Chapter Text
Meet the girls.
Japan. Twenty nautical miles South-East off the coast of Mie Prefecture.
The targets were hit by a volley of arrows, some hit their marks whilst others missed by only a few inches. Forty yards away a line of horses galloped across the field at great speed, charging past as their riders, students of Árpád Girls Academy, kept their steeds moving at a quick but steady pace as they notched another arrow and aimed towards the targets, unleashing another volley towards the targets. They knew their steeds very well, having been caring for them ever since they arrived at the school. They knew each horse's strengths, weaknesses, capabilities, and limits, and knew not to overtax them unless it was completely necessary.
The school took great pride in their equestrianism, being one of the best equestrian schools in the world. Every student knows how to ride and care for their horses, and these girls were no exception.
They all wore the same uniform, a brownish-green Khaki with black trousers, brownish-green socks, black riding boots, and a brownish-green field cap. Each girl was also carrying a composite recurve bow and a quiver half full of arrows, as well as a cavalry sabre by their hip. Of course, measures had been taken to ensure student safety, the arrows and bows were safe to be used by the students whilst on horseback, and the sabres did not have a sharp edge and were more ceremonial in function.
Mounted archery was not a mandatory subject Árpád taught its students, in fact, it was a club and not part of the main curriculum, one of several horse-related clubs to be exact. But, for students who wanted to join Lovasság, it was something that was mandatory.
Lovasság is the school's elite equestrian team, consisting of the best riders in the entire school. The few students who have masted all aspects of riding and caring for their horses. They are masters of their craft ad are by far the world's best equestrian team, at their school level at least, they are not professional material yet.
Only one member of the group currently ridding across the field was a member of this prestigious group, the girl riding at the front. The rest were first and seconds year students who either joined for fun or wanted to join the ranks of Lovasság.
The group's leader was a slightly tall and well-endowed girl with long blond hair, green eyes, a rather good looking face and tanned skin. Like the other girls, she too had a calvary sabre by her side, but hers was more ornate than the others, custom made for her.
She notched another arrow and aimed towards one of the targets, waiting until she had steadied her aim before she and the other students let their arrows loose. Whilst most of the arrows hit their targets, hers got the closest to the centre.
After the students launched their third arrow they holstered their bows and rode towards the targets in perfect formation, maintaining a steady pace before slowing down as they reached the targets.
The group's leader got off of her horse a few meters away from the targets and walked towards it, one of the other students taking the reins of her horse.
She walked towards her target, noting that all three arrows were close to the centre of the target. Had her horse been standing still, she no doubt would have hit the centre all three times. She looked to the left, towards the rest of the targets, most had about two arrows on them, with only a few being hit three times. Very few of the arrows hit close to the centre.
“Well, I must say, you girls are improving,” the girls said with a smile as she turned towards the rest of the riders “A few misses here and there but most are on target. I know mounted archery isn't easy, especially when on the move. But, practice makes perfect.
“You sure Buda?” one of the first-year students asked, sounding slightly depressed. She was, unfortunately, the only student to hit their target once, her other two arrows were nowhere near the target “I'm still not hitting the target much”.
“Don't be so negative about yourself” the group leader and second-year student, Buda, said with a friendly smile “You'll get the hang of it. As my older sister always tells me, with enough practice, you can master anything,” she said before she addressed the group “The same applies to all of you. Never think you can't do something. Keep trying and someday, you will master it. Now, that's enough archery for today. Gather your arrows and prepare to ride back to the school” she said before she pulled her arrows out of the target.
The rest of the girls dismounted their horses and walked towards their targets, removing the arrows from them before returning to their steeds and mounting them again. Once all the arrows had been collected and everyone was mounted up, the group rode off across the field, back towards the school.
At the other end of the field was their school, which took architecture inspiration from several Hungarian castles such as Visegrád Citadel, Vajdahunyad Castle, and Esztergom Castle & Basilica, and had a large stable off to the side housing all the school's horses, which they had a lot of.
Just like with the targets, the girls slowed down their horses as they approached the stable, slowing down to a gentle trot before they entered the stables.
Inside the stables were a large number of pens, with almost all of them occupied by a horse. There were also several students around as well, caring for the horses and cleaning up their pens.
The students got off of their horses in turn and lead them back into their pens. On the way, one of the students in the stables walked up to Buda “Another successful archery lesson then?” the girl asked as she matched Buda's pace.
