A/N: The exam is over, but I found that I can't do a chap per day like before. My lazy ahh is procrastinating...
Anyways, daily check-ins... Meisho Doto is so cute :3
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"What?! Run that by me again?!"
Silver Tear's surprise voice cracked through the room, sharp enough to grab everyone's attention. She leaned forward, palms flat on Dante's desk, eyes wide in disbelief.
Dante sighed, already rubbing his temple. He had gone through the same disbelief when the news first reached him, so this reaction hardly surprised him. "Oguri Cap can't enter the Triple Crown Classics. Her registration was submitted too late."
Silver Tear stared at him as though the words themselves made no sense.
"Too late?" She repeated.
"That's it? You're telling me that is the only reason?"
"Yes. It's not 'that simple'." Dante replied, though his tone stayed measured.
"The registration deadline for the Classic races is strict as hell. Once it passes, that's it. No exception was ever made in the past."
Her hands curled into fists at his calm words.
"But she's the 'Oguri Cap'. She is the 'Monster'." Silver Tear shot back.
"She's a Star. Everyone knows she's a strong racer. You're telling me none of it counts?" Silver Tear's voice rose, frustration bleeding through.
"Don't give me that crap…" Her voice lowered at the end as if she was pleading none of this was true.
Uma Musume's career had its limit. Injuries, accidents, or unseen complications could end it without warning.
Now, on top of that uncertainty, narrow judgment and inflexible rules had barred Oguri Cap from ever reaching the most prestigious stage of all.
A star she had been chasing was snuffed out, not on the track, but under a pile of paperwork.
The mere thought sat wrong in her chest, heavy and bitter.
But there was nothing she could do. She had neither the power nor the influence to change the outcome.
She was a part of this cruel system, bound by the same rules that had crushed many dreams and hopes while racking money from it.
The realization left a sour taste in her mouth. Disgust welled up from the bottom of her heart, the corrosive feeling gnawing at what little pride she still held onto as a fellow runner.
She slumped into the chair, resting her forearm over her eyes, feeling exhausted all over.
"That's exactly why people are upset." Dante leaned back against the chair, expression tight.
"Talent doesn't mean shit in the procedure. The system doesn't care how good you are if you weren't entered on time. Haha, what a shitty industry we found ourselves in." He chuckled bitterly.
Silence hung between them.
Silver Tear straightened slowly, jaw clenched. The excitement she usually carried when Oguri Cap's name came up was gone, replaced by something colder.
"So she will never get the chance. Not because she wasn't good enough. Just paperwork. That's just plain bullshit."
Dante nodded. "That's the reality of it."
She looked away, eyes narrowing as if staring at something far beyond the walls. "That's fucking… ridiculous."
"Unfair. Yes." Dante corrected quietly. "And yet, it's completely legal."
Silver Tear exhaled, fists tightening at her sides. "The Triple Crown's supposed to be about proving who's the best."
The situation left him with the same sense of helplessness and regret, though a colder thought surfaced alongside it–a strong rival had been removed from the contest.
Still, a glance at Silver Tear told him that this was never what she wanted.
She often joked about money, about squeezing every bit of profit out of racing, and wearing a nonchalant expression like a mask.
Yet beneath that facade, she had always cared about the racers she recognized as the so-called 'Stars'.
Dante reached out and rested a hand on her head, ruffling her hair.
He found out that the feeling was quite… addictive? The softness of her ears, the smooth hair, even the pouty expression she was displaying on full front—No!! Dante, hold your horse!!
"Stop it~ Mhmm~" Silver Tear let out a small huff and turned away, lips pursed in protest, but she didn't swat his hand away.
After a moment, Dante removed his hand away, his gaze drifting upward, settling on the ceiling fan as it turned with a steady, indifferent rhythm.
Round and round, never changing pace, never stopping–an almost mocking reminder of how things worked in this racing industry.
"The system was built to keep moving." He said after a moment, voice calm but weighed down by restraint.
