Doba Juga
"Sooo…Tracen, huh?"
"Yes."
"Heh. I
told you you had it in you, but you didn't believe me!"
"How was I to expect your judgement to be accurate when you weren't even in a racing academy at the time? Not to mention I had never considered it financially responsible."
"Hey! I said that a few times
after I got into Kawasaki! And I did try the Tracen exams, so even if I didn't get in, I know something about it!"
Steady Distance had indeed made the assertion that Shirogane could be a racer, but by that point she had gotten used to ignoring the older girl in regards to her career. Perhaps it had actually had more merit than she had allowed for, since by that point Steady
had actually run in a few notable races.
"I suppose you must have had a point," Shirogane conceded, before consuming one of her gel packs. The two of them were circling the park track at a jog after a PT run.
"Aha! So you admit it!" The black haired filly looked far too pleased with herself.
"If a Tracen trainer agrees with your assessment I am forced to do so."
"Yeah that sounds crazy, Shiro!" Steady sighed, shaking her head. "A big name trainer offering to train you and recommend you to Tracen…that's like the dream of every Uma that wants to race! Which is like all of us except for you."
"Taro, Azuki and Matcha all lack such aspirations." While an exaggeration, Steady wasn't exactly wrong in regards to how popular racing was to many umamusume. It made a fair degree of sense, given the prestige that was afforded to winners.
"Oh come on, that's only because you made them think delivery running was cool!"
"I did no such thing."
More like they were far too lumbering to have seriously considered racing, though they were extraordinarily strong, even among umamusume.
"Oh don't deny it! Little miss 'I'm gonna become the best known Umamusume in the city by running deliveries through traffic!'"
"That is hardly an unusual profession for an umamusume." And her notoriety probably had as much to do with her foreign looks.
"Not at race speeds!"
"Steady, I've gone through the Tracen entrance exam, I know full well my top speed is below average for a racer." She would have to train even harder.
"Yeah, but you can keep that up for way longer than I can, and I won the Kanto Oaks 'cause the competition got winded in the muddier dirt!"
At two point one kilometers, the Kanto Oaks was on the longer side of races in Japan, which was still not particularly far, in Shirogane's experience.
"I told you that off track training would be useful."
"Ok fine, I'll admit it now…but did you really need to chase me while banging pots together?!"
"It made you faster, didn't it?"
"...Shut up!"
Shirogane let out a chuckle at her friend's disgruntled expression. While the older uma had been more interested in finding a boyfriend than racing at first, it turns out that developing an attraction to a trainer was quite strong motivation to train to get their attention, and now Steady Distance had won a race that was largely considered equivalent to a Grade 3 race.
"Do you think they will officially classify the Kanto Oaks as a grade three race?"
"If they do, I'm gonna be so mad!" Steady huffed. "Why is it that they're making dirt races more official
now?! Couldn't they have done it earlier? C'mon, racing on dirt is harder than turf!"
"Dirt racing has not been viewed as highly here, so it's a good sign for you that they are properly grading them." If slightly unfortunate that they had not done so before her friend had started her racing career.
"Well, nothing for it," Steady Distance sighed. "Maybe I'll win again after they get around to actually grading it."
"There is the February Stakes," Shirogane pointed out. "Currently it's considered G2, though my grandfather says there's talk about making it a G1."
"Didn't you tell me I should be more realistic with my goals, Shiro-chan?" Steady Distance's smile was far smugger than was warranted. "That's a
biiig national race."
"If it is a properly graded race you want to win, that would be one of them. You will be eligible to enter next year, no? Same with the Kawasaki Kinen, though they haven't officially graded it, from what I hear."
"It'd definitely be cool to win my school's eponymous race!"
"And it would impress Yasuo-san, which is the important part for you."
"Hey! Don't bring that up unless you want me to tease you about your romantic life when you grow up."
