Darjeeling catches a thief

"Darjeeling!" Then there was knocking at the door. The din from a girl hitting the door repeatedly with her fist woke the commander up, along with Kay, who seemed like she was about to slip off the sofa.

"How much did we sleep…?" Darjeeling mumbled, rubbing her eyes and sitting up. "Who is making all that noise?"

"Why isn't she answering?" asked a voice from the other side.

"How am I meant to know?" spoke another voice.

"It was a rhetorical question," replied the first voice. "Maybe she's asleep. It is pretty early, after all. Let's come back later."

"What was that about?" Darjeeling said, looking back to Kay.

"I have no idea," Kay responded. "Go back to sleep…," she groaned.

"Wait… today is the day that we begin making plans for that battle!" Darjeeling replied, sounding alarmed. "I need to make preparations!"

"Huh? Calm down. What battle? Why didn't you make preparations before?" Kay asked.

"I've been busy!" Darjeeling said, sounding anything but calm. She took a deep breath and returned to her normal demeanour in a matter of seconds. Although she could be overloaded sometimes, she could easily calm down, remarkably. "The battle I told you about a while ago."

"I thought you did that already. I was expecting you to tell me about it."

Darjeeling lowered her head, and appeared to be deep in thought, making no response.

"Uh… who are you going to plan the battle with?"

"My crew, of course," Darjeeling replied, raising her head. "The planning starts there, then we communicate with the other tank commanders."

"Wouldn't it be better to include them all in the first place?" Kay asked.

"Too many cooks spoil the broth," Darjeeling replied, raising a finger. "And my girls are all expert tacticians."

"So are mine!" Kay responded, trying to one-up her. "They're the best!"

"Right," Darjeeling smugly replied. She stood up from the sofa, and walked into the kitchen. "I should get myself ready for the day. I am going to prepare a cup of tea. Do you want one?"

"Yes, please," Kay replied, lying down on the sofa and dangling her leg over the edge.

"I expect that the girls who knocked on my door were Rukuriri and Pekoe. They always do it," Darjeeling explained, as she produced a cup, teabags, and a carton of milk. "Milk?"

"Yeah, thanks," Kay responded. "So, why does Rukuriri join you guys? She's not in your crew, is she?"

"She always follows where Pekoe goes. I'm not sure how they met, actually. So, Rukuriri has incorporated herself into our group, and we just accepted it."

"Sketchy," Kay replied. "Is there any particular reason why?"

"I have no idea," Darjeeling responded. "At first, Rukuriri wanted to braid her hair lots, which was odd in itself, but I think Pekoe likes getting her hair styled. I used to do it for her, but it turned out Rukuriri was an expert." Darjeeling placed a cup of tea on the table and gestured to it.

"Has she ever touched your hair?" Kay asked, gazing at the cup.

"Heavens, no!" Darjeeling recoiled, sounding disgusted. "She's an odd fellow. She will never touch my hair."

"Maybe she can give you cute pigtails!" Kay responded playfully. "Wouldn't you love that?"

"There is nothing that is akin to the French braid in terms of showing off one's elegance," replied Darjeeling, smiling.

Kay reached for the cup, grabbed it, slowly sipped it, and let out a deep content sigh. "Isn't this perfect?" She looked at Darjeeling, who was staring at the floor absentmindedly. Or so it appeared.

"Hey, Dar-"

"Kay, how would you like me to style your hair?" Darjeeling interrupted, suddenly full of ambition. In her pretty eyes was a picturesque vision: lit up like the glittering sea, with the ever-beating sun above it.

Kay was stolen by her eyes for a moment, as Darjeeling's question processed in her mind. As soon as it did, however, she snapped out of it. "H-Huh?! We never said anything about styling my hair!"

"In my mind, we did," Darjeeling responded liltingly, raising a finger with one impeccably manicured fingernail. "So…?"

She can't touch my hair! If she makes me look like a European aristocrat, rather than a freedom-loving member of Japanese society, I'll be a laughing stock! Kay thought, placing her hands in her hair and softly clinging to it protectively. "Is this what America would want?" she asked, her eyes wide and full of worry.

"...America?" Darjeeling tilted her head, furrowing her eyebrows. "I'll get my tools," she said, getting up and disappearing into her bedroom.

"Oh, no, no, no," Kay mumbled inaudibly. "If Alisa sees me, my life is over."

