"" Dialogue
'' Thoughts
Disclaimer: I do not own "Strike Witches", so this is just a fan made.
Chapter 9: Learning Leadership
(and its hardships)
'Why it went so wrong?' Yoshika asked herself as she walked towards her room, realizing that Lynette or Eila could have gotten injured.
'It'd have been my fault is something happened to them, after all, I was leading them.' She said to her own head. Yet she was not angry, just disappointed with herself as it could have been ended pretty badly. Leading a mission is way different than being led in a mission; she was okayish at best following instructions, but giving them, that something entirely new for her. She needed to learn that but what was most important now, was to fix her mess up.
As Yoshika entered the room, she noticed her luggage was already in her room, she closed the door and laid in Lynette's bed.
'I guess I could I sortie again, but Minna would not let me….' Yoshika thought.
'…. but I could sortie still, but if they were not angry, now they would be really mad.' She added trying to contain herself from leaving without authorization.
Hopefully after hearing the report, Mio and Minna would not be too mad at her, but at least no was injured. "I could not forgive myself if they get injured when I was in charge".
Then, she turned around on the bed, ending laid up on her burn. "Ouch." Yoshika said to no one. "I almost forgot about... this." She added touching her injure.
"I better take a look at this. Ouch." And after taking off her clothes, she noticed her skin was actually grazed a little, but it was nothing she cannot deal with, it was not the first time she got burn and it would not be the last.
While she tried to heal herself before, it never worked, she was not sure why though, but no one needed to know that.
"Better safe than sorry." She added realizing that it would be a bad idea to leave her injure untreated. She should know that, after all she was studying to be a medic, though she was sure nothing might happen to her but still. Thus, she went to get the first aid kit, she got the antiseptic and a bandage out, then she moistened it.
"Ouch, it's itchy." She whined as she rubbed the bandage in her grazed skin.
After it seemed to be disinfected, she bandaged herself up, then she started to unpack what she brought from Fuso, though the first thing she needed now was to find another swimsuit and a new jacket as well.
She found them in the bottom of her backpack and after dressing up, she got her sewing kit out in order to fix her clothes but as she inspected them more carefully, she realized that only her swimsuit was still fixable, the hole in the jacket was way too big to be patched.
"I guess there's nothing else to do." She said as she readied to throw it to the bin next to the door but before she did that, she had another look.
"It would be a shame to throw it away." She added a bit regretfully, realizing that she just bought it a couple days ago and now, it was ruined; it was not first time it happened, and it would be not the last either.
'Things would not always go the way you expect.' Yoshika sighed recalling what her grandma said, and this jacket was proof of that, so she put it in the bottom drawer.
Then, she started to sew her swimsuit, it would need a patch but, unless she needed to swim, no one would notice it. Even if she brought more clothes from Fuso, it would still be a shame to throw it away, but as she was doing so, someone knocked on the door.
"Yoshika, are you there? Can come in?" Shizuka asked.
"Yes, of course." Yoshika replied.
As Shizuka entered the room, she noticed it was not as homey as the one she used to have back in Den Helder, it seemed to her Lynette had not had time to decorate it like that time.
She also noticed that lower bunk bed was rather disorganized with lots of things on it. "What are you doing?" Shizuka asked.
"Oh, I'm just fixing this up." Yoshika replied as she continued sewing her swimsuit.
"How was the mission? Commander Wilcke told us that you were in charge." Shizuka wondered with a curious face.
"It went fine… I guess, but one Neuroi got away." Yoshika sighed with a neutral tone, as she finished off sewing.
"We will deal with it later, and what happened with your uniform?" Shizuka wondered.
"Nothing really." Yoshika added as she began sorting her things.
"Let me help you." Shizuka stated,
"Thank you, Shizuka." Thus, she started to help Yoshika to sort her things, handing her different pieces of clothes and she was folding and putting them on the drawers.
Yoshika was handed first her first and second military dresses that Shizuka convinced her to bring, then one of the skirts Yoshika got in Fuso, but after she lifted it, she saw the first aid kit.
"Were you injured?" Shizuka asked her with curious tone, gazing her.
"No, of course…" but Yoshika then realized she forgot to store the first aid kit. "I mean… yes… a little, a beam scratched me but I'm fine." She added a bit hesitant, as she continued folding the clothes.
