Author's Note: I am not an editor or a professional writer. I will write this and edit it to the best of my ability. I also do not own Uma Musume, which is owned by Cygames. Watch the animes and read the mangas, for they are pretty good. Finally, please enjoy.
Tsukasa Takajima POV
After Performance Re-exams
While I was working on my plans for the tournament was when Yuto came into the room. We've been working for a while now since the staff introductions. What I can get from him is a cruel and ruthless strategic mind, which I hear got worse after Gray herself told him his plans were baby shit in comparison to her cruelty. Speaking of which I thought I'd seen messed-up strategies, but Gray's are just evil. I also talk a lot with Vic, Rain, Jo, and Steel.
Victory Gate or Vic for short is the perfect captain, she leads perfectly and cares about her team. Modest, and not arrogant, caring and never egotistical, the perfect captain. We talk a lot to help each other as coach and captain they all made the right choice choosing her as captain. Then there's Rain or Enduring Rain and her training suggestions are brilliant being able to improve the body in flexible and effective ways.
Almost as if she were a fitness instructor and coach herself. Plus as a dietitian, she is brilliant matching perfectly with the experts on the team. Still with them almost dying in training camp, she stepped up to help out in planning the physical training. Next is Jo or Endless Journey and she is a brilliant genius to the point of having enough knowledge to surpass those with doctorates. Her research results always make me have to evolve and enhance my training methods leading to sleepless nights for the coaching team and staff.
That is until the curfew adoption, which gave everyone some much-needed rest. Still with the threats we informed them of and the near-death situation we put them through during training camp, she changed. She decided to spend more time with those she cared about and enjoyed life. Still, we all know she's making up for it by using tech and getting assistants to cover for it. Making her research happen in less time, and opening it to new avenues.
Then there's Steel my current girlfriend or Steel Valkyrie the team's ace and strongest. Now I've been able to hide it, but I did not expect myself to reunite with my old student. I haven't even told Mina that's how troubled I am by this situation. I remember her clearly the girl I recruited when I first started my career, the girl I made into a dominant racer in the local scene. The one everyone wanted to steal from me, and the one that led me to ruin with a confession of her love.
Yeah her, I did not expect to see her again after coming here. I thought it was going to be awkward at first, but it really seems she's forgotten about everything. I almost thought it was a completely different person at first, until I saw the files. I even expected her to confront me, but it never happened. I watched her run and train she's become so strong.
Her physicality is amazing, her running style perfect, her strategy flawless, her versatility immaculate, and her will to win ruthless. She's become so much without me, because I know I didn't teach her that. She's become a woman who is obsessed with victory and competition. Her personality is becoming a sweet serious girl to this dominant yet feminine woman. Heck, she didn't even recognize me when I first met her.
I hated it, who taught her, who made her so amazing? Then I found her in my office looking at files and data doing an all-nighter. She was surprised, which led to her asking me out on a date. Which never happened, because of Mina's grounding of the team. Now I know she still likes me, but somehow doesn't remember me for some reason.
Now that the incident almost destroyed my career entirely in Japan, I have to make a plan that if anyone finds out who she is and our past together it doesn't consume the team. I also think I have a great reason as well. A message arrived on my phone earlier reading," Greetings Coach Tsukasa, do you have any idea on how to protect our players from the threats that are coming for us? Don't mistaken we have the best security and cybersecurity money can buy being installed, but extra ideas to protect the team are always welcome. From Mina Sakamoto/Du Vault."
I came up with a plan immediately, and it hid my intentions perfectly. I summoned everyone for a meeting, with Mina, Yuto, and, Iguro coming after I told them I had the perfect idea for protecting our players. Once everyone got there and was seated I began the meeting. I spoke saying," Everyone I have brought you here because our boss Mina here has informed me she wanted to have extra measures to protect the team outside of just the security and cybersecurity she is already implementing. I have the perfect solution for that, and it is this."
I took out a mask that was designed to be light, breathable, easy to wear, comfortable, and that doesn't hinder our players. Everyone looked confused and I explained," Masks are the perfect answer, as well as code names. Which we will tell everyone is fake, which will bring in attention, and with our talent intrigue. Plus they are allowed with permission from the league and protect our player's identities as well." GW raised her hand and spoke saying," We as a team agreed to be ourselves and I think this will hinder that."
I then replied saying," You can still be you, heck you can design your masks to represent yourself and still act as yourself. The masks and code names are just there to make sure no one knows where you live or recognizes you on the streets." They all accepted that answer and soon after the discussions everyone agreed to it. Mina soon spoke saying," Everyone is dismissed I expect your mask designs turned in within 2 days. I also expect all staff, security, and heads to have masks for protection as well."
