In the end, the topic about that extremely accurate cosplayer was directly skipped over.
As for Gotham Song herself, she actually didn't have any real issue with such a Saintly Body of Song-like replica—after all, the cosplayer was just very similar, not a perfect copy, so there wasn't really much to say about it.
If someone could receive praise or recognition merely by looking alike, that was their own ability, wasn't it? Sure, Gotham Song's popularity might've helped, but it wasn't absolute.
After all, no two identical leaves exist in this world. If someone wanted to do that, let them.
But daily life didn't simply slip back into normalcy so quickly. Only on the following day did Gotham Song realize just how huge a mistake she'd made—
She was genuinely an idiot.
Really, how could she have failed to realize it yesterday?
Could Donna and Flightline really get along that well?
Of course the answer was no. In fact, these two already showed early signs of bickering yesterday.
After officially joining Gotham Song's team, Flightline moved swiftly, transferring her belongings from her original residence—that big room inside the hospital—to their current place. Then, together with Manhattan Cafe and Mejiro McQueen, the four Uma Musume of the team entered a leisurely training period.
That should've been it, really.
But, unlike yesterday, when Donna had straightforwardly and single-handedly suppressed Flightline until she couldn't even talk back, today—after Flightline had recovered her senses, or rather, had no reason to be suppressed anymore—she started a fierce counterattack.
The two seemed possessed by their competitive natures, chasing and racing furiously around the track. The training field wasn't particularly large, yet with the two of them taking it over completely, a massive whirlwind soon kicked up.
How should one describe the scene unfolding before Gotham Song's eyes?
At first, Donna and Flightline started off running at their absolute maximum speeds, each showing off their abilities immediately. But what made it both curious and unexpected was that Donna, who had completely dominated Flightline in behavior yesterday, was now thoroughly falling behind.
She was even left behind by quite an obvious margin!
Could Donna accept this situation? Of course not. She continued desperately accelerating, pushing herself harder. Even so, the gap between the two only narrowed bit by bit... At this rate, if things kept going, perhaps it would eventually end like this or that.
But a change occurred just as their hyper-speed, mutual-refusal-to-lose chase was reaching its climax.
Indeed, Flightline's speed was beyond extraordinary. Even Gotham Song herself, if she didn't push harder from the start, would have trouble opening up a safe gap against Flightline at the beginning of a race.
But Flightline had one fatal flaw—or rather, when Gotham Song received Flightline's detailed training files last night, she'd ended up nursing a headache the entire evening. Even her usually dreamless sleep was interrupted by thoughts of how to deal with Flightline's particular issue.
How should she put it?
Just from her raw stats alone, Flightline was unquestionably the strongest Uma Musume Gotham Song had ever encountered. Even ignoring Vernal Equinox's adaptability to both turf and dirt, Flightline's pure speed was not just equal but clearly superior.
But—but, that was purely on paper…!
What about in reality?
In reality, Flightline was the type of exceptional existence capable of driving any Trainer completely mad. The reason someone of her incredible speed and talent didn't have her own dedicated speed team was because this girl simply caused too much trouble.
Way, way, way, way, WAY too much trouble!
Gotham Song had originally been somewhat mentally prepared for it, but only after thoroughly reviewing the official records did she realize just how talented her hospital-based Uma Musume truly was—especially in this area.
Simply put, Flightline could manage to hospitalize herself three times in one month, purely through training accidents.
What did that even mean?
It meant that in a seven-day week, she could somehow manage to injure herself enough—whether it was from stumbling and scraping herself or something minor like casual bleeding—to warrant hospitalization three separate times. Then, she'd just climb out of the hospital bed each time and continue running?!
Could this even be considered extraordinary talent—or was she simply superhuman at this point?
Maybe both. Honestly, it was probably both. Gotham Song found it difficult to say for sure, but once again she gained a profound understanding of just how absurdly high the abstract upper limit of American Uma Musume could be.
Maybe the reason Flightline refused those artificial enhancements was because she'd already trained her physique to such a ridiculous level that she genuinely thought those things were unnecessary?
Gotham Song couldn't help but briefly entertain that absurd idea, though she quickly shook her head to dismiss the weird thought.
But the direct consequence of Flightline's two-to-three hospital visits per week was clear enough. More importantly, this brought a very real and tangible limitation for an Uma Musume—
What was it exactly...?
"Judging by the distance...it should be about time, right?"
Gotham Song walked up behind Vernal Equinox, reached out to grasp both sides of her little ace's head, and guided her gently to face the two Uma Musume currently racing ahead of them.
"Watch carefully, Vernal-chan. It should be about that distance now—the fateful twelve-hundred meters mark after sprinting full-out…"
Under Gotham Song and Vernal Equinox's focused gaze, Flightline naturally still maintained her lead, but the distance between them now seemed frozen—unchanging for quite a while already. Previously, Flightline had been continuously accelerating, aggressively widening the gap with Donna, but now, something new seemed to emerge.
Or rather, it was something extremely obvious—something sensitive enough to provoke the nerves of any Uma Musume.
Under their attentive watch, Vernal Equinox quickly realized what exactly her Trainer wanted her to see.
"It seems…she's about to be overtaken…?"
About to be overtaken—what shocking words to hear, weren't they? Actually, if spectators witnessed a scene like this in an official race, how would they feel?
From the very start of the race, Flightline had unleashed her maximum speed, effortlessly taking the leading position, as always. Donna, her fiercest pursuer, gave everything she had, racing at her own absolute limit, yet unable to close the gap. The distance between them widened bit by bit—despairingly so.
