"It's strange." Miho began the next morning while she was chatting with some of the Ooarai students she had gathered for her own meeting. The other Ooarai girls listened and watched. "How am I the girl that I can be called fire? Doesn't fire destroy everything? How is it going to save this school?" Miho tried her best to explain what Stephanie had told her the night before.
"I'm not exactly sure either. We've been thinking about it and by the looks of things. We're just as confused as you are." Akebi explained that they didn't have any ideas about what was going on. Piyotan nodded in her reply.
"Does anyone have any ideas what this could mean, or one specific group? some of us don't have the time to read." Nekota asked before making the statement that they weren't avid readers, they were either playing volleyball or playing their games.
"I think I know who this could mean." Taeko explained before she turned her head. The others began to do much the same thing. Their heads were all turning to Rabbit Team. Azusa gulped as she and her friends were being eyed up by a bunch of hungry wolves.
"Do you six know anything about any of this?" Miho asked. She wanted to see what these girls knew that Ayami and her friends were talking to them about. The Rabbit team girls weren't comfortable about being seen like this. Miho knew she needed answers to make sense of what Stephanie had told her. Finally, Aya cracked under the pressure of them.
"Okay these girls think they are feral cats from the books we have read and we told them about it. They said they read it too. You heard about it when we were on that train ride up to Pittsburg, the video we were watching. They liked it too." Aya told Miho finally cracking under what seemed to be immense amounts of pressure. Miho was still curious.
"Okay that answers half of my question, who in turn introduced you girls to such a concept?" Miho asked Rabbit team if they had any answers. Who was it that introduced them to the concept of feral cats living in the forest?
"Addisyn did." Azusa blurted out. Miho was surprised about who introduced these girls to the concept of cats in the forest. "She said she had been following Ooarai for some time and that's how she kind of knew you from when we visited her days ago. She was watching us from the safety of her cabin and we were chatting with her on the way up for our winter sport event and she said she was impressed we were buying and reading the books. It's how she must've used who she knew to get me here in the first place." Azusa seemed to break down when she explained all of this to Miho. She then grabbed Miho and buried her head into her chest sobbing uncontrollably. "I am so sorry for dragging you into this mess Miho, I don't know if me coming here was intentional and you seemed to have followed me in." Azusa continued to sob. Miho placed her hands around Azusa and tried her best to comfort her.
"It's okay Azusa, I came here to make sure you were okay. We all would have missed you if you were sent in there alone. We need to figure out how you got into this in the first place. I might as well speak to Addisyn if she has any answers." Miho explained to Azusa as she did her best to calm her down. After a minute, Azusa calmed down as some of the girls walked forward. Among them was Rowan who needed Miho for something.
"Firepaw, Bluestar wants to meet you for training. The others will be given your assignments." Rowan explained as she began barking orders to get the rest of the girls mobilized. They began to walk off as Miho went to find Ayami. She knew this would be a good chance to explain to her about what she heard last night regarding Mio.
Miho arrived where Ayami was standing. She was curious about what her leader wanted from her. Ayami turned and greeted Miho with a smile.
"I've been checking out your tank, this is a pretty good machine you have got there. I was wondering if you want to show me what this tank can do." Ayami explained to Miho as she seemed to be impressed with the tank that Miho and her friends had got.
"Rescued it from neglect along with a bunch of other tanks and we kind of cobbled our way to victory. Renta thinks our victories were just flukes but we can prove him wrong time and time again if we have the chance." Miho explained how their Panzer 4 came to be their tank.
"Good to hear, I heard your friends will be coming along to help you operate the tank but that will take a few while they get ready. I saw how well you fought off Saunders and I want to concentrate on your fighting skills. Tigerclaw is taking the apprentices to another part of the forest so there will be no distractions for you." Ayami explained to Miho that she wanted to see Miho what she was made of outside of the tank before coming inside to complete the rest of the lesson. Miho was thinking she must mention Mio now if she wanted to make sure her friend was going to be okay.
