Chapter 204: Someone from the past, the me from some distant day.

It’s… an irrational feeling.

But I can’t help thinking that I don’t truly belong here.

Step… step…

As my footsteps echo softly along the underground passage, I let my thoughts drift without direction.

A sense of unease.

Yes… if I were to describe it accurately, that would be it—unease.

November 29th.

At this very moment, standing here at Tokyo Racecourse… I feel a strange, unexplainable discomfort.

My legs—Mihono Bourbon’s legs—had already endured considerable strain by the time of the Kikuka Sho.

Before I even reached full development, I had trained far beyond what would be considered appropriate since childhood. According to Master, even those seemingly minor accumulations of strain had built up into something significant over time.

On top of that, Master—fully aware that my focus was solely on the Triple Crown—managed my condition perfectly so I could devote everything to the Kikuka Sho.

As a result, there was even talk at one point of easing off adjustments for the Japan Cup.

My legs bore heavy strain in order to surpass the distance limitations dictated by my bloodline and claim victory.

So much so that… without a Master capable of managing me with near-perfect precision, it wouldn’t have been surprising if my racing career had ended after the Kikuka Sho.

And yet… Master allowed my legs to keep moving forward.

My dream. My father’s dream. Master’s dream.

Winning the Kikuka Sho… and achieving the Triple Crown.

The moment that dream came true, a new dream was born within me.

Master’s masterpiece. The strongest Uma Musume in history—Hoshino Wilm.

She might surpass even the Triple Crown winners I once admired… no, she certainly will. The supreme star of the racing world.

When I saw her back at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, something deep within me cried out.

Surpass that.

That became Mihono Bourbon’s new goal. Or perhaps… a new dream.

Master, who should prioritize raising Hoshino Wilm… who stands in a position where he ought to ensure his senior’s victories…

And yet, at the same time, he chose to support my dream as well.

He promised to create the perfect opportunity someday.

…No. Thinking about it now, that’s probably not quite right.

Unlike me, who could only see as far as the Triple Crown, Master had always been looking far ahead—much further than that.

Perhaps he shaped the image of a great predecessor so that I, too, could find a new dream… a new goal.

Come to think of it, Wilm-senpai once said something similar.

"Ayumu-san didn’t just guide me as a racing Uma Musume, but as a person."

Not just winning races. Not just achieving goals…

But supporting the life of an Uma Musume beyond even that.

That is the kind of person Horino Ayumu is—Wilm-senpai’s trainer, and my Master.

He didn’t just lead me to victory or help me achieve my goals—he guided me to the next stage.

"He had the capacity to do that… no, that’s not right. He didn’t have excess capacity.

Master always gave his all to support me. There’s no way he had any room to spare."

But that “support” wasn’t just a business-like partnership between trainer and racer.

It also came from the perspective of someone further along in life, guiding someone who followed.

He had both the insight and the strength to lead in that way.

Perhaps that is what opened up new possibilities for my future.

Perhaps it is this warmth that has allowed Mihono Bourbon to keep moving forward.

It is not what one would call a rational conclusion, but that is the hypothesis my mind arrived at.

And from it, a single desire emerges.

…That is why I want to win.

That desire wells up from within my chest, like the heat I feel during a race.

The one I must chase is the strongest—Hoshino Wilm.

The race before me, the Japan Cup, is simply a step along that path.

As Master said, it’s not a race with high odds of victory—it’s a stage for learning.

But even so…

In that moment, my vision suddenly flashes white.

Before I realize it, I have already passed through the underground passage and stepped onto the main track.

Reflexively narrowing my eyes, I follow Master’s earlier instruction and shift my gaze.

"Before this race, don’t look at the course or your rivals—look at the stands."

The time before a race is meant for final adjustments.

Assessing the track condition. Reconfirming its layout. Calculating based on one’s physical state.

Observing rivals. Evaluating their condition. Planning accordingly.

And yet—looking at the stands, something unrelated to the race itself.

To me, it felt like an instruction with unclear intent.

Still, Mihono Bourbon has no need for doubt.

If it is Master’s instruction, then there is no reason to question it.

I turn my gaze toward the stands—

"..."

…System failure detected.

If I were to describe it—it was as though my mind had gone completely blank.

I come to a stop without thinking, blinking repeatedly as I look again.

There were… so many people.

So many fans.

…Of course, that should have been obvious.

This is the Japan Cup—one of Japan’s premier G1 races.

