Ace Und Panzer (Girls und Panzer)

Somewhere in the deep blue void ocean, a little artificial island is sallying forth towards the Far East. A little speck of man's creation compared to the vast watery plane of the Pacific Ocean. Yet this speck of 'man's creation' carries the concept of "maritime exploration", a theory of education that predates even the Romans, it tackles the continuity of education through the seven seas.

Carrying this ancient education theory to the modern age are the gigantic metal islands, putting small states and islands to shame with their uniqueness and sheer size, they call themselves "School-Ships", the Queens of the blue water, and one of humanity's pinnacle achievement through unity and homogeneous intention of peace.

Housing thousands or even tens of thousands of inhabitants while being self-reliant, incorporating not only the culture but also the identity of their origin. And this School-Ship in particular carries the identity of the German people, the Deutsch pride, complete with its architecture and culture.

Driving through the empty road with a loud revving engine of a Zündapp KS 750, the gray-colored motorcycle treks through the path until it enters one the building's facade. As the metal gate begins to close behind it, the motorcycle starts slowing itself down until it makes a complete stop right in front of the building's front entrance.

Turning off the engine before sitting straight-up on his KS 750, the motorcyclist takes out his Stahlhelm-esque helmet, along with it his goggles before finally revealing his face to the open breezy air. Greeting the breeze is his wooden brown hair that only reaches his shoulder, it can describe to be both clean and messy at the same time, though the latter only applies to the antennae-like cowlick on the top of his hair. His pair of utter darkened brown eyes that imitates the color of total darkness looks engagedly at the baroque-style building in front of him.

The white marble adorns the walls with beautiful handicraft, myriad plates of crimson and tangerine embellish the roof's foundation, with its center part a tower standing - inside it a carillon that is porcelain-made. Though as the building itself shows the exemplar image of Germany's finest architecture, it isn't the only building that shows the reminiscence of the Duetsch's landscape.

"Let's see what the Führer wants this time..." He mutters to himself, fixing his necktie through his striking blazer before proceeding to walk towards the closed double door.

Wearing an ordinary light gray glaring blazer, it is single-breasted, tailored according to his average height, and a polished pin on his right lapel. A vivid dark gray trouser that compliments its aforementioned companion, with black leather shoes and fitted dark-coated necktie above the bluish undershirt completes the attire of his uniform. The symbol on the pin of his lapel meanwhile shows an inverted golden Y with a red hexagon with its front emblazoning the mon of the Chrysanthemum, the seal of the Japanese Government.

Entering the building as the doors open themselves up for him to enter. There he sees the long carpeted hallway welcoming him with an attendant beside him upon going inside to the spacious lobby.

""Herr Wittmann... The Führer wants to see you now." The attendant announces with a hint of anxiety in his words once he finally meets him.

Swinging around in one motion without falter, the attendant confidently tries to lead the Wittmann towards the Fuhrer's office, going through the hallway as they pass through the other attendants and students in the building; they look at the figure with an obtrusive aura behind the attendant, feeling perturbed as chatter starts filling up the quiet atmosphere. Breaking the quietness as the chatter begins to take its place, the nonchalant subject in the hallway continues to follow the attendant.

Feeling this anxiety-inducing and uneasiness, the attendant just starts looking to his left and right to ease him; even if it's just a little bit. On the left shows the grand view of their school landscape, with buildings imitating different architectural approaches and the sea of students littering the vicinity of their school, meanwhile on the right side are all the decorations to ornament the expressionless wall with colorful paintings and photogenic images.

"Only a few meters away..."

Eventually reaching the end of the hallway, the attendant simply swivels his body to the side and confronts the closed double-door, knocking it the next before informing loudly to the occupant inside the mysterious room.

"Führer, your guest has arrived."

After a beat of dead silence for a couple of seconds, a response from the room then replies to the attendant.

"Let the Ace in."

"Jawohl, Herr Führer!"

Putting his hand on the golden handle to comply with the Führer's order, the informer then slowly opens the double door for the Wittmann to enter the Führer Chancellery, a nickname for the Führer's office room.

Wittmann in return, being stoic and all, just enters the room without thanking the attendant beside and soon behind him, an unusual trait for someone who holds the title of a "Panzer Ace", a title indicate from the Führer's reply before.

Hearing the sound of the door shutting itself from the inside, the attendant heaves a sigh of relief while holding his chest tightly, slouching his back a bit as he takes a second to process it.

"Intimidating..."

Inside the atmospheric room and on the center of it, behind the ligneous desk and a couple of aligned seats, the charcoal-gray chair starts to swivel around in a complete revolution, and on it, the Führer of the school finally shows himself up to the Wittmann who's across the room.

"First of all, I would like to congratulate you for all of your duties to the VSG. Even though you encountered some unfortunate difficulties, you still completed the task." The Führer congratulates him with a sincere yet ominous smile.

What greets Wittmann is a young man in a similar age to him. He has jet-black messy hair and a pair of reddish-brown eyes, like a mixture between crimson and auburn, the fair complexion of his skin gently compliments to his uniform, similar to the person in front of him wearing the dominant gray and black.

"I'm just doing my duty, that's all to it, Führer." Wittmann flatly replies.

"Even if that's the case, you deserve the compliment, Herr Wittmann." The Führer insists, "From the Panzership with the Kaiserin to the excellent handling of the Unaccepted. You did well, not only for us but also the entire Country as well."

Wittmann just looks at him straightly bewildered before he retorts finally after a sigh, "Flattery won't get you anywhere in this situation, Führer..."

The Führer retains his smile and replies, "Of course! Just easing the mood, after all, you seemed to be a bit too serious, but then again, you don't like using your other side of yourself."

"It's just unnecessary."

"But that will be necessary for your next assignment."

"For my next assignment?"

"Jawohl, Wittmann... Take a seat since this will be a long briefing." He then gestures the seat to the front of his desk, which Wittmann complies obediently as he takes the seat across the Führer's wooden desk.

"Apart from your successful and blazing career as a Panzer Commander back in our Country, we found some potential in you as a skilled person in regards to certain events. Useful skills that would be invaluable to your next mission." The Führer informs, taking a momentary break before he continues, "Depiction, infiltration, and influence is what I need from this and nothing fits the description other than you, Black Baron."

"What about the Agents of our Espionage Service then? Don't you think it's their duty to do an 'Over-Vessel' operation such as this?" Wittmann retorts in a stern manner, finding this thing outrageous in the first place as he explains it the next, "I have acted before, yes. But I'm not the suitable person for this assignment."

"It is true that you lack the skills, but we're basing this on your performance, and since you exceeded our expectations during your attempt to help that girlfriend of yours from Osaka's run-down Academy, it's in our best interest to assign you on this mission." The Führer firmly clarifies, leaning his back on the chair, feeling comfy throughout the whole duration of the briefing with the already annoyed Ace. "Isn't it befitting for someone like you if our target is just a girl from Kumamoto?"

"Rommel... enough with the jokes, she's not my girlfriend. And also, why a girl from the countryside to begin with?" Displeased as he may be, Wittmann still continues to ask about the briefing with the mischievous Führer whose sobriquet is a reference to a certain famous Field Marshal from Germany.

"Because, our prestigious Academy's adversary is located there, and it's our own companion school herself, Kuromorimine Girls' Academy."

"The Black Forest Peak Academy?" Wittman raises his eyebrow in utter confusion. "But that's under the Nishizumi Family... Wait-"

"Bingo. Our adversary is the Nishizumi Family, primarily Nishizumi Shiho, and her heir, Nishizumi Maho."

"I thought we were in an alliance with them?"

"We did. But given the fact that Mistress Shiho is true and firm to her words and beliefs, it's impossible for her to disregard our attempts to modernize their nation's Recrelympics." Rommel's annoyance continues, "a respectable person yet a traditionalist aligned towards their Sports' Sakoku, and that belief must be crushed."

Slamming his desk with the intensity for emphasis, Wittmann can easily notice the Führer's frustration, though he remains silent as he listens closely to him.

"And it's our goal to awaken these clouded traditionalists. No longer their country is in the shadows of others; it's our responsibility to bring them the true meaning of Recrelympics, the true meaning of the movement, and the true meaning of unity..."

"That sounds like a declaration for war." Wittmann flatly replies; not even Rommel can distinguish that as either a sarcasm or not, though he chooses the former as he knows the Ace personally and this calms him down.

"Well, maybe so?" Rommel shrugs, returning to his usual self altogether on that single move. "But we couldn't really disregard the orders of the higher brass, after all, without their support we couldn't be even here in the first place."

"So we're just being the pawns again?" Wittmann summarizes.

"If the board is about the Bet and the pieces are us, then yes. We're the pawns of this game, though you're the knight of this play, Arian, or should I say, Eirian..."

Wittmann tilts his head to the side; he anticipates this to happen yet it happens so suddenly that it even surprises the stoical Ace, putting him in a state of bewilderment. "Why mention my other name?"

Rommel shakes the swiveling chair for a bit and reaches the corner of his ligneous desk, taking out a file on one of its hidden compartments and places it on his desk the next. "Like I said, from your recent performance with this lovely mechanic, I am certain that you can handle this person with ease." He smirks enthusiastically while Eirian takes the file and opens it up.

Seeing the name of his operation, the location he's heading to, and the instruction he needs to follow; but what catches his eyes the most is the picture of a young girl wearing a black tanker jacket with an embroidery of red and a jet-black side cap, giving this feeling of intimidation and doubt to the girl with short auburn hair and a pair of cool brown eyes.


"Your target is none other than the recently disowned daughter of Mistress Shiho, 2nd year student of Ōarai Co-Educational Academy, Nishizumi Miho."

Eirian takes a second to process all of this.

"You... gave me an assignment and that's just to babysit a disowned child?"

"Don't let her looks fool you, she's still a Nishizumi, Ja? And since we don't know her motives, it's best to be safe and sure that someone attentive like you can watch her every movement there." Rommel retorts.

"Shouldn't we just hire a student there and let that person do the mission?"

"If we do that, the mission will fail easily since it's a Nishizumi we're talking about, but we can't exactly bring an agent at it since it's too predictable, thus we go to the middleground; and you're that person suitable for it."

Rommel then raises his finger and points it towards him as he continues his explanation, eagerly trying to persuade the Ace to take the important assignment. "You're our perfect subject, Eirian. You proved to be very liable in adapting certain things, it's a perfect opportunity for you, and the perfect mission to someone like you."

Eirian takes a second to decide on this, another task for him to accept that can take weeks or even months away to finish. But as their school-year is about to start, it seems like he'll be joining this school in Ibaraki instead. "What's my mission here?"

"Your mission is quite simple and that is; infiltrate the school of Ōarai Co-Educational Academy, there you will need to find the Nishizumi and befriend her, once you did that you need to improve your relationship with her, and once you both are comfortable enough, find her motives and exploit it, if all is done, return back here at once.

"And you're certain that I can befriend my target, she's a Nishizumi after all." Eirian points out, worried about his reputation as an associate of their school to the Nishizumi.

"We assured you that your identity is well-secured. And besides, they only knew your name as the Black Baron and not Arian Wittmann." Rommel assures. "And this Nishizumi is particularly different compared to her sister, it's something you can easily exploit."

"And what's that exactly?"

"Her meek and pessimistic personality. After that incident, she became reserved and lonely, a trait that you can use as an opportunity to befriend her. Like you actually."

"I'm not amused by that last part, Rommel..."

"Oh?" Rommel's comment is spot-on, "Did I hit a nerve from the stoical Ace?"

"No, you didn't hit anything. It's just that you don't have to compare me to her." Eirian firmly states. "We're different."

"Fine, if you say so..." Rommel smirks and shrugs as he feels it otherwise. "If you have no questions then you're dismissed for this briefing. Good luck."

"Affirmative..." Eirian takes a second as he pauses for the moment, hesitating to say it until he finds the will to continue it now, "and also, may I request a favor from you?"

"Sure, what is it then?"

"This mission's success will depend on my anonymity. So, I want no one, not even the Unaccepted knows the true intention of my mission here, especially that brat of a person..."

Hearing this unusual request from an out-of-character moment of the Ace in front of him, the Führer just smirks playfully to him, feeling certain to himself that he can tease the embarrassed Ace. "Am I actually talking to the famous Haiiro-Dere of Eirian Buruan Haiiro?"

Rommel just starts to chuckle smugly, evoking a sense of annoyance to Eirian, albeit it changes the atmosphere from a serious to a totally relaxed room with a breathing space between the intimidating Ace and the nonchalantly Führer in the office.

"Couldn't even change that face for a little bit?"

"That's unnecessary, but I expect you will do that favor to me, Rommel."

"Fine... you really are a no-fun person to be with, Eirian. But don't you worry, I'll keep it in mind here."

"Danke."

With a nod for affirmation, the stoical Ace just walks out of the Chancellery, only the distinct noise of the long creaking sound as an aftermath of their rather lengthy discussion. As the doors are now closed, Rommel begins to lean back on his chair, enthusiastically swiveling it around until he sees the window that offers the entire landscape of their school, the beautiful diversity of the Lunenburg Academy, and as he admires the scenic view, he starts to utter something that causes him to smile in an ominous way again.

"Operation Das Ace und der Panzers... heh, Lass das Spiel beginnen."

Passing through the fluffy cotton of clouds as the Junkers Ju 52 cruises through the never-ending sea of the sky above the plain blue waters. The German tri-propeller plane is strolling with ease under the banner of the Lunenburg's Lufttransnehmen, the Air Transport wing of the school's airline.

Inside the old vintage plane in the 21st century, the stoical Ace in his casual attire sits quietly beside the window that gives the magnificent view of the world below him, yet Eirian is preoccupied thanks to the papers of his target, leafing through the information he has in regards of this particular girl that it his target.

"Born on the 23rd of October in Kumamoto City. Her figure is like an hourglass and stands around 5'2. Like her sister she spent the majority of her life honing her skills as a Tank Commander." Eirian comments. Comprehending every information he can gather while passing the time of the flight's journey.

While Eirian continues to pick through the information he might use, he stumbles upon an interesting report after some leafing of papers. "Joined Ōarai Co-Educational Academy during the first months of this year. Reason behind her transfer might possibly come from the accident?"

This piques the Ace-in-disguise as he looks at the bottom part of the text that explains the summary of the accident as he reiterates it. "During the final match of the 62nd National High School Sensha-dō Tournament. Nishizumi Miho who acted as bearer of Kuromorimine's flag tank was struck with a misjudged decision that cost the outcome of the match, thus ending the almost decade winning streak of the Nishizumi School with her careless action."

Eirian continues, "The Nishizumi at that moment experienced a dangerous situation where her fellow teammate's Panzer III was caught in an accident; it sent the German Tank falling onto the river and began to drown, during that time where the field experienced rough weather, thus the current was strong." The Ace begins to wander the next.

"Don't tell me…" He then checks the next page.

"This as a result caused the Nishizumi to leave her tank carelessly exposed in the open in an attempt to save her 'drowning' teammates. This act of attempted heroism only caused misfortune to her team as she forgot two crucial things on that moment: A) Is that the Panzer III she's saving is designed to withstand these sort of situations, and B) She forgot to use the Emergency Protocol. These two crucial things she forgot ended the career of the nicknamed "Otto Carius of Kuromormine" altogether. The blazing Commander of Kuromorimine is no more but merely a figure of the Family, though records after that is non-existence as information between the match and her enrollment remained unknown at best."

Eirian just looks at the last part of the page and comments about the given report about her. "She could've done better if she didn't act carelessly… Is this the reason why she's in that no-name school?"

Finally looking through the window beside him and seeing the blue ocean below him, not long after he realizes a faint reflection of himself appearing on the said window; this catches the attention of the Ace as he goes back to his seat, leaning against it and relaxes for the moment with a sigh.

"Great… I didn't expect I'll be babysitting a traumatized careless girl then…"

Closing his eyes for the moment's notice, the Ace takes a deep breath before he accidently drifts himself into unconsciousness… and after a moment of an eon of silence, the voices of someone calling his name begins to catch the attention of the sleepy Panzer Kommandant of the Lunenburg's Sensha-dō Team.

Sound of his name echoes in his ear as well as the sound of the loud rotor blades inevitably wakes up the Commander from his short and quick nap.

"Arian! Hey Arian, wake up!"

"What?!" He finally opens his eyes in displeasure, finally seeing the other person in the fuselage, wearing their sport's uniform consisting of the majority colors of black and gray; the same uniform as him.

"We're almost approaching the shoreline, Arian." He announces, simplifying it the first before the rusty-brown-haired subordinate of his continues. "It seems like we'll be the first contact to them then."

"Rommel said he needed to organize our team's landing operation later, so that might be his reason for not making the first contact and instead gave it to us." Eirian flatly responds to him, looking to the clear blue ocean with the land soon slowly enveloping the water eventually, causing him to look back to his subordinate with an expressionless face.

Sitting across from him is a young boy in a clad black uniform. He has medium rusty-brown hair that seemingly reaches his shoulders and a pair of bright hazel eyes. Appearing somewhat approachable thanks to his tone that has a mix of kindness and affability, a total opposite of the Ace in front of him as he chuckles immediately from Eirian's reply.

"Well, you sounded like you're displeased with his actions then."

"Knowing how that person works, I'm certain he wanted to skip the formalities for this match, Johann…"

"Sounds like our Führer alright!"

Eirian sighs at this before he affirms Johann's statement with a silent nod, lowering his head before finally seeing his uniform as Johann; the black uniform that is reminiscent of the Panzer Uniform worn by German soldiers during World War 2. It consists of two pieces: the trousers and Jacket. Both are distinctly black with the latter having a notch lapel with an embroidery of pink as the lapel's lining, but unlike its counterpart, it doesn't offer the charade of ornaments.

The double-breasted jacket only offers one breast pocket while giving its simplistic beauty thanks to the removal of designs that are redundant from its counterpart. The lining of rose-pink accompanies their emblem of the hexagonal mon of their school on their lapel as it occupies the upper lapel of both sides.

"Herr Wittmann, Herr Woll! We're about to land the Drache!" The pilot announces to them both, catching their attention to him.

"Well, it seems like we'll be meeting the Royalties much earlier then!" Johann Woll comments, retraining his smile that is full of enthusiasm and excitement.

"Where's that enthusiasm coming from exactly?" Eirian wonders. Showing an opposite of Johann's expression as he keeps his flat and expressionless diction.

"Probably because it's our first time landing in Japan!" Johann points out, "So how about we give them a warm welcome then!"

---

As one begins to see the Fa 223 Drache slowly descending from the clear sky of morning daylight. The short blonde-haired girl in a uniform of clad blue soon leaves the area; going somewhere as she allows the antique German helicopter to land on her location.

Fixing her red necktie and adjusting her rounded glasses before entering a small tent in a distant not so far away from the Drache's landing site. Upon entering the military tent, she finally encounters someone behind the wooden table with a large map on top of the ligneous furniture. Sitting on a chair with his hand on his chin, carefully highlighting the map with his marker before placing it down between the marked map and a black beret. Soon he confronts the bespectacled figure in front of him as he looks at her with his pair of emerald-green eyes.

"Tell me Watson, did our guest from the West finally arrive at our doorstep now?"

"Hai. Their Drache finally landed near the shoreline, I assumed we'll be meeting our opponents now." Pressing her right hand to her left side of her chest and bows in an inclined angle as she replies.

The boy smiles, picking up his beret from the table and places it on top of his clean blonde hair before fixing it altogether while beginning standing up from the chair, approaching her the next as he responds; attempting to continue the conversation between the two of them.

"Let's meet our enemies, shall we my dear Watson."

"Yes Sir."

Walking outside the tent now as Watson begins to accompany her superior. They bypass the myriad of armored vehicles in blue camouflage, lining up in a single row in a neat manner, like presenting a display in a gallery; with the center of the row a black, tall, and elongated vehicle that stands out the most as it's the main focal point of the gallery wall of vehicle display.

"Tell me, Watson. Did our Commanders know their roles in our welcoming event later?" The boy with the black beret asks the girl behind him as they pass the British Cruisers, Light Tanks, and finally the experimental Infantry Tank.

"As you ordered, they know their roles right to the exact detail, Field Marshal." Watson answers with a soft yet firm tone in her words. "We'll be sure to give them hell."

"No Plan Survives First Contact With the Enemy, my dear Watson…" He quotes as a retort of Watson's last statement, "But regardless if that's the case, be sure to give them a warm welcome."

"Hai, Sir Monty!"

"Splendid! Now let's welcome our visitors, we shouldn't present ourselves untidy and late in front of our enemies of this nation, my dear Watson."

They soon then arrive at the foot of the Drache's landing site as the rotor blades slowly come to a halt, the door on the fuselage begins to slide open from the inside with both Eirian and Johann soon exiting from it, confronting both Monty and Watson in a stare off.

As the engine of the helicopter behind them dies off, the guests from the West and the Royalties of Royal Baron just stare at each other without flinching nor blinking. Monty's grace of smile finally meets the inscrutable neutral look of Eirian.

As the stare off continues to lengthen itself, Monty's the one who falters first as he breaks the atmosphere with a warm welcome to his guests, keeping the smile on his face. "The Black Baron from the Lunenburg Academy I assumed. I'm Yamamoto Yuichi, but you can refer to me as Monty."

"Good to meet you, Sir Monty. I apologize on behalf of the Schulführer for our first contact here in Japan." As Eirian sees the offer of Monty's hand, he complies at this and shakes his hand afterwards.

"Likewise, Herr Black Baron. And it's fine, we should have apologized as well for not cooperating with your Schulführer beforehand at this."

"It's fine, it was his decision to accept this, and thus the fault lies to him in the end for being late." Eirian insists.

"Well that certainly explains your transport vessel from the horizon; it must be him then." Watson points out as she stares at the ocean's horizon, where a ship whose design predates the last century is sallying forth towards the shoreline, catching the trio's attention unguarded.

As Eirian and Johann turn their backs, they see this vessel of foreign origin approaching them at high speed. "Is that our Deutschland?" Eirian asks as he peers at the ship's peculiar design.

"That's our cargo ship alright…" Johann answers but continues it with a question the next, feeling bewildered about it, "But isn't she supposed to stop there and allow the Marinefährprahms from its bow gates to land instead?"

As they continue to talk about the approaching ship's standard protocol, the Lunenburg's Naval Ship (LNS) Deutschland is closing the gap between her and the empty beach, and as it goes on a full-speed without stopping, it's a no wonder to both Eirian and Monty in particular that they quickly solve the unorthodox mindset of the ship's captain. And to confirm their hypothesis, they continue to watch the Dreadnaught ship ram itself to the beach.

Slowly the mighty ship whose design came from last century just casually rams its bow towards the sandy beach line, getting stuck as the result like it intentionally wanted as the speed slowly decreases drastically.

"Is it just me… or did your ship ram the shoreline intentionally…" Watson asks for assurance as the ship in front of them begins to open its twin door in its bow, similar to the ships from the BaCo liner.

As Johann picks up the pieces of reason behind this unorthodox landing and concludes his hypothesis, he asks this conclusion to the still-stoical Ace beside him. "I think that's him… isn't that correct, Arian?"

"That's him alright." He flatly replies as they begin to witness the bow of the ship on the shore starting to open.

The sands begin to push inward as the bow gates of the Lunenburg's Deutschland start to open, revealing them a bunch more of vessels carrying their vehicles for the match, from the famous Tigers to the experimental Vk Leopards. As the bow gates fully open themselves up, revealing the interior of its roomy inside, a man wearing the same uniform as Eirian and Johann begins to approach the four after he descends from the ship's inside through the bow gate. With his iconic smile appearing apparent as he closes in, the Schulführer of the Lunenburg Academy introduces himself finally to the Royalties with a sincere bow.

"I came here with a warm gift from yours truly." Rommel gleefully chortles. "With a magnificent entrance."

"Haha, that's a delightful way to introduce yourself with a grand entrance, Schulführer." Monty comments, returning him with a chuckle. "Glad to see that you're fine as usual, Herr Rommel."

"And you still retained that gallantry personality of yours, Sir Monty." He retorts. "And also you still have your lovely assistant Mary there." As soon he looks at Watson behind him, the Schulführer just casually waves at her.

"Like Sherlock, you always need a partner-in-cases, my dear Rommel."

"That's actually partners-in-crime, Monty…" Watson correctly quietly.

"I stand corrected."

Johann then leans into Arian's side as they watch the three having a casual conversation which is strange, specifically to Johann only. "Hey, did Rommel know them before?"

"They lent help to us during our humanitarian aid a few months ago, but I'm certain his connection with them dates back for years." Eirian explains. "That's why he accepted their invitation in the first place."

"Well, I thank you for accepting our sudden invitation, we're glad we'll be the first ones to see your team's performance." Monty delightfully says to the cheery Rommel before he continues, "I hope you guys can crack the puzzle of the Royal's strategy for today, Herr detektiv."

Rommel titters before responding with a confident grin on his face, "It's a challenge I can't reject. After all, we need to prepare for the interview with the JSF, a little warm-up wouldn't hurt."

"The only thing you're hurting is your overconfidence and the state of our vehicles here, Rommel…" Eirian sighs in return as he takes a quick peek behind him, seeing the exhausting process of his schoolmates unloading their vehicles from the stuck cargo ship. "But this thing does give an interesting welcome to them."

"Shall a handshake between two gentlemen be sufficient for our first meetup?" Monty offers as he readies his hand now, initiating an offer to his friend/enemy. "Unlike Yankee High or even Red Square, I want to start it off with chivalry and end it off with chivalry."

"You're a peculiar person, Sir Monty." Rommel accepts his offer, shaking his hand as a gesture between two 'gentlemen' on the field. "But the last time I fought some British-wannabes, they used a lot of dummy tanks to disrupt our intelligence. How certain am I that you'll be chivalrous till the very end?"

Monty just laughs at this, maybe because of the absurdity of the strategy or maybe he's fascinated by the Schulführer in front of him. "That's the riddle, Detective."

As both leaders lower their hands, both sides begin to bid their farewells to each other as they soon start to prepare their team for the upcoming match in just a few minutes from now. "Good luck to our match, Herr Schulführer and Herr Black Baron."

The last thing the visitors from the West see is Monty's conspicuous smile with a little essence of contempt as he turns his back from them and walks away, with Mary Watson bowing her head lastly to them and soon follows the man with the black overalls.

Rommel comments at this, "Well, a puzzling person who gave us a puzzle for this match." He then smirks as he finally looks at both of his assistants and adds, "Rule number one in engaging him, expect the unexpected."

Eirian nods but Johann retorts at it, "But wouldn't that unexpected be expected since you expect the unexpected to happen?"

"That's true, that just means we should follow the plan then, great idea Johann!" Rommel enthusiastically points out. Causing Eirian in return to sigh which ultimately causes him to walk away from them and towards the stationary ship instead.