"Okay Bluestar." Miho replied to Ayami.
"Good. Now I want you to attack me." Ayami gave Miho the order to start the fight. Miho wasn't entirely sure of where to attack but she was thinking why. Why was she going to have to fight Ayami? Miho was still pondering about this but the thoughts of Mio were still in her head. She knew she wasn't going to get another chance of explaining this to Ayami. Ayami knocked Miho to the ground. Miho got up as Ayami smiled a bit, wanting to see how Miho was going to react. "Do I have your attention now?" Ayami asked.
"Yes Bluestar. Sorry." Miho replied, trying her best to straighten herself up. She dusted her uniform off while Ayami nodded a bit with a smile.
"That's better." Ayami explained, still smiling but her voice was a little more stern this time around. She calmed down and she began to explain. "Firepaw, you've been with us for many days now. I've watched you fight. With the Saunders students, you were quick and fierce. You outwitted Graypaw on the first day we met and you defeated Yellowfang with your cleverness too. But one day, you will meet an opponent who is all of these things as well, quick, fierce and clever. It is my duty to prepare you for that day." Ayami explained that she knew that Miho had all of these traits that Ayami had described as she knew Miho was capable of doing this but even then, she needed to be ready for what will happen when that day comes.
"Yes Bluestar, I'm ready to learn." Miho sighed to Ayami.
"Good, now attack me." Ayami told Miho that she wanted to be attacked. Miho looked at Ayami studying her to see what she can do to take an easy victory and move on to the part she was more familiar with. Miho knew that if she could get behind and jump onto Ayami, maybe she could throw her off balance. Miho leaped at Ayami but Ayami was quick to move out of the way which led to Miho landing in the dirt, skidding down a few feet. Miho got up as Ayami looked at Miho with an amused look. "Interesting strategy, but your eyes betrayed where you were aiming. Now try again." Ayami explained to Miho that where she went had indeed led to her catching Miho off balance and she was able to counter her. Miho looked at Ayami and began to think,
"Okay." Miho told Ayami. She studied her to think of another plan of attack. Miho thought she could aim for her shoulder while she was looking at her feet, she thought that she could hit Ayami if she decided to duck. Miho leaped at Ayami again but Ayami punched Miho up as Miho landed in the dirt. Ayami was quick to counter her.
"Now try something I don't expect." Ayami politely told Miho to think of another plan if she was going to beat her. Miho got up as she was panting with exhaustion. She decided to pull back and regroup.
"Even Tomori wasn't this tricky to fight." Miho muttered to herself. She turned to face Ayami again with a new plan in mind. She charged forward but Ayami quickly shoved her down, another plan of Miho's had failed and Ayami decided to express her criticisms to Miho.
"Firepaw, you're strong and quick, but you must keep control of your speed and body weight so it wouldn't be so easy for me to knock you off balance. Try again." Ayami told Miho but she was willing to give Miho another shot to prove herself. Miho got up and dusted herself off.
"I will get her this time." Miho told herself. She decided to look at Ayami before making her move. She jumped up to try to use herself to knock Ayami down but she landed a few feet short from her target, this was what Miho was hoping for. Ayami tackled Miho down but Miho kicked Ayami off of her as Ayami landed in the dirt away from Miho. Miho got up, triumphant in that victory. She looked at Ayami who got up and dusted herself off. She was satisfied with Miho.
"That was much better." Ayami told Miho that this was something she kind of liked from her. "Now it's my turn." Ayami and Miho would continue their training throughout the morning as the two of them seemed to express their skills with each other. Hana. Saori, Yukari and Mako had arrived to where the Panzer 4 was after their training was complete. Ayami was talking to Miho.
"You did well Firepaw, that's enough training for one day. Now that your friends are here, I want to see how you girls operate the tank." Ayami explained to Miho and her friends that with their fighting training finished now came the other half of the day, the tanks.
