The next day, led by Symboli Rudolf, Mizuno arrived at a quiet apartment building on the edge of the city—the place where Maruzensky lived.
Unlike most of the girls who stayed at the academy dorms, Maruzensky had rented her own little apartment in town, making her one of the rare few at Tracen Academy who lived off campus. Every day, she drove her red supercar to and from school.
But according to Symboli Rudolf, ever since the day she saw a certain someone go nuts in front of the Three Goddesses Statue, Maruzensky had been holed up in her apartment, missing school for over a month now.
"This is where Suki lives." Symboli Rudolf stopped at the door, glancing at Mizuno in his wheelchair, and let out a helpless sigh.
Originally, she'd wanted to wait until Mizuno's body recovered before bringing him to take care of the rest of the Uma Mint incident victims. After all, sending a half-paralyzed guy to solve another shut-in's emotional problems—no matter how you looked at it, it was just too weird.
But she just couldn't withstand Mizuno's persistent begging, not to mention him muttering things like, "If I don't handle this, I'll never stand up again," whatever that was supposed to mean, making Symboli Rudolf unable to ignore him.
And besides, Mizuno was the culprit behind the Uma Mint incident, and he'd already managed to handle the problems of four Uma Musume so far. If anyone could help Maruzensky break out of her shell, it had to be him.
So, with a "can't hurt to try" attitude, Symboli Rudolf brought Mizuno to Maruzensky's place, to at least get the two to meet.
"No time like the present. Let's knock," Mizuno took a deep breath, then turned to ask Symboli Rudolf, "Maruzensky should be willing to see people, right?"
"She is… probably… but you'd better brace yourself a bit before meeting her…" Symboli Rudolf cupped her chin, looking a bit awkward.
"What, is she the type who'll leap at me the second she sees me?" Mizuno, seeing Symboli Rudolf's cryptic expression, hunched his shoulders nervously.
"That's not it." Symboli Rudolf shook her head.
"It's more like… Eh, you'll see for yourself."
She decided there was no point wasting time explaining; seeing was believing. So, she started knocking right away.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Eh? Who is it?!"
After just a couple knocks, a panicked voice called out from inside.
"Just a sec! I'm coming!"
There was a quick clatter of footsteps on wooden floorboards coming toward the door. But in her rush to answer, it sounded like something went wrong…
Thunk—a head bumping against the wall.
"Ow!"—a yelp of pain.
Rumble, rumble, rumble— a cascade of cardboard boxes crashing down.
Even though they couldn't see into the room, it was obvious to Symboli Rudolf and Mizuno that Maruzensky, in her hurry, had tripped over something and fallen.
"Suki, are you okay?" Symboli Rudolf called out with concern.
"I'm fine, I'm fine! I'll be right there!"
There was another round of commotion, then finally the front door swung open from the inside, and a Uma Musume about the same height as Symboli Rudolf poked her head out through the crack.
"Luna-chan?"
She was dressed in a loose white T-shirt that hung down to her thighs, possibly not even wearing pants underneath, revealing long, snowy legs. Two emerald-green eyes sparkled on her delicate face, with faint dark circles under her eyes, and her right ear drooped low with a loosely tied blue ribbon that looked about ready to slip off and hit the floor. Her hip-length chestnut hair, messy from days without a proper brushing, was still soft and shiny thanks to its natural quality; a big black ribbon was tied at the back of her head, and her long hair split at her waist, curling into a shape like croissants on both sides.
Maruzensky's classic, yet fresh, at-home look, along with her mature vibe, matched pretty much everyone's impression of the "big sister next door"—well, not quite the auntie next door, at least. Other than seeming a bit out of it, Maruzensky looked just like Mizuno had pictured, and she could even answer the door herself—nothing at all like the "seriously shut-in" person Symboli Rudolf had described. But soon Mizuno noticed something off.
"S-s-sorry! Luna-chan! Sorry to keep you waiting!" Maruzensky swung the door wide open, revealing a chaotic room stuffed with dozens of delivery boxes.
"Sorry, I didn't expect you to come, Luna-chan, so I didn't have time to clean up. I'm really sorry!"
"I just tripped over a box, so I was late opening the door, wasting your precious time—really sorry!"
"Ugh… It's all my fault, I just cause trouble for everyone…"
As she spoke, Maruzensky's ears and tail drooped in misery. She hugged her arms, looking like a little girl who'd just made a huge mistake.
Mizuno frowned at this non-stop apologizing and self-blame, a strange sense of déjà vu rising in his chest…
Timid around others, flustered in emergencies, convinced she's the root of everyone's problems…
Why does this remind me so much of Rice Shower?! Mizuno's eyes widened in shock, as if he was seeing a blue-rose Uma Musume's shadow in Maruzensky.
He turned to Symboli Rudolf, only to see she already looked like she'd expected this.
Symboli Rudolf just shrugged awkwardly—she couldn't help it either.
Now Mizuno was really speechless.
So that's why Symboli Rudolf had warned him to prepare himself before they knocked, and why she looked so conflicted—turns out Maruzensky's personality had turned into his favorite little sister's! Sure, Mizuno knew that, with the original horses, Maruzensky was actually Rice Shower's grandfather, so they were related by blood, but after being affected by Uma Mint, did she really have to turn into Rice Shower 2.0?!
To go from a bright, big-sisterly ray of sunshine to a gloomy, self-sabotaging little sister like Rice Shower—yeah, that definitely counted as "seriously shut-in."
"Argh!" Mizuno groaned and held his head.
He and Rice Shower were just normal siblings—he'd never had any weird ideas about her at all…
But seeing Maruzensky looking so pitiful and so much like Rice Shower, and realizing that he'd have to help her open up to him and then do everything he could to fulfill her wish, Mizuno suddenly had the weirdest sense of betrayal—like he was cheating on his own wife with his mother-in-law, who just happened to have the exact same personality as his wife?
This is too much!
Just as Mizuno was struggling to figure out what kind of mindset he was supposed to have around Maruzensky, Symboli Rudolf stepped in, placed a hand on Mizuno's shoulder, and solemnly introduced him to Maruzensky:
"Suki, this is the mysterious guy who showed up at the Three Goddesses Statue that day."
"?!"
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T/N: suki is maruzenskys nickname because the romanji and stuff yeah fuck you
bonus chaps tomorrow (limited to 5)
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