"..." Mizuno and Air Groove were staring at each other, each harboring questions they wished to ask the other.
Yet seeing that the other person also seemed ready to speak, both trainer and Uma politely swallowed back their words, hoping the other would ask first.
Thus, a brief silence stretched between them.
Several minutes later, Mizuno finally broke the stalemate.
"You go first," he said.
"Mm." Air Groove nodded, accepting Mizuno's courtesy. Then, she carefully began:
"Trainer Mizuno, are you seriously telling me you figured out the plant's condition just by observing my micro-expressions, comparing them with your previously collected data? You're not just messing with me?"
Air Groove found Mizuno's method absurdly outrageous, something no ordinary human could conceive, let alone execute. She couldn't shake the suspicion he was simply teasing her.
But Mizuno shook his head, answering earnestly: "I'm not joking. That's exactly what I did..."
"But why?!" Air Groove abruptly stood up and moved toward Mizuno.
"W-what do you mean, 'why'?" Startled by Air Groove's sudden movement, Mizuno instinctively leaned back.
Air Groove, however, pressed forward, placing both hands firmly on Mizuno's shoulders, preventing him from retreating any further. She leaned down, bringing their faces close, trying to peer directly into his eyes beneath his hood.
"Why would you go that far?" Air Groove asked.
"Well..." Mizuno awkwardly turned his face aside. "Because I have absolutely zero talent for listening to plants—I'd never be able to learn it—so this was my only alternative..."
"That's not what I meant!" Air Groove forcibly turned Mizuno's head back, making him face her directly.
"What I mean is, you clearly could've just followed the original plan, spent one or two weeks to carefully test and find the optimal nutrient levels for each of the sunflower's growth phases..."
Air Groove bit her lip lightly, her expression growing hesitant. "Why did you pretend you'd already learned how to listen, and insist on cultivating the sunflower with me early?"
She couldn't comprehend it. Why would Mizuno go to such lengths, even deceiving her, resorting to this difficult and complicated method, just to shorten the experiment time and quickly achieve success?
"..." Mizuno thought for a moment, then replied with mock indignation:
"It's simple—I've got a grudge against the mysterious man too. I want to catch him as soon as possible..."
However, Mizuno's rambling excuse was interrupted by Air Groove.
"You're lying!" Air Groove pressed down slightly harder with both hands, radiating a threatening aura, as if she could easily dislocate Mizuno's shoulders in the next instant if he didn't speak honestly.
"From your voice, I sense no hatred toward the mysterious man at all—let alone any urgency to catch him..."
"So, your real purpose for doing this experiment isn't the mysterious man. It's something else entirely—or more precisely, someone else."
Air Groove pushed even closer, nearly pressing Mizuno flat onto the ground, their faces just centimeters apart.
"Wait wait wait!" Mizuno hastily cried out, knowing that if this continued, he'd end up being pinned to the ground beneath her—quite literally uma-pyoi'd!
"Air Groove, before I answer your question, can you answer one of mine first?" Mizuno asked cautiously.
He had one burning question that urgently needed clarification.
"..." Air Groove hesitated briefly, then finally agreed. "Fine."
Having received permission, Mizuno gathered his thoughts carefully, then asked:
"How exactly did you realize I was deceiving you?"
This was what Mizuno couldn't understand. Clearly, his eyes had never been visible from beneath his hood, yet Air Groove somehow sensed he was looking at her. Even when his tone was completely natural during his nonsense earlier, she still knew with pinpoint accuracy that he was lying...
Hey, buddy, are you reading my mind or something?!
Or had she awakened some sort of Stand ability—able to discern lies through sensing a soul's 'Yes' or 'No'?
"Well… about that…" Hearing Mizuno's question, Air Groove's eyes trembled slightly, uncertain how to explain it herself.
"I'm honestly not sure either..." Air Groove lifted her head, gazing up toward the starlit sky.
"All I can say is—it was something like intuition. I'm not sure when it began... maybe back in the cafeteria, or perhaps just now..."
Air Groove returned her gaze to Mizuno, a barely visible blush surfacing on her pale cheeks.
"Gradually, I began to sense your gaze lightly brushing over me, like the soft feathers of a feather duster... and the subtle, complicated emotions hidden within that gaze..."
Hold up! You really can read my mind?!
Wasn't it said that only trainers and Uma who'd achieved Unity of Heart could sense each other's feelings? But surely they hadn't reached such a stage in just this short amount of time?
Or perhaps Air Groove's ability—previously limited only to listening to plants—had somehow evolved into reading human minds?
"..." Mizuno was still pondering this mystery when Air Groove ran out of patience.
"I've answered your question already, now it's your turn to answer mine!" Air Groove grabbed Mizuno by the collar. "Who exactly are you doing this experiment for?!"
"Hmph..." Mizuno scoffed coldly, tilting his head up defiantly.
"I won't tell you anything! Ahhhhh—!"
The very next second after Mizuno boldly proclaimed his refusal, Air Groove started vigorously shaking him by the collar.
"Are you going to answer? Huh? Will you speak or not?" Air Groove didn't use much force—just enough to make Mizuno thoroughly uncomfortable—as she tried to shake the truth from him.
Unfortunately for her, Air Groove didn't know Mizuno's greatest weakness like Symboli Rudolf did—threatening him by stripping off his clothes. Without such leverage, no matter how much Air Groove shook him, Mizuno wouldn't utter a single word.
"My answer is... No! Ahhhh—!"
"Damn it..." Realizing Mizuno's ironclad determination, Air Groove knew she could shake him like a bell until sunrise without ever cracking open his mouth.
Thus, she had to find another method to extract the truth from him. Googlᴇ search 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚•𝙣𝙚𝙩
"Fine then—I'll just ask your heart directly!"
Air Groove abruptly pushed Mizuno down onto the ground, sitting on his stomach, gripping his head firmly with both hands, forcing him to stare directly into her eyes.
"Is it for your girlfriend?" Air Groove asked.
"..." Mizuno didn't answer, but from the emotions she sensed in his gaze, Air Groove instantly knew.
"For your boyfriend, then?"
"For Trainer Kiryuin Aoi? Or Trainer Kaneshiro Takeru?" Air Groove started rattling off the names of various academy trainers one by one.
"?" Mizuno, bewildered by her sudden interrogation listing his colleagues, began to feel something was seriously off.
Can Air Groove actually read my mind for real?!