ARC II chapter 4

He listened carefully to his agent's report about Trafalgar Jameson being out of the game for some time or completely forever, if the burns he got turned out to be too dangerous for him to be able to rejoin Sensha-Do or leave the Oarai hospital for good. Either way, his plans would still end up as expected.

"Not the outcome that I was expecting, but make sure to have one of the doctors sabotage their attempts at healing him," he finally said and hung up the call. I'll show you who is the boss, Being X! I am the polar opposite of Degurechaff, he thought and smirked under his mask.

He loved that anime back home, before he was randomly killed by a truck and yeeted into another world and now, he wants nothing more than to become this world's ruler to show that ROB, or god, which did this to him, how to become a real and living deity. I swear on my name Narcius Poralon that no one'll stop me!

"Match ended, due to a grievous injury caused by an AT gun shot," the voice of Ami Chono said and Yukari blinked in surprise. "What? How did that happen?" she asked, disappointed about the abrupt end of the match. "I don't know," Miho answered, but they didn't need to wait long for the answer.

"Trafalgar Jameson and his crew are being transported to a hospital for sustaining severe burns and maybe some brain damage or internal bleeding after someone tried to kill them with an AT gun fire," announced a male voice that belonged to one of the field medics. "The winner is Pravda-St. Gloriana team with one tank more than Oarai-Chi-Ha-Tan team," instructor Chono said after a while and Yukari's mood fell several levels down.

And as she heard the familiar engine of Tsuneo's Sd. Kfz. 9 FAMO, she looked out to see the Tiger I turretless and with a huge hole in the place where the engine was. "Thankfully, it was not an ammorack, nya," Nekota suddenly said and Yukari noticed that none of the ammo, śtored in the hull, exploded, as had none from the turret.

"I wouldn't try to shoot with this ammo. The explosion made the insides too unstable. Traf was lucky to have fired that shot before his tank got hit, or he'll be a bloody paste by now," the head engineer of Oarai Sensha-Do team said, when she tried to pick up and examine one of the shells.

"This ammo is safe, true, but an explosion or a fire can still make it act like a normal non-regulated round," Yukari muttered loud enough for the older man to hear and he nodded sadly at that, confirming it.

But, just thinking about one of her friends, no matter the gender, and his crew possibly not being able to do Sensha-Do, was too cruel for her, especially with the person being an equal tank nerd like she was.

And after calming herself down, she noticed that Tsuneo had something else to say. "We should do regular check-ups on them. You never know, if the person tries to finish the job," he announced and Yukari felt that doing so was really a good and right idea. After all, they might notice something that the docs somehow missed and warn them about it.

Darjeeling just picked up and filled another cup of tea, when the shocking news came. "Which barbarian did this?" she wondered, causing both Assam and Orange Pekoe to look at her questionably.

"If I had to guess, the assassin might have something to do with the Oarai case. Or it might be the same person, who tried to ruin the Anzio and/or Kuromorimine matches against Oarai," Assam answered and Darjeeling silently thanked her for lowering the list of possible culprits by at least all known people from the schools.

"Will my brother be okay?" asked Rosehip's voice suddenly. "From what I know, maybe. Only a specialist at a hospital can tell the full extent of their injuries," Darjeeling said and the comms went silent again.

"What if we jinxed it?" Pekoe asked and made Darjeeling sigh. "We don't know for sure, what exactly happened, but we can rule out explosion of ammo," Assam supplied the answer quickly, making Darjeeling list all things that might or will explode and she gasped after a while.

"The barbarian went for the engine, so if the whole crew managed to be in the turret, they have a big chance of survival, but not guaranteed," she announced, this time through the general comm channel, used by all teams in this exhibition match and lots of angry growls and harsh words, addressed to the assassin came back a moment later.

And Darjeeling once again had a hard time suppressing her emotions from leaking out from behind her calm demeanor.

30 minutes later, Oarai tank garages

Tsuneo sighed at the sad sight of the only non-KMM Tiger I that once worked like clockwork, now reduced to a shell of its former glory. He had already checked the transmission and the radio station, finding both busted, but repairable, unlike the now non-existent Maybach HL 230 p45 TRM engine.

So, I need new 92 shells, both Pzgr 39 and 40, a whole new Maybach HL 230 p45 TRM, back upper hull plates, both exhausts and new optics for the 8,8 cm KwK 36 L/56, he listed out in his thoughts and wrote it all down. He already had a welding torch and some wires ready for the transmission, turret ring and radio station, but repairing the Tiger I would take at least a month for just the parts to arrive and at least a week to complete the repairs.

Suddenly, something sparked a distant memory that he tried to forget all those 5 years of self-exile in the US.

5 years ago, somewhere in the Kumamoto Prefecture

Four girls with a T26E4 Super Pershing stopped next to him with fear in their eyes. But, before he could say something, the tank exploded and the girls disappeared with most of the tank's hull. A single plate fell down before his legs and he picked it up, noticing the symbol of Oarai's Sensha-Do team.

I do not care for the consequences, he thought. But, I'll find the culprit by myself and bring him or her to justice! And with that, his gag reflex forced him to puke on the ground, next to the plate.

Tsuneo looked at the mask of a very strange man, who stood before him. "I see that none of my girls' methods worked on you, Tsuneo Nishizumi. Well then, go to the US to spare your wife and daughters and don't tell them about it, or they'll die too," he said coldly and Tsuneo's face paled at hearing that.

"No! Don't kill them!" he shouted at the man, or he thought it was one, but it came out as a broken whisper. "You just need to do as I say," the man responded "Fine, I'll do it," Tsuneo firmly announced and the man chuckled, before sending him on his way to pack his few belongings and leave Japan.

Yet, he didn't know that a few years later, he'll come back, thanks to a single boy and his tank entering Sensha-Do, even if it is under the guise of playing a mechanic. And that the boy has the potential to tear apart the feminist propaganda of the popular sport that remained rooted in Japan, while it was long gone in the US and Europe.