“I’m full!”
Sunset devoured dinner like a storm sweeping through, pressed her hands together, then carried her plate into the kitchen and washed it. By the time she finished and came back out, quite a few of the children still had not finished eating and were still laughing and messing around at the table.
“Silence, silence. As the saying goes, one should not speak while eating or sleeping—”
Director Higashino himself did not mind noise at the dinner table, and normally Sunset could not be bothered to care either, but she was in a bad mood today, so she took the chance to correct them a little.
“Not listening, not listening!”
“Don’t be so serious, Sunset-oneechan. The director hasn’t even said anything!”
Seeing the director and his wife happily sitting at the table eating, with no intention of speaking up for her, Sunset ran out of words and puffed out her cheeks.
“Mmgh—I don’t care about you anymore. I’m going to pick up Kita.”
Only when he heard that did the director raise his head and react.
“You can actually go a bit later. It seems there’s still some wrap-up work to finish on Kita’s end.”
“Then I’ll take a walk around nearby first, to help with digestion.”
Without waiting for the director to say anything more, Sunset ran out of the house.
“Don’t exercise too hard right after eating. Walk slowly~”
The director’s wife called after her from behind.
…
“Now then, where should I go next?”
Looking up at the glittering stars overhead, Sunset unknowingly wandered over to the nearby park. There was a shared sports field there, but at this dinner hour, there was not much activity yet. Only a scattered few people were warming up. In another half hour, the place would probably grow noisy.
“I actually walked all the way here… Then I should run a lap after all, right? I was still kind of sleepy a moment ago, but now I’m this excited. People really are strange creatures.”
Muttering to herself, Sunset stepped onto the track. She could feel the hot blood surging in her heart still refusing to cool down. It seemed that unless she ran all out for a while, the heart pounding away in her chest would not settle down.
The reason was simple. After watching Mr. C.B. and Symboli Rudolf race, no Umamusume could help but get excited. Unless they were truly completely unmotivated. Especially after seeing Mr. C.B.’s grand End Closer strategy, romantic to the extreme—watching that chariot-like stride as she overtook the others, there were precious few who could remain unmoved. That was also why, whenever Mr. C.B. and Symboli Rudolf competed on the same stage, even though Mr. C.B. had never won, her popularity was still no less than Symboli Rudolf’s.
As an absolutely diehard fan of Mr. C.B., the emotions surging inside Sunset now were roaring like a tide.
“Then, while I still have time…”
Sunset found a lane with no one on it. She bent down, clumsily imitating Mr. C.B.’s ready stance from the television.
“Three, two—”
She counted down silently to herself, as if she were standing on the track, facing Symboli Rudolf.
Ready—
“Start!”
Imitating the tone of the live commentator, Sunset successfully “broke from the gate.”
Because she was too focused, she did not hear the sound of a stopwatch by her ear at the instant she started running.
The touch of the wind reached her face, along with the scent of grass and earth mixed together. In her eyes, this was no ordinary asphalt track, but a softer turf course better suited to Umamusume.
2,400 meters… Tokyo Racecourse…
It was as though the cheers from the stands reached her ears. It was fake, a scene fabricated inside her mind, but as long as she imagined it like this, her spirit rose higher and higher.
Before her eyes, on the once-empty track, a green figure appeared, dignified and imposing, majestic and grand. That figure, as if absolutely correct, stood like a Demon King between heaven and earth, making Sunset feel as if she could hardly breathe.
Symboli Rudolf…
That illusory figure made her even more excited.
If… I were Mr. C.B.…
Catch her—overtake her—Symboli Rudolf… crush her!
At that moment, only that phantom remained in Sunset’s eyes.
Just like C.B.-san, stick right behind her—
Before she knew it, Sunset had followed the illusion born in her heart and already run five laps. She was panting slightly, but her mind seemed to have lost its awareness of her body, still brimming with excitement.
Here. Catch up to her!
If it were the real Mr. C.B., she would move in the final four hundred meters—
“Fin—al—SPURT—!”
Just like the Mr. C.B. in her mind, Sunset’s body shot forward.
Symboli Rudolf! Two lengths left—one length—over—
“Huh?”
The overtake she had imagined did not happen.
Symboli Rudolf accelerated.
The instant Sunset’s body overlapped with Symboli Rudolf’s illusion, Symboli Rudolf shot away like a rocket breaking free. And Sunset, like a booster abandoned by the rocket itself, was blasted back down to earth. It was not that she was actually running backward; rather, the distance between her and Symboli Rudolf had become as unreachable as heaven from earth.
