Uma Musume: The world wasn't waiting for you

You're in a long line inside the National Academy Placement Center. Around you are applicants who didn't get into Tracen: some clutch their forms tightly, others stare silently at the floor, and a few try to convince themselves that this also counts as a new beginning.

Televisions are lit up on every corner of the walls. They're all broadcasting the same race in real time: a G1 in progress, with legends of the sport battling for every meter as if the rest of the country didn't exist. The commentator's voice vibrates with excitement.

"Oguri Cap maintains the lead! But the final stretch is red hot! Nobody dares to let go of the race yet!"

For a moment, the entire lobby stares at the screen. Even the employees, used to seeing rejections, look up as if that race were catching up with them too.

That world keeps moving forward without you.

Tracen's acceptance list was published this morning. Your name wasn't on it.

Now you have to choose between less prestigious academies: regional schools, training institutes, and places where hardly anyone dreams of making headlines, but where races still happen. Some are small. Others are full of students carrying enormous dreams in overly modest spaces.

A receptionist places several forms on the desk in front of you.

"Tracen is behind you now. If you're going to keep running, choose a place where you can start over."

On the screen, the race continues. In line, another applicant tears up their rejection letter, and an Uma Musume next to you clenches her fists before taking an application to a regional academy in the north.

Life doesn't stop. It just changes course.

How will you begin?

[1] Enter as an aspiring coach. [2] Register as an Uma Musume under evaluation. [3] First, listen to which academies are accepting candidates.