"The race has now passed 1,400 meters. We're past the halfway point, and El Condor Pasa is still in the lead! The gap to second place has grown to ten lengths!"
On the track, El Condor Pasa charged forward like an eagle spreading its wings, her whole body radiating a blazing aura. Throughout the race, she had kept her skills flowing one after another without interruption, displaying a level of power that seemed to come from another dimension. It was so overwhelming that it left people stunned.
The super genius who had returned from America was finally showing her extraordinary strength on a first-rate stage.
Some had questioned El Condor Pasa before this. Yes, she had been powerful in her debut race and in GII competition, but surely GI would be different. Now, however, El Condor Pasa was proving herself all over again. Her talent and ability were the real thing. Even at GI level, she could seize victory with ease.
"She's incredible. It feels like she's already won," one spectator said admiringly, completely won over by El Condor Pasa's performance. She was simply too strong. As things stood, no one in Japan seemed capable of matching her.
Another spectator murmured in disbelief, "Silence Suzuka, Special Week, even King Halo... El Condor Pasa has them all under control. So this is America's super genius? It feels like she's on a completely different level. And this is her first time running as the pace-setter."
Her flexible running style and raw strength made her seem like a monster of talent, even more gifted than King Halo had appeared before. At least King Halo had restrictions on her running style. But El Condor Pasa was showing this kind of performance the very first time she took the lead. That meant she was fully capable of using the Runner strategy.
Nishizaki Ryuya clicked his tongue. "No wonder they call her the [Secret Weapon]. No wonder Hana had so much confidence in this girl!"
But...
Was King Halo really going to lose like this?
It did not feel likely.
Nishizaki had not seen through anything in particular. It was only his intuition telling him this race could not possibly end here. After all, he had been watching King Halo ever since her first practice race. He knew very well that King Halo's true strength was not something that could be measured by what she had shown in one or two races. What made King Halo truly terrifying was that, to this day, no one had ever forced her to go all out.
To people who did not understand King Halo, she might look as though El Condor Pasa's strength had frightened her, as though she had been cornered and left with no way to act.
But Nishizaki could not shake the feeling that this was not the case.
King Halo was far too calm. Just like... yes, just like in her previous races.
That serenity, as if everything remained within the palm of her hand. How could someone wearing that expression possibly have been suppressed by her opponent?
Nishizaki did not believe this race would end so simply.
Elsewhere, El Condor Pasa's Trainer, Hana Tojo, was thinking the same thing. Under normal circumstances, seeing El Condor Pasa hold such a commanding advantage should have made her happy.
But when she saw how the race had developed, she could not feel happy at all. It had gone too smoothly. Too ideally.
This was the best-case development she had imagined while planning their tactics. But precisely because it had only been an imagined best case, she knew it was unrealistic. King Halo could not possibly be an opponent of only this level. If she were, she would never have been so troublesome in the first place.
If King Halo had fallen into this situation because something was wrong with her condition, Hana could understand it.
The problem was that the information Hana saw through her "eyes" told her King Halo's condition was good. That made the current situation bizarre. For what reason would King Halo ignore El Condor Pasa and allow their tactics to unfold so perfectly that even Hana herself would never have dared imagine it? The moment she thought about it in detail, a chill ran through her entire body.
"El, don't let your guard down!"
She prayed silently. If El Condor Pasa really believed King Halo had already lost, then Hana had a premonition that El Condor Pasa would suffer a crushing defeat today. She had studied King Halo. She knew King Halo was an intellectual type of runner.
That was why Hana had never believed, not from the beginning, that King Halo would fail to see through their tactics. She had even prepared countermeasures for that possibility in advance. But King Halo's current response fell outside her predictions. This race had already slipped beyond her control.
"King Halo, the favorite, and Special Week, the second favorite, are still in these positions. Are they still not planning to make a move? If this continues, El Condor Pasa will stretch the gap into something terrifying! Will this be where the race is decided?"
The commentator seemed to be leaning toward El Condor Pasa now. That kind of thing was common. When one runner stood out too much and opened a gap far beyond the rest of the field, commentators naturally began to favor that runner.
