At Tracen, I'm Good at Doing Time

Oguri Cap didn't know them, and none of them looked familiar to her.

Then she noticed Zhou Yuang staring over there and paused in surprise.

She took tiny steps sideways, inching over until she stood in front of him.

The expression on Zhou Yuang's face was rather peculiar.

She didn't know if she was imagining it, but a thought popped into her head.

Now that's a fine horse. Sooner or later, she'll be mine!

Oguri Cap herself had no idea why she'd thought that. It had simply come to her.

She turned to look at the three horse girls.

Come to think of it, isn't it noon?

"Trainer?"

Oguri Cap raised her pale little hand and waved it in front of Zhou Yuang's face.

The rapid motion was hard for him to miss.

"Sorry, I spaced out. Come on, let's train."

He had almost forgotten his own Oguri Cap was there.

Seeing Air Groove and Digital standing beside Suzuka, Zhou Yuang wanted to ask one question.

Weren't you supposed to go find Rudolf?

Going back on your word, are you?

Well, that hardly mattered. It was normal to change plans after running into something unexpected.

Silence Suzuka was that unexpected factor.

As Zhou Yuang recalled, Air Groove and Silence Suzuka were in the same year, if not the same class. They had raced against each other, after all.

They had interacted plenty, too.

The souls of horse girls from another world would lead them to cross paths in this one as well.

Just as Stand users were drawn to one another.

Air Groove had run into Silence Suzuka right after leaving Zhou Yuang.

"Same training as always today. I'll keep count for you."

Zhou Yuang turned to Oguri Cap and pulled a counting device from his pocket.

"Okay!"

Oguri Cap smiled and raised a clenched fist.

Full of confidence, she intended to keep training. Her race was only a few days away, so she couldn't cut back.

Oguri Cap headed for the track and began her training for the day.

Zhou Yuang counted while adjusting the device.

Once Oguri Cap stepped onto the track, he rested a finger on the button and glanced to the side.

Silence Suzuka and the others were still there. He couldn't help looking, and Oguri Cap hadn't started running yet.

Besides, with those three horse girls together, who knew what might happen?

But when he turned his head...

"You there! Why are you back again?"

Agnes Digital spotted Zhou Yuang looking at them with the sharpness of a patrol hound.

She promptly charged over.

She looked up at him, plainly suspicious.

"Could it be that you only said all that earlier to put us off guard?"

Daiichi Ruby grew a little more wary.

After all, someone who had claimed not to know Silence Suzuka had now come back.

He hadn't approached Silence Suzuka directly, but it was still suspicious.

What if he had deliberately dressed to catch Silence Suzuka's eye?

Coming back here repeatedly was definitely suspicious.

"What?"

Zhou Yuang kept up his bewildered expression as Digital rushed over.

Air Groove was over there, after all. If his identity was exposed on the spot, he'd be arrested.

"Why are you saying such strange things again?"

Daiichi Ruby was short, so Zhou Yuang could easily see out of the corner of his eye that Air Groove and Silence Suzuka were approaching too.

"Hmph. Playing dumb, are you?"

Daiichi Ruby planted her hands on her hips, as if she had found the crucial clue.

She looked so confident and adorably small that Zhou Yuang wanted to reach out and pat her.

He and this horse girl would get along well: they both loved horse girls. If she were on his side, she would be great at helping him win them over. Unfortunately, she was on the opposing side for now.

That was fine. Winning Digital over later was something Zhou Yuang wanted to do anyway.

"According to the rule that criminals always return to the scene of the crime, you can't be back here by coincidence!"

Daiichi Ruby was certain Zhou Yuang had some hidden reason for coming here.

And that secret had to be...

"I'm only here to train my horse girl."

Zhou Yuang waved to Oguri Cap in the distance.

Oguri Cap, who had been about to start training, obediently ran over.

She could train anytime. As a horse girl, she had plenty of time.

And Oguri Cap trusted her trainer. She didn't mind coming and going at his call.

Most importantly, something had felt strange when she saw Zhou Yuang staring at those horse girls.

The way he looked at them didn't seem quite right.

"Let me introduce her. This is my horse girl, Oguri Cap. Come say hello."

Zhou Yuang gestured, and Oguri Cap came over.

