Chapter 177: Stargazer

Star.

Yes.

To me, she was a star.

A first-magnitude star illuminating this unbearably dark and boring world.

Or perhaps the one and only Polaris in a life without guidance.

Or even a scorching fixed star whose brilliance makes you instinctively want to reach out and touch it.

In every possible sense.

Hoshino Wilm was my star.

When I was young—when I was still Understandable—the world was dark and boring.

In novels or dramas, people often describe things like that as “faded” or “gray.” But for me, the word that fit best was “dark.”

It was more of a sensory thing, so I’m not sure how to explain it in a way normal people would understand.

It felt as though I couldn’t tell where anything was, couldn’t grasp anything—as if I were floating without my feet touching the ground.

Most of all, there was no sense that I was truly alive.

That was the world to me.

And in the world of racing Uma Musume in particular, that feeling was especially strong.

Looking back on it now, I think it was because I had never really experienced “difficulty.”

Ever since I was little, I had rarely felt anything resembling defeat against other racing Uma Musume.

Whether they were seniors, G1 champions, or even legendary racers whose names would go down in history…

This might sound like bragging, but if I got serious, I was confident I could surpass them.

If I ran like this, moved like that, fought the race this way—I could run better than them.

That near-certainty was always present in my mind.

There was only one time I tried to test whether that confidence was merely arrogance.

Once, during some PR-related work, I had the chance to run against a G1 Uma Musume who happened to be visiting my hometown.

When I told her I wanted to test my own strength, the gray-haired Uma Musume looked a little troubled. After a moment, she gave a wry smile and said,

"Just a little, okay? And keep it a secret from everyone."

And that kind Uma Musume—

I pushed her into complete exhaustion and defeated her by three lengths.

It wasn’t even a proper race. Just a casual run we arranged ourselves. The conditions weren’t nearly as prepared as they would be for a real competition.

Still, it was her preferred distance and her favored track. From the way she ran, it seemed she began using everything she had in the latter half.

Even so, I still won.

Exactly as expected.

Without any difficulty at all.

Apparently, that defeat shattered her confidence and threw her out of form. After that, I hardly heard her name mentioned anymore.

Well… I suppose that’s understandable.

She had lost by a considerable margin to a seven-year-old girl who was barely 120 centimeters tall and clearly hadn’t undergone any proper training.

For an active athlete, that must have been an enormous shock.

But anyway, the important point is this.

My intuition had been right.

If I ran seriously, there wasn’t a single Uma Musume I couldn’t defeat.

No one could stand beside me.

No one could even step on my shadow.

That instinct seemed, for the most part, to be true.

And that was exactly why everything felt so boring.

A race you already know you’ll win is nothing more than a routine—performing predetermined actions to obtain predetermined results.

It’s no different from walking somewhere simply because you need to get there. And the kind of person who can enjoy that probably stops finding it fun sometime in elementary school.

That’s why, even though my parents begged me desperately and I did enroll at the nearest Tracen Academy, I had absolutely no intention of running seriously.

I would run just enough to keep them from being disappointed.

Win a few G1 races here and there.

Then pretend my performance was declining and quietly fade away.

That was the life plan I had drawn up for my middle school years.

…Well.

That boring plan was completely blown away by a two-minute video.

A race held in Japan—a country that might as well have been on the other side of the world from my home in Britain.

The Tokyo Yushun.

The Japanese Derby.

The race where Hoshino Wilm and Tokai Teio clashed in a breathtaking stretch duel.

It appeared in the recommendations on a video site I was idly browsing. It had an enormous number of views, so I clicked on it out of idle curiosity.

And when I saw it, for the first time in my life—

I felt fear toward a racing Uma Musume.

She made me think that no matter what I did, I could never beat her.

Hoshino Wilm was overwhelmingly powerful to a hopeless degree.

Blinding speed.

Stamina far beyond any reasonable limits.

Outrageous strength.

Inhuman tenacity.

And intelligence that almost seemed modest only because everything else was so extreme.

She possessed every single trait required of a racing Uma Musume.

On top of that, she had apparently awakened very early to the secret art of Uma Musume—the mysterious state known as the “Zone”—and was using some incomprehensible power I couldn’t even begin to understand.

She was a monster that made you wonder whether someone like her should even exist in this world.

And that wasn’t all.

Her trainer was a monster too.

