Mid-May, two weeks have already passed since the clash between Urara and Happy Meek.
The season is shifting from spring to early summer, and the daytime temperatures are gradually rising. It was supposed to be a day with an early end to classes at Tracen Academy, which meant Urara would have more time for training than usual.
"Urara's late..."
It was already past 3:30 p.m. While earlier than the usual training start time, it had been 30 minutes since I arrived at the practice course.
I had heard from Urara beforehand that her classes would end before noon, and that she would have lunch, then go to the shopping district near Tracen Academy to buy some carrots for a snack before coming to training. Tracen Academy has a store, but Urara says the carrots from the greengrocer in the shopping district are tastier.
For that reason, training was scheduled to start at 3 p.m. I thought I had given her plenty of time—one hour for lunch and two hours for shopping—but too much time had passed. I tried calling Urara's number on my smartphone, but it just rang, and she didn't answer.
Not just Urara, but all the students at Tracen Academy live in dorms across the street from the academy. From what Urara told me, they live in shared rooms with two students per room.
The dorms are divided into the Rittō Dormitory and the Miho Dormitory, and Urara is in the Rittō Dormitory. Even if she had lunch, bought carrots, and went back to the dorm to drop off her things, it was still too late.
I was worried we wouldn't have time to train, but an even stronger feeling of concern began to well up.
(I hope she didn't get into an accident... No one would be crazy enough to try and kidnap a horse girl... but if someone told her they'd give her a carrot, she'd probably follow them with a huge smile on her face...)
If you ignore her ears and tail, Urara looks like a small girl. However, a horse girl has the athletic ability to run as fast as a car. Not just their leg strength, but their bodies are also much tougher than a human's to withstand such speeds.
To kidnap a horse girl would certainly be a life-or-death situation. If she kicked you with all her might, it would be a disaster. Your head could burst open like a pomegranate.
I've heard that some senior trainers have been drop-kicked in the face by a G1 horse girl and just fallen backward, or been back-kicked by a horse girl and only gotten a nosebleed, or even been kicked by multiple horse girls at once and still been fine, but those are probably exceptions. I would definitely die.
Despite a horse girl's incredible physical ability, given Urara's personality, I don't think she'd kick someone, even if they were a kidnapper. But if someone approached her with a smile, she wouldn't run away, either.
If someone said, "Hey, little girl, come with me, and I'll give you a carrot," she'd probably be overjoyed and follow them.
"Ah, geez!"
I ran my hand through my hair and started running. I chose the path that Urara would normally use and headed towards the shopping district, going against the flow of traffic.
I rent an apartment near Tracen Academy and commute on foot. I have a regular driver's license, which I got because I thought I'd need it for my trainer job, and a large motorcycle license for a hobby, but I've never used a car or a motorcycle for a commute that's only a few minutes on foot.
It's better to walk to the shopping district because I might pass Urara while I'm going to get my car. I told myself this as I thought about what to do if I couldn't find her.
(If I look and can't find her, I'll call the academy and start a search... No, should I contact them first? But she's only 30 minutes late from the scheduled time...)
Thinking about this, I exited the main gate of Tracen Academy. I looked at the two buildings across the street—the Rittō Dormitory and the Miho Dormitory—and hesitated for a moment.
(Maybe she went back to the dorm and accidentally fell asleep... It is Urara, after all. But trainers aren't even allowed in the dorms.)
The dormitories at Tracen Academy are private spaces for the horse girls, so even trainers with an assigned horse girl are, in principle, not allowed to enter. I heard you can get in with special permission from the dorm leader, but I'd probably be denied if I applied now.
Still, I took out my smartphone and called the internal line for the Rittō Dormitory. Normally, if something happens, I'd call Urara's smartphone, but since she's not answering, I had to ask someone else to check.
I explained to the Rittō Dormitory leader, a horse girl who introduced herself as Fuji Kiseki, that I was Urara's trainer and asked her to check if she was in the dorm. But, it was a dead end.