In previous races, some commentators had been biased toward King Halo. But in today's race, under the current circumstances, El Condor Pasa's performance was undeniably worthy of the spotlight. By comparison, King Halo and Special Week both gave the impression that El Condor Pasa's dominance had frightened them so badly that they no longer knew how to run.
Of course, that was not what was actually happening.
But the spectators and commentators could not read minds. Naturally, they had no way of knowing what King Halo and Special Week were thinking.
When Special Week heard the commentary, she finally began to lose patience. She did not know how King Halo could remain so calm, but this position was already dangerously far back for her. If she kept hesitating, she would be forced to watch El Condor Pasa take the crown right before her eyes. At that thought, her expression sharpened.
"I can't wait anymore. It's now!"
[Comet (Flash)] activated!
Special Week surged forward with a burst of speed. Under the crowd's astonished gazes, and under King Halo's smiling eyes, she began her charge.
Behind Special Week, Grass Wonder activated as well, following closely in her wake.
If Grass Wonder wanted to secure victory for her teammate El Condor Pasa, then the best move right now would have been to keep marking King Halo. But Grass Wonder had never intended to play support for El Condor Pasa. She had only one goal: defeat Special Week. For that, she could even disregard whether she won or lost this race.
"Special Week and Grass Wonder are making their move!"
The commentator shouted with excitement.
It would certainly be thrilling if El Condor Pasa took the race in such dominant fashion. Still, something had felt lacking. Before the race began, everyone had wanted to see fierce competition among these prodigies. Yet up to this point, there had been no intense clash at all. The entire race had been El Condor Pasa's solo show.
And now Special Week had finally fired the first shot.
"Spe-chan?"
El Condor Pasa also heard the commentator.
She had not expected the one to challenge her to be Special Week, whom she had not considered a threat from the start, rather than King Halo.
Even so, she acknowledged Special Week's ability. Faced with Special Week's challenge, she showed the fighting spirit such a challenge deserved.
"Come on, Spe-chan!"
That was what El Condor Pasa thought, but she had no intention of holding back here. In fact, she pushed even harder. Until now, she had only been using basic skills to maintain her state, but at this moment she brought out an advanced skill. She had even prepared herself to use a Flash Skill the instant they entered the final corner. Only going all out was a proper response to a challenger. At least, that was what El Condor Pasa believed.
Seiun Sky, who had originally been in second, also began to move. If Special Week could think of it, then of course Seiun Sky could too. She understood very clearly that she could no longer wait. The one she most wanted to deal with was King Halo, but something was strange with Halo-chan today, and Seiun Sky could not guess what she was thinking.
So Seiun Sky began her own burst as well.
But the instant they moved, a radiant figure suddenly shot out of the pack, wrapped in a green aura.
It was Silence Suzuka!
After repeated mistakes throughout the race, Silence Suzuka had finally begun to recover her form at this critical moment.
Just as Special Week and the others started to explode forward, the shifting formation finally gave Silence Suzuka a chance to break free of the enclosure. In the early stage, El Condor Pasa's targeting had knocked her down before she even had a chance to show her strength. After that, she had been trapped by the other runners and unable to find an opening. But that did not mean she had truly given up.
It was true that this kind of race was not fun at all.
Even so, Silence Suzuka did not want to lose.
Ever since losing to King Halo in the Satsuki Sho, Silence Suzuka had understood that racing was not what she had always imagined it to be. It was not all joy. And compared with this painful feeling, losing a race would hurt even more. That was why the Silence Suzuka of now would rather change herself than ever experience the feeling of defeat again.
"That speed!"
Seiun Sky stared in alarm at Silence Suzuka as she rushed past.
In the stands, Nishizaki Ryuya looked at the scene with excitement.
"Go, Suzuka! Go, Spe!"
"What an unexpected development! Silence Suzuka has broken out of the pack at this point! She's so fast! Is this the speed of the runner called the fastest active competitor?!" Even the commentator was shocked. When he had seen Silence Suzuka, a Runner, fail to hold the lead, he had assumed she had already been eliminated from contention in this race.
