[A/N: I fucked up badly. Wants to know how bad? Well, Sirius Symboli debuted in 1984, IN JAPAN. I thought she debuted abroad before returning to Japan to race up to the Japan Derby before leaving for Italy in May!
The timeline is confusing because she faced Oguri Cap in 1988 and lost to her. So does that mean in the Uma Musume universe, she debuted late or something?!
I already set up the timeline and story for Sirius Symboli. It's too late to change it now... I guess this is now an AU.
Time Whimey Wobbley stuff, this hurts.
Edit: So I figured out how. She did debut in 1984, racing in Japan until after the 1985 Japan Derby and leaving for Italy to race in Europe.
So, she ran for another 2 years before returning to Japan in 1988, with a 6-year career. And lost against Oguri Cap, whose career is only 2 years.
Ngl, that's just sad. But also showcases how much of a monster Oguri Cap was.]
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February 11th, 1985
"Yosh!" Bizen Nishiki exclaimed while bending her leg; her legs had mostly healed and currently jumping up and down.
She could feel fiery blood pumping throughout her body, her heart beating like an engine.
"Kggaaaah, I want to run badly!" Bizen Nishiki couldn't stop moving, so it took Gold Way to stop her.
"Hm?" Nishiki responded, confused when Gold Way cupped her cheeks, and then Gold Way curbed Bizen Nishiki's need to run.
How? Well, that's easy.
By kissing her.
.
.
.
Shortly after, Bizen Nishiki had calmed down sufficiently. She sighed deeply while rubbing her knee.
"One more month, and you can carry me across the track." She mumbled to her legs before falling back onto the grass field.
She knew she might never return to her state in the past; she knew she might lose constantly; she knew she wasn't someone who could run among monsters like Symboli Rudolf and Echo Eclipse.
But as long as she never gives up running.
"I'll show everybody that I'm not Symboli Rudolf's shadow, nor her rival. I am Bizen Nishiki, and I will carve out my own path to greatness." She grinned widely at the blue sky, fist-bumping her right hand toward the sun.
"May the sun be the witness to my glory."
Gold Way could only look away from what Bizen Nishiki was doing. She did not know who this person was, and she had no connection to this weirdo.
.
.
.
---
"Phew, come on, Hawk... You can do this." Suda Hawk gently clapped her cheeks on her face, staring at her reflection with a determined gaze.
She put on her silk, feeling the black Westernised shirt fit snugly around her chest. Purple accented laced, flowing from behind, forming a tailcoat appearance.
Her fingers glided through her bangs, her cowlick flicking back and forth from the momentum. Her chest rose as she inhaled deeply before exhaling.
"Suda Hawk," her trainer clapped her back in encouragement. Hawk glanced at her trainer before nodding with a determined expression.
If it weren't for one single person running in this race, she could've let everybody know the name of Suda Hawk.
"Phew," she exhaled before exiting the changing room, walking down the runner tunnel.
At the same time, another runner left their changing room. Walking on the opposite side of her, that runner was smiling while humming carelessly.
Suda Hawk frowned before turning her head toward the runner. She thought, 'Who is humming so light-heartedly before the race?'
Then, her pace slowly decreased until she stopped; she could only gulp once she realised the identity of this runner.
The runner noticed her opponent had stopped walking; she turned around, curious. Her white pupils shone brightest with a black outline.
"What's wrong?" Her lips curled up as she tilted her head; the crescent moon ear accessory jiggled.
"Echo Eclipse," Suda Hawk spat out her words as sweat beaded down her skin. Echo Eclipse tilted her head to the other side.
"That's me~!" she smiled brightly. If it weren't for Echo Eclipse's remarkable career in her junior year, she and everybody else would've instinctively thought of her as a harmless, cute creature.
But everybody knows who she is.
The Second Coming of Eclipse.
The generation leader of 1984.
The future Triple Crown champion of 1985.
And...
The Unbounded Wind.
Suda Hawk could only gulp before grinning in excitement, her legs revving up. She wants to race against this monster.
She can feel it: her blood pumping, her fingers twitching, her toes clamping against her hooves. She trained to her very limit for this race; who knows? Maybe a miracle can happen to her.
Echo Eclipse glanced at Suda Hawk before smiling widely, seemingly able to feel her fighting spirit. Her lips perked open as she said, "Try to catch up to me."
She turned back around and continued walking through the runner tunnel, her shadow seeming to stretch so far behind as she hummed.
Suda Hawk could only follow her shadow before stepping out of the runner tunnel.
"The number 1 favourite, Echo Eclipse, is arriving at the paddock, alongside the number 4th favourite, Suda Hawk!" the first commentator comments on the runners entering the paddock.
"The runners will be running on Nakayama Racecourse, Yayoi Sho. A Grade 2 race." The second commentator comments on the race for the radio listener.
"The turf is soft due to the rain yesterday, and the weather is cloudy. Will we see the number 1 fan favourite, Echo Eclipse, showcase her overwhelming prowess as last year, or will someone ruin her winning spree!"
The commentators riled and hyped up the events, causing the already filled-to-the-brim spectator venue to roar back in excitement.
Suda Hawk could feel the pressure from the audience, and then the pressure from her opponents. Nobody seemed to be unaffected by the pressure.
Everybody was watching their opponents' every move; the air seemed tense with anticipation.
