Chapter 115.
Meanwhile, trapped in the front, Mihono Bourbon was fighting a violent war within her own mind. The absolute front of the pack was dangling right in front of her face. Glory Charge, drunk on her own perceived dominance, had thrown a provocative, mocking smirk over her shoulder moments earlier.
That arrogant smile had acted like a virus in Bourbon's logic circuits.
Very well. Just now on the first bend... I held back. But this time, I will not tolerate it anymore!
Mihono Bourbon's stride frequency radically accelerated.
Her posture dropped into an aggressive, forward-leaning assault, and her velocity spiked. In just over ten meters, she brutally devoured the gap and blew past Glory Charge. The cyborg didn't throttle down after taking the lead; desperate to isolate herself from the chaotic emotions Glory Charge had stirred in her, she kept her foot on the gas, attempting to carve out a massive, insurmountable gap.
At least two horse lengths, then I can return to cruise mode.
Bourbon calculated.
But the exact fraction of a second Mihono Bourbon accelerated, the Black Assassin moved.
Bourbon pulled out to create a gap, and Rice Shower mirrored her perfectly, angling outward to create an identical trajectory. As Bourbon overtook Glory Charge, Rice Shower simultaneously covered the distance to catch Meisho Centro, ruthlessly discarding her in her wake.
Watching the two titans simultaneously detonate their acceleration, Matikane Tannhauser—sitting in third place—was thrown into sheer, hyperventilating panic.
What are they doing?! There's still so much track left, why are they accelerating now?! Is there a problem in the strategy Trainer Minamizaka gave me?!
Tannhauser's tactical processor melted down.
Should I follow them?! Do I accelerate and overtake Glory Charge too?!
—
Up in the stands, Minamizaka clutched his head in despair.
"Tannhauser is going to get completely dizzy now! Her tactical sensitivity is already fragile, and with explosive action happening both ahead and behind her, she might just blindly accelerate with them!"
"What's wrong with going for the lead?!" Twin Turbo pouted, crossing her arms. "She should just charge to the absolute front in one go!"
"Mihono Bourbon has already accelerated. If Tannhauser doesn't match her here, she risks falling out of contention entirely. It proves that while Tannhauser possesses an excellent burst of speed, she hasn't created much of a physical gap compared to Bourbon."
Ikuno Dictus analyzed, calmly pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
"Accelerating here is a mathematically viable response."
"Following them is one thing, but does Tannhauser possess the race IQ to know when to rein it back in and return to a cruising state?"
Minamizaka groaned helplessly.
Ikuno Dictus fell silent. Given Tannhauser's notoriously erratic race management, she couldn't confidently defend her teammate's pacing judgment.
But miraculously, after ruthlessly dispatching Meisho Centro, Rice Shower slowly and deliberately throttled down, melting back into a flawless cruising state and leaving a comforting half-length gap between herself and Tannhauser.
Seeing the Black Rose stabilize, Mihono Bourbon also returned to her cruising rhythm. The sudden de-escalation rescued Tannhauser's brain from a complete tactical meltdown.
"Phew—thank the Goddesses. Rice Shower and Mihono Bourbon have zero intention of starting their bloodbath here." Minamizaka let out a massive sigh of relief. "If they wait until the final straight to truly detonate, Tannhauser might just conserve enough stamina to survive."
"If it actually unfolds like that, maybe Tannhauser could challenge those two monsters!"
Nice Nature noted, a spark of hope in her eyes.
"To actually win is still a bit—"
Minamizaka swallowed his pessimistic realism. As the pillar of Team Canopus, he knew how desperately his girls hungered for a G1 crown. He refused to crush their fragile hope with cold logic.
While Team Canopus breathed a sigh of relief, Shuta An and Rice Shower were immensely satisfied with the board state.
Mihono Bourbon, having reclaimed her beloved front, felt a wave of synthetic contentment.
Only Kuronuma and Glory Charge were left in agony.
Can I catch up?! Can I take back the throne that belongs to me?!
Glory Charge swung her legs with frantic desperation, but her speed simply refused to climb.
Taking the front of the pack here—Bourbon, can your legs genuinely survive these last 1000 meters?
Kuronuma frowned, his eyes locked on the terrifying, dark shadow of the Blue Rose cruising effortlessly just a few lengths behind his cyborg.
As the field thundered down the backstretch opposite the grandstands, the synchronized, aggressive maneuvering of Bourbon and Rice Shower sent chaotic shockwaves through the pack. Lesser runners, panicked by the sudden surge of the favorites, blindly abandoned their own pacing strategies to chase them, artificially spiking the overall tempo of the race.
"Even on the grandest stage of the Classic Triple Crown, the mental fortitude of the vast majority of this field is tragically fragile."
Shuta An critiqued, looking back at Kurofune and Admire Vega.
"You must possess an ironclad understanding of your own internal rhythm. Never let an opponent dictate your pulse. These girls who are destroying their own pacing to make irrational, reactionary accelerations are digging their own graves."
"Run your own rhythm. Do not be consumed by external static."
Admire Vega summarized flawlessly.
"Exactly." Shuta An smiled proudly, turning his gaze to his American runner. "For Kurofune, the grueling rhythm of dirt races differs vastly from turf. You have to anchor yourself to your own instincts even more fiercely."
"I will condition my mind for it."
Kurofune promised, her eyes burning with ambition.
Down on the turf, Rice Shower's entire consciousness began to sharpen into a lethal, singular point.
Having witnessed Mejiro Dober shatter the metaphysical boundaries of the "Zone" the previous week, the Black Assassin was desperate to use Mihono Bourbon as the ultimate whetstone to test her own further awakening.