"Okay!" Darjeeling emerged from her bedroom, carrying an assortment of hairdressing tools. "Time to make you beautiful! Not that you were not already beautiful, of course," she excitedly expressed, giggling.

"Hey, Darjeeling, why don't we-" Kay started saying, attempting to defend her hair, but there was an incredible trumpeting at the door, as if the entire Wehrmacht had come back to life and started goose-stepping, right outside of Darjeeling's room.

"What on Earth is that?" Darjeeling asked, placing down her hairdressing tools and walking over to the door, opening it. What was revealed was a disheveled and red-faced Rosehip, who shook with every fibre of her overactive being.

"Darjeeling!" Rosehip stated firmly, pacing her dialogue in between gasps of air, "something terrible has happened!"

"What? What is it?" Darjeeling responded. "Come and sit down. Would you like a cup of tea?"

"No. There's no time," Rosehip replied urgently.

Kay looked at the two girls conversing, wiping sweat off her brow and sighing in relief. My hair isn't doomed after all, she thought.

"...Okay. So, what is the problem? Kay and I would be happy to help," Darjeeling said, motioning over to the girl who was sitting on the sofa.

"Some no-gooder stole my tank!" Rosehip growled, raising a fist and clenching it with the crushing force of a crocodile. "I was cleaning it and admiring its grandeur - as you do, naturally - I left to get something, and then it was gone!"

"How does someone steal a tank?" Kay interjected incredulously, raising a finger.

"Yeah, that's a good question. But you'll have to believe me, because it did happen," Rosehip responded, bending over and putting her hands on her knees, hyperventilating.

"Are you feeling okay?" Darjeeling asked.

"I had to sprint across the entire bloody school, Darjeeling," Rosehip responded, glaring straight into her eyes. "No, I am not feeling okay."

"We'll help you find your tank, okay?" Darjeeling looked back at Kay. "Are you up for it, Kay?" she continued, mouthing "help us."

"Yeah, sure," Kay responded. "It'll be an interesting morning, that's for sure."

"Okay, let's go!" Rosehip shot off, with an apparent newfound vigour that coursed through her veins. Darjeeling and Kay were left in her wake.

"Well, she's off," Kay remarked. "Are all of the people in your Senshadou club crazy?"

"No," Darjeeling responded. "My two closest companions, Orange Pekoe and Assam, certainly are not crazy."

Wherever Assam currently was, she felt the pain of that statement in its whole.

"Let's go, then," Darjeeling continued. "We mustn't let Rosehip wait; she is very, very restless."

"I can tell," Kay muttered, getting up and joining Darjeeling.

Rosehip was waiting outside of the dorms, leaning against a wall. Her hair was caught in a warm breeze in the open air in the carrier. She was caught in a deep sigh when Kay and Darjeeling encountered her. "Oh, there you are!" She smiled, springing up. "You know, I wouldn't stay together so much… people are going to start saying things," she continued, letting her statement boil with a smug grin.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Kay retorted, raising her voice slightly. "Hey, is this gonna be another Alisa?" Kay growled, eyeing Darjeeling.

"Good grief… pay it no mind, Kay," Darjeeling replied. "Rosehip likes to joke a tad."

Rosehip appeared unfazed. "Alright! It's time for the hunt! Now, where would someone possibly hide a tank on this flattop?"

"Why don't we go around and ask some people?" Kay suggested.

"Great idea!" Rosehip replied. "I know exactly what we can do. We'll drive around and ask. To the hangar we go!" Without a pause, Rosehip darted off in the direction of the hangar (presumably).

"She's fast," Kay murmured in amazement as the hyperactive girl merely became a dot in her vision.

"Yes, and we'll have to walk quite far to get to the hangar," Darjeeling responded. "I hope she can be patient for a while."

"That's probably not happening," Kay said. "Hey, isn't she a commander? She doesn't seem like it to me."

"Well, she's commanding us, isn't she? Otherwise, we would not be walking across the carrier."

"She just seems a little bit too much," Kay responded. "Are you sure she's not high on caffeine or something?"

"Caffeine? Coffee?" Darjeeling retorted in disgust, stopping and looking at Kay. "What do you think we are, animals?"

"I go for a cup of coffee every morning," Kay replied. "How do you feel about that?"

"I pity your tastebuds, for they are undoubtedly of a lower quality than ours," Darjeeling said. "Clearly, I need to make you drink more tea."

Eventually, the two girls reached the hangar, where Rosehip was waiting. It was a large hangar, reminiscent of one that would house aircraft, but it was full of tanks instead. Tanks that were impeccably sorted into neat rows, without even a centimetre of error. Kay's eyes gleamed as she took in the sight of so many tanks. Many girls were situated on or next to the tanks, reviewing plans and chatting. As soon as Darjeeling made a single step into the hangar, along with her shadow being cast by the sun behind her, life as the girls knew it froze.

"Commander!" called many of them in unison, placing their hands on their foreheads in a collective salute.

"At ease, girls," Darjeeling spoke firmly. The girls instantly relaxed and returned to whatever they were doing before, as if Darjeeling had never existed in the first place.

"Um. What was that?" Kay asked, scratching her head.

"Discipline. They respect me," Darjeeling responded. "Don't your soldiers do that?"

"No… we are much more relaxed than that," said Kay.

Out of the corner of Kay's eye came a frustrated Rosehip. Her brown eyes glistened in the sunlight as she exited the shadow of the hangar. "Gods, I was waiting for you for so long," she growled, crossing her arms. "How long was that? An hour? We have work to do here!"

"More like 15 minutes," Kay muttered, rolling her eyes.

"You- what?!" Rosehip exasperatedly snarled. "I have a watch right here on my wrist," she continued, pulling back her sleeve to reveal a digital watch, "and you are questioning me?!"

"Calm down, calm down!" Darjeeling interjected, getting in between the two. "Rosehip, lead us to the vehicle we'll be using. I assume you will be the driver."

"Of course. Don't forget, I'm qualified to drive vehicles that are at least 20 tonnes!" Rosehip responded proudly.

"I will be the commander," Darjeeling added. "Kay, can you get in the turret with me?"

"Of course," Kay responded.

"Follow me," Rosehip said, motioning in front of her and beginning to walk. The two other girls followed her, to a wheeled vehicle that stood in the corner of the hangar, obscured by shadows. "Here we are!" Rosehip announced, beaming.

"What is it?" Kay asked, scratching her chin and studying the armoured car. On its chassis were four wheels, and what appeared to be the turret of a Valentine infantry tank. The vehicle was painted in a drab olive green, much like some of the other vehicles of St. Gloriana. The school's logo was adorned onto the side of the vehicle, as was standard with their line-up.

"It's an AEC Armoured Car Mk. I, of course!" Rosehip responded, patting the vehicle's side lovingly. "Three crew, Valentine turret, and a 2-pounder gun! Oh, isn't it beautiful?" Rosehip appeared to be in ecstasy simply by talking about the vehicle.

"Hey, isn't that gun a little small?" Kay asked, raising an eyebrow at the vehicle's armament.

"Watch what you say!" Rosehip angrily pointed at Kay. "I'll have you know that there are blasphemy laws!"

"Not in Japan, Rosehip," Darjeeling responded knowingly. "We have been over this."

"If you said that in the United Kingdom, you'd probably be arrested…," Rosehip growled, turning around and crossing her arms.

"Somehow I don't think that's the case…" Kay sighed.

"Okay, let's get in, then," Darjeeling said, clambering onto the vehicle and opening the turret hatch.

Kay joined her, and soon enough they were tightly packed into the AEC's turret compartment. Rosehip opened the driver's hatch and got into the seat, starting the engine and revving it to produce a mighty growl.

"Forwards!" Rosehip shouted, accelerating the vehicle forwards. It bolted out of the hangar, barely leaving any time for the other students to get out of the way. One girl yelled angrily at the AEC as she jumped past it to avoid getting run over.

"I expect there'll be a complaint about that," Darjeeling moaned. "Hey, Rosehip, be more careful!" she shouted over the loud drone of the vehicle's engine.

"Darjeeling, this is a horrible idea. We'll end up dead - or worse - with this madwoman driving us," Kay whispered horribly, as the armoured car narrowly missed a wall.

"We will live, Kay," Darjeeling reassured her. "Come on, let's unbutton the hatch." Darjeeling opened up the two-piece hatch and turned out of it, feeling the fresh breeze on her face as Rosehip aimlessly drove around. Kay too rose out of the hatch, resting on the back of the turret. "Rosehip!"

"Yes?" The vehicle came to a sudden stop, and skidded along the ground, sending up pebbles and blades of grass. They were in the middle of a field, with a metropolitan area and a forest in the distance. Apart from that, all Darjeeling and Kay could see was a field and the horizon of the sea with the sun overlooking it.

"Where are we going?"

"Oh, right!" Rosehip spoke in a moment of shock. "Why don't we ask people in the dorms if they've seen a tank?"

"Why didn't we do that before?" Kay asked, sighing.

"I don't know! Don't question me!" Rosehip snarled. "Okay, let's go back."

Rosehip pressed down on the accelerator and the armoured car began to growl and dart forwards, but she was stopped in her tracks by a loud bang that reverberated throughout the vehicle. Darjeeling looked into the distance; black smoke was rising from the treetops of the forest, dissipating as it ascended skyward.

"What was that?" Darjeeling asked, concern struck in her voice.

The driver's hatch opened, and Rosehip's head hastily popped out of it. "I know that sound better than anyone else! It's the sound of a QF 6-pounder tank gun! In other words, it's the Crusader's gun!" The vehicle accelerated even faster than before, and the girls in the turret grabbed and held onto the turret as the armoured car dashed through the field. Mud and blades of grass clinged onto the thick tyres of the AEC as it rushed through the field and tore it up.

"Someone's going to be angry about that," Kay said, watching the armoured car spit up mud in its wheels and pave a path of destruction.

"Go faster, AEC!" Rosehip shouted frantically, putting the force of an elephant's weight on the accelerator pedal. The engine whined and groaned in response, coughing out exhaust fumes like a chain smoker going through their fifth pack.

"Why didn't we just take a car?" Kay rolled her eyes.

"I have my doubts that one's average Nissan or Mitsubishi could brave this terrain any more than an armoured car built for such environments could," Darjeeling responded.

"You're thinking too much about Japan. Broaden your mind a little," Kay replied, tapping her head.

"But Britain doesn't really do cars anymore…," Darjeeling said dejectedly.

"American. Cars!" Kay retorted.

"...Not really into them." Darjeeling looked to the side awkwardly.

"You need to let go of Britain a bit," soughed Kay. "Think about America, the land of the free. America loves you."

"Prepare for a bumpy ride; we're going into the forest!" announced Rosehip. The AEC began racing through the tall trees, sending leaves skyward. "I'll try not to crash into any trees!"

Darjeeling found herself being caught in the stupor of the beautiful forest; walls of tall trees proudly stood above her, permitting only a little sunlight to break through the gaps between their indomitable trunks. She quickly snapped back to reality when her skull almost kissed the rough bark of a tree.

"Sorry about that!" Rosehip called, swerving past the tree that almost rearranged Darjeeling's face.

"Be more careful!" Kay shouted angrily, grinding her teeth together.

The AEC slowed down, thus the trees in Darjeeling's view returned to normalcy, rather than an amalgamation of blurs that her eyes could just about incognizantly process. The tyres, caked with a thick layer of mud and grass, dug into the ground as Rosehip pulled the brakes on the vehicle.

"Why did you stop?" Darjeeling asked, observing the area around her. Trees were only sparsely sprinkled about in this location, in contrast to the rest of the forest, where driving a fast vehicle at its top speed would prove to be the crew's grim ending.

Not Rosehip's crew, though. She was a good driver. "This is where my darling Crusader was. Take a look around, see if you can spot her," Rosehip said, darting her eyes about like an attentive tigress in search of its prey. Rosehip sunk back into the crew compartment, and then the subtle hum of the AEC's engine gradually faded into nothing.

It was replaced by a louder engine - to which Rosehip leapt upwards (almost hitting her head on the cold steel of the vehicle) and pointed in a random direction. Her brilliant eyes narrowed, as she whispered, "it's over there."

"What?" Kay responded, turning around to face Rosehip's direction. "It's over th-"

"Crusader." Rosehip slipped back into the vehicle and shut the driver's hatch. "Let's go." The AEC shook, and then gained new life, along with the now humming engine. As quickly as it had stopped, the armoured car accelerated at a blistering speed.

The easily recognisable St. Gloriana paint job quickly showed itself in the sun, as did the Crusader light tank that donned it. Almost hidden in a wide collection of bushes surrounded by trees, but not hidden enough - Rosehip's Crusader tank. Its rear poked out of the bushes slightly, and its bright paint job combined with the sunlight drew the girls' undivided attention to it.

"There it is!" Kay yelled.

