It helped Erika's sanity considerably to see that the others were just as weirded out by Yukari's presentation as she was. Mako seemed to think she was having a very disappointing dream, Hana's usual grace was taken aback and Miho and Saori's eyes had doubled in size and neither seemed entirely sure they could trust in their senses. Was it really possible they had just watched a short video detailing Yukari's infiltration of another school and its Sensha-do club, a video complete with captions and non-diegetic music? The fact they were all there together and equally bemused seemed to say that they were experiencing the same reality. A reality where Yukari had indeed disguised herself as a convenience store worker to access a ship and then changed herself into a Saunders student.

"That was reckless." As the rest of them struggled to remember how to form words, Mako at least had something to say although her words were apparently meaningless to Yukari and her coat of enthusiastic armour.

"I did what I could!" She replied cheerily, gazing at Miho whose eyes were still locked on the screen.

"Is it okay you did that?" The strain in Saori's voice was palpable and Erika was fairly sure she didn't mean tournament wise although Yukari interpreted her that way.

"Reconnaissance prior to matches is permitted under official rules."

"Oh…" Saori definitely didn't mean Sensha-do. Like herself, she was clearly questioning Yukari's sanity. Recon may have been permitted but as far as she was aware, it had never been done like this before. The idea of dressing up and actually attending another school's team meeting was just nuts, especially while openly holding a video camera. It was so brazen and out there that in some ways it did explain how she had gotten away with it. Sometimes the most outrageous gambits were the most successful simply because no could believe what they were seeing.

"Will Saunders still keep the same line up knowing Yukari-san was there?" Hana asked at large and it was a good question that it seemed had not occurred to Yukari who now looked worried that all her efforts had been rendered null and void the moment she had been discovered.

"I don't think they'll change anything." Erika stepped forward and rewound the video. "Clearly Kay liked you, Oddball." She pointed at the screen, at the Saunders commander with her fingers pressed against her mouth as she giggled uncontrollably in marked contrast to her outraged lieutenants. Kay would definitely have appreciated Yukari's audaciousness. "Besides, she's all about fair play."

"Being sneaky doesn't seem fair." Saori pointed out.

"All is fair in love and war." Erika said in her best St Gloriana voice that made them titter.

Yukari squirmed and then took the flash drive and knelt down to Miho. "Nishizumi-dono, I've only done some quick editing of the footage but I hope it helps."

Miho shook off her previous stupefaction and Erika became ashamed as she became the first to appreciate what Yukari had actually done. "Thanks to you, we know what their flag tank will be and we can plan accordingly! I'll do my best to come up with a winning strategy!" Miho gushed with an odd combination of warmth and formality.

She stirred the rest of them.

"I'm so glad you're safe, Yukarin." Saori naturally was their team mum.

"That made me quite nervous. It's amazing you did that!" While Hana disparaged herself to make Yukari's achievement even grander.

"Did you get hurt?" Even Mako had something to say.

"I'm fine." Yukari answered and seemed close to tears. "I can't believe you came to my home."

"You missed Sensha-do." Erika spoke quietly. "You might miss other classes but you'd never miss Sensha-do. We were worried." I was worried, she wanted to say.

"Oh…" It seemed it had not occurred at all to Yukari that she would be missed by anyone at school. "I'm sorry."

"Oh no!" Hana interjected in her dulcet tones. "It gave us the opportunity to see your room." She meant it too.

Now Yukari actually was crying though they all politely pretended not to see. "You're… You're the first ones to come to my room… Before, my only friends were tanks." She said this in such a way that no one doubted she had indeed gotten warmth and comfort from tanks.

"Clearly." They looked up to see Saori had an old-school photo album. "Nearly all the photos in this album are tanks!" They all looked and saw she was correct, although Yukari and her mother were sometimes stood in the foreground. A young Yukari who was startling in appearance. "What's with the peach perm?" Saori asked, apparently unable to conceive of any reason a person would have such a hairstyle.

"I didn't like my frizzy hair." Yukari explained cheerfully. "And it looked cool when my dad got that hairstyle. I had to grow it out though in middle school since perms were forbidden."

"I'm pretty sure your gangster haircut was the reason you couldn't make friends, not your love of tanks." Saori declared rather heartlessly, although Erika couldn't help but think she had a point. Judging by the pink cheeks of the others, they agreed as well.

It was news to Yukari who made an odd squeaking noise.

"Anyway…" Mako drew them away from Yukari's fashion-victim past. "We have to win the first round. I need my credits."

"You're the one who'll have to work the hardest, Mako." Saori informed her.

"Why me?" Mako frowned.

"We're training every morning before school before the match."

"… Wut?" All life drained from Mako's face.

[][][][][][]

Erika had always enjoyed boxing. There was no better way to blow off steam than pounding a punch bag until she was too tired to raise her arms anymore. The fact her mother had hated her doing something so inelegant and unfeminine, it had only made her like it more. There had been something satisfying about coming home with a bruised face from a good sparring session and seeing her wince. Maybe now she was thinking that bruises had been preferable to lacerations.

When she heard the door, she feared it was Yukari and an awkward make up session. She was relieved instead to see it was Miho, although that likely meant a different session of equal awkwardness. Most of that initial awkwardness seemed to stem from Miho being uncomfortable seeing her in just gym shorts and a sports bra. Miho had always seemed uncomfortable with anything that remotely hinted at human sexuality.

"You look good with a ponytail, Eririn." She said casually and flinched as Erika delivered a couple of hard jabs to the bag. "Are you stressed?"

"No more than usual." Erika considered that this was actually the truth. While the approaching match was a strain, ever since she had found out about Oarai's predicament she had had a weight on her back; to go with the weight left by Kuromorimine. In many ways, she should have been far more unstable than she was, doing far more than brawling with the school's Automotive Club as she strived to bash a big piece of metal with a smaller piece of metal.

"What Yukari-san did… That's made me feel much better. At least now we know what we're facing and what we can do about it."