"I am fairly certain that you would do that anyways." Not that Shirogane had any current plans on pursuing such a thing. The amount of children some umamusume managed to pop out was astonishing and vaguely terrifying. So many mouths to feed.
"Yeah, you got me there, Chibi."
"My head is not that disproportionately large." It was nice to live in a world where they did not associate small size entirely with childishness and incompetence, even if she still had to endure these kinds of jokes.
"You don't have to be super serious, you know?" Steady Distance chuckled. "I've met a few Tracen runners, and most of them are pretty silly."
"I am not being super serious."
"You keep saying that. Do I want to know what Super Serious Shirogane looks like?"
"...Probably not." She had had her fill of killing in her last life.
"...Yeah, point." Obviously, there was no way Steady Distance could have known about her previous life, but the older girl knew her well enough not to press.
The two of them slowed to a stop as they finished their cooldown. It felt a bit different now that Shirogane herself would be pursuing a racing career, as if her hobby of sorts was going to become her full time job. She was not sure if it was a good thing or not.
"Hey, Shiro."
"What now, Steady?"
"What're you gonna do for your race name?"
"Race name?"
"You don't know? They don't let you have the same name as another runner, to make things less confusing or something."
"Is there a previous racer named Suzuki Shirogane?"
"No, but you're pretty much not supposed to have a human name."
"Ah…so I need a stage name, of sorts? You are using your legal name."
"Well yeah, 'cause my parents named me the uma way. Your mom's a human so she named you the human way."
"So you think I would have to create a stage name? I would imagine there are no racers that share my name, given how few of the notable ones had human mothers."
"You know what…I have no idea. Just wondering. 'Cause Suzuki is a really common name."
"I don't see a reason to think too much of it. It likely won't be a problem."
"So Shiro-chan will need a racing name?"
It
had become a problem.
"Yes. By racing conventions umamusume with more common names are encouraged to take on a less common or more evocative name, both for name recognition and to reduce confusion over the names." That was the explanation they received from Toujou-san.
"I see…" Shirogane's mother said, sounding like she did not, in fact, see. "Are there any rules about racer names?"
"There are a few. It cannot be too long, you cannot completely copy the name of another racer, you cannot use a name entirely numerical, you cannot use any explicit curses or crude words, and as a general rule you should not use the name of a racing family, though that is a bit less strict if their clan name is also a common word. Use of trademarked names is also ill advised."
"Then what is the issue with my birth name?" Shirogane asked. "I do not believe there is a Suzuki racing clan."
"There is not. There is, however, the Suzuki company."
"Ah." That could pose a problem.
"While I don't think they will raise a fuss, it might become a problem if people come to believe that you were sponsored by them when you are not."
"Is that why so many umas have strange names?" Mother wondered aloud.
"No, that seems to be more from umamusume usually being given more leeway to express themselves."
That sounded like a polite way of saying umamusume were strange. Though to some degree, you had to work around people who weighed a few hundred kilos and could flip a car over if angered or frightened, especially if they had just recently given birth.
"So what do you think,
Mały orzeł?" her mother asked, looking over at her searchingly.
"It seems the majority of racers have a descriptor–either an adjective or a clan name–along with a noun." Though this appeared to just be a trend not a hard rule.
"Shirogane is both though."
"There is some merit to keeping your personal name involved, as your racing name will likely be what those who recognize you from your races will call you by."
"Well, you keep calling me 'orzeł', Mother, perhaps we can make it official?"
"Hmm…Shirogane Orzeł
does have a nice ring to it…"
"Shirogane Orlzelr…" Toujou-san grimaced. "Orlzel? The announcers will not enjoy saying this."
"But that would be distinctive," Shirogane pointed out.
"Didn't some announcers complain about Symboli Rudolf's name?" her mother chimed in. "And she told them to shove it?"
"...True." Toujou-san murmured, scratching out something on a notepad before turning it over to show to them. "Is this katakana correct for 'orzelr'?"
"That should work."