According to Hoshino Wilm herself, her trainer could “probably analyze Uma Musume down to detailed numerical values,” and almost certainly possessed greater ability than she did.

My own trainer is already what I’d call a monster, but someone even beyond that? At that point you start wondering whether they’re even human anymore.

The runs created by those two geniuses were like works of art—beautiful.

Like warriors—ferocious.

Like magicians—unpredictable.

Like the dragons of myth—terrifying.

And most of all—

Stronger than even my most serious run.

Before I realized it, the hand gripping my phone was trembling.

To anyone watching, I must have looked extremely strange.

My eyes were wide open, my hands shaking—yet the corners of my mouth were rising uncontrollably.

But that was only natural.

Because at last—

I had finally found it.

Someone I might not be able to defeat even if I gave it everything I had.

No—someone I almost certainly couldn’t defeat.

Within this dark world, the one guiding star that would illuminate the path for me to run with all my strength.

---

A year passed after that.

And throughout that time, I kept running with my eyes fixed on that star.

With every race, Hoshino Wilm’s brilliance grew stronger.

She opened the Zone and wielded powers beyond comprehension.

Her weaknesses disappeared.

She gained a margin of composure in her racing.

Then she awakened a second Zone and elevated herself even further.

And eventually, she began doing something her trainer described as “an impossible phenomenon”—using two Zones simultaneously.

Her personal ability and racing technique had already begun stepping into a dimension beyond the reach of anyone else in the world.

A single star shining in the supreme heavens.

Its light was so powerful that you could no longer look away.

Before long, even the Uma Musume who had never cared about distant Japan began lifting their eyes to that star.

Once it became clear that her momentum hadn’t slowed even during her senior year, Europe itself began moving with a single goal: defeat Hoshino Wilm.

The Uma Musume closest to being the strongest in the world was coming all the way here.

Naturally, everyone—especially me—was fired up.

To prepare for facing her, I did everything I could over the past year.

From the moment I woke up and regained consciousness until the moment I fell asleep and lost it again, there was never a single instant when I forgot the light of that star.

How could I defeat her?

How could I run in a way that would let me reach that star?

With my eyes fixed only on that guiding light, I sprinted forward without ever looking aside.

Of course, I trained myself relentlessly as well.

Training that had once felt like a dull, repetitive chore became an enjoyable act of self-improvement once I had a goal to strive toward.

After all, even if Understandable ran seriously, she probably still couldn’t beat Hoshino Wilm.

That was exactly why she could be my star.

And because of that, I could be mercilessly strict with myself.

Knowing that I would never defeat her unless I kept pushing my abilities higher and higher made the effort almost exhilarating.

Naturally, I also devised various strategies to ensure I could run in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, where Hoshino Wilm would appear.

To avoid missing the selection by even the slightest chance, I ran a dense schedule with an aggressive race rotation to build popularity.

I had debuted late, after all. Without something like that, there was no way I could secure overwhelming popularity in Europe in less than a year.

Apparently, that level of intensity would be dangerous for most Uma Musume.

But according to my trainer, my legs were extremely sturdy, so the risk only approached the level where serious accidents were still unlikely.

If that’s all it was, then it was perfect.

After all, if you want to grasp a star, you have to take a few reckless risks.

Everything I did was for the sake of plucking that star from the sky.

My entire existence was devoted to surpassing Hoshino Wilm.

And the talent I possessed—talent that could probably be called genius—responded to that perfectly.

Time passed.

October arrived.

Just as expected, I secured my entry into the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

No.

That’s not quite right.

This time, things hadn’t gone exactly as expected.

Reality—my growth—had far surpassed even my own projections.

My admiration for Hoshino Wilm, my feelings toward her, kept my legs moving.

Just when I thought I had reached my limit, I could still run.

Just when I thought I had reached the end, I could still grow stronger.

As a result, I cleared race after race with ease and claimed four major titles across different countries—the equivalents of Tiara races.

And I had come close.

So very close to reaching that star.

If I’m being honest about my ideal scenario, I would want one more month.

If the Arc had been held just one month later, perhaps I might have surpassed her.

Apparently, the rate at which my physical ability improves far exceeds that of ordinary Uma Musume.

So much so that I might have been able to reach even Hoshino Wilm with just a little more time.

Or maybe not.

Even if the race had been delayed by a month, maybe my growth would have slowed just enough that the situation would end up exactly the same as it is now.

In the end, I would still challenge Hoshino Wilm from a place where she remained just out of reach.

