「Good afternoon, my Lady.」Her chauffeur smiled as he watched her enter the vehicle from the rearview mirror.「Are we headed to Tracen Central Academy?」
Secretariat grinned as she relaxed into the seat of the limousine.「Yeah. It's finally time to visit her and her girlie.」She sighed in relief as she laid her leg across the entire length of the couch.「Down to Tokyo. You know the route.」
「Understood.」And saying nothing more, the car's engine hummed as he began driving the limousine down the road.
Secretariat groaned softly as she leaned her head back. Her neck was stinging slightly from all the busywork she'd been doing the past few weeks, but it was all over now. The three representatives she'd chosen could do all the hard work, while all she needed to do was kick her leg up and watch.
Or at least she would've, had she not known what was at stake.
She grit her teeth as she laid an arm over her eyes. She'd known that things were about to get down when she noticed that the ownership of the Hero System had finally left her, but she hadn't expected it to be this big. The cold war she'd been silently waging against Destiny had burst forward into a raging battle without her knowing.
As for how she knew–
.
.
.
A few months back,
「Fuckin' A.」Secretariat muttered, scowling as she batted away another twig that nearly poked her in the eye.「This is worse than I thought.」
When she first began having her suspicions some time back, she decided to take a plane to New York to visit the Three Goddesses Statue that was there. She needed some answers, and since she wasn't the Hero of the System anymore, the only other reliable source of information were the Three Goddesses themselves.
Alas, her journey ballooned into something far larger, and more frustrating. The statue she recalled being in New York had been taken down nearly three years ago, and the so-called 'statue' they placed in the national museum was nothing more than a lookalike they carved from marble.
She supposed it wasn't too surprising. Her people weren't as pious as, say, the folks over there in Japan or Hungary. The Three Goddesses were known here, but faith in them wasn't something most took seriously. Thankfully, none of the Goddesses particularly minded—they took joy in seeing the people become independent of them as well.
However, she still needed to find an actual statue of the Three Goddesses. She needed a conduit to establish first contact, and no fake would suffice. She needed the real thing.
Which led her here, trudging through an abandoned school from the 17th century, its name and history long lost to time. The whole place had been retaken by nature, and she had to fight through all sorts of greenery as she made her way towards where the statue supposedly was.
But finally, she found it.
There, in the center of this overgrown garden she'd trudged through was the object of her search; an actual statue of the Three Goddesses. And she knew it was one that was genuinely blessed by the Goddesses, considering the marble it was sculpted from was completely untouched by the greenery despite the literal centuries that'd gone past since the last person stepped into this place.
She grimaced as she rolled her shoulders.「Fuck, I'm filthy.」She whispered, scowling as she saw all the dirt and grime that'd dirted her clothes. Not that she was particularly well-dressed for this unexpected journey, but still. She'd need a good bath once she was done.
She stopped just a few inches away from the statue, and she narrowed her eyes as she called out. "Open pathway to the Beyond."
[This Request cannot be fulfilled]
[The Hero -Secretariat- no longer has access to the Umamusume Hero System]
She clicked her tongue.「I don't need the System.」She said.「Just le'me talk to those Three. That's all I need.」
[This Request cannot be fulfilled]
…Ha.
So the hard way it was.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. And for a moment, the entire world seemed to stand still. The winds died away. The birds resting on a nearby tree stopped chirping. Every insect crawling around the school froze.
And when she next opened her eyes, they had instead turned bright gold.
Domain Awakening—
An overwhelming pressure forced itself down across the entire abandoned school. The birds squawked in pain as they were physically pressed down into their nests, which were barely being held together. All insects were immediately pressed flat to the ground, with some even being completely crushed.
Slowly, she raised her hand into the air. She pressed her thumb onto her middle finger, and aiming her hand right towards the statue, she grinned wide as she snapped her fingers.
And the world quite literally shattered.
