On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

[WrandmWaffles]

Where Now the Horse and the Rider?​

---

Life had been kind to Suzuki Shigeru.

Years ago, when he was younger and his parents struggled to make a living in the difficult time after the war, he wouldn't have said that. Even now he would not claim that life had been easy. But if he had not had to work a part time job to help make ends meet, he wouldn't have become friends with their kindly and knowledgeable neighbor.

Sugihara-san and his family likewise had difficulty during that time, with the old man selling light bulbs door to door at one point, but he had always seemed calm and in good cheer, despite the circumstances. Eventually he had found a more steady job, but he and his wife would sometimes look after Shigeru when his parents were busy. He learned a bit of Russian and German from them, and they did not put him down for his dreams of seeing the world. It turned out that Sugihara-san had traveled quite a lot, and sometimes told him stories about the places he had been to, like the Soviet Union, which sounded like a dangerous but interesting country.

Shigeru wasn't the best at schoolwork, which wasn't helped by how much his parents needed him to help out with the family restaurant, but he did well enough to graduate high school.

After that, he started working at the restaurant pretty much full time, though usually he was doing deliveries, which meant that he got to go around a fair bit of Fujisawa, even if he never really had time to go much further. It had stung, at first, that he lacked the time and money to travel around, but it could have been worse. At least Enoshima was not too far away and was a nice place to visit, even if he was too busy to go very often.

Time passed, and Shigeru began taking over more and more of the restaurant work as his parents got older. Then they started pestering him about getting married, which was annoying. It wasn't like Shigeru hadn't tried dating, but it was a bit difficult to schedule a get together when you had to work at a restaurant, which had the busiest times at the times people liked to go on dates. Sure, there were some girls that liked the idea of dating a guy who was able to cook, but none of them had been very interested after realizing how little time his work left for other things.

But life was kind to Shigeru, and ironically enough, the cause of a change in this situation was a sad event. Old Sugihara-san became ill and passed away. Shigeru had become friends with most of the old man's family, and the Sugiharas sometimes ordered some food from their restaurant, so the Suzukis learned about his passing in short order and offered their condolences, sad to see their kind neighbor depart their lives. Shigeru's parents even decided they would close the restaurant for a day to attend his funeral.

Leading up to the funeral, the Suzukis and their neighbors found, to their confusion, groups of foreigners suddenly appearing in greater and greater numbers, filling up the local inns and hotels. Apparently one of them was quite important too, since there were also a few national news crews hanging around.

It took Shigeru an embarrassingly long time, in hindsight, to realize that the foreigners were here for Sugihara-san's funeral. In fairness, the old man had never talked about certain times, like the war, but Shigeru was not surprised that the old man had helped out a lot of people when he could.

But his slow wittedness aside, the influx of foreigners meant more interest in the Suzuki restaurant, but there was a bit of a hiccup in that they had no menus for foreigners, and Shigeru's parents did not speak more than Japanese, not that his own second hand Russian was much better.

It was, however, enough to get him into trouble, as he had heard a group of foreigners (including a very striking looking young woman) asking for directions in what he thought was Russian, so he had approached them and asked if they needed help.

He then spent the next few minutes being berated in a language that definitely wasn't Russian by a few angry foreigners, before the younger woman, the daughter, managed to calm her relatives down, and explained to him, in Russian, that they were Polish.

Shigeru promptly apologised for his mistake, and for not speaking Polish, which seemed to mollify the group, who happened to be looking for somewhere to eat but didn't have an interpreter. As it so happened, his family had a restaurant, and he spoke a bit of a language they understood, so the pretty girl, apparently a bit embarrassed by her parents' outburst, suggested they try it out.

And that was how he met Katarzyna.

Her parents had escaped the war because Sugihara-san had helped them, so when they heard of his death they had been determined to pay their respects. As had many others.

Very many others.

Old man Sugihara had been a lot cooler than Shigeru had realized, and in some ways the old man had even helped him find a woman.

Shigeru and Katarzyna hit it off well, first at the restaurant, and then after the funeral of a man both of them admired. Of course, she had to return overseas, but the two of them exchanged contact information, and after a lot of headaches and quite a lot of money, Katarzyna became Suzuki Katarzyna, or Katsumi, for those who could not pronounce her name.

About a year after they were married, they had a child, and to their surprise, their daughter was born with strands of unusual pale gray hair and the ears of an Umamusume. Shigeru had been proud, but surprised, not having any among his relatives, but Kat had been less surprised, as Umamusume had once been very common in the homeland of her parents. A good sign for their marriage, she had said.

They named her Shirogane, after her almost silver hair.

Again Shigeru often thought, life was kind to him.

---

Shirogane was a quiet baby, something that both worried and relieved the young couple, both glad that she wasn't a terror to handle and concerned that their child was ill. This was compounded further by the fact that while Katarzyna had Umamusume in her ancestry, none were that close, nor were any still alive for her to call for advice.

The doctor did not find anything physically wrong with her, just that she slept irregularly, often waking up at sudden noises, which wasn't good for her health. In the end, he theorized that since some Umamusume have more clear memories of their previous incarnation, little Shirogane might have had a more stressful past life, making her more sensitive to sudden changes in her environment.

Shigeru and Kataryzna did their best to accommodate their born stressed daughter, keeping sudden or loud stimuli to a minimum as best they can. This made working at the restaurant harder, but Shigeru's parents were willing to shoulder more of the burden that had been eased off of them to help their granddaughter, who seemed dutiful enough, with how determined the girl seemed to avoid crying.

It wasn't quite correct to say Shirogane was completely unresponsive, her red eyes always managed to focus on her parents or grandparents when they tried to get her attention, but unlike other babies they knew of, she did not fixate on anything in her environment a normal child might find interesting.

At least, that's what they thought at first. Then one day, Shigeru's parents were watching over Shirogane, and his father pulled up an uma race on the television. This time, he had forgotten to turn down the volume, and while he was hurriedly trying to quiet it, the call to post sounded.

Shirogane's ears perked up, and her eyes blinked open, more alert than she usually was. She went to sleep shortly afterwards, not interested in the race on screen, despite her grandfather's hopes, but it was the most interest they had seen from her.

When Shigeru and Kat learned of this, they became sure that one day, their daughter would want to run in a race, maybe even attend the famous Tracen Academy! But unfortunately that was an expensive institution, one that they couldn't easily afford. But still, Umamusume were born to run, and both of Shirogane's parents were determined to grant their daughter the opportunity, even if it cost them.

---

AN. I had this idea rattling around in my brain for a while, and had put some of it to metaphorical paper. Then Haru Urara died (RIP) and that motivated me to post this.

 

[WrandmWaffles]

Where is the Horn That was Blowing?​

---

Living a third life was a bit less shocking than the second time around, in part because the Soldier's death had not been as sudden or violent as the Salaryman's. A bit of irony in the contrast, with one mostly peaceful life cut short by an act of violence, while the other life of constant violence ended in a relatively peaceful way. Not that dying of disease was pleasant.

There had also been a distinct lack of self aggrandizing entities this time.

Perhaps the Salaryman had been correct that the Thing had been no real god, or perhaps, as the Soldier suspected, they had simply been discarded after they were found to have no further use.

Either way, Suzuki Shirogane remembered who she had been before she was born, recalling two lives in clear detail, but there were impressions of at least one other life, which made her wonder if whatever that Thing had done to the Salaryman had removed how a soul normally was supposed to be washed clean when reborn.

But whatever the case may be, this body and brain, being not entirely human, seemed less inclined towards the zealous obsession the Soldier had developed, being much more attached to the tangible than the theoretical. Perhaps it was to be expected of a hybrid of horse and human, but as the animal in question did not seem to exist in this world, it did not seem a good idea for her to wonder out loud about. It could also have been due to the Soldier's common usage of computation orbs and the adaptation of her brain to using magic from a young age making her mind in her last life more agile than her current one.

Fortunately, it didn't appear that Suzuki Shirogane would have to worry about any of the dangers that the Soldier did. Not only was she born after the World Wars (this world somehow following a similar history despite the lack of horses) at a similar time to the Salaryman, she was not an orphan, and actually had parents.

Or more specifically, parents that actually took child rearing seriously.

Her parents were usually quite busy, as was expected for a small but moderately popular restaurant, locally well known for its dumplings. This body's mother was clearly a foreigner, being Polish, and had apparently introduced a style of making dumplings that was novel to most of the potential customers.

Despite the amount of time they spent working, Shirogane's parents made sure that at least one of them or her grandparents were keeping an eye on her at all times, keeping her entertained by reading to her, watching races on the television, or taking her out on walks. It helped that their place of residence was not far from their place of work, so rotating the person keeping watch over her was quite feasible.

This was helped by the fact that, despite her body's childish urges, Shirogane was likely a comparatively easy child to handle, as she could be occupied easily by something to help her relearn how to read Japanese or a short physical excursion to burn off the pent up energy that distracted her from her studies. On that note, she was quite sure she began walking much earlier than a typical human child, but it must not have been too unusual for an umamusume, since her mother did not express great surprise unlike her father.

