Tracen Main Campus, morning of February 15.
Lying flat on a bench in a deserted grove, Kitahara wore a melancholy expression.
What the hell even was all this...?
As for what happened last night, there were still plenty of things he did not understand.
For example, when had Eclipse started listening in on their conversation? What had she originally gone there to do? And why had she shown up at such a perfect moment? If she had appeared even a minute later, he probably would have succeeded in talking those two girls into going back...
But none of those questions mattered now.
Thinking back on what had happened last night, although none of it had been his idea—and he had done everything he could to resist in the moment—in the end, he still had not managed to resist successfully.
But don't get the wrong idea. Although some things had indeed happened last night that Kitahara had not expected, and the exchange between both sides had gone fairly deep, they had not gone all the way in the end for a combination of reasons: Kitahara's own line in the sand, the environment they had been in, and several other factors.
Even so, considering how far things had gone, Kitahara did not feel there was much difference between that and crossing the final line.
Strictly speaking, he ought to count as the victim here. You could even say he had been forced.
That said, it absolutely had not looked that way in practice. Especially in the latter half, once he started pushing back, Neicha and Agnes Digital together had not even lasted three minutes against him, and even Eclipse, after holding out for about half an hour, had ended up with flushed cheeks and ragged breathing, pinned off to the side by him.
Meanwhile, he himself had still looked helpless, and had even had enough spare attention to check the distress signals the other Trainers were sending on his phone. No matter how you looked at it, he was the one who seemed to be taking the initiative, when in fact the truth was the exact opposite.
And the reason things had turned out that way was not just because Kitahara's physical abilities were exceptional—frankly, exceptional to an absurd degree. Part of it also came down to the Umamusume themselves.
Although in terms of strength, speed, reaction time, and so on, an Umamusume's physical abilities were several times those of a human, and at a glance their endurance did not seem any worse either, the truth was that in certain respects, their endurance was actually lower than that of ordinary human women—and not by a small margin, either.
Otherwise, with physical stats several times higher than a human's, if they were any more durable on top of that, then never mind Trainers whose constitutions already leaned weak—even with two alloy kidneys apiece, they still would not have been able to handle it.
So under those circumstances, with Kitahara's own stats already absurdly high and his opponents' endurance lower than usual in that regard, even though he had spent the first half trying to struggle free and had given them plenty of time to attack, they still had not managed to do him much damage.
If anything, all they had done was keep feeding his rage meter, and the result was that in the end, they all got taken out by one fully charged punch. Even after that, there still had not been much drained from his rage bar...
And even then, what had worn down that rage the most had not actually been the attacks themselves, but the differences in style between them.
Eclipse's directness and decisiveness, Neicha's shyness and caution, Agnes Digital's obedience—almost even submission—the way those wildly different styles chained together had done quite a number on him. Otherwise, he probably would have had even more of that rage meter left over...
After the battle was over, Kitahara had originally been worried that since they had all stayed up so late, if they got up tired the next morning and were not able to train, it might make the others suspicious.
But the result turned out to be completely different from what he had expected.
Once everyone was awake that morning, Neicha and Agnes Digital—despite having stayed up late—looked unusually energetic, even livelier than usual.
On the other hand, the Umamusume who had slept through the whole night had been so annoyed during the day that they had apparently spent their dreams grinding their teeth at a certain someone, and by the time they got up, every last one of them looked sluggish.
After that, Kitahara went through his usual routine of washing up and eating, accompanied them to the training grounds, gave them some guidance for a while, and once he saw there was nothing else pressing to deal with, came to this grove—once considered off-limits because Agnes Tachyon used to haunt it—to rest for a bit and clear his head.
And after spending some time doing just that, and more or less sorting through the tangle of thoughts in his mind, Kitahara let out a long sigh and sat up on the bench.
Forget it. Stop dwelling on this kind of thing. For the time being, he should also try to avoid getting too close to those two girls, just in case the others noticed anything off...
And while he was at it, he could use the chance to go visit Karai Risa more often too, see if he could get any information useful for Eclipse's situation...
He also needed to keep an eye on the Black Market. He still did not know what they were actually after, but it definitely was not just about smearing his name. There were probably other hidden moves waiting in the wings...
