"AAH! HOLY CRAP!!"
"ARGH! DAMN IT!"
"OH JEEZ! I WANNA GO HOME!"
The loud wails of the spirited young guy echoed throughout the themed area, so much so that even Barbatos momentarily forgot her own nervousness. She actually felt a bit like laughing.
Hold it in. I went through strict training during those nine years of compulsory education. No matter how funny, I won't laugh.
She struggled to suppress the smile tugging at her lips, refusing to let a sound escape.
Truth was, she was having a hard time holding back. But if even she started laughing out loud, wouldn't she be just like those girls in her past life who used to point and whisper about her?
Screaming because of a thrilling ride and then getting pointed at… that kind of experience was always unpleasant. She could even see people on the ground outside the spinning swing ride already pulling out their phones to record.
She couldn't control what others did; all she could do was focus on herself.
But she really wanted to laugh…
Even though that guy was genuinely overwhelmed, how could human happiness be built on someone else's suffering? Was this a distortion of human nature or a complete collapse of morality?
Hold it in! You must hold it in! Absolutely cannot laugh out loud!
Huh? Why does Seiun Sky look like she's holding back laughter too?
At this point, she wasn't planning to scream at all to relieve tension. Even though the swing ride was spinning fast and had reached its highest point, she wasn't nervous now. Instead, her stomach hurt from stifling her laughter.
Fortunately, the ride lasted only about two minutes before settling back to the ground.
Without any intention to chat with that 'brother-in-misery' loud guy, she and Seiun Sky left directly.
"Why were you trying not to laugh back there?" Barbatos asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Because I saw you weren't laughing," Seiun Sky said nonchalantly. "You must have felt for him, right? That guy was probably afraid of heights too."
She naturally didn't know about Barbatos's past life experiences, but she could guess the general idea. She just thought it would've been better if that spirited guy had started screaming a little later.
That way, she could have seen how Barbatos would scream. If she had wailed like that guy, Seiun Sky would have laughed without hesitation.
Sometimes, compared to strangers, people tend to be less 'kind' to those they're closer to.
"Well... you're not wrong."
"Between being a video creator and reading my mind, it feels like it's a waste you aren't a detective."
Barbatos felt that, purely in terms of intellect, Seiun Sky was miles ahead of her. She could always see through certain things or matters with clarity, something even Barbatos's past human life experience couldn't match.
Falling in love with an Uma Musume this sharp had to be troublesome.
Like, planning a big surprise for a holiday, anniversary, or birthday, only for the perceptive Seiun Sky to have seen through it all already.
"Hmm, a detective?" Seiun Sky mumbled around a mouthful of... something.
"More than that, I want to run. Have you ever seen a Uma Musume who doesn't want to run?"
She'd just finished speaking when she noticed Barbatos, walking beside her, suddenly look over as if to say, 'Aren't you one?' "You skip training all the time and never participate in the regimen Minamizaka sets."
Seiun Sky couldn't help but roll her eyes, refusing to engage with that remark.
As if you, Barbatos, don't slack off yourself. Just then, she spotted a notice board by the roadside listing the day's activities at Universal Studios and walked over to it.
It showed the times for live performances, circus acts, and the evening fireworks display...
It also listed the movies scheduled to play in the main "Studio" section of the park. Noticing Barbatos had followed her, Seiun Sky suggested, "Want to watch this detective-related movie together?"
She planned to see if she could identify the culprit before the detective in the movie did and tell Barbatos.
Thinking back to the screaming guy, she felt it might not be a good idea to drag Barbatos onto more thrilling rides.
While she wanted to experience them herself, she seemed to have underestimated Barbatos's fear of heights. After all, Barbatos had acted pretty normally after grabbing her hand on the Ferris wheel...
"Sure," Barbatos agreed readily, her eyes scanning the board. "What detective movie is it?"
"Detective Conan Movie 24: The Scarlet Bullet. It should be pretty famous."
Detective Conan. Even if most Uma Musume didn't watch it, Seiun Sky had heard of it.
There was even a story about someone circling all the culprits in a friend's Conan manga to spoil them, earning a beating from the owner.
"This..."
Run! This isn't a detective movie at all!
Drawing on her vast movie-watching experience from her past life, Barbatos offered advice, "This isn't really a detective movie!"
"?"
"A... friend of mine saw the previous few movies."
"This movie has soccer, skateboards, terrorist organizations, massive building explosions, vehicle crashes... but it definitely doesn't have proper detective reasoning!"
Well, not none, but there's a detective and some reasoning... just not fully realized. You often finish the movie not really understanding why the culprit did it. That's been the trend with recent Conan movies.
"This 'friend'... is actually you, isn't it?"
"..."
Seiun Sky saw right through the "making up a friend" tactic. She didn't know why Barbatos did it, but if the movie was really as she described, it sounded pretty interesting—the kind of plot that defies expectations.
That kind of movie actually offered a better viewing experience for her. If it followed a normal conventional plot, she'd probably guess the whole plot within ten minutes, which would be boring. But Barbatos didn't seem particularly keen on watching it. She couldn't very well make her wait outside for two hours, could she?
Better to wait for the online release and watch it in the dorm, or check out the earlier movies first after getting back.
Glancing at a nearby roller coaster, Seiun Sky asked with a smile, "Then I'm going on that one. Want to come?"
"Alright."
"Won't you be wanting to go home?"
"Heh, who do you think you're looking down on?" Barbatos bluffed.
She couldn't let Seiun Sky ride the roller coaster alone, could she?
Doing such things alone made a person seem really lonely and pitiful. But then again, maybe she should have just agreed to watch the Conan movie with Seiun Sky.
Hmm. Mainly, watching a movie with Seiun Sky seemed like a nice thing to do. It's just a pity Conan wasn't a proper detective movie. Without knowing the online memes and previous plots, Seiun Sky probably wouldn't get the fun parts.
Each lost in their own thoughts, the two boarded the roller coaster. As it slowly started moving, Barbatos felt a small hand reach over and grasp hers.
"This should help with the nerves, right?"
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T/N: Damn i am shipping ts so hard(and yes i used ts correctly, its just that you can alternate it and it works regardless)
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T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, 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.