The morning mist had yet to clear when Light Dyna finished her second lap along the river embankment.
Her running shoes crushed the wild grass beneath her feet, flicking droplets of water up onto the cuffs of her pants. She raised a hand to brush the damp strands of hair off her forehead, and the rise and fall of her chest gradually settled with her steady breathing.
Ever since she and Opera O had settled on a weight-gain plan, Dyna had started doing early morning runs every day. After finishing the necessary exercise, she would stop by a breakfast shop on the way back and stuff herself full of high-calorie, high-protein food.
Just after two days, the results were already starting to show. When she stepped on the scale that morning before leaving the house, she had already gained a little over two jin. If this kept up, she really would be noticeably heavier by the time of the Satsuki Sho.
What surprised her even more was that horse girls could put on weight without it affecting their figure at all. Even someone like Rhodonite Kihou could let herself go wild without ever worrying about ruining her shape.
What a bizarre species.
"Oh? Morning, boss lady." Nagakura pushed the door open just as Dyna came downstairs after her shower, still in her lounge clothes, breakfast laid out on the table but untouched. "I picked up some milk. Want one?"
Nagakura had bought warm cartons of milk from the convenience store in the shopping street. As she gave one a little shake and smiled, she added, "By the way, should we make more bread that stores well these next couple of days? The Oka Sho's coming up, so a lot of customers might want to bring our bread to the racecourse for lunch."
Dyna took the milk. The warmth of the carton against her fingertips made her think, all at once, of running into Orfevre by the riverbank. The orange-haired girl in her Tracen uniform, leaning against the railing, had seemed far less sharp than she did on the racetrack—almost a little awkward, in a distinctly girlish way.
Dyna gave her head a small shake and threw the thought aside. Tapping her fingertips lightly against the bread tray, she said, "Then let's make more. Use sakura-pattern wrapping paper to match the Oka Sho atmosphere. And since Whale Capture's the big favorite, maybe we can think about helping boost her popularity too?"
"Huh? She's from the same trainer's stable as Orfevre, you know?" Nagakura dragged out the last words meaningfully.
Dyna only smiled, saying nothing.
Nagakura rubbed her index fingers together, then nodded as if she understood everything.
"Got it. Leave it to me, then. You just focus on preparing for the Satsuki Sho, boss lady."
As the future manager Dyna had already more or less chosen for one of her chain branches—though Nagakura herself had no idea yet—she had more than enough ability to reassure Dyna. Since her intentions had already been conveyed, Dyna could now focus entirely on dealing with the oversized breakfast in front of her.
Nagakura busied herself in the kitchen while Dyna ate in the shop. By the time Dyna had finished, to the point of being almost stuffed, Nagakura had already slid the first tray of bread into the oven and started preparing the dough for the second batch.
The oven hummed. The smell of wheat and butter soon drifted out and filled the whole shop.
Dyna handled brushing butter over the loaves, and the two worked in quiet coordination until Oguri Cap arrived.
As the shop's front-counter girl, she had already maxed out her proficiency. With practiced ease, she flipped the sign outside to show the shop was open, settled behind the register, and checked the till while waiting for customers.
This was the sort of time when casual chatting naturally happened. Since Oguri had never taken part in the Classic races herself, she was always especially curious about them. In a way, maybe it helped make up for the regrets she still had about her own year—too busy with other races then to really pay attention to the Classics.
"Boss lady—want to go to Hanshin with me on Sunday to watch the Oka Sho?"
Oguri already had several Hanshin Racecourse tickets booked on her phone. As an idol horse girl, it was only natural she would have access to a few special tickets at every racecourse.
Dyna paused mid-brush.
The Oka Sho was the opening race of the filly Classics. Sometimes people even treated it as a kind of weather vane for the whole year's Classic season. The way its runners handled the course, the tactics they chose—everything offered critical clues for later races.
Watching Whale Capture in person... that actually might be a very good idea.
After all, she and Orfevre were under the same trainer. Dyna might be able to use Whale Capture to get a better read on Orfevre's style—or on any changes Trainer Ikezou had made to the two of them lately.
So she agreed.
"Sure, let's go. Watch Whale Capture, study Orfevre. Of course, we'll probably see Orfevre at the racecourse too, but as long as we're careful, we won't run into her."
A person could only be so unlucky.
Dyna refused to believe she was unlucky enough to go out and immediately crash straight into Orfevre's arms. If that ever happened, she might as well buy a lottery ticket.
