Chapter 79: Kyrie for the Souls That Never Found Happiness

Since that day, a lot of things have happened.

Hoshino Wilm suffered a heartbreaking loss at the Arima Kinen, defeated by a margin of just three centimeters.

…The cause of that defeat is obvious. It was my failure in preparation.

She had the talent to win that race. She had the ability.

And yet, the reason she lost was nothing more—and nothing less—than my inability to bring her body into perfect condition by the day before.

But even as she pressed her lips together, she didn’t blame me.

Her first loss. Her first black mark. There’s no way it didn’t hurt… and yet, she never tried to shift the blame. She accepted it as her own fault.

Once again, I was reminded of how incredible a girl she is.

If I had gone through the same thing at her age, I would almost certainly have lashed out at everyone around me.

…In fact, when I failed the trainer licensing exam last year, I snapped at Dad more than a little. Maybe I really haven’t changed much, then or now.

And yet, she accepted it as her own inadequacy.

Before being my assigned Uma Musume—before even being younger than me—I think she’s someone worthy of respect as an Uma Musume in her own right.

…And then.

If that had been all, it would have been disappointing, but things still could have ended peacefully.

But just a few hours after the Arima Kinen, my brother woke up.

…No, him waking up is obviously a good thing.

He’s family. Of course I was happy.

But seriously—who just escapes from the hospital like that?

He’d been unconscious for two whole weeks. His body was in shambles, to the point that he collapsed the moment he saw me.

And in that condition, how can he act like it’s perfectly normal to sneak out?

I wrote it in my notebook, didn’t I? Don’t wander around on your own. With his personality, there’s no way he didn’t read it. So why did he ignore it so casually?

He’s an idiot. A complete idiot. A genuine, hopeless idiot.

If he had just waited until tonight, both Hoshino Wilm and I would have gone to see him anyway… and he couldn’t even wait a few hours.

Does he have any idea how shocked we were? How worried?

And besides… that wasn’t the only thing that surprised me.

Well, that part isn’t really his fault, so I’ll set it aside for now.

Honestly… really.

It’s always been like this, but being involved with my brother is terrible for my heart.

…And to think Hoshino Wilm seems to like someone like him. I really don’t get her. I truly don’t.

My brother regaining consciousness also meant that the work which had stagnated due to poor handovers could finally start moving again.

After we dragged him back to the hospital, finished all the detailed examinations, and received official confirmation that he was in good health…

The two of us ended up scrambling to deal with the mountain of work that had piled up over those two weeks.

Painfully enough, even work that would have overwhelmed my brother alone was far beyond what I could handle by myself.

During those two weeks, I had postponed anything with even a little breathing room and focused solely on keeping everything around Hoshino Wilm running smoothly.

As a result, an amount of work that could honestly be called a mountain had piled up.

"Ah, I see, I see. Well, with this amount… we can probably finish it in about two days."

"Huh?"

My brother actually did it in two nights.

…I can’t believe it.

What kind of brain does someone need to clear all of that in two days?

Of course, I helped as much as I could… but honestly, I don’t think I even handled ten percent of the total workload.

This person really is a little abnormal—at least when it comes to being a trainer.

Sure, maybe he doesn’t have talent.

Maybe when he works on something, he only produces half the results of an average person, and maybe he’s slow to learn.

Even so, my brother always works himself to the bone, never gives up no matter how painful it gets, and sees things through to the very end.

There’s no way what he’s built through that effort is insignificant.

As his sister, that’s something that goes beyond jealousy—I can only respect it.

At the same time, I can’t stand how he’ll casually say things like, "At this level, Masa will be able to do it soon too," with absolutely no malice.

When he pulls off something that amazing like it’s nothing, my self-esteem—which can’t keep up at all—just gets torn to shreds.

I want him to acknowledge that he’s amazing.

…I want him to acknowledge my family.

Because I feel that way, I guess I still can’t quite get comfortable around my brother.

Well…

He’s still far better than he was back then, when he was covered in those messy, twisted colors.