The Crusader rumbled in the bush; it reversed slightly, revealing its turret, which faced in the direction of the rapidly accelerating AEC. What Rosehip did not expect was for the Crusader to fire its gun, and it took some skill to swerve past it as soon as the bang went off and the smoke started rising. The 57mm shell was hastily and poorly aimed, and missed its mark entirely.

"Did it just fire at us?!" Kay yelled.

"I believe it did," Darjeeling responded calmly.

After launching its assault, the Crusader shot off, leaving a whirlwind of leaves in its wake. The AEC raced after it, smashing the bush into little pieces. Darjeeling got some leaves caught in her hair, and stared incredulously at the vehicle of which they were in pursuit.

Another bang shook Darjeeling and Kay to the cores of their hearts (it gave them a mighty shock); it felt like the shell was coming at Darjeeling in slow motion as it was launched out of the barrel. A brilliant explosion of orange almost capsized the vehicle and sent a lot of dust into the air.

"That one was an HE shell," Rosehip nonchalantly said. "Why don't you fire back? Try to disable the bloody thing, yeah?"

Another shell whizzed by and produced a significant flash that left a lasting impression on Kay and Darjeeling's eyeballs as they craned their necks backwards to watch it.

"Hello?! Shell? Fire!" Rosehip shouted urgently.

"Oh, yes!" Darjeeling responded, slipping inside the turret. "This is loaded, right?"

Kay did the same, hauling up a shell from the nearest rack and loading it into the breach. "Up!"

A few seconds later, the AEC responded with its own shell; it gracefully glided through the air, living a life of blissful ignorance to everything around it, until it dug itself into the Crusader's flat turret. In response, the cruiser tank's tracks seized up, skidding around in the mud and stopping side-on to the AEC.

"Not the turret!" Rosehip ranted. "Either you hit the gun directly or mobility kill it! Avoid unnecessary damage to my baby!"

The Crusader soon spat out another shell, which was meticulously aimed at the AEC's wheels. As such, the armoured car found itself missing a wheel, and the vehicle's hull violently sank into the ground, pasting its entire ground with light brown mud. The wheel gleefully bounced on in the distance, rolling into a tree and falling onto the side.

Inside the vehicle, the girls found themselves turned upside down as the vehicle conducted a self-motivated excavation of the earth. Darjeeling and Kay were mercilessly shook about as the AEC drilled into the ground. The Crusader spied an opportunity, and began to flank the armoured car's rear; the opposing vehicle made its best attempt to continue training its gun on the Crusader, but was struggling.

"This is the only chance you have to take it out! Quick!" Rosehip shouted.

"We're trying!" Kay and Darjeeling responded in unison.

Another shell was planted in the breech, and Darjeeling fired the gun as eagerly and quickly as was possible. The resulting shell was a direct impact on the gun, giving whoever was in the turret an excellent shock. But, that wasn't just it; the gun was then trained down below, another shell was loaded, and then firmly placed in the Crusader's track, breaking the links into a million pieces.

That was victory, and a sweet sense of justice. The assailants in the tank could do nothing now. The driver's hatch swung upwards at a staggering speed (probably breaking the mechanism), and then Rosehip leapt out like a furious bear that had been punched in the nose, audibly slamming her boots on the ground. "Get out! Hands up where I can see them!" she shouted at the disabled tank. "Am I gonna have to go in there myself? You really don't want that, do you?" She rolled up her sleeves ferociously, and jumped onto the side of the Crusader like an athlete.

"Whoever in there is… not going to have a good time," Darjeeling stated, watching the livid girl clamber onto the turret and start pulling at the hatches.

"That's one way of saying it," Kay responded.

"Open. Up!" Rosehip screamed, her bellows echoing out of the great depths of the forest. "If you don't open up this instant, I'll get Darjeeling to call the Special Boat Service on you! And the military police!"

Succeeding Rosehip's outburst was silence, with tension swiftly building in the air around the redhead. That tension instantly ensued as a cataclysmic explosion, and, with froth forming at the mouth, Rosehip lunged forwards, trying to find an opening. As she lay on the engine deck, she heard movement behind her. Escapees!

Two girls made their best attempts to exit the tank, unbeknownst to Rosehip, but they noticed their effort was futile as soon as Rosehip laid her bloodthirsty eyes on them. Instantly, she was on the attack, and that was displayed with her savage expression and swinging arms. The other two girls threw themselves out of the tank, landing not-so-gracefully on the mud and grass, and sprinting like deer running away from a lioness.