Then again, race winnings paid better than lottery tickets did, so never mind.
"Then let's work a little overtime these next couple days and get the weekend work finished in advance. I'm counting on you two."
That was Dyna's decision, because she already had plans of her own for Saturday. Working ahead now was the most sensible option. And only then did she learn from Oguri that she had bought four tickets.
There were only three of them.
Dyna had no idea who the fourth was for.
Saturday morning, Dyna indulged herself and stayed in bed unusually late. She did not sit up until eight.
Normally, the satisfaction of sleeping in would have lingered, but today it was immediately replaced by the grumbling in her stomach. She was starving.
"Ugh... I really have trained my body into something strange. Breakfast is supposed to be a hassle."
After washing up and changing, Dyna went downstairs to the kitchen and made herself five bacon, ham, and egg sandwiches.
While she worked, she also prepared a sweetened hot soy milk. The long-forgotten taste spread through her mouth, soothing her stomach completely. After finishing the last bite of her sandwich, she dropped the dishes into the newly installed sink.
One press for the lazy-person cleanup mode.
Before heading out, she nudged her shoes with her foot to make sure they would not slip off. She was even wearing a skirt that day, something she rarely did. Bare legs were still a little cold in the early spring morning, but for a horse girl, that hardly mattered.
Today, she was going to the hospital.
Not because she had gotten hurt or needed treatment. She was going to honor a promise she had made—to visit that boy before the Satsuki Sho.
The boy who had first sparked the seed of her dream.
One of the people who had changed her life.
On the way there, Dyna had no idea what his condition was like at the moment, or whether he was under any dietary restrictions. So instead of food, she had brought him model toys—safely hidden in an opaque paper bag so they could be a surprise.
And since boys tended to like this sort of thing, she had picked them with some confidence.
Besides a popular Ultraman model, she had also bought him a bestselling Kamen Rider belt. She did not really know much about Kamen Rider, but she could only hope he would like the design.
They had chatted on LINE before, and from what he had said, he had been doing fairly well lately.
According to the doctor, perhaps it was because his mood had been so good recently that his condition had been responding better too.
When Dyna reached Tokyo Central Hospital, she made sure the model kits were fully hidden inside the paper bag. She climbed to the fifth floor by the stairs instead of the elevator, since the latter was in emergency use.
Using the room number he had sent her on LINE, she stopped outside the door and knocked lightly twice.
A woman's voice came from inside.
"Come in."
"Excuse me."
The moment Dyna opened the door, the atmosphere inside the room seemed to fall still.
The boy had been staring blankly out the window at the cherry blossom tree outside. At the sound of the door, he turned his head—and the instant he recognized her, his dim eyes suddenly lit up.
"Big Sis Dyna!"
The woman sitting beside the bed, stroking the back of his hand, smiled too.
There was far more white in her hair now than when Dyna had first met her.
The boy tried to raise a hand to greet her, but with the IV needle taped into the back of it, all he could do was wiggle his wrist.
The woman did not stand, but the gratitude on her face was unmistakable.
"Miss Light... you finally came. He was talking about you just yesterday, worrying whether you might have forgotten your promise. Children always overthink these things..."
"How could I forget?" Dyna came closer, smiling. "This was one of the most important promises I ever made. If I broke it, I'd regret it for the rest of my life."
She handed him the paper bag holding the toys, gave it a small shake, and asked, "Guess what's inside?"
The boy blinked curiously and took it. His fingers fumbled at the packaging.
The moment he saw the Ultraman model and the Kamen Rider belt, he let out the kind of cry only boys could.
"Wow! It's Ultraman Zero! And the Decade belt too!"
"Do you like them?"
Dyna sat down in the chair by his bed. When it came to picking gifts boys liked, she still had a decent sense for it. Thank goodness he liked the belt so much.
"Of course I do! I love them!" He looked up at her. "Big Sis Dyna, you're racing in the Satsuki Sho next week, right? I'll be in chemo that day, but I'll make Mom record the broadcast!"
Dyna reached out and gently patted his head.
"Then make sure you focus on your treatment, okay? Wouldn't it be even better to come to Nakayama in person for the Arima Kinen? You could watch me beat everyone and cross the finish line right there."
The woman poured her a cup of warm water.
"We really can't thank you enough, Miss Light. You've made time to talk to him every day, and it's worked better than medicine. I don't even know how to put our gratitude into words..."
