January 1st was New Year's Day all across the world, and a soft snow was falling over Tokyo that morning.
Most shops were closed for the day, and the most anticipated event by far was the public festival at Central Tracen Academy.
During the event, the academy was open to all citizens, making it the best possible chance to interact with idol horse girls up close.
At the same time, it was also when many families with horse-girl children first got to see a professional racing academy for themselves and decide whether their daughters might truly be interested in running.
Dyna walked along the road, where snow had already accumulated to nearly half a finger's depth. She was wrapped up from head to toe, and even with a mask on, she still had a scarf wound around her face. A knitted cap sat on her head, but even so, she could still feel the surrounding cold steadily working its way into her body.
"Hah… it's still cold. I don't remember being this sensitive to the cold before…"
Still wearing gloves, Dyna kept rubbing her hands together. All kinds of people passed by on the streets, either heading toward the few giant shopping centers that had stayed open or making their way to Tracen Academy.
With all her most recognizable features hidden beneath layers of clothing, nobody recognized her. Perhaps it was because she had inherited the running style of a "light-type" horse girl, but Dyna had become unusually sensitive to the cold.
In any case, she hated winter.
And she hated snow.
By the time she reached the academy gates, already thrown wide open, she barely had a chance to stop and take in the scene before the flow of people swept her inside. Along both sides of the central avenue were booths run by horse girls, and nearly every stall had a cluster of visitors around it.
Dyna had originally intended to just let herself drift with the crowd all the way to the center of the festival. But suddenly, a hand shot out from deep within the crowd and grabbed her by the arm. Before she could even react, that hand yanked her cleanly out of the packed crowd with startling force.
Her glasses were fogged white by her own breath, and it took Dyna a moment to make out who had dragged her away.
"Salut How've you been lately, Dyna-chan?"
The pale pink hair in front of her was so bright it practically glowed against winter's dull, colorless backdrop. The girl standing there wore only a knitted sweater and a short skirt in the freezing weather. Dyna could not even see a pair of warm tights on her.
"Zo… Zoff-sensei?"
Dyna pulled down her scarf, clearing some of the mist from her lenses. She genuinely could not understand how Zoff had recognized her instantly in that outfit. More than that, she could not understand why Zoff was in Japan on New Year's Day at all.
"Ehh I don't have anything left to teach you anymore, so calling me 'teacher' really feels like too much. Just call me Zoff like before Happy New Year! I came alllll the way here to see you, you know?"
Zoff extended a hand toward her, smiling brightly as if the cold meant absolutely nothing.
In truth, she had not flown to Japan specifically for Dyna. Her master, impressed by Nakayama Festa's performance at the Arc the previous year, had concluded that Japanese horse girls also possessed tremendous potential for development. So during the holiday break, her master had come to Japan to exchange management ideas with Symboli Rudolf.
And as a well-known, fully legitimate nepotism case, Zoff naturally came along with Montjeu to Japan. She got to enjoy a foreign country and meet her good friend again—what could be better?
Dyna placed her hand in Zoff's palm, only for Zoff to clasp it tightly. She stammered in response,
"I really didn't expect you to come… I don't think I can host you properly."
Still holding hands, the two of them left the main thoroughfare and followed a quieter path through a winter garden, where the trees stood bare and leafless.
Zoff did not care in the slightest.
"There's no need~ Good friends don't need to make things complicated. Just cook me a meal, that's all?"
"Of course! Could it be a late-night meal? I'll probably be staying at Tracen tonight to watch their New Year program."
"Really? I want to watch too! Then let's walk around together, okay? Before you got here, I already looked through the entire festival area. It's super interesting! Come on, come on!"
Zoff tugged Dyna forward again, and the two quickly crossed the little side path before blending back into the crowd.
As they wandered from stall to stall, Dyna gradually began to feel warm. At some point she removed her hat, then her scarf, and finally even the mask started to feel stifling, so she took that off too.
Zoff was holding a rice ball in one hand. She had just bitten into a pickled plum filling when the plum, frozen solid by the cold, bit back at her teeth with a crack. She had just been about to complain to Dyna, but the moment she saw Dyna's flushed red cheeks, she forgot all about the ache in her teeth.
"Why are your cheeks all red?"
"N-no reason. I'm just wearing too much. After running around this much, I got hot, so my face is red. More importantly—you let that rice ball sit out so long, of course it turned rock hard and wrecked your teeth…"
Dyna rubbed her cheeks a few times at random, trying to dismiss it, then pointed at the hard little rice ball in Zoff's hand.
"How was I supposed to know this kind of food would get hard that fast in winter? Ugh. I guess I'll have to waste it…"
"It's normal if you're not used to it. In summer, rice balls can sit out for half a day. Of course, after half a day, they'll go bad instead."
As Dyna explained, her eyes drifted toward a fortune-telling booth farther down the lane.
Maybe she could let Zoff experience the mysterious power of the East?
So Dyna raised their joined hands slightly and pointed in that direction.
"Zoff, want to go see some magical fortune-telling?"
"Hm? Fortune-telling? What's that?"
Though Zoff did not care for hard food, she still managed to swallow the rice ball whole. But she looked puzzled by the word. She had never heard of anything like that in Japan.
Dyna thought for a moment, then clarified,
"Divination. Like telling your fortune. Got it?"
"Oooh~! That! Now I get it. Of course I want to go!"
Zoff forced down the rest of the rice ball, then immediately pulled Dyna toward the booth.
Machikane Fukukitaru sneezed and sniffled. She had already read the faces and fates of a great many people that day. Most had been entirely ordinary—ordinary, but happy—and that alone had made her feel very satisfied.
She checked the time on her phone. In another hour, she would be able to head to the cafeteria and rest.
When she saw two horse girls running toward her hand-in-hand, she knew more work had arrived.
"Yaho~ Welcome to Great Fortune Teller Fukukitaru's divination booth! What may I—eeek?!"
She had not even finished her opening line before the chestnut-haired girl's body blazed with such dazzling light that it was impossible to look at her directly.
As a horse girl who had inherited part of the unique geomantic traditions studied by Copano Rickey, Machikane Fukukitaru could more or less see the luck surrounding each person.
But she had never seen light like the kind radiating from Light Dyna.
Fortunately, she had prepared for all possibilities.
In one smooth motion, she pulled out a pair of sunglasses from her lucky pouch and put them on.
Seeing this, Dyna blinked in confusion.
Since when did fortune-tellers need to wear sunglasses?
Was this some kind of new secret technique?
Join here to read ahead.
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