Chapter Text
The fireworks at the festival were still going off, and although Pokke’s eyes were looking in their direction, she wasn’t seeing anything but phantoms. Her eyes felt heavy. All throughout summer training, it was as if a silhouette followed her in the corners of her vision, reaching her when she wasn’t on guard, when she was alone on whatever absurd training meant her mind didn’t have the energy to conjure up the vision of-
“Pokke?” Fuji gently prompted, and she was grateful to be back in reality and only a little regretful her nightmarish daydream was paused. “Sorry, I dragged you out after all that training, you look like you’re about to drop.”
“No! Uhm, thank you. I wouldn’t miss this for anything. I needed a reminder that my races did something.” She was increasingly getting comments on the darker and darker circles under her eyes, and she was hoping to get worrisome Fuji off her tail.
“Something stopping you getting sleep?” But of course, she hadn't.
Pokke closed her eyes and looked inward, which was a curious sight of itself to Fuji, she really has gotten more mature.
“Nightmares. Or- like, visions. I get them during the day, too. If I don’t train like hell it catches up to me.” Pokke answered, opening her eyes and looking only more tired.
This concerned Fuji a great ordeal, the image of something haunting her junior to the point of consistent nightmares, mid-day nonetheless, was terrifying. Those inspiring scenes of Pokke’s early morning training were more vulnerable than she thought.
“What are they of?” She asked, trying to help in the way someone like her could, get Pokke talking.
Pokke again seems to think so hard it hurts.
“Agnes Tachyon.” She says, like admitting it hurts even more. It turns the vague, Tachyon-like silhouette in her dreams into her full image, and she regrets it immediately.
“Wow, it really did seem like you were the one impacted by her announcement the most.” however, Fuji felt like it began to cross over a boundary that was unusual.
“Yeah. There are other great people that make running worth it but, I wanted to beat her. I wanted to keep seeing her limits firsthand. I wanted to beat her once and rub it in her face and make her acknowledge me.” And that’s intense, Fuji thinks.
“I wanted to keep talking with her. All she did was talk about her strange experiments and things I didn’t understand, but I liked it. No one else wanted to hear it, so she took my lack of complaint and just kept talking. The Uma Musume physics might have been a little helpful to think about, but her favorite movie was Howl’s Moving Castle and when she talked about foreign music I've never heard before she looked just as passionate as she is about physiology.” And wow, Fuji thinks. Pokke is smiling, somewhere between her smug, dopey pre-race grins and her soft and sincere ones.
“It was nice. Having her there. I was tired as hell from training one day, and the only place I could think of was Taki’s repurposed room, all cozied up with a couch and everything, that girl cares so much about comfort when you notice it." And now Fuji's at a sort of limit, what are we talking about? Taki? Is she really gonna describe-
The sliding door almost flew off its hinges. Tachyon admits they jumped up a bit, was class representative Bakushin going to finally crack down on her supposedly unacademic base of operations? Cafe certainly wouldn't open the door with such force.
But a pleasant guinea pig was there instead, an exhausted, grimed up and quite pitiable Jungle Pocket, at that. Her legs were just starting to shake on the spot, and she clearly burnt through her stamina, anaerobic respiration likely about to leave the girl sore and her legs inflamed. Tachyon recognized this herself, pushing yourself like that could be fine, but it could also be seriously dangerous if you were just sleeping it off. She wasn't that concerned with a guinea pig, though.
"Oya? Jungle Pocket's come to visit me? I'm afraid if you're challenging me I'm actually quite busy, you see, I've been making the ultimate nutritional-"
Pokke dragged her feet forward, turned left toward the couch, and collapsed on it.
Tachyon laughed, even Cafe wasn't that comfortable and everyone else was plain scared of Tachyon's room and herself. Pokke groaned into a convenient pillow but remained so still that Tachyon's, not concern, habitual observations for control, yes! Tachyon's habit of observation pinged just a few, physiological concerns with Pokke. Wonderful! A guinea pig delivered herself to Tachyon's exclusive care. Tachyon got up from her seat and walked toward Pokke, then kneeling to level herself with her.
Pokke was still heaving, like a dog still huffing minutes after exercise. Her body was both tense and limp, like they forgot how to not be tensed while in the process of giving out. Tachyon put a gentle hand on Pokke's neck, hot. Not quite feverish, but certainly overcompensation from her body. She then pressed against the girl's waist, shoulders, thigh and leg, checking her condition with efficiency and, well, not quite care.
