Facing Satono Diamond's application to join the team, Kitahara thought for a moment, but didn't refuse.
Indeed, there was no reason to refuse.
Though when they first met, due to various reasons, Kitahara had been somewhat intimidated by her.
Let alone agreeing to let her join—he didn't even want to get close.
But as time passed, with more frequent interactions, Kitahara's mindset gradually began to shift.
Obedient, sensible, attentive…
Though still just a child, perhaps due to strict upbringing, Diamond knew far more than one might expect, speaking with a maturity and steadiness far beyond her years.
Especially given her unique interests, Diamond had quite an in-depth understanding of 'urban legends.'
To the average person, urban legends were nothing more than idle talk over tea, something casually mentioned and quickly forgotten.
But for Kitahara, every provable urban legend was prime research material.
Especially after vaguely grasping the true nature of the Uma Musume species, Kitahara had already wanted to actively delve into some urban legends, aiming to advance several of his ongoing research projects.
But before he could even start, Diamond just "coincidentally" mentioned that she was knowledgeable in this area.
Not only did she have some personal research, she also provided Kitahara with substantial, valuable intelligence obtained through the Satono family.
Facing Diamond's generosity, Kitahara—eagerly thirsting for precisely this kind of information—naturally couldn't decline.
Yet, Kitahara wasn't the type to accept favors without reciprocation.
Though Diamond later insisted it was simply information-sharing between enthusiasts.
After all, Kitahara himself had shared plenty of firsthand experiences from his wandering days involving various 'urban legends,' so no repayment was necessary.
But even so, Kitahara still refused to accept her offering without returning something in kind.
Normally, since the data was used for research, repayment would've been simple enough: just share the research findings directly with Diamond.
The problem was, what he studied was invariably dangerous to some degree.
The true nature of Uma Musume, the development of Domains, the issue of Sunday Silence…
Privately researching these was one thing.
But if he dared to make it public—forget publishing, the moment such thoughts emerged, the Three Goddesses would be knocking at his door, and silencing him permanently wasn't impossible.
Since openly sharing results was out, Kitahara had no choice but to repay her another way.
Yet, this led to another problem—Kitahara genuinely had no idea what else he could offer her.
After all, Diamond was the beloved young lady of the Satono family.
Not only did she lack nothing in everyday life, but the gifts she received for birthdays and holidays alone piled up beyond counting, and each was typically of exceptional quality.
In comparison, though he had plenty of trinkets himself, they were either unsuitable—such as his caretaking—or simply unnecessary for someone like her.
The only viable option was probably to use his skills as a trainer and offer some guidance regarding her training.
By sheer coincidence, right when Kitahara hit upon this idea, Diamond also just "happened" to propose exactly that.
She suggested that, since Kitahara was an active trainer, his advice might prove more helpful than that of the trainers hired by her family. She hoped he could occasionally give her and Kitasan some training tips.
After that, things naturally fell into place.
Although Kitahara didn't particularly want the Satono family to clearly gauge his abilities as a trainer.
But he figured that if he restrained himself and only offered subtle guidance that ordinary trainers would miss, it probably wouldn't cause any issues.
Thus, he agreed to Diamond's request and secretly became the real trainer for both her and Kitasan Black.
Moreover, after accepting her proposal, thanks to the intelligence Diamond provided, Kitahara's research rapidly advanced.
Especially in November. Though the eight consecutive races had left Kitahara slightly busier than usual—the main reason for his busyness had actually been his research into various phenomena.
Given his capabilities, eight races were trivial; even eighteen races wouldn't pose much of a problem if attendance time wasn't a factor. If he seriously devoted himself to the job, a few days were more than enough.
As for exactly what he'd been so busy researching, or what results he'd obtained…
…It could only be said that the gains were considerable.
First, the activation of Domains.
Although Kitahara still hadn't fully grasped all the factors needed to activate a Domain.
After his recent investigations, compared to before, he'd managed to add several new items to the previously theorized conditions for activating Domains.
For instance, after examining more relevant data, Kitahara discovered that the vast majority of Uma Musume who activated Domains did so during their True Awakening, with only an extremely small minority activating it outside that period.
Moreover, even among that tiny minority, all of them activated their Domains only after completing True Awakening—no Uma Musume had ever activated a Domain prior to beginning True Awakening.
Secondly, Kitahara found another commonality among Uma Musume who activated Domains—one rarely noticed by others.
They gave off a very balanced feeling.
Regarding further specifics, Kitahara himself found it difficult to articulate clearly. Besides, his current research into this area wasn't yet clear enough to explain precisely what this balanced feeling entailed.
Yet, despite not understanding how exactly this balance originated, Kitahara recently noticed a small, peculiar detail.
Namely, those Uma Musume he'd cared for personally tended to exhibit a significantly stronger sense of balance than those he'd never attended to—and moreover, the strength of this sense of balance was directly proportional to the intensity and frequency of his caretaking.
That was really quite strange.
