Chatting as they walked, it didn't take long for Kitahara and Karai Risa to reach the training grounds.
Because Valentine's Day was tomorrow, the grounds felt unusually deserted today. Most of the Umamusu were busy preparing for it.
So were lined up outside the cooking room waiting to make chocolate. Others were queued up outside a certain mad scientist's lab, getting ready to buy so "ingredients" for chocolate fillings.
And so, having already finished their three years of racing and t the age requirent, had simply gone straight to the shops, buying chocolate while stuffing boxes of "umbrellas" into their bags one after another, chatting and laughing all the while as they also picked up a whole pile of virility supplents...
As for the Trainers, the younger ones who hadn't yet realized how serious the situation was were still laughing and taking it easy, figuring that since the Umamusu under them had all asked for leave, they might as well treat it as a rare holiday.
So had holed up in their dorms playing gas. So had gone to the library to read up on things. So were even posting in the group chat about a new massage parlor that had opened outside the academy recently, asking whether anyone wanted to go check it out with them and relax properly...
All one could do was pray their Tantou never found out.
As for the more seasoned, worldly Trainers—those who still didn't have that kind of relationship with their Tantou—so were plotting to slip away, while others were reinforcing their doors, all trying to save themselves in one way or another.
And the even older veterans, the ones with true experience, stayed in their dorms calm as could be, drinking tea, playing chess, reading books, and casually booking themselves a bed for pelvic care while they were at it.
But unlike the others, even with Valentine's Day tomorrow, not a single mber of Karai Risa's team had asked for leave. All of them were on the training grounds, training as usual.
Now this was more like it.
Looking at the three Umamusu training together in perfect harmony, looking no different from any other day, Kitahara couldn't help sighing inwardly. This, he thought, was what students at a top-tier school like Tracen ought to look like.
A little later, probably because there were so few people at the training grounds today, the trio in the distance noticed Kitahara and Karai Risa not long after they arrived and ca jogging over.
"Master, good morning."
After drawing near, the Umamusu nad Mihono Bourbon greeted Karai Risa first, then looked toward Kitahara, a trace of confusion entering her eyes.
"And this is?"
"This is Trainer Kitahara, the senior I ntioned to you before."
"Trainer Kitahara..."
At Karai Risa's introduction, the Umamusu standing beside Mihono Bourbon—a girl with a half-up ponytail and a tiny crown on her head—also turned to look at Kitahara, her eyes growing thoughtful.
"I feel like I've heard that na sowhere before... Was it Rice-chan who ntioned it?"
And while Mihono Bourbon and Aston Machan—that was the na of the crowned Umamusu—were curiously studying the man in front of them—a small black shadow was hiding behind the two of them, looking completely at a loss, not even daring to raise her head and look at Kitahara.
Seeing that, Kitahara thought for a mont, then simply took the initiative and greeted her first.
"It's been a long ti, Rice Shower."
He spoke, and the little black Umamusu slowly raised her head. Her face was visibly tense, and her eyes were full of unease.
"It... it's been a long ti..."
"Onii-sama."
Onii-sama?
At that form of address, not just the other two Umamusu—even Karai Risa turned and looked at Kitahara in surprise.
"We knew each other before. Back then, she was used to calling Onii-sama."
Kitahara explained simply. At the sa ti, he carefully studied Rice Shower's expression again. After confirming a few things, the worry hanging in his heart eased slightly.
Thank goodness. At least for now, this child still seed to be Rice Shower. There was no sign yet of the child who gave him the biggest headaches coming out. As bad luck went, that was still the best of a bad lot.
After the brief introductions, the people present started chatting.
Most of what they talked about was ordinary training matters, with the occasional bit of academy gossip mixed in. Overall, it was all perfectly normal conversation, nothing especially worth ntioning.
And yet, even though the topics themselves were fine, as the chatting went on and certain mories resurfaced, Kitahara gradually realized that Karai Risa's team was... maybe a little abnormal.
First there was Mihono Bourbon. At a glance, she looked fairly normal, but the longer you interacted with her, the more you noticed sothing stiff hidden in her speech, expressions, and movents.
As if she weren't an Umamusu at all, but a robot made to look like one.
And Kitahara wasn't the only one who thought so. Mihono Bourbon's classmates and teammates felt the sa way, and after enough ti had passed, they had even given her a rather sci-fi nickna.
