Fumino Nase had willingly joined Team Miracle, becoming their new member, but not as the former genius Trainer, but as the team's assistant.
This news quickly spread throughout Tracen Academy, causing a huge stir. Many Trainers, upon hearing the news, reacted with, "Impossible, there's no way this is true!"
The name Fumino Nase was by no means obscure to Tracen's staff, which only had a little over twenty Trainers.
Although Tracen Academy's Trainers stood at the peak among Japan's Trainers, with each of them being highly sought after wherever they went, not all of them were equally sought after.
There are many ways to differentiate Trainers, whether it be by connections, length of employment, achievements, or just pure skill and talent.
And in the category of talent, Fumino Nase would undoubtedly be at the pinnacle among her peers in Tracen. Even when considering the entire URA organization, which spanned the entire world, Fumino could still be considered highly impressive, a truly brilliant gem.
She entered Tracen Academy at 21, and in the same year, took on her first Uma Musume, Super Creek, to compete with Oguri Cap, even once rivaling Oguri Cap's record.
She was hailed as a "once-in-a-century genius," an object of admiration for countless Trainers and Uma Musume throughout the entirety of Japan.
Possessing both skill and beauty is a very rare thing, and Fumino Nase fully embodied this, perfectly showcasing the advantages of this combination.
Although Fumino Nase was a newcomer back then, she never lacked suitors. Many Trainers, from regional level to central level, the main school or a branch school, pursued her.
However, she never showed interest in anyone from beginning to end, simply focusing on her own affairs.
There were even rumors that several Uma Musume had confessed to Fumino Nase, using the excuse of wanting to become her Uma Musume to try and get close to her, but these rumors were never confirmed and eventually faded...
Nevertheless, Fumino Nase's charm and ability were well-known at Tracen Academy. Although she later temporarily left Tracen Academy for unknown reasons, whenever her name was mentioned, many Trainers and Uma Musume at Tracen Academy would picture her gallant figure.
But such a beautiful and genius Trainer, a person who could be mistaken as a favored child of the Three Goddesses wherever she went, actually joined a team that had only been established for less than half a year, and even became a lowly assistant in that team!
What made many male Trainers even more envious was that all three members of this team were men!
Immediately, many variations of the same rumor about this news circulated within Tracen Academy. Among them, Wada, who was given "special treatment" by Fumino Nase, naturally received the most attention.
For a time, he became the public enemy of a majority of male Trainers at Tracen Academy. Some even linked Fumino Nase's sudden departure from the school all those years back to Wada, but these matters had no effect on Fumino Nase.
She now felt that joining this team would be the right choice. Here, she could not only share her hard-earned research and knowledge with those who truly needed it, but also learn what she was lacking from how this team interacts.
Fumino Nase, of course, also wanted to take on another trainee for a while, but she always felt that she was lacking something.
Thus, she had been honing her skills as a Trainer, even studying advanced techniques from foreign countries, all to try to fill that "lackingness" she felt.
But now, Fumino Nase realized that what she lacked might not be theory, but "practical experience." As a Trainer, she couldn't read books day and night and not do anything.
If she wanted to be a Trainer, she had to better understand what an excellent Trainer should do. And coincidentally, the three Trainers in this team represented three different aspects of a Trainer, yet without exception, they all demonstrated what a truly "excellent Trainer" is to the fullest.
Therefore, Fumino Nase was willing to stay here. She wanted to know where she still fell short in becoming a truly excellent Trainer. And as a bargaining chip, exchanging her hard-earned knowledge... Fumino felt it was fair.
But on paper, she was still currently serving as an assistant to Wada's group.
She planned to take it step by step, starting with Wada, who was third, then Ikezoe, and finally Imanami. She believed that once she had learned the methodology and mindsets of all three Trainers, she would be able to take one step closer to becoming the best Trainer.
As for Wada... he was currently overwhelmed with work. Unexpectedly becoming the "public enemy" of all male Trainers in Tracen, and even some Uma Musume, Wada was now busy dealing with his interpersonal relationships, trying to salvage his reputation...
Just like that, another week quickly passed, and it was time for Ikezoe and Maruzensky's weekly private lesson.
"Curren Chan, Orfevre, today's going to be a rest day. I have something to do today."
"Oh, take care, Ikezoe."
"Be careful on your way, Onii-chan~"
Ikezoe bid farewell to Orfevre and Curren Chan. Today's farewell was unusually smooth, so smooth that Ikezoe was getting suspicious.
Neither Orfevre nor Curren Chan pestered him or tried to beat him up, leaving Ikezoe, who had prepared his lines, somewhat flustered.
