On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

[ChronOblivion]

"I can make your life very unpleasant, you midget mongrel–"

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Hoooly shit, now that's a quote that needs to be included in the complaint. A racial insult, and a strongly implied threat to use her professional influence to sabotage her future career as a punishment for disrespect.

"I guess you would have to, since all your achievements were riding on their backs."

"Whereas your greatest achievement was accomplished on your knees."

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Ooooooooh, assuming that is what it appears to be, what is a deeply brutal insult. Really hope it's actually true.

"You dare–?!" she stepped forwards, raising a hand for a moment, before blood seemed to drain from her face as she jerked back, staring at Shirogane like she had seen a ghost.

Grass couldn't see her friend's face from where she was sitting, but she could see her classmate's hand clench into a fist behind her back. Even so, Shirogane had not otherwise moved an inch.

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Killing Intent Activated.

Shirogane paused for a second, before turning to look at her square on. "Have you ever considered how odd it is, to have the losers of a race sing and dance to some peppy song about achieving your dreams as the backup dancers for the winner, usually after having their own dreams crushed, or at least set back?"

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Were tiara runners really so much weaker than those not focused on being an idol that they needed shorter runs to perform well? One would think that practicing performing so much would help build up stamina, or was the idea that they would be too tired to perform on stage properly if the races were longer?

Which was the actually important part here, the race or the marketing portion?!

Actually…now that this thought sprang to mind, the business side of the league likely was more concerned about the marketing aspect, hence the decision to allow idol focused umas their own track so they had an opportunity to shine in the race, which helped draw attention to their performance, thus helping to generate sales of merchandise and improving the financial performance of the industry.

Was her goal to run in both circuits somehow deleterious to their bottom line? She couldn't think of a way that it could be. Perhaps she wasn't as marketable since her win rate was admittedly quite paltry compared to many of her peers, but her merchandise sales were actually significant, at least in Fujisawa, which, while far from the largest city in the country, was still a large customer base.

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Appreciate the structural criticism of her league.

Would be crazy if her gate placements are deliberate.

 

[WrandmWaffles]

The America is strong in this one. Hope to see more.

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Grass is a weaboo but sometimes the Yankee leaks out.

Less than ten minutes later, Drift has concern, and Shiro has to pay the gym for a new punching bag.

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Hey she's got enough money to afford it now. But yeah throwing hands is not something many umas are naturally inclined towards but Shiro is very good at it.

I'm still not sure where the story can really go though, it's not like this is a Shonen where she can determinator her way to victory in short races?

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Let's just say that while Shiro and Hana have been focusing on her endurance and cornering, she has other talents she can try leveraging.

"- It's disorderly!" (Disgraceful)

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A disorderly charge is much less effective than one in formation. Fortunately they aren't actually trying to kill anyone on the race track.

It's Not a Mental Illness if We Win

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"If it's useful, it's a condition!"

I feel bad for Seiun, but she can probably qualify with a different race

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I'm going with that since Grass immediately got injured, they decided to give Sky the Satsuki Sho slot because Grass very clearly can't take it.

how gay Stego is towards the MC.

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The umas based off of famous stud horses kinda don't always register as female to me sometimes, especially Stay Gold and Fuji Kiseki. It's also a bit of a janky point for the story because how is the site relation supposed to work in this setting?

Like was Sunday Silence the sexiest Uma in Japan or something? Good luck Saito Kisuke, your uma sister's horse alternate demands you get laid.

Ok I didn't expect that from Shiro, kinda feels OOC actually.

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She had some experience dealing with mean girls in school this life. Also Polish mom.

One of my joys is seeing how the announcers continue to stumble on Shirogane's name in new and interesting ways.

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They've kinda got a standardized way to say it wrong for now, but it kinda made it worse.

A lot of umas and people with oshi's likely say "Onore Shirogane." Because she appears everywhere.

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Imagining game Shirogane is funny because im the alt timeline where horse Shiro got put into the altUmamusume game, before she was released (assuming she wasn't in the first wave), there'd just be this NPC Uma that shows up constantly. Players that didn't know the lore that much would be so confused.

 

[Darkwood]

Ok I didn't expect that from Shiro, kinda feels OOC actually. But then again she usually goes straight for the kill when fighting so maybe it is in character.

