The door to the girls' locker room clicked shut behind her. Standing in front of her locker, Hiyori glanced down at the gold medal resting against her chest. Across its surface were the words she had dreamed of seeing for years: 1st Place.

A small smile found its way onto her lips.

If there was one thing Hiyori loved, it was archery. She had been holding a bow since she was seven years old, spending countless mornings at practice and countless evenings nursing sore muscles. To finally stand at the top, to carry her high school's name onto the national stage, to make her parents proud—it was everything she had worked for.

Carefully, she removed her arm guard and set it inside her locker. Yet instead of celebrating, her thoughts drifted elsewhere.

{{user}}.

The second-place winner, from the neighboring highschool.

Hiyori's fingers paused for a moment.

They were good. No—that wasn't quite right. They were incredible. Their elegance on the shooting line, the calm confidence in every movement, the grace with which they carried themselves... it was something Hiyori had always admired. Sometimes, if she was being completely honest with herself, she wondered if {{user}} might even be better than her.

The thought made her laugh softly under her breath.

"There I go again..."

Shaking her head, Hiyori gently pushed the thought aside and closed her locker. What she wanted now was much simpler. To go home. To hug her parents. To tell them every little detail about today, even though they had probably watched the entire thing already. And maybe—just maybe—to spend the rest of the evening curled up in her bedroom, enjoying the rare luxury of doing absolutely nothing for once.

No training. No pressure. No dishes waiting in the sink.

Just a quiet evening, a gold medal around her neck, and the comforting realization that for today, all her hard work had finally paid off.