Umamusume's days are numbered

As for the hair behind her, imitating it would be a nightmare for Platinum; she couldn't very well hang her own hair on a jeep.

"Genius!" The astronomer didn't care about the flaws and excitedly pressed the shutter.

Beautiful southern islands, white sand beaches for swimming. But what's most important? Of course, it's the beautiful and charming girls in swimsuits!

The astronomer felt his trip to Hawaii was worthwhile.

Episode 291 Rain or shine, mission accomplished

Platinum not only looks great in photos, but it's also very willing to be photographed, which makes astronomers very happy.

Adjusting to the best angle, capturing the best moments in a photograph, and storing all the beautiful memories—that's the meaning of a camera.

The astronomer held his breath, gently pressed the shutter, and then heard the familiar "click" sound, freezing the image of Platinum in that moment.

As for the incessant crackling sound around us... that has nothing to do with astronomers.

"This one is beautiful too, this one is beautiful too, it looks good from every angle..." Standing next to the astronomer, Li Yuelongmen held up his phone to Baijin, his fingers almost blurring the screen. His eyes were wide like saucers, and a grin involuntarily spread across his face.

"...Continuous shooting?"

"Ah Li, are you done taking pictures?" Bai Jin was also a little impatient. She originally wanted to let her take a few more pictures to follow the idea of ​​the carp leaping over the dragon gate, but her shooting speed was like continuous shooting, and Bai Jin didn't even have a chance to blink. Her eyes were almost dry from staring.

Carp Leaps Over the Dragon Gate ran up to Platinum with tiny steps, squeezing into the camera's field of view. Carp Leaps Over the Dragon Gate was quite a bit taller than Platinum, and had to bend down to be in the same frame as Platinum, which made Platinum feel slightly offended: "Just one more picture, please, just the last one."

"...I'm not annoyed, just take the picture, what are you begging for?" Platinum couldn't refuse the pitiful look of the carp leaping over the dragon gate.

The astronomer, watching the carp leaping over the dragon gate and platinum standing to the side chattering away, couldn't help but squint.

Their leaping over the dragon gate... calling them just good friends would be a bit of an exaggeration. Their relationship goes beyond friendship. However, as a contestant's personal support horse girl, it's not surprising that their bond is strong.

Racehorse girls are like high-speed sports cars in races; any accident could be disastrous. Entrusting everything needed for a race to such a support staff member suggests a strong bond, perhaps not just friendship, but a deep connection, much like the relationship between a horse girl and her trainer.

In short, the more I look at it, the less I like it.

While the astronomers were observing the carp leaping over the dragon gate and the platinum, another telescope was quietly pointed at them.

"Hot girl, are you here alone? Do you need a tour guide?"

A noisy male voice rang in his ears. The strange, radiant figure, who was sitting cross-legged, put down his binoculars with a very unfriendly expression and looked at the person who had disturbed him.

His well-defined pectoral and abdominal muscles, coupled with his thick beard, accentuated his dashing charm. His bronze skin suggested both time and patience—truly a handsome man in the broadest sense.

"Fuck you, leave me alone." Strange Light wanted to communicate politely with everyone, but the man in front of her immediately hit her sore spot—she hated being called "hot girl" or "sexy." So she didn't hesitate to retaliate.

"If you want a girl to accompany you, go find someone else. I don't have much patience." The strangely glowing left hand pinched the steel pipe supporting the tent next to him, twisting it into a pretzel with just a little force. "Unless you also want to become like this, I'll play with you."

"Uh... okay." The bearded man felt wronged. "If you need a guide, be sure to call me. My prices are lower than others."

"...Huh? Wasn't it a flirtation?" The strange light blinked as it watched the man's departing figure, while a gasp came from behind.

"Oh no! How did my tent end up like this?!"

Strange Light quickly wiped the sweat from his cheeks, repeatedly apologizing in his mind, before raising the binoculars again.

It's all the astronomers' fault! I wasn't like this before.

