Chapter 184: A Completely Off-Tune Kitasan
Even before training began, Makoto noticed that something was off with Kitasan Black today.
How should he put it…
Her ears had been drooping the whole time, never lifting even once.
Whenever he called her name, she always responded half a beat late, startled.
From time to time, she would glance guiltily in the direction of the school building—or the dorms, or the track—and she did the same even while listening to instructions.
The saving grace was that she was still training seriously. At the very least, on the surface, she didn't skip any of the required drills.
But numbers didn't lie.
Compared to usual, today's training performance didn't even reach her average.
She's completely off today… Kitasan is in an Awful mood.
Makoto reached that conclusion before the training session was even over.
"Awful mood" was a bit of trainer slang, used to describe an Umamusume's mental state—in simple terms, it meant really bad.
Corresponding to it were four other states, from Bad to Great: Bad, Normal, Good, and Great condition.
Compared to humans, Umamusume emotions could be quite sensitive, and they had a very noticeable impact on both training and race performance.
Putting races aside for the moment, if training was done while maintaining at least a "normal" state, the results would clearly improve.
On the other hand, when things were like this, not only would the training be ineffective, it might even cause regression.
Thinking this, Makoto quickly made a summary note on his tablet and waved toward the track.
"That's enough, Kitasan. We'll stop here for today."
In the distance, the girl ran a bit farther. Makoto had to raise his voice and call out again before she finally stopped.
A moment later, Kitasan Black jogged over, wiping the sweat from her cheeks, her expression full of surprise.
"We're ending already…? I can still run more, Trainer."
"I know."
Makoto was already packing up his things. After a brief pause, he asked, "Did something unpleasant happen today?"
"How did you know, Trainer…?"
She blurted it out, then bit her lip, her head drooping all at once.
"Um… yeah…"
Then she felt her ear being lightly pinched. She jolted reflexively, her ears snapping upright.
"…Eh? T-Trainer, you—"
Makoto quietly withdrew his hand, his eyes darting away as he cursed himself internally for not keeping his hands in check.
Human ears were a relatively sensitive area, and some people were especially sensitive there.
The same was true for Umamusume—and most of them were particularly sensitive to having their ears touched.
This was something he knew, something he'd learned properly. But seeing Kitasan Black's ears drooping the entire time, he'd been unable to resist a mischievous impulse and gave them a little pinch.
Now that he'd actually done it, with Kitasan Black covering her ears and looking at him with a mix of confusion and embarrassment, he had no idea how to smooth things over.
After holding her ears for a moment, the ones that had perked up soon drooped again. When she spoke, her voice was listless.
"Something unhappy did happen… it was after school…"
A few minutes later…
"—I really didn't do it on purpose. It's not like I forgot Ribbon-san's name, but—but…"
Her shoulders sagged as Kitasan Black looked at Makoto for help.
"At the time, I was thinking about what was written in that challenge letter, and I remembered Ribbon-san's Signature Racewear more clearly than her full name, so I didn't recognize her right away…"
"Trainer, so this… I… what am I supposed to do…?"
She had already recounted what happened after school. Seeing her stammering now, looking on the verge of tears and utterly lost, Makoto fell into thought.
"What about the letter? Can I take a look at it?"
Deciding to try and ease her mood, he chose to change the topic first, giving himself a bit of time to think.
Instinctively, Makoto felt that this wasn't really a big deal—at least, it wasn't a big deal when viewed through the mindset and life experience of his previous life.
But perhaps because he'd been spending so much time around Umamusume lately, many of his ways of thinking had become simpler, or closer to what was appropriate for someone this age.
Putting himself in her shoes for a moment: if it were him back when he'd just started learning extreme sports—or back in middle school—and there was a rival he really cared about, someone he challenged on his own initiative or even unintentionally… only for that person to look utterly confused and not even recognize his existence…
Yeah. That would make him look pretty pathetic.
Ribbon Victory was probably feeling exactly that way, which was why she'd left behind those words about challenging Kitasan Black.
"Um… it's here…"
Pouting slightly, Kitasan Black rummaged through the pocket of her training jacket and handed over a sweat-dampened envelope.
Makoto carefully opened it, slowly pulling out a sheet of manuscript paper. He glanced at it—and the face he'd been preparing to compose comforting words with immediately twisted.
"…Is this Japanese?"
It certainly looked like Japanese, but it was riddled with misspelled characters. You had to guess and infer just to roughly understand what it was trying to say.
"It was written by Angel Wing…"
Scratching her head awkwardly, as if she were the one who'd failed Japanese, Kitasan Black fidgeted with her fingers.
"She doesn't seem to be very good at Japanese…"
"This is beyond 'not good'...."
Makoto snorted, folded the paper back up, and slipped it into the envelope. Reining in his expression, he thought for a while.
"I think I roughly understand what's going on, so…" He looked at Kitasan Black. "Kitasan, do you want to apologize to Ribbon Victory?"
"I do, but…"
She nodded, biting her lower lip. After a long pause, she continued helplessly:
"I said the same thing to Crow-chan and even asked her to help contact Ribbon-san."
"But Ribbon-san really seems to be angry. Crow-chan got blocked the moment she sent the message…"
"And this is my fault too. If it weren't for me—"
After waiting a bit and seeing that Kitasan Black couldn't continue, Makoto nodded.
"Then… accept the challenge. Win against her, decisively."
"Mm… eh?"
She'd responded reflexively, then suddenly widened her eyes and stared at him.
"W-win against Ribbon-san…?"
"What, don't you have confidence?"
Makoto smiled.
"It's obvious she's in the middle of being angry right now."
"And at the end of the day, you really didn't recognize her. Whether it was unintentional or not, you still didn't recognize her. If I put it bluntly—the fault really does lie with you."
"So if you're the one at fault, and she's angry right now, then apologizing directly won't work. You need a trigger, a chance."
"You must've heard this from Special Week or someone else: for Umamusume, when there's something that can't be explained properly with words, you use your legs to convey your feelings instead."
"And in that case, I don't think there's any better opportunity than the St Lite Kinen."
"If you really want an even better one…"
His eyes sharpened.
"You don't just win—you win beautifully."
"Didn't you ask me during training camp whether you could run Burst Front Running in the St Lite Kinen?"
"At the time, I was thinking about the Kikuka Sho. At 3000 meters, Burst Front Running is absolutely not the best choice, so I didn't give you an answer."
"But now I will tell you this—"
"At the St Lite Kinen, take everything you have so far and run away with it. Open up a gap so large that Ribbon Victory can never catch you."
"If she truly wants to challenge you, she'll understand your feelings."
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