"Rice Shower..."
"Rice Shower is such a good girl..."
"Rice Shower is a little uma musume who will bring happiness to Rice Shower..."
"Do your best, Rice-chan..."
Countless scattered yet gentle voices lingered all around her.
Meow.
Her toes touched the surface of the lake, sending ripples spreading outward in circles.
Rice Shower's consciousness took the form of a lovely figure and stepped into this pitch-black lake of the heart.
The scene within her heart lake was strange and silent. Beneath her feet, black lake water intertwined with the pale mist around her.
Not far away, an endlessly vast mirror seemed to float in the fog, sometimes clear, sometimes blurred.
"Trainer Onii-san?"
Rice Shower, standing within her heart lake, was still somewhat lost. She called out softly.
When no one answered, she carefully opened her eyes.
But what entered her sight was no longer her Trainer's gentle face. It was a lone bench.
Buzz.
As she awakened, the pale mist around her suddenly surged and churned, and the heart lake beneath her feet stirred with it.
Immediately afterward, familiar yet unfamiliar scenes slowly began constructing themselves around her, starting from that bench.
In the blink of an eye, the vast heart lake transformed into a brightly lit sports field under daylight lamps.
And the Trainer she had just been yearning for also took shape as a blurry figure, quietly seated behind the bench.
That calmed the unease in the girl's heart considerably.
"..."
Rice Shower felt as if her mind had gone a little stiff. She had somewhat forgotten what she had just been doing, and she stared blankly around her.
Tilting her little head, she looked at Kuroha beside her, pointed at the sports field below that had originally been empty, and asked softly, "Trainer Onii-san, are we going to run together?"
As soon as her voice fell, countless bustling figures suddenly appeared below, and noisy chatter rang out at once.
"Rice Shower..."
Kuroha's blurry figure paused slightly when he heard that, then slowly asked, "What do you see right now?"
The petite girl, like a blue rose, froze for a moment. She gazed downward in a slight daze and answered honestly.
"I see... myself running with Mama. Mama can't outrun me, but she's smiling so happily."
On the track below, another tiny Rice Shower was running.
At this moment, beside her, there was not only a kind-faced woman, but also several figures of different ages.
They seemed to be her childhood playmates, relatives, and friends. Everyone was racing to see who could run faster.
And little Rice Shower, as an uma musume, left everyone far behind in the dust even though she was still young.
"Rice Shower runs so fast!"
"Rice Shower's definitely going to become a race uma musume whose name echoes through Central one day! Haha, when that happens, I'm getting dozens of autographs from you!"
"Rice Shower is amazing."
Listening to her friends' generous praise, little Rice Shower scratched the back of her head and smiled shyly.
"Mama."
She trotted over to the kind woman, opened her arms, and was gently picked up.
"Rice Shower, are you happy?" the woman asked with a smile.
"Happy!" Little Rice Shower waved her small hands with all her might.
"Then... does Rice Shower want to become a race uma musume someday?"
"What's a race uma musume?" Little Rice Shower tilted her head.
The woman patiently explained, "They're the big sisters you love watching on TV, the ones who run on the track."
Little Rice Shower's eyes lit up when she heard that, and she nodded again and again. "I do!"
But then she lowered her head in distress. "But can Rice Shower really become someone that bright and shining?"
The woman smiled fondly and gently tapped her daughter's nose.
"Of course you can! Because my Rice Shower is an uma musume who brings happiness to everyone, and she's Mama's most beloved little princess."
Those words embarrassed little Rice Shower so much that she buried her face in her mother's arms and did not dare raise her head.
But after only a few seconds, she poked out her adorable little head again and promised in a small but serious voice, "Rice Shower... will work hard."
...
On the distant bench, Rice Shower and the somewhat blurry Kuroha quietly watched that scene.
The black-haired girl parted her lips slightly, and a faint glimmer seemed to enter her lifeless eyes.
Yet in the very next instant, the sports field that had filled the entire heart lake suddenly began to vanish inch by inch from its edges, finally shrinking into a small fan-shaped image.
At the end of the image, little Rice Shower and those relatives and friends who truly cared about her were frozen in place.
The pale mist continued to churn, and the scene of Tracen Academy surfaced next.
When she reached the age to attend elementary school, Rice Shower, carrying everyone's expectations, stepped into this gathering place for the finest uma musume in the hall of dreams.
But within this academy, she saw far too many peers who shone brighter than she did.
Tokai Teio, Mejiro McQueen, Nice Nature, Sakura Bakushin O, Biwa Hayahide...
Some of them were always confident and spirited. Some were elegant and composed. Some were calm and steady.
