Chapter 111. Rudolf's Regret
"Hello? Shuta-kun?"
Symboli Rudolf's voice came through the line.
"It's me." Ramonu watched Shuta An's back recede toward the media area and let out a helpless little laugh. "Shuta-kun's already off doing interviews."
"Ah..."
Symboli Rudolf rose from her seat and crossed to the window of the Student Council office — she'd been watching the Breeders' Cup broadcast from right there all along.
Once the sound of her footsteps had settled, Ramonu asked, "How's the Academy holding up right now?"
"Nothing's changed here, not really — except the second Dober crossed that finish line, it was like someone set off a small earthquake under the whole Academy."
Symboli Rudolf pushed open the soundproof window as she spoke, and the noise came pouring through — carried across an ocean, down a phone line, straight into Ramonu's ear.
"Dober-senpai!"
"The Queen of the World!"
"Mejiro Dober!"
"I screenshotted the finish line — I'm turning this into a poster!"
"And Fuji Kiseki and Hishi Amazon are just...letting this happen?"
Ramonu couldn't quite hide her surprise.
"They're dorm leaders. Isn't quieting this down supposed to be their job?"
"Not tonight it isn't." Rudolf's mouth curved into a smile. "Hishi Amazon's out in the courtyard right now, passing out candy to anyone who'll take it."
"This wasn't the reaction last time Dober won overseas. And it's not even her first Breeders' Cup — didn't she win one two years ago too?"
Ramonu couldn't quite make the pieces fit.
"That one was a Listed race. This is a G1 — the G1, the biggest turf race America runs."
Rudolf spelled it out simply.
"Think of it the way we used to think of the Washington, D.C. International Stakes. Nothing else in the sport compares — nothing short of an Uma Musume actually winning the Arc could top what just happened."
"You don't sound half as excited as everyone else out there, Rudolph." Something in her friend's voice had caught Ramonu's attention.
"Because Shuta-kun's there. Somehow that just makes it feel like it was always going to happen this way."
Rudolf shut the window and let her gaze drift up, following fireworks blooming against the dark.
"Still feels like a dream, though. Ever since he pulled Oguri Cap out of Kasamatsu, it's like the entire timeline bent around him. Take him out of the picture, and I don't think Central Tracen looks anything like it does now."
"No Oguri Cap, and overseas Uma Musume walk away with the Japan Cup a few more times — our confidence takes another hit each time. No Silence Suzuka, and I doubt half these reckless kids running around the dorms insisting on copying her tactics would even exist."
"Oguri Cap and Silence Suzuka would've made their names one way or another with Shuta-kun or not." Ramonu offered the counterpoint gently.
"Would it have looked like this, though?"
Rudolf wasn't backing down.
"Just between us — I know you'd never think this way yourself, Ramonu, but I really do wish he'd found his way to this Academy sooner. What might my own career have looked like? Could I have built something overseas — the way Oguri Cap did, the way Suzuka did, the way Dober's doing right now, tonight?"
"American reporters told me I was stronger than John Henry. The Europeans said I gave Sagace a run for his money."
Her eyes drifted shut.
"And all I have to show for any of it is one memory. One that still stings."
"That's exactly why you always say you want every Uma Musume to be happy." Ramonu's voice dropped to something quieter.
"Dober's probably the happiest Uma Musume right now." A real smile found its way back onto Rudolf's face. "I'd bet on it, at least."
"She should be."
Ramonu's eyes settled on her junior — waving out at a stadium full of fans screaming her name — and there wasn't a shred of doubt in how she said it.
"Hmph." Something competitive flared right back to life in Rudolf's chest. "Well, I still think Teio's going to outdo whatever Dober pulls off overseas — eventually!"
"Where did that even come from?" Ramonu was momentarily speechless. "I doubt Shuta-kun himself would ever put it in those terms."
"I don't care what he'd say — I just want to compare them!"
Rudolf's stubborn streak dug in fully, pout and all.
"Fine, fine. Let's just wait and see what Tokai Teio's schedule looks like next year, alright?"
Ramonu knew better than to fight this particular battle. Rudolph rarely got like this — but once she did, the only way through was to humor her completely.
—
While the two of them traded stories over the phone, Shuta An was working the media area, fielding the same questions he always did.
Post-race thoughts. His read on the field. His impressions of Santa Anita's course. By the time they reached the back half of the interview, the questions had started drifting further afield.
"Has Miss Mejiro Dober's next race been settled yet?"
"If the invitation comes through, it's the Hong Kong Cup. We're already preparing her entry."
He didn't hedge — the odds of Hong Kong not extending that invitation were basically nonexistent, and every reporter in the room was already scribbling the line into their notes as good as confirmed.
"And plans for next year?"
"Nothing set. Too soon to think that far out."
He waved the question away without much thought.
"What about after she retires from the Twinkle Series — any chance she heads straight into the Dream Trophy Series? Any interest yourself in the overseas circuit?"
This one reached further ahead than any question before it.
Shuta An already knew the answer — Dober had no intention of making that jump directly — but he wasn't about to say so here.
"That's a long way off still. She hasn't given it any thought."
—
Once the reporters had their fill, he turned toward the stands, blew a kiss out to the crowd still cheering his name, and headed off toward the underground passage to find her.
Early November, and even along the California coast the temperature had slipped under twenty degrees. Dober stood waiting there alone, fresh off the track, steam still curling visibly off her skin in the cold.
He reached her fast. She looked up, arms already around him, and kissed him — quick, unhurried.
"I saw that, you know." A beat later she pulled back, arms still loosely around him, looking anything but pleased. "Why blow a kiss at the stands and not at me?"
"Uh — that was just—" He hadn't seen this particular flash of jealousy coming.
"I should've been the first one you kissed tonight." She held his gaze, unblinking. "Consider that just the interest building up. Tonight, you'd better be ready to pay the whole debt back in full."
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