"I'll see you two after you're done with this idiocracy discussion…"

"Come on, Arian! It's a good plan, if they expect us to fall under their wits then we will fail miserably, but if it's otherwise then we completed the riddle!" Johann argues, starting to shout as Eirian can barely hear him now. "Again, are you certain he changed? I'm beginning to doubt it, Rommel."

"He's just like that as usual, but I'm certain he also agrees with it as well, after all, we're facing the President of the Puzzling Club. We just need to expect his unexpected acts." Rommel assures him. "But let's prepare our team now, I'm excited to see their performance as well."

"Jawohl!"

---

On the north portion of the match's locale across the roaring river is the line-up of the Royal Baron, consisting of a majority of cruiser tanks with a minority of light tanks and an Infantry tank as they are all divided into 4 formations. Colors of light blue paint highlights their British tanks with an exception to the sole Infantry Tank as the paint of it is a shade of total blank, and the one commanding it is Monty himself.

"Sir Monty, all tanks are now in their position." Watson announces.

"Excellent! Do they know their plan already, Watson?" Monty asks as he uses the onboard microphone inside his Black Prince tank.

"They do. It would be a shame if we couldn't give them a proper welcome, won't we, Yuichi?"

"Indeed my dear Watson. Rommel whose moniker reflects his foxy habits with the phlegmatic Ace behind him, this might be a hard fight but an interesting welcome event nonetheless."

"Then what's the order then, Field Marshal?"

"Simple my dear Watson. We will destroy them like a complete jigsaw puzzle."

---

Meanwhile back on the shoreline, the tankers of Lunenburg finished their preparation as they lined their vehicles into 4 formations, similar to the Royal Baron who are patiently waiting for them across the acres of landscape full of bocages, houses, bridges, and a river that acts as a boundary between the Royalties and the visitors from the West.

As Eirian onboard one of the Panzers who has a fearsome reputation of being a deadly cat, his teammates then happily welcome the stoical Ace as he finally enters his Tiger 1, with the markings of the number '022' alongside the visible insignia of a white pawn piece embellishing the side hull of the German heavy tank to distinguish itself from the other Tiger 1 in the field.

"How's the meeting, Arian?" His gunner immediately asks, curiosity piques the girl-in-question towards the unexpressive Eirian.

"Nothing noteworthy about it. Just an introduction and nonsensical chatter."

The loader signs, "Commander, you're taking this 'nonsensical chatter' a bit too seriously." He points out, slouching at the process through his tall and built body. "Just try and be casual for once before matches will you?"

"I agree. Your inability to express yourself in a casual conversation is something to frown upon about you, Wittmann." The short stature of the driver agrees, evoking both wits and a harsh personality.

"B-b-but, he's trying his b-best…" The bespectacled Radio Operator mumbles through her throat mic, allowing the others including Eirian to notice her soft and quiet voice. "D-don't be too harsh on him…"

Eirian then heaves a sigh at this as a result, "Don't worry about it. It's my fault for being too stiff on you guys, I'll tell everything once we finish this match."

His teammates then look at each other, feeling both surprised and bewildered before they let their chuckle and giggle light up the atmosphere. This finally catches the ace's attention as now he begins to feel curious about it.

"What's so funny about it?"

"We're just glad to see that you knew your mistake there." The short driver points out, hiding her faint smile from him. "But shouldn't we start the briefing now?"

"We'll do what's according to plan." Eirian declares. "We'll just see what he'll do once the jig is up during the match."

"What are we facing up again, I didn't actually read the description about it." The gunner then asks, carelessly tripping herself in a landmine as Eirian looks at her with his eyes like a set of daggers stabbing her directly due to her lack of responsibility.

"Eek!? I swear, I looked into it and memorized our enemy's silhouettes!"

As Eirian heaves a sigh at this, they all then start to hear a static noise that soon follows a familiar voice through the radio from Radio Operator's post. Immediately catching their attention as they begin to perform their roles, this includes the boisterous gunner, the strong built loader, the short driver, and the bespectacled Radio Operator.

Everything then starts to become quiet, the crew starts doing their duties according to their roles, from the preparation of their shells towards the starting of the Tiger's engine. As everyone is occupied at the moment, Eirian picks up the transmission and replies through the use of his throat mic, pressing the button as he radios back to Rommel.

"I heard you loud and clear."

"Great! We'll go according to the original plan."

"Jawohl."

Ending that short conversation, the Ace then readies himself and his crew as well with the sound of his tank bursting its engine aloud. The dead and motionless Tiger then abruptly awakens and shudders continuously, the renowned reputation of the deadly cat is finally ready for combat to this match.

From one vehicle to another, then the next until all tanks on the shoreline start to orchestrate a symphony of engine noises, and for the climax of the short musical tangent is their Drache ascending from the ground. It lifts up into the air and reaches a point where it stands idly where both teams can see the helicopter hovering in the sky.

With a moment of silence ensuing between the teams now, expecting for the match to start, the Drache then initiates the official start of the match. Way up from the ground, the German Helicopter then drops an object, letting a bright smoke to descend from the sky with its bright and colorful shades of green, blue, and red. This initiates the start of their match officially now.

---

Littering up the blue sky canvas is the smoke of green, blue, and red. The cool and windy breeze sways the colorful vapor on cue to the driver of a Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger E initiating the start-up of its manned metal beast. Pressing the button on the dashboard as the interior quickly begins to light brightly yet briefly before the dimming continues next and ends it with a gentle consistent lighting.

"The Bauer is ready, Wittmann." The driver nonchalantly announces, looking at her commander the next with her pair of golden-yellow eyes greeting the regimented Ace on his post.

"Acknowledge, Thea." Eirian nods as a result before switching his gazes from the shorty driver to the girl beside him now.

"Lisa, switch the frequency between you and the other Operators in our ZuG."

"J, ja, jawohl!" The bespectacled operator stutters instantly. Holding both ends of her headset as she slowly tries to find composure and nervously opens her radio. Like flipping a switch, her shaking stops and so does her attitude.

"Our frequency is now connected to the other teams, Eirian." Once a clear anxious character now turns into a visible confident operator. Her gray-rimmed glasses shine a reflection upon looking back at Eirian, continuing her silvery tone with a question as he can finally see her pair of aquamarine-like eyes behind her rounded glasses.

"Will I report you all the information necessary, or will you instead join the frequency as well?"

"I'll go with the latter."

"Roger that, Eirian."

Two posts are finished and what remains are the crew on his left and right, the gunner and the loader respectively. With the gun breech in the process of loading an Armor-Piercing shell, the Ace looks at the gunner in front of him and checks on her.

"Nora, are your sights clear?"

"Of course, Airy!" The short-haired gunner exclaims. "You really need to improve your conversation starter though…"

"I'm not starting a conversation here, I'm just concerned about your lack of prudence." The Ace retorts with apathy in his voice, a trait usual to his personality within the crew.

"Well that's because you're a germaphobe Airy…"

"Cleanliness is important to our reputation and morale, Nora." He points out before stubbornly tries to bicker with her, "though you lack that aptitude to begin with…"

"Oh really? Said the guy who doesn't know how to socialize properly!"

"It's voluntary. I chose when to use my mouth. Except for you, you're more difficult to handle than Thea but equally on par in terms of annoyance with Kristel."

Both Nora and Lisa find his statement irritating, so much so that even the grumpy-looking driver begins to look even more grumpier, finding that context mildly insulting to her. This inevitably causes her to interject to their bickering.

"Listen here you two. I can accept Wagner's vexation and Wittmann's lethargy, but if you two insist on this pointless bickering in the middle of a match again; I'll be sure to kick you two out."

"Joy killer Thea at her finest again." Nora mumbles, though thanks to Thea's remarkable talent, she easily picks up this remark. "Nora… good luck with your math homework then."

"Ekk?! Please Thea don't be like that, I'm nothing without your answers!" Immediately the tide changes as Nora now regrets her ranting to the considerate driver in front of her, quickly she lunges forward to the grumpy girl and tries to apologize.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Heinz, but we already have the newest volume of Einheit und Waffen." Taking the opportunity of an already chaotic setting, both the RO and the loader begin to have a conversation as well, leaving the Ace unattended but he appreciates the thought.

"Lieber Gott… We're almost in second year and yet they couldn't stop behaving like proper teammates…" As Eirian heaves a sigh at this, his throat mic begins to communicate with him, addressing something that ultimately catches every one of his crewmates to the person on Lisa's radio.

"Herr Black Baron, your orders Sir?"

As his crewmates begin to look at Eirian, the Black Baron casually nods his head to them and soon the chaotic atmosphere suddenly changes to an all-professional ether.

The Ace then responds upon pushing the buttons from his throat mic.

"Team Melbeck will take the lead. Bardowick will follow suit, next is us Lüneburg, and finally Handorf."

"Jawohl, we'll take the lead then!"

Eirian now finally begins to bail out his head out of the metal closet he and his team are in. Finally feeling the fresh coastline air running amok through his cheeks and swaying his soft darkened-brown hair. Surrounding him are Panzers in different models yet share the same color of absolute drab.

15 Panzers in total split into 3 even teams and 1 odd line-up. Same goes to their adversary across the arches of the battlefield; totaling a number of 30 tanks between Germany's and Britain's lineup.

The myriad of engines on the beach begin to roar aloud with deafening results, and soon their little prototype Panzers begin to cover the flanks of left and right. Using their speed as reconnaissance vehicles as they climb the smooth inclination with ease, leaving the remaining 13 Panzers of the Vorhut Sensha-dō Geschwader.

The 4 teams of the VSG begin to rally their tanks at their respective places: covering the eastern, northern, and western flanks respectively. Johann takes the eastern unit, Rommel holds the center team, and Eirian commands the western ZuG.

4 tanks begin to gather: 1 Panzer IV, 2 Panthers, and Eirian's Tiger 1. Together they form ZuG III and knowing their roles now, they start their operation. Taking the front is the Panzer IV Ausf. G, behind it's a Panther V Ausf D, and then Eirian's Tiger 1 Ausf. E, and another Panther of the same model.

"Herr Baron, this is Team Melbeck. We'll start leading the convoy now."

"Very well… Bardowick, Handorf, remember the formation and don't split up, not until I say so."

"Jawohl!"

And with that, ZuG III of the VSG begin their operation on their side, on cue to both ZuG II and I with the latter having a joint-cooperation with the lonely tank of ZuG IV, which in case is the No. 237 Tiger 1 of the VSG's Overall Commander.

"Schulführer, it seems like Krapp is becoming too enthusiastic again…" Rommel's RO's half-heartedly announces that to him in disbelief.

"I can certainly see that…" Rommel casually remarks as he sees a particular Tiger II in front of them speeding itself in full speed against the gentle slope. "Kristel… Anyhow, how's Johann and Arian?"

"Both ZuGs are moving at their own pace! It will take 10 minutes for them to reach the Bocage area!"

"Good. I'll contact Krapps and try to calm her down, it's dangerous for her to move this early."

"But she's in a Tiger II, we're still far away from the expected combat area."

"Don't expect the ordinary from our adversary."

"What does that mean?"

"You'll see."

The plan sails smoothly to the ZuGs of the VSG, taking the match's locale on their side bit by bit without any hurdle or confrontations from their enemy. So much so that from the beach-y landscape they start with soon begins to enter the puzzling bocage with ease. Though as they enter the area that is full of hedges and groves of trees, their visibility meanwhile is also full of obscurity thanks to the puzzling location they're in.

This results in Eirian and the others becoming more cautious of their surroundings as the hedges grow alongside the path dirt becoming deeper, eventually leading to the point where the wall of green lively plants are towering the Panzers, including the No. 022 Tiger 1 of the Black Baron.

"This place is too quiet…" Eirian comments as the place he's in gives up an unprecedented amount of suspicion.

The hatch beside him begins to open from the inside. It's Heinz as he looks at his friend with a confused look on his face.

"Suspicious?"

"Ja…"

"But if that's the case, then why haven't we confirmed any casualties on our side yet? We already sent our Türme earlie-"

Eirian's mini-speaker on his throat mic begins to speak aloud, quickly getting the attention of the two towards it as they hear the announcement of their Rooks from earlier.

"This is Team Sehnde! We were entrapped by the Barons at the town!"

As Eirian hears this surprising news, he ducks his head down the hatch and shouts directly to his Radio Operator and orders her the next. "Lisa! Order Melbeck to hasten her speed to the town!"

"Affirmative!"

This is already a signal to Thea that with a single nod from his Kommandant, the driver starts to press the pedal with intensity, gaining a quick increase of speed with the engine roaring aloud as the convoy makes haste towards the town in the distance.

As Eirian continues to hear the ongoing chaos on the other side of the frequency, someone also joins in to further surprise the situation the VSG is in.

"Scheiße! This is Team Seelze and we're also entrapped as well in the Town!"

Eirian in return is about to press the button on his throat mic and attempts to reply back to their announcement when Heinz offers him the map for today's match, he takes this offer and once they both take their seat inside the tank again, he opens the map and sees the match's locale before fully committing to his earlier action.

Seeing the topographic map for this match's locale. The map itself shows 5 distinct features: the coast on the southern tip, the wide bocage area on the center, the equal-sized 3 towns after the vast bocage's location, a river beyond those 3 towns with 3 bridges connecting to the large plain land on the northern section of the map.

Luckily thanks to their original plan, Eirian is now aware of the situation their Türme is in. With a single push, he replies back to them.

"Team Seelze! What tanks are engaging you there now?"

"We're currently chasing the Hopkin with 2 Crusaders following us here!"

"Anything else to report?"

"We entered the side of the town originally and it seems like the Hopkin is luring us to the main road that leads to the intersection that connects your path to us and towards the bridge as well!" While this report continues, Eirian begins to write down the information he knows from the map with a pencil before he sketches the movement of Seelze from the reports.

"Team Seelze, can you disengage the situation?"

"I can't, Herr Baron! These Crusaders are gaining their tail on me here, might as well take their A25 out!" The Commander of the VK 16.02 Leopard replies with sheer frustration on his tone.

The Commander then takes out his black side cap as he enters his tank again. Manning the 5 cm KwK 39 the next and takes the position of their gunner, placing his eye on the periscope and aims at the blue tank running in a confusing zig-zag pattern. He squints his eye and gently refrains himself from pulling the trigger.

With the Crusaders behind him still not firing at his Leopard, the Commander takes this opportunity to settle his confrontation with the British Harry Hopking in front of him. Aiming its barrel towards the A25, the Commander then pulls the trigger.

The gun of the Leopard begins to unleash a loud and explosive shot. Ripping through the noisy air of tracks threading vigorously and engines constantly screaming. The muzzle flashes and a shell lunges through the air in seconds till it lands forcefully on the ground, the first shot is an utter miss.

"Is the shell loaded?!"

"Shell ist geladen!"

He pulls the trigger again and fires a shell towards the Baron's light tank. The shell reaches in contact with the rear's armor of the A25, yet it only scrapes its blue-light coating as the shell of the Leopard just skims through the hull before hitting the wall altogether.

It's another miss shot.

"Load the shell again!"

"Shell is loaded!"

The driver then announces something with emphasis on the last part. "Commander! We're about to reach the intersection!"

"I know!"

The Commander grits his teeth furiously before he aims his periscope carefully for one last time. Calculating its trajectory, swinging the gun to the side slightly, and locking the sight with confidence before he finally pulls the trigger.

The muzzle glows bright red and orange, and a thundering clap follows before a shell zaps through the air with a long and fast whistling sound. The A25 anticipates this movement as a result, changing lanes as much as possible from left to right now, repeating the same maneuver, and even though they perceive themselves during that time as puzzling, the crew in it finally slips into the trap of the Leopard.

The A25 then turns to the other side as expected, and this completes all of the Commander's conditions, ultimately bringing its calculation earlier to a rewarding conclusion. The shell instantly lands on the Hopkin's rear hull with ease, immobilizing the Baron's light tank upon crossing the intersection while revealing the Leopard in the open now.

The last thing the Commander of the Leopard and his crew see is the sight of an 'immobilized' Baron's Harry Hopkin. With its rear blazing amok and dark smoke enveloping on top of the engine compartment, the Hopkin slowly shuts down its internal machinery with the end result of a white flag popping out of its hull, denoting the status of the tank as 'knocked-out' of the match.

"Enemy knocked ou-"

Kaboom!

A shell from one of the hedges instantly pushes the Panzer IV out of the path and enters itself towards the other side of the green lush of the wall hedge. Sinking in with nature as this shot withers the tank's operability; deeming the unguarded, oblivious vehicle inoperable now.

"That was Team Melbeck!" Lisa points out, receiving a confirmation from them afterwards that announces their status of their Panzer IV to her. "They got taken out from their side!"

"Thea, Nora!"

"On it!" Both girls reply with a nod. Thea puts her feet on the pedal with force and steers the vehicle to their right, changing direction as the Tiger 1 starts to charge towards the hedge, crashing it the next before sinking its threads on the lush and greenery of the nature's wall.

Nora happily stirs the rotating mechanism of their gun, rotating as fast as she can with the turret swinging its 8.8 cm KwK 36. The fearsome Tiger 1 is ready for combat and it's about to engage its first opponent, the Royal Baron's Challenger.

The Tiger 1 then stops its track with a rough clutch on the brakes, its sudden appearance surprises the unsuspecting British Cruiser tank. The hull rocks a little while the turret points itself towards the Challenger now, pointing its deadly gun at it. In return, the Challenger slowly retreats with its 17-Pounder facing them, across a few miles away from its position, though this distance can easily take the Tiger out with ease.

And with this fact apparent to both Commanders of each side; the dance finally begins.

The Challenger begins to point its gun keenly to the Tiger as it slows its tracks to a complete stop, the moment the Challenger sinks its track on the ground, the instant it fires its lethal armament with an Armor Piercing round.

The 17-Pounder screams aloud with a bright flash. The shell swings through the air effortlessly and begins to fly towards the Tiger 1 in a motion that catches the team of Eirian unguard, yet thanks to Thea's perception, she quickly shifts the gear and reverses the tank in an instant.

The shell does land on the tank but it only scrapes its turret's coating with a loud screech, the ear-shattering sound echoes on the inside with a result only giving the crew of Eirian enough time for respite.

"Nice reflex, Thea!" Nora happily commends their driver, keeping that enthusiastic smile of hers even after the horrible screech from earlier still rings in her ear.

"Shoot the tank, Wagner!"

"On it!" Nora squints her eye on the periscope and rotates the mechanism again, as the sight begins to align itself towards her opponent, she happily pulls the trigger, unleashing the round inside the chamber.

The No. 22 Tiger of Eirian finally unloads its shell towards the Baron's Challenger. A bright flash, a loud bang, and a quick shot heading towards the Cruiser Tank. Without any hurdle nor counter from the exposed adversary, the shell easily penetrates the enemy A30 at its front hull.

The shell easily shreds through the many layers of the A30's armor till it reaches the last piece and the toughest layer of the tank's armor composition, the piercing-resistant layer of the Sportized Vehicle. The shell's tip blunts itself easily as the exert energy from the landing then begins to convert the damage into numerical data. The Challenger's interior begins to wither down with dark smoke enveloping the cruiser's entire hull and soon a white flag appears from one of the small hatches of the defeated British tank.

The Challenger A30 of Royal Baron is out of the game.

"Nice work, Nora." Eirian commends half-heartedly to her as the Tiger begins to continue its move again, regrouping with the remaining tanks of his ZuG afterwards. Going back to the dirt path that only leads to town.

"For them to assault our convoy with their Tank Destroye-"

"Cruiser Tank, Weber. It's the Challenger A30, Cruiser Tank."

"Thanks, All-knowing Thea… Anyhow, what's the deal with this tactic then?"

"Their Intelligence." Eirian answers. "It's the reason why they easily intercept our Leopards earlier."

"It's primarily the result of the Minister's Intelligence Section 6." Thea adds. "Or MI6 for short."

"So do they know our entire plan then?" Heinz retorts with a question while they start going to the town now, leading the convoy of 3 tanks including them.

"Probably. But that Challenger couldn't even predict our current ZuG layout, so thankfully they took out Team Melbeck than us." Eirian answers with a heavy sigh of relief before putting his gaze on their RO now.

"Lisa. Any reports?"

"Jawohl! ZuG I took out another enemy tank with one casualty on their side. But unfortunately both Leopards are out of action." Lisa confidently announces without even a remnant of her former passive self.

"I see then. Any new orders from Team Hannover?"

"Nein. The Schulführer still insisted we should continue the plan."

"Still willing to gamble that then…" Eirian comments under his mumbling mutter. "Very well, we proceed to hold the town then."

"And what? We'll be used as pawns again and be sent on the frontlines to confirm Rommel's gamble?" Heinz grunts with frustration and irritation.

"Precisely." Thea confirms. "After all, aren't we originally one?"

Heinz can't stop but puts a smile on his face, agreeing with Thea's comment with a confident nod to her. "Seems like we just carried our Tradition then."

Nora chuckles at this, concurring with their topic. "Well, we're still Team Bauer after all."

"Bauer or not, we will not be marked as an embarrassment for this match." Eirian exclaims on this as he uses the intercom through his throat mic. Catching the attention of all of his crewmates as they look at him, very displeased.

"What?"

"Way to kill the mood, Eirian…" Heinz points out, looking displeased at his Commander.

"We're here for one purpose, Heinz."

"And we're here to show them that this sport can be fun to the boys as well!"

"Correction, both boys and girls, Weber." Thea clarifies with her half-hearted tone.

"Yeah whatever… but the point still stands, you shouldn't act too seriously at this because we're representing our country again, Eirian!"

"..."

"Well?"

Eirian sighs, utterly defeated at this.

"Fine… I'm sorry if I said too much that upset all of you…" Eirian complies with a hint of frustration and guilt, turning the mood upside down now with Nora immediately pampering the Ace now.

"See! If you aren't always a grumpy-pants then we wouldn't be so down, Airy!" Nora comments this as she starts to elbow him repeatedly with a smirk on her face.

"Enough with this. We still have a match to finish."

"Grumpy-pants…"

But as Eirian is about to retort at this frustrating comment from his gunner, the turret starts to shriek eerily inside with a shell scraping its coating as it fortunately manages to only ricochet the unknown shell.

"That was loud!" Nora cries out, ears still ringing from it.

"What exactly was that?" Lisa then asks through their intercom.

"Thea, did you see where it came from?" Eirian immediately asks this as he opens his hatch and peeks his head out and sees a silhouette from the distance in front of them, hiding under the shade of the buildings with smoke enveloping from its barrel.

"Ja! It's their Cromwell!"

From one single Cruiser to two and soon three. Taking cover from the buildings as they start bombing Eirian's ZuG. The onslaught continues as they attempt to bring down the Panthers and Eirian's Tiger I, but to no avail as ZuG III closes the gap instead.

"They're really persistent, aren't they?" Heinz comments this as he carries and readies the next shell for reload. Looking at his Captain with his pair of yellowish eyes with determination and excitement burns his passion for another fight.

"Admirable…" Eirian answers, unamused at this before he opens the communication and orders his fellow tankmates now. "Bardowick, Handorf! Press the offensive now!"

"Jawohl!"

And so Eirian begins their unorthodox plan. He first presses a button from a certain remote inside the tank and this allows the tube outside his turret to fire small containers of projectiles, firing off the smoke screens from his Panzer.

A cloud of dust and smoke starts to form behind the rear of his Tiger and this opportunity gives his tank to reverse itself up, slowly this covers the tank by the smoke till there's no more Tiger 1 and even the Panthers of the VSG in the eyes of the defending Cruiser Tanks of the Royal Barons.

The Cruisers of the RB still press their continuous bombardment and this doesn't give them an excuse to stop their consistent barrage. And so they continue to press their attack, but as the shells fly and the smoke starts nearing the gap, the Panthers then surprise them as they continue the aggressiveness with their tracks marching forward and forward only.

Taking the front as shells start flying, ruining the camo condition as these shells either bounce or scratch their surface, practically they are invincible until one of them inevitably bites the dust thanks to a certain Cruiser carrying the Ordnance QF 75 mm.

One of the tracks of the Panther takes a hit and this forces the tank to slide the entire thing to the side, causing it to show its side and invitingly shows the opportunity for the RB to take a shot at it. And without a moment to think, one of the Crusaders unleashes a shell and hits directly the side hull of the Panther, terminating Team Bardowick out to the game.

As an act of revenge, the solo Panther, Team Handorf, completely stops its tracks from moving and aims the sight at one of them before it fires a shell in retaliation. What greets the 3 Cruisers is the powerful 7.5 KwK 42 of Handorf's Panther, and without a break to think or breath, the Panther fires a round aloud and vigorously shakes the hull.

Zipping through the air till it hits one of the Crusaders and decommissioning it with ease. Hitting on its front plate like butter with smoke and an explosion the next. Soon the automatic systems follow suit and a white flag pops out of its hull as a result, signaling the inoperability of the Crusader.

With 1 VSG tank down, that leaves just 1 tank?

This realization only results in misfortune to them both. The moment both the Cruisers realize this, it's already the end to the both of them. As the Commander of the Crusader peeks his head out, the sound of a foreign engine starts roaring from the distance right behind the route of their spot, and knowing this he orders the tank to put its gear in full reverse attempting to secure its flank.

But this is a mistake for the Crusader to make.

"The crab is in front of us!" Nora announces.

"Feuer!"

Nora squeezes the trigger and fires the 8.8 cannon of their Tiger 1. Firing off an AP shell that ultimately ends up hitting the Crusader, taking the poor Cruiser tank with ease from the side.

"The crab is down!"

Discovering this lately, the crew of the Cromwell tries to take the Panther as a retaliation for their fallen brethren. Turning its turret and swinging the gun along with it, they aim and point itself to the approaching Panther. And soon they start to exchange their shots right before the Tiger of Eirian covers the intersection and launches a sneak attack behind the lone Cromwell.

The moment Eirian reaches the intersection, he can see a burning Cromwell with a white flag waving on its turret while the Panther from the distance is still unscathe from its last duel against the Cruiser Tank.. Though this is short-lived as the lone Panther of ZuG III takes a hit from the side with a loud and intense explosion, resulting in the end of the Panther's operability.

"Team Handorf is down!"

"Are you guys fine there?!" Lisa asks through the frequency as she uses her station radio now, hinting a tone of worry and concern to the Handorf's crew thanks to its brutal demise of a loud explosion.

"Yeah… It sounds like the 17 Pounder took us out…" The RO from Team Handorf answers with her tone showing the symptoms of fatigue, exhausted probably. "It's probably the Challenge-"

The communication prematurely ends as the 10 Second Rule begins to initiate, a special rule for decommissioned tanks in the match where the crew can speak through the faction's frequency for only 10 Seconds to avoid any unnecessary foul plays.

"Huh… Seems like there's still a Challenger left, Eirian." Lisa informs this as soon as she finishes her premature exchange with the RO of Handorf.

"Hannover will take care of that. For now, we need to secure the Bellerophon Bridge."

As Eirian exclaims this, he looks in the opposite direction and sees the bridge beyond the road that connects to the intersection they're in. Seeing the deck slowly rising up as the cables of the Bascule Bridge begins to carry and lift the movable steel road.

