"Mind, body, technique…?"
Oguri Cap echoed the unfamiliar phrase instinctively, her fluffy ears twitching.
"'Body' is what you just described: speed, power, stamina. It's the vessel, the foundation," Kuroha explained. "In that regard, you're practically blessed by fate."
"'Technique' is running form, picking your line, distributing stamina, and controlling the overall race tempo."
"Even understanding your opponents' strength and running styles—knowing how to read and account for them—is part of 'technique' too."
"And in this," Kuroha said bluntly, "you've barely touched it at all."
He did not sugarcoat it. "Whether it was on the local circuit, at Central, or even after years of training under Ginjirou-senpai, you've run most of your races by brute force."
The truth was, in Kuroha's eyes, Central's running "technique" wasn't much to write home about to begin with.
And Oguri Cap, among that already-mediocre baseline, could not even be said to "know technique."
"And finally—most importantly—" Kuroha tapped his chest. "Your 'mind.'"
"That's your hunger for victory. The will that doesn't collapse in a dead-end situation. And more than that… it's what fully fuses your body and technique together, and—at the critical moment—becomes the key that opens the door to your Domain."
Watching Oguri Cap's eyes widen, Kuroha gave a faint smile.
"Your talent skipped the 'integration of mind, body, and technique' step and slammed open the Domain's door directly."
"…Technique…?"
Oguri Cap lowered her head slightly, staring at her hands. She clenched them, then relaxed them again, her expression difficult to name.
"So, Oguri, your current bottleneck isn't whether your speed and power can keep growing," Kuroha said. "It's that your definition of 'strength' is too shallow."
"The reason March can fight the current and surge upward is because, under my guidance, she learned to use 'mind' to command 'body,' then use 'technique' to release 'power.'"
He paused, then smiled. "That's why you feel like you can't put your strength where it needs to go. That's why you feel like you've hit your limit."
Those words hit Oguri Cap like a thunderclap.
She stood there, stunned, replaying her recent races in her mind—replaying the Yasuda Kinen from the day before yesterday.
So that was it…?
"Mind… body… technique…"
She murmured, as if chewing on the weight of each word.
After a moment, she snapped her head up. The fog in her eyes vanished, replaced by a blazing, discovery-hungry heat—like someone who had just found a new continent.
"Trainer, I… what do I do to reach that 'integration'?"
"It's simple," Kuroha said with a light laugh. Then he clapped his hands. "Berno."
"Huh? Y-yes!" Berno Light hurried out from behind him, holding a thick stack of materials.
Kuroha had given her Oguri Cap's near-term training plan.
Oguri Cap's physical specs were outstanding, but many foundational details of her running were—surprisingly—worse than March's had been back when she first transferred into Ōi Tracen.
"We can't rush it. We'll have to start by rebuilding her habits from the ground up," Kuroha sighed inwardly, then began instructing Oguri Cap directly.
The training field was bright under clear sunlight.
Gentle light fell over the trainer and his slightly clumsy but earnest trainee.
"First. That aggressive forward-leaning posture of yours is good—but your breathing rhythm is a mess."
"?"
"You're used to holding your breath when you sprint, or doing shallow, rapid chest breathing. That severely limits oxygen intake efficiency, and it also disrupts your cadence and core stability."
"Berno—later, explain the theory section in the materials about how breathing rhythm relates to cadence, oxygen uptake, and lactic acid metabolism."
"Huh? Ah… yes!"
…
Their first session—also their first true run-in together—proceeded slowly, but in an orderly way.
Time passed. Before long, Oguri Cap found her groove.
She ran along the special dirt track, gradually matching her breathing to a steady rhythm.
Kuroha watched her for a while, then nodded almost imperceptibly.
Oguri Cap might be a bit airheaded, but her talent was beyond doubt.
Her learning speed was exceptional.
After only a few attempts, she had already grasped the essentials of the breathing technique.
It would still take a lot of repetitions to turn it into muscle memory, but the awkwardness was visibly fading.
As Oguri Cap eased into the flow of training, Kuroha's thoughts shifted toward the overseas campaign.
As he considered it, a pale-blue system panel surfaced in his vision.
[Oguri Cap]
[Track Aptitudes: Turf A, Dirt B]
[Distance Aptitudes: Short E, Mile A, Medium A, Long B]
[Running Style Aptitudes: Front Runner F, Pace Chaser A, Late Surger A, End Closer D]
[Unique Skill: Festive Miracle Lv.5]
[Domain: Miracle White Star]
[Skills: Heart and Soul, Inside Scoop, Hydrate, Deep Breaths, Big Eater, 777, Innate Experience, Corner Acceleration, Up-Tempo, Cloudy Days, Corner Adept, Nimble Navigator.]
[Speed: 1356, Stamina: 1288, Power: 1369, Gut: 1371, Wit: 1175]
It was an excellent panel.
Among her five core stats, only her Wit was slightly behind other top-tier Umamusume; three of her attributes were already pushing toward 1400.
Her track and distance aptitudes were also very strong—she could handle the vast majority of races.
The only real criticism was her skill list.
Compared to Chasing Light's other Umamusume—who were now packed with gold skills by the dozens—Oguri Cap's "3 gold, 10 white" lineup was, frankly, underwhelming.
And then there was this absurd entry:
[Unique Skill: Festive Miracle Lv.5]!
This was the brand-new Unique Skill born from Oguri Cap reshaping her own path and fully comprehending her heart.
It seemed that the emergence of [Domain — Miracle White Star] had caused the former [Domain — Grey Monster] to lose its power source.
As a result, what remained of that power flowed into her original Unique Skill, Triumphant Pulse—creating this brand-new Unique Skill.
Or, to put it another way…
Back when Oguri Cap activated Triumphant Pulse and her Domain simultaneously, the power she unleashed had always been a higher-order form: Festive Miracle.
Now, it was simply weaker because the original Domain had vanished.
But even so, its essence remained the same.
It was something above ordinary Unique Skills—
A Domain-born Unique Skill.
(End of Chapter)
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