A/N: Hey everyone! None of you probably know me, but I'm A. D. Fields. This is my first foray into the Girls und Panzer fandom, and it was mostly because of my bud Amir-015 for sending me a pretty in-depth prompt that got the gears in my head turning.

Rated T for now, but may be bumped to M. I'll see how I feel.

Hopefully, you enjoy reading this, as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Please, if you like it, feel free to favorite or follow the story, and if you're feeling particularly kind, drop me a review. I try my best to respond to each and every one I get.

Now that that's out of the way, I don't own GuP, etc.

Let's get on with the story.

Griffin

An Undisclosed Location

"Well, wasn't this what you wanted?" a man in a business suit queried, pushing up his glasses and folding his hands on the desk.

"Well…yes, it is, but it's all rather sudden. Where will we get the students for this?" the female voice asked, before the man cut her off with a chuckle.

"Oh Ms. Sato, do you really think the Ministry of Education would set this up without having something in place? There's already a school carrier prepared, and waiting in Yokosuka for the arrival of the students" he stated easily, leaning back in the plush chair.

"And the students?" she asked, curious to see what the government official had cooked up.

"All different nationalities. We've sorted out translators, and they're waiting on the boat as we speak…however, the males will not be participating in Senshado" he replied, before the headmistress stood up, outraged.

"And why not? Males should have the right to do as they please, and to take whatever elective they wish! We allow males to fight wars in tanks, but not participate in a sport that would groom them for future endeavors? That's sexist" she exploded, tearing a strip off of the man.

"That's tradition" he corrected, pushing up his glasses again "Several naysayers still exist in the pack, with the largest being the head of Kuromorimine, Shiho Nishizumi. We know how many requests you put in for this, and we're willing to make an arrangement."

"Screw the naysayers" she snorted, quite annoyed at how the meeting was progressing "It's my decision as to whether boys will be allowed to participate from my school, and I will allow them."

It appeared that she didn't hear all of what he said, so he tried again, reasoning with the woman.

"The decision is out of your hands, however, we do have a proposition for you" he said, tenting his fingers "Say if your team gets to the semi-finals, you will be allowed to keep males in Senshado, but if you fail and lose, you must dismiss the boys from the team, and never allow them to participate again."

Now this, gave her pause. While it would allow boys to participate, she'd need to make sure they did well enough to make it to the semi-finals to be able to get her wish.

"Very well, I accept. Have the tanks been provided? And how will the decision be made of who to extend the invitation towards to let their students join the ship?" Sato questioned, nodding her head.

"The tanks are on the ship as well, and entrance exams have been sent to schools around the world to let their students take them to see which ones will be transferring to the ship" he informed her, before rubbing his temples "The population of the ship will be more female then male anyways. We're planning on a 2:1 ratio, of 1,000 females, and 500 males."

"Then I guess we're done here Vice-Minister" she said, standing up and bowing to the man "I'll see to it that we make it to the semi-finals."

With that, the minister was left to his own thoughts, wondering what this year would bring.

Toronto, Ontario

Dear Mr. Dixon,

Congratulations! It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been admitted to Griffin Co-ed Academy. Your test scores allowed this to happen, and you should be proud of your achievement. The fall semester is beginning in three weeks, and a ticket has been included with this letter for a flight to Yokosuka, Japan, where you will meet and board the school carrier. You will then depart, and begin your studies on the sea.

Your scores were far above others in some areas, that you've been selected as one of the few lucky male members of the Griffin Senshado team, should you wish to accept this offer.

Once again, I offer you congratulations on your acceptance to the school, and we look forward to welcoming you aboard.

Sincerely,

Yami Sato, Headmistress of Griffin Academy.

He had to read the letter once again to make sure that he wasn't imagining it.

"Huh" he mused "It seems like that test wasn't totally garbage, and actually meant something in the end."

But after that, his thoughts suddenly turned to his friends and family, all whom were in Toronto, who he'd be leaving behind.

"Klaus isn't going to like this" he thought with a grimace as he grabbed his jacket, heading out to break the news to his best friend, but just as he opened the door, he nearly ran face first into said friend.

"Andrew? What are you doing?" Klaus asked, the slight German accent discernible in his speech, but not impeding it.

"I was going to talk to you. What are you doing?" Andrew asked, poking Klaus in the chest before noticing the envelope that was in his hand "Is that from Griffin Academy?"

"Yeah" he said, a look of confusion on his face "How'd you know?"

Andrew couldn't suppress the grin as he lifted his own envelope up and gestured to it "Looks like we're heading to Japan."

"You get the offer for Senshado too?" Klaus asked, his own face breaking into a smile.

"Yeah, and I think I'll do it too. What about you?" Andrew questioned, walking back into the house, Klaus in tow before closing the door.

