Chapter 111: Zone and Champion
Supporting Duramente as best she could, her own body weighed down with exhaustion, Kitasan Black at first didn't register what Duramente had murmured between ragged breaths.
Her mind was elsewhere—filled not with relief or joy, but with confusion and a dull ache of disappointment.
In the end… she had been overtaken, hadn't she? The thought darkened her heart.
And yet, there was a faint peace within her too.
This race—she had given it everything.
She could hardly remember a time she had ever collapsed from fatigue. Not in training before her debut, not in her early races.
But right now, she was more drained than she had ever been.
The explosive start, the steep hill, the gradient acceleration of the first and second turns, the mid-race pacing on the backstretch, the surge through the third and fourth turns, the tight cornering and the second hill, and finally the home stretch…
At every segment, with every stride, she had wrung out everything she had trained day after day. She doubted she could replicate this even if she ran it again.
If she had done all she could, then there was nothing unforgivable in losing.
And yet… guilt gnawed at her.
Her family and friends who had cheered her on. The senpai who had trained with her. The idol she had always admired. Her fans of every kind. The kouhai she'd recently befriended. Her trainer, who had given so much of himself to her.
They had all supported her so fully—yet she had lost.
No matter how she looked at it, she wasn't sure she could face them.
It was at that moment she finally noticed Duramente's dazed eyes—and at the same time, the roar of surprise that rippled through the stadium.
"Photo finish? So— who actually won?!"
"It's gotta be Duramente, right? Six lengths! She made up six lengths in the last 200 meters!"
"Yeah, that's what I think too. And don't forget—she was still at the back of the pack when she started that sprint!"
"But I think it was Kitasan Black! Didn't they hit the line together? I swear she was just a little ahead!"
"Then what's the official word? Hasn't the race committee decided yet?"
Blinking in bewilderment at the voices around her, Kitasan Black whipped her head toward the massive screen opposite the grandstand.
The display already listed the names for third through fifth place.
3rd – REAL STEEL.
4th – Bright Emblem.
5th – Clear Sky.
But for first and second place, no names appeared—only a glaring red message: "Photo Finish Pending."
Unconsciously, the long ears atop her head wobbled up and down, side to side like an exercise routine. After staring a moment longer, her eyes widened in shock.
"Eh—?! A photo finish? R-Really?!"
"Yeah… a photo finish…"
Resting against Kitasan Black's arm, Duramente had caught her breath enough to speak again. She gave a small laugh, glanced at the screen, then turned to her.
"You're… really amazing, Kita-chan."
"Eh? Why say that all of a sudden…"
Drawing her gaze back, Kitasan Black met Duramente's eyes. She blinked a few times, scratched her cheek, and smiled in honest admiration.
"I think it's you who's amazing, Duramente-chan."
"On that last straight, I thought for sure I had it… and then you just whoosh, right up behind me."
"To be honest, I was already certain I'd lost. I never expected it would come down to a photo finish."
"But… I still think the win is yours. I mean…"
She stopped mid-sentence, lips pressing uncertainly together before she changed tack.
"By the way… can I ask you something? At the very end, during your final sprint—did you feel… something unusual?"
Because right before the wire, Kitasan Black had truly felt it—like victory was already within her grasp.
Charging out of the final turn, she had judged from the rhythm of the hoofbeats behind her that her closest pursuer was REAL STEEL.
If this had been the level of performance from the Spring Stakes, she knew she couldn't guarantee a win.
She had tasted REAL STEEL's late speed before—if she only held the same lead as last time, she would surely be caught.
But today's Satsuki Sho had unfolded differently. Aside from briefly being overtaken by Clear Sky in the opening stages, the rest of the race had gone almost flawlessly.
Every piece of training, every refinement she'd built up had clicked into place. In truth, she had even outperformed herself.
By the time she entered the home stretch, she carried a five-to-six length lead—and still had strength left in reserve.
With both distance and stamina on her side, she was confident that even with her weakness in pure finishing speed, REAL STEEL would never close the gap before the wire.
And yet, it was Duramente who suddenly came flying.
A month of training together had made her familiar with her friend's footsteps—but this time, the sound was entirely different.
Far sharper, far more violent than memory allowed.
And worse—when those relentless strides closed in, she felt as though her own strength were being stolen away.
Perhaps it wasn't an illusion.
It was precisely that helplessness which had forced her to expend so much effort to keep her form, nearly causing her to falter at the end.
That was why she now asked her friend outright—what on earth had happened to her at that moment?
Meanwhile, those watching from the front row of the stands were voicing the same thoughts.
Arms crossed, eyes fixed on the two figures just past the finish, Tokai Teio's gaze glittered with awe.
"There's no mistake. Even if it was brief, Duramente absolutely stepped into a zone."
"Tha–that's impossible! She's only in her Classic year!"
Beside her, Daiwa Scarlet shook her head in disbelief. "I admit her talent is startling, but to touch a zone this soon…?"
"But how else can you explain it?"
Vodka frowned. "You're a front runner yourself. You know what kind of advantage Kita-chan's lead meant. And she hadn't lost her form either. Without a zone, no one closes a gap like that."
Scarlet fell silent. Special Week and the others wore equally troubled or contemplative expressions.
Makoto said nothing.
One hand still gripped his ever-present binoculars, but the other had curled into a fist so tight his nails dug into his palm. The sting felt like a fuse, setting off every nerve in his body—the damp sweat on his face, the itch of adrenaline crawling up his back, the chatter surging around his ears—all erupting into a pounding throb in his temples.
On the giant screen, the crimson glow of the words Photo Finish Pending burned too brightly. He stared at it for a long moment before his gaze dropped.
The black-haired girl's bangs clung to her pale forehead, her whole figure sagging in exhaustion he had never seen from her before. Even her usually lively long ears trembled faintly in the spring breeze.
The same wind swept across his sweat-soaked back, sending a shiver through him.
He shuddered hard enough to drop his binoculars.
As he bent to pick them up, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the lenses—his face drawn tight, lips cracked, nostrils flaring, eyes bloodshot.
And in those eyes, behind the raw tension, a fire burned—searing expectation, tangled with confusion and dread.
Then, the loudspeaker blared with a piercing buzz. His body snapped upright on instinct, staggering forward a step.
His toe caught on something, but he didn't care.
All doubt and fear were swept away by the surge of elation that struck him. The sting in his palm, the roar of the crowd breaking like thunder, all fused into one crackling surge through his nerves.
Before he knew it, his own voice had joined the tsunami of cheers, crying out the name that had just replaced the red letters on the top line of the board.
"Kitasan Black!!!"
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Note:
The Zone is a real thing in the Umamusume world, for example, several Uma in Cinderella Grey has it, there's a brief discussion about what it is in this Reddit thread.
https://www.reddit.com/r/UmaMusume/comments/1hfk4z6/list_of_uma_musumes_from_s1_to_s3_that_have/
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