The girl was short and very well-endowed, with short brown hair, brown eyes, and had glasses over her eyes. She was wearing a white shirt with a light brown tie, a green pullover over that, a brownish-green skirt, green stockings, and black shoes.
“I would say so,” Buda said with a smile as they walked towards one of the pens “I'm surprised you didn't take part in today's lesson, Eszter”.
“I was busy with some other things” the girl, the first-year student Esztergom (Eszter for short), replied, “One of the clubs wanted some help with their finances, so I checked to see if there were places where they could save money”.
“You seem to be doing that a lot lately,” Buda remarked as she lead her horse into one of the empty pens, passing him over to one of the other students.
“I don't mind, more maths practice for me,” Eszter said “Although I must admit, I am slightly annoyed by how frequently I am asked to help the varies clubs with their finances. It's like most of them can't be bothered to do it themselves”.
“Yeah, that just about sums up most of them. Just don't overwork yourself ok” Buda said as they walked out of the pen “The last thing we need is you to suffer a burnout from working too hard”.
“Don't worry, I make sure to manage my timetable so that I don't overwork myself,” Eszter said calmly “You have no need to worry about me”.
“That good to hear,” Buda said before she put an arm around Eszter “Say, you wouldn't mind going for a coffee?” she asked with a charming smile.
It was then that the school's PA system sounded, a little chime to alert the students of an announcement “Attention, attention. Would all members of the sensha-do team please report to the assembly hall in five minutes. Repeat, would all members of the sensha-do team please report to the assembly hall in five minutes” a female voice announced over the speakers.
“Afraid not, I think Vajda wants a word with us,” Eszter said before she started walking “Come on, let's go see what our leader wants”.
Buda nodded before both of them left the stable and headed towards the school's assembly hall, alongside a few other students. A walk that only took a few minutes. As they made their way towards the hall, they met up with several other students who were making their way there as well. Most were wearing their school uniform, but there were a few wearing their riding uniform.
Whilst both girls were members of Lovasság, they were also members of the school's sensha-do team, high ranking members of it as well. But, neither of them was its leader. That honour belonged to someone else.
The assembly hall was a large room with a stage at one end, with the opposite end having several rows of seats, each row raised up slightly so that the students sitting in them could see over those in front of them.
Whilst the hall could fit every student in the school inside plus extras, there was only a small portion of them present in the room, just over a hundred. All of them were members of Árpád's sensha-do team.
As Buda and Eszter sat down, they noticed someone standing on the stage, standing in front of a wooden podium with a microphone on it.
The girl was of average size for a girl of her age, as well as well-endowed. She had short and rough brown hair with braids going down either side, as well as blue eyes. She looked mostly Asian but had some European features, such as the eyes and the general complexion of her face. She also had a Pocky stick in her mouth, with a packet of the things poking out of one of her pockets. There was also an eyepatch over her left eye. She was wearing the same uniform as Eszter.
“I wonder what Vajda wants to tell us?” Eszter wondered as a few more students filed into the room and sat down.
“Probably something to do with sensha-do” Buda said “She wouldn't have called the entire team if it wasn't”.
Eszter nodded before they waited for the last members of their sensha-do team to arrive and sit down.
The girl standing at the podium, Vajdahunyad, Vajda for short, waited until everyone had sat down, waiting a bit more just in case of any stragglers before she tapped the microphone a few times. Everyone in the room quietened down and focused on her.
“Now, you all may be wondering why I've called you all here,” Vajda said, speaking clearly into the microphone so that her voice could be heard throughout the room “Well, as you all know, we did not participate in the sixty-third national high school sensha-do Tournament. I know a lot of you wanted us to participate, but, considering our school ship had to go in for some emergency repairs after the captain fucked up, we, unfortunately, couldn't participate. And unfortunately, we also won't be taking part in the forty-first Winter Continuous Track Cup later this year” she explained, getting a lot of annoyed groans from the crowd, as well as a few angry shouts “Look, I'm sorry about this but it's out of my hands. I tried my best but the principal, in his infinite wisdom, decided that we should skip this year's official tournaments, quoting our lack of recent training with our tanks and that our ship's new captain is still in training. Now that the bad news is out of the way, here's the goods news. Not only will be taking part in next year's national but also this year's first national high school sensha-do doubles tournament”.
