Work Text:
"The training camp is finally over, Tachyon."
"Indeed it is... Good grief, that was difficult in all sorts of ways... all sorts."
Summer training camp had ended, and I was on my way back with Tachyon as the bus rocked us along. We sat side by side, getting along as we talked about camp, about what would happen starting tomorrow, and about anything and everything that came to mind.
"During camp, I could not eat your cooking, and that made it rather difficult to maintain my condition... Once we arrive at the academy, do make me something."
"Yes, yes. What do you want?"
"I will leave it to you. No... since it is hot, perhaps something cold would be nice."
"Got it."
When I said that, Tachyon's ears twitched happily. I smiled quietly at the sight. My own ears were probably moving the same way.
As we kept chatting about nothing in particular, both of us must have been tired, because our words gradually began to thin out.
When Tachyon stopped answering, I looked beside me and found her asleep, breathing softly and steadily.
I wanted to keep watching that cute sleeping face forever, but the swaying of the bus felt so pleasant that my eyelids began to close. There was still time before we reached the academy... so maybe... just... a little nap...
And then my consciousness sank into the depths of darkness.
"Nnngh... hot..."
Tormented by the lingering summer heat, I opened my heavy eyelids.
...Hot? Hadn't I been inside an air-conditioned bus a moment ago...?
"Where... am I...?"
What stretched before my eyes was not the inside of the bus I should have been seeing, but the unfamiliar ceiling of an unfamiliar room.
"What is going on?"
I slowly sat up. It was not my usual sluggish awakening. My head felt strangely clear.
Just as I was about to get out of bed, I suddenly noticed something wrong.
"...My body... got younger?"
When I looked at my arms and legs, they were a little smaller, and my skin looked fresh and youthful. I looked around, but I still had no idea where I was.
When I stood in front of the full-length mirror in the corner of the room, what it reflected was myself, now around middle-school age.
I spun once. My tail spun along with me. ...My body felt light. I didn't understand why, but it really did seem I had grown younger.
"...Huh? That calendar is strange."
I noticed something odd about the tear-off calendar hanging on the wall. The year was ten years ago. The month and day were...
"August... thirty-second? What does that mean?"
Written there was a date that should not exist.
"Is this another Tachyon prank...? No, she wouldn't do something this elaborate... probably..."
Thinking about that, I changed into the clothes in the room and went outside.
"Where is this...?"
Apparently, I was in a grand Japanese-style mansion. The kind that looked as though some distinguished family might live there.
But I had no memory of staying in a mansion like this as a child. My own family was an ordinary household, and none of my relatives or friends lived in a mansion like this.
I walked down the hallway to look for someone. Far in the distance, I saw a familiar back. But it belonged to someone who should not have been there.
"Is that... Grandpa?"
The person standing there was my grandfather, who should have died when I was in elementary school. It seemed he was deep in conversation with someone. Beside the person he was speaking to stood another figure, a small brown-haired uma musume.
Timidly, I approached and called out.
"Grandpa?"
"Ah, there you are. Come here for a moment."
"Oh, your granddaughter? Good afternoon, young lady."
"G-Good afternoon..."
"This gentleman is the husband of the head of the Agnes family. He is an old friend of mine."
"Oh..."
My grandfather's words as he introduced the elderly man in front of me caught in my mind.
The Agnes family? Wasn't that Tachyon's family...? Then maybe... the little uma musume standing there was...
As I thought that, I noticed the uma musume hiding behind the elderly man peeking at me again and again.
She was an uma musume with beautiful chestnut hair that fell to her waist and clear red eyes. She looked about six years old. I felt as though I had seen her somewhere before. The more I looked at her, the more she resembled that girl...
The elderly man brought the hiding girl forward.
"Come now, you greet her as well."
"...It is nice to meet you. My name is Agnes Tachyon..."
"Huh...? Eeeeh!?"
My voice echoed through the quiet mansion.
That girl was undoubtedly my beloved partner as a child.
"We adults will still be speaking over there, so please play with this girl for a while."
After my grandfather told me that, I walked through the mansion holding little Tachyon's hand. From what I had heard, this was apparently the main estate of the Agnes family.
I glanced behind me at Tachyon, who followed with a blank expression, and felt something hard to describe. Was this really that Tachyon...? To put it kindly, she seemed quiet and refined. To put it unkindly, she gave the impression of an empty doll.
