"Rigil really is enviable. They found two outstanding prospects at once!"
A man hid in a corner of the training grounds, observing Rigil's area through binoculars from a distance. As he watched the two umamusume competing against each other, he was practically drooling with envy.
He did not need to examine their legs to see that both girls had the potential to grow into aces.
Their talent had already begun to blossom without any serious cultivation. They were the type who only needed to join a team before carrying their Trainer straight to success along with them.
It was so unfair.
Nishizaki Ryuya stared greedily at those two promising seedlings.
Rigil was Rigil, after all. It did not even have to search for good prospects. The moment those geniuses entered Tracen Academy, they voluntarily went and knocked on Rigil's door.
No other training team could hope for that.
"While Rigil enjoys another bumper harvest, our situation is as bleak as last year."
Nishizaki shook his head with a bitter sigh. He knew no one wanted to join his side.
Even the few runners he currently coached had not been recruited through ordinary channels. His strange member-recruitment department had practically kidnapped them through one scheme or another. It was a miracle no one had noticed and put a sack over his head yet.
Spica's current members might have promising futures, but they were still far from being ready to debut.
So this year, he desperately wanted one more person.
He wanted a talent who could enter her debut race before the year was out!
If possible, that girl named Special Week was exactly what he wanted. The video of her entrance-exam simulation had caught his eye, but he had never expected Rigil to snatch her away on her very first day.
If the girl had skipped this recruitment trial, or had failed to reveal her true strength, he might have found a way to trick her into joining Spica first. But now that her hidden ability had been exposed, Hana Tojo would never let her go.
And he did not dare poach another one of Rigil's members.
He had only recently stolen one girl from them. If he made another move now, Hana Tojo really might run him down.
Damn it. He so rarely fell in love at first sight!
If he had not already found several suitable members and trained them to a reasonable level, this blow might have been unbearable. Nishizaki gazed at Special Week with profound longing.
"It must be nice, Hana. Damn you!"
His face twisted with jealousy.
Then, as though remembering something delightful, he broke into a wicked grin.
"Since you took the girl I wanted, I absolutely have to steal your precious treasure!"
Si-lence Su-zu-ka—
Come to Spica!
Spica needs its savior! Without you, Spica would be like the empire on which the sun never rises... without the sun!
Without you, dear Suzuka, we...
Nishizaki held up his binoculars with a furtive air and a deeply suspicious expression, frightening several nearby students.
There was a pervert here!
Then again, the fact that Nishizaki and Gold Ship had immediately taken a liking to one another proved that he had the makings of an eccentric Trainer himself. At present, he paid no attention to the looks around him.
"I must gather intelligence on our opponents before someone reports me and has me arrested!" Nishizaki declared with determination.
For the sake of his team's great resurgence, he had to bring something home! He would prove that he was not merely a puppet Trainer controlled by his team members!
"I'm a man who takes action when action is called for!"
The viewpoint returned to the race.
El Condor Pasa had already entered the second straight first.
...
Everyone had initially assumed El would be stronger, yet Special Week was now the one controlling her.
El remained in front, but the composure she had shown at the beginning was gone.
Because...
Less than three lengths behind her, a figure clung stubbornly to the space at her back.
Special Week had latched onto El's slipstream, using the path El opened to reduce her own wind resistance. At the same time, she stayed close enough to pressure El forward, denying her even a moment to relax.
"I'm the one being controlled? How?"
El could not believe it.
How could Special Week be this strong?
It made no sense!
Less than a month had passed since the entrance exam. Special Week could not possibly have reached this level in that time.
"Why is Spe catching me?"
How could Special Week possess such extraordinary speed?
Had she truly become this much stronger in a single month?
Impossible. The idea was absurd.
That left El with only one answer.
"Liar! You deceived everyone!"
Damn it, desu!
Spe, you big liar!
You had definitely concealed your strength during the entrance exam!
You had even put on that entire performance deliberately, hadn't you?
That was despicable, Spe!
The thought that she might now lose to such a deceitful Special Week threatened to leave El depressed all night.
"No!"
"I don't want to lose, desu! I'm going to win!"
To be deceived and then defeated—she could never accept such a thing!
*Move—*
*This amount of pressure is nothing. I'll push it back with sheer guts, desu!*
As El's fighting spirit surged, a faint crimson blaze rose around her body, and she recovered slightly.
