Side Story - Saint Light
I remembered the world feeling unstable back then.
Not in the poetic sense people like to use later.
I meant it literally.
Tracks were tense. Stables were quieter than they should have been. Even the air around Tracen felt like it was holding its breath, like everyone already knew something was going to break, they just didn't know when.
There was a kind of war happening in the background of everything.
Not always visible.
But always there.
Rival schools, rising bloodlines, pressure from sponsors, expectations that didn't feel like encouragement anymore.
And hope?
Hope felt like something people talked about after races, not something they used before them.
Most horse girls were nervous.
Some were desperate.
Some were already pretending they weren't afraid.
Me?
I just followed what I knew.
Tradition first.
Structure second.
And the people I trusted after that.
That was how I moved.
Not blindly.
Not freely either.
Just… anchored.
If something was expected of me, I did it properly.
If it wasn't, I didn't waste myself on it.
That was my reputation back then.
"Lazy," some people called it.
But that wasn't really correct.
It was more like I didn't see reason to move beyond what was necessary unless something gave me direction worth following.
That morning, I was eating bread and porridge when I first met him.
It didn't feel like a meaningful moment.
Just another interruption in a world already full of uncertainty.
A boy walked up and stopped in front of me.
Like he was checking if I was real, or maybe checking if he was allowed to speak.
Kaiya Sora.
I didn't know his name yet.
He looked tired in a way that didn't match his age.
Not physically.
More like… mentally overloaded.
Like he was trying to hold too many outcomes in his head at the same time and still act normal.
He stared at me while I ate.
Not rude.
Not confident either.
Just focused.
Then he spoke.
"If you follow me, I'll make sure you're fed every day."
I stopped chewing.
Looked at him.
Then went back to my food.
"…are you stupid?"
That was my honest response.
"You think you can buy me with food?"
He blinked.
Not offended.
More like he realized that what he said didn't land the way he thought it would.
He exhaled slightly, like he was recalculating something in real time.
Then he answered.
"I didn't mean it like that."
A pause.
Then, more carefully:
"I mean… I'll make sure you don't regret working hard."
That sounded more like him.
Not polished.
Not rehearsed.
Just trying to express something bigger than what he had words for.
Then he added something quieter.
"I'll be your compass."
That made me stop again.
Because it didn't sound like a promise meant to impress.
It sounded like something he needed to believe himself.
Like if he didn't say it out loud, he might not know where he was supposed to stand either.
So I watched him for a moment longer.
He wasn't stable in the way people think of trainers.
He wasn't fully confident.
He was just… moving forward anyway.
So I agreed.
Not because I trusted him completely.
But because I understood something else.
He wasn't pretending to be certain.
He was trying to become certain through action.
And that was rare.
That was my logic back then.
After that, things didn't change loudly.
They changed awkwardly.
Like someone adjusting a system while it was already running.
He didn't act like a master.
He acted like someone learning while building at the same time.
Sometimes he got things wrong.
Sometimes he corrected too late.
Sometimes he just stood there thinking too long before speaking.
But when he did act, it was always deliberate.
Not confident.
Deliberate.
I still followed tradition.
Still relied on structure.
Still moved the way I always had.
But slowly, my direction started aligning with his corrections.
Not because I changed.
Because I stopped resisting adjustment when it made sense.
Then races started.
And people began reacting.
[ANNOUNCER: SAINT LIGHT, IT'S SAINT LIGHT TAKING THE LEAD!]
I remember hearing that and feeling slightly confused.
Because I didn't feel like anything had changed.
I was just running.
But now the results were different.
Cleaner.
More consistent.
Less variance between expectation and outcome.
[SAINT LIGHT DOES IT AGAIN!]
That one came later.
By then, I had stopped questioning why people sounded surprised.
It felt like I was just repeating the same correct process again and again.
Kaiya was never calm during it.
He watched too closely.
Sometimes too quietly.
Like every race was something he couldn't fully afford to lose, even if he wasn't the one running.
After each race, he didn't celebrate.
He looked relieved for a moment.
Then immediately started thinking again.
Adjusting.
Rebuilding.
Rechecking assumptions.
Not like someone who had control.
More like someone trying not to fall behind what was happening in front of him.
[SAINT LIGHT WINS THE TRIPLE CROWN UNDEFEATED]
That was when people stopped calling it coincidence.
They started calling it an era.
But I remember looking at Kaiya after that race more than the crowd.
He wasn't smiling like someone who achieved something.
He looked… tired.
Like he had just barely kept something from slipping out of his hands.
[SAINT LIGHT IS DESTROYING EVERYONE ELSE IN HER ERA]
I heard that later.
And I didn't really agree with it.
Because I wasn't thinking in terms of destruction.
I was just following structure that now seemed to hold under pressure better than before.
But I think I understand what they saw.
From the outside, stability looks like dominance.
Consistency looks like inevitability.
[THIS IS SAINT LIGHT'S ERA AND WE ARE LIVING IN IT!]
That phrase followed me for a while.
Even after I stopped racing.
Even after retirement.
People spoke like I had become something fixed in time.
But I hadn't.
I had just followed a direction long enough that the world started adapting around it.
Kaiya still handled things after that.
But not like someone in control.
More like someone making sure nothing broke too loudly at once.
He still replied to messages.
Still filtered requests.
Still tried to manage things before they overwhelmed me or him.
Sometimes I could see it clearly.
He was still 18.
Still young enough that he probably shouldn't have been responsible for any of this.
But it had already become his problem anyway.
And he was still trying to hold it together.
I didn't become something greater.
And he wasn't some perfect guiding hand.
We just ended up moving forward in the only way that didn't collapse under pressure at the time.
And somehow… that was enough for people to call it an era.
That phrase followed me for a while.
Even when I stopped racing.
Even when I retired.
People still said it like I was still somewhere above everything.
But I wasn't.
I had just stopped moving forward in the same way.
Or maybe… I had already moved far enough.
After retirement, things got even stranger.
"Saint Light! Can I have your autograph? Your song about running was so good!"
"I watched your races again!"
"Your acting in the Uma Musume latest movie was amazing!"
"Your sponsorship of the Uma Musume Tracen Academy was so kind!"
I didn't even know I had become some inspiration for hope until someone showed me.
All I did was do what I was follow my heart on the path others put effort into making for me.
He still replied to messages.
Still filtered requests.
Still decided what I should and shouldn't respond to.
It was almost funny.
The same boy who once promised to feed me every day was now managing my social life like it was part of race preparation.
But if I think back honestly…
He didn't change who I was.
He just made the world react to it differently.
I was always like this.
Efficient.
Only serious when I cared.
He just placed me in a direction where that kind of existence became overwhelming instead of invisible.
It's a little funny if you think about it.
I was never really turned into a god.
The world just stopped being able to ignore what I already was.