Shit!
Shit!
Damn it! This shouldn't be happening.
How could all of this be happening? No one was supposed to know about this location except for a select few.
Generally, clandestine Uma Musume races were controlled by the Japanese Yakuza. The mere fact that an investigation had been opened to find a possible location was already difficult. So, finding it directly, without any advance notice in the local news, was even stranger. It was something that simply shouldn't have happened.
"Damn it! Get out of my way!" The teenager with chestnut hair and white streaks used his own muscle mass to push aside everyone in front of him. His hands shoved aside the few who got in his way, pulling on their clothes, even throwing a burly-looking man toward one of the police officers who was close to catching him. "How can this be happening? It should be impossible! Nothing happened within the Japanese police that the Yakuza didn't know about."
This was, in general, an important location for the Yakuza. Not only were illegal races and bets held here, it was also a major hotspot for drug distribution and sales. Simply put, the Yakuza wouldn't let a place like this be raided; the losses would be valued at several million dollars.
The only explanation would be that...
"Idiots... idiots! Damn idiots!" Pegasus yelled through gritted teeth, fueled by fury, as he kept running as fast as his legs could carry him, trying at all costs to avoid the police. He could deal with humans, but facing an Uma Musume who had been trained in military combat was simply suicide. "I swear, if I ever see those idiots again, I'll kill them with my bare hands!"
In his mind, the fleeting flash of memory of those trainers he had beaten up, that threat he had taken as a joke...
"Do they really hate me enough to pull this stupidity? They'd better flee the country far away, because if not, they're truly suicidal." The lips of the boy, who had a biker-like appearance, twisted into an expression of absolute contempt. Simply being a snitch and reporting this place to the police was suicide. You had to be crazy. In the underworld, betrayal was punished with something far worse than death; informants, in general, never had a pleasant ending once they were found.
"This is a dead end!" The teenager stopped upon seeing the wall in front of him. Despite having spent many years in this place, it didn't mean he knew every passage; this underground location was a complete labyrinth.
Pegasus's back straightened even more when a tingling sensation traveled from his spine to the nape of his neck.
"Japanese Police! Stop!"
"Damn it," Pegasus cursed under his breath as he turned around, seeing two police officers aiming electroshock guns at him. While they weren't bullets, getting hit by one of those would still hurt, a lot.
"On your knees and put your hands behind your head."
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you... Ugh, so demanding," the chestnut-haired teen said with an annoyed huff as he knelt and placed his hands behind his head. The two police officers approached him, their electric pistols still aimed at the boy's torso.
One of the officers unclipped a pair of handcuffs from his tactical belt, cautiously approaching Pegasus to cuff him.
However, both officers had made a small mistake... they had gotten too close. Both officers gasped when they suddenly felt their bodies float a few centimeters in the air. Pegasus, when kneeling, had left his dominant leg in a somewhat twisted position, which allowed him to sweep the legs out from under the two policemen.
"Sorry about this, it's nothing personal," the boy said as he delivered a strong punch right to the chin of one as he fell, and from the other, he took the electric pistol and fired it at him, causing the police officer to convulse on the ground before a boot to his face knocked him out as well.
Quickly, Pegasus turned off the lanterns that were still illuminating the small dead-end alley, thus ensuring they couldn't find him easily until he finished doing something.
"Damn, I hate doing this, but desperate times call for desperate measures." The man with chestnut and white hair muttered as he quickly approached the unconscious police officer who had a similar physique to his and began to remove his clothes. Then, Pegasus removed his own, muttering apologies the entire time. After all, he knew this was technically an indecent act: undressing a person against their will to use their clothes.
In less than a minute, the boy had managed to change clothes and now only adjusted a Taser on his police tactical belt. I guess this will be enough, he thought as he began to move among the crowd again, imitating the posture of the other officers.
Apprehending some people who "accidentally" managed to break free from his grip—forcing him to run after them, though what was really happening was that Pegasus ran through the increasingly familiar underground channels—until he finally found his ticket out: a small, tight space he had to squeeze through.
Which led him to encounter the love of his life once again.
"Oh yes, baby. Daddy's here with you." The boy said in an almost seductive tone as he removed a large sheet hiding what he sought: a motorcycle, the love of his life, waiting there for the escape. "Alright, it's time to get out of here, sweetie." Pegasus said as he put the helmet on his head, started his bike, and began to drive.
