In the end, Tang Han still got out of the taxi.
The moment both of his feet were firmly on the ground, the taxi he had just ridden in vanished on the spot, as though it had never existed at all.
"Why does this feel like I rode some midnight Route 44 bus straight into the underworld...?" Tang Han muttered.
Then again, that was not far off.
As the place with the highest concentration of horse girls in all of Japan, Tracen Academy was, to him, basically a realm full of man-eating monsters.
Hands in his pockets, Tang Han took a deep breath and walked over to Tazuna at the gate.
"Hello."
"Eh?!"
Tazuna, who had been welcoming people with a gentle smile, nearly jumped out of her skin when Tang Han suddenly appeared in front of her.
"Eh? Eh?!"
She was genuinely shocked. Why had a person suddenly materialized right in front of her?
As a professional receptionist, Tazuna was capable of monitoring everyone who came within ten meters of the academy entrance. And yet this person had gotten to within a single meter of her without her noticing at all. She only saw him after he spoke.
And dressed this strangely, there was no way she should have failed to notice him.
It was as if he had appeared out of thin air.
How odd.
Still, thanks to her impeccable professionalism, Tazuna quickly recovered and put on a gentle smile.
"Hello. May I ask what business you have at Tracen Academy? At the moment, only horse girls and trainers are allowed inside. If you are a fan hoping to tour the grounds, please wait until the fan event in a few months."
Tang Han took out his ID card and handed it to her.
"I'm a new trainer."
Tazuna accepted the card, checked it over, then returned it to him. With an apologetic little bow, she smiled and said,
"So you are Trainer Tang Han. My apologies. I didn't notice you just now."
Tang Han waved it off.
"It's fine."
Tazuna looked him up and down with interest.
"Your outfit is certainly unusual..."
She discreetly sniffed.
There was no scent coming from him at all.
Not even the faintest trace.
He smelled less than clean air.
But that was impossible. No person could truly be scentless. No matter how clean someone was, everyone had a faint smell unique to them. Humans might not be able to detect it, but horse girls certainly could.
Otherwise, how could those trainers still get tracked down and dragged back even after hiding underwater?
If Tazuna could not smell anything on Tang Han, then there was only one explanation.
"Is it some kind of clothing that hides scent?" she asked.
Tang Han had no intention of revealing his secret, so he answered casually,
"Yeah. I'm kind of a chuuni. I like hiding myself. This outfit was specially made."
Tazuna smiled.
"That's a pretty nice outfit. If those trainers had clothes like yours that could cover up their scent, maybe they wouldn't go missing so easily... ah, I said something strange just now. Please forget it."
She kept smiling as though the bizarre remark she had just let slip was completely unimportant.
Tang Han: "..."
After a bit more small talk, Tazuna gestured politely off to the side.
"Trainer Tang Han, please head over there. There are still a few trainers who haven't arrived yet, so please wait a little longer. The people over there are also new trainers. Getting to know them in advance would be a good idea."
Following the direction she indicated, Tang Han saw around ten men and women gathered there, presumably new trainers like himself.
He nodded.
"Alright."
With his hands still in his pockets, Tang Han walked over. The new trainers there were already chatting animatedly.
In any workplace, building good relationships with coworkers was important. If you ran into trouble later, you could always ask them for help.
Especially for someone like Tang Han—a transmigrator with no background, no contacts, and no support system. If he ever really did get dragged off by a horse girl, at least a friend might be able to call the police and get him rescued.
But just as Tang Han was about to greet everyone, a shout from a male trainer with an afro choked the words in his throat.
"Looking for your brother?!"
The afro-haired trainer grabbed another, smaller-framed trainer by the shoulders and demanded,
"You're saying your reason for becoming a trainer at Tracen Academy isn't fame, and it isn't money, but to find your brother?"
That bombshell was enough to make Tang Han temporarily abandon the idea of introducing himself. Instead, he quietly stood off to the side and chose to listen in.
"That's right," the smaller trainer nodded.
"My older brother, Gōmon Matsu... in the past, he was a trainer at Tracen Academy. He was assigned to a horse girl. Her race results weren't amazing, but they were decent enough. And Tracen Academy treats male trainers well— even if they don't produce outstanding results, the base salary is still very generous."
"He had a very good relationship with the horse girl he was assigned to. He even brought her home during New Year once for the family to meet. She was a very pretty, gentle horse girl, and the two of them were always together. If my brother hadn't already been engaged—and planning to earn enough money before returning home to marry his fiancée—everyone would have assumed they were dating."
