Uma Musume: From Being Knocked Ten Meters Away

Chapter 630, won't I disappoint you?
"Really?!"

Northern Genko was so excited he almost jumped off the bench, both for his almond-shaped eyes and for the new role he might be given:

"So, you mean I can... I can serve as an assistant and help guide Xiaoxingmu?"

"It is 'observation, learning, and auxiliary recording'."

Yasui Makoto smiled and corrected her, but his eyes were gentle and indulgent: "And it was under my full guidance and supervision that you had to ask me about every step of the way."

"Okay! No problem! It's good for observation and learning aids!"

Northern Black Steed nodded vigorously, a bright smile spreading across his face. His earlier minor displeasure had long since vanished from his memory.

"Then it's a deal! I'll definitely study hard!"

……

A few days later, before the festive atmosphere of the New Year had completely dissipated, a spacious minivan was driving smoothly on the highway leading to Nagoya.

The destination of this trip is Makoto Yasui's hometown in Tokoname City, located in the southern part of Nagoya City and adjacent to Chita Bay.

It is not a bustling city center, but a quiet town known for its traditional ceramics industry and that retains much of the old streetscape.

This team trip originated from the suggestion made by Northern Black Horse at the family banquet.

At first, Yasui was somewhat surprised by the sudden suggestion of a "collective home visit," but he quickly assessed it as he was used to.

Generally speaking, there are no training tasks after the New Year. The competitions we are considering are not until March. Other matters have been dealt with before and after the New Year, so it is indeed suitable for some relaxing activities.

After six months of working together, the team has built a good level of trust and understanding. With the New Year atmosphere in full swing, organizing an activity outside of training can not only help them relax but also enhance their understanding of each other.

At the same time, this is also a good opportunity to discuss the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes, and also to let the little guy get to know the others.

All things considered, it was a pretty good idea, so after evaluating it, he readily agreed.

Both Aloe and Alice agreed with his decision, the only difference being that the former simply wanted to go out and have fun, while the latter had similar considerations to Yasui Makoto and believed that activities together would be beneficial for future development.

Yamato Akari originally planned to use this relatively leisurely time to finish her doctoral dissertation, but Alice half-persuaded and half-forced her to come over, arguing that "continuous high-intensity mental work will lead to a decrease in the efficiency of neural synapses, and appropriate environmental change stimulation is the optimal solution," and naturally became her driver.

Inside the car, Yamato Akaki gripped the steering wheel, his gaze fixed intently on the road ahead.

Alice sat in the passenger seat, chatting idly with Yamato and Yasui in the back.

The back seat was much livelier, with Chunqiufen and Xingmu huddled together, quietly discussing the scenery outside the window, their voices filled with curiosity about the unknown journey ahead.

However, the Northern Black Horse, who initiated the event, is in a different situation.

She sat next to Yasui Makoto near the car window, with not snacks or entertainment magazines spread out on her lap.

Instead, it contained a brand-new hardcover notebook, along with several introductory materials on exercise physiology and data recording given to her by Yasui Makoto and Alice Soko.

Sunlight streamed through the car window, illuminating the paper and highlighting her unusually focused profile.

Her brows furrowed slightly as she pondered, her fingers gripping a pen, occasionally drawing lines under sentences or leaving small question marks or exclamation marks in the margins.

When highlighting key points or questions, she unconsciously muttered to herself, as if reciting some technical terminology.

"After exercise...the metabolic pathway of lactic acid buildup..." she murmured to herself, her expression serious and solemn, as if she were facing not words, but a crucial competition that required her full effort to overcome:

"Hmm... what was that relevant point of knowledge again...?"

Sitting beside Kita Genko, listening to her muttering to herself, Yasui Shinma couldn't help but feel a surge of surprise as her gaze fell on her furrowed brows and murmured profile.

He truly hadn't expected that Beifang Xuanju would invest such immense enthusiasm and almost obsessive seriousness in "becoming an assistant."

Not only did she pester him for the basic information on the day of the visit, but in the following days, she spent almost every spare moment with those materials and notebooks, even during the rest time she should have been taking in the car.

Seeing her looking as if she were facing a formidable enemy, as if she wanted to chew up and swallow every single piece of knowledge, Yasui Makoto pondered for a moment and thought that perhaps he could give her a hint.

He took out a tablet from his shoulder bag, tapped on the screen to display a simplified energy metabolism diagram, and handed it to the Northern Black Horse:
"Here, you can understand the connection between glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid cycle by combining it with the part you looked at yesterday."

"Oh! That's right! I remember now!"

Northern Black Horse's eyes lit up. He quickly examined the contents of the tablet, then looked down at his own notes, nodding vigorously as if he had just realized something.
"So that's how they're connected! I was wondering how they were linked together!"

As she spoke, she immediately buried her head and began to write furiously, adding this crucial new understanding to the side of her notebook.

Seeing her like this, a hint of approval flashed in Yasui Makoto's eyes, but he still spoke up to remind her:

"You reacted quickly, but... you shouldn't watch any further."

“Reading on the bus isn’t good for your eyes. I originally thought you’d just glance at it a few times to familiarize yourself with it… but now, you’ve been reading for a bit too long, Xiao Bei.”

"Ah...?"

After a moment of stunned silence, the Northern Black Steed immediately raised its head, its face filled with resentment:

"But, but Ah-Zhen, you said that when we got to your house... you would ask me questions!"

"There are still so many things I haven't memorized yet, so...won't that disappoint you?"

Her tone was somewhat anxious, as if she couldn't meet the targets during training.

Yasui Makoto was slightly taken aback, clearly not expecting that she would take this "question" so seriously, and even felt pressured.

Seeing this scene in the rearview mirror from the passenger seat, Alice smiled knowingly.

"Kukuku... Xiao Bei is so persistent in her studies? But..."

She changed the subject, adding a touch of teasing:
"If you could put that same effort into your regular schoolwork, you'd probably be number one in your class by now, wouldn't you?"

Upon hearing this, a barely perceptible blush instantly appeared on the cheeks of the Northern Black Horse.

She glanced at Yasui Makoto almost instinctively, her lips moved, but she didn't say anything.

She didn't tell anyone that her biggest motivation for studying so hard and trying so hard to remember this obscure knowledge was actually to be able to help Yasui Makoto and get closer to his world.

She couldn't explain why, but she always felt a headache and bored when studying those formulas and theorems for school exams.

But now, when I look at these equally dizzying professional materials, just thinking that it's for him gives me endless motivation, like chasing the finish line on a racetrack.

(End of this chapter)