"Scheiße!"

Cursing under his breath, he orders his Tiger to face the road leading to the bridge, but upon seeing the deck becoming a wall now, giving them the hurdle of that route being inaccessible frustrates the Ace only further as he turns back to Lisa with another order in mind.

"Lisa, report to ZuG I that we couldn't secure the Bellerophon!"

"Jawohl!"

While Lisa uses her radio, Eirian just looks at the bridge with his fingers pressing on his throat mic, radioing himself to Team Hannover, Rommel's team.

"Hannover, it's Lüneburg." The Ace announces with a firm voice.

"Bellerophon is inaccessible?" Rommel assumes as a remark through the line, behind him is an already immobilized Challenger, smoking ominously with flames casually blazing on its rear compartment.

"Yeah, it seems like they want to stop us from taking the West flank."

"Then that means they'll cut our East flank as well." On cue to this reply, Rommel receives new information about ZuG I. "Kommandant! The Bridle Bridge has also been lifted up from the other side! They can't access it!" Says the RO of his crew of the 237 Tiger 1.

"And I stand corrected." Rommel shrugs with a displeasing sigh afterwards, feeling annoyed at the situation but maintains his character afterwards.

"I think they want us to end this fight in the town then."

"You sure they won't just flank our rear?" Eirian retorts with a question. Giving Rommel a time of respite as he continues to maintain his behavior now; the ever-smiling, enthusiastic Overall Commander of the VSG.

"I believe our first opponents won't stoop that low, Herr Baron."

"Any reason?"

"Easy. It's basic Elementary, Eirian."

---

From three accessible bridges to only one remaining as both the western and eastern bridge, Bellerophon and Bridle respectively has been lift off from the ground, leaving the Pegasus bridge as the only accessible bridge of the match, and it's in the hands of the Royal Barons.

"Shouldn't we just flank them once they regroup at the Commune, Sir?" Asks from one of the crew of Monty as they just watch the remaining of their teammates entering the Village through the bridge.

"We can, but that's way too transparent to them to notice and counter."

"But we're outnumbered, Sir. We need to take every opportunity here." The crew argues.

"We already did." Monty smiles as the speaker on his throat mic begins to talk, putting his mind at ease from this announcement.

"The enemies are closing in, Field Marshal." Watson announces through the line. "Permission to wreak havoc to their formation?"

"Hold your tracks, Watson. Our time to strike the Empire is still not there." Monty rejects with formality on his tone, taking a little snack of a fish and chip but mostly the chips as his Black Prince lastly and finally treks through the bridge.

"Then when is the perfect time to strike?"

"Once they enter our Bénouville."

The battlefield begins to shrink and shrink till the match's locale is in the village. Tall houses, narrow roads, and puzzling routes. Perfect place for an urban fight but this leaves the VSG at the disadvantage of this place.

Eirian looks around his surroundings. The walls are decaying, the glasses and windows are shattered, and the pavements and the abandoned buildings all tell the previous matches of Sensha-dō in this recreational themed locale.

As the air seems too quiet and eerily peaceful, almost all of the crew start opening their hatches and bail their heads out, admiring the place while still navigating through the urban layout.

"Eerie…" Nora comments, amazed at the dilapidated village. "You can easily see the remnants of the previous battle here though!"

"It did say this place is one of many sites for Panzerkraft matches." Heinz explains.

"Isn't this place too ill-maintained?" Lisa asks, wondering as every building around them is on the verge of collapsing now.

"Unnecessary." Thea answers before she follows it with an explanation. "This place is an entire set-up for the Advertisement and Films for the Preferectural Sensha-dō Association here."

"Is it?

"Yes. If you look keenly at the buildings here, their insides aren't furnished, the glasses are just props to negate the dangers of real glass, and all of them collapse very easily, including the cheap wooden houses and tall buildings."

As Thea explains this, they then hear a loud sound of a building collapsing from the direction they're going to. A dense smoke of a dirt-like palette rises into the air from the distance, alarming the team apart from the driver and Commander as they just continue to stare at it.

"See?"

"Any orders, Eirian?" Heinz then looks at his Captain, hoping that they can go back into action again thanks to his delinquent mindset.

"Woll and his ZuG can handle their spot, we can't lose our spot here." Eirian asserts. Though he starts becoming vigilant around his environment as the fighting ensues again, and it's much closer than he anticipate it to be.

And immediately his concern begins to revitalize as the sound of a foreign engine ignites the adrenaline in his vein again, quickly switching to his commandeering side with an immediate straight and simple order to Thea.

"Thea, reverse!"

Thea quickly shifts the gear and the Tank reverses with hasten speed. Retracing back its previous route as the turret swings to the side, predicting and anticipating the best spot for this potential threat to ambush them with their 8.8 already pointing at it.

The ominous sound growls loudly, closing in with every second drop. The air intensities and the atmosphere suddenly changes, literally.

"Feuer!"

The 8.8 screams aloud and hits at nothing… Their sight falls short as instead of going through the vacant road, the Cromwell of the Royal Baron just straightly rams through the building, easily letting the decaying building to collapse, bringing down an anarchy moment to the both of them.

With close proximity and a determined mindset of assassinating the Ace's Tiger, the Cromwell fires a round before the sound of destruction of the building behind it amasses wildly with its cursed smoke fumes the place. Unleashing a shell from the QF 75 pounder, the A27M tries to take down the 022 Tiger in a close and blank range.

The muzzle shines brightly through the dust and smoke as the fog of dirt envelopes the place like a wave on the beach. With no time to spare, the Cromwell begins to run away, exiting the cloud before attempting to regroup with the rest by going through Eirian's original path, but this brings misfortune to them as the crew startles upon the sight behind them.

"Watson, look!"

The girl instantly turns her head around and sees the Tiger 1 slowly escaping from the dusk and smoke. Their shell penetrates the Tiger 1 but to their surprise, it didn't register their Tiger 1 to initiate the decommission as they didn't even hit the vital spot of their Tiger 1 to being with, instead they only hit the driver's indestructible periscope, one of the safe spots of all sportified tanks.

Watson takes a second to register this thought.

"Oh bloody hel-"

"Feuer!"

The Tiger 1 shoots a round through its gun and easily destroys the Cromwell in retaliation, penetrating to its rear hull with a loud bang and vigor shaking its hull before the A27M stands on the side of the road while facing upside-down, its hull begins to burn with dark smoke fuming as well the white flag waving on its under belly, indicating its sudden unfortunate state now.

"I'm surprised we still survived that…" Lisa sighs a relief as she leans back on her seat.

"Are you okay, Thea?" Eirian then begins to assess his driver's state, leaning his head in and tries to check on her.

"Ja-Jawohl…" Thea looks at him, stuttering with anxiety as they can see her hands visibly shaking as her driver's periscope has some cracks with a shell imbue on it, though it's still functional to use. "Tr-trust the a-armor…"

Both Lisa and Nora try to comfort Thea with a comforting head pat and an assuring rub on her back as they slowly continue moving their tank now, bypassing both the immobilized Cromwell and the ruined building.

Watson, who's upside-down now, casually complains as she watches the Tiger 1 disappear from their sights.

"That periscope does not obey the laws of physics at all!"

While the girls continue their comfort to their driver, the radio on Lisa's station begins to speak up with an unfortunate news that surprises them all, particularly Eirian.

"This is Team Neinburg. Our team got taken out by a single Cromwell! I repeat, Team Neiburg and Estorf have been taken out by a single Cromwell!"

"A single Cromwell…" Heinz repeats that specific line from Woll's announcement. "I think that's their other Ace, Eirian."

"There's another Ace in Royal Baron?" Nora inquires, seemingly dumbfounded about it.

"There must be another one…" Lisa points this out, wondering about it, but her question gets an answer from Rommel in particular immediately as the radio speaks again with the chatter of his end being noisy thanks to the firefight there.

"It's the Oliver of the Barons. Probably the Ironside of their Team." Rommel answers. "That speed and ferocity can't fit the bill from other Baron Tankers other than him."

"I see… Permission to engage their Oliver then?" Eirian asks as a response.

"Nein. I'll handle the Olive while you continue your press against the Black Prince." Rommel retorts. "Both Hildesheim and Hannover here will keep the remaining tanks at bay while I take the Panther of team Alfeld and pursue their Ace."

"Sounds like a plan then."

"Absolutely. Good luck hunting, Wittmann."

"Jawohl!" Eirian drops his hand from his threat mic and begins to order his crew around now.

"Alright, the plan has been laid out and our plan hasn't changed even though we're now in the VSG." He announces this with confidence in his voice, this in return assures the four crewmates of his as they already know what their plan is.

"Seems like we'll be taking the front again." Thea remarks with a wide grin on her face.

"Seems like it, Miss Thea." Lisa concurs before looking back to the rest of the crew. "What's our goal specifically, Eirian?"

"We take their Black Prince." Eirian exclaims.

"Sounds like a plan I can get behind." Nora expresses her enthusiasm with a wide smile on her face.

"We're with you, Eirian. Give us the word and we'll follow your orders." With the final remark from Heinz, Eirian just nods his head and they start their plan to end this match by taking out the command tank of Royal Baron, the Black Prince of Montgomery.

---

"Sir, we received confirmation from Watson's tank that she was taken out by the Black Baron!" The RO of Monty announces through the never ending musical of the battlefield they are in. Though Monty hears this clearly thanks to their intercom.

"I see then, thank you for the information." Monty replies through his microphone upon hearing this report from his RO. The moment he lowers down his microphone, he takes a piece of chips from his plate and takes a bite from it.

"So that leaves 4 tanks against 4 of us." Monty reminds himself of this as he starts to clean his mouth with a clean handkerchief, still trying to retain his formal looks and dignified behavior.

Upon finishing his little snack, he pulls out a tea cup and gestures to his loader to fill his cup with some nice and delicious tea, Darjeeling tea to be exact. Though as the situation becomes intense and his thoughts begin to wonder about the possibility of Eirian attacking him, the Monty of Royal Baron still retains his composure, even though he starts hearing some peculiarity from the side of his position.

Sipping his tea through the small lavish cup he has, he pulls up the microphone again and orders his crew to start their counter against the impending arrival of their guest. "Reverse the Tank, please."

With the gears shift in reserve and the clutch unclutching itself now. The A43 begins its reversal motion, going full speed as the Tiger 1 arrives at the scene, ramming through the building beside the A43's original position, marking its grandiose entrance in the eyes of Monty and his Black Prince.

"I commend your entrance, Herr Baron." Monty comments before gesturing him a bow afterwards. "But your ferocity ends here now."

Like a gentleman, he allows the Tiger I to face its front to his, and soon both tanks start to retreat a little, going with a slow reverse as they begin to distance their tank from one another. They soon stop after reaching the distance they need for this duel to happen.

Taking the lead again, Monty then slowly takes his glove off and raises it in the air, waving it a little so Eirian can notice this, and with the nod from the Black Baron of the VSG for confirmation, he then moves his gloveless hand in a swift chopping motion as the Black Prince begins to move its track, going forward in full speed.

The joust between the two begins to start and the Tiger 1 follows suit, quickly they start to throttle their tanks in high gear, maintaining the increase of their speed as their turret slowly begins to swing to their side, going to a 30 to 40-ish degrees from its original location, hoping if they can connect their shell to the other with this shot.

And as the distance closes even more, both gunners then pull the trigger, firing their shells to one another but both of them are to no avail as it completely misses thanks to the sudden speed of their tanks, and so with the second round seems inevitable, both team readies their position and changes their tactics against the other.

After a brief respite, Eirian raises his hand in the air and immediately initiates that second and final phase of the joust. His Tiger begins to move even faster and so does Monty's Black Prince. It seems like it's the same as before but halfway to the climax, both teams soon depart their earlier tactics with a fool-proof one. The Black Prince begins to violently slow its track, screeching noises violate the air with the tracks sliding rigorously on the ground, and when they reach that moment he's waiting for, Monty drops the order and fires the shell.

The Black Prince lets out a massive flash and a loud bang, its hull shivers a little as they fire its 17 pounder directly to the incoming Tiger 1, but for Eirian, he takes this opportunity and orders to swing their tank now. What follows suit is his Tiger 1 forcibly swinging its massive hull to the side, taking a toll immediately to its caterpillar tracks as the sound of metal screeching from the concrete becomes ear-piercing but it wasn't for naught.

The Tiger 1 ends its little drift and faces the Black Prince's side, as Monty finally notices this set of plan, he is already too late to change his fate, and thus he goes casually inside his tank once again and takes a sip from his tea cup not before he brings out his last word as his comment about the Black Baron of the VSG.

"What a bugger."

"Feuer!"

Nora squeezes the trigger and fires a round. The cartridge suddenly ejects as the chamber takes aback. A fume of smoke lingers slowly at the inside of the turret and Nora pulls out her face from the periscope. She looks at Eirian and to the others as the silence falls calmly to the crew.

After the silence eases all of them, the radio from Lisa's position starts to announce the conclusion with the voice from their referee for today's match.

"The Black Prince has been immobilized, and with 15 tanks of Royal Baron out of the game, the VSG wins the match!"

Hearing this celebratory announcement, the gang inside the 022 Tiger starts to cheer happily. From silence to full of joy. Thea, Lisa, Nora, Heinz, and Eirian celebrate their first victory together with a smile.

"We did it!" Nora shouts with enthusiasm.

"Yeah we did!" Heinz then gives her a high-five as this is a proud moment to all of them, not even Thea can contain her prideful smirk as she happily concurs with them.

"Commendable."

"Good job everyone, we did our best!" Lisa expresses her gratitude through clapping before looking at Eirian and personally thanks him with a gentle smile on her face.

"You did your best, Eirian."

And the rest start looking at their captain and concur to Lisa's gratitude, they start to smile at him while Heinz is audacious enough to pat Eirian's back. And in return, Eirian shows a little bit of sincerity as he smiles a little as a response.

"We did our part and we won because of it. So thank you, you guys."

Upon seeing this new light from Eirian, the rest just start teasing him more with a little spice of pampering along with more shenanigans that ultimately ends up Eirian going back to his usual self, the stoic Ace that easily gets frustrated to them, but nonetheless, he assures himself that he finds them quite a charming bunch of the unaccepted.

Knocking on his metal hatch, this surprises Eirian from his seat. And so he opens his two-piece hatch and greets the girl with a warm smile upon meeting the Ace. Her ruby-like eyes meet the gentle dark brown eyes of Eirian. With her fair complexion matches the lightness of sand and her hair resembles the color of falling leaves in autumn, the fiery commander of Hildesheim welcomes her Ace with her sincere voice.

"Senpai! We just won!"

"I can see that, Kristel…" Eirian sighs, confused at how she's still energetic even after that exhausting match. "Seems like your tank was unscathe from that encounter with their Crusaders."

"Oh you mean their Crabs?" She tilts her head before she answers it that befits her character; the oblivious and exuberant junior. "Well, their shells couldn't even scratch my mighty Königstiger!"

Eirian takes a second to process it, though as he begins to understand this he lets out a light chuckle, very amused at her comment about it.

"You're quite an adversary then." Eirian retorts this before all of a sudden, a sound of a small bird chirping from the sky then suddenly goes to Eirian's shoulder, a little cute European redbreast Robin casually resting on his stiff shoulder.

"I'm quite surprised you didn't use Rosette here." He wonders as he begins to pamper what seems to be Kristel's domesticated pet bird before the exotic bird casually flies towards her owner and sits on her crimson twintails comfortably.

"I can… but I don't want to stress her out, after all, this place is still new to us, Senpai!" She argues. "And also I might upset Apfelsine if I overwork Rosette."

"I see then…" As Eirian says that, he then notices a certain Panther chasing a Cromwell behind Kristel. By passing the intersection while being oblivious about the announcement of the match's closure, though, he easily distinguishes this Panther tank as he sees the one commanding it.

The Ace sighs and remarks about it. "He really wants to take him out…"

"Kristel."

"Senpai?"

"Get back to your Tiger II, we'll be fetching Rommel."

"Hai!"

---

After the two fetch their wild and frenzy Rommel, the clean-up begins with both the RB and VSG using their recovery vehicles such as the Scammell Pioneer and the Bergepanzer 3 "Büffel". After an hour or so and with the field spotless from the immobilized tanks and damages they cause, both the team's key commanders gather at the cliffside, looking at the beach where the sight of VSG Tanks are in the process of entering the already floating LNS Deutschland.

"It was an interesting match, isn't it not, Herr Rommel?" Monty comments as he stands beside the Schulführer.

"It was puzzling at best, but it did certainly raise the bar of the quality of our opponents here, Sir Monty." Rommel responds before looking back to the two blonds and faces them with his usual grin.

"To a Great Mind. Nothing is Little." Monty retorts while he slowly takes out his bubble pipe and blows some bubble out of it. "But if I may ask, how's the overall challenge?"

"It's impressive in terms of your team's performance, after all, a School in Japan that has a co-ed Sensha-dō team? Very interesting to know that they exist." Rommel answers.

"It's unheard of. But I know that will change, don't you think?" Raising an eyebrow as he lowers his bubble pipe, simply gazing at the Schulführer while waiting for him to answer his inquiry.

"Definitely. After all, isn't this the perfect time for you guys to end your isolationist mindsets?"

Hearing his insight, Monty can't stop but lets out a chuckle, finding Rommel a bit more interesting than he anticipates. "Let's just hope that's the case for our Adult friends in the JSF then."

And with a bit more exchange of topics and some final parting words, all tankers and belongings of the VSG start returning to their School-Ship now with the last asset of it is the Drache of Rommel.

As Rommel enters the helicopter and shuts the door tight. The Drache begins to ascend slowly before hovering away from the coast and towards the dusk horizon, leaving a satisfied Monty and a curious Watson.

"Sir Monty, can I ask you something?"

"Good ahead, Watson."

"What's your reason for checking on their Black Baron?"

"Easy, my dear Watson. Just ask yourself this question then, what is the meaning of Finding Your Way?"

"Pardon?"

"Elementary, my dear Watson. Even a child can answer that." Monty casually reminds her this as he begins to walk away from the cliff now, returning back to his tent as he leaves Watson only to wonder about his question, the meaning of 'Finding Your Way' before accompanying the Field Marshal the next.

---

Seeing the only waters now, Eirian leans back on his seat, resting for a moment as the exhausted Ace continues to look for peace in their flight back to the Peter Strasser, Lüneburg's School-Ship. He heaves a sigh, catching both the attention of Rommel and Johann on board with him.

"Sounds like you are tired, Airian?" Johann asks.

"A little bit." Eirian replies, crossing his arms on his chest. "But the important thing here is that we won our first match with the VSG."

"Indeed, and I'm happy that we won that match." Rommel commends. "But this is only the start, and we need every bit of help we may need to win this Bet."

Eirian shows his enthusiasm on this with a nod, concurring with their Schulführer. But after showing him his stiff nod, he begins to close his eyes and decides to take a little bit of rest as the last thing he hears is from Rommel's gentle voice.

So, as part of the lore in the Alternaverse, here's some Artwork for Log 0.2 - Log 0.3! Enjoy!

Hi Guys! I am Author Maniolas, the writer of Ace Und Panzer! I am currently trying to recreate the GuP universe with a twist and an expansion on its lore. Call it, the retelling series of GuP with a twist!

But I hope you guys like the recent Logs for the story! And since I'm still trying my best to write this story out, I wouldn't mind to hear your feedbacks about the story. If you guys would kindly give a message on your reaction or anything in mind about this story, I would happily answer it. :>

Alone and quiet, the employee of the Shiki Konbini stands idly and almost seemingly acting as a statue behind the counter. He yawns, but that's his daily routine on the weekends as a clerk in his Family business.

"School is starting next week and yet this place has no recognition whatsoever…" He mumbles to himself as he sighs in defeat, closing his pair of bright blue eyes as he relaxes in frustration at how their business is still stagnant, the same as last year.

But the auburn-eyed, brown-haired clerk then receives two unexpected customers for today, lightening up his mood all of a sudden like flicking his switch.

The indoor PA rings with a loud peel as the sliding door opens with its usual chime. The appearance of two customers surprises the lonely yet ready-to-serve clerk now.

"Hey, Har-Har!" Says one of the buyers. Her energetic and lively energy radiates strongly across the barren convenience store.

"Hey, Chūdā!" The employee greets back, but not the same level as her as he cannot even compete with her radiance. But as he thinks he's done with his greeting, the yellowish eyes of his customer start to darken as she smacks his head with a chopping motion in retaliation.

"I told you, it's Lisbeth, Haruto! Lisbeth first, Chūdā later!"

"I know that!" Harutu gruntly concurs, rubbing his head with both of his hands and continues. "But don't you think you're overreacting for a bit…?"

"Nonsense! You're my classmate from last year, and that just means you're mandated to use the first name basis!" The blond girl asserts, still radiating her extrovert aura.

"That… sounds very extrovert of you, Lisbeth, in the wrong way to be honest."

With Lisbeth trying to regain her reputation as an affable person again to Haruto, the other girl starts checking the products and goods in the many shelves of Haruto's Konbini. Snacks, drinks, accessories, magazines, frozen goods, and even bento boxes, it's the beauty of the Japanese Konbini and Haruto's Shiki Store is no exception to that fact.

Seeing the new girl, Haruto cannot help himself and finally asks the question that's been lingering in his mind the moment he sees her together with Ms. Affable earlier.

"Who's the shorty?"

"Oh her? She's one of the transfer students in our class. She came from Karafuto Prefecture if I remember correctly…"

"You mean the Prefecture that's above Hokkaido? That's quite far." Haruto explains, "What's her name then?"

Upon hearing the route of their conversation is about the take, the shorty on the other side of the store starts to stand up and introduces herself to Haruto across the room.

"Elena. Yakova Elena."

"She's adorable!" Haruto says to himself upon meeting the silvered-haired-and-eyed twin-tail angel. With the plus point of her being much shorter than Lisbeth. But upon his composure, Haruto finally introduces himself in return.

"Student from class 2-A, Kisetsu Haruto."

"Nice to meet you, Kisetsu." Elena greets nonchalantly before she looks back at the shelves again. "But tell me, is it normal that your goods here are a bit pricey?"

"Not really, apparently the market of Zuikaku's products isn't doing great and thus the prices are a bit high compared to inland Ōarai." Haruto answers. "That and also the poor recognition of our Konbini against Lawson or 7-Eleven here."

"Was this a slow progress or just a sudden spike then?"

"A sudden spike. I think this was after the Student Council handled the School-Ship's Treasury for the last 2 months." As he finishes his answer, a spark of interest on the topic flashes on Lisbeth's eyes as she interjects and gives an insight about the sudden rise of price with a rumor.

And of course it's Lisbeth of all people.

"But then again, if you think about it, isn't it a bit unusual for the Student Council to handle all the finance of our School-Ship here." Lisbeth points out, "And if your intuition is correct, I can certainly see that something is happening behind the curtains of this!"

"…"

After mere seconds of utter silence, the dumbfounded Haruto and Elena look at the assuming Lisbeth and say with a straight unamused tone, "Ehh?"

"They're planning something that requires a lot of money… either they're gonna fix the infrastructure or even much better… they're gonna revive something here." She confidently assumes.

"And does this relate to one of your rumors as well, Lis?" Elena asks.

"Lena, it isn't a rumor anymore since I talked this out with the Communication Gals in the Intelligence Department, and when I say that there's a change here, there is a big change!"

"And what could that be exactly then?" This is what Lisbeth is looking for in their conversation, and thanks to Haruto finally asking this particular question, the blondie girl just looks at him with a wide grin on her face with a confident answer to his inquiry.

"It seems like Sensha-dō is about to change!"

---

Onboard a twin-piston engined Martin 2-0-2, Eirian occupies one of the 40 seats of the antique aircraft under the fleet of Zuikaku's Kamome Airlines, the School-Ship's own domestic airline service. It isn't the smoothest of rides, but it's still a decent ride thanks to the Airline's inguniety and modifications.

And thus the moment he reads the papers from his folder of documents, he manages to catch and understand all the information he needs for his upcoming operative under a new name and appearance.

But how unsuspecting of a name it is…

"For Schwarz 'Arian' Wittmann." The letter's front contains before he opens the entire content of it.

"You have been assigned to infiltrate Ōarai Co-Educational Academy in the efforts of investigating the "Otto Carius of Black Forest Peak Academy". This operation requires your skills to befriend the target Nishizumi and uncover all her motives as you two continue to close your bond to one another."

"Isn't this a bit suspicious for a guy to befriend a traumatized girl?" Eirian comments to himself as he proceeds to continue the reading of his briefing.

"Don't worry about the question of your approach being called 'suspicious' there, since you'll be going under the alias of Eirian Haiiro, a normal transferee student from the city of Naruto. But do note that your actions there will affect your reputation as the 'mysterious yet cool' vibe there, so don't blow your cover during your first day."

The briefing continues as he turns the page.

"You'll be a Student in Class 2-A, the same class as the Nishizumi. Luckily she's a transferee student too so expect her to have little to none friends on that day, but that also applies to you there. So once the opportunity is already there, it's mostly advisable for you to take that said opportunity. After befriending her then the mission finally begins, and hopefully you digest this one and the other previous documents we sent you and remember all of it.

And so, have a Good Infiltration to you there, Herr Wittmann."

"This feels like they put an amatuer behind writing this briefing…" Eirian remarks as the moment he's about to close the folder, he sees the one responsible behind this unorthodox briefing.

"By Johannes 'Rommel' Wittmann, Our Schulführer."

"Of course it's Rommel…"

Fortunately, as soon as he finishes his careful and thorough review of the documents on his hand, the new-styled appearance of Eirian comes to life as he sees his reflection from just watching through the window beside him.

From his wood-like brown hair to a total shade of jet black. Originally his pair of dark brown eyes is now a pair of gentle pale gray eyes. And completing his attire is just normal inconspicuous casual clothing. With all of his appearance completely different, the prepared Ace is ready for his operation.

With fluffy cottons clouding his view from his window at first, they soon begin to clear itself up eventually and soon he sees the School-Ship of Ōarai, Ibaraki. The "Auspicious Crane" Zuikaku. With its hilly forest on its starboard side, the commercial block on its port side, the residential covering from the stern towards the bow, and the school complex in the center of Zuikaku's surface deck.

These School-Ships are an achievement of Humanity's ingenuity and desire to continue their lives in the most remote, and most isolated places on the planet. Their large scale hulls simply dwarfs some of the cities and even nations. Though what makes them even more special are the ones who operate them.

"This is your Captain speaking." The announcement interposes, ending the quiet atmosphere of the voyage of the flight. "We're arriving in Zuikaku's Ōnuki Airport in just a matter of 10 minutes."

"Another Student Pilot like Weigelt… Seems like this school's airliner is closer to Lüneburg than I anticipated." Eirian tells himself as a comment about the one characteristic he notices in this School-Ship's environment.

"Why did I even question that… all School-Ships are just like that..."

