Late at night, all was quiet.
Outside Kitahara's little side room, the Umamusume who had spent the whole day causing chaos were already utterly drained, body and mind alike. Even though he had left them all grinding their teeth in frustration by the end, they still drifted off to sleep one after another before long, their breathing gradually evening out.
Inside Kitahara's little room, meanwhile, one man and two young women faced each other in the dark, the atmosphere faintly tense.
"So," Kitahara asked again, "what exactly are you two here for?"
But neither Neicha nor Agnes Digital answered. They only stood there stiffly, occasionally glancing at each other, as if silently asking what they were supposed to do next.
Seeing them like that, Kitahara figured he was not getting an answer anytime soon. After thinking it over, he stopped pressing the issue. There were more important things to deal with right now than this baffling situation.
"Forget it. If you really don't want to say, I won't force it. But since you're already here, there's something I need to tell you too..."
Since Neicha and Agnes Digital had been assigned to sleep just outside his little room—after all, with one hopeless pervert and one pressure monster nearby, getting a good night's sleep was hard enough as it was—he had originally intended to explain things to the two of them anyway. Now that they were here, it saved him the trouble.
So with that in mind, Kitahara gave them a brief explanation of what was going on with his ability, told them what had happened that afternoon, and even stretched out a hand to show them the halo-like glow for himself.
Only for an instant, of course. Otherwise, he was worried the two of them might get hit by it too.
Once he had explained everything, Kitahara—wanting to get some sleep so he could get up early and find someone to help research the issue and work out a countermeasure—simply lay down. As he did, he also told the two of them, "And don't stay up late yourselves. Go to bed."
What puzzled him, though, was that even after he had finished explaining things and closed his eyes, the faint sound of breathing near him showed no sign of leaving, even after quite a while had passed.
Why are they still awake in the middle of the night? There's training tomorrow...
He waited a while longer, then figured this could not go on forever. Just as he was about to sit up and tell them to get some sleep, footsteps finally sounded.
Only... those did not sound like footsteps leaving.
By the time Kitahara realized that, they were already standing right in front of him.
Then, the very next instant, he felt one corner of his blanket being lifted. Something soft and warm slipped in beneath it and pressed tightly against him, while warm breath brushed the side of his neck.
...What was going on?
Kitahara opened his eyes, about to ask what these two were doing wandering around instead of sleeping in the middle of the night—but before he could speak, a familiar soft, damp touch pressed against his lips and swallowed the words before they could leave his mouth.
And that was not all.
The soft warmth on his other side moved too, one arm wrapping around his arm as she leaned close to his ear, her voice trembling slightly.
"Kitahara-san... we actually... came to sneak into your bed tonight."
As she said it, something around his waist tightened slightly.
...That straightforward?
Kitahara froze for a second. Once he processed the words, his expression gradually turned subtle.
Good grief. So these two had teamed up to come pounce on him...
And once they had admitted why they were there, apparently deciding he was not going to cry out in surprise, the soft touch covering his mouth lifted away with obvious reluctance. Kitahara took the chance to speak.
"No, hold on. Didn't I already tell the two of you? Once your racing season is over, I'll think about it. But right now, no..."
"We know."
To Kitahara's surprise, the soft figure in the darkness nodded, then edged even closer.
"So we weren't planning to go that far. We just wanted to do whatever we can right now... to help you deal with this problem."
"...I don't have a problem."
"But didn't you just explain your problem to us?"
What does that have to do with what you're doing right now?
Kitahara sighed inwardly, freed both hands, and patted their heads helplessly.
"Alright, alright. I know what you're trying to do. But if you really want to help me, then go back and get some sleep. If anything strange happens, wake me up, and try not to let anyone else get too close. That's enough."
Silence.
The two octopuses clinging to him showed absolutely no sign of letting go. Instead, after a brief pause, they spoke again in low voices.
"Then, Kitahara-san... have you thought about why that kind of thing happened?"
"Of course I have. I just haven't figured it out yet."
Kitahara sighed, then glanced at the two octopuses wrapped around him.
"What? Don't tell me you do know?"
After hesitating for a moment, the two little octopuses slowly nodded.
Kitahara blinked.
And before he could say anything, the pink one spoke up and said something even more surprising.
"Actually... what's happening to you, Kitahara-san... I found out about it a long time ago through certain channels. I've always wanted to help you, but I could never work up the courage..."
"...How did you find out?"
"We can't tell you that."
Agnes Digital flushed even redder and buried her head deeper.
"It's not that we don't want to tell you. We really can't. Otherwise, something bad might happen. So please don't ask... please. Just trust me..."
