Uma Musume: To The Top!!

Europe, Ireland, Giltown Estate.

The moon was bright, and the stars were few. A radiant full moon hung high in the sky.

Brilliant moonlight poured down like a waterfall, illuminating the estate's grass training field until it was bright as day.

Clack.

With the crisp sound of horseshoes striking the ground, a dark-skinned girl panted heavily and slowly came to a stop.

"Huff... hah... That felt amazing!"

Dancing Brave wiped away her sweat and smiled happily.

Pfft.

Just then, a bottle of water was offered from the side and pressed against her cheek.

It was a little cold.

Dancing Brave froze for a moment, then the corners of her mouth lifted. She casually took the bottle and gulped it down.

Beside her, Brave was holding a towel with a helpless look on her face, helping her wipe away her sweat.

After taking a few simple mouthfuls, Dancing Brave stopped, casually wiped the water from the corner of her mouth, and looked in a certain direction behind her.

"Brave-nee, did she go back?"

It was an abrupt question, but Brave understood it.

She pressed a hand to her forehead and retorted, "Mejiro McQueen finished her training and went back to rest ages ago. You're the only one who keeps thinking about competing with her. Didn't you notice that even your trainer didn't come along to mess around with you?"

"Ahaha~"

Dancing Brave scratched her head and laughed it off, then corrected her out of habit.

"Uncle John isn't my trainer. He's just my guardian! Only Granny is my trainer."

"Yes, yes."

Brave brushed her off, following along with her words, then wrapped the towel around the dark-skinned girl's face and rubbed hard a few times.

Why were they, Uma Musume from France, in Ireland?

Naturally, it was for the major European graded race taking place seven days later—the Irish Champion Stakes on September 12.

Just like Kuroha's team, Dancing Brave's team, as locals on the European circuit, naturally knew that Giltown Estate was Ireland's best place to prepare for a race.

And so, Dancing Brave had ended up staying at the same estate as McQueen.

The two villas were even less than a hundred meters apart.

That distance, close enough that they could see each other constantly, directly stirred Dancing Brave's intense competitive spirit. Even the time she ended training every day had to be something she fiercely compared against McQueen's.

"Oh, right. One more thing."

As Brave helped tidy her hair, she said casually, "According to reliable information, McQueen's trainer will most likely be back in Ireland tonight."

"Oh, he's back."

When Dancing Brave heard that, she immediately gave a cold snort and complained in dissatisfaction, "Speaking of which, why is he so slow getting back...? What is that guy even doing?"

"It's one thing if he didn't attend the York International Stakes, but now he's acting lazy about the Irish Champion Stakes too. Is he looking down on me?"

As she spoke, she clenched her fist and swung it hard.

"That guy definitely just got lucky and happened to run into McQueen as his trainee!"

"All the races he wins like that are fake. In a few years, he'll definitely show his true colors!"

Brave fell silent for a moment. Then, from the side, she spoke in a faint, lingering voice.

"That trainer, Kuroha, has guided every Uma Musume on Team Chasing Light to an undefeated record for four years now, apart from internal team races."

"Mm..."

Dancing Brave choked on her words, then looked away guiltily.

"I-Is that so? Looks like that guy does have some ability after all..."

The dark-skinned girl's voice grew quieter as she spoke, but her eyes suddenly widened.

Then, under Brave's folded-arm gaze as she shook her head in amused exasperation, Dancing Brave suddenly pointed at the shaded road outside the training field and cried out in shock.

"T-That guy! Isn't that Kuroha?!"

Brave: ?

Kuroha, who had just gotten off the plane, come back by car, and was currently passing by the training field while pushing a luggage cart: ?

Who was calling his name in the middle of the night? And that voice did not sound like someone he knew.

Kuroha turned his head, utterly confused.

All he saw was a noisy, dark-skinned, short-haired girl, along with a graceful figure standing to the side, awkwardly waving to him in greeting.

"Brave?" Kuroha froze for a moment.

Then he looked at the dark-skinned girl who, one second later, received a knuckle to the head from Brave and was now covering her head with a wronged expression.

"And... Dancing Brave?"

...

A few minutes later, in the training field's rest area, one trainer and three Uma Musume sat together.

"Brave-san, it's been a while. How have you been recently?"

Kuroha was the first to greet her with a soft smile.

Brave seemed not to have fully recovered from the awkwardness just now and gave a light cough.

"Mm... More or less all right, I suppose..."

Kuroha nodded, then turned his gaze toward the dark-skinned girl sitting casually beside her.

"And this must be France's strongest active racer, Dancing Brave, correct?"

"Yep, that's me!"

Before Brave could answer for her, Dancing Brave admitted it openly.

Then she leaned forward and asked curiously, "So you're McQueen's trainer, the one rumored to be 'very, very' amazing?"

When she said the two "very"s, she exaggeratedly made a gesture with her hands as if she were hugging a watermelon.

Seeing this, Brave's head filled with black lines at Dancing Brave's behavior.

But when she saw that the legendary trainer across from them did not mind at all, she closed her mouth thoughtfully.

Kuroha nodded and smiled.

"I am indeed McQueen's trainer, but 'very, very amazing' is probably an exaggeration."

"Oh~"

Dancing Brave nodded as if this were very serious, then continued pressing him.

"Then why did you only rush over so late? Isn't McQueen's overseas expedition the most important thing for your team right now? You just tossed her here alone. Aren't you afraid she'll secretly run off?"

This girl's personality seems a little single-minded...

Looking at the dark-skinned beauty in front of him, Kuroha felt that she had traces of both Inari One and Tokai Teio about her.

But deeper beneath those traits...

A knowing smile appeared on Kuroha's face.

There was also a bit of a heroine-obedient feel to her.

"Looks like she's an actress," Kuroha thought.

Then he laughed softly and merely answered in an airy voice, "Don't worry. McQueen won't lose."

As for the other questions, he pretended not to hear any of them.

Across from him, the future legendary Uma Musume's eyes flickered slightly, and she sighed inwardly. On the surface, however, she clicked her tongue.

"What the heck? That's the same as saying nothing! Ow!"

Before she finished speaking, Brave beside her rewarded her with another knuckle to the head.

Judging from the sound, it was an exceptionally fine head.

"Trainer Kuroha, I'm truly sorry. This child's brain has gone dull from sleeping too much in France again."

Brave pressed down on Dancing Brave's head and apologized helplessly.

Kuroha waved it off, unconcerned.

"It's fine. I actually quite like talking to Uma Musume like this. Being formal all the time is boring."

"Mm-hm! Exactly! I don't like all that fake, empty stuff either!"

Dancing Brave's eyes lit up, and she had just been about to agree when her voice abruptly cut off.

Only this time, what interrupted her was not Brave's knuckle to the head, but her own instinctive sense of danger.

She furrowed her brow, then stiffly shifted her gaze toward Kuroha's side.

There, sitting quietly, was a black-haired, red-eyed Uma Musume dressed entirely in black.

At that moment, the Uma Musume, whose entire body gave off an unsettling aura, was glaring at her with unfriendly eyes, even a harsh edge in her stare.

Dancing Brave shuddered violently and wisely shut her mouth.

She was only pretending to be an idiot.

She was not actually an idiot.

When she ran into an Uma Musume with such an obviously unpleasant personality, she had no desire to get dragged into an alley someday, have a sack thrown over her head, and be forced into a boxing match.

(End of Chapter)

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