The Pre-Match Gathering

Kitasan Black had been staring intently at the diagram, a light constantly flickering in her crimson eyes.

When Anjing Zhen Shen finished speaking, the meeting room fell into brief silence.

She slowly rose to her feet and walked to the whiteboard, her finger tracing the arc that represented the "Guts Boundary Marker."

"I understand." Her voice was unusually calm, yet it carried the texture of steel. "This isn't a race of speed. This is a race of—endurance."

She turned around to face the team, her eyes crystal-clear, filled with the pure resolve that came from internalizing every complex tactic. "I'll use my stamina to draw a circle ahead of them, one they'll have no choice but to follow."

"I'll use my body to block their fastest, sharpest path at the final turn.

"And then, I'll use everything I have to set the Finish Line ahead of time in the very sprinting territory they excel at.

"Wherever my 'territory' is, that's where the race's Finish Line takes effect early. Is that right, Trainer?"

Anjing Zhen Shen took a deep breath and nodded firmly. "That's right. Build control through stamina, and execute the isolation tactic through guts. Turn your willpower into the hardest rule on the track.

"This is your Tenno Sho Spring."

After the tactical meeting ended, the atmosphere at Central Treisen Academy's Kyoto training grounds became noticeably more focused and intense.

The "Guts Isolation" tactic devised by Anjing Zhen Shen, Agnes Tachyon, and Daiwa Scarlet was no longer merely a paper exercise. It began to take shape in Kitasan Black's day-after-day runs—in precise, second-by-second rhythm control, breathing adjustments, and muscle memory.

Every day, she used her own feet to measure, reinforce, and attempt to expand that "boundary marker" forged from stamina and will.

Almond Eye's Full Maturity process also progressed