"So the moment you touched that statue, you just went blank. What exactly happened?"
As they left the park, Zhuofu kept rubbing at the part of her chest that had been hit. Her front armor was more than ample, but even so, getting slammed like that by Dyna's hard back had still delivered quite a punch.
Her gaze drifted toward Dyna walking beside her, and when she saw the impressive curve of Dyna's chest, a sudden thought crossed her mind:
If I had crashed into Dyna's chest like that just now, I probably would've bounced right off, huh?
Then again, even if she had been rebounded flat onto the ground, getting to experience that kind of softness would have been worth it.
Dyna shook her head. "It's nothing. I was just thinking about how even horse girls who dominate the track can still be forced to leave it all behind because of injury."
"That's normal enough. It wasn't just Sea Bird—plenty of horse girls have had to leave the track they loved like that."
Hands clasped behind her head, Zhuofu kicked her feet forward in a carefree, almost swaggering gait. To her, Dyna still felt like someone shrouded in a hazy veil.
Pushing up her glasses, Dyna let out a soft sigh. She no longer had any desire to keep wandering around. After picking up some groceries with Zhuofu, she returned to Tracen Academy. With the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe drawing near, the whole school was decked out in banners and decorations, making everything feel lively and festive.
Unfortunately, Dyna had no idea what any of the writing on them meant.
Ahead of them, a blue-clad horse girl entered the academy even faster than they did. Dyna narrowed her eyes, feeling that she looked strangely familiar. She had seen that distinctive long blue dress several times along the way.
"That horse girl in blue ahead of us—is she a student here too?"
Dyna asked the question, only for Zhuofu to look utterly baffled.
Since when had there been a horse girl in blue in front of them?
"What are you talking about? Honestly, Dyna, are you color-blind or something?"
"No. Or, well... maybe I just saw wrong."
Dyna shook her head and did not explain further. It seemed that accepting Sea Bird's gift really did come with certain side effects. Once she got back to the dorm, she would have to check what exactly had changed in her body.
After things quieted down again, Dyna lay on her side on the sofa, seemingly scrolling through videos on her phone. In reality, she was carefully comparing herself against before, trying to identify what had changed.
[Ownerless Uma Musume Soul — Sea Bird, inherited!]
[Speed: C+ → B]
[Leader aptitude: G → C]
[Sea Bird bond: 0 → 20]
[Longchamp Racecourse experience: +45%]
[Yushan Racecourse experience: +15%]
[Skill inherited: Spread Your Wings, Take Flight!]
"As expected... there's a reason horse girls spend all day trying to stack inherited bloodlines."
Dyna stared in amazement. Months of hard work could not compare to latching onto one big shot's legacy. In a game, this kind of inheritance might not look like much, but for Dyna, it was exactly the kind of help that came when the snow was already falling.
She focused on the short description of the skill.
[Spread Your Wings, Take Flight!]: On the final straight, awaken the confidence that you can win, greatly increasing speed until the end of the race.
Dyna was still trying to digest just how much information was packed into that one short sentence.
Everyone knew that in the world of horse girls, the shorter the description of a unique skill, the more brutally effective it usually was.
And Sea Bird's inheritance was the uncensored version at that. The only thing Dyna had to worry about was whether her not-particularly-strong body could actually withstand the surge in stats the skill would bring.
"So I really don't have a dream worth devoting my whole life to? What kind of vague thing even counts as that...?"
Even after living here for a few weeks, Dyna still could not fully slip into the mindset of an Uma Musume. She had entered her debut race for money. She had reopened the shop for money too.
Even after promising that little boy a few days ago that she would keep running, what exactly was she supposed to be running for?
Sea Bird had repaired her soul as a horse girl, but the dream itself was something Dyna had to discover on her own.
For someone with almost no initiative to begin with, that was a complete disaster.
Zhuofu stood in front of the refrigerator for a long while, unable to decide what she wanted to eat. Ever since Dyna had spoiled her taste buds, choosing lunch every day had only become harder.
"Dynaaa For lunch, I want fried rice"
"Hm? Sure. What flavor do you want?"
