Fujiwara Chiya sipped his hot tea while the old man took out the teapot he had brought with him and poured himself a cup.
Black tea?
Fujiwara Chiya secretly observed him, right up until bubbles began rising in the old man's cup.
Damn it! That's Coca-Cola!
He had underestimated him a little. This old man was even more unfathomable than he had imagined.
After taking a few sips of the bitter, astringent green tea, Fujiwara Chiya asked for the old man's name.
His name was Shihandai. He was over fifty-eight years old and had come to this training ground nearly two months ago. He was also training an uma musume. As for that uma musume, she returned to the dojo while the two of them were chatting.
(Note: I cannot find Yaeno Muteki's trainer's name. So I'll just use Shihandai, which actually is a title of acting master.)
She was a brown-haired girl with a pinwheel hair ornament on her right ear. In the middle of her forehead was a streak of white hair. Her brown eyes shone brightly, and it was easy to sense the special atmosphere surrounding her.
"Wait there for a moment," Shihandai said to the girl.
The girl glanced at Fujiwara Chiya, then knelt down beside them.
"You must have come here with some purpose, haven't you, Trainer Chiya?"
"I want to reexamine myself."
"Oh? This is the first time I've heard a trainer say something like that."
The old man took a sip of cola. A fizzing sound filled the room, and the brown-haired uma musume's cheek twitched a few times.
"Very few trainers come here. Even trainers who have taught for many years may not know that Tracen has a dojo. They do not connect racing with this place."
"But there is a connection, isn't there?"
"Mm." Shihandai nodded. "Although a dojo cannot rapidly increase an uma musume's strength, what it cultivates is an uma musume's spiritual realm, as well as her control over herself."
"Control?"
"That's right. We are not truly familiar with our own bodies. How exactly is our strength produced, and how does it change? Let us say I want to throw a punch forward. How should I control my fist so that it stops precisely at the surface of an object without harming the other person? And if I want to land a solid punch, how should I gather all the force of my fist into a single point and bring it to its greatest effect?"
Fujiwara Chiya listened seriously.
"That is the difference in self-control. Although every person's body may look the same, the techniques hidden within them create a world of difference. And races are not decided only by an uma musume's physical strength, stamina, and so on. They are also decided by technique."
"Technique should be… different from tactics, right?"
"Of course."
The old man stood up and walked over to a stone slab used for karate practice. He placed his hand on it. After waiting a moment, without any obvious movement from him, there was a dull crack.
The stone slab split cleanly in two.
Fujiwara Chiya's eyes widened.
"This is technique. Well? Do you want to try?"
Fujiwara Chiya shook his head. If he had some distance, he could probably smash it apart with brute strength. But breaking it from direct contact like that was definitely impossible for him.
This should be the so-called one-inch punch. It was exactly what Shihandai had been talking about, control over strength and the body.
The old man sat back down, his back perfectly straight.
"If this old man did not possess that level of control, do you think I could have done what I just did?"
Of course not.
"In that case, you now understand what technique is."
It meant using control over oneself to accomplish things that had once been impossible. That applied to them, and it applied to uma musume as well. Only by completely mastering their own bodies could they draw out their full potential.
Fujiwara Chiya swallowed. He felt as if something inside him had been opened up.
"Have you been to a dojo before?"
"A few times."
"Have you trained?"
"I tried a little."
"This old man has been in the dojo for over thirty years. She is my disciple. Her name is Yaeno Muteki."
Fujiwara Chiya turned his head. The brown-haired girl bowed slightly.
"This old man believes that a trainer can influence an uma musume. That is why I have always trained together with her."
"A trainer and an uma musume… training together?"
"That's right. Training is not only about training your body. It is also about training your spirit. And as the guide of an uma musume, a trainer must also possess a firm will. There are no incompetent uma musume. There are only incompetent trainers."
The old man looked at him.
"Well then, young man. Do you wish to train your will? To become a trainer capable of shouldering the fate of an uma musume, and to train alongside them?"
Fujiwara Chiya had come here precisely to temper his spirit.
He also knew that aside from the things the old man had mentioned, a dojo would also cultivate fighting awareness, the mercilessness one showed toward an opponent.
When still, one remained unmoving as a mountain.
When moving, one struck true in a single blow.
The old man before him appeared calm and unshaken, as tranquil as still water. But Fujiwara Chiya knew that once he fought, the old man would become fierce like a wolf or a tiger. That was the change Fujiwara Chiya wanted to learn.
A transformation of the spirit.
Seeing the look in Fujiwara Chiya's eyes, the old man said, "There is a training uniform in the changing room. Go put it on."
After Fujiwara Chiya finished changing, Yaeno Muteki stood up.
She would serve as Fujiwara Chiya's opponent.
"I should say this in advance. I'm not familiar with this kind of thing. As for moves and techniques, I've only seen them on TV."
"That's fine."
"Then please excuse me!"
The things Shirayuki had learned from Air Groove could also be used by him.
Fujiwara Chiya closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his spirit, energy, and focus instantly reached their peak.
Yaeno Muteki showed a look of surprise.
Taking advantage of the moment her focus wavered, Fujiwara Chiya lunged at her.
…
"Guhah!"
The man slammed heavily onto the floor. He clutched his back, rolled several times, then gasped for breath.
This was already the seventh time she had thrown him down.
And each throw had been heavier than the last. That last one made Fujiwara Chiya feel as though his bones were about to fall apart.
"I… can't go on…"
Yaeno Muteki placed one fist into her palm and bowed to him.
Fujiwara Chiya had now witnessed what an absolute gap in technique looked like.
Yaeno Muteki's movements were as natural as flowing water. Every time his fist landed on her, it would be lightly guided away as though ripples had spread across the surface of a pond.
Those movements made Fujiwara Chiya think of the ghost he had seen last night. She had given him the same feeling.
Her steps were like flowing water.
So this was control over the body?
There were no exaggerated movements. Every trace of power in her body was perfectly transformed into forward momentum, without even the slightest waste.
"I want to uncover the potential hidden in an uma musume's body… What do I need to do?"
Fujiwara Chiya sat up and asked.
"Bring your uma musume to the dojo tomorrow. You will understand then."
"Understood."
After bidding farewell to the two of them, the dojo returned to silence.
"What do you think of that trainer?" Shihandai asked.
"Extraordinary… I almost thought I was sparring with an uma musume. That trainer's body is absurdly sturdy. An ordinary person would lose the ability to move after being thrown twice, but that trainer was thrown seven times and was still full of life."
Yaeno Muteki looked in the direction the man had left.
"On the last throw, I used seventy percent of my strength, but he still endured it. To think there could be such a powerful human…"
"That is certainly something worth noting, but what I meant was his way of thinking," Shihandai said. "There are not many trainers who can grasp the true meaning of the Domain and then bring their uma musume here. It seems we have found ourselves a good opponent for training during this period."
"Will you be training with Trainer Chiya, Shihandai?"
"Of course."
"Forgive my bluntness, but please allow me to be his opponent instead. With that man's physique, even if he did nothing but keep going, he would exhaust you to death, Shihandai."