A/N: This chap is hard to write man. Go and give me the review to get the rating for the fic blud.
Anyways, daily check-ins...
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"The winner is–"
The commentator dragged the words out, intentionally making it sound dramatic for the audience.
"Silver Tear!!!!"
The shout exploded across the track, raw and ringing, the kind of call that only came from witnessing something rare.
It had been a long time since they had seen such a spectacle, especially in a competition most people barely paid attention to.
Silver Tear broke through the finish line.
Only after her body passed the mark did she finally let herself slow, shoes scraping against the soft track as her momentum decreased.
The gamble had paid off.
That final stretch replayed itself in her mind in fractured flashes. The timing, the decision, the brief window where everything had been poured out without restraint.
5 seconds.
That was all it took.
But without it, Oguri Cap's last spurt would have swallowed her whole before the line.
Now the cost came due.
Her lungs burned as she breathed heavily, each sharp and ragged. Her legs trembled, muscles screaming from being pushed past the limit.
She had emptied herself completely during those short 5 seconds.
Heat surged in her chest, bright and restless, spreading through her veins faster than exhaustion could weigh her down.
That exhilarating sensation refused to settle in.
Silver Tear wasn't someone who yearned for competition with others. If given the choice, she would gladly be a salted fish, drifting through life without effort.
But running on this track felt somehow different to her. The feeling of the ground under every stride, the sense of being forced to the edge, had awakened something distant.
Fun.
The realization startled her enough that a smile crept across her face, unguarded and sincere.
'Ah, right, there were spectators here too.'
She remembered that suddenly.
'I should wave–'
She lifted her gaze toward the stands.
The sound that met her wasn't applause.
Angry shouts crashed down instead, sharp and hostile, cutting through the lingering echo of the commentator's voice.
Their faces twisted with displeasure, accusations hurled without care, resentment made loud simply because it could be.
Silver Tear froze for half a breath.
Her chest rising and falling as each breath scraped through her lungs, as her mind struggled to grasp why the words hurling toward her felt so fundamentally wrong.
The noises from the stands blurred together, yet a few shards cut through with cruel clarity.
"Ah shit! My money–"
"–fucking rigged!!"
"Why can't you just lose?!"
When Silver Tear forced herself to listen, the pattern revealed itself.
Money. Odds. Loss.
Ah.
The understanding settled in slowly. Her smile thinned, then vanished altogether, leaving her expression empty.
Bettors.
"Fucking bastards…" The curse slipped out before she could stop it.
So that was all there was to it. The reason was so painfully mundane it almost bored her.
Her legs still burned, her lungs still screamed, but none of that mattered to them.
The effort she had poured into the race, the risk she had taken, the moment she had decided to burn everything she had left on the track.
None of it held any worth beyond someone else's wallet.
Something twisted in her chest. The anger contorting those faces, the way they spat their rage at her, was so vile it made her stomach churn.
Suddenly, the track no longer felt free or radiant. Even the air itself seemed polluted because of these vile people.
She had to get out of here. Now. Away from those stares, from those humans who looked at her and saw nothing but a losing bet.
So instead of waving to the crowd, Silver Tear lifted a hand to cover her mouth and hurried toward the entrance tunnel.
At least there, hidden from sight, no one would be able to look at her anymore.
_____
Oguri Cap had been catching her breath when she noticed it.
Silver Tear was already moving away.
She didn't celebrate, nor did she bask in the finish line the way winners usually did.
Instead, Oguri Cap saw Silver Tear slip away from the track with quick, uneven steps, head lowered.
Oguri Cap frowned.
That wasn't right.
She straightened and started after her, waving once out of habit before realizing Silver Tear wasn't looking back.
The incoherent noises from the stands blurred together as Oguri Cap pushed past the lingering runners and staff, her gaze fixed on that retreating figure.
'She won.' Oguri Cap thought. 'So why…?'
At the entrance tunnel, the noise from the stands dulled, blunted by layers of concrete and distance.
Oguri Cap slowed, spotting Silver Tear just ahead. Her shoulders were tense, one hand clamped over her mouth as she leaned against the wall. A small, broken retching sound echoed faintly through the narrow space.
Despite her tall build of 1.9 meters, she looked smaller from behind.
"Silver Tear!" Oguri Cap called, looking genuinely worried.
The name echoed, thin and awkward in the tunnel. Silver Tear stopped, but didn't turn right away.
Oguri Cap jogged toward her, heart thudding harder than it had at the finish line. Up close, she could see it now.
Silver Tear's posture didn't seem right, like she was still fighting something inside her chest.
Oguri Cap scratched the back of her head, suddenly unsure how to start. She spoke with her usual simplicity and honesty.
"I–uh." She cleared her throat.
"I wanted to congratulate you."
Silver Tear's shoulders stiffened.
Oguri Cap pressed on before she could second-guess herself. "That last stretch… I really thought I had you. When you pulled ahead, it was like–"
She searched for the right feeling, then gave up and smiled.
"It was exciting. Let's race again in the future."
Silence stretched between them.
Oguri Cap waited, patient. She didn't feel embarrassed. She didn't feel angry.
