Only three days remained until Garden Gale's debut race.
...
I can't lose! I absolutely can't lose!
That was her initial determination.
But as she rushed past the Amazon Hishi marker and pressed down on the stopwatch, Garden Gale glanced at the numbers displayed. Her expression immediately crumbled into disappointment, sweat dripping down her face. She placed her hands on her knees, gasping, feeling the searing pain in her lungs from pushing beyond her limit, the fatigue and aching coursing through her entire body.
It was already four in the morning.
Garden Gale was still training, desperately chasing the faintest possibility of defeating Narita Top Road.
These past few days, she'd given 120% effort, 120% desperation.
But even so...
Even after pushing her body beyond its breaking point, the time on her stopwatch remained utterly abysmal.
It was a completely worthless result! An utterly mediocre Umamusume like this… how could she possibly defeat Narita Top Road and fulfill the bold words she'd spoken?
Thinking this, Garden Gale pressed the reset button on the stopwatch, tightened her fists, stood upright, and locked her gaze on the starting point. She wanted to run again, to go around once more, forcing herself to become stronger.
The moment she took a step forward…
Her muscles, having long exceeded their limits, suddenly lost all strength and control, going completely limp.
Garden Gale immediately collapsed to her knees.
Fortunately.
There was no one else at the training track at this hour. Nobody saw Garden Gale's embarrassing moment. She tried to stand up again but quickly realized she couldn't do it immediately. Defeated, she lay flat on her back, arms spread wide, staring blankly at the stars above.
Honestly.
Garden Gale felt she'd truly, seriously, given everything she had.
Over these past days… she'd trained wholeheartedly, training at night and attending class during the day, doing everything to get stronger. Not a single moment was wasted, not even the slightest laziness—and yet, it was all useless.
How should she put it? Where should she begin?
Had she improved? Absolutely.
This was hellish training. And surely, God rewards those who strive so earnestly, making them stronger. But some things simply couldn't be achieved easily. Narita Top Road had trained seriously for three years to reach her current level. How could Garden Gale possibly catch up to that in three mere days? Even pushing herself this hard was nowhere near enough.
She'd even secretly watched Narita Top Road's training sessions.
The difference between them was painfully clear.
She'd gathered more information, too—Narita Top Road was pretty famous, known by many as one of the academy's top prodigies, a future star who even had potential to become a G1 champion. She just wasn't quite as famous as the two leading prodigies.
"I can't win."
"…There's no way I can win," she whispered softly, lying there on the grass. Her voice drifted into the wind, laced with helplessness. Garden Gale gave her own cheeks a small slap, unable to stop herself from laughing bitterly—after all, it was she herself who'd spoken those bold words. Now, ironically, she was also the one admitting she couldn't win. "Pathetic."
How was she supposed to face the current situation? Anger? Because she hadn't actually started this trouble? …No, no, she couldn't shift responsibility now. Or maybe just give up completely? She could just injure herself, say goodbye to being an Umamusume, leave Tracen Academy altogether, couldn't she? She clearly couldn't outrun anyone anyway.
…Or was there another feeling?
She wasn't sure.
Maybe, deep down in her heart, there was indeed some frustration.
Garden Gale sensed it clearly.
This emotion, deeply buried beneath layers of denial and self-deception… Perhaps, deep down, she desperately longed for change. She felt things could still be saved—that things weren't supposed to turn out this way.
And more importantly… that she herself should be standing at the very top.
Those deeply insecure often had a hidden arrogance.
She shouldn't be living like this—turning life into such a mess, allowing deeply rooted self-loathing and helplessness to consume her.
Garden Gale no longer knew what to think.
Was simply being frustrated enough? Reality was cruelly cold—no matter how frustrated she felt, it changed nothing.
She'd just bury it away.
Then, suddenly remembering something, she took out her phone and earphones, plugged in the 3.5mm jack, opened her music player, and let the faint glow of the phone screen illuminate her face. She put on her earphones, closed her eyes, and emptied her mind.
I'm not scared of the dark. ♪
I'm not running, running, running, no. ♪
Her eyes, which had just closed, suddenly flew open again.
Garden Gale bit her lower lip gently.
Don't play such an appropriate song at a time like this! Can't you read the mood?!
She immediately reached for her phone, intending to skip the song.
But... she hesitated.
No, I'm not afraid of the fall. ♪
I'm not scared, not at all. ♪
Why would a star, a star ever be afraid of the dark? ♪
Her finger stopped abruptly—Garden Gale froze in place, took a long breath, then gave up skipping. She simply lay quietly, gazing up at the night sky and its countless sparkling stars…
The stars really were shining brightly… so brightly.
I'm not scared. ♪
I'm not scared, neither are the stars. ♪
I'm not scared of the dark. ♪
I shouldn't be scared.
No matter what it is, no matter what I have to face, I won't be afraid. I'm not afraid to fall. I'm not running. I'm not hiding—and definitely not afraid of the darkness that engulfs the world. Even if tomorrow's cloudy, the sun will rise again eventually. When it does, darkness will disappear completely.
She pressed her lips tighter, teeth biting down hard.
Her nails dug deeply into her palms and blood began seeping out.
But Garden Gale hardly felt the pain at all.
"I've had enough."
She repeated it aloud once more.
"I've had enough!"
What's the use in wallowing in self-pity? You've been given everything—even the tools to turn things around. Isn't it laughable to torture yourself now just because you haven't won yet?
So what if the opponent was powerful, and victory seemed impossible?
If she thought about it honestly, had she truly given her all?
No.
She'd only believed she had. She was just training, not genuinely pushing past her limits, comfortably flirting around with Tokai Teio. And now, she thought such small efforts could overcome Narita Top Road? Sleeping through classes during the day, training diligently at night—only for a few days—and she was already so moved by herself?
Ridiculous.
An unnamed fire burned within her chest.
Garden Gale once again remembered the encouragement Tokai Teio had given her.
She really didn't want to give up anymore. She wanted to push to the very end. There was still time—three days remained.
Even if there was an impassable abyss before her, she had to leap over it.
I absolutely—absolutely cannot lose!
I will definitely—definitely win!
---
T/N: heh cringe uma
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