Or did Hana say this? The text implies it was Shiro but it's not clear.

Staring down a Polish Hussar who sees you as an enemy must be terrifying. Good luck to that lady.

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I believe that was a retort from Hana, as I read it the text implied she said it because the previous remark was aimned at Hana and only Hana would have prior knowledge of who the woman was.

 

[Critian Caceorte]

Like was Sunday Silence the sexiest Uma in Japan or something? Good luck Saito Kisuke, your uma sister's horse alternate demands you get laid.

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Well, either that or SunSil is Cafe's ghost Friend, that IS the most popular theory of the bunch.

 

[GarfRed]

Imagining game Shirogane is funny because im the alt timeline where horse Shiro got put into the altUmamusume game, before she was released (assuming she wasn't in the first wave), there'd just be this NPC Uma that shows up constantly. Players that didn't know the lore that much would be so confused.

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People screaming out about her in event in game, waiting for her to be finally released as an actual umamusume. While casual fans are baffled at the reception of this supposed NPC Uma.

 

[Tomato]

One of my joys is seeing how the announcers continue to stumble on Shirogane's name in new and interesting ways.

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I mean that's literally how her name is spelled in Japanese. Without it written in English/Polish it is a 100% accurate pronunciation. Japanese is a language where phonetic spelling is 1 to 1 accurate to pronounciation.

This is useful in normal situation but requires writing down loan words in strange ways.

As a famous example, Google is written in Japanese as "guguru".

Edit: it would actually probably be "Oruzeru" but the difference is tiny.

 

[Yonlionz/Amber]

Killing Intent Activated.

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Nah, that was just Shiro indicating a line was about to be crossed. Proper intent to harm would have made that bureaucratic Karen topple over backwards, and Killing Intent? That'd just inconvenience the janitorial staff.

 

[JKD_666]

More importantly to me is what it translates to. I may be willing to open Google translate but it's still annoying to do.

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Don't stop your charge, let's go!/let's strike!

 

[Jadalier Rune]

Honestly, I think having Shirogane win here would be the more unpopular option given how her strengths and weaknesses are presented.

Sure Shirogane has worked on her weaknesses, but it's still shouldn't be enough to overcome the strengths of her peers yet who have all been working on their own weaknesses.

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I love that she's balanced and not overpowered as fuck. it makes a completely engaging story instead of having an OP slop shit. She's strong in some areas and she's weak in some areas that's terrific.

"I will require ten... no, twelve standard-sized bento boxes to dispose of the body, once I dismember it. I shouldn't have any trouble with the weight. All I need is to find a place to dump the evidence."

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And I think she's a little too fat. I think you need a couple more boxes there, Shiro. Hmm, where to hide a body.

 

[RandomNew]

Whoo it's been thousand of years!
New chapter! Thank you!

Ah Shiro, planning murder already.
An aspect of Tanya that I kinda miss.

Will this situation awakened Shiro competitive spirit???
Hope so!

 

[Tiypo]

Like was Sunday Silence the sexiest Uma in Japan or something? Good luck Saito Kisuke, your uma sister's horse alternate demands you get laid.

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I know Sunday Silence is supposedly Cafe's ghost friend, but from what I know, the actual horse was SERIOUSLY obsessed with McQueen. It was so bad that he would throw fits if he was let out to pasture before McQueen, so any Uma version would probably be quite down bad in the yuri department.

 

[Herofox]

I know Sunday Silence is supposedly Cafe's ghost friend, but from what I know, the actual horse was SERIOUSLY obsessed with McQueen. It was so bad that he would throw fits if he was let out to pasture before McQueen, so any Uma version would probably be quite down bad in the yuri department.

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Wasn't McQueen a stallion irl?

Then again, irl Grass and irl Special Week had an incident so maybe that's not so far off lol.

 

[Sir Bidoof]

Overall a decent chapter.

I think there should maybe be a bit more acknowledgement by characters that Shiro failed at the end at least partly because she was distracted by Grass Wonder injuring herself, but that is a relatively minor quibble.

 

[Critian Caceorte]

Wasn't McQueen a stallion irl?

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Indeed, and people still said that Sunday acted like he was McQueen's boyfriend. So in Uma-verse it would be gay either way.

