u/DomWeasel

Every time I try to upload a new chapter, I'm hit with an error message telling me that it's incompatible; despite the fact I'm trying to upload a Copy and Paste text rather than a document. If I make enough attempts, it eventually accepts the upload, but it's taking more and more attempts to be accepted.

Anyone else have this problem?

There really is nothing to commend this site anymore.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14100358/33/Flower-of-Oarai
https://archiveofourown.org/works/50830339/chapters/224043656
https://www.wattpad.com/1628868026-flower-of-oarai-33-tiger-cubs

Erika had slipped away without ceremony and no one was sure if she was coming back. Miho however fully intended to return. She did not want to go though. That reluctance betrayed itself in her mode of transport. Not a high-speed train but via the sea. She told herself that she took a ship because she had missed the smell of the sea air but really; she was dragging her heels. She knew it, but it did not stop her continuing. Once back on land, she walked rather than take a bus. That killed some time, but not nearly enough.

That brought her to the door.

The door was only made of wood, and flimsy wood at that. Had she been inclined, she could have pulled it apart with her bare hands. But it might as well have been the reinforced concrete and steel door that sealed a bunker for what it represented to her. And that was without taking into consideration what lay beyond the door. She did not even dare form metaphors in her head because Miho had never been able to shake the belief that her mother could read minds. Some said the Nishizumi had ‘Panzer Sense’ but Miho thought that it went much, much further than that with her mother.

Although, if she did have that power, she was not using it because she did not appear. That left Miho staring helplessly at the door. Such a harmless weak door. She had not drunk anything that day in preparation for this situation; the last thing she had wanted was to worry herself into needing to pee. If she saw her mother, the first thing she said to her could not be ‘I need to use the bathroom’.

Although, she thought her mother would be quite pleased to think she had frightened her into almost wetting herself. She had that effect on government officials after all.

“Miho.”

Her own name being spoken should not have made her jump, but even more startling was seeing her sister dressed casually. Dressed casually. Coming back from walking the dog. It made her look so different. Less intimidating. More… Human. “Onee-chan.” Miho remembered her manners, and then felt a whole lot of things from trepidation to elation as Maho smiled.

“Welcome home.” Maho beamed, and so it seemed did the family Akita. “You finally came.”

It was not intended as a remonstration but Miho still felt it was a rebuke. “I didn’t have a choice.” She said and wished she had not. “Oarai…” She began to reach instinctively for the papers in her bag to explain, but she stopped. She knew Maho already knew about Oarai’s situation, and that she had come with transfer papers that needed signing. The same papers their mother had signed before.

Maho smiled. “I meant that I thought you might prefer to come sooner rather than later. Avoid the dread building up.” She knew her so well.

Maho reassured her in every way, but the perfectly tended grounds of their home were a reminder that the rundown campus of Oarai Girls was gone. Home lacked a homely touch when it was immaculate. And the unseen presence hung over everything. She wondered if father was home; that would have been water to pour on the fire. But she could feel that he was not around.

“How is father?” She inquired politely, knowing Maho would note the choice.

“Hiding.” Maho answered dryly.

Miho raised her hands to her chest. “What did he do?”

“Nothing.” Maho sighed. “I believe mother is just fishing for another grand romantic gesture.”

Miho nodded. Some people said they did not have a father; they had budded off their mother. Like plants. But he existed, and Miho could say that she was glad to have gone to sea for her education to get away from her parents displays of affection which as she had grown into a teenager; had become excruciatingly embarrassing. Few at Kuromorimine would have guessed that their mother had that side to her. All they saw was the scowling panzer commander. Miho was not comforted thinking about that scowl.

“Are you sure it’s okay?” She asked, meaning to even be here. She realised she was walking far behind Maho; like a supplicant.

“This is your home.” Maho spoke decisively, and Miho thought with just a hint of annoyance. “You don’t need to be so restrained here.”

