On the Winner's Stage, Kitasan Black was performing.
Anyone could tell she wasn't remotely following the choreography. But her vocal technique was so absurdly polished that the performance reached world-class caliber regardless. The only thing separating her from a genuine world-class artist was the domain-level enhancement—in terms of pure skill, she was actually more flawless than some professionals.
Not that this was surprising.
Setting aside Kitasan Black's own innate talent, the combined experience of McQueen and Teio alone was enough to push her performances to the global stage. Even treating the Winner's Stage like a karaoke game, she could still deliver something staggeringly impressive.
Flawless, overwhelming power.
That was the image Kitasan Black projected to every other uma musume.
She might not have been aware of it herself, but in their eyes, her figure on that stage shone too brightly—like the ideal they all aspired to.
Could an uma musume like this really exist?
Every racer who watched Kitasan Black thought the same thing. What she demonstrated was simply too absurd—it didn't seem like something any person could achieve.
...
Having belted out her songs to her heart's content, Kitasan Black rode back to Tracen Academy in high spirits, sitting in the small car her trainer had recently purchased.
Her recent winnings had been so enormous that her trainer's previously pitiful financial situation had dramatically improved.
But her trainer seemed afraid to actually spend the money. Kitasan Black thought the hesitation was completely unnecessary, yet her trainer insisted he had no right to such a high salary and resolved to invest every yen back into supporting Kitasan Black.
Even the car wasn't for himself—he'd bought it solely so he could serve as Kitasan Black's chauffeur at a moment's notice.
Kitasan Black didn't quite know what to make of this trainer whose sense of professional duty bordered on the terrifying. Is this what a trainer's work ethic looks like?
She didn't get it.
But whatever. If it made him feel better, then fine.
Speaking of income, though…
Kitasan Black had actually been a bit troubled lately.
She'd realized she had no idea how to spend money.
Sure, she had McQueen-senpai's expertise on maximizing financial returns rattling around in her head. But the entire reason she wanted to earn money was so she wouldn't have to work. Actively launching businesses or making investments would be putting the cart before the horse. Yet at her current spending rate, she'd probably never burn through this pile of cash in her lifetime—and the terrifying part was that even more prize money was coming.
What a wonderful problem to have.
It worried her a little, but every time the thought crossed her mind, she couldn't help but laugh.
This was her ideal life!
Exactly!
What was wrong with having more money than you could spend? What was wrong with eating and sleeping all day? Wasn't that the happiest possible existence?
Goals? Dreams? That kind of thing was completely unnecessary!
Back in her dorm room, Kitasan Black hugged a pillow and rolled around on her bed. She was the polar opposite of her on-track persona right now. Of course, this was only possible because Satono Diamond wasn't in the room—otherwise she'd never be able to relax like this. The ojou-sama seemed to still be holding a grudge, plotting something big.
At least, that's what Kitasan Black believed.
She hadn't the faintest clue about Satono Diamond's true feelings. She still thought the girl was bitter about what happened back in elementary school.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen her around much lately…"
Kitasan Black noticed that the ojou-sama hadn't been anywhere near her for quite some time, and seemed to stay out late every day. It was a little odd, but Kitasan Black scratched her head curiously and moved on. It wasn't like she and Satono Diamond had any kind of relationship.
Time for games.
She pulled out her newly purchased console and logged on.
Yep—compared to gacha mobile games, this was far more her speed.
And so, while Kitasan Black played King of Fighters—
...
At the training grounds.
Satono Diamond was gritting her teeth through another brutal training session.
Team Capella had welcomed two noteworthy newcomers this term.
Satono Diamond and Satono Crown.
The Satomi family didn't want their children joining any established, well-known teams. Those teams had too much autonomy—even the Satomi family's influence couldn't meddle much in their internal affairs. So instead, the family had chosen to invest in Team Capella.
Capella hadn't had much of a reputation in recent years. It had declined to the point where it didn't have a single contracted racer, teetering on the verge of dissolution. But the fact that it had been allowed to form a team at Tracen Academy in the first place meant it had either been exceptional once, or its current trainer was exceptional enough to justify investment.
After Chairman Satomi personally evaluated the trainer and confirmed she wasn't merely an incompetent inheritor of the team's legacy, he'd immediately presented an astronomical contract to recruit her as a Satomi family employee—thereby gaining control of the team. After that, he'd poured resources in: state-of-the-art training equipment, cutting-edge facilities, everything these two young ladies could need.
The Satomi family curse had to be broken by either Crown or Diamond. This was the most promising generation the family had ever produced.
Bearing the weight of her family's prayers on top of her own ambitions, Satono Diamond's training intensity had reached terrifyingly extreme levels—the kind that even her teammate Satono Crown found frightening to witness. This was also precisely why Kitasan Black could lounge so freely in the dorm: Satono Diamond was simply too busy.
She did sneak away to watch every one of Kitasan Black's races in person. But otherwise, Satono Diamond devoted herself entirely to studying and training. To catch up to that person, she wasn't strong enough yet. She needed to become stronger.
Strong enough to enter that person's world.
But despite Satono Diamond's single-minded devotion, Kitasan Black remained completely oblivious to her existence.
On the training grounds, Satono Diamond radiated a suffocating aura of intensity. If Kitasan Black had been there, she would have felt a powerful sense of déjà vu—because this looked eerily similar to what Rice Shower had once done.
Letting spirit dominate the flesh.
