The afterglow of Marcellina's victory in the Oka Sho had yet to fade, but by Monday evening the JRA office building outside Tokyo Racecourse was already packed.
The glass curtain walls reflected the last light of sunset, as though confirming that the entire week would be blessed with weather like this. Inside the lobby, the figures of those gathered stretched long under the lights. Horse girls in all manner of outfits stood in small groups with their trainers, talking among themselves. Their voices mingled with the rustle of papers and the shutter clicks of the reporters permitted into the venue.
For both the competitors and the racing enthusiasts, everyone was tense over the impending Satsuki Sho gate draw. For the first leg of the Classic Triple Crown, gate position would not directly decide victory or defeat, but it could absolutely alter a horse girl's tactical setup before the race, especially on a course like Tokyo Racecourse, where long straights determined life and death.
People always said Tokyo Racecourse best fit the classic "Japanese horse girl archetype," but that did not mean locals found it easy to run.
Light Dyna stood by the western floor-to-ceiling windows of the lobby, absentmindedly rubbing the entry pass in her coat pocket. A stray draft lifted one corner of her beige overcoat, exposing the clean line of her legs beneath her cut-off denim shorts. Her figure was tall and elegant, yet she looked strangely out of place among the others.
After all, she had no trainer by her side. She was the most unusual horse girl in the entire room.
Opera O stood beside her with one hand in her uniform pocket, a tablet in the other. She had one earbud in, talking to Wada over the phone. Even though he was watching the live broadcast, he still needed real-time updates to feel at ease.
"You're standing there like a post. Don't be so nervous. It's just gate draw. It isn't as if the moment you pull a number, the race is decided." Opera O lightly patted Dyna on the shoulder, trying to get her to relax, though inwardly she was just as tense. "Didn't you still win the Spring Stakes from gate seventeen? What's there to be afraid of?"
Dyna forced a smile, but her gaze never left the stage where the drawing would take place. Eighteen transparent balls sat arranged there, each containing a black number from one to eighteen.
The draw had not started yet. Reporters were still adjusting their cameras, and the horse girls and trainers had not yet taken their seats, waiting instead for the staff to guide them into place.
Dyna thought back to Whale Capture's gate sixteen in yesterday's Oka Sho. Starting wide had forced her to settle near the rear at first, but it had also let her avoid being swallowed by the congestion on the inside, saving enough energy for her final drive. Tokyo was different. The outer turns here had a wider radius than Hanshin's, and the final straight was even longer. An outside-drawn runner would cover much more ground, spending noticeably more stamina than an inside-drawn one.
"Relax. This is the first Satsuki Sho ever to be held at Tokyo Racecourse. Nobody knows what surprises might come in the middle of it. Some are treating it like an Autumn Tenno Sho, but since most of you still don't have Aura or a Domain, the gap isn't actually that huge." Opera O tucked the tablet under her arm and continued her steady, matter-of-fact reassurance.
"The one-and-only Tokyo Satsuki Sho in history. The second-longest straight in Japan will give you all the time you need to launch your finishing kick. Believe in yourself."
"…I will." Dyna slapped her cheeks lightly, trying to distract herself. Then, noticing how formal everyone else looked, she grew self-conscious all over again. "My clothes are fine for this kind of event, right?"
Opera O flashed her accreditation at a staff member coming over, then led Dyna toward their assigned seats. Along the way she answered, "It's just a gate draw. Besides, you're the overwhelming favorite. If you came in pajamas and slippers, they'd probably still call it stylish."
She moved with the ease of someone used to such events, pulling out a chair for Dyna first before sitting herself, one leg crossed over the other, idly swaying. "When your turn comes, just go up and grab a ball out of the box. The order for the draw is random too. They're literally pulling names on the spot."
Their conversation did not last long. Just as Dyna lifted the bottle of mineral water from the table, two impeccably dressed JRA officials stepped onto the stage. One of them cleared his throat at the microphone and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, trainers, horse girls, and members of the press, welcome to this year's Satsuki Sho gate draw. As always, the order will be determined randomly on site, and each participant will draw a black ball containing their gate number."
Even with her back to the reporters, Dyna could feel the room brightening and dimming under the repeated flash of cameras.
Another box was set beside the gate box, this one filled with blue balls containing the names of the participating horse girls. The host would use it to select the first one called to the stage.
"Still the same old-fashioned method," Opera O remarked, twirling a pen between her fingers. "But it works."
With Opera O calmly beside her, Dyna felt some of that steadiness transferring into her own heart.
The man onstage took a blue ball from the name box, unfolded the slip inside, and held it up for everyone to see.
"The first horse girl to come forward for the draw is… Kitagawa!"
"Huh? I'm first?" The chestnut-haired girl stared in surprise, then hurried up to the stage with her trainer, both visibly excited. She had only barely secured her place in the Satsuki Sho with a three-race winning streak in her Classic year. Her trainer reached into the box, drew a black ball, and unfolded the slip inside.
"Three."
"Kitagawa has drawn gate three! One of the favorable inner positions is already gone. The odds of the remaining seventeen horse girls getting a good gate have just gone down!"
Dyna swallowed.
She had not expected the ninth favorite to get so lucky on the very first draw. Before she could even recover, the next blue ball was opened.
"Next is… Cheesetown!"
Like Kitagawa before her, the dark bay horse girl came up to the stage with her trainer, thrilled out of her mind. She had qualified for the Satsuki Sho by winning the Sumire Stakes. The moment she saw her number, she looked ready to jump for joy.
"Cheesetown draws gate seven—another very orthodox, highly favorable position! We wish her the best in the Satsuki Sho!"
One by one, the horse girls were called up. Eight of them had drawn already. The gate numbers taken so far were three, seven, eleven, ten, sixteen, eight, one, and four.
"The next horse girl to come forward for the gate draw is… Light Dyna! The undisputed number-one favorite!"
The moment her name was called, Dyna flinched all over, then stood and walked stiffly to the stage. Before putting her hand into the box, she even bowed toward the front by reflex.
There were ten balls left.
That meant her odds of pulling the far outside were only one in five. That's all. One in five, she told herself.
Then she steeled her heart and grabbed the ball nearest the top. After all the stirring around that box had already seen, there was no way gate eighteen would still be sitting on top. Right?
"Miss Light Dyna, there's no need to be nervous," the host said, utterly baffled by how visibly tense she was. Was this really the same horse girl who had won a G1 in France? Someone like that should be able to handle a scene like this, surely. Especially since the whole world knew Light Dyna was a social horse girl without school enrollment—she should have been accustomed to public situations by now.
"Ah? Oh… right, I picked one…" Dyna took out the black ball, opened it, squeezed her eyes shut, and held the slip up in front of her chest.
The hall fell completely silent.
The fingers gripping the paper tightened.
On the big screen behind her, the image froze for a moment.
Under the desk, Opera O smacked a hand over her own face and looked away, unable to bear it.
Even the reporters' shutters seemed to stop.
Dyna cracked one eye open. Then another. She tilted her gaze downward, the slip creeping upward in her trembling fingers.
The first thing she saw was pink.
She jerked the slip straight again in horror, then looked at the host. "Um… my gate…"
The man coughed awkwardly. "Ahem. The top favorite, Light Dyna, has drawn… gate eighteen."
The moment he said it, the room still did not erupt into conversation. There was only the renewed explosion of camera shutters.
Dyna remained standing there, still holding the slip, staring up at the screen as her expression turned blank with the sort of enlightenment that only came after too many disasters in a row.
On the display, her name now occupied the eighteenth slot for the Satsuki Sho, marked with the glaring pink cap.
Light Dyna.
Debut race, gate fourteen.
Prix Marcel Boussac, gate nine.
Shortwave Cup, gate sixteen.
Spring Stakes, gate eighteen.
And now, for the Satsuki Sho draw—
another pink-capped number eighteen.
By the time Dyna walked back down from the stage, the room had finally regained its voice. The next name drawn was Orfevre.
Today, though dressed in casual clothes, Orfevre was as dazzlingly golden as ever. She went up with Trainer Ikezou. He drew a black ball and opened it.
Twelve.
A good, middle-of-the-pack position—flexible enough for several possible race plans.
"The sixth favorite, Orfevre, draws gate twelve!"
Dyna sat in her chair afterward, curled up into herself.
"Miss Opera O," she said in a hollow voice, "do you think I'm actually just cursed?"
Opera O looked up at the ceiling, clearly searching for the right words. After quite some time, she lowered her head and answered, "Don't be so… pessimistic. You're a closer. The outside isn't necessarily a bad thing. At least you won't have to worry about getting trapped at the break, right…"
"..."
Dyna did not answer. The light had already left her eyes.
Opera O wisely fell silent. At a time like this, it was better to let her just… exist for a while. Four outside draws in four races, and now an eighteenth gate for the fifth one. It really did feel like fate was mocking her.
Once the draw was over, the two of them left the building. Opera O bought two crepes on the way out and shoved one directly into Dyna's hands.
"It's done. Stop brooding over the draw. There are six days left until the race. What you need to do now is figure out how to make that outside gate work for you."
She had originally meant to say "turn the outside gate into an advantage," but in truth, the advantages of an outside draw had already been said so many times that the words felt empty.
"Ugh… do you think it's possible I'll draw the far outside in the Derby and the Kikuka Sho too? No way, right? Right, Miss Opera O…?"
This time, even the crepe tasted more bitter than sweet.
Opera O rubbed her head gently as Dyna crouched there by the roadside, speaking in a low, soothing voice. "It's fine, it's fine. Soldiers block what comes, water covers what falls. It's just an outside gate. And you do have experience with them already, don't you?"
One complaining, one comforting.
Then, at some point, a new shadow appeared behind them.
Orfevre.
But to Dyna's surprise, Orfevre did not come over to pick a fight. Instead, she crouched down beside them too.
"Light Dyna."
Dyna looked up and saw a dim figure squatting next to her, the glittering trim on her clothes catching the weak light.
"Orfevre…! Why are you haunting me like this?"
"I'm not here to pick a fight…" Orfevre answered. "I just wanted to talk."
"I've got nothing to say to you. We already said everything on the riverbank."
"What do you run for?"
Dyna froze.
She had not expected that question to come out of Orfevre's mouth.
The first time they met, Orfevre had radiated nothing but the urge to become the one tyrant of the turf. Why did she sound like some lost, abandoned quail now?
Dyna weighed her words. The truth of the power inside her was difficult to describe, and she doubted Orfevre would understand it even if she tried. So she blurred it.
"Other people's dreams," she said at last. "I don't actually have that much personal initiative on the track. People expect me to win, so I win."
"Then what about in your debut race?"
If the races at the end of the year had given Dyna popularity, then what Orfevre truly wanted to know was why Dyna had performed the way she did back when she had absolutely no fanbase at all.
Dyna rolled her eyes.
"I wanted food."
"..."
"If I hadn't found a way to make money, I was going to starve. I had a shop at home to support too. Running was my last option."
To Orfevre, this was almost absurdly shocking. A horse girl not being able to afford to eat? That was a reality she had literally never even imagined.
"Oh, if you mean during the race itself—then it was because you pissed me off." Dyna folded her arms. When she was completely in the right, she had no intention of holding back. "Any other horse girl would've probably wanted to beat you up after the race just to vent."
"..."
Orfevre opened her mouth, then fell quiet. After a long pause, she said, "I really am sorry about that. It was entirely my fault. I know there's nothing I can say that would make it better. I have no excuse for doing something on the track that could have threatened another horse girl's future."
Dyna stood and moved a little closer to Opera O.
"The races I've truly wanted to run so far? Spring Stakes was the first. I don't know what your goal is, but my reason for wanting the Triple Crown now is the hopes of Chiba and all the fans."
Then she looked at Orfevre directly.
"I'll say the same thing to you again: the day you get rid of all your bad habits, I'll gladly race you properly."
Dyna and Opera O turned and left.
Orfevre remained crouched there by the road for a long time. Eventually, Ikezou and Whale Capture came to find her.
"Orfevre, why'd you wander all the way out here?" he asked.
"I just needed to ask someone a few things. Let's go back, Ikezou."
As she stood, she casually picked up the trash Dyna had left beside her and tossed it into the bin.
On the way home, no one said much.
That night, back in her room, Orfevre shut the door and pulled up the replay of the Spring Stakes on her computer. She watched Dyna again and again—accelerating from the outside, overtaking, surging across the finish line. She watched the moment Dyna crossed the line and turned toward the crowd with that radiant smile.
Each replay made the pressure in Orfevre's chest harder to ignore.
Maybe she really had disliked Light Dyna during the debut race.
But after that?
Did she still hate her now?
Dyna was clearly chestnut-haired, not red like the color that had haunted Orfevre's imagination.
"…I really do need to reflect on myself," she muttered at last.
At the very least, when it came to how she dealt with Light Dyna, after all this time… she truly had to start over.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
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Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 138)
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TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter172)
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My Harem Is Indescribable 50
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