Uma Musume: From Being Knocked Ten Meters Away

Chapter 502 Let Xiao Bei Shine Too?

In the breakfast restaurant, sunlight streamed through the glass windows onto the tables, making the fried eggs on the plates gleam with a golden sheen, but this warm scene was shrouded in a strange sense of gloom.

Yasui Makoto kept his head down, listlessly picking at the rice in his bowl with his chopsticks, his cheeks still flushed from the morning's blizzard.

The Northern Black Horse sitting next to him was in no better shape.

Holding the bowl in both hands, the once lively girl now sipped her miso soup slowly, her long eyelashes drooping down, obscuring the emotions in her eyes. Only the slightly trembling tips of her ears betrayed her unease.

Almond-shaped eyes were even more exaggerated, almost burying their entire face in the bowl. The spoon made a soft "clinking" sound as it hit the bowl, as if accompanying the silence.

In comparison, Yamato Akama was relatively calm.

However, as she held her teacup, her gaze swept back and forth across the dining table. She opened her mouth several times, trying to find a topic of conversation, such as talking about today's weather or asking about the training plan.

But he swallowed the words back, and in the end just sighed softly and continued to drink his tea in silence.

Only Alice seemed completely oblivious to the oppressive atmosphere.

As she ate her sandwich, she looked Yasui Makoto up and down with her inquisitive eyes, a playful smile even playing on her lips.

This eerie silence continued until breakfast was almost over. Just as Yasui Makoto picked up a napkin to wipe his mouth and was about to suggest clearing the table, Alice suddenly put down her knife and fork, making a soft "clink" sound, breaking the silence in the dining room.

"This is really interesting..."

She rested her chin on her hand, her gaze fixed on Yasui Makoto's face, her tone tinged with amusement:

"Yasui has changed a lot. When we first met... I never imagined she would blush so shyly."

Upon hearing this, everyone at the dinner table was taken aback.

Kita Genko and Almond suddenly raised their heads, their eyes sparkling with curiosity, and looked at Yasui Makoto in unison, as if trying to find the "change" that Alice had mentioned on his face.

Yamato Akaki also put down his teacup, looking at Yasui Makoto with great interest, waiting for his response.

Yasui Makoto paused in his tidying of the dishes, then, as if remembering something, a gentle smile appeared on his lips.

"It's probably... influenced by Xiao Bei."

He glanced sideways at the Northern Black Steed beside him, his eyes filled with warmth:
"If you spend a lot of time with her, you'll become more cheerful, and when you're cheerful, you'll feel younger."

"Young? You..."

Alice raised an eyebrow, as if she had heard something unbelievable:
"You're not old at all, are you?"

Yamato Akagiri nodded in agreement, a strange expression on his face:

"Yes, Yasui-kun, you're only nineteen this year, you're in the prime of your youth."

Yasui Makoto smiled, offered no further explanation, and simply pushed the neatly arranged bowls and chopsticks aside.

He could sense that the blush on the faces of the previously embarrassed Genko and Apricot Eyes had faded considerably, and their eyes had become more relaxed.

It seems that Alice's abrupt remark, along with her own response, did indeed help to ease the tension.

Having achieved his goal, he cleared his throat and steered the conversation to the most pressing issue at hand:

"Whether I'm old or not shouldn't be the most important thing right now, right? The most important thing is..."

He stretched out his hand, revealing the back of his hand so that everyone could clearly see the faint fluorescence still emanating from his skin:
"Shouldn't the focus be on how to solve my glowing problem?"

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes immediately focused on Alice, their gazes filled with questions and concern.

Among them, Yamato Akaki's gaze was particularly resentful, as if he were silently saying, "It's all your fault for using the wrong medicine."

As if someone had struck a nerve, the playful smile on Alice's face froze instantly. She blinked rapidly, coughed awkwardly twice, and then hurriedly reached into her white coat pocket and frantically rummaged around for a while before pulling out a stack of folded manuscript papers.

The manuscript paper was not stacked neatly, and there was some unidentified powder stuck to the edges of the paper, which was obviously brought out from the laboratory in a hurry, or was just written.

"Ahem, Yasui-kun, take a look at this first."

She coughed again and handed the manuscript forward:
"The core ingredient of this medicine is creatine kinase activator, which is used to accelerate glycogen breakdown and restore physical strength. It has been used on Yamato before without any problems."

Upon hearing this, Yamato Akaki nodded subconsciously, then frowned as if remembering something:
"That's true, but Yasui-kun's condition... could it be that you, Hayako-senpai, changed the formula?"

"Absolutely not!"

This time, with absolute certainty, Alice shook her head directly.

Then, she pointed to the manuscript paper in Yasui Makoto's hand, and to the molecular structure diagram on the top sheet:
"You should be able to see that the pyrrole ring modification chain here, and the peptide bond connection mode here, are not things that can be adjusted in a short time."

"As for the glowing... I've actually figured out the reason."

"In order to observe the metabolic pathway of the drug in the human body, I added a fragment of the fluorescent protein gene from the Victoria multituberculate jellyfish."

"This is cutting-edge technology in the field of biological imaging, capable of tracking molecular-level distribution in real time. Theoretically, it is absolutely safe."

As she spoke, she leaned closer to Yasui Makoto, her finger pointing at the rate curve on the manuscript paper, her tone gradually becoming more confident:

"More importantly, since it is a protein, it will definitely be broken down by trypsin in the digestive tract. Even if there are trace amounts of residue, it will only emit this harmless cold light."

She suddenly raised her voice, as if to encourage herself:

"This luminescence intensity can even be regulated by body temperature; it brightens during exercise and dims during rest—what a perfect observation indicator!"

However, as she spoke the last word, her gaze swept over the faint blue glow on Yasui Makoto's wrist that even sunlight couldn't conceal, and her voice inexplicably weakened:
"Of course, in the medical field, individual differences also exist..."

"However, the harm is probably... uh, almost negligible?"

After Alice finished speaking, Kita Genko, Alime, and Yamato Akaki all sensed her guilt and couldn't help but show worried expressions again.

Yasui Makoto, however, remained silent, staring at the manuscript in his hand, until a long while after Alice finished speaking, he slowly raised his head:
"So what you mean is..."

He slowly raised his glowing left hand, his fingertips tracing a fluorescent path in the morning light:
"Am I now like a walking fluorescent marker?"

"That's...a way of understanding it..."

With her fingertips pointing in front of her, Alice shrank back.
"However... it should subside soon, I guarantee that... I mean, I should be able to guarantee that..."

These words made the Northern Genko and the others even more worried, but Yasui Makoto remained thoughtful and continued:
"If that's the case, then... Xiao Bei can also become this glowing? I mean, can it be fluorescently marked?"

"Of course you can, but why..."

Shrinking her neck, she asked a question, then Alice's eyes suddenly lit up:
"Yasui! You mean...?"

"That's right!"

A smile appeared on his face, and sensing that Alice understood his meaning, Yasui Makoto nodded and said:

"I want to use this technology to label some of Xiaobei's data metrics."

"Don't forget, the focus of our training camp this time, besides the competition in the second half of the year, is adapting to overseas venues, and... monitoring physiological indicators when the field is deployed."

"Perhaps, Dr. Suko's technology, which has similar side effects, will allow us to achieve this sooner."

(End of this chapter)