When Shinji found King Halo again, she was crouched beside a wall near the training grounds.
Her face was still smeared with dust and mud. She had buried herself in her now-dirty school uniform, arms wrapped around her knees, and her damp eyes looked up timidly at the man whose shadow had blocked out the sunlight in front of her.
Shinji saw the hurt in her eyes.
Saw the fear that rose in her the moment he stood over her.
He said nothing. He simply crouched down.
Trainer and horse girl met at eye level. Staring into Shinji's eyes, King Halo spoke in a small voice.
"I'm sorry."
There were probably many things she ought to apologize for.
For the disaster she had made of that mock race. For the rumors and criticism that would inevitably splash onto Shinji because of her.
She did not know that Shinji had already faced down those trainers for her. But when she fled the course, she had heard the wave of voices beginning to rise behind her.
She had run away in disgrace, just as she had once before.
The only difference was that back then, she had still been able to find excuses for herself.
Now, after finally taking a firm step forward, after finally finding a trainer she truly accepted, she had become that same kind of failure all over again.
A complete, miserable loser—and this time, she could not even come up with a proper excuse.
With that thought, she rested her chin on her knees.
Was she really just useless?
Especially when she compared herself to her mother.
Shinji watched her sit there in silence.
The pride that usually lay in her bones was gone. So were the optimism and forward drive that used to cling to her. The good things that had always made her who she was seemed to be fading away, all because of a defeat she herself had caused.
Then Shinji spoke.
"Why didn't you move outside when you had the chance?"
A dazed look entered King Halo's eyes. She wanted nothing less than to revisit a single detail of that mock race.
But the man in front of her was the trainer she had personally chosen—the one she had even defied her mother for. Of course she had to listen to him.
"I don't know…"
Her voice was soft and sweet. Perhaps she had kept her chin pressed on her knees for too long, because she looked tired, tilting her head slightly as she spoke.
"At the time… I thought I saw a gap there, and I just slipped into it without thinking…"
That was exactly what came of not being able to judge the timing of acceleration.
She had wanted a place where she could speed up with confidence, yet she had never actually thought through what such a place should look like. And in the midst of all her hesitation, the only thing she had managed to see was the trap laid out specifically for her.
"Your closing speed was good enough. It was a problem you could've solved easily just by swinging wide."
Of course Shinji could have shouted that to her in the moment.
But if he had, the mock race would have lost all meaning.
He did not care about what the others said. And he believed King Halo had to learn to stop caring about it first as well.
Even if she became a first-rate horse girl, even if she finally won the G1 she had long dreamed of, she would still be nowhere close to her mother.
"I understand."
Her reply came out very quietly.
The confidence had clearly been stripped from her by this mock race. She had thrown herself completely into training over the past weeks. There had even been days when she pushed herself until she vomited.
And yet even after all that, she had still lost.
Slowly, she pushed herself upright and leaned back against the wall behind her. Her eyes were vacant. Looking at her like that, Shinji let out a sigh, then sat down beside her.
He had left Tazuna farther away. He thought it would be better if he came alone.
King Halo looked at him in surprise.
She had expected a severe scolding, harsh criticism, something merciless. She had already prepared herself for it, built all sorts of defenses inside her heart.
She had cried once already.
She did not want to be scolded to tears by her trainer too. That would be unbearably humiliating.
She did not want to be that pathetic.
But Shinji's reaction had gone entirely against her expectations. He gazed up at the utterly cloudless sky. Its clean, endless blue drew her own gaze upward as well.
"When I was younger, I spent every day obsessively memorizing all the theory in those trainer textbooks. The only break I got at noon was like this—just staring blankly at the sky."
King Halo turned toward him. She had not expected him, in a moment like this, to treat her gently and start telling her about his own past.
"I worked insanely hard. There was another student who was always neck and neck with me, but she never put in the same effort I did. I thought that sooner or later, the difference in how hard we worked would show."
King Halo pressed her lips together.
Back when she was in the middle school division, she had had no real rivals at all. No matter how hard the other girls pushed themselves, no matter if they gave one hundred and twenty percent, they still could not catch her.
In Shinji's story, she was the trainer standing opposite him.
"But in the end, it was a shame. In that final year, even after putting in absolute effort, I still lost to her. Or rather… all the way to the very end, I was always just one step behind."
There was something in Shinji's tone—something halfway between resignation and acceptance—that she could not quite place.
She still did not fully understand what he was trying to tell her.
But as she listened, she quietly let one hand drift closer to him.
Shinji noticed the small hand coming to rest against him. Its coolness touched his wrist, and he gave a faint shrug.
"Still, so what? Her theory might've been better, but without a feel for real competition, she ended up leaving the turf and giving up on this world entirely. In the end, whether you're a trainer or a horse girl, what matters is always the result. Practice and study matter, yes—but in the end, racing is a matter of feel. Winning is. Running is. Every little detail touches that feeling."
As he spoke, he turned his hand and closed it around her wrist.
King Halo instinctively tried to pull away, then stopped herself and let him hold it.
"Don't treat all that as baggage. You're no different from starting over from zero. You have to find your own feel. You have to trust the version of yourself that exists in a race. No matter how polished your training or theoretical understanding becomes, neither can compare to the instinct that can actually lead you to victory."
At last, a faint glimmer returned to her eyes.
The edges that had been ground down even further by the mock race were gradually being sharpened again by his words.
"Whether it's what other people say, whether it's winning or losing—you were always going to have to experience all those ups and downs anyway. So why not face them in the best state you can?"
The girl gently leaned her head against his shoulder.
Only lightly.
Shinji's words drew a small nod from her. Her hair brushed against his cheek, making it itch slightly.
But he did not move.
He waited.
Waited for his trainee to answer him.
And finally, she spoke.
"Trainer… do you know?"
"When I was little…"
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 142)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter181)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter103)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter192)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 173
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 166
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 110
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 190
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 165
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 156
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 81
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 102
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 120
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 80
Uma Musume: I Want All 95
I Can Copy Unique Skills 84
Summoning an Evil God, but the 66
Supernatural Multiverse 83
My Harem Is Indescribable 75
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 81
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 67
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 75
Still playing traditional Honk 55
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 60
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 57
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 45
Transmigrated as Sukuna 55
Checking In in Demon Slayer 60
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 65
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 35
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 35
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 39
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 58
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 30
Why did they assign me to Uma 35
MYGO Beauties 42
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