I thanked Fuji Kiseki and immediately started running towards the shopping district. As I ran, I checked the side streets for Urara, but she was nowhere to be seen.
"Phew... phew... Excuse me! Have you seen a small horse girl with pink hair?! Her name is Haru Urara!"
When I arrived at the shopping district, I immediately went into a nearby store and asked. I figured that with a horse girl as distinctive as Urara, there had to be at least one or two witnesses.
"Huh? Urara-chan? Urara-chan is... Wait, mister, who are you? What do you need with Urara-chan?"
The female store clerk looked surprised by my intensity but then started looking at me suspiciously. Before I knew it, her eyes were filled with caution, and I felt my cheeks twitch.
She clearly knew Urara, but she was talking to me as if I were a suspicious person.
"I'm a trainer at Tracen Academy, and I'm Urara's trainer!"
I said this while showing her my trainer's license. The female clerk's eyes widened, and she put a hand to her mouth, saying, "Oh, my."
"I'm sorry. You're Urara-chan's trainer... Urara-chan is at the greengrocer up ahead."
"...? Huh? She's at the greengrocer?"
The female clerk said she "is" at the greengrocer, not she "went" to the greengrocer. As I was wondering what that meant, I heard an unfamiliar male voice and Urara's voice from a distance.
"Come on, the carrots are cheap today! They're the ones recommended by Urara-chan, who's right here!"
"They're cheap! They're delicious carrots!"
"And the bell peppers are cheap, too! Five for a hundred yen! Five for a hundred yen!"
"They're cheap! But they're bitter!"
"Hey, Urara-chan?!"
I heard Urara's voice along with a man's energetic sales pitch. At the same time, I heard several people laughing, and I instinctively ran towards the voices.
What I saw was what looked like a greengrocer's shop and a crowd of people in front of it. Elderly couples, housewives, and children were gathered in a fan shape in front of the greengrocer, listening to the conversation between the male shopkeeper and Urara.
As I approached, she must have heard my footsteps. Urara's ears twitched, she turned around, and a bright smile appeared on her face.
"Oh! It's Trainer! What's up? Are you shopping?"
It was definitely Urara, and she was definitely safe. Not only that, but she was wearing a greengrocer's apron for some reason, holding a carrot, and waving at me with a smile.
"Urara, you... Sigh..."
The anger of "What are you doing?" and the relief of "Urara is safe." The latter tipped the scales, and I let out a deep sigh.
"...Urara, what time is it?"
I asked, still sighing. Urara tilted her head and looked at the wall clock in the greengrocer's.
"...? Whoa! I'm past our training time!"
Urara's tail stood up straight in surprise, and she started to panic. I watched her, wiping the sweat from my brow, and she must have realized why I was there.
"Oh... I'm sorry, Trainer."
I wondered what her reaction would be, but Urara apologized honestly without making any excuses. Her horse ears, covered by her ear protectors, drooped, and her tail hung limply.
After listening to her story, it seems Urara uses this shopping district often. Her natural charm has won her over, and in the short month and a half since she entered Tracen Academy, she has been deeply embraced by the shopkeepers in the shopping district.
Today, she came to buy carrots for a snack, but while talking to the male shopkeeper, she wanted to help him sell vegetables. The shopkeeper, seeing Urara's enthusiasm, allowed her to help.
"I'm sorry, Trainer. Urara-chan is like the idol of this shopping district. She said she wanted to help, so I ended up taking advantage of her."
The male shopkeeper also bowed his head apologetically. The words alone didn't sound like a sincere apology, but his attitude showed genuine regret.
I sighed again, walked up to Urara, knelt down, and met her at eye level.
"From now on, at least call me... I was so worried about you."
I decided that it was better to reason with her than to get angry. When I spoke, Urara nodded, her ears still drooped.
As Urara's trainer, I probably should have been angry that our training schedule was disrupted. However, seeing Urara understand what she had done and immediately show remorse, I couldn't stay angry.
(A senior trainer would probably scold her properly here... Oh, no, this is a bad kind of leniency...)
