Uma Musume Pretty Derby: To The Basement

Chapter 388 388: Uma Musume Pretty Derby: To The Basement [388]

Meanwhile, in the spectator stands, the announcer was passionately commentating on the race footage playing across the giant screen.

"What is Team No. 4 trying to do?! Are they going to take a shortcut just like Team No. 1?!"

"Everyone, look! The cardboard-box spirit's true form has been pulled out of the box by the plastic-bag spirit! Its true identity is actually a gorgeous Umamusume! Wait, why does she look so familiar..."

"No! She's Maruzen-dono! The one hiding inside the cardboard box was Maruzen-dono! After going missing for a month and a half, Maruzen-dono has appeared in a race again! And she even brought her boyfriend to a Tanabata-themed race!"

"Just who is this plastic-bag-spirit boyfriend? How did he manage to win over Maruzen-dono?"

"Wait! Boyfriend-kun's hood has been blown off by the wind too! His real face is out! Holy—he's actually that handsome?!"

The string of surprises sent the entire venue into an uproar.

"Oh no!" The moment Air Groove saw Mizuno's true face exposed, she immediately looked around, searching for any Umamusume nearby who might be affected by his Uma Mint constitution.

Fortunately, aside from the two of them, there were no other Umamusume among the spectators watching this race. There was only a crowd of human girls screaming "Aaaaaah!" in amazement at that guy's face on the screen.

"Phew..." Air Groove let out a breath, her tense heart finally relaxing.

Whether for official reasons or personal ones, she did not want any more Umamusume seeing that guy's real face and adding a few more powerhouses to an already crowded field.

Only, when Air Groove glanced beside her, she discovered that Symboli Rudolf's eyes had gone wide. Her purple pupils were fixed straight on the young man's face on the screen, her expression dazed, her entire body frozen like plaster, as if her mind had already wandered somewhere beyond the heavens.

"President?" Air Groove called tentatively.

"Huh? What is it?" Symboli Rudolf answered perfunctorily, her gaze still not shifting away from that guy's face.

"Are you... all right?"

"Of course I'm all right. How could anything be wrong with me?"

"Then that..." Air Groove pointed at the blood trickling from Symboli Rudolf's nose.

"Huh?" Symboli Rudolf froze. She touched the skin beneath her nose, then looked down and discovered that her fingertip had actually been stained crimson.

"Oh, I've just been a little overheated lately. Nosebleeds are normal," Symboli Rudolf explained.

"President..." Air Groove blinked. "You wouldn't happen to have gotten excited after seeing Trainer Mizuno's real face, would you?"

"Haha, Air Groove, don't be ridiculous." Symboli Rudolf chuckled and gave a confident smile.

"Although his real appearance is indeed quite good, and this is my first time seeing it, it's not so good that I'd get excited, all right? I'm just... a little surprised. Yes, just a little surprised..."

Symboli Rudolf crossed her arms and nodded, while the clear drool at the corner of her mouth glittered with a strange light.

"..." Air Groove was speechless, and inwardly thought this was bad.

Damn it. President Rudolf was absolutely showing signs of being hit!

Before seeing Trainer Mizuno's real face, the possessiveness the President displayed had already been nearly on par with Umamusume like them, who had been affected by Uma Mint. And now that the President had well and truly seen Trainer Mizuno's actual appearance, who knew just how far her possessiveness would grow...

Back on the course, Mizuno's situation was not actually as cool as other people imagined.

"Hoooooooh!" Watching the wheelchair about to plummet from several meters up, Mizuno could not help screaming even though he had already prepared himself.

He held Maruzensky tightly in his arms, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

Two seconds later, the wheelchair struck the ground like a meteor.

BANG!

Perhaps thanks to Fortune, the wheelchair had not drifted off course while in the air, and it happened to land on a downhill road. As a result, Mizuno's landing was surprisingly smooth. They did not flip over, and he could keep going.

"We did it!" Mizuno said joyfully.

Even so, the wheels still could not withstand the damage from a fall at that height. Parts of them had caved in, pressed into an oval shape. As a result, the wheelchair now jolted up and down as it drove, severely slowing its forward speed.

Mizuno tested it and found that the wheelchair was at least twenty percent slower than before.

If he were twenty percent slower normally, Mizuno would not have thought much of it. But this was a street race. Even being 0.1 percent slower could become the reason for defeat!

Mizuno looked back and found that Jei Chou's AE86 had just come out of the U-shaped bend and was now on the same straightaway as him.

Their eyes met.

"Not bad, Mizuno." Seeing that Mizuno had actually overtaken him again, Jei Chou's mouth lifted in excitement. He acknowledged that Mizuno possessed the same courage to leap off a cliff as he did. Then, in the next second, he stomped on the accelerator and came tearing toward Mizuno like a vicious leopard.

"Gwah!" Mizuno's scalp went numb, and he hurriedly steered the wheelchair toward the finish line.

Only eight hundred meters remained until the finish. For two high-speed race cars, that was only about a minute.

Although Mizuno was one or two hundred meters ahead of Jei Chou, his wheels were damaged, and his speed was lower than before. If it came down to a pure straight-line sprint, Mizuno was at a serious disadvantage!

And the final eight hundred meters just happened to be a straightaway.

"Aaaaaah! Stupid car, hurry up!" Mizuno clenched his teeth and mashed the nitro boost, with no choice but to pin his hopes on Jei Chou's pursuit not being that fast, or at least on him not catching up before Mizuno crossed the line.

But things did not go as he wished. The engine roar growing louder and louder beside his ears made Mizuno clearly aware that Jei Chou was about to catch up!

