"I'm still In the lead… good!"
Rudolf pedaled hard, driving her bike up toward the summit without a moment's pause. She glanced back over her shoulder—and saw no one closing in. A quiet breath of relief slipped out.
No one in sight meant her lead was still substantial. And the end of this leg—the island's mountaintop—wasn't far now. After that came the part she knew best: running. True, the whole run was downhill, but Rudolf had learned plenty of ways to handle slopes from Kagura. She wasn't worried.
At this rate…
The gap felt just like when she looked back during a race. There was still one final leg, but it was also the leg Rudolf excelled at most. She was confident she wouldn't lose to anyone here.
"Wait—what's that…?"
All of a sudden, Rudolf's sharp eyes caught movement in the woods not far off the course: a chestnut-colored figure flickering between the trees, weaving through the brush at an astonishing speed.
She froze for a beat.
There was no doubt it was one of today's racers. And among the competitors, only one person had the skills to ride this fast—this aggressively—on a bicycle.
"Maruzensky…"
It was her.
Maruzensky's ridiculous vehicle handling was practically common knowledge among Tracen's upperclassmen. What most people didn't know was that her skills weren't limited to cars. Bicycles, scooters, motorcycles—Maruzensky had touched them all, and she'd polished each one into something scary.
Worse, she had nerve.
She really would pin the throttle and come screaming in at full speed. Rudolf wasn't a specialist behind the handlebars, and on an uphill stretch like this, Maruzensky's overwhelming pace was a real advantage.
Rudolf's heart, which had just settled, tightened again. Maruzensky truly could pass her on this climb. And as for the run… Maruzensky wasn't inferior there, either. "Supercar" wasn't a nickname you earned for nothing. Even if Maruzensky hadn't competed in Classic Races for her own reasons, Rudolf wouldn't dare underestimate her.
"Then I'll just have to push harder!"
...
"How is that even a speed you can hit on an uphill!? Have I just been riding bikes wrong…?"
Back in third place, Mejiro Ramonu watched Maruzensky blaze ahead, wind howling in her wake, and went utterly blank.
She knew the girls who came to training camp tended to have at least one "thing" they were good at. But this was less a "thing" and more a personal apocalypse.
They'd started from the same bicycle rack on the beach, but Maruzensky had already opened a huge gap—and Mejiro Ramonu couldn't close it at all. Maybe her technique was simply lacking. At the very least, she couldn't balance speed and stamina the way she needed to. If she forced it on this steep climb and tried to brute her way up, whether she could even catch Rudolf was one thing—she definitely wouldn't have legs left to run the downhill finish.
"Ramonu-san—!"
"Ramonu-san!"
And then she heard voices behind her, closing fast. Mejiro Ramonu whipped her head around and saw Nice Nature and Bizen Nishiki surging up. They were moving quickly—clearly faster than she was right now.
In moments, the two of them slipped past her.
What is this? They can ride that fast too? Where did they even practice??
Maruzensky, fine—Maruzensky was always messing with vehicles, so it wasn't strange that she was comfortable and fast.
But Bizen Nishiki and Nice Nature didn't look like the type who rode bikes often at all.
"Wait… if I count it up, doesn't that mean behind me there's only Ardan left?"
Mejiro Ramonu glanced ahead, then did a quick tally on her fingers—and abruptly realized that if things kept going like this, she and her sister were about to claim dead last and second-to-last.
Mejiro Family entering a race… and taking the bottom two spots?
"That can't—"
She'd started this race aiming for first. But as it went on, her goal kept dropping—second, then after seeing Maruzensky, maybe third—and now she was thinking the Mejiros couldn't end up at the tail end.
"That cannot stand. How can I allow such humiliation!"
With that, Mejiro Ramonu stopped caring about pacing. She dug into the strength she'd been saving and powered forward on sheer force.
...
"Eh? So Kagura can ride a scooter too?"
"I learned a few basics from the head maid. Back when I used to shop for groceries, she'd drive one a lot. Later, if I didn't feel like bothering someone to run errands for me, I'd take it out myself now and then."
While the front of the pack was locked in a brutal battle, the ones completely detached from the race—drifting far behind—were Kagura on the little scooter and Ardan grinding her way uphill on a bicycle.
They were in last place, but if someone looked over every racer's condition, they'd notice something odd: even at the very back, Ardan looked the best mentally out of everyone.
Because her goal was simple—finish the course. Prove she could.
And now Kagura was pacing her alongside on the scooter. In a way, Ardan might've been the one enjoying the race the most.
"Kagura really is amazing," Ardan said. "Sometimes it feels like you can do anything—like you know everything, and you can do everything."
"Well… I'm just an ordinary modern young person."
Kagura smiled, a little helplessly. To an outsider, she did look multi-talented—but most of it wasn't born from passion. It was necessity, or work. She didn't go deep, but she'd dabbled in an absurdly wide range.
Staying back with Ardan was partly to keep an eye on her condition. But Ardan would also chat with her now and then, and Kagura answered whenever she could. Ardan seemed in a genuinely good mood—she wasn't hung up on winning first prize at all.
"Come to think of it… Ardan-ojousama, your desire to fight for first doesn't seem as strong this time."
"Because… even if I always talk about burning out, about chasing and catching up… there are opponents I simply can't defeat, no matter what," Ardan said softly. "If I set my goal too high, it only ends up crushing me instead…"
And besides… I've already gotten to enjoy the champion's prize.
Ardan didn't dare say it out loud, but it was true. For her, being back here like this—taking it easy, talking with Kagura, trading small jokes—was exactly the kind of everyday life with Kagura she'd been longing for.
"Ah—speaking of, I think I hear music on the beach over on the other side," Ardan said. "Are they doing some kind of event?"
"Music?"
Curious, Kagura tilted her head and listened. Sure enough, sound was drifting in from the beach near the inn—strong, driving music. It was a song Kagura found oddly familiar. She looked over, but there was no crowd gathered. She could just make out a tiny white speck on the sand. It had to be an Umamusume playing music.
"I hear it too… but I can't make it out clearly."
"It sounds like an English song… very intense. Powerful," Ardan said. "It's like the lyrics are… 'I am the storm that…' something?"
"…"
Kagura paused.
Now she was certain who that white-haired Umamusume on the beach was. Besides Gold Ship, nobody would pull something like this.
"Is it a beach music festival?" Ardan asked. "When we get back, do you want to go take a look together?"
"No," Kagura said, already resigned. "I know what this is. It's not a festival—just someone from another group with a… very unique brain having one of her moments."
---
T/N: I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHINGGGGGGGGGGGGG