After gathering her stuff from the classroom and saying goodbye to her new friends; Miho quickly headed into the bathroom to change into her armored corps uniform. After replacing her standard school too with another one that had additional attachments like her name tag on her right side, a ribbon rack on the opposite side of her name tag, and her rank on each of her upper sleeves as well on both ends of her collar, ending with her putting on her officer cap. Afterwards, Miho left and headed straight to the training ground which was a slight walk away from the main campus building on the south side or left of the main entrance.
Upon leaving the building, Miho noticed someone standing a few feet away wearing a similar uniform to hers, recognizing her by her fair and rank insignia. "Annelien," she called out while walking towards her.
Quickly turning, Annelien stood at attention and saluted, responding, "ahh Commander McNeil, you're right on time as usual."
Miho returns the salute and puts her hand back down to her side prompting Annelien to do the same. She responds, "aren't I always?"
As the two of them make their way together, Annelien couldn't help but mention, "seems the video was more successful than we thought, congratulations commander."
Miho smiles at her, "it wasn't just me who should be praised, you should also be proud of your contribution as well. I wonder how many new recruits we'll get this year?"
"I don't know," Annelien responds unsure. "But a good amount of the new students from Oorarai seemed attracted to the corps," she adds.
"Oh, speaking of which," Miho says. "I actually met two Oorarai students in my class, they seem pretty nice and from how they reacted to the video, they are probably gonna join us."
"Amazing," Annelien said smiling, "seems like you are getting more friends now, must be nice isn't it?"
"Yeah," Miho answered, "it does feel nice knowing that your fellow students accept you for who you are rather than just because of your family and its status, not unlike Kuromorimine. Also, the fact that everyone, including the teachers, are much more open and expressive, as if it's more like they enjoy what they do rather than just treating it like any professional job really helps you feel more welcome and more of a sense of belonging."
"Yeah, I guess," Annelien responded, "I don't really know what it was like at your old school, but from what you said, I don't think I can ever take anything here for granted anymore, especially knowing that what is common here isn't offered everywhere."
"I'm glad," Miho said, "so any idea on what to do for this training session, or should it just be catch-up until the new recruits arrive?"
"That does sound like a great idea, besides we still need to tell them about the new commander eh," Annelien suggested, gesturing towards Miho about her appointment to corps commander.
As they arrived, all the other girls that were already there started to head toward them. "Hey there bab," one of them said waving to Annelien. "Who's the newbie, I thought we wouldn't be receiving new recruits until next week?" While examining Miho, the girl notices the rank insignia on her sleeves, she immediately salutes and Miho returns it and they both drop it. Confused, the girl then asks, "wait I don't understand, how are you the new commander when you're still a newbie?"
Annelien glares at the girl, "first of all, you should be more respectful to your superior officer regardless if they are new or not. Secondly, this is Commander Miho Nishizumi McNeil," she reprimands the girl and introduces Miho to them at the same time. "Not only did she graduate MLS despite again her being new to our school, but she also graduated as the top student this school year out of thirty students including myself," she further elaborates.
Surprise, the girl drops her head in shame, "I apologize for my unprofessional conduct Commander Mcneil," she says.
"It's okay," Miho reassures, accepting the girl's apology. "What is your name," she asks?
Raising her head, the girl slightly more at ease answers, "I'm Adriana."
Just as Adriana turns to introduce the others to Miho, a scoff can be heard and some of the other girls start to slightly tremble. Adriana flinches before whispering, "Watch out, here comes Animal Mother."
As the girls clear a path, a tall, scruffy looking older girl slowly trudges toward Miho. As she comes closer, she examines Miho up and down as if she were looking at a new rival for her territory. "You the new star of the show or something," she says in a slow and thuggish manner.
Stowing her courage to face this new threat, Miho answers, "No, I'm your new commanding officer."
"You do much commanding," Animal Mother presses.
"Well, I've seen a lot of it on cartoons," Miho responds fainting sarcasm, causing a few of the bystanders to chuckle. Annelien couldn't help but get increasingly worried for Miho, especially knowing all too well who she was talking to.
"You're a real funny girl aren't you?" Mother teases, followed by some 'ohs' from the small crowd.
"Where do you think I get my material from?" Miho retorts, causing a similar but slightly stronger crowd response.
"Well here's some new stuff for ya," Mother starts, "I'm gonna tear you a new asshole," causing the crowd to start giggling
"Well Ani, I hope you'll enjoy the nuts I stashed in there for ya," Miho offers, causing the crowd to laugh even harder.
Smirking, Animal Mother leans in till her face is a foot away from Miho's, "you talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?" she challenges.
Producing a smirk of her own, Miho responds, "why would I need to walk the walk in the armored corps," Miho questions, before leaning in to Animal Mother's ear, "when I can roll the roll?"
The crowd erupts as if Miho had just defeated Animal Mother in this apparent roasting contest. Still smirking, Mother nods her head as if in an approving matter, "seems I underestimated you commander," she relents admitting defeat, "I am impressed," before standing to attention and saluting Miho.
Returning the salute Miho responds, "I'm glad I surpassed your expectations." As they drop their salutes, Animal Mother turns and walks away.
As Aniaml Mother seemed to return to her original spot, all the other girls began to crowd seemingly cheer around Miho and a surprised Annelien.
"What's going on?" Miho asked confused for all the cheering.
"Let me fill you in," Annelien said. "Animal Mother is well known for giving anyone who claims to be her superior officer a lot of trouble," she started to explain. "Rumor has it that she was in the infantry corps but her behavior made them kick her out and she transferred here instead, ever since she arrived, everyone here has been kinda scared of her."
"Exaclty," Adriana interjected. "But the way you handled her was awesome commander," she gleefully cheered. "How did you know what to say and how to say it?"
"Well," Miho started to explain, "before I went to MLS, my parents had me watch a certain movie which would give me a good idea of what I should expect and Animal Mother reminded me very much of one of the characters."