Japan's Uma Musume Training Center Academy—commonly known as Tracen Academy.
A top-class Uma Musume training institution in Japan where promising Uma Musume from all over the country knock on its doors. The academy, located in Fuchu City, Tokyo, is a massive school with a total of just under 2,000 students, a boarding school from junior high to high school.
In one room of Tracen Academy, the chairman's office, there were three figures.
"Confirmation! I want to respect your wishes, but I must ask again! Is she really the Uma Musume you want to be in charge of!?"
So saying, a young girl opened her fan with a snap.
Small even for a woman, the girl in an outfit that looked like a combination of a dark blue suit and a white dress was Tracen Academy's chairwoman, Yayoi Akikawa. Her long, chestnut-colored hair reached her thighs, with a part of it streaked white. She wore a hat indoors, and for some reason, a cat was perched on top of it.
"Even we don't expect a rookie trainer like you to form a team right away. We'd like you to gain experience by taking on one or two Uma Musume in a nearly exclusive capacity. However, she is..."
Following Yayoi's words, a woman spoke with a look of bewilderment.
She was Tazuna Hayakawa, Yayoi's secretary and assistant to the chairwoman of Tracen Academy.
Unlike Yayoi, she was dressed in a neat green suit. However, she also wore a hat, and her bewildered expression was directed at the last person in the room.
"It's no problem," a young man in a suit responded.
He was neither small nor large, of average build. His face was not bad but not good either, an ordinary-looking person you could find anywhere. He was dressed in a clean, wrinkle-free suit, which wouldn't give anyone a bad impression, but at the same time, it didn't leave a lasting one either.
This young man was a rookie trainer who had been assigned to Tracen Academy this year.
Given the large number of Uma Musume, there were also many trainers at the academy. He was one of the rookie trainers assigned this year, but less than two weeks after his assignment, he was called to the chairman's office for a one-on-one meeting.
The subject of the meeting was just one thing: the Uma Musume he would be in charge of.
As a trainer, it was natural to train Uma Musume. Even as a rookie, he had obtained a Central Trainer's License, so he was more than qualified.
More than qualified—but.
"Apprehension! Since she's been welcomed into this academy, she needs a trainer! However, for a rookie like you to be in charge is a bit—"
"It's no problem," the young man said, interrupting Yayoi, though he knew it was rude.
Then, the rookie trainer's expression filled with confidence as he spoke the name of the Uma Musume he had decided to take on.
"—Because she is Haru Urara."
At his answer, Yayoi and Tazuna's cheeks twitched in a troubled manner.
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I don't remember the cause of death, but it seems I died and was reborn. I have memories of living until my mid-20s, but when I woke up, I was in a baby's body. What's more, I seemed to have been born into a world that was slightly—no, drastically—different from my previous one.
I realized this fact after a few cries and once I was able to think to a certain extent.
I spent most of the day sleeping, and when I woke up, my mother, who was younger than my previous life's self, would breastfeed me. I couldn't help but pee and poop, and I'd cry about the feeling for what felt like ages. It was a chance glance at the TV that showed me this world was different from the one I knew.
"Shinzan is on the far outside! Shinzan is on the very outside! It's Shinzan on the far outside! Shinzan is on the outside!"
A man's voice, filled with excitement, came from the TV. Drawn by the voice, I looked at the screen and couldn't help but burst out laughing.
On the TV, girls with animal ears on their heads and tails on their rumps were running at full speed. Their tails swayed with their movements.
"Shinzan still hasn't come out! Will Shinzan come out!? Shinzan's out! Shinzan's out! Shinzan's out! Shinzan crosses the finish line! Shinzan achieves the quintuple crown!"
The male announcer's voice rose with the voltage. At the same time, a loud cheer came through the TV. I blinked in confusion, unable to understand what I was seeing.
(What is this show... Making girls with ears and tails run... The announcer sounds like a pro, and are the spectators extras? Did they rent out a racetrack? Japan is way too progressive.)
