He was like a stove packed with firewood: once lit, it would burn without end. Of course, its fuel could be used an unlimited number of times.
"I'm already very satisfied, but... I want to be a little greedier."
"How much greedier?"
There was only so much a trainer could give an Uma Musume.
Zhou Yuang was curious what else Bourbon needed.
"Before I'm a Cyber Horse, I'm an Uma Musume. And before I'm an Uma Musume, I'm human."
Uma Musume were human: girls who carried the souls of racehorses.
"As a human, I should have desires that expand without limit, just like the universe."
Bourbon raised her head toward the sky.
The countryside night was bright. Unlike in the city, the sky wasn't a dull gray.
A brilliant sea of stars stretched overhead. Nature had created a masterpiece even the greatest artist would struggle to capture. It held everyone's gaze, and many of the Uma Musume who saw it unconsciously forgot what had just happened.
"It's a beautiful universe, isn't it? Whenever I look up at it, I find myself wondering whether it has an edge. That question still troubles me, but as an Uma Musume, all I can do is explore my own life, just like everyone else."
Perhaps they really had been invincible once. Perhaps they really had reached the top of the world.
But even the most dazzling Uma Musume would eventually leave the track, enter society, and become one small part of it.
They could not plunge into the depths of space like Explorer 1. All they could do was seek a future as unfathomable as the universe here on this little Earth.
"When I turn my eyes from the universe to the people beside me, I wonder: how is anyone's future any less vast?