"I refuse your condition."
That was Fujimura Hikaru's response to Agnes Tachyon.
The easy smile on her face froze at once.
"Agnes Tachyon, it seems you've misunderstood something."
"What I said to you just now was only a proposal. Something that could be accepted, or not accepted."
"To be honest, if Chazora hadn't come and asked me, I wouldn't have wanted to get involved in your mess in the first place. If you really can find some other trainer, then good for you. But if you expect me to go along with your experiments, forget it."
"But there are some things I think need to be made clear."
Fujimura Hikaru spoke without the slightest hesitation.
"You asked whether I'm interested in the idea of the fastest horse girl. Of course I am. I've been a trainer for years. Naturally, I've dreamed about having the fastest horse girl under my care. In fact, every trainer hopes their trainee can reach that realm.
"But as trainers, we can't indulge our own desires and drag the girls under us into chasing some unreachable fantasy. Our duty is to protect the future they should rightfully have. That is what trainers are supposed to do."
Horse girls pursue their dreams.
Trainers exist to protect them as they chase those dreams.
And what was that supposed to mean, that trainers were meaningless?
"You're too arrogant, Agnes Tachyon."
If no one protected her, could she really reach that ultimate summit of speed?
And even if she did, was a future with no one left by her side truly what she wanted?
"You've drowned yourself in your own curiosity until you can barely breathe. That's what you look like to me right now."
"It's time you woke up from that fantasy, idiot!"
Fujimura Hikaru's words rang out like hammer blows, leaving Agnes Tachyon utterly speechless.
There was no way he could agree to her condition, and no way he ever would.
Because he was not the one begging her to let him help.
What kind of nonsense was that—offering help and still having to pay an extra price on top of it?
That would be idiotic.
If Agnes Tachyon accepted his proposal, then fine.
If she refused, then there was nothing he could do.
If she ended up expelled, then so be it. She would simply have to keep walking the road she had chosen for herself. Fujimura Hikaru had already done all he could.
He had merely offered her another path.
Nothing more.
Agnes Tachyon's expression shifted uncertainly.
Arrogant?
Me?
How could I be arrogant?
I'm just someone immersed in research. Arrogant? What a joke.
I only want to know more about horse girls' secrets… I only want to know just how fast this body can truly become…
What's wrong with that?
"Agnes Tachyon."
Fujimura Hikaru dropped the honorific now. A sharp light shone in his crimson eyes as he stared straight at the girl in the white coat before him.
"Why are you pursuing the realm of 'ultimate speed' in the first place?"
"Why…? Well, obviously…"
And then Agnes Tachyon froze.
She realized she couldn't answer the question.
That was right.
Why was she pursuing it?
Why had she sacrificed so much for an experiment whose very feasibility she didn't even know?
No.
She did know.
She had done all of this simply to satisfy her own curiosity.
That was all.
"That's exactly why I say you're arrogant."
Fujimura Hikaru let out a quiet sigh, tossed those words behind him, and turned to leave.
"In the end, arrogance leads only to self-destruction. If you can't even understand that much, then stop talking about chasing the illusion of 'ultimate speed.' At this rate, you'll destroy yourself long before you ever reach it."
"..."
Agnes Tachyon had no answer.
As she watched Fujimura Hikaru walk away, Manhattan Cafe stood there in the room, unsure which side she ought to follow.
Seeing that, Fujimura Hikaru reached out and rubbed her on the head.
"You've already trained enough lately. Take a rest for now."
"...Okay."
After hearing his instruction, Manhattan Cafe remained in the clubroom, watching his figure gradually disappear into the distance.
Then she turned back toward the other girl in the room and spoke with concern.
"Tachyon...?"
"Ahh... this is why I said you were meddling too much, Chazora..."
The tea-colored bangs hanging over Agnes Tachyon's face hid her expression, making it impossible for Cafe to see what she looked like.
But even so, Cafe could feel the heavy drop in her mood.
"Sorry. Let me be alone for a while."
Leaving Manhattan Cafe behind in the clubroom, Agnes Tachyon walked out by herself.
All that remained in the room was Cafe, and the bubbling green potion sitting on the table.
—
Expulsion.
When Agnes Tachyon first received the withdrawal notice from the academic affairs office, deep down she had felt surprisingly unconcerned.
Because in her eyes, even if she really was expelled, she could simply transfer to another Tracen school and continue her research there.
But that line of thinking had only been a protective illusion.
She had been so intoxicated by chasing the mirage of "ultimate speed" that she had deliberately blinded herself, choosing to hear only what she wanted to hear.
Just like Cafe, who chased after a friend no one else could see, Agnes Tachyon too had been bewitched by the phantom of "ultimate speed," throwing away so much just to get one step closer to it.
But was that really the right thing to do?
Just as Fujimura Hikaru had said, she had merely drowned herself in curiosity, entranced by the image of herself pursuing that illusion...
And before she even realized it, she had driven herself all the way to the brink of expulsion.
"Ah... what am I even doing...?"
Rarely for her, Agnes Tachyon began to reflect on herself.
Now that Fujimura Hikaru had shattered her illusion so forcefully, could she really go back to that old state of burying herself in research and ignoring everything else?
With such arrogance in her heart, could she truly uncover the truth of "ultimate speed"?
The old her would have answered without hesitation.
But now, she couldn't bring herself to say it.
In the end, was reaching the realm of "ultimate speed" all alone really what she wanted?
The girl slowly sank into confusion.
Before she knew it, Agnes Tachyon had wandered to the edge of Tracen Academy's training grounds.
She had not come here in a very long time.
Ever since burying herself in research, aside from gathering data, she had spent most of her time shut away in that clubroom. Her visits to the training grounds had become so rare they could be counted on one hand.
Her gaze drifted idly across the grounds—
Then stopped.
She saw Fujimura Hikaru's back.
The frustration in her chest deepened.
"...Would you know the answer?"
....
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