The smaller trainer frowned.
"But two years ago, he disappeared. And the horse girl he was in charge of disappeared too."
Tang Han's heart tightened.
Don't tell me that brother already ended up in a basement...
The smaller trainer continued,
"No matter how hard we searched, we couldn't find them. Even Chairman Akikawa of Tracen Academy had no idea where they had gone."
"And if you want to enter Tracen Academy, you have to become a trainer first."
"So I decided to become one myself and come into Tracen personally to search for clues."
He clenched his fists.
"I, Gōmon Kantsū, swear that if I don't find my brother, I won't go back!"
His eyes shone with determination.
That declaration moved everyone present.
A female trainer said, "You'll definitely succeed."
A male trainer added, "I hope you find your brother soon and the two of you can reunite."
Gōmon Kantsū nodded firmly.
"Mm! Thank you all for your kindness!"
Tang Han, eavesdropping nearby: "..."
Reunite?
You mean reunite in the basement?
Soon after, the other trainers moved on to discussing other things, completely failing to notice Tang Han's arrival.
This Doctor's Outfit really was absurdly effective at lowering his presence. If Tang Han did not speak, no one noticed him at all.
Apparently, if he wanted people to recognize he existed, he had to主动 make the first move and greet them.
But just as Tang Han was about to introduce himself, an older trainer with a haggard face and both legs in casts suddenly came rushing out from around the corner in an electric wheelchair.
"Don't come any closer!"
The old trainer shouted while frantically mashing the wheelchair's acceleration control.
Unfortunately, no matter how desperately he pressed it, the chair did not go any faster. It had clearly already reached its maximum speed.
By visual estimate, the wheelchair was moving at around sixty kilometers per hour—already insanely fast.
But for a horse girl, that speed was basically a leisurely stroll.
A horse girl burst out from around the same corner and immediately intercepted the wheelchair.
"Mr. Tokugawa, I've finally caught you."
She pressed the wheelchair to a dead stop with brute force.
"Ughii—!"
The old trainer let out a strange squeal, drenched in sweat and fumbling helplessly.
There was no escape now.
Shivering, he asked,
"Miss Okanjō... what do you want with me?"
The horse girl called Welcoming Sake smiled gently.
"Mr. Tokugawa, please tell me—where did my trainer go?"
Cold sweat poured down Tokugawa's forehead.
"I-I don't know where my Shūin went..."
Welcoming Sake crushed the wheelchair handle in one hand.
Her eyes turned frighteningly dark.
"You're close friends. There's no way you don't know."
Tokugawa averted his gaze guiltily.
"I really don't know..."
"If you refuse to tell me," Welcoming Sake said softly, "I'll send you to Yuki-chan instead..."
"Yuki?!"
The name alone made Tokugawa tremble like he had heard something unspeakably horrifying.
"I'll talk! I'll talk!"
He pointed frantically at a trash can somewhere inside the academy grounds.
"Shūin is hiding in there!"
Bang.
The trash can shook, and a man popped out of it.
"Tokugawa, you sold me out!"
Welcoming Sake's eyes lit up. As she looked at the man climbing out of the trash can, pink hearts appeared in her eyes.
"My, thank you so much, Mr. Tokugawa."
She released the wheelchair, then waved her hand.
"Yuki-chan, you can come out now."
Another horse girl stepped out from around the corner. The moment Tokugawa saw her, he looked as though he had just seen his natural predator.
"Yuki!"
Tokugawa had barely begun trying to flee before Yuki lunged forward in a single bound and pinned him down.
"Trainer, let's continue our training"
Before Tokugawa could resist, Yuki hoisted both him and the wheelchair onto her shoulder and carried him away, leaving behind pitiful wails of "aaah, no, aaah—!"
The distant senior trainer, Shūin, did not fare any better. Welcoming Sake rushed over, scooped him up, and carried him off as well, while he cried out in miserable despair.
Tazuna turned back to the new trainers with a warm smile.
"Hehe, those two trainers really do have such good relationships with their horse girls."
The female trainers nodded.
"Yes, yes, they really seem close."
One of the male trainers said enviously,
"I hope the relationship between me and my horse girl can reach that level someday too."
"..."
Tang Han silently edged farther away from the crowd.
Friends?
Forget it. Who needs them.
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 115)
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 (Chapter116)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
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 118
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 111
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 80
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 112
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 95
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 89
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 61
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 65
Uma Musume: From Beginner 61
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 37
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