...
When every team's strategic decisions were already airtight, aside from the suitability of those strategies, what remained to be compared was actually the individual ability of each team's members.
The training volume had naturally been sufficient. After finishing this round, the Uma Musume sat on the beach in twos and threes, panting, every breath carrying a scorching heat.
"So tired..." Matikane Tannhauser hummed weakly. She boredly stretched out a finger and dug a hole in the soft sand in front of her, gradually burying both of her legs and feeling the coolness the sand brought. "Who was it that said the training camp would be easy?"
"Twin Turbo." Nice Nature answered immediately.
Twin Turbo no longer had the energy to argue with Nice Nature. She only mumbled tiredly, "It wasn't me~ Who was it that said that..."
"Wasn't it just something you imagined yourself, Twin Turbo? No one ever said it." Seiun Sky promptly cut off Twin Turbo's recollection and hid her own identity as the real culprit.
"Seems like that's the case~" Twin Turbo squeezed a lump of sand together. "Aaaaaah—!!! I want to drink soda! I want to play in the water!"
Nice Nature pointed at Twin Turbo and called out: "Trainer, Turbo says she still wants to swim."
"Nature, I'm going to touch your face with the hand that just touched sand!"
...
Not far away, on another relatively quiet stretch of sand, the atmosphere was a little subtle.
"A while ago, while walking on the road, I saw a little dog. Because its fur was really too long, I couldn't help murmuring... it's too 'wang'ful!"
Symboli Rudolf crossed her arms, her posture as dignified as ever, only her eyes and the corners of her mouth had narrowed into thin lines. "How is it? Is this joke funny?"
Unexpectedly, Air Groove was the first to respond. "Chairman..... this joke is truly so refreshing."
"Air Groove, do you also think this joke of mine is quite good?" Symboli Rudolf's eyes lit up a little; she was clearly very satisfied with that evaluation.
"Teio, what do you think?" Air Groove did not want to go against her conscience, so she kicked the ball over to Tokai Teio.
"Haha....." Tokai Teio's smile looked a bit stiff. She reached up and scratched her burning cheek. "Well, Chairman's telling of it is still pretty good."
"Wonderful. I still have many more jokes here. It's perfect that we can rest a little longer now..."
"Cha-Chairman! I feel jokes should be about quality, not quantity, desu!"
"Hoo... hehehe..... hahaha, wait, wait a moment."
At that moment a string of laughter that could not be stopped drifted over.
Air Groove and Tokai Teio followed the sound and looked at the same time toward... Nice Nature's direction.
Tokai Teio: "?"
Air Groove (astonished): "?"
"Nature, did you run out some kind of hidden disease?" Twin Turbo poked Nice Nature's cheek.
"I just thought of the Chairman's previous jokes, hahaha... Don't you all feel the Chairman's jokes are very approachable?" Nice Nature held her stomach, her horse ears flapping twice like wings.
"Ah..." Tokai Teio looked at Nice Nature in surprise; it did not look fake at all. "Nature likes them a lot, huh... haha.... Then sit over here, Nature, and listen up close."
"No need, no need. Sitting here is fine."
...
"Ding-ding-ding-cha-ka-yi! Clang-clang! Su-da-da-da~ throw"—El Condor Pasa, but the going-crazy version.
"Use a rolled tongue to call my name here, Con~~~~dor!" El Condor Pasa struck a pose and looked at Grass Wonder beside her. "Grass! Striking this pose before a race will definitely raise the atmosphere, right!?"
"Ahaha...." Grass Wonder laughed awkwardly. "Trainer Lucian, Condor has been trained by you until she's not normal anymore."
Lucian: "Too full of energy. Punishment is one cup of Jue Juice."
"Ya—me!! (Don't)"
Lucian raised an eyebrow, speaking with divine authority: "Hmm? Still that loud?"
El Condor Pasa (closing her mouth shape a little): "Ya... ya—me?"
Lucian: "A little lower."
El Condor Pasa: "Yame..."
Lucian: "That's right~ Reward is one cup of Jue Juice."
...
Rice Shower and Haru Urara crouched in a corner.
"Urara-chan, what are you building with the sand? A house?" Rice Shower looked at the pile of sand Urara had built up and asked curiously.
"Yeah, a bi—ig house!" Haru Urara could not free her hands to gesture, so she just lengthened the syllable. "But there's too little time, so I can only make some small single rooms first."
"I'll live in this middle one. Does Rice-chan want to live next door to Urara?"
"Okay~ (＾▽＾)" Rice Shower pointed at the half-built pile of dirt on the other side. "Then who is this room over here being built for?"
"This side is Trainer's house. Both of you are living next door to Urara!"
"Onii-sama's house?"
"Mm. Actually.... putting the two houses together would also be pretty good." Haru Urara looked at the gap between the two houses and suddenly murmured.
"Putting them together? Wouldn't that mean living together with Onii-sama.....?"
"That's one way to understand it!" Haru Urara nodded and smiled happily. "Just like a husband and wife."
"Hus.... husband and wife?!" Rice Shower's gaze moved back to her own little house. Although it was very close, right now it suddenly felt a little lonely.
"Urara-chan."
"What's wrong, Rice-chan?"
"Imouto.... can a role like that also move in?"
"Of course you can, Rice-chan!" Thinking of Rice Shower also moving in, Haru Urara then thought of the other teammates as well.
Could this house be made a little bigger, and then everyone could live inside?
...
Special Week, Silence Suzuka, and Seiun Sky sat back-to-back together.
"Suzu-san, this training camp is really so tiring..." Special Week fanned herself. The heat radiating from her body surface seemed a little slow to disperse; she stuck out her small pink tongue.
"Spe, if we go by past experience, there's still a week left of the training camp." Seiun Sky spoke with implication. "Spe-chan, you've been keeping track of the time, right?"
"Th-that's because....." Special Week bit her lower lip, finding it hard to say.
"Spe-chan..... why are you still keeping track? Actually these past few days I've been so tired I don't have the energy to think about much." Silence Suzuka suddenly asked out of curiosity. ".....Even Seiun hasn't been thinking that much these days."
"It's not that, it's not that—" Special Week's fanning speed grew faster and faster until she was leaving afterimages.
Yet it had no effect, because her body was growing hotter and hotter.
"Then what is the reason, Spe-chan?" Seiun Sky understood the implication in Silence Suzuka's words.
"I just... miss Trainer-san too much."
"Is it your head missing Trainer, or...?"
...