It looked so lively I wondered how much it cost to film. At the same time, I tilted my head, which had just recently become stable, wondering what kind of audience this show was for.
"So Shinzan won, huh?"
"She's really strong, isn't she?"
My mother and father nodded knowingly.
I wanted to ask if they were seriously watching this show, but a baby suddenly asking that would be a horror movie. So I stayed quiet and watched the TV. The girls who had just finished the mysterious race gathered on a special stage. Then, they began to sing and dance to a catchy, poppy song.
The center was the girl named Shinzan who had won the race. The girls who finished second and third stood on either side of her, performing a lively, sharp dance. The beautiful girls, whose looks would make the idols I saw on TV in my previous life run away in shame, sang and danced. The audience waved light sticks, and the venue's excitement grew, making the singing and dancing even more powerful.
By the way, what's Umapyoi? Both the singers and the audience are getting hyped, but what is Umapyoi?
"Hmm," my father said.
"Don't just say 'hmm,' dear. What part of them did you see that made you nod like that?" my mother said, approaching him with a dissatisfied look.
And as I watched my father smile at the beautiful girl dancing in the center and my mother get closer with a look of dissatisfaction, I thought, This show is weird, isn't it?
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And this was the beginning of me noticing the differences from my previous life.
I was born in the same country as my previous life, Japan. At least, that's what I thought.
But whenever I turned on the TV, I would frequently see beautiful girls with animal ears and tails—Uma Musume—running, and there were even special features on the girl named Shinzan I had seen the other day.
I don't know how to describe how I felt when I saw a beautiful girl with animal ears being featured on the news as if it was completely normal. In my previous life, otaku culture had become mainstream, but it was never featured on such a large scale.
(What... what is this? What are those kids? What is an Uma Musume? A new idol group?)
I wasn't an expert on idols in my previous life, but I wondered if this was normal in this reborn world. Was it a trend to make beautiful girls with animal ears and tails run? Was my reincarnation a mistake, and I was just dreaming on a hospital bed?
After a few days of confusion, my parents took me out, and I was captivated by a being that passed by. It was a girl—no, a young child—with animal ears and a tail, just like the ones on TV.
The child, holding her parents' hands, laughed happily, her ears twitching and her tail wagging to show her good mood.
(Huh? Are those ears real? The tail, too? Is it a toy? If I look closely, it doesn't seem like she has regular human ears...)
Just as I was thinking about what kind of parents would put animal ears and a tail on their kid, I heard a gust of wind, and a girl with animal ears flashed past on the side of the road at an unbelievable speed.
She overtook the cars on the road and was out of sight in an instant. My mother, holding me, looked down, and I saw another, thinner road right next to the main one. It had a sign that looked like a female silhouette from an emergency exit sign, but with the familiar animal ears on her head and a tail on her rump. It also had a speed limit of 50 km/h. The speed limit for the cars on the road was 40 km/h. It made no sense.
"Oh, that kid is pretty fast. I wonder who she is?"
"From that uniform, she must be from Tracen Academy," my parents said without a hint of surprise, their voices full of admiration. It made no sense to me.
I was surprised, but my parents weren't. A speed of 50 km/h is faster than an Olympic sprinter. And since it's a speed limit of 50 km/h, there's a possibility she can run even faster.
I wondered if this world was a strange place where Uma Musume, an alien race, and humans coexisted? Was I wrong to think this was the same Earth as my previous life and that it was just a fantasy world that looked similar?
I cried on the spot, feeling a brain fever coming on. And I also had a major accident with my diaper. Because I was a baby, after all.
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A mysterious life form that looks like a beautiful girl with animal ears and a tail.
At first, I was worried that the world had been invaded by aliens, but it seemed they were called Uma Musume. It wasn't an idol name; it was a type of creature.