Once everyone in the team left Mina came up to me saying," Tsukasa stay for a bit we have something we would like to discuss with you." She pointed at herself, Yuto, and Iguro, and soon I was sitting down across from her. She spoke assuredly," Yuto told me you're planning on benching Steel our best player and only using her in open tournaments and team races. Can you tell me why you're doing this and what you're thinking before I decide whether you're more incompetent than I thought and you should not be leading this team?" Yuto you fucking snitch, he must have seen some of my plans and reported them to Mina without asking me anything about it.
Still, years of dealing with reporters and confrontational people thanks to my past have made me able to think fast and come up with answers, true or not. I soon answered her question calmly to hide my deceit using true statements," We all know how strong Steel is, she can race every race in a tournament and win every race, am I wrong?" Everyone nodded to it in agreement, and soon I continued," Now we all know in sports such dominance doesn't last long because of counter strategy, and once that happens people now have ways to deal with our strongest player even when we change strategies. No thank you, my plan is to hide Steel and use the team itself to confuse other teams on the abilities and strength levels of our players. Basically, they won't know who our strongest and who our weakest players are, and what they can do, until we really need Steel or we get to Paris they won't know what's coming."
Mina nodded and asked," I see and what will the team think?" I responded," Other than Steel the others would get more races and the spotlight shining on them. They might feel bad for Steel at first, but they'll soon warm up to the idea, especially once we explain the strategy to them." Mina stared at me feeling like she was reading my soul and calmly responded," I will approve of this strategy..." Yes, my plans are going exactly as planned, and better since it's approved." She interrupted my thoughts saying,"...but I have a few conditions."
I responded," Anything for you boss, you're still head honcho here." She rolled her eyes at the American phrases I picked up while working there. She soon told me," We all know how impatient Steel can be and we don't want her going to another team just to get race time, so she will race all the open races herself. Along with whether the team is doing worse than we thought or once everyone has lost at least once she is free to race. Am I clear on this Tsukasa?"
I quickly responded," Yes Ma'am, I'll do so." I felt her dark presence go through me. She smiled and soon replied saying," Good, Yuto, Tsukasa you're dismissed." We both soon left the room and soon we were back at the office. Yuto then spoke to me apologetically saying," Sorry man, I thought you were planning on sabotaging the team when I saw those written plans so I reported you." Three goddesses Yuto you could've asked me first, and not reported me to the boss. You know how much I almost shit myself?
Still, despite my thoughts I calmly told my top data analyst and logistics expert," It's fine, next time ask first okay, so we don't have to go through the tiny demon queen herself again okay. He nodded in agreement on how scary the boss could be, especially since it's been so soon since we both almost killed the team during training camp. He then told me," Sure, next time inform me of your plans, so we can discuss them together." I sighed he was right, we're a team, no matter the read we needed to have some transparency with each other when it comes to strategies. He then asked," So what else are you planning for the team?"
He grinned trying to pry some info from me. I smiled saying," Sure the plans you saw were incomplete, so let's set our starters first each race, and for each type of track together. Then let's decide what roles we'll give the rest of the team to make the strategy come true using the player requests, when we interviewed them for details and requests they wanted for the team." He seemed surprised and soon nodded saying," That's a great idea, it'll also make strategies more targeted and precise this way." We nodded to each other smiling like idiots before we went to work.
Two Days later
The day to show off masks came and we all decided this would be the day to announce the starters and roles in the future. First, the mask and they all designed some unique masks if I say so myself. Vic looks like a fusion of a Power Ranger mask with a wrestler's mask, and Mama's looks like a combination of a superhero mask with racing goggles. Gray's looks like a kabuki mask with black coverings, and Rose's looks like a combination of a performer's mask with an opera mask. GW's looks like a knight's helm, while Rain's looks like a dark superhero wrestler mask.
Next was Lily's which looks like a knight's helm with sunglasses visors and a metal face mask, Spice's looks like a goth horror mask with Bane's mouthpiece. ImP's looks like a white demon mask with a beak mouthpiece, while BlaD's is a pure black mask with only his mouth visible. Sweets's mask looks like a mix of a wrestling mask fused with a football helmet, while Jo went with the opposite of BlaD a pure white mask with only his eyes visible. Norn's mask is a velveteen pink mask with red lines covering everything except her hair. Finally, KiWi was a unicorn wrestling mask without the horn, which made it look kind of weird in some way. Everyone was looking at me when I was looking at KiWi's mask watching my reaction while hiding giggles for some reason, maybe it was an inside joke, I don't know, I couldn't care less.
