Seiun Sky had shown Fujiwara Chiya a bright and beautiful path forward.
The man simply did not want to take it.
"Ara~ Are you worried, Trainer?" Seiun Sky smiled. "It's okay. Sei-chan will stay with you forever. With Sei-chan protecting you, you don't have to be scared of anyone. Sei-chan will take you far, far away, somewhere nobody can ever find us."
"I feel like you're just dying to shave a few more years off my lifespan."
Fujiwara Chiya pinched Seiun Sky's tail.
Her whole body gave a sharp little shiver. Then she melted against him, soft as a boneless cat.
"You really are… a bad guy, Trainer."
Her tail curled around Chiya's hand. A faint blush bloomed across Seiun Sky's cheeks.
"I've noticed that too," Chiya said. "Apparently, I'm not exactly a good person."
Faced with so many choices, Fujiwara Chiya had picked the most selfish one.
"But Sei-chan loves that kind of Trainer."
Seiun Sky rubbed her cheek against his arm.
"If Trainer doesn't want to elope with Sei-chan, then you'd better be ready for Sei-chan to cling to you forever. You know, Sei-chan is actually very persistent. Once I decide to do something, I won't stop until I've done it."
"Wait, isn't your whole thing giving up the second things get hard?"
"Trainer, you really are silly." Seiun Sky wrapped Chiya's hand around herself and made him hug her waist. "Some things are just an act, you know? There are things in this world you can never, ever throw away."
Her voice turned light again, but the warmth in it did not.
"And when it comes to those things I can't throw away, Sei-chan is very persistent. I even think about them in my dreams."
"When did it start?" Chiya asked.
He had always thought of Seiun Sky as the queen of slacking off. She was also one of his best friends. The two of them often went out together, and even though he had never ended up signing a contract with Seiun Sky, their relationship was no weaker than a trainer and his uma musume.
If anything, because he was not her trainer, they could be even more relaxed around each other.
Seiun Sky had always called Fujiwara Chiya "Trainer," but in reality, they did not have that kind of relationship.
So why had she never changed the way she addressed him?
The answer had been there all along.
"From the moment I first called you 'Trainer,'" Seiun Sky replied. "That's Sei-chan's special nickname for you. You should go ahead and feel secretly happy about it."
"A nickname…"
At some point, the word "Trainer" had completely changed flavor.
It had gone from a profession to an uma musume's word for her lover.
Although Fujiwara Chiya felt like this phenomenon probably only applied to him. Other trainers and uma musume surely had not developed to the point where even their titles had become part of some couple's game.
Probably.
Fujiwara Chiya could no longer remember exactly when Seiun Sky had changed how she addressed him. But it had to have been at least over a year ago.
In other words, Seiun Sky had been carrying those feelings for him for more than a year.
"Did I scare you, Trainer?" Seiun Sky giggled. "Sei-chan is pretty good at hiding this kind of thing, huh? I had Trainer completely fooled."
"I actually had a vague feeling."
"Uwah? But Trainer never said anything."
"Yeah…"
Because to Fujiwara Chiya, Seiun Sky had always been more than a friend, but not quite a lover.
"I see."
Seiun Sky hugged his thigh.
"Sei-chan always thought I was the one fishing. Turns out, in the end, I was the one who bit the hook? Trainer really is a deep, scheming man."
"I feel like you're assuming the worst of me. Is there any chance I was just genuinely dense?"
"Oh. That possibility seems way more likely!"
"You…"
Seeing Seiun Sky's cheeky grin, Fujiwara Chiya shook his head helplessly. When it came to teasing him, Gold Ship ranked first. Seiun Sky had to be second.
Once she had laughed herself tired, Seiun Sky closed her mouth.
She tilted her head and leaned against his thigh, her beautiful sky-blue eyes blinking up at Fujiwara Chiya.
"Trainer, do you really not want to elope with Sei-chan? We could start a family. Every night, Sei-chan would cook you delicious food. At night, Sei-chan could even be your body pillow. You could do whatever you wanted. Oh, right, please be gentle. Sei-chan is still pretty scared of pain. But if Trainer likes it, a little pain is okay too."
"Sorry. I can't, Sky."
They sounded like jokes, but there was sincerity woven through them.
No, it was more accurate to say Seiun Sky was talking about something very serious in the tone of a joke.
"I see. Then there's no helping it."
Seiun Sky closed her eyes, then slowly opened them again.