She was even more impressive than before, though, Tachyon considered while feeling up the familiar skin. Her natural, prodigious build Tachyon noticed early on had been capitalized on very well. Every pound of muscle didn’t go without the weight to support it, something of interest to Tachyon whom only had the poorly nutritioned Cafe and herself to compare with. Pokke’s probably the type to live her whole life in chase of the racing physique perfection. Her scrappy appearance and stature hide her incredible consistency, her ability close out distances and her last-minute guts to give it her all, 10 lengths in front or just 1, as though she exists for an upset, to be more often the winner than the favorite.
In a world of boasters who use passive methods to declare their strength, like the presidential Rudolf or the phlegmatic Oguri, Pokke’s style was refreshing indeed. You could say she was Tachyon’s gem, in a way. It felt like no one else knew what was in her, those bursting rainbow sparks of the future. Others believed in Pokke, she had that natural quality, but no one else chose her with serious bets. Tachyon was quite lucky to have a truly one-of-a-kind rival delivered directly to her.
She thinks of that challenge Pokke gave her often, swiveling her chair and pinning her so that Tachyon had no choice but to listen to her. She’s not sure why.
"What the fuck are you-!" Pokke reached a limit, Tachyon’s absent-minded hands on the girl’s poor legs almost netting her a kick with Pokke’s hinds if it weren't for just how sore she was.
Pokke’s eyes began to well up with tears, she wasn't sobbing or anything, it really just hurt more than she thought. She was glad to hide into the pillow and hopefully not have to offer up any more of her body to the mad scientist when suddenly, Tachyon held Pokke's face, cupping it and facing Pokke towards her, wet eyes and all. Tachyon had something like a serious expression on her face. Dutiful. She smiled softly as she smoothed over Pokke's cheek with her thumb.
"Stay here, Doctor's orders. I'll get you water and an ice pack, get comfortable, I'll make sure you can just sleep it off." Tachyon said with something Pokke began to associate with the woman, softness. Her expression, her voice, her room, her words, she looked quite soft, too. Whatever that meant. Like nothing was ever forced out of her, perfect, maybe.
"Mmm. Thanks." Was enough to satisfy Tachyon, who left for her supplies, leaving Pokke alone. The Doctor's orders to get comfortable were all she could think of, exhaustion blamed for hanging onto Tachyon’s words so much. Dreaming of the weird equations across the room, and only vaguely understanding something's not normal with her predicament, she conked out.
Pokke's right leg had an ice pack under it, and the air conditioning was cold, soothing. She sat up and yawned. The faint announcements of a race were coming from a laptop where Tachyon sat, who was now looking at Pokke without even swiveling her chair, the beginning of a sunset behind her.
"My stray seems to be doing well." She comments without inflection, sipping a coffee which is probably modified for God knows what. Pokke just watches, not really absorbing the 'crashed into my rival's den, cried on her pillows, and got nursed in my sleep while probably contributing to an excel sheet somewhere' totality of the situation.
"Haha. Er, Doctor's clearance?" Pokke asks, not sure whether to be proud of keeping up with Tachyon's doctor play or seriously reconsider what led her here.
"Cleared. Feel free to stay, I'll be here until curfew back at the dorms. Maybe a little later..." Tachyon was back to considering whatever it was she was getting from the race on her laptop. Great, Pokke felt like getting up- wait.
"No one else came in, right?"
"Cafe did. If you're worried, that girl has no friends to spread rumors to."
One person is infinitely worse than none! And another rival of hers! How's she gonna face Manhattan? No, she has an excuse somewhere, right? Wait, what's she supposed to excuse? Rumors? Aerrrgh!
"Oh, and there's water for you. If you can really trust me, I finished my compound which should be 238% more efficient than plain old water!" Pokke looked at the desk stand nearby and there was indeed, a regular cup of water and an orange drink with a hazard logo on it. Pokke feels like she's seen this scene before, Tachyon does something incomprehensible and offers up being her guinea pig to her recipient, to which every sane member of Tracen declines.
For some reason, 'if you can really trust me' means something to her. She got Tachyon's attention, and it was nice. The genius looked at her and her alone, and although she imagined getting it via beating her in a race, it's nice. Tachyon's nice. This room's nice. Today was nice. But she'll look away some day, as she has started doing, expecting Pokke to not humor her. If she's already a guinea pig, if it means getting Tachyon to pay attention to her, if it's about trusting Tachyon, then-!
"Gulp...Gulp..." She downed the whole thing before she could think twice, standing triumphantly with the empty, uncorked bottle in hand. Tachyon only saw halfway, she really didn't expect her to agree to her little experiment, and really it was just mango juice she modified a little bit which she was saving for later, but Pokke really agreed to one of her experiments!