"Tachyon... chan? Is that okay?"
"..."
"What should we play?"
"...Anything is fine... as long as it is not something played outside."
"Okay..."
Gloomy... Was this child really going to become that Tachyon, the one who at least put up a good face in public but behaved as selfishly as she liked in front of me? Even when the Tachyon I knew was putting on an act, she was not this expressionless... Had something happened?
"Well... thinking about it won't help."
"? Is something the matter?"
"No, it's nothing. Don't worry about it. Then let's go play in that room over there."
"Understood."
For now, I would think about the details later. Right now, I should play with this tiny Tachyon. I wonder what Tachyon liked...
After that, I played with Tachyon until evening, then ate dinner at a banquet where members of both families had gathered.
Night fell, and I lay alone in bed, thinking.
This place. The calendar that said August 32nd. My grandfather, who should have been dead. Tachyon, who had become a child.
...There were too many things I did not understand.
Was this a dream? For that, there were far too many strange things, and it felt much too real.
I searched my pocket and took out a notebook. I couldn't find any of my other belongings, but for some reason, only this had remained.
I flipped through it and began writing what had happened today on a blank page. Keeping a diary was something like a habit for me. Normally I wrote in the trainer's notebook in my bag, but since I didn't have that now, I had no choice but to write a simple entry in this small notebook.
"...Well, I guess I'll think about it again tomorrow."
When I looked up at the clock, it was almost midnight. It was a good enough time to sleep.
Maybe when I woke up, everything would be back to normal. Maybe this was just a strangely realistic dream.
I put the notebook away, tore off the calendar page that said August 32nd, slipped under the covers, and closed my eyes.
Perhaps because I was tired, I immediately lost consciousness.
"Nnngh... hot..."
Tormented by the lingering summer heat, I opened my heavy eyelids.
When I opened my eyes, I was inside the bus—
No, of course not. I was on the same bed in the same room as yesterday.
"So it wasn't a dream after all... What is this?"
I sighed as I looked at my body, still unchanged and younger than it should be.
"Come to think of it, if yesterday was August 32nd... what day is today?"
I hadn't checked carefully when I tore it off yesterday, so I looked again at the calendar hanging on the wall.
"Huh...?"
It was a calendar that read "August 32nd." I was sure I had torn that page off yesterday...
I approached the calendar and tore off the page again. But the date underneath was also August 32nd.
"Wh-Why!?"
No matter how many pages I tore off, the date that appeared was August 32nd. Page after page after page, no matter how many I tore away, August 32nd appeared again. Even though I had clearly torn off far more pages than should have been left in a tear-off calendar, the paper marked August 32nd still appeared.
The sight was so far removed from reality that I felt like I might lose my mind. Gradually, my head began to hurt worse and worse, until my hand stopped turning pages and I sank down onto the floor.
Strangely enough, the moment I let go of the calendar, the headache receded smoothly.
"What is this...? I don't understand anything..."
I changed clothes and left the room. The same scene as yesterday stretched out before me again.
Just as I had yesterday, I walked down the hallway, and in the distance, I saw my grandfather's back standing just as it had yesterday.
I called out to him the same way.
"Grandpa?"
"Ah, there you are. Come here for a moment."
"Oh, your granddaughter? Good afternoon, young lady."
"G-Good afternoon..."
"This gentleman is the husband of the head of the Agnes family. He is an old friend of mine."
"Huh...?"
From the outside, it was a perfectly ordinary conversation. But seeing it, I was probably the only one who felt something wrong. The sight of the two of them speaking as if nothing was out of place made a clammy unpleasantness cling to my body.
As cold sweat spread down my back, the conversation continued.
"Come now, you greet her as well."
"...Good morning."
"Y-Yeah. Good morning, Tachyon-chan."
"We adults will still be speaking over there, so please play with this girl for a while."
My grandfather said that and left as though nothing at all had happened.
He did not touch on the fact that she had reacted as if she already knew me, despite supposedly being introduced to me for the first time.
...Something really was wrong.
As I felt an indescribable wrongness in their behavior, I took young Tachyon with me and walked down the hallway. Even that felt as though I was being made to walk along a script someone else had set out for me, and it made me feel sick.
After that, I played with Tachyon until evening, then ate dinner at a banquet where members of both families had gathered. ...Everything happened at the exact same time, with the exact same movements, like a puppet show, regular and precise. I felt as though I was the foreign object that had wandered into it.
