Turtles

Dissonance

This is the Nishizumi Style of Sensha-do.

If you shoot, you hit.

If you defend, you defend firmly and without yield.

If you advance, you advance relentlessly and without falter.

A will of iron and treads of steel.

This is the Nishizumi Style of Sensha-do.

And it never loses.

Turtles: A Girls und Panzer Story.

Ob's sturmt oder schneit, ob die Sonne uns lacht...

Koume's eyes snapped open, and she began to move. First, of course, came getting out of bed, which she did in three precise motions: sit up, pivot to the left, stand up. Then came making the bed, which again she did in a few precise motions. She took a coin off her nightstand, dropped it on the blanket, and was satisfied when it bounced.

Der Tag glühend heiß Oder eiskalt die Nacht...

Next step, getting dressed. She turned to her right, to her desk, in order to get her school uniform off the hangers that she'd attached to her chair before going to bed the previous night...

Her desk wasn't there. Neither was her chair, or her clothes, or...

Es braust unser Panzer Im Sturmw-

Koume's left hand groped down onto her nightstand, found her phone, and shut off her alarm. Her right hand covered her face, as everything came flooding back to her. Again.

This is the fourth time now. It's one thing to stay disciplined, but I must seriously have been programmed like a robot if I'm still looking for my furniture in the wrong places.

She'd been aboard the Ooarai school carrier for a week, now. Today was the first day of the new school year, and it would also be the first time she'd actually set foot on the campus itself. At her old school, she'd have been on campus every day for senshado practice, regardless of whether classes proper were being run... but this place didn't have a tankery program. She'd left one of the foundations of her life behind to come here. Just one more thing that had changed in the past six months.

Koume crossed the room to her desk's actual location under the window and retrieved her new Ooarai school uniform. She didn't like it. The green collar and skirt were too bright, and the whole "sailor" aesthetic just seemed tacky. Not like the trim efficiency of her old school uniform.

She checked the time on her phone: 6:03 am. She had to fight down an instinctive surge of terror at the sight. No, Koume, you didn't oversleep. You're not missing practice. You have fifty seven minutes before you need to be at the school and in class. Senshado is not a thing you do. Not anymore.

It was just so hard to adjust to the fact that she wasn't at Kuromorimine anymore.

Once she'd dressed and collected her books and bag, she gave herself precisely ten minutes to eat a quick breakfast of a banana, a biscuit, and a bowl of cereal in her apartment's small kitchen before she was out the door, locking it quickly behind her. That is one nice thing about this place at least. There's no such thing as off-campus housing for students at Kuromorimine. I always thought that was something for college students only.

Once out on the street, it was only about a block before Koume reached an apartment building just like her own. She leaned against the stairs leading up to the second floor and waited.

She didn't have to wait long.

Within moments of Koume reaching the building, an auburn-haired blur in a green-and-white sailor outfit identical to Koume's own came barreling down the stairs. Koume smiled at the sight of her best friend.