Blazepanzer here...and it's time for the 10th chapter of The life and Times of a Katoni! Yes! Anyways, there is a small part I need to clear up at the end of the story, but nothing too major. You'll see why toward the end. This chapter is a bit shorter than intended, but it'll work fine.
With all that being said, enjoy! Note that Blazepanzer does not own Girls und Panzer!
Waking up in a sleeping blanket, Hanoashi felt her mind flooding in confusion as she noticed that Rikona was curled up next to her. Why are we in a sleeping bag...and is this my room? She mused groggily. My room! Mom and dad must be okay! She thought excitedly, before she glanced over to see Lin sleeping a bit farther from them.
Oh...mom's never coming back...and with the war...Hanoashi sighed, forcing herself to try to relax as she mused over the current situation. North Korea is in rebellion, South Korea is an unknown...and we're freaking out on just in case issues...
"You awake?" Rikona stirred, interrupting her thoughts.
"Hm...just thinking," Hanoashi smiled.
"Must be strange being back here, especially under these circumstances," Rikona sympathized, crawling into the blanket and maneuvering her right hand over Hanoashi's back.
Smiling with a small blush, Hanoashi returned the gesture with her left hand. "It's a bit odd, but there's no one I'd rather have by my side right now," she whispered.
"I'll always be there for you cuz," Rikona smiled.
"Holy Maus are you two a couple or relatives," Lin huffed, standing over them.
"When did you wake up?" Rikona squeaked, scrambling out of the covers with a rather large blush covering her face.
"Thought I told you that I'm a light sleeper. Anyways, can you check if the other's are up?" Lin asked.
Nodding profusely, Rikona practically shot out of the room, her cheeks flushed bright red with embarrassment.
This is super embarrassing, Hanoashi mused as she crawled out of the covers trying to ignore her own blushing, but just as she stood up she felt a hand patting her hair gently.
"You've got something really special there, don't ever let her go, okay?" Lin smiled softly, before removing her hand.
"Just Sara," Rikona mused noting at the girl who had followed her back in.
"Is...it really okay if I join you now?" Sara asked quietly in broken Japanese.
Oh no...Lin is going to..explode over her lack of speaking our language...Hanoashi fretted, but Lin's response surprised her.
"Of course Sara," Lin smiled, patting her on the back. "Now about that party story you promised to tell me," she added, guiding the American girl into the room.
"Looks like they'll be good friends," Rikona smiled. "Let's go downstairs for a bit," she added.
"Sure," Hanoashi smiled, though she felt a small blush across her face. I wish I could have enjoyed that a bit more, but Lin is right...probably a bit too intimate for cousins.
Settling down on some beanbag chairs that the others had brought, Rikona gazed around. "You have a fairly large kitchen and living room" she noted.
"Yep! And behind that door is a massive library that mom and dad built...mostly from books, video cassettes and audio tapes they bought in bulk at yard sales," Hanoashi nodded. "Not that Mom and Dad let us access it, according to Mom we have to be at least ten to access it," she added with a touch of annoyance.
"Hm...maybe some of the movies are a bit too mature for us little ones," Rikona suggested.
"Maybe," Hanoashi conceded. "But still, I'm a bit curious."
"The books in the playroom are more advanced than what I have at home," Anna noted, joining in. "So you're going to an athletic school, right?"
"Just until my father recovers enough," Hanoashi shrugged.
"What's it like?" Anna leaned in. "The school I mean?"
"We wear a pink and white sailor uniform, and our PE classes are more strict. Classes are...mostly it's sort of the same thing but with more advanced language. Other than that, the same," Hanoashi shrugged.
"Really? So you are served by the older adults at lunch and get to play in the afternoon?" Anna asked.
"Er...not really. Each class has a day of the week to where we wash the trays and dishes, but no one really serves us. As for play...we don't really do that at school," Hanoashi shrugged.
"So it's really different than our school," Anna sighed. "And you'll be so far ahead of us..."