He had never expected that Silence Suzuka had been waiting for an opportunity.
El Condor Pasa froze when she heard the commentary.
"Suzuka?!"
That girl, whom she had already stopped viewing as an opponent, had revived?
What kind of joke was that? Even if she revived now, it was far too late!
El Condor Pasa had always acted as though she looked down on Silence Suzuka, but the moment she heard Suzuka's name, she would instinctively tense up. Even El Condor Pasa herself did not know why she felt that way. Only King Halo knew the reason. Silence Suzuka and El Condor Pasa were [destined rivals], and when El Condor Pasa faced Silence Suzuka, she belonged to the side more likely to lose. It was only natural for her to be subconsciously wary of Silence Suzuka.
And Silence Suzuka truly did not disappoint King Halo's expectations.
No.
It would be more accurate to say that everything was within King Halo's predictions.
She had long since noticed that something was off about Silence Suzuka's condition.
Moreover, in the future she had "seen," if King Halo herself did not exist, then Silence Suzuka might have been able to turn this race around. Silence Suzuka's sealed inner world had already begun to change. If she successfully broke that inner world open, then she would almost certainly awaken her ZONE.
If El Condor Pasa was the second protagonist of this world, then Silence Suzuka's position was that of the "Great Sage," the unquestioned ceiling of the early story, the goal the protagonist most wanted to become.
As for who the great final boss was?
That would naturally be Montjeu.
After all, if one asked who Special Week's greatest rival was, the answer had to be Montjeu. El Condor Pasa could not compare with Montjeu.
So from the very beginning, the conclusion of this race had already been decided.
"Your defeat was already inevitable."
King Halo also began to move.
El Condor Pasa still appeared to hold the advantage, but that advantage was already an illusion. Now that she had been marked by an awakened Silence Suzuka, El Condor Pasa was destined to have no chance of victory.
The race entered the final corner.
El Condor Pasa immediately unleashed her Flash Skill.
She did not possess King Halo's ability to process information, nor did she know as much as King Halo did. But her instincts were sounding an alarm. She did not know why, but she felt that her current situation was extremely dangerous, as if she would lose the instant she let up even slightly.
"Impossible. How could I lose?"
Yet behind her, Silence Suzuka was still accelerating. The green aura around her grew denser and more tangible. It was neither lightning nor flame, but a gale. Silence Suzuka was displaying another type of ZONE. Beneath that aura, she completed a second-stage acceleration with startling ease. It felt almost like a technique of earth-shrinking, as though she had folded the distance beneath her feet. The explosive speed in that instant was astonishing. At the rear of the final corner, Silence Suzuka successfully caught up to El Condor Pasa in her unleashed state.
El Condor Pasa looked back in disbelief.
When she saw Silence Suzuka drenched in sweat, yet with eyes shining brighter than ever, her expression twisted at once.
"Impossible!"
Why could you catch up? Why can you still catch up? You're clearly not my opponent!
El Condor Pasa was not the only one losing composure.
Even Hana Tojo in the stands looked utterly incredulous. This development had never appeared in her predictions. She looked toward Nishizaki Ryuya, who was shouting wildly nearby, unable to understand it. Had Nishizaki truly managed to raise Suzuka to this level?
But the truth was this:
Silence Suzuka had always been only one step away. It was just that the old Silence Suzuka had never faced that kind of pressure, nor had she felt such a fierce refusal to lose. That was why she had never entered this realm. But after her defeat in the Satsuki Sho, Silence Suzuka had grown.
Today, El Condor Pasa had simply run straight into the line of fire.
"I will never let anyone else have this scenery!"
Silence Suzuka made up her mind.
In the next instant, her inner world erupted. The aura of ZONE fully released, and Silence Suzuka completed her overtake at the exit of the corner. Feeling the storm sweep past her, El Condor Pasa's eyes began to redden.
"ZONE? You think that's enough to beat me?!"
...
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