“In the end, the principal kept me talking all day about education and anti-bullying policy.
It was meaningful, sure, but I zoned out for most of it.
Honestly, I think the principal was just using me as a sounding board—he could work out the solutions and conclusions on his own.
All I had to do was nod along.” Back at the dorm, Kaisoku vented to Satono Diamond.
“But still… it was the first time I felt like this school is actually a pretty nice place.”
“That’s because you used to completely refuse to engage with anyone, Kai.” Diamond stroked the mentally exhausted Kaisoku’s head, murmuring softly.
“Most people are actually decent.
Some might have the occasional petty thought, but it’s nothing serious.
Especially among umamusume—”
“Are you saying Symboli Rudolf was actually looking out for me too?” Kaisoku caught the implication.
“…Well, being manipulated genuinely sucks.
But honestly, Rudolf never actually forced me into anything, and she did honor her end of the bet.
I don’t actually hate her that much.”
“I’m not asking you to be grateful to her or anything.
But I do think Student Council President Rudolf meant no harm.
Of course, if you do hate her, Kai, I’ll hate her right along with you.” Diamond’s words sent a small current of warmth through Kaisoku’s chest.
Exhaustion had driven her to collapse onto the bed the moment she got back, and Diamond had taken the initiative to slide Kaisoku’s head from the mattress onto her own lap.
Right now, every fiber of Kaisoku’s being wanted to be spoiled.
Maybe it was because she’d become a middle schooler—her brain had fully regressed to match.
Kaisoku didn’t feel childish about it.
If anything, the craving for someone’s attention and care had won out.
This put the veteran Diamond in a delicate position, though.
Watching Kaisoku lie defenseless across her lap, Diamond’s heart was hammering.
She knew that right now, even if she overstepped slightly, Kaisoku wouldn’t mind.
The situation rested entirely on Diamond’s self-control.
It took considerable effort to suppress the urge to casually run her fingers through the girl’s hair while playing innocent.
On one hand, she was afraid any advance would make Kaisoku pull away.
On the other, the girl was clearly spent.
For reasons Diamond couldn’t fathom, Kaisoku always seemed to be bracing for something.
After getting into Tōdai, hearing that everyone knew about it, she’d looked almost frightened—as though she expected to be interrogated or punished.
But nobody had done anything of the sort.
Everyone had offered straightforward congratulations, and nothing else.
That surprised Kaisoku visibly, which made Diamond wonder what kind of environment could have produced someone like this—as though doing anything outside the norm would immediately make you a target.
Did such places even exist?
Diamond ached for her, tenderness and protectiveness mingling as she stroked Kaisoku’s head.
Her investigations into Kaisoku’s past had turned up nothing concrete, but since the girl had resolved to come out of her shell, Diamond would be there as a friend to help pull her the rest of the way.
“Kai… You don’t have to worry anymore.
The happiness you want… it’ll find its way to you.” Diamond’s voice was gentle, carrying an almost magical quality.
The furrow between Kaisoku’s brows relaxed.
Before long, her breathing steadied, and she slipped into a deep sleep, just like that.
Diamond carefully shifted the sleeping girl’s head onto a pillow, tiptoed to the light switch, and whispered into the darkness.
“Good night—Toujou Kaisoku.”
“Teio?
What are you looking at?” On a night of glittering stars, Mayano Top Gun stirred at a faint noise and found her roommate standing by the window, gazing at the sky.
She checked the time—past one in the morning—and asked with mild concern.
“…Soon, a really incredible umamusume is coming to Tracen Academy.” Tokai Teio said.
“I can’t sleep, so I came to look at the stars.”
“A really incredible umamusume…” Top Gun cocked her head.
“But Teio, you’re already amazing.
Does she make you feel threatened?”
“Threatened?” Teio shook her head.
“I’m just curious about what kind of ability an umamusume personally scouted by the President would have.
It’s less ‘threatened’ and more… my heart’s racing.”
“Your heart’s racing?” Top Gun didn’t follow.
“Is it because she was handpicked by President Rudolf that you’re feeling competitive?”
“I won’t pretend that’s not part of it.
But the last umamusume the President recruited like this?
That was Oguri Cap-senpai.” Teio’s eyes shone.
“Every umamusume the President takes an interest in is exceptional.
That’s why I’m so worked up.
I’m too excited to sleep—”
“But good luck out there.
Oh, and we have a test tomorrow.