After she had been self mobile for what her parents deemed a sufficient time, Shirogane had managed to convince them to let her mill about the restaurant, something she suggested so they would not have to split time watching her during working hours, and because she was rather curious about the food that they sold. Her parents and her father's parents were very good cooks.

With how well-behaved she was, her parents had agreed, taking the opportunity to slip her some snacks throughout the day to encourage good behavior. As much as the viewpoint of past lives provided Shirogane with more discipline than a normal child, the snacks were very tasty, and she was often hungry, as her faster development also seemed to come with a greater appetite.

It hadn't been something that she noticed at first, but her family must have spent a significant amount of money on milk when she was an infant, since while her mother was a healthy human, that still meant she did not produce enough milk for an umamusume. Now weaned, Shirogane found that a human appropriate amount of food left her still hungry, but she never complained about it, recognizing that money must be tight so there was no need to make a fuss.

Or so she thought.

While small, her parents' restaurant had a rather large number of customers, including a few umamusume, leading to Shirogane's first interactions with others of her race(?), who were mostly not too dissimilar from normal humans, albeit generally more excitable and expressive, especially when taking into account the additional emotional cues from flexible ears and a tail.

Apparently, she was very cute.

One of the customers that came around frequently was a very large umamusume named Umeki, perhaps a draft horse or something, and she worked odd hours at a warehouse so would often come by in the morning to grab some breakfast for herself and her children.

Being a mother of a few young umamusume, she caught on almost immediately that Shirogane was eating less than she thought necessary.

"You must eat more!" she had cried, looking almost ready to yell at Shirogane's parents before she remembered that neither of them were umamusume, or had much that much experience with younger umamusume.

"This is enough for me," Shirogane insisted, not liking how loud this woman was being.

"Does she need to eat more?" her father asked, looking confused. "She always eats everything we give her but doesn't ask for more."

Her mother stared at her searchingly, before meeting gazes with the large woman, whose ears and tail flicked around in agitation.

"Shiro, dear," her mother began, pursing her lips seriously. "Why don't you say anything if you are still hungry?"

Shirogane stared back at her in bemusement. "I eat about as much as you do. If I eat more then it will use up too much food."

The adults shared a look, before their expressions softened and father laughed.

"Shiro-chan, if you need to eat more we will buy more food."

"But that will cost money."

"Well, yes…but that's not so important," her father waved off. "We buy a lot of food to begin with, a little more won't make that much of a difference."

Shirogane frowned, quite sure that her parents weren't exactly eating until they were full either. "You are also still hungry after eating a lot of the time," she accused, slightly miffed at how petulant her voice sounded. The reality of being a child again.

Mother laughed. "We can't take too long eating when the shop is open, and we aren't a growing little girl like you." Her look turned serious and she reached down to poke Shirogane on the nose. "You don't want to be short, do you?"

Not particularly, but… "There are some good things about being short," Shirogane mumbled with a pout. Being small had provided some advantages to the Soldier, but then again, she had been able to mitigate many of the disadvantages by flying.

"I'm sure there are," mother chortled, patting her on the head between her ears. "But no child of mine will go hungry if I can help it." There was a sharp gleam in her eyes, so Shirogane felt that it was probably best to go along.

"Ok, Mother, I will tell you if I am still hungry from now on."

"So formal…" the large uma muttered, before squealing loudly. "Oh my, your child is so cute!"

How annoying.

"Yes she is, isn't she?" She felt herself being lifted as her mother hoisted her up into a hug. "So seriously adorable!"

Mother please.

---

After that incident, Shirogane's parents and grandparents began strongly insisting she eat more, even threatening to take away book reading time if she didn't, which was mortifying. She acquiesced, because in the end, she was often hungry, and well…having parents this invested in her well-being was a rather novel experience, with the Salaryman's parents being distant and perpetually away and the Soldier's parents having either left her at an orphanage or dead.

Had she been a normal child, Shirogane wouldn't have thought anything of it, but with two lives lacking this kind of attention, she couldn't help but feel touched by the lengths her new family was willing to go to.

It did seem to be true that buying more food wasn't as big of a deal as she had thought, since by running a restaurant, they bought a lot in bulk, but that was only for certain things. However, there were other signs that while the family wasn't in the hole financially, things were less than ideal.

Shirogane noticed that her father and grandfather started buying fewer and fewer cigarettes, and not in a way that suggested they were trying to quit. Her mother bought fewer things when she went shopping, and also took trips less frequently. Both her grandparents gradually stopped talking about retirement. Of course, none of them mentioned this to Shirogane, likely not expecting her to understand, but it was clear to her that the surprise added burden of having an umamusume child as opposed to a standard human child was not as easy to bear as her family presented it to be.

She had hoped rationing her own meals would help ease the strain, but with their insistence on keeping her well fed, that was no longer an option.

No matter, there were other ways to be useful.

After a couple weeks of observing how her family went about their business, Shirogane began doing what she could to assist, starting with helping push chairs back into place and organizing utensils, masking her true aim by coaching it in terms of idle childish activity.

Her family was amused by this, and began sneaking her more snacks when she did things like that to incentivize this behavior, not unlike training a horse, or really anything that was sentient enough to understand. Of course, her family still shooed her away from trying to do things like collect used dishes, reasonably concerned about the coordination ability of a young child, especially one who was much stronger than her small size would suggest.

This meant that helping them cook was right out, but they did not mind showing her how the food was made, or explaining why they prepared things a certain way as opposed to another. Commercial food preparation, from what Shirogane observed, was to some degree formulaic, but also not entirely so, which made it a bit confusing. Each of her family members had a slightly different way of going about things, and for regular customers they would sometimes tweak things in some way to better suit their taste, such as adding more carrot pieces to anything that Umeki-san ordered.

Speaking of which, carrots were quite satisfying to eat.

Shirogane tried to learn as much as she could about the ways her parents prepared the food. It was simply good sense, as there was a rather strong likelihood she would be a part of the family business (only fair after the amount of investment they had put into her) and even aside from that, it would be a useful skill to be able to cook well regardless. The Salaryman and the Soldier had not been unable to cook, per se, but neither thought very much about it, nor were they particularly good at it.

If this world was really as similar to the Salaryman's as it seemed, despite the lack of horses in lieu of umamusume, it could be possible to gain quite a fortune with the right investment, but with what she remembered from the lives of the Salaryman and the Soldier, the former had never made much time to enjoy the rather significant money he made, and the latter had not adapted well to retirement, though that may have been more due to the terrible post war situation.

Perhaps a life working at a restaurant would be a nice change of pace. It should be less stressful than a lifetime of war.

---

A few more weeks of observation forced Shirogane to increase the expected level of stress running a restaurant would require, but it was still far less stressful than the Soldier's life, even if it looked to be quite busy.

It was busy enough that once she demonstrated her ability to carry even fairly delicate things, her parents had started allowing her to assist in cleaning the tables. They still were cautious enough to still stop her from moving anything too delicate, but they felt she could be trusted with wiping down the tables afterwards.

This also meant that she interacted with more customers, including some more of the regulars, such as a number of office workers who worked in a building down the street, some schoolchildren who passed by on their way home, and variety of umamusume like Umeki-san who seemed to work in logistical transport, making good use of an umamusume's unusually high power to size ratio.

Unfortunately for Shirogane, small children seemed to drastically decrease the intelligence of some of the people who came into the restaurant, as many of the women spent too much time gushing over how cute she was and getting in her way as she tried to clean. Some of them even got a bit touchy but they weren't too difficult to swat away. They were annoying, but manageable.

It was the children that were harder to deal with.

"Shiro-chan! Come play with us!"

"Aren't you here to eat? If you don't eat you will be hungry."

"Waah! Why is Shiro-chan so mean?!"

Umeki-san's child was also an umamusume, or perhaps umakodomo, and as such could eat a lot more than a human child, even more so because she and her mother seemed to be from a breed of draft horses, if there was such a concept, so despite only being a couple years older than Shirogane, Taro-san looked more like a teenager in appearance.

"I am not being mean. I am telling you this is a place for eating, not playing."

"But I never see you except here!"

"This is my family's restaurant, where would you expect me to be?"

"You don't live here, right?!"

"Of course not, we live nearby. Now sit down and eat, you're getting in the way of other customers."

"Shiro-chan is being mean!"

Eventually, Shirogane was able to get the oversized child to behave, but it took some doing and a delicate balance, as a young umamusume could cause significant damage if they were spooked.

It also led to her parents sending her to the park with grandmother and Umeki-san, because apparently she needed to blow off steam, and was maybe too stressed by the number of people showing up for lunch. Loathe as she was to admit it, her parents might have been onto something, but what bothered Shirogane the most was not the people, nor the noise, but rather the obstruction in her path to her designated task. In this case that obstruction had been Taro-san.

Now at a nearby park, without much of a clear objective, the larger horse child (filly?) was no longer an obstruction and thus much less irritating.

"Ne ne, Shiro-chan! I'll race you!"

Taro-san dashed forwards without bothering to confirm Shirogane was following her, heading for the loop around the park marked out for umamusume. Despite her enthusiasm, she wasn't actually going that fast.

"Go on, Shirogane-chan," grandmother urged gently, patting her on the head with an amused smile on her wrinkled face.