They all must have worked hard with the design team to make masked uniquely to them since they also had artistic patterns and art on the masks. I looked at Steel and her mask looking like a superhero Valkyrie mask fused with magical girl vibes on it. It covered her face and that's what made me happy the most. We soon moved on, because in the room all the heads had shown up and were talking with the team about the masks. Now it was time to speak about the most important part of today.
I spoke out loud saying," Okay everyone the masks are amazing and we have been informed they have been fitted and tested. Well done, now let us begin the second half of this meeting. Rules in the FSRL are that each team must have a team of 15 and each player has to be in a race before you repeat a player. Tournaments have many types of races and teams with a diverse lineup like ours are usually the best. That's why placing you all logically in the right spots is necessary, because again we can't do repeats until you've all had a turn, or one needs substitution if one is unavailable either by sickness, injury, or suspension."
All of the players were excited as they realized we were about to announce the starter lineup. I continued speaking saying, " remember the lineup will change throughout the year, and I will not take questions until both the lineups and team roles are announced. First thing though we will have two team compositions for turf and dirt for every type of race and distance, except for relays where we will just switch players out if needed. Relay Starter Turf Team is: Lead off: Tyrant Rose, Leg 2: Mama Blues, Leg 3: Great Wonder, and Anchor: Steel Valkyrie. Relay Starter Dirt Team is: Lead off: Black Diamond, Leg 2: Victory Gate, Leg 3: Tactical Gray, and Anchor: Norn Viking."
All of them wanted to ask so many questions, but I ignored that and continued," Obstacle Races next Short Races: Turf: King Wild, Dirt: Endless Journey. Mile: Turf: Tyrant Rose, Dirt: Tactical Gray, Medium: Turf: Endless Journey, Dirt: Enduring Rain. Finally Long: Turf: Victory Gate, Dirt: Sweet Pollen. Now for Relay, we chose the people best at teamwork, while Obstacles we chose those that won't only survive the environment, but thrive, while staying with our team's plan this year. Next is the flats where the racing is less dangerous and more athletic."
Kiwi then interrupted in celebration saying," Woohoo Jo we're both racing short obstacle!" I then interrupted her saying," Enough talking let's continue, Flats short first: Turf: Mama Blues, Dirt: Black Diamond. Mile next, Turf: Imperial Punk, Dirt: Norn Viking, medium is next, with Turf: Tyrant Rose, Dirt: Edged Lily. Finally long races, Turf: High Spice, Dirt: Steel Valkyrie. Now those who are assigned to two roles don't be surprised if you're substituted in a race when you've already raced, and not all 15 of you have raced yet, those are the league's rules, making substitutions very important."
Some of them were understanding the starters and why some of them were only assigned a single role, they knew they were most likely the substitutes if those players weren't allowed to race yet. I then continued saying," Now the team's strategy this year is to hide the power ranks of our team as much as possible by giving you roles to play. Don't worry you won't have to act like someone you're not, this is to stop other teams from picking on our weakest and counter-strategizing against our strongest. Remember what happened with T.M Opera O in her second Arima Kinen, because there are no rules against working together just to fuck with one player. Plus this allows us to have more strategic variation and flexibility against them cause we control the information."
They all nodded as what I said made sense, and soon I began talking again," Now we took your requests into account, plus we will be fair with substitutions using who is available and who we need for the peculiar race. Now the roles are as follows, Vic is the team captain and will be presented as such, no surprise there. Mama Blues will be sold as our top sprinter sold as a record challenger, and Tactical Gray seeing what she wants to do will be sold as our biggest heel. Next Tyrant Rose will be our charming player type that's really good, and Great Wonder will be protected because of her dangerous uncontrollable combat ability and our team's worst athlete." I saw GW's face looking down in frustration as Iguro and Rose tried to make her feel better about the situation.
I continued my announcements saying," Next is Enduring Rain and we will sell you as yourself, cause you can somehow sell yourself as your personality is just that likable for some reason. Next is an important one, Edged Lily you will be sold as our strongest as you like challenges, and your main job is to hide Steel and protect her from counterattacks until it's time to unleash her on the world. Steel Valkyrie your role is to stay hidden as a mid-tier member used to conquer Open Tournaments as they don't need to follow the same 15-man system as the main races, yet still offer a little bit of points, cause you only seem to care about wins." Everyone was sent speechless about the last two making Lily and Steel absolutely in shock. They were about to say something before Mina signaled everyone to stay quiet.
