I'm in Teresin, dedicated to playing badly

However, due to their enormous size, the transfer of the three female deities was not a one-time event, but rather a process of transferring them in parts.

Fortunately, the three goddesses are not a single, solid mass, but rather an aggregation of countless acts of kindness, so it is perfectly fine to separate and transfer them.

It will take some time, and Shinji Kitahara has to do this work himself.

Then, time passed.

Chrysanthemums in bloom, three goddesses, horses leaping...

Everything is progressing in an orderly and steady manner.

Until something happened that shattered this peace.

"Trainer Kitahara"

Surugawa Tezuna placed a document in front of him, his expression serious.

"It's time to close the net on the black market."

Chapter 329: Heart of Thorns

Although Shinji Kitahara was in charge of the black market operations, he wasn't responsible for the specific details.

After all, his main job is still a trainer, not a private investigator.

He already had a lot of work to do dealing with his own mess, so he didn't have time to investigate the black market himself.

So he commissioned the families of those horsewomen to investigate.

Originally, because the other party was a URA, even a large Uma Musume family would have some difficulty in checking the information inside.

However, URA is essentially an agency subordinate to the Three Goddesses.

So, whose side are the three goddesses on now?

After Shinji Kitahara granted them the authority, the biggest obstacle to the Uma Musume family's investigation was removed.

All that's left is time.

Preliminary investigation, exclusion of suspects, investigation of motives, and final evidence collection...

The investigation had already begun before the eclipse competition.

Now that all the clues are clear and the evidence has been collected, it's time to end this farce.

And once the operation began, there were no surprises during the arrests.

Ultimately, those black market members are just human beings.

They didn't even need the horse girl reserve team to take action; the human police could easily subdue them.

However, there is one exception.

Daisuke Kamisato.

Those who went to arrest him were knocked unconscious, and by the time reinforcements arrived, his office was already empty.

Meanwhile, Shinji Kitahara received a message on his phone inviting him to meet him in the suburbs not far from Theresien.

When Kitahara Shinji arrived, Kamisato Daisuke was sitting on a brick with a fire burning in front of him, roasting potatoes inside.

It emits a pleasant fragrance.

"You know what? When she was still my classmate, she loved to hang out with me and she also loved eating these roasted potatoes."

He raised his head and looked at the sky.

The stars in the sky were reflected in her eyes.

“I’ve never really understood why she likes to eat this kind of food. Sometimes she’s so eager that she’ll put it in her mouth before it’s even cooled down, and then she’ll stick out her tongue because she’s burned.”

"I don't like baked potatoes, but I like her."

Shinji Kitahara didn't speak, he just looked at him quietly.

Daisuke Kamisato didn't look at him; he continued narrating calmly, gazing at the sky.

"Later, she graduated, and I graduated too."

"Like many trainers who left Treson, I joined URA, while she became a full-time housewife."

“I thought this kind of life would continue until that day when I came home from get off work and saw her body.”

"She's pregnant, and I told her not to wander around."

"But it was my birthday that day, and she wanted to surprise me, so she went out."

"Then, she encountered a crime, some ruthless guys who would do anything for money were hunting horse girls."

"Of course she wouldn't stand idly by."

"But she forgot that she hadn't exercised seriously in a long time, and she was also pregnant."

"She eventually saved the horse girls, but she also fell in a pool of blood."

"I knelt on the ground and prayed to the three goddesses, even if it meant giving my life for them."

"But there was no response."

"And from that day on, I never celebrated my birthday again."

He finally turned his head and looked at Shinji Kitahara.

It also revealed the half of his body that had been covering his eyes, which could almost be described as a monster.

Endless tears of blood flowed from that mutated eye.

"To this day, those who killed her have still not been found—that's the official story."

"But actually, many people know that I found those people and then killed them with my own hands."

"He was tortured to death little by little."

"I thought that after taking revenge, I would be free."

"But in fact, it was only after I lost even the goal of revenge that I truly fell into despair."

“I lost her, I lost my child, I lost everything, and in the end, even the will to take revenge disappeared.”

