Montjeu wore makeup, along with the red cloak of the Arc winner, and inspected the opponents around her like a queen.
"So that's Montjeu."
Special Week looked at the tall umamusume.
Although she did not know why the other party had dressed herself up so bewitchingly, the aura of the world's number one was indeed powerful.
Even with her eyes closed, she could feel that burning flame.
This was the world's number one. This was Montjeu.
So strong.
"Spe-chan, are you scared?"
El Condor Pasa suddenly appeared beside Special Week.
"No."
Special Week shook her head.
Rather than fear, it was better to call it excitement.
To think she could race against the world's number one. In the past, she would not even have dared to dream of such a thing, but now it was truly happening in reality. Surely there was no umamusume who would not feel excited by that.
"El, what is this feeling I'm having right now?"
Deep pink flames ignited in Special Week's eyes. Her aura was rising, and her entire mind and body had already prepared for battle.
El Condor Pasa looked at Special Week in surprise, then smiled.
"Hmph. You can find that answer yourself in the race. As your opponent, I'm not going to help you."
Special Week nodded silently.
At the side, Silence Suzuka quietly turned her head away.
Spe-chan was no longer the rookie she had been at the beginning.
The current Spe-chan was very strong.
"But even if it's Spe-chan, I won't yield!"
This scenery that belonged to her would never be handed over to anyone.
"Nice to meet you, King Halo."
Before the race began, Montjeu came to find King Halo.
She studied this daughter of her teacher with curiosity.
She also knew about that matter.
She knew her teacher had underestimated King Halo in the past.
King Halo looked at Montjeu coldly.
"Hello. Do you need something?"
"...I wanted to say, let us both give it everything we have. I know you held back in your previous races, but in front of me, you can release yourself. I can be your opponent."
Montjeu's attitude was not as arrogant as it had been in her television interview.
First, King Halo's strength had earned her respect. Second, this was, after all, her teacher's daughter, her junior sister in a sense.
King Halo: "..."
Ignoring Montjeu's one-sided speech, she turned and left.
"What a proud little girl."
Montjeu watched King Halo with interest.
As preparation time ended, the runners entered their respective gates according to instructions. Coincidentally, King Halo and Special Week were positioned to Montjeu's left and right. But at this moment, Montjeu did not pay attention to Special Week at all. Her focus remained on King Halo.
"All runners are in the gates. The battle of the century, the Japan Cup, now... begins!"
The commentator drew out the last phrase, only shouting the signal to begin at the instant the gates opened. As the runners started, the venue that had just quieted down became lively once again.
"King Halo!"
"Montjeu!"
Amid the shouts, the runners successfully left the gates.
"The one who shot out is, unsurprisingly, the ultra-fast Runner, Silence Suzuka. El Condor Pasa is in second. King Halo and Special Week have chosen to slow their pace and remain in the middle of the pack, while Montjeu seems to be marking King Halo and has chosen a position even farther back!"
Hearing the commentator's voice, many in the audience felt that it was no surprise. Montjeu's most conventional running style was actually very similar to King Halo's. Both observed their opponents in the early phase, then began to explode in the later stage.
King Halo, as this year's undefeated Triple Crown winner, Japan's strongest, and the representative of the Golden Generation, being marked by Montjeu, the world champion, was simply too normal.
"So it really is like that."
Hana Tojo stood together with Symboli Rudolf and the others.
They had all anticipated Montjeu's running style.
"It looks like King Halo is going to have trouble in this race. Being marked by the world champion is not easy to deal with. And King Halo, who has always been used to making the later move, is now being targeted by someone else's later move."
Air Groove said from the side.
"You have a point, but King Halo is a difficult runner to predict. Even I cannot see through her strength."
Hana Tojo nodded.
The deeper one understood King Halo, the more one felt this young girl's strength was unfathomable. Even Hana Tojo's own ability from the past could not accurately judge King Halo's strength. In this situation, making a conclusion was truly unreliable.
And from Nishizaki Ryuya, she had learned certain secrets. She suspected King Halo might possess an ability similar to her own, like Symboli Rudolf.
Symboli Rudolf did not speak.
