Uma Musume Pretty Derby: To The Basement

Chapter 401 401: Uma Musume Pretty Derby: To The Basement [401]

Miho Dormitory, outside the first-floor communal kitchen.

The rescue team, made up of four Umamusume—Symboli Rudolf, Air Groove, Maruzensky, and Rice Shower—stood at the door with murder in their eyes, ready to break in and rescue the kidnapped hostage.

Perhaps because she was confident in their strength, or perhaps because she was guarding her food, Symboli Rudolf had not called in any more Umamusume. In the end, only the four of them had come to rescue Mizuno.

"Rice Shower, is your Onii-sama in here?" Symboli Rudolf asked the petite, black-haired Umamusume beside her, arms folded.

"Mm!" Rice Shower nodded hard, her small hands clutching the blue-rose sachet at her chest.

According to the distress signal sent through the sachet by the goddess attached to Onii-sama, Onii-sama was being held here!

A day apart felt like three autumns. Since Rice Shower had last seen Onii-sama, roughly thirty autumns had already passed.

Through those difficult days, Rice Shower had waited day and night for the moment she could see Onii-sama again, when she could turn the feelings she had suppressed for so long into loving kisses and offer them to her favorite Onii-sama.

But just as that beautiful moment was about to arrive, her dear Onii-sama had been kidnapped by another bad woman again…

That made Rice Shower very unhappy, but Rice Shower believed that, just like during the Gold Ship basement incident, she would rescue Onii-sama from the bad woman's den once more!

Any woman who tried to bully Onii-sama would be eliminated by her personally!

"Give Onii-sama back to me…" Rice Shower gritted her teeth, drew the small knife at her waist, and stood there with lightless eyes, her entire body wreathed in a pitch-black aura.

"…"

The dark will bursting out of Rice Shower made the other three Umamusume present feel a surge of panic as guilty cold sweat trickled down their backs.

They absolutely could not let Rice Shower find out what they had done to Trainer Mizuno last night!

"Prepare to breach!"

"Mm!"

At Symboli Rudolf's command, the rescue team officially sprang into action.

But just as Air Groove and Maruzensky were about to kick the door in from either side, the kitchen window suddenly opened, and an Umamusume shot out from inside.

That Umamusume had a stuffed-full sack slung over her shoulder. After glancing at the rescue team by the door, a flicker of panic flashed through her eyes, and she immediately took off into the distance.

"Fuji Kiseki?!" Symboli Rudolf recognized the Umamusume at a glance. It was Fuji Kiseki, the dorm supervisor of Ritto Dormitory.

But Symboli Rudolf had never told Fuji Kiseki Mizuno's true identity. Why would Fuji Kiseki suddenly kidnap Mizuno?

And why was Fuji Kiseki, the dorm supervisor of Ritto Dormitory, in Miho Dormitory's kitchen?

A series of questions surfaced in Symboli Rudolf's mind, leaving her unable to sort them out for the moment.

But Symboli Rudolf had no time to dwell on that now. The sack on Fuji Kiseki's shoulder was very likely Trainer Mizuno. If they simply watched Fuji Kiseki carry him away, Trainer Mizuno's situation would become extremely dangerous!

"After her!" Maruzensky took the lead, chasing after her before anyone else could move.

"Wait!" But just as Symboli Rudolf and Air Groove were about to give chase as well, Rice Shower suddenly called out to them.

"What is it?" Symboli Rudolf turned back in confusion.

"Onii-sama is over there!" Rice Shower shook her head and pointed in another direction.

Looking where Rice Shower indicated, they could see a figure sneaking through the bushes by the back door. That figure seemed to have a sack slung over her shoulder too, and she was trying to slip away in the opposite direction from Fuji Kiseki without attracting the rescue team's attention.

"Crap!" Hishi Amazon realized her movements had been exposed. She stopped hiding altogether, stood up, and ran off at high speed with the sack that truly contained Mizuno slung over her shoulder.

"A diversion?!" Everyone reacted with a start. If not for Rice Shower's warning, they would have been lured away by Fuji Kiseki, the fake bait.

"This way!" Symboli Rudolf led the Umamusume in pursuit of Hishi Amazon.

Maruzensky, who had chased the wrong person at the start, hurriedly turned back as well, forced to go from leading the chase to chasing from behind.