Flightline was clearly the strongest one here, obviously the one who'd always remain in the lead. Such an exaggerated gap—anyone watching could see it plainly, right?!
Yet, despite all this, there existed a profound variable, something ordinary viewers couldn't possibly have imagined: the distance.
So, how far had Flightline sprinted at full speed by now?
About thirteen hundred meters. And she'd even deliberately chosen the unfamiliar turf surface to challenge Donna, displaying her power with the fiercest speed possible—
Of course, Donna had tried to fight back. Earlier, she had also gone all-out in an attempt to keep up with Flightline's pace…but, well, it was only for a brief while.
Yet, looking at it now, it seemed Donna had completely played Flightline. Why?
"Donna-san deliberately baited Flightline-san into going all out…"
"The counterattack is starting now."
Vernal Equinox murmured unconsciously exactly what Gotham Song wanted to hear, and upon hearing this, Miss Trainer nodded in satisfaction.
Naturally, Donna might've had a slight disadvantage in raw speed against Flightline, but could she really fall so obviously far behind?
Thus, returning to the earlier issue—what kind of hidden danger had Flightline's frequent hospital visits actually brought to her career as an Uma Musume?
Firstly, she had never once completed a full training race. Secondly, she had never finished an official race properly. Every single time, whether it was the standard two-thousand-four-hundred-meter benchmark or shorter, Flightline would inevitably falter near the final stretch, suffer a drastic loss of speed, collapse, and be carried off the track.
Thirdly…
This idiot keeps rambling about purity, racing, and ultimate speed—but literally, that's all her body can do!
She had zero experience regarding the actual nuances of race management! Just one simple baiting from Donna was enough to completely unravel her.
Flightline, aren't you the one who desperately needs practice the most?
Gotham Song felt so frustrated she almost laughed out loud. Instead, she firmly held Vernal Equinox's shoulders from behind and pointed to the distant negative example ahead.
"Well said, Vernal-chan. That's why you must never learn from such a brainless idiot. Got it?"
Vernal Equinox nodded seriously, but just as the two were talking, a change had quietly begun to unfold ahead.
In truth, Flightline's speed hadn't slowed down significantly—but she no longer had any capacity left to accelerate further. Running at full throttle for almost two thousand meters consumed energy far beyond her imagination. Especially on grass, where the feedback was drastically different from dirt tracks—under all these combined conditions, Flightline felt as if her body had already been completely hollowed out.
Right now, she was purely forcing her exhausted body forward by sheer willpower alone!
Haha, but at least teaching a lesson to that horse-girl behind me felt really good, right?
Sweat dripped down Flightline's cheeks. She definitely wouldn't stop here. Taking a deep breath, she slightly adjusted her rhythm, a fierce expression appearing on her face as she prepared to accelerate once more—
She was an Uma Musume chasing after the absolute limits! If physical exhaustion was her limit, wasn't that precisely what needed to be broken through?!
Open up already—!!
Donna? Please. Know your place clearly. Don't think about challenging me day in, day out. Do you even have the strength? You're miles behind me.
With these arrogant thoughts filling her mind, Flightline took a deep breath, preparing to speed up once again—
But just then, she heard an impossible sound.
It came from behind, the rustling noise of grass being fiercely trampled underfoot.
Who…? Could it be that monster Gotham Song? Definitely couldn't be Vernal Equinox, right?
Donna…?!
Flightline didn't relax her pace at all—in fact, the instant she heard that sound behind her, her body instinctively reacted, desperately pushing through extreme fatigue and initiating yet another acceleration.
But that wasn't nearly enough.
Not enough to counter Donna's powerful strides.
Within just two breaths, before Flightline could even register clearly what had happened, a brown figure unreasonably smashed through the invisible barrier of air blocking her path, hot air blasting past Flightline as Donna surged forward.
She was agile. She was powerful. She was unstoppable. Her speed was like the reflection of the sun's second ray of light…!
Yet at that moment, none of these mattered to Flightline. She couldn't see anything else clearly. When Donna "flew" past her, there was only one thing she was absolutely certain of:
Donna didn't even glance her way. Those brilliantly blazing eyes were fixed straight ahead, far into the distance.
How could this happen…so fast it was like she vanished completely…?!
Why is she capable of such terrifying speed?
In Flightline's eyes, the entire world seemed as if someone had pressed a pause button. That intense moment instantly overwhelmed her with deep self-doubt. Why had she been overtaken so effortlessly…? Was this even reasonable?
No, no—wrong, wrong, wrong! Even Miss Gotham Song herself wasn't able to lead from start to finish in her debut race, right? There was no need to panic. And besides…it was just being overtaken once. It's not the end of everything. Donna, you hear me…?!
One day, I swear, I'll thoroughly crush you until you can't even take a single step forward. I'll engrave your defeat deeply with my name—Flightline…!
As if the world restarted in an instant, Flightline's heated breathing roared back violently. Flames ignited fiercely around her, burning everything she had left as fuel, transforming into unstoppable running power…
Surpassing her limits—breaking through the endurance threshold—she desperately issued a death-match challenge toward Donna ahead.
The chase between the two truly entered its final chapter, and at that moment, it seemed almost impossible to determine the winner.
Watching from afar, Gotham Song witnessed another Uma Musume's awakening and the release of their Zone for the first time. Seeing Flightline's flaming aura, she felt slightly intrigued. However, she quickly shook herself and hurried forward, bringing Vernal Equinox along toward the two ahead.
After all, it felt like if she didn't quickly get over there and keep an eye on them, Flightline might really have her first hospitalization of the week…
The hospital should seriously give you some sort of honorary patient medal at this rate, Flightline-san…!