Girls und Panzer Omake 1: Maiden of Metal by KilroyLW on DeviantArt (original) (raw)
I present to you a first of a hopeful series of omake stories posted right here on deviant! In a collaboration with a writer who knows his business,
from fanfiction.net (catch his current story there) aka CommisarWallace and me, L.W. Kilroy.
He writes it, I draw it. Just some simple pics and good old fashioned short story fun with our friends from Girls und Panzer!
So here it is, enjoy! (Omake story starts below)
St Gloriana Women’s Academy – Saturday, 0900hrs
It was a beautiful day on St Gloriana’s carrier, the Ark Royal. The sea was calm, the sun was shining, and there was nary a cloud in the sky. Darjeeling, having risen early was sat in one of the main dining rooms, partaking of her usual morning cup of tea (her second after breakfast), whilst she watched some of the girls play tennis on the courts below the window. It was fairly peaceful in the dining room, as it was the weekend, and many students were thus either out enjoying the air or getting a few hours extra sleep, leaving the large room, with its high, vaulted ceilings and delicate ornamentation strangely devoid of human life.
This quiet was somewhat disrupted by the entrance of Pekoe who, bright-eyed and immaculately dressed in her tankery uniform, offered her senior a cheerful wave as greeting before availing herself of a cup of tea too. She perched herself on a chair opposite Darjeeling at the table.
“Good morning, senpai!” she greeted, “Are you well this morning?”
“Of course my dear,” Darjeeling replied, “Although I would like it if you would start addressing me by my given name when we aren’t in class. We are friends, are we not?”
“I’m sorry,” Pekoe apologized, “It’s just force of habit.”
The pair finished their refreshments and alighted to the tankery sheds, where some of the girls were working at the school’s arsenal of vehicles. The cheerful notes of Kenneth Alford’s ‘Great Little Army’ were playing over a speaker system set up around the sheds, and a few of the students were humming along to the cheery little jingle. But for Pekoe, it did spark a mild bit of curiosity, a question that had gone unanswered for a long time.
“Darjeeling-senpai, are there other kinds of music that come from Britain?” she asked innocently, “We listen to their marches quite a bit, but surely they must have some presence in other genres of music?”
Darjeeling paused for a second, musing her own thoughts on the matter.
“I can’t actually say myself,” she replied, “I’ve never really given the matter much thought, so I don’t really know. I would assume, like you, that Britain has a far wider musical collection than we’ve been exposed to here at St Gloriana. Perhaps we should consult some acquaintances to answer this conundrum.”
2 Days Later
After a short phone call to their friends at Wellesley Military Academy, Darjeeling and Pekoe had been informed that they would be sent a parcel post-haste with a sample CD on what British music had to offer, as recommended by various students from the academy. Today it had arrived, and Darjeeling had wasted no time in replacing the CD for the speakers in the tankery shed with the one that had just arrived.
The demure blonde pushed play, and the speakers began playing the upbeat tones of ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by the Beatles, George Harrison’s lead vocals filling the tankery sheds.
“It’s certainly as happy as we’ve come to expect,” Pekoe commented.
“But not as bombastic as our usual marches.”
The track then switched to the more downcast ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ by Oasis. This one seemed to elicit a less favourable reaction from the girls, as the less cheerful music cast a dampener on their mood. A followup from a band called Radiohead did little to help proceedings, and Darjeeling almost turned the CD off. But then Queen came on, blasting out ‘We are the Champions’.
“Now this is far better,” Darjeeling commented approvingly, “Upbeat and outspoken.”
This bombastic song was then followed by The Rolling Stones, with ‘Satisfaction’, and then The Kinks with ‘All Day and All of the Night’. By this point, there was noticeable toe-tapping from some of the girls working in the sheds, amidst much general approval. Even Darjeeling caught herself slipping into the catchy rhythms more than once, before iron self-control asserted itself once more. She found herself hoping that the music did not get much more catchy and energetic, lest some of her classmates lose their ladylike demeanours. Her hopes were to be dashed in that regard, as thundering bass suddenly filled the shed, prompting a few cheers.
“Who’s this Darjeeling-senpai?” Pekoe asked as growling vocals began to drown out most of the sheds’ noise. Her senior fumbled with the disc case for a second before checking.
“Apparently, a group called Motörhead,” Darjeeling replied, somewhat confused by the superfluous umlaut. The thundering chorus gave away which song it was.
“THE ACE OF SPADES! THE ACE OF SPADES! ALRIGHT!”
Darjeeling glanced around the shed, seeing that her fellows, far from horrified by this vicious assault on their ears by one of Britain’s premier metal bands, were actually dancing, and in some cases head-banging to the furious beat, which filled the St Gloriana captain with dread. Even Pekoe was beginning to join in. Was this the end of St Gloriana’s civility? Washed away by a tide of deafening noise?
She was to be granted no reprieve as it was then Black Sabbath’s turn to blare out ‘Paranoid’ at the celebrating girls of St G. To her great relief, at least a teacher had not shown up yet to witness this. However, the sheds did seem more populated than they had been prior. Were more girls gravitating in?
A few more songs rotated through by groups like Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, before a galloping bass line caught Darjeeling’s attention. It’s fast pace and raucous lyrics began to get in her head. Her foot started tapping. Her head started nodding. Before long she was singing out ‘Run to the Hills!’ with everyone else in the shed, and then before she could even register, she was dancing with them. The rest was a blur.
One week later
As per usual for a Saturday, Pekoe entered the dining room for her breakfast, kitted out in her tankery uniform, fully aware that her senpai was already likely up and sipping tea before her. She crossed the stately room on autopilot, only becoming fully aware of her surroundings after that first mouthful of hot tea, which invigorated her. That mouthful was almost spat out when she took in her senpai, seated at her usual spot in the window. Not much was out of the ordinary there, barring the Iron Maiden shirt she had donned over her tankery uniform.
“Do you like it?”