At Tracen, Good at Doing Time

At Tracen, Good at Doing Time. Author: Yakumo Blood

Synopsis:

At a place called Tracen Academy lived a group of Horse Girls.

They had adorable animal ears and tails, and innocent personalities.

In his previous life, he had been a player who loved doing time in the prison known as the Uma Musume mobile game. Coming to this world should have meant becoming a trainer and working toward the next three years alongside the Horse Girls.

But the Three Goddesses had other plans.

"Little lamb, Horse Girls are humanity's idols, but why can't a human become the Horse Girls' idol?"

"You! Go play Shining! Pretty Derby!"

"You liked doing time before, so doing it again in this life shouldn't be a problem, right?"

The Three Goddesses came knocking and demanded that the poor transmigrator become the Horse Girls' idol. But why did he have to livestream himself playing a Horse Girl game?

Why did he still have to do time after coming to the Horse Girls' world?

And so began one three-year stretch after another, spent as a trainer and in his cell!

He hid his identity to stream while working at Tracen, but gradually, more and more Horse Girls gathered around him.

They always looked at their trainer just like the Horse Girls in the game did, with eyes full of possessiveness.

Could the game and reality somehow connect?

Some trainers' souls were locked in the basement forever.

Volume One: Horse Girls! Start!

At Tracen, Good at Doing Time

Horse Girls, they were girls born to run.

In this world, rumored to have been created by the Three Goddesses, there lived a race of girls with animal ears and other equine traits.

Apart from their horse-like features, they were no different from ordinary people, though every member of their race was female.

Some lived in obscurity. Others were born bearing names that had made glorious history in another world.

They inherited the souls behind those names and would challenge the fates those names represented.

They were destined to answer fate's call and race their own races. Victory or defeat remained unknown.

They would keep running. In their eyes were only the finish line, the trophy that symbolized glory, and the happiness they longed for.

As a bright morning dawned over Tracen, Horse Girls in purple uniforms arrived one after another, some jogging, others strolling, in small groups or alone.

They greeted the woman in green office wear standing at the gate, then entered the campus.

This was Tracen, Japan's central Horse Girl training school.

Only Horse Girls who enrolled at a Horse Girl academy were called Horse Girls.

"I've arrived at Japan's finest Horse Girl training school—Tracen Academy."

Beautiful, beautiful Tracen! Wait, isn't that Hayakawa? Better look at the Horse Girls over there instead.

Zhou Yuang looked up at Miss Hayakawa, who stood by Tracen's gate in green office wear, then turned toward the Horse Girls entering campus.

Compared with an auntie standing at the gate to greet people, the middle- and high-school girls studying here were much more appealing.

Of course, that was only one reason.

Zhou Yuang had once been an ordinary internet goofball from Seres, but the horse-girl mobile game had sent his blood pressure so high that his life had restarted.

Now he was an adult man with refined features and short, tousled black hair.

After reincarnating into the world of his favorite franchise, he had naturally worked hard every step of the way.

Having gained another lifetime, he had little interest in mixing with children his own age. Even when they ostracized him, he did not care. Improving himself was all that mattered.

When others played, he studied harder. When others studied, he studied harder still. He excelled all the way through school, qualified as a central trainer, and proudly started work a few days ago.

There was no deeper reason: Zhou Yuang simply loved Horse Girls.

Incidentally, Horse Girls came from a franchise launched by Japan's TX and Cygames that turned real-life racehorses into girls.

He had first encountered it through the anime's first season. Once hooked, he started playing the mobile game, then became the sort of fan who loved them all, enjoying the anime, manga, and the rest of the franchise.

The mobile game alone, though, was as hard to stomach as nine-turn pig intestines.

Players took the role of trainers, raising Horse Girls and helping them win race after race.

Then the game's infuriating mechanics drove their blood pressure through the roof.

The Chinese mobile release even got saddled with the ridiculous name "Shining! Pretty Derby."

But enough about that. Unlike the pretty characters in other anime-style games, each Horse Girl had an interesting personality and story.

They also had some of the best 3D models in any such game.

For a horse-girl lover like Zhou Yuang, that made them irresistible.

Besides, the Horse Girls were all kind, purehearted, and extraordinarily beautiful. Most importantly, they were demi-human girls.

Their ears and tails moved with their moods.

The first time Zhou Yuang saw a real Horse Girl in this world, he felt his little brother light up.

His little brother told his big brother that when they grew up, they had to marry a Horse Girl.

The big brother heard that and wanted to give the little brother a hard slap.

What kind of nonsense is that?

Marry one Horse Girl?

Wrong!

Marry thirty Horse Girls!

Spend a day with each one!