"63mm of armour." She had fact-checked. "Everywhere but the rear hull. I'd need to get within five hundred metres to beat that while that 76mm gun can turn me into scrap from two kilometres or more. So nothing else is new…" So she would need to get closer, and hit hard. She made Miho flinch again as she pounded the bag. "Do you have a plan?"

"Captain Kay said they wouldn't defend the flag tank so we just need to find it and strike while it's isolated." She made it sound so simple.

"While nine Shermans try to crush our seven tanks." Erika countered.

Miho nodded gravely. "But it's a big arena and we do have the advantage in fast scouts."

"Only you could spin our weak tanks as an advantage." She rolled her eyes and then threw in a Saori-ism. "Miporin."

"They are an advantage!" Miho pressed. "Shermans are quick but not as agile as your T-50."

"Or our Duck on steroids." She said, referring to their remarkable Type 89. "But if they shoot my tank in the back of the turret with their machineguns they could take us, and they can do that with the 38(t) and the Type 89 anywhere they choose."

"You make it sound like we're beaten already." Miho frowned and she had no idea how much it made her resemble her sister and mother.

"I know. I'm sorry. But we're outnumbered, outgunned, inexperienced and no one really thinks we have a chance at beating a major school in our first tournament." She summarised bluntly and brutally.

"No one thought we could stand up to St Gloriana." Miho reminded her. "And now they consider us worthy opponents."

"We had equal numbers. This match though… If we make platoons of three like them, they can match us and have a platoon to flank us."

"You're thinking too conventionally, Eririn."

"That's why they made you captain." She said. "So I'm guessing we're not planning on using the Nishizumi Style." She laughed at the thought of their flimsy tanks advancing brusquely into the open, trying to emulate Kuromorimine's strategy but without the heavy armour that made it possible.

Miho blushed furiously. "Do you think that's what they'll expect?"

"Perhaps. Kay knows about us so maybe she might expect it."

"Or maybe that's how they'll fight." Miho wondered. "Just attack with all their strength."

"Which would work in our favour if we can hit them first. Especially that Firefly." It was a powerful tank but just as vulnerable to their German 7.5cm guns as they were to its seventeen pounder.

"Do you think a decoy would work?" Miho asked.

"Perhaps. If we really get their attention." She knew that Saunders style meant they could be easily drawn if their blood was stirred up and kicking the dirt in their faces would be enough. "But then our decoy needs to get their attention without being flattened in the process." She gave the bag a last few blows and then reached for her towel. "You should try this."

"I don't think it's for me." Miho raised her hands and backed off a step, perhaps fearing an invitation to put on gloves was coming.

"Your favourite bear gets into fights all the time." Erika countered. "Why don't you?"

Miho smiled. "I don't think you understand the point of Boko."

"I get it. I just think that damned bear would get his arse handed to him less if he spent a little time in the gym. You too." She raised a gloved hand to Miho whose eyes went wide and crossed at having it under her nose. "It's good to stay in shape for Sensha-do too."

"I don't want to fight."

"You don't have to take a swing at me. Just at the bag." She lowered the glove. "Another time maybe." She mused. "Miho, we both know no plan survives contact with the enemy. We just need an overall strategy."

"The only thing I can think of is trying what we did against St Gloriana; splitting them up so their numbers are meaningless. But we can't do that in an open arena…"

"We'll see. We know it'll be wooded so plenty of cover. All we need is one good shot from the Stug or the Panzer IV to eliminate the Firefly." It was the one thought she kept having, again and again. "One good shot."

"You really want to win, Erika-san?"

"I always do." She countered. "And taking a no-name school to victory against Saunders? That's a good win."

"A good win?"

"Which is better to boast about?" She asked pointedly. "Winning a fight with a blind woman or a trained karate sensei?"

Miho gave her a look up and down, perhaps wondering if she could take on a karate practitioner. "I would like to win." She declared.

"We'll see what happens. We're as strong as we can be right now. Everyone's behind you."

"It's what lies ahead that worries me."

"Well I guess that's better than worrying about what's happened in the past then." Erika said.

Miho thought about it and then beamed. "Hai!"

[][][][][][]

Time was a harsh master. They had had their measurements taken and then the promised uniforms arrived and Erika was pleasantly surprised by their appearance. They had a dark green serafuku to wear beneath a navy blue jacket that had a white collar with red trim and three pockets; one left breast and two stomach. It came with a white skirt which combined with the green serafuku meant their Sensha-do uniform was the inverse of the school uniform. Finally they had black climbing boots which they wore with long navy socks, although Saori chose to wear black stockings. Duck team meanwhile chose to wear their volleyball shorts rather than the skirts, much to Sodoko's chagrin although there was nothing she could do to force them to wear the skirts, especially with the Student Council President herself declaring it was 'No biggie' to violate their new uniform regulations. As Hippo team wore their usual school uniform accessories over their Sensha-do uniforms, clearly she was fighting a losing battle in a campaign she had already lost and her glowering over Erika's grey cap drew only amusement. Her lackeys meanwhile still seemed to be trying to figure out how they had been pressed into being tank crew although they seemed to take pleasure from the new smart uniforms too. They made them all looked more neat and orderly; the way they liked it.

Erika thought the uniforms gave them something though what it gave them she didn't know for certain. They hadn't lacked for pride before or unity, the teams comprised of friend groups were perfectly cohesive and while their radio technique was far from refined; they were well coordinated now.

Perhaps it was simply dignity. For herself, it was reassurance; the comfort of the old routine of dressing for battle and while Kuromorimine's black jacket was certainly more stylish, she couldn't deny that that the new Oarai uniform wasn't also fetching. They might well have been a team of amateurs but at least now they didn't look it.

The uniforms arrived and then Captain Chōno returned. She apologised for her absence, praised them for their progress and joked that their match against St Gloriana had made her look very good. She would be spectating their match against Saunders. In the meantime, she gave them a lecture about Saunders and her own experiences fighting the school when she was their age. It was comforting to hear that Chōno's schooldays facing Saunders were little different to Erika's own experience of the school because that continuity made them predictable. It also made her think about Kuromorimine's traditional doctrine and style and the similar flaw of being predictable in their behaviour.