And so, together with that brother of mine, we somehow made it through two days of hellish death marches.

Today is December 25th.

To the world, it’s Christmas—the day known as the festival celebrating the birth of the Savior.

And on this day, in one particular room of the trainer dormitory at Central Tracen Academy…

"Sniff… hic… I lost… I looost… I was sooo close… waaaah…"

"O-Older sister… um, p-please cheer up! You were really cool too!"

"Whoa, this is the first time I’ve ever seen Wilm this broken. Is she drunk?"

"No. There are no alcoholic beverages on this table. Judging from her flushed skin and her speech patterns, intoxication cannot be confirmed."

"Eh? Then is this some kind of crowd-induced high? Wow… this is a level of chaos I’ve never seen before…"

Hoshino Wilm, crushed by the delayed shock of her defeat, was being comforted by Uma Musume who were both her friends and her rivals.

"So, Horino-kun, how’s your condition now? You really okay?"

"No problem. I’ve lost a bit of muscle strength, but it’s within a range I can recover in half a month. It won’t interfere with my duties as a trainer."

"This job runs on physical health, you know. You can never be too careful. One of my colleagues quit recently after wrecking his body…"

My brother—who had somehow managed to restore his physical condition in just three days—was chatting with fellow trainers.

A peaceful, tranquil scene spread out before us.

Since it was Christmas, both trainer duties and training were put on hold for the day.

We were holding a small standing party—a Christmas party, a year-end gathering for close associates, and an Arima Kinen consolation party all rolled into one.

---

As a result of getting “crowd drunk,” Hoshino Wilm’s mood went completely off the rails, and she clung to my brother, pestering him with, "Praise meeee~! I worked sooo hard, so praise meeee~!"

My brother, being my brother, responded with dead-serious sincerity.

"Hoshino Wilm is admirable. You always run with everything you have, and you never show off your own efforts to others. Your sincerity toward running is truly praiseworthy. And the way you’re always able to face forward is something I feel I should learn from as well…"

He went on praising her at length.

In response, Hoshino Wilm turned bright red, quieted down completely, retreated to the corner of the room, and practically started steaming.

The venue was full of moments like that, brought about by the many Uma Musume and trainers present.

Honestly, I had planned to relax and enjoy myself too, but—

My wandering gaze suddenly caught sight of it.

"…Haa."

If I’ve found it, then I suppose it can’t be helped.

I made a vague excuse, slipped out of the trainer’s room that was serving as the venue, and carefully closed the door behind me—both to keep the warm air from leaking out, and to make sure nothing strange slipped inside.

Then I pulled my smartphone from my pocket and raised it to my ear.

Of course, it wasn’t like I was about to make a call. I hadn’t even unlocked the screen.

This was simply a routine action for moments like this.

After all, if I do this, muttering to myself doesn’t look strange at all. Modern technology really is convenient like that.

And so, having secured a perfectly legitimate excuse to talk to myself, I finally spoke.

"So… who are you?"

I addressed the thing that even now was peering into the trainer’s room where the party was being held—a mass like black haze.

---

My name is Masa Horino, and I have something like a mild form of spiritual sensitivity.

I say “something like” because I’m honestly not sure whether it’s the same thing people usually mean when they talk about psychic powers.

For example, I can see things that are very obviously not normal.

Some of them have the wrong number of arms. Some are missing half their heads. Those are still on the mild side. Others look vaguely human but clearly aren’t shaped like humans at all. Some don’t even look like living beings. Some are half-transparent, or have a form so warped that I can’t even tell what kind of three-dimensional structure they’re supposed to have.

Most of the time, they’re an incoherent mess with no sense of order.

Apparently, no one else—neither humans nor Uma Musume—can see these things, let alone touch or talk to them.

To me, they’re just things that naturally exist in the world. But to everyone else… they don’t.

The first time I realized this was a long, long time ago.

I remember asking my mom, "What’s that over there?" only for her to reply, "What do you mean… is there something there?"

