"You got 3rd again?"
I sighed. "What can I do? RNG just isn't on my side these past few cups." I smiled wryly. "Keep running into whales with maxed out decks." I scoffed as I slouched into the sofa. "I swear to go if I run into one more Christmas Oguri-"
She snickered. "Hey, she's meta for a reason."
"I know, I know." I rolled my head to glance at her. "How about you?"
She grinned as she proudly showed her the results of the most recent graded league.
She got 2nd.
I stared in disbelief, before I scowled. "The hell're you looking so smug for, huh? You also didn't get 1st!"
She smirked. "At least it isn't 3rd." She reached over and patted my head. "Maybe you should try cosplaying Nice Nature. You'll fit perfectly!"
"Sod off." I snarked as I slapped her hand away.
She just laughed, and my scowl slowly slipped away. Of course, at the end of the day, I wasn't really that upset. Even if I hadn't won a graded league in the past 3 months, it wasn't as if I was all that serious about the game in the first place. Money, time—I just had too little of the two to delve fully into this gacha game.
And besides, win or lose, I still got some Carats out of it. At least enough for 80 pulls or so. It wasn't enough for the pity, but hey, a woman could dream.
"So, you rolling for the next banner?"
She blinked, before she smiled. "Of course! I've been waiting for her to drop for months now, and she's finally here!" She giggled as she swung side to side. "Ooh, she's like the ideal prince! Just look at her outfit!"
I raised an eyebrow. "Prince? Weren't you waiting for Almond Eye to drop?"
"I have a new oshi now." She said without shame. "And besides, we don't know when Almond Eye will actually come to JP, so I might as well roll for her first." She grinned slyly. "Besides, I can always swipe my card if I need more ammo."
"Are you trying to bankrupt yourself?"
She giggled. "Anything for Blossom Star!"
My thoughts paused as I processed the name. This new umamusume sounded…familiar, and strangely, I could feel my back starting to itch, as if some invisible tail was brushing against my back. "Uh, who?" I asked, hoping she hadn't noticed my odd expression.
She turned to me. She didn't say anything for a while. She stared at me in silence. Watching. Studying. Red eyes piercing.
And then she smiled.
"I believe it's time to wake up, ████"
My eyes snapped open in a panic, and I gasped as I felt the strange pressure in my chest suddenly release. I clutched at my chest for a good minute as I slowly breathed. The terror that'd clung to me from my dream slowly peeled away as my heartbeat slowly settled.
Eventually, I calmed down. And then paused.
Why was I so scared again? I think I had a dream, but I couldn't quite remember.
I winced as my head pulsed with pain, and I eventually decided to let it go. Trying to remember a dream I'd already forgotten was a useless endeavour.
On the other hand,
I smiled slightly as I watched the scenery outside as the double-decker bus I rode in drove along the road. The dense metropolitan of Central was gone, replaced with a line of trees, with an expansive beach just beyond it. The waters sparkled like diamonds beneath the summer sun.
I yawned softly as I settled back into my seat. It'd been hours since we first left Central. We'd first ridden a Shinkansen to the station nearest to the beach, and after splitting into multiple groups, I boarded one of the many double-decker buses the Director had rented out.
I had to say, Akikawa Yayoi sure was stacked with money. Paying for hundreds of Shinkansen tickets, and then renting out an entire beach and a few motel buildings for months couldn't have been cheap. And that wasn't even mentioning all the shenanigans she got to in the game.
I would've said that I was somewhat jealous, but not really. It wasn't as if I'd know what I'd use all that money for in the first place.
"Mngh…" I blinked, and turned to my left to see Oguri slowly waking up from her own sleep. I pursed my lips for a moment, realizing that my previous panicked wake up must've disturbed her. But I quickly smoothed my guilty expression into a smile as Oguri eventually opened her eyes. "Star…?"
I gently patted her head. "Sup. How's the sleep?"
"Okay." She said as she gently shook her head to fully wake herself. "Are we there yet?"
