"THEY'RE COMING INTO THE FIRST Corner, AND SUZUKA HAS FIFTEEN LENGTHS! FIFTEEN! I can barely believe what I'm seeing here, folks! Meanwhile, behind her, it's a war for second place! Vega's holding on, but Biwa Heidi is right there challenging her!"
The announcer's voice cracked with excitement, practically vibrating through the speakers as he tried to call everything happening at once.
"Biwa Heidi is accelerating! She's found something extra coming out of the corner, and she's not giving up on this! Vega's feeling the pressure, you can see it in her form!"
Behind them, the rest of the pack was fragmented, each uma musume fighting their own battle. Some were trying to find gaps on the rail, others were swinging wide to find clear running room. Bodies jostled for position, hooves thundering against the wet turf as they navigated the turn.
Suzuka leaned into the corner, her body angled just right to carry her speed through the curve without losing momentum. The rail flashed past on her left, the outside fence a blur on her right. She could feel the track beneath her, every variation in the dirt, every slight elevation change.
This was what she'd trained for. This moment, this feeling of running faster than anyone thought possible, and still having more to give.
The backstretch opened up ahead of her, and Suzuka let herself fly across the race field.
Behind her, the pack was starting to feel it. Breathing came harder now, each gulp of air not quite enough. The track had been soaked by morning rain, and while it wasn't slowing anyone down, the soft turf demanded more from every stride. Your hooves had to push harder for the same traction, had to work against the give in the ground. Clumps of wet dirt flew up with each step, spattering legs and faces, the damp air clinging to hair and skin.
For Uma Musume without the raw power to compensate, these conditions were brutal. Just maintaining speed took everything they had, cores engaged and burning as they fought to keep their balance through each stride.
Suzuka barely seemed to notice. Where others hammered against the track, their hooves thudding heavy and desperate, she ran light. Almost soundless. Like a swallow cutting through the wind, touching down just enough to push off again. The wet ground that was draining everyone else didn't touch her the same way.
"Look at her form!" someone in the stands shouted. "She's not even fighting the track!"
This was her race. Her conditions. While everyone else burned stamina just to keep up, Suzuka glided.
Way up in Hokkaido, in a small cabin deep in the woods, a young uma musume pressed her face so close to the TV screen her breath fogged the glass.
"Go, go, GO! You can do it!" Special Week's voice cracked with excitement, her small fists clenched tight.
"Spe-chan, you're going to break the TV," her mother said with a laugh, but she was watching just as intently.
"Mom, did you see that?! She's so fast!" Special Week's eyes were practically glowing. Ever since she'd seen Silence Suzuka run for the first time, something had clicked inside her. This was what she wanted to be. "That's Silence Suzuka, right? She's the best Uma Musume racer ever!"
"Then you'll need to work even harder if you want to race like her someday. You need to pass that entrance exam for Tracen Academy first."
"I know! I'm gonna pass this year for sure!" Special Week nodded so hard her whole body moved with it. "I'm gonna become Japan's number one uma musume!"
Living out here, she'd never met another uma musume her age. Had never trained with anyone, never raced anyone. In her worldview, Silence Suzuka wasn't just strong, she was the absolute standard. The only one that mattered.
Back on the track, Biwa Heidi's jaw ached from how hard she was clenching her teeth. She'd trained for a month specifically to challenge Suzuka, had pushed herself past every limit she thought she had. And it wasn't enough. Suzuka was a completely different person from the one she'd raced four weeks ago.
"You don't think she's planning to lap us, do you?" The uma musume running beside her sounded somewhere between furious and humiliated.
Biwa Heidi glanced ahead at Suzuka's shrinking form. The way she was running, maintaining that insane pace heading into the corner? It actually seemed possible.
This was the Oka Sho. A mile race against the best three-year-old fillies in the country. Every single uma musume here had earned their spot. And Suzuka was making them look like they didn't belong.
Everyone expected her to ease off before the corner. That's what most Uma Musume would do, slow down, take the corner carefully, then pick up the pace again. Basic race strategy.
Suzuka accelerated instead. Only after she'd already entered the corner did she ease off slightly, her body leaning into the curve like she'd been born doing it.
The timer flashed: first 1000 meters in 56.61 seconds.
Someone in the booth let out a low whistle. "That's sprint race speed. She just ran the opening kilometer like it's a thousand-meter dash, and she's got six hundred meters to go."
"SHE'S GOING FOR THE RECORD! Ladies and gentlemen, Silence Suzuka just posted fifty-six point six for her opening kilometer! That's FASTER than most Uma Musume run in dedicated sprint races! We could be watching history here!"
The announcer's voice had gone up half an octave, words tumbling over each other in his rush to get them out.
In the stands, the conversation had shifted. Nobody was asking if Suzuka would win anymore. The question now was whether she'd break the course record, and if she did, by how much.
"She's even faster than Maruzensky was!"
"Think she'll beat the record?"
"Beat it? At this pace, she might demolish it!"
Maruzensky's name kept coming up, the legend that every front-runner got measured against. For over a decade, her records had stood untouched except for one time.
A few rows back, Hayato glanced at the woman sitting beside him. "Maruzensky, everyone's talking about you. How's that feel?"
Maruzensky smiled that perpetual smile of hers, one finger tapping against her lips. "Oh my, I didn't expect so many people would still remember me." She struck a pose that would've made a photographer weep, then winked directly at him.
Compared to Seiun Sky's subtle charm, Maruzensky's seductive power was weapons-grade. Not even close to the same league.
"Such a shame she's debuted her so early this year," Maruzensky continued, her tone light but her eyes sharp. "You could've let her take a shot at the Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes. See if she could break my record there."
"Don't worry. I've got another Uma Musume who'll break that one." Hayato nodded toward Grass Wonder, who was standing with the cheering squad, trying very hard to look like she wasn't listening to every word.
Even without his involvement, Grass Wonder would break that Asahi Hai record this year anyway. That was just how it was going to go.
"Oh my! You mean Grass-chan? Well, that's certainly possible."
"Maruzensky-san." Grass Wonder stepped out from the squad, her smile sweet enough to cause cavities. "Could you maybe not flirt with my trainer? Don't you already have one?"
Despite the sweet tone, her eyes said something entirely different.
She and Maruzensky were actually close. Being a foreign Uma Musume herself, Grass Wonder had latched onto Maruzensky early on as a mentor. That's why Grass Wonder knew so many tactics despite not having a trainer, Maruzensky had been teaching her.
"'Your trainer'?" Maruzensky reached out and brushed the back of her hand across Grass Wonder's cheek, the gesture intimate and deliberately provocative. "He belongs to everyone, doesn't he? Or are you trying to hog him all to yourself? How stingy."
Grass Wonder's smile never wavered. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Maruzensky-san."
Her face smiled. Her voice smiled. The metaphorical knife behind her back definitely smiled. But her tone had dropped several degrees below freezing.
Hayato, despite knowing they were mostly joking, still took two careful steps back. Sometimes, it was just smarter to play it safe.
The real reason for Suzuka's early debut was simple: age. She was already too old to qualify for the Asahi Hai, which was restricted to two-year-olds. Some opportunities only came once, and you either took them or they were gone forever.