Agnes Tachyon's words were dripping with teasing, but Yasui Makoto only found them amusing. Kitasan Black, on the other hand, went bright red for a moment, then her eyes lit up as if she had suddenly been struck by some idea.
The examination that followed was much the same as before—if anything, even simpler.
The medical records, X-rays, and doctor's instructions were all already there. After looking them over, Agnes Tachyon quickly concluded that there was "nothing seriously wrong."
Then, after telling Yasui Makoto to rest properly and Kitasan Black to take good care of him, she casually changed the subject.
"In a sense, Yasui, getting injured right now might not be entirely a bad thing."
They had grown fairly familiar with each other by now, so the way she addressed him had become more casual as well.
Both Yasui Makoto and Kitasan Black froze at her words.
Yasui Makoto quickly turned thoughtful. Kitasan Black, meanwhile, puffed out her cheeks and folded her ears back slightly, clearly displeased with what Agnes Tachyon had said, though she held her tongue out of respect for a senior.
Noticing Kitasan Black's reaction, Agnes Tachyon neither flustered nor took back what she had said. Instead, she went on at her leisure.
"Don't look at me like that, Kitasan. I mean it."
As she spoke, her gaze turned a little more serious.
"You may not have realized it yet, but Yasui probably already has."
"He's only eighteen... no, wait, nineteen now."
"In any case, he's still not even twenty, and he's only been active for a little over a year, yet he already has seven wins to his name. That alone may not be absolutely unheard of, but it's still rare."
"More importantly, those seven wins include five graded wins and three G1s. That much really can be called extraordinary."
"And one of those three G1s was the Arima Kinen. Do you understand, Kitasan...?"
She looked at Kitasan Black, whose face now showed both pride and thoughtfulness.
"Do you have any idea how in-demand your trainer is right now?"
"Every year, nearly ten thousand Umamusume have the ability to debut. Of those, winning even a graded race could be called one in a hundred. Winning a G1 is one in a thousand. Winning the Arima Kinen? Calling that one in ten thousand wouldn't be an exaggeration."
"To put it a little dramatically, the Umamusume—or their families—who'd like to ask Yasui Makoto to train them right now could form a line stretching all the way from Tracen Academy to here."
"And that's not all. The URA, collaboration offers from the academy, interviews from all over, endorsement requests... I don't even have to exaggerate for those. They're probably already lined up in a very long queue over at the academy."
At that point, she tapped a finger toward the cast on Yasui Makoto's left arm.
"If this hadn't happened, your trainer might have been so busy today that you'd need an appointment just to see him."
"Because this did happen, he gets to take it easy and play pretend with you and your whole 'little nurse' act."
Kitasan Black blinked, then her ears folded back again in irritation.
"This isn't pretend! I'm taking care of Trainer seriously, and I'm working really hard at it!"
"There, there. I'm only putting it that way. You understand what I mean, Kitasan."
Agnes Tachyon waved a hand casually. She was still smiling, but the seriousness in her eyes became even more obvious.
"What I mean is this: Yasui, you really are an exceptionally talented trainer. And of course, Kitasan, you're a top-level Umamusume too."
"But all the messy business I just mentioned isn't necessarily something everyone can handle with ease."
"If you get dragged into all of it by accident, end up devoting too much time and energy to it, and it starts affecting training and races—maybe even leads to a few losses next year..."
She stressed the next words.
"The higher they're holding you up right now, when that happens..."
But she did not finish the sentence. Just as suddenly as she had raised the topic, she changed it.
"Well, that's about it. I've finished examining you. Would you like to sit here for a bit? I can brew you some tea."
After having a cup of tea in Agnes Tachyon's office and chatting a little about things unrelated to training and racing, Yasui Makoto and Kitasan Black returned to the apartment.
Yasui Makoto understood perfectly well how many tedious matters there were in the industry beyond training and racing. After the Kikuka Sho, he had spent nearly a full week handling nothing but those things.
So Agnes Tachyon was right. If he had not gotten hurt by accident, he would definitely have been busy with all that again now.
And her meaning had been obvious enough. No matter what changed outside, she wanted to remind him that he, as a trainer, had to hold fast to his original intentions and not lose himself in the process.
As for that, Yasui Makoto was still fairly confident.
He had been through something similar before. He had never been an absolutely top-tier athlete in his past life, but he had still won many competitions and taken on plenty of interviews, endorsements, and the like.
And back then, he really had lost himself amid all the glitter and excess. Perhaps that had been one of the reasons he had never been able to reach the absolute peak.
Because he had gone through that once already, he knew how to deal with this sort of thing. And with the injury giving him an excuse on top of that, handling it would only be easier.
Even after they got home and he sat down on the sofa, Yasui Makoto was still thinking all that over.
Which was why he failed to notice that the moment they entered, Kitasan Black had rummaged around the apartment a little before turning and going into the bedroom.
It was only when he was halfway through thinking about what came next that he heard a somewhat strange voice, full of expectation.
"T-Trainer... do I... look all right like this?"
"Hm? What do you—"
He turned his head on instinct, then froze.
Kitasan Black had changed into a pure white nurse's uniform, and was now standing gracefully in the bedroom doorway.
The well-fitted uniform traced the line of her slim yet strong waist perfectly, and the hem of the skirt swayed lightly, revealing long, straight legs wrapped in white stockings.
Her usual playful ponytail now hung more loosely behind her, with a few strands of hair falling casually beside her rosy cheeks, lending her lively face an unexpectedly alluring softness.
She held a mug in one hand, while the other tugged nervously at the hem of her skirt. Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes, full of shyness and anticipation, looked toward him with cautious care.
It felt as though something had caught in Yasui Makoto's throat. For a moment, he could not say a word, and could only stare blankly at the sight before him.
Agnes Tachyon's earlier joke about "playing little nurse" flashed through his mind at once—but no matter how he looked at it, he had never imagined Kitasan Black would actually take that remark seriously and appear before him like this.
"I... this was Dia-chan's idea too, and she helped me get the outfit..."
Seeing that Yasui Makoto kept saying nothing, Kitasan Black only grew more nervous, and her voice kept getting smaller.
"She said that if I was going to take proper care of Trainer, then I should wear a nurse outfit..."
"At first I thought this nurse outfit looked a little strange, but..."
"But Doctor Tachyon said something like that too, so..."
"Does it really look that weird, Trainer...?"
"Th-then... I'll go change..."
She bit her lip and started backing toward the bedroom.
"There's no need to change!"
The words came out so suddenly that Kitasan Black visibly jumped. Yasui Makoto startled himself too.
In the next instant, he snapped back to himself, swallowed hard, and tried his best to calm down before stammering,
"I-I mean... th-that... it s-suits you. It looks... really good. You don't... um... you don't need to change."
His own voice kept getting quieter too.
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