Tracen's official car was nothing like the noisy subway or dusty streets Hayate was accustomed to. The leather smelled like a new car and a subtle perfume, probably that of the woman sitting next to him.
Air Groove kept her eyes on her phone, but Hayate felt her watching him through the reflection in the glass.
"Stop moving your leg," she said without looking up. "You're making the seat vibrate."
"Ugh," Hayate tensed, stopping his nervous tic. "I'm sorry, it's just that... I'm not used to being taken to places that don't involve a restraining order or a hospital bill."
Air Groove sighed, closing her phone with a sharp click. "From now on, you're a Tracen student, so behave like one. Principal Akikawa is not a person who enjoys apologies, so make sure she doesn't have to ask you for one because of the system error."
When the car passed through the academy gates, Hayate pressed himself against the window. "Is this a school or a palace?" he thought, looking at the training tracks. The grass shone brighter than his hopes of winning the Derby, and the buildings had an architecture that screamed "money" from every corner.
In the principal's office...
"Welcome, Hayate Kurogane!" Akikawa greeted him standing on her desk (literally) waving her fan rapidly with the words 'welcome' written on it. "Yayoi Akikawa at your service! Sorry about the inconvenience with the zeros and ones, but you're finally here!"
Tazuna, standing nearby, bowed politely. "We have everything ready. But before assigning you to a class, we need to give you a complete checkup. Air Groove says you've been... 'exercising' in unofficial areas."
A single "oh" escaped Hayate's mouth as he looked at the three women.
____________________
In the Medical Department
Unlike Nene's smoke-filled office, everything here was a blinding clinical white. Hayate had to take off his shirt for the stress tests.
"Wow..." murmured the nurse as she attached the electrodes. "For an 'Umashonen,' you have very... functional muscles, good lung capacity, and these scars..."
Air Groove, who was waiting at the door with his arms crossed, looked away for a second, but his ears twitched with interest when he heard the nurse's words as she analyzed Hayate.
«We'll have to see what he does when he has a trainer and has to train for real,» thought Air Groove as he waited for the results to send to the director, although his eyes wandered a little over Hayate's back for a moment before returning to his task.
____________________
The silence in the room assigned in the Tracen dormitories was... unsettling.
Accustomed to the constant dripping of rusty pipes and the echo of drunks in the alleyway outside his old room, Hayate felt like a fish out of water in this immaculate space. The morning sun filtered through the silk curtains with an elegance that almost offended him, as if at any moment birds would begin to sing.
"Damn..." he growled, sitting on the edge of the bed. "This sheet has more threads than all my old clothes put together."
But there was no time to philosophize about luxury. Today was his first official day. And with the first day came the first major obstacle of this place: the uniform.
Hayate held the garment in front of him with a mixture of respect and suspicion. It was the classic Tracen design, but adapted. The pants were an elegant military cut, and the jacket had that air of prestige that only the elite could wear.
"Let's see... one arm here..." he muttered, struggling with the fabric. "Urk! Yeah, the Tracen designers definitely didn't take into account that someone my size would try to wear these uniforms."
The shoulders were dangerously tight, and every time he tried to button it up, the fabric creaked as if it were about to give way, but the real problem was in the back.
"Gwah! Who the hell designed this tail opening?!" he exclaimed, turning around in front of the mirror. "It's too narrow!"
He spent five minutes trying to get his tail through the slot in his pants without messing up his fur too much. When he finally succeeded, he felt as if he had completed a ten-minute round. He looked at himself in the mirror, observing how the uniform gave him a serious air, hiding under the fabric the bruises that still decorated his torso, but revealing that strong neck and the look of someone who has kissed some asphalt a little too well.
"Well... at least I don't look like a bum, and I don't owe seven pensions," he consoled himself happily as he adjusted the hardware on his shoes. "Let's go."
Leaving the dormitory was like entering a zoo, with the difference that he was the main attraction.
Tracen was a hive of activity with umamusumes of all ages and regions walking back and forth with their folders, books, or sports drinks while the sound of horseshoes on the polished floor formed a symphony of "clack-clack-clack" that filled the air.
But as soon as Hayate set foot in the main hallway, the symphony stopped abruptly.
"Is... is that him?" whispered a green-haired girl as she passed by. "An Umashonen? I thought they were just an urban legend..." replied her friend, hiding her mouth behind her hand. "Look at his ears! And that posture... it looks like he's going to bite someone's tail at any moment."
Hayate gritted his teeth, keeping his gaze forward and trying hard to ignore the comments. «Just because they see me, they think I'm going to bite them. I don't have any desire to bite tails,» he thought to himself, although that made him wonder how often it was that an uma bit another uma.
"Look... Is it a boy? An Umashonen?" I thought they were an urban legend..." said some of the girls, while others watched him with more curiosity. "Hey, he's not bad..."
«Ignore them, Hayate. They're just curious girls,» he told himself. «You've been up in the ring, you know how to handle people judging your every move. A couple of stares aren't going to kill you.»