"I will register you as such, then. They may inquire about the use of a foreign word, but your Polish heritage should be acceptable enough of an explanation."
Shirogane appreciated how organized her future trainer was. Toujou-san had an approach that would not be too out of place in a corporate setting, though with much more racing terminology, and a no-nonsense attitude that was easy to work with. Her track record, metaphorically speaking, was also quite solid, as she had developed training plans that had helped Symboli Rudolf (a well known racer, from what Shirogane understood) to win three specific races in her third year to achieve the technically unofficial title of Triple Crown.
She had also trained Air Groove, who had won numerous graded races, though not the three specific races that would have given her a Triple Tiara title. Why there were two separate race sets and titles, Shirogane did not really understand, but it probably wasn't really important enough for her to spend much time thinking about it.
'Shirogane Orzeł', or 'White Silver Eagle'...it appears some things transferred between lives unexpectedly.
While the Salaryman had obviously graduated from middle school, it had not been poignant enough to him for the memory to have stuck with them after their death. The Soldier had never attended, for obvious reasons, so this was a relatively novel experience for Shirogane. Receiving her diploma hadn't felt that impressive, given how much her carried over memories had made the coursework easy, but it had meant she was chosen to represent her class with a speech.
She was fairly certain that had not happened to the Salaryman, so she had no real reference, though she was not particularly fazed by having the attention of a crowd of people–the Soldier had had to get over that fear quite quickly–so it had not turned out too arduous of a task. Thanking the school and teachers for their work and the opportunity to learn there, her parents and grandparents for working long hours to raise her, as well as naming a few more helpful underclassmen, was simple enough.
For some reason, there were a lot of people crying when she finished, including some adults. Her family, she could understand to some degree, since they were glad to see their offspring do well, but Shirogane couldn't help but be slightly perplexed at how emotional many of her classmates and teachers became, particularly Kobayashi-sensei, who was normally very composed.
"Nooo! Don't leave, Shiro-chan!"
"Knock 'em dead, Shirogane!"
"Good luck, Suzuki-san!"
"Show them that Fujisawa has got some guts too!"
Somehow the post-graduation time became some sort of party in her honor. Frankly, Shirogane hadn't quite realized how popular she was until her schoolmates had filled her shoe locker with well-wishing letters. For the most part, she had kept to herself, so it hadn't registered. Even the school staff looked at her excitedly as they announced how she would be their first graduate to attend Tracen Academy.
They had even made a poster with a picture of her running on the school track. It wasn't even a particularly interesting picture, since it had been for an endurance test so she was pacing herself. She was still somewhat miffed that they hadn't let her finish, though it was probably a fair decision since she had been running for about an hour straight by that point.
It was a bit strange, since she didn't feel like she had really accomplished anything worthy of this level of admiration. She hadn't even run a proper race at all!
But still, if she looked at it on paper, having a graduate go to the most reputable racing academy in the country looked good for the school, especially if they were the first to do so, and there were people who took joy in seeing their compatriots succeed, while others were excited at the idea of knowing someone who could potentially become fairly famous.
Shirogane had never found racing to be as fascinating as many of her peers–still didn't, in fact–but with all these hopes placed on her, and the role of representing their school or city thrust upon her, it wouldn't feel right to be content with a career as a gate filler.
The preparations for moving to a boarding school in Tokyo had proceeded more smoothly than Shirogane had expected, in large part because the scholarship she had managed to win included lodgings at an apartment near the school, which came with some discounted furniture. While the school had two dormitories on campus (they had a frankly absurd amount of facilities for a campus in Tokyo), by this point most of the slots had already been filled up.
Having a family restaurant also meant that they had a fair amount of spare kitchenware lying around so it was rather trivial to pack a set. Toujou-san had pointed out that every Tracen student, regardless of housing situation, would have access to the cafeteria, but it wouldn't hurt. She was also not one to fill her space with many decorations or useless things, so packing had not been terribly difficult.
