Chapter 16

It is tomorrow. The fight against Anzio with their unknown tank… If I remember correctly, it really is P26/40 or it rather was in my dreams before I got here… Traf thought as he aimed at a specially prepared and Tsuneo-made dummy CV33. "Our shells can only knock them over, if we won't aim carefully." And as he said that, a shell fired from the Type 89B turned over the tankette dummy, but didn't disable it.

"The crew would turn it back on tracks by now. Try aiming at their sides or the engine radiator on the rear. Penetration is guaranteed alongside the turn over." The two tanks with weaker cannons than 75 mm changed positions almost immediately. After that, he finally fired from the mighty 8,8 cm cannon. "Target destroyed!" George called out. Next is a Semovente 75/18 TD, followed by 75/34 and 75/46… Each of these can be fielded.

He tapped Takashi's shoulder. "Change." The driver understood and changed positions with him. "Aim at the spots near the cannon of the TD. An APCBC should be enough for this." The driver nodded in response. "You'll fire the next one, George. Get ready to switch with him." The radioman grinned at that. He waited for so long to try and shoot from the cannon and now he got the chance.

The cannon announced that the round left the chamber and Traf looked at the Semovente 75/18. There was a hole in it and a white flag on top of its hull. "Target destroyed. Good aiming, mate!" he encouraged the driver and gave him a thumbs up. "After we win against Anzio, we'll start syncing with the Porsche Tiger to have them as a support for our dangerous hit & runs. I don't want us to be shot in the rear."

Suddenly, George opened the commander's hatch. "What is it?" Traf asked him. "A certain spy of ours is back." Finally! he growled internally. "You two, change after shooting down each tank, I'll go speak with her." His crewmates nodded at that and he exited the tank through the driver's hatch.

Traf walked straight to Yukari with a bit of an angry stare. "Which tanks will they field?" he asked her. " She looked back at him. "Six CV33 tankettes, three Semovente 75/18s and a P26/40." Traf just nodded and kept a straight facade, but inside, he was screaming in anger. Damn it! I hate it, when I'm right with my suspicions at moments like this! he thought and saluted with her.

Miho looked at the leader of their 'Tiger squad' with a raised eyebrow. "Why did you call us here?" she asked him. "Yukari confirmed my suspicions about the mysterious tank. It's a P26/40. The rest of Anzio's forces consists of six CV33s and three Semovente 75/18s." Erwin just grinned at that. "Our StuG III can take down those Semoventes, if you want." Both Miho and Trafalgar approved of the plan.

"But, those CV33s could take down our Type 89B I-Go, due to its paper armor." Noriko pouted after hearing that. "Hey! That's true, if they fire from all six at the same spot for less than a minute!" Trafalgar defended his statement. "Anyway… M3 Lee and Type 89B should be defending the Panzer 38 (t). It would be our flag tank again." Momo almost shouted a protest, but Trafalgar stopped her from it. "Panzer 38 (t) is fast. You can just drive away, when the situation gets too dire."

"And your aiming is messed up. Maybe it's due to that monocle of yours…" George snickered, when he entered. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Momo shouted at him. "Just that Tsuneo-san got a message from someone in the highest ranks. That Raven's Nest's headmaster wants us to fight against the University with all our forces in an Annihilation-type match if we win the Tournament."

Everyone went silent. "And Oarai would be closed, if we lose. But, that happens only, if we somehow win the Tournament." The SC suddenly exchanged worried looks. "B-but… we must win or MEXT closes this school…" Momo said and fell back on her chair. Miho and the others had shocked expressions visible on their faces.

"Don't worry, I bet that Saunders and St. Gloriana will surely help us!" Trafalgar tried to cheer them up. Onee-sama would want to help too… Miho thought and sighed. This was starting to be a pretty deep mess the SC unknowingly got them in.

The next day, two hours before the match

Caesar looked around the stands that Anzio set up. It was all italian food and ice cream. Of course, Erwin, Oryou and Saemonza were rather checking their StuG than looking at the stands of a school, inspired by the country of those who twice betrayed Germany and failed to conquer Greece and North Africa.

But, another thing she wasn't expecting was seeing a woman about 40 years old with a cold stare coming towards their garages. She was dressed in the typical 'business woman' attire. She stopped before the boy trio, who now pretended to be mechanics and waited.

