By evening, on a sidewalk along a busy street in Tokyo, a rather petite figure in a pink rabbit mascot costume was hard at work handing out flyers.
Unfortunately, it happened to be right around the time students were getting out of school.
As the crowd swelled, her outfit naturally drew the attention of plenty of nearby students—especially the elementary schoolers, who were shorter than the mascot, though not by all that much.
And just like that, the part-time job Tamamo Cross had finally managed to find was ruined…
“What the heck?! Why’d those little brats have to come over and mess with me?! First some parents passin’ by started makin’ comments like I was tryin’ to kidnap their kids, then after I took the head off to prove who I was, they started sayin’ my boss was employin’ an underage Umamusume?!”
Once the incident had been dealt with, Tamamo Cross pulled off the mascot head and stood by the roadside, grumbling indignantly without caring in the slightest whether anyone heard her.
“C’mon! I-I’m a high school student, y’know! An Umamusume in Tracen Academy’s Senior Division!”
“But you’re still a student either way, aren’t you? Even if you don’t have classes in the afternoon, going out to work part-time doesn’t seem all that appropriate.”
“And besides, you’re an Umamusume. Wouldn’t spending your time on a part-time job just wear you out? Whether you haven’t debuted yet or just haven’t had any races lately, working like this still doesn’t seem right.”
“And if you actually told people you were an Umamusume from Tracen Academy, that would probably make the problem even bigger.”
A strange man who had been lost in the flow of pedestrians seemed to emerge from the crowd, speaking up just as her complaints reached him.
At first, Tamamo Cross couldn’t have cared less about him.
The problem was, what he said struck her right where it hurt.
“Waaaah… Why do you people even care if I work part-time?! And you! Who the heck are you?! What gives you the right to judge somebody outta nowhere like that?!”
It was like someone had waited until her mood hit rock bottom, then deliberately jabbed at an old sore spot.
The petite, gray-haired Umamusume spun toward the inexplicable stranger, her slightly reddened sky-blue eyes widening as she fired right back.
“And another thing! We don’t even know each other, and you don’t know what’s goin’ on! Fine, forget comfortin’ me, but the fact that you can open your mouth and say all that like you’re lecturin’ me just proves you’ve gotta have zero emotional intelligence! Bet you don’t even have a girlfriend!”
Akira had no response.
Huh?! Holy crap! An emotional attack!
And, to be fair, she wasn’t exactly wrong…
It was only after taking that counterattack head-on that Akira realized what he had said might indeed have been a little too harsh from her perspective.
“Uh, well… sorry. I was passing by, heard what you said, and suddenly spoke up because I wanted to know what happened.”
After hearing his explanation, the gray-haired Umamusume began to calm down.
The string of disasters had put Tamamo Cross in such a foul mood that snapping at him had actually helped her vent some of her frustration.
Besides, he had nothing to do with what had happened.
And he had apologized just now…
“Ahh, forget it, forget it. Can’t be bothered holdin’ it against ya. But listen, nii-san, don’t make that kinda mistake again, or you’re seriously gonna end up single forever.”
“Lesson learned. But speaking of which, Tamamo Cross… you haven’t gotten the message on your phone yet?”
The gray-haired Umamusume immediately rolled her eyes at him.
Her look plainly said, “Do you seriously think someone wearing a full-body mascot suit gets a chance to pull out her phone and check it while working…?”
“Wait, you know me?”
Only after giving him that look did Tamamo Cross realize he apparently knew who she was.
Still puzzled, she followed his cue and took out her phone to check her messages.
Then the gray-haired Umamusume froze.
“…You’re a Trainer? And you’re a Trainer who came here specifically lookin’ for me?!”
Staring at the message on her phone, Tamamo Cross’s eyes widened in disbelief.
She checked the message again, then once more, each time with mounting disbelief, before stiffly turning toward Akira.
“Uh, listen… Trainer-san, if somebody’s threatenin’ you, then… uh, blink once, okay?”
In the end, she asked a third time in an oddly delicate tone, mainly because even she couldn’t believe something like this had suddenly happened to her.
A Trainer had come looking for her of his own accord to sign a contract?
She had only just had her previous contract terminated…
Hearing that, it was Akira’s turn to roll his eyes at Tamamo Cross. Only then did he answer.
“Uh, I didn’t blink.”
