[So based on the records Inari One debuted in 1986. When I read Cinderella Gray, I thought she was in Oguri's Generations but she was her senpai, while Tamamo Cross was in Oguri's Generation]
Over the next few days, Shuta An instructed Oguri Cap to undergo low-intensity training.
Together with Berno Light, he gathered data on Sakura Chiyono O and Dicta Striker for analysis. In addition, he collected meteorological records for Tokyo in early March over the past decade, intending to combine them with the current forecast to tailor Oguri Cap's race strategy.
"Although everything on the racecourse must be handled by the Uma Musume herself," Shuta An remarked, "that's no excuse for a Trainer to be lazy and skip pre-race calculations."
Meanwhile, Tokai Teio had been steadily lowering her training intensity over the past few days. She was scheduled to train with a prominent local Uma Musume that weekend—and she refused to lose, even if her opponent had been in full-scale training for nearly a year while she herself was still years away from that stage.
"I want to become a Uma Musume like the President," Tokai Teio told herself firmly. "So I can never lose."
To her, a loss was simply a loss. No excuses. With that in mind, Tokai Teio finished her morning routine and left the training ground.
"Strange…" murmured an Uma Musume not far away. Dressed in a gym uniform, with ash-violet hair and eyes, she watched Tokai Teio's retreating figure. "Has Tokai Teio been slacking off lately?"
She shook her head, dismissing the thought. "Never mind. I'm not that close to her anyway. I just need to do my best—never tarnish the Mejiro Family's name."
On Saturday night, Shuta An straightened the stack of organized documents in his hand and breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Next week, I'll just monitor the situation and act accordingly," he murmured, neatly placing the papers on the corner of his desk. "No need to go over tactics with Oguri yet; that can wait."
Feeling cooped up after a day spent entirely indoors—three meals included—Shuta An decided to go for a walk. Just as he stepped out, he spotted Oguri Cap emerging from her guest room as well.
After a brief glance, he asked, "Oguri, heading out for a stroll?"
"Mhm." Oguri Cap nodded, explaining her sudden decision. "Berno's watching a TV drama I'm not interested in, so I thought I'd get some air."
Shuta An extended a hand in invitation. "Then let's go together."
"Okay," Oguri Cap replied simply, taking his hand. "I want to be with Trainer too."
Once they left the hotel, Shuta An quietly released her hand to avoid drawing the attention of reporters. Oguri Cap understood and didn't protest.
"If I can achieve results good enough that Trainer won't have to worry about reporters," she thought, "then I'll be able to walk beside him freely."
Unaware of her thoughts, Shuta An considered where to take her. Soon, an idea came to him.
"Let's go to Oki Racecourse," he suggested.
"Okay," Oguri Cap agreed without hesitation, not even asking why. To her, anywhere her Trainer chose was bound to be worthwhile.
Shuta An's reason was simple: that night, the "Ohi Kinpai" was being held there, a race whose top two finishers would qualify for the Minami Kanto major race—the Daiolite Kinen.
He wanted to see whether any promising Uma Musumes from Minami Kanto might soon be ready to challenge the Central circuit. Located not far from Tokyo and Nakayama Racecourses, Ohi needed its own distinct appeal to attract fans. Its specialty was night racing—complete with light shows, amusements, and even a surprisingly good buffet restaurant.
After a half-hour walk from Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo, Shuta An and Oguri Cap arrived at the lively, brightly lit Ohi Racecourse. In this sleepless city, where nightlife thrived, the track was bustling even at night.
"It feels just like daytime," Oguri Cap murmured. "There are so many people."
"That's normal," Shuta An explained. "It's race day. Didn't Kasamatsu Racecourse also draw crowds like this?"
"Night races, huh…" Oguri Cap recalled last summer. "I'm still not used to them."
"You won't have to be," Shuta An replied with a shake of his head. "The races you'll run in from now on, Oguri, won't be at night."
He wasn't exaggerating. No top-level turf races anywhere in the world were held at night. He also had no intention of entering her in dirt races again—her attribute viewer clearly showed higher adaptability to turf.
"Even if I get the chance to raise her stats," he mused, "I'll prioritize turf adaptability."
The entrance fee was only 100 yen. After purchasing tickets, the two entered the venue. They agreed on a meeting spot in the stands before Shuta An let Oguri Cap explore freely.
He, meanwhile, picked up a copy of the race program, scanning for any heavily promoted competitors. One name immediately caught his eye—
"Inari One," he read aloud.
Her record wasn't spectacular, but something about the name struck him—like someone destined to make her mark later on.
"I'll keep an eye on her," he decided, flipping through the rest of the entries.
When the young man and Oguri Cap reunited in the stands, he wasn't surprised to see her stomach slightly bulging. Fortunately, her outfit was loose enough that it wasn't obvious—otherwise, he might have worried she'd catch a cold.
But by now, he was used to her appetite. He merely commented, "No problem increasing tomorrow's training volume, right?"
"No problem!" Oguri Cap replied cheerfully, patting her stomach.