"Sure. I guess you are catching onto these machines?" Miho asked Ayami, thinking this was something she was starting to enjoy.
"I am, it turns out that we can't live in seclusion forever." Ayami explained.
"Hop on, we're going to get ready." Miho explained to Ayami. The girls hopped onto their Panzer 4 tank as Ayami climbed into the tank. It was a bit cramped in the tank with six girls when it took five to operate. Hana was in the loader position with Yukari acting as the gunner. Miho was commanding the tank with Saori in the radio operator position and Mako driving.
"Miho, three tanks will be joining us. Some of the girls are taking their tanks for a spin." Saori explained to Miho that they weren't alone for this tank exercise.
"Well it looks like we should be good then." Miho replied to Saori. The Panzer 4 roared to life with the girls excited to have something that reminded them of Ooarai. The tank began to steadily move with Ayami feeling the tank roll forward.
"I never really got about tanks or tank sports, Allisyn has but this really isn't my cup of tea, what should I do?" Ayami asked.
"You can be the machine gunner in the hull… wait I don't think Saori is going to take too kindly to you doing that as it will be tight of a squeeze." Yukari explained what Ayami can do to keep herself occupied. Ayami nodded though she didn't know what she will do. Miho opened the hatch and poked her head out of the tank to give Ayami some room. Miho looked around thinking where these tanks were. Then, the Chi-Nu, M3 Lee and Duck team's Type 89 I-Go appeared. They were being supported by Maple High School students who were riding on the tanks.
"Hey there Miho, coming out on patrol today?" Trout asked Miho if this was going to be the case.
"Yes I have, what are you girls doing out here?" Miho asked.
"We got news of a Saunders patrol, they're pretty close to our camp and we might as well hit them with what we have, take their tanks back, fix them and arm more people." Trout explained that the Saunders group was most likely going to attack.
"Any news about the eyes inside of the camp?" Miho asked her friends. She wanted to figure out about the Saunders prisoners if they were giving information back to the others.
"Well when we spoke to the Saunders prisoners about the attack. Rosie is clear from any wrongdoing and Sima as well as Kimberly had said nothing from the day they were captured. Sima is putting in the effort by helping fix the tanks. Kimberly has been busy intermingling with the first years as she is befriending them." Hana explained to Miho what she remembered off of the top of her head. No one had been captured and was ferrying the information back.
"Good to hear, I find it strange that someone from the enemy is helping us. I'm not exactly sure why but this is good." Miho replied.
"Could they have changed sides? I heard Josephine had done so for Anzio earlier this year just because Orange Pekoe was keen on helping her just to make Kuromorimine weaker." Moose explained while she relaxed on her tank.
"Could be. Some people have strange motivations if they put their minds to it." Oleo explained to Moose that people can scheme their way to the top or they could prove it with their talent. "Either way it should be no surprise that we might have those from the enemy helping us as well as people from within our side helping them. I guess Rowan had her suspicions. Don't know how true they are."
"Okay so no one knows why Mio is suspicious?" Miho asked the group if they could figure it out. They didn't know so the girls shuffled uncomfortably on their tanks.
"That is something you need to ask her yourself. Aside from Graypaw, you're the only person who has interacted with her the most. I don't know about any of this." Ayami explained to Miho that it was up to her when it came to fixing all of this. Miho sighed as the tanks paused and Miho began to look around.
"Okay Bluestar, I will talk to Ravenpaw." Miho told Ayami She began to look around as she spotted ten Saunders Shermans. It was clear that Kay was getting ready for another attack.
"We sense the girls are very weak at this point and massing the tanks together for another frontal assault is the plan. We are just about ready as we need another assortment of support vehicles. More trucks and we should launch the attack tonight." Alisa explained that they needed more vehicles to bring students in quicker as this would push them apart. It was good in terms of the last plan but we got foiled when their leader showed up and we got beaten back." Kay explained to the students that this attack had to be the one if they were going to break them apart. Miho looked as more students from the school were joining her.
