Rumble—!
The next morning, Kagura woke in her room to a low, heavy roll of thunder outside the window.
Half-asleep, she turned over and looked out. The sky was pitch-black, and through the roar of wind she could hear thunder returning in uneven bursts—like a typhoon had made landfall.
As someone from the south who'd seen her share of wild weather, Kagura wasn't a stranger to typhoons. Still, the view made her pause. She distinctly remembered hearing the forecast a few days ago: a typhoon had formed out at sea. But according to the projected path back then, it wasn't supposed to come anywhere near Japan.
——I just checked the path map. It looks like it did a sudden hard turn out on the water and charged straight in—like it changed direction at the last second before landfall. Weather's a pretty magical thing, huh.
Eclipse left the note on Kagura's screen, helping her clear the fog of sleep and put things together. Kagura had seen plenty of typhoons pull abrupt turns like that before—she just hadn't expected to be on the receiving end this time, after all those years of watching from the sidelines like it was someone else's problem.
Uh… with weather like this, no one's going out to train, right?
Obviously, training outside was off the table. Kagura sat up in bed and stared into space for a bit. It was still early, and she couldn't think of anything she needed to do. So she got up, washed up, and headed for the balcony to check the situation.
"Whoa!? The wind's insane!"
The moment she slid the balcony door open, a blast of gale-force wind surged in, nearly knocking the short Kagura off her feet. She waited by the doorway for a moment until it eased slightly, then stepped out with her eyes narrowed against the gusts.
"Wow… those waves are huge…"
Out along the distant shoreline, breakers rose higher than Kagura herself. Honestly, part of her wanted to run down to the beach and sprint a few laps just to see what being a "chaser of the wind" felt like—
But in the spirit of not courting death, she forced that strange urge back down.
"Ah, Kagura-san! You're up so early!"
Bizen Nishiki's voice came from the balcony to Kagura's left. Kagura turned, curious—and found Bizen Nishiki up just as early, too. Judging by the way she was standing there, she'd been outside for a while already.
Even with the storm noise, Kagura heard her clearly. Their balconies were close enough that if you leaned out a little, you could almost reach the other side—though with all those floors below, it would be dangerous to poke around like that.
"Bizen Nishiki-senpai? Why are you up this early too?"
"The thunder just now was really loud. It startled me awake… and with all that noise outside, I wanted to come look."
"Thunder… yeah. That's how I woke up too."
"Looks like we both got jolted awake by that one strike~ Oh—by the way, do you know what time breakfast starts here?"
"Breakfast…"
Kagura thought back. Lately, she usually went down around seven. It seemed breakfast started being set out at six-thirty; she wouldn't be too early if she went now, but some dishes probably wouldn't be out yet.
"I'd recommend going down at seven. You won't be late, and you'll have more options."
"I see… thanks for the tip, Kagura-san~"
Bizen Nishiki glanced down at the time on her phone. 6:35. Still a while until seven.
Normally, she didn't have much in the way of entertainment. Staying in her room would be boring—besides scrolling through videos, there wasn't much to do. She looked toward Inari Kagura, who was still out on the balcony watching the shoreline. After hesitating, she finally asked:
"Um, Kagura-san… right now you're basically just waiting for breakfast too, right? You don't have anything to do?"
"Pretty much. Why?"
"Could I… come to your room and play? We could do Truth or Dare again, or we could play the UN0 I brought. Or we could try that tabletop game the trainer brought—the one called, um… X Country Kill, I think?"
"Wait—Narumiya-san actually brought board games to play?"
Hold up, people in Japan can get X Country Kill too!?
Hearing those familiar names, Kagura's curiosity flared. She didn't usually pay attention to this kind of thing; it took someone mentioning it to remind her. Now she couldn't help wondering whether X Country Kill still had the same "overwhelmingly positive reviews" in this world as it had in her last one.
"Yeah. The trainer said, since we're resting these next few days, if we get bored we can play with him—or take it and play with friends. And you seemed free, Kagura… and with weather like this, we can't do anything anyway…"
"Sure. It's not like we've got anything better to do."
When Kagura nodded, Bizen Nishiki brightened.
"Then I'll go wash up first, and I'll come right over!"
With that, Bizen Nishiki dashed back into her room.
...
When Bizen Nishiki came out later with a small bag, ready to go find Kagura, she spotted someone else at Kagura's door—
Nice Nature. The girl she'd played alongside yesterday in the volleyball match.
The door of the room across from Kagura's was open; Bizen Nishiki could guess that was where Nice Nature was staying.
"Ah, morning~ Bizen Nishiki-senpai! You're up really early too!"
"Morning~ Nature-san. Why are you squatting by Kagura's door this early?"
Bizen Nishiki greeted her with a smile. She was genuinely happy to see her underclassman, but for some reason, an inexplicable irritation bubbled up inside her.
"The weather's pretty bad, right…? The trainer gave me the day off, and I don't really have anything to do. So I thought I'd come find Kagura—maybe ask if she wants to go get breakfast together or something."
"Huh? Bizen Nishiki-san, and Nature-san too? Morning~ Why are you both standing at Kagura's door?"
Nice Nature had barely finished speaking when another voice came from the doorway across the hall—from the room opposite Rudolf's. Bizen Nishiki and Nice Nature turned.
Mejiro Ardan was up at this hour too, walking toward Kagura's door.
"Ardan-san too…?"
Bizen Nishiki couldn't help staring. She'd thought she was the only one up this early. Looks like that thunderclap had woken more than a few people.
Nice Nature froze as well. She'd been thinking that getting up early would let her slip in and have a little time alone with Kagura—chat a bit—
And now other people were up too.
Three Umamusume in the corridor, staring at each other.
Deadlocked.
...
Weird. Didn't Bizen Nishiki-senpai say she'd wash up and come right over? Why's it taking so long? No knock yet…
——Who knows. Maybe something urgent came up. Or she got stuck in traffic on the way?
It's one wall away. How do you get stuck in traffic…
——Well… hard to say. After all, the only things that can block a path aren't just cars.
?