Uma Musume: From Being Knocked Ten Meters Away

Chapter 545 Aren't you afraid she won't be able to sleep tonight?

By the time the preparatory meeting ended, it was already quite dark outside the window.

Standing at the window, watching Kita Genko and Apricot Eyes disappear into the direction of the dormitory building, Yasui Makoto turned around, gathered the scattered documents on his desk one by one, and sat down at the desk.

As he flipped through the documents, his gaze lingering on various data, his brows furrowed deeply.

What he said during the meeting was not an exaggeration.

Unwavering Zhen Gang and his team's familiarity with the strategies and tactics on this side, coupled with new opponents like Tian Di Song and his group, and Man Le Shi's explosive final kick...

Every name and every statistic is like a heavy weight, pressing down on the other side of the scales of victory, making this already unfavorable race schedule for the Northern Black Horse even more difficult.

This was indeed the most difficult race I've ever faced since I debuted as a horse racer.

Of course, it's his too.

"Still figuring out tactics?"

Alice's voice grew louder as it approached. Yasui looked in the direction of the sound and saw the racehorse girl carrying two steaming cups of tea as she walked over.

"Well, after all, many ideas don't seem very promising right now, and..."

As he spoke, seeing Alice place a cup of tea on the table and push it towards him, Yasui Makoto thanked her and pulled out a document from his files:
"There's also the weather problem."

"The last time the Tokyo circuit underwent maintenance was many years ago. Although there have been routine maintenance over the years, the overall structure has not changed much, and the deterioration of some sections of the track is inevitable."

"Then, although it is not the rainy season in late October and early November, the southern part of the Kanto Plain is still more affected by the maritime climate, so the weather changes... are hard to say."

"Especially in the last two weeks, there hasn't been much rain, and it's been mostly cloudy. Tomorrow..."

He paused:

"If it rains, we'll have to readjust a lot of plans based on the track conditions."

Holding her teacup, Alice listened quietly until the end, then took a sip of her black tea.
"Why didn't you tell Xiaobei about these things earlier? What, were you afraid that if you told her too much, she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight?"

"Can't sleep?"

Yasui Makoto was stunned: "Who? Kobe?"

"if not?"

Alice raised an eyebrow and said:
"Other trainers are afraid of putting pressure on the racehorse girl, but you are different. You are afraid that she will be under pressure, and you explain all the risks so thoroughly."

"That's why I said, if it were me, I probably wouldn't be able to sleep tonight."

How can it be?

Just as Yasui was about to say that, he suddenly fell silent.

A moment later, he picked up his teacup:
"Rather than catching her off guard on the field, it's better to let her know all the risks beforehand—I'm talking about Xiao Bei, and... that's what I think."

"Well, that makes sense."

Nodding, Alice walked over, flipped through the documents in front of Yasui Makoto, and pulled out a few pages from the bottom.

She spread the pages out on the table and tapped them with her index finger:

"And what about these?"
Why didn't you say that earlier?

After a quick glance, Yasui Makoto recognized the documents that Alice had taken out as some news reports he had recently come across.

The core of those reports was the Northern Black Horse and the Emperor's autumn viewing tomorrow.

To be fair, if it's a magazine of the caliber of "Flash," there's nothing wrong with the related reporting.

In addition to introducing, evaluating, and predicting the Northern Black Horse, those reports also analyzed the other contestants, and many of the analyses were quite insightful, which he referenced extensively.

However, some entertainment-focused, or even obscure, tabloids have a level of journalistic quality that is hardly commendable.

In his view, this part of the report was purely for attention-grabbing purposes, deliberately choosing sensational claims such as "the strongest racehorse girl in history" and "the new generation of queen".

If you only look at these facts, you might think that Northern Black Horse is a retired, top-tier racehorse girl, rather than a still-active competitor.

He knew very well that these grand pronouncements would undoubtedly put pressure on people. The reason he prepared these materials was precisely because he was worried that the Northern Black Horse would see them.

Unfortunately, he had never encountered this situation during his extreme sports career and had no experience in this area.

So, after some hesitation, he skipped over the matter in the preparatory meeting.

But now, reminded by Alice, he suddenly felt that perhaps intentionally or unintentionally avoiding the topic was not a good idea.

Thinking about this, the scene of sending Beibu Xuanju away just now couldn't help but come to mind.

When waving goodbye, he was still as energetic as ever.

But after turning around with a notebook full of key points about the event, his steps seemed a bit heavier than when he came.

As those slightly heavy footsteps gradually faded away, the motion-activated lights in the corridor turned on one by one, then went out one by one behind them.

Like a string of elongated ellipses.

"...I'll go check on her."

Unconsciously, he stood up, the chair legs scraping the floor with a slightly harsh sound. Yasui took a few steps towards the door, then suddenly stopped and turned around:

"Thank you, Soko."

"Ah?"

As she picked up her teacup, Alice's face showed genuine confusion:

"Did I say anything?"

"Probably...no?"

Yasui Makoto smiled, turned and left.

Watching Yasui Makoto leave, just like him, Alice Soko held her teacup, walked to the window, and watched his figure disappear in the direction leading to the Uma Musume dormitory.

“…So,” she suddenly chuckled softly:
"Even though I'm more nervous and think more than anyone else, I still have to pretend that nothing's wrong."

"Young people should just say what they think."

……

In the dormitory, under the warm yellow light of the desk lamp, the computer on the table was on, and the laptop was open. Below the words "rhythm allocation" was an almond-shaped wavy line drawn in red pen.

Also highlighted were phrases like "third echelon," "conserve energy," and "final melee."

Northern Genko was sitting at his desk, frowning, biting his pen, his eyes fixed on the recording of the previous Emperor's Autumn Appreciation Competition on the computer screen.

After watching it at 3x slow speed, she lowered her head, took a pen out of her mouth, and drew a red line under the words "final foot acceleration timing" in her notebook.

"So that's why it's best to start building up power only in the first half of the third bend..."

She murmured to herself:

"The sprint start is much later than in previous races, so the speed is definitely going to be a bit tight..."

She had barely finished speaking when a cautious voice came from the side.

"Xiao Bei, aren't you... going to sleep yet?"

"Huh? Hmm, I need to review it again."

Smiling, Beibu Xuanju turned his head and said seriously:
"This match is very important to me... Of course, that doesn't mean the previous matches weren't important, anyway..."

"All the matches are important, and the matches in the future will become more and more important."

"So I have to put in more effort, after all, my brain isn't as sharp as Hikari-chan's, I need to observe more to understand what the trainers are thinking."

"Besides, since Hikari-chan won the Chrysanthemum Prize, I can't give up either!"

(End of this chapter)