To be honest, although she had joined the sleepover, Silence Suzuka had absolutely no intention—or rather, no courage—to step onto the main battlefield.
It was not as though she had no goodwill toward Kitahara at all. Between the fracture before and everything else that had happened, he had taken good care of her more than once, and little by little, that had naturally earned him some affection from her.
But at present, their relationship was still perfectly normal. Silence Suzuka only saw Kitahara as a dependable adult she could trust. There were no strange feelings of a more complicated sort mixed in.
And the reason she had shown up to this sleepover was not to stir up trouble or anything like that. It was simply because this was a group sleepover for all of Kitahara's Umamusume. Not only had she been called in, even Kitasan Black had been dragged along by Satono Diamond.
Besides, before the sleepover started, although she had been able to predict that there would probably be some competition tonight, she had also seen plenty of cases in the past where everyone pulled each other down so hard that what started as a battle ended up turning into nothing more than a normal night of fun.
So before coming, Silence Suzuka had not taken the matter too seriously. She had assumed it would probably go the same way as before—everyone would start out competing fiercely, then as they fought, things would gradually turn more playful, and since Kitahara treated her well, if the chance came up, she could even help him out a little...
But who knew Kitahara could put his foot in it that badly? Who even came up with an answer like that?!
As a side note, while most of the Umamusume at the sleepover were dressed rather revealingly, a small number of them were wearing perfectly normal pajamas. Silence Suzuka was one of them, dressed in the pajamas she usually wore in her dorm, and the same went for Kitasan Black, who had been called over to join in.
As for Tazuna, Komata, and Symboli Rudolf, the three of them were also wearing relatively normal sleepwear—not nearly as outrageous as the younger girls'—but it was not because they did not want to wear those other outfits. Each of them had her own reason why she could not.
Rudolf, for example, still had not figured out how she was supposed to talk to Tokai Teio about the matter between herself and Kitahara, or what she was going to do about it, so for the time being she was still keeping that matter hidden from Teio. She neither wanted nor dared let it come to light.
But back to the point.
The moment Silence Suzuka drew the "kiss" penalty card and then turned up Kitahara's number, it was not just Kitahara who looked helpless. Silence Suzuka herself went white as a sheet on the spot.
Under normal circumstances, the people here should never have allowed her and Kitahara to start getting affectionate in front of everyone.
But tonight was obviously an exception.
No matter how unwilling they might have been to see something like that right now, none of them could possibly step in and stop it. They had to preserve the order of the game if they wanted situations like this to keep happening.
And the worst part was that maybe the others did not care much at the moment because they were all focused on ganging up on Kitahara, but tomorrow, once they came back to their senses and remembered this, then even if they had no other thoughts in mind, she would probably get dragged straight into the battlefield too...
Suzuka, think of something. If this keeps going, something really is going to happen...
Staring at the card in her hand and feeling the gazes around her grow heavier and heavier, Silence Suzuka's ears had started trembling—
Wait. The card?
Looking at the card in her hand, Silence Suzuka suddenly remembered something. She immediately reached for the reward card she had gotten in the first round. The moment she saw what was written on it, delight flashed into her eyes like a drowning person grabbing hold of a lifeline.
"Wait, I want to use this reward card!"
As she spoke, she turned the reward card over and showed it to everyone.
[Reward 1: When you draw a penalty card, you may designate another number as your substitute and have that person carry out the punishment for you.]
The instant the card was revealed, Silence Suzuka could feel the pressure of the gazes fixed on her lighten for a moment.
But before she could even finish breathing her sigh of relief, the weight of those gazes surged back over her all at once the very next second.
And only then did Silence Suzuka realize something.
The card would indeed let her pass the burden to someone else, but choosing who to dump that punishment on was not exactly a decision that would make her popular.
Even after realizing that, though, she had no way out now. She had already declared she was using the reward card, and if she did not, the situation somehow felt like it might become even worse. So all she could do was grit her teeth and start thinking about who to transfer this "punishment" to.
While she was hesitating, Special Week, sitting across from her, quietly tilted the number card in her hand while Kitahara was not looking, showing just one corner of it to Silence Suzuka and giving her a meaningful look.
The moment she noticed that, Silence Suzuka did not hesitate.
"I choose number six!"
Silence.
After she made her choice, the other Umamusume all lowered their heads and checked the number cards in their hands.
