Tokyo Racecourse.
After the Spring Tenno Sho, the next events were naturally the two mile-distance Grade 1 races.
One-Way Passage had also entered the final stage of preparations.
Having missed the Satsuki Sho as a three-year-old, One-Way Passage certainly couldn't miss the upcoming NHK Sprint Cup in Tokyo.
"What's going on with Sasaki? He seems a little different today."
"He's probably angry. I heard people have been cursing Sasaki onto the trending lists lately."
"That's pretty scary. He's way too serious today."
The jockeys who had arrived exchanged a few words.
To them, losing a race was perfectly normal. Plenty of horses with high expectations placed on them had lost before, and it wasn't such a big deal.
Today, Koichi stood right beside the door in the jockeys' waiting room.
Even from a distance, he seemed enveloped in a dark aura, his entire body blazing.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-
That made the jockeys who had wanted to greet him abandon the idea. He clearly wasn't in a good mood today.
It wouldn't be pleasant to approach him only to be driven back by a glare.
Koichi, shogun mode!
"He really does seem angry. This is the first time I've seen our junior like this."
Kenichi Ikezoe spoke quietly from inside the room.
Perhaps this was also a consequence of his jockey career having gone too smoothly before.
He hoped Koichi wouldn't get too hung up on it.
"When you're young, you have your own pride. Everything that's happened lately must have had quite an impact on Sasaki."
Ryuji Wada nodded.
Naturally, he also hoped Koichi could regain his form soon.
That would be the best way for him to prove himself to the outside world.
"The Tokyo War God has returned to the place where he performed his miracles. I think