On the train back to Tokyo, Dyna kept rubbing her thumb across the group photo in her hands, her thoughts drifting farther and farther as her exhausted body began to relax.
After the disaster, the academy obviously had no way to bring in a proper camera crew. They had used Dyna's phone and an instant camera to develop the pictures on the spot. There had been no careful composition, no lighting, no professional framing, but that only made it better. The photo felt spontaneous, alive, full of a stubborn kind of hope.
In the picture, several tents stood out awkwardly against a patch of bare, barren ground. In front of them stood Dyna, covered in mud from head to toe, surrounded by teachers and children.
Dyna was deeply grateful that she had scheduled the event outdoors and that the academy had escaped the worst of the disaster because of it. At the same time, she regretted not thinking further ahead—not warning the school somehow, not preparing real relief supplies in advance.
The original tree-planting activity had naturally been canceled. Stabilizing the children's emotions with warm meals mattered far more than dragging tree saplings into a school that had been reduced to devastation and still needed basic rebuilding. The academy's usable transport capacity was limited to Dyna, Oguri Cap, and Opera O. Compared to urgently needed supplies, the saplings stuck on the blocked roads were meaningless.
With a racehorse girl's powerful body, Dyna leapt and sprinted through disaster-stricken roads, over aftershocks, across broken ground and flooded pits, shielding the supplies from splattering mud with her own body. Every day, she returned to the academy looking like a mud rabbit.
Just as Dyna was forcing herself to focus on hauling supplies and not thinking about the disaster, things outside began to change.
On March 18, the roads leading into the academy district in Chiba were finally reopened through a combination of local self-help efforts and horse girl support. And along with the restored road access came a directive from the JRA.
The JRA urgently ordered Dyna to return to Tokyo. A wise person, it said, did not stand beneath a crumbling wall. Dyna dismissed it as nonsense. Those old men didn't understand anything.
But the next message caught her eye.
The Spring Stakes, the G2 prep race originally scheduled at Nakayama as a trial for the Satsuki Sho, had been relocated to Hanshin because Nakayama Racecourse had suffered too much damage. It had also been officially renamed:
Eastern Japan Earthquake Disaster Relief Race — Spring Stakes
Dyna, who had already earned a reputation for plunging into the disaster zone and personally taking part in rescue efforts, was being invited to compete in the race in order to draw more support from racehorse girl fans.
Fan support tickets and part of the event budget would be directed heavily toward disaster reconstruction. In other words, the race would be held with almost no prize money. Aside from prestige, the participants would only receive travel support and a small amount of material compensation.
Dyna could not tear her eyes away from the invitation.
This message truly shook her resolve to stay.
Maybe... maybe she had been born to become exactly this sort of racehorse girl.
The Spring Stakes was obviously a bigger stage for disaster relief. More attention. More eyes. More impact.
But she still had not fulfilled her promise to the children at the academy—to plant trees with them.
Should she really leave now? Leave here, and even stay away until just before the Satsuki Sho?
Dyna's heart twisted painfully. The Spring Stakes had never been part of her original plan. And if she remembered correctly, Gold Ship had once mentioned that Gold Ship? No—Golden Artisan? Wait, no. Goldsmith? No... Gold Master? No, that was wrong too.
No—Golden Artisan?
No, no—
She shook her head.
What mattered was this: she had heard that Gold Shokusei—Golden Smith? Gold Artisan? No, again.
She knew exactly who it was.
Gold Master—or rather, Golden Craftsman—Gold… Giant?
No.
She stopped the thought.
Gold Ship's rival, Gold… Giant—no, Gold Craft—no, Gold Titan—
She exhaled sharply.
She meant Golden Master—Gold Giant—Gold Artisan—Gold…
No matter how tangled the naming in her head became, the point stayed the same:
Gold Master—the orange-haired menace, Golden Shokushō, Golden Craftsman—Golden Giant—whatever the exact rendering, Gold Shokusei—had originally planned to use that race as a stepping stone into the Satsuki Sho.
Oguri Cap stepped closer, her body covered in mud as well, almost like her old days back in Kasamatsu. She had clearly seen the notice about the Spring Stakes too. With help from Opera O and Kirei Jun, she had carefully prepared what she wanted to say.
"Boss, if you still want to do something for the disaster area, then you should go to the Spring Stakes. That's the bigger stage. More attention. That's where an active racehorse girl's abilities have the most value."
"When I left for Central, my hometown friends, Norin, and Fujimasa all hated to see me go. But they still wanted me to go there and prove myself. Their feelings and my desire to repay my hometown by shining in Central—they came from the same place."
"Boss... I'm not very good at putting this into words. But you understand, don't you? Running while carrying other people's hopes gives a racehorse girl incredible strength. But before that can happen, you have to understand those feelings in your own heart."
