The strange atmosphere among the senpais was noticed by the horse girls running the final leg, but they didn't have time to stay and figure out what was going on.
The vehicle-mounted giant screen a little farther away was still broadcasting the race, and the sounds coming from it clearly indicated that the event was already entering the middle phase of the first leg.
If they delayed any longer, getting to the starting point of the third leg would cost them more stamina, and might even affect their performance in the race.
With that thought in mind, Tokai Teio and the others quickly exchanged greetings and, carrying their doubts, dashed toward their own starting point.
What they didn't know was that the reason the horse girls here were immersed in such an atmosphere was, in fact, not unlike their own situation.
"Run it like a real race… why would you say that, Ardan?"
Her attention briefly drawn away by the juniors, Oguri Cap watched them leave, then turned back to her companion whose expression seemed somewhat unusual. She was puzzled.
"Isn't this already a real race?"
"I was planning to run with everything I've got."
"So what exactly are you trying to—?"
Standing opposite Oguri Cap was Mejiro Ardan. Beside Ardan was Super Creek, while Tamamo Cross and Inari One were a little farther away.
Ardan wasn't looking at Oguri Cap, nor was she looking in the direction her younger sister had just left. Her gaze was fixed on the race playing on the vehicle-mounted screen.
"I just want to try running against you at full strength one more time."
Watching the seniors sprinting across the screen, Ardan fell silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled faintly.
"Before the Kikuka Sho."
"The Kikuka Sho…?"
Although she could see the smile on her companion's face, Oguri Cap could still feel the same inexplicable, oppressive feeling coming from Ardan as before.
She didn't quite understand why, but vaguely felt it might be related to the race held after their training camp.
Or perhaps to the things they talked about that day while preparing for the Winning Live.
She didn't think she was as dense as she looked.
When it came to entering the Shining Star Series, she rarely thought about what it truly meant—especially back when she was still in Kasamatsu.
At that time, she didn't just fail to understand the meaning of racing; even running itself felt like something she only half understood.
Being able to stand up and run was already happiness. That was what she thought back then, and what she still thought now.
Later, her mother said she hoped Oguri would become a great horse girl, and from Kitahara she learned how one could become great.
Gradually, she realized that running had taken on more meaning for her.
Racing was the same. At first, running on the track felt like an extension of the happiness that running itself brought.
Then came overtaking others or being overtaken, the heart-pounding moment of winning, and the deafening cheers that shook the entire stadium.
She felt that everything she experienced had meaning.
Perhaps the reason she came to look forward to one race after another was precisely because she felt those meanings.
But that meaning didn't seem to belong to her alone.
Her rivals, her companions—they all had it too.
On that point, she admitted she'd been a bit slow.
It was only before that Winning Live that she truly realized it.
"So… Ardan, you want to treat this race as a rehearsal for the Kikuka Sho?"
The thought suddenly occurred to her, and she blurted it out.
"That makes sense. Even though the venue is different, the distance is the same—3,000 meters."
"Then…"
Her gaze slowly shifted to another companion, and she nodded.
"Creek, you're thinking the same thing too, right?"
Hearing this, Super Creek didn't speak, only smiled.
The smile on her face looked very similar to Ardan's—it was clear she was thinking the same way.
"Then there's no problem. Even though I haven't thought about it that carefully…"
Seeing both companions tacitly agree, Oguri Cap nodded again.
"If it's just running the Kikuka Sho once in advance, I don't have any objections."
"It's just like training. Whether it's training, a rehearsal, or a race, I'll give it my all—"
"That's not it, Oguri."
Abruptly, Ardan interrupted her.
Then, as Oguri Cap looked at her in surprise, Ardan slowly turned around, the smile on her face gradually fading.
"If that's all the mindset you're bringing… or rather, that level of resolve—then it's not the kind of race I want."
After saying that, she suddenly changed the subject.
"You have a mentality and talent that I envy, Oguri."
"I could even say that I'm jealous."
"You and I both suffered from leg-related illnesses."