And then there was Maruzensky. He had already been talking with her for quite a while about a custom modified car, and with the winnings his Umamusume had recently brought in, he had some savings on hand now. Maybe it was time to consider paying a deposit and getting the thing started...
Thinking all that, Kitahara took out his phone and turned off the silent mode he had set while resting.
The phone immediately started vibrating like mad.
[Umei]:@Kitahara, Trainer Kitahara, there's no thanking you enough. If anything ever happens to you, I'll personally make sure you get a bed booked for pelvic rehab.
[Futo]:@Kitahara And you, my friend, are the true hero.
[Karai]:@Kitahara Still alive? If you can still type, send a message back. Rice Shower's been very worried about you.
[Higashimori]:Um, I'm just saying, but maybe we really should go look for him? I have a bad feeling Trainer Kitahara might not be coming out of this in one piece...
[Karai]:Should we contact Hayakawa-san?
[Nishiguchi]:I mean, is there any chance Hayakawa-san is the culprit....
[Umei]:No comment.jpg
What the hell were they all on about now?
After skimming through the group chat, confusion appeared in Kitahara's eyes.
[Kitahara (Guardian of Tracen)]:What are you talking about? I was just thinking about something and had my phone on silent.
[Kitahara (Guardian of Tracen)]:Wait, what's with that title? Who added that?
[Umei]:Hero! Our hero has appeared! He lives again!
[Kitahara (Guardian of Tracen)]:I wasn't dead to begin with.
[Kitahara (Guardian of Tracen)]:So can somebody explain what exactly is going on here?
After the Trainers in the chat all started explaining at once, Kitahara still did not fully understand the details, but he managed to piece together the general idea.
[Kitahara]:So what you're saying is that because of my patrol yesterday, the rate of Trainers disappearing on campus dropped by a lot, to less than half of what it usually is on Valentine's Day?
[Karai]:If we're speaking strictly in terms of data, then yes...
[Kitahara]: Then I think you're thanking the wrong person.
[Kitahara]:Yesterday I only walked around for a bit in the morning with the President, Sirius, and Hayakawa-san. In the afternoon, after making one trip to the Chairwoman's office, I left campus and didn't come back until evening. I didn't patrol anything.
[Kitahara]:So if you really want to thank someone, thank the President and Hayakawa-san. They were the ones who spent the whole day patrolling the academy and keeping things under control. This really doesn't have anything to do with me...
[Futo]:@Kitahara No, Trainer Kitahara, trust me. This absolutely has a lot to do with you. They definitely did not thank the wrong person.
[Kitahara]: ....
What the hell?
Just as Kitahara was staring at the incomprehensible group chat, the phone buzzed again, and a new window popped up from the top of the screen. When he opened it, he found it was a private message from Karai Risa.
[Karai]:Trainer Kitahara, that girl Rice Shower was really worried about you earlier. She even went looking for you. If you have time, could you go see her and help calm her down for me?
[Kitahara]:No problem.
[Kitahara]: Where is she now?
[Karai]:I think she went to the Warehouse to look for you.
...Warehouse? To look for him?
At the sight of those words, Kitahara's brow twitched. For some reason, something about it felt off, but when he tried to pin down what, he could not quite put it into words.
[Kitahara]:Alright, I'm heading over now.
After sending that, Kitahara put his phone away, rose from the grove, and started walking towards the Warehouse.
...
Some time later, when he was almost there, he spotted Rice Shower from a distance. She was pacing beside the Warehouse with both hands held in front of her chest, looking nervous, as if searching for something.
"What's wrong, Rice Shower?"
Kitahara called out to her from a distance as he walked over.
His original thought was that once he greeted her, he would quickly say a few reassuring words, calm her down for the moment, and take her away from this place first.
After all, the Warehouse was, well... those in the know knew. Kitahara had no desire to be halfway through comforting Rice Shower only to have some strange sounds suddenly start coming from a nearby warehouse.
But to his surprise, when he arrived, Rice Shower reacted like a startled rabbit. The moment she heard his voice, her whole body trembled, and when she turned to look at him, the panic on her face was obvious even from far away.
"Onii-sama...."
"Yeah, it's me."
Though he found it a little odd, Kitahara did not think too much of it. Smiling, he walked up to her.
"I heard from Trainer Karai that you were over here, so I came to check on you... What's wrong? You don't look so good. Did something happen?"
"Mm, um...."
