"Senpai... are you okay?"
Bless the Moment glanced at Maruzensky walking beside her as they exited the cinema, her voice laced with concern.
"I'm fine, really."
Maruzensky forced a smile, but her drooping ears and listlessly hanging tail made the words utterly unconvincing.
Yowch… The back of my head really hurts!
Seizing the moment the white-haired Uma Musume looked away, Maruzensky glanced back, trying to spot the culprit among the crowd flowing out of the screening room.
Everything else had been fine. But every single time she tried to ask Bless the Moment about her relationship with her trainer, someone from behind would pelt her head with nuts or something similar, brutally cutting off her question mid-sentence.
The most frustrating part was that nobody in the theatre even reacted to her being hit, as if it had never happened at all.
In the span of one movie, she'd tried countless times to ask that question, only to have her head bombarded dozens of times.
Just who has it out for me?
Finding nothing out of the ordinary, Maruzensky turned back around, grumbling internally.
"Alright, the movie's over. What should we do next—"
"Maruzensky-senpai, are you really okay?" Bless the Moment interrupted, looking at her with worry.
"You don't look well at all. Maybe you should just head home?"
"...Would that be alright?" Maruzensky rubbed her still-throbbing head. "I'm the one who asked you out, it feels wrong to just leave you here like—"
"I can walk home by myself," Bless the Moment said, pointing down the road they came from. "If you're not feeling well, Senpai, you should go home and rest."
"...I'm sorry." Maruzensky apologized to the younger white-haired filly. "We had it all planned... and then this happened."
"It's fine, it's really fine!" Bless the Moment waved her hands dismissively with a smile. "I think I'll wander around this shopping street a bit longer... Will you be okay walking back alone, Maruzensky-senpai?"
"No problem!" Maruzensky gave a thumbs-up. After saying goodbye to Bless the Moment, she turned and left, something still on her mind.
"...Yuni, you're there, aren't you?"
After watching Maruzensky disappear from view, Bless the Moment turned to face the corner behind her. "What happened in the screening room was your doing, right?"
"..."
Her words, spoken almost to herself, were met with silence.
"Are you going to keep hiding? I can already see you."
"Bless, good morning."
Finally, the golden-haired, blue-eyed Uma Musume stepped into Bless the Moment's line of sight. As if they'd just happened to meet on the street, she raised a hand expressionlessly and waved at the white-haired Uma Musume standing not far away.
"Let's go over there to chat."
Bless the Moment glanced around, then pointed towards a less-crowded ice cream parlor in the distance, suggesting it to her.
--+--
Inside the ice cream parlor, Bless the Moment rested her chin on her hands, watching Neo Universe who sat across from her.
"Can you tell me why you did that to Maruzensky-senpai?" she asked, only after Neo Universe had taken a sip of her orange juice.
"She is a bad person," Neo Universe stated with absolute certainty, her hands clutching her cup.
"Bad person?" Bless the Moment was puzzled by this assessment. "You've hardly even met senpai, have you? Why would you say that?"
"...She's just a bad person," Neo Universe repeated after a long silence, sticking to her original statement.
"Alright, alright... Then why did you throw things at her head to interrupt her when she was talking?"
Seeing that Neo Universe didn't want to elaborate, Bless the Moment temporarily let that matter drop and moved on.
"Because she's a bad person!" The golden-haired Uma Musume clenched her fists, speaking indignantly.
"...Do you have anything else to say besides that?" Bless the Moment sighed in resignation.
"You must not tell them!" Neo Universe stood up, her face tense as she delivered this line.
"Must not tell them? What are you referring to?" The white-haired Uma Musume grew even more confused.
"You must not tell them that you are Nakatsuru Aya!"
The next moment, the words that came from Neo Universe's mouth caused the smile on Bless the Moment's face to crack.
"You..." Bless the Moment quickly scanned their surroundings, then lowered her voice to a whisper. "...How do you know that?"
"I knew from the very beginning."
Knew from the very beginning?
Bless the Moment's heart skipped a beat.
She was certain her memory wasn't playing tricks on her. Their first meeting had been just after she started middle school in this life. Are you telling me she knew the secret I've kept hidden in my heart, the one I haven't told anyone, from the moment we first met?
How did you do it? Can you read minds or something?!
Wait, my appearance in this life is fairly good, and this kid started clinging to me right after we first met...
...Your next line wouldn't happen to be 'Bless the Moment, you wouldn't want anyone to know you're really Nakatsuru Aya, would you'?
"If you tell them, you will be eaten!" Seeing that the white-haired Uma Musume sitting across from her wasn't responding, Neo Universe continued on her own.
Be eaten? Oh... She means that kind of thing.
Bless the Moment understood.
"So Bless, you must never... Ack!"
"Okay, okay, I don't have any plans to tell them I've returned just yet." Bless the Moment leaned forward across the table, flicking Neo Universe on the forehead to cut off her unfinished sentence. She only sat back down after eliciting a cute sound of protest from the other girl.
"But if they figure it out on their own, there's nothing I can do about it," Bless the Moment added mischievously, seeing the relieved expression on Neo Universe's face.
"..."
Neo Universe, realizing the white-haired Uma Musume was teasing her, fixed her with a stare full of faint resentment.
"Speaking of which... You still haven't explained clearly how you knew I was Nakatsuru Aya."
"..."
Neo Universe averted her gaze.
"Don't try to play dumb." Sensing she was about to lie, Bless the Moment cut her off preemptively. "I want you to tell me, clearly and in detail, exactly how you recognized me! Spill it all!"
"Mmm..."
Seeing the white-haired Uma Musume's intense stare, Neo Universe let out a vague sound and slowly nodded.
...It seems there's no getting out of this.
The golden-haired, blue-eyed Uma Musume took another sip of her drink.
"So, you're saying you did all of this to protect me?" Bless the Moment's expression was utterly bizarre after listening to Neo Universe's explanation. "And you specifically crossed parallel worlds to come to my side so you could do this?"
Wait... wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!
What in the world are you talking about?!
Since when did the genre shift so drastically!
"Mm." Neo Universe nodded. Seeing that Bless the Moment seemed to want to ask more, she frantically shook her head. "I've said everything I can. The rest is something I must not say."
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.