Some time later.
With the voucher in hand, Kitahara and Tamamo Cross arrived in front of a hotel.
But contrary to what one might expect, it hadn't been Kitahara who suggested coming here.
When they left the mall, he had briefly considered whether he should bring Tamamo Cross to a nearby hotel to rest. But after thinking it over for a bit, he decided the idea was inappropriate after all.
After all, even if he didn't have any ulterior motives, he was still carrying a parasol in one hand and lace underwear in the other.
They were both prizes he'd won by accident after failing to check the prize list, but under the circumstances, asking Tamamo Cross to go to a hotel with him might easily lead to unnecessary misunderstandings.
And even setting aside the items in his hands, inviting one of the Umamusume under his care to a hotel was already strange enough on its own.
In fact, if Tamamo Cross hadn't been Tamamo Cross, Kitahara would never have agreed to go out alone with her at a time this sensitive.
But just as he was about to discard the idea and find somewhere else to sit down and rest for a bit, Tamamo Cross—who had been silent for quite a while—suddenly spoke.
"Um... we've been walking around for ages, and we did all those challenges too. You've gotta be tired, right? We happened to get the voucher too, so... how about we go rest at that hotel nearby for a while, then head back once we've got some energy back...?"
Though Kitahara had judged it inappropriate to suggest it himself, he wasn't actually opposed to the idea.
So once Tamamo Cross brought it up, he quickly nodded, picked up all their bags, and went with her to the hotel.
As for suspecting Tamamo Cross of having some other motive?
Come on. If it were some other Umamusume doing this, Kitahara would have refused ten thousand times over. But Tamamo Cross...?
You know how it is. This was Tamamo Cross they were talking about. Tamamo Cross, the one and only sane person in all of Tracen.
And so, after arriving at the hotel with Tamamo Cross, Kitahara presented the voucher, received the keycard, and carried all the bags into their room with her.
"Whew, finally. I can sit down for a bit..."
Once inside, Kitahara set everything down on the floor and sank into the sofa, his expression gradually relaxing.
With Kitahara's stamina—stamina that even surpassed most Umamusume—carrying a lot of things and shopping for this long wasn't enough to physically wear him out.
The problem was that shopping didn't just drain your body. It drained your mind too.
And on top of that, they'd done all those challenge events while they were out. Throughout the whole process, Kitahara had to constantly keep track of the distance between them, stay aware of their surroundings, and so on.
Combined with what had happened earlier between Special Week and Grass Wonder, the whole day had taken quite a lot out of him. For once, he was genuinely feeling tired.
"Um... sorry. I really didn't expect today's events to turn out like this. I dragged you into a lot..."
Seeing how worn out Kitahara looked, Tamamo Cross couldn't help feeling a little guilty, even though she herself was equally exhausted.
After all, this whole outing had been her plan. If she was tired, that was only natural. But Kitahara had only come to help.
And at first, she had only said they'd be pretending to be a couple. She definitely hadn't said anything about doing this much.
Normally, when Tamamo Cross apologized like this, Kitahara would have just waved it off and said it was fine or something along those lines. That would have been more in character for him.
But today, when faced with her apology, Kitahara didn't answer right away.
Instead, after a long silence, he let out a slow sigh.
"Tama."
"...What is it?"
"There's something I've wanted to talk to you about for a long time now."
Sitting on the sofa, Kitahara slowly lifted his head and looked up at the ceiling, a trace of melancholy in his voice.
"I know you're a good kid. Sensible, well-behaved. You act carefree, like nothing much gets to you, but the truth is you're very considerate of the people around you. You're proud in your own way, and you're willing to work hard, willing to suffer for what matters. No matter what happens, no matter what kind of hardship you're facing, you always manage to face it with a steady heart..."
"All of those things are wonderful. They're the shining points in you, like diamonds. They're why everyone likes you and trusts you so much. Even I have to admit it—I really do like you the way you are."
At that, Tamamo Cross's breathing caught for a moment.
