Just like back then, it was a comeback sprint.
At the very end of the race, King Halo, whom no one had favored, suddenly displayed an incomparable final leg.
"Th-this is an astonishing development! King Halo has charged out directly from the outside with incredible momentum. What an amazing burst! She caught up to Special Week with no pressure at all. Special Week is trying to overtake her again, but she has no chance! King Halo's speed is still rising sharply. Special Week has been completely suppressed!"
The entire venue fell silent. Then intense cheers erupted.
Special Week and the other runners stared in disbelief at the immovable figure ahead, watching her rush toward the finish line as if transforming into a dragon.
"Across the line!"
"The umamusume who has successfully taken this year's Kikka Sho is this girl: King Halo! After suffering several defeats, she still did not give up. On this major stage, King Halo has once again revealed her brilliance. Let us offer her a grand round of applause!"
"Second is Special Week!"
"Third is Shinriki!"
The original King Halo looked at the shining scene before her. At first, she had possessed no confidence in this race at all. Now, she felt as if she were dreaming and could not help crying out.
"Is this real or fake?"
She looked toward herself ahead.
King Halo was adjusting her breathing, easing the fatigue in her body.
Although the development of the race had all been within her calculations, her skills truly placed too heavy a burden on this body. Even without bringing the effects of those skills to the limit, her stamina had now hit the bottom. Even standing there, her legs trembled uncontrollably.
"I couldn't achieve a truly overwhelming victory."
King Halo looked at the results on the large screen and fell silent.
Although using the original King Halo's body to defeat Special Week and Seiun Sky in a long-distance race was an extremely remarkable feat, this result still could not satisfy her. Through this race, she had merely seen her current limit.
She was still not strong enough.
She wanted to become stronger.
Unlike her cold exterior, her heart was burning hot.
On the other side, Special Week and the defeated runners looked toward that green figure with blazing eyes, revealing intense fighting spirit.
The Winner's Stage ended.
After returning to the preparation area, King Halo felt the sensation that she could return. She turned back and looked at the original King Halo, who still had not recovered.
"I'm leaving."
"Eh?"
The original King Halo stared at herself in astonishment.
"Although I don't know the principle behind it, it seems the meaning of my coming here was to help you win today's race. Now that the race is over, I feel I can already go back."
"Wait... wait. Are you planning to just leave like this?"
"Yes."
"Then what am I supposed to do?"
Hearing this, King Halo looked at the original King Halo in confusion.
"What are you talking about?"
What did she mean, what was she supposed to do? Did she really want King Halo to stay and become a guardian-spirit cheat for her? King Halo had no such interest. Besides, she had her own matters to handle.
"Wait! Let me think!"
The original King Halo panicked a little.
What was going on? She had only just accepted the situation.
She had just been thinking that if this person could help her become a first-rate umamusume, then temporarily letting this person occupy her body would not be a problem. Yet now the other party was suddenly telling her it was over?
No way. What was she supposed to do afterward?
After winning the Kikka Sho, she had undoubtedly obtained the right to enter the Japan Cup and the Arima Kinen. Rather, she definitely had to run them, right? If she did not run, would that not be the same as saying she had only won today's race by luck?
That was not the future she wanted. She still had not given up on the goal of becoming first-rate.
In fact, precisely because this self-proclaimed other version of herself had appeared, the original King Halo had only just regained confidence and believed she had great hope.
But now, the other party told her this was the end.
The trial card was about to expire.
"I can let you keep using my body!"
"Not interested."
She was rejected without the slightest hesitation.
The original King Halo's expression became incomparably dejected.
King Halo looked at her.
"Stop indulging in wild thoughts. That is your own dream. Whether you succeed or fail, it is your life. I cannot replace you. Also, success does not come by luck. The moment you place your hopes on luck, you have already fallen into being a loser. If you want to win, then think. Think of the formula that leads to victory. Talent is not the standard that decides victory or defeat. Power is. What you need to do now is first find your own weapon."
"..."
The original King Halo said she did not understand at all.
Although she was not a particularly gloomy fool, she was also not some especially clever umamusume. All her talents belonged to the average level. Neither her physique nor her comprehension stood out.
But King Halo did not intend to directly tell her the answer.
Because with the original King Halo's personality, if she directly told her, You have no talent, and the place where you are most suited to shine is the currently overlooked sprint races, then the original King Halo would definitely refuse to accept it and say it was impossible.
"I'm leaving."
King Halo did not give the original King Halo any chance to pester her. Following that sensation, her soul left the body in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, the original King Halo took control of her body again.
Her expression became pained in that instant.
The fatigue of her body almost overwhelmed her consciousness.
This genius was shocked to discover that her body's fatigue was nothing like the ease she had sensed before. And this was even after resting. She could hardly imagine how much willpower that other self had used during the race to win with her body. Was that really something an umamusume could do?
That night, the original King Halo was destined not to sleep well.
She dreamed.
She dreamed of the other self.
Looking at that other self who had been different from her since childhood, the original King Halo saw from a third-person perspective many things that even King Halo herself had not noticed.
For example, at the beginning of the dream, the original King Halo saw that when she was still very young, her father quietly said to a Trainer at the side:
"Unfortunately, Little Halo did not inherit either of your talents. Although she is still young, judging from her frame, if she wants to become an umamusume, she will need to put in effort far beyond ordinary people."
"...I understand."
"However, if Little Halo receives strict training from childhood, perhaps there is still some chance..."
The Trainer seemed to think of something.
"At least, her qualities should not be weak. She should be able to adapt to most distances and track conditions. As long as training raises her physical strength, then it is not entirely hopeless."
But after hearing this, King Halo's father became even more silent. Although the Trainer was already choosing pleasant words, how could she fail to understand what the Trainer meant? It meant her daughter indeed did not possess sufficient talent. Even if they poured in world-class training resources, she would have to risk everything to have even a chance at challenging major races.
She looked at King Halo standing below the platform. The delight she had once felt because King Halo had been precocious had now vanished completely.
Her daughter was not the kind of genius she had imagined.
On the contrary, her daughter was mediocre.
At that moment, she thought that rather than let King Halo train desperately to become an umamusume, it might be better to give up that path and let King Halo peacefully live as a young lady.
"Whether she becomes an umamusume or not, let Little Halo decide for herself in the future."
Dancing Brave made her decision.
King Halo, immersed in the dream at this moment, still did not know anything. Before everything had begun, her own old man had already decided to give up on her.
From the third-person perspective, the original King Halo heard Father's decision from the side and deeply projected herself into it, her face full of unwillingness.
"So when I was this young, you had already given up on me? Damn it. I absolutely refuse to admit I have no talent!"
Even now, she still refused to accept reality.
She remained obsessed with the talent in her bloodline.
After that, in King Halo's childhood, impressions related to her father appeared very rarely. However, from the original King Halo's perspective, she could still see her father's figure. It was just that after King Halo first made a request of her father, asking her father to train her and being refused, the relationship between father and daughter seemed to become that of strangers.
This made the original King Halo feel strange. After all, she had worshiped her father since childhood. Every time her father came home, she would take the initiative to cling to her. On the contrary, her relationship with Mother was rather stiff, even though the time she spent with Mother in daily life far exceeded the time she spent with Father.
But this world's version of herself was different. After detecting some of Father's thoughts, she never grew close to Father again. And Father seemed to feel guilty too. From then on, she rarely appeared before this version of herself. Every time she returned home, she deliberately avoided this world's King Halo, and the relationship between father and daughter grew colder and colder.
"How could this happen?"
The original King Halo did not understand.
When she was young, she had often been dealt blows by Mother. Instead, Father would often encourage her. Although that first scene had indeed dealt her no small blow, she did not hate Father because of it. Because she knew that although Father had said that at the time, as long as she persisted on this path, Father would still support and encourage her afterward.
But this world's version of herself and Father were not close. Instead, their relationship became stiff beyond her imagination.
After that, she saw this world's version of herself, without Father's support, go to the youth training facility to train on her own, while spending most of each day studying.
The original King Halo discovered that this world's version of herself was practically a monster. From the moment this world's self possessed awareness, she had been studying constantly. And once she reached the age when she could participate in training, she did not even need her parents' reminders. She threw herself into training on her own initiative.
Although Father's Trainer had judged that she did not have the talent to become an umamusume, that almost innate intelligence and that terrifying willpower made the original King Halo feel incomparably afraid.
"Is this really me?"
