"Mediocre."
"Ehhhh?!"
It's the day after Avalon's debut and you could say she felt pretty good about herself, that's what winning does after all.
But once she went to her trainer to be showered with praise, all she got was the same old Chris…
"What? Were you expecting praise?" She asked blankly, making Avalon flinch.
"...!"
"Well then, congratulations, you CAN run 1000m." Chris said sarcastically with a smirk on her face, "I'd slow clap for you but, well, you know."
"..." Avalon was somewhat speechless but something in her said she expected this…
"Now that you qualify for the actual racing circuit, we can go over your schedule." Chris changed the subject.
"Seeing as this is only your junior year, you can't exactly get into all the big races easily. Junior horse girls find it much harder to garner enough fans to compete in them."
That slightly disheartened Avalon, looks like she was gonna be stuck to low tier races for a year…
"What's with that face? I never said it was impossible." Chris questioned.
"...?"
"If you wanna run in those races, your schedules are gonna be packed to the ground and there's a high risk of you kissing that 'undefeated record, immortal legend' goal will come to an end. So I personally recommend waiting until your classic year."
"!!!"
Avalon perked up, "Then I'll do I-"
"Ava."
"I'm serious here." Chris' face hardened, "I'll go along with what you want since I'm your trainer as we agreed but keep these three things in mind."
"?"
"First of all, you barely inched out a win in your last race. And that was only 1000m on your debut, half a length may have felt like a mile when you won back then, but in actuality that was pure luck. Not only that but you're gonna have to go against your seniors with way more experience and physical ability than you."
"Secondly, I'm going to go harder on you. Near death training. To the point a single misstep can injure you greatly. Of course, I'll try not to kill you but it's gonna be 10 times worse than the past 5 months. Honestly, I'd be impressed if you're still mentally stable afterwards…"
"And finally, like I said earlier, a single slip up here means saying goodbye to whatever goals you want to achieve."
"So, I'll ask again, is this what you want, Avalon?"
"..."
'So basically medium difficulty or super hell…?' Avalon thought, 'And… T-ten times worse…?' She shivered at the thought.
"But…"
"..."
"I can't be Immortalized if I'm average… right?"
"...!" Chris' eyes widened. This little uma in front of her has surprised her yet again. She knew Avalon was rather headstrong and could handle high intensity training but she didn't expect her to say yes to a path that's tens of times harder, at least not so early.
"Pft~" Chris stifled a laugh. A genuine short outburst. This girl was full of surprises, Chris sported a bitter smile. She smiled because of the pure absurdity of the situation.
Avalon just threw herself confidently into the deep end of the racing scene. She willingly wants to compete against racers who are in their prime years. But that was still a few months from now.
As of right now, Avalon needed fans. A lot of fans, enough to meet the fan requirement to compete in the British triple crown and other prominent G1 races.
This was both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because this meant more races… and it's bad because it meant more races…
More races meant more money to pay to enter these prominent races and Avalon's own equipment, hell just her debut gave her £200 for coming first 30% of which went to Chris as her trainer.
But… more races also means tighter scheduling, higher fatigue, and limited rest periods.
If Chris had to estimate, in order to compete in the 2000s Guineas or 1000s Guineas in May she would need about 15,000 people wanting her to compete. Meaning at least 15,000 fans.
To explain, in the world of Umamusume, along with a paid fee to enter races, the public also has quite a bit of leeway in deciding on whether they compete or not.
Oguri Cap is the most notable and well known example. Just by existing, her fans swayed the URA to completely flip on its head.
However, in real life, or rather, Avalon's past life, Oguri's fans still managed to achieve the same result. But the only difference is that the fans themselves had much less of an impact.
There's one key reason for this? Being an umamusume is a career that doesn't simply cover athletics. They also double as Idols as seen with Avalon's race aftermath.
She honestly didn't get it. Why would you run to the point your legs nearly give out then afterward go on to do a live concert for hours… but when she thought about it, it made sense.
They need fans to race, after all.
What better way than to capture their hearts with both their racing and singing and dancing. Truly a flawless plan… NOT! It was exhausting as hell, Avalon didn't need to be on stage to see just how tired they were.
'And people just say nothing about it?! And neither do the racers?! Yeah, I'm not stepping on that stage unless I have infinite confidence and stamina…' Avalon wholeheartedly vowed to avoid that stage at all costs!
"Haaah…" Chris sighed after thinking about it, "You're in for hell, Kid. I hope you're ready…"
"Yes ma'am!" Avalon gave Chris a mock salute.
"Now go rest, your race was yesterday and you're probably still sore everywhere." Chris paused for a moment after saying that, "Hm? Speaking of rest, where's the Koala?"
"Koala? Oh, do you mean Eve?" Avalon asked.
"Yeah, the tiny and cute- I mean, sleepy one."
'I feel like I almost heard something unnusual from her…'
"Eve is getting ready for her own Debut race so she's stopped slacking for a bit." Avalon explained.
"Oh? How many months away is it for her to start training now? Pretty late for a debut, no?" Chris mused.
"It's next week, trainer…" Avalon looked down embarrassingly.
"..."
"Next week?"
"Yes."
"Seven days?"
"Yup."
"168 hours…?"
"Mhm…"
"..."
"WHY IS SHE ONLY TRAINING WITH ONE WEEK LEFT?!"
"Ehe~"
"DON'T 'Ehe~' ME!"
"She said, 'Avava only needs to come watch me and I'll win.' But I told her she should still train. That's when she told me it was a week away. Don't look at me Trainer I didn't know since earlier today either!"
"...Sigh~ that girl isn't normal…" Chris sighed.
'You're one to talk!' Avalon thought.
So are you!
—
Avalon made her way back to her dorm room, this was a rare day off, She was gonna laze around like there's no tomorrow.
But once she entered the room to curl up in her bed like a burrito she noticed something.
There was an Uma sized bump under her covers…
'...She wouldn't, right?' Avalon had a hunch but she could only be sure once she checked who it was underneath.
So she gently yanked off the top cover to reveal pretty much exactly what she expected.
A tiny Umamusume that goes by the name 'Point I'Eveque' curled up in a ball and sleeping way too peacefully.
There was one other thing she didn't expect to see though, a tiny little snake chilling right next to her like he owned the bed.
"..." Avalon was speechless.
Wasn't she supposed to be training??? There's still hours before the afternoon ends…
"Sigh~ Eve, get up…" Avalon gently shook her awake.
"Mmm~ Hm? Oh… Good afternoon Avava…" She casually said.
"Eve, aren't you supposed to be training?" Avalon asked, she felt like a mother watching her kid skip school.
"I don't need it…" She let out in a tired voice.
"...Eve if you don't go to your trainer now, ill drag you there myself." Avalon scolded.
This made Point I'Eveque pause in thought for a moment. Finger to her chin and everything. Then she lifted both her arms and said,
"Yes please… I don't wanna walk all the way there."
"..."
"..."
'Okay I kinda saw that coming…'
"No Eve. Go back to training yourself.." Avalon stuck to her decision firmly. If she didn't train, she wouldn't win.
"But I told you that as long as you're there I'll win…" I'Eveque tilted her head slightly.
"That doesn't give you an excuse to skip training!"
Point I'Eveque's ears drooped slightly as she stood up and looked at Avalon with a downcast expression.
"Avava… You're so mean…"
"Eve puppy eyes don't work on me anymore, go train. Now please." Avalon had encountered this adorably sad weapon before. But she refused to fall for it anymore!
"...Sigh~ Okay…" And then Point I'Eveque dragged her tiny body out of the room groggily.
"Haah… seriously, that girl…" Avalon could only sigh.
"Oh and don't think YOU'RE getting off the hook." Avalon turned her attention to Eve's partner in crime.
"Ssss~"
"Don't give me that! Why were you in my bed with her in the first place!"
"...sss~"
"So what if it looked comfy?! Don't you have your own place to sleep???"
"Sss~"
"Boneless… you are unbelievable…"
"Sssssss~"
"THAT WASN'T A COMPLEMENT!!!"
—
END OF CHAPTER
A/N: A little post race r&r. Nothing too big.