Actually, the four horse girls under Shinji's name had initially agreed to bring him dinner together, but soon after, Eclipse and Tokai Teio both said they had something to do and couldn't make it.
Special Week had originally planned to come with Oguri Cap, but because she had failed too many subjects last semester and her test scores at the beginning of this semester were not ideal, she was called back by her culture class teacher for remedial lessons, so she couldn't come either.
Thus, only Oguri Cap was left.
Sitting on the chair next to Shinji's hospital bed, Shinji's eyelids twitched as he looked at the food container she was holding, which was stacked almost half an adult's arm high.
To confirm his suspicion, he tentatively asked, "Um, Oguri, have you eaten?"
"I have." She nodded. It wasn't that she didn't want to eat with Shinji, but with her appetite, it probably wouldn't be easy to transport the food here.
Which meant...
Shinji pointed at the half-arm-high food container, his voice trembling slightly. "Is all this... for me?"
"Yes." Oguri Cap nodded, then opened the food container, revealing the sumptuous meal inside, and said seriously, "After you get injured, you should eat more to recover faster."
"But this is too much, isn't it?" Shinji looked devastated. "I'm a human, Oguri."
Oguri Cap blinked, then finally realized what Shinji meant, but her expression remained calm. She looked at the portion in the food container and replied, "Then just give me the leftovers. I can still eat this much."
"...That's not very appropriate, is it?"
"What's not appropriate about it?" Oguri asked strangely, her eyes clear.
Shinji was silent for a moment. Although he felt it was somewhat inappropriate, having lived a hard life had made him instinctively cherish food. Plus, Oguri didn't seem to mind, so after thinking for a moment, he agreed.
"Fine."
Shinji sighed and was about to pick up his chopsticks, but another small, fair hand picked them up first, picked up a piece of meat, and brought it to his mouth.
"Ahh~"
Oguri Cap made a motion as if coaxing a child, her gray pupils quietly watching Shinji, her expression also abnormally calm.
"...What are you doing?" Shinji was stunned.
"Feeding you," she replied calmly.
Shinji waved his intact right hand. "This hand is still fine."
But Oguri still insisted, "But you're a patient."
"Patients can still eat by themselves, you know?"
"But I heard someone say that patients need to be taken care of. They should just lie down obediently, and leave the rest to others."
"Which bastard said that?"
Oguri didn't answer, just quietly looked at him.
Shinji met her gaze for a while, and after calming down, a blurry memory suddenly flashed in his mind.
It seemed that, probably, maybe, a few years ago, he had said something like this to a certain girl who was lying in a hospital bed with a cold and fever.
"You still remember that."
After remembering, he showed an embarrassed expression. "I thought you were young back then and probably didn't remember it clearly. It's already good that you could recognize me. I didn't expect you to remember even what happened back then."
"I remember everything clearly." She nodded. "It was Trainer Kitahara who saved me back then. Of course I will always remember."
Shinji smiled bitterly and shook his head. "Don't say that. It's really not saving. At most, I just helped you with some small things and helped you avoid some detours..."
The story of him and Oguri Cap was actually not complicated, and even a little funny.
Oguri Cap was a big eater since she was born. Although it was initially seen as a sign of health, a few years later, as her appetite grew even larger, her family began to feel that something was wrong. So, to find out what was going on with her abnormal appetite, her family took her to a horse girl hospital for an examination, and the result was bulimia. They were told to control her diet.
After a period of treatment, Oguri's 'illness' was indeed cured, because she had adapted to the feeling of hunger. Her appetite, behavior, and race performance all seemed no different from an ordinary local horse girl.
And it was at that time that Shinji met her.
He hadn't actually gone to find her on purpose. Someone at that local Tracen academy had invited him to help solve some problems with their charge horse girl, and after his fame spread, many people came to him, which made him stay there for a while longer.
And it was during that process that he met Oguri in the cafeteria. Seeing the big words 'Insufficient Food' hovering over her head, he turned to the trainer who had invited him and asked doubtfully, "Are you guys abusing horse girls here? Aren't you afraid the Horse Girl Protection Association will come after you?"
"...Abusing horse girls? How is that possible!" The trainers were all shocked. Abuse horse girls? We'd be burning incense if we weren't abused by them.
Then, things were simple.
Shinji approached Oguri and, through both the system and conversation, learned about her situation. He found out that although she acted as normal as any other horse girl, she would sometimes feel dizzy. Especially after training or a race, the dizziness would be particularly strong, and she would even be a little unsteady on her feet. Because of this, she was not well-regarded at this local Tracen and was considered a horse girl with a poor constitution, not good at running.
Isn't this just from being hungry!
After that, he stayed there for a while longer, helping the people there solve various problems while also helping Oguri regulate her body, and he was also in charge of her training for a period of time.
There was nothing much to say about the care and training. It was basically Shinji designing a menu for her, starting with light and easy-to-digest food to gradually nurse her stomach back to health, supplemented with corresponding levels of training and psychological counseling. He didn't push for progress, just aimed for her to return to a normal level—a 'normal' level by his standards, that is.
