“Did you hear?
That Toujou Kaisoku girl pulled an all-nighter doing practice exams and got sent to the hospital.”
“Seriously?”
“How many exams do you have to grind to end up in the hospital?
Does she not have a club?
Does she not go outside?”
“Wait—who’s Toujou Kaisoku?”
And so, rumor spread through the school like wildfire.
The formerly anonymous wallflower—presence approaching algae-level—had overnight become a celebrity.
In a school environment, gossip moved fast.
Soon every student had heard, and before long even neighboring schools knew about the girl who’d studied herself into a hospital bed.
Kaisoku herself couldn’t have cared less.
Honestly, that week had been reckless, but it had also been a stress test of sorts—how much academic grind could an umamusume body actually handle?
The answer: an absurd amount.
A human following that same schedule wouldn’t have just ended up in the hospital—they’d have been in the ICU, and nobody would’ve batted an eye.
For an umamusume, it apparently only registered as “moderate fatigue.”
Thank the heavens this world treated umamusume so gently.
Otherwise, a constitution like that would’ve been exploited by corporations into 24/7 sweatshop shifts.
Kaisoku silently thanked whatever deity had transmigrated her into this wholesome world.
Her previous life had ended from overwork; at least this time around, she had an indestructible liver.
But she also had a new problem.
She was now firmly pinned to her hospital bed, with Diamond and Kita taking turns standing guard.
Until her body recovered, these two had zero intention of letting her touch so much as a single practice exam.
And with fewer than three days left, being stuck in bed felt exactly like being a high schooler three days before the college entrance exams.
The anxiety was excruciating.
She looked up.
“Diamond-san, can I do just one practice exam?”
“No.” Diamond didn’t even raise her head, focused entirely on peeling an apple.
“Get better first, then we’ll talk.
Here—eat an apple.”
Kaisoku ate the apple with a resigned expression.
She was grateful, truly—Diamond had covered her medical bills and stayed with her through all of this.
But the Tōdai early admission exam was right around the corner.
Without practice, she had zero confidence.
She’d clearly pushed things too far before, and now Diamond’s guard was up by several orders of magnitude.
“…Diamond-san… at least bring me a reference book?
I’m bored just lying here…” Kaisoku gave Diamond her most pitiful look, hoping to negotiate even a sliver of study time.
But Diamond had come prepared.
She produced an entire manga series that Kita had brought and stacked it on the bedside table.
“If you’re bored, read some manga.
Kita said to help yourself—it’s her proselytizing set.”
“…Oh.” Plan B, also dead on arrival.
Kaisoku fell silent.
If you don’t erupt in silence, you mutate in silence.
She began attempting to recall the exam problems she’d already completed, trying to review them via pure meditation.
After mentally running through the entirety of Japan’s—frankly, village-chief-level—military history, Diamond suddenly asked a question.
“Is getting into Tōdai really that important to you?” The question momentarily derailed the review session running in Kaisoku’s brain.
She couldn’t exactly explain the real reason to Diamond.
Oh yeah, in my past life I picked the wrong major and ended up so broke that my liver exploded and I died—that wouldn’t fly.
Getting into Tōdai wasn’t actually important in itself.
For Kaisoku, she just wanted to see—if she’d chosen a more promising path back then, could she have been a little happier?
Deep down she still loved art, still loved 2D characters, still loved games and anime.
But for the first half of her previous life, she’d kept that love locked away.
Elementary school, middle school, high school—she was “someone else’s perfect kid.” And also a kid with zero joy.
When everyone else was bingeing games, she was doing practice tests.
When everyone else was singing odes to youth, she was doing practice tests.
When everyone else was falling in love, she was still doing practice tests.
Then the one time the perpetually obedient girl asserted her own choice—picking her university—she walked straight into the AI art wave and couldn’t even afford to eat.
She couldn’t help wondering if she’d made a mistake.
Her luck was always terrible. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
So terrible it eroded her faith in herself.
It seemed like only studying would never betray her.
