After that nerve-racking family visit, his parents returned to their house in Tokyo, only about a twenty-minute drive from Tracen.
That was close enough to be terrifying.
Fujiwara Chiya was genuinely afraid the two of them might come running back to the school again and say something jaw-dropping to his Uma Musume, his classmates, or his coworkers.
Three Goddesses, please protect me. Don't let them come back.
Morning arrived.
Hearing the birds outside the window, Fujiwara Chiya opened his eyes. The blurry patches of color in front of him gradually came into focus, and in the end they formed the image of a green figure in an apron standing in the kitchen.
It was Hayakawa Tazuna. She was making breakfast.
Fujiwara Chiya rubbed his eyes.
Why was she in his room? How had she gotten in? He had no desire to think about those questions. The more he thought, the more terrifying the truth would probably become. Rather than digging into the core of the story, it was better to simply appreciate the pleasant surface of things. At least that way, he could live a little more comfortably.
"You're awake, Chiya."
At her gentle call, Fujiwara Chiya sat up.
He vaguely remembered going to sleep the night before wearing pajamas, but when he woke up he was down to only his underwear. His sleepwear had somehow been folded neatly and placed beside his pillow.
Fujiwara Chiya touched the bedding and, after confirming it was dry, let out a quiet sigh of relief.
He put on his outer layer and sat down at the table. Hayakawa Tazuna placed a tray in front of him.
"Breakfast is bread, bacon, and egg soup."
She sat across from him, resting her face in her hands, her eyes bright with delight.
Smelling the food, Fujiwara Chiya pressed his palms together, murmured a brief thanks, and picked up his chopsticks.
"Aren't you eating, Tazuna?"
"I am eating," she replied. "I'm enjoying the sight of how delicious you look while eating, Chiya."
In those green eyes, his reflection shimmered faintly. For a moment, Fujiwara Chiya thought he saw her pink tongue lightly brush over her lips.
Don't think too deeply about it.
He warned himself.
His father had already pushed his life right to the edge of a cliff. With the gates to disaster wide open, he had thoroughly lost his rear guard.
He finished breakfast in a whirlwind and stood up.
"I'm heading to work."
"Alright. Be safe, and come back early."
"What about you, Tazuna?"
"As for me... I'll tidy up the room and then leave."
At this point, she practically seemed to have treated the place as her own home.
Then again, so had Rice Shower.
Fujiwara Chiya could already picture the magnificent chaos that would erupt if those two ever ran into each other again.
Last time, his father's phone call had saved him from the scene of disaster. As for what he would do next time, he had absolutely no idea. For now, all he could do was avoid letting them meet at all costs.
After saying goodbye, Fujiwara Chiya left the room. Once the sound of his footsteps faded from the hallway, Hayakawa Tazuna finished clearing the breakfast dishes.
Her gaze fell on the spoon he had used for the soup just moments earlier.
Her eyes flickered.
Picking it up, she brushed her hair aside and slowly ran her tongue across it several times.
Not good. The soup had been a little bland.
Hayakawa Tazuna reflected on that, then placed the now-clean spoon back with the rest of the dishes.
The trainer had already approved her relationship with Chiya, and the promise from long ago was still valid. Since that was the case, Hayakawa Tazuna had no intention of hiding anymore. She intended to begin with cohabitation, to completely fill every corner of Chiya's daily life, and to keep those disobedient little nuisances from getting close.
The world of adults was no place for children to meddle.
After putting the tableware away, she returned to the bed and picked up the sleepwear she had quietly taken off him that morning. Hugging it to her chest, she breathed in deeply as the strong scent filled her nose, and a blissful expression spread across her face.
Under her hat, her ears swayed happily.
As expected, clothes worn all through the night carried the best scent.
Meanwhile, Fujiwara Chiya returned to his office.
No matter how many strange interruptions filled his daily life, his actual work had not changed. The overconfidence he had gained from his recent growth had been cleanly cut down by Grass Wonder. After being mercilessly brought back to reality by her, he had resolved to return to training in a steady, grounded way.
Fujiwara Chiya understood now that those truly powerful Uma Musume were not merely gifted by talent. Their training loads were also astonishing. They did not slack off just because they had been born with advantages. Instead, they developed their bodies to the fullest and forged their natural gifts into weapons, using them to deliver a decisive killing blow at the key point in a race.
The Zone...
That was probably the right term.
Every Uma Musume, under the right conditions, had a chance of entering the Zone during a race. When that happened, they displayed abilities that were unbelievably powerful.
Anyone had the potential to enter the Zone. Even human athletes could. According to those who had experienced it, their bodies entered a special state in that moment. Everything else disappeared. It felt as if the entire world had narrowed until only they remained, while all their senses became incomparably vivid.
Experienced trainers called this state "flow" or a "peak experience," a condition where the senses entered an extremely concentrated state. In simpler terms, people just called it the Zone.
But the Zone was not some fantasy concept. This world was not a manga or an anime, where one could awaken superpowers through sheer effort and sudden inspiration. The Zone was exactly what the word suggested: an unknown state that even the person experiencing it could not fully understand, something that surpassed the limits of existing science.
Fujiwara Chiya had once been lucky enough to witness an Uma Musume enter the Zone.
Tokino Minoru.
During the final three hundred meters of the first race of the Classic Triple Crown, the Satsuki Sho, she had displayed a running speed that completely surpassed common sense. In that moment, Fujiwara Chiya had seen lightning flashing across her body.
He had felt a terrifying pressure, like a sovereign ruling over the world itself, proudly looking down on everything below. That lofty, overpowering figure remained carved into his memory with perfect clarity even now.
In that race, Tokino Minoru had improved the course record by an astonishing 6.1 seconds.
Fujiwara Chiya was absolutely certain she had entered the Zone.
Even if, to ordinary eyes, an Uma Musume in that state looked no different from normal, and even if most people had no idea what the Zone really was, Fujiwara Chiya understood that indescribable feeling that pushed an Uma Musume into a state beyond herself, a state of total transcendence.
He could sense it.
And Tokino Minoru was not the only one.
In the years since, he had gradually witnessed quite a few Uma Musume entering their own Zones. Some had been like thunder splitting the heavens, others like monsters so terrifying they froze the blood.
But including even the Emperor's Zone, none of them had ever shocked him the way Tokino Minoru's had.
If possible, Fujiwara Chiya truly wanted to meet her again.
Not only because she was the one he admired most, but because now that Fujiwara Shirayuki existed, he wanted Shirayuki to become an Uma Musume with that same world-ruling majesty. He wanted to ask Tokino Minoru how she ran the way she did, and how she entered the Zone.
At long last, he had become a trainer. At last, he had gained the right to speak to someone like her.
And yet, he could no longer find any trace of her.
I wonder where Tokino Minoru is now... and how she's doing.
After offering a quiet wish to his idol, Fujiwara Chiya stood up.
It might still be early. Fujiwara Shirayuki, who had only recently debuted, was still some distance away from the word "strong."
But even so, Fujiwara Chiya wanted Shirayuki to begin preparing now.
He wanted her to start learning how to enter the Zone.
He needed to prepare a trump card, something he could rely on in the future.
So first, he would go ask some of his seniors for guidance on how exactly to do that.
For example, Nase Fumino, who had once successfully brought Super Creek into the Zone.