"Flashy Step! Flashy Step!"
A thunderous roar of vittors and applause.
"Flashy Step wins her second race by two bodies!" The locutor begins to praise her, "She conquers her newcomer race as if it were nothing!"
From the public, I could see the other girls arriving at the goal exhausted. The problem isn't them; it's that they tried to chase after Flashy, and that consumed their stamina too fast. Watching Flashy run gives me some insight into what I could do against her.
'I just must push and bet it all on the last 200 meters when the time comes.' That was the conclusion of my analysis. If I just try to hurry, I would end up too tired to pass her, and she would win. Her game is one of pressure and psychology; it's pretty smart for her, and also very mean to her competitors. Since she has the conditions to maintain a high speed, she puts immense pressure on the others.
Flashy jumped for joy after winning and saluted the audience with both arms. Even so, the girls who just lost look at her with awe, and I just smile. After all, Flashy, it's impressive. Then I smiled even more, with some malice.
'Hehehe, time to get some sweet revenge,' I picked up my phone. This time I will annoy her during her winning live.
...
...
...
And of course it backfired!
"WOW! Even her companion must be amazed by her if she posts on her umagram the concert!"
"Now I see Happy Meek in a new light, she is an uma of culture as well."
"Showing appreciation for your rival it's a nice gesture!"
"Don't worry, Meek! Even if we love Flashy Step, we still root for you too!"
And the comments were wild. It was supposed to annoy her, but she even posed for the fans in my video capture when she noticed, making it viral somehow. Maybe it's my fault for being so spiteful. I had watched it myself so many times that I gave it more views than it should have, and now she was on the news too, being interviewed. It seems after winning again, she confirmed that she is one of the strongest favourites to win the title of best uma of our generation.
"I bet this is how Happy Meek felt, too, in the game when you are destroying everything with the girl you train!"
I complained openly now that I was alone in my room; Haru had gone to compete again. At the interview, the reporter laughed as Flashy played dumb and humble...
"Sure, and she was telling me how she will crush the competition early..."
"Oh, and Miss Flashy," The reporter said casually, "We have a viral video of your concert, it seems it was taken by your companion Happy Meek."
The production started to reproduce a part of the video as Flashy, and the reporter watched it.
"Oh my!" Flashy said, looking at the camera with feigned blushing, "Meek is such an amazing runner, too. And she is a very good friend."
"So this wasn't planned?" Asked the reporter with a big wolvish smile and raising a brow.
"Of course not!" Flashy looked genuinely offended by that. "Meek, it's a good friend, and when I noticed she was filming, of course, I felt very good!"
I turned off the TV. I needed to focus on me now.
"System, tell me my stats again."
(Turf: A Dirt: A
Speed: D+ Stamina: D Power: D Guts: E Wits: C
Spint: A Mile: A Medium: A Long: A
Front Runner: F Pace Chaser: F Late Surger: E End Closer: A
Mood: Annoyed
Skills: [Late Surger Saavy]
Uma Coins: 273)
And that was something that annoyed me somehow, after I picked all my running styles went down, it was one of those situations of make your bed now lie in it. I guess I must accept the consequences of my actions. But the other thing I'm worried about is the slow growth of my racing stats and the lack of more skills...
"Even so, I feel my body is getting stronger..." I raised one, I had never felt so good before, even if training is a pain, I feel so much vitality within me.
I sat on my bed and crossed my arms.
"So I'm in my junior year... Aoi told me we will focus on small achievements this year, and then go for everything at our classic year..."
I have a paper with all the activities we are supposed to carry on besides training. Which include interviews, concerts, charity, and other social events... and of course my own personal running agenda, it seems I was already inscribed in those races, so I had something to look forward to.
*Tokyo Rising Star Stakes, 1600 meters on the turf, Tokyo. April 12.
*Nakayama Endurance Challenge, 1800 meters on the turf, Nakayama. June 7.
*Kyoto Horizon Cup, 2000 meters on the turf, Kyoto. August 16.
*Hanshin Ascent Trophy - GIII, 1600 meters on the turf, Hanshin. October 25.
Today it's March 30, so I still have some days to prepare for Tokyo's race, but I can't help but feel nervous. My stats aren't growing as fast as it happened in the game... or maybe it's because here I see the things day to day, and in the game you skipped months...
But even so...
Knowing the goals of this career... it gives me something to work with. Of course, this isn't a game, and it won't show me in which places I should place, and I can't rewind time, but even so, I must make the most out of it.
(Recommendation: Focus on your training, but do not leave your bonds behind; you can learn much from others.)
I sighed. The system, instead of gifting me with broken abilities, is forcing me to train and earn my own skills, but that's okay; at least it offers some coaching. And I agree, I still don't have a personal unique ability, and I only have one passive skill that only works for positioning, but even so, I feel like I can do it if I put enough work into it.
'And if not, then it would be because of luck, not because I didn't try'
The training sessions lately have been different than before. Flashy was originally skulky because she wanted to have trial races with me, but Aoi had told us that running together won't be of much benefit, since our styles are opposite, so each had a different training plan. For now, I been working on gradual increases of speed, every some meter there is one orange cone, those used on traffic, and everytime I pass one I must gradually increase my acceleration and in the last I must give my all, while Flashy goes from explosive velocity to strolls then back to explosive to work on her endurance.. and yes, we started visiting the gym and the pool... since then, yes, now I understand why Oguri Cap eats so much... well... I can't eat like her, but for sure, I eat way more than before.
And yes, I'm really grateful for the new pair of shoes... After giving it some thought, I could have suffered an accident using my old shoes; they were too shabby, I hadn't noticed, or better saying, I didn't pay any attention to it, now I'm a little more conscious about things like that.
"Tomorrow will be a new day," I said, placing my working plan on the board on my side of the room. "I can't be left behind by Flashy."