In this world, there were no horses, and instead, there were Uma Musume. They looked like beautiful girls with animal ears and tails, but they were a slightly different species from humans.
When I was old enough to stand, walk, and talk, I immediately confirmed these facts with my parents. I learned that the Uma Musume I first saw on TV was participating in a race called the Arima Kinen, and the Uma Musume races were a form of entertainment and a focal point for people worldwide, not just in Japan.
(Wait... Arima Kinen... that's horse racing. I don't know much about it, but it's horse racing. I re-examined it, and the kanji for 'horse' is slightly different...)
When I rewatched the Arima Kinen race my father had recorded, I noticed that the kanji for "horse" had two dots instead of four at the bottom. I wondered if this was because Uma Musume ran on two legs instead of four. Also, when I opened a book of proverbs, the meanings of the proverbs and idioms related to horses had changed.
(Mago ni mo ishou (even a packhorse driver looks good in fine clothes) has become mako ni mo ishou... The meaning is similar to oni ni kanabou (giving a demon a metal club).)
The existence of Uma Musume had changed history and culture compared to my previous life, but other than that, everything was pretty much the same.
There were TVs and cars. There were tall buildings in the city, and planes flew in the sky. As far as I could tell, the names of the countries and political systems were the same as in my previous life.
Because of the existence of Uma Musume, horse racing and racehorses didn't exist, but I didn't know much about horse racing anyway. I also didn't recognize most of the names of the popular Uma Musume on TV. I vaguely remembered the names of some horses that were featured prominently in the news in my previous life, but I didn't know if Uma Musume with those names existed in this world. As for race names, I only knew famous ones like the Arima Kinen and the Tenno Sho.
However, unlike horse racing, there was no betting on Uma Musume races. Nevertheless, it was not uncommon for over 100,000 spectators to fill the racetrack for a race featuring a popular Uma Musume.
Baseball and soccer also existed, but they were less popular than Uma Musume races. I was reborn into such a world, and I wondered if I had done something terrible in my previous life to be reborn in a world like this.
Still, since I was born, I had to live. It was my second life, and with the advantage of having memories from my previous life, I might be able to do things I couldn't do before and get jobs I couldn't get.
In my previous life, I had a very ordinary life, but this was a huge advantage. My high school and college memories were fuzzy, but I didn't need to relearn the basics of compulsory education. I would need to learn about the different history and social systems due to the existence of Uma Musume, but I was definitely at an advantage compared to others.
(I've won...)
I didn't know what I had won against. But at that moment, I believed that a rosy future awaited me.
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But my advantage faded even faster than the saying "a prodigy at ten, a genius at fifteen, and just a commoner after twenty."
I had no trouble keeping up with my peers in elementary school, but in junior high, a small number of my classmates began to score higher than me on tests. As time passed through my second and third years of junior high, that number grew, and I couldn't keep up with those who were aiming for famous private high schools.
Of course, I didn't just stand by. I listened intently in class, went to cram school, and studied hard. At the same time, I also focused on sports, but just like with my studies, many people were better than me.
I had scores and athletic abilities that were in the top tier of my school, but that was just like cheating. A commoner is a commoner even after being reborn, and no matter how much I worked, I couldn't break out of the realm of the commoner.
From the outside, I was a genius, and I probably would have agreed if I were looking at it objectively. But inside, I was filled with a sense of impatience that blocked out all outside opinions. I had hoped that this life would be better than my last one, which I was not proud of.
Impatience robs you of your composure, and without it, your perspective narrows. I had a vague feeling that I couldn't go on like this. That feeling grew day by day, increasing my anxiety and impatience, and plunging me into a vicious cycle.
I guess my parents were worried about me. One weekend, they took me to Tokyo Racecourse. They suggested it would be a good change of pace to watch an Uma Musume race. Honestly, I wanted to spend my time studying, but I couldn't turn down my parents, who were so busy with work during the week and were willing to spend their weekend on me.
