Haru Urara was a Horse Girl from the Kochi Training Center.
She had spent her early days running in her hometown of Kochi, but eventually, her heart began to yearn for something more—a greater "thrill." This longing led her to apply for a transfer to the prestigious Tracen Academy.
The truth was, Urara wasn't particularly strong, even back home. There were many girls in her year who were faster than her. Yet, while those faster girls failed their transfer exams, Urara somehow clutched a passing grade.
To this day, Urara didn't quite understand how she'd made the cut. Her written exam had been a disaster, and her running trials were lackluster at best. By any objective metric, she shouldn't have been anywhere near the passing line.
But Urara hadn't let that discourage her. During her interview, she had poured her heart out. She told them she wanted to run for the fun of it; she wanted to experience races that made her heart pound with excitement. For some reason, that was enough. Tracen Academy opened its gates to her.
Urara didn't know the criteria for admission, and she didn't care to ask. The sheer joy of being a student at the Academy was enough to wipe any lingering questions from her mind.
Only Chairwoman Yayoi Akikawa and her secretary, Tazuna Hayakawa, knew the real reason. No one else would have guessed that a girl could break through the world's most competitive racing academy on the strength of her smile alone.
But once she arrived, the reality of Tracen set in. Could she keep up? The answer was a resounding "No."
Her grades hovered at the absolute limit of failure, and on the track, she was consistently left in the dust. Looking around, she saw nothing but "Stellar" Horse Girls—legends in the making. To Urara, they were all so incredible that it just made the world feel even more exciting.
However, she soon hit a wall. For a girl who wanted to race, she faced a fatal problem: no one wanted to be her Trainer.
Her relentless positivity made her popular with her classmates. To an outsider, her bubbly nature was infectious. But when seen through the cold, analytical eyes of a professional Trainer, her evaluation was dismal. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she was the lowest-ranked student in the school.
She was slow, she had no stamina, and she had no clear specialty.
Urara entered every mock race she could find, hoping to be scouted. She even applied for sessions run by the elite Team Rigil. The result was always the same: a crushing defeat. She finished dead last in every single heat. Her name became a topic of conversation among the Trainers, but only as a curiosity. No one was "crazy" enough to take her on.
Except for one man.
Urara met her Trainer just as most of her peers were finalizing their contracts.
She had been heading toward a small mock race, but she'd forgotten her homework the day before and had stayed late to finish it. She arrived at the track long after the heats had ended. It was there, standing alone on the field, that she met a rookie Trainer who had just been assigned to the Academy.
"P-Please, let me scout you! Let me be your Trainer!"
She was stunned. She had been the one looking for a scout, but this man was more aggressive than any recruiter she'd ever seen.
"Wha—?! You want to be my trainer? For real?!"
"You bet! I'm a rookie, too, so as long as you're okay with that...!"
"I don't mind at all! Yay! I get to be in a race!"
The fact that he was a beginner didn't bother her. She was just happy to have a path to the starting gate. The Trainer's "ability" was the last thing on her mind.
That was their beginning—the first step of Haru Urara's journey at Tracen Academy.
Under his guidance, Urara began her daily training.
She learned things she'd never even considered. Before, she had just run "however she felt," but he taught her proper form. He built up her stamina. She felt herself getting faster. She had always loved running, but she was genuinely surprised to see herself being able to go further and faster than the day before. It was a slow growth, but it was real.
She loved running. And now, she loved it even more. If just practice was this much fun, how amazing would it be to run in a real race?
She believed that with all her heart. But sometimes, she felt a flicker of confusion. Every now and then, the young man who had become her Trainer would look at her with a very strange expression.
The first time was the day after they met. He'd told her they were doing a "test," and she'd groaned at the word—until she found out the test was just running. Then she'd flipped instantly to pure joy.
She ran the turf and the dirt. Sprints, Miles, Mediums, and Longs.
After that first turf sprint, the Trainer's face was... hard to describe. When she called out to him, his expression snapped back to normal, but for a second, he looked like he'd just seen something bizarre. Like he'd seen something he never expected to see.
Urara didn't know what it meant. But when they moved to the dirt, his face changed again.
She hadn't known what kind of track she was suited for. She just liked running. When he told her she was a "Dirt Sprinter," she just accepted it. "Wow, he's a Trainer, he must be so smart," she thought.
Six weeks later, he arranged a one-on-one with a girl named Happy Meek.
The 1200-meter turf race was a blowout. Urara lost by a massive distance, but she was thrilled just to have a running buddy. She was in awe of how fast Meek was.
"Hah... hah... You're amazing, Meeky-chan! You went whoosh! So fast!"
"Miss Urara, you... er... never mind."
Meek trailed off, and Urara tilted her head. For a brief moment, the look on Happy Meek's face was identical to the one her Trainer often made.
"Urara, Meek, take a breather. We're hitting the dirt next. You okay to go?"
"Yup! Hey, hey, Trainer! Meeky-chan is super! Like zooom!"
"I saw... and how did it feel to run?"
"It was fun!"
When she said that, her Trainer made the face again. It was a look she saw him give her every now and then, and it matched Happy Meek's perfectly.
They ran the dirt sprint next—the one thing Urara was supposedly good at. She still lost, though not by nearly as much.
"Incredible! Meeky-chan, you're super fast on the sand, too!"
Urara was genuinely happy. After the race, Meek looked like she wanted to say something, but she just bit her lip and stayed silent. Puzzled, Urara trotted back to her Trainer.
"Trainer, Trainer! Meeky-chan is amazing! She's so, so cool!"
"I see... Urara, how was that race?"
He knelt down, meeting her eyes. Urara gave him the only answer she had.
"It was so much fun!"
Two weeks later.
Classes ended early, and Urara headed to the shopping district to buy her carrot snack before training. She loved that street. She knew almost everyone, and everyone knew her. It was a warm, happy place where everyone smiled back at her.
"Oh, if it isn't Urara-chan. Here for your carrots again?"