The Japan Derby.
The race reached the downhill slope before the third-corner turn.
Kitasan Black led by an outside-placing margin, same as the Satsuki Sho.
"Heading into the final turn, it's Kitasan Black in the lead, as expected! Miles ahead!"
The commentator's voice brimmed with energy.
Behind her, Duramente executed a split-second lane change, bursting from the pack. ZONE's aura ignited around her, wreathing her body in a dark crimson glow.
Satono Crown watched in shock as Duramente's figure shot forward. At this point, forget being Kitasan Black's rival—Duramente had far surpassed her too.
Takao Shuneichi ground her teeth and pressed on from the rear.
But the gap in ability was like a ladder stretching endlessly into the sky.
Aside from Duramente, who managed to improve even under Kitasan Black's oppressive dominance, the progress of every other runner was negligible.
Not that it mattered. Even Duramente's remarkable growth couldn't change the outcome.
Kitasan Black took the victory by an outside-placing margin yet again.
"She's crossed the line!"
"The Japan Derby goes to Kitasan Black!"
"Is there truly anyone who can defeat this uma musume?!"
The terrifying times left every runner feeling suffocated.
Kitasan Black didn't even look at them.
One glance at her—breathing still calm, barely even sweating—told you everything. Her opponents hadn't made her try.
"Hah... hah..." Duramente stared at the results on the jumbotron and bit through her lip hard enough to draw blood. "Not enough! I'm still not strong enough! I have to get stronger!"
There was no time for self-pity. The need to improve consumed her entirely.
But then came devastating news.
The intense training regimen had broken her body first.
"The surgery went well," her doctor told her, "but recovery will take at least six months."
Six months.
Duramente's face twisted with frustration.
But she understood: if she wanted to return to the track, she had to listen to the doctors now.
Just before the Kikka Sho, Duramente announced her withdrawal due to injury.
Reactions varied.
The fans' consensus was a collective shrug.
Even healthy, Duramente had zero chance in a race with Kitasan Black. The Satsuki Sho and Japan Derby had proven that beyond any doubt. Duramente was undeniably a genius on par with Tokai Teio—but that level of talent simply wasn't enough to challenge Kitasan Black.
Tokai Teio felt genuinely sorry.
She saw her own reflection in Duramente—and not the reflection Kitasan Black carried. Duramente was far more like her.
She just hadn't expected the resemblance to extend to their luck.
No—Duramente's luck might actually be worse.
Teio caught herself feeling grateful. If she'd faced an opponent of Kita-chan's caliber back in her day... she might honestly have shut down completely.
She hoped Duramente wouldn't give up because of this.
Satono Diamond didn't pay it much mind. She wasn't close with Duramente, and she didn't have the emotional bandwidth to worry about someone else's problems.
Though after hearing Duramente's injury came from training, she became more careful in her own sessions. The last thing she needed was an injury slowing her progress. If she wanted to catch up to Kitasan Black-san, she had to surpass her own best—nothing less.
Satono Crown found time to visit Duramente in the hospital.
"Duramente-san, are you really okay like this?"
Satono Crown watched Duramente, drenched in sweat from dumbbell exercises in her hospital bed, and couldn't fathom what kind of person would train this hard while recovering from surgery.
Duramente looked at Satono Crown with confusion.
"You are...?"
"...?"
Satono Crown was floored.
"It's me. Satono Crown. We've raced each other multiple times?"
Between practice matches and official races, they'd faced off no fewer than five times.
And Duramente still didn't recognize her?
Satono Crown suddenly regretted coming to visit.
This girl was even worse than Kitasan Black-san.
Duramente thought for a moment.
From her expression, she still couldn't place the name. Her brain was entirely occupied by thoughts of becoming the strongest and defeating Kitasan Black. There simply wasn't any memory space left for someone who'd never beaten her even once.
"Satono Crown-san, did you need something?"
"What do you mean, 'did I need something?' I came to see how you're doing. Are you okay? And is it really safe to be training like this while you're hospitalized?"
"Ah—thank you for your concern. I'm fine. I just want to recover as fast as possible and get back to racing." The fighting spirit radiating off Duramente was almost blinding.
She'd been devastated when the injury first happened, that was true. But she'd pulled herself together quickly.
Because all she had to do was focus on treatment and return to the track.
This setback wouldn't derail her goal.
Satono Crown was struck speechless by the display.
That fighting spirit was extraordinary.
So this is why Duramente is so strong.
No wonder she could never win.
Satono Crown knew that if it were her, she could never bounce back this quickly from something like this.
In fact, she was already lost right now.
Was there any point in continuing to the Kikka Sho?
Would it be smarter to abandon the Classic Triple Crown route and prepare for other GI races? Because no matter how she looked at it, she had zero chance against Kitasan Black-san.
"Duramente-san, if you don't mind me asking—how can you be this strong?"
Duramente gave her an odd look.
"Satono Crown-san, I'm not sure what you mean."
"I mean... why do you keep entering the Classic Triple Crown when you know you'll lose? If you ran other races, you could probably win."
Satono Crown knew that she couldn't guarantee victory even in races without Kitasan Black. But Duramente was different.
Duramente's strength might fall short of Kitasan Black's, but she was in a completely different league from the rest of their class.
Duramente didn't answer immediately. Instead, she turned the question back. "What about you? Why did you enter?"
She'd finally remembered that Satono Crown was one of her opponents from the past few races.
Though the impression hadn't been particularly strong.
Satono Crown shook her head.
"I don't know..."
Was it some kind of impulse?
She didn't know. She'd just... done it without thinking.
"I see," Duramente said. "I'm doing it to become the strongest. That's my purpose as an uma musume—so I will defeat her."