The only thing that was not the same as yesterday was what involved Tachyon. Judging from her reaction that morning and other details, she seemed to be the same as me. Yet when I tried to ask about it, for some reason the words would not leave my mouth. I could speak normally about anything else, but only that topic would not come out.
Lying in bed, I went over the events of the day again. The more I thought back on it, the sicker I felt. Even the expressions everyone made seemed somehow artificial.
"What is happening...? Was yesterday itself a misunderstanding? A dream I saw? Or is this the dream?"
Muttering to myself, I opened my notebook to write my diary as usual and noticed something.
There, written plainly, was the diary entry I had made before sleeping yesterday.
"...So yesterday really wasn't a dream..."
While I was relieved that it had not been a dream, the discomfort did not disappear.
Because this made it seem as though the same day was repeating. Something like that could never happen in reality. And yet the reality before my eyes was exactly that.
All kinds of thoughts raced through my head. The more I thought, the less I understood.
As I thought this and that, I suddenly turned my eyes to the wall clock. Its hands were just about to reach midnight.
Tick. Tock.
The second hand reached straight upward, and the instant all the hands overlapped at twelve, my consciousness snapped off as if the power had been cut.
"...Hah!?"
And then I woke again. The time was just past seven.
I looked at the calendar, holding on to the faintest hope, but the cruel thing still showed August 32nd.
And so August 32nd repeated again.
I met my grandfather in the hallway, was introduced to the husband of the head of the Agnes family and to young Tachyon, played with her until evening, attended the banquet with all the relatives, and at midnight my consciousness fell away before morning wound back again.
It repeated again and again.
Again and again and again.
Again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again...
Even as I felt I might go mad, only the notebook in my hand told me that August 32nd was truly repeating.
Once I realized the same day was looping, I judged that writing a diary was useless, so I began making marks to show which August 32nd this was. Those marks were now approaching one hundred. In terms of time, that was three months and a little more.
And now, on the one hundred and first loop, I thought alone.
Through this repetition, I had learned various things.
First, no one except me and young Tachyon realized the loop existed.
Second, if I spoke to anyone other than Tachyon, I received no reaction. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that they did not say anything outside what had been decided.
As an experiment, I called to my grandfather from a distance in the morning, and he began speaking as though I were right there beside him.
Finally, everything except my memories, Tachyon's memories, and my belongings wound back.
My notebook made this obvious, and I also realized it when a die I had happened to put in my pocket while playing with Tachyon remained there.
"...If the surrounding environment doesn't change... then maybe the way out lies with me or Tachyon..."
Given that this was the main estate of the Agnes family, I thought the possibility that I was the cause was low... probably.
Usually in these kinds of things, the cause is someone connected to the place. Where did I get that information? In novels and manga, that's how it usually goes, right?
Assuming that, the key would be Tachyon or someone related to the Agnes family. So I decided to explore the main house.
Before that, there was something I had to do, so I went again to my grandfather, who began the same conversation.
"Ah, there you are. Come here for a moment."
"Oh, your granddaughter? Good afternoon, young lady."
Ignoring the two of them as they addressed me the same way, I spoke to Tachyon, who was hiding behind the husband.
"Good morning, Tachyon-chan."
"This gentleman is the husband of the head of the Agnes family. He is an old friend of mine."
"Good morning..."
"I have something to do today, so would you mind playing by yourself for a while in the same room as yesterday?"
"...Understood."
Tachyon nodded without changing expression. Maybe she wasn't that attached to me...?
"Come now, you greet her as well."
"See you later, Tachyon-chan."
"Yes..."
I left Tachyon there and headed deeper into the mansion, toward the place the two adults would go once their conversation ended.
Since no one reacted to me anyway, it was convenient that I did not have to sneak around.
It was a huge mansion, so the hallways were long, and there were many sliding doors.
But in mansions like this, people usually gather in the deepest room... I think. With that thought, I continued toward the back until I heard several people talking from behind a door at the very end, one that was made differently from the others.
"Here...? Is it locked...? No."
I slowly turned the doorknob and opened the door. In the very back, an elderly uma musume was sitting, and around her were several adult uma musume, apparently making small talk.
Normally, if someone suddenly entered while they were talking like this, they would be surprised. But they reacted as though I did not exist, which felt a little strange.
