7: Umamusume: A Trainer Against the Clock!
[7] 7: Umamusume: A Trainer Against the Clock!
[7] “I knew you’d be fine, Kitano-chan.
I was planning to go find Yukino Bijin if anything went wrong.” “Hm?
Why Yukino Bijin?” “No idea, but my Gold Star tells me that if I wanted to convince the chairwoman to change her mind, I’d have to ask Yukino Bijin.
She’d definitely manage it.” At some point, Gold Ship had taken Nakayama Festa’s place and was now pushing Kitano’s wheelchair along the paths of Tracen Academy.
Along the way, countless Umamusume noticed the scene.
First, they looked at Kitano with sheer horror and shock; before long, they were gazing at him with the kind of reverence they might offer the Three Goddesses themselves, granting him their highest respect.
All of those reactions came from the fact that Gold Ship was, within Tracen… no, within the entire Umamusume world, an exceedingly explosive and famous oddball.
Gold Ship, the gray-haired Umamusume known to everyone at Tracen.
If Stay Gold had made the Gold Family’s name famous among Umamusume and taught everyone the possibilities and fiery tempers of the family’s members, then Gold Ship was the one who cemented the rumor that the Gold Family was “nothing but weirdos.” A blacklisted member of several teams and departments at Tracen Academy.
A designated arrest target of the disciplinary committee.
The occasional savior of Trainers in mortal peril.
The only Umamusume utterly devoid of interest in Trainer-Umamusume romance.
The public enemy of graduating Umamusume… All sorts of incidents had spread Gold Ship’s notoriety far and wide throughout Tracen Academy.
She was someone no one dared provoke, and no one wanted to approach.
No one knew when Gold Ship had enrolled, just as no one knew Maruzensky-senpai’s age.
In everyone’s memories, Gold Ship had enrolled very early, yet even after many seniors graduated, no one had ever seen her move up.
She was clearly the youngest member of the Gold Family, yet she had enrolled earlier than several of her older sisters.
Her build also ran completely counter to the Gold Family’s inherited small stature.
She was graceful, yet solidly built.
If not for the hat she always wore that sealed away her looks, and if not for her terrible personality, she would absolutely be counted among the rare gray-haired beauties.
One could only say Gold Ship was full of mysteries, yet not a single person knew the truth.
Even Stay Gold, as the Gold Family’s Aneki, knew nothing about many of Gold Ship’s affairs.
Only Kitano—though that did not mean Kitano truly understood Gold Ship of the Umamusume world completely.
Rather, Kitano was the only one who could make Gold Ship rely on him and trust him without the slightest guard up.
And even Kitano himself did not know why.
He believed that, in the years he had spent with the Gold Family, he had never done anything to make Gold Ship’s heart skip a beat.
In fact, in his previous loops, he had had no interaction with Gold Ship whatsoever.
It was not until the loop where he served as Stay Gold’s Trainer that he first met Gold Ship in the true sense.
But at the time, Gold Ship had shown no interest in him at all.
Kitano had merely glanced at her from afar, and when their eyes met, Gold Ship herself was the first to look away, vanishing in a flash.
After that, Kitano never saw Gold Ship again in that loop.
So is this affection born from time spent together?
Is she treating me like an alien like her?
Kitano could not help suspecting as much… but he did not dislike Gold Ship.
On the contrary, deep down, he was very happy about the closeness she showed him, and even yearned for it.
In his previous loops, because he knew he was a dying man, even though he had always struggled to survive, he still held himself back when interacting with the Umamusume in his care, as well as many other people… He had always worried that his death would not mean that loop’s time stopped, and that the people he cared about would grieve over his passing.
Precisely because of that, in every loop, he had clearly explained his situation to the Umamusume in his care.
He only accepted Umamusume who could face reality, or who were more open-minded, as his trainees.
Yet even so, he had always controlled his distance from those children, and controlled the feelings he wanted to love with, wanted to express.
And now, there was someone who, even after Kitano had explained everything, still drew close to him without the slightest reservation.
Based on what he knew, she was also someone who absolutely had an open-minded attitude toward death and would not be trapped by it.
In this way, the missing piece in Kitano’s heart had been filled.
“It’s just that I didn’t expect you to really choose Nakayama-nee as your trainee, Kitano-chan.” Because Gold Ship had seized the right to temporarily look after Kitano, and because Nakayama Festa was no match for Gold Ship in brute force, Festa had no choice but to go familiarize herself with her roommate first.
And now, Gold Ship was openly expressing her confusion over Kitano’s choice.
“Is that really okay?
Nakayama-nee is strong, sure, but her performance is super unstable.
Out of all the Umamusume in our family, she’s probably the one with the biggest gap between her best and worst.” “If you want to accomplish something while you’re still alive, Kitano-chan, our family clearly has plenty of other options.
Like Orfevre, or Dream-nee.
If all else fails, I can actually get on the track too.” “Good thing Festa isn’t here, or she’d beat you up for saying that.” Kitano found it funny, listening to Gold Ship, the younger sister, gossip about her older sister.
But he also knew Gold Ship was telling the truth.
Naturally, Kitano knew that the real horse Nakayama Festa’s record was not particularly outstanding.
