The trainers seated in the front rows of the stands wore expressions of utter shock. They stared blankly at Saint King Halo's figure on the track, unable to believe that the girl they had all insisted before the race was absolutely unsuited for long-distance running, absolutely incapable of winning the Spring Tenno Sho, had in fact been the first one across the line.
That final burst of speed—something difficult to witness even at Fuchu—had bloomed here in the 3200-meter Tenno Sho. It was a finishing kick that seemed capable of tearing through anything ahead of it. Even the trainers who harbored ill will toward Saint King Halo could only answer it with silence.
This was strength beyond dispute. Anyone who had witnessed it with their own eyes could not say a single word against it.
Even Teraizumi Shinji, up on the raised platform, had been caught off guard. Only when the system notification sounded did understanding—and relief—finally appear on his face.
The horse girl who once gave up at the slightest setback, who cared too much about her pride, had finally begun to rise toward the peak of her generation after breaking through the damage her childhood had done to her.
At last, the victor in the field moved. She slowly turned and looked toward the stands. Every spectator present offered the greatest enthusiasm to the spectacle she had just delivered, and even the trainers seated in the very front, after a brief pause for thought, slowly began to clap.
To make even those who despised you cheer for you in the end—there should have been immense satisfaction in that. But Saint King Halo's gaze was fixed only on the stairway.
It was the staircase leading down from the raised platform into the stands.
And there, a single person was already standing, applauding for her.
I did it!
Saint King Halo shaped the words with her lips, full of hope, unsure whether Teraizumi could read them from that distance.
"Congratulations."
That was his answer.
Then he added, "Happy birthday."
Saint King Halo froze for a moment, then smiled softly. The smile was as hard to catch as dandelion fluff in the wind, but the shimmer rising into the corners of her eyes was a scene of incomparable beauty on her face.
He had remembered all along.
The joy of victory, the small compensation for what her childhood had lacked, and the light she had finally found in opposition to the shadows of her past.
Saint King Halo raised a hand and waved.
The crowd had no idea who that wave was for. They responded in an immediate roar. The smile on her face deepened, and the spectators mistook it for delight at their response.
Only Saint King Halo herself knew that what had made her so happy was his mouthed promise of a birthday celebration afterward.
By now the other horse girls had begun gathering around. For girls of the same generation, even Seiun Sky and Special Week, no matter how unwilling they were to accept it, still came forward to offer their congratulations.
Special Week, tears still in her eyes, had prepared so thoroughly for this Spring Tenno Sho that she almost could not bear it. Still, she swallowed the lump in her throat and extended a hand toward Saint King Halo. Before her stood a girl of the same generation who was now one step away from completing the newly established Spring Triple Crown. But no matter what, Special Week could not bring herself to say, I hope you actually do it.
She had lost the Spring Tenno Sho.
She had already resolved to win it back at the Takarazuka Kinen. By then, she would train even harder, arrive in even better condition, and meet this challenger for the Triple Crown head-on.
Seiun Sky's mood was equally complicated. Ever since that practice race, she had already sensed Saint King Halo's potential. The enormous transformation of this classmate of hers had long since convinced Seiun Sky that, not just this spring but for the future as well, this girl would be one of the greatest threats she might face.
And now she was certain that feeling had not been mistaken at all.
Drawing in a breath, Seiun Sky was the first to reach out her hand. Her face still held deep frustration, but she managed to squeeze out a smile anyway.
"Congrats, Halo."
This was a classmate she saw in the classroom every day. Some feeling she could not quite define swirled in Seiun Sky's chest—but for now, she pushed it down.
Leaning close to Saint King Halo's ear, her voice soft, she murmured, "Don't mind what those trainers said. In that practice race, you ran beautifully. And these two G1s? Perfect. You really are an incredibly, incredibly outstanding horse girl."
Praise from a rival often stirred the heart more than anything else, and Saint King Halo was no exception. The upward curve of her lips, the brightness in her eyes—beside Seiun Sky, Special Week sniffed and stepped up too.
"Congratulations! But next time, I'm taking it back!"
She did not need to say what next time meant. Saint King Halo already understood. She nodded seriously. In this race, Special Week's tactics and choices had been excellent from start to finish.
The first to speak out of the three was Seiun Sky, half teasing, half sincere:
"You should really enjoy your moment. I'm honestly jealous. Winning an older-horse G1… it must feel different, huh?"