"What are you doing here?" Miho asked Tanya and her friends.
"We're going to launch a raid. Rowan's orders." Tanya explained. Miho seemed to be curious about what was happening with her and the other students. Were they really going to do it when it came to attacks like these?" Miho needed the answer she was looking for but Tanya and her friends seem to be the distraction she needed.
"Okay. Trout, you will be leading the Cedar students and get them into position, I will be handling the armored attack." Miho began to explain what her plan was. The students went to flank from the side as they knew they needed to get the Saunders tanks to focus on them and them alone. Once that was done. Miho and the group of tanks were going to fire and knock out the Shermans one by one to cause chaos. Yukari began turning the gun as Ayami grabbed the radio.
"Okay, are you girls in position?" Ayami asked the group.
"Just about, We're going to drive them out with one swift attack." Tanya explained as she helped Oleo swing the bipod of the Bren Gun down.
"Ready to start the fireworks." Ritsu explained. She had her eyes lined up on one of the Saunders students.
"Now!" Miho told Yukari. Yukari fired the tank as the round flew along, smashing into the tanks. The Saunders students were taken by surprise as one of their tanks had been knocked out. The M3 Lee fired next as it took out another Sherman. The Saunders students looked around to see who was doing this.
"Fire!" Rowan shouted. The students began firing away their guns at the Saunders gathering spot. The Saunders students began to scatter while the flurry of students continued shooting. Miho was looking around for more targets as the Saunders students began retreating with The Type 3 Chi Nu giving chase.
"Let's drive these rats out from the forest Nyaaa!" Nekota shouted as Piyotan was firing away with the tank's machine gun. Nekota aimed the cannon of the tank and spotted another Sherman. She fired and took that tank out. The Maple High School students popped out from their positions and continued firing away. The Saunders students melted into the underbrush as they had been ambushed. Tanya watched as another tank was taken out by Duck Team as the mostly chaotic group watched their tanks get taken out.
"They're taking out our tanks, what are we going to do?" Alisa asked as one of the students got shot up. Kay was stuck in a difficult position. She didn't know if she wanted to continue her plan or withdraw, regroup or think of a new plan.
"Pull back everyone!" Kay shouted to the others. The few mobile tanks there were left began to retreat with the others. Some students attempted to get up and follow the Saunders group out of there.
"They're retreating! They can't handle the pressure." Tanya called out as they were converging on the group of knocked out tanks. Trout smiled with the prospect of victory and catching the enemy flat footed. She seems satisfied by this.
"Get out of here!" Trout shouted while spraying her Thompson at the retreating students.
"They're gone?" Ayami asked. She poked her head out of the tank to get a look around. She was more or less impressed, Six Shermans had been knocked out with the rest having either fled the scene.
"Yeah they're gone. They fled the scene. They were planning on attacking us tonight." Tia explained to her leader. She was thankful that they stopped another attack.
"Well this desperate attack has thrown the enemy back. Even so, we stopped the enemy deep in their tracks." Ayami explained that this move had thrown the enemy in disarray and they wouldn't make a move until they recovered. "Drag the tanks back and we'll see if we can fix up these buckets of scrap." They nodded as the Sherman tanks were sent back for maintenance. They now had nine Shermans plus an assortment of light tanks, armored cars and tanks that were on loan from the other schools.
Sunset had come and the students were celebrating their latest victory over Saunders. Many of the students were chatting away about what was going to happen next. One or two more victories would be enough to send them packing. Miho looked around as she spotted Ritsu limping over. It was clear she wasn't in good shape.
"What happened to you?" Miho asked Ritsu.
"I kind of tripped and sprained my leg again, it hurts I know. I should go see Stephanie about what she can do with this leg. I still want to finish my training before summer is in full swing." Ritsu explained.
"Nice to hear about that, where's Mio?" Miho asked Ritsu about Mio's whereabouts.