"But why is it that you can run on the track without any pressure, and win races just by doing that…"
"While I can't?"
"So yes, I really am jealous of you, Oguri."
A complexity Oguri Cap had never seen before appeared in Mejiro Ardan's eyes.
These were words Oguri had never heard from Ardan's mouth in all the time they'd known each other.
For a moment she felt lost, along with an indescribable unease. Instinctively, she looked around in confusion.
She first looked at Super Creek, only to find that the smile on her companion's face had also gradually faded, her gaze just as difficult to read as Ardan's.
Farther away, Tamamo Cross and Inari One still hadn't said anything, but both wore complicated expressions, as if they wanted to speak yet held back.
What was going on…?
Her heart full of questions, her confusion only deepened.
"Horse girls of the Mejiro family have always carried a burden that's hard to shake," Ardan continued. "Perhaps you still remember it, Oguri—it's the so-called 'glass legs.'"
Once again changing the topic, Ardan lowered her gaze slightly, pressing her palm against the outside of her thigh and slowly rubbing it.
"More specifically, it means being prone to injuries, fractures… and developing tendonitis."
"With current technology, tendonitis is an incurable condition for us. Once you have it, retirement is the only option."
"Put that way, perhaps I shouldn't even talk about being jealous of you."
Her expression was still complex, but genuine gratitude shone in her eyes.
"Because it was from you that the discovery of conditioning medicines came—allowing more and more horse girls to carry out more sophisticated dietary conditioning."
"In other words, like you—eating a bit more, becoming a bit stronger physically."
"Creek was the first beneficiary. I was the second."
"So I really shouldn't say things like being jealous of you."
"But I think… perhaps I still have my reasons for saying it."
The gratitude in her eyes gradually receded, as did the strange expression. On Mejiro Ardan's serene and gentle face, calm slowly took over.
"Even now, I still believe that the luckiest thing that ever happened to me was meeting you, Oguri."
"Or rather, meeting you and Chief Kitahara."
"I admit that because of hereditary family issues, I was never able to completely let go and run on the track without any misgivings."
"But now, I won't be like that anymore."
She began to turn around, walking toward the starting point of the second leg not far away.
"Because I suddenly thought—if in some other world, I wasn't so lucky, what would I do?"
"I definitely wouldn't give up any chance to show my resolve on the racetrack."
"I would have no intention of giving up."
"No matter how many times I shatter, no matter how many times I crack apart."
"Even if I truly shattered like glass, I'd still do everything I could to stand on the track again, and run with all my strength."
"As long as that resolve still has even a single breath left, even glass should be able to be reforged and reborn."
"Don't you think so, Oguri?"
She paused slightly, turned her face back halfway, and revealed a quiet, gentle smile.
"So since the me that exists in this reality is already fortunate…"
"Why should I still worry about those misfortunes?"
"Shouldn't I be running even more recklessly?"
"That is what I call my resolve."
"And then…"
"What about yours, Oguri?"
Watching Mejiro Ardan walk away, Oguri Cap stood there in a daze.
But she still subconsciously noticed that Tamamo Cross and Inari One, a little farther away, exchanged a glance, silently communicating something, before looking her way.
Their gazes were just as complex as Ardan's had been—but not nearly as hard to understand.
They seemed encouraging, comforting, yet they said nothing.
After those looks, they too headed toward the starting point.
Now only Oguri Cap and Super Creek remained.
This was the rest area. It wasn't just their group of horse girls here—Special Week and Opera O, the two juniors, were also helping out.
But at some point, the two little ones who had been anxiously looking around earlier had already shrunk back into the tent.
Only two small heads were poking out one above the other, eyes rolling as they peeked over in this direction.
"…Creek, do you think the same way too?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, Oguri Cap realized how unusually dry her voice sounded.
She had a sense of why. She could understand every word Ardan said, and grasp most of its meaning.
But she didn't understand why Ardan had chosen this moment to say it.
The feeling was something she could only describe as like a fishbone stuck in her throat.
