"Rumble!!!!"
On the course, grey airflow and deep-blue ocean phantoms ran side by side like two ancient beasts awakened, bearing down with irresistible force.
Their speed spiked in that instant—past the limit!
Somei Polaris and Yaeno Muteki, who had just tried to launch their sprints, were dropped almost at once beneath that era-defining power.
"How can they be this fast?!"
Shockwaves tore through their hearts as they watched those two figures—wreathed in world-shattering momentum—vanish ahead. That power crushed even the thought of resistance.
But they were top Central veterans, forged by countless battles. Their wills did not break.
"It's not over yet!"
"We can still chase!"
They forced down the trembling in their chests, trying at once to rally, to wring out the last dregs of stamina and burst again, hoping to follow those two—
—or at least… not be left utterly behind!
Yet the moment they tried to draw that breath—
Vmm—
A soul-freezing chill crawled up their spines in an eye-blink, flooding every nerve.
Their movements—and even their thoughts—hitched for a beat.
Thoom—!
A heavy, perfectly timed footfall struck like a drumbeat in their ears.
Then, like a dusk bell at day's end, a voice murmured by their ears: "That's enough."
"…Please clear the way."
What?!
Muteki and the others snapped a look back—
And saw nothing but endless, pitch-black dark.
The figure they had "locked" behind them—Obey Your Master—was somehow already at their flanks.
"Boom—!"
A footfall detonated at ear's edge. Frozen in place, they watched Obey Your Master surge past, arrowing for the front.
…
Up ahead.
When Oguri Cap and Super Creek opened their Domains and kicked, Sakura Chiyono O and Mejiro Ardan felt it at once.
Those two footfalls—closer, heavier.
Thoom— thoom— thoom—
Like a giant's heartbeat, closing behind with wind and thunder.
Chiyono O tilted her head, a smile barely there at her lip.
"So you're here…"
Ardan's gaze slid back as well.
Through rain and cutting air, a grey-white light drew nearer fast.
Oguri.
Her pupils trembled.
For a breath, her mind, tugged by that figure, slipped into the deep of memory.
"Everyone, this is a transfer from Kasamatsu—Oguri Cap. Please welcome her!"
Running across a heart-lake black as ink, the surface reflected the first time Ardan saw Oguri.
Refined features, but hopelessly dated clothes.
As for her personality—airheaded? Stubborn? Perhaps both.
Yet that Oguri somehow showed on the course a hard, straight finishing kick a dimension beyond theirs.
"When I was born, my legs couldn't walk. So to me now, just to run is happiness."
After a race, gathered together, Oguri had said that.
Then came the storm where Oguri could not contest the Classic Triple Crown.
All of Central had thought: a Derby without Oguri had no weight—it was an empty crown.
She remembered clearly how bitter she felt then.
She had given everything to overcome what she lacked by birth and prove that even "limited," she could still forge a miracle.
But in the end, a likewise overcoming Oguri—like a more perfect version of herself—arrived at her side.
Ardan lowered her eyes, running step by step across the ink-dark lake.
Suddenly—
A clear crystal spread from her toes, sealing the lake beneath in an instant.
Dazzling light jolted in her eyes.
She could hear it clearly—the roar of blood, the steel-hard ring rising from deep in her bones.
A terrible power surged from the depth of her soul, answering her will, swelling madly—
"Oguri…"
She whispered, so lightly that only she could hear.
"I once longed to face you openly on the course."
"But now, the first time we run together on the same track, you are no longer who you were."
"And I… am no longer who I was, either…"
Crack—!
A sound like ice forming in an instant spread from underfoot.
Her once-gentle gaze turned, in that heartbeat, peerlessly sharp and blazing.
Streams like prismatic light rose from her hair and tail, glittering like a thousand shards of crystal in wind and rain.
Air froze; time itself seemed to catch.
Vmmm—!
For a flicker, heaven and earth turned into a world of clear glass.
Every raindrop refracted light; every inch of air trembled.
Domain — Lapis Glass Realm.
"Rooooar!!!!"
Unrivaled leg power converted into crushing thrust—
With a single drive, Ardan flung the grey-blue streams behind and speared toward Chiyono O ahead!
Thud-thud-thud—!
Hooves pealed like thunder, each landing ringing crisp and shocking—as if on glass walls of crystal.
The crystalized vision surged with her charge, carving ice-like threads across the course.
Ground and air—and even the rain—seemed to harden into transparent facets.
A straight corridor to the finish, as if to bring the entire track under her command.
Her speed hit the limit; in only a few breaths she drew even with the other streaking figure—Chiyono O!
Two peak runners ran abreast in a blaze of crystal and cherry light!
At the instant Ardan's shadow leveled with Chiyono O's—
A cherry petal, wet and light, slipped from Chiyono O's hair, spinning down into the crystal world.
"Chiyono O…"
There was no surprise in Ardan's eyes.
How like the Japan Derby of that year.
Back then, she had also gone all out, and also chased down Chiyono O at the end.
It was when she had come closest to proving herself—when every last ember of resentment and longing had burned white-hot.
And even then, she had still fallen one move short.
Chiyono O turned a little, sweetness at her lips. "Ardan, shall we run together?"
Ardan blinked, then smiled in understanding. "Mm. Together!"
BOOM—!!!
Two utterly different Domain powers collided.
Cherry light shattered; unending petals wove, and for one stamp of time the world turned into a pink dreamscape.
This is the bond with everyone—and the future with Trainer…
Domain — Blossoms Fill the Sky.
Down a radiant way where lapis and cherry intertwined—
Two figures blurred to light, ripping rain and cleaving gale; their finishing kicks trampled the earth.
Their speed reached a never-before summit—two meteors raking the black sky.
The path of blossoms and glass, unstoppable, surged like a river, driving forward—
—straight to the back of the front-running Fujimasa March!
However—!
At the instant that lapis crystal and cherry rain were about to touch Fujimasa's back—
That silver-white figure up front gave a tiny check; her hoof sank a fraction into the turf, just as she had done before.
One step forward—
and the storm was born.
(End of Chapter)
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