Yesterday, the astronomers didn't come looking for the strange light all day, but that doesn't mean the strange light was having an easy time. The strange light knew that the astronomers would come looking for it sooner or later. Right now, it felt like a poor student destined to be called on by the teacher to recite a text. You don't know when it will be your turn, but you know it will definitely be your turn—that's very torturous.

Sure enough, Strange Light's beauty sleep was shattered early this morning by her phone's ringing. She had to listen to the astronomer's infuriating pronouncements while getting dressed and washing up. After five minutes of getting ready, she bought an exorbitantly priced box of pineapple-flavored donuts and a bag of freshly baked bread at the hotel before jumping into her car. By then, the astronomers were almost on the highway.

If you had such a terrible morning, you would be just as irritable.

Strange Light opened the bag of bread she'd bought at the hotel, spread purplish-red taro paste inside, and then chewed her belated breakfast while peering into the distance through binoculars. Not only had she rushed along the highway, overtaking the astronomers and arriving ahead of them, but she'd also bought a swimsuit on the spot—especially since a light drizzle had started to fall just as she got on the highway. Hawaii's weather is usually excellent, rarely cloudy. But this kind of weather, with the sun shining directly overhead and drizzling at the same time, was a first for Strange Light. She was truly an efficiency freak.

A strange light shines forth, undeterred by wind or rain, its mission will be accomplished!

"That must be Bai Jin... She's really beautiful." The telescope moved to Bai Jin, and the strange light shone as she chewed on her taro bread and clicked her tongue in amazement. "No wonder astronomers and Haidu City are fighting over this girl. I wonder how good she is at running."

"Who's that over there... a friend of Platinum's?" The binoculars then shifted to Carp Leaping Over the Dragon Gate, who was taking pictures with them. "Hmm, she's quite the beauty, not to be underestimated. I feel like we could have a lot in common."

The telescope finally returned to the astronomer. The astronomer, wearing flip-flops, let out a huge, unladylike yawn.

"...What an idiot." That was the final definition given to the astronomer by the strange light.

It wasn't that there was any personal grudge involved in the strange light. She genuinely felt that astronomers were the kind of concise humans who could be described with just a single word.

"So, their team consisted of four people?" Suddenly, the strange light frowned. She scanned left and right through her binoculars, but could only see three figures.

"One person is missing, the girl with the fiery red twin tails and wearing the school swimsuit."

(Ten more chapters to go)

Episode 292 The Confession Hut, the Trembling Nun

"We agreed to meet here... I wonder if Platinum and the others have noticed I'm missing." Excellent qualities looked around anxiously. Walking alone on streets where she didn't speak the language was proving too difficult for her.

There's no need to worry about getting lost; just carry your phone with you, and if you do get lost, you can call the astronomers.

Excellent qualities don't mean she ran away from home on a whim because she felt insulted by her swimsuit. Although she was a little unwilling, she wouldn't do something so childish.

The reason it has become like this is because...

"Hello, are you Miss Excellent Quality?" In a foreign land, Miss Excellent Quality heard the heavenly sound of Japanese.

A young-looking, well-maintained Asian woman walked towards Excellent Quality. Although she was wearing a swimsuit, her lipstick was still bright and eye-catching. The woman took out her business card from her pocket and handed it to Excellent Quality, while bowing slightly: "Hello, Miss Excellent Quality, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. I'm Sakai from the TV station. Your trainer should have introduced me to you."

They're back, all the familiar faces are back! Normally, people with excellent manners would feel awkward in such formal settings, but now they feel incredibly warm. Two Japanese people bow to each other on a Hawaiian beach.

"Hello, Ms. Sakai. I didn't expect we'd be filming a program here."

Yes, it's all because the production team contacted Excellent Quality. That Rudolph symbolized the connection between Platinum and Excellent Quality in a prime-time variety show.

The day before, the production team called Youhao Suwen. Youhao Suwen was actually quite surprised—she had thought they would contact Baijin directly, only to find out that she was the protagonist of this episode.

It felt like I had been suddenly entrusted with an important task.