 

[Krein]

"If worse comes to worst, likely few people would miss her."

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There's my oshi.

 

[Aigloss]

More importantly to me is what it translates to. I may be willing to open Google translate but it's still annoying to do.

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Basically "don't stop the charge, we are hitting them"

Very much a thing winged husar Uma would say before slamming into enemey lines like a wrecking ball.

 

[Chrisleech]

I'm not upset about you making her not win. Though I am concerned about her not placing AT ALL. And the way you did it for the onscreen race was downright Weird. Like Shirogane doesn't normally look around because she's tracking everyone with her ears. But here you had her drop too far behind because she looked over and got distracted, and I'm just thinking WTF?

 

[PostwarGryphon]

I mean the whole fic has had her be constantly second or third place, so she's consistent in the losing streak at least.

 

[YetAnotherLurker]

I'm not upset about you making her not win. Though I am concerned about her not placing AT ALL. And the way you did it for the onscreen race was downright Weird. Like Shirogane doesn't normally look around because she's tracking everyone with her ears. But here you had her drop too far behind because she looked over and got distracted, and I'm just thinking WTF?

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All 5 of them were, quite literally, neck and neck. I'm not certain how IRL horse racing margins translate to uma racing, since measurements based on the lengths of horse body parts don't really make any sense when horses don't exist, but the time split between Special Week in first and Shiro in fifth was likely around a tenth of a second at most.

Combine that with concern over a classmate and apparent flashbacks or bleedover from Tanya Degurechaff and what sounds like a past life as a UmaHussar, and it's quite understandable how it could cost her a podium spot.

 

[Solconbur]

So she's working the bag, huh? Is that Power Training, or Guts?

Shiro: Grass-san, language.
Grass: -blinks- Oh -looks at audience- Ohhhh...I can't have any witnesses
Shiro:-blinks- What?
Grass: -pulls out glock, chambers round- No survivors.

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That's the wrong uma to aim at, even if she's a bit rusty in disarmament.

The umas based off of famous stud horses kinda don't always register as female to me sometimes, especially Stay Gold and Fuji Kiseki. It's also a bit of a janky point for the story because how is the site relation supposed to work in this setting?

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To be fair, Stego still acts like the second most manliest uma out there. Impressive, for being as short as her IRL counterpart.

The first, oddly enough, is Mejiro Ryan, who's a fashionless gymbro.

I'm not upset about you making her not win. Though I am concerned about her not placing AT ALL. And the way you did it for the onscreen race was downright Weird. Like Shirogane doesn't normally look around because she's tracking everyone with her ears. But here you had her drop too far behind because she looked over and got distracted, and I'm just thinking WTF?

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Perhaps, she sensed something more in that moment that drove her to distraction. We did get that odd bit of polish, after all.
[

 

[Greatazuredragon]

So the 'moon runes' bit after the injury, was it caused by her past life as The Soldier or her Uma war horse ancestry?

Nice chapter, thanks for the update.

 

[macdjord]

"–just because she doesn't tire herself out doesn't mean you've trained her a lot like you'd do for a spoiler runner."

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@WrandmWaffles: 'you've trained her' -> 'you've not trained her'

"If worse comes to worst, likely few people would miss her."

…What did Shiro mean by that?!

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I'm sure there's a bunker that's about to be shelled which needs manning somewhere.

 

[FluffyVoid]

Basically "don't stop the charge, we are hitting them"

Very much a thing winged husar Uma would say before slamming into enemey lines like a wrecking ball.

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I feel like Shiro will win her first race when she fully unlocks her zone, I also feel like in doing so she accidentally pulls her friend Haru along for the ride with the end result being Shiro first and Haru a very close second.

 

[Gem]

It was disorderly–

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Nie przerywajcie szarży, uderzamy!

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These honestly might be the beginning of Shiro's zone.

Here's my hat in the ring. Shiro's zone won't be some sort of zone of terror or straight debuff. Shiro's zone will be having everyone charge forward in an orderly line. A Calvary Charge. Except, because it's a calvary charge, everyone is kept at the same speed and position. It makes the lead horses lose that lead, while the ones falling behind get to keep up.

