Chapter 112. Mejiro Dober's Test
This year's Arima Kinen entry list was officially finalized on Wednesday. In the end, only twelve Uma Musumes confirmed participation.
"It's pretty rare for the Arima Kinen not to fill the entire gate."
Standing behind Shuta, who was currently working at his desk, Kitahara-san could not help complaining aloud.
"Thinking about it now, maybe I should've just registered one of the Uma Musumes from my team as well, if only to experience it once."
"And then have her get blown away by a massive margin before ending up mentally crushed afterward?"
Shuta An pursed his lips slightly before looking back at his friend.
"Kitahara, you yourself should understand what kind of negative psychological impact it would create if an Uma Musume without sufficient ability participated in a race like the Arima Kinen, right?"
"Well~"
Kitahara awkwardly scratched his cheek.
"I do happen to have a few carefree girls in my team who somehow remain happy every single day regardless of what happens."
He shrugged casually afterward.
"I'll look for an opportunity next year instead."
For a moment, Shuta An genuinely did not know how he was supposed to respond to that.
"Speaking of which, the gate draw gets announced tomorrow."
Kitahara quickly shifted the topic again.
"Ann-san, do you have any thoughts about Miss Mejiro Dober's gate position? If she's using a chasing strategy anyway, then shouldn't the outermost gate actually be the best possible position for her?"
"You seriously think starting from the outermost gate in the Arima Kinen is a good thing?"
Shuta An's eyes widened slightly as he turned around toward his friend.
"Kitahara, don't tell me you've never researched Arima Kinen gate statistics before?"
"None of the Uma Musumes from Team Scorpii have ever run the Arima Kinen."
Kitahara spread both hands helplessly.
"Air Deja Vu could've participated, but because the competition looked too strong, she decided to avoid it and prepare for the Gold Cup instead."
"So honestly speaking, I really don't understand much about Arima Kinen gate data. I was just making assumptions based on general stereotypes."
"In reality, the outermost gate has never produced an Arima Kinen winner to this very day."
Shuta An calmly explained the situation.
"So although an outside gate is indeed relatively suitable for Dober's running style; we should still respect a bit of metaphysics where possible."
"I wonder which unlucky person is going to draw the outermost gate this year."
Kitahara sounded strangely entertained while saying it.
"Since only twelve Uma Musumes are participating this year, the outermost position is merely gate twelve."
"The disadvantage honestly isn't that severe."
"Still…" Shuta An lightly narrowed his eyes. "when data already exists, it's generally better not to challenge it unnecessarily."
Although he himself did not truly believe Mejiro Dober could currently overpower Special Week and Grass Wonder head-on, the young man still wanted to secure every possible advantage before the race itself began.
—
The following day, Shuta An did not remain inside his Central Tracen Academy office waiting for the Arima Kinen gate announcement.
Instead, he directly brought Mejiro Dober, who was dressed formally today, to the URA Association headquarters in preparation for attending the Arima Kinen gate draw ceremony.
This year's Arima Kinen draw required every participating Uma Musume to personally appear on stage and draw their own gate number.
Meanwhile, Shuta An himself also would not merely be sitting idly in the audience.
Earlier, the URA Association Chairman had personally invited him to discuss matters related to IFUA today as well.
"Although IFUA is technically a task entrusted to me by Secretariat—I still can't afford to treat it carelessly."
"After all, I currently represent the Academy itself. If something goes wrong, nobody involved will look good afterward."
Because of this mindset, Shuta An had stayed awake until midnight yesterday organizing all the relevant materials.
By the time he finished, Oguri Cap had already collapsed asleep from exhaustion.
—
"What happened to Trainer's neck?"
After meeting at Central Tracen Academy's entrance earlier that morning, Mejiro Dober quietly observed the young man while silently mumbling to herself.
However, Shuta An himself completely failed to notice Mejiro Dober's gaze.
After she entered the car, he simply started driving toward the URA Association. Meanwhile, sitting in the passenger seat, Mejiro Dober quietly shifted her eyes and carefully stared at the young man's neck once again.
Then suddenly—
She understood.
In an instant, Mejiro Dober's cheeks immediately flushed red once more.
After all, she was an artist who had participated in ComicMarket for multiple consecutive years, excluding only this year's Winter ComicMarket.
Although she completely lacked practical experience herself, Mejiro Dober's theoretical knowledge in certain subjects was honestly extremely rich.
"What a shame—"
Mejiro Dober quietly lamented inwardly.
"Because of all the recent commitments, I completely failed to finish my manuscript in time for Winter ComicMarket. I really hope I can complete the doujinshi properly and participate during next summer instead."
While thinking that, she subconsciously glanced sideways toward Shuta An, who remained focused entirely on driving. For a brief instant, an image suddenly appeared inside her mind of the young man leaning over toward her.
Mejiro Dober immediately shook her head forcefully in panic, trying to throw the strange vision out of her mind.
"Dober, what's wrong?"
