ARC II chapter 24

The next morning, Oarai tank garages

George couldn't help, but grin like a madman, when he saw Boris' catch from yesterday. It was an A27M Cromwell Mk. V Cruiser tank, the variant recognizable thanks to the 75mm ROQF Mk V gun and the welded armor, most likely Dw - variant D, welded. Well… that tank is his favorite one after all, so he should know at least something about it.

The only downside of it? Cleaning and putting the tank back into one piece. And searching for a crew, of course. That was always the hardest part from all the things they had to do. After all, mostly those students who were too lazy tried to get into the team recently and they picked four PMC members with the best score (which was also much better than that of those lazy girls) just to prove a point, the commanders of the other crews ignoring several attempts at bribery to get into the team.

"We are lucky that the tank doesn't need much work to be fixed. All parts are there, they just need to be cleaned and reattached," Tsuneo said after checking every spot of the tank and George sighed in relief at that.

"With this tank, we might be able to outmaneuver Rosehip and her Crusader," Takashi commented and George weakly smiled at the mention of his hyperactive sister, who always somehow disables the speed limiter on her tank.

And after that, all 6 boys and the Leopon team got into cleaning and repairing the Cromwell.

Meanwhile, somewhere near Pompeii, RM Roma

Vittoria Strinati finished her slice of bread with garlic and jumped down from her M26 Pershing's turret with the grace of an athlete. While her school wasn't in the Top 3 European schools of the Panzerfahren tournament, as she hoped, they still ended up 5th, beaten by the French only thanks to them losing against the Brits and their thick armored tanks.

Vittoria sighed as she remembered the humiliation of being beaten by a too obvious trap, but then she looked up at the team she leads and smirked. And she had the right to do so, because Liceo Artisctico Leonardo da Vinci was the only school that owned a M26 Pershing in the whole Panzerfahren league.

We have 3 Pershings, 8 Semovente da 105/25s, 2 M13/40s, 5 M4A3E8 "Easy Eight" Shermans, 5 Carro Armato P26/40 Pesantes, and 2 Panzer 38 (t)s. With this, most enemies won't stand a chance against us! she thought arrogantly and called over the rest of the commanders for a meeting announcement.

"I watched all the foreign matches as instructed," said her second-in-command, one Paolina Capone, as the last commander arrived, "and I must say that this year will be rough."

"What makes you think so?" Vittoria asked, knowing that if Paolina said so, she should listen. After all, she learned her lesson at that match, when her flag tank was shot by the damned Black Prince from behind, thus losing them the match, since her tank was the Flag one and also the last one still capable of fighting back.

"The American school that won their tournament has a bunch of M18 Hellcats and a T29 of all things for some reason. And the Japs have a Nishizumi leading them, along with a Tiger I Ausf E and a VK 45.01 (P), otherwise known as: Porsche Tiger, the only known one in the whole world that is not converted into Ferdinand/Elefant TD and isn't in a museum. Other than that, both have pretty much only weak/common tanks."

"Alright, let's form a plan now, so we'll have more time to change it, if needed," Littoria said and then, all 25 commanders tried to make a plan.

Traf was on his way to the steakhouse (his most favorite building on the school ship) to get a dinner, when a bunch of girls, wearing red armbands of the school's Broadcasting club, with their leader, one Taiga Ou, blocked his way from the front, most likely wanting to interrogate him about something for the school newspaper.

"Ask your questions," he said and prepared himself for an interview, but it never came, because they wanted something else than an interview, even though this was the perfect situation for one.

"Is there a crewless tank?" she asked, taking Traf completely off-guard, so he simply nodded, before answering. "We just finished repairing and cleaning an A27M Cromwell Mk V, but you'll need to pass the tests to see if you're the best option for it."

"Got it, thanks!" Taiga nearly shouted and bolted into the direction of the garages, her companions following soon after, making Traf shake his head at their antics, that seemed similar to when a young singer is going to be swarmed by screaming teenage fangirls that want to marry the unfortunate guy. And he couldn't help, but think that George is going to get the same amount of attention, since he volunteered to oversee the crew trials for the tank.

Almost three weeks to train the crew is enough, since the same amount of time was used to train Leopon and they turned out to be good enough against Pravda, Traf thought and let a small smile form on his lips.

Renta looked at the message from Tsuneo and smiled in a way that he hadn't in quite some time. It was a genuinely happy smile that made happiness radite off of him in waves. And it felt good to his tired mind. After all, who won't be tired after taking several all-nighters, just to find some stolen tanks that were the property of MEXT after banning Raven's Nest from all tank-related sports.

So, if they found the Cromwell Mk V, that means that the VK is still somewhere on the school ship, he thought and took another sip of his black coffee, before he remembered something and quickly scrolled through bookmarked forums to find whatever was stuck in his mind.

It took him about 3 minutes, before he found it and read the newest messages there. It read:

Mike_Winston(ATA_US): This Mojave Rose's SdKfz 234/2 Puma has some potential. They had won the race and got a Panther II for their team as a result. Too bad that my boss had to put them against Molly Pitcher a few months back.

Tankery_Is_For_Girls_Only: Who cares?! They, much like Oarai, had tarnished this fine sport by allowing boys into it. Ugh… I am glad that they lost.

Rome_Lover: You again? Wait… aren't you that girl, who purposefully sabotaged our tanks?!

Tankery_Is_For_Girls_Only: Shut up, you…

User Tankery_Is_For_Girls_Only has been banned by Heinz_Guderian

It made him only more interested in the team that lost most likely thanks to Poralon paying some officials and so, he quickly searched up on the numbers of free spots for the whole Internationals, before searching up who was the team's captain, soon disappointed by the lack of social media accounts that was under her name.

And so, he did the sensible thing and wrote to her second-in-command, who also happened to be that Rome_Lover from the forum, and a certain duo of Gabrielle Buchanan and Martin Redwood (using his official MEXT account to do that, of course) in the least shaidest way he could do it.

A/n:

Hey guys! This chapter was easier to write than the others. Also, shout out to AAHW at Girls und Panzer: Der Fanfiction server for letting me choose a tank to be used later for his fic Dust Devils: A Girls und Panzer story.

I used his characters to do a small crossover of both our stories as a way to thank him, even if in my fic they end up differently than in DD canon. If you want to know what happened in the "Canon" route of DD, check the story out. It's one of the masterpieces in this fandom.

Anyway, looks like I should mention one last thing: I want only constructive criticism to appear on my fics. Not trash talking about a fic, like what happened at Re:Snow.

See ya later!