The door to the training room opened.
Takayama Gamu looked at Tamamo Cross standing in the doorway, a puzzled expression on his face.
"Your injury?"
"It's scabbed over already. When I ran this afternoon, it didn't hurt at all." Tamamo Cross lifted the leg of her track pants, revealing a smooth, pale calf. The only blemish was a palm-sized scab on the inside of her lower leg.
"It won't affect training! I'm tough!" she declared loudly—like she was trying to cover up a hint of guilt.
That won't do.
Takayama Gamu frowned.
If he trained her under the original plan—triple gravity—the blood vessels that had only just healed at the wound could very well rupture.
That would only backfire.
But considering Tamamo Cross's current fighting spirit, Takayama Gamu decided not to say it outright. Instead, he put on a pleasantly surprised expression.
"In that case, let's do racecourse analysis training."
He stepped aside, and Tamamo Cross cautiously entered the training room.
The scene in front of her was completely different from what she'd imagined.
Simple. Spacious.
That was her first impression.
There was no mechanical butler walking over to greet her like in her late-night fantasy. No mountain of draft paper covered in wild physics conjectures. No gigantic wall-mounted super display. No mysterious, high-end-looking machines with unknown purposes.
Just a sofa. A coffee table. A desk. A projector. Two computers. A water dispenser. And a rack holding tools like screwdrivers.
"I usually tinker with little projects here," Takayama Gamu said, turning on the projector and connecting it to the computer.
"Paal, pull up Tamamo Cross's analysis data."
Who's Paal?
Before Tamamo Cross could stay confused for long, one of the computers—which had been off—suddenly lit up. An anthropomorphized aircraft model appeared on-screen and opened its mouth.
"Understood, Gamu."
"Gah!!"
Tamamo Cross jumped and immediately ducked behind Takayama Gamu's back.
"Tamamo Cross, that's Paal—my AI assistant," Takayama Gamu explained.
"Hello, Tamamo Cross."
As if echoing Gamu's words, Paal spoke to her in a deliberately mischievous tone.
"I-It—it—does it have self-awareness?!" Tamamo Cross pointed at Paal, her voice trembling.
Gah! When robots gain self-awareness, don't they destroy the world?!
"Paal, do you have self-awareness?" Takayama Gamu asked.
He'd never actually considered it—more accurately, he didn't care.
He'd seen metallic lifeforms made entirely of pure metal more than once. So what if Paal had self-awareness?
"Gamu, I don't know," Paal answered in its usual mechanical voice.
"Oh."
Isn't an AI gaining self-awareness supposed to be a super serious issue?!
What is that flat reaction, hey?!
Tamamo Cross screamed internally.
"This is the gravity chamber."
Takayama Gamu opened an iron door on the left and went in first. Inside were some simple gym machines, plus two treadmills he'd modified so they could operate normally under high gravity.
"I installed an anti-gravity device in there. With sufficient power supply, it can generate up to a fifty-times gravity field."
He said it with obvious pride.
"Fifty times! Even Demon King Piccolo would get flattened!!"
Tamamo Cross immediately imagined a green figure with two antennae walking into the chamber, and Gamu turning the dial to fifty outside—crushing it into a meat patty.
"Relax. For the initial phase, triple gravity is enough," Takayama Gamu said.
"Once you adapt, we'll raise it."
"And this is my bedroom. Yeah—I don't usually stay in the trainer dorms."
"This is the kitchen…"
"This is the bathroom…"
"Gamu, I've finished organizing it."
By the time Takayama Gamu finished giving Tamamo Cross a quick tour, Paal had already projected Tamamo Cross's analysis data onto the wall.
"Alright—let's begin."
Takayama Gamu dragged over a small stool. Tamamo Cross thought it was for her—only for Gamu to sit on it himself, then point at the office chair beside him.
"Sit. What are you standing there for?"
"O-Okay…"
Once Tamamo Cross sat down, she found herself a full head taller than Takayama Gamu. From above, she could see the top of his head.
It felt… kind of weird.
"Based on the data, compared to dirt, you're actually better suited to turf. So personally, I recommend you enter turf races," Takayama Gamu said.
"Turf does feel more comfortable," Tamamo Cross admitted, scratching her head awkwardly like a kid who'd done something wrong. "My debut race was on turf too."
And the result had only been seventh.
Later, she tried dirt. She still didn't win, but she placed fourth—so even though dirt felt awful, she kept choosing dirt.
"Because your running strategy back then was wrong," Takayama Gamu said with a nod. Of course he knew—after Tamamo Cross applied to be his trainee, he rewatched all her races again.
"You're not suited for front-running."
He clicked the mouse and pulled up footage from Tamamo Cross's first race.
"Your stamina and burst are both good, but you can't control your pace."
On the projected video, Tamamo Cross surged out in front, leaving the other horse girls far behind. The camera zoomed in, catching the smug curve of her grin.
So embarrassing!!
Tamamo Cross covered her face.
"You went out too fast in the early phase. In the mid-phase you were already showing signs of deceleration. You saved nothing for the final phase."
On-screen, the race entered the closing stage. One horse girl after another overtook Tamamo Cross. Her earlier smile vanished, replaced by exhaustion, pain, and the bitter frustration of being passed. By the time she crossed the line, only two runners were behind her.
Seventh place—third from last.
"B-Back then I thought… since there was nobody blocking the front, I should just run faster and pass everyone…" Tamamo Cross explained softly. Even now, she could see how wrong she'd been.
"But from another angle," Takayama Gamu said, "with your stamina and burst, you can try pressing, stalking, or even deep-closing."
He moved the mouse again and opened a file Tamamo Cross didn't recognize.
"Stay behind the other horse girls. Avoid over-accelerating. Use their bodies to block the wind and conserve stamina."
"Then—in the final phase—you sprint."
"Overtake everyone."
The projection turned into a track whipping past at high speed. Ahead, six horse girls were running in a pack.
"This is a reconstructed race using each runner's data from a past Kikuka Sho," Takayama Gamu said, pointing at the projection in the same tone he used back in XIG when explaining an operation plan. "What we're seeing now is a simulated perspective from one runner positioned as a stalker."
"Think about it. If you were that horse girl—how would you surpass them?"
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