Shuta An smiled faintly, then turned his gaze toward the track—where Inari One was stepping into the starting gate, ready to race for a 22-million-yen victory purse.
Back in his guest room at Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo, Shuta An looked helpless.
"Was my premonition wrong?" he muttered. "Inari One only finished third in the Ohi Kinpai—and she seemed quite far behind the top two."
He began to doubt whether staying in Kasamatsu too long had dulled his Trainer's intuition. Even so, he remained confident about Tokai Teio—at least, about her potential.
"I'll observe more carefully during tomorrow's training," he thought. "Her talent is obvious to the naked eye. What I need to confirm is that familiar feeling… the one that reminds me of 'Ruffian'"
Early the next morning, while Oguri Cap was still eating breakfast, Shuta An received a message from Tokai Teio:
"Trainer! Where do we meet?"
Finishing his coffee, he typed a quick reply: "Miss Tokai Teio, please wait at the hotel entrance. I'll come pick you up."
He stood, glanced at Oguri Cap—still eating heartily—and said, "I'm going to pick up Tokai Teio. Keep eating, Oguri. But don't overdo it; we'll start training soon."
"I know," Oguri Cap mumbled between bites.
When Shuta An arrived at the entrance, Tokai Teio was already there, leaning against the wall in her Central Tracen Academy uniform, head lowered as she played on her phone.
"Good morning, Miss Tokai Teio," he greeted.
Hearing his voice, she quickly put her phone away and looked up. "Good morning, Trainer!"
Although she wasn't officially part of his team, seeing her bright energy lightened Shuta An's mood.
"Tokai Teio's actually pretty cute when she's not wearing that smug face," he thought with a faint smile.
Leading her toward the hotel's training ground, Shuta An gestured. "Go change into your gym uniform and start warming up."
"Okay!" she responded with the same enthusiasm as her greeting, darting straight toward the changing room.
Moments later, Oguri Cap arrived in her gym uniform. She scanned the area, tilted her head, and looked at her Trainer questioningly.
"Miss Tokai Teio went to change," Shuta An explained before she could speak. "Oguri, start warming up first."
"Is that so?" Oguri Cap murmured and began her stretches near him.
From his pocket, Shuta An pulled out his new stopwatch—bought at the start of the year—and tested it a few times, flexing his fingers to keep them loose.
Barely two minutes later, Tokai Teio emerged, already changed and full of energy. Spotting the young man fiddling with his stopwatch and Oguri Cap stretching nearby, she jogged over and placed herself between them before beginning her own warm-up.
Oguri Cap pursed her lips at the sudden intrusion. While stretching her ankles, she subtly stepped back a few paces, reclaiming her space.
Unaware, Tokai Teio noticed her movement and thought she'd misjudged her position. She mirrored Oguri's steps backward.
Oguri frowned slightly and moved forward again.
This time, Tokai Teio caught on.
Ah, so that's what this is about.
She considered moving around to the other side but dismissed it with a quiet mutter. "If I do that, it'll look deliberate."
Shuta An, oblivious to their quiet positioning battle, clapped his hands lightly once their warm-up seemed sufficient. "Alright, time to get started."
For Oguri Cap, his instructions were simple—just a relaxed jog.
But Tokai Teio's training was different.
"Control your pace at sixty seconds per thousand meters," he told her. "Run five laps. One lap here is four hundred meters."
"Control my pace?" she asked, puzzled. It was the first time anyone had given her such an order.
"Exactly," Shuta An nodded. "And for the first two laps, I won't tell you whether you're too fast or too slow. You'll rely entirely on your own sense of timing."
He raised the stopwatch. "If your margin of error stays within two seconds…"
He paused deliberately, then added with a faint grin, "I'll give you two bottles of West Indian cherry honey from Sugiyo Bee Garden."
"Eh? The one that costs over 3,000 yen a bottle?" Tokai Teio's eyes widened.
Her mind raced—one bottle can make over ten cups of the honey special drink (Hachimi~ Hachimi~), and each cup costs a thousand yen… that's more than twenty thousand yen saved!
"Exactly." Shuta An didn't mind being generous with such a prize.
"Then I'll work hard!" Tokai Teio declared, motivation flaring.
Once she started running, Shuta An's gaze followed her—but his thoughts wandered.
"Controlling pace reveals one's mastery over their body and the precision of their internal rhythm."
For front-running Uma Musumes, a sharp biological clock was crucial. Without it, they risked exhausting themselves by setting the pace too fast—or falling behind an opponent who cleverly maintained a slow, steady tempo.
Still, this exercise suited escaping-types even more.
"Learning to regulate pace is vital for escape runners," he mused. The image of Silence Suzuka crossed his mind. "If a Uma Musume could keep both the front and back thousand meters at exactly fifty-eight seconds, she'd be unbeatable over two thousand meters on turf."
But the current Silence Suzuka, she wasn't there yet. He was certain of that.
Shuta An shook his head and refocused on Tokai Teio.