As she carved through the backstretch, Rice Shower began gathering her concentration, coiling the focus tightly. But recognizing her own inexperience, she exercised terrifying restraint.
Wait. Just a little longer.
Rice told herself, locking her focus entirely on her cruising state.
At least wait until the midpoint of the final bend. I must calibrate this perfectly.
Unaware of the catastrophic weapon being forged behind her, Mihono Bourbon felt a profound, synthetic relief. The suffocating, oppressive gravity of being marked had mysteriously vanished from her sensors.
Is she no longer marking me?
Bourbon calculated. Assuming the threat had faded, the cyborg shifted her entire processing power to optimizing her own stride.
She looks like she's running much more comfortably now.
Kuronuma noted, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly.
It was a mistake to waste stamina trailing Glory Charge. But she is relaxed now. Maintain this operational state, Bourbon, and crush her on the final straight!
But Kuronuma's fragile hope was about to be violently, permanently extinguished.
As they crossed the exact mathematical midpoint of the final bend, Rice Shower closed her eyes. Following the vivid, ethereal guidance Tokai Teio had imparted to her, she threw her entire soul against the invisible wall in her mind.
Shatter.
In the next fraction of a second, Kuronuma's face contorted in absolute horror.
What is happening?!
Without a single preparatory shift in her biomechanics, Rice Shower's velocity exploded. It was as if the small, delicate girl from Team Sadalsuud had been violently launched from a catapult. In a handful of terrifying, silent strides, she left behind Matikane Tannhauser and rapidly closed the agonizing distance to Mihono Bourbon.
Up in the VIP Box, Shuta An didn't even blink.
"This is the legacy of Team Sadalsuud."
The young man murmured, a proud, dangerous smile playing on his lips.
Teio had extracted the secrets of the Zone from Oguri Cap and Silence Suzuka, passing the torch directly to Rice Shower.
Shuta An knew Bourbon possessed the innate hardware to touch the Zone, but Kuronuma lacked the software to guide her there. Kuronuma likely didn't even comprehend the metaphysical realm Rice had just entered.
Seeing the sheer, catastrophic violence of Rice Shower's acceleration, Minamizaka's heart sank like a stone. He knew instantly that Tannhauser had zero mathematical chance of surviving.
Is our foundation truly this lacking? he agonized. I have to ask An-san for guidance. If my girls are bleeding for a dream, I have to find a way to elevate them.
When Mihono Bourbon officially turned into the final straight, the quiet joy in her core was instantaneously vaporized. Because she realized, with a shock that bypassed all her logical dampeners, that Rice Shower was already running shoulder-to-shoulder with her.
The Black Assassin had moved with such terrifying, silent efficiency that she hadn't triggered a single one of Bourbon's proximity alarms until she was already there. To the cyborg, Rice Shower had simply teleported into her blind spot.
And Rice Shower's stamina reserves were completely, utterly full. Even with 400 grueling meters left to the finish line, she didn't hesitate. Immersed in the absolute zero of the Zone, she detonated her final sprint.
I cannot be overtaken like this!
Bourbon's emotional dampeners completely shattered, her synthetic heart roaring with a desperate, human fire.
I will not lose to her again!
But the cold, beautiful Blue Rose paid absolutely no heed to her rival's desperation. Tearing through the vicious headwind of the Kyoto Racecourse, her hand resting on the phantom hilt of her blade, Rice Shower executed a blatant, flawless assassination on the grandest stage of them all.
"THE REGRET OF THE SATSUKI SHO! THE LINGERING DOUBTS OF THE JAPANESE DERBY! RICE SHOWER IS SWEEPING THEM ALL AWAY IN THE AUTUMN WINDS OF KYOTO!"
The live commentator screamed, his voice reaching a hysterical crescendo.
"THE UMA MUSUME DESTINED TO CLAIM THE DERBY-KIKUKA DOUBLE CROWN—A MIRACLE UNSEEN FOR DECADES—IS BEING BORN BEFORE OUR VERY EYES!"
"MIHONO BOURBON IS GIVING EVERYTHING SHE HAS, BUT RICE SHOWER HAS ALREADY TORN A FULL LENGTH AHEAD! MATIKANE TANNHAUSER IS DETONATING HER SPRINT IN THIRD, BUT IT IS TRAGICALLY TOO LATE!"
"EVERY SINGLE WHISPER THAT HER DERBY VICTORY WAS A FLUKE IS BEING VIOLENTLY SHATTERED BY HER OWN TWO LEGS! ON THE STAGE THAT DETERMINES THE ABSOLUTE APEX OF HER GENERATION, RICE SHOWER HAS OPENED A THREE-LENGTH CHASM! TWO HUNDRED METERS LEFT! SHE IS ONLY ACCELERATING!"
"BOURBON TRIES TO CLAW HER WAY BACK, BUT IT IS OVER! RICE SHOWER IS OFFERING NO MERCY! SHE IS FORCING BOURBON TO TASTE THE EXACT DESPAIR SHE FELT IN THE SPRING!"
"THE BITTER REGRET BORN AT NAKAYAMA HAS TRANSFORMED INTO A MAGNIFICENT, BLOOMING BLACK ROSE AT KYOTO! RICE SHOWER CROSSES THE WIRE! 3 MINUTES, 4.4 SECONDS! AN ABSOLUTE, DOMINANT, THREE-LENGTH SLAUGHTER!"
Having burned every ounce of her soul into the Kyoto turf, Rice Shower swept past the finish line like a phantom gale, kicking away the ghosts of her past.
I did it.
At the exact moment she crossed the wire, the terrifying aura of the Black Assassin melted away. The small, Black Deer-haired girl blinked back hot, overwhelming tears, desperately turning her head toward the VIP stands, searching the sea of faces for the one person who had never, ever doubted her.