Losing stung, sure, but the race itself still burned bright in her chest. That mattered more.
Finally, Silver Tear turned halfway, just enough for Oguri Cap to catch a glimpse of her expression. It wasn't as joyful as Oguri's.
But instead–
She looked tired, even with a smile on her lips.
"…Did I say something weird?" Oguri Cap asked, genuinely concerned that she had made a fool of herself.
Because, from Oguri Cap's point of view, this was simple.
Silver Tear and her had run an incredible race. And incredible races deserved to be acknowledged, no matter who crossed the line first.
_____
Oguri Cap's voice followed her into the tunnel, clear and earnest, and Silver Tear felt the knot of resentment twist deeper than any of the bettors' shouts could ever do.
She stopped because her legs simply refused to carry her farther.
When Oguri Cap spoke about the final stretch, about the thrill of it, about how glad she felt, it was like being pressed against something painfully clean, untouched by the rot clinging to the outside world.
There was no calculation in her tone, no bitterness tucked between her words. Everything she said felt natural as breathing.
Silver Tear listened in silence. Each word landed gently, and somehow that softness hurt more than anger ever could.
What made it worse was that she understood the bettors. That was the truly cruel part. She understood the anger, the sense of loss, the way their hope turned sour when it was built on something beyond their control.
Because once, she had stood on the other side of the track just like them, pouring feeling into uncertain outcomes, praying for a payoff that might never come.
Their ugliness didn't shock her. It merely reflected a past version of herself, of when she had still been–
A human.
But Oguri Cap…
She spoke as someone who had only ever known the track as a place to run, not a stage for profit, not a tool to project her desire onto.
Win or lose, a race was still a race. The effort remained honest. The result was nothing more than the result, something to accept and then leave behind as she continued to gallop forward.
Silver Tear's fingers curled at her sides.
Once human, now Uma Musume.
She could understand the bettors because she had been one of them.
She could run like an Uma Musume, but she carried too much awareness to be as clean as Oguri Cap was. Her victory was tangled with doubt. Her joy had conditions. Even her pride came with an aftertaste she couldn't swallow.
She was, in fact, a being caught in between. Stranded. Neither here nor there.
So seeing that kind of purity from Oguri Cap felt distant, almost unreachable for her.
Silver Tear felt the knot in her chest tighten again. She needed something to divert this feeling before it twisted further.
"…Oguri-san." She said suddenly.
Oguri Cap looked up at once, her ears twitched once. "Yeah?"
Silver Tear hesitated, then asked the question that had been circling her thoughts since the finish line.
"...Why did you run?" Her voice came out quieter than she intended.
Not why she wanted to win. Not why she pushed herself. Why step onto the track at all?
Oguri Cap tilted her head, ears flicking as she considered it. She didn't answer right away. It wasn't because the question was hard, but because she was genuinely thinking. After a moment, she smiled.
"Because I can."
The answer was plainly simple.
There was no philosophy behind it, no justification to weigh it down.
She said it the way someone might state that the sky was blue or that people die when they are killed.
An obvious truth, never questioned.
Something inside Silver Tear's heart sank.
The answer was so simple and pure, and yet it struck her like a dull blade, gnawing at her inside.
"When I was little, my knees were so weak I couldn't run at all." Oguri Cap continued.
"My mom had to massage my legs for hours every day. So I'm really happy that I can step onto the track and race with strong runners like you, Silver Tear-san."
Silver Tear turned her gaze away.
She could never say something like that with such certainty.
"You sound so childish." Silver Tear said after hearing that story.
Oguri Cap pouted and pointed at her, clearly offended. Her tail was swirling in response with how embarrassed she felt right now. "Mmm!! You were the one who asked me that!!"
Silver Tear had crossed the finish line first, her name etched at the top of the result board, yet in this narrow, dimly lit tunnel, she felt smaller than she ever had on the track.
The roar of the crowd was muted here, reduced to a distant echo, but the weight of being seen by them still pressed against her skin. It left a foul taste in her mouth.
They were both under the same gaze, watched by the same eyes.
However, the difference between them was painfully clear.
Oguri Cap could lose and still stand upright, while Silver Tear had won, and still turned her back against the very place she had conquered.
Victory clung to her like something hollow.
Oguri Cap carried her loss as lightly as the wind.
How could someone who stood in second place feel so… whole, while the one who placed first felt stripped bare under others' gazes?
In that contrast, Silver Tear felt an unspoken inferiority settle in her chest, heavier than any number on a scoreboard.
One of them was staring at the mud below, afraid of what it reflected.
The other was already looking upward, gazing toward the stars.
Silver Tear walked on without looking back.
She had beaten the Monster.
But the only one who acknowledged her effort was also the said Monster.
That was what finally broke her.
"…And yet that's the most enviable thing of all, Oguri-san." Silver Tear muttered once she'd gone far enough that Oguri Cap wouldn't hear.
That day, Silver Tear won the race but also lost to Oguri Cap.
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A/N: So did I cook? Or does it still feel a little bit off?
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"Trust!! This is for the character development!!!" I shout as they drag me back into the asylum.