Chapters: 2/?
Fandom: ウマ娘 プリティーダービー | Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (Video Game), ウマ娘 プリティーダービー | Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (Anime)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Manhattan Cafe & Nice Nature, Agnes Tachyon & Manhattan Cafe (Uma Musume)
Characters: Nice Nature (Uma Musume), Manhattan Cafe (Uma Musume), Agnes Tachyon (Uma Musume), Smart Falcon (Uma Musume), original trainer character - Character
Additional Tags: Not Canon Compliant, or rather, it's a mix of canons, Unusual Friendships, The power of SCIENCE!, the power of FRIENDSHIP!, The power of FREAKING GHOSTS!, Team Dynamics, Nice Nature's self-worth issues, Manhattan Cafe's haunting issues, Agnes Tachyon's ... Issues, Smart Falcon doesn't have many issues, THANKFULLY, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, as things develop, i have a plan, but I'm also winging it
Summary:
"Would you mind getting a Teammate?"
"A kohai... for me... What do you think?"
It would mean changes. But it might also be... interesting.
Manhattan Cafe has been through a lot by the time senior year rolls around. On top of the regular stresses that come with being a professional athlete, a student and a medium, she had to deal with the insanity of her growing circle of friends, the horrible fate of her inherited soul and even drinking Tachyon's tea a few times.
But just as things seem to be calming down, her Trainer decides to adopt another stray.
Thus begins Team Imai, a small but strange collection of truly disparate personalities reaching for something beyond the finish line in their own unique ways.
Surely, they can find ways to help each other get there.
Since posting the Prologue preview here worked out so well and I'm always hungry for attention, I figured I'd do the same with Chapter 1.
Enjoy!
How did I end up here?
See, I’m not the kind of girl that these kinds of things happen to. Standing in a badly lit hallway, in a rarely-used wing of the academy, long after classes are out, in front of an aging sliding door with a sign that just says “Don’t enter carelessly” in shaky handwriting. Even the soundscape is eerie, with the only sign of any life being the faint, distant sound of voices from the training fields.
That's the kind of situation you’d find in some kind of horror manga, or maybe one of those urban fantasy animes where the heroes get pulled into some kind of secret fairy war. That kind of thing isn't for ordinary schoolgirls like me!
Okay, calm down Nature, no need to exaggerate a perfectly ordinary location where you are for perfectly normal reasons.
I was frazzled enough already after the two whirlwind days I’d just had. I was just here to meet my new teammate and bring her a parcel from our trainer. This room was just an unused room the academy allowed Manhattan Cafe and her friend to use as some kind of clubroom, and there's nothing shady about that at all.
Trainer Jeanne even said it’s just a good opportunity to get us acquainted before we meet at training next week.
My trainer.
I still couldn't believe I got scouted just like that! She walked right past Teio, didn't even look at her, like the most shining star was just a minor distraction to her. That's not how things are supposed to work!
Clack
My train of thought was interrupted by a sound beyond the door, and before I could recollect myself, it was joined by more sounds:
The squeaking of an abused chair, the rolling over the floor, some quick steps and then… silence again.
Alright, focus girl! I’m here to do something.
I tucked the soft package under my left arm and knocked confidently.
“Oh? How curious, a visitor at this hour?”
Before I could reach out again to open the door, the girl in the room skipped over and slid it open, giving me a view of what looked like a science teacher’s storeroom.
I didn't have much time to really assess the sights, though, as the girl who had opened the door immediately got right into my personal space, shoving her head forward and inspecting me like I was some kind of bug she was inspecting without a microscope.
Brown ears on top of an unruly mop of brown hair, an oversized white labcoat overtop the Tracen uniform, and unsettlingly wide red eyes staring at me over the most manic grin I’d ever seen outside closing time at mom’s bar.
My… our trainer had shown me the pictures she had on her desk, of her first trainee’s most notable victories (with assurances that soon I, too, would have my face crowding the already limited space… mortifying), and this girl looked nothing like Manhattan Cafe.
The strange student stared at me expectantly, like my presence was some kind of mildly interesting phenomenon that she was just waiting to see resolve itself.
Before I could get get any more uncomfortable, I decided to seek refuge in social custom.
“Ah, pardon the intrusion! I am Nice Nature, and I’m looking for Manhattan Cafe. You must be her friend that Trainer Jeanne mentioned?”
Her face lit up for a moment, then the already frightening grin turned into something smaller and sharper as she swept her gaze over my whole body, ignoring the parcel I was raising.
“Unfortunately my dear Cafe is not here right now, Rice Nature-kun. You, on the other hand, seem an interesting subject. Your reflexes are somewhat dull, it seems, but the tone of your arms and legs suggests a healthy fitness state even by the standards of this academy…”
I instinctively took a step back and tossed out a half-hearted “It’s Nice Nature!” as she kept rambling and continued her investigation of my body.
