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On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

Reader mode
I was thinking about what Shiroganes unique skill would be, and what I noticed is that a key part was being ignored. The Salaryman is a key part that formed the underpinning logic of Tanya and shiroganes logic. In each life they have a goal, to be secure; both financially and physically. As The Salaryman, he lacked any emotional components in his life due to his upbringing, and so focused an the finance and took the path as a corporate cog as the way to do it, Tanya went to the army as both the financial aspect and the physical aspect weren't guaranteed outside, and then spent her life working towards safety, albeit poorly. And her emotional state was in danger as she felt her mind wasn't secure due to being x. While Shirogane, is safe. There are no wars, she has her investments and portfolio and a restaurant to fall back on. Her life is secured, and emotionally. She has never been better, loving family who want her to be happy and love her. She has everything set, her racing career at its core isn't about her, it's about them. Win. Lose. All that matters is she places and gets her family money, so that she can secure her family's comfortable life. Frankly put, I think that her unique skill would only activate if she fell out of the top 3. Simply because she wouldn't be able to help ease her family's life if she lost. She could run additional races, but there's only so many races she can run. Beyond that, I think the only she would truly take them seriously is if the races affected her family's business. If it did I know something would happen, I just don't know what. It would probably be named something that goes against how she superficially acts like "The Eternal Ideal/Ordeal" because of how idealistic she really is. She always believes that her effort will award something, whether from the company, the army, or what now. And she has been proven wrong twice. I feel there's so much nuance to be had with her unique skill but my brains failing me right now
 
Ethqhfoenxudkenapqgdu said:
I was thinking about what Shiroganes unique skill would be, and what I noticed is that a key part was being ignored.
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huh
first, let me address the 'quality of life issue'
Paragraphs are free, dude
let me tidy that up for you
I was thinking about what Shiroganes unique skill would be, and what I noticed is that a key part was being ignored. The Salaryman is a key part that formed the underpinning logic of Tanya and shiroganes logic. In each life they have a goal, to be secure; both financially and physically.
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As The Salaryman, he lacked any emotional components in his life due to his upbringing, and so focused an the finance and took the path as a corporate cog as the way to do it, Tanya went to the army as both the financial aspect and the physical aspect weren't guaranteed outside, and then spent her life working towards safety, albeit poorly. And her emotional state was in danger as she felt her mind wasn't secure due to being x.
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While Shirogane, is safe. There are no wars, she has her investments and portfolio and a restaurant to fall back on. Her life is secured, and emotionally. She has never been better, loving family who want her to be happy and love her. She has everything set, her racing career at its core isn't about her, it's about them. Win. Lose. All that matters is she places and gets her family money, so that she can secure her family's comfortable life.
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Frankly put, I think that her unique skill would only activate if she fell out of the top 3. Simply because she wouldn't be able to help ease her family's life if she lost. She could run additional races, but there's only so many races she can run.
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Beyond that, I think the only she would truly take them seriously is if the races affected her family's business. If it did I know something would happen, I just don't know what.
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It would probably be named something that goes against how she superficially acts like "The Eternal Ideal/Ordeal" because of how idealistic she really is. She always believes that her effort will award something, whether from the company, the army, or what now.
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And she has been proven wrong twice.
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I feel there's so much nuance to be had with her unique skill but my brains failing me right now
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and yes, I largely agree with what you're saying
 
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Sky3Fall said:
The idea of a giant wooden Uma is sending me.
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Winged One said:
You just know it looked like Gold Ship, too.
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Probably was something else. Assuming the Trojan War even happened or the Myth went in the same way. Wouldn't be surprised if various Myths as a whole were changed. Alkides and Achilles got twisted into being an Uma because of the absurdity super strong humans especially one that could beat Amazons in races, Achilles in one Myth hiding as one of a king's daughters literally Named "Red Hair" and the ankle hit taking him out.

Maybe Poseidon was an UmaMusume? The horse was specifically done because the Patron Deity of Troy was Poseidon, supposedly him and Hephæstus were forced to build the walls by Zeus as punishment for participation in Hera's attempted coup. Kratos was to watch over them to ensure they actually completed their sentencing within a timely manner, what he did not expect was for them to make the walls unassailable as their own vengeance against Zeus, causing the Trojans to change Patrons from Zeus to Poseidon by their magnificence.

Although we can all agree the Amazons became UmaMusume here. They're literally an all female race whose Culture is about foot racing already. Slap some ears and a tail on them and there would be no change.

...Now I wanna Read the UmaMusume Setting's version of Percy Jackson...

