[Tuesday, May 18th, 2010]

The sun shone bright over the port of Honolulu Harbour. One of the few ports capable of docking multiple School Ships within American Borders. Speaking of School Ships, one was already docked. Considered one of the largest School Ships in the Pacific, and a feat of both Japanese and American engineering.

The USS George Washington. Home of Saunders University High School. It wasn't uncommon for it to occasionally dock in Hawaii to refuel and resupply. Hawaii itself was a hub for School Ships in the Pacific thanks to its location, as well as it being your normal tourist hub. Most students would spend their time seeing the sights in the tropical paradise, and why wouldn't they? For the first years, this was most likely their first time travelling. Such a fact rang true for Ren Mouri. Despite his school not having its own School Ship, they always sent their first years travelling. Ren looked out his hotel window, taking in the sun rising from the East, a sight that he found very beautiful. He snapped a photo of it with his camera, making a note to print it when he got home.

"Hawaii, paradise in the Pacific. They weren't lying, huh?"

"Yeah, it looks almost as beautiful as it did on those pamphlets." Ren said to his friend, "Don't bother any of the local girls Toyamarou-san, please."

Yoshikei Toyamarou gave Ren a light-hearted punch and laughed. The two were good friends, having gone to the same middle school together. Though they never talked to each other then, since no one else they knew went to the same high school as them, they naturally started to get to know each other.

"Well don't blame me if they fall for my suave character." Toyamarou responded, prompting a facepalm from Ren, "And with you toting that camera around everywhere, I'm pretty sure you'll be the one they look at weirdly first.

"See, this was why I never talked to you before."

Toyamarou chuckled, "Yeah yeah. Well, we'll be here for the next four days, so we'd better make the most of it. Who knows when we'll be able to travel outside of Kyoto again."

"Alright. Where are we gonna go then? I don't really know anywhere for us to go to."

"About that..." Toyamarou scratched the back of his head, "I was hoping you'd know a few sights."

Ren sighed, "Nothing a quick search can't fix. And you'll be doing that, I'm still stuck with my flip-phone."

"Peasant," Toyamarou uttered quietly with a smirk.

"Hmm?"

Toyamarou ignored Ren, tapping on the virtual buttons on his screen and hitting Search. As he went through the results, he made note of the places that were closest and easiest to get to.

"So there's Waikiki Beach." Toyamarou said, "Looks pretty good from what I'm seeing."

"I don't really feel like swimming," Ren responded, "Besides, we'll be going there with the rest of the class tomorrow anyway."

"I didn't mean for us to swim, just walk. Check out the place before we actually go there with everyone."

Ren thought it over. There really was no harm in just checking it out.

"Alright, let's go."

Toyamarou nodded, "There's another place that's also worth checking out."

"What is it?" Ren asked.

"Pearl Harbour's pretty close if we take a bus. I know you like history and stuff, so I thought you'd want to check it out."

"I was actually planning on seeing it on Thursday." Ren answered, "I figured you'd drop from boredom after five minutes."

Toyamarou chuckled at Ren's little jab at him. It wasn't the first time Ren decided to leave him in favour of a museum or art gallery. It hurt at first, but he got used to Ren's antics. It wasn't like he wouldn't do the same for his hobbies, he did. Multiple times before, probably more than Ren. How the two became friends still confuses both of them to this day.

"So we'll just be seeing Waikiki Beach and see what happens from there?" Toyamarou asked.

Ren nodded, "Pretty much. You've already got your phone out so you'll be leading the way."

Ren got the room key as Toyamarou went to the Foyer to wait for him there. Grabbing his camera and his notebook, closing the curtains and making sure the lights were off, Ren finally left the room and locked the door. He made his way to the elevator and hit the button down. There he stood and waited. The doors opened up and Ren made his way in when he heard what sounded like a person running down the hall. Peeking his head out of the elevator doors, he caught a glimpse of where the noise was coming from.

"Hey! Wait!" a voice called out.

Ren hit a button that held the door open long enough for whoever was in such a hurry to make their way into the elevator. He looked over at the panting figure. She was wearing a button-up shirt and black skinny jeans, and thanks to her blue hair, Ren recognized her as the blue-haired Class Rep. of his class, Hori Minako.

'Ironic.' he thought to himself.

"Are you alright?" Ren asked.

