Who did he like best.
The moment that question appeared, the lively atmosphere in the room instantly collapsed into an eerie silence.
The Umamusume looked at one another. Their eyes held anticipation and excitement, but also misgivings and suspicion.
With Eclipse not participating in the game at all—according to her, because she had no interest in it, though in reality it was because three certain clowns wanted to sit back and watch the show—the answer to that question could practically decide the entire match on the spot.
And the once-unbreakable alliance the girls had formed out of shared resentment over Kitahara's absence during the day began to shake and crack beneath that seemingly harmless question.
But at that very moment, faced with what was almost a death sentence of a question, Kitahara instead looked relieved.
Then he answered with complete ease.
"I like all of you."
His expression was utterly calm.
Then, after a pause, he added another line before anyone else could respond.
"If I had to put it into words, I just think all of you are wonderful. You all have your own different strong points. No matter which one of you it is, I like you all very much, and depending on the angle you look from, any one of you could be my favorite in her own way."
Silence.
"...Are you joking?"
"Nope."
Kitahara spread his hands and answered lightly, "And you all saw me drink that stuff earlier. So you can be sure that what I'm saying right now is exactly what I'm thinking."
Silence.
The Umamusume looked at one another again, and in the end it was Satono Diamond who stepped forward, speaking in a tone that was both slightly curious and innocently sincere.
"Then, Trainer Kitahara, what if the question is asking who you like best from the perspective of the opposite sex and romance? It is Valentine's Day, after all... and you should have someone you like too, shouldn't you...?"
"Well..."
Faced with Satono Diamond's question, Kitahara thought for a while before answering honestly.
"I don't know."
After a pause, seeing the suspicious looks everyone was giving him, Kitahara sighed and spoke helplessly.
"Alright, alright, I know you're all curious about this kind of topic, but the problem is, I really don't know the answer. I've never been in a relationship before, and I don't really understand that side of things..."
"And besides, even though I do like all of you, you know this too—I'm your Trainer. There's no way I could ever make a move on any of you. Honestly, I'd even feel like I was crossing a line just for having those kinds of thoughts. So if I absolutely had to answer, then... yeah..."
Kitahara thought for a moment.
"I guess I don't like any of you that way."
Dead silence.
The instant the words fell, the room sank into silence again.
If that earlier question had only made the united alliance waver for a moment—so much so that it had nearly collapsed outright—then Kitahara's answer now had the opposite effect. The alliance that had just about started coming apart instantly snapped back together and became even more solid than before. Truly unbreakable now.
Good. You said that yourself.
In the middle of that eerie silence, the Umamusume looked at one another, confirmed the message in each other's eyes, then silently turned their gazes back to Kitahara.
As for Kitahara himself, although he noticed the looks, he did not think much of them. If anything, he was privately sighing in relief that Truth really had been the better option after all. What the hell was with those Dare prompts?
After that answer, the next two rounds passed.
Perhaps because quite enough had already happened, although there were still a few punishments during those rounds, the hidden-number system kept any of them from dragging Kitahara in. He got through both rounds with ease, growing more convinced than ever that choosing Truth earlier had been the correct call.
But that peace only lasted until the fifth round.
As the fifth round began, Agnes Tachyon rolled a twenty-one. It should have been an unlucky number, yet when she looked at it, a smile spread across her face instead.
At first, Kitahara did not think much of her low roll.
There were so many people here. Never mind how low the odds were of her choosing him—even if she did, from what he had observed, there were not actually that many truly absurd punishments in the penalty deck. The thing with Super Creek earlier had just been an accident. There was no way the same kind of accident would happen twice in one night, and both times to him...
[Penalty 36: Choose a number and remain inside the same piece of clothing as that person for one round.]
"I choose number eleven."
The instant the penalty card was turned over, Agnes Tachyon made her choice without hesitation.
And this time, no matter how Kitahara flipped his number card upside down, the number in his hand stayed exactly the same.
"Wait."
Once he confirmed there was no dodging this one, Kitahara looked down at his bare upper body, then at Agnes Tachyon, who was walking toward him with a smile in that thin sleepwear and nothing else, and finally could not help calling a halt.