That was when I realized it.

The world I saw was different from the one everyone else saw.

Because I was the youngest child and had always been good at reading the room, I quickly learned to fear standing out. So I stopped telling people that I could see strange things.

As long as those weird things didn’t realize I could see them, they were usually harmless—just existing there, doing nothing.

Pretending not to see them wasn’t all that hard, and just in case, I even learned how to brush things off if someone noticed something was off.

That’s how I managed to live peacefully until now, even while constantly seeing things like that.

…And there’s more.

Seeing “weird things” isn’t limited to monsters and oddities like those.

When I look at people—or Uma Musume—I can see strange colors that don’t exist in the normal spectrum.

It’s a sensory thing, so it’s hard to explain to others, but… for example, no matter what kind of clothes a person wears, even if they disguise themselves or get cosmetic surgery, I always see the same color.

If I had to explain it in overly spiritual terms, it’s like a continuity that proves that person is who they are.

In other words, something like the color of their soul.

For instance, Hoshino Wilm appears as a thickly layered gray—somewhat complex, and cold to the eye.

Mihono Bourbon appears as a rather striking color, somewhere between purple and pink.

And my brother, back then… his color was cluttered, chaotic, and deeply unpleasant.

To be more precise, it’s less like a color and more like a presence or atmosphere, which makes it hard to describe in words. But that’s the rough image.

There are two things I understand about these “colors.”

First, if the color belongs to a person or an Uma Musume, it generally corresponds to their personality.

People with rotten personalities tend to have muddy, filthy colors. On the other hand, my eldest brother’s color is so clear it’s almost uncomfortable to look at.

…Though I don’t think being clear automatically makes it good. As the saying goes, water that’s too pure has no fish.

The second thing is that these colors almost never change.

They can slowly shift over time, but I’ve never seen one change instantly.

Well, if these really are the colors of the soul, it would make sense that they wouldn’t change so easily.

…In fact, that resistance to change was one of the reasons I came to believe these colors really were tied to the soul.

And that’s exactly why—

I was so deeply shocked that day.

After the Arima Kinen, when my brother entered Hoshino Wilm’s waiting room…

His color was completely different.

Compared to what it had been just two weeks earlier—or even what I’d seen that very morning—it was nothing alike.

It was such a drastic change that I honestly wondered whether the person in front of me was someone else entirely, just wearing my brother’s face.

I panicked badly because of it, and as a result, I ended up showing an embarrassing side of myself in front of my brother’s assigned Uma Musume as well.

But just now, when I saw that thing peering into the trainer’s room, I finally got a pretty good idea of why that change had happened.

---

Once again, I spoke to the black haze in front of me.

"I can see you. And you look like you were originally human—or maybe an Uma Musume. You can speak, at least.

So tell me. Who are you? And why are you peeking into that room?"

Among strange beings like these, some were originally human or Uma Musume, and some weren’t.

I can usually tell the difference just by looking at their soul color.

It’s hard to explain, but… the stronger and clearer a being’s sense of self and consciousness is, the more complex its color becomes.

What I saw within that black haze was a deep navy, almost black—like the bottom of the ocean.

Compared to most, it was a very complex color.

That’s how I knew it had probably once been human.

And at the same time—

This is only a guess, but I already had a pretty good idea of what it really was.

"…I’m… um… I mean…"

A vague voice reached me, so blurred that I couldn’t even tell whether it belonged to a man or a woman.

No matter how many times I hear voices like this, it always feels strange.

I can never tell whether I’m hearing them with my ears, or if the meaning is being poured directly into my mind.

As I furrowed my brow slightly, the black haze merely writhed and squirmed in place, making no effort to give a clear answer.

…Well, if you’re not going to answer, I’ll just make my own conclusions.

"You’re the ‘her’ who followed my brother, aren’t you?"

The black haze jolted, shuddering violently.

"…W-What—!? H-How did you—!?"

"So I was right after all."

I nodded once, confirming that my deduction had been correct.

