After settling Hishi Miracle's laughably absurd reasons for procrastinating, Dream Weaver headed toward the training grounds with her planning documents in hand.
Hishi Miracle needed some time to process things on her own before showing up; in the meantime, Dream Weaver needed to check in on Liberty Island's progress.
However, when she arrived, Liberty Island was nowhere to be found.
In fact, she couldn't even spot that incredibly conspicuous mechanical Uma Musume.
Liberty Island wasn't the type to slack off. Dream Weaver knew better than anyone just how much blood, sweat, and tears she had poured into her training specifically to surpass Equinox.
Just as confusion began to set in, Dream Weaver caught sight of a familiar white figure sitting on the grass by the track. Looking at that perennial lab coat, it went without saying: that was Agnes Tachyon.
Thinking that Tachyon might know where the others had gone—since she had been at this training ground before her—Dream Weaver walked over without hesitation.
"Where are Liberty Island and the others?"
"It seems the ST-2 malfunctioned again," Tachyon replied casually. "Liberty Island slung her over her shoulder and hauled her back to the club room so Sugar Lights could perform repairs."
Dream Weaver scratched her head.
If that was the case, Dr. Sugar Lights would have likely retracted her consciousness from the mechanical Uma Musume ST-2 to return to the club room. She must have just missed them before she left.
Sighing at the sheer bad luck of the timing, Dream Weaver let out a helpless breath.
"If you ask me, projecting one's will into a machine was always bound to run into trouble eventually."
"How could a contraption of mere gears and fuel ever hope to simulate a true Uma Musume?" Tachyon added, her voice drifting.
"Stepping onto the turf that way... no matter what, you'll never touch the hem of an Uma Musume's true potential."
Hearing Tachyon launch into her usual spiel about how "mechanical ascension" was a failure compared to the superiority of "genetic evolution," Dream Weaver—long since used to the rhetoric—simply sat down beside her.
She figured she'd chat with Tachyon until the others returned.
"By 'potential,' you're talking about the Zone, right?"
"Tachyon, did you awaken your Zone back then too?"
The smug, self-satisfied smile Agnes Tachyon had been wearing while praising her physical modification techniques vanished instantly.
She hugged her knees inside her oversized sleeves, gazing at the Uma Musume sprinting across the distant track.
"I awakened it during the Satsuki Sho..." she murmured.
"It felt as though the entire world had paused, laying everything bare before my eyes. The frustration and competitive spirit of every other girl transformed into a searing, literal flame erupting behind me. Even without looking back, I could understand their feelings—understand everything about them."
"In that moment, I think I saw their potential."
"Jungle Pocket, Dantsu Flame... their futures were just as brilliant as the spark I saw in that instant, each blooming with a radiance all their own."
"And of course... I saw my own potential as well."
Tachyon's eyes grew misty. She looked at the training ground before her as if she were staring directly into the past, back to the Satsuki Sho she had once run.
"In that split second, I found the key to the possibility of reaching my absolute maximum speed."
Dream Weaver nodded, feeling a sense of realization.
A Zone that understands the potential of oneself and others?
It was the first time she'd heard of a Zone effect quite like Tachyon's.
Based on the description, it sounded like she could identify an opponent's weaknesses while simultaneously calculating the path to her own theoretical limit.
In a way, it was similar to Dream Weaver's own purple skill, "Intuition," though the timing of that was always unpredictable. Tachyon, however, only needed to trigger her Zone to stabilize that sensation.
"Awakening the Zone by the Satsuki Sho is incredibly fast. Beyond meeting the internal conditions, the pressure from your rivals is usually essential."
"The opponents in that race must have been formidable," Dream Weaver noted. "Otherwise, you wouldn't still remember their names so clearly."
As Dream Weaver said, awakening the Zone was never just about the individual Uma Musume.
Even monsters like Orfevre or Narita Brian had never truly felt the sting of pressure before they met Dream Weaver.
Consequently, even though they had possessed the "seed" of the Zone early on and were a hair's breadth away from it, they had never quite crossed that line.
Tachyon nodded slightly. She didn't turn to look at Dream Weaver, keeping her eyes fixed on the track.
"They were powerful. They all went on to become legendary Uma Musume."
"But... I didn't awaken my Zone because of them."
"It was because of me. I was the one who applied the pressure. I forced myself to realize that if I didn't awaken it in that moment, I might never get another chance."
She turned her head then, looking at a stunned Dream Weaver with haunting composure.
"After the Satsuki Sho, I would no longer have the ability to run."
"That was a reality I discovered even before my third race. Even if I had forfeited the Satsuki Sho, my legs would have shattered in the very next race I entered."
"If I wanted to awaken my Zone—if I wanted to step into that world of infinite possibility—I only had one race to do it."
"Fortunately, I succeeded."
Dream Weaver couldn't help but look down at Tachyon's legs. Wrapped in thick black tights, her calves looked exceptionally slender—fragile, like delicate glass.
Brilliant, yes, but easily crushed by the slightest external force.
"Is it... 'Glass Legs'?"
In that moment, she thought of Mejiro Ardan, another girl who had been forced to leave the turf because of the fragility of her constitution.
"Something like that. Only a bit more severe. It essentially robbed me of the capacity to keep running entirely."
Dream Weaver opened her mouth to speak, but Tachyon anticipated her. She simply shook her head and spoke softly.
"It couldn't be done. With my technical capabilities at the time, I couldn't develop a medicinal cure fast enough."
"As for skipping the Satsuki Sho to wait until I researched a cure..."
"Who knows how long that would have taken? By the time I developed a compatible treatment, the rest of my body's functions might have long since lost their edge for the track."
"To conduct research after research just to maintain a career... like a marathon runner coughing up blood just to extend their life by a few inches... it would have been a rather unsightly look, don't you think?"
"It was better to take one final leap at the end of my peak. To plunge into that world of possibility during the Satsuki Sho."
Tachyon's eyes became unfocused again.
The person in front of her seemed no longer to be Dream Weaver, but the phantom she had seen during that race—the phantom of her own potential.
"I successfully stepped into that world. I saw my potential—a top speed that could rival the starlight itself."
"But in that same breath, I collapsed all my futures. I traded every other possibility I had... just for that one."
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.