"Snap out of it! Listen up! What I'm trying to say is — what you write is genuinely, insanely good!"
"You are, without a doubt, the greatest lyricist in the entire world!"
Yoshiiro Chiose's hands slid away from the back of Shiina Taki's head, gliding down along her smooth black hair until they cradled her cheeks — and then she started squishing them mercilessly.
"???"
Taki said nothing. She blinked her dark, jet-black eyes and quietly met Chiose's gaze.
"At the same time — I am so, so frustrated. I looked you up. You were in the wind ensemble all the way from elementary school through middle school, consecutive years — and then recently you just quit. What happened? Did you get scared? Did reality hit you that hard?"
"You—!"
Shiina Taki had originally joined the school wind ensemble to chase after her older sister's footsteps — becoming the junior to her own sister, Shiina Maki.
Everyone in the ensemble had been kind to her.
A large part of that kindness was entirely genuine — but no matter how Taki looked at it, she couldn't help feeling that most of their warmth came from affection for her brilliant older sister, extended to her by association. The friendships those people offered her, she couldn't accept. Because the starting point was always Maki, not her — in their eyes, she would forever wear a single label: [Maki's little sister].
As for why she'd recently quit the ensemble — it was because the blind pursuit had left her numb, and she could no longer see any hope in it at all.
The distance between her and her sister kept growing. That feeling was unbearable.
"What are you even talking about?! I'm not scared, I just—"
"Shut up! You absolute idiot! You actually let me catch you doing something as pathetic as stripping away your own past — trying to live the hollow, joyless life of a file number! You little bottom-feeder, you've laughably gone and put yourself in a harness."
Rather than saying it was all caused by outside forces — the truth was that the seeds of giving up had already taken root inside Taki's heart.
"Honestly, I am so frustrated! Fine, maybe quitting the ensemble is one thing — but what makes me even angrier is that you stopped writing lyrics entirely! When was the last time you even wrote something — months ago?! You little bottom-feeder. Completely, utterly hopeless!"
Chiose bit her lower lip lightly with the tiny fang on her upper jaw, looking adorably like she was pouting rather than actually angry.
Her crimson pupils blazed with a dangerous light.
"So — write another verse right now! Strip away the disguise you've built around yourself, take off the harness you've buckled yourself into, strike the most badass pose you can imagine, and blow everyone away!"
"Listen to me! Taki — do you want to create music together with me?! I'll compose; you write the lyrics!"
"!!!!!"
What on earth—!
Why was she coming in this hot first thing in the morning?! And they'd only just met — how had she already figured Taki out so completely? It was like she'd been shadowing her for months.
"I can't…"
"Laughable. A little bottom-feeder like you, trying to resist me? Whether you want to or not isn't your call! Bottom-feeder!"
You absolutely won't refuse — because I, Yoshiiro Chiose, have already secured more than enough leverage to make sure of it!
Because I've still got my trump card ready to play for you, Shiina Taki!
"So you really want to spend your whole life losing to that sister of yours?"
"What?!"
"I said — I've seen your sister. She doesn't hold a candle to you. So what exactly are you so afraid of?! Dummy Taki!"
"I…" Taki desperately wanted to sleep — but the moment she thought about what this mysterious girl in front of her had just said, she felt like she could go till and plow five acres of land.
"One year. In the year ahead, I'm going to have you reading books and watching films like your life depends on it — and I'll teach you some techniques along the way. Oh, and of course — taking you traveling is non-negotiable. Broadening your horizons is essential."
Chiose studied Shiina Taki with an amused, appraising look. The latter trembled uncontrollably, like a startled little creature with nowhere to run.
"And then — before we graduate middle school, you and I are going to write one proper, magnificent song together!"
Nothing remained in those eyes but a field of deep crimson. The whites of Chiose's eyes were threaded through with countless tiny red veins.
"This time, I want to see something that actually moves me. Do you understand?"
"I want you to make me sob. I want you to make me cry until my chest tears open. I want you to leave me bitter and wrecked, crying myself awake at three in the morning! Do you understand?! Do you?! Can you even comprehend what the magnificent me is telling you right now?! You little bottom-feeder!"
"..."
"I… think I might get it?"
Taki would admit that she had a short fuse sometimes — but faced with this white-haired girl, she found, to her own surprise, that she had no temper left at all.
Her jet-black eyes seemed to be dyed red by the rose-pink burning in Chiose's gaze.
"Do you really get it?"
"For real!"
"Wonderful!"
Chiose slowly released Taki. The tension eased out of her small feet, still wrapped in white socks, until they drooped against the outside of Taki's thighs like two pieces of ornamental jade.
A crafty smile replaced the faint hysteria of moments before. Taki felt, inexplicably, that she had synced into the other girl's delight.
"Little Taki — let me be your teacher. I think I'm actually qualified for this, you know! Don't worry — I'll say it plainly: from Tokyo to Tahiti, from Tahiti to Dresden, there is no one who knows these things better than me!"
"I think I roughly understand… but, well — at the end of the day, who exactly… are you?"
Taki tried to sound firm, but every time she spoke to Chiose, her voice just went soft again.
The warmth and delight collapsed in an instant. The expression on Chiose's face shifted to one of bewilderment and speechlessness.
"What a foolish question! Shiina Taki really is a dummy bottom-feeder — wait, did you just say… I haven't introduced myself yet? Well isn't that truly so very sorry of me"
Chiose feigned astonishment, as if she had just stumbled upon the most earth-shattering secret in the world, and pressed her hands over her flushed, fervent lips in disbelief.
As if she had genuinely forgotten to introduce herself.
Acting in the simulation really is fun, Chiose thought — she could feel herself getting more and more into it.
"Time for a riddle! This is today's first riddle! I possess a beauty so breathtaking it would make fish sink and wild geese fall from the sky, shame the moon and embarrass the flowers. My looks are not the slightest bit inferior to the most radiant, tender blooms — I am beautiful as ten thousand flowers bursting into bloom at once! Who am I?"
Chiose was testing Taki's limits step by step — but she was finding that, whether it was the effect of [Heavenly Fragrance] or simply the fact that no one had ever truly fooled around with this kid before…
Either way, her threshold was impressively low.
Are people who've been starved of love really this easy to handle?
"You…"
"I'll solve my own riddle! That's right — it's me. Yoshiiro Chiose. Pleased to meet you."
Yoshiiro Chiose extended her small, temptation-laced hand toward Shiina Taki.
Her little hand was soft and smooth — holding it made Taki feel, somehow, at ease.
"Pleased to meet you…"
The amber light of morning filtered through deep-crimson silk curtains, casting a glow over the girls' pupils as they shimmered with flecks of dark rose.
Shiina Taki took Yoshiiro Chiose's hand and gave it a squeeze.
That was a hand Shiina Taki should never have been able to hold.
......
Py! A friend's novel!
Sunset Chasing Light gained the power of Vishdar — but with it, inherited the Oripathy.
The price of using that power is accelerating her death. For a girl already living under a death sentence, that means nothing at all.
Her goal: an undefeated triple crown!
One year later — a girl slowly turning to stone, surrounded by her beloved Uma Musume companions, breathes her last.
Even when the truth is discovered, it's too late to stop. Mejiro McQueen can only watch helplessly as the one she loves crumbles to dust.
Tokai Teio sits alone at the table before a plate of fried rice gone cold, face buried in her hands, weeping.
Symboli Rudolf stands at the grave of Sunset Chasing Light, her gaze hollow and empty.
"If only we'd found out sooner…"
In the lab, Airshaker seems to be researching something… it looks like her research direction is: a way to resurrect the dead and reverse time.
"There's nothing I can do…"
"Uma Musume: Afflicted with Oripathy, Speedrunning the Human World"
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