"Almost." I said, pointing my thumb towards the window. Oguri blinked as she looked past my shoulders, and her eyes sparkled as she saw the scenery outside. "Ooh…!" She leaned forward, her knees pressing onto me as she sat over me to get a better look. "It's so pretty!"
I carefully held her waist to keep her from falling. "Careful there." I warned. "Don't move too much. There's no telling if-"
Just as I said that, the bus hit a minor bump on the road, causing the bus to jolt for a moment. It was enough to cause Oguri to slip, but since I was still holding onto her, she thankfully didn't tumble.
It did, however, cause her to fall into my chest, and soon we were pressed against one another, our faces inches away.
I blinked.
She blinked.
And then she slowly pushed herself away. "Thank you for catching me." She said, smiling.
I smiled back. "No worries, just be careful next time, yeah?" She nodded, and I gave her another headpat. "Even the smallest falls can be dangerous."
She nodded repeatedly. And then she stared at me for a moment before she tilted her head. "Are you okay?"
"Mm? I'm fine."
She narrowed her eyes slightly, before she relaxed. "Okay."
I smiled slightly. So she noticed some of my lingering panic from whatever dream I had—though it's not really that surprising. Oguri Cap was observant in the strangest ways at times, and she would be the one to call people out whenever I wasn't there.
"So, what do you want to do when we get there?" I asked, diverting the topic away.
"Seafood." She said simply.
I nodded, unsurprised. "It's a little too early for dinner, but we can go to a restaurant to eat." I rubbed my chin as I mentally went through the list of restaurants I'd gone through the day prior. "There's a tempura specialty restaurant and a sushi place a few minutes from our motel. Both serve fish fresh from the ocean." I glanced at her. "What do you think?"
Oguri hummed, considering the choice with far more gravity than she really should. "Tempura…sushi…"
I smiled wryly. "You know we'll visit both eventually, right?"
She stared at me with conviction. "But the first is always special."
Strangely, a few umamusume who sat around us shrieked, though I paid them no mind. "We'll be here for the whole summer." I grinned as I poked her forehead. "You don't need to think about it so hard. Just follow whatever your stomach is telling you right now."
"My stomach…" She whispered, before she eventually reached out and grabbed my sleeve. I raised an eyebrow, and she stared back.
"What's up?"
Oguri looked down at her own hand. She wasn't really thinking when she reached out to grab my sleeve. All she heard was to follow her own stomach. "I…" She began slowly, savoring the strange sweetness in the back of her tongue. "How about ice cream?"
I blinked. "Ice cream? That's quite the pivot."
She hummed. "I want something sweet."
I smiled. "Sure." I glanced out the window. "There should be a shop that sells shaved ice." I relaxed into my seat. "All we gotta do is wait."
She nodded and followed my actions, sighing as she sunk into her chair.
The rest of the trip passed by relatively quickly, and soon enough, we arrived at the parking space just next to the beach we'd be training at for the next few months. The familiar smell of the sandy beach hit me right as I stepped out of the bus, and I smiled as I took a deep breath.
Oguri exited the bus right after me, and her eyes widened slightly as she finally got a good look at the ocean's waves. "It's so big…"
"Well, it is the ocean." I said, before explaining to her how big the ocean was.
Or at least I tried to. I quickly lost her the moment I tried to tell her to full scope of the ocean's vastness, and I eventually gave up.
I glanced around for a moment. I couldn't see the other double-decker buses. It seemed our bus was the first to arrive, which meant the others weren't here yet.
With that in mind,
I grinned as I slung my arm around Oguri's shoulder. "Doesn't seem like the others are here yet." I told her, my grin growing. "Since that's the case, why don't we get some shaved ice while we wait?"
Her eyes sparkled at my suggestion, and she nodded enthusiastically. "Nn!"
"Then let's go." With that, both of us separated from the group, heading towards where I remembered the shop was.
And so, that was how our summer began.