The first light of dawn slowly bled across the sky above the horizon.
A ship’s long, melodious horn sounded over the water as seagulls soared freely in the distance.
A deckhand called loudly toward the pier.
The salty sea breeze carried a faint taste of melancholy.
On a small island in the Seto Inland Sea, eighteen-year-old Asama Kazuomi stood with a pile of luggage at his feet, saying his final goodbyes to a mother and daughter.
“Big Brother…”
A little girl with soft, fluffy black hair tugged at Kazuomi’s sleeve, her face filled with reluctance to let him go.
Her cherry-blossom-colored eyes remained fixed upon him.
Atop her head, however, were a pair of horse ears unlike those of an ordinary human.
She was what people called an Uma Musume.
At present, though, she was only twelve years old.
“Be good.
Your big brother is going to Tokyo to study and work.”
Kazuomi crouched down gently and stroked the girl’s soft black hair.
Looking at the younger sister with whom he shared no blood, he offered her a tender smile.
“Once I become a trainer, and you become a proper Uma Musume, we’ll be able to spend lots of time together again.”
At that promise, the girl finally smiled.
“You promised!
I’m definitely going to find you someday!”
“Yeah.
It’s a promise.”
More than a concrete plan, it was something closer to a wish.
Kazuomi had been an excellent student at one of the prefecture’s better high schools, scoring close to sixty on the national deviation scale.
Even so, he had been forced to make a choice.
When deciding his future, he had given up on attending university and paying its considerable tuition.
Instead, he would seek opportunities in Tokyo.
He wanted to leave those opportunities to his sister, who was six years younger than him, so that she could attend a good racing academy.
The tuition for professional training was expensive, as were the fees involved in applying to a qualified academy.
If all of that money could be saved for his sister—
Of course, he had already discussed everything with his stepmother.
“Ms.
Ayako, thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”
Like the girl, the beautiful and dignified woman standing beside her was also an Uma Musume.
She was Kazuomi’s stepmother.
After his father’s accidental death, she had raised both children on her own.
Kazuomi had always been profoundly grateful to this mother who was not his mother by blood.
It was Kazuomi himself who had proposed abandoning further education to lessen her burden.
With his contribution added to hers, perhaps they could give his sister a chance to study at Central Tracen Academy.
Naturally, Ms.
Ayako felt deeply guilty about his decision.
Looking at Kazuomi, now grown into an adult, she knew that nothing she said would change his mind.
All she could do was nod apologetically, her face clouded with concern.
“Have a safe journey, Kazuomi.
If you run into any trouble out there, please remember to tell us.”
“I will.”
As dawn broke and the ship’s horn echoed over the Seto Inland Sea, a boy named Asama Kazuomi departed his island home.
Thus began his journey to study and work in Tokyo.
However, reality proved far less simple than that.
He had thought himself mentally prepared.
But when he was finally forced to confront it—
“Then allow me to begin with a question.”
Seven or eight people sat behind a long table in the interview room, all of them staring directly at him.
The oppressive atmosphere made Kazuomi feel less like an applicant and more like a criminal undergoing interrogation.
The invisible pressure left him unable to sit still.
His palms were already drenched with sweat.
The middle-aged interviewer seated at the center held the form Kazuomi had just completed.
He narrowed his eyes, studying the boy with an inscrutable expression.
“Why did you come to an interview dressed like that?”
Kazuomi was still wearing a restaurant uniform.
The word Yoshinoya was printed in enormous letters across his chest.
No matter how anyone looked at him, he resembled a delivery worker rather than a serious job applicant.
“Uh… The truth is, I came here to make a delivery.
I happened to see that your organization was recruiting, so I filled out the application form and joined the interview on the spur of the moment.”
He had entered on a sudden rush of enthusiasm.
Only after taking his seat in this room did Kazuomi realize exactly how stupid he had been.
Who attended a job interview dressed in a restaurant uniform?!
He wanted to slap himself.
His answer only deepened the deathly silence.
Several interviewers exchanged looks of speechless disappointment.
Some did not even bother glancing at the résumé he had hastily completed.
They merely propped up their chins and sighed.
Kazuomi saw all of it.
His heart tightened painfully.
“You’re only eighteen, correct?
Shouldn’t you still be a student?”
A cool female voice suddenly broke the silence.
The speaker was the youngest-looking member of the interview panel, a severe yet beautiful woman who was reading his résumé more carefully than anyone else.
She had the capable air of an elite professional and wore gold-rimmed glasses.
Pointing at one of the fields Kazuomi had filled out, she waited for his answer.
“Uh… I gave up on continuing my formal education.
I’m currently working in Tokyo while looking for opportunities to study.”
The woman’s finely shaped eyebrows immediately drew together.
Her sharp gaze pinned Kazuomi in place.
“Are you joking?
We are recruiting elite training personnel with professional expertise and outstanding academic records.
You have not even studied at a vocational school?”
“That’s… correct.”
