Author's Note: I am not an editor or a professional writer. I will write this and edit it to the best of my ability. I also do not own Uma Musume, which is owned by Cygames. Watch the animes and read the mangas, for they are pretty good. Finally, please enjoy.
Tsukasa Takajima POV
After Performance Re-exams
While I was working on my plans for the tournament, Yuto came into the room. We've been working together for a while now, ever since the staff introductions. From what I've gathered, he has a cruel and ruthless strategic mind, which I hear got even worse after Gray herself told him his plans were baby shit compared to her own cruelty.
Speaking of which, I thought I'd seen some messed-up strategies before, but Gray's are just evil.
I also talk a lot with Vic, Rain, Jo, and Steel.
Victory Gate, or Vic for short, is the perfect captain. She leads perfectly and genuinely cares about her team. She's modest, not arrogant, caring, and never egotistical. The perfect captain. We talk a lot, helping each other as coach and captain. They all made the right choice choosing her as their leader.
Then there's Rain, or Enduring Rain, whose training suggestions are brilliant. She's able to improve the body in flexible and effective ways, almost as if she were a fitness instructor and coach herself. Plus, as a dietitian, she's brilliant, matching perfectly with the experts on the team. Still, after what happened during training camp, when they almost died, she stepped up to help with planning the physical training.
Next is Jo, or Endless Journey. She's a brilliant genius, to the point of having enough knowledge to surpass people with doctorates. Her research results always make me evolve and enhance my training methods, leading to sleepless nights for the coaching team and staff.
That is, until the curfew was adopted, which gave everyone some much-needed rest.
Still, with the threats we informed them about and the near-death situations we put them through during training camp, she changed. She decided to spend more time with those she cared about and enjoy life. Still, we all know she's making up for it by using technology and getting assistants to cover for her. She's making her research happen in less time while opening it up to new avenues.
Then there's Steel, my current girlfriend, or Steel Valkyrie, the team's ace and strongest player.
Now, I've been able to hide it, but I did not expect to reunite with my old student. I haven't even told Mina that's how troubled I am by this situation.
I remember her clearly. The girl I recruited when I first started my career, the girl I turned into a dominant racer in the local scene. The one everyone wanted to steal from me, and the one who led me to ruin with a confession of her love.
Yeah, her.
I did not expect to see her again after coming here. I thought it was going to be awkward at first, but it really seems she's forgotten about everything. I almost thought she was a completely different person at first, until I saw the files. I even expected her to confront me, but it never happened.
I watched her run and train, and she's become so strong.
Her physicality is amazing, her running style perfect, her strategy flawless, her versatility immaculate, and her will to win ruthless. She's become so much without me, because I know I didn't teach her that. She's become a woman obsessed with victory and competition. Her personality has gone from that of a sweet, serious girl to a dominant yet feminine woman.
Heck, she didn't even recognize me when we first met.
I hated it. Who taught her? Who made her so amazing?
Then I found her in my office, looking through files and data while pulling an all-nighter. She was surprised, which led to her asking me out on a date.
Which never happened because of Mina's grounding of the team.
Now I know she still likes me, but somehow doesn't remember me for some reason.
With that incident almost destroying my career entirely in Japan, I have to make a plan so that if anyone finds out who she is and about our past together, it doesn't consume the team.
I also think I have a great reason to do so.
A message arrived on my phone earlier, reading:
"Greetings, Coach Tsukasa. Do you have any ideas on how to protect our players from the threats coming for us? Don't misunderstand. We have the best security and cybersecurity money can buy being installed, but extra ideas to protect the team are always welcome.
From Mina Sakamoto/Du Vault."
I came up with a plan immediately, and it hid my intentions perfectly.
I summoned everyone for a meeting, with Mina, Yuto, and Iguro joining us after I told them I had the perfect idea for protecting our players.
Once everyone arrived and was seated, I began the meeting.
"Everyone, I have brought you here because our boss, Mina here, informed me that she wanted extra measures to protect the team beyond the security and cybersecurity she is already implementing. I have the perfect solution for that, and it is this."
I took out a mask designed to be lightweight, breathable, easy to wear, comfortable, and, most importantly, something that wouldn't hinder our players.
Everyone looked confused, so I explained.
"Masks are the perfect answer, along with codenames. Which we will tell everyone are fake, bringing in attention and intrigue thanks to our talent. Plus, they're allowed with permission from the league and protect our players' identities as well."
GW raised her hand and spoke.
"We agreed as a team to be ourselves, and I think this will hinder that."
I then replied, "You can still be yourselves. Heck, you can design your masks to represent yourselves and still act as you normally would. The masks and codenames are just there to make sure no one knows where you live or recognizes you on the streets."
They all accepted that answer, and soon, after some discussion, everyone agreed.
Mina soon spoke.
"Everyone is dismissed. I expect your mask designs turned in within two days. I also expect all staff, security, and department heads to have masks for protection as well."
Once everyone on the team had left, Mina came up to me.
"Tsukasa, stay for a bit. We have something we'd like to discuss with you."
She pointed at herself, Yuto, and Iguro, and soon I was sitting across from her.
She spoke assuredly.
"Yuto told me you're planning on benching Steel, our best player, and only using her in open tournaments and team races. Can you tell me why you're doing this and what you're thinking before I decide whether you're more incompetent than I thought and you shouldn't be leading this team?"
Yuto, you fucking snitch!
He must have seen some of my plans and reported them to Mina without asking me anything about them first.
Still, years of dealing with reporters and confrontational people, thanks to my past, have made me capable of thinking quickly and coming up with answers, true or not.
I soon answered her question calmly, hiding my deceit behind a few true statements.
"We all know how strong Steel is. She can race in every race in a tournament and win every single one. Am I wrong?"
Everyone nodded in agreement, and soon I continued.
"Now, we all know that in sports, such dominance doesn't last long because of counter-strategies. Once that happens, people will have ways to deal with our strongest player, even when we change strategies. No thank you. My plan is to hide Steel and use the team itself to confuse other teams about the abilities and strength levels of our players. Basically, they won't know who our strongest and weakest players are or what they can do. Until we really need Steel, or we get to Paris, they won't know what's coming."
Mina nodded and asked, "I see. And what will the team think?"
I responded, "Other than Steel, the others would get more races and have the spotlight shining on them. They might feel bad for Steel at first, but they'll soon warm up to the idea, especially once we explain the strategy to them."
Mina stared at me, looking as though she were reading my soul, before calmly responding.
"I will approve of this strategy..."
Yes! My plans were going exactly as planned, and even better since it was approved.
She interrupted my thoughts.
"...But I have a few conditions."
I responded, "Anything for you, boss. You're still the head honcho here."
She rolled her eyes at the American phrases I'd picked up while working there.
She soon told me, "We all know how impatient Steel can be, and we don't want her going to another team just to get race time. So she will race in all the open races herself. Along with that, if the team is doing worse than we thought, or once everyone has lost at least once, she is free to race. Am I clear on this, Tsukasa?"
I quickly responded, "Yes, ma'am. I'll do so."
I felt her dark presence wash over me.
She smiled and soon replied, "Good. Yuto, Tsukasa, you're dismissed."
We both soon left the room, and we were back at the office.
Yuto then spoke apologetically.
"Sorry, man. I thought you were planning on sabotaging the team when I saw those written plans, so I reported you."
Three goddesses, Yuto! You could've asked me first instead of reporting me to the boss. Do you know how much I almost shit myself?
Still, despite my thoughts, I calmly told my top data analyst and logistics expert, "It's fine. Next time, ask first, okay? That way, we don't have to go through the tiny demon queen herself again."
He nodded in agreement, understanding how scary the boss could be, especially since it had been so soon since we both almost killed the team during training camp.