'That was what she was sewing.' Shizuka said to herself, and so she looked at the sewed swimsuit and could not notice anything weird on it other than a patch.
"I hope so." Shizuka whispered, Then, she continued helping Yoshika but then she found something that reddened her; the black dress she bought back in Fuso, as she lifted, she started to daydream how beautiful she looked while wearing it.
"Shizuka?" called Yoshika as she expecting to be handed the rest of her clothes.
"Sorry, I was… I was thinking of something." but to her luck did not notice she was blushing and thus, she handed her the dress and the rest of her clothes as well.
The only thing that was left on her bed were the medicine book she brought from Lausanne and two smallish boxes.
"What about this?" Shizuka asked, picking up the book.
"I'm going to put it here." She added and placed it on over her chest.
Then she opened one of the boxes and got out the figurine she was gifted by the captain of the Akagi more than three years ago.
"Anabuki, The Tomoe Gozen of the Fuso Sea, it's been a while since I heard of her. After I watched her film, I wanted to become a Witch just like her." Shizuka happily said.
"That's funny, I never saw it but all my friends back at the school did." Yoshika stated.
"We should watch it together, it's pretty good." Shizuka added, she blushed slightly thinking about the day they could spend together, alone in the cinema.
"Let's do it when we get back to Fuso." Yoshika told her, not noticing anything strange.
"It's a deal then" Shizuka told her daydreaming about that day in the near future.
Then, she opened the other box and got the framed photo of her dad and put it next to the book.
"I think I've fi…, I almost forgot." Yoshika said as she grabbed the book again, then, she got one of piece of paper and, she sat down started to write while Shizuka watched her with curiosity, wondering to whom she was writing to.
"Yoshika, if you don't mind, are you writing to your family to let them know we arrived safely to Munich?"
"Not really, I'm writing to a friend I made back at Lausanne to let her know that I'm back in Europe." Yoshika politely replied.
A few minutes later she finished and put it on an envelope she had in between the pages of the book, she wrote the name and the address and put it underneath her jacket.
"I guess it's time to prepare lunch." Yoshika said as she stood up.
"Do you mind if I come with you?" Shizuka asked.
"Of course not, Shizuka." She happily added and both Witches headed to the kitchen.
In their way, Yoshika remembered what ingredients were available there, and she had already thought of something she can make with them but it still disappointed her the fact that there were not too many supplies at her disposal. After receiving her salary, she was going to get what she needed and sent the rest back home.
Though as the duo arrived at the kitchen, they realized that both Lynette and Perrine were preparing the lunch, it even seemed that they had almost finished.
"Hey guys, do you need any help?" Yoshika asked.
"We have almost finished." Perrine replied.
"That's true but you can put the dishes" Lynette added with a soft voice, thus both Fuso Witches did so but before they put out the last two, "that would be enough, Eila and Sanya are sleeping, and they're not going to eat just now." Lynette said.
"Okay then." Yoshika replied, so as there was nothing else, they could do, they sat down while both European Witches served them the food, shortly then, Mio and Minna appeared and joined them.
They had lunch mostly in silence, the absence of the rest of the Witches made the diner hall stale, it was either or what happened in the morning. After a couple of minutes, almost everyone had almost finished with their lunch, Minna and Mio thanked them for their food and told them they had to handle some paperwork and left the room.
Meanwhile Yoshika had barely touched her food; "it's not of your liking Miyafuji." Perrine asked.
"No, of course not." She said starting to eat it slowly.
"You're still thinking about what happened earlier today, aren't you?" Perrine stated.
"I am, I messed up." Yoshika mused, meanwhile Shizuka did not know what the details of the mission were as she had not seen Minna since the morning, so she was listening carefully.
"When you're leading a mission, you need to have a plan or think about one quickly and give clear, explicit instructions, you cannot expect everyone to do what you haven't told them to." Perrine stated.
"But I …" then she remembered rushing to the fog without second thought.
"I guess you're right, I really appreciate your advice, Perrine." Yoshika assured looking down at her plate.
'Yoshika's leadership was the problem; I wonder what happened' Shizuka thought.
"Oh please, you're more than capable of leading a team, I actually was surprised to hear the mission was unsuccessful, it'd be better if you practiced though." she added.
"You're right." she enthusiastically said as she gobbled into the food.
The trio of witches watched with astonishment until she stopped when she had almost finished, "but I guess Commander Minna and Major Sakamoto are angry with me." Yoshika disappointingly said.