Shuta An naturally noticed her sudden movement and quickly asked with concern.
"Are you feeling unwell?"
"It's nothing."
Mejiro Dober answered vaguely while avoiding eye contact.
Shuta An immediately glanced at the attribute viewer to confirm her condition status remained completely normal.
Only then did his attention momentarily shift toward the mysterious "???" still displayed behind the affection value section.
"I haven't paid attention to this thing for quite a long time now—why doesn't it even display an actual value yet?"
The young man quietly muttered to himself.
—
After arriving at the URA Association, Shuta directly brought Mejiro Dober along to meet the URA Association Chairman.
Otherwise, there genuinely wasn't any particularly suitable place available to settle her temporarily.
The moment Shuta An entered the Chairman's office, the URA Association Chairman immediately stood up proactively to greet him.
"Good morning, Shuta-kun. I'm truly embarrassed to trouble you into coming here so early."
"Since I've already been appointed as an IFUA observer, then naturally I should fulfill the work properly."
Shuta An's tone remained calm and indifferent.
"It's perfectly normal to arrive early in order to discuss these matters with the Chairman. Besides, I still need to attend the Arima Kinen gate draw ceremony later this afternoon. Let's simply finish everything today and avoid unnecessary complications afterward."
"I also wish Miss Mejiro Dober excellent results in the upcoming Arima Kinen."
The URA Association Chairman nodded politely toward Mejiro Dober before inviting Shuta An to sit across from him.
Meanwhile, Mejiro Dober quietly sat obediently beside the young man.
—
"Regarding IFUA—"
"The organization's primary role is facilitating communication and coordination between URA Associations across different countries and regions."
"That aspect itself won't require troubling Shuta-kun too heavily."
"Your main responsibility will instead involve evaluating Japan's domestic Central Listed Races, Open Races, and graded races. For G1 races, all participating Uma Musumes must receive evaluations."
"For other races, only the top four finishers require scoring. This work will officially begin starting January next year."
"This workload honestly isn't small at all."
Shuta An's mouth twitched slightly.
"If it's entirely handled by me alone, things will become rather difficult. And if I personally determine all the scores myself—controversy will inevitably arise once someone disagrees with the evaluations."
"I anticipated that concern already."
The URA Association Chairman nodded calmly.
"So after discussing it with Miss Symboli Rudolf, we came up with a solution. Shuta-kun may personally establish a small discussion group. Everyone can collectively brainstorm and review the evaluations together."
The young man slightly narrowed his eyes.
Internally, several possible candidates had already begun appearing inside his mind.
Then, after briefly thinking, he slowly spoke:
"That arrangement is acceptable. However, as long as the members are industry professionals, then their exact identities don't particularly matter, correct?"
"That's right."
Originally, the URA Association Chairman had assumed Shuta An would simply invite several Trainers from Central Tracen Academy.
Because of that assumption, he answered extremely quickly.
However, the instant the words left his mouth, the Chairman suddenly realized something. The fact that Shuta An deliberately asked this question meant he likely intended to recruit people who were not Trainers at all.
For a moment, the URA Association Chairman immediately felt slight regret internally. Unfortunately, facing Shuta An directly, he simply did not possess the courage necessary to retract his own words now.
As a result, he could only remain silent.
"Shuta-kun—already has a plan prepared, doesn't he?"
The Chairman quietly thought to himself.
After clarifying the details of his new responsibilities with the URA Association Chairman, Shuta also used several races from this year as examples to finalize the scoring standards.
After recording the finalized criteria, the young man raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Quantifying the standards will also prevent disputes from arising. All my questions have been answered."
Then he stood up and bowed lightly toward the URA Association Chairman.
"I'm finished here. If the Chairman has no further matters to discuss, then Dober and I will take our leave."
The moment Shuta An spoke, Mejiro Dober, who had been quietly looking down at her phone, immediately stood up together with him.
"Then I'll see the two of you out," the URA Association Chairman replied as he also rose to his feet.
—
After leaving the URA Association building, Shuta An checked the time and realized there were still several hours before the gate draw ceremony officially began. Since there was no need to rush back yet, he simply brought Mejiro Dober to stroll around the nearby district and have lunch together.
Although Mejiro Dober had appeared focused on her phone during the earlier discussion, she had in fact listened carefully to every word exchanged between Shuta An and the URA Association Chairman. Several questions had already formed in her mind.
Now that they had left the Association, she finally asked them directly.
"Trainer, when you were using this year's races as examples earlier, why did you use the Classic Triple Crown races, but deliberately avoid mentioning my three races?"
"Dober, you noticed it too, didn't you?" Shuta An replied calmly. "The Triple Tiara Route Limited Races mentioned by the Chairman are evaluated lower than mixed Graded Races of the same level."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"This is directly related to the intensity of competition. According to these standards, even though in my heart you are absolutely no worse than them, your final score this year would still be significantly lower than Ines Fujin's and Mejiro McQueen's."
The young man looked at her quietly.
