Jungle Pocket kept her position, her face icy, ready to meet Platinum's arrival.
"If I can't go faster, I can't face her!"
"If I can't get stronger, I can't surpass her!"
"And finally, if I can't answer these passionate cheers, I don't deserve to win!"
She knew that this tactic of jockeying for position and using the gates and surroundings to force Platinum into a difficult spot wasn't honorable. It was no display of pure ability.
But Jungle Pocket had no regrets. Her eyes held only one goal: surpass Platinum and win the Japanese Derby, a challenge she'd get only once in her life.
The luckiest Uma Musume wins the Derby?
Then let's see who the luckiest Uma Musume really is!
"Don't blame me for being underhanded!"
"That's how the Derby is won!"
But a short while later, Jungle Pocket began to feel perplexed...
Why still hadn't she seen Miss Heavenly Horse?
Wait, where was Platinum?
If she was going to lead, she should be right beside her by now.
If she'd chosen to hang back, Jungle Pocket wasn't that far ahead of the Mid-runners. Platinum ought to be in the corner of her eye.
So why hadn't that Heavenly Horse appeared yet?
(Had Platinum seen through my tactic in an instant?)
(Then how is she going to counter it?!)
Jungle Pocket gritted her teeth, unable to hide her astonishment.
No wonder Tachyon had praised that Heavenly Horse. She was as crafty as they said—she'd figured it out in such a short time, without even seeing the race from the audience's perspective!
(As expected of the legendary Heavenly Horse!!)
Contrary to what Jungle Pocket imagined, Platinum hadn't given much thought to tactics.
Jungle Pocket up ahead could pour her heart into the race and devise a strategy to counter Platinum.
But Platinum in the rear had plenty of other things to think about. For instance, what exactly would the Quiver's Transcendence Effect look like? Would it be cool?
Miss Heavenly Horse was now gazing at the Uma Musume clustered up ahead. None of them were trying to claim the inside lane; instead, they were all holding their positions in the middle. She was eager to overtake them.
The Winning Live Costume she was wearing for the first time didn't feel cumbersome at all. The bow on her back and nearly twenty arrows didn't feel heavy in the slightest.
This was the Winning Live Costume blessed by the Three Goddesses. No matter how complicated or heavy it was, it wouldn't affect her running during a race!
In high spirits, Platinum wasn't fazed by the merciless downpour. As she savored the costume's magic and wondered about the Quiver, a little fighting spirit stirred in her for the first time.
But this time—
Platinum didn't want to repeat her previous running style, accelerating gradually as she cut diagonally across the outermost lane until she took the lead.
Because...
Wasn't the inside lane nice and wide?!
Even if taking it meant falling behind and becoming a Late-runner, so what?
(Accelerating diagonally across the outer lane like last time will slow me down as I overtake the others.)
(Since this Winning Live Costume's Quiver has a Transcendence Effect, I'd better not accelerate while cutting diagonally.)
(I'll cut into the empty inside lane from the very rear, then accelerate as a Late-runner and overtake everyone head-on from just behind them!)
Free-spirited Miss Heavenly Horse changed her running style this time. She didn't want to gradually overtake them by cutting diagonally. She wanted to take the inside lane and start accelerating as a Late-runner!
So after leaving the gate, she didn't accelerate at all.
Instead, Platinum calmly held her position at the very rear and cut diagonally toward the empty inside lane!
After a clean start, Platinum cut from the outermost lane to the inside, ending up as the last-place Late-runner in the race!
Not only that, she became the only Uma Musume galloping along the inside lane, a silver-white streak charging through the steady rain!
This time, the Heavenly Horse, clad in a pure-white Winning Live Costume and carrying arrows, ran alone along the inside.
The lane ahead of her was empty, as if no one dared imitate her.
But Platinum hadn't accelerated. She'd taken her time cutting into the inside lane, and by now the others up ahead had opened what seemed like a considerable gap.
A gap of... five or six lengths behind the Mid-runners!
At that moment, the Escape Horses at the very front had passed the first turn and were heading toward the second turn midway through the course.
"The inside lane's nice and wide!"
"Now it's time to accelerate."
"I forgot to use a skill in the last race. I can't forget this time."
Platinum remained calm, but no longer hesitated. The next instant, her speed surged!
She was in the inside lane on a Heavy Track, the stretch that demanded the most strength and that every other Uma Musume avoided.
Yet though she'd only just begun to pick up speed, she was accelerating almost as fast as the Escape Horses leading the race!
Platinum unleashed her Aura right there. It was even heavier than during the Oaks, a powerful pressure that bore down on everyone.
Even amid the torrential rain, her Aura blanketed the entire course without weakening in the slightest. The downpour couldn't affect it! This was Platinum's Aura!