With the view from his window starting to become like he's in in-land rather than a city on the seas, the aircraft starts to prepare its landing gear and soon it caresses before fully committing its landing on the runway, finally landing it with ease after a slow descent. The trip goes very successful as intended with the 2-0-2 "Mokusei" as it lands safely in the improvised runaway slash just a large road way. Thanks to Zuikaku's large and myriad roadways, they manage to use one of it as the runaway for Kamome Airlines.

With the airstairs ending its descent from the fuselage, the passengers of "Mokusei" finally disembarks the next from the plane, and with the pistons finally shutting down they can finally admire the view that Zuikaku's Surface deck can offer to them.

Not even a sight of the vast ocean they can see thanks to the ginormous size of this artificial metal island they're currently standing at. An impressive feat to gain but what makes them more impressive is that half or almost all of the inhabitants of this gigantic vessel consists of teenagers that are either studying, training, or even both.

"Seems like everything is just the same as Peter Strasser…" Eirian comments himself in a mumbling voice right before his attention then pulls by one of the Airport Marshaller on the field.

"Welcome to Zuikaku! Just please go to that building so we can confirm your arrival here, Sir!"

"Ha-Hai! Thank you."

---

"Haiiro Eirian from Naruto City?" Asks one of the agents behind the counter of the small building. Interviewing the Ace-in-disguise Arian, or rather, Haiiro Eirian.

"Hai!"

"And you came here to switch your affiliation from Bandō National High School to Ōarai Co-Educational Academy as a transferee student, is that correct?"

"That's the plan." Eirian smiles, sinking himself fully in committing to his disguise. "But why the interrogation exactly?"

The agent sighs before giving him back his documents, including his 'forged' documents. "It's because we received a lot of spying reports here and all of them relate to the School's Recrelympic Clubs..."

"Recrelympic Clubs?"

"Yeah, but mostly it revolves around the boots-on-the-ground and the planes in the sky. And it seems like that's just how all of us are competitive these days." The agent continues. "But since this Infantry-oriented club is attracting almost half of the male students in the General Studies, I think that's a given since this school doesn't offer that much here to guys like you."

"I see then."

"But since Class is starting next week, I hope you can pick your electives until then."

"I'll probably need the time to think about it, thanks."

"It's a pleasure, Haiiro-san. And importantly, welcome to Zuikaku! I hope you enjoy your studies here!" The agent smiles at him, comforting a little bit to the Ace's assurance that his time here will be accommodating to say the least.

With his final obstacle clear, Eirian can now finally start his first mission in Zuikaku, and that's to find his way to his apartment, his dormitory apartment among the hundreds of residential blocks on Zuikaku.

A map on his hand, and following his instincts, the Ace tries his best to navigate the streets and blocks until he finally loses his sense of direction after 30 minutes of wandering around with his luggage and withering confidence.

"The map isn't helping here…" Eirian utters as he finds himself in a park. He rubs his temple out of annoyance and begins to look around.

Surrounding him are the Sakura Trees that are ready to blossom at any moment. Spring is about to come and so does his class next week in April. But as much as he likes to admire the floral trees, he's very busy finding his way to his apartment now.

And with no one around him, he's about to give up. Though as his hope starts to dwindle, the Ace receives a miracle and it's a teenage girl in a white and green serafuku with a large black neckerchief. Her hair is darkened purple, though the same can be said to her pair of eyes but it's in contrast to its color, with a trace of her having elegant gentle steps, this evokes her as an example of a reliable student in the eyes of him.

Not wanting to waste any precious seconds, Eirian begins to speak up and calls out the attention of this student. "Excuse me!"

The girl looks at her, and waits for him to approach her. "Yes?"

"I'm… actually lost, can you help me?"

"A transferee?"

"Yeah, so, could you guide me to my Apartment?" Eirian asks in a much kinder and soft tone in embarrassment. Though his intuition is spot-on as the girl with the purple hair gladly takes his map and ponders about its direction.

"I think it's best if you follow me. But it's best if you remember the places around us while we go to this apartment of yours." The girl says to him, true to his thoughts, the girl is reliable and quite a gentle-spoken student.

"Hai! Just lead the way then."

With an affirming nod from her, they start walking towards Eirian's apartment. Walking through the streets of Zuikaku, bypassing the many houses and small apartments along its inhabitants. Though with every block they pass by, the more Eirian begins to notice that this school-ship isn't the one he assumes to be.

"It seems like this School doesn't follow any themed nations, huh…" Eirian claims as he follows his tour guide.

"Not all School-Ships are sponsored by Embassies or Private Organizations." The girl explains. "And unfortunately, Zuikaku is one of those unlucky schools."

"So how exactly is this ship still moving?"

"I don't actually know… this ship has been floating ever since the 1970s, but that's all I know. Maybe you can check the ship's history in the Public Library in the Isohama District."

"Isohama Distrcit?"

"I think you need a proper tour guide next time…" The girl just sighs, utterly surprised at how oblivious the transferee is. "I just wish that Chūdā is here… she's an expert at this sort of thing…"

---

"That won't happen." Elena exclaims as she joins the duo's conversation with a bunch of snacks and ingredients on her hand. "The JSF already made many attempts at that but all of them just failed."

"Sensha-dō being mixed? I haven't heard that before…" Haruto says to them both as he's new to the concept of it. "I know that Panzerkraft is mixed, but Sensha-dō being one? That's quite unheard of."

"Because it's only in the Professional League, but that only happens once in a blue moon." Elena explains. "But Sensha-dō being mixed in the High School League, that's just obviously a joke, Liz…"

"But it wasn't a joke, Lena." Lisbeth shrugs it off with her index finger pointing upward as emphasis. "My intuition is always precise when it comes to this!"

"Oh yeah?" Haruto doubts as he now begins to check Elena's shopping. "Then tell me, what's the first thing you're gonna see right after you walk outside this place then?"

"Someone we probably knew."

And her intuition is right.

The moment she utters those words with firmness in her tone. Both Eirian and the girl with the purple hair then begin to appear right outside the Konbini's clear wall glasses.

"Isn't that Nagakiyo?" Elena points out, with a hand gesture included.

"It's Suki?!" A quick turn and a bright expression on her face, Lisbeth starts to rush towards the two outside as her affable-o-meter is starting to reach through the roof now, leaving the two behind in the dust.

"Wait! Lisbeth, the door can't immediately register your spe-"

Thud!

"-speed…"

Embarrassing her once more, Ms. Affable makes her first impression to Eirian and Nagakiyo as she gives a violent smooching to the sliding door. And the moment the glass door starts to slide open, her face joins its motion, further embarrassing herself even more.

"Chūdā?" Nagakiyo asks with a concerned tone in her gentle and soft voice.

"I'm fine…" Lisbeth whines a little before her body unconsciously starts to fall from her violent contact with the glass door.

Her body and her grocery bag starts to fall towards the concrete ground, and this activates Eirian's instinct to help her, not because she's the damsel in distress, but rather he's keeping an eye on her grocery bag in particular.

With a swift motion under a span of a few seconds, Eirian belly-flops to the ground, catching the grocery bag safely in the air before he lands on the concrete floor, resulting a dirty shirt and few scratches on his body, but nonetheless, the grocery bag is fine, but for Lisbeth? He kinda forgets about her…

Lisbeth assumes that Eirian is there on the ground to help her landing, and so she confidently propels her body and attempts to land on his back. A little injury from him is more sustainable than a lady like her experiencing a sudden kiss to the concrete floor, and Ms. Affable isn't taking any chances to get all romantic to the ground.

But as soon as she's about to land, Eirian rolls over his body quickly out of the way and immediately stands up from the ground, leaving her the only option to face-plant her face to the ground with sheer vigor.

And…

Thud!

"Oh… that hurts…" Eirian casually remarks. Holding her grocery bag as if it's his own child. "You okay?"

Lisbeth mumbles in return, but due to her face connected to the floor, all they can hear is her distinct muffled voice. After a few seconds of listening to the same muffled voice of hers, she finally lifts her head up and confronts her back-stabbing savior with a crimson palette on her entire face.

"What was that for?!"

"Sorry, it was my instinct to avoid people…" Eirian explains, rubbing the back of his head, hiding the fact that he just dislikes physical contact, especially from the other, opposite sex.

"That doesn't look like it! You just let me fall to the ground there!"

And with the two suddenly having an argument right in front of his konbini and a surprised Nagakiyo, Haruto meanwhile begins to say something to the only customer at the moment of his store. Both frustrated and concerned about one of them in particular.

"Yakova, keep an eye for now, I'm gonna get the First Aid Kit."

"But she's fine…"

"I won't let any injuries go unchecked!" Haruto exclaims as he goes back to the staff room, leaving Elena, her distinct and loud sigh, and the girl's bewildered state beside the counter.

And then she simply mutters.

"Why did I even bother transfering to this Academy…"

---

"Ouch, ouch, ouch!"

"Just hold still you…" Eirian retorts out of exasperation as he cleans the abrasions on her cheeks, though not visible it still hurts nonetheless the moment he rubs the alcohol-fitted cotton ball to her face.

"It's your fault for prioritizing my groceries over me!" Lisbeth continues to whine before she yelps loudly from the alcohol rubbing to her cheeks.

"Hai, Hai… Just shut up for now so I can clean your grazes here." Eirian replies nonchalantly.

As Eirian cleans all the grazes from Lisbeth's face, Haruto and Elena enter the staff's room where they meet the two. With a map on Haruto's hand and Suki isn't around anymore, Eirian immediately looks at the only guy in the room besides him.

"Thanks for the First Aid Kit. And also, where's the girl with the purple hair?"

"You mean, Nagakiyo?" Haruto reaffirms. "She's a busy person so she went back, but she did mark the directions on the map though."

"Or you could just buy a phone with a GPS tracker on it." Elena interjects.

"Still new here, you know…" Eirian frowns directly at her, making his first meeting with Elena to be rather a bit pugnacious. "But I'll do my best to find one in the Isahama District."

"And do you even know where is the Isahama District?" Haruto asks.

"No…"

"I can be your tour guide then!" Lisbeth suggests. Though thanks to her grazes, she takes aback a little as Eirian continues to attend her injuries again. "Ouch…"

"That would be great if we can meet in the School next week." Eirian hopes, showing a faint smile to her. "I'm Eirian, Haiiro Eirian by the way."

"Lisbeth! Chūdā Lisbeth!"

"And I'm Haruto, Kisetsu Haruto."

"Yakova Elena."

"And the girl you met earlier is Nagakiyo Natsuki! All of us here are in our second year!" Lisbeth explains. "And what year might you be?"

"Second year as well."

"That's great! I hope we can be classmates then! Though I think I should remind you that you can call me Lisbeth here, hehe~ It's mandatory so no more Chūdā!"

"Likewise, Lisbeth." Eirian in return can't stop but just gives her a smile as he is fascinated about her strong cordial personality. Though the moment he feels like she isn't gonna ask another set of questions or even the others around them, Eirian takes this moment and finally asks the whereabouts of a certain someone just out of the blue.

"But say, Lisbeth. Have you heard about the name of Nishizumi around here?"

Immediately Elena in particular picks this question up, though both Lisbeth and Haruto look confused, but both of them are interested about the given surname for different reasons.

"What about her exactly?" Elena glowers with suspicion.

"Seems like she knows about Miho as well here…"

"I just saw her name as one of the transferees for this upcoming School Year, and I just wondered if you guys might have seen her around here." Eirian explains casually in order to sway the suspicion of Elena to him.

"Well, unfortunately we haven't, Haiiro-san." Elena answers with her words still doubting him. "Unless you have some business with her…"

"Oh come on Lena!" Lisbeth suddenly intervernes, ready to protect her new found friend from this particular topic. "We can't butt in to their personal matters, what we might not know that Eiry here is her fiance!"

"Yeah, wait… what?"

"But that doesn't mean he's out of the line for being a stalker to her, Lisbeth…" Haruto argues, not having the idea of him having a girlfriend whose surname is from a prestigious family in Kumamoto.

"Oh yeah…"

Lisbeth looks at Eirian with her pair of citrine-like eyes. Keenly and very interested about his business with her and so she attempts to clap both of his shoulders in order to hold himse place. But the Ace isn't having that and with all his might, he blocks all the attempts, trying his best for her to not touch his shoulders or let a single tap to his body in general.

"You won't fool me, Eiry! My body is telling me that you have something in mind with her!"

"And if I do, what will you do about it?!"

"I will interrogate you! I want to know why you're so keenly interested in her!"

"Because I want to have a word with her!"

---

"Achoo!"

Sneezing abruptly while staying inside of her small room, the Nishizumi snuffs her nose before looking at the boxes around her vacant room. Sitting on the floor, feeling a bit exhausted, and very wary about the load of packages she needs to unpack as this ultimately causes her to fall onto the wooden floor.

"I'm finally in Zuikaku now…"

With her thoughts floating around, Miho then gives all her best and sits up straight now. With a quick gasp of astonishment, she gets on her feet and continues to unpack all the packages in her room.

From her books from her previous school towards the non-essential stuff, like magazines of recent trends, and of course, her favorite collection; a bunch of stuffed toy bears from a famous series.

After a thorough renovation and cleaning, Nishizumi Miho finally finishes her duty for today in her new apartment. On par to the time that she'll begin her dinner now as she looks at her pink whale clock on her table.

"Seems like it's cooking time." Miho euphorically declares as she stretches her arms up and wide, feeling refreshed that her chores are almost done now. "I think I can try Kikuyo-san's Taipien!"

And so Miho goes to her kitchen and checks the refrigerator, but her happy face gets an overturn as she completely forgets that she doesn't have the ingredients for her Taipien, heck, she doesn't even have a single item on her fridge.

With a sudden "silly me" expression, Miho takes her wallet and other essentials before going out to get some ingredients in the nearest konbini. But before she even descends to the ground floor, she needs and must double check, but in this case, triple check if her door is locked.

With her excessive checking behavior out of the way, the Nishizumi makes her way to the nearest Konbini, and unfortunately it isn't the Shiki Konbini but rather it's 7-Eleven…

But in parallel to her going to the Konbini, Eirian meanwhile finally walks out of Haruto's Konbini right after he part-ways with both Lisbeth and Elena and even Haruto. With an idea in his head now and the sun slowly sinking into the neighborhood, Eirian's remaining time to wander is coming to a close for today.

Now he sets his eye to the map and follows it profoundly like he's looking for the X mark in a treasure map. And then he gets the jackpot, finally after a few minutes of walking around and following everything from what the map has to direct him.

Without any respite, Eirian then takes his luggage and begins to access his room from the counter upon his first meeting with the attendants of this particular dormitory apartment. After a moment of a slight interview in regards to his identification, now with the given room number of 22 in the 3rd floor, Eirian then starts ascending the stairs towards it.

Reaching the 3rd floor after a few steps, Eirian sets out his eyes upon the beauty of the neighborhood of Zuikaku, the lights that are like fireflies color the dusk sky. It's trivial from the genuine architectural beauty of Lüneburg's landscape, but this view has its own right as an awe-inspiring moment to him.

But this moment suddenly wavers the Ace as he brings out a warm smile as he admires the view until his consciousness brings him back as he has more matters to attend to, and one of them is to locate the whereabouts of Nishizumi Miho.

"I finally secured my base of operation, but I need to secure my packages and investigate the whereabouts of that Nishizumi after this…"

As he finally goes to his room with the sign indicating it's the 22nd room right beside the 23rd room, Eirian takes his key and places it to the key slot from the door knob. With a slight knob, he motions his hand to open the door now, but right before he fully opens and enters it, the sound of the footsteps from his right catches his hearing and soon a voice calling his attention out.

"Oh?! You must be my new neighbor then!"

Eirian turns his head around and sees the girl with a pair of gentle light-brown eyes that seemingly coincide to her short auburn hair. With the light wind breezes her hair along and her bangs scrapes her smooth-looking cheeks, he finally meets his target.

"I'm Nishizumi Miho! A transferee from Kumamoto City!"

Eirian gives a second to process this before he smiles and officially introduces himself to her.

---

"Kommndant!"

"..."

"Komandant Nishizumi!"

"...!"

"Kommandant Nishizumi, your orders, please!" The distress in her crewmember's voice echoes in her mind. Blackness fills across the four corners and beyond, and though she's in her unconscious state, dreaming of the unexpected, she can still feel like she's experiencing them like it is just yesterday.

"You almost drowned there! What would happen if you didn't make it through?!"

"But I only tried to…" Her reasoning begins to lack confidence.

But before she speaks her mind out during the memory she recalls; the scene abruptly changes with a spotlight flickering over the distance. Now a long hallway appears with darkened walls and a hat resting on the center below the spotlight, taking her attention to it.

A black beret with red trimmings, dampened with water and smells like a river.

And there she finally recalls it, it's the same beret she has used during her career in the past.

"That's…"

"I do not blame you for prioritizing the lives of your colleagues. Though as admirable it seems to be at first, the problem lies evident that you're the one who's at fault for this. And you risked your life for something trivial, Miho."

"I just…"

"This isn't a part of our Nishizumi-style, but rather this is based on your kindness alone. And so, as the current mistress and your mother, you won't inherit the Nishizumi Style anymore."

"For Better."

"Or Worse."

Nishizumi Miho then suddenly wakes up from her nightmare about the plays of her traumatizing past and its aftermath. Her body begins to shiver, her face is sweating profusely, and her heart is thumping loud and clear. Frightened and upset with a reason, though nonetheless she needs to endure this. Trying to calm herself out, she looks around her room, realizing eventually that it's not the same as before that occurs in her mind earlier. And once she understands that she's in the present, this calms her down.

Her breathing slowly goes back to normality as she regains her composure. And with her emotions finally intact and under control, the former Ace of Kuromorimine mutters to herself afterwards, looking directly at the ceiling with her eyes slowly closing it.

"This is for the better, Miho…"

---

Be-Beep.

Zzz…

Be-Beep!

Zz..z?

Be-Beep, Be-Beep, Be-Beep, Be-Beep, Be-Beep!

Zzz…!

Her eyes widen in complete surprise. Miho shifts her entire body to the side and attempts to snooze the alarm clock in one quick succession, yet her morning fatigue hinders her movement and so she falls and tumbles on the floor, but she still reaches her hand out and shuts the noisy clock off, albeit her face kissing the clean carpet flooring of her new dormitory room.

Miho groans. "Ouch…"

Now wide awake from that unfortunate fall, Nishizumi Miho slowly gets up on her feet and walks slowly to the window. She pushes its curtain to the side and what reveals her hazel eyes is the view of the neighborhood below her.

Taking the view and appreciating it, Miho takes a deep breath and reminds herself that today is a new day for her.

"This is for my own good, Miho."

After reminding herself with that, a confident Miho claps both of her cheeks with vigor, ultimately charging herself up for today.

Whilst Miho charges her day with a cold shower and a questionable breakfast, the girl then notices that alongside the noise from the outside, she can notice the words of a certain boy beside her room, even though the walls are cheap and thin, she can't really point out the words he's saying, but it is enough that she knows he is there.

"Neighbor-san is already awake, huh?" Miho comments.

"I think I should start calling him Haiir-"

"Yes. I know you're worried about me here, but I can assure you that I'm doing fine." Eirian assures her. "And how did you even manage to find my new number?"

"I bribed Canaris."

"You bribed the Club Chief of our Schulintelligenz?"

"Ja!"

"Didn't Rommel tell you that I was just sick?"

"You only get sick once a year!" The voice from the other side of the call points out, surprising him. "And it's still Spring; you only get sick around Summer or Winter though."

"I'm still surprised you know these, Kristel."

"Because I'm your Kouhai. Dum-Dum…"All Eirian can do is to accept this fact now, though luckily, she isn't here and that doesn't jeopardize his mission. With a sigh afterwards, Eirian is wrapping out the unexpected call from his junior back at Lüneburg Academy.

"I understand, Kristel. Though you know I have to delete the records of our call after this, right?"

"Jaaaaaa. I was just checking up on you, since you aren't the one who often assures your friends that you're doing fine there."

"Again, Rommel is supposed to cover my back on that. I think you just don't listen to him often."

"I'm not deaf, Senpai!" Kristel exclaims. "But I'll be sure to tell them that you're fine there."

"That isn't really necessary… but I appreciate the gesture. Thanks Kriste-"

"Senpai…"

Eirian stands there in the middle of the room, pondering on why the sudden tone of his junior starts giving out the impression that she's feeling rather displeased with something. And so, he closes his eyes and tries to analyze it until eventually he finds it.

"Oh… vergib mir."

"Thank you… Kotori."

He gives her time to react, and her reaction is simply full of happiness as he can hear the distinct giddy giggle of his junior. Seems like he's getting good at picking up the room now. A small achievement for the stoic Ace in disguise.

"Hehe, I feel like you're really changing now, Senpai!" Kristel assumes while he can still feel her excitement and happiness. "Can't wait to see this part of you very soon!"

"Right. Can't wait to see that as well…" Eirian sarcastically replies. "Anyhow, I already heard a thud behind me, I need to start my mission now."

"Okay! Have fun with your operation there, Senpai!"

"Bye."

With a single push on his phone's keypad, the conversation finally ends. Though her gesture to call him is a bit unnecessary on her part, but he feels a slight relief as they're doing fine without him, and this causes him to mutter as he checks his reflection to the mirror of his room.

"Good to note that they're doing fine. Though I'm curious, how did Canaris get my number that fast…?"

He loses the thought immediately the minute he sees his reflection with his new uniform. Only consisting of a white long-sleeved collar shirt with green matching necktie and trousers. It is a cheap yet more stylish alternative compared to the usual black gakuran that students like him are supposed to wear in their public secondary years.

"No wrinkles, my necktie is tightly wrapped, and my cuffs are folded evenly. My disguise as a student is finally complete." Eirian addresses himself as the preparation for his first day is complete now.

"Now, the only thing that leaves me for today is to say hi to her." Eirian declares with a soliloquy, approaching the door next after grabbing his bag and the keys of his room. "Though, how would I do that if she's just starting her day?" He wonders.

Twisting the doorknob and pushing it inward, the door finally opens, and the rays of sunlight begin to snake its bright beams to his dimly lit room. With the sound of the peaceful neighborhood and the chaotic orchestra of both students and vehicles correlates well nicely, Eirian finally meets the sight of the morning landscape of Zuikaku's residential area.

Giving a little bit of time to adjust his eyesight to the intense lighting of the sun, Eirian afterwards shut the door behind him. But on cue to the sound of his door closing, his phone vibrates yet again and curious as he is, he picks up a different phone.

Instead of the silver-gray phone earlier, this time he picks out his black keitai and immediately answers the call the moment he sees the contact of the caller.

"Yes?"

"How's your call with your Kouhai?"

Predictable as he is like Eirian anticipates, he can only give him a disbelief heave of sigh as he continues to walk, approaching the door of Room 23 next to him."I know that you're wiretapping the call earlier… but if you already know what my situation is, why the hassle to contact me, Miamoto?"

"I'll be your considerate Schulführer and give you advice."

"About what exactly?" The moment Eirian asks this, he is already standing in front of Room 23, ready to knock on it.

"I know you want to be as efficient as possible and end this operation quickly before August, but as you already saw the reports, you shouldn't be so direct to her so early."

"Reason?"

"Point A, she's still new here like you. Point B, she's still shy and probably isn't used to meeting new people. And Point C, she's still starting her day… and you're gonna wait there like a stalker to an idol's private life?"

"Seriously?" Eirian deadpans as that leaves him with no choice but to drop his initial plan now. "So, how long would I have to wait before I can initiate my conversation with her?"

"First, it all depends on you, and second, it's not an initiation of a conversation, it's called befriending!"

"They're almost synonymous, Miamoto." As Eirian gives his retort to him, he starts to walk away from the entrance of Miho's door and exits the floor through the staircase.

"Yeah, but you're Eirian. Haiiro Eirian from Tokushima Prefecture. A transfer student that is supposed to act normal."

"I would. But you called me and now I must answer you with a straight face as a sign of respect."

"I can't tell if you're giving a joke or just being yourself right now…"

"A bit of both. But that isn't the issue, the issue is that now I'm way too exposed here. Supposed that their Intelligence Department is tailing us, this might easily spell doom to our operation." Eirian begins to worry though it's a contrast to his expression of being emotionless from earlier. But wary as he is, he still looks around, checking any suspecting dishes and telegram poles.

"I'm pretty sure their equipment isn't that advanced yet, though only the phones bought directly there and registered are the only ones susceptible to wiretapping." Rommel explains. "So, no need to be so paranoid. And besides, do you really expect your no-name school to be able to spy on you?"

"Not really…" Eirian clicks his tongue as Rommel is right on that point.

"See? So, just enjoy your time there, be an Eirian, be carefree, be like me."

"Carefree to a fault that is." Eirian sniggers. "But yes, I'll be carefree starting from now on."

"Great! Now, I have a meeting to catch up with the Barons and their collaborators here, so Viel Glück!"

"See you."

Eirian then ends the call and goes back to walking down the street. Accompanying the inhabitants and students alike as he follows the latter as they're his guide in going to his new school. But on his way there, he stumbles upon a small park with a few visitors in it.

Knowing that he's early and how punctual he is, he decides to stay there and take a seat on one of the empty benches. Under the shade of an old tree, Eirian takes his seat and just waits there. Watching, observing, and admiring the sight around him for a bit.

From seeing a group of young 6 girls running towards the school with a smile on their face to seeing a vendor carrying a lot of mechanical stuff to his shop somewhere probably in the commercial district. And finally, the thing that catches his eyes the most is a clowder of stray cats approaching the lonely Ace.

Like flickering a switch, Eirian begins to subconsciously call the attention of these cats as they now begin to surround him. Balls of fluffiness in different colors and patterns now encircle the only human on the bench, purring along the way as they mark their scent and territory to him, through rubbing their fur on him, of course.

"Japanese Bobtails, American Shorttails, and even a Munchkin?!" Eirian monologues to himself as he starts to rub their heads, hearing the satisfying purring of these fluffy creatures.

"Good to know that they're being treated well here."

"Seems like they liked you, Haiiro."

A familiar voice outside his peripherals then catches Eirian's attention altogether, he slowly turns his gaze away from the clowder to him upon processing the voice he hears.

"I do have an affinity to one, Haruto." Eirian says with a beam of expression on his face.

"Interesting, you don't look like the part though." Haruto retorts, "And also, do mind that these cats are quite the thieves…"

Eirian then quickly rises from his seat, completely unaware of their reputation yet still attempts to defend these so-called "thieves" around him. Though being oblivious behind him, these cats are truly following their instincts and primal behavior.

"Hold on? I think you are just scaring these poor animals." Eirian argues and confidently turns around and gestures to the bag on the bench. "They are completely safe and I have this under control!"

But everything is not in control.

Not at all…

His bag is now agape and violently the zipper has been ripped open. The contents inside are either messy or long gone with his lunch, supplies, and even one of his phones is getting away by this band of cat-thieves. Eirian can only look at his gaping bag in utter shock, meanwhile Haruto empathetically holds his shoulder out of sheer comfort to the disbelieving victim.

