It was impossible for Fumino Nase not to feel a little depressed after being so harshly treated by two Uma Musume in a row.
Moreover, Fumino was a once-in-a-century genius Trainer; although she had a somewhat proud and arrogant demeanor, she was very meticulous when it came to Uma Musume.
Therefore, no matter how overwhelmed she was with negative emotions, she would never vent her anger on the Uma Musume.
Most of the time, she would choose to go out for a walk, relax her mind, or, as she was doing now, drown herself in alcohol alone until she was dead drunk, and then she would be fine the next day.
However, because Fumino Nase often has no self-control when it comes to drinking, and also because of her occupation as a Trainer which came with the responsibility of having to take care of an Uma Musume's future, she rarely drank alone.
Of course, the biggest reason was that she was a woman, and going home alone while drunk was ultimately an unwise move...
Although this was Tokyo, it can still be quite dangerous at night, especially when a woman was alone without anyone accompanying her.
This time, however, Fumino Nase could finally drink to her heart's content for once in a long while, because Wada was by her side.
And of course, Wada was determined to see through any challenge to help Fumino Nase today until she was properly comforted.
"—Although that's what I said, you're quite heavy, Miss Nase. Can you please exert yourself a little bit more?"
After quite some time, Wada and Fumino Nase finally bid farewell to the Izakaya. After Wada paid, he helped the drunken Fumino Nase out, but she couldn't walk much further before she was too drunk to move.
Helplessly, Wada had no choice but to support Fumino Nase like this, walking down the street, trying to find a place to sit...
"Phew, then Miss Nase—please sit down first."
Finally, after a long struggle, he found a bench. Wada then promptly let Fumino Nase sit on the wooden bench.
However, the drunken Fumino still instinctively tried to lean on something, constantly gravitating towards Wada's shoulder.
Wada, with a stern face, kept shifting away, but after several attempts, Wada was left with only half his bottom on the seating, and Fumino Nase finally began to get a little annoyed and said:
"What's the big deal—it's just a shoulder! Don't be so stingy!"
"I'm afraid you'll kill me when you wake up..."
Wada blurted out, but he still let Fumino lean on him. He felt that if someone recorded today's events, almost every single male Trainer in the URA would turn green from envy...
But such things were better left to imagination; it was best not to act on them.
Angering Shadai was already troublesome enough; if he offended all the other Trainers as well, Wada feared he would find it impossible to move an inch in Tracen Academy afterward.
"So, Miss Nase, where is your home? Though it's late now, I can still take you home. I wouldn't dare take you to Tracen Academy's dorms; if others saw us, I'm afraid I'll be unable to explain myself..."
"Home... home is at... hic... where was it again?"
The drunken Fumino tried to recall the location of her home, but after a long while, this usually icy beauty suddenly showed a gentle smile, making Wada's heart skip a beat from her drunkenness.
"—I can't remember, hehe."
"...You know what? My fault for asking a drunk for directions, I am a certified idiot."
So where should he send Fumino Nase now? Wada currently pondered this question.
He dared not send her to Tracen Academy; if someone saw him carrying the utterly drunk Fumino Nase back, who knew what kind of scandal would ensue.
But going to a hotel... that would be even worse. Only those harem protagonists from clichéd light novels would send a drunken girl to a hotel out of "kindness."
Though there were a few realistic ones where they slept on the sofa, a majority of them would sleep beside the girl without a hint of guilt, even having scenarios like "you wouldn't let me leave" or "I was afraid you weren't safe" and so on...
These kinds of plots only exist for either fan service or simply a lack of understanding of Japanese society due to the author being a NEET for too long.
—In Japan, if you did such a thing, the only future you'll be heading to is social death!
And as such, Wada Ryuji, as a reliable and well-adjusted adult, naturally made the most reasonable choice—which was, of course, to call for help.
"Although I don't have Super Creek's number... calling Meisho Doto and asking her to pass it on should be fine."
Muttering to himself, Wada tried his best to pull out his phone from his pocket to call Meisho Doto.
In this situation, as long as he explained it well, there would be no misunderstandings. And once Super Creek took Fumino Nase to the dorms, he would be officially declared as safe.
But just as Wada was thinking this, suddenly, a sound that wasn't from Wada's phone broke the silence.
'Wait... if it isn't from mine, then it must be...'
Wada instinctively looked at Fumino Nase beside him and saw that the drunken Fumino Nase had already picked up her phone.
Before Wada could even speak, she had instinctively unlocked it and answered the call.
"Hello—Dad? It's been a while since you called."
"...Nase, have you been drinking?"
As Fumino Nase and Wada were very close at the moment, Wada could clearly hear a very serious and stern male voice from the phone, and his hairs immediately stood on end.
Fumino Nase's father?! Wait—if Fumino Nase was this world's Yutaka Take, then wasn't her father roughly equivalent to Yutaka Take's father, Kunihiko Take?
Wada suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, thinking of an extremely terrifying possibility.
One must know that Yutaka Take's father was also a legendary Jockey! A senior figure in the horse racing industry, an existence on the level of being in textbooks.
If such a person knew his daughter was out drinking and fooling around with him... Wada felt like dying just thinking about this possibility.
"Nase, I know you rarely drink alone. Is anyone with you?"
The voice of her father seemed to restore some of Fumino Nase's consciousness.
Perhaps it was the awe she had developed for her father since childhood, due to having an excellent father, that allowed Fumino Nase to gradually regain some clarity even in her drunken state.
After exchanging a glance with Wada beside her, Fumino Nase immediately knew what she should do. She shook her head to clear it a little, and then said:
"No, I'm with no one right now, Father. You're overthinking it. I don't have many friends outside, so of course, I'm drinking alone..."
"..."
However, under an eerie silence, both Wada and Fumino Nase seemed to hear their own heartbeats.
Just as both thought they had gotten away with it, they heard her father's stern voice from the other end of the phone:
"—Nase, turn on video mode."
"?!"
'Do the older generations even know how to video call these days?!' At this moment, Wada Ryuji felt an unprecedented sense of crisis.
He frantically blinked at Fumino Nase, hoping she would lift her head from his shoulders to give him a chance to run far away without causing a commotion before turning on video mode.
Fumino Nase also knew the seriousness of the matter.
Just as she lifted her head, she heard her father's even more stern tone from the other end of the phone:
"I said, turn on video mode, Fumino Nase."
"—I understand."
Finally, as if prepared for death, Fumino Nase turned on video mode under Wada's desperate gaze.
And in an instant, the scene of Wada and Fumino Nase, who were very close, immediately fell into the unprepared sight of the fifty-something old man in the video.
Under an extremely eerie silence, eventually, Wada forced himself to suppress his mournful face and squeezed out a smile uglier than crying, saying to Fumino Nase's father on the other side of the video:
"Mr. Nase... Nice to meet you. I am Wada Ryuji, your daughter's friend, and also her current student."
"..."
However, after a long time, Fumino's father didn't say much, only stared at Wada with a terrifying, inexplicable gaze.
That feeling, as if he wanted to swallow Wada whole and skin him alive... made Wada's scalp tingle.
Imanami, you fucking bastard... you set me up!
T.M. Opera O! Meisho Doto! Where are you?! Save me! Your Trainer is about to get obliterated off the face of Japan now...
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Fumino Nase is finally joining the competitive scene alongside the likes of Eishin Flash.
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If you spot any errors, feel free to comment about it and I will fix it as soon as I can.