At the first hint of dawn, Kitasan Black crawled out of her sleeping bag.
She rubbed her eyes, remembered the decision she had made the night before, and tiptoed over to the bedroom door.
Pressing one ear against it, she listened carefully to the sounds inside. When she heard the even rhythm of breathing, she let out a silent sigh of relief.
Then she tiptoed over to Yasui Makoto's desk, found a memo pad, and wrote:
[Trainer, I'm going to make breakfast for you, so you can sleep a little longer~]
Then she stuck the note to the bedroom door.
After that, she returned to the living room, changed clothes, and left the apartment.
She stayed careful the whole time, afraid of making even the slightest noise and waking Yasui Makoto.
Even though it was a day off, Kitasan Black still kept up her basic training habits, so she decided to run to the market.
The moment she stepped outside, the early morning breeze brushed her cheeks. She stretched her limbs, then broke into a run toward the market.
It was still early, and the streets were nearly empty. Only the occasional passing car disturbed the quiet of the morning.
Kitasan Black ran with light, rhythmic steps, her arms swinging in time, enjoying the peace around her.
She followed the familiar route, trees by the roadside swaying gently in the breeze as if cheering her on.
Gradually, she drew close to the market, and a few delivery trucks began arriving one after another.
Then suddenly, she stopped and looked toward the roadside.
A truck was sitting there all by itself, broken down. The driver stood beside it, worried and frustrated, circling the vehicle with a deep frown.
Without the slightest hesitation, Kitasan Black ran straight over and asked with concern,
"Sir, did your truck break down?"
The driver stared blankly for a moment, then looked at her and let out a bitter sigh.
"Yeah... I have no idea what happened. It just suddenly died on me... and this whole load needs to be delivered in a hurry too..."
Before he could finish, he saw Kitasan Black flash him a confident smile and stride with practiced ease to the back of the truck.
She reached in, casually pulled out a thick coil of rope, then quickly ran to the front, tied one end to the bumper, and firmly wrapped the other around herself.
"All set, sir! Go ahead and get in!"
She tugged once on the rope around her body, then gave the dumbstruck driver a thumbs-up, brimming with energy.
"I'll help you deliver the cargo!"
"Huh? W-wait, you can't—"
The truck driver had barely started to object when he saw Kitasan Black plant her feet apart on her own.
Then, with a crisp little "Heiya!" those slender-looking legs—so clearly packed with strength—dug firmly into the ground and started driving forward step by step.
At first, the truck seemed impossibly heavy, refusing to budge at all.
But Kitasan Black did not give up. She let out another "Heiya!" Her clothes tightened visibly over tensing muscles—and just like that, the fully loaded truck began moving forward as though it had been fixed.
"Hop in, sir, or I'm leaving you behind!"
It was only when those joking words reached him that the driver snapped back to himself. He answered reflexively, hurriedly jumped into the cab, took hold of the wheel, and began steering in sync with Kitasan Black.
Before long, the truck was "speeding" along—not especially fast, but at a perfectly ordinary pace.
All the way there, the driver kept marveling in disbelief, his heart full of gratitude. And as he watched Kitasan Black running with all her might ahead of him, a thought slowly began to form in his mind.
A little while later...
"All right, all right, we're here, we're here! Th-thank you so much!"
The driver stuck his head out and shouted in delighted disbelief. Then he fumbled for a moment, smacked himself on the forehead, and hurriedly climbed down as he reached for his wallet.
"Thank you so much, miss! If you hadn't helped me, I really don't know what I would've done... hey, hey, don't run off—"
He had just pulled out a wad of cash when he saw, in astonishment, that the girl who had just helped him had already dashed off, leaving behind only a single line:
"No need, sir! I'm happy just to be able to help!"
"...What in the world was that...?"
The driver stood there in a daze, muttering to himself, when a voice full of feeling spoke up beside him.
"What, did our 'Helping-Hand Hero' scare you?"
The driver turned instinctively and saw that it was the owner of the delivery destination speaking to him. Reflexively, he said,
"Ah—uh... wh-what do you mean, 'Helping-Hand Hero'?"
Looking in the direction Kitasan Black had run off, the owner's face filled with pride.
"The girl who just helped you, of course. Maybe you've never heard the nickname 'Helping-Hand Hero,' but surely you've heard the name Kitasan Black?"
"K-Kitasan Black?!"
The driver's eyes flew wide open, and he cried out in shock.
"She... she's Kitasan Black?! The Umamusume who just won the Arima Kinen?!"
"Who else would it be?"
Like his own daughter had won the Arima Kinen, the owner crossed his arms and lifted his chin.
"You've only just started making deliveries around here, so it's no surprise you didn't know."
"Kita-chan goes to Tracen Academy over there, and she passes by here all the time during morning training."
"Whenever she sees someone in trouble, she jumps in to help without a second thought. That's why we call her our 'Helping-Hand Hero.'"
"Though really, I guess it shouldn't be surprising... no, it's only natural. A girl that good was always meant to shine in the Twinkle Series."
After saying that with feeling, the owner glanced at the wallet and cash still in the driver's hand and laughed.
"You don't need to think about paying her back or anything. That girl really is happy just helping people."
"If you absolutely insist on saying something..."
The owner grinned and held up two fingers in a joking gesture.
"She just won the Arima Kinen, and the prize money was a full 250 million yen. She really doesn't care about money."
"If you try thanking her with something that vulgar, she might get mad. And then next time your truck breaks down, who knows—she might just ignore you."
Kitasan Black, of course, knew nothing about the conversation between the driver and the owner.
She was just weaving through the market from stall to stall, carefully picking out fresh ingredients.
Unlike yesterday's simple dishes, today she wanted to make Yasui Makoto a proper feast.
She had learned all these cooking methods from Oguri Cap-senpai, and over the past two days she had even called to ask for advice on how to prepare food for an injury like a fracture in a way that would help recovery.
After carefully comparing both quality and price, she picked out tender meat, fresh vegetables, and all kinds of ingredients for soup stock, then paid in satisfaction.
Cradling her arms full of ingredients, she started running back.
Along the way, her head was full of plans—what to prep first once she got back, what order to cook everything in—so that the moment Yasui Makoto woke up, he would have a delicious and nutritious breakfast waiting for him.
But the instant she reached the apartment door, she froze.
The ingredients in her arms tumbled to the ground one after another.
At the entrance to the apartment, an Umamusume in a blue-and-white dress had just flung herself into Yasui Makoto's arms like a swallow darting home to its nest.
Her chestnut hair shone in the sunlight, and her face was lit with a bright, worried smile as she wrapped both arms tightly around Yasui Makoto's neck.
Yasui Makoto looked completely taken aback, his face full of helpless confusion. He instinctively raised his uninjured right hand, as though to push her away, but only managed to look more flustered instead.
---
T/N: oooooh almond eye
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