"Ha, that was much easier than I expected." The adolescent with chestnut hair and crescent moon-shaped streaks was about to say, but he fell silent when his eyes dilated and that same tingling from before hit with the force of a migraine, forcing him to let go of one of the bike's handlebars to grab his head over the helmet, while closing one of his eyes in pain.
THUMP!
FLUSH!
Pegasus felt as if he had been run over by a truck when the left side of his bike was shattered, sending his body flying onto the paved street. His body tumbled several times, rolling on the hard ground, before finally stopping.
"MY BABY!"
The teenager shrieked in horror upon seeing his beloved and faithful motorcycle smashed to pieces on one of the street's sidewalks, its condition completely destroyed. In fact, the front section had been torn off by the force of the impact.
"I had just finished paying it off..." Pegasus said in a completely hollow tone as he looked at the love of his life, destroyed and turned to scrap metal. The good ones always went quickly. "Who was it...? Who dared?!"
For the first time in his life, Pegasus truly considered ending someone's life. His eyes were bloodshot as several veins throbbed on his face from rage. He clenched his teeth so hard he felt he could break them at any moment.
First, he'd make the poor bastard who dared to run him over go through hell, and then he'd give a proper burial to his beloved bike. Luckily, this area had been evacuated by the police for the operation, so there would be no one to get in the way.
With that thought, the chestnut-and-white-haired teen turned his body—somewhat sore from the crash—determined to make the poor bastard pay for causing him this suffering. But, in the very second he saw the figure approaching, he felt the color drain from his face as he recognized the person who had hit him.
She was a tall and beautiful woman with tan skin and long, silky black hair. Blue eyes, cold, focused, with no visible emotion. Her hair, carefully gathered at the crown, fell in two straight, voluminous locks like waterfalls. Bangs fell messily over her forehead, framing her face. A solitary blue laurel leaf brooch rested quietly on her left side. On her right ear hung a long ornamental pendant: a sharp, mysterious object—could it hold a deeper meaning? A warm skin tone, uncommon among Uma Musume.
Her attire: dark green and gold, the pride of the Symboli family. She wore her own black uniform, blending into the night, disappearing like a shadow. A short military jacket, cinched with an elegant bow. The right shoulder, armored, because caution wins wars. Black gloves, efficient. No traces. No tracks. Underneath, an elegant inner cape: light, elegant, and low-cut. Function first. Her personal emblem was placed high on her chest.
Practical shorts, clean, with polished and aligned buttons. A black belt with a golden buckle. Purpose? A mystery. But it looked cool. A black strap encircled her left thigh; no reason was offered, none was needed. Knee-high boots, navy blue, designed for rough terrain or battles. Every step, deliberate. Every movement, calculated. No wasted effort. Only results.
"Symboli Kris S..."
It was the murmur that escaped Pegasus's trembling lips upon seeing the renowned Uma Musume who had won major G-1 grade races, one of the jewels of the Symboli family, as legendary as Symboli Rudolf.
"So it's true." The woman's regal and cold voice came out like a knife that could cut the air separating them, now only by a few meters that began to shorten with each step of the Symboli family's Uma Musume. "I truly didn't believe one of my relatives would be involved in this kind of place, but I see I was mistaken... Symboli Pegasus, deserter of the Symboli family at age eleven, son of Mejiro Hiro and Symboli Souji..."
Pegasus clenched his teeth as his eyes burned upon hearing the words of his distant relative, who had an accusatory tone, as if judging a criminal—though Pegasus couldn't object to that, after all, technically he was one.
"What are you doing here, Symboli Kris S? Isn't this supposed to be a Japanese police raid?" the teenager said to the black-haired Uma Musume as he managed to stand up with some difficulty from the ground, his body still aching after practically being sent flying by the flying kick of the Uma Musume that destroyed his beloved motorcycle.
Symboli Kris S completely ignored the look of contempt her relative shot her. They certainly didn't know each other, and Symboli Kris S hadn't had enough time to investigate Pegasus, as Symboli Speed had sent her to retrieve him immediately.