Their conversation seemed to be nothing but unimportant chatter, so I decided there was nothing here and was about to leave when one of the uma musume spoke.
"Hey, head of the family. Why is that defective thing still here? You should hurry up and send her somewhere else."
"(Defective...? Who are they talking about...?)"
"...There are outsiders in this mansion right now. You do not know who may be listening, so refrain from making such remarks too carelessly."
"But an uma musume who can't run isn't needed in our family, right? It will stain the Agnes name."
"That is true, Mother. Breaking down after running only a little... And that eerie face of hers, with no telling what she is thinking... I shudder just remembering it."
"The fact that she has talent makes it a shame. But no matter how excellent a talent may be, if it cannot be used, then it is a wasted treasure. Though I suppose that is very like something defective. Heh."
"Hehe. You're quite right."
"You are her mother, even if only in name. How cruel."
"I simply believe in leaving children to themselves. I trust that one day she will climb her way back up."
"Hehehe, listen to you. You dote on her other sisters, yet when it comes to that thing, it is practically neglect. You don't think that at all, do you?"
"Oh? Was it that obvious?"
"Painfully obvious. You really do love joking."
Disgusting.
Watching the three of them each sneer at someone—probably Tachyon—left only that word in my mind.
"...It is true there is no point keeping a defective thing in our family. But fortunately, it looks presentable, so it has uses. At most, we can use it as a bargaining tool in negotiations with families that may benefit the Agnes house. Until then, we must keep it close and discipline it properly so it can be shown outside without shame..."
I could not endure any more. Filled with disgust and anger, I left the room. I wanted to punch someone, but doing that would mean nothing.
Still, calling her defective over a mere minor injury...
One look at the way Tachyon walked now made it obvious that it was not a serious breakdown. Most likely, her body had not even finished growing, and they had forced her to run too hard, resulting in something on the level of a slight sprain.
To decide from that alone that she could not run... How blind could they be?
"...I had something like that happen to me too."
Because of the injury I suffered in the upper division, I could no longer run, and I too had been called useless.
I understood that an uma musume who could no longer run would lose her place in races. But to judge her arbitrarily when she was still so young, and to be abandoned by her family for it, was far too cruel.
At last, I understood why that Tachyon was so different from the Tachyon I knew now.
...She had nothing.
Expectations had been placed on her without her consent, and then she had been abandoned without her consent. She had no family who loved her and no dream to aim for. An empty, hollow girl. That was the Tachyon here now.
I didn't know what the real Tachyon's past had actually been like. Maybe this situation was different from reality.
But I could not abandon the Tachyon here. Even if this was an illusion.
I could not leave Tachyon as she was, with that gloomy face.
...I could not change the environment. I could not interfere with the people here.
Then at least.
Just as she had said when we first met,
so that she could pursue the farthest limit of an uma musume's potential,
I would show her that potential.
That, I thought, was the only thing a mere uma musume, one who had fallen in love with those mad eyes and that running, could do for the empty Tachyon.
Starting with the next loop, I began training.
Thanks to my body having become younger, my leg injury had no effect, and I could run at full strength.
Even so, I was nowhere near the running I aimed for.
What I sought was the running of the uma musume named after a faster-than-light particle.
The running of the uma musume I had fallen for, the one who continued to pursue the potential at the farthest limit.
That running was something she had reached through her extraordinary talent and years of training.
In truth, it was a place that I, an ordinary uma musume, could never reach even if I spent my entire life on it.
But here, in this place...
If I lacked talent, I would make up for it with effort.
If I lacked time, I would pay for it with an infinite repetition.
I understood that the road would be dizzyingly long.
But so what?
I would end this repetition and save Tachyon.
That was my role.
And so I repeated August 32nd again and again.
I woke in the morning, played with Tachyon, trained whenever I had spare time, and when night came, time wound back.
Again and again and again and again and again...
Thousands, tens of thousands of times, I repeated August 32nd.
Within that repetition, my mind gradually wore down. My heart felt close to breaking.
Repeating the same daily life, days with no change, eroded the mind more than I had ever imagined.
All the more because the people here were dolls, repeating the same actions.
The marks in the notebook, the only thing that told me this was a repetition, ran out of pages at eight million, three hundred twenty-six thousand, four hundred ninety-two. Because I had written over them so many times, the pages had gone completely black.
