People generally have very little resistance to a child's pitiful cries; whether it's out of heartache, annoyance, or simple curiosity, a child's crying has always been a deafening noise that immediately draws the attention of everyone, eliciting various emotions.
For example, currently, when Sweep Tosho was scared into crying by Orfevre, nearly everyone nearby immediately stopped what they were doing and turned their heads to look.
Suddenly, countless gazes fell upon Ikezoe and the others, making them feel incredibly uneasy.
"This is really bad, the worst has happened..."
Ikezoe did a facepalm as the screeching sound entered his ears.
Facing Sweep Tosho, who was lying on the floor bawling her eyes out, he was at a complete loss for what to do.
Curren Chan and Orfevre, too, also hadn't expected Sweep Tosho to be so sensitive, crying at the first sign of being wronged.
"Wh- what should we do, Ikezoe?!"
Orfevre suddenly found herself in a difficult situation as she wasn't adept at comforting people at all, instinctively turning to Ikezoe for help.
"I don't know either! Why do you think I would have experience taking care of children?!"
Like the pair of emotionally deficient idiots they were, Ikezoe also didn't know what to do, instinctively turning to Curren Chan for help, the one who seemed the most 'motherly' out of all of them.
However, upon noticing Orfevre's and Ikezoe's pleading gazes, Curren Chan paused slightly, then, unusually, showed a troubled expression and waved her hand.
"Um, Curren Chan doesn't know either... I can only comfort children through my cuteness, but this trick doesn't seem to work on Tosho-chan; after all, even Fuji-senpai was defeated by her."
"Onii-chan, how about you give it a try? Maybe Tosho-chan will listen to you?"
"..."
Seeing that Curren Chan had passed the ball back to him again, Ikezoe opened his mouth but chose not to say anything; they were all hopeless anyways.
In the end, after glancing at Sweep Tosho, who had curled up while continuing to cry her heart out, he, the most 'experienced' among the three, finally took the initiative to step forward.
This time, Ikezoe was much gentler than when he first confronted Sweep Tosho earlier.
He quietly squatted down and met the eyes of Sweep Tosho, who was now hugging her legs, her eyes red.
After a long silence from Ikezoe, he slowly opened his mouth and asked a single question,
"...Still don't want to train?"
"...N- nawhh..."
After his words, Sweep Tosho no longer continued crying; she just continued to hug her legs while letting out soft sobs.
"Do you really not feel motivated? Or is it just that you don't like being forced?"
Seeing that Sweep Tosho had actually become much easier to understand after crying, he took the opportunity to ask several more questions.
"Hate..."
Sweep Tosho replied in a muffled, tearful voice:
"Hate training... hate racing..."
"No- no one knows about magic, I don't learn new magic even if I win, I don't wanna win... hate..."
"G- grandmother lied to me... you can't learn magic by racing..."
Though her words were rather fragmented, Ikezoe managed to somewhat understand what Sweep Tosho meant and why she resisted training and racing so much.
It seems like it all stems from her Grandmother, who, as Sweep Tosho called her, was some kind of witch.
Ikezoe didn't know whether this meant that she was a performer, a charlatan, or if she was an actual, magical witch, but he at least knew that Sweep Tosho greatly admired her Grandmother; it was even possible that her Grandmother was the one who raised her.
Regardless, it seemed like Sweep Tosho's talent for running was discovered and she was coaxed into becoming an Uma Musume.
Then, this Grandmother probably said something along the lines of: "If you win races, you can learn magic" to appease Sweep Tosho and trick her into joining Tracen Academy, with her fully believing in it.
But, after running a few races, she likely realized that she wasn't learning any 'magic' at all, realizing that she might have been deceived by her Grandmother.
Thus, it resulted in her disliking racing, which naturally resulted in her disliking training in general.
But for this to be the reason why this world's Sweep Tosho hates training...
For a moment, Ikezoe inexplicably found it absurdly funny; however, he quickly composed himself and said to Sweep Tosho:
"Hey, you don't have a Trainer, right? How about I become your Trainer?"
"...E- eh?"
Ikezoe's words caused Sweep Tosho's sobbing to stifle a little.
With tear-filled eyes, she looked up at Ikezoe in front of her, remaining silent for a long time.
Sweep Tosho didn't know why he was offering this to her now, but she wasn't stupid. She, of course, knew that Ikezoe was just trying to comfort her.
Stubbornly, she immediately turned her head away and said, feigning strength:
"N- no, I don't wanna."
"Y- you're not a witch, and you don't know any magic either, I don't want you as my Trainer..."
"Hmm... while I don't know about magic that can turn people into frogs, I don't believe that your Grandmother was lying to you."