"Where's your affinity now?"

"Quiet you…"

Both Eirian and Haruto eventually heads out to their school now after Eirian refills his stuff back at Haruto's Konbini, luckily the store is close by to the school, and thus with new and fresh stock for his first day as a student, the two boys then now walk in leisure towards the school-ship's only secondary and foremost school of Ōarai, Ibaraki.

Noticing the number of students conglomerating on the pathway leading to the school in the center of the school-Ship they're in. Eirian checks his surroundings in order to see if he's actually blending in with the rest of the students, and it appears he's right.

Looking at Haruto beside him, he immediately distinguishes the differences between the almost homogenous uniform of the boys, with the visible detail that departs his friend's uniform from his is Haruto's fashion style, mainly the unfold collar, loose necktie, and a loose button.

"Uniform Code isn't strict here?" Eirian asks.

"Depends on who manages today's gate."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You'll see it soon."

"How strict are they?"

"Is your hair like that to begin with?" Haruto asks in return as he starts to point at the Ace's messy hair.

"Well, yeah… I couldn't exactly comb my hair down…" Eirian answers with a slight defeat in his words. Even basic hair grooming he can't achieve through regiment only. "Is my hair really that messy to begin with?"

Haruto then lets out a chuckle as his reaction to his question. "Not really, among the other customers that I met before, yours can still be in the good way. Compared to others such as this one cute coworker I had back in the day, she has this cute curly chin-length fluffy hair."

"What happened to her then?"

"She was transferred to the Sunkus company!" He curses, "Not only I lost one of my cute coworkers to my competitors but also a potential cute girlfriend from the other boys!"

"How many cutes were there again?" Eirian sarcastically asks.

"4…" Haruto half-heartedly answers, "But believe me, this place is already heaven. You just need to find the perfect partner!"

"You don't need to worry about that, I think I already have my eyes on someone here." Eirian assures him.

"Oh? And who's this someone you're speaking of?" Haruto intrigues.

"And that's none of your business, buddy." Eirian jokingly replies.

Finally reaching the area where they can now see the school from the distance, among the crowd of students is the emblem of the school itself, the emblem is a combination of deep blue and white kanjis superimposed onto one another.

And with the trail of Sakura trees guiding them to the school gate alongside the large, embedded emblem beside it, the school of Ōarai Co-Educational Academy ultimately presents itself to Eirian.

With a quick and cheerful pat behind his back from his friend, Eirian now follows one of the first batch of boys in the newly converted school. Slowly they both find themselves on the chokepoint of the entrance as students with black armbands continue their thorough and diligent checking to all the students on the entrance as a requirement before they enter their ancient and sacred Academy.

With nothing to fear due to Haruto's quick reconnaissance, he pushes Eirian casually and manages to go through the school gate without bothering the busy students, especially to those with the black armbands on their left shoulders.

But their luck runs out the second they take another step on the school's concrete path.

"Kisetsu Haruto!"

"H-hai!" His back straightens and his skin begins to crawl up, instincts telling him that behind them are the vigilantes of the school order.

With their jig up, both Eirian and Haruto face their consequences, finally taking a look at these Moralers that catch them off-guard. One's a male student with an overturned basket and a haori acting as his jacket and a small diligent-looking female student with her tablet on her hand.

"Kisetsu… Not only did you violate our Uniform Code, but you also went ahead and avoided us." The leader of the committee states. "And you're accompanied with… a transfer student?"

"Fuke!" She exclaims.

"Hai, Sono-Senpai." Fuke the Moraler with an overturned basket then approaches Eirian. "You must be Haiiro Eirian-sama I assume?"

"H-Hai…" Eirian reacts weakly as part of his disguise, though this weak reply is just him being confused to the guy in front of him, wondering if Fuke can see through the basket.

"Then before we separate you with Kisetsu-sama here, we wanted to introduce you to our School. This is Ōarai Co-Educational Academy, the Co-Educational is emphasized. And I'm Fuke Benkei," Fuke introduces himself. "You may refer to me as simple Fuke-san."

"It's nice meeting you, but… what will happen to Haruto exactly?" As Eirian asks this, Haruto from a distance is trying his best to find his excuse while Sono interrogates him.

"Oh, he'll get reprimanded from Sono-Senpai alright." Fuke answers, finding harmony that she's still finding humility in her actions from scolding the unfortunate Haruto. "Usually, people like him get a detention slip, but for now she's acting in moderation because it's everyone's first day, but these students are taking too much freedom in their dress code."

"Is that why I'm not being interrogated by her?" Eirian wonders.

"I'm the one interrogating you, and seeing you, I can tell that you're a sheep in a flock." Fuke assumes, and this provides evidence to Eirian that his usual demeanor back in Lunenburg is non-existent in this time and place.

"A clean and neat uniform, which you're not standing out. Although your hair is a bit messy, but everyone is unique in their own appearance. And most of all, it seems like you have respect for the Authority. You might be a good asset for the Student Council in case they ever wanted to recruit one." Fuke continues, with a subtle praise at the end of his speech.

"Thanks! But, I feel like you're giving me too much credit here, well… compared to Haruto, I mean." Eirian dismisses these flattering compliments from him in his response. With his hand rubbing the back of his head to add to his embarrassment.

"Being humble is right, but one shouldn't distress the truth of what's left in him." Fuke quotes. "But I shouldn't wait for you any further here, you may go now."

"You're gonna let me go?"

"Hai. We'll just have to hold Kisetsu-sama for now because we wanted to have a word with him. For now, you may go along with the rest of the students here, they might be able to guide you around this school."

"O…kay? Thank you then, Fuke-san."

"Wait a minute, Eirian! Don't just leave me here!" Haruto cries out.

"Haiiro-san, you may go now. He'll meet you later." Sono firmly assures Eirian in return that he can go now.

As an associate, Eirian then takes a second to think his options there, stay with Haruto or start his day in the school. And with his head bowing to Haruto and raising his hand towards him, gesturing a simple tasteless good-bye, he forbids his farewell to him.

"You did me well, Haruto. I'll catch you soon then!"

"You bastard!" Haruto yelps it out once Eirian begins to walk away quickly from his sights. It isn't until the sight of an angered Sono in front of him causes him to stop and unfortunately faces the never-ending scolding from the leader of the Public Morals.

And whilst Sono begins to berate him, Fuke just watches Eirian from the distance as the Ace eventually notices that a pamphlet is already in his hand. Eirian then reacts amply to what Fuke expects, confusion and soon acceptance as the pamphlet he provides to him is a necessity to what a new student may need from this "small" school they're in.

"Fuke-san, we caught the historian buffs wearing their cosplays again!"

"I'll be there!" Fuke replies before going back and attends to his duty as one of the moralers for today.

Joining again in the crowd of students in the school's ground, Eirian easily fits in with the flock. His height is fairly average among the boys, proving this to be his advantage to not-so-stand-out from his mission.

Yet though he focuses on the mission ahead, his curiosity catches the best of him, so he begins to wander around the school, finding the reason why his target prefers this school out of all the available options out there.

Detaching himself from the crowd, the Ace begins his aimless journey around the campus. Bypassing many students, old buildings, and eventually, a young girl with her hair in a twin-tail in a quiet corridor.

"Excuse me, you aren't supposed to be here!" The young girl calls him out. "Got lost or something, mister?"

Eirian then looks behind his back, and alone in the hallway is a young girl. Her gentle red-brown eyes then interlock to his gray-shade eyes, her reddish-brown hair twin-tail then sways to the side as she approaches the unknown perpetrator that casually walks around the corridors of the Student Council Building.

"Small..." He mumbles.

"What did you say, mister?"

"N-nothing!" He replies back, imaginary sweats go popping off from his face as he tries to close his mouth from it. But as he tries to think of a better reason, the appearance of her close up immediately resembles the one from the pamphlet's description on his hand.

"This pamphlet has officially been approved by the twin-tailed, dried sweet potatoes loving addict, the charismatic president of Ōarai Academy." The description says.

"Seriously..." Eirian deadpans as he checks her appearance again to reassure himself.

"What seems to be the problem, mister?" She casually asks him again, not bothering to the fact that Eirian looks at her earlier as if she's an alien at this school.

"H-hai! I'm actually lost..." He replies while rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Lost, from the map provided by the pamphlet?" Her smile slowly creeps up from her confused face.

"It doesn't really tell me where I am…"

"That's some luck you got there, mister!" She titters immediately before extending her free hand to him once she backs away from him, offering her service to help him with a smile now. "How about this, I'll help you out, but you must treat me someday by buying me dried sweet potatoes, deal?" She negotiates.

"I don't have a choice, don't I...?"

"Of course not." She giggles.

"Fine..." Eirian answers reluctantly as he accepts her condition.

"Great! Then welcome to Ōarai Co-Educational Academy," she enthusiastically begins, "just call me Kadotani Anzu, or simply your Anzu-Senpai, got that?"

"Hai."

"But before we go out, what's your name first, kouhai…?" Anzu asks in curiosity.

"I'm Eirian, Haiiro Eirian, a newcomer."

"Ohhh, so you must be the transfer student from Tokushima!" She comments, but she follows this with a question, "then what brings you to Ōarai then?"

"Family matters, nothing that important actually."

"Ah, understandable." Anzu nods repeatedly as she accepts his answer as concrete and so her doubts begin to dissipate. "But shall we start our tour now?"

"Lead the way then." Eirian answers.

"Hai-hai~ Just follow me, Kouhai!"

And so their journey starts, travelling across many points pointed at the pamphlet, the tour is enjoyable to say at least with Anzu and her quirky attitude and childish look keeps entertaining the new student. Eventually the two of them are in a tour around the school's open field, Eirian realizes something from the distance that interestingly catches his attention.

"Is that a garage?" He asks, pointing out the 5 brick-styled garages over the distance with a high tower beside it.

"That? Hai, Hai. That's the former garage of our school's Sensha-dō."

"We have a Sensha-dō team before?"

"Yup, but they were disbanded decades ago for some reason. But we disbanded a lot of stuff recently, like the Volleyball club because of our tight budget."

While Anzu continues her explanation about it, Eirian takes a brief stop and stares at the garages of Ōarai's defunct Sensha-dō, he's in deep thought as he starts wondering something about it.

"The documents didn't tell me that they have a Sensha-dō team before," he says to himself with worry and concern, "does Rommel know this? And if so, does that Nishizumi know it as well?".

Anzu then starts to look at the preoccupied student without saying a word, though she has this thing on her mind that certainly wants to ask about him, and that's related to one they are looking at.

"May I wonder, kouhai, are you a former Panzerkraft athlete by any chance?" She asks, causing reality to strike back to him.

"What? Me? Well, yeah, when I was a child that is..." Eirian answers immediately, very surprised that Anzu asks that question out of the blue. "But that's about it."

"I see..." she shows a faint smile under her breath before she continues, "then shall we get going then, classes are about to start if you still get distracted by everything."

"H-hai!"

They continue their tour until the both of them arrive at the building for the Second-Years. Both of them are now saying their goodbyes to one another as the hallways became empty, quiet, and clean, as classes are about to start anytime soon.

"That took a while. But with a few minutes to spare, you won't be late to your class thanks to me."

"Hai! Thank you for everything, Senpai!" He bows.

"The pleasure's mine. After all, that's the duty of the Student Council." She proudly declares while showing her upbeat smile. "Oh, but you do have 5 minutes left, hehe~"

"Wait what?!" Eirian then hears the bell that chimes from the outside, indicating that class is about to start. Worried and a little bit frustrated from Anzu's false assurances, Eirian then quickly bows to his Senpai and immediately runs away from her, running through the clean hallways.

Anzu stands there for a complete second before giving in with a lovely smile and a chuckle, "So that's Haiiro Eirian, what an interesting person indeed…"

Eirian then eventually enters his classroom just in time for the bell of the school to ring aloud again and distinctly this time. But upon entering the room, he immediately meets his Homeroom Teacher who's at the front of the class already.

"You're quite lucky for today's attendance, mister Haiiro?" The teacher says to him. Short-haired, slender figure, wears square glasses, and has this authoritarian vibe whenever she talks.

"Ah... am I safe?"

"Yes, but since you're there already, why won't you introduce yourself first?" She says to him, it's more or less an order than a suggestion basing on her voice alone.

"Hai..." He then goes to the front of the class and introduces himself, but before he tries to introduce himself verbally, he starts to write down his name in kana on the board behind him. "灰色・エイリアン"

"Greetings, everyone! I am Eirian, Haiiro Eirian." He starts scanning the room while under the impression of introducing himself, "I am currently 17 and I came from Naruto City, Tokushima Prefecture. I hope we all can get along during this school year."

Seeing the many faces he already knows, including Haruto, Lisbeth, Elena, Natsuki, and a familiar girl that makes his mission there easy, and what makes this girl in question important is because she's his neighbor and Eirian's sole target in his mission.

"Well, that makes it easier for me." A grin crawls across his face before he quickly changes it back to his lively and normal 'smile' after returning to his posture.

"And I know they will, mister Haiiro. But your seat is at the back of our class. Please don't try to be a buzzerbeater next time."

Eirian gives his nod of affirmation before going to the back of their room and takes the only spot that is vacant at the rear of their class, upon sitting on his wooden chair and behind his desk, he starts staring at Miho unbeknownst of her knowing it.

The sight of her light brownish hair under the morning's light is mesmerizing, the look on her brown eyes gazing around frantically can quickly tell the story she's been through, and that surprises Eirian a bit, "Is she seriously the Kommandant of Kuromorimine?" He starts doubting. "But she definitely isn't standing out from the class either."

But looking at Miho all day can't help Eirian with his mission, other than giving the others the impression that he might like her, and that's an absolute no-go for him, and so he just focuses on his act as a student.

Class starts and after hours of learning, the bell begins to toll through the empty corridors, indicating that lunch is in full session, and thus both students and teachers alike start exiting their classrooms, all of them are making their way towards their favorite locations, it can be the cafeteria, the school ground, or the rooftop, if they are bold enough that is.

But back at the room of Class 2-A, Eirian still resides behind his desk, fixing bag for the moment while watching the Nishizumi across the almost empty room under his peripheral.

"Didn't know we would be in the same class, Eiry!" The voice of a certain blonde girl then surprises him. And with Eirian looking up to the girl in front of him, the Ace confronts her yet again.

"Lisbeth…?" Eirian tries to confirm her identity. "Ye-yeah, a coincidence, isn't it?"

"Yup! Seems like fate has destined us to be classmates then, right Lena?"

Lisbeth then looks at her friend behind her, both girls wearing their sailor fuku uniform that resembles a sailor suit that is common to all girl students to wear. And like Eirian and Haruto, they share the color palette of green and white.

But looking at them specifically, each has their own distinct feature to make them stand out, apart from their hairstyle, hair color, and height, obviously.

"More like the School doesn't have the facilities to handle this amount of students." Elena retorts with a correction. "Hence a late transferee like him got into our class instead." With young stature and a sharp personality, the girl with a red scarf with long-haired twin-tails makes her memorable for him to remember. For the worst reasons of course.

"But still, him here with Har-Har means that we can form a group here!" Lisbeth suggests excitedly, a vibe that Eirian is so familiar with. Deja vu? Might be.

"Not having it." Both Eirian and Elena answer in a deadpan unison.

"Oh, you two will be great, I can confirm it." Lisbeth still insists, keeping their belligerent relationship bearable with a mediator like her around.

Lisbeth on the other hand is more stylish than Lena, Ms. Affable wears a blue blazer, black long stockings, and finally earrings to show her feminine beauty alongside her upbeat personality. It's a recipe of popularity and it does work as one manages to call her name out.

"Going out again and trying to befriend everyone as usual, Lizzy?" The voice of a familiar girl from earlier catches the three. Turning their heads around and seeing a trio of students from the Student Council from behind them.

"Oh! Hey, Anzu!" Lisbeth then greets her back with a smile and a high five. These two have quite a friendly relationship as Eirian assumes.

"So, what brings you here to our class?" Lisbeth then asks her. But Anzu isn't the one who answers her question in return, is it instead a student behind her, with a grey monocle and a black ribbon on her neck.

"This does not concern you nor the others, we just wanted to talk with him." She states, pointing later to the only guy in the conversation.

"Relax Momo, being strict during their first day would harm your reputation." Her other associate with a gentle voice reminds her in return, slowly putting down Momo's hand.

"I am perfectly fine, Yuzu." Momo assures her. "But we need your friend for now, we have a business with him, in urgency."

"You heard him, kouhai. Would you accompany us for a moment?" Anzu then continues it, but now directly to Eirian himself.

"I supposed I can't get my lunch with Haruto then?"

"It will be quick." Momo assures him in return,

"Well, sounds like I'm doomed then…" Eirian decides to stand from his seat, "Lisbeth, be sure to tell Haruto that I'll be gone for a while."

And while Lisbeth gives a nod of affirmation and a brief yes from him. Eirian then now accompanies the three as they soon leave the class, leaving Lisbeth and Elena, and soon a confused Haruto.

"Did he do something wrong with the Student Council?" Asks Haruto as he enters the conversation with his bento box in his hands.

"Most likely they wanted something from him." Elena presumes. "Something that he has but not from us."

"And what would that be?"

"His background maybe."

While walking towards the Student Council building, Yuzu out of nowhere begins to break the silence to Eirian beside them.

"I'm sorry for taking your precious time, Haiiro-san."

"It's fine, though I'm just confused as they are, I don't know why I am being dragged by the Council itself." Questions begin to linger on his mind, but all he can do is stay calm and composed to the situation he's in.

"We just need an interview." Momo interjects. "And since you're a transfer student from Naruto City, it seems fitting for you to be interviewed by us."

"But this will be short, we won't take your time that much, Hairro-san." Yuzu continues to relieve him with those assurances.

"That's our first gift for your first day here though." Anzu then teases him with a smile on her face as they eventually reach the room of the student council on cue to her teasing comment.

"Take this as our token of interest to you."

Pushing the door of the office-like appearance of the Student Council, where papers stacked like mountains and the sight is completely chaotic with everything scattered around, Anzu takes a swift turn to her left and proceeds to approach a door and opens it by herself again.

Opening it reveals a lovely and simple room, with glass panes that overlooks the vicinity of the school, black sofas and a long-elongated table, bookshelves, picture frames, and finally a desk and office chair behind it at the center of room above a large carpet and a flag of Ōarai beside the desk. It's the perfect place for the office room of the President of Ōarai Academy.

But on the corner of the room is a male student like Eirian, both wearing proper uniforms but the one in the room has black circular glasses. Looking at his laptop before closing the lid as he hears the announcement of the door opening with a creaking sound.

"Ah, you must be the candidate." The guy with the glasses states, approaching him and begins to offer his hand for a handshake. "The name is Kojiro, Tsujihara Kojiro. I'm the Treasurer of the Student Council."

Young and tall, has pure brown eyes and combs his brown hair in a neat manner while wearing his iconic black round glasses, making him the epitome of a model student for their school.

"Haiiro Eirian, nice to meet you." Eirian accepts his handshake.

"And now that you're acquainted with Tsuji, the others will introduce themselves properly." Anzu then tells him this as she goes to her seat, taking comfort upon resting her back on it.

"I'll start first. I am Kawashima Momo, the Public Relations Manager." Momo introduces first, her appearance stands out unlike the two other girls beside and behind her thanks to her light grey monocle and her black choker that looks like a ribbon. Average height, short black hair, and dark black eyes.

"And I'm Koyama Yuzu, I'm currently acting as the Vice President of the Student Council." Yuzu is the next to introduce herself. With brown hair tied in a ponytail and cool colored brown eyes. This girl bows down perfectly and with a humble personality corresponding to it, she shines as the exact opposite of the quirky Anzu behind them.

"Nice to meet you two, but I am curious, what brings me here for an interview?" Eirian then finally asks that question on the top of his mind the moment he steps in the student council office earlier.

And while he waits for them to answer his question, Anzu further relaxes her back on her chair and takes out her favorite snack from the drawers of her antique desk, even offering the snack to him once she opens the lid of it.

"Want some?"

"Is that… dried sweet potatoes?"

"Yesh."

"No thanks, we're getting sidetracked here." Eirian shakes his head as the conversation diverts elsewhere. "What's the reason I'm here for exactly?"

Anzu in return looks back to him, closing the lid of her snack and rests both her elbows on the desk afterwards, forming a rest underneath her chin. The President now looks intently at him with a question for him to answer.

"You came from Tokushima, specifically to Naruto City. A faraway place that I heard that it is known for its Panzerkraft collaborations. So Kouhai, what made you choose our small school here in Ibaraki instead?"

Eirian takes a second to digest the question, their suspicion for him is there thanks to his place of origin. Either they want to know something from him or they're testing his affiliation with Panzerkraft itself. And so the Ace opens his mouth and answers her question while the eyes of others are looking at him.

"Like I said, I went here under the permission of my family. I wanted to live a quiet life out of the bustling city noises and vehicles smoke. I picked this school because its culture is leisure and relaxing." Eirian answers confidently, trying his best to subdue their doubts if they're fishing something out from him.

"I see… and how's your time here then?" Anzu then asks.

"I believe it's my first day so I can't tell much, but I can say that this place is worth preserving." This answer from him catches the others unguard, a slight shift of their readied shoulders relaxes upon hearing it.

"Worth preserving? What do you mean by that?" Momo interjects.

"Your school is decaying from history, and seeing how ancient this school is, I think I deserve to stay in a school-ship where I can appreciate the old, peace, and countryside comfort." Eirian explans.

"And wouldn't that be discouraging for you to apply to this school?" Yuzu then joins the questioning. "Afterall, our school is just small and old."

"Your small and old can still accommodate thousands of students, so a matter of size doesn't deter me from applying to this school." Eirian asserts, hoping to find his answers adequate to the interview.

"Sounds like you know your stuff, you have your family members onboard Zuikaku?" Kojiro the next then asks.

"Unfortunately no, though it's part of their recommendation for me to pick this school if ever I want to. And I did pick Zuikaku."

"Well, let me ask you this, kouhai." Anzu then takes the final question. She has been intrigued by his answers from earlier, and so the Student Council President wants to give him a question that might satisfy the requirements of this interview with him.

"Our school is small and old, but peaceful with no-name whatsoever. So if you were given a chance to fix our school, would you do it?"

"A chance to fix our school? Why that question in particular?"

"You sound very loyal to a cause, that's why I asked."

Giving Eirian a second to answer, he looks back to them now and answers her question with a conviction. "No."

His answer sweeps the thoughts of the others, surprised to hear his answer, Anzu just laughs it out while the other three members are befuddled from his answer with his full conviction on it.

"That's quite an answer, kouhai…" Anzu then wipes the tears of laughter from her face. "I think that is all I need from you."

"I won't be kicked out of this school right?" Eirian asks as his answer might bring some unexpected enemies as indicate by both Kojiro and Momo's expression.

"You won't, we can assure you that." Anzu giggles. "But that would be all for now, we'll call you soon if we ever need your feedback again."

"Right, I'll be on my way now." And with that, Eirian leaves the room, and with the door shutting tight from his departure, Momo then asks Anzu about his answer earlier.

"Would that suffice you to his answer, miss Prez?"

"Mhm, I think he has his motives. Anyhow, how's the document then?"

"It's right here like you wanted." Momo then slides the envelope towards her on the desk.

And while Anzu begins to open the contents of the envelope, Yuzu then asks about him yet again, but this time, she includes a name that is also in Class 2-A.

"If he came from Tokushima, then he must be familiar with Nishizumi-san from Kumamoto. But why did you want to include them both in the same classroom together with the girl from Karafuto?"

"It is because we suspect them both." Kojiro answers Yuzu while he finishes his report on his laptop.

"She's right, and would you continue it, Momo?" Anzu then highlights the document on her hand.

"Yes, miss Prez. According to our investigation of the two, it seems like Nishizumi Miho from Kuromorimine Girls Academy and Haiiro Eirian from the presumed Bandō National High School both have expertise in the field of Sensha-do [!]. Both are talented, they are capable enough to command a tank, but we have only few and scarce documents to support Haiiro's validity."

"What's the reason behind the scarce documents behind Haiiro's background in Sensha-do?" Kojiro asks.

"The documents we gathered are either conflicted or overexaggerated, whatever the case, they are keeping something to Haiiro." Momo explains. "But the same thing can be said to the Nishizumi here, but she's already famous enough."

"But with that, what's our next move then, miss Prez?" Momo then looks at the President in front of them.

"It's simple," she begins before declaring, "We just need both Nishizumi Miho and Haiiro Eirian to join our revived team!"

"And do you think we can persuade the two easily?" Momo questions.

"If we can't, then we're just gonna use Tsujihara's advice." Anzu retorts.

"But you do know that this Haiiro is probably hiding something from us, right?"

"Hai! But that doesn't bother us, for now that is," she says to her, "If she's on the team, then kouhai will have no choice but to go along as well."

"You managed to decrypt his intention here?" Kojiro then asks Anzu.

"I had a trustworthy person for that, Tsujihara."

"I see… but we'll prepare the things needed then. If you excuse us, President." Kojiro bows his head to her and all three of them leave the room, leaving a satisfied Anzu as she readies her snack and opens its lid again.

Turning her chair around and watching the school below her, she can't help but chuckle at the thought of it.

"I don't know what to say to them…"

Miho says to herself internally. Struggling to make even the simplest of conversation as her face buries itself underneath her browny short bangs. Despondency slowly drowns her mind as she looks aimlessly at her plastic tray.

"Why did I marathoned the latest Boko's season rather than preparing for this…" Then the moment she closes her eyes, memories from her past show her of what she's been doing for the past few days… consuming nothing but the famous boko series at an alarming unprecedented pace.

And while Miho continues to dwell around in her dejected and unnerving bubble, the presence of the two girls beside her quickly dissipates it with their calculated opening.

"Hehe, we finally managed to pick her up." The girl from her right opens up. Catching Miho's attention as she glances over to her with her eyes finally matching her classmate's tawny eyes.

Long hair with curly ends in a ginger-toned, shiny complexion, and a slight makeup on her cheeks and lips primarily.

"This is gonna be amazing~"

"Ara. We really wanted to try talking with you, Nishizumi-san." The girl from her left follows. Pulling away Miho's subtle gazes into a full expression as the comment snatches her curiosity, turning her face around altogether in order to meet her and memorize the features of her face.

Noticing instantly the distinct antenna-like cowlick from her jet-black hair that coincides with the palette of her irises as it blends well with her natural white-toned skin. Giving an impression of a girl from elite status during the antiquity of Japanese literature.

"R-Really?!" Miho takes her head aback as a response.

"Hehe, you were kinda jittery during our introductions earlier." The girl on the left interjects. "You just seemed so interesting!"

"I-Interesting?"

