Author's Note: I am not an editor or a professional writer. I will write this and edit it to the best of my ability. I also do not own Uma Musume, which is owned by Cygames. Watch the animes and read the mangas, for they are pretty good. Finally, please enjoy.
Steel Valkyrie POV
"I'm walking on sunshine! Ayyye!" I sang as I walked toward Coach Tsukasa's office.
Today was already a great day. All my possible love rivals had been eliminated.
Mama Blues was falling for Takeshi, Norn was falling for Suzu, GW seemed to be into Iguro, and Gray was in love with Rain. BlaD had fallen for Ana, and Sweets belonged to Lily.
Everyone who had looked at Trainer Tsukasa that way had been redirected toward someone else.
Which meant this was my win.
And I do love me some wins.
Now, let's be serious. Today's events had been wild, but at least we finally had an effective staff. I think so, anyway. Even with Hachi's introduction being a complete mess, I trusted Boss Mina's choices when it came to these things.
The meeting eventually ended with everyone agreeing to call each other by our casual names. We were going to be one big, happy family.
It was great.
And now I was on my way to talk to Coach Tsukasa.
And probably declare my love for him.
Fuck.
I was so inexperienced with this.
I remembered sabotaging my dates and relationships rather than actually building them. I was nervous as hell right now.
I soon entered the building, only to suddenly notice a bunch of security guards waiting outside alongside several servants.
What the hell was going on?
Then, without warning, one of the security guards used a battering ram to smash the door open.
"WHAT THE—?!"
"NO!"
I heard Tsukasa scream from inside.
One of the guards shouted, "Coach Tsukasa! Lady Mina demands that you rest! You have violated curfew and the nighttime work-prohibition rules!"
The guards immediately began dragging him out.
"No! This training schedule and competition schedule must be perfect! I don't need such trivial policies interrupting my work!"
He continued struggling against them.
"Unhand me at once, you brutes! I must keep working to make this team a success!"
An old butler calmly responded, "We appreciate your dedication, Sir Takajima, but you must rest. Continuing like this will harm your health."
Another security officer followed up with, "Yeah, you fucking workaholic! You can barely stay awake! What the hell can you accomplish in this state? Stop fucking struggling!"
Tsukasa tried to argue, but none of them were listening.
They dragged him away while the remaining servants began repairing the door and cleaning up the room.
I just stood there in complete disbelief.
I eventually asked the old servant, "The hell was that about? I wanted to talk to him."
The old man sighed.
"Oh, Lady Steel, you must be surprised. I apologize for the events. We were ordered to make sure he slept because he has been working for three days straight without rest. He has also snuck back into his office at night multiple times, so we must keep watch over him."
That was understandable.
We couldn't exactly have the coach dying on us, could we?
I nodded before walking into his office.
Inside, folders and files were scattered everywhere.
The servants immediately began gathering all the training plans so I couldn't see what the coach had planned for us.
Still, I looked around.
The amount of data he had collected was insane.
And it was accurate as hell.
Then I noticed several names underneath a large heading.
THREATS
The list was divided into two sections:
RACE OPPONENTS
and
OUTSIDE THREATS
Under outside threats were the Pop Music Cult, the Golden Gambler's Mafia, and even the Noble Racing League.
There were criminal organizations and powerful teams waiting for us.
This file had everything.
Then I looked at the in-race threats.
Faded God.
Super Crash.
Red Vizor.
Dreadnought.
And finally, the current G.O.A.T., Van Gophe.
Those were the names at the top of the list.
It even contained their current statuses.
Faded God: Free Agent.
Van Gophe: Injured.
Huh.
There were some worthy rivals to farm victories off of.
I believe in preparation, so after the servants left with the training paperwork, I immediately began reading through every threat on the board.
I searched for information about each one, read articles online, looked through the files, and started taking notes on my phone.
Then I began brainstorming ways to protect myself and everyone else against the outside threats.
This might require us to work with the staff as much as possible, even if we didn't always want to.
Still, it was better than nothing.
So I got to work.
Hours passed.
Then I heard a voice behind me.
"Hello, Steel. How are you?"
I looked up.
It was Tsukasa.
I nearly jumped out of my skin.
I quickly stood up straight.
"What are you doing here, Coach? Shouldn't you be in bed right now?"
He chuckled.
"It's eight in the morning, Miss Steel."
I slowly looked down at my phone.
Eight.
In the morning.
Oh.
I'd been researching all night.
"Sorry, Coach. I was just researching the threats list."
I immediately tried to walk out before he could say anything.
Unfortunately, he stepped in front of the door.
"Just a moment, Steel. I need to ask you something."
"Can this wait? I need to get to breakfast with the rest of the team."
"No, it cannot. Please sit down. This will only take a moment."
I sighed and sat down in front of his desk.
He looked at me.
"Last night, I saw you outside my office while I was being escorted to my room. Why were you there?"
"That's a fine way to describe getting dragged away and being forced to sleep."
The words escaped my mouth before I could stop them.
I immediately covered my mouth.
Oh, fuck.
I'd officially lost control.
I was nervous, exhausted, and apparently no longer filtering my thoughts.
Tsukasa chuckled.
"That's a good one. Now answer the question."
I desperately tried to think of a million lies I could tell him.
Anything.
Literally anything.
Then, in the middle of all that confusion, I blurted out:
"Because I wanted to ask you out on a date."
FUCK!
Oh, Three Goddesses, what the hell had I done?!
My internal meltdown was quickly becoming an external one.
Tsukasa was completely silent.
Then he smiled.
"I would love to."
...
What?
I was absolutely speechless.
He continued smiling.
"Confused, huh?"
He leaned back against his desk.
"Let's be honest, Steel. You're an adult, and so am I. Even though we work in the same place, we aren't doing anything wrong. Besides, I've spent most of my life without a girlfriend. If a pretty woman asks me out, maybe it's the change of pace I need."
My brain had stopped functioning.
He stood up and opened the office door.
"I'm excited to see what we can become. I'll send you the time, date, and location for the date. Now get out of here. You're late for breakfast."
I slowly walked outside.
He handed me a piece of paper.
Then he closed the door.
There was a brief moment of silence.
Then—
"FUCK YES!!!"
I screamed in celebration outside his office.
I had a date with him!
I wanted to celebrate, but then I realized something.
I was fucking exhausted.
And another thought hit me.
Oh, Three Goddesses...
What am I going to wear?!
I needed to prepare.
Were we going out to eat? Did I need to bring food? What was I supposed to do on an actual date?
I had so much preparation to do.
I'd never had a real relationship that I hadn't tried to sabotage.
And now I had to actually do this.
In a few days.
I looked down at the piece of paper and noticed his phone number.
I quickly added it to my phone.
Then I called it.
He answered almost immediately.
"Checking if the number is real, I see. Smart."
Then he hung up.
...
Okay.
I really liked him.
Still, I pushed those thoughts aside and headed toward the cafeteria for breakfast.
When I arrived, I looked around.
Everyone else seemed to have had a busy night too.
Some looked like they hadn't slept at all.
Others looked absolutely miserable.
I sat down with the rest of the team.
After everyone had settled in, Spice mockingly asked,
"So, how was last night, everybody?"
I know ImP probably would've asked first if he had gotten the chance, but regardless, we all responded the same way.
We flipped him off.
All of us.
A beautiful display of unity.
Unfortunately, that unity lasted approximately five seconds.
KiWi suddenly stood up.
Then she grabbed her water.
And dumped it directly on Jo.
Everyone immediately realized that something had happened between them.
Normally, Jo would have calmly handled something like that.
Instead, she started swinging.
Chaos erupted.
The fight spread across the cafeteria, quickly turning into an all-out brawl.
What really caught my attention, though, was GW.
Instead of trying to be the voice of reason and stop the fight, she simply pulled out her phone and started texting someone.
Oh no.
What the hell was she doing?
Vic, ever the great leader, eventually stepped in and managed to get everyone to stop.
After giving us a speech, she somehow managed to calm everyone down.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
Mina, Iguro, and Takeshi had arrived.
And punishment was coming.
We were grounded until training camp.
Which also meant my date with Tsukasa had been delayed until after training camp.
GODDESSES DAMN IT ALL!
I looked around the cafeteria.
Rain was helping Gray up because she could barely move from muscle fatigue.
GW was quietly celebrating her work, apparently thinking nobody had noticed.
Spice was smiling at everyone's stupidity.
Vic was desperately trying to hold back what looked like a migraine.
Mama Blues was perfectly happy because she got to see Takeshi.
ImP and BlaD were helping each other back onto their feet.
Lily was helping Jo up.
KiWi was standing again, still glaring daggers at Jo while Sweets held her back.
Norn and Rose were already talking like nothing had happened.
And that was the weirdest part.
We had been beating the absolute shit out of each other only minutes ago.
Now we were somehow fine.
This team was insane.
Completely, utterly insane.
But somehow...
We were becoming a family.
I looked around at everyone and smiled.
This was only the beginning of our journey.
Edit 43
Author's Note: I am not an editor or a professional writer. I will write this and edit it to the best of my ability. I also do not own Uma Musume, which is owned by Cygames. Watch the animes and read the mangas, for they are pretty good. Finally, please enjoy.
Steel Valkyrie POV
"I'm walking on sunshine! Ayyye!" I sang as I walked toward Coach Tsukasa's office.
Today was already a great day. All my possible love rivals had been eliminated.
Mama Blues was falling for Takeshi, Norn was falling for Suzu, GW seemed to be into Iguro, and Gray was in love with Rain. BlaD had fallen for Ana, and Sweets belonged to Lily.
Everyone who had looked at Trainer Tsukasa that way had been redirected toward someone else.
Which meant this was my win.
And I do love me some wins.
Now, let's be serious. Today's events had been wild, but at least we finally had an effective staff. I think so, anyway. Even with Hachi's introduction being a complete mess, I trusted Boss Mina's choices when it came to these things.
The meeting eventually ended with everyone agreeing to call each other by our casual names. We were going to be one big, happy family.
It was great.
And now I was on my way to talk to Coach Tsukasa.
And probably declare my love for him.
Fuck.
I was so inexperienced with this.
I remembered sabotaging my dates and relationships rather than actually building them. I was nervous as hell right now.
I soon entered the building, only to suddenly notice a bunch of security guards waiting outside alongside several servants.
What the hell was going on?
Then, without warning, one of the security guards used a battering ram to smash the door open.
"WHAT THE—?!"
"NO!"
I heard Tsukasa scream from inside.
One of the guards shouted, "Coach Tsukasa! Lady Mina demands that you rest! You have violated curfew and the nighttime work-prohibition rules!"
The guards immediately began dragging him out.
"No! This training schedule and competition schedule must be perfect! I don't need such trivial policies interrupting my work!"
He continued struggling against them.
"Unhand me at once, you brutes! I must keep working to make this team a success!"
An old butler calmly responded, "We appreciate your dedication, Sir Takajima, but you must rest. Continuing like this will harm your health."
Another security officer followed up with, "Yeah, you fucking workaholic! You can barely stay awake! What the hell can you accomplish in this state? Stop fucking struggling!"
Tsukasa tried to argue, but none of them were listening.
They dragged him away while the remaining servants began repairing the door and cleaning up the room.
I just stood there in complete disbelief.
I eventually asked the old servant, "The hell was that about? I wanted to talk to him."
The old man sighed.
"Oh, Lady Steel, you must be surprised. I apologize for the events. We were ordered to make sure he slept because he has been working for three days straight without rest. He has also snuck back into his office at night multiple times, so we must keep watch over him."
That was understandable.
We couldn't exactly have the coach dying on us, could we?
I nodded before walking into his office.
Inside, folders and files were scattered everywhere.
The servants immediately began gathering all the training plans so I couldn't see what the coach had planned for us.
Still, I looked around.
The amount of data he had collected was insane.
And it was accurate as hell.
Then I noticed several names underneath a large heading.
THREATS
The list was divided into two sections:
RACE OPPONENTS
and
OUTSIDE THREATS
Under outside threats were the Pop Music Cult, the Golden Gambler's Mafia, and even the Noble Racing League.
There were criminal organizations and powerful teams waiting for us.
This file had everything.
Then I looked at the in-race threats.
Faded God.
Super Crash.
Red Vizor.
Dreadnought.
And finally, the current G.O.A.T., Van Gophe.
Those were the names at the top of the list.
It even contained their current statuses.
Faded God: Free Agent.
Van Gophe: Injured.
Huh.
There were some worthy rivals to farm victories off of.
I believe in preparation, so after the servants left with the training paperwork, I immediately began reading through every threat on the board.
I searched for information about each one, read articles online, looked through the files, and started taking notes on my phone.
Then I began brainstorming ways to protect myself and everyone else against the outside threats.
This might require us to work with the staff as much as possible, even if we didn't always want to.
Still, it was better than nothing.
So I got to work.
Hours passed.
Then I heard a voice behind me.
"Hello, Steel. How are you?"
I looked up.
It was Tsukasa.
I nearly jumped out of my skin.
I quickly stood up straight.
"What are you doing here, Coach? Shouldn't you be in bed right now?"
He chuckled.
"It's eight in the morning, Miss Steel."
I slowly looked down at my phone.
Eight.
In the morning.
Oh.
I'd been researching all night.
"Sorry, Coach. I was just researching the threats list."
I immediately tried to walk out before he could say anything.