Darjeeling's face contorted as her eyes scanned the images of the girls running away from the monster that is Rosehip. "Those girls-" she looked to the Crusader, and then back to the runners, "Pekoe and Rukuriri?" She slumped over, resting her head against the rear of the turret. "Oh, how could my darling Orange Pekoe get roped up in such an illicit operation such as tank stealing?" Her spirit, once indomitable, had been crushed by the undefeatable hammer known as dejection - by proxy, of course.

"Hey, what the hell?" Kay muttered, opening the turret hatch and sliding out of it as Darjeeling muttered meaningless nothings about her failure as an upstanding, moral teacher. "You two, what are you doing?" she sternly yelled. "Hey, Darjeeling, give me a hand here?"

Darjeeling too popped out of the turret hatch. "My voice will stop them." She observed the girls in the distance; Rosehip was catching up on Orange Pekoe, who was lagging behind her brunette friend. "Rukuriri, Orange Pekoe, halt!" she bellowed, with the harshest and most commanding voice that Kay had ever heard come out of the braided blonde.

In response, the two girls instinctively froze, and then, unable to react to their chaser's assault, found Rosehip leaping on top of them and holding them in place with the force of a colossus. "Got you!" she gleefully announced, pressing Rukuriri's face in the mud. With the two girls on the ground, Rosehip grabbed and yanked both of their collars, dragging them through the mud back to Kay and Darjeeling. Their royal blue sweaters made for a nice layer to protect them against the mud - although they would not be blue for long.

Orange Pekoe crossed her arms and stayed silent, internally accepting the situation. She had not thought about the consequences of her actions, but Rukuriri told her it was going to be fine. Clearly, she was wrong.

Rukuriri was more outspoken. "Get the hell off me!" she whined, grappling at Rosehip's vice grip. "You are not authorised to do this!" She shook herself about, but nothing she could do would loosen Rosehip's grip. She continued to drag them across the ground.

"You know, I never liked you, Rukuriri," Rosehip growled, looking back at the girl with pure malice, "but now I dislike you even more. Infiltrating and messing with the command structure was one thing, but now you had to go and steal my tank."

"What if I did? You can barely command anyway, and your driver acts like a headless chicken. I figured I'd be doing you a favour," Rukuriri spat, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, you…! You little sh-"

"Ah, Rosehip! Good job catching the troublemakers," Darjeeling called, watching the three girls draw near. "Though, you did not have to drag them like that."

"I felt it was necessary - especially for this one," Rosehip replied, shooting a finger at Rukuriri.

"Well, well. So girls, how are we meant to plan out this upcoming battle if you two are going around and stealing our tanks?" Darjeeling asked, looking down on the girls on the ground from the AEC.

"It was only the one," Rukuriri responded. "Did it really take you people this long to realise that I- we stole the tank?"

"Only stealing one does not mean it's okay for you to do, Rukuriri," Darjeeling responded. "What do you think about this, Orange Pekoe?"

Orange Pekoe's eyes dimmed and darted around timidly. She began to speak up, but had trouble forming the words. "I… uh… we are very regrettable in our foolish decision to… steal the tank." Her speech was intermingled with awkward pauses.

"How are we going to sort this out?" Kay asked.

"I am not entirely sure myself," Darjeeling responded. "This is probably one of Rukuriri's schemes again. I highly doubt Pekoe had much to do with this; Rukuriri has her wrapped around her ring finger."

"Her ring finger, huh…," Kay pondered out loud.

"Rosehip, lead them over to the AEC. They can sit on top, and we will drive back to the dorms," Darjeeling commanded.

"Come along, you filthy creatures," Rosehip growled, guiding the two girls over to the AEC vehicle.

The ride home was long and fairly awkward. Most of it was spent in total silence; Rukuriri tried her hand at ranting a couple of times, but Darjeeling talked her down. She sat next to Orange Pekoe, rubbing against her in an awkwardly affectionate fashion. Orange Pekoe didn't think anything of it, though Kay and Darjeeling certainly did notice…

"Rukuriri, you're like a cat," Darjeeling had said in reference to Rukuriri rubbing against her, "you should give her some room."

Rukuriri replied without words; rather, she stared daggers at her commander in response.

When they arrived at the dorms, Darjeeling instructed Rukuriri and Orange Pekoe to follow her to her room. "I'd love to watch you chew them out, Commander, but I have matters to attend to," Rosehip had said, taking off in a flash.