Her language classes weren't great, and she couldn't remember many idioms—but food-related ones were an exception.
She had learned the phrase like a fishbone stuck in the throat early on, yet never understood why anyone would choke on a fishbone.
Wouldn't chewing harder just crush both the meat and the bones?
At this moment, having never choked on a fishbone before, she suddenly understood exactly what that feeling was like.
"Oguri, you're a miraculous horse girl who can change everything around you," Super Creek said softly, one hand resting against her cheek as she tilted her head slightly, her eyes curved in a gentle smile.
"At least, that's how it looks to me."
"It feels like as long as you're there, everything around you changes little by little, without anyone noticing."
"All of those changes are lively."
"From Kasamatsu to Tokyo—victory after victory."
"The Yayoi Sho, the Satsuki Sho, the Japan Derby—an almost perfect classic campaign, one win after another."
"No matter how fierce or powerful the opponents, you always show overwhelming strength and take first place."
"Already, many people are saying you're the one-of-a-kind horse girl of this generation, with unfathomable talent and potential."
"A second undefeated Triple Crown now seems to have become a future in the Shining Star Series that hardly anyone questions anymore."
"You can feel it, can't you? Even though the cheers outside are calling out the seniors' names right now…"
"In just a few minutes, the resonance of your name will absolutely not be weaker than that of any senior."
The voices exchanged between the two horse girls were not loud.
In fact, if their hearing weren't so sharp, it would have been easy for them to be drowned out by the noise from the distant spectator stands.
From there came surging cries of "Rudolf Symboli," "Maruzensky," and other names.
If those voices were to later converge into a single one—say, "Oguri Cap"—then indeed, it would not be weak at all.
"…So, Creek, you—"
Just like Ardan, Super Creek didn't wait for Oguri Cap to finish before smiling and interrupting her.
"I'm different from Ardan."
"I'm not jealous of you, Oguri."
"I just thought that when the real Kikuka Sho arrives, there might be a familiar kind of 'villain' storyline."
Hearing that her companion wasn't jealous of her, Oguri Cap instinctively let out a sigh of relief.
But when she heard what came next, she froze, completely failing to understand what Super Creek meant.
"A familiar… villain storyline?"
She repeated softly, bewildered.
"The third Triple Crown winner, and the fourth Triple Crown winner—the undefeated one. Don't they sound similar?"
Her gaze shifted away from Oguri Cap's eyes to the vehicle-mounted screen in the distance.
On the screen, the race had clearly entered the middle phase.
Chitose Representative exploded forward in an instant, overtaking several opponents in succession.
Among them was Symboli Rudolf.
"Ah, comparing myself to CB-senpai is admittedly a bit presumptuous," Super Creek said calmly, her eyes and lips still curved in a gentle smile.
"After all, I haven't won a single Classic Triple Crown race yet."
"But it's the same."
"Back then, all of Japan regarded CB-senpai as an idol."
"Even after Rudolf-senpai became the unprecedented undefeated Triple Crown winner, CB-senpai's popularity didn't decline at all."
"In that Japan Cup, CB-senpai was the most popular pick, while Rudolf-senpai was only fifth. Isn't that proof enough?"
"So then, challenging an idol who is seen by the public as a hero…"
"What do you think that should be called, Oguri?"
She looked back at Oguri Cap.
"A villain, isn't it?"
"That's how I see it."
"So, I'm not jealous of you, Oguri."
"Unlike Ardan, what I feel is… trembling."
"Trembling at the thought of fighting you for the crowning moment of the Kikuka Sho—Oguri Cap, who is becoming the new generation's hero and idol in the eyes of the world, with endless victories and an undefeated two crowns."
"But in truth, Ardan and I are the same."
"I also hope that you'll run the upcoming races with everything you have."
"Not just an ordinary 'everything you have.'"
"But the kind of all-out effort that carries the resolve to shatter countless times, to crack apart again and again."
"Will you run like that, Oguri?"
(End of Chapter)