Chapter 22: Chased by the Spring Wind

At last week’s Nakayama Kinen, Suzuka-san won by a landslide—a truly spectacular comeback.

It had been a while since her last race, but her instincts didn’t seem rusty at all.

Well, lately Suzuka-san has been in absolutely top condition—asking me to run alongside her whenever something happens, or suddenly bolting out for a midnight run and causing a whole uproar. At the end of last year, when she couldn’t run, she apparently kept circling around her dorm room nonstop, and Spe-chan was really worried.

Incidentally, when I refused to run with her, she dragged my roommate along instead, as if that were the obvious next choice. We may be in the same year, but how is she so fearless?

Let’s just say this incident accidentally added fuel to the quietly circulating “Suzuka-san delinquent theory.”
That part stays a secret.

The Spring Stakes ended… well, pretty much the usual way.

No particular stumble, a clean start, and after that it was just a matter of breaking away from the pack.

No Uma Musume challenged me for the lead, so I kicked into my planned sprint in the fourth corner. The turf was a little heavy, but compared to last time’s dirt track, the difference in comfort was like heaven and earth.

On the final stretch, running while feeling a breeze that truly lived up to the race’s springtime name wasn’t too bad.

Apparently, though, the battle for second place was extremely close. The four Uma Musume who finished 2nd through 5th crossed the line side-by-side with almost no margin, so it went to a photo finish.

It didn’t affect my own placement, but the atmosphere made it hard to just walk off the turf before the results came out—and I didn’t really have anything to do. I definitely didn’t have the communication skills to wedge myself between those four, who were glaring at each other with deadly seriousness.

With nothing better to do, I wandered toward the stands, and the crowd erupted in cheers.

Some were calling my name, others shouting that they were rooting for me. Among them were a few people yelling something so chaotic and garbled in katakana that I’m not sure how to describe it except as a kind of battle cry.

It’s surprisingly entertaining watching that chaotic noise swell and shrink just because of some tiny action on my part.

So I tried something safe—a simple bow—and applause broke out.

When I lifted my head and motioned my hand downward, the volume steadily dropped.

Then I thrust my fist into the air, and the stands exploded in a roar, like they were detonating all at once.

This is pretty fun. Maybe conductors enjoy this kind of thrill too.

If there were a game where you strike different poses to control the crowd, it might actually sell.

I kept doing a few poses—some silly ones I’d been forced into during the Asahi Hai, some playful jogging in front of the stands.

But after two minutes, I got bored. It’s not like I have an infinite stock of poses.

I take back what I said earlier. That game idea would definitely be the type that ends up filling the bargain bins within a week… unless you limited it to a tiny minigame.

By the time I’d gotten bored and sat down on the inside rail, the photo-finish results finally came out.

After more than ten whole minutes, the verdict was: 2nd and 3rd were tied, 4th was a nose behind, and 5th another nose behind that.

I’d heard of ties before, but they really happen, huh? If this were the Olympics, preparing enough medals would be a nightmare.

"Uh… so which of the tied pair gets which part in the Winning Live? Do they decide that with rock-paper-scissors or something?"

Anyway, thanks to this, I earned myself a brief moment of rest.

By the latter half of March, some days feel fully wrapped in spring warmth. You still can’t let your guard down completely, but the temperature is perfect for sunbathing at lunchtime on many days.

Which is why I’ve been scouting for new nap spots.

Today as well, after having lunch with Trainer-san, I walked around looking for a nice patch of grass. But each place felt like it was missing that one final something, and before I knew it, I’d wandered back to the entrance plaza.

There’s a pleasant-looking fountain in the center of the square, giving the area a nice atmosphere, though it’s a bit noisy. Still, if they put a good bench near it, it might be a nice, cool spot even during summer.

As I watched the fountain, Trainer-san said they’d heard an interesting story recently and shared a fountain-related tale.

"According to them, if you turn around and toss a coin into the fountain using only your tail, you’ll draw a good starting gate number in your next race—something something blessing of the goddess, apparently."

Surprisingly, it seems the fountain actually has some kind of tradition behind it.

Although… aren’t a bunch of different stories getting mixed together here?

"I’ll question where they even got that girl-appealing bit of folklore later," I thought, but if that story is circulating, then the inside of the fountain must be…

I stepped off the Segway and walked up to the fountain.

The slightly rippling surface scattered sunlight in every direction, giving it a faintly mystical look. As I found myself staring, drawn into that beautiful water as if it were speaking directly to my heart, I started feeling like it might just be connected to another world. Like the fountain and the deepest part of my heart were linked…

A sudden burst of flapping wings snapped me right out of it.

The next moment, a freshly dropped piece of bird poop landed right on my head.

I dunked my head into the fountain with all my might.

The next day, when I opened the door to quietly take a nap in the old science room, King-chan was already there, lounging on the usual sofa and laughing triumphantly.

I was already halfway into sleep mode, so I didn’t have the energy to react to her cackling. Instead, I just settled down with my head on King-chan’s lap and decided to sleep like that.

I think I slept better than usual.