“I became an empty doll, I became a walking corpse. I tried to commit suicide, but I was rescued in the end.”

“I tried to fill my time with work, but in the end, I only saw more despair.”

Under the protection of the three goddesses, this world can be described as beautiful compared to other places.

But even the most beautiful world has its dark side, and it becomes even more repulsive when contrasted with the beauty around it.

For various reasons, the public does not have access to this information, as it is handled by URA personnel behind the scenes.

Or rather, it's Daisuke Kamisato who's handling it.

That was the period when he was most mentally vulnerable.

This was also a period in which he rebuilt his beliefs.

During that time, he came into contact with the dark side of the world to the greatest extent possible.

And through countless investigations, he personally uncovered those disgusting crimes.

And behind all evil lies the same creature.

Humanity.

Whether it's greed, domestic violence and infidelity, or other disgusting things that can't be talked about, it's all unacceptable.

The final investigation concluded that, if not 100%, at least 99% of the blame lies with humans.

Yes, the dark side of this world is so small that it's hard to find even with a lantern. Compared to other worlds, it's no exaggeration to call it a utopia.

But for Daisuke Kamisato, this place was nothing short of hell.

Those misfortunes, those disasters, that despair...

He bore all the burdens alone.

In the past, when she was around, just looking at her smiling face and chatting with her would make all my unhappiness and sadness disappear.

But after her death, those past joys became a burden, causing him even more pain.

He fell into confusion and even began to loathe his identity as a human being.

Then, one night after drinking, he met a stranger.

A passerby whose entire body is devoid of any distinctive features and is completely indescribable.

He confided his thoughts to him, told him everything, and then—

kill him.

Although when I turned myself in afterward, no matter how I checked the surveillance footage, there were no passersby.

URA's colleagues also said it was a hallucination caused by drinking too much, and forced him to take a few days off.

Even the izakaya owner advised him that he was under too much pressure. He didn't even have a drunken outburst at the shop that day and behaved very quietly.

But only he knew that he had indeed killed someone that day.

I don't know the reason, I don't know what I was thinking, and I don't even remember the process.

But he knew perfectly well that he had killed him.

Or.

He killed himself.

"Human beings are creatures burdened with original sin; we are born sinful."

He stood up, and twisted evil spread from the half of his body that had transformed into a monster, turning into thorns that tore at his flesh.

“We weave beautiful dreams for them with lies and keep them by our side with affection, but we have never faced our true selves.”

"Horse girls should not be bound to humans; they deserve a brighter future."

"Just one exposure of our atrocities will reveal our true colors and expose the reality of the world to everyone—"

"Real humans—"

The monster roared.

As a human, Daisuke Kamisato has completely disappeared.

Instead, there was a huge, bleeding heart, entangled in thorns.

Shinji Kitahara looked at the heart with a calm gaze.

"Do you think she will approve of your actions?"

Even the heart that had completely lost its mind and turned into a monster paused upon hearing those words.

Then came the roars and madness that echoed through the night sky.

Shinji Kitahara raised his hand.

A pink spear of light took shape in his hand and was then thrown.

A large hole appeared in the heart, which was covered in thorns, and then it gradually decayed and slowly turned into a human shape with a hole in its chest.

Shinji Kitahara walked up to him and looked down at him lying on the ground.

"This world is made up of both horse girls and humans; neither can function without the other."

"As for lies and such, they have no meaning in this world. It is only through the joint efforts of the horse girl and humans that it has become what it is today."

"The thoughts you hold are more for yourself than for the horse girl."

"You think you're righteous, you think you're doing this for them, you think you're the only one who understands the ugliness of humanity, but in reality, that's just wishful thinking on your part, your selfishness."

“You are well aware of the nature of your actions, because you have never, and dare not, probe any of the horse girls’ thoughts on this matter.”

"Because you know that answer is definitely not what you want, because you know you definitely don't dare to face that answer."

"In the end, you're just running away, aren't you?"

She was escaping her responsibilities as a human being, escaping the mistakes she had made, and escaping the fact that she was dead.

After a long silence.