"A dead person’s spirit clinging to someone close to them… it’s not something people talk about openly because it rarely causes direct harm, but it’s actually not that unusual.

Though I imagine it becomes a lot rarer when it comes to being reborn together."

When a human dies, the color of their soul leaves their body.

Sometimes it simply disappears somewhere. Sometimes it lingers nearby. Sometimes it turns into something strange. And sometimes… it clings to someone else’s body or soul—in other words, it possesses them.

That said, souls themselves are basically harmless.

They don’t have physical bodies, so they can’t really do anything.

“Possession” makes for good horror stories, but unless a soul turns into something abnormal, forms a new body, or goes berserk and tries to seize control, it usually has no noticeable effect.

…But just as a thought experiment.

What would happen if, at the moment a soul was reborn, another soul was clinging tightly to it?

Maybe the souls would be sorted—one reborn, while the other was cast aside.

…Or maybe, just maybe, the second soul would be dragged along and reincarnate as well.

"I’m guessing you already know this through my brother, but I know about you.

The girl who became my brother’s curse when he was a child. The girl who vanished after leaving him with the words ‘help me.’ Am I wrong?"

The black haze fell silent for a while.

Then, as if giving up, it drifted away from the trainer room window and finally spoke.

"…Haa. I never thought there’d be someone who could see me. And of all people, Masa-chan—of all people."

"Masa-chan…? Well, whatever.

Compared to the existence of things like you, or reincarnation itself, isn’t it more realistic that there’d be people who can see stuff like this?"

"Coming from me, I know this sounds funny, but I think both of those are pretty unrealistic."

"Hey."

When I think about it, maybe I’m not all that different from beings like her.

Seeing them. Touching them. Talking to them.

That alone is more than enough to disqualify someone from being called normal—even if I personally believe I am.

That said, my pseudo-spiritual sensitivity isn’t all that strong… or so I think.

I don’t see things all that often, and being able to touch or talk to them is even rarer. At most, maybe once a day—and sometimes I’ll go a whole week without seeing anything at all.

There are plenty of times when I can only sense that “something is there,” or when I can’t see a shape but can see a color. But setting that aside—

Basically, unless my wavelength matches theirs, I can’t see them.

And yet, I can see this black haze clearly.

…Well, calling it “clear” is kind of contradictory when it’s a haze. Still, the fact that I can perceive it distinctly as a haze means it’s very much visible to me.

These things just work that way. Trying to apply strict logic to them only makes a fool out of you.

I’d been wondering why I was so strongly connected to the black haze—no, to “her.”

Then she spoke.

"I had a vague feeling that you could see me, but I didn’t expect it to be this clearly…

Ahh, man… this really wasn’t how I wanted things to go. Why does it always turn out like this? I can never quite get it right."

…I see.

Hearing her muttered words, things finally started to click.

In my brother’s previous life, she died.

I don’t know the cause. It might have been exactly what the news reported, or it might have been something else entirely.

But one thing is certain—she died before my brother did.

And her soul clung to his.

Not loosely, either. It held on tightly—enough to cling directly to his soul.

As a result, when my brother died and his soul passed into reincarnation… for whatever reason, her soul crossed over with him as well.

Whether the two souls were treated as one, or whether they should have been separated but were swept away together in some kind of violent current, I don’t know. I’m not an expert on how reincarnation works.

What matters is that she was reborn alongside my brother.

Originally, she might have been meant to receive a new body—perhaps to be born as his sister, or even as my older sister.

But that didn’t happen.

Most likely, as a side effect of reincarnating together with him, she never received a body at all.

That explains it.

Why my brother’s soul color used to be so unpleasant.

And why it suddenly changed so drastically that day.

Two souls resided within my brother’s body. Just like him, she was inside that body as well.

…Well, considering that my brother had control, and that she existed only as a soul without even his awareness, it was probably closer to her clinging to him than truly sharing the body.

Either way, two souls were irregularly packed into a single body.

That’s why the colors overlapped, becoming cluttered and nauseating.

