"Mm…"
The next morning, Kagura woke up before she was fully awake—and immediately felt a heavy, crushing weight on her limbs. She tried to move, but her arm barely budged.
Frowning, Kagura opened her eyes.
To her right, Bizen Nishiki was pressed tight against her, practically wrapped around her arm. To her left, Nice Nature was clinging to her with a death grip. And Ardan had apparently rotated sometime in the night; she was lying sideways near Kagura's shoulder, snug against her. With a slight turn of her head, Kagura could see Ardan's sleeping face.
This is a total mess…
If someone needed a picture to go with the phrase "sprawled every which way," Kagura figured snapping a photo of her bed right now and pasting it into the dictionary would do nicely.
She managed to inch her right hand free—only for Bizen Nishiki, still asleep, to latch on again as if she refused to let go. Bizen Nishiki hugged Kagura's arm so tightly that Kagura's fingers ended up brushing the soft warmth of her stomach beneath the hem of her sleep shirt.
And that little bit of movement set off a reaction on the other side.
Nice Nature shifted closer, still holding Kagura's arm, and leaned in toward Kagura's neck to sniff.
Kagura jolted. She still remembered what that sniffing usually led to. The moment Nice Nature's lips parted, Kagura hurriedly extended a finger—using the arm Nice Nature was hugging—and pressed it to Nice Nature's mouth.
"Eh…?"
After that much commotion, there was no way Nice Nature could stay asleep. She blinked awake, dazed—and Bizen Nishiki was roused by the movement too. Both girls opened their eyes, took in the tangled quilt, then looked down at the person they'd been pinning in place together—
"EH!?!"
After a few seconds of pure lag, the two girls finally screamed, scrambling off Kagura in a panic.
Kagura was freed at last. She sat up, exhaling sharply.
Ardan, who'd been lying crosswise, also woke up. She glanced around—and "messy" didn't even begin to cover it. The blanket was heaped in chaotic folds, the pillows had scattered to opposite corners, the bedsheet was a sea of wrinkles… and even their sleepwear had gone askew. Bizen Nishiki's ill-fitting nightshirt had slipped halfway down, exposing a shoulder and the white camisole underneath.
"Since you're all awake, go back to your rooms and wash up!" Kagura said. "By the time you're done, it'll be about breakfast time anyway. We probably still can't train today… but you can't just laze in bed!"
"Okay, okay… Why do you sound like a mom?" Bizen Nishiki muttered.
"It really does feel that way…" Nice Nature said sleepily. "Somehow Kagura looks… kind of benevolent…"
"Kagura's always been so gentle~" Ardan added, smiling.
"If you have time to tease me, you have time to go wash your faces!" Kagura shot back.
...
"Yo, you're back? How was last night?"
When Ardan returned to her room, she found her older sister already waiting inside.
"It was really fun. It's just… Kagura didn't seem scared at all."
"Uh…"
Mejiro Ramonu hadn't meant it that way.
Last night's main point definitely wasn't whether Kagura got frightened. But after thinking it over, Mejiro Ramonu couldn't figure out how to nudge her little sister in the right direction. Ardan wasn't lacking in planning sense—she often came up with good ideas. Somehow, though, she always managed to execute them in a way that didn't quite land.
"You stayed over in Kagura's room, right?" Mejiro Ramonu asked.
"Yes. Nishiki-san and Nature-san stayed too. Good thing Kagura's bed is big, or we probably wouldn't have fit."
"Hiss…"
Mejiro Ramonu sucked in a sharp breath.
She'd assumed that keeping Maruzensky and Rudolf occupied last night would be enough. She hadn't expected Bizen Nishiki and Nice Nature to be threats as well—possibly even bigger ones than Rudolf.
Iris-sama really did underestimate the situation…
...
Nice Nature returned to her room, hugged her body pillow, and flopped onto her bed. She slowly rolled over a few times, gaze drifting—until it caught on the sleepwear hanging to dry on the balcony.
Her thoughts snapped back to last night.
It had been the first time in her life she'd experienced that feeling—casting reason aside, surrendering herself to raw instinct. Even now, remembering it made a faint heat bloom in her lower belly. Without thinking, she slipped a hand beneath her shirt and gently touched her stomach.
Why… did I do something that weird?
Nice Nature wasn't that much older than Kagura. She didn't have Kagura's maturity or life experience. Still young, she couldn't understand where the feelings in her heart were even coming from.
But somewhere along the way, Kagura had begun to take up a startling amount of space in her mind. Nice Nature kept thinking about her—without meaning to.
"What… is wrong with me…? Why do I keep thinking about Kagura…?"
...
"Tojo-san, you asked me out today—did something happen?"
After breakfast, Kagura received a text from Trainer Tojo. She'd asked Kagura to meet her, and sent a pinned location. Kagura checked the spot—it was near where she'd trained for her debut race with Eclipse before. It wasn't far from the inn they were staying at, so Kagura headed over as soon as she finished eating.
"It's about what I mentioned earlier," Tojo said. "After this, aren't we planning to hold a friendly match? Trainer Minamizaka, Trainer Narumiya, the Mejiro Trainer, and I already set the route. The wind's died down a bit today, so I thought we'd confirm the course conditions ahead of time."
"Uh… so you called me here because…?"
"So you can learn by coming with me," Tojo said. "And if we spot anything along the route that could cause an accident during the race, we can spot it early and clear it out."
Kagura nodded. She didn't doubt her. Trainer Tojo had no reason to lie about something like this—and Kagura herself had been planning to walk the course anyway, get a feel for it, and remove hazards in advance. Their thinking lined up perfectly.
Once they set off, Kagura held the route map Tojo had given her. As she listened to Tojo explain her views on training plans and event planning, Kagura kept scanning their surroundings. The typhoon had only just passed; plenty of debris still littered the race path—fallen trunks, sharp stones scattered across the road, and more. They couldn't leave that there if people were going to run it later. It was a safety risk for any Umamusume competing.
That was exactly why Tojo had come today.
And with Kagura beside her, the cleanup was far easier. Even if Kagura was still a kid, her strength already dwarfed a human's. Moving broken branches and chunks of stone was effortless.
Kagura even put on a little "trick," grabbing a not-too-large tree and yanking it straight out of the ground. It gave Tojo a fresh appreciation for Umamusume strength. With Umamusume, she thought, even that famous scene—ripping a drooping willow up by the roots—wasn't impossible to recreate.
Kagura usually looked quiet and gentle, but when it came to work, she didn't hesitate.
Umamusume strength is terrifying… Even Kagura, who isn't exactly the power type, can do this?
Tojo watched Kagura carry a heavy trunk away from the road and set it down neatly, and couldn't help marveling in silence.
---
T/N: heres ur updates :3 meeting the 4 chaps a week quota :3 posting earlier so bonus chaps will be a longer waitttt >:)
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
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