Chapter 93: All right. If that’s how it’s going to be, then it’s war.

“All right. If that’s how it’s going to be, then it’s war.”

There’s a saying that peace is merely the preparation period for war.

In the modern era, war is decided eighty percent by overall power—territory, resources, food—and by the preparations painstakingly built up beforehand. Tactics, techniques, and strategy aren’t meaningless, of course, but more than anything else, victory or defeat hinges on how thoroughly prepared you are when you finally open hostilities.

Well, that’s an extremely reasonable argument, if you think about it.

This might be amateur reasoning, but combat—no matter the scale—ultimately comes down to which side lands a decisive blow first. A street fight between amateurs is a good example. If you can land one solid hit to the opponent’s head, their thinking gets scrambled, and they can’t fight back properly anymore. Even if it’s not that, sealing off any part of the body—through pain or dysfunction—is enough to create an overwhelming advantage.

That’s why, to win a fight, you have to fortify your defenses so thoroughly that the opponent can’t land a fatal strike, while also exploiting any opening to deliver one yourself. And to do that, you need to gather sufficient resources before the fighting even begins, preparing both shield and spear.

Now then—those circumstances, the idea that preparation is the single most crucial factor, don’t really change when it comes to Tracen Academy or Uma Musume races.

Before the official race day arrives, how far you’ve pushed your body, how perfectly you’ve fine-tuned it, how thoroughly you’ve eliminated mental anxieties, brought yourself into peak condition, and created an environment where you can fully concentrate—honestly, you could say that determines most of how the race will play out.

Of course, on-the-spot decision-making and shaping the flow of the race matter too. Even if someone is a bit inferior in raw ability, there are Uma Musume like Nature who claw their way up through those kinds of skills. …But that only works because Nature’s disadvantage is “a bit.” When there’s a large gap in base ability, those kinds of tactics stop working altogether. Just like me last year, up through the Yayoi Sho.

That’s why the preparation phase of any battle is incredibly important. You could say there’s no victory without it.

…And so.

As I lectured away in my fake glasses, Bourbon-chan, seated in her chair, finally asked me a question.

"So, in the end, what exactly are you trying to say, Wilm-senpai? I believe I already understand the importance of regular training."

In other words, get to the point already.

Honestly, rushing to the conclusion isn’t good. You have to enjoy the process. That’s what’s wrong with kids these days… saying that makes me sound like some out-of-touch old fogey, though, so I don’t like it.

Still, she wasn’t wrong—I had gotten a bit long-winded. It was time to get to the main point.

"In short… it’s about time we started preparing live ammunition for the next war."

"…………? Interpreting intent. Does this mean we will be carrying out special training in preparation for the spring G1 race series?"

"No, that’s not it. The trainer will put together the optimal program, so you don’t need to worry about that. Actually, more than anything, messing with the trainer’s program would be bad. It’d just get in the way."

"Understood."

The training programs Ayumu puts together are completely different from what ordinary trainers do—down to a frankly absurd level of detail. Even just what’s announced is a minute-by-minute schedule laid out more than a month in advance, and it gets subtly adjusted every few hours based on our condition that day and how our physical abilities are developing. It’s a flawless program built exclusively for me and Bourbon-chan, backed by his astonishingly precise eye for assessment and exhaustive data analysis. It’s already top-tier quality to begin with, but the way it’s continually refined and perfected makes it practically a work of art… or so Nature’s trainer once said, a while back.

In fact, over the past two years, I haven’t had a single accident while following the trainer’s instructions. The sole exception was the Takarazuka Kinen, but that was because I stubbornly insisted on running despite being told, “It’s too dangerous, let’s not.” The same goes for Bourbon-chan—since Ayumu became her trainer, she hasn’t had a single incident during training that could be called an accident.

Apparently, that’s highly unusual. I remember Teio being completely taken aback when I told her about it recently. Even with a veteran trainer supporting them, it’s not uncommon for mistakes in reading condition or breakdowns in communication to lead to failures. For that not to happen at all over a full two years—or two and a half, counting Bourbon-chan as well—is, by all accounts, an almost unbelievable result.

…Ayumu really is kind of amazing. Honestly, he might be even more overpowered than I am.

Our training program is a perfect plan put together by that kind of extraordinary trainer. It’s not something us assigned Uma Musume—who fall short of Ayumu in knowledge, experience, and ability across the board—should be meddling with on a whim.