Orange Pekoe shuddered a bit as Darjeeling wordlessly opened the door, taking in the sight of her familiar room, just the way she and Kay had left it. Orange Pekoe had not a bad bone in her body, and thus was not used to being reprimanded by a Darjeeling who would inevitably be sterner than usual. Rukuriri, on the other hand, had experienced this quite a bit, and walked into the room like a grizzled war veteran as Darjeeling instructed them in.

"Have a seat on the sofa," Darjeeling said, pointing to it. Orange Pekoe took a seat, innocent pleading eyes focused on Darjeeling, but Rukuriri indignantly stood.

"Wait, why is she coming in here with us?" Rukuriri asked angrily, pointing at Kay as she entered Darjeeling's room. "She isn't even in our school!"

"Don't mind her," Darjeeling responded, waving it away. "She means you no harm, Rukuriri. Besides, I-"

"That's not a proper respons-"

"I do not think you are in a position to make demands, Rukuriri," Darjeeling sternly said. Her words sent a chill down Rukuriri and Orange Pekoe's spines, and established a cold, unforgiving air in the room.

I-I don't like it when Darjeeling acts like this! Orange Pekoe thought, her eyes dilating, and her brain swelling up with disastrous thoughts.

"Why did you steal the tank?" Darjeeling asked.

"I'm not telling you!" Rukuriri retorted, shaking her head multiple times. She could take off like a helicopter if she kept doing that.

"So, there's obviously a reason, hmm?" Darjeeling replied, smiling. "Why don't we discuss it over some tea? Or, maybe Orange Pekoe could tell me?"

"Ulp!" Orange Pekoe gasped.

"I'll let you off if you tell me why," Darjeeling said.

Rukuriri's eyes shrinked and the whites of her eyes shone as her pupils found themselves fixed on Orange Pekoe. Internally, Rukuriri became a warzone; if Orange Pekoe told her the true reason why, then she would be finished. Keep yourself calm, Rukuriri, she thought, gasping as she realised she had held her breath since Darjeeling spoke. Externally, she calmly stroked her braid, gaining the appearance of a fair maiden who had done no wrong.

"Well… it's… because I told Rukuriri that the Crusader is my favourite tank," Pekoe sheepishly said, looking at the floor in shame.

With that, Rukuriri's world broke in two. Darjeeling giggled as Rukuriri hastily tried to piece herself back together. "Is that so?" Darjeeling asked smugly. "Rukuriri?"

"Huh?!" Rukuriri gasped, her hands covering her face. Her face felt so warm. This is so embarrassing…! thought the girl. "Maybe…," she muttered.

"Well, you know not to do it again, okay?" Darjeeling said firmly. "I will let you two off this time, but next time-"

"Yes, I know!" Rukuriri yelled. "I get it!"

"Then you are free to go," Darjeeling responded. "It would be foolish for me to punish you, anyway; that would not help us in our upcoming battle. Speaking of which, we will be discussing it very soon."

Rukuriri nodded and silently but swiftly made her way to the door, opening it and exiting the room. Orange Pekoe got up off the sofa and followed her, without even a single word being uttered.

"That's weird," Kay said, who had spectated the scene. "They didn't even say anything."

"Orange Pekoe seems to be wired into following Rukuriri now," Darjeeling responded.

"Yep. Now what?" Kay asked.

Darjeeling took off her blue jumper and undid her tie, throwing it on the floor. "I could do with a rest." She yawned loudly, stretching her arms.

"Isn't that how this whole thing started?"

"Huh?"

"Well, we got woken up rudely when we fell asleep together."

"You're right," Darjeeling responded, rubbing her chin with her finger. "But still, I'm willing to take the rest," she continued, and then she collapsed onto the sofa, swiftly falling into a deep sleep.

"Eh?!" Kay sighed, standing over the sofa and Darjeeling. "How did she fall asleep so fast?" She centred her attention on the Gloriana girl's rising and falling chest. She's so cute when she sleeps, she thought.

Then, there was a knock at the door. "Well, it's good that I'm not asleep for this, otherwise this chapter of our life would have been too similar to the last one," Kay muttered. As she stared at the door, with which every knock grew louder, she wondered what waited in store for the duo next.

Not the greatest ending, but I had to stop it somewhere. Next chapter will probably come in six months or whenever; I have no clue. But anyway, thank you for reading.