Uma Musume: To The Top!!

Chapter 338: 449

Although Rice Shower and Mihono Bourbon's debut races were still some time away, under Chasing Light's thoroughly developed training and instruction, Rice Shower's fundamentals were already quite solid.

However, what Kuroha found troublesome was that even now, the girl had still not so much as brushed against the shadow of a Domain.

Kuroha knew very well that this had nothing to do with strength.

It meant that this blue rose-like girl still had not understood her own goal or her own heart.

For an uma musume, that was undoubtedly a rather fatal shortcoming.

He had originally thought that after Rice Shower witnessed Mihono Bourbon's effort and growth, as well as the powerful stances and championship victories shown by her Chasing Light seniors, she would come to understand herself and analyze her own true nature.

But now, it seemed that for this young uma musume, such a thing was still a little too difficult.

"It looks like now that I'm back in Central, there's one more thing I have to resolve..."

Kuroha sighed inwardly.

Still, there was some time before the two little ones' debut races. If he adjusted things now, there was still enough time.

Afterward, he roughly emphasized the upcoming training precautions to everyone again, then let them go about their own business.

"Trainer..."

Before leaving, Tokai Teio quietly tugged at Kuroha's sleeve and called out softly.

"What is it, Teio?"

Kuroha turned his head. Looking at Tokai Teio, who seemed like a completely different person from just now, he was somewhat puzzled, but still asked with a gentle smile.

Tokai Teio opened her mouth, as if wanting to say something, only to press her lips tightly together again.

After repeating this several times, she finally raised those clear blue eyes and spoke in a trembling voice.

"In two days, it's a rest day. Trainer... will you be free? I want to go out and have fun with you."

After a pause, the girl seemed to be trying to hide her nervousness and hurriedly added, "Just treat it as compensation for you not being able to come to my Derby, okay?"

Kuroha was slightly stunned. Then he gave a helpless laugh and agreed readily.

"You don't need to find a reason for that. If Teio wants to go out with me, then we'll go together this weekend."

"As for compensation, you can think about it properly and tell me later. There's no rush."

At those words, Tokai Teio's eyes instantly lit up. Her earlier restraint vanished completely as she shouted excitedly, "Really?!"

"Of course."

Kuroha smiled and reached out, habitually rubbing Teio's little head until the girl let out a comfortable hum.

"All right, go train."

"Yes! I'm going right now!"

Teio immediately gave him a serious salute, then darted out of the trainer's office in a flash.

"Tokai Teio, sortie!"

Hearing the sharp sound of wind breaking outside and the girl's happy laughter, Kuroha could not help smiling as well.

...

Kuroha walked out into the outdoor corridor and stood with his hands behind his back.

He watched the flourishing scene on the training grounds. His expression gradually returned to calm as he began planning out his near-term schedule in his mind.

He would only be back in Central for half a month this time. After that, he still had to hurry back to Ireland and continue overseeing Mejiro McQueen's training.

Because of that, he had to handle as many of the matters at hand as possible.

The first was replenishing the Three Goddesses' Blessing Power.

That was a simple problem he could handle in passing. It would not take much energy.

Then came his wedding with Maruzensky.

Thinking of that, Kuroha pondered for a while and made a decision.

"After things here are over, I might as well take Maruzensky directly to Ireland."

Marriage naturally came with a honeymoon period.

The other uma musume had each had at least half a month for their honeymoons. If Maruzensky only had ten days, that would be a little too unfair to her.

He might as well bring Maruzensky to Ireland for a vacation and treat it as a trip.

Moreover, bringing Maruzensky to Ireland had another side benefit: she could slightly keep McQueen in check.

Yes... the kind of check that suppressed her excessive clinginess.

Among the expedition force currently in Ireland, although there were nominally three uma musume, Folkqueen had merely been lured over, and she did not have any special relationship with Kuroha.

Only Mejiro McQueen had a bond with him that surpassed the level of an ordinary trainee.

As a result, after losing the competition from the other Chasing Light seniors, McQueen would deliberately come to him every night for cuddling.

She also frequently tried to challenge him.

Although this had not substantially affected her daytime training, Kuroha was faintly worried.

If he allowed this state to continue for several months, her mental state would inevitably become slack.

Bringing Maruzensky over to keep the Mejiro girl's clinginess in check was simply perfect.

"...Though using Maruzensky to check clinginess really is a little abstract."