Shirogane looked up at her skeptically, one ear turned towards the park to remain aware of the activities of the people milling about there.

"Shiro-chan is a slowpoke!"

She would not be riled up by this basic provocation.

"If you beat her, I'll make you more carrot gyoza."

She would not be bribed with food.

"Shiro-chan! Come on!"

"I'll let you try making gyoza if you go and play."

She was not immune to bribery.

As Shirogane begrudgingly made her way over to the track, Taro-san took off again at a plodding pace, not bothering to wait to start a proper race.

Tch.

Shirogane accelerated, reaching a comfortable jogging speed quickly and gaining on the cheater.

"Shiro-chan is too slow!"

Then she would go faster.

"Shiro-chan, Slowpok–wha!"

Taro-san flinched as Shirogane rushed past her, small feet pounding the track as she overtook the much more ponderous draft breed, but she paid her little mind.

Running was quite strange.

On one hand, it felt entirely normal, the two-legged motion being something both the Salaryman and Soldier were familiar with, even if the former had not run nearly as much as the latter. On another hand, there was something altogether different about it.

For the Salaryman, running had been a basic activity to keep in shape, or to chase a scheduled activity if he was delayed.

For the Soldier, running had been a sometimes grueling part of training, even though she had mostly been a mage and thus not groundbound. There had still been times when she had had to run, and those times were times of terror and madness.

To some degree, those impressions remained, and as Shirogane ran around the track, noise seemed to ring in her head, blocking out everything except the path in front of her. In the moment, she forgot why she had been coaxed into running, just that it was important, so she ran.

Her feet struck the track, her breathing coming in sharply, but evenly, as she slid into a practiced form at a faster pace than she had before, a dark and giddy feeling boiling up from her heart as she saw an obstruction in her path.

Unlike before, this did not annoy her, and she was filled by a sudden, nagging urge to run the obstruction down, removing the problem…

But that didn't seem right…removing obstructions was not the goal here, so she went around and continued running.

The wind pulled at her face and ears, her blood pulsed through her veins, and she felt her muscles strain as she put them to greater use than she had before in this life, reaching a speed she was quite sure she had never been able to manage on foot in her past lives, but still felt sluggishly slow from the lingering instincts of the Soldier.

That was ridiculous. Shirogane could not fly, but that did not change her sense of inadequacy.

A flicker of memory, and she parted the air before her, the wind lowering just slightly, not enough for her to gain much speed, but enough that her passage was easier.

Another obstruction.

Avoid it.

"Waaah!"

Keep running–

Wait.

Was that Taro-san?

Oh, she beat her, so she didn't need to keep running so much.

Shirogane decelerated, flicking her ears as the rest of the world came into focus, slowing to a jog as she cooled down from her sprint.

"Good job, Shirogane-chan!" grandmother cheered, her scratchy voice sounding more lively than Shirogane remembered ever having heard before, the old woman waving at her enthusiastically.

Remembering her promise, Shirogane jogged over to her grandmother, enduring the requisite pat on the head. "Look how fast you could run!" How exactly was she supposed to do that? It wasn't as if she had an internal velocimeter.

"I knew she had a lot of pent up energy, but that was something else." What was Umeki-san talking about?

"Haah! Shiro-chan…haaah… So fast!" Oh, there was Taro-san.

"Grandmother, will you let me try to make gyoza now?" Shirogane asked, starting to get impatient as the older woman continued to stroke her hair.

"Hmm? Are you not tired, Shirogane-chan?" Why would she be? That was not that strenuous of a run.

"No," she denied, actually feeling quite refreshed, and quite a bit less twitchy. "I am quite hungry now though." As if on cue, her stomach growled noisily.

"Well we can't have that," grandmother tsked. "Shiro-chan is already too skinny."

"Being fat is not healthy."

"Being too skinny is unhealthy too!"

"I am not too skinny."

"Do you want to learn how to cook, Shiro-chan?"

"...Yes." That was the whole point of this activity.

"Then you will need to eat more!"

Why did she keep adding more stipulations?! When learning to cook you inevitably ended up eating your own cooking, unless it was really that bad.

"Fine."

"You will also need to run more. It isn't healthy for a young girl to stay cooped up so much."

"...But then I would need to eat more…" Which would cost money.

"Of course you will, now come along, Oba-san is getting too old for this!"

…This entire endeavor was your idea, old woman!

---

 

[WrandmWaffles]

Where is the Helm and the Hauberk?​

---

Takashi Kenji quite enjoyed his job as an elementary school physical education teacher, despite how tiring it could be with how energetic children were, especially young umamusume.

They required a release for much of their energy, but not too much that they would fall asleep in class afterwards, so while his job was not as academic as most of his colleagues, it still required plenty of thought and an unfortunate amount of paperwork.

That said, it was probably more fun than teaching mathematics or history to small children, and Kenji could proudly say that many of his students declared him their favorite teacher, which probably had more to do with the subject he taught than himself, but he would take the victories he could get.

Today was the start of a new school year, and with it came a new class of students. Since umamusume physically grew quite a bit faster than normal humans, any school large enough to do so usually put them into separate classes, at least until after they'd undergone more socialization, otherwise the risks of the young umas accidentally hurting their human classmates was a bit too high to stomach.

As such, the first few PE classes mostly consisted of desensitization training disguised as games, such as dodgeball, some version of tag, or any game that would help the young umamusume get used to being around many other people and unexpected stimuli.

"Eep!"

With the expected incidents where more skittish fillies spooked.

Kenji strode over to where the startled young umamusume had fallen to the ground after being hit by a dodgeball. He let the others keep playing, ignoring how some of them paused to see what he was going to do. It was better not to draw explicit attention to the kids that had a strong reaction, both not to make it worse for them, and to give the kids the understanding that it was not that big of a deal.

"Are you hurt, Yujo-chan?" he asked in a gentle voice, crouching down next to the roan child, who looked close to tears, looking up at him with watery eyes.

"Ummm…" her ears flicked nervously as her face pursed in thought, before relaxing slightly. "N-No?"

"Then are you ok?" The balls they were using were soft and light, so shouldn't do much damage even if thrown by young umamusume, and Swift Yujo-chan looked fine, but the important thing was for her to figure that out herself.

The girl's ears drooped and she pouted. "No." Though she didn't look like she was going to cry anymore.

"And why not?"

She looked up at him in confusion. "'Cause I'm out, right?"

Kenji laughed. "Unfortunately, that's right, Yujo-chan. Better luck next time."

"Un!" Her ears perked back up, the thought of another game already pushing out the embarrassment of falling over.

With just a little encouragement, the roan filly ran off to stand with the others on her team who were out, and the game continued.

Kenji had to step in to check on a few other fillies who had similar episodes, but only a few. He had observed over the years that if the young umamusume understood that the game would result in them being suddenly pelted with a soft ball, it was much less startling, making the desensitization easier, though there were of course, still those at the extremes of the spectrum.

Fortunately, it seemed like this class didn't have anyone who would have to go to the nurse with a panicking episode, but as Kenji watched the game wind down to the final few still in, he found his gaze sticking to one in particular, a pale gray filly with a stern expression that looked very out of place on someone that young.

Ah, that was Suzuki Shirogane, a rather unusual umamusume in that she had two human parents compared to the more common case of having an uma mother. Kenji had only seen a few of them in his years as a teacher, but the ones he remembered were about the same as any other umamusume, if usually a bit more conscious of other people and less expressive, particularly in ear and tail movements, probably because of not having an immediate family member to mimic gestures from.

Shirogane-chan seemed to follow that trend, but to an extent that Kenji had not seen before. The pale gray filly's ears were upright in focus, occasionally moving slightly one way or another to keep track of her opponents in sync with her eyes, which scanned the gym with a detached intensity. Her tail did not move.

Then she suddenly flicked her arm and launched a ball into an opponent with impressive accuracy for someone that young. There was no sign of excitement or accomplishment, just a slight twist of her ear and a shift in her tail for balance as she dodged a retaliatory throw.

Kenji frowned. He was quite sure that she was having fun, despite her lack of expression, otherwise she wouldn't be focusing so hard. There wasn't any real incentive to win, as they weren't exactly grading them based on how well they did in the game–there would be time enough for that when they grew up–so it had to be of her own will.

Still, as he watched Shirogane-chan methodically eliminate the rest of the opposing team, he had to admit her almost mechanical precision unnerved him a bit. Not because it scared him, exactly, but usually when a child was like that it was because of how their parents had raised them, oftentimes to their detriment. That was something he could not do much about.

"Nice work, Shirogane-chan!" he called out, clapping his hands in praise. Her teammates followed suit, cheering excitedly for their champion.

The young filly in question turned to them with a bemused look, as if she hadn't just taken out three opponents in less than a minute to close the game out.

To Kenji's surprise, she didn't seem bothered by the sudden attention as several of her teammates swarmed her excitedly. She did shift away to keep them from getting right up in her face, but she didn't flinch or shy away, just moved to make space, like she was used to being around a lot of people, probably mostly humans, if her tight control over her tail movements were anything to go by.

