Girls und Panzer: Downfall

Brotherly and sisterly love

Two girls were sitting down together on the turret of a Panzer IV. One of them had an arm wrapped around the other's shoulders, and the latter was laying her head on the former's shoulder. 
"We did good in the match today didn't we?" The first girl asked. 
"Yeah sis, we did! My arms hurt from all the shells I loaded!" 
"Oh, Noriyo..." 
"Yes, Noriko?" 
"What do you think of the Commander?" Noriko asked, breaking away from her sister.
"Which one? There's so many!" Noriyo answered with a cute smile.
"Michael!" 
"Oh, Michael! He's a nice guy, don't you think so too, sis?" Noriyo said. 
"Yeah, I do. He's also cute, but right now I'm not looking for a boy..." Noriko whispered with an amused tone. 
"Are you looking for a girl?" Noriyo joked, letting out a chuckle.
"What?!"
"Hey hey, sis, I was just messing with you!" Noriyo continued, not being able to stop laughing. Noriko, on her part, kept her mouth shut, blushing quite a lot.
"Noriko, come on...I was just joking! Don't be mad..." Noriyo muttered, feeling a little guilty.
"Yeah..." 
The two looked into each other's eyes, for a moment. Noriyo then briskly grabbed her sister and pulled her into her arms.
"I love you, little sis..." She whispered softly. 
"I was only born two minutes after you! Oh, and I love you too." Noriko answered, having forgotten about the discussion of a few moments earlier. 
"I...hope I'm not interrupting..." 
The twins immediately stopped hugging and jumped down the tank, looking at Michael, who was a bit embarrassed. He hadn't seen them, fortunately, but he'd still heard everything, more or less.
"Hey Michael!" The two shouted together in sync.
"We're supposed to drive our tank to the loading point at the docks in the space of an hour. Have you seen Ren or Sakura?" 
Michael raised an eyebrow, waiting for an answer. 
"Ah! W-well, last time I saw Sakura she was-" 
"I'm here." 
Michael turned around and saw his gunner right in front of him. She had a cup of Coca-Cola in her hand. 
"Ah, good. Now we're only missing-" 
"Nobody. Here I am." 
And so Ren arrived too, trotting behind Sakura. He gave everybody a friendly wave.
"Good. Everybody take a seat and buckle up. Ren, you know the path, right?" Michael asked. 
"Sure do, Michael." He answered saluting. Michael was pleased to see he'd learned how to do it right, finally, and smiled in the most friendly way he could.
"Good. Los geht's." 
The 5 entered their tank, Ren started the engine and began the drive to the docks. The sun started setting over the horizon, and the day of Michael's first match was coming to an end. 
"By the way guys, you all did great today." Michael said proudly at some point. Everybody thanked him, feeling happy about the fact that their commander was recognizing their work. 
"Did you all have fun today?" He continued. Everybody more or less answered with a yes. 
"What about you, Michael?" Ren asked at some point. 
"Ah, yeah...for some reason Saunders' Commander approached me and we spent the afternoon together." Michael answered casually, like that was a normal thing.
"Woah, really?" Ren asked.
"Yep. I have no idea why, but that happened. Guess your Commander's becoming popular, eh?" Michael joked. 
"Ah, yeah, so famous..." Sakura muttered.
"Sakura, stop being such a tsundere!" Ren said snickering.
"Hey!" 
The twins laughed together, as Sakura blushed and looked down with a "hmph". 
"We make a great team, the 5 of us. Don't you guys think?" Michael asked, feeling proud of himself and his crew. 
"We do!" The twins answered. 
"Yeah, I do." Ren said a bit melancholically.
"Uh-huh..." Sakura mumbled, still feeling a bit embarrassed about having been roasted by Ren. 
"I have a feeling we're gonna have a lot of fun, the 5 of us." Michael said, letting out a small sigh as he looked over to the horizon, illuminated by the orangish light of the sunset.

_-_-_-_-_-_-

That night, at Kuromorimine High...

_-_-_-_-_-_-

Michael sat alone at his table. He'd just finished his dinner and was just chilling on his chair. He was proud of himself for having won his first match that day, and he was hoping to repeat the result in the next one. He stood up, putting his tray away, and headed to the cafeteria's exit. As soon as he was about to go through the door, he heard somebody calling his name. He took his hand off the doorknob and took a step back, turning around. When he realized Maho was in front of him, staring him down, he immediately stood to attention and saluted. 
"Good evening, Kommandant." 
"At ease, I'm not here as your commander." Maho explained, with a gesture of her hand. Michael took a sigh of relief and assumed a normal stance, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"Then how can I help you?" He asked. 
"Have you seen Miho anywhere?" 
Coming to think of it, Michael hadn't seen Miho all day. He'd just been too busy. 
"No, Kommandant. I haven't seen her all day. Why?" Michael asked, a bit perplexed. 
"Weird...since she came back to school, she vanished. Let me know if you see her anywhere, alright? I need to talk to her about something." Maho said casually. 
"Jawohl."
"Good. I'll be going then, goodnight." 
Maho nodded and walked off, joining a group of third and second year commanders. On his part, Michael remembered his original intention and walked out of the cafeteria, sighing. He tried to think about why Miho would disappear all of a sudden, but nothing came to his mind.
"Disappeared, huh..." He mused to himself. That was genuinely weird, since Miho was usually always around talking with somebody. As he was reaching the school's gates, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and saw he'd received a text message on Line from an unknown number. 
"The prefix is from...Aomori? What the..." 
Michael whipped out the keyboard on his phone and started texting...