Agnes Tachyon arrived at the clubroom door once again.
She'd realized lately how much of a habit this had become—trekking to this slightly secluded room the moment she finished up in the lab, driven by a subconscious urge to brag loudly about whatever grand masterpiece she'd just cooked up.
She remembered a time when things weren't like this.
Back then, Agnes Tachyon was always hunched over alone in her laboratory, her white coat permanently stained with the strange, mingling scents of coffee and chemical reagents.
In those days, heavy dark circles hung under her eyes. Combined with that inscrutable, enigmatic smirk of hers, she looked every bit the stereotypical mad scientist from an old movie.
But that was the nature of madness, wasn't it? Sprinting toward a goal in total isolation, heedless of oneself and utterly indifferent to the feelings of others.
Lately, however, Agnes Tachyon was no longer alone.
Perhaps their initial gathering hadn't been the most "pure"—it lacked the simple, hot-blooded spark of a shonen manga where comrades unite for a righteous cause.
But then again, she wasn't a child anymore.
Adults come together bound by certain objectives, only to gradually find common ground through shared time, until one day they realize those moments have become an inseparable part of their lives.
Since her dear friend Manhattan Cafe had been tied up back home with family matters, Tachyon hadn't had this kind of social contact for a long while.
Yet, she found she didn't exactly hate this new state of affairs.
"Perhaps I'm no longer that Uma Musume who ran herself ragged in pursuit of mere 'possibility'..."
"Just as all regrets eventually fade, will my obsessions one day blur under the constant wash of time?"
Tachyon murmured to herself, her hand resting on the doorknob. She suddenly felt a sense of relief, a weight lifting.
After all, the trio of adults in that clubroom each harbored their own ghosts.
Even Dream Weaver had stopped chasing the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Sometimes, Tachyon wondered if she, too, should let go of her fixations and look toward the future.
"They say growing up means leaving the past behind and moving forward. By that logic, maybe I really am becoming an adult."
A few seconds after the words left her lips, Agnes Tachyon pushed the door open, stepping toward what she called "maturity."
That signature, unreadable smile played on her lips as she gave her sleeves a casual shake, calling out in a breezy tone.
"Yo. Anyone feel like grabbing me some dinner today?"
Tachyon could already picture the reactions her entrance would provoke.
If it were Hishi Miracle, she'd probably say she'd go only if Tachyon bought her an ice cream as a "delivery fee." Liberty Island would be more straightforward; she was always so proactive and passionate that she'd never turn down a small favor like fetching a meal.
Dream Weaver, meanwhile, would scold her for trying to boss around her students while dragging Tachyon toward the cafeteria anyway, refusing to indulge her laziness.
Sugar Lights was different from the rest. She'd usually suggest skipping the cafeteria for an izakaya, then excitedly whip out a bottle of vintage sake from the cupboard and pull Tachyon out the door.
Tachyon had never imagined she could read people's thoughts with such precision.
Perhaps she really was changing. Once a mad scientist stops walking alone, they lose that jagged, stubborn edge.
However, despite having every response perfectly mapped out in her head, the words that drifted from the clubroom were nothing like she expected.
"Doctor... Doctor, have you heard of Eclipse? I heard she was an incredible Uma Musume... they say she could outrun light, shadow, and time itself."
"But there's no way such a girl exists! I'd sooner believe the Doctor could invent a time machine than believe those legends!"
Tachyon stared at Dream Weaver's flushed cheeks, then looked at the mountain of beer cans piled on the table. She was so stunned she couldn't find her voice.
But she didn't have to worry about Dream Weaver's words falling on deaf ears, because there was another drunkard in the room.
"A time machine... right! We could research a time machine! If we just go back and try again, we can fix everything!"
Sugar Lights slammed her hand on the table, looking like she'd just had a grand epiphany—if one ignored her glassy, unfocused eyes.
One moment, Tachyon was thinking she might finally become an "adult" by leaving her regrets behind; the next, she walked into a room to find two drunks drowning their pasts in alcohol.
The whiplash of expectation versus reality left her stunned for a good while.
Sensing a new presence, Dream Weaver squinted toward the door. After a struggling moment of recognition, she broke into a grin and raised a beer can with grand, drunken bravado.
"Oh! It's just Tachyon!"
"You're late! That's a three-drink penalty! Bottoms up!"
Sitting nearby, Sugar Lights joined in the jeering, raising her own can in solidarity.
A normal person in this situation would usually look after the two drunks and clean up the mess they'd made. But Agnes Tachyon was not a normal person. To be precise, she was the one who was usually looked after.
As a mad scientist who hadn't yet retired, her life was consumed by experiments; she naturally had zero experience in caretaking.
So, after a brief moment of processing the scene, instead of stopping them, Tachyon let out a wild, manic laugh. She waved her oversized sleeves and shouted:
"What's the fun in just drinking beer!"
"Come on! Change of venue! We're going to the izakaya tonight, and nobody's going home sober!"
The red-faced Dream Weaver and the bleary-eyed Sugar Lights traded a glance.
The next second, Dream Weaver grabbed Tachyon and leaped onto Sugar Lights' wheelchair.
With practiced ease, she kicked the wheelchair's built-in acceleration system into gear. Before they could even close the door, they went blasting down the hallway.
The rushing wind snapped Dream Weaver back to a shred of sobriety. Tossing her messy thoughts into some semblance of order, she suddenly asked a vital question.
"Does this... count as a DUI?"
"Usually, a wheelchair only holds one person. We're just 'over capacity'!"
Tachyon, the only one clinging to actual logic, yelled back into the wind with a laugh. But despite being the only sober one, she had no intention of stopping. Instead, she gripped Sugar Lights' shoulders and cheered.
"Who cares! It's not like we haven't done this before! Besides, you two tried to hide away and drown your sorrows without me. Right now, the only goal is the izakaya—"
"Go! Sprint! Go, go, go!"
The idea of "becoming an adult" and letting go of the past wasn't all that urgent. It could wait at least another day.
Tachyon barked out directions to Sugar Lights, her wild laughter echoing down the street as students watched them pass in sheer horror.
Half an hour later, Liberty Island returned to the clubroom after her lectures. She stared at the mountain of empty beer cans, her head tilting in complete bewilderment.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! 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.