Ikezoe waved his hand and said softly to Sweep Tosho:
"After winning a race, you can indeed learn magic. Although it might not be the same kind of magic you have in mind, you 100% can learn magic after winning a race."
"Liar."
Sweep Tosho immediately shook her head and spoke with conviction,
"I've won several times already, and I haven't learned anything."
"That's because the level of the races you had run in wasn't high enough. The more intense the race, the higher the possibility of you learning magic, you know."
Ikezoe's words seemed like absolute nonsense to anyone hearing, yet, the sheer confidence he exuded while saying it was making it mighty convincing to Sweep Tosho, with the probability of him successfully getting her to train getting higher and higher each passing moment.
Plus, he wasn't really lying either.
In his opinion, the 'Aura' that this world's Uma Musume could unleash, the power drawn from their very origin, was indeed no different from magic, almost like a power system of sorts from an anime.
On top of that, this world even had the concept of 'Zones,' which seemed even more magical than Aura.
Thus, the idea of 'learning magic through racing' wasn't actually entirely groundless. Look at T.M. Opera O and Orfevre; model examples of awakening during races.
...Actually, now that he was thinking of it, perhaps the 'magic' Sweep Tosho's Grandmother mentioned to her was actually this?
At this moment, Ikezoe seemed to somewhat understand why Sweep Tosho's Grandmother used this excuse to send her to study at Tracen Academy.
It was likely that she wanted her grandchild to achieve success with her talent. However, knowing Sweep Tosho's temperament, she had concocted a benevolent lie for her, tricking her while giving her the motivation to improve herself in Tracen...
Meanwhile, Orfevre and Curren Chan, seeing that Ikezoe had actually managed to calm Sweep Tosho, were somewhat surprised.
However, the two girls' reactions to Ikezoe's opportunistic fabrications were also somewhat different.
"Onii-chan, lying isn't good, you know?"
"I mean, it's not really lying, is it? After all, my Aura thing becomes more 'whoosh' and 'pow' every time I win a race. It's just that I'm not sure how talented she is at those stuff."
Orfevre shrugged and then asked Curren Chan beside her:
"Curren Chan, what do you think? Will Ikezoe actually recruit this little brat into our team?"
"...I don't know either, but I feel like she will be quite troublesome to deal with..."
Curren Chan watched Sweep Tosho, her eyes narrowing slightly, a mysterious smile on her face.
What 'troublesome' referred to, no one except for her knew. (T/N: Calm down girl, she's like half your age!!!)
"Hehe, cute little girl, my adorable junior over here really wasn't lying, you know?"
"If you win races, you definitely learn magic, it's just that you're only a little witch now and haven't truly understood the magic on the racetrack yet~"
Just then, a mature voice suddenly entered everyone's ears.
Before the group could react, Ikezoe immediately turned his head and saw Maruzensky standing behind Orfevre and Curren Chan.
"Teacher? Why are you here?"
"Huh~? Did you want your poor little teacher to leave~? How cruel~! Although I no longer race, I'm still counted as a student of Tracen Academy, kay~?"
In the corner of Orfevre's and Curren Chan's eyes, Maruzensky's mature and graceful figure emerged from the gap between the two girls, her devilish figure, which no child could compare to, swayed as she walked to Ikezoe's side.
"It's been a while, my student. Did you already abduct another cute Uma Musume while I was gone? You even made her cry!"
"That's no good, little Ikezoe. Bad boy~! Your elder sister doesn't like boys who make girls cry, you know."
"What are you even talking about, Teacher..."
Ikezoe didn't know how to answer her teases, but Ikezoe, having studied under Maruzensky for a long time now, very appropriately changed the subject.
"Teacher, are you looking for me? Is something wrong?"
"Hehe, nothing, just came to see if my dear student has actually put anything he learned from me to good use."
Maruzensky smiled softly at his words, then cast her gaze towards Orfevre and Curren Chan, who were glaring intently at her.
Her gaze was mainly focused on Orfevre, and she said, raising an eyebrow slightly:
"Also... I plan to test how strong my student's most proud Uma Musume is now."
However, no sooner had Maruzensky finished speaking, an Aura that made everyone present tremble swept through.
And Orfevre, feeling the full brunt of this, didn't fear Maruzensky at all, instead instantly becoming serious, countering with her own Aura.
As the two's Auras clashed, it made many Uma Musume present feel a shortness of breath, with Sweep Tosho directly eeping in fear, hiding behind Ikezoe.
However, although she was instinctively afraid, she was surprisingly happy, ecstatic even. As if she hadn't been scared into crying by Orfevre earlier.
Her eyes sparkled at the scene, and she murmured,
"I- i- is this magic?!"
"Grandmother— she- she really didn't lie to me! Uma Musume who win races really do have magic!"
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Shadow Uma Money Gang, we love casting Auras
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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.