Including my previous life, Urara is the same age as a daughter. If she had taken a defiant attitude, I might have exploded with anger, but I couldn't get too angry at an Urara who apologized so honestly.
I was annoyed at myself, but the feeling that it was enough that Urara was safe was stronger. So, I placed my hand on Urara's head, who was still looking down, and messed up her hair.
"I want to say, 'Let's go back to Tracen Academy and train'... but you need a break sometimes, too. Let's make today a rest day."
It had been a month and a half since I started training Urara, and I had assigned her various training regimens to make her a little stronger. Of course, rest is also important, so I had been making sure she rested so she wouldn't get tired, but I decided to take this as a good opportunity.
Besides, trust between a horse girl and a trainer is extremely important. It was a calculated move, but I felt I should get to know the horse girl Haru Urara better.
"...Is that okay?"
Urara asked hesitantly at my words. I couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Urara, who was afraid of being scolded.
"I'm not in the mood to train anymore. You know a lot about this shopping district, right? Since we're here, why don't you show me around?"
"Oh... Okay! Leave it to me!"
Urara's expression changed completely, and she smiled happily. I messed up her hair again, and Urara laughed gleefully. Realizing I wasn't angry, Urara's tail started wagging vigorously.
"I'm so sorry, Trainer. It's not an apology, but please take this."
The greengrocer, who had been watching our exchange, handed me a bulging plastic bag. When I took it, wondering what it was, it was filled with vegetables like carrots, bell peppers, and onions.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. Thanks to Urara-chan, I sold more vegetables than usual in a short amount of time."
I thought about how much it would cost to buy them, like a commoner, but the greengrocer didn't seem to mind. Urara peeked into the plastic bag and cried out in delight.
"Whoa! So many carrots! Thank you, mister!"
"You're the one who helped me. Don't be shy, eat them up."
"Okay! But I don't want to eat the bell peppers because they're bitter!"
"...They're delicious, though."
The greengrocer muttered with a faraway look as Urara smiled and flatly refused the bell peppers.
The customers around us laughed happily, and I suddenly had an idea.
"Urara, I think there needs to be a punishment for this."
"Huh? Pun-punishment?"
Urara tilted her head in confusion as I grinned. Even though I had forgiven her, doing nothing wouldn't be good for Urara.
"We got bell peppers, so I'll make a dish using them! The punishment for this is that you have to eat all of it!"
And so, I declared with a hardened heart.
"What?! No way, Trainer! Not bell peppers, I want carrots! I want carrot hamburger steak!"
"Don't hate bell peppers so much... The greengrocer is sad, and they're nutritious, you know?"
Urara, who seems to have a child's palate, screamed that she hated bell peppers. Bell peppers are a food that children often dislike because of their bitterness, which made me feel like it would be an effective punishment.
"Then I'll make carrot hamburger steak with bell peppers in it. And starting tomorrow, we'll train with full energy again."
So, I presented a compromise. I would make carrot hamburger steak as Urara wanted, but I would add bell peppers to the ingredients.
I can't say I'm an excellent cook, but as a trainer, I also learned about nutrition for horse girls in my training school. As part of that, I had also honed my cooking skills a little.
As for where to cook, I could use the Tracen Academy kitchen. My apartment is also close by, but taking Urara to my house, even though she's my assigned horse girl, would be too scary in the eyes of the public.
I called the Rittō Dormitory and told the dorm leader, Fuji Kiseki, that Urara had been found safe. After that, as we had discussed, Urara showed me around the shopping district, and we gathered the ingredients for cooking before returning to Tracen Academy.
The surprising thing was that, just as the greengrocer had said, Urara was treated like an idol by the people in the shopping district. Wherever we went, people would gather and talk to her with a smile.
Urara, in turn, would respond with a smile, sometimes looking surprised, showing a variety of emotional expressions.
Urara was already gaining fans even though she hadn't debuted yet. I thought that was amazing in itself, but it made me a little melancholic to think that I had a duty to give her the skill to match that popularity.