All but one.
Echo Eclipse bobbed her head as if she were listening to some kind of music, humming while warming up her body.
Suda Hawk could only glance at Echo before looking away for some reason. It was almost like a ghost; she couldn't feel any pressure from Echo.
"Scary..." she exhaled before finishing her warm-up.
She went over what her trainer taught her about Echo Eclipse; she knew that if Echo Eclipse got in front, it was impossible to win.
But, going after each race Echo had run in, there seemed to be a bad habit of Echo.
'She's too focused on her world; she would not run immediately or daze off when the race starts.' She gritted her teeth.
'Yet despite all of that, she managed to win each time by an overwhelming length.'
Even though none of the runners had planned to work together, they all knew what to do.
"Number 15 Fastest is entering her gate..."
"Number 9 Suda Hawk is entering her gate..."
"Number 11 Echo Eclipse is entering her gate."
"Runner 2 Sakur...."
.
.
.
"All runners are settled in." The commentator's voice slowly faded away in the ears of the runners; they all got into their running positions. Ready to burst out the moment the gate opens.
Each second felt like an eternity; they could vividly feel their sweat on their skin, the buzz of the air, the breathing of their opponent beside them.
Just waiting. For the gate to open.
Clang.
The gate burst open, and simultaneously, all runners blurred out of their gates.
All but one, once again.
Echo Eclipse stood there, gazing at the cloudy sky before realising a moment later that the gate was open.
"A-Ah! Oops..." Echo could only let out an embarrassed, shy grin before sprinting forward.
'Lucky!' Suda Hawk celebrated as she and the other girls instinctually formed a tight wall so Echo Eclipse wouldn't be able to slip through them.
They had already set their pace; some of the other runners celebrated prematurely in their heads as Echo Eclipse was not in the lead.
But who was Echo Eclipse?
"You think you can restrain me?" The wind seemed to carry Echo's voice, as they felt the wind rushing from behind.
Echo had already caught up to them in an instant.
'How fast!' the rest thought.
Suddenly, they could feel Echo's presence. An overwhelming presence from behind, pushing down on them mentally.
"Let me give you a prophecy." Echo's figure lurched forward and increased the length of her stride. Her legs pushed her forward, almost as if she wasn't running vertically but flowing along the track.
"Now and in the future. There will never be anybody capable of restraining me on the track." Her tone gets deeper and grander until suddenly. Her presence disappeared.
The sudden disappearance of her presence caused a delay in their reaction, and such a delay inevitably opened a small gap in their wall.
A gap so small that others wouldn't spot it, but Echo Eclipse did.
Like the wind, she flowed forward and slipped through the wall of runners without disrupting the other runners running.
"The wind can be gentle, but it can also become an unruly gale." Echo thought back to her training at Mt. Fuji; the snow was everywhere.
The icy, hard ground made it difficult to jog at a constant speed, and if Rudolf and Echo were unlucky, they would face an extreme icy gale pushing against them over 100km/h.
From there, she understood something.
"The wind is always present as the air is around us. It can become a gentle breeze, or a tornado that destroys cities. It can become a warm gale of the summer, and it can become an unruly icy gale of the winter."
The runners behind her snapped back and increased their speed, which isn't smart when they haven't crossed half of a 2000m-long race, but they had long stopped thinking rationally and had their passion and emotions take control.
"So, what do you think the Unbounded Wind should encompass?" Every runner could hear her voice, and just for a moment. They stopped thinking about the race.
Such a thing couldn't typically happen in a normal race, yet every single runner stopped thinking about the race at the same time.
Yet it did, because Echo Eclipse was running.
The figure of Echo Eclipse ahead of them suddenly surged forward in speed, becoming a blur in their eyes. The flapping of Echo's white, transparent silk temporarily created an illusion of wind behind Echo.
"Let me tell you! The Unbounded Wind doesn't need to encompass anything! The Unbounded Wind is already everything and nothing at the same time!" She roared while accelerating.
The distance between her and 2nd place became wider and grander.
8 lengths.
11 lengths.
19 lengths.
23 lengths.
"I am the Unbounded Wind; nothing shall restrain me on the track! Nothing will contain me!" The cheers from the crowd grew louder, rumbling the ground from their cheering.
"If you think you are worthy of racing against me, then give it your all! Try to catch up to me, try to overcome me, try to surpass me! But you will never touch me." Her figure disappeared around the last corner as the rest of the runners spent all their stamina to speed up.
The immense charisma and dominance in Echo's voice riled their very spirits up.
There isn't any logic or reason to their decision; they want to catch up to Echo Eclipse. If not, then at least Echo Eclipse's shadow. If not, then at least the air behind her shadow!
All runners came to race for different reasons, but right now. At this moment, they all desperately wanted to catch up to that illusory figure. That Unbounded Wind.
They couldn't remember the rest of the race; all they could remember was the excitement and passion to reach Echo Eclipse.
The moment they crossed the finish line, none of them looked disheartened from losing, none of them was mad from losing, none of them was regretful for losing.
All that was left on their face, was excitement and determination to reach Echo Eclipse.
For the first time in the racing scene. Not all runners were sad about losing.
A photo was taken of them, and they were smiling so brightly that the photo went down in history.
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[A/N: I changed and experimented with the style of the racing scene. I think this is much better than my previous racing scene. I quite like it.]