"Taki!" Pokke announced, "Consider this my thanks, I want to see my limits too! If it means your experiments and weird ideas, then, I'll be the strongest guinea pig you'll find, got that?" She pointed dramatically at Tachyon.
"Taki?" is the only thing Tachyon can think to echo.
"Yeah, well, whatever. Maybe it won't stick. But calling me Jungle Pocket is a pain, and you might get it wrong again, so just call me Pokke! And, uh, what was this drink? I guess it was refreshing. I'm not supposed to report I'm feeling something right?" She asks, a little too eager to provide the services of a test subject, holding up the bottle and looking at it quizzically like she probably should have done first.
"Well, one side effect I hypothesized is it seems to cause a greater fluster and blush in the cheeks." Tachyon smiled as she observed her.
"Ehh... Well, I was feeling hot, that makes sense."
"I am kidding, it was a placebo." And the way 'Pokke' stiffened was so worth it.
With that, Pokke was running out the door.
"See ya tomorrow, Taki!" Immediately finding a way to turn her back and get as far away from this woman as she can.
"Right, Pokke-kun." Tachyon said mostly to herself, as Pokke skedaddled into another building by now, testing the name on her tongue. It seems she'll have to focus more on that old research topic, the effect of emotions and matters of the heart. "Jungle Pocket... Pokke... Taki..."
And alright, Fuji Kiseki admitted, she officially had no idea what Pokke really thought. Losing to a rival only to never get revenge, wondering if you could ever surpass the sight they showed you, the sight that kept you running, she could understand that. Nightmares about it, maybe even imposter syndrome, she got it, she really did get it. Whatever world Pokke was in while describing their dead-to-her rival? No clue.
She really, really didn't know if this was normal. Thinking about it, Uma Musumes with other Uma Musume is common enough, but with Pokke? She can't help but feel like an older sister who hadn't pried enough into her life and suddenly some no good hotshot has taken Pokke's heart. She didn't shut up about Agnes Tachyon, but they were rivals and the whole world never shut up about her. Or so she thought.
"And it's so annoying," Pokke still managed to continue, "She acts like she doesn't care after all of this, but I know she does! She can talk about other racers for hours, she understands running better than anyone, she even put up with me just because I was a useful guinea pig! She cared, because if not, why'd she..." Pokke now looks unmistakably sad, and it doesn't suit her at all. Sure, when she was gushing over whatever she shares with Agnes Tachyon, it was weird, and you can only listen into someone's vivid romantics so much until it's a tad sickening sweet. But it was like seeing her hyped for her debut race again, or when she'd shout about being the strongest, and especially when she made everyone second guess whether she really could be. She was passionate, so pure in love for racing and the sincere chase to win that it had begun to remind Fuji how simple of a case it really was, Uma Musume ran because they wanted to.
It was worrying to a degree, Pokke couldn't be normal to save her life, not just with her boisterousness but in how single minded she was, wouldn't it be hard to make friends if all she could talk about was racing, training, becoming the strongest? What if a time comes when Pokke can't race anymore? Fuji would always be by her side, but she was scared at how much Pokke's life revolved around racing and winning to the point she trained herself to her ends losing to a rival she'd never fight again. But it wasn't just racing, Fuji now realized. Pokke's heart bled out from her sleeves and running mouth at all times. And thinking of it, there's only one person more single minded, so obsessed with speed and races.
They were both weird, unfriendly in some ways, absurdly talented and evidently oozing with heart and care. For every aloof dismissal Tachyon had of her interest in racing, Pokke raced twice as hard. For every thought that Pokke wouldn't give to anything besides racing, Tachyon found a way to make life itself and her absurd experiments about racing, and seemingly wrap Pokke around her finger with this ability. Fuji could never be anything more or less of an idol to Pokke, try as she might to be a friend. She's given Pokke everything she could to help her for now, but someone else could give her what she really needed. Pokke needed Tachyon, Fuji resolved.
"Have you talked to her since?" Fuji questioned.
"Well, once. I stormed into her lab after the announcement."
"And what did you say?" Fuji wasn't even trying to continue the conversation, it left her mouth out of a genuine need to know.
Pokke looks away with something like embarrassment.
"I kinda... cursed her out. I told her it couldn't end here, that we hadn't settled who was stronger between us. She said we already had. I couldn't fucking-" Pokke curls her hand into a fist. She did this often, celebrating her wins, looking up after her losses, but Fuji rarely saw her knuckles highlighted in perfect form to actually punch something- someone if Fuji wasn't around. The split second of rage doesn't last long, but Pokke still bounces her leg and holds onto her pop like she's curling iron. She's angry, and not at herself for once, Fuji notices. “I couldn’t fucking believe her.”
