I almost forgot to upload this
———
March 8th, A week before the race
"Hayate is racing as well?" The feminine looking Uma known as Araki said. Araki was sitting in his trainer's office, and said trainer was a small woman with red hair that was tied up in a messy bun with menacing squinting eyes. She was wearing a professional suit but it was easy to see that she begrudgingly put it on.
The trainer was typing on a rather advanced computer, looking at the information of who was going to compete in the race. The roster was filled with different Umas, each having wins and loses, which included Araki. Beside the tab with the roster, she had a spread sheet of information about each of the racers, it was filled with the details of their forms, speed, strengths and weaknesses.
Straightening her tie, she let out a yawn after nodding her head, answering Araki's question. Araki looked at her, eyes looking worried at the dark bags under her squinting eyes.
"Did you even sleep last night?" Araki asked, his voice slightly filled with worry, his long gray hair swishing as he anxiously moved side to side in the chair. His gray tail swishing with worry as his brown tipped ears lowered.
"For your information, I got an hour of sleep, just the right amount." Araki's trainer said, pointing her painted nails at him. "And no, I didn't spend it playing video games this time."
Araki just stared at her, sighing to himself, before getting up from the wooden chair. He walked around the desk, standing behind her to look at the roster and spread sheet.
"An estimate of [Speed - A, Power - B, Guts - B+, Stamina - B-], those are overkill stats for this level of racing." Araki said, reading the file of North. "Strengths being quick adaptability, positioning, form, spacing, final spurt, skill usage, and concentration."
Araki continued reading the file for North, seeing compiled information of different races, the angles and timing of his running. The video files had little snippets that were detailed on the situation and the reactions of North. The information filled 12 entire pages of a document, surpassing every, single, other racer in the roster.
"He is a threat." Araki's trainer said, noticing the look of confusion on his face. She gave him a quick glance before moving her mouse and opened a video file of North's most recent race. She moved the timeline bar, stopping at the moment the racers were exiting the 4th corner.
"Notice where North is." She said, pointing on her screen to where North was.
Araki followed her fingers, seeing that North was being blocked by the 3 racers in front of him. They were purposely blocking him from spurting forward, coincidentally helping each other block him, it was similar to the situation Oguri had once been in.
Noticing that her trainee was watching, she unpaused the video, allowing it to play out the sequence of events.
North, seeing that he was being blocked, purposely moved himself towards a false opening causing the Uma in front of him to try and block him, which he then responded by using a small burst of speed to quickly change his direction and get past them. The second place Uma noticed that North was approaching, quickly sought to block north and speed up but was stumped to see that they hadn't noticed the Uma in front of them doing the same thing but slowed down slightly.
The 2 would mess themselves up, not crashing into each other but messing up with their rhythm. North used this to his advantage to quickly run past the second place racer at the last minute, which the first place Uma quickly noticed and sped up, using the distance they already had to hopefully reach the finish line before North could close the distance. The distance didn't matter as North would go on to pass them and get a length lead before reaching the finish line.
With the video ending, Araki's trainer instinctively started putting itself into work once more. Put pieces together, to find a way to have Araki win. She shook her head, calming her head from the encroaching headache, before turning towards Araki, who had a surprised look on their face.
"Do you understand why I said he was a threat now." She said, her voice slightly haughty.
"yeah…. I don't think I can beat him with my current strength." Araki said, his voice lowered as he read the spreadsheet again.
"This is the reason why I didn't get much sleep." She opened a drawer from the desk, taking out a piece of stapled papers. "It was to create this."
Looking down, Araki read the words 'Hayate North Shutout Plan' on the top of the page. Below it, the page was filled with a summary of his strengths before going into detailed information of his weaknesses. Araki grabbed it, flipping the first paper to see that it was filled with a plan to stop North. The other pages were filled with different plans in case of different circumstances and security measures for these plans.
"This is a lot of work." Araki said after he finished reading the entire thing. He placed the paper back onto his trainer's desk, letting out a tired breath. "Welp, time to start working."
His trainer nodded, getting up from her set as a groan left her body. Araki smiled as he watched his trainer stretch before getting her things to train.
---------
North was doing his usual routine, wake up, go to school, leave school, change into training clothes, go to train, then go back to the dorms, take a bath, lay in bed for who knows how long, and fall asleep. He was currently at the training part of his routine, instead of being at the training tracks, he was instead at the gym on campus.
Finishing the final lift of the 450lb weight, he calmly placed it back on to the rack before sitting up on the board. Ego, who was doing his job, handed North a bottle of water which he gobbled down. The sweat of his work out was starting to build up, visible by the small drops of sweat falling from his head.
"With the race coming in a week, you'll be taking a break till then." Ego spoke, his gaze focused on his clipboard.
North, who finished the second bottled water Ego handed to him, nodded his head, not caring that Ego wasn't looking. He got up from his sitting position, stretching his arms, as he walked over to the bike machine.
"The race, as you know, is in Kyoto. It is going to be the second race of the day, meaning that it is in the morning, so we have to arrive a day earlier." Ego continued talking, explaining the schedule that he had created as he walked over to North. He looked up to see if North had listened, seeing that he was just looking out the window wall of the gym as he pedaled.
"Araki is going to be in the race." Ego suddenly said, the words catching North's attention.
North glanced over to Ego, watching his face to see if he was lying. His completely black eyes slightly squinted, his feet continuing to pedal. The air seemed to tense up slightly, with the 2 staring at each other. The 2 pairs of black eyes combating, one looking for lies, the other telling truths.
"That is interesting." Words finally left North's mouth, the tense atmosphere finally leaving. He turned his gaze to continue looking outside.
Ego just stared at the back of North's head, his eyes squinting as if trying to pear into the thoughts of the Uma in front of him.
-------
It was a beautiful day, the wind was flowing as the sun shined on the runners. People were on the stands cheering from what they had watched. The race had ended, the runners were standing around gasping for breath. The voice of the announcer could still be heard from where they were.
THE WINNER OF TODAY'S RACE GOES TO-" The announcer's voice could be heard blaring from the speakers, the excited tone coming through.
Stern Love and Araki looked at North, who was standing still as he looked up into the sky. The breeze of wind flowed through the strands of his hair, lifting it slightly. His chest moved in and out, gasping for air as sweat dripped from his head.
'What was that?' North thought, his face tensed as his eyes glowing with curiosity. A faint blue aura that was seeping from his eyes and legs, completely faded into the air.
------------
The next chapter is the race, and from the snippet you saw, it will be important.
I hope you enjoyed it.