"Duramente was incredible in the Satsuki Sho!"
"Satono Crown was really strong too—she almost broke through!"
"The Japan Derby should come down to Duramente versus Satono Crown, right?"
"What about, uh... Kitasan Black?"
"Kitasan Black? She doesn't stand a chance. She's a short-distance runner—she can't handle the Derby."
Nobody expected anything from her. She didn't even believe in herself.
Can I really win?
She'd sensed it instinctively. Right now, she was no match for Duramente.
Kita-chan stared at the ceiling for a long moment, then sighed.
But then she noticed something was very, very wrong.
"Huh?!"
"Wh-why am I floating?!"
She couldn't help crying out.
She looked down—and discovered something even more terrifying.
"Why is my body moving on its own?!"
Kita-chan flailed in midair like a drowning swimmer, limbs thrashing uselessly.
But her screams seemed audible only to herself.
Satono Diamond, still asleep, couldn't hear a thing. Neither could the person now controlling her body.
Kitasan Black rolled her shoulders, testing this body. It was even stiffer than she'd expected.
"Tch. So weak..."
Average stats somewhere around C-rank—maybe 400 to 599 across the board.
If this world's power level wasn't just universally lower, then there was only one explanation: Kita-chan's current ability genuinely ranked toward the bottom of her generation.
If this was the anime timeline, there was probably an early-decline debuff stacked on top.
No wonder anime Kita-chan had looked so pitiful.
Late bloomer plus early decline. Every debuff in the book.
Couldn't win early, couldn't win late—her peak was barely a year in the middle.
Was this account even playable?
In the game, any Player dealt this hand would've deleted the save and rerolled ages ago.
Kitasan Black frowned.
And this body had accumulated a host of invisible problems beneath the surface. The only reason they hadn't manifested yet was raw physical talent keeping them suppressed.
With this body's condition, she couldn't even slack off properly.
"Kita-chan?"
Satono Diamond sat up groggily, rubbing her eyes.
Kitasan Black ignored the young lady. She picked up the sakura-patterned ribbon from the desk and tied her hair into a single ponytail.
Then she changed into training clothes and headed for the door.
"Kita-chan, you're going to train this early?"
No answer. She walked out of the dormitory without looking back.
At the training grounds, she took a deep breath of the morning air and—unusually—began warming up.
Unlike her own body, this one was in terrible shape.
Kita-chan floated in midair, discovering that her movement was restricted to a small radius around her body. Any attempt to get closer ran into an invisible wall.
"What is happening?!"
Had she been possessed by a ghost?
Kita-chan's expression was pure theatrical horror.
"That should do."
Exhaling, Kitasan Black walked to the track and set up in a starting position.
Kita-chan watched her curiously.
"Is she an uma musume too?"
The thought immediately calmed her panic. Because uma musume were never bad people. Even as a ghost, she'd be a good ghost. Definitely.
Kitasan Black counted down silently.
Go!
She launched off the mark.
The burst of explosive power at the start mobilized every ounce of strength in this body—a textbook-perfect launch.
Kita-chan's eyes went wide.
Golden light flashed beneath Kitasan Black's feet.
In the moment the skill activated, Kitasan Black's expression soured.
The skill effect had been drastically weakened.
One lap later, her verdict was that this body was weaker than her own had been fresh out of the box.
What she didn't know was that behind her, Kita-chan's jaw had dropped to the floor.
What was that? Can my body really produce those times?
Or did being possessed also power up your body?
That time was at least ten seconds faster than her personal best.
This... this was unbelievable.
Clap, clap, clap!
Sudden applause drew both Kitasan Black's and Kita-chan's attention.
They turned to find Satono Diamond, who'd followed her.
The young lady had noticed something was off about her childhood friend. But she hadn't expected to witness this after following her here.
"That was amazing! If you can keep this up, Kita-chan, the next race is in the bag!"
Satono Diamond was genuinely happy about Kita-chan's improvement.
Kita-chan looked horrified.
Diamond, that's not me!
Kitasan Black stared at Satono Diamond, expressionless and cold.
She was not in a good mood.
Based on her senpai's experiences, she'd almost certainly have to race on Kita-chan's behalf. And after that test run, the situation was even worse than she'd feared.
Without acknowledging Satono Diamond, Kitasan Black left the training grounds and returned to the dormitory.
She'd have liked to tune up this body a bit more, but for now, rest was the priority.
Because this body's condition was genuinely awful.
What had Kita-chan done to herself?
How had she let this much fatigue accumulate?
And what kind of incompetent trainer couldn't even spot the state their own runner was in?
An ordinary person missing it was one thing—but a trainer?
Or had the useless trainer decided that Kita-chan's natural talent was good enough and simply looked the other way?
True, with talent like this, the body would eventually adapt on its own.
But not without a cost.
The body's tolerance ceiling would erode with every instance of neglect.
Kitasan Black strongly suspected that Kita-chan's early decline was a direct consequence of this chronic carelessness.
Satono Diamond tilted her head, confused.
Something was definitely off about Kita-chan.
She hurried after her.
What she found was Kita-chan stepping out of the shower, changing into pajamas, sending something on her phone, and immediately falling asleep.
"Kita-chan?"
Silence.
"Did I... do something to make you angry?"
Satono Diamond's heart clenched. Her Kita-chan had never treated her like this before.
Kitasan Black was getting annoyed.
"I'm sleeping. Can you be quiet?"
"But—"
"I said quiet."
Being snapped at for the first time in her life, Satono Diamond fell silent, looking wounded.
Everything had been fine yesterday. How had Kita-chan become a completely different person overnight?