Truth be told, Kitahara wanted very badly to get to the bottom of what was happening to him. This was not only about his own safety, but the safety of the girls around him as well.
But looking at Agnes Digital—face red, voice trembling, with even a hint of pleading in it—Kitahara fell silent for a moment. Then he let out a deep sigh and rubbed that soft pink hair.
"Alright. I trust you. I won't ask."
At his words, the trembling in the pink octopus slowly eased. After taking a while to calm down, she finally gathered her courage and slowly lifted her head.
"Then... we'll start now. And, um, Neicha and I, it's our first time, so we might be a little awkward. Please bear with us..."
"No, wait!"
Hearing that extremely dangerous line, Kitahara jolted and quickly reached out to stop her.
"Wait, what do you mean, start now? All I said was that I wouldn't ask."
Seeing Agnes Digital panic completely, the red octopus beside him, though just as red in the face, still forced herself to answer in as normal a tone as possible.
"It's like this. Digital and I learned, through certain channels, some of the reasons behind your condition—and some ways to deal with it. The most effective one is... well, Uma Pyoi..."
At that answer, Kitahara's eyelid twitched.
"...You serious?"
Neicha went quiet for a moment, then buried her head in his chest too and answered in a tone of utter self-abandon.
"I know it sounds weird. But that's the truth, and I can't help that. Digital and I hesitated for a long time before coming. We actually weren't even going to tell you. We planned to wait until you were asleep, take care of it, and leave. But who knew you'd still be awake this late..."
Kitahara stared blankly for quite a while.
Once those words finally sank in, his expression slowly turned complicated.
So that was it.
It was for his sake...
What Agnes Digital and Neicha were saying sounded outrageous. It sounded so outrageous, in fact, that to anyone with a normal head on their shoulders, it would have sounded like a flimsy excuse they had made up just to pounce on him.
But Kitahara believed them.
Not because he wanted to be pounced on, but because he knew what kind of people they were. And because he was willing to trust them.
"Alright. I think I understand the general idea. You believe doing this with me would help, but you can't tell me the exact reason. Is that right?"
The two little octopuses in his arms nodded, then mumbled softly, "Then... if you don't object, we'll—"
"No. I object."
Kitahara reached up, rubbed both of their heads, and spoke seriously.
"If that's the reason you want to do this, then I appreciate the thought. But the act itself isn't necessary."
"But—"
"There's no 'but.'"
Kitahara shook his head and cut Agnes Digital off.
"I'll admit it—what's happening to me is a real headache. Right now it's just that I start glowing in my sleep every so often, but who knows what it might turn into if this keeps going? I've been looking for a solution this whole time."
"I don't know where you got this information about me, and I don't know whether someone may have misled you. But since you said you can't tell me, I'll trust you and I won't push the issue."
"But even so, I still can't accept this."
As he spoke, he lowered his head and looked directly at the two little octopuses in his arms.
"I know you're trying to help me. But I can't accept a solution that comes at your expense just to save me."
"If it were something else, maybe that would be one thing. But when it's the kind of thing that affects your future and your lives, then no matter how serious my problem is, I still don't want to solve it that way."
"You're both Umamusume in the brightest stretch of your lives. Your futures are still long. I can't drag you into something like this because of my own problem, let alone risk affecting your entire lives."
"And more than that, I'm your Trainer. I'm the one who's supposed to take responsibility for you—not the other way around. I'll figure out a way to investigate this and solve it myself. You two just need to focus on your own lives. Don't worry about me."
"Of course, if you really can't stop worrying, then I can give you updates on my investigation every so often. And if, after all that, there still truly isn't any other solution... then we can consider this method. Alright?"
He said "consider," but really, that was just to steady the two of them.
No matter how many times he thought it over, there was no way Kitahara would ever agree to the proposal of these two young women—who were, in truth, not that much younger than himself—just to solve his own problem.
At Kitahara's answer, both Neicha and Agnes Digital fell silent.
With their heads lowered and bodies draped across him, they exchanged glances, then snuck another look at his face, utterly uncertain what to do now.
Seeing them fall quiet, Kitahara thought it over and decided their original intentions had not been wrong. So he wrapped his arms around them and pulled them into a proper embrace, then spoke softly, his tone gentle.
"Alright, alright. I'm not blaming you. Quite the opposite—I'm grateful that you'd go this far for me. But like I said, I don't want to solve this by asking you two to sacrifice yourselves."