He then told me, "Sure. Next time, inform me of your plans so we can discuss them together."
I sighed. He was right. We're a team, no matter how you read it. We needed to have some transparency with each other when it came to strategies.
He then asked, "So, what else are you planning for the team?"
He grinned, trying to pry some information out of me.
I smiled and said, "Sure. The plans you saw were incomplete, so let's set our starters first for each race and each type of track together. Then let's decide what roles we'll give the rest of the team to make the strategy come true, using the player requests we collected when we interviewed them about the details and what they wanted for the team."
He seemed surprised and soon nodded.
"That's a great idea. It'll also make the strategies more targeted and precise this way."
We nodded to each other, smiling like idiots, before getting to work.
Two Days Later
The day to show off the masks had arrived, and we had also decided that this would be the day to announce the starters and roles for the future.
First, the masks.
They had all designed some unique masks, if I say so myself.
Vic's looked like a fusion of a Power Ranger mask and a wrestler's mask, while Mama's looked like a combination of a superhero mask and racing goggles.
Gray's looked like a kabuki mask with black coverings, and Rose's looked like a combination of a performer's mask and an opera mask.
GW's looked like a knight's helm, while Rain's looked like a dark superhero wrestler mask.
Next was Lily's, which looked like a knight's helm with sunglasses-style visors and a metal face mask. Spice's looked like a gothic horror mask with Bane's mouthpiece.
ImP's looked like a white demon mask with a beak mouthpiece, while BlaD's was a pure black mask with only his mouth visible.
Sweets's mask looked like a mix of a wrestling mask and a football helmet, while Jo went with the opposite of BlaD: a pure white mask with only her eyes visible.
Norn's mask was a velveteen pink mask with red lines, covering everything except her hair.
Finally, KiWi had a unicorn wrestling mask without the horn, which made it look kind of weird in some way.
Everyone was looking at me while I examined KiWi's mask, hiding giggles for some reason. Maybe it was an inside joke. I don't know, and I couldn't care less.
They must have worked hard with the design team to make the masks unique to each of them, since they also had artistic patterns and artwork on them.
I looked at Steel and her mask, which looked like a superhero Valkyrie mask fused with magical-girl vibes. It covered her face, and that was what made me happiest.
We soon moved on, because all the department heads had shown up and were talking with the team about the masks.
Now it was time to speak about the most important part of today.
I spoke loudly.
"Okay, everyone. The masks are amazing, and we've been informed that they've been fitted and tested. Well done! Now, let us begin the second half of this meeting.
"The rules in the FSRL state that each team must have a roster of 15, and each player has to participate in a race before you can repeat a player. Tournaments have many types of races, and teams with diverse lineups like ours are usually the best. That's why placing you all logically in the right spots is necessary. Again, we can't repeat players until you've all had a turn, unless someone needs a substitution because they're unavailable due to sickness, injury, or suspension."
All the players were excited as they realized we were about to announce the starting lineup.
I continued speaking.
"Remember, the lineup will change throughout the year, and I will not take questions until both the lineups and team roles are announced.
"First, though, we will have two team compositions for turf and dirt for every type of race and distance, except for relays, where we'll just switch players out if needed.
"Relay Starter Turf Team:
"Lead-off: Tyrant Rose.
"Leg 2: Mama Blues.
"Leg 3: Great Wonder.
"Anchor: Steel Valkyrie.
"Relay Starter Dirt Team:
"Lead-off: Black Diamond.
"Leg 2: Victory Gate.
"Leg 3: Tactical Gray.
"Anchor: Norn Viking."
All of them wanted to ask so many questions, but I ignored that and continued.
"Obstacle races next.
"Short Races:
* Turf: King Wild.
* Dirt: Endless Journey.
"Mile:
* Turf: Tyrant Rose.
* Dirt: Tactical Gray.
"Medium:
* Turf: Endless Journey.
* Dirt: Enduring Rain.
"Finally, Long:
* Turf: Victory Gate.