"I'm going to talk with them." Perrine assured.
"I want to help too." Shizuka said.
"Thank you Shizuka".
Yet Lynette did not say anything.
"Don't you want to participate too, Flight Seargent Bishop?" Shizuka asked.
"I rather stay here." The Britannian Witch softly said.
"Why?" Yoshika enquired.
"It's just that…", Lynette trembled to continue.
"What's the matter?" Yoshika asked looking at her eyes, but she could not return the sight.
"It's because what happened to Miyafuji, isn't it?" Perrine broke in, while Shizuka just watched them with curiosity, wondering what really to her.
"Oh…, about that, it's not your fault Lynne, if there's anyone to blame, it would be me, I was supposed to be in charge, but I left you and besides, nothing really happened, c'mon I need you, all of you." Yoshika reassured the group as she stood up.
"I'm sorry Yoshika I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you." Lynette said as she tried to contain her tears.
"There's nothing to worry about," Yoshika said as she hugged her, "not this time." Yoshika added as she grabbed her hand and headed to the hangar.
"But the dishes." Lynette claimed.
"And the authorization." Shizuka added.
"Oh, I forgot about that." Yoshika stated.
"You three take care of that while I speak with them." Perrine told them as she pointed the dishes, and left the room while the three girls did what they were asked to.
"I wonder if they're mad with me." Yoshika wondered.
"I'm sorry Yoshika, I told them how the mission went but they did not seem angry to me" Lynette added.
"I hope you're right." Yoshika sighed.
After a couple of minutes, they finished with the dishes and Perrine still had not come back so the trio decided to wait outside Minna's office.
"I can't hear anything." Yoshika said.
"Me neither." Lynette remarked.
"I don't think there's anyone there." Shizuka stated.
"You think?" Yoshika asked her as she bent into the door to try to hear something, but while she did so, the door opened making her fall onto her chin, both girls gasped.
"Yoshika?" Minna asked surprised.
"Did you lose something, Lieutenant?" Mio asked while Perrine just facepalmed not believing what just happened.
"Ouch…" Yoshika exclaimed as she rubbed her chin, then she realized what just had happened and got up as fast as she could, "nothing, I just… I just", red-faced, she tried to reply but no more words came out of her mouth, still both commanders were dead serious.
"Perrine told us what you want to do…" Mio stated with a serious tone of voice looking at her eyes directly, while Minna just side gazed her, still making her even more nervous, "… and we have agreed to let you train." Mio said with a proud smile.
Her redness stopped. "Thank you" Yoshika said as she vowed, "I thought you'd be angry with me, I mean I was so rude, and I… I let you down."
"Why would we be? After all, everybody makes mistakes now and then." Minna commented.
"We will not be angry but disappointed with you if you weren't willing to learn from your mistakes," Mio continued, "It shows us that you are maturing."
"But you are only allowed to leave the base within a 5KM radius, we don't want to have more surprises today." Minna stated.
"Miyafuji, are you still sure you don't want to go to infirmary?" Mio asked.
"I already healed myself up." She added calmly as she touched her bandaged injure, only to end up feeling something else, yet almost everyone just raised their eyebrows in doubt.
"Oh, I almost forgot, Commander Minna, before we depart, may I ask you for favor? Could you take care of this letter, it's for Althea." Yoshika said as she got out the letter from her jacket.
"I'm going to send it after checking if there's no confidential info leaked" Minna justified.
"No prob." Yoshika happily replied.
A few minutes later
The four Witches were currently in the sky just above the still visible base. "Miyafuji, which formation are we going to use?" Perrine asked.
While Yoshika did practice lots of maneuvers when she trained under Minna, she was not able to practice formations as there were no more Witches available nor that she learned about them when Minna taught her.
"I guess the V formation." she replied as she rubbed her chin.
"Don't tell me you don't know about them." Perrine facepalmed.
"I mean, I mostly follow anyone of you, or I just attack them head on." Yoshika admitted.
Perrine facepalmed even harder hearing that response. "You do need to learn flight formations. but we only have four of us, so we need to use the Schwarm."
"All right!" Yoshika said but she was not sure what she meant, nevertheless her companions did know thus, Lynette went to Yoshika's left side as her wingman and Perrine to Yoshika's right side and Shizuka the same to Perrine as her wingman and the flew around the base in perfect coordination, though it was nothing remarkable as they were veterans after all, the only difference was the fact that Yoshika was leading them.
"Can we… you know get into each other's path like…?" Yoshika asked as she moved her hands one over the other.
"Do you mean the Thach weave?" Perrine requisitioned, recalling the first time the two of them practiced that maneuver together or rather why.
"Can we do it?" Yoshika asked again wondering why Perrine had not said anything.
"I…. I mean, of course…" Perrine replied with some pensiveness in her voice.
As the two groups of Witches wove into each other path going up and down, the two commanders watched them from the runway track.
"You think she's ready?" Mio commented.
"I can't still be certain of it, but as I told you she has matured and since the incident in Berlin she's taking herself more seriously." Minna stated as she watched the girls' performance.
"It seems so." Mio added gazing Minna instead.
As they continued flying for a couple more minutes, Yoshika thought of another maneuver.
"What about arrowhead?" Yoshika told the group, recalling that was one that they practiced back then, "Lynne can you watch my back?"
"Yes ma'am." Lynette added making her blush slightly and so she moved behind her and both Perrine and Shizuka at Lynette's sides.
"What about the trail?"
"You're leading, Miyafuji, we follow your instructions, there's no need to ask." Perrine stated and thus, the three girls went behind her as she ascended into the sky, shortly the base became invisible hid behind the clouds and the fog, then Yoshika headed south followed by the girls.
"Yoshika, I think we've passed the 5KM limit Commander Minna told us." Shizuka remarked making her stop and so did the rest of the witches, wondering what happened.
"Guys, I need to fix what I screwed up." Yoshika sighed, avoiding visual contact. "If you want to go back to the base, I understand." She added gazing the three Witches.
"I was expecting you to pull out something like this." Perrine stated.
"I want to… help you." Lynette added a bit hesitant.
"But do you realize we all are going to be punished for this, right?" Perrine asked, not that she expected her to change her mind.
"Don't worry about that, I'm going to take the blame." Yoshika commented with a firm tone of voice.
"As if it were that easy." Perrine sarcastically commented.
'Orders are orders' Shizuka said to herself but regardless of that, she wanted to help Yoshika. "Count me in!" She enthusiastically said to everyone's surprise.
"Thank you, I really appreciate your help." Yoshika said as she began flying south again followed by the three Witches.
Meanwhile, disobeying orders was par-for-the-course for Yoshika, she had done it more times that she even remembered, but it was always for the greater good and it went fine, most of the times, or at least that what she told herself; what was different this time, was the fact that she had dragged her friends into it.
This time though, she needed to make this right and lead them right, 'be explicit', 'be clear' Yoshika repeated to herself as they headed to the place the Neuroi was last seen.
"We were attacked from two different location, one close to the ground and one at the sky, Lynne and Eila took out the one below." Yoshika stated as she slowed down when the fog became denser once again.
"So that means there's only at the sky?" Shizuka said.
"Yes." Yoshika nodded.
"How do you plan to take it down?" Perrine asked.
"With the Schwarm, there's not enough visibility, so I'm going to be in front, containing its attack while you shot it down." Yoshika boldly stated.
"That sounds good to me." Lynette said.
"Agreed." Perrine and Shizuka said but the latter with less enthusiasm.
They continued flying close enough to be able to see each other but far enough to be out of firing range, being aware of their surroundings but only fog could be seen.
Shortly afterwards, the mist turned red again, but Yoshika was ready as she put out a shield big enough to cover all of them, and several beams came towards them.
But the moment they impacted her shield, Yoshika's pace slowed down considerably, 'it's strong' she thought, as she struggled to move forward to where the beams were being shot from.
"Let's continue moving and maintain formation." Yoshika ordered the girls, and while they noticed she was struggling to contain the beams, they trusted her instinct thus, they followed her orders and shortly afterwards, they finally could see the Neuroi that resembled a gigantic steam machine of which the fog was coming from.
"What in the world is that!" Perrine said in awe noticing its weird and big shape as the girls split, then Yoshika dropped her shield, and they began shooting it.
But as soon as the first shoots impacted, its shooting rate increased and though the three Witches put out their shields, Yoshika put one further in front of them that almost completely blocked the enormous Neuroi, making the three girls gaze her back in awe.
"I'll cover you."
