"Yo, Avery!" John called out.

The guys and I were taking Sunday off at the arcade. I was currently getting the crap beaten out of me by Kevin as his character in the game launched a flurry of punches, whittling down my health with me being helpless.

"What is it?" I said, irritated, "I'm getting my ass beat here!"

"Your phone just got an 'important email'." I had given my phone to John since trying to sit down with it in my non existent pockets was near impossible.

I finally lost the game to Kevin, allowing me to bring my attention to John.

"Who's the email from?"

"Jacob Reed."

"You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention."

John gave me my phone as I read the email. Apparently they want the commanders and vice commanders to have a meeting to make friendly relations and run down the rules just in case there were discrepancies. The meeting was scheduled for tomorrow during school hours.

"They had to pick the time of my favourite class too..." I mumbled.

I was thinking of skipping it, but once I reached the bottom, the words 'Attendance is Mandatory' were highlighted in bold. I began formulating a plan that allowed me to attend without stirring up suspicion at school of my absence.

"Before you go off thinking of some sort of master plan or something," John butt in, "We agreed to take this day off."

"Right, right, got it."

I gave my phone back to John as we watched Kevin get what he deserved from George in the fighting game.

"Wah! Oh come on!"

"Hmph." George pushed up his glasses, which shone in the dim lighting.

"That's actually a thing?" John asked.

"Don't underestimate us otakus."

"I don't think you should be proud of that..." David said.

After George dethroned Kevin of his win streak, the guys and I went to my place. We didn't know exactly what to do, so we all settled to just do whatever.

George turned on some anime on the TV along with David, Kevin was on his phone playing some tank game and John noticed my Chess Board tucked in my bookshelf.

"You up for a game?" I asked.

John nodded, "Why the hell not? As long as you don't swindle me out of my wallet."

I laughed a bit at his remark. Last time we played chess together, I ended up winning $15 from him. We flipped a coin to choose who was going to be which colour. John called tails with me calling heads. The coin landed on tails, with John choosing to be the Black King. Set up didn't take too long, and in no time, we were ready. I thought of some ways to try and outsmart John. He was far from an easy opponent. John made aggressive plays with his Rooks and Queen, and with the pieces working hand in hand, he was close to beating me once. I was only able to win that time because I was able to bypass a pawn into his side. It seemed that John was thinking as well, he knew his mistake last time of leaving his flank open and allowing a pawn to get past. The two of us continued like this until I moved Pawn from E2 to E4. John, seeing this, moved his pawn from F7 to F6, halting my pawn from moving forward, effectively checking the piece.

*Timeskip brought to you by Chibi Avery and Chibi John in WWII US army uniforms glaring at each other*

"Checkmate." I moved my Knight into position, checkmating his King, giving me the game.

John sighed and reached out his hand, "Good game."

I took his hand and shook it, "You too."

The two of us went to watch on my TV. It seems that during our game, George and David put on some sports channel. The topic was the 56th NATL Tournament and the participation of the JSF. The two hosts went on about some of the 'Powerhouse Schools' of the JSF, such as Kuromorimine, Pravda, St. Gloriana and Saunders. Each having their own doctrines and styles. They compared them to schools such as Britanica, Star, Lincoln and Prussia.

"I think Kuromorimine is going to have a tough time if they were to go up against Britanica." The first host said, "They'll have a hard time dealing with their hit and run tactics."

"Like Operation: Carrhae?" The second host asked.

"Precisely. The Britanicans harassed Star's forces using their lighter but harder hitting tanks like their Comets to whittle them down. Star had their vanguard move forward to ward the skirmishers off, but those same skirmishers ended up encircling them. After that, the remaining Britanican forces launched a massive charge on Star's already exhausted and weakened forces. In the chaos, Britanica's command tank was able to take out Star's flag tank, winning the match." The first host answered, using hand gestures to mimic the movements of the tanks.

"Kuromorimine still has some pretty good armour, but I can see where you're coming from. What's the use of armour if your enemy can just move around you, right?" The second host added.

"Kuromorimine's so not going to like what you have in store." David said.

"No they will not." I answered.

"That is if they actually make it that far." John added, "They made it far in the JSF tournaments every time for a while, but they may lose their edge here."

We all thought about the possibility of Michael Collegiate beating them, which was possible. Though we focused our attention back to the TV.

"What about that school that won the 63rd Tournament?" The first announcer asked.

"Ooarai? They're an odd bunch, but they make do with what they have. The way they took out that Maus was definitely unexpected."

"Using their Hetzer as a ramp was something I never thought I'd ever see, but I'm pretty glad I did."

"Well, they are led by a Nishizumi, so I'd expect no less."

"Miho Nishizumi? She's quite the capable commander."

"I'd say she could beat Britanica's old Boy's Team commander."

The two hosts laughed at what the second host had said. Maybe because I sort of became a joke within the NATL.

"Miho, or whatever her name is, is going to be pissed to be compared to you." Kevin said.

"I wonder if the JSF girls are watching this." asked John.

*Ooarai Girl's High School, Student Council Room*

"Was that really that funny?" Saori asked.

"Who is Britanica's old commander anyway?" Yukari said.

The girls all turned to her, surprised that the lover of all things Senshado and history, didn't know who a certain individual was.

"You really don't know?" Mako asked, which surprised the rest of the girls as well, as she was fast asleep before.

"Yeah," Miho added, "You usually know all about this type of stuff."

"Well," Yukari started, rubbing the back of her neck, "Believe it or not, I'm not actually a really big fan of the NATL's tournaments."