A battle for national pride following the Arc, featuring the Western heroine Understandable and the Little Emperor Tokai Teio.

Naturally, fans from both Japan and abroad would gather to witness it.

The massive crowd filling the stands of Tokyo Racecourse should have been expected.

And yet…

If that’s the case, then why am I so surprised?

Why am I in shock?

In other words, what I’m seeing now is something unexpected to me—an unfamiliar stimulus.

Did I not anticipate this crowd?

No… I did. As data. As numbers.

At the Satsuki Sho, the Japan Derby, the Kikuka Sho—I’ve raced in G1 events before.

I’ve seen crowds. I’ve heard their voices.

Yes, today’s scale is larger—but fundamentally, it should be an extension of that. It shouldn’t be this overwhelming.

So then…

Perhaps, for the first time—

I am perceiving the fans not as numbers, but as real people.

For the first time, I am truly facing them.

At least, until I entered the Classic level…

Racing was something that belonged solely to me.

I accumulated effort steadily, and victory would eventually follow.

A direct manifestation of my daily efforts.

To me, racing—running—was a closed world.

There was no place for others within it.

Ultimately, races belonged to Mihono Bourbon.

Win or lose—there was no space for others to interfere.

That’s what I believed.

But I was wrong.

Trainer—no, Master.

Uma Musume run together with their Master, striving for victory.

That is our natural form.

With Master’s guidance and support, I achieved the Triple Crown.

And only then did I realize—

Running isn’t something I do alone.

It exists alongside my Master.

And perhaps… it doesn’t stop there.

Because so many people are watching.

Looking up again, I see an uncountable number of people—and Uma Musume.

Thousands… no, tens of thousands… perhaps even over a hundred thousand.

Even if each individual voice is small, together they form a deafening roar.

A sound like a scream crashing into me.

And among them… many are looking directly at me.

Expectation. Excitement. Curiosity. Observation. Admiration. Prayer.

A wide range of emotions—yet overwhelmingly positive.

All of it, pouring down on me at once.

Each individual feeling isn’t as intense as what I feel during a race.

But like small voices building into a roar—

Together, they carry immense heat.

"...Ah."

As if stirred by that heat…

I feel something deep within my previously cooled body begin to warm.

And at last, I understand what Wilm-senpai once said.

Uma Musume run with their trainers—and are pushed forward by the feelings of their fans.

Our races… our running…

Do not belong to us alone.

They belong to our Masters who run with us—

And to the fans who entrust us with their dreams.

"That’s a good look on you."

At the sudden voice, I turn.

There stands Tokai Teio-senpai—the one I’ve trained alongside in this joint effort for the past month.

She had always run ahead of me, and even now stands a few steps in front, showing me her back.

Then she turns and speaks.

"You know… I was just thinking. You and I might actually be a bit alike, Bourbon."

"Alike…?"

Tokai Teio and Mihono Bourbon.

A front-runner and a pace-setter. Tactical brilliance and overexcitement. An average build and a larger frame.

I hadn’t thought we had much in common.

Tilting my head, I look at her—

And she grins.

"Like how we both got a little full of ourselves."

"..."

I fall silent.

"Not really something to talk about standing here. Come on."

As she leads me onto the turf, she begins to speak of her past.

Things about Tokai Teio that I never knew.

"It’s nostalgic. Back then, people said I was the undisputed best of my generation.

Everyone kept saying I was the only one who could win the Triple Crown."

She shrugs lightly.

"Hard to imagine now, right?"

…Indeed.

It’s not that I can’t imagine her being overconfident—

It’s that I can’t imagine her ever being called untouchable within her generation.

The generation of Wilm-senpai and Tokai Teio-senpai is known as the “Generation of Stars.”

Like a night sky filled with countless radiant stars—each one dazzling on its own—it is a generation far removed from any kind of single, overwhelming dominance.

In reality, while Hoshino Wilm stands as the strongest, Tokai Teio-senpai and Nice Nature-senpai continue to press her closely. They never fall behind—always close enough that victory could go either way at any time.

"Wilm came from an unknown pedigree, and she didn’t show up in mock races that often, so not many people knew about her. And me… I just got carried away with all the praise. I was basically a frog in a well.

The world was way bigger than I thought. There were Uma Musume just as strong as me… even ones scary enough to make me cautious. I learned that the hard way… in the Satsuki Sho."