There was longing in Special Week's expression too. Saint King Halo smiled slightly.
"Yeah," she said. "It feels amazing."
Both Seiun Sky and Special Week had been fully prepared for some modest, polite answer. Instead, hearing the ever image-conscious Saint King Halo respond like that nearly sent them reeling.
"Ahhh—you're the worst!"
Special Week immediately lost her composure, stomping a foot in mock outrage, while Seiun Sky shoved Saint King Halo lightly.
"That's actually kind of mean, you know."
Saint King Halo lifted her chin, putting on a deliberately smug expression.
"Well, it's not like either of you won the Classic Triple Crown!"
The three girls bantered with one another, and the spectators close enough to hear couldn't help but smile. This generation truly was worth anticipating. With the dominantly powerful Daiwa Scarlet now campaigning overseas, the younger generation had already surpassed the previous one in their performances as older horse girls.
The fans wanted nothing more than to keep watching these girls carry that momentum forward.
Once Special Week and Seiun Sky finally stepped aside, Mejiro Bright came over with a smile. Her face was as gentle as ever, but Saint King Halo could still catch the trace of helplessness in her eyes.
The congratulations were the same, but this time there was something different in them. Perhaps because they were both horse girls born to noble lineages, Mejiro Bright's reaction held an extra layer of satisfaction, as though she were congratulating Saint King Halo for finally growing, finally changing.
That, somehow, made Saint King Halo even happier.
The wheel had turned back to where it all had once seemed impossible.
Unlike Daiwa Scarlet the year before, Saint King Halo had not turned away after her first major victory. She had come into her own, and now even the women of Mejiro understood it.
Watching Mejiro Bright depart with a small wave, Saint King Halo took a deep breath.
Let her enjoy this last fragment of delight.
And after that, she would once more walk forward in the same way she always had as a dreamer—toward the far horizon where her eyes had always been fixed.
Sayonara Halo gripped the railing so hard her body trembled. The gazes on the platform had gathered around her, but she no longer cared. She was completely sunk into her own world, weeping for the figure she had finally seen again.
That domain—she knew it far too well. While the horse girls in the stands marveled at the birth of a terrifyingly powerful domain, only Sayonara Halo kept her eyes locked on that phantom shape which had not yet fully transformed into Saint King Halo's own.
The features were blurred, the outline of the face almost indistinct, and yet Sayonara Halo was absolutely certain.
It was her.
Just like the reflection she had glimpsed once before, that night alone at home, in the mirror.
Brave Dance.
It was a name with enormous influence not only in Europe, but throughout the world of horse racing.
And beyond all that—or perhaps more important to Sayonara Halo than any of that—
she had once been the horse girl Sayonara Halo loved with all her heart.
And she was the mother of the girl now standing in the field, waving toward the crowd.
So while everyone else cheered the breathtaking brilliance of Saint King Halo's finishing kick, Sayonara Halo was dragged deeper and deeper into a flood of memory she could no longer escape.
In all those years of watching from the stands, she too had witnessed finishing kicks that had shaken the whole world—Brave Dance, the horse girl whose closing speed had once earned her the reputation of a monster even in the history of world racing.
Sayonara Halo slowly took hold of the necklace hanging against her chest.
The necklace her lover had once given her.
She had never wanted to remember.
But now she could no longer stop.
The image of the mare lying in that hospital bed at the end came back to her again. Those dry lips—lips that, whenever she had touched them in life, had always answered with warmth and dampness—had, in that final time, become something numb and unfamiliar.
That was the weakness left behind after a body had spent itself dry.
Behind those finishing kicks that defied all common sense lay a price heavy enough to ruin the rest of Brave Dance's life.
Until, in the end, her dazzling existence halted in a spring that should still have been full of life.
Sayonara Halo pressed her tongue hard against the roof of her mouth. She saw Saint King Halo embracing her trainer across the railing, and the expression on the girl's face made something twist in her chest.
It was the same expression Sayonara Halo herself had once worn.
As Saint King Halo began to resemble her more and more, the storm of memory only became fiercer.
At last, slowly straightening from the position in which she had been curled over, Sayonara Halo turned toward the stairs that led down to the stands. She had seen enough from the platform. Now she suddenly felt a powerful urge to go and look at her daughter properly—
and perhaps to see whether, in her daughter's face, she might finally find traces of that other mare as well.
