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—START—
Another day at Tracen Academy.
Another grand opportunity for her to coexist and gaze upon the most magnificent creatures this world could have ever created.
Her tail wagged excitedly just at the thought of being able to observe them from closer, to be around them and act as witnesses for their interactions and trainings.
(Whe he he he~) Her mouth was already salivating before she even saw anything. (Oh I wonder who’ll get to see today~? which wonderful oshis will I bump into ☆?)
Walking through the massive gates was a sight to behold in itself, many groups of friends or maybe family walking side by side freely and with the weights of their own lives unaware of the spectator.
(AH!! Look at Daiwa Scarlett and Vodka already fighting so early in the morning!) She squeaked internally. “ah?” She gasped. (Are Tamamo Cross and Inari one holding hands?!)
She could drop right here and now with a great squeal — which she won’t, Agnes Digital is a paragon of self-control — instead she moved with enthusiasm as her steps guided her further into the academy.
Every passing Umamusume was another delight within her vision, every interaction a new inspiration for her creative mind, every student a masterpiece in Agnes Digital’s view.
“Samson Big, Ines Fujin, Orfevre~” She sang to herself with enthusiasm as she passed them by the hall, her half crouching posture making her look smaller than she was. “Manhattan Caffee, Mejiro Mcqueen, Aston Machan~”
She had to stop the urge from pulling her notebook right then and there to begin writing, to put into paper the marvelous feeling that was for an otaku like her to be surrounded by every famous and beautiful racer in Jap-
-BANG-
A pair of arms hit the wall beside her head effectively pinning her in place.
Her blood froze as her whole body responded with a silent shriek, her face paling, both ears going as tall as they could while her tail hit the wall with how fast it had gone still.
The intense stare of the person before her almost drove a hole through her and then the wall.
Trembling she turned to inspect whoever had done this, Digital’s eyes meeting with laser focused lime orbs that did not move an inch away from hers.
A small crown sat atop the Uma’s head, brown hair cascading into her shoulders as a permanent smile on her face seemed as enchanting as it felt terrifying.
Agnes digital could die — whether from the sheer proximity with this Umamusume or from the scare was debatable. “e-e-exus-” She stammered weaking raising a finger trying to get a singular word in.
The Umamusume got closer to her, her face reaching to where Digital’s pants were sensible in her own skin still without saying anything.
"GHUE?!" Any closer and she might have passed out from the proximity of such a magnificent creature.
"You...remember" The girl's affirmation was a soft but shocked echo as the hallway seemed to empty leaving just the two of them. “He he” Slowly the girl backed away, leaving Digital’s heartbeat echoing in her skull. “Bye bye”
She stepped away with a calm walk waving at her with that same persistent smile that gave nothing away.
Meanwhile Digitan slid down the wall in a furious flush, still having her brain trying to process everything that was going on while actively being unable to forget the way the lime eyes of who she now recognized as Aston Machan had pinned her to the wall.
Her breathing was furious as she clenched her uniform above her chest. (WHAT WAS THAT!? She was so close and gurhg!!) Even inside her own mind she couldn’t stop the strange noises she’d unusually make when watching the other Umas.
To see her so close, to have essentially been the target of a Kabedon. (GUH I’m so blessed!!!!) Felt like the three goddesses had handed her a trophy and victory to her Otaku ways.
Still she had to put herself together and go to class, now was not the time to be breaking down.
---
Sitting at lunch Digital used her most practiced technique, the otaku-certified eating and writing combo for maximum efficiency.
With her left hand she precisely and coordinately moved food from the plate to her mouth at a good pace with every single part of her meal perfectly spaced for her to reach.
Meanwhile her right hand was swift across her notebook, the words flew with the proficiency of a practiced fanfic writer as her mind conjured every interaction, clash and encounter each she had witnessed.
Yet every few strokes her mind would wander.
Every few bites the color lime would cross her memory like a vivid constant stare that’d send a shiver down her spine.
It’s almost like she could still feel them on her.
“!”Digital’s chopsticks stopped just a lick away from her open mouth, her eyes blinking slowly at who was seating across from her. “e-e-e-e-e-e” On the other side of the table with her own food was Aston Machan once again.
Completely fixated on Digital as she ate. “Hi~” Softly waving having sat there from the very beginning just calmly admiring Digital.