"And I just said I'm willing to trust you. So on my side, I'd like to ask you to trust me too. Trust that I'll do everything I can to solve this without you having to pay that kind of price. Okay?"
Silence.
Neicha and Agnes Digital looked at each other. Even through the darkness, after hearing Kitahara's words, they could clearly see the unmistakable wavering in each other's eyes.
Kitahara could not see their eyes, but from the little details in the way they held themselves, he could sense that same wavering in their hearts. He let out a faint sigh of relief of his own.
Yeah. I'll just hold them for a bit as reassurance, then send them back to bed. Any later than this and tomorrow's training is going to be rough...
But just as that thought crossed his mind, another voice suddenly rang out.
"Are you two idiots?"
Startled, Kitahara turned his head.
"Eclipse? What are you doing here?"
At the mention of Eclipse's name, the two little octopuses in Kitahara's arms also looked up in alarm and hurried to explain.
"Um, Eclipse-san, this is—"
"Have you two not realized that this idiot has completely led your thinking astray?"
Eclipse paid no attention whatsoever to the two little octopuses' attempted explanation. She walked slowly over to Kitahara as she spoke.
"Every other word out of his mouth is about how you're only doing this because you have no choice and want to save him. As if it's all for his sake. He's even got you starting to doubt yourselves."
"But search your own hearts. Is what you're doing tonight really only about solving his problem?"
"This..."
Faced with Eclipse's pointed question, Agnes Digital and Neicha had no idea how to answer. Their faces only grew redder and hotter by the second.
The truth was, they had indeed come under the banner of helping Kitahara with his condition.
But if it came down to what was really in their hearts...
"You only need to answer yes or no."
Silence.
A long while passed.
Then in the darkness, a voice so faint it was almost like the buzz of a mosquito finally murmured:
"...No."
"Well, there you go."
With that, Eclipse withdrew her gaze from the two little octopuses, who were now blushing so hard they looked on the verge of passing out, and turned it toward the utterly baffled Kitahara instead.
"Uh, Eclipse... you came here to...?"
"Chocolate. For you."
As she spoke, Eclipse held out a piece of chocolate that had no wrapping whatsoever and looked frankly rather ugly.
Kitahara froze for a second, then took it from her hand.
"Then I won't refuse."
With that, he popped the chocolate into his mouth. He chewed twice, and his expression slowly grew strange.
Wait. This texture, this taste... it didn't feel like chocolate at all. It barely even felt like normal food. And yet it also carried a strange sense of familiarity...
"What is this?"
After swallowing it, Kitahara had the distinct feeling that it had not dropped into his stomach at all, but had instead melted straight into his body.
And when he looked at Eclipse again, some inexplicable connection suddenly seemed to have formed between them. His sense of her presence became noticeably clearer, as though the two of them could feel each other more directly now.
"Romantic chocolate," Eclipse answered flatly.
"By the way, once you eat that, if I disappear, you die too."
Kitahara blinked again. Then, after processing that, he nodded.
"Oh. I see. That's... pretty impressive."
"And it works the other way too."
Eclipse added it in the same flat tone.
"Is it too late to spit it back out?"
Kitahara asked with perfect seriousness.
"Too late."
As she said that, Eclipse slipped off her shoes and lifted one corner of Kitahara's blanket.
At the sight of that movement, Kitahara—still in the middle of wondering how he might possibly get that thing back out of his system—suddenly felt a bad premonition rise in his chest.
"Um, Eclipse, I already ate the chocolate, so... was there something else you needed?"
"Yes."
Eclipse was concise as ever. After climbing beneath Kitahara's blanket, she sat herself down directly on him, right between the two little octopuses.
"Since you ate the chocolate, asking for some return gift isn't unreasonable, is it?"
"...I could give you something back on White Day."
Kitahara tried to resist.
"Too slow."
After saying that, Eclipse glanced at the two little octopuses beside her, who were still dazed and had not yet come back to themselves. For once, she let out a faint sigh.
"How long are you two going to keep hesitating? If you don't want to stay, you can leave right now. I can pretend I never saw either of you tonight."
After a moment of silence, the two little octopuses timidly raised their heads.
And just when Kitahara thought they were about to leave, the two of them instead said the very words that made his vision go dark.
"Um... can we stay...?"
"No, wait. Digital, Neicha, you two—"
Kitahara tried to struggle.
But the effect was minimal.
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T/N: heres ur updates :3 meeting the 2 chaps a week quota :3 do u think itd be better to do it earlier in the week to make u guys wait more for the bonus chapters
bonus chaps
200 stones -> 1 chapter
400 stones -> 2 chapters
600 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
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