"Are you sure? We can do that ourselves." Perrine stated.
"I know, I just wanted to be sure." Yoshika added making the Shizuka look down. "Now shoot!"
And the three Witches reluctantly did so, yet most of their guns were weak against it as they barely scratched its black shield never mind penetrating it.
"This is futile, we need more firepower, we better retreat." Perrine stated as they continued firing.
"I guess you're right." Yoshika hedged starting to regret dragging them into this. 'Maybe I could try to drill it.' She said to her own head, 'But I… cannot leave them unprotected.' But then her thoughts were interrupted.
"Not yet." Lynette said as she now used her scope pouring even more magic to shoot 14mm rounds to the same spot, accompanied by the two other Witches also scoping for what seemed an eternity to Yoshika. To her relief, its armor started to shatter exposing its weak spot.
"The core!" Perrine exclaimed as Lynette continued shooting until her magic overheated the barrel.
"Not good." The Britannian Witch exclaimed.
"Perrine, Shizuka it's all yours!" Yoshika commanded them with what little breath she still had on her, and they started to shoot until the fog became red below them.
"Not… again…" Yoshika gasped as a heartbeat skipped on her.
"I got you covered." Lynette exclaimed as she dropped the replacement barrel, she was in the process of exchanging, putting out a shield to cover both.
"Lynne don't worry about me, protect Shizuka and Perrine."
"But…" The Britannian Witch trembled.
"Trust me."
Lynette, then reluctantly began flying towards them but as she was doing so, Yoshika put a second shield big enough to cover all of them, yet in that instant, the Neuroi started to fragment into white shards and so did the one below, making her drop both of shields at the same time.
"They destroyed it…." Yoshika gasped relieved.
"We did it!" The two girls said in unison no noticing what just happened, but Lynette on the other hand, saw it.
Then, the fog had started to slowly vanish afterwards, and the ground became barely visible again and they realized they were flying way higher than what they initially expected.
"I guess the one we took before was a drone, don't you think Yoshika?" Lynette asked still amazed.
"I… think... so…" Yoshika gasped as she started losing altitude.
"Yoshika!" Lynette and Shizuka rushed to catch her.
"I'm fine, don't worry." The aspiring medic said beckoning them to stop, then she landed and got out of her strikers and the three witches did the same afterwards, though Yoshika, threw herself into the grass.
"I just need to rest for a bit…" Yoshika said to their relief and moments later, she seemed to have fallen asleep.
"I guess we have no choice but to wait until she wakes up." Perrine sighed, to which both girls nodded in approval.
It was still cold, but now the sun could finally illuminate the place where the battle took place.
"That explains why there's no electricity at the base." Shizuka stated as the girls saw several lampposts in the ground, near the street.
Perrine, then, walked towards the place where the drone supposedly was, and decided to call her two companions. "Take a look." She said as she pointed the ground.
"That's weird." Lynette remarked as they saw several wires leading to the same spot.
"I…. guess it was feeding itself from the power lines, don't you think Lieutenant Clostermann." Shizuka hypothesized.
"Hmm." Perrine hedged and then she recalled it was not the first time the Neuroi sabotaged the electricity as it had done something similar back in Venezia when it infiltered the base; though she would rather forget the bizarre incidents that occurred the same day. Nevertheless, she was still not so secure if it was using the electricity to power itself up, that would be something new. "I can't really tell for sure." She added with not much certainty in her voice.
"Perrine, do you read?" Mio called her through the intercom, making Perrine shiver.
"Yes, yes Major we do", Perrine answered as calmed as she could.
"It seems the communications have been restored; we are unable to see you, state your location." Mio asked, which made Perrine beckon to her companions, but they did not know what to say either, making her facepalm.
"Oh… we are… we are taking a… break, yes, that's it, we decided to rest for a little." Perrine said using her most convincing tone.
"Head back to the base, now! that's an order" Mio fumed through the intercom.
"Now?" Perrine asked again, that was going to be problem. "The thing is, right now we're unable to because… because reasons." the blond Witch confessed.
"Reasons? What kind of reasons? I order you to tell me what's happening." The Major grumped.
Perrine did not know what to do and neither did Shizuka nor Lynette.
"Nothing it's wrong Major Sakamoto, we're going back to the base right now." Yoshika said to everyone's surprise as they did not notice she had already woken up nor that she was hearing the conversation.
