"Yo, Meek."
Fujiwara Chiya lifted a hand in greeting.
At the sound of his voice, Happy Meek turned her head. Her pink eyes drifted toward him.
"Good morning, Trainer," she said softly.
Her face was the same as ever, blank as a poker card.
After realizing just how strong Meek really was, Chiya decided he needed to observe her properly. An undefeated record was outstanding even among all of Tracen. It was just that her quiet personality hid that dazzling halo of hers far too well. Chiya wanted to peel back those surface layers and see what was underneath.
Meek and Shirayuki looked almost like twin sisters. When no one else was around, Meek would even call Shirayuki "Onee-san." If there were people nearby, though, she still called her Shirayuki.
Compared to Rice Shower, the publicly acknowledged little sister, Meek had always hovered on the edge. Aside from the occasional meeting or going out together once in a while, the two of them hardly interacted in daily life.
One was the student council vice president, the Empress of Tracen, buried under mountains of work every day.
The other was a white little mochi who did not really like talking and spent most of her time spacing out alone.
No matter how you looked at it, they did not seem like people whose lives overlapped much.
Looking at the girl in front of him, who somehow gave off the impression of strawberry cotton candy, Chiya coughed lightly.
"Meek, there's something I'd like to ask you."
Happy Meek opened her eyes.
Then gently closed them again.
"Meek?"
Seeing her look like she had fallen asleep, Chiya could not help calling her name again.
"Is Trainer asking me for help as Trainer Chiya," Meek murmured, "or as Shirayuki Onee-san's trainer?"
"Hm? Well…"
If Shirayuki and Meek rarely interacted, then Chiya and Meek interacted even less.
Aside from the occasional time Kiryuin Aoi invited him to discuss training methods and needed Meek to demonstrate something, the two of them basically never spoke. Usually, they only nodded to each other in passing.
"As Shirayuki's trainer… and as Aoi's friend."
"Meek wants to go out with Onee-san. To look at turtles."
"With Shirayuki?"
"Mhm. Or…"
Her cherry-blossom pink eyes looked at Fujiwara Chiya.
"With Trainer."
For one instant, Chiya had the illusion that Meek had seen straight through him.
She was clearly just a strawberry cotton candy.
So why was she so sharp?
"That's fine. Whether it's me or Shirayuki, whichever you like."
"Whichever I like… mhm, mhm."
Happy Meek nodded.
"Last time, Onee-san and I went to a flower shop. We bought a lily. If Onee-san has time, I want to plant the lily in the flower bed."
"Got it. I'll tell her when the time comes."
Happy Meek shifted over a little, leaving space for Chiya to sit beside her.
"What does Trainer want from me?"
"I want to understand what you usually do."
"Usually, I'm here."
"Spacing out?"
She nodded.
"Meek, back then, I saw you enter the zone while moving at a very slow speed. How did you do that?"
Chiya remembered how Kiryuin Aoi had come to him before, saying something was strange with Meek. No matter how she called out, Meek had not responded.
Chiya had gone over to observe her, and then discovered that Meek had entered the zone while jogging.
That had directly shattered Chiya's common sense.
The zone was a special state that only opened when an uma musume approached her limit. It required an extreme level of mental focus. Yet Meek had entered the zone without running fast at all.
It was unheard of.
Chiya wanted to know how Meek did it. During a race, he could not exactly find a random place to start running in order to create the conditions for entering the zone.
Which meant Meek's slow-speed zone had become the key.
And now, at this moment, Chiya finally connected everything.
He finally understood why Darley had told him to seek out Meek.
It was so he could learn the slow-speed zone.
Weird.
Back then, Darley had not even become his assistant yet, right?
How did she know?
"My… zone?"
The little white horse blinked.
"I don't really understand the zone Trainer is talking about," Meek said. "If Trainer wants me to explain it, I might disappoint you."
Maybe Meek herself understood the feeling, but she could not put it into words.
Uma musume generally did not remember what it felt like when they entered the zone. Fujiwara Chiya was the exception. Through the VR device's mental disconnection and memory synchronization, he could revisit the sensation of entering the zone and reinforce the impression.
With that memory, it became easier for Chiya to enter the zone the next time.
At this point, the zone had already become an active skill for him. As long as no one deliberately interfered, he could definitely enter that state.
Normally, however, the zone was a passive skill for uma musume, something they could only stumble into by chance.
"What do you usually do?" Chiya asked, trying to find the answer from Meek's daily life.
"I stay here."
The conversation looped right back around.
Meek raised her head and looked up at the sky. A lazy, loose atmosphere drifted off her.
Don't tell me Meek enters the zone by spacing out?
Is that really possible?
Chiya remembered what Darley had told him.
Complete focus and complete relaxation could produce the same effect.
And Meek was entering the zone through a different route.
Maybe I should try it too…
Anyway, Fujiwara Chiya had no other method right now.
His eyes went unfocused. He tried to stop thinking.
But very quickly, he was interrupted by what was happening on Shirayuki's side.
"Yuki-chan, let's go out this weekend."
Grass Wonder pressed herself against Shirayuki, the two soft curves of her chest rubbing against Shirayuki's back.
"I'm going too!"
Special Week followed right after her, rubbing Shirayuki's ears as she spoke.
Okay.
Completely impossible.
Fujiwara Chiya discovered that he was always thinking about something.
Shirayuki's matters. His own matters.
They filled his head every second of the day.
All sorts of messy memories surged up. The quieter things became, the more memories appeared, and the more chaotic his mind grew.
Meek, on the other hand, simply sat there looking at the sky, as if she had already entered some meditative state.
Selflessness…
Chiya thought of the essence of the zone.
When an uma musume entered the zone, it was a kind of selfless state.
Nothing.
Wasn't that basically the same as spacing out?
Chiya felt like he had gone insane.
He was actually connecting those two things together.
If spacing out to the absolute limit could let someone enter the zone, then Meek right now was already in the zone.
No way!
The fact that he had turned the zone into an active skill was already ridiculous enough.
How could there be someone even more ridiculous than him?!
Fujiwara Chiya stood up and waved a hand in front of Meek's face.
She looked like she did not see him at all, her eyes staring straight ahead.
"Meek?"
Chiya called her name.
Still no response.
"Trainer Chiya, watch out!"
A student's cry came from not far away.
Chiya lifted his head and saw a softball flying toward them.
Just as it was about to land on Meek, she swayed lightly, as if she had sensed it in advance.
The softball brushed past her shoulder.
Then it flew straight into Fujiwara Chiya's stomach.
"Oof!"