Umamusume: Full of Flavor! [12]

“Suzuka, are you all right? You’re not hurt, are you?”

Haruto Akiyama helped Silence Suzuka up from the floor and checked her for injuries.

“I’m fine. I was just startled…”

She had been pinned beneath the weight of a grown man, but an Umamusume’s body was both flexible and strong enough to bear it. That much weight was nowhere near enough to injure her.

After straightening her skirt, Suzuka looked at Special Week, who was still kneeling in the doorway, and asked in confusion, “But Spe-chan, why are you here?”

“Urk…!”

What do I do, what do I do?! I thought Suzuka was being threatened and “trained” by her Trainer, standing there with her leg hoisted up… but it wasn’t anything like what I imagined!

And now she knows I followed her! How am I supposed to explain this?!

Honest to a fault, Special Week was terrible at lying and couldn’t come up with a suitable excuse on the spot. Her purple eyes darted around wildly as panic set in.

This was Haruto’s first time seeing the “protagonist” of the Umamusume world. Special Week had shoulder-length brown hair styled in a braided crown, white M-shaped bangs, and a purple bow tied around her right ear.

Cup size… at least a B. Verdict: medium.

So this was the Umamusume known as “Japan’s General”? Why did she look as though she had just witnessed the end of the world?

In any case, Haruto decided to offer her an easy way out. She was clearly beside herself, so the first thing to do was calm her down.

“It looks like you have a very caring roommate, Suzuka. I’m sure Special Week followed you because she was worried and wanted to make sure you were all right.”

“Oh… So that’s what it was…”

Suzuka smiled sincerely, walked over to Special Week, who was still kneeling on the floor, and took both her hands.

“Thank you for worrying about me, Spe-chan.”

“Uuu… Suzukaaa…”

Nearly moved to tears, Special Week threw her arms around Suzuka and clung to her. Though Suzuka lacked the figure usually associated with motherhood, there was certainly something motherly about her personality.

After rubbing her face against Suzuka’s chest and recovering her spirits, Special Week gave Haruto a grateful look as well.

This new Trainer was a good person! She couldn’t believe she had misunderstood him so badly… She really shouldn’t have.

Straightforward by nature, Special Week immediately began reflecting on her mistaken judgment and feeling ashamed of where her imagination had taken her.

“Um, I wanted to train with Suzuka, but I couldn’t find her at the training grounds, so I secretly followed her here…”

Special Week omitted the fact that she had already been following Suzuka for a week and had searched almost the entire Tracen Academy campus. After offering that simplified explanation for her presence, she stood and bowed to Haruto at a perfect ninety-degree angle.

“I’m terribly sorry! I shouldn’t have eavesdropped! Please punish me!”

As if he could actually administer a private punishment to an Umamusume. He didn’t have the strength for that anyway…

Haruto waved a hand.

“Oh, it’s fine. Your concern was understandable, Special Week. Doing no running practice at all is certainly unusual, but this is a training plan I designed specifically for Suzuka.”

“Trainer-san! You can call me Spe-chan, just like Suzuka does!”

“Okay. I’m Haruto Akiyama. I assume Suzuka has already mentioned me?”

“Yes! Um, may I ask what kind of training you’ve arranged for Suzuka? And why aren’t you using the gym? It has much better equipment… I’m curious!”

The reality might not have been the mosaic-censored scene she had imagined, but Special Week still had questions about what she had just witnessed.

Trainers these days emphasized scientific methods, yet Haruto had been sitting on Suzuka’s back. It felt very much like the approach of an old-fashioned Trainer—the kind who relied on inefficient physical conditioning.

All he needed was a bamboo sword to occasionally swat Suzuka on the rear, and the image would have been complete.

“It’s just as you saw. I’m using planks to build Suzuka’s endurance. My seventy kilograms are enough as added weight, so we don’t need any gym equipment for now. The only slightly unusual part is that I’m focusing as much as possible on strengthening the right side of Suzuka’s body.”

