Chatting as they walked, it didn't take long for Kitahara and Karai Risa to reach the training grounds.
Because Valentine's Day was tomorrow, the grounds felt unusually deserted today. Most of the Umamusume were busy preparing for it.
Some were lined up outside the cooking room waiting to make chocolate. Others were queued up outside a certain mad scientist's lab, getting ready to buy some "ingredients" for chocolate fillings.
And some, having already finished their three years of racing and met the age requirement, had simply gone straight to the shops, buying chocolate while stuffing boxes of "umbrellas" into their bags one after another, chatting and laughing all the while as they also picked up a whole pile of virility supplements...
As for the Trainers, the younger ones who hadn't yet realized how serious the situation was were still laughing and taking it easy, figuring that since the Umamusume under them had all asked for leave, they might as well treat it as a rare holiday.
Some had holed up in their dorms playing games. Some had gone to the library to read up on things. Some were even posting in the group chat about a new massage parlor that had opened outside the academy recently, asking whether anyone wanted to go check it out with them and relax properly...
All one could do was pray their Tantou never found out.
As for the more seasoned, worldly Trainers—those who still didn't have that kind of relationship with their Tantou—some were plotting to slip away, while others were reinforcing their doors, all trying to save themselves in one way or another.
And the even older veterans, the ones with true experience, stayed in their dorms calm as could be, drinking tea, playing chess, reading books, and casually booking themselves a bed for pelvic care while they were at it.
But unlike the others, even with Valentine's Day tomorrow, not a single member of Karai Risa's team had asked for leave. All of them were on the training grounds, training as usual.
Now this was more like it.
Looking at the three Umamusume training together in perfect harmony, looking no different from any other day, Kitahara couldn't help sighing inwardly. This, he thought, was what students at a top-tier school like Tracen ought to look like.
A little later, probably because there were so few people at the training grounds today, the trio in the distance noticed Kitahara and Karai Risa not long after they arrived and came jogging over.
"Master, good morning."
After drawing near, the Umamusume named Mihono Bourbon greeted Karai Risa first, then looked toward Kitahara, a trace of confusion entering her eyes.
"And this is?"
"This is Trainer Kitahara, the senior I mentioned to you before."
"Trainer Kitahara..."
At Karai Risa's introduction, the Umamusume standing beside Mihono Bourbon—a girl with a half-up ponytail and a tiny crown on her head—also turned to look at Kitahara, her eyes growing thoughtful.
"I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before... Was it Rice-chan who mentioned it?"
And while Mihono Bourbon and Aston Machan—that was the name of the crowned Umamusume—were curiously studying the man in front of them—a small black shadow was hiding behind the two of them, looking completely at a loss, not even daring to raise her head and look at Kitahara.
Seeing that, Kitahara thought for a moment, then simply took the initiative and greeted her first.
"It's been a long time, Rice Shower."
He spoke, and the little black Umamusume slowly raised her head. Her face was visibly tense, and her eyes were full of unease.
"It... it's been a long time..."
"Onii-sama."
Onii-sama?
At that form of address, not just the other two Umamusume—even Karai Risa turned and looked at Kitahara in surprise.
"We knew each other before. Back then, she was used to calling me Onii-sama."
Kitahara explained simply. At the same time, he carefully studied Rice Shower's expression again. After confirming a few things, the worry hanging in his heart eased slightly.
Thank goodness. At least for now, this child still seemed to be Rice Shower. There was no sign yet of the child who gave him the biggest headaches coming out. As bad luck went, that was still the best of a bad lot.
After the brief introductions, the people present started chatting.
Most of what they talked about was ordinary training matters, with the occasional bit of academy gossip mixed in. Overall, it was all perfectly normal conversation, nothing especially worth mentioning.
And yet, even though the topics themselves were fine, as the chatting went on and certain memories resurfaced, Kitahara gradually realized that Karai Risa's team was... maybe a little abnormal.
First there was Mihono Bourbon. At a glance, she looked fairly normal, but the longer you interacted with her, the more you noticed something stiff hidden in her speech, expressions, and movements.
As if she weren't an Umamusume at all, but a robot made to look like one.
And Kitahara wasn't the only one who thought so. Mihono Bourbon's classmates and teammates felt the same way, and after enough time had passed, they had even given her a rather sci-fi nickname.