The arrival of the uniforms and Chōno's visit happened rather quickly. Too quickly. All of a sudden they had gone from sitting and watching Yukari's reconnaissance video and now they were running checks before the match against Saunders commenced. She couldn't remember the day before and waking up that morning was merely a blur of familiar events before they had put ashore and found themselves here on the tournament field.

"If you tell me he has a fine singing voice today, I'll hurt you." She warned as her driver slash mechanic gave their engine the once and twice over.

Nakajima laughed. "You threaten violence too often, Erika-san. I can't take you seriously anymore."

Erika glared at her and the gearhead simply laughed again. While their new engine was far less prone to catastrophic breakdown, its hiccoughs were still alarming. Having an actual mechanic aboard helped, as though she and Yukari were beginning to get a good grasp of how the engine worked, they were still rank amateurs. Without Nakajima, a breakdown would have been disastrous. A complete failure would register as a hull loss but there were plenty of breakdowns in Sensha-do that only immobilised a tank, leaving it a sitting duck or ignominiously ignored for the rest of the match; unless its crew could mend it. Repairing or replacing tracks was the most common fix for crews and given Kuromorimine's usage of heavy German tanks that often broke under their own ponderous weight, they all had too much experience in that regard. That seemed unlikely to happen with their tank today. Instead it was far more likely they would be trying to clear out some clog in a fuel line or cursing as it once again decided it could only function in winter temperatures. Russian winter temperatures. The tendency for Soviet vehicles to overheat seemed to explain why they had always lost to the 'Summer German' and launched their most successful offensives in the winter, although the results of the Winter War certainly perforated that theory.

The other teams completed their preparations with Hippo team conducting a properly military operation, Duck team sounded like they were prepping for their beloved volleyball, Hoshino and Yuzu were left to do the work for Turtle team and Rabbit team made her face palm as Yuuki announced she had forgotten the shells and the rest of her team laughed. It was not an auspicious start and one that was annoyingly witnessed by Saunders two lieutenants who had slipped into their midst. She recognised them from Yukari's video and while the freckled one made a jibe about their relaxed attitude, it was the tall, short-haired one that she focused on. That girl had been smart enough to know Yukari wasn't one of them and Erika didn't believe for a second that they had come to socialise before the match. Yukari had brazenly walked into midst to conduct reconnaissance and they were doing the same thing to assess their opponents close up. Erika would have politely declined their invitation to a meal but Anzu, the blackhole for savoury snacks, naturally accepted it.

It was clear that the real reason for the invitation was to show off. Saunders University High School had brought a small town with them, all for little more than a couple of hours before and after the match. They had mobile facilities that would have been suited for an actual deployment, not merely a Sensha-do match. After all, what possible reason did they need portable showers for when they would return to their own ship after the match?

She watched the president interact with the Saunders captain, Kay, a girl of astonishing vivacity who seemed to exasperate her own underlings with her energy. She was certainly well-matched with Anzu and they seemed to feed off of each other. She knew Kay's reputation and yet it seemed the stories hardly did her justice as she laughed at some joke Anzu made. Here was a happy person. It made Erika turn away and become very interested in the sky.

"Hey, Sergeant Oddball!"

Yukari's panicked squeak and Nakajima's subsequent grunt made Erika look down to see her gunner using her driver as a human shield; something that amused herself, the driver and the Saunders captain who grinned at Nakajima who waved. As always, Yukari seemed completely unaware of her hair and how in this case it stuck out behind Nakajima to make her look like a sunflower.

"Did you have fun last time?" Kay asked Yukari, speaking to Nakajima.

"Um… Hai." Yukari told Nakajima's neck, making the Saunders girl giggle. She stepped forward and leaned around an amused and patient Nakajima who was now sandwiched between the two girls. Yukari's eyes widened as she suddenly found herself very close and literally face to face with Kay.

"We had lots of fun before, so come hang out any time." She winked and Yukari turned purple. "We're always open." She gave a cocky little salute with her fingers and made to turn away, only she froze ninety degrees into her turn as Erika came into her view. The smile remained on her face for a few moments before subtly shifting into a grimace that she was apparently unaware of as she stared with the moment her eyes left the scar sounding almost like a snap as they flicked up to Erika's own eyes.

Despite the fact it kept inexplicably happening, it didn't make it any less jarring to find herself suddenly glomped by another girl, especially one with a thick mane of hair that struck her like a golden cloud. This wasn't a joyful Yukari hug or emotional Karina grab, this was something else and Erika didn't know what to do. Fortunately the girl released her quickly enough.

"I'm so sorry." She said. "I saw the finals and I heard people got hurt but…" Kay would have hugged her again if Erika hadn't held up a hand. "I'm so sorry!" She repeated. "Let's have a good match." She held out her hand.

It was Erika's first instinct to bat the hand away, aggravated with the show of pity, but it was followed by a rational thought. This girl did pity her, but she had offered sincere condolences following her own kind first instinct. Now she was showing simple respect. To refuse the hand would only be rudeness. She took it.

Kay shook her hand and gave neither wink nor salute this time. She just silently walked away to her cohorts.

"She seems like a nice person." Nakajima remarked lightly, with Yukari still hiding behind her.

Erika took a calming breath. "The next person who hugs me is getting tied to our glacis plate as extra armour." She declared and ignored Nakajima's eye roll. Yukari at least took her seriously.

[][][][][][]

A match was supposed to be started with the two team captains bowing and wishing each other well but Anzu took Miho's place, something the captain was more than a little obviously grateful for. Erika mused that a loud brash personality like Kay's intimidated her, and having watched her be hugged, she was terrified of the same thing happening to her. So instead the little president did the ceremony while they made the final, final checks to their tanks.