"Yeah, thanks for holding it open." she said, "Mouri Ren, correct?"

"You don't know my name yet? I'm hurt, Hori-san." Ren teased her, turning away and putting his hand on his heart, "I voted for you, you know. I at least expected you to remember my name."

"Well, it's not like I can always approach you! You've always got your head stuck in a book or you're off talking with your friends." Minako explained, "I don't want to interrupt anyone unless it's important."

Ren laughed a little, "I get it, it's fine. I was just joking, you got it right. And if you really want to talk, I could make more of an effort to get to know more people. I could give you my contact info if you'd like."

"I'd like that." Minako smiled, taking out her phone as they gave each other their numbers, "So where are you going today?"

"Toyamarou-san and I are going to Waikiki Beach. After that, we're not so sure." Ren explained, "How about you? Any plans?"

"I'm going to meet my friends and just go around the city. Maybe stop at the mall or drop by a cafe, you never know!" Minako answered, "It's the first time I've been outside of Japan, I want to make the most of it."

As Minako finished her sentence, the elevator had stopped. Its doors opened up to the front lobby, with a group of people already waiting in front of them. Ren was able to see Toyamarou sitting in one of the chairs reading a magazine that he had gotten from the coffee table in front of him.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow," Ren told Minako.

"Mmhm, see you too!"

The few people waiting for the elevator made enough room for Ren to walk through, with Ren saying 'Thank you' in English, or he at least tried. His English wasn't the best, but it was good enough to be able to hold his own in a conversation. He walked towards Toyamarou, who had looked up from the magazine he was reading and waved.

"Are you ready to head off?" Ren asked.

"Let's go."

The two friends walked out of the hotel and walked toward Waikiki Beach. Their hotel was thankfully close enough for their walk to be around 20 minutes, and they weren't in a hurry anyway. Walking through the city of Honolulu didn't feel all too different compared to Kyoto, however, there seemed to be fewer people trying to get to work here than in Kyoto. Ren was sure it was because of Japan's work ethic, or that Hawaii was just a hot tourist spot. Another jarring difference was Ren's ability, or lack thereof, to read English. He found it hard to really understand anything that he read, and had to rely on Toyamarou to read anything Ren pointed to. Along the way, Ren had taken about half a dozen photos of anything that seemed interesting.

It took about 15 minutes longer, but the two friends had arrived at Waikiki Beach. The shores were awash with people, all along the sand there were mats, beach umbrellas, chairs, coolers, and everything else you'd expect to find at a beach during the summer, albeit it was April. Ren whipped out his camera and started looking for some sights to take pictures of, focusing on the waves and how they would crash upon the beach's shores.

"Man, you really feel tempted to just run into the water, huh?" Toyamarou remarked.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Ren said, "Though I'm more interested in how these photos will turn out." He went back to peering through his camera, zooming the lens in and out, trying to find the best angle and depth for his photos.

As Ren was experimenting with how the photos would look, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Looking over, Toyamarou pointed to a rock just off the shore with seagulls landing atop it. Ren smiled when he saw this, he had taught Toyamarou well. He fiddled with his camera's settings until he got just the right amount of focus and blur.

"Did you get the photo?" Toyamarou asked.

Ren only nodded, as he went right back to looking for more scenes he could capture. He made Toyamarou follow him as he walked along the beach, and stopped when something had caught his eye.

He saw a girl with blonde hair wearing a grey blazer and a red skirt. He couldn't make out any more details, but he could tell where that uniform came from.

"Weren't you the one telling me not to check girls out while we're here?" Toyamarou asked suddenly, startling Ren, who pointed at the girl he was looking at.

"That uniform's from Saunders," Ren said, "Their school has a Tankery Team."

"I see, yes. So you're gonna go up to her, ask if she can get you on the Tankery Team, and suddenly you'll be whisked away in your own little fantasy?"

Ren sighed. Even after all these years, he still was a massive fan of Senshado. He kept up with everything that was happening, from Maho Nishizumi's first match as a Highschool Student, to Earl Grey's spectacular match against Pravda. Every time he would imagine himself in those games, the thrill of being caught in a firefight, where every decision could mean the difference between victory or defeat. He could only imagine how the real thing felt.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Ren said, his head tilting downward.

