Chapter 27: After finishing the run

About a hundred meters past the finish pole, near the outer rail, I finally slowed to a stop and took a short breath.

I’d entered the home stretch thinking the race would end like usual—passing everyone with ease and wrapping it up. But El-chan simply wouldn’t let me overtake her, forcing me to keep pushing until the final two hundred meters.

Being made to run seriously all the way to the end left me a little tired, but it also gave me a strange sense of accomplishment. It felt like that exhilarating moment in a racing game where you win at the very last second with some sudden acceleration shortcut.

I don’t particularly like running, but maybe having a thrill like this once in a while isn’t so bad. I feel like I understand a bit better why some Uma Musume love racing so much.

I turned around and started walking back.

I scanned the spectator stands, trying to spot anyone I knew.

With seventy or eighty thousand people watching, finding anyone was probably a foolish idea—but my parents should be somewhere in there…

Just as that thought crossed my mind, I spotted King-chan and the others occupying the entire front row as a block. Beside them, Suzuka-san and Fukukitaru-san were also looking my way.

When I glanced around, I suddenly realized tens of thousands of eyes were fixed on me. No matter where I looked, it felt like I was making eye contact with someone.

A little spooked, I directed my gaze forward—only to find El-chan standing right in front of me, head down and breathing hard.

Apparently, I’d wandered all the way back to the finish pole without noticing.

I stopped in a hurry, and the left hand I’d awkwardly swung forward was suddenly grabbed—clack!—by El-chan.

By the time I understood that she had completely misunderstood and thought I was offering her a handshake, the whole stadium had already erupted into a thunderous cheer.

The Winning Live song was Instinct Speed.

It’s a fast-tempo track with lyrics even I could understand (well, except for a few katakana loanwords). Basically, it’s a “We’re gonna run super fast!” kind of song.

But to me, that was unfortunate. If I sang along too enthusiastically, I’d expose my catastrophic lack of pitch to the entire world. So I survived the performance by reminding myself of the time I forgot to save and lost four hours’ worth of experience points the day before yesterday.

Once the NHK Mile Cup ended, I expected the world around me to become completely dyed in Derby fever.

In reality, the school just put up a bunch of Derby-themed posters, so I started seeing them everywhere. For the record, my favorite among them is Spe-chan’s poster. The way she balances cool and cute at such a high level is genuinely awe-inspiring.

My biggest problem these days, however, is the recent temperature.

Even though winter was freezing, it’s been unusually hot for mid-May.

It’s gotten to the point where I can’t even nap comfortably on the sunlit benches at noon anymore.

So I guess this year I’ll have to relocate early to my summer napping spot—the shaded area behind the school building. With that thought in mind, I was trudging along when a red sports car suddenly slid to a stop right in front of me.

I froze in surprise, and out stepped—

"Hi! You look a little down, Wee-chan. How about taking a drive with me?"

It was Maruzensky-san. Her way of speaking is a bit… unique, but other than that she’s a flawless upperclassman. According to Spe-chan and Grass-chan, she was incredibly active on the track during her racing days.

She’s kind and often talks to me when we cross paths, but she also says strange, mysterious things with surprising regularity, which makes her a little scary. I don’t think she’s a suspicious Uma Musume, but there are rumors that she tears through the expressway late at night in her sports car and knocks her trainer unconscious.

When I instinctively refused her offer, she looked slightly sad and said,

"Enjoy the Derby, okay?"

Then she hopped back into her car and sped off with explosive acceleration.

Hmm… She’s probably a good person, I think.