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Now, let's change the subject. A horse girl's appearance is that of a normal girl, with the exception of their ears and tail. To be precise, they are all beautiful girls with excellent looks, but their physical abilities and other aspects are very different from normal humans.
This is especially true for their eating habits. While they eat the same things as humans, the amount they eat is on a different level. Some horse girls eat a ridiculously large amount, but even Urara, who is small for a horse girl, eats more than I do.
What I'm trying to say is...
"Hey, here you go! The special three-tiered carrot hamburger steak!"
Saying this, I placed a plate in front of Urara with a mountain of unbelievably huge hamburger steaks.
"Wow! Yay, yay! It's carrot hamburger steak! Trainer, you're amazing!"
"I know, I know... And to ask again, can you really eat all of it?"
The carrot hamburger steak with bell peppers mixed in, made at Urara's request. It was a dish that sat on the plate with a presence that could only be described as violent.
The first tier was made in a 30 cm diameter frying pan, the second tier was slightly smaller but still over 20 cm, and the third tier was about 15 cm in diameter. A whole peeled, boiled carrot was sticking out of the top.
Each one was about 3 cm thick, and I made them with the utmost care to ensure they weren't undercooked. I also prepared a mountain of salad, and a bowl of freshly cooked rice was steaming.
I made it, but I definitely couldn't finish it. The smallest hamburger steak would be enough for me, and a large serving of rice is my limit.
"It's no problem at all! Let's eat!"
Urara put her hands together with a smile and started eating the hamburger steak with a knife and fork. When she opened her mouth wide and put a piece in, her eyes sparkled as if they were emitting light.
"It's so good, Trainer! The bell peppers aren't bitter, either. How did you do that?"
"If you wrap them in plastic wrap and microwave them, the bitterness goes away. Also, if you cut them vertically along the fibers, they're less likely to be bitter. It makes them easier to eat, right?"
"Yeah! If they're this delicious, I could eat them forever!"
Urara continued to eat with a big smile on her face. Seeing her like this, I thought that even if she didn't eat everything, her smile was enough.
"...Do you think you can work hard in practice starting tomorrow?"
I asked in a gentle voice while watching Urara eat. Urara nodded firmly, her cheeks puffed out like a squirrel.
As a side note, it's worth mentioning that she finished all the food I prepared and even had two more bowls of rice, which completely blew my mind.
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The next day.
I was determined to train her well today to make up for not training yesterday, and Urara appeared before me. Urara, in her practice jersey, ran up to me, waving with a smile.
It felt like her tail was wagging more vigorously than usual, and her ears were twitching busily.
"Trainer!"
Urara, who ran up to me, was more energetic than usual. Seeing her full of spirit, I smiled, judging that yesterday was not a waste.
"Oh, Urara. You're more energetic than usual--ooff!"
And for some reason, Urara didn't stop and ran straight into me. I instinctively tried to catch her, but I was knocked to the ground as if I had been tackled in sumo wrestling.
(Huh? What? A body slam? Why? Did I do something? Was she actually unhappy about the bell peppers yesterday?)
I was confused by the impact, which was unbelievable coming from a small Urara, but Urara, who had jumped into my arms, declared with a radiant smile.
"Trainer! I'm gonna do my best!"
"O-Okay... I don't really get it, but do your best."
"Yeah! Okay, I'm gonna do my best!"
I didn't quite understand the reason, but as a trainer, it's helpful when a student is enthusiastic about practice. The effect is very different when you practice reluctantly versus when you practice willingly. Urara was already the type to take the initiative in practice, but it's a good thing that she's motivated.
I stood up with Urara and instructed her to start with her warm-up as usual.
Then, as I watched Urara happily start her warm-up, I secretly muttered to myself.
(I should train my body more... Yeah, I'll do that...)
It's a secret that I was a little, no, very frustrated that I was knocked over by Urara, who only comes up to my neck.
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And so, I spent my days training Urara, and the time finally came.
The time for Urara's first race, the Junior Make Debut, to be held in the second half of June.
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