To be honest, Kitahara himself wasn't even sure whether his feelings for Eclipse counted as "liking" her in that sense.
But in the end, whether it was "liking" or something else, it didn't really matter to Kitahara anymore.
After all, he'd already decided: no matter what happened in the future, he'd live his life together with Eclipse.
Given that, there was no point in getting hung up on what kind of feelings they were. Much better to focus on the real problems right in front of them.
Like—what, exactly, was their relationship?
So far, nothing had ever happened between them, and they still lived as family.
But, frankly, with the way things were going, it wouldn't take long.
In less than thirty days, Eclipse would turn eighteen. Add to that her total refusal to race, her lack of care for public opinion, and her always-do-whatever-she's-thinking attitude—
Forget "some day." On New Year's Eve itself, she might just pin him to the bed and Uma Pyoi him, and it would be totally in character.
But the issue was—knowing her, even if they did "Uma Pyoi," Eclipse probably wouldn't think of that as changing their relationship at all.
They'd keep acting like family, and every so often, she'd just Uma Pyoi him again. Hell, even if she got pregnant, had his kid, she'd probably keep on as usual.
Maybe, for Eclipse, that was perfectly normal.
But for Kitahara? He really couldn't accept a relationship that warped.
So, when Eclipse showed no signs of moving things forward, Kitahara thought it over and decided: he'd have to be the one to push things along.
So he confessed.
But when he confessed, Eclipse showed… nothing.
No joy, no surprise, no embarrassment, no confusion—none of the feelings a normal person might show after being confessed to.
She just sat quietly in his arms, and, after watching a bit more of the TV show—
"Did you want to Uma Pyoi?"
Kitahara: "…?"
Wait, how did her train of thought end up there?
He'd just finished working himself up to confessing, getting ready to do all the next steps—
But the moment Eclipse said that, his whole mood derailed. The careful atmosphere he'd built evaporated in an instant.
And then, as if she could see the question in his eyes, Eclipse kept speaking, perfectly calm.
"Isn't confessing just something you do before Uma Pyoi?"
"Confess, date, get married, Uma Pyoi. Or Uma Pyoi first, get married after…"
"In the end, the result's the same. Uma Pyoing sooner or later doesn't change anything, does it?"
Kitahara: "…"
How is that the same? And what's with this turbo fast-forward logic?
He grumbled internally, then quickly started racking his brain for a rebuttal.
He had to hurry—he'd already seen Eclipse fishing out an Orange Potion. At this rate, never mind thirty days, he might not survive the night…
Wait—a green potion?
Kitahara suddenly caught that detail and blurted out, "Wait, that stuff isn't expired?"
"I got a new batch."
Eclipse answered evenly.
"When you said the two of us were leaving together, I messaged Tachyon on LINE and had her order me three bottles of the potion. I've got them all with me… see?"
She showed Kitahara the three vials, turning around as she did.
Kitahara stared for a second, then his eyelid twitched.
Hold on—ahead of time, she'd ordered potions for this…
"Eclipse… don't tell me, you'd already planned to…do something before we even left?"
Eclipse didn't answer. She just looked steadily at him, then reached out her other hand and pressed him onto the sofa.
"Wait, Eclipse—hold on, let me explain—"
Kitahara tried to struggle.
But it was pointless.
Unlike other Uma Musume, Eclipse's strength—and her resistance to his "nursing"—were both far beyond the norm. Ridiculously so.
Never mind normal means—even methods that might harm an Uma Musume probably wouldn't do anything to her.
And even if they did, he couldn't bear to hurt her.
Kitahara really regretted his choices right now.
If he'd known this was coming, he'd have taken the risk and brought another Uma Musume along. No way would he have let things get to this point.
But he hadn't known. In fact, he'd gotten himself into this by confessing, lighting the fuse with his own hand.
Click, click, click…
His shirt buttons came undone, one by one.
He kept trying to resist, but her slender yet powerful hand easily pinned him—nothing he tried had any effect.
This is it. It's all over…
He was already wondering if he should pre-book a bed for Basin Fracture therapy when, suddenly, after undoing all his shirt buttons, Eclipse stopped.
Huh? What?
Lost in panic, it took Kitahara a moment to realize she'd gone still. He looked up and saw her fiddling with her phone.
He stared, gradually growing suspicious.
Wait, what's she doing with her phone now? Don't tell me she's going to film this…
Thankfully, his worry was unfounded—Eclipse didn't have any weird hobbies like that. She'd just remembered something.
As for what, exactly—
"Agnes Digital talked to me before," Eclipse said. "She said she likes it when there's a crowd, and just being alone with you might feel a bit awkward. She asked if I'd mind bringing her along for Uma Pyoi…"
"I said yes."
Eclipse added, after a pause,
"Oh, and Neicha too."
"She never said it directly, but we've talked about it before, and she didn't seem to mind. And since I've got three bottles, I figured I'd check with her too…"
Kitahara was floored.
