Baltimore Police Department.
"I really don't understand. What on earth is wrong with you two?"
Looking at Oguri Cap, who was happily eating a hamburger in the lobby, and Fujimasa March, who was sitting there with one hand covering her face, Xingyun Liuge and Rudolf Symbol both stood with their arms folded, fixing them with the same stern, perplexed stare.
It had been such a beautiful morning.
So how in the world had they ended up in a police station?
Oguri Cap and Fujimasa March had been running harder and harder until they both went all out, completely ignored the speed-limit sign by the roadside, and even damaged the muddy roadside "road" from stamping through it too forcefully. A police officer who had happened to be out buying breakfast stopped them right in front of the hotel and invited them down to the station for a chat—along with their trainers, so they could discuss compensating for the damaged "road."
Even with the Preakness Stakes just around the corner, and even if the culprits were horse girls, the officers still intended to come down hard on anyone who broke Maryland law.
Because every citizen of the United States was expected to do their duty.
"Sorry, Xingyun. I didn't think things would turn out like this either."
Seeing the confusion in Xingyun Liuge's eyes, Oguri Cap set down her hamburger and obediently lowered her head in apology.
Rudolf Symbol: "?"
Why was Oguri apologizing only to Xingyun Liuge?
So Rudolf was invisible now, was that it? Did she not matter at all?
Wait, no—hadn't she also come all the way here specifically to bail them out? Why, in Oguri's eyes, was there only Xingyun Liuge?
Outside, Kitahara and Shibasaki were apologizing profusely, doing everything they could to smooth the matter over as quickly as possible. The last thing they wanted was for something this silly to snowball into some kind of diplomatic incident.
The JRA executive, who had yet to find any chance to prove his worth, immediately stepped forward and handled the negotiations with the police. He got the two horse girls "released" with remarkable speed.
After all, this was just a minor matter—speeding, plus accidental damage to a muddy roadside path. If he couldn't even solve something like this, then he had no business remaining in his position as executive director.
Besides, if it hadn't been for the Preakness being so close and the girls being foreign horse girls saddled with the debuff of not being able to communicate, they never would have been brought into the station in the first place. At most, they would have gotten a scolding.
In the end, their punishment amounted to little more than exactly that: a stern lecture, plus a symbolic one-dollar fine.
When they came out of the station, the officers even gave them a friendly sendoff.
"Welcome to Baltimore."
But on the way back, Xingyun Liuge was nowhere near that accommodating.
"So that's how it is—you hadn't seen each other in forever, so you just had to have a match, right? Fine. Let's go to the racetrack. I'll make sure to give you both all the attention you deserve."
As she spoke, she bared her teeth in a perfectly pleasant smile—one of those "kind" smiles that showed exactly eight neat, dazzlingly white teeth.
Oguri Cap and Fujimasa March both snapped to attention on the spot.
They badly wanted to say We'd love that, but an immense, invisible pressure had already descended on them—something too overwhelming to describe. It felt as though some towering phantom in full armor, red eyes blazing, was clutching a gigantic spiked hammer and staring them down without blinking.
If any horse girl with a taste for manga had been around, she might have screamed:
"It—it's a Stand attack!"
Rudolf Symbol, meanwhile, stepped in to smooth things over.
"This is your first reunion since parting ways back in Kasamatsu. Isn't it a good thing that the two of you can sweat it out together on dirt, and see how much you've each grown?"
Approx. 1900m Training Race — Dirt / Sunny / Fast Track
The moment she stepped onto the track, Oguri Cap threw off every emotion she'd been feeling just moments ago. She gave her whole body a vigorous shake, then entered the starting gate full of confidence.
The feel of the ground beneath her feet was completely different from Kasamatsu's dirt, but this was a race against Xingyun Liuge and Fujimasa March. She was excited. She wanted Xingyun to see how much she had grown.
Most of the people gathered here didn't know who the other two grey-haired horse girls were, but they certainly knew Xingyun Liuge. Xingyun Liuge was a star among horse girls now. There wasn't a single racing fan who would willingly miss one of her races, even if it was just an insignificant training run.
Before long, a crowd had gathered along the rail, and more people were still hurrying over. In that moment, the charm of horse racing seemed to be on full display.
The gates opened.
Xingyun Liuge shot out into the lead.
Today, she wasn't here to train. She was here to pressure these two troublemakers a little. They were all friends, weren't they? Since they had been so eager to run, why hadn't they just said so? She could easily have found them a proper track. Did they really have to get themselves hauled into a police station because of speeding and a language barrier?
Feeling the powerful gust of air as Xingyun flashed past her, Oguri Cap's eyes widened slightly—
and then the corners of her lips curled up.
As expected of Xingyun. She's every bit as strong as ever… no, that's not right. She's already thrown her former self far behind. In that case, I have to show her how much I've grown too!
The desire for victory was etched deep into Oguri Cap's bones. Even if there was an undeniable difference in strength between them, she would never give up halfway through.
She would keep honing her technique, keep improving, keep chasing after Xingyun Liuge's back—
and then she would find a way to surpass her.
Thinking that, even the smile on Oguri's face took on a faintly twisted cast.
She quickened her pace, trying to latch onto Xingyun Liuge's tail. She didn't notice the black mist curling faintly at the corners of her eyes, waiting for the day it would burst fully into the world.
It wanted to seize victory in its grasp.
As for Fujimasa March?
That no longer mattered.
Since Oguri had already shown enough finishing speed during their morning run to make even Fujimasa, who had been going all out, feel pressure, there was no need to worry about whether she'd keep up. She definitely would. All March had to do was focus on Xingyun Liuge.
Fujimasa March stuck close behind Oguri, locking onto her silhouette and applying as much pressure as she could. The expression on her face was far more twisted than Oguri's, her pupils shrunk almost to pinpoints.
She didn't look at Xingyun Liuge at all.
Because she knew very well that, right now, she had no chance of catching Xingyun. All she wanted was to catch Oguri Cap—and beat her.
A blue glow flickered in Fujimasa March's eyes. Without even realizing it herself, a strange aura spread outward from her in every direction.
One of the American trainers stared fixedly at his stopwatch and muttered,
"First quarter-mile in twenty-one point two-three. That pace is way too fast. Can those two no-name horse girls really keep up to the end?"
For most horse girls who were suited to dirt, a fast dirt track was actually not the easiest footing to exert force on. Part of their power got dispersed by the flying dirt, leading to extra stamina loss.
The first 800 meters took Xingyun Liuge only forty-two seconds.
Not only had she not eased up to conserve stamina—she had accelerated even further.
Oguri Cap and Fujimasa March both immediately found it hard to keep up. Almost instinctively, they eased off and abandoned the idea of matching her tempo.
The gap widened from two lengths at the start to ten—and it was still expanding rapidly.
Oguri's rational mind told her: No need to force it now. Hold your own pace. Wait until the stretch, then make your move.
After all, the final section of the Preakness was a long straight—exactly the kind of setup she loved. If it had been a short straight, then she would have had to worry about leaving her move too late and never catching up.
But the impulse engraved in her blood whispered back at her:
Are you really satisfied just running by the book like this? Do you honestly think that'll be enough to catch her?
The answer was no.
Even though Oguri had instinctively found the optimal solution, if she asked herself whether that approach could actually win…
No matter how reluctant she was to admit it, she could only answer in the negative. A cautious race strategy would never beat Xingyun Liuge. If she wanted to snatch victory from her, she needed to find another path entirely.
And then, from behind her, Fujimasa March's voice rang out.
"So this is as far as you go, Oguri Cap? Then I'll go on ahead. I'm going to chase Xingyun Liuge's back."
Strangely enough, even though she wasn't winning, Fujimasa wore a look of satisfaction. Was it because she had managed to catch Oguri? Or because she had finally said those words aloud?
The wind tore her voice apart, and Oguri didn't catch every word—but the meaning still reached her heart.
"No way."
Oguri Cap shot a blazing glance at Fujimasa March, who had edged a neck ahead of her, and then ground her teeth together, driving her right foot hard into the track.
It felt as though the earth itself gave off a thunderous boom.
Dust exploded upward.
To the trainers, this stubborn attempt to force themselves back onto Xingyun Liuge's pace looked profoundly irrational.
Unless they had some hidden trump card—
something like a domain.
Unfortunately, they didn't.
They had no domain, not even any simple, practical skill to rely on.
All they could do was keep wringing every last bit of strength from their bodies and launch a reckless, resolute charge at Xingyun Liuge's back—
like the last knight in the world, Don Quixote, tilting at impossible odds.
And yet that effort, that resolve, was not meaningless.
The distance between them and Xingyun Liuge began to shrink. In their eyes, she was no longer just a tiny black speck in the distance.
But the second turn was right ahead.
And once they cleared that bend, the final straight would begin. They would have to slow, then accelerate again—and the stamina that would cost was impossible to ignore.
That was why Oguri hadn't wanted to speed up in the first place. The sensible option was to take the turn at a normal pace, then surge just before exiting onto the straight.
It was simply the one thing that couldn't win.
Even so, though victory still remained far away, Xingyun Liuge—who had used such an outrageous front-running strategy—surely wouldn't be able to accelerate again, right?
Just as Oguri was thinking that, Xingyun did indeed fail to accelerate.
In fact, she started slowing down, as though she had mismanaged her stamina.
This was the perfect opportunity to beat her.
Dark mist writhed at the corners of Oguri Cap's eyes, as though expressing pure delight.
And then Xingyun Liuge taught them what it meant for joy to turn instantly into misery.
A sheet of sweat burst from Oguri's body and fell in fat drops, darkening the ground before her. She felt every bone in her body let out an awful scream, as though Mother Earth had casually dialed gravity up to the wrong setting. The pressure bore down on her so hard she felt she would be crushed to the track.
It wasn't just her.
Fujimasa March felt the same crushing burden and found herself almost unable to move.
Every time she lifted a leg, it was agony. She had to fight gravity with every ounce of strength in her body.
If Winning Colors or Risen Star had been here to feel it firsthand, they would have recognized it instantly—
this was Xingyun Liuge's skill, the one seemingly designed to prey on horse girls as they slowed through turns.
If they didn't escape this treacherous stretch of ground—this quagmire-like trap—as quickly as possible, it would swallow them whole.
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 139)
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 (Chapter171)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter100)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter184)
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 168
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 156
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 105
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 185
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 160
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 150
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 76
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 97
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 116
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 75
Uma Musume: I Want All 93
I Can Copy Unique Skills 79
Summoning an Evil God, but the 55
Supernatural Multiverse 75
My Harem Is Indescribable 68
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 70
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 66
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 69
Still playing traditional Honk 49
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 53
What Should I Do After Switchi 42
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 50
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 38
Transmigrated as Sukuna 35
Checking In in Demon Slayer 40
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 55
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