Besides Captain Chōno, there were other notable spectators. This was good because the Oarai section of the stands was looking rather thin. A few students, a few adults, Yukari's parents which made Erika smile, and nothing like the dense crowd in the Saunders section. They even had cheerleaders. But St Gloriana had come and set up a little tea room to watch from. Darjeeling it seemed wanted to see the other Nishizumi sister leading and had brought her loader along with her and the two were sat comfortably in armchairs like a strange British mirage. The scene was completed by the Crusader commander Rosehip being sat on the rug, looking like a faithful hound. When Erika caught her eye, the pink-haired girl waved so energetically at her that she waved back without thinking and she thought she saw Darjeeling roll her eyes at this lack of restraint and reservation.

Erika felt comfortable in the uniform as she lounged against the rear of the turret, taking in the strange line of tanks that made up her team. The StuG and 38(t) were in their usual grey but to Yukari's delight, they had repainted the Panzer IV a forest green that would serve it well on this battlefield. Erika thought they should have used the paint on the 38(t) because Turtle team was their flag tank today and the little Czechoslovakian machine looked oddly adorable with the blue flag flying overhead. It had been the only choice though. The Type 89 was too frail and its team too hot-headed to be a target while the M3 was simply too much of a big welcoming target, as was the B1 bis. The 38(t) was also frail but it was fast and agile and it was in the unexpectedly talented Yuzu's hands and with Momo's gunnery, keeping its 37mm out of the frontline was no big loss.

Against Shermans it would be up to the 7.5cm German guns of the Panzer IV and StuG and Erika thanked various deities for letting them find the cannon for the Panzer IV and the upgrades that had allowed them to enter this contest with some degree of equality. Her own 45mm could be effective, as could the M3's armaments but the fact was, if they were close enough to be effective; they would be well inside the killing range of the Sherman menace.

Anzu returned and they took their positions. The last official match had seen her at the controls of a Panzer III, a workhorse tank of the early-war and now she was in the command seat of a T-50; a failed experiment that had tried to cook her more than once. She was one of only four people who knew that this was much more than a mere first round match for a school making a fresh start with its Sensha-do program. It was all a very strange dream.

Miho might have been anxious about the ceremonies of a match but she explained once again the rules of a flag match in a clear and confident tone and then gave a little speech. "Saunders tanks may have superior offence and defence compared to us, but let's stay calm and take them on." She declared, making Erika wonder if she had seen one of St Gloriana's slogans recently; 'Keep Calm and Carry On'. "Keep your tank mobile to draw the enemy into breaking formation. Then, try to lure them into the range of the StuG III and the Panzer IV." It was a simple strategy and the only real viable plan they had been able to come up with. Miho made it sound like a winning scheme and so the others cheered their acknowledgement.

"Nishizumi-dono sounds confident." Yukari remarked happily.

"We're as prepared as we possibly could be." Erika replied and she didn't want to say they were in the hands of fate because she didn't like to believe in luck but it was true that if Saunders made mistakes, grievous mistakes, it would improve their odds greatly. She did believe what she had said however. They were as prepared as they could be and what firepower they possessed could win the match. It all depended on the opportunities that were presented to them. "It's good to see Captain Chōno here." She remarked, wondering how the woman got permission to take her tank with her wherever she went.

"It is?" Nakajima asked, confused.

"I liked our first match." She confessed. "It was fun really."

"Are you okay?"

"Pre-match jitters." She said, and smiled. It alarmed both her crewmates.

The flare and the announcement felt like an oddly anti-climactic way to start a match, especially when it was followed by the roar of revving engines and then the squeal of tracks as each tank advanced. They slipped easily into a Panzerkeil formation of their own which even if they looked somewhat ludicrous with their mismatched tanks was still a powerful formation. Miho led with the B1 bis on her left and the StuG to her right. The 38(t) was ensconced between the B1 bis and the Type 89 who formed the left wing while they in the T-50 had the right wing with the M3 looming ahead of them to the left. A left flank of a turtle and two ducks while the right had a wolf, a rabbit and a hippo. Led by a fish. A fish that unlike the cute emblems daubed on the Panzer IV looked in reality like a conjuration from hell. She laughed aloud. There was always a certain madness riding into these mock battles but this was truly something.

They headed into the cover of some trees, anticipating that Saunders would be advancing boldly in search of them. There was no need to make it easy for them to find them or to be easy targets exposed in the open. Whoever sighted the other first held the initiative and could get off two or three aimed shots before their position was located.

"Okami-san team, please scout to our right." Miho made it sound like a request rather than an order. "Ahiru-san team, please take the left."

"Don't say 'please'." Erika said to herself and then squeezed her mic to her throat. "Understood, captain."

"We got it!" Noriko's loud and enthusiastic reply caused feedback.

"Ankou, Kaba, Kamo and Usagi-san teams will advance while protecting Kame-san team." Miho continued, still sounding like a big sister rather than a commanding officer. "Panzer vor!"

"That's better." Erika thought aloud.

"Does she have to give commands in German?" Nakajima asked and not for the first time either.

"Yes." Erika answered shortly.

"It's not a pretty language."

"Would you prefer Russian?"

"I like the German commands." Yukari said happily. "It feels authentic."

"Stop trying to relive WW2, fluffy." Erika replied absently and then stood to look out of the cupola. The freedom of the wind in her hair as she stood in her tank was intoxicating. Maybe it wasn't the tank she would have chosen but it was still the life she knew best.

They advanced a good distance away from the others before she ordered a halt and the engine killed. It would give it a chance to cool off before it threw one of its tantrums and would allow her to use her ears. On an open field, good eyes could locate a moving tank when it was barely hull on the horizon but in this arena of rolling hills and woodland, they would hear other tanks before they saw them. Off to her left, she could hear the curious blend of Oarai's fleet.

They waited and she could hear both girls shifting uncomfortably as sweat coursed their faces and bodies. It was hot and humid outside and like most Soviet tanks of the period, the interior of their vehicle was a heat sink. Even in the shade of the trees and with the hatches open, the tank turned into an oven. It was a time to be grateful for their skirts and to unbutton their jackets.