Cyborg.
But that wasn't even what she was most famous for.
While the oddness of her behavior had made the title of Cyborg somewhat well known around the academy, compared to one of her other traits, that nickname barely even mattered.
Machine Terminator.
That was her other nickname.
And in this case, terminator wasn't a noun. It was a verb. It meant that any machine she touched—or even merely approached—ran the risk of being terminated on the spot.
It had been mentioned before that Tracen Main Campus wasn't short on money, so its teaching equipment was relatively complete and advanced. There were plenty of precision devices and instruments among them.
At first, when Mihono Bourbon had only just enrolled and this machine-killer trait hadn't yet been exposed, no one at the academy had grasped the seriousness of the problem. She hadn't been placed under any restrictions and was allowed to move freely through various areas.
Then, in the second month after she enrolled, the academy made a startling discovery: the failure rate of its equipment had risen to more than ten times what it had been before.
At first, after noticing that, the academy staff assumed some mischievous Umamusume had been deliberately sabotaging things, so they pulled the security footage from different areas in an attempt to catch the culprit.
And then they saw it.
Without her causing any intentional damage at all, Mihono Bourbon merely stood there, and the machines around her started malfunctioning one after another.
She'd run on a treadmill, and the treadmill would be junked. She'd take a computer class, and the computers would freeze. Every camera lining the hallway she often passed through developed wiring failures.
Even the phones of teachers who merely happened to walk past her during class would black out or short-circuit.
And so, from that day on, Mihono Bourbon's name as the Machine Terminator was firmly established. Many equipment rooms—especially the laboratories—put her on their watch lists and strictly forbade her from coming near.
And it wasn't just her.
Aside from Mihono Bourbon, that chestnut-haired Umamusume named Aston Machan wasn't normal either.
The difference was that unlike Mihono Bourbon, Aston Machan's strangeness didn't lie in her ability to damage outside objects, but in the effect she had on herself.
Or more precisely, her presence was very faint.
That might not sound like a big deal. After all, not everyone was a star Umamusume like Rudolf. At Tracen, where elites were everywhere, even excellent Umamusume didn't necessarily stand out all that much.
Not to mention that Kitahara had Eclipse by his side, someone who could actively lower her own presence until she was almost invisible.
But the problem was that Aston Machan's issue was more serious than all of that put together.
No matter how low someone else's presence was, at most it just meant they were hard to notice in a crowd.
But Aston Machan's low presence affected even matters related to her.
For example, when her enrollment file was reviewed, it was almost overlooked and nearly failed to be entered into the student system at all.
Her teachers would often unconsciously skip over her name while reading class rosters.
Even Karai Risa, when checking the list of girls on her own team, despite there being only three of them, would often fail to remember who the third one was. Sometimes she even thought her team only had two members.
And if even people close to Aston Machan were like that, then for those who weren't familiar with her to begin with, the situation was naturally even worse.
It wasn't just that people ignored her regularly. Right now, in the entire academy, including Aston Machan herself, the number of people who could consciously register her existence probably didn't even reach ten.
Even the Chairwoman, while handling student paperwork, had nearly left Aston Machan's student file outside.
In the end, it was only because Kitahara had reminded her that she put it back—but just a few days later, she forgot about it again. That was one of the main reasons Kitahara remembered Aston Machan so clearly.
Oh, and incidentally, though the reason was unknown, Kitahara himself seemed unaffected by Aston Machan's low-presence ability, whether he was looking at paperwork or the girl herself.
A cyborg, and a human blank spot whose presence was so faint it was almost nonexistent—in comparison, Rice Shower, with her merely somewhat self-deprecating personality, looked astonishingly normal on this team.
But Kitahara knew those were only surface appearances.
In fact, by his judgment, compared to her two teammates, Rice Shower was the one with the most serious problem of all. It was only because it hadn't erupted yet that she seemed so mild.
Because of that, once the brief chatting ended and the three Umamusume were about to return to training, Kitahara got Karai Risa's permission, then called out to Rice Shower.
"Rice Shower, if you don't mind, could I talk to you alone for a bit?"
At Kitahara's invitation, Rice Shower's ears twitched, and she looked a little flustered.
But after a moment, seeing the concern in Kitahara's eyes, Rice Shower pressed her lips together and finally nodded.
"Okay."
"Onii... sama..."