"What do you mean, how could I tell? Because you were making it way too obvious, Yasui."
Picking up where Yasui Makoto's unfinished question had left off, Tokai Teio smiled and gestured toward the stands. "Come on. We can talk while we walk." Then she took the lead.
He nodded on reflex and followed, and suddenly a thought struck him.
Teio-kaichou… it couldn't be that she'd noticed how he was feeling and come over specifically to comfort him, could it?
While he was still thinking that, after they had gone a few steps, Tokai Teio continued:
"I originally came with Deep Impact and the others to inspect the racecourse, and after this I've still got a mountain of things to do. Interviews, press conferences, banquets, that sort of thing."
"Since it's the Arima Kinen, there's no getting around all that."
"And since I was already here, I figured I'd stop by and cheer on the kouhais too."
She turned halfway around, pointed back in the direction they had come from, and looked at Yasui Makoto.
"So, you know, we'd obviously already passed right by you earlier. But you looked totally out of it. We even said hello, and you didn't react at all."
"With how you looked, anyone could guess you were nervous about Kita-chan's race coming up."
Hearing that, he tried hard to think back, but no matter how he searched his memory, he couldn't recall any of it. In the end, Yasui Makoto could only apologize.
"Sorry. I really was too nervous. I didn't notice at all."
"There's nothing to apologize for. If it were me, I'd be nervous too."
She smiled and shook her head, then looked over at him and put a little more weight into her words.
"I mean it. Back when I ran in the Arima Kinen, I got so nervous I wouldn't notice anyone else either."
Then, right after that earnest line, she waved her hand with a grin.
"Of course, I don't mean the race where I crashed out in eleventh place. I wasn't nervous that time, sure, but anyway, I lost horribly, so obviously I'm not going to use a race like that to encourage Kita-chan."
"Encourage Kita-chan? You mean…"
Yasui Makoto looked surprised. "You've already gone to see her?"
"I saw the other runners too."
Tokai Teio didn't deny it. She nodded and said, "And compared to you, her trainer, Kita-chan looked a lot steadier."
"Of course, I mean steadier than you right now."
"I'm guessing that back in the waiting room… or before you stepped out on your own, anyway… you probably wouldn't have shown this level of nerves in front of her."
"And if I hadn't happened to pass by, then with your personality, and the way you handle things… you'd probably have calmed down pretty quickly anyway?"
This time, Yasui Makoto did not answer at once.
He knew that in many people's eyes, he was probably the sort of person who stayed calm and rational no matter what. But the truth was, he got nervous too. He had moments of unease.
It wasn't as though he was especially good at hiding those feelings, either. When something mattered, and there was no way to be completely certain of the outcome, feeling that way was normal. Trying to forcibly suppress it was useless.
Better to let it run its course than to force it down.
Especially at the racecourse, where so many things could draw that nervousness away.
Just like now. As he followed Tokai Teio closer and closer to the stands, the noise he had long since grown used to washed over him head-on, and the lively atmosphere happened to dilute the tension.
"Probably," he said, giving a modest answer. "I mean, I would've calmed down soon enough. I do have a bit of experience with that."
Then he added gratefully, "And… I still haven't thanked you for going to encourage—and comfort—Kita-chan."
"Encourage, yes. But I didn't comfort her."
Her tone carried a hint of playfulness. Tokai Teio raised a finger in front of him and wagged it lightly.
"Like I said just now, compared to you—well, compared to how you were just now—Kita-chan was much steadier."
"So all I told her was to do her best. That I'd be waiting for you at the finish line."
"As for saying something like, 'Even I get nervous over a race like the Arima Kinen'…"
With a grin, she pointed at Yasui Makoto and nodded.
"That was originally meant to comfort you. But looking at you now, I guess I don't need to."
By the time she finished speaking, the two of them had already reached the stands.
From a distance, he could already see Deep Impact and the others who had arrived earlier, along with the spots they had saved. After thanking them, the two of them moved into place.
"To be this composed after just over a year since your debut—honestly, I really haven't seen many trainers like you."
Once they had settled in, Tokai Teio looked out toward the paddock and continued:
"You don't feel like someone your age at all. Steady, calm, rational, mature."
"In private, McQueen and I have actually said more than once that we were curious what you'd look like when you were truly flustered. Or what you'd be like in any other kind of undignified moment."
"Of course, thinking that way is a little rude. But just now, I did get to see it."
"How should I put it… satisfying my curiosity aside…"
She looked at him seriously and emphasized the next words.
"My opinion of you hasn't changed."
"Steady, calm, rational, mature—far beyond so many other trainers."
"Yasui, I'm very glad that, back then, I chose to entrust her to you."
While Tokai Teio gazed out at the paddock, Yasui Makoto found himself looking there too.
The parade had already begun. The first to appear was Gold Ship—tall, imposing, springing up onto the stage sideways on one foot.
Today, Kitasan Black was not the top favorite, but the fourth. There were still two more Umamusume before it would be her turn.
If he hadn't come over here with Tokai Teio, or if he had been watching the parade order alone, Yasui Makoto didn't know whether he would have become calmer and calmer the way he was now.
Maybe he would have.
Or maybe he would only have grown more nervous.
And yet, despite having said that it seemed she no longer needed to comfort him, what Tokai Teio said afterward was clearly comfort all the same.
The words themselves were not especially complicated. Yet the sincerity and gratitude in them, and that faint but unmistakable sense of relief, settled him all at once. He simply watched the paddock in silence, waiting for his own Umamusume to appear.
And it seemed Tokai Teio's comfort was not over yet.
"So really, with a trainer as outstanding as you, and an Umamusume as outstanding as Kita-chan, the two of you should be confident."
"No need to be nervous. No need to worry. No need to feel unsettled."
"Step onto this stage with confidence—the stage where emotion and miracles, dreams and challenges are born—and then…"
"Fight with everything you have until the very last moment."
"That… is enough."
...
Amid the grand, festive atmosphere, the entire racecourse seemed like a cauldron of boiling water, seething with excitement.
The spectators' cheers and shouts blended into a single roar. Colorful flags and streamers whipped wildly in the wind, and the air itself was thick with tension and excitement. Everything was waiting for that electrifying moment to arrive.
The commentator's infectious voice rang through the broadcast and swept across every corner of the racecourse, instantly driving the heated atmosphere to its first peak:
"EVERYONE—LOOK!"
"THE FINEST RUNNERS OF THIS GENERATION HAVE ALL GATHERED HERE AT THE MAGNIFICENT NAKAYAMA RACECOURSE!"
"LIKE DAZZLING STARS CONVERGING IN ONE PLACE, THEY ARE ABOUT TO CLASH IN A BREATHTAKING CONTEST!"
"LOOK! THE FINAL RUNNER IS READY AS WELL, STEADILY ENTERING THE GATE AND BRACING FOR THE START!"
The commentator's pace quickened, the emotion in his voice rising higher and higher.
"TODAY, THIS RACECOURSE IS DESTINED TO WITNESS HISTORY!"
"A NEW RULER WILL BE BORN, AND A NEW SUMMIT WILL BE CONQUERED!"
"THE FINAL TURF G1 OF THE YEAR—2500 METERS AT NAKAYAMA—EVERY SINGLE STEP WILL WRITE A LEGEND!"
"AND NOW…"
"HERE…"
As those two words fell, the entire racecourse went silent in an instant. Everyone held their breath, staring fixedly at the sixteen tightly shut gates.
"START!"