A few days later, at Tracen Academy, three Trainers and the members of the Student Council were still troubled by Shadai.
This time, they directly came to the Director's office, seeking her help.
"Ugh… this matter is indeed difficult, but Tracen Academy will absolutely not compromise with Shadai."
The Director said, fanning herself with a troubled expression, but still gave the three Trainers a thumbs-up.
Tracen Academy is an Uma Musume educational academy affiliated with the URA, and as the Director of this academy, she naturally held a position of considerable influence.
Shadai certainly couldn't intimidate the Director, but she also can't really deal with them in a permanent way either. After all, though she has influence in the URA, she couldn't represent the URA as a whole.
There were still others in higher positions above her. She could send a strongly worded letter in the name of Tracen Academy, but never in the name of the URA.
"Don't worry, Trainers, no one can forcefully poach from Tracen Academy, not even Shadai. This is my promise as the Director of Tracen Academy."
"—Of course, negotiations with Shadai will definitely be a bit troublesome. We won't be burning bridges with them, as Shadai controls too many resources."
"It wouldn't be good if it affects the development of Tracen Academy later."
The Director's voice also held a hint of helplessness, and Imanami, Ikezoe, and Wada exchanged glances, their expressions finally relaxed a little.
Several days of continuous stressing had left them looking somewhat fatigued.
After all, during this time, they had been constantly trying to find out ways to deal with this issue with the Student Council members.
Everyone was on high alert, even preparing for the worst.
Fortunately, with Director Yayoi Akikawa's guarantee, the ownership of the Uma Musumes' education will still belong to Tracen Academy and to the three Trainers.
With this, even Shadai would be incapable of forcefully poaching Tracen Academy's Uma Musume. Of course, they still had to deal with everything else that comes from antagonizing Shadai.
The pressure would be immense… but Director Akikawa thought that the three Trainers would be able to handle it no problem.
"Leave this matter to me! I'll be leaving with Tazuna to talk to Shadai. Rudolf, you should also come to represent the stance of our students, since you're the Student Council President."
"No problem." Symboli Rudolf, who stood with the three Trainers, also nodded decisively. This matter was something she should handle, and moreover, it involved Tokai Teio.
Though Symboli Rudolf has the influence to deal with Shadai, at most, she can only force them to let the three Trainers still be their Trainer; they'd still have to be labeled as Uma Musume under Shadai.
If Shadai had given her the notice first, she would've probably chosen this method and kept Team Miracle's Uma Musume, or more specifically Tokai Teio, in the dark about it—she didn't want Teio's future races to be influenced by knowing she was branded with sponsorships and the names of others.
And plus, being under Shadai wasn't all doom and gloom. Teio could indeed enjoy better resources.
And as for merchandising rights and other stuff like that... these were things only adults like herself have to care about; there was no need for a child like Teio, who only liked to run, to know about it.
But now, Shadai's actions were simply too underhanded, directly threatening the Trainers and negatively affecting the training of the team's Uma Musume.
At this point, even Symboli Rudolf's initial plan to secretly compromise with Shadai was completely extinguished.
Shadai's actions had already affected Teio, and if Symboli Rudolf compromised further, could she even be someone who Teio looked up to?
A genius running on the racetrack requires countless discussions among adults behind the scenes to pave the way. And the Trainers, Student Council, and other important figures are those adults.
"Then we'll trouble the Director."
Imanami, as the representative of the three Trainers, bowed to the Director, pulling Ikezoe and Wada with him.
"Then let's leave this matter for now, we'll go back…"
"—Director Akikawa, Shadai has sent a letter."
At this moment, the door to the Director's office was pushed open, and Hayakawa Tazuna, dressed in green, immediately walked in, handing the letter in her hand to the Director and saying:
"Someone from Shadai handed this to me at the school gate, saying that Shadai intends to reach a consensus with Tracen Academy regarding the previous matter, and stated that they could consider retracting the previously proposed deal…"
"—What?! Did those old fogies from Shadai have a change of heart?!"
This sudden news caused the Director, the three Trainers present, and the Student Council members to be completely shocked.
Just a few moments ago, they were still hounding them over this matter, so why did Shadai's attitude make a 180-degree turn in an instant?
Director Akikawa took the letter from Tazuna's hand with a skeptical expression, reading it suspiciously.
However, the more she read, the more the doubt between her brows slowly eased, eventually becoming somewhat strange.
Slowly, Director Akikawa put down the letter in her hand and looked at Imanami in front of her with a subtle gaze.
"…What's wrong, Director?" Imanami naturally noticed the Director's gaze on him and asked in confusion.
"—This time, our crisis was unexpectedly resolved by your two Uma Musume, Trainer Imanami."
A mysterious smile appeared on the Director's face, and then she handed the letter to Imanami, whispering to herself with a smile,
"Honestly, I thought you were the most safe out of the three. The other two already had a somewhat ambiguous relationship with their Uma Musume since the first day they met; only you kept your relationship pure."
"I didn't expect you to have quietly captivated them so quickly without us even knowing..."
As Akikawa shook her head, she quickly returned to her cheerful, loud self and said,
"Attention! So, it seems like the Mejiro Family and the Gold Family are willing to confront Shadai head-on alongside us."
"Now, it seems like Shadai has decided to cut its losses. After all, for those guys, losing money is more painful than killing them."
As the Director spoke, Imanami took the letter. Ikezoe and Wada immediately leaned in and quickly saw a few key phrases written in the letter.
"…Due to our company's premature conclusions without prior investigation, we have caused issues with Tracen Academy, the Mejiro Family, and the Gold Family. Shadai hereby expresses its sincere apologies"
"The previous letter did not represent the true intentions of Shadai's upper management, and the relevant personnel have been dismissed. Shadai, again, expresses its deepest regrets for this, but we still hope to discuss matters concerning Uma Musume cooperation in further detail…"
Wada softly murmured these words, but soon, Wada's and Ikezoe's gazes locked onto Imanami, their eyes reflecting a strange emotion.
The Mejiro Family and the Gold Family—although Ikezoe also had an Uma Musume from the Gold Family, the ability to mobilize these two families at the same time only existed within Imanami's team.
And clearly, the events behind this letter and the change in Shadai's attitude were undoubtedly related to Gold Ship and Mejiro McQueen.
At this moment, even Imanami himself hadn't expected this.
After all, the reason why he had let Gold Ship supervise McQueen and Teio in the first place was because he himself was too busy managing other matters.
Now, these children ultimately decided to get involved, even dragging their families into it even though Imanami had repeatedly warned them not to do so.
How to put it… Imanami himself was deeply moved, but his rationality clearly understood that this was not a wise choice.
Because waging an all-out war with Shadai over this matter was absolutely not a wise move.
Though they might've won the battle this time due to the surprise interference of the Gold Family and the Mejiro Family, which caused the situation to balloon out of proportion... Shadai was not one to simply just take a beating like that.
Imanami had thought that the fewer the number of people who are affected by this matter, the better. Ideally, Shadai could target him personally and not involve others.
After all, he had some experience in dealing with Shadai and already had a plan laid out... but now, Imanami's plans were thrown into disarray, extinguished by the power of his two Uma Musume's families.
"This really… leaves me at a loss."
For a moment, Imanami didn't know whether to be angry or happy, but now he knew that he should first go and find out how his two Uma Musume were doing.
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Imanami's grandpa aura is no longer working
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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.