Aihela

You wake up once again, unsure how long you slept this time around.
You look around, you are still in the same pawn shop your last owner sold you to. You are overcome with sadness as you remember his disgust when he heard what the lack of a waffenamt stamp meant.
He wouldn't let you explain, he took you straight to the pawn shop and sold you for what ever the store's first offer was.
The store owner knows of your existence & feeling sorry for you has tried his best to find you a new home, but so far anyone who has taken a closer look has decided not to buy you.
You have lost hope of ever finding a loving home again, nowadays your only joy is in hearing other geists find a new home.
The store owner is talking with someone, you wonder if someone is going to be bought today?
>"I don't know, the bolt is sticky & barrel has some pitting, your asking price is a bit much for a rifle in this condition", you hear the other person say, he has an accent which sounds oddly familiar. He must be talking about the 91/30 someone brought in some time ago, the owner wasn't present to negotiate the price with which the previous owner sold it to the store & the employee ended up paying too much for it.
You can sense the owner's uneasiness as he tries to think of a way to get rid of the Mosin, this one doesn't have a Geist, so the owner's dilemma is purely financial, after a moment he makes a suggestion.
>"How about this? for $300 more you can get this 1940 98k as well."
What is he saying, you are the only 98k in the store at the moment you think as the owner takes you off the rack and sets you on the counter.
>"$300? What's wrong with it?" the man asks, clearly suspicious of the low price.
>"Uhh, nothing mechanically, the rifle is in a rather good condition for her age, its' just..." the owner stammers as he tries to answer the question without revealing the piece of information that has so far caused everyone to decide against buying you.
>"'Her age', huh? Can I take a look?"

The man picks you up and after testing your bolt and the trigger he checks your barrel as well, he handles you with care, unlike most of the others who have handled you recently.
>"This rifle is in a suspiciously good condition for the price you are asking, care to tell me why?" he asks the owner.
>"There's no catch, she's a good rifle, it's just that she's been here for so long & I am running low on space in my rifle racks..." the owner tries coming up with excuses.
>"Oh well, I can always solve any problems that might surface as I rechamber her for a larger caliber" the man remarks, causing you to panic.
>"No! Wait, let me explain!" you shout out as you appear before him, to your surprise he's anything but surprised, instead smiling as he replies.
>"So you really *are* a Geist, out of curiosity, how painful would it be for you to increase your bore diameter from 7.92 to 8.2mm?"
>"I-I don't know, please don't do that, I'm begging you!" you plead with him.
>"Ok, I'm sorry, I was just curious, the reason I brought up rechambering you was to check if you were in fact a waffengeist" the man hurriedly explains with a hint of panic in his voice, but then he suddenly goes silent an just looks at your collar.
Confused you look down, only to realize that in your panic you appeared before him dressed up in your default clothing, a German uniform from WWII. A uniform that doesn't belong to Wehrmacht.
>"Let me guess, the reason she has been here for so long is related to the uniform?" the man asks, receiving a confirming nod from the store owner.
>"You should have said so from the beginning, I don't really care if she was carried by the most deranged sadist of "Dirlewanger", it's not her fault, so $300 on top of what you asked for just the Mosin?" the man continues, receiving another nod from the store owner.
>"Deal" he says as he takes out his wallet and starts counting bank notes.
He picks the Mosin up and takes you to his car, placing the Mosin in the back seat.


After driving for a while in total silence your new owner speaks.
>"I know I said that I don't really care about what kind of person carried you during the war, but I am still curious, were you issued to an SS-mann?" he asks while looking at you.
>"...Yes, a foreign volunteer in 1941" you answer his question.
>"´Was the unit by any chance part of the Wiking Division?" your owner now asks with far more interest.
>"Yes, how'd you guess?" you ask him back.
>"Just a wild guess, I think, what kind of person was he?" he asks, now with a more casual tone, indicating he probably wouldn't really mind if you didn't tell him, but you decide to tell him anyway.
>"He was just a kid, had just turned 17 that year & volunteered in order to get revenge for losing his home the previous year" you reply casually, only to see him practically jump in his seat, it is only now that you realize how much information your reply actually contained for someone who knows his history, and it seems your owner does, he pulls off the road into a parking lot & turns to face you.
>"The unit was Finnisches Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS, wasn't it?" he now practically demands.
>"Ye-yes" you reply, taken back by the sudden change in his mood.
>"Does the name Aihela mean anything to you?" he asks.
>"Yes, it was my first shooter's name, why do you know it?" you ask.
>"I just realised I haven't introduced myself, my name is Anon Aihela, he is my great-grand-father."
>""He *is*"?" you ask, now it's your turn to practically jump in your seat due to the massive surprise.
>"Yes, he's still alive back in Finland, I could arrange for you to talk to him over the phone if you want."
>"Yes, please." you reply, expecting to wake up to find out this is all a dream.

