Gotham Song kept feeling that Mejiro McQueen had become nervous. Or perhaps—become somehow a little strange, a little unfamiliar to her.
But in the end, she didn't say much about it. After all, her younger sister seemed to be doing just fine. Maybe it was just her own illusion?
Anyway, for the three days left, the two of them were inseparable. Along with Ruby and Vernal Equinox, they trained together out on the turf, preparing for the coming Arima Kinen.
Naturally, Gotham Song wouldn't overtrain. But that didn't mean she would skip her daily routine!
Her trainee relationship with Vernal Equinox had already been confirmed and made official at the same time her trainer qualifications were announced. And of course, what was decided together with that was what would come after the Arima Kinen.
Gotham Song had received a formal invitation from Vernal Equinox's parents. They hoped that Gotham Song—who from now on would be such an important person in their child's life—could come personally to their home, and from the hands of the parents themselves take on such a weighty responsibility.
Although… when Gotham Song first heard this phrasing, she couldn't help but feel something about it was a little off.
It gave her a faint déjà vu—like the scene of parents entrusting their child to a son- or daughter-in-law. For some reason, that was exactly the impression she got.
But since it was Vernal Equinox's family, of course a responsible trainer ought to accept such a request. Entirely reasonable—
Even if she could hardly picture it, Gotham Song thought: If one day I myself really became the parent of a little filly, I would also have my own strict expectations for the person taking such a role in her life, wouldn't I?
So Gotham Song naturally had no reason to refuse. She agreed on a date with Vernal Equinox's family, and only then, the day before the Arima Kinen, boarded the train for the trip.
In fact, she even left at noon the day before.
And on that day, who was the Uma Musume departing together with her for the Arima Kinen?
Only one—Mejiro McQueen.
This year's Arima Kinen popularity vote had turned out to be quite the curiosity, because there were a good number of shocking, eye-opening results.
Every year before the Arima Kinen, people would always predict what the final popularity vote rankings would look like. And most years, the predictions were not far off the mark.
Even when there were discrepancies, they usually amounted to just one or two places trading spots.
But this year's predictions—aside from the unshakable, thunderous first place as always belonging to Oguri Cap—had turned out to be completely wrong in all the other rankings.
So then, who was actually second place in the popularity poll?
Was it Gotham Song? Well—that's what the predictions had said. But the real second place, so different from the forecasts, so misaligned with reality, the name truly written in that spot was—
Mejiro McQueen.
The very same McQueen who had thrown in everything she had and still lost badly in the Japan Cup, the very same McQueen who had been paraded around the track with Gotham Song's arm wrapped tight around her waist.
Naturally, many people said they couldn't make sense of this. No matter how you looked at it, wasn't the one who had utterly dominated Japan's URA throughout the entire year Gotham Song herself?
And if you put aside Oguri Cap—that absolute anomaly, the one whose existence as a popularity monster shouldn't even be factored into the debate—then wasn't Gotham Song truly the most popular Uma Musume of the year?!
Plenty voiced that opinion. But soon, more voices emerged, speaking their own thoughts. Clearly, they were the very ones who had backed Mejiro McQueen, the culprits who had raised her up into second place in the popularity ranks—
That Demon King on the track—if she can be that close with the Uma Musume we adore, then what are they doing in private? We don't even dare imagine!
And since we can't see more of that side of things, then there's really only one thing left to look forward to, isn't there?
We want to see the Mejiro McQueen who had her waist encircled last time—this time, we want to see her completely crush that Demon King on the front stage of the race!
We want to see Gotham Song kneel down and beg for mercy, and yet still be forced to obediently press herself into McQueen's arms, eyes vacant, shown before the entire world—
Heehee.
All in all, the onlookers were shocked speechless. After a moment of silence, with no one knowing how to answer, without even seeing one another, humanity—through a terrifying, almost insane speed of network-like transmission—reached a consensus.
Heehee, if we could witness something like that, then even if we dropped dead right there in the audience seats, it'd still be worth the ticket price, wouldn't it?
That was the sort of strange, abstract thought the time-anchored Gotham Song saw flowing across the internet—something she, for a moment, had no idea how to even process.
How should she put it?
An audience like you… if you really got to see what you wished to see, wouldn't that make my runaway appearance this time a wasted effort?
Heehee.
I'll make sure you regret it for life!
That was Gotham Song's thought.
And then—who was ranked third in the popularity poll? Gotham Song?
No—it was El Condor Pasa!
Twice she had fallen at the Arc, even breaking publicly with URA… yet in the Arima Kinen popularity vote, she achieved a jaw-dropping result, even cleanly outstripping Gotham Song, who landed fourth!
As for the reason—her supporters' thinking was simple enough. Since Demon King Song was already confirmed to appear in the Arima Kinen, then wasn't it fine to go and support some other Uma Musume we love?
And Condor's supporters were many. Really many. Truly, ridiculously many. So many that—
So many that URA, in the end, had to issue a sheepish apology to Condor, promising they would absolutely improve their support system for any Uma Musume going abroad.
That was an achievement even Gotham Song had never pulled off—
Of course, whether this had anything to do with URA having been smashed to bits after the Japan Cup, and then suddenly parachuting in a "visible wild daddy" sponsor, who could say.
Anyway—next should have been Gotham Song, right?
Heh. Not at all.
Next was Tokai Teio, who had posted her withdrawal notice.
Her collapse after the undefeated Double Crown had been simply too shocking for Japanese netizens to handle, especially combined with Gotham Song's legendary "double great escape" spectacle.
And so, even like this, Tokai Teio had ridden the winds of hot-topic traffic, climbing onto the rankings above Gotham Song—by a fair margin, too.