* Dirt: Sweet Pollen.
"Now, for relays, we chose the people best at teamwork. For obstacles, we chose those who wouldn't just survive the environment, but thrive in it while staying with our team's plan this year.
"Next are the flats, where racing is less dangerous and more athletic."
KiWi then interrupted in celebration.
"Woohoo! Jo, we're both racing short obstacle!"
I then interrupted her.
"Enough talking. Let's continue.
"Flats, short first:
* Turf: Mama Blues.
* Dirt: Black Diamond.
"Mile:
* Turf: Imperial Punk.
* Dirt: Norn Viking.
"Medium:
* Turf: Tyrant Rose.
* Dirt: Edged Lily.
"Finally, Long:
* Turf: High Spice.
* Dirt: Steel Valkyrie.
"Now, those who are assigned to two roles shouldn't be surprised if you're substituted in a race when you've already raced and not all 15 of you have raced yet. Those are the league's rules, making substitutions very important."
Some of them were beginning to understand the starting positions and why some were only assigned a single role. They knew they were most likely the substitutes if those players weren't allowed to race yet.
I then continued.
"Now, the team's strategy this year is to hide the power rankings of our team as much as possible by giving you roles to play. Don't worry, you won't have to act like someone you're not. This is to stop other teams from picking on our weakest players and counter-strategizing against our strongest.
"Remember what happened with T.M. Opera O in her second Arima Kinen? There are no rules against working together just to fuck with one player. Plus, this allows us to have more strategic variation and flexibility against them because we control the information."
They all nodded, as what I said made sense, and soon I began talking again.
"Now, we took your requests into account, and we'll be fair with substitutions based on who's available and who we need for a particular race.
"The roles are as follows.
"Vic is the team captain and will be presented as such. No surprise there.
"Mama Blues will be sold as our top sprinter and a record challenger, while Tactical Gray, seeing what she wants to do, will be sold as our biggest heel.
"Next, Tyrant Rose will be our charming player type who's really good, and Great Wonder will be protected because of her dangerous, uncontrollable combat ability and our team's worst athlete."
I saw GW's face looking down in frustration as Iguro and Rose tried to make her feel better.
I continued my announcements.
"Next is Enduring Rain. We will sell you as yourself because you can somehow sell yourself through your personality, which is just that likable for some reason.
"Next is an important one. Edged Lily, you will be sold as our strongest, since you like challenges. Your main job is to hide Steel and protect her from counterattacks until it's time to unleash her on the world.
"Steel Valkyrie, your role is to stay hidden as a mid-tier member used to conquer Open Tournaments. They don't need to follow the same 15-player system as the main races, yet still offer a little bit of points, because you only seem to care about wins."
Everyone was left speechless by the last two announcements, with Lily and Steel absolutely in shock. They were about to say something before Mina signaled for everyone to stay quiet.
They all stayed silent out of respect for her, and soon I continued.
"High Spice will be sold as our top stayer and secondary heel after Gray. Imperial Punk, being an all-rounder, will be sold as our ace and top star, separate from our team's 'strongest.'
"Next is Black Diamond, who will be sold as the artistic soul of the team who's also athletic.
"Sweet Pollen will be our girly rough-rouser who's very relatable and fun.
"Endless Journey is going to be sold as our team's nerdy expert athlete who has a lot of experience.
"Next is Norn Viking, who is very flexible. She will be sold as our team's idol, used to sell fashion and other products while being dominant.
"Finally, King Wild will be sold as our crazy, unorthodox underdog to the crowd."
I wasn't done yet, as I put the puzzle pieces together in front of them.
"The job is to turn everyone's attention elsewhere.
"Vic, Lily, Mama Blues, and Spice will hide Steel.
"Norn, BlaD, ImP, and KiWi will distract the team from trouble and make them underestimate us.
"Jo, Gray, Sweets, and Rain will break them strategically and gather data on them.
"Finally, Steel and GW will stay hidden until needed.
