[Second turn!!! All runners have entered the second curve, and the field has split into three tiers!]
[Up front, Miho Bourbon and Stardust Mirage both on big escape, still tangled tight—how will they handle it?]
[Then a big gap, and behind them Mejiro McQueen leading six French runners plus Taiki Shuttle and Narita Brian—the stalker pack.]
[So many bodies it's affecting each other—truly a "ring of encirclement"!]
[The last group: Hishi Amazon and Gold Ship on closers, French runner Zhuofu idling at a stalking spot, and the Tyrant Nobility—these four haven't fired yet. We'll see!]
Tap, tap-tap-tap, tap-tap.
Behind, Miho Bourbon's odd cadence kept tugging at Stardust Mirage's rhythm.
In racing, control over your form and cadence is key.
But by changing her pattern while glued to Stardust's tail, Bourbon was unstringing Stardust's rhythm.
She even forced her out of that wondrous state of forgetfulness…
As expected of you, Miho Bourbon.
Stardust Mirage's speed sagged as leaving Clear Mind bit. She and Bourbon had trained together half a month; she knew Bourbon didn't often explode past herself—
But on technique, knowledge, overall polish—Bourbon surpassed her.
Take her lightly?
Don't be absurd.
From the start, Stardust Mirage had treated Miho Bourbon as the stronger foe.
Step.
She fought to steady her rhythm; but the off-beat taps behind kept hammering her ears.
Will-power couldn't tune it out; Bourbon's soles always found the exact beat that threw her off.
No matter how she adjusted, she couldn't shake it.
Her own cadence began to scramble. Every correction of balance cost extra—
(No. At this rate my stamina will drain even faster. I can't let Bourbon keep jamming me.)
What to do?
The opening big escape had eaten a lot of gas; it wasn't easy now to break away again.
Worse—Bourbon wouldn't let her leave the cage.
But she wasn't helpless.
If you want to disrupt me with variable tempo—then I'll answer the same way!
Kick—stamp!
At top speed, Stardust Mirage snapped a leg straight and hammered the turf, sheets of mud flying.
The exact move she used in the first turn.
Again, she chose her most familiar trick: Shukuchi.
Use shukuchi to—
No—wrong!
The instant she lunged, a realization struck.
If it's Miho Bourbon, she won't be unprepared for a trick I've shown her.
Bourbon's greatest feature is her brain—like a processor.
She feeds every datum she can gather into her mind and computes—finding the most correct run.
So a shukuchi she'd used would be in the model. Even the timing… Bourbon might be baiting her—
That won't break her control—
Think again! What now?
What's better?
To beat a computational mind like Bourbon's—what do you do?
…
Stardust Mirage saw it.
If what Miho Bourbon had on display was mastery of the known—
Then to break her—you needed to compute beyond her—to step into the unknown.
If I can do that—if I can step further here—
I can beat her!
But how?
As she kicked, a white light flashed across her vision; a flood of images roared through her head.
She hadn't seen only Bourbon use variable rhythm.
Tokai Teio, Oguri Cap, Taiki Shuttle—all had used similar techniques before her.
For them, changing cadence switched to a different "mode"—from one long cadence profile to another.
But shukuchi was different—hers alone—pure burst technique—a change within a single step.
In that instant, Stardust Mirage thought—
Then—what if I fuse them?
A slash of blue flickered through her scarlet eyes; wind whipped rain onto her face.
She smiled.
(—Turn "Shukuchi" into a full running style!)
[System notice.]
[Skill "Shukuchi"—evolving—]
Stardust Mirage ignored the prompt. As she landed from shukuchi, her left shot out and she cut her line again.
Two shukuchi in a chain?
No!
High step, step, run, high step, run…
Every step that followed was a different rhythm than before—but her speed didn't drop. It ticked higher.
More importantly—she finally escaped Bourbon's interference!
[Original skill upgraded.]
["Shukuchi" upgraded to Gold Skill: Phantom Footwork.]
——————————
In Miho Bourbon's eyes, Stardust Mirage's previously crisp figure blurred.
Shukuchi?
A normal acceleration?
Neither!
Every step Stardust Mirage took from then on defied Bourbon's projections; her calculations failed.
She had been predicting Stardust's cadence to scramble it—but…
What was this?
With each footfall, copes of afterimages bloomed around Stardust Mirage's body.
Each afterimage was a possible run—a branch—that shredded Bourbon's thoughts.
(Cannot compute.)
With calculation broken, Bourbon's tactic was dead; she couldn't jam the cadence.
She was sure—this style wasn't in any record.
From behind, she saw Stardust Mirage's profile clearly.
Her gaze was fixed only forward—
And Bourbon understood.
Stardust Mirage—
Her genius teammate had broken through the lock.
…She had evolved again.
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