Outside the track, Hana Tojo had been frowning for some time.
"El Condor Pasa is being controlled in a head-to-head contest?"
Before the race, she had dismissed the duel as a game between two young girls, hardly worth watching. She had considered the outcome predetermined.
Special Week had grown up on a ranch and received professional training before coming to Tracen Academy, but in Hana's assessment, neither her talent nor her current ability could compare with El Condor Pasa, the prodigy from America.
Once the race began, however, Hana realized how completely wrong her prediction had been.
Even Rigil's Trainer had misjudged someone.
The umamusume called Special Week was a genius no less gifted than El—and perhaps even more so!
Hana acknowledged her own arrogance and corrected her attitude.
This duel deserved her full attention.
As an observer, Hana had recognized the shape of the race before El herself did.
El had already fallen into her opponent's rhythm upon entering the second turn. She simply had not realized it. Had she noticed then, she might still have had a chance.
Instead, El had unconsciously become Special Week's windbreak.
Her earlier acceleration had accomplished nothing. She had wasted stamina fighting the wind, only for her opponent to exploit the effort.
Hana had also identified a flaw in El.
El was fast, but she was unsuited to running at the front.
The moment she took the lead, she lost her feel for the race, as though a blindfold had fallen over her eyes. Worse, she remained completely unaware of it.
That weakness was fatal in competition.
As a Runner, El was far too slow to read the race.
Even if her stats met the necessary standard, Hana would never consider entering her with the Runner strategy after this.
When reviewing El's data, she had contemplated teaching her how to run from the front to broaden their tactical options. After seeing it with her own eyes, she abandoned the idea.
The risk was simply too great.
Compared with El, who had made several mistakes, Special Week's performance left Hana impressed—delighted, even.
"She's calm. You would never think she was a rookie. Even against an opponent as powerful as El Condor Pasa, she responds without panic. She's still unfamiliar with the track, but there are already many striking elements in the way she runs."
Hana could not help smiling at the thought.
What an unexpected discovery.
Without this duel, she might have overlooked Special Week entirely.
And Special Week might possess even greater room for development than El. Even now, she could not display her full strength on a turf course. How powerful would she become once she had completely adapted to the surface?
Hana felt as though she had idly picked up a discarded lottery ticket from the roadside, only to discover it carried the jackpot. The sensation was both absurd and unbelievable.
"No. I'm about to laugh."
The corners of Hana's mouth twitched upward.
She could not laugh out loud now.
If she lost control in front of the new applicants and her team members, the dignity of Rigil's Trainer would be swept away!
While the Trainer nearly lost her battle to keep a straight face, the mood among the team members grew heavy.
They had originally watched the confrontation expecting a show. But after seeing the two girls' performances, they could no longer enjoy themselves. They realized they might not be capable of defeating either newcomer.
Good grief! Were all rookies monsters nowadays?
If any one of them replaced one of the two girls on the track, could she win?
It was difficult to answer.
And an inability to answer was itself an answer.
Back in the race, the duel had passed the halfway mark.
Special Week had drawn even closer to El.
Without anyone noticing precisely when, the gap had shrunk to half a length. Each could now hear the other's breathing clearly.
"She's so strong."
Drenched in sweat, El looked at the shadow running just outside her. It wasn't that she had never attempted to break Special Week's control. But whenever she did, Special Week abruptly moved forward and used that pressure to force El onward again, making escape impossible.
Consequently, El had spent more stamina than expected. Fortunately, endurance was not one of her weaknesses, and amid their recent struggle she had still managed to recover a little.
"This is the first time I've ever felt afraid to be the one running in front. The first person to put me under this kind of pressure—"
"Is you!"
She had no choice but to admit the truth.
At this moment, Special Week was indeed stronger!
But El would not lose!
Until they reached the finish line, victory and defeat remained undecided. Even the weaker runner could still win!
So from this moment onward, she would challenge Special Week with the heart of an underdog!
"I can see the finish!"
The line stood very close to the end of the final straight.
"Once we pass the midpoint of this turn, I'll decide everything in a single burst!"
The thought had barely formed in El's mind when—
Like a blade flashing in darkness!
A cold, sinister sensation struck like a snake and locked viciously around her!