It almost feels like fate.

And in reality, the world without “ifs” confirmed exactly that.

According to my trainer’s calculations, I still haven’t reached Hoshino Wilm yet.

But when he said that, my trainer was smiling.

"Yes," he said.

"Right now, you haven’t reached Hoshino Wilm."

"But you…"

"You might still be able to win—even from where you stand now."

My trainer’s judgment is reliable.

If he says it might be possible, then it probably is.

And… with Hoshino Wilm’s home country so far away from mine, if I miss this chance, there’s no telling when I’ll ever get to run against her again.

When I’ll ever be able to surpass her.

So I will.

In this race, I will surpass that star.

Surpass the dragon’s back.

I have to.

---

My legs plunge into soil that threatens to crumble beneath me, kicking up the wet turf as if tearing it apart.

October 4th.

The day of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Right now, I’m running across Longchamp Racecourse.

The conditions are close to the worst possible.

The ground has practically turned to mud, splashing up and clinging to my shoes and racing uniform. The relentless white rain soaks my outfit through and through, making it cling unpleasantly to my skin.

Unless you’re a Uma Musume specialized for heavy tracks, it’s hard to call this good conditions.

But…

"…………Ha. Ha."

A dry laugh slips from my lips, completely unsuited to the situation.

Why?

That question doesn’t even need to be asked.

Right in front of me is the person I admire—a living legend, my hated rival, the greatest goal, the star in the heavens.

Everything to the racing Uma Musume Understandable—

is running right there.

---

Hoshino Wilm.

The challenger from Japan. The strongest Uma Musume in the East, powerful enough to stand on the stage of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

The greatest and strongest Uma Musume—the one I admired and burned for.

Seeing her in person like this…

She’s even faster than she looked on video.

And far more terrifying.

A little over a month ago, I once spoke to her while pretending it was just a coincidence.

Even then, I felt a pressure and power unlike anything I had ever experienced before. It made me tremble so much that my words came out awkward and clumsy.

So this is my admiration.

This is the place I’m aiming for.

Basking in the glittering light of that star, my longing only grew stronger.

Then two weeks ago, I happened to meet her trainer and spoke with him.

Hoshino Wilm appeared again then as well, and that time… well, how should I put it…

She felt surprisingly normal.

An ordinary… ordinary? No, perhaps slightly mature… Uma Musume.

But at the same time, the compatibility between Hoshino Wilm and her trainer was probably even stronger than the bond between my trainer and me.

If a trainer who understands racing as well as mine does—someone whose thinking aligns perfectly with mine—were to form a perfect partnership with Hoshino Wilm…

Just imagining it made me realize how terrifying that combination would be.

I saw her again in the pre-race interview for the Arc the other day.

We didn’t exchange any personal words, but she wasn’t wearing the face of “Hoshino Wilm the Uma Musume” anymore.

She wore the face of “Hoshino Wilm the racing Uma Musume,” the one she shows to the world.

The shiver that ran through me—was it my skin, or my soul?

Her noble pride in her own running.

Her absolute confidence.

Seeing those things made the blood rush to my head.

The thought that I would soon run against this Uma Musume—that I would overcome this massive, towering wall—

filled me with fear so intense it made me tremble, and joy so great I wanted to dance.

…But, ah.

The fear and joy I felt those three times were nothing more than imitations.

Now—

far ahead of the pack—

there’s a back colored in shining gray.

How small it looks.

And yet how large.

How fast.

And how distant.

Terrifying.

How much training would it take to run at such an outrageous pace?

How strong must your heart be to run so recklessly?

How accustomed must you be to maintain such composure?

I understand nothing.

Not a single thing about her.

Racing is supposed to be easy.

Winning should be natural.

Everything should be understandable.

…Yet her run shatters that arrogance into pieces.

A shiver of terror and exhilaration runs down my spine.

It feels like a swarm of unpleasant insects crawling across my skin—

or like a pleasant wave washing through my body.

A star far too distant.

And yet, the journey of chasing that star has ignited an unbearable amount of light and heat within my cold, dark heart.

Naturally, I realize something.

Ah.

This moment.

This moment alone—

is the reason I was born.

The reason I live.

Running the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Hoshino Wilm.

This is the place where my soul belongs.

And this fleeting instant—

is the time of my soul.

---

Soon after the race begins, while we’re still around the middle of the backstretch—

“…Kuh—ha.”