If she’d chosen a field with better prospects back then, would she have found happiness?
She wondered… and she hesitated.
Everything she’d done was simply to make this life a little happier.
Her previous one had been miserable enough.
This time, she wanted to be genuinely happy at least once.
That obsession was what drove her—what made her set the most distant target she could find.
“I just… want to live this life happily.” She turned away from Diamond.
Her eyes were reddening.
“Because my luck is really, truly terrible.”
Diamond went quiet.
She didn’t understand what Kaisoku’s previous existence had been like—of course she couldn’t.
But she understood the emotion packed into those words.
That feeling of grasping at something that might slip away, of having no confidence at all—it made Diamond think about Kaisoku’s family situation.
With both parents gone, what kind of person must Kaisoku see when she looked at Diamond?
Kaisoku was poor.
Unlucky.
The only tools she had to change her fate were studying and… excelling on the racetrack.
She must have tried the latter—there was no way she could’ve run like that against Kita otherwise.
But in the end she’d chosen studying, because she didn’t have the self-assurance an umamusume was supposed to have.
She had the talent, but her lack of confidence wouldn’t let her believe in it.
Her fixation on Tōdai was simply because she refused to gamble.
She didn’t trust herself.
How could someone who didn’t trust herself bet on being a genius?
Diamond believed she understood Kaisoku now—her insecurity, her reasons for choosing Tōdai.
So she stepped forward and took Kaisoku’s hand.
“If this really matters that much to you, then as your friend, all I can do is help.
But… I need you to take care of yourself.
Studying is fine, but never like that week again.
I need you to understand that I can’t bear watching you destroy your body—the same way I can understand how important Tōdai is to you.”
“…Diamond-san.” Of course Kaisoku knew Diamond was worried about her, and she was grateful for it.
In this world where she had no one to rely on, the only people she could trust were Diamond—a friend who supported her unconditionally—and Kita.
“Thank you…” Kaisoku said it sincerely.
But to Diamond, the gratitude felt slightly misplaced.
“That’s what friends are for.” Diamond made a call and had her family deliver every unfinished practice exam and reference book to the hospital.
There was no way she was letting Kaisoku hole up alone in that dorm again.
She had to be there, keeping watch.
And suddenly, Diamond found herself hoping for a miracle—an umamusume getting into Tōdai.
Everyone knew Tokyo University had never admitted an umamusume.
But Diamond had a feeling: if any umamusume could do it, it was Toujou Kaisoku.
Because the way she worked toward her goal shone like a diamond—
People chasing their own happiness, putting in the effort to reach it, are always the most radiant.
No one should mock them.
No one should stand in their way.
Diamond cheered silently from the depths of her heart.
She’d given up the idea of attending Tracen Academy with Kaisoku, because their friendship would never be broken by something as trivial as being at different schools.
And besides—she wanted to see her friend’s dream come true.
“I think I’m starting to understand what Kita meant by… that flutter.” Diamond murmured.
“Some people just make you ache for them and admire them at the same time…”
And… they make your heart beat so fast…
On another front, Symboli Rudolf had also heard about Kaisoku’s hospitalization.
Once she confirmed there was nothing seriously wrong, she finally relaxed.
She hadn’t expected Kaisoku’s resolve to be this fierce—studying until she landed in the hospital, and reportedly continuing to cram at high intensity even from her bed, merely at a slightly reduced pace.
She couldn’t help but admire the girl’s determination.
And her interest in an umamusume with that kind of willpower only deepened.
She found herself looking forward to their wager—and to whatever surprise Kaisoku might deliver.
Of course, Symboli Rudolf was a woman of her word and never made promises she wouldn’t keep.
But she also liked to plan for every contingency.
“I believe Tokyo University and Tracen Academy could benefit from greater exchange.” Rudolf smiled.
“The notion that umamusume are inherently lacking in academics shouldn’t be accepted as social consensus.
I’d like to see umamusume achieve recognition in scholarship, just as they shine in their own field.”