"The first thousand meters—sixty point one seconds," he noted quietly. "That's already very precise."
Then he narrowed his eyes, studying the motion of her legs.
"Something's not right." Shuta An noticed a contradiction in Tokai Teio's running. "Her footwork is strange. When she exerts force, not all of it pushes her forward — a fair portion of her stamina is spent upward."
In other words, Tokai Teio's running style seemed to lack any rational basis. Shuta An couldn't understand why she would adopt such a form.
"Didn't anyone at Central Tracen Academy point this out?" he frowned. "This isn't exactly a subtle problem."
With that thought, Shuta An took out his phone and sent a message to Symboli Rudolf.
He then refocused on Tokai Teio, who was still running. He had to admit — her biological rhythm was remarkable, her pace steady as clockwork. When she completed the 2000 meters, he pressed the stopwatch.
"2:00.1."
"Tsk, tsk…" Shuta An clicked his tongue. "That's almost perfect precision. Quite the surprise."
He already believed Tokai Teio could control her pace well, but to this degree? It was beyond imagination.
"Should I say she's truly worthy of being from Central?" he muttered. "She's more talented than I thought."
The words reached Tokai Teio's ears as she approached him. Her ears twitched in delight — the still-young Uma Musume clearly pleased by his reaction.
"This is the reaction I should get! Because I'm going to become an undefeated Triple Crown Uma Musume, just like the President!"
But Shuta An quickly regained focus. Tokai Teio had already stopped before him, and he couldn't afford to be distracted.
He raised the stopwatch with a grin. "Good work. After training, we'll go buy honey."
"Buy it now…" Tokai Teio murmured — she'd thought they could just grab it on the way back.
Shuta An glanced at his phone again. Symboli Rudolf had already replied.
"That's Teio's unique running style. Is there a problem?"
"Nothing."
He sent his reply with a few quick taps, then looked back at Tokai Teio. "When you run at full speed, is your footwork the same as just now?"
"Yes," Tokai Teio answered readily. "I've been running like this since my very first race."
"Instinct?" Shuta An muttered softly.
For Uma Musumes, instinct was no trivial thing.
Since her unusual footwork stemmed from instinct, Shuta An believed the key to Tokai Teio's potential — her secret — lay hidden within that very stride.
After letting Tokai Teio and Oguri Cap rest for a short while, they moved on to the next program: parallel chase training, something both girls had looked forward to in their own ways.
But the request Shuta An made surprised them both.
"Tokai Teio," he said, "set a slow pace — the exact speed's up to you — and start one second ahead. Oguri, you follow. Your only goal is to catch up and run exactly beside her when you reach 1200 meters, three laps. Don't pass, don't fall behind."
"To run perfectly side by side without knowing the other's pace?" Tokai Teio began to ponder what kind of rhythm she should set.
Oguri Cap glanced at her, biting her lip.
"I really want to leave her behind in one burst," she thought. "But if Trainer says this is about patience, I can't."
On one side, it was about reading pace; on the other, resisting the urge to overtake. This training was meant to strengthen both.
Shuta An's plan didn't need to be spoken aloud.
Standing behind the starting line, Tokai Teio gave a signal she was ready. With his nod, she launched forward — like an arrow loosed from a bowstring.
"Her pace looks fine," Shuta An thought. A moment later, Oguri Cap started her pursuit.
Since Shuta An had instructed a slower rhythm, and promised two bottles of honey as reward, Tokai Teio honestly set her tempo at about 64 seconds per 1000 meters.
Oguri, however, had expected something closer to 60 seconds, so she ran faster at first.
Noticing the difference, Tokai Teio debated whether to slow down more to trip Oguri up, or suddenly accelerate to widen the gap.
In the end, she dismissed both.
"The pace I set is probably already within Trainer's expectations. If I change it now, it might backfire."
That was her logic — but after more than a lap, impatience crept in.
Being constantly followed, feeling Oguri's eyes on her back — it was annoying.
"If this were a normal chase, I'd never go this slow!" she pouted inwardly.
Shuta An caught that dissatisfaction in her passing expression.
"In that case," he thought, "this kind of training also strengthens the front runner's patience."
Being marked in a race is never pleasant. But panicking under pressure — that's not something a first-class Uma Musume would do. Despite the shifting moods, the chase ended successfully. Oguri Cap managed to run side by side with Tokai Teio right at the finish, then with one final burst, overtook and widened the gap.
Tokai Teio didn't look frustrated; if anything, she wanted to chase back immediately.
She'd done similar sessions at Central Tracen Academy, but Oguri's throw-off looked almost effortless.
"You can stop now!" Shuta An called out before they overexerted themselves.
Tokai Teio braced her knees, panting hard.
She bit her lip. "No wonder the President thinks so highly of her. She's stronger than most Uma Musumes in the academy."
From Tokai Teio's perspective, there was no one of her generation at Central who could surpass Oguri Cap.
"How frightening…" she muttered as Oguri passed her.
Oguri didn't answer, but her tail swayed cheerfully — clearly satisfied with herself.