"Hey, I'm still the same girl as I am when I left," Hanoashi insisted, but her heart sank at that little lie. Mom's death has really changed me. And I've become stronger even over just the past few days.
"Maybe...but you have changed. For the better as long as it doesn't make you arrogant," Ayumi piped up, joining them.
"That's something mom taught me to avoid like the plague," Hanoashi huffed.
"There's a difference between being taught to avoid something and actually avoiding it. Mom always taught me to avoid strangers. I have to heed that teaching, or else it means nothing more than I'm an idiot for not listening." Ayumi noted.
"Fair point, but really, I'm not going to become arrogant over this," Hanoashi shrugged.
"I certainly hope so,"Anna mused quietly.
"Come on, have more faith in our friend," Sara chastised sternly, albeit her soft voice dampened the roughness of the rebuke. "She's never showed an ounce of arrogancy before, so why should she start now?"
"Right, sorry Hanoashi," Ayumi sighed.
"It's alright," Hanoashi smiled.
"Alright girls, it's time for breakfast, and then some school work!" Mimoza smiled, before placing some plates filled with pancakes. "Oh, and Hanoashi, we used dried Strawberry power in yours instead of chocolate chips," she added.
"Great!" Hanoashi smiled.
"Aw...why does she get something special," Ayumi muttered.
Everyone turned to glare at Ayumi, but Hanoashi let out a small laugh. "She's just joking guys, let it go," she noted.
"She shouldn't joke like that," Rikona huffed, sitting next to her.
"Hey! I wanted to set next to Hanoashi, no fair," Ayumi pouted.
"Tough, shouldn't have made that joke," Anna shrugged, sitting on the other side of the Irish girl.
"Guys..." Ayumi whined, but say next to Sara, who gently encouraged her, saying that they'd soon forget the little quip.
"Ready girls?" Shelia noted.
"Thanks for the food!" the girls coursed, before digging in.
Hmm...mmm...Hanoashi thought in delight as she devoured her pancake, really enjoying this new dish. She'd had pancakes before, but Yu had always been conservative with the chips, so it didn't really matter that much. Then again pancake mornings were usually supplemented with sausage-egg rolls and rice, so it wasn't like she was eating a mountain's worth of pancakes or even a single large pancake like this morning
"That was delicious," Sara smiled.
"I'll second that," Matsu added gratefully.
After breakfast, Shelia smiled at the girls. "Alright, now that we've had breakfast, it's time for school," she smiled.
"Aww..." Ayumi, Matsu and surprisingly Sara moaned.
"Is that groaning that I hear?" Mimoza growled, glaring at each of the three girls in turn albeit she glared at her niece Matsu just a bit longer. "Just because we've evacuated you youth to the countryside doesn't mean that you get to skimp out on learning!"
"What do you mean by you youth?" Rikona muttered sourly.
"Rikona Amarila Matsumino!" Shelia boomed.
"Sorry mom!" Rikona squeaked, ducking her head low.
"Amarila?" Hanoashi tipped her head.
"It was your grandmother's name from my side of the family," Shelia noted, though she held a somber tone when she said it.
"What...what happened to her?" Hanoashi asked gently.
"She was shot shortly before Yu was disowned," Shelia sighed. "Anyways, it's time that we get to teaching. I'm thinking that we go over multiplication tables," she added with a smile.
"What's multiplication?" Anna squeaked.
"Count bys," Hanoashi smiled. "Most schools think the word is too advanced for we youth, so they call it count bys."
"There you go again with the you youth thing," Rikona muttered under her breath.
"Feisty one she is," Anna teased.
"Shush you," Rikona retorted.
"Sure thing Amarila," Lin laughed as she walked up and handed each of them a piece of paper.
"Almighty then, Rikona, you'll be teaching Anna, Lin, you'll be teaching Sara, and Hanoashi you can teach Ayumi," Shelia announced.
"Alright!" Hanoashi cheered, before joining Ayumi at the table.
"So is this hard?" Ayumi asked as Shelia handed them some worksheets.