Three lengths!
Two lengths!
One length!
In a very short time, one Mid-runner Uma Musume—unaccustomed to the track and suppressed by Platinum's Aura—was the first to notice the silver-white figure beside her.
The Mid-runner's pupils contracted. She looked as if she'd seen a ghost.
And the Quiver that had been empty on Platinum's back now held... more than a dozen arrows?
"N-no way!"
"She's a Late-runner? Accelerating on the inside?!"
"And those arrows—weren't there none before?"
She didn't even have the chance to grit her teeth and speed up to fight back. The next instant, the silver-white figure drew level with her and swept past!
At the very moment she was overtaken—
In the Mid-runner girl's eyes, she seemed to glimpse a dazzling, sacred golden light: a female phantom nearly identical to Platinum, nocking an arrow and drawing her bow toward her!
That arrow shot forth!!
It was like... a Hunting Goddess patrolling her domain and hunting her prey!
"Is that really a Heavenly Horse, or... a goddess?"
She really saw... an Uma Musume?
Or had she seen a goddess who presided over the hunt?
The Mid-runner Uma Musume had been at the very rear, unable to adapt to the Heavy Track, and the first to be overtaken by Platinum. She'd just watched with her own eyes as that phantom goddess drew her bow and shot an arrow at her!!
Shock! Terror!
It was as if a sharp, sacred arrow had truly pierced her body?!
All manner of indescribable emotions instantly overwhelmed the girl.
Her body hadn't actually been pierced, but that didn't mean her state of mind hadn't been affected.
In reality, nothing outside the weather and the environment could ever interfere with the race itself!
The phantom goddess seemed to possess limitless power. As an effect that struck fear into the whole field and displayed the Heavenly Horse Stance, she was more than convincing!
Some inexperienced young fillies would probably be utterly stunned just by witnessing the spectacle of Platinum overtaking someone.
Faced with the Heavenly Horse who'd passed her, and the arrow that seemed to fly from the phantom of the Hunting Goddess, the girl couldn't even summon the will to fight. Her mind was in such disarray that her fighting spirit began to fade away.
Her already feeble strides weakened further. She was so intimidated by Platinum up ahead that she couldn't even bring herself to chase or challenge her.
"O-oyster!!!"
Beneath that faint cry of despair, the rear-running Platinum began her pursuit, overtaking one rival after another!
(This effect... is even cooler than I imagined!)
(This is what I want! This is what I want!!)
Galloping along, even Miss Heavenly Horse hadn't expected the Transcendence Effect to be so dazzling and impressive. Platinum was thoroughly satisfied.
And this... was only the first victim.
As far as Platinum was concerned, she'd only used up one arrow.
There were still plenty left in the Quiver, weren't there?
She'd keep emptying it until the finish line!
The next instant, after entering the Mid-runner pack, Platinum's fleet-footed strides kept accelerating.
Now, in the enormous Mid-runner pack, as many as seven or eight Uma Musume had spotted the silver-white figure in the inside lane.
On the muddy, heavy grass, beneath the steady black rain!
That silver-white streak seemed capable of tearing through everything. In an instant, it blazed into the eyes of her rivals!
"H-how is this possible?"
"Platinum actually... went into the inside lane?"
"Is it really worth spending so much energy for such a small speed advantage?!"
"That Aura is terrifying. Jungle Pocket's wasn't anything like this... Is it Black Ship, or Platinum?"
"That monster isn't even afraid of the Japanese Derby on a Heavy Track?!"
"Wait, wasn't Platinum's Quiver empty? How does she have so many arrows now?"
But the time the assassin gave them to react lasted only a moment. The Mid-runners hadn't even chosen to accelerate when—
They didn't even get the chance to cry out "Oyster." The next instant, Platinum reached their side and overtook the tightly packed group of Mid-runner girls in one sweep!
This time, the pure-white, sacred phantom of the goddess appeared again!
The bow in the phantom goddess's hands was identical to the one on Platinum's back. She drew the bowstring and fired once more!
But unlike the previous appearance, she aimed at more than one Uma Musume. At that very moment, nearly a dozen girls in the Mid-runner pack became her prey.
The phantom goddess, almost identical to Platinum, fired another sacred, golden arrow in the next instant!
In the wide-eyed, astonished stares of the Uma Musume, it flashed past with blinding speed, piercing through their running figures!
"Ugh... W-what is that?!"
"Am I seeing things? Was that a goddess just now?"
"The Three Goddesses couldn't appear on the track! Was that a hallucination? But there aren't any goddesses besides the Three Goddesses!"
"Oystered!!"
"Gah, this downpour has ruined my Derby dreams. I'm so delirious I'm seeing things!"
Before you continue