Chapter Text
Fenomeno looked out the window of the Tracen Academy cafeteria as she sipped her hot chocolate, enjoying the view of snow drifting across the night sky. She enjoyed seeing each snowflake rest onto the windowsill in serenity, when all of a sudden, a shrill voice rang into her ears, and a heavy figure jumped up at her.
‘Hey Meno! What are you gonna do after you graduate?’
‘Gah! Golshi! Stop surprising me!’
‘Aww, but you’re no fuuuuuuuun! I just wanna knoooooow…’
Gold Ship has a point, though. What does she want to do after she graduates from Tracen Academy? Her first thought was to be a police officer like her father, whom she looked up to for all her life. She would make a good cop, constantly chasing down criminals at breakneck speed and pinning them down with ease for arrest. She’d make the cut well, she thinks for herself. Perhaps if she feels unsatisfied with being a cop, she’ll just change her mind.
‘I wanna be a police officer, of course. It’s my life’s purpose to be one, like my father before me.’
‘Ugh, typical Meno of being such a stickler to the rules! That’s so boring!’
‘Justice and righteousness need to prevail, otherwise the world will fall into chaos!’
‘Yeah, yeah, whatever, Mame-chin…’
‘I told you to stop calling me that!’ Fenomeno dragged Gold Ship from off her shoulders and to the seat in front of her in rage. ‘Anyway, what do you want from me, actually?’
‘Mmm, nothing much, just wanted to pester you!’
Fenomeno crossed her arms and rolled her eyes in annoyance over Gold Ship’s presence. In pure boredom, the grey-haired uma hopped out of her seat and ran up to the counter, hoping to get herself a warm drink too. The dark-haired one shook her head in wonder as she returned her focus to her beverage, blowing into the cup as she took a sip of the hot chocolate. Fenomeno cannot wait to be finally free from being around Gold Ship’s irritating personality.
~~~
The morning sun gently shines its rays through the springtime sky as the students sit nicely on the foldable chairs, donned in their graduation robes & mortarboard. They turned towards the side of the stage, where Director Akikawa walked up to the stage and onto a stepstool in order to access the podium. She tapped the microphone to test it out before beginning her speech.
‘Fellow students, I am most delighted to have the honour of holding this graduation ceremony for you all. I have looked forward to this day from the day I first met all of you entering Tracen Academy for the first time. Give a round of applause to yourselves!’
The students all clap with great joy that they’ve finally finished the URA Finales and the Twinkle Series with flying colours. The graduation ceremony goes as planned, starting off with the students standing up and singing the academy hymn, leading up to the procession of the graduates towards the top of the stage in order to accept their degree scrolls from the teachers and veteran trainers of the school.
After the processions were done, Fenomeno went up to Zenno Rob Roy and shook her hand.
‘Congratulations, Valedictorian.’
Rob Roy giggled at Fenomeno’s words, touched at the compliment.
‘Why, thank you, Fenomeno. I hope to see you soon in the years to come once we go our separate ways.’
‘Likewise with you, Rob Roy.’
‘Hey Meno!’ Gold Ship suddenly jumped behind Fenomeno, giving both her and Rob Roy a surprise.
‘GOLD SHIP!!! Get off me!’
‘Aww, boo hoo, you’re no fun! We’re not gonna see each other again anymore!’
Fenomeno huffed as she pushed Gold Ship away from her view.
‘I'd like to keep it that way without seeing another one of your dumb pranks.’
‘Well, I’ll see you when you become a boring cop, Mame-chin! Ciao!’
Gold Ship waved goodbye at Fenomeno and ran off to catch up with the rest of their batchmates.
‘Fenomeno!’
The umamusume heard someone call her name from amongst the crowd. She turned around and saw her parents walking up to her and approached her for a hug.
‘Meno… My dear, I am so proud of you…’
‘Mother…’
‘That’s my little assistant!’
Fenomeno’s father lifted her mortarboard and gave her a noogie, as he always did in her childhood.
‘Father! Stop it!’
Her father brushed her hair with his fingers and put the mortarboard back on, leaning his head on his wife’s.
‘Our little girl’s all grown up, De Laroche…’
‘I know, dear…’
‘Well, Mame-chin… Where do you plan to go now?’
‘I would still like to pursue my dream of being a police officer, Father, or as a detective if I cannot get the job.’
‘Hmm, police, eh…?’
Fenomeno’s father thought long and hard about his daughter’s dream. She’s already retired from racing with many wins to her name and successfully finished her studies. What else could Meno do…? But then, he had an idea.
‘I can ask one of my colleagues to see if there are any jobs in the police force here.’