"Perhaps we should move on?" Yukari offered.

"No. They're close." Erika replied, gripping the cupola's edge.

"How can you tell?"

"I can smell the hamburgers, and hear the 'Fortunate Son'." She replied.

"She's making jokes." Nakajima noted. "Akiyama-san, are we going to die?"

"Maybe." Yukari answered. "Hold me."

"Only if you hold me."

Erika ignored the two gigglers and kept looking and more importantly, listening. Her instincts were right. Around her there had been birdsong but they abruptly became silent at the distinctive rumble of M4 Sherman petrol engines. For a moment she tried to pinpoint when she had learnt the difference in sound between diesel and petrol engines and the difference specifically between petrol and diesel Shermans. Not that that the distinction mattered today; all the Shermans fielded by Saunders in this match had petrol engines. 'Gasoline' engines to use the correct American terminology. The moment passed, she kept listening and then saw the movement with her naked eyes and brought up her binoculars.

Three Shermans crested a low hill and stopped. No, they didn't stop. They merely paused, and then rumbled on down the slope. They were very confident about where they were going, she thought. They had advanced across the arena without hesitation right on top of them in no time at all and either they were just blindly charging in and coincidentally headed straight for them or someone on their side had good instincts and recognised where Oarai would stage themselves after leaving their starting point.

"Okami team reporting from Point B085S. Three Shermans sighted advancing. Advise, over." She put a finger to her face and traced her scar from end to end and then spun around. Three more Shermans were coming straight at their rear. "Scheisse." She said and then roared down below. "Get us moving!"

"Whuh-"

"SCHNELL!"

Her scream followed by six blasts as the three rear Shermans fired and their shells crashed around them so the firing of the guns and their shots detonations blended into a single roar made Nakajima comply and their diesel engine with its six dubitable cylinders chose not to fail them, coming to life and propelling their little tank which was half the mass of the Shermans forward like a leaping cat. They bounded away even as more shells crashed around them.

All six Shermans were firing now, firing on the move so they weren't accurate but even so, their aim was good. As they whipped past a tree, it was cut in half as a shell struck its trunk in an explosion of splinters and it fell in their wake, the canopy crashing into the ground in an oddly gentle fashion following its brutal bisection. The six Sherman gunners knew that individually they were unlikely to score a hit but firing together, their shells converged to saturate the target and if Nakajima hadn't been an insane driver weaving them through the thicket of trees, they would been smashed by the massed fire.

"Okami team reporting." She clutched the mic tight. "Six Shermans attacking us, front and rear. Exfiltrating to the-"

"South-west!" Yukari supplied.

"South-west. Over." She surprised herself by how calm she was, even as another tree exploded and this time showered her with leaves and splinters. She supposed though that having seen Miho and Koume almost die, it would take a lot to make her heart beat hard. Like a shell scraping their turret to shower her with sparks. "Schiesse." She said again.

"Okami-san team!" She could hear the alarm in Miho's voice. "Reinforcements coming from the south-west!"

She smiled to herself. Perhaps now then the ambushers would become the ambushed, chasing them straight into the long guns of their Panzer IV and StuG III. But where were the other four Shermans? According to Kay's strategy meeting in Yukari's video, they would leave no defence for their flag tank so there were another three Shermans nearby. But where? She looked all around with the six Saunders tanks still firing on her but in vain between the trees blocking her view and Saunders shots and Nakajima slaloming around them at what was decidedly an unsafe velocity so that couldn't keep her bearings. She considered herself a good driver but she would never have dared move this fast among trees. Nakajima however, judging by her whoops, was having the time of her life as she performed stunts no sane driver would ever have considered. They passed a tree so narrowly, they struck the roots and they were thrown onto a single tread and they advanced far too far before crashing back onto both.

"Are you trying to break the engine or kill us?!" She shrieked to be heard over the slipstream and cannon-fire.

"Get off my back, I'm driving!" Nakajima yelled back at her and then whooped again as they left the ground and caught some air.

She wasn't the only one. Erika looked back to see Kay hanging out of her turret, waving her arms in excitement almost as if she was trying to signal in semaphore. Erika suddenly found herself thinking they were not so much a wolf as a fox, being chased by the riders and hounds. Was Darjeeling making that comparison as she sipped her tea? Was Rosehip excited to see their T-50 racing through woodland as it had with her Crusader?

Another tree became matchwood though falling directly behind them so that the Shermans would have to go around. They were falling behind, left in Nakajima's dust and the wreckage left by their own wild fire. It was ideal, and then Erika heard more 75mms firing ahead and then a hellish crash from the seventeen pounder of the Firefly.

She dropped down inside. "They're all attacking at once."

"North-west and south-east." Yukari was figuring the direction. "Nine tanks into a forest all at once! Wow!"

"Bold bitches." Erika mused, thinking that the fate she didn't believe in seemed to be against them. She stood up again. The half a dozen behind them were driving them straight into the rest of their team who judging by the sounds were being chased directly by the trio of other Shermans. "Miho, we're coming straight at you and we can't stop." She abandoned the protocol as another shell scraped them, tearing along the entire length of the hull. "What's the plan?"

"We'll be with you soon! Once we've merged, proceed northeast!"

"Understood!"

The trees confused her perception of distance so that it seemed they were far away from each other and then suddenly the Oarai line was there in front of them and Nakajima deftly drove between the Panzer IV and M3 to retake their position on the right. The StuG and 38(t) were not with them and that was good because the gauntleted fist was clenching fast and there were so many vehicles in the confines of the trees that it was impossible to discern the different engines; everything blurring together into a hideous roaring with the ever-present squeal of tracks. They hadn't fired a shot but now the Type 89's 57 and the M3's 37mm barked back at the Shermans and it seemed all the Shermans replied together and time froze momentarily for Erika as a long thin object came toward her. It froze so that she could fully grasp that it was the radio antenna from the M3's turret and then it whipped past her, taking some of her hair with it.

"Ahead! Two Shermans ahead!" Noriko reported, spitting the words like bullets. A pair from the six that had been chasing them had broken away from the others to head them off.

"What do we do?" Azusa sounded commanding but with an edge of panic.

"Advance! Full speed!" Miho replied. "Charge into the enemy lines!"

"Seriously?!" Came Karina's incredulous response.

"Roger!" Shinobu's voice from the Type 89 was thick with anticipation.

"Hell yeah!" But nothing compared to Nakajima who accelerated so eagerly that Erika was thrown back painfully into the rim of the cupola.

The T-50 screamed ahead of the other Oarai tanks, immediately drawing the attention of the two Shermans and Nakajima weaved, confusing their aim, even as she bore down upon them. The two Saunders tanks fired simultaneously and one shot went high and buried itself in a thick trunk while the other went low so that dirt flayed at her face. They tore out of the trees, the light almost blinding after the gloom beneath the canopy and the Soviet machine howled across the dry dusty ground.

Yukari fired and fate remained capricious. Instead of punching straight into the glacis plate of the rightmost Sherman, the movement of the unsteady barrel instead sent the shell crashing into the Sherman's gun, mangling it but not disabling the tank.

"Captain!" Sodoko's voice sounded for the first time. "They got us!"

"Schiesse!" Erika looked back even as Nakajima threw them around. The heavy French tank had fallen behind naturally as the others raced on but a lucky shot had struck its left track and now it was slewing around as the track failed and came undone. As she watched, the Panzer IV passed directly between the two Shermans, so close that the treads ground against each other in a shower of spark and an evil screech of metal on metal. "To the right! The right!" She yelled down as they flew back. "Yukari!"

Yukari was already slamming a new shell into place. "I've got it!"

Shots were crashing into the beached B1 bis, ringing it from stem to stern and its 47mm shouted defiance as the M3 and Type 89 passed the pair of Shermans just as they raced by once more and their 45mm fired, and missed as Yukari misjudged the speed of their passage; the shot scarring the front of the Saunders tank instead.

"Erika! Come back! You can't help them!"

A shell struck the B1's turret like a bell, another ripped away what remained of its left track and Erika found herself looking down the barrel of the seventeen pounder of the Firefly. "Links!"

Whether Nakajima understood or not, she put them into a drift that threatened to flip them as the shell from the Firefly seemed to pass beneath Erika's nose and they turned away from the trees and the Shermans and the lost Mallard team. She saw a final barrage struck home as the advancing Shermans were almost point-blank and the flag popped from its turret. She stared at it even as Yukari fired again and this time she struck and Erika pulled at her hair as instead of annihilating the Sherman, the truly despicable powers that be declared it was a wing clipping; the left track of the Saunders tank was cut.

"Kamo team… Eliminated." Sodoko reported, as she had so many times in their practice matches but now it sounded like a eulogy.

They drove on, racing after the other tanks and leaving behind one Sherman with a disabled gun and another with a broken track that could be repaired within a half hour. One tank disarmed but still able to function as a shield, another with a flesh wound and now they were only six.

"Please stop swearing." Yukari asked, having gone pale as Erika let full vent to her extensive vocabulary in German, Japanese and also English.

"Oh come on!" She waved her arms at the girl. "What was that?! They predict exactly where we are, put us in a pincer movement and then anticipate the direction we break out of? And we don't even get to even the odds because our two hits only disable them?! What kind of hex was put on us before this match?"

"I did disable one of them." Yukari said reproachfully. "They can't repair that gun during the match so there's that. And the other one we disabled, they'll have to repair it before they pursue us."

She deserved the reproof. "I know. You did good." She said but then her temper boiled up again. "But they should have been kills! Instead we had filthy fuuuuuuu-foul luck while they get the good fortune and disable Kamo team and now we're out our tank with the heaviest armour. Six against… Nine and a half." She wanted to hit something but as the only soft targets within the tank were Yukari and Nakajima, she was forced to rein it in.

As if to kick her while she was down, she was suddenly assailed by the sound of music; the sound of her gunner and driver's phones receiving texts.

"You brought your phones… Into a Sensha-do match?!"

"Didn't you?" Nakajima asked.

"Of course not!" She was rethinking hitting those soft targets.

"Itsumi-dono…" Yukari's tone immediately cooled her temper. The girl held up her phone and Erika read what was written there and her rage boiled once more.

[][][][][][]

They reconnected with Hippo and Turtle team in silence and with no sign of Saunders in pursuit, they gathered together to discuss the full import of Saori's group text.

Erika stared up at the sky. At the balloon in the sky. The Saunders wiretapping airship that was letting them listen in to their radio communications meaning they had known everything they were doing and where.

Yukari was checking her Sensha-do manual because of course she had one and had brought it with her today. Everyone else was quiet. Watching her. The loss of their largest tank hung over them and even if they knew it wasn't as powerful as the StuG and Panzer IV, its size had been reassuring. Its absence couldn't be anything but conspicuous. Erika looked down and at her own tank which now had a coating of dirt, leaves and twigs that served to camouflage it better than its evergreen paint and served as a visual recap of what it had been through in the short time between her first sighting the enemy and their subsequent escape from the ambush.

"It really does say nothing of radio intercepting balloons." Yukari said. "Planes are forbidden. Drones are forbidden. … But not balloons." Yukari was incensed in her own way.

"Why wouldn't they say 'No wiretapping'?" Saori demanded. "Instead of banning specific ways of doing it? What's the point?"

"Well if it says nothing of radio intercepting balloons, I know something else it doesn't say…" Erika said, nodding. "I'm going to skin those cheating bitches alive!" She turned in the last known direction of the Saunders force.

She was tackled not by Yukari or Nakajima but by the much stronger Akebi who came out of nowhere.

"Get off me!"

"Itsumi-dono." Yukari was aghast as she struggled with the big blonde girl. "Sensha-do players are forbidden from harming one another."

