After finishing a full day of training, Kaito dragged his exhausted body back to the dorms.This was the first time he had properly followed the entire training process from start to finish. Normally, he would just assign Tokai Teio her training menu and then go do whatever he felt like. Teio was like she had a built-in GPS—no matter where he went, she would always find him with pinpoint accuracy and report back:
"Training complete, Trainer! What's next?"
It was the standard dialogue Uma Musume delivered after finishing training.Even if Kaito locked himself inside his room, Tokai Teio would still barge in.
The most outrageous time was when Kaito hid inside a wardrobe—and Teio still found him precisely, slipping in right next to him like a ghost.
After that, Kaito somehow started to like wardrobes.
"…Is it going to be like this every day from now on?"
Even just standing around for several hours was genuinely exhausting.
Why am I not an Uma Musume?The thought surfaced involuntarily.
If he were one, wouldn't he have limitless stamina? Every time he saw the girls running for hours on end, he felt like he was looking at superheroes.
Kaito had personally experienced an Uma Musume's speed before. He once had Tokai Teio carry him on her back and run a lap around the training field. The result? He nearly shook his breakfast right back out. At that speed, you could honestly say they were driving. Using an Uma Musume's ears as a steering wheel wouldn't even feel wrong—assuming you could withstand the internal organs-rattling "ride."
But becoming an Uma Musume would mean losing something very important, and that was unacceptable to Kaito.
In a school filled with beautiful girls, reincarnating as a girl himself—wasn't that worse than death?No, scratch that. That was far worse than death.
At least as a man, those Uma Musume could double as body pillows.If he were a woman… they'd just be figurines.
Thinking about it that way, the fact that he'd crossed over exactly as he was felt like divine mercy.
Speaking of gods, there was something Kaito couldn't ignore.
In the Uma Musume worldview, anything unreasonable could be blamed on gods. According to the setting, gods here weren't vague abstractions—they had physical forms. The creators of the Uma Musume were the Three Goddesses. If he could meet them, maybe he could finally understand what was really going on.
He had considered this long ago and came up with two possible methods.
The first was the fountain at the school entrance, where statues of the Three Goddesses stood—you could pray directly to them.The second was a shrine. Maybe wishing at a shrine would cause the goddesses to appear.
A few months ago, when the loneliness had pushed him close to a mental breakdown, Kaito ran to the fountain and screamed at the statues of the Three Goddesses, begging them for help.
Nothing happened.
There were no Three Goddesses in the game world.
But what about the real world? Did the real world have them?
The thought jolted him upright.
He took a taxi to the nearest shrine, tossed in an offering, and made a wish. He didn't know the proper prayer procedure, so he mimicked what he remembered from movies—bowing, clapping, ringing the bell.
He sat there for ages.
Nothing happened.
By the time Kaito returned to Tracen Academy, it was already deep into the night. The cold moon hung high in the sky, casting a thin veil of white light over the ground.
Maybe this world truly had no Three Goddesses. If they existed, they would have shown themselves long ago—back when Kaito first started fooling around with the Uma Musume. Now he had practically slept with half of Tracen, yet he still hadn't even seen their shadows.
Perhaps, in this absurd world, even the Three Goddesses were just game characters.
There was no answer more despairing than that—the only ones capable of defying the rules were themselves bound by them.
Whatever.Aside from the occasional surge of unbearable loneliness, this world had no real flaws. No worries about food or shelter, surrounded by beautiful girls, free to do whatever he pleased.
Gazing at the moon, Kaito walked to the center of the training field. He looked up, then lay down flat on his back.
He liked lying here, letting the night breeze wash over him, holding Tea Seat in his arms. Her snow-white cheeks and golden eyes matched the night perfectly. Moments like these were rare—times when his mind wasn't filled with messy thoughts. He treated Tea Seat as a friend, telling her stories about his past.
Occasionally, she would make a soft "Mm" sound.He wasn't sure whether it was just instinct—or if she really understood what he was saying.
Kaito hoped it was the latter.
Humans were social creatures. They needed conversation. No one could survive alone. Even pretending—pretending someone was there—was necessary.
Stay lonely long enough, and the mind started to break.
Time ticked by. The night wind stirred. Footsteps sounded nearby.
He lifted his head and looked at the black-haired girl approaching him.
Her long black hair blended seamlessly into the night. Her pale face reflected the moon's glow, her delicate features made even fairer by the moonlight. But the most beautiful part was her eyes—clear and pure, without a trace of impurity, like golden stars scattered across the night sky. They were mesmerizing.
"Trainer, you came early," she said softly. "I was wondering where you'd gone."
She smoothed her skirt, brought her legs together, and sat neatly beside him.
"Tea Seat…"
"Yes, Trainer?"
"…Lap pillow."
"…?"
Tea Seat blinked, taking a moment to process what he meant. A faint blush rose to her cheeks. She lowered her legs and spoke gently:
"Please, Trainer."
Kaito shifted, resting his head on her thighs. Warmth and softness enveloped him.
As expected of a max-affection Uma Musume—she agreed to such a request without hesitation. Considering Tea Seat's affection level was as high as Tokai Teio's, she'd probably agree to even more outrageous things.
He leaned closer, breathing in her faint natural scent, mixed with the lingering fragrance of soap. She must have just bathed in the dorms.
"Tea Seat, you can see ghosts, right?"
"Yes, Trainer," she nodded. "I've been able to since I was very young."
"Do you think ghosts are real? Or is it possible that only you can see them—that they don't actually exist, and your world is different from everyone else's?"
Tea Seat shook her head. She'd never considered something so complicated. She accepted seeing ghosts as part of her uniqueness—something different about her, and something she had learned to live with.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm the only real person in the world," Kaito murmured. "That all of you are fake… that maybe even I'm fake. That I already died, and this is just the last beautiful dream I'm having."
Lying on her thighs, Kaito let his emotions spill out.
Tea Seat looked down at him.
Unlike others, Kaito's eyes were a bottomless black, as if no light could reach them. Even though he was venting, there was no visible emotional fluctuation in his gaze.
After a moment of thought, Tea Seat chose the safest approach.
She leaned down—
—and kissed him.