All colors were washed away. The ground beneath her fell away. All sounds of life faded away as a feeling of weightlessness covered her entire body.
And the next thing she knew, she was standing in the middle of a track that seemed to stretch into the infinite. She could hear the faint roar of a cheering crowd that she couldn't see. A soft wind blew past her, and the grass of the unnaturally perfect Turf she stood upon slowly swayed.
Secretariat grinned as she turned her head back.「Been a while, hasn't it?」
And there, with that bright yellow jacket of hers, stood Byerley Turk—the Goddess of Strength.「It has.」She said, as curt as always.
Secretariat finally let the tiny fraction of her Domain deactivate, and she grimaced as she cracked her neck.「Took me a damn while to get here.」She said, the gold in her eyes bleeding back into her usual red.「Can't you enchant some new statues or something? Makes it awfully annoying for any genuine pilgrims.」
Byerley frowned.「It is your people who believed they no longer require our assistance.」
She grinned.「I know, I know. I'm just complaining.」But soon after, her grin fell away.「You know why I'm here.」She said.「Ya' don't need to waste any time. Tell me what the hell's going on.」
The Goddess did. No preamble, no courtesies—the Goddess of Strength laid out everything they'd been preparing for, spoken in that usual curt tone of hers. From the first moment when the Hero System appeared, to the first holder, then to herself, before the System finally reached its true target.
Byerley made no attempt to dress their mission in anything fancy. For who several millenia, the Goddesses have been playing a glorified game of hot potato, flinging the Hero System from one holder to another before they finally had someone that could become the silver bullet they needed to shatter Destiny completely.
And maybe some people would find the way Byerley described their mission somewhat offputting. After all, she freely admitted that the Three Goddesses just didn't have enough influence to truly fight against Destiny, and they had essentially groomed a broken child into a weapon.
But Secretariat appreciated it. She didn't need things to be pretty. She just needed to understand.
Perhaps that was why she'd always resonated with the Goddess of Strength the most.
「And this all goes down in the [Japan Cup], huh?」She summarized, crossing her arms beneath her chest as she frowned.「An all-out battle to make sure the one called Folkqueen doesn't take the win.」
Byerley nodded faintly.「She is the one Destined to win.」She answered.「She must not take the crown.」
「And impairing her before the race ain't gonna do shit.」Secretariat whispered, unashamed over the fact that she'd considered the idea.
She nodded.「This World doesn't take kindly to such methods.」
「So it's all up to her.」Secretariat said, sighing slightly. Relying completely on her protege made her feel all slimy; she never thought there'd come a day when she'd be the damsel in distress. A battle against Destiny's chosen—to make sure Folkqueen doesn't come out 1st in the [Japan Cup].
…hmm?
「So Folkqueen must not take the crown?」She asked again.
「Correct.」
A grin lifted her lips.「So the win condition's just asking for that? It doesn't matter who wins?」
Byerley nodded.「Blossom Star, Oguri Cap—it does not matter who takes the crown, as long as it is not Folkqueen.」
Her grin stretched ear to ear.
「Then that means anyone can be the winner, right?」She asked. And seeing Byerley nod, an idea immediately appeared in her mind.
After all, there was one umamusume who'd been eagerly waiting to reunite with Blossom Star, wasn't there?
.
.
.
「We're here, my Lady.」
Secretariat groaned softly as she heard her chauffeur's words, and she stirred awake from her sleep.「Fell asleep, huh?」She whispered, scowling as she rubbed her eyes. She didn't think she'd actually fall asleep during the drive. All the work she'd been doing had made her more tired than she expected.
But once she saw the familiar gates of Tracen Central Academy out of the window, her expression immediately brightened, and a grin stretched across her cheeks.「Alright then.」And with no care to the potential damage she could cause to the limousine, she kicked the door open and stepped out.「Let's go visit the midget!」
The chauffeur quietly sighed as he watched his Lady walk through the gates of Tracen Central.