"My legs don't feel like anything's wrong... mm, nowhere feels uncomfortable either..."
To the accompaniment of the crowd's cheers and applause, Kagura walked back into the exit tunnel.
She checked over the state of her body. This time, unlike after her debut race, she did not feel even the slightest bit of fatigue after running. In fact, she felt perfectly fine right now. It felt like she could go run another 1600 meters without any problem.
Has my power gotten stronger again... or did I not actually push myself to the limit just now?
Kagura pondered that to herself. She had definitely accelerated the way she usually did, but judging by how she felt now, after the not-all-that-intense pounding she had taken over summer training camp, her upper limit seemed to have risen again.
"Kagura~!!"
The moment she stepped into the tunnel, Nice Nature came flying at her and threw her arms around her.
Ardan walked up as well, bringing Palmer and the little blue-haired Umamusume with her. Both little Umamusume looked like they wanted to pounce on Kagura and hug her the way Nice Nature had, but out of respect for a senior, neither of them quite dared to be that openly affectionate.
"That was a beautiful win, Kagura. Another splendid victory."
"You're too kind... Ardan-ojousama. And hello to you two little ones too."
"Hello, Kagura-oneesan!"
"Hello, senpai!"
Hearing Kagura greet them, the two little Umamusume hurriedly returned the greeting with proper politeness.
Kagura already knew these two had come specifically to watch her race. In a sense, they counted as the very first little fangirls she had ever picked up. Whether it was Mejiro Palmer or the blue-haired little Umamusume whose name Kagura still could not remember, both of them were pretty lovable.
Slipping out of Nice Nature's embrace, Kagura walked over to the two little Umamusume and bent slightly to pat them on the head. Both of them happily lowered their heads for her, letting her pet them as their ears and tails swished back and forth in obvious excitement.
"Kagura, congratulations. Another smooth, overwhelming victory."
Only after the younger girls had finished their fussing did Speed, who had been standing farther away all this time, step over to Kagura.
"Thank you, Speed-sama. I feel like you're there every time I race... hehe, thank you for the support, Speed-sama"
"Of course. After all, you're one of ours."
As she spoke, Speed reached out and gently stroked Kagura's hair.
"Oh, right. Other than the few of us, there was someone rather interesting here to watch your race today... Mejiro Iris saw him too—the old gentleman sitting not far off to our right."
"What about him? Is he an acquaintance of you two, Speed-sama?"
"You could say that. He's Tracen's former student council president's trainer—Shinzan's trainer. I haven't seen him in public for a very long time. To think he would show up at a mere GIII race this time... it seems the commotion you've stirred up really isn't small, Kagura. Enough to bring even him out in person."
"Shinzan..."
Kagura softly repeated the name Speed had spoken. She had heard Rudolf mention the former student council president before, so the name was not entirely unfamiliar to her.
But the former president's trainer had come to watch her race? Why? Had her performances really become enough to attract that kind of attention already?
"With talent as exceptional as yours, it's only natural to draw notice. He's been hoping for a superstar from Japan who could shake the world for a very long time... But never mind that for now. Aside from the press conference later, the most important question right now is this, Kagura—have you prepared for the Winner's Live?"
Speed still had not forgotten the last time, when Kagura had gone up there in her miko outfit and performed a ritual kagura dance on the spot. The response had been unexpectedly excellent, but no matter how you looked at it, that had been something she had improvised with zero preparation.
"I have. I went to ask milady for advice before, and Ardan-ojousama taught me some things too, so it should be fine."
When she had entered earlier, Kagura had heard the crowd shouting more than just encouragement and calls for her to pull out another massive gap. Plenty of people were also saying they wanted to see her perform another kagura dance.
But this time, Kagura had come prepared. During breaks in training, she had gone to Rudolf for guidance on the traditional songs Tracen students often performed, and Rudolf had even taken a day off to coach her personally. She had also practiced the pronunciation for a while in the dorm with Ardan.
It's not like you can't perform the dance you know best—the one that's truly yours—but that kind of signature piece should be saved for when you win a G1 race and really show everyone what you can do.
Rudolf had actually seemed rather supportive of the impulsive decision Kagura had made for her debut-race Winner's Live. But she also seemed to prefer that Kagura save the song she really wanted to sing for a G1 victory, so Kagura had taken her advice and gone to practice one of the traditional idol songs often sung at Tracen's Winner's Lives.