But just as Silence Suzuka was about to finally let out that breath she had been holding, she noticed that Special Week's expression did not look very good.
And she found out why almost immediately.
Because in the very next second, Special Week rotated the card in her hand slightly, and only then did Silence Suzuka realize from the pattern on it that Special Week had been holding it upside down the whole time.
Which meant Special Week was actually number nine.
So number six was...
The Umamusume in the room all looked up.
Then they saw Kitasan Black raise the number card in her hand and blink.
"Ah, looks like I'm number six."
The atmosphere in the room stalled for a beat, then began turning subtle.
This was not because anyone had a problem with Kitasan Black, or because they did not want her getting close to Kitahara.
It was because Kitasan Black herself was a rather special case.
She was completely out of the loop.
And not in the same way as Silence Suzuka, who simply did not have any romantic thoughts about Kitahara. Kitasan Black did not even fully understand the situation inside Kitahara's team to begin with.
But if you thought about it carefully, that was not strange at all. When Kitahara had first met Kitasan Black, she had still been tiny. Under normal circumstances, it would have been strange if she understood too much about certain kinds of things.
And later, when she chose to join Kitahara's team, one part of it had come from the trust she built after getting to know him better, while another part had come from Satono Diamond's influence.
Even now, because she was completely out of the loop and also because of her sunny, optimistic personality, Kitasan Black could be called the freest and safest presence on Kitahara's team. The way she got along with him was closer to father and son than father and daughter, their relationship was extremely close, and they spent quite a lot of time together.
Yes, you read that right. Not father and daughter. Father and son.
Maybe because she came from a yakuza family, Kitasan Black's personality and way of thinking leaned a little masculine. She was not as far as Sirius Symboli's tomboyishness, but she still gave off the feeling of a cheerful, sunny, slightly dim-witted teenage boy.
But that was not even the most important part.
The most important part was that, on top of that kind of personality, in some ways the girl also behaved uncannily like Kitahara. Sometimes people could not help wondering whether the two of them might actually be related by blood.
For example, she had not even been enrolled for two months yet, and right there under everyone's noses, through one coincidence after another, she had somehow managed to charm three Umamusume without the slightest awareness of it herself.
She was like someone's spitting image.
Of course, most of the Umamusume at Tracen Academy were straight, and judging by those three little ones, there were no signs yet that any of them had started bending that way.
But every year at Tracen there were still female Trainers who got pounced on by Umamusume, and not exactly in small numbers. So at the rate Kitasan Black was going—three girls in less than two months—by the time she graduated, whether those three would still be straight...
That was open to question.
Still, that was not the issue at hand.
Watching Kitasan Black stand up naturally after being called by number and walk over to Kitahara without the slightest awkwardness, the Umamusume around them all showed varying degrees of interest in their eyes.
Don't get the wrong idea. They just wanted to see what would happen when two blocks of wood ran into each other.
In fact, while this was happening, some of them had even quietly taken out their phones, ready to snap a picture of the kiss. Later, they planned to send it to the Umamusume Kitasan Black had already managed to charm, just to see what kind of reactions they would get.
But although all the girls were excited to see what kind of sparks might fly between two blocks of wood, what actually happened after Kitasan Black walked over disappointed them quite badly.
"Why are you all looking at me like that?"
Pulling Kitasan Black into his arms and kissing her on the forehead, Kitahara felt the gazes around him—those all-too-familiar looks that reminded him of a certain pair of older women—and several black lines slowly appeared on his forehead.
"The card just says kiss. It never says it has to be on the lips. Kita's still a kid, so stop letting your minds wander in weird directions already..."
Though physically, she really had developed quite a bit.
Although quite a few of the other Umamusume quietly clicked their tongues at that, Kitasan Black seemed to have misunderstood what he meant. After standing there blankly for a few seconds, she suddenly leaned forward and planted a kiss right on Kitahara's lips while he was completely off guard.
Silence.
The fun-seekers who had been clicking their tongues just a moment ago instantly went quiet, and Kitahara's body stiffened for a brief moment as well.
A moment later, Kitasan Black pulled her head back and spoke seriously.
"Trainer Kitahara, I'm not a child anymore, so there's no need to go easy on me just because it's a punishment. I once overheard my father talking to someone, and he said following the rules of a game is really important. Otherwise people lose fingers..."
