Girls und Panzer and the Wundermotor

The Shy Panther:

"Finally, we're done. Hey did Miho and those girls say anything about how their festival thing is going?"

"Well, they said they defeated a joint alliance of the two French themed and affiliated schools. I think they said they were called BC Freedom and Maginot. Why do you ask, Peter?"

Peter grinned. "Eh, I just think they're like me. We're all still kids."

"You're 16," Peter's driver said. "You're a man now at this point."

"S-still! I'm pretty young. You guys are all in your 20s now. I'm not even 18 yet." Peter pouted. His crewmen laughed, sitting up from their daily maintenance of their Panther. It was a fine tank, it was still it's sandy color, although they were beginning to paint it green to fit the surrounding areas, taking extra care to ensure the Iron Cross of Germany wasn't covered over. On the sides were thick plates of steel, along with schurzen that protected the wheels and suspension systems. The long barreled 75mm gun gleamed and shone from their constant polishing of it and the rest of the tank. Most noticeably of Peter's Panther was how the lower gun mantlet was a thick metal bar instead of curving into the half drum shape found on the other Panther fielded by Faber and commanded by Konrad. "Wait..."

"What?" asked Peter's loader.

"S-Someone's coming! Everyone, hide!" the rest of his crew leaping into the bushes, Peter hesitated. Sitting in the grass was his MP40. Scheiße, if someone sees that and is not from the Ooarai Panzerfahren Team...Peter stopped and bent over to pick up his trusty MP40, and that was all it took. All it took for the facade of secrecy built up by Faber, Miho, the Student Council, and Willy to begin it's crumble like a dam.

"Hey, you!" Peter froze. "What're you doing here?" Peter slowly stood, as he heard the rustling of foliage and steps behind him, and without another thought, spun around, his MP40 still in hand. Standing a few meters away from him were two girls, one with long silvery hair and another with shorter brown hair. Both wore dark gray uniforms that bore a striking resemblance to the tankers uniform that Peter himself wore. Erika pressed on with her question. "I asked-"

"Erika, calm down. He does have a gun after all." As she said this, Maho began to put her hand into her jacket. Seeing this, Peter threw his MP40 behind him onto the Panther. "Who are you? And don't try and lie, there's no way there would be a Panther sitting here in the woods."

"W-well...You're from that school, right? Kuromorimine, uh, someone asked me to help do some maintenance."

Erika creased her eyebrows. That was so obviously a lie. "We would've known if someone drove their Panther all the way out here to have maintenance done on it."

"Rgghh." Peter facepalmed himself. "Why are you here anyways? Why would two girls like you just walk into the woods?"

Erika glanced at her commander, who nodded and began to speak. "One of our fellow Sensha-do commanders told us in a meeting about how there's soldiers living in the woods behind Ooarai. Based on what we've heard from some of the other schools, this is true. Pravda's Katyusha said she ran into a Russian man who wore the Soviet sickle and hammer, the commanders from BC Freedom met a Frenchman in a bar deep in the Zuikaku before a man in a German uniform dragged him off. And that same day, we saw two men who fit the description of the men seen in the bar run into Ooarai. Is it true? That you're not supposed to be here, at all?"

Peter's eyes began to dart about. "[Scheiße.]" he muttered to himself. "I can't confirm anything. Above all else, I have to keep up a veil of secrecy."

"Then why is there a Panther sitting here in the woods? And a heavily modified one at that, there's no Panther that has extra armor bolted straight onto it. Even the wheel design is different."

"Uh-ummm..." Oh no, what do I say!? Peter was quite conflicted. On one hand, he couldn't just blurt out everything that had happened, but on the other, here he was confronted by two girls in a situation he definitely couldn't worm his way out of. "Really, I can't tell you. I have to keep secrets."

Erika scoffed. "I think it's already too late for that, last time I heard from St. Glorianas, a few of them said they kept smelling freshly brewed tea coming from the woods."

Peter's head fell with an audible groan. Of course those British have to make a big deal out of brewing some tea. Peter groaned, "I wish I could eat some Hamburg Steak or something..."

Erika's eyes suddenly lit up. "Hamburg steak? That's one of my favorite foods!" and before Peter or Maho could stop her, Erika started to talk about the dish, to which only Peter gave a small smile.

"Well, it is my favorite dish as well..." and before long the two ended up talking about the beef dish. Meanwhile, Maho side stepped away from her Vice-commander and began to slowly walk around the Panther.

It doesn't use the interleaving road wheels design, they're just large one piece wheels...The tracks look thicker as well, and there's the extra bolted on armor all over it. And if it wasn't obvious enough this is definitely not a Kuromorimine tank, this one has a different Iron Cross on it. The gun is the same 75mm KwK 42...Obviously I can't look inside the tank itself, so I would have to ask...

Maho's examination of the Panther finally caught Peter's attention, who prior was too busy talking about Hamburg Steak with Erika. "Sigh...If what you said about us being seen everywhere and whatnot is true, then I guess the veil of secrecy is already burnt down. Who told you?"

"Kay, from Saunders. She's the commander of their Sensha-do team, she's blonde and very American looking."

"I knew it. Before the ongoing festival began, the Americans found her and two others spying on us, and Faber said that Miho claimed they were from the nearby school. Just...how much did she say to you all?"

Maho paused her examination. "She told us that there were German, American, British, and Russian soldiers from another time hiding in the woods with a number of tanks, and they heard about the entire situation that landed you all here."

Peter's soft face suddenly twisted into an ugly expression of loathing. "[God damn Americans! Why is it that we can't just sit around for a few months and wait to go back home...]" Peter flopped onto the ground, leaning against his Panther. "J-just go home you two. It'd be better if you left before Faber gets here." Peter reverted back to his meek self.

"W-what? Why?"

"Leave."

Maho rejoined Erika's side and the two girls shared a look.

"Can I ask a few questions then?" Maho said to him suddenly. Peter jumped up.

"What? S-sure..."

Now that Peter was closer to them, Erika and Maho saw that he was nearly the exact same height as them. "What is the engine of a standard Panther?"

Peter raised his eyebrows at the question. "V-12 Maybach, I think?" Oh no is she going to ask oddly specific tank questions!?

And that's exactly what Maho did. "What's the power to weight ratio of a Tiger? What's the top speed of a Panzer II offroad?" etc etc. Meanwhile, Erika smirked and smiled at her commander's barrage of oddly specific questions, all of which began to fluster Peter. In the bushes, his crewmen began to laugh at their commander's reactions and attempts to answer.

"ARRGH, just leave already!" Peter finally yelled out, red in the face from both frustration and embarrassment. Without another word, the two girls from Kuromorimine left, laughing.

"Hey commander, why did you barrage him with so many questions?" Erika asked once they were far away enough.

Maho gave a rare smile. "I just felt like messing with him."