Uma Musume: Slacking Professionally

Chapter 245: Uma Musume: Slacking Professionally [245]

Although something unpleasant had happened halfway through, nothing had actually come of it in the end, and the two little troublemakers had even cleared up their misunderstanding because of the incident.

Still, while the old conflict had been resolved and the relationship between the two of them—something that had worried Kitahara the most—had returned to normal, he also noticed a few new problems amid his relief.

For example, it used to be only Special Week who liked curling up in his lap. Grass Wonder usually preferred sitting at his side, which also made it easier for her tail to wind around him.

But ever since the two of them made up, perhaps because Grass-san wanted to snuggle with Special Week, after their private talk she very naturally climbed into his lap together with Special Week and started chatting with her there as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

Kitahara vaguely felt there was something a little off about that, but after thinking it over, he decided that since things had already turned out as happily as they possibly could, there was no need to overthink trivial details like the two of them sitting in his lap and chatting.

I mean, if Spe gets to sit there, then not letting Grass-san sit there too would feel like unfair treatment. That wouldn't be right either.

More than that, he had always thought of Grass-san as one of the boys. Yes, a little accident had happened earlier, but Kitahara believed that had only been a brainless move she'd made while mad out of her mind. At heart, she was still the same as ever, so letting her sit there for a while really didn't seem like anything worth fussing over.

Thinking that, after a while Kitahara checked the time and figured all those major discount events were probably starting soon. So he stayed with them a little longer, confirmed that their problem really had been settled, and then said he had something to do and needed to get going.

Special Week and Grass Wonder were both a little reluctant to let him go, but after what had just happened, even if they had reconciled, the two of them still needed a little time to settle down.

And since Kitahara said he had something to do, after a brief hesitation, they still let him go, though not very willingly.

After leaving that secluded corner, Kitahara didn't delay any further. He had Eclipse help contact Tamamo Cross on his phone, asked where she was, and headed straight over.

On the way there, he ran into a few familiar faces—Tazuna Hayakawa, Symboli Rudolf, Tokai Teio, and the like.

Ordinarily, if you ran into acquaintances on the academy grounds, you should at least go say hello. But after watching for a moment, Kitahara noticed that none of them seemed to be wandering aimlessly. They all looked like they were searching for something.

He had no idea what they were looking for, but seeing how focused they were, he figured it probably wasn't a good idea to interrupt. So he simply avoided them and made his way to the place he and Tamamo Cross had agreed on with something close to stealth.

"Sorry, Tama. Something came up just now, and I only finished dealing with it."

"I'm the one who should be apologizing. I was the one who invited you in the first place. I'm already grateful you managed to make time to help me..."

After meeting up, they chatted briefly, then quickly got down to business.

"So, Tama, at this hour, can we still make it to those events?"

At that question, Tamamo Cross's entire bearing changed. The ease and laziness vanished from her eyes in an instant, replaced by seriousness and focus, with a hint of excitement creeping into her voice as well.

After checking the time on her phone, she immediately pulled a sheet of paper from her pocket and spread it out in front of Kitahara, pointing at the contents as she explained.

"This is the information I gathered yesterday on all the events at the different malls and shops. I made a list of them in order of best value for money, and I already planned the timing and route. Based on where we are and what time it is now, I recommend this route. It's close to the academy, and we can hit three events within an hour..."

Kitahara didn't know much about this sort of thing, so he couldn't judge for himself whether her assessment was sound. But out of trust in Tamamo Cross, he nodded anyway.

"Okay. Let's do it your way."

Once he'd agreed, Kitahara said nothing more. Under Tamamo Cross's lead, they quickly left the academy gates and arrived at the first shop on their route.

And just as Tamamo Cross had said, the moment they got close, Kitahara saw a large, eye-catching Valentine's Day event poster plastered on the storefront. The promotion was extremely generous: huge discounts on in-store goods, plus a few small competition events with prizes to win.

But...

"Tama, let me ask you something."

Looking at the event requirements printed beside the rewards in bold red letters, Kitahara's expression turned a little strange.

"When you came to scout this place out yesterday... did you maybe only look at the prizes and not really read the conditions...?"

Prompted by Kitahara, Tamamo Cross paused, then followed his gaze. The moment she saw what was written there, she froze.

[Event Notice: This event is limited to couples only. Participants must remain holding hands for the entirety of the shopping process. In addition, certain special event items will require further challenge conditions to be met. Please participate at your own discretion based on your circumstances...]

While Tamamo Cross stood there stunned by the shop's requirements, Kitahara fell into thought as well.

Though what he was thinking about wasn't the conditions themselves. It was the fact that the whole event seemed odd.

Under normal circumstances, on Valentine's Day, forget discounts—if a shop didn't roll out some so-called "special couple package" that was really just a sucker's trap, that alone would already count as conscientious.

But here, on what should have been the perfect day to fleece people, this shop wasn't just offering unprecedented discounts. The deals were absurdly generous, many starting at ninety percent off, and on top of that there were all these bizarre requirements...

No matter how he looked at it, this didn't feel like a normal business promotion. If anything, it gave him a strange sense of déjà vu.

And this problem might not be limited to just this one shop.

They hadn't visited the others yet, but based on what Tamamo Cross had told him, many of the shops around Tracen seemed to be running similar events, with discount levels that made no commercial sense.

She had been too focused on the rewards at the time to pay much attention to the conditions, but from Kitahara's point of view, there was no way these stores were simply doing charity on Valentine's Day. The rest were probably the same sort of setup...

Hm?

Just as Kitahara was thinking that, he felt something soft brush against his fingertips, only to pull away just as quickly.

"...Tama?"

