Girls und Panzer and the Wundermotor

Convincing Willy:

"Jesus, what's up with him? I just want em' to do a sport, that's all!" Kay muttered with a mixture of exasperation and tiredness.

Passing the fuming Willy, Nathan looked at Kay, and tapped her on the shoulder, before he gestured that they leave. Walking outside the tank hanger so no one could hear, Kay, Naomi, and Alisa all simultaneously asked Nathan why Willy was so angry. Nathan glanced around, before he took a deep breath. "Alright, I guess you should get ready for why. It's not that Tankery essentially emulates war, it's because of the fact that kids do it."

"Why? No one really gets hurt on purpose doing it though. And I know you guys are all soldiers and everything, but the Germans and Russians did it, so how come Willy won't?"

"It...it relates to this one incident some time after Green Day was formed. It ain't a pretty story either, so buckle up. So Willy's UHLS, the leading tank of our unit, and I'm one of the gunners on it, so I saw it happen...we got separated by a German ambush, and we were moving through this burnt out city, and as far as we knew, there wasn't anyone around, so we went scouting. Later, when we found a way to get back out and rejoin with the rest of Green Day, we were just getting into our tank when Willy saw a Hitler Youth."

"Wait, so he-" Alisa covered her mouth in shock at what Nathan was implying.

"Yeah, the kid had a Panzerfaust, and Willy killed him with an M2 Browning. When Willy stopped shooting, the youth's body didn't even resemble him in the slightest, their body looked like it had been thrown into a meat grinder. I say 'their' and not he or she, because they were just fucked up that badly." Nathan shook his head, a grim expression on his face. "I bet only Willy knows if that kid was a boy or a girl, only he and god know at this point."

Kay was shocked into silence. She had read of incidents where American soldiers were forced to kill Hitler Youths, but actually hearing it so in detail straight from the mouth of an actual WW2-Veteran...it was surreal, and the one who did the killing wasn't very far away. "T-That's...horrible." she could only utter.

Nathan nodded solemnly. "Now you know why Willy doesn't like the idea of doing Tankery, or whatever you call it."

Around the corner, Willy stared at the ground, having overheard the entire conversation. Indeed he had killed a Hitler Youth, and it scarred deep into his heart and mind. Willy raised his hands to his face, and he saw that they trembled ever so slightly, and before he could stop himself he was remembering the entire incident...

"God damn it, they're halfway across the city." Willy grumbled to Nathan. Strapped across his chest, Willy kept an M1 Garand ready, to shoot any German Soldiers who attacked. Nathan was similarly strapped with a BAR.

"Yeah, damn we gotta drive it through this place, which could have soldiers in hiding...Jesus Christ...Come on, we're almost back to TNT." In a few short minutes, they had arrived back to their UHLS. A forest green for camouflage, on the barrel of the main 105mm gun, was the word "TNT" in bright white paint. The green paint was fading, and a good deal of it was scratched off from all the artillery and shells and everything it had driven through. Seizing the ladder built onto the side of the main gun, Nathan climbed into the beast, before Willy did so similarly. Atop the main gun, attached to the hatch, was a .50 Cal M2 Browning, ready to fire. As Willy opened the main hatch and began to climb in, he saw a shape move in the corner of his eye. Standing in the alleyway between two, bombed out and burnt concrete buildings, was a boy, the blood red Nazi armband on one arm, and in his two arms he carried a Panzerfaust, aimed right at the UHLS Model 1. Adrenaline and sheer instinct took over Willy's body, he jumped up, seizing the firing handles of the M2 Browning, and he swung it around to aim it right at the Hitler Youth. Willy saw the boy's face turn into one of sheer horror, with the realization that he was about to die right then and there, before Willy pushed down on the trigger. When he stopped, the boy no longer looked like a boy.