Girls und Panzer: Itachi

3.

"You're already asking me for favors?"

I really have no choice, if I'm going to help Helena. And I'm absolutely going to do that. I can't leave her alone, or I'm sure she'll end up committing suicide. She doesn't have the courage to do a lot, but she will definitely find it in her, to put an end to her own cursed life.

"It's for Helena, not for me."

I'm not trying to take advantage of Olga too much. She did sort of open up to me yesterday, so I don't want to repay her with a bossy and pretentious attitude.

"I'll see what I can do."

She didn't sound that annoyed, good. Now that that's out of the way, I can focus on the task at hand, which is winning the match. Or at least, losing without making a fool of myself.
I climb on my tank and enter from the commander's hatch, with my upper torso sticking out of the roof. I adjust my hat, and grab the walkie talkie with my left hand, bringing it to my mouth.

"We're starting soon, girls, be ready."

I get along well with my crew members. In the sense that they don't usually discuss my orders, and are good at what they do. The thing is that, over the course of only three or four months, I've had to work with a lot of different girls, because of a good number of them either changing schools or asking to be transferred to another crew. So I'm always reluctant to talk to them outside of matches.
Either way, I can consider myself lucky to have been chosen as one of the 15 commanders to participate in this match, since first years almost never get selected. And in fact, Helena won't be participating in this match. We're facing no other than Kuromorimine, so they probably only want the cream of the crop to participate. I do have a bad feeling about this, too. That they're going to use me as a scapegoat if we lose.
I keep waiting impatiently, for a few more minutes, until a stray shot is fired in the air. It means we're starting.

"All tanks, forward."

Ekaterina's voice sounded different from the usual. Has she finally decided to take things seriously? Is Pravda finally going to win after Kuromorimine's consecutive 8-year domination over the Senshado league? Is my first year here going to be their good one?
This is just an exhibition match, but results have to start coming right away if we're going to have a chance at winning the nationals.

"All the mod.42s will be our vanguard. Go ahead and scout. Should you see an enemy tank, do not engage unless you have a clear killshot."

She means "cannon fodder". Either way, I'm fine with that. I'm not scared of a few cats. The thing I am scared of are some of the commanders. Especially the Nishizumis. But with a little luck, I'll be able to deal with them efficiently enough. One of the strong points of the T-34 is its off-road maneuverability, a thing which German tanks don't have. The fastest enemy vehicle I'll encounter is most likely going to be a Panzer III, which will have a hard time dealing with my tank's armor.
We also have the advantage, since we're going to be fighting in snowy and muddy terrain. I expect Kuromorimine to take up a defensive position and use their superior firepower at distance.
I, along with 4 other commanders, bank away from our main formation and decide to take a more hidden route to the center of the battlefield, going through a forest.
Minutes pass, and the only sounds I keep hearing are the T-34's engine and a few branches occasionally cracking underneath my tank's weight.
I instinctively search for my shoulder pouch, and take out my trusty pair of binoculars. As I keep looking around in the snow, my attention gets caught by a group of bushes. I swear I saw a flash coming from there.

"Something in the bushes, 2 o'clock, 500 meters. Load AP."

As the tank keeps rolling forward, I distinctly see the explosion of a cannon coming from the bushes, and then a shell flying past my head at a really high speed.