Supporting Duramente with all her strength, Kitasan Black initially failed to understand the words mixed into Duramente's ragged breaths, overwhelmed as she was by the exhaustion coursing through her entire body.
Aside from worrying about her friend's condition, her heart was filled with confusion and dejection.
In the end... she had still been overtaken. She thought bleakly.
Yet she also felt a trace of acceptance.
She had given this race everything she had.
As far as she remembered, she had never collapsed from exhaustion before—not during training before or after her debut, nor in races.
But at this very moment, she truly felt more exhausted than ever before.
The opening start, the steep slope, Gradient Acceleration through the first and second turns, pace adjustments on the middle-section straight, a second acceleration through the third and fourth turns, the sharp bend and another steep slope, the Final Straight...
In every segment of the course, with every step, she had pushed the results of her day-after-day training to their absolute limit. She doubted she could reach the same level even if she ran it again.
Since she had done her best, there was nothing she could not accept.
Still, she felt sorry.
Her family and friends who had encouraged and believed in her, the seniors who had helped train her, Teio-senpai, whom she had always admired, all sorts of fans, the juniors she had recently met, and her Trainer, who had given so much for her...
They had all supported her so much, yet she had lost the race.
No matter how she thought about it, she still did not know how she could face them...
Just as that thought crossed her mind, she finally noticed Duramente's stunned expression—and heard the cries of surprise echoing throughout the stadium.
"P-Photo Finish? So who