[Body and Breath Perception] manifested.
Then Kuroha opened Fujimasa March's status panel at the same time.
[Fujimasa March]
[Track Aptitude: Turf S, Dirt A]
[Distance Aptitude: Short A, Mile S, Medium S, Long S]
[Running Style Aptitude: Front Runner S, Pace Chaser A, Late Surger C, End Closer D]
[Unique Skill: Ode of the Wind Lv.5]
[Domain: Silver Radiance]
[Skills: Firm Conditions ◯, Rainy Days ◯, Wait-and-See, Professor of Curvature, Concentration, Wet Conditions ◯, Prudent Positioning…]
[Speed: 1264, Stamina: 1203, Power: 1234, Gut: 1347, Wit: 1489]
Stat-wise.
Aside from that eye-catching Wit: 1489, everything else really was fairly average.
If you only judged by her looks and the speed she showed in training, you would never guess what kind of level she was actually standing on.
Kuroha stared at those numbers on the panel—numbers that looked luxurious, yet already carried a faint sense of "stagnation"—and thought quietly.
Compared to last year's Arima Kinen, Fujimasa March's core three base stats—Speed, Stamina, and Power—had all improved.
But the size of that improvement, measured against four months of high-intensity training, could only be called negligible.
So the West… Tongseng-in Committee had made the wrong call.
In this world, horse girls may possess physical capabilities far beyond humans, but they are still living beings, and they still obey an iron law of biology.
That law is the [ceiling of talent].
Just like human athletes: no matter how you train, no matter how hard you grind your body down, every physique has a "cap" that differs from person to person.
Before you reach that cap, you can keep breaking through in leaps and bounds.
But after you reach it, most training can only "maintain" that limit—and it becomes difficult to advance even a single step.
That's why some people train their entire lives, yet still lose to a genius casually tossing out brilliance with one hand.
You think you've reached the limit, but that "limit," to a true prodigy, is nothing more than finishing half a warm-up.
"March…"
Kuroha looked at the silver-white figure in the distance. There was a trace of pity in his eyes, but far more pride.
He had to admit it: Fujimasa March wasn't a "monster" like Oguri Cap or Inari One.
Her background, just as when Kuroha first met her, was that of a slightly-better-than-average upper-mid-tier local horse girl.
Her bone density, the explosive power of her muscle fibers, the capacity of her cardiopulmonary function—every aspect of her physical hardware had three long-fated, physical limits.
As early as the second half of last year, her physical growth had already slowed to a crawl.
And now, her Speed, Stamina, and Power had only just barely crossed the 1200 threshold.
Kuroha had a clear forecast in mind:
At this pace, even if March trained until retirement, even if she stepped into the peak of her career…
Her base stats likely still wouldn't break past 1300, and her Stamina and Power would at best get stuck around 1250.
That was the limit of an ordinary person.
And what about the real monsters?
Take the already-retired Inari One as an example: at her peak, her Speed stat had reached a terrifying 1448!
And Oguri Cap…
As one of the most gifted horse girls of this era, she could clash head-on with Senior Year G1 horse girls while still in her Classic Year.
She had even defeated Tamamo Cross in a straight-up fight before she was fully developed.
So even if her training wasn't personally designed by Kuroha—and the results might be a bit worse—
With that brutish, unreasonable physical talent, Kuroha estimated her peak stats would absolutely roam in the 1300 to even 1400 range.
What did that mean?
It meant that on the core three-stat panel, every single line of Oguri Cap's would be at least 100 points higher than Fujimasa March's.
That was not a small difference.
You had to understand: even Tokai Teio—whose trump card, whose explosive finishing kick could flip the entire board—
If you converted it into raw numbers, it probably only translated to an instant increase of about 150 Speed.
And the second step of a [Domain] usually added around 200 points.
In other words, Oguri Cap, at baseline, already held at least half a [Domain] worth of natural advantage over March!
And besides…
Kuroha recalled that afternoon not long ago, when he'd been bored and went to Ginjirou Musaka-senpai's place for tea, and happened to give Oguri Cap some guidance—briefly registering her as his temporary horse girl.
The panel that popped up back then had two utterly outrageous lines:
[Unique Skill: Festive Miracle Lv.5]
[Domain: Miracle White Day]
Christmas Oguri Cap, huh…
He still remembered the twitch at the corner of his eye.
Back when he'd just arrived in Kasamatsu—when he didn't even have a single horse girl—
The thing he wanted most was exactly that Unique Skill.
And now it had appeared, sure…
Just on his opponent.
"…Hah."
Kuroha gathered his thoughts, let out a long breath, and [refocused his gaze on the track].
At this moment, Fujimasa March had just finished a high-intensity long-distance set.
The silver-haired girl braced her hands on her knees, her chest heaving violently. Sweat slid down her delicate chin and dripped into the dirt at her feet.
She was panting. Her body was exhausted.
But when she lifted her head, those crimson eyes still burned with a scorching flame.
Watching that, the corner of Kuroha's mouth curved faintly upward.
But could a "0.60 Holy Night" and 100 points of stats really leap over everything March had spent years building—fully fusing more than a dozen gold skills into true technique?
And March didn't only have technique, either…
Kuroha looked at the stat sheet again—at the additional 1500 points of Wit.
A Wit stat that surpassed every horse girl Kuroha currently knew of.
That meant absolute race-reading, perfect rhythm control.
And in the split-second where everything hangs by a thread, it meant the super-awareness to instantly find the one and only path that led to victory.
If the body has limits, then fill the gap with intelligence.
If talent has a disparity, then erase it with technique.
The glow in Kuroha's eyes gradually faded as he sank into thought.
"The Yasuda Kinen…"
"Come to think of it, judging by the look on Ginjirou-senpai's face, Oguri Cap probably didn't have many other options…"
"So she really is planning to settle it again in that race."
"But…"
Kuroha raised his eyes into the distance.
On the track, Fujimasa March wiped the sweat from her forehead, and a wild, unrestrained grin rose on her face.
"On our side… there's probably something to look forward to, too."
…
And so, under the gaze of countless eyes, as time flowed onward…
Only three short days remained until the Yasuda Kinen on May 13.
(End of Chapter)
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