"Kitahara, I want to get stronger!"
In one of the lounges at Tracen Academy, Oguri Cap said exactly that to Kitahara Jo.
After her conversation with Tamamo Cross, the desire to become stronger had taken root in the gray-haired girl's heart.
She wanted to become stronger.
More than that, she wanted to be able to help Ryo!
So she brought that wish to her Trainer.
"You want to get stronger..." Kitahara murmured, his heart sinking slightly when he heard Oguri Cap's words.
Sure enough, Oguri wanted strength too.
In that case, he might as well finally share Sakuraba-san's suggestion with her openly.
"To be honest, Oguri, Sakuraba-san did leave you some advice on how to get stronger... I just never managed to figure out what he really meant, so I never told you."
"But since you've started wanting to get stronger yourself, let's try to work through what Sakuraba-san left behind together."
"Ryo left me advice?"
The moment she heard that, Oguri Cap's eyes lit up.
Had Ryoalready foreseen something like this happening?
And even deliberately left advice for me...
That's Ryo for you. He really can see everything coming.
"So, Kitahara, what kind of advice did Sakuraba-san leave for me?"
"Uh..." Kitahara looked deeply troubled. "He said that if you can eat while running, you'll naturally break through to the next level..."
His expression made it obvious that even he thought the advice sounded unreliable. If it had come from anyone other than Sakuraba-san, he would probably already be tearing it apart.
But since it was Sakuraba-san who had said it, then it was absolutely worth seriously examining whether it might be possible.
"These past few days, I just haven't been able to grasp what deeper meaning Sakuraba-san's words were supposed to have..." Kitahara said. "Oguri, do you have any thoughts? Since you're an Umamusume, maybe you'd be looking at it from a different angle than I am."
Hearing that, Oguri lowered her head and sank into thought.
Running and eating...
They were both things Oguri Cap excelled at.
But trying to connect those two things together was incredibly difficult.
Or rather, how were two things so completely unrelated even supposed to be connected in the first place?
Mm...
Now Oguri Cap was feeling the same headache Kitahara had been struggling with.
Vaguely, she felt like she had caught onto something—but that spark of insight was like a nimble little fish in the water, slipping through the gaps between her fingers the moment she tried to seize it.
"Ugh... this hint Sakuraba-san left for opening a domain is way too hard! I have no idea where to even begin!"
Kitahara felt like he was about to think himself bald. He was the one most anxious about all this; even Oguri Cap herself, the person the advice was meant for, probably wasn't as worked up as he was right now.
But the instant she heard his words, that darting flash in Oguri Cap's mind was suddenly caught.
"Domain... the trait I'm missing..."
Naturally, Oguri Cap thought back to the "trait" Tamamo Cross had shown her before.
If Tamamo Cross's domain had something to do with lightning...
Then did that mean my domain had something to do with eating?
But how am I supposed to eat while I'm running?
Come to think of it... why do I eat in the first place?
To run better.
To rest better.
To... build up more stamina and energy!
"If I recover stamina and energy while I'm running, then wouldn't that count as eating while running?"
Oguri Cap voiced her thoughts directly to Kitahara.
The moment he heard her reasoning, Kitahara's eyes lit up.
That's right!
If Oguri Cap could recover stamina and energy while running, then that really would amount to the same thing as eating while running.
The process wasn't the same, but the end result was!
"I get it!"
"I get it now! I get all of it!"
Kitahara slapped his hands together and burst into laughter.
At that moment, it felt like he finally understood Sakuraba Ryo's full intent.
Oguri Cap had a huge appetite.
Sakuraba Ryo knew that, of course—but as her Trainer, Kitahara knew it perfectly well too.
And a huge appetite meant tremendous potential hidden inside her body.
None of the rice she ate in daily life simply vanished into thin air. It was more like treasure, buried deep within her body, waiting for its owner to uncover it.
Which meant that if Oguri Cap could release that energy and stamina stored inside her body while she was running...
Then she could absolutely produce the extraordinary effect of recovering stamina while running!
And once that happened, with her condition rising higher and higher without stop, Oguri Cap would have a real chance of reaching the gates of a domain!
It all made sense.
Everything made sense now!
Kitahara felt like he understood it all.
No wonder Sakuraba-san hadn't wanted to say any more back then...
This was a possibility Sakuraba-san had only noticed through his day-to-day contact with Oguri Cap.
Kitahara had even wondered before why Sakuraba kept honestly taking Oguri outside the academy to stuff themselves silly...
So that was why. He'd been preparing for the domain from the very beginning!
By having Oguri Cap gorge herself on huge amounts of food, he was storing enough energy inside her body.
Then, when the time came for the domain, all that energy she'd built up in ordinary days would become Oguri Cap's greatest weapon!
At that thought, Kitahara could not help sighing in admiration at Sakuraba's far-sightedness.
The first time Sakuraba had started taking Oguri around to eat, it had been back in Kasamatsu a year ago...
Could it be...
Had Sakuraba-san already seen this future all the way back then?
If that were true, then just how terrifying was Sakuraba-san's eye for things?
Now even the reason Sakuraba-san had treated him so coldly before made sense...
He'd painstakingly laid all this out over the course of an entire year, only for his own subordinate not only to fail to see any of it, but to shamelessly come asking him for help.
If Kitahara were in his place, he'd probably get angry too.
"But Sakuraba-san is a kind person, so in the end he only sulked and left behind one cryptic piece of advice..."
"We can't let Sakuraba-san's goodwill go to waste!"
Kitahara raised his head and looked at Oguri Cap seriously.
"Oguri, I know how to make you stronger now!"
"Follow my training plan! Together, we'll claim the crown of the Japanese Derby!"
"We'll protect Sakuraba-san's honor ourselves!"
Hearing the vigor in Kitahara's voice, Oguri Cap smiled.
"Okay!"
Flames rose in Oguri Cap's eyes as well.
Her goal was not just the Japanese Derby...
If Ryo's goal was Tracen Academy...
Then what she had to do was more than simply win the Japanese Derby.
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T/N: woah recovering huh, so christmas miracle skill...? lemme check what the christmas miracle unique skill was