Cap Sect! But Everyone Had Their Own Take

For now, she just needed to prepare herself.

"Anyway, pay attention to your form when you run. But don't follow it rigidly; adjust it to suit your build."

Zhou Yuang spoke freely during training, and everyone heard him clearly. Yet Oguri Cap was the only Uma Musume who kept training without a care.

Air Groove remained suspicious, while Silence Suzuka kept glancing around for approaching trainers. As for Agnes Digital?

She looked at the Uma Musume beside her, showing signs that she was about to lose it.

The Uma Musume Fan was about to activate her skill!

"By the way, Mr. Trainer, the girl you're training... Her name is Oguri Cap, right?"

After training for a while, Silence Suzuka suddenly turned toward Zhou Yuang.

She hadn't seen any trainers approach them. Perhaps there simply weren't many people around at this hour.

An occasional Uma Musume passed by, but none of them stopped.

After all, Uma Musume came to Tracen Academy to run.

And now that Silence Suzuka knew how to run, the question on her mind was: Where's my AT?

If Air Groove hadn't said she might get fired, Suzuka might have run all around Tracen Academy.

She would have shown every trainer just how fast her Front Runner style was.

Then she would have waited for AT to come running and enter the right password.

Unfortunately, she couldn't.

But that didn't mean Silence Suzuka could do nothing.

She looked curiously at Oguri Cap beside her. For some reason, whenever she saw Oguri Cap, she felt a little nervous.

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Chapter 29: Cap Sect! But Everyone Had Their Own Take

"Yeah. Why?"

Did you realize Oguri Cap is absurdly strong over a mile and get the urge to challenge her?

When it came to Oguri Cap's mile races, Zhou Yuang couldn't help singing her praises.

Oguri Cap was unbeatable over a mile.

In the 1989 Mile Championship (G1), Oguri Cap faced Bamboo Memory, whom the JRA would name that year's best sprinter and who had already won the Yasuda Kinen (G1).

On the final straight, Bamboo Memory was a horse length ahead of Oguri Cap.

Then, over the last hundred meters, the two battled fiercely.

Oguri Cap clawed back that entire horse length in those fleeting moments and scraped out a victory by mere centimeters.

She had beaten Bamboo Memory, a fearsome force over short distances. That hundred-meter battle became one of the most memorable stretches in central racing.

Afterward, her Jockey even declared, "Whenever I think about what a great racehorse Oguri Cap is, I can't help crying. She saved me as a Jockey." It was pure Cap Sect devotion.

Judging by Silence Suzuka's career results, 1,600 meters didn't favor her Front Runner tactics.

In the game, Cygames classified both 1,800 Meters and 1,600 meters as mile races, and both Oguri Cap and Silence Suzuka had an A rating for mile aptitude.

Oguri Cap was still developing, but Silence Suzuka hadn't even begun that stage yet.

This wasn't a game where you could raise stats at will. Suzuka was still too green to challenge her.

"I think I heard that name somewhere."

Silence Suzuka tried to recall what she'd heard in the Livestream Room. Someone in the comments had explained how Oguri Cap came here.

"Probably in the news a while back. Oguri Cap's arrival in central racing made quite a stir."

Local Uma Musume came to central racing every year. Without the news coverage, few people would have paid any attention to a girl arriving in the big city.

But Oguri Cap was different. President Rudolf had personally recruited her, and the president herself drew attention wherever she went in the Uma Musume world.

"After all, the president went to recruit her in person... How did you manage to sign such a talent?"

Air Groove explained as she looked at Zhou Yuang curiously.

With Rudolf personally bringing Oguri Cap in, and Tracen's trainers competing so fiercely, becoming Oguri Cap's trainer couldn't have been easy.

Was it luck? Or had he outsmarted the others?

Surely it couldn't have been fate.

"Luck."

Zhou Yuang said it casually. He had met Oguri Cap just hours after she arrived at Tracen.

After taking Oguri Cap to sign the contract, he had overheard some trainers complaining as he passed by.

Once word spread that Rudolf had personally recruited her, plenty of trainers had planned to watch the Trial Race. Those were the fastest to act.

The next group had planned to go to Rudolf and ask her to let them train Oguri Cap.

Then there were the trainers who planned to look up Oguri Cap's class and approach her directly. A contract required both trainer and Uma Musume to agree, after all. If Oguri Cap wanted one of them, Rudolf would have nothing to say about it.

But when they went to Miss Hayakawa to check, they were dumbfounded.

Who could have guessed that someone even faster would launch a surprise approach on Oguri Cap almost as soon as she arrived?

Zhou Yuang was incredibly glad he had.

He had also asked Oguri Cap a few questions when they signed the contract.

He learned that in this world, Oguri Cap's first trainer had been an old man, not the young man who still had room to grow in the Ashen Gray story.

She had made quite a few friends in rural Kasamatsu, but there had been no Bright New Shine from that story.

And Sirius from the game's main story didn't exist in this world either.