“h-u h-hi!” Squawking the greeting back she reflectively covered her mouth after making such a noise, it was two times now that this Umamusume had caught her off guard.
Machan giggled softly at her blunder. “You are very funny you know?” Her words carried only in the intimacy of the table and the very shadowy hint of affection in the Uma’s voice. “Each time we meet it goes like this doesn’t it”
A chill ran down her spine, feeling that echo and sober her from her fluster. “E-each time?” She’d seen the sprinter many times before and had admired her like every other Uma but…but her words sounded like more.
“he he” Another soft giggle. “Like a boat being carried by the current I drift, one day gone as every person will be eventually” Machan began her tale. “So that nobody forgets Machan she has done her best to become and ultra mascot”
“But still, machan remains forgotten” Her admission hurt in a way Digital couldn’t understand, a pull to her chest that was not just the sombreness of the words. “Save for you”
Digital did know her, she remembered her name and every race she had run in like the good fan she was. (But everything else…eh!?) It was blank.
Favourite foods, pastimes, talents and friends, all of these were factors of every one of her Oshi’s that she had taken to heart…yet she knew nothing else of Aston Machan. The horror in her face painted a good enough picture of what she was thinking.
The pink haired Uma was sure she’d done her research, so sure in fact she quickly scrambled off to her book to check.
Another giggle came from the source of her current distress. “Every time we meet is the same” Her affection is even more notable now, so much that even Digital’s panic needs to take a step back to ear the words that’d come next. “Yet every time it’s different too”
And for whatever reason after saying that her v shaped smile just seemed to widen. “This time you remembered my name” Just a small detail, a small aspect that just seemed to brighten Machan’s whole world.
Everything was getting too confusing. “W-wait!?!” The underlying implication of Machan’s words was finally catching up to her rebooting brain. “We’ve…talked like this before?”
“Talked?” Amused machan tilted her head, instead of saying anything else her hands went to the pocket of her skirt, pulling out a photo.
One image, that was all it took to short circuit Digital in it’s most definitive and absolute form.
Near a lake the two of them sat with their hands intertwined over a picnic mat, the sunset reflecting on the water as their lips met in the most heartfelt show of devotion and mutual care Agnes Digital had seen from herself and directed at her.
They kissed.
…kissed…
…
-POOF-
A surge of heat crawled rapidly from her neckline, a rabid red blush exploded across her face as her ears burned with the sheer contradiction of the image and the memories in her head.
She didn’t remember this happening. Her heartbeat meanwhile sang to it like a truth she did not remember.
Shaking like a leaf her entire body mechanically turned — trapped in a state between trying to move and being completely paralyzed — towards Machan. “h-h-hh—hh-ow!?!”
Shrieking with pure embarrassment and a cocktail of other fluffier feeling Agnes Digital exploded in a puff of smoke and stuttering. “We!? How?! I don’t?! why don’t i? EH!?”
It was a blank spot in her memory, something she was sure her core would remember as one of the most magical instances in her life — even as a clear breach of the Oshi code as it was — So any lack of remembrance about it was…terrifying.
“Every time you see it” Machan smoothed her, having moved while her initial fluster had set in grabbing her hand with a warm care. “I love watching the way your eyes light up despite the denial the rest of you”
Fated to be forgotten, such was the destined end of Aston Machan. Yet Agnes Digital has showed her how that fate could crumble in the face of an avid supported.
An absurd fan who each time would do her absolute best that any and all Umamusume feel seen, to have a singular fan or supporter that would forever scream their names with all of their heart.
So once the realization of an Umamusume she was not aware of was in Tracen their meetings would begin from scratch once again.
Every time she forgot a part of the sprinter expected that that it would be the last time, she’d get to enjoy the warmth of being in the memory of someone.
Another however trusted that just like the first time this pink Umamusume would return to her side yelling about Oshis and appreciation.
That one photo was the proof of the solidifying of her in Digital’s memories.
Over time that singular flame of warmth developed into a deep molten sea of affection, slowly Machan grew bolder with her approach to every iteration of Agnes Digital.
78 encounters have occurred, 57 times had Aston Machan asked Agnes Digital to be her girlfriend, every single time her heart jumped when the desperate otaku couldn’t do more than stammer an agreement.