Even so, the pressure was real. He felt the eyes of every umamusume fixed on his back, analyzing his gait, his tail, the almost invisible scar on his lip. To them, he was an anomaly that had come to life, while to him, they were the ones living in a world of rules and honor that he was just beginning to understand.
"Fuuu...!" he exhaled heavily, trying to relax his shoulders. "Where the hell is the dining room? If I don't eat something soon, I'm going to start biting the walls."
His metabolism, even high for an average uma, required him to eat a lot, and due to the brutal training of the last few days, it was already demanding its daily sacrifice. His stomach let out a growl so loud that a first-year student passing by jumped in fright.
"Sorry, kid!" Hayate apologized with a forced smile. "My stomach is really hungry!"
Remembering his days of eating dozens of dishes, he entered the cafeteria, and the aroma of fresh carrots, steamed rice, and roast beef hit him like that right hook from Mika that almost knocked his jaw out.
"I'll have three of those, two of that, and... yes, five plates of rice!" Hayate ordered, his eyes shining. Unbeknownst to him, a gray-haired girl was watching him from the side, possibly carrying enough food to feed two families in her arms, devouring a third as she walked.
He sat down at a table in the corner, but his peace was short-lived.
"Hey! Are you the guy from the track?" A familiar voice made him choke on a piece of carrot.
In front of him were the two girls he took a while to recognize, the redhead and the brown-haired girl, both wearing Tracen uniforms and staring at him with wide eyes. It seemed they had been arguing a few moments ago but stopped when they saw him.
In front of him were the two girls he took a moment to recognize, the redhead and the brunette, both wearing Tracen uniforms and staring at him with wide eyes. It seemed they had been arguing a few moments ago, but they stopped when they saw him.
"Gwah," Hayate wiped his mouth with a napkin. "You guys are... the ones from the 'stretch your legs' training, right?"
"We knew it!" the redhead slammed her fist on the table. "No one runs like that just for fun! I'm Daiwa Scarlet... well, it doesn't matter who I am now, what matters is that you lied to us! You said they hadn't accepted you—"
"I didn't lie," Hayate replied, regaining his composure and crossing his arms. "It was a system error, they found me two days ago."
"Did they find you?" Vodka crossed her arms, examining the bruise that was still visible on his neck. "Well, it doesn't look like it was under the best circumstances."
Before Hayate could answer, an elegant shadow fell across the table.
"Scarlet, Vodka... stop bothering the new guy," Air Groove's voice made both girls stand at attention immediately.
"V-Vice President!" Scarlet exclaimed, bowing so quickly that she almost hit the table. "It's not what it looks like! We were just... welcoming the new guy."
"Welcome?" Air Groove raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms under her chest. "Because from where I'm standing, it looked like you were about to start a public altercation. Was this morning's training not exhausting enough that you still have energy to fight over a bowl of rice?"
"Not at all! I mean... yes! I mean, no!" Scarlet got tangled up in her own words, red to the tips of her ears.
Vodka, trying to maintain her composure and mock Daiwa, just looked away. "We just wanted to clear up a matter on the track, that's all."
Hayate, who had been sitting watching the spectacle with a piece of carrot still in his hand, decided that enough was enough. He swallowed the last bite and wiped his hands with a napkin, ignoring the cold sweat running down the backs of the two girls' necks.
"Stop bothering them, Vice President," Hayate said calmly. "They were just reminding me that I owe them a rematch. It's no big deal."
"No big deal?" she repeated, looking at him seriously. "At Tracen, discipline is the cornerstone of all success. If I allow a newcomer to turn the dining room into a boxing ring, what kind of example would we be setting?"
"There's no ring here," Hayate replied, holding her gaze. "But if it's order you're concerned about, I'm done."
Air Groove looked at the pile of empty plates in front of Hayate and raised an eyebrow. "I see your appetite is as undisciplined as your fighting style."
"Fuel is necessary, Vice President," Hayate replied with a defiant half-smile.
Air Groove felt a slight tingle of irritation... "Finish up quickly, President Rudolf wants to see you, and you'd better hope your manners are better than your ability to attract trouble."
She turned away, her skirt fluttering as she waited nearby, while Vodka and Scarlet stared at Hayate with a mixture of respect and envy.
"Wow..." whispered Vodka. "The 'Empress' never bothers to come to the dining room for a rookie."
Daiwa Scarlet and Vodka, tense as violin strings, stood straight, the redhead's arrogance and the brown-haired girl's defiant attitude evaporating in that instant, replaced by discipline.
"Scarlet, Vodka, to your classes, now," Air Groove ordered without breaking eye contact with Hayate.
"Yes, ma'am!" they both replied, fleeing the dining room faster than they could run a 200-meter sprint. Before leaving, Scarlet took one last look at Hayate, a mixture of curiosity and something he couldn't quite identify.
Hayate looked at his third empty plate as he watched the two walk away. Things were getting... interesting.
«Well,» Hayate thought, feeling the gaze of half the cafeteria on him. «At least the food is free,» he said, taking another bite and ignoring the atmosphere he had partly caused.
The air in the cafeteria seemed to have frozen as Air Groove's mere presence, upright and icy, was enough to silence even the growl of a hungry stomach, except for two that could be heard in the background along with some passing agemazen.