"You have ten minutes." Mio ordered them.
"Roger that." Yoshika replied, and hearing that, she headed to where the Shinden was left before.
Then, Lynette rushed to caught on her. "You were amazing Yoshika; I didn't know you could do that."
"It was nothing really." Yoshika replied smiling a little.
"Are you sure can fly?" Lynette asked her.
"I rested more than enough." She added stretching her arms above her head and in front of her.
"Your magic pressure seems to have completely stabilized, about time." Perrine remarked as she caught on them.
"All thanks to Commander Wilcke's training" Shizuka added.
"I guess you could say that." Yoshika commented.
A few minutes later
Shortly after, they all equipped their strikers and started to fly back to the base, but there was no way they could arrive at the time the Major required them to, but that was the least of her troubles for now. As she was flying, Yoshika recalled what Lynette did to her when they were about to sortie in the morning.
"Hey, Lynne, what is what you wanted to tell me in the hangar?"
"Hmmm" the blue-eyed Witch tried to recall what it was, "oh yes, try to not talk about the base's current state in front of Commander Minna."
"Why? I don't think I asked anything inappropriate." Yoshika voiced.
"The thing is, we barely have enough budget to go by, never mind improving the base general shape." Lynette added.
"That's…. interesting, when were back in Fuso, I remember readying clearly that we were going to be given extra budget for what we did in Berlin." Shizuka announced.
"I guess, I should've read it too." Yoshika murmured.
"That would be a blessing." Perrine exclaimed.
"We did a great job retaking Berlin, I thought the European brasses here would be a bit more generous with our base, at least" Shizuka reproached.
"Commander Minna told them just that, but they argued back that the Ratte did all the hard work." Lynette stated.
"The hard work? The 501st destroyed the nest, not the Ratte. I bet they were not even there to see what really happened." Shizuka added raising her voice a little to the surprise of all the Witches.
"I'm sure they weren't, but they also told her that since the destruction of the Antwerp port, the operation to take back Berlin was heavily delayed and massively overbudgeted, that's why they don't enough budget for us."
'The destruction of Antwerp.' Yoshika repeated to herself again and again. If only she had kept the revs low as she was asked to, she could have avoided the destruction of the port, but she failed to do that.
Sure, if she had had a well-maintained striker, she could have taken it down with no problem, but it was working mostly fine until she overwhelmed it with magic power.
'That's ironic.' she said to her own head, shortly after that, she was not even able to fly because of the lack of magic power; and now for her failure that day, they all were now having funding issues and who knew what was currently happening to the rest of Joint Fighter Wings.
"Not even Air Marshal Galland was able to convince them." Perrine remarked.
"Is there… is there something we can do?" Yoshika grieved.
"Not much, other than taking care of our strikers." Perrine stated.
"And our salaries are not nearly enough to cover the expenses." Lynette remarked.
And then, the silence, an uncomfortable and disheartening silence took place and now only the engines could be heard.
Half an hour later
The base could now be spotted as the fog had almost completely vanished. At the back left corner of the main building, it had a somewhat tall watchtower with what seemed to be a bell at the top of it and behind there was nothing other than tress as the whole base was sitting on a smallish cliff joined only by a smallish bridge to the road.
As for the main building itself, it was reminiscent of castle that had seen better days with stone walls and with cracked windows here and there. At both sides there were hangars, though only one seemed to be operative.
The runway track had another hangar at the end of it that was connected to the main building, and it was in perfect shape as it seemed to have been rebuild recently, it also had runway lights but due to lack of electricity, they were only a decoration for now.
Though not only the base was now visible but Minna and Mio as well, they were already waiting for them outside the hangar, at the runway track. Their demeanor seemed to be of displeasure to say the least.
Shortly afterwards, the four Witches had already gotten out of their strikers and were now one side to the other, standing at attention, waiting for their superiors to come; and they took their time to do it, seemingly assessing how to proceed.
"It seems you did more than just training, isn't that right Lieutenant Miyafuji?" Mio enquired her as she walked in front of their subordinates.
"Yes ma'am." Yoshika firmly reported or at least that what was she tried to.
"And that would be?" Mio questioned them.
"We… we took on the Neuroi that fled earlier today." Yoshika said hesitating while Minna just watched them.
"You were only supposed to be training if I remember correctly." Minna commented.