—And I was overwhelmed.
The number of spectators was so large it made me wonder where all these people came from. The stands were filled from end to end, and a roar like the sound of the earth came up every time the Uma Musume ran on the turf. The spectators were cheering on their favorite Uma Musume. As the gates opened, the Uma Musume ran, and a close race ensued, with the crowd roaring so loud their throats might burst.
The energy and heat of the crowd overwhelmed me, who had never seen an Uma Musume race in person before, and it excited me even more.
The passion I couldn't feel through the TV. The sight of the Uma Musume, who looked like beautiful girls except for their ears and tails, running at full speed. The sound, the air, the vibrations—everything.
It brought me an excitement I had never felt before—and then, a thought flashed in my mind.
Could this be a turning point in my life?
Uma Musume, a being that didn't exist in my previous world. Wasn't it my destiny to be involved with them? If not, why was I reborn with the memories of my previous life?
It was a revelation. This was a revelation. Others might laugh and call it chuunibyou, but I was in middle school. Ignoring my previous life, I was a middle schooler. It wasn't chuunibyou. No, wait, since you get it in your second year of middle school, it's called chuunibyou, so I guess it's correct.
With my head in a state of confusion from the excitement, I began to plan out my future.
Until now, I had been studying to get good grades in school, but that was putting the cart before the horse. I had made a mistake from the very first step in this life.
I should have been studying for a goal, not for a test.
Once I decided that, my actions were swift. I went home, borrowed my father's computer, and started gathering information about Uma Musume on the internet.
Naturally, I was not an Uma Musume. I was a boy. A human boy. Still, if I looked, there were many jobs related to Uma Musume.
"Training center staff... racetrack mechanic... farrier... costume maker... cook...? A cook for Uma Musume? No, the world of cooking is tough. What else..."
Then, a certain word caught my eye.
"Uma Musume Trainer... This is it."
Uma Musume run of their own accord, so there are no jockeys. However, there were, of course, trainers who trained them.
Becoming a trainer seemed to involve many things to learn and do.
Of course, training Uma Musume, managing a team at a training center, applying for races for the Uma Musume, scouting Uma Musume, and so on. There were too many details to list, but it seemed to require various knowledge, such as coaching techniques and sports medicine.
And to become a trainer, you needed a license. For some reason, it was divided into two categories, Local and Central. The local trainer's license was relatively easy to get, but the central one was very difficult.
What was the difference between the two? The difficulty of getting them, but also the treatment after.
The first was the Twinkle Series, which was held at famous racetracks like Tokyo, Hanshin, Kyoto, and Nakayama.
The second was the Local Series, which was held at local racetracks like Obihiro, Kasamatsu, Nagoya, and Kochi.
A Central license was for training Uma Musume who competed in the former, while a Local one was for those who competed in the latter.
"Hmm... the difference between Central and Local is insane."
I clicked away with my mouse, but the number of spectators and the scale of the training centers were on a completely different level, and the quality of Uma Musume was also on a different level.
Only a handful of Uma Musume could enroll in the Central Tracen Academy. They were all elites. If you couldn't get into the Central academy, you'd go to a local one, but there were hardly any famous Uma Musume from local academies.
For a worker like me, the pay and treatment were also on a completely different level. A Central trainer was a narrow path, but it was a high-paying job. If you could train a successful Uma Musume, you'd be set for life.
It was a job that interested me, paid well, and was stable. There was no better profession for me.
Out of curiosity and a calculated decision, I set my future dream. I couldn't say I was purely captivated by Uma Musume; there was a hint of ulterior motives in me.
And so, I changed my path to become a trainer.
I immediately consulted with my parents about my career path and changed the high school I was planning to go to to a trainer training school. Looking back, I might have scolded myself for such a rash decision, but I didn't want to live a quiet life as a civil servant or a regular office worker in my second life. Well, a trainer might be a type of office worker in a sense.
