"One-two-three-four, two-two-three-four..."
Dance class was the subject that made Kitasan Black want to give up on life the most. Although she wanted to just half-heartedly get through it like her other classes, watching the teacher manhandle students whose movements weren't up to standard—positioning them like mannequins—she had no choice but to show a little bit of her true ability.
"Hmm..."
The dance teacher stood in front of Kitasan Black, observing her for a long time. The more she watched, the more satisfied she became.
(This child's flexibility is quite good. I heard from the PE teacher that her body is also very strong—she can keep up even with high-intensity training, and she eats a lot too.)
As an Uma Musume Development Elementary School, the dance class naturally wasn't like what you'd find at an idol training facility.
Uma musume only needed to master basic dancing and singing.
As for the so-called "dance class," it was actually meant to train body flexibility and coordination.
If you really thought this was just a dance class, you'd be too naive.
"Very good. Miss Kitakami, have you studied dance before?"
"...A little."
Kitasan Black forced herself to lie.
She hadn't learned any of it at all—it was her senpais' "souls" controlling her body!
Although she did follow behind her old man's disciples every day, unlike the original studious "Kita-chan," she had only been watching from the sidelines. She had never actually practiced dancing with the senior disciples.
"Keep it up! Even if you can't become a powerful uma musume, I have high hopes for you becoming an idol uma musume!"
The dance teacher said this with a beaming smile.
Idol uma musume—that was a type of uma musume who reached the world stage through an alternative path.
Not through ability, but through popularity rankings to step onto the GI track. Some young uma musume without much talent but with big dreams would have such unrealistic fantasies. But in reality, becoming an idol uma musume wasn't that easy either.
"..."
Kitasan Black was left speechless by the teacher's encouragement.
Idol uma musume?
Sorry, but if I had to choose between the two, I'd rather be a racing uma musume.
"By the way, dance class currently doesn't have a class representative. The class rep position here is somewhat special. As you all know, in any dance troupe, there's a central figure—the center position!"
As the dance teacher said this, her gaze swept across the students.
"According to uma musume tradition, this position should be held by the race winner. But at our school's sports festival, the tradition is that the winning class performs together on stage. That requires someone who can command the stage as center, so when the time comes, I'll have our class representative take this position."
Kitasan Black desperately wanted to retreat to the back of the group.
Continuing to stand at the front during this topic was dangerous.
But the problem was she couldn't retreat!
The positions in dance class were assigned by the teacher. Because she hadn't wanted the teacher to manhandle her body, she'd shown a bit of skill and had been "honored" with a spot in the front row.
Damn it!
I, Kitasan Black, have already survived the trials of academic and physical education classes. How could I possibly fall here?
"Sensei, who's going to be our class representative?"
"It hasn't been decided yet. But whoever performs best before the sports festival will become the representative. Since you all want to debut as uma musume, you should treasure this opportunity. After all, even if you lose the race, the stage is equally capable of attracting attention."
Although the dance teacher didn't explicitly say this was a good opportunity to build popularity, the young ladies all understood the implication. Why did many ojou-samas already have enormous popularity before their debuts? Was it just because of their family's reputation? That was a big reason, but not the whole story.
Unless that family's ojou-sama was promoted by the family everywhere before her debut.
For example, that's exactly what happened with McQueen-senpai. Although she never attended school and was homeschooled with private tutors at the castle, the Mejiro family had already begun promoting the name "Mejiro McQueen" from when she was very young.
"The culmination of the Mejiro bloodline."
"The strongest genius in Mejiro family history."
So even though she had been secluded at home before entering Tracen Academy, and outsiders didn't even know what Mejiro McQueen looked like, thanks to the Mejiro family's years of promotion, the newly debuted Mejiro McQueen already had overwhelming popularity. As for after her debut—that goes without saying.
Ordinary ojou-samas without this kind of support could only gradually accumulate popularity through normal channels.
The elementary school sports festival was the best opportunity.
Moreover, at sports festivals for prestigious schools like this, the attendees weren't just local residents—most were important figures in the industry and reporters from major newspapers. So if you could successfully showcase yourself at the sports festival and attract the audience's attention, you could gain quite a bit of following.
These followers would become popularity points when debuting later.
The threshold for uma musume races was determined by popularity rankings.
Unlike real horses, where prize money mattered, for uma musume it was all about popularity.
In other words, even if an uma musume wasn't that strong, if fans really wanted to see her run in a race, the association would let that competitor participate. After all, that uma musume's popularity was real.
If you wanted to step onto GI-level races, having the ability was best. But if you didn't have the ability yet desperately wanted to witness that stage, the only remaining path was to become an idol uma musume.
However, the idol uma musume path wasn't easy either.
No—you could even say it was more arduous.
In Kitasan Black's view, it might even be harder than being a skill-based uma musume.
After all, you had to look at what kind of people the current idol uma musume were.
The representative figure among traditional idol uma musume was Gold City.
Beautiful, both a model and an idol.
And she was also a powerful competitor in her identity as an uma musume.
The most outrageous thing was that this person could use Domain Expansion. She hadn't even mastered ZONE as an uma musume, but as an idol, she had mastered Domain Expansion—proof of a world-class powerhouse.
Then there was Haru Urara, also an idol uma musume. But Haru Urara became an idol uma musume not because of her looks, nor her singing and dancing ability, but because of her indomitable spirit across a hundred battles. With her unyielding spirit and angelic healing smile, she had conquered audiences nationwide—a national-level idol uma musume.