Caesar tried to ignore it, when something caught her ears. "...over there, headmistress Nishizumi." The surprised girl turned and saw the woman coming straight towards Tsuneo Nishizumi. The man looked up from his ever-present Maybach HL 210 that he was preparing for their Porsche Tiger and… smiled?!

"...ello?!" a voice said near her. Caesar turned around and saw… "Hina-chan?!" she nearly shouted in excitement. "Taka-chan!" the blonde girl replied. "Reunion after several years, huh?" Trafalgar's voice asked from behind. "Trafalgar Jameson, 2nd-in-command of the mechanics team of Oarai." Hina looked at the boy with curiosity in her eyes.

"So, you are one of those three mysterious boys, who showed up after the matches and helped Saunders with some repairs?" her friend asked back. Trafalgar only nodded. "I'll leave you two for now. OH! And if you'll need help with repairing your Semoventes or Carro Veloces, just ask us!" he shouted as he walked away.

Hina opened her mouth to say something, when… "Carpaccio! Who are you talking to?!" a girl about as tall as Anzu Kadotani almost shouted from her position near one of those ice cream stands. "Just a friend that I reunited with!" Hina responded. Caesar smirked. "Carpaccio, huh?" she asked. The blonde blushed a bit and nodded. "Call me Caesar then."

"Which tank do you operate?" Carpaccio asked after a while. "That's a secret." And she suppressed a smirk, because what she said looked like Oarai got their own 'secret weapon' at the ready. And they had one sort of it-the boy crew of the Tiger. "Carpaccio! Go here!" the girl interrupted them again. "Yes, duce!" Carpaccio replied and said goodbye to her.

Caesar smiled at her friend's retreating form and walked back to the StuG.

Tsuneo smiled at his wife. "Hello, Shiho." The woman still had the cold and emotionless stare on her face that he remembered all too well. "Tsuneo." The engineer waved off the boys to resume their pretending. The sound of boots shuffling gave him the needed answer.

"Why are you back?!" she started. "Renta Tsuji happened to get a good idea and appointed me as Oarai's chief engineer." Shiho stood still at her spot. "That's not all and you know it." Tsuneo gulped. "Remember that moment, when this 'Raven's Nest' was announced to enter this Tournament?" The headmistress of Kuromorimine nodded. "Their headmaster threatened to kill both Miho and Maho, if I won't make them 5 T26E4s and a Maus in six months. Tsuji prolonged the time for me."

Shiho paled for the first time in her life. "He also forced Tsuji to renew his closed plan of treating Oarai with an Annihilation match against the full force of Selection University. Thus, Oarai will be closed even if Miho leads them to victory in this Tournament." His wife clenched her fists after hearing that. "But, Miho has a talent for making allies. So far, Saunders and St. Gloriana are the only ones who will definitely send help."

His wife seemed to relax a bit. "Anyway… you should head back to the watching platform. People would get a bad idea, if you won't show up there." Shiho simply nodded at the suggestion and walked away. "I'm home…" Tsuneo whispered and resumed the work on the Maybach HL 210 TRM P45.

George walked around the stands and had a hard time choosing something from the wide variety of Italian food. Wow… I never thought that there were so many pasta recipes! he thought. But, there was one stand, which gained his attention. It had almost a StuG-like roof.

He went to it and noticed that the chef was a dark gray haired girl with brown eyes. She noticed him and offered him pasta with egg, meat and a tomato sauce topping. George bought it (it cost him 300 ¥) and tasted it. It was much better than any instant ramen he ever ate!

"Anyway… mind telling an Ally about your secret weapon against Rommel?" he cracked a joke using Miho's nickname that was also hardly ever used. The girl was confused for a second after hearing the joke. "It's a heavy tank. I just can't remember its name…" she answered. Really?! It is the same as with Yukari in that video that she showed us after the meeting! What was her name again? Pepperoni? Yes, that's it! George realized and suppressed a smirk. "Isn't it a P26/40?" he 'offered' the obvious and right answer.

The girl nodded after that. George finished the portion he bought and returned the tray to her with a small note hidden under the plate. It was only a note that warned her about saying things that uncovered the nature of the 'secret weapon' to a spy and enemy mechanic. Of course, he was curious about what would happen next, so he hid near the stand.

