Uma Musume: Become a Legendary Trainer

Chapter 340 Straight Man
When it comes to improvisation, Kitahara was of course just saying it casually.

Then he took out his cell phone and carefully searched for suitable dance halls and music restaurants in Nagoya.

This has always been his working habit and also his daily life habit.

Once you have decided on something, you must do it seriously, not just to get a successful result, but to do your best to get the best in the process.

Meanwhile, Maruzenski's bow-tie Bluetooth headset was buzzing with excitement.

"Hey, is Kitahara able to create? Why have I never heard him mention it?"

"Well...I'm used to his behavior of saying something new and understanding something new from time to time."

"Then why don't we give it a try? I mean, let's find a chance for him to try to create something?"

"Isn't this the chance?"

The last sentence was said by Representative Qian Ming.

Sitting on a chair, holding a small golden telescope, she pretended to test the telescope and occasionally glanced at the last carriage.

That was a small telescope used only for watching operas, and her disguise at the moment did look like she was going to the opera house for fun.

“Kitahara has his head down at the moment, so I can’t see what he’s doing.

“But based on my previous impression of him, he should be booking a restaurant by now.

"Hmm? Maruzen?"

Hearing the question coming from the headset, Maruzenski hesitated slightly.

From her position, she could indeed see Kitahara's cell phone.

Although out of politeness, she did not deliberately look at what was on the screen.

But with a quick glance, he could roughly tell that the horizontal and vertical lines on the screen should be the streets on the map.

In this case, Kitahara should be looking up a map of Nagoya to confirm the location of the next date.

If she followed the previous agreement with her girlfriends, although it was not convenient for her to say anything into the Bluetooth headset at this moment, she could nod to hint.

But she hadn’t been disturbed by Luduo and the others just now, and had chatted freely with Beiyuan for a while. She felt that this state was still very comfortable.

Just like usual, no matter whether he likes Kitahara or not, he can say whatever he thinks.

So, should I hang up the phone?

But Luduo and the others are so enthusiastic...

Maruzenski was in a dilemma.

“I think Griglia Pagina is a better restaurant, with a Western style and a nice environment.”

Kitahara didn't know what Maruzenski was thinking. He just followed his own thoughts, looked up some information, and turned around with a smile.

“But that place is more suitable for dinner. Before that, maybe we can just wander around Nagoya?

“If I remember correctly, your competitions back then were usually held at the Nakayama Stadium, and a few times at Tokyo, Hanshin, and Sapporo.

“Anyway, I haven’t been to the stadium in Nagoya very often.

“You probably aren’t very familiar with that place.

“Perhaps, we can take this opportunity to have a good look around.

"Of course, I don't have anything to do in the next few days. I wonder if you are busy in the student union?"

When asking this question, Kitahara still had a subtle feeling.

He had never planned such a "purposeless" itinerary before.

At least in his opinion, this trip was "purposeless".

In the past, such trips were mostly for competitions or for rest after competitions.

Xiao Limao and the others are still young, so even if they need to rest after the game, it would be best to help them find a suitable location and go to a crowded place to avoid any accidents.

This is not a one-time event, but there is precedent.

There are strange horse girls like Donghai Emperor and Good Opera who have a "runaway habit". No one knows whether they are uncomfortable with their companions or what, but every time they go out to play together, they always disappear for a while inexplicably.

When they came back and I asked them what happened, I found out that I had secretly run away.

It's a similar situation with Qingyun Tiankong. Every time I go somewhere to play, I always have to find a place to fish or sleep in, which is really a headache.

While horse girls like Emperor of the East Sea and Qingyun Tiankong can find their way back on their own after running away secretly, Good Opera always gets lost, causing headaches for the trainers or academy staff who follow them.

Apart from arranging travel itineraries for the horse racing ladies, the rest is work arrangements.

Mainly business cooperation, negotiations and so on.

Another thing is to "discover" Uma Musume, such as going to Hokkaido before.

If it weren't for these purposes, he really didn't know what to do in these places.

In other words, without these purposes, he would usually choose to stay in the dormitory to watch game videos, review games, read and write papers, etc.

But soon, he realized that this itinerary actually had a purpose, which was a "date" with Maruzenski.

It's just that he has no experience in this area, so he can only copy his experience in other areas, which gives him the illusion that it has no purpose.

On the other side, Maruzenski quietly turned off the Bluetooth headset in the blue bow.

"Beiyuan, you... seem very familiar with my previous race schedule?"

She said in surprise, and couldn't help but feel a little excited.

Due to the regulations on "horse racing girls", the number of competitions she participated in that year was very limited, and a considerable number of the prize levels were not very high.

Although she herself did not care about those things, nor did she care about the comments that arose from them, the URA association eventually gave her the title of Hall of Fame as a recognition.

But as the vice president of Tresen College, she still knows a lot of negative comments about herself.

For example, precisely because the prize money for some of the competitions she participated in was not high enough, many people said that her opponents were too weak, which made her appear very strong.

What's worse, some people directly said that those competitions had no value, so her hall of fame level was also questionable.

All kinds of discussions naturally and inevitably lead to her external image. As a result, perhaps except for her fans who particularly like her, few people can remember all the competitions she has participated in.

Especially after so many years.

And at this moment, the places Kitahara mentioned were exactly the places she had been to in every competition she had participated in.

She couldn't help but wonder if he had started paying attention to herself a long time ago, which was why he remembered her details so clearly.

"Ah? Of course I'm familiar with it."

Beiyuan felt a little puzzled. "I have watched every one of your game videos at least hundreds of times."

Such a sentence made Maruzenski's heart beat faster.

But the next second, she felt suffocated.

"A powerful horse girl like you is definitely the best person to learn from."

Beiyuan said as a matter of course: "It's not just you, Luduo, Qianming, I have watched their game videos many times.

"Especially with all the equipment, I can watch it frame by frame.

"In this way, you can learn a lot from it and be better..."

"Nothing."

Suddenly, Maruzenski crossed his arms, pursed his lips and snorted.

"To guide Oguruma and the others... huh?"

Kitahara was stunned, "What did you just say...?"

"Hmm--I say..."

Taking a deep breath, Maruzenski finally understood what his girlfriends meant by "straight man".

She didn't understand this word at first.

Although the best friends explained that she was inflexible, unromantic, and had low emotional intelligence during the relationship.

On the one hand, she felt that she still didn't quite understand it, and on the other hand, she felt that even if she could understand it, these descriptions seemed to have nothing to do with Beiyuan.

In her impression, Kitahara seemed to be able to handle everything with ease. Maybe it had nothing to do with his style, but he was definitely not the kind of person who was inflexible.

But now her expectations were dashed, and she finally understood that the description her best friends used was probably referring to a specific situation like dating.

"I don't have much to do in the student union next."

Unable to help but slump down on the chair, with one hand resting on his face, Maruzenski said weakly: "So, you can arrange it however you want."

"Oh... okay."

As he said this, Kitahara started placing some orders on his phone.

After hearing the perfunctory answer, Maruzenski became even more depressed.

For a moment, I wanted to complain, but before I could say anything, I suddenly felt my phone vibrate.

I took it out and saw that it was a message from Representative Qian Ming.

【Aguo:
Why did you hang up the call?
But you should be able to handle the next thing on your own, so it doesn't matter if we don't talk on the phone
I have something to remind you. When you go to a music restaurant at night, there might be a music creation program. If nothing goes wrong, you two will be picked.
Don’t tell Kitahara yet, otherwise it won’t be a surprise (already read)]

"Akuni" is the nickname that Representative Chiaki uses on the Internet. Maruzen knows that his good friend loves Kabuki and likes to watch it when he has nothing to do.

According to legend, Kabuki originated from the sorceress "Akuni" of Izumo Taisha Shrine. This sorceress performed everywhere to raise funds to repair the temple.