Using overwhelming willpower to bludgeon physical fatigue into submission, forcing growth beyond one's natural limits. In other words: Extreme Training.
Of course, while this method could yield extraordinary results, it was also maximally dangerous. One wrong step could leave permanent damage. And if the practitioner's mental fortitude wavered even slightly, all the suppressed fatigue would come crashing back at once. That was a true dead end.
Only two people had ever attempted this training method.
One was Mihono Bourbon.
But Mihono Bourbon was a failed case.
The other was Rice Shower.
Though the original Rice Shower had come close to succeeding, her eventual retirement due to injury proved she hadn't truly completed the training either.
The only true success story was the current Rice Shower.
But Rice Shower's case was impossible to replicate. She had awakened ZONE and her second personality—the Overlord—at the very moment of her birth. That kind of mental fortitude was on an entirely different scale.
If Kitasan Black saw what Satono Diamond was doing right now, she'd absolutely step in to stop her.
From Kitasan Black's perspective, this training method was barely distinguishable from suicide. Did you really think just anyone could imitate Rice Shower-senpai? You don't have an Overlord personality. Pushing yourself through Extreme Training with your mind constantly under that kind of pressure—sooner or later, you'll break.
But Kitasan Black didn't know. Not yet.
Satono Crown watched her companion with growing alarm and turned to the trainer once more. "Is it really okay to let Diamond keep going? That training is too extreme!"
The trainer, dressed in her maid outfit, said nothing for a moment.
She was fully aware of the danger.
But whenever she remembered the look in Satono Diamond's eyes that day, she couldn't bring herself to intervene. Trainers existed to support uma musume in achieving their dreams. Some trainers prioritized their racers' physical health above all else—but even so, there were limits to how much they could restrain these girls.
"She knows exactly what the consequences are and chose this path anyway. Unless she decides to stop on her own, all we can do is support her decision from behind."
"..."
The trainer's words might have sounded irresponsible on the surface, but Satono Crown understood that wasn't the case. The trainer probably wanted to stop Diamond too—but the problem was—
"Diamond… you'd go this far to break the curse?"
Satono Crown had believed she, too, would do whatever it took to shatter the Satomi family's curse. But watching Satono Diamond now, she realized her own resolve had been pitifully small in comparison. She could never push herself to this extent.
Beside her, the trainer's expression flickered oddly at Crown's murmur—because she suspected Crown had the wrong idea.
The Capella trainer remembered that day.
She'd caught Satono Diamond staying behind to train alone after hours and gone to stop her. But the normally gentle, well-mannered Diamond had snapped at her, insisting she had a reason she absolutely had to get stronger—that she'd stake her entire future on it without hesitation. That resolve had been unmistakable.
At the time, the trainer had also assumed it was about the Satomi family's dream.
But Satono Diamond's answer had been different.
"That's part of it, yes. But right now, there's someone I need to catch up to no matter what. So until I do—I'm not stopping."
By now, the Capella trainer had a very good idea who Diamond was talking about. In all of Tracen Academy, there was probably only one person capable of pushing Satono Diamond this far. And Diamond requested time off for every single one of that person's races. The answer was painfully obvious.
But because she knew Diamond's target was that person, she couldn't tell her to ease up.
Because that person was a monster who had already etched her name into history.
The monster's racing record was still short, but no one doubted she would create new legends.
All the trainer could say was this:
Satono Diamond had set her sights impossibly high.
Catching that monster was harder than breaking the Satomi curse—harder, even, than winning the Classic Triple Crown.
If she couldn't push herself to this degree…
There truly wasn't a shred of hope.
The trainer glanced at Satono Crown with a tinge of regret.
Crown's raw talent actually exceeded Diamond's. But the gulf in determination was enormous. The trainer could see the tenacious willpower to overcome adversity in both girls, but Crown was the more cheerful type—she wouldn't fixate so obsessively on a single goal. Diamond was different. She was the kind of person who'd latch onto a target and never let go, running herself to ash if that's what it took.
Normally, a difference in personality wouldn't matter much.
But right now, Crown's gaze was fixed on breaking the Satomi curse, while Diamond's gaze was locked on challenging that monster. That was already a decisive gap.
In fact, the trainer could say with certainty: these two, who had once been equals in ability, were no longer. Satono Diamond was now the stronger of the pair.
"I'll keep a careful eye on Diamond-sama. For now, Crown-sama, please focus on your debut race."
"Understood."
Satono Crown was still uneasy, but perhaps she really should focus on her own path. Because if Diamond was pushing herself this hard for the family's dream, then all Crown had to do was break the curse first—and Diamond would be freed!
Her debut race. She absolutely had to win.
Satono Crown made her quiet vow.
...
And on another front, Takao Shuneichi—shaken to her core by Kiwami's race—had finally made the decision to debut.
Even if she couldn't beat that monster, it didn't matter.
Kiwami-nee had shown her through that race.
Don't run away.
Even if you can't win, prove yourself on the track.
She didn't know if she could pull it off.
But she wanted to become an uma musume like Kiwami-nee.
...
Just as Kitasan Black prepared to enter the final race of the Autumn Triple Crown, the new generation of racers stepped onto the debut stage one after another. Whether it was the butterfly effect of Kitasan Black's presence or not, this year's rookies were noticeably stronger than those of previous years.
Even if the monster never looked down—the people who shared an era with her were all pushing themselves to grow as strong as they possibly could.
...
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