**********************

A few days later you are at the range with your new purchases, you decided to give Erika a go first. Her last owner had given her a name, but you both agreed she needed a new one, so you named her after that german march, you *were* going to go with the name from the Finnish version, but she said she preferred the german one, so Erika it is.
She's a good shooter, but because of the cost of the ammo you won't be able to take her shooting as often as you'd like. You are already feeling guilty for having bought the Mosin, 54r is much cheaper & you have a feeling that if you hold back shooting the Mosin, Erika will feel bad.
>"...What's this?" you mutter out as you try loading the Mosin and notice something's off about the bolt face.
You take a closer look, this is your first Mosin so you can't be 100% sure, but the bolt face doesn't look like it belongs in a rifle chambered for a rimmed cartridge.
Puzzled, you empty the magazine and try dropping a 7.92x57mm directly into the chamber, and it fits.
>"Unbelievable" you say while you take another look at the markings on the rifle, it's a standard Soviet 91/30, excepting the fact that it's chambered for 7.92x57mm Mauser, the bolt is probably from an interbellum -era Polish Mosin, but the rest of the rifle is definitely a 91/30.
>"This just got a lot more interesting" you think, then you realise that this also solves your dilemma.
>"Change of plans Erika, someone seems to have rechambered this rifle for 7.92x57mm Mauser, so I'd better take my time making sure that Someone did the work properly."

>"A Mosin in 7.92x57mm? Must be one of the Polish rifles" Erika says.
>"Actually no, the bolt might be from a Polish rifle, but Karabinek wz. 91/98/23 and later Polish Mosins chambered for Mauser are WWI -vintage Mosins with shorter stocks and barrels & as such predate 91/30 which this most certainly is" you reply before continuing:
>"You know, since the barrel is pitted I just might have this converted to 8.2x57mm and use this for hunting"
>"There really is such a caliber?" Erika asks, remembering your 'threat' of doing the same to her.
>"Yes, I believe it was created in Finland after the Finnish government banned moose hunting with rifles that had a bore diameter of under 8mm or so & hunters with Russian and/or German milsurps wanted to keep hunting with their Mosins and Mausers, the respective calibers, 8.2x53mmR and 8.2x57mm have since become rare as the law was repealed in '60s or '70s, but there are still some people in Finland who use them for hunting, I'll have to start hand-loading but I was planning on starting doing that anyway."
You don't have the tools nor the expertise to check the worksmanship of your Mosin so you take it to a gunsmith who confirms that the rifle has indeed been converted to 7.92x57mm Mauser & that the work has been done properly, you ask if he'll be able to further convert it into 8.2x57mm, to which he says he'll look into it, so you leave the Mosin with him and go home where Erika is waiting for you.
>"Nabend fraülein, what are you doing?" you ask as you walk into the living room and find Erika reading a book, you smile as you recognize the book as the first out of three books your great-grandfather wrote about his time in Waffen-SS.
Erika looks up and pouts at your intentional use of "fraülein", used for girls under 16 instead of the more appropriate "frau", and before she can reply you correct yourself:
>"Entschuldigung, of course I meant to say "mein frau"" you say with a mischievous grin.

>"I was reading your great-grandfather's book, I had forgotten all of the shenanigans he and his comrades pulled back in training" she says, ignoring your teasing.
>"Did they really wreck the soldatenheim in a brawl with their new german NCOs?" you ask.
>"They did, among other things, my last owner's stories about American infantry Marines' shenanigans had nothing on your countrymen's stunts, I am still amazed how they managed to not only survive the hellish training they were put through, but actually surpass all the other units while partying so hard they were banned from half of the establishments serving alcohol" she replies.
>"He explains that in the book, though" you reply before continuing:
>"It appears that when Himmler apparently told Hitler that the Finnish volunteers were the finest soldiers in Waffen-SS, it wasn't just lip service."
>"He did? This is the first time I have heard that" Erika says, surprised.
>"That's the rumour anyway, but considering the battalion's record on Eastern front, they most certainly more than pulled their weight, wasn't there even a plan to have the battalion spearhead the operation to break the siege of Stalingrad, but then Paulus ordered the surrender and the plan fell through?"
>"There were rumours about a large operation being planned & Stalingrad was mentioned, but officially no-one heard anything about the battalion being considered for such an operation."
>"But enough of that, what did the gunsmith say?" Erika changes the topic.
>"He'll look into it, I left the Mosin there so he can see whether 'opening' the barrel to 8.2mm is feasible" you reply.
>"I don't like it one bit" she says.
>"Nothing has been decided yet, I intend to take it to the range before committing to a decision anyway."

*************(19.02.2017)*************

You are uncomfortable with the idea of the Mosin being converted from 7.92 to 8.2mm, not only because you are a rifle yourself, but also because you are certain Anon is only doing this in order to have an excuse to shoot the Mosin less than he shoots you.
>"You are only doing this because of guilt, aren't you?" you demand.
>"Wha-no, I just think 8.2mm is an interesting caliber, and since the barrel isn't exactly pristine the conversion might actually make it better shooter" he replies, surprised at your tone.
>"I thought you'd be the kind of guy who views conversions of milsurps like that as criminal acts" you put pressure on him.
>"This is different, I'm not cutting down the stock or the barrel, nor am I adding optics to a rifle that isn't supposed to have them or anything of that sort, opening the barrel for a bit bigger bullet isn't the end of the world" he says, and before you can respond he continues:
>"But if you feel so strongly about this, I guess I don't have much choise."