She gripped her own arms tightly with both hands. Though she seemed to be watching the race calmly, her heart was actually extremely tense.
Although the opportunity was not great, she hoped that this time in the Japan Cup, an umamusume representing Japan could win. Because this might be their last chance. If they lost this time, it would be difficult to win later.
She could not believe a Golden Generation like this would appear again.
King Halo, who was in the race, did not know the audience's thoughts. She was simply racing seriously as always, using Transcendent Vision to gather information on every runner and analyze every possibility.
Silence Suzuka was racing swiftly at the front.
After awakening ZONE, Silence Suzuka's Great Runner style had become even more complete. Even the current El Condor Pasa could no longer deal with her the way she once had in the Japanese Derby. Like an elf in the wind, Silence Suzuka's Great Runner style appeared before the entire world for the first time, shocking many foreign viewers watching the race through the broadcast.
"So this is Great Runner?"
"That's way too cool. This isn't some local race, you know."
"Silence Suzuka is actually this strong?"
Originally, even after watching previous race footage, they had subconsciously believed Silence Suzuka's running style was something she could only pull off in Japanese events. After all, Japan's umamusume were weak.
But this Japan Cup was different. The top three from the Arc were here. This year's popular runners from America and Hong Kong were taking part as well. Under such circumstances, if Silence Suzuka could still break away, then that was truly strength.
Now, some viewers who had originally been dismissive became serious. Because this year's Japanese runners really were not simple.
If Silence Suzuka was this strong, what about King Halo?
Thinking of that, no one dared look down on this race anymore.
Montjeu, in the race, was also somewhat surprised at this moment.
"What a heretic."
Even she had no choice but to praise Silence Suzuka's running style. After all, Great Runner was rare in current international races, and a runner like Silence Suzuka, who could display Great Runner in a race of this level, was even more one of a kind.
Even if Montjeu did not think she would lose to Silence Suzuka, she had to admit this running style was truly magnificent. Its spectacle value was maxed out.
But at the same time, she did not believe any umamusume could use this running style all the way to the end. After all, this world's Montjeu had not yet seen Mejiro McQueen, so she naturally did not know that such monsters truly existed.
El Condor Pasa gritted her teeth and followed behind Silence Suzuka.
"She's gotten stronger again."
Silence Suzuka was even stronger than she had been at the Takarazuka Kinen.
Although El Condor Pasa knew very well that her strongest opponents in this race were those two, after seeing Silence Suzuka's strength, she discovered she could no longer think that far ahead. If she was not serious, she would lose even to the Silence Suzuka right in front of her.
Damn it. She had clearly gotten so much stronger in France, so why could Suzuka, who had remained in Japan, also become this strong?
El Condor Pasa could not understand. Why had Japan like this never ranked highly on the world stage before? Could it be that she had really been born in the wrong era?
No. She refused to believe that.
Even if it was the Golden Generation, she, El Condor Pasa, would become the strongest in the world.
This revenge match...
"I will absolutely win!"
A scarlet aura erupted.
Lightning flickered in El Condor Pasa's eyes.
"El Condor Pasa and Silence Suzuka at the front are competing so fiercely!"
No one had expected that the first intense battle in this race would break out among the front-runners. The runners in the rear were still conserving strength. What was with the front-runners fighting first?
The runners near El Condor Pasa and Silence Suzuka were all a little dumbfounded. Wait, you two are charging this fast in the early part of the race, even bursting into ZONE, and you really aren't considering the race rhythm at all? Or is this your local normal running style?
"What do we do? Should we follow?"
"Follow my foot. That's just asking to die!"
"This is the world number two? She's too reckless."
In the blink of an eye, Silence Suzuka and El Condor Pasa opened up an enormous gap from third place. The world-class runners encountering this kind of running style for the first time were all somewhat panicked.
Although reason told them their own decision was correct, seeing that huge gap right in front of them really made them doubt themselves. If time could rewind, they would absolutely have questioned Silence Suzuka and El Condor Pasa before the race began.
Because those two were affecting the race far too much.
This was not a normal race at all.
"Damn it, don't pay attention to them!"