Kuroha could not help rubbing his forehead.

As for Tokai Teio...

Although that girl was a little mischievous in ordinary times, she probably would not make any request that was too hard to handle. He could simply treat it as accompanying her to relax.

The first three matters could all be considered easy to handle.

The only truly difficult matter was Rice Shower's emotional knot...

Looking at the black-haired girl not far away, who was running hard under Fumino's calls, Kuroha narrowed his eyes slightly and made a decision.

For now, he would observe her for a few days and see which direction could serve as a breakthrough point.

Not long after, Silence Suzuka finished her school classes and returned to the team's training ground.

Seeing Kuroha back, she looked extremely happy.

Kuroha briefly observed little Suzuka's recent growth. Satisfied, he rubbed her hair, carefully gave her a few instructions, then left the training ground.

...

A bustling commercial street somewhere in Tokyo.

After leaving the training ground, Kuroha did not return directly to the dormitory, nor did he go to Tracen Academy.

Instead, following a certain vague sensation, he walked all the way to an ordinary arcade.

Only when he personally saw the red and yellow goddesses standing in front of an arcade machine, frantically tapping the screen as they played a rhythm game, did he slowly let out a breath.

"I was originally only planning to test it casually. I didn't expect the sensing to be this accurate."

A faint smile rose on Kuroha's face.

He had originally planned to go straight to find Maruzensky.

But halfway there, a whim suddenly struck him. He wanted to test exactly how far his recently strengthened Blessing Power could go.

So he tried sensing the portion of power he had once given to the Three Goddesses to shape their bodies.

In the past, once these powers were separated from him, although he could retrieve them at any time, he had erased the imprint and restrictions of his will before giving them away. Because of that, he could not precisely sense their exact locations.

If he had to describe it in rough numbers, he should have been able to sense an area of about a hundred meters.

In other words, Kuroha could know that the Three Goddesses were somewhere within a hundred-meter radius, but he had no way to tell exactly where.

And now...

The precision of his sensing had actually narrowed down to the scale of meters.

After finding his targets, Kuroha did not speak. He simply stood quietly behind the two women.

At that moment, they were fully focused on their match, excitedly challenging a high-star-difficulty song.

Soon, the song ended.

The game-over sound rang out, and the screen calculated the final scores of the two goddesses.

In the next instant, the red goddess Darley Arabian widened her eyes, her face full of disbelief.

"Why is it still 99.999%?!"

"...Perhaps the machine has latency, or there is some hidden judgment mechanism?"

Seeing this, Byerley Turk also furrowed her brows slightly and placed a hand on her chin, analyzing the matter with an earnest expression.

Logically speaking, with her and Darley's reaction speed, let alone a mere rhythm game, even a bullet flying toward them could be dodged easily. There should have been no possibility of making a mistake.

At that moment, a smiling voice suddenly cut in from behind them.

"That's just how maimai is. Every machine has at least a bit of a machine spirit."

"If you two rely purely on reaction speed, it definitely won't work. This game also needs a little muscle memory and feel."

"Sometimes, based on your reactions, you really do feel like you hit it. But as long as the machine spirit is displeased and judges that you missed, then you missed."

"Mm... I see. So there's such a saying too..."

Byerley subconsciously nodded.

But immediately afterward, she froze for an instant. Suddenly sensing that something was wrong, her originally half-closed eyes snapped open, and she stiffly turned her head to look.

What entered her eyes was Kuroha's handsome face, smiling faintly.

"Eek!"

Byerley, caught red-handed on the spot, was startled and let out a rather unseemly cry that did not match her status at all.

Then she immediately reacted and clamped both hands tightly over her mouth.

"...Am I that scary?"

Seeing her react so strongly, Kuroha said somewhat speechlessly.

"Haha."

Beside her, Darley had also noticed Kuroha's arrival and replied with a bright smile.

"Byerley just feels like you discovered her little secret of playing around, Yu-kun. She thinks it clashes badly with her usual serious image, so she's feeling a bit socially dead."

"Darley!"

In the next instant, a terrifying pressure suddenly expanded in one corner of the arcade.

The yellow goddess was wreathed in a dark aura, staring gloomily at her red-haired roommate's adorable face.

"Ahaha, I was joking. I was wrong, I was wrong."

Seeing that things looked bad, the red goddess immediately gave in and lowered her head in apology.

(End of Chapter)

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