A few days later, everything finally seemed to settle down.
Under the triple tag team of the Mejiro Family, the Gold Family, and Tracen Academy, Shadai, who was not expecting this kind of pushback, had no choice but to temporarily compromise.
They hastily retracted their previous "deal" before they tried to negotiate with Tracen Academy again under more reasonable terms; Tracen Academy refused it, of course.
Now that a majority of the key members of Tracen Academy had completely rejected Shadai's demands, and had even united with the Mejiro Family and the Gold Family to repel Shadai, even Shadai's board of directors were in chaos, not expecting such a blowback from targeting such a small team.
"So… do we back down?"
However, when someone within Shadai proposed this, they only received complete silence and glares in return.
Clearly, most people in Shadai at this moment had not learned to respect others from this incident.
Everyone knew very well that Shadai would never let this matter go. They were not some kind of charity organization, and generosity was never part of their corporate culture.
They were running a monopoly, hoping that all Uma Musume would be branded with the Shadai mark.
And because they are running a monopoly, they did not tolerate any strong rivals that could challenge their authority.
This authority was one they painstakingly created and maintained; not even the Japanese branch of the URA can easily touch it.
After all, almost all of the resources in Japan's Uma Musume scene flowed from and to Shadai.
There were some things they wanted to have in their control. Only when these resources were firmly in their own two hands could they always ensure that their dominant position would not be challenged.
No Uma Musume could defeat an Uma Musume trained by Shadai without joining Shadai as well—none!
Even if there was, in a race, though they might defeat them, they won't be able to win. Because victory could also be manipulated.
"Keep an eye on Team Miracle: all their Uma Musume, all their Trainers, all their races, past or upcoming—all of it."
"To have the gall to challenge our authority... Today, they are just a small group of new Trainers, yet they are already trying to challenge us, even daring to use the power of the Mejiro Family and the Gold Family…"
"If we let them continue growing freely like this, I can't even imagine what they would dare to do in the future."
"Go! Find out what this team's next race is. Let's give them a taste of the consequences of going against Shadai..."
"...Achoo!"
And at this moment, T.M. Opera O, who was running, suddenly sneezed, abruptly interrupting her jogging rhythm.
However, as she began to slow down, a sense of unease started to envelop her entire body.
"What's wrong? Why are you stopping? Didn't you say that you want to win the Kikuka Sho~?"
The figure of the other "T.M. Opera O" also slowly appeared next to her in mid-air. During this period, the two of them had never stopped their mutual competition and training, with T.M. Opera O's speed of progression being quite impressive.
Ever since the Shadai incident happened, Wada became so busy to the point that he no longer had the time to be as hands-on as he did with T.M. Opera O and Meisho Doto's training compared to before.
This was because Wada was the one among the three Trainers who really did NOT want to fall out with Shadai again.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the current outcome was completely different from what Wada had envisioned.
In fact, not only him and his Uma Musume, but the entire team was likely going to be on Shadai's shit list.
Faced with this situation, Wada was naturally very helpless, but he had to at least try and salvage the situation.
Therefore, Wada spent most of his time researching and discussing anti-targeting tactics with Ikezoe and Imanami.
This was his area of expertise after all. He wanted to help everyone in the team deal with getting targeted, and so, he started to provide additional lessons at the end of the day for all the team's Uma Musume.
Speaking of which, Wada was actually quite excited about this. He never once thought that one day, he would be the one who taught his colleagues and seniors.
Though he might not be as experienced as them in many areas, he sure has mastered anti-targeting tactics to perfection.
T.M. Opera O also trained diligently with Meisho Doto, not causing trouble for Wada, and their training progress was not slow at all, even growing faster than usual.
"Nothing, I just suddenly felt a chill, like someone was watching me."
T.M. Opera O also shivered uncomfortably. She, who had always been full of confidence, felt uneasy for the first time during this period as the Kikuka Sho drew closer. She asked her other self:
"Is the Kikuka Sho really going to be okay? Do you have any extra information you haven't told me?"
"How could that be? I've already told you everything that might happen in the Kikuka Sho. And actually, I'm surprised at how quickly you've grown."
"T.M. Opera O" smiled slightly when she saw her other self so lacking in confidence and said,
"But I'd say you are still quite a distance away from the ideal state for the Kikuka Sho. You've probably hit a bottleneck."