"Oh. So you two, well, broke up after that?" Fuji caves in and asks.
And it looks like she's right for a moment, Pokke doesn't react. "Hm?" She asks back.
"You two stopped seeing each other after that, right?"
"Right." Pokke responds.
"Stopped dating." Fuji's pushing it, but she clarifies.
"What?" like she's learning English and doesn't understand a word of Fuji's saying.
"You stopped dating after that, right? I'm fine with it you know, I'll support you no matter what." Okay, Fuji is teasing her a little bit now.
Pokke's first instinct is to correct her, 'no, of course not.' but her second is to think why her lovely idol thinks she's dating her rival, and then she has to think about dating Taki, and then she has to think it's not so far away, and then she has to panic.
"No! well, no!" she comes out with.
"Oh, you're still dating, then?"
"EUGHK-" She's lost her composure, her cheeks are flushed, maybe they're prone to that after all? She's prone to panicking about these things. Taki told her as much as a result from one of her experiments. Apparently Taki wasn't that good at it herself, maybe they could figure it out together? Maybe, she should stop thinking about her rival right now!
"No! We never dated." Pokke confesses.
"Never?"
"Never."
"That's unfortunate."
"Yeah." Pokke responds before she can catch herself, and she zips to look at Fuji's smile and knows it's all over for her.
Pokke doesn't even try to refute whatever she webbed herself in. She slides her back down the small wall supporting her until she's cradling her head between her knees.
"You want to date Agnes Tachyon?" Fuji doesn't want to tease her so cruelly, but she has an agenda in this.
"...Probably." Pokke murmurs out, defeated.
"You like Agnes Tachyon?"
"A lot. She’s cool. And nice. And really interesting. And, kind of beautiful. Really.”
"You love Agnes Tachyon." And this one isn't even a question. Fuji is telling her this.
"I think so. I just- it's..." and shit, she's crying in front of Fuji. She's glad she can hide it until her voice is gonna crack. "I don't care. Maybe I love her, I just, want her back..." it comes out so much more pathetic than she expected. It's so much easier when she misses her rival, when she's mad because she lost the race, when she wants her rival back to race her.
But that's not it. Losing her rival sucked, she really did want to see her run in that beautiful and crazy way again. But in every day that her rage persisted, she felt her absence more and more. The absence of crashing in her lab almost daily. The absence of talking to someone who really got how important running was, how cool it was to run at all. The absence of Agnes Tachyon, who seemed to fill Pokke's heart with something it needed to keep running.
She's running low. Without her temporary rage or whatever it was keeping her running if it could someday be alongside Taki, it felt like she was pushing her body sustained by nothing. Moving for nothing. She clenches her fist again, but it's like she doesn't have the power to hold it there.
Fuji kneels down beside her, and cups her face from both cheeks. It's a little absurd and such an obvious parallel that it highlights how very-not-platonic it was when Tachyon did something similar, her heart’s not skipping beats this time.
"Pokke, you know what I think of you?" She asks rhetorically. "You're a miracle. The moment you say you want something, to win, to fulfill our dreams, it's like the world revolves around you. It might not work at first, but precisely because you want what you want so badly, it's only a matter of time before you get it. To win a G1, to become the strongest, even to be the first one to get that genius. I think Pokke always gets what she wants.”
Pokke gulps tension down she didn't know she had.
"Do you really think... I can do it?"
Pokke asked this once before. When she went to face off against Tachyon, her pure belief and run toward victory had one hesitation she confessed to Fuji. It's only a matter of time before she gets what she wants, even if it doesn't work out at first. She'll keep trying, and somehow-
"Of course, it'll work out if it's you."
Pokke calmed down, some tearful hugs later.
"But, uhm. This isn't like a race. I can't force her to like me. I don't know...” It was nice to see her bouncing her legs in difficult impatience rather than thinly veiled rage.
"You're being too considerate." Fuji reminds her, "You don't go into a race thinking 'what if I lose?' do you?"
"No, but-"
"She's too sweet on you. I'm sure you're more than a guinea pig or whatever lovey-dovey name she's calling you." Fuji teases, but she’s probably right.
And she starts thinking that maybe, those moments of affection between her and Tachyon weren’t easily explainable, or even really relevant to being rivals. That maybe she felt the need to excuse her time with Tachyon to other people because there was something to hide.
Pokke dreamed of Tachyon again that night. Summer can’t end any sooner.