It was late at night—maybe even past midnight. Dyna could no longer tell.
Ever since coming back from the hospital that day, she had been moving through everything in a haze. Only after the shop had closed did she finally have time to rest.
Sitting before her vanity, she held her phone in both hands. The screen displayed her music app, and the song playing was Beat on Dream on. But as the melody advanced and the lyrics rolled on, Dyna only grew more and more agitated.
What you chose was never wrong.
That line stabbed at her ears.
Without mercy, she kneaded one of the two most vulnerable parts of a horse girl's body until it felt slightly swollen.
The music abruptly stopped.
Only then did Dyna look up and realize Cody's Wish was standing beside her.
Cody's Wish sat down on the bed. The look in her eyes as she met Dyna's was filled with quiet… attentiveness. Cody, perhaps sensing that something was wrong, tilted her head, then finally chose to curl up on Dyna's thigh.
"Cody… and Miss Cody's Wish?" Dyna's fragile state had apparently been discovered, leaving her at a complete loss.
"You should try talking to me," Cody's Wish said softly. "I could start by telling you the story of Cody and me. Do you want to hear it? Tonight is very, very long—longer than you can imagine, Dyna."
Dyna wanted to refuse.
But her heavy eyelids closed of their own accord.
Cody's Wish reached out and gently stroked Dyna's slightly swollen ear. "Sorry. But this is the only way I can do it. We're the same kind of person. If anything… you've sunk even deeper than I did."
"Mmh… my head hurts. I think Miss Cody's Wish said she was going to tell me a story…"
Dyna shook her head as she opened her eyes—
Only to find herself surrounded by a sea of people.
She looked down—or rather, she tried to look down. Dyna suddenly realized she couldn't even lower her head properly. She couldn't move her body freely at all.
She was restrained in a wheelchair?!
"Oh, Cody's Wish wasn't in particularly good shape before the race. But with Cody here, I think Cody's Wish will definitely bring out her best in the Breeders' Cup."
Dyna could understand what the people around her were saying, but being unable to move made her deeply uncomfortable.
A shadow suddenly appeared beside her and began pushing her wheelchair.
"This should count as my breakout performance," Cody's Wish said as she wheeled Dyna away from the crowd. "Cody and Cody's Wish, reunited—together, we created the miracle of this Breeders' Cup victory."
Once they were clear of the crowd, Dyna finally regained control of her body. Looking at the horse being led inside the track, she suddenly turned to Cody's Wish.
"Wait! Miss Cody's Wish… you know what a horse is…?"
Cody's Wish thought for a moment, then explained in the simplest terms she could.
"After a horse girl retires from racing, her soul duplicates itself and splits off a portion from the original."
"That separated part is what people call a horse girl's racing soul. Once a horse girl retires, she loses that racing soul. Those souls then wait for a suitable successor to inherit their will. Until that happens, they're ownerless."
"And those ownerless racing souls inherit the truth behind the names they were given in another world."
"In other words… they become these legendary racehorses."
"Hold on… so you're a horse girl's racing soul too, Miss Cody's Wish?" Dyna swallowed hard as the herd thundered past before her, the pounding of their hooves shaking her to the core.
Cody's Wish nodded.
"That seagull you saw in France was the same. She just didn't choose the same path I did. She's still there now, waiting for the right horse girl to come along—and for that girl to earn her approval."
The amount of information was overwhelming.
Yet Dyna still didn't understand why Cody's Wish was showing her any of this. Ever since she had been brought into this space, the composure she had clung to for so long had unraveled completely, and she didn't even understand why.
The field had already entered the final stretch. Cody's Wish, charging from behind, finally surged to the front and became the most dazzling horse on the track.
At last, the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile was over.
The winner was Cody's Wish. Jockey Junior Alvarado rose in the stirrups atop the heaving horse and thrust his whip high into the air in triumph.
"Thank you, Cody! Thank you, Cody's Wish!"
The commentator's voice rang across the entire racecourse.
And hit Dyna's heart like a heavy hammer.
"Thank…?" Dyna repeated blankly.
Then she looked up—and saw Cody's Wish's face, shimmering with tears.
"He died on the way home after that race," Cody's Wish said, cupping her own face with both hands and wiping the tears away in a flustered rush.
"We both kept our promises to each other. He left this world without regrets. It was almost as if… he held on all the way to the end just so he could see me race."
Dyna didn't know what to say.
Her chest felt even more clogged than before.
She had made so many promises too.
And broken every last one of them.
We'll definitely meet again.
We'll play together again in the future.
Next time, I'll bring big sister a present.
…
"I'm sorry… I couldn't do it…"
The children who had been gravely ill had never made it to the day they had promised to meet their beloved big sister again.
Only Dyna had returned there later, receiving from the head of the institution the envelopes the children had left for her.
Or, to put it another way—
Their final words.
Dyna had never found the courage to open them.
She could only shove them deeper and deeper into places where she wouldn't have to see them, afraid that if she did, she would break apart completely.
So she kept hiding them.
And hiding them.
Until the letters filled an entire drawer—
And filled her heart as well.
"Dyna, you need to face yourself—and face those children too," Cody's Wish said. She could feel that emotion clearly. It was exactly the same kind of grief she had felt at Cody's funeral, only far more negative.
Dyna suddenly lurched up from the wheelchair and stumbled backward several steps, putting distance between them.
"No… Miss Cody's Wish, you don't understand this!"
Cody's Wish fell silent.
Then she extended a hand toward her.
The rail at the edge of the racetrack blocked Dyna's retreat. There was nowhere left for her to run.
A gentle palm came to rest against her cheek.
Soft and warm.
The rigid tension in Dyna's muscles eased a little.
"Dyna, you should read them. I lost my best friend too. Our promise to travel across America together was never fulfilled either. But those children… they wouldn't want you living in guilt, would they?"
Cody's Wish could see Dyna's past.
It was heavy. Oppressive. Yet shot through with light in the cracks.
Dyna had spent all her time bringing light to the people around her, while darkness slowly devoured her own heart.
Her heartbeat faltered once.
Then the world around them began to reconstruct itself, reshaped by Dyna's own will, until it became a familiar room once more.
An oak writing desk stood before her. Its drawer was locked with a brass lock.
And in Dyna's hand was the key.
Cody's Wish had stepped into Dyna's heart and found only this scene.
The one who had fastened the lock was the only one who could open it.
Conflict. Suppression. Hesitation.
They flooded Dyna's heart.
She did not want to see the final things those children had left behind for her…
"Face the past. Turn toward the future."
Cody's Wish suddenly said it.
Dyna froze.
"That was the last thing Cody left for me. He asked his father to have it written onto the wooden plaque where we first met, and left it there for me."
Dyna's breath caught.
Perhaps Cody's Wish really had poured some kind of strength into her heart.
Or perhaps it was simply because, for once, someone was here beside her.
With trembling fingers, Light Dyna inserted the key into the lock—
And turned it.
The brass lock fell to the floor with a sharp clatter.
The drawer slid open by itself.
Countless envelopes burst forth and filled the room like swirling snow.
One letter slipped out of its envelope in midair, and Dyna could just make out the neat, blocky handwriting on it:
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter116)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 118
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 111
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 80
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 112
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 95
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 89
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 61
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 65
Uma Musume: From Beginner 61
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 37
Uma Musume: I Want All 35
I Can Copy Unique Skills 36
A Guide to Aid in the Underwor 26
Summoning an Evil God, but the 27
Supernatural Multiverse 27
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