The Trainer With Little Time Left Just Wants to Live [37]

However, Kitano did not know that he had already been targeted by someone who, even in Tracen Academy—a place crawling with “man-eating mares”—could be called one of its most dangerous people. Of course, even if he had known, he probably would not have cared much. As he had said, the experience he had gained over so many cycles was that there were never many normal Umamusume willing to accept someone terminally ill like him as their Trainer in the first place.

In other words, across so many cycles, Kitano could be said to have taught almost every “not quite normal” Umamusume in Tracen Academy. They were either pioneers of the heavy romantic minefields so common in fanworks, or guardians against them—but under Kitano’s guidance, every single one of them had become a model student of Tracen Academy. None of them got involved in anything like forced Umapyoi, nor did any “fan-favorite” jealousy plotlines appear.

And all of that was thanks to Kitano’s real-life circumstances. He had explained his physical condition to each of his trainees early on, and though those good girls might have had somewhat strange personalities, once a belief had been instilled in them, without exception, they would put Kitano’s wishes first. They had no time to mess around with romantic minefields.

Among them was that white-coated Umamusume secretly observing Kitano… But none of that had anything to do with the Kitano of now. The first thing he had to deal with was Mr. C.B.

C.B.’s father drove the car and brought Kitano’s group to their home. After Tamamo helped Kitano settle back into his wheelchair, the first thing that caught her eye was the extremely conspicuous ginkgo tree in the garden of the detached Western-style house.

“Whoa, that’s one huge ginkgo tree! First time I’ve ever seen one that big!”

Tamamo’s attention was completely captured by the ginkgo tree, which now looked as though it had burst into a spray of gold. Clearly, this was not the first time C.B.’s mother had received such praise from a guest, and she smiled gently.

“Many people say that. That ginkgo is C.B.’s favorite. When we first moved here, it wasn’t even as tall as the fence.”

C.B.’s mother gave a brief introduction to Kitano and Tamamo, who were both staring blankly at the ginkgo tree. What she did not know was that for Tamamo Cross, her first reaction upon seeing such a tall ginkgo tree was not that it was beautiful, but—

A ginkgo tree this big’s gotta grow a ton of ginkgo nuts, right? Maybe I could secretly pick some and send ’em home for the little brats to eat?

Tamamo swallowed. Only after an intense internal struggle did she manage, with extreme difficulty, to tear her eyes away from the ginkgo tree. Yet at that moment, Kitano, seated in his wheelchair, still had not looked away. Under the sunlight, his eyes seemed clear and translucent as crystal…

“…Is C.B. the one who takes care of this ginkgo?”

“Yes. That child has been fond of this ginkgo tree ever since we moved here.” C.B.’s mother did not think too much of it. She only felt that someone with as difficult a life as Kitano’s was probably more prone to being moved by scenery, so she simply went straight to open the door of her home.

“Trainer Kitano, Tamamo, please come in. That child should still be in her room on the second floor. I’ll try calling her down—”

“There’s no need. I can go myself. Let’s not disturb C.B.”

At last, Kitano drew his gaze back. Pushed by Tamamo, he slowly entered this familiar C.B. home he had once visited. Only, as he passed by the ginkgo in the garden, Kitano could not help letting out a long breath, suppressing the emotion rising in his heart.

So… that much time had already passed. The ginkgo he and C.B. had planted together back then had now grown into such a graceful canopy.

Kitano had not expected that in this cycle, which he had already determined to be rather special, even some traces of his past would be preserved. This also made Kitano feel more and more that C.B.’s sudden change in temperament might be connected to this special cycle.

But all of that would have to wait until Kitano met C.B. before he could decide…

After entering C.B.’s home, Kitano stood up with some difficulty with Tamamo Cross’s support. As he stepped toward the staircase leading to the second floor, he did not forget to turn his head and softly instruct the worried couple:

“I’ll do my best. But while I’m talking with C.B., I hope you two won’t interrupt us. C.B. may need some space to vent.”

“We understand,” they said in unison.

After giving that reminder, Kitano, supported by Tamamo, climbed toward the second floor one difficult step at a time. When Kitano stopped before Mr. C.B.’s bedroom door from his memories, Tamamo, under Kitano’s gaze, tiptoed back down to the first floor.

In the end, only Kitano and Mr. C.B., still inside her room, were left on the entire second floor. After sorting out his thoughts, Kitano gently knocked on C.B.’s door. Before long, he heard the girl’s slightly tired, low voice come from inside.

“…Dad, I told you I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“—C.B., it’s me. Ryuichi Kitano.”

The moment Kitano’s voice slowly echoed through the second-floor hallway, he suddenly heard the sound of something heavy inside the room toppling onto the floor. Immediately after came C.B.’s rarely flustered voice, caught completely off guard.

“Huh? Huh?! Why is Trainer Kitano at my house?”

“Can I come in?” Hearing Mr. C.B.’s voice regain its energy all at once, Kitano immediately understood that this move had worked. A wicked smile appeared on his face as he placed his hand on the bedroom doorknob, making as though to enter.

Sure enough, just as Kitano turned the knob, he felt a force from the other side abruptly stop him. At this moment, C.B. clearly had not expected this sudden situation at all. She had thrown all her usual ease and gallantry completely away, and answered in a panic:

“N-not yet—give me one minute! Just one minute! Let me get ready!”

“All right. Then I’ll count down one minute from here. Sixty?”