There was no trace of regret behind her words.

What I sensed instead was nostalgia—an affectionate remembrance of the past.

It should not have been a pleasant memory, and yet… she spoke of it almost fondly.

"I got beaten so badly it was honestly pathetic… and only then did I finally understand.

You can’t win a race alone. Something that obvious.

Wilm is amazing. She’s really strong—strong enough that I can’t even come up with a way to beat her on my own.

I’d never say this to her face, but… I think someone like Wilm is what you’d call a true genius."

At those words, I let out a quiet breath.

A true genius.

That was the very phrase Wilm-senpai used when referring to Tokai Teio-senpai.

She would sometimes laugh bitterly, calling herself a fake—an imitation—and say that Tokai Teio was the real genius.

But perhaps… from Tokai Teio-senpai’s perspective, it is the opposite.

Perhaps she sees herself as the imitation, and Hoshino Wilm as the true genius.

Perception is, without exception, absolute.

We cannot share each other’s senses or understanding.

Both humans and Uma Musume do not perceive facts as pure facts, but as something filtered through their own interpretations.

Perhaps Wilm-senpai and Tokai Teio-senpai, through each other… are seeing what they themselves lack.

…

As I was thinking that, Teio-senpai spoke.

"Bourbon, you too, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"In that mock race—you got completely crushed. You realized just how far you were from being enough. Right?"

"…………"

My gaze drops.

Her understanding is, for the most part, correct.

That race—the overwhelming mock race that included even the Dream Trophy seniors.

It was there that I experienced, for the first time, a truly decisive defeat.

I came to know a world completely beyond my reach.

For someone like me, who had only ever known victory, that utter defeat was a shocking experience—one that shattered everything I thought I understood about racing.

If it were Wilm-senpai, she might have called it… a “harsh awakening.”

"As your senior—and as someone who’s walked that same path—I think that kind of experience is important.

A crushing defeat that shatters baseless self-confidence. Whether you’re a talented Uma Musume or not… I think that’s the first step to breaking through your own limits.

Just like it was for me, back then."

Just as Hoshino Wilm suffered defeat in her very first selection race after arriving at Tracen Academy.

Just as Nice Nature had always trailed behind Wilm.

Just as Tokai Teio experienced a decisive defeat at the Satsuki Sho.

…Or perhaps, just as Understandable was shattered by Hoshino Wilm and Nedirika.

For every outstanding racer, that is the first step.

By recognizing what we lack, perhaps only then can we truly begin the battle against ourselves.

…

As Tokai Teio-senpai reaches the starting gates, she turns back.

With a completely serious expression, she declares:

"…So I hope you can make use of today’s defeat too.

Because today, I’m the one who’s going to win. In Wilm’s place, I’ll be the one to protect Japan’s pride."

A bold declaration of war. A fearless claim of victory.

She believes in her strength absolutely—

Yet that belief is not without foundation.

She understands the gap between herself and others. She objectively evaluates the training she has built up. She trusts her one-of-a-kind trainer. And she carries the dreams of an unimaginable number of fans.

That is why Tokai Teio is certain of victory.

To me now… that certainty feels dazzling.

And yet, because of it, I was able to understand one more thing.

"…………No."

I realized that my running does not belong to me alone.

It belongs to the trainer who runs alongside me.

It belongs to the fans who entrust me with their dreams.

…and at the same time—

It belongs to my rivals, who place their expectations on me.

Tokai Teio-senpai—who has fought alongside me this past month.

Surely, she believes in me.

Even if I cannot reach her now… she believes that one day, I will catch up and push her to the limit.

Because we have run together, she can see that future in me.

That is why she provokes me like this.

Because she knows that the frustration of being inferior to someone… is what makes an Uma Musume stronger.

That declaration of victory—

was, without a doubt, a prayer for the future.

…

And so—if that is the case—

there is only one thing I can return.

I open my eyes. I plant my feet firmly on the ground.

And Mihono Bourbon declares, clearly and proudly:

"I will win. I will come to defeat you… Tokai Teio-senpai."

A challenge returned for a challenge.

With everything I have, I will answer those expectations.

That is all.

…

For just a moment, Tokai Teio-senpai widens her eyes in surprise—

and then, she smiles. A genuinely delighted smile.

---

"After yesterday’s rain, the skies over Tokyo have cleared. And today, what unfolds here is another decisive battle against the world, following the Arc de Triomphe—the Japan Cup.