Cyborg.
But that wasn't even what she was most famous for.
While the oddness of her behavior had made the title of Cyborg sowhat well known around the academy, compared to one of her other traits, that nickna barely even mattered.
Machine Terminator.
That was her other nickna.
And in this case, terminator wasn't a noun. It was a verb. It ant that any machine she touched—or even rely approached—ran the risk of being terminated on the spot.
It had been ntioned before that Tracen Main Campus wasn't short on money, so its teaching equipnt was relatively complete and advanced. There were plenty of precision devices and instrunts among them.
At first, when Mihono Bourbon had only just enrolled and this machine-killer trait hadn't yet been exposed, no one at the academy had grasped the seriousness of the problem. She hadn't been placed under any restrictions and was allowed to move freely through various areas.
Then, in the second month after she enrolled, the academy made a startling discovery: the failure rate of its equipnt had risen to more than ten tis what it had been before.
At first, after noticing that, the academy staff assud so mischievous Umamusu had been deliberately sabotaging things, so they pulled the security footage from different areas in an attempt to catch the culprit.
And then they saw it.
Without her causing any intentional damage at all, Mihono Bourbon rely stood there, and the machines around her started malfunctioning one after another.
She'd run on a treadmill, and the treadmill would be junked. She'd take a computer class, and the computers would freeze. Every cara lining the hallway she often passed through developed wiring failures.
Even the phones of teachers who rely happened to walk past her during class would black out or short-circuit.
And so, from that day on, Mihono Bourbon's na as the Machine Terminator was firmly established. Many equipnt rooms—especially the laboratories—put her on their watch lists and strictly forbade her from coming near.
And it wasn't just her.
Aside from Mihono Bourbon, that chestnut-haired Umamusu nad Aston Machan wasn't normal either.
The difference was that unlike Mihono Bourbon, Aston Machan's strangeness didn't lie in her ability to damage outside objects, but in the effect she had on herself.
Or more precisely, her presence was very faint.
That might not sound like a big deal. After all, not everyone was a star Umamusu like Rudolf. At Tracen, where elites were everywhere, even excellent Umamusu didn't necessarily stand out all that much.
Not to ntion that Kitahara had Eclipse by his side, soone who could actively lower her own presence until she was almost invisible.
But the problem was that Aston Machan's issue was more serious than all of that put together.
No matter how low soone else's presence was, at most it just ant they were hard to notice in a crowd.
But Aston Machan's low presence affected even matters related to her.
For example, when her enrollnt file was reviewed, it was almost overlooked and nearly failed to be entered into the student system at all.
Her teachers would often unconsciously skip over her na while reading class rosters.
Even Karai Risa, when checking the list of girls on her own team, despite there being only three of them, would often fail to rember who the third one was. Sotis she even thought her team only had two mbers.
And if even people close to Aston Machan were like that, then for those who weren't familiar with her to begin with, the situation was naturally even worse.
It wasn't just that people ignored her regularly. Right now, in the entire academy, including Aston Machan herself, the number of people who could consciously register her existence probably didn't even reach ten.
Even the Chairwoman, while handling student paperwork, had nearly left Aston Machan's student file outside.
In the end, it was only because Kitahara had reminded her that she put it back—but just a few days later, she forgot about it again. That was one of the main reasons Kitahara rembered Aston Machan so clearly.
Oh, and incidentally, though the reason was unknown, Kitahara himself seed unaffected by Aston Machan's low-presence ability, whether he was looking at paperwork or the girl herself.
A cyborg, and a human blank spot whose presence was so faint it was almost nonexistent—in comparison, Rice Shower, with her rely sowhat self-deprecating personality, looked astonishingly normal on this team.
But Kitahara knew those were only surface appearances.
In fact, by his judgnt, compared to her two teammates, Rice Shower was the one with the most serious problem of all. It was only because it hadn't erupted yet that she seed so mild.
Because of that, once the brief chatting ended and the three Umamusu were about to return to training, Kitahara got Karai Risa's permission, then called out to Rice Shower.
"Rice Shower, if you don't mind, could I talk to you alone for a bit?"
At Kitahara's invitation, Rice Shower's ears twitched, and she looked a little flustered.
But after a mont, seeing the concern in Kitahara's eyes, Rice Shower pressed her lips together and finally nodded.
"Okay."
"Onii... sama..."
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