"Still training at this hour? It seems that the truth isn't what you said, is it?"
Kazuo slowly emerged from the shadows. He had been standing there observing for a long time.
However, this time he didn't speak to stop her, but waited until Daijin stopped before stepping out.
Tilting her head and wiping the sweat from her forehead, Daijin instantly showed a wary expression.
Her delicate eyebrows furrowed, she glared at him with an unhappy look:
"Huh…? What is it, you… why is it you again…?"
"You think you can't outrun them, right? It's about time you realized, isn't it? Your own ability and your current situation, how much chance do you really think you have!?"
Daijin slowly straightened her back, gradually calming her breathing.
"…It has nothing to do with you, does it?"
She made to leave, but Kazuo stepped in front of her, blocking her path.
With her small stature, Daijin barely reached his chest.
When seen up close, Daijin seemed so small that he could almost pick her up like a child with both hands—
However, Kazuo stared intently at her and slowly said.
"I don't want to see you lose like this. It's about time you looked around, isn't it? Are you still planning to—"
"Ugh… Aaaah, enough, enough! So annoying, so annoying! Both of you!"
Her long-silent heart finally erupted at this moment, the girl screaming at the top of her lungs. Her voice was the only sound on the entire track. She struggled with all her might, as if trying to break free from restraints. This was the darkest side hidden in her heart, and all the accumulated emotions she had suppressed for so long.
Kazuo kept pricking her nerves, and finally, unable to endure it any longer, Daijin chose to explode.
Ignoring the person in front of her, or rather, as if seeing something further away. She stomped her feet, waving her fists as if insane.
"'Don't be reckless, it's dangerous to continue like this, stop now. Your efforts are meaningless!' That's what you want to say, right! You're all the same anyway! 'You're not cut out for this'—one by one, every single one! You all look at me like that, it's been like this since before! I don't need your gazes, shut up! I've always been able to do these things alone!"
"'You're too short,' 'Your limbs are too fragile,' 'Your physique is no good, you can't handle the intensity! You're not an Uma Musume suited for racing.' Besides standing in front of me and negating me, what else, what else can you all do!!!"
"Enough already! It's really enough! All of this… all of this, all of it!!!!"
The girl strained to lift her head, like a desperate struggle when flailing in water.
"All of it!!!! I'm sick of hearing it!!!!"
She vented, she roared, she shrieked like a trapped beast. The small girl, hoarse from screaming, released all the pressure she had accumulated throughout her life in front of Kazuo.
She panted, her head bowed low, wondering what exactly she was thinking in that instant.
Kazuo said nothing, merely looking down at her, his eyes devoid of any emotion.
Because he already knew everything, everything about the girl in front of him.
So—
"...Giving up... is absolutely impossible."
As if a brief calm after an outburst, the girl slowly said, "No matter what others say... no matter how others see me, I will stand on the racetrack. Those who mock me? Those who look down on me, I will prove to everyone—that I am the one who belongs under this sky, the one who can stand at the finish line of the race!"
"You all better watch! My home is here, this is where I truly belong! So... so..."
Her voice grew softer and softer.
Kazuo slowly closed his eyes, then straightened his chest and shouted loudly, "Prove all of this with your strength!! Retaliate against them with the smile you show after victory!"
"You are Narita Taishin, a racer with absolute sprinting speed! You possess infinite possibilities, you are absolutely capable of performing miracles!"
What replayed in his mind were all the countless videos showing her posture, and the value revealed by the data.
Daijin clearly hadn't expected Kazuo in front of her to suddenly do this; even she herself was awed by Kazuo's Kiai (Fighting Spirit).
He was clearly acting like an idiot, saying meaningless words.
But there was something slightly different about him compared to others.
He fiercely, fiercely, carved a large hole in her closed-off heart.
What is it... what are you saying... "You're not suited for the leading pack, there's no need to use your disadvantages to compete with others. Rather than controlling the race pace and gaining an advantage from the start, you're more suited to staying behind and conserving energy. That's right, from the early stages, depending on the situation, use the least amount of stamina to follow the main group. Even if the ranking widens significantly, it doesn't matter, as long as you control the distance and keep your position relative to the leader from being too far back before the middle section!"
"Ha!? Are you kidding me!? A huge presence like Biwa Hayahide, letting her get ahead is like surrendering!? Once she accelerates, what chance do I have?"
Daijin clearly disagreed with Kazuo's suggestion, but at this moment, she didn't realize that, under these circumstances, she had already begun to listen to someone else's voice.
"Your absolute acceleration power is not weaker than any of theirs!!!"
Kazuo responded loudly, as if wanting to convey his conviction.
"Wh-..."
"It doesn't matter if you fall behind, it doesn't matter if you don't fight for the lead. What you need to do is conserve energy, start accelerating slowly in the middle section, and then in the final two or even three waves, release everything you have without reservation."
"Even if it's an outside run, you don't need to fight them for the inside advantage, because—you are the Oni-legged Daijin!!!"
"Wh-... How do you know... that..."
When she heard that nickname from Kazuo, the visible tremor on her face was clear.
However, Kazuo held her shoulders and stared at her seriously:
"Because... there are still many people in this world who are watching you. You are by no means alone..."
The conviction in his eyes was a strong, inexplicable emotion, no less intense than Daijin's desire for victory.
This was an existence she had never touched, never known, never felt.
Daijin panicked for the first time; she didn't know how to deal with all of this, and almost instinctively, she raised her foot again.
"Ah!!!"
Kazuo fell to the ground a second time, rubbing his foot... "Id-idiot! Who wants to listen to you! Are you a hot-blooded fool!? That's enough! I'm leaving!!"
Seeing Daijin about to leave, Kazuo, still on the ground, didn't forget to shout loudly:
"Conserve your strength, and burst forth at the time you believe is right at the end; you will definitely win, I believe in you!!!"
The consequence of his actions was that the small girl's speed in fleeing the scene increased by several folds.
Seeing Daijin almost out of sight... Kazuo slowly stood up, "Ouch, ouch, ouch... Although she probably held back, it's still a bit much to handle..."
But, it must have been conveyed, right?
She must have heard it clearly... It's not enough yet, her mental defenses haven't been completely breached, she still needs to be pulled out of her closed-off world... Only after understanding Daijin's past did he realize why he wanted to do all of this.
So,
It's still not enough.
However, everything was proceeding according to the plan.
Standing alone on the empty racetrack, Kazuo felt an indescribable surge of emotion in his heart.
From now on, it was no longer her battle alone.
"Hmm, the law of victory has been determined!"
Asama Kazutomi, occasionally, also wanted to say such cool lines.
This is the third update today. There will be one more update today, and then I'll write a short thank-you note for the release. The last few chapters of this volume will likely be paid content. For details, I'll explain in my note tomorrow morning.
As expected, this book has reached this point.
How to put it, looking back, how much time has passed since this book started?
It started on May 7th, and in the 20 days since, nearly 150,000 words have been updated.
If that's not enough to show the update frequency, you can look at the update volume I screenshotted for the 24th.
At least, I want to make one thing clear: my book's update speed is genuinely not slow, at least among Uma Musume novels, it's considered very diligent.
But even so, the book group is constantly rushing me every day, like they're rushing a birth. Besides discussing how to raise Uma Musume, the group either harasses the author or is on the way to harassing the author.
I won't even mention the 'Five-Update Warm Man' tag where people gave me downvotes.
Things like 'transgender,' 'gay,' 'loli'—they insult me all day long.
What the hell is this now? Can someone explain—
Ahem, I've strayed a bit.
There are a few reasons for writing this book.
I genuinely wanted to write a youth-oriented, inspiring romantic comedy novel. Rather than just pure enjoyment, I wanted to write about mutual growth, mutual reliance, deep bonds between them, and stories of teams striving together in competitive sports.
