Ignoring the shrieks from the gray-haired "pig" in the next lane, Dyna naturally could not hear much once she ducked underwater anyway.
After swimming several laps back and forth, she finally climbed out and sat on the pool's edge, squeezing some of the water from her hair.
Moving freely through the water felt far better than being so constrained on land. All the fatigue built up in her body seemed to pour right out of her, leaving her with a comfort even greater than soaking in a hot spring.
She had not even finished wringing out her hair when a silver-haired figure floated up in the middle of the pool, looking moments away from losing consciousness.
"Uh… Miss Opera O, is this kind of thing common at Tracen?" Dyna asked.
She had recognized Hishi Miracle. Given the girl's established "can't swim to save her life" persona, seeing her bob up like a drowned log felt strangely natural.
Pressing a hand to her forehead, Opera O answered, "For Hishi Miracle, yes, it's very common. She's been nearly drowned so many times and still hasn't learned how to paddle. That's an extraordinary case even by Tracen standards. Her trainer's practically gone mad over it. Almost every day, he kicks her into the pool, then Hishi Miracle nearly drowns. Repeat forever."
Just hearing about it was kind of horrifying. Dyna had not expected something like that to be happening inside Tracen. Then again, Hishi Miracle always ran off on her own if she was truly uncomfortable, so maybe she actually enjoyed this kind of life. At the very least, struggling for a minute or two burned off a lot of calories and kept her weight from climbing without limit.
"It really is something else. But I've noticed a lot of horse girls don't seem to like the water."
"That's normal enough. Most don't love it, but they don't hate it either. I'm like that too. I won't get in unless I have to." Opera O sounded resigned. It was a shame, really. They had built such a huge pool, and yet hardly any horse girls came here willingly.
The two of them turned to Meisho Doto. Doto averted her eyes and answered softly, "I… actually do kind of like swimming. When I'm with Taiki Shuttle, it feels really relaxing."
Dyna took a deep breath and plunged down again, surfacing with only her head above the water before waving at Opera O and Doto.
"I'm going to test how long I can hold my breath. Could you time me?"
Before either of them could answer, Dyna inhaled once more and sank straight to the bottom, where she grabbed the underwater ladder, closed her eyes, and held still.
Water filled her ears, the muffled rumble inside her skull bringing her an oddly pleasurable sensation. Wrapped in the cool pressure of the water, every muscle in her body relaxed completely. Horse girls had tremendous lung capacity to begin with, and after a single deep breath, even Dyna—who had never trained for breath-holding—could clearly tell she had already lasted quite a while.
On shore, Doto was still worrying that Dyna had done this with no practice at all and might get hurt, but when she saw the timer on Opera O's phone, her expression changed.
"You're surprised, right?" Opera O said. "Underwater breath-holding can reflect a horse girl's distance aptitude to some extent. My own absolute limit is barely enough for a 3600-meter race, but 3200 meters is my real comfort zone."
At that point Dyna had already been sitting underwater for seven or eight minutes, and her complexion had barely changed.
Eighteen minutes later, Dyna finally climbed back up the ladder, let out all the stale air in her chest, and gulped down fresh breaths.
"Eighteen minutes. You could probably go run a 4000-meter race in England in the future," Opera O said, showing them the final number, clearly stunned. Even in her prime, she herself had never managed anything that outrageous. This was not training anymore. This was practically genetic specialization.
Dyna looked surprised too. She checked the time several times, then smiled, pleased.
"Seriously? It felt really quick down there. I thought not even two minutes had passed."
"Miss Light Dyna is amazing… Even if you really did win the Classic Triple Crown this year, I honestly wouldn't be surprised!" Doto said, looking at her with clear admiration now. The feeling she got from Dyna was the same one she had always gotten from Opera O—the makings of an overlord who could define an era.
"Please don't start loaning me a Triple Crown already," Dyna said with a helpless laugh. "That kind of pressure would be terrifying. But I'll work hard and keep pushing toward the goal I promised. Because my real goal is the Arima Kinen. The grandest stage in the whole country. The most important thing is to let him see that I kept my promise."
The three of them chatted together for a long time. Every time the water dried on Dyna's skin, she would dive back in and swim another few laps.
Even Opera O was astonished by how abundant Dyna's stamina was, and how quickly she recovered. Ordinary horse girls simply could not keep up this kind of pace, this many times in one day.
"Eehhh! I don't want to get in again, Cesario!"
Two more horse girls arrived at the other end of the pool: one with short blue hair and a white blaze, the other with chestnut hair draped over her shoulders. Cesario was currently trying to shove Buena Vista toward the water.
These two were familiar enough to Dyna.
Special Week's "hopeless gambling addict" image was so widespread that her "good daughters" had naturally inherited plenty of fame as well. There were even jokes about Buena Vista earning race money just to pay off Special Week's debts.
Dyna had no idea how things really worked in the horse-girl world, but surely something that ridiculous would not actually happen. A girl like Special Week ought to have had more than enough prize money and popularity to live comfortably on her own… probably.
"Miss Buena Vista," Dyna said, "if I remember right, she switched from turf to dirt and ran in Dubai earlier this year, right? She only got back recently?"
"Yep," Opera O answered. "She ran in the same race as Victoire Pisa. She probably thought that since she'd only lost to her by a little on turf, she could settle things on dirt too. But no one expected Victoire Pisa to be that strong. Turf and dirt, both—she just crushed the Dubai World Cup. Buena Vista ended up as nothing but scenery in the background."
Opera O followed overseas races far more closely than Dyna did, so she was able to explain the whole thing in detail.
Still, after returning to Japan, Victoire Pisa had announced a long break and probably would not come back until autumn. Buena Vista, on the other hand, had declared she would target the Victoria Mile in May and had only just resumed training.