Jubjub3000 said:
Plus its horse girls not horse dickgirls. imagine wonder why people are so obsessed with sticking dicks on women.
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Not gonna address the question as a whole but will the Setting in specific due to it being more On Topic and SFW:
The Setting References the Real World counterpart's Sex using ear ornaments (or the crown in Opera's case) alongside being an Isekai Setting. Obviously people are gonna take that and make the stallion/mare thing have physical basis behind it even though the ear ornaments are acknowledged as much as hats are in Touhou. Possibly also to add more to there being a third Sex that isn't just "horsegirl that is human+" but have it be two additional ones in one package. We can only assume there's a thing in Uma Culture to have ears bits but the side being coincidental and/or maybe in racing Culture specifically indicating a Desire for the Crown or Tiara. Might even treat the lack of one like a form of nudity, a social faux pas.
 
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What the heck does Shirogane wear normally? Like, what are her casual clothes? I wonder if her sense of fashion is completely thrown out of whack from being a suit-and-tie salaryman then a soldier who only wore her uniform. Is it ever mentioned in the story?

...Does she just wear the Suzukiya waiters uniform?
 
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TheSmallSauce said:
What the heck does Shirogane wear normally? Like, what are her casual clothes? I wonder if her sense of fashion is completely thrown out of whack from being a suit-and-tie salaryman then a soldier who only wore her uniform. Is it ever mentioned in the story?

...Does she just wear the Suzukiya waiters uniform
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WrandmWaffles said:
Usually a simple blouse or dress shirt and a skirt or pants/jeans. Looks very NPC aside from her eyes.
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OK but when Shirogane gets serious what's her battle aura look like? Some umas have crowns, beasts, jets, or a sports car. Something like a fully mechanized military blitzing across a battlefield? Or maybe it's more cerebral like a skypoint view symbolic to her wish to fly?
 
Westcoast-Quilin said:
OK but when Shirogane gets serious what's her battle aura look like? Some umas have crowns, beasts, jets, or a sports car. Something like a fully mechanized military blitzing across a battlefield? Or maybe it's more cerebral like a skypoint view symbolic to her wish to fly?
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Maybe a mixture of both?
 
neta wey said:
his idea of both makes me picture Shirogane as something of a Wherawoo
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Probably not that specific military, Shirogane herself is half-polish and has a polish mother. And that polish part of her family seems to have been a military one, so there's that too.
 
Jadalier Rune said:
Maybe a mixture of both?
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That makes me think of this. 🤣
original-999cf5a6175539004e8db9361d894ec5.gif
 
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Winged One said:
That's a lot of trust for everyone to put into her sportshorseship and/or sanity...
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She shoots it once in her unique skill animation, but idk how much stock we'd put in that.

I'm pretty sure it's just for dramatic effect, but she does have animations for firing it.

It's literally called 'Shooting for Victory'.
 
Warper6 said:
All Uma skill animations are diagetic.
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Honestly, it would be really funny if it was because Almond Eye's skill animation exists which I don't even know how to describe.

Also implies Taiki Shuttle is just shooting a gun on the track. Truly American racing at it's finest kek
 
Wild Transient said:
Golshi swings a chain and anchor in her ult iirc. McQueen has a table and tea set in hers, Seiun Sky does fishing in her ult animation, The Emperor aura farms and Teio goes sky high.
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Summer Special Week just slips into a pool of water.
 
Getting pretty close to finishing up the next chapter, so here's a sneak peak:
The air felt different in Nakayma, or at least it felt that way to Grass Wonder as readied herself for her debut, trying her best to keep herself, something she mostly succeeded in, except for the occasional twitch of her ears and tail.

She didn't understand how Shirogane-san could be so calm in the starting gate, but now that she was there herself Grass couldn't help but feel a grudging admiration for her classmate.

It had been galling to feel so far behind someone she knew she could beat in a race, but after Trainer-san's explanations, and now feeling the real pressure of a race with actual stakes (even if it was just a newcomers'), she had to grit her teeth and admit that for all that Shirogane-san lacked in bursts of speed, her off track skills contributed a lot more to her on track performance than Grass had thought would be the case.

She inhaled, then exhaled slowly, trying to drown out the sounds in the gates around her, filled with other runners, most of whom were much less adept at suppressing their nervous tics.

Be calm as still water, she reminded herself, but with the ability to flow rapidly underneath.

One of her ears twitched.

It was harder to match Shirogane-san's stillness than she had first expected.

But that was a small thing, compared to her spatial awareness. As much as her taciturn classmate hadn't had much experience in racing, she always seemed to know what was going on around her, even about the runners behind her. Grass had enough experience to know how important it was to check behind you, and enough skill to do so without losing forward focus, but that was still a far cry from Shirogane-san's almost uncanny ability.
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Heads up, it will be a bit of a timeskip/montage chapter, since it would be rather impractical to write out all the Golden Generation starting out their careers.
 
It's fine the cream,butter and carrot is of course the Triple Tiara and Triple Crown race anyway and some slice of life
Somehow it never occurs to me that all Racing Academy is basically All Girls School with some male serve as staff and trainer of course
 
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WrandmWaffles said:
Heads up, it will be a bit of a timeskip/montage chapter, since it would be rather impractical to write out all the Golden Generation starting out their careers.
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That's good to hear. Fics that try to combine huge cast + everyone gets a turn in the limelight tend to murder their pacing.
 