The moment she exposed that fact, Kazuomi felt his heart sink into an abyss.
He slowly lowered his head, unable to meet her eyes.
She was right.
He had no professional foundation in this field.
He had charged into the interview armed with nothing but passion.
He could have told them how much he had studied independently, but under the pressure filling the room, he fell silent.
“If we hired people who knew nothing merely because they appeared for an interview, what would that mean for the students placed under their care?”
The woman’s voice grew increasingly severe.
The others said nothing, but their expressions conveyed the same opinion.
“This position is not a place for you to study from the beginning.
Why do you think university students are given four years to prepare themselves?
Once you enter the workforce, people care only about the results you can produce.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Now, now, Ms.
Tojo.
Please calm down.”
The oldest person among the interviewers, a kindly white-haired gentleman, finally intervened.
“My apologies.
I lost my composure.”
Apparently realizing she had gone too far, the woman named Tojo apologized to her colleagues.
She then sat back down, her expression still dark.
“Ahem.
Let us leave that aside for the moment.”
The elderly gentleman narrowed his eyes and regarded Kazuomi with open curiosity.
“There is something I would like to ask.
Why did you choose to participate in this particular interview?
Just to make certain, you do understand that this is an interview for a trainer’s position at Tracen Academy, correct?”
Kazuomi remembered the promise he had made to his sister.
That was right.
For her sake, he would become a fully fledged trainer.
No matter how harsh reality became—
“Yes, sir!”
The elderly man’s gentle manner eased some of Kazuomi’s tension.
Recalling his promise also allowed him to settle his heart.
“Then how much do you know about our academy?”
“Tracen Academy was the first professional racing academy established in Japan.
Many of the Uma Musume competing in major races graduated from this institution.
It could be called the foremost professional training organization for Uma Musume in the entire country.”
“Uh… That is information practically everyone knows.”
A middle-aged man sitting to one side spoke in obvious dissatisfaction.
“Yes, sir.”
Kazuomi could not argue.
His understanding of the academy truly went no deeper than the surface.
“Ahem.
Then tell me this.
Is there an Uma Musume you particularly admire?
Or perhaps a race that left the strongest impression upon you?”
The elderly man laced his fingers beneath his chin and watched him with a meaningful expression.
Those words seemed to stir a fragment buried deep within Kazuomi’s heart.
In his hazy childhood memories, he saw a blue dancer’s mask.
An evening gown fluttering in the wind.
A figure like a spirit emerging from the shadows.
An elegant Uma Musume who seemed almost like a singer upon the racetrack—
“Yes!
There is!”
Overcome with excitement, Kazuomi nearly sprang from his chair.
“The race took place before I was born, so I only ever saw a recording.
But there was an Uma Musume I admired tremendously.
She was a graduate of Tracen Academy—”
“Oh?”
At the mention of her, the old man’s expression finally changed.
“The Nikkei Shinshun Hai, a Grade Two race!
Her performance in that race left an incredible impression on me!”
“Especially the force of her final drive.
When she charged all the way up from seventh place— Even though I was only watching a recording, I could feel something sorrowful and resolute coming from her.
The way she leaned almost impossibly far forward as she ran…”
Kazuomi’s voice trembled with excitement.
“No matter how many times I watch it, my blood starts boiling!
Even now, just remembering it gives me goose bumps!”
The fearless charge of the Uma Musume in the dancer’s mask—
“I see.
You truly admired her that much.”
The elderly man slowly leaned back, as though savoring every word Kazuomi had spoken.
“Yes!
That was why, when I discovered this was Tracen Academy, I immediately joined the interview!”
“However…”
The old man gave him an apologetic smile and slowly shook his head.
“I am afraid that after participating in that race, the Uma Musume in question suffered a bone fracture.
Her career ended immediately afterward.”
“…What?”
Kazuomi froze.
His hands and feet turned cold, as though he had been plunged into an icy cavern.
He barely remembered what happened afterward.
He answered a few questions mechanically, then was escorted from the room.
Only after standing outside for quite some time did he gradually recall the final scene and the formulaic words that had concluded the interview.
Please await further notification.
In reality, it was merely a polite way of rejecting him.
“What am I even doing?”
Kazuomi scratched his head in self-disgust and let his shoulders droop.
The clock above him ticked steadily.
Outside the window, the sky grew darker, while an indescribable frustration clogged his chest.
Now his manager would scold him for abandoning his delivery shift as well.
Looking at the restaurant delivery bike parked outside, Kazuomi saw nothing but the burdens of life in the noisy city.
He slapped both cheeks hard.
It was as though he hoped to drive every useless thought from his mind.
“I can’t give up yet.
I still have four years.
For the sake of my promise with my sister, I’ll find some way to become a trainer.”
However—
Even Kazuomi himself could never have imagined what would happen next.
March 31.
“This is Mr.
Asama Kazuomi, the trainee staff member assigned to the Training Department as of today.”
A mature woman dressed in a bright green uniform introduced him to everyone in the office.