She only had one G1 victory in her life.
The reason she became one of the Gold Family’s representatives was that she had produced one of Japan’s best results in the race Japan most longed to win, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, finishing second.
Although she had not won, Nakayama Festa’s result was already the closest Japan had ever come to victory in the Arc.
It was also because of that massive fluctuation between her upper and lower limits that Nakayama Festa became one of Japan’s “what-if horses.” That was also universally acknowledged as the strongest performance Nakayama Festa ever showed.
But Kitano did not believe that one best performance could represent an Umamusume’s true ability.
Human strength had limits; no one could perform at their very best every single time.
Besides, on the track, losing was losing.
There were no excuses, and a completely fair contest did not exist.
Even so, among the Gold Family’s many Umamusume, Kitano had chosen Nakayama Festa.
Naturally, he had his own reasons.
“Dream Journey and Orfevre are both excellent, yes, but… Dream Journey’s temper is too violent, and she’s rough with everything in daily life too.
She hasn’t prepared herself for racing either, so of course I can’t force her.” “Orfevre is skittish, and she’s sensitive to feelings and everything around her.
Remember when I first told all of you that I had a serious illness and might not have much time left?
She was the first one of you to cry.” At this point, a bitter smile surfaced on Kitano’s face.
Though Gold Ship could not see it right now, she could read Kitano’s emotions, so she did not interrupt. Find the original chapter at g.com.
She quietly listened to Kitano’s monologue.
“…I’m worried Orfevre would be under too much pressure, and that it would keep her from showing her true strength.
If one day I’m gone, Orfevre could easily be unable to accept reality.” “But Festa is more mature than Orfevre, and she understands how to control herself better than Dream Journey.
Most importantly, she can face matters concerning me with an open mind.
I don’t have to worry too much that, if I really do leave one day, she’ll be unable to accept it.” “So when Stay Gold introduced her to me, I agreed immediately.
Because she was the only person I could think of who, even if something unexpected happened, would still be able to calmly live her own life well.” “As for you, Golshi-chan…” Kitano, seated in the wheelchair, raised his head slightly and looked at Gold Ship’s upside-down face in his field of view.
A relaxed smile appeared on his face as he explained softly: “You’re the one who reassures me the most.
In the future, if something unexpected really does happen, you have to remember to clean up after me, this irresponsible Trainer who might kick the bucket at any moment.” “—Ehehe, of course I will.
I’ll see you again on Mars a hundred years from now, so you can go in peace!
I’ll definitely find you then too!” After a brief moment of blankness on Gold Ship’s face, she immediately answered him with the slightly exaggerated smile Kitano knew so well.
Gold Ship’s exaggerated tone made it impossible to tell whether she was teasing him with nonsense or expressing her true feelings through a joke, but the one thing Kitano could be certain of was that Gold Ship would not let him down.
This feeling… was very strange.
Kitano felt that he had not reached that conclusion simply because of what he knew about Gold Ship from before he crossed over.
Deep down, he also felt a very familiar trust toward Gold Ship.
He could not describe that feeling, but at the very least, he believed it was not an illusion.
“Oh my… Is that… Gold Ship?” At that very moment, not far away, two beautiful figures with a striking contrast between them noticed the intimate scene between Gold Ship and Kitano.
One of them, a purplish gray-haired Umamusume who was comparatively shorter and slightly more balanced in build, could not hide her surprise as she said to the older Umamusume beside her: “She is actually being that close to a stranger?
That man… doesn’t look like her father.
Could he be an older brother?
But I’ve never heard her mention one.” “Ramonu-oneesama, do you know who that person is?” “—Are you very interested, McQueen?
While I understand that incomplete beauty can more easily stir pity, you would be best not to sink too deeply into that twisted beauty.” The Umamusume called Ramonu had a far more graceful figure than McQueen beside her.
With a height that stood out even among women, a nearly flawless figure, exquisitely sculpted features, and the perfect smile she always maintained, paired with an aura as cold as an iceberg, she did not seem like a student at all.
Rather, she seemed more like a noble lady.
But she was indeed one of Tracen’s Umamusume, and also the young lady of the Mejiro Family who had been enrolled the longest: Mejiro Ramonu.
Now, she stood beside the Mejiro Family’s next rising star to step onto the track, Mejiro McQueen, quietly watching the figure of Kitano, whom even Gold Ship cared about.
Although she was verbally warning her younger sister, Ramonu’s eyes had never once left Kitano in his wheelchair.
Looking at how intimately he got along with Gold Ship, that famous Tracen oddball, this unattainable flower of the Mejiro Family showed an interested smile for the first time in a long while.
“Still… he truly is beautiful.
A fragile flower desperately trying to bloom in its final colors.
How moving.” And perhaps that glimmer of resolve was exactly what their family needed now.
Then let’s observe him properly for now, shall we?
First, gather information on this ‘Venus de Milo.’ Mejiro Ramonu thought this to herself.
She, too, was beginning to take an interest in the aesthetic of incompleteness.
— T/N: huehuehueh dream journey has a rough temper yes and ofy when HE was young would get bullied by the other foals and stuff, im talking about their real life counterparts, though he did start acting out when he grew up