"It can be a bit hard at first, but it's not too hard to get down," Hanoashi smiled encouragingly. "You already know about twos, fives, and tens, so it's basically the same thing but by different numbers," she added.
"Oh...that doesn't sound too hard," Ayumi smiled as she began filling in those numbers.
"Now the fours are going to be double that of the twos, and the eights are double of the fours," Hanoashi continued, watching as Ayumi filled them out.
"Now the elevens up to nine are basically a repeat of the number you are multiplying from. So you'd right 11, 22,33,44,55, and so on," Hanoashi continued.
"Got it...but what about 11 and twelve?" Ayumi asked, coming to the number 110 on her own.
"You'll just have to memorize them," Hanoashi noted.
"Aww..." Ayumi whined.
"It's just how it is," Hanoashi encouraged softly. "Now for the nines, you can use a little hand trick," she informed, before showing her how to do the hand-trick.
"That's so cool!" Ayumi gasped.
Hanoashi smiled. "I thought so when mom taught me. At any rate, it shouldn't be too hard figure out the rest, although you'll want to memorize as many as you can to make it easier. And for extremely high numbers there's no harm in using a calculator if you have one."
"Then I'll always carry one one me," Ayumi laughed. "Just kidding."
Hanoashi couldn't help but let out a small giggle.
"Let's fill one out then, let me know when you are done," Hanoashi smiled before placing up a barrier and began filling out her own work.
It took Ayumi a few more minutes to fill out her own grid, and they lowered their shields and compared work.
"I got some of the sevens and twelves wrong," Ayumi sighed dejectedly.
"Don't worry about it. This takes some time, but you'll get there," Hanoashi encouraged. "This is actually light compared to what I had to do, and Rikona has it even worse than both of us," she added with a slight chuckled.
"Really?" Ayumi looked up at her in awe but also a tad scared.
"Mother wanted my brother and I to memorize our tables one through a hundred, and the Matsumino want their children to memorize theirs even more. At least three hundred is the minimum but some of them have been known to memorize up to three thousand during their lives."
"Th...three thousand?" Ayumi gasped.
"Well...they were older Matsumino who worked as computers, back when that was a job title and not the name of a machine," Hanoashi shrugged. "Or Shelia says anywho. They...don't really talk to me much since I'm just a guest of the family at the moment, but they all are kind when they do speak to me."
Neither girl saw the confused glance Rikona or Shelia shot her, and Hanoashi's heart stung at the lie, but she wasn't going to badmouth such a prestigious family over some bad members.
"They sound so cool," Ayumi breathed.
"That they are," Hanoashi smiled. Even if some are stuck up Ass...no jerks so to speak, she added silently, trying to dislodge the urge to cuss that she was starting to pick up on. Gotta stop doing that, both Drake and Shelia would wash my mouth out with soap and probably ground me as well...
Before they knew it the lesson went on from multiplication to language, which was simple, write a story. They had fifteen minutes and would be graded on length, spelling, and context.
Hm...I wonder what I should write about? Hanoashi asked herself, before placing pen to paper, deciding to write about a rabbit and a pika. It basically went like this...
There once was a rabbit who thought that he was the best runner. One day he entered the Winston step 1,000, a thousand foot obstacle coarse race. There he walked up to a certain Pika and said, "You are small, how can you expect to defeat someone like me?"
The Pika shrugged in response, not dignifying the bully with a word. However, in his mind he said, I'll show this pompous braggart!
So when it came time for the race, the rabbit was astounded at the agility of the rat. I cannot lose this race! He urged himself, picking up speed only to run into an obstacle of brush, scratches covering his face. Guess I'll bow out now, this really stings...he growled, heading onto the nursing station.
From now on I'll never underestimate someone based on size...and stick to non-obstacle tracks, he thought with a sigh as the nurses attended to his scratches.
Stepping back from her work, she let out a small smile as she sat down her shield and turned over her paper, indicating that she was done.
"Alright girls, time to see the results" Mimoza smiled, her eyes eager to see what the kids wrote.
"Ayumi...hm...seventy words, not bad, but more detail would be better. Still, keep it up," Shelia smiled.
"152 words, that's a good word count for your age, Hanoashi, Mimoza smiled.
"Th...thank you," Hanoashi smiled quietly.
"So, what now?" Sara asked quietly.
"And now we go to the beach!" Mizoma smiled, pulling her nice dress off to reveal a swimming suit.
"That's tomorrow," Shelia sighed in exasperation. "For right now you girls get to watch an American-made film, and then you can take the rest of the day off," she added.
"What kind of film?" Hanoashi asked.
"Balto, " Mizoma noted.
Settling herself down for the movie time, she sat beside Matsu and Sara for the movie. As she watched however, she began to find herself missing her mother.
"That as a really good movie," Rikona smiled as the girls sat around each other, eating mac and cheese.
"It was," Hanoashi mused, focusing more on eating than the conversation. Seeing Rosie like that...hit me a bit too much on the nose... she thought sorrowfully. "Mother..."she whispered to herself.
However, she pushed passed it and managed to get her meal through.
"I've noticed that you have a lot of toys more suited to the boys around the house," Lin mused. "You a tomboy?"
Hanoashi shook her head. "No...those belonged to my older brother...he lives with our cousin over in America given father could only afford to raise one of us..." she admitted quietly.
"That's cruel...separating you like that," Ayumi huffed.
"It wouldn't be fair for Father to lose both of us and Mom at the same time," Hanoashi countered gently. "Yeah, it is frustrating...being separated and all, but it's the best outcome giving the circumstances." She paused briefly as Ayumi gazed at here weirdly. "Is...something on my face?" she asked.
"Just the usual freckles," Lin teased.
"Very funny..." Hanoashi noted.
"Sentence structure again..." Ayumi muttered to herself.
"Well..." Hanoashi groaned, just like her father did which sent Rikona, Lin, and Sara laughing.
"But yeah, when Nova and I were separated, he left me all of his toys. Not too sure why, but it's a nice way to remember him by," Hanoashi explained.
"I see...you must really miss him," Asuza whispered.
"I do," Hanoashi admitted quietly. "But like I said it was the best outcome given the circumstances," she added.
"This just in, the North Korean government has fallen to the Youth Liberation Movement. Currently South Korea is attempting to pressure the YLM into unification, but the Youth government is steadily refusing to join at this time, and with backing from both Russia and America in terms of the YLM self determination, it seems unlikely that South Korea is about to force the hand anytime soon."
"That was quick," Shelia noted.
"Yeah, North Korea falling in just three days?" Mizoma mused.
"So does this mean we get to go home soon?" Ayumi asked quietly. "Not that I'm bored or anything, but I really miss being home."
"I understand that feeling quite well," Hanoashi admitted. "As good of a host Shelia and Rikona were to me, I really missed being here."
"You're here now," Rikona pointed out. "And to be frank I think I prefer this to the family mansion. This...is quite nice," she added.
"You know how Matsumino never let their kids buy straight-forward houses," Shelia sighed ruefully.
"I think we ought to wait at least a week," Mizoma noted. "Granted, the government might have fallen, but there's no telling if South Korean is going to push things, and the North Korean army might still have some fight in them," she added.
"Quite right," Shelia mused, letting out a small sigh.
Bullets flew as the girl ducked into cover. "Hunter, load the shell into the breach!"
"On it!" the American girl sighed, her blue eyes troubled at the idea of a nine year old in war, let alone her commanding this entrenched turret. "Firing!" she shouted.
"Commander Lin-su to turret commander Sook, good hit, kills on at least nine baesinja," he noted.
"Thanks commander," Sook noted calmly. "Bora, prepare to aim toward A-16," She added. "Hunter, load APHE shell!"
"On it commander!" The eight year old noted, aiming her gun at the incoming AFV and firing, shuddering a bit. "AFV destroyed," Bora stammered.
"Good work, that was a Bronetransporter 50," Lun-su mused.
"A tank is approaching at sector A-12!" Sook noted, before the turret began to shake, sending her back, a sharp pain erupting on her leg.