She also didn't seem nervous when she noticed his attention, so she probably wasn't just a bit shy.

"Now, now!" Kenji called out again, clapping his hands to get his class' attention, before deliberately glancing at the clock on the wall. "I think we have enough time for one more game, how does that sound?"

His kids cheered excitedly, moving to the baseline in anticipation as he set up the dodge balls on the middle line.

Shirogane-chan remained quiet, with hardly a flick of the ear or tail, red eyes tracking him without much excitement or feeling.

Perhaps he was worried for nothing, and she had just been very accustomed to the typical stimuli of being at school, but Kenji felt like he should keep an eye on her to make sure she fit in alright. Being mature for your age was a pretty good thing, overall, but it could alienate you from other people your age.

---

Going to elementary school in Japan was an…interesting experience. Though Shirogane didn't really remember much of what it was like from her first life, she was pretty sure there wasn't quite as much physical activity involved. This was likely an adaptation to the differing physiology of umamusume, as her class was separated from the normal humans.

She could see the reasoning for it, as the physical differences between umamusume and normal humans was significant enough, especially at a young age, that childish clumsiness or innocent malice could result in serious injury, whether from an umumusume getting spooked or being overly forceful. It was also interesting to note that most of the teachers who were assigned to the umamusume classes were male, and typically rather tall and large men as well, which was a rather notable departure from what the Salaryman's vague memories suggested.

After seeing Takashi-sensei physically separate two squabbling children, Shirogane suspected that this trend was probably because most female teachers, and spindlier male teachers, would have a lot more trouble establishing order. Most creatures had a tendency to defer to larger members of their own species, whether respectfully or fearfully, and that seemed to hold true for umamusume as well.

Not to mention that, even at their young age, Shirogane got the sense that most of them could outmuscle a small human woman.

Given what she observed from other umamusume children and her own twitchiness, it made sense for Physical Education to be one of the first periods for the horse children to at least burn off some of their excess energy. It helped her focus on her classes, but seemed not to be as effective for some of her classmates. But that was probably to be expected.

Shirogane did not remember much of school from either of her past lives, but it felt a bit too simple, even for their age, with lessons more coached in metaphor or simile than she felt was necessary. Was it because umamusume tended to have more difficulty engaging in abstraction? That was probably not an appropriate question to ask and would bring unneeded scrutiny.

It was largely irrelevant anyways. Most of the coursework was fairly easy, aside from handwriting, which was not difficult, per se, but was rather tedious. The amount of homework also seemed lighter, though this could be her memories skewing her expectations.

The greater number of breaks was definitely different than what she remembered though. It was pretty clear why it was necessary. Horses and children both disliked being confined, and combined the potential for disruption if not given an outlet became untenably high.

Overall, it was…rather boring.

Most of the material was already things she had relearned, and a lot of class time seemed dedicated to introducing them to various distractions rather than actually giving them any useful information to learn.

Shirogane had initially been perplexed by one of her teachers wearing a cape, which could have been dismissed as an oddity, but then another one tapped each present student with a pool noodle during roll call, and another had put several paper strands near the air conditioning unit which caused the paper the flap noisily.

It grated on her nerves a bit, but it wasn't too hard to ignore.

For her classmates it didn't seem so easy, one or the other thing causing some of them to startle like…well, spooked horses.

In hindsight that was probably why so much of the furniture was padded.

Shirogane herself had never had that kind of instinct. Was it because both her parents were human, so the horse instincts were less strong? Or was it because the memories carried over from her previous lives granted her some more experience and thus made her harder to unnerve? It was a bit harder to be startled when you were keeping track of your surroundings, after all.

That wasn't to say she didn't feel agitated herself. It wasn't because of any of the random distractions, but the simplicity of the lessons meant that it was getting more difficult for her to pay attention. Oh, she made sure to keep notes, but much of the time she could write out notes before the teacher finished explaining things, in part because the rest of the children were comparatively slow to catch on.

Without much to do, Shirogane couldn't help but feel her time was being wasted, and that did not sit right with her, and yet it wasn't as if she could bring out more reading material as her seat was too close to the front for the teacher not to notice, and she doubted they would appreciate that. They already seemed to notice that she was losing interest, and kept asking her questions to check if she was paying attention.

At some point she began reciting recipes in her head to pass the time, going over the steps of preparing food, then visualizing what she would have to do to make it happen. Her parents still didn't let her cook very much, especially without supervision, worried about her accidentally hurting herself, which was probably a reasonable concern for a normal child, even if it made the feeling of indebtedness grow larger, and now in school she had barely anything to do.

It felt wrong.

---

Lunchtime was predictably noisy, the lunch room filled with excited young children yammering with their friends about this or that.

As had become her habit, Shirogane sat at a table near a corner, away from most of her schoolmates, and much of the noise. A few more timid children also sat at the table, but they gave her a wide berth, some even shifting away nervously. They were too timid to ask her to leave, and too timid to talk to her.

Shirogane wasn't sure why, she wasn't a particularly large child, and neither of her parents were particularly large adults, so she was likely to be about average size when she grew up. She had also managed not to snap at any of her more nosy schoolmates yet, even talked a bit with the more curious ones, so she didn't think she'd have a reputation for being scary.

It didn't really matter.

She unpacked the lunchbox her mother had made for her and got to eating. It was good, as usual. Her mother couldn't really help at a fairly popular restaurant without being able to cook, and she had packed a neatly ordered lunchbox with a fairly well balanced diet, though she added a few pierogis.

"Hey, Shiro-chan!" a chipper voice called out as a brunette girl plopped down on the seat next to her. "What're you eating? It smells good!"

"Food, Yujo-san." What did she want?

"I know that, Shiro-chan!" Yujo Swift retorted with a chipmunk pout. "Is that gyoza?"

"Basically, yes," Shirogane replied between bites. "But different bread, and different filling than typical gyoza."

"Is it good?" Yujo-san's ears wiggled curiously as she leaned in.

"Yes." Shirogane continued eating, slightly annoyed that she was being interrupted.

"...Can I try one?"

"My parents run a restaurant, you can try some there." Shirogane ate another one.

"Oh cool! What's it called?"

"Suzukiya." Not a very creative name, but easy to remember.

"Oh…." Yujo-san frowned, watching as Shirogane reached for the last pierogi with her chopsticks. "...I'll trade you some pocky for one?"

Shirogane paused. "Pocky?"

"Yeah!" The brunette umamusume pulled out a familiar looking box. It was the chocolate kind.

Her mother had said she shouldn't eat too much sugar, and that fruits were better. That was probably true…but chocolate tasted good.

"...Deal."

"Yay!"

The two girls traded food, the pocky disappearing rapidly into Shirogane's mouth.

"Hmmm!" Yujo-san let out a happy sound, tail swishing excitedly. "This is so good!"

The chocolate tasted good, and it looked like she may have created a new customer for her family restaurant, so all in all this seemed like a fair trade.

---

"Heya Miss Kat! How's li'l Shiro-chan doing?"

"Welcome back, Steady," Katarzyna Suzuki smiled at the dark haired umamusume as she flounced into her preferred seat. "It's been quite some time since I last saw you."

"Well, ya know, I've been busy with school, and stuff!" Steady Distance had been a regular at their restaurant for a few years, but she had gotten to the age where she was preparing for entrance exams, so was far more busy than usual. "And you didn't answer my question!"

"Good to see you're studying hard," Kataryzna chuckled, remembering how much trouble the girl's parents had trying to get her to take school seriously. In the end they had settled on hinting that the best looking trainers would be the racing academies with high academic standards. "Speaking of which, Shirogane started school recently."

"So that's why she isn't around? I bet she loves all that bookwork, doesn't she?"

"Oh, no!" Kataryzna huffed, shaking her head fondly. "She finds it much too boring, and the other children too noisy. What will you be having, dear? The usual?"

"...Yeah that sounds like her," Steady snorted. "And yeah, the usual's good. Maybe some extra carrots?"

"Did you do well on your last test?"

"Um…yeah!" Her ears flicked nervously, betraying the lie.

Kataryzna narrowed her eyes at the uma, letting her disbelief known.

"....Ok fine, I did ok," Steady admitted, her ears drooping. "I did good at physical education, not so good at math and history, but I did pass!" Her tail swished side to side as she put on her best hopeful expression.

"Hmm…perhaps you can use some more carrot."

"Whoo!"

Steady Distance was a decent runner, from what Kataryzna had heard, and could probably perform ok at smaller races. Her parents seemed sure she had the potential to be competitive on the national scale, but Steady herself wasn't that motivated to push herself as hard as needed to get there. Umamusume liked to run, as a general rule, but that wasn't necessarily the same thing as wanting to race professionally. Steady Distance seemed more interested in the attention it got her from boys, for one.

"So, what did you do to convince your parents to let you out of the study room?" Kataryzna asked as she put the pierogis she prepared into the boiling pot. "I remember you getting grounded because you were spending too much time with some boy."

"Ehehe…well…" the umamusume rubbed the back of her head bashfully. "I won a regional race. Kinda thought you knew already?"

