Tazuna Hayakawa did not remember deciding to run.
One moment, she had turned away from the towering Uma Musume standing by the academy gate. The next, her feet were moving in a fast and clumsy escape, carrying her across the stone path and into the administrative building as though something behind her might reach out and seize her if she slowed down even for a second.
Bang!
The doors slammed shut behind her.
The sound rang far louder than it should have, reverberating through the hallway and drawing curious glances from nearby staff and students alike.
Tazuna barely noticed. She stopped only when her lungs began to burn, palms braced against her knees as she bent forward, breath coming in sharp, uneven pulls. Her glasses slipped slightly down her nose, the lenses fogging at the edges.
'That was completely unprofessional of me.' She thought dimly.
And yet, no matter how many times she replayed the encounter in her mind, her body stubbornly refused to calm. It felt as though she were sinking into a deep, lightless abyss, one that swallowed composure, reason, and reassurance alike.
It hadn't been intentional. That much she knew. But something instinctively told her to run away.
The Uma Musume hadn't raised her voice. She hadn't sneered, threatened, or even shown open hostility. If anything, she had sounded… mildly annoyed.
And that was precisely what made it worse.
The gaze she'd felt wasn't hostile, but it also left no room for resistance. Not sharp with malice, nor heavy with pressure, but calm and dominating, as though Tazuna herself were being measured not as a human but a thing.
If Silver Tear heard this, she might actually cry. What on earth was this deceptive image of her? She was just a normal Uma Musume for godshake!!
Slowly, she straightened, smoothing the creases in her uniform with fingers that still trembled despite her efforts. She adjusted her glasses, then her tie, clinging to the familiarity of routine like an anchor.
'You are fine, you are trained for this.' She calmed herself.
With a steadying breath, she pushed open the staff room door.
The familiar hum of conversation faltered immediately. Several trainers looked up from their tablets, their expressions shifting from casual to concerned in an instant.
"…Hayakawa? What happened to you?" One of them asked.
Tazuna opened her mouth, though no sound came out.
Her throat felt dry, tight, as though the words themselves were reluctant to surface.
"There's…" She paused, took a breath, and tried again. "There's a new Uma Musume outside the gate."
That, at least, sounded normal.
A few trainers visibly relaxed.
"Transfer student?" Someone asked.
"Yes, I believe so." Tazuna answered automatically.
"Then why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" Another added. "You came running in like something was chasing you."
Tazuna hesitated, carefully choosing her next words. "She's… very tall."
A brief pause followed.
"…That's it?" A younger trainer asked, a half-smile tugging at their lips.
Tazuna shook her head slowly.
"No. That's not it. At least not all of it."
The room quieted. Not because she raised her voice, but because she didn't. The unease in her tone carried more weight than panic ever could.
"She spoke to me." Tazuna continued. "Just once."
"And?" the senior trainer prompted.
"…I thought she was addressing me…" Tazuna said carefully. "But now, I'm not certain."
Brows furrowed at her increasingly cryptic explanation.
"What do you mean?"
"I think…" Tazuna paused, then continued with deliberate care, "I think I simply happened to be in the way of her attention."
No one laughed.
They all knew Tazuna Hayakawa. She had dealt with countless Uma Musume. Be it prodigies, elites, hotheads with egos as sharp as their tempers. None of them had ever reduced her to this panic state.
One of the senior trainers leaned forward, elbows resting on the table. "Name?"
"…I—I don't know her name yet."
A heavier silence fell.
"What does that mean, Hayakawa?" Someone asked slowly. "An unknown Uma Musume managed to scare you with a single line?"
"Embarrassingly so." She replied quietly.
The gazes in the room hardened. Finally, someone spoke.
"We should inform the principal about this newly transferred student."
There was no hesitation. The elite staff of Tracen Academy were not hot-blooded amateurs who brushed aside anomalies as overthinking.
Outside, Silver Tear finally decided she had waited long enough.
She pushed herself off the wall and stepped through the academy gates, her stride long, even, and unhurried. She wasn't nervous at all, just mildly annoyed that no one had come to pick her up.
'Maybe I was supposed to walk in on my own.' She thought.
The moment she crossed the gate, the space around her subtly underwent some rearrangements.
Almost every Uma Musume in the entrance courtyard unconsciously halted mid-step. Conversations faltered. Without a word exchanged, distance formed around her, students shifting aside and leaving behind a clear, open path.
