McQueen was fairly sure that she'd looked her best, but somehow Dictus still managed to find a stray strand of hair on her dress.

"There," Dictus said as she picked the strand away. "Now you look perfect."

"Thank you," McQueen replied as she took one last turn in front of her mirror, observing her own deep emerald satin dress. "I hope this is enough."

"Oh, it's plenty. You're gorgeous, don't worry."

"You look stunning yourself, Ikuno-san."

Dictus had opted for her usual formal meet dress—crimson, with a little rose accent on the hip, and figure-hugging from the waist down. She braided her hair and kept it over her shoulder, again with another rose accent on her hair tie. She smiled at McQueen's compliment.

"Thank you very much. I would like my former teammates to see me at my best, after all."

Just for this occasion, McQueen had arranged for the Mejiro family chauffeur to take them to the venue—there's the concern about keeping the sharpness of their looks along the way, of course, but McQueen liked the atmosphere they had as they prepared, and she would like to keep it in that manner all the way to the event. Comfort was a rather important matter in such a thing, and McQueen knew she could expect the best from her own family.

It was the first Tracen grand reunion, inviting virtually all students who had attended the Academy, and also the first reunion they'd have had in four years. The girls from Spica mostly kept in constant contact with each other except when they were swamped with work, and McQueen occasionally heard about the Canopus girls from Dictus if they did come in touch, but apart from that, McQueen rarely heard from the other girls. To say that McQueen was looking forward to it would be an understatement.

The venue turned out to be a very large hall in one of the largest hotels near the Academy, reserved in its entirety for the night. The week had just ended, so McQueen had hoped that most of the girls could attend—if nothing else, Tazuna-san seemed to be fairly confident of the attendance rate this time.

"It's nostalgic," she said when McQueen and Dictus arrived. "It has been so long since I've greeted you girls by the gates. You are all women now, but see you all arrive and calling your names out as you come like this is rather…."

She wiped a tear as McQueen and Dictus handed their invitations. After exchanging their greetings once more with Tazuna-san, they entered the hall.
McQueen had expected to describe the hall as lavishly decorated, but—although that was indeed the case—the hall turned out to feel much friendlier, much warmer than the usual formal events. There were still clothed round tables everywhere, adorned with sweets and confectioneries, while waiters and attendants seemed to walk on and about with beverages and bottles of alcohol. But there was also a large board on one side of the wall, plastered with photographs. McQueen had seen similar displays before in events celebrating her races, but unlike those events, the pictures were not of the victory trophies or the girls during their runs. Not entirely, at least. One corner was dedicated to some really memorable wins—the moment Symboli Rudolf's officially snatched the Triple Crown title, Special Week's legendary Japan Cup, Rice Shower's Kikuka-shou, Tokai Teio's miraculous Arima Kinen comeback, and even McQueen's own second Spring Tennou-shou—but the rest of the board was instead full of mundane pictures of the girls during their dorm stay in Tracen.

There was King Halo treating Haru Urara's wound. There was Oguri Cap attempting to take Tamamo Cross' portion of rice. There was Air Groove bringing documents over to Symboli Rudolf. There was Seiun Sky flirting with Nishino Flower. Those were just the few ones McQueen's eyes could follow before she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Hey there, Pretty Miss," a voice called her from behind. McQueen turned to find Teio grinning at her from ear to ear. "Mind if I join you for the night?"

Unlike McQueen and Dictus, Teio had decided to come on with a much more masculine appeal—rather than a dress, Teio came with a fully-white blazer with navy blue undershirt and a bright pink tie, almost a direct callback to her old racing outfit. Although she wore white trousers to match her blazers, she also had a piece of white cloth draped over her thighs, functioning as a soft skirt around her and giving her a slight feminine touch without taking away her strong posture.

McQueen marveled at the sight for a second before taking her hand. "As long as you properly escort me, Miss."

Dictus nodded at her, and McQueen left with Teio while she went to look for her Canopus mates.

As was expected, Teio took her to Team Spica—Daiwa Scarlet had arrived with Vodka, Scarlet wearing a dress as red as her name and Vodka wrapped in a full-black party dress that did little to hide her skin, and they were arguing loudly about whether the chocolate cake was better than the vanilla macaron. Special Week, dressed in the same shade of pink as her eyes, was also there, savoring the carrot cookies next to Grass Wonder, who held up a plate with a few other cookies on them. Silence Suzuka had her hands rather full in the USA, so it would be understandable if she couldn't attend.

"Where's Gold Ship-san?" McQueen asked.

Surprisingly, Spe was the first to respond. "She's got shooting tonight," she said. "I think it's for the new reality show they're gunna air tomorrow."

Teio chuckled. "I guess her days posting to PakaTube paid off, after all."

"She's a big name, you know," Vodka joined in. "I heard she's got quite the pull lately."

"Well, she may not seem like it, but she's really good when she's serious," Scarlet added. "Apparently she's got requests from, like, four different stations to host their night shows."

Vodka raised her eyebrows. "And you heard this, how?"

"You'd know if you'd actually paid attention when she video-called us last time, dummy."

McQueen chuckled at their quick banter. She heard that the two of them continued to cohabit after they graduated Tracen, much like McQueen herself with Dictus. Maybe they realized that they had more in common with each other than they usually let on. It did, after all, take a certain amount of trust and comfort to settle in with someone for so long. If they really fought as hard and often as they did out in public, their cohabitation would've fallen apart years ago.

"And when was that?" Teio asked. Scarlet thought for a moment.

"I think it was a month ago? I'm not really sure myself," she admitted. "Work's been really hectic these days. This new guy kept messing up and I haven't figured out why, but my boss has been up my neck trying to make me find the answer fast."

"Scarlet's amazing, you know?" Vodka suddenly said. "She'd only moved to this company for two years and she's been the HR employee of the month for the past year straight. Pretty sure she'd get promoted if she solved this one!"

Scarlet blushed so hard that her dress didn't even seem so red after. "You didn't need to tell them that, stupid!"

"What about El-chan?" Teio asked. "Is she with the Rigel girls?"

"Unfortunately, she couldn't attend," Grass answered for her. "She had been running around in many countries, last I heard. I'm not sure I've heard from her at all lately…."

"Shwe'd bwe fwine," Special week said with her mouth full before she swallowed whatever it was she was eating now. "It's El-chan. She'll do just great!"

Grass replied with a simple smile that McQueen couldn't quite interpret. "I do admit that only hearing from her every six months or so does get kind of lonely, but you're right. If it's her, it'll be just fine."

Something apparently caught Teio's attention, because suddenly, she let go of McQueen's hand. "Ah—Nei-chan!"

"It's Nature!" came the reply from the other end of the room. Teio dashed there immediately before McQueen could even voice a thing.

"Wh—Teio!" she complained as Teio disappeared to greet Nice Nature, who had just arrived.

"You okay with that?" Vodka asked. "I mean, I thought she was gonna escort you tonight or sumthin'."

"Ah, no, not really," McQueen said. "It was mostly a joke. I did just visit her apartment two weeks ago, so it would be much better for Teio to see how the other Tracen girls are doing, methinks."

Vodka shrugged. Scarlet elbowed her softly. "If you dash on me like that, I'll be locking you out of my room."

Vodka raised her eyebrows. "I've got my own room, though?"

Scarlet bit her lip as if she realized what she'd just said. With that, McQueen excused herself.

She actually agreed with Teio—it would have been better for her to mingle with the other Tracen girls, too, which was what she intended to do. To begin with, catching up with everyone not from Spica was what she come here for.

So what was this pang of unease that she felt when Teio left just like that?