"Oh, did you? Congratulations!" Kataryzna had not, in fact, known about that. "I must have missed it on the TV," she replied, taking the pierogis that began to float out of the pot and placing them on the skillet. "And to be honest, I do not keep up with racing news as much as my husband does." She did watch some of the bigger G1 races, but the betting pamphlets were a bit beyond her. They were almost like phonebooks.

"It wasn't that impressive," Steady Distance muttered, her ears flopping in embarrassment. "Just a Mile run against like six hopefuls."

"Smaller race or not, it's a win. Good enough that your parents are happy." From what Kataryzna had heard, they had largely given up on the idea that Steady could be a national victor, but were still hopeful that she could at least get into one or two big races and place.

"Yeah…I guess it's a start…"

There seemed to be more going on, but the pierogis were done, and Steady Distance seemed pretty hungry, which led the conversation to a close there as more customers came in, diverting Katarzyna's attention.

Some time later, Shirogane arrived, having come to the restaurant straight from school.

"Good evening, mother."

"Welcome back, Shiro-chan! Are you hungry?"

The school was only a few kilometers away, and Shirogane had made it back in less than ten minutes.

"I am alright, mother," Shiro-chan replied, moving towards the back of the restaurant to put down her backpack. "I have some homework I need to do."

"Shiro-chan, what did I say?" Katarzyna called warningly. "You will eat before you do your homework."

"...Yes mother."

Shiro took a seat near where Katarzyna was working, looking affronted that she couldn't start on her homework right away. She still dug into the food placed in front of her with what would be frightening speed for a human.

"So how was your day, Shiro-chan? Did you learn anything new?"

Shirogane paused in thought, shoveling food into her mouth at the same time. Her ears didn't move, nor did her tail. Katarzyna didn't know it was possible for someone to be so still and yet seemingly always ready to move, but her daughter somehow managed it.

There was a beat as Shirogane swallowed. "I learned that my classmates had never heard of a pierogi before."

"Oh? That's not too surprising, is it? There aren't that many places in Japan that make pierogis." If there were they wouldn't have as many customers.

"No, it is not surprising," her daughter agreed, scarfing down more food while looking utterly unhurried. "But now they have."

"Did you share your lunch with some new friends?" Kataryzna paused, leaning in closer. While Shirogane tolerated other children to an extent, they had been quite worried about how she didn't really have anyone that she called a friend.

She did hang around Umeki's kids, but they had somehow turned into more like her minions.

"We are not close enough to be called friends," Shiro-chan denied solemnly. "But we did trade food, so we are at least friendly acquaintances."

"Maah, you shouldn't be so serious, Shiro-chan!" Steady Distance sighed, her ear flicking in amusement as she looked over at the younger umamusume. "Elementary school is a great time to make friends!"

Shirogane turned, her head tilting quizzically. "There is no real bad time to make friends, though there are many people who you cannot trust to be your friend."

"Moeee, such granny talk is very uncute, Shiro-chan!" the older umamusume pouted, puffing her cheeks out. "Children shouldn't be uncute."

"That does tend to result in them being discarded, yes."

Katarzyna almost flinched. Where had she gotten that idea?! She wasn't entirely wrong, unfortunately, but…that was disturbing to hear from her own child.

"Huh?! That's totally not what I was talking about, Shiro-chan!" Steady sputtered, waving her hands in denial.

"I see…" Shirogane turned back to her food and continued eating like a vacuum cleaner, before she paused again. "I suspect we may see some of my classmates and their families coming by the restaurant in the near future."

"Doing some advertising?" Katarzyna asked teasingly, hoping to move things to a lighter topic.

"Not intentionally," her daughter admitted, tilting her head thoughtfully. "But it seems many umamusume are very interested in food."

"No lie there, little sister!" Steady laughed, before taking a sip of her soda through her straw.

Shirogane blinked. "Did you get disowned and adopted while I was at school?"

"Pfft-gackh!" the soda seemed to have gone down the wrong pipe, and if Katarzyna had been drinking something she probably would have choked as well.

"Shiro-chan…" she chided resignedly. "What did we say about saying things like that?"

"...Not to say it out loud."

"That was mean!" Steady coughed, shaking her head furiously. "How can someone so cute be so cruel?!"

Shirogane's eyes creased slightly, as if she had thought of another glib response.

"Shiro-chan."

She paused, choosing not to say anything, instead turning and eating the last of the food in front of her.

"Thank you for the food." She clapped her hands together respectfully. "May I do my homework now?"

"...Yes, go ahead, Shiro-chan."

Shirogane grabbed her plates and brought them into the kitchen to clean.

Katarzyna sighed. What was she going to do with her little girl?

"Does…Does Shiro-chan like homework?!" Steady sputtered, looking aghast. "How is that possible?!"

"I don't know." And wasn't that a damning feeling for a mother? "She always insists on doing something, like she owes us something for feeding her."

"It can't be that bad, can it?"

"The best way we could find to get her to eat more was to threaten to take away her homework."

"...Wat."

"I worry about her," Katarzyna sighed, shaking her head. "She knows that we aren't exactly rich, but we aren't going to ask her to cut costs when things aren't so good. But she seems set on trying to pay us back for just what we're supposed to do as parents."

"Pay you back, huh?"

"Yes! Like we are being inconvenienced by taking care of her! What self respecting mother would ever think that about their child?!" Her grandparents had died to give her parents a chance to escape the war, her parents had given up a lot so she could marry the man she fell in love with, so Katarzyna would be damned if she couldn't bite through a bit of belt tightening to make sure they could afford to give her daughter a good education.

"...She just decided to do that one day?"

"Not…exactly." Her daughter was very smart. Maybe too smart.

"...What do you mean?"

"Shigeru and I didn't exactly expect to have an umamusume child, since well…" Katarzyna waved a hand at herself. "And at the time the economy was no good, so money was a bit tight." Fortunately they hadn't had to go too far into debt at the time, but it had been some lean years, albeit some of the happiest years of her life.

"...Oh…did she notice?"

"Shiro-chan is very smart."

Steady Distance was silent for a long time, staring down at her soda.

"...Maybe I was being a bit unkind calling her a granny."

The older umamusume paid and then left, looking deep in thought. Katarzyna didn't quite know what was on her mind, but it was probably a good thing for Steady Distance to think about her future a bit more thoroughly now she was approaching graduation.

"Mother, I am done with my homework," Shirogane announced, reemerging from the back of the restaurant. "I can help clean up."

"...You should go for a run at the park first, dear. Then you can help me, ok?"

"...Yes, mother."

What a strange child she had.

---

AN. It's kind of funny to write Shirogane doing her best to start repaying her family's care for her while they get increasing concerned that they're doing something wrong.

Shirogane: "You are best parents I remember having! I'm going to do my best to make sure your investment pays off for you! Wait...why are you stopping me?"
Her family: "Are you okay?!"

 

[WrandmWaffles]

And the Bright Hair Flowing?​

---

"Shiro-chan!" Taro-san waved, already at the park where Shirogane usually performed her parentally mandated PT, the draft umamusume's far greater height allowing her to spot her from a greater distance.

"Shiro-chan!" Came a following cry as her two as of yet little sisters called out to her, hopping up and down excitedly, ears pointed vertically at attention. Even though they were younger than Shirogane, Azuki-san and Matcha-san were already taller than her.

Now that she was in middle school, it was beginning to be clear that she would be very short in this life, which would have some difficulties but nothing insurmountable with the early life experience of the Soldier, even if it was likely she'd never reach the more average height she had in that life. Fortunately, it had not been due to any health issues, as her parents had feared (the doctor had said she was actually in remarkably good health), and she was just genetically predisposed to being this short.

Apparently most of the umamusume in her mother's family had been similar height, topping out in the range of 140 to 150 centimeters, so that is likely how tall Shirogane would end up.

Taro-san and her sisters, if Umeki-san was anything to go by, would likely be well over 200 centimeters.

The height variance was certainly quite fascinating, possibly due to selective breeding, which seems to exist to some degree, though noticeably less incestuously as she vaguely remembered of horses.

Despite the size difference, Taro-san and her sisters seemed to defer to her. Probably because she could answer many of their questions about the world. Shirogane wouldn't call them mentally handicapped, exactly, but they had a rather simple outlook on the world.

"Did you bring some?!"

The fact she often brought samples of her cooking for public feedback tests likely played a significant part too.

"Yes." Shirogane unslung the pack she had been carrying, filled with lunchboxes she had packed with her cooking attempts.

"Yaay!"

"Don't get too excited, not all of it is for you."

"Awww…"

"Did'ya get some for me?" Called a cheerful voice, and Shirogane tilted her ear towards the incoming Steady Distance.

"Yes," Shirogane replied, turning to face the older filly. "Wasn't that the entire point of this meeting?"

"Aww, don't spoil the fun, Shiro-chan!" Steady Distance pouted, but unslung her own pack, pulling out a packet of energy gel regardless, her tail swishing excitedly. "Trade ya?"

"As you say." They had planned this handoff in advance, so Shirogane didn't understand why Steady Distance was going through this song and dance.

"Cool!"

Shirogane handed over a lunchbox filled with some of her experimental cooking, while Steady Distance passed back a box filled with energy gel and electrolyte powder.

