Nakajima Shin pushed even harder, sprinting until his lungs felt like they were collapsing from lack of oxygen, a metallic taste of blood rising in his throat, his legs feeling as heavy as lead.
But he kept running.
Kept sprinting!
In these final one hundred and fifty meters, he had to catch up to Tokai Teio.
He had to win.
He had to teach this stubborn girl a lesson!
Hearing his roar, Tokai Teio shuddered.
That long-dead desire to win inside her suddenly spasmed with a sharp, aching pain.
Her running legs and swinging arms seemed to freeze for a second.
Unable to tear through the gale, the wind rushed back into the vacuum she’d left, whipping against her eyes until tears spilled over.
She couldn’t help but glance back at Nakajima Shin, who was chasing her with everything he had.
His face was flushed red from oxygen deprivation, his running form growing unsteady, yet he kept closing the gap, step by relentless step.
For a moment, Tokai Teio was lost in a daze.
It was like looking at her past self.
Back then, after her third fracture, everyone around her, even the President, had advised her to give up on racing.
Just live peacefully, they said.
After all, umamusume had plenty of other roles in the Twinkle Series besides running.
Like becoming support staff.
Hearing it from the President she admired most, faced with cold reality and the words of her idol, she had no choice but to despairingly give up.
Her heart froze.
Her desire to run slowly cooled.
The ever-present bright smile vanished from her face.
She became as silent as a statue, showing her submission.
But deep down, a sliver of reluctance remained.
Tokai Teio believed she could still run.
She still had a chance to challenge for the supreme title of an undefeated Triple Crown umamusume.
So after leaving the hospital, she meticulously cared for her legs day and night.
She pushed through warm-ups and stretches, trying to get her condition as good as possible.
And then, one night, she sneaked out to run.
The breeze had been cool then.
Dew still clung to the tips of the green grass.
Looking out at the vast, refreshing track ahead, a smile she hadn’t worn in ages returned to her face.
She pushed off with her legs.
Soft soil kicked up beneath her padded feet.
The wind parted around her swinging arms, whistling through the air.
The long-accumulated gloom in her heart dissolved in that refreshing run.
Cool, clear air filled her lungs.
As her mood lifted, she ran faster.
And faster.
It felt like even the wind couldn’t keep up with her speed.
She felt she was back in her prime.
She felt she could still win the undefeated Triple Crown.
She felt she could even surpass the President right then and there!
Just as she was happily about to push herself a little harder, her face suddenly went rigid.
Her legs gradually slowed to a halt.
She looked down at her left leg, which was twitching slightly, and said nothing.
The wind had been cold that day.
The chill seeped through her clothes, raising goosebumps on her skin.
The track had been dead silent that night.
So silent that only her ragged breathing and the sound like raindrops hitting the grass could be heard.
She went to the hospital alone once again.
Another treatment for her legs.
Hearing the doctor sternly forbid her from running, Tokai Teio nodded obediently.
That was the day her heart completely died.
All that remained in this world was an ordinary girl.
She put her smile back on.
Brighter and sunnier than ever before.
She stopped avoiding talk of her injuries.
She’d even bring them up herself.
As if the one who was hurt wasn’t her.
As if her name wasn’t Tokai Teio.
Snapping back to reality, Tokai Teio stared unblinkingly at Nakajima Shin.
He looked so much like her past self, so unwilling to yield, that she couldn’t help but press her lips together.
There was no doubt he wanted to win.
Even though he knew it was impossible to beat her, he still struggled for that zero-percent chance of victory.
Truly…
adorably stupid.
But…
She clenched her fists, turned her head, took a deep breath, narrowed her eyes at the finish line, and then—
Her legs hammered the ground like a sewing machine, frantically pounding the earth.
A continuous roar exploded around her.
A blinding white streak tore through the entire track.
The crimson sky was torn away by the gale she kicked up, rolling toward the distant horizon.
Watching the setting sun dip below the horizon, Tokai Teio grit her teeth and pushed her body harder than she ever had in any previous run!
An umamusume clocking at least sixty kilometers per hour, she moved like a sledgehammer.
In five or six seconds, she crossed the one hundred and fifty meters, crashing through the finish line and leaving deep grooves along the way, tearing up the turf to reveal the dirt beneath.
Tokai Teio won.
A few seconds later, Nakajima Shin finally gasped across the finish line.
His tension broke, his legs buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.
He tried to push himself up, but his arms were too sore to move.
He couldn’t muster the strength to get up.
Eventually, he just gave up.
He rolled onto his back, stared up at the fiery clouds above, and panted heavily.
His body was so exhausted he couldn’t even think.
He only knew one thing: he lost.
Just then, Tokai Teio came to his side.
Sweat dripping from her forehead fell onto his dry lips.
Nakajima Shin instinctively licked it.
It was salty.
The stimulation slowly jump-started his stiff brain, and he remembered the bet.
He let out a soft sigh.
His eyes shifted, first glancing at her perfectly healthy legs, then following the graceful curve upward to her expressionless face.
Did none of it stir anything in her?
The passion of competition, the rush of running, the taste of victory…
Did she feel none of it anymore?
Had that Tokai Teio really been killed by four fractures?
Nakajima Shin closed his eyes in quiet pain.
“…Answer me, Nakajima-san.” Tokai Teio’s voice dropped low.
“Do you really, truly, just want to see me run?”
“And nothing else?”
“Yeah.” Nakajima Shin answered wearily.
“Nothing else.”
The moment the words left his lips, he felt like it was raining.
Droplets kept falling onto his face.
Before he could even process what that exchange meant, a heavy thud echoed beside him.
He hurriedly opened his eyes to see Tokai Teio kneeling beside him, eyes swimming with tears.
A smile graced her lips, unlike any she’d worn before, one that was hard to put into words.
“Tokai Teio…”
“Trainer…”
Tokai Teio’s trembling hands clasped his warm left hand.
Tears streamed down her face, sliding past her cheeks and chin, dropping one by one onto their joined hands.
The steady stream of tears formed a line, like a bond tightly linking the two of them.
The desire that had been ground down by others, by the President, by reality, and by herself, long thought to be gone, suddenly erupted.
With a tearful smile, Tokai Teio’s voice choked up as she said:
“I want…
to race!”
Nakajima Shin paused for a moment, then smiled gently.
His free right arm wrapped around her neck, pulling her into a tight embrace.
Her tears completely soaked the shoulder of his shirt.
“Then…
I’m counting on you to keep running for the next three years.”
“Yeah!”
Let us two fools, on this path with zero percent chance of success,
sprint all the way forward.
Tokai Teio thought as she held her trainer tighter.