"I didn't want Dober to feel negative emotions because of it."
"Trainer, you're overthinking it."
After hearing those words, Mejiro Dober unconsciously reached out and grabbed the sleeve of the young man beside her.
"In situations like this in the future, you don't need to consider my feelings. If you're giving evaluations, then just follow your principles. Don't let my emotions affect the fairness of the scoring."
Shuta An could clearly hear the sincerity in her voice.
He nodded gently. "I understand."
Because she would be attending the gate draw ceremony later, Mejiro Dober was dressed formally today. Combined with her natural beauty and identity, the two of them naturally attracted countless gazes while walking outside together.
As a result, Mejiro Dober's action of clutching Shuta An's sleeve also drew significant attention.
Only after noticing the surrounding stares did Mejiro Dober suddenly realize what she was doing. Her cheeks flushed instantly, and she hurriedly released his sleeve.
"I want to become more open about it"
She murmured softly to herself while glancing at the young man, who was still searching for a suitable restaurant nearby.
For some reason, she suddenly found herself looking forward to the Arima Kinen even more.
"If everything goes smoothly—"
—
After three in the afternoon, Shuta An brought Mejiro Dober back to the URA Association.
Under the guidance of the staff, the two entered the venue for the draw ceremony. Their seats had once again been arranged in the front row, though by now Shuta An was already accustomed to receiving front-row seating whenever he attended events in Japan.
"Anyway, I don't need to give a speech today, so sitting here is fine," Shuta An muttered while casually twisting open the cap of the drink placed on the table.
Then he turned toward Mejiro Dober beside him.
"Dober, prepare in advance what you'll say after drawing your gate position."
"Trainer, do you already know what gate I'm going to draw?" Mejiro Dober raised an eyebrow, momentarily suspecting that Shuta An had discovered some hidden detail she had missed.
"I certainly don't know," the young man pouted slightly. "There's no insider information for this kind of thing. Dober can just prepare several possible responses beforehand and use whichever one matches the situation."
"Then I'll start brainstorming now."
Mejiro Dober verbally responded, then closed her eyes slightly before quietly leaning toward the left.
A moment later, her head rested directly against Shuta An's shoulder.
The young man tilted his head slightly and noticed the calmness in Mejiro Dober's expression. After a brief silence, he merely sighed softly and remained still.
—
Less than half a minute later, Mejiro Dober sat upright again.
Naturally, one of the reasons was to avoid being excessively stared at by acquaintances nearby.
Even so, she still remained very close to Shuta An afterward.
"I've already drafted my speech," she whispered quietly.
"That's good."
Shuta An responded while deliberately turning his head toward the opposite side, because at this distance, he could now feel the presence of the Mejiro Family Uma Musume beside him with extreme clarity.
Watching her Trainer's reaction, Mejiro Dober finally understood what Mejiro McQueen had meant by "be more straightforward."
Although her interpretation had probably deviated somewhat from Mejiro McQueen's original intention.
—
During the nearly hour-long wait before the ceremony officially began, Shuta An gradually realized something.
Mejiro Dober was continuously testing his "tolerance level."
There were no especially intimate gestures, but compared to her previous state of fearing interaction with the opposite sex, this current behavior was already drastically different.
Could it be that Dober has unconsciously overcome that psychological trauma?
The thought naturally surfaced in Shuta An's mind.
"Although we never carried out any targeted treatment for this issue, Dober has become increasingly confident alongside her improving race results. Maybe because of that, she's no longer as afraid of the opposite sex as before."
Just as Shuta An felt this speculation was fairly reasonable, Nishizaki Ryu, who had brought Special Week to the venue, suddenly approached them with a smile.
"Ann-san, Miss Mejiro Dober, good afternoon~"
"Good afternoon, Nishizaki-san." Shuta An waved casually with a smile. "Looks like I'm the only one who skipped work this morning to come here."
Meanwhile, Mejiro Dober immediately lowered her head and answered in a trembling voice,
"G-Good afternoon, Mr. Nishizaki. Good afternoon, Special Week-senpai"
To Nishizaki Ryu and Special Week, this reaction was already extremely familiar. In fact, the surprising thing was that Mejiro Dober had even managed to greet Nishizaki Ryu at all.
However, in Shuta An's eyes, this scene carried another meaning entirely.
Only when facing him could Mejiro Dober relax enough to reveal traces of playfulness and softness. Once she faced other men, she immediately reverted to the same distant and nervous Mejiro Dober as before—the girl who feared communication and feared contact.
The realization caused an inexplicable sense of satisfaction to quietly emerge in Shuta An's heart.
"I am a special existence to Mejiro Dober."
Yet that satisfaction did not make him feel comfortable. On the contrary, it brought a faint sense of guilt. Because it also proved that Mejiro Dober was still unable to truly escape the influence of her psychological trauma.
After forcibly suppressing those thoughts, Shuta An simply redirected his attention toward preparing for the negotiations with the old guard of the Mejiro Family this Sunday.