“Rudolf, you can just come out and say it.” The kindly professor smiled back.
“This Toujou Kaisoku you mentioned—I’m quite intrigued.
She’d be one of the youngest candidates in Tokyo University’s history, and an umamusume at that.
A type of student we’ve never enrolled.
It’s not just me—many faculty members are interested.”
“Then I believe our collaboration will be a pleasant one—” Rudolf interlaced her fingers before her chest in a steeple, the posture of someone holding all the cards.
Smiling serenely at the president of Tokyo University, she laid out her two contingency plans.
No one knew what agreement the two reached.
But both the president and Rudolf left the café wearing satisfied smiles.
Meanwhile, Toujou Kaisoku—utterly oblivious to having been targeted by two titans in their respective domains—continued grinding practice exams, eating the grapes Diamond peeled for her, and studying with absolute focus.
Three days flew by, and Kaisoku was discharged.
She looked up at the blinding sunlight outside the hospital, but felt no relief.
Her battle was only beginning.
Sure enough, a red luxury sports car soon pulled up in front of her.
The driver leaned out.
“You must be Toujou Kaisoku-san?”
“That’s me.” Kaisoku nodded.
“And you are?”
“Just call me Big Sis Maruzensky~” The fashionably dressed woman—whose style had a somehow inexplicable last-century flair—waved with a grin.
“I’m giving you a ride to the exam venue.
Rudolf asked me to pick you up.”
Kaisoku eyed the car.
She didn’t know much about sports cars, but from the looks alone, this was the kind of vehicle you couldn’t buy even if you sold several organs.
She climbed somewhat uneasily into the passenger seat, buckled her seatbelt with proper safety awareness, and asked, “Big Sis Maruzensky—why does that name sound familiar…”
“Just your imagination~ I’m nobody special, just a humble umamusume with a few minor accomplishments.
Nothing compared to Rudolf.” Maruzensky smiled.
“Oh, and don’t talk for the next bit.”
“Huh?
Why not?”
“Because you might bite your tongue.” Maruzensky’s smile didn’t waver as she shifted gears.
Then, as a crushing wave of G-force slammed Kaisoku into her seat, the girl realized she might have boarded the express train to hell.
“Hehe~ Nothing like that new-car smell when you really open her up~”
“WAAAAAAAH!
SLOW DOWN, SLOW DOWWWWN!” Screams echoed without end.
Kaisoku’s face was being peeled back by the wind like someone was slapping her with invisible hands—body hurtling forward, soul scrambling to keep up.
Was this even legal?
Did the umamusume world not have traffic police?
Maruzensky was, admittedly, an excellent driver—so while Kaisoku had lost at least half her seven souls and six spirits during the ride and vomited the moment she stepped out of the car, she had at least arrived safely at the exam venue.
She looked up to see four characters looming above the entrance: TOKYO UNIVERSITY.
…The dizzying vertigo vanished as though wiped away by an invisible hand.
Having emptied her stomach, she finally registered that she was standing on the starting line.
The feeling wasn’t quite the same as a racetrack, but this race—Toujou Kaisoku had just stepped into the starting gate.
Maruzensky patted the girl’s back with a grin.
“You adapted fast.
Interested in learning to drive from your big sis?”
“…No, no thank you!
Go race the guy from Fujiwara Tofu Store—he’d love it.
His AE86 is fast.” Kaisoku shook her head frantically, the fire in her belly doused by sheer terror.
“I couldn’t possibly accept!”
“Aw~ But I think you’ve got talent!
Tell you what—if you actually pass, I’ll personally gift you a car.
My garage just got a few new arrivals.” Maruzensky dangled the offer.
“If you don’t want a car, I can swap it for a different reward.
Consider it a reward from your big sis~”
Kaisoku had zero interest in driving.
But when Maruzensky leaned in with her twin front-mounted armor plates exerting physical-grade pressure on the girl’s visual cortex, Kaisoku folded.
The intimidation was doing its work on a purely optical level.
“I… I understand.”