That day, Kiryuin Aoi came to see Chiya.
The instant she spotted him, she practically bounced in place.
"Chiya! The two of us are together again!"
This had happened once before, back when Shirayuki raced against Special Week. The second Kiryuin learned their uma musume would be running in the same race, she had charged straight into his office, beaming like the idea of facing him was the best thing in the world.
Objectively speaking, losing even one race came with a brutal price.
Months of training could go up in smoke. A carefully planned route could collapse. All that sweat, pain, and discipline could be reduced to one ugly result sheet.
But Kiryuin Aoi valued the race itself.
The clash. The process. The moment her uma musume tested everything they had built against someone else.
Win or lose, she looked forward to that more than anything.
Fujiwara Chiya, however, was built a little differently.
The process mattered, sure.
But the result mattered just as much.
Whether it was this race or any other, Fujiwara Chiya wanted to win.
"I won't be holding back."
"Of course!" Kiryuin puffed up with confidence. "I'll show you the results of my training too!"
A race was not some simple game where the bigger number automatically won. More speed did not always mean victory. More stamina did not guarantee the finish line.
Tactics mattered.
Rhythm mattered.
The ability to read the pack, slip through pressure, and seize a single heartbeat of opportunity mattered.
That said, in the current racing environment, there was one type of uma musume who could stand above the chaos and avoid being dragged into everyone else's schemes.
The answer to the current meta.
The great escape runner.
In this constantly shifting race environment, Front Runners held an overwhelming advantage. For them, a race really did come closer to a numbers game. As long as they had superior speed and enough stamina to maintain it, their odds of winning shot up dramatically.
Their most important decision happened at the start.
Secure the lead.
Break away cleanly.
Control the race from the front.
Once that happened, victory was already halfway in their hands.
Of course, once more trainers noticed how powerful Front Runners were, the entire environment began to change. Training plans shifted. More and more teams started raising their uma musume toward front-leading tactics.
As a result, the opening stage of races became downright savage.
The instant the gates opened, several Front Runners would surge out at once, crowding together in a violent scramble for the lead. Shoulders bumped. Lines were cut off. Stamina burned away at a terrifying rate.
And more often than not, those runners would run themselves dry halfway through their escape.
So yes, Front Runners were strong.
But in the current environment, they were also the ones most likely to suffer a reverse burst and collapse near the end.
That was how another type of Front Runner gradually began to emerge.
The tactical escape runner.
At present, Chiya had seen two of them.
Happy Meek.
And Seiun Sky.
Both were Kiryuin Aoi's uma musume.
They did not recklessly smash into the front pack during the opening stage. Instead, they would lurk in the position with the least pressure, conserving strength while everyone else tore each other apart.
Then, once the battle for position ended and the leading runners were worn down, they would seize the gap.
One move.
One leap.
Straight to the front.
From there, they would begin controlling the pace of the entire field.
It sounded simple.
It absolutely was not.
The decision-making belonged entirely to the uma musume on the track. A trainer could not script every step of a race in advance. Where was the pressure weakest? When could she break out from a dense pack? Had the Front Runners burned enough stamina that they could no longer fight back?
Those judgments had to be made in real time.
And that required experience, instinct, and a terrifyingly calm mind.
Seiun Sky undoubtedly had that talent.
She was a born strategist, the kind of girl who could silently locate gaps in the field, slip through without anyone noticing, and appear at the very front before the others even realized she had moved.
Then she would begin her mid-race great escape.
There were two types of people on a racecourse who were truly frightening.
The first was the reckless type, the kind who accelerated like a maniac without caring about victory or defeat, dragging the whole field into chaos.
The second was the strategist, the kind who looked harmless on the surface while hiding a blade sharper than anyone else's underneath.
Seiun Sky belonged to the latter.
So it was no wonder Kiryuin Aoi was confident.
With two trump cards in her hand, most people really had no good way to deal with her.
