Ever since Kuroha agreed to take on Super Creek's rest-and-recovery work,
In the days that followed, the Mejiro training grounds felt like a silent film being played at double speed. Everyone moved like wind-up machines, busy yet orderly.
Fumino and Super Creek were practically living there.
Almost every day, they arrived at the training grounds before dawn had even broken, following the brand-new training plan Kuroha had drafted to maintain her physical condition.
They only headed home at night.
This kind of "diligence" inevitably drew the attention of Ardan and the others at Mejiro.
After that, they naturally came to learn what had happened to Super Creek.
As for Kuroha, he was pushing his superhuman physique to the limit.
With just two or three hours of sleep a day, he was still full of energy.
Aside from providing two fixed massage-therapy sessions a day,
He shut himself inside the potion room, trying to completely fuse two impossible potions: [Fortifying Medicine] and [Panacea].
Without realizing it,
Time slipped away like fine sand through his fingers, densely recording each grain of passing hours.
...
Four days later.
Inside the potion room.
Various precision glass instruments reflected cold, hard glints of light.
Wearing a white lab coat, Kuroha's expression was so focused he looked almost like a statue.
The dropper in his hand hovered steady in midair as he slowly let a single droplet of thick, strangely purplish-red liquid fall into the boiling golden base solution below.
"Shhh—"
White fumes rose and in an instant the mixture turned into a semi-translucent amber color.
Kuroha narrowed his eyes, swirling the flask gently as he noted down the exact number of seconds for each subtle shift in color.
After watching for a while, Kuroha shook his head.
"No good. It's still missing something."
"Even though I've been recording Creek's body data nonstop these past few days, trying to derive the correct ratios from theory alone is the kind of thing that really could keep a man from sleeping for three straight nights."
Setting the beaker down, Kuroha let out a helpless sigh. "Even with a rehab plan I tailored personally for Creek, I can only slow things down, not erase them."
"Looks like I'll have to update the data again after her noon massage. Not a single change can be treated carelessly."
Over these four days, Kuroha had spent most of his time shut away in the potion room.
He kept experimenting with the entirely new 'Panacea Fortifying Medicine' he had envisioned.
Although he still hadn't succeeded in creating it yet, he had more or less grasped the underlying pharmacology.
As for temporarily applying the effects of [Fortifying Medicine] to an Uma Musume's body, he was now quite confident.
It was just that the final effect would most likely be exactly what he had originally envisioned: merely restoring and maintaining her peak period for a few days.
This new potion, because its effective dosage was impossible to predict precisely, could not be safely blended directly into a batch of truly perfect [Panacea].
It could only be used on Uma Musume whose peak period had just ended and whose physical functions were in a continual state of decline.
He would stabilize the blessing that was on the verge of being stripped away, and then use [Panacea]'s medicinal power to fully reactivate it.
In that way, he could reproduce the Uma Musume's body at its absolute peak.
Mm... that was the theory, at least.
Actually bringing it into reality was anything but simple...
"There are only two days left..."
Kuroha exhaled deeply. "This is where it all comes down to success or failure."
...
Mejiro training grounds.
"Slow down! Your breathing rhythm is off!"
Fumino stood at the trackside. Instead of a stopwatch, she held a tablet displaying a heart-rate monitor.
On the track, Super Creek was running with deliberate rhythm, suppressing her body's natural instincts to carry out high-speed aerobic exercise.
Now that her True Blooming was over,
Any kind of high-intensity training was just a burden and a form of damage to her. What she needed now was simply to maintain her condition.
So under Kuroha's plan, devised while he was in his Body and Breath Perception state,
The height of every knee lift, the depth of every single breath, was strictly regulated.
This extremely constrained running style left her forehead covered in sweat. It was even more exhausting than sprinting at full speed, but she gritted her teeth and kept going without a word.
Not far away, Fujimasa March and Ardan had just finished a paired run.
At the moment, both were calmly watching Super Creek on the track.
"She's definitely stronger than she was at last year's Arima Kinen," Fujimasa March said quietly after watching for a bit.
Beside her, Ardan took a few sips of water and then tightened the cap on her bottle. "It's fine. She'll come back."
"You're that confident in her?"
After replenishing their fluids, Fujimasa March and Ardan started strolling back toward the starting point of the track.
"It's not just her I'm confident in..."
As Aoi's countdown call came from the side, Ardan gave a small shake of her head, a striking curve forming at the corner of her lips.
"I'm confident in our trainer."
"He's practically the embodiment of miracles, isn't he?"
Bang—!
Powerful hooves shook the ground as two streaks of light shot forward, chasing each other down the track.
The wind whipped across her cheeks as the glass-like girl took one last glance toward Super Creek on the other side.
And I'm hoping that this Tenno Sho (Spring) will give me a [rival worth fighting ten thousand battles against] too—Creek!
...
Noon, massage room.
"Haa... haa..."
On the wide therapy bed, Super Creek was lying face down.
After last year's "tempering" and these past few days of exposure, she had started to adapt to this treatment method whose embarrassment level was off the charts.
She no longer wished she could crawl into a crack in the floor and disappear like she had at the beginning.
She also no longer sandwiched her own head between two pillows like a "sandwich" to escape reality.
Now she lay with her face turned to the side, cheeks flushed red. Her hair was damp with sweat, clinging messily to the slender line of her neck.
The towel on her back had long since been pushed aside, exposing a broad, breathtaking expanse of pale skin.
Years of training had given it both firmness and grace. The groove of her spine was like the delicate contour line of fine porcelain, tracing downwards.
Under Kuroha's large hands kneading and pressing along her back, it drew out soft, stifled whimpers from her lips, sounds that made one's scalp tingle and limbs go weak.
...
In the corner of the room,
"Pff—"
It sounded like an overworked steam engine venting.
Fumino's face was as red as an overripe persimmon, and even her ears and neck had turned scarlet.
She was desperately trying to maintain her cool, aloof persona, but her whole body trembled nonstop, as if she were struggling to endure something.
After a long stretch of busy movement, the massage room door finally swung open. Kuroha stepped out first.
Behind him came Fumino, followed by a Super Creek who looked like she was about to melt.
"Tonight, then."
Kuroha refilled their teacups and spoke softly.
At that, Fumino's shoulders jolted. After she sat down, her expression turned solemn.
"Does it have to be that soon? There are still two days until the Tenno Sho (Spring). We could wait..."
"If we wait, it'll already be too late, won't it?"
Kuroha cut her off.
"..."
The purple-haired beauty fell silent.
She understood. Just as Kuroha had said, if they waited until the last moment to treat her, the success rate would indeed be higher.
But in exchange, Super Creek would have no extra time to readapt to that once-familiar, overwhelming power.
The result would be the same: no real hope of victory.
"I'm willing!"
This time, it was Super Creek who spoke up.
The girl sat off to the side, facing both trainers without the slightest hint of shrinking back. Her voice was calm. "I trust Kuroha-trainer's judgment."
She paused, then turned to Fumino, speaking gently. "Don't worry, trainer. I'll definitely pull this off."
"...I-I understand..."
After locking eyes with Super Creek's clear gaze for a few seconds, Fumino still ended up backing down with a sigh and agreed, helplessly.
(End of Chapter)
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