And more importantly, it'll stop anyone from stumbling and getting injured and trampled. Because from the last scenes, I get this very strong sense that while Shiro loves the money, Shiro does not want to win at the cost of her friends getting injured. I'd assume that by now, Shiro is sick and tired of having the people she cares about get hurt. And her zone will reflect that. By preventing those she cares about from getting hurt.

Or well, that's my two bits. Personally I'm excited to see how the story will develop. It's been great thus far @WrandmWaffles

Being X, being held down and ganked by the Three Goddesses: "I curse you— ouch! Sto— guh! Toonlyeverplaceintheoutergates— gah!"

And that is how Shirogane went to sleep like a baby, as though listening to a Nutcracker effigy being jumped by three ordinary uma musume.

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I have this mental image of that JoJo meme where the three dudes are kicking that one guy.

And it's two of the three Goddesses, kicking X, while the third takes the time to explain to Shiro that Shiro is safe now, before going in and joining on the X beat down.

Then when Shiro wakes up, there's a nutcracker. But it's in pieces and has a great many horseshoe shaped marks all over it.

 

[Skywolf99]

Hmm, where to hide a body.

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the nearest farm with pigs, the body will never be found

 

[Gem]

the nearest farm with pigs, the body will never be found

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Gonna have to take a hammer to the teeth though. Those will survive

 

[Jubjub3000]

I have a feeling that the organiser is going to lose her kneecap privileges if she keeps this up. I can imagine shiro losing her temper, running full speed, jumping and then kicking with both legs at the punching bag haha!

Edit

Gonna have to take a hammer to the teeth though. Those will survive

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Would this work?

 

[YetAnotherLurker]

So the 'moon runes' bit after the injury, was it caused by her past life as The Soldier or her Uma war horse ancestry?

Nice chapter, thanks for the update.

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I interpreted the first thought about it being disorderly as The Soldier, but the second Polish one as the Hussar.

These honestly might be the beginning of Shiro's zone.

Here's my hat in the ring. Shiro's zone won't be some sort of zone of terror or straight debuff. Shiro's zone will be having everyone charge forward in an orderly line. A Calvary Charge. Except, because it's a calvary charge, everyone is kept at the same speed and position. It makes the lead horses lose that lead, while the ones falling behind get to keep up.

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Hmm. I like the idea, but with a bit of modification. Instead of being an equalizer for the field in general, it's very specifically a Charge to Victory for those she views as friends or allies. Every friendly racer that has mostly kept up joins the charge, and is able to exactly match the pace of the fastest of the group. Nobody falls, nobody is left behind. If any of them could win, all of them win.

Once Shiro and her trainer figure it out it turns any race she runs with teammates or classmates into "Tracen first, the rest nowhere." Shiro thinks it's great, everyone is getting a share of the winnings, nobody is getting hurt, and they're all setting new records. Her teammates aren't quite sure, because while they're "winning", they also kind of aren't, and their competitive spirit is very confused. Every other runner is terrified of the packs of Tracen racers that seem to spontaneously form up into an eerily synchronized wall of death. Bookies and gamblers lose their minds as every single race Shiro runs in ends in a two-to-five way tie. Eventually Shiro starts getting offers of payment to not race, and sees it as an absolute win.

 

[PinkShadowReader]

It was a bad strategic decision, as it would make getting a secured spot in the classics much more difficult…but after over a year around the eccentrics at Tracen…she had to admit some of their passion for the sport was infecting her as well.

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Good that she knows its a bad decision. Hopefully she will remember this.

"Damn, your little neck chopper really likes cutting it close, doesn't she?" Team Spica's trainer braced himself against the railing, leaning forwards to watch the race more closely as he chewed on a lollipop stick thoughtfully.

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Lol. I like her nicknames.

"Our training plan is tailored towards leveraging her talents to mitigate her weaknesses." And Hana could not claim credit for all of it, given the amount of suggestions her trainee had come up with herself, half of them illegal per racing rules.

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Happy that Shiro comes up with her own suggestions. I think Hana will remember from that moment onward that those half were illegal per racing rules. That maybe Shiro has affinity towards some violence.

"But it ain't gonna be easy for her on mediums or shorter," her colleague observed, talking out of the side of his mouth as usual. "And all the lead ups to the Tiara races are pretty short. Kinda crazy to be going for both, ya know? People are saying you're getting too full of yourself."