"Waah…I didn't think I'd miss you guys' pierogis so much," the older girl sighed as she popped open the box, ears wiggling happily. "Guess it reminds me of home, or something."

"Do you not like Kawasaki Academy?" Steady Distance had managed to get into the prefecture's racing academy, which was a good distance away, meaning she only came back to Fujisawa on the weekends when she had more free time. "And it hasn't been too long since you last came back."

"Are they being mean to you?!" Azuki-san gasped, looking affronted.

"We should go beat them up!" Matcha-san declared, shaking her oversized child fist, ears straightening in anticipation.

"No! Wait! Yeah no, it's not like that!" the older umamusume sputtered, caught between eating and correcting the confusion, her tail flailing erratically. "I like it a lot, but it's still taking some used to being away from home."

"So we need to go beat them up so they let you come home more often!"

"No, you don't need to do that! I just have a lot of homework and training, ya know!"

"Shiro-chan," Taro-san leaned over to whisper to her. "I think they need a distraction."

Shirogane stared back up at her tall acquaintance with a nonplussed expression. "Are you sure it isn't you that is hungry?"

"Ehehe, Shiro-chan isn't wrong there." she admitted sheepishly, before snapping around to grab Matcha-san as the younger girl tried swinging at air and overbalancing. "Hey! Calm down! Shiro-chan brought food."

"Oh yeah!"

"Thank you for the food, Shiro-chan!"

With the younger pair distracted, Shirogane, Taro and Steady Distance took a seat at a table to eat their own food.

Shirogane finished first, and followed up by looking over the supplements Steady Distance had brought back from Kawasaki Academy. The gels and electrolytes weren't terribly expensive, but in the quantities required for umamusume, it could add to something rather significant, so it had been more economical to have the running academy student purchase some extra with her student discount in exchange for some food Shirogane prepared using leftover ingredients.

She wasn't exactly sure why Steady was willing to make this rather lopsided trade, but from what Shirogane could gather, the older girl's family was relatively wealthy, even if they weren't one of the prestigious racing families, so this kind of purchase was a rather trivial matter for her.

"Ne, ne, Shiro-chan, are you planning on being a racer?" Taro-san wondered, looking at the gels and electrolyte boxes. "I think you'd be pretty good!"

"Just because I am faster than you doesn't mean I'd make a good racer," Shirogane pointed out. "I was mostly interested in these things because I wanted to see how much of a difference it could make." Working at a restaurant could often mean standing around in a hot environment for long periods of time, not to mention irregular mealtimes, so the energy gel packs and electrolytes could help with avoiding dehydration when working in the kitchen. It would also help with PT.

And if she figured out how to make some herself…

"Aww, don't sell yourself short Shiro-chan–"

"I am short."

"–I think you'd do pretty good," Steady Distance declared around a mouthful of pierogi, ears twitching enthusiastically. "Maybe you'd even win the Kawasaki Kinen, or something!"

"While I appreciate the vote of confidence, I will most likely be taking over Suzukiya when my parents get older. We can't really afford for me to attend a racing academy."

The racing academies were some of the best schools for umamusume, both academically and in regards to training programs, but gaining entry was a competitive endeavor, and most of the roster would inevitably be filled up by children from notable pedigrees due to being selectively bred for improved performance. There was some degree of nepotism, but most of the time they did win out in fair competitions.

Shirogane had not heard of any umamusume with a pair of human parents doing particularly well on the racing circuit, so it seemed likely she would be far outclassed.

"It's not that exp–well it's not Tracen…" Steady caught herself, again reminded that her younger friends were not as well off, with the Suzukis having most of their assets tied down to their restaurant while the Satos' mother, Umeki ,worked at a shipping warehouse and their father worked at an ice cream store. In contrast, her own father was a fairly high up salaryman while her mother was a locally successful retired racer.

"Even so, I can't exactly leave my parents to do all the work," Shirogane added. "My grandparents are not dead yet, but they are getting old enough they can't help as much." At least they didn't need to spend so much time looking after her now that she had demonstrated her ability to look after herself. Still, it would probably be better for their health if they moved towards retirement. It wasn't helped by the fact that her parents couldn't really afford another child since she consumed enough resources for at least two.

"Ya know, if you make it into the big leagues, you'd land a lot of money," Steady pointed out. "Then you won't have to worry about it as much."

"It isn't as simple as that," Shirogane deflected. "First of all, that depends largely on at least showing in a big race. However, the majority of the purse goes to first place, and from those winnings, a chunk is taken by the academy, and more fractions are cut off by taxes, so the take home amount is far less than what may appear."

"Ya don't need to tell me that," Steady sighed, grimacing at the memory of her own admittedly limited experience with race winnings.

"And aside from all that, most racing careers are short, so the theoretical winning would have to last the rest of my life, or I'd just need to find another job afterwards."

"...You aren't wrong, Shiro-chan, but it's ok to dream a little bit."

Dream? "...I have a family that cares for me at their own expense and expects too little in return; I live in a pleasant place where aside from natural disasters, I do not have to fear for my life, and barring severe economic downturn, I will have something to inherit to pass down to any children I might have."

Shirogane smiled. This life felt like a dream, like the retirement she imagined in her past lives.

"What else could I wish for?"

---

"Go, go, go!"

"Onee-chan! Faster!"

"I'd be able to go faster if you ate less, Ma-chan–Ow!"

"Onee-chan is being mean!"

Shirogane almost let out a snort of amusement, but had to keep her breathing steady if she wanted to keep Azuki-san steady on her back as they made their way around the track.

Even while young, the young umamusume was already notably heavier than most human adults, so was a decent training weight, and one that came with built in motivational speaking.

"Go, Shiro-chan, go!"

Unfortunately for the cheerful young girl, motivation could only do so much, and physical difference meant that despite Shirogane having a notably higher top speed than Taro-san, she very much could not reach that speed while carrying a horseload, whereas the much larger umamusume wasn't too much slowed by her sibling (which meant that their average velocity was actually comparable).

"Onee-chan, you need to go faster!"

"We're already winning, you little fatty!"
"Hey! Onee-chan, if you don't go faster they'll catch up!"

"We're almost there, shut up and–oh damn it!"

As Taro-san slowed from shouting back, Shirogane and Azuki slipped past her to cross the hashmark first.

"Shiro and Azuki-chan win by a neck!" Steady Distance declared cheerfully, throwing her hands up.

"Yay! Good job Shiro-chan!"

"I told you she was catching up!"

"Thank you, Azuki-chan, you did a good job as well."

"No, you did not!"

"Did too!"

Shirogane stood up straight as Azuki-san hopped off her back, rolling her neck and stretching her arms to loosen them up after that exertion. The young draft uma was getting bigger at a fast rate, and it would likely not be too long until this would no longer be unfeasible. "If you keep growing like this, Azuki-chan, you'll be too big for me to carry soon."

"Aw…then how about Azuki-chan carry you?"

"If that will help you with your training, I suppose I could submit myself to that."

"Yay! Shirogane-chan is the best!"

"That'll look a bit more normal," Steady Distance muttered as she tossed Shirogane an energy gel pack. "It looks a bit funny for the little pipsqueak to carry an oversized child."

Shirogane consumed the gel pack, giving the older umamusume an unimpressed look.

"Heey! I'm not fat!"

"You said it, Azuki-chan, not me!"

"Who are you calling fat you melon-chested weirdo?!" The irate young filly pointed her finger accusingly at the sniggering young woman, not quite realizing that it wasn't quite the insult she thought it was.

"Melon-chested?" Steady Distance laughed, slapping her chest playfully. "That's a good one, though these ain't quite as big as melons."

"Unripe melons."

"You quit that right now, Shiro-chan!"

Taro-san and Matcha-san were still arguing quite loudly, which was a common enough occurrence that the rest of the group ignored them, and now Azuki-san and Steady Distance were bickering as well. At least it was decent aerobic exercise.

Idly, Shirogane again wondered at the unusual development rate of umamusume. Both of the younger Sato children were still elementary students, but looked to be on the cusp of puberty, while Taro and Steady, being a couple years older than Shirogane, already looked like adults, albeit young ones. And yes, it would be impossible to mistake them for anything other than children with how they acted.

Deciding it best not to involve herself in their bickering, Shirogane began to jog around the track as a cool down.

"Ah! It's time!"

And shortly afterwards the other umas trailed after her like lost ducklings.

Somehow, she had been nominated the leader of this little group without her consent.

"Time for a cool down?" Steady Distance asked as she caught up to Shirogane.

"Yes, a few kilometers should do."

"And here I was gonna run back to my dorms."

"That would be around thirty odd kilometers, no?"

"Okay, fine. I was gonna run to the train station, then run to my dorms."

"Wait for usss, Onee-chan!"

"Hey, I'm right here!"

Taro-san really had a strange relationship with her siblings.

"Say, Shirogane, you think you can beat me?" Steady Distance challenged with a grin, one ear flicking teasingly.

"I doubt it, but I'm game to try."

"Then come one! Show me what you got, pipsqueak!"

The older girl took off, and Shirogane followed in her wake.