"Look, I know you're into that stuff, but guys aren't meant to do tankery. Even if we wanted to-"

"They won't let us, I know, but..." Ren started walking out towards the girl he had seen through his camera, "That doesn't mean I can't talk to her."

"Hey, wait!"

Kay had thrown another stone into the waters, trying to get it to skip. Every time the stone kept sinking, and each time Naomi tried to help her with her grip or technique, but it never stuck. It was frustrating, for something so simple to evade Kay's grasp over and over.

"You have to throw it on the flat side, Kay-san," Naomi said.

"That's what I'm doing, but it still isn't working," Kay retorted, slightly irritated at the number of times she's heard Naomi tell her to exactly do that, only for the same thing to happen again.

"With that attitude, you're never going to get it down." Naomi picked up her own stone and skipped it 11 times before it sank, "Calm down, and try again."

Kay sighed, "You know what? I don't want to do this anymore, maybe later."

Naomi nodded and Kay walked up away from the waterline. The two girls were from Saunders University Highschool, which is attached to the University of the same name. A prestigious school where the rich and powerful send their daughters to learn to be the next leaders of their generation. Though there was one other thing that drew attention to the school. That of course was the Senshado Team.

Saunders' Senshado Team is well known for having the most tanks than any other school thanks to the number of sponsors that pour their money into Saunders. However, for the last 7 years, Saunders hasn't been able to win the JSF's annual Senshado tournament. This fact would deter a large number of students each year, but even then, the team is still alive and kicking and is still reeling in fresh recruits needed to carry them to victory in the future.

"Did you apply for the Senshado Team?" Kay asked Naomi, who nodded in response, "What tank do you want to be in?"

"I'd like to be in an M4 with a 76 millimeter gun. I don't understand why we use the 75s when we have more than enough money and equipment to get the upgrade." Naomi said.

"Yeah it's weird," Kay sighed, "But it's what the school gets us, and it's a whole process to try and get our own private tanks to be used." Kay looked forward and noticed two guys walking their way. She thought they were just some more tourists, so she didn't pay them any mind. That was until they started walking towards them.

"Excuse me?" One of them asked in Japanese, a refresher for Kay as she has had to speak and listen to English for the past few hours, "You two are from Saunders, right?"

"Sure am!" Kay answered happily, "Why do you ask?"

"I wanted to know if you were on the Tankery Team," the same guy inquired.

"Oh, we're just first years, so technically no," Kay answered, "But we did apply, so there's that!"

"You heard that Ren? They're not on the team, so let's leave them be," the second guy said.

"Can I get a picture of you two then?" Ren said, ignoring his friend completely, "I know how that sounds, but the scenery here is beautiful, and I think the photo would look better if you two were in it."

Naomi leaned into Kay's ear, "I don't think this is a good idea."

"Sure, you can take a photo of us!"

Both Naomi and Toyamarou facepalmed.

"Just how idiotic are these two?" they both wondered. Naomi's arm was taken as Kay pulled her closer to the shore. Ren pulled up his camera and peered into it, trying to get the lens to focus on the two girls in front of him.

"Kay, are you sure you want to do this?"

"What's the worst that could happen?" Kay responded.

Naomi could only sigh and go along with Kay's antics. Ren didn't seem to harbour any ill intent with this photo, so she was able to put herself at ease.

"Could you two move a little to the right?" Ren asked, "Oh, and put your arms around each other's shoulders."

Kay and Naomi did as Ren asked, shifting to their left and wrapping their arms around their shoulders. Kay brought up her free hand and made a peace sign with it, with Naomi putting a hand on Kay's hand that was on her shoulder.

"That's perfect, you two." Ren took the photo and waved for the girls to come over. Kay and Naomi made their way to Ren who had brought up the photo of the two on his camera, "I can send it to you over email if you'd like."

"I'll be waiting!"

Ren was just about to walk off, but turned around at the last second, "Oh, I never got your name."

"It's Kay! Oh, and I should probably give you my email too."

Writing it down on a piece of paper, Kay gave the slip to Ren. Afterwards, the two parties said their goodbyes and walked off. Ren made a mental note to definitely print out the photo he took. It was beautiful, the horizon off in the distance as well as the sun beaming down on the beach made it an exceptional photograph in his eyes. Kay, meanwhile, went back to her school ship with Naomi.