Although Haru Urara hadn't mastered either type of domain.
But could that kind of spirit, that kind of career, be easily replicated?
Finally, perhaps only Curren's situation was somewhat imitable.
Because she took the influencer route.
But while the threshold for being an influencer was low, achieving what Curren had required both luck and skill. Curren was already a top-level national influencer, and she was a natural-born influencer prodigy—a genius who had learned to go online, take selfies, and manage her personal accounts since elementary school.
To debut as an idol uma musume, you'd need to reach at least close to Curren's level.
So, idol uma musume and whatnot...
Kitasan Black's response: Heh, whatever.
She'd rather take the proper uma musume debut route.
As for a certain Kiki-ko-senpai?
Unfortunately, although Kiki-ko had successfully become famous as a million-follower-level idol uma musume in another world, in the uma musume world, Kiki-ko herself was still just a bottom-tier idol with under a thousand followers who couldn't even get passersby to stop during street performances.
Moreover, Kiki-ko-senpai was a very serious uma musume—being an idol uma musume was just a personal hobby.
So for those without ability, just dream about it. If the uma musume path didn't work out, the idol uma musume path probably wouldn't work either. Reality wasn't that simple.
Watching the students around her become more serious about learning dance because of the teacher's words, Kitasan Black could only think these ojou-samas were still too young and naive.
The teacher was just dangling a carrot in front of them.
Rather than competing for this so-called center position, they'd be better off honestly practicing their running.
Kitasan Black was certain that when the sports festival came, only students who performed well in the races would receive outside attention. As for the stage performance—unless you were some kind of natural-born world-class idol who could unleash Domain Expansion the moment you stepped on stage, you absolutely wouldn't attract any attention.
And from Kitasan Black's observations...
Powerful individuals like Satono Crown and Satono Diamond, while also studying dance class seriously, had a fairly indifferent attitude toward competing for the class representative and center positions.
Because they all clearly understood that what really mattered for uma musume was running ability.
Just like those idol uma musume mentioned earlier.
Were they famous?
Famous.
But could their influence compare to the Emperor, Mr. CB, and those people?
Of course not.
That's right—idol uma musume and whatnot were just consolation for losers.
The moment you decided to debut as an idol uma musume, you had essentially already become a loser.
Just as Kitasan Black thought this, she suddenly noticed the dance teacher secretly observing her reactions.
(Wait, why is the teacher watching my reaction?)
Kitasan Black was completely puzzled.
Although her dance performance was decent, it was only decent—nowhere near the top few students.
After all, she hadn't fully displayed her senpais' abilities.
So even if the teacher appreciated her dancing skills, in this situation, the teacher wouldn't immediately think of having her compete for the center position. Then why was the teacher secretly observing her?
In that instant, having realized something, cold sweat suddenly broke out on Kitasan Black's forehead.
Wait, what kind of place was this?
This was Uma Musume Development Elementary School!
Not an idol training facility—an uma musume training facility!
So why was the teacher dangling carrots about the idol uma musume path?
If this was an uma musume development school, shouldn't students be required to focus more on running practice for the sports festival? Why mention this roundabout method of using stage performances to attract attention?
The answer was obvious.
(This is a test!)
Realizing this, Kitasan Black broke into a cold sweat.
Because if this was a test, then her reaction just now was completely inappropriate.
She hadn't shown the slightest sign of being tempted by the teacher's carrot.
So what kind of image did she have in the teacher's eyes now?
(Crap, I overdid it!)
Even Satono Crown and Satono Diamond had shown a moment of wavering, but she hadn't!
Kitasan Black could only hope she was overthinking this.
Otherwise, she had a premonition that her future life would receive "special attention" from the teachers.
She was already receiving a lot of care from the teachers as a grass-roots student—if she attracted more attention now, wouldn't her slacking time decrease even further?!
But her hopeful thinking was easily shattered by the PE teacher during physical education class.
"You all had your resolve shaken by that whole 'center position' thing in dance class, didn't you? Thinking that even if you can't outrun the stronger students at the sports festival, as long as you perform well on stage, you can still get attention. If any of you really think this way, I can only say you're too naive. Don't forget your purpose for attending school here—to become uma musume, or even GI uma musume!
"But becoming an uma musume doesn't require attention or stage performances. The only thing a true uma musume needs to do is win races!
"Dancing, singing—even if you can't do any of that, as long as you're the winner, you could sing 'Two Tigers' on stage and it wouldn't matter. The audience will still find your performance entertaining because the winner's stage exists to showcase winners. Losers can only become backup dancers at that moment!
"So everyone focus on training! Those who wavered earlier need to work even harder, because not only is your ability lacking, but your focus can't even match your classmates. If your mentality keeps slacking like this, then even if you've inherited prestigious bloodlines, you'll never become a true uma musume in the future. And wanting to become a glorious GI uma musume? Keep dreaming!"
Under the PE teacher's gaze, Kitasan Black and those students who had wavered earlier all felt their scalps go numb. Of course—she should have known. Could that squinty-eyed dance teacher really be a good person?!
At this moment, Kitasan Black still didn't know what had happened after the psychological counseling session. Otherwise, she would be in even worse condition right now. She couldn't understand why, as a transfer student who had gotten in through the back door, she was receiving so much attention from teachers. Was it just because she was a grass-roots uma musume?
Was it because there was no sense of achievement in educating ojou-samas from prestigious families, so they had finally encountered a grass-roots student and were now pushing her extra hard? These uma musume teachers were really too extreme!
...
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