"Why not?" Hana asked.

"They use nearly completely custom tanks." Yukari answered, "I prefer it when it's just historic tanks or designs brought to life, but some of the tanks in the NATL completely throw that out the window."

"Do you know any tanks?" Miho asked.

"Yeah. The only designs I really know are Point Academy's old Y5 tank line, which were modified Cromwell hulls with either a T-34/45 turret, a Firefly turret, or an AMX Elc Bis turret."

Yukari went on her phone to search up the tank, showing it to the rest of Anglerfish Team.

Y5 T-34

Y5 Firefly

Y5 Elc Bis

"They look pretty weird." Saori stated.

"Yeah, and it's just unnatural!" Yukari said.

"Why couldn't they just use actual Cromwells?" asked Hana.

"Most of the full Cromwells fitted with carbon armour for use in Tankery were actually sold to the JSF, with there being only the Cromwell's chassis being left over."

"So they tried to replace the turrets with other existing tanks?" Miho asked.

"Yeah, and it didn't really work either."

The girls then went back to doing their own things. Hana, Yukari and Saori worked on student council stuff, Miho was running through the research Yukari did over at Star Academy, and Mako feel back asleep on the couch.

"Oh, and Miho?" Hana asked.

"Yes, Hana?"

"What time are you going to the commander's meeting?"

"It's taking place right before school, so I'll be gone for the day."

"Aw..." Saori and Yukari grumbled.

"Don't you also have to bring the vice commander?"

"Mmhm, I'm going to bring Azusa-san and Momo-san."

"Okay then." Hana shuffled some paperwork that she had finished up, "Have fun!"

Miho nodded, "I will!"

Miho began watching Yukari's film on Star Academy. The school used a lot of Soviet tanks, with the most prominent being T-34 variants and some KV-1S tanks. Their commander was a boy with blonde combed back hair, wearing a uniform similar to a Red Army General's uniform.

"This sort of reminds me of Pravda!" Yukari said in the film, "They sure do have a lot of tanks too..."

The camera whipped back to Star's commander giving a speech.

"Everyone! I am pleased to tell you to congratulate yourselves with the amount of training you all have done! And to announce our secret weapon!"

The camera pointed at what looked like a tank underneath a tarp. Some students wearing Star's Tankery uniform pulled the tarp off, revealing what looked like a KV-2.

"What! It's just a KV-2!" a student said, disappointed in the reveal.

"But this is no KV-2!" Star's commander responded, "Though, yes, we did use a KV-2 as the base, we have improved it by adding more armour, a better engine, and an even better gun!"

The commander then gestured to the gun, which was similar to the KV-2's 152 mm gun.

"This 152 mm gun is more accurate and has better penetration than the KV-2! It is also easier to reload and fires at a higher velocity!"

A wave of 'Oohs' and 'Aahs' could be heard across the whole yard. The commander would shush everyone and pointed back at the tank.

"This! Is the Smasher!"

The footage then cut to Yukari breaking into a room that supposedly held Star's intel on all the other schools. The room itself was pretty cluttered, with shelves filled with files and pieces of paper. Yukari's hand could be seen reaching out to some of them.

The camera would be placed down to the side, showing Yukari wearing Star's girl's uniform, which was a light tan blazer and a black skirt. Yukari could be seen sorting and reading through some of the files, putting some aside.

Said files were actually piled on the coffee table not too far from Miho. Miho paused the video and went through some of them. Picking out the file on Smigły high, she read through it. Yukari was right on the types of tanks they used and their commander. Star had also documented some notable matches the school took part in.

Miho then scanned through the other files on the other schools. They were more or less up to date as there was a date on each file of when they were last updated. However, the file on Point Academy hadn't been updated ever since the start of the school year for them. The file on Point still regarded Rod Benson as the overall commander and everything else may be false since Point may have added to its forces.

"Hey, Yukari?" Miho called out, "Is this the most up to date file on Point Academy?"

Yukari nodded, "Yeah, sorry about that. Apparently, Point has been really cracking down on spies, and Star's informants at Point were supposedly punished."

One could only imagine the horrors Star's informants went through as punishment. Everyone overhearing the conversation shuddered at the thought.

"So this is all we have on Point?"

Yukari nodded again, "Sorry..."

"You don't have to apologize! You still got a lot of information on all the other schools!" Miho reassured her.

Yukari perked up, mumbling how Miho Nishizumi had praised her before being told by Saori to continue working. Miho would go through the file on Britanica. Like Point's file however, it was pretty thin and outdated. Most likely due to Britanica making sure no spies or informants were within it's ranks.

She did however find some documents on their old Boy's commander. There was a photo of him as well, which looked oddly familiar.

"Avery?" Miho let out.

The three student council members looked over at Miho, wondering why she suddenly called out Avery.

"What was that about Avery?" Saori teasingly said, causing Miho to form a tint of red on her cheeks.

"W-Well," Miho struggled a bit to get her words out thanks to Saori teasing her, "Nothing..."

"Ooh?" Saori walked over to Miho and began teasing her once more, "Are you sure it's nothing?"

"What do you mean?" Miho asked, scared of the answer.

"What do you see Avery-san as?"

"U-Uh, umm..."

"Saori-san, I need you to look these over." Hana said, gesturing to a computer. Hana winked towards Miho, with Miho noting to herself to buy Hana some food later.

A few hours later, it was nearly time for everyone to go to bed. It would be a school day for everyone. Everyone except the commanders and vice commanders that is. They were meant to have a 'friendly meeting'.