There wasn't much of a contest. Steady Distance was close to physically mature, while Shirogane was still growing, and that alone would have given the older girl an advantage even without accounting for her years of specifically training for racing. Still, Steady was not running full tilt, as she still had to return to her dorms before the weekend was over, and running in her wake meant that Shirogane could keep up more than she would be able to in a direct comparison.

Another case where her smaller stature proved beneficial rather than a hindrance.

She still lost, but that had never been an expectation. It was a good workout nonetheless.

---

"Ne, ne, Shiro-chan! Do you have the ice cream ones today?!" Swift Yujo asked in lieu of greeting as she flounced over to Shirogane's desk.

"Unfortunately no, Yujo-san," Shirogane answered, arranging her school materials neatly on her desk. "While they were undeniably tasty, they are a bit too expensive to be a year round item."

"Aww! But people like ice cream all the time!"

"Statistically that does not bear out. Or rather, people do not eat as much ice cream in the winter."

"...Yeeahh…I guess you're right." The brown haired filly flopped down onto the desk next to Shirogane's, her ears flicking curiously. "But you've got to have some stock, right?"

"Yes, but you will have to wait."

"But Shiro-chan! Aren't I your friend?!" Swift Yujo put on a pitiful air, with ears drooping and tail sagging. Shirogane paid her theatrics no heed.

To some extent they had been friends for years, having been placed in the same desensitization class, and then in the same class through elementary school. Even now at middle school, they had happened to be placed in the same class.

"That's why I told you I do not have your favorite item."

After several years of being around only other umamusume students, having classes mixed with normal human students was quite an interesting shift.

"That's it?!"

It was also a rather significant shock to the human students because the gender ratio suddenly changed significantly. For the umamusume, it was the first time they had males in the same class, and for the humans, there was a sudden influx of females, for while umamusume were less common than normal humans, there was enough of them to shift the gender ratio from skewing more male to skewing more female.

"Given that we are not supposed to bring food into the classroom, and class is about to start, that will have to be it. Not to mention that Watanabe-san has been waiting for you to vacate his desk for a few minutes." Shirogane gave the quiet boy an apologetic nod.

"Waah! I'm sorry, Akira-kun!" Yujo-san hopped up off his desk, bowing out a quick apology, before quickly dashing back to her own desk without waiting for a response.

"It's fine," Watanabe-san murmured belatedly, before sitting down on his desk and taking his school supplies out of his backpack, nodding thankfully to Shirogane, but not making eye contact. This wasn't out of any ill intent, as he was simply shy.

For whatever reason, the teachers had decided to always assign Shirogane a desk near a number of anxious humans or more twitchy umamusume, much to Yujo-san's dismay. They generally also avoided having umamusume seated next to each other, particularly the more rambunctious ones, likely in an attempt to prevent them from collaborating in chaos as easily. This was of limited effectiveness because there was little stopping them from roping in the humans into their antics too.

Shirogane obviously saw no point in this kind of childish mischief, even if she was still bored rather often in class, despite having requested additional study materials from her teachers. At a certain point they became worried that she'd overwork herself in pursuit of getting into a good school despite that not being in her plans, and became more hesitant to give her more work.

In another life, she remembered long study hours and a grinding regimen of exams to just qualify for a good school, only to do even more of the same there, and then again at university. After that, it had been more long hours at work, and much of what the Salaryman had studied in school had been of little or no use. The main transferrable things had been navigation of organizational hierarchy and the management of people through incentives and punishments, though his failure to account for the sheer slothful laziness of some people had gotten him killed.

He had never gotten a chance to retire. Never got married, had no children. Left nothing behind.

For all that effort to be a productive member of society, it couldn't be really said that he made much of a difference at all.

The Soldier had made a significant impact, but it had gotten her nowhere in the end either.

Shirogane expected much the same out of this life, but compared to the other two, it felt like retirement.

Still…retirement was not free, because nothing was truly without cost.

Her carefree and peaceful life came at the expense of her family's labor, something she was working on repaying as much as she could.

"Shiro-chan! Do you have carrot pilogis?"

"Please get in line." Their pronunciation also needed some work.

"Oh, sorry!"

She had not expected many of classmates to be willing to pay for her cooking. It had mostly been a joke, but it had turned into an opportunity.

It couldn't be said that she made much money off of this, even selling the pierogis at an upcharged 100 yen a piece, but it had become enough of a fixture that a lot of her schoolmates regularly supplemented their meals with some of her creations.

"Here you go."

"Thanks for the food, Shiro-chan!"

"You are welcome."

The main purpose of this endeavor though, was as a sort of advertisement, and over the years she had observed, with some satisfaction, a good number of her schoolmates becoming new customers for Suzukiya, with a few becoming regulars.

Shirogane had not managed an exact estimate of how much that helped with revenue, but it should help offset the cost of raising her to some degree, even if today wasn't looking like a particularly good day for her own efforts.

"Thank you, Shiro nee-san!"

"Thank you for your patronage." Why was she being called older sister? She was in a younger class.

"U-Um…Shirogane-san…"

"Hello again, Watanabe-san." Shirogane paused, looking down at the box in his hands. "You are not here to buy something, are you?"

"N-No," he stammered, seeming to fight an urge to flee, before forcing himself to look her in the eyes. "T-This is for you."

Shirogane blinked. "What for? And what is it?"

Watanabe-san blinked back owlishly at her. "It's chocolate." In his surprise, he lost his stammer. "It's White Day."

Oh…that explained the lower number of customers.

"I see…thank you for the chocolate." She looked at him bemusedly. "But I do not remember giving you chocolate on Valentine's Day."

"I-I'm sorry–"

"No need to apologize. I will not turn down chocolate offered in good faith, but it was my understanding that this day was a day of reciprocal gifts, is it not?"

"...You gave me your lunch on Valentine's Day, so I thought I should thank you."

"I did?" Did she? "Ah, I remember. That was because someone ruined your lunch."

"Y-Yes."

"A thoroughly unpleasant person. I trust they have not given you any trouble since?"

"N-No."

"Splendid. I would hate to learn that my teaching methods require adjustment."

"I think they're great, Shirogane-san."

"I appreciate the confidence, Watanabe-san. Was there anything else you needed from me?"

"No…thanks again, Shirogane-san." He slumped, but caught himself and stood straighter.

"Think nothing of it."

He turned to leave, finally finding a little steel in his spine–

Why was everyone staring at her like that?

"These chocolates are not for sale."

She received chocolate from several more male classmates that day, none of whom she had given chocolate on Valentine's Day (she had not given any out). It was rather strange, though she wasn't quite opposed to it.

Her parents had reacted quite strongly for some reason, but she had assured them she was too young to be pursuing any relationship commitments.

That had seemed to bother them more.

Was there anything she could do to make them less worried?!

---

With the onset of spring came rain, sometimes in torrential downpours, which made pedestrian traffic much harder.

Shigeru was quite accustomed to this, but that was not to say that he enjoyed it, at least not when he had deliveries to do. While he was just as good a cook as his parents or his wife, of the four of them he was the only one who could really manage to haul deliveries on his bike. It had been his main job when he was younger, before his father had deemed him acceptable in the kitchen, and now it was still something he did on occasion, especially when their part timers were busier with the start of the school year.

It was not normally too bad of a job, but his luck had not been that great today. The sudden rainfall had made the ground slick, and the bike tires he really should have replaced had been too smooth, so it was really no big surprise that he ended up crashing.

The crash hadn't really been his fault, as someone had darted out of an alley, not looking and hurrying in the rain, which made him swerve, which made his worn out bike tires slip, and sent him down into the sidewalk.

Things could have been a lot worse than it turned out, since his rain jacket softened a lot of the impact and he didn't get anything twisted weirdly. He was also on the way back to the restaurant so he didn't lose any food or make a huge mess.

The bike, on the other hand, already being quite old, would definitely need repairs before he could use it again.

And so it was with a dim mood and slight limp that he stumbled his way back into Suzukiya, wondering what they were going to do about the other delivery orders he knew still had to be sent out.

"Cholera jasna!" Katarzyna cursed, eyes widening when she spotted him. "What happened to you?!"

"Crashed the bike," Shigeru sighed, shaking his head. "Don't think I can manage any more deliveries today."

"Kurde! Forget about that!" his wife hissed, rushing over to him. "Are you hurt?"

"Not too bad." He felt a bit sore.

"Don't be an idiot!" Kat grumbled, pulling him over to a seat and firmly pushing him to sit so she could start checking on him. Fortunately there weren't any customers in the store at the moment, largely due to the rain.

"Well I'll be damned, you really are just a bit bruised."

"Would I lie to you?"

"Do you really want me to answer that question, dear?"

"Hahaha, I suppose not." Shigeru grimaced as his laughter agitated the bruising. "What are we going to do about the deliveries?"

"We'll just have to cancel them. Blame the rain. They should understand."

Shigeru frowned. He didn't like it, but that might be what they would have to do.

At that moment, Shirogane squelched her way into the building, shaking off droplets of rain in the doorway. Her eyes fixed onto his injuries immediately, and Shigeru couldn't help but feel a bit worried about the flashes of fear in his daughter's eyes.