"Kurogane," Air Groove continued after he finished eating, pointing toward the exit. "Follow me. The president has waited long enough, and pray that her patience is greater than mine."
_____________________
The walk to the Student Council office was an exercise in tense silence. Hayate walked one step behind Air Groove, watching her skirt sway with each perfect stride, the sound of her horseshoes on the marble rhythmic, almost hypnotic.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
«This woman moves as if she were on a race track, even in a hallway,» Hayate thought. «Her balance is impeccable. If she were in the ring, she would be someone who is difficult to knock down.»
Suddenly, Air Groove spoke without stopping. "I've read your file, Kurogane, or at least what's left of it after the error. They say you have unusual cardiovascular endurance for an Umashonen... or whatever the system thinks you are."
"I just run. If I don't, I fall behind everyone else," he replied simply. "If you're not fast or strong, you don't get food."
Air Groove stopped in front of a large wooden door carved with the Tracen emblem, turned to him, and for a second, her expression softened slightly.
"Here, you're no longer on the street. You're in the place where you have the chance to reach the top of the racing world. Behave as if you deserve to be here."
She opened the doors with an elegant movement.
The office was spacious, lit by large windows overlooking the academy's main track. Behind a desk that looked as if it had been carved from a single block of mahogany sat one of the figures who defined Tracen
Symboli Rudolf, the President, or also known as the Emperor.
"President, I bring you the student Kurogane," announced Air Groove, standing to one side with a military posture.
Rudolf looked up from his documents, an enigmatic smile appearing on his face as he slowly stood up, walking around the desk and analyzing Hayate with his eyes as if he were looking through his soul.
"Hayate Kurogane..." His voice was somewhat firm as he looked at him. "Your name didn't appear, but it was clear that you wanted to get here. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person."
"Likewise, President," Hayate replied, bowing his head slightly. He wasn't intimidated, but the respect she exuded was genuine. "I'm sorry for any problems my 'appearance' may have caused."
Rudolf let out a small laugh. "Problems... life is full of them, but it's how we solve them that defines us. The system mistakenly decided that you didn't belong here, but your presence in that underground ring said otherwise. I feel that you have talent, Hayate, but talent without effort is wasted talent."
She walked toward the window in a shot of her thighs that was completely necessary for the story as she passed by the "eclipse first, the rest nowhere" sign, looking toward the tracks where several Umamusumes were training under the scorching sun.
"Tell me, why do you want to run here? Is it for the money? For the fame? Or is it because there's something about crossing the finish line that you can't find anywhere else?"
Hayate was silent for a moment as he thought about his mother, the empty plates, the smell of sweat on the ring canvas, and the feeling of the wind on his face that day he ran with Scarlet and Vodka.
"At first, it was for the money, to be honest," he admitted with a sincerity that surprised even Air Groove, who raised an eyebrow at his response. "But when I raced those two girls on the public track... I felt my heart beating fast with every step I took trying to overtake them. I don't know why, but I want to feel that again."
Rudolf turned, his eyes shining with approval. "A sincere answer. I like that. However..." His tone changed to a lighter, almost amused one. "I hope that discovery is quick, with a name like Hayate, I expected you to breeze through the competition."
The silence that followed was absolute. Air Groove closed her eyes and covered her face with one hand, letting out a sigh of pure suffering as she felt a headache coming on.
"President... please!" Air Groove pleaded desperately, not wanting to hear another joke as she felt her head start to ache. "We are in an official meeting."
Hayate blinked a couple of times, processing the pun. "That was... that was a bad joke, right?"
Rudolf smiled proudly. "Air Groove doesn't appreciate the incredible art of refined humor, but I see you have a good ear, Kurogane."
"I hope the academy is better than your jokes," Hayate replied with a bold smile.
Air Groove almost fainted from the shock, partly due to the side effects of the joke and partly due to Hayate's manner of speaking. Rudolf just laughed again as he watched him.
"You've got fire, young man, and that's exactly what we need. Starting tomorrow, you'll enter the special training program. You'll be under the direct supervision of the Student Council until we decide which team you'll be assigned to, or you decide to join one, or you find a trainer."
He approached him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Welcome to Tracen, Hayate. I hope you prove yourself worthy of the expectations placed upon you."
__________________
That night, Hayate returned to his room, exhausted, not physically, but mentally, from being the center of so much attention. In a single day, he had gone from being an outcast to standing before the most powerful women in the academy.
«Tomorrow I really start,» he thought, looking at his hands with their clean knuckles, although he missed the feeling of the bandages wrapped around his hands.«Maybe I could go back for a while, I mean, just to see how they are and maybe bet a little.»
He wondered what Scarlet and Vodka would think now, or even what Air Groove was planning to "discipline" him. One thing was certain: his life in the underworld was not over yet.
As he closed his eyes, the image of Rudolf's smile and Air Groove's stern gaze mingled in his mind, until he remembered that joke and his smile disappeared with a sigh, deciding not to remember that again, falling onto the bed to rest, hoping that tomorrow would be a better day.