He liked her...
Even though she knew perfectly well that, with the way this man's mind worked, that kind of liking was probably the sort an elder felt toward someone younger. And she herself thought of Kitahara as family too, with no improper thoughts in her head—
Or at least, that was what she believed.
And yet, for some reason, the moment she heard Kitahara say he liked her, Tamamo Cross instinctively held her breath and closed her hand around the button she never parted with.
Before she could react any further, another sigh followed, and Kitahara spoke again.
"But even though I admit those are all your strengths, and even though I really do like that side of you, there's something else I've been holding back for a long time."
As he said that, he turned his head to look at Tamamo Cross and spoke slowly.
"Tama... do you know that you're actually very selfish?"
...Selfish?
Hearing those two words, Tamamo Cross froze.
Normally, if a child heard themselves described that way, even if they didn't argue back on the spot, they'd at least be upset. Nobody likes being criticized.
But Tamamo Cross didn't argue.
Nor did she show any sign of displeasure.
Instead, the moment she came back to herself, she immediately began going over her recent behavior in her mind, trying to figure out what basis Kitahara could possibly have for calling her selfish.
Had she done something selfish lately? It didn't feel like it.
Yes, her financial situation wasn't great, and yes, she was habitually frugal in daily life, but she was only frugal. Forget selfish—she'd never even been stingy.
Whenever there were class activities, she did her best to participate. When friends gave her gifts over holidays and the like, she was willing to accept anything that wasn't too expensive, and always did her best to give something back in return. She'd never hidden the fact that she wasn't well off, either.
She tried to stretch what she had, yes, but she never held onto things that should be thrown out, and she never refused to spend money where it ought to be spent. She'd also never used poverty as an excuse to make others accommodate her.
If anything, because she was so mature and sensible, more often than not she was the one accommodating and looking after other people. Oguri Cap was a perfect example...
In that situation, no matter how much she trusted Kitahara's words, Tamamo Cross simply couldn't understand why he was calling her selfish.
But just as she sat there in confusion, Kitahara spoke again.
"That's exactly what I mean when I say you're selfish."
"...What?"
Now Tamamo Cross was genuinely baffled.
But faced with her confusion, Kitahara still didn't explain right away. Instead, he turned his head back again and kept speaking while looking at the ceiling.
"Tama, you still remember that you once told me you think of me as family, right?"
"...Yeah."
"And what about the others? The rest of the team—do you think of them as friends?"
"Of course I do."
Tamamo Cross answered without hesitation, but the confusion in her eyes only deepened.
Kitahara noticed that, and apparently decided the time had come to get to the point.
"Then let me ask you this. If someone else on the team ran into some trouble and needed a little help from you—say, tutoring, or help with training—would you help them?"
"Of course I would."
"And if something went a little wrong while you were helping them—say the tutoring ran long, or you ended up running a few extra laps while assisting with training—would you blame them for that?"
"Of course not."
By this point, Tamamo Cross was so confused she couldn't help blurting out a complaint.
"I don't know what you're trying to get at with all these questions, but do you really need to ask something this obvious?"
"Yes, I do."
Kitahara tilted his head and looked at her.
"Because the way a certain someone acted earlier made me start wondering how she sees this kind of thing."
Tamamo Cross froze for a moment, then realized what he meant.
"You mean... me apologizing to you earlier?"
"What else?"
Kitahara shot back, then continued.
"And it's not just that, either. Honestly, my dissatisfaction with how you've been acting started all the way back at the first shop."
"Let me put it this way. You've told me before that back home, your parents borrowed a great deal of money to support your schooling, and that it weighed on them so heavily they were miserable over it. You know that."
"But let's suppose something else. Suppose that after all that happened, your parents decided to hide the truth from you because they were worried you'd blame yourself. Suppose they smiled in front of you every day and only let themselves be miserable in private, then sent you off to Tracen while you remained completely ignorant of what was really going on."
"Do you think that would be a good thing? Especially compared to the way things actually were for you?"
