The next day, when Shuta An slowly woke up in bed, all the events from last night came flooding back.
"Tsk." He tapped his head. "As expected, I can't drink alcohol; once I drink, I can't keep things to myself."
Shuta An wasn't going to continue discussing his family background with Mr. Kitahara and the Uma Musume under his care. He decided not to bring up this topic again after arriving at the Academy.
After breakfast, Shuta An first took the train to Kasamatsu Racecourse to pick up his car, then drove it to the Academy's parking lot.
Instead of going back to his office to start writing the post-race reports for yesterday's two races, he went directly to Norn Ace's Trainer's office. Seeing it empty, he simply waited by the door… It wasn't until past 7:50, less than 10 minutes before the Uma Musume were to start class, that Shuta An finally met Miss Kawamura Hiyori, Norn Ace's Trainer, there.
To his surprise, before he could even speak, Kawamura Hiyori bowed deeply: "Shuta-kun, I'm so sorry!"
This made Shuta An, who was ready to demand an explanation, stammer.
"I didn't know until last night that Norn Ace and the others had targeted Oguri Cap. I'm truly sorry! They've already gone to apologize to Oguri Cap," Kawamura Hiyori continued to explain. "Norn Ace told me that she wanted to teach Oguri Cap how to sing and dance, but because she had bullied her before, she was afraid she would be rejected if she went again."
"Then go teach her," Shuta An replied dryly. "Uh—I believe Miss Kawamura didn't know about this before either, as I only found out yesterday. Indeed, as Trainers, we still know too little about the lives of the Uma Musume."
"Yes," Kawamura Hiyori agreed repeatedly. "It's also my first time knowing that the Uma Musume I'm responsible for did such a thing; I'm truly ashamed."
"It's alright, it's alright." Seeing the other party proactively take responsibility, Shuta An also felt awkward continuing to press the matter. "It's good as long as this kind of thing doesn't happen again in the future. As Trainers, we really should care more about the Uma Musume under our care. This isn't just Miss Kawamura's fault; I haven't done well either."
"Thank you, Shuta-kun," Kawamura Hiyori bowed deeply again. "I will make sure Noren Ace teaches Oguri Cap well."
Shuta An, who had originally intended to demand an explanation aggressively, received an unexpected reaction.bHe walked back to his office, a conflicted expression on his face. Passing by Mr. Kitahara's office, Shuta An heard his friend's wailing from inside, so he stopped and stood by the door, wanting to hear what had happened to Mr. Kitahara—
"Waaah—the Uma Musume Ann-san is in charge of eats way too much! The normal per-person spending at Lian is at most 5,000 yen, but I spent over 40,000 yen yesterday!"
"Serves you right for betting with him," another Trainer scoffed. "The Gray Filly he's in charge of made the cafeteria give up and prepare to cancel the buffet system. Mr. Kitahara, you were brave enough to challenge her appetite."
"No wonder Ann-san told me a regular family restaurant would be fine back then; I even felt bad about it," Mr. Kitahara said, shrinking in his seat. "I lost a lot this time."
"What did you lose?" the Trainer retorted. "Even though Fujimasa March didn't win yesterday, you still had money left over from your share after treating everyone, didn't you? Yesterday, there were only two races limited to debut-year Uma Musume. The biggest winner was Ann-san, followed by Mr. Kitahara and Mr. Shibasaki. Now, every time I think that the Uma Musume I'm in charge of is in the same generation as Oguri Cap and Fujimasa March, I get a headache... How should I arrange these races in the future?"
"You'll all have your chances later," Mr. Kitahara mumbled vaguely.
Meanwhile, Shuta An, who had been standing outside the door, had already started walking again and left. Returning to his desk, he sat down, picked up a pen, and began writing the report for yesterday's race. This report not only had to describe the race in detail but also highlight the strengths and weaknesses shown by the Uma Musume he was in charge of during the race—though the latter could, of course, be omitted.
