A little over an hour later.
"Come on, McQueen, don't rush me. I said I'd give it to you after playing with it for half an hour, and I won't go back on my word."
"But you said that half an hour ago, Teio... Sigh, never mind. You're just like a little kid."
Mejiro McQueen smiled and shook her head as she watched her friend clutch the drone controller and refuse to let go. She glanced at the controller enviously, then rested her chin on her hand and looked at the tablet on the desk.
A cable was plugged into the tablet, with the other end connected to the controller in Tokai Teio's hands.
The controller was about the size of a brick.
An antenna sat on top. The front half had joysticks, various buttons, and indicator lights.
The back half was mostly taken up by a screen.
On the screen were European-style buildings with blue-tiled roofs and red bricks, paved avenues, tree-lined paths, bright classrooms, and lush green training grounds...
It was an aerial view of Tracen Academy.
The tablet showed the same view. As Tokai Teio moved the joysticks and pressed the buttons, the two screens raced through the scenery at incredible speed.
"This is amazing. I never would have thought such a small machine could fly so fast."
After watching the footage in astonishment for a while, Mejiro McQueen looked at Yasui Makoto.
"If I'm not mistaken... the drone's going about 60 kilometers per hour right now?"
Before Yasui Makoto could answer, Tokai Teio boasted without even turning around, like a child who'd gotten her hands on a favorite toy.
"That's right, McQueen. I've set it to 60.
"Trainer Yasui said it can reach a top speed of 72 kilometers per hour, but even the final three furlongs of a G1 race aren't run at that speed. Training doesn't reach it either, so 60 is plenty.
"Hehe, you'll see when it's your turn."
Mejiro McQueen felt a little helpless. After knowing her friend for so many years, she could tell Teio was showing off.
But soon she focused on the drone, carefully studying the footage on the tablet.
After seeing Yasui Makoto demonstrate it earlier, she had immediately realized what the drone could do.
High-quality footage was important for both training and races.
Reviewing recordings like these could help both trainers and Uma Musume spot all kinds of problems and learn a great deal, allowing them to improve their plans going forward.
There were three main ways of recording footage at present: trackside cameras, various surveillance cameras, and filming by following the runners or from a fixed position.
Each method had its pros and cons.
Trackside cameras produced great footage, but aside from recordings released on various programs, footage from the track was generally kept by the Association or the academy. Accessing it required an application and all sorts of procedures.
Surveillance cameras covered a wider area, but requesting footage was even more troublesome, and the image quality was poor.
Trainers usually relied on filming things themselves. The problem was that a trainer couldn't keep up with an Uma Musume's speed unless another Uma Musume helped.
If a trainer filmed alone, they could only use a fixed camera, which made for a very limited view.
It was much the same when an Uma Musume followed along with a camera. On top of that, the footage shook violently at high speeds and didn't turn out well.
Drones, however, combined all the advantages of the previous methods while avoiding their drawbacks.
In particular, as Trainer Yasui had explained, once a flight path was set, three drones could be assigned to follow the runners continuously. The resulting footage would undoubtedly be far better than anything produced by any previous method.
Thinking of this, Mejiro McQueen couldn't help looking at Yasui Makoto expectantly.
"Trainer Yasui, since you'd already thought of this approach, you must have filmed Xiao Bei during training these past few days. Could I take a look?"
At that, Tokai Teio glanced over too.
As an Uma Musume with top-tier talent and plenty of experience, she could see what her friend had realized.
So even though she was still reluctant to part with the controller, she hadn't forgotten her duties as President.
"Yeah. You only told me last night, but you must have filmed something during training this morning, right, Trainer Yasui?"
Earlier, while Tokai Teio was playing with the drone, Yasui Makoto hadn't interrupted her.
He'd wanted the two Presidents to experience the advantages of this filming method for themselves. That would make the discussion to come go much more smoothly.
Now that they'd both brought up the subject, he had nothing to hide. He shook his head and said:
"Not yet. The drone still has a few problems. That's what I wanted to discuss with you two."
"Problems?"
They asked in unison. Tokai Teio thought for a moment, then handed the controller to McQueen.
"McQueen, bring the drone back. I'll talk with Trainer Yasui first."
"...You remember me when it's convenient, huh?"
Mejiro McQueen made a wry complaint but didn't refuse.
After taking the controller, she began operating it just as Yasui Makoto had demonstrated earlier.
"The most obvious problem is the noise."
Pointing at the footage on the tablet, Yasui Makoto explained:
"You can't hear it here because there's a noise-canceling system built into the unit.
"But you both heard it when it took off. Honestly, it's pretty loud.
"In fact, if you're nearby, you can hear that buzzing sound the whole time.
"Your hearing is very sensitive. If we don't solve this problem, it'll affect your training to some extent.
"There are also some software issues.
"Strictly speaking, this machine is still a prototype. I only managed to get one through a very unlikely series of circumstances.
"Though 'get' isn't quite right. The inventor of this model wanted me to conduct field tests—real-world testing—so they provided it to me.
"So the camera controls, image processing, intelligent obstacle avoidance... In short, a lot of the software still needs tuning.
"And there's also the issue of privacy."
Yasui Makoto didn't avoid the subject.
Tokai Teio paused, then quickly understood.
"That's true. With a machine like this, it'd be easy to film just about anything.
"The academy is full of girls, including female teachers and trainers. It'd be easy to cause misunderstandings if we weren't careful.
"Let me think..."
Seeing this, Yasui Makoto didn't interrupt.
He already had a few preliminary solutions in mind, but he remembered Tokai Teio as being very capable. Perhaps she could come up with a better solution, so there was no need to rush. He'd wait and see.
Before Tokai Teio could speak again, Mejiro McQueen sounded puzzled.
"Huh? Isn't that Xiao Bei? What's she doing there?"
Yasui Makoto and Tokai Teio both turned their attention to the screens.
Soon, just like Mejiro McQueen, they saw a black-haired girl in the center of both the controller's and the tablet's screens.
It was class break. Many students were chatting in the hallway, while others had gone out to wander around the field or play games with their friends to relax.
The black-haired girl on the screen wasn't chatting in the hallway or wandering around to relax.
Instead, she was holding a leafy branch in each hand and sneaking around in the bushes beside the field.
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