Since she was seeking external help, the person she chose would naturally need to have a deep understanding of the URA.
They'd also need a solid grasp of the local situation in Japan. Among Gotham Song's social network, who would fit these criteria best?
Of course, her first thought was naturally her elder sister, Mejiro Ramonu. Unfortunately, though Gotham Song immediately went to check her sister's status, she quickly learned that Ramonu wasn't even at home.
According to Mejiro Ardan, Ramonu had been exceptionally busy recently, so she probably wouldn't be home today—or anytime soon, really. Learning this, Gotham Song felt somewhat helpless. With no other choice, she picked up her phone and sent a message to someone else.
Naturally, she received no immediate reply. Gotham Song wasn't particularly surprised; after all, it had gotten quite late—nearly midnight—since she'd gone out with Almond Eye and finished her research. By this time, Secretariat—who'd probably just woken up earlier—might even be deep into her day's work already.
Thinking about this, Gotham Song decided not to worry further. Returning to her room, she soon drifted off to sleep in the company of Mejiro Ardan and Manhattan Cafe, who'd quietly appeared in her bed once again.
To be clear, it didn't seem like her two sisters were trying to compete with each other over her affections or anything—probably?
Anyway, Gotham Song had a prime suspect regarding their suspicious visits: it had to be Old Bastard No.1, Sunday Silence. Unfortunately, she currently had no solid evidence, so she could only put aside that suspicion and accept reality for now.
Hehe, Ardan-nee is so soft, and Cafe-nee feels so smooth…
As always, Gotham Song was awakened by Gentildonna. Only after completing her usual morning training did she finally glance at her phone—and sure enough, the person she'd messaged last night had replied. Without further delay, Gotham Song returned to her room, changed her clothes, and headed out.
Leaving home, Mejiro Manor was as quiet and deserted as usual. Although she was the only passenger when she first got into the carriage, as it traveled further along, the atmosphere gradually grew lively. By the time Gotham Song stepped off, even the subway station around her was bustling with noise and laughter.
A casual glance around revealed little Uma Musume chatting and laughing in various corners; a fair number of curious eyes soon locked onto her. Clearly, these sharp-eyed fillies had recognized her. Within their innocent gazes was admiration, longing, as if silently hoping to become as powerful as the Uma Musume they now looked upon.
This adorable reaction warmed Gotham Song's heart greatly. She didn't say a word, simply looked over at them, and gave a gentle wink. Then, stepping forward once more, she left the station to find her true destination for today.
Ah, without even realizing it, I've become someone who draws attention wherever I go, even in this world I was once unfamiliar with…
What a wonderful feeling. If my original life had continued as planned, something like this could never have happened, could it?
Gotham Song genuinely enjoyed the feeling of being noticed like this. After all, these young fillies were cute, polite children who certainly wouldn't rudely rush up to grab her arm or refuse to let her go without a photo.
Besides, the longing and admiration in the eyes of these innocent little Uma Musume was irresistibly endearing…
Hehe.
Entering the school gates, she saw Hayakawa Tazuna standing at her usual spot at the entrance, steadfastly greeting students as if unaffected by wind or rain, day after day.
Gotham Song felt genuine respect for this lady—though she wasn't entirely certain if Tazuna-san was actually older or not. She'd rarely come here when she was still known by another name, but ever since taking her current identity, she had always encountered Hayakawa Tazuna whenever she passed by the school entrance. Surely, that was no mere coincidence, right?
Indeed, Tazuna-san must genuinely love these young Uma Musume deeply to remain so dedicated, standing watch day after day.
I wonder, if the rumors—or rather, those things I heard in my past life—were true, just how strong would you have been as an Uma Musume yourself, Tazuna-san? Would you have been strong enough to awaken my competitive instincts?
This time, it was Gotham Song herself who gazed at Hayakawa Tazuna with eyes sparkling like an admiring young filly. And in return, Tazuna-san merely gave her usual gentle smile and polite greeting, reminding Gotham Song to stay safe during training. However, deep within, where Gotham Song couldn't see, alarm bells were ringing furiously in Tazuna-san's mind.
This kid… She couldn't possibly have set her sights on me, right? Such overwhelming pressure and burning fighting spirit… Song-san is becoming more and more like an Uma Musume. With such obsession, focus, and an overwhelming desire to surpass others, maybe she hasn't even realized it herself yet?
Hayakawa Tazuna—or rather, Tokino Minoru, in that instant—struggled to maintain her usual composed expression.
Me, going up against Gotham Song…? Seriously?!
Even if Uma Musume naturally possessed fervent desire for victory and competition, Tokino Minoru had to admit that simply thinking of Gotham Song as an opponent made cold sweat drip down her spine. It wasn't cowardice; it was simply because, as someone who closely monitored the Uma Musume world, she knew far too much.
She knew exactly how terrifyingly strong this particular Uma Musume was.
Ah, if only I could still run… I'd actually be a bit tempted to challenge her.
...
After exchanging brief greetings, Gotham Song turned her attention elsewhere. She entered the school grounds, heading straight toward the student council office.
Ultimately, aside from her elder sister, who else in Japan held a similarly high social status and knowledge of the Uma Musume world?
Naturally, it had to be Symboli Rudolf, right?
Gotham Song abruptly pushed open the door, immediately meeting Rudolf's somewhat startled gaze, as if her sudden arrival had interrupted deep contemplation.
"Song-san, tell me: if a regional academy's overall competitive strength is very weak, what should be done to improve the racing level of the Uma Musume there?"
"The competitive strength is weak…? Are we talking about local areas?"
Gotham Song hadn't expected Symboli Rudolf would catch her off-guard with such a sudden question. She hadn't considered this at all beforehand—but thinking about it now, what other reasons could cause a regional academy to have low overall competitiveness?