Dyna accepted the cup. The warmth against her fingers made her chest ache faintly.
She thought of all the children she had seen during disaster relief—children like him, burdened with pain, children who had lost their homes to the earthquake.
And what she could do for them, ultimately, was limited to winning races—races that might bring them hope.
Maybe doing only what she could was enough.
"I should be the one thanking him." Dyna cradled the cup in both hands and tipped her head back to look at the pale hospital ceiling. "He's the one who made me understand what I'm running for. That means more to me than anything."
Running was not just about her own dream.
It was about protecting those hopeful eyes fixed on her.
Protecting hope itself.
And it was exactly those intangible things that kept pushing her forward—pushing her to face down that tyrant, Orfevre.
The boy blinked, not entirely understanding, but he still said eagerly, "Big Sis Dyna, you have to win the Satsuki Sho! And then the Derby! And then the Kikuka Sho! Become a Triple Crown champion!"
"I will." Dyna bumped her fist lightly against his. "I'll be waiting for you on the Arima Kinen stage."
"I believe you can become like Ultraman too, Big Sis! A light! Because you're Dyna! You can switch into Miracle Type and make miracles happen!"
That finally made her laugh.
How could there really be anything like Miracle Type in real life?
Still, it was better not to explain that to a child. Things were fine just as they were.
But it was also his treatment day, so Dyna did not stay long.
When she left the room, the smell of disinfectant faded behind her, but the heaviness in her heart did not.
The Satsuki Sho—she had to win.
And the Japanese Derby too—she had to win that one as well.
Taking a deep breath, Light Dyna finally became certain of one thing:
This year, she was not going to leave Orfevre a single G1 title.
As for whether Orfevre could win anything else—
that was none of Dyna's concern.
If she thought about it from another angle, Orfevre was not even the real favorite anyway.
To the public, she was nothing more than a colt horse girl whose only win so far was a maiden race.
She was not even on the same level as her elder sister Gold Journey had once been.
The popularity voting for the Satsuki Sho would open immediately after the Oka Sho ended. The draw for the gate positions, meanwhile, would take place live on Monday night, and Dyna herself had to attend.
From the outside, Light Dyna did not have a trainer to act as her proxy, so she had no choice but to show up and draw in person.
And because the whole process was random and broadcast live nationwide, it completely eliminated any chance of a fix.
"Please don't give me another outside gate..."
That was Dyna's fervent hope.
Since her debut, she had drawn the outermost gate four races in a row, and it was starting to genuinely irritate her. Surely she did not have some kind of supernatural attraction to the far outside?
It was not necessarily bad for a closer, but it still affected the overall rhythm of the race.
As she rode the bus back toward the shop, sitting in the very last seat, most of the news on her phone feed was still about disaster-zone reconstruction. Thanks to the charity race, huge amounts of funding had been poured into the rebuilding of Chiba and the surrounding areas. Repairs to Nakayama Racecourse were progressing rapidly too; at this rate, it ought to be usable again in the latter half of the year.
The graded stakes that had been disrupted in the meantime, of course, would need to be made up at other racecourses.
Still, once she got off at the bus stop nearest her shop and tucked her phone away, she returned home empty-handed.
Lunch was takeout again.
At the same time, she also prepared the bread she planned to bring to Hanshin the next day. Since everyone had different tastes, she made several kinds of filling. No matter what, there was sure to be something each of them liked.
She spent the entire afternoon sitting in front of her laptop. Around then, a reminder email from the JRA about the lottery-position event arrived too, but she barely looked at it. That sort of thing was always formulaic nonsense and never made any difference anyway.
That evening, she met up with Oguri at the front gate of Tracen Academy.
Only then did she learn who the mysterious fourth ticket belonged to:
Oguri's supporter—Super Creek.
The plan was to head to Takarazuka that night, stay in a hotel, sleep in until morning, and then go to Hanshin Racecourse.
By then, Dyna was already thinking of the next stage.
Tomorrow, she would watch the Oka Sho.
After that, it would be her turn.
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 132)
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 (Chapter140)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter95)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter165)
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 145
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 135
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 95
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 155
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 125
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 105
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 62
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 80
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 80
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 62
Uma Musume: I Want All 65
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
Summoning an Evil God, but the 41
Supernatural Multiverse 45
My Harem Is Indescribable 35
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 46
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 26
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 36
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