"Can you, as a ghost, hurt humans?"
Takayama Gamu's expression turned serious.
"Hey, hey, hey—don't tell me you're trying to exorcise me. I can see it, you know." The red-eyed horse girl released his face and hopped back two steps, sticking out her tongue in displeasure. "The light on you is going to melt me!"
"My friend has never hurt anyone." Manhattan Cafe stepped between Takayama Gamu and the red-eyed horse girl. "My friend is my best friend."
"Then I believe you, Manhattan Cafe." Takayama Gamu let out a quiet sigh of relief.
After all, this was Central Tracen Academy—home to statues of the Three Goddesses. If that "ghost" truly meant humans harm, surely the Three Goddesses would have intervened long ago.
"My name is Takayama Gamu." He extended his hand to the red-eyed horse girl. "What should I call you, Manhattan Cafe's friend?"
She clasped his hand without hesitation.
"You can call me 'Friend,' too. There was a misunderstanding at first, but I'd like to be your friend as well."
"After all, you and Cafe are the only two who can see me."
"And also… the light on you is warm. It feels really nice."
"I like it a lot."
Takayama Gamu pulled his hand back, watching "Friend" with cautious eyes. He was pretty sure she'd just lightly scratched his palm—and now she was wearing a smile that looked extremely dangerous.
"…Friend," Takayama Gamu said unwillingly.
The red-eyed horse girl grinned even wider.
...
"Everything is steadily moving in a good direction."
Horse-girl Gaia sat in the classroom, thinking with quiet satisfaction.
It had already been two weeks since that night—the night she'd run into a horse girl trying to sexually assault a trainer. In these two weeks, both Tamamo Cross and Oguri Cap had improved at an astonishing rate. Their physical growth hadn't become dramatically obvious yet—time was too short for that—but in running style, running form, and race analysis, their progress was huge.
There were no shortcuts to building raw physical ability. But technique—once you understood the principles—could be mastered quickly.
"Go, Orfevre!"
"Oooooh! She's pushing it back a little!!"
"Could it be?! Could it be?!"
Sitting across from Gaia right now was a younger student with long golden hair and a large streak of white at her bangs, like a silver crown. She was arm-wrestling Gaia with everything she had.
"I… am the future… king of racing!!"
Horse-girl Gaia stared blankly at Orfevre, who was already at full power, and gently shifted her wrist just a little—as a sign of respect.
"A king conquers! A king rules! I am the master of the track, Gaia—"
"Don't underestimate the power of domination!"
Smack.
Unable to listen to any more of this middle-school cringe, Gaia cleanly ended it before Orfevre could finish her speech.
After a heartbeat of stunned silence, the horse girls around them erupted into cheers.
"The winner is—Gaia!" Urara shouted.
"Gaia's 100th win!"
"Tracen's strongest horse girl!"
Her wrist strength isn't as good as that one from a few days ago… the one who kneaded an iron ball into a smaller size, Gaia thought calmly.
Ever since that "Madame" horse girl had demonstrated, right in front of her, how to compress a solid iron ball down to something the size of a candy pellet, Gaia had realized these horse girls clearly possessed some sort of supernatural power.
In that case, there was no need for Gaia to pretend anymore.
"!"
Orfevre—the self-proclaimed tyrant—glared at Gaia, arms crossed over her flat chest, cheeks puffed in anger. She could tell Gaia had been holding back the entire time, only getting serious for that final move. Beside her stood another horse girl—apparently her older sister—who sighed and dragged the furious Orfevre away.
When you stand at the top, you attract endless doubt and challenges—and in Tracen Academy, a place overflowing with competitive horse girls, that was even more true. Every day, someone wanted to test Gaia's strength.
Mostly because Gaia vanished every afternoon. Racing her was basically impossible—so they settled for challenging her in raw power instead.
"Hey, Gaia—where do you eat every day?" Urara poked Gaia's shoulder, curiosity sparkling in her eyes. "I never see you in the cafeteria. I wanted to eat with you."
Ever since Gaia appeared, discussion about her on Tracen's internal forum had never stopped. At first it was just her outfit and her strength—but gradually, people started noticing the truly mysterious things about her.
"Gaia is never in the cafeteria. Does she not need to eat?"
"I've never seen Gaia sweat either… I don't think I've ever seen her use the restroom?"
"No one ever sees Gaia outside the morning. She's not in the dorms at night. Where does she go?"
She's like an NPC horse girl who respawns every morning at Tracen—no food, no water required!
"I eat with my big brother. Sorry, Urara."
"(◞‸◟)"
Gaia wrote it on her whiteboard.
"Huh? Gaia has a brother at school?" the horse girls nearby exclaimed.
Even Orfevre—who was in the middle of being dragged away by Dream Journey—ran back over, trying to look like she absolutely didn't care.
"Yeah. He's my trainer. Every afternoon, I train with him."
"Oh… so that's why we never see you in the afternoon…"
So she disappeared because she was training with her trainer.
Urara thought for a moment, then asked innocently:
"What's Gaia's brother's name?"
"If the little sister is such an amazing horse girl, the brother must be an amazing trainer too," another horse girl said with admiration.
"Is Gaia's strength the result of mechanical modifications done by her brother?" Mihono Bourbon asked after thinking it over.
"Takayama Gamu."
"(●'◡'●)"
"For now, he's just an ordinary rookie trainer."
Gaia wrote modestly.
"Even then, that's already incredible. The Central Tracen trainer exam is super hard…"
While several horse girls clustered around Gaia, chattering nonstop, the teacher for the last class of the morning entered the room and rapped the blackboard.
"Everyone, back to your seats."
At last, the area around Gaia became quiet again.
Becoming horse-girl Gaia made Takayama Gamu feel a little awkward sometimes—but being around these horse girls, who were still basically kids, was genuinely fun.
Children were humanity's future and treasure. Gamu liked children, and he liked these cute horse girls, too. It made him feel his work as a trainer truly mattered.
As for that horse girl who'd tried to sexually assault a trainer two weeks ago…
Gamu decided that had to be an exception.
…Probably.
"Now it's time to get Tamamo Cross ready to race."
On a sheet of scratch paper, horse-girl Gaia wrote:
White Lily Stakes.
-------
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patreon.com/RuneA
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