Her eyes blinked open as she found herself outside of the tank, her leg bleeding badly, but otherwise seemingly intact.
"Sook!" Bora screamed, before jumping out of the now dislodged cannon and rushing over. "Come on, We've got to get you inside the citadel," she stammered as YLM solders rushed out of the castle and covered her as she brought her turret commander into the keep.
"We've got this Bora, grab a sniper rifle and cover slit-house A-13," one of the commanders noted with medics rushing to help the injured Sook.
"R...right!" Bora noted, before rushing upstairs.
Sook mentally shook her head. How the Maus is a nine year old supposed to handle a sniper rifle of all things!? Let's just hope they have it on a mount, otherwise my friend is going to wreak her shoulder...badly.
"You'll be alright Sook," one of the medics noted gently.
"Not as bad as that shot I nearly took to the head day before yesterday," Sook muttered, brushing up against her bandage head. Part of her left ear lobe was missing, displaying how lucky she was. Her hearing in that ear barely worked as it was, which aside from the missing chunk was the only consequence from that close call. That, and a bit of PTSD she had to shoot down, but she found that was easier done than said in her case, the opposite of most soldiers.
"Try to save your strength, you'll be getting another wounded warrior ribbon after this," he noted.
"Two ribbons, or a star or something on top of the ribbon," Sook joked as the YLM didn't really have an actual reward system up yet, just marked the troops for their rewards once the war was truly over.
"Hey Sook..."
"Hey Bora...we survived," Sook smiled as she woke up to see her friend by her side, gingerly holding her hand.
"Hunter didn't, she died shielding you," Bora whispered.
"I figured," Sook frowned. "She was a good solder..you and her were the best friends a girl could ever asked for.
"I know," Bora whimpered.
"Is something wrong?" Sook asked.
"They're slowly going to begin taking us under the age of twelve off the battlefield," Bora whispered.
"Praise the Lord," Sook smiled. "Though...I don't want to quit fighting," she added. "I...I want to see this through to the end."
"I figured you'd say that," Lin-su noted, entering the room. "Bora, may I have a moment with Sook alone?"
"Yes commander," Bora saluted before leaving the room.
Sook gazed at her commander with a quiet smile. It's hard not to have a small crush on him...he's so brave and caring...and his strategies bring us victory over and over again. Not bad for a former Ulsan Highschool Sensado commander...she mused to herself.
"My apologies about Hunter, she was a brave solder until the end," Lin-su began, his voice holding it's usual serenity.
"It's not your fault, as front-line turret operators, it's our job to defend the castle, and she died not only doing that, but also defending me..." Sook gazed down. "I owe her my life," she admitted quietly.
"She was brave until the end." Lin-su agreed. "Now, what I'm about to tell you is top secret," he began.
"My lips are sealed...sir," Sook nodded.
"Russia has agreed to rearm us," Lin-su noted. "It'd be refurbished Soviet equipment, more BTR-50's, a mix of T-55 and 62's, a large number of AK-47 guns and requisite ammunition, and a contingent of Mig 29's and Mig 21's, those are for Air superiority and ground support respectively."
"That's quite generous," Sook agreed.
"It is," Lin-su smiled. "But not all of the equipment they are sending is for national defense," he added.
"What do you mean?" Sook asked.
"In exchange for this equipment Russia wants us to begin a Sensado team, so as such some of those tanks are Sensado-regulation world war two tanks," Lin-su noted.
"Are you leading the Sensado team?" Sook gasped.
"No, I'll be the head instructor so to speak...at least as long as it's the only real team in our part of Korea," he noted. "The spot of the first team commander is yours...assuming you want it and can keep your grades up," He noted.
"Can Bora come with me?" Sook asked.
"Maybe...as long as she scores in the top percentile then she'll have a good chance. Might even let you advocate on her behalf," Lin-su promised.
"I'll be there," Sook promised. "Though my head hurts," she added.