And just as Mizuno's nerves were drawn taut by the shrinking distance between them, Maruzensky, who had been quiet in his arms for a long while, suddenly asked him a question:

"What exactly is it... that makes you want to answer other people's expectations?"

"Huh?" Mizuno was a little baffled by Maruzensky's question.

He was focused on the sprint. Why would Maruzensky suddenly ask this? What was the point of asking that question?

But seeing the expectation on Maruzensky's face, Mizuno decided to answer honestly anyway.

"Because if I let someone's expectations down, I feel awful."

"I see..." Maruzensky blinked, then showed a complicated smile.

It was the same reason as hers...

But that was not actually the answer she wanted. Because that answer was the very root of what had caused her so much pain. Working hard solely to avoid letting other people's expectations down was too exhausting, too painful.

If a person existed for the sake of meeting other people's expectations, could she still be considered herself?

"Guh..." Maruzensky lowered her eyes. Painful memories assaulted her mind again, making her body feel unusually cold. She curled in on herself unconsciously.

"?" Seeing Maruzensky's lonely expression, Mizuno raised an eyebrow. He did not know what she was thinking, but to prevent a misunderstanding, he felt it was necessary to add one more thing.

"On the other hand, if I can answer someone's expectations, it makes me happy from the bottom of my heart... Hooooooh, he's catching up!"

The moment Mizuno finished answering, he was scared into letting out another strange cry by the AE86 hot on their heels.

"Happy?" Maruzensky seemed to grasp something. Her body suddenly jolted, and she stared at Mizuno in a daze, beginning to carefully savor the meaning of his words.

"Do you really feel happy when you satisfy someone's expectations?"

"What else?" Mizuno asked back in confusion.

"After successfully answering someone's expectations, wouldn't seeing their happy expression make you feel that same joy from the bottom of your heart? AAHHHHHHH, stop chasing me!"

"!"

Mizuno's words struck Maruzensky like a thunderclap, shaking her pupils, as if enlightenment had poured over her head.

On the wall of memories inside her mind, the gloomy scene of her fans sighing in disappointment because she could not participate in the classic races began peeling away bit by bit like scraps, revealing the true feelings she had buried for so long.

It was a colorful picture. She was wearing her red racing outfit, standing high atop the podium with a trophy in her hands, looking out at the sight of her family, friends, fans, and even strangers clustered together below, cheering for her. On her face was a smile of joy from the bottom of her heart.

Maruzensky stared at Mizuno's determined eyes as he looked toward the finish line, and finally understood something.

Expectations were not a "curse."

They were a "blessing"!

She did not run because she needed to satisfy other people's expectations. Answering those expectations was itself something that made her happy!

Running was happy. Seeing her fans' smiles was happy too. Combining the two was an even higher level of joy! And that was the real reason she had wanted to participate in the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) back then!

It was for others, and also for herself!

"Hurry, hurry! Faster! The pursuer's coming! No!" On the course, Mizuno was still yelling abstract nonsense, but Maruzensky's state of mind had quietly changed in his arms.

The cold night wind brushing her face, every vibration of the wheels, and the young man's pleasant voice all made Maruzensky's heartbeat clearer, livelier.

Guilt was not what drove a person to struggle forward.

Expectations were what gave everyone the strength to move together in the same direction.

The memories she created together with others, the smiles on their faces when they looked at one another—those were precious treasures to her, enough for her to work hard for their sake.

"I'm sorry... and... thank you." Maruzensky apologized for how she had shut herself away in the past, and thanked Mizuno for finally letting her understand this.

If not for Mizuno, she might have spent her entire life trapped in the dead end of her guilt.

It had not been a lecture, nor had it been deception. Rather, Mizuno had used his own actions, bit by bit, to help her walk out of her inferiority complex. That was why, at this very moment, she had finally found her true feelings.

Why couldn't I have met him sooner?

Maruzensky stared at Mizuno's slightly parted lips. Her cheeks flushed, heat restless in her stomach, and she could not help slowly pressing her chest closer. With a gentle pull of her arms, she brought her lips toward his.

Meanwhile, Mizuno, still under pressure from the AE86 behind them, did not notice Maruzensky's small movement. He remained completely focused on sprinting toward the finish line.

As long as Maruzensky dared, giving this utterly unguarded guy her first kiss would be practically within reach.

Only, just as Maruzensky was about to kiss him, a golf ball suddenly struck the back of Mizuno's head, almost knocking him to the ground.

Thud!

"Ow!" Mizuno squeezed his eyes shut in pain, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"?" Maruzensky's Umamusume ears instantly pinned back. The tenderness in her eyes was immediately covered by a terrifying sharpness as she forcibly turned her head to look at the culprit behind them.

"Guh..." Sensing the killing intent bursting from Maruzensky, Jei Chou and Uehara Mika in the AE86 instantly broke out in cold sweat, both showing awkward smiles.

They had seen that Mizuno's wheelchair was about to cross the line, so they had wanted to throw an item to interfere a little. It was clearly just normal item-race fighting, so why did Maruzen-dono look especially angry right now?

Could it be... they had accidentally interrupted some important moment for her?

"Um... is it too late to apologize now?"

BANG!

With a thunderous sound, the AE86's tire seemed to have been shot. It blew out instantly, and the car lost control.

"It's fine. Just be more careful next time." Maruzensky maintained the posture of having thrown something, blue veins bulging on the back of her hand, a gentle smile on her face.

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T/N: gulp WAIT RUDOLF HAS SEEN HIS FACE NOW FUCHAISFHJIASFHOASFJOAS