"I remember my father's comment for the Student Council President's Belmont Stakes was 'a once-in-a-lifetime run, a flawless performance,'" Shuta An murmured to himself while meticulously writing Oguri Cap's race report.
He wrote many lines for strengths. When it came to weaknesses, Shuta An initially wanted to playfully pay homage to his father, but then he remembered that Oguri Cap's race was just her debut at Kasamatsu, so he reined in that thought.
"Insufficient distance adaptability." But in the end, he only wrote down this one issue.
"I guess after this report is submitted, the Academy will probably speculate whether I plan to have Oguri Cap challenge opponents in Nagoya," Shuta An chuckled to himself.
When writing Berno Light's race report, he also wrote a great deal of praise. However, after finishing, Shuta An attached Berno Light's retirement application to the report.
"The Academy higher-ups are probably going to have a massive headache," he thought, wanting to laugh out loud as he imagined the expression of the person reviewing the report when they saw the attachment.
In the afternoon, Shuta An met with the two Uma Musumes he was in charge of at the training ground. As soon as Oguri Cap saw him, she complained to him in front of her teammate: "Berno Light got lazy after her debut race! This morning, I tried to get her to go for morning practice, but she just kept sleeping soundly."
"Um, Oguri, listen to me," Berno Light explained weakly, "Because—"
Shuta An interrupted the Chestnut Haired Horse Girl and explained to Oguri Cap on her behalf: "Because Berno has decided to retire and no longer be a Uma Musume."
"Huh?" Oguri Cap's eyes widened. "Why?"
"Because I feel like I've reached the end of this path, and I can only be confined to this small world of Kasamatsu," Berno Light had already thought about how to explain to her good friend. "But if I switch to being Oguri's support Uma Musume, I believe Oguri can definitely take me to places I wouldn't even dare to imagine in my dreams."
"Places she wouldn't even dare to imagine in her dreams?" Upon hearing Berno Light's words, the first thing that came to Oguri Cap's mind was Mr. Kitahara's lament from the dinner yesterday—
"'It's a pity Ann-san isn't a Uma Musume; the great feat of three generations conquering the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe won't be realized.'"
"That must be the place I wouldn't even dare to imagine in my dreams," she closed her eyes, unable to conjure up the image of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe as it should be in her heart.
Let alone the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, even an ordinary race in France was beyond the imagination of Oguri Cap, who had just successfully debuted at Kasamatsu.
All her current imaginings would only be "the emperor's golden carrying pole"—how could one get an accurate impression without actually seeing it?
Shuta An also understood this, so he didn't want the Uma Musume he was in charge of to continue thinking about such issues. Therefore, he cleared his throat, preparing to have Oguri Cap begin her relaxed recovery training.
"Since you just raced yesterday, today's training intensity will be reduced. Keep your time per 200 meters to 20 seconds, run three laps around the Academy's training ground, and then do a set of stretching exercises using the Academy's equipment. Today's training can then conclude. For the remaining time, I hope Oguri Cap, you can learn singing and dancing with Norn Ace to improve your performance in Winning Live."
After reciting Oguri Cap's entire afternoon schedule, Shuta An waved his hand, signalling Oguri Cap to leave. He intended to talk to Berno Light next about what she needed to do in the future.
Oguri Cap saw the Trainer's gesture, but she didn't obediently turn around. Instead, she looked up, staring at her Trainer.
"Trainer, can I run with you once?" Oguri Cap asked. This was something she had wanted to try since last night. "The Trainer said he could also achieve the data I ran in the race... I want to know if that's true."
"I can, yes," Shuta An chuckled awkwardly. "It's just that if I run like that, I'm afraid you'll only see me in the hospital for the next few months."
"But if the Trainer said that, he must have run before, right?" Berno Light chimed in, supporting her.
"Indeed, I have," Shuta An raised both hands, giving a French military salute. "When I was interning in America, the Uma Musume assigned to me for training wasn't very convinced, so we competed once on the training ground."
"What was the result?" Oguri Cap blinked, pressing for an answer.