"Kiseki! The plan failed!" Hishi Amazon glanced back at the Umamusume relentlessly pursuing her. While continuing to flee, she called Fuji Kiseki.

"It failed?" Fuji Kiseki looked back in surprise. Seeing that the rescue team had not been drawn to her at all and had instead gone straight after Hishi Amazon without looking back, she frowned in confusion.

How had Symboli Rudolf and the others known that her side was actually the fake? And how had they discovered Hishi Amazon, who had slipped out the back door and hidden in the bushes?

Could this Mizuno guy have had some tracker planted on him by Symboli Rudolf?

But after she kidnapped Mizuno and brought him back, she had already searched his entire body and had not found anything like a tracker.

"How strange…"

Fuji Kiseki could not figure out the reason, so she decided to keep observing for a little longer. She turned and followed them while giving Amazon instructions.

"Amazon, follow the planned escape route!"

"Got it! Ooooooh!" Hishi Amazon answered, then put all her strength into it, running all over the academy with Mizuno while shouting excitedly.

Hishi Amazon's escape route seemed to have been carefully studied, designed specifically to shake off pursuers. After several turns, she and Mizuno actually vanished right under the rescue team's noses, despite the team sticking close behind them.

"Where did she go?" Symboli Rudolf's heart jolted slightly, but she quickly calmed herself. Then she hurriedly asked Rice Shower, who had barely managed to keep up with the team's pace.

"Rice Shower, where do we go next?"

"Huff… huff…" Rice Shower, who had chased after them with everything she had, was panting heavily. She quickly pointed in one direction. "This way!"

"Move!"

With an accurate direction, the rescue team turned left and right, soon finding the fleeing Hishi Amazon again and continuing to cling tightly to her.

"It's her!"

Fuji Kiseki, who had been quietly following behind the rescue team and observing, shifted her expression slightly as she studied Rice Shower at the back of the group.

Among the rescue team's members, Fuji Kiseki knew the three powerful Umamusume: Symboli Rudolf, Air Groove, and Maruzensky. Only the little blue-rose Umamusume at the rear was unfamiliar to her.

No wonder Symboli Rudolf and the others, despite clearly being able to run faster, were deliberately slowing down to wait for the little blue-rose Umamusume behind them. So this little blue-rose Umamusume was the key reason the rescue team could find Mizuno!

And the sachet at her chest, flashing with a barely noticeable red light, had to be the tool she was using to locate Mizuno.

"I see."

After figuring out why the rescue team could keep tracking Mizuno, a plan naturally formed in Fuji Kiseki's mind.

No matter how sturdy a submarine was, without radar to point the way, it was nothing but a hunk of scrap iron sunk beneath the sea.

"Amazon, keep moving him along the planned route. I'll deal with their 'tracker,'" Fuji Kiseki instructed over the phone.

"Got it!"

Hishi Amazon agreed and continued carrying Mizuno all over the academy, while Fuji Kiseki's figure flickered and vanished into the bushes beside them.

"Hmm? Fuji Kiseki disappeared?" While chasing Hishi Amazon, Symboli Rudolf had also been keeping an eye on Fuji Kiseki's movements behind them the entire time, preventing her from pulling any tricks to interfere with them.

Fuji Kiseki's sudden disappearance did not make Symboli Rudolf relax at all. On the contrary, the ominous feeling in her heart only grew stronger.

Symboli Rudolf's instincts had not lied to her.

Because at the next turn, a gust of wild wind blew leaves into the Umamusume's eyes, blocking everyone's vision. Hishi Amazon disappeared from their sight once again.

And a dark shadow, which had been hiding near the team all this time while waiting for an opportunity, seized that chance to pass through the middle of the rescue team and magically take something with her…

"Rice Shower, where is Trainer Mizuno now?"

"?"

Symboli Rudolf was just about to ask Rice Shower which direction they should go next, only to realize that Rice Shower had not caught up behind them.

"Rice Shower?" Symboli Rudolf turned around and saw that, for some reason, Rice Shower had stopped in her tracks and was frozen far behind them.

"Guh…"

Rice Shower lowered her head and looked at her empty palm, her pale-purple pupils shrinking. In that instant, her eyes trembled violently.

"The sachet Onii-sama gave Rice Shower… is gone…"

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T/N: OUGH