"It doesn't pause for individuals, no matter how exceptional they are. Rules exist to make everything manageable. Fair, on paper."
He exhaled slowly. "But once those rules harden into absolutes, they stop protecting the sport and start protecting themselves. Even when it's obvious who gets hurt in the end."
The fan continued its rotation above them, uncaring.
"I can understand why the board won't bend." Dante went on.
"If they do it once, it becomes a precedent. There will be many more times after that. And follow it, the prestigious races become… ordinary." His fingers tightened briefly against the armrest.
"But knowing that doesn't make it easier to accept."
His eyes lowered at last, the motion deliberate. "Rationally, there's nothing to talk about here. Emotionally, it feels like watching something valuable get ground down to dust, over and over, by a cold and emotionless machine. One that I–no, WE have become a part of."
"...It's just too sad, isn't it?" Silver Tear's voice broke through, fragile and cracking. She understood everything he said. But because she understood it everything so clearly that made it even harder to bear.
It felt like a rusty blade turning slowly in her chest, making her feel the pain without ever killing her.
"...So, what are you gonna do now, Silver-chan?" Dante asked, unable to bear the sight of his Uma being this dejected and disheartened.
Before she could answer, he spoke again. "Whatever choice you make, I'll help you."
Silver Tear hesitated. "…Even if it's a really bad one?"
"Even if it's one hell of a decision that can make me regret it in the future." He smiled.
Silver Tear stared at him for a long time, as if weighing something she had kept close for far too long. Her shoulders stayed tense, her expression guarded, the distance she put between herself and others still firmly in place.
"…Why go that far for me?" She asked quietly, genuinely confused why someone like Dante would go through such length with her.
Even if he didn't care about her outside of the race, she wouldn't have blamed him. Because they were supposed to only have a relationship of trainer and trainee, bound by a single paper contract.
Dante didn't answer right away. He met her gaze without flinching, his tone simple, almost matter-of-fact. "Because the moment we sign that contract, we're already partners, aren't we?"
The words were plain, offered without flourish, and that was what made them difficult to deflect.
Silver Tear fell silent, then a small laugh slipped out, light and brittle all at once.
"You're dumb as fuck, Danteh~"
He clicked his tongue, already regretting it. "Tch. Shouldn't have said that. Now you're going to tease me about it for at least a week."
She smiled, softer this time. "But hey, I'm dumb too, so that makes two of us."
Yet beneath that self-deprecating undertone, she felt a flame kindling in her chest. Dante's words reminded her that she was no longer standing alone, bracing herself against everything by sheer will.
A memory surfaced. That ordinary day in the canteen when she first met him. And, for the first time, she understood what that lingering feeling had been.
It was grateful.
Before Dante could react, she was already striding toward the door.
"H–Hey. Where are you going?" He asked, startled.
She paused in front of the door, hand on the knob, and glanced back over her shoulder.
"I'm going to commit a Sin." She said, flashing a brilliant smile at him. "My partner in crime."
The moment Dante saw that expression, his pupils constricted. It was the same look she wore when she had already made up her mind–reckless, unyielding, and far too calm for what she was about to do.
Silver Tear was nothing like the image he once held of a proper Uma Musume. She was lazy as heck, endlessly pestered him over the smallest things, and carried more bad habits than he cared to count.
Yet in that moment, Dante could only stare at Silver Tear in a daze, his mind caught in that dazzling figure of her.
Click–
The lock clicked into place.
Only then did Dante snap back to reality.
"...Hahaha…" Dante let out the same self-deprecating laugh as Silver Tear did just now.
Silver Tear influenced everyone around her in the most unexpected way. She didn't give them hope, nor did she sell them dreams.
Instead, by finding the courage to go against the current, fully aware that it might change nothing, she had encouraged Dante to find the resolve to face the one person he feared most.
"…Have I finally gone crazy? To think I would crawl back to the very place I ran away." He muttered.
He reached for his phone and dialed a number he had been avoiding for a long time.
"Fate is truly a bitch."
[Binah]
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A/N: Get the title eh?