In the Wake of a War Machine

The Beginning of a New Era

After the controversial events of the 62nd National High School Senshado Tournament  Kuromorimine had won the previous nine consecutive tournaments and appeared poised to claim a tenth, a feat unheard of in senshado history. However, during the match, a Kuromorimine Panzer III commanded by Koume Akaboshi escorting the flag tank slipped off a cliff and into a river. Miho Nishizumi abandoned her post and saved the lives of the stricken crew, but in her absence, the flag tank (a Tiger 1) was attacked and destroyed by Pravda, which resulted in her losing the match for her team and breaking Kuromorimine's nine-year winning streak. Making Pravda champions for the first time in two decades.

The school subsequently suffered a severe morale backlash the team lost some of its best members due to match-related bullying forcing many members to quit or transfer out including poor Miho.  Her mother Shiho did scold her for her actions in the tournament, but it wasn't anything too severe as Miho already knew that her mother was very "passionate" about senshado. After all, she was the master of the Nishizumi style. It was the harsh bullying that caused her to leave Tankery. Which made Shiho upset, to begin with, and damaged their relationship as mother and daughter. The events of the match also had a profound effect on the senshado community as a whole, the discussion and debate of which kept Kuromorimine and Pravda under the spotlight for a long time. Koume blamed herself for the defeat and Miho's eventual departure, feeling bad for what happened. It took a great effort from Maho Nishizumi to raise school morale back up to its previous levels in time to begin training for the next year's tournament. During the offseason, the Japanese Government encouraged the Japan Senshado Federation to make the sport co-ed. In return, they promised to help with some of the school's budget issues except Oorai as they didn't have a Tankery Club (yet). As a result, for the 63rd National High School Senshado Tournament boys would be able to participate in Senshado matches for their respective schools.

This made Maho and the school's job of finding recruits easier as she could simply fill the last remnants of the team with male recruits. But no one ever prophesied that this new era of Senshado would be the beginning of the sport's golden age! Or that our heroes would be at the very epicenter of it!