Like a dance step.

One, two.

My excitement unchanged, I adjust my stride just slightly.

Right now, the leader—Hoshino Wilm—just accelerated a little.

She noticed.

Despite how carefully I carried out my strategy, making sure not to give anything away, she saw through my race plan completely.

So the same tactic used against Tokai Teio won’t work after all… or perhaps she had been wary of it from the beginning.

Either way, my plan to gradually slow the overall pace of the race has failed.

From here on…

I’ll have to push the pace up instead.

I’m not trying to brag, but I’m confident that in all of Europe, I know Hoshino Wilm’s running style better than anyone.

I’ve watched her race footage hundreds—no, thousands—of times.

My trainer and I have held countless analysis sessions.

We gathered every scrap of information about her we could find, no matter how trivial.

Because of that, I know.

I know Hoshino Wilm’s strength…

and of course, her weaknesses.

Generally speaking, the racing Uma Musume Hoshino Wilm has no weaknesses.

She never loses control.

She isn’t affected by the pack.

She runs from start to finish without slowing down.

She’s the very image of the perfect front-running escape-type Uma Musume.

To match her, you’d normally need either superior specs—or another runaway-type runner capable of competing head-on.

…Or at least, that’s what people think.

But that assumption is wrong.

Nice Nature—the rival Hoshino Wilm herself calls the most terrifying—proves it.

Nice Nature’s physical ability isn’t on the same level as monsters like Tokai Teio or Hoshino Wilm.

Even I don’t find her particularly threatening.

In other words, she’s probably no stronger than any ordinary Uma Musume you’d find anywhere.

And yet—

Hoshino Wilm acknowledges her as a formidable rival.

Which means there must be some opening in Hoshino Wilm that can be exploited without relying purely on superior specs.

With that in mind, from my perspective, the one remaining weakness Hoshino Wilm still has—

is her instinctive, unconscious tendency to match her pace with her opponent.

Hoshino Wilm may run with the absolute chaos of a runaway leader, but at the same time, she cares about the other runners more than anyone.

She isn’t the type who’s satisfied simply running comfortably alone.

Rather, she seems like the type who finds even greater exhilaration in running with someone else—comparing herself against them.

Honestly, that feeling used to be difficult for me to understand.

My mentality was completely different.

I never ran for enjoyment.

…Or at least, that’s what I thought before this race began.

But now that I’m actually running alongside Hoshino Wilm, I think I finally understand.

It feels like magma is being poured directly into my heart.

Like my heart is being grabbed and shaken violently.

The pleasure accelerates my mind so much that it feels like I might lose control.

This feeling—

this must be what it means to run with someone and call it “fun.”

Ah.

And that’s exactly why I can now understand Hoshino Wilm’s weakness.

This pleasure.

This exhilaration.

This sense of fulfillment.

There’s nothing else that can replace it.

No matter how much you try to suppress it with reason, it’s meaningless.

You want to feel more.

You want to experience it closer.

But what a mismatch it is.

If Hoshino Wilm weren’t a runaway-type runner, none of this would be a problem.

All she would need to do is feel that heat from the runner beside her—

or from the runner chasing from behind.

But because she is a runaway-style Uma Musume who runs far ahead of the pack…

The heat she cannot experience in the first half of the race—she ends up seeking it in the latter half.

Yes.

This is Hoshino Wilm’s weakness.

Precisely because her running is so overwhelmingly fast and ferocious…

In the final stage of a race, Hoshino Wilm allows the runners behind her to close the gap.

Even when she could accelerate earlier and escape comfortably with room to spare, she deliberately permits them to narrow the distance to within a single length.

There are probably circumstances related to the activation conditions of the Domain, but I believe her late-race strategy also stems partly from that aspect of her temperament.

That said, her overflowing talent usually allows her to escape anyway once things reach that point.

Simply put, there isn’t a single Uma Musume in the current Twinkle Series who can overcome her overwhelming specs and the absurd feat of deploying multiple Domain states simultaneously.

Even if someone manages to close the gap to within a single length, if she still has plenty of stamina left, their chances of winning vanish.

And of course, I’m no exception.

Even if I manage to exploit her weakness perfectly, that alone won’t be enough.

Understandable cannot defeat Hoshino Wilm.

“…Ah.”

Far ahead of me, her back kicks up mud as she runs.

Looking at it, I think—almost like a prayer.

Hoshino Wilm.

