Tokai Teio lay sprawled on the track, gasping for air.
In front of her, Eternal Meteor—who had been chasing her the whole time—was only breathing lightly, as if she'd barely warmed up. Teio started questioning reality itself.
She looked up at Meteor's face.
Barely any sweat.
Those eyes still burned with an unfading shine.
Then Teio's gaze drifted higher—and she blurted out in shock:
"Meteor… you don't have any earrings?!"
"…?"
Meteor tilted her head so hard it looked like a giant question mark had popped up above her.
Teio immediately felt like she'd just received a quest.
"I heard if you wear an accessory on your left ear or right ear, you get the blessings of the Three Goddesses!"
(If I wear two, that's double blessings, right? Teio wisely kept that thought to herself. She could already hear the inevitable lecture about "don't be greedy.")
"So—wanna go shopping together tomorrow?"
"No."
"…Why did you reject that instantly?!"
Meteor didn't hesitate for even a fraction of a second. She knew exactly how annoying shopping was. Besides, she didn't need some vague "blessing"—if she had time, she'd rather use it to raise her actual strength.
"Instead of gambling on airy fairy blessings, build absolute advantage with real ability. Also, you still got scared by me in the end—after all that training. And you want to go play?"
She poked Teio's forehead, fed up. Three days of training and Teio was still this easy to spook—one slightly scary expression and she was ready to cry.
Teio pouted and turned on the sugar.
"Consider it my thank-you for training me, okay? Pleeease?"
Meteor shuddered head to toe.
This kind of cute whining was her worst matchup. She started turning to leave—
"I'll pay!"
Teio sacrificed her wallet without hesitation.
The moment Meteor's tail flicked upward and started swishing, Teio knew she'd guessed right and rushed to add more bait:
"And we can check out that new dessert shop too—McQueen gave it a super high rating!"
Food. Dessert. And not paying for it herself.
Meteor swallowed.
Because—uh—she was broke.
She'd transferred the debut-race prize money onto Rudolf's card. Rudolf had tried to refuse at first, but Meteor basically forced her to take it.
And then Meteor completely forgot she now had zero cash on hand. Even her merchandise-revenue contract used Rudolf's bank account.
Thank goodness Tracen Academy meals were free, and her phone plan still had prepaid credit—otherwise she'd already be sitting on the roadside holding a chipped bowl like a beggar.
Life itself wasn't a problem…
but snacks and sweets were out of the question.
As for clothes? Other than the school-issued uniform, she only had the outfit she'd arrived in.
So Teio's proposal was devilishly tempting.
"…Fine. I need to open a bank account anyway. I'll swing by with you. Call it post-training relaxation."
Teio watched Meteor's tail whip with enthusiasm, ears perked up like antennae—yet Meteor's face was still trying to maintain that cool, indifferent expression.
It was so funny Teio almost burst out laughing.
She clamped a hand over her mouth, even bit her tongue to keep it together. After agreeing to meet at 8:00 tomorrow, she sprinted away like she'd stolen something.
"…Huh? Why'd she run off so fast?"
X replied instantly:
"I recommend a mirror."
Meteor pulled out her phone, opened the camera, and stared.
Silence.
Then she lowered the phone like nothing had happened, scanned the area to make sure nobody was watching—
and immediately clamped one hand over her ear and the other around her tail and bolted back to the dorm.
"Why didn't you warn me earlier?!"
"You didn't ask! Hahahahaha!"
Back in the dorm, Meteor glared with her teeth clenched—while her cheeks flushed bright red with embarrassment—and X laughed like a hyena.
"…I suddenly don't want to go tomorrow…"
"You should go. You need to relax. A rubber band kept stretched tight will snap sooner or later."
Meteor raised her hand, stared at the lines in her palm, then slowly clenched it.
"You're right… lately… I really have been kind of off."
Nighttime: The "Relaxation" That Never Happens
She tried not to train that night. Took a shower. Flopped into bed.
But at midnight, the blanket burrito on the mattress began wriggling—then a head popped out.
"I can't sleep… I'm going to train."
She checked that Rudolf was still asleep, then quietly slipped out and went to the track—
continuing what she called "gate-start practice," but was actually an experiment titled:
"Which is harder: Meteor's skull or the gate?"
X was losing it.
"You're having another episode in the middle of the night? Didn't you just say you'd relax?!"
"I don't know."
"If you don't know, then go to sleep!"
"Can't sleep."
X has been KO'd by Eternal Meteor.jpg
"@↗-＃:¥@∧"
Hearing X get so angry it stopped forming human language… made Meteor oddly happy. A smile tugged at her face without her noticing.
"…I'm just a little scared."
"Scared of what?"
"That this is all just a dream. That if I fall asleep, I'll wake up—because it's all too perfect. Too beautiful. Like an illusion."
X snapped back like a machine gun:
"I want to slap you twice so you'll know if you're dreaming. Don't tell me you're so 'mentally ill' you can't feel pain when you're injured."
Meteor's smile only widened.
"Sometimes I really think… it's nice having you with me."
"…Huh?"
"Not like those novels I used to read—where it's just some cold, emotionless system."
X froze.
It stared at her—at the blood all over her face—and started worrying.
…Was she concussed? Did she finally smash her brain into pudding?
"You didn't just bang your head too hard, right?"
"Damn, you really love ruining the mood, huh?"
Meteor checked the time on her phone, sighed, and—like she'd done this a hundred times—pulled out tissues and wiped the blood off her face.
Then she went to the track's sink, soaked the tissues until they fell apart, and rinsed them down the drain to destroy the evidence.
"I'm done training. I'll wipe the blood off the gate and go sleep."
X watched her swaying side to side while scrubbing red stains off the equipment—smiling faintly, like she'd come to some private conclusion.
"…What a weirdo."
"Yeah," Meteor said softly, still smiling. "It really is weird."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 60)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 80)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 60)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 64)
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin