I, Nice Nature, Am an Umamusume and a Shrine Maiden! [4]

“UNBELIEVABLE!”

“THIS IS TRULY UNBELIEVABLE!”

“NO ONE COULD HAVE EXPECTED TODAY’S 3RD FAVORITE, NICE NATURE, TO SUDDENLY MAKE HER MOVE WITH EIGHT HUNDRED METERS LEFT BEFORE THE FINISH!”

“SHE’S FAST! SO FAST!”

“ORIGINALLY IN THE END CLOSER POSITION, SHE HAS NOW SUCCESSFULLY OVERTAKEN THE THREE RUNNERS IN THE MIDPACK GROUP AND CAUGHT UP TO THE REAR OF THE PACE CHASER GROUP!”

“CAN THE UMAMUSUME IN THE PACE CHASER GROUP SUCCESSFULLY HOLD OFF THIS SUDDEN BURST!?”

“FOURTH, THIRD, SECOND!”

“THERE’S NO STALEMATE! TODAY’S 3RD FAVORITE, NICE NATURE, HAS NOT BEEN LOCKED INTO ANY STALEMATE WITH THE RUNNERS IN THE PACE CHASER GROUP!”

“FACED WITH THE PACE CHASERS BLOCKING HER WAY, HER CHOICE IS TO SWING WIDE AND OVERTAKE EVERY OPPONENT AHEAD OF HER IN ONE BREATH, EXCEPT FOR TOKAI TEIO, WHO IS CURRENTLY RUNNING FIRST!”

“CAN SHE MAINTAIN HER CURRENT SPEED, OVERTAKE TODAY’S 1ST FAVORITE TOKAI TEIO IN ONE BREATH, AND BECOME THE GREATEST DARK HORSE OF TODAY’S RACE!?”

“SHE’S CLOSE! EVEN CLOSER!”

“THREE LENGTHS, TWO LENGTHS, ONE LENGTH!”

“THE GAP BETWEEN NICE NATURE AND TOKAI TEIO IS CLOSING AT AN UNBELIEVABLE SPEED!”

“ARE WE TRULY ABOUT TO WITNESS THE FALL OF CENTRAL’S GENIUS IN TODAY’S DEBUT RACE!?”

Neicha’s sudden burst had sent Misato Akasaka into an absolute frenzy. Until then, she had been rather calmly commentating on today’s Debut Race, whose result had seemed utterly without suspense in almost everyone’s eyes.

It had also left the thousands of spectators present—including Kita-chan and Dia-chan, who had only just arrived at the racecourse, and every racing fan supporting Tokai Teio—completely stunned.

After all, no one had expected that in a race like this, one whose result was practically a foregone conclusion in everyone’s eyes, a rare variable like Neicha would appear.

From eight hundred meters to six hundred meters, over a short distance of only two hundred meters, the Umamusume named Nice Nature had completed a one-against-six comeback, charging from the very back of the field all the way to second place—a reversal shocking enough to make every jaw drop.

“What a terrifying final spurt!”

“I really want to get my hands on those legs!”

“Speaking of which, it’d be even better if we could get this girl to join our Spica!”

In the front row of the racecourse spectator stands, Team Spica’s Trainer, Ryu Nishizaki, finally came back to his senses after the initial shock of seeing Neicha suddenly unleash a “final spurt” on the track so astonishing that even a Central G1 Umamusume would not be able to help admiring it from the bottom of her heart. He could not help clicking his tongue.

After clicking his tongue, his thoughts naturally grew lively. Before the race, while gathering information on the opponents in this Debut Race for Tokai Teio, a member of his Team, he had learned from the collected data that Neicha seemed not to have joined any Team at Central Tracen Academy yet.

If this girl had not currently joined any Team at Tracen Academy, then did that mean he still had a chance to recruit her, bring her under his wing, and make her his assigned Umamusume!?

However, just as Ryu Nishizaki was mentally planning how to instigate the Umamusume under him into dragging Neicha over to Spica for a visit after this Debut Race ended…

He turned his head and discovered that Golshi, Vodka, Daiwa Scarlet, and Mejiro McQueen, who had come with him today to cheer Tokai Teio on, all had strange looks on their faces to varying degrees.

Vodka, Daiwa Scarlet, and Mejiro McQueen, who were looking toward the track, seemed to have expressions that held not only surprise, but also a hint of horror.

And Golshi, who usually never did anything serious during Team training and was known as an alien weirdo, now wore a rare expression of seriousness mixed with gravity.

“Golshi, what’s with McQueen and the others? Why do they look like they saw a ghost in the middle of the night?” Seeing the strange expressions on Mejiro McQueen and the others’ faces, Ryu Nishizaki could not help asking Golshi, the only one whose face did not show the kind of fear that made him, an ordinary person, unable to make sense of anything.

Faced with Ryu Nishizaki’s question, Golshi showed no fear, but her gaze was as grave as that of a general in an American sci-fi movie who was about to order the U.S. Army under his command into a head-on war against aliens. She simply answered in a serious tone:

“It’s worse than seeing a ghost.”

“…What does that mean?”

“An Outer God has invaded.”

“?”

…

Just as Golshi said, in the eyes of every Umamusume present who had opened a Zone or possessed the qualifications to awaken one, Tokai Teio included, Neicha’s current image was truly no different from a Great Old One or Outer God from the Cthulhu Mythos.

The reason for this was that Neicha, as a shrine maiden, possessed a passive skill called [EVIL SPIRIT POSSESSION ◎] in her skill list, which had been specialized for exorcism.