And by the way, during the treatment process, the bored Shinji also tailored a set of exclusive low-stance running form for her based on her physical characteristics, allowing her to better utilize her strengths.
Oguri didn't disappoint Shinji's efforts. After a period of recovery, her performance skyrocketed, and she directly became the strongest in her grade, with few rivals even among students several grades above her. And that was when she hadn't even started her full-fledged development, and her body was not well-developed due to the controlled diet.
It could be said that if Shinji hadn't discovered it in time, even if someone else had discovered Oguri's problem later, the developmental issues caused by long-term lack of sufficient food would not have disappeared, thus affecting her talent as a horse girl. In severe cases, it could even lead to a permanent illness, causing her talent to wither away before it could blossom, leaving her to watch others run on a screen from a hospital bed for the rest of her life.
So, when she said that Shinji had saved her, it wasn't a joke, but a very serious expression of gratitude.
And after the treatment was completed, after understanding the whole story, Shinji even paid a special visit to her family, stating that Oguri did not have bulimia at all and provided convincing evidence—someone with bulimia couldn't eat as much as she did.
In the end, the matter ended happily. The only thing that wasn't happy, perhaps, was that when Oguri wanted to go thank him afterwards, she found him gone. She was actually angry about it, but after learning about Eclipse's existence, she immediately understood his difficulties. After all, she herself had almost bankrupted her own family after she started eating freely. And Shinji, who was just a child at the time, had to support Eclipse, who was even more terrifying than her. The thought of the bitterness he must have gone through was enough to bring tears to one's eyes.
"It's not that hard, actually. Eclipse is also very sensible. When things get really tough, she'll also take action, like anonymously participating in a race, going up the mountain to hunt, or gathering some wild vegetables and mushrooms to bring back..."
Shinji said, and Oguri stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth.
Perhaps because memories always make people relax unconsciously, by the time he came back to his senses, he was already being fed by Oguri.
And speaking of Eclipse, Oguri thought for a moment, and while stuffing a piece of vegetable into his mouth, she asked, "Miss Eclipse's appetite is so big, she should be very strong, right? Have you ever thought of having her enroll in Tracen?"
"I don't know if she's strong or not, I just know she's definitely not weak. After all, I've never seen her lose."
After chewing on the vegetables for a few bites, he continued, "As for coming to Tracen, I thought about it, but she didn't want to come alone. So she only came after I agreed to be her trainer."
The hand holding the vegetables paused slightly. "Miss Eclipse has never lost? When did her full-fledged development start?"
"I don't know, she never said."
"What about her age?"
"She probably doesn't know that herself. Anyway, when I found her, she looked like she was six, so I just treated her as six. She never refuted it."
"Why doesn't she usually train? I tried to invite her once, but she refused."
"I don't know about that either. Anyway, since we were young, I've never seen her train even once—but maybe she secretly trains behind my back?"
"I see."
The chat was over, and the meal was also finished. Oguri cleaned up the remaining food, then took out a textbook from her school bag and started reviewing her lessons.
"Aren't you going back?" Shinji asked.
"I've already told the dorm head that I'll be back late. And since no one else is here now, it's fine for me to stay a little longer."
"But I only injured my arm, everything else is fine..."
"Patients need to be taken care of. They should just lie down obediently, and leave the rest to others—someone told me that."
"...Fine."
Shinji gave up struggling.
If it were someone else instead of Oguri, like Tokai Teio or Agnes Tachyon, he would never have agreed, not even if he were beaten to death. But with Oguri, looking at her calm, clear eyes that held no trace of ulterior motives, combined with her natural personality, even Shinji, a patient with severe horse-girl-persecution-delusion, found it hard to be wary of her.
He was afraid of Tokai Teio because he was afraid of being locked in a basement. He resisted Agnes Tachyon because he didn't want to be a guinea pig. But Oguri was different from both of them. There was no dangerous element about her, and her various behaviors were also very normal. Even her way of addressing him was a very stable 'Trainer Kitahara'; she had never even called him by his first name.
Furthermore, it wasn't their first day working together. With their experience from a few years ago, Shinji knew very well that this child basically had no thoughts in her head other than eating. She was a very stable horse girl, and he trusted her more. And besides today's feeding, there had been no intimate behavior between them. And even this feeding was because Oguri thought he was a patient and wanted to take care of him, which was also understandable.
Perhaps, this is the most normal relationship between a trainer and a horse girl?
After thinking it over, he came to this conclusion, and his expression gradually relaxed.
As he was thinking, perhaps because he was full, or perhaps because the day's events had consumed too much of his energy, he began to feel a little sleepy.
He slowly closed his eyes, and amidst the rustling sound of Oguri's pen on paper, Shinji's breathing gradually became long and slow.
And after his long breaths became obvious, Oguri's pen slowly stopped moving.
She turned her head, looking at his peaceful sleeping face, her gray pupils trembling slightly. After staring in silence for a long time, her lips moved gently, making an extremely faint sound.
"Good night, Trainer Kitahara."
After speaking, she retracted her gaze and continued to do her homework.
Accompanied by the rustling of the pen, Shinji fell into a peaceful sleep.
-------
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