She blinked as she looked at the presidents hard set face.
Her eyes were giving her a fierce glare as she spoke those words, 'Do not underestimate central…'
But that offered up only a single question what was there to underestimate in the first place?
"Underestimate it?" She questioned her tone neutral, her face deadening as she looked at the presidents with eyes that had all but become a void, "I feel like there is nothing to underestimate, so far all my foes have fallen behind and never once caught up."
She merely looked at the president's eyes, they were hardening turning into an even greater glare that would have been capable of melting steel, any lesser uma would have been trembling in fear and terror.
"So tell me, oh emperor, how can I underestimate something so beneath me? Something that doesn't even make me wish to chase them? So far there have been none that I have seen that make me wish to hunt them down. So tell me. How am I underestimate something so pitiful?"
The emperor looked at her, as their eyes widened infinitesimally, suddenly, "HAHAHAHAH TRULY! TRULY! YOU! YOU ARE AN UMA FIT TO CHALLENGE THE TIARA! HAHAHAHAHA!" The emperor laughed at the nonsense of it all with a hand on her head.
"You laugh, why?"
"Hahaha, do you truly not know why? Or is it simply because these two sides of yourself are so far apart?"
"Excuse you…"
"Do not rage at me, I merely ask a question, does the you who smiles and laughs at the smallest of things not know of this, this form? Of this inherent arrogance that she possesses?"
"…"
"Or is this a defence mechanism, for the you who you show to everyone the track is a wonderful place, a realm of freedom, a utopia even."
"How do you know that?"
"But," she continued ignoring the question, "Her trauma from that day inhibits her does it not, whenever she is having too much joy she curls in on herself when the memories appear, and you are left."
"How do you know about it?"
"You, you who is the inherent ego of the girl protects her do you not?"
"HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT!"
"About what?" Finally the emperor answered, "Your trauma? Your father, put it in your file, it passed by me, I read it, and I approved it, I am the reason you are in this school, the final say was never the chairman it was me."
"… I see… I must thank you then, for allowing me to run on the track."
"Even if your father hadn't recommended you, we would have still let you in. You are after all, a prodigy."
"…"
"A great escape runner capable of leaving everyone in the dust. A runner who depending on the situation is willing to burn themselves to ash to win, is that not what you are?"
She didn't deign that with an answer, so she got up and went to leave the room, practice was going to start soon, while she didn't particularly care for it, she did, so, she left.
…
As Hope for Tomorrow left the room, she couldn't help but let out a sigh at how the meeting went. Was she being too forward in her remarks?
Probably.
But she felt like it would have been better if she at least found a way to combine the two, the poor girl…
She had all but fractured herself back then, hadn't she?
After all, no matter what way she looked at it, the Hope from the beggining of the meeting and the Hope from the looked to be two different people, one was calm and respectful but no matter how you looked at her, there was emotion. But then… her answer to her statement was different, gone was the emotion all that remained was a cold hard certainty in her ability to win, to be victorious no matter what. As she so arrogantly stated that from her perspective nobody could defeat her.
It was… a big difference to say the least but that only awakened a single question in her mind, what would happen if the two of them became one?
That wasn't to say they weren't already one, they were the same person after all, but, what if Hope had that same edge, what would happen if the two personalities weren't separate?
Ah questions, questions.
…
She left the student council office with not much to ponder, it felt a bit shorter than what she would have expected, oddly enough she felt like she couldn't remember what was said after the president said not to underestimate central, which was… weird, but it wasn't the first time it had happened.
So she didn't give it much thought.
The halls were quiet which made sense, it was the mid afternoon, not many students where left inside the school building, practice would be ending soon enough anyways and she doubted she'd make it back in time to take part in the team running, so what should she do?
She wasn't sure.
Sure she would normally go back to the dorm room and get ready to go to bed, but… that felt boring.
What was she supposed to do in her bed?
She didn't have a phone, so she couldn't just lay down and scroll umastagram, or read stories on umanovel.
So what was she supposed to do…
That was when she had an idea, as a spark of a conversation came back into her mind, after all, weren't umas supposed to make money for winning a race?
Thus, she rushed back to the student council office to ask the president a question.
It took her nary a second before she pushed open the door.
"PRESIDENT!" She screamed as she looked at Rudolf-senpai who was startled as she was going to drink some tea.
"W-what?"
"IS IT TRUE THAT UMAS MAKE MONEY IF THEY WIN A RACE!?!?"
"Yes… you don't have to scream you know?"
"I'M SORRY! I'M JUST SO EXCITED!"
"Why?"
"BECAUSE I CAN FINALY GET A PHONE!"
"Ah, that's nice… wait. Have you never had one before?"
"YES!"
"… That would… unironically explain a lot, but if you are wondering how you can retrieve your winnings, you should probably ask your trainer or the director, as they are normally the ones to handle winnings, but I am sure that if you ask nicely you should be able to get a phone."
"THANLS PRESIDENT!" She screamed as she left the student council office just as fast as she came.
…
After running non stop for upwards of five minutes on her way back to the team room, she got a bit lost along the way, she finally managed to reach her trainer.
"TORENA!" She screamed out loud as she burst through the door.
"AH!" He screamed indignantly as he was caught changing his outfit.
"Why are you changing your outfit?" She couldn't help but ask.
He merely gave her a look before answering, "I'm sure there's bigger questions to be asked, but if you must know I was changing, because Gold Ship threw an entire water bucket on me and McQueen."
"Really?"
"Yes, really, and why are you calling Torena, this isn't a stereotypical translated umamusume fanfiction that was written in Chinese!"
Suddenly, the world went quiet, no one breathed, no one moved, the world went still and a heavy presence felt like it was staring at her, and just her.
She couldn't breathe, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't brea— just then the weight disappeared and she greedily took a deep breath.
She went to say something, to question what happened and why, but, she… huh, she forgot, what even happened, why was she gasping for air, she must have pushed herself too hard in her run here, she realized.
Yeah, that must have been the reason, either way, "Trainer! Can you please give me some of my winnings to buy a phone!"
Her trainer merely looked at her, sighed opened his mouth and with the most serious, no argument tone said.
"No."
And just like that, her dreams of owning a phone were destroyed.
————————
Author note
How you all doing, me personally I'm doing great!
To an extent, school is proving to be a problem, but I've gotten better at writing french, so we take those.
And before you ask, no Hope and Okino, do not remember what happened from hope saying "torena" and okino saying that this isn't a translated webtoon, yes, something in universe made them forget, was it me? Was it the three godesses? Was it Zelretch?!?!
WHO KNOWS
either way, this is GreekAntrielos signing off.
See you all next time.