Compared to that, standard idol numbers were much easier to learn and much simpler to understand—but they were mixed with plenty of cutesy gestures. And somehow, those put far more pressure on her than performing a kagura dance onstage ever had. Granted, between acting cute at Fuji Kiseki and sweet-talking her way out of trouble, Kagura had already developed a fair bit of technical skill in that department. But to do those kinds of motions in front of a huge audience... even Kagura had to admit that took no small amount of courage.
Still, as a professional athlete, this was something she had to learn to face and overcome. So this time, she planned to grit her teeth and do it.
"It's good that you prepared. Just don't do what you did last time... Off you go. The reporters have been waiting for you for a while now. Don't panic. If anything comes up, just give us a look. We'll all be backstage watching over you."
"..."
The mere thought of stepping out through those doors and facing a solid wall of reporters gave Kagura a headache. But there was no helping it. It was something every professional athlete had to get used to.
...
After holding that business smile for a full hour, Kagura felt like her face was about to give out on her.
She had already mentally prepared herself for a large number of reporters waiting outside, but when she saw the actual scene, she realized she had still underestimated it. There were only a tiny bit fewer reporters here than there had been when Rudolf took her second crown. "Packed solid" was barely enough to describe it.
Fortunately, either because the reporters had not dug very deeply into her background, or thanks to the Symboli Family and Tracen keeping her information tightly under wraps, the questions they could ask were all fairly shallow and surface-level—easy enough to answer.
"Inari Kagura-san, thank you again for your time this time around. I truly appreciate your willingness to answer so many questions."
"There's no need to thank me for that, Otonashi-san. Answering a few questions is no problem. I only hope your reporting will be objective and fair."
This oddball reporter was the last of them all to leave. Since she and Kagura had known each other for a while now, she had even stayed behind specifically to say hello.
The reason Kagura thought of her as an oddball reporter was that her thought process was downright bizarre. She was all too prone to wildly over-imagining things and spinning up entire layers of nonexistent subtext, forcibly turning plain old Kagura into some legendary training immortal or something of the sort. Kagura badly wanted to roast her with a line about journalism brain rot, but after thinking it over, she figured Otonashi-san probably would not get such a weird meme, so she swallowed the remark instead.
"I'll be careful to report everything truthfully. Well then, I still need to go back and organize Inari Kagura-san's statements, so I'll be taking my leave!"
"Ah~ off you go~"
Only after watching the oddball reporter pack up her things and leave did Kagura finally let out a sigh of relief. She turned to head back backstage and change for the Winner's Live.
Wait. Why is there still someone here?
Just as she was about to turn away, the corner of Kagura's eye suddenly caught sight of an elderly man still standing in the venue. He looked quite old, his hair already gone somewhat white, and he seemed to have been staring at her from the corner the entire time, making the skin on Kagura's back prickle unpleasantly.
When the old man saw that Kagura had finally noticed him and paused, he stopped hiding in the corner and stepped forward instead, quietly meeting her gaze from below the stage.
"Hello, sir. You are...?"
Kagura remembered Speed mentioning earlier that Shinzan's trainer had also come to the racecourse, and that he was an elderly man. And this area was not somewhere just anyone could enter. At that point, she could basically guess who he was.
"Just an old man interested in geniuses, that's all... Inari Kagura-san, congratulations on taking another title in such splendid fashion."
"You flatter me... um, if you stood here waiting this long, I doubt you only came up to offer congratulations. Is there... something you wanted to ask me?"
In situations like this, Kagura knew it was best to be direct and get straight to the point. Otherwise they would go on and on and get nowhere.
"Mhm... kiddo, you're sharper than I expected. I do indeed have something I want to ask you."
That answer did not surprise Kagura very much. She straightened her expression and lifted her head to meet his eyes.
"Your trainer is Tojo Hana of Tracen, correct?"
"Yes..."
"She is both your trainer and Rudolf's, and both of you are at Tracen. Correct?"
Kagura nodded. All of that was public information—easy enough to find if someone cared to look—so there was no reason to hide it.
"I see. Thank you. In that case... I shall take my leave."
Just as Kagura was expecting him to continue on to some other topic, the old man cut the conversation off at the perfect point and left.
Only after she watched him go, and saw the door close behind him until he was completely out of sight, did Kagura finally breathe easy again.
What a strange old man...