“Eh? Me?” Mizuno Sora pointed to himself in disbelief.
Faced with Yamamoto Sennin’s plea to save the secret boys’ dormitory, Mizuno was dumbfounded. He thought maybe Yamamoto Sennin, about to be Uma Pyoi’d by a mob of Uma, had simply despaired to the point of babbling nonsense.
After all, Mizuno was just a weak, pitiful, helpless rookie trainer. Usually he barely had time to hide from Umamusume, and now he was supposed to face hundreds, thousands of lovestruck ones?!
“T-This! This can’t be right!” Mizuno shook his head frantically, waving his hands in refusal.
Asking him to save the secret boys’ dormitory—wasn’t that just asking for his life?!
“Yamamoto-senpai, you must be joking, right?!” Mizuno secretly studied Yamamoto Sennin’s face, searching for the tiniest trace of falsehood. Even a sliver would do…
But unfortunately, the man before him remained utterly serious, expression grave, nothing like a joke or delirium.
“I beg you!” Yamamoto Sennin even bowed his head toward Mizuno, voice sincere:
“Mizuno little brother! At this moment, only you can do it!”
“…..” Looking at Yamamoto Sennin’s humbled state, Mizuno’s heart tangled up. He didn’t know how to respond.
And just then—ten seconds ago, Yamamoto Sennin’s beloved Uma had still been five hundred meters away. Now she had arrived: Italian Bubble, charging toward him with excitement.
“Trainer~ I found you!”
Italian Bubble plopped herself right down onto Yamamoto Sennin’s lap, arms wrapping around his neck, nose tip affectionately nuzzling his cheek.
“Trainer~ you can’t run away!” she purred, gazing at him with such raw love that she seemed one second away from tearing open his clothes on the spot.
Yet Yamamoto Sennin’s face held not the slightest fear, as though he had already accepted his fate.
Looking calmly at the Uma clinging to him, he spoke gently: “Bubble, I won’t run. But… can you let me say a few more words to my friendr? Once I finish, I’ll obediently go with you…”
“……” Italian Bubble blinked, surprised. Her trainer was never this compliant. Usually he refused even casual dates, going straight back to the dorm after work—yet now he was willingly offering to go with her. Suspicious, but…
A trainer obeying her wishes could only be a good thing. So Italian Bubble nodded.
“Okay.”
“Thank you!” With his beloved Uma’s permission, Yamamoto Sennin wasted no time, turning back to plead again:
“I beg you, Mizuno!”
“From your unusual way of speaking, your deep knowledge, and even that outfit of yours—something that seems to lower your presence—I can tell you’re no ordinary man. You must be hiding tremendous strength…”
“Faced with this Uma siege, something all others fear, you’re still standing here instead of fleeing. That proves none of your own Uma are part of this wave, so you’re under no threat. That calmness—that’s your advantage! And that’s why I must ask you!”
Yamamoto Sennin grasped Mizuno’s hand with fervor.
“You’re the only one who can do this. The only one who can move freely while every other dorm is under Uma patrol. So…”
“I beg you!” He bowed his head once again.
Mizuno: “…….”
“Trainer~ are you done talking? I can’t wait anymore…” Italian Bubble leaned on Yamamoto Sennin’s back, breathing softly into his ear.
If he didn’t finish soon, she’d start taking matters into her own hands.
“Mm… I’m done…” Yamamoto Sennin still bowed, his face hidden by shadow, expression unreadable.
“Fufufu~” Italian Bubble beamed, delighted. She eagerly gripped the handles of his wheelchair and pushed him away.
Yay~ time to horse-jump with Trainer~!
“…..” Mizuno watched as Yamamoto Sennin was carried off by his beloved Uma, their silhouettes receding until gone from sight. His heart churned, fist clenching unconsciously.
Inside his mind, a war raged—his rational side and his emotional side clashing fiercely, deciding whether to accept Yamamoto Sennin’s request.
Rationality shouted at him not to. No one could say what accidents might happen during this “rescue,” and for the sake of his own safety, the best choice was to refuse…
But emotion urged him to help. After all, Yamamoto-senpai had been nothing but kind. The other male trainers—while not close, they were at least drinking buddies. Both in reason and in feeling, shouldn’t he save them…?