The original King Halo watched with her own eyes as the self who had trained at the youth training facility from childhood continuously broke records. Clearly, at the beginning of this dream, this world's self had been judged by Father and the others as lacking talent. But by now, through her own effort, this world's self had already become a super genius in the eyes of others.
And Mother also began to change toward this world's self. Watching Mother, who said with her mouth that she did not agree, yet secretly followed behind her every day, the original King Halo found it difficult to accept for a while.
Was this really her mother?
Since childhood, her mother had not liked her taking part in training. Even if she achieved good results at the youth training facility, her mother would pretend not to see them. Sometimes, she would even mock her for being slightly worse than last time, coldly ridiculing her.
That had also been one of the original sources of the original King Halo's unwillingness at the time.
But this world's Mother was different. Although this world's Mother was also unwilling at first to help this world's self train, as this world's self exceeded Mother's expectations again and again, Mother's attitude began to change little by little. In the end, she agreed to help.
Then she saw that this world's self quickly became Mother's pride and precious treasure. It even affected the relationship between Mother and Father. Because of Father's initial examination, and because the father-daughter relationship was not harmonious, Mother decided to hide this self's training results from Father, planning to give Father a huge surprise later.
"..."
The original King Halo fell silent.
She thought of her own childhood.
Although she also considered her own effort to be above ordinary people, compared with this world's version of herself, it was like a small witch facing a great one. This world's self was so hard-working that even Mother felt afraid when she saw it. She had no choice but to bring out a mother's authority plus threats to force this self to rest.
"Did I already lose from this moment?"
The original King Halo had once suspected that the other self's strength might have some special reason behind it. But after seeing the other self's childhood, she suddenly felt that the other party being so strong was precisely normal.
Yet at this moment, the original King Halo still did not know that this was only the beginning. Because at this time, King Halo still had not found her own path and had not developed her own weapon. Even in terms of effort, she had not yet found the correct direction. She was far inferior to what she would become later.
As the dream continued, the original King Halo saw Mother wanting this self to develop in America. This world's Mother already completely believed that this self had inherited her talent and was a super genius.
But the original King Halo clearly knew that it was not like that. This world's self, in truth, was the same as her. Neither had inherited the talents of Mother or Father.
Only, compared with herself, this world's self was far too terrifying in terms of willpower.
She had possessed a firm goal since childhood and never retreated or doubted herself. Even in personality, she was completely different.
That was the mentality of a strong person, something she had been born with.
When the original King Halo saw this self choose to go to Japan and remain completely unmoved by Mother's persuasion, she felt surprised, yet also thought it was only natural. Because this world's self had far too much independence. Even Mother could not gain an advantage before this self.
Unlike her own behavior of taking one step and then looking to Father before going to Japan, this world's self went to Japan with absolute autonomy, destined to bring tremendous change to the world.
At this moment, the original King Halo had been completely conquered by this self.
Because there was no reason for such a self to fail.
After that, although the development of events matched the original King Halo's expectations, this self's results and performance far exceeded her imagination.
She watched this self display matchless dominance from the very first mock race, then step by step walk toward the peak of Japan, and further lead Japan's umamusume toward the world, raising the Japan Cup's standard to the world's front ranks.
This self truly displayed a level she could not even imagine. Such a self was simply the ideal form she had dreamed of.
All the way until the Arima Kinen ended, looking at that figure standing in the light, the original King Halo shed moved tears.
This legendary life had struck her too deeply. Especially because the protagonist of this legend was herself. It was so wonderful that she even forgot that at times, she would obtain some of this self's insights within the dream.
When she woke up, although this sleep had not been peaceful, and although she felt even more mentally fatigued after waking, the original King Halo still could not recover for a long time after opening her eyes. She even wanted to return and continue dreaming.
"King Halo..."
That's right. That was the true me. That was the complete me.
The original King Halo pulled herself together.
The unwillingness over not having talent no longer existed. So what if she had not inherited Father's or Mother's talent?
She did not need to inherit their talent at all.
Because King Halo was the strongest. She did not need anyone else's talent.
If her body had not yet recovered, she would have wanted to go to the training grounds immediately. She already knew her path and her goal.
If the old her had wanted to become a first-rate umamusume to prove to the world that she truly was the daughter of those two high-ranking umamusume, then the current her no longer thought that way.
Her only thought now was this:
She absolutely could not lose to the name King Halo, because this name was destined to shine in history.
...
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