She then begins to recall her earlier nerve-wrecking introduction that is full of stutters and that causes her head to fall under the covers of her bangs again. "I should've just practiced this mor-"

"Yeah!" But both the girls answer in unison, cutting off Miho's train of thought with their combined distinct voices blend in a synchronous reply.

"Nee, nee! I'm-"

"Takebe Saori-san." Miho interrupts. "Born June 22nd."

Miho then continues to surprise her even more.

"You like pink roses, you enjoy the beach, and your hobbies are doing house chores and cooking."

"Wh-what?!" All Saori can say as she's fully dumbfounded by Miho's unexpected research about her. But Miho still presses onward with her facts, but this time to the other girl.

"Isuzu Hana-san. Born on December 16th." Miho begins, with her index finger in the air waving confidently as if she knows Hana from birth. "Your favorite flower is wisteria, you wanted to go to Ashikaga Flower Park, and you like Ikebana."

"Hai." Taking Miho's peculiar approach in a manner that is appropriate and something that she will do. Hana nods her head with a gentle smile on her face. "You even know where I wanted to go, Nishizumi-san."

"That's so cool! You remembered our profiles!" Saori reacts in awe also. Leaning in closer to Miho as a result.

Looking at their expressions alone, Miho takes the topic enthusiastically with an excited nod.

"Mhm! I read and memorized everyone's profile on our class list."

"Did you say you 'memorized everyone'?!"

"Hai. I did that so I can approach and befriend anyone in our class."

"I knew you'd be interesting, Nishizumi-chan. You got my attention clearly!" Saori replies. Putting up a smile that manages to reciprocate to Miho as the girl they want to befriend with begins to open up herself with a countenance of a tranquil mixed with a hopeful smile.

"Oh yeah! Can I call you by your first name?"

"Huh?" Miho tilts her head out of confusion, with a comedic question mark popping above her head even.

"She means she wants to call you Miho, Nishizumi-san." Hana helps her out through a whisper. Gladly helping her as she shows her smile at the innocence of their classmate afterwards.

Miho blinks once, twice, and thrice. Processing what Hana said to her before looking back to Saori, as the girl with the ginger-toned hair expects an answer from her, Miho delivers it by bobbing her head repeatedly.

Finally getting the confirmation from Miho herself, Saori's smile widens with happiness as she finally calls out her friend's first name in a joyful manner.

"Then how about it, Miho~"

Way beyond what Miho expects it to be, the sincere and sweet calling from her begins to flutter her heart and cheeks blushing. Excitement and happiness goes in congruent as it sends her in a giddy yet reckless state, a symptom of someone succumbing in total bliss.

"Sugoi! It's like we're friends now!" Miho happily exclaims as she starts to dance around the moment she receives her main dish from the server.

Taking a large step back and swinging her body around like a ballerina dancer. But this pirouette display is nothing but an imitation as her body full of ecstasy can't keep up with the realities of her experience– in short, Miho isn't a ballerina dancer.

"Gawah!?"

Facing the consequences of her clumsiness, Miho's lunch frees itself from the plastic tray, flying in the air one by one as the poor girl is about to hit herself on the floor, but luckily, someone beside her manages to catch her body, and it's not Saori nor Hana.

"I got'cha!" Lisbeth shouts as she grabs Miho by the shoulders from behind, luckily arriving at the scene even though she's beside Saori the whole time. And like Lisbeth, Elena is also there to help the damsel in distress. "Lena! The food!"

"I know!" Elena then takes a quick second to calculate and predict the falling dishes from the air, once she knows the outcome, she grabs the tray and starts receiving the airborne food like a game of tetris.

Eventually, she manages to get all of them– almost all of them.

"Where's the teacup?"

Elena asks the obvious as the missing item hits her forehead afterwards. Bouncing the second until it lands perfectly onto the tray the next. First with a loud thump and the second a soft thud on the plastic tray.

"Well…" She grunts. "At least it's empty…"

As Miho regains her body to stand, immediately Saori and Hana attend their clumsy friend while worried in their faces as they sermon the girl afterwards, meanwhile Lisbeth helps Elena before they present and serve the tray again to Miho.

"Please don't do that again!" Saori rebukes worriedly while Hana shares the same sympathy with her.

"You made us worried there, Nishizumi-san." Hana adds.

"Hai… sorry about that…" Miho apologizes with her hand behind her head, utterly embarrassed from the events she displayed earlier, but her sincere apology and sincere smile now assures to them both and the others in the room that she's fine thanks to the two girls behind them.

"And t-thank you for h-helping me, Chūdā-san and Yakova-san…"

"Welcome! Wait…" Lisbeth takes a moment of silence to process what she calls her before looking back at her closely with her citrine-like eyes. "You know my name too?"

"H-hai!" Miho answers. "You're Chūdā Lisbeth-san. September 7th."

"And you're Yakova Elena-san, same month as Chūdā-san but you're in the 19th."

"You got that right." Elena confirms, a smirk forming across her face. "Anything else you want to add?"

"Uhm…" Miho thinks for a second. "Ah! You came from Karafuto prefecture and your height is 4'10" with your weight is 4-"

"Alright, that's enough information!" Elena immediately cuts Miho short. Her face flushing with redness as the embarrassed northerner doesn't want her weight in particular to be exposed. "I get it! You know me!"

A brief sigh,, she continues with a subtle comment. "Sheesh… No wonder he wants to know more about you…"

"He?! Someone here is curious about Miporin?" Saori asks in response as a result of her intrigue to Miho's sudden potential admirer. "I never knew she's popular with the boys too~"

"Wh-what?!" Miho takes a step back yet again.

"Ara-Ara, sounds like Nishizumi-san is that popular then, oh dear." Hana comments next. With her hand on her cheek of her tilting head, gasping in astonishment at her friend's popularity.

"She does?" Lisbeth looks back at Elena, trying to remember about it since surely she has to know it. "Does it ring a thing to you, Mihorin?"

"She does?" Lisbeth just tilts her head looking confused, looking at Elena for a second until she realizes it like lightning striking the light bulb. "Oh! Him! Yeah, he was quite curious about you."

"Ahh huh… who e-exactly is t-this p-person…?"

"Well, none other than one of our new transferees, it's Eir-"

---

And somewhere from the campus, that name causes someone to sneeze unexpectedly. Might be due to the dust and dirt that litter the crowded hallway, or a mystical force of a phenomena playing its magic on someone. Either way, Eirian still picks the former.

"The amount of dust and dirt this place has… it's irritating." Eirian complains. "Where are the janitors when you need one?"

While Eirian continues to berate his frustration towards the school's poor maintenance to himself, his thought disappears the moment he reaches his 2-A Classroom. With his stomach softly grumbling, Eirian slides the door open and sees Haruto in the distance inside the room.

"Haruto?" Eirian wonders to his friend who's eating his lunch on his own desk,

"Have you been there for the whole time?" Eirian asks as he begins to approach him. And while Haruto starts to reply to him the next, he first pulls out Eirian's lunch since he's sitting on Eirian's steed, a reparation from occupying his friend's seat.

"Took you a while!" Haruto exclaims while munching on his well-made konbini bento. "Least you could tell me the reason why!" He then grumbles the next moment as Eirian takes his seat across the lunch-filled desktop.

"I beg of you, just let me have my lunch first…" Eirian pleads.

"Right… Your lunch is still warm as expected of my Konbini quality."

"You made this?"

"My sister did."

"Right, thanks for the food then." And with that, Eirian begins to munch on his meal. And like Haruto pompously claims, his Konbini meals are stellar in quality and warm enough to be eaten at any time which is a step-up compared to Eirian's Spätkauf back in Germany.

"Look, I didn't do that on purpose." Eirian starts. "The Council just dragged me out for no reason."

"Really…? For no reason?" Haruto doubts with his eyebrow raising up. "According to Chūdā, you met the Student Council President earlier."

"Wait? Where did she get the information from?" While Eirian begins to sidetrack his conversation, but with a quick jerk of his head, he goes back to the topic he needs to clarify the most.

"Well… Yes. I met the renowned Kadotani-san earlier. She was very peculiar and clingy as the President of this school." Eirian sarcastically clarifies while munching the delicious yakitori.

"Geez… already you have some bad blood to her now." Haruto just laughs it off, showing no sympathy to the newly transferee's first day. "Is that the reason why the humble Yuzu-chan, the feisty Momo-chan, and the renowned Anzu-chan escorted you out earlier?"

Haruto begins to fall silent and starts to wonder with his hand on his chin. "But then again… three girls hitting on you on the same day…"

And with a snap from his fingers, he casually exclaim it to him while pointing his said index finger to his face.

"You're a Playboy."

"..."

"Shut up, part-timer."

"Hey! I'm doing it because it's my duty to continue the legacy of our Konbini!" Haruto snaps back.

"Right, right…" Eirian just shrugs him before finally going back to the main topic. "And not exactly… They wanted to interview me personally."

"Interview you? About what?"

"They were curious why someone like me joined the School."

"I see…" Haruto finally calms himself down and goes back to his seat. "You did say you came from Naruto City… from what I heard, that place has good education with a lot of cultural exchange programs." Haruto points out. "Kinda shame for you to take Ōarai's Zuikaku to be honest."

"And that's how you lose your customer, Haruto…" Eirian retorts.

Haruto then apologizes with a quick clap for emphasis. "Goumen!"

"Haha, it's alright. I was joking." Eirian jokes, after seeing Haruto's earnest state, he finally shows his dull jester side which fails miserably with no laughter from his audience whatsoever.

"Phew! That's a relief, really." Haruto exhales comfortably. But the moment he feels relieved from securing his customer, his friend across the desk is getting quiet and serious all of a sudden, causing him to ask Haruto in response. "Eirian?"

Eirian response, "Say, if you were given a chance to protect your school, would you accept it?"

"Protect the School?" Haruto thinks for a second. "I guess I'll take the chance to protect it."

"Why is it?" Eirian questions back, curious to see what his friend's motive is.

In return to Eirian's curiosity, Haruto further leans his back to his chair and elaborates his answer further. "Zuikaku has always been my home. Even if everyone sees it as a dilapidated junky scrap island, I will continue to call this my home like my ancestors did."

Though crude and a bit of besotted sometimes, his resolve is nothing but commendable in the eyes of Ace behind the mask of Eirian. As someone whose loyalty befits to a cause, it makes Haruto more similar to him that they both realize it. And with a smile from Eirian as his reward, Eirian begins to speak up in return.

"That's admirable, Haruto."

"Thanks!" Haruto smiles, but slowly it turns into his usual smug as he continues. "And besides, as a former All-Girls School, you can expect a lot of cuties here!"

"..."

"Yeah, I'll take that back." Eirian deadpans. "You're just a pervert…"

"Oh come on!" Haruto then slams Eirian's desk out of aggression. "Where's your romanticism is anyway?!"

"Somewhere beyond that lovestruck head of yours." Eirian scoffs in return, but then realizes what he lacks in this particular operation, and so with a thought in mind, he asks his friend about it. "But then again…"

"Haruto, tell me… What's the best approach to Nishizumi Miho."

Upon hearing Eirian's sudden request, Haruto goes back to his chair. "Ah… Nishizumi-chan?! Our classmate and the one you've been looking for since day one?"

"That's correct."

"Well, it's hard to approach someone so reserved…" Haruto answers, but even if he's the one answering, curiosity gets the better of him. "And why do you keep insisting on her anyway, what exactly are you to her?"

Interested to know their relationship now, Eirian is in the corner and he'll have to continue to stall time with his act. As nothing beats an intrigued guy of romance, Eirian pulls out his card, figuratively.

"Well, as luck would have it… I'm… Nishizumi's neighbor..."

---

"Is that even allowed?!" Saori asks with her voice louder than a shouting hyena.

Walking down the hallway that leads back to their classroom, Miho does her best to answer Saori's unrelenting inquiries about her neighbor while Hana acts as the mediator whenever the Nishizumi gets overwhelmed by their friend's interview.

"I remembered that the Student Mayor put that policy due to the limited budgets we have." Hana answers. "But I'm surprised to hear that Haiiro-san is your neighbor."

"Yeah!" Saori concurs, still surprised to know the sudden revelation. "And I didn't even see you two interacting as well, what gives?!"

"Saori-san, please relax. You're scaring Miho-san here." Hana intervenes as she can see Miho's face being suppressed with less and less confidence the more Saori pushes.

"N-no! I-it's fine, Hana-chan." Miho tries her best to assure her support and answers back to Saori as that girl has her eyes spark with absorption like the Milky Way.

"W-we didn't talk that much… we only do small gestures when we encounter one another..." Miho explains as much as she can. Remembering all the times they encounter in the past days in and around their dormitory apartment.

"And how long has Hairro-san been your neighbor then?" Hana asks in return.

"A week…"

"Girl! This is the perfect opportunity for you to get to know him!" Saori exclaims, insisting on the obvious to the oblivious Miho.

"H-how…?"

"As a woman who has experience with these sorts of things, I can assure you that your neighbor is interesting. According to Girls Und Preferences that I read last week, Eirian-kun is the type of guy who's mysterious yet still looks cool! Hence that's why he got pulled over by the Student Council!"

"Neighbor-san got pulled over by the Student Council? Why?" Miho parrots, tilting her head with her eyebrows raised as well. "Did he do something bad?"

"I don't know… but talking with Lisbeth-chan earlier, Eirian got their attention when he met the President!" Saori explains. "And look, there… they… are…?"

As Saori is about to finish her last sentence, two girls from the Student Council are already waiting for someone in front of their 2-A Classroom. For a classroom that's small, it catches quite the attention of their Seniors.

"Are they the Student Council?" Miho asks yet again.

"Nishizumi Miho?" Momo sternly asks with Yuzu behind. Completely catching the trio's guard as they start to approach them.

"H-hai…" Feeling intimidated from Momo's presence, Miho begins to feel restless to her seniors. "That's me…"

"Then that makes things easier." Momo then begins to approach her in particular. "I need to have a word with you."

"Uhm…"

"Now."

"Can we stay?" Hana suggests to them both, but even though Momo wants to answer back with her fierce and stingy replies, Yuzu answers her question instead on her friend's behalf.

"I'm sorry girls, but this is a matter between the Council and Nishizumi-chan. But you girls are free to wait for her inside the classroom if you like." Even if Yuzu is doing her best to assure both Saori and Hana, they still doubt her words regardless.

Though they doubt the assurances of their Senior, the words directly from Miho is what manages to fully calm them down. "Don't worry, I'll be fine you guys."

"Miho…"

"It will be fine, Saori-san." With guidance from Hana as she holds Saori's hand, they soon enter their classroom, leaving Miho behind with the Student Council in the hallway all alone, no students in sight as class is about to be resumed in just a couple of minutes.

"I'll speak briefly." Momo then adjusts her monocle, preparing herself to bring the news to her. "On behalf of our Student Council President, we want you t-"

"Yoh, Nishizumi-chan!"

With the sudden interference, both Momo and Yuzu turn their backs and only to see a wild Anzu grinning behind them.

"Prez?!"

"Yo! I'm done persuading the girl with the fluffy hair from the other section. Eh, more like Tsujihara handled it." Anzu casually explains as she begins to approach Miho now.

Striding with confidence and enthusiasm befitting as the charismatic Student President, Anzu then locks her arms around Nishizumi to close the distance between them. "Hey, since I'm the President and we're in desperate need of people with talent, we want you to join Sensha-dō as your elective!"

"W-What?!" Miho gulps heavily upon hearing the President's selfish request. "B-but, I thought Sensha-dō was disbanded decades ago?"

"Well, we're starting it now as our new investment!" Anzu then lets go of her arm-lock to a confused Miho. Still retaining her grin for the rest of her quick persuasion. "And I most definitely want a Nishizumi on board for this!"

Like a signal instantly coming from a circuit, when Miho hears her surname getting dropped by the President's persuasion to her, the poor girl begins to recall flashes of her past. Still unfazed from the eyes of Anzu, she just continues her bubbly professionalism unbeknownst of traumatizing Miho.

"Well, I'll be waiting for your result tomorrow then! Ciao!" With one loud clap behind Miho's back, Anzu and her group decide to go back to their office now, still unaware that they opened Miho's Pandora box.

As the Student Council is already gone and hearing the voice of her friends once again, the depleted Miho turns around in a daze.

"Miho?"

With blurry vision and a dizzy headache, Miho's physique slowly crumbles to a halt and slowly shuts her eyes and falls on the floor, with the last thing she sees are her worried friends and an unexpected person she's familiar with.

As she closes her eyes, she mentions his name.

"Neighbor-san…"

Carrying her with the intention of bringing her to the clinic, Eirian Haiiro, alongside Hana and Saori, all walk towards the medical bay of their building. And while both Hana and Saori are worried about their unconscious friend, Eirian meanwhile has no choice but to comply with the situation he's in.

"And here I was trying to leave the room to visit the bathroom…" Giving out a sigh afterwards, Eirian then stares closely at the girl he's holding. "Seems like she's holding out just fine."

"I'm sorry if you have to carry her throughout the walk, Hairro-san." Hana then apologizes to Eirian the moment they reach the corner leading to the school's medical bay.

"Oh! It's fine really! I was there when she fell and I still need to be responsible as her neighbor surely." Eirian replies. "Did you girls know what the Council said to her?"

"Not really…" Saori shakes her head in disbelief. "I knew there's something up with them…"

"Whatever the reason is, let's hope for the best that Miho will wake up later…" Either his portrayal at play or a shed of his kindness coming back from his former self, Eirian wonders and looks worried to the Nishizumi. "Let's just hope this is all just your act, Nishizumi."

"But, I was wondering, Haiiro-kun." Saori speaks up. Catching the attention of Eirian altogether to her now. "If you're her neighbor, what's stopping you from approaching her?"

Eirian takes a moment to process this and then looks to the side as if guiltiness takes a hold of him. "Well…" Eirian pauses, "she might be scared of me, haha…"

"And besides, Nishizumi here isn't really fond of pushing the initiative aimlessly…" Eirian then continues. "She's quiet and reserved, and even if we do see each other, she either doesn't look at me because she's embarrassed or she's unsure what to reply to my gestures."

"But then again… when I walk close to her, she just hides herself behind the door or runs away… I even made her some curry last wednesday for her…"

"Haiiro-kun sounds like a real stalker to me when you worded like that…" Saori softly mumbles, though with Eirian's polished sensitivity of his hearing, he manages to pick it up.

"I can hear you, you know…"

And though their first impression to one another is a bit truculent as one wants to protect her friend and the other wants to bring her down, Hana in the middle ground just laughs it off with a cute yet majestic giggle. "Well, when Miho-san hears this, I'm sure she'll begin to approach you later."

"Maybe…" Eirian stops from walking on cue to him now standing in front of the door of the clinic.

Saori and Hana begin to open the door on Eirian's behalf and soon the school's nurse begins to attend to the unconscious Miho. As Eirian puts her down on the bed, Eirian opens up to the two while the nurse begins to assess Miho in the background.

"You two are quite worried about her, sounds like you two want to stay here for a while, doesn't it?"

"Yes… is it possible for you to cover our backs for just this one time?" Saori implores.

"Fine…" Eirian sighs. "I'll tell Miho later if we have homework or not."

Without even facing them, Eirian bids his farewell as he closes the door behind them. Leaving Miho with her friends and the nurse. And while he quietly walks back to his classroom, the thoughts begin to flood his consciousness.

Footsteps echoing through the corridors and bypassing the many empty rooms. Truly that even though Ōarai Academy presents itself as a co-ed for people to hook on, this increase of finance isn't even enough to satisfy all of the campus' wants, let alone their needs.

"No matter how I look at it, this place has no value to Kuromorimine whatsoever. So what gives? Was it about the plan to revive Sensha-dō like the rumors said? N-no, that's not it, the documents already stated that Miho has episodes of trauma regarding Sensha-dō…"

Eirian finally stops the moment he realizes it. "Wait…"

"She went unconscious right after she talked with the Student Council. Their President earlier asked me if I'm patriotic enough to protect this school. And the fact that the warehouse from the field was still in pristine condition after decades of being unused…"

"Wait… don't tell me."

Stopping from his tracks altogether. With the bits and pieces of information finally forming together like a jigsaw puzzle, Eirian finally realizes the ploy that Ōarai has been pulling for. Subtle details and the intentional spread of rumors and a series of interactions leads him to one concrete and only solid conclusion.

"They're trying to kickstart their Sensha-dō team again…"

And with these thoughts in mind, Eirian goes back to the classroom with his mind in a state of investigation. His thoughts still circulating around his head as hours pass by. It isn't until the end of their final moments in today's class that his clouded mind gets a brief clearing with an electronic tone chiming in across the campus.

"Calling all students. Convene in the gym."

Hearing Momo's professional voice going through the announcement, Eirian finally wakes up from his internal inquiry.

"What's this all about?" Eirian asks to Haruto in front of him.

"I dunno, sounds like they're planning to put on a show." Haruto answers. "Let's get going."

"How about the bags?"

"The Public Morals can watch it. Don't worry about it!"

After a reluctant nod, Eirian proceeds to follow Haruto and eventually the others as they convene at the indoor gymnasium of Ōarai. After a brief struggle of distributing the space to all the students, they all sit on the clean wooden floor and wait for the Student Council to appear on the stage.

And so, as Eirian sits beside Haruto, his frustration causes him to sigh from the situation. "I should've just brought my phone here…"

"Phones aren't allowed if you're near the presence of the Public Morals, Eirian…" Haruto points out. "And you do know your phone was taken by the cats earlier, right?"

"Stop rubbing salt on my wound, Haruto…"

"Dude, you're just unlucky today…" As Haruto replies, he then retracts his accusation, "but then again, you managed to carry a girl earlier, now that's just so damn lucky of you!"

"Silence." Momo from the front of the stage shouts loudly that quickly ends the crowd's clamor. And with everyone silent now, she and the rest of her peers in the Student Council now begin their presentation.

"As part of our tradition here and with an added request of our sponsors from the mainland, we'll now present a chosen elective as advertisement in your upcoming club selections."

As Momo takes a step back away from the blank descending white screen, that said screen soon starts to broadcast and showcase their club selection through short advertisements. From Calligraphy to Aikido, it's the usual. But they have more plans during the final stretch as the lights are still off and the host begins to speak from behind the podium.

"The final one is from MEXT directly, so be quiet and watch carefully!" Momo exclaims before the screen flashes itself up and finally shows them the main advertisement for today's orientation.

The highlight states…

"...Calling all students… Convene in the Gym."

"I repeat. Calling all students, convene in the Gym."

Hearing the professional yet distinct voice of Momo Kawashima through the school's intercom, Miho slowly opens her eyes from her unexpected respite. Her eyes staring blankly at the vinyl ceiling tiles, her sudden fatigue clouding her thoughts.

"Not again…"

"Miho?" The voice of Saori then draws the attention of the deprived Miho. "Are you okay?" She asks.

Hana then joins in, sharing the same sentiment with Saori.

"Are you alright, Nishizumi-san?"

Now acknowledging the presence of her two friends, Miho tries her best to face them, and so she slowly tries to sit up straight much to her friends' dismay.

"Just lie down, Miho." Saori suggests in a worrisome manner to her pushy friend. "We're not in a hurry here." She then assures her.

"If you're fine with it, I can bring your bag here so you can return home early, Nishizumi-san." Hana then suggests. Taking away Miho's attention from Saori as the recovering girl begins to lie down in her bed, trying to hide the majority of her body with the blanket.

All Miho can do is stare at Hana and nod her head. "Thank you, Isuzu-san…"

Though Hana appreciates Miho's answer, there's a thought in her head wondering about Miho's sudden lethargy that ultimately causes her to question it to the girl directly. "Nishizumi-san… is it okay for you to tell us what happened?"

Miho's eyes begin to widen while her head jerks aback. Hesitation begins to creep in as opening up isn't something she's used with, and so with a sharp turn of her head away from them, she apologizes while feeling agitated. "I… I'm sorry, I don't want to be an inconvenience to you two…"

Hana in return acknowledges Miho's apologies, but apparently, Saori doesn't catch that same sentiment from her black-haired friend.

"Is it the Student Council? What did the President tell you?!" Saori probes, trying to spill the information from Miho, more so that she's already at the edge of her bed and close to Miho's.

"I-I…."

"Takebe-san, I don't think it's right for us to asks her about tha-"

"No…" Miho interjects. Still being hesitant about the situation but nonetheless her words has enough conviction to assure Hana. "It's fine… Isuzu-san."

Resting her back against the rather-stiff pillow as she sees the stale ceiling, Miho takes a deep breath, and again, and again. Eventually she calms herself down and finally opens up to them.

"She… The President told me personally that Sensha-dō [1] is getting back to the electives this year…"

"Sensha-dō…? [1] Is that the traditional martial art reserved for girls?" Hana asks in return.

"But… what does that have to do with you?" Saori still queries.

Now needing to clarify, Miho attempts to open her mouth and answer them, but there's a sudden stream of realizations that cause her to feel more daunted, yet Miho tries her best to steel her resolve as she continues albeit now clenching the bed sheet.

"The one where you used tanks as a means of play…" Miho answers. "And… they told me to take up Sensha-dō as my mandatory elective this year…"

"Heeh?! Why?"

She tries to form the words to say. "Um… Well…"

"Is this some sort of harassment?!" Saori frankly assumes. "No wait! That doesn't make any sense…"

"Aha! I got it!" She exclaims like it's an eureka moment.

Saori's rather quick response surprises the two, with Hana thinking she's a genius while Miho thinking she already has an idea about the situation with Sensha-dō [1] since her surname is a dead giveaway.

"She… Takebe-san knows…?"

"You must be stuck in a love triangle with someone that the Student Council was jealous of you!" Saori reckons.

"She doesn't know…"

Giving a disbelief sigh, Miho corrects her besotted friend. "It's not like that, Takebe-san…"

"Then if they're asking you to take Sensha-dō… does that make you secretly an onna-musha and part of a secret mission?" Hana then takes her turn and guesses. Unlike Saori's wacky fantasies, her conjecture is bearable, but it still spirals Miho down the road of bewilderment as their answers are way off, very off.

"Not you too, Isuzu-san…"

"Do you go to places like our Johannesburg to fight off some delinquents? How about extorting money from biker gangs? Oh! Did you also go on rampages across the neighborhood too?"

"Not really…" Miho dismisses.

"So if we're both wrong… what is it?"

"Uhm, eto…"

Miho begins to contemplate. Make a lie to keep them around or let them know about her past. Weighing her decisions as they anticipate her explanation. And with enough persuasion to herself, she accepts her fate and opens up to them.

"You see… My family has a long history with Sensha-dō…" Miho begins.

"They taught me all about Sensha-dō when I was young." She pauses. "And even then… I don't really have nice memories with it…"

"That's why… I came to this school so I can avoid it…" Feeling down even more, Miho begins to wrap herself with the blanket she's in, slowly but surely hiding her face from them to avoid their confrontation with her.

"Then don't force yourself!" Saori suggests. This causes Miho to stop from what she's doing with her blanket and reverses it as she looks at Saori with confusion.