After that, I stopped counting. So I no longer knew which August 32nd this was.
Maybe only a few more loops had passed since then. Or perhaps this was the hundred millionth.
If I let my guard down, my mind might wear away completely, and I might even forget who I was.
What was I repeating for? What was I running for? The answers felt as if they might slip through my fingers.
But I desperately gathered them back, clenched my teeth, and endured.
Only for Tachyon...
"...This is it... I finally reached it..."
It was dusk, and the sun was sinking beyond the horizon. As I checked the video camera that had recorded my running, I murmured to myself.
I no longer knew which loop this was. I no longer knew where I was. I could no longer remember the names of the people in that mansion.
At the end of that repetition, I had reached her running, if only for a short distance.
It was only a few hundred meters, not even a sprint distance, but it was enough to show her.
"...Huh? Who... was she again...?"
To begin with, why was I...
My head was hazy as I looked around. In the distance, a small chestnut-haired uma musume sat quietly.
"...Ah... That's right, Tachyon..."
Seeing her, I remembered why I had come this far.
Then I approached her. How long had it been since I last spoke with her like this...? I felt as though I had left her alone for a very long time...
"Hey, Tachyon-chan."
"...?"
When I called out, she looked up at me with her red eyes, puzzled. Perhaps it was my imagination, but it felt as though a light dwelled in those eyes.
"Hey, hey. Do you want to see the potential of an uma musume?"
"Po... ten... tial...?"
...Oops. I shouldn't have used such a difficult word with a child this small...
"Ah... um... maybe I should call it a dream?"
"A dream...?"
"Yeah, a dream. How fast someone can run... that kind of thing."
Tachyon gave a small nod.
"Good. Then watch from there, okay? Big Sis will show you something special."
After telling her that, I stood alone on the turf.
I gave the starting signal inside my heart and ran across the earth.
I stepped in and accelerated, faster and faster. The scenery around me streamed backward at incredible speed, and running as I cut through the wind felt good.
Then I rounded the corner and entered the last straight. I reproduced her running.
Even if I had managed to imitate a little of it, my running was ultimately a fake. It could never compare to the real thing.
But for this short distance alone, the imitation reached the truth.
Ah. So this was the world you were aiming for... Tachyon...
The joyful time ended in an instant, and I ran past Tachyon.
My breath was coming hard, and my shoulders rose and fell as I tried to turn and check Tachyon's reaction. Before I could, something small slammed into my waist.
"Amazing! That was amazing, Big Sis! I've never seen anything so fast before!"
It was Tachyon, hugging me with her eyes sparkling.
All I had done was copy Tachyon's own running, but seeing her delight so innocently made me happy, as if I myself had been praised.
"It was amazing, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, amazing! You're so fast, Big Sis!"
"Ehehe. Thank you."
"I wish I could run like you, Big Sis."
"You can run like that too someday!"
When I told Tachyon that, her expression turned a little sad, and she lowered her eyes.
"...Mother says I can't run... She says I have glass legs that'll break right away..."
"I see. That's what she told you... But listen. Big Sis's running is something I copied from an uma musume I admire. That uma musume was called glass-legged too, but she still showed me running like that."
"Really?"
"Yeah! And you're still little, Tachyon-chan, so you only got a little hurt. As you grow bigger, one day I'm sure you'll be able to run like me!"
"I... can...?"
"Of course! I guarantee it! Tachyon-chan, I'm sure you'll become an amazing uma musume!"
"Uu... snff... Big Sis..."
Still hugging me, she began crying, tears spilling from her large red eyes. It happened so suddenly that I had no idea what to do, and I hurriedly stroked Tachyon's back.
"Wh-What's wrong, Tachyon-chan!? Did I say something you didn't like!?"
"No... I'm happy... Nobody ever told me anything like that before... snff..."
"Tachyon..."
"...I was lonely all this time... Nobody looked at me... everyone, they... snff..."
As she cried loudly and poured out her feelings, I hugged her gently. I kept stroking her back and waited quietly until she stopped crying.
Gradually her sobs grew smaller, and I released the hug.
Tachyon wiped at her reddened eyes and showed me a smile. It was a bright smile suited to her age, and at the same time, somehow reminiscent of the nihilistic smile Tachyon wore now.
"I'll do my best, Big Sis! Someday, I'll become an amazing uma musume like you! And I'll become that poten... tial... thing you talked about!"
