Yayoi Natural's expression shifted slightly.
Noticing it, Mejiro Ramonu looked away for a moment.
Just that was enough—she could tell how much Yayoi Natural hated that name.
So she continued, "Of course, Rudolf isn't exactly the best option either."
"She's an Umamusume too. It's hard to predict what she might do."
Mejiro Ramonu looked back at Yayoi Natural. "And getting locked in a basement wouldn't be much fun, would it?"
"Then what's the best option?"
Hearing Yayoi Natural ask the obvious question—exactly as she'd guided her to—Mejiro Ramonu's face slipped back into the expression she used to wear.
She answered, "Probably leaving. Somewhere with no Umamusume at all, and living under a different name. As far as I know, there are two places like that."
"First: an Antarctic research station. You definitely won't run into a single Umamusume there."
"And second… a space station."
At Mejiro Ramonu's answer, Yayoi Natural parted her lips.
Even she knew how impossible those places were to get into.
So she stood, ready to leave.
Seeing Yayoi Natural about to walk out like that, Mejiro Ramonu only sighed and added one more thing.
"Yayoi-san. Possessiveness, put simply, is a single-target kind of… ownership. Taken too far."
"If it ever gets that bad, then hide somewhere like Greenland."
With that, Yayoi Natural left the interview room.
The moment she stepped outside, Kashimoto Riko—standing off to one side of the doorway in case anything happened—spoke up.
"I'll walk you out."
"…Okay. Thank you."
Yayoi Natural turned to her.
Kashimoto nodded, then added with a hint of apology, "There's something I haven't told you yet."
"Go ahead."
"Because of my job, I looked into you in advance."
Walking beside Yayoi Natural, Kashimoto's voice stayed flat. Her eyes stayed forward, following the road as it faded into the lights ahead. "And I found your relationships are… complicated."
"…Thanks?"
"That's not something to thank me for." Kashimoto's tone grew heavier as she remembered what she'd seen—what she'd had to deal with.
Lamp light and shadow slid across her face as they walked.
"I just want you to understand how dangerous possessiveness can be."
At that, Yayoi Natural opened her mouth—but as someone who'd been a player in her previous life, someone who'd already "done time" around Umamusume, she'd read more than enough bizarre web stories.
And in most of them, there was almost no description of what happened after a basement.
Not because the story "ended there," but because the protagonist was already finished—so the story couldn't move forward anymore.
That was the end.
Thinking of that, Yayoi Natural looked at Kashimoto. "Can you explain it in more detail?"
She needed to know.
Or rather—she needed to understand what the worst possible ending might look like for her.
So...
"Total loss of mobility," Kashimoto said.
"Wha—"
"That's one victim we found," Kashimoto cut in. "A trainer. When we found her, she might as well have been a corpse."
"Her identity had been erased. Her limbs had been dislocated with locks—because the Umamusume assigned to her didn't want her leaving her side, so she shut down her ability to move entirely."
"And her eyes were dead," Kashimoto continued. "Her body was alive, but…"
Kashimoto stopped abruptly.
She realized she'd said things she probably shouldn't have.
After a short pause, she sighed. "Sorry. I shouldn't have told you that."
"But what I'm trying to say is this: if you use 'the desire to win' as a yardstick for possessiveness… then whether it's Maruzensky or Mr. C.B., both of them could end up doing something even worse."
As she spoke, Kashimoto turned her head to look at Yayoi Natural.
Yayoi Natural's expression still looked like she hadn't noticed anything at all, so Kashimoto turned her gaze back to the path.
Kashimoto had been standing outside the interview room. She could tell why Yayoi Natural hadn't answered Mejiro Ramonu's question.
And that was exactly why she was saying all of this.
Even if Yayoi Natural was, to Kashimoto, only an Umamusume she'd met once—as the person who handled cases like these, Kashimoto had always tried, as much as she could, to protect anyone who might become a victim.
That was why she was warning Yayoi Natural now.
"Thank you for telling me," Yayoi Natural said.
Then she turned to Kashimoto again. "By the way—has it always been permanent confinement here?"
"It wasn't at first," Kashimoto said. "It changed later."
"Changed?"
Yayoi Natural's question made Kashimoto's expression stiffen.
Clearly, the reason wasn't something she liked to remember.
But a few seconds later, she still answered—her voice heavy with a regret even Yayoi Natural could hear.
"At first, it wasn't permanent. Originally, once their mental state improved, we'd release them. But…"
"Those Umamusume rejected that plan. Because they realized that if they ever saw the person they loved marry someone else and have—no. For them, even something as small as holding hands could make them do it all again."
"So they chose to lock themselves in here. Because only when they received nothing—no information, no contact—could they guarantee they wouldn't act on it."
"Their love gave birth to possessiveness. And once they realized how twisted they'd become, that same love became what confined them."
"So after that, this place became a permanent-confinement facility. Besides… with the Three Goddesses' mechanical restraints, even dying became impossible."
As she spoke, Kashimoto looked at Yayoi Natural, grief gathering in her eyes.
As if, in the future Kashimoto could already see, Yayoi Natural's ending had been set.
But she still said what she needed to say.
"This is our first time meeting. But I don't want you to become another victim."
The weight in her words made Yayoi Natural look back at her.
Their eyes met.
Then, almost at the same time, they both looked away again.
Like that, they walked back to the entrance.
Standing there, Yayoi Natural looked at Kashimoto, thinking for a dozen seconds before she finally spoke.
"Thank you for telling me all this."
At Yayoi Natural's reply, Kashimoto added one more line.
"Not every Umamusume has possessiveness issues. But… be careful."
"…Mm. Thanks."
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T/N: holy fuck this is serious :sob: it's why ugh basement fics i got LUCKY with the one i chose like hearing some other people read/tl other basement fics like holy shit MC's being forced to uma pyoi a few chapters in and shit