No matter how many times it took. As long as she could still run, she would keep challenging. Because becoming the strongest was her reason for existing.
"That's... nice. Having a goal you can pursue without wavering."
Satono Crown was a little envious.
Because she no longer knew what she wanted.
Her return to Japan hadn't been solely about fulfilling the Satomi family's dream.
There had also been a childhood wish—to become Kitasan Black-san's true rival, to race against her when she was taking things seriously.
But after seeing the power Kitasan Black-san had displayed... she'd become afraid.
Racing alongside her had been one of Crown's deepest childhood dreams. Yet now that dream felt like agony. She wanted to give up, but something in her refused to let go.
In the end, she didn't even know what she wanted anymore.
Duramente stared at her.
What is this woman's deal?
She genuinely couldn't understand what Satono Crown was trying to say.
"Don't you have a goal? Then why are you racing at all?"
Satono Crown had no answer.
The conversation petered out. Satono Crown said her goodbyes and left.
She needed to seriously reconsider her future.
...
When Kitasan Black heard about Duramente's hospitalization, her only reaction was genuine bewilderment at how someone could injure themselves during training. An accident, sure—that she could understand. But pushing your body until it broke from sheer overtraining? She truly couldn't wrap her head around it. Was Duramente's trainer incompetent?
Failing to manage a training plan properly was entirely the trainer's fault.
Good thing she didn't need to train.
She promptly forgot about the whole thing.
And so the Kikka Sho arrived.
The final leg of the Classic Triple Crown.
As a long-distance race, it was generally considered the most spectacular of the three—because the Kikka Sho carried the reputation of being winnable only by the strongest uma musume.
This year, the strongest had been decided before the gates even opened.
From the start, Kitasan Black surged to the front.
Under the pressure of her pace, the other runners had burned through most of their stamina by the 2,000-meter mark. By the final straightaway, second place trailed her by over twenty lengths.
If Kitasan Black had pushed even a little harder—deployed stronger skills—the margin would have been even more grotesque.
The result, unsurprisingly, was Kitasan Black's victory.
After claiming the Classic Triple Crown, Kitasan Black felt something shift.
The vague sensation that had been nagging at her finally crystallized into clarity.
She knew what her Completion Conditions were.
"So it's that complicated."
Her first thought upon learning them was: Kita-chan really was a troublesome girl, wasn't she.
Unlike her senpai's singular, focused conditions—
Hers numbered three.
One: Defeat Duramente and claim the Classic Triple Crown.
Two: Run the Arc de Triomphe and become a true World Superstar.
Three: Leave no regrets—claim the Autumn Triple Crown.
All three were regrets the anime's Kita-chan had carried.
In her youth, she'd lost to Duramente and never achieved her Triple Crown dream.
She'd promised Satono Diamond they'd meet at the Arc de Triomphe—that together they'd show the world the most magnificent race ever run, becoming true World Superstars. But her body's early decline had forced her to abandon that dream.
She'd wanted to retire without regrets, but both the Spring and Autumn Triple Crowns had slipped through her fingers. In the end, she'd walked away with an imperfect record.
In others' eyes, Kita-chan's career had been plenty brilliant.
But to Kita-chan herself, it was incomplete. Full of what-ifs.
And the System had converted every one of those what-ifs into Completion Conditions.
There were two reasons Kitasan Black hadn't been able to identify the conditions earlier. First, her mentality was so fundamentally different from Kita-chan's that the resonance between them was pitifully low. Second, she'd taken the wrong route—normally she should have run the Classic Triple Crown first, which would have revealed the conditions sooner. Instead, she'd completed Task Three first.
So it wasn't until she'd finished the Classic Triple Crown that the conditions became clear. If she'd skipped the Classics, that would've been a genuine disaster. No one yet knew what happened when a task was failed.
Was it really as simple as just not being able to leave?
Kitasan Black didn't know.
And she didn't want to find out.
As things stood, she had just one task remaining.
Run the Arc de Triomphe.
But this year's Arc had already passed.
Meaning she'd have to wait until next year.
"That's a long wait..."
She let out a small sigh.
She was starting to miss McQueen-senpai and the others.
But there was no rushing this.
At least now that she knew the conditions, the anxiety that had been hovering over her finally eased. She'd been worried that she might fail without realizing it, or that her conditions would be as maddeningly vague as Rice Shower-senpai's.
But looking at them now—
Apart from there being three instead of one, they were all straightforward enough.
Just follow the path and clear them one by one.
The tension drained from her shoulders.
...
Just when everyone expected the newly crowned Triple Crown champion to steamroll the Japan Cup and Arima Kinen next, Kitasan Black made a surprise announcement: she would be preparing for the Arc de Triomphe and wouldn't be racing for the foreseeable future.
She'd earned enough money.
She had no interest in running these tedious races anymore.
When she'd first started racing against the Tyrant and the others, there'd been at least a faint sense of challenge. But as she continued unlocking more of her own power while her opponents stagnated, her motivation had evaporated.
Besides—she couldn't completely rob everyone else of their chances.
She wasn't that cruel.
"Maybe I'll just take a break and go home for a while."
Back in class, Kitasan Black stared out the window, lost in thought.
The days that followed were leisurely. She'd occasionally drop by to coach Kobayashi Reki, or catch one of Reki's races.
She figured she'd drift along like this until the Arc de Triomphe rolled around.
Then one morning, she woke up in a different world.
Staring at the mirror at a girl who looked almost exactly like her—but not quite—the same Kitasan Black, she thought:
"You've got to be kidding me. Is jumping to a parallel world in Story Mode just... a regular thing?"
...
Get 20+ chapters ahead on - P.a.t.r.e.o.n "RoseWhisky"