And now, because her soul has separated from his body…

That’s why my brother’s color has been so clear since the Arima Kinen.

As I continued thinking it through, I also came to understand why my wavelength matched hers so well.

Through my brother, I’d been seeing her color for over twenty years.

So my senses—my wavelength—had naturally synchronized with hers.

I frowned slightly.

Horino Masa is an ordinary person. I’m not a specialist in supernatural phenomena, nor am I some kind of superhero who can solve everything.

I don’t particularly want to deepen strange connections like this…

"…I don’t want you to misunderstand," she said, as if responding to my expression. "I don’t mean him any harm."

She sounded like she was trying to explain herself.

"Even the possession itself was basically an accident.

When you die—and become a ghost, I guess?—your thoughts get blurry for a while. It’s hard to think clearly. Honestly, it wasn’t until I came to this world that my consciousness really stabilized.

So right after I died, I think I probably thought something like… ‘I want to stay with him.’

And before I realized it, I was clinging to him."

…Yeah. That sounds about right.

I’ve talked to beings like this a few times before, and souls right after death are almost always confused.

Death tends to come with fear or intense pain, which can mess with memories. In the worst cases, it even alters someone’s personality.

On top of that, modern society tends to deny heaven and hell, and teaches that “death is the end.”

So when you suddenly lose your body and find yourself floating around, of course you’d be confused.

"And then, through that hazy consciousness, I watched him from nearby. I saw things. I learned things…

And then, right in front of me, he… when he died… I think I ended up following him."

When she tried to talk about my brother’s death in his previous life, her words wavered.

…I suppose that means his former death shocked her more than she lets on.

If her words are true, then to her, my brother in his previous life must have been someone she thought of in her final moments.

And that person died right in front of her, while she could do nothing.

Yeah… no wonder it hit her hard.

"I was reborn into this world, and from inside his body—through his eyes—I kept watching the world. A peaceful, fulfilled world… a happy one that I never managed to obtain in my previous life."

"…I see."

As she looked at the Horino family… what did she feel, I wonder.

Father was clumsy and socially awkward, but still deeply cared about his children.

Mother always thought of us before herself—endlessly kind.

Our older brother goes without saying, but he was especially devoted to my brother.

As for me… well, I probably wasn’t much help.

Being shown a happy home, a happy family, a life that was meant to be happy…

Having a scene she could never reach laid out right before her eyes.

"…I knew it. It wasn’t my life. This was his next life, not mine. Even so, just watching from the best seat in the house… it was fun."

She spoke as if reminiscing about a pleasant dream—or perhaps as if she had just woken from one.

If what she says is true, then one question still remains.

"Then why didn’t you just stay inside my brother? Why come out—"

Midway through asking, I suddenly realized the answer.

…Right.

There’s only one reason a soul would leave a body.

"That accident… don’t tell me you took my brother’s place—"

"That’s wrong."

She cut me off cleanly.

"No. I didn’t take his place. To begin with, it was unnatural for me to be in this world at all. Leaving that body was just returning things to how they were supposed to be.

…Besides, I wasn’t enough on my own."

"Not enough…?"

Still in the form of black mist, she drifted slowly toward the corner of the hallway, stopping by a window that looked out onto the night.

Bathed in faint moonlight, she murmured:

"When you step one foot into the other side, it takes a price to come back. Like being shoved, I guess. The recoil of me being thrown out of the body let him return to it. …But one soul wasn’t enough to balance things out. We needed just a bit more force to push him back to this side. So… I took a little from that person."

"You took something from my brother…?"

"Yeah. Ah, not his lifespan or anything like that. …Just what he was never meant to carry in the first place. Things that would get in the way of him living a new life. Come to think of it… you understand, don’t you?"

That… no, don’t tell me.

"You couldn’t have… erased your own memories…?"

"To be precise, it was a bit more than that. I think everything from his childhood up through elementary school disappeared along with me."

…That’s impossible.

