[Co█plete t█e Sto█y? Y/N]
My eyes fell for a moment. "This story of mine…" I said softly as I turned to Darley Arabian. My gold met her turquoise. "Was it a good one?"
Darley hummed. "I cannot speak for every being that would experience your tale, curated or in full depth." She shook her head. "I cannot speak for every Reader that has spent minutes or hours or days immersed in your story."
"But this I say with all my heart,"
"Blossom Star, you have become a Hero to many; a Guiding Star whose light has paved the path to a new, brighter future." She smiled. "From now until eternity, this story of yours is one I shall hold close to my heart."
The smile I returned was slightly shy. "Is'sat so?" I whispered as I scratched my cheek. "Then-, that's good."
And so I had my answer.
[T█is Hero's J█urney has fina█ly come to a█ en█]
[The t█me of Passin█ is n█w]
The moment I made my choice, I felt something pulse in my chest. By instinct I held my hand just over my heart, and I took a slow breath as rainbow light began glowing from my chest.
And then, before I knew it, I felt a strange object drop onto my palm. When I looked down to see what it was, I was surprised to find a rainbow-colored cleat in my hands, still softly glowing.
I recognized it immediately; it was the rainbow cleat Oguri had given me. A gift she'd apparently gotten when she went to buy gifts in the Summer Camp just several months ago. She herself wasn't sure why, but she'd said that she felt like this rainbow cleat was always meant for me.
But that wasn't the end.
Suddenly, a golden streak of light shot across the sky, before it abruptly pivoted and slammed down into my hand. When the light died down, I found a golden cleat had placed itself atop the rainbow cleat.
This one took me a moment, but I remembered it to be the golden cleat my mother had hung on a small stand in our izakaya. Apparently my mother had just found it on the floor, assumed it was someone else's possession, and hung it out in the open in hopes someone would recognize it. No one ever did.
Lastly, a flash of silver appeared before my eyes, and when the light faded, I found a silver-colored cleat placed atop the golden cleat.
I stared in awe. Not just because of the flashy entrances all these cleats had made, but also because I recognized them from the game. They were the cleats I got whenever I cleated an unused Support Card. Back then, they were just another currency for me to use in-game. Now, they were in my hands, gently pulsing with an otherworldly warmth.
My eyes softened. "So these are my Anchors." I whispered, instinctively understanding what these cleats were.
The rainbow cleat—a sign of Oguri's love.
The golden cleat—a symbol for my parents' love.
The silver cleat—a sigil of my own racing career.
I took a deep breath, and I handed the three cleats over to the Goddess. They floated forth from my hand, as if carried by some unseen river, before they gently landed in the Goddess' palm. She smiled as she clasped the cleats between her hands, and a soft light began escaping from between her fingers.
Then, she raised her hands and opened them.
And three cleats flew into the sky, merging together before they soared forth as a shooting star. They flew away towards the setting sun, and as their glow turned too distant to see, the frozen time of this illusory world finally began moving. The sun finally set, the light finally faded, and the skies turned dark as the moon rose into the sky.
I took a small breath as I closed my eyes.
I couldn't feel my System anymore. No matter how much I tried calling for it, that floating blue panel never appeared. That slight jolt of electricity had finally turned silent.
It was over.
"What happens to it now?" I asked softly.
Darley stared at where she last saw that shooting star. "I am unsure." She admitted. "The intricacies of the System remain a mystery even to my sisters and I. Only Eclipse will be able to answer your inquiry."
She smiled. "But I am sure that it will return someday." Her gaze was fond as she looked up at the twinkling stars above. "Perhaps it will one day return itself to you. Or perhaps it will find another Hero that requires its aid." She raised a hand towards the sky. "Whatever may follow, I am sure that its story will begin anew someday."
"...yeah." I smiled.
In fact, I'm sure it would return one day. After all, though my story was essentially over, there were still other 'Protagonists' that existed. There were so many different umamusume who were the Heroes of their own stories, and I'm sure that all of them deserved to be the next bearer of the Umamusume Hero System.
I could only wait to see who it would be.
"So, now what?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Now?" Darley smiled. "Now we wait for this world to collapse, and for you to wake."
I blinked, and then remembered that I was still in a coma in the real world. "Right. Completely forgot about that." I smiled wryly as I scratched my cheek. "And how long would that take?"
"It could be now. It could be in a few hours. It could be in several days. Time flows strangely in this place." She shrugged. "But regardless, I will remain with you until you wake. And when that moment approaches, we will have the honor of watching this world end."
I hummed. "Is that so."
I closed my eyes for a moment, before I grinned. "Since we have the time, why don't you tell me what'll happen if I do become a Goddess?"
She smiled. "I suppose that is better than doing nothing."
And so, for the next hours or days or however long it was, Darley proceeded to give me a crash course on what it meant to be a Goddess of Bravery.
Suffice to say, nothing could've prepared me for the explanation that followed.
.
.
.
"So-, i-it's done?" Xīnxīng sniffed, gently wiping away some of the tears that'd fallen from her eyes.
She smiled. "Of course not." She grinned as she gave Xīng's cheek a playful pinch. "There's still the [Arima Kinen], remember? And they're still going to spend a year in America for the next year."
"O-Oh, right." Xīng giggled shyly, placing her phone back down, having finished reading the latest chapter from the light novel version of [Umamusume: Guiding Star]. "It's just-, the way the author wrote it made it seem like the ending was coming."
She smirked. "Well, I mean it kinda is?"
"Huh? But you said-?"
"I mean this part of Star's story is probably ending." She rolled her eyes as she ruffled Xīng's hair. "CyGames doesn't really cover stuff that happens outside of Japan, remember?" She shrugged. "Then again, who knows? This is the first story that's diverged so much from the real world, so maybe the author has a bit more creative liberties this time around."
Xīng sighed softly. "I hope they do! They can't just end it here…"
The girl smiled and said nothing more.