Time passed in the blink of an eye, and before long, a week had gone by since the mock race.
Thanks to the blessings of the goddess of fortune, Fujiwara Chiya's life had not run into any major trouble. Other than somehow ending up living together with Hayakawa Tazuna, everything was perfectly fine.
Actually, "living together" was not an entirely accurate term.
From the moment he opened his eyes in the morning to the moment he closed them at night, the two of them were together. But when it came time to sleep, Hayakawa Tazuna would still return to her own dorm room. Of course, it was not because she did not want to stay in Chiya's room. The reason was Director Akikawa.
Every night, she personally inspected the dorms. Any trainer who did not return to their own room to sleep without prior leave would be punished.
Her main inspection area was the women's staff dorms.
Her main floor was the third floor.
Her main target room was Room Two.
To put it simply, Director Akikawa checked every day to see whether Hayakawa Tazuna had returned to her room to sleep. The moment she discovered Tazuna had not gone back, she would immediately charge straight into Chiya's room. As for whether she might walk in on some shocking scene, Akikawa Yayoi could not care less. All she wanted to know was whether Chiya was lying on the bed or tied to it.
Thanks to Director Akikawa, Hayakawa Tazuna had not made any major moves yet. Every time, she stopped just short.
As usual, after breakfast, Fujiwara Chiya said goodbye to Hayakawa Tazuna and headed to his office.
Now that the mock race was over and Shirayuki's strength had been confirmed, Fujiwara Chiya was preparing to arrange her second race.
It would be an OP race, the kind most suitable for a newcomer.
The Chukyo Junior Stakes at Chukyo Racecourse.
A mile race. Not too long, not too short. As a first race after debut, it was just right.
As for Gold Ship and the others, Fujiwara Chiya planned to wait a little longer before sending them out again. After all, once this OP race was over, the L'Arc representative race would be coming up immediately after. He would have to compete against the other trainers for a place at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, and he did not want his Uma Musume exposing too much of their strength beforehand.
If necessary, he was prepared to have Shirayuki ease off the pace and hide some of her ability.
After all, saving your strength for the long game mattered. In a way, maybe Uma Musume like Gold Ship, who stopped accelerating once they had secured a certain lead, were actually the best answer for the increasingly brutal racing environment.
Dear god, is my brain broken? I'm actually thinking Gold Ship is the right answer!?
Fujiwara Chiya smacked himself on the head and sank into self-doubt.
In any case, he had decided to use Shirayuki as the first test for this new approach.
Once he had settled on the race, the next step was collecting information. Fujiwara Chiya wanted to see whether some terrifying monster of a rival had signed up for the same race as Shirayuki.
His first stop was Nase Fumino. He went to her office and asked what she thought.
"The Chukyo Junior Stakes? I wasn't planning to enter that one..."
Fujiwara Chiya let out a sigh of relief.
With that, four major threats were instantly eliminated, and the pressure on the race dropped considerably.
After asking Fumino, Fujiwara Chiya went next to Kiryuin Aoi.
"Chiya?"
The moment she saw him, Kiryuin immediately stood up to greet him.
Untouched by the ordeal of meeting his parents, Kiryuin Aoi still had the same clear, pure atmosphere she always had. Seeing the brightness on her face, Fujiwara Chiya felt himself relax as well.
"Want some snacks? Spe-chan gave them to me."
Kiryuin Aoi brought out a plate of local sweets, fish-shaped crackers with openwork patterns. Spe-chan had given Shirayuki some too. They were pretty good.
After politely eating a few, Fujiwara Chiya got to the point.
"The Chukyo race, huh? Special Week is going to run that one."
That answer was not what he had hoped for.
"Originally I was planning to have Special Week start with an OP race, build up some experience, and only then move into graded races. Who's running on your side, Chiya?"
"Shirayuki."
"I see." Kiryuin Aoi munched on a cracker. "Then it sounds like winning this one is going to be pretty difficult."
Shirayuki had lost to Special Week once before, and even then only by a neck. Their abilities were extremely close. Although Shirayuki had gradually entered her growth phase recently and her strength was rapidly increasing, the same was true for Special Week. Her ability was also rising at an incredible pace with training.
After writing down Special Week's name, Fujiwara Chiya continued asking his friends and senior trainers one by one.
In the end, he more or less confirmed the likely field.
Special Week.
Mejiro McQueen.
Twin Turbo.
He was probably the only trainer who had started gathering intelligence before the official entries were even finalized.
So Twin Turbo was entering too.
Fujiwara Chiya's knowledge of her more or less began and ended with full-throttle insanity. As for what her actual ability level was, even he could not say for sure. In so many races, she blasted off halfway and then ran out of fuel. But now that she had entered her high-speed growth phase, if she ever managed to keep blasting all the way to the finish, she would probably be terrifying.
After all, the Front Runner style was extremely powerful in the current meta.
I should go watch her training sometime.
...
"Shirayuki, Trainer said the two of us are racing each other next week!"
Early the next morning, Fujiwara Shirayuki had her arm seized by an excited Special Week.
"Yeah, Spe-chan, you look really happy about it..."
"Of course I do! You were my first friend, my best friend, and my strongest rival. And even so, we still haven't gotten to race each other properly until now. That's been such a shame." Special Week clenched her fists. "But now it's different. I'm so happy we finally get to run together on the track!"
Looking into Special Week's completely pure violet eyes, Fujiwara Shirayuki froze for a second.
She had asked Special Week before why she wanted to become an Uma Musume, why she wanted to run.
Special Week's answer had been very simple:
"I want to run together with other Uma Musume my age."
It was not for glory.
Not for fame.
She simply wanted to enjoy racing, to enjoy sweating and running together with other Uma Musume.
There was nothing wrong with that.
If anything, that kind of thinking was precious.
An Uma Musume did not have to be carrying some heavy burden, nor did she need some great unavoidable reason to run. Was it not enough to run simply because racing was fun?
Recently there had been too much to think about. Training, hiding her strength, gathering information... Sometimes Shirayuki wanted to empty her mind and run one race without thinking about anything at all.
After all, running freely and without restraint was the nature of an Uma Musume.
Perhaps Spe-chan could awaken that instinct in her completely.
"I feel the same way, Spe-chan." Fujiwara Shirayuki smiled. "Let's race with no reservations, as teammates, and as Uma Musume."
"Shirayuki... of course! Running happily is what matters most!"
"My, what are you two talking about? Is it something I'm allowed to hear as well?"
Grass Wonder walked over, smiling gently.
"Grass."
The moment she saw her, Special Week became instantly alert.
The mock race was still fresh in her memory, how Grass Wonder had whisked Shirayuki away. Without hearing Shirayuki cheering for her, Special Week's motivation had dropped by two whole levels, and even in the final stretch her legs had gone weak.
This time, she was not going to let Grass Wonder get away with it.
"We were talking about the race."
"The race, hmm. What a pity. My trainer entered me in the Shion Sho, so I won't get to be with Shirayuki this time."
"There'll be chances later."
"You're right. There will be chances later. So you have to wait for me, Yuki-chan."
Grass Wonder reached out and lightly stroked Shirayuki's cheek.
Beside them, Special Week bristled like an angry cat.
Grass... looks like I'll have to deal with you first.