After reaching an agreement with Hishi Amazon, and under Tazuna's close personal escort, Mizuno finally left the forest cabin that had imprisoned him for days and was able to return to Tracen Academy, the place he had been thinking about day and night.
However, on the way back, Mizuno remained somewhat uneasy.
After hesitating over and over, he finally decided to voice what was bothering him.
"Um... Hayakawa-san..." Mizuno stiffly turned his head to look at Tazuna beside him.
"What is it, Trainer Mizuno?" Tazuna raised her eyes to him and blinked in confusion.
"My hand..." The corner of Mizuno's mouth twitched as he struggled to move his right arm, which Tazuna had clamped firmly in place.
From the moment they left the cabin until now, Tazuna had stayed right beside him without taking a single step away, holding his arm tightly like a girlfriend on her honeymoon. Along the way, she had even been faintly, ambiguously rubbing against him.
The feeling made Mizuno's hair stand on end. It was as if he had landed on an apex predator's plate and was being prodded back and forth with her utensils, ready to be carved up and eaten at any moment.
And since Tazuna was an Umamusume, her body temperature was higher than a human's. Wrapped in that softness of hers, Mizuno felt as if his entire arm was about to melt.
"Oh, this..." Faced with Mizuno's hint, Tazuna smiled sweetly, then tightened both arms around him and held him even closer, her handsome face showing an almost girlish expression.
"It's fine. I don't mind."
"But I mind!" Mizuno cried, trying to pull his arm out of her embrace. Unfortunately, Tazuna's strength was far beyond anything he could resist. His struggles were useless; if anything, he only sank in deeper.
As long as Tazuna did not want him to, Mizuno would never be able to escape.
"Does that feel uncomfortable, Trainer Mizuno? Then I'll do it another way." Seeing how uncomfortable he looked, Tazuna knew he was afraid of her, so she smiled faintly and slowly released his arm.
Only, "letting go" did not mean "letting him off." Tazuna's hand slid down and caught Mizuno's instead, intimately interlacing her fingers with his.
"Hehe~" Tazuna lifted their joined hands and naturally pressed the back of Mizuno's hand against her cheek, smiling playfully. "Trainer Mizuno, do you like this better?"
"Hss..." Mizuno's eyes widened in shock, and he drew in a sharp breath.
She was way too aggressive!
Even Symboli Rudolf, whom Mizuno considered the most domineering in temperament, probably was not as aggressive as Tazuna!
Hishi Amazon and Fuji Kiseki were clearly right behind them, yet Tazuna could completely ignore the dissatisfied gazes of the two girls behind her and focus entirely on her romantic offensive toward Mizuno.
Perhaps Tazuna saw the two dorm leaders as children who knew nothing of the world, and in the eyes of a mature woman like her, they were not people she needed to feel embarrassed in front of.
Or perhaps Tazuna had long since passed the age of youthful inexperience. Intimate gestures like hugging, holding hands, and whispering sweet nothings—things even Symboli Rudolf would have to weigh carefully—came to Tazuna with no burden at all, as if she had already treated Mizuno as the husband she would be having a second child with tonight. That was why she did not feel there was anything wrong with doing this to him.
The problem was, Mizuno personally did not think his relationship with Tazuna was that close.
He and Hayakawa-san were just ordinary coworkers. In the past, aside from work-related matters, they had barely interacted at all, much less had any sort of emotional exchange.
The most intimate thing between them was that Mizuno knew Tazuna was an Umamusume, and Tazuna also knew Mizuno was Uma Mint. Each side held an important secret of the other. But surely that was not enough to bind them directly as future husband and wife, right?
Tazuna had even deliberately avoided Mizuno for a time before because she was afraid she would lose control and sniff his scent.
So why had Tazuna suddenly changed completely today and launched such a fierce offensive against him?!
Could the complete form of Uma Mint that he had accidentally exposed have quietly changed Tazuna's mentality in some way?
Mizuno could not figure it out, and even if he did figure it out now, it was already too late.
After all, Tazuna, taking advantage of the momentum of her offensive, directly unleashed her ultimate on him.
"Trainer Mizuno..." Tazuna rose on tiptoe and leaned intimately beside Mizuno's ear, saying meaningfully, "When we're alone in private, you can call me by my true name—Tokino Minoru, you know~"
!
"Gwah!" Hearing Tazuna's whisper, Mizuno's heartbeat instantly skipped half a beat.
Why are you telling me that secret?! I don't want to know!
Although Mizuno had long known that Tazuna's true identity was the phantom Umamusume Tokino Minoru, who had won all ten of her races, there was no need for Tazuna to tell him again herself.
But knowing someone's secret and having that person actively tell you their secret were two completely different things!
The former only proved you were rather clever and could see what others were hiding. The latter meant the other person trusted you and already regarded you as someone close to family!
And what Tazuna was telling Mizuno now was not merely that she was an Umamusume. It was a true name explosive enough to affect the entire racing world if exposed! That was far more shocking!
"Hayakawa-san, what do you mean by this?" Mizuno could not help asking.
They had not even confirmed their relationship, yet she was already telling him her true name. Wasn't that really going too far?
And right then, Tazuna gave a reason that made Mizuno's vision go dark.
"If your secret is exposed, it will make the Umamusume restless. If my secret is exposed, it will also make the Umamusume restless. Doesn't that make the two of us a perfect match?" Tazuna said with a smile.
"..." Mizuno fell silent after hearing that.
A p-perfect match?
Although what she said did make a little sense, using that as proof of their compatibility was way too forced!
"Mm..." Seeing Mizuno's speechless expression, Tazuna also realized that her sweet talk had apparently been a little cheesy, so she scratched her cheek in embarrassment.
"Sorry. I've never been in love before, so I don't really know what to say..."
"..."
"Is that so? What a coincidence!" Tazuna's eyes lit up, and she smiled happily. "Since neither of us has been in love before, why don't we try it once?"
"Cough, cough!" Mizuno coughed violently, nearly choking to death on his own saliva.
That was way too direct! How was he supposed to play dumb and muddle through this?!
"Sorry. I don't have any thoughts in that direction for the time being," Mizuno replied politely.
"Aw... What a shame..." Tazuna's expression clearly showed some disappointment, but she quickly smiled again.
"Then if Trainer Mizuno ever wants to think about marriage someday, please be sure to tell me first. I'll be waiting for you anytime."
"..." Mizuno's expression twisted into a knot, and he had no idea what to say.
And while Mizuno was fretting over Tazuna's confession offensive, Hishi Amazon, who had been following behind and watching the two of them interact the whole way, was also temporarily setting aside her previous fixed impression through her observations and rebuilding her image of Mizuno from scratch.
"This guy... is he really that good?"
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T/N: OAUGFSAHFKAOSFIOASHIFASHIOFHASIOFHSAKLFH