Lunchtime.
After saying goodbye to Symboli Rudolf and Maruzensky, Kuroha walked toward the Central Tracen Academy's teacher cafeteria.
As he walked, he was already planning the summer vacation trip in his mind.
What he had told Symboli Rudolf earlier in the student council office, about his team's horse girls reaching their physical limits, was not a joke.
A normal human body, depending on its natural talent, has a rough upper limit.
It was the same for horse girls.
Take Tamamo Cross as the standard.
Under normal training, as one of the "Eternal Big Three" of her generation, her physical limit should be about the same as Tamamo Cross at her peak.
At her peak, Tamamo Cross's stats would roughly be around 1100+ in all attributes.
Her Speed and perhaps one or two other stats might push close to, or even reach, 1200.
And Inari One's current stats were…
[Inari One]
[Track Aptitude: Turf A / Dirt A]
[Distance Aptitude: Short F / Mile B / Medium S / Long A]
[Running Style Aptitude: Front Runner G / Pace Chaser B / Late Surger B / End Closer A]
[Unique Skill: Charge! Charge! Lv5]
[Domain: Bonfire Fox Cry!]
[Skills: Bad Track Conditions, End Straight, Tail Up, Dust Cloud Adaptation, Winter Girl, Tail Chasing Dragon Gate, Straight Shot…]
[Speed: 1268 / Stamina: 1249 / Power: 1253 / Gut: 1186 / Wit: 947]
This was Inari One's current status.
Her Medium Distance aptitude had already risen to S, and her Unique Skill had leveled up to Lv5.
But her raw stats… only Speed, Stamina, and Power had broken the 1200 mark.
In fact, she had reached the 1200 threshold as early as last winter.
Yet in the half year since then, her growth in individual stats had been less than 70 points. The further she went, the more Kuroha realized—this was already Inari One's true limit.
All of her potential as a horse girl had been nearly exhausted.
She had reached a peak that even the "original worldline" future Inari One had never achieved!
The same applied to Fujimasa March and the others.
Half of their Senior Year had already passed.
But under Kuroha's scientific training, their potential had been drawn out—completely, without side effects.
Fujimasa March, originally only a local-level horse girl in terms of natural talent, had reached 1000+ in all stats under his care, with Speed, Stamina, and Wit breaking 1100. That was already a miracle.
Sakura Chiyono O and Mejiro Ardan had slightly higher ceilings, but even they would likely never cross the 1200 threshold the way Inari One had.
As for Obey Your Master… she had long reached her physical limit. For the past half-year, she had been focused entirely on skill learning and racecraft instead.
That was why regular strength training had become pointless for them.
So Kuroha decided—this summer vacation wouldn't be another training camp.
Instead, he would take them on a school trip.
"…But McQueen and the others are a different matter. I'll need to carefully choose the destination," he thought to himself.
Mejiro McQueen, one of the absolute ace horse girls of the next generation of his team, could not afford to waste such a crucial two months.
"Ku… Kuroha Trainer?"
A slightly nervous voice called out from behind him.
Kuroha turned his head to see a small, short-haired horse girl standing there, with a tall gray-haired girl beside her, greeting him somewhat shyly.
It was Oguri Cap, accompanied by her little partner—Berno Light, from Ginjirou Musaka's team.
"Oh, Cap and Light. You heading to eat?"
Kuroha smiled as he noticed the gray-haired girl already munching on donuts she had pulled from a paper bag.
"Mm!"
Oguri Cap's cheeks were stuffed full, her reply muffled. "The cafeteria lady's food is really tasty, so we have to go eat!"
Kuroha watched her speak while chewing non-stop, even with sugar stuck on the corner of her lips, and instinctively glanced at her stomach—still completely flat.
Where exactly did all that food even go?
Horse girls truly were a mystery.
But when his eyes dropped further, they froze.
Her right leg, not clad in the usual black tights but carefully wrapped in bandages, stood out starkly.
"…Your leg hasn't healed yet?"
Not long ago, Ginjirou had told him it was already fine.
At his question, Berno Light scratched her head and sighed helplessly:
"The doctor said the injury's basically healed, but she still needs a period of rest and recovery. No strenuous movement allowed yet."
That made sense.
In reality, Oguri Cap's leg had healed over a week ago, just before the Takarazuka Kinen.
But hospital treatment wasn't the same as Kuroha's cheat-like Panacea—it couldn't instantly return her to race-ready condition.
Even after bones mended, it took a long time to readjust muscle strength and adapt again, so as not to risk relapse in future races.
For horse girls, that was the most careful and responsible approach.
"…That's why, just to be safe, Cap should keep it bandaged until vacation ends before unwrapping," Berno Light said with a little grown-up nod.
"Mm. That's indeed the wise thing to do," Kuroha acknowledged.
Oguri Cap, however, pouted and mumbled: "Light just worries too much…"
They joked together as they walked into the cafeteria. Kuroha made sure to treat the two girls to a meal in the teacher's dining hall.
Soon, the table was piled high with food—little mountains stacked one after another.
Kuroha once again witnessed the legendary appetite of the horse girl world's undisputed number one glutton.
"…Cap's always like this," Berno Light whispered.
Kuroha chuckled: "Don't worry. Eat as much as you like. It's on me."
"Mm! Mm!" The gray-haired girl's eyes sparkled as she devoured food like she was fighting a war. "Kuroha, good person!"
Shaking his head in amusement, Kuroha ate quietly for a while before asking in a low voice:
"Cap, your leg should be fully healed by the end of vacation. Have you thought about which race you'll return in?"
Oguri Cap blinked blankly and shook her head.
Berno Light also stayed silent—though she was half a trainee trainer, choosing Cap's return race was beyond her.
Kuroha wasn't surprised. He smiled and nodded:
"Leaving other races aside, in the second half of the year, I've arranged Fujimasa March's first G1 to be the Sprinters Stakes."
The moment Oguri Cap heard March's name, she froze. Her eyes locked on Kuroha without blinking.
"After that, she'll run the Mile Championship… and finally, the Arima Kinen."
He laid out March's planned schedule without hesitation.
But Oguri Cap simply stared, her eyes glimmering as if about to burst.
"What's wrong?" Kuroha asked softly.
Oguri Cap swallowed the food in her mouth, her usually calm face trembling as though she were about to cry.
"…March… she isn't going to retire too, is she?"
(End of Chapter)
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