"What are you going to do with that photo?" Toyamarou asked.

"Print it and send a copy to Kay through email," Ren answered, "It's too good of a photo to just scrap."

"Most guys don't print out a photo of a girl that nonchalantly, you know."

Ren ignored Toyamarou and continued walking ahead. The sun continued to beam down onto the sands and honestly, it started to hurt Ren's eyes. He had forgotten his sunglasses at the hotel and now he was regretting it. Using his hand as a shield, Ren looked around the beach to find anything else worth taking a photo of. However, now that it was around noon, the beach had gotten much busier, and it was harder to find any angles that would hide the masses of people swimming or lying on the sand.

"It's gotten really crowded," Toyamarou said, clearly seeing the same picture Ren was, "Let's get out of here, we'll be back tomorrow anyway."

"I was thinking the same thing."

Toyamarou and Ren left the now jam-packed beach and walked back into the city. It was still too early to head back to the hotel, so they simply walked around the streets, hoping to find something the both of them would be interested in. Every now and then, Ren would recommend a book store, to which Toyamarou would shake his head every time.

"We're supposed to be having fun, not sticking our heads into pages of paper," He would say.

They continued through the streets of Honolulu and eventually decided to go to the mall. Hopefully, they'd find something interesting there. Toyamarou searched it up on his phone and led the way, making sure that he had gotten the street names correct. While his English was better than Ren's, their ability to actually read it was about par to each other.

"What exactly does the mall look like?" Ren asked Toyamarou.

"It's a big building with a glass entrance, you shouldn't miss it."

A few more minutes passed before the two had finally arrived at the Mall. It was absolutely huge. The entrance they took was just one out of seven, and the second they stepped in, it seemed as if there was no end to the long corridor, just unending shops and kiosks. The crowds of people here weren't as large as the ones at the beach, but seeing as they were in an enclosed space, it would have been any claustrophobe's nightmare.

"This place could give Shibuya in Tokyo a run for its money." Toyamarou jested before turning his head to Ren, "Anyway, what do you want to do now?"

Ren wasn't there beside him, catching Toyamarou off guard, as Ren had already walked ahead to a map of the entire mall. Placing his finger on it, Ren would be able to figure out where they were.

"We're at the South-West entrance, and to the west is the food court. There seems to be dozens of different shops here too. It's gonna take a day and a half to hit up every one of them." Ren said.

"Well we have essentially a whole day here after tomorrow," Toyamarou reminded Ren, "so let's get started now."

The sheer size of the mall was overwhelming enough for Ren, but the amount of English he realized he'd have to read honestly scared him. He could tell Toyamarou was a little overwhelmed as well, it was as if the two of them had lost their parents in the labyrinth that was the mall.

"Let's tread lightly, we don't know what would happen if one of us gets lost." Ren said, "Who would I rely on to carry all our conversations?"

Toyamarou laughed at Ren's quick quip and punched him lightly on the shoulder. The two had agreed to go to the food court so they would have a feel for where it was exactly in case they were to get separated. They did their best to memorize the signs all over the mall, but their ability to actually read the language failed them.

"Guess we'll have to rely on the symbols," said Toyamarou.

Finally arriving at the food court, they were met with a huge open space with rows upon rows of tables. The very end of the food court was yet another glass entrance, this time bigger. The sun shone into the food court from the entrance as well, illuminating anything it touched with a gentle orange. The place was busy, though there were still quite a few tables left open.

Ren looked at all the different concession stands selling food, and only now did he realize he didn't recognize the majority of them. Ren had recognized the colour schemes of some, like The Big M, Burger Duke, and U-Way, but others were completely foreign. It didn't help that almost everything was in English. There were some Hawaiian and Spanish translations, but it was obvious that Japanese accommodations simply didn't appear to be universal.

"This place is huge," Ren said.

"Yeah, let's eat later, I'm not hungry." Toyamarou motioned Ren to follow him as the two continued their way through the mall. All around them were these shops for shoes, clothes, books, and more. One store that caught Ren's eye was selling Senshado merchandise. Jackets with team insignias on them, headwear, radios, even dummy guns and shells. Ren recognized some of the team insignias as the ones back home, such as Saunders, Pravda, St. Gloriana, and Kuromorimine, but there were some Ren simply knew nothing about. He wasn't all too caught up with the international stage of Tankery, and he could barely read anything from all the different languages they used.

