A pristine white pillow came flying straight at Barbatos's face, leaving her absolutely no time to react.
The world went dark for a second as she stumbled back a couple of steps.
For a moment, she couldn't quite wrap her head around what was happening.
Surely, a simple game of Ludo hadn't just devolved into the inaugural Log Cabin Pillow War?
Barbatos had honestly thought that after their intense "crash-every-plane-in-sight" energy from earlier, they'd be spending the rest of the night stuck in board game limbo.
Her brain stalled for a heartbeat, unable to solve the mystery.
But who cared about the why right now? In a situation like this, the only answer was cold, fluffy retaliation.
She reached up, snatched the pillow as it slid off her face, and didn't bother checking who the culprit was. It was definitely a conspiracy anyway, so she might as well blast the first person she saw.
"Take this!"
Spinning around like Garen in a bush, she swung the pillow with a full rotation and launched it straight at Special Week.
Thwack!
The pillow struck the wall and slumped to the floor. Given a moment's notice, an Uma Musume's reflexes far outstrip a human's; Special Week had easily danced out of the way.
"Hehe!"
Special Week let out a cheeky giggle, already hoisting her own pillow to counter-attack, but she was immediately blindsided by another projectile before she could even cock her arm back.
Thump! Bam! Pow!
Suddenly, the room was a chaotic symphony of pillows hitting bodies and thudding against the walls. Barbatos had no idea why the war had started, but she knew her job: keep throwing.
Even Barbatos and Seiun Sky didn't pull their punches when they squared off. Everyone was prowling for an opening, looking for the easiest target to snipe.
In this crossfire, King Halo was the unluckiest soul in the room.
Her leg injury meant she had zero mobility, but because of that, she was surrounded by a literal mountain of ammunition. She effectively became a stationary artillery battery.
"And King Halo has taken the lead! Can anyone catch up to her from behind?!"
On the video call, El Condor Pasa was busy tallying up the hits like a professional referee, calling the action as if they were mid-race on the turf.
"Witness my ultimate move: Martian Mega-Pillow!"
"Secret Technique! King's Invincible Rapid-Fire Barrage!"
"Rigil for the win!"
A string of increasingly ridiculous move names echoed through the room. These girls, usually so well-behaved at the Academy, had completely shed their inhibitions.
The dorm was a whirlwind of flying feathers and soaring bolsters. Some pillows were swung with such legendary force that the stuffing began to snow down from the seams.
Uma Musume possess incredible stamina; this kind of physical play wasn't enough to actually tire them out.
However, as the clock struck ten, everyone stopped in unison. Their internal biological clocks were precision-tuned to this hour.
Summer camp was indeed a time for the racing girls to unwind, but relaxing didn't mean becoming undisciplined.
They could play as hard as they wanted, but their sleep schedules were sacred, and their daily training routines were not to be trifled with. The only one who seemed to have forgotten this was Special Week.
Seeing everyone else stand down, Special Week lowered her weapon.
"Eh?" she blinked. "We're stopping?"
She was just getting into the swing of things. After a grueling day of remedial lessons where she'd been so drowsy she couldn't process a word, this felt like the first real moment of freedom.
Her night life had just begun, and she was still buzzing with energy.
"It's time to get ready for bed," someone reminded her.
"Aww..."
Special Week looked visibly disappointed, though the feeling vanished almost as quickly as it appeared.
While she might not be quite as perpetually sunny as Urara, she was an optimist at heart. Even after losing a major race, she was usually able to step out from the shadow of defeat quite quickly.
Barbatos surveyed the cabin. Thanks to the pillow war, the place was a disaster zone, with tufts of cotton littering the floor like fallen snow. It wouldn't take much to tidy up, though.
Noticing Special Week's lingering pout, Barbatos grinned. "Heh, summer camp is long, Spe! We can play like this every day."
And it wasn't just every day—if they stayed at Tracen Academy after retirement, this could be their "every year, same time, same place" tradition.
After a quick cleanup, they laid out their futons.
The five beds were clustered in the center of the cabin in two rows: Barbatos and Seiun Sky side-by-side, with Special Week, Grass Wonder, and King Halo forming the other row.
The lights flickered off, and Barbatos, clad in her dinosaur onesie, wiggled into her blankets.
The first day of camp had been wonderful. Her only tiny regret was that she couldn't squeeze into the same futon as Seiun Sky.
"Goodnight, everyone~"
"Goodnight~"
With the final farewells, El Condor Pasa's video call cut to black, leaving her to return to her own training grind.
A long silence followed, broken only by the sound of Special Week tossing and turning.
Barbatos listened intently. Despite her own disciplined internal clock, sleep eluded her.
She wasn't quite used to sleeping on a floor mat yet.
She wondered if Special Week was awake for the same reason, or if she was still riding the adrenaline high from earlier—or perhaps because Silence Suzuka wasn't there by her side.
The cabin was silent. If you listened closely, you could hear the rhythmic pulse of the ocean waves outside. You could also hear the subtle rustle of the others; it seemed nobody had actually drifted off yet.
After a moment of thought, Barbatos spoke up in a soft voice. "Hey, since we're all awake... want to chat for a bit?"
"About what?"
The voices overlapped. Clearly, sleep was a lost cause for now.
Usually, at this time, they'd be exhausted from training and would pass out the moment their heads hit the pillow. Today had been too light, and the "war" had left them all wired.
"Well, for starters, how did a pillow fight break out in the time it took me to take a shower?" Barbatos asked, still genuinely confused. "Did someone actually get four planes to the finish line that fast?"
"We didn't even finish the game," a voice whispered back.
"It was the coconut cakes and the coconut milk."
"Yeah, we just felt like throwing things."
"Thought it might help with digestion before bed."
The explanation filtered through the dark, piece by piece, as everyone chimed in.
"I see." Barbatos nodded to herself. So, it was officially time for late-night girl talk.
With that thought, Barbatos sat up cross-legged in her dinosaur pajamas and grabbed her phone.
She angled the screen's flashlight upward against her chin, creating a classic campfire horror-movie glow that cast long, eerie shadows across the cabin walls.
"In that case," she whispered, her voice dropping an octave, "why don't we tell some ghost stories?"
She looked around the room, noting that nobody seemed particularly scared.
In fact, Seiun Sky looked like she was already coming up with one of her own.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.