Still, perhaps it was the folly of youth, or maybe I had found something that fit my previously vague life, but I studied, studied, and studied to become a trainer.
I learned about Uma Musume training methods, necessary knowledge, and related laws at the training school. I did fieldwork, took the license exam, and aimed for the Central license. I secretly took the Local license exam as a backup, but I successfully obtained both.
I passed the Local license with plenty of room to spare, but the Central one was a close call. I almost fainted when I self-graded my test, but a pass is a pass.
And so, I got a job as a rookie Central trainer at Tracen Academy.
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And I stumbled at the very beginning. I stumbled big time.
There are about 2,000 Uma Musume at Tracen Academy. They are divided into junior high and senior high, but the Uma Musume here are so much better than those in the local areas that it's like they are playing a different game.
Question: What kind of trainer do such excellent Uma Musume or Uma Musume eggs want? (Points: My future life)
Answer: An experienced and excellent trainer.
And I was a rookie trainer who had just been assigned. My record was completely blank. I wasn't even a chick whose shell had just cracked; I was just peeking out of the crack.
There were many trainers at Tracen Academy. From rookies like me to veterans with decades of experience, there were so many that I couldn't even remember their names.
Trainers scout Uma Musume and form a team. A team usually has five or more Uma Musume, but it's only natural for an Uma Musume to want to join a famous team.
I was a rookie trainer who had just been assigned. Of course, I hadn't formed a team. There was no twist where I was famous for my excellent grades in training school.
Uma Musume want to join a famous team, but trainers also want to gather as many excellent Uma Musume as possible. There's a limit to how many Uma Musume a trainer can take care of, but it's natural to think that if you join a team with excellent Uma Musume, you'll also become excellent.
A trainer's livelihood depends on it, but for an Uma Musume, their Uma life is on the line.
"Aah... no one will let me scout them..."
So it was only natural for me to complain like this. I wanted to punch my past self, who thought everything would be fine once I became a trainer.
To appeal to trainers, Uma Musume participate in mock races after school to show their abilities. By doing so, they wait to be scouted and decide on a trainer who can train them.
I, of course, watched the mock races and tried to talk to the Uma Musume who got good results. However, even though it wasn't the real thing, Uma Musume who got good results in the mock races were also noticed by other trainers.
From there, the story is simple. The senior trainers were chosen over me, the rookie trainer.
So I tried talking to Uma Musume who didn't get good results, but the outcome was the same. Since they had already lost in the mock races, they had already proved they were inferior to other Uma Musume.
Would such an Uma Musume entrust her future to a rookie trainer with unknown training skills and no track record?
There was no way. They were already inferior to their peers, and if they were trained by a rookie trainer while the others were being scouted by excellent trainers and teams, the gap would only widen over time.
It was only natural for the Uma Musume, being rookies themselves, to want to be in the best possible environment. There aren't many Uma Musume who would bet their life on an unknown trainer's future potential.
"This is bad, I'm going to become a corporate freeloader..."
I sat on a bench near the racetrack owned by Tracen Academy and sighed in frustration.
I had tried to talk to the Uma Musume who came in last in a 10-person mock race, but she rejected me curtly, and I was at my wits' end. She had said there was still time left in the scouting period and had declined.
The most promising rookie Uma Musume had already been scouted by famous teams and trainers. At this rate, I'd end up desperately scouting a similarly desperate Uma Musume at the very last minute.
The closer the deadline, the more likely the other party would accept a scout, but there was still a possibility of being rejected. I thought that some Uma Musume who kept losing in the mock races would give up, not accept a scout, and even choose to drop out.
I might be able to scout an Uma Musume who was resilient and could bounce back from a loss, but if they had that kind of willpower, they would have already been scouted. Even as an inexperienced rookie trainer, I could read the despair on the faces of the Uma Musume participating in the mock races as the days went by.
