The rain soaked through her racing silks, and damp strands of hair clung stubbornly to her cheeks.
As Barbatos crossed the finish line, her breathing remained perfectly steady.
There had been no need for a desperate final kick; for her, a sprint of this distance had become little more than a routine morning warm-up.
The moment she surged past the wire, her eyes snapped toward the Rigil scouting section.
As Taiki Shuttle's teammate, the rest of Team Rigil had come out in force to watch, including Symboli Rudolf, who had somehow pried herself away from her mountain of Student Council paperwork.
Standing in the downpour, Barbatos reached out toward the Rigil seats and held up four fingers.
Then, she slowly folded one down, leaving three.
The rain was coming down in sheets. From the distant stands, the spectators could only see her hand raised high.
They erupted into wave after wave of thunderous cheers that made Nakayama Racecourse tremble, but the nuance was lost on them.
Even those watching the live broadcast struggled to make out the detail through the blur of the storm.
Only the fans positioned right at the finish line saw the gesture clearly, though its meaning remained a mystery to them.
Up in the Rigil section, Symboli Rudolf caught the movement and allowed a thin, knowing smile to touch her lips.
"Taiki Shuttle crosses the line three lengths behind!"
"Eishin Berlin finishes at a massive distance..."
Having crossed the wire, Taiki Shuttle squeezed her gloved fists tight.
She watched Barbatos ahead of her, a knot of frustration tightening in her chest.
She had given this Sprinters Stakes everything she had. Even on a "Heavy" track—conditions she usually thrived in—she hadn't even been able to force Barbatos to get serious.
The memory of Barbatos's terrifying burst of speed during the final selection race at Summer Camp was still burned into her mind.
She pursed her lips, quickly masking her disappointment with her usual sunny disposition as she jogged forward.
"Congratulations, B-chan! That's G1 number six for you!"
Barbatos lowered her hand, tucking her three fingers away. "Thanks!"
"You're seriously tough, Taiki. Honestly, if it wasn't raining today, I don't think I would have had such an easy time of it."
Barbatos meant it. Even if Taiki Shuttle was a specialist on bad tracks, that was only relative to other Uma Musume.
If most girls dropped to 80% performance in the mud, Taiki stayed at 90%. In a race, even a 1% fluctuation in form can decide the outcome, let alone a gap like that.
On a firm track, a battle between her and Taiki over a sprint or a mile would probably look like a middle-distance clash between herself and Silence Suzuka—though Barbatos's own style was a bit more vulnerable to being countered by a front-runner like Suzuka.
On a sunny day... would Taiki have actually forced her to go all out?
Probably still a stretch, Barbatos mused.
After the crucible of those Summer Camp simulations, she was essentially walking tall among the current roster of Uma Musume.
If she, Silence Suzuka, and El Condor Pasa had previously sat at the very peak of the pyramid, Barbatos had now pulled up a few chairs to stand on and was currently swinging a sledgehammer at the ceiling.
She was effectively invincible in sprints and miles, and even in middle or long distances, losing seemed unlikely unless the stars aligned against her. Racing wasn't a simulation with five people, after all; variables existed. But that was her honest self-assessment.
Of course, once Silence Suzuka fully mastered her Zone, and once El Condor Pasa returned from the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, there was no telling how much stronger they would become.
But for now, Barbatos was the one sitting on the throne, waiting for challengers.
Taiki Shuttle nodded with her trademark optimism.
"Then next time! Next time, I'm definitely going to make you use your full power!"
She didn't lack the hunger for victory, but she understood that progress came in stages. She would train like a demon, but her first goal wasn't just to beat Barbatos—it was to make her actually try.
As the two chatted, Eishin Berlin, who had also finished, stood nearby with wide eyes.
She couldn't believe what she was hearing. That... wasn't her full power?
By evening, despite Eishin Berlin taking a respectable third place and living up to her billing as the third favorite, the massive distance between her and the leaders meant she didn't join the winners on stage.
Barbatos and Taiki Shuttle performed for the crowd, their singing and dancing framed by the rhythmic glow of penlights as fans offered their unyielding support.
Those who couldn't make it to the venue swarmed the live streams and forums. Between clips of the Winner's Stage, the threads were alive with analysis.
Thanks to a surge in overseas fans, the racing forums had implemented an advanced translation feature.
While it occasionally struggled with the sheer depth of the language, it was enough for international fans to join the fray.
The hottest topic by far was a thread titled: "The Hand Gesture."
Most viewers had missed it during the heat of the race, but fans in the front rows had captured it on their phones.
When combined with the high-definition race replays, it became clear: Barbatos wasn't just waving to the crowd. She had held up four fingers, then retracted one.
What did it mean?
The theories were wild.
Some fans even joked that her hand had simply cramped up after the sprint. It was a total enigma.
If this had been the Japanese Oaks and she'd held up two fingers, they would have understood it as the "Second Crown," just as Symboli Rudolf had done in the past.
But four turning into three? It left the Uma Musume community baffled.
The answer didn't arrive until a month later, in late October, at Kyoto Racecourse—the final leg of the Triple Tiara: the Shuka Sho.
Amidst a deafening roar from the crowd, Barbatos crossed the finish line and looked directly into the lens of the tracking camera.
She held up three fingers.
Just as the audience began to cheer for her successful "Triple Crown" achievement, she folded one finger down.
Two.
In an instant, fans who had been tracking her every move connected the dots.
They remembered her pre-race interview before the Sprinters Stakes, where she made a bold declaration: she intended to challenge the Winter Dream Cup on the back of a nine-race G1 winning streak.
After the Sprinters Stakes, she needed three more.
Now, having secured the Shuka Sho and her status as a Triple Tiara winner with seven G1s to her name, the countdown had dropped from three to two.
As the realization spread across the internet, eagle-eyed fans went back to re-watch the Sprinters Stakes footage.
They realized that the first time, she hadn't been looking at the cameras. She had been looking straight at the Rigil seats.
It wasn't just a countdown. It was a formal challenge issued to the legends of the turf.
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A/N:
Skipping from the Sprinters Stakes straight to the Shuka Sho feels a bit abrupt, but writing out the Shuka Sho felt redundant. At this point, it would just be Barbatos playing a game with children. Just like the Sprinters Stakes, after the setup from the Summer Camp arc, everyone knows Barbatos is going to win. I'll likely choose one between the Kikuka Sho and the Tenno Sho (Autumn) to write in detail and skip the other, focusing the main narrative on the Arc de Triomphe and the upcoming Japan Cup.
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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.