"Ryo, I won."
The gray-haired girl, fresh off her debut-race victory, ran straight over to claim credit in front of Sakuraba Ryo. The gray-white tail swishing behind her made her look like an adorable little puppy begging her owner for a pat on the head.
"Yeah, Oguri, nicely done..."
Sakuraba Ryo's mood was complicated.
Honestly, he really hadn't expected that not even Fujimasa March would be able to stop Oguri Cap...
And judging by what they had shown in the race, the gap between their final spurts hadn't even been close.
Thinking about it that way, Fujimasa March losing didn't seem that strange after all.
At the end of the day, there was simply a gap in ability.
Wait...
Before the debut race, Fujimasa March had been the undisputed top member of Kasamatsu Training Center Academy's new generation.
And now Oguri Cap had beaten her...
So Oguri Cap was the strongest at Kasamatsu Training Center Academy now?
You're telling me the Umamusume I picked on a whim had now become the strongest in the academy?
Oh.
Fuck you, God.
My bank account was about to go up by another 400,000 yen, so why did I feel this awful?
It's fine, Sakuraba Ryo. It's fine.
This was just an accident...
It was only 400,000 yen in prize money. He could still lose that much easily enough.
Just as Sakuraba Ryo was working out in his head how to burn through that 400,000 yen, Oguri Cap suddenly spoke up beside him.
"Ryo..."
"Fujimasa March said she knows you. What's your relationship with her?"
"Huh?"
Sakuraba Ryo blinked, not expecting Oguri to ask that.
"There's nothing between me and her, really. She just came by my shop as a customer a while back."
"...A shop?"
"Come to think of it, I never mentioned it to you," Sakuraba Ryo said, planting his hands on his hips as he explained. "There's a foot massage place in the academy. That's one of my businesses."
"Fujimasa-san came by a while ago, and I personally attended to her. That's about the extent of our relationship."
"I see..." Oguri Cap lowered her head in thought, seeming to mull something over.
Kitahara, on the other hand, lit up the moment he heard that.
"What? So you're the owner of that place, Kitahara-san? Then I've really got to stop by sometime!"
"No thanks. I only take Umamusume. I have zero interest in massaging some grown man's feet."
Sakuraba Ryo refused without hesitation.
If he was going to massage feet, then of course he was choosing a pretty girl's feet!
"How cruel."
Kitahara lowered his head and sighed.
"Can I go?" Oguri Cap asked from the side, lightly tugging at Sakuraba Ryo's clothes.
"No problem. If you want to come, Oguri, I can treat you for free."
"You should still charge me. You're always taking care of me as it is..."
Why was this girl so stubborn?
If he charged her, wouldn't that mean he'd be putting in effort and making money at the same time?
How could that be allowed?
No matter how he looked at it, that kind of business was a terrible deal. There was no way Sakuraba Ryo would do it.
He needed to come up with a reason to brush her off.
"Don't say that, Oguri."
Sakuraba Ryo put both hands on Oguri Cap's shoulders and spoke seriously.
"It's only natural for an investor to take care of his investment project. Don't take it too much to heart."
"This is all part of what I'm supposed to do. Oguri, you just need to focus on your training."
At a time like this, Sakuraba Ryo genuinely didn't dare tell Oguri to focus on racing. Hell, what if she actually kept winning? The one who'd suffer in the end would still be him.
"Anyway, if it's just a massage, I can still offer you free treatment, so don't overthink it."
"...Okay."
And with that, the post-debut-race conversation came to an end.
Oguri Cap had claimed victory, and Kitahara had proven his ability.
All in all, it was a pretty good ending.
If you ignored the prize money, anyway...
Still, 400,000 yen was only a small amount to Sakuraba Ryo. The funding gap on Tamamo Cross's side started in the tens of millions.
Throwing this 400,000 yen into that probably wouldn't even make a splash.
No biggie.
A blow at this level was still completely bearable!
That was what Sakuraba Ryo thought.
Then Oguri Cap began using her astonishing talent to teach him exactly what investment risk really meant.
...
In June, Kitahara decided to have Oguri Cap grind restricted races around Kasamatsu.
If an Umamusume could earn enough prize money in restricted races, she could move on to a higher stage—the open class.
The Tokai Derby was one of the more famous open races on the regional circuit.
That was Kitahara's target, so he took Oguri Cap from race to race in pursuit of it.
MID-JUNE: VICTORY IN A RESTRICTED RACE, 850,000 YEN IN PRIZE MONEY.
IN JULY AND AUGUST, SHE WON ONE RESTRICTED RACE EACH MONTH, FOR A COMBINED TOTAL OF 1,700,000 YEN.
AT THE END OF AUGUST, OGURI CAP ENTERED HER FIRST OPEN RACE, WON IT, AND EARNED 1,800,000 YEN.
THEN, AT THE START OF OCTOBER, SHE EVEN TOOK VICTORY IN NAGOYA'S OPEN YOUTH CROWN AND RECEIVED 2,400,000 YEN IN PRIZE MONEY.
BY THAT POINT, IN JUST FIVE SHORT MONTHS ON THE REGIONAL CIRCUIT, OGURI CAP HAD AMASSED A TOTAL OF 7,500,000 YEN IN PRIZE MONEY.
Sakuraba Ryo had no comment on this.
To put it simply—
He was numb.
Granted, with Nishikino Academy acting as a gigantic money-devouring beast, hitting his loss goal over the past few months had become unusually easy.
But what was happening with Oguri Cap right now was a little terrifying.
In restricted races, she was basically steamrolling the field.
And even in open races, no one could find any way to stop her.
On top of that, the more she won, the more famous she became.
The races she entered kept getting bigger and bigger, and the prize money kept climbing higher and higher too.
AAARGH...
This is not how I wanted things to develop—!
...
Tokyo. Inside a familiar ramen shop near Tracen Academy, Sakuraba Ryo let out a mournful cry and slumped lifelessly onto the table.
Sitting across from him was the second Umamusume he had invested in—Tamamo Cross.
"So... you called me out just to complain at me...?"
Tamamo Cross looked at the man sprawled in front of her like a half-dead salted fish, utterly speechless.
Her investor had called her out to eat ramen, and before she had even gotten through a few bites, he had already unloaded a whole string of incomprehensible grievances on her.
What did he mean, the Umamusume he invested in was too good at racing, so he couldn't take it anymore?
Wasn't this guy just humblebragging?
If the man saying this to Tamamo hadn't been Sakuraba Ryo, she would've already leapt over and bitten him to death.
It was only because he had spent nearly 20 million yen on her over the past five months that she had managed not to let her temper explode.
"You're the good one, Tamamo. You haven't really won much, so you're very reassuring—"
"Hah?! You looking to get hit?"
At that, Tamamo Cross nearly snapped on the spot.
Sure, she'd raced four times since June and lost all four, but she had placed in every single one, okay?!
What the hell did he mean, reassuring?!
Next time!
In the next race, I'm absolutely going to win!
I'm definitely going to slap that awful man right across the face!
---
T/N: A LITTLE rant about how sakuraba r4efers to epople he was describing march in his head as just march since it was in his head and he doesnt have to be polite and stuff, but when oguri asked he obv will say fujiassmara-SAN since he is being a polite person he would refer to her as the same thing but beacuse of his want of wanting her to win, he skipped past everything and just went for march, kitahara would prob become kitahara now since its been 5 months, and kitahara and oguri would prob refer to eachother with no honorifics now too blah blah idk shut the fuck up you btich