Looking forward to the new chapter.

I like the POV of other on how the see Tanya, she's indeed a very different Uma, but her own style and actions are different enough to get the attention of others, and they can always learn something from her.

I wonder if anyone will ask her to teach them to be calm in the middle of a race, or how does she keeps her cool so easily.
 
18. Stars Align New
Stars Align​

After the remainder of their class found trainers, things settled down somewhat for Shirogane's yearmates, but the opposite was true for the second year students, as they faced their classic triple crown and tiara circuits.

Seeking the Pearl and Mejiro Dober had both taken one of the tiaras, but on the classic circuit, their classmates had performed fairly poorly, with neither Matikanefukikutaru or Silence Suzaka even placing. To compound things, the Satsuki Sho and Tokyo Yushun had been won by a dark horse runner named Sunny Brian, which sent the campus into a tizzy as the unexpected winner now had the possibility of winning the Triple Crown when expectations had been that her win on the first leg had been a fluke.

Personally, Shirogane was not too surprised that her two relevant classmates had not done that well, as while Suzuka-san was very fast, she tended to perform worse if around too many other runners, and with her relatively recent injury Toujou-san had recommended she curtail the usual desire to run way out in front. It was perhaps more sensible from a health perspective, but clearly it affected Suzuka's morale significantly.

Matikanefukikutaru, on the other hand, was extremely mercurial and probably was in a bad mood that day.

While this atmosphere didn't affect Shirogane all that much, it did seem to put a damper on Suzuka-san's enthusiasm, as while the chestnut haired uma was not the most vocal, she was still very competitive, and having to hold back her preferred instincts to avoid injury was clearly bothering her, to the point where their occasional morning runs didn't seem to do much to lift the older uma's mood despite having good weather.

"Did you argue with Toujou-san again?" After a few days of this, Shirogane thought it was worth bringing up.

"Eh? Oh, not really." Suzuka-san's ears drooped down sadly. "I had another doctor appointment, and they said my leg is much better, but Trainer-san is still worried about it." She sighed forlornly. "And after I didn't do very well in my last race, she's even more worried about it."

"...You really didn't quite look like yourself."

"You saw it too?" Suzuka sighed. "It just didn't feel right."

"Was your leg still giving you trouble?" Shirogane inquired, feeling incredulous. With how concerned their trainer had been about injuries, it seemed odd for her to allow Suzuka to participate if there was a known problem.

"No, not really…" she denied, shaking her head. "It's just that the view was bad."

"Does having others in front of you bother you that much?" It didn't make that much sense to Shirogane, but she grew up in a city so she might be more accustomed to traffic than others.

"I don't like it."

"Hmm…I suppose it is more difficult to run as fast as you prefer to when there are dynamic obstacles you need to avoid."

"But it doesn't bother you," Suzuka-san observed, one ear twitching as she glanced over at her junior.

"Not so much, I'm used to maneuvering around obstacles," Shirogane shrugged. "Came with running deliveries."

"Umm…then why doesn't Trainer-san have you run more towards the back?" Her senpai's tail flicked uncertainly. "You're very good at passing people."

"Aside from lacking the speed to do that reliably."

"Ah…" Sometimes Suzuka seemed to miss the most obvious things.

"We all must adjust to our strengths and limitations if we want to perform well." It was helpful that the standards of success were so simple. Cross the finish line first, without interfering with the other runners beyond acceptable maneuvering. Much more straightforward than managing a group of lunatics to achieve more nebulous targets like the Salaryman and Soldier had to contend with.

Though in her own case she wasn't in a leadership position, and probably would never have to be, so it wasn't necessarily the best comparison.

"So…is what you're saying that I shouldn't run out in front?" This hardly warranted such a distraught expression.

"We both know the alternative hasn't been working too well," Shirogane stressed, shaking her head. "If you need to front run to perform well, and your previous injury makes doing that more risky, then you will have to find ways to mitigate the risk of injury."

"You mean more slow strength training?" Her ears drooped down miserably. "Trainer-san said I needed to work out my legs but not by running."

"Maybe, I can't say I'm that knowledgeable about this, since I have the opposite problem." In her case she needed to practice sprinting, which was an interesting change of pace.

"Oh…"

"Perhaps you should try pacing in figure eights instead of left handed circles." It would even out some of the stress on her injured leg.

"Eh?"

"Swimming might be useful too."

"Really?"

"The buoyancy of the water means your legs aren't carrying all of your weight."

"Hmm…so that's why Trainer-san mentioned that…"

"You do not look very enthused."

"Well…it isn't running."

There was something to be said about loving what you do but Silence Suzuka might be taking it a bit far.