There were a lot of gasps and hushed murmurs. The doubles tournament was something the JSF has been planning for a few years, but it's garnered some controversy over the years as some fear that it would result in some horrendously unfair teams and match-ups, like Kuromorimine teaming up with Pravda going up against Chi-Ha-Tan and Bonple. Or Saunders teaming up with itself due to having three teams. With matches like that you're better off taking out your own tanks to avoid the colossal beat down you are about to receive. Either someone had found a way around those little issues, or they are testing the waters with the first doubles tournament, seeing what works and what doesn't and acting accordingly for future tournaments.
“Now, the doubles isn't the only thing we'll be doing this year. We also have several none tournament matches planned with the other schools as well” Vajda said “Just so we have some practice before the doubles. We haven't fought against another school since our ship went into repairs, after all, so we do need some practice” she said, “Also the rest of the day will be spent practising with our tanks. So, everyone, get into your uniforms and report to the motor pool, sensha-do practice starts in half an hour!”.
The rest of the students glanced at each other before they slowly started to file out of the room. All save for Eszter, Buda, and Vajda. The former two waited for the others to leave before approaching the latter, who had eaten the Pocky stick in her mouth and was in the process of getting a new one out of the packet.
“Vajda” Buda said as she and Eszter walked up to Vajda “I couldn't help but notice you didn't show up for mounted archery practise today”.
Vajda put a Pocky stick into her mouth before looking at Buda “Sorry, but sensha-do stuff kind of takes priority over club activities. I am the team leader after all. I've been busy all day trying to get us as many practice matches as possible before the doubles tournament starts”.
“How many did you organise?” Eszter asked.
“Four” Vajda replied, “The last one being a three vs three”.
“Good, that should give us enough experience against other teams,” Eszter said “I've noticed at least a drop of twenty per cent accuracy in our gunfire this year. Still, a three vs three. Who will we be up against for that one?”.
Vajda smiled “I'll leave that a secret for now,” she said before she turned “Come on, we should get into our uniforms”.
The other two nodded before they walked out of the hall and made their way to the changing room. Whilst their sensha-do uniform was the same as their horse riding uniform, the only difference was a brownish-green skirt replacing the trousers, as well as brownish-green stockings. So Buda did have to change a few parts of her uniform.
After the girls all got changed into their sensha-do, they all made their way towards the school's motor pool, where all their tanks were stored and maintained.
Vajda, Eszter, and Buda were among the first to enter the mortar pool, inside were their school's inventory of tanks. 6 40M Turán's, 4 41M Turán II, 2 43M Turán III, 3 43M Zrínyi's, 2 38M Toldi IIA, 2 Panzer 38(t), and a single 44M Tas heavy tank. There was also a Rába 38M Botond carrying shells for the tanks. But unlike the other vehicle, the truck did not have Árpád Girls Academy's emblem on the side. Instead, it had the emblem of Völgyzár University, a University that Árpád shared its school ship with, without them, their school ship wouldn't be nearly as big as it was.
There was also Carpathian Academy for boys, but they're not important right now.
The three made their way towards the truck whilst the rest of the students approached their tanks. Völgyzár does not have a sensha-do team, as Hungarian ww2 tanks are ineffective at the university level. Instead, they have the Völgyzár sensha-do support team, students from Árpád's sensha-do team who graduated to Völgyzár who help support Árpád's team. One such support role is the transportation of ammo for the tanks.
As they approached the truck, they noticed several girls around it unloading ammo whilst one watched. The girl who was watching was a tall and mature girl with long blond hair, green eyes, slightly pale skin, and had a small scar under her right ear. She looked slightly older than the others. She too was wearing Árpád's sensha-do uniform, the only difference being that it had Völgyzár's emblem on it. She was the leader of the Völgyzár sensha-do support team, Bory, as well as Buda's older sister.
“Hay Bory,” Vajda said as the three walked up to her “Guess you got my message about the training excise, huh”.
The girl turned around towards them “Indeed I did” she said with a smile before turning towards Buda “Sister, I hope your archery practice went well today”.
“It went as well as expected, but there are some who are still struggling,” Buda said “Also Vajda didn't show up”.
“I said I was busy with sensha-do stuff,” Vajda said, turning towards Buda “I can't attend club activities if I'm busy with other stuff”.
