"I've already decided which uma musume will participate in next year's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe."
Fujiwara Chiya arrived at the room marked Expedition Support Committee and gave his report to Dream Journey.
"Who are they?"
"Shirayuki, Orfevre, and Gold Ship."
Dream Journey set down the documents. Her blue-green eyes peered at Fujiwara Chiya through her lenses.
"I'll submit the paperwork to Central later. In your case, Trainer Chiya… it should be approved very quickly."
As Shirayuki's trainer, and the trainer in charge of an overseas expedition, Fujiwara Chiya's requests had already been given the highest priority by Central. Basically, anything he applied for could be approved within half a day.
Dream Journey gathered the identity forms for the three of them and nudged her glasses up.
"Trainer Chiya, I'll leave Orfevre in your hands. You understand how that child feels about the Empress. She is a pure uma musume. To her, victory makes the king, defeat strips everything away. That belief is rooted very deeply inside Orfevre. If she causes you any dissatisfaction, I will apologize on her behalf. I hope you will take good care of her."
"Of course. I'll take care of her the same way I take care of Shirayuki, no…"
Fujiwara Chiya paused, then smiled.
"I'll take care of her like I take care of myself."
At those words, Dream Journey's ears gave a little twitch.
She looked seriously at the man in front of her.
Compared to one month ago, something about him seemed different.
As if something had been added inside him.
Dream Journey nodded.
"That is rather reassuring."
After leaving the Expedition Support Committee's room, Fujiwara Chiya ran into one of his colleagues, Katsumura Youta. The man immediately sidled up with a grin.
"Well, well, if it isn't the famous Empress's Scepter! What outrageous luck I have today. I stepped out the door and ran straight into such a dangerous big shot."
"Then you really are blessed for three lifetimes. You probably burned through all the luck you had left for the rest of your life."
"You little brat, your mouth is as vicious as ever!"
After they finished trading insults, the two of them finally got to the point.
"There's a promotional event for trainers at the end-of-year Arima Kinen. We're the two leading it this time."
"Why are you involved too?"
"You think I wanted this?! It was a lottery…" Katsumura Youta covered his face. "Why does this kind of crap always land on me? Tell me, is heaven doing this on purpose?"
"Maybe. Did you offend the Three Goddesses or something?"
"Impossible! Are you kidding me?"
Katsumura Youta jumped as if someone had stepped on his tail.
You could disrespect plenty of things, but never the Three Goddesses.
If there was one bad thing he had done recently, it was probably the time he borrowed Chiya's office to write something and casually walked off with one of his assistant's pens.
It was just a pen.
That shouldn't be enough to bring divine punishment down on his head, right?
"Then you're just unlucky."
As the hottest trainer around right now, Fujiwara Chiya had no way to escape it. He had to be the one taking the lead.
At this point, it was not even his first time. Every event ended up with him too busy to enjoy anything, so Fujiwara Chiya had long since gone with the flow.
There was less than half a month left until the Arima Kinen. As the closing race of the year, the Arima Kinen's entry rules were different from other races.
It was the first major race in the world where the participating uma musume were decided primarily through fan voting.
Your record did not matter.
Your strength did not matter.
As long as the public loved you, you could participate.
That was exactly why fan count was so important. Uma musume often began gathering fans even before their official debut, all because there were races like the Arima Kinen where popularity decided who got to stand on the stage.
Not only that, the Arima Kinen was also one of Japan's eight most traditional major races. A GⅠ race bearing the title of "Grand Prix," it was perfectly suited as the final battle for active uma musume to close out the year.
"Everyone's talking about whether Shirayuki can win right now."
Once the topic shifted to the Arima Kinen, Katsumura Youta naturally opened up.
As a middle-distance uma musume, the twenty-five-hundred-metre course was clearly beyond Shirayuki's usual range. The Empress had never run a long-distance race before either. Still, since she had crushed the field at the Japan Cup, adding another hundred metres probably would not be a huge problem.
"It won't be easy," Fujiwara Chiya said, rubbing his chin.
"What? Don't tell me you don't have confidence in Shirayuki?"
"I've always had confidence. It's just that every time I race, I go in with the resolve to break past myself."
"Why does that sound like you're the one racing?"
Fujiwara Chiya smiled.
"Speaking of which, the Arima Kinen is on Christmas Eve this year."
"True. I've decided I'm going to have a huge meal with T.M. Opera O and the others after the race. What about you, Chiya? You'll be spending it with your own uma musume too, right?"
"Of course. But if I get the chance…"
Fujiwara Chiya's expression softened.
"I still want to go for a walk by myself."
Katsumura Youta stared at Fujiwara Chiya's face, then rubbed his eyes.
Strange.
Why had he just seen Shirayuki in Chiya?
Their expressions, movements, tone…
They were exactly the same.
"Chiya, let's go work out sometime."
"Work out? Are you sure you want to work out with me?"
He could lift a two-hundred-kilogram barbell with one hand now.
"No, I don't mean muscles. I mean your aura. Right now, you're way too soft."
"Soft?"
Fujiwara Chiya blinked.
"Yeah, like… how do I put this? A perfect wife and mother? Or maybe a soft, cute girl. That's the vibe you give off now. You've completely lost the bloodthirsty brutality a man ought to have."
"I can beat you up right now and let you check whether I still have bloodthirsty brutality."
"No, no, no! Let's talk this out like civilized people."
Katsumura Youta coughed a few times.
The way he saw Chiya now, it felt like looking at a male version of Shirayuki.
Like the two of them had fused.
"You've gotta toughen up, Chiya. If you keep getting softer like this, I don't even know if I can keep treating you like a bro."
"Get lost already!"
Fujiwara Chiya slapped him on the shoulder.
Katsumura Youta immediately felt a terrifying force crash through him.
Holy crap!
This monster!
The current Chiya could kill him as easily as crushing a chick.
No, even easier than that!
After Katsumura Youta finally shut up, Fujiwara Chiya looked down at his own body.
He more or less understood why he had become this way.
On Shirayuki's side, she had always lived as an uma musume. Fujiwara Chiya recognized himself as an uma musume, but he had never truly regarded himself as a real woman. The ones he liked were still girls.
But after spending that night with Shirayuki, Fujiwara Chiya understood.
A part of his heart had already become a girl.
And that part of him, the part that was Shirayuki, longed for him.
That was why people saw Shirayuki's shadow in Fujiwara Chiya.
Male and female existed within him at the same time.
As a man, he pursued the female version of himself.
And as a girl, she had fallen in love with the male version of herself.
He looked at his reflection in the glass for a while.
In a daze, he seemed to see Shirayuki smiling at him, her ears gently swaying.
Fujiwara Chiya touched the upward curve of his lips, picked up the documents, and returned to his office in a very good mood.