The crowd around King Halo had grown even thicker, reporters, photographers, and fans trying to get a glimpse of the newly crowned champion. The noise was overwhelming, questions flying from every direction at once.
King Halo's phone buzzed in her pocket. She glanced at the screen, and her expression shifted, just slightly, but enough for Hayato to notice.
"If you need to take that, go ahead," Hayato said quietly, positioning himself between her and the advancing swarm of reporters. "I'll handle this."
"Thanks." King Halo's voice was barely audible over the chaos. She slipped toward the underground passage entrance, phone already at her ear.
Hayato turned to face the reporters with a practiced smile. "My uma musume needs to take a call. She's not available for interviews right now." He spread his arms slightly, a physical barrier. "I'm her trainer. If you have questions, you can ask me."
A female reporter in uniform immediately stepped forward, half-joking but with a sharp edge to her voice. "Is the runaway Trainer not running away anymore?"
The comment drew laughter from the crowd. Several reporters exchanged knowing glances, remembering all the times Hayato had mysteriously vanished before they could corner him.
They felt like the current Hayato was actually being honest for once. How rare.
Hayato laughed along with them, unbothered. "What runaway Trainer? I've never run away." His grin widened. "And King Halo didn't win using great escape tactics either. I avoided interviews before purely because I was afraid my statements would backfire on my uma musume."
"Can you elaborate on that?" A young male reporter pushed his recorder forward.
"I've said it before, right?" Hayato's tone turned more serious. "I have them use great escape tactics when those tactics can win races. King Halo's race today would obviously lose if I use that strategy, so from the start, I never planned to have her run the Satsuki Sho with it."
One reporter smiled wryly, shaking his head. "The runaway Trainer's thinking runs deep. You really had us all fooled."
The other reporters laughed, some rueful, others impressed. Yeah, nobody could have predicted King Halo's actual race strategy. Using a completely untested Late-Surger approach in your first G1? That took either genius or insanity.
Only Hayato, who'd known from the beginning that King Halo was suited for that style, would dare to pull something like that.
"Her results before debut weren't very good," Hayato continued, his voice carrying across the crowd. "Before she could win a G1, everyone would just say she was self-proclaimed first-class, right? That winning the Triple Crown was pure delusion!"
Hayato paused, letting that sink in, then waved his hand with absolute conviction.
"Now I don't need to worry about those voices anymore. When I say she's first-class, she is first-class. When I say she'll win this year's Triple Crown, she will win it."
His eyes swept across the assembled reporters.
"Not satisfied? Then have your Uma Musume defeat her." The challenge hung in the air. "If you have the ability to get them into the Derby, that is."
Camera shutters clicked rapidly, capturing his expression, that absolute confidence that bordered on arrogance but was backed by results.
"Alright, that's it for the interview." Hayato's tone shifted, becoming more casual. "Save any other questions for the press conference. Interview the other uma musume, Narita Taishin, Biwa Hayahide, and Winning ticket put on an incredible show too. I need to find my Halo."
Hayato turned and headed toward the underground passage, leaving the reporters buzzing with excitement over their quotes.
One reporter scribbled "my Halo" on their hand, already composing tomorrow's headline in their mind.
In a quiet corner of the underground passage, King Halo pressed the phone to her ear. Her hand trembled slightly, not from exhaustion, but from something deeper.
She really hoped to be acknowledged. Yet feared not getting the result she wanted.
"Hello, Mom?"
"Yeah, it's me." The voice that came through was mature, deep, and imposing. Goodbye Halo's tone carried that familiar weight that always made King Halo's stomach tighten.
"Mom, you saw the race just now, right? The Satsuki Sho. A G1-level race." King Halo's words came faster than she intended. "This should prove my talent, right?"
"Mm, it was quite good." A pause. "By the way, is your trainer next to you?"
"Eh?" King Halo blinked, thrown off. "I'm the one who won the race, and you're asking about my trainer? He's doing interviews now. If you're looking for him..."
"No, I wasn't looking for him." Goodbye Halo's tone immediately changed, sharpening. "Honestly, what a reckless trainer, changing running styles in such a crucial race. What if you'd lost?"
"Don't badmouth my trainer!" King Halo's voice rose despite herself. "That was strategy! Do you understand strategy?!"
Heat flooded her face. I'm the one who won, and you're criticizing my trainer like that? It was precisely because of that strategy that I won!
After racing against BNW, she understood their strength intimately. Without Hayato's guidance, without switching to Late-Surger tactics, winning wouldn't have been anywhere near as smooth.
She'd almost lost. By centimeters.
If it had rained, or the track condition was different, or she'd started poorly, or her condition wasn't perfect, wouldn't she have definitely lost?
This race really had been incredibly close.
"Alright, alright, don't shout out on the phone." On the other end, Goodbye Halo held her phone in her right hand and a note filled with carefully written lines in her left. "I only said two things about him, and you're getting this worked up?"
She admitted to herself, never out loud that she often said things she didn't mean. She'd wanted to praise Hayato, but the words that came out were... different.
The lines she needed to say next were already prepared. To prevent saying the wrong thing again, she glanced at the note.
"You just won your first G1, and you're so pleased with yourself?" She emphasized her tone carefully. "Your mother has seven G1s. Remember, very few uma musume have achieved this honor."
"I'm not satisfied with just this!" King Halo shot back immediately. "I'll win the Triple Crown for you to see. And when that happens, don't go around proclaiming I'm your daughter or begging me to wear the racing outfit you made on the track."
"Hehe... getting cocky over just the first crown..." Goodbye Halo struggled to control herself from laughing outright. "You think your achievements can surpass mine? Silly child."
King Halo didn't know yet that the emerald racing outfit she wore, "Emerald King," was her mother's masterpiece creation.
"I will surpass you. Just wait and don't come begging me then!"
"Silly child!"
BEEP.
King Halo hung up, immediately feeling a flash of regret.
"Saying those things again. Seriously, can't Mom say one word of praise?" She muttered to herself, unhappily putting away her phone. "If I'm a silly child, then she's a silly mother."
Then something occurred to her.
Wait... Mom didn't try to convince me to come home this time?
The thought stopped her cold.
Am I being acknowledged?
This phone call had seemed different somehow. The tone, the words, were still harsh on the surface, but missing that desperate edge that usually colored their conversations.
--
*As usual, the illustration is commented on.