The Tigers of Chi-Ha-Tan ReRise Volume 3: The Tigresses Trial

For you are a Nishizumi Part 2

10 years ago

The room was cast mostly in shadows, except for the one lone ray of light shining through a small break in the drapes. This single source of light had work its way as time passed, to now be touching the face of a young woman resting in her bed, who wanted nothing more for this irritant light to go away. Soft and inviting silk sheets envelope this supple woman, which was the product of the long years of intense conditioning she had to undergo that Sensha-do require of its ladies to be able to operate tanks.

Shiho Nishizumi, wanting nothing more than to lay here all day, wrap in these soft sheets that would melt her soreness away. It wasn't her body that was sore, more like her mind was. Long hours into the night she spent studying Kuromorimine Girls Academy's recent National tournament run that had ended with a close loss to BC Freedom Academy in the Semi-final, though the French base school was to lose to Saunders in the final this year, marking the 5th time the school had raise the Victory Flag over their school carrier in their history.

Even with the disappointment, Shiho was proud of the team she instructed. It had been a long time of rebuilding their fighting spirit back to prominence that had taken a dive in the years since she graduated from the school, while also trying to bring in more talented recruits to the team. The upgrade of the tank force had been a tough task, but with the Panzer 38 t and the Panzer 2 all now replace with Panzer 3's with their leading two Tiger 1's, the team was slowly becoming a powerhouse. At the same time, more advanced German tanks were becoming readily available to them for the upcoming year.

However, more work was to be done. Even with her summer free for now from instructing duties, Shiho knew there was no rest for the weary. Fundraisers were already being started to help get a bigger budget for next year, while she had directed her network of scouts to find talented members in the junior high ranks to bring to the academy. There was also a roster change to be look at, as the talented 3rd years were graduating, and now she had to find out who should be made commander for next year from the 2nd years. Yet with all this pressure, Shiho was happy to face the challenges head-on, because she was free to see how to solve them.

Shiho shifted under the sheets to get away from the small light source, which made her turn over and by instinct reach over and felt an empty space on her very large bed. What should have occupied that space was her husband Tsuneo Nishizumi. The very man who had made her smile and laugh for the first time in her life in her college days, the very man to give her the two most precious treasures in the world, and the very man who she love with all her heart.

Yet that very man was not here now, as it had been for some weeks. Tsuneo had started a job as a car mechanic in the small town away from the estate, for which Shiho argue with why he needed a job when their family wealth pay for everything. He just said he needed to do something to calm his mind after the fighting they had been doing lately, which practically told her he wanted space from her.

Fighting in a marriage was just something that was going to happen, Shiho understood that, yet when the subject for the fighting was always over their daughter's participation in Sensha-do, it was obviously not something normal. It wasn't like she had done anything to push them, she had made a promise to Tsueno when her mother Nayoko pass, that she wouldn't force her daughters into the sport. Yet Miho and Maho on their own wanted to be part of the sport.

Shiho could say she had a bit of a hand in it, though it was more of an accident than anything. When her daughters one day, found an old album of her in her high school days fighting for Kuromorimine. They show her the album, but ask why she never smile in these pictures, when she now always smiled. Shiho just joke to them that she was grouchy back then, so to hide the emotionless and heartless side of the true Nishizumi style her family follows, that she plan to modify it so her daughters wouldn't become like her in the old days.