What happens if you don’t sleep is your problem.”
“…Huh?!
A test?!
Since when?!” The dramatic aura Teio had been cultivating—something like Phoenix Wright squaring off against Miles Edgeworth—deflated instantly.
Her panicked yelp didn’t sound like anything an umamusume should be capable of producing.
Meanwhile, Kaisoku slept blissfully, oblivious to the fact that she’d already attracted a troublesome admirer before setting foot in Tracen Academy.
If she’d known, a peaceful night’s sleep would have been out of the question.
The next morning, Kaisoku’s alarm dragged her from sleep.
Her body still radiated fatigue, but she forced herself out of bed anyway—only to find Diamond already gone.
Per her usual routine, she’d be out for morning practice.
And as always, she hadn’t woken Kaisoku.
Without the alarm, Kaisoku probably wouldn’t have gotten up at all.
Breaking an ingrained habit required serious willpower.
But since she was destined for Tracen Academy and the Twinkle Series on Tōdai’s behalf, she figured it was better to start conditioning herself rather than slack off.
Starting exercise training this late felt like cramming the night before an exam, but it beat doing nothing.
When it came to willpower and persistence, Kaisoku had plenty—she’d survived endless days retouching AI-generated art in her past life.
The problem was that she’d never trained for racing before.
Her knowledge of the sport was practically nil.
Proper, regulation-compliant training on short notice was out of the question, so she decided to call in backup.
Not Diamond—Diamond was too gentle.
She’d never push Kaisoku hard enough.
So instead, she called on—
“I didn’t think you’d actually show up, Kai!” Kitasan Black stared in genuine surprise at the girl who’d appeared at the training ground.
“I figured you’d start hating running even more.
What made you change your mind?”
“How should I put it… Racing’s set in stone at this point.
Rather than coming in dead last, I might as well train a little so I don’t embarrass myself too badly.” Kaisoku maintained her pessimistic self-assessment.
In her previous life, she’d been utterly hopeless at sports—the kind of person the homeroom teacher would cut from the roster without a second glance, relegated to the cheering section.
She’d spent every school sports festival in the stands.
“There’s a difference between coming in last and coming in last by two full laps.”
“…Two laps behind isn’t even possible.” Kita had expected Kaisoku’s low self-evaluation but hadn’t anticipated the bar being this low.
“You were great when we raced, weren’t you?”
“You held back that time, didn’t you, Kita?” Kaisoku blinked.
“Even I could tell you still had plenty of stamina left after the finish.”
“…That’s because I specialize in long distances.” Kita was momentarily confused before realizing the source of Kaisoku’s misunderstanding.
“I didn’t hold back even a little.
Umamusume have different physical profiles—some are built for long distances, others for middle distances, mile races, or sprints.
Everyone has their own aptitude and preferred running style.
I did choose a distance that didn’t suit me perfectly, but that doesn’t mean I was going easy on you.”
“…Is… is that how it works?” Kaisoku discreetly wiped her brow.
Good thing Kita wasn’t as perceptive as Diamond—this was supposed to be basic umamusume knowledge.
If Diamond had been here, she’d have caught the slip immediately.
For umamusume, this was as elementary as “humans can’t fly.” “I see… I was wrong about that.”
“Yep, total misunderstanding!
Anyway, just because I picked a distance that doesn’t favor me doesn’t mean I went easy on you.
If I had, you’d rightfully think I was looking down on you.
Generally, when one umamusume holds back against another, it’s basically an insult.”
“…R-right, of course.
I knew that.” Kaisoku surreptitiously wiped more sweat.
Choosing Kita had been absolutely the right call.
The gap between umamusume common sense and her transmigrator’s knowledge base was a minefield.
Kita’s nature was to take things at face value—anyone else would have found the number of holes in Kaisoku’s act terrifying.
“So Kita, you specialize in long distance… with a Runner strategy?”
“That’s right!
I just don’t like being stuck in the pack.” Kita struck a bicep-flexing pose with a grin, though no actual muscle made an appearance.
“Umamusume who aren’t great at final spurts or who can’t manage their stamina tend to pick the Runner strategy at their preferred distance.
The advantage is you only need to worry about your own race—barely any jostling with other runners for position.
The tradeoff is that gate position and turf conditions matter a lot more.
Rain hits Runners especially hard—”
“Like what happened to me that day?” Kaisoku rubbed her chin.