"With their tanks!" She shouted, trying to throw off Akebi but while she looked a blonde bombshell, she was more like a steel press. If she had really wanted to get Akebi off her, she could have punched her but instead she was forced into a wrestling contest she was doomed to lose. "There's nothing in that book that says I can't use my bare hands!"

Yukari actually checked her book and Erika grinned ferociously as she saw her gunner realise she was correct. "Nishizumi-dono, she's right!" She looked back down. "Akebi-san. Let her go."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Akebi replied, now effortlessly pinning Erika down by her forearms. So effortlessly that Erika stopped fighting and just lay in the dirt beneath her.

"This isn't fair." She said. "Saunders I mean, not you setting the big duck on me." She looked Akebi in the eyes. "Do you even need a gun? You could just throw the shells."

"Thank you." Akebi replied, but didn't let go even as Noriko stood beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Erika, are you calm now?" Miho was not anxious. She was despondent from an already tough match now being impossible.

"I'd be lying if I said yes." Erika replied wearily. "But would you be calm if you had these this close to your face?"

Her words, coupled with the fearful look she gave Akebi's breasts that were inches from her nose, broke the tension and they all laughed. All of them, even the shy First Years while Momo was seen to pointedly look away so no one could see her giggle and Akebi blushed with a certain amount of pride. She let go of Erika's arms and the other Ducks hauled them both effortlessly onto their feet.

"So what now, captain?" She asked Miho. "Because I'm pretty sure fluffy knows hand signals but the rest of us don't."

Miho was gazing into space with the wistfully melancholy expression she had made her own. Erika knew she was thinking though it was hard to say whether she was thinking of anything useful or simply brooding on their grim situation. The others weren't yet fully aware of their commander's thinking face so they needed distracting.

"Who's on watch?" Erika asked pointedly, and the Ducks and Rabbits scurried off to form a perimeter, allowing her to look back at Miho who suddenly jumped as if a drop of cold water had run down her neck.

"If it's like that…" She muttered to herself.

"Like what, captain?"

Miho looked at her, and her face lit up.

[][][][][][]

There was a famous line from a Bond film that sprang to Erika's mind when their engine began to play up. 'The tedious inevitability of an unloved season.' It had been a good boy in the woods as they tore about at breakneck speed but now it decided to start grumbling as they repositioned themselves at a slow and reasonable pace. But at least it was merely grumbling unlike the old one which would have probably exploded by now in a vastly disproportionate fireball that would have been seen in Okinawa or even Taiwan.

"It's probably just a clog in the fuel line." Nakajima assured her as if this wasn't an alarming thing to say. 'Clog in the fuel line' made her think of a heart blockage which led to a heart attack… She didn't need her tank to have a heart attack in the middle of a match.

"All tanks, proceed south on road 0985. Get to the junction!" Miho's voice came over the radio, clear and confident. "The enemy will pass through the junction as they move north, so shoot them in the flanks as they try to pass!"

Erika smiled. "If you put her on stage, she would stammer and err and um the whole way through." She mused. "But put her in a tank…" She smiled to herself.

"She's a Nishizumi." Yukari declared proudly and Erika didn't let her see her roll her eyes. At Kuromorimine they all took similar pride in being led by Maho, eldest daughter of the vaunted Shiho. Meanwhile, Yukari was the only one at Oarai who put any stock into the name. Besides the Student Council in their mad quest anyway… Everyone else only respected Miho for her experience. They liked her too, and Erika felt that the Oarai team was also protective of her. Miho was a little over average height but when she worried, and she worried a lot, she seemed to shrink and looked so small and vulnerable that it brought out a caring instinct in her team that she didn't think they were really aware of. It was just there and they acted on it.

They repositioned according to Miho's instructions and it gave them a lovely view of the junction. It wasn't so hot, she might have said it was a wonderful day. Instead, the view was hazy with the heat and she had to wipe away the sweat stinging her eyes. Everything was still and quiet for a while until they received absolute confirmation of Saunders wiretapping as they advanced on their position as they could only if they knew exactly where they were.

They had a magnificent view of Saunders approaching forces; one trio, a pair and the Firefly leading three more in a column that contained the Sherman with the disabled gun and all converging on where Oarai was supposed to be waiting in ambush. She tried to pick out which tank they had crippled but they had repaired the treads well and it was impossible to tell from this distance. Somewhere out there was their flag tank all by itself, although with its 76mm gun and 63mm of armour everywhere but its arse, it was far from a helpless lamb.

Saunders was performing a textbook ambush yet again but this time, there was nothing in the trap. Erika had acknowledged that with Oarai's bizarre fleet of tanks her own textbook thinking wouldn't work. They required unorthodox solutions to problems that arose and unorthodox today was that she had not brought her phone into her tank but everyone else had. The rest of Oarai's Sensha-do club did not draw a line between their everyday normal and what was normal in a tank because they didn't know what that was. They had no rules of etiquette. Erika had stretched so far as bringing in a seat cushion but that was it. There were no phones in tanks; just radios. But not with Oarai. Their parents were free if they wanted to ring them up in a middle of an afterschool training session to inquire when they would be home; even if they were under fire. It was crazy. And Miho, aware that her crew did carry their phones with them at all times for exactly these reasons, had come up with the simplest solution to their unsecure communications; texting. Saunders couldn't tap that. Saori had texted them to let them know what was up and Miho had realised there was nothing stopping them from using texts in place of their radios. Nothing except that it hadn't been done before.

This meant that Miho's radio calls were nothing but theatre and she was giving the performance of a lifetime. It was amazing how simply placing Miho in the command position of a panzer transformed her. It was her place of strength. The place where that shy, shrink vulnerability disappeared.

Her T-50, the StuG and the M3 withdrew according to their texted instructions, leaving Miho to oversee the rest of the plan. She would join them shortly. They got themselves into position carefully and she smiled to herself as Oryou manoeuvred the StuG so that it was concealed by a bush except for its long cannon that would be almost invisible looked at head on.

