A Veteran's Affair

Chapter 9 - Caught in the Act

AN: I'm back from hiatus, though the uploading schedule will still be non-existent. This chapter is short but I felt like this chapter would act as a bridge to the next chapter which I plan to be very thrilling. The next chapter will be out next week or so. Stay safe and thanks for 2 thousand reads! 

Jethro gulped and then quickly closed the door.

"Oh, shit," he muttered. 

The girls in the room stared at Jethro and the boys like hawks watching prey. The men had just been caught cheating due to the fact in the official rules, any tank that was introduced after World War Two was considered cheating and they had been just using the M1A2 Sep V2, one of the deadliest tanks on the battlefield currently. 

"Sorry girls, wrong room," Stepan said. 

The four men then quickly unlocked the door and escaped whilst the girls stood up and ran towards the four. However, on their way out, James quickly grabbed the key and locked the door from the outside, creating a large amount of door banging in the process. They then laughed it off and placed the key back into the keyhole and carefully unlocked it. And then, they simply walked away quietly. The girls will not notice the door was unlocked until Kay stumbled in ten minutes later which surprised everyone. 

000

The private viewing room was located next to the benches that the audience watched from. It had multiple TVs that showed different views. It only allowed commanders of each major school since it scanned their ID but Jethro and the others had gotten his inspector ID which opened almost everything in the world of tankery. Behind the audience and viewing room was the full extent of the venues with Saunders High School supplying almost everything. In front of the audience-bench were the match grounds and the giant screen on the railway track. Scattered around the exhibition match were the HQ tents of each school. As the four men walked out from the viewing room, they were met by the huge amounts of boos from the audience. 

"Cheater!" One man shouted. 

"How are you insult Japan's best commander!" Another man shouted from the 'Kuromorimine fan club'. 

The four men walked towards the jeep under harassment from the audience. However, instead of heading towards the jeep, they stopped and walked towards the audience stand and they faced the audience and began to hysterically laugh. The audience went silent after witnessing the four men laughing out loud. A minute passed and the men stopped laughing and the hateful comments and booing started again. 

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say," Stepan mockingly said. 

The four men then walked towards the jeep and drove off. The audience then largely moved towards the venues and the KMM (Kuromorimine) fan group moved towards the KMM tent to provide moral support. 

000

Shiho was infuriated with the match result even though her team had won. It was an embarrassment to the reputation of Kuromorimine but they did still win. She smashed her fist into the desk upon hearing the result and kicked over it for good measure. Ami tried to calm her down but it was working. Meanwhile, the audience was equally shocked but were still happy that Kuromorimine won. They would move onwards to the next battle which was going to be Pravada.  She walked outside of the tent and saw the tanks getting pulled by recovery trucks and half-tracks, courtesy of the ITA. Besides the tanks were the girls with dirt and grime on their faces and their uniforms. They all had weary smiles on their faces. Once they saw Shiho's face, they quickly formed into a line and stood to attention. 

"We're sorry about our performance!" The girls shouted out. 

"We won and that's the most important aspect of Tankery. However, how did we fight such a pyrrhic battle? The school destroyed all but one of our tanks and we didn't even get a shot on target,"