"Not back from her task as of yet. I think we should look out for her and by we I mean you. I'm going to be held up in Stephanie's cabin as I said before with this leg." Ritsu explained. Miho nodded though she remained uncertain.
"Want me to help you over there?" Miho asked Ritsu.
"I should be fine. Thanks for asking though." Ritsu replied. Miho watched Ritsu limp off the scene. She was still skeptical about Mio and wanted to figure out where she was.
Night time came and Miho was still worried about Mio not coming back. She wanted to figure out what happened between her and Rowan and if the rumors of Mio being a traitor were true.
"Surely Mio would be back by now. I should have told Ayami when I had the chance." Miho told herself. She tried to shake this feeling from within her but it was continuing to bite. Miho needed to say something. Chelsea and Satsuki walked past her, getting ready to call it a night and get some sleep. Miho felt anxious by their presence. "I don't want those two overhearing anything I will have to say to Ayami." Miho continued speaking to herself. "I'm starving, I should go to my tank crew to find food. Maybe Saori has something left over." Miho turned her eyes to see Mio hauling a stash of food to Miho.
"I think that's done." Mio told herself. She had seemed to hit the jackpot when it came to it.
"What's going on Mio?" Miho asked her friend. Mio turned as she grabbed Miho by her uniform shirt.
"Hey Miho, look at all of this food I got, it's enough for all three of us. It should be extra good since I got it from Saunders!" Mio told herself. Mio's pupils were tiny to the rest of her eye. She seemed to be crazy with what she told herself.
"You took food from Saunders?" Miho asked Mio if this was true. She couldn't believe what Mio had told her.
"Well yeah. That was my task." Mio told Miho that was what she was assigned to do. Miho seemed horrified when she learned that Mio was absent from the raid. She was busy raiding somewhere else.
"Rowan sent you into enemy territory to get this food?" Miho asked Mio. "We have to tell Ayami. That was too dangerous."
"Look! Just keep this quiet okay! I survived and I even got us some food!" Mio told Miho that there wasn't the chance of going off and causing trouble even if it's for a few scraps of food. "That's all there is to it!"
"You survived this time." Miho explained to Mio.
"SHH! Rowan is looking!" Mio shushed Miho that she didn't want anyone to tell her what happened and why it seemed to be this way. "Just eat your share and keep your mouth shut." Miho wasn't going to be bribed to keep quiet. She needed to figure out what happened. Mio opened a bag of food and took a couple of cookies. She ate them ravenously and turned back to Miho. "Should we save some for Ritsu?"
"Ritsu decided to go to Stephanie to have someone take a look at her leg. I don't know when she will be back." Miho calmly explained to Mio that their friend's return was unknown and they were going to have to wait until Ritsu was able to use her legs again.
"Well… I'm tired. I need to go to sleep." Mio explained before she headed off to her cabin with the stash of food. Miho wasn't satisfied and needed confirmation on why Mio was acting so strangely. They approached the cabin as Miho tapped on Mio's shoulder. She had something important to say.
"Mio there is something you need to know." Miho began speaking to her friend. "Something I heard last night when I was out looking for wild garlic. I overheard them saying you have betrayed the group. You slipped away on the trip to Mothermouth and told Saunders about everything and told them to attack us as we left the camp unguarded." Miho explained to Mio about what she overheard the night before regarding her friend. Mio looked down and she couldn't believe herself.
"BUT I DIDN'T!" Mio shouted with disbelief. Why was Rowan making stuff up to get her into trouble?
"Of course you didn't but… Chelsea and Satsuki believe you did and that Rowan persuaded them to get rid of you." Miho explained to Mio. Mio began breathing in and out as she seemed to be on the verge of breaking down.
"Oh no!" Mio told herself. "Oh no!"
"Why would Rowan want to get rid of you Mio? Rowan is one of the strongest girls in the school. You're no threat to her." Miho asked Mio if she knew anything regarding Rowan and why she would want to get rid of her. Mio knew she needed to speak the truth.