It was also quite a bit easier to move when your personal carrying capacity was about a hundred kilos, though her family had emphatically nixed her suggestion that she carry her necessary belongings herself, instead taking the truck they used for hauling materials for their restaurant.
Strictly speaking, Fujisawa was not terribly far from Tokyo, but with the traffic it still took over an hour of driving, with her father and grandfather driving the truck while her mother and grandmother took the train. Shirogane had initially intended on going with the truck, since she would be helping unload, but her mother had insisted she take the train so she'd be familiar with how to take the train back home for vacations.
Despite being in Tokyo, the apartment building in question didn't feel too closed in, as being near Tracen Academy meant the steel skyline was broken up by the wide open tracks and other facilities. The roads were also quite a bit wider than in the rest of the city, with uma lanes all over the place. Unsurprising, when you put some thought into it, but it was interesting to see an area designed primarily with umamusume in mind.
"Oh! A Tracen student?" the landlord exclaimed, looking down at Shirogane curiously. "Congratulations!"
"Is it unusual for you to have student tenants?" Shirogane asked, surprised by how this…Kato Michiko by her name tag…seemed to treat her as an anomaly.
"Oh no! We have a few students here, but it's mostly trainee trainers or students at other schools."
"Other schools?" Tracen was not incredibly far from another school, but it was not very close either.
"Yep! It's a bit more of a commute, but there's a saying that students who live near Tracen tend to do better in school, since it doesn't feel so crowded," the landlord explained, before leaning in conspiratorially. "Personally I think it's because the Tracen trainees getting up to antics helps keep them from getting over stressed."
"You sure it isn't from all the cute fit girls running around?" Mother snorted. "Or having cheap entertainment nearby?"
"I would wager that it has more to do with the students who become your tenants being either from wealthy families or on academic scholarships," Shirogane pointed out. "Property prices here are higher than average, so those would be the ones who could afford to stay here."
"Hmm…that might have something to do with it," the landlord hummed. "But that's very uncute! And a Tracen student should be very cute!"
"That was not part of the entrance evaluation."
"Are you sure? They're all so cute!"
"You only think that because of biological programming to be well disposed to childish creatures and the proximity to the academy improves your property value and thus rent rates."
"Shirogane! Stop bullying your new landlord!"
"Pff! Hahaha! Oh, you'll fit in just fine at Tracen!"
"Oh? What makes you say that?" Surely the other students would not be similar in mindset to her?
"They're all a little kooky in some way. I guess that's just what you need to be if you're going to shoot for the top!"
There might be some truth to that, or it may simply be a common trait of umamusume…maybe even people in general…with the explanation that success and fame made others more willing to tolerate said eccentricities that were normally masked.
"Well then I guess you'll have a chance to make more friends, eh, Shiro-chan?"
"It is school." With many students from prominent families. Which could make things more difficult if they exhibited any of the elitism Shirogane expected.
"I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends, and probably rivals if you do good!" In regards to racing there would likely be some overlap, unless you were to make friends with someone who was terrible at racing, or more likely, focused on different race types than you.
"Who knows, maybe you might meet some who live here! You could invite them over for food!" Mother suggested. It was actually a fairly good idea, since most umamusume were to some extent bribable with food.
At that point, her father and grandfather arrived with the truck, cutting short the older women's chatting. They had said taking the train would let them get a headstart on looking over the room but, as Shirogane had suspected, that hadn't happened.
The apartment was strange to her senses. In all respects, it looked like a typical Tokyo apartment, if bigger than normal, but it brought about a strange sense of nostalgia and indifference at the same time. The Salaryman had lived in an apartment not too dissimilar from this, and had not thought too much of it, while the Soldier had dreamed of having accommodations like this.
To Shirogane, this turned into a degree of unease.
"Don't worry, Shiro-chan," Grandmother huffed, patting her on the head. "We'll have this place more livable in no time." It was highly doubtful that Tracen would sponsor an apartment not fit for residence.