"Hell yeah I did. Who knows, maybe we'll be in the same tank" he said, putting his coat on the rack.

Now came the hardest part of their acceptance so far.

How to tell their parents that they were being transferred to Japan.

Two and a half weeks later, Yokosuka, Japan

"Holy fuck. That's where we're living?" Klaus mused, looking up at the massive hull of an aircraft carrier.

"I guess so" Andrew muttered, pulling his two suitcases behind him as he and Klaus trekked towards the massive ship, heading for a small gangway near the center of it.

All around them were throngs of people of different nationalities, and different languages were being thrown every which way.

Some were decidedly English, but many more were European or Asian dialects.

While both Andrew and Klaus could speak fluent German and English, those languages and many more jumbled together in the air around them.

Finally reaching the gangway, the two of them were stopped and asked for identification in Japanese first, then English.

Producing the documents, as well as the letter from the school they had both received, they were given a map, and let onto the ship.

The pair found an elevator, and were soon standing on the main deck, which was…a town to their surprise.

"Damn, I wasn't expecting an entire city to be up here" Klaus muttered under his breath before consulting his map "Okay…from where we are, we need to walk down this street, take a right, and keep going, then we'll hit the male dorms."

"Sounds good to me. Lead the way" Andrew mused, nodding his head in the direction they had to travel.

After walking for about ten minutes, they entered the complex of dorms, which was more or less situated like two huge apartment buildings.

"So on here it tells us what room we're in. I got 516" Andrew stated, looking at the small booklet that one of the people at the gangway had given him.

"I'm in 703" Klaus said, pulling out the keycard as they walked inside and hit the button to call an elevator.

Andrew got off first, walking down the hall to his room in the building, finding it, and pulling out the keycard.

Opening the door, he instantly scrutinized the area he had been given to live in while at school.

"Kinda sparse" he thought, taking note of the bed, desk, table, and computer.

There were another three doors, one which was a closet, another which was a bathroom, and the last being a small kitchen, before hoisting his suitcases up on the bed and opening both of them.

What surprised him slightly, was the small bracelet on the desk, with an envelope beside it.

Opening the envelope, his eyes scanned the printed words on the paper.

Welcome to Griffin Academy! We hope your transit here was pleasant. On the desk, you will find a translator bracelet. Due to the fact that we'll have many nationalities here, and not everyone will speak in a language you can understand, we've developed a universal translator that will take their language and make it into your main language, whether that's English, Russian, Korean, or countless others.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact administration at the following number. Have a nice day.

"Interesting" he mused, putting the bracelet on opposite to his wristwatch, and fastening it before setting to the task of preparing the room.

Within an hour, everything had been unpacked, clothes had been hung up, school supplies and a backpack were waiting neatly by the door for the first day, and a few photographs had been placed on the desk to give the place a more 'homey' feel.

Pulling out his phone, he sent a quick text to Klaus, checking on his unpacking progress, right as there was a knock at the door.

"Hello?" he called, opening the door to reveal another guy there, fair skin, about five and a half feet tall, curly brown hair, blue-green eyes and an overall stocky sort of build.

"Good afternoon. I'm Ciaran Forsyth and it looks like we'll be neighbors" he stated, sticking out his hand, which Andrew took and shook.

"Andrew Dixon" he replied, shaking his hand twice before letting it go "Where are you from bud?"

"The UK. How about yourself?" Ciaran asked.

"Ontario. It's in Canada" Andrew stated, before Ciaran nodded.

"Anyways, I just came over to introduce myself. I'll let you get back to your unpacking" he said, with a quick wave.

"Nice guy. I wonder if he made Senshado" Andrew thought, closing his door and turning on the computer to check the news.

Hours just seemed to melt away, as the light outside faded until it was finally dark on the colossal ship, illumination being provided by dockyard lighting and the ships own lights.

They weren't due to depart until the next morning at around 10, so Andrew knew he'd have time to kill.

After sending an e-mail to his folks, letting them know he'd arrived safe and sound, he decided to go out and explore the city he now needed to call home for the discernable future.

Tugging on a sweater, he left the apartment, locking the door behind him as he sauntered to the elevator bank.

Soon enough, he was outside, walking the slightly darkened streets of the academy ship, looking for nearby conveniences.

It didn't take long to go around, locating a grocery store, the school itself, a post office, and a small café, all within ten minutes of walking at the most.

The streets were pretty quiet, considering the hour it was, so he decided that, with his exploration complete, he would head back to the apartment complex and knock off for the night.

Finding the way back was easy enough, so all too quickly he was standing in his apartment, pulling back the covers of the bed and laying down.

"Tomorrow should be an exciting day. School uniforms, timetables, and extracurricular activity sheets" he thought, right before shutting off the light and drifting to sleep.