“Your balance is excellent and the leg proportions are perfectly average for a racing Uma. You must be a versatile runner, perhaps that's how you gained the attention of Miss Trainer…”
Before she could get any more intrusive, I shoved the parcel in front of her face to interrupt her and put some more distance between us.
“That's fascinating and all, but I’m not actually here for a medical exam? I’m supposed to meet Manhattan Cafe and give her this, as I said. Can you tell me where she is or when she'll get back?”
That seemed to break her line of thought, and her eyes caught on the simple gray plastic wrap for a moment before finally looking me in the eyes. She seemed to deflate a little as the mania receded.
“Of course, of course. Training business must come first. My dear Cafe, it seems, had a little disagreement with her Friend, and said something about going for a run to clear her head. I cannot gather any useful data from her running when she's in such a mood and I was in the middle of synthesizing a new agent for keratin stabilization…”
A gleam of enthusiasm reentered her eye, and she whirled back into the room, snatching a beaker of … something red and slimy off a shelf before turning back to me, holding it out triumphantly.
“Actually, how perfect that you should come by, Nice Narwhale-kun! This is a perfect opportunity to do a control test on a healthy subject! Please take off your shoes and socks, this needs to be applied directly to the nails.”
This time the sudden intrusion was a little less startling.
Goddesses, I think I’m already getting disturbingly used to this kind of behaviour.
I had the presence of mind to not instinctively agree, instead taking another step back and waving the package between us in the hopes of refocussing her attention elsewhere.
“Yeah, I’m not doing that, that's not appropriate! And all kinds of shady! I’m just here for Cafe-san, so if you can tell me where she went I’ll be gone and you can go back to your… sciencing. And it’s Nature!”
The mad scientist shrugged and stepped back behind the threshold, beaker still in hand and mind clearly racing on to matters she deemed more interesting.
“Cafe thrives in the quiet dark. The greatest odds of encountering her are on a track that matches those conditions.”
She started sliding the door closed, already turning away, but then looked back over her shoulder with that same mad smile she had when examining me earlier. “Good luck, Nature-kun… I look forward to seeing what potential Miss Trainer can draw out of you…”
Then the door clicked shut fully, leaving me standing there with a brand new heap of confusing questions, some trembling from the fading adrenaline rush her intensity had induced, and a lot of annoyance.
It’s like she kept getting my name wrong on purpose to get a reaction out of me! Actually, I bet that's exactly what she was doing, and evaluating me the whole time. Like poking a sample under a microscope and seeing what it does…
I shivered as I turned back the way I came.
Creepy. But at least she did give me an idea of where to ….
I interrupted my own train of thought as something occurred to me. Her looks and behaviour had triggered a nagging sense of familiarity in my subconscious the entire time, and now that I had some time to parse things it clicked.
Being the ordinary schoolgirl I am, I had been aware of plenty of gossip circles in my time here at Tracen. So of course I had heard stories about the “Phantom Triple Crown”, the mad scientist Uma who had shocked everyone by disappearing after dominating a few races. Since then, this girl apparently showed up randomly around campus like a cryptid, offering strange concoctions and gadgets to students or staff that would induce madness, make you glow weird colours or have other, even more esoteric effects, make a few notes and then disappear again, laughing maniacally all the while.
I just had an encounter with Agnes Tachyon. Just what did I get myself into?
As I pulled up the map of the academy on my phone to try and identify a likely place for my new teammate to have wandered off to, I was already starting to regret signing the training contract so quickly.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: ウマ娘 プリティーダービー | Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (Video Game), ウマ娘 プリティーダービー | Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (Anime)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Manhattan Cafe & Nice Nature, Agnes Tachyon & Manhattan Cafe (Uma Musume)
Characters: Nice Nature (Uma Musume), Manhattan Cafe (Uma Musume), Agnes Tachyon (Uma Musume), Smart Falcon (Uma Musume), original trainer character - Character
Additional Tags: Not Canon Compliant, or rather, it's a mix of canons, Unusual Friendships, The power of SCIENCE!, the power of FRIENDSHIP!, The power of FREAKING GHOSTS!, Team Dynamics, Nice Nature's self-worth issues, Manhattan Cafe's haunting issues, Agnes Tachyon's ... Issues, Smart Falcon doesn't have many issues, THANKFULLY, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, as things develop, i have a plan, but I'm also winging it
Summary:
"Would you mind getting a Teammate?"
"A kohai... for me... What do you think?"
It would mean changes. But it might also be... interesting.
Manhattan Cafe has been through a lot by the time senior year rolls around. On top of the regular stresses that come with being a professional athlete, a student and a medium, she had to deal with the insanity of her growing circle of friends, the horrible fate of her inherited soul and even drinking Tachyon's tea a few times.