Soon after he hid, a girl that had exactly the same height and eye color as Anzu Kadotani, but was wearing Italian tankist uniform and had longer lime green hair than the bossy SC prez, showed up near the stand. She snatched the note from Pepperoni's hands and went through several shades of red in a mere second. "Baka!" she shouted and slapped the poor girl.

George sighed and went from his hiding spot. "Y'know… even with that P26/40, you'll stand next to no chance against the Tiger." The girls turned to him. "You might feel that you saw me, but that was only my lil' sis." The graynette looked at the limenette with a puzzled look. "Sister… you mean Rosehip?" she asked.

The radioman nodded in response. "And who was that spy?" Pepperoni added. "She spied on Saunders before and barely managed to escape. She just used the same trick as there. And it was more successful than expected." He saw that Pepperoni suddenly remembered something. "It was that transfer student that I had never seen before?!" she shouted with realization written in her eyes.

George nodded with a sigh escaping his lips. "Also, after the match, listen closely to our part of transmissions. They shall uncover a secret." The girls were confused after hearing that and watched as he walked away. Only the lienette seems to be competent from the whole school… he thought as he neared the Tiger I.

Miho looked at the approaching Fiat that was almost the same as Saunders' Willys MB jeep. There were three girls in it. A limenette in a taker uniform, a blonde in the school uniform of Anzio and a graynette wearing the same as the blonde. The graynette was also the only one who was wearing a helmet.

The limenette jumped from the jeep as it stopped. Anzu suddenly turned and smiled. "Chiyomi!" she called out. "It's Anchovy!" the limenette responded. "Anzai!" Miho resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the stubbornness of the SC prez. "It's ANCHOVY!" Anchovy nearly shouted. "Who is your captain?" the girl asked after a few seconds.

"Nishizumi!" Momo called out. "Yes?!" Miho replied. "Even with a Nishizumi on your side, we'll win!" Anchovy announced confidently. Well… you can try. Miho blinked several times and shook her head. That thought belonged to the cold Miho that almost got unleashed and took over her body at the fight against Pravda.

I don't want you in my head! she thought and tried to suppress the cold Miho. Without me, you'll lose, idiot! Let me take control and no one will defeat you! No! I won without relying on you! Just get out! I can't. I am you, remember? Maho managed to take control over you! That weakling you call sister? Please, don't bring her into this. And with that, Miho retreated into her Panzer IV H and collapsed into a crying mess.

Traf was pretending to make some final adjustments on the Panzer IV, when he heard someone crying inside. He looked in through the opened commander's hatch and saw Miho curled into a ball and crying. "What happened, Frau Kommandant?" he asked her.

She looked back at him. "M-my o-*hic*-ther self…" was the only coherensible thing she said. Damn it! I awakened the only thing that shouldn't be here! he realized. "I don't know much about split personalities, but have you tried making a compromise with the other you?" he suggested. Miho jerked her head in a 'no' manner.

"Do it then, Kommandant. We need you strong, yet caring about your subordinates." I hope that what I said would help… And it is helping, Son. Traf blinked at hearing that voice after several months. Long time no see, or rather hear, right? Yeah… that's right. Listen, Miho is like a sister to me, so don't expect her being closer to me than a friend. I see. Well, I think that I know about at least three girls that might fill the position of your bride, but I won't reveal them. Thank you, God. No problem, Son. And with that, the old pervert disappeared from his head and Traf retreated into his Tiger, unseen by the cameras.

Meanwhile at unknown location

"Master, we have confirmed that the Nishizumi style is on the verge of conquering Miho Nishizumi. Just a small push is needed." A hooded figure turned to the speaker. "Good. And after she falls, kidnap her and bring her here. A girl that had fully embraced the Nishizumi style would grant us world dominion for sure." The voice was a bit robotic, thanks to the mask that the person had over his head.

"And the boy?" he asked the girl who brought him the news. "He somehow managed to calm her down and push her away from the tip of the cliff…?!" she answered with surprise in her voice. No! I must kill the boy and her family now, instead of just the family! he screamed internally. "Nothing will stop us in succeeding, where Napoleon, the Roman Empire and Adolf Hitler failed: conquering the whole Earth!" he responded and laughed. Enjoy your lives, while you still can, because you have less than two years before I will rule this planet! he thought and released the girl.