Regarding the choice of the male lead, I ultimately chose a newcomer with talent but zero experience. Perhaps something like a retired ace returning would be easier to create exciting moments.
But since it's about mutual growth, I don't think there's anything wrong with what I'm doing.
After all, the protagonist being a newcomer is more realistic. Of course, life in the real world is already exhausting enough, so who wants to demand realism in a virtual world?
However—
I still stand by what I said:
The core of this book is growth, competition, youth, and inspiration.
I hope this book can be like a cup of coffee to adjust your life—slow-paced, but a book that we, who live a fast-paced life, can calm down and read slowly.
I hope this book can be written for a long time, and I also hope that readers who haven't encountered Uma Musume will genuinely fall in love with these characters in this world.
So, no matter what, I must write one thing here.
No matter what, please do not speak ill of the Uma Musume in the book. If you do, please blame the author. It is the author's own writing issues that caused you to misunderstand and misinterpret this Uma Musume. They are all beings worthy of remembrance and adoration.
With this in mind, I focused on portraying the image of each Uma Musume, aiming to make the characters in the book more well-rounded.
And this, indeed, made the overall pace of the book slower.
It's so slow-paced that this entire volume is about the protagonist's growth, thoughts, and the Uma Musume's changes.
Hmm... how to put it, as expected, from the backend, this book only has about nearly two thousand favorites. Well, I probably anticipated it would be like this, but if you ask me if I regret it, I absolutely do not.
If I were truly dejected about the results, I wouldn't be updating at a rate of four or five chapters a day, much less creating book groups and arguing with readers (not really).
However, to you, among these two thousand people, who chose this book, first of all, I am very grateful for your recognition of me, for recognizing the story I wrote, and for being willing to continue with me and support me in completing this story.
.
Secondly, I once wondered what could allow me to write something like Aokana, with competitive sports and romance elements, and also have that warm and mutually reliant feeling of Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no (main school)?
It wasn't until I later encountered Uma Musume that you now have this book.
Additionally, I do write rather casually. You can even see it from the chapter titles; this book could also be titled "Kitakoji's Song Recommendations."
Of course, I also really enjoy writing this book, because if I didn't enjoy it and still updated ten thousand words a day, that wouldn't be a writing machine; that would be prison.
.
So, after all that, let's talk about future plans.
Although it's a novel encompassing sports, youth, and inspirational struggle, in terms of time, I plan for the book's timeline to span at least three or four years (referring to the time within the novel).
That is, up to the third generation, when the younger sister becomes an Uma Musume.
Of course, talking about that now is a bit too far off.
Let's talk about the recent plans.
After this volume concludes, the next volume's protagonists will be Feiying and Eishin Flash.
The protagonist of the third volume will be Oguri Cap.
Rice Shower's story will be interspersed throughout these two volumes. The current goal is to finish the first year of the first-generation Uma Musume.
And please rest assured, the update speed of this book will still generally maintain at least three to four chapters per day.
So, here, I'll also make a small request: with 2000 favorites, the author hopes that you can, more or less, buy at least one chapter.
Just the first chapter after it goes on sale.
If five hundred out of the 2000 favorites are willing to continue reading, I will keep writing, truly, the request is very simple.
Sometimes, if you update less, readers will 'hoard' chapters; if you update more, readers will also 'hoard' chapters.
I won't ask readers to enable auto-subscriptions to 'hoard' chapters; honestly, it's not realistic, and there have been cases where auto-subscriptions ended up costing money.
The author understands this, as most people are students, and students don't have much spare money to spend on books.
The author doesn't consider his book so good that it's impossible to stop reading.
So, let's be considerate of each other and at least purchase the first chapter after it goes on sale.
If, on top of that, you are willing to continue reading and enable an auto-subscription for the author, I would be incredibly grateful.
So, no matter what.
At least, to you who have read this far, thank you.
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