"It's the fact that Rowan is hungry for power." Mio began. "Last year we drove off a Saunders incursion and Rowan told me to run. I ran until I hid behind some bushes. I looked over to watch Hikari watching the last of the Saunders girls run away and… that's when Rowan jumped up on her and sank her teeth into her neck… and so I ran." Mio explained as tears ran down her cheeks as she recalled the horrible incident that she had to witness.
"Hikari is still around but now with Rowan in a position of power. I guess she's figuring out a way to bring down those that she doesn't like." Miho explained to Mio as everything was starting to make sense now. "Why didn't you tell Ayami?" Miho asked Mio if she told the leader what happened.
"Would she have believed me?" Mio asked as tears were still streaming down her cheeks. "DO YOU BELIEVE ME?!"
"Of course I do." Miho replied to Mio that was the reason why she was here. "Don't worry, I'll sort it out. In the meantime, just make sure you stick to either me or Ritsu."
"Does she know about them wanting to get rid of me?!" Mio asked as she didn't know if she could trust anybody at this point.
"Not yet but I will tell her." Miho told Mio that she would let Ritsu know about the whole thing and figure out what they can do to help her. Mio turned her head to the ground and began crying about telling Miho what happened. Miho walked over and tried her best to comfort Mio. "It's okay Mio, I'll help you through this." Miho told Mio that she was willing to help. Miho was left with an uncertain future ahead of her. She wanted to help her friend but there wasn't anything she could really do.
Miho had a long and mostly sleepless night. She needed to figure out what was going on with Mio and find a solution. Maybe if they were to fix it before Saunders regrouped and attacked again. Miho was sleeping in the open when Ritsu walked over. Her legs were functioning normally. She spotted Miho stirring.
"Hey guys." Ritsu greeted Miho and her friends.
"You sound better, how's your leg?" Miho asked Ritsu about her leg and she wanted to see how her friend was holding up.
"Stephanie wrapped my leg in a bandage and made me lie still for HOURS! I must've fallen asleep. Anyway, I hope that you saved me some eggs and bacon because I am starving!" Ritsu explained to Miho that she was praying that she didn't miss breakfast.
"There should be some. Mio came back with snacks that Rowan made her go fetch yesterday from Saunders…" Miho explained to Ritsu. Delilah was groggy and she didn't get much sleep either last night.
"Be quiet you two. I'm trying to get some sleep!" Delilah told them to stop talking as that woke her up.
"Then put some ear plugs into your ears. That should stop it." Ritsu explained to Delilah that something like that would prevent her from being disturbed. "Anyway, we have a few things to do as we might be catching a bit of a break." Ritsu walked away with Miho following her.
"Finally, something worth celebrating." Miho told herself. Miho wandered through the trails to see Stephanie with Tanya, Aurora, Tia, and Kate were waiting outside. "Hi Stephanie."
"Good morning Miho." Stephanie greeted her. Miho walked on as she had something to do. The four girls looked at Stephanie, excited to be with her.
"Can we play with you Stephanie?" Aurora asked if this was a game they were willing to try out.
"Can we please?" Tanya asked politely.
"You four can help me sort herbs." Stephanie explained to the girls that she was willing to have them help her out.
"Thanks Stephanie." Kate told her friend they were helpful.
"Yay!" Tia called out excitedly. Miho made her way forward as she spotted Addisyn who was busy talking to Azusa and Nekota.
"Ah Miho you're here. I wanted to ask if you wanted to bring this package to Lindsay. It arrived in the town this morning when I went to run a couple of errands." Addisyn asked if Miho was willing to do a job for her.
"Sure. Don't know how heavy the package will be but I will manage." Miho explained to Addisyn. Addisyn nodded.
"Thank you, I'm still training Rabbit Team if you don't mind as they are in turn training me so I have no time for the package." Addisyn explained. Miho nodded.