The production team didn't inform Excellent Quality about any specific project plans. Instead, they inquired in detail about her upcoming travel plans. Since these people always plan ahead, Excellent Quality only knew she was going to the beach the next day. Unexpectedly, after the production team thoughtfully said they understood, they arranged a secret meeting place with Excellent Quality, insisting that she not tell Platinum and the others.

"So...Ms. Sakai, what exactly is the theme of our program this time?" The excellent judge was a little unsure, because the request was indeed quite strange. "Or has the program already started? Is filming already underway?"

Ms. Sakai quickly shook her head: "That's not true. Taking photos without permission is an invasion of privacy, and we would never do that."

“Miss Excellent Quality must be very curious about what our project is this time,” Sakai said with a wry smile. “Actually, I just got it myself.”

"...Could it be that the production team wrote the plan overnight after learning that we were coming here to visit?"

"I think so."

Seeing a hint of shame flash across the faces of the outstanding students, Sakai quickly smiled and comforted them: "Please don't feel embarrassed. Even if they didn't work overtime to finish this project, they would have worked overtime to finish other projects. There's never enough work."

"Ah, this." The person with excellent qualities almost blurted out, "Isn't this our Canopus trainer? Do you have a trainer like this?"

Sakai coughed twice: "Anyway, we need to record a short... video that needs to be shown on the show."

"It will be used to support the interviews with Miss Excellent Quality and Miss Platinum. In addition, we would like to ask Miss Excellent Quality to comfort Miss Platinum. We will not ask her any too sharp questions, and we also ask her to be lenient and not make things difficult for our program team."

The speaker's brow twitched. What exactly is Platinum's reputation in Japan right now? How could it make the TV station so afraid?

“Okay, I will definitely cooperate.” With a smile, she said, “So, Ms. Sakai, could you let me take a look at the proposal? I’ll try my best to cooperate with the production team’s arrangements.”

Sakai pondered for a moment, then said, "Hmm... no need. It's too much trouble to explain like that. Miss, please come with me."

So the two of them started walking along the beach, with Sakai leading the way for Youyu, explaining as he went.

"The Miss Outstanding Quality program has a lot of work to do and requires a lot of improvisation. You will need to... play the role of a nun to listen to everyone's confessions."

For a moment, she doubted whether she had misheard Sakai's words. She pricked up her ears and cupped her hands to her ears: "Um, could you repeat that? I don't think I heard you clearly."

“You need to play the role of a nun and listen to everyone’s confessions.” Sakai pointed to a small building in front of her. “Look, this confessional room is temporarily yours now.”

"Ah... it's the cosplay kind, right? I know, I know..." A bead of cold sweat trickled down his forehead, a testament to his excellent manners.

Sakai sighed, "Your understanding is not wrong."

"During this time, you will play the role of a nun here, listening to and comforting those who come to you with their troubles."

Sakai opened the small door to the confessional and pointed to the camera installed above her head: "There are three cameras in total. They will record the tourists who come to pour out their troubles and your reactions."

"All you need to do is change into this nun's habit and perform your duties as a nun for half a day under the watchful eyes of the cameras. Of course, that's when we start filming the show, so you might need to be a little on your guard. But don't worry, we'll edit it in post-production, and we won't allow any indecent gestures or videos of you to be leaked."

This is a real chore... Maintaining impeccable grooming for half a day is pure torture. (The author internally complains about their excellent qualities.)

"Then, um... we will blur the faces and alter the voices of tourists who come to repent. The rest depends on your improvisation. We haven't provided you with a script because we want to make the filming as realistic as possible. However, if the program's effect isn't quite there... we might give you some subtle hints on the direction of your conversation, please understand."

"The reason we want you to keep this a secret from the others in our group is because of this... We will try our best to guide Platinum and the others to come and repent. You should pretend that you don't know them."

“I have a question.” Excellent quality raised his hand. “Well… I don’t mind being filmed, but filming tourists… isn’t that a bit inappropriate?”

Isn't this just the same old trick of secretly installing cameras?!

To this, Sakai simply smiled and said, "We'll censor and alter the voice."

What a dark industry.

Episode 293 Things started to get weird.