Originally, Kitahara had still intended to sit her down and explain just how inappropriate what she had done was.
But after hearing the second half of that sentence, he suddenly felt there were some other matters that deserved attention rather more urgently than the kiss.
"Kita... was that something your father told you?"
Kitahara asked with a subtle expression.
"Nope."
Kitasan Black shook her head and answered坦然地.
"I overheard it once while I was passing by the living room, and when Father noticed, he hurried up and sent me away. Later, when I asked Mother about it, she didn't seem too happy either, and she said she was going to have a talk with Father..."
That probably went a little beyond just "having a talk."
That was what everyone else in the room thought.
In any case, thanks to that little detour, the matter of Kitahara being kissed was glossed over in a hurry. Kitasan Black returned to her seat easily enough, looking bright and cheerful as she rejoined the game.
What no one seemed to notice, however, was that after returning to her seat and continuing to play for a while, Kitasan Black lightly licked the corner of her lips, and a strange gleam flashed through her eyes for an instant.
...
After Kitasan Black's turn, and before bedtime finally arrived, that so-called game of Truth or Dare—which in practice nobody except Kitahara ever chose Truth in—went on for many more rounds, and some of those rounds did end up sweeping Kitahara into them.
But because of the blockhead's absurdly high defenses, bizarre thought processes, and utterly infuriating moves, even though the Umamusume worked extremely hard and had even united against him for once, every single one of their attacks was defused by Kitahara in the end without affecting him in the slightest.
By the time it was all over, the atmosphere in the room had grown so heavy it felt almost ready to drip. Every Umamusume present was staring at Kitahara with eyes full of grievance.
It was enough to make a person wonder whether, if someone had just thrown caution to the wind at that point and said, "Why don't we just all pounce on him together?", something utterly horrific and yet worthy of celebration across the land might have happened on the spot.
Unfortunately, until the very end, although Kitahara had them all so frustrated their heads were practically steaming, nobody ever gave that order.
And so, by a narrow margin, he survived the ordeal.
"Alright, you girls go get some rest. I'll clean up here..."
After the game ended, and for certain reasons, Kitahara took the initiative and claimed the job of cleaning up the aftermath. He stayed seated on the sofa, hunched slightly forward, and only started tidying the table after everyone else had left to rest. Along the way, he glanced down at a certain problem with a rather helpless look, unable to stop himself from grumbling inwardly.
He was happy that they trusted him that much, sure, but at the end of the day he was still a healthy adult man in his prime. They could at least spare a little thought for his side of things too...
If anyone noticed, he would die of embarrassment—and probably disgust along with it...
Grumbling to himself like that, Kitahara finished cleaning up what was left on the table, then, taking advantage of the fact that nobody else was around, slipped into his little side room and let out a long breath.
Whew. Finally, time to rest. So much happened today...
With that thought, Kitahara heard the lights outside being turned off. It seemed the younger Umamusume had all gone to sleep as well, so he closed his eyes and prepared to do the same.
But just as his breathing gradually lengthened and he was on the verge of slipping into sleep, a certain moment from earlier suddenly flashed through his mind, and his eyes snapped open.
Wait. If he remembered right, when he fell asleep this afternoon... hadn't his whole body started glowing?
Even now he still had not figured out exactly what had affected Tamamo Cross or what desire had been stimulated in her, but judging from how she had behaved at the time, even someone as dense as Kitahara could tell how serious the situation had been.
And the problem was that right now, forget Tamamo Cross—his dorm was currently full of Umamusume.
If he fell asleep without any precautions and started glowing again...
Just imagining that possibility made Kitahara shudder.
No. He needed at least a double layer of insurance. Even if he did not explain the exact details, he still had to make them understand how dangerous the situation was. Otherwise, if anything went wrong, what happened with Tamamo Cross would probably count as one of the mildest possible outcomes.
Thinking that, Kitahara sat up and was just about to pull back the curtain and explain the situation to someone—specifically warning them that if any strange light started shining from his side, they were to stay as far away as possible—when, before he could even get out of bed, soft rustling footsteps approached, the curtain in front of him was pulled aside, and two figures furtively slipped inside, meeting eyes with him just as he was about to get up.
Silence.
Looking at the two girls who had frozen stiff in front of him, Kitahara was silent for a moment before slowly speaking.
"What is it, Neicha and Digital?"