Shirayuki brought the woman she had knocked over into the café and ordered her a milk tea parfait. After confirming that she was not hurt, Shirayuki asked her name.
"Godolphin Arabian," she said. "You can just call me Godolphin."
That name sounds so familiar.
It felt like she had heard it somewhere before. Shirayuki tried to remember, but her train of thought was cut off for some inexplicable reason. She vaguely knew who that name belonged to, but the moment she was about to remember, her mind suddenly went blank, and the figure that had just appeared in her thoughts vanished again.
In the end, Shirayuki gave up thinking.
She asked the woman, "Why did Godolphin-san call me 'Trainer'?"
"Is Shirayuki not a trainer?"
"I… am, but no matter how you look at me right now, I'm an uma musume, aren't I?"
"Ara~ But I feel that you are a trainer."
She smiled gently.
"Your heart, the soul that belongs to a trainer, is burning."
"When you say it in such a mystical way, I don't even know how to answer…"
"Would you like some?"
She scooped up a spoonful of parfait and brought it over. Shirayuki opened her mouth. After eating it, her mind gradually calmed down.
"Is Godolphin-san an uma musume?"
"Why do you think so?"
"You're wearing a tracksuit, and the feeling you give me is strange."
A strong sense of closeness had appeared in Shirayuki's heart, as if the person before her was her most precious family member. But this was clearly their first meeting.
That was why Shirayuki guessed that the other party might also be an uma musume. Her instinct had been drawn toward her. After being trained by Cafe's "friend," Shirayuki had started paying great attention to instinct. She knew that the body would react before the brain.
"Unfortunately, strictly speaking, I am not an uma musume."
Godolphin scooped up the parfait and fed Shirayuki one spoonful after another. Shirayuki did not know why either, but her body ate each bite without resisting, as though only the two of them remained in the entire world.
"What about Shirayuki? Do you believe you are an uma musume?" she asked.
"Yes."
She had just won a race, after all. Did this person not know her?
"Do you still remember why you wanted to become an uma musume in the beginning?"
"Why…"
Shirayuki thought for a while, then said, "At first, I said I wanted to understand uma musume. And now, I have become one."
"In that case, has your wish been fulfilled?"
"No. Not yet. I want to take part in races around the world. I want to stand at the highest point. Only then will I understand what it means to charge forward without hesitation. Only then will I understand the summit that uma musume pursue."
Hearing those words, Godolphin stood up, embraced Shirayuki, and gently stroked her head.
"Do not forget your very first wish."
She smiled.
"Today truly is a wonderful day. I am glad to have met you, Trainer."
After saying that, she waved her hand, turned around, and left the café.
"Miss… Miss?"
Someone shook Shirayuki's shoulder.
As if waking from a dream, Shirayuki opened her eyes and looked around. At this moment, she was sitting in her seat, and in front of her was a parfait that had just been finished.
"Do you need any help, miss?"
The café employee beside her asked with concern. This white-haired girl had remained in the same posture for ten whole minutes, unmoving. The manager had asked him to come over and check on her.
Shirayuki shook her head. After paying the bill, she left the café and looked at the neon-lit signboard.
She patted her head.
Strange.
Why had she suddenly wanted to come in and eat a parfait?
She clearly was not interested in this kind of thing.
"Do you still remember your first wish?"
An inexplicable voice sounded by her ear.
Shirayuki closed her eyes and thought for a long time, but she still could not make sense of it. In the end, she could only sigh helplessly and return to Tracen.
…
The full-dive device arrived earlier than expected. Agnes Tachyon had used the power of money and asked a relative in America to send it over.
Fujiwara Chiya could hardly wait and rushed to the laboratory to watch Agnes Tachyon assemble the equipment. Rarely, there was another person in the room. She had short black hair, with a ponytail left at the back. She also wore earrings and looked like a delinquent girl.
"You actually bought something like this. Seriously, you really are something… Hah?"
Her fierce golden eyes glared backward, and she said, "Who are you?"
"Yo, Guinea Pig-kun. You're here."
Agnes Tachyon greeted him, then introduced them.
"He is my trainer. And this is Jingu-kun, a computer genius."
The other girl clicked her tongue, apparently extremely unhappy with Agnes Tachyon's introduction.
"I'm Air Shakur. I guess you could call me an acquaintance of this girl."
She pointed at Agnes Tachyon beside her with a rough, delinquent-like attitude.
"You're the lab rat she's using for the test?"
"Not him, Jingu-kun. The lab rat is still on the way."
Although these two had completely different personalities, Fujiwara Chiya could somehow sense something they had in common.
They were both strangely obsessed with a certain thing.
Just like Agnes Tachyon, this girl was also an undeniable problem child.
Fujiwara Chiya's internal alarm began ringing.
At that moment, Shirayuki also walked in.
"Oh? Isn't that our little Empress? Using the Empress for an experiment, huh? Haha!"
Air Shakur laughed. Fujiwara Chiya's heart jumped as he heard it. He saw the saw-like teeth in her mouth, sharp enough to rival Shinko Wind's.
Don't tell me this girl likes biting people too?
But putting her aside for now, Fujiwara Chiya looked at the huge package. His heart thumped loudly. This was his first time seeing a full-dive device. The company logo was printed on it, and the name of the item was—
"VR Umalator."
"Hah?"
Air Shakur glanced at him.
"I was reading the name of this thing."
"The name doesn't matter. Unrelated personnel, stand back."
She waved her hand, connected the headset to the computer, and began operating through a string of interface screens.
Fujiwara Chiya could still understand the part where she opened the files.
After that, he understood nothing.
"Is this thing really that complicated?"
"I need some of the data inside. Agnes Tachyon agreed to treat this device as payment for helping her."
Air Shakur said casually.
"By the way, what's a trainer doing here? Giving training instructions? The camera angle inside this thing can't be freely adjusted, so you might not be able to see what you want to see."
"I'm here to assist with the experiment."
Air Shakur snorted and said nothing more. After she finished typing the final character, she told Shirayuki to put on the headset and enter the pod.
"You might feel dizzy or uncomfortable. It'll pass after a moment."
As she spoke, Air Shakur tapped on the keyboard.
Fujiwara Chiya swallowed. Right now, Shirayuki could no longer see anything on her side. If she entered a virtual world, what would happen to his side?
That was also the reason Agnes Tachyon had called him over.
"Connection starting."
The moment Air Shakur said that, Fujiwara Chiya felt his vision brighten.
Then he lost Shirayuki's point of view.