I’ve spent all this time thinking about how I could surpass you.

I’ve spent all this time thinking about how I could defeat you.

But no matter how much I think about it, the answer is always the same.

With my strength alone, I cannot bring down Hoshino Wilm—the gray dragon soaring through the sky.

Even if I push the entire pack’s pace higher here, use the slipstream for cover, run along the inside lane, and time my breakout perfectly to close in on a Hoshino Wilm who refuses to unconsciously raise her pace…

The difference in specs and skills would still allow her to escape in the end.

The most fatal factor of all is Hoshino Wilm’s outrageous Domain.

As someone who has barely even been born as a racing Uma Musume—someone who still doesn’t possess a clear vision of my own racing or even my own life—I simply cannot match either the precision or the number of her Domains.

Ah… but still.

---

About a month ago.

Worldview. Primal scenery.

The things supposedly necessary for a racing Uma Musume’s “Domain.”

While I was worrying about those things, my trainer spoke quietly.

"…Ann. I want you to listen to this without misunderstanding."

"It may sound strange, but no one truly possesses something like ‘a single, unique individuality.’"

"You meet many people and go through many situations. What you gain from those experiences are fragments."

"Imitations of someone else. Copies of something else. You connect them together like a mosaic, combining many pieces until you create what becomes ‘yourself.’"

"So you don’t need to search for ‘who you are.’ From now on, you’ll build that yourself."

Hearing those words, I felt as if I had glimpsed the truth.

Of course I don’t yet have “a world of my own.”

Until I met Hoshino Wilm, I had no interest in running at all—and even now, I still don’t fully understand it.

In a sense, I might not even have been born yet as a racing Uma Musume.

A chick inside its egg doesn’t know the outside world.

And because of that, it cannot open its own world—its Domain.

Surely, by running against Hoshino Wilm—by colliding with the object of my admiration—

I will finally break my shell and open my own world.

So… I decided.

Just as a chick eats the shell that once separated it from the outside world…

The first thing I will take into myself—

will be something of Hoshino Wilm’s.

Her life.

Her world.

Her experiences.

Her way of thinking.

Her running.

Her very existence.

I will understand it, take it in, chew it, swallow it—and make it my nourishment.

Copying someone’s techniques.

Imitating someone’s way of life.

Some people would call that heresy.

Others would denounce it as blasphemy.

Fine.

Let them insult me all they want.

Sometimes a hero is nothing more than a killer.

Sometimes a king is nothing more than a usurper.

Good and evil, beauty and ugliness—such things change completely depending on who’s looking.

From the perspective of Hoshino Wilm’s fans, I’m probably nothing more than a villain stealing her power and using it to bring her down.

But from the perspective of my fans in Europe, I’ll look like a hero—someone who discovered her own path by drawing strength from her rival and surpassing her.

So if people want to insult me, they can insult me all they like.

And if others want to praise me, they can do that too.

In the end, that’s simply how people are.

Ah, but honestly?

Right now, I truly couldn’t care less about outside opinions.

It might sound strange coming from the one doing the stealing, but power is power.

No matter who it belongs to or where it came from—the stronger one wins, and the weaker one loses.

There’s no such thing as nobility in battle.

After all, if the “real thing” loses to a fake, then that’s all it was worth.

---

Now then… the time has come.

My legs tremble with anticipation.

I can’t contain the joy of knowing the moment is near.

“…Ha. Hahahahahahaha!”

A burst of laughter spills from my mouth.

Even though I’ve already run over a thousand meters.

Even though fatigue should be building in my legs.

Even though my breathing has started to grow ragged.

Even so—

I can’t stop the laughter pouring out of me.

Because… isn’t it obvious?

Right here, right now—

I, Understandable—

am finally breaking out of my shell and being born as a racing Uma Musume!

Locking onto Hoshino Wilm running far ahead, I begin to accelerate.

I release the power I had been suppressing.

I force my way out of the dull pack surrounding me, cut sharply toward the inside lane, and surge forward.

The rain pelting down on me—

the heaviness growing in my legs—

none of it matters.

All I see is that back, slowly drawing closer.

And somehow, the voices of the spectators begin to ring clearer and clearer.

Three lengths left.

I can’t understand the voices mixed together in French, English, and other languages.

But those cries of joy and despair—voices I had never cared about before—

now sound almost like blessings celebrating my birth.

Then let’s make it spectacular.