"Great families like Symboli, Satono, or Mejiro have a special permit from the national authorities so that their members can only be judged by the family's high command, essentially." The elite Uma Musume's blue eyes narrowed dangerously as an oppressive aura began to fill the atmosphere. "No member of the Symboli family can do anything without the head of the family knowing, even if they are members who decided to abandon their surname, like you... Were you really so foolish as to think we would never discover what you were doing?"
Kris's voice was tinged not only with disappointment and anger, but also with a very small hint of sadness at seeing a member of her family be part of something so repugnant.
"I'll say this only once: come with me and perhaps the family matriarch will be a little more lenient with you, or... do you really think you could fight me?"
Pegasus felt the air catch in his throat, straining not to gag when he felt he was choking on the invisible pressure from the angry Uma Musume. She truly had come with unfriendly intentions, seeing how Pegasus's hand had discreetly moved toward the electroshock pistol strapped to his right thigh.
For a human, fighting an Uma Musume was simply suicide. Uma Musume were, at a minimum, five to eight times stronger than a normal human; even those humans who had undergone rigorous training could barely put up a small fight against a standard Uma Musume.
But, just like humans, Uma Musume differed among themselves. Those born with more potential than others, especially those who were G1 race winners, were much stronger than normal. There was even a recorded case of an Uma Musume who managed to compress a large, heavy iron ball the size of a human head down to the size of a marble with her bare hands.
That's why Symboli Kris S saw her relative's attempt to confront her as absurd. He was either desperate to escape or simply foolish for trying. Before he could even draw that weapon, it would only take her one stride to be in front of him and take it from his hands.
However, those were not the thoughts going through Pegasus's mind at this moment.
How dare you look down on me?
That was the thought that crossed the boy's mind as rage clouded his thoughts. The mere fact of being seen as just a nuisance made something bubble dangerously in his stomach. The veins in his neck bulged as he clenched his teeth with force.
The simple fact of not being seen as a rival angered him.
Being despised.
Being underestimated.
In a quick and precise movement, Pegasus drew the electric pistol from its holster, ready to aim it at the elite Uma Musume to wipe that arrogant look off her stoic face.
FLUSH!
"Damn it!"
Pegasus cursed in his mind when, before he could even aim properly, Symboli Kris S had already closed the distance between them and, with a swift motion, took the weapon in her hand and, with a simple squeeze, crushed it. Before the boy's hand could reach for the Taser on his other thigh, his wrist was seized by the black-haired woman.
Pegasus cried out as he felt his body fly a few centimeters through the air before crashing onto the hard ground. His hand groped for the Taser on his thigh again, only to be surprised when he felt nothing. His stunned gaze turned to see Symboli Kris S holding the personal defense device in her hand, bouncing it while looking at him.
"When did she...?"
"You really only make things harder for yourself." The tan-skinned woman said coldly as she crushed the personal defense device between her fingers, then threw it to the ground. "Now just... sleep."
That was the last thing Pegasus heard before his vision blurred and everything plunged into darkness, his body falling limp to the ground.
Symboli Kris S removed the sole of her boot from her relative's face, sighing slightly. Perhaps she had overdone it a little.
"I have him. We'll go immediately to the Symboli family house." The Uma Musume said after taking out her cell phone and dialing a specific, prearranged number for the occasion.
"I'll be waiting."
That was the only response she heard before the call ended.
Putting her phone back in her pocket, Symboli Kris S bent down to pick up Pegasus from the ground, carrying him like a sack of potatoes over her shoulder, and then began to run. After all, she would have to give her explanation to the police before taking the boy to the Symboli house.
End of Chapter
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Curiosities of this chapter:
— Military Uma Musume exist, and it's quite common to find some in high-ranking positions. However, very few achieve G-1 grade competitor status when they are young.
— Pegasus always kept his distance from illegal activities, the only truly illegal thing he committed being his work as a trainer for clandestine races; he usually avoids everything else at all costs.
— The male children of Uma Musume inherit certain special traits from their mothers; however, this will be explained in the story in due time.
That's all for this week. I've also been thinking about uploading two chapters every Sunday, as one alone seems too little, though that will start next week.
If you have ideas or suggestions on how I could improve the story or the characters' dialogues, you are welcome to share them, as long as they are respectful, of course.