“You are falling behind with your Lovasság training!” Vajda said with an annoyed look on her face “If you don't catch up you'll be kicked out of Lovasság”.
“Well maybe you'll-” Vajda shouted before Bory interjected “Lady's please” as she stood in-between the two girls, calming them down “Buda, you may be the leader of Lovasság, but Vajda is the leader of the sensha-do team, so she does have a lot on her plate and can't always attend club activities,” she said before turning to Vajda “Vajda, despite being the leader of the sensha-do team, you are also a member of Lovasság, and you do need to catch up with your training. Besides, you don't have to do everything immediately, pace yourself and ask others to help you out” she explained “Take it from someone who was both the leader of Lovasság and the sensha-do team, I struggled a lot when I was in charge of both groups and was prone to overworking myself. You two have it far easier than I did when I was in Árpád, so don't make excuses to overcomplicate things”.
Bory wasn't lying about being the previous commander of both Lovasság and Árpáds sensha-do team, she lead both but had difficulties with it at times. Hence why, when it came to choosing her successors for both groups when she graduated to Völgyzár, she chose a different person to lead each group. Buda for Lovasság, and Vajda for the sensha-do team. Each of them was good in their respective groups and were close friends, but being the leaders of the two groups sometimes caused them to butt heads. But such incidents tend not to last and are normally resolved quickly and rarely flair up into angry shouting.
“Yes sister,” Buda said with a frown “Sorry about raising my voice”.
“Sorry Bory senpai,” Vajda said with a frown.
“There, now we're making progress,” Bory said with a caring smile “Remember, you two both have important responsibilities, but you need not carry them yourselves. Ask each other for help when you need it. Don't let your positions tear you apart”.
The two girls looked at Bory before looking at each other. It was true that ever since the two got their positions, they had gotten into some arguments with each other, always over the two groups.
“Perhaps I have been a bit hard on you Vajda,” Buda said with a slight smile.
“Yeah, and maybe I was a bit too rushed to get everything sorted out for the training matches,” Vajda said “Perhaps I should ask for help more”.
“Now kiss” Eszter suddenly said, surprising the other three girls who promptly turned to look at her with a mix of confused and shocked looks “What?”.
Vajda sighed “Never change Eszter. Never change,” she said as she shook her head. She then turned towards Bory “So, are the tanks ready to go?”.
“Yes, they are.” Bory said, “Ammo racks are full and the tanks are fuelled up”.
“Hay commander!” one of the other girls shouted across the room “We're ready to go!”.
“Ok! We'll be over in a few moments!” Vajda shouted before turning back to Bory “Well, looks like we've got to go. See you later Bory” she said before the three girls turned and rushed over to the tanks.
“Talk to you later sis!” Buda added.
Bory smiled and waved as they rushed back to their tanks before turning around and returning to directing the rest of the Völgyzár sensha-do support who were present.
The three quickly rushed over to their tanks and climbed up them. For Buda a 41M Turán II, Eszter the 44M Tas heavy tank, and Vajda one of the two 43M Turán III. Whilst Buda and Vajda were the commanders of their tanks, Eszter was both the commander and gunner for her tank.
Vajda quickly climbed into her tank and sat in the commander's seat “Sorry for being late ladies, just needed to discuss a few things with Bory” she said with a smirk as she grabbed a radio headset and put it on.
“Copy that commander,” the tank's radio operator said as she turned the tank three radios. Due to being the command tank, Vajda's Turán III had three radios whilst the rest only had one “Radios are tuned and ready”.
“We are ready to go when ready sir,” the driver of the tank said as their metal steed sputtered into life, its engine growling loudly as its armoured compatriots roared to life.
“Copy that,” Vajda said before she picked up a radio microphone “All tanks, report in” she ordered over the radio. Almost immediately the commanders of the other tanks started to report in with their armour number, which was based on their tanks tonnage, lighter tanks had a lower number whilst the heavier tanks had a higher number.
“Armour twelve standing by” Buda reported over the radio, being the eighth to report in, followed by Bory reporting it “Armour twenty standing by”.
The remaining tanks soon reported in, only armour eighteen didn't report in as that was Vajda's tank. There were a few oddities here and there, armour seven, one of the Turán's, their call-in was accompanied by a dog bark, armour fifteen, a Zrínyi, their call-in was in Hungarian, and armour nineteen, the other Turán III, was in Morse code.