The apartment had provided a bedframe and writing desk, so they had not needed to haul those larger items, but that still left the mattress, minifridge and dresser for Shirogane and her father to carry in, though the apartment building had an uma rated elevator, which made this much easier.
In the meantime, her mother and grandmother busied themselves with sorting what clothes she had brought into the apartment closet and arranging the smaller furniture as they saw fit, spending a strangely long time determining where to set the picture frame with a family photo in it.
By the time they were finished, Shirogane found her apartment decorated quite like the Suzuki family home, with her grandmother contributing a hanging scroll with some of her calligraphy work, while her mother put family pictures here and there, as well as populating the desk and dresser with some of the craftwork she had made from recycled newspapers.
While they had significantly increased the fire risk of the room, Shirogane couldn't help but find the additions aesthetically pleasing. She wouldn't say she particularly cared about how her room looked–and she didn't–but it now reminded her more of home, and she found that this mattered more to her than she had expected.
Though what she appreciated the most was the minifridge stocked with food.
They hadn't actually brought all that much with them, but after they had moved her things into the apartment, they had done a sort of family outing to the grocery stores near the academy, finding to their mutual delight that most of the available goods were quite fresh and high quality, without being terribly expensive. There were also a disproportionately large number of comestible vendors, mostly selling their wares at prices closer to bulk than normal…which probably had to do with the amount of food umamusume could consume, especially those actively training for races.
Returning to the apartment, Shirogane's family proceeded to break in the apartment by having a sort of cooking party, with both her parents and grandparents jostling with each other as they made some of her favorite foods, while not letting her help.
For once, this didn't irk her much. It would be the first time she was away from home for a significant amount of time, and it had happened on relatively short notice, so none of them had that much time to get used to the thought. And even if her attending Tracen was heavily encouraged by her family, they would still miss her, and Shirogane felt that she would miss them as well.
The five of them crowded around the table, fairly large for what could fit into an apartment, but rather cramped for their whole family, with mother sitting in father's lap to make space. If she had been a normal child, Shirogane would likely have found this embarrassing, instead it just made her feel guilt over consuming too many resources for them to have more children.
"Now, make sure you eat enough, Shiro-chan," grandmother demanded, narrowing her eyes at her. "We won't be here to watch you, but we will visit, and you better have eaten everything in the refrigerator by the time we do come visit!"
"I am not going to eat the shelves–"
"Don't get smart with me, girl!" Grandmother's tone was sharp, but her eyes crinkled in amusement.
"Ha! Don't listen too much to this old hag," Grandfather chuckled, dodging away from his wife's retaliatory slap. "You should eat at Tracen's cafeteria sometimes. I heard they have some big name chefs there, and maybe you can even steal some of their secrets!"
It was rather interesting how the meal plan was included in the tuition intrinsically, without any scaling based on consumption rate. Perhaps she could take cafeteria food out to eat later?
"Do they let students cook in the kitchen?" Father wondered. "Or is that only for cooking classes?"
"Do they even have those at a racing school?" Was what Mother wanted to know.
"I believe they are electives," Shirogane answered. Aside from the requirements for basic education, most of the mandatory classes were racing related, a rather significant departure from more typical schools, but perfectly sensible given its intended purpose.
"Are you going to take them?"
"Do you really think she needs to learn how to cook?!"
"No, but maybe they have special skills!"
"I rather doubt they would be teaching students advanced cooking skills, Father. Though I suppose I should see if I can get credit from some of those classes if I demonstrate my abilities."
"Like the credits you received based on the entrance exam result?"
"Cooking was not on the entrance exam, but yes, in theory."
"Well, you could always ask Toujou-san," Grandfather suggested. "You're one lucky little girl, you know that, Shiro-chan? Not many runners get a trainer scouting them straight from the get go."
"Toujou-san is a very organized individual." Having someone who knew all the necessary paperwork had been very helpful.
"Though I don't know if she's had a trainee ask that before," Grandmother countered. "Her other trainees were from famous families, so I doubt they did much cooking for themselves."