Just as I once dreamed of that star in the heavens—

let everyone dream of the hero called me.

Two lengths left.

Dreams are meant to end someday.

Stars melt away in the morning, and people return to reality.

Hoshino Wilm—

the one and only Uma Musume who lit the fire within me.

I will shatter the dream that is you—

and become a new dream.

The admiration of all people.

The hero of all people.

And through that, I will cry out my first breath here—as a life truly living in this moment.

One length left.

Ah… the moratorium that felt both long and short has finally ended.

Just as I planned, the false straight is ending—and at almost the exact moment the conditions for Hoshino Wilm’s second Domain are fulfilled—

I’ve closed the gap to this distance.

Now Hoshino Wilm will surely reveal it.

The simultaneous use of those Domains.

The otherworldly runaway she displayed in the Prix Foy—so overwhelming it barely seemed like the same Uma Musume anymore.

An absolute, overwhelming, one-of-a-kind run.

That run—

I will use it.

As a new piece of myself.

As a new part of who I am.

Come on—show it to me, Hoshino Wilm.

Your run. Your life!

Right there in my line of sight, close enough that it feels as if I could reach out and touch her—

Hoshino Wilm…

…did not activate her first Domain.

All that spread across my vision was the sight of grasslands burning.

Ah. Ah!

So that’s your answer, Hoshino Wilm!

For an instant, her stride faltered.

I sensed the presence of two Domains… yet one of them vanished before it could bloom, closing and disappearing.

She realized it.

My strength—my intentions!

I don’t know how she figured it out.

Maybe her trainer saw through my plan with those sharp observational skills of his. Or perhaps the instincts she honed through countless battles simply kicked in.

But honestly, none of that matters.

The only fact that matters is that Hoshino Wilm—the racing Uma Musume—saw through my strategy!

Hoshino Wilm… you truly are the best.

You always set my heart ablaze. You always exceed my expectations.

I love you.

Truly, from the bottom of my heart.

But… this is the battlefield. We’re in the middle of a race.

So I’ll set those melting feelings aside—and do what I came here to do.

One of them opened.

…Then I’ll make use of it.

That world of yours!

As if pushed forward by the heat overflowing from the depths of my heart—

The world that had been spreading before my eyes tore apart like a thin membrane, and the true world revealed itself.

---

“Ah… what a sight.”

The first piece that formed me—the Domain of Hoshino Wilm.

It was so fierce it nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Gathering together every fragment of her life and burning it all away to accelerate.

As if everything she had ever experienced existed solely for this moment—as if she had lived only for this instant.

In a sense, it twists everything that came before it.

To burn something is, by its very nature, an irreversible change.

Her method pours every part of herself into running, melting together both her painful past and her joyful past alike until they become one.

To any ordinary person, it would be nothing less than madness.

“To run while burning your entire existence… how fierce, how destructive… how beautiful.

My star shines so hideously bright! The dragon I must defeat is terrifyingly strong!”

Hideous. Terrifying.

And yet at the same time—hot, dazzling… irresistible.

Yes.

That is the foundation of Hoshino Wilm’s strength.

The source of the hero’s myth that surrounds her.

The very core of Hoshino Wilm’s worldview.

It is—

Joy.

The sheer fortune of being born into this world.

The affirmation of the effort she endured through a painful childhood.

The miracle of meeting a trainer with perfect compatibility and extraordinary ability.

The countless clashes of strength with other Uma Musume who chase after her.

In every one of those things—

she feels joy from the bottom of her heart.

No.

It’s because she painted all of those things in joy that she stands here now.

Even putting it mildly, she’s insane.

A monster who wagered her entire life on running.

If you think about it normally, someone like me—who was barely taking racing seriously until just a year ago—has no chance of winning.

…And yet.

“That’s exactly why! That’s why I want to surpass you!

Because you’re a star I can never reach! Because you’re an opponent I should never be able to defeat!

That’s why—right here, right now—I want to beat you!”

I admired that mad, blazing fire.

Because she was a heavenly star forever out of reach, I wanted to surpass her.

Ah… I understand now.

Now that she has lit a fire within me.

That madness is the essential factor a racing Uma Musume needs.

I didn’t understand it before.

Uma Musume and Uma Musume are fundamentally equal.

If you want to defeat your opponent, you must be prepared to spend your entire life doing it.

That much should be obvious.

What I lacked—

was that resolve.

The first fragment I needed—

was that seriousness.