"Okay I will." Miho responded. She grabbed the package, it was kind of big but pretty light all things considered. She began to take it to where it needed to be. Miho continued traveling down when she spotted Tomori reading a book on the porch. She waved Miho down. "Hey Tomori, I was delivering the package to Lindsay, how are you doing?"
"Doing well Miho, also be careful with packages, this one might contain glass." Tomori advised Miho to take it easy if she was going to get this to her friend.
"Okay I will. How are you enjoying this place?" Miho asked Tomori.
"Well it could be worse to see students rising up and tearing everything down. Given how peaceful this school is, the activity here wouldn't be too much of a hassle. It's hard to keep track of time." Tomori explained to Miho that she was enjoying her time here though it was hard to keep track of it.
"Okay I need to get going, nice talking with you." Miho told Tomori before she headed off.
"See you." Tomori told Miho as she watched her friend head off. Miho arrived at the cabin to see Kiara, Nekota and Ayami chatting away. Miho was itching to get this package out of her hands. Ayami turned and spoke to Miho.
"Firepaw, after you're done giving the package to Brindleface, I need to speak to you." Ayami explained before she walked off.
"Okay." Miho told Ayami. She headed off and knocked on the door. Lindsay opened the door and saw Miho.
"Just in time. I sense Addisyn sent someone else to give the package to me." Lindsay greeted Miho.
"Yeah she did. Addisyn said her hands were tied up and she told me to give this to you." Miho explained. Lindsay nodded before they took the package to her bedroom. Lindsay got the old lanterns out of the way and began to open the package up.
"I hope this is the one." Lindsay told herself. Lindsay opened the package to reveal a cat shaped lantern. "It is, this is a custom one that Rukuriri helped design."
"Rukuriri? How do you know about Saint Gloriana Academy?" Miho asked Lindsay if she had a connection with any of the students. Lindsay looked at the bottom hatch before heading off to get a screwdriver. Once she got back with a couple of batteries. She decided to unscrew the bottom.
"Rukuriri, Orange Pekoe and a few others do custom designs for those that order them whenever they're not in their tanks. Students have lives outside of war. Them wanting to design stuff such as these is something that these girls take pride in. I helped design the lantern with them." Lindsay explained as she got the screw out and opened up the bottom. "Do you know anyone with a good sense of design?"
"Hana Isuzu but that's more or less about flowers and not lanterns. Why did you need this one?" Miho asked while Lindsay was inserting the batteries into the lantern.
"This lantern is pretty old and its light is pretty dim. I was planning on giving it to Kimberly who said that she doesn't have any light. Plus I need to get this lantern fixed when I get the chance and head out to town. This will be a gift for a friend while the lantern I'm going to use will be replacing it. Stephanie has the drawing for the lantern of what it would look like." Lindsay explained that the old lantern needed to be fixed and was being given to one of the first years but for her. The lantern Miho brought for her was going to replace it.
"Okay. I wonder if the schools can get together to design such things?" Miho asked Lindsay while the latter was putting the screw back into its place.
"They should but you should ask Stephanie about that." Lindsay told Miho. Lindsay placed the lantern on the night stand and sighed. "Three… two… one." Lindsay turned the lantern on and the room was lit up. Lindsay felt satisfied with this.
"Maybe another time. I need to go speak to Ayami. Enjoy the lantern." Miho told Lindsay as she got up and walked away.
"You too." Lindsay replied. She was more or less happy about the lantern she got.
Miho walked up to spot Ayami with the rest of the Ooarai students. She had gathered them together for a meeting.
"Firepaw you're here. There is something I wish to say about Ooarai. Make yourself comfortable." Ayami began. Miho walked over before sitting down with Ayami and the others.
"What is it that you need to say about us?" Miho asked Ayami curiously if Ayami had some opinions about Ooarai collectively.
"Firepaw, Ooarai has done well in yesterday's attack. Better than even my strongest warriors. I can still smell the stench of Saunders around us. I'm still aching from the training session yesterday." Ayami explained that Ooarai was doing better than Ayami expected them to.
