"Ooooooohhh—!!!"
The instant Mejiro McQueen shot past the finish line, it was as if someone had hit the pause button on the entire racecourse. A heartbeat later, a deafening wave of cheers exploded through the air.
Moments after her, several figures came tearing down the track like arrows loosed from the string, shoulder to shoulder, chasing and overtaking each other as they crossed the line.
At the very moment they finished, their legs suddenly buckled. After stumbling forward a few steps, they dropped straight to their knees on the turf, gasping desperately for air.
"Hah… haah…"
Sweat had soaked through their racing uniforms. A few strands of ash-gray hair clung messily to a sweat-damp forehead.
Haku Taisei braced herself on one hand against the ground, panting hard. She forced her gaze up toward the purple-haired figure standing not far away.
"This… haah… monster… didn't even… break a sweat…"
"And on top of that…"
The girl weakly turned her head to the side.
Next to her, Ines Fujin had also collapsed to the ground, completely spent. She lay on her back, gasping up at the sky, chest heaving as her ragged breaths echoed across the track.
By now, every Uma Musume had finished the race. On the giant screen of Nakayama Racecourse, the results suddenly flashed into view.
At the very top, of course, was that name that reigned above all others.
First place: Mejiro McQueen!
Margin: by a huge gap!
It was the kind of difference that could make every opponent despair.
As for the Uma Musume in second place, the display spelled it out clearly: Ines Fujin!
"…"
Haku Taisei stared blankly up at the big screen.
In the end, she still hadn't managed to catch Ines Fujin, finishing third by a neck.
The Bright Rock who had been glued to her side for most of the race had lost out to Mejiro Ryan in the final dash.
And that Mejiro Ryan had even managed to grind her way up to half a length behind Haku by the finish!
"McQueen! McQueen! McQueen!"
"You're amazing!"
"Chasing Light is the strongest!!"
The cheers inside the venue rolled like thunder, the heat of the atmosphere threatening to rip the sky itself open.
In that sea of roaring voices, McQueen turned toward the crowd and slowly raised her right hand.
She clenched it into a fist and thrust it high, then spread all five fingers wide…
…pointed straight at the heavens!
"Ooooooohhh—!!!"
In an instant, the place erupted all over again, the excitement surging to a new peak.
That was the signature pose of the very first undefeated Triple Crown racehorse girl, "Imperial Palace" Symboli Rudolf.
It stood for absolute victory.
It was a declaration of invincibility.
…
In the stands.
"Uwaaaah—!!"
Tokai Teio's tiny eyes went round as saucers at the sight.
"That McQueen! That's supposed to be my move, my move!"
Right now she was clinging to Symboli Rudolf like a facehugger, puffing out her cheeks as she jabbed an accusatory finger toward McQueen on the track and shouted her protest.
Beside her, Kuroha and Symboli Rudolf exchanged a glance, then both gave helpless little shakes of their heads.
Watching the scattered Uma Musume lying all over the track below, Kuroha honestly couldn't say whether they were lucky or unlucky.
Unlucky, because several of them had been driven into overdoing their True Blooming by a surge of frustration and competitive fire.
Haku Taisei and Ines Fujin, in particular.
Those two were the clearest examples of overdone True Blooming in this Moon Halo Sho.
True Blooming, when pushed too far, was nothing but pure bodily overexertion.
Under those conditions, if they then ran into a fierce rival and were forced to "shed their skin" and transform on top of it…
Their ending would be just like Sakura Chiyono O back in the day: forcibly stepping into the first stage of a Domain, only to be left with wounds that were almost impossible to treat afterward.
Their good fortune, if you could call it that, was that they hadn't actually run into such a rival today.
Instead, they'd been on the verge of having their fighting spirit shattered outright when McQueen suddenly accelerated and blew past them. Because of that, there hadn't been an excessive emotional spike during the scramble for second and third at the end.
After all, once you've stared down the Lion's Fang of a national-highway-class Golden Saint, facing a little bicycle afterward is hardly something that can shake you.
But even so, calling this "good luck" didn't feel entirely right either…
...
On the track.
Mejiro Ryan was the first to recover.
She forced herself upright and walked over to McQueen's side, one hand on her hip as she smiled and said:
"Congrats, McQueen."
"Mm."
McQueen lowered her arm and turned her head slightly toward Ryan.
The sharpness in those violet eyes, left over from the fierce battle, hadn't completely faded yet. But the corners of her lips had already curled into that familiar arc.
"You didn't catch up to me, Ryan."
"Hah… I've still got a long way to go, huh."
Ryan scratched her head and let out a hearty laugh. Then she turned and glanced back at the figures behind them, all drooping their ears in dejection after such a crushing defeat, and suddenly fell silent.
McQueen quietly watched those opponents with their heads lowered and their auras drained, and let out a small sigh.
Her relationship with Ryan was sturdy enough to withstand that kind of teasing. But with the others, it was different.
As the victor, any attempt at "comforting words" right now would only feel out of place, and might even be taken as the condescension and scornful pity of someone looking down from above.
Just as McQueen was about to simply turn around and leave the track…
Suddenly.
After only a moment of silence, Ryan burst out laughing, voice bright and clear:
"It's nothing more than one win and one loss."
She wasn't speaking loudly, yet her words carried cleanly throughout the entire post-race area.
"We're still Uma Musume who are in the middle of growing. Next year we'll be stronger than this year, and the year after that we'll be stronger still!"
"McQueen, you've just taken a few steps further ahead of me, that's all."
"Next time, I'm not going to lose this easily again!"
Those words, brimming with fighting spirit, were like a stone tossed into the still surface of a lake. In the hearts of the dispirited Uma Musume, ripples spread out at once.
Haku Taisei snapped her head up, ice-blue eyes suddenly blazing with light again.
Ines Fujin's breathing gradually steadied. She stared at McQueen's back, her gaze growing complicated, yet unshakably resolute.
Bright Rock even sprang straight to her feet. She clenched her fists and murmured low:
"That's right…"
"Next time…"
"Next time, I definitely won't lose this easily again!"
And it wasn't just them.
The rest of the Uma Musume were also getting to their feet one after another.
They looked toward that tall, straight-backed figure in white dress and purple hair. There was still awe in their eyes, but more than that now burned a rekindled will to fight.
"…"
Sensing those gazes behind her turning sharp once more, McQueen paused for a second, then gave a wry little shake of her head.
"Ryan, you've really gone and made me a lot of trouble."
"What? You don't like it?"
Ryan laughed cheerfully.
"Even if you don't, too bad. I'm part of that 'trouble' myself, after all!"
"How could I not…"
McQueen chuckled softly. Then she suddenly spun around, her gown-like racing uniform whipping in the gusty, overcast wind.
"In that case, try to keep up with my stride."
Her tone was calm as she tilted her face slightly to regard the others behind her. In her eyes, a blazing, pure white light flared to life.
An instant later, a formless, terrifying pressure swept across the entire track.
That imperious bearing made the freshly rekindled fighting spirit of the Uma Musume seize up all at once, leaving them frozen like cicadas in winter.
"If any of you dare to give up…"
The light in her eyes slowly faded, leaving behind that bottomless violet.
With the roar of tens of thousands in the stands at her back, and the dead silence of seventeen other Uma Musume behind her, McQueen turned away and walked off the track at an unhurried pace.
(End of Chapter)
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