Inside the Director's office, a rugged, stubble-faced man stood before Akikawa Yayoi and unceremoniously rubbed her head.
"Yayoi, long time no see."
"I'm the Director now, Trainer!" Akikawa Yayoi protested, steadying her hat.
"A Director's still that same little kid from back then." The man laughed loudly, then turned to look at Hayakawa Tazuna beside her. "You've grown into quite the young lady, Tazuna."
"It has been a long time, Trainer."
"Where's Chiya, anyway? In just the few years I was overseas, that brat went and passed the Central exam. By the way, did you tell him about the old days yet?"
"Not yet. I think it's better if we don't tell him for now." Akikawa Yayoi tapped her fan lightly.
If Chiya found out that his father had once been her and Tazuna's trainer, his ego would shoot straight through the roof. Akikawa Yayoi would much rather he think of her as just an ordinary trainer and work hard the honest way.
Besides, the trainer profession was evaluated by Central every year. If your ability fell short, if your Uma Musume could not produce results, then what was the point of handing him a veteran trainer's license in name only? Central would just strip him right back down.
Rather than giving him some hollow title, Akikawa Yayoi wanted him to steadily accumulate real experience.
"If you haven't told him, then forget it. Telling him now would only make him start thinking weird things. Where is he, anyway?"
"Yes, where is he?" Akikawa Yayoi looked toward Hayakawa Tazuna. Logically, Chiya should have been the very first one here to greet his father.
"I'll call him." Hayakawa Tazuna took out her phone and dialed. A voice immediately answered: The number you have dialed is currently powered off.
That was a little awkward.
"Maybe... something came up?"
"Let me handle this." Akikawa Yayoi directly picked up the internal line to the broadcasting room.
"Please announce for Fujiwara Chiya to come to the office. And tell him to hurry up and stop dawdling!"
In Agnes Tachyon's laboratory, Fujiwara Chiya was asleep on the sofa with a book on his chest when the loudspeaker suddenly blasted through the room and jolted him awake.
"Trainer Fujiwara Chiya, Trainer Fujiwara Chiya, please report to the Director's office immediately upon hearing this announcement. Please report to the Director's office immediately. The Director specifically says: 'Stop dawdling and get over here already!'"
What's this now?
Fujiwara Chiya raised his head. How does taking a nap turn into trouble?
"Maybe your father couldn't find you and ran straight to the broadcasting room," Agnes Tachyon said from her chair, sipping black tea in small, calm mouthfuls.
"He shouldn't even be able to get into the teaching building, right?"
"As long as the probability isn't zero, it can happen."
Fujiwara Chiya pushed himself up with some effort.
"Cafe, your book..."
"Just leave it on the desk. I'll come get it later."
A voice drifted over from the next room.
Fujiwara Chiya set down the book he had borrowed from Manhattan Cafe, some occult volume with such strong hypnotic sleep-inducing effects that he had fallen asleep reading it, then headed for the Director's office.
The moment he opened the door, a sturdy man came striding right toward him.
"Chiya, where the hell did you run off to!?"
Before Chiya could react, the man pulled him into a crushing hug. Fujiwara Chiya felt as if his bones were about to snap. Though his own build was fairly solid, compared to his father he still came up short. The sharply defined muscles in those arms were not something you got without over a decade of training.
"Dad... why are you here?"
"Zenya-san came to ask about how you've been doing lately," Akikawa Yayoi said in his father's place.
"Is that so? I've been doing fine."
Fujiwara Chiya had no idea what sort of expression he was supposed to wear right now. Parents showing up to ask your boss about your condition... was there anything more embarrassing than that? He wanted to dig a hole and bury himself.
"Now that Chiya's here, then Tr— ahem, Zenya-san, you two go ahead and talk."
Akikawa Yayoi tactfully left time for father and son.
"Come on, Chiya. Let's walk around a bit. It's been ages since I came here. The inside's changed completely." Fujiwara Zenya clapped him on the shoulder.
