Nakayama Festa - Umamusume

Basic Information:

"Winners see the gates of heaven, losers see the gates of hell. That's just life, eh?"

Name: Nakayama Festa ("Nakayama" for a short nickname, usually used by her friends. However "Festa" is used by her family and her teacher.)
Occupation: Student at Tracen Academy
Gender: Female
Species: Umamusume (Horse Girl)
Birthday: April 5
Class: Senior Division
Dorm: Miho
Roommate: Sirius Symboli
Height: 159cm
Three Sizes: B78 W54 H79

Personality:

The ultimate high roller. Lives on the edge and isn't afraid to skirt the law.

A risk junkie and rule-breaker. She used to lack drive, but under the guidance of her elementary school mentor, she discovered the adrenaline-pumping thrill of racing. She can only live on the edge, and tends to cut corners in unremarkable, everyday situations. She's not pressed by newfangled fads, instead preferring to hang out in back alleys, sharing a pot of old-school offal stew with strangers.

She's known for being an outlaw thrill-seeker and hard-boiled gambler who views fierce, risky races as her reason for existing, finding boredom in calm or easy victories. She maintains a lone wolf persona, appearing apathetic and emotionless on the surface while refusing to open her heart to people until they prove themselves as true partners who "have each other's back."

Despite her rough exterior, she possesses a caring and soft side, demonstrated by her hobby of horticulture (specifically growing violets) and her affection for small animals and her loyalty to friends.

Trivia:

Likes: Taking care of plants and small animals.

Dislikes: Dried squid.

· She cut and sewed the holes for her hat herself to make it so her ears poke out of it comfortably.

· When gambling, her tail movement can be seen as a bluff.

· All of her family members are poor sleepers.

· She likes to simmer her Motsuni for at least 3 hours.

· Her phone background is a Roulette wheel.

· Before every race she tries her luck with a coin flip.

· She can't handle carbonated drinks.

· She knows a tiny bit about opera, which she learned from her teacher.

· Her favorite trackto race on is the Takarazuka Racecourse, solely due to it being her teacher's favorite.

· Her teacher once took her to a tour in Paris, which Nakayama remembers throughout all her life.

· She was once suspended from racing by the URA. (Umamusume Racing Association)

· During a game of "Who is the closest to Stay Gold", Nakayama surprisingly won (much to Journey’s dismay) as they all see Stay Gold as their ideal.

· When Golshi and Nakayama once went to a ramen shop together, both of them, including the lady running the ramen shop, watch an overseas race over at Hong Kong. Golshi and Nakayama rooted for Stay Gold who was participating in said race.

· She takes care of stray cats whenever she goes out, even going as far to provide food and milk for them. Because of how often she does this, cat fur usually gets on her clothes. It’s a hassle for her, but she doesn’t mind.

· When her teacher fell ill, she talked about how she'd give hope to her. Sirius also mentions this to her trainer that the hope for Japan winning the Arc has started to diminish.

· When she was a kid, she was quite passive.

· She knows how to peel apples and enjoys doing it.

· She doesn’t get fazed by haunted houses.

· She always found the look of cigarettes and cigars to be cool. But she took a page out of Sirius' book and started buying hundreds of lollipops and stick candies.

Relationships:

· Nobuko Izumi/"Miss Izumi": Nobuko Izumi, commonly known as Miss Izumi. Nakayama's Elementary teacher and caretaker. Nakayama is delighted that Miss Izumi allows herself to be called Nakayama's unofficial mom, considering Nakayama didn't have proper parents. The catalyst for Nakayama's racing career. At an early age, Nakayama's teacher recognized her aimless thrill-seeking nature, and started guiding her toward the high-stakes excitement of the Twinkle Series. Her teacher advises Festa that racing can provide the adrenaline rush she craves in a constructive way. Throughout Nakayama's career, her teacher is terminally ill with esophagus cancer, with a prognosis of less than a year to live. Nakayama's journey becomes deeply intertwined with her desire to "save" her teacher by achieving miraculous victories, hoping to give her a reason to keep living, ultimately showing that while Festa cannot cure the illness, her racing inspires her teacher to cherish her remaining time with her teacher. Nakayama's teacher still manages to enjoy the time she has left, even watching Nakayama race in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and in the Takarazuka Kinen.

