Chapter 14
The next morning, when Yasui Makoto saw Kitasan Black, he immediately noticed that his horse girl looked even more energetic and radiant than the previous days.
After asking briefly, he learned that she had received encouragement and support from her friend. He offered a few words of praise as well, then began today's morning training.
They started with a light jog to warm up, followed by checking the homework from last night — reviewing the hand gestures and sitting postures.
Once he confirmed everything was correct, he taught her a few new hand gestures and one new standing posture.
"Trainer, this posture… feels really weird…"
Standing on one tiptoe while the other leg and calf dangled loosely behind her, with both hands hanging in front like a kangaroo and her back and head stretched forward, Kitasan Black felt like she looked like a thief sneaking around.
The morning training spot was on the academy sports field. There were other students doing morning exercises nearby.
Seeing Kitasan Black's strange posture, many of them gave her weird looks or covered their mouths and giggled.
"It does look a bit strange."
Not denying the oddity of the posture he taught, Yasui Makoto said casually:
"But so what if it's strange? Are you going to stop practicing?
"Or are you planning to look around left and right like this during an actual race?"
Kitasan Black jolted.
"Oh right, during a race I have to stay fully focused…
"I understand, Trainer! I'll train seriously!"
Yasui Makoto nodded secretly. After confirming that Kitasan Black was focused on training, he opened the trainer-exclusive interface on his tablet.
The trainer interface was linked to the horse girl's race account, allowing him to see changes in fan numbers.
501… She gained more than 100 fans since yesterday?
It seemed that not only within the industry, but even in the fan community, the evaluation of Kitasan wasn't particularly high.
According to the standard racing procedures, once a horse girl and trainer signed a contract, the Tracen Academy would report it to the URA Association immediately. The association would then create the official race account within one or two working days.
At the same time, partner platforms would push information about the horse girl across various sites.
Fans who found a horse girl impressive or already had some reputation could follow her and interact by commenting or sending fan votes.
Compared to others in the same generation, Kitasan Black's pre-debut evaluation was clearly not great.
For example, the young lady from the Satono family they saw yesterday.
Although the Satono family had only entered the Sparkle Series in recent years, they spared no expense in funding and nurturing their horse girls.
They had also produced several successful racers, which meant Satono Crown already had over 10,000 fans even before her debut race.
After two consecutive victories, her fan count had now surpassed 100,000.
100,000 fans was an important threshold — only with that many could a horse girl participate in OP-level races and above.
Otherwise, they could only compete in Pre-OP races, or switch to dirt tracks, steeplechase, or local circuits.
In comparison, Kitasan Black's fan count didn't even reach a fraction of Satono Crown's, both before and after debut.
However, looking at his horse girl's rather bleak fan numbers, Yasui Makoto didn't feel discouraged at all. He simply nodded and closed the linked interface, switching back to the training screen.
Kitasan Black was not the type of horse girl who looked like a genius at first glance.
If anyone could be called a genius, it would be someone like Tokai Teio — who debuted as the most popular and heavily favored horse, winning all the way to the Japanese Derby.
It wasn't that his horse girl lacked talent. Many trainers had already noticed her extraordinary strength and exceptionally healthy physique.
The problem was that converting that talent into actual racing ability wasn't easy, which was why her evaluations since enrolling had remained low.
In such a situation, having few fans was perfectly normal.
But since he knew exactly how to convert her talent and possessed advanced training methods far ahead of this era, he wasn't worried about fans at all.
"Alright, hold it there."
While operating the tablet, Yasui Makoto was also monitoring Kitasan Black's training status. He had set a timer, so the tablet immediately alerted him when it was time to stop.
"This posture, combined with the ones I taught you yesterday, should be practiced the same way.
"Once in the morning, once at noon, and once in the evening. Don't do more, and don't do less.
"Later, I'll gradually teach you the full set of postures. Completing the entire set will take about half an hour.
"Once you've learned everything, I'll help you adjust the exact training schedule."
When Yasui Makoto called for a stop, Kitasan Black obediently stood up straight, then lightly stretched her legs and arms. She looked a little surprised.
"Trainer, your training methods are really strange…
"At first it felt really uncomfortable and awkward, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
"And after holding it for so long, I don't even feel tired. This kind of training…"
She tilted her head curiously.
"What exactly is it for?"
When he taught her yesterday, Yasui Makoto hadn't explained what the postures were meant to achieve.
These postures were a type of training from his previous world. Short-term practice had little effect; only long-term persistence brought results.
However, he had already prepared an explanation. Since Kitasan Black had been too excited and curious yesterday to ask, he hadn't brought it up.
"You can think of it as a special kind of cultivation."
He gave a casual explanation, then looked around. Spotting a flowerbed nearby, he motioned for the surprised Kitasan Black to follow him.
Walking over to the flowerbed, he searched for a moment and picked up a flat, fist-sized cobblestone.
"Can you…"
He held the cobblestone up in front of Kitasan Black and carefully chose his words.
"Smash this stone with one punch… or kick it apart?"
"…Trainer, are you joking?"
Kitasan Black stared at him in confusion for a moment. Seeing that he seemed serious, she became both stunned and troubled.
"This… such a big cobblestone. If it were a tile or something, I could probably kick it apart, but a stone like this…"
"I see. Then watch closely."
Nodding, Yasui Makoto placed the cobblestone on the edge of the flowerbed, squatted down slightly, and stared intently at the center line of the stone.
Then, with a sharp breath and a low shout, he raised his hand like a blade and struck down hard at the center of the cobblestone.
"Trainer?! You…"
Kitasan Black had been watching his preparation with uncertainty. Only when he actually struck did she realize her trainer was serious. She started to cry out, but suddenly fell silent.
A moment later.
"Eh—?! It… it split?!"
"Yeah, it split."
Holding half of the cobblestone in each hand, Yasui Makoto looked at Kitasan Black.
"My strength is obviously far inferior to yours, but my control over strength is undoubtedly far superior.
"There are many techniques involved in splitting this cobblestone, but you don't need to learn those.
"You only need to know that the postures I'm teaching you are meant to help you master your terrifying power.
"When the day comes that you fully control that power — when you can concentrate all your strength into your legs and feet…
"I can guarantee that your speed will be unmatched by anyone."
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Bonus chapters
200 Stones - 1 chapter
400 Stones - 2 chapter
600 Stones - 3 chapters
And so on