Gathered here at Tokyo Racecourse are eighteen top-class runners, from both Japan and overseas.

Who will claim this glory? Can the Japan Cup see a repeat champion!?"

"While much of the moisture has dried, the track is still officially rated as heavy.

A long, grueling final straight beyond three rises—only those who can endure to the very end without losing momentum will seize victory.

Will the Little Emperor display the pride of a second star? Will a new-generation front-runner prove her strength? Or will the Western heroic princess weave a new epic?

Who could possibly look away from this race? The battle to decide another “world’s strongest” is about to begin!"

As the start of the race draws near, we file into the gates one by one.

Gate 7, stall 15—that is the starting position assigned to me this time.

Generally speaking, the Japan Cup tends to favor inside gates. From a data perspective, this is far from an ideal position.

However… that is no longer something that can be helped.

We have no choice but to fight within the conditions we are given.

Just as each Uma Musume is born with her own talents and running style—differences that can be impossible to overturn—complaining about it yields nothing.

That is what racing is.

…And it is my Master who prepares for that.

There is a plan. Not just one or two, but dozens—countless variations.

My Master has carved out a path to victory for me.

Even if that path carries only a slim probability… he still believes in my victory and created it.

And so… I must run to win.

For myself. For my Master. For the fans. And for my rivals.

For everything that has shaped my running… my racing life.

"...Inhale… exhale."

I take a deep breath in, then release it.

I can feel the pressure. Overwhelmingly strong.

Proof of elite competitors—no less intense than what I felt in that mock race the other day.

Gate 1, stall 1.

Even though she is positioned far from me, I can still sense it—

a molten heat rising from deep within my chest.

The heroic princess from the West… Understandable.

She is there.

I recall what happened earlier.

When I parted ways with Tokai Teio-senpai and was stretching…

I detected a piercing gaze, as though it had stabbed straight through me.

When I looked up, there she was—the strongest from overseas.

She wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular… just observing the runners, assessing them.

Not judging who might pose a threat—

but rather, perhaps, who might “entertain” her the most.

"...She’s similar."

I murmur under my breath.

Yes—she resembles her. Closely.

Understandable… is strikingly similar to the strongest, greatest Uma Musume I know.

Perhaps true geniuses who reshape the world share certain traits…

or perhaps she has been influenced by Wilm-senpai.

Even now, just before the race, she seems to be enjoying herself.

The existence of a battlefield that could push her to her limits—and opponents who can match her.

And among them…

she had taken particular interest in me and Tokai Teio-senpai.

She, too, has expectations for me.

…Uma Musume are truly strange beings.

We declare that we will win this race, that we desire victory above all else…

and yet, somewhere deep within our hearts, we also wish for our rivals to defeat us.

Is that the mercy of those who have come before?

Or simply the joy of being an Uma Musume?

Will I… one day be able to offer that to someone as well?

Mihono Bourbon is still a challenger.

Perhaps, like Wilm-senpai once was, I am still someone who runs while being guided by others.

By my Master. By my seniors. By the fans.

I am being led forward by their hands.

And now, I can clearly feel the warmth being passed through them.

"Now then, gates 16 and 18 have entered. All runners are set."

We are connected to the world.

That strange certainty strikes my chest.

Uma Musume run carrying the wishes entrusted to them—the dreams of others.

Just as I now carry the expectations of my Master, my seniors, and the fans.

And so, we run bearing those feelings, while also holding our own…

and what we gain beyond the finish line is then passed on to someone else.

In this way… since long ago, the feelings of Uma Musume—their heat—have continued to connect.

I, too, am part of that.

A single piece within the vast current of Uma Musume racing.

I must carry this inherited heat forward… and someday pass it on to the next generation.

For that reason—

so that I may one day become a figure for those who follow to chase—

first, I must win against myself.

Mihono Bourbon’s battle has always been a battle against herself.

This heat rising from within me… I—

"...Mihono Bourbon,"

"—And they’re off!!"

"I’m going!!"

There is no need to suppress it.

This heat surging from within… this warmth given to me by so many people—

there is no reason to kill the very force that drives my running.

With the techniques taught to me by my seniors, and the body my Master has forged for me…

I dash forward.

…Ah.

Under this clear, beautiful sky, running at full power without restraint…

running alongside those I respect, and rivals I must surpass…

If I were to express this feeling—precisely, properly, in words—

how… exhilarating it is.