There's no such thing as a "preordained future." The future can be changed.
To Takayama Gamu, that was so obvious it barely needed saying.
After all, he'd seen monsters capable of time travel with his own eyes—and he'd personally brought one down, rewriting the future Captain Yoneda had witnessed.
Nothing like that had happened in this world, but Gamu figured it was the Three Goddesses' influence at work: based on his past, they'd "filled in" his fabricated identity with research achievements that made sense.
"Big brother Gamu… I want to become your trainee too. When I enter Tracen Academy in the future, will you be my trainer?"
Satono Diamond clung to his arm. On the dance machine, Tamamo Cross almost tripped over her own feet.
"…Sure," Gamu answered simply.
To him, talent wasn't the key point. There was no reason to pick and choose like other trainers did.
If his trainees could run happily, that was enough.
Still… that strange, wrong-feeling "aura" flickered again.
Because it was crowded and messy here, Gamu didn't transform into the horse-girl Gaia. And the sensation didn't feel dangerous—if he had to describe it…
It was kind of like Dunzi seeing Catherine.
…Then it's probably fine.
"Big brother Gamu, I'm going to come find you at Tracen someday."
As the Japanese Derby drew closer, Gamu had to leave the arcade with Tamamo and Oguri. Satono Diamond hugged his waist like a child refusing to let a parent go, looking up at his face.
That "wrongness" intensified.
For an instant, Gamu almost felt Dunzi appear behind him—like he heard the snap of a pen breaking.
…But behind me is Tamamo, isn't it?
"See you," Gamu said.
Only after Satono Diamond left with several men in suits and sunglasses—bodyguards—did that prickling sense of danger finally fade away.
"Let's go to Tokyo Racecourse."
Gamu reached out and took Tamamo's hand again, and the three of them headed toward the venue.
"…Little Tama."
Oguri stared at the hand being held.
So holding hands is fine?
...
Only the luckiest horse girl can win the Japanese Derby.
As a trainer, Gamu had heard that saying. He didn't love the idea of crediting victory to "luck," but he had to admit: in a Derby with twenty-four runners, luck mattered.
For normal trainers and horse girls, fully analyzing twenty-plus opponents was impossible. And with so many participants, the race state became wildly complex—standard tactics often lost meaning. In that environment, draw position and race flow could decide everything.
But Takayama Gamu wasn't a "normal trainer."
"Who did you pick?" asked Chiemi Representative.
She was seated one row behind him, holding two tubs of popcorn.
"One of these is yours." She handed him the larger tub.
"Thanks. I picked Uwakai Bijin."
Gamu hesitated, then hugged the tub to his chest so Tamamo on his left and Oguri on his right could both reach it.
In this world, horse-girl racing was far more popular than the horse racing Gamu knew—but there wasn't anything like gambling.
"This is pretty cute," he said, lifting a chibi plush.
It was official U.R.A. merchandise for Uwakai Bijin.
Every spectator could buy a plush of the horse girl they were supporting. If your pick won, you could also receive limited-edition event merchandise later released by U.R.A.
When Chiemi Representative won the Satsuki Sho, U.R.A. had handed out limited posters of her sprinting through the dirt to everyone who backed her pre-race.
"Oh? So you're her fan, Trainer Gamu?"
Chiemi's tone was teasing, and she carefully watched the reaction of the two gray-haired horse girls.
Their ears snapped upright.
"No. I just think she has the highest win probability," Gamu replied.
He glanced once at the plush, then put it back in the bag.
Their ears relaxed again.
"Ohhh~~"
"…?"
"Nothing. I just think you're impressive," Chiemi said with a strangely amused smile. "So why is her win probability the highest? Your simulation system predicted it?"
She rested her chin on her hand, speaking casually.
"When we traditional types face strong opponents, we also simulate possible race scenarios," she said. "Predict running styles, calculate finishing kicks, guard against interference…"
Among top-tier horse girls, raw ability gaps weren't huge. A few lengths behind looked massive, but time-wise, the difference was tiny.
When raw power couldn't open a gap, technique, detail, tactics, disruption—those small margins became the real deciding factors.
"But nobody can do it to your level—analyzing every single entrant," Chiemi said. "You're basically a prophet predicting the future."
"If you race someone like that… even the strongest horse girl would get nervous."
"Predicting the future is technically possible," Gamu said matter-of-factly.
Oguri put on gloves, grabbed a huge fistful of popcorn, and stuffed it into her mouth. Gamu worried she'd choke and handed her a bottle of water—while still explaining to Chiemi:
"If we could build a photonic quantum computer, we'd have enough compute power to predict the future."
"Don't say something we can't understand with that serious face," Chiemi complained.
"Want me to explain the principle?"
"Can you compress it into under twenty characters?"
"…That," Gamu said, offering the popcorn tub toward Tamamo, "is something only sci-fi writers can do."
In this world, he didn't have a photonic quantum computer. So "future prediction" stayed theoretical.
But the program Fujimiya once designed to predict the future with that kind of system?
With a few tweaks, it could be reused.
Compared to predicting reality, predicting a horse-girl race was far easier. The influencing variables were fewer by orders of magnitude, so the required compute dropped drastically—Gamu could run it on the computer the Chairwoman had provided.
"Still, Trainer Gamu," Chiemi said, lifting her gaze toward the track as the twenty-plus horse girls began entering their gates, "don't treat horse-girl racing as something too simple."
"Fighting spirit, grit, obsession, intuition… even hallucinations…"
"A horse girl's heart can create miracles."
"A human heart can too," Gamu said seriously.
.....
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