However, this actually saved Ikezoe some effort. He happily walked towards the Tracen Academy gate. And shortly after he had walked away, Orfevre and Curren Chan's smiles simultaneously faded, gradually becoming serious.
"...Ikezoe, that guy, is definitely hiding something from us," Orfevre mumbled, crunching down on the candy in her mouth.
However, the suspicion and anger in her tone made anyone who heard it instinctively scared.
"Hehe, sure enough, Orfevre, you also noticed it~" Curren Chan also nodded with a smile, her gaze fixed on the direction Ikezoe had left, saying with a giggle:
"Curren Chan has felt that Onii-chan has been a bit off since last week. Onii-chan was too excited when he came back then; it didn't seem like he just had a talk with Mr. C.B. in the branch school."
"Moreover, I remember that day, Onii-chan had a very strong scent of perfume on him. This perfume... if I'm not mistaken, it's a very classic brand of perfume popular with Uma Musume a few decades ago."
"...Are you saying that Ikezoe is meeting other Uma Musume behind our backs?"
However, Curren Chan's words made Orfevre's eyes narrow slightly. For some reason, as soon as she thought of this possibility, the fierceness in Orfevre's eyes intensified a few levels, and she even ground her teeth lightly in annoyance.
"This guy, he's really insatiable. He already has two Uma Musume under him and he still wants another outsider?"
"But at the very least, none of my sisters seem to use perfume, so it's definitely not one of them... Otherwise, if I find out, I'll definitely beat..."
However, halfway through her sentence, Orfevre's originally fierce tone suddenly faltered, because she suddenly realized that she was in fact, the weakest among her sisters; she was always the one who got hammered.
Even against other Uma Musume, Orfevre would most likely still lose. Though she was powerful when it comes to running, in actual combat... she was utterly hopeless...
"Orfevre, why don't we go and see who Onii-chan is sneaking off with?" Seeing that Orfevre also had this desire, Curren Chan's big eyes rolled, and she immediately decided to take Orfevre with her.
It's always better to have someone help than to go alone, and if things go wrong, Curren Chan felt that she could trick Orfevre into taking on all the blame for her; after all, Orfevre wasn't exactly the brightest and should be easy to fool...
"Follow him... wait, isn't that basically stalking? Wouldn't that be a bit... you know?" Orfevre also felt a little timid at the suggestion. She had never done such a thing...
"It's fine, Onii-chan is oblivious enough that he definitely wouldn't think we'd do it, and plus, we don't necessarily have to chase after him now." Curren Chan said this while raising her phone, saying with a smile:
"I borrowed Onii-chan's phone yesterday and installed a location tracking app on it. Given Onii-chan's personality, he definitely trusts me enough to not care about what I did with his phone."
"We just need to check his location on my phone here to know where Onii-chan went."
"...Curren Chan, you're very scary you know that?"
Orfevre shivered with lingering fear at her words, but still pulled down her mask and said solemnly:
"Then I'll go there physically to check, b- but just to check, okay? I don't care who Ikezoe is with, I just don't want my Trainer to be involved with shady Uma Musumes..."
"Alright, alright," Curren Chan also smiled faintly, having long discovered Orfevre's excuse.
After Curren Chan and Orfevre left, two heads suddenly popped out from a bush nearby. Two Uma Musume, holding a tree branch in each hand, were seen, one of them saying to the Uma Musume beside her:
"Gold Ship, isn't following them like this a bit wrong? And why did you suddenly want to follow Orfevre and Curren Chan?"
"Why...? Because I'm very curious about how Orfevre-nee and Trainer Ikezoe are getting along. And as long as I'm there, Trainer Ikezoe probably wouldn't die by the hands of my sister... probably..."
"Actually, the real question is you, McQueen. Why did you come along? I thought you wouldn't."
"I- I'm just curious... After all, Trainer Ikezoe and our Trainer are on the same team. If anything happens, it will also affect Trainer's reputation."
Mejiro McQueen also coughed dryly at the words. In reality, she was also very curious about the relationship between Orfevre and Trainer Ikezoe.
Perhaps the only people who were unaware of the subtle relationship between Orfevre and Ikezoe were Orfevre and Ikezoe themselves.
However, in the eyes of others, the relationship between Orfevre and Ikezoe was already on the same level as Wada and T.M. Opera O, but with a few more layers of uncertainty.
And no one knew how far that thin veil had progressed. Therefore, to quench her curiosity, even McQueen followed along this time, wanting to go find out.
After all, she'll probably have to find someone in the future to continue the family bloodline and she wanted to learn in advance what the process of falling in love was like.
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Two Bushcampers equal to Yuta Okkotsu was fully realized.
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If you spot any errors, feel free to comment about it and I will fix it as soon as I can.