"What is it?"
"No, look—there's no shirt on me right now, and Tachyon's only got that one thing on. I can't exactly crawl into her clothes, can I...?"
Under normal circumstances, Kitahara's objection would have been perfectly reasonable. If this had been any other day, the other girls would definitely have stepped in to stop something this blatantly over the line.
But now, bizarrely, after Kitahara spoke, not only did the usually quiet Oguri Cap and the rest say nothing, even Tazuna Hayakawa and Rudolf very deliberately looked away in perfect sync, pretending they had not heard a thing. Even the horse ears on top of their heads folded down in a comically self-deceiving display, making Kitahara's eyelid twitch.
I get that you older single women are in a bad mood today and want to enjoy the spectacle, but please read the room. This is actually getting a little excessive...
But just as the other Umamusume sat in silence, apparently waiting to see how he would deal with this, Agnes Tachyon—now standing in front of him—suddenly spoke up.
"Alright. Guinea Pig-kun does have a point. Then I'll make an exception and go get a coat... that shouldn't violate the rules, should it?"
As she said that, Agnes Tachyon looked to Satono Diamond, who gave a slight nod.
As for the others, while they really did want to see what Kitahara would do if Agnes Tachyon had not spoken up, a show was still just a show. They did not actually want to push him too far. Since Tachyon had voluntarily offered a compromise, they all took the out and tacitly accepted it.
After that, Agnes Tachyon went into Kitahara's bedroom, picked out a roomy overcoat he almost never wore, came back, sat down in his lap, and wrapped the coat around both of them.
Only then, looking at the unusually well-behaved Agnes Tachyon in his lap, did Kitahara slowly come back to himself. The look in his eyes turned a little subtle.
He had figured she would never let a chance like this to mess with him pass her by. But looking at her now, she was actually being pretty sensible... maybe she was embarrassed?
Kitahara had no idea what she was thinking, but since this was a good thing, he did not dwell on it for long and prepared to continue the ga—
Rustle.
Just as Kitahara was marveling at how rare it was for Agnes Tachyon to behave for once and was about to turn his attention back to the game, he felt her small rear shift against him with the faint sound of fabric brushing. Her legs also drew up beneath the coat and came to rest against his waist.
Can't this girl ever just sit still...
That was what he thought, but since she was being unusually cooperative, he had no intention of nitpicking over something so minor. With a small sigh, he focused his attention back on the table.
And after that, hidden by the coat so that no one could see what was happening inside, the two of them remained in that position until Kitahara's turn came around.
He thought he could simply hold out like that until it was over.
But just as he reached out toward the die, beneath the coat, in the place the others could not see, that familiar rustling sound came again.
This time, though, unlike before, the sensation of movement was not creeping upward.
It was slowly moving downward instead.
Tiny toes gently pried open the gap between cloth and skin, then slowly slipped inside.
Kitahara's expression changed slightly, but outwardly he remained calm. He picked up the die from the table, rolled it as if nothing were wrong, then bent down toward Agnes Tachyon's ear and spoke in an extremely low voice.
"Agnes Tachyon, what do you think you're doing?"
"I'm not doing anything at all."
Without turning around, Agnes Tachyon answered in an almost teasing tone.
"If anything, someone here said he doesn't like any of us, and yet his body seems awfully honest..."
As she spoke, the die continued to rattle across the table, and that faint rustling sound came again. The smooth brush of stocking against skin sent a dangerously enticing sensation through him.
"Sixty-six... I'm safe."
Keeping his movements natural as he passed the die to the next person, Kitahara lowered his voice even further, and this time there was clear irritation in it.
"Tachyon, if this is a joke, it's already gone too far. If you really want to mess with me, fine—pick another time and place, and I'll let you go wild. But right now..."
"Do you still think I've always just been messing with you?"
Agnes Tachyon kept her head lowered, her expression hidden from view.
"Isn't that exactly what this is?"
At Kitahara's question, Agnes Tachyon fell silent for a moment. Then she raised her head, leaned close to his ear, and spoke in a seriousness he had never heard from her before.
