In a corner in front of the stands, Gold Ship's face was bright with a smile as she waved from afar at Kitasan Black and Duramente across the way.
"I say, you guys should talk…"
Vodka, also waving with a smile, muttered with a wry grin.
"At a time like this… what do you want us to say? Besides, with that kind of finish… who would have thought Kita-chan would lose…?"
Gold Ship's expression fell.
"It's precisely because I thought the same thing that I'm asking how you're going to comfort Kita-chan later…"
"This…"
Vodka hesitated, glancing at Daiwa Scarlet.
"Daiwa Scarlet, what do you think…?"
"I mean, if you got caught by that kind of speed, what would you think…?"
Daiwa Scarlet was still waving at Kitasan Black. She pretended to adjust her clothes, lowered her head, and stayed quiet for a moment.
"There's nothing we can do…"
"Ah…?"
Vodka looked confused.
"Then what do we say when we see Kita-chan later…?"
"Hey, Kita-chan isn't as fragile as you think, okay?"
Daiwa Scarlet suddenly sounded a little annoyed.
"If I really had to say something, I'd just tell her… next time, run even faster."
"Faster…? Kita-chan already ran pretty fast, right?"
Vodka's gaze drifted between Daiwa Scarlet and Silence Suzuka.
Silence Suzuka met Daiwa Scarlet's eyes, then shook her head after a short silence.
"Kita-chan… isn't a speed-type runaway.
If it were me, I'd open up a ten-length lead before the final straight. Only that kind of gap gives you a real chance against Duramente's final spurt.
But that style might not work well at 2400 meters on the Tokyo Racecourse. Opening that much of a gap too early makes it easy to lose speed later.
And…"
She rubbed her thigh with a slightly uneasy hand.
"High-speed leading… Kita-chan's body is excellent, but that kind of running is too prone to accidents. It doesn't suit her."
"Then… this…"
"Kita-chan's speed was already pushed to the limit."
As Vodka struggled for words, Tokai Teio, who had stayed quiet until now, cut in.
"Her race management was pushed to the limit too.
Starting from the far outside gate and setting a super-fast early pace—Vodka, Special Week, both of you know exactly how heavy those two disadvantages are in the Derby.
Everyone here except McQueen and Daiwa Scarlet has run the Derby. You all understand what I'm saying."
The other Uma Musume, aside from Mejiro McQueen and Daiwa Scarlet, looked at one another, sighed helplessly, and nodded.
"After dealing with the outside gate and that early pace, Kita-chan still had to retake the lead, pull away, and adjust her rhythm and stride. All of that drains stamina.
Honestly…"
A complicated look of relief crossed Tokai Teio's face.
"By the time she hit the uphill on the final straight, I… almost thought she was going to fold.
But just like Daiwa Scarlet said, I don't believe Kita-chan would break down crying over a setback like this."
She shifted her tone, tugging the corner of her mouth into something closer to a smile to lighten the mood.
"Her path ahead is still long. There will be plenty more races like this. She won't go down that easily.
If I really had to say something to her, I think…"
Her gaze drifted to the side, and she pressed her lips together.
"It's not our turn yet."
Several of the Uma Musume followed Tokai Teio's eyes and realized that Kitasan Black's trainer, Yasui, was standing right beside them.
At that moment, the person who cared the most, who felt the most anxious, who most wanted to say something to Kitasan Black, and who carried the most complicated feelings, was Yasui.
Even well-meaning words from them would only add extra pressure on the one involved.
Yasui hadn't been paying much attention to the conversation next to him.
After the results appeared, he stared at the rankings on the scoreboard for a long moment, his eyes fixed on the girl beyond the finish line.
When she walked over to face the stands, waved to the crowd, met his gaze, waved again, and then left the track, he finally turned to the others.
"I'm going to check on Kita-chan. You guys…"
He stopped mid-sentence.
Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen looked relatively calm, but the others' eyes were full of worry, constantly glancing between him and the direction Kitasan Black had gone.
"You… what's wrong?" Yasui asked, hesitant.
After a brief pause, Daiwa Scarlet exchanged looks with her friends, forced a smile, and spoke first.
"It's just… even though Kita-chan didn't take the win this time… we all know how hard she worked. You too, Yasui, so…"
"That's right! And breaking the record with that finishing time is already amazing!"
Gold Ship quickly added.
"Way stronger than when I was younger, don't you think?"
"Gold Ship can actually say something like that…"
Special Week started in a daze, until Silence Suzuka lightly nudged her with an elbow. She paused, then corrected herself in a hurry.
"That's right, that's right! Kita-chan's performance was already excellent. She's really amazing!"
After Silence Suzuka's quiet reminder, she and Vodka looked over with expressions of both worry and comfort.
Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen wore similar looks in their eyes.
Understanding at once that the Uma Musume were trying to comfort him, Yasui felt a quiet warmth and smiled.
He was no stranger to failure.
Compared to these already-famous Uma Musume, his own past experiences had not necessarily been any less painful.
Extreme Stunts carried a lot of performance elements, but they were never without real competition.
And competition in those sports was almost always a genuine life-or-death struggle.
Take hardline descents, where the courses ran over cliffs, massive rocks, and steep slopes.
Winning or losing aside, one mistake could put you in the emergency room—and that was considered lucky.
Then there were the Wingsuit Flying World Championships, high-altitude speed skiing, extreme rafting…
Those were stages you only reached by giving everything you had. Holding nothing back was the absolute minimum requirement.
Having lived through all of that, he understood what talent and genius really meant, and he could calmly accept the outcome of giving everything and still coming up short.
Of course, that did not mean he calmly accepted failure itself.
The moment the result was confirmed, after a brief blank in his mind, he was already thinking about the next race.
What he lost in one race, he would take back in the next.
There was just no need to say those things out loud to anyone.
Competition was that simple. It was always about winning and losing. He had understood that principle long ago, and he knew the only real way to accept failure was to win it back on the next track.
He simply hadn't said those words to Kitasan Black yet.
Looks like there are still things I've overlooked… still things I need to learn…
After a moment of thought, Yasui looked at the Uma Musume in front of him and shook his head.
"Thank you, all of you. Honestly… to be frank, I feel pretty good.
Compared to me, I think Kita-chan probably needs the comfort more right now.
I'm heading to the infirmary. Do you want to come along?"