A sudden regret rose in her.
Perhaps she had paid too little attention to Saint King Halo all these years. Because when she tried to picture her daughter's face, the clearest image she had was not from memory at all, but from the giant screen just moments ago.
She tightened her hand on the necklace and hurried down from the platform.
She saw Saint King Halo still basking in the cheers of the audience, still talking with her trainer.
Those eyes, which looked so much like her own, had in that moment lit up with the same radiance Brave Dance had once carried.
Her daughter's face no longer held the pure, unguarded joy Sayonara Halo had expected to see. Instead there was something sterner there—a kind of anticipation, almost severity. Meanwhile, the trainer beside her wore a thoroughly satisfied expression. Sayonara Halo hesitated for a moment, then finally walked over.
Saint King Halo's gaze caught her mother almost at once. Her mother's presence here had already been unexpected enough. The encouragement she had offered in the underground passage before the race was stranger still, and the confusion from that moment still lingered.
Looking at her mother's reddened eyes, Saint King Halo actually had many questions she wanted to ask. Yet she had only just begun wondering whether it would be better to wait until later, until after all this, when Sayonara Halo spoke first.
"Did you see her?"
Saint King Halo's face stiffened.
From the time she was a child until now, she had never once heard Sayonara Halo speak about her other mother. And now, all it had taken was the emergence of that domain for her mother to immediately notice what had happened.
A sliver of resentment stirred in her all over again.
Her mother had always been like this. She had never told her everything. She had always been used to controlling her life—
even the boundaries of what she was allowed to know.
Saint King Halo nodded.
She did not hide it. She saw her mother's gaze drop downward, and she made no effort to conceal the necklace now hanging at her chest. She thought she finally understood what it was her mother had been searching for all this time—she had understood the moment that figure had placed it on her with her own hands.
"Who was she?"
Saint King Halo asked it suddenly.
She wanted desperately to know the name of that figure. She wanted to know all of it. Thinking of that domain—so powerful it had left even its bearer shaken—she bit her lip and asked in a tone she had never before used with her mother.
"Tamamo Cross."
Both Saint King Halo and Teraizumi flinched at the name.
A horse girl once famous across the world—one who had vanished from public life almost immediately after retirement—had now, at last, been given a place in their understanding.
Looking at the hurt in her mother's eyes, Saint King Halo felt that all the respect and resentment she had accumulated for years had suddenly lost much of their old weight.
They were still mother and daughter.
And she had already found the trainer she could entrust her racing life to.
She had found her own road.
The many things that had once bound her so tightly no longer had the strength to keep her trapped.
"She loved you very much."
Saint King Halo thought of the emotions in Brave Dance's eyes when she had touched her face, and said it quietly.
Those words stunned the woman in front of her.
Emotion surged up in Sayonara Halo once more. But this time Saint King Halo had already turned away, nodding lightly toward Teraizumi before heading down along the track toward the entrance to the underground passage.
Her mother's tears did not stop her.
Just as, when she herself had cried through childhood, those tears had never made her mother stop either.
She had grown enough now. She had finally found answers to many things that had once confused her. Perhaps not all of them—but enough.
A fledgling bird could finally spread its wings.
What awaited it should be the endless sky.
So it was for her too.
Behind her, Teraizumi looked at Sayonara Halo, then slowly crouched down so that he was level with those tear-blurred eyes. There was some pity in his expression, but much more than that there was satisfaction in Saint King Halo—and a small trace of pride.
He gave Sayonara Halo a small nod.
His smile was faint, but gentle.
Just like that ordinary afternoon long ago, when he had risen to leave and given her that same expression.
He had fulfilled his promise to her.
He had taken good care of her daughter.
And at the same time, he had fulfilled the promise he had made to himself.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 155)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter200)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter110)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter230)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 200
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 180
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 230
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 220
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 120
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 135
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 110
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 100
My Harem Is Indescribable 90
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 95
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 80
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 70
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 75
Checking In in Demon Slayer 80
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 85
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 70
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 65
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 70
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 70
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 65
Why did they assign me to Uma 65
MYGO Beauties 65
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 55
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 65
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 45
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 45
The Uma Musume Who Became 40
I'm Definitely Not the King of 45
After Maxing Out Every Class 45
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