After touring various parts of the school in the morning, these visiting elementary students were fortunate enough to eat the cafeteria food at Tracen Academy for lunch. During this time, if they were bold enough, they might even be able to get autographs or photos with their idols.
Kitasan Black saw quite a few young uma musume in her group doing exactly this—going up to [Tokai Teio] and [Mejiro McQueen] for autographs. At lunch, they even ran into Special Week, a major senpai from Team Spica. But none of this concerned Kitasan Black.
Kitasan Black didn't go up to ask for autographs or photos. She just quietly followed along with the group.
As for the team leader duties? The other students didn't acknowledge her anyway, and she couldn't be bothered to manage things, so she simply handed everything over to the young lady Diamond.
From the senpais' perspective, this Kitasan Black seemed rather out of place—like she was being ostracized by the group.
So when it came time for the afternoon joint training session, Kitasan Black received attention from the senpais.
Sometimes being isolated meant being conspicuous.
And for these passionate senpais, seeing one individual being excluded from the group of elementary students naturally made them pay more attention to that individual.
"Kita-chan—can I call you that? Would you like to run a lap with me?"
[Tokai Teio] wanted to give some special care to this isolated child. Besides, [McQueen] was watching over the other children.
Kitasan Black of course knew [Tokai Teio] meant well, but she still shook her head in refusal. "No need."
She had already decided to slack off completely today. If she couldn't have refused this arrangement, she wouldn't have even wanted to come to this open day. After all, this was meaningless to her—she was far too familiar with Tracen Academy's situation.
[Tokai Teio] hadn't expected this little one to refuse her without even a moment's hesitation. For a moment, she could barely maintain the smile on her face. This was completely different from what she had imagined. Before speaking, she had never considered the possibility of being refused.
"There's no need to feel embarrassed. I want to see what you're capable of, Kita-chan."
"There's no need for that. I'm just the weakest one from our school. My abilities aren't worth seeing. Please don't trouble yourself to look after me, senpai."
Kitasan Black remained unmoved.
She knew [Tokai Teio]-senpai wanted to take care of her, but she didn't need this kindness.
She didn't find being isolated uncomfortable at all. Rather, the current situation was actually the most comfortable for her.
It would be even better if most of the students at school could hate her like these so-called top students did now.
Seeing herself refused again, [Tokai Teio]'s smile stiffened. She said somewhat awkwardly, "W-well, alright then."
She had been fully confident she could build rapport with this child, but she'd hit a wall instead.
[Tokai Teio] returned to [Mejiro McQueen]'s side somewhat dejected. [Mejiro McQueen] wordlessly patted her shoulder in consolation.
Then came time for training.
Though it was called joint training with senpais, it was actually just adjusted practice tailored to elementary school intensity.
Learning any special techniques or even skills here was impossible.
This so-called joint training was no different from regular school training.
The only difference was that these elementary students could train alongside active competitors. That was all.
This kind of thing, besides satisfying the feeling of being near idols, didn't seem to have any special meaning.
At least for Kitasan Black, it was meaningless.
As for the scoring during training and small prizes, only real elementary schoolers would care about those.
So Kitasan Black maintained her usual bottom-ranking performance.
She only took a participation prize, stayed at the back of the line by herself, and didn't interact with anyone at all.
"Good performance. Keep working hard."
The senpai distributing small gifts encouraged Kitasan Black.
But she had no idea the little one before her was actually an actress.
If Kitasan Black got serious, even among these real uma musume, except for GI competitors, probably none could fight her.
And GI competitors at Central Tracen Academy were considered excellent students.
So even without having undergone maturity, Kitasan Black's current strength at this Tracen Academy was definitely at the level of the strong. This was the power of having cheats.
"Now, let's all go watch the senpais' training."
The joint training session didn't last long. After all, it was only at elementary school training intensity—not even as intense as special training, just average daily training level.
So many students still had plenty of stamina left. Only a few weaker students felt somewhat tired.
But even so, the joint training segment was over. Next was observing the senpais' training.
Kitasan Black watched those uma musume on the training grounds pouring their sweat, feeling no particular emotion.
Her classmates beside her were awed by the senpais' strength. This was different from what they'd experienced during joint training—it made them clearly understand that those senpais training with them earlier were actually just playing around.
But for Kitasan Black, this level of strength could be crushed effortlessly. She really couldn't muster any emotion.
After joint training ended and they finished observing the senpais' training, they finally came to the practical combat segment.
By now, the young uma musume's mood wasn't as excited as at the beginning.
Because this so-called practical combat segment let them experience the race atmosphere more directly, but was also a form of tempering.
This was a mock race that elementary students couldn't possibly win. The only difference was how badly they lost.
Whether they could endure through this practical session was the greatest significance of this segment.
Moreover, to better demonstrate the actual race atmosphere, two senpais would enter the race together.
These two senpais would compete against each other, while the young uma musume were just accompanying runners—background for this mock race.
And this segment was probably the most important part of the entire event.
Kitasan Black and her schoolmates were assigned to Team Spica. However, their sparring partners naturally couldn't be Special Week or active competitors like [Teio] and [McQueen]. Instead, they were Vodka and Daiwa Scarlet—two uma musume who hadn't yet had their debut races.
Kitasan Black stood on the practice track, feeling somewhat helpless. She just knew there would be an activity like this in the end, even though she hadn't looked at the schedule beforehand.
Looking at her nervous and excited classmates beside her, she had no choice but to fake a serious, tense expression.
But in reality, she just wanted to run carelessly and get through it.
Though Satono Diamond was also preparing, she kept watching Kitasan Black.
Seeing Kitasan Black's expressionless, serious demeanor, she knew Kitasan Black wouldn't take this mock race seriously.
Though she was curious how Kitasan Black's true strength compared to the uma musume senpais, since Kitasan Black had no intention of being serious, she could only speculate on her own.
(Does Kitasan-san think even the senpais aren't worthy opponents?)
Satono Diamond was startled by her own thought.
But she had always felt that Kitasan Black's nonchalant attitude was due to the loneliness born from being too strong without opponents.
So if a truly interesting opponent appeared, she believed Kitasan Black would use her true strength.
But since Kitasan Black wasn't doing so now, there was only one possibility.
In Kitasan Black's mind, these two senpais' strength wasn't enough to arouse her fighting spirit.
But could that really be possible?
After all, the gap in power between them, who hadn't undergone maturity, and uma musume who had was enormous. Not to mention these two senpais were students at Tracen Academy—incomparable to ordinary post-maturity uma musume.
Satono Diamond didn't dare think further.
She instinctively felt she might be overthinking. After all, if it were really as she imagined, just how strong was Kitasan Black?
Kitasan Black didn't know Satono Diamond was thinking these things. Even if she knew, she probably wouldn't care.
Even though that was close to the truth. After all, she was confident she could defeat these two senpais, even if they weren't unknown.
"Is everyone ready?"
At the trainer's signal, all students prepared themselves. Then the mock race began.
Quite a few trainers and students were observing nearby. After all, sometimes new team members could be determined even before enrollment.
Kitasan Black fell to the back from the very start. Having learned her lesson from the sports festival, she knew she really couldn't let up even a little.
And her caution was justified, because the moment the race started, she noticed many classmates completely couldn't control the race's rhythm.
If she made the same mistake as at the sports festival, she would stand out too much.
(As expected, choosing to run last was right. Though it feels somewhat unpleasant, it's better than having another accident like last time.)
Kitasan Black thought.
Meanwhile, many spectators couldn't help but shake their heads.
"Though they're top students from the Uma Musume Development Elementary School, elementary students' races really are hard to watch."
They had no idea how to utilize their running aptitude, and their rhythm control was a complete mess.
Completely different from training, where everyone could do well with reminders from teachers or senpais.
But once in actual combat, very few could execute even the basics properly.
"They really are young."
Student Council President Symboli Rudolf and Vice President Air Groove were also nearby, watching this activity segment.
For these elementary students' performance, the only evaluation they could give was "young."
Very few students among them actually caught their attention.
"That child is Kitasan Black, right?"
The Emperor had seen Kitasan Black's photo and immediately recognized the little one running at the very back of the group.
"Yes, but her condition today doesn't seem very good?"
Air Groove felt puzzled.
Kitasan Black didn't know that her race at the sports festival had actually been recorded on video.
Moreover, one of the spectators that day was a trainer from Central, who had sent the recording to the trainers' internal chat group.
This recording had naturally also been seen by the Student Council members like Symboli Rudolf.
The reason Kitasan Black had been specially nominated, despite her unremarkable grades, and still received a spot on this group was because what she had demonstrated in that race was simply too extraordinary.
Especially from the perspective of senior trainers and people like Symboli Rudolf.
Having seen so many elementary students who couldn't even control their emotions in actual combat, making too many mistakes in races and not even displaying half their true abilities.
Then suddenly a student emerged who not only understood the concept of running styles but could even control race rhythm—how thrilling that feeling was.
So many of the spectators today had actually come specifically for Kitasan Black.
Because being able to display such qualities in actual combat at the elementary school stage was an extremely rare occurrence in uma musume history.
But to many people's disappointment, in this mock race, Kitasan Black showed almost no performance at all.
She just followed at the very back of the group, neither demonstrating running style nor keeping up with the race rhythm—she hadn't even attempted to sprint.
This performance was worlds apart from her sports festival performance.
"Was her last performance just a fluke?"
Someone evaluated this way.
And some senior trainers using abilities like Analysis Eyes also couldn't see Kitasan Black's true physical attributes.
Because Kitasan Black possessed the ability to block this kind of perception.
In fact, this ability came from the Overlord.
The Overlord not only had the power to devour all blocking techniques but also the power to blind perception.
This was also why the Overlord could sometimes suddenly appear behind opponents during races, with opponents only realizing when they were about to be overtaken.
Analysis Eyes were ultimately just applications of mental power—they could be blocked.
Unless some trainer shamelessly ambushed her by directly touching Kitasan Black's legs, it was impossible to get her true data.
What could be seen with abilities like Analysis Eyes was only the values she had deliberately fabricated.
"No good. I can't tell anything special about this child called Kitasan Black at all."
Her physical attribute levels were below average.
As for her so-called uniqueness—staying at the very back the whole time with no performance made it even more impossible to see anything.
Symboli Rudolf watched Kitasan Black's figure intently.
Suddenly, as if noticing something, she asked Air Groove, "Say, do you think there could be children with no interest in winning or losing?"
"?" Air Groove looked puzzled.
But she still gave her answer.
"Probably not."
"Hmm, then maybe I saw wrong."
Symboli Rudolf actually already had a guess in her mind, but she still wasn't certain.
Because she couldn't understand the reason why that child would do this.
Air Groove couldn't help but say, "My President, could you please speak more simply?"
"Kitasan Black—the child we've been watching. I can't see a shred of competitive spirit in her. I even feel she wanted to lose from the very start."
Symboli Rudolf shared her feelings.
...
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