“Oh, right. Speaking of which, Tamamo Cross… have you eaten dinner yet?”
“Nope. Ate lunch at school, then I’ve been workin’ hungry ever since. Ah, right! The supermarket! Gotta stop chattin’, I—”
“Wait! You’re rushing off for the supermarket markdowns, aren’t you?!”
“Never mind how an Umamusume with access to the school cafeteria is still out here competing with ordinary people for those deals… Either way, don’t go today.”
Stopping the petite Umamusume before she could leave, Akira finally continued what he had originally been about to say.
“Let’s just find a restaurant and eat. We can talk while we’re there.”
Before the gray-haired Umamusume could object, his next sentence put her on the defensive all over again.
“We can talk about our future.”
…
In the end, the two of them went to a family restaurant.
By the time they arrived, the dinner rush was nearly over and the cooks finally had a little breathing room.
And so Akira found himself watching the Umamusume in the rabbit costume wolf down dish after dish—enough food to nearly cover the table.
Seeing it with his own eyes didn’t particularly shock him. Back in his previous life, it wasn’t like he had never come across videos of women with enormous appetites.
But the sight of a gray-haired Umamusume in the lower half of a pink rabbit suit furiously eating her dinner was certainly a much rarer sight.
“Wait, Tamamo, aren’t you worried about getting that mascot suit dirty and having to pay for it?”
At his question, her movements abruptly paused. Then she resumed eating as she answered.
“Hah! I’m only explainin’ this once, and I don’t wanna talk about it again after this! Just thinkin’ about it makes me mad!”
“I was supposed to have a one-month trial period at this job, but thanks to that whole mess, somehow it’s over on the third day again!”
“And because I’m an Umamusume student, the boss felt bad enough to give me a little extra pay—and then handed me this thing as a souvenir!”
At that point, Tamamo Cross gnashed her teeth and tore into her steak.
“So now it’s mine! I can do whatever I want with it!”
“Fair enough… Then let’s keep talking while you eat.”
“As for the terms, they’re all written in this contract. Tamamo Cross, if it’s convenient, you can look it over while you eat.”
Even though they were sitting in a restaurant, Akira had no intention of eating right away.
Maybe it was because he hadn’t been in this world very long, but he simply wasn’t that hungry.
Or perhaps, compared to wasting time on food, he would rather get the contract settled as soon as possible and avoid any unexpected complications.
After all, if he failed to finalize things with Tamamo Cross tonight, maybe he wouldn’t run into her right away tomorrow, and then fate might decide to start messing with him.
Opportunity comes to those who are prepared?
No.
Opportunity belongs to those who seize it themselves!
While eating, Tamamo Cross spared a little attention for the contract.
As long as the Academy recognized it, there was no way the contract would be designed to cheat an Umamusume student like her.
Truthfully, she didn’t care all that much about what was written inside.
Tamamo Cross had suffered a string of defeats and had her contract terminated. Now a Trainer was actively seeking her out as a partner; that alone left her with little reason to refuse him.
Even their clash when they first met, looking back on it, had mostly happened because he was worried about her and simply wasn’t very good at expressing himself.
Not to mention that afterward, Trainer Higashiyama had even been willing to treat her to dinner…
She still barely knew the man before her, but realistically, she didn’t have much of a choice left.
And besides, this Trainer-san in front of her seemed to think very highly of her in every respect.
After considering everything Akira had said, the gray-haired Umamusume stopped moving. She bit the inside of her lip lightly, steeling her resolve.
Then Tamamo Cross grabbed the pen nearby and, without hesitation, scribbled her signature onto the contract.
“Uh…”
It was one thing for him to be in a hurry to lose money, but why did this Umamusume look even more eager than he was?
Were they charging headfirst toward mutual loss together or what?
“Heheh… Well, anyway, I’ll be countin’ on ya from now on, Trainer-san!”
The instant Tamamo Cross decisively signed the contract, a notification sounded in Akira’s mind.
[DING! CONTRACT COMPLETED. UMAMUSUME OFFICIALLY ADDED TO MASTER’S TEAM!]
[DING! CONGRATULATIONS, MASTER. MISSION COMPLETE!]
This is a fan translation of 亏钱养马娘，但呼吸法是什么鬼？by 恰米的鼠鼠 Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!
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