"Aren’t you lonely…? You said you wanted to see my brother even at the very end… If that’s the case, then there’s no one left anywhere who remembers you—!"

"I am lonely. Very."

The black mist trembled slightly.

"I’m lonely. So very lonely. Being forgotten. By him. Never seeing him again. It hurts. I’m lonely. I’m scared."

Abnormal beings are, by nature, weak to loneliness.

Few people can even perceive them, and they’re prone to feeling isolated from the living. Once they realize someone can see them, they often chase that person down, desperate to gain even a single companion.

…She’s probably no exception.

Even she—who, counting from her previous life, has gone decades without being acknowledged by anyone—should hate loneliness as much as any of them.

And yet…

"…But it’s fine."

She gave a small smile.

"Because I lost."

"You lost…?"

"It’s frustrating, but no matter what I do, I can’t make him happy. All I can do is drag down the path he walks and make things painful for him. …But that girl might be able to. She might be able to make him happy in this world."

"That girl… you mean Hoshino Wilm?"

"Yes."

She spoke as if singing of a dream.

"If it’s her, they can save each other. Not like me, who could only ever be saved by him. She can reach out her hand to him. They can save each other. So… yeah. If my disappearing means he can be saved, then that’s enough for me."

"Disappearing…? I mean, sure, leaving his body might be unfortunate, but couldn’t you just possess him again? Then you could still stay by his side and watch over him."

Before I realized it, I was trying to stop her.

At first, I had been wary, suspecting she might be something that would harm my brother.

Even after learning who she really was, I had resolved to eliminate her if she posed any danger to him.

And yet… she was pure to the very end.

Thinking only of my brother, throwing away herself and her memories, pushing him forward so he could be saved…

For someone that kind to vanish felt wrong.

She, too, should have the right to be happy.

Before I knew it, that’s what I believed.

…But.

"That’s impossible."

Scrape.

The outline of the black mist—of "her"—blurred and shuddered.

"…I don’t belong to this world. I’m just an impurity that tagged along with him here. So once I lost my container—a body—I’ll apparently fade away in two or three days. Well, I kind of knew that even before leaving his body."

Fade away…

"I’m not trying to make excuses, but when I was watching the party earlier, it was meant to be making memories. I planned to disappear cleanly without anyone ever noticing. Though, in the end, you found me, Masa-chan."

She—her—what kind of feelings had she carried as she lived this life inside my brother’s body?

Watching the person who saved her, the one she loved… seeing him being driven into a corner because of her, even in a next life where everything was supposed to be reset.

What had she been thinking all this time?

…Ah. I see.

That must be the source of her current resolve.

That she doesn’t want to leave any more scars on him.

That by taking away her own memories and soul, by disappearing without leaving even a trace of her presence, she wants to give a final push to the back of the man who might then be saved.

Just that thought alone…

Just for that sake.

"…Ah, but I should say this first—I’ve accepted disappearing itself, you know? Someone like me, who only ever causes him pain, should vanish here."

The black haze slowly shed its darkness…

And spoke quietly.

…That can’t be.

"Why… why would you go that far?"

I can’t believe it.

Why would you do something like that?

For most people, death is an absolute separation.

Because there are very few people who know what happens after death, like I do. The unknown is what makes death absolute.

By contrast, for someone like me—someone who can see souls—death, while terrifying, is not absolute.

Because I know that when you die, you become a soul. I know there’s something beyond death.

…But what lies beyond that is different.

After becoming souls, we eventually disappear somewhere.

That disappearance—vanishing like that—is terrifying.

Because we don’t know where we go, or what we become.

Maybe, like my brother says, we’re reborn.

But if that’s true… then why don’t I, or anyone else, remember our past lives?

Did we just forget? Is my brother the rare exception who didn’t?

…Or is reincarnation itself something incredibly rare to begin with?

Those of us who know about souls understand what comes after “death.”

But we don’t know what comes after “disappearance.” We don’t understand it. And because we don’t understand it, it’s frightening.

When she says “disappear,” that’s what she means.