"We're surrounded! All tanks, withdraw!"

"If I didn't know better." Erika remarked to her two crewmates. "I'd say she was enjoying herself." The two of them both grinned.

The Type 89 was the only tank to move, dragging behind it a fascine of branches that threw up a thick cloud of dust just like a whole column of panzers. Erika would have liked to have been the one with that task but had been forced to reluctantly cede it to Duck team as with their luck the way it was today, had they taken the task their engine would certainly have chosen to fail in the middle of it. It was better this way; the T-50's gun was much more powerful than the Type 89's.

"Everybody, break up and escape! 38(t), retreat to Point C1024R!"

"Really enjoying herself." She mused, wondering if perhaps Miho was being too obvious. It seemed not however because as the Type 89 raced off with its bundles, two Shermans didn't pursue but instead broke off for no good reason other than that they knew something they shouldn't and they took a different kind of bait. "Aim for the tracks of the Sherman furthest away." She advised Yukari as the two tanks drove into the hollow that was practically sculpted by the gods to be a killing pit for them.

"Why? We can penetrate from here."

"I know. And it'll probably register as a kill anyway but I don't want them to get away." She grinned viciously as the pair of Shermans rolled right under the five guns of four of their remaining tanks. "Wait for it." The two tanks came to a halt and then their turrets began to rotate as they looked for the flag tank that was supposed to be there waiting for them to shoot it. "Wait."

The blast of the StuG's 75 hit her even inside their tank and Yukari followed its example firing together with the Panzer IV and M3 so that their combined four guns crashed like a thunderclap into the small hollow even before their shells slammed home with even more noise and violence.

The Sherman nearest to them took the StuG's shot directly in the flank and seemed to lift into the air with the force of its strike even as two more shells slammed home into its turret and tread. Yukari's shell went exactly where she had intended, smashing a wheel into a mangled ruin as another shell crashed just a little short of the Sherman. The Saunders tank fired back but didn't appear to even know where it had been attacked from and the shell went wild as Erika loaded for Yukari. The Sherman chose to flee and as it turned about, the jagged ruin of the wheel caught in the tread and for a moment, a fleeting moment, it held the tread in place and the Sherman swung sharply around before the wheel was ripped away by the combined power of the rest. But the moment had lasted too long. Yukari fired and so did the other Oarai tanks and their hail of shells landed plumb on the rear of the retreating Sherman and in an instant it belched a thick cloud of smoke before grinding to a painful halt. The other Sherman was also smoking and its flag already flapped overhead as the second banged up to keep it company. The ambush had lasted less than thirty seconds and now the hollow boiled with thick black smoke.

"Itsumi-dono." Yukari inquired with complete seriousness. "Were you serious about the threat to use people as applique armour?"

It went against all her Kuromorimine training and that actually made it even more of a pleasure to be the one doing the glomping for a change, especially as it made Yukari squeak with a mixture of surprise, and delight. For no better reason than she could, she also reached with her feet to give Nakajima a squeeze.

"When I have my own tank, I'm going to make the rules about hugging very clear." The driver declared, and then leaned her head on Erika's shin.

Erika took a moment to enjoy Yukari's thick fur on her cheek a little longer and then released her to be serious once more. Two Shermans in exchange for one B1 bis. Eight now against six. Or seven and half as one had a busted cannon. That levelled the playing field, though not as much as she would have liked. Saunders still held every advantage. While Miho had played them masterfully, they were still effectively blocking them from using their radios and in the heat of battle, texting simply wasn't an adequate substitute.

But for now, they had pulled off a perfect ambush that had eliminated a fifth of the enemy strength in one go. That was something positive to hold onto for a little while. For at least as long as it took for them to relocate from the ambush site and to plan their next move against their enemy who wouldn't take long to recover from the metaphorical slap to their faces and pride.

She climbed back out of the cupola and took in the view. Oarai's tanks may have been mismatched nationality-wise and half of them might have had design flaws but as they rolled on in their clipped wing formation fresh from their triumphant ambush, she had to admit that they looked magnificent.

(9739)

Author's Notes;

I honestly thought that this one would be longer. The Saunders match is clearly divided into three events; Saunders ambush thanks to their wiretapping, Miho's exploitation of that wiretapping and own ambush and finally 'The game of tag'. When you watch it back, it feels rather short. Much shorter than the Pravda match. I tried to draw out the first two events but couldn't and in the end, I felt that throwing in another long conversation would break up the flow of events too much.

Wolf team takes the place of Rabbit team for scouting which is only logical. Rabbit team scouts in the Saunders and Anzio match alongside Duck team because they're the only tank available as the 38(t) is the flag tank in those matches. I always found it ludicrous how Oarai's tallest tank is sent out on recon though they're just making do, obviously.

Kay hugging Erika… Yes, she does pity her but not in a bad way. I've often said that Kay is the nicest of all GuP characters and I couldn't imagine her not being moved by the sight of Erika's face. Kay loves Sensha-do and so the events at the finals between Kuromorimine and Pravda would be mortifying to her. If she thinks cheating would make your tank cry then seeing people actually get hurt would hurt her in turn.

Akebi wrestling Erika into submission. At this point, all the Oarai girls are used to Erika's tsundere tendencies and we've already seen the Automotive Club subdue her. I honestly picked Akebi at random from Duck team who are Oarai's muscle and then the gag about her buxomness wrote itself based on an incident I witnessed at university. I needed something to lighten the mood and it works well, even if it's very fanservicey to have two blondes wrestling.

This one was difficult to right, surprisingly. Though very enjoyable, particularly the initial Saunders attack and the scenes between Erika and Miho. Erika thinks Miho is rather passive as a person but she's growing to respect her as a commander. Erika, as I keep reading on the Reddit page, is not well-liked for her attitude toward Miho and her general superiority-complex. My Erika is a better person now she's no longer at Kuromorimine and subject to their ruthless supremacist doctrine.