The dress was modest enough on the outside that Kaisoku eventually agreed, taking it into the bathroom to change.
Satono Diamond seized the opportunity to call Kita and invite her to dinner, adding a special note: she’d be bringing along a very cute umamusume.
And she meant it.
Even by Diamond’s standards, Toujou Kaisoku’s looks were exceptional.
Among umamusume—a demographic that was practically wall-to-wall beautiful—she could still turn heads.
The problem was that she normally didn’t bother with her hair, which gave her a somewhat unkempt appearance.
If she actually put in the effort, the girl would be stunning.
When Diamond patiently waited for her to finish and the bathroom door opened, her brain short-circuited.
The hair that had always hung loose and careless had been meticulously brushed and woven into two braids pinned behind her head.
The face that emerged—skin almost luminously pale from years of avoiding sunlight—combined with a shy, tentative expression and those shimmering red eyes, produced something devastating: the ultimate pitiful child, the kind that could trigger every umamusume’s protective instincts into overdrive.
Satono Diamond had not accounted for the destructive power of Toujou Kaisoku actually trying to look nice.
Her entire mental processing system stalled.
The contrast with before was simply too extreme.
Previously, the girl’s hair had curtained over her face, hiding her eyes entirely—and she habitually wore a mask on top of that.
Even living together, Diamond had drastically underestimated the hidden firepower.
“I’m not used to this hairstyle… it took forever to braid.
What do you think?” Kaisoku approached, blissfully unaware of the damage she’d caused.
The style was modeled after a certain doujin queen—Asuna-sama’s signature look from SAO—which showcased volume nicely.
Kaisoku’s hair had grown absurdly long from never visiting a salon, and the Asuna braids were the only thing that could tame it.
“…It’s… it’s good.” Satono Diamond needed a moment to recalibrate.
“It… really suits you.”
“Great.” Kaisoku’s brain was currently occupied entirely by thoughts of meat, so Diamond’s slight tremor went unnoticed.
Honestly, Diamond was now fighting a strong urge to undo those braids.
If Kaisoku went out looking like this, she’d capture every pair of eyes on the street.
It felt like a hidden treasure she’d been guarding had suddenly been put on public display.
Diamond’s possessive streak was wrestling with her better judgment.
“If only I’d known…” she murmured to herself, but the words never reached the girl who was too busy vibrating at the prospect of actual protein.
Having found the simplest possible source of joy, Kaisoku had stopped paying attention to everything else.
She’d even dropped the pretense of a reformed shut-in easing nervously back into society.
“So, when do we leave?” the girl asked.
“If it’s not too far, we could walk.”
“Let’s not—come ride with me.
I’ve already called a car.
It’s a bit of a distance on foot.” Satono Diamond quickly intercepted the suggestion.
“Don’t worry, I’ll have you brought back safely too.
No need to think about getting home.”
“Works for me.” Kaisoku’s go-with-the-flow trait activated once again, and she immediately deferred to Diamond’s judgment on all things.
High society was uncharted territory.
Rather than embarrass herself, she’d watch and learn.
Diamond, meanwhile—still somewhat flustered—took the time to brief her on a few points of etiquette.
The car delivered them to a restaurant on the thirty-third floor of a high-rise.
A Michelin-tier establishment.
Diamond had the pull to reserve the entire venue, but she didn’t want to overwhelm Kaisoku, so she’d booked a private room instead.
Seated inside, she watched the girl to her right and placed the menu in her hands with ceremony.
“Here.
Whatever you want.
Just order.”
“Really?” Kaisoku stared at the numbers on the menu and felt the room tilt.
The prices were otherworldly.
Japan’s cost of living was no joke.
The young lady of the Satomi family was the real deal—genuine old money.
In gacha terms, this was an SSR at minimum.
Possibly UR.
Compared to someone like her—an SR at best—the gap was astronomical.
And Diamond’s personality was actually nice, too.
She could only imagine how many people would cling to those legs screaming “rich lady, adopt me!”
Soft rice really did smell good.
The girl contemplated this with the utmost sincerity, but her deadly serious expression just looked comical to Diamond sitting beside her.
“You don’t have to deliberate that hard…” Diamond reminded her.
“My friend will order plenty when she gets here.
Go ahead and order first.
Don’t overthink it.”
“That’s not what I’m thinking about…” Kaisoku shook her head.
“I was just thinking—Diamond-san, you’re really good at taking care of people.”
“Hm?
Flattering me now won’t get you anywhere.” Satono Diamond felt a small warm glow internally but made sure to establish that she wasn’t easily won over.