"But don't worry, you still have a while before you can surpass me, which means you still have potential to grow."
"However, if you can't surpass me before the Kikuka Sho, whether you can win it is probably an unknown."
"You aren't the only one with an insane growth rate, you know? I think there might be a few familiar faces who can bring you a huge, surprising challenge."
Saying this, "T.M. Opera O" also returned to T.M. Opera O's body.
After a moment of trance, T.M. Opera O quickly snapped out of it, showing that she has indeed grown accustomed to her other self.
Although she still couldn't bring herself to like her other self, she also admitted that her growth was inseparable from the help of her other self.
Her current growth rate had far surpassed Wada's imagination, with him even confessing several times that he could no longer actively help to train her.
In just a few months, T.M. Opera O's skill level has increased beyond Wada's own skills. This speed of growth had already left most Uma Musume from her generation far behind.
She also now understood what Symboli Rudolf meant by "realm."
Symboli Rudolf had told her before that as long as she could overcome this hurdle, she could reach a brand new level, and when she reaches it, she would achieve a realm unsurpassed by all.
But if she couldn't overcome it, she would be forever trapped on the other side. Though with this condition, her growth rate became astonishing.
T.M. Opera O finally understood why Symboli Rudolf had shown a rare look of envy when she learned of her situation.
"—What an incredible time, T.M. Opera O. Judging by your current average speed and stamina, you'll definitely have no problem with the Kikuka Sho. You can immediately secure a favorable position and get the best starting advantage."
At this moment, a female voice from not far away interrupted T.M. Opera O's thoughts.
However, when this female voice sounded, a barely perceptible trace of aversion flashed across T.M. Opera O's face, though she quickly suppressed it.
Turning to look, sure enough, the person who came was Fumino Nase—this strong-headed woman who joined Team Miracle as Wada's assistant.
She had given T.M. Opera O a not-so-good impression from their very first meeting.
T.M. Opera O herself didn't know where this aversion came from, and her other self had never explained it, but from the tone of her other self, the other party also disliked Fumino Nase, even more than she herself did.
"Ah, isn't that Ryuji's assistant? I've seen you busy all this time. Have you been teaching Ryuji well?"
"Well, Trainer Wada and everyone else have been very busy lately, so teaching has been temporarily put on hold. I've also been helping everyone deal with…"
Fumino Nase opened her mouth but ultimately did not proactively bring up the matter with Shadai.
She was unfortunately not aware that everyone in the team, including the Uma Musume, were already aware of the matter with Shadai.
In fact, she was actually the last one in the team to know about it, solely because Wada made an off-handed remark about it days later.
After understanding the situation, Fumino Nase also made many efforts to negotiate with the people on Shadai's side—for she herself was an unofficial Shadai employee.
After she left Tracen Academy, Shadai was the one who sponsored her studies and work, but she had not officially joined Shadai.
She certainly understood the seriousness of this matter, and now the team had an irreconcilable relationship with Shadai.
Though her choice was to stay within the team, she was still trying her best to mend the relationship between the two sides.
"Anyways, you have been doing great so far—however, I think your training, T.M. Opera O, also needs supervision."
"So, for today's training period, if you don't mind, how about I —"
"—Ah ha ha ha ha! Sorry Trainer Nase, I just remembered that I left something in my dorm. I'll take my leave here."
However, before Fumino Nase could even finish speaking, T.M. Opera O had clearly anticipated what the other party was going to say.
After her pupils slightly narrowed, she let out a burst of laughter, suppressing her inner impulse, and then turned and left without hesitation.
"Ah, wait—"
Fumino Nase subconsciously reached out her hand, but T.M. Opera O didn't give her a chance to say anything more, uncharacteristically and somewhat impolitely running off.
This very strong feeling of being avoided made Fumino Nase silently lower her hand.
"…What's going on? Am I disliked?"
Fumino certainly knew T.M. Opera O's reaction had a hint of aversion to it.
However, what Fumino couldn't understand was what it was that she had done to make T.M. Opera O dislike her this much.
She barely had any chance to interact with her at all in the first place, so why was the other party so uncooperative?
'Perhaps I should ask Meisho Doto?' Fumino thought to herself.
She felt that she might be able to get an answer from this somewhat timid but kind-hearted Uma Musume.
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Poor Fumino Nase...
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If you spot any errors, feel free to comment about it and I will fix it as soon as I can.