"Hahahahaha! Oguri! Oguri! And Super Creek! Look! We're flying! Hey, Inari, come on, push harder! In a bit we'll take you flying too!"
Startled, Kitahara raised his head and, upon seeing what was happening before him, was so shocked he didn't even notice that both his clipboard and pen had fallen from his hands.
On the track, screaming "Aaaaahhhhhh!" at the top of her lungs as she sprinted like crazy was Inari One.
Her weighted training gear was hooked to a long parachute cord. One end of the cord was attached to the mechanism on her back, while the other end was connected to the mechanism on Tamamo Cross's harness in front of her.
Behind Tamamo Cross's gear, seven parachutes were tethered together.
With Inari One's desperate sprinting, the seven parachutes ballooned up, catching the wind and pulling Tamamo Cross up into the air — flying through the sky.
On the ground, besides the charging Inari One, Oguri Cap and Super Creek were running and chasing after them.
Oguri Cap, while running, pouted and grumbled:
"Tamamo, you're so mean! Doing something this fun and plotting it with Inari without telling me or Super Creek… Creek! Let's catch up to them! I want to fly too!"
But Super Creek wasn't running for the same reason.
"W-Wait, Inari, Tamamo… stop messing around already! If Mr. Kitahara finds out, he's going to be mad… Ugh, I knew I shouldn't have lent you and Tamamo our parachutes… Ah! Mr. Kitahara already found out! We're doomed…"
…You horse girls really know how to have fun…
Kitahara stood there dumbfounded for a moment, but he didn't stop Inari One and Tamamo Cross's antics.
"It's fine. Play all you want. It's break time anyway."
He smiled and waved reassuringly at Super Creek, signaling that there was no need to worry.
The horse girls' little game was simple — using the parachutes to "fly" for a bit.
If ordinary humans wanted to do this, the pulling force would have to come from a car or some other vehicle — and indeed, there were parachute or gliding sports that worked like that.
But with the Uma Musumes' physical abilities and speed, they could get the parachutes airborne with pure strength — and even use that momentum to "carry" another horse girl into the sky.
Of course, pulling this off smoothly was also thanks to Tamamo Cross being petite and relatively light.
Honestly, Kitahara was glad to see the girls fooling around like this in their downtime.
He'd already considered that during this month-long joint training, Oguri Cap and the others needed to build mutual trust and recognition in order to improve their teamwork and coordination.
Especially Tamamo Cross and Inari One — since there had been a bit of friction between them — interactions like this were exactly what he wanted to see.
Now that this kind of opportunity had naturally appeared — and Tamamo seemed stable enough in the air with no safety issues — there was no reason to stop them.
And clearly, Oguri Cap and the others wanted this too.
"Yay! Kitahara says it's okay! Super Creek, can you take me flying later?"
"Ah… well, if Mr. Kitahara thinks it's fine… then okay. But I might not be as fast as Inari, so I don't think I can lift you off the ground, Oguri."
"Hmm… yeah, true. With all this training lately, I've been eating more than before, so I've probably gained weight… Ah, I know! Tamamo——!"
"Huh——? Oguri—— you calling me——?"
"Yeah——! What if later, you, Creek, and Inari pull together to take me flying——?"
"Huh——? Oguri—— what did you say——? The wind's too loud up here—— I didn't catch that——"
And so, laughing and shouting, they flew and chased, chased and flew.
A while later, Kitahara had finished sorting through the training data and was just about to call Oguri Cap and the others over for lunch when suddenly he heard a surprised voice behind him.
"Uh… Senpai, what are they doing?"
Turning around, he saw Komiyama looking at the scene in bewilderment, with Tōbara and Miyamura behind her wearing the same dumbfounded expression.
"Ah, they found something fun and got excited — I mean Oguri and the others."
Pointing toward the track, Kitahara then noticed that at some point, the one flying in the air had switched — now it was Oguri Cap, while the ones running on the ground pulling the parachutes were Tamamo Cross, Inari One, and Super Creek.
"I thought it looked fun, so I didn't stop them."
Kitahara chuckled. "Besides, it's a bit of training in itself. Tamamo already got a turn flying earlier. No idea when they swapped, but now Oguri's the one flying."
"I see. Yeah, that actually does look pretty fun."
Komiyama smiled and nodded. "Didn't expect you, senpai — with your grumpy-old-man-in-his-fifties personality — to be the type who lets them fool around. Color me shocked."
"Hey, hey, I'm still in my prime — twenties, thank you very much. Nowhere near as old as you're making me sound." Kitahara pulled a bitter face.
Hearing that, the three of them chuckled softly, and then Taro cleared his throat.
"Ahem. Still, work and play should stay balanced. I think it's about time we got them to lunch. Playing like that burns a lot of energy — wouldn't want it affecting afternoon training."
He pointed at the Uma Musumes flying and running all over the track, half serious, half joking. "Besides, Kitahara, didn't you say you'd take them to a movie on their day off in a few days?"
"Maybe after the movie, you could take them out somewhere outdoors — somewhere better suited for… well, flying kites, I guess?"
Komiyama added teasingly.
"Huh? Taro, you can joke like that? I thought you were the super-serious type."
Taro looked a little embarrassed.
"Uh… maybe it's from spending too much time in Europe and the US — influenced by my mentor. He was very strict and precise. If even the tiniest detail was off, he'd make me scrap and redo everything. Honestly, before results came out, those days were pretty agonizing."
"Ahaha… no need to explain so seriously, Taro. I was just teasing."
Komiyama scratched her cheek awkwardly. "Anyway — back to business."
She turned her gaze to Kitahara, now looking serious.
"Senpai, the three of us were discussing on the way here — we'd like to have a proper talk with you about forming a team."
Hearing that, Kitahara blinked in surprise. Then, seeing the serious and expectant looks from all three — Komiyama, Tarō Yuzahara, and Miyamura Kyōko — he nodded.
"Alright then. Let's call Oguri and the others for lunch, and we'll talk it through while we eat."
At the cafeteria, the horse girls sat at one table, while Kitahara and the trainers sat at another.
Tarō got straight to the point.
"It actually started as a casual chat between Komiyama and me."
He briefly explained, "I mentioned that in Europe and the US, training and race arrangements are basically all done in team format. Each member has their own specialty, and they coordinate to provide the horse girls with the best conditions."
"Both in theory and in the results I've observed firsthand, this system has all kinds of advantages. So back when I was still overseas, I already wanted to try setting up a team like that after returning home."
"As it happens, Komiyama told me that Kitahara also has similar plans — so I wanted to sit down and have a proper discussion about it."
(End of Chapter)