The Next Day

Andrew awoke the next morning, stretching out and yawning before pulling his cell phone off the nightstand to look at the time.

8:36am

Oh crap.

"Dammit! I overslept" he muttered, getting out of bed and pulling a random assortment of clothes out, before throwing them on, grabbing his bag, and rushing out the door.

Considering school started in twenty minutes, he was lucky by all accounts, as he was soon outside the building and walking with countless other students towards the main hub of activity that day, which was the school.

"I thought you weren't going to make it" Klaus said once Andrew ran into him just outside the school.

"I nearly didn't" he replied, shrugging a shoulder "I overslept a bit."

"A bit?" Klaus chuckled quietly "You damn near missed the opening speech from the headmistress."

"Yes, but I didn't" Andrew stated, poking Klaus in the side as a tall and slender Asian woman with black hair took the stage in front of the crowd.

A hush fell over the assembled people as the woman began speaking.

"Good morning to you all. I am Yami Sato, your headmistress for Griffin Academy. This is a trial program being run, seeing if males and females can coexist at the same school and not have any interruptions.

"Now I understand that you're all from different parts of the world, but your translators should be working fine, and if not, then you probably can't understand a word I'm saying right now."

A chuckle rose from the crowd, but was quieted as the headmistress spoke once again.

"Today you will be receiving your uniforms, class schedules, and your extracurricular options sheets to be filled out and returned by the end of the week at the latest. So let's hop to it! The sooner you have your stuff, the sooner you can return to your dorms and prepare for your first day tomorrow, which will be orientation mostly.

"I look forward to meeting each and every one of you. Have a wonderful day."

Polite applause sounded from all the students, just as the ships whistle blew, indicating an immediate departure from Yokosuka Harbour.

"Well, looks like we're going to start a new adventure" Klaus said, putting an arm around Andrew's shoulder.

"Hopefully you don't cry this time, like you did saying goodbye to your parents at the airport" Andrew stated, grinning as Klaus punched him in the shoulder.

"We don't talk about that" he hissed in good nature as Andrew rubbed the affected shoulder, before noticing someone coming.

"Ciaran, hey! Good to see you" Andrew said, turning to the newcomer "This is my best friend Klaus. Klaus, this is Ciaran Forsyth, my neighbour."

"Pleasure to meet you" Klaus said admirably, offering his hand.

"Likewise" Ciaran replied, letting his eyes run over Klaus, before taking his hand and shaking it.

"So, shall we collect our uniforms and whatnot?" Andrew asked, gesturing towards the booths set up outside the school that had a veritable army of students surrounding them.

The small group agreed, and quickly got into line behind several boys who were all waiting for timetables and elective sheets.

Uniforms were at another booth.

Within a half hour, the three of us had their new uniforms, their timetables, and the elective sheets, and were sitting at a table outside of the small café Andrew had found the night before.

"Alright, so what does everyone have on their schedules?" Ciaran asked, prompting the other two with him to unfold their timetables and read them.

"Homeroom in 204" Klaus said, and both Andrew and Ciaran nodded.

Surprisingly enough, the lot had most classes together, except for gym, which Ciaran was on his own for, and math, which Andrew was on his own for.

Pulling out the elective sheets, the group let their eyes skim over all the different choices.

"Well, the choice is a shoe in for me" Andrew stated, as Klaus nodded and the two of them circled their choices.

"If you don't mind my asking, what are you guys taking?" Ciaran queried, as both Andrew and Klaus folded their elective sheets back up and slid them into the provided envelopes.

"Senshado" the two of them said, shrugging as they looked at the Brit.

"Oh?" he asked "I got that offer myself, but I wasn't going to accept it."

"Do it man" Klaus replied, smiling "Tanks are probably the coolest thing around."

"Well, I've always liked tanks. I actually planned on going into the Armored Corps once I finished high school, but unfortunately, my eyesight isn't the best. My grandfather was in the 4th Royal Tank Regiment, and my uncle was in the 1st, so tanks have always been in my blood" Ciaran said, as he circled his choice on the sheet, before folding it and stuffing it back in the envelope.

"How about we head back to the school and drop these off so we can forget about them?" Andrew offered, and getting a nod from the other guys, they all set off back to school, their uniforms in their bags, as they went to hand in their options sheets.

The walk allowed the trio to talk and get to know each other better, moreso for Ciaran to learn about Andrew and Klaus, and for the two of them to learn about their neighbour from across the pond.

The Briton had an interest in tabletop gaming, and did some small writing, but nothing that ever got published. He also enjoyed Pepsi, and always wore a hat outside, something resembling a military sort of cap with a flat top and baseball style bill, which neither Andrew nor Klaus really noticed.

They finally made it to the school, where the booths were just being torn down as the last of the students dispersed, and luckily, the headmistress was overseeing it all.