"You don't need to explain it. You just need to know it for yourself. Go talk to the children, Boss. They probably already know about the race too. And I'm sure they want you to stand on that stage as Chiba's representative."
Dyna found herself faintly puzzled. Since when had Oguri Cap become this eloquent? But whatever choice she made, she did need to speak honestly with the children first.
When she found Teacher Amemiya in the tent, the young teacher spoke before Dyna even could.
"Our academy has already changed so much because of you, Miss Dyna. We can take care of ourselves now. You don't need to keep burning yourself out here. Um... after the network came back, I saw the announcement too. That's why you came, isn't it?"
"I... yes," Dyna admitted, gripping her own arm. "Because the Spring Stakes was never in my schedule, deciding so suddenly like this... I'm having trouble."
When she loosened her grip, she saw clumps of dried mud crumble out of her hand and scatter to the ground.
Teacher Amemiya suddenly clapped her hands twice, then raised both thumbs and flashed a bright, clean smile.
"Please go to a bigger, better stage—for yourself, and for us too. A great racehorse girl deserves a brighter spotlight and more support. The children and I will always support you as you fly higher and higher. The racetrack is your real stage."
"Miss Dyna, Chiba isn't a place that should keep you tied down. You've already done more than enough here."
"Leave this battlefield to the professionals. Your battlefield is the track. Go from here. Let the whole world know that we had Light Dyna with us."
Amemiya was smiling as she said it, but the gratitude and emotion she had been holding back over the past few days had begun spilling through, impossible to hide now that separation was close.
It felt like she was being chased away.
Amemiya had already started packing Dyna's things for her.
In the little time Dyna had left in Chiba, she barely managed to cook one more special meal for the children. Then, still in her muddy rabbit state, she took one last photo with them before being hurried into the car bound for Tokyo. Even Wada and the others could only wait for a later ride back.
As the car pulled away, Dyna looked longingly out the window.
Because of the insulation, she couldn't hear what everyone outside was shouting, but from the shapes of their mouths, they were probably cheering her on.
She finally let her body go limp against the back seat.
So the promise to the children... and the teacher and the children themselves chose to set it aside to send me back to the stage.
That kind of hope was heavier than anything else.
But... isn't that what I want too?
To live first for myself, and then carry the hopes of others.
She stroked the group photo again.
Then this picture is coming with me to Hanshin.
That vehicle had originally been arranged by Chairwoman Akikawa Yayoi and Rudolf Symboli to take Dyna straight back to Tracen Academy.
After spending so long in the disaster area, she was supposed to undergo a full medical checkup. Rudolf was especially worried that Dyna might be malnourished, or suffering from muscle fatigue serious enough that it would take weeks to recover.
But when Akikawa and Rudolf waited for the car to arrive that evening, what they found was an empty back seat.
"Well... how should I put it?" the driver said awkwardly under the pressure of facing both of them. "Miss Light Dyna was extremely firm. I really had no choice but to take her back to her shop."
"Excellent!" Akikawa snapped open her folding fan with force. "Miss Light Dyna needs rest. Thank you for making the trip into the disaster zone!"
After the car left, she and Rudolf returned together to the student council office.
Under normal circumstances, it was rare for the Chairwoman to visit the council room in person. This time, however, Akikawa sat calmly on the sofa, while the orange cat perched on her head gave a lazy yawn.
"Chairwoman," Rudolf began, "do you really think Miss Light Dyna will participate in the Spring Stakes? She spent so long in the disaster area. Her body definitely needs at least a week, maybe even half a month, of recovery."
To Akikawa Yayoi, Rudolf Symboli was still little more than a girl. Compared with someone of that old generation's experience, Rudolf had no real advantage.
Akikawa, however, answered with absolute certainty.
"She absolutely will! She is a special girl. Within Light Dyna's heart lies a vast world—broader than yours, broader than Deep Impact's. It is simply overgrown with thorns right now. She has to carve the path through it herself."
"Revelation! And what drives Light Dyna is... expectation! Her own instinctive hopes, the expectations of her fans, and the wishes of the disaster victims who long to rebuild! What she saw there surely went far beyond the reports and documents we have read. We cannot possibly measure what she felt."
"But one thing is certain. She will stand on the Hanshin stage. And when the cherry blossoms bloom, she will wear the winner's sash!"
Rudolf's fingers rubbed slowly against the rim of her teacup as she thought over those words.
Until now, she had only paid attention to Dyna's results and past achievements. She truly had neglected the question of what Light Dyna herself wanted to do.
For a long while, no one in the room spoke. Only the orange cat kept purring softly.
At last, Rudolf closed the file that had been spread open on the desk and drew a slow breath.
"When I find the time, I'll go see Miss Light Dyna myself."
"Approved! President Luna, sometimes you need to change the direction of your thinking. A racehorse girl's driving force is not limited to her own dreams or her family's expectations. Perhaps that was how you succeeded. But success varies from one girl to the next."
After saying that, Akikawa offered no further words before leaving the student council room.
Rudolf rested an elbow on the desk and pressed her cheek against her clenched fist.
Light Dyna truly was the most complicated racehorse girl she had encountered since taking office.
Impossible to see through. Impossible to grasp. Impossible even to guess at her real thoughts.
Meanwhile, Light Dyna had returned to her shop—dragging behind her a body full of accumulated exhaustion, filthy clothes, and a heart reforged by what she had been through.
The shop was already closed.
Nagakura had been so diligent these past few days that there was no sign at all that only one person had been running the entire place. Unlocking the door, Dyna slipped off her shoes, carried them upstairs, and dropped them into a plastic tub filled with water to soak.
Her discarded clothes went into the washing machine. Her underclothes she threw into the washbasin to soak.
Then she stepped under the shower, forehead pressed against the tile, letting warm water pour over her body.
She had not truly bathed properly in days. Naturally her body had picked up a smell. But Dyna was used to that.
Spring Stakes...
Gold Giant—Golden Craftsman—Gold Something—whatever exact name she had to assign the orange-haired menace in English—
that girl would be in the race too. It was her final stepping stone toward the Classic Triple Crown. If she failed to finish in the top three in the Spring Stakes, she would lose her chance to enter the Satsuki Sho.
"So I'm going to face her head-on again this soon? Eighteen hundred meters is absolutely within my range, and I do have some experience at Hanshin. But... why do I feel this much resistance in my chest?"
Wrapped in a towel after her shower, Dyna stepped out of the bathroom, leaving her long hair only half dried, and collapsed onto the bed she hadn't seen in what felt like ages.
Although that girl had gradually been trying to make amends, and even her whole family had helped Dyna, the moment Light Dyna remembered the way she had been on the racetrack, her fists still clenched on their own.
She had no way to believe that that girl would not lose control again on the track.
"I honestly thought you'd been possessed. I never imagined it would take you this long to make up your mind."
"Miss Cody's Wish..." Dyna murmured. "I'm sorry. I just... really hate the version of her that appears on the racetrack."
It was the first time the word hate had ever come out of Dyna's mouth. Cody's Wish did not look surprised at all.
"Though perhaps this is not a very kind thing to say... if you hate someone, then the best way to humiliate them is to leave them ten streets behind in the field where they most want to shine. Then ignore them completely, as though they don't even matter, and make them dance backup for you."
"...Huh?"
Dyna froze.
Cody's Wish's casual viciousness completely threw her.
Was that really something a racehorse girl could say?
But then Dyna thought it over.
And... wasn't that basically the only method racehorse girls actually had?
Cody's Wish folded her arms beneath her chest and clicked her tongue lightly.
"In the Cigar Mile, I beat White Muzzle. Then in the very next Whitney, she beat me instead. I still remember the look on her face. I was furious, of course, but inferior skill is inferior skill. A loss is a loss. All I could do was grit my teeth and swallow that frustration."
"So... things like that happened to you too, Miss Cody's Wish...?"
"If I'd known, I would've elbowed her a few more times during the race."
Clearly, Cody's Wish had now fallen into her own little world of grudges. Dyna pursed her lips, her awe for the American free-for-all racing style only growing stronger. Those were the rules over there, so there wasn't much to say.
Still, it was terrifying to realize that even the usually elegant and gentle Cody's Wish had once wanted to ram somebody on the track.
Racing really did awaken the evil in a racehorse girl.
But Gold Giant—Gold Master—Gold Whatever-Her-Name-Was didn't merely go wild.
She knowingly walked right up to the line of a foul.
Watching Cody's Wish coolly list White Muzzle's sins, Dyna decided it was best not to interrupt. Otherwise, tonight, once she fell asleep... Cody's Wish might just drag her into some kind of brutal midnight boot camp.
And right now, all Dyna wanted was rest.
She had absolutely no desire to think any more tonight.
Before climbing into bed, Light Dyna picked up the notebook on her dressing table and wrote a single line:
Face Golden Giant head-on in the Spring Stakes!!
Now that Light Dyna possessed the power of both Ballet Triumph and Original Genesis, while Golden Giant was still practically a blank slate—
Light Dyna was invincible.
"Good night, Miss Cody's Wish."
"Mm... good night, Dyna."
Dyna's consciousness disappeared almost as soon as she settled into the softness of the bed.
Outside, the stars glittered.
Then Cody's Wish reached over and drew the curtains shut, blocking them from view.
And from somewhere in the darkness came her final mutter:
"I really could hiss at all of you."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 126)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter130)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter89)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter157)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 133
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 125
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 84
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 143
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 115
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 99
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 75
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 75
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 52
Uma Musume: I Want All 51
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
A Guide to Aid in the Underwor 26
Summoning an Evil God, but the 27
Supernatural Multiverse 27
My Harem Is Indescribable 26
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