Mizuno figured that "treating Maruzensky the way he treated Rice Shower, and gradually untangling Maruzensky's knot that way" was, for now, the idea with the strongest logic and the highest chance of success.
After all—Maruzensky was Rice Shower's maternal grandparent. The two Umamusume were related by blood, and now their personalities looked as though they'd been stamped from the same mold. Maybe the sense of inferiority Rice Shower carried deep inside had been quietly inherited from Maruzensky as well.
Maybe beneath Maruzensky's usual gentle, understanding big-sister persona lay the same anxiety Rice Shower once had—fear of burdening others—only hidden so well that no one had ever noticed.
And after Mizuno's Uma Mint constitution forcibly dragged an Umamusume's buried desires into the open, the side of Maruzensky she'd suppressed all this time had finally surfaced.
"If it worked for Rice Shower, there's no reason it can't work for Maruzensky…" Mizuno stared at the note in his hand, beginning to sketch out a new plan.
Mizuno always liked to leave himself an escape route.
If, after weeks of training, he still lost the race, then maybe he could help Maruzensky untie her knot by "reforming" her instead.
Of course, reforming an Umamusume was the last option Mizuno ever wanted to rely on. The deeper your bond with an Umamusume—the closer the relationship—the more endangered your chastity became.
But facing that blatant anime‑protagonist type, Jei Chou, Mizuno simply didn't have enough confidence that he could win outright. He had no choice but to consider this desperate alternative.
Even so, the plan was incredibly risky. Historically speaking, there were almost no humans who had maxed out an Umamusume's affection and still escaped with their chastity intact.
Whether Mizuno could pull off a clean exit depended entirely on his "temperature control"—comforting an Umamusume with a gentle, yasashii attitude while keeping her affection stable and not letting it spiral upward.
The problem was, Mizuno had never even been in a proper relationship. Sure, he'd escaped the clutches of dangerous Umamusume before—but that was mostly by playing dumb and begging for mercy. When it came to emotions, he was a complete amateur. Naturally, he didn't know any of the advanced "temperature control" techniques that seasoned players used.
That was why, when cornered by Air Groove or El Condor Pasa, he'd rather exhaust himself fulfilling their near‑impossible wishes than take the supposedly easy route of emotional counseling.
Thankfully, this time was different.
"If Rice Shower hasn't crossed the line after all this time under my care, then as long as I use the Rice Shower standard on Maruzensky, I should be able to control the temperature perfectly!"
"Even if the reforming fails and Maruzensky doesn't revert, with Rice Shower as precedent, I can at least be sure she won't attack me!"
"It's perfectly reasonable." Mizuno nodded, confirming the plan as workable.
But to put it into action, there was still one issue—maybe not huge, but definitely not small.
Mizuno might be good at coaxing kids in a big‑brother sort of way, but he wasn't some deranged little‑sister fetishist who fell for every cute little‑sis type he saw.
To him, there was only one true little sister—Rice Shower—and she was irreplaceable.
No matter how similar another Umamusume might be to Rice Shower, Mizuno couldn't simply copy‑paste his feelings onto her.
For example, he couldn't give her one hundred percent trust.
If another Umamusume suggested going with him into a dark alley, Mizuno would never agree—much less drop his guard and show his real face, knowing how easily things could turn dangerous.
And intimate sibling‑style interactions were completely out of the question.
Mizuno couldn't stay calm letting another Umamusume sleep with her head on his shoulder, or straddle his legs while acting spoiled.
Back when Tokai Teio clung to him, he'd either sit there stiff as a board, silently praying for the torture to end faster, or shut his mind down entirely and hope that when he came back to himself, he'd still be alive to see the sun.
Other than his little sister Rice Shower, the little angel Haru Urara, and his bro Broshi, Mizuno felt an instinctive, physical fear toward every other Umamusume.
So with Maruzensky—someone he still didn't know very well—he knew he wouldn't be as relaxed as he was with Rice Shower. All he could do was suppress his fear of a natural predator and, at minimum, avoid letting her sense his reluctance. Otherwise, the reforming plan would be dead on arrival.
"…Yeah. I'll do my best." Mizuno stared straight ahead, as though he could see Maruzensky hiding under the box outside the door, hesitation still lingering in his chest.
What if it was precisely this difference that caused him to accidentally send Maruzensky's affection skyrocketing?
So before officially putting the plan into motion, Mizuno decided he needed to judge just how dangerous Maruzensky really was.
He wrote another note and slid it under the door.
Mizuno:
[If I allowed you to install cameras in my home, would you put one in the bathroom?]
Even if Maruzensky answered, Mizuno had no intention of letting her install cameras anywhere. The question was purely a test—to gauge how strong her urge to pry into him truly was.
If Maruzensky only meant placing cameras in common areas like the living room, Mizuno could understand that. Plenty of households installed home cameras nowadays—to check on kids or pets while away. That was still within reason.
As long as she didn't want one in the bathroom, it stayed in "normal" territory—not pervert territory.
If she answered No, it meant she still respected his privacy. Mizuno wouldn't need to worry about her barging in while he showered, or stripping him while he slept.
But if she answered Yes… then Mizuno would need to be extremely careful.
Outside, after reading Mizuno's question, Maruzensky hesitated briefly before replying.
Maruzensky:
[I wouldn't.]
"Whew…" Mizuno patted his chest, letting out a sigh of relief.
So that was it—she'd talked about installing cameras, and he'd immediately labeled her a pervert. Turns out she was actually pretty safe. Looks like he'd just overthought things…
"Alright. I'll talk to her face‑to‑face." Mizuno reached out and opened the door.
But just as he cracked it halfway open, he caught sight of Maruzensky outside, still hiding under the box. At that exact moment, she also had one hand extended, about to slide in another note.
"?!" Mizuno focused—and saw, written in huge letters on the paper:
[One camera in the bathroom is way too few. The angles wouldn't cover everything. At least ten would barely be enough.]
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T/N: LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO anyway we are know fully caught up with the author! umm i think the update is once per week? so ill check it out every thursday to see if theres a new update!
(that was past me btw anyway future me here, i posted this BONUS chapter because of kafka's feet (discord username) but i think they are called fish or whatever, i promised them a chapter or whatever because they guessed something correctly)