Yet even stranger was how that sense of coordination also manifested clearly in the trio from the Chairwoman's office—Chairwoman Akikawa, Karai Risa, and Hayakawa Tazuna.
Though, unlike Hayakawa Tazuna, who, despite being overworked, possessed remarkably good coordination—for Chairwoman Akikawa, never mind good coordination, upon close inspection she felt oddly abrupt, like something jammed up halfway.
As for Karai Risa, it wasn't just abruptness—she even exuded an outright sense of conflict.
Like forcibly patching two incompatible systems together, riddled with error messages popping up everywhere, thoroughly abnormal no matter how one looked at it.
Perhaps this is the root of their physical ailments?
Kitahara guessed as much, but he couldn't be certain yet. Further research was necessary.
Apart from Domains, thanks to the extensive urban legend intelligence provided by Satono Diamond—combined with his own firsthand experiences, Kitahara also gained deeper insights into the fundamental nature of Uma Musume, and arrived at a conclusion that sounded somewhat incredible.
Sunday Silence wasn't a ghost; she was, in fact, a perfectly normal Uma Musume.
Not that she alone was normal and the others abnormal.
Actually, according to Kitahara's findings—whether it was the seemingly normal Uma Musume on his current team, Sunday Silence, or even stranger existences, all fell within the range of "normal Uma Musume."
Because, as far as he could tell, Uma Musume as a species didn't appear strictly bound by their "form of life."
Whether a typical "Uma Musume," the entirely human-looking "Hayakawa-san," the ghost-like Sunday Silence, or some even stranger things...
They weren't numerous, but unquestionably existed.
And after personally interacting with them, Kitahara was certain their inner essence—if not exactly identical—was at least extraordinarily similar to Uma Musume.
Moreover, upon further investigation, Kitahara faintly realized:
The reason Uma Musume were Uma Musume probably wasn't a racial matter at all. Rather, in their own self-awareness, they considered themselves as "Uma Musume."
Or, put more bluntly, they think they're Uma Musume, so they're Uma Musume.
This theory would explain numerous oddities in this world, and following this train of thought, many of URA and Tracen's baffling behaviors suddenly made sense.
Or perhaps it could be summed up in a single sentence:
Maintain the Uma Musume's self-perception.
Of course, this theory wasn't complete, and Kitahara was certainly overlooking some details.
After all, if Uma Musume could truly become whatever they imagined themselves to be, rather than remaining Uma Musume, wouldn't it be simpler for them to imagine themselves as space battleships and just launch humanity into the stars?
Yet Kitahara didn't continue digging into this further.
Not because he lacked time or ability—but rather, he had a vague feeling that if he kept investigating this, the Three Goddesses might just visit him in his dreams to "check his water meter."
—What he didn't realize was that, in fact, a certain trio of troublemakers had already visited his dreams countless times over the years.
Although he couldn't continue researching this point, this hypothesis nonetheless provided some hope for improving Sunday Silence's situation.
According to this theory, the reason Sunday Silence was a "ghost" might simply be that, in her self-awareness, she saw herself as one.
If he could alter that self-perception, perhaps he could improve her condition.
Naturally, he couldn't tell her that.
After all, if the subject herself became aware of it, the effectiveness might be greatly diminished.
Besides, Kitahara currently lacked any concrete proof—this was still just conjecture.
If he revealed it too early and it ultimately failed, Sunday Silence would probably feel deeply hurt.
Having made these breakthroughs, logically speaking, Kitahara should've eagerly pressed forward—even if he didn't choose the relatively less dangerous research directions, he could at least start tackling several issues at hand.
Like the Chairwoman's growth problem, Sunday Silence's ghost issue, or even the Acting Chairwoman who, despite barely having interacted with him, had an extraordinarily weak and clumsy body…
But he took no action whatsoever, reverting instead to his usual lazy routine.
Not because he didn't want to continue; if he had a choice, Kitahara genuinely would've preferred moving ahead.
After all, the Chairwoman was famously generous, and the Acting Chairwoman was apparently another rich young lady. Solving their issues surely meant a handsome payout.
And while Sunday Silence didn't have money, her constant clinging and endless antics gave him severe headaches—he was eager to give her a physical form just to escape this misery.
But just as he was preparing to act, a new, completely unforeseen problem suddenly arose:
Something went wrong with his own body.
As mentioned earlier, due to various factors, Kitahara's mastery over his body was far beyond normal humans.
Thus, even if the change was subtle and slight—barely noticeable, perhaps even dismissed as a mere illusion for anyone else—Kitahara quickly detected something strange shortly after it began.
As for the precise manifestation of this strangeness...
After bidding farewell to Satono Diamond, Kitahara walked into the shade of trees where Agnes Tachyon often lingered. He picked up a rather thick branch from the ground, gripping it gently.
Crrrack.
Accompanied by a sound of fibers tearing apart, the branch snapped effortlessly into two pieces in his grip.
Afterward, Kitahara stood there quietly, staring at the broken branch in his hand, his eyes filled with clear contemplation.