In response to Kitahara's question, the panic on Rice Shower's face only became more obvious. She stammered for quite a while before finally lowering her head and answering in a small voice.
"I think... I lost my dorm key..."
"Your dorm key? Where did you lose it?"
"R-right around here. I took it out to look at it when I came over, but then when I turned around, it was gone..."
As she spoke, her voice grew quieter and quieter.
Seeing her like that, Kitahara did not suspect anything. After all, he had known from day one that this girl had a tendency to blame herself too much. Once he heard her explanation, he reached out and gently patted her head.
"It's alright. It's just a lost key. I'll help you look for it. Even if we really can't find it, I can go with you to get a new one made, so don't worry."
"...Mm."
Strangely, even in response to Kitahara's comforting words, Rice Shower still did not raise her head. If anything, her voice got even quieter.
But Kitahara did not have time to dwell on something that minor right now.
Because he had already confirmed that there was no one inside the Warehouse at the moment. It was probably just the gap between one reservation and the next. Which meant the most pressing thing right now was finding the key before the next group showed up, or things might get a little awkward.
With that in mind, Kitahara accompanied Rice Shower in searching around the Warehouse.
But after searching for a while, he noticed something odd. The range covered by Rice Shower's footprints was not actually very large. He had already searched all the places her footprints reached, and even checked the surrounding area, yet there was still no sign of the key whatsoever...
Could it be Rice Shower had remembered wrong? Maybe she had not lost it here at all, but somewhere else?
Just as that thought crossed his mind, Rice Shower—who had kept her head lowered, silently tugging at the hem of his clothes the whole time—suddenly spoke, and her tone seemed ever so slightly different from before.
"Onii-sama, I just remembered. When I passed by here earlier, I think I tripped over something, and it felt like something flew out of my pocket, but I didn't think much of it at the time..."
As she spoke, Rice Shower lifted a hand and pointed in a certain direction.
"It should be over there."
Hm? Flew out?
Kitahara looked in the direction she was pointing, and his eyes landed on the window of the Warehouse.
Did it fly inside?
As he thought that, he also took in the distance between the window and the ground, and his expression gradually grew subtle.
That didn't make sense, though. From that height, never mind a mere stumble—even if you tried to throw it in there on purpose, you'd have to put some effort into it...
Forget it.
He did not understand what exactly had happened, and he did not really think it was likely, but since there was no one inside at the moment, Kitahara figured he would just check quickly, and if it was not there, they could go get a replacement made. So he led Rice Shower over, and slowly pushed open the rather old iron door.
Creak—!
As the doors opened, sunlight spilled into the Warehouse.
Unexpectedly, the inside was nowhere near as shabby as most people would have imagined. If anything, it was clean and tidy.
And there, on the floor—so clean there was barely even any dust—lay a silver-white key.
Kitahara stopped short.
It really was in here.
After confirming where the key was, he did not waste any time. He walked over, bent down, picked it up off the floor, then turned around, about to ask Rice Shower whether it was hers, but—
Bang.
Click.
The sounds of the iron door shutting and the lock engaging rang out one after another.
Kitahara paused. When he turned and looked, he realized that sometime while he had not been paying attention, Rice Shower—who had been quietly following beside him, clutching his clothes—had somehow ended up at the main door of the Warehouse, her hand resting on the lock.
Hm? Had she accidentally shut the door?
Kitahara did not think much of it. He simply started walking toward her and held out the key in his hand.
"Rice Shower, take a look. Is this key yours—"
"Yes, Onii-sama."
Before Kitahara could finish, "Rice Shower" cut him off and began walking toward him.
But contrary to what Kitahara expected, once she got close, "Rice Shower" did not reach for the key in his hand at all. Instead, using the motion of stretching out her hand, she gently pushed him back onto the chair behind him.
And once she had pushed him down, she sat directly in his lap.
Her fingertips slid slowly across his chest before finally rising to cup his face.
Only then did the long-suppressed "Rice Shower" finally lift her head. In those beautiful violet eyes, Kitahara's reflection wavered, and the smile on her face was bright as sunlight.
"Because I'm the one who threw it in there."
---
T/N: CLIFF HANGER CLIFF HANGER CLIFFHANGER
YES
T/N2: posting earlier so bonus chaps will be a longer waitttt >:)
bonus chaps
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