah...but I shouldn't have even had to. Had I not placed them in that position..." Miho sighed.
"Had you not saved them things would have been much worse," Haruna reminded her.
"True...I barely got off with a stern warning from the courts. They...while it wasn't an order or mandate, they suggested that I stay far away from Sensado...a sentiment that mother and I both wholeheartedly agreed with." Letting out a small sigh, Miho cupped her head into her hands. "That's why I came to Ooarai, A school without a Sensado program wouldn't be tempted to force me to join and I wouldn't be tempted by any old urges begging me to join the team."
"Like I said before, I don't think you're a bad person Miho, the fact that you tried to go to a school without a Sensado program to avoid Sensado after your mistake proves it to me," Haruna smiled.
"T...thanks..." Miho lowered her hands. "But...what do I do if they do try to force me into it?"
"Well you have four choices," Haruna began. "At least from where I'm standing," she added.
"And those are?" Hana and Saori leaned forward.
"First, you accept and try to keep your head low," Haruna noted. "It'd be pretty hard for them to force you into a leadership position if...say...you decided to remain a loader or Radio Operator. Or at least it would be without them looking like a complete ass about it."
"My second option?" Miho whispered, her expression clearly not liking this option.
"You agree to join the team not as a member, but rather an advisor. A mentor if you will. That way if anyone raises objections, you can simply shrug and say that you just didn't want this newly founded team to get themselves hurt. And if Shiho still protests, just tell her that you barely managed to talk the student council down from making you the team commander to an advisor position."
"But mother would look at you guys and know that something is up," Miho sighed.
"Hence why I said that our doors are open to you. Might not be able to get into collage without a scholarship right away...but it is a path forward, and there's nothing wrong with working for ten years before starting collage. In fact a good ten year work record before collage might actually help you when getting hired for that professional career you want," Haruna noted.
"Th...thank you," Miho whispered.
"The third option is to tell Shiho if they try to threaten you. I'm not too sure how she'd react, but given that she's the headmaster of perhaps the best high school Sensado academy in the world, let alone Japan, word getting out that Ooarai tried to force her daughter into a sport she did not want to go in would be a pretty big deal."
"But that'd hurt Ooarai...I wouldn't want that," Miho shook her head.
"The final option would be to silently leave. You could say anything, PTSD from the incident, bullying, the school just didn't feel right...,"
"But I've made friends here, I wouldn't want to leave them," Miho sighed.
"I got the scholarship last year, so there's no way I can leave," Saori apologized.
"And mother would be pretty upset if I suggested leaving," Hana sighed.
"So that's off the table...if you want to remain with your friends," Haruna sighed.
"Sorry to interrupt, but supper is ready," Hanoashi announced.
"Let's eat, I think Miho needs to think on a few things before we decide on a plan," Haruna suggested.
As the four sat down to eat, the three visitors seemed surprised at the simplicity of the meals. "We buy our own lunch, but breakfast and dinner are simple pancakes and rice respectively," Haruna explained. "Helps to keep us fit."
"Do you have snacks?" Hana asked.
Haruna shook her head. "Not under normal circumstances, though there's no hard and fast rule against nabbing a candy-bar or something while out and about," she explained.
"Sounds like you try to keep things healthy," Saori noted.
"We're athletes, so we've got to keep things as healthy as we can," Haruna smiled gently.
"So...um...what are classes like?" Miho asked.
"Fairly simple, civics, history, literature, science, and mathematics," Haruna shrugged. "You must understand that we work for about four hours in between classes and Sensado practice, so we don;t take as many classes as some. Not as hard as the Ship, engineering and agricultural courses, but none the less it's not as easy as most in the general courses."
"Are you looking down on us in the general course?" Saori gaped.
"Hm..." Haruna gave the two girls a good look-over. "For Sensado purposes, you two need to gain strength and stamina. Just from looking at you tells me that you're not all that active."
"That's rude," Saori pouted.
"There's a difference between being rude and being factual," Haruna noted. "I'd recommend starting with around forty sit-ups, forty push ups, full push ups, not the so called girl push ups, and a 1 kilometer run," Haruna began. "If you can do more, than that's great, but that's about where you'd want to be for most positions. Most loaders Loaders, Drivers, as well as some gunners, radio operators, and commanders tend to need more though, depending on your ammunition weight and the tank itself."
"She's right," Miho agreed reluctantly. "If you're going into Sensado, you have to be pretty strong," she added.
"There's a baseline, but it's not really all that hard for a light-weight work position," Hanoashi noted as she gave Hana a refill, the only guest to ask for one. "I n the co-ed leagues, the middle school's was twenty push-ups, thirty sit ups, and a one Kilomitor run." She paused and sighed. "That last part was actually hard for me," she added.
"Wait...they have co-ed leagues?!" Saori gasped.
"Well...they do, but..." Hanoashi stammered, but had to leave and provide Lumi, Nissan and Mikiko a refill.
"From what she told me, the guys view their fellow girl athletes as sisters and vice versa, so getting a boyfriend is fairly rare," Haruna shrugged.
"Oh..." Saori pouted.
"Outside of the Singles and tournament of fives, those of us in the girl's league rarely interact with those in the Male and Co-ed leagues," Miho noted.
"In reality, you usually only get about two couples max per Co-ed Sensado team for each school year," Hanoashi noted, having fulfilled her role in handing out rice for the moment. "They have been a few years where three couples came out, but that's only happened three times across dozen of Sensado capable Co-ed leagues. Yukaro and I were the only ones of our year oddly enough, although we weren't vocally a thing until our senor year, even if it was fairly obvious that we were one."
"Oh, you've got a boyfriend?" What's he like?" Saori gushed.
"Well...we're actually sort of married given my father passed away about a week ago, we're just waiting for everything to go through so to speak. Contract to marriage license," Hanoashi admitted, before smiling. "As for Yukaro, he's kindhearted, brave, dedicated, hardworking, a bit on the quiet side, and a bit of a prude, so I'm beyond satisfied with him." The Irish girl let out a dreamy sigh. "I can't wait for us to begin living together, to cook and clean for him while he's at work and to embrace him when he steps through the door..."
She must really love him then...not too sure if I want to become this mushy with Tryker, but...Haruna blushed briefly at the idea of their potential life together.
"Sounds like you've got everything planed out well Hanoashi," Miho noted.
Hanoashi let out a small quite smile in return. "I've always wanted to be a stay at home wife and mother above everything else, so this is the dream for me. Working as a maid only helps out with that."
As Haruna watched the three guest leave, she let out a small nod toward Hanoashi. "I think that she'll be okay." she mused.
"Let's hope so," Hanoashi frowned.
"Change your mind about joining the Sensado team?" Haruna asked.
Hanoashi shook her head. "As much as I'd like to help out, I have my own task here with maidwork...and besides I'm still exhausted from leading the Nishmari team for two years," she admitted quietly. "Had Miho been the only one with prior experience, then I'd consider it but between her and girls such as yourself, Lumi, and Mei, I think I can rest easy knowing that the team is in good hands."
"I understand," Haruna smiled as Hanoashi turned into the building and began to help Taeko with the clean up. Maybe we should relent on the number of push-ups and sit-ups those two do. Between Hanoashi not wanting to join into Sensado and Taeko being barred from it, there's not much sense in doing that," she mused as she herself went back into her office to go over some documents.