Hana could not help the annoyed huff that escaped her. "So they say I did nothing and just got lucky letting my skilled trainees drag the team to victory when they succeed, and now they say I'm pushing them too hard when I adjust plans to my trainee's goals?" She shook her head. "Idiots will say whatever suits them."

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I really did not think that Hana could get splashed by Shiro's reputation. Maybe its naive of me to think that the trainee and trainer is separate and should be thought of so as well.

"Does she really think she can win six crowns?" Okina wondered, eyes narrowing in as the runners reached the end of the backstretch, focusing particularly on Special Week as she began to move up the pack. "Didn't really get the sense from her."

"She believes she can place in all six," Hana replied, adjusting her glasses again as she likewise aimed her attention towards where her trainee was cutting into the last corner sharply, trying to overtake Seiun Sky.

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So Shiro's applications for six crowns has spread now so people might think she's absurdly full of herself.

Grass missed a step. Shirogane snapped her gaze over–

Nie przerywajcie szarży, uderzamy!

–and in her moment of distraction she fell behind.

"Number thirteen Special Week has done it! A head behind in second is number four Grass Wonder, with number three King Halo taking third a nose behind her!"

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That looks beginning to a zone according to others.

My own thoughts was that umaverse magic has returned somehow. I think its strange that she uses Polish for it. Maybe its because how much she values her family, both Polish and Japanese halves.

Ouch. Its very likely that if Special Week didn't get help from Shiro repeatedly both before and training exercises then it would be Shiro who would be within top 3.

The same disappointment bubbled up from Shirogane's gut at her own worst placement so far in her career, a cool void of failure threatening to escape up her throat, but the sight of her teammate's unsteady stance took priority.

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Ouch. I think your description of her emotions is really great.

"Fuuuuck!" Grass cursed under her breath, looking down at her leg as if it had betrayed her.

"Let's get you to the medic." Shirogane glanced up, scanning the area until she found the medical staff on standby, waving over the one that was looking in their direction.

Hopefully it was only minor, but from how pained Grass looked, it was probably serious.

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Ever the medic. Helped Grass to get help fast.

"Ah!" She almost dropped the fan card she was signing. "No wait, it's ok!" Managed to save it! Her fan also laughed and found it funny, so it was fine!

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Special Week is a special kind of fun lol. She will be popular especially because of that.

"Yeah, Spe," Sky-chan murmured. "Grass is probably hurt pretty bad."

Then Shiro-chan was probably making sure Grass was ok. Her pale haired classmate may be short, but she totally had a lot of big sister energy!

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She has her pegged down to a T.

"What are you all standing around for?" A sour voice called, cutting into their worry, and the three of them turned to see the grouchy official lady looking at them like she had smelled something gross. "We already had to adjust the choreography because two are missing, don't make it a delayed performance too."

"But we–"

"Understood." Special Week turned to King Halo in surprise as her friend cut her off, but the brown haired uma shook her head slightly, her face looking unhappy as well. "We shouldn't keep the fans waiting."

Spe got that. But she also couldn't help but worry about her friends.

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Here we got introduced to that unpleasant person. King Halo knows how these things usually goes and knows how to know-tow to their ego to get the ball rolling.

Surprised that she looked at them like that when there are Japanese umas there too.

"I'm glad you didn't lose your footing."

Grass blinked, startled out of her spiraling thoughts by Shirogane suddenly breaking the silence. Her teammate had helped her to the infirmary and had stayed nearby ever since, though not getting in the way of any of the staff. Now that the doctor had pulled Trainer-san to the corner to talk about more details, the two umas were alone.

"If you had fallen, you might have been trampled by the runners behind us," Shirogane continued, taking her lack of response as asking for more explanation.

"I don't think they would do that," Grass coughed, her throat dry from exertion and frustration.

"They might not have had enough time to react one way or another."

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Shiro is verrrry worried.

The doctor is delivering the bad news to Hana. Probably how she can't run for a foreseeable future.

"The hill training worked quite well for us." The rest of the runners had flagged hard on the uphill in comparison.

"The results are mixed." Shirogane hummed, glancing pointedly at Grass' injured leg.

Grass…couldn't say for certain that her teammate was wrong. She had done a lot of hill training leading up to this race. It should have been fine–had seemed fine–but she was still hurt anyways.

