One minute Gold Ship was training.
The next, she had vanished.
By the time Fujiwara Chiya found her, she was in the middle of what looked suspiciously like a pyramid scheme, surrounded by several foreign uma musume. She had them striking bizarre poses while muttering something in a tone so solemn it almost sounded religious.
There were plenty of uma musume around here, and apparently a few of them could actually tune in to Gold Ship's wavelength. Though, rather than "tuning in," Chiya had a strong feeling they had simply been conned.
After apologizing to the students, Fujiwara Chiya dragged Gold Ship away.
"Hey! Ow! What gives, Trainer? I had them right where I wanted them! You totally ruined it!" Gold Ship protested, flailing dramatically. "They were just about to become the second and third faithful believers of the Gold Ship Sect, spreading my glorious prestige across the vast continent of Europe! And once that happened, the whole world would belong to the great Gold Ship-sama!"
"How many times have I told you not to cause trouble outside?" Chiya snapped. "Second and third believers? Dream on. And who's supposed to be your first believer?"
"You."
"What?"
"You were the first one to join the Gold Ship Sect, weren't you, Trainer?" Gold Ship casually hooked an arm around his neck. "As my first disciple, your service still leaves a lot to be desired. I can only give you a barely passing grade. Mostly because you don't listen enough. Had you followed my little Gold Ship wisdom, you'd be living the high life by now."
"Now you're turning the whole hierarchy upside down and telling me to listen to you?"
"Trainer, do you still not understand my greatness?"
Gold Ship straightened her back proudly. Her impressive chest bounced with the motion.
"Greatness…"
"Hey! Where are you looking?!"
Gold Ship tightened her arm around Chiya's neck so hard his legs started kicking. Out on the training field, Shirayuki's foot slipped, and she face-planted into the ground. Orfevre nearly jumped out of her skin and hurriedly scooped her up.
After putting Chiya through a wrestling hold until he begged for mercy, Gold Ship finally let him go. Then, very casually, she touched her own chest and cleared her throat.
"There are way too many people like you, corrupted by worldly desires, trying to join my sect. Not one of them can escape Gold Ship's all-seeing eyes."
"Didn't you just say I was already your first disciple…?" Chiya rasped, clutching his throat.
"I only welcomed you into the fold out of mercy, because I saw you still had a chance to repent! You'd better thank Gold Ship-sama properly. Worship me with gratitude. Three incense sticks every day, and four bowls of rice."
Chiya scratched his head.
Wait.
Why had he started following Gold Ship's train of thought like this was normal?
"Let's put the sect thing aside. The reason I came to find you is…"
"You want to train that tactics-and-awareness thing of yours, right?"
Gold Ship cut him off before he could finish.
"What's wrong, Trainer? That's what you've been working on lately, isn't it? For the final Arc, you want your uma musume to develop that ability. If they start running around blindly over there, it'll be a huge pain for you, so you went to Orfevre first. Once she started listening, you came to me next."
Gold Ship threw her head back and laughed.
"Your little schemes are totally see-through to me, Trainer. Like you're standing there with your butt bare."
This girl…
Chiya swallowed. Under those pink eyes, he felt like there was nowhere to hide. Happy Meek was the same. Even Shirayuki sometimes gave him the strange illusion that she could see straight through him.
Are all pink-eyed uma musume monsters? What is this, the Eye of God?
"Actually, Trainer should've noticed it a long time ago."
"Noticed… what?"
"My true identity, of course. I, Gold Ship, am a pegasus!"
She winked at him.
"I told you right at the start, didn't I? Those two uma musume had rebellion written all over them. Sure, they acted all cute and sweet when they signed with you, but deep down, they were thinking, 'Eh, any trainer will do.' They had no intention of listening to you. Then when they lost, they'd shove the blame onto you. And look what happened in the end."
Chiya opened his mouth.
Back then, after he had signed Rice Shower and Meisho Doto, he had still been thinking about signing a few more uma musume.
That was when Gold Ship suddenly burst in and shouted:
"Traitors! Those two are traitors! You can't sign them, Trainer!"
At the time, Chiya's impression of Gold Ship had been that she was a prank-loving problem child who existed purely to cause chaos.
Granted, she was still exactly that.
But a few months later, Gold Ship's words came true. Those two uma musume terminated their contracts with Fujiwara Chiya one after another, leaving him with no one to rely on. It delayed him for an entire year and sent his evaluation in Central plummeting straight to rock bottom.
"Later, after Trainer got famous, those two even came crawling back."
"They came back?"
"Yup. But I chased them off." Gold Ship puffed out her chest. "Women who switch sides with the wind like that aren't even qualified for the harem. I told them, 'Trainer doesn't want to see you. Now scram before I bring out the bug spray.'"
"I… see…"
For some reason, Chiya felt a lot lighter.
"And it wasn't just uma musume, Trainer." Gold Ship put on an expression of profound mystery. "When you were looking for the Zone, didn't I tell you what to do? Sit quietly behind me and meditate, like a good boy. Copy the cat and draw the tiger."
"That was…"
"And Orfevre too."
"Orfevre?"
Gold Ship leaned closer to him.
"I said you might get to enjoy Orfevre's foot technique before the race. So? Did you enjoy it?"
"You…"
"No need to be shy, Trainer. You're an adult, aren't you? What's wrong with playing around a little?" Gold Ship grinned and poked him in the chest.
Chiya gritted his teeth.
Not a single word came out.
Gold Ship had him completely in the palm of her hand.
Actually, now that he thought about it, she had been holding him there since the very beginning. He had never once managed to flip the situation around.
"What did I tell you? Believe in Gold Ship and you shall have eternal life."
"Oh, come on. You've said plenty of things. You also said your spaceship was parked above Tokyo Bay, and that the backside of the moon is the base of the Land of Light."
"What's wrong with that?! Just yesterday I saw the Land of Light launch a satellite probe down to Earth! Right over that mountain!"
"…"
Fujiwara Chiya would never understand which of Gold Ship's words were true and which were nonsense.
Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe Gold Ship had simply guessed right.
Or maybe she had known all along.
Either way, Gold Ship would never let anyone fully understand her.
"So, since you know everything, are you going to practice with me?"
"You'd better be grateful, Trainer. Treat me to a grilled meat set tonight."
"Fine."
If one grilled meat set was enough to deal with Gold Ship, that was honestly a bargain.
On the way back, Fujiwara Chiya asked, "By the way, Gold Ship. Hypothetically speaking, if you really knew they were going to leave, and I still signed with them anyway, which ended up leaving me with no one to rely on… what would you have thought?"
"I'd think, 'What an idiot, Trainer. I warned you already.'"
"Fair enough…"
Chiya gave a bitter smile.
"But it's fine."
"Hm?"
"Because you still had me, didn't you? Your safety net was the great Gold Ship-sama. That means you could mess around as much as you wanted! Why worry about not winning races? The moment I step onto the stage, everyone's eyes come flying right to me."
Chiya scratched his cheek.
Gold Ship really was an unbelievably strong uma musume.
"Still, it's kind of a shame."
"A shame?"
"Yep. Because just by a tiny, tiny bit, I almost became the main character of your story."
Gold Ship burst into laughter.
And in that instant, Fujiwara Chiya seemed to see her again.
The beautiful silver-haired girl from back then, breathtaking enough to steal his breath, who had once wanted to become his uma musume.
With a smile Fujiwara Chiya still couldn't understand, Gold Ship pinched his nose.
Then she darted off toward the training field like the wind.