"Mhm~"
Tamamo Cross made her way with familiar ease to a sushi restaurant near Tracen Academy.
For a high-end sushi place, the flavors here were especially well suited to an Umamusume's palate after training…
Tamamo Cross rarely found a restaurant that matched an Umamusume's tastes this well. She suspected the owner probably had close ties to Umamusume—or perhaps was an Umamusume herself.
But whoever the real owner was, Tamamo Cross loved the sushi here all the same. Even if the prices were a little steep, she still came by fairly often.
Still, what happened now was completely beyond her expectations.
"Huh? Isn't that Sakuraba? What are you doing here?"
Running into the investor she cared about at one of her favorite restaurants was a delightful surprise.
Tamamo Cross's mood lifted at once, and the corners of her mouth rose naturally as she briskly walked toward Sakuraba Ryo—only for her steps to stop abruptly the next instant when she noticed the figure beside him.
Long gray-white hair almost identical to her own, skin as white as jade, and delicate features that would make anyone call her beautiful at a glance.
And most importantly… this beautiful girl was sitting very, very close to Sakuraba Ryo…!
As if noticing Tamamo's gaze, the gray-haired Umamusume merely glanced at her with those clear eyes, then quietly shifted even closer to Sakuraba Ryo.
"?"
For some reason, seeing the other girl deliberately press closer to him gave Tamamo a very strange feeling.
She walked over with a smile that did not quite reach her eyes and asked,
"So you came here for sushi too? The sushi here's really good. By the way, since you came to Central, why didn't you contact me?"
"Well, I'd originally planned to head back to Nishikino once I finished what I came here to do, so I wasn't really planning to bother you."
"Hm~"
Hearing that answer, Tamamo Cross arched a brow, clearly dissatisfied.
"So instead, you came here to eat sushi with a pretty girl? That's what you came to Central to do?"
"Uh…"
Sakuraba Ryo found himself speechless.
If you asked why he had come to Central, then half of it really was because of Oguri Cap, and the other half was because of his brand-new loss-making plan.
But neither reason seemed particularly suitable to explain here.
"Yes. Ryo came to see me."
Just as Sakuraba Ryo was wondering how to answer Tamamo Cross, Oguri Cap suddenly spoke up from beside him.
"To see you? And who might you be?"
"I'm one of Ryo's invested Umamusume. Oguri Cap."
"I see… what a coincidence. I'm one of Sakuraba's invested Umamusume too. My name's Tamamo Cross."
The two of them faced off right in front of Sakuraba Ryo, and the atmosphere suddenly turned strangely delicate.
Tamamo Cross… was strong.
She might be short, but there was some kind of aura coiling around her that made goosebumps rise on Oguri Cap's skin.
What was this strange feeling?
It was the first time she had felt anything like it since coming to Central…!
Was this the presence of the strong…?
"Ahem."
Noticing the subtle tension between them, Sakuraba Ryo coughed twice.
"Tamamo, since you're here, come sit down too. I'm treating you as well."
"Then I'll gladly accept."
So saying, Tamamo sat down right beside Sakuraba Ryo.
Across from him sat the sushi chef, intently shaping sushi for them, while on Sakuraba Ryo's left and right, Oguri Cap and Tamamo had effectively boxed him in.
Seeing Tamamo move closer to Sakuraba Ryo, Oguri Cap quietly shifted a little closer too.
Sakuraba Ryo, however, paid no attention to either of their little movements. Being sandwiched between them was uncomfortable enough already.
Soon, the sushi was served.
Sakuraba Ryo and Tamamo Cross ate at a fairly normal pace…
Oguri Cap, however, was another story.
She was like a vacuum cleaner. Her little mouth opened, and the delicate sushi on the plate vanished.
"?"
Is this girl trying to challenge the speed of my hands?
Seeing how fast Oguri Cap was eating, the head chef raised a brow and sped up his sushi-making.
One serving, two servings…
Five, ten…
The chef's calm expression gradually gave way to astonishment. His movements shifted from smooth to frantic, and a fine sheen of sweat even appeared at his temples.
What the hell is this monster?!
Oguri Cap's eating pace seemed to enter some hidden mode—she no longer ate one piece at a time, but practically swept the sushi into her mouth the instant it hit the plate, even skipping the time it would have taken to dip it in soy sauce.
Sakuraba Ryo had only just picked up his chopsticks, intending to take a piece of fatty tuna, when he saw that the empty plates in front of Oguri Cap were already stacked half a tower high, while Tamamo Cross was only halfway through her second sweet shrimp sushi.
The chef's arms had practically turned into afterimages. A press of vinegared rice in his palm, a slice, a shape, a swift layer of fish on top—but even so, from Oguri Cap's side of the counter came another crisp clink.
The sound of yet another empty plate being pushed aside.
"P-please, just a moment…"
The chef could not help muttering under his breath. His hands moved even faster, but he still looked like a man trying to outrun a silent storm.
Every now and then, he glanced up at Oguri Cap, only to see her eating with perfect concentration, her cheeks puffing slightly, as if these were not thirty pieces of sushi but a series of light appetizers.
In the end, the chef abandoned all pretense of serving all three guests at once.
He called over an assistant to handle the other two while he devoted his full concentration—almost with the gravity of a decisive battle—to satisfying the bottomless appetite of that gray-haired Umamusume.
He was determined to challenge the appetite of the gray-haired Umamusume before him!
And then...
"M-my hand—!"
Clutching his hand, the chef let out a shriek.
"My hand's cramping up—!"
The chef's face had gone pale. As two assistants helped him into the back, his right hand remained frozen in the stiff shape of forming sushi, trembling slightly.
Watching the scene, Sakuraba Ryo could not stop the corners of his mouth from twitching twice.
He turned to look at Oguri Cap beside him. She was just popping the last salmon roe gunkan into her mouth, her cheeks puffed in satisfaction, apparently not the slightest bit aware of the culinary disaster she had just caused.
The mountain of empty plates on the table silently spoke of how brutal that battle had been.
Is her stomach… connected to another dimension or something…?
Sakuraba Ryo pressed a hand to his forehead inwardly.
He had thought that after several meals together, he already had a good grasp of Oguri Cap's appetite, but today had shattered the upper limit of his imagination all over again.
She had not only eaten the chef into defeat—she had nearly cleaned out the restaurant's backup stock too.
But still, well done!
Now not only do I have to pay the bill, I have to cover the chef's medical expenses too!
"Keh heh heh…"
Tamamo Cross was staring too, so stunned that she had forgotten to eat the tamago sushi still pinched between her fingers.
"Why are you smiling so happily…"
Tamamo Cross looked at Sakuraba Ryo's villainous grin and was utterly speechless.
---
T/N: huehuheuheu because he wants to fatten up oguri cap of course, heh he wants meat on his girls wait pauise
4 chaps meeting this weeks quota, i was too focused on something elseeeeeeeeeeeee ive been playing 7daystodieeeeeeeeeee
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
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