Five days after the match against Saunders
In the days following the 62nd Tournament, Jouko was putting rules in her notebook, to present to her classmates in order to help them with Sensha-do.

Rule One: Never engage in prolonged conflict with the enemy. This was the cause of her previous defeat, spending too much time fighting Naomi's Firefly which prevented her from assisting her allies. 

Rule Two: To know well the terrain results in a likely victory. In the match against Saunders, this had put her at an advantage given she had spent much of her childhood in forests, but her disobedience of Rule One caused her team's defeat.

Rule Three: Where there's a good tank team, there's many imperfections. Jouko's team was the star of Continuation, but there was still much to be improved on, and more to learn of.

Rule Four: It's best to work together, and to work individually. Some commanders had their own preferences, and it would be hard to really work together effectively, which was why Jouko preferred more independence among her teammates, though to remain coordinated and effective as a team. Like she had done in the match with Koala Forest, she used her own style to deal damage against the Koala tanks, luring the remaining opponents to her team, circling around while distracted and taking out the flag tank from behind.

Rule Five: Friendship breeds victory. Sensha-do wasn't just about forming a perfect woman, it was also about making friends, supporting each other, and building on each other's strengths to form an unstoppable force.

She closed off with Rule Six: Saving lives is better than winning a victory. This was a special rule in case the school would end up in a similar situation as Kuromorimine did in the finals. The way Miho had been treated afterwards was unfair, and Jouko was hopeful that the school she reportly left for, Ooarai, would be better for her than a strict school like Kuromorimine. Victory in Sensha-do doesn't matter if you're losing real lives in a supposedly safe sport. With these 6 rules written in, Jouko closed her notebook. That's enough for now, time to get some sleep.

Two weeks later
"How much wind is there?" Jouko was watching through a video call as Antero prepared to step out for his shooting duel against Aarne. "Not the slightest breeze, seems like I'll be shooting straight at the targets instead of aiming this way and that." All of a sudden, Aarne appeared in frame. "Hah, would you look at that! Seems like you're staying up all night watching us, huh?" Jouko let out a little giggle, Aarne was always the type to surprise. "Well, good luck to the both of you. Keep in mind what I've been telling you." Cheers could be heard as Aarne and Antero ran out to the shooting range with their rifles. They both had 5 shots each, meaning if they missed the first shot, they still had 4 more attempts. It was the former who would go first. 

Aarne spent several seconds taking aim. No wind, no disturbances, shoot straight, should hit. Only 100 meters away, not hard at all. Indeed, the rifle's crack sent the bullet into the plate, smashing it to a thousand pieces. Antero saw the same success in his turn to shoot. Next up was 200 meters. A bit harder, but still easy. Again, both contestants hit their shots. Jouko could hear her parents' phone picking up chatter from other people in the crowd next to them. "Maybe this contest should be about how many shards they can produce with those shots," one could be heard saying. 400 meters, then 600 meters, both continued to hit their shots first try, but they had to begin angling their rifles ever slightly more upward each time. Finally, it was time for the kilometer-long shot, the final target. If it was a draw, then the shot would be repeated until a winner was determined. Aarne went first, and fired. The bullet zipped through the air... and missed the target by mere inches to the right. Without a moment to spare, Aarne reloaded a second bullet and aimed ever so slightly more left, and fired. Another miss, this time to the left. Another bullet was shot at the target, but again a miss. He was starting to get anxious, he had only two shots left. After reloading another round, he took several more seconds to aim. He couldn't afford to mess up anymore. A fourth crack sent the bullet flying through the air. This time, it nicked the plate, knocking it off its pedestal. It was counted as a hit.

As Aarne walked back to applause from the crowd, Antero was up next. He had to hit the target in less shots than Aarne to win. Taking very careful aim, he made sure the target was dead center in the scopes despite its tiny size. Once he was certain it was to hit, he pulled the trigger. The bullet soared through the air, but missed the target. Reloading quickly, Antero took aim for another shot. From the puff of white that was the bullet's impact, he had aimed a bit too far up. Aiming more downwards, he fired again. Another miss, too downward. Another bullet was rammed into the barrel of the rifle, and after several seconds of taking aim, took another shot. This was it, if he missed, his chances of winning this round were toast. There was a tense few seconds as the bullet made its way.

"Hit, Antero wins the competition!"

Jouko turned down her volume as the crowd went wild, in order to avoid waking up her sleeping classmates next door, though she did celebrate physically, throwing her arms into the air and jumping around a bit, albeit reserved. As Aarne and Antero approached the camera, the former was seen rubbing the latter's head in celebration. In the end, this was a moment worthy of joy, not saltiness against the opponent. As Jouko managed to calm herself down, she whispered, "So, what would you say went wrong?" Aarne of course was the first to respond. "Not enough practice, all I did was just watch people in other shooting competitions online, didn't go out to shoot as much as I should've." Antero agreed as well. "I feel that with the necessary practice, I would've been able to hit that final shot with one bullet. I'll be sure to practice more next time." "Well, congratulations, it was great watching you from Japan!" Before Jouko could utter another word, Aarne cut her off. "How's Sensha-do going over there? Any knockouts?" "Oh, I participated in my first tournament a few weeks ago. We managed to get to the quarterfinals before we sadly got knocked out. I spent too much time fighting an opponent-" "Don't say more, we already know how you've been doing. Apparently you're one of the rising stars there, everyone was impressed by your tankery skills." Antero continued, "Though I do agree you spent too much time fighting that tank, be sure to focus more on your team." Jouko said goodbye after more discussion, and lay down thinking of what she'd just witnessed. It seems Antero was lucky to have won, although both of them look like they practiced enough to hit the closer targets, they seem to not have practiced enough to hit that final shot first try. It looks like I'll be practicing with my crew more often as we wait for the next tournament.