“And you, Toujou Kaisoku-san—we’ve been roommates forever and you never once talked to me.
I was starting to think I’d offended you somehow.”
“No way!
I was just too scared to approach you.” Kaisoku shook her head vigorously.
“I’ve actually known for a while that you’re a really kind person.
But that’s exactly the problem—the better someone is, the harder it is to reach out.
I was terrified of making you dislike me.
Being disliked by someone you like is so much worse than being disliked by someone you already don’t care about.”
None of this was fabricated.
Every word of it had been written in Toujou Kaisoku’s diary.
“Li—like?” Satono Diamond nearly lost control of her composure, blindsided by the word.
Fortunately, Kaisoku’s attention was riveted to the menu, and she missed the rare crack in Diamond’s façade.
“Wh-what are you saying?
I told you, flattery’s useless.
I’m just buying you dinner.
It’s not a big deal.”
“But you were genuinely happy for me, right?
Otherwise, why would you bring me to such an amazing restaurant the moment I decided to change, and even offer to introduce your friends?
We’ve been roommates all this time and I never gave you the time of day, but the second I showed the tiniest sign of opening up, you jumped straight to helping.
That already makes you a really good person.” Kaisoku said this with the blunt directness of someone who’d never learned to sugarcoat.
“Oh—by the way, what does the number after the ‘A’ on this wagyu mean?”
“…Is that… really how it seems?” Satono Diamond was having trouble keeping up with this barrage of earnest declarations.
Combined with that earlier like—was Toujou Kaisoku actually confessing?
But Diamond barely knew her.
She’d even chosen to mostly ignore the girl after realizing Kaisoku wanted to be left alone.
Tonight was really just a whim.
Toujou Kaisoku-san had been, in Diamond’s mind, nothing more than an antisocial roommate.
But her actions meant that much to Kaisoku?
Diamond felt a flutter of panic, though her breeding steadied her quickly.
She needed a polite, gentle way to decline what she was now fairly certain was a romantic overture.
On one hand, she didn’t really know Toujou Kaisoku yet.
On the other, Diamond wasn’t purely about looks—a pretty face alone wasn’t enough.
What mattered to her was ability and character.
Friendship, sure.
But crossing that line would require at least… at least… a week of getting to know each other properly?
Wait.
They’d actually been living together for months already.
Diamond blinked.
“…Ahem.
Anyway, Toujou-san, maybe dial back the compliments a little?
It’s getting awkward.
We came out for a nice meal—if the mood gets all strange, it’s hard to enjoy the food, you know?” Diamond deployed a strategic cough.
“You’re just… too blunt.”
“Am I?
Sorry about that.” Kaisoku nodded agreeably.
“You’re right.
Anyway, that’ll do for me.
I’ll have the mixed vermicelli platter, large portion.”
“…?” Satono Diamond stared.
“You spent all that time with the menu and you’re ordering vermicelli?”
“There’s the wagyu too!
But you’ve gotta secure something filling first.” Kaisoku answered with complete sincerity.
“Fancy restaurants like this love cutting everything into paper-thin slices—practically translucent.
You have to hedge with something that’ll actually fill you up.”
“…” Diamond put her face in her hand.
Suddenly the version of herself who’d been blushing and flustered moments ago felt rather foolish.
“It’s fine.
The wagyu portions here are generous.
You can order whatever you want.”
Before Kaisoku could respond, the door to the private room burst open and a black-haired umamusume with white-streaked highlights swept in, greeting them with infectious energy.
This girl—whose personality was the polar opposite of Satono Diamond’s—was Diamond’s childhood friend, Kitasan Black.
She was slightly late, which was par for the course.
This prompted Diamond—who had long since accepted it but was contractually obligated to complain—to shift the conversation.
“Kita, you’re late again—”
“Sorry!
Dia, you have no idea, on my way here there was suddenly this—”
“An old lady crossing the street?”
“This time it was an old man… Wait, Dia, how’d you know?” Kitasan Black asked in genuine surprise.
“Is that some kind of mind-reading superpower?”
“You’re late nine times out of ten for that exact reason.
I’m used to it by now.” Diamond sighed.
“Though I do believe you actually help them every time, you seem to run into these situations with suspicious regularity.
I’m not sure if that counts as a curse.”
“Hey, if I can help out, that’s a good thing!” Kitasan Black scratched her head cheerfully.
Then her eyes landed on the white-haired girl who wasn’t sure what to do with her hands.
“Oh—is this Toujou Kaisoku?
Nice to meet you!
I’m Kitasan Black!
Dia’s childhood friend and best friend!”