But just as things seem to be calming down, her Trainer decides to adopt another stray.
Thus begins Team Imai, a small but strange collection of truly disparate personalities reaching for something beyond the finish line in their own unique ways.
Surely, they can find ways to help each other get there.
This is still a bit unpolished, but since the friends I tapped for feedback haven't gotten back to me in the arbitrary timespan of "before I get impatient", I'm posting it here anyway.
The room was quiet this evening. Just how I liked it best, really. I could relax on the couch with a cup of coffee in my hand and a book in front of me.
The curtains kept the afternoon sunlight from disturbing the comfortable gloom of my corner, while still providing enough light to read without needing my standing lamp.
With the laboratory half of the room thankfully devoid of its usually energetic proprietor, the only one keeping me company was my friend, whose shadowy form was currently silently perched on Tachyon’s office chair, gently rotating.
It was the kind of relaxed afternoon I had been hoping for when Trainer had told me I should take the week off training and focus on resting.
So, of course, I was mildly irritated when I heard my phone buzzing in my bag.
I ignored it, but it didn't take long before another short burst of noise signalled another message arriving.
A sigh escaped me as I rose, unwilling to wait for an inevitable third, fourth or fifth message or, goddesses forbid, a call.
The list of people who would write to me on my day off was rather small, after all, and most of them were not the type to let silence go unanswered.
Surprisingly, mercifully, the phone remained silent even until I had fished it out and unlocked it. The two messages, it turned out, were from one of the few people who could be relied on to restrain their texting to only the essentials.
The cheerful face of a human woman with brown-blonde curls and a wide grin greeted me, a selfie with Tracen’s main turf course in the background accompanying the first message: ‘I figured I’d take the opportunity to check out the newest round of tryouts, this year’s Fungs are a really talented bunch!’
Nearly three years under her care had left me with plenty of practice reading the romaji that she insisted on using instead of learning how to use a japanese keyboard, and I only had to pause for a moment over the english slang she’d injected, but the second message made me freeze for an uncomfortably long time.
‘Would you be okay with getting a teammate?’
A teammate. The thought was a strange one. I’d had plenty of training with Agnes Tachyon, Dantsu Flame and Jungle Pocket. Even Fuji Kiseki had recently joined us a few times, under Nabe-san’s watchful eye.
But training with friends was something else than having a Team, of that I was sure. It would mean changes. It would mean someone new in my life, someone who would be here not for me but to learn what I learned, be guided by the hands that guided me. It was scary, the thought that someone else I don't know might be suddenly so close…
But it might also be interesting?
The sudden presence of my Friend by my side made me look up. Her form was indistinct in the half-light, and despite looming like she had been reading over my shoulder, she was now turning away from me, denying me a look at her face, as always.
“What do you think? A kouhai for me…”
She shrugged, as if saying ‘What are you asking me for’. But then she faced in the direction of the training field ….
she ran ahead, disappearing through the wall with an excited laugh.
A tiny smile twitched across my lips, and I returned my eyes to the phone screen as I settled back down on the couch and tapped the reply field.
On the other side of the campus, a young foreign woman with blonde-brown hair and a trainer’s badge laid her phone down on the grass next to her as she watched her fellow trainers begin flooding the field. She smirked quietly at some of her colleagues tripping over themselves or each other in their haste to introduce themselves to this season’s young hopefuls, most of whom were eagerly waving at the crowd or posing to draw as many eyes as they could, especially from those of her colleagues who were avoiding the rapidly forming crowd around today's brightest star.
Tokai Teio had drawn so much attention with her incredible run and her adorable antics before and after that, despite an unusually large turnout of trainers, the other prospective trainees would only have slim pickings, at least until Teio made her decision.
A ‘ping’ sound drew her attention back down to her phone, and her smirk became an astonished smile as she read the unusually wordy reply from her first (but hopefully soon not only) trainee: ‘I look forward to it. Good Luck.’
With that, Trainer Jeanne jumped up, patted some grass off her pants and made her way down to the one student who had caught her eye today. She went past what was now starting to form into an almost orderly queue and past a few colleagues that had already abandoned the effort and were heading towards some of the other, less embattled Umamusume. Her own target, however, was just past where Teio was holding court, still standing alone by virtue of being in the metaphorical shadow to the young Monarch’s brightness.
And isn't that a nostalgic thought…
Jeanne’s smile grew wider as the young Umamusume became aware of the trainer heading her way with clear intent to scout.
The girl brushed a few strands of strikingly rust-coloured hair from her brow and put on one of the best customer service smiles the Trainer had ever seen.
“Oh, hello Trainer… you must be a little lost, Teio’s line starts over there.”