"Now that everything has been assigned, you will all need codenames, and we've based them on colors."
I immediately announced their codenames.
"ImP is Agent Azure, while Spice is Agent Ivory, and Norn is Agent Viridian.
"Next is Lily, who is Agent Crimson. GW is Agent Amber, and Steel is Agent Magenta.
"Next up is Jo, who is Agent Mint. Gray is Agent Ash, and Mama Blues is Vice Captain Cobalt.
"Next is KiWi, who is Agent Chestnut. Rain is Agent Onyx, and BlaD is Agent Ebony.
"Next up is Rose, being Agent Ruby, Sweets being Agent Celeste, and finally, Vic being Captain Primrose."
I finally finished my announcements.
"Those are your codenames. Now that everything has been announced, does anyone have any questions?"
I soon began thinking about the inevitable.
Steel spoke up.
"What the fuck, Tsukasa? I know I said I like winning, but I at least like to be fed sharks, not guppies. With that counter-strategy bullshit, I'm fucking invincible!"
I knew she might quit if I didn't say something, and I couldn't let that happen, so I had to come up with something.
Then I saw the clock.
It was 1:13 PM.
I suddenly had an epiphany and spoke.
"Oh, darling. History has proven that even the mightiest armies and most invincible individuals can fall to brilliant strategy and wits."
I soon stood up as she was already standing. I got onto the table, walked over to where she was, and looked down at her.
"Steel, Mina has already told me to put you in if either the team is worse than we believed or everyone else has lost at least once. However, how about this, darling? In accumulated races, either Open or regular tournament races, if you win 113 races straight without losing once, I will consider putting you in. How about it?"
I then heard Vic ask out loud, "113? Why a hundred and thir... Oh, ohhhh."
Mama Blues then asked Vic, "What's up, Vic? What did you realize?"
Her answer was quick and immediate.
"Haru."
Everyone on the team immediately understood what Vic was thinking, which the department heads also picked up on.
I wasn't thinking that at all, but fuck it, I'll use it.
I spoke cockily.
"That's right, Steel. How about we do the Haru Urara Redemption Challenge? Heck, why don't all of you do a personal challenge? Just so you know, I might not care."
That's when Steel knocked me off the table as she caught me.
"Okay, darling. Challenge accepted."
She soon dropped me onto the ground and left the room with her mask, without saying anything else. Vic, Rose, and Rain followed her just in case.
That's when GW came to me, asking with tears in her eyes, "Am I so weak that I have to be protected like this?"
She was being comforted by Norn, Mama Blues, and Sweets.
I answered, "No, but Iguro and Mina asked me to do this while they work with you to control your strength, so you don't accidentally kill anyone and end up in prison."
She then looked at Iguro, who was right behind her, offering his hand.
"Let's get to work, Miss GW."
GW blushed a little as the other girls let her go, and they walked out of the room together. The girls soon left, following them both just in case GW needed more comforting.
The rest of the department heads also left, each returning to their respective duties, leaving only Yuto to help me up.
Mina left with Suzu and Takeshi by her side, and the rest went back to work.
The team also began leaving one by one, with BlaD saying, "Man, this is a mess, and it's ruining my vibes, so I'm gonna head out. ImP, Spice, KiWi, let's go. I'm thinking we celebrate our team's new star together."
They all cheered and left to party.
Gray also got up, saying, "I agree with everything you said, Coach, and I will support it as much as I can. Now, though, it's time to go. Jo, Lily, let's go. The others have left, and I think we should all celebrate in our own way."
Soon, Yuto and I nodded to each other and called the servants to clean the place up before we left ourselves.
He spoke.
"That went better than we thought, and I don't know where you came up with that 113 thing, but it was brilliant."
I smiled awkwardly at him and soon told him, "I could use a drink after all this, because the last week before the tournament begins starts in two days."
Yuto nodded, saying, "You got that right, brother. Let's go."
I just love it when a plan falls into place.