…Well, maybe that’s not something I should say, given how much unsanctioned self-training I do. But hey, the trainer factors that into the schedule too, right? I think it’s okay to lean on him a little.

Anyway, there’s no need to explain all that to Bourbon-chan. Right now, what matters is the war right in front of us.

"This has nothing to do with races. If anything, it’s about our private lives."

"Private lives… war…?"

Murmuring that, Bourbon-chan stared blankly up into empty space. She was probably thinking silently, but the way she looked up at nothing—was she a cat? No, not just a cat. More like a cosmic cat.

Still, this isn’t actually that serious of a topic. If anything, it’s just sophistry to help me gloss over my own embarrassment.

Feeling a little bad, I cleared my throat lightly, raised my index finger again, and finally got to the point.

"Yes, war. …And when you think of February at Tracen Academy, there’s only one event that comes to mind. Valentine’s Day."

February 14th. Valentine’s Day. The day when girls muster their courage and take a step forward. Or a day when people are swept up by manufacturers’ promotions and give chocolate to someone they like, or to someone they want to thank.

Back when I was an ordinary human in my previous life, I didn’t really… no, to be honest, I didn’t feel even the slightest fondness for this event. I mean, I was just a gloomy otaku back then. There was no one to give chocolate to, and I didn’t have the initiative to get involved with other people like that anyway. To me, Valentine’s Day was just the day there was an event in whatever gacha game I was playing.

…Sorry, that’s a lie. I was putting on airs. Honestly, I thought it was an annoying event where extroverts got all worked up. Past me was just kind of a jerk.

But those days are over. This life is different.

After all, I’ve gone and fallen in love.

Now, I can understand those extroverts’ feelings at least a little. When you’re trying to convey your feelings to someone you like, of course you get nervous. Of course you get excited.

In fact, just preparing for it like this has already left my hands drenched in sweat, cold sweat running down my back, and every pore on my head wide open. Well, maybe that’s less nervousness and more the embarrassment I’m desperately trying to suppress.

Still, no matter how embarrassed I am, as a girl, I can’t just do nothing on Valentine’s Day. Because doing nothing is itself a kind of statement. What if Ayumu thought, “Oh, Wilm doesn’t see me as someone close enough to even give chocolate to…”? At that point, the narrow path to victory I had left would be completely cut off.

Being a trainer and an Uma Musume already puts us at a significant disadvantage. I have to make my appeal whenever I can, to try and close that gap.

And it’s not just Ayumu I need to prepare chocolate for. Friend chocolate is essential for maintaining relationships with other girls, and I want to give some to Masa too, after all she’s done for me. Whether it’s obligation or true feelings doesn’t matter—if you’re close to someone beyond a certain point, you pretty much have to prepare chocolate for them.

Nature, Teio, McQueen-senpai, Bourbon-chan, Rice-chan, and the other juniors—I can give them slightly fancy store-bought chocolate as friend chocolate, and that’ll be fine. But for Ayumu, the one I’m in love with, and for Masa, who has helped me so much and is also his sister, I really want to give them properly handmade chocolate.

And so, while I was fired up with motivation to make chocolate…

My junior, Bourbon-chan, was—surprisingly enough—also quite enthusiastic about making chocolate.

She’d apparently been so focused on training that she completely forgot about Valentine’s Day until just recently, but once she realized it was approaching, she said, “…Inserting Operation ‘Gift Creation.’ Priority set to ‘High.’”

Just in case—purely out of an abundance of caution—I gently tried to probe her true intentions, but she replied, "It is a customary event, and a valuable opportunity to repay the kindness of the Master who looks after us on a daily basis." Whew.

To Bourbon-chan, Ayumu is both a comrade striving for the Triple Crown and a mentor who designs her training plans. Remembering to feel gratitude toward someone like that isn’t as easy as it sounds, and it really shows how earnest and kind Bourbon-chan is.

And so, we decided to make chocolate to give to Ayumu—but…

The problem is that this isn’t just Valentine’s Day. It’s Valentine’s Day at Tracen Academy.

At Tracen Academy, Valentine’s carries a somewhat special significance.

To begin with, when an Uma Musume enrolls at Tracen, she’s only just finished elementary education. She’s a young girl right in the middle of adolescence. And when an assigned Uma Musume and her contracted trainer run through the grueling Twinkle Series together, an incredibly strong bond of trust forms between them.

So then, what happens?

Yes—romantic feelings.

Unlike ordinary schools, everyone at Tracen Academy is an Uma Musume—in other words, female. It’s not rare for girls who are in love with love itself to develop gentle crushes on their male trainers, and sometimes even on female trainers. And even if those feelings never become romantic, this is a place full of kind-hearted girls—there’s no one here who doesn’t feel gratitude toward a trainer who works so hard for them.

As a result, what happens is—

Girls who want to give handmade chocolate on this day, whether because they’re in love with their trainer or because they want to repay a debt of gratitude… aren’t just common. There are a lot of them. Like, an absurd number.

…and when demand skyrockets like that, and supply can’t keep up, well… you can probably imagine what happens next.

"So, yeah. We couldn’t borrow a kitchen at Tracen."

"…I see."

During this season, there are tons of girls who want to borrow a kitchen to make chocolate. An unbelievable number—so many that the kitchens are pushed to their absolute limits.

At Tracen Academy, there’s one kitchen inside the school building, one in the Ritto Dormitory, and one in the Miho Dormitory, each reasonably spacious. On top of that, the home economics room can also be used if you submit an application to the student council. In early February, all four of these cooking spaces are running at full capacity, occupied by Uma Musume determined to make chocolate.

That said, Uma Musume are busy with training—and a token amount of academics—so the only free time they usually have is during lunch breaks or the occasional day off. They squeeze in whatever time they can to borrow a kitchen, practice repeatedly depending on their cooking skills, and pursue the goal of making even slightly better handmade chocolate.

It’s truly another battlefield for an assigned Uma Musume—a war fought against time, one’s own culinary ability, and the quality one aspires to achieve.

And.

I lost the very first stage of that war: the battle to secure a kitchen.

"Senpai. May I raise one question?"

"Sure."

"If we cannot use a kitchen, then is it not impossible to make chocolate?"

"Mm, that’s a painful but accurate point."

Today is the second Sunday of February, a rare day off that just happened to overlap for both me and Bourbon-chan. Apparently, a surprising number of Uma Musume get days off right before Valentine’s Day.

Maybe, behind the scenes, the trainers have an unspoken agreement to be considerate of circumstances like this for us Uma Musume.

Either way, this was a precious opportunity, and I wasn’t about to let it slip away. I immediately tried to reserve the kitchen in the Ritto Dormitory, where Bourbon-chan and I live—but, as expected, everyone had the same idea. By the time I went to the office to apply, every single slot was already filled.

Since it was a holiday, the school building itself was locked, and when I checked, the Miho Dormitory was fully booked too.

Yeah. Looks like we acted a little too late.

It seemed borrowing a Tracen kitchen today was simply impossible.

If I were to put it in war terms, it was like having our supply lines completely cut off before the real battle even began. Or maybe it was already shaping up like a preordained defeat.

…Heh. As if the Triple Crown Uma Musume, Hoshino Wilm, would give up over something like this.

When the straightforward approach doesn’t work, there’s always a back road. If the official supply routes are blocked, then you use the unofficial ones—connections.

With that decided, I stood up and reached out my hand to Bourbon-chan.

"Then, let’s go, Bourbon-chan."

"Where to?"

"To meet our reinforcements… or rather, our strategist."

"And that’s why I called you here—please welcome the shopping district’s idol, Nice Nature."

"Hii~! It’s Nature here!"

"R-Rice will be intruding as well!"

Waving lazily as she greeted us was my best friend and greatest rival, the racing Uma Musume Nice Nature, currently recuperating from periostitis. Standing beside her was a dark bay Uma Musume—Rice Shower-chan, a junior who will be challenging the Triple Crown alongside Bourbon-chan this year.

Today, we’d invited the Nature camp—these two—to join us.

"Hey, who are you calling an idol?!"

Nature fired back with her usual sharp retort, but today, I just gave her a flat look.

"You are one, though. You’re insanely popular, Nature. In the shopping district, you’ve got way more buzz than me, and I’m a Triple Crown Uma Musume."

"Gah—when you put it like that, it’s kinda hard to deny…! It’s true everyone there treats me really well."

Just so you know, this is actually a pretty abnormal situation.

Since it’s a shopping district near Tracen, it stands to reason that there are plenty of people with a strong interest in the racing world.