"Thanks, I trained them and being someone who does this night and day, this is no easy task. It seems we're benefitting from each other in terms of learning." Miho explained to Ayami. "But there is something I want to say." Miho explained to Ayami.
"I'm sure that it has to do with Saunders. They might be regrouping for another attack and we can't go into the Bering strait until we get more supplies from Japan. We would be in for a rough summer without you and Azusa." Ayami explained to Miho.
"Yeah but there is something I want to say." Miho began. She wanted to bring up Mio and what she heard about a couple nights ago with Rowan, Chelsea and Satsuki. She wanted to get to the bottom of this and make her friend feel better. Ayami, on the other hand, had other ideas.
"I'm sure what you have to say is really important but I have something to say myself. It turns out the reason why Rowan seemed to be amused that I got myself hurt from the rats was the fact that she wants to succeed me. A person with power and the wits like Rowan can be our biggest help but even with that it can cloud her judgment. It is the reason why I chose others rather than her multiple times when it came to a position like deputy. When I gave her the chance, she has been good, and we haven't had any attacks so far. It makes me wonder how long Rowan can keep up this act before she decides that she wants to overtake me?" Ayami spoke about that. Miho felt frustrated by what Ayami had said. She wanted to say that Mio was in danger and Ayami told her about Rowan. Miho growled but she knew she needed to keep her cool.
"I'm not exactly sure about that myself. I wanted to say… never mind." Miho told Ayami. She had forgotten what she wanted to say, and Miho began to feel frustrated with herself. She turned and walked away. "Way to go. Your friend is in danger, and you have forgotten about it. Maybe next time if you have the chance." Miho muttered to herself. The other girls dispersed as Ayami saw no need to continue the meeting. For Miho, she was back to square one.
Miho walked around outside to see Kiara frantically. She was looking around for someone. She didn't know where they were.
"Aurora? Tanya?" Kiara called out. "TIA? KATE? THIS ISN'T FUNNY!" Kiara shouted; she seemed frantic about what was going on.
"What's going on Kiara, is something wrong?" Miho asked Kiara why she was frantic and looking for someone.
"The four kits are gone! I can't find them anywhere!" Kiara expressed to Miho that the kids she was looking over had vanished into thin air. Rowan told the group as she decided to raise the alarm.
"Whitestorm, stay where you are! Apprentices search the dens! I want those kits found!" Rowan began to bark orders that they needed to search for the students if they were to find them. Miho and Ritsu found each other and searched one of the cabins.
"They're not here. We got to check the leader's cabin!" Ritsu expressed that they needed to find the four students. Could they be in Ayami's cabin? Miho turned her head left to see Tomori running away from the scene. It was clear that she was in a hurry but why? Ritsu approached Miho. "They're not there either."
"Wait, I overheard that they were going to spend time with Stephanie sorting herbs. We should check there." Miho told Ritsu.
"Let's go there then." Ritsu shouted before she headed off. The two students headed off to hear Kiara shriek:
"THEY'RE GONE!" Kiara's voice was deafening as it was clear she was on the verge of breaking down into tears. The students arrived at Stephanie's cabin, but they found the door wide open, laying on the ground with a bloodied mouth and clothing was Stephanie. It was clear she wasn't responding. "SPOTTEDLEAF NO!" Kiara shrieked as tears flooded her eyes.
[A/N]: Leaving you off on this cliffhanger as I hadn't written anything in a few weeks, and I wanted to get this published. However, this is some pretty bad news I might say but I'm hopeful of this solution:
The laptop I've used to write these stories on since day one, has been malfunctioning and is going to go on its way out. Don't know how much longer I will have this laptop to keep using for writing but in this case if I do get a new one, I will still have all of the information and everything I need for it. This will mean story writing is going to slow down somewhat while I get used to a temporary fixer for the laptop, but I remain hopeful of this all working out. Let's see if this will work.