Under the force of Ms.
Tojo’s terrifying pressure, Kazuomi could only sit alone in the corner after organizing his new desk.
Once she had disposed of Koji’s belongings, Tojo returned to the office.
She acted as though Kazuomi did not exist, sitting at her desk and resuming her examination of various documents.
It was unbearable.
Kazuomi felt as though he were sitting upon a bed of needles.
His thoughts wandered back over everything that had happened.
He had been torn apart during the interview.
After entering the academy, he had been tormented by that old man.
He had acquired an exhausting and troublesome senior.
And the person assigned as his supervisor was this demon queen.
His future appeared cursed.
Even so, not every recent memory was unpleasant.
Super Creek.
Fine Motion.
Ms.
Hayakawa.
His encounters with those girls were the few bright points amid the chaos.
Kazuomi removed the four-leaf-clover handkerchief from his pocket and immediately relaxed.
His hand unconsciously touched the bandage now covering the scrape on his cheek.
“I need to find an opportunity to thank her properly.”
What Kazuomi failed to notice was that although Hana Tojo continued reading, she had been observing him from the corner of her eye.
What she saw displeased her.
He was sitting idly in the office, doing absolutely nothing.
She was his supervisor, yet he had not approached her to ask about his duties.
Instead, he was staring at a handkerchief and smiling foolishly.
Tojo sighed internally.
How indolent.
He lacked experience, professional knowledge, and basic qualifications.
Now it appeared he possessed no ambition either.
She could not understand why the academy’s senior management had chosen to employ such a person.
Hana Tojo had been the first to oppose the decision.
However, the special evaluation had been issued by the academy’s honorary director himself.
No matter how strongly she disagreed, she could only keep her objections to herself.
Even more surprising was the fact that she had been assigned as his supervisor.
When she had learned of the decision after the interviews, she had opposed it more fiercely than anyone.
Yet Director Yoshida had personally instructed her to take responsibility for Asama.
Zenya Yoshida had opened the back door and allowed the boy into the academy.
Then he had handed complete authority over the boy’s training to the person most opposed to his appointment.
He had even told her explicitly:
“If he displays qualities proving that he is unfit to become a trainer, you may fail him during the performance evaluation and dismiss him immediately.
I grant you that authority.”
The contradiction left Tojo unable to understand what the old man truly intended.
A person like this might not even possess the discipline required to endure hardship and master the necessary professional knowledge.
Tojo secretly glanced at Kazuomi as he continued daydreaming.
In her mind, he had already become an opportunist with no ambition—someone who had come to Tracen Academy merely because the idea interested him.
Tojo despised people like that above all others.
At two in the afternoon, the senior staff members gradually returned.
The Training Department became lively.
Everyone sat at their desks and began examining various documents.
Only Kazuomi remained empty-handed, with no idea what he was supposed to do.
“Hey, newbie.
Why are you sitting at Koji’s desk?”
“Ms.
Tojo told me to sit here.”
The moment he heard that name, the man’s expression changed slightly.
“Ah.
So that’s what happened.”
He grimaced.
“That’s certainly troublesome.”
“Did something happen?”
“Nothing a newcomer needs to concern himself with.
Understood?”
The man appeared reluctant to discuss the subject.
After muttering those few words, he turned his chair back toward his roster.
“Excuse me.
May I ask what everyone is doing?”
Compared with approaching the demon queen, Kazuomi found this man considerably easier to speak with.
“This?”
Although he sounded slightly impatient, the man still answered honestly.
“Everyone is looking through this year’s freshman roster.”
“Today was the entrance ceremony.
We need to start identifying potential team members.”
“You’re starting today?
Isn’t that rather fast?”
Kazuomi was astonished.
“What are you talking about?”
The man looked at him as though he had asked something ridiculous.
“The Uma Musume aren’t the only people competing at this academy.
The teams led by each trainer compete with one another as well.”
