In a spectator section of Tracen Academy's stands.
Dressed in a sassy style, with blonde hair and starry eyes, retired American Umamusume Obey Your Master rested her chin on her hand, watching the Umamusume—Flying Rabbit—enter the starting position.
Obey Your Master looked tired, with faint dark circles under her eyes, clearly having stayed up all night.
Just then, another Umamusume, with fiery red hair and a white highlight in her bangs, sat down next to Obey Your Master and spoke softly.
"Obey Your Master, why are you so sleepy?"
"I spent all night checking Japanese match information, watching almost all the top three in their G1 matches, but I still couldn't find anyone who matched the Umamusume from last night." Obey Your Master finished speaking and let out a big yawn.
"Why don't we just ask Golden Crown Eagle? We can go to the hospital to see her after school," the red-haired Umamusume Urban Sea suggested to Obey Your Master.
"She probably doesn't know," Obey Your Master shook her head.
Just now, after BH and TCB applied for the relay race, she gathered all the Umamusumes from Pluto Academy and told them what had happened last night, including that Golden Crown Eagle had been hospitalized with a broken bone.
Almost all the Umamusumes, upon hearing Obey Your Master say that a Umamusume who hadn't mastered the skill had defeated Golden Crown Eagle and even intimidated her with her aura, were utterly incredulous, their eyes and mouths agape.
Even the two retired Umamusumes beside Obey Your Master were the same.
"To be honest, I still can't believe what you're saying," Urban Sea said to Obey Your Master. "I've never seen anything like this before."
"Didn't you see Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen defeat Abyss's Cattleya and Bonnie yesterday with sheer skill?"
"But their Zones are nowhere near Golden Crown Eagle's," Urban Sea said softly. "Are you sure this isn't some retired Japanese legend here to stomp on weaker opponents? Take Maruzensky, for example. She was born with a Zone, but no one has ever been strong enough to force her to activate it. She's been treating matches like child's play and hasn't lost a single time."
"Do you think I wouldn't recognize Hotrod?" Obey Your Master retorted. "Besides, the aura emanating from an Umamusume with a Zone is completely different from one without. You can tell at a glance."
"Losing at the ordinary level is one thing, but for someone at Golden Crown Eagle's level to be beaten by an Umamusume without a Zone? I've never heard of such a thing."
"Neither have I." Obey Your Master shook her head with a smile.
"In short, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. The Golden Crown Eagle incident is a huge blow to the active-duty Umamusumes. You shouldn't have revealed the truth directly; it will cause them panic and undermine their confidence!"
Urban Sea looked angry, quite dissatisfied with Obey Your Master for revealing last night's events so readily.
"What's the point of hiding this? It's better to let them face reality sooner rather than later. Don't look down on them just because they don't have a Zone. Their strongest member this year can't even maintain a gap against them."
--
In the arena, Mejiro McQueen stood at the entrance of the outer 2000-meter track, wearing a ring-shaped strap used as a relay baton.
Next to her was another tall Umamusume named Flying Rabbit.
At this moment, Flying Rabbit and Mejiro McQueen were doing their final warm-up exercises. During this time, she secretly glanced at the Umamusume, the former strongest active-duty member who had led the entire previous day against Cattleya and Bonnie.
Flying Rabbit was initially extremely reluctant to face the Umamusume, who was clearly stronger than her.
During this trip to Japan, even Cattleya, ranked second in strength, couldn't defeat Mejiro McQueen; naturally, she couldn't either.
However, Obey Your Master suddenly appeared and told them a lot about Golden Crown Eagle from last night.
She mentioned an Umamusume who, simply by controlling her aura, could intimidate Golden Crown Eagle into losing her will to fight.
She didn't know her name or appearance.
The only thing they knew was that the Umamusume was terrifyingly strong and hadn't activated her Zone.
Upon hearing this, Flying Rabbit's reluctance vanished instantly. She suddenly felt that facing Mejiro McQueen wasn't so bad after all.
"This Mejiro McQueen is definitely not that Umamusume. Not only she didn't possess a Zone, she didn't even have control on her aura, and she still lost to Golden Crown Eagle," Flying Rabbit thought with secret delight.
While she certainly didn't want to fall behind in this round, she'd rather lose than be injured and hospitalized.
"TCB is short-handed, so they had to let two newcomers like the Umamusume fill in, making victory quite likely."
Flying Rabbit observed Mejiro McQueen and noticed that the usually aloof and sophisticated Mejiro McQueen seemed to be in a bad mood today.
Just as Flying Rabbit noticed, Mejiro McQueen was indeed not in a good mood.
The main reason was Sakura Baimu's unromantic remarks in the event room earlier and the lame joke Sakura Baimu told Symboli Rudolf before going on stage.
Mejiro McQueen suddenly felt incredibly stupid for even trying to understand Sakura Baimu's thoughts.
Sakura Baimu was either having an episode or on her way to one.
Who could know what she was thinking every day?
Mejiro McQueen grew increasingly angry, then caught a glimpse of Flying Rabbit's smug expression out of the corner of her eye and felt her anger flare up even more.
"Mejiro McQueen and Flying Rabbit are ready."
"The next runners, Kitasan Black and Heavy Metal Mud, are also at the finish line, ready."
"The race—begins!"
With the signal, Mejiro McQueen and Flying Rabbit simultaneously sprinted off from the starting line.
Just as Flying Rabbit was mentally calculating how to maintain distance in the early stages and accelerate towards the end, she noticed that Mejiro McQueen had already surged ahead.
Mejiro McQueen's leading speed was significantly faster than during her race against Golden Crown Eagle yesterday.
"What's going on? Why is she so fast right from the start?!" Flying Rabbit was incredibly surprised.
"Oh my! Mejiro McQueen is still leading, but for some reason, she looks unhappy, and she's running incredibly fast in the early stages!"