3 days later
"Hannes, Löfström, Frisell want to practice?"
"But.. why? I thought you said we got enough practice a few days ago."
"Frisell, I was watching my friends in a shooting match a few days ago, and they couldn't hit a kilometer-long shot first try. They both said they had insufficient practice beforehand, so if we're gonna make a better showing next time, we're gonna have to practice hard."

After gaining affirmative noises from her teammates, Jouko informed Rumi of her intentions, and submitting their Sensha-do coupons, the four hopped into the tank. The spent the day practicing. Hannes with her maneuvering around tight places like the forests, Löfström with speedy reloading, Frisell with better radio reports, and Jouko with her aim and gunnery. Practice makes perfect, and the quartet wanted to be sure they performed well in the next tournament. Löfström was developing better technique at reloading, and Hannes was getting better at avoiding trees and other natural obstacles, taking note of which obstacles posed no hindrances to the Sturmi, and which ones did. Frisell focused on making her reports clearer and to the point, adding no "filler" onto it. Jouko focused on firing despite the wild movements of the Sturmi, and as the day went on grew more used to it. She also practiced on long-range shots for sniping at different angles. Firing upwards and downwards, or straight. She kept a close look for the clouds of dust or snow that appeared around or behind a target, and noted in her mind where she should aim for her next shot. After a long day of practice, interrupted only to drink water and eat lunch, the four returned to Jouko's home to hang out, relax, and rest from a hard day of self-training.

As the four talked long into the night, they continued to come up with techniques, strategies, and just to have fun conversations. Just as the visit was winding down, Jouko took out her notebook and presented the 6 rules she had written earlier, and read them out to her team. After several read-throughs and explanations Löfström spoke up, "May we please write them down in our notebooks to read daily?" Jouko nodded, and each began writing the 6 rules onto each teammate's notebook. Waving goodbye as they left, she hoped they would be able to spread it throughout the school, thereby improving their capabilities. 

For the next few months, even during vacation, the four continued to spend many hard hours practicing, sometimes with other classmates in mock battles, this becoming more and more often as the Sturmi crew's hard practice sessions gained attention from the rest of the school. 

The next year saw a change of command. Rumi had gone to university at All-Stars, Touko and Lili had declined to become the school's commanders, leaving Mika the new commander of the school's Sensha-do team. An offer had been extended to Jouko, but she politely declined.

A few weeks after the school year started, and a couple weeks before the start of the 63rd National Sensha-do Tournament, Mika informed the team that Pravda had extended an offer of a friendly practice match to be held in a few days' time. Everyone agreed to it, and so prepared for their upcoming mock battle. Practice was on everyone's minds over the next few days, training, coming up with new tactics, and discussing the upcoming match. During the practice sessions, Mika was training everyone to adopt a more guerrilla-style approach instead of the more conventional methods under Rumi. She said, "We must be as the wind, sudden and unpredictable, coming at unexpected and inconsistent intervals." It took much practice to get used to, but with Mika's guidance and Jouko's help, the team managed to adjust in time for the practice match against Pravda.

1 week before the Tournament
The day finally came for the match. It was set in snowy terrain, with forests spread out across the venue. Both teams stepped out for the customary greeting. Jouko was surprised at Pravda's commander, Katyusha's, height. She was no taller than a tank wheel! It was tempting to laugh, but she knew better than that. When Katyusha came to Jouko, she appeared to dither somewhat. Jouko was a tall woman compared to her absolute joke of a height. Nonetheless, her Napoleon complex took over, and she mustered the courage to speak. "I've heard much about you, Ju-, Jaj-, Ya-, Yo- how do you pronounce it again?" Katyusha's sidekick, Nonna, whispered something in her ear, before she spoke again, "Ah, Jouko. I've heard much about you, we finally meet." Jouko returned the handshake, "It is a pleasure to meet you too. It must've been a great feeling winning the last tournament. I hope we have a good match." Katyusha scoffed. "Hah! That Nishizumi is nothing but a soft-hearted weakling. I came very close to losing until that snowball ran to help some stupid teammates." This caused anger to boil in Jouko, but she kept her cool.

After both teams bowed and greeted each other a good game, Jouko and her crew ran back to their Sturmi to start the match. Mika briefed the team of their hit-and-run strategies, how Pravda would stick to more conventional methods of fighting and how perfect ambushes would be working against them.

"And Jouko, like what Rumi said in the last tournament, 'Fight to your heart's desire.'"

With the Bofors gun firing its firework, the match began.

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(AN: Yeah, I think I got too carried away with the Antero and Aarne plot, but I tried to give it an impact by making Jouko realize how important practice was. Not the best, but I tried at least. The next chapter will be taking place around the same time as Ooarai's sparring match against St. Gloriana, and expect several Winter War references along the way :D)