Hoshino Wilm has won the Classic Triple Crown, and if you include the Takarazuka Kinen and the Japan Cup, that’s five major titles. She should have more than enough name recognition.

By contrast, Nature is certainly a very strong Uma Musume, but at the moment she’s still winless in G1 races. For fans, race results are the easiest metric to understand, so the fact that she’s evaluated beyond that means it’s fair to say she’s achieved something close to idol-level popularity.

…Well, Nature does have legs worthy of praise in her own right, of course.

And being loved by a specific group of people also means you have something that makes you lovable. Her crafty running style is part of it, but her charming personality probably plays a big role too.

Hehe. As expected of my best friend. I can’t help feeling a little proud.

Anyway, the reason we asked Nature and the others to come today was—

"…So, what exactly do you want?"

"I heard, Nature. You’ve been secretly borrowing the kitchen at a diner in the shopping district, haven’t you?"

"Eh—what!? I kept that a secret! Where did you hear that?!"

I picked up that information just three days ago.

To be honest, I’d already felt something was off. Nature might not look it at first glance… well, maybe it’s not that surprising, but she’s pretty trainer-loving. She doesn’t make it obvious most of the time, but when she glances at her trainer now and then, there’s this intensity to it. Or warmth. Something like that.

Honestly, it’s fine to love your trainer, but if you’re that embarrassed about it, couldn’t you hide it a little better? Take a page from my book. Learn from me.

On top of that, whenever the three of us from Sanshoku get together, she’s always bragging about her trainer like usual. Just recently, she even asked me what she should get him for his birthday…

…Hm. Birthday?

Wait. Hold on. When is Ayumu’s birthday?

Come to think of it… don’t I not know it at all? I mean, I’ve never celebrated it, have I?

W-Wait, what? No way. How did I forget something like that?

Oh no, this is bad—okay, it’s rude to Nature, but I need to ask Masa as soon as possible.

We’ve been together for over two full years, and he’s helped me so much… not even knowing his birthday is just awful. I feel like I might cry at my own carelessness.

This year, I absolutely have to celebrate it. I’ll give him the greatest present I can… though, what would Ayumu even like? My… say, half of my life? Haha—no, no. Ugh, my face is burning…

…No. That’s not the point right now.

Anyway, that’s the kind of girl Nature is—someone who definitely loves her trainer.

And yet, I heard something strange from Rice-chan, who’d been doing nighttime self-training with her.

"Nature-senpai? Um… I don’t think I’ve seen her borrowing a kitchen…"

Rice-chan said this while adorably tilting her head in the dark after sunset. According to her, Nature hadn’t been using any kitchens lately.

Which meant—she wasn’t preparing Valentine’s chocolate.

…Impossible.

There’s no way an Uma Musume with a love-addled, flower-filled brain would choose not to prepare chocolate. I can say that with absolute confidence—speaking from personal experience.

So, I followed up by asking whether Nature had been going anywhere else recently.

"Oh—now that you mention it, I feel like she’s been saying she’s going to the shopping district a lot lately. I offered to help carry things, but she said it was fine…"

Ah. I see now.

So that’s how it connects.

Huh. Nature, you’ve found yourself quite the sly little workaround.

As expected of a tactician—an Uma Musume who’s climbed this far through strategy and cunning. If the straightforward path doesn’t work, you find another route, huh?

Interesting. That’s a good idea.

After that, I went around asking Nature’s friends about her recent movements, and then Turbo finally spilled everything.

"Oh yeah! Nature’s been going into restaurants in the shopping district lately! Turbo tried to go in with her, but she got turned down!"

And just like that, the whole picture came into focus.

Now then, with this information I’d happened to acquire—how should I use it?

This is one of Nature’s weak points. If I play my cards right, I might be able to do something interesting.

…In war terms, she’s a strategist.

Rather than eliminating her, this is a case where I should bring her onto our side.

"And that’s how it happened—we asked them to cooperate with the chocolate-making."

"R-Rice was invited by big sister too…!"

"Yeah, Rice-chan kept saying things like, ‘I might not be able to prepare chocolate for my trainer since I can’t borrow a kitchen…’"

"Ah—th-that’s! Um, it’s just a token of my usual gratitude!"

"It’s okay, Rice-chan. I get it. Same goes for you too, Nature."

Since we talk regularly during nighttime self-training, I’ve more or less figured it out, but Rice-chan doesn’t seem to have romantic feelings toward her trainer. The way she hurriedly emphasized that wasn’t because she was embarrassed—it was because it would’ve been awkward in front of Nature if she didn’t.

