"Curren Chan, Orfevre, from now on, Sweep Tosho over here will become a new member of our team. Everyone, please welcome her."
After Ikezoe and Maruzensky parted ways, he quickly went ahead and brought Sweep Tosho to the team building, contacting the rest of Team Miracle to gather there too.
Now, inside the living room, all the Uma Musume began clapping their hands under Ikezoe's lead, celebrating the arrival of a new team member.
T.M. Opera O, as the current strongest Uma Musume in Team Miracle, stepped forward towards Sweep Tosho, showing her most dashing smile.
"Hahahahaha! Trainer Ikezoe, you truly have a discerning eye. I can already feel that this little one over here is incredibly talented; she'll definitely be able to win GI races in the future!"
"Thanks for the compliment, Senior T.M. Opera O!"
Unlike her previous attitude, Sweep Tosho was being unexpectedly polite.
Though the tantrum she had thrown might have given Ikezoe and the others a bad first impression, she only really acted like that when it came to training and races.
In daily life, she was actually quite pleasant to be around.
Moreover, she was also very cute, with a child-like height of only 139 centimeters, an even daintier girl than Orfevre, which instantly made everyone (except Orfevre and Curren Chan) feel more affection for her.
"Of course! Sweep Tosho is indeed very talented. Still, she's still quite young right now, so her debut race might be even later than Teio's."
Ikezoe was intimately familiar with Sweep Tosho's talent.
Despite being a Filly, Sweep Tosho's small body concealed a powerful strength no less than that of a Stallion.
The power of her final spurt was also considered to be among the best, even when including Stallions; that was how powerful she was.
It was with the power of this final spurt that Ikezoe, riding Sweep Tosho, defeated two legendary Racehorses, Heart's Cry and Zenno Rob Roy.
Considering that some people might not be familiar enough with these two Racehorses, let me give you some background information on them: Heart's Cry was the Racehorse that gave Deep Impact the singular second-place finish on his record during the Arima Kinen.
As for Zenno Rob Roy, he was also an equally legendary figure, one of Sunday Silence's direct descendants, and the second Racehorse in Japan's history to successfully conquer the Autumn Triple Crown after T.M. Opera O.
Not only that, his record in the Arima Kinen still remained unbroken to this very day, a truly terrifying Racehorse.
Yet, considering all this, Sweep Tosho still managed to defeat these two Racehorses during the 2005 Takarazuka Kinen.
Of course, luck was one of the most crucial elements involved, but a win is a win.
In addition, unlike Heart's Cry and Zenno Rob Roy, as mentioned before, Sweep Tosho was a Filly, making her remarkable talent incredibly clear.
However, this future could already be considered unreliable.
Although Sweep Tosho had only transferred into Tracen a few weeks ago, which should also logically mean that Heart's Cry and Zenno Rob Roy just enrolled this year, Deep Impact had already lost to Heart's Cry in the Arima Kinen.
Still, the timeline in Ikezoe's original world could still be reasonably used as a reference to how strong Sweep Tosho could become in the future.
"Kenichi, Kenichi! When are we going to run a race?"
Sweep Tosho energetically tugged on Ikezoe's pants as she spoke up,
"I really want to run a race now!"
"Sweep Tosho... your talent is good, but talent requires time to fully germinate."
"By my estimate, you'll need to wait for two years until you can debut."
Sweep Tosho's excited expression instantly froze the moment she registered Ikezoe's words.
"—Yada... yada, yada, Yada, YADA, YADA!!!!!!"
Immediately, Sweep Tosho transformed from a grandparent's ideal child into a tantrum throwing one, expressing her dissatisfaction by bouncing all around the room.
"I wanna raceeeee!!!!!"
"I don't wanna train!! I wanna go win a race and quickly learn magic like Senior Maruzenskyyyyy!!!!"
"Kenichi!!! I wanna race!!! I wanna raceee!!!!!! Kenichiiiiiii!!!!!"
"Sigh... the problem is that even if you run a race, as you are now, you won't beat anyone."
Ikezoe chuckled, but also felt a strange sense of oddity.
This troublemaker actually volunteered to race...! What a miracle.
But even if Sweep Tosho was actually willing now, Ikezoe would definitely not let her race like this.
She needs a whole lot more training before she could even consider participating in an actual race.
Although both she and Orfevre could be considered stat-type Uma Musume, Sweep Tosho still needed training to increase her currently abysmal 'stats.'
"...How about this, Sweep. If you really want to run in a race, you first need to prove that you can actually run one."
Ikezoe quickly came up with a solution and said to Sweep Tosho,
"You, Curren Chan, and Tokai Teio, who was the earliest to join our team before you, will do a mock race together."