"I lost!" Shuta An said with a righteous tone. "You can't expect me to beat a West Coast Tracen Academy Uma Musume, can you? The standard there is even higher than Japan's 'Central.'"
"Hmm—" Oguri Cap pouted, realizing once again that she seemed to have a long way to go to achieve the goals of her Trainer and herself.
It was late at night on the West Coast of America, but Los Angeles, the capital of California on the West Coast, was a famous city that never sleeps. Several West Coast Tracen Academy Uma Musumes chose to come here for a night out during the summer vacation when there were no races, even bringing along the Uma Musume who was set to debut this year.
"Obey Your Master ~" Squirtle Squirt, walking at the front of the group, called out the name of the junior member. "Don't hang your head; it's okay if you haven't escaped the maiden race yet. There will always be opportunities later." (ugh, irl Squirtle Squirt was born in 1998 but somehow here she was Obey Your Master senior. I don't have info's who she actually is, so I leave it at like that)
"Thank you, Senior." The brown Uma Musume, trailing at the very back of the group, looked up and replied weakly, "But I've already run five races, and I always feel like I'm getting further and further from victory."
"How could that be? You have to trust our Trainer's judgment; he said that Obey Your Master, you are an Uma Musume who can win a G1!" Squirtle Squirt smiled and reached out, ruffling the junior's neatly arranged hair into a mess.
"But he also said that the Trainer in charge of Senior would definitely make a name for himself at our Academy," Obey Your Master pouted. "But he still resigned and left, disappearing without a trace."
Squirtle Squirt's face turned grim, but she defended the Trainer who had trained her for a while: "That guy is actually very good."
"How good?" A.P. Indy, walking beside Squirtle Squirt, asked with a grin. "You are an Uma Musume with two G1 victories in dirt sprints. When he trained you, Squirtle Squirt, you were already a big favorite for the Breeders' Cup, so I don't think he played much of a role."
"A.P. Indy, you can't say that; actually, Shuta Trainer played a big role..." Squirtle Squirt could only mumble softly to refute her teammate, who had four G1 victories in her Twinkle Series career, including major wins like the Belmont Stakes and the Breeders' Cup Classic. "And his speed is also very fast."
Although the Uma Musume present caught the entire sentence, they instinctively ignored the first part.
"Very fast speed?" A.P. Indy showed an interested look. "How fast?"
"Because he was an intern Trainer, I wasn't very convinced by him at first. Then he suggested we partner up for a chase-and-sprint training session on the track." she scratched her head.
"And the result?" A. P. Indy pressed on, "What was the outcome?"
"Of course, I won!" Squirtle pouted, "You wouldn't want to hear that I lost, would you?"
"But you probably didn't win by much?" A. P. Indy smiled, "Otherwise, Squirtle Squirt, you wouldn't have said that just now."
"Indeed, I didn't win by much." Squirtle Squirt shrunk back, "Only half a second."
"That's really not much." A. P. Indy, who had just been joking, changed her expression upon hearing the exact difference, "You're a G1 winning Uma Musume, you know."
"That's why I said that just now… but you still didn't believe me." Squirtle Squirt also felt very wronged, "Who knew an intern Trainer could run that fast."
"No wonder he was using crutches throughout his internship." A. P. Indy complained, "So that's why, no wonder when I asked the Trainer at the time, he refused to answer."
"The human body is still too fragile." The Uma Musumes beside them chimed in, "To need crutches after just one sprint, it's really not good enough."
Only Obey Your Master remained silent on the side. She was secretly comparing herself to Squirtle Squirt in her heart, and quickly deduced the gap between herself and her senior—if it were an 800-Mile sprint, she would probably be left behind by 1.5 seconds, a gap of nearly ten horse lengths.
"An intern Trainer could only be half a second behind…" Obey Your Master bit her lip, "Wouldn't that mean he could easily beat me?!"
"Sure enough, I don't have the talent of a Uma Musume?!" She clenched her fists, silently following behind her seniors. The night in Los Angeles was still noisy, but Obey Your Master felt incredibly lonely at this moment.