‘Oh, thank you, Father. I will do my best to fulfil my duty!’
Fenomeno bent down in respect to her father, him instead telling her to stand up straight again.
‘It’s all good, Fenomeno. I know you’ll be a great police Uma.’
~~~
Today’s job as assigned by the police force is as a crossing guard for a nearby school, easy enough for her to do for the day as she’s used to doing it since her days at Tracen Academy. Fenomeno wakes up bright and early and gets ready for the day, replacing her police-inspired racing outfit from her days at Tracen for her much more comfortable casual wear and a reflective neon yellow safety vest. She puts on her trusty police cap, grabbing the yellow crossing flag off her living room table, and makes her way out of her apartment. As the sun rose, she walked down towards the school just around the corner and stood on the zebra crossing, watching the pedestrians pass by as they started their day. She stood up straight and diligently, holding the crossing flag out upon seeing a parent and their child, nicely dressed in the typical Japanese kindergarten uniform of a yellow sunhat, baby blue coat, with its accompanying tulip-shaped nametag.
‘Good morning!’ Fenomeno greeted the mother before bending down to greet her child with a smile, who suddenly burst into tears and hid behind their mother’s legs.
‘I’m sorry, it’s probably just those before school blues, that’s all…’ The mother apologised to the umamusume as she scooped up her crying child and consoled them as they crossed the street together. Fenomeno sighed to herself, knowing she unintentionally scared off a child. She turned to her right and saw a group of kids waiting to cross the street. Fenomeno put the flag out in view and waved hello to the kids as they crossed the road.
‘Good morning, kids!’
The kids looked up at Fenomeno and screamed in fear, running for their lives across the street and through the school gates. Dejected, she went to the other side and idly kicked rocks on the pavement.
‘Oh… I guess children really don’t like me…’
‘Fenomeno?’
The horse girl looked up and saw a very familiar face greeting her, dressed in her casual clothes and an apron over them.
‘Oh, Creek-san, Good morning! I didn’t expect to see you here!’
‘I work at the kindergarten actually, Fenomeno. I’m one of the teachers.’
‘Teacher? That is very suited for you, Creek-san.’
‘I know, I can see you from the window of the classroom I teach in.’
Fenomeno looked away and blushed, her ears drooping forward.
‘Oh, I’m sorry if you see your students crying or running away in fear…’
‘Don’t take the children’s fear of you to heart, they’re always wary of strangers.’
Fenomeno meekly took off her hat, hiding the lower half of her face in embarrassment.
‘Am I that intimidating to them…?
‘Well, if I had to be honest, you do look a bit intimidating. It’s not your fault, though, Meno…’
‘I wish I could soften my image so children wouldn’t be afraid to approach me or other police staff if they’re in trouble.’
‘You know, while I’m here… I’ve got a lesson plan on road safety coming up. You’re a police uma, can you come do a short talk at the school to teach the children?’
‘Oh, of course, Creek-san! Anything for you!’
Super Creek was taken aback at Fenomeno bending down in respect and thankfulness of her request.
‘It’s all good, Fenomeno. The class is for next week, I’ll set up the props so you don’t have to worry about anything.’ Super Creek looked at her watch and saw it was almost time for classes to start. ‘I better go back to the school now. I’ll let you know if I need materials from the police. I’ll see you later!’
‘Goodbye, Super Creek.’
The two umas waved each other farewell as they went back to doing their respective jobs, Fenomeno turning her head away from Super Creek and back towards the crossing, where more children along with their guardian awaited her assistance to cross. She attempted to do a friendly smile to greet them but the students were instead terrified of her and ran off. The guardian bowed in apology for the kids' behaviour and went to chase her wards. Fenomeno sighs once again, perhaps she will never be approachable to kids…
~~~
The very next week, Fenomeno, now donning her official police uniform, walked into the kindergarten building, being amazed by the bright & colourful ambiance of the building, littered in paper crafts made by the students hanging on the wall and on the windows, and little shoes stacked neatly in shoe racks right next to the door to the classrooms.
‘Good morning officer, what are you doing here in this school?’ The school receptionist, sitting at the front desk, asked Fenomeno as she was looking around the interior.
‘Ah, I’m here by invitation from Super Creek for her class…’
Just as she spoke those words, the aforementioned uma shows up to greet her.
‘Fenomeno, you’re here! Let me show you the classroom.’
‘Good morning, Creek-san. Lead the way.’
Super Creek walked down the hall and opened the classroom door, Fenomeno tagging along behind. The former of the duo bent down as she greeted her students, who simultaneously stood up to greet her back.
‘Good morning, class.’
‘Good morning, Sensei.’