After all, between local and central areas, the biggest difference for any Uma Musume should simply be innate talent. Aside from that, there shouldn't be much else. Each and every Uma Musume would have the same earnest desire for victory, the same stubborn obsession with running.
This was the true, original nature of Uma Musume. Even Gotham Song herself, despite being a relative outsider, would occasionally slip into a state of intense fanaticism while running.
Returning to Symboli Rudolf's question, then: what was the best solution? Or rather, what was the root cause behind the lack of competitiveness among local Uma Musume?
"Well, how about having other members of the student council go inspect the quality of training overall, and then send some new trainers from central academies—or even trainers currently without assignments—to temporarily provide exchange guidance at regional academies?"
"Oh, and while you're at it, bring some qualified local trainers to the central academy in batches for further training."
This was Gotham Song's solution. The reasoning was clear enough:
Because, first of all, the Uma Musume themselves would never be the problem.
Or rather, there could never be a problem with the Uma Musume as a whole. Sure, there were some oddballs among them—like Teio's roommate, Mayano-san, or the weirdest of Tracen Academy, Gold Ship—but if you looked closely, even these two were merely eccentric individuals who never truly lost the essential competitive spirit of Uma Musume. Even taking a step back, if there were indeed any Uma Musume who genuinely cared nothing for victory or racing, they'd merely be isolated exceptions.
An individual might have problems, but when it came to the Uma Musume as a group, there could be no such issues.
Slacking off, staying up late—these things were all normal. Yet the overwhelming majority of Uma Musume would never lose their hunger for victory. Even if such Uma Musume existed, ones who no longer desired victory, they could never drag the entire group down to the point of complete weakness.
Considering it from this angle, there could be only one genuine reason why some unknown local academy would become weak—
It wasn't that the conditions of regional Tracen Academies were bad. On the contrary, many regional schools were even responsible for hosting local races. Under these conditions, and with the Central Academy monitoring closely, their physical conditions were already quite good.
Therefore, the real cause must be that the local academy's Trainers had problems.
Not necessarily intentional sabotage—it could simply be due to their incompetence. Perhaps it was even a mix of incompetence and malice. In short, this was the most plausible reason.
After hearing Gotham Song's response, Symboli Rudolf couldn't help but nod in approval. Her thinking had been precisely the same. Gotham Song hadn't even taken much time to ponder it; after sitting down, she'd answered almost immediately.
Rudolf genuinely approved of Gotham Song's administrative abilities. Compared to most Uma Musume, who had simple, impulsive personalities, Gotham Song displayed complexities similar to humans—precisely why Rudolf had asked her to take over as president of the Central Student Council in the future.
It was just too unfortunate—if only Song-san truly belonged to Mejiro Manor, truly was a student of Central Academy, and not an exchange Uma Musume from abroad.
Sigh. I'm honestly envious of Secretariat and the American Central Tracen Academy.
"All right. I'll implement your plan as soon as possible. Let me thank you first, on behalf of the local children, Song-san. Now, please wait a moment—I've already made arrangements regarding your request."
Actually, Rudolf was equally frustrated with the internal inefficiency of the URA. If not for this, she and Mejiro Ramonu would've long since crushed the URA using their own vast resources—
But the URA relied precisely on its outrageously traditional and backward bureaucracy to hold off the joint attacks of two massive families.
The URA hadn't even thought about fighting back from the beginning!
But there were simply far too many years' worth of races, Uma Musume data, and documentation to manage. Central alone was already overwhelming—if they wanted to completely dismantle URA, even the regional materials needed to be reorganized!
This was the real reason why the two great families had only encircled URA instead of outright destroying it.
They'd already won—but the stage of cleaning up afterward actually took far longer than the war itself!
Thinking about this, Rudolf felt intensely frustrated. In her many years as the Central Student Council President, now essentially the number-one person at Central Tracen Academy—
Never had she expected to feel this powerless due to such absurd reasons, forced to work overtime in her personal time again and again.
Precisely because of this inefficiency, even though Rudolf had made arrangements immediately upon waking up, they still couldn't quickly retrieve what Gotham Song wanted.
However, neither of them had to wait very long. Since it was the URA's most urgent and critical plan in recent years, Gotham Song soon saw the materials she was looking for—directly from Rudolf's phone, in photos of printed documents!
It wasn't too strange a situation, maybe, but something about it felt oddly ridiculous… Anyway, Gotham Song carefully read through the documents and quickly found the information she genuinely cared about.
It was the internal URA Trainers' feedback and training records concerning Almond Eye.
Given this was directly related to the URA's survival, these records had clearly been kept to report upward—only now, they'd conveniently fallen into Gotham Song's hands.
From the records, it was evident the URA Trainers consistently held Almond Eye in high regard throughout every period.
This was easy enough to understand. After all, Almond Eye was an extremely strong Uma Musume who naturally inspired affection.
Yet as she continued scrolling down, the contents displayed gradually changed.
The first report she noticed was one filled with confusion—or rather, one reflecting confusion about Almond Eye's attitude.
It wasn't that Almond Eye had developed issues with her enthusiasm for racing—but rather, that she'd developed problems with the Trainers themselves.
Specifically, she began openly questioning the Trainers' analyses of races and opponents, giving completely different opinions of her own.
Then, as time passed, Gotham Song reached the first report following the Oka Sho—and this particular record contained only a brief few lines.
But what exactly was written there that caused Gotham Song's breath to catch sharply?
It was—
[Almond Eye-san has begun openly resisting our training instructions.]
[We recommend, without her knowledge and when necessary, implementing the Wolfpack tactic and selecting suitable support runners.]
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