As the fireworks show ended, Tsutsumi, Oguri, and Tamamo slowly made their way back toward the academy. The night air was cool, and the smell of food from the festival still lingered faintly.
"Tsutsumi, I didn't know you liked taking pictures," Oguri said after a moment, her eyes drifting to the magenta camera hanging around her brother's neck.
"I like many things. Travel is one of them," he replied, sounding casual as he took another bite of the takoyaki he was carrying.
"I didn't know that… You never left your room back at home," Oguri said. Her tone dipped slightly, like she didn't mean to say it that way but it slipped out anyway.
Tsutsumi raised a brow, noticing the brief change in her voice. It disappeared just as fast as it came. "Maybe that's why I like to travel," he said simply.
Oguri was quiet for a second, thinking. Then she nodded to herself a little.
"Then… let's travel together sometime," she said. "Maybe we can run together too."
Tsutsumi paused his steps for a short moment, then continued walking. "Sure," he answered.
That alone was enough to make her perk up immediately. Her eyes brightened, and her tail swayed left and right behind her without her even realizing it.
Tamamo, who had been walking slightly ahead, glanced back at them. "Hey, why do you two sound so stiff?" she asked bluntly. "Aren't you siblings? You talk like classmates talking first time doing a group project."
Oguri made a small sound, somewhere between a cough and a laugh. "Uh, well…"
She clearly hadn't prepared an answer for that kind of question.
"We're different. Too different, you could say," Tsutsumi replied in a calm tone before she could dig herself deeper. "So our relationship isn't exactly that close."
It was an easy lie, and he delivered it without much effort. Oguri glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, then looked ahead again. She didn't correct him, but she also didn't look very happy about the explanation either.
Tamamo hummed lightly. "I guess that happens," she said, not pushing further. "Still, it'd be nice if you loosened up a bit. You both look like you're afraid you'll step on each other's hooves."
Oguri puffed her cheeks slightly. "We're not that bad…"
Tsutsumi didn't bother defending himself. He just adjusted the camera strap a little and continued walking. The path back to the dorms wasn't very loud anymore; most of the festival noise had stayed behind them.
"Next time," Tamamo added lazily, stretching her arms above her head, "let's take a group picture too. Not just fireworks."
Tsutsumi thought for a second. "Maybe," he said.
Tamamo nodded firmly like the decision had already been made. "Not maybe. We're doing it."
He didn't argue. It just seemed easier to let it be.
As they continued walking back toward Tracen Academy, the only real conversation came from Tamamo and Oguri. The two of them casually talked about festival food, races, and which stall games were rigged. Tsutsumi, on the other hand, stayed quiet.
While they chatted beside him, more memory fragments of the him in this world slowly slotted themselves into place.
When they were kids, it wasn't just him who was considered unusual. Oguri had been born with weak legs, so weak that even standing for more than a few seconds was a struggle. Running was completely out of the question.
As a child, seeing that his older sister couldn't run, the child Tsutsumi had told her that he didn't like running and would prefer spending time with his sister. At the time, he meant it without thinking too deeply about it.
On top of that, being the first and only male Umamusume came with its own issues. Their parents were worried about how society would react to something that literally had never existed before, so the solution they decided on was… to have him live as a girl for the time being.
Until "the right time," whatever that was supposed to mean.
So despite being the healthier one physically, he ended up as a shut-in and doesn't have any friends or outside hobbies. Just a quiet kid shut in his room more often than not.
Still, he and their mother massaged Oguri's legs every day, trying to help strengthen her muscles, and because of this, Oguri gained the ability to walk and developed a love for running.
At that time, the two of them had actually been close, inseparable even.
Then more memory unfolded, the second-floor railing, Oguri's hands, her push, the stairs, and the impact. He remembered the sharp pain, the blurred vision, crimson liquid spreading out, and the way everything became fuzzy afterward.
The push hadn't really been "accidental." It was more like a brief mix of envy, frustration, and bad timing. But no one believed Oguri could've done it anyway, not when everyone thought she could barely stand for long.
Their parents assumed he'd just been fooling around and fallen. Oguri tried to confess, but they read it as guilt instead of honesty and simply comforted her. The younger him had watched all of this in silence.
And then, like the stubborn kid he was, he pretended to forget everything. He decided that was easier. Fake amnesia, pull away from everyone, avoid talking too much, and slowly distance himself.
Looking back on it now, it was… pretty stupid.
"Tch." Tsutsumi clicked his tongue without meaning to, his expression tightening for a moment.
"Is something wrong?" Tamamo asked, noticing the look on his face.
"Yeah. I just remembered something bad," he said simply.
"Oh? How bad?" she asked, half-curious, half-teasing.
"Nothing serious. Just annoying," he replied with a shrug.
Beside him, Oguri's hand slowly loosened from his. After a second, she let go completely. She rubbed at her elbow and kept her eyes forward, as if the scenery ahead had suddenly become very interesting.
That one shove had broken more than just his head. It cracked the relationship the twins had back then, and his childish stubbornness did the rest of the damage afterward. Over ten years of pointless resentment built on top of one moment.
The current Tsutsumi could only sigh inwardly at it all.
Honestly, if he could travel back in time in this world without creating a paradox, he'd probably beat up his younger self. The kid had been carrying hatred like it was a prized possession.
Yeah, his situation hadn't exactly been easy, hiding his gender, expectations, pressure, all of that. But even then, he'd been born into something he had never had in most worlds, a loving family with a mother, father, and a twin sister.
