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“Look, look, Curren. This is going pretty viral.”
Curren turned her head away from her phone, only to be immediately met with her trainer holding her own phone to her face.
“Hm? What is?”
Her eyes hadn’t focused on the contents just yet, as if waiting for permission to do so, or rather, some context.
The clatter of the café they were meeting at would make it hard to hear the video anyway.
“Oh, it’s last year’s Arima Kinen.”
Last year’s…?
“Onee-chan? That was almost 4 months ago, and it went viral back then, so why is it going viral again now?”
Her trainer unconsciously lowered her arm while launched into thought. Curren, who was still half-looking at the brandished phone, gently pushes it back up with the tip of her index finger’s nail.
This was enough information as it is. It’s fine to investigate this video as it was, so she hit play.
The caper was an unbelievable one, but she had seen this clip all over social media already just as she had said.
“I have no idea! But look, Twin Turbo is a lot of fun, isn’t she? She burned out pretty badly, but… she sure has a lot of personality… and then…”
Curren could hear the suggestion of her trainer speaking to her about the video, but towards the end, her voice was drowned out by the scene that was unfolding before her. It was as if she was there , the smell of kicked up dirt and turf suddenly filled her nostrils. She could hear the sounds of horseshoes digging into the earth, the crowd screaming and hollering, and it was all an experience beyond the distant and frankly tinny audio of her trainer’s banged up smartphone.
Arima Kinen was a 2,000 meter race— a race beyond Curren’s niche. She didn’t even consider once to join it, nor did she have any interest even in this moment, however, what she saw, regardless of the race—
It was… electrifying.
This was, truly, the ultimate cute .
It was not the race itself, but what happened in its final moments.
The clip that went viral before completely omitted this part.
Looking at who won, it would be easy to understand why. To most, it was simply a foregone conclusion.
After Twin Turbo fell back, the illusory Narita Brian of the video ran ahead out of the pack with terrifying speed, practically unchallenged. Some were even saying that her legs gave out because Narita Brian was preparing to shoot forward… but it was clear to anyone who actually had knowledge of racing that it was purely an issue of stamina. Twin Turbo ran ahead from the jump— her signature strategy, a “suicide runner”.
But the truth of the situation became clear in a mere moment.
Narita Brian was NOT unchallenged.
In fact, uncharacteristically, she hung on to what was promised to be a sure victory by the skin of her teeth.
Because a horse girl, clad in white and blue, jumped after her, running so fast she tore past the turf.
“ Hishi Amazon, Hishi Amazon, Hishi Amazon! Hishi Amazon jumps out! Narita Brian is in the lead! Hishi Amazon follows after her! She’s hot on her tail! Nice Nature— ”
Curren’s eyes were fixed on the two horse girls in the lead.
“ But, Narita Brian is just too strong! She maintains a 2 length lead! But Hishi Amazon, Hishi Amazon chases her down anyway! She’s relentless! Rice Shower coming in third behind them! Narita Brian makes it past the goal first! ”
The clip ended and began to loop back to the beginning.
Curren kept staring ahead, eyes completely unfocused.
“Curren?”
Her trainer shut the screen off and withdrew it, sticking it back in her canvas bag.
It was like Curren didn’t hear her.
“Curren~? What, did you spot something you thought you could use?”
Finally, the pressure on the horse girl’s ears subsided, and she was back at the café terrace she was at previously. The smell of the soil was quickly replaced by the smell of coffee and sweets. Her trainer’s voice reached her just in time for her to be able to answer it, though it felt strange being back in her own body.
Even though the answer might have been “yes”, Curren hesitated for a moment.
Her trainer blinked in surprise, as this was a rare sight.
“The race was super cute ♡. So of course Curren enjoyed it lots. Onee-chan, you should drink your coffee before it gets cold!”
A canned answer.
Her trainer didn’t notice, so it was fine.
Her trainer absolutely must not notice. Or anyone else, for that matter.
Up until this point, Curren thought she had been racing to her full potential.
No, there’s no way she actually believed that.
She urged her trainer to sign her up for more races, so more people could see her cuteness . That was the reason she gave, but… the truth of the matter was much more complex.
Because this wasn’t the first time.
It was back when she started out, when she was still dipping her toes into dirt racing, before she switched to turf.
It was clear that her talents lay elsewhere, even if her performance wasn’t particularly bad.
She attended a race, the Mile Championship.
She didn’t have much interest in the mile itself, rather the fact that there was a growing hype around it online… around two central figures.
They were Sakura Bakushin O and North Flight.
Bakushin O was a short distance sprint specialist, not unlike Curren.
North Flight was a mile distance specialist.
The two distances were deceptively similar to those unfamiliar with them, but even only a few hundred meters made a massive difference.
At that point, they had each attracted dedicated and fiery fanbases built entirely around their feud. The fact that it had been two distinct and separate groups was amazing in and of itself, and many of them were distinct from their regular fans.
Perhaps this made them zealots in the eyes of the latter, but it spoke to a sort of natural charisma and power the two warring horse girls possessed in their own right. A tour de force, even.
Sakura Bakushin O had never lost a short distance race to North Flight.
North Flight had never lost a mile race to Sakura Bakushin O.
The stakes were higher than ever.
Of course Curren was interested in studying this phenomenon. It’s natural.
It was already smacking of pure cute .
She expected to do field study on what racing fans like, perhaps to even observe her upperclassmen and try to learn from the way they ran.