"Excellent quality sent me a text message saying not to worry about her, she has some personal matters to attend to, and that we should have fun and she'll be back later." Li Yuelongmen looked at the message on his phone.

"Hmm, that's strange," the astronomer scoffed. "What kind of private business could a Japanese person who can't even speak fluent English have in Hawaii?"

Platinum remained silent, caught between the two men.

Even though Platinum is slow to notice, she could still sense that the atmosphere between the two people was subtly changing.

They were getting along so well before, so why are they suddenly starting to clash? What caused them to become like this?

How should I put it... it's like being caught between the carp leaping over the dragon gate and the Ibuki dance and Kagura dance.

It's that feeling where the two of them absolutely have to prove who's better. Although Platinum doesn't know how they plan to determine who's better.

"Ah—Platinum, look! There's an ice cream stand over there!" Carp Leaps Over the Dragon Gate seized the opportunity to link arms with Platinum. "Let's go buy ice cream, it's on me!"

Platinum opened her mouth, wanting to say that she didn't want ice cream, at least not now... but looking at the steel arm that was holding her arm, and recalling the scene of the carp leaping over the dragon gate and wielding the shovel with great force, Platinum didn't dare to speak.

If you're going to eat, then eat. Why not eat if you're being treated?

"Hello, two orders!" Carp Leaps Over the Dragon Gate held up two fingers to the dessert shop owner. "I want grape flavor, Platinum, what flavor do you want?"

"I want chocolate," Platinum answered without hesitation. There's nothing in this world that a bite of chocolate can't solve; if there is, then have two bites.

Otherwise, why would Platinum have bought so many chocolates for Valentine's Day? She originally planned to eat all the leftovers herself, but unexpectedly, not a single one was left.

Two tubs of ice cream were quickly placed in front of the two of them. Platinum stared at the bucket of ice cream in front of her, and remained silent for a moment. The white tub of ice cream was piled high, topped with dark brown chocolate sauce, which froze instantly upon contact with the cold ice cream.

How should I put it? It's kind of... disgusting.

Platinum tentatively reached for it... but couldn't move it. Even though she only used a little force, she couldn't lift it at first? What weight is this ice cream?

Under the loving gaze of the carp leaping over the dragon gate, Platinum's Adam's apple bobbed slightly. He used a little strength to pick up the tub of ice cream and tentatively scooped a spoonful into his mouth.

"Good, delicious..." Bai Jin mumbled, nodding at Li Yuelongmen. Li Yuelongmen then smiled with satisfaction.

...No, something's not right.

During this time, the astronomer waited calmly to the side. The carp leaping over the dragon gate neither offered to buy the astronomer an ice cream, nor did the astronomer approach to ask for one. But at this moment, the astronomer suddenly walked up to Platinum.

At that moment, a woman with bared teeth and claws suddenly jumped out from beside them, blocking Platinum and the astronomer's path. Her figure was stunningly curvaceous, and her swimsuit seemed a little ill-fitting, the straps digging deeply into her taut skin—a true supermodel figure.

As for her appearance... Platinum couldn't really comment. It wasn't that she was unattractive, but rather that Platinum simply couldn't see what the woman in front of her looked like—she had a hotel wholesale paper bag over her head, and two holes had been cut out in front of her for seeing.

"Oh!" The scene before her was so breathtaking that Platinum was speechless. If this was performance art, then she had undoubtedly succeeded.

No wonder it's Hawaii; I've learned something new by meeting people like this.

The person wearing the paper bag over their head was trembling all over, as if enduring some kind of torture. After a while, the woman finally spoke in a trembling voice: "Ladies...did you come by yourselves? Would you like a guide?"

"I...I'll take you to the most affordable bar."

"..." Platinum's mouth gaped open slightly, feeling the freedom of the free country. "Seriously, are you feeling unwell?"

"Do you need me to call an ambulance for you?"

"Please, don't pity me." The hooded woman trembled even more violently. "Just give me a straight answer. Are you coming with me or not?"

"Come with me, I'll take you to see something beautiful."