After catching her breath, Starlight climbed up from the ground. She straightened out her training uniform and said to Inami with a smile:
"Alright, Trainer, let's go get that ice cream."
Hearing this, Inami stood rooted to the spot, making no move to leave. Seeing this, Starlight stepped forward with a puzzled expression to check on her.
"What's wrong, Trainer? Is something the matter?"
Kiryuu Inami's face flushed slightly, and she said somewhat shyly, "Um, Starlight-chan... could you change back to that hairstyle you had earlier?"
"Sure thing! Since Trainer asked, how could I possibly refuse?"
Starlight reached up and toyed with her hair for a moment. With a shing, she transformed back into her Gal Mode.
The change was so fast that Inami, standing right next to her, didn't even see how she did it.
"Hi-hi~ Trainer, I'm all set. Can we head out now?"
Seeing that her Trainer still wasn't reacting after the transformation, Starlight stepped closer and waved a hand in front of her face.
"Ah! That was so fast, I didn't even process it."
"Hehe, it's my superpower~"
The two of them walked toward the school gates. Along the way, both Inami and Starlight could clearly feel that they were receiving far more stares than before.
This gave Inami a small sense of satisfaction.
Even when she compared herself to her colleagues, whose Uma Musume were all very beautiful, Inami had never looked down on the "old" Starlight.
She wouldn't even look down on Starlight for not training, even though she had someone like Tojo Hana who managed entire elite teams as a Senpai.
And yet she had always harbored a small longing to have an Uma Musume with high "visual points..."
Seeing her trainee's "dressed-up" look this morning had been a genuine shock and a delight.
Though she had seen Starlight with her bangs lifted before, that version was just a standard, cute look, it was lovely, but it certainly didn't fall into the "stunning" category.
But now...
Inami glanced at the presence beside her, who seemed to radiate light. The silver hair looked so noble against the backdrop of the setting sun, while the pale gold at the tips added a touch of elegance.
The shimmering golden hexagrams in her eyes looked like something not of this world, swirling within her gaze. Even the dust-covered training uniform Starlight wore seemed to take on a certain "style."
This level of beauty was likely not inferior to that of the "Legendary Beautiful Uma," Gold City.
The walk was surprisingly quiet. Starlight seemed to be pondering how to handle the situation with Helios, while Inami was simply lost in Starlight's appearance.
They arrived at the ice cream stand. Starlight snapped out of her thoughts and looked at the long queue ahead, sighing with a bit of emotion.
"As expected for a weekend, there are so many people. Looks like we'll be waiting a while, Inami-chan."
"Is that so? If you're tired, Starlight, you can go rest on that bench over there. I'll wait in line for you. After all, you just finished training." Inami pointed toward a nearby bench.
Starlight looked toward the bench, then turned back to Inami and shook her head. "It's fine. I'm happy just having Trainer keep me company. I don't feel tired at all."
"...I-is that so?"
"It is."
Just then, a voice rang out from in front of Starlight.
"Hi-hi~ Curren-chan is out playing today! I just bought some cute ice cream— what does everyone think?"
An Uma Musume with short white hair was wearing a simple black dress, with a red bow accessory pinned near her ear.
She was holding her phone in one hand and her freshly bought ice cream in the other, apparently filming a video.
"Though I'm having fun, there's still something to regret. It would have been even better if I could have convinced Ayabe-san to come out too."
Suddenly, the white-haired Uma Musume caught sight of Starlight through her phone screen. Excitedly, she hit the pause button and spun around to look at Starlight in the queue.
"So pretty..."
Perhaps because the gaze was so intense, Starlight easily locked eyes with the white-haired girl.
"Hey, hey!!! Hello, hello! I'm Curren Chan. What's your name? Can we be friends... can we, can we!?"
Dashing in front of Starlight, Curren Chan held up her phone with great excitement.
Seeing this, although Starlight was a bit shocked, she quickly snapped out of it.
She took her phone out of her pocket and said with a smile, "Of course we can."
A moment later, seeing that she had successfully added Starlight as a friend, Curren Chan hurriedly leaned in closer to her, held up her phone, and asked, "Can we take some photos or record a video together?"
"Sure, no problem."
Watching the interaction between the two Uma Musume before her, Inami felt happy in her heart, but she couldn't help muttering to herself subconsciously, "I haven't even taken a photo with Starlight in her current look yet."
Although her voice was very small, it couldn't escape Starlight's upright horse ears.
Even though Starlight wasn't very good at posing— still sticking to that "NPC smile" and the peace sign— it looked much better than the one she had taken with Daitaku Helios before.
"Ah, Yukino is here! Bye-bye, let's play together next time, okay?"
"Mm, no problem. Go find your friend, Curren-chan."
"Mhm! Bye-bye!"
Watching Curren Chan skip away into the distance, Starlight turned around and spoke to Inami, who was pretending to look indifferent.
"Let's take a photo too, Trainer. How about we do it to commemorate the day?"
"Eh? Sure... sure!"
Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Inami nodded with joy.
Afterward, Starlight and Inami chatted while they waited. Time passed quickly.
The scene shifted to the two of them sitting on a bench, each holding a cup of ice cream.
Starlight leaned in toward Inami, bumping her cup against Inami's. She pulled out her phone and somewhat awkwardly opened the camera app.
"Um, actually, I'm not very good at taking photos. Can you teach me, Inami? Hehe..."
"I see. I think you just need to smile naturally, Starlight."
"Eh? Is it really that simple?"
"Yeah, that's enough."
Nodding in half-understanding, Starlight slowly raised her phone and turned on selfie mode. She adjusted the angle slightly and showed a smile she felt very satisfied with.
Beside her, Inami tilted her head and gently touched Starlight's head.
Click.
A very simple photo was captured just like that. There were no flashy poses or rich expressions, the two of them just smiled simply.
This deeply meaningful photo would eventually be sealed in a frame and placed on Starlight's bedside table.
"The next race has been decided. It's a medium-distance Pre-OP race. As long as you win this, Starlight, you'll be able to participate in G3 level events."
"Is that so? Great! Then let's work hard together, Inami-chan."
"Yeah, let's work hard together."
In the evening, Starlight returned to the dormitory after parting ways with Inami. Having shed her "gal" form, her bangs once again covered her eyes.
For some reason, Starlight actually felt a sense of relief.
"I must not be used to the time spent without my bangs covering me yet. It seems I should definitely use that form more often in the future when I have the chance."
As she looked toward the balcony, Starlight couldn't help but stumble. She saw a row of small birds perched on the railing. Some had already built nests on her balcony.
Stepping forward quickly to push open the balcony door, Starlight asked, "Wait a minute, wait a minute! What's going on with all of you?"
"Chirp! Chirp!!"
A small grey-and-white bird, seeing it was Starlight, flew happily into the air, fluttering its wings.
"You guys... want to make a home in my room?"
"Chirp!"
The grey-and-white bird nodded, then moved a bit closer to Starlight.
"Alright, I'll let you stay, but on the condition that you don't cause trouble for me, okay?"
Seeing the group of birds nod in unison, Starlight didn't say anything more. She slowly moved aside, crouched down, and carried the nests the birds had built into her room.
"In that case, don't stay on the balcony. I'll leave the window open for you."
Since she lived alone anyway, Starlight cleared off the empty bedframe on the other side and simply arranged the bird nests there.
Standing up and wiping the cold sweat from her forehead, Starlight said with some emotion, "Let's leave it like this for now. Later, I'll modify this wall a bit and put up houses for you."