"As long as it's not spicy."
Arms full of ingredients, Zhuofu used her nimble tail to nudge the refrigerator door shut, washed all the vegetables in the sink, and finished all the prep work for Dyna. After that, all she had to do was wait to be fed.
It was not as if she had done nothing, after all.
Chopping vegetables, setting the wok, heating the oil, frying the rice—Dyna went through the whole process in one smooth flow, operating almost entirely on instinct while her mind drifted elsewhere.
When she set the steaming plate of fried rice on the table, Zhuofu's eyes sparkled at the wonderful aroma. She snatched up a spoon and eagerly stuffed a mouthful into her mouth, only to get burned so badly that she stuck out her tongue like a cat.
Lunch passed amid Zhuofu's catlike way of eating. Dyna pressed a hand to her temples, which had begun to throb faintly.
"Sorry, Zhuofu. I'm going to leave things to you this time. I'm not feeling very well."
"Of course, no problem~ Dyna, you should get some proper rest, okay? The Arc is almost here. You can't afford to miss it because you got sick!"
"Mm."
Dyna picked up her phone and went back to her room, then threw herself face-first onto the bed.
Only for the enormous weight on her chest to be crushed under her own body, making her suddenly choke from the pressure. She hurriedly rolled onto her back instead.
Lying flat like that, looking down over her body, she could not see what lay beyond the mountain peaks at all.
Dyna felt a fresh headache coming on.
This field of vision was way too terrible.
Ever since touching the statue and returning to the dorm, she had been unusually sluggish. Now that her body had been refueled, the drowsiness only grew stronger. In her hand, her phone—set to stay lit—never went dark.
Its owner, meanwhile, slipped into a deep and peaceful sleep.
...
Dyna felt something tickling her ear, as if someone were lightly playing with it using their fingers.
To be more precise, it felt almost like ASMR.
Though, thankfully, there was none of the even more flustering warm breath in her ear.
At the same time, the skin against the side of her face could clearly feel that the fabric beneath it was not smooth like a blanket. It was a little rougher.
Rustle, rustle.
Half-awake, Dyna tried to get up, only for some force to hold her gently in place against that slightly coarse cloth.
But this time, she realized there was something softer beneath the cloth.
It felt a little like... a leg?
"..."
A leg?
Dyna jolted awake.
There was no one else in the room besides herself. How could there possibly be a leg under her face?!
Still...
It felt really comfortable as a pillow.
Forget it—she would touch it a bit first!
The most sensitive part of her fingertips pressed down against the fabric. It was incredibly soft, yet elastic with strength beneath it. This felt more like the lower leg area.
Pretty solid, too.
"Do you enjoy touching it that much?"
A somewhat cool voice sounded right by Dyna's ear, and warm breath poured straight into the sensitive curve of her horse ear, making her eyes snap open on the spot.
Dyna realized she was lying with her head pillowed on the lap of that blue-clad horse girl.
Looking up from this angle, she could clearly see the gray-blue of the girl's eyes.
"Uh... sorry—wait! How did you get into my room?!"
The blue-clad horse girl had a crescent-shaped white streak at the front of her hair, and perched on her shoulder was a round little blue bird, the kind that looked as though it had come out of a doodled cartoon. Seeing Dyna react like this, it began chirping noisily.
The girl reached up and lightly stroked beneath the bird's wing with one finger.
"All right, Cody. We haven't introduced ourselves yet."
The little blue bird tilted its head, then settled down obediently on her shoulder.
"I am Cody's Wish. You may not believe this, but I sensed that you and I are the same kind. Though it's still very faint, you've formed a bond just like the one I once had. As for how I entered the room..."
Cody's Wish lightly tapped Dyna on the forehead.
"I live here. If not for Senior Sea Bird, I probably would have needed much longer before I could wake up."
"Live... in my head?"
Dyna covered the spot where she had been tapped and stared past Cody's Wish toward the mirror.
Only her own reflection was there.
So what, was her brain some kind of public inn now?!
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 126)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter134)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 87
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 79
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 73
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 49
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 45
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 45
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 31
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 27
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 26
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