“Tch…” Mizuno’s two brain-halves wrestled, deadlocked.
After long hesitation, he sighed, spreading his hands helplessly, looking like someone whose heart wanted to help but whose strength fell short.
“I’m just a weak rookie trainer. I don’t have the same overwhelming power the Uma do, so…”
“Whoever wants to help can go do it themselves!”
Muttering to himself, Mizuno seemed to cast off the tangle in his heart. He laced his hands behind his head, relaxed, and strode off in the opposite direction from where Yamamoto Sennin had disappeared.
…
Meanwhile, inside the secret boys’ dormitory, lust-filled Uma crowded everywhere.
They patrolled the halls, kicked down doors, rifled through belongings, determined to turn the place upside down until they found their beloved trainers.
The thing was—although they had learned the location of the secret boys’ dormitory from the forums, they didn’t actually know their trainers’ specific building or room numbers.
And the dorm doors were built solid. Even with several Uma striking together, they couldn’t break them instantly—it took at least two or three minutes to smash one open.
But breaking a door didn’t guarantee success. The trainer inside might not be their own, and if not, they could only leave disappointed.
It was like opening blind boxes with a cooldown timer. If it happened to be their trainer, wonderful. If not, they had to call in friends and spend another two or three minutes breaking the next door…
During that window, trainers could temporarily patch up their doors, buying themselves a little more time against the Uma outside…
Thus, after ten minutes of the Uma siege, only one-fifth of the trainers had fallen victim.
These trainers were either too slow getting back to their rooms and got caught halfway by their own Uma, or else they were hiding inside when someone “opened the box,” and the one doing the opening happened to be their beloved Uma…
In short, for the moment most trainers were still relatively safe. But if the Uma kept on opening boxes, sooner or later someone would pull a “SSR”…
So while the Uma were still checking dorms one by one, grumbling that the trainer in the room they’d just smashed into wasn’t theirs…
A few of them suddenly noticed that, at some point, a little stall had appeared in the center of the dormitory plaza, with a strange black-clad man sitting beside it.
Honestly, everyone would’ve ignored this black-clad guy, but for some reason it was like he’d poured milk all over himself. They could smell it, and that’s the only reason they found him.
Next to the stall where the black-clad man sat was a conspicuous sign:
[Want to know where your trainer lives? I’ll tell you!]
“You can really tell us where our own trainer lives?”
In front of the stall, a bunch of Uma began to gather, crowding around and peering curiously at the strange man in black.
“Of course!”
The black-clad man—Mizuno—thumped his chest with confidence and said, honest as anything:
“I’m the dorm supervisor of this secret boys’ dorm. I know every trainer’s address. As long as you tell me his name, I can tell you his building and room number…”
“Really?!” A bun-haired Uma squeezed up to the stall, excited. “My trainer is Hikiya Kyuhata. Can you tell me where he lives?”
“I can…” Mizuno nodded, then lowered his voice mysteriously:
“I can tell you where he lives, but before that, you have to pay a little price…”
“Price?” The bun-haired Uma tilted her head, puzzled. “What kind of price?”
“Simple. Just…”
Mizuno stood up and, friendly as could be, held out his hand to her.
“A handshake. Both hands.”
“?”
The bun-haired Uma had no idea why the black-clad man wanted to shake hands, but she still reached out and clasped his.
“Alright.” After about five seconds, Mizuno let go, then raised his hand and pointed in a direction. “Your trainer is in Building 8 over there, Room 404.”
“J-Just… that simple?” The bun-haired Uma was baffled, not following this black-clad man’s logic.
It was just a quick handshake. How was that a price?
“Yeah, just that simple.” Mizuno nodded, then urged, “Hurry and go find your trainer! If you don’t go now and the Student Council members arrive, it’ll be too late!”
“O-okay!” The bun-haired girl, thoroughly bluffed by Mizuno, took off running toward the address he’d given.
But most of the Uma still viewed this suddenly-appearing “black-clad dorm supervisor” with suspicion. They didn’t really believe that a fellow human male would so easily sell out his own kind’s address info.
