ARC II chapter 15

Traf looked at the rusty and turretless form of the newfound tank with curiosity. He knew that no school (at least Japanese) owned that, otherwise he'll see it in his dreams from before he was sent here, which was by God's standards considered as an anime. But that didn't change the fact that he was excited and it only rose, when he finally recognised the tank before him.

"That's a VK 16.02 Leopard," he said, a huge smile plastered on his face. "I thought that Leopard was a modern German MBT, not a WW2 German tank," Takashi stated and Traf only chuckled as he grabbed the hose next to him. "You're not wrong. It is kinda confusing at first, but manageable to tell the difference later on," Traf explained and gave a signal to George and the water started pouring out a few moments later, cleaning the rust away.

"Also, some game versions have a 3 cm autocannon, which isn't correct. The prototype was to be equipped with the same 5 cm gun as Sd. Kfz. 234/2 Puma armored car," he added as the last speck of rust on the outside was gone and pointed at the already - by Tsuneo - cleaned cannon, which was being welded by the automotive club into its place in the (clean, of course) turret.

"Just clean and check the insides and we're done with maintenance today," Tsuneo suddenly said from behind, causing the seven teenagers to jump in surprise at being interrupted, which quickly changed into angry glares. "Is it a Nishizumi thing to sneak up on people and scare them like that?!" Takashi asked the question that bugged them all for quite some time now.

Tsuneo just chuckled and shrugged and the seven teenagers went back to cleaning the tank.

Meanwhile, 30 miles away from city of Liverpool, Great Britain

Capt. Henry Foster looked at the team, he was training only thanks to him competing in Panzerfahren before and being approved by the league and school, which he studied at. If you never met him before and asked him why he looked so happy, he'll answer simply with a small smile on his face.

"Why? Oh, that's because the team of St. George's Tankery College had scored 3rd place in the tournament," he would say, sometimes even adding something about " damned Krauts and Ivans always having to win the damn thing." That didn't imply that the British team was weak or had bad leadership. No. They just get pitted against the Russians every single time in the semifinals and lose only thanks to those damned 85 mm (or sometimes 100 mm or 152 mm) guns and their tanks' mobility.

Also, since StGTC had a School ship, most people would expect them to always train on it, but it's not true for the last five years, since Henry took over the position of instructor. He put an extra emphasis on training on solid earth whenever possible, due to remembering one accident about 12 years ago, when an overeager Crusader Mk III was too fast to stop in time and fell into the ocean. That crew was damn lucky that they landed into a rather shallow strip of the salty water current, due to being close to the eastern shore of the US.

But, something caught his eye and brought him out from his memories. And as he spotted the disturbance, he grabbed his walkie-talkie and turned it on. "Help the TOG from that mud," he informed the whole team and soon, the mix of Crusader III's, Valentine IX's, Comets and even the Churchill VIIs with the Black Prince soon towed the tank from the mud, also forming a defensive perimeter around it.

That kind of teamwork was what he was glad to see, whenever the TOG got stuck (which happened at least twice/day). After all, that was something no one would expect. Both the TOG and the new set of tactics he taught them, that is. Well, this International tournament would certainly be hard, considering this Oarai and their Tiger I, Panzer IV and M24 Chaffee, he thought and smiled. After all, with the TOG, even Oarai would have a very hard time fighting.

2 hours later, Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg "Willy Brandt"

Maho sighed as she grabbed her luggages and dog crate, in which was her dog, Sakura (what? She loves the flower, so why not name a dog after it?!), and walked towards the exit. There was already a taxi waiting for her. Just like her mother said it would before she left Japan to study at Niedersächsische Universität.

"Bist du Fräulein Nishizumi?" A man in his early forties asked her as she approached the taxi. "Ja," Maho answered simply and let the man put her luggages into the car trunk.

The ride to the uni was rather quiet, if you don't count Sakura barking sometimes. And when she arrived at her destination after a few hours of ride… she blinked several times, but the figure just wouldn't disappear. She had a feeling that she saw him somewhere.

Who the hell is he?! she thought as she passed him, even noticing that Sakura was reacting to him like she would to Miho. And that was strange for her dog to react almost instantly to new people like that. After all, she was growling a bit at the other students, when she passed by, ignoring their whispers about her.

And when she finally reached her room in the far end of the 3rd floor of the dorm building, her phone rang and she, after seeing that it was her dad's number, picked it up.

"Maho, are you settling in well?" he asked immediately and added many other questions, but she had tuned it off. Great, father has gone into the 'Overprotective father' mode… she thought and sighed. That was after all literally the last thing she wanted to hear right now.

And only when the call ended, did she enter the dorm room and unpacked her things, glad that no one else was living there. After all, even the looks of some students (the mysterious person included) gave, sent chills down her spine. It was as if they either wanted to kill her or only try to at least make her life hell.

But the mystery, about Sakura liking the person who sent that much Killing Intent subconsciously at her, still remained at the front of her thoughts.

He knew that showing himself to Maho Nishizumi was a mistake. Even his dad (who failed in his quest, twice) told him to avoid her and when the time is right, make an attempt at kidnapping her sister at the International tournament.

He also knew that he must wait for at least 6 months to make that happen, so he'll watch the older of the Nishizumi sisters from afar. He must avoid her to avoid detectionq later at the tournament and make his plan come into frution.

And after that, I'll be able to get my revenge on the woman who abandoned me! he thought as he imagined all things he wanted to do with the younger Nishizumi just to break her mother and that Jameson guy and avenge both himself and his (adoptive) father. No one should mess with Narcius Poralon and his son, Wilhelm.