"Well…That's convenient." Silver Tear murmured, assuming it was some sort of intentional crowd-flow design.
Her system window hovered quietly at her side, translucent and unobtrusive.
[Host Status: Stable.]
[Environmental Response: Elevated.]
"…You keep saying that, but what does it even mean?" She said under her breath.
The system did not answer.
She continued walking, eyes calmly scanning the campus. The buildings were well-maintained. The track looked solid. The air carried the faint, familiar scent of turf, sweat, and exertion.
'This place is bigger than I expected.'
Behind her, whispers followed like ripples spreading across still water.
"That's her."
"She doesn't look like a trainee…"
"Is she a senior?"
"No, I don't recall I have ever seen someone like that in the upperclass."
Silver Tear caught fragments of the murmurs, but none of them registered as important. She was tall after all, those midgets would undoubtedly send those jealous looks at her.
That had always happened, and Silver Tear had long since learned to adapt to such looks.
Unbeknownst to this clueless Uma Musume, the real reason why people always stared at her strangely was because she radiated a terrifying aura around herself without realizing it.
Thus, she was already being marked as a dangerous existence in the eyes of many Uma Musume, her intimidating presence radiating naturally with every unhurried step.
Silver Tear stopped at the central courtyard map, leaning forward slightly to read the small print.
"…Why would they make this so tiny?" She muttered.
Inside the administrative building, the principal—Yayoi Akikawa—listened to Tazuna's report in silence.
"So she didn't threaten you." Yayoi summarized.
"Yes."
"She didn't raise her voice."
"Yes..."
"She didn't even focus on you at first."
"…That's also correct."
"Then why did you run in panic and cause a scene?" The principal's small stature made her incredulous expression all the more pronounced.
Tazuna's hands clenched lightly in her lap.
"…Because she gave me a feeling that I'd be devoured alive if I stayed there for another second." Tazuna said pitifully.
The principal closed her eyes briefly, recalling the sparse, unsettling profile she had seen not long ago.
"Silver Tear, huh…"
___________________________________
Outside, Silver Tear finally located what appeared to be the reception desk.
It was empty.
She stopped in front of it and waited.
Ten seconds passed.
Then thirty. And a minute.
The quiet stretched on, broken only by the distant echoes of footsteps and muted chatter somewhere deeper within the academy.
"…Is there anyone here?" She called at last, her voice carrying faintly through the spacious hall.
No response came.
Silver Tear exhaled softly, more resigned than irritated, and leaned lightly against the counter. She folded her arms beneath her chest out of habit, shifting her weight onto one leg as her attention drifted back to the translucent system window hovering at her side.
Nearby, half-hidden behind a thick marble column, two first-year Uma Musume peeked out, their hearts pounding violently in their chests.
"She's just… standing there. Menacingly." One of them whispered, barely daring to breathe.
"But why?" The other asked, her voice trembling.
"I-I don't know." The first swallowed hard. "She looks… upset."
At that moment, the system window refreshed.
[Skill Available to Unlock: Runner from Another World]
[Unlock Condition: Gain Admission to Central Tracen Academy]
[Be grateful, host. I only give you this easy mission as a beginner package.]
"…Is this how you treat a newbie?" Silver Tear stared at the text, unimpressed.
Her tone was flat, laced with mild disbelief rather than malice. But to the two first-years, it sounded dangerously close to mockery. As though she were ridiculing the academy itself.
They froze.
The air around Silver Tear seemed to grow heavier, her stillness amplifying every unspoken assumption. Neither of the first-years dared step out, convinced that interrupting her now would only invite disaster.
Silver Tear glanced at the clock mounted above the desk.
'Am I early? That shouldn't be right…'
She lifted her gaze slightly, eyes unfocused as she recalculated her schedule in her head.
The instant her eyes moved...
Both first-years bolted.
They vanished down the corridor in a blur of panicked footsteps, not daring to look back even once.
Silver Tear blinked.
"…This academy is strange." She muttered.
The system pulsed faintly in response.
[Host Intimidation Level: Persistently High.]
[I'm afraid if you keep this up, you won't make any friends.]
Her brows knitted together in confusion.
"…How is that my fault? I didn't even do anything, so stop making things up."
_________
A/N: Should I make the system talk less and just like a game panel or keep this shit?
I'm gonna aura farming Silver Tear to the max.