He turned to look at Tamamo Cross.

She kept her head lowered, stayed silent for a moment, then spoke slowly.

"How about... we just forget it..."

Ah. So she was uncomfortable with it.

That was what Kitahara thought, but he wasn't particularly surprised by her decision.

At the end of the day, they weren't actually a couple. Faking it for a discount was one thing, but the rules for this event clearly went beyond pretending and crossed certain lines.

Especially because Kitahara knew that although Tamamo Cross came from a poor family and had never been well off, that very fact had made her more stubborn than most people in certain ways.

Take her poverty, for example. Given the way the outside world viewed Umamusume, if Tamamo Cross had been willing to make her situation public, there would definitely have been no shortage of people willing to raise money for her.

And now that she had entered Tracen Main Campus as one of its elite, even more companies would have been willing to sponsor her on that merit alone.

After all, supporting one struggling student was a negligible expense for any company. But the positive publicity that act could bring was the kind of thing money often couldn't buy.

And if Tamamo Cross ever hit it big one day and won one or two major graded races, the return to those companies could be enormous. It was practically a deal where they couldn't lose and might make a fortune.

But Tamamo Cross had never chosen any of those routes. She had never even considered them.

Pride? Conviction? Or something else?

Kitahara didn't know what exactly it was that had made her refuse that kind of help.

But he did understand this much: whatever it was, it was what had carried her this far. And over the course of that struggle, it had slowly worked its way into her bones until it became part of who she was.

Tamamo Cross had suffered a great deal because of that stubbornness.

But it was also that stubbornness that had made her who she was now—and it was one of the reasons Kitahara liked her so much.

Of course, the "like" here was the kind he felt toward a precocious, sensible kid. It had absolutely nothing to do with romance.

Back when Tamamo Cross had been at her lowest, she hadn't compromised her convictions even for money. So now, there was no way a mere discount event could shake her resolve.

—At least, that was what Kitahara thought.

As for why Tamamo Cross had brushed his hand just now, and why she was standing there with her head down in silence...

After thinking it over, Kitahara decided it was probably because she felt guilty for making him come all this way for nothing. She'd tried to steel herself and touch his hand, then pulled back when she realized she really couldn't take it, and after that she hadn't known how to explain the situation to him, so she just lowered her head and stayed silent.

If that was the case...

Kitahara thought for a moment, then spoke.

"How about we go check the next one first?"

Tamamo Cross didn't agree right away. She kept her head down, her fingers trembling slightly, then finally gave a slow nod, her voice sounding strangely hesitant.

"Then let's go look at the next one first..."

With that, she set off and led Kitahara to the next shop.

Since the route had already been planned, it didn't take long for them to reach the second store. Then, looking at the event poster posted outside, the two of them fell silent once again.

How is this one even worse?!

Staring at the even steeper discounts and even more outrageous requirements on the poster, Kitahara grew even more suspicious of the motives behind these events.

But before he could think too much about it, he noticed Tamamo Cross's head starting to droop again. Not daring to dwell on it further, he hurriedly spoke up.

"Then let's go check the next one. There's no way every single shop is like this..."

...Right?

After arriving at the third shop and seeing terms that were even more excessive than the second one's—along with discounts that were somehow even bigger—Kitahara was genuinely tempted for a moment to call the Chairwoman and ask her to investigate what exactly was going on with these stores.

How does any of this make sense?!

After three straight shops turned out the same way, Kitahara had more or less figured it out. Every shop in this area running discount events was probably like this. Continuing to check more would be pointless.

"Let's... go back."

It wasn't just Kitahara. After three shops in a row had turned out like this, Tamamo Cross also seemed to realize what was going on. She stood there with her head lowered for a long while before finally giving up.

"Looks like that's our only option."

Kitahara didn't think there was anything wrong with what she'd said. It was a shame, but with things like this, continuing would only waste time. Better to head back to the academy early.

The strange thing was that after deciding to return, Tamamo Cross didn't move right away. Kitahara had already turned and walked a little before he realized she wasn't following.

When he looked back, he saw that at some point she had lifted her head and was staring up at the event poster on the shop, the sheet of paper covered in her plans clenched tightly in her hand.

A moment later, she lowered her head and looked at the paper, a flash of disappointment crossing her face.

Then, in the very next instant, she collected herself again, lifted her head, and put on her usual breezy manner. She crumpled the paper into a ball, tossed it into the nearby trash can, then turned and walked back toward Kitahara.

"Ah, sorry. I saw something weird just now and zoned out for a second..."

Tamamo Cross smiled as she came to a stop in front of him. Her expression and tone were no different from normal, and once she got close, she even shrugged playfully.

"It's a little disappointing, but it can't be helped. Let's head back to the academy, then. Sorry for making you come all this way for nothing. Next time I get paid, I'll treat you to a meal out, all ri—?"

Tamamo Cross broke off.

Because the instant her words ended, a large hand closed around hers.

Then, without any explanation at all, Kitahara stepped forward, still holding Tamamo Cross's hand, and led her back to where she had been standing just now.

Right in front of her, he picked up the crumpled paper she had thrown away, cleaned it off, unfolded it, folded it neatly again, and carefully put it into his pocket.

Then he lifted his head and, still holding Tamamo Cross's hand, walked her straight to the front of the shop running the event and said in a serious voice:

"We're a couple. We're here for the event."

"Where do we sign up?"

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T/N: YAYYYY TAMTAM!!!!!!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY TAMTAM TAM TAMTAMTAMTAMTMATAMTAMTAMTAMTMATAMTAMTMATMATMATMATMATMATMATMATMAMTAMTAMTAMTAMTAMTAMTAMTAMTAMTAM