"That's true…, but we… we succeeded." Yoshika happily announced.
"Miyafuji, Yoshika, you know orders and orders and you cannot disobey them, and that goes for all you." Minna stated.
"I expected more from you Hattori, you know better than this." Mio scolded her, and Shizuka just looked down in regret.
"Giving the results, I guess we can give all of you room detention for the rest of the day." Minna announced.
"May I say something?" Yoshika asked, to which the two superior officers nodded in agreement.
"I am the only one who should be punished, I dragged them into this." Yoshika proclaimed.
"Yoshika…" exclaimed the three girls in unison.
"That doesn't matter, all of you disobeyed orders." Mio justified.
Yoshika tried to take all the blame but as Perrine said, it was not going to be easy, but then she thought of something.
"May I have request?" Yoshika asked her superiors.
"What is it, Lieutenant?" Mio asked her, at least she seemed not too angry anymore.
"If it is possible as punishment, I'd like to clean the base." Yoshika voiced her petition, making the two officers exchange glances.
"I request the same." Lynette added.
"Me too." Perrine said.
"And me three." Shizuka also said.
"Alright then." Minna accepted their request with a faint smile on her face.
That night
Both Eila and Sanya were well-rested and ready for night patrol but before they departed, the sub-artic duo headed to Commander's Minna office.
"Commander Minna, may we come in?" Eila asked as she knocked the door.
"It's open." She replied.
"Commander Minna, we are here to request permission to take down the Neuroi that got away." Eila announced her petition.
"That wouldn't be necessary, Yoshika, Shizuka, Lynne and Perrine had solved that matter, not that they were asked to though." Minna announced.
"Why does it always happen when we are sleeping? Well then, at least night patrol should be safer from now on." Eila added, still she was not so sure how she managed to get permission to sortie again after what happened in the morning, but who cared, what was important was that mess was fixed.
"Commander, were they able to discover how it avoided to be detected?" Sanya enquired.
"Not really, other than discovering that the Neuroi was responsible for the fog and the power outage, there was no explanation of how it avoided to be detected" Minna announced.
That response gave Sanya a feel of unsettledness, unless the Neuroi was hollow enough so that her signals went through, it must not have been able to elude her. She needed to get to bottom of this but at least the night was clear and there should not be any issue with their upcoming duty.
A few days later
As Yoshika carried out her or their punishment, she managed to explore the base and its surroundings. The tower around it was actually a watchtower, and it was even taller than what she initially expected as it took her a while to get to the top of it. There she could see the city with the alps peaking behind it, on the other side, there was a small river that passed through the forest. In the base, there were lots of rooms, though most of them were locked and the ones that were not, were empty. She also found something that cheered her up a bit, a sauna which was behind the base that seemed to be in well shape, though she would need wood, lots of wood to make it work.
As for the general state of the base, it was worse than what Yoshika initially expected, still there was nothing she could do for now regarding its condition; at least it was clean, and it looked like a livable place now and to the relief of everyone, the electricity had come back as well.
Throughout these days, Yoshika had to became more and more creative when she prepared the food for her fellow Witches, but the supplies had started to run scarce. She realized that it was futile, she was running out of things to cook, and though some supplies had arrived at the base, it was not nearly enough, thus she decided to make a difficult choice.
She went back to the room to write another letter, but this one was for her family back in Fuso, but as she got the paper out, and now with the pen, she needed to find the courage to write them. Nevertheless, she had promised them she was going to tell them true, whether it was good or bad, just the true.
Dear mom and grandma,
I really hope you're doing well at home in Fuso; here in Munich, things are not going as well as I hoped. Don't worry it doesn't have to do anything with the Neuroi, I'm just fine, everyone's fine, the thing is, we're running out of supplies and sadly I cannot longer send the salary I receive here.
I really hope you are not angry with me, but there's no other way.
P.S. As soon as this is solved, I'll write you to let you know.
Your future medic
Yoshika Miyafuji
When she came to Europe this time, Yoshika never expected that there would be another enemy besides the Neuroi, the budget.
"It is my fault though, I failed to protect the Antwerp port." Yoshika said to herself, as she gazed through the window, watching the alps, holding the letter. This how it was and while it hurt her to write the letter, she knew it needed to be done and it was for the better.
Shortly after, she put the letter inside of an envelope, wrote the address and the recipient and pleaded that it went through the censorship; she was not leaking any confidential information, was she? Only time would tell. She stood up and headed to the door only to find her roommate standing there, making her put a hand on her chest as she did not notice she was there.
"Do you have a moment, Yoshika?" She asked.
"I… Yes Lynne." She hesitated, yet she stayed there and then Lynette went to her bed and took a sit there.
"Have a sit, there's something I need to talk with you." Lynette added as she asked to take a sit beside her.
Yoshika sighed. "Did… something happen?" She asked.
"Nothing really, it's just that…" Lynette looked down, "the day you went back to Fuso."
"I….." Yoshika trembled.
"You know can tell me anything, Yoshika." Lynette added holding her free hand.
"I… saw Althea with her father and I… got a bit mournful… I guess." She added with her voice full of pensiveness.
"You should have asked anyone of us to come with you, you shouldn't do it alone, everyone's there for you, specially me." She added trying to gaze her in the eyes, yet she could not return the sight.
"I guess that's true, and I… should be too." Yoshika added yet Lynette wondered what she meant. "Thank you, Lynne." She added hugging her.
"Is that a letter for your family?" She wondered.
"Yes... I'm writing to tell them that we arrived safely to Europe."
"You should hand it to Minna before she sends the correspondence in the afternoon." Lynette stated.
"You're right…" Yoshika sighed and then, she stood up and left the room, leaving a pensive Lynette behind. She headed to Commander Minna's office and when she was in the front of the door, she hesitated to knock it, but she still found the bravery to do it.
"Commander Minna, may I come in?" Yoshika asked, knocking the door, trying not regret what she was about to do.
"Yes, Yoshika." Minna replied.
As she entered the room with the letter on her hands, she noticed that there were several papers in the desk, and it seemed Minna was in the process of reviewing them.
"Oh, another letter, put it there, as soon as I finish signing this paperwork, I'll check and send it." Minna stated seemingly not noticing her.
"Thank you, commander." Yoshika quietly replied and left the room afterwards, only to find another Witch near the office.
"Hi Yoshika."
"Hello Shizuka." She said as she headed to her room, not even gazing her.
"I wonder if something happened to her." Shizuka sighed noticing her gloominess. "Here goes nothing, I hope I don't regret this." Shizuka said to herself as she brought herself to knock the door.
"Commander Wilcke, may I speak with you for a minute?"
"Yes, Hattori."
Then, Shizuka opened the door only to find her working.
"What is you wanted to speak of Hattori?" Minna added gazing her back.
"I'm here to… talk about Yoshika." Shizuka hesitated.
"Did something happen to her? She was here just before you and she seemed to be fine to me." Minna said as she picked up Yoshika's letter.
"I can't… I can't really tell; it has something to do with what happened in Berlin." Shizuka hesitated.
"General Patton told me everything." Minna said as she opened the letter.
"You don't understand, it's not about me, it's about her." Shizuka appealed, catching Minna's attention.
"What do you mean?" Minna said closing the envelope.
Shizuka just looked down. "It seems it really affected her when she saw me injured."
"Yoshika knows how dangerous it can get in the front lines and it's not the first time something like that happened." Minna stated. "I know how stressful this can be, Trude has experienced that with her sister and myself as well." She sighed. "And I almost complete certain Yoshika is not facing such issue."
"But… I… I'm not sure, since she regained control of her magic pressure, she wants to protect everyone, even… us." She stressed. 'I cannot tell her what happened, in Fuso, can I? No, no, that's why too personal.' She said to herself.
"She's always been like that, that's why she even asked to be trained." Minna sighed. "I've spent several months with her in Helvetia, and I know how her mental state is. It is true she was struggling at the beginning, but she's overcome it." Minna proclaimed yet Shizuka did not look too appeased.
Minna sighed. "Yet again, I'd keep an eye of her. Thank you Hattori, for letting me know." Minna said putting the letter with the rest of the correspondence.
"Thank you, Commander Wilcke." Shizuka added as she left her office leaving a thoughtful Minna behind.
Author Notes:
I know this is getting depressing, but I'll try to light it up a little the next chapter(s).
And I know that the whole budget thing can also be farfetched, but you will get to know the reason in many (many) chapters.
Now, let's see how Commander Minna handles this predicament.
The next chapter will come before the next weekend or a bit earlier if it's possible and the first two Witches will arrive.