The sun continued to shine down on the track, as the rest of the competitors finally made their way past the finish line.
Many were panting and looking in frustration and anger at the victor.
All the while the races first champion, looked upon the crowd and stayed silent.
Her expression was blank and empty.
There were no emotions that could be seen, all except for one.
Curiosity… or was it relief?
Who knew.
All that anybody could be certain of was that Hope for Tomorrow was in a state of great contemplation.
She was contemplating something, no.
Not just something.
Everything.
She contemplated the world itself.
She contemplated man and umakind.
She contemplated the stories that she was told of.
She contemplated why she even ran.
She contemplated how to keep moving forward.
How to justify her running, both to herself and to what to she believed to be her greatest sin.
And it was only at this moment that she got an inkling of what she could only realize later.
It was only at this moment that she realized what her running could give.
And the effects it could grant.
…
Trainer Okino looked out at the track with a smile, the other umas in his team were screaming happily that their teammate won.
He could even see both Suzuka and Special Week holding each other and jumping up and down in happiness.
He looked to the side and saw that for whatever reason both Vodka and Daiwa got in an argument again, which at this point was routine.
And he saw both Teio and McQueen cheering.
But… he couldn't quite find Gold Ship, he could have sworn they had all come together as a group, so where was she?
Was she buying something? Was she standing completely still on a rooftop with the wind blowing? Was she wrestling a gorilla?
With a sigh and a shrug, he decided that it wasn't his problem, he had to go to the tunnel and assist Hope in getting ready for the winners live after all.
All he could hope for was that it went well.
…
The performance went well (I am not writing a winner live) there was no issue all throughout.
Except… "Hee hee…" A voice called out after the lights had already went dark.
"What?" Hope said as she was walking off stage.
All of the sudden a pop melody started as the stage lights activated and all focused on Gold Ship of all people who out of nowhere was starting to sing Billie Jean, before suddenly...
A figure who seemed to have almost purple hair rushed over and executed with perfect form a dropkick on the gray haired uma.
And just as suddenly the music ended and the lights cut out.
The audience was in shock for a moment before suddenly deciding that well that had happened, and just walked out.
It was at that moment in time that she was jealous of the fact that the audience could simply walk away from that whole ordeal that lasted only a couple of seconds while she would have to deal with both of her teammates.
Both the person who wanted to sing the song and the person who stopped them.
With an aggrieved sigh she walked backstage before getting ready for the interview that happened after every race.
…
The constant sounds of photos being taken rang in her ears.
Apparently her being the first winner of a new graded stakes race was a big deal.
Something about it being making history which while it made sense in a grander scale, felt unearned to her at least, after all there was no big story, no big conflict, she ran, she won, and then she danced.
If it was a G1 then she would understand, winning a G1, new or not was a very big deal, one that she would understand photos being taken of, but a new G3?
That, didn't really feel like it deserved all this attention being pilled on it, but who was she to say anything.
She was a racer, not a social media manager.
If anything that job fell to her trainer, who was standing behind her.
"Excuse me!" A voice sounded as the speaker broke through the mess of bodies that was in front of the stand, "What do you have to say about your victory?" The person said before thrusting out the microphone that he was holding right in front of her face.
"Umm, well, I think that my competitors ran well—" she was going to continue before another microphone was thrust in front of her face as another person asked a question.
Again.
"What races are you planning to run in after your dominant victory?"
"Umm, well, I am planning on running in the hanshin juvenile fillies then the triple tiar—"
Another microphone was thrust in front of her face as another question was launched.
"Is there any reason why you want to run in the triple tiara?"
Slightly shocked at the closeness of the microphone she still found it in herself to answer the question once more.
"Well, I just want to run in the tiar—"
The microphone was thrust once more with even greater strength as the reporter asked a follow up question almost as if he was short of breath.
"Why don't you want to run in the crown! Is it because you're scared of greater competition?!?!"
She had opened her mouth to say something before stopping herself and she simply looked at the man.
His hair was falling out, he had all but a few strands left on his head, logic told her that he was probably in the profession for a long time and was merely trying to get her outraged so that he could have a good headline.
It was smart.
It was clever, it was probably the reason he was chosen to do the interview.
But even then…
"Scared?" Instead of answering the question directly she responded with one of her own.
Suddenly as if possessed the hustle and bustle of the reporters stopped and they merely looked at her cold almost disappointed eyes.
As if the girl who was trying her best to respond to everybody was gone and was replaced by a different person entierely.
"Why would I be scared? I saw both of my paths when I was choosing whether or not to run in the triple tiara or the triple crown. I gazed upon all my would be competitors and I found all but one or two lacking. Not to say that the rest are weak."
She paused for a moment almost as if to catch her breath and the reporters stood still.
"No. I chose to run in the triple tiara so that way, I could face somebody important to me a their strongest later on. That way, I wouldn't spoil the fun before it was too late."
The reporter all stood frozen for a time as they all aggressively wrote on their notepads.
When they were finished they looked up at her and went to ask even more questions, now more fired up that before they were shut down as trainer Okino spoke up and shut the interview session down, if a bit ahead of schedule.
…
The rest of the day went by normally, they celebrated all together as Gold Ship was being punished by McQueen.
But even during all the festivities, even with food that she had never seen before in front of her, or well on her plate as Spe-chan had already eaten almost half of the food, she couldn't help herself from contemplating the inkling of a possible solution that she had earned.
She was sure that even deep in the middle of the night she would contemplate the possible answer that she sought.
———————————————————
AN
If this chapter felt like it was very description heavy, then that was kinda the point, as the title suggests, a big theme of this chapter is Hope contemplating the possible answer that she is searching for to justifie to herself why she should be allowed to run outside of the fact that it's fun.
And yes, Gold Ship trying to sing a Michael Jackson song and then being dropkicked by McQueen was completely necessary to the plot (it wasn't (I just wanted to add it in for the funnies)).
Think of it as a way to lighten the mood of at that point otherwise very much so introspective chapter.
Thinking of making another chapter tomorrow as well, maybe I will maybe I won't.
Either way,
GreekAntrielos,
signing off.