[I'm going to take the 1st and 2nd off, have to spend it with the family]
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Leaving the Academic Affairs Office, Kuroha walked along the tree-lined path of Central Tracen Academy.
It was afternoon, the usual training time for the active Uma Musume.
On every public training ground he passed, there were plenty of horse girls running hard and sweating freely.
Most horse girls didn't have a "money-powered" backing like the Mejiro family behind Kuroha.
Their trainers either weren't willing—or more accurately, simply couldn't afford—to book slots at the professional training facilities.
So they could only conduct training on the academy's public tracks.
Before he had the Mejiro family supporting him, Kuroha had barely managed to keep things afloat off the prize money from the South Kanto Triple Crown.
Back in those days, compared to Central, the local circuits had horse girls of wildly varying strength… but they certainly weren't stingy about prize money.
"Fujin, keep your form!"
Just as Kuroha was strolling past one of the training grounds, a name below caught his ear.
On the track, a trainer was holding a stopwatch and barking instructions at a horse girl who was running laps.
"Yes, trainer!"
The horse girl had brown hair and green eyes.
She wore a distinctive sun visor on her head, and a green ear cover over her right ear.
Her youthful cheeks were sprinkled with a few freckles, and her face was lit with a bright, confident smile.
"Who's she?"
Kuroha stopped with some interest.
Light flickered in his eyes as the power of Body and Breath Perception rose in his pupils.
In just an instant, the horse girl called "Fujin," who had been counting her strides, seemed to step right into his field of vision.
"Mm… her running form is pretty rough."
Kuroha fell into thought.
She had clearly gone through fairly professional training, but her form was still full of gaps. Her power output was scattered, and her overall sense of rhythm was lacking.
"Her core strength is unstable, so her upper body sways unnecessarily during a sprint. Her hind legs rely too much on the thigh muscles, and the power from her calves still isn't being fully transmitted into the ground…"
Just one glance was enough for Kuroha to spot multiple flaws.
Come to think of it, ever since he'd coached Tokai Teio and McQueen's running form last year, he'd barely given any other horse girl detailed corrections.
It had been a long time. Thinking about it now… it actually felt kind of refreshing.
Watching the passionate race girl down on the track, Kuroha more or less guessed who she was.
Ines Fujin.
Among all the new horse girls who had truly undergone True Blooming this year, she was the most highly rated rookie of the new generation apart from McQueen.
On par with her was another horse girl named White Taisei.
The two of them were both hailed as the "rising stars" most likely to challenge McQueen for the Classic Triple Crown.
If this were the original timeline, that was indeed how things should have gone.
In the original history…
White Taisei, Ines Fujin, and Mejiro McQueen had respectively taken the Satsuki Sho, the Japanese Derby, and the Kikuka Sho, splitting the Triple Crown among them.
Though, in the first two legs, the original McQueen had debuted too late and hadn't even taken part.
"But… fighting McQueen for the Classic Triple Crown, huh?"
Remembering those claims, Kuroha couldn't help but smile faintly.
He looked at the horse girl before him who had once been a Derby champion in that original world line. Right now, her physical stats were only around 400.
By the time the Japanese Derby came around, she might reach the level Sakura Chiyono O had shown back when she forced open her Domain with sheer, indomitable will—without excessive True Blooming.
His estimate put that around 600 in physical stats, and even if she risked excessive True Blooming and exploded with a miracle performance, 700 would probably be her upper limit.
But McQueen right now already had all-round stats in the 800 range.
By the time the Classic Triple Crown rolled around, her numbers would be closing in on Sakura Chiyono O's peak.
Most active horse girls in Central probably wouldn't be able to match McQueen's stats at that point.
With that level of numerical dominance…
Even if White Taisei and Ines Fujin did undergo excessive True Blooming and somehow pulled off insane growth, even if they managed to open a second-stage Domain mid-race…
They'd still get flattened by simple, honest, unflashy strings of five A-rank moves.
And in the recent Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes, they'd already seen this play out once.
McQueen had treated a G1 Asahi Hai like a speed bump, winning by a terrifying margin—Ines Fujin had been the runner-up that day.
The girl had gone wild on the front end, pushing the pace like a one-horse stampede, yet that gap had been easily erased by McQueen on the final stretch.
McQueen had practically not even broken a sweat taking a G1 victory.
Even so…
As he watched the cute girl on the track, constantly persevering and working to improve herself, Kuroha felt no disdain at all.
For horse girls like this, no matter whether their final ending was victory or defeat, he always held deep respect.
Kuroha took a glance at his phone.
It had just passed four in the afternoon.
That 5v1 slugfest last night had gone on until daybreak; his five girls at home were probably sleeping like the dead right now.
If he went back, he'd likely just be facing a roomful of "sleeping beauties," with nothing to do.
"…Fine."
Putting his phone away, Kuroha found himself unusually free.
He turned and walked toward the stands beside the training ground, finding a quiet spot in the corner to sit down.
Since he had nothing else on his plate…
He might as well "inspect" the level of the new generation a bit.
He watched Ines Fujin with genuine interest.
Her training was still going.
"Fujin! One more set! Hold that pace!"
"Yes, trainer!"
With a bright, energetic reply, the girl dashed back onto the track.
Her front-running style was as fierce as ever, her start explosive, carrying an aura that threatened to sweep everything aside.
But in the eyes of Kuroha, empowered by Body and Breath Perception, nothing could be hidden.
"Three seconds after the break, her center of gravity's already shifting…"
"To forcibly correct it, her core muscles are firing in all the wrong ways…"
Kuroha silently noted each point.
Her running form was full of flaws, yet her willpower was downright frightening.
Even when her body was already crying out in fatigue, her speed didn't drop in the slightest, being held up entirely by that unyielding tenacity.
He didn't know how long had passed before Ines Fujin's trainer finally hit the stopwatch.
"Alright! Fujin, that's it for today's training! Good work!"
"Hah… hah… thank you, trainer!"
The girl bent at the waist, panting heavily with a dry throat.
"It's fine, you did very well. You're improving fast. There's still a good while before next year's Classic Triple Crown. You've got plenty of room to grow."
Ines Fujin's trainer looked very satisfied with her performance.
"At this rate, you might even be able to challenge that McQueen from Chasing Light."
"R-really…? Ha… ha ha…"
Wiping away sweat, Ines Fujin let out a couple of awkward laughs, her expression dimming slightly.
"Done? That fast?"
Kuroha glanced at the sky. The sun was still high; it wasn't anywhere near the west yet.
Shaking his head, he stood up, ready to leave.
However, what Ines Fujin did next made him raise an eyebrow.
Instead of doing stretches on the spot like the other horse girls, or staying to review the session with her trainer…
She gave a polite bow of thanks, then grabbed her little bag and rushed off toward the locker rooms.
Her anxious posture looked like she had some sort of massive emergency.
A few minutes later.
Just as Kuroha walked down from the stands and was about to leave the track, Ines Fujin's figure burst out from the side door of the locker room.
She had already changed out of her sweat-soaked training outfit and into her academy uniform, but her expression was still that same utterly frantic urgency.
She was sprinting full tilt while rapidly tapping on her phone, muttering under her breath,
"Good, I can still make it…"
She was running so hard she wasn't looking where she was going at all.
At the corner by the training ground's exit, she crashed head-on into Kuroha, who was strolling out at an easy pace.
There was a dull "thud."
"Kyah!"
Ines Fujin felt like she'd slammed into a solid wall.
The reaction force knocked her flat on her backside, and her phone went flying out of her hand, the screen smacking onto the ground with a sharp crack.
A horse girl on the verge of her Classic Year, and she couldn't even budge a person?
A huge question mark flashed through her mind, but she immediately realized—
She'd messed up.
"I-I'm so sorry! I'm really, really sorry!"
Ignoring the pain, ignoring the phone, the girl scrambled to her feet and bent into a ninety-degree bow, not even daring to lift her head.
"It's fine. But when you're running, you should still watch where you're going if you don't want to get hurt."
A warm voice came from right above her.
"Y-yes, I'm sorry! I'll be more careful from now on!"
Ines Fujin let out a breath in relief.
Looked like she'd run into a kind person.
She cautiously raised her head—and the moment she saw the face in front of her, her green eyes went wide.
"T-T-Trainer Kuroha?!"
She'd seen that face on TV more times than she could count.
The lead trainer of Chasing Light, Central's strongest team!
After undergoing True Blooming this year, she'd even dreamed a little of joining Chasing Light in the future.
But after weighing her own talent, she still hadn't dared to actually take the gamble.
Seeing her stare at him like she'd seen a ghost, Kuroha assumed she was worried a horse girl ramming into a human was like a big truck smashing into a compact car, and wondered if he had some sort of internal injury.
He couldn't help patting his own chest with a laugh.
"Relax, I'm a lot sturdier than you think."
Thanks to the Strong-Body Medicine…
Even a monster like Inari One, with 1400 points in her stats, couldn't rock his pelvis in the slightest.
Let alone a "little horse girl" like Ines Fujin, sitting at around 400 in all stats.
A collision like that barely even registered.
After soothing the flustered girl for a moment, Kuroha bent down to pick up her phone.
The phone was clearly old, and its screen had already cracked from the fall just now, but stubbornly remained lit.
On the display was a map interface, with a prominent new order notification flashing:
[You have received a new order. Please head out as soon as possible.]
"…You're delivering food as well?"
Kuroha frowned.
He knew Central's prize money system for Uma Musume inside out, especially for G1 races. Even second place was a sizeable sum for a rookie.
No matter how you looked at it, she shouldn't have had to rely on doing deliveries.
And this was during training hours, too. Her trainer didn't care?
"Mm, that's my part-time job."
Hearing his question, Ines Fujin scratched her cheek, cheeks flushed as she took the phone back.
Her eyes clouded with distress as she stared at the new cracks on the screen.
"…I see."
After a brief silence, Kuroha nodded, then stepped aside.
"Be careful out there. And don't look down at your phone while you're running."
"Yes, thank you, Trainer Kuroha."
Shrinking her neck a little, Ines Fujin mumbled her thanks, hugged her phone to her chest, and trotted off in small, hurried steps.
Watching the girl's retreating back, Kuroha let out a quiet sigh.
Do your best, Ines Fujin.
I hope one day, you can once again become that gale that sweeps across Fuchu.
(End of Chapter)
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