Soon all the tanks had called in, and they were ready to march “All tanks are to follow armour eighteen to the training ground and await further orders” Vajda said over the radio “Tank előre!” she ordered, ordering the tanks into motion.
Q Hunyadi induló playing in the background as the tanks start moving (It's on youtube).
Less than a second later Vajda's Turán III rocked backwards as it sprung into motion, driving forwards out of the motor pool, followed by the rest of the team's tanks, forming a line behind Vajda's tank as they left the building.
The armoured column proceeded through the school at a steady speed, their armoured steeds growling as they passed by other students as they made their way to the training ground. Some of the students carried on their day whilst others stopped and watched the column drive past. A sight most of them would never have seen before, or haven't seen for a while.
After a few minutes of driving, the tanks reached the training ground and formed a line on the grass. Beyond them at about seven hundred meters were a line of large targets resting against a long, thick mound of dirt.
“Aright, we'll be doing some stationary gunnery practise first, just to get us back into the swing of things,” Vajda said over the radio as the tanks lined up and turned towards the targets “After that, we'll be doing some firing on the move”.
“Why thou,” one of the commanders of one of the other tanks said sounding annoyed “You can't hit anything whilst on the move. Staying still makes it so much easier to hit the enemy”.
“Because it also makes you easier to hit” Vajda retorted “A stationary target is easier to hit than a moving one. Have you not been paying attention to cavalry combat tactics during lessons? This is basic stuff we learned from day one,” she said “Now stop complaining, aim your gun, and get ready to fire!” she said with a sigh before she lowered the microphone “Why must everyone in this school complain about everything?” she asked, realising that she was complaining about other people complaining.
“No idea commander” the tanks gunner replied.
“Gun loaded commander!” the tank's loader reported as she finished loading the 75 mm gun.
“Rodger” Vajda said before she held the microphone up to her face “All tanks, fire on my mark” she ordered before lowering the microphone “Gunner, aim at the target in front of us and prepare to fire”.
“Rodger!” the gunner said as she looked through the tank's gun sight and proceeded to aim the gun at the target seven-hundred meters in front of her “Target sighted, ready to fire”.
Vajda nodded before she raised the microphone “All tanks. Tüzet nyit!” she ordered loudly.
Almost immediately all twenty tanks opened fire, sending a single training round downrange towards the targets ahead of them. The twenty shells hit the targets, sending dust and debris up into the air. Vajda turned out of the tank to get a better look at the targets, getting out a pair of binoculars and holding them up to her eyes, lifting up her eye patch so that she could see out of both eyes. Yes, the eyepatch is just for show, she is not blind in that eye. She just thinks eye patches are cool.
She looked through the binoculars and waited for the dust to settle so that she could get a better look at the targets. Eszter was right, there was a noticeable decrease in their accuracy, most of the shots were off target, even Eszter was off by a bit “All tanks, reload and fire again! And check your aim, most of you are way off” she ordered over the radio.
“Sorry about that commander” the commander of armour six responded “We haven't done much gunnery practice since the ship went into repairs. Correcting aim now”.
Vajda sighed, and then cursed. Damn that drunken bastard who called himself captain. If it wasn't for the accident that put their ship into repair they would have been able to train more and take part in this year's national and the winter continuous track cup. Alas, they weren't able to get their tanks off the ship due to safety reasons, so they were unable to train with them for months. It's only recently that they were allowed to train with them again. But they lost three months of training, and it was showing. They needed a lot of training before the doubles tournament. Training like this is all good and all, but what they really needed was some practise matches against the other schools. Hopefully, she can get them ready for the upcoming matches against St. Gloriana Girls' College and BC Freedom Academy, as those were only a few weeks away. The other two matches were, well, let's leave those two a secret for now. Don't want to ruin the surprise after all.
She waited for all the tanks to reload before ordering them to fire again, once again their cannons roared, sending metal rounds downrange towards the targets. Vajda hoped that, in time, she would be able to get them ready for the first practice match against St. Gloriana. She didn't expect to win that one but, even losing to them would give them valuable training and experience that they desperately needed.
She watched as the line of tanks fired again. Árpád Girls Academy may have had a bad first quarter of the year, but they will make a comeback for the rest of it.