What the hell? Are you forming a boss raid party over here?
If being Uma Pyoi'd by Eclipse was barely within the range of what Kitahara could handle, going straight to a three-girl party—he was way out of his depth.
He couldn't resist Eclipse's grip, but at least she hadn't pinned his hands.
So, outwardly giving up, Kitahara slowly slid his hands to her sides—then, as she focused on her phone, suddenly grabbed it out of her hand.
Time to call for help.
That's what he thought.
But when he looked at the screen, he froze.
It wasn't a chat window—it was a carrot stew recipe.
Before he could react, Eclipse released his wrist.
What the…?
"A joke," she said, sitting on top of him, looking him in the eye, utterly serious.
"I like you too, Kitahara."
"That part isn't a joke."
Her words landed.
Kitahara went a little stiff.
...
A while later.
Once he'd confirmed Eclipse really wasn't about to Uma Pyoi him, Kitahara finally relaxed, his heart rate settling back down.
"You scared me. I thought you were serious for a second…"
Eclipse responded, deadpan: "If you want, it could be real."
"Let's not."
Kitahara sighed, handing the phone back to her.
"Seriously, have you been watching some weird stuff lately? How'd you even come up with that whole group-Uma Pyoi story? That's not like you at all…"
Eclipse didn't reply—just stared quietly at him.
"…You made that up, didn't you?"
After a moment of silence, Eclipse finally answered.
"I already told you. If you want, everything I said can become reality."
She put extra emphasis on "everything."
The hell…?
Realizing some of what she'd said might not have been made up, Kitahara's mouth twitched.
He made a mental note: when he got back, he'd have to suggest to the Chairwoman that Tracen really needed a class on romance basics. Otherwise, things would just keep getting more and more out of hand…
They chatted for a while longer.
Once Eclipse was sure Kitahara genuinely didn't like that sort of thing, she didn't push it further. Glancing at the time, she got up to go buy groceries.
Kitahara, after confirming she'd only been joking and didn't actually plan to Uma Pyoi him, let go of his worries—if anything, he felt happy.
If this had been Eclipse back when she first entered Tracen, forget making jokes—she probably didn't even know what a joke was.
But now, even if her sense of humor was a little off, a joke was still a joke. It showed she was getting more "normal."
And the way she could pull others into the joke, and talk with them privately about it—
What did that mean?
It meant she'd actually made friends. She'd started having conversations that didn't revolve around him, started living her own life, even if just a little.
All his efforts hadn't been in vain…
He followed Eclipse out, watching her walk and text at the same time, and smiled with real satisfaction.
If only her group chat topics weren't so weird…
...
Time slipped by again.
Days passed, filled with focused research.
There were no existing reference materials for what he was doing.
But thanks to his long-cultivated physical control, and a scary learning speed, Kitahara's research went pretty smoothly. His mastery and development of his power both grew.
But as his progress increased, a new problem appeared.
He was stuck.
Not physically—he'd hit a research bottleneck.
Even with all the progress, all he'd really gained was control.
Understanding the true nature of the power, figuring out its effects on others—on those fronts, there'd been almost no breakthrough.
And as he became more skilled, further gains on his own grew harder and harder. If he wanted to push forward, there was no way around it—he needed others to help him experiment.
He was basically sure now: this stuff wasn't just harmless to Uma Musume—it was beneficial. But there was nobody he could ask to help.
After all, he'd left school on "official business," so there was no way he could ask his own team to help, and honestly, even if he hadn't left, he wouldn't dare.
Not because he thought it might harm them. On the contrary.
Even at their current levels, his girls were terrifying—"dream team" wasn't an exaggeration. If he boosted them even more, there'd be no point in anyone else showing up, and his own team wouldn't get to enjoy the challenge anymore.
But outside his own team, his contact list was pretty thin.
The two old ladies were out of the question—age alone disqualified them, and even if they agreed, he wouldn't.
The Chairwoman and Symboli Rudolf were both swamped—end of year, tons of races, Student Council and management both up to their eyeballs. Kitahara didn't want to pile more on their plates.
Eclipse could be a subject, sure—but she was way too much of a special case, in every way.
Fine for a single-case study, but if he used her as the baseline, he might run into the old "Why can random Uma Musume fall so far behind, but my prodigy makes huge leaps?" problem.
If it really came to it, he could just stop researching.
He'd come this far—if he kept a lid on it, found ways to vent the excess power regularly, there wouldn't be any real danger.
But now, the key to a new world was right in front of him. And the Chairwoman, Sunday Silence, and others all needed that key.
No way he could stop now. He didn't even want to pause.
Or to put it simply...
He was addicted to research.
But where was he supposed to find someone suitable—and willing—to help him test?
Kitahara sank into thought.
But it wasn't long after he hit that bottleneck, as he was still pondering—
He heard soft footsteps outside, and then someone knocked at the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Trainer Kitahara, are you home?"