Toyamarou had noticed Ren's gawking towards the store and rolled his eyes, "If you want to go in there, just say so."

"You sure? The last time I brought you and your friends to a Tankery shop, you nearly broke one of the displays."

Toyamarou sighed, "Just call me once you're done or something, I saw a store selling some pretty nice shoes, so I'll keep myself busy."

"If you say so."

Ren and Toyamarou went their separate ways, Ren to the Senshado Store and Toyamarou to where he saw those shoes. The Senshado Store was much bigger than what Ren had thought it would be. It made sense though, they needed the space for the replicas and dummy guns. And it was almost overwhelming, the amount of merchandise here. Ranging from the jackets and dummy rounds Ren had seen outside, to models and toys of tanks, and a full Renault FT-17, armed with a Hotchkiss machine gun. Ren had a nagging feeling inside him to walk up to the FT and touch it, but there was a sign right beside it.

"Do Not Touch!"

Ren let out a disappointed sigh. It made sense, it was a machine of war after all. But Ren rarely got this close to any tank at all! Unlike the US or Britain with their tank festivals and so on, Japan doesn't really show off any WWII designs. The only time tanks are actually shown off to the public are the Senshado matches, and JSF Regulations prohibit anyone other than the maintenance crew or the crew of the tank to get anywhere close to them.

Ren had always thought about becoming a mechanic so he could at least get to handle the rolling behemoths one way or another, but his family's financial standing has unfortunately halted any such plans. A shame, he might have been content with it, and maybe he would have an outlet to let out his obsession with tanks and their history.

Turning away from the French tank, Ren walked towards where he saw the tank models. Passing through some team emblems you could sew on and what Ren hoped were fully clothed body-pillows, he took a gander of just how many models he could pick out from. Ranging from the Carro Veloce tankettes to the P-1000 Ratte, it was overwhelming. Ren looked through his wallet, taking out all the money he had converted to American Dollars, and found about $400. The average price for most of the models was around $100, so he could afford at least one, and he knew exactly what he was looking for. The one model that he was missing from his collection that he's wanted oh so much during the entirety of middle school. If this store had it, he'd be on Cloud 9.

The shelves were full of diverse tank designs from seemingly every corner of the globe. Despite it all being in another language, Ren knew exactly what he was looking at. Staple designs like the M4 Medium, the T-34/85 and the Tiger tanks were of course present, but Ren had seen them all before. He was mostly captivated by the much more obscure tanks, like the Polish TKS Tankette, or the WWI Medium Mark A Whippet, the fastest tank of the war. Seeing the First World War designs here had given Ren hope that maybe the one he's looking for was here. Passing through some more models, he eventually reached the end of the aisle without finding it. Ren was disappointed, yes, but he had a feeling it wouldn't be here. That was until he turned around to look back into the aisle, for on the ends of it were First World War German K-Wagen heavy tanks. He had found it.

He let out a small squeal of excitement and joy and did a little dance and cheer before taking a look at the price tag. $160, he could afford it. His parents were well acquainted with his collection of tanks, so he assumed they'd be fine if he added just one more to it. Grabbing a box, he made his way to the counter to buy the K-Wagen model, but was stopped when he saw a small group of guys blocking an aisle. He was about to make his way around, but had overheard one of the guys speaking.

"Do you have the money?" one of them whispered. Ren hid behind the end of the aisle, trying really hard to focus on their conversation to make out what they were saying.

"All here, I'll be expecting that back and more." another voice said confidently.

"Heh, you'll have to win the circuit first, and make sure you're not followed." a new voice added.

'Just what were they up to? Are they betting on a race?'

"I doubt it, those heaps of scrap metal are nothing against my Panther!"

'A what? A Panther? Surely he was talking about the animal, right?' Ren continued listening in, trying to pick up more pieces of what exactly they were talking about.

"Sheesh! Not so loud man! Someone could hear!" someone else said.

The second voice would sigh, "Just be at the old town in two days, 6 pm sharp, got it?"

It was silent after that, then Ren heard footsteps leaving the store. He was about to leave when a hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, now face to face with someone who actually looked to be his age. He was wearing a black shirt under a black sweater with blue jeans.

"What the hell are you doing here?"