Special Week had not really thought about what it would be like to be on a team very much when she came to Tracen, but despite her not being the best at school stuff, she had listened to what Grass-chan and El-chan had said.

It still had not prepared her at all for what being on Team Spica was like.

"Nom!"

"Uwaah!"

Teeth clamped on her arm and Special Week almost jumped out of her own skin, falling over onto her face into Team Spica's locker room.

"Wa-hahaha! Got you again, Spe!"

Special Week rolled over onto her back, looking up at the toothy grin of the teammate looming over her.

"You should really stop that, Windy-san," sighed the elegant voice of another one of Spe's seniors. "One of you is going to get hurt at some point."

"Eh? It's just a fun prank, Dober!" Shinko Windy objected, frowning at the voice of reason on their team. "It won't hurt her, right Spe?"

"I'm ok!" Special Week declared, springing up to her feet, before realizing she may have got up too quickly, flailing her arms as she lost her balance again and–

"Woah there, junior."

–finding herself falling into a chair that had not been there a second earlier.

"Huh?"

"Maah, nice kick Bubbles."

"Heh." Pop! "Can't let our junior get herself hurt too much, can we?"

"True, true. Still with us, Spe?"

Special Week blinked, taking a breath to steady herself, finally having the time to get a good look at her teammates who were already in the room.

Mejiro Dober sat against the wall, keeping a serious face even as she looked very done with this whole thing, while the lackadaisical Stay Gold lounged on a bench, looking like she had just woken up from a nap.

The uma that had bit her, Shinko Windy, with short and spiky brown hair, hopped up onto the table and crouched down, her toothy grin not fading one bit. "She looks fine, see?!"

And lastly, leaning back in her chair at the table, was an uma with long reddish-brown hair wearing an orange and white band wrapped around her right ear, casually blowing a bubble of bubble gum. She must have been the one to kick the chair over to save her from falling.

"Thanks, Bubble Gum-senpai!"

"Don't sweat it, Spe," Her senior waved off, tucking her arm over the back of her chair. "But you gotta stop jumping for the walls every time Windy pulls a prank."

"Especially if you wanna pass the gate check," Stay Gold added, looking over at her with one eye open.

"I-I did pass though!" Special Week waved her hands furiously in objection. "It took a few tries, but I got it!"

"There isn't any shame in having to try a few times," Dober offered reassuringly. "Especially since you didn't use them before. They take some time to get accustomed to."

"See! I'm just helping my junior too!" Shinko interjected, hopping in place on the table, still crouched down.

"I heard even Shiro-chan had some trouble with it," Stay Gold went on, ignoring their bitey teammate.

"Ehhh?! Really?" Special Week had never seen Shirogane-san so much as flinch, could she really have had trouble with the gate too?

"Oh yeah…Groove did mention that her kouhai smashed a speaker in the starting gate," Bubble Gum Fellow added, before blowing another bubble. "Gotta say that's a new one."

"Oh yeah…Shiro-chan doesn't really like loud noises."

"Does anyone?"

"Sorry I'm late!" A burst of noise flooded the room as the door snapped open, letting the dark haired blur of El Condor Pasa inside.

"Rawr!"

"Wah!"

Shinko Windy jumped at the newcomer, and while El-chan let out a surprised sound, her reaction was not to get scared, but to grab onto the incoming uma and throw her out the doorway.

"El Condor Pasa is here!"

"Woo, a ring out." Stay Gold clapped, eyes glittering with amusement. "Didn't even let the door hit her on the way out."

"That was so cool, El-chan!" Special Week hopped back up to her feet, this time actually avoiding the dizziness.

"Of course! I am El Condor Pasa! And no one attacks me with impunity!" The dark haired uma thrust her fist in the air emphatically. "Wah!" Only to be knocked forwards as Shinko Windy jumped on her back and bit down on her head.

"Ohoh, round two, eh?" Stay Gold hummed, sitting up to observe more closely. "Who shall win this one?"
"I'd say Windy's got this one." Pop!

As she watched in morbid fascination, Special Week got the sense that Bubble-senpai was right, as El-chan wasn't very successful at getting their bitey teammate off her back, even as the two of them rolled around on the ground.

"Oh for heaven's sake!" Dober-san sighed, her ears pulled back in irritation as she stood up and stalked over to the roughhousing pair, smacking Windy-san on the back of her head and hauling her off of El-chan. "Trainer-san told us there was an important meeting, so at least try and take things a bit seriously!"

"And in comes Dober-chan with a strict scolding."

"It isn't as effective as the dragging around part."

Stay Gold and Bubble-senpai didn't move from their seats, just watching the shenanigans as if they were commentators for a wrestling match. Not that Special Week could really say much against them since she was still kind of just standing there herself.

Was she even supposed to do anything? Her teammates were so confusing sometimes.

"Alrighty…" the door swung open again, revealing their scruffy looking trainer, who paused at the sight of two of his trainees on the ground, with one trying to separate them. "Did I come at a bad time? I can come back later."

