This story uses an alternate timeline where Uma Musume from different eras may appear at the same time.
It also adds a partner school beside Tracen Academy, allowing ordinary students and Uma Musume to occasionally cross paths.
Some details may differ from canon for the sake of the plot.
***
Kitano died in a bizarre car accident in his previous life—he was hit by a lottery promotional vehicle emblazoned with “Thank You for Playing.”
Perhaps because this luck was too abstract, when he woke up, he found himself in a world that was similar yet different.
The most striking existence here was a miracle called Uma Musume.
They are young girls with horse ears and tails, inheriting the names and souls of legendary racehorses from history.
Running is their instinct and their glory.
Kitano spent three days accepting this setting, and then…
that was it.
He truly couldn’t understand why television news would broadcast as a headline that a certain Uma Musume ate an extra bowl of rice; why their fan clubs were everywhere on the streets, jostling and pushing just to get a glimpse of a public training session.
“Aren’t they just…
girls who run relatively fast?” he once muttered privately.
“Although a speed of about sixty kilometers per hour is already a level that even the world’s top professional athletes can hardly achieve…
for this to cause nationwide fanaticism still feels a bit exaggerated.”
This was not arrogance, but an objective conclusion he reached after his vision and dynamic eyesight were inexplicably enhanced after his transmigration.
This was probably a small cheat that came with him being run over by “great luck.” Not very useful, only good for complaining.
He had no ill will toward Uma Musume themselves.
They looked no different from human girls, laughing and playing.
He even became nodding acquaintances with a few Uma Musume he met by chance, due to his easygoing nature.
Hikari High School was a partner school of Tracen Academy, located close enough that students from both schools occasionally crossed paths.
Tracen focused on training Uma Musume, while Hikari handled ordinary academic classes and specialized courses related to the racing industry.
Because of that arrangement, it was not unusual to see Uma Musume walking through Hikari’s halls from time to time.
He would share newly discovered dessert shops with them, complain about some of their terrible taste in games, and so on.
But once they started talking about topics like dreams, running, or racing outfits, Kitano would quickly activate polite listening mode, while his mind wandered to what he should eat for dinner.
His interest in Uma Musume racing was even lower than his interest in the World Cup or the NBA in his previous life.
At least watching basketball allowed him to appreciate tactical coordination, whereas here, it seemed to emphasize some kind of all-consuming spirit.
He didn’t quite understand, nor did he particularly want to.
As for the Three Goddesses revered by countless people, he held a subtle attitude of respectful distance—it was best to avoid getting involved with beings that could turn a person into this, meaning transmigration.
Today, he was dragged by several good classmates to Tracen Academy’s Spring Open Race.
“Kitano-kun!
You absolutely have to experience it!
The atmosphere on-site is completely different!” His friend’s face was flushed with excitement.
Kitano couldn’t refuse, so he came.
The deafening cheers, the roars that almost tore through the sky, the commentator’s hoarse shouts of every Uma Musume’s name and action.
His friends quickly immersed themselves, waving their glow sticks and shouting until their voices were hoarse.
Kitano sat among them, feeling like an ordinary person who had stumbled into a cult gathering.
After about ten minutes, the suffocating feeling of being swept up by collective fanaticism surged again.
“I’m going to the restroom,” he patted his friend’s shoulder, and as his friend, too engrossed to pay attention, nodded, he quickly slipped out of the stands.
He didn’t go to the restroom, but instead walked aimlessly along an empty corridor, finally finding peace in a relatively secluded corner far from the main grandstand.
There was a platform jutting out here, with rusty railings, but the view was surprisingly good, allowing him to clearly see the small and swift figures on the distant track sprinting with all their might.
He leaned against the cold railing, the evening breeze blowing on his face, finally letting out a sigh of relief.
The roar from the track below and the wave-like cheers from the stands became somewhat distant, as if separated by a layer of glass.
Just then, the commentator’s voice, breaking with excitement, clearly came through the broadcast system:
“She’s overtaken!
The Blue Lightning Shadow has overtaken!
What an explosive final spurt!
This is a miracle!
A gift from the Goddesses!”
Kitano listened to the exaggerated words, looking at the leading blue figure on the track, and finally couldn’t help but mutter to the empty platform, in a voice only he could hear:
“Final spurt explosion?
About sixty kilometers per hour…
that’s very fast.”
With his enhanced vision, he could clearly capture the blue figure that was far ahead.
But the overwhelming sound waves almost burst his eardrums, the fervent air scorched his skin, and he felt a bit breathless under the pressure of this excessively passionate atmosphere.
“Tsk, this atmosphere is too fiery.
So fiery it makes my scalp tingle.”
He subconsciously fumbled in his pocket, as if wanting to pull out a few volumes of Boruto manga to calm himself down.
“If only I could really pull them out.
I reckon two pages would successfully cool me down, and my heart would naturally become calm.”
He looked at the audience, excited to the point of forgetting themselves, and shook his head.
“They can’t even clearly see who’s on the track, yet they can get this excited…”
He shook his head, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness and confusion.
“Ultimately, Uma Musume…
are they even human?
Their very existence is strange, isn’t it…”
He completely failed to notice that in the shadows of the corridor not far behind him, several figures had just finished training and were passing by.
The one leading them, with striking black hair and equally pure black horse ears, had her calm expression instantly freeze when she heard Kitano’s perfectly clear muttering.
Air Groove, vice president of the student council, was now staring intently at the black-haired young man leaning against the railing, criticizing the miracle below, with an expression mixed with shock, displeasure, and extreme scrutiny.
It really helps the fic grow!