With her birthday drawing closer and closer, and Verxina finally having adjusted her mindset again, Gotham Song's daily life gradually settled into something both peaceful and bizarre.
Why use such contradictory adjectives?
"Bizarre" fit because sudden incidents still kept popping up in Gotham Song's day-to-day life.
For example, whenever she was at Tracen, she'd get ambushed by Satono Diamond, who had finally enrolled and at long last found her chance!
And then she'd watch Kitasan Black pull out every trick in the book, right there in public, to talk her out of it. Other than that and the usual training, there was also the fact that Verxina would drop by from time to time, hoping to get some guidance from Gotham Song—one of those things that left her baffled and helpless in equal measure.
I mean, is there any chance you've considered that your next two major rivals—the two Umamusume you want revenge on at the Shuka Sho—Gentildonna and Almond Eye—are both being coached by me?
Great. At this rate, all three of you are coming out of the same school.
Gotham Song always felt there was something deeply weird about that, but she couldn't quite put it into words. In the end, she could only sigh helplessly and choose...
To teach her, obviously. What else was she supposed to do—send the silly girl away on the spot?
As for Verxina after she started receiving instruction...
It was obvious that she'd steeled herself to a tremendous degree. Whatever Gotham Song said, she accepted without the slightest doubt and obeyed completely. No matter what, an Umamusume like Verxina simply could not accept the reality of failing over and over again. She wanted more victories. She wanted to thoroughly crush Almond Eye and Gentildonna.
Of course Gotham Song respected that desire. And...
It wasn't just Gotham Song who respected it, but also...
Almond Eye and Gentildonna, who knew everything!
The Umamusume around Gotham Song were often training at Tracen to begin with, so there was no way Gentildonna and Almond Eye wouldn't notice Verxina constantly showing up around the Trainer, right?!
But what would surprise most people was that not only did Gentildonna and Almond Eye show no displeasure whatsoever, in every sense they were practically burning with eagerness.
Well, it wasn't that hard to understand. After all, for Gentildonna and Almond Eye, victory was something they absolutely intended to fight over. But if their only real rivals were each other, and all the remaining Umamusume were too weak, then wouldn't that make the race less interesting?
Almond Eye probably hadn't been like that before, but now... after staying by Gentildonna's side for so long, she had probably started picking up the other girl's color too.
Gotham Song couldn't really say. She had no objection anyway. Teaching one Umamusume was teaching, teaching two was too, and if all three came together, that was fine too.
Ah, so the ones getting the short end of the stick were all the other Umamusume who didn't have much competitiveness in the Shuka Sho to begin with, huh?
That was what she thought, but in the end Gotham Song still didn't make any of this public. The logic was simple: if she did, and the other Umamusume really came asking her to coach them too, then what exactly was that supposed to turn into?
At that point they might as well rename the Shuka Sho to Eternal Beat...!
Gotham Song had the dazed feeling that if things kept going like this, sooner or later she'd end up training all sixteen Umamusume entered in some race and leading them in pre-race preparation—putting on a performance that was, in every possible sense, her left hand fighting her right.
No way, absolutely no way could that happen!
Thankfully, this time Gotham Song's wild imagination was just that: imagination. Since the matter never spread, it naturally didn't lead to any troublesome consequences. In the end, her guidance for the Shuka Sho remained limited to just three Umamusume: Verxina, Gentildonna, and Almond Eye.
And unlike Gentildonna and Almond Eye, who had already decided how they intended to win the race, when it came to how Verxina was supposed to contend with the two of them...
Honestly, Gotham Song felt that was pretty easy to solve.
The way Gentildonna had beaten Verxina in the Oka Sho had involved a fair amount of luck. It was basically only because she had a better position and a faster break from the gate—advantages gifted by heaven—that she managed to take the win.
Gotham Song believed that even without her own guidance, if Verxina ran the Oka Sho one more time, Gentildonna would absolutely not be able to beat her. The fight for first would come down to Verxina and Almond Eye.
And most likely, the Verxina of now would be able to beat the Almond Eye of then—
The fire burning in her eyes was all the evidence Gotham Song needed to make that judgment!
So why put so much weight on the Oka Sho, when there was still the Oaks afterward?
Well, because the Oka Sho was sixteen hundred meters—within Verxina's effective range for the Runaway style. The Shuka Sho, on the other hand, was two thousand meters. That was a little taxing for Verxina's stamina, but if she gave up the Runaway style and instead stuck to being a Front Runner, she should still be able to save a little room for a final spurt.
Which was exactly why optimizing her Oka Sho tactics was the single most important thing for Verxina if she wanted to take the Shuka Sho.
So Gotham Song only had Verxina do two things.
Improve her stamina, and improve her gate break.
The Shuka Sho was actually a very interesting track—or rather, a very fair one for the three Umamusume Gotham Song was coaching to compete head-on. It wasn't especially long, but it wasn't short either. A stamina monster like Gentildonna had enough room to get going, while an Umamusume like Verxina, who was a little lacking in stamina, could still hold out to the finish. At the same time, there weren't any excessively warped positional quirks or slopes that would add extra stamina drain.
You could say that if the Oaks was the best track for Gentildonna and Almond Eye to clash head-on, then the Shuka Sho was the best track for these three Umamusume to bring out every ounce of their strength against one another.
Naturally, Verxina had no objections to Gotham Song's arrangements. The very day she learned what to do, she threw herself completely into training and worked so hard it was almost enough to make her forget food and sleep.
She truly, desperately wanted to win!
A weak gate break would be a fatal flaw—if an Umamusume like Gentildonna executed the same sort of tactic she had used in the Oka Sho from the right position, Verxina could very easily be made to taste defeat again?
Then practice the gate break. Ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times—until she could close her eyes and still break perfectly just by listening to the sound of the signal lights.
Stamina was a major issue too. If she had almost no right to choose the Front Runner style on tracks over two thousand meters?
Then train. Build more stamina! She started controlling her diet and every other aspect of her regimen. As long as she could seize victory, Verxina did not care what price she had to pay.
Perhaps that was exactly how transformation suddenly began to shine.
Gotham Song had watched Verxina's efforts over the last dozen days with her own eyes, and because of that, she had to admit one thing.
Verxina worked even harder than Almond Eye and Gentildonna...
No, that wasn't the right way to put it.
Almond Eye and Gentildonna were exceptionally hardworking geniuses.
And Verxina... was a genius less gifted than they were, staking her life on effort!
...
The days passed one by one, and when daylight came again today, Gotham Song finally stepped a little outside the rhythm of training. Opening her eyes, she stared silently at the ceiling of the hotel room, wondering why things had turned out like this.
It was weird, wasn't it? She had clearly come here with Equinox for a training race, and yet...
Last night they'd ended up sleeping together again, again, again?
The last time something like this had happened seemed to have been the Oaks, when Gentildonna had overwhelmed Gotham Song with that "pride as a support Umamusume" excuse and, through that helplessness, gotten what she wanted at the time.
And how had Equinox managed it?
Gotham Song carefully recalled everything that had happened the night before.
They had boarded the train from Mejiro Manor as usual and come all the way to the area near Kyoto. Since Equinox had never raced before, and naturally had no track adaptability yet, after putting their things down Gotham Song had taken her own Umamusume into the racecourse. They had run a few easy laps, let her get familiar with the Kyoto course, and then returned to the hotel.
This time, Gotham Song had remembered the lesson from before and booked a separate room.
But who could have expected...
Just as she'd been about to leave Equinox's room, her own charge had suddenly seemed to bare her fangs. She caught hold of Gotham Song's skirt hem and, looking up at her with those bright, glittering eyes, voiced her request.
"Could you stay by my side, Trainer-sama? Equinox-chan is a little nervous and scared."
"So scared I can't sleep."
So was sleeping with your Trainer before a race some kind of rule in this world, or just something everyone did?!
Gotham Song was confused, baffled, and could only sink into a long silence.
Then again, she really should have been mentally prepared for something like this a long time ago...
This was her charge, after all...
How should she put it?
Gotham Song suddenly became aware of how much Equinox had changed—or rather, there was no way she could have failed to notice, right?
She even had to tilt her head up to look at Equinox now in order to meet her own charge's eyes... Back when she first met Equinox, hadn't this girl been the only one around her who looked at her with a faintly upward gaze?
Height. Ah, height!
And yet now, after only a short year had passed, Equinox had already grown into someone she had to look up at, almost like one of her own older sisters.
But with that kind of height difference, paired with the shimmering, pleading gaze that somehow made Equinox look even smaller and more vulnerable instead, the impact was utterly incomparable.
When she'd first met Equinox, those eyes had always been blank, vacant, without much light in them...
What had changed her? Or rather, who had changed her?
Was it me?
Gotham Song asked herself that from the bottom of her heart, and in the end, helplessly, gave a small nod.
If this was what Equinox wanted, then no matter what, all she could do was give in, right?
And after yielding to Equinox's wish in that helpless way, Gotham Song caught, in those eyes fixed on her, joy that wasn't concealed in the slightest, and...
A fleeting trace of slyness.
Surely Equinox hadn't gone bad too, right?
Gotham Song didn't dare think about that possibility. She could only go into the bathroom helplessly, almost like fleeing the scene so she could calm down a little.
Then, after washing up, she had returned to bed and fallen asleep in Equinox's arms.
So why had it turned into this? Gotham Song couldn't figure it out. She genuinely couldn't think of a reason. And last night, she had obviously been too emotional when she agreed to that request. Now that she was awake and reason had the upper hand again, what she was feeling went far beyond mere embarrassment!
Even without a mirror, Gotham Song knew the color on her face had to be incredible.
And Equinox, are you really still asleep? Why does it feel like your arms are getting tighter, guah!!!
Gotham Song wanted to scream at the top of her lungs, but she had no idea what state Equinox was in right now, so all she could do was force herself to hold back.
And as for Miss Equinox's current unconscious movements?
How could "holding Gotham Song tightly" possibly begin to describe it?!
That broad, strong, fair body wasn't embracing Gotham Song so much as trying to knead her straight into itself and wrap her up inside it with sheer force, guah!
Really, if Gotham Song had to compare Equinox to something nonhuman, the only things that came to mind were locking pliers or a hydraulic press.
Two hydraulic presses closing in from both sides!
And Gotham Song was the poor thing being crushed in the middle!
At this rate, she might actually suffocate.
So, for the sake of her own life and safety, Gotham Song began trying to wriggle, little by little, out of this muscle-monster horse girl's embrace. How much effort she spent, even she didn't know. What she did know was that she'd probably need another shower later—she'd broken out in far, far too much sweat!
Then, the instant she escaped, Gotham Song practically crawled her way out of Equinox's arms. For a while, so drained she didn't even know what to say, she could only stare in silent helplessness at Equinox still lying on the bed, when a heavy sense of worry suddenly welled up inside her.
And this was still the Equinox who was obedient most of the time. Or rather, if even just Equinox alone became like this around her, then if everyone started fighting over this sort of thing, just how terrifying would it get?!
At that thought, Gotham Song couldn't help shivering. Then, as if in petty revenge, she reached out and pinched her charge's little cheek.
Not hard, though. There was still time, after all. Equinox still had a little time left to laze in bed.
My adorable little charge, if you don't wake up soon, your Trainer is going to pinch your cheeks all swollen, okay?
This was absolutely not revenge.
Absolutely not!