"Yo, Trainer, what's up?" Stay Gold called, waving casually as she laid back down. "I think you picked a great time, actually."

"You're the one who told us to be here," Dober-san pointed out, ear flicking irritably as she disentangled herself from the two wrestling umas. "I hope you aren't wasting our time here with this."

"Ehh…maybe a little?" Trainer-san scratched the side of his head sheepishly. "It's more of a thing for the newbies, but I figured it would help if you could help out a bit as their seniors."

"Ah…" Crossing her arms, Dober let out a slight huff, looking away from Trainer-san. "Then I suppose I wouldn't mind."

"Ohoh, now this could be interesting…"

"Is this what I think it is, Trainer-san?"

Both Stay Gold and Bubble-senpai suddenly had very interested looks. What was Special Week missing here? What was Trainer-san about to say?!

"Special Week!" Trainer barked. "El Condor Pasa!"

"Yes?!"

"Que?"

The two first years squeaked, Special Week almost jumping in place, the two of them sharing a worried glance over their Trainer's suddenly serious demeanor. Mostly, he was rather laid back when not obsessed over someone's legs, but now…

"The time has come!"

Bang!

Special Week flinched again as he slapped a stack of papers onto the table.

"For you to make your debuts!"

"EHHHH?!"

The air felt different in Nakayma, or at least it felt that way to Grass Wonder as she readied herself for her debut, trying her best to keep still, something she mostly succeeded in, except for the occasional twitch of her ears and tail.

Now that she was in the starting gate for a proper race herself, Grass couldn't help but feel a grudging admiration for her classmate. Shirogane-san had made staying calm look so easy.

It had been galling to feel so far behind someone she knew she could beat in a race, but after Trainer-san's explanations, and now feeling the real pressure of a race with actual stakes (even if it was just a newcomers'), she had to grit her teeth and admit that for all that Shirogane-san lacked in bursts of speed, her off track skills contributed a lot more to her on track performance than Grass had thought would be the case.

She inhaled, then exhaled slowly, trying to drown out the sounds in the gates around her, filled with other runners, most of whom were much less adept at suppressing their nervous tics.

Be calm as still water, she reminded herself, but with the ability to flow rapidly underneath.

One of her ears twitched.

It was harder to match Shirogane-san's stillness than she had first expected.

But that was a small thing, compared to her spatial awareness. As much as her taciturn classmate hadn't had much experience in racing, she always seemed to know what was going on around her, even about the runners behind her. Grass had enough experience to know how important it was to check behind you, and enough skill to do so without losing forward focus, but that was still a far cry from Shirogane-san's almost uncanny ability.

The gates opening almost caught her off guard, being so lost in her own thoughts, but reflex kicked in and she burst out onto the track, only slightly delayed.

Mentally, she kicked herself, but it wouldn't take her out of the running. She preferred to surge in the later portions of the race anyways.

She grit her teeth, focusing on keeping her breathing even, tamping down on the urge to sprint ahead and show her rivals and the world just how good she was.

As much as it had stung to debut so much later than her classmate, she had to admit that the delay had given her time to learn a lot. Especially patience.

So she kept her position towards the back of the pack, angling slightly towards the outside so she would have a path forwards later. Being towards the rear also allowed her to observe her opponents, and so far, compared to her training partners in Tracen, most of them felt…a bit lacking.

She had trained for years to run these races, months practicing a facsimile of this racecourse, so she was prepared for the inclines and the drops, while much of her competition seemed much less ready for.

As the lead runners started to flag, Grass started to move up the pack. This was a short race, but the undulation of the Nakayama track meant it was more fatiguing than it might first appear.

But Grass had trained for this.

Trainer-san had shown her some of the exercises Shirogane-san had undertaken when practicing for her victorious debut. And now, as they reached the upwards slope of the final stretch, Grass shot forwards even as the leaders slowed.

Her breath came harder as she charged up the incline, but with her preparations, the strain was bearable, and in a short flash, she had passed the final post and won her newcomer race.

She smiled and bowed to the cheering crowd, even as a part of her still felt that this was merely one step to closing the gap rather than an achievement of its own.

It had been about eight months, but with how much she had thrown herself into her Classic Year so far, it felt as if no time had passed at all.

Mejiro Dober bowed her head, shutting her eyes to stop the tears from falling.

"I almost did it, Ojii-chan…" she couldn't speak too loudly without losing control of her voice, but her grandfather was dead, so it didn't really matter. And it would be considered rude to speak too loudly at his gravestone anyways.

"Couldn't win all three Tiaras…since Pearl-san won the Oka Sho, but I won the Yushun Himba and Shuka Sho." She swallowed. "Oka-san left a seat for you…did you see it?"

He had seen her win her first G1 race at Hanshin, before collapsing and passing away suddenly before her run at the Tiaras.

