Chapter Text
“Ah! I came up with another one.”
After a stressful morning trying to deal with troublesome students either messing around or refusing to go to class, a few important looking Umamusume were gathered in the Student Council room. At the front was an Umamusume with brown hair at the sides and a patch of dark brown hair with a white stripe in the front. A nameplate on the desk behind her had the name “Symboli Rudolf” on it, signifying her position as the Student Council president. To her sides was an Umamusume with greyish-brown hair with a yellow ribbon on her left ear, along with an Umamusume with near black hair and tape across the bridge of her nose. Those two were Air Groove and Narita Brian, who looked anything but happy to be there right now. There were two other Umamusume, both draped across the couch with boredom. The taller Umamusume with dark brown hair with a white streak glared with her red eyes, annoyed at Rudolf. The other was more exasperated, a short Umamusume with chestnut-brown hair. Those two were Symboli Sirius and Tokai Teio, who had dipped by the visit for various reasons.
A giggle came across the room, catching the attention of Sirius and Air Groove and making a smile appear on Rudolf’s face. The Umamusume who was giggling had straight brown hair with a sideways ponytail tied by an orange ribbon, along with short ears that twitched with the breeze coming from the open window. A sticker on her shirt named her as “Gentle Trial”, who was the current assistant director on the same level as Tazuna Hayakawa.
“Rudolf-chan~ I hope you’re not disturbing them too much.”
“Of course not! Oh, come listen to this. What do you call the rust on a vegetable farmer’s truck?”
“What is it?”
“Car-rot!”
Rudolf gave a chuckle at her own joke while some others gave groans at the horrible pun. The only ones who didn’t were Gentle herself, who gave another giggle, and Air Groove who was deep in thought.
“That’s a funny pun, Rudolf-chan~!”
“Thank you, Gentle-san! At least someone appreciates my puns.” Rudolf smirked in delight at the compliment.
“Kaicho…” Teio sighed.
“What are you doing here anyways, Gentle?” Sirius looked at Gentle, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.
“I thought about coming here. It’s noon now, meaning it’s almost lunchtime. Tazuna is handling matters at the track, so I didn’t have anything I needed to do at the moment.” Gentle smiled. “Apart from that… I also wanted to visit my former trainee.”
Narita Brian, who had been quiet up until now, perked up in surprise as she looked at Gentle.
Gentle nodded at her. “I wouldn’t forget about you, Brian-chan~. I haven’t visited since last week, so I thought to do it now.”
Brian huffed. “Of course not. I’d expect you not to forget.” Despite her gruff words, a hint of happiness was in her voice, despite knowing the complications surrounding Gentle Trial.
Gentle Trial’s time at Tracen Academy was full of ups and downs, everyone knew that. She once was a student here, aiming for the Triple Tiara yet settling for two Mile G1 wins and retiring. She then came back as a trainer to try and lead the next generation. She had trained Narita Brian which led to her success and application to the Student Council, and then had trained another Umamusume named Nakayama Festa after Brian retired and settled towards the Dream League. After training Festa, she had transferred into a secretary role after she realized being a trainer was interfering with her marriage. Alongside giving birth to her only child and a few struggles with parenting, she was promoted to becoming the assistant director while passing down her role to Tazuna Hayakawa.
The complex part came about 5 years after her promotion, or 18 years after becoming a mother, where she left for a few weeks due to a sudden depression. Everyone, especially Narita Brian, was concerned for her to the point that some were even debating going to her house to check in on her. She came back, smiling but changed, and it took months of concern and nagging for her to admit that her child had gone missing in the middle of the night, and was presumed dead. It took years for her to recover emotionally and physically as she had starved herself due to her mental state, and even then it wasn’t uncommon for her to spend some time alone just for some quiet.
As Brian looked Gentle over, making sure she was okay and hadn’t gone into another depression she didn’t know of, she flinched at a loud voice next to her.
“I finally got it! The truck means the ‘car’ and the rust is the ‘rot’! Car-rot! That’s clever.” Air Groove nodded to herself until she noticed the stares from the others and the slight amusement from Gentle. “Err… we’re not talking about the pun anymore, are we.”
“Kaicho’s puns aren’t the only embarrassing thing here…” Teio commented, snickering.
Air Groove gave Teio a heated glare and sighed. “I’ll see myself out.”
Gentle gave Air Groove a pat on her shoulder as she moved out of the room, getting an appreciative nod in return before the door closed.
“So… now that we have some free time…” Sirius leaned in with a grin. “Wanna play Mahjong?”
— — — — —
An hour had passed. By then, Teio had to leave as lunch had ended and she had to get to her classes. Rudolf, Narita Brian, Sirius, and Gentle were still in the room, finishing up another game of Mahjong.
“I didn’t expect you to be the type to play this game, Gentle.”
“I’m also almost thrice your age, Sirius-san. I’ve done a lot more than you think~” Gentle chuckled, organizing all the pieces back into the box.
“Oh ho! Brian’s trainer has some history?”
This lighthearted banter persisted until the door slammed open. Nakayama Festa came running in, out of breath with Air Groove barely behind.
“You… can’t just barge in the room, Nakayama!” Air Groove caught her breath quickly and gave Festa a glare.
“Oh? What business does my roommate have here~?” Sirius raised an eyebrow, looking at Festa with amusement. “Breaking another rule… Good job.”
“Not that, Sirius. Gentle-san…” Festa waved Sirius off and looked at Gentle, who was surprised not only at Festa’s entrance but at her attention.
“Festa-chan, is everything okay?”
“I… I found him.”
The lighthearted atmosphere instantly vanished. Rudolf’s eyes widened with stern surprise. Sirius’s smirk vanished, replaced with a disappointed frown. Air Groove scowled, and Brian… Brian’s eyes were wide with fury.
“Nakayama… while I appreciate a good joke, this isn’t one of them.” Sirius' tone lowered. “You know that’s not a topic you should bring up.”
“I should send you to the director myself right now…” Air Groove growled.
“Gentle-san…” Rudolf looked at Gentle.
Gentle had frozen, almost dropping the Mahjong piece she was holding. She blinked back tears and looked at Festa. Before Air Groove could grab Festa by her arm. Gentle held her hands out, motioning for Air Groove to stop.
“Gentle-san, you can’t-” Air Groove started.
“Let her. I want to hear it.”
Festa sighed, preparing to explain what had happened earlier in the day.
— — — — —
Around 14 years ago
Gentle Trial had just gotten back to working about a week ago, and she was getting used to handling her responsibilities again after so long. She supposed she should thank Akikawa later, as she had used up all her vacation days and even more in her depression but wasn’t fired. In Akikawa’s words, ‘Leave the work to me! I’m not heartless nor soulless. You can take as much as you want as long as you come back.’ Gentle suppressed a smile at that generosity before. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed when an Umamusume came to sit beside her.
“...Trainer.”
Gentle snapped out of her thoughts at the familiar voice, turning to see Nakayama Festa sitting with her, though her eyes were trained ahead at the track nearby.
“...Festa-chan.”
“Why did you leave?”
“I…”
“...”
“I-I just had something personal come up. It’s nothing-”
“Tell me.”
“...That’s… too much, no? Putting my grievances on you…”
“So it’s not ‘nothing’. You said you were grieving, that’s enough for me to be concerned.”
“...Since when did you get so sly?”
Festa chuckled. “Ever since you disappeared into that ‘break’, whatever you call it. I had to adapt to get you to open up.”
“...It’s my son.”
“Ah, your brat? What, did he not get into the college he liked?-”
“He’s dead.”
Festa opened her mouth, then closed it, not unlike a fish out of water. The bombshell of those two words had her struggling to voice out a word of grief or support. Even within her thoughts, one word remained constant. ‘Shit.’
“I’m… so sorry-”
“It’s okay. Uhm… he… he disappeared near midnight one day. Just… didn’t come back. We called the police and they checked the security cameras around. He… he went to the convenience store. I think I'll get some snacks. And… after he came out of the store, the… the footage got a bit fuzzy and… there was a lot of static. And when it cleared up… he was just gone. There wasn’t… a trace left. The cashier there said… he said my son acted weird for a second, but when he looked back after a second… he wasn’t there anymore. They… uhm, the police said there was no lead. And… he was pronounced assumed to be dead.”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have-”
Gentle Trial gasped in surprise as Festa pulled her into a hug. Festa didn’t say anything, knowing no words would help Gentle right now. So she decided that she would just stay silent and comfort Gentle with her presence.
— — — — —
“Black, almost spiky hair. He’s pretty tall, and he’s fast. And… he has your sharp eyes.” Festa mumbled.
“...Are you sure?”
“Gentle-san! I can’t… you can’t be seriously considering-” Air Groove looked at Gentle with concern as Gentle interrupted her by holding her hand up.
“...Are you sure?”
“I’ve seen his pictures from what you showed me. I know it’s him.”
“...And his name?” Out of every detail, only her son’s name never left her lips. No one else but her and her husband would have known, as the students would likely have never read the missing persons article out of respect.
“...He told me his name was Natsuki Subaru.”
Without a word, Gentle Trial dropped the Mahjong piece she was still holding and headed to the door to exit.
“Gentle, wait.” Sirius called out.
Gentle ignored her, her hand on the doorknob.
“Naoko.”
Gentle froze, turning her head slightly to meet the eyes of Narita Brian. Brian, fed up with staying silent, stood up and looked at her.
“What if it’s a faker? What if Festa is mistaken? What if…”
“I can’t think about what could happen… I told you this long ago. A mother always waits. 14 years ago, Subaru disappeared. And I waited in the very hope that he would come back. Even if it’s untrue… even if that really isn’t my Subaru, I can’t ignore it. Call the director for me.”
With that last command, Gentle Trial, also known as Natsuki Naoko, the mother of Subaru Natsuki, walked out of the Student Council room, her mind fixated on only the goal to bring her son back to her.