"Trainer, there seems to be a movie over there! Let's go sit for a bit." In the mall, King Halo pointed excitedly at the large hanging LCD screen.
Getting closer, they discovered it wasn't showing a movie at all, but Uma Musume races. Right now, they were showing King Halo's Satsuki Sho.
She was a descendant of the legendary Uma Musume. Her previous races all used front-runner tactics, but this time she'd switched to late-surger style. Her unparalleled speed had dominated the Satsuki completely.
In the upcoming Derby, what spectacular performance would she show? Stay tuned for the next race.
The moment King Halo crossed the finish line appeared repeatedly on the big screen, playing on loop.
The race had just ended. Her popularity hadn't faded at all. Media outlets were still promoting it everywhere.
"Amazing! Against BNW's three powerhouses. She's this year's greatest hope for winning the Triple Crown, right?"
"Indeed. After all, she's a first-class Uma Musume's descendant."
The discussion in front of the TV screen was getting loud. King Halo heard every single word.
"It was clearly my own effort. Why attribute it to my mother?" King Halo's expression soured, her jaw tightening.
"You really don't need to mind it." Hayato's voice softened as he tried to console her. "I believe someday your achievements will surpass your mother's."
"Hehe, of course." She flipped her hair back.
Not only was she not depressed, but she was also actually looking forward to the next race.
"Um, excuse me, could you give me an autograph?" A little girl approached King Halo, clutching a notebook to her chest. She'd recognized her.
"Of course." King Halo took the notebook and wrote her name with a flourish. "Remember, big sister's name is King Halo. I'm a first-class uma musume."
"Wow, I think big sis is so cool! I watched all your races. They felt amazing."
"Really? Then listen well." King Halo crouched down to the girl's eye level. "In the next race, the Derby, I'll definitely win too. Come cheer for me then."
"Yeah, I will!" The little girl ran off happily, clutching the autograph like treasure.
Hayato continued shopping with King Halo, following wherever she wandered.
Seeing novel things, King Halo couldn't help but stop and look, examining them from every angle, yet she didn't actually plan to buy any of them.
"Halo, don't you have anything to buy?" After shopping for what felt like forever, Hayato finally asked.
"Huh?" King Halo blinked as she'd just remembered there was such a thing as actually buying stuff. She waved her hand casually. "Buy? Of course, I'll buy. But shopping should be done when we're heading back, right? If we buy now, it's hard to carry."
She still wanted to play more.
"I knew it." Hayato sighed, his shoulders sagging slightly.
"Hey, being able to go shopping with this King is your honor." She poked his chest with one finger. "What more could you be dissatisfied with?"
"Wouldn't dare." Hayato bowed to her with exaggerated respect. "I humbly obey the King's decree."
"That's more like it." King Halo was clearly satisfied with Hayato's answer. When she turned around casually, she spotted Seiun Sky leading a whole group of uma musume heading straight toward them.
Why are they in here?!
"We need to buy a lot of things. Should we split up to look?" Seiun Sky's voice carried as she approached, loud enough to be heard from a distance.
"Huh? The others came too?" Just as Hayato was about to go greet them, King Halo's hand shot out and grabbed his arm.
Her grip was seriously strong. Even the current Hayato got dragged away by her like he weighed nothing.
"Trainer, let's go this way. I just remembered there's something I want to check out."
What are they doing? Interrupting my wonderful time alone with trainer?
She wanted to escape with Hayato, but quickly discovered things weren't that simple. They were surrounded.
Urara rushed over first, practically bouncing. "Oh! Trainer, you're here!"
"We're also out shopping. It's a coincidence! A coincidence."
As if it's a coincidence... King Halo half-clenched her fist and tapped her own forehead, feeling a headache coming on. Whose idea was this?
"Seiun-chan! Urara found trainer!" Urara waved frantically at Seiun Sky.
"Yo, trainer, what a coincidence." Seiun Sky, who'd been pretending not to see anything this whole time, strolled over all nonchalant.
The others started closing in, too.
"Hehe, Seiun, why are you all here too?" Hayato asked with a smile, though he looked a bit confused.
"We're allowed to go out shopping, but you aren't?" Seiun Sky smirked, barely hiding it.
Grass Wonder smiled pleasantly. "Yeah, we're here to buy things too."
Just like that, King Halo and Hayato's first date plan got completely disrupted by Seiun Sky and ended before it even really began.
After that, Hayato took them all shopping at the mall together, then dragged the whole group to the movie theater to watch a film, and in the evening, they went out for a big meal that somehow turned into a mini celebration.
The vacation didn't last long.
After that chaotic shopping trip that ended with everyone tagging along, the team had enjoyed a few more days of downtime, movies, meals, and the kind of lazy mornings that felt almost wrong for athletes. But all good things had to end eventually.
Now it was back to business.
The day before Tenno Sho Spring.
Kyoto was hosting the pre-race press conference, and waves of people were flooding into the city like a tide. The energy was electric, anticipation crackling through the air.
This time, the popularity rankings came out fast. Narita Brian took first place with a massive lead, Mayano Top Gun second, Sakura Laurel third, and Seiun Sky only managed fourth.
Those four basically hogged all the votes.
Out of over a hundred thousand votes cast, fifth place didn't even crack a hundred. At this point, the rankings were pretty much set in stone.
Even Seiun Sky only scraped together a few thousand votes. The other share went straight to Narita Brian because of her comeback.
"Brian-san, any words before the race?" A female reporter shoved her microphone in front of Narita Brian's face.
--
*As usual, the illustration is commented on.