Hondo (本土) stage Intermission 0.5: Team Mugen

MLP: FiM: Team AA

Intermission 0.5: Team Mugen

“It has been 3 hours and nobody has come to challenge us. I’m asking one more time: WHO WILL FACE US?!” The booming sound of Team Mugen’s hillclimb ace, Nova Expert, echoing all over Mt. Mitsubishi, suited up in a clean white uniform and ‘無’ for the suit’s cutie mark, with his blunt maroon nose, ears and wings sticking out of it, and black, somewhat messy hair, while the downhill ace, Divine Civics, looked aimlessly at the sky with his blank and neutral eyes, and yellow body that didn’t mix too well with his white uniform, with ‘眼’ for a cutie mark, and black, tidy hair, not caring about whatever Nova spitted out.

The locals knew of Kyuu Roku’s tragedy and didn’t want to injure Hayabusa’s feelings any further by sending him into the fray, but who else, other than him, could possibly stand a chance against these two? The locals that gathered around looked at each other, looking concerned. None of them were confident of ever beating Team Mugen in a touge.

While it is true that Hayabusa didn’t race on regular circumstances anymore so that it didn’t give him memories of Kyuu’s accident, it troubled him to see all the locals in a quiet panic at Team Mugen’s threat.

Then, in the midst of the crowd, a voice called out:

“You want a challenge?! Here is your contender!”

The crowd went silent, and Team Mugen watched closely at the mare who slowly walked out into the open… She has a smooth body with light grey tinted fur and a somewhat dark greenish, ponytailed mane, and two black eyes with two black irises to compliment, and wings burning in an orange aura for a cutie mark.

Nova, in a mocking tone, replied to the mare:

“Hehe…, and what do we have here?”

“Don’t you say ‘hehe’ to me, you bully! I’m here to challenge the hillclimb, just so that you can shut up and leave us alone!”

“Aw, look at her, the mare who wants to be a heroine. Being in a rage will only make you lose, hothead.

"In short, you’re up. Anyone want to challenge Civic here?”

“I volunteer this stallion!” The mare then raised the hand of the stallion in pale yellow just next to her, but in her fit of rage, she didn’t realise that she had just picked one of the slowest pegasi in Mt. Mitsubishi. The stallion in pale yellow fur, with a blue-white-blue stripe hair color scheme, and eyes similar to that of Civic’s, and a WW2 Japanese roundel with “万” inside it for a cutie mark, jumped in shock that he was chosen, but remained silent about it.

“What do you think, Civic? He looks easy enough to beat for you?”

“Alright, I think the locals had enough of your rudeness, Nova. Hey, stallion. Don’t mind him, he’s like that. I’m looking forward for our race.”

“Alright. Hayabusa will be left alone. But you two? Be sure to be here tomorrow, especially you, you hot-headed stone brick.”

The mare was in the verge of exploding, which would definitely happen if the stallion didn’t calm her down.

The downhill challenger happened to be the mare’s best friend in high school, and he understood that she was in a very disturbed state of mind to even think straight, and managed to make her fully calm and cool again after they had a can of Tamashi soda.

“Hey, uh…, Zero. Sorry for putting you in this mess. It’s just that, I can’t grab a hold of myself whenever I get angry, and that doesn’t happen often.”

“Hien, it’s ok. I knew you were going to do that, anyway. But I don’t think Team Mugen will accept a switch now. Well, with Nova being so rude and hot-headed… No matter, I’ll do my best for the downhill. You do the same.”

“Thanks for forgiving me. It’s not often that I am forgiven for my mistakes.”

Zero gave a warm, but weak smile towards Hien, who shyly looked away for a moment, giving a smile back to Zero without his notice.

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That night, Zero was sitting idly in his house; an onigiri shop-turned two-storey house that was painted white and had one large window on the second floor where Zero's room is located. In front of the house is a stall where Zero's father, Kyuu Roku, a white pegasus with a red, short mane and a blue comet as a cutie mark, sells his onigiri. It was on the same village where Nova started the bickering, where all of the buildings looked vaguely similar to Zero's house.

Kyuu Roku was preparing for tomorrow’s batch of onigiri. It often gives Zero a sense of pity, seeing his father work very hard for the sake of the family, all the while seeing his deformed, bandaged wings and looking at his face all tired, weary and very deserving of a long rest. Zero often helps as a delivery boy and he does his job very well and without rest, in turn giving Kyuu a sense of pity towards his hardworking son, but if it wasn’t for Zero, their business would have not received any profit and instead get break-evens. In a monthly basis, Hayabusa sends the Sentouki family (Kyuu  and Zero) money to help them in their life, and pay for Zero’s final year in high school, despite Kyuu and Zero’s constant rejection of the offer.

In a quiet, respectful voice, Zero began to speak:

“Father, have you heard of Team Mugen’s arrival to Mt. Mitsubishi?”

“Yes, why?” Kyuu raising an eyebrow with one eye looking at Zero, preparing the rice.

“Well, Hien put me in charge of dealing with Divine Civics, Team Mugen’s downhill specialist. We’ll be racing tomorrow at Mt. Mitsubishi.”

Kyuu paused for a moment, then looked at Zero with a curious face.

“Hm? You never liked going too fast. I remembered the time you tried to clear the Mt. Mitsubishi route when you were a bit younger with me, the pace of Mt. Mitsubishi was a bit too much for you to handle.”

“I remember that as if it was just yesterday. So embarrassing…”

Kyuu gave a small chuckle, as he prepared the seaweed.

“But no matter. I am part of the defending volunteer team of Mt. Mitsubishi now, and I will not let Team Mugen get past me… Not even Civic.” Zero started to shudder a little mentioning Civic’s name.

Kyuu turned his focus back to the onigiri. “Well, if you’re so sure, do your best tomorrow, Zero. Lucky you that tomorrow’s a day off for you.”

“Haha… yeah, lucky me, but I don’t want you to get too tired in your work, father.”

“Don’t worry about me. You’ve done a lot for me and our little shop, Zero. Why, if your mother was here right now, she would have been so proud of you from top to bottom… You better rest now, son. You’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

Zero tried to hold back his tears longing for his mother, who died from an accident high above Ashigaru pass, after being struck twice by lightning in a violent storm at the borders of the Hondo area. She died seconds after the incident, and neither Kyuu nor Zero could do anything about it. Only Kyuu knew her name, and for some reason won’t try to mention it, not even to his son, Zero. Gulping down his grief, Zero slept with the few tears that did escape his eyes that night.

“Mother, if only you are still here…”