When I next awoke, I was no longer lying down on the turf of that ephemeral track. Instead, I was laying down on the ground, face planted deep into the stone brick path. I could hear the trickling of water, coming from the fountain I'd collapsed next to.
I groaned as I pushed myself up. By the Goddesses, I felt horrid. My whole body was aching, and my eyes pulsed with pain every time I tried opening them, despite it still being dark outside.
I eventually managed to stand, but I was far from stable. Eventually, I had to sit back down by the fountain's edge, the headache I felt growing worse and worse by the second.
Still, at least things ended well.
I smiled slightly as I glanced down at my legs. They hadn't suffered any injuries, despite the terrible phantom aches I was feeling. The same could be said for my lungs—they felt completely fine, aside from this quickly-fading pressure I felt on my chest. Overall, it was just my body slowly syncing back with my mind, and all the aftereffects it brought.
And in the end, I'd come out the victor. My Unique Skill had leveled up once more, my Attributes had increased even more, and my SP wallet had gotten so fat that I could purchase half a dozen Skills and not worry.
Not that I would. My body could barely handle half of the Skills I already possessed—adding even more Skills to my repertoire was just asking for trouble. I wasn't quite willing to fracture my legs a second time.
I sighed softly as I leaned back, letting a few drops of water soak into my hair as I stared at the dark skies above.
Of course, I couldn't ignore everything the Goddesses had dropped onto me during that ephemeral dream. The whole thing about Destiny, Fate, and that other person who'd taken Sunday Silence's place—there was just so much going on that it was making me feel sick.
After some thinking, I just decided to copy Oguri's philosophy and just didn't think about it too hard. I knew that I was probably some important figure in the Goddesses' bid against Destiny, but they were thoughts for the future. Right now, the only thing I needed to do was to run in the races I'd been preparing for.
So I absently stared at the statue of the Three Goddesses as I let a few droplets of water splash onto my face.
And it was then that I noticed an oddity.
As my hair became wet from all the water, it clung onto my face. I brought my fingers up to brush them aside, but I then stilled when I noticed it.
White.
The tips of my hair-, they'd become white. It wasn't very noticeable at first, but now that I noticed them, it was impossible to ignore. A white resembling the color snow, before fading back with the rest of my chestnut-colored hair.
I quickly spun and stared at my reflection in the fountain's waters, and my eyes widened. I hadn't seen wrong—the tips of my hair were indeed turning white.
At first, I wondered if this was maybe caused by the pain I'd suffered during that ephemeral race. I didn't know how it worked exactly, but I remembered something about how people's hair eventually turned white if they continued to feel pain. Maybe something related to all the stress?
But I soon discarded that idea. Not only was this not the first time I'd been in pain, but if that was truly the case, then the white should start spreading from the roots of my hair, not the tip.
My case almost looked like my body was in the midst of some kind of transformation.
…Transformation?
"True Blooming?" I then whispered, gently twirling a lock of hair as I continued staring at my reflection. I was even less familiar with the whole concept, but it seemed to be the only possible explanation at the moment. Not only that, but the more I thought about it, the less strange the idea of my hair turning white became.
After all, it wasn't all that strange for a horse's hair to turn white or grey as it aged. The example I could immediately remember was Gold Ship, who started out as a chestnut-haired colt, before maturing into the grey-haired menace he would become famous as.
…
Well, regardless, there really wasn't anything too problematic about my hair turning white. It was basically just a change in cosmetics—nothing too important.
After some more time, I eventually stood up and stretched. Most of the phantom aches were gone now, with only a slight headache still pounding in the back of my head. I glanced at the sky for a moment, before I shook my head. It seemed like there was still quite some time before morning would come, and there wasn't really much for me to do right now.
So, left with only one option, I began making my way back to my dorm room. The journey back was far faster this time, considering I wasn't being led around on a goose chase by the Goddesses' invisible pull.
I soon made it back to my dorm room, and I silently opened the door, careful to not wake Oguri up as I slowly slid back into my dorm room.
Only to blink when I saw Oguri sitting on my bed, her blue eyes staring into mine. "You're awake?" I eventually asked, blinking slowly.
She nodded. "Bed felt cold." She said, returning a slow blink of her own. "Waited for you to come back."
I chuckled dryly. "Silly girl." I walked over and gave her a playful pat on the head. "You don't need to wait. I was just taking a small walk to clear my head." I said, smiling warmly.
Oguri hummed as she nuzzled into my hand. "It's okay."
I huffed, but before I could say anything, Oguri suddenly reached out and grabbed onto my hand. She pulled me, and I yelped as both of us ended up collapsing onto the bed. The previously cold bed immediately warmed, and I shivered slightly as I finally noticed how cold I'd been feeling before all this.
"Cold?"
"A little." I admitted, my tail unconsciously wrapping around her leg, as if trying to bring us closer together. "Haha, it's a lot colder here compared to America." I whispered as I pressed myself into her. "Kinda forget about it."
She hummed as she held me close. "It's okay." She whispered, and a shiver ran down my spine as I felt her breaths on my ear. "Sleep. We can rest for today."
I wanted to argue for a moment, but a yawn then escaped my lips. "...I guess that'd be best, huh?" I whispered, already feeling my eyelids beginning to droop. Perhaps it was the jetlag from the recent flight, or maybe it was the intense dream I'd just experienced, or both. Regardless, it was hard for me to try and remain awake.
And then, as if an angel had directly whispered into my ear--
"Sleep, Star."
The moment I heard those words, my eyes closed, and I fell into a deep sleep.
.
.
.
Oguri smiled faintly as she felt Star finally fall asleep. She wasn't quite sure why Star had been so tense when she first grabbed her arm, but she was glad to see that Star had finally relaxed.
Oguri took a small breath, and she savored Star's familiar scent as she hugged Star even closer.
It'd really been too long. In her mind, she knew they'd only been apart for a month, but she couldn't but feel like it'd been years. During that month, she'd felt like she was hollowing from the inside, her body slowly being eaten as her hunger grew and grew into impossible heights.
But now that Star was here, that hunger was gone. Instead, a gentle sweetness hung in the back of her throat.
She smiled as she held Star close.
Star had come home, and that was all that mattered.
Just then, Oguri's ears twitched as she heard something shuffle, and she blinked as she saw a familiar figure sitting on the bedside, her phantom-like form morphing and melding with the darkness of the room. A blood-red smile stretched across her face, so wide that it mimicked the crescent moon.
But for the first time, the phantom didn't immediately acknowledge Oguri, and was instead staring at the sleeping Blossom Star. The phantom had no eyes, and their eerie smile remained fixed, but Oguri could almost make out a feeling of…regret?
"What's wrong?" She decided to ask.
The phantom's smile grew. "sHe's aLMosT tHeRE." They whispered, their voice garbled and almost nonsensical.
Her ears twitched. "Almost there?" She repeated.
The phantom didn't answer for quite some time, seemingly content with watching the sleeping Star.
And then their head suddenly snapped towards Oguri, their neck physically contorting as their smile dripped with blood. "pROteCt hER, OGuRi."
"I will."
The phantom's smile stretched even further.
And when Oguri next blinked, the phantom was gone. The place the phantom had sat on remained unsunk, as if they'd never been there in the first place.
Oguri nodded, more than used to the phantom appearing and disappearing at random. But she then turned back to the sleeping Star, her brows furrowing slightly as she remembered the phantom's words. It wasn't the first time the phantom had warned her, and they'd never been wrong before.
…Then that just meant she had to be extra careful going forward.
No one was going to hurt Star.
No one.