Akiyama Yukari didn't like to say she had led an unhappy life. After all, she had two wonderful parents who loved her dearly, a happy home and she had never endured any traumas. That part of her life was certainly not unhappy. But she had grown up aware that she didn't fit in. Her interests were simply different from the other girls and she hadn't ever had anything to talk about. She had tried to take an interest in their interests… But it simply hadn't worked out. She hadn't had anyone to talk to. No friends. Most people ignored her. A few called her a freak. It wasn't the names that bothered her though. It was the loneliness. She had no one to talk to about what she loved most. The Internet might have been an option, if Internet discussions didn't almost always devolve into name calling and petty sniping. There was no fun.

When Sensha-do had been brought back to Oarai, when she had sat through the Student Council's presentation, for a brief moment she had thought she would actually burst with joy. It was all too much.

There were people in her life now and while none of them shared her level of passion for tanks, they understood her interest. They respected her. No one more than Commander Itsumi. True, during their first conversation she had feared her arm was going to be broken, but she had still said she was open to having a conversation about tanks. Before the president had dropped her bombshell. She didn't forget that Erika had thrown her a line though or that she had introduced her to Captain Nishizumi and the others. That she had invited her to hang out with them at Miho's place. Sensha-do returning to Oarai and winning their first practice match with Erika were great memories but an evening spent in the company of friends; that was her best memory. And she had accumulated many more like it since.

It had hurt when Commander Itsumi had snapped at her. A lot. In the tank Yukari had quickly learnt that she had no indoor voice; the only way she knew how to give commands was in a harsh tone. This was how she expressed herself, along with dry sarcasm and a general frustration at the cheeriness of the rest of the club. Yukari had learnt the difference between Erika amusing herself with her barbed words or a shouted threat and an expression of genuine anger. At first, she had thought the 'fluffy' moniker was mockery and perhaps it had been at first but it had become clearly affectionate. The use of her actual name had been frightening and a reminder that Erika and Miho came from a different world. They may have been trying to adjust to things at Oarai but all it took was a brief reminder to take them back.

And she knew enough about the Nishizumi family to understand. They were intense people, even without Kuromorimine's traditions. Although the two were inextricable now. But she hadn't known the truth about the finals; the grim hard details that were the real reason the two had left Kuromorimine. She hadn't known that Miho had felt she had let her family down or that Maho had been just as broken up by the events. It seemed that no one had known the full picture except for Erika and she hadn't been in any position to let anyone in on it.

Yukari understood. But that didn't make it any less painful to have had her first friend yell at her. She was ashamed that it hurt her, like she was a small child who had been told off but no one had ever snapped at her like that. She hadn't expected to hear it from Erika. She was afraid of hearing it again and it seemed likely considering how things were for Itsumi and Nishizumi. She knew she wasn't as mature as either of them although in some regards they were equally lacking. Erika hadn't known to apologise, not until Nakajima had told her. And kissing her… She was still thinking about that. Nakajima had meant it in jest but Erika had done it anyway and Yukari kept thinking it was because she had really wanted her apology to be sincere and she wasn't good with the words. She knew her habit of hugging the commander was inappropriate and Erika kissing her cheek was even more inappropriate and as they both knew this, it seemed the commander was trying to prove she meant what she said.

Fortunately, the president's idea for them to all go to the beach and then to go camping before training had distracted her from her worries. It was hard to be mired in despondency when infectious fun had been all around. She even thought the two of them had begun to push past the awkwardness. It was difficult to be mad at someone in the close confines of a tank, especially a cramped Soviet tank.

But Erika was not the only thing that had been weighing on her mind. When they had been sailing back from the tournament drawing, she had spoken with Captain Nishizumi and listened to her express her doubts about their chances against Saunders and how being in the dark about Saunders line up made coming up with a strategy difficult. Saunders had so many tanks after all and could adjust their team to match their opponents; a luxury they didn't have. Seeing the Captain worried had put an idea into her head and she had rightly dismissed it as crazy.

Except it wouldn't go away and on the beach, in the woods and on the training ground she had found herself formulating that crazy idea into an actual plan; albeit one that would still be called crazy.

And perhaps it was crazy to stow away on a Sunkus supply ship bound for the Saunders schoolship and then to put on their uniform and walk about with a video camera, narrating what she saw like she was a new pupil excitedly cataloguing their first day for their parents. It was only crazy if anyone had known the truth. To the Saunders students, she was a girl rightfully excited about being at Saunders. There was a lot of be excited about, from the sheer size of the school to their clear surplus of funds that meant the school grounds felt like stepping into the future; the future imagined when her aging school had been built and launched long ago. She had half-expected students to travel through a network of air tubes.