"Of course not."
Tamamo Cross rejected the idea on the spot.
"And why not? They'd be doing it for your sake. They wouldn't want you to worry."
"But I'd still deserve to know."
Tamamo Cross answered seriously.
"I know I was still young back then, and maybe I wouldn't have been able to do much about it. But if I'd known the truth, then at the very least I would've been more careful with how I lived, more frugal, and I wouldn't have gone on asking them for more."
"Maybe those things wouldn't have made a huge difference. But if I'd known the truth, then as family, I could have helped however I could when the family was struggling. I could've shared the burden with them."
Kitahara nodded and asked another question.
"And if they really had done that—would you have been angry?"
"Obviously I would."
Tamamo Cross nodded firmly.
"How could they hide something like that and go on suffering alone? What would that even make me to them...?"
"In that case, I have a question for you."
Kitahara suddenly cut in, interrupting her.
"If you think family shouldn't hide their hardships from each other, and you've told me before that you think of me as family, then why are you hiding things from me?"
"...Huh?"
Tamamo Cross froze, then answered instinctively,
"Um... I haven't hidden anything from you, Trainer Kitahara..."
"Really?"
Kitahara glanced at her, then got to his feet, walked over, and took the list out of her pocket.
"Then can you explain why, this afternoon, you threw this away? And then came back to me acting like nothing had happened, even preparing to just give up and head back to the academy?"
Faced with Kitahara's question, Tamamo Cross fell silent for a moment.
"That was because..."
"Because what?"
As he spoke, Kitahara unfolded the sheet and held it up in front of her.
"I've never done this kind of thing myself, but just from looking at all the writing and information on here, I can tell you must've done a huge amount of research and preparation before coming. And I remember how happy you looked before we set out."
"But at that moment, you gave it all up so easily. And after giving up, you still came back to me wearing that same nothing's-wrong expression and said we should just return to the academy..."
"And it's not just this time. I haven't said anything before, but I have noticed. Over the past while, because of your studies and your part-time job, you've had to handle a lot of paperwork and procedures, and a lot of them were off campus."
"That stuff's hard enough to deal with alone in the first place, let alone when you're also juggling classes, training, and work. Asking someone else to go with you or help out would've been the best option."
"But instead, you gritted your teeth, squeezed time out of nowhere, and forced yourself to run around and handle all of it alone. You didn't tell me, and you didn't even tell the others on the team..."
"And that other time, when your grades slipped because of your part-time work—you ended up privately making it all back through sheer effort. But the thing is, at the time, you absolutely could have asked someone else to help tutor you. You even tutored Oguri Cap yourself not that long ago..."
"And earlier than that, there was also the time..."
Kitahara kept listing similar examples for nearly ten minutes before finally stopping, and even then, he still looked like he had more to say.
Across from him, Tamamo Cross—who had tried to protest a little when he first began—now had her head fully lowered, her ears drooping limply against her head.
Seeing her like that, Kitahara sighed after he finished, then crouched down in front of her. Looking up at Tamamo Cross, his tone softened.
"Tama, I know you're a good kid. And when I said all that just now, I wasn't blaming you."
"I also know you have your own principles, your own bottom lines. I chose to respect that, which is why even though I noticed those things before, I never forced my way in."
"But like I said earlier, I think of you as family too. And if I'm looking at this from a family perspective... then I'd rather you weren't quite so 'good.'"
"You're always the one giving, always the one thinking of everyone else, always the one taking care of others. You help people, but when it comes to your own problems, you keep your mouth shut..."
"To me, that's selfish too. And when it comes to family and friends, it's a very cruel kind of selfishness."
As he spoke, he reached out and brushed aside the hair falling over Tamamo Cross's face. Looking straight into her eyes, he said sincerely, "I'm right here. I'm by your side. I'm willing to help carry your pain. I'm willing to face your hardships with you, just like you're willing to carry my pain and face my hardships with me."
"Isn't that what family is supposed to be?"