“Aaaaaah—”

The moment C.B. inside the room heard Kitano actually begin counting seriously, her movements clearly became much more frantic. For a while, accompanied by Kitano’s countdown, sound after sound came from inside the room: the rustle of plastic bags, the noise of packaging boxes, and the clatter of various odds and ends and clothes being tidied away.

When Kitano counted down to “seven,” the door in front of him finally opened slowly. Mr. C.B. showed only half her face through the gap and looked at Kitano. Even her tone had become unusually weak, and she said with very little confidence:

“P-please come in. It’s a little messy. I didn’t have time to clean…”

As Mr. C.B. slowly opened the door, Kitano finally entered C.B.’s bedroom once again.

Everything was laid out just as he remembered. The room was composed of warm tones and faux-wood colors. The built-in wall cabinet was filled with many little accessories that had not been used in a long time, yet she still could not bear to throw away. At first glance, the floor looked fairly clean, but there were still obvious seasoning stains left behind, proving the effort its owner had just made to cover things up.

“Hahahaha… Trainer Kitano, why did you come visit without saying anything first?” C.B. forced herself to act calm, awkwardly scratching her cheek with one finger to hide her embarrassment. Yet her eyes were too ashamed to meet Kitano’s directly, as though she were terrified of exposing something. “If you’d told me earlier, Mom, Dad, and I could’ve prepared a little. It’s not good for a guest to see such a messy room…”

“…”

Kitano, however, was not paying attention to C.B.’s words now. After sweeping his eyes around the room, his gaze locked onto the only wardrobe in C.B.’s room. Half of the wardrobe door was still slowly closing by inertia—but it seemed to have gotten stuck and could not shut completely.

Seeing this, Kitano silently and slowly approached the wardrobe. Under Mr. C.B.’s increasingly embarrassed and horrified gaze, Kitano, who already understood everything, slowly pulled the wardrobe door open, as though opening the hidden treasure door Ali Baba had found in a fairy tale…

RUSTLE, CLATTER!

…Unfortunately, what poured out of that mysterious door was not treasure, but bags of long-piled-up garbage wrapped in plastic bags. They were filled with all kinds of instant food packaging, as well as what seemed to be bras, panties, ripped stockings, and other intimate clothing Mr. C.B. had discarded, all packed into several trash bags. Now, with all concealment abandoned, they were completely exposed before Kitano.

“Eek—!”

…

“…Would you call that a good reaction?”

Hearing what sounded like their daughter’s near-breakdown shriek, C.B.’s parents, who had been standing on the staircase between the first and second floors with their ears perked up, trying hard to listen to everything in the conversation between Kitano and C.B., could not help exchanging looks. They truly had no idea whether their daughter’s reaction was good or bad.

“…At the very least, she sounds pretty energetic? For us, that should be a good thing, right?”

“Probably?”

Compared with the couple, however, Tamamo Cross, who was standing with them and carefully eavesdropping, looked like her teeth ached. Once again taking up the role of straight man, she said:

What the heck? What’s with that scream like the heroine in some manga just had the male lead discover some secret nobody was supposed to know? Tracen Academy ain’t a matchmaking agency.

So what now? If this were the normal plot, the male lead who barged into the heroine’s room should get kicked out right about now, yeah? If that really happens, I won’t even know where to start with the tsukkomi.

…

However, contrary to what Tamamo had imagined, Kitano was not driven out of the room by an embarrassed and angry C.B. Or rather, in C.B.’s subconscious, there had never been any option of trying to drive Kitano away.

As for the unknown slovenly side of herself being discovered by Kitano, more than anger, C.B. felt so ashamed she wanted to disappear into the floor. Just like now, C.B. could only curl up in a corner by the wall, burying her cheeks against her knees, clearly feeling that she could never face anyone again.

Fortunately, as her former Trainer, Kitano understood Mr. C.B.’s disastrous ability to take care of herself very well. Although C.B. lived alone, outside of arrangements related to being an Umamusume, her personal life was an utter mess. Her parents were in fact extremely uneasy about C.B. living by herself too. They were both very worried about this lifestyle of hers that could easily end up killing her.

However, after Kitano later became C.B.’s Trainer, all those problems were solved. Not because Mr. C.B. learned from Kitano how to take care of herself, but because C.B. knew that as long as this man’s body could hold out, she would not need to worry about simple things like cleaning and cooking at all.

And now, drawing on how well he knew Mr. C.B., Kitano had finally succeeded in breaking through this girl’s defenses. That was exactly the state Kitano wanted. He needed C.B. to drop her guard and say everything she wanted to say.

Only by speaking the truth could the contradictions and gloom in C.B.’s heart be cleared away. After confirming his plan, Kitano slowly leaned against the wall beside C.B. as well. Once he felt the timing was about right, he asked softly:

“I already heard about your situation from your parents, C.B. Although I don’t know why your mood suddenly sank so low, shutting yourself alone in your room is never a good thing.”

“If you’re willing, could I hear what’s troubling you? After watching the race that day, what happened to you, C.B.-senpai? Why did you suddenly become so dejected?”

“…Don’t laugh at me, okay? I know saying this now sounds a little strange, but… this really is how I feel.”

Faced with Kitano’s questioning beside her, Mr. C.B.’s muffled voice finally came from where her face was buried. She slowly raised her head. After seeming to search her heart again and again for the answer to why her mood had fallen so low, she finally let out a dull, bitter laugh with a sigh.

“I only realized it too late… My life seems to have been an utter failure.”

“I was always running forward alone, but there was never anyone supporting me from behind. I think… that’s probably why I couldn’t measure up to Rudolf.”

This is a fan translation of 时日无多的训练员只想活下去 by 许氏子谦 Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!