Slowly their relationship grew, blossomed and reset in a constant cycle that felt like chasing a shadow that would forever slip from her fingers.
Except…Digital remembered more each time, every iteration made her whole faster and they got to spend more and more time together.
Each time Machan just fell further and further for the ball of nerves she was now holding once more.
“Every time you forget” Her lips parted once more to speak. “I get to confess to you once more” Her lime eyes meeting Agnes’s with love. “And every single time you remember more”
Hope had turned to a certainty that someone in this world would remember her and that someone in this world would love her too.
“But today” Today had been the final nail in the coffin that she would eventually always be the Agnes Digital she loved so much. “You remembered my name”
Agnes was too lost, trapped between the heat coming for the sprinter’s hands as well as the story she told through cryptic words and softspoken giggles.
When her voice recovered enough to say anything it came out as a low squeak like a little mouse. “Wh-what do you mean?” Confessions, the picture, Aston’s whole presence.
Everything was too confusing.
“Ah” Her hold on Agnes changed, this time pressing her palms around the back of her dear’s hands pressing them together. “Machan knows this must be really confusing…and normally Machan would have taken this much slower but hearing my name from your mouth…it makes Machan want to act sooner”
She brought Digital’s hand to her chest smiling with a lovely expression that melted the heart and any kind of question that hanged on Agne’s head. “So Machan will instead ask” Those unfair lime eyes twinkled with care. “Would you be Machan’s partner once more?”
---
She had come to learn that two weeks would always be the limit, it was the timer of their love determined by fate.
So as they walked hand in hand unhurriedly — Albeit Digital still was seating and constantly flustered by the sheer magic of what had happened — through Tokyo.
Ever since their cafeteria encounter Machan guided Agnes Digital through a world she knew not off, a fantasy only her dearest imagination could normally conjure in her works called a ‘relationship’.
It was a strange thing to settle to, a partner who already knew her by heart due to their many encounters Agnes just couldn’t remember. Still, she did her best to not make the image Aston had on her fade.
Whenever she had opened on her unworthiness to hold any precious Umamusumes in her hands the ruthless hammer of Machan’s validity and love would strike to remind her that for her she was unique.
She was her lighthouse guiding her away from the shore.
Agnes Digital truly felt loved, so she did her best to match her partner’s enthusiasm and feelings.
While they walked the Otaku turned to her right where the sprinter should have been holding unto her hand.
She was holding air, nobody was there.
After a blink Machan was back, the furious blinking that followed afterwards in a desperate attempt to make what she saw just seconds ago not real only confirmed what she was fearing would soon happen.
“Ah…she river current drags me back to sea” She smiled, despite the threat of disappearing from her beloved’s mind once more she smiled. “Shall we go to the sea?”
Worse of all, she was willing to take her own path to get there.
“N-no!” Digitan couldn’t accept that, her happiness and Machan’s wasn’t something she was willing to let the sea strip them off. “I-I know a far better place!”
It was bravado and panic combined, her nervous persona pressured under the weight of what could be lost. Rather than letting her be washed away by the current Digitan took her to a place where the waters stilled.
It was a lake somewhere in a public park nearby, a place she’d found out after that fateful photo that brought her closer to machan in the first place.
Here in a place grounded in memory surely she would manage to remember, she would manage to keep her memories as the first to remember Machan’s name through the repeats.
Hope born from her heart was broken by the one who held her heart.
“Hehehe” That preciously melodic soft giggle she would do whenever she knew something that Digital did not. “You truly love this place” Even just hearing that could only prepare her for what came next. “ Machan loves it too, this is where we had our first date”
“And now it’s the 56th time you’ve brought me here before we returned to zero” Having let go of her girlfriend’s hand Aston Machan turned around leaving the lake after her as the sun began to dip in the horizon. “Machan understands you are scared but don’t worry too much about me my dear”
She grabbed both of her hands from the front, their palms meeting as Digital trembled, their palms against one another. “Machan knows she will be found again” Closing in as a tender kiss of goodbye is placed on Agnes’s lips.
One last kiss to this iteration of her, one last kiss that in this sorrow all Digital could do was answer back with all the love she could muster as every version before her must have done.
“Until one day the cycle finally breaks I’ll be waiting for you Dear Digital”
—END—
—Mystic—