"But-"

"You came here just to avoid it, right?"

"-Y-yes..."

"Then tell them that!"

Hana also joins in. "She's right, Nishizumi-san."

"If the thought of turning them down alone bothers you, we wouldn't mind coming along with you." She offers with a gentle and reassuring smile.

"Yeah! With our girl power, we can tell that shorty President to back off!" Saori concurs in enthusiasm.

Seeing their compassion for her compels Miho to fall for their assurances. In that moment, words can't describe her sense of relief and she suddenly burst out her happiness. Her closed shell begins to break as she sees the genuine bond with Hana and Saori.

And as a result, this causes Miho to smile sincerely at them.

"Thank you, Takebe-san, Isuzu-san. I really needed that."

Seeing Miho's cute smile again and feeling her gratitude to them, they can't help themselves but smile alongside their friend.

"Hehe, no problem, Miporin!"

"That's what friends are for, Nishizumi-san."

"Hehe… you two are just too sweet for me." Miho remarks, causing the three of them to laugh it off as she finally calms down as the thoughts of being alone begin to dissipate from her mind.

And as their laughter in unison starts to louden in the clinic, the curtain that surrounds them is getting pushed by their resident clinic nurse.

"Sounds like you're fine now, Nishizumi-chan." The nurses claim. "From the way you girls are laughing, I take that your friend has recovered?"

"Ah! Ye-yes…Nurse-san…" Miho answers sheepishly, feeling guilty for causing a commotion.

"Nurse Yorokobi." She greets herself with a small nod and a smile as a result of her healthy recovery. "That's great to hear, Nishizumi-chan."

"But don't forget to fix the beds before going to the gym, it's your first day, after all."

And just like that, their short-haired, brown-haired, cool-as-ice nurse leaves them be and goes back to her office. Her footsteps get dampen by the sound of the intercom resounding again.

"Calling all students, please convene in the Gym."

"That's Kawashima-san." Hana points out.

"Oh yeah." Miho finally realizes it. "Why are we gathering today at the gym?"

"I actually don't even know either, any idea, Han-chan?"

"I don't think it was discussed by our Homeroom teacher either, Saori-san."

"Well… let's better get going then, Miporin!"

"Eh…?"

---

"...Eh?"

Miho looks around their enclosed gymnasium. Surprised to see the lights in perfect condition, the walls well-maintained, and wooden cedar-made floor clean. She doesn't expect how preserve the building is, but it's to be expected as it's the only building fit for physical education indoors.

While she continues to look around in complete bewilderment, she forgets that she's among the sea of students waiting for the annual orientation, but even if some of them expect the program, others don't. And so, they drown the atmosphere with their chatter.

Miho also joins in with the chaotic affair. Interrupting the silence of their trio. "So… what exactly are we waiting for?"

"They even sent the Student Council members to guard us…" Saori mumbles to her dismay, but her distress goes unnoticed as Hana answers Miho's question instead.

"I heard that they're showing something, like how they usually do."Hana answers.

As Miho is satisfied with Hana's answer, she continues to look around still in awe. But the moment she pivots her head towards in front of her, she notices a familiar person from a bit of a distance.

She squints her eyes and focuses on that familiar person. With only his back showing, all she can do is discern his appearance. His messy black hair and distinct posture that borders between intentional slouching or just hidden discipline. And so, with these features on the table, she immediately recognizes the boy as she utters his moniker.

"Is that… neighbor-san?"

And while she recognizes him, all she can remember at the moment are the embarrassing encounters she makes as his neighbor. So even if she wants to call him out, that will embarrass her more regardless.

Yet unbeknownst to her, he's the one who carried her earlier.

But all this immodest self-reflection comes to a complete stop alongside the chatter 'em masses. One voice alone from the stage causes all eyes to gaze upon the emcee for today's orientation.

"Silence." Momo says in a right blend of loudness that is not too harsh and not too inaudible from the corner of the room. It's just the right amount that makes everyone impressed by Kawashima's PR skills.

"That's better." She remarks. "As part of our annual club orientation, we'll present this year's selections for your mandatory club."

"As usually, clubs will act as your elective extracurricular subject. They each have their own perks and benefits for students like you, and so, picking the right club is important."

"And as expected from our sudden influx of students, we've decided to increase your selections." Momo further comments. "In addition to that, we picked an elective that will serve as today's highlight."

"So be quiet and choose carefully!"

And just like that, Momo and the rest of her team starts walking away from center stage as the white screen descends from the ceiling. With a loud clicking sound signaling deployment, the gym lights turn off and the old projector starts working.

Shining now into the white screen as the clubs are now being presented with their own respective promotions. It varies from a slideshow to a demonstration to even a short-film. From the usual cultural club like calligraphy, and incense ceremony, to sport clubs like archery and ninjutsu. But there are clubs that stand out from the rest, these include the introvert's paradise, the hikikomori club and the boys' favorite, the Hohei-dō club.

The quality of these promotions can vary, some easily attract their audience like intended while the others are less successful with yawns and side comments. But nonetheless, the orientation goes smoothly as the student council wanted.

With the final video being intense and action-packed to hook its future combatants for Ōarai's Hohei-dō, particularly the boys, no one in the room can assume that the highlight next can top that promotion.

So they wait for anticipation.

The student council now makes their preparation for the highlight. They go back on the stage but remain at the side of the screen. Yuzu then goes to the podium, opens the microphone, and narrates the following message.

"Our final video and highlight for today's orientation is from the directive of the Ministry of Education, I hope you will pay attention to it." Yuzu announces.

On cue to that, the projector starts flashing the highlight's title card. Written in bold strokes of ink and captures the traditionalistic atmosphere through its kanji on a scroll with its bars embolden with wood.

"Is that… oh no…"

"Today's final presentation is about the-"


The screen flashes to a beautiful landscape of Japan. With Mt. Fuji in the background while the foreground is divided by the cherry trees sending down their sakura petals to the camera. It ends with the camera focusing on the sea of petals on the ground.




The petals start to clatter and vibrate violently before the caterpillar track appears from the side and consumes the shot. It stops once it covers the entire shot and a girl in her traditional wear exits the vehicle.

"Especially young maidens." The shot then goes higher and higher till they can see today's subject. A female girl wearing a white robe and scarlet red trouser-skirt, like a shinto shrine maiden and as beautiful and elegant as a miko.

"The art that tames the barbarism of tanks." The miko-like girl withdraws her hand and then–

"And turn them into the vase of our expression."

–extends her hand out as the sudden movement of the tank causes fallen petals to fly once again like rain, creating a spectacular view as if the trees are the ones showering the girl with the petals instead.

"An art that captures the virtues every aspiring one needs." The scene starts to shift from the girl dancing along the raining sakuras to different angles of the tank going back and forth as Yuzu continues to narrate it.

"Humility. Goodness. Discipline."

"One takes the beauty of humbleness as you take control the mechanical oni. Humility."

"One becomes good in nature when morals are gained through practices and camaraderie. Goodness."

"And one becomes a hard-working student, a healthy person, and a powerful individual through recognizing control. Discipline."

"Combine them, and you got Sensha-dō." The screen changes shots with such contrast. Instead of the peaceful countryside-esque look, it's now on a battlefield with tanks dueling featuring the original girl and some others.

"From the coldest point of Fuji to the roughest alps in Honshu. From the northernmost border of Karafuto to the most isolated islands in Okinawa. Your practice can go from places to places, in the sand dunes of Tottori to even night battles in downtown Osaka. No matter the location, Sensha-dō will always take place."

"So steel your resolve like the armor of Tanks." It then shows multiple tanks from different countries and in different eras, different crew in different uniforms.

"Move forward like the clank of caterpillar treads." Shows a parade of tanks on the street.

"And ignite your passion like a cannon boom!" And finally, shows a tank firing its mighty 8.8 cannon, causing a shockwave of exhilaration that shocks the students as a result.

"And so, become a part of something bigger."

"Be a humbling member."

"Befit the goodness of a person."

"Become a Sensha-dō practitioner."



The video ends with a loud and extravagant confetti bomb from the stage. Now showing the format of the selective card as the presentation earlier completely pulls the expectations out of all the students in the room. Their spines still get the chills from the cannon booming and their reaction is overall a positive tone.

It manages to completely capture the attention of everyone. Seeing their successful stunt, the student council takes center stage and continues to ride the trance of the masses.

"That video was under the directive of the MEXT for the upcoming tournament. And such, alongside them encouraging all highschools to strengthen our Sensha-dō club, they also made some changes." Momo explains.

"And as such!" Anzu finally speaks after being quiet for a long time during the orientation "We revived our club again!"

The sudden announcement from the president causes a furor to the students. Opinions forming and whispers going spontaneous. But the news isn't over yet as Anzu continues. "So that's why, if you want to join Sensha-dō, we'll give you more benefits compared to others~"

"Vice President."

"Hai! We upped the usual 20 meal tickets to 50. We increased the 30 to 70 anti-detention tickets, and added 40 exception tickets to your ordinary 10! And plus! This gives you two times more credit for both academics and sports!"

"But wait! There's more, President, if you would."

"Hai! Before we end today's orientation I would like to inform you of something important that the directive gave us, a little secret between us here, hehe." Anzu publicly confides.

Her charms as the president shines through in that moment, easily managing to grab their attention.

"It has been stated that we're under the period of cultural integration, and thus, they will now allow boys to join Sensha-dō!"

And that's the tipping point. The catalyst that bombards the gymnasium with reactions that their gossips start filling the building with noises. As a result, the student council takes this time to dismiss them all to end the ride of excitement and surprises.

"You're all dismissed, don't forget to get your elective cards on your way out!" Anzu dismisses.

And they dismiss. All students are now exiting the gym as it clogs for a while before it eases up eventually. Now walking on the cement path that leads to the exits, both Eirian and Haruto continue their conversation on that one particulartopic.

"Sensha-dō being mixed…" Haruto reiterates. "Now that's something I didn't expect…"

"Surprised as well?" Eirian asks while looking at his friend who's hand is on his chin, thinking, really thinking about the announcement.

"Yeah! I mean, who wouldn't think that an all-feminine sport would become a mixed one overnight!"

"Whatever they're thinking, it surely made an impression on all of us." Eirian comments. "But if I remember correctly, isn't Sensha-dō originally a mixed martial art?"

"I don't think so… it did?"

"I'm pretty sure all martial arts started as mixed at some point…"

"Huh… So why did they change it then?"

"Well, the answer is simple." All of a sudden, the treasurer interjects. "Good seeing you two in good health, Kisetsu and Haiiro-san."

What surprises the two is Kojiro as he comes out of seemingly nowhere. But as his hands are heaving with selective cards, it's a no brainer why he's there at the gate alongside a few student council members.

"They were meant to prepare us for War. Quite noxious for the origin for a sport, isn't it?"

"Wasn't Sensha-dō formed during the Second World War?"

"Before, actually." Kojiro rectifies. "But we didn't get the message as we were invested with the Navy and the introduction of the nation-wide Sentoki-dō, so that's why they decided to pour their attention to girls instead."

"You really are the school's model student for us boys, huh?" Haruto jokingly remarks.

"Duty knows no family, Kisetsu-san." Kojiro quotes in return while giving them both their selective cards. "And also, are you two going home?"

"I have a shift in an hour after this." / "I'm planning to get some food before I go home."

"Delightful! May I accompany you both then on your way home?" Kojiro claps himself as enthusiastically as he can, but he kinda forgets that he's carrying the others' selective cards…

And to the surprise of the students, they just stare at Kojiro as he stands there, like a statue as he processes his mistake in silence.

"Looks like you dropped your card-"

"Shut up, Kisetsu-san."

Eventually, Kojiro joins the duo.

"I can't believe you just gave your task to the other members, Koji…" Haruto comments in disbelief as he is now walking home with Kojiro beside them.

"It's a one-time thing, and besides, I'll be going back later." Kojiro assures him. "By the way, how's the business going?"

"The konbini is doing alright." Haruto answers back. "Not many customers but it can still afloat."

"Wait, you know about his konbini?" Eirian immediately interjects with a question to Kojiro.

"Yeah. I started my first year here with Haruto." Kojiro responds. "You may not know it, but we were in the same class."

"Before he changed for that girl…" Haruto snickers with his eyes rolling to add a layer for his expressive derision. "You should've seen him before his transforma-"

"Ugh!" Kojiro shuts Haruto's mouth. His voice panics as he elaborates his excuse to Eirian. "Don't believe every word he said, Haiiro-san! Trust me!"

"Ooookkaayyyyy..." He answers in reluctance yet this still makes the model student rejoice in happiness as he comes all buddy-buddy with him.

With his hand attempting to ensnare his neck, Eirian's quick reflex allows him to avoid his many advances while Haruto takes the time to recover before pointing Eirian's pet peeves to the oblivious yet still determined Koji(ro).

"Oh yeah… Koji. He doesn't like any physical interaction…"

"Really?"

"Yup…"

"Not even a pat on the back?"

"I allow it sometimes, but don't get your hopes up." Eirian interjects before continuing his walk again.

"Is he a germaphobe?"

"I don't think he'll be here at Zuikaku if he's one, Koji…"

Eventually as the sun starts to settle and the sky begins to change hue. Haruto bids his farewell to the two upon reaching a fork on the road that separates their way home. Being cordial to their friend, they also wave their hands as they start going their own respective ways.

And that leaves the student council's treasurer and their prized target. Walking side by side as they listen at the cars revving over the distance and the streetlights now buzzing in a melodious tone the moment they light up the dimming streets.

"How long have you been friends with Haru, Haiiro-san?"

"Since I got here. I met him when I was tending Chuda-san at his konbini."

"Chuda Lisbeth? Must be his regular customer then." Kojiro points out. "Don't tell me he immediately pulled out his first aid kit, did he?"

"Yeah, why about it?"

"Haha… you'll know it once you take a look at his life."

"I see…" Eirian begins to wonder something, but his thoughts immediately get cut-off short with Kojiro's offering.

"Let's hang out for a bit. Wanna chill at the bench for a while?"

With his hands gesturing at the alleyway that leads outside, Eirian can't refuse his offer and so he accepts it with a nod. Eventually escaping the commercial district as they arrive at the esplanade roadway.

On their left are benches and cement-paved walks, and on their right is the long road with the accompanying town beside it. Eirian takes his seat on one of the benches while Kojiro takes out his wallet and tries to buy a pair of sodas at the vending machine near them.

Eventually, he accompanies Eirian as he sits on the wooden bench. Giving him the other soda as they stare at the blue ocean in front of them. Admiring the view for a moment before Eirian opens up, taking the initiative.

"Arigatou, Tsujihara-san." Eirian begins. "And, aren't you busy with the student council for today?"

"I'm always busy with the council's work."

"Is it harsh like they say?"

"That's why I'm in the student council. We always expect the worst since the campus is our responsibility." He laughs it off. "But we're nowhere close compared to the naval's council and obviously we can't compete against the town's chamber."

"And all of them are students?"

"Of course. Zuikaku is a town of students after all, so it must be led by students like us." Kojiro states. "But unlike their strict policies, we accept voluntary work."

"Haha… I don't think I'm cut out for that stressful position." Eirian nervously chuckles. "No thanks."

"That's unfortunate, but I think there's something you can do with us." Kojiro asserts. Opening the lid of his soda before taking a sip from it.

He can feel his anxiety growing, but with the sudden refreshment cooling his throat, it eases the butterflies in his stomach. He knows that the person they're recruiting has qualities that befits a professional, and so, he treks the uncharted territory of attempting to recruit him.

Remember, he's a treasurer, not a recruiter or a charmer like Kawashima or Kadotani.

"Haiiro-san, your papers said that you had experience of being a mechanic. Would you mind elaborating on that?"

"Oh… sure." Eirian complies, surprising Kojiro. "I've been acting as my father's assistant ever since I was young. He's a nutcrack when it comes to cars."

"Honestly he doesn't like cars… he's more of a ship type of guy… but we don't talk about that one…"

"I see… so that's how you learned then?"

"More or less, yeah." He affirms. "What about it?"

"Well, we are in need of a qualified mechanic for the Sensha-dō club." Kojiro states. "And we acknowledge your potential to be one of them."

"I knew this was about to come. But why Tsujihara?"

"Oh… so you're recruiting me?"

As Eirian assumes the way their conversation is going, Kojiro rewards him in a once of a lifetime moment as he bows his head, like someone pleading or confessing their love, but this one is former.

"Hai! We wanted you in our club, so please consider it!" Kojiro entreats. "We can negotiate your perks if you accept it!"

Even if his guts is right and he properly follows the methods and techniques, he still lacks the amp to interest the experienced Ace. He can take the offer but he needs to assure himself that he can still watch the Nishizumi, but there's something on his mind that he needs to know before answering the treasurer's offer.

"I can't tell what they're planning here, but…"

"Before I answer it, I want you to tell me something first, Tsujihara." He requests in a weighty timbre. "Did you approach Nishizumi about Sensha-dō earlier?"

"How did you know?"

"She's a Nishizumi. It doesn't take a gifted hobbyist to know where she's from."

"Then there's no point in hiding then." Kojiro sighs. "Yes. We did. We assumed that she's the younger Nishizumi." He finally confides, confirming Eirian's suspicion.

"But we didn't expect to hear that she passed out earlier; we only heard that from Nurse Yorokobi after the orientation…" He continues, but unexpectedly his tone shows guilt.

"We assumed it must be because of the heat, but Nurse Yorokobi can't confirm it. Why did you ask?"

"I'm her neighbor."

"So I heard… I'm sorry if the topic upsets you, we should've been more considerate in approaching her earlier..."

"It's fine. We don't talk that much anyway and she's more shy than we both thought." Eirian assures him.

"I see… and, about the offer? What do you say, Haiiro-san?" He finally asks. Eirian looks at him for a moment before sipping his soda and answers his offering.

"I appreciate the offer." Eirian starts. "But I don't think my skills are set up for Sensha-dō, let alone for any Sōkōbajutsu out there."

"I only learned how to fix cars, not tank engines." He forthright declares, showing no emotion other than his expressive conviction that his no part in any way affiliates himself in Sensha-dō. In his disguise that is.

"Even if you're not good with tanks, there are still some things you can help us with. An extra hand, if you will." Kojiro still presses on. "We have vehicles, their engines, and etc. We really need someone with the skills like you."

"But I can't do two clubs." Eirian retorts. "Also, isn't it far better for the Automobile club to handle that job description instead?"

"They're quite busy fixing the others, especially the transport vehicles from our Hohei-dō club. Asking them more would just strain their relationship with the student council."

"Then what about third-parties? Freelancing mechanics, local shopkeepers, other students?"

"We don't have the necessary funds to hire them with it, though while the Ministry gave us the funds, it's barely enough to keep us afloat."

"And the students?"

"Our curriculum here doesn't offer mechanical engineering, and those we have interests are already in their own respective clubs, mainly the automobile club."

"So that leaves me no choice then…" Eirian takes a deep sigh. Taking another sip to his soda before confronting him again. "And what if I refuse?"

Anticipating that possibility of an answer, Kojiro lowers his head till Eirian can't see his face and answers his hypothetical question. "Then we respect your decision."

Anticipating the possibility, Kojiro just smiles at Eirian and expresses his answer to his hypothetical question. "Then we respect your decision, Haiiro-san."

"But unfortunately, I have to get back now." He states to him the next before standing up and takes their both empty soda cans. "I know you're still uncertain about joining our club since it seems like we're forcing you and Nishizumi-san."

"But believe me, Haiiro-san. We deemed your skills and current position as an opportunity for us to allow your talents to grow in Sensha-dō."

"And what about Nishizumi?"

"You said it to yourself, it doesn't take a gifted hobbyist to know her surname." Kojiro can't help but chuckle at that question in particular, seemingly it amuses him due to the fact how Eirian knows that she's a Nishizumi which concludes to him that he's a sort of a fan to her.

And just like that, Kojiro bids a farewell to him. Leaving Eirian alone on the bench as Eirian watches him disappear from the distance. Finally alone again, Eirian just looks back at the ocean in front of him with the sun now resting on the ocean while thoughts start pouring down in his mind.

With no-one on site, he decides to make a call, but the moment he realizes that he lost his phone, he notices a store in the distance.

Getting a new phone is an easy task, maintaining an anonymous call without Ōarai tracking him down is a different matter. The moment he goes back to his bench, he starts working on his phone.

Opening the back plate, adding additional components in it, and reprogramming the feature phone the next, Eirian completes improvising his phone to make a certain call to someone outside Ōarai's coverage and knowledge, and inside a room at Lunenburg's Schulfuhrer's chancellery a call has made.

His red telephone starts to ring aloud and vibrate violently. It catches his attention as he pauses his 'work' and answers the call. Raising the handset and placing it to his cheek, the Schulfuhrer speaks.

"This is Miamoto speaking. Is this the take out I ordered?"

"It's me."

"Wittmann? That's odd, I thought you don't like making calls?."

"I still don't. But I'm here to report something about you personally."

"Ooohhh." Rommel becomes intrigued. "Do tell, do tell."

After a considerable amount of explanation, Eirian now waits for Rommel to reply back, wanting to hear his opinion about their operation getting complicated with the situation developing.

"First of all… can you stop being technical at everything…" Rommel pleads. "I don't need your narration of what time you woke up and the exact hour of you encountering the young Nishizumi earlier…"

"But it's important to know the big picture." Eirian replies in a flat tone, thinking his way of reporting is the absolute technique, not leaving any details, big or small it may be.

"Then just summarize it!" Rommel exclaims.

But Rommel eventually calms down and continues. " I get it, the Schulintelligenz might gave you the outdated information, but that's the reason I stepped up and personally crafted your identify there."

"You might not like it, but it can give you the leverage to be flexible in this situation." He explains the next. "So, are you planning to join Sensha-dō?"

"Unless the Nishizumi is joining, I won't. And plus, I suspect that she's still experiencing some form of a traumatic disorder so it's hard for them to push her into joining."

"Knowing her past, this just confirms her hesitation to join." Rommel points out. "But since she's a Nishizumi, I advise you to be careful around her with it."

"Growing sympathy against the ones who cut their ties from us?" Eirian retorts. "Having no support from them makes Leopold's bet a difficult operation."

"We're not here to make more enemies, Wittmann." Rommel sternly reminds him. "And besides, even if we're enemies to the Nishizumis, we still need to acknowledge them as they acknowledge us."

"Even if we're gonna bring down their reign?"

"They already have been defeated before, remember?" Rommel sniggers. "But it's their culture to have honor even if they're losing, and I find that romantic."

"When did you become romantic all of a sudden?"

"Ever since you left and stopped being a thorn on my back." Rommel then chortles, going back to his usual gleeful personality much to Eirian's dismay and annoyance as the Ace can hear Rommel playing some video game in the background.

"You still never change."

"Good to hear your enthusiasm! And by the way, do you know where the young Nishizumi is exactly?"

Hearing him ask that, Eirian can't help but look up at the sky above him, with the clouds in different shapes and sizes slowly moving and the sky again changing hue from orange to a nightshade, all he can think of a response about her whereabouts is nothing but a single negative answer.

So, he answers back.

"No, I got sidetracked with some people here."

"Well, it doesn't matter, you're still her neighbor at the end of the day."

"Neighbor huh…"

He closes his eyes and soon she opens hers.

Looking up at the ceiling in complete dissociation with reality. Her ears still ringing with the buzzing sound before images in her mind start causing her a sudden outburst of shock and physical recoil.

The smell of the dirt and mud dirtying her clothes as she runs towards the river, the sight of the sinking tank as it submerges slowly under the heavy current, and the feel of her hands hurting the moment she attempts to open the hatch. These are the thoughts of Miho at that time, a never-ending cycle of nightmares that hunts her even to this day.

All she can do is curl into a ball, her arms trapping her knees together while her head buries itself to the gap between her knees and chest. Being in a position that tries to compose herself, she still thinks of them as she utters it in a complete murmur.

"What if I just refuse it…"

"But… I don't want to disappoint both Takebe-san and Isuzu-san…"

"I don't know what I will do if they leave me…"

"Anyone… just tell me what should I do…"

"Takebe-san…"

"Isuzu-san…"

"Neighbor-san…"

She closes her eyes, still dwelling in her thoughts and suppressing her issues in isolation. Feeling pitiful and pathetic as she can't do anything much about it but ride it till it passes…

She feels alone just the way she used to be…

But now, she has a neighbor.

"Nishi…zumi?"

Hearing his voice all of a sudden, Miho raises her head and sees Eirian beside him. Her eyes widen as she can fully see the expression of a concerned Haiiro. She starts to feel emotional but she quickly hides that by rubbing her face with her unsnared hands.

"Nei-neighbor-san?! Y-you're back…"

"Yeah, I did. Had to accompany Kisetsu earlier."

"Is he the one that works in a konbini?"

"That's the one." Eirian concurs. "And why are you here outside of your room? Didn't have the key to get inside?"

"N-no…" Miho answers.

"I-I was just refreshing up here… ye-yeah! I'm just chilling here, hehe…"

"She's not really good at this lying stuff, huh…"

"If you say so…" Eirian retorts in reluctance to acknowledge her excuse. "Anyhow, have you already eaten dinner?"

"Y-yes…"

Her stomach then grumbles, causing Miho to blush immensely with scarlet red from her embarrassment that is enough to make Eirian have pity for her lifestyle. But as the damage has been done and her gig is up, she still lies about it.

"Th-that's not mine…" She lies, horribly.

Eirian sighs.

"Wait here."

With a nod to confirm Miho's compliance. Eirian goes to his room and does something for his neighbor. All Miho can do at that moment is to sit it out and wait for him, minutes pass and her patience is rewarded by a steamy hot meal.

"Here." Eirian says to her the moment he exits his room, handing her a plate of microwaved food. "I suppose you wouldn't mind a konbini meal, right?"

"I-it's alright, n-neighbor-san!" Miho assures him, immediately accepting the offering. "I… t-thank you…"

"You seemed pretty down for your first day, huh." Eirian comments as he joins her on the floor, sitting beside her but there's a visible gap between them to not scare her altogether. "Are you sure you have the keys for your room?"

"H-hai! I do have the keys… it's just that…"

Miho pauses.

"I don't feel like entering inside yet…"

"Well…" Eirian also pauses, trying to think of something. "How about we talk it out on the balcony."

"Huh?" Miho expresses her surprise before taking aback from his sudden offer. "N-n-no need to help me, n-neighbor-san!"

"I can handle myself, I promise!" She attempts to reassure him, but Eirian doesn't take any of that poor excuse of hers, after all, she sucks at lying.

"Look, your friends told me earlier if there's homework, I'll refer it to you, so take this opportunity for us to talk this out." Eirian explains. "And besides, you have something more than your excuse, Nishizumi."

"B-but I am not being a nuisance to you, right?"

"I'm your neighbor, stupid." Eirian flatly replies. "At this point, with the walls between us thinned, might as well consider us both as roommates."

And as Eirian says that, he notices Miho blushing.