"Hello. I'm Oguri Cap. Did you need something?"

Oguri Cap might have looked aloof, but she was a gentle soul beneath her guileless exterior. She politely greeted Digital, Silence Suzuka, and Air Groove.

"Oguri Cap?"

There was no way Air Groove wouldn't know this horse girl.

President Rudolf had personally intervened to bring her in not long ago, and it had caused quite a stir.

Word had spread throughout Tracen Academy: this girl from the countryside must have talent even President Rudolf couldn't ignore.

Air Groove had read Oguri Cap's file. Her debut race hadn't looked great, but her race data was outstanding.

It would have been a waste for her to keep racing in the countryside.

She certainly deserved to come to Central. Air Groove also remembered that mysterious AT recommending Oguri Cap as the top pick in the horse girl game during his livestream.

He had even said she was a horse girl who could become AT's father.

It wasn't just Air Groove. Silence Suzuka and Agnes Digital couldn't help staring at Oguri Cap, either.

During the livestream, Zhou Yuang had even circled Oguri Cap's portrait with his cursor.

She looks so cool and distant, but her eyes are so innocent... Could she actually be an earnest, lovable airhead? And she's a beautiful Gray Coat girl with long silver hair...

Agnes Digital immediately pressed both hands to her chest, as though holding her heart in place to keep it from leaping out.

Daiichi Ruby's reaction to the beautiful Gray Coat girl was perfectly consistent: she was always excited.

Silence Suzuka, however, was having a harder time.

Ever since watching the livestream, she had wanted to run a lap.

The first time she saw Zhou Yuang in person, he had seemed familiar.

Unfortunately, she had no way to confirm it. Later, she looked at the other trainers around the training grounds.

Not one of them gave her that same feeling of familiarity.

Other trainers might have been suspicious, but none came close to Zhou Yuang.

Maybe it's a girl's intuition?

Silence Suzuka knew some girls could instinctively pick up on things through intuition.

Maybe she could do it too?

Come to think of it, Oguri Cap was strongly recommended, wasn't she? Even if it was for her stats.

As AT talked, he had shown Oguri Cap's attributes. Her ability to handle almost every track in the game had surprised Suzuka.

By comparison, her own in-game attributes looked awful.

Could it be that he recommended Oguri Cap not just because she's strong, but because she's his horse girl?

Once that possibility occurred to her, Silence Suzuka couldn't shake a thought.

She looked at Oguri Cap and felt uneasy when she saw how close Oguri Cap stood to Zhou Yuang.

If Zhou Yuang really was AT, then Oguri Cap was his horse girl.

Wouldn't that mean Oguri Cap had gotten there first and seen a view Suzuka had yet to see?

I'm probably still faster, though... right?

Thinking like an elementary school boy, Silence Suzuka silently met Oguri Cap's eyes.

Oguri Cap met her gaze in return.

There was a hint of competitiveness in Silence Suzuka's eyes. Even if Zhou Yuang wasn't AT, she was a horse girl who instinctively wanted to outrun other horse girls. What was wrong with that?

But as Oguri Cap looked back at Silence Suzuka, her soft little face lost much of its earlier coolness.

She stared blankly at Silence Suzuka and tilted her head, unable to understand why this horse girl was looking at her.

"Um... talkative trainer, is this the horse girl you kept mentioning earlier?"

Air Groove had her reservations too. Oguri Cap was a character in the game, after all.

But Rudolf was in the game as well. Air Groove didn't understand games, but that didn't mean mentioning a character proved any connection to them.

Zhou Yuang had also mentioned Taiki Shuttle and Maruzensky during his livestream.

Surely that didn't mean any trainer who approached them was AT?

"Yeah. Why?"

Zhou Yuang looked puzzled, but Air Groove shook her head.

"Never mind. I suppose I was overthinking it. You're going to train, right?"

"Yeah, I'm going to train Oguri Cap. Are you... planning to train together?"

Zhou Yuang wasn't about to pass up a chance to get closer to them.

"Sure."

Silence Suzuka agreed so quickly that Digital and Air Groove were both troubled.

Could this guy really be AT?

But wait, hadn't Silence Suzuka missed the livestream?

After Digital found Silence Suzuka, she had immediately explained what happened during the livestream.