Fujimura Hikaru, who had been spinning like a top nonstop, finally ran into something a little different on this day.
During a break between training-camp duties, an unexpected horse girl approached him.
"Teacher Fujimura… I need your help…"
Hikaru lifted his gaze to the horse girl standing before him.
Long black hair, eyes the color of gold, and a faintly shadowy aura—an air of otherness that couldn't be hidden even under a form-fitting tracksuit.
It was Manhattan Cafe.
After a great deal of deliberation, the girl with "the Sight" finally came to ask Fujimura Hikaru for help.
To be honest, although he saw Manhattan Cafe every day during camp, this was the first time they had interacted like this in private.
Previously, whenever they spoke one-on-one, it had been under his "Scarlet Eyes" identity. This was the first time he'd spoken with her like this as Fujimura Hikaru.
"What can I help you with, Manhattan Cafe?" Hikaru asked.
He did his best to keep his voice gentle, so he wouldn't startle the sensitive girl in front of him.
If she had waited this long to approach him, she must have made this decision after weighing all kinds of considerations.
He needed to respect that resolve.
"It's like this… Recently, my speed just won't go up anymore… Could you help me see what's wrong?"
Manhattan Cafe finally voiced the bottleneck that had been troubling her for days.
"Speed, huh…"
Hikaru furrowed his brow and began thinking.
There were many reasons speed could stagnate, but to know which one it was, he would have to observe carefully.
"Why are you in such a hurry to raise your speed?" he asked.
She still had a while before debut, didn't she? Why the sudden urgency?
"…There's a friend I want to surpass," Manhattan Cafe replied.
"Agnes Tachyon?" Hikaru asked.
In his impression, among the girls in their class with higher stats—aside from Mejiro McQueen—there was Agnes Tachyon, the one who always seemed a little unhinged.
"Tachyon isn't faster than her," Manhattan Cafe shook her head.
Even Tachyon's speed didn't measure up?
Hikaru was surprised by that description.
After all, Tachyon's speed was among the fastest of the rookies he currently had under his wing.
Someone faster than Tachyon… then she probably wasn't a rookie. It had to be one of the veterans who'd already run the Glitter series.
"Having a target you want to catch is a good thing," Hikaru said.
"But to find the problem, I'll need to see how you run."
With that, he led Manhattan Cafe to the edge of the track.
"Let's keep it simple. Run an 800. I'll watch from the side."
"Okay."
Since she had chosen to seek Hikaru's help, Manhattan Cafe followed his arrangement and stepped onto the lane.
"Three, two, one—go!"
At Hikaru's command, Manhattan Cafe shot forward like an arrow.
Watching her sprinting figure on the track, Hikaru's brows knit slightly.
"Appraisal Eye."
He activated the skill, and Manhattan Cafe's stats instantly appeared in his view.
[Speed: 170, Stamina: 290, Power: 220, Guts: 230, Wisdom: 220]
Her stamina was stunning.
But her speed—very clearly—was dragging her down.
The other values were all above 200. Among the rookies, these numbers were absolutely solid.
So why was speed alone lagging this far behind?
Hikaru narrowed his eyes and studied her form more closely.
Arm swing: correct. Leg drive… she had adjusted it the way he suggested, but there was still something off—an undeniable sense of mismatch.
For a horse girl, 800 meters was nothing. Manhattan Cafe quickly finished the distance and returned to his side.
"Well… can you tell what the problem is…?" she asked.
There was a hint of expectation in her eyes. If it was Fujimura Hikaru, he should be able to spot what was wrong.
"Give me a second. Let me confirm," Hikaru said.
As he spoke, he stepped in front of her. Then, under her disbelieving stare, he crouched down and placed his hands directly on the pale, bare skin of her thigh—exposed by her running shorts.
"!"
The heat of his palms against her thigh made Manhattan Cafe feel as if tiny ants were crawling across her skin. A faint, tingling numbness rose up—like a feather lightly scraping the sole of her foot—drawing a soft blush onto her cheeks.
W-What… is this feeling…?
"Mm…"
Hikaru lightly squeezed the back of her thigh with both hands. The sudden burst of sensation made her let out a strange sound.
But Hikaru's eyes held none of the embarrassment coloring her face—only the single-minded focus of someone diagnosing a body.
"D-Don't… pinch there…"
"Oh. I see…"
Her soft, distressed sounds mixed with Hikaru's murmured self-talk, creating an oddly surreal scene.
Wasn't this basically an s*xual harassment incident?
Of course, it only lasted a moment. Hikaru stopped, then stood back up.
He already understood what was going on.
And Manhattan Cafe—thanks to his hands-on "inspection"—was now flushed bright red.
"Manhattan Cafe, why is your face so red? Do you have a fever?" Hikaru asked, alarm rising in his chest.
If she was running a fever, it would affect her training afterward.
"N-No… I'm fine… It's not a big problem…" she stammered.
Her words came out haltingly. Hikaru noticed the way her gaze kept flicking toward his hands, but he dismissed it as his imagination.
"If you're okay, then I'll continue," he said.
Hikaru's expression turned serious, like he had fully entered work mode.
"Just now, I checked your legs. When I touched them, you should have felt a very distinct soreness—that's a symptom of chronic overtraining. Your body is warning you. If you keep pushing, your legs might be done for."