An irreversible severance for us—fear close to what ordinary people call “death.”

And she’s willing to accept that, just to save my brother.

Why… how could she go that far?

"Of course."

Bathed in moonlight, she spoke solemnly, as if offering a prayer.

"It’s true—he gave me warmth, and because of that, I came to know how cold the world could be.

…but even so.

I was saved by him. That much is certain.

He gave me warmth I never would’ve known until the day I died."

She spoke as if the salvation had already been completed.

…What my brother wanted to accomplish had, without him even realizing it, already been fulfilled long ago.

"But right now, all I’m doing is holding him back. And on top of that, he nearly died right in front of me… If I disappear, maybe he can finally be happy.

And if that’s the case… wouldn’t you want him to be happy, after all the trouble I caused?"

"That’s…"

…I opened my mouth, then closed it again.

I don’t know.

I’m just an ordinary person. I’ve never gone through something so heavy.

So I can neither affirm nor deny her decision.

To my silence, she spoke gently.

"…Thank you. That kind of thoughtfulness of yours, Masa-chan—it helped him… and it helped me too, all this time."

"Me too…?"

"I told you, didn’t I? I saw the world through him."

So the ones who showed me what a happy family could look like… were all of you. The Horino family.

You made someone like me—someone who could never believe the future held happiness—think, “maybe… just maybe.”

And so, she thanked me.

The black haze, slowly collapsing in on itself, expressed its gratitude.

Her disintegration accelerated.

“I think I’m about at my limit.

It’s not bad. Yeah. Not bad at all. Being able to see his happy future—it was really worth it.

And getting to talk to you, Masa-chan… it really lifted a weight off my heart.

I wonder if, through what I did—through the decision I made—I managed to repay you all even a little.”

Bits of black peeled away, one after another.

She was… breaking apart.

…No.

Being forgotten by the person you loved, losing everything, and still smiling as you disappear…

That kind of ending is too cruel.

There’s no way something that sad should be allowed.

Something—anything—at least one last thing…!

“Your name!”

My mouth moved before I could think.

“Huh?”

To her confusion, I clung desperately to my words.

“Tell me your name.

My brother lost his memories of you, didn’t he? No one in this world remembers you anymore, right?

Then at least… tell me. Tell someone who still knows you—tell me your name.”

…I don’t think that can really comfort her.

Maybe this is nothing more than self-satisfaction on my part.

But at least one person in this world—

Someone should remember the name of the girl who saved my brother.

“I see. You’ll remember me.

Even someone like me… who cursed him, who bound him… you’ll remember me.”

At my words, she stopped moving.

“———. That’s my name. The name I had in my previous life, when I was still alive.”

She told me.

The single name of a girl who never found happiness.

The soul who might have been born as my sister.

“I’ll remember. I promise I’ll remember—always. The person who saved my brother.”

“I see.

How shallow of me. Even now, I’m still happy over something like that… I thought I’d already accepted that someone like me—someone who only dragged him down—could never be saved.”

As she said that, she smiled softly, as if she were crying.

“I died horribly, my first love fell apart, and everything was a mess… but hey. Turns out there were some good things after all.”

Just the fact that I would remember her.

That alone—and yet she spoke of it with a happiness so vivid, as if she were dreaming.

“Yeah. This time, I’m satisfied.

I saved my benefactor, and his little sister will remember me… I think I’ve settled my past well enough.

So now… it’s about time I moved on to the future.”

The collapsing black haze no longer retained even a fragment of its original form.

She… she was already—

“Goodbye, Masa-chan. Thank you.”

With those words, she let that deep, abyssal blue-black shimmer one last time…

And in the space of a single instant, between blinks, she vanished without leaving a trace.

“Goodbye, ——-san. Thank you… truly.”

I murmured softly and closed my eyes.

I don’t know whether the place souls go after death is heaven, or reincarnation, or something else entirely.

But—

Whichever it may be.

May mercy and peace be granted to her soul.