"Don't forget, the world's number one is also running this race!"
"Don't look at them. Don't look at them!"
As expected of world-class powerhouses, although Great Runner had affected their rhythm and caught them off guard, they soon calmed down again. No large-scale disorder appeared.
"Are they even human? Silence Suzuka and El Condor Pasa have taken too much of a lead. Even facing the battle of the century, they feel no fear at all. Are Japan's umamusume finally stepping onto the world stage?!"
The 1000-meter world record was easily broken by the two of them.
Their ZONEs became stronger through their mutual fierce battle. Or rather, as the battle intensified, they sank deeper into that realm.
At this point, even if the runners behind wanted to interfere with them, it was already too late. Full-range indirect interference skills were rare. Even among world-class runners, only a handful possessed them.
It was at this moment that King Halo suddenly appeared on the outer lane and began to raise her speed little by little. The runners who had been paying attention to King Halo immediately grew tense and subconsciously began accelerating.
Although this distance seemed far too early for King Halo and did not match the situation they had studied and discussed before, no one dared gamble on whether this was a mistake from King Halo.
Montjeu still did not dare relax. After all, the impression King Halo's running style gave was always one of perfection, never making mistakes. It was not that no one suspected King Halo was deliberately setting the rhythm, but it was useless if only a few people remained clear-headed. As long as someone was frightened by King Halo, the race rhythm would inevitably be affected, and they would have no choice but to follow closely.
"King Halo is beginning to break through at this moment!"
Seeing this, Nishizaki Ryuya and the others were all puzzled.
"Strange. Why would King Halo move now? Isn't her range between 500 and 800 meters?"
Behind them, Goodbye Halo looked at the opponents growing tense because of her daughter's movement, and a smile immediately appeared on her face.
"As expected of my daughter. So clever!"
Dancing Brave: "..."
She did not dare argue.
Because she felt King Halo's approach was a little too risky. If she were a runner in the race, she would not fall for it.
However, when she saw Montjeu take the bait, she still found it somewhat unbelievable. Because she was outside the track, she did not know what the runners on the field were feeling, but she understood Montjeu's strength.
And Montjeu, currently in the race, was quite stern. Her eyes glanced toward King Halo from time to time as she thought, What is going on? How did she suddenly move to the outer lane just now?
She had clearly been marking King Halo the entire time. Even so, one moment of inattention had allowed King Halo to switch lanes. If King Halo had not started setting the rhythm, Montjeu might not even have reacted.
What ability was that running style that seemed to vanish?
Not only Montjeu, the other runners also realized it.
King Halo's presence could hardly be sensed.
Under these circumstances, who would dare let King Halo rush out?
Even if they had studied King Halo through race footage before and knew she was used to inducing other runners to change the race rhythm, at this moment, they still absolutely did not dare let King Halo act freely.
Besides, King Halo's strength was already an unknown. That weakness known to the public, was it truly King Halo's weakness? Was it possible that it was only a persona King Halo had deliberately created?
In truth, perhaps she had no such weakness at all.
These thoughts appeared uncontrollably in the runners' hearts. The smarter the runner, the less she could stop herself from thinking too much.
Under these circumstances, they were completely unable to break free from King Halo's control. The race rhythm once again fell into King Halo's hands.
Their desire to win, at this moment, instead became a shackle on them. It became the weapon King Halo used to control them.
At the front, Silence Suzuka and El Condor Pasa quickly discovered that the pack they had originally shaken off had actually caught up. And because they were familiar with King Halo, they guessed immediately that King Halo had made her move.
"Damn it. I really can't sense her presence."
El Condor Pasa thought nervously.
In her perception, King Halo was right behind her, but exactly where she was could not be sensed at all. She was like a ghost. El knew perfectly well that she was behind her, yet she could not detect her position. Even if she wanted to mark her, she did not know how.
And just as El Condor Pasa's mind became unsettled, Silence Suzuka erupted again.
Compared to El Condor Pasa, Silence Suzuka did not think about what King Halo had done at all. She only focused on her own running.
Flow opened smoothly.
And so, the race completed its first half at a high-speed rhythm.
...
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