Clearly, this wasn't something achievable with normal human strength.
Breaking this branch wouldn't have been hard for him before—but crushing it effortlessly, as he'd just done, would've been impossible.
If that had been the extent of it, Kitahara wouldn't have thought too deeply.
After all, being a little stronger wasn't a bad thing.
Especially now, after Digital-chan had already confessed to him. Though, given her gentle personality and highest safety rating as an Uma Musume, he doubted she'd do anything reckless. Still, extra security was never bad.
But the problem was, this strength wasn't persistent—it was a disposable, single-use resource.
Somehow, he briefly acquired a certain amount of power and, due to his absurdly precise self-control, had prevented it from dispersing naturally, storing it inside his body until he'd just released it.
And after using it, along with the branch breaking, that power dissipated significantly—enough to suggest it might vanish completely after breaking just two or three more branches.
If this power came from a normal source, Kitahara would've immediately repeated the experiment to figure out exactly what was going on.
But the problem was that the origin of this power was somewhat… abnormal.
For example, Digital-chan's recent kiss.
Truth be told, this wasn't the first time Kitahara had felt this type of power.
As for when he first started noticing it, he couldn't exactly recall.
Because this power wouldn't activate on its own and dissipated naturally, initially, Kitahara dismissed it as an illusion.
Later, as he grew more accustomed to it, his initial attempts at storing it all failed due to inexperience—until today, when he finally succeeded for the first time.
Something feels seriously weird…
Staring at his fingers, Kitahara fell into contemplation.
If this power had come from a more normal source, he'd probably be thrilled.
But recalling carefully when he'd obtained this strength, he realized it always seemed to happen when he was forcefully kissed.
Does this mean I have some kind of superpower? I get stronger if someone kisses me?
Kitahara considered this briefly, but quickly rejected it himself.
No. Impossible. I'm just a normal human; there's no way I'd have something like that.
More likely, he figured, this was due to the unique characteristics of Uma Musume.
Maybe when they kissed him, power flowed into his body through saliva or something similar, slowly dispersing afterward due to incompatibility with a human body.
And the reason others hadn't discovered this yet was quite understandable.
After all, not everyone had his absurd level of self-awareness and control. Without consciously holding onto it, this strength would rapidly vanish unnoticed.
If this were the extent of changes in his body, Kitahara might not have worried too much, treating it simply as a new research topic.
But the problem was that, aside from this transient strength, he recently detected another new power circulating within him.
He closed his eyes, raised his hand again, concentrated deeply, guiding that power to gather in his fingertip.
A moment later, he opened his eyes.
On his fingertip, a faint glow mixed between soft pink and pale violet slowly flowed, giving off a distinctly peculiar feeling.
Honestly, though he guided it himself, Kitahara had no idea what this was, nor its purpose.
Yet his intuition told him clearly—unlike the strength from earlier, this one could be quite dangerous.
And Kitahara had some suspicions about where it originated.
Weird, glowing, and occasionally emitting vague heart-shaped particles when pushed hard...
If anyone told him this had nothing to do with the potions Agnes Tachyon had forced down his throat, he'd never believe them.
Either residue or after-effects, my body's definitely changed because of Tachyon's potions.
But Kitahara didn't intend to immediately confront Tachyon.
After all, it was already getting late, and tomorrow was Oguri's debut race.
He decided it was best not to disturb her rest tonight and would approach Tachyon afterward instead.
Moreover, if he happened to run into Karai Risa tomorrow, perhaps he could ask her for an analysis as well.
Holding onto that thought, Kitahara dispersed the glow, returned to his dorm, and prepared to sleep.
...
Time slowly passed. The moon gradually rose, and soon it was time for bed.
With a stomach full of worries, Nature climbed onto the bed. Together with a few other small Uma Musume, she squeezed onto the large mattress originally belonging to Kitahara, and slowly closed her eyes.
Just as she was about to drift off into sleep, a slightly hesitant girl's voice quietly rang out beside her.
"Um…did any of you feel like…Kitahara-san's hands looked kind of…pretty today…?"
Hands? Pretty?
Nature froze momentarily, a little shocked. She hadn't expected Special Week would have that kind of taste.
Yet before she could linger on her surprise, triggered by Special Week's words, her mind subconsciously drifted back to the images of Kitahara's hands she had glimpsed after returning today—and her expression gradually changed.
She had no idea why. Clearly, she had no unusual fixations—but remembering those hands made Nature's heart beat faster.
Honestly, Nature never thought Kitahara's hands were especially beautiful—today they'd looked no different from usual.
Yet somehow, inexplicably—as she recalled them now, those hands seemed filled with an intoxicating charm.
They drew her gaze uncontrollably toward them, and even just looking felt like a marvelous pleasure.
No, wait. Maybe it wasn't the hands…
As the memory slowly sharpened, Nature's gaze shifted downward in her mind, finally focusing clearly on the true source of that strange allure.
It was a single finger.
A finger glowing faintly with an ethereal halo, shimmering gently between pale violet and soft pink in her memories.