"A concussion will do that, luckily for you it was light," Lin-su noted. "Well, I have other things I must get done, it was nice talking to you again Sook," he smiled.
"Wait...what kind of tanks are we getting?" Sook asked.
"From what I hear, Soviet tanks," Lin-su noted, before exiting the room, Bora practically rushing in.
"Calm down Bora, everything's alright," Sook smiled.
"So what did the commander?" Bora began, but Sook shook her head. "Sorry, it's classified," she muttered.
"So what now?" Bora asked.
"We hope that the elder solders can finish off the war and we can go back to enjoying life the way we used too," Sook noted. "Not that our solderers are necessarily elders, heck Lin-su is one of our top commanding officers and he's not even in his twenties...though he's very impressive," she added with a small laugh.
"Going to be hard to enjoy it without our parents," Bora noted, her voice shaking.
Shuddering at the memory of the North Korean solders actions toward her and her family, Sook nodded. "True...we both had good parents compared to many. But they'd want us to enjoy our hard earned future, not sulk around about what we can't help. So let's forge ahead into the future like a tank and not allow ourselves to wallow too much, alright?"
"Right," Bora smiled. "You think we'll be folding into South Korea?"
"I doubt it, we're not likely to trust any outside elders if we couldn't trust our own," Sook deadpanned. Plus the rearmament from Russia says otherwise...but I can't tell anyone that, she noted to herself.
"Everyone's referring to us as war heroes," Bora admitted, her eyes glittering with worry and confusion. "But...but I don't fell like one," she confessed.
"I sure do, but I certainly don't feel like bragging bout it," Sook groaned. "And us nine year old's shouldn't have to be fighting in a war in the first place," she added.
"We had no choice Sook," Bora sighed. "They'd have kill us that day if we hadn't grabbed those policeman's guns and defended ourselves, and after that traumatic experience...what's a few more kills gonna do to harm us?"
"I...I thing that we have quite a bit more than a few extra kills," Sook rolled her eyes. "But yeah, we'd already taken a life by then after seeing our parents and sibling's life taken from us..."
"And then the whole damn nation fell apart," Bora sighed.
"Let's try to drop the language now that we're at peace, alright?" Sook suggested. "I...I don't like the cussing," she added softly.
"Bull Sh...you've cussed a lot too," Bora protested.
"Well yeah, but we were at war, Bora," Sook sighed. "We're going into a time of peace...and well fought peace too, let's try to enjoy it without bringing in our war-selves into it, okay?"
"Fine, that's...actually a good idea," Bora smiled.
"What are best friends for?" Sook smiled.
"What about the future of North Korea though?" Bora asked. "What kind of nation should we build?"
"Simple, we expand our schools, our industry, our entertainment options, and grow up to be the best elders we can be, the ones our children deserve and can be proud of," Sook smirked.
"Sounds like a big task ahead of us," Bora shuddered.
"It's nothing that we wouldn't be doing before," Sook deadpanned. "All that's different is that we'll be depending on ourselves and not our parents to build up the country," she added.
"That's what intimidates me," Bora noted.
"Same," Sook confessed.
After a bit Bora began to sob. "Was there really no other way? Did we really have to war with our elder's like that?" she whispered.
"We had no choice..." Sook whispered. "If we didn't fight then our elders would have killed us brutally...or forced us to fight against our fellow youth..."
"Or enslave us," Bora shook. "But seriously...we're not even in our teens...why us?"
"Failure of elders," Sook noted flatly, closing her eyes briefly. How many of us were like Heather, giving their live far...far too early? We're lucky enough that so many doctors sided with us, but still...
Blazepanzer again, and yeah...you can probably guess what I want to clear up. Sook getting a part of her ear shot off wasn't inspired by what happen with Trump at his Pennsylvania rally, in fact that part of this chapter was written roughly three weeks before it happened. I did take a good week to decide whither to keep that part in the story though, but in the end I decided to just go head and keep it in. Part of the reason for the Sook and Bora ark is because they'll come into play later on in the story, but it also shows what the civil war in North Korea was like, if only for a small bit of it.