The light nearly vanished from El's eyes.
There would be no chance afterward!
*You have already entered my execution range!*
Beneath Special Week's long hair, her eyes glowed red.
Her racing shoe slammed down, the horseshoe seeming to pierce the earth. In that instant, a ring of white air erupted across the ground!
With a violent tremor—
Special Week launched her sprint without warning!
It happened in less than a heartbeat.
The moment El felt the stab of pain in her abdomen, Special Week's accelerating figure flashed across her vision.
The wind split apart with a shriek, and vapor roared in her wake.
Special Week's feet seemed to fly over the turf!
She raced forward at tremendous speed.
With unstoppable momentum, she charged toward the finish line!
Left behind, El could only stare at her back. The reversal had occurred in an instant. The result had appeared before El could even begin thinking of a response.
There was no time to react.
That was precisely how Special Week had planned it.
The attack came like lightning.
Even if one knew about Special Week's finishing move in advance, there was no time to respond when confronting it in a real race.
"So this is your true strength?"
El was profoundly shaken.
Special Week's sprint was even stronger than the one she had shown during the entrance exam. It did not display the same overwhelming sense of force, but the speed it produced had genuinely risen by several levels.
El knew she had lost.
Her pace began to fall.
The willpower she had gathered was scattered in a single instant by Special Week's final kick.
Special Week did not slow down.
Everyone who had witnessed that moment understood one fact: once that finishing kick emerged, there was absolutely no chance of catching her again!
Watching from the sidelines, Spica's Trainer nearly popped his eyes out of their sockets.
Across all of Tracen Academy, the umamusume capable of answering that finishing kick could be counted on one hand.
There might not be any at all!
"Damn it!"
The more Nishizaki thought about it, the more frustrated and envious he became.
Suddenly, Silence Suzuka no longer seemed quite so appealing.
Spica's true savior should have been Special Week!
That was right. Special Week should have been his goddess!
"Aaaaaagh!"
Why had the umamusume he wanted gone over to Hana's camp?!
Could he still win her over?
Would Hana trade Special Week for Silence Suzuka?
Nishizaki glared through clenched teeth at Hana Tojo in the distance.
"Yes, security. It's that man crouching over there. The pervert spying on the girls!"
Nishizaki heard a commotion nearby.
"Who could be bold enough to sneak into Tracen Academy and peep on students? He actually managed to get inside."
What fearless hero had accomplished such a deed?
Nishizaki looked around curiously.
He had to pay his respects to such a magnificent figure.
Then he noticed everyone staring at him.
Huh?
They were all watching him with disgust and suspicion. He instinctively tried to hide the binoculars in his hand, and his heart sank.
"No!"
"I'm not a pervert!"
"Sir, we received a report. Please cooperate with our investigation."
The Tracen Academy security guard stood before him like a tower.
One glance was enough for Nishizaki to be certain.
This was not someone he could afford to provoke.
He immediately turned and ran.
One second later, he went flying and was pinned to the ground. The muscular guard, built like a professional bodyguard, sat on his back.
"You think I'd let a pervert like you escape? Stop struggling and behave!"
"Ow, ow, ow!"
"Sir, I really am not a pervert! I work here. My employee ID is inside my jacket!"
"You expect me to believe someone like you works here? And even if you do, so what? Does being an employee give you permission to commit crimes and spy on girls?"
The guard restrained Nishizaki with righteous fury.
Nishizaki stared helplessly at the sky. He could already imagine himself appearing in tomorrow's Tracen Academy headlines.
"I've sacrificed too much for Spica."
He had no regrets.
Even if he could do it all over again, he would make the same choice.
For the sake of Spica, he would shirk no hardship as its Trainer!
Besides, he had obtained the intelligence he wanted. That alone made this trip worthwhile!
Although the intelligence was not good news for either him or Spica.
He could already envision it: Rigil's Special Week and El Condor Pasa would become a terrifying mountain looming over every umamusume of their generation.
Their opponents were simply too strong.
Impossible to beat. Completely impossible!
Tell him!
How were they supposed to defeat a cosmic fleet like that?
Nishizaki Ryuya found his answer.
They had to find a member of that cosmic fleet!
Exactly. Only a member of the cosmic fleet could defeat another member of the cosmic fleet!
...
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