Because of this legend, this friend likes to use this ID. If he had seen this message earlier, Maruzenski might have felt shy because of the word "this couple" in it.

I also feel that this so-called "surprise" might scare Kitahara if I don't tell him.

But after the brief baptism of "straight man's speech" just now, she inexplicably felt indifferent.

I even thought it would be fun to just play a trick on him without telling him.

Who made him so depressed just now?

So just don't tell him.

After making this decision, Maruzenski felt better, but when Kitahara asked about the arrangements next, her attitude did not seem to become more positive.

"Ah."

"can."

"I can do it."

I responded with roughly these words, and then pretended to be interested in the scenery outside the other side of the car and kept looking over there.

Although he didn't understand what this horse racing girl was thinking, Kitahara still had a vague feeling that she seemed angry.

The trouble was, he had no idea how he had offended the other party.

For a moment, the thought of asking Katsumi Komiyama and the others popped into my mind.

It extinguished itself in an instant.

Intuitively, if I explain the current situation one by one, I will probably be scolded.

So, in a strange and dull mood, Kitahara pondered while waiting for the station, and according to his idea, he brought Maruzenski to Osu Shopping Street in Nagoya.

"here it is……?"

Maruzenski had not been to Nagoya much. It was only after he met Kitahara and Oguruma that he became familiar with the city because Kasamatsu lived in the area.

Apart from that, the only place she is most familiar with is the nearby Suzuka Circuit, which she has only gradually become familiar with in the past two years.

"Osu Shopping Street is probably one of the most famous tourist attractions in Nagoya."

Without thinking, Kitahara smiled and said, "This place is very large, even if you walk around quickly, it's no problem to spend two or three hours.

“There are probably thousands of shops here, selling snacks, restaurants, clothing, groceries, electrical appliances and so on. Whether you want to buy something or not, it’s quite interesting to take a look.

“Young people in Nagoya generally like to come here.

"Oh, Maruzen, maybe..."

I was just about to say that Maruzenski might be more familiar with things from the past.

But basic etiquette told Kitahara that saying this was no different from calling someone old-fashioned and outdated, and was extremely rude.

This has nothing to do with dating and love, he can still react.

"Maybe I haven't been to Nagoya very often, so I'm not very familiar with it." So he quickly changed his words.

"Ah... Indeed, when I come here, I usually go straight to the racetrack."

After nodding, Maruzenski quickly shook his head, “But, but, I actually know about this place.

“Anyway, I feel like I’m still very fashionable, so I’m actually very familiar with the places that young people like!
"Yeah! That's it!"

I don’t know why, but if he was in front of Rudo and the others, Maruzenski didn’t mind being called old-fashioned or being noticed or something.

But when facing Beiyuan, she couldn't help but want to prove that she was still able to keep up with the times.

Kitahara tried to hold back his laughter.

He knew that Maruzenski might be good at everything, but when it came to fashion, he was indeed intriguing.

For example, in previous text messages, words like "awesome" were, in his impression, words that were popular when he was in school, and some were even popular when he was in elementary school.

The fact that they keep saying this only shows that Maruzen still has a lot of room for growth in terms of fashion.

But he definitely couldn't say such things, so after thinking it over, Kitahara decided to take the horse girl shopping and eat some delicious food.

In his opinion, this was pretty much what one should do on a date.

"This Maruyoshi is very famous, especially its miso fried chicken. It's probably the only one in Nagoya that sells it. Many people come to Osu Shopping Street and head straight to Shintenchidori just for this."

"The crepes at Marin are also delicious. We came at the right time. The queue hasn't started yet. If we were later, we would have to wait a long time."

"The fruit daifuku at Benzaiten in Kakuohsan is delicious. They only use fresh fruit from the day, so it's actually a purchase limit. Just look at what flavor you want to eat."

