Miho POV
Maho and Erika are here at Oorai with me. It both makes me happy yet hurts. They gave up a chance to setting a major record, and went and blew it. Yet I'm happy to be back together with my sister and good friend. Well, granted she still doesn't hate me for leaving Kuromorimine three years ago.
Flashback
It was my fault we lost the finals match to Pravda. I'm not worried about mom, she had her talk with me, I'm worried about the talk I'm going to have with Maho. I bury my face in my pillow, and softly cry. After a good ten minutes of me crying I hear a knock on the door of me and Maho's bedroom door. I walk over and peek out the door without fully opening it. I can see Maho and Erika, and a hint of fear goes over my face.
"Oh look here, the mistake of a commander." Erika remarks, and instantly makes me slam the door shut and go back to my bed and cry some more into my pillow. After about five minutes I head the door softly open then close. Before hand I did hear a bang sound but didn't know what it was. I glance over from my pillow and see Maho, and face away from her.
"Miho, look at me." She says to me, resulting in me shaking my head.
"Miho please." I finally do after she asks again.
"What?" I ask her, my voice quivering with a mix of fear and sadness.
"Tell me what's wrong. I won't yell at you, I know mom has done that already." She tells me.
"I ruined the record, I abandoned my post as commander of the flag tank, and I shouldnt have. I'm such a screw up..." I go back to my pillow. Not even five seconds pass before Maho's arms pick me up and pull me into a tight embrace.
"You aren't a screw up. Matter a fact, if I were in your place I would've done the same thing. To me you are the bravest person on this team." She explains to me.
"I'm not on the team anymore..." I tell her, and it was true.
"What do you mean?" She asks.
"I'm transferring, and I'm quitting Sensha-do." I tell her, I can't handle this anymore. Her arms hold me tighter, and I suddenly wrap my arms around her. I don't want to leave here, but I can't take our mother anymore. She pushes too hard to get the best of her needs in Sensha-do, and it stressed my team out. They all knew if our tank was hit enough or hard enough, we were screwed. And because I abandoned them, they panicked. Pravda requested me to join them, as they are more relaxed, but I kindly declined as I wanted a school without Sensha-do.
End flashback
I obviously didn't end up at a school without Sensha-do, but I guess it's for the better that I stayed with it.
Maho Flashback
I was sitting outside my mothers office, when Erika opened the door and told me to come in, so I did and sat down, Erika standing behind me.
"You told me she was going to be able to handle herself. That she was ready." My mother said to me.
"Well guess I was wrong, mother." I say.
"You guess? Your wrong guess just cost us a record! What will that do for the Nishizumi name? My name?"
"She screwed up, that simple! It was a damn accident!"
"How dare you speak to me that way? I'm your mother!"
"Because, she is a child, and you are getting mad at her for a simple accident!" I exclaim.
"Get out of my office, I have no need for you right now." She tells me.
"Don't have to tell me twice." I mutter as I leave, and Erika follows me to me and Miho's room. We walk in to the entry space and I knock on the door and Miho peeks out. Before I can speak Erika says something.
"Oh look here, the mistake of a commander." Erika remarks. Miho instantly slams the door shut on me and I can hear her bed creak as she flops into it. I instantly start to feel extremely pissed off and grab Erika by the collar and slam her into the wall.
"What the hell was that?!" I ask her, very obviously pissed off.
"I was stating the obvious, she screwed up, so why not call her a screw up?"
"I thought you were my friend, but no friend of mine talks down to my sister, do you understand!"
"Y-Yes Commander! It won't happen again!" She tells me.
"Good, now get out before I get another reason to yell at you." I say to Erika.
"Y-Yes commander!" She panickingly says as she leaves my room. After a couple minutes to cool down I go into my room and sit on my bed to see and hear Miho crying into her pillow. Damn, she isn't taking this lightly at all. I feel terrible for making her suffer and not tell her how brave she was. I see her glance over at me then immediately back to her pillow.
"Miho, look at me." I ask, which she answers with a head shake no.
"Miho please." I ask again, which this time she turns her head towards me.
"What?" She asks me, her voice quivering after crying so much. Damn, now I feel like a bad sister.
"Tell me what's wrong. I won't yell at you, I know mom has done that already." I ask, and say it softly to try and help.
"I'm such a screw up, I abandoned my post as commander of the flag tank, and because of that ruined your record." She says and buried her face back in her pillow. I instantly stand up and pick her up and hug her tightly to me.
"You aren't a screw up, matter a fact, what you did was brave. I would have done the same thing in your place. You are the bravest member on the team." I explain to her, and she suddenly stiffens up.
"I'm not on the team anymore." She says.
"What?" I ask, very confused.
"I'm transferring schools, and quitting Sensha-do." She tells me. Damn, this school really has broken her. I hold her to me tighter, and she finally hugs back.
"What was that bang noise I heard before you came in?" She asks me.
"Umm, it was Erika." I tell her.
"Is she okay? Did she fall?" She asks.
"Umm yes and no. She is fine, but the bang was.... me slamming her against the wall."
"What?! Why?!" Miho asks.
"She made you upset, and anyone who makes fun of my sister is not a friend of mine. So I told her off." I explain.
"I see." Miho agrees. "Well, thank you, for protecting me... and... not yelling at me."
"Not a Problem." I say, and I fell asleep cuddling her to help her calm down.
End Flashback
Maho POV
The next day, we go to the tank shed and roll out the cavalry, including the SU-100 they have. Miko is certainly the strangest commander Oorai has, part animal, very smart, and knows what she is doing. I'm scared of her teams skill, team Wolf, as pointed by the logo on the side of the SU-100. We started training by getting to the firing range in formation, a new part having to be made for Wolf team and me and Erika's tanks, the sniper division. I was primary formation, and the STUG IV joined the sniper portion of the formation. Once to the range Miho gave the call to Miko for her to take over command, she was lied, Miko is her sub-commander, and Miko offered to step down? Odd.
