"Uh… hello?"
The horse girl standing before her carried an overwhelming presence. She was already a little taller than Dyna to begin with, and with those high heels on, she completely dominated her in stature.
Dyna had never even felt this powerless in front of Orfevre. Being taller was bad enough, but adding heels on top of that was just unfair.
"Hello. First, I owe you an apology. I've been here all this time, and yet I'm only meeting you now. Just like Cody's Wish said, I've been hiding myself away." She extended a hand toward Dyna and waited. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Sea the Stars. The horse-girl soul of Sea the Stars."
Dyna's brain stalled for a moment.
It wasn't as though she had never heard the name Sea the Stars before, but the actual horse girl standing in front of her looked absolutely nothing like the image she had built up in her head.
As the inheritor of the hopes placed upon the Sea the Stars line by that Chinese mother and child, Dyna had always imagined Sea the Stars as some flawless honor student, the kind of perfect model girl who excelled at everything.
But the woman before her had absolutely nothing to do with the phrase perfect student.
Never mind the bold outfit—just the tattoos on her arms and shoulders alone looked like enough to get her thrown straight into detention.
Sea the Stars wore a yellow, blue, and black midriff-baring top, with golden ornaments fastened through the lacing at her chest. One arm was covered by a long black glove with intricate patterns; the other wore only a short black glove. A black belt with metallic buckles wrapped around her waist. Her deep-blue low-rise flared pants had slits and tassels along the hems, and black high heels completed the look. Behind her floated a sheer, airy layer printed with waves and starlight.
And, most importantly of all, sea-and-star tattoos ran across her arms.
"Uh? Right now? I mean, I can… but Miss Sea the Stars, that outfit…"
"Oh? This?" Sea the Stars glanced down at herself. "It's my race outfit. It was made for racing, so of course I can run in it."
Her black lace-gloved fingers rubbed together—and she snapped them.
The world around them instantly rebuilt itself.
When Dyna looked again, they were standing in the setting of her next race—
Tokyo Racecourse.
Sea the Stars was a woman of action, apparently. And this was the first time Dyna had ever had a horse girl in her race outfit personally spar with her.
As for the result…
Naturally, Dyna was utterly crushed by Sea the Stars on the course best suited for Japanese horse girls.
"Guh… ngh…"
Dyna woke from that far-from-gentle dream feeling like lead.
"O-Oguri…? Oguri?"
She called softly a few times, but got no response. Supporting herself against the bed, she stood up and saw that the sheets and blanket on the Simmons bed had already been neatly arranged. Oguri Cap had apparently gotten up early and left.
Dyna went to the bathroom, scooped up a handful of cold water, and splashed it over her face. Once she felt a little more awake, she took out her card case, slipped the newly obtained Sea the Stars card inside, and tucked the case into her pajama pocket.
Maybe because she had been so thoroughly drilled in the dream, her whole body now felt stiff and uncooperative. The sheer force of a horse girl who had won six G1s in a single year and broken through encirclement was simply not something a novice racer like Dyna could withstand.
After all, Sea the Stars had been slaughtering the G1 circuit while Dyna was still running G2s.
Downstairs, Oguri Cap was already cleaning as usual. Dyna glanced at the clock and saw that it was past seven. So she had overslept.
"Good morning, Boss Lady. Are we opening today?"
"Of course—ow, my neck hurts…" Dyna grimaced, then suddenly thought of something. "By the way, Oguri, do you know how I'm supposed to get a race outfit? I'm running in the Satsuki Sho soon, so I definitely need one…"
She remembered what Sea the Stars had said in the dream, and then remembered France—where she had been the only one on the track wearing a bright red training uniform. She really did not want to relive that humiliation.
Oguri squatted on the floor, tying up a trash bag, and thought it over. Her own race outfit had been handled entirely by Mr. Rokuhira Ginjiro, and back then she herself had not known much about any of this. So all she could do was answer honestly.
"I'm not really sure either. But the school probably has a proper route for it. Outside, you'd probably need to find a tailor yourself. The most important part of a race outfit isn't actually the clothes—it's the blessing of the Three Goddesses. That's what lets a horse girl run at her best on the track."
"I see… got it." Dyna scratched her head. It looked like she would have to ask Wada about it. She would bring it up when she saw him. For now, what she needed to do was go back upstairs, take another hot shower, and loosen up this stiff body.
By the time Dyna finished getting ready and came back down in her work uniform, Gold Ship and Nagasakura had both arrived and taken their stations.
Nagasakura honestly could not understand Dyna. By all logic, with less than a month left before the Satsuki Sho, there was no way she should still have the mind to keep running the shop.
But if the manager wanted to do it, there had to be a reason for it.
Nagasakura only needed to believe in her.
In the end, though, Dyna stayed in the shop for only the morning. Right after lunch, she headed straight for Tracen Academy.
After all, that was the best place to train.
Inside Wada's training room at Tracen Academy, Curren Cima was trying her best to make sense of the training plan Wada had written up. But for an older horse girl, it was simply too complicated.
After just a few minutes, she closed the stack of papers with a grave expression.
"You understood it?" T.M. Opera O asked from the side as she bit into a freshly bought crepe. When Curren Cima shook her head, Opera O nearly choked.