"I just happened to be in the right place. I'm hardly worthy of her; I was lucky to meet her."

Zhou Yuang answered Air Groove modestly.

Listening to Zhou Yuang talk with the other Uma Musume, Oguri Cap stared at him with wide, blank eyes.

He seemed to have used a few words she didn't understand.

She tilted her head and peered hard at Zhou Yuang's and Air Groove's faces, as though she might find an answer there.

But nothing was written on their faces, and neither was particularly expressive.

In the end, Oguri Cap could only fold her arms, looking thoroughly puzzled.

"An Uma Musume from the countryside and a gentle, talented, yet humble trainer?"

Nearby, Agnes Digital was as predictable as ever. The moment she heard their story, her imagination took off.

Shipping people came as naturally to her as breathing.

She pictured it all: a gifted girl of humble origins who had worked her way up from a regional Tracen, then met a gentle trainer by chance...

And that trainer had only just started working in central racing, hadn't he?

Her outstretched hands froze. The smile on her face stopped in place.

As though time had paused for her, she stood motionless as a statue while the others stared.

Zhou Yuang and the others were baffled. Oguri Cap was startled too, but she raised a hand and waved it in front of Digital, a friend she had only just made.

"Are you okay?"

Concern appeared on Oguri Cap's face.

Growing anxious, she gave Digital a poke.

That was a mistake. The moment she poked her, Digital went haywire.

Agnes Digital, who had been perfectly still, seemed to spring to life at Oguri Cap's touch. Her whole body shook uncontrollably.

Oguri Cap had barely touched her, but Digital reacted as though she'd grabbed a live wire—and loved it.

"This is amazing!!! One is an Uma Musume from the countryside who came to central Tracen to chase her dreams, and the other is a young trainer fresh out of school, full of hopes for his first job... Two innocent souls spending three years together... Woohoo!!! They're meeting each other halfway!!!"

Ignoring the other Uma Musume around her, Agnes Digital threw up her hands and cheered.

Then came a stream of baffling remarks: "I ship it! I ship it! Tamamo, you've got my undivided support! What a haul! Are the Three Goddesses blessing me?!"

And more of the same.

"Does she need to go to the Infirmary?"

Air Groove kept her comment remarkably restrained as she looked at the others.

Silence Suzuka had almost gotten used to Agnes Digital's sudden outbursts, while Zhou Yuang knew Digital sometimes made strange, obsessive-sounding remarks.

Oguri Cap, however, thought she had done something wrong.

Her ears folded down like a cat's, and she retreated to Zhou Yuang's side, looking up at him in alarm.

"Trainer, did I break her when I touched her?"

"Don't make yourself sound like some kind of menace."

Oguri Cap was incredibly strong, and she did make a racket when handling things. But she knew to be gentle with people and wouldn't hurt anyone, so there was no need to worry.

Still, Digital's constant outbursts really were a nuisance.

Zhou Yuang waved a hand in front of Digital and called to her several times.

Then she started spinning in circles with both hands raised, right there in front of everyone. His face darkened.

"You're scaring the other Uma Musume!"

Zhou Yuang raised his voice. It wasn't too loud, but it was enough to make Digital freeze.

His voice brought her back to herself, and she turned toward him.

Air Groove looked thoroughly unimpressed. Silence Suzuka watched her with drooping ears. Oguri Cap looked downright frightened.

"Sorry!"

Digital pressed her palms together and bowed in apology, as properly as Special Week had done earlier.

No Uma Musume respected other Uma Musume more than she did, so her apology was full of guilt.

Most Uma Musume were kind. Some had sharp tongues, some thought speed was an Uma Musume's only appeal, and some were hopelessly clueless.

So everyone acted as though Digital's outburst hadn't happened... right?

"Um, what did you mean by 'meeting each other halfway'?"

Once Oguri Cap had made sure Digital was all right, she even asked her to hop around a little. Digital was so eager to prove she was a thousand percent fine that she nearly did a breakdance spin on the spot.

"It's when they start building a bridge from both ends... Wait, no. It means both people in a pairing are interested in each other. They like each other and do things for each other. That's meeting halfway!"

Digital explained it in terms everyone could understand.

But the word "pairing" made Oguri Cap tilt her head.

"What's a pairing?"

"It's two people matched together, like friends or a couple... Just like you and Mr. Zhou Yuang!"

The term had a broad meaning. It could describe lovers or partners, with hardly any restrictions.

As long as the pairing wasn't too bizarre.

There were some lines people just shouldn't cross.

From a certain perspective, a trainer and an Uma Musume could certainly be called a pairing.

After signing a contract, they would spend three years working together.

How many three-year stretches did a person get? And for Uma Musume athletes, youth was everything. Those three years of racing were undoubtedly among the most important of their lives.

"I see. So Trainer and I are a pair."

Seeming to understand Digital, Oguri Cap perked up her ears. Her slightly chubby ears looked almost as if they were tempting Zhou Yuang to touch them.

But ears were private. How would you feel if a stranger walked up to you on the street and touched your eyes?