So they kept searching what needed searching, ramming what needed ramming. Almost none of them chose to get their trainers’ addresses from Mizuno.
Until two minutes later, when the bun-haired Uma’s friend received a message from her:
[The black-clad dorm supervisor was telling the truth! My trainer really lives here!]
Besides that text, there was also a freshly-taken photo: the bun-haired Uma sitting on her trainer’s stomach, flashing a peace sign, while the trainer pinned beneath her stared up in despair, utterly at a loss as to how his Uma knew exactly where he lived.
“Sisters! He’s legit!” The bun-haired Uma’s friend showed the phone thread to the others.
“Really?!” The crowd gasped.
The instant credibility of Mizuno’s addresses set off a furor. Those who had been randomly door-crashing blind boxes stopped what they were doing and flocked to Mizuno’s stall.
Uma A: “Mr. Dorm Supervisor, my trainer—”
Mizuno: “Handshake.”
Uma A: “Okay!”
Mizuno: “Over there!”
Uma A: “Thanks!”
Uma B: “Dorm super—”
Mizuno: “Handshake.”
Uma B: “Uh—okay…”
Mizuno: “This way!”
More and more Uma crushed in around the stall to ask for their trainers’ addresses, and Mizuno didn’t hold anything back—he told them all.
Only, just as business was booming, one Uma suddenly asked:
“Um… you’re also a human male, right? Why aren’t you helping your own kind by hiding their info? Why choose to sell them out?”
With that, the lively scene went cold in an instant.
All the Uma stared at Mizuno, curious. If this strange black-clad “dorm supervisor” didn’t give a reasonable answer, their trust in him would plummet.
Facing the stares of hundreds of Uma, Mizuno showed not a hint of panic. Calmly, he replied:
“Because compared to humans, I like Uma Musume more.”
Mizuno pressed a hand to his chest, sincerity on his face. “So rather than helping my own kind hide their info, I think getting to shake hands with Uma Musume is more valuable!”
“Oooh~” Now the Uma understood.
So this black-clad dorm supervisor was a human-traitor, huh…
“Hahaha—” Mizuno scratched the back of his head and laughed, as if he felt no shame at all about selling out his fellow humans.
But as for whether he was actually a traitor, Mizuno’s answer in his heart was, of course, no.
Because aside from the very first address—the bun-haired Uma’s trainer—every single address he gave afterward was fake!
This was the only method Mizuno could think of to help the other trainers. He couldn’t take on Uma head-on, so he could only stall for time this way.
Right after leaving the izakaya, he’d gone to the dorm supervisor old man’s room, quietly nabbed the secret boys’ dorm trainer address list, then headed to the plaza, poured a bucket of milk over himself to boost his presence, set up a stall, and began supplying address info that was completely different from the Uma’s trainers’ actual residences.
As for why Mizuno insisted on shaking hands before giving an address…
There was no lofty reason. He simply wanted to drag things out a little longer.
Five seconds was short, true—but if he held on too long, the Uma might get suspicious. So he limited it to five seconds, neither too long nor too short.
And before launching this fraud plan, Mizuno had already sent a message to Student Council President Symboli Rudolf.
[Chatting with the beautiful, cute, and clever Luna] (note: certain phrases forcibly altered by Symboli Rudolf)
[Mizuno]: The secret boys’ dorm location’s been exposed! Uma invasion in progress! Requesting support!
[Luna]: Understood.
[Luna]: Can you tell me how many Uma?
[Mizuno]: Roughly over five hundred!
[Luna]: Noted.
[Luna]: I’ll organize the Student Council members and the Academy’s Uma security. Once ready, we’ll come at once.
[Mizuno]: How long?
[Luna]: Approximately sixty minutes to arrival.
[Mizuno]: ……
[Mizuno]: Hurry, I’m about to get Uma Pyoi’d!!
[Luna]: ?!
[Luna]: Hold on! I’ll be there within ten minutes!
—
T/N: O M G OVER 500 HUNDRED! ITS A SEIGE!!!
This is a fan translation of 赛马娘，从入门到地下室 by EEEEE然后亮标 All 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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