Unfortunately, he stepped in front of the door.
"Just a moment, Steel. I need to ask you something."
"Can this wait? I need to get to breakfast with the rest of the team."
"No, it cannot. Please sit down. This will only take a moment."
I sighed and sat down in front of his desk.
He looked at me.
"Last night, I saw you outside my office while I was being escorted to my room. Why were you there?"
"That's a fine way to describe getting dragged away and being forced to sleep."
The words escaped my mouth before I could stop them.
I immediately covered my mouth.
Oh, fuck.
I'd officially lost control.
I was nervous, exhausted, and apparently no longer filtering my thoughts.
Tsukasa chuckled.
"That's a good one. Now answer the question."
I desperately tried to think of a million lies I could tell him.
Anything.
Literally anything.
Then, in the middle of all that confusion, I blurted out:
"Because I wanted to ask you out on a date."
FUCK!
Oh, Three Goddesses, what the hell had I done?!
My internal meltdown was quickly becoming an external one.
Tsukasa was completely silent.
Then he smiled.
"I would love to."
...
What?
I was absolutely speechless.
He continued smiling.
"Confused, huh?"
He leaned back against his desk.
"Let's be honest, Steel. You're an adult, and so am I. Even though we work in the same place, we aren't doing anything wrong. Besides, I've spent most of my life without a girlfriend. If a pretty woman asks me out, maybe it's the change of pace I need."
My brain had stopped functioning.
He stood up and opened the office door.
"I'm excited to see what we can become. I'll send you the time, date, and location for the date. Now get out of here. You're late for breakfast."
I slowly walked outside.
He handed me a piece of paper.
Then he closed the door.
There was a brief moment of silence.
Then—
"FUCK YES!!!"
I screamed in celebration outside his office.
I had a date with him!
I wanted to celebrate, but then I realized something.
I was fucking exhausted.
And another thought hit me.
Oh, Three Goddesses...
What am I going to wear?!
I needed to prepare.
Were we going out to eat? Did I need to bring food? What was I supposed to do on an actual date?
I had so much preparation to do.
I'd never had a real relationship that I hadn't tried to sabotage.
And now I had to actually do this.
In a few days.
I looked down at the piece of paper and noticed his phone number.
I quickly added it to my phone.
Then I called it.
He answered almost immediately.
"Checking if the number is real, I see. Smart."
Then he hung up.
...
Okay.
I really liked him.
Still, I pushed those thoughts aside and headed toward the cafeteria for breakfast.
When I arrived, I looked around.
Everyone else seemed to have had a busy night too.
Some looked like they hadn't slept at all.
Others looked absolutely miserable.
I sat down with the rest of the team.
After everyone had settled in, Spice mockingly asked,
"So, how was last night, everybody?"
I know ImP probably would've asked first if he had gotten the chance, but regardless, we all responded the same way.
We flipped him off.
All of us.
A beautiful display of unity.
Unfortunately, that unity lasted approximately five seconds.
KiWi suddenly stood up.
Then she grabbed her water.
And dumped it directly on Jo.
Everyone immediately realized that something had happened between them.
Normally, Jo would have calmly handled something like that.
Instead, she started swinging.
Chaos erupted.
The fight spread across the cafeteria, quickly turning into an all-out brawl.
What really caught my attention, though, was GW.
Instead of trying to be the voice of reason and stop the fight, she simply pulled out her phone and started texting someone.
Oh no.
What the hell was she doing?
Vic, ever the great leader, eventually stepped in and managed to get everyone to stop.
After giving us a speech, she somehow managed to calm everyone down.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
Mina, Iguro, and Takeshi had arrived.
And punishment was coming.
We were grounded until training camp.
Which also meant my date with Tsukasa had been delayed until after training camp.
GODDESSES DAMN IT ALL!
I looked around the cafeteria.
Rain was helping Gray up because she could barely move from muscle fatigue.
GW was quietly celebrating her work, apparently thinking nobody had noticed.
Spice was smiling at everyone's stupidity.
Vic was desperately trying to hold back what looked like a migraine.
Mama Blues was perfectly happy because she got to see Takeshi.
ImP and BlaD were helping each other back onto their feet.
Lily was helping Jo up.
KiWi was standing again, still glaring daggers at Jo while Sweets held her back.
Norn and Rose were already talking like nothing had happened.
And that was the weirdest part.
We had been beating the absolute shit out of each other only minutes ago.
Now we were somehow fine.
This team was insane.
Completely, utterly insane.
But somehow...
We were becoming a family.
I looked around at everyone and smiled.
This was only the beginning of our journey.