Chapter Text
It was a cold, snowy morning at Saunders High School University, and the air was filled with excitement as the first match of the 120th Sensha-dō tournament was set to begin today. One of the excited players was Kay; she got out of bed excited to take part in the tournament. She got cleaned, brushed her hair, and put on her dark green tank jacket and long dark blue pants since it was snowing outside.
"About two hours before the match begins." Kay said as she looked at her phone to see the news about the tournament.
It was going to be a four-team game as Saunders and St. Gloriana would go up against Anzio and Pravda. Kay was excited about it, but as Kay was getting ready to leave, her father showed up, causing Kay to stop in her tracks.
"Kay, I want to tell you something." He spoke to her, and his voice sounded stern.
"I don't have time!" She explained it to her father.
Kay's father blocked her path. "I need to tell you something,"
"Have a great day at the match." Her father said this to her.
Kay thanked him, went to say bye to her parents, younger brother and younger sister, and headed off to school. When Kay got there, she saw Alisa and Naomi at the entrance.
"You're four minutes late!" Alisa scolded Kay.
"Yeah, I was late because of my dad." Kay explained this to Alisa.
Alisa just rolled her eyes and walked into the school. Kay and Naomi went into the building as well.
Once Kay and Naomi went inside, the P.A. system came on.
"Attention students, please assemble at the garage as there is an important meeting. Thank you." The person over the P.A. announced.
Kay and other girls went to the garage for the meeting, and when everyone, including Kay, got there, Ami was waiting for them with a warm smile.
"Good morning, students!" Ami greeted the students. "Today I'll show you all a new survival kit." Ami was standing near a crate that had a container that looked like a gas mask canister. Ami picked up the canister and unscrewed the top to reveal a bunch of survival equipment.
"This survival kit has equipment for when you get lost or injured, like: 1 sleeping bag, 1 lantern, 3 flashlights, 12 batteries, 1 portable charger, 1 multi-charger cord, 15 cans of tomato soup, 20 bottles of water, 1 hot plate, 1 pot, a bar of chocolate, a flare gun, and 20 flares." Ami explained as she pulled the aforementioned gear out and laid it down on the crate. The girls were interested in the new survival kit that would most likely be mandatory during future Sensha-dō matches incase someone got lost.
"Those suits would look tight on us." She told Kay.
Ami dismissed the meeting just in time. As their school ship was beginning to unload the tanks, the girls left the garage and began to leave the school ship. Everything was covered in snow and everyone was wearing warm clothing, but as Kay was getting into her M4 "Sherman," she looked at Alisa.
"Alisa, if you cheat one more time, I'll shoot you myself." Kay warned Alisa, who just scoffed at Kay's threat.
But before Kay closed the hatch to her tank, she got a text from her boyfriend, Thompson.
The text read: "I hope you win the Sensha-Dō match, sweetie.😘"
Kay replied to his text with, "Thank you, babe, but you know I just play Sensha-Dō just for fun, not winning."
Kay put down her phone and ordered her driver to start the tank. Kay grabbed her radio headset as the tank roared to life.
"Tanks, move forward!" She commanded as her M4, Namoi's Sherman firefly, and Alisa's M4A1 began to move forward and drive towards a snow-covered tundra where the match was taking place. Snow covered the ground and trees, and finally the girls arrived, and the first person to greet them was Darjeeling.
"Nice to see you again, Kay." Darjeeling greeted Kay.
"Me too." Kay replied as she hopped out of her tank.
"Not only St. Gloriana and Saunders are here, but also Pravda and Anzio." Darjeeling said as she took a sip of some tea.
"Hey, Kay." A voice called out.
Kay turned and saw her boyfriend, Thompson. He had a dirty brown winter jacket on and blue jeans.
"Hi, babe!" Kay responded as Thompson went to Kay and kissed her.
"Do your best, sweetie." He said this to Kay.
"Thank you," Kay replied as she went to her Sherman tank, ready for the match to begin.
But unbeknownst to Kay, Alisa and her tank crew, including Helmet-chan, were busy setting up the radio-intercepting balloon. In the same balloon Alisa used in the match between Oarai and Saunders, Helmet-chan was setting up a few helium tanks for the balloon.
"The balloon is going to be very noticeable once it's up in the air." Helmet-chan cautiously said this to Alisa.
"No one will notice," Alisa replied. "I don't care about what happened during the last time we deployed the balloon."
Helmet-chan sighed as she heard Alisa talking about how the balloon would help them win the game but intercepting the other team's radio. Finally, after about five minutes, the balloon was fully inflated.
"The match starts in three minutes; get the balloon up into the air!" Alisa ordered as she got into her M4A1.
"We're going as fast as we can." Helmet-chan sighed as she and the others, except for Alisa, were raising the balloon up into the air.
But as they were almost finished raising the balloon, a firework flew up into the sky and exploded, signaling the start of the match. Alisa's crew got into the tank and drove off into the snow-covered battlefield. The first tank Alisa encountered was Katyusha's T-34.
"Fire!" Alisa ordered.
The Sherman's main gun fired at the T-34 and managed to hit the right track, disabling the tank.
"Agh! They shot out our right track!" Katyusha cried out.
Meanwhile, Kay had already knocked out Carpaccio and Pepperoni's tankettes while dodging fire from Anzio and Pravda tanks as she was going up a small mountain. Kay looked through her binoculars and saw Alina's T-70, but then Kay glanced upwards and saw the radio-intercepting balloon. Kay was now furious that Alisa was cheating again. Although there isn't a rule in Sensha-Dō about using a balloon to cheat, it is technically considered cheating.
"Alisa! What did I tell you about using the balloon?!" Kay yelled at Alisa over the radio.
"What? It'll help us win." Alisa said.
"We're going to need to talk after the match." Kay said this to Alisa.
Kay and Alisa's Shermans stopped by the edge of the mountain. Kay was now looking at Alisa with fury in her eyes.
"I know the match isn't over, but I'm going to have to ask you this. Why were you using that balloon again?!" Kay demanded.
"I wanted us to win!" Alisa snapped back at Kay as she got out of her tank.
"Cheating doesn't mean winning." Kay responded as she got out of her tank top.
Alisa and Kay began to argue with each other until Kay said, "You know what? You're the most manipulative person I've ever met!"
Alisa was shocked at what Kay had said to her.
"I'm not manipulative." Alisa responded.
Kay didn't answer Alisa's response; she walked back to her tank. When suddenly, Nonna's T-34-85 crashed into Kay's Sherman! The force of the collision had pushed Sherman into Kay, knocking her down and causing her to fall down the mountain.
Nonna got out of the T-34-85 and covered her mouth with her hand as she ran over to the edge to see if Kay was alright. But the only thing Nonna saw was just snow; she didn't know if Kay was alright or not. Alisa also ran over to Nonna, who was starting to feel guilty that she might have killed Kay. Nonna began to tear up.
"I-I killed her!" Nonna cried out.
Just then, Anchovy arrived and saw what was happening.
"What's going on? Why is Nonna crying?" Anchovy asked, unaware of what had happened.
"Kay got hit, and she fell down the mountain!" Alisa responded.
"Oh my god! I'll go get help!" Anchovy said as she hopped into her CV. 33 tankette and drove off to find help; the search for Kay had begun.