“Run! Speed up, damn it—!”
Sunset roared, trying to accelerate, but even as she swung her arms and legs with all her strength, the exhaustion in her body still overcame the excitement in her mind. The fatigue in her legs stabbed at her nerves, leaving her unable to take another step at full strength. Watching Symboli Rudolf sprint at full speed from behind, the illusion in Sunset’s eyes gradually shattered.
What her feet stepped on was asphalt. There were no spectators cheering around her. She was not Mr. C.B., either. She could only watch Symboli Rudolf from afar as that majestic Umamusume set foot on the green and crossed the finish line. Then that invincible figure, together with the roaring cheers born for her, vanished from Sunset’s eyes.
“Ah. I didn’t finish…”
Standing on the straight with a hundred meters still left before the finish, she powerlessly looked toward the finish line in her heart. Before, Symboli Rudolf and the cheers that belonged to her had been there. Now there was nothing, except a man in yellow holding a stopwatch.
“…Huh?”
A man in yellow?
It felt like that person was looking at her. And now he was walking over? Could it be that she had gotten too into it and disturbed him? That seemed very possible. Just look at how murderous he looked.
“Wah, wah, wah, wah! I’m done for, I’m done for. Is this when I’m supposed to dogeza?”
Sunset began to panic.
Incidentally, although she called herself the boss of the children, Sunset was a standard-issue timid horse.
…
At that moment, Kōji Okino was extremely excited. How can he describe it? It was probably the feeling of picking up a lottery ticket on the way home from work, scratching it open, and discovering it was a grand prize.
Kōji Okino, one of the Trainers at Tracen Academy. Compared to his high school classmate, Trainer Hana Tōjō, who had already made a name for herself and achieved great things at Tracen Academy, he could be described as having suffered a complete defeat. Because of his unreliable personality, he had gone several months without an assigned Umamusume of his own. Recently, because he still had no trainee under his charge, he had started being sent out on fieldwork. So he had also been seriously searching for a new team member lately, but unfortunately with little success. Today, he just so happened to have been dispatched as a representative to visit Umamusume academies in other regions, and on his way back, he encountered Sunset, who was preparing to run.
Based on a Trainer’s instinct, he subconsciously recorded Sunset’s time.
The result was not exactly good. If it were placed in a debut race, she would probably be left behind in last place by a large margin. If it had been an ordinary Trainer, they likely would not have paid Sunset any more attention and would simply have left.
However, despite his unreliable personality, Okino’s talent in training could absolutely be called excellent. From the Umamusume not far away, he saw what could only be called terrifying potential.
“Wrong starting form, arm swing and stride not coordinated enough, completely reckless energy distribution, burning stamina with pure momentum at the end, acceleration timing far too early, causing the end to rely entirely on Guts, a very beautiful loss of speed, shoes that aren’t even running shoes, and she’s running on a rubberized track… You could say she’s made just about every mistake that comes to mind.”
She was practically the very definition of a problem child. But—
“Even with all that, she can still run close to debut race level…”
Even after seeing many outstanding Umamusume, Okino could not say where the girl before him would rank. Only by solving the problems she had could he truly see her ability. But one thing was beyond doubt: this potential was something Okino could not ignore. And besides the natural attention a Trainer paid to an excellent Umamusume, he also had a tiny selfish motive.
“That Umamusume’s running style has no technique to speak of. She probably hasn’t received specialized training, and she can’t be a student at Tracen Academy. In other words, she’s a wild Umamusume.”
That was right. A wild Umamusume who did not know his “bad reputation.” As long as he lured her into Tracen, she would be a future prospect he had picked up for free! Okino was already getting excited over a future where he would not have to run fieldwork anymore.
As for being rejected? Although that was possible, as long as he made her recognize her own talent, no Umamusume could refuse running. Okino was certain of that.
Having made up his mind, Okino walked toward her while waving in greeting.
“Hey, you over there—”
“Eek—v-very sorry, I’ll be going now, goodbye!”
Before Okino could finish speaking, the Umamusume in the distance disappeared into the darkness at a speed that left him dumbfounded, leaving only Kōji Okino standing there awkwardly, arm outstretched and waving like an idiot.
“Where did she get the stamina to keep charging like that? Wasn’t that even faster than her final spurt just now?”
Perhaps she might be even stronger than he had thought.
This is a fan translation of 迫于生计，赛马娘登上赛场！ by 扶风三尺 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!
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