"Okay, listen up. I want everyone to treat the two new commanders and their crews with absolute respect! They transferred from Kuromorimine to be here, which means we are better than them. Don't let your guard down just because I said that. Fight with all you have no matter the team!" She explains, and gets an ora! from all the tanks. She requests I line up a shot and fire, which my team hits dead center with three shells. Next she orders her team to fire. This is gonna be good, never felt the back blast of a 100. The tank fires and the whole chassis rocks back with the gun, and it moves my tank and Erika's right next to it. Good lord that was a thrill to feel. And Miko seemed to sense that from both me and Erika, as she ordered her team to fire again, and they did. It felt so good to be so close to such a big gun. After a long time of training and evaluation by both Miko and my sister, we are ordered back to the warehouse and park up and check the tanks. Erika seemed pleased with her tank and crew, and I did with mine as well. Especially with both being new crews. Miko looks over at me and gives a salute. Is she American? We don't salute in Japan. Once we park and disembark the tanks I walk to the back and open the engine cover. As I'm checking the fluids I hear someone walk up beside me. I look over to see Miko.
"Oh, hey... Miko was it? How are you?" I ask her, trying to not be formal as Miho told me there was no need to be.
"I'm good, and yup, it's Miko. It's nice to meet two Sensha-do celebrities in the same night." She replies with a warm smile. I nod in acknowledgement.
"Well, thanks for the compliment, but from watching you in the field, you know what you are doing. Which leads me to a question I have. Why are you handing your position down to me?"
"I'm not as strong or smart as people make me out to be. In terms of Sensha-do, I'm a coward, holding back and fighting from outside line of sight."
"Sniping still takes a lot of strength, even Kuromorimine struggled to do it."
"That makes me feel a little better about it."
"Anyway, I don't really want a position of power anymore. Being the head of the team over at Kuromorimine for a couple years was hard, and I don't want that again. I'll keep my standard crew commander role." I explain to her, which she nods in acknowledgement.
"So, you want me to keep the position?" She asks. I nod in reply. She sticks her hand out and I take it in a firm handshake and go back to checking the fluids on the tank. As I'm finishing up one of my crew mates, the gunner, Ruka walks over.
"Hey.... commander?" She asks shyly. I look up at her softly and smile.
"Yes, Ruka?" I ask back in reply.
"W-We would like to personally get to know you better as a crew, if you want." She states. I stand up and look at her.
"Sure, lunch tomorrow in town? I'll give you my number so you can text me the location." I say to her, and she smiles.
"Sure! Just let me know once you finish checking the tank." She tells me. I nod and go back to work and finish up a few minutes later. Once I get the covers shut and locked I walk over to Ruka and the rest of the crew, and make a group chat for us to use. They all smile and leave the warehouse to head home, and I walk over to Miho and Erika, who are having a conversation.
"Miho.... I wanted to apologize for before. What I said was messed up." Erika said to Miho.
"Don't worry about it Erika, I won't hold it against you. At the time I believed what you said myself. I did really think that." Miho replied.
"That makes it a little better, but seriously, what I said could've broken our friendship with ease. Glad you didn't let it happen." Erika replied. I finally knew what they were talking about.
Reference previous flashback with Maho and Erika
"It's not a problem. Losing a friend is not high up my list of stuff to do." Miho replies.
"Good to hear you are still your happy and cheerful self." Erika and I both say. We laugh at that and Miho looks at me.
"How are you healing? And how are you adapting to this school?" She asks me.
"I'm healing great, I should ask you that question, you were worse off than me. As for the adapting, it's gonna take a while. But either way I'm getting comfortable here, thanks to you and your crews help." I say to her, making her blush a little. Dang she is so cute when I embarrass her. Once all the crews finished getting their tanks checked and packing up we leave and head for the apartment. Miko yet again gives me a salute. I'll ask Miho about it and if she doesn't know I'll ask her directly. Once we get back to the apartment I go to the bathroom and change into something relaxing, a pair of sweatpants and a light shirt. I go back into the main room and sit on the futon next to Miho and watch TV with her. It doesn't take long for me to get tired and I go to my room and lay down with Erika and fall asleep.
Maho's dream
I'm standing in the commanders hatch when the shell from Miho's tank hits mine, once it does the tank very quickly becomes a fiery inferno. I quickly lost track of reality in the smoke, and next I know Im on the ground next to Miho's tank. when she runs back to my burning Tiger.
"Miho no!" I yell, in attempt to stop her, but its too late. The ammo rack explodes, and Miho is thrown back and hits the ground with a crunch, and I rush over to her, checking her pulse, which isnt there. I begin trying to save her by trying to restart her pulse, to no avail, same as the field medics once they arrive. My own sister is gone. The next couple weeks go slow, the funeral, the burial, and worst of all the lecture from my mother. And that is when I wake up shivering in a cold sweat. It was just a dream. I let out a heavy sigh as I get up to get a drink of water. As I stand there sipping the water Miho walks in and sees me, waving softly getting some water herself. This all feels surreal. Im at the same school as my little sister again, and out of the control of our mother. Its nice to just sit back and relax. A luxury not common at Kuromorimine. And that is the part I love most about it here.
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Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of content the past couple years! Ive been super busy with stuff IRL and just massive writers block. Im back with a lot of influences, and ready to go! So be ready for an increase in quality and quantity of content here from me! The next chapter to another story of mine is probably going to be quite heavy, so be ready! Thanks for sticking around if you have, it means a lot. Take care, and happy reading!
-Jordan Elysium