The next day, an odd trio could be seen walking down the streets of the Zuikaku. Two Japanese girls, both of whom were wearing their school's respective uniforms, and one German boy, who wore an M43 Cap over his "in the process of getting too long" chestnut brown hair. This trio, of course, was Yukari, Peter, and for some reason, Koume. "Come on, just a bit more!" Yukari chirped as she rushed ahead.
"Y-yeah, wait up!" Peter and Koume pleaded as they followed after the hyper ball of fluffy hair. Yukari began to rush off again, only to run into a trio of men, knocking herself over.
"Owie...Oh, it's you three! I haven't seen you guys in a while!" Yukari exclaimed with a little pointed finger.
The trio of men she had run into was none other than Ralph, Clemens, and Eric, all of whom were wearing their Kriegsmarine uniforms. "[Hallo, Akiyama.]" Eric cracked a wide grin, waving with one of his muscled arms. "Fine day to be on the sea, eh? Oh hey, is that...Peter?" Eric raised his eyebrow, still grinning, although this time with a bit of mischief in mind. "Whatcha doing with these ladies? Out on a date?"
Peter blushed furiously as he angrily spat out, "I AM NOT! I'm getting a haircut, remember!? And where the hell have you three been, we haven't seen you guys in like...weeks!"
Eric grinned, his slightly yellow teeth showing off nicely. "Ah, we've been hanging out with some of the girls below deck."
Peter looked at the trio dubiously. "You're not getting yourselves into something crazy, are you? You know that Faber wouldn't be happy if you are."
Eric laughed aloud, probably loud enough to be considered a public disturbance. "Of course we're not! Right, Clemens?"
"Y-yeah, totally..." Clemens blushed, betraying to the three teenagers that the Kriegsmarine trio was definitely getting themselves into some form of trouble.
"Welp, we're off! [Auf wiedersehen!]" The trio marched off, loudly singing something that sounded like, "[Kapitän, Leutenant, Fähnerich, Sergeant, nimm das Mädel...]" before they got too far away to hear clearly.
"Huh...Well those three have nice voices." Yukari waved at Koume and Peter with a strong arm. "Come on, we're almost there!"
"Here we are! The Akiyama Barber Shop!" Yukari announced with pride as the trio arrived at the named salon.
That's...a pretty generic name. Peter thought. He and Koume followed Yukari into her family's salon, a bell ringing over the doorway as the glass door was pushed open. Inside the shop were two people. A woman with brown, fluffy hair, and a man with glasses and curly black hair.
"Welcome!" The woman said warmly as they walked into the hair salon. "Oh? Who're these two, Yukari?"
Yukari smiled. "They're my friends. This guy is Peter-" Yukari pointed to Peter, who was standing in the doorway, taking off his M43 Cap and handing it to Koume for safe keeping. "And this is Koume Akaboshi! Peter said he needs to get a trim, so I thought I'd bring him here!"
The man suddenly jumped up. "T-thank you for being Yukari's friends!" he said loudly with a bow.
"Cut that out dear...I'm Yukari's mother, Yoshiko." Yoshiko introduced herself.
It took Peter a solid 3-5 seconds to realize that Yoshiko was waiting for Peter to introduce himself. "[Ah, shoot! Uhm], I'm Peter Möller. Nice to meet you."
"Möller? Isn't that a bit...?"
Peter turned to look at the man. Is that Yukari's father? "Well, yeah. I'm a Panzerfahren student from Germany. It's nice to meet you." Peter glanced over at Yoshiko, just in time to see her look away and turn her attention to Koume. Wait a second, was she staring at me?
After Koume introduced herself to the Akiyamas-the man was Jungorou Akiyama-Peter sat down in one of the chairs to get his haircut.
"So, what kind of haircut do you want?" Jungorou eagerly asked Peter. "We've got a lot of different styles we could do."
Peter gave one of those "I'm okay, thanks for trying" smiles. "I-I'm just looking to get my hair trimmed. It's getting longer and everything, so..." The heck are these haircuts...people of this generation are so weird, who would want their hair to stand up like that? Then again, Peter was born in the 1930s, not in the 2000s.
After a look of deflation passed on Jungorou's face, he moved behind Peter, scissors and comb in hand. And soon, he was cutting the German boy's chestnut hair. "So...are you his friend?" Yoshiko asked Koume while they watched Peter having his hair cut.
"Eh? Me?" Yoshiko nodded with a warm smile. "Y-yeah, I am. We met about two or three weeks back, when he was looking around our school."
"Ah, I see. I imagine he likes Kuromorimine, since he's from Germany and all."
Koume nodded happily. "Yeah, he gets along pretty well with my other friends, and he's pretty good with tanks!" And he helped me out with my trauma too...
"Haha, I can see why Yukari was eager to have him get his hair cut here of all places. I'm not sure if you know this but she's absolutely obsessed with tanks and WW2."
"So I've heard. Miho told me."
There was a pause in Peter's haircut, during which its recipient looked around the barber shop, his eyes roving around until he focused on two people in particular, both of whom had brown fluffy hair of similar shades. "You two look pretty similar." Koume jumped at the statement. "You both have brown fluffy hair, you even sound similar. Uh-no offense or anything." Peter sweated.
Yoshiko just waved it off. "No, it's alright. You actually look a bit like Koume and Yukari as well. Your hair is very beautiful." Peter blushed and thanked Yoshiko for the comment, before Jungorou returned to cutting his hair shorter and shorter.
"Hey, Akaboshi-dono, you can wait in my room with me! I've got some tank models and stuff that I want to paint, so maybe you could help?"