“If you don’t plan early and build a strong hand, the other teams will leave you behind before you’ve even begun.”
“I see.”
“Still, everyone is merely conducting preliminary research and circling students they want to observe more closely.”
He tapped the roster against his head.
“For at least the first month, our department won’t be directly responsible for the new students.”
“Why not?”
The man stared at him.
“You really don’t know anything, do you?”
“After enrollment, freshmen begin with academic lessons, basic physical conditioning, and various simulated training races under their homeroom teachers.”
“During that period, our department is responsible only for observation and recordkeeping.”
“We still have the middle- and senior-division students to manage.
We need to plan races and create individual training schedules for the established members of our teams.”
“For at least this month, our work will remain focused on the older students.”
He raised his chin and smiled proudly.
“Of course, that’s the work of experienced trainers.
You still have a long way to go, newbie.”
“Yes.
Thank you for the guidance.”
Kazuomi accepted the lecture obediently.
This was a workplace, and the relationship between seniors and juniors had to be clearly respected.
Not everyone was as shamelessly informal as Koji.
The man before him did not seem particularly malicious either.
He had answered every question Kazuomi asked.
Compared with the workplace abuse found at truly exploitative companies, this treatment was already mild.
“Then does everyone here have a team of their own?”
Kazuomi remained curious.
“How many Uma Musume does a trainer normally supervise?”
The senior rolled his eyes.
The greater your ability, the greater your responsibility.”
“The more capable the trainer, the more powerful Uma Musume they have on their team—and the more athletes they must supervise.”
“Everyone in this department is highly accomplished.”
He gestured toward the desks around them.
“Senior Kitamura, sitting opposite you, supervises eight Uma Musume.
Two of them placed first and second in the Yasuda Kinen.”
“Kobayashi, who’s printing documents over there, is responsible for six.
All of them produced respectable results in Grade One races last year.”
“See the young woman listening to music?
Ms.
Yusaka may look young, but she has already trained an entire graduating class.
She currently supervises five Uma Musume from the middle division.”
“And our deputy head, Sasaki, has supervised more than a hundred Uma Musume over the course of his career.
He has the greatest seniority in our department.”
Kazuomi listened in amazement.
The older man sitting near the door had such an extraordinary career?
His curiosity only deepened.
“Then what about our department head?”
The man paused and secretly glanced in Tojo’s direction.
“Department Head Tojo is unquestionably the academy’s ace trainer.”
“She currently supervises eighteen Uma Musume on her team.”
Kazuomi inhaled sharply.
Koji had already told him how capable Tojo was.
Hearing the exact number, however, made her achievements seem terrifying.
An ace trainer.
The trainer responsible for the Emperor.
Still shocked, Kazuomi asked another question.
“How many Uma Musume do you currently supervise?”
The man suddenly became evasive.
“Why are you asking?
There’s nothing worth discussing.
I’m not the sort who enjoys boasting.”
This was a lie.
Todo had been a trainer for only one year.
Despite his mature appearance, he was a twenty-eight-year-old who had failed his university entrance examinations twice and required four attempts to pass the trainer certification examination.
Within the department, he possessed only slightly more seniority than Kazuomi.
Incidentally, Todo currently supervised only two Uma Musume and had not yet established a formal team.
At least five members were required to form one.
“Todo, you said something incorrect.”
The bespectacled man sitting opposite Kazuomi spoke without raising his head.
“It is not that superior trainers possess superior Uma Musume.”
“In the end, we are merely ordinary people.”
“All we can do is help one another achieve more than either side could alone.”
“If anything, we trainers are the ones who depend upon the Uma Musume.”
“Do you understand?”
“Yes!
Senior Kitamura is absolutely correct!”
Kitamura raised his head slightly.
He glanced over the divider at Kazuomi, who was staring blankly back at him.
Then he casually lowered his gaze to his work again.
“Take your time and think about the relationship between the two.”
“If you truly intend to become an excellent trainer…”
“Newcomer.”