As the day progressed, I realized just how famous Rice Shower really was. People whispered her name as she passed. Some looked bitter, others looked pitying. But no one approached her.
Rice felt the chill in the air. She began to shrink into herself—or she would have, if she'd been alone.
"Rice-chan! Let's go there next!"
Urara didn't care about the atmosphere. She didn't care about the whispers. She just pulled Rice forward with a smile. The people who were looking at Rice with resentment ended up looking away, feeling awkward in the face of Urara's pure energy.
Rice looked at Urara as if she were looking at a sun too bright to behold. Urara just checked her phone, her tail standing straight up.
"Oh! Look at the time! Rice-chan, we have to go to the shops! Trainer said he's making carrot hamburgers, so we need the ingredients!"
"E-eh? Right... okay."
Urara pulled her along, then turned back with a beaming grin.
"Ehehe... playing with Rice-chan is so much fun, I totally lost track of time!"
Rice's ears flickered. Her face crumpled for a fleeting second before melting into a radiant smile.
"Yes... me too! Rice had so much fun with you, Urara-chan!"
I couldn't begin to imagine how much that simple sentence meant to her. I smiled to myself and began to head back to the Academy. They could handle the shopping. And besides, I had to get the kitchen ready and establish an alibi that I'd been working the whole time.
"And then! And then! We went to the vegetable stand, and the old man gave Rice-chan this many carrots!"
"I see, I see. That's great, Urara."
"And the butcher gave us extra meat for free!"
"Is that so? How nice of them."
I welcomed them back to the training kitchen with a smile, now safely back in my tracksuit and glasses-free. I nodded along to Urara's excited recap, but a cold sweat was running down my neck.
"Rice... are you sure those boxes aren't too heavy?"
"I'm fine."
They had brought back two massive cardboard boxes overflowing with meat and vegetables. Each one had to be nearly twenty kilograms, yet Rice was carrying both of them stacked together as if they were made of feathers. G1 strength was no joke.
(Can we even use all of this? The veggies will keep, but the meat...)
I'd assumed that because Rice was small, she'd eat like a bird. I was wrong. I was so, so wrong.
"...No way..."
Rice Shower was, quite frankly, a black hole.
She polished off a triple-stacked "Giant Carrot Hamburger with Bell Pepper Filling," asked for seconds, and then proceeded to put away bowl after bowl of rice.
(This is physically impossible. Is she converting the food into pure energy the moment it hits her stomach? Damn my lack of experience!)
They didn't teach this at the institute! Sure, they said Umamusume eat a lot, and Urara eats more than she looks, but Rice was in a league of her own.
"Trainer's hamburgers are the best, right? I love them so much!" Urara said through a mouthful of food.
"Yes... they're delicious," Rice whispered, her eyes shining as she finished yet another plate.
"I'm glad. So... Rice, did you have fun today?"
Rice blinked, then gave a slow, deep nod.
"I had a wonderful time... The best time I've ever had."
She smiled softly, and I felt a weight lift off my chest.
"Good. Now, I'll handle the cleanup. You two need to rest. And remember: the punishment says no extra training tonight! But tomorrow, we get serious. Understood?"
"Aye-aye!"
"Y-yes... Rice will do her best!"
I watched them leave the kitchen, one shouting with joy and the other with a small, determined fist pressed to her chest.
"Right. Time for me to do my part."
Energized by their smiles, I finished the dishes and headed back to the common room to get back to work.