"I know that because of everything before this, you've always assumed I was joking, Guinea Pig-kun."
"But just now, you saw it too. I drank that potion. Right now, I'm in a state where I can't lie."
"So now, I can tell you this with complete certainty."
"I'm not messing with you."
"I like you, Guinea Pig-kun."
"The kind of like that comes straight from the heart."
Kitahara's body stiffened slightly.
The game around them went on as usual, as though nobody had noticed what was happening here.
Or perhaps they had noticed—and were pretending not to.
After a brief silence, seeing that Kitahara still had not answered, Agnes Tachyon spoke again.
"If you think I took an antidote in advance and I'm just trying to mess with you this way, then I can prove it some other way."
"As long as it makes you believe that I like you, I'm willing to do anything—"
"Can you take your foot back first?" Kitahara suddenly cut in.
"No. That one thing is non-negotiable."
Agnes Tachyon answered without hesitation.
"Otherwise you definitely won't believe me..."
"I believe you."
Kitahara let out a sigh and spoke under his breath.
"I know you're not the kind of girl who doesn't know where the line is. So yes, I believe that you like me. Which is why... can you take your foot back now? We can talk about the rest later..."
Agnes Tachyon froze for a moment when she heard that he believed her. After processing it, she thought for a bit—and refused again.
"No. Even if you believe me, you've bullied me who knows how many times over the past while. It's only fair that I get to hit back for once... or you can beg me. Beg, and I'll take it back."
Beg her...
Kitahara's expression shifted slightly.
Under normal circumstances, giving a little ground here and getting Agnes Tachyon to withdraw first would obviously have been the best choice.
The problem was that Agnes Tachyon seemed to have forgotten something.
From the very beginning, when the two of them first met, a certain someone had always responded to softness, never force.
So this time, faced with Agnes Tachyon's threat, Kitahara went silent for a few seconds, then spoke.
"I'll give you five seconds. If you don't take it back, don't say I didn't warn you."
Agnes Tachyon did not answer. The soft rustling only came again.
She simply refused to believe that in a situation like this, Kitahara still had any way to turn the tables.
"Five, four, three, two... one."
Just as Agnes Tachyon was thinking that, Kitahara finished his countdown.
Then, the instant it ended, she noticed one of Kitahara's hands slip back into his sleeve. A bad feeling surged up in her chest. And then she felt something familiar at her waist—followed by a hard press.
Nn—!
A shock-like sensation surged through her whole body, stripping away her ability to resist almost instantly.
And just as she was about to cry out uncontrollably, Kitahara's other hand covered her mouth at exactly the right moment. The sound that escaped in that instant was blocked, and then his hand was gone again, leaving everything on the surface looking perfectly normal.
"I warned you."
As he spoke, Kitahara—under the resentful stare Agnes Tachyon sent him—used the hand still hidden in his sleeve to steady her body, straighten her posture, and set her sitting position back in place. He kept her like that until the round finally ended, then returned the still-limp Agnes Tachyon to her original seat.
At first, Kitahara had been a little worried that if he just put her back like that, the others might find it strange. If that happened, how exactly was he supposed to explain it?
But to his surprise, even though Agnes Tachyon's abnormal state was incredibly obvious, nobody else seemed to notice at all. Somehow, he got through it without the slightest problem.
What is with everyone tonight...
Looking at the strange Umamusume around him, Kitahara's eyes filled with faint confusion. Something about all of this felt off.
He did not get long to dwell on it, though.
Because with the start of the next round, the appearance of a new complication broke his train of thought.
Only this time, the person it happened to was a little unexpected.
[Penalty 24: Choose a number and kiss that person.]
Looking at the contents of the card, then at the number card she had just selected—Kitahara's—and feeling the gazes of the Umamusume around her—
Silence Suzuka went white as a sheet.
---
T/N: AHFISHIFAHSI IM TOO INNOCENT FOR THIS
T/N2: heres ur updates :3 meeting the 4 i mean 2 chaps :3
bonus chaps
200 stones -> 1 chapter
400 stones -> 2 chapters
600 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
discord.gg/wisetl
patreon.com/wisetl