Uma Musume Pretty Derby: To The Basement

Chapter 389 389: Uma Musume Pretty Derby: To The Basement [389]

"Maruzen-dono... is unbeatable..." With those words, Jei Chou passed out against the airbag.

The once-invincible white AE86 was now deeply embedded in the rocks halfway up the mountain. Its right tire had been punctured, half its front end was smashed to pieces, and it had completely lost the ability to continue the race.

"The AE86 has suffered heavy damage! Even genius boy Jei Chou can't defy fate itself! His Triple Crown path ends here!"

"Team No. 4's Maruzen-dono and Boyfriend-kun are now the last team left in the race, and they're speeding toward the finish line to claim tonight's victory!"

"One hundred meters! Fifty meters! They've crossed the line!"

"I hereby declare that tonight's special Tanabata event, the Tanabata Couples Team Street Race, has been won by Team No. 4, whose ride is a wheelchair!" the announcer shouted at the top of his lungs, announcing the race results with the loudest voice of his life. His echo rang across all of Back Mountain.

Clap clap clap—!

The entire audience rose to their feet, tears in their eyes, offering thunderous applause to Mizuno and Maruzensky as they crossed the finish line.

A dozen or so confetti cannons aimed in Mizuno's direction and sprayed colorful streamers into the air.

"Holy crap! We actually won!" Mizuno stared blankly at the streamers and lights fluttering through the sky, still having trouble believing the scene before him.

Had he really won? This wasn't some hallucination before death, was it? Was the real ending actually that Jei Chou had taken the victory?

So Mizuno cautiously looked back, only to find that, for some reason, Jei Chou's white AE86 had crashed into the mountain behind them.

Mizuno pinched his own cheek. It hurt. It did not seem like an illusion. Only then did he finally believe the fact that he had defeated Jei Chou and taken the championship.

"What happened to them?" Mizuno asked, looking at the AE86 that had crashed behind them.

"I don't know. Maybe they had a blowout." Maruzensky smiled in his arms, tightening her embrace around Mizuno's neck.

"A blowout?" Mizuno raised an eyebrow, and then joy surged through his chest.

Thank heaven! Good thing Jei Chou's AE86 had blown a tire. Otherwise, given that dangerous situation just now, he might really have lost today!

When Jei Chou had driven the AE86 after him, the terrifying pressure he gave off had been like running into a hundred-ton truck speeding down a national highway late at night. It felt as if the moment he caught up, Mizuno would be sent flying in the very next second.

Fortunately, the AE86 had blown a tire for no apparent reason, and the scales of victory had tipped completely to Mizuno's side.

"Phew..." Mizuno had just let out a breath when the wheelchair beneath him gave an agonized creak.

Crack—!

The battered wheelchair let out a mechanical scream. Then it collapsed into a heap of parts, clattering across the ground and making Mizuno, still in the seat, pause.

The intense impact from the street-racer wheelchair falling off the cliff had already exceeded the limits of what it could endure. The desperate nitro boost afterward had only worsened its condition.

Now that it had carried Mizuno across the finish line, the street-racer wheelchair had finally completed its mission and passed on completely...

"..." Mizuno looked at the wheelchair that had accompanied him for a month as it fell apart. Memories of their time together flashed one by one before his eyes, and grief welled up in him.

Thank you, old buddy. I'll remember you forever...

"Sob..." A few tears slipped from Mizuno's eyes.

"Are you all right?" Seeing Mizuno cry, Maruzensky instantly panicked. She hurriedly reached out and gently rubbed the back of his head, asking with a heartbroken look, "You were hit in the back of the head just now. Do you feel unwell anywhere?"

"Huh? I got hit?" Mizuno looked puzzled, with almost no memory of it.

Just now, his head had been filled entirely with the thought of crossing the line as soon as possible to fulfill Maruzensky's wish. He had had no attention to spare for anything else. So after being hit by the golf ball, he had only felt a sting in the back of his head and ignored it. Only now, with Maruzensky's reminder, did Mizuno finally remember that there did seem to have been something like that.

"It's fine. It didn't affect me at all." Mizuno shrugged indifferently.

"Are you really all right? Shouldn't you go to the hospital for a checkup?" Maruzensky was still very worried.

"I'm fine, really. No need." Mizuno shook his head, refusing Maruzensky's kindness, and explained, "My physical condition is actually pretty strong. Because of certain things in the past, I specifically trained my ability to take hits. I've taken a full-force punch from an Umamusume head-on and didn't die, and I can even last a while wrestling with an Umamusume. A mere golf ball can't hurt me, so you don't have to worry."

"You can wrestle with an Umamusume?!" Maruzensky's eyes lit up, as if she had heard some delightful surprise.

"Yeah." Mizuno nodded honestly, then asked in confusion, "What about it?"

"Nothing. I'm just a little surprised..." Maruzensky smiled gently, her fingers softly playing with Mizuno's hair, while her restless red lips moved a little closer to him.

"?" Mizuno grew even more confused.

Why did Maruzensky's personality feel different from just now? She did not seem as introverted as before?

"Wait! Where's my hood?!" Feeling the gentleness at the back of his head, Mizuno finally realized that his hood had been blown off at some point.

So Mizuno hurriedly tugged his hood back up, hiding his face once again in deep shadow.

"Mm..." Maruzensky's Umamusume ears instantly drooped, as if she was somewhat dissatisfied.

But Mizuno did not notice Maruzensky's reaction. He was more concerned about whether any other Umamusume among the audience had seen his real face.

Only, Mizuno did not find any other Umamusume in the spectator stands. He only saw Symboli Rudolf and Air Groove.

At that moment, the Student Council President and Vice President were staring straight in Mizuno's direction.

The corner of Mizuno's mouth twitched, and a bad feeling rose in his heart.

Rudolf couldn't have seen, right...

The giant screen in the stands broadcast the race in real time. As long as a racer had not been eliminated, the screen would show clear footage of them street racing to the live audience.

Since Mizuno had only realized his hood had fallen off after crossing the line, his real face had definitely already been seen by most of the audience.

Air Groove was not much of a problem. After all, she had seen it long ago, and Mizuno had also untied the knot in her heart, so seeing it again should not have much effect.

The key was Symboli Rudolf. That domineering little girl, who spent all day treating him like a body pillow, had seen the face hidden beneath Mizuno's hood for the first time tonight!

"Let me think. If she only saw my face, what effect would that have?" Mizuno frowned. Recalling the specific effects Gold Ship and Agnes Tachyon had discovered while researching his Uma Mint constitution, he swallowed a little fearfully.

"A protective desire that makes them want to imprison the person..."

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T/N: ITS OVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UR COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKED