"Look at this, Air Shakur!! It's the real deal!!"
"Yeah!! It is, Shaka!!"
"...sigh…"
The next morning, the young man and Fine Motion quickly stormed Air Shakur's location. The young man showed him his phone's screen with a picture of Fine Motion in her underwear on it.
"This is the real deal! Fine sent it to me last night!!"
"He is right!! Now you know that I'm sexy, right?! I'm not that fat, right!?!?"
"Kill me… Please kill me…" Cried the logical prince.
"Now you better be my temporary assistant or something bad might happen to your beloved princess!!"
"I will… Please spare my brain from your tortures… I will be your assistant… Just spare me…"
Never has Air Shakur expected herself to be begging for mercy. Japan has a very low crime rate, but those statistics don't count stupidity crimes. The crime where the victim is your intellect.
"Yes!! We did it, Fine!! I told you that you are sexy!! High five!!"
*SLAP*
"Thank you for your help, Fine. I could never hope to recruit Air Shakur on my own. Just tell me if you want to continue our blackmail simulation."
"Okay!! See you later!! Air Groove just messaged me and said she wanted to meet me. Bye~~"
The Princess waves her hand like royalty as she leaves the scene to talk to her attendant. The brimming smile on her face makes it impossible to consider that she might be blackmailed by a black-hearted asshole.
Unknown to the princess, her prince had just reported her action to her attendant. She is walking to her death.
"Let's go, my wife. Let's start your job."
"No wonder you matched with Tachyon so much…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"How did you… train them to this level in under one year? What kind of bullshit did Tachyon make your trainees drink?"
"Royal kale juices spiked with steroids."
Air Shakur knows the reputation Team Minaz has, but she has not expected the readings to come out like this. The entire team could race side-by-side with umamusumes who had debuted way earlier than Team Minaz, and give them some trouble.
"Suzuka and Teio are training in the swimming pool to train their stamina. Goldship and Urara are doing weighted squats to help their power. McQueen is running on the treadmill to improve her top speed. Your job is to go around and check on them once in a while."
"Then what will you do?"
"Laze around, of course."
"Twat…"
"Look, I gotta make you earn your money, alright!?! I pay you to work to death, and I will use you to death."
"The world needs less of your kind."
"Too bad! Cry about it!! If you need me, send me a picture of you in your underwear."
While his temporary assistant believes she has made the biggest mistake of her life, the young man casually walks out of the gym with zero concern in his mind.
While both Agnes Tachyon and Air Shakur are known to be umamusumes of science, their approach to science couldn't be more different. Tachyon still entertains the romance of the unknown and completely random experiment. Air Shakur believes in a more methodical approach. If an experiment has 6 factors, Air Shakur would do experiments by changing only one factor at a time, while Tachyon would roll six dice at random.
In this sense, Air Shakur would follow the young man's training instructions to an absolute T. No deviation, no anomaly, no weirdness. To some extent, the young man appreciates it, but it does bore him a little.
Maybe I could ask her to be my second assistant? She could be the anchor to allow Tachyon to go wild.
The young man aimlessly walked down a hallway that overlooked the running ground. Just as he expected, it was full of powerful umamusumes preparing themselves to run. The last 3 months of the year are jam-packed with incredible races. Kikuka Sho is just one of them. There are Shuka Sho, Autumn Tenno Sho, JBC Classic, Japan Cup, Mile Championship, Nambu Hai, Tokyo Daishoten, and of course, Arima Kinen. Everyone will be aiming for a spot in those races.
Although… Arima Kinen is a bit different when it comes to accepting runners.
When most races have the first-come, first-served system, the Arima Kinen's participants are decided via public popularity polls. The 16th most popular umamusumes will run in the Arima Kinen. This means that it doesn't matter how powerful an umamusume is. If the public votes for someone else, then that popular umamusume would participate rather than the powerful umamusume.
Hmm… Both McQueen and Teio have a good chance of entering this year's Arima Kinen. Their few runs have captivated people enough that their merchandise has been bought out in the stores.
Their participation would be guaranteed, as even if they were defeated by a veteran umamusume, people would just shrug it off since Teio and McQueen are still in their first year. It would make them even more hype up to see just how crazy those 2 are going to get in their classic years.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You will be participating in the next Kikuka Sho, Rice."
"Eh?!?! Rice will, Big Sis Riko? But Rice is still a newbie."
"Don't worry. Both Coccon and Glasse will also participate. Your main goal in the race is to learn to be a Crown Killer, Rice. It's rare for a two-crowned prince to come, so we are going to take advantage of it to the fullest. You will taste what it feels like to go against a potential Triple Crown. We will assassinate Mejiro McQueen."