Autumn in Niigata, at the Twinkle Series racetrack.
The setting sun slanted downward, and a refreshing autumn breeze brushed against Kaito’s face.
From the stands where he sat, the surging crowd roared with deafening cheers, rooting for the runners on the track.
“Go for it!” “Don’t be nervous, just run your own race!” “Stay sharp, don’t lose your pride!” Looking at this lively yet unfamiliar scene, Kaito slowly reigned in the shock in his eyes and softly exhaled a single sentence.
“I never thought I’d actually transmigrated…” As he spoke, he touched his chest with a complex expression.
His lips were slightly purplish, and his heart ached a little.
He felt so regretful.
If he had known, he wouldn’t have gone to the gym after working overtime…
Amidst his regret, the memories of this body also surfaced in his mind.
He had transmigrated into the world of Uma Musume!
In this world, there existed girls known as Uma Musume.
Born to humans, they were blessed by the Three Goddesses from birth, inheriting souls from another world to become girls with horse ears and tails.
Uma Musume possessed speed, explosive power, and physical endurance far surpassing ordinary humans, and they had an innate yearning to run.
Gradually, a series of races tailored for these horse girls emerged in this world, among which the Twinkle Series, boasting the highest number of participants and the highest level of competition, was the most captivating.
To support the growth of the Uma Musume, this world also gave rise to Tracen Academy, an institution dedicated to cultivating them, along with Trainers who served as their instructors, the majority of whom were human.
The original owner of this body was one of them.
The original body belonged to an Apprentice Trainer who had just passed the entrance exams for Tracen Academy this autumn.
Lacking experience, prone to panic, and not particularly outstanding in basic theory.
To become a full-fledged Trainer and earn a salary, the original had to recruit an Uma Musume willing to accept his guidance.
Thus, he had no choice but to rush around to various Debut Class races at major tracks, scouting promising rookie Uma Musume and negotiating with them.
Unfortunately, things hadn’t gone smoothly.
Reality wasn’t a game.
Some Uma Musume preferred to train alone; even if they attended publicly guided training sessions, they were unwilling to easily approach a Trainer with unknown compatibility.
Those who wanted to partner exclusively with a Trainer tended to favor established seniors with proven records and charisma, while the original didn’t even have an advantage compared to other newcomers of his batch.
Despite his immense efforts, some things were simply out of his control.
The original’s spirit was quickly broken by countless failures.
In the end, his exhausted mind fell into an eternal slumber right here in the stands of the Niigata racetrack.
And then Kaito transmigrated into his place.
“I see.” Kaito chewed over the memories and pondered.
Because the competition to recruit Uma Musume was always fierce, many Trainers who entered Tracen in the same batch as the original Kaito had accepted reality and quit.
Relying on his passion for the Uma Musume, the original had persevered, but it was precisely because this passion went unrewarded that he was dealt a heavier blow, ultimately leading to the tragedy.
Give up.
In the final moments of the original body’s life, this thought had fleetingly appeared, allowing his current self to feel the reluctance and helplessness within it.
“Give up, huh…” Kaito muttered under his breath.
Accepting reality and simply giving up his identity as a Trainer, or transferring to a behind-the-scenes role to support the Uma Musume, would both be much easier choices.
But that was the mindset of a coward.
For the transmigrated Kaito, the most difficult task was actually where he held the greatest advantage.
And that was his past life’s horse racing theory.
In this world, although the work of a Trainer was highly competitive, the industry hadn’t bred a systematic theory for training Uma Musume, especially in Japan.
The Trainers here relied more on their own summarized experiences rather than scientific theories to cultivate the Uma Musume.
Under such customs, absurd things often happened, like choosing the wrong track or race distance for a horse girl.
But in his past life, he had experience as an assistant trainer at a stable.
Although applying it to the human-shaped Uma Musume might have some deviations, his advantage as a running enthusiast made up for it.
Most importantly, he was also a fan of the Uma Musume.
Facing the challenge of recruiting an Uma Musume, Kaito would never have the thought of running away.
[Detecting the Trainer’s resolve, the system “Scouting Eye” has been initially awakened.] [Upon successfully recruiting an Uma Musume, you will be able to view your assigned horse girl’s “Status” and the “Skills” she has mastered.] [Please note, the Uma Musume’s “Skills” are not granted by the system.
The system can only display training progress to assist the Trainer in making reasonable training arrangements.] “A system?” Kaito was stunned for a moment, then broke into a delighted smile.
Although the system’s functions seemed limited to just checking the status and training progress of recruited Uma Musume, accurately grasping this information alone could prevent a lot of ineffective training and injuries.
The only thing he needed to do right now was recruit an Uma Musume to activate the system’s functions.
“Kaito!” Just then, a voice calling out to him came from behind.
A beautiful woman in a suit and glasses squeezed through the crowded crowd, panting heavily as she reached his side, her chest rising and falling with her breath.
“Hana-senpai.” Kaito greeted her respectfully.
The woman before him was named Hana, a famous Trainer at Tracen Academy who had cultivated many strong runners, including the Student Council President, Symboli Rudolf, known as the Emperor.
After Kaito entered the academy, Hana was assigned as the senior to help him get familiar with the job.
She was also the one who brought him along to watch the races today.
Hana glanced at Kaito and said with some surprise, “Did something happen?
You look a bit better than before.” “Something like that.” “I see.” Hana didn’t press the matter further; it wasn’t in her nature to do so.
She could empathize with Kaito’s failure to recruit an Uma Musume, but this was also a common situation for rookie Trainers.
She hadn’t expected her junior to suddenly figure things out and convince some girl to jump onto his ship.
But the necessary training and experience were still indispensable.
She pulled out a roll of race data and handed it to Kaito as she spoke.
“The next race at the Niigata track is about to start.
I’ll brief you on the race conditions like usual.” “This race is the Debut Class Niigata Uma Musume Stakes, a 1000-meter turf race, with sunny weather and a good track condition.” “Since it’s a short-distance race, it heavily favors Runner and Stalker horse girls who can secure an advantageous position early on.” “Additionally, the Niigata track is characterized by its flatness, with no uphill or downhill sections.
It consists of two straights enclosing two turns, leaving little room for strategy.
It’s the track that tests the Uma Musume’s raw abilities the most.” “Therefore, we need to pay close attention to the horse girls who have shown excellent results in previous races.” Following Hana’s explanation, Kaito shifted his gaze to the list under the Participating Uma Musume section.
For a Trainer, choosing the right Uma Musume was a major decision that could impact their entire career.
Some horse girls lacked talent and couldn’t achieve results no matter how they were guided; others had difficult temperaments and often refused to cooperate during training…
Once a Trainer recruited a horse girl who seemed fine at first but turned out to be completely incompatible later on, it became a burden for both parties, and such Trainers often had no chance to achieve results.
Therefore, he carefully browsed the list of participants and their past records, noticing a detail: he had some impression of many of the Uma Musume’s names from his past life, but they were supposed to belong to different eras.
This indicated that the timeline of the Uma Musume world differed from Earth’s history.
Although the Uma Musume in this world inherited the names of Earth’s racehorses, they were not bound by history and had new opportunities and possibilities.
For example, Tokai Teio, who had recently gained immense popularity, had overcome the injuries from Earth’s history to successfully win the undefeated Triple Crown, and her endorsed honey drink was selling well nationwide…
Therefore, destiny could be changed, and one’s choices shouldn’t be influenced by the achievements of Earth’s racehorses…
That being said.
As Kaito browsed the list, his gaze was still tightly drawn to an incredibly familiar name.
Uma Musume No.
8, 12th favorite, Rice Shower.