Most of my fellow trainers, who were a large number at the start of scouting, had already disappeared. The only ones left were me, a few senior trainers who were rumored to be bad at training or had bad reputations.
Even in this situation, the Uma Musume were choosing the senior trainers over me. I tried to talk to them politely, as a rookie should, but it just wasn't working out.
"What's wrong with me? If they told me my face was the problem or that they were disgusted by me, I'd be at my wit's end... I might even cry."
No one had actually said that to me, but if they did, I might break down and cry on the spot, losing all sense of shame. But even if I did that, the Uma Musume would just be grossed out and wouldn't accept my scout.
I wasn't a handsome man, but I wasn't ugly either. I wasn't extremely fat or thin. My face was plain, and people had told me I'd get lost in a crowd, but I wanted to believe I wasn't unpleasant to look at.
Uma Musume prioritized a trainer's ability over their looks. In other words, I was an unknown as a trainer, which made me completely unappealing to them.
A trainer is a trainer because they train an Uma Musume. A trainer without an Uma Musume is just a person with a license.
As a rookie, I could also become a sub-trainer and help train an Uma Musume under a senior trainer. That might even be better since I could learn from their skills.
However, when I asked around, most of the other rookie trainers had already successfully scouted Uma Musume. Many of them seemed to come from families of trainers who had been training Uma Musume for generations.
Therefore, even if they didn't have a track record themselves, they would say, "I'm from the XX family, which trained the Uma Musume XX," and the new Uma Musume would be interested. They had the knowledge to get a trainer's license and the training know-how passed down from their families, making it easier for Uma Musume to accept their scouts.
"Some people even have some sort of secret technique scroll... I don't have anything like that. Is it like a TM?"
I was starting to think that if I couldn't scout anyone, I might have to become a sub-trainer, but it would be very bad if I was the only rookie who failed to scout.
Uma Musume and trainers' abilities are paramount in this job. A trainer's salary can decrease, and they can be fired depending on their Uma Musume's results. I might be given a pass as a rookie, but the fact that I was the only one who couldn't do what the others could was a huge pressure.
Feeling half defeated, I watched the Uma Musume doing their mock races, holding my head in my hands. From the Uma Musume's perspective, they couldn't participate in races without a trainer, but no matter how I thought about it, there was little benefit to choosing a rookie trainer with no track record, no experience, and no family connections.
Still, I had to do something. I slapped my cheeks to get myself motivated and stood up to head toward the Uma Musume who had just finished the last mock race of the day.
"Oh! Did today's races already end!?"
I heard a cheerful, energetic voice.
I turned to see an Uma Musume.
She was small, even for an Uma Musume, maybe a little under 140 cm. She had pink hair and a red headband, and she was wearing the Tracen Academy's red and white jersey. Her tail was a beautiful cherry-blossom pink, and she was wagging it excitedly while looking at the racetrack.
I hadn't seen her before, but she must be in junior high, given her height. She was talking about the mock race, but she was incredibly late.
"The mock races just ended," I said.
She perked up the ear under her red earmuff and looked at me. She seemed to be fashion-conscious, with a ribbon tied at the base of her left earmuff.
"Oh, really? Aww... I wanted to run, too."
The Uma Musume looked disappointed, and for some reason, she came closer to me.
"By the way, what are you doing here? Taking a break?"
"A break... Yeah, I guess it's a break. I should probably get back to scouting soon."
Saying that, I sat back down on the bench I had been sitting on. It was partly because she disarmed me, but also because I had just seen a senior trainer talk to the Uma Musume who had just finished their mock race.
Then, the Uma Musume with the pink hair, looking as if she was having fun, sat down next to me. And she looked at me with unusually sparkling eyes.
"Scouting? Are you a trainer?"
"...I'm just a rookie with a trainer's license," I said.
I had a license, but I couldn't proudly call myself a trainer. So I joked about it, and the pink Uma Musume's eyes, like cherry blossoms, sparkled even more.
"Wow! That's amazing! You're a trainer! Then I want you to scout me!"
"Uh... you want me to scout you? Wait, scout?"
Her unexpected words made me react slowly. I looked at her, doubting my own ears, and my eyes met hers, which were still sparkling.
(Why is she suddenly asking me to scout her? I told her I was a rookie, right? She was about to participate in a mock race, so she probably doesn't have a trainer, but she seems sociable, so if she had any talent, she'd probably be scouted quickly...)
It was a short conversation, but she had a carefree aura. I couldn't say I was an expert on Uma Musume, but her vibrant expression left a good impression, unlike the Uma Musume who had just finished their mock race.
"I try my best when I run, but no one ever scouts me," the pink Uma Musume said, leaning closer.
The fact that other trainers hadn't scouted her meant she probably had some kind of problem with her ability or some other flaw. I couldn't say for sure without seeing her run, but despite her asking me to scout her, she didn't seem desperate. Did she have confidence in her ability, or did I look like the kind of trainer she was looking for?
"Scouting you is a different matter, but... what's your name, little lady?" I asked, wanting to learn more about her. I thought it might reveal something.
"Me? My name is Haru Urara."
"Oh, that's a good name... wait, Haru... Urara...?"
As soon as I said the name, I felt a jolt in my brain.
—Haru Urara.
I wasn't an expert on horse racing in my previous life, but I had heard that name before. I didn't know what she did, but I remembered her being featured in the national news a few times.
In this world, Uma Musume races weren't for gambling, but in my previous life, horse racing was a public gambling event. Large sums of money would change hands in a famous race. It was possible that billions of yen could change hands.
I didn't remember the exact name, but I remembered a news report about a horse that lost, and over a hundred million yen in bets became worthless paper. The news headline was "The Golden Ship Sank," which had caught my interest.
The name of the Uma Musume in front of me was the same as the name of a horse that was famous enough to be featured in the national news in my previous life.
She was an Uma Musume with a famous name that I knew, and she was outstanding enough to be admitted to Tracen Academy, and yet she hadn't been scouted by any other trainer.
Thump, thump. My heart started beating fast. It was like unexpected good luck had come at an unexpected time. It felt like I had bought a lottery ticket and won the first prize.
"P-Please let me scout you! Please let me be your trainer!"
So I shouted immediately. I didn't want to let her go to another trainer. She was an Uma Musume with the name of the famous Haru Urara. I'd even get on my knees if she accepted me, and I wouldn't hesitate to lick her feet if she asked me to.
"What!? You'll be my trainer!? Really!?"
The Uma Musume sitting next to me—Haru Urara—grabbed my sleeve, her eyes sparkling even more. I smiled naturally and thumped my chest.
"Yeah! I'm a rookie, so if you're okay with that!"
"I am! Yay! Now I can race!"
Haru Urara jumped off the bench and bounced in place to show her joy. There was no lie in her expression; she seemed genuinely happy.
I secretly pumped my fist as I watched her.
I thought I had stumbled big time as a trainer, but it was all for the best. Considering the time I had left, I probably wouldn't have been able to scout anyone but Haru Urara, but since I had scouted one, everything would be fine. Even if I was only in charge of Haru Urara, if she got good results in races, the higher-ups at Tracen Academy wouldn't complain. I could also use the excuse that I was a rookie trainer, so I was only in charge of one Uma Musume.
So, to prevent Haru Urara from changing her mind, I immediately started the process of registering her as my Uma Musume. And so, I was officially registered as Haru Urara's trainer.
At that moment, I was ecstatic. It was my first time training an Uma Musume from scratch, but I had no doubt that Haru Urara would become a wonderful Uma Musume.
I had no idea that I would be called to the chairman and Tazuna's office the next day, and I thought my future and Haru Urara's were both bright.
—Because, you know, it's Haru Urara.
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