"Aha! Good morning, Mayano-chan!" Seiun Sky walked over and greeted her with a bright smile.
"Ha! Good morning, Sei-chan." She really liked being called Mayano-chan, her whole face lighting up. "So you're training here."
"Yeah. If you want to learn the escape runner style, I can teach you."
"Really? Really?" Mayano Top Gun got excited, her tail swinging forcefully left and right.
Seiun Sky really was seriously teaching Mayano Top Gun this running style, from start to finish, even explaining all the details without holding anything back.
At the end, Seiun Sky added, "Mayano-chan, I'll also be participating in this year's Tenno Sho Spring."
"Eh? That means we can race together!" Mayano Top Gun suddenly seemed to think of something and asked, "Isn't the escape run your secret weapon? You're just teaching it to me?"
"Well, yeah, that's right." Seiun Sky smiled nonchalantly, like it was no big deal.
"Because we're good friends! Let's try this running style. Seiun thinks you'd be even cooler using this style!"
"Ahem!" Hayato coughed twice from the side, feeling like he was witnessing child trafficking or some kind of wrongdoing.
Mayano-chan, don't trust her. She's a devil in disguise.
Mayano Top Gun really could do any running style. She probably learned various running styles this way, picking them up like collecting cards. But the one thing Mayano Top Gun couldn't do was the great escape.
Front runner, escape runner, great escape, they were all different, not the same running style at all. If Mayano Top Gun didn't have the ability to accelerate in the late stages, she wasn't suited for the great escape. She'd lost to Narita Brian at the Hanshin Daishoten because her mid-race acceleration had wasted some stamina she couldn't afford to lose.
If someone had reminded her to conserve stamina, it would have been a different outcome entirely.
"Ahem, Seiun, you...."
"Trainer, are you not feeling well? Please, if you're not feeling well, go take some medicine. Can you not interrupt us?" Seiun Sky still had that oblivious expression, playing innocent.
"Is he sick?" Mayano Top Gun had already been led astray by Seiun Sky, concern creeping into her voice.
"Maybe. Trainer stayed up all night instead of sleeping, arranging training plans for us. Maybe he caught a cold."
So being an adult means staying up late! Staying up late makes you an adult! Wow! Mayano Top Gun's voice was concerned, genuinely worried now. "Then you should rest well. Don't be so stubborn."
Hayato really wanted to say: Little girl, you're being sold out, and you're still helping count the money? Tsk..Tskk...
"Don't worry about him. Come on, let's go try the great escape. You might be even stronger at escaping than me!"
"Wahaha, thank you!"
Just like that, Mayano Top Gun was led away by Seiun Sky without a second thought.
What just happened? The strongest opponent for the Tenno Sho Spring was just tricked by Seiun Sky like that?
The great escape didn't mean using up all your stamina in one breath, either, despite what it looked like. You could divide the race into four stages: opening phase, middle phase, final phase, and last spurt.
Each running style consumed different amounts of stamina in each stage, and the distribution was carefully calculated.
The great escape used up most of its stamina from the opening to the middle phase, while the final phase and spurt used the least stamina of all styles.
Late-surgers had the highest stamina consumption from the middle phase to the final spurt, conserving stamina during the opening phase.
End-closers had the highest consumption from the final phase to the last spurt. Pace-chasers and front-runners had the highest consumption during the race.
The race started quickly.
Mayano Top Gun's solid and powerful legs burst forth with strong, forceful speed. She surpassed Seiun Sky from the start, opening up a huge gap within seconds.
"Taking off, taking off! The great escape is so fun!"
Seiun Sky was deliberately falling behind. Yes, deliberately holding back.
With her great escape experience, there was no way she'd fall behind in the early stages. She couldn't be behind, even with all her stats lower than Mayano Top Gun's. She had to be deliberately falling back, playing the long game.
This clear division of stamina also determined the Uma Musume speed at each stage, making or breaking a race.
What Seiun Sky taught Mayano Top Gun was the most systematic great escape teaching she'd learned from Hayato, the real deal.
The race ended with Mayano Top Gun dominating with a ten-length lead. Besides her own strength, there was also the factor of Seiun Sky not running seriously, she barely used any skills and deliberately fell behind.
As soon as Seiun Sky stopped, she kept gasping for breath, sighing involuntarily. "Amazing. As expected of Mayano-chan."
"Hey, hey! How was it? Maya's great escape wasn't bad, right?" After finishing the run, Mayano Top Gun was extremely excited, wanting to go another lap immediately.
Seiun Sky praised her without hesitation. "I have to say, you've already mastered it."
Just with some casual guidance, she immediately learned a running style. Her talent was truly astonishing, almost unfair.
"Hehehe! Hey, hey, let's do it again!" She seemed to have already fallen in love with that great escape feeling, hooked completely.
The second simulation race started immediately.
Under Mayano Top Gun's cheerful laughter, the training grounds gradually became more lively, the energy infectious.
Do you think this is the best running style for you? Naive!
Finally, Hayato couldn't hold back anymore and reminded her. "Top Gun, the Tenno Sho Spring is coming up. You should be doing other training. Changing your running style now might prevent you from displaying your full strength."
"I-is that so?" Mayano Top Gun was a bit at a loss, like a child who'd made a mistake, her gaze wandering. She felt like that made sense, but something seemed off about the logic.
The great escape was clearly stronger than other running styles. Wouldn't learning it make me even stronger?
This trainer seems like he doesn't want Maya to learn this style. What should I do?
Seiun Sky immediately walked over and argued back, her voice rising. "Trainer, you just don't want to give away the secret of the great escape, right? What's wrong with me teaching Mayano-chan a bit? If she wants to learn, she learns. If she wants to use it, she uses it. Is she bothering you?"
"Sei-chan, you really don't need to do this..."
"No need to say more. I understand." Seiun Sky's attitude was firm as she raised her hand to interrupt, cutting him off. "If Seiun is going to win, I'll win fair and square. . There's no need to hide things. Even if I lose to Mayano-chan at the Tenno Sho Spring, I'll have no regrets."
Hayato wanted to laugh but couldn't, his expression caught between amusement and exasperation. "Fair and Square?"
Seiun, are you really that kind of Uma Musume?
"What's wrong? Can't Maya learn this running style?" Mayano Top Gun asked in a small voice, uncertainty creeping in.
"It's fine, Mayano-chan." Seiun Sky turned her head to comfort her, voice gentle. "He's just being too selfish. But it's okay, Seiun can still teach you."
"Why is he so petty? Are all adults this petty?"
"Thank you, Sei-chan. Will this cause you trouble?" Mayano felt quite guilty, having gotten the other party scolded because of her.
Sei-chan is so nice.
"It won't. Just escape with confidence. That guy won't dare say anything."
The warning was ineffective. Just like that, Mayano Top Gun's great escape continued without interruption.
Several days later.
Time flew by quickly. The Osaka Hai was held as scheduled.
---
In the future, if there is a sign (") in a dialogue, it means the Uma Musume is not speaking in her mind; if she is speaking in her mind, use (') and italics. Secondly, because in the upcoming G2 and G1 races, NPCs are not just stepping stones, there will definitely be their moments(Of course, not all of them have their moments, but only those who stand out/are runners-up, or came in third according to history.). So, whether we like it or not, they have to speak, and it might be heard by people, like what happened with Twin Turbo when cheering up Tokai Teio, who was injured, through the screen, to not give up.
Just like Obey Your Master chatting with Tamamo Cross when they're neck to neck, anything can happen because this is Uma Musume.
Fight Gulliver(Triple Tiara Crown(just one crown irl tho)) is really the coolest NPC in the later arc with Silence Suzuka... I like her...