Miho decided that Maho’s annoyance was with the source of her fears, not her actual fears. For a moment her confidence was buoyed and she began to close the gap between them. Then of course…

“Maho?” The two syllables of her own name had made her jump, but two syllables of her sister’s made her raise her arms protectively over her chest, and hunch.

And they had an effect on Maho too. “…Hai?” No one else would have heard her trepidation, but Miho did.

“Is there a guest?” The voice was soft.

“It’s a friend from school.” Maho answered. Miho was shocked that she would tell such a blatant lie.

And then she was even more shocked by the response. “Is that so?”

It was all theatre, Miho realised. Their mother knew she was here. Maho knew that she knew. Miho knew. But they all had to pretend that did not know. What Miho did not know was the motivation behind this fiction, and she was too shy to ask in case she got an answer that devastated her.

Unexpectedly, she was given it. They went to her room and it might have been yesterday that she had left it.

“What’s wrong?” Maho was alarmed by her stillness.

“It hasn’t changed.” Miho said. Her Kuromorimine uniform still hung where she had left it.

“What did you expect?”

“I had visions of black sacks.” She confessed. “And I had a dream about mother in a bulldozer…”

Maho gave her a long appraising look. “Show me the documents.” She said, meaning she believed now was definitely not the time for Miho to see their mother again. Not if she was dreaming of bulldozers. She gave the papers another appraising look. “Wait here.” The command was brusque, in her commander rather than sister’s voice.

“Um… Okay.” Miho found it strange to be given permission to stay in her own room, and then realised this was as awkward for Maho as it was for her.

Looking at her room, Miho imagined that Yukari would have loved it. She had nothing like her collection but she would still have been at home here; gushing over the model panzerfaust. Saori would have been cooing over the bow that she had tied to it. How would Erika react to the Kuromorimine uniform hanging up in its plastic wrap, ready to be worn again? Did Erika still have her uniform? …What did her bedroom look like?

A picture caught her eye. In all the photos of them when they were kids, she was always smiling and Maho always seemed to have been caught unawares because she looked surprised. Always surprised. From their pictures, someone might have thought their father was always leaping from bushes with a camera to shock Maho, and to make Miho laugh. There were very few pictures of their father because he was always the one with the camera. There were few pictures of their mother because she hated having her photo taken; something that had not helped with the rumours that she was a vampire.

Things had been simpler when they were kids. She had been aware of far less. …That was the problem with growing up; you became aware of so much more and especially yourself. Being a little nervous meeting people was no big deal when you were young but when you were a teen; you knew why you were nervous and you knew every little part of yourself feeling that anxiety. And there were no responsibilities either. No one had been expecting them to uphold the dignity of the family when they were kids. But then they had passed some invisible line, at different ages for the both of them, and they had been expected to be… To be. It had just happened.

You never appreciated childhood when you were a child.

“Miho.”

Miho had become so lost in her reverie that Maho’s voice startled her again, but not nearly as much as the transfer papers in her hand; signed and sealed. “But-“

“Shh.” Maho chided her with a raised finger. She had the seal clasped between her ring finger and thumb.

Miho had another fright as her phone squawked suddenly. She smiled apologetically and answered it.

Maho was treated to an interesting spectacle as Miho took the call, and tried to be casual about it. But what slipped through was fascinating. She knew of Oarai’s present circumstances but something had slipped through her intelligence network. She had had no idea that Erika had returned to Kyushu. If anyone at Kuromorimine had known, it would have been the one and only topic of gossip.

Miho tried to look casual. “I have to go to Kitakyushu.”

“For Erika?” Maho smiled.

“She said she was going to visit her family.”

Maho took a moment. “Her sister.”

“Well…” Miho did not need to say that Erika meeting her mother would have been dramatic. “We need her back.”

“To give a proper goodbye.” Maho spoke coldly. “I’ll warm up the engine.”

“…Onee-chan?”

A Panzer II might have been an odd choice of vehicle for a hundred-mile road trip, but no stranger than neither of them finding nothing odd about seeing a Kawasaki OH-1 scout helicopter landing as they left. That was just a normal day on the Nishizumi estate.