To say that she “learned”... would be an understatement.
Curren, for the first time in her life… learned too much .
She was a precocious girl who realized how cute she was the moment she opened her eyes. To maintain this inherent talent she was born with, she studied, hard, and she observed and she kept her thoughts locked deep down in her heart.
No one should notice.
Not her parents, not her trainer, not her roommate, not her friends. She wishes that not even her own consciousness would notice it— a paradox, as if she didn’t know her own feelings, she wouldn’t be able to stifle them.
To remain cute , is to give everyone what they want to see, while not giving up on her own individuality.
But if she faltered… would she be able to keep it up anymore?
It wasn’t a façade, but after that day maintaining her public face became 5% more difficult.
Because even if it was a small percentage that splintered off, it wasn’t authentic anymore.
What she saw that day changed the way she saw racing in a way that couldn’t be reversed.
It was as if she had opened Pandora’s box.
She could not shake the pain in her heart, the pit in her stomach, that had formed since she watched on, back then.
Sakura Bakushin O, a known speed addict, maintained a good pace throughout the race from the start. She floated between third and first place… her fans even got complacent and began chanting that she’d won.
Curren remembered the sensation of her clutching the metal separating the nosebleeds from the track— it was cold at first, but quickly became warm and slippery from how tense she became. Her knuckles had turned white. She distinctly recalls the fact that she had to shake her hands rigorously to loosen the joints of her fingers. Her neck ached because she was leaning at an intense angle trying to catch all the details.
Because, because…
North Flight launched into the front like a rocket in the final stretch.
She had been saving her legs against the speed demon that was Bakushin O. She knew the strength of the other horse girl’s muscles, their explosive power. One could tell just by looking at the expression on her face.
But Bakushin O also knew North well. Even with all that speed, she broke into a breakneck sprint— and the two of them where head to head, nose to nose—
Alas, it wasn’t enough.
It was a mile race.
North Flight, later christened the Queen of the Mile on social media after the race, cleared the finish line with ease.
It was North’s destiny, but Bakushin O fought so hard you would have thought that it wasn’t.
Curren became so absorbed in the cacophony around her that she forgot to take a selfie after the race was over.
The Winning Live of that race was burned into the very crevices of her brain, and constantly reflected onto her eyelids whenever she closed them.
Even off the turf, they had a natural chemistry, as if they were drawn to each other by fate.
Ever since then, racing felt… off.
Curren’s opponents… were strong, of course. Among the strongest.
She ran and ran, but still felt aimless.
She even won the Sprinter’s Stakes without breaking a sweat.
It was such an accomplishment, but standing on the winners podium she felt underwhelmed.
Could her fans see that she was lost?
Her sense of cute was being eroded.
Running alone… was not cute .
She was the only person who could see this but it was enough to make her feel like she had gone down from 120% to about an 80%, maybe even a 75% on the cute meter.
If she could match with someone else, if she could make that connection, she would shine so much brighter.
These feelings are confidential, of course.
No one must catch on to them.
All she could do was keep the secret close to her heart, and she continued to do so for the next week as she had done so for all this time.
Soon enough, the day of the Fan Thanksgiving event that year, an important day for Curren, came.
The horse girl, with her perfectly styled cream hair and carefully coordinated accessories and bonnets adorning her ears, was ready to take pictures with her fans (a rare opportunity!) and compete for their attention.
She had registered for a fashion show— an easy pick, but it was a chance for her to show the fans she’d gained from racing another side to her.
Curren checked her face with her cellphone’s front camera absentmindedly, almost a little lazily.
She wasn’t going to get complacent even if she knew the other girls stood no chance. It wasn’t cute to underestimate others.
“...of course! I, as class president, shall not fail you! Because, you !!! Made me such an exemplary outfit!!”
Curren’s ears perked up at the sound of a familiar and booming voice across the changing space.
“Hehe. Oh, you. I only coordinated it. Bakushin O-chan, a coord is only strong if the person wearing it feels good! So I think you’ll have no issues scoring well, even without my help.”
It was a bit nosy and maybe a blemish on her cute record, but after she couldn’t find them with her eyes, she strained to listen in on their conversation— the conversation between Sakura Bakushin O and North Flight.
In the first place, it was strange for Bakushin O to be participating in a fashion event. One would expect North to be doing so instead.
She wasn’t particularly fashionable, for one. While North was the exact opposite, a literal fashion queen.
“No need to be modest, North-san!! The essence of competition is necessary for us as horse girls, yes?? Of course, the clothes picked out by my rival, the one who knows me the best, are the strongest, most explosive combination!!! Whatever happens, this will be a win for both of us, so try your best!!!!!”
Both?
Was it… transactional?
No, were they both competing?!
“Of course. Bakushin O-chan, I don’t intend on losing to you in my domain. I’ll outshine even you, the most brilliant rival I could ever have.”
“VERY WELL! As class president, I have no intention of losing to you, either!!!!”
What is this?
Curren clutched her top, not understanding why she did so.
She wasn’t in pain.
But it was a little… painful, nonetheless.
Her chest burned intensely.
Grip tightening, she wracked her brain, helpless to stop it.
“A rival…”
The words escaped the cream horse girl’s lips without her even realizing.
“A rival… is Curren’s ultimate cute .”
Curren looks off into the distance, as if some of the burden she’d been carrying had finally been released from her shoulders.
Only some.
“I wonder if someone like that exists.”