"I knew it was you, Gold Ship!" Mejiro McQueen clenched her fists in anger.
Only Gold Ship would dare impersonate her, using her name to pull something like this at a time like this!
...
"So I've been found out..."
Inside the basement room, Gold Ship held her tablet, watching Rudolf and the others through the camera with a puzzled frown.
"How did they even find this place when it's so well hidden?" Gold Ship glanced at Mizuno, still limp on the bed, and Fortune, kneeling beside him.
Mizuno stayed silent.
"Uh~" Fortune just looked up at the ceiling, whistling with guilt.
"Goddess's powers, huh?" Gold Ship instantly guessed the truth.
It had to be this Goddess of Fortune—she must've tipped Rudolf and the others off with some kind of supernatural trick. Otherwise, with all the care Gold Ship put into picking this basement location and disguising the entrance, it would take them a lifetime to find it by normal means.
Still, this goddess could only call for outside help, not teleport Mizuno out herself. Pretty pathetic, as gods go...
Regardless, Fortune's interference had caused Gold Ship a real headache.
She could have happily gotten busy with her bro and expanded their "alien tribe," but now, with the basement under siege, she had to focus on repelling the intruders before she could return to making foals in peace.
It was all Fortune's fault for meddling!
Disobedient! Needs punishing!
The angrier Gold Ship got, the more she took it out on Mizuno, stealing another mouthful of saliva.
"?" Mizuno, still lying on the bed, stared in disbelief. "Hey! Why am I getting punished for something Fortune did?!"
"You're in on it too!" Gold Ship swallowed, smacked her lips with satisfaction, and answered, "And since I can't lay a hand on this so-called goddess, you're the only outlet I've got!"
"Guh... Am I just your stress-relief tool now..." Mizuno closed his eyes in despair, feeling like Gold Ship's personal juice bar—a sip every time she felt annoyed...
Once Mizuno was "sorted out," Gold Ship turned her gaze to the biggest threat in the room: Fortune.
"You're not planning to help him again, are you?" Gold Ship squinted, her guard up.
If this goddess tried any more sneaky tricks, all the basement's painstaking defenses would be for nothing.
"Uhh..." Under Gold Ship's glare, Fortune's mouth twitched with awkwardness.
"Honestly, I'd love to help my weak little servant escape your basement, but since I just woke up, I don't have much energy left. Sending out a distress signal was all I could manage. So now, with my servant about to get Uma Pyoi'd by you, I'm afraid I can only sit back and watch."
She even shrugged, putting on her best I'm just a neutral bystander look.
"Good." Gold Ship relaxed visibly at that.
If Fortune had stabbed her in the back right in the middle of fighting off the invaders, it'd be a mess.
Fortunately, this goddess was so pathetic that even sending a message drained her dry. Now she was nothing but a harmless spectator—no need to worry about sabotage from behind.
Still, Gold Ship figured she should keep an eye on her, just in case.
...
Rudolf drew back her foot, gathered her strength, and kicked hard at the barricade.
Bang!
The door shuddered, a dent forming where she struck, but the steel frame embedded in the stone walls barely budged. This was way sturdier than the flimsy entrance hatch.
The tougher the door, the surer everyone was that this was Mizuno's final cell.
Rudolf eyed the door, not wanting to waste too much energy busting it open. After all, she'd need to save her strength to haul Mizuno away from the bad Uma Musume and give him a thorough checkup later.
She stepped to the side, making room.
"Air Groove, give me a hand."
"Mm." Air Groove nodded, moving to her side.
"Three, two, one!" No extra words needed. The council president and vice-president synchronized their breathing, then kicked the door together.
Boom!
Under their combined power, the door—built to withstand a three-hundred-kilometer-per-hour train crash—collapsed like a giant felled at the waist, steel rods ripping free from the stone, debris and dust flying.
"Trainer Mizuno, I'm here to save you—huh?!"
Rudolf crossed her arms, ready to make a heroic entrance and win someone's heart, but what she saw left her dumbstruck.
Because behind the busted door wasn't a room at all—just more pitch-dark hallway!
And a few meters further along, there was another identical alloy door!
Beep~
Just like before, the monitor on the new door flashed a red X, and a machine-distorted voice came from the intercom:
"Halt! Go no further! I am Student Council President Symboli Rudolf of Tracen. This is my—the Emperor's—shadowy basement. Leave now, or I'll use my dirty connections to have you all thrown in jail!"
Now it was Rudolf's turn for a head full of question marks.
The words were similar to the earlier fake-Mejiro McQueen message, but this time, the fake-Rudolf was clearly throwing shade. Whoever was behind the voice had some real resentment—like she'd been thrown in jail by Rudolf before...
Now, they were absolutely sure it was Gold Ship.
But Rudolf didn't care. She'd done nothing wrong—she was just doing her job as Student Council President, catching Gold Ship sneaking into the secret boys' dorm, then staking her claim on the person she liked. No regrets.
If she could get Gold Ship locked in the Special Education Base for three months last time, she could do it again now!
And this time, Gold Ship had really crossed the line—locking up a Trainer was a serious crime. That'd be another six months or a year on top of her sentence…
By the time Gold Ship got out, Rudolf figured she'd have made that special someone her personal property.
"Heh." Rudolf snorted, sharing a glance with Air Groove, and together they kicked down the second door.
But what none of them expected was—behind the second door, there was a third.
"How many doors did she put in?!" Rudolf glared at the next brand-new alloy door, starting to get annoyed.
Gold Ship had really gone all out on this cell for Mizuno. The price of all these doors was enough to buy a 200-square-meter apartment downtown!
For a seven-time champion like Rudolf, it was pocket change—but for Gold Ship, who hadn't even made her debut yet, it was a fortune!
She must've sunk her entire life savings into this underground bunker just for Mizuno.
Boom!
Rudolf and Air Groove smashed through yet another door.
Only to be greeted by… the fourth alloy door.
"Hoo~" Rudolf exhaled, rubbing her now-numb thigh.
Honestly, she was starting to regret not bringing Narita Brian along. Kicking down doors was definitely a job for professionals.
But it was too late to go back for help. If they took too long, Gold Ship might get spooked and move Mizuno somewhere else. They had to push forward and break through every barrier before it was too late!
The only downside was, with Tokai Teio and the others not strong enough to kick these reinforced doors, all the heavy lifting fell to Rudolf and Air Groove.
But just as the two of them braced to kick in the next door, Gold Ship's voice came blaring out of the intercom, threatening:
"That's enough! If you dare take another step, I'll take his first virginity!"