They all stayed silent thanks to respect for her and soon I continued," High Spice will be sold as our top Stayer and secondary heel after Gray, and Imperial Punk being a all rounder will be sold as our ace and top star, separate from our team's 'strongest'. Next is Black Diamond which will be sold as our artistic soul of the team that's also athletic. While Sweet Pollen is our girly rough rouser that is very relatable and fun, Endless Journey is going to be sold as our team's nerdy expert athlete who has a lot of experience. Next is Norn Viking who is very flexible will be sold as our team's idol which is used to sell fashion and other products, while being dominant. Finally, King Wild will be sold as our crazy unorthodox underdog to the crowd."
I wasn't done yet as I put the puzzle pieces together in front of them saying," The job is to turn everyone's attention elsewhere, with Vic, Lily, Mama Blues, and Spice to hide Steel. Norn, BlaD, ImP, and KiWi to distract the team from trouble, and make them underestimate the team. Jo, Gray, Sweets, and Rain to break them strategically and gather data on them. Finally for Steel and GW to stay hidden until needed. Now that everything has been assigned you will all need codenames, and we based them on colors."
I immediately announced their codenames to them," ImP is Agent Azure, while Spice is Agent Ivory, and Norn is Agent Viridian. Next is Lily, who is Agent Crimson, GW is Agent Amber, and Steel is Agent Magenta. Next up is Jo who is Agent Mint, Gray is Agent Ash, and Mama Blues is Vice Captain Cobalt. Next is KiWi who is Agent Chestnut, Rain is Agent Onyx, and BlaD is Agent Ebony. Next up is Rose being Agent Ruby, Sweets being Agent Celeste, and finally Vic being Captain Primrose."
I finally finished up my announcements by saying," Those are your codenames, now that everything has been announced does anyone have any questions to ask?" I soon began thinking as the inevitable came, with Steel saying," What the fuck Tsukasa, I know I said I like winning, but I at least like to be fed sharks not guppies. With that counter strategy bullshit, I'm fucking invincible." I knew she might quit if I didn't say anything, and I can't let that happen, so I had to come up with something. Then I saw the clock and it was 1:13 PM, I suddenly had an epiphany and spoke saying," Oh darling history has proven even the mightiest armies and most invincible individuals can fall by brilliant strategy and wits."
I soon stood up as she was already standing. I got on the table walked to where she was looked down on her saying," Steel Mina has already told me to put you in if either the team is worse than we believed or every other member has lost a race. However how about this darling, in accumulated races either open or regular tournament races if you win 113 races straight without losing once I will consider putting you in. How about it?" I then heard Vic ask out loud, "113, why a hundred and thir... oh ohhhh." Mama Blues then asked Vic," What's up Vic, what did you realize?"
Her answer was quick and immediate," Haru." Every one of the team immediately saw what Vic was thinking, which the Heads also picked up on. I wasn't thinking that at all, but fuck it I'll use it. I spoke cockily saying," That's right Steel, how about we do the Haru Urara redemption challenge. Heck, why don't all of you do a personal challenge, just so you know I might not care."
That's when I was knocked off the table by Steel as she caught me saying," Okay darling challenge accepted. She soon dropped me on the ground and left the room with her mask without saying anything with Vic, Rose, and Rain following her just in case. That's when GW came to me asking with tears in her eyes," Am I so weak that I have to be protected like this?" She was being comforted by Norn, Mama Blues, and Sweets. I answered," No, but Iguro and Mina asked me to do this while they work with you to control your strength so you don't accidentally kill anyone and go to prison."
She then looked at Iguro who was right behind her offering his hand saying," Let's get to work Miss GW." GW blushed a little as the other girls let her go and they walked out of the room together. The girls soon left following them both just in case GW needed more comforting. The rest of the Heads all left as they all divided leaving only Yuto to help me up. Mina left with Suzu and Takeshi by her side and the rest went back to work.
The team also began leaving one by one with BlaD saying," Man this is a mess and it's ruining my vibes, so I'm gonna head out. ImP, Spice, KiWi let's head out I'm thinking let's celebrate our team's new star together." They all cheered and left to party. Gray also got up saying," I agree with everything you said Coach and I will support it as much as I can. Now though it's time to go, Jo, Lily let's go the others have left I think we all should celebrate in our own way."
Soon Yuto and I nodded at each other and called the servants to clean the place up before we left ourselves. He spoke saying," That went better than we thought, and I don't know where you came up with that 113 thing, but it was brilliant." I smiled awkwardly at him as I soon told him," I could use a drink after all this, because the last week before the tournament begins starts in 2 days." Yuto nodded saying," You got that right brother, let's go." I just love it when a plan falls into place.