Which left Gotham Song herself staring speechlessly. Why does it feel like, apart from Oguri Cap, everyone ahead of me is there because of me—and always in these bizarre, twisted ways?!
After that, the list didn't look so impressive. At least to Gotham Song. She hardly knew any of the names—apart from herself and Cafe-neesan, it was just a whole crowd of strangers.
Only—what surprised Gotham Song a little was this: Miss Agnes Digital, who had actually taken some pretty good results overseas, hadn't been selected for Arima Kinen at all—?
How strange.
Gotham Song couldn't make sense of it. In the end she asked Secretariat, and received an answer that left her even more at a loss.
"Do you really think, for the Japanese, those overseas G1 races are something they pay attention to?"
Truly, such a blunt and forceful answer, and utterly exasperating.
So in the end, Gotham Song didn't know how she ought to react. Exasperated herself, she simply gave up on thinking about it. She lay back on the big bed in her room, staring up at the ceiling, and thought instead about the race tomorrow.
By her own habits, she really should have gone to the course long before, to adapt herself to the turf. After all, Arima Kinen was not a track favorable to great escape-types, and she herself had hardly run there before—
When was the last time she'd run on Nakayama's turf?
That morning she'd climbed a fence in New York, boarded a plane, and after leaving the airport hopped straight into a taxi… that morning, back when she was still Twilight Song, running the Satsuki Sho!
But even though the plan had been like that, in the end, one thing after another had dragged her down.
So when she came back to herself, it was already yesterday afternoon.
It was Dancing Brave who stopped Gotham Song, who had been about to dash off in a hurry by evening, and told her there was no need to be so impatient.
The reason?
Gotham Song had been thinking that not adapting herself to the course early would be a disadvantage. But she hadn't considered something even more frightening.
That was: very few Japanese Uma Musume actually go early to adapt themselves to the course in the first place!
Unlike overseas—especially Europe and America, where Uma Musume often train directly on the racetrack—in Japan, most training is done at centralized training facilities. As for advance reconnaissance, getting familiar with the environment, that was much more a foreign practice.
Or, to put it another way, a large portion of them did their daily training directly on the racetrack. Gotham Song—no, Twilight Song—had begun her career in New York, and so she had picked up this habit.
But compared to her, the well-traveled, Japan-savvy Dancing Brave revealed a shocking fact.
Japanese Uma Musume would only go scout out the course early during overseas expeditions. At those times, since the environment was unfamiliar, they would indeed head out to the course a week or so in advance.
But within Japan—!
They didn't have this custom at all. Forget a week, even three days ahead, not every Uma Musume would do it!
What's more, for Gotham Song, Arima Kinen was in fact just a race run to give back to the fans. There was no need to take it that seriously—or at least, no need to get so anxious just because she hadn't gone to scout the course.
"If you really have that much energy," Dancing Brave had told her, "wouldn't it be better to think about whether you want to do another Winner's Concert?"
That was her exact line.
But for Gotham Song, doing another Winner's Concert was something she refused. After seeing how many people had gone absolutely feral under her concert footage, even her thick skin had gone pink down the neck.
Just the thought of another video being chased with such frenzy by the masses—she felt such shame she wanted to bury herself in Ardan-neesan's arms and hide from the world—
And so, thanks to Dancing Brave's words, Gotham Song no longer felt so urgent. She went to the course area only the day before the race, familiarized herself a little, then returned to her lodging to rest, lying down to prepare her spirit.
Only—before she could fall asleep, there came a knock at the door, and then the sound of it opening.
Gotham Song pushed herself up—and saw Mejiro McQueen quietly step inside.
No—"Mejiro McQueen" quietly stepping inside.
"Phantom… cough, Ruka, can't sleep?"
"You'd better just call me Phantom…!"
She was met with a fierce glare, but Gotham Song only smiled, indulgent, and without hesitation tugged her hand, pulling her to sit down beside her.
No—that wasn't right. This was her disobedient, yawning little daughter "Phantom Ruka."
"So—can't sleep? Coming to me so late at night… bad children like you might just get gobbled up, you know?"
"Don't say weird things… Tomorrow, I'll still challenge you. I will defeat you—absolutely, absolutely—even if it's just once, I'll defeat you!"
So stubborn—unlike McQueen at all.
After the Japan Cup, Gotham Song hadn't seen much of Phantom Ruka. The child had sulked, refusing to show herself, until now, just before the race, sticking out her little head.
"Eh, tomorrow's Arima Kinen? If you want to challenge me, I'll welcome it anytime. But how about this, Phantom—let's make a bet?"
"What?"
Gotham Song's lips curved into a smile. She had thought of a perfect little way to make Phantom Ruka submit to a head-pat, yawns or no.
Since this child wanted so badly to challenge her, how could she let her get her way so easily~
And besides, she would win—not only against her, but also against that fool who had swallowed McQueen's emotions and broken free of her cocoon. That fool had no eyes left to see the Mejiro who'd always been behind her.
"Tomorrow, let's change it up. Just for the race itself. By now, you should be able to run freely, completely away from McQueen's side, endlessly forward, right?"
"You mean…?"
Gotham Song leaned closer, seizing Phantom Ruka's cheeks, kneading the delicate skin as if to really catch this slippery ghost and hold her in her grasp.
In truth, Phantom Ruka had no wish to escape, for in the eyes before her she saw indulgence, pampering, mischief—yet none of the urgency that ought to come from being challenged.
That infuriated her. No thought of fleeing—
I will defeat you openly, Gotham Song. I'll make you know the price of not taking me seriously…!
"I mean, tomorrow—the ones who will truly run, the ones who will truly contend for victory—won't be us two."
"It will be Mejiro McQueen as well."
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T/N: dont worry bonus chaps will be released on sunday
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say thank you to Girantina for that thoughtful message