"Oguri-nee, wanna have breakfast with me tomorrow?" Tsutsumi said suddenly.
He used the same familiar way of calling her that he had when they were kids. The words just slipped out before he really thought about them.
Oguri stopped walking for a second. Her ears twitched, and she slowly turned around with a stunned expression, like she wasn't sure if she heard right.
"…What?" she asked, blinking.
Tsutsumi didn't change his tone. "I said, Oguri-nee, wanna have breakfast with me tomorrow?" he repeated, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. This time, he added a small smile.
It wasn't big or flashy. Just simple. But it was something he hadn't shown her in years.
Oguri's expression became a mix of a lot of things at once: relief, guilt, happiness, confusion, all tangled together. She looked like she wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, so she ended up somewhere in between.
"Tsu… yeah. That would be nice," she said, smiling back while trying to keep her voice steady.
Her hand moved toward him slowly, hesitant like she was afraid the moment would crumble if she rushed it.
This time, instead of letting it fall awkwardly, Tsutsumi reached back and took her hand himself.
Their hands fit together easily, like they had when they were younger. No grand promises, no dramatic speeches. Just a quiet feeling that something that had been stuck for a long time was finally moving again.
For a moment, it felt like the time when they were kids, walking side by side, holding hands, acting like they would always be together without thinking too much about it.
Tamamo watched the two of them from the side, clearly confused at first. But when she saw how the atmosphere between them had softened, she just let out a small breath and decided not to interrupt. She slipped her hands behind her head and continued walking with them at an easy pace.
...
As they finally returned to the Academy gates, the three naturally slowed down. There wasn't really anything left to say, so they just split up at the crossroads without much ceremony. Tamamo stretched and yawned, Oguri gave Tsutsumi's hand one last light squeeze, and then each of them headed toward their own dorm buildings.
Tsutsumi walked back to his room at his usual unhurried pace and opened the door.
Inside, his roommate was already there, sitting at her desk. Half the tabletop was covered with bottles, beakers, powder packets, and tools lined up in a way that looked messy but probably wasn't. She carefully poured one liquid into another, eyes narrowed in concentration as something faintly fizzed.
Her name was Anges something… something. He knew he'd seen the full name on the dorm paper once. He just never bothered to fully read or remember the names of those he didn't care about.
Roommate or not, this arrangement wasn't permanent anyway. Sooner or later, he will drop out of Tracen Academy.
Someone else would take the empty bed, and his roommate would adjust and keep doing her experiments like usual.
As Umamusume, they cannot help but run; that is just their instinct. Tsutsumi, however, doesn't have that instinct anymore, and he really didn't plan to stay in this world for too long in case something bad happened.
From what he could tell, this world was quite peaceful, and it didn't have any apocalyptic threats or powerful beings that threatened the lives of innocents. So there is no reason for a Kamen Rider to even be here.
Which meant there was no real reason for him to be here for long.
As he made his way through his bed, his eyes drifted around the room and landed on the small built-in kitchen space. It wasn't much, compact stove, tiny counter, a few shelves, but it was enough. He remembered how Oguri ate back at lunch and then again at dinner, and again after that.
Calling it "a healthy appetite" was being polite.
Cooking something for tomorrow suddenly felt natural.
He moved over to the kitchen corner.
Before he realized it, he was already chopping, frying, and packing. The motions were familiar enough that he didn't need to think too hard about them. When he finally stopped, five wrapped bento boxes were lined up neatly on the counter.
"Hm. Should this be enough?" he murmured, staring at them.
Probably not.
For most people, this would've counted as "a lot." For Oguri, it was more like a quick snack for her.
His eye twitched a little. "Yeah… too light."
He grabbed his jacket and walked out of his room to break into the closed-off cafeteria to borrow more ingredients.
The cooks probably won't mind since those ingredients would all be turned into food and dropped into Oguri's bottomless stomach.
When he pushed his dorm room door open again, arms full of ingredient bags, he paused.
His roommate was sitting at the table. More specifically, she was sitting at the table, inhaling the third bento box at a rapid speed.
Rice grains stuck to her cheek. Chopsticks moved at a speed that suggested both desperation and experience. The lid of the fourth box was already open.
Tsutsumi stood there silently. Staring at this brown-haired horse girl, eating the food he made for his sister, with his menacing blank stare.
She slowly turned.
Bonk!
A lump formed on top of her head as she clutched it with both hands.
"Hey! What's the big deal!?" She snapped, glaring at him with those red eyes of hers.
He set the bags down calmly. "Those were for my sister. Not you."
She frowned, then glanced back at the half-eaten bento, and her stomach betrayed her with a loud growl.
"…Okay, but your sister probably doesn't need that much anyway," she muttered, crossing her arms. "And your cooking is way better than cafeteria stuff. I was testing something and forgot to eat. It just… happened."
She has skipped lunch and dinner to work on her new scientific project.
He looked at her for a second longer, then sighed.
"Just finish it. If you're still hungry, I'll cook something while I'm at it."
She squinted at him suspiciously. "Really?"
"Yeah."
They locked eyes for a moment, his flat stare versus her strange red interference pattern pupils. She broke first, grinning in a way that made her look just slightly unstable.
"The name Agnes Tachyon, sure, I would love to have more, and I also will have your cooking for breakfast, lunch, and dinner tomorrow too, roommate."
"Tsutsumi, don't get your hopes up, so you won't be too disappointed in the end."
He replied calmly before heading back to cook despite it already being past midnight.