The sound of my footsteps hitting the turf were the only things currently ringing in my ears. The vivid scene of being passed was still playing in my brain, I had already stopped looking for a way for me to win that race, there wasn't anything that I could have done with my level during that race.
It has been 2 weeks since the race, I haven't had another race during this time. Ego has been in his room since then after he had given me a new training plan. I have only seen him a couple of times, watching me train with his same clothing and clipboard. Other than that, I haven't seen him.
The turf was heavy today, the day before it had rained rather badly, so I was using this time to train with these conditions to get used to it. It wouldn't take long for the staff to fix the track though.
I wasn't the only person here, a few other umas and their trainers were also here doing their training. I even saw Weekday Fun with her trainer, her face was covered with an emotion I couldn't see from where I was.
I ignored them and continued to train, running an entire 2000m course before doing high knee jumps and stair jumps. I was supposed to take a 10 minute break in between before repeating but I wasn't doing that since the trainer wasn't here who would usually stop me from my supposed self-destructiveness. I didn't understand why.
I was also doing more training than I was supposed to, I was running an extra 500m before doing the other training and I was adding more stress onto those exercises.
I just didn't want to feel that frustration as on that day.
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[AFTER THE CONCERT]
"AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHH!!!!"
The sound of a sharp yell cremated into the air. The sound of an anger filled yell echoed in the empty waiting room of the trainee. The table in the room had been broken down the middle while the metal chair was now bent to an unrecognizable state. On a section of the wall a small crevice caused by Hayate North could be seen.
After Hayate had finished the race and returned to the waiting room, he screamed his heart out and broke multiple things in the room. He had punched the wall in his rage, breaking it slightly and causing his knuckles to bleed.
"Goddammit.." He said as he looked down to his hands to see the blood dripping from the injury he had caused by clenching his fist.
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I was rather upset that day.
Leaving the memory behind, I continued my training as I jumped up with my knees tucked in before landing back on the ground. The track was filled with other umas who were training with their trainers, the sound of their feet thumping against the ground vibrated the air.
I looked at my hands, the feeling of blood trickling down my hand stuck to it even after the moment. At that moment, the trainer had found me in that state and had me bandage myself.
"Hey, Hayate."
The sound of someone's voice calling me pulled me out of my thoughts. Turning around, I saw my trainer standing there wearing his usual clothing and having his clipboard in his hands. The sun made it easy to see the bags under his tired looking eyes. His body at a slouched position.
"What is it?" I asked him, seeing him out of his room after a while and him talking to me meant that he probably had something to talk about.
"You remember that race and how I told you to try a different racing style."
"I do."
"Well this is the reason for it."
Seeing him hand me a piece of paper, I grabbed it to see it filled with words and data on it which filled the page from top to bottom. A single drawing depicted an uma running with a particular running style.
"This is??"
"This is a style I had created for you that would most likely fit the best for you."
The style seemed to have been influenced by my usual running style but instead of having the unpredictableness to it, it instead used the weird movements to make me be able to 'launch' myself forward in a burst of movement and speed. It also helped with acceleration by the movement of my arms.
My stride was almost kept the same but instead of taking a usual long stride, it wanted me to use my longer legs to my advantage by taking casual long strides, due to it being naturally longer than others, and be able to take more steps in turn.
That was what I could understand from just looking at this sheet of paper, there was more on this but I needed to read it.
I raised my gaze up to Ego, looking at his tired face. "What is the reason for doing this?" I was curious, the fact that he made me do a style that I wasn't fully used to for another style that I didn't even know.
"Your style before, while being great for you, had some parts of it that wouldn't be fully allowed within the rules of the URA due to it having the possibility of causing crashes. That is something they would rather not allow the possibility of happening. Knowing this, I created this style that would take the things from your usual style and change it slightly to allow for you to use it in a different way while being slightly used to it."
He finished before taking a breath in and letting out a soft sigh. "That was the biggest reason."
"?" I looked at him with slight surprise but also curious, what did he mean the biggest reason. "What were the other reasons?"
"You'll find due time." Looking at him, I could see that he wouldn't answer anything else about the other reasons.
"Anyhow, you are doing a new training regimen to get used to and get better at this style. Let yourself be reborn."
"Alright." I nodded.
After hearing my confirmation, he grabbed a piece of paper from his clipboard and handed it to me.
"Were you expecting me to agree?"
He didn't answer so I just read over the paper.
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Sorry for taking so long to update, I got sick and it took a while for me to get back into thinking of this. Sorry for it being short, couldn't really think of anything when I was writing this.
Anyhow, hoped you enjoyed this part. The next part will probably take a while as well.