After the tiring day wrapped up, Hayato and Urara made their way to the cafeteria. The cafeteria lady spotted them immediately and handed over a large plate piled with food, smiling warmly. "You, kid, not bad."
Hayato felt his face heat up slightly. "Thank you."
"When are you planning to have Urara debut?" Before Hayato could step away, she grabbed his tray with one hand. Her grip was absolute iron, and despite being an older woman, her strength was incredible. The tray didn't budge even slightly, no matter how hard he tried to pull it.
Tracen Academy really doesn't have a single normal person here.
"Next year, I guess." Hayato let out an awkward laugh, giving up on retrieving his tray. "I don't plan to have her debut this year. I hope she'll never have another day of failure and will always keep smiling."
The weaker Urara was compared to other uma musume, the more careful he needed to be with her. Rushing things would only lead to more heartbreak.
"Then you'd better work hard." She finally released the tray, satisfied with his answer.
The training continued for five more days straight. By the end of it, Urara had grasped the basic essentials of the closer running style.
Next came training to improve her concentration, practicing starts over and over, all day long.
Starting late meant she'd generally be about 0.3 seconds slower than a normal start. In a race that only lasted one or two minutes, every single second was precious. If you could run a kilometer in a minute, then in just one second you'd already be pulled sixteen meters behind the pack.
Time flew by after that.
The Classic Triple Crown and Triple Tiara races were rapidly approaching. As strong contenders for both crowns, King Halo and Silence Suzuka naturally became the focus of intense attention.
A whole batch of reporters descended on Tracen, wanting to conduct advance investigative interviews. A press conference was scheduled for a few days out as well.
This kind of media circus was genuinely troublesome. Fortunately, these particular reporters were reasonably well-behaved, they stuck to watching from a distance and taking photos, not constantly swarming to bombard everyone with questions.
If they started interfering with actual training, though, Hayato was fully prepared to chase them off with a broom.
One afternoon, Etsuko Otonashi appeared wearing her signature bright smile. "Hi! How have you been lately, Mr. Hayato? We meet again."
"Yeah, pretty good. Thanks for your concern." Hayato's teeth ground together as he remembered the last magazine issue. That smile didn't fool him for a second.
"I'm here to conduct this month's magazine interview." She pulled out her notepad, all business. "Your uma musume are participating in both April's Satsuki Sho and Sakura Sho. Can you reveal any secrets about your approach?"
"No comment."
"What about running style preferences or winning strategies?"
"None."
"Okay then." Etsuko Otonashi didn't even hesitate. She picked up her pen and wrote directly: "Great escape, escape all the way."
"Does Mr. Hayato have confidence in your uma musume for these races?"
"No..."
Etsuko Otonashi's pen stopped moving. She looked up at him, eyebrows raised.
Then Hayato continued, his voice carrying absolute certainty. "This year, I'm taking them all."
It was more than confidence. It overflowed completely, spilling into every word without restraint.
Etsuko Otonashi's brain short-circuited for a solid moment. Her pen froze mid-air as she processed what she'd just heard, mentally confirming that those words definitely hadn't come from her own mouth.
"Wow, Trainer Hayato really has incredible spirit!" She gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up, grinning widely. "I'm really looking forward to watching these races!"
When Urara came back from her training session, she spotted Etsuko Otonashi, and her eyes went wide with curiosity. "Has the escape runner trainer recruited another little uma musume genius? Who's this?"
"I'm Urara." Urara stepped forward immediately, smile brilliant and open. "Urara trains very hard! My goal is first place!"
"Wow, you really are a new member! Very motivated too!" Etsuko Otonashi's excitement kicked into high gear as she picked up her pen again, already preparing to interview this fresh face.
"Uh... that, Urara isn't quite as amazing as you might think. Don't make random assumptions based on—"
Before Hayato could finish his attempt at damage control, Urara kept talking with complete innocent openness. "Urara's dream is the Arima Kinen, because it's a race you can only participate in if you have lots and lots of fans. There will be so many people watching."
"Wow, what a grand dream!" Etsuko Otonashi clenched her fist excitedly, already thinking about all the angles for her article.
Getting advance intel on new team members was part of a good writer's job, after all. She could already tell this issue of the magazine was going to sell incredibly well.
"Hey, hey..." Hayato tried to intervene but found himself completely powerless to stop the runaway train.
Four months had passed, and Tracen had once again gathered twelve exceptionally powerful uma musume for competition.
The top favorite going into this race was Grass Wonder, who'd dominated several selection races.
"Is it starting?" King Halo shoved her way through the packed crowd until she reached the front, then waved enthusiastically at the track. "Go, Grass-chan!"
Hayato, Seiun Sky, Urara, and Silence Suzuka squeezed through the mass of people shortly after.
"Go, Grass-chan!"
"Go, Grass Wonder!"
The moment Grass Wonder spotted Hayato in the crowd, confidence surged through her like electricity. Her fighting spirit ignited hot and fierce, determination blazing in her eyes.
Today, none of you is my opponent.
Hayato pulled up her current stats mentally:
Grass Wonder
Stamina: 96/100 Excellent
Speed: 188
Stamina: 134
Power: 179
Guts: 139
Wits: 153
Track Aptitude: Turf A, Dirt G
Distance Aptitude: Sprint G, Mile A, Medium B, Long A
Running Style Aptitude: Front Runner F, Pace-Chaser A, Late-Surger A, End-Closer F
Skill 1: Slick Surge (Normal/Gold) — Acceleration power slightly increases in the late race.
Skill 2: On Your Left! (Normal/Gold) — Speed slightly increases during the final sprint stage.
This version of Grass Wonder had become even stronger than before, especially with those two newly awakened gold skills added to her arsenal. Hayato suspected King Halo's dominating performance in her race had left too deep an impression, pushing Grass Wonder to evolve.
Regardless of the reason, Grass Wonder was absolutely certain to win this race. The uma musume on the field today genuinely weren't her opponents. No wonder she radiated that level of confidence.
She might even shift away from her previous pace-chaser running style to focus mainly on perfecting the closer approach. A Grass Wonder built around that style would be leagues stronger than her old form.
The second favorite was listed as number 3: Gold Ship.
Hearing that name, Hayato couldn't help but turn his gaze over to watch.
Gold Ship immediately struck what she clearly thought was an extremely cool pose, something like a dramatic thinker's stance.
Except it wasn't cool at all. It was weird and mechanically stiff, her movements jerky and unnatural. Her head turned with robotic precision toward the camera.
The instant she faced the lens directly, she widened her eyes dramatically and pulled the most frightening expression her face could manage.