On a winter night, facing the pitch-black sky beyond the window…

I offered a quiet prayer, alone.

---

This is the epilogue of the story—no, a tale set far, far beyond even that.

It might be nothing more than an aside, an unnecessary embellishment—a story that doesn’t truly need to be told.

After I became independent from my brother, took on my first exclusive Uma Musume, and ran alongside her for three years.

After I was fortunate enough to receive high praise from the academy’s chairwoman and was permitted to form my own team.

After pre-open races, open races, then G3 and G2 victories, piling up wins together with my runners…

This is a story from somewhere around that time.

Spring, when cherry blossoms bloom—a season of meetings and partings, and the beginning of new journeys.

On one such day, I was out on the grounds of Tracen Academy to conduct entrance trials for my team.

“Hm…”

Muttering unconsciously, I flipped through the documents in my hands.

They were the lists of today’s applicants—bundles of paperwork detailing their data, histories, and backgrounds.

…Perhaps because I’d been thoroughly drilled by my brother not long after coming here, I’d unknowingly become a full-fledged data supremacist.

I’m painfully aware of my own lack of talent. I can’t predict race developments with perfect accuracy the way my brother can.

After taking charge of my own Uma Musume, I came to truly understand just how abnormal he was.

How are you even supposed to know something like, “That Uma Musume will drop her pace by one level at the 750-meter mark”? He claimed it was prediction based on overwhelming past data and experience—but honestly, it’d be easier to believe he had some kind of precognition.

In the end, my brother may have been clumsy in some ways… but he was what you’d call a “genius of effort.”

He struggled with things he’d never tried before—experiences he’d never had—but when it came to things he’d worked on, he was unbelievably strong.

…Strong enough to raise an undefeated Triple Crown Uma Musume, even.

Compared to that, I really was, just like those idiots from the branch family liked to say, spent grounds.

Not as efficient as my older brother, not as much of a demon of effort as my younger one—an awkward, half-baked person.

…But even someone as untalented as me can rely on data.

My own runners, their rivals, the racecourse, the track layout, the condition of the turf…

If I gathered enough of those pieces and assembled them like a puzzle, then—even if I couldn’t match my brother—I could at least predict race developments to some extent.

Data is honest. It follows consistent rules—indicators even someone like me can understand.

It didn’t take long for me to fall completely into data-first thinking.

…I guess this is how minor, third-rate “data characters” are born.

Because they lack talent, they start collecting data. They struggle desperately, working harder and harder… but still can’t surpass true talent.

Because geniuses—truly gifted Uma Musume—easily leap beyond what data can explain.

…Well, complaining won’t get me anywhere.

Cutting off my pointless thoughts, I returned to analyzing the list of applicants hoping to join my team today—

“Um…”

A voice called out to me.

When I turned toward the unfamiliar sound, I saw… one of the Uma Musume taking today’s test.

Long, flowing black hair, and beautiful eyes of the same color.

A frame even smaller than Hoshino Wilm had been back then.

Her large ears and tail were stiff with nerves, and she was dressed in a brand-new Tracen Academy tracksuit.

And then, the color of her soul—

A deep-sea hue, a dark ultramarine faintly tinged with black.

…So that’s how it is.

I see. Things like this… can happen too.

“Um, is this the right place for the Team Sheart entrance test?”

“Yeah. This is the place.”

“Oh, thank goodness! I’m so glad I made it in time.”

She let out a relieved breath and patted her chest.

…Does she remember me, I wonder?

And does she realize that I’m the head trainer of Team Sheart?

I didn’t know yet.

But—

“There’s still some time before the test. Can I ask you something?”

“Huh? Yes, of course.”

“What’s your dream?”

Caught off guard by the sudden question, she blinked in surprise for a moment…

Then she smiled brightly and answered.

“I’ve been helped by so many people up to now.

My father—clumsy, but earnest. My mother, who was always kind and supported me. And so many friends, too.

So… this time, I want to be the one who can save someone.

That’s my dream now—my hope for the future!”