Unfortunately for her, Fujiwara Chiya had no intention of lying down and waiting to be butchered.
Under his adjusted training plan, Shirayuki's stamina had also undergone explosive growth.
More importantly, Seiun Sky's mid-race great escape could not show its advantage in the opening stage.
That gave Shirayuki a window.
As long as she could cut into the right position early, she could force Seiun Sky into a dead corner.
"Just you wait, Chiya." Kiryuin pointed at him with burning determination. "You beat me last time, so this time, I'm definitely taking it back! Ah… right."
She suddenly reached into her pocket and took out a small box.
"Congratulations on becoming an intermediate trainer."
"Is this a gift?"
"Mm. A comb." Kiryuin smiled. "Use it to brush that messy hair of yours."
That was fine.
No, honestly, that was very fine.
Compared to certain other people, this was practically a heartfelt blessing.
Fujiwara Chiya would never forget the grinning faces of Nishizaki Ryuu and the others when they sent him three whole stacks of exercise books to celebrate him becoming an intermediate trainer.
At that moment, Fujiwara Chiya had seriously considered cutting ties with all of them.
"Very practical."
Fujiwara Chiya accepted the box.
Though, if he was being honest, Shirayuki probably needed it more than he did.
"Then I'll be going, Chiya. I'm looking forward to race day."
Seeing him put away her gift properly, Kiryuin Aoi's mood turned excellent. After waving goodbye, she left the office with light steps.
Soon, the day of the Keisei Hai arrived.
Chiya brought Shirayuki to Nakayama Racecourse.
The two-thousand-metre distance happened to fall within Shirayuki's explosive range. The course's elevation difference was only about one metre, so they did not need to worry much about uphill or downhill influence.
The weather was also good today.
Clear. Bright. Almost mockingly perfect.
Although light rain had fallen yesterday and the track was still somewhat heavy, that would not be much of a problem for Shirayuki.
There were two turns in the early section of the race, one gentle and one sharp. The battle for position would take place within the first nine hundred metres.
In other words, Shirayuki had to suppress Seiun Sky within those first nine hundred metres.
If Sky broke free, things would get troublesome.
Chiya would act as Shirayuki's second pair of eyes, constantly watching their opponents' movements from outside the track.
For him, there was no such thing as a blind spot.
Before long, Shirayuki entered the competitors' lounge.
There, she saw Seiun Sky, who had just come out of the restroom.
"Ya, Shirayuki."
Seiun Sky greeted her with a lazy wave, showing not a hint of the tension one should have before a race.
"I've been waiting."
Shirayuki's gaze sharpened.
Ever since she learned her opponent was Seiun Sky, she had raised her focus to one hundred and twenty percent. This girl's ability might even be above Spe-chan's.
"Even if you look at me like that, Seii-chan can't exactly live up to your expectations, you know."
Seeing Shirayuki's serious eyes, Seiun Sky spread her arms helplessly.
"What happened?"
"I accidentally ate something bad this morning. My stomach was bothering me until just now."
"What?"
Shirayuki stared at her.
You knew there was a race today, and you still ate random things before it?
Seiun Sky, are you some clueless newbie?
Did Kiryuin not tell you to watch your diet before a race?
Originally, Shirayuki had assumed Seiun Sky was only pretending to be lazy, using that attitude to make her opponents lower their guard and avoid being marked.
Who would have thought she was actually treating the race carelessly?
In that kind of condition, just how much strength could Seiun Sky even show?
Shirayuki looked at her seriously.
Seiun Sky rubbed her little stomach and gave a miserable sigh.
"It can't be helped. I'll just run this one casually. Having to race while injured really is such suffering…"
She sighed again, full of melancholy, then slowly walked toward the racecourse.
But the moment she turned around, Seiun Sky glanced back at Shirayuki.
When she saw Shirayuki's delicate brows furrow ever so slightly, the corners of Seiun Sky's mouth lifted.
The race had already begun.