Chapter Text
Mirror Image saw the door open, without her having done so, for once. She had been lazily laying down on her bed after what felt like a day had gone by of practically getting torn from place to place all out of her control.
The girl she saw come out was almost blindingly bright in her enthusiasm, waving hello at her and not seeming to quite truly grasp how creepy her dorm arrangement was to an outsider at first, waving her hands around as the other Umamusume, who she noted was now her roommate, unfortunately tipped over a precarious arrangement of her merchandise.
“Look out!” The warning came too late, unfortunately, as a loud CRASH! ripped through the silence as a variety of plushes, dolls and paraphernalia fell onto her roommate. Who simply poked her head out and didn't mind the collapse of one of Image's many towers of merchandise. “What a way to be introduced to my roommate~! I mean, Miss Fuji did warn me you were a collector, but wow, you're almost something else!”
Image already noted the girl was wearing quite a bit of red outside of her academy uniform, seeing her right ear adorned with a feathered cap, three red feathers hanging off of it. She looked quite jovial, as if being met with the consequences of Image's terrible space management didn't seem to bother her at all.
“Uh… you took having a bunch of my stuff falling onto you really well…” Image couldn't help but nervously giggle as she reached out a hand, her roommate to be taking it and quickly getting out of the mess of plushes, keychains, standees and whatever else had fallen on her.
“Can I have your name, at least?” Image tilted her head, wanting to know the name behind the face. This girl was definitely shaping up to be her polar opposite in personality, that was for sure.
“I'm Apapane, a pleasure to meet you! It's me that'll be taking this year by storm!” The girl, which Image now knew by her name, laughed boldly at her declaration, seeming to believe every last bit of it.
“You're really confident you're going to be one of the Umamusume who leaves a mark on this generation, huh?” Image noted, feeling her teeth unconsciously gnashing against each other, biting back the urge to growl at the challenge to her own fame. She would NOT let her roommate upstage her. She had her duty.
Hiding her anger behind a breath and her carefully crafted mask of simmering indifference, she cleaned up and repositioned all her merchandise back to where it belonged. Taking a moment to sigh of relief that nothing had broken in the fall, she lounged back onto her bed and stared.
“Make yourself at home, just… mind my collection, please. Every one of these is irreplaceable to me.” Image quickly tuned out the rest of Apapane's boisterousness and loud noises as she fought physics itself to get her half of the room in her style. It was rather ornate, and seemed to have a very dance-like theme to it, and a giant poster of the girl's namesake bird posted up on her bed. Image was at least thankful their color schemes didn't seem to clash and look too out of place, outside of the blatant theming difference. Her eyes could rest easy.
Her thoughts did start to drift today. It had been a few days of just… enjoying herself, and figuring out how to live. She was itching to compete, but without any real knowledge of her abilities, there was no chance she'd be scouted by happenstance. She knew herself best and what she excelled at, but training herself? If she was any madder, she would've done so.
“No time for what-ifs. I'm going.” Image got up from the bed and left the room, leaving Apapane bewildered slightly at the change in mood from the black-and-blue Umamusume. “Sheesh, someone has no joy in their life. How does she go from smiling like an idiot at her dolls to dead-serious like that?”
Image made no note of the comment, as she had already left for one of the racetracks on the academy she knew would be hosting scrimmages at this time. Maybe she'd meet someone new who'd get on her nerves thinking the world owed them a victory? Her legs would challenge that prospect really quickly, should all else fail.
Image's eyes scanned the crowd. Lots of new faces, and she couldn't find any trainers of particular note or anything in the midst. Maybe she was losing her touch a little. Sighing heavily, she doubled her efforts and almost choked on air once she saw a distinctly familiar face.
‘H-huh? Mimi-nee?’ Her thoughts immediately helpfully provided where she recognized that mop of dyed green hair, one of the few people she had any kind of a relationship with. Midori Mizunori, her… former life's best friend, she supposed. She wasn't recognizable in the slightest, so it'd be… very weird for Image to approach her acting casually.
“Of all the people to suddenly gain an interest… well, it doesn't matter. She won't know it's me.” Image helped herself to the air as she descended down to the paddock, carrying herself with nothing but the confidence she knew she had in herself to win. She didn't need anything else, this was a scrimmage, her own merits would be enough, training or not. That was just what she was trying to assure herself of.
She made her way to the starting gates. She could recognize a few names from just their faces. Confusion, aptly following her name by just ditzily staring into the air, Beauty Again, ever the confident one, preening to herself. A few of the Chouchou siblings, muttering amongst themselves. But nobody that truly screamed ‘racers of the decade’. She could work with that.
ACADEMY RACECOURSE | 1000M | 12 GATES, 12 RUNNERS
Mirror Image closed her eyes. She could feel the wind, her gate being perfect. First gate? For how she ran? Nothing could be better. She had it all here. It was time to show off.
Her legs beat against the turf impatiently, she really didn't like to wait at all in the paddock like this. But she could hear the sounds of the start, and the gates flew open, and she was gone.
She could feel her legs immediately wince from the sudden acceleration, but it was minor. A little pain didn't matter when she was here to win. The turf defying her movement, the cold wind, and the crowd, solely for her. She had long since broken from the pack, not even hearing their legs and the battle for second.
-----------
Midori was astonished. She knew some Umamusume were quite prone to simply racing recklessly, simply to impress someone, but this one… the black-haired girl who had the bravado in her first official race, as far as her records showed… to perform a Great Escape? This was beyond the pale. She could see the pack, Blue Chouchou and her Silver sibling battling it out for second, pushing themselves to their limit, trying to burst past the other.
She could notice the back of the pack was surprisingly empty, the only one hanging back being a pink-haired girl, One Inch of Love. She couldn't stifle the snicker at the unfortunate innuendo of the girl's name.
Though, just as quickly as it started, the race came to a close, the exhausted Umamusume all in various stages of breathing heavily or reaching for a drink, all except one, who had finished so quickly she had already gone and sat down to observe her classmates.
Midori, tentatively, stepped her way to the bench to look at her. She had the potential, she knew, even as a rather fresh-faced trainer by most standards. If it wasn't for Arata, she wouldn't know half the things she did.
“You, I think I… how do I say this without coming off like an idiot?” Midori almost laughed at herself before stopping, the girl's eye flicking open in what seemed to be in recognition. “I want to scout you.”
Image almost screamed at that moment. Of all the people to catch the eye of, it had to be her best friend, who probably only came to train because of her! And she knew more about training than her own prospective trainer… oh, this was going to be a mess. But, she'd rather someone she knew rather than some unknown.
“Alright, Mi-Miss…?” Image stopped herself before she used her usual greeting for Midori, not wanting to call her Mimi-nee when they were supposed to be complete strangers.
“Midori Mizukawa, though, just call me Mimi. I have a feeling you'd be more comfortable with that, somehow. And your name?” Image got herself up from the bench, her back slightly complaining due to the poor posture. Having a big chest wasn't all it was cracked up to be… but she was getting hung up again. She'd have to tell Machan the good news later.
“Mirror Image. Don't hold me back, I only want to make my reflection seen on every eye.” She could almost feel herself cracking at how unsubtle that was to anyone who knew. Her thoughts had been getting a little too wanting for lack of a better word, anyway.