The rain was still falling.
The curtain of water stretching from the roof of the starting gates all the way down to the gate doors themselves darkened Offside Trap's gaze. Beneath her feet, the turf had turned to sludge, and in her mind she replayed the training she had done to avoid flying mud.
Every throw Shinji Terumi had made had been with full force.
And every dodge of hers had therefore been difficult.
Several times, the mud had nearly struck her right in the eye.
She blinked, then turned her eyes inward, toward the rail.
Through the layers of gate stalls, she seemed to see Benedetti in the innermost position. Before the race, Shinji had named her the runner most likely to seize the lead. If Benedetti could grab a good position, then most of the mud Offside Trap had to worry about would probably come from her.
Taking a deep breath, Offside Trap let the roar of the downpour wash over her.
The rain was deafening.
The grandstands, by contrast, were silent.
She could not see it from here, but in those stands many racing fans had already clasped their hands together in prayer.
Up on the elevated viewing platform, Shinji Terumi had chosen not to watch from the lower level.
Standing at his side, Hayakawa Tazuna still wore her usual gentle smile, as though nothing in the world could ever rob her of her good mood or composure.
When Shinji glanced toward the far side of the platform, he saw Rudolf Symboli sitting there with her eyes half-lidded, her expression unreadable.
But the slight trembling in her body, and the fists she had kept tightly clenched all this time, made it clear enough: the student council president was already deeply tense.
"Going to say hello?" Tazuna asked.
Shinji shook his head lightly.
Even through the binoculars in his hand, the rain made the situation on the track hard to make out. The sheets of water blocked his view so heavily that when the field reached the far side of the course, he even began to wonder whether the giant screen would still be able to catch the runners clearly.
Perhaps the spectators would have no choice but to wait like people opening blind boxes—
waiting to see which figure burst out first from beyond the great zelkova tree.
"The race is about to begin," Tazuna murmured.
"Yeah…"
The two fell silent together.
Shinji had to admit that even after dumping nearly 150 points' worth of stats—everything Offside Trap herself had earned, plus everything from the gift packs—into Speed before the race, and even after buying the skill Race Planner, he was still nervous now that the moment had finally come.
Then—
Bang!
The sound of the gates flying open rang through the course, and all fourteen horse girls burst out at once.
A race containing thirteen G1-level runners, under a rainstorm of this magnitude—
the world's eyes had gathered on it.
Everyone agreed that this would be a highly rated, highly regarded race on the international stage. So the instant the gates opened, the commentators' voices surged with excitement as they shouted:
"The race is underway!"
At the same moment, prompts rang out in Shinji's mind:
[Five-Dimensional Lord bond activated: all attribute-boosting effects gain an additional 5% value increase]
[Earthkeeper bond activated: Power +30, Stamina +30, Grit +30, track suitability correction +30%]
[Otherworldly Shadowflow (All stats +10%)]
[Distance Supercar (Power +5% for the first 800m; Intelligence +5% from 800m to 1400m; Speed +5% from 1400m to 2000m; Stamina +5% from 2000m to 2400m)]
[Mockery of the Keeper ({Doremi, Country Lover, Dream Well}: all stats -5%; all other opponents with lower corresponding stats than the horse girl have those stats reduced by 50)]
[Deepsea Rhapsody (Speed +200; Speed +50, Stamina +50, Power +50, Grit +50, Intelligence +50; track penalty reduced by 50%)]
[Level 1 Left-Handed Turn (Green)]
A tremendous surge of energy flooded through Offside Trap's body so suddenly that she instinctively checked herself for a beat.
And the commentators immediately caught it.
"Off they go! Offside Trap—number nine, Offside Trap, the very horse girl who stunned everyone in the Autumn Tenno Sho—has broken slow! Benedetti on the inside has already sprung clear, just as expected, fighting for the lead! Behind her, Skyscraper and Sekaishuu have also taken forward positions, with the three European runners already locking down the front!"
"The field is still accelerating, but the order is beginning to settle. In front, just as expected, it's number two Benedetti. Half a length behind are Skyscraper and Sekaishuu, and then from Japan, El Condor Pasa. Behind El, one length back, are Mejiro Bright and Japan's Derby horse Special Week. Further back come Air Groove and Gold Journey…"
At those words, the expression on Hayakawa Tazuna's normally gentle face changed at once.
And across the platform, Rudolf Symboli slammed a fist against the railing.