Those days were a bit of a haze in her mind, and sometimes she wondered if she could have won the Oka-sho had she been more focused, before feeling the guilt again.

"Ramonu-san was disappointed. She says I could have won all three Tiaras if I had channeled my grief into running…" She let out a long breath. "Maybe she was right…but it wasn't that simple."

Grandfather had been the first person to teach her how to run. He was already old then, but he had been determined to do his best to train her. If only she had seen how hard he was pushing himself then…maybe he would still be alive.

"You told me you saw much potential in me…" And she had won seven races so far, four of them graded, but she didn't know how much more she had in her, now that she had time to let the pain settle.

As much as her living family members had been pleased by her achievements so far, she was still considered too young to discuss the business side of things, and yet, she could see that many of her family members were worried about things.

With the number of strong foreign runners coming over to compete, the competition was looking stiffer than ever, and Dober could see this too, with several of her yearmates as well as a number of those in the year below her being foreign runners. A few of the others also had at least one foreign parent, like Shirogane-san.

Speaking of her, Dober was getting the sense that her serious kouhai was right about how much her family's fortunes were tied to racing. Even with her strong performance so far, it was starting to become clear that depending on the prestige of producing consistent winners was going to become more tenuous in the future.

"Did I make you proud, Ojii-san?" And would it be enough to live up to the Mejiro name?

Had it been worth it?

While the hype for the Classic Year circuit had died down as Sunny Brian's retirement due to injury had smothered the possibility of a Triple Crown winner in the crib, the last leg of the circuit, the Kikuka Sho, had reignited some of the furor as one of their own, Matikanefukukitaru, had claimed the final crown, with the added point of interest that Mejiro Bright had taken third place, when she had not been considered particularly promising earlier in her career. Stay Gold had not placed, but the lackadaisical uma didn't seem to be bothered by it.

Within her yearmates, Grass Wonder became the second to debut, winning her newcomer race and a short distance open race quite convincingly, before becoming the first of their year to win a graded race, claiming first place at Keio Hai Nisai Stakes, a G2 race. This was something that Grass Wonder was rather smug about, which was fair enough.

She actually hadn't been the first to participate in a graded race, as Toujou-san had pushed Shirogane to enter into the Daily Hai Sansai Stakes to get a feel for the Tiara distances, but she had placed second, which was not as impressive, even if the payout was considerable.

One after another, her yearmates debuted. First King Halo, the El Condor Pasa, then Special Week, all three of them winning their debut races, which seemed to put some more confidence into their steps.

"Ugh…everyone else is already running, but I just had to get sick this year!"

Tsuyoshi-san had unfortunately run into another bout of illness, and her trainer had firmly rejected her requests to start running even without being fully recovered. This was probably a wise decision considering some of her illness was exacerbated by overtraining.

"Now, now, Tsuyoshi-san," Grass Wonder chided, patting her despondent classmate on the shoulder. "If your trainer sees a reason to delay your debut they probably have a good reason for it."

"Plus you won't be able to give it your all if you're sick!" El Condor Pasa piled on, pumping her fist for emphasis.

"I guess so…" the white streaked uma conceded the point as her head dipped down, still looking disappointed. From what Shirogane understood, she was from a rather prestigious family, so was under significant pressure to perform well, and she was pushing herself quite hard to live up to those expectations. Perhaps too hard, given her spate of injuries.

"Mmhmm! I'm sure you'll be able to run soon, Tsuru-chan!" Special Week offered another round of encouragement.

"Maah…don't let me feel so left out!" Seiun Sky grumbled good naturedly. "My trainer still won't let me run either."

"More accurately, you continue to procrastinate over your gate qualification," Shirogane pointed out drily, flicking her ear in her lazy classmate's direction. She did not understand Sky's aversion to the gates. Even if she was claustrophobic it wasn't as if the gates trapped you. It would be trivial to duck under them.

"H-Hey, don't rat me out like that Shirogane-chan!"

"You were openly complaining about this the other day."

"Shirogane-san is right, you know." King Halo propped one hand on her hip as she shook her head. "You will have to become used to entering the starting gate."

"But I don't wanna!"

"Then you will not race," Shirogane snorted, rolling her eyes. "I will not be present to load you into the gate manually every time."

"Hey!"

Sky's indignant squawk was drowned out by amused sounds from the rest of the class, making the lackadaisical uma thump her head back down onto her desk in defeat.

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Not until you learn how to get in the gate by yourself." The amount of dithering outside the starting gates some runners did never ceased to annoy Shirogane. They would only be in the gate for a few minutes at most, and yet they wasted more time than it took to run the course of the race.

"You'll get it someday, Sky-chan!" Special Week offered encouragingly, pumping her fists in front of her and wiggling her ears in a friendly gesture.

