Uma Musume: From Being Knocked Ten Meters Away

Chapter 637 Past and Tacit Understanding

"Where should we begin..."

As soon as she entered the room, Meiling rubbed her hands together mysteriously, then her eyes lit up:
"That's it! Here it is!"

As she spoke, she walked to the locker, opened it, and took out a rather large storage box. From inside, she took out several thick, hard-covered notebooks.
"These, along with the ones on the bookshelf, are all Xiao Zhen's textbooks and notes from when he was in school. He was very diligent back then, often studying until very late."

Curious, Beifang Xuanju leaned closer and saw Meiling gently open a thick, hardcover notebook. The pages were slightly yellowed, but they were perfectly preserved.

She quickly focused her attention and looked closely. The notebook was filled with neat, almost rigid handwriting, and each page was as uniform as a printed product.

One page was clearly divided into several sections:

The main column on the right is densely filled with records of racehorse female physiological indicator curves, training load calculation formulas, and nutritional ratio data;

The left-hand sidebar highlights keywords in red ink, such as "methods to improve anaerobic threshold" and "lactic acid metabolism cycle".
The summary section at the bottom of the page contains a few concise key points written in blue, such as "the correlation between the gradient of long-distance courses and energy distribution".

Interspersed among the charts are many symbols and markings. Roughly speaking, triangles should represent key points, wavy lines seem to mark areas of doubt, and arrows clearly connect related concepts.

Looking at the contents of the notebook, Beifang Xuanju seemed to see the young Yasui Makoto frowning and thinking under the desk lamp, sometimes writing quickly and sometimes pausing, and occasionally his eyes lighting up when he thought of a key point.

That familiar focused expression was exactly the same as the one she saw on the training field now.

Before Beifang Xuanju had finished reading the notes, Meiling brought out a thick photo album.

Turning to one of the pages, Meiling smiled and pointed, saying, "Look at these, these are all pictures of him when he was little."

Northern Genko quickly looked at the photo and saw that Yasui Makoto was clearly only a few years old, at most ten years old.

One of the photos looks like a candid shot, with Yasui Makoto frowning. Judging from the table and dishes in front of him, one can probably imagine that he ate something unpalatable or not to his liking.

The other photo, with its night sky and fireworks in the background, suggests a summer festival. Yasui Makoto, who looks a bit older than in the previous photo, is wearing a yukata and is being led by Kikuko Misuzu with a slightly amused and helpless expression. It seems that he and his family are attending the festival together.

These images made Kita Genko smile; it turned out that even the usually composed trainer had such vivid childhood moments.

Almond and Spring Awakening also huddled together, exchanging whispered opinions and curiously observing the trainer's past, which was unknown to them.

Most of the photos are related to studying.

In one of the photos, Yasui Makoto is wearing a school uniform and is leaning on the railing of the stands, diligently taking notes. In the blurry track ahead, you can also see the figures of racehorses sprinting.

In another picture, Yasui Makoto is dressed casually but is taking notes in a library, with many books piled up in front of him.

As Kita Genko's gaze swept through the photo album, feeling that he was getting to know Yasui Makoto better, his eyes suddenly fixed on a seemingly ordinary photograph.

In the photo, Yasui Makoto appears to have just come out of school or the library, casually carrying a heavy-looking backpack over one shoulder, his head slightly lowered, his brows furrowed, looking as if he is completely absorbed in thinking about some difficult problem.

This photo suddenly reminded her of their first meeting.

When Yasui was walking on the road at that time, he seemed to be thinking about something, with the same focused expression, the same slightly furrowed brows, and the same posture of being immersed in his own world.

However, when the child suddenly darted into the road, she and she, who happened to be passing by, noticed the danger almost simultaneously. At that time, she was not yet able to perfectly control her suddenly awakened racing talent, and in her haste, she sprinted forward, accidentally knocking Yasui Makoto, who was also rushing out to save the child, flying him away.

Only then did she realize that long before that dramatic encounter that made her frantically carry him to the hospital, Yasui Makoto had already been walking his path with such focus and seriousness for a very long time.

All the composure, professionalism, and reliability he displayed did not come out of thin air, but were accumulated and refined from countless moments of such focused concentration.

This discovery made Kita Genko look up, his gaze passing over the photo album to Yasui Makoto, who was leaning against the door frame.

And as if by telepathy, Yasui Makoto looked up at him.

Upon seeing the gaze of the Northern Black Horse, he was slightly taken aback, then smiled.

He remained quietly leaning against the door, watching with indulgence as his mother and the girls enthusiastically flipped through his "history."

The bedroom was lit with warm yellow light, creating a peaceful and cozy atmosphere, where an unspoken understanding flowed quietly.

Turning to the bottom of the storage box, a stack of posters that were extremely well preserved and still had vibrant colors was revealed.

The poster at the very top features the legendary Kasamatsu, the "hair-haired monster" who conquered countless viewers with his astonishing appetite and explosive power, Oguri Hat, in classic moments of bravely running across different arenas.

"Look, Xiao Zhen has been a huge fan of Little Chestnut Hat since he was little!"

Pointing to the poster, Meiling explained with a smile:
"He cherishes these precious posters so much; he saved up every penny to buy them like treasures!"

“He’s been in Tokyo for the past few years, and I thought these posters would easily get dusty and yellowed if they were on the wall, and they wouldn’t be easy to replace, so he asked me to carefully store them here for him.”

Looking at the few carefully preserved posters of Oguri Hat, Meiling seemed to suddenly remember something and clapped her hands softly, saying:
"Oh, right! Speaking of which, there seems to be an event at the Kasamatsu Stadium recently!"
"It's all for promoting the local tournament and Kasamatsu Tresen Academy. I heard they'll be inviting some star players like Oguri Hattori to come back for exhibition matches or autograph sessions or something. It should be quite a lively event."

"If you happen to be back at the right time, would you like to take this opportunity to visit?"

These words elicited expressions of surprise and anticipation from Kita Genko, Apricot Eyes, and Shunjuubu. Yasui Makoto, however, had a sudden thought and looked thoughtfully at his mother: "An exhibition match? Mom, you mean there's one soon?"

“Yes, yes, didn’t you know? It happened in the last few days. I saw the flyers were even posted on the bulletin board at the street corner.” Meiling nodded.

"We just got back, so we didn't really notice."

Shaking his head, Yasui Makoto pondered for a moment, then pressed for an answer:
"So... what are the usual registration requirements for these kinds of exhibition matches? I mean..."

Before he could finish speaking, his gaze unconsciously drifted towards Genko and Apricot Eyes in the north.

A sudden thought flashed through Beibu Xuanju's mind, and she almost blurted it out:

"Ah Zhen, you wouldn't be thinking of..."

She pointed to the somewhat confused almond-eyed girl beside her, then pointed to herself:

"Let me try to mentor Almond and have him run a race against a legend like Oguri Hat?"

(End of this chapter)