At the bench by the bulletin board.
"Let's leave it at that for now. Tomorrow at 8 AM, remember to report to the training room."
Having just been promoted, Hayato had lots to do and couldn't stick around.
"Huh?"
Daiwa Scarlet didn't say anything more. She just kept spacing out, replaying Hayato's words from the cafeteria in her mind. By the time she snapped back to reality, she realized Hayato had already left.
With an additional new office, Hayato needed to tidy it up.
This place couldn't be as messy as the training room, it looked like a storage closet.
The office had a decent amount of space, like a spacious hall. Besides a dedicated desk, there was also a computer.
There was a bookshelf for storing documents and books.
Inside the office was also a small room, about five or six square meters, with a rack specifically for miscellaneous items. After tidying it up, it could be used to store trophies.
The sun rose in the east.
Seiun Sky was the first to enter the training room. She was yawning, about to lie down on the couch for a quick nap, when she noticed the entire training room seemed to be missing a lot of things. "Huh? Did we get robbed?"
"Robbed?" Halo King, the second to arrive, asked as she walked in. "Seiun, what are you talking about? How could there be thieves at Tracen?"
The moment she finished speaking, shock appeared on her face.
Even though she couldn't believe it, she immediately noticed the training room was much more spacious.
"The trainer's bookshelf, books, the cabinet, the bag... where are all the things? Where did everything go?"
"And my beloved sofa!!" Seiun Sky looked heartbroken at where the couch used to be.
She remembered that the sofa was teal blue, her favorite among all the training rooms.
"Oh no, my trophy!" Only then did she rush to check on her trophy.
"Eh?! Where's the trophy cabinet?" Her tail shot straight up in alarm.
By the time Hayato arrived, before he even entered, he heard Seiun Sky shouting. "This is bad, trainer! Our training room got robbed!"
Hayato found it somewhat amusing.
"That's impossible. This is Tracen tho."
Training rooms at Tracen didn't need locked doors, and there was no need to worry about thieves.
Besides the high surveillance, there wouldn't be any Uma Musume who'd steal things here. If there really were such Uma Musume, doors couldn't stop them anyway. Regular walls wouldn't work either.
Plus, with someone like Hayakawa Tazuna, that terrifyingly capable chairwoman's secretary around, no thief had dared break into Tracen at night so far. Even Gold Ship, the most random Uma Musume of them all, didn't dare do anything that might offend Tazuna.
"But, but..."
It was rare to see Seiun Sky look panicked. Hayato seemed to suddenly remember something and slapped his thigh. "Oh, right. I moved those things to my office."
"Wait, trainer, did you get promoted?" Seiun Sky blinked twice. Seeing that Hayato's chest didn't have a badge, she finally knew where the missing things went.
"Yeah. Yesterday, as soon as I got back, Tazuna-san called me over, then I changed badges."
Hearing Hayato had moved them, they finally felt relieved.
Before long, everyone had arrived. Hayato explained the promotion situation and the new team member.
"I'm Daiwa Scarlet. Please take care of me."
"I'm Urara."
"I'm Seiun Sky. Welcome to the team."
After introductions, Hayato began arranging their training. The most urgent was Halo King's training, the Satsuki Sho was coming up.
Seiun Sky's Tennō Shō Spring was a month away. Silence Suzuka's next race, the Yūshun Himba, was in June, also coming up soon.
Suzuka's training required plenty of stamina work, and she needed to get more familiar with mid-to-long distance races.
After finishing the schedule, Daiwa Scarlet didn't go train. Instead, she said, "Trainer, aren't you going to teach me the Great Escape strategy first? Shouldn't training focus on running style?"
"You're right. Before training, let me explain the running style to you. You're a model student, so you might know more than me, but I still need to teach you some knowledge you can't learn elsewhere."
Half an hour later, Daiwa Scarlet had a basic understanding of the running style concept. She'd really learned quite a bit.
Just as she was happily about to close her notebook, "Thanks for the lesson... wait, hold on. You still haven't explained how Uma Musume can still accelerate late in the race after running in great escape strategy?"
"Uma Musume can't accelerate in the late stages after using great escape."
"Yeah, figured as much." Daiwa Scarlet smiled with her eyes closed, then suddenly stood up, grabbing one of Hayato's hands and twisting it behind his back. "As if I'd believe that."
"Ow, wait! Scarlet, let me explain..."
Screams echoed from the training room.
"Go ahead, I'm listening." Daiwa Scarlet said through gritted teeth, though her grip didn't loosen.
"Not every Uma Musume is suited for great escape. Seiun Sky and Suzuka are just special cases because of their skills. You're the same, without a special move for late acceleration, using great escape or pace-chaser wouldn't be better than using a Late-Surger strategy."
Daiwa Scarlet seemed to understand. The meaning was that she wasn't suited for Great Escape, and even using it wouldn't let her accelerate in the late stages like Silence Suzuka.
She released Hayato's hand, feeling dejected. "I thought I could learn a worthwhile running style. So it's not like that? Then what was all that I did before for?"
Daiwa Scarlet felt extremely disappointed now. If she couldn't learn that Great Escape acceleration ability, she might as well not have come.
Quitting the team wasn't an option either. After yesterday's incident that caused such an uproar, leaving right after joining would be way too weird.
"Sigh!" All she could do was let out a sigh.
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Btw, the illustration will be on the comment.