Uma Musume: From Being Knocked Ten Meters Away

Chapter 394 The Possibility of Stepping into the Domain

Northern Black Horse was taken aback and nodded unconsciously, saying, "Trainer... how did you know?"

“Of course, you can understand this at a glance,” Yasui Makoto explained with a smile.
"And you've always been like this. It's fine when you train on your own, but once you're with your seniors, you immediately start thinking about when you can be like them... no, I should say when you can surpass them."

As Yasui Makoto and Kita Genko were talking, the Golden Ship and Nakayama Festival also came over.

"As expected, I guessed right."

After nodding and saying this, Golden Ship suddenly grinned and reached out to Zhongshan Celebration, "Well, you lost, didn't you?"

Rolling his eyes and pursing his lips, under the surprised gazes of Yasui Makoto and Kita Genko, Nakayama Keiki reached into his pocket and tossed his hand toward the Golden Ship:

"Here, take it."

A lollipop flew in an arc towards the Golden Ship. After accepting it with a grin, the Golden Ship did not offer any thanks. It unwrapped the lollipop and happily popped it into its mouth.

"Here, these are yours."

He then pulled out two more lollipops, handing one to Yasui Makoto and Kita Genko, and then took one for himself. Like the Golden Ship, Nakayama Kichijo unwrapped the lollipop, popped it into his mouth, and explained:
"Before training today, that guy made a bet with me, and the details of the bet..."

She pointed to the golden ship and the two people in front of her, then continued:
"It's a bet on whether Xiao Bei will get anxious and want to surpass us."

Upon hearing this, Yasui Makoto found it somewhat amusing, while Kita Genkoto exclaimed in surprise, "Seniors... you guessed what I was thinking too?"

Zhongshan Qingdian nodded, about to speak, when Golden Ship interrupted, "How about saying that Xiao Bei, this is just your personality?"

"Just like Yasui said, when you practice, you don't seem to have any competitive spirit."

"But when you train or compete with other people, you get motivated, and the stronger and more skilled your opponents are, the more motivated you become."

"So that's just like your junior. Her name is... oh right, the same as Almond Eyes. She's quite competitive."

"I……?"

Pointing to himself, Beifang Xuanju exclaimed in surprise, "Competitive...? No way...?"

This time, before the golden ship could even speak, Zhongshan Celebration preemptively declared:
"It should be said that this is limited to training, competitions, or when playing against strong opponents."

“When I’m with you normally, Xiao Bei, I don’t really feel this competitive spirit, but the stronger the opponent… the more obvious it becomes.”

"That's why Ah Chuan and I made a bet about this, betting on whether you wanted to surpass us or something, and then..."

She shrugged, spreading her hands, and said with a hint of helplessness:

"It's obvious that I lost."

"Is...like that...?"

Stunned, Kita Genko looked at Yasui Makoto and asked, "Am I... really like that?"

Yasui Makoto didn't answer. Instead, he looked Kita Genko and the others up and down for a while, took out his pocket watch, glanced at it, and gave an irrelevant answer:

"It's almost dinner time, I mean, the college cafeteria will be opening soon."

"So let's talk about it after we shower and change, back at the academy. Otherwise, like Golden Ship said, we might really catch a cold."

In the intensive training ground, the moisture content of the track is naturally quite high. Even if they only got splashed with mud, after an afternoon of training, the clothes of the three racehorse girls were already quite wet.

The reason we didn't change it immediately was not only because it would take a lot of time to go back and forth, but it was also part of the training.

The reason it became a heavy venue was naturally due to the rain, and playing in the rain was practically unavoidable.

This requires a certain degree of adaptability to this environment. While it's not necessary to create artificial rain for special training, it's about the same as training while wearing wet clothes.

During training, the female horse's body temperature remained relatively high due to the activity, so there was no need to worry about her catching a cold.

But it's not good to wear soaking wet clothes after training, so the first thing I do after training these days is to take a hot shower and change clothes, and also take my temperature and do a simple check-up.

So, even though he didn't get a reply, Northern Black Horse obediently nodded and left the training area with Golden Ship and Zhongshan Festival, heading to the bathroom provided by the racecourse.

Yasui Makoto didn't need to shower or change clothes. He sat in the waiting area outside the bathroom, and while he was making initial preparations for the training, he was thinking about the situation that the Golden Ship and Nakayama Festival had mentioned.

Northern Black Horse is indeed competitive, and in some ways, this competitiveness is no less than that of Almond Eyes.

However, compared to Almond, who strives to be number one in everything, Northern Black Horse only shows its competitive spirit when facing a sufficiently strong opponent.

It was precisely because this kind of personality requires certain conditions that neither he nor Beifang Xuanju had fully grasped it before, only realizing it after going to Dubai.

Or to put it another way, only when the Northern Black Horse encounters enough difficulties can she be motivated to compete.

In Yasui Makoto's view, this competitive spirit is the key to Kita Genko's ability to reach the top.

The strategies employed in the training match on the grass in Dubai and during the Emperor's spring viewing were all based on this point.

However, despite having this idea, Yasui Makoto had not explained it in detail to Kita Genko.

On the one hand, he himself was not entirely sure that this kind of situation, where one becomes stronger when faced with strong opponents and can only be unleashed in adversity, seemed to only exist in shonen manga, and specifically in manga like battle anime.

The competition between horse girls is essentially a sport, which at first glance seems to have nothing to do with hot-blooded battle manga.

On the other hand, he did not see similar cases in existing research. What he saw, whether in the trainers' logs or in the individual interviews with the racehorses, were only more easily understood terms such as "flow" and "concentration".

However, perhaps by chance, after listening to the words of the Golden Ship and the Zhongshan Festival, Yasui Makoto suddenly felt that things like becoming stronger when facing strong opponents and breaking out of difficulties might not be impossible for the Northern Genko.

After all, when it comes to flow and complete concentration, the Northern Black Horse is definitely not lacking.

It's not boasting or a misconception, but he's certain that when it comes to focus and dedication to training and competition, probably no one does it better than Northern Black Horse.

Since we've reached this point and still can't reach that area, perhaps the opportunity really isn't internal, but rather external.

The facts seem to prove this point. Facing world-class opponents like California Shining and Rongod, and facing unfamiliar overseas venues and the unfavorable situation of being overtaken at the Emperor's Spring Festival, Northern Genko did indeed unleash a stronger force, which means they have reached the realm.

In addition, as mentioned earlier, after entering the Year of the Horse, many races are no different from battles for the horse racing girls.

If the Northern Black Steed is to truly step into the realm, perhaps... there really is only one possibility: it becomes stronger when facing stronger opponents and emerges from adversity.

(End of this chapter)