"Sounds good!" Koume responded, following Yukari upstairs and into her WW2-memorabilia-filled room. "Wow...this is a lot of stuff..."
Yukari blushed, scratching her hair. "Ehehehe...I know, it's been accumulating since...well, since forever, I guess."
As Koume's eyes scanned the room, one thing in particular caught her eye. "Ooh! Is that the Trumpeter King Tiger 1/16? I thought those're really expensive!"
Yukari just blushed and scratched herself. Again. "Eh, I got it from some friends as a birthday gift. Everyone else pitched in to buy it!"
"You mean Miho?"
"Y-yeah, Miho and the others bought it for my birthday. I guess they really wanted to show how much they appreciated my work, loading shells and all."
Koume smiled warmly, thinking back on when she and Miho were classmates and friends at Kuromorimine. "That sounds just like Miho to do that. So you said you have some tank models you want to paint?"
"Ah, yes!" Yukari jumped over to a corner in her room where her bed was, going underneath and pulling out a number of paints and other whatnot. "So I've got all the models here," Yukari gestured at the table in the middle of her room. "I've just gotta paint them first. And like I said yesterday, I want Peter to judge if it's 100% historical and stuff."
"Ah, gotcha, gotcha. Wait..." Koume sat down on her knees, picking up one model in particular. "Ah, so this is why you want Peter to give his own historical judgement, huh?" The model Koume picked up was a Panther II, NVD included. There were also some Panther Fs as well. Yukari just blushed and said yes.
Suddenly, the door to Yukari's room opened again, revealing Peter, his hair shorter than before. "Oh, Peter! You're done already?"
Peter gave a little thumbs up. "Yeah, that went quicker than I expected. It was just a trim after all though. So you want me to help you paint these tank models, Yukari?"
"[Yes sir!]" Yukari said in accented English, causing Peter and Koume to laugh. "Y'know, Erwin typically comes to help me but she seemed busy, so I forgot to ask her...she really likes coming over for some reason!"
And so the time went by as the trio of tankers all painted the various models, one by one, with Peter sometimes giving his own input on what some tanks should look like. "The Panther II? Well, the camouflage depends, really."
"How so?"
"Since the Panther II could pick out targets and fight at night, we organized the Panther IIs into shifts, in a way. Those on the 'night shift'," Peter explained, "Were painted very dark grey or black. So they'd be harder to see at night and everything. The others we just painted to match the environment, so if we were in a forest in the summer we'd paint them green, and if it was fall, we'd paint them in this spotted red-brown color scheme. I've never actually commanded a Panther II personally, but back before the Stahlrattes were created I commanded my own little 'Panther pack', just me and a bunch of other Panther variants moving around as a unit. I think as you saw in that VHS tape, most of the others were, well...destroyed, when Green Day came by looking for that wine."
"That's a shame...what happened to them? The crews?" Asked Koume, in a gentle tone.
Peter shrugged. "I forgot who lived and who died, that battle was almost two years back, from where we came from. Or maybe when would fit better..." For some reason, Yukari found Peter's ending statement funny and gave a little giggle.
"I brought drinks!" Yoshiko announced as she walked into the room with a tray. She squatted down, placing three cups of lemonade on the table. "How's everything so far?"
"Good. Your daughter has a lot of tank models, huh?" Peter said with a grin.
Yoshiko smiled. "Yup. She's been collecting them ever since she was a child. How long have you known Yukari? Peter?"
Peter paused to think, a Panther G model in his hand. "About...a month and a half? I forgot the exact date I came here." Well actually I have no idea when I came here. It just happened...
"I see...well, I'll leave you three alone, tell me if you want anything!" Yukari, Koume, and Peter all nodded, happy. Before she left, Yoshiko looked at the trio, and gave a smile that could only be described as oddly nostalgic.
"Thanks for coming by you two!" Yukari said enthusiastically as Peter and Koume left her house later that day. It was starting to get a little bit late, with the sun starting to go down from its zenith in the afternoon. "Especially you Peter, I love the painting you did!" She shouted as the couple-pair of friends walked away.
"Eheheh, your welcome..." Peter replied, glad that he could make Yukari happy. "Alright, let's get going then..." Peter put his right hand into his pocket to pull out his hat. Then he began to pat himself down. "Uh, Koume, I gave you my M43 cap right?"
"Yeah, I did. Lemme give it to you..." Koume put her hand into her jacket, and then began to pat herself down. "Crap, I think I dropped it. Lemme go back and get it!" Koume turned around and ran back to the Akiyama Barber Shop, knocking on the glass door.
The door opened, revealing Yoshiko. "Oh, Akaboshi-san? Did you forget something?"
"Y-yeah, I must've dropped Peter's-"
"His M43 Cap, right? Here." And to Koume's surprise, Yoshiko handed her Peter's M43 cap. "I noticed you left it in Yukari's room, so I picked it up for you."
"Ah, thank you so much!"
"No problem. And Koume?"
"Yeah?"
Yoshiko paused for a moment. "...Keep an eye on Peter...he seems like a good friend." Peter watched as the two conversed, too far away to hear them properly. Looking at the Barber Shop again, he noticed something very strange gathering outside the window of the shop. Ravens. Dozens of them, eyes as dark as the dreaded night fighting Panther IIs. He watched as Koume stopped for a moment, staring at Yoshiko. Then she smiled, and nodded enthusiastically, before running back to Peter and giving him his M43 Cap. Watching all of this, Yoshiko smiled, as she closed the door and turned the sign from OPEN to ClOSED.