"Yeah, that's right. I'm sure you can... Do your best, Tachyon."
"Yeah!"
Crack.
In that instant, cracks ran through the world.
The sky dyed by sunset, the turf underfoot, everything cracked like glass and began crumbling away with a clatter.
"Ah... So that's what this was after all..."
Most likely, this had been the condition for escaping this repeating world.
Show Tachyon a fragment of a dream, and make her dream of its farthest limit.
"...Was I trapped here for that?"
"Big Sis? Your body...?"
"It's okay. Don't worry about it, Tachyon..."
With this, I would probably return to the original world. I would part with this Tachyon here.
I would leave her alone again... but she would surely be all right now.
As long as she had conviction, she could stand alone.
I would probably never meet this Tachyon again... but I hoped we might meet again someday, and with that wish in my heart, I said goodbye to her.
"...Goodbye, my cute beloved partner. I am sure someone will come to you too... someone who will understand and support you... See you again."
"Yeah... See you again, Big Sis."
With the parting came my wish that we would meet again.
My consciousness gradually began to fade. The world had almost completely collapsed, and only young Tachyon remained, faintly visible.
"...Thank you, my guinea pig. For saving me, and for showing me a dream."
Just before everything collapsed, I felt as though I heard a nostalgic voice from somewhere. In my fading consciousness, I turned my eyes toward it and saw young Tachyon smiling like a sunflower. Behind her stood grown Tachyon, smiling softly...
"...kun... hey..."
"Nnngh... who...?"
I felt someone shaking me, and my consciousness awakened. When I opened my eyes sluggishly, Tachyon's face was there, looking slightly displeased.
"'Who' is rather harsh, Trainer-kun. Have you forgotten your beloved partner?"
"Ah, sorry, Tachyon..."
I slowly stretched and looked out the window. Familiar streets stretched outside.
"Ah... I'm back..."
"You were sleeping quite soundly. ...Were you that tired?"
"No. I was just having a dream."
"A dream?"
"Yeah. A dream about you, Tachyon."
"A dream about me? My, my... You really are taken with me, aren't you, my guinea pig? Dream-me may be nice, but do try not to neglect the real me."
"Ahaha... Sorry, sorry."
"So what sort of dream was it?"
"Let's see..."
When I gave her a rough summary, Tachyon furrowed her brow.
"That is certainly a bizarre story. Repeating the same day... hm. And at the end, showing young me my own running? What an interesting thing you did."
"Well, I couldn't just leave you alone... Actually, Tachyon, what made you decide to pursue the potential of an uma musume?"
"Oh, you wish to know? Well, it is a long story, so let us discuss it little by little another time."
"Okay."
"Now, we should be arriving soon. I will be counting on you for a delicious dinner, Trainer-kun."
"Yeah, got it, Tachyon."
After we got off the bus, I walked home side by side with Trainer-kun, listening to the evening cicadas cry.
What came back to me was the story of the dream Trainer-kun had just seen... and the strange experience I had when I was a child.
When had it happened? Before I began pursuing the farthest limit, back when no one paid any attention to me and I sat outside all alone.
...She appeared suddenly. She must have been around middle-school age.
She asked, "Do you want to see the potential of an uma musume?"
At the time, my young self did not understand what those words meant.
Leaving my confusion behind, she began to run.
There, I saw a fragment of potential.
Even though I was young, I vividly remember being unable to tear my eyes away from that beautiful running.
And even after she learned about my glass legs... she gave me a push forward and told me that I could do it.
If I had not met her there... perhaps I would have remained nothing but an empty doll. In a certain sense, Agnes Tachyon was given life by her.
"...So that... was Trainer-kun..."
Tears spilled from my eyes naturally. If Trainer-kun saw them, she would worry, so I hid them quietly as I cried.
All of her inexplicable actions back then made perfect sense if she had been Trainer-kun.
Normally, something this unscientific would not be worthy of belief... but, well, once in a while, such things are not so bad.
As a strange little event at the end of summer, I would keep it quietly inside my heart...
"I thought she was merely a guinea pig... but it seems that was not the case."
"Hm? What's wrong, Tachyon?"
"Nothing at all. Now, let us hurry home. I am getting hungry, Trainer-kun."
"Yeah."
When I tell Trainer-kun about this someday and thank her properly, what sort of face will she make?
I am looking forward to it already.
Fin