"Don't worry about your old Pops, okay Shiro-chan?" he called. "It'll take a bit more than a bike crash to take me down."

"Are you injured?" She asked, getting closer to check on him as well.

"The lucky idiot is fine," Kat sighed fondly, shaking her head.

"The bicycle will need repairs, then," Shirogane concluded, looking troubled. She must have seen the damaged bike outside before she came inside.

"Definitely," Shigeru agreed with a light grimace. "I really should have gotten it fixed up earlier, but trouble moves together, I suppose."

One of his daughter's ears twitched in a rare sign of agitation. "There are still deliveries to be made."

"We'll just have to cancel them or apologize," his wife repeated to their daughter. "Unless they want to come pick it up. I'm not sending your father back into the rain while he's hurt."

"I can go," their daughter declared, face set in determination.

Shigeru shared a worried look with Katarzyna.

"Shiro-chan…" his wife started. "You don't have to do that. What if you get sick?"

"I'll wear a jacket."

"That's not the point!"

Shirogane was not dissuaded, despite whatever method her mother tried. Shigeru watched the set of his daughter's jaw, the flexing of her fingers, and the uncharacteristic swish of her tail. These were small signs, barely noticeable to most people, but Shigeru had watched over his serious little daughter for all her life, and he could see she would not back down, because it was not herself she was worried about, so punishment to her could not move her.

What a wonderful daughter he had.

"Do you know the way to Ito-oba-san's place?" He asked finally, cutting off his wife's concerned scolding.

"You can't be serious, Shigeru, not in this weather!"

"I know the way."

"And Nakamura-san?"

"Yes."

"Shigeru!"

"I know how to get to all of them."

"Be back in two hours, ok? I don't want you out in the rain for too long, you understand?"

"Yes father." Shirogane moved to take the boxes Katarzyna had prepared, but Shigeru raised a hand to stop her.

"If you catch a cold…" he added warningly. "I'll tell your teachers not to give you any extra study material for a month."

One of her ears flicked petulantly, but Shirogane held his gaze without wavering. "I understand father."

Shigeru nodded. "Then keep yourself warm. And don't let any rain get into the food!"

Shirogane packed the boxes into the carrying case with practiced efficiency, put on an oversized rain coat, and then secured the delivery pack on her back, the large carrying case looking almost comical on her small, childish frame, and yet she carried it with ease.

Probably not wanting to risk him changing his mind, she marched out into the rain and took off, her stride sending water splashing up and down the road in her wake.

"...Was that a good idea, dear?" Katarzyna murmured worriedly, nervously cleaning an unused plate.

"It should be safe," Shigeru replied, half to convince himself. "She's got a good head on her shoulders."

"A little too good, it feels sometimes."

"Yeah…I don't know where we messed up, but she gets far too worried if she doesn't feel useful."

His wife grimaced. "Did we ever give her that impression?"

"I don't think so," Shigeru returned reassuringly, before his face set into a serious expression. "But still…"

"What is it?"

"At this point, I think trying to change her mind about that will hurt her more."

"...Trying to talk her out of it will just make her try harder, won't it?"

"That's how it's gone so far, hasn't it?"

"So…what should we do?"

"I think we should stop hoping she'll have a normal childhood, because she really isn't your typical kid." Shigeru frowned, trying to gather the thoughts that had been percolating in his head for a long time, rattled together by his recent pratfall. "We should give her some more responsibility, see if she can handle it. If she can, then we should be happy that we have such a gifted child. If not, then we'll pick her up off the ground as we should as her parents."

"...I suppose it's worth a try."

Shigeru reached over and squeezed his wife's hand affectionately.

One day, their little Orzeł would fly the nest, probably flying higher than either of them could ever go, and it would not be fair to her if they stunted her growth, no matter how much they'd like for her to enjoy her childhood.

---

AN. Despite this story being quite happy and relatively carefree compared to my other stories, for some reason it makes me more emotional. Maybe it's actually because there isn't that much conflict. That sounds kind of nice these days.
Also, this chapter can be summarizes as:
Shirogane's family and teachers: "Shiro-chan, don't push yourself too hard! You're already very far ahead, you should enjoy your childhood!"
Meanwhile Shirogane, having the best childhood she can remember: "This is great! If only I had a little bit more stuff to do."

 

[9ballSeraph]

The air was thick with gunpowder smoke, and the sky itself seemed to groan beneath the weight of thunder and musket fire. Byerley Turk staggered in the mud, her breath ragged, the sharp taste of iron flooding her mouth. Her forehead burned—blood streamed down into her eye, blinding one side of her world. She could still feel the tremor of steel on steel in her hands, the memory of that desperate clash with the enemy uma's bayonet. Every muscle screamed. Her knees buckled.

The cries of men and horses mingled in a chorus of violence around her, but they grew faint—muffled, as though she were sliding beneath water. She collapsed, cheek pressed to the cold mire, staring upward through the smoke and chaos.

And then she saw it.

The heavens split, not by cannon fire, but by the streak of something impossible.

A girl. Small, blonde-haired, clad in a green military uniform that did not belong to this war, soared across the sky. Not riding, not leaping, but flying—cutting through clouds as though the world had granted her dominion over air itself. Bullets—no, not bullets, something stranger—sought her out, and she twisted between them with unearthly precision. She corkscrewed, rolled, danced among murderous bursts of fire. Around her swarmed enemies—uniformed men wielding weapons she did not recognize, their flashes sparking against the dark—but none could touch her.

The world should have trembled beneath such fury, yet Byerley's eyes caught on something else.

The wind caught the girl's hair as she soared higher. Golden strands shimmered in the light of explosions. And though her face was twisted in some terrible frenzy, though her mouth was pulled back in a snarl of battle-madness, Byerley did not see the fury. She saw the glimmer of joy burning in the filly's eyes, brighter than all the fire that rained around her.

It was freedom.

That was what it meant. To cut through the sky unbound, to feel the air as a living current beneath your body, to dance where no hoof had ever touched. Byerley's heart lurched with a pang sharper than her wounds.

She wanted that.

She wanted to run—not across fields of mud and blood, not through the clamor of musket fire and dying screams, but across endless green. She wanted to feel the same wind, the same sky, brushing against her skin.

Her lips moved, barely a whisper, swallowed by the noise of battle:

"Ah… to run…"

The vision shimmered, like sunlight off a blade, and faded. All that remained was the smoke, the mud, and the slow trickle of her blood painting the earth beneath her.

A shadow fell over her. A strong hand gripped her arm, hauling her upright.

"Come now, lass!" Captain Robert Byerley's voice thundered, though muffled in her daze. She could barely make out his grin through the haze, his face streaked with mud and powder, eyes alight with reckless joy. He pressed a fresh musket into her hands, slapping the stock against her shoulder as if to rouse her spirit. "Up! Up! We've work yet!"

He gestured wildly, rallying, chuckling at her state as though this was all a game. He bellowed something more—orders, encouragement, maybe a jest—but the words were lost in the ringing of her ears.

Still, his laughter reached her.

Her vision of the flying girl burned still in her mind, lending her a strength that surprised her battered body. Her legs, trembling and slick with mud, steadied. She wanted to live. She wanted to run.

For a moment she wavered—ashamed of her lapse in discipline, ashamed of how her spirit faltered when her comrades still pressed forward. "Fool," she muttered under her breath, chiding herself. An uma must not drift into dream while the muskets roared.

And yet—because of that dream—she found her footing again. She snapped the musket to her chest, gritted her teeth, and surged forward beside Robert.

Through smoke and steel they charged.

The war was won, though not without blood. Months later, in a grand mansion far from the battlefield, the air was heavy with firelight and conversation instead of powder and death. Colonel Robert Byerley sat among gentlemen, his uniform polished, his wounds mostly healed, his wife seated elegantly at his side. Crystal glasses clinked, and the talk had turned—as it always did—to the war just passed.

"You should have seen it," Robert said, his booming laugh filling the chamber. "There I was, near cut off from my men, reconnoitering far too close to the enemy line. A fool's errand, but orders are orders. They spotted me, and I caught a ball for my trouble. Would've been finished there and then—aye, captured, dragged before their officers—had it not been for my friend."

He raised his glass toward Byerley Turk, who lingered at the edge of the gathering, half in the shadow of the mantel's glow. "Owing my safety to her superior speed, no less. Carried me as though I weighed no more than a sack of oats, though blood soaked us both. A finer comrade no officer could pray for."

The men of the Jockey Club chuckled appreciatively, though some looked at her with curiosity—this soldier, this uma, who fought in fields where most of their kind were seen only in races or hunts.

Robert's wife smiled faintly, though with that restrained air of a woman accustomed to war stories retold for effect. She laid a hand on her husband's arm, murmuring for him to temper his boasting.

But Byerley Turk stepped forward then, the firelight catching the scar still faintly visible upon her brow. Her eyes were steady, though within them flickered something other than battle. Something freer.

"Colonel," she said, her voice quiet but firm, "I want to join the club."

The room paused, the chatter stilled. Robert blinked, then broke into a grin, his teeth flashing.

She lowered her gaze for a moment, then raised it again with quiet resolve.

"I want to run."