"Not you too, Spe…"

"Eh? What did I do wrong?" The good natured uma had clearly been sincere in her attempts to cheer up their classmate, but Sky-san was really looking more for sympathy than encouragement to resolve some of her existing issues, something which her trainer likewise seemed content to let her take at her own pace.

"You did fine, Spe-chan," Grass Wonder tittered, hiding her smile behind her hand. "Sky-chan just wants to take a nap before class."

Speaking of which…

"Err…shouldn't Sensei be here already?" Tsuyoshi-san had apparently noticed the same thing, as their homeroom teacher was usually more than punctual.

"Is there something wrong?" Special Week wondered, her ears flattening nervously. "Is there going to be a pop quiz?!"

"We just had our midterms, Spe-chan."

"That doesn't mean she won't spring a pop quiz on us, Grass!"

"No, no! What if it's something fun! Like a field trip."

"We won't have summer camp training until our classic year," King Halo countered, cupping her chin thoughtfully. "But it could be something about coming up on the end of our junior season."

Aside from the two who had yet to debut, their class has been fairly successful so far. While she had a much lower win rate, suffice to say Shirogane was going to have to pay a significant amount in taxes this year.

"You mean the Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes?" Grass Wonder posited. "Are any of you participating? Asides from Shirogane-san and I." She looked rather smug about qualifying for the end of year G1 race, which was rather understandable. Shirogane wasn't quite sure why her other yearmates didn't have schedules planning for participating, but she presumed their trainers had reasons for it. While her own record didn't have as many wins as her teammate, she had enough prize points to qualify.

"Uwah! Don't rub it in Grass!" El Condor Pasa waved her arms in amusing despair. "You don't even know if you'll win!"

"Yeah…a G1 race is gonna have a lot stronger opposition," Seiun Sky drawled, propping her head on her arms as her ears twitched teasingly. "Who knows? Maybe Shirogane could steal first place from you."

"The results are yet to be determined," Shirogane sighed, giving her classmate an annoyed look. It wouldn't be stealing unless there was a disqualification or some other incident to throw suspicion on the results. "Before the results are shown, no place is guaranteed. Otherwise there would be no point in people betting on the races, unless they intentionally want to lose." As far as she knew, there was no real evidence that fortune was some kind of limited resource you should manage, but many people acted as if this was true.

"Ohoh! These are fighting words!"

"Mmm! Just because you two debuted earlier doesn't mean we're going to let you leave us behind!"

Somehow her simple observation of reality had riled up King Halo and Special Week, the two brown haired umas looking at her with determined expressions, ears upright and at attention.

"That's true enough," Grass wonder hummed, closing her eyes as she smiled, tail swishing in anticipation. "I suppose we shall find out on the track."

"Waah…scary…"

In what way was that scary, Special Week-san?

"Yeah…Grass gets like this sometimes."

Shirogane really did not understand her yearmates much of the time. Perhaps she was just too old.

"Good morning class!" Nakashima-sensei finally arrived, uncharacteristically late. "Sorry for the wait, but we are going to be going over something important today!."
"Oooh, what is it, sensei?!"

"Since some of you are going to be participating in your first G1 race soon," she adjusted her glasses dramatically. "We'll be going over your costumes!"

"Woohoo!"

"I've been waiting to try it on for real since I got it, it is so coool!"

"Eh…Sensei, some of us haven't even debuted yet, so why are we doing this now?"

"Well, Sky-chan, running in a costume is quite different, so you need to get used to it before you run a race in it."

That was true enough.

"You will also have to practice putting them on," Sensei added, shaking her head a bit. "And some of you really decided on something complicated." Her gaze flicked over to Shirogane, who just shrugged in reply.

"Woo! We get to dress up for school!"

"We do that every day, El-chan."

It was a bit strange to think about, but even in the case of track and field, dressing for the occasion seemed to play a not insignificant part in preparing yourself.

The Salaryman put on a suit and business clothes, the process settling him in his role and position, the Soldier cared meticulously for her uniform when at peace to keep her focus sharp for combat, and now, Shirogane found herself getting into another sort of uniform for her temporary profession in this life.

She had been expecting either the school or her trainer to nix her mother's desire for her to wear her grand aunt's uniform, but after seeing how impractical some of her fellows made their outfits, she wasn't surprised when the examiners had heartily approved of hers.

As it turns out, a uniform designed for an uma to march, fight and die in was more practical than one designed to show off, even if it came from a much more ostentatious era than the Soldier lived in.

The pants were a bit short, but fit very well otherwise, and while they were thicker than they appeared, there was enough slack in the fit that they would not chafe against her legs. The slot for her tail was surprisingly comfortable too. Visually, they weren't much to look at, compared to some others, but that wasn't the point.

The uniform jacket was more elaborate, double breasted, decorated with red epaulettes on the shoulders, and with two sets of buttons down the front to secure the section containing a set of metal plates, which made it mildly tight around the chest but still gave her enough range of motion to strike. It felt a little off without a pack on her back, but there really was no reason to add more weight there, not for a charge, or something vaguely akin to one.