Klaus cleared his throat, getting her attention to which she smiled softly.

"What can I do for you boys?" she queried, walking up to them and looking into their eyes.

"We're here to hand in our elective sheets ma'am" Andrew replied, as he and the other two took them out of their bags.

If the woman was surprised, she didn't look it, as she took the three envelopes and opened them in turn, reading the choices circled on each.

"So you're a few of the young men who got picked for Senshado?" she asked, and the three of them nodded "Excellent. I'm very pleased to see that you've picked it for your elective. I have a feeling you're going to like it."

"I'm sure we will Ms. Sato" Ciaran replied, nodding his head as the woman said a quick goodbye and disappeared back into the school.

"Well that was slightly odd" Andrew stated, voicing the thoughts of the group as they turned away from the school and walked slowly back to the apartment complex where they lived, to prepare for the day of school ahead.

"Say, would you guys like to come over for a movie and dinner tonight? I make a mean curry" Ciaran questioned.

"Yeah sure" Klaus replied.

"I'm in" Andrew agreed as the group headed into the building and towards the bank of elevators.

"Well I'm in room 517. Show up for around…7-ish?" Ciaran said, to which both of the others nodded.

Both Ciaran and Andrew said goodbye to Klaus, who still had a few more floors to ride, as the British lad and the Canadian made their way to their rooms respectively and entered them.

While Ciaran got to pulling out the necessary materials to prepare his curry, both Klaus and Andrew sat in their respective rooms, with the latter turning on the computer, while the former continued to decorate his room to his taste.

Pulling up Google on the computer, Andrew began looking at the competition from the other schools that were part of Senshado, and trying to find out what types of tanks that they could possibly use in the fight.

After a little while, he left his apartment, to simply go next door to Ciaran's place to have dinner.

Knocking on the door, he was met with a slightly ragged Ciaran, looking close to wit's end.

"You alright bud?" Andrew asked, curious as he was let inside, waving to Klaus who was already there.

"Yeah dude" Ciaran said, brushing off the concern "I just get a little into cooking sometimes. Y'know, music playing, dancing around the kitchen and whatnot."

"Ah. Understood" Andrew replied, simply walking around and taking a seat at the table that Klaus was also at.

With that, Ciaran disappeared back into the kitchen to continue the work on dinner, which was served within five minutes of him disappearing.

"This is my chicken curry. I've been told it can be a tad spicy, so you've been warned" Ciaran said, before picking up his utensils "Well, dig in gentlemen."

The trio did, and soon enough, conversation was easily flowing between the youths as they relished in the spot on meal.

"So, what kind of tanks do you guys think we'll start off with?" Andrew asked after taking a sip of his water.

"I hope we get a Tiger. Tigers are my favorite" Klaus said after a second of thought.

"Personally, I wouldn't mind an Achilles Tank Destroyer in the lineup. That 17 pounder is deadly in the right hands" Ciaran stated, before turning to Andrew to see what he would want.

"Well, my family is long into tanks. My great-great grandfather was one of the first tankers in WWI, inside a Mk I British tank during the Battle of the Somme. My great grandfather fought in WWII, up through Italy in a Sherman, and then in Normandy with a Firefly.

"My grandfather was a volunteer tanker in Vietnam during that war, and my dad was in a Leopard MBT, out somewhere in the Middle East, and lost his right leg. They awarded him a Victoria Cross (VC) but he never talks about it.

"So tanking is kinda in my blood, but if I had to pick, I want an IS-2. Something about that huge 122mm gun ruining half a city block makes me smile."

"Makes sense" both Klaus and Ciaran said, before turning their attention back to the curry at hand and each of them taking a second helping.

"Kinda brought the mood down guys, sorry bout that" Andrew said sheepishly, taking his own second helping and finishing off the pot.

"Don't worry about it" Ciaran replied, waving him off "It's pretty cool that you come from such a long line of tankers. You'll fit right in here."

"And it helps that we both worked in a garage during the summer, and part time on the weekend, right Andrew?" Klaus asked, nudging Andrew slightly with his elbow.

"Yeah" Andrew replied, grinning "It should give us enough basic knowhow to do small field repairs, and general maintenance on the tanks."

"Good. Maybe you two lads can teach me a thing or two about it then. I know jack about it" Ciaran stated, drawing a round of chuckles from around the table.

"We won't let you drown in the info bud" Klaus said, patting the Brit on the arm.

"I should hope not" he replied after the laughter had died down.

The night wore on, and after a film from Netflix, the small trio said goodnight, and returned to their respective rooms.

Soon, the dishes were done, and each one of them was lying in bed, excited for the next day to come, and slightly nervous, because tomorrow, would be the day where they would get to see their tanks.

The first day of school was always fun…right?