They were like natural spotlights, effortlessly drawing everyone's gaze onto themselves.
And Rice Shower could only stand at the edge of the crowd, looking up at those glittering figures.
Under the cover of darkness, the tiny bit of confidence the girl had once held tightly in her palm scattered little by little into the wind, like dandelion fluff blown away by a breeze.
With each loss in class training races, with each middling rank in theory exams, she began to feel that her smile was not as dazzling as others, her footsteps were not as swift as others, and her mind was not as quick as others.
At that moment, it was as though she had become an insignificant, transparent presence.
The meaning of her existence was only to serve as a foil for those who already stood high above, freely blooming with brilliance.
...
On the bench, Rice Shower slowly lowered her head and murmured softly, "The people everyone wants to support... are the ones who are supposed to win. Only people like that can bring happiness to everyone."
Pat.
A reassuring warmth came from above her head.
Kuroha gently placed his hand on the girl's head and rubbed it, then asked softly, "Then does Rice Shower think she's that kind of person?"
Rice Shower paused. Her petite body trembled slightly, and she said nothing.
Seeing this, Kuroha gave a soft chuckle and changed the question. "Then, Rice Shower, do you want to become that kind of person?"
The moment his words fell, the image of her shrinking into the corner of the crowd and looking up at the stars froze instantly, then rapidly shrank into a second fan-shaped image.
Immediately afterward, Mihono Bourbon appeared in the third image.
...
"Bourbon, doing this will hurt your body..."
"You've already run three thousand meters. How about drinking some water and resting?"
"If you overtrain like this, the teacher will scold you..."
"Bourbon?"
"Bourbon..."
At first, seeing this classmate, who performed just as ordinarily as she did, push herself so desperately without any regard for the consequences, Rice Shower only felt confusion and heartache.
Why are you working so hard?
She asked.
And Mihono Bourbon's answer was always only one thing.
"Triple Crown race uma musume!"
Rice Shower fell silent.
She had always believed that faint lights like theirs ought to quietly step aside and let the stars shine.
That was why she did not want to interfere with what Bourbon was doing.
Even so, she respected that effort.
Because being a faint light meant to serve as a foil was the place she had assigned herself. It had nothing to do with anyone else.
And yet, watching Mihono Bourbon give everything she had to transform herself from a faint glow into the morning star, envy and yearning could not stop welling up deep in Rice Shower's heart.
"I am Rice Shower, an uma musume who brings happiness to everyone."
"Everyone cheers for the people who are supposed to win. That is what makes them happy. So I can't destroy anyone else's happiness."
"Because Rice Shower isn't someone who is supposed to win..."
And yet...
Standing in the corner of the training field, watching Mihono Bourbon's back as she persevered day after day without ever giving up, the girl like a blue rose bit her lower lip hard.
The image froze again.
In the next moment, an impassioned commentator's voice exploded through the heart lake as a new scene began to form.
"The winner is Inari One!"
"She defeats Fujimasa March by one length and claims the final victory in the Arima Kinen!"
"She is, without question, Central's strongest!"
That was the track at Nakayama Racecourse.
On the final straight, in a shocking scene where seven radiant Domains competed wildly, a petite figure with twin tails ascended to the summit of Japan with an overwhelmingly dominant presence.
That incomparable brilliance and power deeply shook the hearts of the little Rice Shower in the corner and the Rice Shower on the bench.
Watching this scene, Rice Shower pressed her lips together tightly on the bench, a faint bitterness in her voice.
"But... I want so badly to become someone like that too."
In the past, she had thought she would become a faint light.
But ever since meeting Mihono Bourbon, the heart that had once accepted itself as a side character could no longer help stirring with unrest.
It left this black-haired girl plunged into deep confusion.
"..."
Beside her, Kuroha's phantom quietly watched the petite girl at his side and did not continue speaking.
But in the next moment...
"Then come straight to me!"
A familiar voice rippled across the entire heart lake.
It was Kuroha's voice.
But it did not come from the blurry figure sitting beside Rice Shower. Instead, it came from a past scene reconstructed by the memory in the deepest part of her own heart.
In a small corner of the training field, two little uma musume were silently lowering their heads in grievance.
And Kuroha, who looked even younger and more refined than he did now, reached out with both hands and pressed one palm onto each of the two little girls' heads, his smile bright as the morning sun.
"Think of it as your team entry test. How about it?"
Rice Shower's eyes suddenly widened.
She stared fixedly at that scene, as if a beam of light had pierced through the thick fog and completely illuminated the pitch-black lake of her heart.
(End of Chapter)
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