For all the widening rift and growing hostility between her and Shinji, she too had placed her hopes of Japan Cup victory on Offside Trap.
Now, seeing Offside Trap break poorly, the student council president could no longer pretend calm.
Only Shinji himself remained unchanged.
Though his horse girl had fallen to the rear, the rhythm in her stride and the ease in her footwork were plain as day in his eyes.
She had not turned impatient because of the bad break.
The long and difficult road she had already walked had forged in Offside Trap a heart sturdy enough to endure this.
Especially after suffering a disastrous slow start once before in the Kyoto Daishoten, both Offside Trap and Shinji had already learned one thing:
all they had to do was trust what she could do on the track.
"The field has begun moving toward the first and second turns. Benedetti still leads. Along the middle ranks, behind Air Groove is Mejiro Dober from Japan's prestigious Mejiro family. Gold Journey has now dropped alongside Mejiro Dober, the two running abreast. Then comes Dream Well. Doremi and Country Lover, the two famous European horse girls, have both opted for slightly more conservative positions toward the rear… and then Narita Brian and Offside Trap."
Offside Trap cast a glance inward.
Narita Brian, who had also chosen to stay back early, looked across at her. Their eyes met.
This was far from the first time the two had shared a race.
Offside Trap had seen Brian's once-commanding brilliance on the track before—
but now, the dull heaviness in those eyes gave no sign at all of the girl she used to be.
Offside Trap quickened her steps slightly.
The field was already entering the first and second turns, and she had no intention of staying at the very rear forever.
The ground was very heavy today, but for some reason it felt easy beneath her feet.
There was none of the drag she had expected.
Her eyes shifted toward the rail again.
Even the horses closer to the inside had left a little room and were not hugging the fence completely.
That slight gap gave the slow-starting Offside Trap a bold idea.
"The field has entered the first and second turns. Still up front, it is indeed Benedetti—but Skyscraper is right there in pursuit! The winner of two consecutive Epsom Derbies is not setting a slow tempo at all. And behind them, El Condor Pasa already seems not entirely comfortable with it!"
Watching continuously from the stands, Toka Hana clenched her teeth.
She could see that El Condor Pasa was struggling.
This rain had come far too suddenly, leaving her completely unprepared. She knew El had excellent aptitude for heavy going and even for European turf, but without any prior preparation or adaptation, she simply could not shift into the proper rhythm immediately.
Then Toka Hana's eyes moved to Air Groove, another member of her team.
Narita Brian had been even less prepared before the race, and Toka Hana knew Brian had no hope of winning. If anyone still had a chance, it was probably Air Groove, who had accepted one more blessing.
Yet when she saw Air Groove's increasingly leaden stride, Toka Hana pulled off her glasses and covered her eyes in pain.
"The field is already through the second turn! Sekaishuu and the El in behind have already opened up nearly two lengths! Further back, Mejiro Bright and Special Week are also clearly struggling. The Japanese runners truly have not adapted to this kind of ground—"
The European commentators' voices were growing more and more excited now.
Of course they were not foolish enough to celebrate victory at the halfway mark, but they could already see the outline of a winning scenario, and their rising excitement showed it.
"The field is approaching the backstretch opposite the stands! Visibility is extremely poor now because of the weather, but—but the front three are still European: Benedetti, Skyscraper, and the unbeaten Arc winner Sekaishuu…"
The commentary faded into the howling rain around her.
Offside Trap's focus sharpened still further.
Her ears were so taut with concentration that she could barely even hear the footsteps around her anymore.
The rain intensified again.
She could feel the pain of it striking her body—fat drops like small stones, heavy and sharp.
Narita Brian was no longer visible beside her.
When Offside Trap looked inward, she saw a clear lane open on the inside. It seemed as though someone had deliberately left a corridor for her along the rail.
She did not hesitate.
She slipped into it at once.
Shapes flickered at the outer edge of her vision, silhouettes of runners she could only barely make out.
But her attention had already emptied everything else away.
The mud spraying up no longer interfered with her.
The deep ruts beneath her feet, in her perception, might as well have been level ground.
Two more skill prompts flared in Shinji's awareness:
[Lightning Step (Yellow) – When positioned in the rear during mid-race, slightly less likely to be boxed in]
[Unshaken in Crisis (Blue) – Slightly recovers stamina when boxed in during mid-race]
Offside Trap no longer spared any attention to those around her.
She began to raise her speed further.
The murky visibility made it difficult to judge exactly where she stood in the field, but she knew she had to move up toward the middle of the pack sooner rather than later. She needed to leave herself enough room for her finishing move, before the foreign powerhouses—already more suited to this kind of ground—managed to drag too far away.
"The field is now on the far straight. The picture is unclear, but judging by the colors of the silks there does not appear to have been much change in placement. Offside Trap seems to be moving forward—she has now begun approaching the middle of the pack! One-thousand-meter split, around 1:05. In a going this deep, that actually seems somewhat quick. The rear of the field is showing no sign of advancing. In the middle ranks, some runners have already begun to retreat!"
The anxious commentary reached Shinji's ears.
Standing high above, he looked toward Akasaka Misato in the Japanese commentary booth. From this angle he could just make out the female Japanese commentator inside, speaking rapidly with visible concern.
Her voice could not reach him through the rain and glass, but he could read the pessimism in her face all the same.
At last, the stands below began to stir.
On the giant screen the picture was blurred, little more than swaying blocks of color marking the silks of the runners.
Still, the spectators could already see it: several familiar colors were beginning to sink backward.
The Japanese runners, in the end, simply could not adapt to such conditions well enough.
As the tempo rose, they had been forced to search for positions they could tolerate, and in doing so the European horse girls had drained them dry.
Offside Trap, of course, could hear none of that.
Cold rain lashed wildly across her face, forcing her to narrow her eyes.
Another skill activated:
[Race Planner (Gold-Blue) – Less likely to tire during the middle stages of the race]
She lowered her posture a fraction more.
The horse girl passed by her on the outside was Mejiro Dober.
The Mejiro family's young lady looked utterly exhausted, barely hanging on now. This going had taken its toll on the girl who had tried so hard to cling to the pack.
Offside Trap still had plenty of stamina left.
She caught sight of Air Groove's racing silks too.
The horse girl once known as the Empress had had all her makeup ruined by now, leaving faint, elongated traces running down from the corners of her eyes.
Offside Trap knew where she was now.
She had reached the middle of the field.
Ahead and slightly outside of her was El Condor Pasa.
Her eyes shifted inward again.
The enormous shadow of the great tree seemed to begin taking shape through the sheets of rain.
She could not see it clearly, but the marker along the rail—something that could always be seen if you stayed glued to the inside—was drawing near.
The eight-hundred-meter marker.
The very same marker that had once allowed her to make history in the Autumn Tenno Sho.
There it stood, graceful and slender, as if urging her to push harder once again.
Ahead, she still could not see the leaders.
But the footsteps on the outside were heavy, and she could tell they did not belong to the girls she had just passed.
They were most likely Doremi and Country Lover coming up from behind.
But she no longer had the spare attention to observe and calculate everything.
The pace seemed to rise again.
That meant the front-runners were increasing the gap on those behind, forcing El Condor Pasa to accelerate here against the grain of her own comfortable rhythm.
"The field is now approaching the great zelkova! In front of the long Fuchu straight, Benedetti and Skyscraper are running side by side! One length behind them is Sekaishuu, right between the two!"
The European commentators had finally sighted those three familiar figures.
The torrential rain could not extinguish the excitement surging inside them. One of them even sprang to his feet, the sound of both hands slamming against the desk clearly audible through the microphone.
"This could be the decisive move! On the outside, that appears to be Doremi! Between them are Japan's El Condor Pasa and Gold Journey! The field is now sweeping through the third and fourth turns toward the finish—what tremendous speed!"
Offside Trap no longer hesitated.
She did not fully understand the commentators' words, but she had heard the three names.
The three names at the very front.
She took a deep breath.
And as she lowered her body even further, one final skill activated—
[Whole Body, Whole Soul (Gold) – Speed increases at the critical moment of the final charge]
The speed in her legs exploded.
She shot forward like an arrow released from the bow, carving a perfect arc along the inner rail through the field.
The rain itself seemed like walls of water—
and she smashed through them in the most savage way possible.
The commentators did not notice her yet.
Near the six-hundred-meter point, Benedetti had already emerged at the front, finding her line through the boundless rain.
Only Shinji saw it.
He watched that color—darkened by water, but still seeming to glow with fire—surge up tight against the rail. And at last, the fist he had been clenching all this time slowly loosened.
There you are at last, Little Offside…
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
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin