When he heard the sound outside the door, even though they hadn't interacted much, Kitahara still recognized who it was from that oddly old-fashioned, era-worn voice.
Hayakawa-san's close friend—and the Student Council's hidden fifth member—"Supercar" Maruzensky.
Why was she here?
A little puzzled, he walked over and opened the door. After greeting her—Kitahara then realized the visitor wasn't just Maruzensky.
Behind her stood someone he'd only just been talking about with Symboli Rudolf not long ago. Right now, she was looking around with an openly interested gaze.
Sirius Symboli.
After greeting both of them and welcoming them in, Kitahara spoke with mild confusion.
"I thought the Student Council's been pretty busy lately. Is it really okay for you two to be out at a time like this?"
"It's fine. That level of busywork is something the President can handle by herself, honestly. Besides, Air Groove and Mr. C.B. are there too—so even without the two of us, it's the same."
Maruzensky answered like that.
After hearing her, Kitahara looked at the kind of buoyant relief on her face and didn't believe a single word of it.
Yeah, right. Just the night before last, after Rudolf checked in on him on LINE—
She'd even complained that there was too much work lately and the Student Council was short-handed. How could she possibly let these two just stroll out so easily?
So if it wasn't Symboli Rudolf letting them go, then nine times out of ten these two had skipped out to slack off.
But Kitahara didn't call it out.
For one, he wasn't Student Council. For two, this wasn't the first time these two had ditched to go loaf around, and there was no need to make it a thing.
"Then what brings you two here? Do you need something from me?"
"I heard from the President that you've run into some trouble and could use someone's help. And I also happened to want to talk with you about racing, Trainer Kitahara—so I came."
Since both Symboli Rudolf and the Chairwoman already knew what was going on with him, and hadn't kept it from certain core members of the Authority side either, Kitahara wasn't surprised Maruzensky knew.
He nodded, then turned to look at Sirius Symboli.
"And Sirius-san?"
"I heard you've got something interesting going on, so I came to take a look."
Hearing her say that—plus the completely unhidden interest in her eyes—how could Kitahara not understand what she meant by "interesting"? He said helplessly,
"Sirius-san… that is not an 'interesting' situation…"
And under their curious stares, he could only go on to explain, in detail, everything that had been happening to him lately.
Before this, they'd already heard some things about his situation from Symboli Rudolf, but because the reality was just too outrageous...
To avoid trouble, and also to save herself the hassle, Rudolf hadn't told them much. Just a rough outline.
Originally, the two of them were basically just skipping out to slack off, with nowhere to go.
Then they remembered what Rudolf had said about Kitahara, got a bit intrigued, and figured they'd drop by—chat, make a visit, that sort of thing.
But after listening to Kitahara's account, the emotions in their eyes gradually shifted.
Curiosity, surprise, confusion, bewilderment, suspicion…
Honestly, if not for Symboli Rudolf laying the groundwork beforehand—and if the one saying all this wasn't Kitahara—they would probably be deciding which mental hospital to send him to right about now.
Because this sounded way too insane.
Sure, in this world, with the Three Goddesses around, things that current science can't explain happen from time to time—and Uma Musume as a whole are already a blind spot for modern technology.
But Kitahara's situation? Forget science—there wasn't even a similar specimen in the occult.
Seeing the doubt in their eyes, Kitahara let out a sigh.
He knew it. The moment he started talking about the real stuff, it would turn into this.
But luckily, after these days of research and control, he could now regulate his output with real precision.
When he saw they didn't believe him, he didn't hesitate. Right there on the spot, within a safe range, he raised his hand and demonstrated an application of that power.
Then, as the pink glow lit up, Maruzensky and Sirius Symboli both paused slightly, feeling as if something deep inside them had been stirred.
But the difference was—when that pink light flared, the image that surfaced in Maruzensky's mind was the red sports car parked outside, along with the urge to take it out and cruise another couple of laps.
For Sirius Symboli, the image that rose up was Symboli Rudolf. Her eyes sharpened, and in the depths of her heart, the thought sprouted—I want to beat her. I want the title of "strongest."
"You see? That's basically what's going on."
As his words fell, the glow went out.
Kitahara sighed, then looked at them.
"If you don't mind, can I ask—when the light came on just now, did you feel anything… off?"
Maruzensky was obvious. Anyone who'd heard her name knew she loved driving like she was possessed.
And the fact that Sirius Symboli didn't get along with Symboli Rudolf—and had always wanted to stand at the summit—wasn't exactly a secret inside the Student Council either.
On top of that, Sirius was the type who hated lying and roundabout nonsense, preferred things straight and direct. So she just told Kitahara outright too.
After hearing both of their descriptions, Kitahara thought for a moment.
Before, when Agnes Tachyon told him that the essence of this ability wasn't Uma Mint at all, but simply stimulating emotions and desire—given Tachyon's long history of spectacular wipeouts, he'd been only half-convinced.
But now, after listening to the two of them, the credibility of that explanation shot up.
Right now, it did seem like this ability had a real emotional-stimulus effect on Uma Musume—like it could rouse the craving buried in their hearts.
But he still didn't know whether turning up the intensity would cause changes, and he also didn't know whether it worked on humans…
With two guests present, Kitahara didn't sink too deeply into thought.
He just tapped his index finger, organized his thoughts a little, then returned his attention to them and started chatting casually.
Then, after talking for a bit, seeing that they didn't seem to have anything else to do—and looked like they didn't even know where to go next—Kitahara simply asked if they'd stay and help him with some experiments.
Unlike the little Uma Musume, these two were fully adults—honestly, even older than him—and right in their prime.
And with his improved control, the experiments were basically confirmed to be risk-free now—maybe even beneficial to them—so there was no reason for Kitahara to keep hesitating.
But faced with his request, the two of them thought for a moment and didn't immediately agree. Instead, each of them made a request of their own.
On Maruzensky's side, she wanted to see Kitahara's driving.
She'd heard ages ago that Kitahara drove like a maniac—so much so he'd "cured" Hayakawa-san's fear of being in her car to some extent—but she'd never seen it herself. By now, it was practically a thorn in her heart.
It wasn't an unreasonable request, and honestly, Kitahara hadn't properly driven in a long time either.
Even the last time during the chase, the car's performance limits meant he hadn't gotten to enjoy it, and he'd been eyeing Maruzensky's red supercar for a while now. Of course he wasn't going to refuse.
But while Maruzensky's request was easy to handle, Sirius Symboli's request made Kitahara hesitate.
Not because it was hard.
On the contrary, it was painfully simple—and it was something Kitahara had already done more than a few times…
Yeah. Pretending to be a boyfriend.
"I already heard from Rudolf. Up until now, you've still been pretending to be her boyfriend over at the Symboli house—and you're planning to go with her at the beginning of the year to crash that matchmaking meeting."
"Just so happens, around that time, an older senior I know is also forcing me to go meet some guy I've never even seen, no clue what kind of person he is, so…"
"You get it."
I don't.
Kitahara's eye twitched. What is wrong with you people? Why is it always me you drag out to take a bullet whenever this kind of thing comes up?
First Komata-san. Then Rudolf. Then Hayakawa-san. And now even Sirius Symboli was coming to him…
What the hell—was he some kind of rental boyfriend?!
The only thing he could be glad about was that even though Maruzensky was quite a bit older than Sirius Symboli, her family wasn't pressuring her to marry, so she didn't have to worry about matchmaking for now.
Otherwise, Kitahara seriously suspected that if Maruzensky got forced into a meeting too, she'd probably drag him along to take the hit…
Thinking that far, Kitahara suddenly realized something.
Wait—if even Hayakawa-san was being pushed into marriage, then why wasn't the Chairwoman being pushed too…?
Sure, the Chairwoman looked young, but she was genuinely two years older than Hayakawa-san—and currently single. Yet he'd never heard anything about people hounding her to marry…
Or maybe she was being hounded, she just didn't show it—and maybe she'd been venting that resentment onto Hayakawa-san, which was why she'd been so enthusiastic about pressuring her…
But since that had nothing to do with what was happening right now, Kitahara didn't dwell on it. He quickly snapped back, then began considering Sirius Symboli's request.
Honestly, if it were the old Kitahara, he would've refused without even thinking.
Because even if Sirius Symboli gave him a good feeling, she was still an Uma Musume from the Symboli family. If he could avoid getting tangled up with that, he absolutely would.
But the problem was—right now, he really needed people to help him finish his research.
And earlier, Symboli Rudolf had also asked him to help repair the relationship between those two. This incident could be a breakthrough.
And most importantly, he'd already offended Rudolf—the one the Symboli family valued most. Pretending he wasn't tied up with the Symboli family anymore was pure self-deception.
In that case, even if he got a bit more entangled with Sirius Symboli, the added risk wouldn't be that much.
In fact, if he could get a little closer with Sirius Symboli through this—do her a favor, make her owe him one—then later, if the Symboli family wanted to move against him, maybe Sirius could help in some way.
Of course, during the process, Kitahara still had to be careful. Helping and building goodwill was fine—but he couldn't let her affection meter start climbing.
But on that front, Kitahara honestly wasn't too worried.
Because in his view, maybe he wasn't great at a lot of things, but when it came to suppressing affection and keeping distance, he was absolutely one of the best in all of Tracen.
Huh? You're asking why?
Isn't that whole giant crowd of Uma Musume who had perfectly normal relationships with him the best proof?
As for the few who weren't normal—sure, Neicha's feelings were beyond doubt.
But for the others, Kitahara didn't believe they truly liked him.
More likely, it was childishness—mistaking some other emotion for liking him. Or a special case like Sunday Silence…
Anyway, Kitahara felt solid. So after a brief moment of thought, he nodded and agreed to Sirius Symboli's request.
Then, after chatting a while longer—
Since he'd been cooped up in his room researching lately and was getting stir-crazy, Kitahara didn't immediately make them cooperate with his research. Instead, he decided to go out first and fulfill Maruzensky's request.
The moment she heard Kitahara was going to drive—and a sports car, at that—for once, Eclipse didn't follow him straight out. She said she wanted to stay behind and watch the house.
Eclipse's reaction didn't draw the other two's attention. Even though they'd met a few times—
They weren't close with Eclipse, didn't know what her usual state around Kitahara was like, and didn't know what it meant for her to voluntarily leave his side.
Though… even if they did know, it probably wouldn't change anything.
After all, Maruzensky wanted to see just how fierce Kitahara's driving was—the fiercer, the more interested she'd be.
And Sirius Symboli, as someone who even had a small aircraft pilot license, was also one of the rare few who could handle Maruzensky's driving. Even if she knew Kitahara drove hard, she probably wouldn't care.
And so, keeping the atmosphere light, the three of them chatted and laughed as they went downstairs, then climbed into Maruzensky's sports car.
But to the other two's surprise, Kitahara didn't head for the driver's seat. Instead, he went straight to the back seat.
"Trainer Kitahara, aren't you going to try the feel of the car first?"
Hearing Maruzensky's question, Kitahara gave a slightly helpless smile.
"I'd like to, but this is the city…"
Sirius looked confused.
"What's wrong with the city? Just drive slower, right?"
"No, it's not a speed problem…"
After a brief pause, Kitahara explained.
"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you earlier."
"Actually… I don't have a driver's license."