"You should take those classes if you feel they will benefit you," Father decided, "don't think we want you to take it just to see if we could learn a thing or two."
"Yeah, the big thing for you is showing the Tokyo brats what Fujisawa is made of!"
"Most of the big families don't live in Tokyo. A good number of the students are not from Japan at all."
"You know what I mean!"
"I will endeavor not to bring shame upon the Suzuki name." Her family chuckled, patting her on the head, taking it for good humor. Shirogane was quite serious though.
"As long as you do your best, we'll be proud of you," Father declared, his voice warm with affection.
A theoretically easy standard to meet.
Theoretically.
Her family seemed loath to leave her, even as it got dark, helping her clean up the plates and utensils and checking the function of the dishwasher. For the most part they gently but firmly resisted Shirogane's attempts to take care of her own share, citing that it would be the last time for a while they could do that for her.
While she appreciated the sentiment, it was a little bit irritating since she would be the one living in the apartment for some time, so needed to get used to how the different dishwasher worked.
With her family busying themselves in what would be her apartment, the relatively spacious room started to feel rather crowded, so she decided to head out of the building to get a better look at the outside.
The sun had set, but the street was still well lit from the streetlights and from the surrounding buildings. She would likely have to draw the curtains or get something else to block them out, though at least it wasn't too noisy.
This was, from the Salaryman's memory, rather surprising, as while Japanese were in general, far more conscious about the amount of noise they made than most other people, any place with a large population packed into a small area was unlikely ever to be fully quiet. Not that this area was entirely silent; her ears picked up the hum of electricity and the sound of various other utilities running through the neighborhood like blood through veins. Quite efficiently, from what it sounded like.
"Getting some air, Shiro-chan?" Her father's voice came from behind her as he too stepped outside, walking up to stand next to her and looking in the same direction she was, which happened to be towards the not too distant silhouette of Tracen Academy. "Thinking about your big day, huh?" He tucked his pack of cigarettes back into his pocket. Shirogane pretended not to notice.
"Less of a day, and more several years."
"Guess you were always the type to look ahead, huh? I wonder where you got it from? Definitely not your mom or I." He laughed to himself, before patting her on the head. Her family really seemed to enjoy doing this.
"Entrance day is merely the beginning." For some, attending Tracen would be enough, in and of itself, but if she was there on scholarship, she was obligated to perform at least above average. While she doubted the academics would be too challenging, physical competition was one thing where her smaller stature did give her a significant disadvantage at times.
"Hm…" Father hummed, acknowledging the point. "Are you really sure this is what you want to do?"
Shirogane blinked up at him. "Isn't it a bit too late to be asking that question again?"
"I don't think so. Some runners, even really good ones, have quite short careers. And it can be pretty stressful." He smiled. "Besides, I looked up what they pay out for just running in a bigger race, with how careful you are with money you could probably live off that."
"It would not be enough to cover the investment into attending this school though."
"Don't worry about that too much, Shiro-chan," Father laughed. "We're already happy seeing you do so well."
It was strange.
This lack of pressure made her feel more obligated to try.
"I understand, Father."
As her family got ready to leave, and while father took the truck to a gas station, her mother and grandmother sat her down in the desk chair (which had a convenient cutout for her tail), looking oddly serious.
"What is it?"
Mother sighed, running her fingers through Shirogane's hair. "You've always been so grown up. You look even more grown up now."
"Is…that a bad thing?" She was still vaguely child sized for a human.
"Not by itself," Grandmother said. She did not elaborate further.
"In some ways you not caring much about clothes made raising you easier," Mother murmured, "but you're going to a fancy school now. And I know that for the big races you have to have an outfit."
"Ah." Now that she thought about it, the Grade 1 races tended to have the runners wearing costumes of some sort. It seemed very impractical, was it a sort of display of dominance? "I take it that you have some advice?"