"As long as you manage to place better than any of them, it'll prove that you are ready to participate in races. How about that?"
"Really?!"
Sweep Tosho's eyes immediately lit up upon hearing this.
She quickly turned and looked at the always smiling Curren Chan, who waved back at her in return.
"Hehe, you have to go easy on Curren Chan, okay~?"
"Hmph, I will accept anyone's challenge! Prepare yourself!"
Tokai Teio also immediately stepped forward.
Though she had been curb stomped multiple times already, she was confident this time, and her confidence was not blind; Tokai Teio was absolutely certain that she could beat Sweep Tosho.
From the day she got beaten blue and black by Orfevre last time, Tokai Teio seemed to have accepted the fact that she was currently the weakest in the team.
This had caused Tokai Teio to become much more humble, not only willingly accepting Orfevre as her big sister, but also beginning to interact more with everyone else in the team.
It could be said that she was Team Miracle's ray of sunshine.
But even so, Tokai Teio never stopped striving to improve her strength.
After her talk with Imanami, Teio had learned to accept all the training schedules Imanami gave her, causing her strength to steadily improve every day.
Seeing the improvement speed of the now tempered Tokai Teio was very satisfying for everyone.
In fact, if Orfevre wasn't challenging the Classic Triple Crown this year, Imanami felt that Tokai Teio in her current state would actually have a chance at winning all three of them, even if the chance was small.
"But, Teio-sama has one condition."
A confident smirk appeared on Tokai Teio's face as she pointed towards Sweep Tosho.
"If you lose, not only must you listen well to Trainer Ikezoe, you must also become my little sister!"
"Litt- little sister...? A- are you going to turn me into your slave?!"
Sweep Tosho seemed to have perfectly understood what Tokai Teio was aiming for, perhaps because both of them were nearly equally as childish.
However, instead of showing weakness, Sweep Tosho immediately put on a brave front.
"Hmph! I'm not afraid of you! Counter offer! If you lose, YOU'LL become Sweep Tosho's first servant!"
"Hehe, confident now, are we? Well then, let's go!"
Tokai Teio immediately turned around and rushed out of the team building, with Sweep Tosho following close behind.
Meanwhile Curren Chan politely bid farewell to Ikezoe before also quickly following suit.
"...Teio really has changed a lot after that loss."
Mejiro McQueen, standing nearby, eyed the departing Teio and murmured with a hint of worry,
"Especially her tendency to trick people... I'm afraid to think that Teio's personality is increasingly leaning towards that of an Uma Musume of the Gold Family."
"Heh, isn't that good tho?"
Gold Ship, who was also in the room, seemed unconcerned; she actually found herself liking the current Teio more and more.
"Well then, since we're here, I'm reminding you all that things are going to get busy again. In March, all three groups in our team will have races lined up."
Imanami, who had left the sofa he was sitting on, patted Gold Ship's head, signaling her to quiet down, then turned his gaze to Ikezoe and Wada.
"So, how's everyone doing? I think McQueen's Hanshin Daishoten shouldn't be a problem for us."
"Hmm, as I had said during our talk with President Rudolf, I plan to have Orfevre go to the Yayoi Sho to get priority qualification for the Satsuki Sho."
Ikezoe swiftly replied; he had planned things a long time ago.
"Curren Chan is also ready to challenge the GI stage so I plan to have her shine at the Takamatsunomiya Kinen in the same month!"
"Meisho Doto's Osaka Hai should also be fine, she has already nearly mastered all the skills she needs so the rest is to simply learn the racecourse itself."
Wada then patted Meisho Doto's head.
During this time, while T.M. Opera O trained on her own, Wada had been busy training Meisho Doto while also getting tutored by Fumino Nase during his down time; their days were quite busy.
"To summarize, our team's race order will be Orfevre, Curren Chan, Meisho Doto, then Mejiro McQueen. Two GII races, two GI races."
"It seems our team is set to sweep all the major awards this March."
"Hah! This time, let's show those media outlets who looked down on us the dominance of our team!"
Having metaphorically slapped all the people who looked down on them before, the three Trainers and their Uma Musume were determined to perform well to slap them again as a form of a victory lap.
-----+-----
Ikezoe: Go train.
Sweep Tosho: Yada!
Ikezoe: Go train... pretty please~?
Sweep Tosho: Yada!
Ikezoe: ...Yada~Yada~Yada~~~
Sweep Tosho: AUGUST 12 2036. HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE. AUGUST 12 2036. THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE. AUGUST 12 2036. THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE.
Ikezoe: ...Excuse me, what?
Sweep Tosho: Yada!
-----+-----
If you spot any errors, feel free to comment about it and I will fix it as soon as I can.