"The race has begun! The one drawing the most attention is the top favorite, Seeking the Pearl!"
As an uma musume who had recently claimed her first GⅠ victory, she displayed astonishing acceleration the moment the race began and quickly charged to the very front of the pack.
"It's a great escape! A great escape!"
The announcer shouted excitedly. It was rare to see an all-out escape in the Triple Tiara.
"I clearly told her to run as a front-runner!"
From the stands, a trainer let out a miserable scream, but his voice was quickly drowned out by the roaring cheers of the crowd.
How could I possibly hold back when facing such interesting opponents?
Letting out a bold laugh, Seeking the Pearl went full throttle right from the start, rapidly opening a gap between herself and the front pack. The uma musume running in second widened her eyes, completely unable to understand what was happening.
"No, it's not a great escape! She's rampaging! She's running wild!"
Unlike a normal great escape, her running style was clearly closer to a runaway rampage. It gave people a feeling somewhat similar to Twin Turbo back then, though Seeking the Pearl was slightly weaker. Even so, seeing this in the Triple Tiara was still a rare spectacle.
No one had ever seen an uma musume dare to run like this in the Oka Sho.
Very quickly, Seeking the Pearl's running style drew a wave of cheers from the crowd.
Except, of course, for that trainer, who was already foaming at the mouth and close to fainting.
Although her action was quite reckless, it did produce a considerable effect. The original race plan was completely disrupted, and the uma musume had to judge the race situation for themselves.
"Second place is Iwatsune Kamen! Third place is Mejiro Dober!"
Kyoei March was in sixth place.
Fujiwara Chiya watched the state of the race. Shirayuki was running near the rear, in twelfth place. He glanced at Seeking the Pearl, who was rampaging up front. Her actions had indeed exceeded Fujiwara Chiya's expectations. No matter how one looked at it, her training style should have been that of a front-runner.
Could there really be a trainer who had used front-runner training methods to develop a rampaging escape style?
What kind of immortal was that?
It seemed he had been too ignorant.
Seeking the Pearl's actions, however, did not affect Fujiwara Chiya's judgment. His mind was strangely calm. Amid this noisy, chaotic environment, Fujiwara Chiya felt as if he were standing in another world.
There was only him.
The racetrack.
And the running uma musume.
Compared to being beaten while trying to keep his heart as still as water, the surrounding noise was almost terrifyingly gentle.
The race distance was sixteen hundred meters. The decisive point would be the final five-hundred-meter straight.
However, for the current Shirayuki, the situation was slightly different.
She had to decide the race on the final turn, which was roughly two hundred meters long.
In the middle of the pack, Shirayuki stepped onto the turf. She had never felt her body so light before. It was like a feather drifting gently down to the ground, then leaping high into the air once more.
The race felt different to her now.
After taking off that heavy protective gear, running was no longer limited to her legs.
Her feet landed on the ground. She twisted her waist and drove her arms forward. Power traveled from her chest to her thighs, then finally gathered in her lower legs and burst outward.
Her body was flowing.
Her muscles were like water.
The training period had been short, but Shirayuki could truly feel it now.
The sensation of that power transmitting through her body.
Feel the body.
Master the body.
She finally understood what those words meant.
No matter how many words were used to explain it, one could never truly understand. Only by experiencing it personally could one know.
The racetrack was pulsing beneath her feet.
"The race has reached the second straight! Currently leading is Seeking the Pearl! Second place is Mejiro Dober!"
Taking advantage of the fact that second place did not want to be dragged into Seeking the Pearl's rhythm and had deliberately slowed down, Mejiro Dober moved in front of her and took the leading position among the chasing pack.
For this race, Trainer had not given her an overly detailed strategy. After all, the course distance was the same as the Tulip Sho. The only thing that had changed was the opponents.
And this race had several opponents worth paying attention to.
First was Seeking the Pearl, who was running at the very front and had already nearly opened an enormous gap. She had gone all-out from the very beginning, catching Mejiro Dober off guard. For a moment, Dober had almost lost herself to her competitive instinct and chased after her.
The second was Shirayuki.
Mejiro Dober had seen Shirayuki's special training. Every day, she wore that incredibly heavy protective gear. As the days passed, Mejiro Dober noticed Shirayuki's movements becoming faster and faster. By the final stretch of training, Shirayuki could already live normally while wearing it.
Mejiro Dober could clearly feel Shirayuki growing stronger and stronger.
She wanted to catch up to her.
Mejiro Dober had once tried asking Trainer for a similar set of protective gear, but she quickly discovered that such a training method did not suit her. She did not have Shirayuki's enormous appetite. Her body could not keep up with the consumption. If she continued training like that, her condition would only worsen.
So Mejiro Dober gave up and searched for another way to train.
Increase the training volume?
Trainer told her that if she increased the intensity any further, her body would face a very high risk of injury. It was almost impossible to rapidly increase stamina in a short period of time.
Then what should I do?
Mejiro Dober asked Trainer.
If she still wanted to defeat Shirayuki again, where should she focus her efforts?
At that moment, Fujiwara Chiya gave her the answer.
"Concentration. Just like when you first surpassed Shirayuki."
When her concentration reached its critical point, Mejiro Dober's body could surpass its limits.
That was her greatest trump card.
And the one who could bring her concentration to its peak was naturally Shirayuki.
She had to keep her eyes fixed on Shirayuki, then finish her with one decisive strike.
That was Mejiro Dober's strategy.
She did not need to care about the other opponents.
She would target Shirayuki alone.
Mejiro Dober believed that no matter how strong the others were, Shirayuki would definitely come charging forward.
And her goal was to surpass Shirayuki.
Shirayuki will surpass everyone.
And I will surpass her.
That was the vow Mejiro Dober had made.
The race reached the third turn.
Because of her rampaging escape in the early stage, Seeking the Pearl began showing signs of running out of stamina. In truth, if she had been allowed to keep escaping like that, the other runners would have been in danger. After all, in only eight hundred meters, she had already opened an enormous gap. That speed could only be described as fast enough to take flight.
However, precisely because of her stamina-draining running style, she experienced the same reverse jet phenomenon as Twin Turbo.
She had burned herself out completely.
"I am… Red!"
Even though no one had provoked her before the race, she had gone berserk all on her own, completely ignoring her trainer's instructions. In the end, she lost speed. Seeing her like this, her trainer fainted outright and was carried away by the racecourse staff.
After that brief commotion, the race entered its final phase.
"The final turn! Leading is Seeking the Pearl! Mejiro Dober is following close behind and getting closer and closer to Seeking the Pearl! Eight lengths, seven lengths…!"
Just as the uma musume began accelerating one after another, a pink figure suddenly shot out from the pack and moved to the outside.
Seeing that person, the announcer shouted,
"It's Kyoei March! As the race enters the final turn, Kyoei March has begun accelerating! Wait!?"
Behind Kyoei March, a white figure slipped out like a thread of silk weaving through the pack.
Her sky-blue eyes were locked firmly ahead.
"Snow Dancer is making her move!"