A title like Heaven's Gift to Japan was not something just anyone got called. Then again, Buena Vista's own honors were impressive enough that people were starting to refer to her as a true "Tiara-shaking wonder," and honestly, that description was not off the mark either.
Buena Vista was still trying to resist, but Cesario simply hauled her into the pool.
And, to her credit, Cesario jumped in right after her.
"So… what's their relationship with Special Week?" Dyna asked.
"Special Week?" Opera O thought about it. "You could call her a senior they're very close to. Back when Buena Vista was still racing domestically, she often invited Special Week and Cesario out to eat. Every single time, Special Week ate the most. Other than that, I don't really know the details. The only thing I saw often was Cesario and Buena Vista together."
Opera O did not care much about other people's private lives, so she could only comment on things she had actually seen or heard repeatedly.
Dyna nodded slowly.
So the Special Week in this world was pretty decent after all. Not a gambling addict, not leeching off Buena Vista. Definitely friend material.
This time, after the water on her skin dried naturally, Dyna did not get back in. Instead, she changed back into the race outfit she had stored in the changing room and prepared to go home. The sky was already darkening, and it was about time to start thinking about dinner.
Watching her head for the door, Opera O suddenly circled around Dyna several times. The sudden scrutiny left Dyna baffled.
Then Opera O grabbed her lightly by the arm and shook it up and down a few times. She seemed to have discovered a very serious problem—one directly tied to how difficult future races would become once the dueling started.
"Dyna, what do you usually eat for your meals?" she asked.
From all the times she had touched Dyna before, everything about her had felt soft. That softness might have been delightful to the touch, but on the racetrack it was absolutely not a good thing.
"Huh? Why are you suddenly asking that?" Dyna replied. "I've just been following the meal plan Mr. Wada set at the beginning… with a few little changes, I guess?"
Opera O pressed a hand to her forehead.
Sometimes, a horse girl being too obedient was not a good thing.
Take Dyna, for example. She had clung to the same food plan for more than half a year. It was lucky they had caught that in time. There was still enough time to fix it before the Satsuki Sho.
"Still eating like that this late? You really don't get hungry?"
"Not really? Look, my weight and figure are exactly the same as when I debuted, right?"
Doto, standing nearby, explained carefully, "Miss Light Dyna… for an active horse girl, keeping exactly the same weight all the time isn't necessarily a good thing. Especially for someone about to challenge the Classic season. Your diet should change depending on the race schedule and the time of year, and sometimes it's important to gain a little weight too."
She continued, "At your current weight, compared to the other girls aiming for the Satsuki Sho, you're too light. Your body strength can't keep up either. In a race, if there are unavoidable collisions or physical contests, you'll be the one who comes out worse. And since your body is still developing, this kind of food intake really isn't ideal."
Dyna blinked, then looked down at herself.
Her proportions were undoubtedly top-class. But as Doto and Opera O had pointed out, beneath her clothes she was all softness, without the muscle needed to translate into raw strength. Too easy to get bullied physically.
As if to confirm it, Dyna pinched her own arm. Sure enough, soft.
"So… how am I supposed to fix that? And with so little time left, it's not like there's much time to work with, right?"
Rubbing her fingers along her chin, Opera O answered, "You don't need to worry about putting on weight. For horse girls, gaining weight is easy. And before the Satsuki Sho, you don't even have to think about turning it into muscle yet. For the next few days, all you need to do is eat more."
"All right… but what exactly am I supposed to do?"
"Lots of meat and fish. Less exercise. A horse girl's body, over the short term, will mostly gain weight without seriously hurting performance. So don't worry about that before the Satsuki Sho. Then, in the month between the Satsuki Sho and the Derby, you can turn that extra weight into strength."
Opera O's style was never to hand over the kind of hyper-detailed plan Wada would make. She told you the method. The rest was up to you.
Dyna nodded blankly.
So it was really that simple?
On her way home, she stopped by a Western restaurant in front of the shop. While waiting in line, she was still thinking over how to actually put the plan into practice.
In the past, she might have ordered just one carrot-and-steak set. This time, she added an extra steak and a carbonated drink.
When she brought the food home, the shop was already closed, and Oguri Cap and the others had left after cleaning up.
Sitting alone at the small table, staring at the fullest spread she had ever placed in front of herself, Dyna put her hands together.
"Time to eat."
She spent more than half an hour forcing down that meal, swallowing the last mouthful with the help of water. At the end, she let out a long breath and looked at her slightly rounded stomach.
Sure enough, even gaining weight required an adjustment period for appetite. At the very least, Dyna felt sure she was not going to be sleeping anytime soon.
So instead, she slumped against the sofa, picked up her phone, and started scrolling through videos. The trash was already packed up, so she could just toss it all out tomorrow morning on her way to training.
Her Twitter feed was still full of post-disaster reconstruction news.
Thanks to the disaster-relief support races, huge sums of money were pouring into rebuilding Chiba and the surrounding regions. Repairs at Nakayama Racecourse were progressing rapidly, and it looked like the venue would likely be usable again sometime in the second half of the year.
Of course, all the graded races that had been delayed in the meantime would have to be rescheduled at other racecourses.
She scrolled like that for more than two hours before realizing the sky had already gone dark.
"…Why do I suddenly feel like I'm starting to rot?"
She stared at the screen.
"Eat, then scroll on my phone, then go straight to bed?"
That was the thought Dyna had right before going upstairs.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 132)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter140)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter95)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter165)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 145
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 135
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 95
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 155
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 125
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 105
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 62
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 80
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 80
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 62
Uma Musume: I Want All 65
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
Summoning an Evil God, but the 41
Supernatural Multiverse 45
My Harem Is Indescribable 35
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 46
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 26
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 36
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin