Accidents Happen

The Battle of the Fates

Miho POV

Three years, three years in a row we have made it to the finals against my sisters team. Two teams with two different strategies of attack. It's almost a joke we keep winning. As we do the signature start bow of Sensha-do, we head to our start locations, and I make up a plan as we go. Obviously it's hard to plan without seeing the enemy formation. But I can make due with the info I remember from last season, knowing they haven't upgraded much. Maybe they swapped the older Tiger I with the slightly newer and better Tiger II? Either way it's easy pickings, and again, their formation is similar, and the flag tank noticeable. We roll out in formation, and head to a good spot to start the fight, and of course we conceal ourselves and they don't see us. I order our Jagdpanthers to fire at the cover tanks for the flag tank, and with great success as a total of four tanks were taken out, all confirmed as Tiger IIs. The flag tank was unique for sure, a Panzer IV commanded by my sister? Odd, it has an Ausf. H kit, but not the Tiger turret conversion. I see, a fair match, flag tank against flag tank. We roll the convoy out and head to the area we perform best in, the urban areas where Kuromorimine struggles. We stage another ambush, this time all of our heavy firing tanks, and yes, including the heavy hitting IV now, both Jagdpanthers, and the Porsche Tiger. Rounding it up, the STUG IV we got. As Kuromorimine rolls into the city, we are concealed, and fire a bombardment of HE shells, wiping out half of their convoy, and I can see my sister poke up, with a slight hint of fear on her face as she realizes we know what we are doing. Finally, we end up yet again with a one on one in a courtyard like the first year, as last year we won via the STUG IV landing a lucky shot. As we start fighting I order Mako to hard stop, and Hana to fire, a shot goes in one side of the engine bay and out the other, we shot clean through a Panzer IV. Suddenly the engine explodes into flames and we all instinctively run to the Kuromorimine Panzer, and help the crew out, my sister passed out in the commander hatch, and I lift her out. Just as we get away from the tank my sister wakes up.

"Miho...?" She asks for me with a raspy voice.

"I'm here, Maho.... wait, the letter!" I freak out and begin to run back towards the Panzer, when the ammo rack explodes, only thing I remember is my ears ringing, my vision going black, and I hit the ground.... hard.

"Miho!" My sister yells and crawls over to me, and verifies that I'm unconscious but alive, and does a basic medical exam and finds a broken leg and rib.

Maho POV

I was sitting in one of the chairs at the hospital, waiting to get the okay to see my little sister. After what seemed like hours, and really was hours, I was able to see and speak to her. I walked into the room and sat next to her. I didn't speak, and neither did she, we just sat there looking at each other, and we both heard the helicopter land on the roof. Damn, this is gonna be fun. A few minutes later our mother walks in and instantly starts yelling at me. I can't take it, I'm done. Miho is on the verge of tears, and at this point, I am too, behind our mother I can see Erika, who is also about to cry, knowing how much I hate this.

"Why have you been mingling with the enemy? You lost to them again, three times you've lost to a novice team!" She exclaims.

"Clearly they aren't novice if they've beaten us three times in a row." I reply.

"So you are with the enemy? You really aren't ready to head the Nishizumi household." Our mother said, which sent me over the edge, and both Miho and Erika saw this and nodded meekly.

"Well okay, then I won't lead YOUR version of the household. Miho and I will make our own version, one that doesn't mock the family name with torture to its crews! We push the commanders and operators of each and every tank to a point they snap and quit, all for your 'Nishizumi Style'! I'm done!" I did it, I explained my half. That is when Erika forced past my mother and next to me.