"Then can Trainer promise Sei-chan one thing? No matter where Trainer goes from now on, you're not allowed to abandon Sei-chan. Otherwise, Sei-chan will turn into an evil spirit and bite your tail."
"That's… honestly a little terrifying. Fine. I promise."
Seiun Sky shifted and lay down across Fujiwara Chiya's lap.
"Then Sei-chan can relax. Good night, Trainer."
"Wait, don't you still have class?"
"What does class have to do with Sei-chan? The teacher is the one teaching. It's not like Sei-chan is teaching."
"You and the teacher both have to attend!"
"Relax, relax. Let Sei-chan sleep for a bit first. Trainer, be a good pillow for Sei-chan. Later… Sei-chan will be your pillow too. Good night."
After saying that, Seiun Sky fell asleep on the spot.
Her Sleep Emperor skills were as terrifying as ever.
I can't believe it. As a teacher, I'm actually letting a student skip class one day.
I'm getting more and more depraved.
Fujiwara Chiya felt a deep sense of self-reproach.
Then he started rubbing Seiun Sky's ears.
So soft…
...
"Chiya, you bastard, you actually skipped work!"
The moment Fujiwara Chiya returned to the office, Katsumura Yota let him have it.
"I waited here for two whole hours! You've gotten full of yourself, huh? The moment you became a senior trainer, you got so full of yourself that you don't even come to work anymore!"
"My stomach was bad. I was in the bathroom."
"Then that constipation of yours is pretty damn serious!"
"It happens. Men always have those few days."
"Like hell they do!"
Katsumura Yota slammed a schedule onto Chiya's desk.
"The arrangements for the Arima Kinen. There are a few points you need to watch."
"Why is it you? Where's Tazuna?"
"You think I wanted to do this? Director and the others went to Kyoto with Central. They said they're doing race promotion over there and won't be back until the day after tomorrow."
Fujiwara Chiya fished through his pockets and realized his phone was on the desk.
When he opened it, there was a message from Director Akikawa. The gist was that she would be busy in Kyoto for two days and told him to take good care of himself.
I'm not a kid anymore!
Fujiwara Chiya quietly put his phone away.
After listening to the arrangements for the Arima Kinen, Fujiwara Chiya nodded.
"As the Empress's retirement race, you've gotta pull yourself together, Chiya."
"I will. When have I ever not risen to the occasion?"
"That won't do either. Every now and then, you've gotta go limp too."
Fujiwara Chiya kicked him out.
"I'm leaving the Arima Kinen to you, Chiya. And the reporters too. I suddenly realized being famous is pretty annoying. Those people keep calling me. It's driving me nuts. I've given them your number now, so they probably won't bother me anymore, right? Good luck, Chiya. I believe in you."
Fujiwara Chiya wanted to curse.
In front of reporters, Katsumura Yota would sling an arm around his shoulders like they were best friends. But the second he got tangled up in trouble, he immediately dumped the problem on Chiya and ran.
Fujiwara Chiya decided that for Yota's next birthday, he would gift him the hamster he hated most.
Hopefully, Yota would let out a very satisfying scream.
After sorting out the documents, Fujiwara Chiya looked at the sun slowly sinking in the west.
Shirayuki's retirement race was getting closer and closer. For some reason, a faint melancholy stirred in his chest.
No matter how glorious an era was, it always had to end.
Now that he was suddenly about to leave the racetrack, Fujiwara Chiya found himself reluctant.
These were not the feelings of a trainer.
They were the feelings he carried as an uma musume.
Deep in his bones, the blood that belonged to an uma musume was still longing for the racetrack.
Speaking of which, Shirayuki's body had been affected by her growth spurt, so her development speed had begun to stall. But his male body did not seem to show any signs of entering the late stage of that growth period.
Was it simply not time yet?
Or…
Does my male body not have a growth-period limit at all?
With that question in mind, Fujiwara Chiya returned to his dorm.
He closed the door, took off his clothes, changed into his pajamas, and prepared to sleep early. To avoid delaying training, he had to wake up early tomorrow morning for an interview recording. These next few days were going to be packed.
He pulled back the blanket and was just about to climb into bed when he suddenly noticed something lying under his covers.
He yanked the blanket open.
There, tucked neatly inside, was a brown-haired girl.
"…Why are you here, Grass?"
"Yuki-chan," Grass Wonder said, sitting up in her pajamas with a soft, fluffy smile. "I came to warm your bed."