Night.
Room 401 at Ritto was no longer a one-person room.
Garden Gale cracked the door open a sliver, peering inside like a little rat on a covert op—exactly the same caution she'd used escaping the Winner's Live. After confirming there was no danger...
By "danger," she meant Symboli Rudolf suddenly popping out of nowhere—she finally relaxed and slipped in.
Curren Chan, on the bed, stared straight at her.
Watching Garden Gale sneak around like some kind of spy... Curren Chan didn't know what to say for a moment.
It was kind of cool.
But still—Garden Gale had bailed on the Winner's Live and run for it, so why was she only getting back now? Curren Chan glanced at the time on the LCD display again: 11:15 p.m. Where'd she go mess around? She forced the question down, but there was a little to no suspicion in her gaze.
This wasn't a sign they were drifting further apart...
If anything, the gap between them was starting to stitch itself shut.
"Ugh." The moment Garden Gale got back, she dropped any pretense of dignity and sighed. "I'm dead. I'm seriously dead."
Curren Chan asked with a smile, "What happened?"
...What else could it be?
Garden Gale pouted.
Escaping the Winner's Live is exhausting, okay... These days, if she wanted to run, she had to play mind games with Symboli Rudolf and seize the exact right moment to slip away. The Emperor was probably furious by now, right? Last time she'd gotten chewed out hard—this time the anger might condense into a giant bomb!
No. For a while, she needed to avoid running into Symboli Rudolf at all. Wait until the Emperor's rage cooled off, then go apologize.
And hey, maybe Symboli Rudolf didn't care about some nobody like her and wouldn't be mad.
The odds were low, but Garden Gale desperately hoped so!
...And also.
Garden Gale had already started working on her next Winner's Live escape plan.
She had a bad feeling.
Next time, Symboli Rudolf might watch her like a hawk!
Garden Gale didn't answer, but Curren Chan already had her conclusion. Smiling brightly—same little-angel vibe as always—she asked again, "Do you know? Garden-san, you're about to get famous!"
"Huh?"
Garden Gale, who'd been slouching, snapped upright in an instant.
Curren Chan caught the reaction and thought, Is getting famous really that exciting for her? Then she continued, "You won the Wakagoma Stakes and beat Admire Vega... right? That video is starting to spread. Normally, it's just an OP race—there wouldn't be that much attention."
"But the opponent you beat was Admire Vega, the graded-stakes queen on a streak—and someone recorded your final spurt at the end and posted it online. It's already at over a hundred thousand views! The comments are all asking who this out-of-nowhere Umamusume is, saying you're definitely a strong contender for the Classic Triple Crown. They've even started calling you 'Black Flash'!"
"After a distortion in space... comes 'Black Flash'!"
...To sum it up even more bluntly:
You're blowing up.
Garden Gale froze.
Me... blowing up?
It didn't feel real, like some dreamy illusion—until Curren Chan opened the video site and hit play. A driving BGM slammed in alongside the commentator's heated, rapid-fire call, and in an instant it seized the heart.
And then there was the black bolt on the track, coming from behind—so intense you couldn't even blink!
It had only been a small OP race, but the runners, the commentary, and Garden Gale's final spurt had painted it with color. It became a story right before everyone's eyes. No one expected Admire Vega to go seal-clubbing and end up getting bitten instead—
And what bit her wasn't some ordinary fish.
It was a great white shark.
The scrolling on-screen comments were lavish with praise.
Even the comment section was asking about her, saying things like: If there's a girl like this, I'm definitely going to watch her race in person.
And with Garden Gale's... face—so delicate it was basically Uma Mint... people couldn't help but turn into fans.
...Curren Chan was right.
Garden Gale pressed her lips together without meaning to.
She really was about to get famous.
"Are you happy?!" Curren Chan asked, cheering, like she hadn't noticed Garden Gale's mood at all. They were roommates—no twists, no hostility. Of course she was happy for her. More than that, she hoped Garden Gale could go even farther.
And she really was amazing!
Everyone else only knew Garden Gale had beaten Admire Vega. But Curren Chan—close to Admire Vega—knew just how terrifying she was. So... this really was an incredible, incredible result.
Garden Gale answered with the face of someone attending her own funeral. "Of course I'm happy."
Happy my ass.
Only a ghost would be happy about getting famous with social anxiety! She'd run too hard, too high, and now she was "Black Flash"—her follower count was going to explode in just a few days!
Please...
Don't put expectations on me, okay?
That was Garden Gale's sincerest wish. If she could, she'd even want everyone to stop liking her.
But how was that possible?
Her run in the Wakagoma Stakes had been way too cool. The late-charging "Black Flash" had shattered every dream in its path!
She'd gained fans.
So many fans.
The kind of thing other Umamusume could only envy—and for Garden Gale, it had become a disaster.
All she could do was force a smile that looked worse than crying, trying not to let Curren Chan see anything was off.
Haah...
She was done.
She'd meant to run one debut race and then quit being an Umamusume—maybe even just not show up and bolt. But thanks to a stupid accident of fate, the snowball kept rolling. Now she was getting minor fame, getting fans. Everything looked like it was "on track"...
Except for someone with social anxiety, that was the worst track of all.
Curren Chan noticed something in the details.
But she didn't press. She swallowed the question, then seemed to remember something. A smile hooked at her lips.
A mischievous smile.
"Do you know?" Curren Chan asked again.
Garden Gale hummed, scratched her head, then asked, "What is it?"
"After you left... President Rudolf came looking over here." Curren Chan slowly recounted what happened after Garden Gale ran. "She asked if I'd seen you. I said I had—said I saw you run outside. And President Rudolf got super mad! She said you definitely skipped the Winner's Live, and that next time she'd have to really discipline that disobedient brat. She even said after your next race she'll keep her eyes on you the whole time until you get up on that stage!"
Good things never come in pairs.
Bad news, though, always comes one after another.
Garden Gale's hand trembled slightly.
The outcome she'd been praying for hadn't happened. Symboli Rudolf was very, very angry—and she'd even said she was going to "discipline" her, a disobedient kid. That was terrifying, but it wasn't the key point.
The key point was: she said next time she'd watch her until she got onstage.
The worst-case scenario had happened, Mom!!
I don't want to study anymore, I want McDonald's!
Garden Gale flopped onto the bed like a salted fish, pulled the blanket over herself, and arranged her face into serene peace—serene like she was about to pass away.
"I'm dead... goodnight."
Curren Chan tilted her head, baffled by the performance art—then suddenly got it. She snorted, looked away, and, with perfect seriousness, pulled her own blanket up and replied serenely, "I'm dead too. Goodnight."
"But the light's still on!" Garden Gale's eyes snapped open.
Curren Chan shouted, "I'm dead! You go turn it off!"
"I died first! You do it!"
"I'm not going! You go! I'll buy you ice cream tomorrow!"
"I don't have legs right now! My legs vanished! I'm a poor wheelchair-bound cripple—please, Curren-chan, turn off the light and let's sleep!"
"...Honestly, I can't with you."
Grumbling, Curren Chan slipped into her slippers. She pouted, but her smile was bright as she crossed the room and switched off the light.
...
At this point... the relationship between the two had, at last, returned to being friends.
---
T/N: UGH IT IS BLACK LIGHTNING FUCK WHATEVER im not changing it, frick you anyway yea she's black lightning now! actually changed it to BLACK FLASH!! BECAUSE BLAH BLAH JJK iudk