"Oguri Cap has won the--" The sound of the announcer was shouting as I walked past the T.V store.
Since the loss at the Gold Junior race, I haven't raced since then. The Ideals I once had seemed to have faded away from me. The trainer that had taught me before now had stopped teaching me once they had noticed my loss of interest in racing.
Walking past the stores, I would eventually reach the stairs that I had once trained at. The path of concrete being a place I would train at when I was younger.
Walking down the steps, I would look around before sitting on the steps. I looked up towards the sky, the clouds peacefully passing by seeming to have no care about the everyday lives of the people below.
The peaceful sight seemed to be interested in my thoughts as I started to remember the race from the day.
—-----
Oct 4 , ####
"Todays race will be one for us to remember." The announcer shouted with excitement in their voice.
I was stretching my body, getting ready to run. I was extremely nervous as I was not used to the amount of people that had decided to show up, but I was most mentally prepared when I heard that Oguri Cap would be running in this race.
Seeing that a large number of people had shown up, I wanted to win this race as it would show to the people that I was someone capable enough to be able to defeat Oguri Cap.
I had trained extremely hard for this race. I had trained from day to night in the hopes of being stronger.
This was the moment I would shine.
—-----
I felt my ears twitch slightly as I heard the sound of footsteps coming near me, knocking me out of my thoughts and memories. Looking away from the sky, I looked towards where the footsteps were coming from.
A man older than 30 would appear in my sights, he had brown hair that was pushed to the side by the hat he wore on his head. He wore a brown vest over a white long sleeve shirt, I think, with tan pants. He was walking down the path as he had a book in his hand, absorbed into its pages.
He would reach the stairs before stopping and sitting down, not once looking up from the page.
I looked at this man who ignored the world around him. I grew curious so I looked at the book he was reading, the title read, 'how to train an Uma .Vol 5'.
The faint remembrance of the figure finally helped me figure out that this was the trainer of Oguri Cap.
'Why is he here?' I thought to myself. I was confused as to why he was still here in Kasamatsu, he should've gone with Oguri to central.
I continued looking at this man before my gaze seemed to have caught his attention.
He looked up from his book before opening his mouth to say something but suddenly stopped, his eyes looking at me with confusion.
"Aren't you that male Uma that raced against Oguri during the Gold Junior race?" He finally said.
—---
It was another day of studying since Oguri had left for central. I was trying my hardest to learn and study but these damn books were taking so much time to fully learn.
I was walking the usual path, the one that I had trained Oguri at on multiple occasions. I sat on the stairs minding my own business before feeling like I was being stared at.
I tried ignoring it but the person continued staring at me. 'Can they stop staring so hard at me!?' I thought in my head as I tried ignoring it.
The person was still staring at me so I finally lifted my head getting ready to say something before stopping as I had noticed who was staring at me so hard.
Hayate North, a rare case. He was one of few male umas that were in the world.
If my memory was correct, he was also there during the Gold Junior race, racing against Oguri.
"Aren't you that male Uma that raced against Oguri during the Gold Junior race?" I asked them.
He looked at me with surprise before looking down at the ground, his eyes downcast from what I had said.
"Oh, sorry if that had brought bad memories!" I quickly said, noticing the kid seeming to be upset at what I had said.
I knew from one of the other trainers that the kid had stopped racing after his defeat during that race. Supposedly, the kid had lost all will to continue racing.
The kid looked up from the ground and shook his head. "It's fine, you didn't mean anything from it."
I looked at the kid, his eyes showing that he wasn't really fine from my words. I rack my brain trying to think of something I could say that might help the kid. I didn't like seeing someone as young as him looking to have given up on his dreams.
…..
It was the same gaze I once had.
…
"Alright!" I said as I closed the book in my hands.
The boy looked at me with confusion in his eyes, probably wondering why I did that.
His gaze was honestly making me slightly embarrassed.
I let out a cough before speaking. "Listen here kid, I'm not going to pretend that I understand what's going through your mind when I can't tell what was going on with Oguri during the entire time before the race but I can confidently tell you that you shouldn't give up on your dreams!" I said, my voice shouting with conviction.
The boy, Hayate, was looking at me with confusion on why I was telling him this. I ignored his look and the creeping embarrassment.
"I understand that having your dreams be crushed might feel like the end of the world but know that it isn't!"
My voice was rising with the more I talked.
"If your will to continue your dream was crushed just from that race, then was it ever really worth dreaming about."
The kid was looking at me with slight surprise, or I thought it was a surprise but I ignored it.
"I can't say I understand what your going through, because I don't, but I will say that you shouldn't just give up on your dream easily, especially if you had put so much effort into it!"
I knew from the words of his trainer that he had put an immense amount of time into his training.
"You should continue fighting for it! To prove to yourself that this dream of yours isn't worthless!"
I honestly didn't know why I was telling this to a kid I barely knew, but, the gaze of his was something I was all too familiar with and seeing it on someone his age just didn't feel right with me.
Maybe that is why I was speaking so loudly about it.
"he…."
"hehe…."
"Ha.."
"hahaha!" the kid started to laugh.
The creeping embarrassment had finally made itself known as I could feel a slight blush on my face.
"HAHAHAHA!"
I looked at the kid and saw a smile appear on his face. "he….hehe..HAHAHAH!" I started laughing with the kid, ignoring the embarrassment from before.
We laughed together until it eventually died down.
The kid looked at me, small tears falling from his eyes. He gave me a small smile before letting out a small breath.
"Thanks for saying that." He said calmly, his eyes looking at me with clarity.
I looked at the kid with surprise before I just shook my head. "That is what any responsible adult would have said."
"Either way, it was something I needed to hear."
I looked at the kid as he got up from the stairs, his eyes different from before.
"I am going to get going." He said loudly to me, waving his hands before suddenly sprinting away.
"he… At least he is better," I said to myself as I watched the kid runoff in the distance.
I looked at the kid before grabbing the book I had closed.
"huh?"
"WHERE DID IT GO!?"
-------
Honestly feel like that speech was extremely cringe and could have been written better but eh
Anyways, hoped you enjoyed this chapter and please give some criticisms on how I could do better.