"The rice balls from this restaurant, Kitenya, are not very famous, but they have many flavors and they are all delicious. The most famous one is the shrimp tempura, then the mentaiko, and the most classic plum flavor."

According to the travel guide he had checked before, Kitahara took Maruzenski to shop and eat along Osu Street, and then came to a store with a very special entrance.

The door of this store is only about 1.4 meters high, and you need to bend down to go in and out.

The lighting inside was dim, and it was hard to see clearly what was being sold.

"here it is……?"

Holding a half-eaten crepe in one hand and a cup of miso fried chicken in the other, with a rice ball and a fruit daifuku hanging on each wrist, Maruzenski looked up and down at the small door of the shop and became curious.

Beiyuan had a lot of food in his hands. When he heard the question, he smiled and raised his chin.

"Wednesday Uma Musume, that's the name of this shop."

He explained: "This is a Umamusume-related theme store, which combines elements from Alice in Wonderland, so this small door symbolizes the door to Wonderland.

"There are all kinds of creative accessories and gadgets in there. If you're interested, we can go in and take a look."

"Um, okay."

After eating, watching and playing all the way, Maruzenski no longer had the depressed mood he had in the car.

She was a free and easy-going person. After she bent over and entered the small door, her eyes suddenly lit up.

Unlike the dim light outside, the light inside is very soft and bright.

A wide variety of small gadgets are neatly arranged in the store, all of which are Uma Musume-themed.

Under the illumination of the goose yellow light, the Umamusume dolls and pendants seemed to come alive.

After looking at it curiously for a while, Maruzenski felt a little depressed.

"Hmm... I feel like there are more designs from Oguruma and the others, and there don't seem to be many that are relevant to me..."

"Uh... well, it's probably because Oguruma and the others are so popular right now."

Seeing that most of the products in the store were of styles of active horse girls such as Oguruma, as Maruzen had said, Kitahara tried to explain.

"If it was during your time as Maruzen, or if the Peak Cup was held later, this place, including the entire industry, would be a completely new scene."

He originally wanted to use future competitions to divert Maruzenski's attention, but unexpectedly, the horse racing girl was silent for a moment, and suddenly looked at him with a smile.

"Hey, I suddenly want to know what you think, Kitahara."

"My point of view?"

Kitahara was surprised, "What do you think...?"

"That is to say..."

There was a trace of melancholy in his eyes, and Maruzenski himself didn't understand why he suddenly remembered what he remembered on the Shinkansen.

“Even when I was in service, I probably wasn’t as popular as Ten Points and Green Grass.

“After all, until now, some people still think that I didn’t have any strong opponents in the competition I participated in.

“The competitions I participated in didn’t seem to be that valuable.

"What do you think, Kitahara?"

Beiyuan was stunned again, and then he laughed without thinking.

"This is truly a classic statement..."

"What...?" Maruzenski didn't hear clearly.

"I mean..."

Looking at Maruzenski, Kitahara said with a smile: “Dongjiang was the horse girl of the Chrysanthemum Award at that time, but you beat her by 7 lengths in the Short Wave Award.

“You’ve won many times against Lingsu, and you’ve won two consecutive derby horse girls like Lucky.

“There’s no need to say anything else, these alone are enough to prove that your opponent is no rookie.

“As for the big reward, if the Asahi Cup is not a big reward, then I don’t know what is.

"More importantly, reality is not a game, it's not that easy to make a big difference.

“Since the introduction of the ranking system in Japan, the number of matches won by Osamu can be counted on one hand.

“And the Asahi Cup you won by 13 lengths was one of them, and it is unprecedented and unlikely to be surpassed in the future.

"so……"

Kitahara did feel a little funny at the moment, and he didn't understand why Maruzenski suddenly became so self-pitying, or why he said such inexplicable words.

He just followed his own heart and said naturally: "If you want to ask my opinion, it's just these games and their value.

"I can only say that in every competition you participate in, the name Maruzenski is worth a lot of money. It is the biggest reward among all the big rewards."

(End of this chapter)