"Phew…"
Kuroha let out a long breath and narrowed his eyes. Body and Breath Perception clicked on, and he looked straight through the dreamlike rainbow glow into its depths.
Sure enough, at the center of the seventy-centimeter sphere, a pinpoint of blue light had appeared at some unknown moment. It was fainter than starlight, yet sharp enough to feel almost painful.
"Hello? Could you loosen the restriction on your divine power a little?"
That gentle voice sounded again, carrying a hint of pleading.
"I don't have a body right now. Talking like this is really inconvenient…"
Kuroha fell silent.
In this world, something that could evade his senses, slip past his Sixth Sense, and manifest inside the core of Blessing Power…
Other than the legendary Three Goddesses, he could not think of a second possibility.
This had clearly gone beyond "under control."
He stared at the sphere for a moment, then finally sighed and slowly released the suppression and limits he had placed on the Blessing Power.
Even if something that looked like a Three Goddess was inside, the Blessing Power itself came from that self-sealed star, and it was in his hands.
And judging from her tone just now, she did not have direct authority to control this power.
Hummm.
With a shift of Kuroha's intent, the moment the restraints came off, the enormous rainbow energy sphere started to tremble violently.
The dreamlike radiance collapsed and reassembled at high speed. It scattered into star-dust, then surged like a galaxy, spiraling and whirling as if flung across a night sky.
Gradually, golden light seeped through the whole mass.
When the glow dispersed, a girl's figure quietly took shape in the riverbank breeze.
She had blue hair that fell straight down, the ends tinted with a faint luminous green, as if a river of stars flowed through every strand.
Her gentle green eyes curved softly, and a warm, spring-breeze smile rested at the corners of her lips.
Blessing Power had condensed into her body. Iridescent circuit-like rings hovered around her form.
Then, with a casual flick of her hand, a plain blue-and-white tracksuit appeared on her, covering that too-perfect, unreal beauty of light.
"…So it really is the Three Goddesses."
Kuroha was not intimidated by the bizarre entrance. He was frowning, thinking.
Blue hair and green eyes. If she truly was one of the Three Goddesses, then she should be Godolphin…
"Ahh, I finally got out."
The blue-haired girl spun in place, her smooth hair fanning in the wind. "This power is so pure. Even warmer than I imagined."
She did not radiate any overwhelming, divinity-crushing pressure. Instead, she felt like a friendly onee-san next door, playfully studying Kuroha.
"Hello? Since you've removed the restrictions…"
She tilted her head thoughtfully, then smiled again.
"Mm. I wonder if you've heard my name before?"
So it really is… Godolphin Barb.
Kuroha's eyes sharpened. He exhaled quietly and nodded.
"I've heard of you. Goddess-sama… Kuroha, the so-called Trainer King of the Umamusume Core Requiem Universe."
"…I'm just a human who got lucky. You don't need honorifics with me."
Godolphin Barb.
One of the Three Goddesses of the Umamusume world.
Three hundred years old, and the "big sister" watching over every horse girl in this world.
Beyond that, everything about her remained a mystery.
In the current era, no one had truly witnessed the Three Goddesses.
But now, Kuroha might become the first living human to speak with a god.
"Goddess?"
"Mhm. It seems the children of later ages really do call us the 'Three Goddesses,' huh?"
Godolphin laughed softly, the sound crisp like wind chimes.
She did not act distant at all. She simply sat in midair, propping her chin on one hand as she looked at him, her tone gentle.
"But, Hane-kun, you probably never imagined it'd be this… simple."
"After all, if we're talking about essence…"
Her smile deepened, bright and teasing.
"Soon enough, you'll become a god too."
Kuroha: "…"
Since awakening Blessing Power, he had done plenty of mental preparation for what his future might look like.
But hearing an actual god say, "You're going to become a god," still felt absurdly unreal.
"A god… huh?"
Kuroha shook his head. He did not pursue that topic further. Instead, he spoke plainly.
"Godolphin… can I call you Godolphin?"
He had not wanted to say "goddess" at all, but after she brought it up, he hesitated and asked anyway.
"Mhm! You can." The blue-haired girl nodded warmly.
"You said you were the first to find me?"
"Mm-hm."
"So that means the other two are looking for me too?"
Besides the blue goddess in front of him, the Three Goddesses also included:
The red goddess, Darley Arabian.
The yellow goddess, Byerley Turk.
If that was true, then that single glance he had taken earlier had basically alerted all three at once.
Godolphin blinked, then nodded at his question. "That's right."
"But you don't need to worry too much, Hane-kun. I'm not going to tell the gods of Yamato about you."
…Thanks. I guess.
"…Then, Godolphin. Are you looking for me because of this?"
After a brief silence, Kuroha lifted one hand and formed a basketball-sized sphere of Blessing Power.
Godolphin froze for a moment, then hopped down from the air and landed lightly in front of him, tilting her head as she examined the glowing orb.
After a while, she murmured, "Mm… it really is such a warm power."
"Even this tiny bit could keep me manifested for at least a week."
"Keep you manifested?"
