On the track, Obey Your Master eased to a halt. The starry Domain that made hearts quail thinned and quietly faded.
Sunlight spilled back over the course, as if what came before were only a mirage.
She didn't lift her hands like last year, nor wear a victor's smile. She merely turned, calm, to look behind her.
Almost the instant she broke the tape, the Commoner Queen and Super Creek crossed as well.
They panted hard, hands braced to knees, staying upright by will alone.
Sweat soaked their victory silks; exhaustion—and… bewilderment—etched both faces.
They lost.
So cleanly. So completely.
That last surge had exceeded anything they could comprehend.
Behind them, Ibu Bocchi and Pirate Ravenhawk hit the line together; only after did the others straggle home.
"Haa…"
Obey Your Master let out a long, silken breath. As she released the limit state, even her body sent up a faint whisper of fatigue.
From afar, she regarded the two worthy rivals. She made no move to approach.
In front of a runner desperate to prove herself, what business does the winner have walking over to offer comfort?
Mockery?
She understood. So she drew in a breath,
and thrust a clenched fist to the sky.
"Uooooooooh—!!"
Once more, the Tokyo Racecourse erupted.
Hearing that tidal roar, the Commoner Queen slowly straightened.
She watched the figure bathed in glory and ovation. Confusion and unwillingness gave way to something more tangled.
Lost…
To the same person again…
In the end… I still couldn't prove myself.
Her fist tightened, harder and harder. That churn of feeling rose and then burst as a hoarse cry.
"Mm… nh…"
The tremor in her voice gave way. She lowered her head. Clear drops traced her cheeks and fell to the dirt.
"Mm?"
Beside her, Super Creek, still catching her breath, noticed the girl's sorrow.
She lifted her gaze to the Queen.
A heartbreak-soft expression on a silver-haired, heterochrome beauty; a body gone slack; a caged whimper in her throat.
Click—
Something flipped inside Creek—some odd little switch.
She wanted—badly—to comfort this crying runner.
As for herself?
She was used to losing.
Since the Kikuka Sho, she hadn't won a single G1.
Her heart had learned its quiet.
…
In the stands.
Symboli Rudolf and Maruzensky watched the track below with grave faces.
Not the result.
The process.
"Kuroha, that Domain of Obey Your Master's—how did you make that happen?"
Unlike Rudolf's musing, Maruzensky went straight to the point.
That night-sky domain swimming with endless starlight—they had been pulled inside it too. In nearly twenty years, neither had seen a Domain that outrageous.
"…What do you mean, I made it happen?"
Kuroha looked a little exasperated. "That was their own work."
"At the end of the day, the power of a Domain is forged from a horse girl's spirit and will. If she reaches—and even exceeds—a certain limit, the power that should be hers will be hers."
Rudolf, Maruzensky: "…"
As if it could be that simple.
Kuroha saw their disbelief and shook his head, helplessly.
It really is that simple.
Or rather—the two before him absolutely had the aptitude to surpass that very limit.
In her active years, Maruzensky had virtually no peer.
Same for Rudolf. Her Domain needs a rival's pressure to spark.
Except for that one Tokyo Yushun—Japanese Derby—across her whole peak, almost no one could apply that pressure.
Add the lack of a trainer with the right timing and touch,
and of course their understanding of Domains would stay half-baked.
"Alright. I'm going to pick up A-mi. Teio, come."
Kuroha waved Rudolf over with a tilt of his chin.
"Nuh-uh, Trainer, stay a liiittle longer~"
No sooner had he spoken than a small head popped from behind Rudolf's neck, wheedling.
"Tei—o—"
Kuroha's eyes narrowed; his tone went frost-cold.
"Eek—!"
"Okay okay! Teio's coming down right now!"
Hair on end, Tokai Teio scrambled off Rudolf.
"See you, Kaichō!"
She waved at the Kaichō as she jogged over to Kuroha, then took his hand and headed out with him.
"…"
Left watching their backs, Rudolf fell silent.
Maruzensky glanced left, then right, smiling. "What's wrong, Rudolf? Something on your mind?"
Rudolf didn't hide it. She asked her friend, "Maru, tell me—an all-season unbeaten team, scooping up virtually every G1."
"If the whole Central goes pale at the name 'Chasing Light'—is that really a good thing?"
"Of course not!"
Maruzensky shook her head without a second thought.
"Hoarding a generation's dreams—that's cruel to anyone. It means Central has lost its proper vitality and drive."
"If horse girls lose their goals and direction, how could that ever be good?"
"…" Rudolf had no answer.
But then Maruzensky cocked her head and pivoted. "Which is exactly why Kuroha only signed McQueen for the next class."
"Only one?"
Rudolf blinked, remembering.
As the next generation began its True Blooming, Kuroha hadn't gone shopping for the big prospects like other trainers.
He focused on the older-class campaign—and on training Mejiro McQueen.
Plenty of fresh bloomers had appeared lately.
Besides McQueen, the Mejiro pair—Mejiro Ryan and Mejiro Dober—had both bloomed.
There was even a young lady from the Glamour lineage—the "Three Rubies" heiress.
But he hadn't moved to recruit any of them.
"And the class after that? Didn't he only bring in Teio?"
Maruzensky smiled. "Mm… Kuroha does seem to want Teio to challenge overseas. He might add one more, who knows."
"But even then, Central just ends up like you and me. Nothing to fret over, right?"
Like you and me…
Rudolf gave Maruzensky a weary side-eye.
Isn't that just "one stable's monopoly" turning into "one person's monopoly"?
Still—true enough. Uma Musume has no such thing as a one-on-one race.
When one wins, a dozen dreams break.
She'd been the architect of that more than once. Why dwell on what can't be solved?
"Fair enough."
After a long moment, Rudolf nodded.
"Come on. The winner's stage is next—we shouldn't miss it," Maruzensky said with a grin.
"Mm. Let's go."
(End of Chapter)
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