Chapter Text
'Just a harmless experiment' Tachyon had claimed. It seems for once she'd underestimated herself. This experiment was something she'd wanted to do for ages; she'd finally managed to make a real-time race simulator—you just needed to hook your subjects up to treadmills.
"Tachyon, this really isn't a good idea..." Cafe spoke, adjusting the belt that had gone around her waist to monitor her speed among other variables.
The others; Dantsu Flame and Jungle Pocket, were skeptical too, but were still willing to go along.
"I've spent weeks doing prep and testing with other Umas around campus! Nothing could go wrong!" declared Tachyon. "Now get into position, you three. The simulator is ready~."
Tachyon had spent nearly half a year working on improving her existing simulation software, reprogramming it so that when connected up to comparable treadmills along with the monitoring belts she'd made; the stats and speed of the uma she was testing could be translated into the simulator in real time.
Even any weather could be picked to alter the treadmills speed, mimicking real life track conditions.
This was practically a breakthrough! Nobel Peace Prize worthy, even. All that was left was to run the first true test.
"Now, I've picked the Shuka Sho at Kyoto Racecourse with normal conditions as your track. It's 2,000 meters, which I know you three can handle." explained Tachyon. "Without further adieu, let's begin!"
And they were off! The Shuka Sho had begun!
Jungle Pocket quickly took the lead, but Dantsu and Cafe followed closely behind for the first 300 meters. Around 700 meters, Cafe started to pull ahead, fighting with Jungle for the lead as Dantsu maintained her position.
Of course, that was what Tachyon was seeing on her computer. In reality the girls were simply going as fast as they could on treadmills.
The race was going by in a flash, already at the 1,600 meter mark. Before they knew it, Cafe, Dantsu, and Pocket were fighting for the lead, pushing as hard as they could, and just when it seemed like the race was over—everything went black, the treadmills halting.
Once the trio stopped running, Tachyon was the first to speak.
"Well, I hadn't anticipated this." she said, fumbling around for a flashlight.
Dantsu whimpered, she tried to step off the treadmill but she was still hooked up to her belt. "Did the power go out? What happened?"
Jungle Pocket scratched her head, as if her scalp held the answer. "If I had to guess, the machine was using a lot of electricity. We must've pushed it too hard."
Suddenly, Tachyon pointed her flashlight right at Jungle Pocket. "Exactly, Pokke. The sheer power of you three running combined must've broke something."
Just then, there was a knock at the lab door.
"Tachyon-san? Was that you?" Tazuna asked worriedly. "Are you ok in there?"
"We're fine, Tazuna." said Cafe. "We're just waiting to be unhooked from this contraption Tachyon insisted we help her test."
Tachyon approached the girls, taking off their monitoring belts. "There you go, fixed. Come in, Tazuna!" she beckoned.
Tazuna creaked open the door, flashlight in hand. "I told everyone to stay put while we figured out what was wrong. The Director isn't very happy about this delaying classes."
"Well, we'll just have to tough it out until we figure out the problem." said Pocket. "We have a breaker room, right? Why not try to fix that first?"
"Good idea, let's try that first." proposed Dantsu.
The group then made their way down the halls and a few stairs, turned a left, and made it into the breaker room.
A cramped thing it was, they could all barely fit in there.
"Well…does anyone know how these things work? I barely know myself." asked Tazuna.
They all looked at Agnes Tachyon expectantly, who tried reaching for a switch but couldn't. "I'm jammed between Cafe and Pokke, my arm can't reach."
"Don't squirm too much.." Cafe and Pokke groaned in unison.
Dantsu tried next, she was miraculously able to reach one switch meant for the swimming pool.
"I did it! now if i could just reach the main power…" she strained, causing the other girls to get squished together. Before Dantsu even had the chance to touch the switch, the power came back on by itself.
Everyone looked at eachother, stunned; before wiggling out of the closet and hearing the Director's voice over the loudspeaker.
"Everyone! The power issue has been fixed, you may now return to classes and training."
Cafe sighed. "So that was all for nothing, huh?" Then, another voice fizzled onto the speaker.
"Agnes Tachyon." said Symboli Rudolf. "Come see me in my office."