Kuroha blinked. "So you're not… truly here?"
Godolphin answered matter-of-factly, "Of course. Even if we're called the Three Goddesses, we can't just come down to the world whenever we want."
She paused, then added in a quieter voice, "Or rather… we can't at all."
"We were granted an immense power out of nothing, enough to exist beneath this sky across time itself."
"The price is that we cannot freely influence the world."
"All we can do is cast down blessings, and use the echoes of those blessings to guide the ones who come after."
Kuroha listened quietly, and it started to make sense.
The Three Goddesses' power was not innate. It was more like a gift from the heavens.
And the price of that gift was that once they became gods, they could not leave the place Kuroha had once observed.
But judging from Godolphin's current state, even if their true bodies could not descend, their wills could.
Maybe that was also why, in the future, when the Hoshimi family created that training simulator, the AI Three Goddesses could appear inside it.
Their wills finally had somewhere to live.
Just like Godolphin was borrowing Kuroha's Blessing Power to build a body.
Otherwise, their will in the mortal world would probably stay as nothing more than a tiny dot of light.
And no one else could even see it.
"So it really is about this power?"
Kuroha watched Godolphin nearly lean her head into the glowing sphere. Instinctively, he wanted to nudge her away.
But considering she was, in fact, a god, he forced himself not to raise a hand.
"Mm… it wasn't at first, but now it definitely is!"
Godolphin lifted her head and gave him a mysteriously bright smile.
Then she drifted behind him, arms opening, and wrapped him from behind, hugging his neck with gentle warmth.
"At first, we thought a new god had been born."
"But that little one's power reached us twice, and it still never showed itself."
"So the three of us figured we must have misunderstood something, and we came down personally to find you and explain."
Kuroha's expression went flat. "So you basically came down to see me, and tell me you're the good guys?"
"Yes."
"…"
Godolphin nodded seriously, then her tone shifted into something soft and coaxing.
"So, Hane-kun… can I mooch off that?" she asked, nodding toward the ball of light in his hand.
"…Don't you have this power too? Why not use your own?"
"I can't," Godolphin explained. "All the power we could use down here has been given to the children. We can't just take it back."
So that was it.
The Three Goddesses' usable power had already been distributed as the Three Goddesses' Blessing, evenly bestowed upon all horse girls. That was why they could not even maintain a form of their own.
Kuroha sighed. He deliberately made the sphere larger, swelling it into a three-meter-tall mass of light.
The instant it pressed in, the pale arms around his neck went limp.
Or rather, Godolphin herself softened, her entire body going slack against his back.
But quickly, the blue goddess recovered.
She released him, looked down at her own palm, then said nothing about it. Instead, she spoke directly.
"Two months total. That's how long I can stay."
Beside her, Kuroha could more or less guess what she was thinking.
At first, yes, she came for him.
But after realizing his Blessing Power could sustain her existence in the mortal world…
A goddess who had been forced to stay "at home" for three hundred years clearly could not hold back her urge to come out and play.
"Hane-kun, can I live at your place?"
Godolphin clasped her hands together, making a pleading gesture.
Kuroha: "…"
"I promise I won't tell Darley or Byerley!" she hurriedly added.
"…If they're only coming down to find me, it wouldn't matter if you told them," Kuroha said, helpless.
"Then…" Godolphin put a finger to her chin, thinking hard. "When I'm at your place, I can warm your pillow for you."
If I really wanted that, even Teio could do it…
Kuroha kept the thought to himself. In the end, he still did not refuse.
"If you don't mind, my dump has an empty room."
"Yay!"
His vision went dark for a moment, his nose filled with shocking softness and a clean, sweet scent.
Godolphin floated up and gave him a huge hug.
"Hane-kun really is the cutest."
Kuroha's mind had exactly one thought as he got suddenly smothered.
The Three Goddesses of the Umamusume world… are they always this familiar?
Still, as long as she was not here to cause trouble, it was fine.
Testing skills by the river and suddenly catching a goddess, Kuroha lost any desire to keep strolling. He took Godolphin with him and headed back toward the dorms.
"By the way, Godolphin, are you just going to keep floating like that?"
"Hm? Oh, it's fine. My body is made from your divine power. Normal people can't see me."
"Normal people. So non-normal people can?"
Godolphin nodded. "When I was only will, no one could see me except you."
"But now that I've got divine power…"
She smiled lightly.
"Any horse girl who's awakened a Domain should be able to see me too."
"…"
"What's wrong?" Godolphin tilted her head, looking at Kuroha's expression, which had suddenly turned strange.
"…Nothing. I'll show you around Tokyo first."
"Okay, Hane-kun."
…
Hong Kong.
A dot of light, almost identical to Godolphin's earlier form, drifted around in the sky.
Only this one was red.
"So bored… so bored…"
The red light clearly lacked energy. After circling the Hong Kong skyline a few times, it stopped beside a commercial high-rise.
It watched the lively crowd flowing in and out of the entrance for a long time.
In the end, with a sigh so faint it was almost imperceptible, the light flickered once, then vanished in the blink of an eye.
(End of Chapter)
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