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Hard to say if her getting hurt was because of the training or in spite of it.

"Ehem!" Someone cleared their throat from towards the door to the infirmary, and Grass turned to see a middle aged woman dressed in a suit while holding a clipboard. "Why isn't your trainee on stage, Toujou-san?" Her voice was slow and annoying shrill, making Grass almost want to cover her ears.

Trainer-san turned to the newcomer, a flash of irritation crossing her face as she saw who it was. "Grass Wonder is injured–"

"Obviously not the American!" the woman scoffed, shooting Trainer-san a derisive look. "I meant the other one." Grass decided she didn't like this one very much. "We had to adjust the choreography!"

Their trainer sighed, adjusting her glasses. "Nozawa-san–"

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Oh oh. They have history.

'The other one.' Hm. It feels quite dismissive of both Grass and Shiro. I can't pin it down though.

"Don't get it in your head that you can disregard our rules just because you've had good performers on your team in the past!" Did this annoying woman have some beef with Trainer-san? This was incredibly rude! "Surely you understand how much wrangling it takes to fix the choreography when a performer drops out for no good reason? You ought to be more considerate of–"

"It takes hardly any effort."

A shiver slid down Grass Wonder's spine as she watched Shirogane interrupt the rude woman, her pale haired classmate's tone unerring steady, in a quite unnerving way.

"What?"

Shirogane didn't fidget very much, but usually her ears would move one way or the other, listening to the things around her, but now, both ears were straight up and pointed at the intruder.

"Each of us who participate in these events are trained to fill in any of the potential stage positions." Her friend's tone was dry as winter and just as cold. "All that would be required would be informing the appropriate individuals about what position they were going to be."

The prickly race official stared at Shirogane for a moment, as if she couldn't countenance being interrupted…or maybe she didn't expect Shiro to speak Japanese?

It was a little strange how often that seemed to happen, despite her pale haired classmate being native born.

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Hahaha! Getting quoted by a trainee your own rules would be completely mortifying. Nozawa is deciding if she should be offended or mortified.

I don't think she was surprised Shiro can speak Japanese. It was that Nozawa was justifying how terrible Hana is for doing this and that. Then did this frilly suddenly counter how her own argument is completely illogical and thus it falls apart. In Nozawa's view she and Hana was talking then did a midget mongrel come to interrupt them.

"Didn't anyone teach you not to talk back to their seniors, little girl?" The unpleasant woman's face twisted into an equally unpleasant expression.

"Those who need to demand respect are unworthy of it."

The cranky woman blinked, before her eyes flashed with anger.

"I can make your life very unpleasant, you midget mongrel–"

"Enough, Nozowa-san," their Trainer interjected, a frown pulling her face into a serious expression. "Such behavior is unsuited for your position."

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Hmm. Seems Nozowa's racist towards her mixed heritage. That said even Special Week & co were treated harshly.

Its unfortunately that Hana interrupted Nozowa in her insult. They would have gotten better ammunition to maybe even file a lawsuit. Depending on how it looks it might even be a death threat.

"Hah! You take this kind of lip from your subordinates?" the woman hissed, glaring at Trainer-san. "I guess you would have to, since all your achievements were riding on their backs."

"Whereas your greatest achievement was accomplished on your knees."

The rude woman visibly flinched, a brief look of shock passing over her face before anger took over, twisting her face even uglier than it already was.

"You dare–?!" she stepped forwards, raising a hand for a moment, before blood seemed to drain from her face as she jerked back, staring at Shirogane like she had seen a ghost.

Grass couldn't see her friend's face from where she was sitting, but she could see her classmate's hand clench into a fist behind her back. Even so, Shirogane had not otherwise moved an inch.

The bitch, who was clearly also a coward, turned and stalked away, trying and failing to not look like she was running away, but it wasn't really working.

"We will need to submit a complaint to the JRA," Shirogane declared mildly, turning to look at their exasperated trainer, who was busy rubbing her face in exasperation.

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Owww BURRNN!!! Shiro is making sure to go scorched earth.

It seems she was working on getting incredible angry but then she stared Shiro in her eyes and saw her own death.

Hana is exasperated that this escalated this quickly. This behavior probably came out of nowhere in Hana's view. However Shiro was already on edge because Grass was injured, and then this incompetent baffolon comes forward to threaten her just because she corrected an obviously false statement.

