After parting ways with Kuronuma, Teraizumi Shinji walked alone along the road back to the dorms. The path was quiet and out of the way, and the dim yellow streetlights did little to brighten it, making the glow of his phone screen seem almost painfully bright.
Shinji paid it no mind. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he looked through the comments about Narita Brian and, for the first time, truly felt the power of a fan's devotion.
From Yamashouko in the beginning, to Offside Trap and Saint King Halo later on, none of his three girls had ever really had all that many fans, much less a large number of fiercely loyal ones.
Even though Offside Trap had many supporters now, both she and Shinji, after everything that had happened at the Autumn Tenno Sho, had never really taken fans' reactions too seriously. That detachment was a lingering aftereffect of having once been betrayed by the racing fans of this land. Neither Shinji nor Offside Trap had ever really felt there was anything wrong with that.
Not until today, when Shinji read those posts from Narita Brian's fans online.
Those messages carried both inferiority and longing. It was hard to imagine that, on the internet of all places, the fans of a Triple Crown horse girl could sound like this. Even Shinji found it startling.
"It's been so long already, and still no news about her entering a race…"
"Tojo Hana already announced she's entering the Japan Cup!"
"But this year's Japan Cup lineup is terrifyingly stacked… Still, as long as we can see her race again, that's enough for me. Just please let her come home safe…"
Those comments had been left under a Japan Cup post that was supposed to be about Offside Trap. Shinji had to scroll down for a long time before he found these scattered remarks from Narita Brian's supporters.
All it did was make him realize a flaw in the system: the fan count it displayed clearly was not updated in real time. Narita Brian had certainly once had that many fans at the height of her glory, but as time passed and her results declined, the number of people who still waited for her, still believed in her, had dwindled drastically.
Even under the promotional posts for the Japan Cup, he had to scroll for ages before he found any cheers for Narita Brian.
The loophole he had discovered did not make him feel better. It only made his mood heavier.
Metsugi Chiho's excited expression kept replaying in his mind. The way she had looked at him—almost pleading—lingered there too. Narita Brian had no real connection to her, and yet she had shown such raw, genuine emotion because of Brian.
Perhaps that was the bond between a horse girl and her fans. Shinji had never understood it before. Chiho had taught him a lesson today.
He even thought back to Kuronuma's bafflement at the time. For a man like him, who had spent his career training mostly obscure, overlooked girls, this kind of thing was just as far outside his experience.
With a slight headache, Shinji closed the Japan Cup promo video. Only now, after seriously looking into it, had he realized just how many support videos Narita Brian actually had. Her fans had voluntarily made and uploaded video after video for her. Many of them were excellent—fiery, nostalgic, moving. But almost all of the footage came from years ago. There was hardly anything recent.
She had been away from the racetrack for so long. Even on the rare occasions she returned, there had been little worth turning into a highlight.
That thought made him look up.
There, sitting in front of the dorm building, was a lone figure.
Narita Brian's face lacked its usual commanding air. In its place was something softer, more vulnerable.
She stared at the ground in front of her. It was pitch-black there, impossible to make anything out, and yet she looked at it with complete focus.
Perhaps, Shinji thought, she was looking not at the darkness itself, but at the years buried beneath it—at memories only she could see.
He walked slowly up to her. Only when his shoes entered her field of vision did she seem to come back to herself. She turned, then slowly lifted her head.
"Trainer…"
Narita Brian murmured the word, and after seeing those fans' eyes tonight, Shinji felt even more sympathy for her.
Those fans could not enter Tracen Academy in their ordinary lives. They would never know that the horse girl they had continued to love with such stubborn devotion now wore this helpless expression. And Brian, as she was now, really seemed worlds away from the brilliant image they still carried of her.
Shinji pressed his lips together and nodded.
Brian abruptly stood up. Only now did she seem to gather herself fully. Looking at his face, she flushed faintly.
She was embarrassed that her trainer had seen her like this—seen that weak side of her.
"What is it? Why are you sitting out here? You'll catch a chill."
As he said it, Shinji felt the night air himself. It was not cold at all. As the days went by, even the evenings had begun to carry a touch of warmth.
He could not help laughing at himself. Here he was in a short-sleeved shirt, yet he was worrying whether a horse girl would catch cold.
"Trainer." Brian shook her head first, making it clear she was not cold at all. Then she looked at him with unusual seriousness. "I want to increase my training volume."
Shinji could fully feel her resolve, but he did not approve. Without the safety net of Vassal Lord, Brian's legs should not be subjected to excessive strain.
Besides, the amount of training she was already doing was more than hard enough. For Narita Brian, it was absolutely enough.
"It's not enough!"
A trace of stubbornness surfaced on Brian's face. She had once been a multi-G1 champion, the chosen successor to the student council. She understood better than anyone how difficult G1 races were, how brutal the competition was.
She was not unaware of Shinji's concerns, nor of the plans he had laid out for her. She simply felt she no longer had the luxury of waiting passively for opportunities to come to her.
She needed to fight for them.
Shinji could see exactly what she meant. He had watched her effort all this time. To be honest, that kind of relentless determination was rare in a girl who had once possessed such overwhelming talent. Glory often made horse girls complacent.
But perhaps, Shinji thought, that very refusal to slack off had once been the reason Narita Brian had been able to claim the Triple Crown so steadily.
With that thought, he stepped to her side.
Brian lifted her eyes to the night sky. Tonight, the moon and stars were bright, shining openly and beautifully, with nothing to dim them.
Shinji, on the other hand, looked toward the dorm building. The stairwell beyond the entrance was already dark. He stared at it in silence for a while.
"Trainer… could you grant my request? Let me stake everything I have left and fight for whatever chances still remain…"
The bitterness on Brian's face told him enough. Shinji felt that the morning's training had probably affected her more deeply than he had realized, pushing her toward this request.
But he was certain of one thing: this was no passing impulse. The fire in Narita Brian's eyes was real. If he agreed, she would carry it through to the end.
"I understand."
He did not give her a clear answer. He simply walked into the dorm building.
Outside, tears glimmered at the corners of Narita Brian's eyes. She watched his back as he went, the man who only moments ago had stood beneath moonlight and starlight alike now disappearing around the bend in the staircase—
and stepping into a different light beyond it.
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 155)
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 (Chapter200)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter110)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter230)
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 200
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 180
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 230
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 220
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 120
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 135
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 110
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 100
My Harem Is Indescribable 90
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 95
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 80
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 70
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 75
Checking In in Demon Slayer 80
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 85
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 70
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 65
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 70
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 70
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 65
Why did they assign me to Uma 65
MYGO Beauties 65
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 55
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 65
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 45
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 45
The Uma Musume Who Became 40
I'm Definitely Not the King of 45
After Maxing Out Every Class 45
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