And forget February or months with thirty-one days. Who says you can't have local multiplayer?

The big brother gave the little brother an answer he could be satisfied with. As for his kidneys and pelvis?

Who cared what they wanted?

"Good morning, Trainer Zhou Yuang. You're full of energy today too."

The woman named Hayakawa Tazuna looked at Zhou Yuang.

His little outburst had amused her. From his first day working at Tracen, she had noticed his mysterious obsession with Horse Girls.

He was always gazing at them intensely and saying rather strange things, but she was still happy to see such an energetic subordinate.

That was right: Hayakawa was one of Zhou Yuang's superiors.

She was no receptionist. She was the school chairwoman's secretary.

She assisted the chairwoman and handled all sorts of matters, large and small, at Tracen Academy.

In the horse-girl mobile game, she was the hidden master who inherited Cygames' "green devil" role.

Some players speculated that she was also a Horse Girl—and a formidable senior whom every student at Tracen feared.

As in that other game, when players pulled from the gacha, the secretary would run a short distance, open a door, and reveal their results one by one.

Ordinarily, she appeared in the game to offer players advice.

In this world, however, she was firmly part of the school leadership that oversaw Horse Girls and trainers.

She always respected and accepted Horse Girls and trainers who were odd but unlikely to cause trouble.

"Morning, Miss Hayakawa. I'm off to work."

What's it like when your boss catches you getting worked up right before your shift?

Zhou Yuang could not quite say, but at least she had caught that remark instead of hearing him declare that he wanted to marry thirty Horse Girls.

He strode onto Tracen's campus, intending to head to his office.

Unlike teachers, trainers only had to teach Horse Girls how to run and take good care of them.

It was not exactly an easy job, but when the Horse Girls were in class and there was nothing else to do, he could slack off.

At his office, he brewed a pot of hot tea and took out two cups. He poured a little into one, then carried it to the sofa and sipped it at his leisure.

Joining as a top student had its perks. Unlike the anime, where senior trainers were crammed together, trainers with excellent entry scores received private offices.

After Zhou Yuang had watched the clock hands circle the wall dial several times, his office door was suddenly thrown open.

A slender, delicate hand had done it. That small, pale hand could casually muster more force than an adult could at full strength.

The sliding door slammed into its frame with a loud bang.

Zhou Yuang looked up at the white-haired Horse girl standing in the doorway, a trace of resignation on his face.

"Oguri Cap, I've told you before. If you keep opening and closing doors that hard, they'll break."

I can't ask for a replacement door this soon after starting work, can I?

"Sorry."

At the sound of her name, the white-haired Horse girl's ears drooped.

They folded adorably against her head.

Her pretty little face took on an expression that made him instinctively want to protect her.

Oguri Cap was the first Horse girl Zhou Yuang had recruited after starting work.

She came from a small place called Kasamatsu. Her exceptional talent had caught the attention of central Tracen, which brought her here.

On her very first day, the unfamiliar campus and her naturally spacey personality had led her to get completely lost in Tracen.

She had set out from one spot, only to circle back to it again and again.

Each time she returned, she was baffled. When she saw the people at her starting point who had watched her circle around several times, the guileless girl scratched her head in utter confusion, wondering why Tracen had so many identical people and sights.

Newly hired Zhou Yuang, meanwhile, had not gotten lost. Well aware of the right-hand rule for mazes, he wandered Tracen Academy looking for a Horse girl to train.

After watching Oguri Cap circle around and stop to think, he went straight over and struck up a conversation.

Then he enthusiastically led her to the cafeteria.

After watching the Horse girl with the healthy appetite tuck in, he asked the innocent Countryside girl a few questions. Once he confirmed she had no trainer, he made an invitation that felt rather like taking advantage of her.

Do not blame Zhou Yuang for asking for something in return the moment he helped someone. Any player of the Horse-girl game would have done the same.

This horse girl from the countryside, rustic as she looked, was Oguri Cap.

Anyone who played the mobile game respected and adored Oguri Cap.

Didn't love her? They were just pretending otherwise!

They must not have had Oguri Cap. That was the only reason they would not like her!

In the mobile game, Oguri Cap had an original version and an alternate outfit.

Her original version had excellent growth potential and had remained strong and useful since launch.

She could adapt to many tracks, and even on unsuitable ones, modifications could let her compete.

Her alternate version had even become the game's undisputed queen for a time.

She had a reliable skill with enormous payoff.

Other characters could not easily match her.

In the tournament mode, where three players each entered three Horses, many chose an alternate-outfit Oguri Cap backed by two supports.

Some races even featured three alternate-outfit Oguri Caps and six supports, with everyone watching to see whose Oguri Cap would win. Those clone battles kept playing out.