“Alright, let’s move on to today’s second special training exercise.”
Kenji felt a bit embarrassed after being called “Kenji-kun” for so long.
To cover his shyness, he decided to push forward with the next exercise.
“Understood, Kenji-kun!”
With morale high and energy overflowing, Suzuka eagerly approached the training equipment Kenji had just inflated… a yoga ball.
This was the prop required for their second secret training session in the room.
Kenji had borrowed it from the gym.
Tracen’s facility really had everything, but most Uma Musume only went there for strength training.
Props like yoga balls were completely ignored, making it easy for him to borrow one.
The third task Kenji had issued for Suzuka was as follows:
[Difficulty C: With both feet suspended, perform 1,000 up-and-down squat jumps on the yoga ball (Current progress: 51/1000)]
Suzuka sat on the yoga ball in a duck-sitting position, then slowly lifted her toes off the ground, trying to find her balance.
A beautiful Uma Musume girl in a school swimsuit sitting on a yoga ball looked, from any angle, like a borderline streamer doing suggestive poses under the guise of training.
Honestly, visually speaking, it was absolutely imagination-inducing…
But Kenji wanted to say: No!
Not like that!
This is legitimate training!
Without excellent balance, just sitting steadily on a yoga ball with both feet suspended was already extremely difficult, let alone performing other movements.
That’s why even after all this time, Suzuka had only just begun to grasp the trick.
“Don’t rush it, Suzuka.
Take your time, I’m here.”
“Yes…!
Please!”
As usual, Kenji knelt in front of Suzuka, cupped the soles of her feet with both hands, and helped lift them slowly off the ground.
This position was actually quite problematic.
If Kenji looked up even slightly, his line of sight landed right at Suzuka’s… area.
“Don’t look where you shouldn’t…” he told himself.
But human vision wasn’t that narrow; even without deliberately looking, that area remained in his field of view.
After watching for over half a month, and being detail-oriented by nature, he inevitably noticed something different from usual.
Today, the fabric in Suzuka’s center seemed slightly darker than the rest… Yeah, it must be a shadow.
Definitely just a shadow.
Right?
Don’t overthink it.
Suzuka was introverted and shy, how could it possibly be a wet stain?
Impossible, absolutely not!
Besides, even if it were damp, it had to be sweat… Right?
Sweat!
It couldn’t possibly be…
Unbeknownst to him, Suzuka’s feet had already molded into Kenji’s shape from this training.
Though she no longer minded him touching her feet at all, the sensation was completely different from when he first did it.
She’d desensitized… and yet not really.
If anything, she’d become even more sensitive… Every time Kenji cupped her soles, Suzuka felt a sudden urge to use the restroom.
Of course, the innocent girl had no idea that wasn’t actually what was happening.
Kenji pushed aside any stray thoughts, slowly withdrew his hands to reduce contact with her soles, and said:
“Alright, I’m going to let go soon.
Are you ready?”
It was a bit like teaching someone to ride a bike: first supporting them by hand, then letting go once they’d fully mastered their balance.
Since squat jumps done while his hands supported her feet didn’t count toward the task progress, he had to let go anyway.
The reason the counter was so low was that Suzuka hadn’t been able to maintain balance before; every time Kenji let go, she’d fall after only a few attempts.
But once she mastered her balance, all she had to do was repeat the squat jumps.
It wasn’t an overly difficult movement; he was confident she’d finish it within a few days.
“Yes!
I’m ready!”
As Kenji fully withdrew his hands, Suzuka’s body swayed slightly from the loss of support, as if she were about to lose balance.
But she immediately spread her arms, adjusted her posture, squeezed her thighs around the yoga ball, and quickly stabilized herself again.
“Ah…!
Kenji-kun!
I did it!”
Suzuka was thrilled to realize she could sit steadily on the yoga ball with her feet suspended.
They’d been doing this training for over half a month, yet Suzuka had never met Kenji’s requirements until now.
She’d been worried he might be disappointed in her, but today, she finally proved herself.
“Excellent!
That’s amazing!
You really are the best Uma Musume, Suzuka!”
Kenji was equally excited, pumping his fist and praising her.
Now he could finally relax.
It looked like Suzuka would master the skills he’d configured for her before their second race, right on schedule.
“Alright then, Suzuka, try moving on your own now.”
“Yes!”
Suzuka began performing the up-and-down squat jumps… The yoga ball deformed and bounced under her weight, yet she never fell off.
This was thanks to her earlier plank leg-lift exercises, plus the fact that after completing the counter-clockwise pen-spinning task, Suzuka had developed ambidextrous foot control.
In terms of balance alone, Suzuka was already far beyond average Uma Musume standards.
“Oh!
Nice!
Now you’re doing it all on your own!”
“Yes…!”
Suzuka, however, wasn’t as thrilled.
She realized that once she mastered her balance, Kenji wouldn’t need to support her soles with his hands anymore…
That gave her a complicated mix of pride and loss.
Still, she didn’t want to disappoint him, so she decided to focus on completing the training properly.
But after a few attempts at squat jumping on the yoga ball, she discovered…
This movement was unexpectedly exhausting!
It required using her entire body’s muscles without even a hint of slack.
Muscles she never used while running were all being activated now, sending tingling and sore sensations through her limbs.
After only a dozen or so squat jumps, Suzuka felt sweat breaking out across her body; she was burning up.
Thank goodness she was wearing the school swimsuit… Otherwise, regular clothes would’ve soaked through and revealed everything underneath.
Having her trainer see her in such a disheveled state… It’d be so embarrassing!
At first, when Kenji mentioned using a yoga ball for training, she hadn’t fully understood its purpose and had even briefly suspected he might be taking advantage of her… But because she’d decided to trust him first, she went along with it.
Now, however, she finally understood its true purpose: this training helped her gain better control over all her muscle groups!
She really shouldn’t have doubted her trainer’s arrangements… Every instruction from Kenji-kun had meaning!
From now on, she’d obediently follow his words and never doubt him again!
Not even a single hint of doubt in her heart!
At this moment, Suzuka’s trust meter for Kenji hit MAX.
She doubted nothing about him.
Absolute trust between trainer and assigned Uma Musume would become the cornerstone leading to victory.