The boots were next, fitting more comfortably than the rest of the uniform did, and the part of her that was the Soldier felt a mix of nostalgia at having a pair of good boots along with a mild amount of confusion at the steel toes, shin and higher heel, though the last was more natural for an umamusume's foot than a human's.

After securing the boots, she stood up, slipping the decorative sash over her head and onto her shoulder. Amusingly enough, its original purpose for unit designation served a similar purpose for distinguishing between runners, same with the almost comically oversized hat, though it was fortunately quite a bit smaller than some of the line infantry hats she had seen in historical depictions.

Setting the hat onto her head, her ears flicked experimentally, adjusting to the restricted range of motion, even with the dedicated slots for them, but it was clearly designed for an umamusume, unlike some of the hats she'd had seen some of her schoolmates wore by cutting holes in them.

She glanced up into the mirror, again scrutinizing the eagle on the front of her hat. Given that it was the symbol of another country, she had expected some pushback, but apparently Seeking the Pearl's advice about playing into her mixed heritage was something her Trainer considered a good idea as well.

It filled her with an odd sense of pride, even if she had never been to Poland. Despite its disadvantageous geography, her mother's home country had managed to free itself from the scourge of communism, and had never really succumbed to that poison, even while under Soviet rule.

The Soldier had fought communists, or rather, the cannon fodder the useless parasites pushed in front of them to bury their failures, and it had been over the region roughly analogous to Poland in this world, so perhaps her deceased grand aunt would not think poorly of her for coopting this uniform, even if it had been mostly her mother's idea.

Next she slid her hands into the partly armored gloves, flexing her hands to get the fit right inside the articulating metal plates. It seemed that when the cavalryman was also the horse, some aspects of equipment did not get completely phased out even as warfare moved away from heavy armor.

Finally, she strapped on the saber harness, again finding it oddly familiar, even if she had hardly ever picked up a sword in this life. Yet another thing she was surprised she was allowed to wear, though with Taiki Shuttle having an unloaded gun, perhaps she shouldn't have been.

Her uniform donned, Shirogane examined herself more closely in the mirror, part of her grimacing at the Soldier staring back at her.

For a moment, she swore she saw a blonde aerial mage in the reflection, but then that delusion was gone. For one, this uniform was from a different nation and different time, and she was not a human woman anymore.

She adjusted the sash so it did not cover the epaulet. Then modulated the tightness of the sword belt. There was still the racing bib, but that didn't feel right to put on yet.

Her grandfather had shown her some pictures of the grand aunt she apparently so resembled, and Shirogane had to admit there was some family resemblance, even when judging from grainy black and white photographs. She was lucky to have been born during peacetime.

Still, if she was going to wear this uniform, she needed to perform well enough not to shame it.

"Are you ready in there, Shirogane-san?"

"Just about."

Her ears flicked backwards and she watched through the mirror as Grass Wonder and Toujou-san entered the dressing room (having individual ones seemed to be a luxury reserved for graded race participants), the latter in her usual business attire, while the former was dressed in something akin to a sailor school uniform, but with a longer skirt. Shirogane did not understand why her American classmate decided to dress up like she was cosplaying a Japanese schoolgirl, but it didn't seem worth questioning.

"Hmm…" Grass hummed, covering her mouth as she smiled. "You look ready for war."

"Hardly." Her sword was blunt, and she had no pistols. "Parade perhaps."

"Then you'd better win the race," Grass' eyes crinkled in a challenging look, "not that I will let you."

Shirogane adjusted her gauntlet again, tightening the strap, before turning around to look at her teammate and exasperated trainer directly, smiling a challenge of her own.

"Were it so easy."
AN. Well, it has been quite a long time. It's also been a pretty busy month for me work wise. This being a sort of timeskip/montage chapter also meant that I spent a lot of time looking up race histories.

I figure that switching up Team Spica members might be a bit controversial, but with how much I've tried to get things to line up to irl, it makes it difficult to square Gold Ship, Vodka and Daiwa Scarlet's arcs since the timeline is quite different. Conveniently, Shinko Windy, Stay Gold, Mejiro Dober and Bubble Gum Fellow can create a similar team dynamic, with Dober being the straight woman while Shinko, El Condor Pasa and Stay Gold create much of the chaos. Bubble Gum Fellow is mostly pretty chill though.

Also does anyone else feel like Stay Gold and Spica Trainer have some similar vibes?

Anyways, I hope you guys have fun reading.
 
"Cosplaying a Japanese schoolgirl" lmao. I need Shiro to diss every single uma's outfit because most of them are complete nonsense from a practical racing perspective and/or references to their horses that Shiro would have no way of knowing. Also, Shiro's reactions to the umas continuing to be dorks and having weird habits inherited from their horse lives continues to be funny.
 
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