‘Today we’ll be learning about road safety and what better way to learn it with a real police officer.’
Super Creek looked behind and invited her good friend into the class.
‘Class, I’d like you to meet Officer Fenomeno.’
The children stood frozen in fear upon seeing Fenomeno with her stern and serious face staring down at them and into their souls. The silence became awkward until one of the students pointed and shouted at her presence.
‘It’s the scary crossing lady!’
The students all screamed and ran into a corner of the room away from the grownups, trying to hide from Fenomeno.
‘Now class, you have to be nice to the officer, she and the other policemen work very hard to keep you and your family safe.’
‘Okay…’ The children walked back to their seats, standing politely at their desks and greeted the police uma.
‘Good morning, Officer Fenomeno…’
‘Good morning, children.’
‘Alright children, we are going to the playground and we can play along while we learn.’
The students cheered at the sound of Super Creek’s teaching plan for today, knowing they won’t spend the class sitting nicely at their desks.
‘Now kids, line up and make a train behind me.’ Super Creek instructed them, watching them stand behind her, arms reaching out for their friends’ shoulders, all of them interconnecting to one another as they walked in single file from their classroom to the playground outside, Fenomeno following behind the children, watching them toddle along outside. The kids were bedazzled in awe when they saw various street signs and traffic lights made with cardboard along with rows of tape littering the playground flooring as makeshift road lines.
‘Wow…’
‘We are going to play pretend today, kids, and Officer Fenomeno will help.’
The police uma bent down and pointed at the ground, grabbing the children’s attention
‘Now, see these lines on the road. Do you know what they’re called?’
‘This is called a zebra crossing. It’s called that because they look like the stripes of a zebra. This is a good area to cross the road when you go walking with your parents across the road or a street. If the road doesn’t have these lines between two pavements, it is not safe to cross.’ She stood up and pointed at a familiar looking signal. ‘Do you kids know what this is called?’
The kids all stood in silence, either too scared to answer Fenomeno’s question or they were unable to answer them. One brave child raised their hand and answered her.
‘Um… Is it a light?’
‘You're right, this is a traffic light. Have you ever noticed there are two types of traffic lights?’
The kids shook their heads yes as Fenomeno put the two traffic lights, side-by-side, letting them familiarise themselves with the differences.
‘This one on my left is a vehicular traffic light, which means it’s for people who ride cars or umas that run on the road. It has three colours, red, yellow, and green. Red means stop, yellow means wait, and green means go. This one on my right is a pedestrian traffic light, which means it’s for people who walk on the pavement. This one is special because it only has two colours and the lights have pictures on them. The red standing man means stop, and the green walking man means go. When the green light turns on, there will be a beeping sound, which tells you to walk, but if the light flickers, you better hurry up.’
The children stood quietly as Fenomeno explained more rules of crossing a road. Super Creek felt her heart was warm as she watched her students listening to her friend talking about road signs.
‘Alright kids, now show Officer Fenomeno what you’ve learned by playing pretend on the road?’
One of the uma children got onto a tricycle and rode down the makeshift road until they stopped at a traffic light, letting their classmate “cross” the road while holding Super Creek’s hand.
‘Very good, children, you’re learned a lot today!’ Super Creek took a look at her watch and saw that it was lunchtime for the kids. ‘After this we're going to have lunch, and Officer Fenomeno has to return to the police station. Everyone say thank you to her.’
‘Thank you, Officer Fenomeno.’
The children all bowed slightly as they greeted Fenomeno, and she reciprocated it by bowing at them back.
‘Thank you as well, children. Thank you for having me over, Creek-san. Bye-bye everyone!’
The police uma waved them all farewell and headed down the hall, out the door, where the streets were quiet, bar the occasional cyclist passing by. As she was about to cross the street, she bumped into an grey-haired old friend with a vaguely recognisable man next to her.
‘Hello again Fenomenooo~’
‘Gold Ship, what are you doing here?!’
‘Mmm… Nothing much, I’ve come here to look for a prospective school.’
‘Prospective school? For what?’
‘For my future child, of course!’
‘Wha-?’
‘Oh, don’t you know? This is my fiancé.’
‘Fiancé?! That’s so fast!’
‘Yeah Mame-chin, you’d get engaged pretty quickly too if you weren’t always such a stickler and so serious all the time.’
Fenomeno was rendered speechless and kept her mouth shut before she could comment in fear of Gold Ship retaliating.
‘Anyway, I gotta go now, bye Meno!’
Fenomeno waved goodbye to Gold Ship and her new beau, shaking her head out of her daze, walking back to the police station to complete the rest of her day.
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