From Rice-chan’s perspective, if it seemed like she had romantic intentions, it might strain her relationship with a senior who is in love with that trainer.

Nature is fundamentally kind and good-natured, but when romance gets involved, some people suddenly get… heavy. Humid, you could say.

If my observational skills are correct, Nature’s the type whose emotional humidity shoots up when she falls in love.

Rice-chan made the right call.

…That said, it’s not like Rice-chan feels nothing toward her trainer.

She’d been feeling down, saying, "My trainer works so hard for someone like me… I wanted to at least give him chocolate…" and that’s why I thought we should just invite her along too.

"Riiiice… you really sold me out, didn’t you…!"

"N-Nature-senpai! I—I didn’t know it would turn into this, and—!"

"Hahaha, I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I wouldn’t get mad over something like that."

"E-Eh!? Geez, Nature-senpai!"

"Rice, you’re serious and hardworking. I’m sure you’ll make chocolate your trainer will love. Let’s do our best together."

"Yes!"

Nature and Rice-chan chatted away happily.

…Yeah. Same camp, after all—they really do get along.

Good, good. It’d be awkward if my greatest rival and my adorable junior were on bad terms. Harmony is a beautiful thing.

Being wedged between the two of them makes me feel a little bad, but…

I guess Bourbon-chan and I can join in on their chocolate-making too.

"…Alright then, Nature. Why don’t you show us the way? To Nice Nature’s secret kitchen."

"It’s not like that, okay? I’m just borrowing a kitchen out of kindness from a shop owner I know! …I’ll go check if it’s really alright, so wait here."

Saying that, Nature steps away slightly and, most likely, calls the shop owner.

Barely a minute later, she comes back, looking a bit disgruntled.

"Ugh, seriously. They said it was fine… no, they said ‘You’re more than welcome!’ But don’t you dare do anything rude! Especially you, Wilm!"

"What kind of image do you even have of me?"

"The kind who’d ditch halfway through and say, ‘I’m gonna go for a run real quick.’"

"That’s cruel."

"Based on your usual behavior, I infer that this is an appropriate evaluation."

"Even you, Bourbon-chan!? Rice-chan, you don’t think that, right?"

"Ah, um… haha…"

"I have no allies…"

And so, after all that…

In exchange for eating dinner at the restaurant, we were allowed to use the kitchen.

"Rice? Um… what are you doing?"

"Huh? I was going to melt the chocolate…"

"You’re putting the chocolate bar straight into the pot?"

"E-eh!? D-did I do something wrong!?"

"I can’t believe someone this cute still exists nowadays…"

"Rice-chan really is adorable."

"Referencing data. In order to produce the product ‘homemade chocolate,’ one should first finely crush store-bought chocolate, then melt it using a process known as a ‘double boiler.’"

"I-I see… ugh, that’s embarrassing…!"

"Oh? There’s kind of a crumbly lump forming…"

"Ah, yeah, that’s because the temperature was too high. Apparently, you need to melt it slowly at around fifty to fifty-five degrees."

"This is harder than I expected. Only a five-degree margin?"

"Wilm, is this your first time making chocolate? You didn’t give any to Horino Trainer-san last year?"

"I completely forgot Valentine’s Day last year… yes…"

"Ah, that’s very Wilm-like, or however I should put it…"

"Let’s see… oh, that’s your plan, Wilm. Rice is making marshmallow chocolate, huh? Nice choice. And Bourbon-chan is… wait, what is that!?"

"Master’s preferences are unknown, making it impossible to determine an optimal shape. Therefore, I am creating a mold in the shape of an Uma Musume with a high probability of being favored."

"You’re making the mold from scratch!? And it’s three-dimensional!? There’s no way you’ll make it in time! Save that level of obsession for next year and do something simple this time!"

"…Understood. Indeed, if prioritizing quality, the optimal approach would begin with importing the finest cacao. This year, I will focus solely on flavor, store the method mentally, and begin planning for next year."

"…Bourbon-chan, do people ever tell you that you’re kind of off sometimes?"

"Based on inference, is Nature-senpai an esper?"

"Yeah. You’re definitely off."

Like that, despite various troubles along the way, the four of us continued making chocolates together…

And then, several days later.

At last, the curtain rose on the battlefield.