"All racers, please enter the starting gates."
The referee's urging rang out. The starting staff guided the horse girls who had been warming up on the track into their assigned stalls.
"So this is what it looks like inside the gate…"
With the iron doors closing off her view, Fujimura Hui could only see the strip of track directly beside her.
What she heard, instead, was the restless stomp of other competitors' feet striking the damp ground.
And she could smell it, too—an agitation so sharp it seemed to become a scent in the air.
Clearly, not everyone here was as calm as they looked on the outside.
So this was what Opera O always felt during races?
As he took on Red Eyes' body, Hui found himself thinking that.
Back when he'd still been a trainer, he'd always watched races from the stands.
If he claimed he truly understood what the horse girls on the track felt—felt it as they did—that would be exaggerating.
There was, ultimately, a gap between trainer and horse girl.
No matter how outstanding a trainer was, he could never fully experience that sensation of battling others on the track…
"So this is the resolve you have to carry to stand out here?"
Hui looked left and right, studying the eyes of the other racers waiting with him inside their gates.
In all of them was the same hunger.
A hunger for… victory.
Of course.
No one steps onto a track to lose.
As a trainer, he should have known that better than anyone.
To answer that resolve—
I have to get serious, too.
Not as Fujimura Hui.
As Red Eyes, properly racing them head-on.
The trainer's identity can wait.
Right now, I am a horse girl.
Inside the gates, the black-haired, red-eyed girl closed her eyes—then opened them again.
She settled into her starting stance and waited for the instant the gates would spring open.
—
"All racers are in the gates."
"Aqueduct Racetrack. Clear weather. Distance: 1100 meters."
"Three… two… one…"
As the commentator counted down, the chaotic noise of the venue steadily died away.
Everyone was waiting for that moment…
The sound that meant the race had begun—
Bang!
The gates slammed open. The racers who'd been coiled and ready burst out in a single surge.
"The race is underway."
"An excellent start across the field."
"And oh—right now in front is the entrant we've been focusing on: California Speed!"
The instant the gates opened, California Speed threw everything forward.
Her jersey bore the number 3—meaning she'd started from a stall closer to the inside.
That position meant she needed only a little effort to seize a prime lead.
For California Speed, it was pure good fortune.
"Good! I've got the lead position!"
She had already sprinted to the very front of the pack.
For her, 1100 meters was a distance she could lead wire-to-wire without any pressure at all.
At this distance, as long as she gritted her teeth, she could leave the others so far behind they wouldn't even see her dust.
"Stupid outsider—handing me the lead! I'll show you what real speed looks like!"
In her mind, Red Eyes' indifferent expression surfaced again. California Speed's gaze sharpened with malice.
Her legs tensed, her strides driving hard into the ground and flinging wet mud backward in bursts.
In an instant, her speed climbed again.
"Oh! California Speed is accelerating! It looks like she's planning to lead from start to finish!"
Her intention was obvious—even the commentator could tell what her acceleration meant.
"Good idea," Secretariat murmured, leaning on the rail. "But she revealed it too early."
No—she wasn't really watching California Speed at all.
Her eyes were fixed on the space just behind her—
"Showing your hand too early just makes you easy to target, you know~"
Almost as soon as she finished speaking, the commentator's voice rose in surprise again.
"W-What?!"
"She's matched her! Right behind California Speed—Red Eyes is glued to her!"
"?!" Feeling the presence at her back, California Speed whipped her head around.
And there she was—the figure that had been like a nightmare clinging to her for day after day.
"Red Eyes—!!"
The black-haired, red-eyed girl gave off a distorted aura, riding California Speed's shadow like a specter.
"Tch!"
Trying to sit on my back and save stamina?!
Like hell I'll let you get what you want!
California Speed clenched her teeth and forced her speed up again, determined to shake Red Eyes off.
—
"Saving stamina?"
Secretariat laughed at California Speed's move.
"That kind of action isn't meant for saving stamina."
Beside her, Seattle Slew narrowed her eyes.
There was something monstrous mixed into this field…
—
Red Eyes had been thinking about one question the whole time.
How, exactly, was a so-called "Epic" achievement supposed to be obtained?
She had two achievements—Horse Girl's Friend and Stirring of the Strong—both with the potential to advance to an Epic tier…
But "potential" was only potential. Red Eyes couldn't confirm whether it truly existed.
Maybe the tier after Elite was Epic.
Or maybe you had to climb several more ranks after Elite before reaching Epic.
It was all unknown.
Could she really place her hopes on something uncertain?
What if the next rank was the ceiling?
What then—raise her hands and surrender?
No.
Absolutely not.
That ending is the one thing she refuses.
What she needed was something more real—something she could actually reach out and grasp.
A possibility that truly existed.
"Since I don't know what it takes to reach 'Epic'…"
On the track, will spilled out from her pupils—
"Then I'll create a real epic with my own hands!"
One step.
Her legs cracked like whips against the ground.
The sudden surge of force launched the girl forward in an explosive burst!
"Wha—?!" California Speed's pupils shrank.
From behind her, a black shadow flashed past and left her behind in an instant!
The gap in numbers became a gap in distance, explained in the simplest possible way.
Stirring of the Strong triggered!
"…?!" In that moment, every racer on the track lifted their head and looked toward the very front—
Behind the silhouette now leading everyone, crimson light flickered and vanished!
"A-Amazing?!"
"We're barely past the halfway mark and Red Eyes is already exploding at the front?! She isn't going to conserve stamina at all?!"
The answer, of course, was yes.
Because she was here to create an epic.
....
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