· Sirius Symboli/"Sirius": Friend and roommate. They often get up to shenanigans together and play card games well into the night. Given that they are ironically both "wild" lone wolf types, they surprisingly get along. Both Nakayama and Sirius ran in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in Longchamp, France.

· Trainer: Nakayama's Trainer, not to be confused with her teacher.

· Gold Ship/"Golshi": Close Friend. Golshi always has something fun in store for Nakayama to engage in. Golshi's antics supply Nakayama with much sought after thrills while Golshi in turn is kept entertained, making it somewhat of a symbiotic relationship. They are often seen skulking around suspiciously looking to cause some mischief, though there are some rare moments where Nakayama may step out to be the voice of reason and keep Golshi in line.

Relationships²:

· Dream Journey/"Journey": Close Friend. Nakayama gets along with Journey quite well, having a mutual respect for each other as kindred spirits. Journey also approves of her treatment with Orfevre personally, seeing her as a good influence on her little sister. However sometimes Nakayama is creeped out by Journey, her gentle smile and courtesy always contrast to her glare that feels like it has murderous intent behind her archivist glasses.

· Orfevre/"Orfe": Close Friend. Nakayama, along with Gold Ship, often entertains Orfevre, to the point where Nakayama feels like a court jester to the both of them. Orfevre happily enjoys the company, despite her title of the Golden Tyrant on the track, she has a soft spot for her friends.

· Fenomeno/"Mamechin": Close Friend. Nakayama alongside Golshi, would often team up together and prank Meno. Meno often keeps Nakayama from going into the negatives by hiding away some of her gambling money.

· Stay Gold/"Stego": Close Friend. The eldest member of the Gold Clan, often acting as a parental figure and idol to the rest of the girls. If any of them are fighting, Stego manages to make both parties happy afterwards.

· The Gold Clan: Formed by Golshi. The Gold Clan consists of Stay Gold, Dream Journey, Nakayama Festa, Gold Ship, and Fenomeno. This group was formed after one of their shared holiday celebrations together.

· Tosen Jordan/"Jordan": Classmate, friend and rival. Though they may not have much in common at first blush, Nakayama has an implicit respect for Jordan and sees her as a strong Umamusume in spite what anyone else may think of her. Even at her worst, she chooses to place trust in her abilities and support her while paying no mind to anyone else's opinion. She also likes to challenge Jordan to small scale and friendly bets from time to time, given the fact that Jordan won't refuse due to her hating to lose under any circumstance.

Relationships³:

· El Condor Pasa/"El": Friend and rival. Nakayama sees her as a strong opponent, going as far to provoke her to raise the stakes on herself. El also offers Nakayama guidance and advice on her overseas bid to France, as someone who had tried and failed to conquer that frontier.

· Buena Vista/"Buena": Friend and rival. Nakayama would often try and cheer Buena up whenever she cries, even if most of the time her jokes don’t land well. Sometimes Nakayama gets sick of the distinct coconut-smell perfume Buena wears.

· Satono Diamond/"Dia": Friend. Dia looks up to Nakayama as her senior and showers her with praise.

· Eishin Flash/"Flash": Friend. On occasion, they both play games together, specifically German traditional gambling activities which Flash used to play back in her home country.

· Red Desire/"Desire": Friend. Nakayama would always try and look out for Desire, due to her being too focused on her 'saintess duties', to avoid manholes in roads with missing covers.

· Symboli Rudolf/"Rudolf-san": Friend and Student Council President. Nakayama always gets tasked with work by the Student Council, despite not even part of it. This is solely to the fact that Sirius wants to split the work Rudolf gives to her.

Appearance:

Nakayama Festa has medium-length disheveled brown hair. She wears a gray beanie with two holes cut out for her ears, and the beanie has two golden triangles on the right brim. Under her beanie hides a "big ass ahoge". Around her right ear, she has a simple blue ring. She has magenta eyes with flat eyelids.

