Streng Geheim

Chapter 4: The Training

The following morning, Michael is perfectly on time for the training time told by Miho the day he has arrived in Ōarai

"You're perfectly on time, great job!"  Says Miho to Michael, complimenting him for his timing

"German precision"  Michael responds, with a hidden look of jokingly superiority

"Yeah, whatever....be ready now, in this session you're going to train as a gunner for our Panzer IV Ausf.H, any questions?"  She replies, hoping for no questions, as the beginning of the tournamemt is costantly approaching; the more time they pass on training, the better they skills would be.

"No questions, let's get into training now"

"Perfect, go to the gunner position on the left of the main gun in the turret , where usualy is sit Hana, and then you can freely choose your own target: a easy one or a hard one, the choice is yours"

Said this, Michael climbs into the gunner position in the Pz.IV with Miho following him as his loader for this time, once he gets into the position he begins searching for possible targets; he feels quite ambitious so he decides to skip the close ones, going for the furthest targets.

"Target spotted, distance....4000!" He says, waiting for Miho to load a round into the gun breech, then he fires and hits the target perfectly in the centre; making a loud hitting sound. Miho is astonished by his shot, she wasn't expecting such skills from a boy like him

"Keep going like this, you've just done a incredible shot!" She says while Michael is already changing target to one of the hardest: the 4500 meters moving target.

"Loading complete"  Miho says, giving a 'ready to fire' signal to him, and immediatly after he fires.
The PzGr 39 fired by the 75mm gun of the Pz.IV reaches the target, but only scratching it, lacking force to putting it down; since the target was half covered by foliage and moving, it was still a great shot

"Wow.....i wasn't expecting that at all! You're great! How are you so good for a beginner like you?" Miho asks, curious to know Michael secret on how to be such a great gunner for such low expirience.

"Hm....Deutsche Qualität" he responds, the reference was obvious so they start laughing a bit.

"Hahahah....you're quite funny, let me tell you, especially for a german"

"What do you mean by that?"

"C'mon, you germans don't have the sense of humor; for comparison a pigeon is funnier than a typical german!"

He sighs, then facepalm before speaking again  "maybe it's my non-german part that is funny...."

"You aren't fully german?"

"A small part of me is actually italian, i had a great-grandmother who was italian"

"Oh, that's nice to hear, but this isn't the right time to talk about that; we need to train as hard as we can because the tournament starts next week and we can't miss a single minute of it. Let's focus on today's goal and try to reach them as fast as we can, understood?" She speaks in her slightly commanding tone, making sure he follows her instructions to the letter when using tanks, because even the slightest mistake can severly harm anyone inside of it at any time.

The rest of the day Michael trains in the various positions inside the tank, as driver, loader and radio operator; showing great skills in each role but they aren't as great as the gunner skills showed at first.

"So, today's training session is officially finished, you showed great skills in all roles but the most interesting ones are in the gunner position, you're a natural gunner.
Since tomorrow is Sunday you can rest for all day, the school is closed on sundays, ok?"  She says while smiling, she was happy for his results hoping that he'll do the same during the championship

Michael nods, then he takes his things and goes back to his room, wanting to take a shower; in the same exact moment he opens the door his phone rings: unknown number...

"Ja?.....hm mh.....ja, bereit"