If time could be turned back to that exact moment when Eclipse held her back—and if Hayakawa Tazuna were given another chance to choose, then she would, without the slightest hesitation, step away.
Even if Kitahara Sota personally invited her, she would never, ever get into his car.
But time cannot be rewound.
There are no ifs in this world.
So now, Hayakawa Tazuna could only sit stiffly in Kitahara Sota's car, clutching the handrail with all her strength, face pale, praying over and over in her heart for this insane journey to end.
Yes, Uma Musume are creatures who pursue speed. Many of them, when sprinting at full power, can keep up with cars.
So in theory, even if a car drives a little faster, it shouldn't be something to fear.
But that's not how it works.
First—when an Uma runs at full strength, she can rival a car, yes.
But that means cars that are following the rules, driving normally on the road.
Maybe many years ago, back when the automobile industry had just begun, Umas with their superhuman bodies would sneer at such "toys."
But now, with technology advancing, the most cutting-edge sports cars could easily run several times—ten times even—the speed of an ordinary Uma.
And Uma Musume, because of the strain running puts on their bodies, usually avoid sprinting at full power.
They only give their all on the racetrack.
Outside of races, there might only be a handful of times in their entire lives when they run that hard.
And aside from rare exceptions, if an Uma does run full speed, it's always in safe, open places—like the track, or roads specifically built for them.
And Kitahara Sota?
What situation was he creating here?
Fast—of course it was fast. He was chasing someone, after all. No way you could creep along slowly.
But as for how fast…
One look at Hayakawa Tazuna's face told the whole story.
If it were only speed, at least she could shut her eyes and lie to herself.
The problem was: Kitahara Sota wasn't just fast. His driving was wild.
Because in the past, the people he played these car-chasing games with were all desperate men with nothing to lose.
Especially in those kinds of pursuits—by the time Kitahara had already rescued the hostage, he would've taken down quite a few of their comrades too, so those guys would try to escape by car.
And those people, racing against Kitahara, were the sort who dared only to accelerate, never to slow down. Because while flooring it meant nine chances out of ten of dying, if Kitahara caught up, then it was certain death.
So, apart from sheer speed, for the sake of survival they really would drive anywhere.
Forget highways—they'd tear down mountain roads, tiny paths, even cliff edges, and never blink.
And to catch up, Kitahara naturally couldn't afford to fall behind.
At first, he was relatively cautious.
He stayed on the road, slowed at sharp turns or difficult terrain, or simply let Eclipse run ahead.
But as time went on, as the number of chases increased, Kitahara's mindset began to shift in a subtle way.
Like—why should he have to slow down there?
Why not find a way to handle it without losing speed?
For ordinary people, that was impossible.
One mistake, and you'd be crippled—if not dead.
But Kitahara was different.
No one knew why, but when it came to reaction speed—forget humans—even top-tier Umas lagged behind him.
What looked lightning-fast to others, to him was normal pace.
Even pro racers' reflexes seemed only slightly quick in his eyes.
And besides, his system carried all sorts of restorative items.
Even if an accident happened, he could patch himself up with a potion, then burn more resources to recover and keep going.
So, with all these conditions, Kitahara's driving style grew more and more outrageous.
Street racing on highways? That was the conservative version.
When he got serious, he followed a single principle: the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. And then—foot down, full throttle.
This time though, since there were two passengers in the car, and the situation wasn't life-or-death urgent, he didn't use those high-risk methods.
He simply tore across open country at a hundred-plus miles an hour, and pushed the speed higher when the terrain allowed.
But "off-road" had limits—Tazuna's car was just a sedan. It couldn't handle anything too extreme.
So Kitahara first drove up to a wide vantage point, checked the navigation map, plotted a relatively flat path, and then—one step on the accelerator, straight down.
Flat was flat, but since it wasn't an actual road, obstacles came nonstop. Forest, hills, leaping over dips—it was the norm.
And with Kitahara barely ever slowing, Tazuna watched trees, boulders, even ravines whip past her window.
In less than half an hour, she felt she had brushed shoulders with death at least a dozen times.
About twenty minutes later, thanks to the info from the Chairwoman, they caught up with the truck.
But since this was Tazuna's first time in Kitahara's car, she was so battered she could barely move. In the end, Eclipse handled almost everything solo.
And how exactly did Eclipse handle it?
Once they reached the area the Chairwoman had indicated, Kitahara took a few minutes to find the truck.
The driver seemed to realize he was exposed, but since he'd had ten minutes' warning, and he knew how useless police could be, he wasn't in a rush.
He figured he'd just drive out a bit further, then stop somewhere safe and run. No real guard up.
So Kitahara slowed down and pulled closer.
Eclipse opened the car door, jumped onto the truck's hood, and ripped the driver's door clean off.
One hand gripping the truck, the other holding the torn-off door, she said calmly:
"Stop."
And so they obeyed.
What followed was routine.
Confirm identities. Bind them. Hand them off to the security squad that arrived later.
Only after all this did Tazuna's complexion recover slightly. She turned to Eclipse, who looked as calm as ever, and asked, still shaken:
"Eclipse-san, how can you stay so composed? Are you… used to it?"
"No."
Eclipse shook her head.
"It's just that this time, his driving was actually not bad."
…Not bad?
Hearing that, Tazuna froze.
She recalled those thirty minutes of terror just now, and couldn't help blurting:
"Wait—are you saying Trainer Kitahara has driven even more… mm, terrifyingly before?"
Eclipse didn't answer directly.
After a moment of silence, she gave her four words:
"Mountain roads. Cliffs. Pedal floored. Brakes gone."
That one time—not only Eclipse, even Symboli Speed had thought her old bones were done for. Afterward, she never set foot in Kitahara's car again.
Tazuna didn't know the details. But just hearing those four words, she could feel the despair in them.
And then another question occurred to her.
"If Trainer Kitahara always drives like this, doesn't he worry about getting his license revoked?"
This time, Eclipse didn't answer. She only looked at her quietly.
And soon enough, Tazuna realized something.
She remembered—Kitahara had only just turned of age recently. He'd joined Tracen right after coming of age. Which meant…
Her voice trembled as she spoke the thought aloud:
"Trainer Kitahara… don't tell me you don't even have a driver's license?"
Eclipse gave a small nod.
Tazuna felt her heart skip a beat.
No matter how much she regretted it now, it was too late.
Later, when she sent her car for repairs, the mechanics found the worst damage was just the paintwork scraped off during the off-road run. No serious issues.
That proved Kitahara's skill—and that the whole ordeal really had been danger without disaster.
But even so, Tazuna swore she would never go through that torment again.
For a long time after, she didn't even touch a car.
So much so that, during a later outing with a veteran "old driver," she found herself surprisingly calm.
No matter how fast that driver went, at least she stayed on the road.
Whereas a certain someone had dared to tear straight across highways, through woods and valleys.
Her unusual composure naturally caught that driver's attention, who asked curiously why she was so unbothered today.
Since it was a close friend, a Tracen colleague, and she truly did want someone to confide in, Tazuna told her everything.
Kitahara Sota, huh…
After hearing her out, the veteran driver remembered that she had heard that name several times recently while chatting with Symboli Rudolf.
Her eyes gleamed with interest.
He seemed like a very… entertaining person.
Maybe she should go meet him sometime.
So yes—afterward, Hayakawa Tazuna regained her calm, even had time to relax with an old friend.
But elsewhere, Kitahara Sota, who had just finished dealing with the Uma Musume hunters, thinking he might finally get some peace, looked at the crowd of little Umas clustered around him—and suddenly realized that compared to this, all that previous work might as well have been a vacation.