Floating nearby, Kita-chan was losing her mind.
Fine, this person had hijacked her body—whatever. But why did she have to be so mean to Diamond?!
"Dammit, I still can't get close! Give me my body back, you—you jerk!"
But her voice reached no one.
Satono Diamond waited silently by the bedside until it was almost time for class, then gently woke Kita-chan.
Normally she'd have left long ago. But today, she just couldn't leave Kita-chan alone.
Kitasan Black opened her eyes with a sharp look.
But she recognized the good intentions, so she only said, irritably: "I'm taking the day off."
"Why?"
"I'm not feeling well."
Kitasan Black felt this was technically the truth.
This body was stacked with overtraining debuffs, poor mental condition, and more. If not for the raw physical talent, it would've collapsed already.
Priority one was clearing the sleep-deprivation debuff through proper rest.
The real-world infirmary didn't have game-level recovery. These negative statuses had to be addressed the hard way.
Satono Diamond reached out and pressed her hand to Kitasan Black's forehead.
"What are you doing?"
Kitasan Black was stunned.
Did this woman have zero concept of personal space?
"Kita-chan, you don't have a fever. Skipping class is wrong."
Satono Diamond pulled her hand back before Kitasan Black could react, fixing her with a serious look.
"I already texted the teacher. It's none of your business."
"That's not acceptable."
Satono Diamond felt it was her duty to stop her best friend from going down a bad path.
What she didn't know was that the person inside this body had already changed.
Kitasan Black was not her best friend.
"Do you have any idea how annoying you are? And haven't you noticed? I'm not the Kitasan Black you know."
Satono Diamond didn't understand what had happened to Kita-chan. She'd noticed things were strange today, but still—
"How can you not be Kita-chan?"
"I can't explain it to you. If you want to keep pretending nothing's different, that's your choice. Just stop bothering me. I won't be here long. Your friend will come back on her own."
Satono Diamond reached out to grab Kitasan Black's arm, but her hand was swatted away harshly.
Kita-chan was frantic.
Diamond, she literally spelled it out for you—how are you still treating her like she's me?!
Satono Diamond went quiet.
Of course she'd noticed. She just couldn't accept it.
Her Kita-chan had been perfectly fine—how could she suddenly become someone else?
But facing this hostile version of Kitasan Black, Satono Diamond held back. She could sense that pushing further would only make the current Kita-chan dislike her more.
What is going on?
She bit her lip, then took out her phone and sent a message to the teacher. She was staying home too.
She wasn't going to leave.
Kitasan Black found this mildly uncomfortable, but she quickly willed herself into deep sleep.
Would Satono Diamond do something to her body while she slept?
It wasn't her body anyway. As long as the girl didn't wake her up, it didn't matter.
Besides, she wanted to test whether sleeping might transport her back—because that was how it had worked for McQueen-senpai.
She slept until noon.
When she woke naturally and glanced at the wall beside her, she spotted the lanterns—and understood she was still in Kita-chan's world. She didn't collect lanterns, so this wasn't her room.
"This is the worst."
Her mental state had improved slightly, but the sleep-deprivation debuff wasn't something you shook off that easily.
Should she visit a doctor for medication?
Actually, rather than the infirmary, she could try finding Agness Tachyon-senpai. She remembered Tachyon had medicine that treated sleep deprivation.
But if Tachyon discovered her situation, she'd absolutely be turned into a test subject.
Even knowing it probably wouldn't be too dangerous, the thought was unsettling.
Never mind. She'd manage through self-care.
At the end of the day, this wasn't a serious problem. Kita-chan just didn't know how to take care of herself.
That girl had probably been training nonstop for the next race.
But more training didn't mean better results. All that extra work had accomplished was accumulating fatigue.
Though ultimately, the blame fell on the trainer.
For not stopping Kita-chan.
For not designing a proper training program.
For not preparing appropriate recovery protocols.
It was inexcusable.
Kitasan Black had already guessed who Kita-chan's trainer was.
Apart from that useless Okino, no other trainer would be this incompetent.
Because Okino's philosophy was to let his runners pursue their own goals. He wouldn't take it upon himself to dictate race schedules, and he certainly wouldn't strictly prohibit off-the-books training.
Even when he knew a behavior was wrong, he wouldn't step in to stop it from the start.
He'd watch from the sidelines, occasionally offering a gentle reminder.
Only when things reached a crisis point would he finally intervene.
And even then, he could never commit to being firm about it.
Otherwise, Silence Suzuka wouldn't have run until she fractured her leg.
Having seen many trainers through her senpai's shared memories, Kitasan Black didn't like Okino.
His ability was strong—excellent, even.
But compared to skill, his fundamentally passive approach was the real problem.
"You're awake, Kita-chan. Your trainer called to check on you."
Satono Diamond was still there.
Kitasan Black picked up the phone from the desk. Sure enough, there was a call log.
"What did you tell him?"
"I just said you were resting. Nothing else."
Kitasan Black eyed Satono Diamond.
"Why didn't you tell him about my situation?"
"Would it be okay to?"
"Suit yourself."
She didn't care. And even if Satono Diamond kept quiet, she had no intention of playing pretend.
Kitasan Black got up, washed her face, and headed for the cafeteria.
It was already lunchtime.
"Where are you going?"
No answer.
Satono Diamond hurried after her.
Kitasan Black truly did not want to deal with this young lady.
She'd already told her she wasn't Kita-chan.
At the cafeteria, Kitasan Black sat down and ate.
For her, meals were serious business. She ate on schedule every day without exception.
And you could only do anything else properly on a full stomach.
...
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