Her race outfit consists of a torn red shirt with two horizontal white stripes on the center, and a pair of gray ripped jeans held up by a black belt. Around her neck is a silver necklace with a single die charm in the center. She wears a long blue coat to complete the ensemble, it has elbow-length sleeves with two black belts on each arm. She wears black fingerless gloves on both hands. Her shoes are simple black and gray sneakers with white soles.

For her casual attire whenever she's not racing or in Tracen, she typically wears a light gray hoodie under a blue-gray denim jacket, often left open. Her lower half features ripped black shorts paired with brown lace-up boots. She retains her signature beanie (with holes for her horse ears) and often with headphones (without any wire connecting them to anything) around her neck.

In Tracen Academy, she usually just wears the Tracen Academy uniform. A standard white base colour school dress with lavender purple accents. Or red-white trackwear in training.

Umamusume Information:

Umamusume, colloquially referred to as horse girls or simply Umas, are a species of reincarnated racehorses from another world. Their fate is to do whatever it takes to run towards their goals. Though they act as more like a third gender rather than a separate species to humans, as they're biologically still human.

Umamusume are humanoid girls who possess horse traits and features. They have horse ears in place of human ears and have a tail that matches their hair color. They possess incredible speed and stamina, far beyond that of a human and comparable with that of a real-life horse.

Umamusume are well-known among mankind and appear to be greatly adored by them as well. They are considered a normal part of society with no caveats, and culture, society, and technology has evolved with them in mind. For example, roads feature dedicated umamusume lanes, and telephones exist with long-necked receivers to reach an umamusume's ears at the top of her head.

Trivia:

· There are no normal horses in the world.
· Umamusume can run on walkways. They even have specific lanes to run on freely on roads.
· There are no horse boys or "Umashonen".
· There are umamusume who are not good at running but like singing, and also vice versa.
· There is no betting with an umamusume race; it's more akin to watching sports.
· Some umamusume are active in other sports and activities.
· Terms like "Hold your horses!" or horse related sayings still exist.
· Umamusume possess far stronger and faster feats than humans (up to ~70 km/h), with a higher base body temperature of about 37.5–38 °C, like real horses. Though most Umamusume usually stay around the same strength as a regular human female without training.

Location:

In a world where horses don't exist (and elephants replace them historically), only horse girls who inherit names from equestrians from a different world, one place stand out for all Umamusume, Tracen Academy: A Japan Umamusume Training Center Academy or Japan Umamusume Training Schools and Colleges. Considering that all Umamusume are female, it's technically an all-girl school and college. Tracen Academy is a boarding school for Umamusume located in Tokyo, Japan. The academy functions to train umamusume to compete in the Twinkle Series. Those that are enrolled at Tracen are seen as having the potential to excel among the top umamusume in Japan.

Tracen Academy's motto is "Eclipse first, the rest nowhere."

Facilities inside Tracen:
· Main School Building
· Cafeteria
· Dormitories
· Library
· Training Track
· Training Pool
· Training Gym
· Dance Studio
· Outdoor Dance Stages

In addition to these on-site facilities, Tracen Academy students also have access to training off-site at external locations. The only known external training camp is the beach summer camp. Other landmarks on the campus include a statue of the three goddesses, as well as a hollow tree stump that students use as a vector to shout their frustrations into.

Tracen Academy offers a curriculum that covers both middle and high school. Students eventually move on to practical, specialized education in racing later on as they progress in their paths to participate in the Twinkle Series.

Tracen includes several skilled staff, which includes:

· Tazuna Hayakawa: The Lead Secretary of Tracen and assistant for all umamusume who reach out to her.

· Director Yayoi Akikawa: The ambitious and caring chairwoman of Tracen Academy, she's younger than most of the student body and can't ride a rollercoaster without adult supervision due to height and age...

· Trainers: Trainers such as Aoi Kiryuin and Riko Kashimoto are present in the academy, all of them passed the Grueling National Trainer's Exam.