As mentioned previously, Neicha, born into an exorcist family in Hokkaido, had directionally modified every Umamusume skill she mastered for the specific needs of exorcism work.

However, the exorcism methods passed down by Neicha’s Nice family from ancient times to the present were, compared to the methods of other exorcist families across Japan, among the wilder sort.

The spirit-exorcising methods inherited by ordinary exorcist families were divided into two steps. The exorcising methods inherited by the Nice family were also divided into two steps.

The former method was to kill the evil spirit first, then purify it.

The latter method was to eat the evil spirit first, then digest it.

As everyone knows, digestion is a process.

And if one were to suffer indigestion, or eat irritating foods such as garlic over a long period of time, one’s body or mouth would produce or become tainted with an odor.

After devouring enough evil spirits, in the eyes of other spiritual entities, the aura of a shrine maiden born into the Nice family—even the image she presented when releasing her aura—would draw ever closer to that of an increasingly powerful evil spirit.

Neicha’s passive skill, [EVIL SPIRIT POSSESSION ◎], had been developed on a similar basis.

It was originally a skill Neicha used during her dangerous exorcism work in the past to intimidate relatively weaker spiritual entities by “disguising herself as an even stronger evil spirit.”

But perhaps even Neicha herself, the holder of this skill, had never expected that when this exorcism skill she had never used on a person before was applied to a living Umamusume like Tokai Teio—even if she had only been accidentally caught in its range—the intimidation effect seemed to be quite a bit stronger than when it was used on ghosts and evil spirits.

“DON’T COME ANY CLOSERRRRRR—!!!”

Under the Elder God-like form Neicha was currently presenting through the skill [EVIL SPIRIT POSSESSION ◎]—or rather, under the shocking posture of the descent of an Elder God, which possessed an extremely outstanding intimidation effect against any intelligent creature.

Tokai Teio, who felt her SAN value plummet to zero after looking back for less than two seconds, started her final spurt almost without thinking while there were still six hundred meters left before the finish, four hundred meters earlier than planned.

“SHE’S ACCELERATING!”

“AT A TIME WHEN NICE NATURE, CURRENTLY IN SECOND PLACE, HAS CLOSED IN TO LESS THAN ONE LENGTH BEHIND HER, OUR RISING STAR TOKAI TEIO HAS ALSO DECISIVELY STARTED HER FINAL SPURT AND ACCELERATED, SUCCESSFULLY HOLDING OFF THE SUDDEN ASSAULT FROM BEHIND BY NICE NATURE, THE GREATEST DARK HORSE TO APPEAR IN THIS RACE!”

“AT PRESENT, THE GAP BETWEEN THE TWO REMAINS AT ROUGHLY ONE LENGTH!”

“FIVE HUNDRED METERS REMAIN BEFORE THE FINISH!”

“WITHOUT A DOUBT, THE REMAINING DISTANCE WILL BE A CONTEST OF STAMINA AND WILLPOWER BETWEEN NICE NATURE AND TOKAI TEIO!”

…

“This is bad!” Hearing Misato Akasaka’s commentary, which had grown excited ever since Neicha started her “final spurt” and began accelerating, Symboli Rudolf, in the connections’ stand, snapped back from the shock of seeing an Elder God descend upon the racecourse and immediately put on an expression that said things had taken a terrible turn.

Because in her impression, her proudest junior, Tokai Teio, had always had the shortcoming of insufficient Long Distance Aptitude.

Of course, that was not to say Tokai Teio could not run Long races at all.

But compared to a Long-distance-specialized Umamusume raised by the Mejiro family, someone like Mejiro McQueen, whose family was known for “Stamina Mejiro,” Tokai Teio was indeed one level weaker in terms of Long Distance Aptitude—or, to put it simply, stamina.

On top of that, in this race, the Style she had chosen from the start was Pace Chaser. The optimal point for a Pace Chaser to make their move, or rather, the timing for starting their final spurt, should have been the last of the final three furlongs of the race—that is, when only two hundred meters remained before the finish.

A running method that started the final spurt with five or six hundred meters left before the finish was normally only suitable for Umamusume running as End Closers or from midpack.

For Tokai Teio, starting her final spurt now was equivalent to eating a full set of debuffs: “final spurt started too early,” “wrong Style choice,” “insufficient stamina,” and more.

Given the current situation, if there was anything still worth letting Symboli Rudolf feel glad about, it was probably only that Nice Nature, Tokai Teio’s greatest rival in this race, had also started her final spurt two hundred meters earlier than a normal End Closer would.

Just as Misato Akasaka, the announcer for this Debut Race, had said, from here on, the key to deciding this race’s final outcome would be the contest of stamina and willpower between Tokai Teio and Nice Nature.

Whichever of them ran out of stamina first and lost speed during the race would lose the chance to take this race’s championship.

But could Tokai Teio, who already had a shortcoming in stamina, really defeat Nice Nature in this contest of both stamina and willpower—a girl who, before today, had always been obscure at the academy, but who now seemed full of mysteries from head to toe?

What if Nice Nature, who dared to start her final spurt and accelerate with eight hundred meters left before the finish, was in fact a stamina-specialized Umamusume skilled at Long races?

I want to become a strong, cool, undefeated Triple Crown Umamusume like Rudolf-san!

Remembering the scene when she had first met Tokai Teio, Symboli Rudolf came back from her thoughts and could not help holding her breath. At some point, her hands had clenched into fists, and from the force she was using, visible veins bulged on the backs of them.

This is a fan translation of 我，优秀素质，是赛马娘也是巫女 by 百景绘 Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!