"Have you been doing extra training at night lately?"
Manhattan Cafe nodded.
"Stop the extra sessions. Right now, what you need isn't more volume—you need to let your body properly rest."
Hikaru delivered his conclusion.
"The reason you hit a plateau is because your body has reached its load limit. In other words—"
"You're overworked."
"It's time to rest, Manhattan Cafe."
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
I, Herta's Fiancé, the Universe's Number One Male Fist (114 Chapter (Simulpub-Full) )
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Succubus in Sixth Street (400 Chapter)
Reborn in Type-Moon, My Sister is Aoko Aozaki (254 Chapter)
MyGO!! A Story Voiced by Me (140 Chapter)
BLEACH: Blade of Purification (158 Chapter)
Konoha: Starting the Game as Yoriichi (400 Chapter)
My Real Job is Spying on Konoha, but I'm Also its Hokage (140 Chapter)
The Pinnacle of the Navy! Starting from Being Captured by Garp (172 Chapter)
Watching Yu-Gi-Oh! short videos is making the veteran players lose...(80 Chapter)
Uma Musume : The Trainer Who Just Wants to Live (200 Chapter)
Zenless Zone Zero The Random Kamen Rider (200 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: It All Began With Me Being Stepped On by Arlecchino (120 Chapter)
Naruto: I Can Synthesize Summoning Beasts (96 Chapter)
Demon Slayer: The Great Swordsman's System, Disciple of Yoriichi (140 Chapter)
My Wife is a General, but I'm an Emanator of Abundance! (160 Chapter)
Type-Moon: My Nine-Fold Path (140 Chapter)
Uma Musume: They're Peeking at My Diary, and All of Tracen is Panickin (Ending)
The Wild History of Type-Moon world (70 Chapter)
Reborn in Conan, But I Refuse to Be the Bad Guy (80 Chapter)
Ruan Mei is begging me to go back? But there's no going back anymore (140 Chapter)
Just a Slacker at Tracen Academy (165 Chapter)
Survival in Blue Archive (70 Chapter)
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Doma Wasn't Hated Today, Either (100 Chapter)
The Vibe of This Chat Group is a Little Off (100 Chapter)
Heartbreak Simulator: I Broke Them and Made Them Cry (80 Chapter)
The Talentless Trainer Doesn't Want to Restart (80 Chapter)
A Journey Starting as a Quincy (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: The Master of Romance Obstruction (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: You Can't Be a Hero Without a Little Chemical Enhancement (40 Chapter)
Honkai Impact 3rd Your Boyfriend is Really Amazing (40 Chapter)
Warhammer 40K: My Fiancée, Fulgrim (180 Chapter)
Classroom of the Elite: Trying to Capture Me! (120 Chapter)
Genshin Impact My Named Senji Muramas (150 Chapter)
A Chef, the Vice-Captain of the Rocks Pirates? (160 Chapter)
Naruto : My Uchiha Girlfriend is Too Tsundere (130 Chapter)
Type-Moon: Reincarnated in a Lostbelt, I Became the Alien God (90 Chapter)
The Way These Horse Girls Look at Me Is Terrifying! (160 Chapter)
Naruto: Tsunade's Deskmate (130 Chapter)
I Just Want to Live a Normal (50 Chapter).
Genshin Impact: A Hundred Confessions? It's Just a System Task (70 Chapter)
OnePiece : Starting as a Veteran of the Roger Pirates (60 Chapter)
Uma Musume : I Have Special Horse Taming Techniques (190 Chapter)
Uma Musume : My other self is a Horse Girl (130 Chapter)
Jujutsu Kaisen : All Affection Stats Maxed Out (200 Chapter)
Satou Kazuma's Decision to Live by Swindling, Starting from Re:Zero (60 Chapter)
Bleach : Ichigo! Take Over the Soul Society (89 Chapter)
Crossover Anime: The Master of Plagiarism with a 'Love Obstacle (140 Chapter)
Arknights Succubus Nurturing System, But I'm a Quiet Office Worker (90 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: Using My Personas to Break the Hearts of Players (50 Chapter)
One Punch Man : i am King? (150 Chapter)
Genshin: My Stats Are Irresistible (70 Chapter)
Naruto: Master of Dream Fulfillment! (70 Chapter)
Why Are All My Chat Group Friends Spin-Off Characters? (120 Chapter)
Arknights : Batman System (30 Chapter)
Chat Group: Swapping Bodies with the Bad-Ending Herta from the Start (62 Chapter)
DanMachi: Why Did My Dungeon Turn Into a Soulslike Game? (70 Chapter)
Losing Money on Uma Musume...What Do You Mean You Actually Won? (86 Chapter)
I'm Gotou Hitori—Who Are You? (40 Chapter)
Were You Ever Even a Uma Musume? Stop Making Things Up! (70 Chapter)
Moon Project: A Full-Time Love Adventure for the Lobotomy Corporation (75 Chapter)
The Leisurely Days of the Hyuga Main House (65 Chapter)
Arknights : A Draco Surviving in a Matriarchal Terra (72 Chapter)
Arknights: What if My Luck Is Too Good? (91 Chapter)
Honkai: The Romance System Only Shows Up After I Marry Mei (50 Chapter)
Arknights: Who Are You Calling Repressed, X?! (53 Chapter)
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it