She had found her way to Saunders Sensha-do depot a place so vast that it went below decks. Saunders had light and heavy American tanks as well as their own M3 Lees and Grants but the centrepiece of their collection was that they had every Sherman that had ever been built, even those that weren't tournament legal like the T34 Calliope and the Crocodile as well as post-war models. They even had an M4A4 with an FL-10 Turret taken from a post-war French light tank; the AMX-13. Their main battle fleet however were all tournament standard and even though she knew they couldn't all take to the field at once, it didn't make the acres of tanks any less imposing. But the main emotion she felt had been excitement; seeing all those beautiful tanks together made her heart pound and when her gushing enthusiasm had drawn the attention of some of the Sensha-do students present, she had simply wished them well in the first round which they accepted without question. Saunders was a school full of energy and so she went unnoticed. Completely camouflaged amidst the grey jacketed crowd.

She could have spent the whole day looking at Saunders tanks but that wasn't why she was here. She had thought she would have to snoop around and find paper or computer records detailing what Saunders planned for the first round. Instead she found to her relief and excitement that the team was meeting that day to discuss their line up. It was simplicity itself to infiltrate that meeting; their side had so many members that one extra girl simply didn't get noticed. Certainly not when their commander appeared.

Yukari was aware of Captain Kay. She had seen her interviews and while she was a good five inches taller than the national average, the same as herself, she still thought the Saunders girl was taller. Taller than herself. Perhaps it was because the other Saunders girls wore knee-high grey socks while she donned thigh high white stockings, giving her the appearance of having much longer legs than she actually did.

The roster Saunders announced could have been much worse. Eight M4s, an A1 76mm and a Firefly were formidable against Oarai's meagre force but they could have easily fielded nothing but 76s and Fireflies. Perhaps it was fortunate that the M4 was Kay's personal favourite tank and therefore would always play a main role while she led Saunders.

"Do we even need to bring out Shermans?" A girl had asked.

"Yeah, shouldn't we just use our Chaffees?" Another scoffed.

"Or the Stuarts?" Another girl had called out.

"Locusts!" This had brought about a ripple of laughter.

Kay had clapped her hands for attention. "We don't know anything about Oarai." She said with a note of irritation. "Only that they have two experienced students leading them. We're not going to humiliate ourselves by being beaten because we were cocky and completely underestimated them just because they're new to the tournament. They almost beat St Gloriana in their first ever match!" She spoke with considerable force; enough that she had shamed those who had called out.

With the information about their line up and also which tank would be their flag, Yukari reflected that she had all she needed to know. She didn't need to press her luck. But instead she had asked questions about their organisation and how they would protect their flag tank which she realised had led Kay to go back on her remark that they wouldn't be cocky when she declared they didn't need any defence, although given their advantage in numbers this wasn't too arrogant. The questions however were a mistake. Kay's lieutenants were observant enough to realise they hadn't seen her before.

Yukari would have liked to pretend that she hadn't panicked and identified herself as 'Sergeant Oddball' but unfortunately she had it on record. Just as it was part of the record that she had fled Saunders Sensha-do briefing room and campus grounds with half of their Sensha-do club in hot pursuit of her. She had been able to evade them though. Saunders embraced American culture and thankfully that seemed to include poor diet and lack of exercise because she was able to outrun her pursuers quite handily.

That left her to make her return to Oarai and she was once again fortunate as the Sunkus ship returned to her home rather than taking her to Kyushu or Okinawa. She made the most of the journey, editing her footage into something that amused her, such as adding rock and roll music into the tour of Saunders' facilities, and was also informative with captions. Adding production credits; that was just good fun.

It was a whole new experience for her, one she could never have imagined undertaking and it was all for the team. For her captain. For all of her friends.

Who she discovered waiting for her when she tried to slip quietly back into her room without her parents seeing her. All of them.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Author's Notes

I actually finished this four days ago, two days after the last update, but then it seemed was imploding and so I hesitated to update or to start on the next chapter. I don't know what's going on with the site so I have a Wattpadd account too now and I'll post to both.

Short chapter. First half detailing Yukari's mind I felt was necessary to show where she's at without having a probing conversation. Not realistic to have too many of those. We spend most of our lives wishing we knew what others were thinking and heart-to-hearts are sadly few and far between. And as Erika seems to have one every chapter, I thought it would be best to see into Yukari's mind outside her viewpoint. That and I've always wanted to voice her.

Second half with Saunders, I always found the lack of perspective on Saunders' feelings toward being drawn against Oarai a little frustrating. Aside from Alisa's little group cheering at the drawing, we never get to see much of how they feel about facing this new unknown minor school of supposed amateurs. It gave me a chance to show they can be every bit as arrogant as Pravda and Kuromorimine and to flesh out Kay too, showing more of her sporting nature and prowess as a commander. I found it amusing to have her show caution about facing her unknown adversary but to also display a 'offence is the best defence' mentality regarding the flag tank.

So... The long-awaited Saunders match. It's been bouncing around my brain for long enough.