“Yeah, after the rain I could definitely feel the turf getting slippery.
That would slow anyone who’s not used to it.” Get faster updates on g.com.
“More or less.
So that’s the Runner strategy in a nutshell.” Kita nodded.
“I think you could try being a Runner too, Kai.
You don’t like running alongside other people, right?”
“It’s not exactly that I don’t like running alongside others…” Kaisoku averted her gaze.
The truth was that her body seemed to decelerate on its own.
Same thing at the start—it was as though she lost control, entering some strange state.
Even now, Kaisoku hadn’t figured out what that state was.
If she had to describe it, the only time she truly felt in command of her body was during her explosive final spurt.
“Compared to Leader, Betweener, and Chaser strategies, the Runner style is also the simplest to learn.
Easy to pick up, hard to master, though, and it’s the most stamina-intensive.” Kita continued her explanation.
“There are subcategories too—Breakaway Runner, tempo Runner, that sort of thing.
Anyway, it’s the style I’d recommend most—”
“I think I get it.” The concepts weren’t hard for Kaisoku to grasp.
It was like each umamusume had an invisible stat panel—the right track type gave bonuses, the wrong one imposed penalties, affecting everything across the board.
From a real-world perspective, it probably resembled thoroughbred racing from her previous world.
Of course, China wasn’t exactly a hotbed of flat racing.
Compared to Japan, promotional efforts were essentially nonexistent.
The only event she could name was the Mongol Derby.
Beyond that, she was completely clueless.
But as an umamusume in this life, she absolutely had to internalize this common knowledge.
One slip-up and the jig was up.
The Three Goddesses of this world were renowned deities.
If there were some kind of religious inquisition for frauds, she’d be done for.
What even was she?
A restless soul squatting inside a young umamusume’s body?
Bottom line: do not blow your cover.
Even if you mean no harm.
“Well, that’s enough reviewing stuff you already know… Anyway, let’s just start running.
Don’t worry about anything else—just warm your body up first.” Kita clapped Kaisoku on the back.
“For warmups, just keep it relaxed.”
“Right—” Kaisoku nodded and fell into step with Kita.
The first few laps went fine.
By the fifth lap, something felt off.
Then came the sixth, the seventh, and by the eighth, Kaisoku was wheezing like a broken bellows.
The zone-like state from before—that supernatural flow—never came.
She’d already surpassed her previous life’s lap record, sure, but that was purely due to her umamusume physiology.
Judging by Kita’s lack of any “stop” signal, she gritted her teeth and kept going.
By the tenth lap, her legs were trembling.
“Ki… Kita… I… I can’t…” Kaisoku managed a feeble cry.
Kita finally noticed something was wrong and stopped immediately, doubling back to catch Kaisoku’s body before she collapsed.
Feeling the heat radiating off her, Kita realized she’d pushed too hard.
She hurriedly loosened Kaisoku’s clothing and laid her flat on the ground to improve airflow.
The symptoms resembled dehydration from overexertion, but Kaisoku didn’t look like she could handle drinking water—and Kita was afraid forcing water down her throat would make her choke.
After a moment’s agonizing, she steeled herself, took a mouthful of water, and leaned toward Kaisoku’s lips to transfer it mouth-to-mouth.
Kaisoku forced her eyes open—and found Kitasan Black bearing down on her with lips puckered.
She froze.
Kita, misreading Kaisoku’s shock as embarrassment, had squeezed her own eyes shut.
Their lips were mere millimeters apart when Kaisoku thrust her hand up as a barrier just in time, preventing the contact and whatever “shouldn’t have happened” from happening.
Unfortunately, while Kita didn’t actually make contact, the scene looked very different from an outside perspective—
“…Ah… ah… wha…” A water bottle clattered to the ground.
Kaisoku slowly turned her head to find Sweep Tosho and Satono Diamond frozen in place, staring slack-jawed at her and Kitasan Black.
Their clothes were disheveled.
They were impossibly close together.
And Kita’s lips had been aimed squarely at Kaisoku’s—
The composition of the scene was a dead ringer for a notorious moment from a certain anime called WHITE ALBUM—
“…KITA!!!
What are you DOING?!”
Ahhh, exams are almost here and I have been feeling pretty lazy with the translations lately.
Once May starts, I will be taking a one-week break to focus on my finals.
This means the update schedule will be very unstable from now until I finish my exams.
I hope you all can understand and bear with me!