"Nozowa-san is troublesome," Trainer-san sighed, "but she has connections, enough to make things difficult."

"Enough to avoid censure at all? How?" Her pale haired classmate frowned in thought, and Grass couldn't help but feel a slight chill down her spine. "She certainly isn't making friends with that sort of attitude. Blackmail, perhaps?" While Shirogane was never the most expressive uma, she had never been this…cold.

"I couldn't speculate," their trainer replied, frowning again as she walked back over to the two of them, readjusting her glasses as she gathered her thoughts. "But you are right, I will submit a complaint about her behavior. It was entirely unprofessional."

"If worse comes to worst, likely few people would miss her."

…What did Shiro mean by that?!

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I love how cold Shiro is here.

Shiro will not do anything that direct like killing her lol. She knows how to use the pen to cause trouble for that middleaged woman. She's also good at macrosociology so she can use her popularity for leverege.

"She really never gets an inside gate, does she?" Steady murmured to herself, trying to figure out the odds of that happening. The extra distance itself wasn't that big of a problem for Shiro in terms of stamina, but it did mean that it made it significantly harder to get towards the front like she needed to.

Maybe the JRA just really didn't want someone trying for both circuits. Steady couldn't say why, you'd think it would make great television!

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Ouch. It does feel odd that she never gets an inside gate. Maybe I'm looking for a fault when we know there are one person that has threatened to 'make life unpleasant' for Shiro but I can't think that she might have done exactly that.

She really should have expected this result, Shirogane mused.

There hadn't been any real reason to expect to defeat her classmates in a medium length race when she lost to them in practice more often than not.

Served her right for getting too swept up in their excitement.

But there was no real point in going over her mistakes again, when the immediate problem was her unusual strong post race restlessness.

Click to shrink...

She learned, she decided to not beat up her own feelings and she has decided to make better in the future.

Was her goal to run in both circuits somehow deleterious to their bottom line? She couldn't think of a way that it could be. Perhaps she wasn't as marketable since her win rate was admittedly quite paltry compared to many of her peers, but her merchandise sales were actually significant, at least in Fujisawa, which, while far from the largest city in the country, was still a large customer base.

It had been a strange experience to see her face plastered on a poster or the like all around the streets she ran deliveries for. Learning that merchandise sales made the family restaurant profit margins more comfortable also felt…strange. Almost unearned.

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I'm not sure if its naive or good but Shiro doesn't think that her own stroke of bad luck has anything to do with that middleaged woman that insulted her. She hasn't taken this to be enemy action yet.

"Sure," Drift-san chuffed, putting out her cigarette into the nearby ashtray. "But it's fine because I'm an adult."

"And I am evidently old enough to be given tens of millions of yen for running in circles."

"Hahaha!" The scarred uma's tail swished back and forth as she laughed. "You always come up with some funny ways to phrase things, don't you?"

"I don't really intend for most of it to be funny."

"That's half of what makes it hilarious!"

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Rofl. Indeed, I agree.

"Eh…" Drift-san grunted, scratching one of her ears. "You look a bit more riled up than usual. I'd be too, if I kept getting the outer gates every time. If your run hasn't worked enough, I had another idea that might help you out."

"...And what would that be?" Was her agitation that obvious?

"C'mon chibi," Drift-san called, pushing off the railing she was leaning against and gesturing towards the nondescript building she worked out of. "Why don't we hit the gym a bit?"

"It is a bit late for strength training," Shirogane pointed out. How was that supposed to help her sleep?

"Not talking about lifting weights, exactly," Drift-san clarified, "just venting some of your energy on a punching bag, or something like that."

Shirogane's ears twitched.

That sounded much more appealing than it really should have.

Click to shrink...

Good that adults around Shiro takes care of her in their own way.

Thanks for the chapter. It was amazing. I'm looking so foward to the next one! Cheers!

 

[Powergoat]

I mean in my head her zone will be charging into Artillery fire, the shells landing all around her, scaring and 'hitting' the occasional Uma causing stumbles. CHARGE IN DEFIANCE! NEVER STOP, NEVER FALTER, EVEN AT THE GATES OF HELL! A HAPPY ENDING WILL BE REACHED!