"He… neighbor-san heard my Boko marathon session?!"

"Gah! This is so embarrassing, Miho!"

She can't help it, she just hides her face out of embarrassment as Eirian is utterly confused at her sudden reaction, but even if he's confused, he still tries to clarify his statement with a panicky voice.

"W-w-wait! I didn't mean it like that!" Eirian exclaims. "I mean like we're in the same year and class so I assumed that we can work together to survive this school-year!"

Seeing his surprise, Miho just looks at him for a second before she starts to giggle. A mixture of relief and amusement as the Nishizumi manages to calm down and her thoughts earlier seemingly dissipates.

"Hehe, I get it, neighbor-san."

"Good!" Eirian replies with a hint of red across his face.

"That was really embarrassing… verfluche dich Nishizumi!"

"T-then, I'll take up your offer then, neighbor-san." Miho then finally complies as she smiles at Eirian before standing up and attempting to enter her room now. "I'll be there in around 10 minutes!"

"Sounds like a plan, see ya then." Eirian then waves his hand, bidding her a momentarily farewell as Miho does the same as well.

The door of her room closes, leaving Eirian alone in the hallway as he just looks up at the ceiling and processes what just happened between the two of them. "You gotta be kidding me… me getting flushed up by a Nishizumi?"

"This isn't good. If she continues to attack me like that…"

"It's alright, Schwartz… this is just a part of the act."

"I'll just have to go with the flow and hopefully don't embarrass myself again…."

"But for now… wait for her on the balcony."

Eirian finally decides to stand up and goes back to his room. Taking his 10 minutes of respite to prepare himself. Changing his clothes, planting a microchip in his pocket, and taking out two sodas from his fridge and his notes before arriving at his balcony after exactly 9 minutes and 59 seconds.

"Microphone, check. Sodas, check. The notes from earlier, double check. My breath, triple check."

"And now, we wait for the Nishizumi…"

And he doesn't have to wait any longer.

The sliding door opens and Miho exits from it. The night breeze gently greets her auburn hair as it sways from front to back the moment she steps out. Her skin shines just as like the moon up in the sky, and her pair of light brown eyes radiating with anticipation as she looks at Eirian beside her.

With nothing but her pajamas underneath a jacket, she apologies for her late arrival with a sincere yet quick bow.

"I-I'm sorry for being late! D-did I make you wait, ne-neighbor-san?"

"No, you didn't." Eirian assures her. "And… could you refer to me as more than just your neighbor?"

"H-hai! H-Haiiro…san." Miho complies with reluctance and hesitation, she admits to herself that it's a bit rude to not call him by his surname but she's belittling herself to the status of their relationship, even if it's cordial.

"I… goumen… I didn't mean to upset you…"

"It's nothing. You're shy, I get that." Eirian compromises before throwing her a bottle of ramune and his notes.

Miho in return catches the soda and his notes, but her clumsiness almost causes her to drop the cold beverage but with her balancing and catching skills, she manages to grab it right before it lands on the ground. With an embarrassing giggle, she starts to thank him before taking a sip out of the marble-lid soda while keeping the notes to herself.

With the coldness of the drink and the sweet lemon flavor it has, Miho expresses delight as she finishes her sip. "That was delicious, thank you again, Haiiro-san!"

"No problem." Eirian replies. "And how are you feeling? Was the food alright?"

"O-oh! Ye-yeah..." Miho's shyness starts to appear again. "T-the food was g-great, w-where did you buy it?"

"From the Shiki konbini."

"Shiki konbini…? Is that Kisetsu-san's store?"

"Yeah. How did you know that?"

"W-well…" Miho begins, feeling a little embarrassed about telling it but still continues. "I remembered his profile description from our class list."

"Oh really? I never noticed that…" Eirian retorts as he tries to remember it.

"Huh… she's right… Does that mean she also remembers my details on that list?..."

"What about me then, do you remember my details?" Eirian then jokingly asks.

"H-hai!" Miho confidently answers. "Your birthday is April 22nd."

"Correct."

"And your height is 5'7"."

"True."

"You also like cats."

"Yes."

"And you had some experience in being a mechanic…"

As Miho is about to finish that sentence, she just stops from talking. Her transition from being confident to complete quiet puzzles Eirian, and even if he has an idea behind it, he still pursues to query it.

"Nishizumi?"

"Haiiro-san…" Miho pauses before confronting him about something. Her hands fidgeting out of anxiety, she doesn't want to ask for it, but she feels like she needs to confess it, sooner or later.

"What should I do?"

"About what?"

"The st-... some people wanted me to join Sensha-dō earlier this morning…" She pauses, "I wanted to refuse it, but they insisted that I should join it as my mandatory elective…"

"Were they determined to let you join it?"

"Hai… Even my friends are considering joining it… I think it's because of the highlight earlier…"

"That's something… Did you tell them that you don't want to join?"

"I did before the orientation… but I don't think they would change since the advertisement clearly charms them to join…"

"They would." Eirian flatly replies.

"They would?" Miho looks at him in confusion. "But… they really seemed to like the idea of joining Sensha-dō though."

"They're your friends, Nishizumi." Eirian points out. "They did so much to you earlier, they skipped classes and watched over you. They're the friends that will understand you, don't worry about it."

"But… aren't I asking too much…?"

"Yes." Eirian answers yet again in an unamused and flatly tone. "But they stuck with you until the end earlier, wouldn't that be enough to trust them that they'll be there for you?"

"Yeah… I'm sorry if I sound like I'm doubting them…" Miho apologizes. "I just don't like Sensha-dō that much…"

"A Nishizumi… disliking Sensha-dō?"

"Why then?"

Miho doesn't look at him, her throat begins to fixate on her to not speak about her past as the scars of her last Sensha-dō starts to hunt her mind yet again. And so she begins to hesitate as she refuses to say the words subconsciously, but Eirian instantly notices this, her expression suddenly changing to someone who refuses to speak up as her hand closes into her chest.

"I see… a psychological trauma it seems."

"You don't need to tell me." Eirian states, trying to calm her down. "You don't need to take Sensha-dō if you don't want to. Seeing your reaction, there is enough evidence that you dislike it."

"H-Hai… goumen…"

"Don't worry, we're the same here." Eirian suddenly points out, "they also asked me out in considering joining the club."

"They did…? D-did they ask that because of you being a mechanic?"

"Yeah, I suspected it to happen really, but Sensha-dō isn't like that before, so I feel conflicted about joining as a male mechanic."

"But Sensha-dō does allow boys as support even before, Haiiro-san…" Miho clarifies.

"I fixed cars, not tanks though."

"Do the benefits not entice you either?"

"They're forcing it too much, even I know that. They're really trying to set this club up as their foremost priority."

"It's… very strange, isn't it?"

"Yeah, talk about asking us to join as their saviors or something." Eirian casually comments, taking a sip to his soda while at it. "Don't worry, I'm not planning to join it anytime soon."

"I see…" Somehow, this calms her down.

"So Haiiro-san also got invited by them…"

"Don't worry about it, your friends will listen to you tomorrow. Just follow your guts and you'll be alright." Eirian then tries to assure her, this causes Miho to feel more calm so much that it finally brings back the normality that Eirian is hoping for.

"Ye-yes. I hope so too, Haiiro-san." Miho puts up a faint smile, "And I think we should call it for now, I don't really want to take anymore of your time since you helped me so much for tonight."

"Alright then." Eirian complies. "Just don't forget that they're your friends, they'll always be there for you."

Hearing his assurances finally makes Miho give in and completes her smile, feeling reassured that she can rely on someone like him, but that exact thought causes her to question it the moment she's about to enter her room.

"Haiiro-san?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you helping me?"

"Well, that's easy." Eirian begins as he starts looking at the moon under the night sky above them. "I feel like it's my duty as your neighbor to help you… but don't expect me to spoil you though, haha."

Miho in return starts to giggle from his statement, certainly her neighbor is an interesting fellow that amuses the girl. Her laugh exhibits the same feeling as earlier, a sense of relief from his no malice intention and genuine amusement because of his (cheesiest) statements.

"Haha, yeah, I guess so." Miho replies. "Have a good night then, Haiiro-san!"

"Likewise, Nishizumi."

With both of them giving a farewell to each other, Miho is the first to enter her room before Eirian follows suit, but before he opens his sliding door, he takes a moment to look back at her empty balcony, processing their conversation while taking out the small chip from pocket.

It has an inaudible beep and a faint flash, it's a recorder chip and Eirian ends its service by pressing its only button. The recording ends and he now takes it back in his pocket and continues to take one final sip on his soda.

"A Nishizumi that doesn't like Sensha-dō?"

"And a school about to kickstart their Sensha-dō club again."

"What kinda plan are they going with this…"

But thinking about it won't help him tonight, and so he finishes his drink and enters his dorm again, ending today's evening with much anticipation for tomorrow's gamble.

Hoping that Miho will take the bait, all he can do is wait for it to happen. And it won't take too long for his gamble to take action.

---

It's now the next day and the students are now waiting for their class to start. With different lives happening to each student, Eirian is nothing but an observer as he watches them do their own things, including Miho who's now confronting her friends.

"She seems very down, it must be hard to tell them."

"So, what's your elective then?" Lisbeth opens up to both him and Haruto.

From her view, she can see Haruto's selection card having a checkmark on one of the boxes, while for Eirian, she can't really see it.

"I picked the Hakuaisha." Haruto answers.

"But isn't that society an unofficial one?" Elena remarks.

"That won't do, Har! You need to pick a mandatory elective!" Lisbeth states, but her attention then goes to Eirian as the guy in question just looks at Miho confronting her friends about her elective.

"Did you give her a piece of your mind yesterday, Eiry?" - Lisbeth asks, catching Eirian's attention altogether to her.

"Huh?"

"Your neighbor… Her passing out yesterday is quite a buzz in our classroom, you knew that, right?" - Elena reiterates.

"Yes. And don't worry, we talked about it…" Eirian assures them.

"How about you two then?" Eirian asks them. "What electives did you pick?"

"Well, Lena here really wanted to try Sensha-dō, so we both picked that." Lisbeth answers.

"For the benefits?" Haruto assumes.

"Definitely." Lisbeth concurs. "But Lena here just wants to continue her practice with Sensha-dō since she's a practitioner back in the day."

"You're part of Sensha-dō?" Eirian can't help but ask.

"Yup! And I'm good at it as well." Elena boostfully claims.

"Geez, you don't need to flex on us…" Eirian flatly replies as he finds her boastful attitude a bit annoying for his taste.

"Ну, ты не слишком груб?" Elena curses.

"What did you say?"

"I said that you're just jealous." Elena coldly replies.

"Sure…" Eirian replies in reluctance but eventually notices that Lisbeth goes all quiet as she stares intently at his selection card. "Wanna see it?"

Lisbeth just nods her head before Eirian finally gives her his selection card.

"Since I'm living alone, I plan to join this one specifically." Eirian narrates as they look at his card.

"Is this…?"

---

"The Gourmet Creation Club?" Kojiro reiterates loudly in the student council room. "This doesn't make any sense! I followed your advice down to a tee!"

"Koji, I don't think you're reaallly good with the words." Anzu points out, still bringing her usual charisma to calm her treasurer down. "It's fine. We can just try other methods and invite them over again."

"Then I'll leave it to you, President…"

"Glad to hear! Momo~"

"Yes, Prez!"

"Make an announcement. I want to talk to them both, personally."

"I'll take care of it immediately."

"Uhm… are you sure we really needed to manipulate them both, president?" Yuzu raises her concern.

"We have no choice, we need to have them both." Momo answers. "Without them… I don't think we can even join the upcoming tournament…"

"And we can't let that happen." Anzu assures them. "But don't worry, he'll comply for sure because he'll have to."

"How so, miss president?" Kojiro asks.

---

The bell tolls for the second time, lunch time is in session as the students take their respite from the classes. As groups form and friends gather, Eirian can't help but also be one of these groups.

Luckily he can observe his target, but unfortunately, she's behind him.

"Well, it's true that I've never heard of men doing Sensha-dō." - Lisbeth begins. "It does seem kinda mismatched."

"You wouldn't know that unless you saw them in the background." Elena retorts. "They can be handy sometimes."

"Handy?" Haruto asks from across the table while sitting beside Eirian. "Boys are allowed?"

"To some extent." Elena answers. "They can be suppliers, fuelers, mechanics, дворники, and etc. Unless we're talking about other forms, boys aren't allowed to man those soft tanks in Sensha-dō."

"Wdhat doews dat mwean?" Lisbeth then asks while chewing on her food.

"Some forms of Sōkōbajutsu are still mixed, especially the racing ones that we often send to participate in western tournaments." Elena answers. "And stop talking when your mouth is full!"

"Hm… does this mean that Sensha-dō is dying?" Eirian then asks after a moment of silence in his seat.

"Oh… uhm, I don't really know…" Elena answers in an iffy manner. "We're far less advanced compared to the others, so I guess that's the sign that it needs some changes."

"I see then…"

"I can see why Leopold is so adamant of changing their policies here…"

But his thoughts yet again get disrupted by the sudden announcement through the intercoms.

"Attention, this is an important announcement."

"Students from Class I, 2-A. Nishizumi Miho and Haiiro Eirian from the General Course, please come to the Council's room. Immediately."

"I repeat."

"Class II-A. Nishizumi Miho and Haiiro Eirian. Come to the Student Council immediately."

The announcement continues in the background as the group of Eirian and Miho goes into complete silence. Words can't express to Eirian's friends as they look at him with bad resolution.

"Again? What exactly did you do this time?" Haruto asks in a disappointing voice.

"Yeah, what did you do to Miho?" Lisbeth joins in, sharing the same expression with Haruto while Elena at the background looks at Eirian with a revulsion look on her face.

"Извращенец…"

"I didn't do anything, I swear!" Eirian pleads.

While appealing to his friends that he does no harm to the girl, the girl in question just suddenly tugs his shirt from behind, and the moment Eirian turns his head around, he only sees an anxious Miho murmuring.

"What do we do…?"

"Sounds like we'll have to face them."

After a couple of minutes, the gang arrives at Anzu's office, only to see the disappointment on the student council's faces the moment they arrive. Anzu staring directly at her monitor from her chair, Momo reading some sort of paper from her clipboard, Yuzu twiddling her fingers, and Kojiro just sitting in the background with both of her feet twitching involuntarily.

As the group of students settle in with the atmosphere they're in, Momo finally looks at them and shows them both the selection cards of Miho and Eirian.

"Care to explain yourselves?"

With Miho choosing calligraphy and Eirian picking out the gourmet creation club. Their electives don't suit the student council, and so the latter once-mechanic and the former practitioner are facing questioning from them directly.

"I told you both the other day to take Sensha-dō, so why did you two refuse our offers?" Anzu interjects.

"Even if we have Yokova-san and that girl from Class 2-B. We still need your skills." Momo points out. And just like that Momo starts to bow, not even afraid to let her reputation as the fiery member of the council get the best of her, yet her offer is still refused.

"You can't be that selfish!" Saori replies.

"She's right. You can't push the impossible to them both." Hana concurs.

"Both of them decided to not take Sensha-dō, can't you just acknowledge their decision!" Lisbeth also interjects with her opinion.

"You can't exercise your authority that intervenes with the students' autonomy!" Elena points out.

"You guys have no shame?!" Haruto exclaims.

"Shame..? I don't mind bowing my head till it reaches the floor…" Anzu casually replies. " If anything, it would be more shameful if you two won't be able to stay at this school much longer."

"I can't believe this… are you threatening them?" Hana asks in return.

"The President has always been serious." Momo assures them. "We're doing the best we can for the sake of our school."

"And just forced both of them to join your club?" Lisbeth points out, getting angrier and angrier by the minute.

"Well… how about w-" But before Yuzu can say anything about the situation. Kojiro stops her halfway as the place is too heated for a mediation.

"I know how you feel, but let's just trust the President on this one."

"I hope they will reconsider their plans…"

"Well… it did affect both of them." Kojiro points out.

With the situation getting all heated and their friends bickering against the student council continues, Miho can't help but feel depressed and powerless at how the situation is turning into. And tragically, her thoughts go out of control the moment she watches both of her closest friends defending her.

"Takebe-san… Isuzu-san…"

"They are here to defend me even though they want to join Sensha-dō…"

Her thoughts spiraling, her chest tightening, her trauma is about to attack as she might pass out from the situation she's in. All she can do at that moment is hold her friends' hand and wish.

"Please make it stop…"

"I don't want to…"

"Join…"

"Sensha-dō…"

"Agai-"

Then Eirian shouts loudly.

"Enough!"

The whole room goes silent. Eirian feeling frustrated with all the bickering and arguments and noticing Miho's downed and depressed state, he takes his chances and attempts to end all of them.

"You guys said that you can handle it with Yokova with the club. So if one of us transferred to your club right now, that means the other one won't take it, right?" He answers directly to Anzu personally.

"Of course, we can work with that." Anzu confirms with a nod, though shocked, she answers it with her usual demeanor.

"Then I'm transferring myself to Sensha-dō!"

"..."

"What?!"

This causes a mixed reaction from the group behind him, especially to Miho.

"H-Haiiro-san! Are you really gonna join Sensha-dō?" Miho raises her concern, getting a worried tone out of her voice.

"I was assured by Kojiro yesterday that they have transport vehicles I can manage," Eirian assures her. "Engines are still engines, wires are still wires, I can learn from it."

"You… you can't be serious, Eiry?" Lisbeth asks the next, still surprised to see him switching clubs easily.

"Don't be dumb!" Haruto exclaims, rushing to his side. "Now's not the time to be a hero, what happens if you get surrounded by girls without me?!"

"Eh?"

"That won't do!" Haruto thuds the desk of Anzu. "President Kadotani! I'll join Sensha-dō as well!"

"I like your spirit, Kisetsu-kun." Anzu smiles. "And Momo, let's secure their cards after we dismissed Nishizumi-chan and her friends."

"Just like that?" Miho asks.

"The President is always compassionate." Momo interjects. "But since Haiiro-san has complied with our offers, we don't need your cooperation anymore."

"No..." Miho bluntly refuses.

"Miporin?"

"Nishizumi-san?"




She starts approaching him before stopping right in front of him.

"I want to be a good neighbor for once and let me take your position because I'm joining the Sensha-dō club!"

"What?! I thought you were scared of joining?!" Eirian objects.

Miho realizes what she said and takes a moment to stop herself from speaking, composing herself a little bit before explaining her reasons to him. "I… I want to repay you with your constant consideration for me during these past few days, and plus… I have experience with Sensha-dō, so I can adjust easily with it…"

"Hehe, sounds like both of you are willing to cover each other's backs. So how about this?" Anzu begins, catching both the attention of Miho and Eirian. "How about you two join and we'll up the benefits to everyone in the room."

"That ain't gonna wor-" Eirian immediately gets a shush from Haruto as he puts his hand to his mouth.

"How many are we talking about?!"

"We can up that to 100 meal tickets, 120 anti-late cards, and 90 exception cards, and we'll also grant you the right to join with our affairs here at school."

"Does that mean we're also a part of the Student Council?" Elena asks.

"We can grant you temporary recognition as representatives of our SC's sport department." Momo answers.

"That's… a lot of benefits…" Lisbeth points out while Haruto transfixes from the sudden increase.

"I always put my best foot forward when it comes to delivering satisfaction to my fellow students, hehe~" Anzu comments with a bright smile on her face. "So, will you two insist on joining us now?"

In the end, it seems like Anzu's gamble takes a win and Eirian loses.

Noticing a now determined look from Miho that encourages him to say yes alongside her, Eirian can't help but smile and give a little bit of respect to his target in front of her.

"Hate to say this… but I got played dirty…

"Fine, we'll take your offer, President."

Hearing their final confirmation, the student council can't help but express their gratitude while the others share a mixed reaction, and while the others are celebrating for this exciting development, both Miho and Eirian just look at each other and heave a sigh in unison, one out of relief and the other in disbelief.

And so, to treat their new recruits, Anzu gives an order to Yuzu to guide them to one of the best restaurants for desserts in downtown Zuikaku. With a special coupon from the council, the gang now stays at this impressive looking restaurant and eats their delicious ice creams.

"Phew!" Haruto lets out an exhaustive stretch. "Who would've wondered that turned out to be alright."

"You didn't even do anything, you even sided with them, Har…" Lisbeth comments in abhorrence while suddenly takes a scoop out of Haruto's ice cream.

"Well, let's be thankful that we got additional benefits with the club." Elena points out as she hides her chocolate-mint ice cream from the ice cream-craving Chuda.

"But that was really inconsiderate of you, Kisetsu-san." Hana also joins in, scolding him in the process.

"Ehhh… it wouldn't really matter if I'm there for him, right?" Haruto points out. "And plus, weren't you two yesterday probing Miho to join Sensha-dō?"

"Eh?!" Saori gasps. " Where did you hear that from?!"

"From Lisbeth."

"Liz! You can't spread our secret like that!" Saori pouts before scolding her friend across the table.

"Haha, it's just too juicy, goumen-goumen!" She apologies in a cheerful manner.

"Yet we still haven't asked their opinions about it though." Elena speaks out, causing them to look at Miho who quietly stares at her ice cream.

"Hu-huh?!" Miho looks at them in confusion as she almost drops her spoon.

"You know you don't need to force yourself, Miho." Lisbeth begins. "You can still say no since Eiry has you covered."

"I'll be fine, don't worry, Chuda-san" Miho replies, assuring her. "I… was happy when you all defended me there."

"I never experienced something like that before, so… thank you so much!" She finally smiles at them. "Sensha-dō has always been a part of my family's culture, so I expected this to happen at one point or another…"

Seeing Miho down yet again, Saori brings up the worst possible topic a friend can do. "T-then tell me, Miporin, when did you become close to your neighbor?"

"Eh…" Miho jolts her head backwards upon getting a surprise from Saori's sudden inquiry.. "Haiiro-san's?"

"Takebe-san, we shouldn't ask about their relationship."

"Saori's right! What is it all about?! I want to hear all the details!" Lisbeth is all for it as she concurs with Saori's idea.

"Come on guys, I'm still here you know!" Haruto starts complaining.

"You can always accompany him outside, though." Elena flatly points out, gesturing to Eirian outside the restaurant.

"And missed this opportunity?! Of course not!" Haruto protests. "And plus, he's talking with someone so I wouldn't want to interrupt him."

"Ah huh…" Elena can't help but look at the lonely figure at the side of the road outside. "Haiiro huh… what makes you so special with the student council?"

Outside, Eirian is talking to someone on the phone. "And that's the gist of it…" he reports in a defeated manner.

"Sounds like you'll be staying much longer then.:

"Yup, at least we're going somewhere now." Eirian continues. "Managed to talk with her yesterday and now it seems like we're acquaintances."

"Don't you mean friends?"

"I don't believe so…"

"Well, that's a start for you… better start increasing your friend points with her then."

"Don't treat this like playing the Sims…"

"Haha, sorry, it's just unusual for you to stand up for her."

"It's supposed to be a gamble, it sure backfires when I least expected it…"

"How unfortunate." He teases him.

"Genug. Bis Dann, Rommel."

"Occuparsi~" And with that, Rommel ends the call and the door behind Eirian rings aloud.

"Did you finish your call with someone?" Miho asks.

"Yes. It went smoother than I anticipated." Eirian then looks back at Miho and takes the offer from her, getting a black forest-flavored ice cream as a result.

"What brings you here?"

"Oh… Well… I-I… want to t-thank you for h-helping me out e-earlier…" Miho then bows her head, flustered and embarrassed but wanting to say it personally to him.

"Well, you did say you were just repaying your debt, so I guess we're now equals right?"

"Hehe, hai!"

As Miho acknowledges his comment, she notices his hand extending, and looking at it, it seems like he's offering her a handshake out of the blue.

"May I hope we found our ways in Sensha-dō then, Nishizumi."

She takes a moment to understand what he says to her, and with a smile on her face, she happily accepts his handshake.

"Hai! Let's find our ways in Sensha-dō, Haiiro-san!"

"How about we head back, don't want to misinterpret our actions behind their backs, right?" Eirian points out as Miho can't help but giggle at his comment, and soon they both enter the building together as they head back to their friends and continue their celebration.

And while the day is exhausting to say the least, it's nothing but the first and start of their long week ahead of them as they become the members of Sensha-dō. And immediately, their first club starts right… tomorrow.

Yes, the next day.

Indeed, there's no rest for the enthusiasts, and for those who solely want to reap the benefits… but even still, a group of less than 30 students accept the offering as they now gather in front of the conspicuous warehouse building within the campus ground.

"We're quite fewer than I expected…" Lisbeth points out as she observes her surroundings.

"Never did Sensha-dō catch the attention of many since it's too dangerous to begin with." - Elena starts.

"And it sounds like Hohei-dō is still popular with the boys." Eirian continues as he sees the half of the boys' population flocking at the building over the distance.

"Well, they do have an impressive streak of activities." Haruto remarks before approaching him closely and whispers something out of excitement. "Did you notice that we're the only boys here?"

He continues to allure him. "We got some new faces, looks like they're the freshmen if I'm not mistaken. Then we got those cutesy cosplayers from the history buffs. And finally, the athletes from the decommissioned volleyball club!"

"This is the best thing we could've signed for, Eirian!"

"Don't be stupid, they'll kick you out for that!"

"Not unless we start with the Student Council!"

"That's not the point!"

But before Haruto pursues his wildest imaginations, the voice of the student council in front of them catches their attention altogether.

"Good morning, everyone. We'll be starting our club's first activity." Momo announces.

"Does anyone have any questions?"

And though one of them starts to raise their hand, Momo still presses onward, even if she can see that someone's hand.

"Good! Treasurer, the gates!"

As Momo calls out his name, the door inside the warehouse starts to open from the inside, pushing its double door outward as sunlight starts crawling in the dark room. A storage room with a litter of crates and a broken vehicle lies in decommission and dilapidation.



"What's that?" One of the freshmen asks.

"I think that's what they call a tank? It looks… very old."

"It looks ugly…"

"It's German…"

"I feel like this one has some culture behind it."

"By 'culture', you meant 'rust', right?"

And while they look at the sole vehicle at the storage bay, Miho can't help but inspect the tank carefully. Her affinity with German machinery puts her in a good position for a thorough check up.

"The armor looks fine and the threads are repairable…" Miho begins, touching the tank's exterior and feeling it with her hand. "It's not too rusty so this makes it bearable."

Miho then looks at students behind him and confirms her findings.

"We can operate this tank."

The students express themselves with excitement as they rejoice with the vehicle while some aren't keen to it, nonetheless the atmosphere seems to return as the others start checking the rest of the storage bay.

While this is happening, Eirian can't help himself but look at Miho from afar, her expression is in total opposition from what he saw two days before. "Did she bounce back?" "Was it all a ruse?", "How did she do that?"

"With all of these questions… I need to sort them out eventually."

"Why are you here?"

"What are you aiming for?"

"When will you show me your true nature?"

---

---