"Are you okay? Did you hit your head on something?"
"Read your Wikipedia article, Rudolph."
"Symboli Rudolph was a champion Japanese… thoroughbred… race… horse??????? What does any of that mean?!?!? Thoroughbred?!?!? Horse?!?! Huh?!?! What?! I'm an umamusume! And what is that creature?"
"Then look at yours, Tokai Teio."
"Tokai Teio was a champion Japanese thoroughbred racehorse… It's just like Prez. What does any of that mean, trainer?"
"I assume mine is also like that, trainer."
"Yes, McQueen. All of you are horses… Which is what I assume this creature is called."
The young man's ability to lie between his teeth comes into play. He knew that if he couldn't sell the image of confusion, these girls would be suspicious of him. He now has to act like he knows nothing of his home turf.
"Does this have something to do with the chessboard, dear?"
"Most likely. The knight piece looks similar to a horse. We can assume the chessboard comes from this world, and we have been pulled here because we were holding it."
"Sigh… That Stay Gold is always causing trouble… What should be our first move, trainer?"
"To hide your ears. Umamusumes are game characters in this world, so you'll stand out like a sore thumb. Wearing a hat should do the trick. The next move is to secure a base of operation as we try to figure out what is going on. I'll try to get myself out of this world. I hope he is as crazy as I am."
"It would not surprise me that you having a few screws loose in the head is a universal constant."
"I hope so."
The young man used this chance to Google his own name and figure out what happened to him after being kicked by that horse. Since he was not a particularly famous person, it takes a considerable amount of time to find out what happened to him, but he eventually finds something that points to his fate.
"Ah… I died of a heart attack, huh…"
Well, at least I didn't just disappear into nothingness. It should give my family closure on my fate instead of having them searching for me.
"I'm sorry… Trainer."
"Why should you? I'm still alive, Fatty."
"Oh, yeah… I guess it's this world version of you who is dead."
"Then what's next, trainer. We don't exactly have a lot of money on us. I'm carrying my purse because I was buying something in the vending machine, but that's it."
"Yeah… Me too."
"I carry mine just in case we were going to buy something on our walk."
"How much did you girls carry with you? I'll figure out our next move after that."
The girls bring out their purses and show the young man the contents. He was expecting scraps, not fucking rolls of money.
"Did you girls not know about credit cards?"
"I can't use them in Tracen, remember? I can only use that outside. If I want to buy anything extra, we need physical cash."
Well… I guess Tracen is a learning institute, huh… It would be weird for the store that serves students to accept credit cards… Their main focus should be studying, not splashing their money around.
"So, which hotels are we booking?"
"No… Not a hotel. We're staying at an internet cafe."
"Wait! What?!? We can book a hotel room with this amount, no?"
"Yes, but a hotel room doesn't provide internet and a computer. I need them for research. Besides, internet cafes these days are comparable to a hotel room, just minus the bed. We can search for an internet cafe that also includes a capsule hotel."
"That's a great idea, but is there any of that around here?"
"No. We need to go to Tokyo first. This will also help with our next step. I need to meet up with whoever made the umamusume game. If anyone would likely be of help to us, it would be them."
"Alright, dear. Your plan sounds good."
XxX-XxX
"I'll rent a room for each of us for four hours."
"That's a little bit too much, trainer."
"It's pretty cheap, McQueen."
Thankfully, the visitors are traveling at the dead of night, so the number of people can be counted on both hands. They traveled to Tokyo using a bus after buying hats from a store keeper who the young man put under a genjutsu to make the former forget what he saw.
They then sneak into an internet cafe while trying their hardest not to stand out. The young man felt normal since everyone here is human, the umamusumes, however, were nervous beyond hell. Their eyes darted at everything and everyone, which is similar to an anxious horse.
Heh… They really are just horses in human form.
At the internet cafe, the receptionist had a big touch screen. He knows how advanced some of these internet cafes are, but it still surprises him. He just needed to press several buttons and then put some money into a hole for it to count.
"Alright. Here is your slip. Just type the code on the keyboard, and the computer will turn on."
"Trainer! Trainer!! They have a lot of Manga!! Can I read them?!"
"Yes, and don't call me that. Just use my name while we are here."
"Oh, okay! Igo!"
"Scratch that, you sound like a brat when calling me by name."
"Why?!?"
The young man guides his anomalies upstairs to isolate themselves even further from the world. He doesn't want to hold his punches when it comes to this. If the fact that umamusume is now here in this world, these girls would be captured by the government and tested on. He can destroy them now that he has powers, but that should be the last resort. He is no longer a resident of this world after all. He shouldn't cause so much damage that it might change the world.
"What should we do with our computer, dear?"
"Up to you. I'm going to research the Umamusume game to pinpoint our target. You girls can do whatever you want. If you're sleepy, the third to fifth floors are the capsule hotel. The way to pay them is similar to how we pay for the internet cafe."
"Then I'm going to search for a Manga!!"
"Hey, Teio!! Don't run around!!"
"I… want to know more about the horse creature, dear."
"I figure you want to do that. I'll leave that to you then."
The Emperor enters her room and quickly turns on the computer by typing the code on the slip. She first Googled her name and opened the Wikipedia article about herself.
There are so many links in my article… Perhaps this rabbit hole is much deeper than I initially thought…
"Let's see!! Let's see!! What Manga should I choose?"
"Just pick one and let's go back! We need to stay hidden, remember?"
"I know!! We can–Eh? Umamusume: Cinderella Gray? Is that Senior Oguri Cap on the cover?"
"Eh? It is. Is this… her story?"
"Should we read it?"
"Perhaps…"