Wada, meanwhile, was worrying himself sick over Curren Cima's next race.
This year, she was three starts for one win, with one win and one second-place finish in OP company, plus a runner-up finish in a JPN3 dirt stakes. It was a good start.
From here on, Curren Cima needed to keep that momentum going and keep challenging graded races.
Wada absolutely could not let her drop back down below OP class again.
"The next race for Dyna is the Satsuki Sho in Tokyo on April 24. As for Curren Cima… I think it might be time for her to take on a central dirt stakes."
Staring at the race schedule, Wada looked like he was about to go bald. Curren Cima needed to keep racing to maintain a good competitive state, and unlike many horse girls, she improved primarily through actual races. Ordinary training was not especially effective for her.
There was a suitable central dirt stakes coming up soon, but the date gave Wada a headache.
"April 24. Hanshin Racecourse. G3 Dirt. The Sirius Stakes."
He circled the race. Eighteen hundred meters on dirt—right in Curren Cima's comfort zone.
But it was on the same day as the Satsuki Sho.
"Huh?" Curren Cima leaned in, eyes bright with interest. She understood the problem too. Wada had to choose between her and Dyna. Dyna was technically outside the formal stable structure, while Curren Cima was one of his contracted horse girls.
"Well~ Trainer, G1s come first, don't they?" Curren Cima said understandingly.
The moment she said it, Opera O shot the idea down.
She snatched Wada's pen, drew a bright pink circle around the Satsuki Sho, folded her arms, and declared, "I'll go to Tokyo and look after Dyna. Wada can go to Hanshin with Curren Cima. Isn't that a perfectly simple division of labor? I understand Dyna very well."
It really did sound like the perfect solution.
And Curren Cima had no objection at all.
Knock knock knock.
Someone tapped at the door. Curren Cima went to answer it.
Outside stood Dyna, already dressed in training clothes and carrying a bag over one shoulder. After politely saying, "Sorry to bother you," she stepped into the room.
"Everyone's here… good afternoon?"
"Good afternoon, Miss Dyna~" Curren Cima replied in her characteristically slow, elderly tone, handing her a biscuit.
Dyna did not refuse. She took the biscuit, ate it, and then said, "Um, Mr. Wada. I wanted to ask you for a favor."
"Hm? Your Satsuki Sho training plan's already been drafted. The only thing left now is to carry it out. What else is there?"
"It's about the race outfit. Back in France I was the only one on the track wearing training gear. I absolutely can't let that happen again at the Satsuki Sho. But I don't really have any route for getting one outside the school… so I have to ask you for help."
Dyna gave a completely honest explanation, her fingers already awkwardly tangling together in front of her lower abdomen.
As a horse girl, only remembering race outfits right before a race…
This was way too embarrassing.
Wada suddenly jolted upright.
Right.
The race outfit.
He had treated Dyna so much like a normal horse girl that he had forgotten all about the damn thing.
He hurriedly pulled the trainer's handbook out from the bottom of a stack of books. Inside were the contact details for the academy's tailors. Since Curren Cima had gotten her race outfit made two years earlier, and no horse girl in his stable had made it to a G1 since then, he had gradually let that whole subject slip right out of his head.
"I almost completely forgot about this! Damn, damn… can they make one in less than a month?"
He contacted the tailor who had once worked with Opera O, only to learn that her schedule was already packed. She could not take Dyna's commission.
At that point, Curren Cima's finger suddenly landed on another name.
"Trainer… what about this one?"
Wada looked.
This was a tailor at the academy who was rather obscure. Her actual craftsmanship was excellent, but her design sense was notoriously catastrophic. Only horse girls who already came in with very detailed concepts ever sought her out.
That said, she worked fast, and the quality of her output was extremely high.
Which made sense. Most horse girls simply did not have the mental bandwidth to dream up intricate costume designs. In those cases, you needed a tailor's magic touch.
She definitely had room in her schedule.
But…
"Does Dyna actually have a design?"
Everyone in the room turned to look at her.
The party in question waved both hands in front of her chest. "I-I only have a few vague ideas… I'm not sure that makes me a good match for a tailor like that…"
"If Miss Dyna trusts me…" Curren Cima said with a gentle smile, "you can tell me your ideas. I'll design it for you."
After all, her own race outfit had been designed by her personally. Granted, the main color had been an absolutely terrible shade of pink, but thanks to clever design choices it had still ended up distinctive and beautiful in its own way.
"Huh? But wouldn't that be a huge hassle…?"
"Not at all~ Just give me a day."
And so, the entire afternoon vanished into discussions in the training room about race outfit design.
When Dyna finally left Tracen Academy at dusk, she let out a long breath.
She had never expected Curren Cima to be this good at design too.
"All right then," Dyna murmured to herself as she walked away, "from here on out, it's full focus on training for the Satsuki Sho."
Everything else had been cleared away.
From this point forward, there was only one objective left—
Victory in the Satsuki Sho.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 132)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter140)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter95)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter165)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 145
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 135
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 95
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 155
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 125
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 105
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 62
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 80
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 80
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 62
Uma Musume: I Want All 65
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
Summoning an Evil God, but the 41
Supernatural Multiverse 45
My Harem Is Indescribable 35
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 46
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