"Dad, have you been here before?"
"A long time ago, yeah. Not since then."
The two of them left the room.
"Director, aren't you going with them?" Hayakawa Tazuna asked, glancing at Akikawa Yayoi, whose eyes were still fixed on the pair.
"There's an order to these things."
Right now, this was Chiya's time. Only after the father and son were done talking would it be her and Tazuna's turn.
Out in the hallway, Fujiwara Zenya spoke first.
"So where's that girl?"
"Who?"
"Your cousin. What's her name again... Fujiwara Shirayuki? That's it, right?"
Fujiwara Chiya's body stiffened.
So in the end, he still couldn't escape this topic.
Honestly, the more people who knew a secret, the more uncontrollable trouble it invited. That included parents. And telling them would do nothing except cause worry. The current arrangement was fine. He lived his life normally, Shirayuki had work through the Mejiro family, and the two of them could both keep up their basic expenses without interfering with each other.
Acting rashly would only break that balance.
And more than that, his father was already in his fifties. His energy was not what it once was. How could he possibly handle this kind of shocking revelation?
Fujiwara Chiya glanced at the arm beside him, thicker around than his own, and swallowed. He quietly amended his energy isn't what it once was with probably.
"What's wrong, Chiya?"
"Nothing. If you're looking for Shirayuki, she's outside somewhere. I'm not exactly sure where."
Fujiwara Chiya intended to wave the matter away. He did not want his father and Shirayuki meeting.
Just as he was trying to guide his father farther away, his body suddenly felt light.
More precisely, not his body but hers.
Fujiwara Shirayuki's eyes widened as she looked at the brown-haired woman behind her.
Kitachi Maito.
"Um..."
"Ah, sorry. You just look so much like my child that I couldn't help picking you up."
"Like him?"
"Your eyes are very similar." Smiling warmly, Kitachi Maito stroked her head. "I can't find that boy Chiya anywhere. He isn't answering his phone either. Honestly, he's such a handful... Oh, right, you're Chiya's cousin, aren't you? I can't believe I don't even know the children from our relatives' side. Shirayuki, who is your mother?"
Holding the girl in her arms, Kitachi Maito asked the question with an easy smile.
She figured it was fine to be a little physically affectionate. After all, this was supposed to be a relative's child.
"My mother..."
Fujiwara Shirayuki's eyes shifted uneasily.
This body had no blood relation to Chiya's, so strictly speaking, Kitachi Maito was not her biological mother.
Should she lie?
Shirayuki considered it. Keep everything about herself secret. Say nothing, even to her parents.
But looking at her mother's gentle face, just imagining having to treat her like a stranger from now on made Shirayuki's chest ache.
She still remembered that when she was little, her favorite thing had been rubbing her mother's ears and then asking her to wrap her up with her tail.
In her memories, her parents had always gotten along well. But there was one thing she had never forgotten.
Because of a single careless comment from her father, her mother had once had a huge fight with him.
At the time, Fujiwara Chiya had been off running around somewhere, and his father had casually said, "Too bad this child isn't an Uma Musume." His mother had exploded with rage on the spot.
So what if he was not an Uma Musume? He was still the child she loved most in the world.
Looking at the mother she had not seen in so long, whose appearance had barely changed at all, Fujiwara Shirayuki lowered her head.
"I actually... have two mothers."
"Two?"
"Yes. One is the mother who gave me my body, the most exalted divinity in the world, the Three Goddesses. The other is the mother who gave me my consciousness."
Her voice grew quiet.
"Her name is Kitachi Maito."
At those words, Kitachi Maito's eyes widened.
She looked into the girl's gaze, then froze where she stood.
Because within that gaze, she saw a will she recognized with perfect clarity.
It was her child's will.
"Chiya..."
"Not Chiya." Fujiwara Shirayuki shook her head. "My name is Shirayuki. I am his Uma Musume. And... I am also your child."