To be honest, when it came to Tokai Teio's feelings, Symboli Rudolf originally had no intention of interfering.
After all, matters of the heart were ultimately something between two people.
No matter how close she and Tokai Teio were, barging into something like this was never appropriate.
Not to mention—others might not know, but she was perfectly aware of how strong Tokai Teio's possessiveness was.
Acting rashly like this—if Tokai Teio ever found out—then in the mildest case, she'd sulk and ignore her for days; in the worst case, it could even damage Tokai Teio's trust in her.
But she really couldn't hold back anymore.
Just like how Kitahara's oblivious, block‑of‑wood behavior once made Symboli Speed want to whack him with a wooden sword, Tokai Teio's completely disastrous performance had pushed Rudolf to the brink of high blood pressure.
Sensible, clever, extraordinarily talented…
A resilient personality, a strong capacity to learn, even a certain budding charisma…
Because of her age, none of these qualities in Tokai Teio had fully developed yet, and in every aspect she still looked a bit childish—but all of that was just a matter of time.
Aside from the romance department, Rudolf was satisfied with Tokai Teio in every way. Otherwise she would never have chosen her as her successor.
She just never expected that the ever‑exemplary Tokai Teio would drop the ball only in this one area of romance.
No—calling it "dropping the ball" wasn't quite right.
In truth, Tokai Teio's behavior was the normal behavior of a young girl in love.
Feelings in her heart, yet unable to express them. Liking someone, but too embarrassed to say it outright.
Just quietly staying by his side, thinking she would prove herself with her race results; then, on the Winner's Concert stage, explode all that long‑held companionship into a single brilliant moment and pour her feelings out through it.
That was a perfectly normal process.
Anywhere else, it might even have become a heartwarming love story.
But the problem was: this was Tracen. And not just any Tracen—this was the main campus.
Tokai Teio wasn't competing against sweet, shy girls in love. She was competing against a herd of fully carnivorous mares.
And to be fair, carnivorous mares weren't born that way.
But just like how Tracen's Trainers kept grinding themselves into nothing—until even their holidays got ground away, and they somehow ended up rolling their way into their own Tantou's beds—Tracen's Uma Musume were also rolling, escalating the competition step by step.
They'd said it before: even back then, the ratio of Uma Musume to Trainers hovered around 9:1 to 14:1.
But in recent years, with the explosion in Uma Musume numbers and the flood of transfer students, that ratio had ballooned into a ridiculous 30:1… or even worse.
Not every Uma Musume had an improper relationship with her Trainer.
But even if half had purely normal, professional relationships, and didn't participate in this competition, it was still an astonishing 15:1.
A forest of wolves, all eyeing the same prey.
In that environment, never mind "three years"—hesitate for even a single beat and you might not even get a sip of soup.
So, to win this competition, the Uma Musume had no choice but to take more assertive steps. Slowly, the competitive escalation took hold.
If you got praised by the Trainer today, then tomorrow I'd go get a head‑pat.
If you got a head‑pat, then tomorrow I'd go for a hug.
From verbal compliments, to physical contact, to intimate actions—escalating all the way to Uma Pyoi, and sometimes even Uma Pyoi wasn't the end…
And while Trainers who got force‑Pyoi'd usually bore a lot of responsibility too, no one could deny that the Uma's own will was the decisive force in the process.
Humans couldn't resist Uma Musume.
That was common sense.
And as the long‑serving Student Council President of Tracen, Symboli Rudolf was of course very aware of this campus atmosphere.
In fact, more than aware—if anything, this atmosphere becoming worse than during the terms of previous presidents was largely due to her tolerance, even her support.
Because she thought it was normal.
But you really couldn't blame her.
After all, though she disliked the Symboli family, she still grew up in it.
And thanks to the family's environment, the Symboli household's attitudes toward romance were… well…
The only word was "unhinged."
Because everything she'd seen and been taught about romance was deeply abnormal, Rudolf's concept of love had been warped since childhood.
After coming to Tracen, although her personality and other aspects slowly healed thanks to circumstances, the romantic atmosphere at Tracen was equally bizarre. So while she healed in many areas…
In romance, Symboli Rudolf's thinking only grew even more crooked.
Look at her life:
As a child, trapped in the Symboli family, staring at Symboli Speed's old face every day.
Then, being sent to Tracen—a girls' school—and for various reasons running races alone, without a Trainer.
And after three years of racing, because of her shift in mindset, she developed the desire to build a better world. She acted on it, and continued acting on it to this day.
Under circumstances like those, there was no chance she'd experience a normal romance—or even have a means of learning what normal romance looked like.
Everything she'd seen was the strange, twisted dating culture of Tracen. Slowly, she came to believe that was normal.
Preparation, training, competition—the victor taking the trophy home, and the loser quietly retreating…
This wasn't just the logic of the racetrack; to Rudolf, it applied to romance as well.
So when she saw the actions of the other competing mares, and compared them to Tokai Teio's timid, small‑fry behavior, Rudolf really couldn't tolerate it anymore.
Even knowing this wasn't appropriate, she still ended up coming clean to Kitahara on Teio's behalf.
And not only that.
The moment she revealed it, Rudolf had already prepared herself to step in personally.
Not because she had any feelings for Kitahara.
She just wanted to help Teio from the sidelines.
Because she had already witnessed, with her own eyes, exactly how terrible Tokai Teio was when it came to romance.
If the Kitahara Cup were run in a knockout format, Teio would be the first to get eliminated.
If it were any other Uma Musume, even if she were equally hopeless, Rudolf would simply observe.
At most she'd sigh inwardly and mutter things like "Happiness is something you have to fight for," or "Be the first horse and all others fall behind."
But Tokai Teio was her own cub.
It hurt to watch—even if she felt furious at her incompetence.
Yet even though Rudolf had already made up her mind, even though she'd laid everything bare—Kitahara showed almost no reaction at all. He just smiled lightly.
"Mm, I know. That kid's been pretty clingy with me lately."
He paused, then added,
"But honestly, I still think she likes you more."
You know jack shit.
The instant she heard that, Rudolf realized he had completely misunderstood what she was trying to say.
But before she could explain, Kitahara continued after another short pause.
"Oh, right—President, that reminds me. There's something I need to tell you too."
"What is it?"
"Well… how should I say this… lately my body seems to have developed some kind of problem. And it's… pretty serious."
Rudolf's gaze sharpened instantly. She dropped all thoughts of Tokai Teio.
"A problem with your body? Did you develop some illness?"
"No, no, it's not an illness…"
Kitahara paused.
"The specifics are…"
He took some time to give Rudolf a concise explanation of the strange power inside him, then condensed a small amount of it and demonstrated, proving he wasn't lying.
"You see? Like that."
When he finished, Kitahara withdrew his hand and sighed.
Even though Tachyon's preliminary conclusion was that the power only stimulated emotion—
Given Tachyon's notorious unreliability—and the fact she couldn't even understand her own potions—Kitahara didn't trust her assessment too much.
He didn't mention her research; he only described the strange behaviors he and Tachyon had shown upon first encountering the energy.
After listening, Rudolf's expression subtly shifted.
Earlier, when she first heard "a problem with my body," Rudolf thought he had developed some terrifying illness—and had already begun thinking of how to request aid from the Symboli family.
But now…
Well, in a sense, for Kitahara, this "ability" might actually be more serious than some terminal diseases.
"What do you plan to do?" Rudolf asked.
"What can I do…"
Kitahara let out a helpless sigh.
"For now, Tachyon is still helping me research it, and I'm also trying to master it."
"After some time, if we can confirm it's harmless, then I plan to expand the research team and ask that 'ace' transferred from the Uma Musume Research Institute for help…"
"But this thing is way too strange. And it seems to be building up more and more inside me. I can still control it for now, but later on… who knows."
"So in the coming days, I may have to limit contact with my girls—just in case I lose control and 'hurt' them by accident. And if it worsens, I might even need to leave Tracen temporarily until it stabilizes…"
"Do you need me to do anything?" Rudolf asked.
"Not for now. I can still handle it."
Saying so, Kitahara turned his gaze toward Tracen.
"But if I leave, President, I'll have to ask you to take care of the kids for me. You know how many girls are in my team—Komata-san alone probably won't be able to keep up…"
"All right."
Rudolf nodded, then said calmly,
"Besides that, if anything happens, or you need help, just message me. I'll do everything I can."
Seeing how serious she was, Kitahara felt a bit embarrassed.
"President, it's really not some grave illness. It's just a small, unexpected situation. You don't need to worry so much…"
"It's because it's not an illness that I'm worried."
Looking at Kitahara, Rudolf's expression was solemn.
"Believe me—this 'little accident' is far more dangerous to you than any severe illness. Much more."
"…Huh?"
...
Because of Kitahara's tangent, by the time Rudolf snapped out of it, the two had already parted ways, and she'd lost the chance to explain Tokai Teio's feelings any further.
Not that she cared much anymore.
Because after hearing Kitahara's explanation, compared to Teio's situation...
Rudolf felt it was far more important to figure out how to keep Kitahara alive. She was even considering whether she should pre‑book him a bed for Basin Fracture treatment.
As for Kitahara, after wrapping up the conversation with Rudolf, he returned to the academy and resumed his routine of half‑slacking, half‑researching the power inside him.
As for Rudolf's earlier "Teio likes you," he didn't take it seriously.
Kids liking adults who treat them well—wasn't that normal?
And so, just like that, another day quietly passed. After training, Kitahara returned to his dorm.
But today was different. For some reason, Neichia had been running off to Agnes Digital's place these last couple days, staying for hours at a time, so she wasn't in the dorm.
And the Tracen Album Trio also had things to do and weren't around.
Or, to be more precise—right now, in the dorm, only he and Eclipse were present.
Looking at Eclipse beside him, sensing the peaceful atmosphere around them, a long‑forgotten feeling slowly began to stir inside Kitahara.
Thinking about it—hadn't it been a while since it was just the two of them like this…?
With that thought, Kitahara sat down on the sofa, and the little black rice ball seemed to read his mood, crawling obediently into his arms.
The familiar sound of gentle rubbing filled the quiet space.
Noise, chaos, responsibility—
All those tangled things slowly faded away.
As he kept rubbing her, after a while, Kitahara suddenly felt as if he had returned to a few years ago.
No Tracen.
No strange power.
No mountain of bizarre problems.
Just the two of them in a cramped room—him racking his brain over tomorrow's meals, and her curled quietly in his arms, who knew what she was thinking.
After a long time—
"Eclipse."
"What is it?"
Kitahara rubbed her head. "In the coming days, I'm planning to run some deeper tests on this power in my body. It's not really suitable to stay on campus… want to come with me?"
"Have I ever been away from you?" Eclipse replied.
"…Well, that's true."
Kitahara smiled, then reached out and pulled her into his arms.
Just like countless nights before.
After another stretch of silence, his voice sounded again.
"I mean—just the two of us."
He paused, lightly patting her, repeating softly:
"Just the two of us."
Eclipse didn't respond. As always, she remained nestled against him, unmoving, her expression unchanged.
But if Kitahara had used his newly awakened ability to examine her in that moment, he would have discovered...
The hollow at Eclipse's heart, the place where something always seeped outward...
Was now leaking much faster.
And mixed within was a faint trace of pain.
---
T/N: Oh no...