Chapter 220: A Heated, Blood-Boiling Battle
Tamamo Cross, Super Creek, Inari One, Yaeno Muteki…
Even looking across the entire history of racing, these were all top-tier runners. Together with Oguri Cap, it was precisely their thrilling clashes that made that generation legendary.
You could even say that the reason Oguri Cap's career was called a miracle wasn't just because of her own strength, but because of the evenly matched battles she fought with those powerful rivals.
These were things a trainer had to know by heart. So when Makoto heard Kitasan Black recount the message, he already had a rough guess in mind.
Then, remembering that Oguri Cap had recently been helping Satono Crown prepare for the Autumn Tenno Sho, it became easy to narrow down exactly who she meant.
After all, the opponents who had made Oguri Cap "fail to win the Autumn Tenno Sho three times in a row" could only be a handful of people.
Still, when you thought about it carefully, his guess and reality were slightly different.
Makoto had originally assumed that among the three Autumn Tenno Sho races Oguri Cap had lost, the winners were Tamamo Cross for the first, Super Creek for the second, and Yaeno Muteki for the third.
From the perspective of victory experience, those three should have been the ones invited.
But then again, besides asking for their help, she also wanted to meet up with old friends. Who she invited was entirely her choice, guessing wrong was perfectly normal.
Besides, it sounded like Yaeno Muteki had something to take care of and would come later. That arrangement was already quite reasonable.
After thinking it over casually, Makoto instead began to look forward to it.
He was curious what kind of blood-pumping scene it would be like when these Umamusume—who had once created a golden era together—gathered again.
Some time later—
"Four circles."
"Four circles."
"Eight characters."
"Chi. Six circles."
"Kong."
Inside a private room of the Gray Cottage restaurant, Makoto sat in the corner, his eyes filled with both blankness and helpless amusement.
In a certain sense, the "blood-boiling" scene he had imagined had indeed appeared.
Just… on a mahjong table.
Before him, four Umamusume were fully focused, faces stern, fiercely battling it out over the tiles.
Directly facing Makoto was Oguri Cap.
Her right hand propped up her chin, brows tightly furrowed, eyes locked onto the neatly arranged tiles before her as if trying to see a path to victory hidden within them.
Across from Oguri Cap sat another Umamusume with similarly long silver-gray hair.
However, compared to the tall Oguri Cap, she was petite, so small she almost looked like an elementary schooler.
To her right sat yet another Umamusume who was just as short, perhaps even a little shorter.
She had short dark-brown hair tied into two fluffy, playful twin buns, and on the right side of her head she wore a fox mask with a festive, carnival-like feel.
Like Oguri Cap, both of them wore expressions of deep concentration, staring unblinkingly at the table as if everything else around them had ceased to exist.
As for the last Umamusume, although her brows were also slightly knit, the smile in her eyes made her seem much more relaxed and at ease.
She had long, silky brown hair. A white streak in her bangs intertwined with the brown strands, braided into a delicate plait.
She was slightly taller than Oguri Cap, and whether it was her figure or the aura she gave off, she appeared the most mature among the four.
She was the one who had decisively declared the kong just now.
With an easy smile at the corner of her lips, she reached out and drew a tile from the wall, then skillfully flipped over a bonus indicator.
After glancing at the nearly depleted wall following the kong, she thought for a moment, then looked down at the tile she had just drawn.
Her eyes instantly lit up.
The smile in her eyes deepened. She slotted the tile into her hand—
Then crisply pushed four tiles down onto the table.
"Lucky… Two circles, kong."
In an instant, the expressions of the other three Umamusume changed sharply. Three piercing gazes shot toward her at the same time.
Then, almost in unison, they glanced at the nearly exhausted wall of tiles and all let out a sigh of relief.
At that moment, the Umamusume who had declared the kong grew serious. Slowly, she reached for the last few tiles, drew one, then gently flipped over another bonus indicator.
Looking down at her hand, her eyes lit up once more, and her smile grew even brighter.
"Ah, then… self-draw."
Along with her slightly excited declaration, under three increasingly stunned gazes, she slotted the newly drawn tile beside the four tiles still standing on the table.
Then she pushed them all down together and began counting with a cheerful smile.
"Four twos of bamboo, four nines of circles, four green dragons, three fours of bamboo, two white dragons."
"Good thing I drew on the dead wall. Otherwise, this round would've been hopeless. But anyway…"
"Four concealed triplets on a single wait. Counting the dora and ura-dora…"
"64,000 points. Yakuman. Everyone pays up."
As she spoke, she spread her hands with a grin, as if proclaiming her victory to the entire world.
"So hand over all the chips~"
For a moment, an eerie silence fell over the entire table, as if time itself had frozen.
Then, in the next instant, two cries of shock and unwilling despair rang out.
"H-How's that possible?! I don't believe it!"
The short silver-gray–haired Umamusume clutched her head with both hands, her face filled with disbelief.
Speaking in a thick Kansai accent, she shouted,
"How can you even make Four Concealed Triplets?!"
"Seriously! That's ridiculous!"
The slightly taller brown-haired Umamusume also wailed, then suddenly whipped her head around and glared at the former, eyes wide, complaining with a heavy Kanto accent.
"But it's all your fault, Tama! If you hadn't called that tile, this round would've ended in a draw!"
"What're you talkin' about?! How could I know Creek would draw from the dead wall?! Nobody would think that way! Besides, I called it 'cause I wanted to win too, okay?!"
"I don't care! It's all your fault! Your share of the chips has to cover mine too!"
"Y-You… you're just being unreasonable, aren't ya?!"
The two petite girl argued back and forth noisily, their voices echoing through the private room.
Meanwhile, Oguri Cap and the remaining Umamusume seemed long accustomed to this. Gentle smiles stayed on their faces; neither tried to stop them nor joined in.
"You're really good, Creek. I didn't expect you to be this strong at mahjong too," Oguri Cap said with a smile, handing over her own chips.
"Well, the orphanage often holds events with the community," Super Creek explained with a soft laugh as she accepted the chips.
"The ladies on the community committee like playing mahjong, so I picked it up a bit to communicate with them better."
"I see."
Oguri Cap nodded, then thought for a moment.
"I don't play much. This should be the end of East Round Four… so next is the South round, right?"
"Mm… so, are we continuing?" Super Creek asked. Though she phrased it as a question, she didn't look particularly eager, clearly treating the game as just casual fun.
"I'm going to the kitchen," Oguri Cap said as she stood up from the table. "I promised I'd cook dinner for you all. It's about time."
She then pointed toward Makoto, who was sitting in the corner.
"Let Yasui-san play with you instead, if you don't mind."
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Tn: I updated the story daily, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
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