For now, Haruto intended to focus on a single attribute: stamina. His goal was to let Suzuka maintain her runaway lead all the way to the finish without losing speed.

That was also why he was limiting her running distance and preventing her from doing too much sprint training.

Suzuka’s speed was already at S rank. Raising it any further would be extremely difficult and yield very little in return. It was better to conserve her energy and strengthen the areas where she was lacking, then wait for another opportunity to break through her speed bottleneck later.

“Her right side?”

“Yes. Suzuka is better on counterclockwise tracks, and she’s left-footed, so her left leg inevitably bears more strain. That’s why I’m reconditioning her body.”

Suzuka spoke up beside him.

“That’s right. Spe-chan, you know how I sometimes walk in counterclockwise circles, don’t you?”

“Yeah! I was wondering why you’d stopped doing that lately!”

“I’ve been consciously holding myself back… It was actually a bad habit of mine, and Trainer is helping me correct it.”

If Haruto hadn’t pointed it out, Suzuka would never have realized that she even spun her pen counterclockwise. She had never known just how fond she was of moving in that direction…

Problems like that were difficult to notice on one’s own, which only made the importance of a Trainer even clearer.

Haruto folded his arms and nodded before continuing.

“In soccer, there’s a term called ‘two-footed.’ It means being equally skilled with both your left and right feet. I plan to make Suzuka a two-footed Umamusume as well, so she can handle both clockwise and counterclockwise tracks. It’ll also stop her from unconsciously placing all the strain on her left foot.”

“Ooh…!”

Special Week let out a sound of admiration. Having done nothing but basic training until now, this was the first time she had heard a Trainer explain the purpose behind a training plan so clearly.

“Of course, learning to use both sides equally at this stage is going to be very difficult. That’s why I intend to gradually change every aspect of Suzuka’s daily life—brushing her teeth with her left hand, spinning a pen with her left hand, and so on…”

That solved the mystery of the pen-spinning as well.

Special Week’s eyes sparkled as she listened. This kind of training sounded incredibly interesting—far more enjoyable than dull, repetitive running practice.

“Um!”

Because Haruto was willing to explain everything so clearly, Special Week’s curiosity only grew stronger. Unable to hold back, she raised her hand to ask another question.

“Why her left hand? Didn’t you say you were strengthening her right side?”

Haruto laughed.

“Haha, Spe-chan, you don’t run by moving the arm and leg on the same side together, do you?”

“Ah…!”

“When you step forward with your left foot, you naturally swing your right arm. By the same logic, if you want to strengthen the right leg, you also need to train the left hand. It’s about adjusting the body’s balance and coordination.”

“That’s amazing! Haruto-san, you know so much!”

“This is all basic knowledge. I may still be a rookie, but I’m a fully qualified Trainer.”

Watching her best friend and her Trainer chatting so happily, Suzuka felt… not happy at all.

Something about the way Special Week had just addressed Haruto bothered her.

Haruto-san?

She was already calling him by his given name?

Spe-chan was certainly simple, straightforward, and cheerful. There was no way she was deliberately trying to get closer to Haruto, but… wasn’t this moving a little too fast?

Even Suzuka herself had never addressed her Trainer by name…

Before that faint twinge of jealousy could begin to turn sour, however, Suzuka heard something that made her heart clench even tighter.

“Um! Haruto-san, could you train me too?”

Special Week had already left her shame spiral behind. She truly meant nothing more than wanting Haruto’s guidance. After all, every Umamusume wanted to run faster.

But when those innocent words reached Suzuka’s ears, their meaning twisted into something else entirely.

Train… Spe-chan?

Then he would have to “check her condition” first, wouldn’t he?

And the way Trainer checked someone’s condition was…

No!

Absolutely not!

Haruto… He’s my Trainer! I’m the only one he can do that to!

T/N: ah. yes i uhhhh well fuck! I FUCKED UP OOPS I FORGOT TO DO LAST NAME FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh well sigh……. ill… start from now…. narration will still use haruto

This is a fan translation of 赛马娘，味真足 by 夜幕下的鬼 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!