In that case—

“I will…!”

Before I knew it, I was standing in a dry grassland where the rain did not exist at all.

It was my life.

Unlike Hoshino Wilm’s—cold, yet gentle—

mine was dull, meaningless, faintly dark.

And then—

Whoosh.

Red flames burned it all away.

“I will defeat you—using your own way!”

My past.

My life.

Perhaps even my future.

All of it burned away.

Without a doubt, that was the flame of Understandable’s life.

---

Hot.

The flames burning my life… and the heat surging up from the depths of my heart.

The pouring rain didn’t matter at all—if anything, it felt as though it were being completely evaporated.

Everything melts away.

My entire life until now is being condensed into a single truth—

it existed for this moment.

Grotesque.

And yet overwhelmingly joyful.

Fulfilling.

Laughable.

Satisfying.

Ah… so this is the Domain.

The burning of a Uma Musume’s soul.

My younger self had no landscape of her own, so this is nothing more than borrowing hers.

Even so—

right now, I’m touching the very essence of a Uma Musume.

“Ha… hahahaha! Amazing! Amazing—this is incredible!

This is a Uma Musume! This is me! This is the real world!

This—this joy! This is the true ecstasy everyone feels! The undeniable sensation of being alive!”

Whether I was shouting that in reality or only imagining it within the vision of the Domain—

I didn’t know.

And honestly, I didn’t care.

Because it’s so fun that things like that stop mattering.

Running. Competing. Fighting.

Clashing techniques, comparing bodies, the collision of split-second decisions, the grinding of our souls against one another.

And it’s… so fun—so unbelievably fun—that it feels like some important part of my brain might tear itself apart.

It’s fun, fun, fun!

“Phew. Honestly, you’ve got the nerve to steal someone else’s Domain and still grin like that.

You really are an outrageous Uma Musume. …Well, I guess the signs were already there from the moment you pretended it was a coincidence just to get close to the girl you idolize.”

A voice.

It wasn’t English.

A strange language that conveyed meaning without passing through words.

This was probably… the conversation of souls within the Domain.

Within the raging red flames, a hint of blue flickered into view.

“They didn’t overlap. Since they’re the same type… Domains built on the same logic, I guess they just mixed a little. It feels like we’re connected more deeply than usual.

Honestly, I’m amazed. Copying someone else’s Domain… even I never imagined that.”

My flames were torn apart by blue fire.

Beyond it, the grasslands still stretched endlessly, burning under those blue flames.

And there—

an Uma Musume was running.

Her semi-long chestnut hair streamed behind her, marked by a single lock of dark bay.

Her pale blue eyes were narrowed sharply, and she wore a gray racing outfit.

My admiration. My ideal. My star—my mentor, my life, the Uma Musume who was everything to me.

Hoshino Wilm.

She looked toward me from the corner of her eye—wearing a bitter smile, yet at the same time bright, clearly enjoying herself from the bottom of her heart.

“The limitless potential born from immaturity. A hero’s vessel that could become anything. Or perhaps what you’d call the makings of a wild card.

Either way—magnificent. You’re a genuine genius, truly. It may be presumptuous of me to say so, but you possess the qualities worthy of being my rival.”

That made me happy.

From the depths of my heart, a surge of joy welled up inside me.

She—

the star I had chased for so long—

recognized me as her rival.

At last, I had become her equal.

The one standing before her now, competing for supremacy.

And that made me so, so, so incredibly happy…

So I answered.

As a rival, I’ll defeat you.

But—

“Ku-kh… ‘I’ll defeat you,’ huh.

Just as I thought—you’re still nothing but raw potential. An unripe bud, green in every sense of the word.”

Hoshino Wilm laughed, clearly amused.

I tried to understand why she was laughing.

But I couldn’t find the answer.

Seeing my confusion, Hoshino Wilm spoke again.

“Because the one you should be defeating isn’t me.

It’s ‘us.’”

At almost the exact same moment those words were spoken—

My Domain…

…suddenly closed.

The last thing I heard inside it was Hoshino Wilm’s voice, sounding utterly delighted.

“I’m not fighting alone, after all. And we’re not the only two running here.”

And at the same time, the final thing I saw was—

“…Nedelica?”

An Uma Musume I had only kept in mind as a possibility—

someone I hadn’t considered a real threat at all.

What I saw was her Domain

swallowing both my Domain and Hoshino Wilm’s whole.