"Maybe some that you'll actually listen to," Mother huffed, eyeing her knowingly.
"If you have experience running in uma races I am all ears."
Grandmother smacked her on the head with an old rolled up newspaper. "Don't get cheeky just because you got into a fancy academy now, dearie!"
"Of course."
"Ha! You'll be fine dealing with the insults you'll get from the stuck up Tokyo brats, I can see that!"
Comparatively few umamusume lived in Tokyo proper, with a much higher proportion living in the countryside, for obvious reasons.
"We're getting off track," Mother interjected, fussing with her bag and pulling a smaller package out. "First of all, pretty much every racer has got to have an ear ornament!" She opened the package, revealing a pair of white, wing shaped decorations of the same type.
"I never understood why this practice was so common. As far as I can tell it offers no benefit."
"Well why don't you try it out?"
Her mother picked up one of the ornaments and tied it around Shirogane's left ear, tight enough to be snug but not too tight as to become uncomfortable.
Shirogane flicked her ear reflexively, the ornament adding an unfamiliar sensation as it swished through the air. "It feels unbalanced."
"Well that's why there's two!" Mother promptly attached the other ornament to her other ear.
Having balanced ornaments felt less odd, but it was still a strange feeling. Shirogane flexed her ears one way, then another, testing out the new weight distribution. The ornaments were light, but still added a degree of resistance to the movements. She angled her ears towards the window, and found her hearing to be about as acute as previously.
"I still don't see what these accomplish."
"They make you look more approachable!" her mother cooed, looking far more excited for this than she was. "You did mention that other children seemed to find you intimidating, and having some cute earrings would make you look less scary."
Shirogane glanced into the window glass, focusing on her reflection. The wings did look pretty good, the white color matching her stretch of paler hair towards her forehead and making her look more symmetrical. They also made her look a few centimeters taller.
"See! Much less intimidating!"
She would have to test this out with someone not inherently biased. Not to mention that Tracen students would likely not be so easily startled.
"I never did figure out why most umamusume only wear ornaments on one ear," Grandmother muttered to herself. "It looks quite unbalanced."
"I will have to test if these will fall off while running."
"Don't you dare lose them, Shiro-chan! I spent a lot of time on these!"
"As you say, Mother." It would be rather rude to misplace a gift like this.
"That's not all," her mother added, her smile dimming slightly, before she turned to retrieve some wrapped up clothing from the closet.
Shirogane frowned, not recognizing them from among the things she wore. "What is that?"
Mother unzipped the garment bag, revealing a double breasted jacket that was similar in color to Feldgrau. She pushed it firmly into Shirogane's hands, her own hands trembling slightly.
Shirogane's ears twitched as she stared at the uniform, an Uhlan uniform, part of her mind supplied her. Why would her mother have this?
"This was your grand-aunt's," Mother explained, smiling wanly. "Don't worry, this wasn't actually the uniform she had when she was in the army, it's actually quite a bit older of a design. Still an Uhlan uniform though. Isn't that cool?"
"Why would she have left this to you?" It seemed a bit strange for Mother to have taken this out of Poland with her. Shouldn't it belong in a museum? "And not to her own children?"
Mother's smile became brittle. "She did. Leave it to her own children, that is. She also put into her will that it'd pass to the next oldest umamusume in the family if they didn't want it."
"And so they didn't want this uniform?" That was a bit strange. From what she understood, the Polish were quite proud of their history, especially after their long awaited freedom from the evil of Communism.
"No, my cousins would have taken it."
"Then why do you have it? Surely I have an umamusume cousin in Poland for whom this would be more appropriate for…?" She would have thought the family would have been a bit outraged at the piece of history going to a foreigner. Unless…
Mother's lip quivered, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.
"There is only you,
Maly Orzeł."
Oh.
AN. A sort of filler chapter as Shirogane suddenly reorients her life towards Tracen, but I thought it would be nice to have some more scenes with her family before they mostly go offscreen. 
