[Negative Emotion +40 — Offside Trap]
[Negative Emotion +100 — King Halo]
[Negative Emotion +100 — Narita Brian]
[Negative Emotion +20 — Offside Trap]
[Negative Emotion +...]
Shinji Teruizumi rubbed at his bird's-nest hair, staring blankly at the one lone notification still left on the system panel. He had absolutely no idea what had happened out in the world to make his three girls generate this much emotion energy.
What, had some horse girl lit fireworks on campus and blown up the academy or something?
He glanced out the window. The academy was still as lively as ever. Frowning, he picked up his phone.
The first thing he saw was a wall of missed calls and unread messages.
There were messages from friends like Hana Tōjō and Ryū Nishizaki, and others from seniors like Tazuna Hayakawa. Shinji replied to them all in a way that wasn't quite perfunctory, but definitely wasn't sincere either. After racking his brain over what to send, he decided uniform replies were best.
Only then did he turn to the missed calls.
From the moment he'd woken up, the system had been acting smug and delighted, to the point that even his yawn had come out irritated. And now, seeing the missed calls from his three girls, his head hurt even more.
What exactly had happened to make them so anxious?
Shinji couldn't figure it out, so he simply scrolled through the call log and counted how many times each of them had called.
Good grief. Narita Brian was in the double digits?
Genuinely alarmed, he forced himself to calm down first. Only after confirming that his brain had fully shifted out of its just-woke-up haze and into working mode did he hit call.
His trainer dorm room wasn't large, and because Shinji had furnished it sparsely and owned almost nothing superfluous, it felt even emptier than it was. The ringing tone echoed especially clearly through the room.
You called this desperately, but now you won't pick up when I return the call?
For a moment, he even worried something might have happened to Brian. He flung off the blanket and jumped to the floor.
He needed to confirm Narita Brian's—
[Negative Emotion +100 — Narita Brian]
[Negative Emotion +100 — Offside Trap]
"…?"
This time he was truly baffled. The continued negative-emotion spikes more or less meant the girls were fine and capable of answering their phones. Nothing serious should have happened.
Unless this was one of those trashy prime-time idol-drama plots where she'd been kidnapped and he was supposed to go rescue her.
[…]
The system felt Shinji was really too carefree. His mind could still wander that far off course at a time like this.
Since there was suddenly no reason to panic, Shinji first took a moment to wash up and straighten himself out. Only then did he dial King Halo.
He'd already told Offside Trap about his situation yesterday, so she wasn't urgent. King Halo could go first.
This time the call connected immediately.
The girl's voice was thick with exhaustion, but she still forced herself awake enough to greet him first.
"What's wrong?"
Drinking water at an unhurried pace, Shinji reflected that with King Halo's personality, she wasn't the sort of girl who would beg for more training on a day like this.
"I'm downstairs at your dorm right now. I wanted to invite you to come watch the fireworks with me…"
As she spoke, anticipation began creeping into her voice. After talking things over with Goodbye Halo yesterday, she'd spent a while feeling lost about what exactly to do today. In the end, after searching around online, she'd settled on watching fireworks.
"Huh?" Shinji blurted out before a bad feeling hit him. Given what he knew of King Halo, he had a very unpleasant suspicion. "What time did you get here today?"
"This afternoon, maybe? I don't really remember exactly. I couldn't reach you all day, and Secretary Hayakawa said she hadn't seen you either, so I thought I'd wait downstairs for you."
Her voice was so earnest that Shinji sighed, his headache deepening. It technically wasn't his fault, but making one of his girls stand there waiting for him this long still gave him a faint ache of guilt.
[No sense of guilt?]
"What guilt?"
[…]
"Have you eaten dinner yet?"
"Not yet."
"Then wait for me downstairs. We'll go get dinner together."
At Shinji's words, King Halo, standing below the dorm building, lit up with delight.
She had never expected things to go this smoothly. She'd already been mentally prepared for the possibility that he'd refuse her and she'd have stood here for hours for nothing.
Her eyes narrowed happily, and her tail began to sway. Even the ears twitching atop her head betrayed her excitement. The soreness in her legs didn't matter anymore. Because she didn't want to dirty the dress she'd specially picked out today, she hadn't even dared sit on the front steps of the dorm.
Just imagining getting a little closer to him tonight made all the waiting feel worth it.
She clearly understood the enormous difference between how Shinji treated Offside Trap and how he treated her now. But she was used to that.
She could wait.
She didn't want to beg for anything. She would use her own actions and her own results to prove it to him openly.
She was worth trusting.
She could do even better than Offside Trap.
Thinking back to what her mother had said yesterday, King Halo knew Offside Trap was very strong now. But she could become one of those girls even stronger than Offside Trap.
That was the only thing worthy of her dream of becoming first-rate.
The more she thought about it, the warmer her body felt. She loosened her collar slightly.
Then footsteps sounded from inside the dorm building, and at once she straightened herself up.
Her legs, long and shapely, pale and smooth, stood out in the darkness. The instant Shinji stepped out of the dorm, his gaze flicked toward them before seeming to halt for a moment.
King Halo did not miss that glance.
Her ears flushed faintly red.
Strangely enough, she didn't find it unpleasant. The moment she saw him, she walked forward of her own accord. This was a trainer she could trust completely, in every sense.
"What do you want to eat?" Shinji shoved both hands deep into his pockets. Coming out this lightly dressed really was cold. He regretted wearing too little, but he also worried that once he warmed up he'd feel overheated, so hot food seemed best. Ideally something soupy. "How about some soup?"
"Anything's fine. I'll leave it to you, Trainer."
King Halo knew full well that Shinji's knowledge extended far beyond just trackwork. She looked at him with complete trust.
"Then that settles it."
King Halo really was getting more obedient by the day. Shinji nodded in satisfaction. Thinking back to the proud little lady she'd once been, and seeing how much of that willfulness had been filed away under his hand, gave him a genuine sense of accomplishment.
As he thought that, he had the vague sense he was forgetting something. But if he couldn't recall it now, he probably would in a minute, so he stepped forward first.
King Halo was just about to follow when she heard hurried footsteps racing up from behind.
She didn't even have time to turn and look.
A blur shot past her, accompanied by harsh breathing, and in the next instant a figure had planted itself directly in front of them.
The bloodshot eyes made Shinji's pupils contract.
At last, he remembered what he had forgotten.
"Trainer…"
The girl's gaze locked onto him with total concentration. In this world, there was nothing else she cared to look at. The hurt she could barely conceal showed even in the edge of her voice, which sounded on the verge of tears.
"Where… are you two going?"
P.S. Shinji Teruizumi Status Panel
Emotion Energy: 3497
Trainee Horse Girls: Offside Trap / King Halo / Narita Brian
PT: 1385
Attribute Points: 155
Inventory:
Bondfield Anklet
Conservation Grimoire II
Noble Key
Blood-Tip Mark
Dream Banner
Believer Crest
Crude Doll
Arima Kinen Victory Pack
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 139)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter171)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter100)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter184)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 168
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 156
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 105
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 185
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 160
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 150
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 76
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 97
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 116
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 75
Uma Musume: I Want All 93
I Can Copy Unique Skills 79
Summoning an Evil God, but the 55
Supernatural Multiverse 75
My Harem Is Indescribable 68
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 70
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 66
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 69
Still playing traditional Honk 49
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 53
What Should I Do After Switchi 42
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 50
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 38
Transmigrated as Sukuna 35
Checking In in Demon Slayer 40
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 55
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